Life is what happens when you are making other plans~ John Lennon
An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind~Gandhi
The time is always right to do what is right~ Martin Luther King Jr.


Thursday, May 19, 2011

Summertime!

Since I know summer is fast approaching, I thought I'd do a blog based on some of the stuff I like to do during the summer.


Go to the beach, although I haven't been to the beach since I was 10 and that was to this crappy beach in Florida called Coco Beach, sure wasn't fun for me! I got sunburn and windburn, how'd I manage that one? This was when the economy was better!

   





Eat popsicles/ice cream
   
Running from school,  screaming "FREEDOM"

   
Looks like me at the end of 8th 
grade!



Cookouts. Sorry, just had to throw in that last one, made me crack up laughing! And spending time with family makes it all better and worthwhile




Sunshine!!!!! Sorry, just had to throw in that sun with the smiley face. I'm a massive sucker for cute Smiley Faces!







Laying out in the sun,  jamming out to your fave music! I'm a massive Mickey Mouse lover, he's just so darn cute!



The blue one on the far right in the 1st row is EXACTLY what my MP3 player looks like!!!!!!


Planting flowers(and praying deer and other wildlife don't eat them!!!!)




Summer concerts, and concerts in general
Aerosmith concerts



Journey concerts
New lead singer to replace old one Steve Perry. Guy from the Philippines named Arnel Pineda
Arnel Pineda Journey singer Arnel Pineda performs at the Planet Hollywood Theatre for the Performing Arts March 8, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada.  

    

Foreigner concerts



The one holding the microphone is my favorite, the lead singer, Kelly Hansen


Rolling Stones concerts(LOL! Shoulda known this was coming, lol!)
 




Paul McCartney concerts
    Paul McCartney Sir Paul McCartney performs during the Liverpool Sound concert, held at Anfield Stadium on June 1, 2008 in Liverpool, England. The one-off musical concert, headlined by Sir Paul McCartney, celebrates Liverpool being European Capital of Culture in 2008


    

   

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Asian Heritage Month

Since the month of May is referred to as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, I thought I would do a blog based on that. On people of Asian ancestry who seem to have made a good name for themselves.

Bruce Lee

  • DOB: November 10, 1940
  • DOD: July 20, 1973
  • American born, Hong Kong actor, philosopher, martial artist, film director and producer, screenwriter and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial art
  • He's the one who sparked a major interest in Chinese martial arts in the West in the 1970s
  • While a student at Washington University, he met his future wife Linda Emery in August 1964
  • In 1965, she gave birth to son Brandon Lee(1965-1993) and daughter Shannon Lee
  • He was known for his incredibly physical body, wanting to become as strong as possible
  • He unfortunately died from a brain edema on May 10, 1973
  • He's buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Seattle.
Man if, that's a Bruce Lee doll, I want it!!!!!!!!!

Yoko Ono

  • DOB: February 18, 1933, Tokyo, Japan
  • Is a Japanese artist, musician, peace activist, author, best known for her relationship with Beatles member John Lennon
  • Big supporter of gay rights, as well as her philanthropic contributions to AIDS research and world peace
  • On December 8, 1980, when John was murdered by Mark Chapman, Ono was close by and witnessed the entire thing. Can you honestly imagine being nearby and witnessing your husband getting murdered and not knowing what to do?
  • In 1981, she released the album Season of Glass, on the front is a picture of John's glasses, shattered and bloody, next to a half filled glass of water with a window over looking Central Park, almost to suggest John was happiest in New York


It makes me sad to know that John Lennon is no longer around, and it's all thanks to that a--hole Mark David Chapman. He needs to pay for what he did, he took Julian Lennon's father away from him, and Yoko's loving husband away, she must have been devastated by actually witnessing her husband being shot in front of her. She has my sympathy. But he's in peace now, in the great England in the sky. I used pics of John and Yoko, because I have this distinct feeling she was happiest when she was around him


Duke Kahanamoku

  • Known as the father of international surfing
  • Born in Hawaii
  • Was a swimmer at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden
  • He also appeared in nearly 30 movies and went on to become the Sheriff for the City and County of Honolulu.
  • Died at age 77 but is still remembered for his sportsmanship and athletic talent
Dr. Feng Shan-Ho

  • Saved thousands of Austrian Jews during the Holocaust
  • In 1937, he arrived in Vienna as a Chinese diplomat, Austria had the 3rd largest Jewish community
  • Against all odds, thousands would survive thanks to Dr. Ho
  • As a Chinese General Consul in Vienna, he went against his bosses' orders and began issuing Visas to Jews so they could go to Shanghai, China
  • He died in 1997, an unknown hero of WWII

