miss lead

that last post was misleading..

berkeley doesn't force you to care about politics.

rather, like many other colleges, i assume, berkeley forces you to be aware about politics. i'm pretty sure you can get by without having a real opinion about anything, but that'd be pretty hard. 

it just so happens that i care about a lot of issues centered around the issue of race. hence the frequent blogs on race. i also care about the environment, a bunch actually, but not as much as some of the folks here. and recently, i've been caring about animal rights. not that i'm planning on becoming a vegetarian anytime soon, but i'm TRYING to buy more humanely produced foods.

do you how they make foie gras?

or what makes a cage-free bird cage free?

it kinna sucks. the more i learn about these things, the more inclined i am to pay for the more expensive organic/free-range stuff. but at least it's forcing me to eat my vegetables. 

i do offset my spending on food with not spending on movies that i can download or copy, or cds from artists that like to flaunt their wealth on tv. they deserve it!

i love school

college football is americana

the cal bears football team needs a new defensive coordinator. incumbent, bob gregory, is a way too conservative. and we all know, berkeley is not a place to be too conservative.

actually, i take that back. berkeley has a surprising number of conservatives. people just don't know that because their view of berkeley is a place where drugs run wild and hippies don't wear shoes and don't cut their hairs or shower, and pierce every inch of cartilage possible. i'm almost certain of this. for work, i once made a call to a company located somewhere in southern california, and the dude was talking to me, and was like "oh your name is Joshua? is that the biblical Joshua? i bet a name like that in berkeley is difficult, huh?"

yes, he really said that shit. like berkeley is SOOOOO liberal and anti-conservative/anti-catholic that ANY reference to anything related to conservative side is gonna spark a protest. i really didn't know what to make of that. i mean, this fool wasn't from texas, but from california. i guess it goes to show what the world thinks of us wild and crazy UC berkeley folk.


a lot of times, when i come back home and see old friends, they'll always say something like "you only care about that stuff now cuz you go to berkeley" or something like "why you so against white people, josh?". you know, the type of stuff that makes you feel that your friends think you think you're part of and elitist group and that you think less of them for not caring or knowing about the things you care or know about, all because you went to berkeley. when in the back of my head, i'm thinkin, "why the fuck don't you care about this? it's screwing you over too!" or "why don't you racist hate white people too?" i mean, i never thought that i thought of things that differently from the people around me, but every time that i come home back from berkeley, that's what it feels like, that i think differently from everybody. but at the same time, i'm only thinking through the same head that i've always been thinking. it's quite a lonely feeling. whenever i come home, i feel like more and more people don't understand who i am anymore.

i don't think i'm any better than any of my friends or anybody else back home. i used to think that i was special/unique cuz i got into berkeley, but really i wish everybody i knew got into berkeley too. i wish they could go through this experience, so that maybe they'd understand me more. berkeley doesn't make you more political, per se. just because i care about politics doesn't mean that i wanna be a politician or anything close to politics. i think that berkeley just really helps you to think on your own, which really isn't as common as it should be in this world.


....


shit, i just took a break from writing, and i totally forgot how i wanted to end this blog.
ehh.. that's ok.

shoutout to bob marley

ain't too proud to brag

that title doesn't really make sense now, does it?

well i'm not bragging, but i would like to mark this day.
cuz i spent 12 hours today, from 3pm to 3am, in 2107 etcheverry.
which doesn't even account for the 5 hours i spent at work in cory, from 10am-3pm.

but it wasn't like a was working the whole time.
i had to eat dinner while working,
and i also had to draft bball players while working.

i maybe coulda wrote the program faster, but still, you gotta admit, 12 hours in one room is a pretty cool accomplishment, if you can even call it that.

youze a FUCKIN PUNK!!

i've been meaning post this one since last friday, i think..
and then i saw something else, and wanted to post it again on monday..
and now it's thursday and something happened today, and now i have all the emotion i need to post it...

alton brown, foodtv celebrity via "good eats" and host of the next iron chef - YOUZE A SNOBBY FUCKIN PUNK!
alton brown made his stardom hosting a show that claimed that good food was not that hard to make for the home chef, pretty much what every tv chef is aiming to do, but brown did it in a nerdy but entertaining way.. so more of a general audience was attracted to watching the show.. so much so that he's gotten pretty fatter since his earlier days.. cuz you know that's what happens when normal people get famous fast (see beyonce, chandler from "friends", me, except i didn't get famous, just fatter).

