tcnjaaa's Xanga

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 15:54:56 GMT

I'm bringing Xanga back - drop a comment if you're with me!

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Sat, 31 Mar 2007 20:40:18 GMT

EVERYONE, COME TO MYSTIQUE! DOORS OPEN AT 6 TODAY AT KENDALL HALL!

March Special

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 20:36:29 GMT

Since everyone's been preparing for Mystique, we've all been pretty busy. So, for the March edition of the Newsletter, I would like anyone interested to submit articles with the theme: "I've Lost my Soul to Mystique Practice!" or some variation of.

Newsbriefs:

-February:
-The Origami Rose Sale went well, thanks to help from the Gen. Board.
-Karaoke Night was the 23rd, and had a surprising turnout!

-March:
-Cheeburger Cheeburger Fundraiser went well, with AAA members consuming 11 pounds of meat. That's a lot of cow! Got Milk?

Expect more soon!

Correction: Next Meeting

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 03:03:01 GMT

Correction: There will be no gen. board meeting this Wednesday. That means the AAA will meet next Wednesday.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 22:46:49 GMT

AAA Newsletter: November and December

Seems like quite a while ago, eh? This issue of the newsletter was delayed, but now, enjoy the combined newsletter for the AAA!

I. Past Events

Keynote Speaker: Da Chen: Asian-American writer Da Chen icame on Thursday, November 9, 2006 at 8:00PM-10:00PM in the Library Auditorium (basement of library). A sizable crowd came to witness Da Chen's speech.

Comedian Dat Phan came on Friday, November 10. The Winner of Last Comic Standing entertained the audience and stayed for questions.

The Japanese Club is holding their “Banzai!” event on Saturday, November 11, 2006
at 7:00PM-10:30PM in the Cromwell Main Lounge. Come see a night of Japanese video games, food, and more!

The AAA will be having the True Colors Discussion on Thursday, November 16, 2006 at
8:00PM-10:00PM in the Allen Drawing Room. The event is a discussion of current Asian-related topics, such as friends, relationships, and expectations.

The Around the World Workshop was Friday, November 17, 2006 at 8:00PM-10:00PM in the Cromwell Main Lounge. Few came, but those who did were informed of traditions and cultures in different parts of Asia and the rest of the world.

Baking for Humanity was Sunday, November 19, 2006 at 12:00PM-5:00PM in the Cromwell Main Lounge. The AAA baked cookies to donate to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen.

The Multi-cultural Buffet was Wednesday, November 29, 2006 at 7:30PM-10:00PM in the Student Center Atrium. People came, and the bubble tea went fast.

On Friday December 8, the AAA fall semester semi-formal was organized by James Huynh. Thanks James!

II. Future Events

There is a meeting this Wednesday in the Pan-Asian Room at 8:30 PM. Come find out what your friends did over break! There's going to be more Mystique acts to sign up for, and last year's Mystique on DVD to watch. Mystique of the East is a year-end talent show the AAA does at the end of Spring semester, and we want you to be involved!

III. Contributions
Interested in writing for the AAA Newsletter? Cover fact, fiction, and everything in between! Email your stories to me, at larocco2ATtcnjDOTedu. Hope to hear from you soon!

Grass
By Kevin Chou

I walked across the sidewalk cracks

as though I were their Messiah, and

I listened to my breathing, heavy and burdened

by cold.

But not fully – my attention touched

the lamps that walked by my side

watching me securely, making the

half-sleepy leaves on branches extend

into shadowy puppetry. That was night.

By day, I can undress the tree’s arms

with my eyes.

I can clearly see them – they are

the stuff of nature,

ancient, still monuments

of creation.

They are the arbiters of the sunlit air.

They watch as I rush about and how I

sadly never look twice at the mere grass that

points towards my gait.

The Infowar
By John LaRocco

Sweet Dreams

Doctor Joel Park awakened to find an email from Maschine Gott. The email request was nothing too major. Tranquilizers were easy enough to acquire and manufacture. Joel’s personal favorite was a succinylcholine-based solution. A bit of that could knock out all but the largest animals.

It could knock out most humans in a flash. The chemical would cause complete muscle relaxation, disabling the target in a non-lethal manner. Since most bulletproof vests didn’t stop sharp objects too well, the tranquilizers would go through. Each dart was like a small, rapidly injecting syringe. When it contacted with a target, a small explosive charge would rapidly inject the contents into the body. That way, even if the dart was pulled out, it had already injected its payload.

Since it was easy enough to acquire, he might want to ask for more advice on guns. The Doctor knew he might need it soon. He had been stepping up his personal hunt for Gaians, and a potential cell had been located, just a few kilometers away.

How he should handle them was a question he had no idea on how to answer. His gut reaction was to go in and shoot them all. It would be fast, brutal, and they wouldn’t know what hit them. However, there were other considerations.

First was legal. If he went in there with intent to kill, planning every bit of his attack, he would essentially be committing several counts of first-degree murder. Even though they were part of an evil, twisted group, that cell might not have done anything.

Yet, Joel mused. But still, they might have done something, but I have no means of proving it.

Maschine Gott had been very vocal about use of firearms for Network goals: Only use them in self-defense, and when you can claim self-defense. It was hard to defend a raid on a group of people who didn’t even have weapons. If he was caught fleeing the scene after breaking and entering and shooting people in their homes, it would seem more like breaking and entering than fighting evil murderers to the media.

Second, there was the risk of collateral damage. Some of the terrorists might have families, and some of the bullets might penetrate the walls and ceilings. A breaking and entering and shooting would be bad enough, but the last thing Joel needed was to shoot an innocent person. He didn’t want to sink down to their level.

Third, there was political considerations. For some reason, the South Korean government wasn’t keeping an eye on the Gaians. Then again, the government sent millions of US dollars worth of aid money to North Korea. The government might not have the surveillance powers of the neocons in the USA, but it certainly had no problems funding rogue states with taxpayer dollars.

