This week is going to be exhausting!

Today, we're going to Taipei to see this play about the history of my mom's side's ancesotors. We (brother, me, and an uncle) have to catch the HSR at 6 PM, so I have to leave class early. On Wednesday, my mom is coming home from Japan. And finally, Thursday (12/11) is my birthday. We're going to have dinner I think and that will be it. Well, at home I might drink a little to celebrate and maybe sing karaoke. I shold ask my mom if we can get newer songs onto our karaoke machine. I'll update again later. :P

Friend's birthday today!!

Today is so nice. It's field day so we don't have classes. It's especially good bcause today is Freda'sbirthday! everbody should go wish her a good one. It's cool because we both have brothers that are in 6 grade and our birthdays are one week apart. We have lots of other stuff in common too! I'll write more later after I come back from celebrating with her.

Harvey Milk

This man knew he was going to make a deep impact in his community. I think that people like him deserve all the medals and glory, not the people who take things for granted and go through life easily. Milk gave something to people who were afraid to speak out about their beliefs and defend their way of life. In the film, I could tell that the people who were interviewed respected Harvey for his courage, enthusiasm, and most of all his firm stance on what was right and wrong. I really admire his enthusiasm and hopefulness for what he wanted to achieve. It's quite rare to find someone to selflessly fight all the obstacles that Harvey Milk did just to get to a place to bargain with his opponents.

Milk was right to fight for his rights to be openly homosexual and live the lifestyle that he did. America is supposed to be a place where people of every creed can exist in harmony with people of every other belief system. The racist Jim Crow laws and secret organizations should not have ever existed. It is a shame that most Americans think so conservatively about a lot of the main issues of today. Because this means that many groups of people with different views are denied what a lot of people take for granted-their freedom and basic human rights. It is not right to discriminate against someone that is different in any way from you. That is the way they chose to live, so it is not up to us to decide for others and impose our will of what the world should be like onto others.

The whole war in Iraq and Afghanistan, all those conflicts came from false propaganda intended to dupe the American people . It is the same idea to impose American values wherever a war is fought with American aid and then leave the country in a state of chaos afterwards. A lot of basic problems can be solved that seem complex if people just start to listen and stop fighting one another. This kind of strategy is what Harvey Milk brought to San Francisco. He was positive about what he wanted and didn't fight back with the ugly ways his opponents were using. Milk's strategy was about brotherly love and love for all the people around one's community. We need more people like Harvey Milk if we want things to start changing in a more positive, less violent and narrow minded way any time soon.

the candlelit march at night made Milk a 20th century martyr for those who needed a voice, for those who needed someone to guide the way into uncharted waters and stand up to face the unjust world. Milk is like the homosexual version of Martin Luther King, Jr. They both stood up for what they believed in-basic human rights- and went far in helping their respective causes. It was the same kind of person that created an obstacle for both King and Milk. the white conservative who discriminated and mistreated anybody he didn't understand or failed to want to understand. I don't understand what is so hard about not being open minded and accepting of other people. Is there a deficit for this kind of mutual understanding between people?

Good People

This song by Jack Johnson is pretty sweet. It's very relaxing, but talks about issues that pertain to our daily lives. I heard it on my ipod randomly and thought I should share it because it's how I feel sometimes. I wonder why we can't be happy in our own way. I think each of us wants something from those around us and we want to enforce our will on others' so much that we lose what would make us happy. The best philosopher that actually practices what he preaches is Winnie the Pooh, like what the book The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff essentially promotes. I am sad.

It’s such a shock to find out that this author is not producing books anymore.

If not for himself, he should keep writing for those aspiring writers that look up to him. Or has the amount of pain and frustration he has endured with publishers destroyed his belief in himself? I think belief is a very strong factor in a lot of decisions people make. Or else, why would an international best selling author quit the book-writing industry? Maybe he is write, though. Maybe America's cultural capital and literary history is being cut down like the rain forests in South America. Not as many people read books today as before when there wasn't a computer or TV. There are still creative writers, but maybe Hoff considers them as hiding behind weak writing to survive and not producing their better, original works.