in fact, i used to really like alton brown, i have all three of his books, up until last monday, when i read an interview he did, and in the same day watched an episode of the next iron chef. in his interview, alton brown dissed one of my favorite tv shows, Bravo's Top Chef, while trying to promote the next iron chef, saying that top chef had no credibility because their contestants "are barely out of Denny's". excuse me? top chef is judged by credible judges, they have some of the top restaurant chefs in the nation guest judging every week, and their head judge, tom colicchio, is a james beard award winner. alton brown, my friend, you have never won anything, and prolly wouldn't even be able to make it on the line at denny's (neither would i, but i ain't the one dissing top chef) you cook way too slow on your show.

and on the show, the next iron chef, alton brown gets to boss around some of the most promising young chefs in the kitchen like he's the shit or something, when we know in fact, he himself has no actually chef credibility, just a popular show. who do you think you are?? a punk!!

prince fielder - first baseman of the milwaukee brewers, son of old time great cecil fielder, YOUZE A SPOILED FUCKIN PUNK!
i was watching espn and i saw this special on how prince and his father don't talk anymore. actually when prince hit his 50th homerun this season, he took shots at his father calling him "not that bright of a guy". they stop talking around the time when cecil and prince's mother divorced, and his mom gained custody of prince, i think. but anyways, cecil went to one of prince's games, to be able to talk to prince, but prince wasn't havin it, he didn't even want to see him, and when cecil asked prince's wife if she'd at least take a picture of him and prince's kids, cecil's only grandkids, she replied "i'll have to ask their father first".

WHAT?!? you spoiled shit. everything you've ever been given in your life was a result of your father's success in baseball. you prolly never even had a real job because your father had the richest contract in baseball at that time. and you don't have the decency to even show some respect to the man. grow up you little punk.

(it should be noted that they couldn't get a hold of prince fielder for the espn special, so my view is pretty biased, but i still think there are some valid points)

asian intramural referee, thursday 815 game - YOUZE A FUCKIN TWINKIE PUNK!!
i don't really have any history on this dude, but if you were there to see the game, you'd know what i was talkin about. this fool was prolly the biggest reason that our team lost that game. not only was he a jackass, he was a jackass specifically to our team. the most BS travelling call coming when i jumped to get a rebound, get knocked down while trying to call a timeout, when our team was up by 2. only calling the close calls against our all pilipino team while your partner, a white referee was playing fair. YOU LIL SHIT YOU DIDN'T EVEN LOOK ME IN THE FUCKING EYE WHEN I MADE THE EFFORT TO SHAKE YOUR HAND AFTER WE LOST!!

i hate you, you twinkie shit. i bet you drive a yellow car with a white interior. i hope you become famous for being a twinkie, and that calling somebody a twinkie is replaced by calling them your name instead. and then i hope they make a movie about it, with a soundtrack by an emo rock band called "the twinkieshitz". because i had to deal with you personally, you take the title of FUCKIN PUNK of the week, you twinkie punk shit!

okies.. it's out of my system.. i feel better..

no more greener grasses

even though i didn't register my blog for blog action day, which i intended to do so, i would like to do a blog in honor of the environment. even though i have a well documented angered opinion of the heavily media-covered tree people, i do consider myself an semi-environmentalist. and with al gore winning a nobel peace prize for being a loud environmentalist, we should all join the band wagon!

forreal though, almost every one of my engineering professors, which are all leaders in their respective industries (meaning they're certified geniuses), has preached to our class about the dangers of global warming and the current state of consumption throughout the world. one professor even allowed a student to make an announcement that we should all watch "an inconvenient truth" and then went on to back him up. just goes to show you that all those "if every californian..." commercials are no joke, and forreal, all this environmental practice stuff is gonna be big time in pretty much every kind of industry soon, so maybe being green or learning to be green and think green will make you a pretty penny somewhere.

i do admit, in my modest sized apartment, with my part-time budget (plus "emergency" mom funds) sometimes being greener isn't being cheaper, so i might stray from many of the ideal practices. but when i am able to fully support myself, there are a couple of things that i'm really gonna try and work on, on top of all the traditional methods of recycling, washing my own dishes, hanging washed clothes on a clothesline, trying to get a gas stove, using CFLs, and what not:

1. stop buying/using bottled water - all consumer products use energy in order to be produced, but bottled water is something that we really can do without. if you think about how big the bottled water industry is right now, and imagine how much energy is being consumed making all those bottles of water, then you can get the picture. work towards filtering your own water with a pur faucet or a brita pitcher.