The whole policy seemed aberrant to Joel. He had been mainly raised in the States, but followed local politics somewhat. Since the 1990s, the South Koreans had given money to the North Korean regime. The so-called “sunshine policy” had South Korean money used to execute and brutalize civilians in North Korea.

The policy was named for one of Aesop’s fables. In the fable, the sun and the wind both tried to get a man to remove his coat. The wind tried blowing harder, but that just made the man hold his coat tighter. The sun, however, shined more brightly, and the man removed his coat to enjoy the warm day. Also, interestingly enough, the politicians that pushed for the sunshine policy were investigated for corruption possibly involving North Korean money. Some South Korean companies simply wanted to exploit the cheap labor.

The intention was to get North Korea to open up and not expect anything in return. However, instead of opening up and rejoining the world community, North Korea was simply cracking down on dissent and creating a cult of personality about the warped leader. The North Koreans did not return the South’s generosity. They had denounced the idea for a center for reunion of Korean families torn apart during the war. They had been responsible for counterfeiting American money, instigating border skirmishes, and pursuing their nuclear program.

Those were hardly friendly gestures. And the South Korean government still kept the aid money flowing. Not to mention, media that criticized the North Korean government’s human rights record was banned or muted out of fear of alienating the North. The freedom of speech of their own citizens was being suppressed due to fear of annoying a Third World despot.

China had also given money to North Korea, their old ally during the Korean War. Since the Cold War’s end, however, the North Koreans had often acted counter to Beijing’s influence. Recently, North Korea had become more of a liability than an asset to the Chinese. Instead of being equal trading partners, the North existed as a welfare state dependant on outside help.

While the regime somehow wheezed along, the Chinese and South Koreans continued to channel aid money. While the state was an argumentative one, both had the mutual interest of maintaining the status quo. If the North Korean regime fell, the resulting disorder would create a flood of refugees over both borders. Never mind the UN or some international agency could help, with enough planning.

Joel never really got the Sunshine Policy, nor the Uri Party that created it. The Uri Party might ban plays, movies, and videogames showing the harsh North Korean regime, but thankfully there was criticism of it. There was misguided idealism in the policy. Submission to some Third World despots would not work. It would just continue the cycle of evil states “hitting up” First World states for cash.

It vaguely reminded Joel of an interesting medieval fact he had read. Sometimes, medieval beggars would break their own children’s bones so passer-byers would have more sympathy for them, and give them more money. That was how countless Third World states operated. The despots would use their armies to keep their citizens ignorant, poor, and starving, all while claiming they were the “victims of Western exploitation,” (or some similar crap). Then, they would use any foreign aid money to fund the military that kept their own people down.

North Korea was nothing special when it came to Third World despotism, save it had a nuclear program involving second-hand centrifuges and vintage missile systems. It was just another state shaking down and threatening its more developed neighbors, like Russia, South Korea, China, and Japan. It also gave the American neocons the “factual basis” they needed to fund the “National Missile Defense System.”

It was also giving Japanese far right the excuse it needed to remilitarize. The American neocons were only to happy to let them do that. The Japanese constitution’s “Article 9” would likely soon be “reinterpreted” to allow a larger “official” military for Japan. Since the American neocons seemed to favor Japan as a far eastern ally, they often ignored others, such as the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. That was cause for more than a bit of friction diplomatically.

Japanese colonialism and atrocities in WWII and before had set the stage for a future distrust between them and their neighbors. While many Japanese intellectuals had first publicized and brought attention to the events, the Japanese far-right began to deny them. While most Japanese textbooks decried their own WWII atrocities, a few rightwing publishers began to deny them. Instead of mentioning the Rape of Nanking, slave labor programs, sexual slavery, or cannibalism, the far right had instead claimed “Japan liberated Asia from Western colonialism” while denying the fact Japan had colonies of its own.

The Japanese policy towards Korea, for instance, could only be described as cultural extermination and slavery. Under Japanese colonial rule, the Koreans had been forced to adopt Japanese names and speak only Japanese. Korean cultural relics and skills were almost completely destroyed in the period. Even though the US was allied with both Japan and South Korea, both states had distrusted each other.

One common thing in both North and South Korea was textbooks. Even the Japanese revisionist textbooks were a fraction of the total market. In both Koreas, each government published one set of textbooks, where Japan was blamed for many of the peninsula’s problems. While Joel did agree Japan was responsible for a lot of the peninsula’s problems, he thought it was also important to realize another source of the peninsula’s problems: North Korea.

It was the government’s insistence on some mindlessly idealistic program, plus distrust of non-Koreans in general, that truly threatened the nation. South Korea was trying to attract more foreign investment, but was distrustful of most of its neighbors. In an ironic way, it was the same thing that was happening to Japan.

Japan’s economy was having problems recently due to a dearth of labor and innovation. The Japanese right, trying to prevent foreign settlement and intermarriage, had made immigration to Japan hard. Even though they had a strong electronics-drive, export-based economy, few migrant workers in both the blue collar or white collar sectors settled there. Without a source of immigrant labor, a nation was denying itself a long term benefit.

The immigrants normally worked to improve their families’ lot, and would assimilate into the nation. While the settled people might call them “outsiders,” the immigrants would assimilate within a few generations. That cosmopolitan nature was what allowed the USA to become a world-spanning superpower, after all. It was what allowed Singapore to be an emerging regional power, and the few open European countries to retain a sense of “worldliness.”

While most of Asia, Europe, and increasingly the USA distrusted anyone “foreigner,” Joel believed the opposite. He had been raised in the USA, and his wife was American. She was given token tasks at work, often forced into translating texts rather than writing them. Even before his daughter was taken, he had heard people at school told her to “go back to her own country.” If that happened to someone in the States, they’d sue the school district for that. In South Korea, no one batted an eye.

