Meditation2

My brother did say my hair looked very anime

Uh, was my hairstylist checking out Aeon Flux production photos when he cut my hair?

This is so messed up

Ugly images of Asian rivals become best sellers in Japan
by Norimitsu Ornishi of the NY Times.

A young Japanese woman in the comic book "Hating the Korean Wave" exclaims, "It's not an exaggeration to say that Japan built the South Korea of today!" In another passage the book states that "there is nothing at all in Korean culture to be proud of."

and

In "Hating the Korean Wave," a young Japanese woman says, "It's not an exaggeration to say that Japan built the South Korea of today!"

and

The book describes China as the "world's prostitution superpower" and says, without offering evidence, that prostitution accounts for 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

That is fucked up.

Holiday Give and Get

Ah, the holiday buying season has officially begun and I've already gotten gifts for two people. Isn't internet shopping the best?

Here's a bunch of cool stuff to give and get:

1. Art from your own DNA 2. Worn by Scarlett Johansen in Lost in Translation 3. R2D2 rocks out 4. Non-girlie jewelry

1. $300 pencil sharpener 2. Ties for preppy pirates 3. Calculator watch 4. Flip clock

Chuck from dooce.com is the cutest dog and definitely deserves his own calendar.

Edit 12/1/2005: Dude, what the eff was I thinking? This stuff is clearly way too expensive...

RSS feed added

Added a feed of my latest Yelp reviews and changed the way my Upcoming.org listings were published. (No more Feedroll.) I used Feed2JS which is a JavaScript RSS viewer. It was a bitch to get the CSS to look the way I wanted it too look so I gave up and stopped when my design looked like I could live with it. Maybe I'll try tweeking it again later. (I forgot to add it to the rest of the individual and monthly archive pages but I'll get to it eventually.)

I found a Movable Type Plug-in called MT-RSSFeed, a "free RSS parser for Movable Type that provides a series of tags for retrieving an RSS feed and inserting it into a MovableType template." It sounds like it might make publishing RSS to my blog easier. Hrmmm...

We're bringing our TI-83's and taking over!!!

The New White Flight, Wall Street Journal article on whites moving out of certain high pressure and prodominately Asian-American high schools. They mention Lynbrook and Monta Vista in Cupertino. My parents tried to buy a house there so I could go to Monta Vista. I'm glad, for a wide variety of reasons, that I did not go to Monta Vista.

The white exodus clearly involves race-based presumptions, not all of which are positive. One example: Asian parents are too competitive. That sounds like racism to many of Cupertino's Asian residents, who resent the fact that their growing numbers and success are causing many white families to boycott the town altogether.

and

Ms. Gatley, the Monta Vista PTA president, is more blunt: "White kids are thought of as the dumb kids," she says.

WTF?

Thanksgiving stars

capricorn (Dec. 22nd-Jan. 20th)
You'll have trouble hiding the way you feel. An overwhelming urge to spend every minute with someone you meet will take you by surprise. The stars say, Go for it! That means accepting the Thanksgiving diner invitation to meet the potential future in-laws. It does not mean showing up unnanounced on Thursday with a cornucopia ice sculpture.
-- by em and lo

"Diner invitation"? What a high class Thanksgiving I will be having. Silly Em and Lo.

Winter travels

Seriously, Antarctica (it's a cruise ship) or New Zealand?

I don't know where I'm going with this but...

A lot of people think I'm someone I'm not-- even people who have had an opportunity to get to know me. I went to a psyhic once that told me that people often misunderstand me. If psychics only tell you what you want to hear well they're sure doing a good job of it. It's funny because I don't feel that I'm hiding anything from anyone. Generally, I'm not overly self-conscious about my behavior, body language, or words. I don't try to cover up anything and people still get the wrong impression of me.

Perhaps it's because I don't want to ever rub my whatever-it-is-that-I-am into other people's faces. I sort of like that people forget that I don't eat meat-- it reminds me that I'm a doing a good job of allowing people around me to be who they are while at the same time sticking to what I think is right (while remaining open to discussion, of course).

When I was younger I was an indiscriminate chameleon, changing myself to match my surroundings without thinking about whether or not those were the kind of surroundings I wanted to be in. It was my goal to disappear.

And now? I don't want to change so quickly. I want to be aware of all the tiny details around me but I don't want to mimic them anymore. If I stand out, all the better. Standing out means all my little idiosyncrasies will be highlighted. If they're problems, then I'll have to face them.

Maybe I'm not that brave yet but at the very least I'm thinking about it.

Boohoo: boo boo

I think I broke a bone in my foot. I'm limping. This sucks. I don't understand the ways of health insurance. That is all.

Free Custom T-shirt

I'm still looking for people to participate in my Graphic Design Thesis on T-shirts. The absolute latest I will be taking photographs for the project is December 10th (the sooner the better).

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Hello my San Francisco friends,

I'm doing my Graphic Design thesis project on using the T-shirt as a means of personal expression* and I need volunteers in San Francisco to help me out. In exchange for your time and effort you will receive the t-shirt you authored in December.

