| pork buns and bottled green tea |
[Jul. 6th, 2009|08:00 am] |
i was ambling about with my overly-stuffed canvas bags of things i need to bring back to ny, when i was accosted at the steps to the njtransit this morning.
she was super skinny, so skinny that her dirt-speckled jeans sagged at her bottom and thighs, (i knew b/c i was bending down to get something and was first greeted with that image), her hair was a bit greased back, and when i looked up, i saw that her makeup streaked across her face in an effort in vain to brush over the weary look of someone who needs sleep and perhaps some makeup remover.
she asked for 'money, anything to help out,' as it always is. and said that she was homeless for two weeks. i reached into my bag, getting her hopes up, and asked her if she ate pork and forked over a chinese pork bun. as an afterthought, as i was climbing up the stairs, i gave her a bottle of green tea with passion fruit, as she had originally asked for change for coffee. i told her it wasn't coffee but had a caffeine kick, nonetheless. she seemed grateful and since she was the smiley, (though not entirely happy,) coherent type of homeless (rather than the angry, incoherent mumbling type of homeless-- there are many types), i asked her why she was homeless, and she said that she was in an abusive relationship and was kicked out of the house and proceeded to follow that explanation with a shoulder shrug and sheepish grin as if to say "what can you do, eh?" then she went along and asked others for money.
when i got back to my apt later this morning (although it's still early morning), i took my shower. it felt great. more than great. it felt extra gratifying. it's such a privilege to have a nice, hot shower and wipe off the accumulated grime of each day. i took an extra long time lathering and washing off the suds with water in long, exaggerated strokes. |
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| street soccer |
[Jun. 18th, 2009|01:35 am] |
Mi companera de cuarto trabaja por una organizacion, "Help USA" que ayuda los homeless encontrar casa y trabaja y ofrece recursos para ellos por la meta de mejorar sus vidas. Hoy, despues de trabajo, en una decision que hice en el moment exacto de entrar a mi apartamiento, decidi a ir con ella y su esposo a una partido de futbol. (No fue futbol americano, sino futbol.. original.)
El equipo es compuesto de ellos que ahora estan o recientemente estaban viviendo en una refugio (shelter) de los homeless. Fuimos a un sitio donde hay muchas pistas de futbol, de basquetbol... hay una pared para escalar, hay un sitio para hacer gimnasica... en general fue muy grande y llena de deportivos.
Anyway, moving on to English, b/c it's 1:18 am and I have to sleep sometime... after a sweaty game, in which I didn't join, but was just a lowly spectator, we gathered in the loft area to eat and hand out awards for those who stayed and practiced for the season. The members were basically men who were getting their lives together in the shelter (there were no women players in the game today, unfortunately... though some do come to practice) and they're playing soccer to improve their skills, to give them something to look forward to, and to encourage them so that they can achieve a sense of community and fraternity.
There were a bunch of characters though. Almost all asked me where I'm from... if I was Chinese. One guy, who was extremely polite and courteous and seemed soft-spoken, brightened when he found out I spoke Spanish (thanks to my roommate who revealed my secret eavesdropping powers), and then did this sort of hands clapped together bow several times. I kind of did this head nod bow back and smiled, not knowing how I should act in response. Should I reciprocate such an elaborate kow tow? I brought it up with my roommate later and was like, "so... is it b/c I'm Asian that he's bowing like that to me?" and apparently, it wasn't me.. that's just how he greets people. Namaste, indeed. But, he did say he liked females from Asia.. I wasn't sure how to respond to him. I told him to go to Asia to visit or learn an Asian language. I'm always not really sure how to kind of disentangle myself from conversations like that. But, anyway, he seems like a very nice, soft-spoken guy. He was the goalie.
Then, there was a guy who was super pissed about not being put into the game. And he kept saying how the team needed to improve. (Though, I think they're doing great for a team comprised of some people who just learned the sport and some who only practiced together a few times. They have many practices, but not everyone always goes.) But, then he calmed down, had some food, and talked to me about where he lives and where he's from, etc.
A lot of them were born and raised New Yorkers. And some were wondering why I didn't have a Jersey accent if I was Jersey. I think they're disappointed. I am, kind of, too. It would be cool to be that sassy. I'd be intimidating.
