happy three headed dog

new beginnings

2008-08-25T06:09:00.000-07:00

it's been a while since i've posted, and bryan, if you are still reading, this blog's for you!

it's been a whirlwind since i've graduated, the summer has been ridiculously hot and unforgiving and i've been teetering on the edge of basketcase-ness. but here are a few things that have been in my orbit

my new dog francis

he's a pretty cute dog, but has been blessed, or cursed with boundless energy. we are still in the "getting to know you stage," or in doggie terms, "sniffing ass stage," but i am confident that we will both emerge victorious. we've been going to puppy kindergarten, learning our commands, and trying to go to consecutive days without any accidents.

michael phelps

i along with the millions of other americans fell in love with him over the summer. i realize my penchant to get situational crushes, so i imagine this love affair will end quickly now that olympics have officially ended. but if he ever wants to starts a non profit organization dealing with inner city kids and their eating habits, he should call me.

Equus

i'm going to new york in a couple of weeks to see daniel radcliffe's elder wand on stage. since warner brothers is withholding hp6 until july, a brooding harry potter wil have to do.

finally, the cho show

the show is amazing, smart and will make you pee yourself a little.

STFU Florida and Michigan

2008-03-06T09:48:00.000-08:00

Your selfish and completely unnecessary decision to move up your primaries to be one of the "cool" states blew up in your face. You are responsible for invalidating the combined 5 million or so votes in your respective states.

hey condi! listen up...

2007-12-03T13:21:00.000-08:00

amazing piece by the nyt editorial board about the departure of michael guest, former ambassador to romania.

you can read it here .

c'mon condi, take one for the team...

i wonder if he needs a campaign manager...

2007-11-01T07:46:00.001-07:00

Stephen Colbert, my new presidential candidate

what a great movie. watch this movie.

2007-10-22T19:49:00.001-07:00

i just came back from a showing of for the bible tells me so . it's amazing. you hear all the religious babble from both sides, the verses, the retorts, but the movie presented the facts in such a way that wasn't pretentious or entitled. i wasn't in a sermon, but it was honest and heartfelt. i felt it began to repair the rift that comes with being religious and gay. if for anything, watch it for the first 5 minutes of the film. seriously.

in the movie, there is an image of a man holding a sign that says god hate fags outside a church when new hampshire consecrated the first gay bishop in 93. i had such a strong reaction to this. it just makes me so incredibly angry, which is a shame because the message i got from the film was love, love, love. great message, but i can't embrace the message, especially toward ignorant people who do ignorant things. i can't move past it, embody jesus to teach or be patient with them. i simply cannot and will not.

i think one the best lines in the film was one a reverend said (something to effect of) maybe there was a reason why only a select group of people should be able read the bible because the general public will make a mess of it and misinterpret it. that line really resonates with me. i realize and appreciate that an endorsement of this statement is classist, and privileged and everything else that i'm generally against, but i right now, i'm stuck and can't move beyond that, but i applaud those who can and do and make movies about it.

Screw You ABC!

2007-10-04T10:35:00.000-07:00

I recently read an article about ABC's insensitivity to Filipinos in a season premiere episode of Desperate Housewives. How anyone signed off on that episode is beyond me. I can't believe how anyone involved with that episode thought that was a good idea. Listen, I know all about dog lapping and outwardly conveying your support for things in your head you know is stupid, especially to people above you and have direct influence over your job, but to agree to write, produce and star in something so inflammatory and degrading and dismissive. that's just fucked up. i would like to think that i would cease kissing ass if i new my actions would directly and adversely a large group of people and say something, anything to change the course of the product.

my mom is a filipino doctor and i have witnessed first hand how hostile and insensitive the medical community in the US can be toward foreign doctors. we don't need a television show (and a crappy television at that) to affirm bogus ideas of the quality of healthcare from a provider who studied overseas. there is a huge filipino population in the healthcare industry, not only including doctors, but extending to nurses, technicians and other workers in the hospital themselves.

you know what, fuck you abc and your claim to be diverse and sensitive to cultural differences. while i applaud your apology, although brief, i feel you need to put your money where your apology is and

a). create scholarships for filipino americans so they can get college degress(preferably in mass media so that can snatch your job from under your fat white ass)

b). invest in some hard core diversity training for your writers, producers and actors

c). invest in some job training so writers can produce something truly creative and not rely on cheap, shitty, racist statements to get a cheap, shitty, racist laugh.

what totally sucks is i know the reach of media, and while a majority of people can distinguish between fiction and reality, there are still people out there, who cannot, and who do rely on these media clues to form an opinion.

grr. so sign please sign the petition

what do you get when you google yourself?

2007-10-03T14:54:00.001-07:00

inspired by the following article , i googled myself to see what potential employers and/or dates see as impressions of me:

1. 2001 Daily Texas article over student government . In my defense, it was 2001 and I was a bratty, entitled undergraduate.

2. LBJ Journal Editorial Staff . A little more promising and not as bratty or entitled.

3. Friendster Profile (thankfully set to private)

4. 2001 Daily Texan article of Pride Week . Great picture of me with a shaved head. Awesome.

5. 2002 Daily Texan article over an awards banquet .