Yo Yo Ma

  • Is considered to be one of the world's greatest musicians
  • At the age of 4 he began studying the cello
  • He plays 2 instruments- a 1712 Davidoff Stradavarius and a 1733 Montagnana cello
  • Graduated from Harvard University and Julliard School for the Performing Arts
  • Recorded 50 albums and won a dozen Grammys
Maya Lin

  • 1981 is when this lady rose to fame
  • Just 21 and still an architectural student at Yale University, she won a contest to design the Vietnam Veterans Wall Memorial in Washington D.C.
  • The memorial is 594 feet long and features the names of the 58,000+ soldiers who either died or were reported missing
  • Each year, 4 million people visit the wall to pay their respects to the wall, whether they had a friend, relative in the war or just to be respectful and pay their respects
  • She was also the one that designed the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama. Her designs can be found throughout the US in various cities
Amy Tan

  • Born in 1952, in Oakland, California
  • Daughter of Chinese immigrants who had emigrated to the US 3 years earlier
  • In 1989, she got worldwide attention with the release of her book The Joy Luck Club, about Chinese women and their Chinese-American daughters

Lucy Liu

  • DOB: December 2, 1968, New York, New York
  • Of Taiwanese descent
  • Didn't learn English until age 5
  • She has a reputation for playing bad girls in movies. Like:
    • Pearl, the sadistic dominatrix/hit woman for the Chinese Mafia in Payback
  • She can speak Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Spanish
  • Also rock climbs
  • Also one of my favorite actresses

Ang Lee

  • DOB: October 23, 1954
  • Directed movies such as Sense and Sensibility, Eat Drink Man Woman, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Incredible Hulk, Brokeback Mountain
  • American born, but of Taiwanese ancestry
  • It surprised alot of people when he made the switch from directing Taiwanese movies to British movies with Sense and Sensibility
  • The movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, that he directed, won Best Foreign Language Film



Jerry Yang

  • Native of Taiwan
  • Creator of the Yahoo! search engine
  • Today Yahoo! is the most frequently visited site, with 237 million followers
  • He is also an avid sumo wrestling fan and a golf fan
  • He graduated Stanford University
  • If you use Yahoo! alot, you got this guy to thank for bringing it around
Michelle Kwan

  • She began skating at age 5 and 2 years later, won her first competition
  • Wears a Chinese good luck charm around her neck, which was a gift from her grandmother
  • At age 22, she is considered a skating legend known for her athleticism and grace on the ice
  • Native of California
  • With 37 perfect scores, she has the most perfect scores in history
Kristy Yamaguchi
  • In December 2005, was inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame for figure skating
  • Yamaguchi is said to be Yonsei, meaning 4th generation Japanese American
  • Also has appeared on TV numerous times, including a show on PBS called Freedom: A History of Us, portraying Haruko Obata, the first teacher of ikebana in the San Francisco area. Ikebana is the Japanese word for art of flower arranging, and appeared in the movie D2: The Mighty Ducks
  • On May 20, 2008, she was on Dancing with the Stars, paired with Mark Ballas and they both won the 6th season, taking home the mirror ball
  • In 1991, she took psychology courses at the University of Alberta
To avoid confusion, the websites i got the info from are:
www.wikipedia.com/BruceLee
www.wikipedia.com/YokoOno
www. teacher_scholastic.com
www.wikipedia.com/KristyYamaguchi

Monday, May 16, 2011

Racism/Discrimination

I know I may have done previous blogs about how much I hate this, but I recently had to do a PowerPoint presentation for my computer class and I chose to do it on the topic of racism/discrimination. Now mind you, I do not think this way, I personally feel it's horrible to think this way about people. Here's what I found out:

Stereotypes
Italian stereotypes
Some of the most common ones include:
  • Tolerant of violence
  • Labor bosses
  • Ignorant
  • Organized crime association
  • Political corruption
  • Overly emotional/dramatic
  • Superstitious
  • Hot Blooded
  • Aggressive
  • Obsessed with food
  • Prone to vengeance
  • Males will be big and muscular, very good looking.
  • Men will be sexually well endowed, but lack skills in the bedroom
  • Loud tastes in clothing
  • Expensive jewelry made cheaply
  • Has the name Michael, Joe, Sal, or Tony
  • All talk and no bite
  • Braggers
  • Loud talkers and not knowing when to be quiet
  • Supposedly cruel and overly demanding bosses
  • flirtatious, exotic young women with a taste in Italian-made items like Prada, Gucci, Armani
  • Gum cracking, big haired, air head girlfriend of a Mafia soldier
Some of the stereotypical Italian-held jobs include: peddlers, chefs, construction workers, any working class jobs

