Ramblings and Such

- I had the good fortune of talking to one of my best and closest friends today, Bryan. We were musing…ok, moaning and bitching about how things have not turned out the way either of us would have wanted in terms of life at twenty three, and the fact that we can’t necessarily define what it is that we would have wanted. I think he exhibits a healthier attitude towards certain things than I do; he’s more logos whereas I am more pathos. I came into the conversation feeling lethargic and somewhat pissy after a mediocre day of lessons and teaching. I wasn’t on my A game to be sure, and I’m afraid it translated into the students being more apathetic than usual. I left the conversation feeling much more uplifted than I did coming in to it. Thank God for good friends.

If you’re wondering what he said to cheer me up, btw, it can be stated as simply que sera, sera. Nnneeeeeeee!!!!!

We’ve been friends for quite a long time, since 2000 I believe. We shared 8^th grade math together with Mr. Smith, who himself was quite a character. He referred to me as “buckethead”, for some reason. I guess my head looks like a bucket, I don’t know. I’m not exactly certain what brought on the conversation, but our friendship started when (I guess) I had mentioned something about watching a movie in which the main character was on a 747 and the flight attendant literally threw herself on him (“Would you like coffee, tea, or me?”), hit the good foot, and did the bad thing. For whatever reason, he didn’t give me that “What the hell are you are talking about?” look that I’d been used to for some time, and instead replied “I guess that was PAM AN Airlines!”, making a play on words from Pan Am. Two algebra lessons and twenty other crap jokes later, we were best friends. Still are to this day.

- It’s not an overstatement or an invitation to ethnocentrism to suggest that Korean society is homophobic. For whatever reasoning, many Koreans to this day won’t even acknowledge gay or lesbian people as having a different orientation from heterosexuals; they simply need a vaccine or something to cure their desires of whatever ails them. The influx of Evangelical Christianity on the peninsula certainly hasn’t made things easier for our brothers and sisters here, to be certain. Yet all the men wear man purses and spend countless hours doing their hair. Thus, there’s a new term to be invented: “He’s not gay; he’s Korean.” God love ‘em.

I had a girl in class today that had a pencil case with an English caption on it. It read, “Happy Virus.”

…

Think about that one for a second. Happy Virus. Two words that should not be thrown together, like blue apple, or Jersey Shore. One of the most entertaining parts of Korean society is the bad English that’s strewn along the t-shirts, backpacks, and other garments that most people wear.

Then again, Happy Virus does not measure up to the best line I’ve seen so far on a t-shirt: “I’m sorry, but I do not accept credit card.” Oh, honey, you’re just opening for business, aren’t you?!

On the lighter side of things, my mother is appearing in a number (at least 2) of commercials on behalf of the Titus campaign/AFSCME, attacking Joe Heck for his record on various issues. Whether or not the ads are effective, one thing is certain: Phyl is a star.

Back in 'Merica, Thinking about Tomorrow.

It’s been an interesting, invigorating, and reflective last week. I’ve been back Stateside visiting friends and family in Las Vegas and in Upstate New York, while also taking a side beach trip to Southern California. The break has been very much needed, but what I really need is a break of different sorts; I need a mental break. It seems that at any given moment, there are about 4 or 5 things running through my mind that cause me stress, delight, confusion, joy, angst, hunger, depression, and amazement. Perhaps this is the case for most people and they just don’t readily admit it, or perhaps I’m a few prescriptions away from being labeled as certifiable. I think a lot of it has to do with being 23 and wanting to do a lot while not knowing what exactly that is. I’ve found it useful to compile a short-list of the things that I want within the immediate 2 years and the coming 5 years: to be debt-free, conversational in Korean, more knowledgeable in history and politics; and, perhaps most importantly, learn how to relax and not let my wandering meandering mind control me. Speaking of the meanderings, here are the Top 5 thoughts running my head the past couple of days:

Marx was right – history is the tale of struggle between the wealthy and everyone else

Since high school, I’ve read textbook accounts of life for the ancients, during the medieval periods of European history, during the Industrial Revolution, etc. Basically, life for most people was a dreadful existence. Depending on your lot in life and the time period in which you inhabited, you were either a slave, serf, or common worker disposed to dreadful conditions. Oh, and you had to battle the common afflictions of malaria, dysentery, and plague-themed diseased. To be certain, we don’t have all of that in the West today as once existed…at least in the sense that general human existence isn’t perilous. But the metrics for judging the progression of a society (wholly subjective, I grant) indicate in large measure that things haven’t really changed all that much. The wealthy still control the world – not just exert wide-ranging influence, but control.

