Saturday, November 29, 2008

Motown Kingdom

Last night I watched Dreamgirls, a movie mildly based off of the Supremes and Diana Ross. I never really listened to Diana Ross before. Recently I had watched a docudrama about the Jackson 5, so it was interesting to see the same time period and some of the same people represented differently.

It's cool to watch the old videos of their performances, though.

More Steve Hollinger

High School




China Day performance garb at Botanical Gardens from back in the day. I think this is sophomore or junior year in high school.

Monday, November 24, 2008

You Are Not Welcome

Another Thanksgiving is coming up. We are having a dinner party at my house.

It always strikes me as a weird holiday for Americans to really celebrate without any irony given that the Native Americans got so screwed.

I mean, had those Native Americans known what was going to happen, I'm sure they would not have given the new settlers any turkey.

Jim Jones



I was listening to NPR and someone was saying how "drink the kool-aide" is an offensive phrase to the survivors of Jonestown.

Jim Jones was the head of a cult that was really big in California and in progressive politics before it relocated to Jonestown in South America. There, they ended up killing a visiting Congressman, and then Jim Jones got over 900 of them to kill drink cyanide-laced kool-aide.

Before they moved and went crazy, it really seems like the beginnings of the church was really remarkable, and the followers were very thoughtful and well-meaning. Little by little, as the church began to demand more and more of their money and time and loyalty, the situation warped into something more nefarious. Jim Jones was not what he seemed.

We are all drinking some kind of kool-aide. Hopefully we won't be so unpleasantly surprised, though.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Governor's Conference

Governors' Climate Summit was hosted in LA. Obama made a prerecorded video and Schwarzeneggar made opening remarks. Actually, it is really interesting, and I'd encourage everyone to listen to the talks.


Visiting representatives will participate from more than 50 states, provinces and nations at the Governors' Summit, including leaders from the U.S., Canada, Mexico, China, United Nations, European Union, Indonesia, Brazil and United Kingdom. The Summit brings together state and provincial leaders, national leaders, scientists, and representatives from business, academia and non-government organizations to forge productive partnerships to advance mutual goals.

This Summit helps fulfill the requirements of the state's global warming law, AB 32, to coordinate and collaborate with international governments to ensure compatibility, promote maximum environmental protection and promote economic stability. In addition, the proposed Scoping Plan, the state's blueprint to meet AB 32 reduction goals, addresses international efforts to encourage the spread of clean, low carbon technologies outside California.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Cultural Enrichment

Well, I got sick so I stayed home from work yesterday and today. Besides reorganizing all my crap, I've been watching a lot of old Youtube videos of old movies and TV shows.

I had watched "Man on the Moon" before, which is a movie about comedian Andy Kaufman, who is played by Jim Carrey. It was a good movie, but I had never actually seen the original guy.



Andy Kaufman on Letterman. Wow, I guess it's always been a circus.



Andy Kaufman's famous Mighty Mouse skit. Is this funny? It mostly makes me feel strange.



What a weird guy.

I also watched a lot of videos of "Interview with the Vampire." Wow, Tom Cruise and Kristen Dunst.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

New Hair and Party Outfit

btw, i don't know if i mentioned that i got a new haircut in china.



Sustainability Symposium

Sustainability@MIT, the club, is putting together a symposium next April or so, and I'm on the committee for designing the content and getting the speakers.

The theme is "Transitioning to a Sustainable Economy" but since it got too confused with the financial crisis, it is "Transitioning to a Sustainable World Community"


Sustainability@MIT and others are organizing the 2009 Sustainability Symposium to engage the MIT community and its supporters in a discussion on the Institute's current research, teaching, and service to improve the global ecosystem and public health, sustainable development, and social & economic equity.

We will be bringing world-class leaders in research and industry to campus to help guide a discussion on what MIT is and should be doing to speed the transition to a sustainable economy.

Competition for the Greater Good

This is an interesting competition.

The Vodafone Americas Foundation is pleased to announce
the launch of our Wireless Innovation Challenge, a new
competition that seeks to identify and fund the best
innovations using wireless related technology to
address critical social issues around the world.


http://www.vodafone-us.com/innovation.html

I worked on a project trying to use wireless to get feedback from plants, which could potentially be helpful for agriculture and using resources more efficiently.

Spread the Word

Everyone should contact their high school teachers to let their female students know about the Women's Technology Program at MIT. http://wtp.mit.edu

It's a summer program for current juniors, and the application is up now. It's for one month, they live in McCormick, and get schooled by people like me. It's for girls who are interested in science and engineering and would like a comfortable and supportive environment to explore further.

ah bian hunger striking

oh geez

very dramatic

Annoying Music

I really like annoying music. This is the latest band I've been obsessing over.

Kap Bambino

Monday, November 17, 2008

Oyster Diaries


Toby and I went to Jasper White's recently again. Here are some notes.

Cotuit - good! nice and briny

Island Creek - really good! fresh and plump

Gold Creek - a little strange. (West Coast oyster)

Potter Pond - really good! subtle

Malpeque - good! dec

Smashing Pumpkins

On Saturday, Toby and I went to see the Smashing Pumpkins at the Wang Theater.

somebody's pics of the performance the night before

It was really good, but whooping fans are annoying. It was also awkward because his fans were there to see Smashing Pumpkins of the 90's, not the current Smashing Pumpkins. Billy Corgan said stuff like "Billy doesn't live here anymore" and "now I'll play a song that you guys will actually like." So in a way, it was kind of sad because here's this artist who has really made it, but his fans really are only interested in his old stuff, so he has to play that part, and he's probably sick of those songs.

Toby said that Bob Dylan had identity issues because of this conflict, and that the Beatles stopped touring at some point because their fans were too annoying about screaming all the time instead of listening to the music.


