Happy Thanksgiving/Good Luck with Black Friday

New post over at FlipSide for those of you doing Black Friday shopping. Go read!

Happy Thanksgiving 2008 everyone.

Fan-plastic!!!

I just did my speech today about the fantastic plastic and I feel like a lot of this was new information to people. Here are just some of the highlights of my speech.

• Plastic is made from OIL
• 500 billion plastic bags are made each year, worldwide
• The US alone uses 12 million barrels of oil on plastic bags
• Only 1% of all that plastic gets recycled, the rest go to landfills or the stomachs of baby seals.
• It takes roughly 1000 years for a water bottle to decompose
• BPA, a widely used chemical in strengthening plastic baby bottles and cans, can cause cancer, birth defects, and reproductive harm.
• Plastic absorbs and releases harmful pollutants like PCBs and Pesticide.
• The Great Pacific Garbage Patch floats a few miles off the coast of Hawaii and is roughly twice the size of Texas and weighs approximately 3 million tons. This “garbage island” is composed of garbage from Russia, India, China, Japan, and the US. The plastic to zooplankton ratio there is 6:1. 90% of Albatross carcasses found contained plastic in their stomachs.

What are some ways to avoid using plastic?

• Use re-usable bags at your grocery store instead of plastic.
• Use a Brita filter or buy water by the gallons at filling stations
• Buy in bulk with less packaging
• Wrap your holiday gifts in newspaper and twine
• Recycle at home, at work, everywhere
• NEVER microwave plastic

Chew on that.

Procrasturbation

I’m suppose to be working on an 8 page research paper due tomorrow and what am I doing?

Watching these videos.

Saturday 8=>

Prop 8 got passed thus banning gay marriage, but that doesn’t stop Southern California from being flaming! Too soon? Yeah, too soon.

Yesterday I worked a catering job with some friends as a server for a wedding. It was a relatively small wedding; a small reception at the church and a cozy but fancy little shindig at their home. On my feet for 9 hours but it was good work. Hopefully there will be more jobs like this in the future.

Came home with braised short ribs by the pounds.

Boogie on down.

What’s Past And Is To Come

I just did a post over at my other blog, Flip Side, head over and give it a read. It’s about philosophy. Should I update both blogs? I mean, that one is sort of my advice, life lessons, productive blog while this one is my opinion, talk about shit, kind of blog. Should I combine them?

What’s been going on lately?

Burn After Reading was a pretty good movie. The Coen brothers, hate ‘em or love ‘em, are pretty good filmmakers and this was a pretty fun comedy. A spy movie built on affairs after affairs and a very intricate web of lies tied in with many very strange coincidences gives this movie a dark, twisted humor. I especially love the conversations between the CIA members regarding the whole situation. Go give it a watch at the Regency Academy Theatre in Pasadena for $2.00.

Went to Amoeba Records yesterday and I must say it’s a pretty big place. I would love to have purchased some cheap LPs except for the fact that they are IMPOSSIBLE to look through. Sure $2 vinyls sound great but not if you have to search through a stack of a hundred Barbara Streisand Holiday albums. Got a Ryan Adams CD for myself, good buy, good music.

Pretty excited for next Saturday. Going to be working a catering gig for a friend as a server. I’ve read my Fight Club and I’m ready to pee in some soups.