In a sense, South Korea was making the same mistake as Japan. Joel did believe South Korea was more open to change, however. They were willing to invest in biotech and nanotech while Japan simply stuck with several niche markets in electronics.

The Japanese economy stuck simply with harmless improvements on existing technologies rather than true innovation. The next generation of Japanese videogame consoles might have better graphics, and the next generation of Japanese cars might look more streamline, but neither was anything revolutionary until itself. The videogames still connected to televisions. The cars still ran on gasoline.

Even the most diverse city in Asia had some innovation. Singapore was trying to attract foreign biotech scientists, and had a strong domestic program. However, the ruling PAP disliked it when people had other political opinions than them. One Singaporean Network member, Nemo, had once recommended a simple solution to that. Create a community of foreign scientists who contributed much to the local economy, but were also active in local politics. The PAP, in order to avoid damaging foreign investments, would have to change somewhat as a result. The fact Singapore was ethnically and culturally diverse also added some strength to it.

South Korea, however, was a different story. Several factors needed to change, and cultural and ethnic diversity was merely one of them. The government, foreign policy, and others. Joel also had to either blow the whistle on the Gaians, or failing that, handle the problem himself. Of course, he might face some domestic problems. If they had friends in the government, it might be dangerous.

Of course, any corrupt government agents would likely hide behind some alleged “service to the Korean people.” Joel did not care much for such nationalistic bullshit. It was the duty of a true patriot to see behind such nationalism and reveal any bastards using it to hide dirty deeds. If he was able to somehow change the Sunshine Policy and perhaps even restore more public skepticism of North Korea, then it was a good long term benefit. Joel, however, considered himself a concerned parent first, and a patriot second.

He would have to ask the Network for advice on how to handle it, though. They would likely have some good responses. He did not want to become like the terrorists and racists. No one in the Network would want to help another child-murdering sociopath, after all. And neither he nor his wife wanted to become one.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 02:26:06 GMT

Expect an update this Saturday night. Until then, everyone buy Semiformal tickets from James Huynh for 8 dollars. It's going to be fun! It's this Friday, 8 PM.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 18:53:43 GMT

AAA Newsletter: October

I. October: October and the first days of November were very fun! Here’s what happened!

Chinese Lanterns: This October, the AAA made Chinese lanterns. James Huynh came up with the project, and helped oversee it. Thanks, James!

Penang: The AAA went to Penang, a local restaurant specializing in Malaysian food.

Commfest: At Community Fest, Ewing Township came to TCNJ. The AAA provided Henna tattoos to all interested.

Mystique Interest Session: Mystique of the East is the annual “talent show” that the AAA does. There are several events done, such as martial arts, cultural dances, and fashion shows. There was an interest session for it, and anyone interested can contact the Executive Board for details.

Opening Ceremonies: The AAA kicked off on Nov. 1 with several hours of song and dance. The Opening Ceremonies mark the start of AAA’s Experience Asia month in November.

FantAsia: This Friday, the AAA held FantAsia, a public display of Asian-themed events. Among the activities were Chinese ribbon dance, Chinese yoyo, and aikido. Several games were also available, such as DDR, Guitar Hero, and several board games. Thanks to everyone that made it possible!

II. Future Events in November: The fun’s only started this month!

Keynote Speaker: Da Chen: Asian-American writer Da Chen is coming on Thursday, November 9, 2006 at 8:00PM-10:00PM in the Library Auditorium (basement of library).

Comedian: Dat Phan is coming on Friday, November 10, 2006
at 8:00PM-10:00PM in Mayo Concert Hall (Music Building). The cost is $3 at the door, and that’s well worth it to see the Winner of Last Comic Standing.

The Japanese Club is holding their “Banzai!” event on Saturday, November 11, 2006
at 7:00PM-10:30PM in the Cromwell Main Lounge. Come see a night of Japanese video games, food, and more!

The AAA will be having the True Colors Discussion on Thursday, November 16, 2006 at
8:00PM-10:00PM in the Allen Drawing Room. The event is a discussion of current Asian-related topics, such as friends, relationships, and expectations.

Around the World Workshop will be Friday, November 17, 2006 at 8:00PM-10:00PM in the Cromwell Main Lounge. Come find out fun and educational information about the countries of Asia, and make several cultural crafts!

Baking for Humanity will be Sunday, November 19, 2006 at 12:00PM-5:00PM in the Cromwell Main Lounge. The AAA will be baking cookies to donate to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen. Come help out the local community! W

The Multi-cultural Buffet will be on Wednesday, November 29, 2006 at 7:30PM-10:00PM in the Student Center Atrium. All you can eat for $3 and bubble tea for $1!

III. Contributions

Feel free to submit any Asian related stories, poems, or essays to the newsletter! Here’s the next chapter following Joel in my upcoming novel “The Infowar.” As governments worldwide become more despotic, and terrorists more ruthless, a network of informed citizens, subversive intellectuals, and true patriots must fight both extremes.

The Infowar
Doctor’s Orders

Doctor Joel Park reflected why he didn’t like the Dark Greens. It was a day like any other for Doctor Joel Park. His wife Laura was at work, his daughter Mina was at school, and his family practice was busy. While talking about rising drug costs with his secretary, something crashed through the side window, sending shards of glass everywhere. Instinctively, he and his secretary took cover behind a desk. Joel waited for an explosion.

None happened. Cautiously, the Doctor popped his head out from behind the desk. It was simply a brick with a letter attached to it. He gestured to his secretary to call the police. Joel looked out the window. He saw no car or person that could have thrown it, indicting whoever had hurled the projectile had left in a hurry.

Something inside him wanted to reach for the letter and open it up. He reached for his cell phone and called the police. His secretary went to reach for the envelope. Joel pulled her back. That would only disturb the evidence.

