Been having distrubing dreams of late. I had a dream about being strangled and then as I was about to pass away I woke up to find that I was strangling myself in my sleep. How very disturbing...

[ esca | 9:22 AM | ]

 

Run DMC's Jam Master Jay was shot in the head in his recording studio yesterday in Queens. He wasn't robbed at gunpoint while being at the wrong place at the wrong time, but people actually entered his studio and shot him. Horrifying. Run DMC is the group that really made rap into "hip-hop," such that their songs are firmly entreched in the back of our minds. For example, Walk with Me where they teamed with Aerosmith to mix rap with a rock and roll beat.

Read about it on MTV here.

[ esca | 9:20 AM | ]

 

I've decided, daylight savings day, the day you set back your clock and "gain" an hour, is a depressing day. Don't be fooled by that extra hour, if it were daylight savings week, oh boy, then we'd be talking, but selling yourself out cheaply for one measly hour just doesn't cut it. Not by any means. It disappears in the form of sleep, or manifests itself as an extra hour of partying (Monster, Rubber), or maybe even as a time of quite contemplation.

Daylight savings makes me sad as the de jure and de facto end of summer. A side effect of setting back our clocks which undoubtably contributes to this feeling is that now until standard time, it'll be dark when I leave my mandated and specifically designed windowless software lab. Fare well sun, I bid thee well.

[ esca | 4:13 PM | ]

 

My big sis, Jess Wang, who I've known since we were mistaken for siblings in middle school, has suddenly moved up north to the bay area(santa clara san jose area not sure where exactly) over the weekend. She's there to follow a job opportunity and is getting the chance to establish herself for the first time in a completely new environment. She got the offer last thursday and moved up on Sat, effectively making the decision and figuring out the logistics of the move in a span of less than a week. I'm so proud! Da jie, wo shang xin ni.

[ esca | 11:49 AM | ]

 

22 years and the streak is over...

I've managed to escape my wild adventurous youth without ever having to get stiches, but that sadly ends today. My face is half numb as I type this right now, and I'm sure I have a very Igor like appearance where only a portion of my face moves as I speak. As my tired groggy self strolled into work this morning, I caught the side of my face against a sharp metal door edge, wham! I remember being very stunned and then touching my face and seeing blood. I think I'm still in a state of disbelief where I'll suddenly wake up. Five stiches above my left eyebrow. *sigh*

[ esca | 11:29 AM | ]

 

Hypothetical:

Two separate individuals on different occasions go through an identical experience, for instance, they both are accepted into USC. For one individual, his reaction is extremely positive, in that USC is his dream school. For the other individual, however, his reaction is merely lukewarm. Would you say that their experiences are the same?

Well, let’s further the example. Let’s say that the individuals are brothers of very close age. Consequently, a lot of the external yet significant conditions surrounding their acceptance to USC are fairly similar. In fact, let’s go so far as to say that every possible detail in the slightest that could possibly pertain to going to USC is identical for these two brothers, and the only variation involved would be their personal reaction, do their experiences count as the same?

Is there some absolute scale for “experiences” that determine a person’s reaction? Which is the more critical? Isn’t it possible that certain react better to certain things and worse to others? Therefore is it the reaction that makes the experience?

Furthermore then, do people have a reaction quotient? A need to feel certain reactions? A need to feel happiness or sadness and consequently garner these reactions from their experiences that may outweigh any external standard. Is that any less valid?

[ esca | 10:14 AM | ]

 

Bumfight

Kids that gather up homeless people and filming them beating the shit out of each other and doing things like jumping off buildings and setting fire to their hair. Very bootleg, and very profitable apparently, upwards of 6 mil net gross cold hard cash in small wads and bills. And all they give to the homeless people is a little bit of money or food or alcohol or who knows what(probably drugs).

How sickening is this? I’m not so much concerned about their safety, because grown people can take care of themselves, and I don’t believe in the state of hypocrisy that exists when people throw up mock outrage at the thought of someone jeopardizing the welfare of homeless people. As a matter of fact, probably the most solid legal obstacle prosecutors can throw against the producers would involve the government not getting its fair share of that money. It doesn’t matter that homeless people hurt themselves when they are by themselves and alone and consequently invisible in our minds. It only matters when there’s money involved and its scandalous enough to garner attention.

What is this innate sadist delight that people take in watching people sell what’s left of their dignity and shred it into a bloody debacle? At 20 bucks a pop, with only a limited point of sales and no mass media promotional machine, these videos have been selling like hotcakes, 300k +.

To completely warp someone’s will to bend to yours…

[ esca | 9:51 AM | ]