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Busy Bee June 26, 2006

Posted by AkumAPRIME in : Life , 1 comment so far

Turns out I Don’t need a medical exam for a Chinese Visa, YEAH! So we go get our Visas tomorrow, then ticket shopping, Uhaul all of Shah’s junk up to Berkeley, get vaccinated, go to the Arnolds’ going away party, July 4th, Buy a camera and leave.

Oh and I’m taking some Capoeira classes before I go, and Bikram Yoga, which is the BOMB.

Good Reddit links for today

Schizophrenic Government Agents June 25, 2006

Posted by AkumAPRIME in : Life , 1 comment so far

Flow

Originally uploaded by AkumAPRIME.


Last night, I met with my friend Adam. I pulled into his alley, waiting for him. My window was down and a man, late 20s, hispanic, long hair, was digging through the trash. As he approached I thought about rolling my window up. It was late, he didn’t look harmless or “normal”, but I hate to presume and give in to fear.

So he asked, with a wild look in his eyes, for a light. As he asked, he leaned forward a bit towards me. I was prepared to open my door into him… hard. I was driving my friends car, but he smokes 🙁 so I searched for a lighter. I told him this but as I searched, I kept checking his position. I also wondered where Adam was, in case I needed help. After a minute, I couldn’t find a lighter, and he mumbled something to the effect of me not wanting to give him a lighter.. or sth.

I told him, ” Look it’s Not my car. I told you.”

” Oh did you Steal it?” he said.

” No,” I say, irritated, ” it’s my friend’s, and I tried to find you a lighter so you need to chill out.” I searched the side of the door, and found a lighter. ” Here man, relax.”

He lit up, handed me back the lighter, then asked to buy it off me.

” Hell you can have it, it’s not my lighter.” ( Sorry Dylan)

He smiled and a small laugh escaped him. Suddenly I was his friend.. No, I was more. He grinned.

” I’m Avi.” I think that’s what he said, so I told him my name, and we shook hands.”

” To help an Agent is to become an agent. I will baptize you with Old Glory.” (Side note: He didn’t say Agent. He said Officer or… I forget. Something with a C in the front.. I think. But agent is the gist of it.) He rummaged through his bag. He thought out loud, ” Drawers… funky draws.. Ah HERE,” and pulled out a large, wrinkled and dirty American Flag. He wrapped it around the back of his neck like a towel. Where the HELL is Adam? As well as I’ve handled this guy, schizophrenics can change mindset quickly.

” You know if it touches the ground, you have to burn it.”

” No, ” he says, ” you have to cry if you die fighting for it.” I see Adam appear on the other side of the car. I get out, Adam and I exchange words which consisted Mostly of, ” Wtf is This guy?” and we parted ways. Next time I see Avi I hope he’s doing better.

Good Reddit links from today:

Nice and Red June 24, 2006

Posted by AkumAPRIME in : Life , 1 comment so far

Mouth of the Earth God

Originally uploaded by AkumAPRIME.


So yesterday I was to meet some friends at the beach. But on my way there, I realized… My friends are flakes, and they most likely wouldn’t even show. As it happened, I saw Malibu Creek National Park and decided, since I had my bike with me, to check it out. So I biked like hell and found a cool new place!

That night I told Shahin, ” Let’s go to the beach tomorrow. I’ll come get you like 10:30ish.”
” OK, I’ll call you in the morning,” he says.

So this morning I go to his house, wake him up and he says, ” I’m not going to the beach. I HATE the beach.”

WTF? So I went by myself…. I had, perhaps, a little toooo much fun in the sun, since one of my friends said I look like a lobster.

As a side note: My one year biking anniversary should be here within this next week! Crazytown.

5 Myths About America by Athena June 21, 2006

Posted by AkumAPRIME in : Life,Philosophy , 2 comments

Well, at least #3. Found this in Digg, in a CL post.

MYTH 3. The US has a liberal media.