Within a few minutes, the police arrived and set up a crime scene. The next few weeks were a nightmare. His wife Lara had also reported their daughter missing. The police interviewed her teachers, and apparently, she had never even made it to class that day. Someone abducted her on the way to school.

What the police told the couple about the envelope was horrifying, to put it mildly. In addition to a threatening letter, there was a severed, minute human finger inside. It was painted a putrid shade of green. One DNA test later, it was confirmed as their daughter’s.

Joel never did find out the exact text of the original letter, but the police did tell him the overall message of it. It was a threat against Joel and Laura for “violating the purity of the natural conceptive process with unnatural technologies,” and the ominous warning, “Stop violating Mother Nature’s weeding out of the weak. The strong will survive. The weak must die.” It was signed by someone calling herself “Scathach.”

To Joel, the letter was disturbing enough on several levels. The first threat obviously referred to Mina’s conception. Having problems with fertility, the two resourced to in-vitro fertilization. It was no secret amongst some of Joel’s friends and family, leading to an almost endless group of leads with no apparent motive. To his knowledge, Joel had no enemies.

The delivery of the message was another warning sign. Apparently, someone had found out the hours he would be in his office, and the time his daughter went to school each morning. The fact Scathach would know some much about his family was alarming, leading to times when Joel would covertly fear perhaps some family member was getting revenge for some puerile purpose.

The last part of the letter was disturbing to anyone with a sense of compassion for their fellow humans. It obviously referred to Joel’s profession of curing the ill and sick. It would be against the Hippocratic Oath to stop, and he would certainly not stop helping people because some sick fuck wanted him to.

The name “Scathach” intrigued him, however. Looking it up online, he found it was the name of a heroine from Celtic mythology. There was someone intelligent and cunning behind these crime. Someone without a sense of morality in their twisted mind, but someone intelligent.

He presented the research he had done on the name to the police. Despite that, no leads arose. Even after a thorough questioning of him, Laura, and all their immediate friends and families, there still was no leads. However, more letters came.

They would mainly come through the mail, sometimes to their home address, and sometimes to his or Laura’s work addresses. There was no letter in each, but there were body parts. At first, fingers and toes were mailed, as well as ripped out hair and bloody teeth. Then, a series of progressively larger packages came. It started out with hands and feet. Eventually, it became bones and organs. It was not all bad, however. It was three months before they had enough for a funeral.

Three years to the day after the girl had went missing, the couple got one last letter, telling them that if they wanted to find out why they were targeted, they had to find the “Isle of Skye.” That lead went out of the country, and onto an island off of Scotland. No links were found, and the case went cold. Of course, the police chief in Seoul was only too happy to see it vanish under mountains of paperwork. He was unwilling to investigate any crime that might be tied in with foreign elements.

It was not over for Joel, however. He and Laura got into shape with martial arts, and purchased a handgun, which they trained with each week. This was in addition to continuing to research into Celtic mythology. One online expert he consulted was a young Welsh writer who used the online name of “Saint Ignatius the Liberator.”

Having built up a friendship with “Ignatius” for some time, he once told him why he had gotten into Celtic mythology. Ignatius had mentioned something interesting. A new ecoterrorist group, called “Gaia’s Knights,” had a leader who was only known as “Scathach.”

Scathach was implicated in various acts of industrial sabotage and loosely affiliated with the murders and threatening of several people they considered “rapists of Mother Earth.” In the warped mythology of the group, female-lead Celtic druids once lived in harmony with nature. This lasted until the Greco-Roman culture of patriarchy overran the peaceful druids, and established a male-dominated society bent on “raping the Earth,” or some such drivel.

Of course, as Ignatius explained, the historical Celts were far from matriarchal or peaceful, and often had slavery and human sacrifice. The Gaians were simply using some warped philosophy based on a past that never existed. To add to their hypocrisy, as Ignatius continued, the Gaians named their group after a Greek goddess in the first place.

While Joel was shocked to her about such a group, he asked why he never had heard about it. Ignatius’ reply shocked Joel. The governments of the world told their people about very few of the really dangerous terrorist groups, preferring to keep the public in the dark. At least until election season, where a splinter group or insignificant cell of such a larger would be revealed and over-hyped to scare the public. The governments would not dare go after the “real” threats, as without them, there would be nothing to scare the public with.

It was Ignatius’ offer that followed that truly changed the direction of Joel’s life. Ignatius mentioned he was part of a network of intellectual activists that worked against both the expansive governments and the terrorists. The Modernist Network worked to bring democratic governments back to their roots, spread information about sciences that politicians blew out of proportion, and generally reveal the truth. They needed someone into biology and medicine.

Joel eagerly joined in. After learning the Lingo, he adopted the name “Keshik,” after the Mongolian cavalry, as a reference to how he perceived the Network. They would use superior strategy and information to win, rather than sheer numbers or firepower. He had told Lara, who jumped at the opportunity. Her job as a translator for English and Korean technical manuals gave her a good command of physical sciences. She adopted the handle “Dungeon Crawler,” after a videogame series she enjoyed.

Since that day, they had worked on tracking down Gaian cells. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the police chief often ignored their calls for reopening the case. He claimed he did not want to “waste taxpayer dollars to reopen a dead case.” Standard political bullshit. Using information the Network provided, Joel was able to find a cell inside Seoul. There were right down the street, and literally under his nose. He knew he would have to confront them sometime. Of course, dead men told no tales, so he had ordered several magazines of rubber bullets.

Soon did not mean immediately. His personal raid would have to take more time to coordinate. Government agencies were unresponsive, and sadly, vigilantism seemed the only option. It was certainly an option Joel and his wife had prepared themselves for well. That was why he didn’t like the Gaian “dark greens” too much. He had nothing against environmentalists. It was only the nutcases he hated.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 23:08:53 GMT

AAA Newsletter: September Edition

Welcome to the first issue of the AAA Informer! This issue, we’ve got a recap of September, things to look forward to in October, and some fiction and poetry written by fellow AAAers!

