I recently came to hear about Demin Day, here is a short history:

Denim Day began in 1999 as part of an international protest to an Italian High Court decision to overturn a rape conviction because the victim was wearing jeans.  The Court stated in its decision that "because the victim wore very, very tight jeans, she had to help him remove them….and by removing the jeans…it was no longer rape but consensual sex." Enraged by the verdict, within a matter of hours the Women in the Italian Parliament launched into immediate action and protested by wearing jeans to work. Inspired by this show support and solidarity, every year in April (Sexual Assault Awareness Month), CALCASA encourages Californians to wear jeans and to gather at the Capitol to express that sexual assault victims are never to blame for their own victimization regardless of the circumstances involved

This is become an annual protest. 

I remember meeting someone who became very angry at discovering that I laughed with Cal Patriot when they attacked people who fought for women's rights.  While I was angry at him for being what I presumed to be irrationally angry, it gave me a shove towards really researching and realizing that while I don't like the way that women's rights leaders are portrayed, their values and goals are not ones which I disagree.

I don't like the term feminist for the same reasons I dont' like the word Atheist.  It has become demonized. 

 

 

I have come to realize:

• There are inequalities
• I do not know how to address them
• I want better for my little sisters

I will be driving up to Sacramento on April 25th from 11:30-1pm.  There will be a speaker, legislators, and more information about sexual assault.  I'd like to go to see what these rallies are like but more importantly, I'd like to go to show my support for other victims and survivors of sexual assault. 

I have room for 3 more in my car if you are interested in going.  If you're busy, I encourage you to read up on the case, and if the cause seems just, wear denim to work or school. 

 

Yay!  Nothing official to do today!  Therefore... I'm blogging. 

I'm throwing a party for my old tennis coach Steve.  I'm happy to see how many people are responsive and would like to attend.  :0)  It will be amazing to see how many lives he has touched. 

My favorite memory of Steve.  When I was suspended, I wasn't allowed to play for a week.  Steve let me practice though.  I remember him asking about what happened.  And of course, behind all my bad decisions was a cute boy and a big crush.  Worse was, more than I was upset about my suspension, about my record, about anything else, I was sad that this guy wasn't talking to me.  This line, I heard, soo many times from him, I can't even begin to describe how slowly it started to make sense.  "Boys are just boneheads sometimes."  Steve was amazing for being extremely understanding during a time when I could hardly even excuse myself.  Steve never asked, but he always listened.  It's funny, when I think about the things I thought and the things I felt in high school, I wish that I could somehow encounter my high school self and slap her... but somehow he was able to, with a straight face, take me seriously, give sound advice and be kind.  I think that Steve has helped me develop into the person I am today and helped me define the person I want to be. 

Anyhow, that is only one of the memories I have Steve during my high school years.  I know there are hundreds more girls and guys with similar stories.  Please do come out to the party to share your memories (and snacks! just like homegames!!!)  If you want an evite, please just message me with your email address.  I'll add you on the guestlist.  Thanks!

So I finally went in to volunteer today. 

It was rainy, the kids were asking for help.  I discovered that many of the students in that class had individual problems, a lot of them didn't understand basic rules in math.  At first I was just a little intrigued by how this came about.  Then I felt appreciative of teachers who teach in urban settings.  Then I felt angry that I didn't know how to teach why this kid why 42/ a = 7 is the same as 42/7= a or 7*a=42.  Some kids, its easy, you show a couple examples, you draw some pictures, and eventually the numbers and the words connect.  Some kids you just repeat in different words and they get it.  Others, it's all intuition.  But this kid didn't get it.  I asked the teacher what I could do to help her learn it, and the teacher told me... get her to wear her hearing aids. 

Apparently, her mother did not want her to wear them because they made her look different.  The child can't spell, doesn't understand grammar, can't follow lessons because all of these things are learned, are understood with some degree of intuition based on experiences with them, that is, using them, hearing them, sounding things out.  She is behind because she CANNOT HEAR.  Moreover, not doing well in school has banded her with the so-called bad kids and her attitude has been on the decline. 

The special ed teacher walked in on us and I sat in during their meeting about what to do with this child.  It is amazing, how they address issues of each disabled child.  They track all subjects, social emotional progress as well as disciplinary.  They make goals for the month, the semester and the year. I don't, however, feel very hopeful about the meeting of those goals. I found myself sitting there thinking about the best thing to answer, and was continuously surprised by the comments the educators make.  I hate feeling like such an idealistic novice.  The things they were saying were truthful, they were probably politically incorrect and you know what?  They were very practical.  I kept wanting to interject with theory and whatever... but I realized, you know who knew best?  maybe not me. 