The last person I encountered before coming back home (there were others inbetween but it'd take too long to go through an exhaustive list of players) is someone we helped get back to the bus he needed to get on so he could transfer back to his shelter. He has a memory issue, so when I say he literally can not remember things, it means that he really can't remember things. I should never curse my own bad memory, as he asked for my name about 12 times. And adds an "s" sound to the end of all the names he was trying to recite from memory of the soccer team. And I understand about 3/4 of what he's saying, and that's a high estimate, as he was talking about how he puts grease in his hair to make it shiny and the schoolbooks he likes to read. But, he seems like a very nice person, too. Smiles a lot. Has a winning smile. And is fond of conversing in spurts.
I think it's a great thing that everyone is getting together, getting some exercise... the last guy I mentioned who couldn't remember my name.. he said to me that: truthfully, that day was really special for him and a lot of his teammates, as it was the most amount of fun they've had in awhile. He was so sincere and in that moment of lucidity (my word of the week) in expressing his thoughts, he made me think that everyone should have such a team or community to come for support and encouragement and for a sense of connection.
And I really feel like my roommate really strives to work for the greater good, which is sometimes something that gets lost between the lines for people working in the daily grind, farther removed from such unmediated charity. I guess I mean to say that pure, unadulterated goodness, in terms of charity and service, evades many of us. And it's refreshing to see first-hand people making an improvement in their own lives and being proud of what they're doing.
And on a personal note, knowing Spanish seems to be increasingly more and more useful the longer I live in NY. Yay! |
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| am express |
[Jun. 16th, 2009|10:36 pm] |
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i had a pretty long conversation with the customer service guy at american express over the phone about local pittsburg vernacular ("pittsburghese") and home remedies for arthritis. |
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| am express |
[Jun. 16th, 2009|10:36 pm] |
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i had a pretty long conversation with the customer service guy at american express over the phone about local pittsburg vernacular ("pittsburguese") and home remedies for arthritis. |
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| bread dough |
[Jun. 14th, 2009|10:16 pm] |
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i suddenly had a craving for bread dough-- not fresh bread, but the dough. is it weird/cruel to enjoy the taste of live yeast? this is the first time i've consciously acknowledged bread-dough-craving. but, i swear it must be the smell of the live yeast and the pliability of the dough that makes it so crave-able. it's just a yummy combination, though i can't imagine ripping off and eating more than a marble chunk of it b/c i think consuming any more than that probably make me sick. |
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| to forgive (or not to forgive?) |
[Jun. 14th, 2009|09:42 pm] |
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=sorriest-animal-forgiveness
"As in the foregoing experiment, targets forgave both of the apologists equally but expressed lingering anger towards the player who didn’t apologize at all. For the silent observers, however, the person who offered a coerced apology was judged even more harshly than the one who offered no apology at all. Risen and Gilovich point out that this intriguing finding “is consistent with findings from the legal arena, which suggest that apologies may only benefit harmdoers if their responsibility for the harm is clear. When the responsibility is clear, apologies increase the chance of plaintiffs and defendants reaching a settlement. If responsibility is ambiguous, however, apologies can be costly to the defendant because of the admission of responsibility.” The authors suggest that, in the present case, observers may have actually given the harmdoer the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps the phone call was indeed an emergency, or maybe some observers blamed the participant for not being able to follow muddled instructions on the puzzle game—until the harmdoer apologized."
apparently, it may be costly to apologize unnecessarily (coerced apology), as it compromises the integrity of the apologizer (should an observer have doubt of where the responsibility fell).
i'm not sure if this is good advice. in court, perhaps, but i'm not sure about everyday life. i guess since the target forgives anyway, it only matters to the observer. maybe this is the rationale that friends of victims are often more critical towards the harmers than the victims themselves are. |
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| alternative sentencing: economic efficiency AND net gains for society? |
[Jun. 12th, 2009|10:59 pm] |
i've been meaning to write for awhile just to purge the stuff from my brain, which is slowly reaching max capacity (not b/c i have lots of stuff in my head-- okay, well i do, but most of it is clutter. but also probably b/c my capacity has shrunken.. must exercise the organ! crunches, people!)
i went to see an alternative sentencing court today. actually, i said to someone, "i went to court today," and i got a raised brow as a reply, since apparently that just makes it seem like i committed a crime or something.
but, alas, nothing too exciting. though i was sitting on the bench where the offenders were (petty larceny, prostitution, trespassing) and the cops came by and asked other cops if i was supposed to go stand trial.