I. September: Last month was fun, and created some happy memories for both veterans and the new class of AAA.

First Meeting: The first meeting happened several weeks ago in Brower Room 202. There was a huge turnout, and plenty of new faces came. Welcome, TCNJ Class of 2010!

Mentoring: Something new that AAA is offering this year is mentoring. A first year member of AAA can apply to be a “mentoree” and be partnered with an upperclassman “mentor.” The mentor will show their freshmen how the AAA works, what we do, and how to get involved. If interested in being a mentor, or being mentored,, email AAA with “Mentoring” in the subject title.

AAA Barbeque: By Chita Ghosh-

The first AAA barbeque of the year, initially postponed due to signs of inclement weather, was successfully held by the volleyball courts on Saturday the 23rd from 12:00 pm to well into the afternoon. In addition to the hamburgers, hot dogs, veggie burgers, chips, drinks, football, volleyball, Frisbee, and general merry-making, AAA club members helped make “boo-boo bunnies,” or small, bunny-shaped ice-cube holders, to be donated to charity. Several passing tour groups also got their first taste of TCNJ’s vibrant multicultural scene while walking towards the volleyball court.

Bowling: Last week, the AAA did not have a normal meeting. Instead, the AAA went bowling at a local alley. There was fun all around, and the freshmen got a chance to mingle with the upperclassmen.

The Six-Flags Adventure: By Chita Ghosh-

Nearly twenty participants volunteered for the fundraiser at Six Flags held Saturday, September 30^th from three thirty to eleven at night and earned approximately five-hundred dollars for the Asian American Association. Volunteers worked at a number of stations, including ticket booths and roller coasters, for a certain number of hours and Six Flags donated the earned sum to AAA. Overall, the day-long trip seemed fun and invigorating for all volunteers, who received a free ticket to the theme park after their work.

---

II. October: There’s even more fun to look forward to next month!

Arts and Crafts: At tonight’s meeting, arts and crafts will be done. Come make Chinese lanterns with the AAA!

Penang- Penang is a local restaurant that specializes in Thai and Malaysian food. This month, the AAA will be going to Penang. Come see interesting types of food from southeast Asia!

Community Fest- This weekend is Community Fest, a celebration between Ewing Township and TCNJ. The AAA will be doing henna tattoos there, and volunteers are needed. Anyone interested should contact Adrian or a member of the Exec. Board tonight.

Mystique Interest Session- “Mystique of the East” is the big event that the AAA does each year. This October, there will be a Mystique interest session, with some showings of last year’s Mystique acts and themes. Come see what the Mystique is all about!

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III. Writing:

“Reading ... is an activity subsequent to writing: more resigned, more civil, more intellectual.” –Jorge Luis Borges

Some members of the AAA are interested in writing. Below is a selection of fiction and poetry submitted by AAA members.

Below is the prologue from my new novel, The Infowar. The concept of the novel deals with an international network of informed citizens, intellectual activists, and true patriots facing the extremes of both government control and ruthless terrorism. There are six primary characters in five nations around the world: the USA, Germany, Britain, South Korea, and Singapore. The protagonist of the South Korean plotline was originally a Korean-American doctor who moved back to escape the rising costs of medical practice. His plotline will be followed with each issue of the AAA Newsletter, so stay tuned! The following is a prologue detailing the general mood and setting of the story, and will hint at things to come.

---

The Infowar

By John LaRocco

Prologue: A Call to War

“May Heaven exist, even if our place is Hell.” –Jorge Luis Borges, The Library of Babel

(The following email exchange was found on a blood-stained laptop computer somewhere in Washington DC’s corridors of power.)

Bob,
The following email was intercepted last week. The first part was encrypted, but this is what has been deciphered so far. Damn freeware encryption programs are getting more in-depth. We have reason to think that this was a message they intended for us to intercept. -Dan

---

Today, I watched the report on the television with little interest. A cell of some demented terrorist group or another had been captured, and the media was showing their fear-inducing, socio-porn coverage. The White House had just released the sort of statement I would expect two weeks before a key election. The news showed the White House Press Secretary, telling people about the group’s plan to release poison gas into a shopping mall, and how the American people would have to remain vigilant against terrorism.

Or some such bullshit.

As usual, there was plenty of things the White House was not telling public. The cell, of course, had been planning to gas innocents in a shopping mall. What the Secretary and the media conveniently glossed over was the fact the group did not have poison gas, the means of acquiring such a horrible substance, or even contacts that could. They did not even take into account how to distribute the gas into the vents.

The real kicker was they were even dumb enough to post their plans on an electronic forum where anyone could see it. Of course, if “anyone” could see it, so could the Feds. So a few sting operations later, the group’s members were arrested. The public at large would not have heard (nor cared) about the case if the White House had not publicly acknowledged it.

The timing, of course, was impeccable. The President needed a way to boost approval ratings a few weeks before the election. This election would be a painful one. It was a reminder at how similar the parties were becoming. For instance, for the last four years, the Democrats had the House and Congress. Did they roll back the Bush Jr. government expansions they had once protested?

Nope. They expanded upon them, with Republican help. With the Republican Party leaning on its Religious Right backers, neither of the two main courses looked particularly appetizing.

The side dishes were a whole different story. The Libertarians were playing to the traditional Republican base of rural, religious gun-owners rather than my own yuppie-class. The Greens were playing to the “dark green” base, with rhetoric about how industrialism and environmentalism were utterly incompatible. The best way to describe it was stuff that would make the Unabomber blush. Never mind alternative fuel sources and air filters for factories.

The whole damn dinner made me want to vomit. Now, there was ways to help change the menu. One way was to try to smash the table. Of course, most people don’t like eating off the floor, so that doesn’t work. The other way might be to shout at the chef, causing a large racket. Of course, the chef might not like that, and might shout back.

