Baotong Temple, Wuhan China

 

Baotong  Temple is in Wuchang district of Wuhan China.  It was originally called shuizhou Temple.  Then Emperor Kang Xi had the temple moved to its current site, so it’s name was then changed to Hongshan, and in middle of the 1980’s it was changed again to its name, Baotong Buddhist Temple.

It's been a year since I was last at the temple.  I felt very lucky to live only a short walk away.   It was a peaceful place among the crowded and noisy background of Wuchang.  I really liked going places with my classmates.  I went with Jana Bento and she made even the most common of outings fun. 

 This is Kuan Yin.  There are many stories about her.
In many of the stories she was put to death by her father.  Ever since I started to study world mythology I have always been drawn to Kuan Yin.  I think this is because I know I need to learn to be more compassionate. 

Twerking is part of Black Culture? Really?

Taylor Swift is what?

I try not to write entry's just off the top of my head but ...I have been reading about a lot of people, yes, black people, having issues with Taylor Swifts' new video:  Shake it off.

Part of the problem , or the problem others see is that Swift is dancing with a team of black female dancers who are twerking.   Twerking seems to be cause of a lot of problems.  From what I have gathered, Twerking is a part of Black Culture and with artist like Miley Cyrus , twerking is a big thing.

I mean twerking is not like Pharell on the Elle cover wearing a Native American headdress.  The headdress is sacred in Native American culture.  It is not just something to wear, it is something you earn.  Nor does it compare to the offensiveness of the Washington 'Redskins'.

The problem I have with things like twerking supposedly being a part of black culture is ....well let me put it to you in a story.

I was in Wuhan, a city in China, as a language student.  There were a number of students from around the world.  We all got along.  One day one of my classmates sat next to me and told me that he loved American culture.  He was from one of the countries in Africa.   I asked him about some various about America and he didn't know anything.  So finally I asked him what did he love about American culture.  His answer was everything that was hip hop and rap.  That is it.  He was not the only one.   This is the image of America that is sinking in world wide!  I don't know about you...but that bothers me.

Another issue that was pointed out in an article I read by Prachi Gupta  about the Shake it off video some people find offensive or uncomfortable is this...

Yup, Taylor Swift crawling through the legs of twerking women(Note that not all of them are black).  Actually this kinda takes me back to my childhood.  Why do you ask?  Take yourself back in time to 1991.  Vanilla Ice is Hot as is his song 'ICE ICE BABY'.  Well, we have it on VHS (We have VHS but no player) …we have Vanilla Ice sliding on his back underneath the humplike moves of his black male backup dancers.  So how is this worse than that? 

 

Now there is a rapper named Earl Sweatshirt.  This is part 1 of 3 of his tweets about Shake It off.

This is point where you have lost all sort of credibility with me.  You haven't watched the video but you are criticizing it?  How does that even seem logical?  I had a teacher at Columbia College Chicago who assigned me to watch the movie Troy and write a paper on a theme.  She didn't like my theme and argued with me pulling examples from the classic the Iliad not the movie.  I asked if she had ever watched the movie and she answered, "No, and I probably never will."  Does that make sense?  No, and that is the same case with Earl Sweatshirt. 

And while a person is just judging something they deem to be  harmful and offensive that person  should also be asking themselves questions. Is this something is really offensive? Is this  (blank) culturally important to me? Why is this  important to my culture? If it was more than one color of person doing this....why am I focusing on this particular one person? Those are just example questions but be honest with yourself and go from there.  Don't be like Sweatshirt.

Kevin Fallon from the Daily Beast wrote about how the video was disappointing and how it seemed to say Taylor Swift's message was, ", “I’m a pop star now, bitches!” And our reaction is, “Booooo!” I couldn't disagree more.  She gave a fun flashback video that is clearly speaking about her reputation and her awkwardness and how it's okay to be that way.  (I am also okay with my awkwardness...)

Customers Vs. Employees

Recently on Facebook one of my old friends from high school posted about a bad experience she had in a coffee shop.   In the responses she got from her friends were of course supportive of her, which is great.   Then I noticed her friends other comments about the barista.  Those were not great.  They indicated that the barista was an idiot, one said she hoped the barista choked and meant it only as a half joke, indicating that flipping out would have been perfectly okay, dumping  the drink on the barista’s head and choke slamming her.   Not one said that mistakes and misunderstandings happen.  They just  decided to talk shit and thought they were cute.  It’s not cute, it’s not funny.  It is ignorant and immature  and a clear sign that there is a lot wrong people.  What’s worse is that many people do not understand why I feel that way.