so, yeah, okay, i lied, it was pretty exciting. so, apparently, judge w is king of the prostitutes, which he means to say is that his court, an alternative sentencing court, has jurisdiction of all the prostitute cases in new york (except on evenings and weekends, which apparently is b/c there's a holding/transportation logistical issue which he says is bollocks, but not in those words). the court was established in 1993 and is a kind of experiment (that has been slowly implemented into courts in the state system) in which defendants receive sentences that not only match the level of crimes, but work towards reforming and rehabilitating (is that a word?) the individual. so, a lot of the sentences are community service-- geared to cleaning up the community-- and social service-- cleaning up themselves. so, those charged with graffiti-ing up the cities have to do community beautifying service, plant trees, paint over graffiti, etc. those who are charged with petty crime or peddling, along with their sentence, may have to do occupational training. those who are charged with prostitution are sentenced to go to health education class.
it's not that these sentences don't exist already, it's just that they are uncommon, but also that they don't come with oversight. in traditional courts, if you get a sentence to do community service, apparently you have to go across the building to register. then, they mail you a slip in which it tells you how much service you have to do and where to go within the span of three months to complete.
for this court, it's about accountability and expediency. so, not only are they given a community service task on site, apparently the compliance rate is high b/c they make it so easy for people to comply to their sentence/ community service.
and apparently it's not a liberal-hipster court, b/c as the judge says, his number one concern first and foremost is law and order and public safety. so they have graduated sanctions, so for repeat offenders who fail to complete their service, the penalty gets higher and maybe he sticks them in jail longer than a traditional court would after the first couple of community service sentences.
so the compliance rate there is 70-80% whereas in the downtown courts with the traditional system, the compliance rate for these types of sentences are 50%. (though i guess one should question how tough the sentence is and the nature of the crimes committed by the people coming in to both. i imagine they have accounted for those.)
he says accountability is important b/c it preserves the integrity of the whole system. if judges don't think that defendants won't comply to their sentences, then they won't hand out those sentences. they have a team of people that keeps track of the defendants to make them accountable. apparently with their partner organizations, that house a staff of 70-80 (not counting the partner orgs, they house about 20), which is atypical. but they need the staff to track the offenders and keep them accountable and apparently on some specific instances they will bring the offenders in to update the judge.
apparently to measure the success of the court, they ascertain how the public views the court and how the offenders feel about the court and whether or not they think they were treated fairly. he says it's a departure from the regular courts who won't bother to track the success or even ask the question.
anyway, we heard a sob story-- well, okay, a chicken-soup-for-the-soul story first-hand from someone who was put into jail from when he was 17 til 36. finally got out about 6 months ago. and he was saying how in jail every two years they check up to see if he can be released, and if he acted up in jail, it gets written up and it all adds up, so for a bunch of times, the moment of truth comes, and he would be rejected and then he'd have to wait another two years before he'd have another chance to plead his case to go free. when he finally got out he was so scared-- he wouldn't go near people b/c he was afraid he'd do something wrong. he said the world changed-- he didn't know how to use a computer, that everyone had a cell phone, and he was afraid of taking the subway-- just interacting with normal people-- ordering food at mcdonald's-- everything was daunting. and he had no connections but criminals and ex-criminals, old friends from jail, etc. and that it was so easy to get back into the criminal life since he was at wit's end. but apparently his sis told him about this court and he stepped in and he said it changed his life and now he's taking college courses at u of phoenix. and he wants to be a psychologist. and he was just recently contracted for a job that pays him $75/hour and he said that stepping through this door has been the best decision he ever made.
i'm such a sucker for these stories-- and i wonder how much is embellished (i hope none!) but regardless, it is an interesting idea. instead of diverting our funds into prisons, which are so expensive, b/c citizens have to pay not only for food, the upkeep, staff, etc. but also things that people don't think of like health care for those incarcerated, etc.-- instead of that, why not put that money into hiring more staff (which is costly, but maybe not as costly as putting people into prison) and have alternative sentences?
clearly, this might not work for bigger offenses. but for pettier offenses, it's certainly better than sticking people in jail, which may be a deterrent, but does little to redirect the people to any other option.
also, i guess this also runs in the line of how i heard someone talk about sentencing in nigeria and nigerians who, say, graze someone else's car with their own are put into jail for these ridiculous sentences and they come out as hardened criminals, as there is so much corruption and there is no implemented system as an alternative. there is no other viable sentecing option-- it's either jail-- or having no punishment to give at all.