2. buying local - the farther your food was grown from where you buy it, the more gas was used to bring it there. even when faced with a choice of buying organic or buying local, i choose local. gotta save that gas. this is easily achieved through shopping at farmer's markets, or just being savvy enough to know where your local grocery gets their produce and meats. and supposedly, eating honey that is local to your area is good way to stay healthy and free from illness.

3. save the environment with pb&js - i just thought this was kinna different. and i like different.

4. purchase a bike - and use it for taking me places anywhere within 10 miles of wherever i end up living. i've become extremely fascinated with fixed gear bikes, and i plan to buy one. let's all do it! i don't plan on joining critical mass or anything, but i think it'll be pretty fun to weave through cars in traffic. i also plan to continue to skateboard, but that shit is tiring, and you can't really do that uphill.

5. cloth napkins - this one is prolly gonna be a challenge, but i figure having cloth napkins and having to wash them every time i use them will teach me how many paper napkins that i've been using. check back with me on this one, see how it's working out for me.

6. being more frugal - frugality will set us free, folks. even though products in stores have already been produced (since they already made it to the store) and therefore have used energy in order to be made, not purchasing that product will give you piece of mind that at least you are trying to do your part in reducing consumption on this earth. and you'll be able to save your money and eventually be rich enough to not care about the environment anymore...... just kidding.

as you can see i focused a lot on food related things. ahh. if only i had the money to go to culinary school.

drums check, bass check, keys check, mic check 1 2

sometimes, i think a lot of college kids need to keep themselves in check too. forreal, if that problem set is the hardest thing in your life right now, then your life is pretty good.

i wish i was able to keep myself in check more often. like, sometimes when i think about how much i complain, or if i think about the things that i actually complain about, it's like, damn, when did i need to be so particular about things.

for instance, i recently have been complaining a bunch about my weight, because i've cut back on my eating and have at least tried to lead a more active life, and even though it has led me to a little more healthier lifestyle and diet, it hasn't led to much success in the losing actual weight department. but damn, do i really need to be complaining about that? i mean, when did knowing i was fed well enough get overshadowed by "i'm starting to not look the way i used to"?



i wish my dad knew how much i appreciate him.

obligatory desperate housewives post

i guess everybody has to have an opinion

first of all, the line wasn't that funny. i really think lois lane should just stick to doing radio shack commercials with howie long.

second, that was pretty much a direct shot at the philippines. i mean, i'm pretty sure the racist-ass writers had some bad tocilog somewhere or something, because it's not like the philippines is the motherland of all bad medical education. actually, i think there's this thing called "brain drain", which in this case basically means that the philippines is drained of virtually all of its medical and other professionals that seek work overseas because work overseas pays substantially more than work back home, actually, i'm pretty sure that i remember reading that pilipinos that are practicing doctors in the philippines end up studying to be nurses overseas. why? maybe because it pays more to be a nurse overseas than it does to be a doctor in the philippines and maybe because THEIR PHILIPPINE MEDICAL DEGREE WOULDN'T BE ACCEPTED IN AN OVERSEAS HOSPITAL. oh yea, and this place "overseas" is usually america.

back to my point.. why else would the racist-ass writer have put the line in there other than to take a direct shot at philippines? i mean, damn, you can get a phony degree in the US, off the internet. why the fuck would this white doctor have gone all the way to the philippines to get a medical degree? that makes no sense. how the fuck is that good humor?

‘Desperate Housewives’ and ABC Studios offer our sincere apologies for any offense caused by the brief reference in the season premiere. There was no intent to disparage the integrity of any aspect of the medical community in the Philippines. As leaders in broadcast diversity, we are committed to presenting sensitive and respectful images of all communities featured in our programs."

i'm sorry, does that say "there was NO intent", like in at all?? i don't really get that, so that line was supposed to mean what?? she didn't want a doctor that was trained in the philippines because she's, uh, allergic to doctors trained in the philippines, you know, uh, she gets, uh, darker around them. and you can't be a dark person on desperate housewives. i'm sorry ‘Desperate Housewives’ and ABC Studios, i cannot accept your "sincere" apology.