Granted my friend gave her side of the story and that is the only side we heard.  While the Barista could have handled it differently, I don’t understand how comments like the previously stated are okay or even constructive.  Especially when they are half meant.

Some might ask why this bothers me so much.  Simple.  I was a barista while I worked at Borders and I still work in retail.   I have had good customers and bad…..really bad customers.   Those that worked with me at 575 know who I am talking about.  A customer  who ended up cornering my supervisor in her car and giving threats about how she was going to punch me in my face the next time she saw me behind the counter, how her sister was not afraid of getting arrested and she was going to come and beat me up.   She had even called to complain about me when I was out of the state.   Once she issued threats we called the police and she cursed the cop out.  

Why did this happen?  Because I wouldn’t give her large drinks with extra shots and only charge her for a medium.  I questioned her hand written coupons that said free drink and nothing else.  

Even where I am now I had a customer say that it was good that I didn’t have a name tag on or else she would call and have me fired…I told her my name.   Why was she mad?  My computer wouldn’t accept an expired coupons and smaller reasons that I had nothing to do with.

Now I am not saying that employees are always angels.  Sometimes they do have bad attitudes or give bad service.  They are people too.  Yet, People always want to blame the employees, even the good ones.  They always want to bitch about retail workers and servers but many of those people fail to realize their own behavior nowadays.   They love to go to the ‘Customer is always right’ phrase that has plagued the business world.  This phrase no longer applies in this day and age.  If you go online today you will find that there are many articles and websites about why the customer is not always right for various reasons.  Such as: Customers lie!  Customers berate and belittle to make themselves feel better, don’t know what they want, what they expect is not reasonable or rational.

My suggestion for having more positive experiences after something has gone wrong is first and foremost:  Stop, take a deep breath and think.  Was it really the employees fault or were you not paying attention?  It might even be a combination of both.   Also, just like customers that remember their bad experiences, employees remember bad customers and how things are handled will be remembered the next time you enter that establishment. 

Remember:   remember that the employees are people as well.  You have bad days, the employees have bad days too.  Also…the employee deals with more customers in a day than customers deal with employees.  What you might think is just a small one time thing you did, could have happened many more times than what you think.

Pay attention:  If the employee is honestly trying to help resolve the matter, don’t ask for something free (it makes you look bad), don’t ask for things that are not rational especially if it is against the store’s policy.   Policy is there for a reason and in many cases employees can be fired for breaking policy even to help an irate customer.

Do not go off!  It makes you look like an idiot!  Even other customers will think you are crazy.

When I go to other retail stores or coffee/tea shops…I try to treat them as I would like to be treated.  There have been times I had gotten the wrong drink or waited a long time.  But I have been behind the counter so I can understand what they might have going on and when I explain it they appreciate my taking the effort.

I have often been told that a little understanding goes a long way.  Now that is always true.  Too bad that is not a phrase people remember.

 

A witty title....no...just a short rant

Today on Facebook, I got into a discussion/argument over Disney Princesses. The main arguments were about Pocahontas and Mulan.   In real life Pocahontas was not a princess but a chief’s daughter.  Some would see that as an equivalent to the European idea of Princess and when she went to England she was given the title of Princess Rebecca.   But there is a cultural difference which I won’t go into.  Mulan, in life and in Disney was not a princess.  She was not born a princess nor did she marry a prince.  But she was ‘given’ the title of “Princess,” because she was the Main characters.  There are many princess in the Disney line that do not have the TITLE of Princess for one reason or another.  Really, the topic of Disney Princesses is not a simple one to tackle.

But what bothered me most was the attitude the other person had.  He (I’m guessing…I don’t know) started to resort to insults and questioning my empathy levels among other things.  I don’t know this person so the comments are irrelevant.  When I try to explain myself or why I KNOW Mulan was not a princess, or that native Americans don’t have ‘Princesses’, its an opinion and thus somehow oppressive.   How is an opinion on Facebook oppressive?   Yes, my opinion differed because of my experience and research and the fact that I tend not to agree with Disney on how they determine who is a princess and who isn’t.   But is that oppressive? 

I will admit that I can be stubborn but I can also admit if I have changed my mind and I also know when to walk away.  Some people like this person cannot walk away unless its them who has the last word.     Some would say it’s sexist….in this case, it might be (Again, I don’t know this person at all so I can’t be completely sure.)  I am trying to look at this experience from a Cultural Studies stand point.  I am trying to be calm and rational about it, but it pisses me off.  If I am not being rude to you or insulting to you, do not feel that it is okay for you to be that way.  If after a while I go...okay, it's my opinion, you don't have to like it or agree...that is a subtle clue of walking away and ending the conversation.  Take the hint.

