Untitled

MSIWH

2008-05-11T21:46:00.000-07:00

Laleh and I saw Mindless Self Indulgence at the Masquerade Saturday night, and they were as much fun as they've ever been. Their music has evolved in a way that I don't appreciate. Its often grossly overproduced, has slowed down a lot over the years, and about half of the new album is of songs that have been floating around on live albums and recordings of live shows for years. They're still entertaining enough to be worth seeing, and there's still so much energy in the show that its hard to stay away.

Good ol' WH

Afterwards, we chatted with my neighbor's mother for a while before Laleh took off for home. Then Frances and I went to Waffle House where we harassed each other over eggs, sausage, and waffles. Thats pretty much what Frances and I always do wherever we go.

Continuing to prepare for China...

2008-05-07T19:30:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to make my blog more attractive, but finding little more than superficial ways of doing so, like adding photos regardless of their relevance:

Its very difficult to consistently please my millions of daily unique readers. I hope none of them ever feel the tireless anguish each day which I endure; my suffering would thereafter be only in vain.

Earlier today, I boarded the shuttle after my swim to return to Emory. At the last moment, a very nice lady from Nanjing who now studies accounting at Georgia State jumped on. It was the first time I'd seen her since before the new year, and it was never a better time to see her. She remembered that I've been planning a trip to China, and before even saying hello! asked me how it went.

"I leave Tuesday. This Tuesday, I'm so excited."

I listed some of the places I planned to visit. She replied with histories and descriptions. I hadn't realized in our discussions last semester how well traveled she is, but she knew of the German architecture still extant in Qingdao from colonial days, the millenia old public gardens of Suzhou, and other places outside my itinerary like X'ian, her native Nanjing, Wuhan, and Wuxi. It was pleasing to see her impressed with me for knowing where most of those places are.

"I suppose I could go to Hangzhou on the way back from Suzhou... oh, but Hangzhou is south of Hangzhou, so its probably a different train."
Wide-eyed in the retiring sunlight, "Oh! You really do know where they are."
And with a smile, "Yes, I have a map of China on my wall at home that I like to study."

Last night at Dale Carnegie, I learned that trust has two components: credibility and empathy. At this point I'd established credibility pretty well. Without even realizing it, I proceeded in a way that allowed me to show the natural empathy I have for friends.

"How do you feel about all the protests, and the Olympic and Tibet stuff?"
"Oh, I was going to go to the protest at CNN, but [my daughter] was sick. What about you? Did you go?"
"No, I'm not really a protest kind of guy." I thought even when I was a kid that protests and picketing are very childish and pointless, but I understand how people can get wrapped up in them.
"What do you think about Tibet? What do you know about it?"
"Well, I don't know that much about it, but based on what I know, and what I've always known about China since I was a kid, is that Tibet is part of China."
"Oh, I like you very much."
"Yes, well, also, I think the Chinese government is full of liars, and I don't believe what the Tibetans are saying either. I'm not sure China has behaved all that irrationally, though." I didn't mention that I believe Taiwan is and should be a sovereign nation.

She went on to say that China has invested itself in Tibet in unique ways. Many college graduates go to live in Tibet with the intention of staying there for many years in what is geographically and culturally very disparate from the rest of China. They work there in various industries to build the Tibetan economy, making significant sacrifices when they could otherwise be sharing in the indefatigable flow of wealth and prosperity of the east. Now, obviously, the Chinese government isn't pushing college graduates out there because they have such warm, fuzzy feelings about Tibetans. They are intentionally developing economic ties that will make Tibet entirely dependent on them. I have some problems when these kinds of tactics are used in domestic policy, but it is, regardless, the best argument I've heard for Tibet belonging to China. And in the end, I think I effectually garnered her trust through the combination of credibility and empathy.

I spoke with other Chinese friends throughout the afternoon who are equally enthusiastic about my foray into un-Sean-tered territory. Its interesting because throughout the world, while America has been the place to go for so long, there are new amazing places to explore and natives of those places with a newfound pride.

