That's right more narcissistic behavior from Jen. Surfed upon this student's journal. Guess I give a not bad workshop. Woo hoo! Look at my previous Feb 2003 post. Though don't know how much more I want to deal with MANAA. I'm burned out, especially til the election is over. Plus there's various other reasons but I won't divulge on here.

Saturday, February 01, 2003

Wow, I didn't think I'd have that much fun at APAAC (Asian Pacific American Awareness Conference) because it was forced volunteerism on my part.
Lynne and I got there at 8am (ugh)
After breakfast, we went to 3 workshops (well, there was lunch after the first one) that were extremely interesting. The first was about South Asia (India, Pakistan, etc.) and religion, which actually gave me some better definitions.
Then the second one was about stereotypes. I think this was the best workshop that I've been to. It was put on by a group called MANAA (Media Action Network for Asian Americans http://www.manaa.org/), a non-profit based in LA that works towards ending stereotypes of Asian Americans in the media. Damn, it was so informative and moving that I wanted to sign up right there. I mean, this is what I've always hated - stereotypes in the media (especially of APIs) and here's a group doing something about it. I learned that if you see something you don't like, write to their advertisers because that'll hurt them. Also, DON'T BUY THE FEB. ISSUE OF MAXIM! (sorry guys) There's a cartoon depicting a buff white guy beating up Ghandhi to show how to kick someone's ass. I think they're trying to contrast an aggressive person and a pacifist, but why not Jesus or MLK? It's just as hurtful. I dunno, but that group spoke to me, kinda awoke the activist in me, but since I don't have the time to commit, I'll just keep my eyes & ears open and write letters, etc. Other Asian Americans should, too, because our voice is out there, but it could be stronger.
The third one was about gays that was good, too, but I've been to a panel of gays & lesbians before, so it was very similar. One thing I've noticed - there's a lot of gay Asian males, but you rarely see lesbian Asians ('exotic scenes' excluded). I wonder why?
But anyways, time to go back to work after a whole day of the conference. I really wish more people came out - there was probably only about 100 or so.
Posted 2/1/2003 at 7:32 PM

Argh why is blogger acting up? Well, I finally put something on my Livejournal and not only that I signed up for Xanga too. Yes, I'm sad. Not too many ppl know of this journal though....;p

Pooped and feeling down from this week, I was a lame ass and antisocial and stayed home all weekend. Was at least somewhat productive did some laundry (yes, I'm soooo exciting) and took care of a few things. Watched and wasted my brain on too much junk TV. At least new show Lost looks pretty good and now I'm hooked. Too bad the two Asians on that show speak no English and the Korean male is playing a very oppressive husband. *sigh* What a shame. Daniel Dae Kim has always played some really great characters and he's easy on the eyes (he's somewhere in my S.A.M. page), hopefully his character will have more dimension.

Anyhow while I'm being so "productive" here's some random stuff.

Things I need to do NOW
1) Get fit, healthy and tone.
2) Clean room
3) Clean office
4) Actually do something of the things I taught in the financial literacy class

Lists of things Jen wants to do hopefully before she's 30.

Places she wants to go:
1) Brasil (Sao Paulo to be exact want to see where my family grew up part of their life)
2) Taiwan (haven't really been back since 89 want to see museums, eat good food, buy cool books on Taiwan and buy good Taiwanese music.)
3) Japan (also haven't been here in years)
4) Hawai'i (feel in love with Hawai'i, really want to go to Maui and Big Island now.)
5) Chicago (need to take advantage of the fact that Rena has housing there for the next few months)
6) New Zealand

Artists she wants to see
1) Marisa Monte
2) Bic Runga
3) Shirley Bassey

"Goblet of Tragic Love" Lyrics by Chen Ta-ju, music by Yao Tsan-fu

The crying style and sound of this old Taiwanese song just adequately describes how I'm feeling right now. *sigh*

It's 2 in the morning and I know listening to tragic love songs, especially old Taiwanese songs aren't really helping, but it's just what I need to explain how I feel, those Taiwanese songwriters knew how I've been feeling all my life. Just so frustrating and tortuous how I always come so close to grasping it but for whatever reasons something happens and it doesn't happen time and time again and it just kills me. I just want to experience it once in my life, what so many people take for granted.