TRUTH:

This is a paranoid Republican myth.
Reality check: the US media is a mix of liberal, centrist and conservative voices. Also, the US media is largely owned by 10 corporations who frequently push pro-conservative agendas to the American public. Evidence:

1. Even Republican Pat Buchanan confessed, “For heaven sakes, we kid about the liberal media, but every Republican on earth does that.” Neo-conservative pundit Bill Kristol also said, “I admit it: the liberal media were never that powerful, and the whole thing was often used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative failures.”

2. A 2005 study in the Quarterly Journal of Economics found that “coverage by public television and radio is conservative compared to the rest of the mainstream media.” Why? Partly because only four major corporate networks control American TV news– up to 75% of the audience share. The “Big 10” media conglomerates who control the bulk of the entire US media are: AOL Time Warner, Disney, General Electric, News Corporation, Viacom, Vivendi, Sony, Bertelsmann, AT&T and Liberty Media. Yes, we have National Public Radio, but compare its public reach to that of Canada’s CBC and the United Kingdom’s BBC.

3. Eighty percent of all US newspapers are owned by corporate chains.

4. Liberals are virtually non-existent on talk radio stations nationwide. Rush and Dr. Laura, eat your hearts out.

5. Conservatives are very well accomodated for across FOX News, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times, the New York Post, the American Spectator, the Weekly Standard, the Drudge Report, the National Review, etc. Even so-called “bastions of liberalism,” e.g. the NY Times, MSNBC, WashPost and NPR make a concerted effort to be “fair and balanced” by bringing in right-wing views like those of David Brooks, Joe Scarborough, Tucker Carlson, Charles Krauthammer and Cokie Roberts to have their say in these forums, respectively. This is in stark contrast to FOX News’ claims to unbiased objectivity, which were easily demolished by Robert Greenwald in 2004.

6. Contrary to what some paranoid Republicans claim, most journalists are centrists, not liberals. A representative sample of 141 US journalists and bureau chiefs were asked in 1998, “On social issues, how would you characterize your political orientation?” Answers: Left 30%, Center 57%, Right 9%, Other 5% . Next question, same sample: “On economic issues, how would you characterize your political orientation? ” Answers: Left 11%, Center 64%, Right 19%, Other 5%. Also, look at the total number of think tank citations in major newspapers, radio and TV transcripts: Conservative TTs: 7792, Centrist TTs: 6361, Liberal TTs: 1152.

7. Eric Alterman summarizes a 1999 research study from the academic journal Communications Research: “Four scholars examined the use of the ‘liberal media’ argument and discovered a fourfold increase in the number of Americans telling pollsters that they discerned a liberal bias in their news. But a review of the media’s actual ideological content, collected and coded over a twelve-year period, offered no corroboration whatever for this view.”

Athena

E bullience

Posted by AkumAPRIME in : Life , add a comment

I started Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, in my quest to read 1000 books other people say are good. The problem is, in the last 20 pages… pieces are cut out… 😐 So I’m going to stop at Barnes and Noble’s and read those pages.

To digress: MaX’s Grandparents have sold their house and are migrating to Colorado with the rest of their family. They are having a Huge going away party; they’ve invited everyone that’s ever dined there! Shahin and I will attend, sadly… No more saunas or tennis matches. /me cries. We love that house.

China has a medical exam as a visa prerequisite. So I need to go have that done… great! Well at least they have a consulate in LA. India’s is ONLY in San Francisco. Wtf?
If you would insinuate that the verbosity of this post is abnormally high, you might be right. I’m trying to use the words I’m learning for the GRE as much as possible. I’m just getting through the F’s now. As a side note: the word Fuck will most likely Not appear on the GRE. (shock value)

Hey IAN!!! June 19, 2006

Posted by AkumAPRIME in : Life , 4 comments

Combover

Originally uploaded by IanHaightsYou.

My cousin Ian emailed me yesterday. He is a Deviant artist (if you don’t know what that is, then you have missed out on Today’s digital arts). That’s his pic up there.