Latino stereotypes
Some of the most common ones include:
  • Being heavily tattooed
  • Enjoy low rider cars
  • Having too greasy hair
  • The "Latin Lover"-suave, charming, romantic
  • Large families
  • Can't speak English
  • Drug dealers(thanks to the 1983 movie Scarface)
  • Mouthy
  • Laborers
  • Enjoy clothing in loud, obnoxious colors
  • Maid/housekeeper
  • gardener/landscaper
  • All are Mexican
  • Mutiple kids
  • They all steal
  • They all own large cars, trucks or SUVs
  • Short
  • Uneducated
  • All listen to the same music and eat hot food
Black stereotypes
  • Blacks are shown to be overly religious, superstitious, joyous, naive, ignorant
  • They'll be shown as lazy, criminals, ignorant, overly religious, violent
  • They'll be shown eating fried chicken, drinking Kool-Aid or eating watermelon
  • They'll be shown living in slums/ghettos
  • They'll be shown as people with big lips, heavyset, alot of kids and no knowledge of where the father is, being school dropouts, good at sports, confident, 'gangstas', love white women, good at dancing
Asian stereotypes
  • Asians have ben shown as hard working, studious, very grateful, inoffensive, intelligent, politically inactive, productive people who raise their social standing through diligence and good merit
  • 25.2% of American-born Asians over the age of 25 hold a Bachelor's Degree compared to 15.5% of general Americans of the same age hold a Bachelor's Degree
  • Asian men have been shown as chauvinists, meaning they treat women unfairly
  • There is also a stererotype about image. The epicanthic fold of Asian people's eyes is sometimes referred to in a positive light 'almond shaped' or in a negative light' slant eye', there is also a stereotypical haircut- bowl cut for boys, overgrown bangs for girls. And it's also assumed that all Asians are born with the knowledge of how to perform martial arts, are short and have difficulty with the English language
Jewish stereotypes
  • nit picky stingy misers
  • Associated with circumcision, bagels, Mazel Tov, Oy Vey
  • In pictures, shown as people with big hook noses, olive skin, curly hair, dark eyes, big lips, wearing kippahs, aka yamecahs
British stereotypes
  • Big teeth, yellow teeth
  • Bad hygiene
  • Snooty, stuck up
  • obsessed with soccer
  • obsessed with The Queen
  • Tight-fitting clothing
  • Boisterous
  • Heavy smokers/drinkers
  • British men are gay
More common stereotypes include:
  • British men are gay(i.e. Mick Jagger dancing around like an idiot level) or be suave romantic lovers
  • British women will be stuck up
  • British men will have the word Sir before their name(i.e. Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Mick Jagger, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sir Michael Caine)
  • That people in England will all be walking around wearing bowler hats, carrying umbrellas, and say things like "Cheerio"
  • That British men will be tall, thin and ugly
American Indian stereotypes
  • Not all Indians will be doing arts and crafts or live on a reservation
  • Not all Indians will be experts on their culture/heritage

Media Stereotypes
Italian stereotypes
  • The HBO show The Sopranos came under fire when it first premiered because it showed too many stereotypes, like mob association
  • The 2009 show Jersey Shore came under fire as well because it showed too many Italian stereotypes, like the exotic young women and hot blooded young guys
  • Sometimes mobsters or movies about the mob will glorify the topic, like people like John 'The Dapper Don' Gotti will made out like a hero
  • There is also a stereotype about appearance, that all Italians have dark features
Famous Italians
  • Steven Tyler(hottie!)
  • Joe Perry(hottie!)
  • Federico Castellucio(hottie!)
  • Ferrucio Lamborghini
  • Marisa Tomei
  • Michael Imperioli(hottie!)

Steven Tyler
Marisa Tomei
Federico Castellucio
Michael Imperioli
Latino stereotypes
  • Did you know: that less than 1% of all news stories involve Latinos?
  • Did you know: that the Latino population accounts for 13% of the US population?
  • In 2001, crime, poverty, illegal immigration, welfare accounted for 66% of all news stories involving Latinos
  • Famous Latino people:
    • Salma Hayek
    • John Leguizamo(hottie!)
    • Penelope Cruz
    • Steven Bauer(hottie!)
    • Eva Mendes
    • Andy Garcia(cutie!)
Salma Hayek                         John Leguizamo
              

