shiraume's Xanga

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:44:00 GMT

Days left till Election Day: 3 and counting!

Wow. It has been a ridiculously long time since my last post, and... how everything at Xanga has changed! o_0 The interface has certainly gotten spiffier, newly decked with lots of pretty bells and whistles. It's kinda nice, but it has also become infinitely and unnecessarily complicated. I mean, I don't really need all of these stats trackers, do I?? And what's with the disturbingly personal survey -- waving promises of "credits" -- that had just popped out of nowhere and blindsided me as I was trying to navigate my way to my Xanga summary page?? They needed to know the names, birthdays, and email addresses of my family members... WHY??! *grumbles and clicks 'Skip Survey' immediately*

Ah well. I'll browse around, read up about, and tweak these new thingamajigs later... when I REALLY get down to redecorate this place. *looks arounds* This dusty old Barça layout from March of 2007? Deco? That little pic of Ronnie wearing the blaugrana?? *covers eyes* SOOO have to go.

But this post isn't supposed to be about my rediscovering Xanga, it's about dropping in and marking off the days left till the Presidential Election on Tuesday, Nov 4, 2008! This campaign season has definitely been one looooong and exciting ride. As evidenced by my 8-mos-long AWOL status, I've spent all of my time online this year following various news outlets, political websites, and other people's political blogs and forums (and enjoying every minute of it!). LOL. Guess I'm just too lazy (and busy) to blog myself. Besides, by the end of the day, I'd just be regurgitating news and opinions here anyway, and that would be pointless and, frankly, a bother. So, no, I'm not willing to do the day-to-day political tracker thing. Still, as the campaign grinds down to its last few days, I really do want to come back here and write about my feelings and opinions about this election as a whole. If I can dedicate time to cover a few topics (read: raves & rants), great! Continue with these election summaries even after Nov 4? Awesome! Tonight, though, I'm just gonna take it easy and pick the easiest (and fluffiest) topic of the bunch...

My Pick: Top 3 Funniest Videos of the 2008 Pres. Election Campaign!

(Listed chronologically, because they're difficult to rank!)

1. John McCain gets BarackRoll'd at the Republican Convention: I'm in complete awe at the video maker who is dedicated enough to sift through Obama's speeches and video/audio files and painstakingly edited together this little piece of gem. Hugh Atkin of Australia = totally awesome.

2. Saturday Night Live's Tina Fey's Sarah Palin: SNL hit a home-run this year with Tina Fey's portrayal of Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin. Matching the real GOP VP nominee perfectly in physical appearance, voice, and mannerism, I simply love watching Fey's Palin in all of her SNL skits, whether she's partnered with Amy Poehler in the mock Palin/Clinton press conference, going head to head with Jason Sudeikis's Joe Biden in the Vice Presidential debate, meeting (evading?) the real Sarah Palin at her mock first press conference, together with John McCain getting endorsed by Pres. George W. Bush... By far my favorite, though, is the exclusive Part 4 of the Katie Couric Interview, with Amy Poehler as the confused and bemused journalist. XD

To fully appreciate SNL's spoof, one has to consider how closely it follows the actual CBS interview. Funny, yes, and scary, too!

3. MoveOn.org's 'Don't Let Your Friend Lose the Election' Video: Ingenious! Feel free to customize this video at CNNBCVideo.com and send it to everyone you know! As an example, here's one with my name in it:

4. Sarah Palin Pranked: Lastly, this isn't a video per se, but in breaking news(?) today, Sarah Palin got pranked by a pair of Canadian comedians from a Montreal radio station. In a 6-min long prank call, Palin believed she was talking with French President Nicholas Sarkozy... *speechless* Who was accusing whom of naivete? Failed to vet phone calls at the Republican campaign HQ? Behaved like a "star-struck schoolgirl" giggling in front of the fake French Pres? A preview of what future interviews with foreign heads of state would look like if she were VP??... It's incredibly hilarious, but devastatingly embarrassing to listen to.

Head on over to Daily Kos should you like to view the transcript of the prank call. ;)

Yes, this campaign season has been full of these and many, many other weirder stuff. It has been quite a thrill ride, but just so I don't have to endure any further embarrassment from the GOP (McCain, Palin, Joe the Plumber, the circus freak show and wingnuts which follows them around), Nov 5 can't come soon enough.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 18:22:28 GMT

Fed up with the press!

