bruceXbatman's Xanga

North.East.West.South

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:21:50 GMT

News broadcasting, media coverage, propaganda; same thing, same thing. CNN, Perez Hilton, the hammer and sickle; same thing, same thing.

It's truly amazing how everything we see--EVERYTHING WE THINK WE KNOW--is so incredibly twisted, skewed, and tainted. Might I even say fabricated? Invented, even?! Case in point: La Guerra del Senor Bushie-Bush.

I know, I know, I'm beating a dead horse, but I just saw a really powerful documentary called "Control Room," an "inside-look" on news broadcasting and war coverage in the 21st century. It was an immensely biased documentary on the immensely biased nature of news coverage. But basically, it was in defense of an Arab news broadcasting company, "Al Jazeera." Now, Al Jazeera has been under a lot of scrutiny...pressure from the American government for being Pro-Iraqi and pressure from the Arabs for being Pro-American.

The thing that really struck me was what Rumsfeld said during a press conference after Al Jazeera released images and footage of American casualties and prisoners of war on the battlefield. He [and presumably American administration] were appalled that Al Jazeera had the audacity to release this footage. Oh golly! How did we let this happen? Now the American public is going to see what's really been going on! They'll see their fathers, their husbands, their sons, their grandchildren slaughtered on the battlefield and tortured in these prisons. And for what? For weapons of mass destruction? No...there were none. For Saddam Hussein? No...he's been found. For the people's liberation! For democracy! For peace! For...oil.

Sha la la, if we're at war, Mr. President, we can't really avoid cameras and camcorders, television and radio. We tried imposing democracy in the Vietnam War and failed--this was supposed to be different! We tried news censorship in the First Gulf War--this time it was supposed to be different! It's not so different, after all. We're still the same United States with the same conniving administration, the same unscrupulous journalists, the same naive public.

Vote for change. Hope for change.

Neun Monate

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 19:12:17 GMT

I have officially finished my first year of college and I can definitively say that I am not the same person I was months ago. I don't trust my writing enough to do my year justice--I met so many new people, I did so many new things, I've been in so many new situations, I've made so many decisions that it's impossible to sum up my entire year in one blog. I'm not even going to try.

Yesterday I packed up all my things. Books, school supplies, bedding, trinkets and things. I cleared the walls. Movie posters, political posters, artwork, tape and gum. I vacuumed the carpet, the carpet littered with paper flakes, long hair, short hair, dust, juice and ethanol (hehe) stains. With all my things packed in bags packed in boxes packed in the moving cart, I wasn't sure how to feel. Almost everybody on my floor had already gone home and the hallways were as empty as ever. Remnants of tape and sticky-pads on the doors where door decorations and white boards used to be. Doors closed where doors used to be open. Walls white where posters used to hang. It was an empty feeling. And empty feeling of things missing where things used to be.

I thought of the people who have really affected me this year--people I'm going to miss this summer and people I never want to think about again. And then I asked myself,

"Do we ever really forget the one who taught us how to bleed?"

...hopefully we do, I assured myself.

But with the halls so quiet and the walls so white, I realized I didn't want to forget.

Almost Home-Free

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:18:11 GMT

Current thesis for current paper for current class for current quarter for current school-year for current huge milestone in the sheltered life I've been living for the past 18 years of my life:

"Both pieces demonstrate that the European conquest of new territory defaces the intrinsic beauty of indigenous peoples and their lifestyles, resulting in a conquest rendered futile as the indigenous peoples express a resistance to change wrought by the fundamental disparity between the world of the colonizer and the world of the colonized."

...Does my own conquest of this new life deface the intrinsic beauty of the life I've led prior to coming here, and does it result in a conquest rendered FUTILE as my two worlds prove impossible to integrate?

and by two worlds, I mean home and school, a whopping 40 miles apart LOL

To No One in Particular, II

Fri, 30 May 2008 01:00:49 GMT

This morning, walking down the stairwell from the eighth floor (which overlooks the De Neve courtyard), I had a curious encounter.

Half-asleep, through groggy eyes, I saw someone waddling across the courtyard and I thought to myself,

"My, my, what a tiny person that is, waddling across the courtyard."

In my state of half-asleep-ness, I took a second glance at the tiny-ness and realized that it was just a bird. I laughed to myself, "What a misjudgment on my part."

...but misjudgments, misconceptions, and misunderstandings are really running rampant recently. **

Maybe we, the all of us, should put in that effort to take a second glance before making any judgments, because as I've experienced today, what we thought we saw might not be that at all. That tiny, tiny person I saw was...well, nothing more than a bird.

**alliteration intended

And for general entertainment, here's a picture of me and Annabel...as bunnies.

Moles

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 02:36:40 GMT

Hold out your hands. Go ahead, it's okay, no one's watching you. Okay, now that you can see your hands clearly, look for any moles. My hands? On my right hand, I have two moles on my index finger and one mole on my pinky.

According to Vietnamese superstitions, this means I'm a happy person with many friends. How much more accurate can that be?! I think these old, haggling, gossipy women just might have gained more credibility with the accurate depiction of my life based on where I find these black dots on my hands.

If it went any further, I just might have to pull a Kimber Henry and go to a plastic surgeon to extend my love lines. Sorry, Nip/Tuck reference.

To you non-Vietnamese Xangans, I'll translate from thumb to pinky.

Buon - Sad
Vui - Happy
Xui - Unlucky
Tinh - Love
Ban - Friends

Go on, go ahead, find your moles!!