Steven Bauer                             Andy Garcia
               
Black stereotypes
  • In movies, blacks and whites are seen differently:
    • Using vulgar language: whites-17%, blacks- 89%
    • Having to be physically restrained: whites-6%, blacks-55%
    • Being physically abusive: whites-11%, blacks-56%
    • Blacks will be shown as bad, they're not. You certainly don't hear about black people abusing their wives or whatever, always been whites doing that!
  • Famous people:
    • Halle Berry(Fave actress!)
    • Rosa Parks
    • Martin Luther King Jr(He inspires me!)
    • Medgar Evers(He was shot for no reason!)
    • Malcolm X
    • Harriet Tubman
    • Sojourner Truth
Halle Berry                           Martin Luther King Jr
                 

Medgar Evers                           Rosa Parks
                
Asian stereotypes
  • A good example of an Asian media stereotype is the super geek stereotype. A good example is Gedde Watanabe's character of Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles.
  • A good example of the asexual martial artist stereotype is in the 2001 movie Romeo Must Die. Jet Li's character of Han Sing was supposed to kiss Aaliyah's Trish O'Day at the end, but instead gave him a big hug. It was edited for fear some Asians wouldn't feel comfortable seeing an Asian man portrayed in a sexual light
  • Another thing people like to assume is that all Asians look alike, with their dark hair, dark eyes, oval faces and tan skin tone.
  • An example of the martial artist expert is the 2002 movie Bulletproof Monk with Chow Yun-fat. In that movie, he played a martial artist monk who travels to modern day New York
  • In pop culture, there was a character named Charlie Chan, who was a Chinese-Hawaiian detective based on real-life detective Chang Apana. In the movies, his wife and kids were all actually Asian, but the actors who played him were not Asian, but white British actors, like Warner Oland, Roland Winter and Sidney Toler
  • Famous Asians:
    • Ken Watanabe(Cute!)
    • Jet Li(hottie!)
    • Lucy Liu(fave actress!)
    • Michelle Yeoh(very beautiful and fave actress!)
    • Ziyi Zhang(very pretty!)
    • Will Yun Lee(hot!)
    • Kristy Yamaguchi(awesome athlete!)
    • Noriyuki 'Pat' Morita(very funny man, and cool!)
    • Tim Kang
    • Jason Wu
    • James Iha
Ken Watanabe                            Kristy Yamaguchi
                      

Jet Li                                        Ziyi Zhang
                 
Jewish stereotypes
  • nit picky stingy misers
  • Associated with circumcision, bagels, Mazel Tov, Oy Vey
  • In pictures, shown as people with big hook noses, olive skin, curly hair, dark eyes, big lips, wearing kippahs, aka yamecahs
  • Famous Jewish people:
    • Gene Simmons
    • Judd Hirsch
    • David Krumholtz
    • LeeLee Sobieski
Gene Simmons                           David Krumholtz
             

Judd Hirsch                          


British stereotypes
  • In media, British people will always be shown as being, proper, prim, prudish
  • In American films, the baddies always have English accents
  • They will be shown as being upper class with strong English accents(i.e. Hugh Grant, who might I add is HOT!)
  • That British men will be the Butler or Gentleman in movies
  • Disney movies are notorious for the 'Bad Brit' stereotype. A few examples are:
    • Judge Frollo-The Hunchback of Notre Dame- voiced by Tony Jay. The character is supposed to be French, but was voiced by a British actor
    • Jafar-Aladdin
    • Maleficent-Sleeping Beauty
    • Mrs. Trunchbull-Matilda
    • Scar-The Lion King. Voiced by a white British actor named Jeremy Irons
    • Count Olaf-A Series of Unfortunate Events
    • Lady Tremaine-Cinderella
    • Professor Ratigan-The Great Mouse Detective
  • Famous people from England:
    • The Rolling Stones(Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood are my faves!!!!They're still HOT!!!)
    • Rowan Atkinson
    • Colin Firth(hot in an English gentleman sort of way, he looks charming, I like that!)
    • Kate Winslet
    • Helena Bonham-Carter
    • Jeremy Irons
    • Hugh Laurie
    • Zoe Wanamaker
The Rolling Stones                            Rowan Atkinson
               
Colin Firth                                   Jeremy Irons
                 
American Indian stereotypes
Now mind you, these are just stereotypes, I don't feel this way about anyone!
  • Wise elder
  • Indian princess
  • loyal sidekick
  • obese, impoverished
  • They are devoted environmenatlists devoted to preserving Mother Earth
  • Being shown as people full of passive, child like innocence, rapists, primitive, lower intellect
  • Bloodthirsty savages
  • Famous Indians
    • Wes Studi
    • Graham Greene
    • Eddie Spears
    • Irene Bedard