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

This gives you some idea as to how wealth is spread.

In the US, a mere 10% of the population wields 85% of its wealth. Now the more politically conservative and ideologically capitalist segments of society would roll their eyes in contempt for a person even bringing that number up. For whatever reason, they seem to find that it’s fair a few hold the lion’s share of the GDP pie. Is it really fair that everyone else – most of whom contribute to that GDP and wealth creation – don’t get to share in the prosperity? In the last twenty years, wages have remained stagnant, and even declined for most people if you account for inflation. At the same time, healthcare and education costs have skyrocketed, BUT the United States has seen some pretty fantastic growth in the money pot overall; that is, there is more money to go around due to the hard work and increased productivity of most people. Yet we don’t all share in it. The story has been that the rich have gotten richer and everyone else has been ignored and shouldered to the side. The 2001 Bush tax cuts and the Capital Gains cuts of 2003 are examples of this, with their havoc being wrought on the federal budget further proof that the Republican Right doesn’t care for anyone with a net income of less than $1 million. Then again, the Democrats haven’t exactly been inspiring anyone as of late.

So more money is being created (even seeing healthy 5% GDP growth at some points during the generally dark Bush year), yet wealth is being even further redistributed from the bottom 80% on up. That’s a funny little phrase, redistribution of wealth. Why do those on the left seem to clench their lips when getting in that discussion or debate? I would personally welcome it. Pres. Obama got in trouble by saying that we need to “spread the wealth” to Joe the Plumber (isn’t he a correspondent for FOX News now?). Something is a miss to me about what all the fuss is about, given that so many kids can’t get a decent education, retirees‘ pensions and social security are in trouble, and we have people dying due to lack of health insurance. Do we really want to live in a society that celebrates the glamour of a few at the expense of everyone else? Then again, much of the inequities in the system can be placed on the people in the Republic, for only half vote, and many that vote end up voting against their own economic interest due to things like guns, gays, and God (who’s just ecstatic that our society doesn’t seem to value the sick or poor like those damned agnostic Europeans). In this sense, the Democratic Party should have our sympathy on the left – how can you convince people to vote for you if they’re willing vote against themselves?

I just don’t know.

There are a few things that I know, a lot more that I don’t.

I know that I’m very tall and freckly, and that for whatever reason I get on well with most people.

I *know* there is a God, that He/She/It/Platypus is beyond comprehension (which is more than just a convenient cop-out to not explain things), though I don’t know why God makes it so difficult to locate Him/Her/It/Platty.

I don’t know what I want to do with my life. I don’t even know what not wanting to do with my life even means, except that it gives me far more problems than I should let it…especially in light of the fact that every voice of reason around me tells me to shut the hell up and quit the bitching over the worrying (though the voices do so in ways much more tactful and elegant, to be certain).

I don’t know what the purpose of my life is to be, and I do know that I find it particularly frustrating because any well-lived life requires a purpose, whether the person living that life creates his or her own purpose or finds an “external” purpose to which he or she attaches to.

I know there are people in my life whom I love very dearly. I don’t know why one or two of them has had such a profound effect on me, particularly when the love was not returned in kind.

I don’t know why the only place to get a sandwich at the Syracuse Airport is before security and not after. Seriously, Kitty wanted a pastrami.

I don’t know why I sometimes refer to myself as Kitty. It gets disturbing and ridiculous for some, I’m sure.

I don’t know why I feel better for laying all of this out there. I just know that I do.

I need chipotle. NEED.

I have a 6am to SFO and then an 11am to Seoul this Friday; I will need massive Chipotle burritos to bolster my spirits and see me through.

Marriage is (mostly) a sham heteronormative construct.

Think of all the married couples you know, and the people that have been together a long time in your lifetime. How many of them made it work? Like actually made it work? The kind where they’ve been together beyond something that could be labeled as co-dependency or doing what was required of them? I can only think of a few. Perhaps that’s because the idea of marriage as this holy great thing is a big load of crap. Jesus was never married, and I never remember reading anything in the Bible that spoke of marriage as being something elevated beyond chastity (though I’m certain to be corrected…and I welcome it!)

I love apple pie.

Seriously.