Wow, it certainly has been a while since my last update! Passionately following the 2008 U.S. Presidential campaign since the early Jan 8 primaries, most of my online time is now devoted to following articles, analysis, blogs, and websites dedicated to the election, leaving no left-over energy to update my own blog. (No life much? LOL.) Still, there's definitely no better year for a political junkie! ;)

What compelled me so that I feel the need to vent out today? Answer: I'm sick of the media bias, in this case CNN, for the way they cover the presidential campaign. Self-important, biased, totally subjective and unfair in coverage, I can't believe they feed us this garbage masqueraded as "news" designed to inform and educate the masses! Two recent observations of this misbehavior are:

1. The general bias for Obama against Clinton. This is blatantly obvious for anyone who has read or watched a large enough share of political coverage: he is less scrutinized, his triumphs and actions are more celebrated, the ludicrous way in which he is continually being compared to JFK, and the sheer volume of coverage he gets in the media everyday to keep him in the public eye... In short, more often than not, Obama is portrayed not as "one of the Democratic presidential candidates" but as "media darling." How is this fair??! In today's NY Times, the Op-Ed piece "Hate Springs Eternal" by Paul Krugman describes in a bit more detail Obama's "cult of personality" and the media's unjust "Clinton rules".

2. The invisible Republican candidate Huckabee. Picking an old bone, yes, but I still laugh when I think about the Republican Debate on CNN aired Jan 30. Anderson Cooper as the moderator?? One certainly can't find a more camera-hogging, self-important, pompous moron! CNN effectively snubbed Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul during the debate, whose combined on-camera time and speaking points did not even add up to what the moderator enjoyed! They were sidelined as the debate, and Cooper's questions, centered solely on McCain and Romney. IMO, the "McCain vs. Romney" media focus is partly to blame for Romney's (now we know as) delusional "This is a two-person race [between] me and John McCain" proclamation. Pray tell, where is Romney now?

OK, Press bias has long been irritating, but what really ticked me off today -- and what got me to blog about it here -- is this insidious piece of work, a two-minutes segment aired on (who else but?) CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 on Feb 8:

Youtube - CNN on 'Why Asian Americans Vote for Hillary Clinton'

Oh so, according to CNN and their brilliant research, the two reasons why Asian Americans vote overwhelmingly for Clinton are:
1. We are fearful/distrustful of African Americans
2. We are fearful of change

...NOT because Asian Americans support Clinton's stand on whichever social, economic, or political issue, obviously. In fact, at the end of the two minutes, we still DO NOT know WHY exactly do Asian Americans support Clinton. Apparently, the two 'reasons' listed above are good enough for CNN; no further investigation is necessary.

*out-raged*

Please, CNN, DO do further segments on how the different races in America "fear and distrust" each other! No need to do any homework, just interview a handful of people on the streets and broadcast their preferences on presidential candidate as true and valid assumptions on the entire Asian American population! And please broadcast and incite more unfounded racial prejudices! (*sarcastic* if you can't tell)

Heck, are those people interviewed (and chosen to appear on the TV segment) American CITIZENS? Do they even follow the election? Do they even plan to vote??

Instead of a bunch of heavy-accented shoppers and (who to me looks like) study-aboard students in an Asian grocery store, why didn't CNN interview someone with ~~more~~ credential? Perhaps a professor or scholar of Asian decent in political or social studies? Someone from the Asian American Institute or, heck, someone from the 80-20 Initiative whose organization has ENDORSED CLINTON as early as Jan 18?? Quite obviously, CNN is interested not in a serious and logical explanation, but a sensational story on racial prejudice and racial politics -- however ungrounded.

How does that one guy in a Seattle coffee shop speak for ALL Asian Americans that they are "afraid of change"?!!

I will refrain from ranting on (I honestly can rant on and on about this!) but urge you to instead...

Irrelevant of which presidential candidate you support: read more about CNN's Pejorative Portrayal of the Asian American Vote from 80-20 and let's send CNN a powerful message and not let them discredit the Asian Pacific Islander American Votes!!

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 21:09:17 GMT

Christmas Clásico

F.C. BARCELONA 0 - 1 REAL MADRID

...Don't feel like talking about it much at all.

Football is a team sport, so I can't really blame Barça's failure to perform on Messi's absence. Still, when the effort from Ronnie, Eto'o & el. fell flat and scoring opportunities were left unrealized, (from a fangirl's perspective) the always energetic and inspiring Messi was desperately missed. Plus, for all of the surrounding controversy and criticism, I was particularly hoping to see Ronnie prove himself to his naysayers tonight -- especially when he was supposed to be benched and Coach Rijkaard's decision to play him was as-far-as-we-could-tell last minute. But *sighs* things don't always go the way one hopes to, I suppose.