One of my problems with online conversations, debates, and arguments is that you are reading words but you are not hearing the other person.  By hearing, I mean you are not hearing the tone of the other person’s voice.  That’s a big thing because when you read you are imaging their tone and attitude and thus you react to that, whether it’s the other person’s intention or not.    In conversations with my friends (face to face not online) it’s something that many people do whether they realize it or not.  I’m sure that it’s something people don’t realize it, but it can strain online conversations.  

This is at least my opinion.   Sorry if you find it oppressive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reflections of a Semester gone by....

In past post I wrote about a project I was working on at school.  Our project was to promote eating not only local grown food, promoting farmer’s markets and such.  The ideas for the project to me seemed to come to our fairly easily.  We talked about our ideas openly and what the project goal was.   We discussed our schedules and what would work best for us in the way of communications.  I would like think that working on the project went well.   Of course there were always some issues.  Sometimes people ask what would you do differently.  I had hate questions like that.  I really do.  It seems to mostly be begging for you to focus on what went wrong or was screwed up.   It forces you to focus on the negative and could have beens instead of the positives and what you have achieved.  If I had to answer that question I might have said that I wished some would have taken it more seriously.  During this process I’ve learned that the media’s that are coming out will either fade away like myspace or grow into something that is everyday.    All this was really well explained in the book “Smarter than you think” by Clive Thompson, that I had to read.  But there are pitfalls and still things being argued over like Creative Commons and Copy rights.   I did find myself refreshing my memory on coding and programming through our class exercises.

 

Smarter Than You Think Book Review

Smarter Than You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better

· Written by: Clive Thompson (Graduate of Toronto University.  Runs Collision Detection, his blog, that I started to follow.  My favorite is the Star Wars Story Scroll and I don’t even like Star Wars.)

· Narrated by: Jeff Cummings

· Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins 

· Format: Unabridged

 

I listen to a lot of audio books, but not a lot of technology books. I don’t even read books about technology.  I usually expect them to be dull and dry.  Not the case this time and what I love about this book was that it was A) positive and B) it made sense.   The content was engaging and interesting and when you combine that with a talented narrator, it takes the book to a different level.

Starting out the author points out, that feeling apprehension and wariness of new technology is nothing new.   Dime Novels, telephone, magazines....even coffeehouses have something in common.  They had once been deem, the downfall of the human mind.

At first when he started to talk about chess and the computers, but as the book went on, I started to reflect on that more and more.  It also made so much more sense when he talked about Jeopardy playing Watson, (Another computer).

One of the things that I want to bring up is the subject of Life Loggers.  It was absolutely astonishing to me.  I had never heard of them before.   The wearable computers, the recorders, people setting up their houses to be recorded and why….It blew my mind.  I’m afraid of giving too much away, but listening and reading (I also read the kindle version when I could not listen to audio) to the way they had used technology and what it made them realize, was enlightening.  Parts of this book made me start to wonder if I was remembering things the way they were or if my organic was remembering them the way it think they should be.

One of the best statements of this book says that we will not know exactly what new technology will be for until everybody has it and it becomes common.    One of the beautiful about this is that while the author makes his case, he still allows for you to come up with your own conclusion.

On a little side note:  I love that he mentions DBSK!  One of my favorite Korean boy bands EVER!!!!

Fresh Food and Gordon Ramsay Burgr

 

Okay, I know I will probably put this up on our group blog, but It's good here too since I could not make classes this week.

I love Vegas.  I go there almost every year with my family for various reasons.  One of the things that I love about Vegas is the food.  My family and I love to try and sample different foods we would not normally eat at home.  One year we went to a Wolfgang Puck restaurant in the MGM, last time we went to Bobby Flay's Messa Grill, (it was  awesome). 

This year we decided to try out one of my favorite television chef's:  Gordon Ramsay!  He has several restaurants in Vegas, including Hell's Kitchen in the Paris, several  television shows  (Kitchen Nightmares and The F Word), I even have his Nintendo DS Game: Hell's Kitchen and through the game he as on occasion called me a donkey. However in real life he has always been a advocate of fresh simple food.  He states it in all of his shows and I was so thrilled to see that he actually applies what he teaches in other restaurants to his own shows.

Gordon Ramsay's Burgr is in  Planet Hollywood. Now we actually had one burger a piece.