certainly, to have the array of different sentencing options is a good tool for society. and though i have a healthy level of skepticism, i think it's an interesting experiment and has proved useful so far, as it is becoming more widely implemented.
one of the staff told me that back in the day when nyc was more rampant with crime, they decided to gut a lot of these alternative sentencing programs, as it was considered too soft on crime. but, now, it seems like in its absence, nonprofits have taken the place of what traditionally the court system would handle-- offering services to ex-offenders, giving support, etc.
what's interesting, too, is that the judge says that there was a due process reform movement at some point in history not too long ago-- in which they looked towards how to ensure a fair process for a fair outcome. but, he believes for these small crimes, what's more practical is the sentencing, as most of these petty offences won't go to a factual determination (as jury hearings only occur if there is a dispute in a meaningful fact.). so, he's saying you can have a process in place, and yes, that's important, but as he says "let's not make the sentencing an afterthought."
all in all, it was pretty interesting, and i'd love to read more literature about the success rate and the practicality of implementation of these types of courts. and maybe get a more balanced of a picture of the range of offenders sentenced and their outcomes, rather than the one star model. but i'm still hopeful.
and i will always have hopefully not-too-blind (or at least peeking out with one eye) optimism. |
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| SJ and JML |
[Jun. 10th, 2009|08:19 am] |
complaint - motion to dismiss - answer - summary judgment - discovery - trial /JML - verdict
i'm not looking at my civ pro notes b/c i left them elsewhere, but i think this is generally how it works to get through a whole lawsuit. filing a complaint to the the trial. i might have a couple things out of order, but i hope not.
what i find interesting is the inherent mechanisms in the system where the decision is taken out of the hands of the jury. Summary Judgment and Justice of a Matter of Law are motions that basically say that the facts of the case are not in controversy.. I forget what it's called-- that both sides agree on the facts, and therefore the jury is not needed, as the job of the jury is to decide on a verdict based on a contradiction of a fact.
trials are expensive and time-consuming for the judges, so they have an incentive for a SJ, which is basically a judgment made without a trial-- basically from affadavits and evidence-- if there are no material issues of fact in contention. the judge must look at it sympathetic to the nonmoving party, which would be the plaintiff, since the moving party would be the defendant who moves to dismiss the suit.
i guess the rationale is that the language in the rulebook says something to the lines of just, expedient, and inexpensive ruling as the goal-- so having a trial when there are no material facts in contention would be neither expedient nor inexpensive, (though some argue it may be more just), so that is why SJ exists, so there won't be so many time- and money-consuming trials. the second rationale must be our view of decisions of juries vs. judges and how easily they can be persuaded, etc.. which is pretty fascinating, considering that there some (many?) countries without a jury system and some countries (like japan) are slowly moving towards a jury system.
it seems that the point of a trial by jury is that it reaffirms our nations' beliefs of the people-- that we are a democracy and that ordinary, individual citizens can make more just, or at least as just, of a decision as an individual with special training on the topic (which is debatable). but some people think that a jury, made up of members of their peers, legitimizes the ruling. and apparently, studies show that regardless of jury vs. judge-- statistically, they end up ruling the same way anyway.
at the same time, the system now has safeguard mechanisms that allow the verdict to be taken out of the people-- even after a jury has made a verdict, a motion for justice as a matter of law can be made (which is basically like the SJ, but with a finer filter), in which case, the judge takes the ruling out of the jury and can decide that there is not one material issue of fact in contention after all.
anyway, i'm not sure why i'm writing about this except i woke up thinking about it-- why some countries don't have a jury system, what a jury system means, what it says about our nations' core beliefs, what it legitimizes, what power it doesn't have, what it says about our own ideas of our fellow peers, its faults, its shortcomings, etc. and basically why we have mechanisms that take the verdict out of the hands of the jury.
i actually got enough sleep so i am somewhat lucent (is that the word? alert?) enough to finally begin digesting what the prof said and awake enough to process it in my just-woken/flintstone writing to some degree-- though, i'm still in the stages of waking up and slapping myself to drag myself out of bed, so i'll probably look back at this and think, wow what was i trying to say?
alright, off to prep for work.