What the hell do you guys do on myspace?  I keep coming on hoping something cool has happened but ... no...

I added my friend steven to my top 8 today, cause he is just too cool.  Everyone should be his friend. 

So, now I'm going to blog about hayley.  She's kinda cool too.  Actually, she's totally awesome and I'm glad she's home.  I was getting lonely.  However, i did finally take advantage of her not-being-home-iness.  I had a friend hang out into late hours of the night.  It was great, reminiscent of freshman year and just as tiring as I remember it. 

So... I was hanging out with a new friend this week and he asked me for information about myself.  And you know... I had no idea what to tell him.  I have little special talents, I don't think I'm that unique and further, I don't seem to have enough interesting stories to pull from no where . So, I thought I'd take some time to just blab about myself in this blog and perhaps I'll stir up some themes we can all agree on.  If you know me well and want to add or disagree with anything, feel free. 

I was born in Hong Kong and I have 5 brothers and sisters.  I love my siblings to death and would go out of my way to make them happy.  In fact, that is the way I find myself with anyone I care about, friends, bfs, siblings, sometimes particular strangers have an effect on me that just makes me want to make them happy. 

I enjoy doing a variety of things and am usually pretty happy about being able to know how to do a lot of things to varying degrees of competency. 

I like to develop theories, the most thought out is probably the one on conversations and conversation styles.  They are by no means, groundbreaking but they help me situate myself in life and occupy my mind during long drives. Another thing I think about a lot is our relationships with others, what our influences are and how to best not take people for granted.   I tend to live life believing that it is better to be trusting and honest and being taken advantage of than to be cynical and cautious.  But of course that is really more of a spectrum, I probably need to learn to protect myself a little better. 

My favorite pictures of people are ones where they are laughing. 

I have a thing for freckles and strange teeth (pointy, wisdom, even crooked)

bah this sounds like everything else I ever write... okay, if you don't already know these things about me... you should. 

 

Dave from the pool gave me a tuna sandwich today

I found a can of Redbull on the floor.  I decided I love redbull. 

There is something to be said about waking up before 6 regularly.  Something about the 7am sky is very beautiful.  It is however getting quite cold when I come out of the pool.  I need one of those swimmer's parkas.  :0)  Maybe just a robe.  We watched ourselves swim yesterday on video, I think my form looks pretty good, my teacher said I took a good breath :0)  Though now that I've learned how to pull correctly with my arms, I don't seem to have very much endurance.  I'm working on it. 

So, since I got kicked out and all this other good stuff, I have to say that I'm pretty amazed by the kindness I've encountered.  My neighbors Emile, Kevin and Sharon have been incredible, Sharon providing us silverware when Ellen decided to hide hers from us, Kevin letting us stay in his apartment when we had no where to go.  Both of them for their gifts of dishes, food and helping hands.  They are... wow...  Emile for giving us a place to store things and for offering his room for us to stay in, for treating us to DC buffalo wings to make us feel better.  Steven for helping us all day on Tuesday moving everything into Kevin's apartment and the activities that followed.  David, a guy I barely met, offering his time, his car to help us move things on Saturday.  Chris Sanchez for finding us apartments and offering his friend's apartment to move into while we looked around.  Anthony for offer his help,  my famiily for offering to take time out of their busy schedules to come up.  Jason for offering to help on Saturday.  Hayley's aunt for offering to buy us a sofa bed! Leo for offering to help me move again, even though we hadn't talked for months.  I'm probably forgetting some people too...  I have always had a lot of faith in the goodness of people and i believe that most people would want to offer their time to help, but his outpour of kindness astounds me still.  I think that is one of the reasons I can't seem to stay away from Circle K... it's a constant reminder that kindness and as much as I fight it... *sigh* I love it. 

Okay, so my subject was misleading, all i really wanted to say is, when in the world did all my friends from elementary and highschool get so damned hot? 

There is really some sort of post 18 threshold where people can change from just cute to damned hot.  I think it comes not only from a change in your look, (and style) but it seems everyone is so much more sure of themselves, or have developed so  much personally, it shines through. 

there are several levels of knowing a person, and several ways to determine which level someone is at. One way is how do you recall that person's face... Some people, you can't really remember their face at all. Some, you seem to have one image of that person, and usually, its from a picture you have of them. Some, you seem to have a limitless supply of images. You can imagine them laughing, talking, and stupid faces that they like to make. And the strangest for me, i can seem to remember details, the individual mouths or noses or eyes and everything else, but i can't seem to be able to put it all together. Maybe this doesnt indicate how well you know a person at all... maybe its just the way our memories work. Weird though when you really try to see a person in your head and its not very concrete at all.