I wore my fancy Betsey Johnson dress since there is never an occasion for it.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Blogpot

ACTUALLY
it is even better. that site of the megachurch exists at anyone's blogspot site if you type xxx.blogpot.com.

bastards

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Wow

So I wanted to come and read the site, but I typed the address in wrong on accident, I left out the 's' in 'blogspot': click And this is what it gives me????

update by Yang:

haha, actually, if you take anyone's blogspot blog, and spell it blogpot instead of blogspot, it goes to that site. bastards. it's official, christianity is a virus

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Ah Bian

the former president of Taiwan has been arrested and the news has hit major news networks in the States.

he accuses current president Ma of launching politically motivated attacks. but these corruption scandals have been going on for a while now, and his family is a circus.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Davis Radio

Two of my friends from UC Davis have a show at the Davis radio station: listen!

The only requirement is that they can't play any artist that's too well known, which includes indie artists like Morrissey. Anyway, the music ranges from totally obscure to mildly known. A lot of the songs are just basically taken from samplers sent in from individual bands or labels before the band has even made a first album. And the genres cover pretty much everything: electronic, indie, folk, hip-hop, funk, jazz.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Shanghai Biennial Installment

This is a collection of videos taken in one morning of the businesses around People's Square 人民广场 in Shanghai. Chinese people believe in pumping oneself up. Whoo!!

More in China





Thursday, November 6, 2008

Shanghai Biennial

I went to the art museum in Shanghai which is hosting a biennial called translocalmotion.







Baby and Cheesecakes and Charlene





Fish




Yummy




The Good Stuff




SHANGHAI BABY

yeah, I used to think that China was just a giant Shanghai, but now I know better. Now I am really a snobby Shanghainese.

Guilin





Boat cruise on the Li Jiang, the Li River with mountains and water buffalo!



A cave

There are a lot of minorities that live around here, and the local thing to do is to wash your feet, which means, get a foot massage. Toby and I did it, and it was amazing. We slept really well that night and felt really energized the next day. The massaging techniques emphasize improving blood circulation instead of making muscles feel better.

Guilin is in the south, and it is known for its scenic views. In fact, its entire economy depends on them.

China pics



The Summer Palace. It was where the royal family lives in the summers because the Forbidden City was made for winter living (gets too hot). The centerpiece is a lake that is a replica of Xi Hu Lake in Hangzhou, which is this city south of Shanghai that everyone says we need to visit. So next time, I think we'll hang out in Shanghai and the cities around it like Hangzhou and Suzhou.



Me and Toby at the Forbidden City. Actually, just within the Tiananmen (the gate).

Whoohoo

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Hooray!!!!

BWAHAHAHA

Obama wins.

and then he made a good speech.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

New President Time

Yup Yup, time to vote. I will be very excited to see the results. I am probably going to go to bed before all the results come in, but I want to wake up tomorrow to headlines like "Obama wins bigtime!"

Also, Massachusetts residents will be voting on whether or not to get rid of the state income tax. I don't think that's a good idea. It's not a planned decrease in the budget where we have this extra money that we don't know what to do with. In which case, it is completely unclear what will happen, whether property taxes and sales taxes would simply go up, which ultimately hurts lower income people more, especially in terms of what services they get in return for their money, or whether they would just cut a shitton of programs, which also hurts lower income people more. If there should be any decrease in taxes, it should be in sales tax or MAYBE federal income taxes since I think the DOD is wasting my money.


votenoma.com

Monday, November 3, 2008

Xi'an

BTW, Xi'an is pronounced Shee An.

We went to Xi'an and went to the temple where Tang Sheng brought Buddhist scriptures from India and translated them into Chinese and thus brought Buddhism over.



We also went to see the Terracotta soldiers. It was nice to be able to see them at real life scale, but you couldn't get up close so that wasn't very satisfying. The solders were "guarding" the tomb of the Qin Shi Huang, who had unified China. The Terracotta soldiers were a replica of his elite fighting force. Each soldier was different and even each horse was different.

Probably the best site in Xi'an was the Tang Hot Springs where a Tang dynasty emperor and his favorite concubine Yang Guifei liked to bathe. They had nice jacuzzi sized pools next to a big mountain. It was a very nice luxury resort from over 1000 years ago.



Luxury resort



Jacuzzi on the mountainside

Sunday, November 2, 2008

China Trip

First we went to Beijing. BTW, on the plane ride there, they showed a movie about the lochness monster. However, I put my glasses on the magazine pouch because I was sleeping, and then I stepped on them and smashed the frame.

The hotel was really really nice. When we got there we met up with some of my relatives. Then we went out to eat with them. We ate this really good spicy turtle. I think it was food from southern China, but I forgot from where.

The next day we went to see some sites and stuff and went out to dinner with relatives again. We had Beijing style hot pot, where you use a sesame paste (and I think sacha paste?) based sauce. Then the next day we went to some more sites and also had Peking duck. The best site was probably Tian Tan or "Temple of Heaven" because of the old people doing exercises and playing cards in the park in the morning. A lot of people were dancing.


Flower sculpture at Tiananmen Square


Turtle in the Forbidden City (Gu Gong)


The Great Wall

In general, though, Beijing food sucks. Actually, food in all the places sucked except Shanghai.

Also, Beijing and Xi'an air quality was really bad.

Traveling with a tour group also sucked and is not recommended, at least, not in a large tour group.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Banks Helping

Banks Alter Loan Terms to Head off Foreclosures

also, WOW gas prices are sooo low. $2.30/gallon where I am. It was $3.20 when I left three weeks ago. Of course, I might not get my bonuses anymore because of the economy so it still hurts more than it helps, but it's still a very quick drop.