Internet connection at Home

I hate it. Our wireless internet sucks. That is only the truth of the matter. It used to be great because we had faster and more stable connection. Now that our internet got downgraded, my computer can't connect to the internet sometimes. The feeling is hard to describe because it requires lots of adjectives not worthy of being used. My mother said it wouldn't matter, but she has had problems often too. I wonder if she will decide to change back again, even if it is a bit more expensive. C'est le merde de la vie.

Oh yeah, the reason there haven't been any Elva posts is because I haven't found anything se's doing in the past few weeks. It's really hard because there's nothing new on her blog or in the news. At least, nothing too major. I do look up interviews and stuff occasionally, but that's older material. I'm still really excited about her book, though.

1. Medical and 3. Animal Testing

1. Medical testing should be done accodring to who is going to ultimately use the product, don't you think so? It's unfair treatment to any living thing that has to be put through potentially dangerous testing who will not be using the product for their own use in the future. It is great that we have anesthetics and vaccines that have improved surgeries and disease controll, although it was at the expense of animals. I think it depends on whether there are severe side effects for medical testing. If there are, then there should be an alternative way to test medical products. Maybe like people? ALthough the moral stigmas are still there, people could volunteer to be tested on. This way, no one is being held against their will. And if no one volunteers after understanding all the risks and steps involved for the testing, then it shouldn't be tested. If it is life or death for humans, then maybe animals that are diseased should be used.

3. Animals have been used in place of the effects that humans should have experienced because they are too afraid to accept the consequences of products they think they need in daily life for too long. Oh I know, maybe it can be tested on bugs, like cockroaches. No one really likes them. If it is especially dangerous, then it's bad, if they suffer a little, then it's not that good, and if nothign is perceivable then maybe... I haven't figured out what other alternatives there are as yet. Get back to me later, I guess. I think all animals of any kind should be avoided if possible in testing cosmetics on animals.

2. Companies not mentioned on the Leaping Bunny list

MaxFactor
Revlon
L'Oreal
Aloe Vera Products
Avon
Anna Sui Beauty
Chanel
Christian Dior
Cover Girl
Crabtree & Evelyn Products
Elizabeth Arden
Estee Lauder
Guerlain
Lancome
MAC Cosmetics
Maybelline International
Neutrogena Cosmetics
Shu Uemera

At least, these are the ones I know that I didn't see. Maybe I looked at the wrong list. Are the lists for international and US different? I don't see any big differences.

Time Difference on Blog

I just realized when I went to my settings for this blog that the time zone was completely wrong. I chose Pacific Standard time, which is what they use um, I guess across the Pacific? I have no idea. Anyways, that's why all my previous posts had all these random times. So I feel really stupid and embarrassed. Good thing I changed it now or else it would be really weird if I posted things at 3 or 5 in the morning. Hahaha, that's all for now.

egg incident

Today, while preparing dinner my brother wanted me to break open an egg he said had been boiled and cooked. When I chipped open the top part, it seemed to be as he said. However, when I cracked it open with greater force, it splattered all over the front side of my sweater. Let me repeat, splattered all down the front of my WHITE sweater. Sigh, sometimes I wonder how he does things, it is always beyond me. Of course, I try to trust in him when he does things for me. He didn't mean it, but it was...interesting, to say the least. Here are pictures of the sweater as proof and me looking sad and angry.

Weekend After Midterms

The past few days, there wasn't really anything to do. I just listened to music and watched Friends. Occasionally, I'd read, too. Today, I decided to eat this huge green guava without cutting it into slices. Now, this fruit is like the size of a mini-football. I have no idea what I was thinking, I just knew that I wanted to eat the whole thing. Of course, I didn't succeed. Guavas are really sour and to eat one the size of which should have been shared with at least one other person wasn't that good of an idea, to say the least. In the end, after getting to about half, I was fed up with guava aftertaste and no one asking to help that I went and cut it up. My brother said I was insane when I told him what I was doing. Hey, I was having fun! I still have that horrible taste in my mouth, though. Talk about extreme boredom.

I want to go see Quantum of Solace, the new James Bond movie. It's been out for three weeks and I haven't gone to the movie theater yet. Maybe I'll go by myself on Thursday or something. No one seems particularly excited to see it in my family.

Oh my goodness, my mom just cut another guava and gave half to my brother. I think I'm going to be sick just by looking at it. Blrerrggg, doesn't she know there's a whole plate of cut up guava here? Good thing she is cooking hot pot, mmm. Yummy :)