Weird. The Internet is scary sometimes.

ha ha ha no child left behind

2007-10-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

during my interview with teach for america, they asked me how the organization
and its mission fit into my professional goals. i replied that i was always interested in policy, especially related to education, but i felt the need to experience education policy in action before i could fix what was broken. in my two years in the corps, i experienced a lot of broken things. i saw classrooms that were under resourced , thousands of dollars spend on standardized test study guides geared toward my high school students who were barely reading at a seventh grade level, private companies overtaking schools with promises of change, but really concentrating on how to make a profit. i saw first hand how no child left behind really meant not leaving *certain* children behind. my students in the inner city,
were left behind every year, despite my best intentions otherwise.

so i get excited when other people, far more eloquent than me, join in
this discussion of the broken
education system . i completely agree when ravitch mentions
that state and cities know their schools better and know what methods
and practices are effective in achieving success. i find it problematic
when policies are written to the lowest common denominator (failing
schools) and don't take into consideration the locality of these
failing schools or assume what works in one district surely must work
in the next.

i'm not saying that each case is radically different or that there aren't similarities shared among failing schools. issues like acquiring and retaining quality teachers, funding, finding ways to challenge and inspire students are common, but as policymakers, we have to appreciate the nuances that surround each district. as i found in simply teaching on both the east and west coast, the method in which education plays out in the community is dramatically different.

no child left behind is analogous to buying one type of cream and applying it to all your ailments: a broken foot, the common cold, menstrual cramps, chylamidia, the flu, allergies and cancer. no child left behind isn't the wonder drug that is going to cure this country's broken public education system, if anything, it continues to exacerbate it.

dammit

2007-09-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

well, the public has spoken and the barry bond's 756 ball is not going to space as i repeatedly voted for the past 10 days. it's going to cooperstown with an asterisk . boo.

long live the cupcake!

2007-09-25T19:41:00.000-07:00

oh holy shit. i think everyone knows how obsessed i am with cupcakes. i think they are so super cute and fun to make and come on, who doesn't like receiving and eating a cupcake? they are like a ray of sunshine with a cute paper bottom.

so i get super excited when other people share in my joy of the cucpake and thank you 2005 texas legislature for passing the safe cupcake amendment .

soon, we will have an army of cupcake enthusiasts and i couldn't be happier!

happiness is a funny thing

2007-09-25T19:09:00.000-07:00

what a great article in the new york times about the difference of happiness levels among men and women. in case you are wondering, men are happier than women. duh. does this come as a surprise? backing away from my feminist soap box, and not stating the obvious of the lack of gender evolution, i still think that the pull to "have it all" meaning a fantastic professional life and an equally fantastic personal life is still really strong. placing that desire against the backdrop of a male dominated professional sphere, women having "double duty" (caring for children as well as their aging parents); there aren't enough hours in the day.

I especially appreciate at the end of the article (spoiler alert) how he talks about the need for paid maternity leave and universal preschool. hey everyone, jump on that bandwagon!

thank you mayor jerry sanders

2007-09-23T17:24:00.000-07:00

thanks to pinkdome here is an intimate look at a policy maker struggling between his head and his heart. mayor sanders was initially against a city ordinance allow same sex couples to marry, but only recently decided to support it. you can see the evolution unfold here .

i don't get it

2007-09-20T09:51:00.000-07:00

let me preface this by saying, i'm not a lawyer, i'm not anti lawyer because some of the most important people in my life are lawyer.

saying that, what the f judge noel a. ferris

i get being annoyed by people. as my bff tells me all the time, i am the patron saint of eternal frustration, but i feel like my frustration is primarily grounded in wanting to do something else; for example, i get frustrated at drivers who go the wrong way in parking lots because i want to park my car quickly and grab a cup of coffee; what's the judge wanting to do? close this case and move onto another immigrant seeking asylum so she can make them cry too?

nbc hates happy customers

2007-09-20T06:13:00.001-07:00

it was bound to happen sooner or later; two shows that i love: grey's anatomy and the office will going going to tete a tete beginning thursdays later on this month. while i love my tivo and it has treated me well in the past, it lacks the function of recording a different channel than the one you are currently watching. so, i have to commit to a show in order for it to be tivo'd. i hate commitment. sometimes i feel like an awkward love octagon in the office, sometimes i feel like an equally awkward love clusterfuck in the er, i just can't anticipate my moods.

when i first heard about the rumored match up, it didn't bother me that much; i was happy to pay the $1.99/episode of the office via itunes and having them at my disposal. sometimes, on a rainy weekend (or sunny weekend, it doesn't really matter) i will watch them again because it's the perfect 27 minute distraction i need. i don't have the same connection with grey's though; i can't relive their drama again, it hurts the heart. but michael, jim, pam, kelly and ryan? are you serious? bring it.

well nbc said a big fat no that idea . they've decided to pull their line up from itunes because they feel the market will pay more than the $1.99 asking price and itunes refuses to increase their cost. huh. i guess the billions of dollars you make every single day just isn't what it used to be. and even though they will offer downloads to pc (not macs yet mind you, when the fuck will that happen), it doesn't fix the problem of having the shows as my very own.

two steps forward, one step back

2007-09-19T19:49:00.000-07:00

sorry girls, we really only wanted of you.

isn't there some fine print somewhere, that if you do IVF that there is a greater chance of multiple births?

crazy lesbians

really? buying a pram with your combined income of over $100,000 was that distressing?

the cnn video is annoying as well, but i am unable to post it.

Genius

2007-09-18T13:24:00.000-07:00

So Marc Ecko turned out to be the mysterious buyer of the ball Barry Bonds hit to break the record of all time home runs.

He is currently holding an online survey to see what he should do with it. He claims that he will do whatever the public wants.

I voted to send it off the space. How fucking cool would that be?

you should vote too

On a related note, the poor bastard who caught the ball sold it to avoid the potential taxes associated with the perceived value of the ball. That totally blows.