T-minus 8 days

2008-05-05T19:57:00.001-07:00

8 days until I take off for China, and things still haven't come together. This week will be really important for making contacts, scheduling appointments, training, and making last minute preparations. Much of my trip remains uncertain, and that is really exciting. Much of my return remains uncertain, and that is really exciting too. This week, while a preparation for my trip to China is likewise a preparation of a platform for what will happen when I return. This is my my next big push.

That's What She Said

2008-04-25T07:01:00.000-07:00

I never used the "that's what she said" jokes when I was younger, but as an avid viewer of the Office, I have compromised on what used to be a mature, thoughtful demeanor and turned it into... well, this very blog post. Here are a few good ones from the past several weeks:

gchat--
she: i was chatting to my woman about how i had my hair braided at the renfair last weekend and she kept asking me how tight it was/if it hurt putting it in and how long it lasted lol
me : oh really? is... that what she said?
she: LOL

text messg--

james: i have to work but i have sequenced my part already it just needs to be tightened
me: thats what she said
james: who is she?

FACES OF DEATH IS A SHAM

2008-04-20T08:54:00.001-07:00

So I'm watching this documentary on Friday night called "The Dark Side of Porn: Does Snuff Exist?" The title was amusing, to the say the least, suggesting a light side of porn. In any case, its a short clip, about 45 minutes, so I delve in and about halfway through, the director of Faces of Death is interviewed and he announced most of the scenes are completely staged. Although some of the clips are real situations, all of the up close action is scripted. Real video of people out on ledges or otherwise are merely spliced with other video of actors on crudely shot film to make it look real.

Persuaded to have believed its real when I was in high school, some of those scenes have echoed in my mind ever since and terrified me. Bravo, Faces of Death, you son of a bitch. Bravo.

800 miles

2008-04-17T20:12:00.000-07:00

i'm pretty jelicious that vardigan is going to see gang tonight, but its okay. they probably do not brush their teeth.

haha

2008-04-15T19:49:00.000-07:00

also, i loathe this blogging format, and look forward to the summer when i'll have time to design something that people can continue not reading. haha. and end fewer posts with. haha.

eh

2008-04-15T19:34:00.000-07:00

somehow i started having a bad day all of the sudden, and feel just awful right now. somehow i got paranoid about an issue, one of those "ah ha" moments that has failed me many times before, but was nonetheless accurate in the past insofar as realizing there is more going on behind the scenes than i am aware of, but i have no way to verify the last part either.

however, its my dad's 64th birthday, so i will give him a call. its late, yes, but he's a timezone behind, so where he is... its "getting late."

Cracked America

2008-04-05T15:58:00.000-07:00

I couldn't help but marvel at the timing of CNN's program "Black America," a series of documentaries about the history of people of African descent in the United States. I presume it runs the gamut from slavery to segregation to modern day injustices and discrimination.

Remember to look out for Fox News's series on POWs soon.

Vanity Plate I

2008-04-04T11:04:00.000-07:00

I've been awake for about 30 hours now, and it just occurred to me how stupid I've been up to now. So I plan to make long time wrongs right and get a vanity license plate that says "ALF HA"

Cleaning House

2008-03-31T13:25:00.001-07:00

When I was younger, the house was often pretty messy. Both my parents worked and everyone was otherwise busy. There was usually a kitchen sink half full of partially rinsed dishes, laundry waiting to be folded, and vacuuming was always an option.

However, when guests were coming over, it was time to clean. Ironic that we would clean the house for guests and not ourselves, but a messy home is the hallmark of great industry and output, a signature of the ever-productive. The real issue, though, was to market ourselves as both clean AND industrious. A guise of military-grade discipline would supplement our pronouncements of hectic schedules and sleeplessness.

It seems China follows a similar protocol. Guests are coming into town in a few months, so its time to ban public smoking, cull stray animals, restrict the pollution pigs (the counterpart of cash cows?) of 3 quadrillion privately owned internal-combustion conveyances from the arteries of Beijing, and, naturally, to cut western Chinese remonstrances off at the knees.

