I know my roommate Megumi's been posting about her car troubles.. but I think I just beat her streak of bad luck in the last 4 days.
Thursday: We were driving back from Gardena and a car honked next to me and pointed to my tire. We were like.. er?? sure enough .. the tire was flat. That tire had a leak before so we tried putting air in it first. Within the first minute the air we put in was.. all gone. haha so the gas station dude said we had to get a new tire.. so off to our hunt for a new tire. ended up paying $99 for a new tire :/
Friday: Drove to Palm Springs (ended up taking the van because I didn't realize dinner for 50 ppl would take up my entire back seat in my scion)
Saturday: Drove back to Gardena to go to Amy's wedding .. drove back out to Palm Springs after to finish out INC retreat.
Sunday: Drove back to LA. Made it safely. Got ready to go to the JACL Dinner show that i was supposed to MS. I'm on the 710.. the van wont accelerate and starts to rattle. The transmission is busted. soo.. I pull over near Lynwood and wait for my dad to come pick me up.
Dad gives me his car- i go to the dinner. Dad, mom and Lisa never show up to the dinner. They told me on the phone that it took them too long to get the van towed so they decided to just go home after.
Later i find out.. My sister and Mom attempted to go to the dinner .. but when they were trying pick up my dad in my scion, they got rear ended. oh and the guy who hit them, drove off..
soo let's see.... 4 days- 1 flat tire, 1 busted transmission, 1 car accident.
It's not due until next Monday but I needed to get it done so I can catch up and read about 8 books for my other classes.
I'll post the actual video later on.
Taking ethnocomm was one of the best decisions I made at UCLA. Now i look at my video ipod and smile because it wasn't a waste to buy it. I can store all of my projects and look at them when i get bored.
The first time I went to Manzanar Pilgrimage.. there was an old man.. a former internee who asked me this.. he said.. "ARE YOU ANGRY??"
angry that there is inequality in the world.. angry that invisible barriers.. invisible restrictions are placed... angry that the people in power have the power to look away... and to keep society from recognizing the problems...
today I am angry... today I am ready to fight... today I am ready to show the world that its not okay to be content.
I want to thank that old man... without him.. i wouldn't know that it's okay to be angry.
as events pop up, commitments pop up, meetings.. etc.
i need that "me time" even more.
it's not that i dont love what i do. because i do. and i definitely don't feel like it's obligations.
I just need to have those battery charging moments to keep my passion going..to make sure that i don't lose who i am.
in terms of elections:
through the year.. through campaigns i learned that the obvious hasn't been met. "education is a right, not a priority"
we have a choice. we can take that quote and pretend like it's not true.. or we can take the quote and fight to give every person back their right to be educated.
Why do I care so much about being a person of color? i still remember when it clicked. Second year .. fall qtr... i was taking a sociology of race class and we were learning about Switzerland where race wasn't an issue. You couldn't even send out a survey asking for race bcause the government insisted on a color blind society. I started to get really confused... maybe it is better to have a color blind society.. is it right to keep emphasizing my Asian American identity? Am i just keeping us away from a color blind society? Why was I in NSU? Was i just helping this divisive world?
I had a one on one with the president of NSU at the time. I told her about my confusion.. my hesitance... but what she told me.. made me understand. She told me that yes.. a color blind society would be ideal but this can only happen when inequality by color ceases to exist. Do we see equal representation in our governemnt? In the corporations who control the country? Until people who can most accurately represent my needs are represented equally.. we have to fight for that equality.
we can not be content. we can make change happen.
i'm not about bashing certain candidates ... or bashing slates.. or anything like that. But i refuse to be content with our current situation.. on campus and off campus... and that is why i made the choice to support my lovely green slate.