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edit:
my bad, discovery comes before summary judgment, which makes sense b/c the evid needs to be disclosed before use. |
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| the moss-quit-O's are out to get me |
[Jun. 9th, 2009|11:15 pm] |
i had a nasty bulging red souvenir compliments to mr. mosquito (or ms. mosquito) on my leg and someone advised me to put wet clay on it, as it was available all around. i slapped some slip on it, and it immediately felt nice. wet, cool-- took away the itch sensation. then, in like 20 minutes, it dried and the itch crept up under that surface layer of clay crust. and the itch grew. and grew.
and then i discovered two bites on my left foot and one on my right foot-- on my toes and feet! how does this happen? i was wearing shoes the whole day! the same pair! i didn't take them off! i didn't give even a second of exposed feet. did the mosquitos burrow through my sneakers? or... are there little mosquito hatchlings just hanging in there, waiting for me to stick my feet in and become dinner? they've just been cruising in there all throughout the night and sitting patiently as i, oblivious to their scheming ways, become their unwitting prey...?
this is not comforting. ah, so itchy.
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i think rather than water-bend, or earth-bend, it would be cool to particle-bend. then i could like mess with the fabric of space-time and perform complex alchemy. |
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| wahooooooooooooooo! now, to watch it again.. |
[Jun. 9th, 2009|01:56 am] |
SPOILERS!-- major ones, too.
ew, what?! katara totally belongs with zuko. hello-- fire, water?! makes sense, doesn't it?
sigh- what where they thinking? and aang was played by a girl in the play.
that much optimism in a pair could blind someone.
and mei is so subpar (not to mention lackadaisical). i thought she was going to be the sacrifice (the one bad-turned-slightly-good person that was going to get axed). and for the longest time, i thought they were referring to mei as mei b/c she was zuko's younger sis and not b/c it was her name. and i was like ew, major incest probs. it took me awhile to realize that, oh, wait, zuko only has one sister. (the cuhhhrazy one)
anyhow, i want an alternate ending! though the fight scene was good and i am completely content with how the whole "to kill or not to kill" question panned out.
just not so content with how they paired the characters. lammeeeeeeeeee. i refuse to believe it; i'm wiping the last scene out of my memory. deleted.
nope. it's still there. it totally scarred my image of everything. |
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| this level of tired is sure to be a disability |
[Jun. 8th, 2009|08:49 pm] |
i am sort-of attending a month-long law basics course, so on top of my working full-time today, i attended a five hour class on civil procedures.
i can no longer properly think. transforming into a zombie.. |
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| zuko |
[Jun. 8th, 2009|12:27 am] |
is it dumb that i think it's really cool that zuko is voiced by a filipino-am actor?
he has good voice quality that is fitting (some scratchy depth underneath a pretty high tone) for a troubled boy going into manhood type of character.
though i think it's dumb that he's going to be played by the dude from slumdog in the live action movie. like, hello.. fire nation... shouldn't it be someone more remotely like someone who looks like he's from the middle kingdom?
though i guess i should be similarly peeved that it isn't someone chinese voicing the cartoon character, but it seems like when there's a visual representation of some indian dude who's supposed to be the fire nation lord's son, it just seems kind of weirder. like the voice... it could be anyone, since race is more deaf than colorblind.
(did that make sense? just meant race is more about color than sound.)
anyway, the marathon goes on... sleep will have to wait.
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edit: so dante basco also voices jake long.
i wonder how he feels voicing all these chinese cartoon characters. like lea salonga (also filipino) who voices mulan (chinese) and sings for miss saigon (vietnamese). i dunno. maybe it's not a big deal. lea salonga has a beautiful voice, btw. so clear and pure. |
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| bassai |
[Jun. 6th, 2009|11:22 pm] |
practiced some bassai today.
it's such a pretty kata. and it has one grabbing move that is so fun to execute. |
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| palmwood chopsticks |
[May. 17th, 2009|06:12 pm] |
apparently thai do not traditionally use chopsticks, though they now use it for some dishes.
anyway, while looking up the thai/vietnamese un/slightly-tapered palm wood chopsticks that i so want, i found this ridiculous survey:
http://whatjapanthinks.com/2007/08/29/chopstick-bad-habits-in-oneself-and-others/
holding a bowl to your mouth and shoveling the food in is pretty chinese. i'm not sure if i'm offended or amused.
i rest my chopsticks over my bowl, too. who doesn't do that? maybe they mean resting personal chopsticks over bowls/plates of communal dishes? i don't know-- seems awfully strict if it was the previous case rather than the latter. |
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| a harrowing day at pottery |
[May. 17th, 2009|04:35 pm] |
throwing:
the clay absolutely refused to center. three pieces, and all a struggle.