The parallels between my childhood household and China are remarkable. At one time, an inferior race of whites lived in the shed next to a pool-sized sandbox in the backyard. They were normally pretty docile, but would sometimes raise the issue about exactly where the property lines were drawn, claiming the shed was not on our land at all. We called city zoning officials a number of times over the years to clear up the dispute, but they never responded. One day that old shed just went up in flames. Dad blamed it on lightning on what was a very clear night. Not a cloud in the sky. "Heat lightning," he would explain. We never did hear from the Shedites again.

In 1993, we were forced to issue a public smoking ban when 51% of smokers under 17 in our town reported having had their first cigarette on our property, out behind the old shed. It was a shame, since our property hosted many responsible, of-age smokers who just wanted to have a good time. But a few ruining it for everyone else is pretty common place. Just look at Nicholas Cage.

Observations I

2008-03-30T20:40:00.000-07:00

I learned a few things this week:

Standing in line at the post office, an Emory student behind me was telling his friend:

"You know, I'd really love to live in a socialist nation for a while. Like Germany."
"Yeah, but the tax rates are really high."
"But the great thing is, it doesn't matter, because NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO WITH YOUR LIFE, the government takes care of you when you retire!"

Brilliant, economically responsible citizens Emory is turning out there. Its time to jump on a boat for Euroland to live out my dream of being a junkie, cause no matter what I do with my life... well, refer to comment above.

In other news, I've come across a Jenna Jameson interview on Fox News about her life and career. At one point, the voluptuous Jameson promulgates the empowerment hardcore pornography has imparted on her as a woman. Mystifyingly, she fails to explain exactly how she is empowered by receiving anal sex, fellating a penis smeared with her own feces, and then allowing the agent of empowerment to ejaculate on her face. But I'm sure there is a very good explanation!

Please feel free to leave ideas in the comments and we'll try to send them to her. Thanks!

A Month Already...?

2008-03-23T16:44:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe its been a month since I last posted. I've tried to keep a blog many times, but as compelled as I am to deliver my experiences to my sole and faithful reader... me... I'm always dissuaded by more pressing responsibilities. It's cathartic to write about certain experiences, but catharsis requires distress, so happier times don't demand the same discursive treatment that means so much when I'd rather hide in a foxhole. Those moments are much fewer and farther in between than in the past, so now I find myself stagnating with the contentlessness of contentedness.

I think, however, that getting into the habit of writing about my positive experiences may help to enhance them and extract some ideas otherwise hidden or never born, while honing my composition skills.

I'm pretty much talking to myself now, so click here for something I think you'll really like.

Bad People in a Good World

2008-02-23T19:01:00.000-08:00

I consider myself to be less naive than the average college student, if only because I have a few years on most of them, but I'm a little astonished and badly disheartened after the events of the week.

I stopped at the Twisted Taco on Monday night for a few beers and trivia to celebrate Katie's 21st, and my car got busted into. The window was smashed in using a sock full of stones, evident from a few of which were left on the car seat, and my bag with my laptop, camera, gps, mp3 player, about 275 bucks in gift cards, and some clothing. Most of it insurance will cover, but I'm still out $184 for the window, $100 deductible for the property, and I doubt the gift cards will be covered.

The real damage is in a number of irreplaceables, particularly the information on the computer. Although I occasionally backup my laptop, I hadn't done so for about two weeks. Scores of hours of work is lost, scores of hours of thought and preparation, so some animal could get a few dollars for drugs.

Its vague to me the mentality requisite to looking through people's cars, picking one out to loot, willfully smashing the window in, and then casually walking away with someone else's property. Its beyond my understanding how someone can do that, much less so much worse as people will do, but I do understand that it happens.

Putting my loss to shame, Shanky just got walloped for whatever he had on him in Nairobi last week and has lost potentially irreplaceable function of his hearing and who knows what else. From here, all we can do is hope he's okay, and when he returns, give him every last bit of support we can muster. He may need some real help. I'll recover from my loss in a few weeks, but he could be in it for the long run.