How to participate:

1. Answer a question
I'm giving each participant a blank white t-shirt. On the t-shirt will be your answer to this question: What do you want your t-shirt to say to the people around you? Please think carefully about your answer and answer truthfully.
Message (email_monica at yahoo dot com) me with your answer and tell me what American Apparel size t-shirt you wear (I only have girl L and unisex L-XXL left). See examples here.
T-shirt size chart: Girly and Unisex

2. Have your photo taken
After I get your answer, I will make a t-shirt for you (assuming I have your size available) with your answer written on it. Then you will need to come to my studio (AKA my apartment) to have your photo taken of you wearing your t-shirt. This will only take 15 minutes. My studio is located near USF/Panhandle in San Francisco.

3. (optional) Attend show and see my final piece
Come to the Thesis exhibition at the California College of the Arts in SF (evening of Dec 16th) so you can pick up your free t-shirt and check out my final project as well as other students' projects.

If you cannot do Parts 1 and 2, do not participate. I paid for these T-shirts myself so I don't want to make a T-shirt for you that will not be used for the project.

Let me know if you can help me out with my project.

Thanks!

*My current thesis statement:
MASS PRODUCED NO MORE: Take back your T-shirt
When James Dean wore a white T-shirt as outerwear, he made a powerful statement about his place in society. Nowadays, the T-shirt, usually emblazoned with the logos and commercial slogans of companies, has become yet another form of advertising; our T-shirts are spreading the messages of others. By giving many people that are a part of my everyday life an opportunity to write their own personal statement onto a T-shirt, I hope use the T-shirt to make an impact again— to show that people have something to say.

Cover Stripes

I just downloaded the White Stripes cover of Tegan and Sara's "Walking With a Ghost." I love the White Stripes and I love Tegan and Sara but good lord that cover is not good. It was worth the 99 cents to check it out though.

Technie-music woes

Grrrrr. So I bought the new Franz Ferdinand album which is a DualDisc CD/DVD (and also comes in a jewel box with a curved side). I tried to slip it into my PowerBook's drive but it wouldn't slide in easily. I need to rip it so I can listen to the album with my iPod so I gingerly tapped it in. It went in and then it popped right now. Grrrrrr. Goddamnmotherfucking... I knew I should have just bought it from the iTunes store where it is $7 cheaper. The slip of paper in the case that explains the DualDisc says that it will not work in a limited number of CD and DVD models. It just had to be the PowerBook, huh? Fuck me. Grrr!

The Deftones CD I bought also would not rip but I think it won't work because it's too old. Gaaah.

Time to return CDs to Amoeba.

Adventure Monica

I've been stingy with the details of my life in recent months but maybe I'll get back into it. I dunno. We'll see.

1. Artist Monica
Depending on which instructor of mine you ask, I'm neither doing well on my Thesis or soon to be failing miserably. I like to think that I'm doing well. If you want to participate in my Thesis go here. You need to be able to come to San Francisco to my place to participate.

2. Las Vegas Monica
Over Halloween weekend I went to Vegas with some friends. We stayed at Treasure Island, ate at two amazing restaurants (Nobu and Bouchon), saw Zumanity, and danced at Drai's. Here's the most hillarious ride photo you will ever see.

3. French Maid Monica
I don't care what people say, Halloween in the Castro is still the best place to go on Halloween in San Francisco. The best group costume? The Aqua Teen Hunger Force crew. I had put together a Madonna costume ("Like a Virgin) but decided against wearing it so I wore my French maid costume again.

4. Whistler Monica
I learned to whistle!

5. Sporto Monica (Now, for some really amazing news.)
I WENT CLIMBING. [insert your gasps of amazement] I should have taken a camera and had my photo taken while I was climbing. For a while now the boy has been suggesting climbing to me but I've been scared to do it because of my serious lack of athleticism. I had kinda sorta wanted to do it but I have doubts about my abilities. Anyway, I was conviced by the boy's friend that it would be fun to go to Mission Cliffs with his girl as a double date so I said yes and on Sunday afternoon we went. I did fine! I even made it to the top of the wall-- TWICE! I even went bouldering (climbing short distances without ropes). So, I admit, it was fun and not that difficult. Teehee.

6. Adventure Monica
I managed to win free tickets to the Adventure Travel Expo so I went to check it out to get ideas for a fun trip to take this winter. I'm so lucky! So many places to choose from!
Argentia?
New Zealand?
Australia?
Peru?
Chile?
Thailand?
Bhutan?
Nepal?
Antarctica?
Where should we go???

I should definitely be sleeping now

But my friend kept sending me links to cool and ridiculously expensive houses in San Francisco. My brother informed me today that Mega Millions jackpot is over $200 million now. If I win, I'm buying this place.

YES! Another T-shirt blog!!

A Piece of Shirt
They also sell $10 blank American Apparel T-shirts! That's $5 less than the American Apparel Stores sell them for.

Who needs E?

20050902 Devin at North Beach Pizza By Mmmonica.
I finally signed up for a Flickr account but I only put up a couple images so far to test it out. If any of you also have a Flickr account I'd love to add you to my contacts. Here's my URL: www.flickr.com/photos/mmmonica

Designer Colors

My former design teacher's, James Victore, favorite colors.

Old School High Tech

There was a time when a landline spiral corded telephone was ridiculously high tech. I guess it's still that time.