Compare tonight's Clásico to last season's spectacular one and, honestly, tonight's was definitely a disappointing letdown. ;_; We had needed this victory, damnit. Now the Liga is approaching winter break and Madrid, having won and are now seven (!!) points ahead, have widened the gap at the head of the table. Can Barça stage a comeback next year? Or are we still suffering from the resulting malaise, the lack of confidence, unity and focus, of last season's defeat?

Related:
- "Barcelona 0-1 Real Madrid: Baptista brilliance" on ESPN's Soccernet
- "Baptista gives Madrid win over Barça" on FOX Sports
- "Barça stunned in el Clásico" on FCB.cat

If you think obesity is a problem for humans only...

Just look at our pets!!! What a lazy, real-life Garfield couch potato! ...The cat's cute tho, lol!

Monday, November 12, 2007

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 18:40:55 GMT

Nice~

One of the biggest advantages of working in the public sector is getting days off on all national holidays, such as today, for Veterans' Day.

Plus there will be two days off next week, on Thursday and Friday, for Thanksgiving, too. Sweet~

Of course, it doesn't mean I'll be doing anything productive... ;P

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 19:21:45 GMT

First snow of the year!

Here on the shore of Lake Erie, late autumn traditionally sets in right after Halloween. Accordingly, over the past several days, the weather has been overcast, the temperature took a dive and lingered in the low to mid 40s°F. Today it has even started to snow (albeit very light, drifty snow, mixed with a bit of hail)!! And there are still two days ere winter officially begins on the lunar calendar! :D

...And I would be much more excited about the forecasted wintry precipitation if I do not have to spend roughly an hour and a half commute on the road everyday. It makes me nervous just imagining all the white-outs, icy rain, slush, slippery roads, traffic jams, and dangerous driving. Oh, very soon, I'll have to start my morning commute extra early to allow time for possible traffic jams/road blocks/back-ups, too. Ugh.

That said, November is still my favorite month of the year: We're on the other side of fall; the colorful scenery is in full blast; the overcast, autumnal sky is perfectly lovely, so is the 40s~50s°F temperature range; Thanksgiving; three days off from work (w00t!!); and it's the prelude to the holiday season, a jovial anticipation already in the air... :)

November. Wow. Just thought of something: exactly how many months has this layout been up on my Xanga? Methinks I've broken my previous record of "months I keep a single layout because I'm too lazy to change/design something new"! As much as I love this good ol' Barça layout, it's time for a change. Really. *sweats*

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:40:15 GMT

Petition

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 19:09:06 GMT

Elizabeth

Another highly promising movie!

Elizabeth The Golden Age was just released yesterday, so I might wait a week or two before going to see it. Hmm, I just remember I have yet to write a review/reaction for 3:10 to Yuma, which is undeniably _the_BEST_move_ I've seen so far this year! Oh well, maybe next time? :P

Official Movie Websites:
- http://www.elizabeththegoldenage.net, the US site
- http://www.elizabeththegoldenage.com, the international site, though there are no differences in content or design between the two sites... except for the splash page image and the promos "Now in theatres" vs. "Coming soon."

Friday, October 12, 2007

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 17:30:00 GMT

Strangely wonderful!

Announced today, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007!!

Satisfied at what I already know about climate change and global warming (from science classes and one too many PBS science programs!), I have neither watched the Gore-narrated documentary An Inconvenient Truth nor read its accompanying text, believing it to be one of those shallow takes on social topics performed by public figures, more publicity than scholarly and full of regurgitated same-old same-old. Well, the "Nobel Prize recipient" honor has indeed proved my cynicism wrong; and I'm very curious about the documentary/book now! :)

Of course, Gore's sudden fortune (if I may call it that) also open up a whole can of political possibilities and questions -- as brought up by Jay Leno on The Tonight Show last night. ;) Will he announce his (second) presidential candidacy? How will W react to his former defeated rival's sudden ascend to importance and popularity? And whom will Clinton support should Gore decide to run for office?...

Jay Leno joked: "...The man who has been under him for eight years? Or the wife who has been under him for one?" ;)

Related Articles:
- "Gore, U.N. climate panel win Nobel Peace Prize" on Y! News
- "Gore and UN panel win Nobel Prize" on BBC News
- "Nobel Prizes and Related Articles", special coverage from the NYT

Friday, September 28, 2007

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 19:48:48 GMT

In memory of my great-aunt...

This morning held the funeral services of my great-aunt who passed away last Sunday at the age of 104. Because of work, I could not stay for the trip to the cemetery, only stopping by at the funeral home beforehand for a final farewell. As I was arriving at work, however, pangs of regret surged through my heart: what is the responsibility of my job compared to the much greater importance of attending the funeral of a close relative and paying my last respect as a grand-niece? I should have telephoned and taken the day off work, honestly.