Edit::: Well, you can see it again, but it’s huge. I’ll resize it later.

Edit2::: Ian, I think the prob is on DeviantArts end.. Idk if they change the filename or what…

Happy Father’s Day! June 18, 2006

Posted by AkumAPRIME in : Books,Life , 1 comment so far

FAC3

Originally uploaded by AkumAPRIME.


So I had brunch with Carol, my step-mom. That was nice, sad though, without my dad. She gave me a great graduation gift. 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. It was a book I had eyed in Taipei, but found tooooo thick to buy. So with this book I’m happy to announce the aptly named: 1001 Books Project.

I played pool with my grandpa Jon later. Won twice, lost twice. But one of my victories was due to an early 8 ball so I don’t really consider it a victory. Then we were off to dinner with Leslie, Wayne and Lauren. We had a nice dinner, and I got a great tea pot from them. Using it now YOSH!!!

Countries I’ve Visited June 16, 2006

Posted by AkumAPRIME in : Life , 2 comments


create your own visited countries map or vertaling Duits Nederlands

Now this is Misleading. It should really be a Cities visited map, because the amount of Red belies my Actual travels. Looking at this map I realize how many countries I haven’t been to… I better get crackin…

I’ve done a good bit of Asia. I think Central and South America are next. Then Africa if it ever calms down… The middle east if it calms down… Europe when I’m old.

Actually, if I could go to any 3 countries RIGHT NOW:

  1. Armenia
  2. Scotland
  3. New Zealand

So if anyone needs a courier or assassin in those places, let me know!

My diet is Boooorrring /snooze June 15, 2006

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Hungry Hungry Hippo

Originally uploaded by AkumAPRIME.


I eat oatmeal in the morning.. not plain, that’d kill me. Apple cinnamon is The best. Then for the rest of the day I eat raisens, cranberries and cherries, all dried… I had fast food and soda for the first time in months (not including In n Out) so.. that was exciting… Oh and almonds, I eat almonds with the berries. So basically I have the diet of a bird or monkey.

Ok, These 2 things are AMAZING: VIDEO and ILLUSION.

THIS is an article about why Keanu Reeves kicks ass, since generally people say he sucks. I must say, after reading this: A) I must agree… Keanu Reeves kicks ass. and B) it’s Kay-ah-no, not Kee-ah-nu… I wonder if it’s true…

THIS is an article showing North Korean photos from a Russian photographer. Amazing!

UPDATE 1: The hair is growing back in and I must admit, it’s CRAZY. Too see so many hairs Bust through skin, I often wonder how I’m not in pain.

Quik Post June 13, 2006

Posted by AkumAPRIME in : Life , 3 comments



It WHAT!?!?

Originally uploaded by AkumAPRIME.


I went to see a play Black Rider. I was told it was good and people were walking out of if because it was so controversial. No. People walked out of it because it was awful. Really bad. Don’t see it.

Studying is going well. Cogent is my new favorite word. It’s the jjjjuh sound that does it. Apparently that sounds is in harmonic resonance with my brain patterns, because all jjuh words are great to say. Jesus, Jumping Jehosefat, Gentleman, Indigenous, etc. You get the Jist!

Cogent as in convincing. As in, my family has Yet to produce a cogent argument for their conservative beliefs. My Uncle Wayne recommended radioblogger.com, but it was Very O’Reillyesque (I have yet to talk to him about this.). My Grandparents insist that CNN is as filled with liberal propaganda as Fox is filled with conservative BS. Yet they were unable to give me ONE example of such an instance, where I can spout three from Fox off the top of my head.

I offer Lies and the lying liars that tell them as evidence for the liberal media being a lie, yet I was refuted with Nothing except “personal experience” as evidence against me. I requested books to read on the conservative side to balance my viewpoint and with the exception of Radioblogger.com ( thanx Wayne) I was given Nothing.

I am an information consumer. I am unhappy with the idea that I am being filled with one sided information, but from what I can see from my family, the “other side” is lacking.