Wes Studi                                          Graham Green
      

Monday, May 2, 2011

Movie Reviews

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, pt. I

I recently got the chance to finally see the New Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, pt.1. I finally got to see it. This movie was totally awesome! I loved actually seeing it all the way through. There is also a scene here and there of nudity, whether it be Daniel Radcliffe in boxers or Rupert Grint with no shirt, and there is also a significant amount of cussing in this movie, and you might also hear Daniel or Rupert use the word 'bloody' alot, and if you are from the UK, you may know what this means. I may not read the books anymore, but that doesn't mean I'm not always up for a good Harry Potter movie, I would definitely not recommend people with young kids taking them to see this movie, it's a bit intense, and very dark might I add, also there is a scene of brief nudity where you see Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson kissing and almost having sex right there on the screen, it's blocked out some what, but you can basically tell they are naked on the screen. It's very dark and I would not recommend those with younger children taking them to see it, it might scare them and I really don't want the younger kids getting scared.




If you know me like my family does, you can already find the one I like!!!! Here's a hint: he's the one on the far left, lol!! He's cute, sorry, but cute guys with even cuter English accents turn me on, lol :)

Freejack

This movie is a little on the weird side, but other than that, it's pretty good. Here's basically what it's abut, I'll try to give you the best description I can. Emilio Estevez plays Alex Furlong, who is a racecar driver, Rene Russo plays Julie Redland, his girlfriend. Alex is driving in a big race and meanwhile in the not too distant future of 2009(yeah, you heard it and read it right), Ian McCandless(Anthony Hopkins) is the boss of a futuristic company and he is on the verge of death, so he needs a body and mind replacement. He has a mercenary named Victor Vacendak(Mick Jagger) go and capture Furlong because he is the ideal recipient for the mind and body transplant. Well, when he enters the future, a team is ready to perform the transplant and he is already dead and he is brought back to life and wasn't supposed to, and he manages to escape and throughout the movie he is referred to as a 'freejack', meaning that someone had paid to bring him to the future. The movie is weird, but good. In some parts of the movie, Furlong jokingly makes fun of Vacendak's English accent, sometimes making fun of the way he may say a cuss word or the way he talks, but it's nothing bad. Towards the end, Furlong and Julie go to McCandless Inc to confront Ian McCandless after finding out that it was him who paid to have Furlong brought to the future, and when they find him, they find that he is stalling for the arrival of Vacendak and his team. Then the transfer of McCandless' mind and body is made and is transferred to Furlong's body and he becomes the boss. As Furlong and Julie are leaving, they are approached by Victor and his team, it turns out that he lied to the others about him becoming McCandless so they could leave safely. Hopefully that's the most accurate description I can give. You'd probably have to watch it to know what it's about.




Here are some pictures from the movie.
  Mick Jagger as Victor Vacendak.

  Rene Russo as Julie Redland and Emilio Estevez as Alex Furlong

  Anthony Hopkins(Ian McCandless), Emilio Estevez(Alex Furlong), Mick Jagger(Victor Vacendak)

Goodbye, Mr. Chips

This movie may seem like a very weird movie to alot of the younger crowd, but I saw it recently and I have to admit, that even though there might have been singing in it, it was very good, though very sad at the end. I'll try my best to give a good description of it to those who may not have seen it. But here goes. The movie Goodbye Mr. Chips is about a professor named Mr. Chipping. I checked the name on the internet and I got it right! oh yeah! Any way it's about this professor at a boys school in England, not surprising, named Mr. Chipping. It takes place during WWII, during the bombings of England, and any way, one day this strict teacher falls in love with a woman named Katharine Bridges, played by English-born musician Petula Clark. It's very sad towards the end because as Katharine and a group of singers are performing at a local Army base, they are killed by a German V-1 flying bomb. The students start to notice the change in their strict teacher and after she is unfortunately killed, "Mr. Chips" as the students call him is made headmaster of the school. It's a little weird, it was made in 1969, but it is a very good movie, it's sad but very good ending, he achieves what he has always wanted-- to be made headmaster of the boys school.



Most of these movies are what my dad usually ends up watching. Freekjack? There's no way he'll watch that, I don't keep it anywhere in sight of him for fear he might throw it away, for some reason that's still unknown to me, he does not like Mick Jagger, he does not care for him and sometimes likes to joke around about his physical appearance. But anyhow, Goodbye, Mr. Chips was a very good movie, it may seem a little weird to some, but I liked it, but then again, anything 1960s or after that I like, so you can say I'm very open to new things.