Both methods I mentioned are analogies for two types of mindless activism for mindless individuals. The table-smashers are terrorists, often acting rashly and with no other plan than to kill and destroy. They do nothing but cause governments and individuals alike to shun them. The folks who throw insults at the chef, however, are the types of protesters who start riots. While the terrorist seeks to murder, the rash activist simply follows the crowd. The rash activists were historically drawn from the liberal college-age demographic.

Often times, such movements can be ultimately detrimental to their goals. The disadvantage of large groups is the mob mentality. An anti-war rally can ironically become a violent mob and soon attract riot cops and tear gas grenades. The media then show the riot on the daily news, subconsciously giving the impression of the protesters (and all who share their views) as a bunch of filthy, rowdy hippies.

A historical example of that case was the anti-war movement before the Second and Third Gulf Wars. The media filled the nightly news with pictures of screaming anti-war protestors smashing windows and burning storefronts. Of course, the news station would often then cut to an image of a political pundit denouncing the anti-warriors as “appeasers” and then make some comparisons between Nazis and some generic Third World despot.

Hitler comparisons are a favorite tool of rhetoric since the neocons, but that’s a story for another day.

Getting back to my original analogy of the dinner, there is another option. This is one that is often lost among the vile terrorists and rowdy rioters. If there is mindless activism, can there be any “intellectual activism?” Of course.

How might intellectual activism work? The terrorist uses force. The rioter uses anger. So, what does an intellectual activist use? That’s right, you guessed it, their intellect. As science fiction writer Isaac Asimov once said, “Violence is the first refuge of the incompetent.” Of course, how can an intellectual change things in an age when intelligence can be seen as a liability?

The answer is obvious, but isn’t. If overt, rash means do not work, then subtle, gradual means could work. It was subtle means, after all, that allowed the neocons to secure most of Nascar America as their electoral base.

Unlike the brute force options, subtle means take time, planning, and foresight to coordinate. Thus, a smaller portion of the population are the only ones who can successfully organize it. There’s a lot more to intellectual activism than the more ruthless and inefficient options.

Any moron with explosives can suicide-bomb a government building into a smoking crater. It takes intellect and logistical skills, however, to organize a petition and raise voter awareness of an issue. At the end of the day, the petition can raise voter awareness and cause a change in policy. The suicide-bomber simply kills a bunch of people and isolates their cause from the mainstream.

It is said that warfare has undergone four generations. The first was the rank-and-file tactics of the ancient and medieval world. The second was the firepower and mobility of Napoleon and the World Wars. The third was the combined arms and indirect conflict of the Cold War. The fourth is a variation of indirect conflict: information warfare.

The fourth generation, however, is not nations against nations. It is decentralized, autonomous groups waging a campaign of some sort. There are several types of fourth generation conflict. The terrorist uses the destructive means of the first two generations of warfare. The guerrilla, often confused with the terrorist, prefers indirect contact. More often than not, the guerilla wants to replace governments, while the terrorist simply wants to destroy them. The standard activist often prefers the tired-and-true tactics of demagoguery and populism.

The intellectual activist, however, must use what they have to maximum effect. Some have elevated different types of fourth generation conflict to new heights, such as the Prophet’s Guard did for terrorism or Mao Zedung did for guerrilla warfare. An example of a successful mindless activist would be the French Revolutionaries and countless communist revolts, who were more of a mob than a republic. A few examples of intellectual activists arise. Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi used a combination of charisma, populism, and nonviolent resistance as opposed to terrorism.

Another key one would be the American Revolutionaries, who used a combination of conventional combat and political savvy to win local support, gather foreign backers, and overthrow British colonial rule. However, this was a last resort after attempts to change things through legitimate means had failed repeatedly.

A key concept behind all of these movements is ideology. A convincing ideology means a good motivation. Our ideology, however, is unpopular with the masses. We believe in science as a key to progress, freedom to belief (or non-belief), and a fair and representative system for all. In short, we are Modernists. With the recent media circuses about each new terrorist group, our philosophical foes extend their powers in the name of “security.” Our other foes plot to murder us for either our “infidel religion” or “unnatural science.”

The foes we face are many. We face a neocon-built government and their allies scanning for subversion. We face ecoterrorist groups who despise the science and technology that makes their lives possible. We face religious fanatics of both the Christian and Islamic varieties that hate us for not conforming to demented edicts. We face even the covert and insidious social fads with nihilism, such as base-rock.

All of our foes believe themselves to be working for “good.” In reality, however, they fight hatred with more hatred. This conflict will be like no other. We shall use electronics, economics, and ideology itself as subtle weapons.

There’s a lot more to electronic warfare than just writing viruses and crashing computers. I learned this lesson from my martial arts instructor: Always attack where your foes are weakest. Regardless of what happens, we must not follow the path of senseless violence.

This does not mean we are completely handicapped for “shady” means, however. Due to some contacts of mine, I was able to secure a set of old lock-picks. I shall hesitate to say they shall see use. Our Network is still in its infancy, but we shall gain momentum. This will not be a short conflict.

This is a war unlike any other. Some of our foes would kill us. Some would imprison us. Some don’t care. We have our mission, and our goal. Make no mistakes. This is a culture war, but still a war. It is a purely asymmetric war, as we are a decentralized group fighting both bureaucracies and other decentralized groups. Let it be known that a first fourth generation war has started. Let the Infowar begin.

---

Dan,
Sorry it took so long to reply, Bob. I was following a cell of Gaia’s Knights in NYC. As you are probably aware, they’re planning an assassinating a certain scientist (Individual #432 in case files). It seems the Gaians are already moving against the Modernist Network. Mark my words, Dan. The Network’s got some powerful enemies. There’s got to be more to them than an online group.