Hail To The Chief

It’s been a very long campaign, a very tiring battle with a lot of boiling blood. I’m glad that it’s finally over and now I’m ecstatic about the future. We’ve all imagined what it’ll be like if Obama won the Presidency; picturing him reclining in the Oval Office, raising his right arm on inauguration day, but still it hit me so hard seeing the headline on CNN. Obama wins presidency. It was a sudden wave of emotion that swept over me, not to sound like a sound byte or a commercial, it was as if hope began to stir in me as I watched the news. Especially for me and my family, the hardships we’ve come by and the change that awaits us. Watching Reverend Jesse Jackson, an African American  who himself have ran for Presidency, cry tears of joy moved me. What a historic moment this was. Centuries from now, children will open textbooks and learn about Washington, Lincoln, FDR, Obama, and only imagine what it would be like to have been alive at such a time. I was a little teary eyed to witness such an event. The entire country, the entire world all held its breath to see who the most powerful man in the world will be. I also liked Senator McCain’s concession speech. We all can agree that Senator McCain is a good guy, a good politician, and a national hero who has been antagonized by the GOP. Palin’s still not an adequate candidate for VP. But I’ve realized now that it’s not really McCain I dislike, it’s those propaganda driven voters I dislike.

I am not disappointed that I was unable to vote in the most historic election of our lifetime. I was not indifferent; I said what I needed to be said and campaigned for change. I honestly feel like I have voted just by being active and voicing what I believed in whether I am an American or not. Despite what paperwork says, despite birthrights, despite culture, despite law, I call myself an American. Though I am stripped of many liberties and many rights that are only granted to US citizens, I am grateful for the opportunities that have been given to me here. I do not see myself as a citizen of Taiwan nor do I see you as a citizen of the United States. We are citizens of the world divided. There is no difference between me and you for we are all human, we are all the same flesh and bone, we are all made from the same clay.

To the republican voters, the McCain supporters, the elephants, the GOP, this was a long fought battle and I am sorry that so many tempers had flared over time. The USA has been polarized during this election but as a new president emerges, we must break our walls and stand behind our Commander in Chief just as Democrats did behind Bush. Like Voltron, we must come together like lions and work as a unified body.

On a side note, I had an assignment to predict which states will go to whom by gathering sources online and studying polls. It turns out that I predicted this election 100% correctly. I’ll be getting some extra credit points, thank you very much.

God Bless America.

photo courtesy of grizzly_lightning

‘08AMA: AMERICA MUST ACT

Today is election day. Everyone who is able to vote must do so. Please.

You can head over to CNN.com to keep up with the polls across the nation. Remember, all we need is 270 electoral votes to paint the White House Barack. After really really analyzing the polls, McCain must win all of the swing states to pull one of the biggest upsets in voting history (Don’t fuck up, Florida). And young voters out there, every election year, analysts warn about the great power vested in young voters across the nation and the greatness in their numbers. Problem is, every election year WE DON’T DO SHIT! Let’s speak up a bit, yeah?

I’m looking to have an election party or something tonight. Get some chips, some salsa, have a few brews, party hats, streamers, the whole shebang. The last poll to close is Alaska at about 10PM Pacific Time, but I think we’ll know for certain who’s president before that. Remember, 7PM is your deadline to vote! DO IT.

Weekend Update

• Movie: W
• Book: Metamorphosis
• Event: HARD FEST Halloween

W. was a pretty good movie. I’m not very familiar with Oliver Stone’s work but it seems like he like doing biopics a lot. His earlier work Nixon was highly acclaimed but was made in a much different light than W. Regardless of your political party, your stance on Bush politics, your conspiracy beliefs, your putrid hatred for George W, it’s still a pretty good movie and very funny in it’s portrayal of the rest of the cabinet.

So I got through Kafka’s Metamorphosis pretty quick and it was a pretty good read. It takes some time to fathom what the story is trying to say and a little effort to look into the animal itself. Many believe that some things get lost in translation when you read the english version but I believe I got the full jist of it.

I was Speed Racer for Halloween. Zoom.

By the way:

Elections are this Tuesday. Polls open at 7AM, closes at 7PM. DO NOT wear your Obama or McCain(guffaw) shirts/buttons/paraphernalia. If you have work or classes, get there early. Do not get complacent; go when the polls open. Be prepared to wait at least 20 minutes in line. This is going to be the biggest turnout in voting history so drink lots of water and wear sunblock. Just kidding.

Who’s up to hold an election results party?