I have some small understanding of what can motivate willful intent of personal violence, but what I have almost no understanding of is why law enforcement permits it. It is not difficult to pick and choose who on the streets are robbing and looting and attacking people. People do not stand aimlessly in parking lots at 2 am because thats where they like to hang out. Identify the people causing the problems, and get them the hell out of the area. In the United States and throughout the world, theres no reason this type of behavior can't be extinguished if it decided that it will no longer be tolerated. Push these people out to the fringes and then snuff them out. You should be home in time for dinner.

Untitled

2008-02-16T01:44:00.001-08:00

I've traveled very little in my life, even in the sense that for several years I hardly left the house. I was more interested in saving my money than moving around to collect experiential capital. But now I find myself zooming around all day, constantly on the move among 4 campuses, or "campi" perhaps.

I work to survive in a laboratory pursuing curative therapy for diabetes and other diseases for which engrafted cells may promote reversal of the offending physiological malfeasance. From there I shuttle to Grady Hospital, a magnet for Atlanta's indigent, which neighbors Georgia State University where I attend classes. It’s difficult to consider myself part of the student body there. I've never assimilated in these past 3 semesters. I sometimes chat with people I recognize from class, but I don't have any real relationships. I feel an intellectual disconnect with most of them, and while there's no shortage of clever kids there, there is certainly no surplus. My only meaningful connections there might be some professors who I've managed to engage.

Throughout the week, I make stops at Georgia Tech, my brother's alma mater, where I have entrenched myself in AIESEC. This is a real whirlwind of a student organization and blows away any others that have come to my attention. It can be described as no less than a microcosm of real world politics, play, pride, and passion. The real value-centers of the organization are never spoken of because they would send you running for your suicide room of a comfort zone if anyone revealed them to you before it was too late to get out. Learning business and leadership skills are what attracted me most to AIESEC, but the opportunity to travel and learn about the world first hand was what sealed the deal. I want not only to learn from others throughout the world, but to teach them about my world as well. This, of course, is a growing mentality among the younger generation of Americans and throughout the world and a mechanism of what is now described as the flattening world.

AIESEC is a different organization to every member. Personally, I'm at odds on a lot of issues with other people within my LC. While "peace and the fulfillment of human potential" is a common vision, it’s become apparent to me that the pathway to and meaning of that vision itself is very different depending on the @er you ask. Therein lies one of the hidden gems of the AIESEC platform, i.e. one of the aforementioned value-centers: the opportunity to learn skills to persuade others to your point of view. In academia, your success tends not be measured by or resultant of your ability to persuade others to your point of view as much as by the addle-minded rigor of debate that often concludes with the serene consensus to agree to disagree. Congratulations on earning your degree, kids, you can now barely discern fact from fiction. Diplomacy and persuasion are some of the most valuable and least acknowledged skills in human endeavor. This is why Henry Kissinger, a maven of persuasion, does not have a bronze statue in a public square yet.

Campus 4 is the office complex adjacent to Perimeter Mall, where I am taking a Dale Carnegie course for the next 10 weeks (I have completed 2 of 12). I have read Dale Carnegies three major works** and many other books and audio programs from achievement icons like Steven Covey and Brian Tracy. (Why these kinds of books are not mandatory reading in public schools, I cannot understand. Schools should be more in the business of teaching kids how to learn rather than what to learn, and that is what much of the success literature genre does.) I am elated to be taking the course because, since I have read the course materials over the past few years, I finally get a chance to put them into practice in an environment designed to help me integrate them into my behavior. I also want to bring what I learn back to my LC. This involves none other than persuading people to take on new perspectives to change their own lives for the better. See? I was right. Ba, da - bah!

About a year ago, I thought to myself that I was in the most dynamic period of my life. Since then, that dynamicism has only escalated. While I am starting to materialize what I have in store for my life, I can only imagine what my life has in store for me. I spiral from campus to campus throughout the week, often frustrated and inspired and exhaustingly energized at the same time, and I usually have the sensation of movement, winding up to launch myself into a maelstrom of personal and extra-personal conquest and change. I'm descending on a flight into Chicago this very moment, looking out over the physical reorganization of land and materials designed to make the environment a better and more efficient place to live. In AIESEC, we move around and reorganize people for the same purpose.

**How to Win Friends and Influence People, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, and The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Public Speaking