I’ve got a team ready to arrest the Gaians. If they’re going after a group that hasn’t even done anything to them yet, who’s to say what their next target is? All I need is authorization to bring them downtown. -Bob

---

Bob,
Authorization denied. Don’t let your feelings get in the way of your job. You will be removed from the Gaian case at once if you try something like that again. -Dan

---

The fucking Gaians killed him, Dan. Turns out, Individual #432 was a Modernist sympathizer. The Gaians have to be getting their intel from somewhere. And I’m starting to think-

(The email exchange ends abruptly.)

To be continued…

---

Fiction is not the only thing published. Here are two poems, one by me and submitted by Kevin Chou, who is working to publish an anthology of poetry soon:

---

Skin Deep

By John LaRocco

"I do not write for a select minority, which means nothing to me, nor for that adulated platonic entity known as 'The Masses'. Both abstractions, so dear to the demagogue, I disbelieve in. I write for myself and for my friends, and I write to ease the passing of time." –Jorge Luis Borges, Introduction to the Book of Sand

The world is full of colors;

Artificial, natural, human.

Black night, yellow banana, white paper;

Human white, yellow, black.

What is inside always matters.

Underneath, this can change:

Night can conceal horrors.

Bananas can be rotten.

Paper can be torn.

Natural and synthetic worlds have many layers.

How about the human element?

We’re all made of the same stuff;

The same blood and guts;

The same proteins and bones;

But thoughts and emotions can differ.

In the end, there is no race.

Nationalities and cultures vary;

People are people;

Regardless of where they call home;

All cultures can be shocked.

There is no race.

No white, no black, no yellow;

For there is only one race;

And that is the human one;

For “racism” is only skin deep.

---

The Lessons of Zhong Guo

By Kevin Chou

(Nights of insomnia unwind at slow pace

Their lives are decaying when day brings tomorrow.)

When the age of eighteen and communist revolution

Struck you against your grains with the equality hammer,

A heartbeat lost to the grayish outside,

A thin and fearful young Chinese woman,

Daring to watch her brown notebook charred

Along the outskirts of Shanghai.

Replaced callously with the red book:

Mao’s blood in black ink on parchment

All attempting unreachable equality.

The residence in an apartment in Queens.

A city, piao liang

Rowdy

Polluted.

But this is the new American dream home –

Calling forth basic luxury in peace,

No matter the smoke outside,

By car or Winston.

As here may be a windy life,

A crowded city, a polished start.

With the now hanging and crossed-over

Silk renditions of China,

Patriotic amplification of America.

There are flags to spit at each other across the ocean,

But here above the jade Buddha they hang. They are

Wed in marriage-like unison, a bond

Indistinguishable, but merely a language’s tongue

Can see but the minor difference. There is stillness beyond such.

Forever two identities interlocked,

As sleep streams between

Recollection to relocation.

What brings your jaded eyes to America,

If it keeps your heart in China?

Inside, there lays two spirits.

---

Like what you see? Do you have questions or comments on the newsletter? Whether you want to help, complain, or contribute, email the newsletter editor at larocco2ATtcnjDOTedu. Fiction, poetry, and essays of all sorts are all welcome.

If you want to submit something, here’s the format:

Type: Either choose Article, Poem, Story, or Essay, depending on what you want.

Name: How would you like to be cited? If you want to write something anonymously, you can do that.

Text: Actual text of the item here.

Hope to hear from you soon!

A Moment of Silence and Lighter News

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 01:42:08 GMT

It is important to remember what happened 5 years ago today. Reflect for a moment on how society has changed, or where you were on 9-11. Freedom isn't free.

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On a lighter note, some meetings coming up on Wednesday. There's Chinese Culture Club at 3:00 PM in the Social Sciences Building, there's the Korean American Student Association meeting in the old AAA room (downstairs in the Brower Student Center) at 8:00 PM, and the AAA meeting at 8:30 PM in Room 202, where it was last week. The Indian Student Association will be meeting on Thursday at 9:30 PM as well.

If you're into martial arts, there's three opportunities for martial arts clubs. There's the "Martial Arts Club," which does mainly Taekwondo and Tangsoodo, with bits of other martial arts. They meet Mondays and Wednesdays 8-10PM in the wrestling room (on the bottom floor of the Student Recreation Center). There's the aikido club, which does Kokikai Aikido in the wrestling room on Tuesdays and Thursdays 8:00-9:30PM. There's also a club for Brazilian Jujitsu and more active martial arts forming. Though not official, the group will have a meeting for all interested at 7:15 PM in the wrestling room.

Into writing for the AAA? Feel free to submit anything you'd like to publish in the school newsletter. Anything goes: fiction, nonfiction, action, humor, poetry, columns, science fiction, fantasy, horror, or anything you can think off. Email it to the AAA account (aaaATtcnjDOTedu) or IM the newsletter editor John L. on AIM at JaveHarron. Oh, and do cast a vote for a story in the previous post. :)

Pulp Fiction

Sun, 03 Sep 2006 01:47:21 GMT

In the 1920s and 30s, many low-grade science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories were written on cheap paper (hence the name 'pulp'). Many famous writers of the era, such as HP Lovecraft and various superheroes, started as pulp characters and writers. The pulps and early comic books would often be serial stories, leaving readers dangling at cliffhangers. This would force readers to buy the next issues, of course. This year, for the AAA Newsletter, I was considering something in this vein.

In addition to the "normal" things, such as coverage of AAA and revelant TCNJ events, I was considering doing a serial fiction. I have several initial ideas, though based on a consensus of readers, you can select which you'd like to see. I have several story ideas planned, from the historical, to the modern, to the fantastic, to the horrific, to the surreal. If you find a story you like, just comment to vote. I've also included similar literature and media to check out if you find any of the following ideas interesting:

1) Black Dragon: The Black Dragon Society is a group of the ultra-nationalistic yakuza, or more commonly known as the Japanese Mafia. The yakuza trace their roots back four centuries to samurai Japan, coming from groups such as corrupt samurai, local militias, gangs, and power-hungry merchants. Such ultra-nationalism lead to their disasterous invasion of Korea. The groups laid low until the Meiji restoration, where they bought their way into power. One of the most powerful yakuza groups, the Black Dragon Society, would plot conquest of Asia, then the world. It was their actions that turned Japan into a fascist state, and prompted their brutal invasions of Korea, Manchuria, China, and southeast Asia.