 My father had the Hell's Kitchen Burger because he loves hot food.   This burger had Asadero cheese ,Roasted jalopeno peppers, avocado, and oven roasted tomato.  

I love cheese so I ordered the Uber Cheese Burger.  My burger was medium rare and so juicy.  It had Fontina Cheese, Raclette Cheese, and Goat Cheese.   They blend so well together the only word I can think of is ..not even a word but a sound of happiness.  

My mother had the Southern Yardbird Burger.   This is a chicken burger with sharp cheddar, pickle, butter lettuce and mustard bbq sauce.  Now, this is very important, my mother hates chicken burgers.  She says that they are always dry, tasteless and you can taste that it has been frozen.  But this chicken burger she had was none of those things.   It was juicy.  Seriously I could see the juiciness from across the table.  She loved this burger.

The next day I tried the Euro Burger.  This burger was topped with truffle aioli, goat cheese, arugula and oven roasted tomato.   Again this was medium rare and just so good.  It was my first time having Truffle aioli.

I had asked to speak with the head chef, but that was not possible.  It's okay!  It's Vegas!  I understand.

Fresh, simple and delicious.  I wish he would open up a location in Chicago, but it was worth the trek.

This experience just reminded me why he is one of my culinary heroes.  He practices what he preaches!

(I took the pictures)

Fresh Foods Fresher lives

Our goal is to make accessing small, locally grown/made produce and products easier for people living in the Chicagoland area and surrounding suburbs. We plan to achieve this by making information about dates and times of local farmers markets more easily accessible. We currently have a Facebook page and plan to maybe get into contact with larger chain grocery stores which cater to such quality standards such as Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Plum Market and Eataly. By doing this we hope to inspire people to support their local farmers and care more about getting the highest quality produce possible.

We will also be including things such as fliers, and review on books about Organic and Fresh foods that have tips, recipes and basic consumer information.

Remix: Copyright or not

When it comes to copyrighting, there are a lot of issues that come up.    And I am on the fence about it at this moment.   I have had people, friends, who have tried to copyright my stories and creations under their name.   That is a theft that is not easily forgivable or forgettable.   I have never forgotten it and so I am actually a bit paranoid.   As a writer and an artist I feel I would actually prefer it if people came to me.  I have worked so hard on creating my characters, my stories, my world, that I would be horrified if someone took it out of the context I meant for it to be.

Now, I'm not saying that I don't understand the other side of it, so I think I would copyright a good amount of my work and specifically  come up with something that I can release for Creative Commons, that other artist can use.


My Artist Manifesto:

Protect yourself and your work

Help others and create to help them

DON'T take yourself too seriously.

 

Here's the link to some of my older art and stories including fan fiction: My Art Page

This Pitch or that?

And my writing for new media class we all have to present ideas for us to work on in groups that would create an active web space.  

 

My idea was on creating a common space using common language for cultural studies. This is an attempt for the structural lysed institution to see why so many people tend to shy away from learning about its theories and ideas. I really think my idea for a came out of the basic frustration that I feel I have with the field.   From what I see so far the academic ideals of cultural studies is just that academic ideals.  My idea was to form a webspace is kind of a cultural studies support group. 

 

Everybody from our class each gave us their own idea what do you think our project should be one of the projects that I really liked was the project for fresh and organic food by local farmers to be more accessible.  I really like that idea because when I lived in China all of our food was made fresh right there you could stand there and see them making your food you could go to the street and find fresh behind next or Lowdes much that would just brought in everything was so much fresher and it just improve the taste of food and I think that in America while it's what we say we want we still program to go to the store and buy something frozen third in the freezer and reheat it when we needed that could be why America's best countries other than the fact that we supersize everything.

The other idea that was pitched to the class was one for online book club. That is an idea that I feel like I can get behind I work in the bookstore I have for a long time I worked in libraries and I think it's time for people to become more active with the reading.

Sent from my iPhone

How Would You CHANGE the World?

What if you could change the world in any way you wanted?   What would you change?  End hunger?  Put an  end to corrupt politicians like they did in the Philippines in 2001?  How about we just put an end to stupidity coming out of Arizona?  Yeah I went there.....

But how would you do it?  Well, in the case of the Philippines, they used.....dadadada...text messaging!   Yup! texting can save the world!  Texting of all things because email just doesn't cut it...The power of texting or any new media can be used for good and bad....and will be hated by those they are used against.  But this is the way now!  This instant communication is a way for us to truly make some changes happen faster and give us a louder voice than ever before. 

