Nov/090
I walk past this every time I go to work.
I walk past this every time I go to work. It creeps the hell out of me.
Nov/090
Microsoft is so dumb.
As if I need another reason to not want to use Microsoft products, this comes along.
Dead serious. Microsoft acknowledged it and took down the ad.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/25/microsoft-sucks-at-photoshop/
Oct/091
Homeless Obsession
Anyone who knows me knows that I obsess over something for a short period of time with the upmost passion only to completely drop it two months later. My current obsession is homeless people. You see, I’m taking this class called “Gender and Environmental Philosophy,” and it’s amazing. It’s mostly about ecofeminism and the various forms. One of the neatest things I think is the “integrated oppression perspective.” You basically draw connections between how humans treat other humans and how humans treat non-human animals. The one I noticed the other day was the way The Bus here in Honolulu deals with vermin and how they deal with homeless people. The Bus will put spikes on the edges of some bus stops to prevent birds from sitting there and pooping all over the place. They have also now started to put divider bars on some of the benches, making it very uncomfortable to lay on. Some people find that very offensive – the way a group will treat another group of humans as if they were diseased rats or something.
So, basically I’ve been noticing homeless people more often as I go around town, as my final project for this course is going to be about the parallels between how a city deals with vermin and how they deal with homeless people, etc. Yesterday morning I walked into Jamba Juice, and as I did, I heard the tail end of the employee yelling at mall security escorting a homeless person out of the store, “HOMELESS PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE TOO YOU ASSHOLE! TREAT HIM WITH RESPECT!” Security: “HE’S A FUCKING ANNOYANCE.” Yeah – tense moments at 6:30 AM in Jamba Juice. Anyway, so I look to the employee and said, “Right on,” and then continued to tell her about my whole homelessness obsession. We chatted about that for a bit, and then I walked down to my bus stop. Now, I cannot remember the last time a homeless person randomly walked up to me and started a conversation, but I shit you not, this old man pushing a grocery cart full of stuff walks up, stands next to me and we talked for about ten minutes while I waited for the bus. Completely random conversations about the education system in Hawai`i, the pollution problems in Denver, and how good trade winds feel on a hot day. The bus came, we shook hands, I wished him a good day, he did the same to me, and I got on the bus and he walked (I’m assuming) aimlessly into a parking lot.
The strangest things like this always seem to happen to me. My friend this morning said, “Due to the law of attraction, you bring these things into your life.” I like that, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Oct/091
Gendered Construction Signs
OLD and tired news, I know, but I still found this interesting.
So, there’s construction going on at the University of Hawai`i at Manoa’s Biomedical Science building. As you walk through the building there are signs and tape everywhere saying “CAUTION MEN WORKING OVERHEAD.” I totally thought that kind of thing was phased out a long time ago? Here’s a picture I took with my phone this afternoon.
However, as I was walking home I passed more construction, this time it was window washers on a tall building near my apartment. This time the signs were quite different – they just said “Workers Above.” What’s so hard about making these things non-gender specific?
Oct/090
Happy Birthday Dad
My dad and I went to South Korea on a trip together a few years ago. One of the many reasons I’m crazy about my dad is that despite him being a hard science guy (organic chemistry!?), he’s just as much a creative artist type. Not his most impressive work, haha, but here’s his beer bottle from dinner one night that still makes me laugh.
Happy Birthday Dad!
Oct/090
Eros and Thanatos
I pass a movie poster for Sorority Row (left) maybe six or so times a week. Every time I see it, I get a little angrier. What’s with the slasher film formula of getting a person naked/sexual, and then stabbing them with a shard of glass or electrocuting them in a bathtub? Does anyone else see this as a problem? These movies get the viewers aroused, but instead of an orgasm (something that instantly warrants an R rating) we see their blood and guts drop to the ground (something that could easily be PG-13). What messages does this send? That whenever one is sexual, they deserve to die? Also, I wonder if there are negative side effects to having a arousal/murder correlation in one’s mind.
Maybe there is something else going on here. Maybe I should be less of a granola eating vegan hippie. The connection between love and death is old. For example, Cupid, the god of lust and romance, is the offspring of the god of love and the god of war. Eros and Thantos (lust and death, or so, pictured on the right) are often portrayed as a pair, and interestingly with a woman as Eros and a man as Thanatos. There is a French expression literally saying, “the little death,” but referring to an orgasm. Recent studies (like this one) have showed brain activity parallels between dying and orgasming. So who knows, but I still think it’s bad.
Oct/090
Interracial Couple Denied Marriage License by Louisiana Justice of the Peace
Head over to The Huffington Post to read more about this insanity.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/15/interracial-couple-denied_n_322784.html
Sep/091
The Bus Graffiti
This was on my bus seat. Their grammar is indicative of their intelligence. They also drew a dick with giant horns on the adjacent window. And yes, I am also wondering why I didn’t take a picture.