Feeling horrible about myself and weighed with regret for my rash decision, I turned to the only thing that could distract and occupy my mind when I am feeling restless: words. So I randomly took a 800-pages plus German-English dictionary off the bookshelf and, after reading the bibliographical information, flipped it open to a random page. The first word which caught my eyes was:

Andenken, n. (-s, -) memory, remembrance; keep-sake, memento, souvenir; zum - an ihn, in memory of him; seligen -s, of blessed memory; im - behalten, keep in mind.

I do not really have a clear memory of my great-aunt. She was already over 80 years old and very slightly senile when I first met her in my childhood. Back then, I knew her as my grandfather's older sister, which seemed close enough on the family-tree but her person was totally unfamiliar to me -- an old lady who spent most of her time sleeping, staring into space, watching ancient black-and-white movies, and walking around the neighborhood (an exercise which caused plenty of worry and frustration in the family because of her Alzheimer's; once, she got "lost", forgot where and who she was, and had to be "retrieved" by my aunt at the police station, where a kind passerby brought her). I did not see her often, but every time we visited her at my aunt's, she would say my name (the way old people do, with affection and unnecessary repetition), hold my hand, smile, and ask how I was and if I had been a good girl. That was all. If she had told me anything about her life, I do not remember and was probably too young to understand and fully appreciate it then.

The family moved my great-aunt into a nursing home around the time I entered college and I have not seen her since. Now and then, I would hear news of her health and condition from my parents and older relatives, but she became a distant figure. Several times in the recent years, her health had worsened so that the family was ready to believe her end was near. In the end, though, she persevered time after time and shocked us by surviving well into her 100s. From what I heard, it was truly simply "survival" and not "living", for, by then, my great-aunt had gone senile and lost mobility. Miraculously however, she was still full of energy and was able to remember the names of the close relatives who visited, calling them and reminiscing about old times. I took her existence for granted and never consciously decided to visit her at the nursing home. Not even once.

This morning, as I looked upon her calm visage and her bony hands grasped together inside the casket, I did not fully recognize her, though I was certain she still resembled the great-aunt from my memories, just more advanced in years and withered. I must admit to feeling ashamed that, at the funeral home, I could not reciprocate the grief of her immediate family and that even my regret now seems self-centered in nature. Even so, I do feel a certain sadness and a sense a loss, albeit missing her more as my grandfather's sister than as my great-aunt. For my grandfather had already passed away more than a decade ago, and she was the living keep-sake of my memory of him. Still, I am certain that my great-aunt had been an interesting person, if only I had gotten to know her better. (From ancient, hand-colored photographs, I found out she was quite beautiful in her prime! She and my great-uncle, whom I have never met, were a lovely, young couple when they married!)

I do not really know the purpose of writing this post: an informal eulogy for my great-aunt, an unabashed justification for my indifference, or to spin a moral tale from my regrets? If indeed seeking for a moral lesson, one is conveniently at hand. Looking back now, my dread of boring conversations (or even worse, the lack of) and habitual shunning of distant relationships should not be important at all. It should not matter whether she remembered me or how awkward visiting a senile, old lady at the nursing home would be. What should matter was simply to be there, to be able to smile at her and hold her hand while she was alive. Most of all, it should not matter whether I could come up with anything meaningful to say. All that should have mattered-- all that I really needed to say, that would mean everything in the world, was only to ask a kind question: "How are you?"

Friday, September 14, 2007

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 17:40:44 GMT

Wanna watch...

3:10 to Yuma - Trailer - Watch more free videos

Life has been kinda busy lately, so I'm really feeling the urge to go out, grab some food, hit the cinema for a "movies marathon" and lose myself in a movie or two... All the while hiding in the back row munching on food I've sneaked into the theatre, timing my bites so the loud sound effects would drown out evidence of my crunching, chewing & aluminum-bag(s) ripping, of course. Ah, imagine the fun! :P

The last time I went to the movies was in July: the only two films worth shelling out $7 (with matinée hours discount!) for were "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and "Transformers". Since then, nothing had caught my eye until "3:10 to Yuma" was released last Friday (I believe). Starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale (hearts!), "3:10 to Yuma" seems like a very intelligent western film, packing in equal amounts of throttling action and philosophical pondering.

Then again, am I just getting my hopes up or will it really earn a listing in "Filmology 101" among the other great western epics of the 1950s? It's worth finding out! ;)