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4 . 2 7 . 0 0 Feeling the after effects of a big ass cup-o-coffee from Espresso Royale. I have a big mofo exam tomarrow in clinical psych, overall the class hasn't been anything that I had expected it to be, the topic in itself is interesting, but so far the reading hasn't been much of an eye-opener. I have to admit that there is a lot of truth in what I'm reading, especially when I can apply it to my own and friend's lives. coping strategies in the forms of self-fulfilling prophecies, cyclical dilemma schemes.....it just irks me when I read a 10 page paper by an established psychologist published in a scholarly magazine that reiterates something that I have known since age 5 in scientific technological terms. almost as much as it irks me the fact that i have to memorize the official technical term for a grade tomarrow, and that it'll evidently affect my chances in getting into a graduate program. The one month mark has past for Hawaii e kaeru, I'm longing for sandy beaches with raw sewage and greasy haole tourists, traffic and high cost of living, hey its home man. At least theres salt water to surf in, and theres no static electricity. Since i'm on a bitter note, i think i'll comment on this whole Elian Gonzales thing: its a big mess. ultimately I think he should be back with his father, even if he happens to live in one of the last communist countries in the world. regardless, this political debate that has sprung up over the incident is really fucked up. Both sides. Like people in this country really give a shit about the kid as opposed to the greater powers to be of international sanctions and ideologies. A close family friend who is a doctor just got a $8,000 pay cut. kinda depressing to the fact that he's been in loyal practice for about 30 years and not one lawsuit has ever been sucessfully filed against him. I feel sorry for his kids in college. The face of Medicine seems to be changing in drastic measures, some people attribute it to the new wave of managed care, HMOs what not, or maybe its that bitch Hillary. I'm thinking Law suits me better anyway, i'm too impatient in implimenting change in social policy. 4 . 2 1 . 0 0 Saw RENT last night at the Madison Civic Center with Chris. She got really good tickets in the front, right by the orchestra pit. to say the least, I was very impressed, I think this was the Benny tour group from New york, very talented and energetic performers. interesting to note that unless you've seen a musical, you really can't appreciate the music. I spent some time in the wee hours this morning finding mp3s and info on the show, interesting more is that i've heard most of the songs before, but they are more striking in the mind when you have the emotions and images of the story to go along with it. Na Hoa is performing tomorrow at some pacific dance festival. we've learned two songs really fast, we'll see how it goes. We got these sarong/sari at some store on state street, they kind of look authentic pareos, but then again what would i really know about authenticity? after all in this day and age half the people back home who wear them get them from costco anyway. hung out with the budmonkey again last night at nicks, didn't overdo the sauce this time, ate a big ass burrito at ZTECA though. pretty cool. I have to end this entry on a note, the thing about seeing RENT that stuck me as odd was a bunch of reflections that came to mind. personal.....but since when did shame come to play in journal entries? read this and this and try and figure it out yourself. good luck, I find it hard enough for me. 4 . 1 6 . 0 0 Marie is in town until tomorrow morning, the talk went well. quite a good turnout too, considering that the weather has took a colder turn, and the hip hop conference is going on this weekend as well. She spoke about hapa issue of identity and expression through writing for bamboo ridge. I think the people that showed got a different perspective on the whole race issue, and that was the entire reason for bringing her to speak. Just got back from Janesville, we made a visit to the farm that has the white buffalo, a native american indian legend of a sacred animal that is supposed be born white, and then change its color 4 times. The whole idea of visiting it was Marie's idea, we made the trek about 30 minutes out of Madison into the dairyland, did i mention that Janesville, WI is supposed to be the KKK capitol of the midwest? I have to mention some thoughts on the Hip Hop conference that is going on right now, hip hop isn't my hard core passion, but as a form of cultural and political, it does interest me in terms of messages. Chuck D from Public Enemy spoke on Friday night, i got a press pass from the Paradox, and got to see him in the second row. He touched on so many topics of individuality, identity, purpose, race, class, gender, language, culture, politics, technology. I thought his comments on image were especially interesting, how many underground mofos out there thinking they were all hard and shit were realizing that they were just as prissy and superficial as all those poppy boy bands they hate. his biggest thing it seemed was about individuality in forms of expression and identity, throwing off labels and maintaining self-respect in circumstances and moving forward. the topic of the speech brought home some concepts and thoughts that i've been dealing with for a while now. still am. put it simply, depending on how things turn out this upcoming week, i think i'm going to be reorganizing my schedule to fit a different breed of classes and emphasis. maybe add a third major and divert attention from the purging science, and more of the people sciences. I guess theres always law school..... 4 . 1 0 . 0 0 a bunch of HS kids from the twin cities came down to check out the campus with some sort of minority mentor program. they contacted the red gym and AASU so I ended up getting treated to a thai dinner on friday in return for some collegiate perspective? as it turned out most of them are planning on going to the U of Minnesota anyway, they just wanted an excuse to get out of the city. the pad thai was good. soup was ok. they were really young too. We had a freak snowstorm this past weekend, 8-12 inches I think. really really weird waking up friday morning after going to bed in 60 degree weather outside, to see a world of white, and freezing temps. gotta love the midwest. I took one look outside my window before class and laughed my ass off. and so i made a snowman....and he died the next day in the 50 degree heat. Not the best of weekends, something about the snow i think, or maybe its the stress of AA month on me. It was a fun weekend to say the least, but looking at how hellish a week i have in front of, me it was more of a waste. Marie Hara is coming to speak in Madison this saturday, we finally got the reservations and rooms set up, still working on funding though. planning events is really a bitch, especially when you're a poor student organization on your own. Last note, on saturday i went to an indian powwow at the fieldhouse, there was drumming and booths all over with people in traditional Native American clothes, dancing and singing. kind of interesting the fact that it was held at the fieldhouse, at Camp Randall, where Union soldiers used to train.....did I mention that Howard Zinn is coming to speak next week? 4 . 3 . 0 0 so maybe the badgers were overrated. a little. at least we held MSU to a season low of 19 pts at the half. other then that, the game was a sleeper. MSU manhandled Wisconsin the entire second half, to move onto the championship. State st was pretty crazy before the game, it felt like football season all over again. at least there weren't any riots or overturned cars following a loss like some other schools. Its almost a month before I come back home for the summer, for a moment I was really wondering where I was going to be come May, but as it turns out my internship for criminal justice came through, when I start working in the department of public safety--corrections system in the State of Hawaii. I'm hoping that it'll be a good experience, the unit I'm working with deals with the rehabilitation of convicted sex criminals, child molesters and rapists, i think an expample of actual application of social science theory will be a refreshing change to coursework. Not too bad a weekend, mild to say the least, lots of work to do. Pretty soon I'll be writing a response paper on the entire semester in review, insights and reflections. I've also decided pretty much to stick around for a 4th year. Got an elective psych class from UH to count for degree credit, officially i'm 2 classes from a psych degree, 1 from a soc degree, and 1 from a CJ minor. one semester would be plenty to finish up, but I think I could use another year to think things out and to raise the GPA a bit before I start moving onto grad school. Maybe I'll take up another language like xhosa or swahili or something.....and there's always nihongo again too. sensei would be proud of me. |