Me?  What would I change?  So many things....if I could, but Tolkien said that even a Hobbit can change the world.

What? What is this...in person thing you speak of?

What? Talk in person?

                I bet most people on social media knows the answer to this since thing like myspace.com (a site of the past) and Facebook (the current obsession) has become so normalized in our daily lives.  Today, our cellphones are stuck in our hands by some sort of invisible force.  In  Public Culture: The Social Internet by Zeynep near the end, he speaks of how kids are resentful of their parents attention being taken away by their phones.  While I admit that, yes, adults are on their phones a lot, if you look around…kids are never without it.  I will say that it is probably because, just like sites like facebook and twitter, it has become normalized to always have it.  At the dinner table, in class, talking to other people, the phone is always there and it’s the parents that are annoyed.

            When we think of interacting with other people in what sense do you think of?  Do you think of face to face interactions or do you think of going home and logging onto your favorite site?  Zeynep suggests that many people are intimidated by the face to face, instead of reaching out to friends online.  There will always be those shy types, and the socially needy types (The ones who feel the utter compulsion to overshare) and the drama lovers.....all sorts.

 

Perhaps we as a society, need to find a happy middle.  A way to find a new sort of balance in our lives.

The Internet Must Go!

THE INTERNET MUST GO!!!

That is a pretty bold statement.  My first thought was...where?  Where must the internet go?  Of course someone out there has the answer.  The answer is:  To those you pay the most.   Sounds like the answer of the Big Internet providers, which of course it was.
 

Basically, if you watch the Mocumentary:   http://www.theinternetmustgo.com , they say that the large companies want to change the way the internet is set up.  Instead of you being able to go about and go from site to site as you please, the companies want you to pay to visit sites they have in their packages.  Not only do you have to pay to go to these sites, you have to pay to get to them faster. 

Imagine being in the T.A.R.D.I.S and having all of space and time available for you to go and explore and be free.   Now suddenly the Cybermen,  Daleks and Weeping Angels surround you and say that you can't go and be free.  You have to pay them to let you now go where you wanted.   Mind you, you are not the Doctor, you do not have his brains or sonic....although you might have the Fez.

 I think this says something about America.    Every single time we have something where we go, 'Hey, this is good,' someone who usually someone with the letters 'CEO' attached to their name says, 'No, this is horrible, I'm not making money for this....we must stop them!!'  Like they are someone's arch villain or something. 

It really doesn't sound right.  It's along the lines of the Nestle CEO who wanted to privatize water.

The Lost Art of Writing

Everyone has heard of Facebook and Twitter.  They are worlds into themselves.  They have their own purpose…if you can call some of their activity that and their own.  But some people just can’t tell them apart. I know my mother can’t. My parents haven’t exactly grasped the use of the internet.  I think she believes that’s it’s  some version of spam.

What has happened to the use of language?  Has the internet really killed it?   One ‘lol’ too many has gone about out in cyberspace.  Who wants to go and read blogs full of acronyms and hashtag?  I find hashtags particularly annoying.  One of the hardest things for a writer is to remember the audience that they are writing for.  Many people, not just writers want to read blogs and posts that are written intelligently, blogs where they don’t have to call their children or grandchildren to come translate.  Good writing, in any genre, and any media form is something that never goes out of style, as long as it’s not Fifty Shades of Grey.  That’s not good writing….

Nothing I have said here seems to be new.  It’s been seen everywhere, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t need to be repeated every so often.

 

What's so 'New' about writing new media

It's an interesting question.  At one point or  another in the past there was always some 'new' media.  Like the new fangled magazine or newspaper that was going to destroy family life because dad wants to check the headlines at breakfast.

Now we have media forms on the internet like:  Myspace (Back in the internet day), Twitter (which I think has put us in ## hell) and Facebook, and blogs of all kinds and all sorts of electronic media.  The only thing that has changed might be the new formatting rules you'll have to learn.

My concern is that sadly after reading Is Google Making Us Stupid - Nicholas Carr - The Atlantic, I have sadly noticed that I can no longer sit and read like I use to.  I find this has a great impact on my school work.  As a cultural studies major we often have to read long boring essays and theories, and I cant sit there and read 25-30 pages in a sitting anymore.  I can't do that if it's the newest release of my favorite authors books.  If it takes more than 30 seconds to load I'm no longer interested. I miss reading a real book, but I can't blame it purely on the internet....being allowed to stream on my television has also helped in this corruption.  Nobody really has the attention span of a gnat nowadays. 

I know this is pretty simple and to the point but that doesn't make it less true does it?