the container around the wheel was moving around freely. wouldn't be.. still!
the two pieces i was trimming:
one spun off immediately b/c the wheel was turned on and i accidentally stepped on the pedal and the piece smashed into the container and had to be thrown away.
the second one kept dislodging from the clay that was locking it into place. i had to recenter it each time and i think it's pretty assymetrical now.
i was getting increasingly frustrated. so i left earlier than i had planned and grabbed a roti roll.
sometimes, there are days like this. it could be the wheel, the clay (i suspect it was harder than usual), or just mindset. i also think i was a bit hungry and not focused since the first thing i went to do-- trim the bowl ---that piece flew away and got smashed. (you're supposed to turn the wheel off after you use it-- so that doesn't happen. someone who used it before me left it on. well it was the poor guy who was next to me; he mentioned it was making the wheel was making a noise and he was obviously a beginner, so i didn't have the heart to get angry or reproach him in any way. anyway, what can you do.. as aaliyah says, "brush yourself off and try again.")
some days, everything that comes out of your hands is magic. i had a day like that. it was a weekend day-- i think it was saturday. i just wanted to keep on going and going; everything was falling into place. but, i got tired eventually and went home. the pieces were mint (well, relatively).
anyway, next time. when i can clear my mind and start from scratch. and not use the uncooperative recycled clay nor that crazy wheel with the shifting container.
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at the farmer's market:
me, peering into the styrofoam box with mushrooms: is that maitake?
vendor: yeah. did you paint?
me: no. um. i did pottery. is there something on my face?
vendor: yeah, there's stuff in your face and hair.
attractive.
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dumpster diving
now's the best time for that sort of thing. with all the graduations. i would, but i'm pooped. and i would want an accomplice. (though the potential bed bugs! gross!)
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i also want to go to chinatown to get these thai chopsticks. i've been thinking about doing this forever. there's a grocery store that's specifically thai. now would be the best time-- i have some down time and i really, really want them. (i'm not sure if the store has them, but they do have a lot of thai wares-- like pots and ricecookers, etc.) but, it's kinda overcast and it was raining a bit and i'm so pooped from pottery. if only i could find them for sale online..
(it's the internet! it should have everything! i'll look again...) |
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| the sun finally came out. |
[May. 11th, 2009|01:03 am] |
i was planning on sitting outside in the sun, but i couldn't find sunblock that wasn't expired to the point of worrisome, so i smeared some chapstick on my cheeks and rubbed it into trouble areas of my face that are wont to burn.
it was only later i noticed that the one tube of chapstick i used for that purpose had no spf.
doh!
but, i think it did something b/c my face isn't totally a tomato.
i think it's time i invested in some sunblock. my last tube got confiscated at the airport. i blame dumbo airport security policies for any skin cancer i may contract. (which hopefully is none..) |
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| sometimes it's easy to impose design onto evolution.. |
[May. 7th, 2009|03:21 am] |
i probably fault from this a lot since i like extrapolating at the risk of being way out there. and not realizing there's a simpler solution: it's a byproduct.
i guess that's part of the elegance of evolution. not everything has to fit perfectly into an elegant fittest machine. as in, it's elegance is incorporated into its inelegance. the elegance includes accounting for things that don't necessarily make sense when we logic backwards.
it's just who is the fittest to survive at the moment, not the culmination of some master plan, per se. so not everything is necessarily the most efficient. aka: nonprescient.
from sciam:
"For the evolutionary psychologist, the pressing questions are, essentially, “why is it like that?” and “what is that for?” The answer isn’t always that it’s a biological adaptation—that it solved some evolutionary problem and therefore gave our ancestors a competitive edge in terms of...success. Sometimes a trait is just a “by-product” of other adaptations. Blood isn’t red, for example, because red worked better than green or yellow or blue, but only because it contains the red hemoglobin protein, which happens to be an excellent transporter of oxygen and carbon dioxide."