Okays, so i've said my spiel, i got it out of my system.
i sign the petition, and, in theory, i accept the apology, or at least i accept the fact that we made it a big enough deal that abc doesn't get away with this shit.

i won't, however, knock on those pilipinos, the ones that wrote the petition and are boycotting abc altogether, for taking this protest "too far". no no no, we can't knock those that are defending OUR HOME. even if a boycott was a little overboard, i certainly will not diss them for being too militant. because if it ever does happen that some racist BS happens to me, and the rest of the world is saying i'm over-reacting and that i'm playing the race card, i know these are the folks that are gonna be behind me, even IF i didn't happen to sign that petition (which i did).

"but josh, you always make racist jokes about white people"
yes yes yes, you are certainly right. i ALWAYS jump at the opportunity to make fun of white people. that is unfortunately a vice of mine. i know it's bad, but it's still fun for me to do it. but in my defense, i do not advertise this blog to white people, at least, i'm not actively advertising it to them. i only know a couple people that actually read this blog, and i either grew up with them, or met them through college, and they know who i am, really. and, for the most part, when i do crack jokes, i'm either making fun of white people and privilege, or white people and racism. which is not to say that i'm generalizing that all white people are privileged, or that all white people are racists. i'm just trying to recognize that fact that privilege and racism are still very much a part of today's "integrated" society

also, i do not go up to random white people and make racist white jokes straight to their faces, nor will i ever do that. if a random middle-class white lady came up to me and made a racist AND DEROGATORY comment to me, i'd prolly spit at her, on her face (in theory)... "but it wasn't like teri 'lois lane' hatcher was up in my face making a racist joke to me." touche. that line was on PRIMETIME television, on a SEASON premiere. abc had so much hype on that episode, they had a commercial that ALMOST made me want to watch it (which i didn't), and i'm sure abc wanted everybody and their mama's watching it. you cannot tell me that abc was so stupid to not expect the giant population of immigrant health care professionals in the US to not be watching their stupid television show.

case closed.

why yes, i'll accept my award for "best obligatory desperate housewives post".

forget the trees

thanks for this, rick.

In Bayview-Hunters Point, the stress created by environmental problems, racism, poverty and crime may explain why so many babies die young. Infant mortality is twice as high here as in the rest of San Francisco

it's kinna a long read, but it's definitely worth it..
i mean, damn, i just don't get how we can all get so caught up in the trees... TREES, people!
where are all the environmentalist "tree-people" when we really need them. yea yea yea.. these trees don't have a voice (or vocal chords) so we just gotta speak up.. hunters point is a community, so the people living in that community should be able to speak for themselves.. yea.. if only they didn't have to worry about their babies dying..

crepes n turon

i don't really know why i'm blogging about this.

ok.. that's a lie. i do know.

i'm addicted to food blogs. i love reading how other people describe food. and i ESPECIALLY love how they photograph their food.

but this would be an example of a horrible food blog entry. the description prolly will be lackluster, and the pictures are horrendously amateur.

nevertheless, i will shamelessly make a terrible attempt at a food entry.

crepes and bananas
i don't really know how i feel about crepes. i mean, they're cool and all, but they're so thin and you go through a whole lot to make this thin piece of sweet filling delivery vessel. but at the same time, it's not like the crepe isn't providing anything in terms of flavor. the dish wouldn't be the same if you just ate the bananas. but damn. why go through all that measuring and mixing and all that time on the stovetop for something so thin, when you can just make some real pancakes? cuz everybody likes them, and you can eat a bunch of them without feeling a FOMA like you would from a shortstack of pancakes.

i don't really know what kinna wine i would serve with crepes and bananas. damn.. maybe just some milk. or strawberry flavored milk, like back in highschool.

bananas with sauce were started by melting butter and dissolving brown sugar. didn't measure this one, just went rachel ray with the proportions. when the butter and sugar looked good enough, we added the bananas cut side down, til they were nice and COLORED.. then we added cream, to make the sauce a little fatter, i'm sure it affected the taste somehow, but i couldn't tell you how.

crepes were made like that.
flatten out crepe, add bananas to one quarter, fold and fold, and serve. so this was my attempt to present my food in a delicious manner. but it kinna looks like the crepe is throwing up the bananas, and the caramel sauce. whatever then, it was still hella good, you just won't have any if you actually agreed with that description. just kidding.
since there was extra heat in the pan after we finished cooking the crepes, i melted some latex so that i could make my own homemade balloons.
just kidding

the bananas tasted like turon.