The Second World War in the Pacific was a direct result of their actions. After WWII, however, the yakuza slipped into the underworld. Imagine an account of the Black Dragon Society's innermost secrets, written by a Spanish Jesuit missionary in the 1600s. That account, the Black Dragon Manuscripts, was found and re-hidden during WW2 by a submariner on various Pacific islands. Using his journal, two characters in the present rush to find the Manuscripts as the yakuza chases them. This historical fiction will cover the rise of the yakuza in politics before and after WWII, the realities of samurai warfare (such as how guns were quite popular weapons), Japanese atrocities in the Pacific, the Jesuits in feudal Japan, and how the founder of the martial art aikido was involved with a strange, pacifist sect opposed to the Black Dragons. This is a novel I'm writing, so a newsletter would only have a prologue and a few of the abridged chapters.

Recommended Books: "Shogun" by James Clavell, "The Rape of Nanking" by Iris Chang, "Flyboys" by James Bradley

2) Tabernacle: A hard science fiction involving transhumanism, philosophy, futuristic social sciences (such as memetics), and technology indistinguishable from magic. . In the far future, thirteen planets harbor human life. However, the home system of the species, Sol, simply is no longer there. The physics and energy required for such a feat is enormous, but the remnants of humanity have more pressing concerns.

A strange race of beings, the ethereal Nephilim, appeared from space without warning and began to lay siege to human worlds. The Nephilim are feral, and apparently non-sapient. However, they seem to possess cunning of some sort, as they are making a beeline for the oldest colonized world, Shenzhou. The majority of human colonies were originally Chinese missions, though a few smaller expeditions were mounted by other nations. The dominant human government is simply called the Authority, a decentralized state.

In terms of society, biotechnology, cybernetics, and nanotech allow humans to augment themselves through technology. One group, the Teilhardians, even sees this as a religious obligation. One group digitally uploaded their minds into spaceships, attempting to escape the Nephilim by fleeing deeper and deeper into space. Humanity is a broad category here, rather than just a biological species. Even with such abilities, it will take a lot more to survive and uncover the Nephilim, as well as the agenda of a being of deity-like powers. This story would have a lot of technologies in it, of course.

Recommended Media: "Firefly" TV series, "Serenity" (movie of Firefly), "Xenosaga" videogame series, "Hyperion" by Dan Simmons, "Dune" by Frank Herbert

3) The Infowar: Governments become more despotic with each passing day, as countless terrorist groups become more ruthless. Between these two extremes, a loose, international network of informed citizens, intellectual activists, and true patriots must take matters into their own hands.

The ideals of the Network, such as equality and democracy, require brave individuals to stand up for them. The story would follow several individuals in the USA, UK, Germany, Singapore, and South Korea uncover the secrets of an insidious international conspiracy. Using high-tech, byzantine networks of contacts, and their own wits, the group must survive as two rogue government agents try to inflitrate their Network. Some of the most powerful weapons used are not guns and bombs, but media, economics, hacking, and their own wits.

Infowar is a political thriller, with conspiracies based on very real ones. Truth is often stranger than fiction. Characters here are no supermen nor super-spies. Instead, they are average citizens trying to change their world for the better. After all, the radical idea that networks of informed citizens can change their government is called "democracy." This is another novel, and the characters followed would be in Singapore and South Korea.

Recommended Media: "1984" by George Orwell, "V for Vendetta" movie and graphic novel by Alan Moore, "Deus Ex" videogame, "Unrestricted Warfare" by Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsu, "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu, "On Guerrilla Warfare" by Mao Tsetung

4) Between Earth and Heaven: Imagine a world where the supernatural was the mundane. Not an easy feat by any means, especially when thaumaturgy (magic) takes the place of science and technology. In the land of Khitan, there is no difference between technology and thaumaturgy. Trains powered by arcane portals are a common form of mass transit, while ancient bureaucrats place their souls into immortal clockwork bodies.

Everything seems to be perfect. Barbarians are kept outside the kilometer-high walls that surround the nation,
weather itself is easily mastered, and thaumaturgy allows for practically infinite living space to be created instantly. That is, until strange, otherworldly creatures appear offshore. Ancient, scaled, and tentacled monsters begin to raid coastal settlements, and sailors report strange, cyclopean cities with unnatural angles and dimensions rising from the sea. Ancient beings are awakening, and it will take the combined might of human civilization to survive.

Between Earth and Heaven is a surrealistic high-fantasy world where humans, sapient clockwork automatons, and otherworldly horrors all exist in the same nation. In the end, however, only one can rule completely. Science here is magic, humans are the main race, and only original "races" will appear.

Recommended Media: "Perdido Street Station" by China Mieville, "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman, "Call of Cthulhu" by HP Lovecraft, "At the Mountains of Madness" by HP Lovecraft, "Shadow out of Time" by HP Lovecraft, "Shadow Hearts: Covenant" videogame

5) The Third Axis: In a quiet college, three students try an experiment. Using vector calculus, an engineering textbook, books on political science, sociology, psychology, and the "political compass," the three attempt to create a model to predict social change. However, the model starts to become 'too accurate,' and attracts the attention of a corrupt politician. Such a tool would certainly be dangerous in the hands of a politician. After all, if ideologies could be manipulated like clay, how does you know what you 'really thinks'?

Recommended Media: "Foundation" by Isaac Asimov

After all, if you can control ideologies like clay, how does anyone know what they 'really think?'