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i don't know if this makes sense. i need to sleep. |
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| my karate instructor rocks |
[Apr. 30th, 2009|10:36 pm] |
seriously, i've been in contact with him about forms and other things. he's an economics professor, so i expect him to be too busy in general to be so helpful. but, he spends a lot of time replying to my emails and organizing events, explains things well, and really cares about team. it's really a great thing.
talking to people who have studied or are studying martial arts, they say that how much they like or feel like they've benefited from the particular style is not necessarily about the techniques themselves, but the school, the teammates, and especially the instructor.
i feel like the head instructor of the dojo has an unusually well-developed means of communicating what he wants to be learned-- he uses a number of metaphors and really gives a good idea of how to internalize and visualize a move. i think he's also really progressive in his thoughts about martial arts-- i find that most good martial artists or those who have dedicated a lot of time to the sport-- they are open to people going to different schools and developing their own styles. as in, he says that different dojos and different schools train differently for different techniques. so that, in class, he might not do it this particular way, but that's not to say that that way is wrong or less effective. so, he acknowledges that there is a standard of how to do it in our class, and though one should adhere to it while in our class, it doesn't mean that techniques or standards learned in other classes should be dismissed as inferior.
he also emphasizes the fact that you can have a different mentality in coming into every class: that even as a high ranked belt, you can always improve; maybe one day focus on the hands and fist and how they are formed in kata (forms), or focus on the leg movement and the movement of the hips or the rotation at the heel when moving, or focus on breathing, or maybe sometimes not focus on anything at all, but try to do everything quickly (as to improve muscle memory and the ability to project for the next move before your body realizes the move).
i know i've spoken of his merits as an instructor before, but it continually amazes me. having a great instructor or teacher, in general, in any field, is always really rewarding and uplifting. makes you feel good about your sport or study and makes you want to keep coming and improving.
it's clear that he cares. a lot of his skill in teaching probably has to do with him being a teacher. and also intellectually curious and rational-minded as an economics professor. i feel like good economic professors have an ability to distill the causes for things; and in general, aren't as focused on ideology, but rather, what has been researched and tested to be an existing factor that proves something. so, he won't blindly profess the great qualities of karate or this school over another school, but will try to really be fair about his assessments of techniques and different approaches.
so, i can take his word seriously. and i know he's committed to martial arts in the amount of time he devotes to it. i mean, he's even said things like, "sometimes i can't make it to class, so i at least come for five minutes, or 10 minutes, just to try and make an effort. because it's better to do that than not show up at all." i think that's extremely fair and true for me, too. b/c i think it's a real deterrent for those who are draconian in their "be part of the team! you must come to class! or don't even bother!" i don't think many instructors are like that, honestly, but he's on the opposite end. he's not like a pushover, or overly lenient, but rather he's very fair about understanding human nature and how easy it is to forgo something just b/c you spend too much time away and then for inertia purposes, or embarrassment, or whatever, decide to not return. and i feel that if people know in advance of this fair attitude that my instructor has towards attendance, they will be more willing to pick up where they left off, or try hard to come as often as they can, since he's so accommodating and understanding of their lives outside of karate. i just think he has a very good grasp about human nature; how to explain things so people can understand, and what drives people to do what they do (incentives, disincentives.)
I think I've mentioned that he was considering implementing a dues system where someone pays a great deal of money in the beginning (b/c people seem to think that expensive things are worth their price, and take pleasure from expensive things more) and then give back $10 each time someone comes to class, so there's an incentive to attend class.
That's pretty smart, though hard to administrate, so i don't think he'll be doing that any time soon.
but, i think comments like that, and just his class in general, and his attention to all the small things and everyone in the dojo, just makes it a very positive experience for me. i think karate in and of itself is not necessarily my martial arts of choice, given the wide array out there, but his class and the classmates make it worth my while. |
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| a hard rain's a-gonna fall |
[Apr. 28th, 2009|07:43 am] |
i feel like i've been subject to some sort of bob dylan marketing campaign.
first, BSG.
then, reading murakami, he comes up again, his songs like a refrain in the book that culminates to some bigger meaning that surely eludes me:
............
"Bob Dylan?"
"He's like, standing at the windows, watching the rain--" I started to tell her, but then dropped it. "A singer with a rough voice."
............
what's next? will it be this artist wrapped up in some other form or art, another piece of literature that i will happen to be reading which will reference another of his songs?
or will it be less subtle? maybe i will run smack into his presence, the hall of fame singer and songrwiter himself. maybe he will walk up, extend a hand, hand me a business card, and then we'll go into music together. he'll offer to mentor me on how to infiltrate modern works of art to publicize his name. and i, too, or my songs, rather, will suddenly appear in books and jokes on popsicle sticks and tv shows on the sci fi channel. it will be a good time.
and then he will disappear and i will be his living legacy, his disciple.
---------------------
man, it's always bitter sweet to come to the ending of a book. time to start a new one and go through the whole process again. rinse and repeat. |
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