Erase>>Rewrite

I always talk about changing, improving, or redefining myself. However it always leads to something with minimal gains.  It’s always a dissatisfying feeling, that admittance to defeat; that you couldn’t even do what you set out to do.

That changes now.

This will be my first big push on achieving my goals.  Therefore in order to do so with minimal interference I decree the following restrictions upon myself:

• Deletion of Facebook account
• No more soda or fast food
• No games, give the Xbox away, don’t touch your PC games
• No Alcohol
• No sleeping later than 12:00AM (unless for academic reasons, no screwing around)
• No logging onto Tumblr after this post
• No use of any other social media (other than linkedin)
• No distracting apps on iphone/ipad, delete them
• No excuses

This is it, I’ve made a commitment, and now I must fulfill it.  This shall last at least until the end of spring quarter.  

If you need me call/text/email me.  

Goodbye

It’s that time again, with finals around the corner and like i did last finals: http://erase-rewrite.tumblr.com/post/13759837122/how-do-i-get-through-finals-week

Here’s what I’m doing this time around:

Checklist

-Special self-made tea blend of Red Ginseng, American Ginseng, Green Tea, and honey (Brain drink)

-Incense

Playlist for this quarter

-In the Chess Court - Tan Dun

-Warriors - Tan Dun

-Sorrow in the Desert - Tan Dun

-Gone with Leaves - Tan Dun

-Sand Mandala - Phillip Glass

-Escape to India - Phillip Glass

-Tianjin Fight - Shigeru Umebayashi

-Shanghai Fight - Shigeru Umebayashi

-Huo Yuan Jia’s Theme - Shigeru Umebayashi

-8 Girls Drums~Gun He Tao - Shigeru Umebayashi

-Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Tan Dun

-Deset Capriccio - Tan Dun

-Spectres in the Fog - Hans Zimmer

So yep, trying a different approach this time around.  A more zen state of mind.

Plus some things that would’ve made this moment a bit more complete:

http://www.amazon.com/Toysmith-334-Zen-Garden/dp/B000F8L3JY/ref=pd_sim_hg_1

http://www.amazon.com/Mini-Zen-Garden-Meditation/dp/B00009QMR0/ref=pd_sim_t_4

http://www.amazon.com/Homedics-WFL-SLVS-Envirascape-Illuminated-Relaxation/dp/B000QTUJXS/ref=pd_sim_t_2

http://www.amazon.com/9GreenBox-Zen001-Reflections-Juniper-Bonsai/dp/B0001WYNKA/ref=pd_bxgy_hpc_img_b

You can shake me up

Or knock me down

No matter what’s up

I refuse to drown

Stuck in a flood, seems I’m storm bound

But this is my court, my hometown

I’ll turn it around, make the touchdown and take the crown

Set my sights on the throne, ye-z whatcha say now?

This victory is mine, can’t take me down

I’m in my own high, can’t make me frown

We live on a dime, borrowing from time

But I’m on a crusade to end its crime

Battling this war against time with my rhymes

Resist the energy of negativity

Makin resolutions yearly to change the world swiftly

Theorizing, musing, issue raising, moment seizing

This world is quite beastly, but still quite a beauty

Seems like Disney was a little bit sneaky

I’m an Asian with ambitions

Just human with some missions

Like a shaman preaching sermons

I stand on a mountain of dreams, swimming in an ocean of passions

Our generation is plagued with emotions

Hungry for action, but stunted by questions

Armchair activists, Armchair critics

Pounded from both sides, afflicted by cynics

Well take your stand, use your own hands

Make your own brand and expand

While the game has been designed and divined

Resist being defined and confined

Find your own mind, don’t enter blind

With that you can overcome the asylum

Don’t fall victim to the mediocre system

Make course for stardom to your own rhythm

You are the master of your fate

And I am the captain of my soul

To each his own, the king of his throne

I’m out to dig and make my own lake

Through all the aches and mistakes

I won’t forsake my endless quest, I won’t flake

I made a stake in this life, I won’t be fake

YOLO is the motto, cliché as a photo

Outgrow my ego and increase the tempo

Life’s too short to wallow in sorrow

Borrow that good feeling and go with the flo

Reload my ammo and align my arrow

Give me your best shot, take you out in one blow

Officially Missing You - Geeks

Been listening to this song way too much haha, so catchy =P

amyyylam:

visiblechildren:

For those asking what you can do to help, please link to visiblechildren.tumblr.com wherever you see KONY 2012 posts. And tweet a link to this page to famous people on Twitter who are talking about KONY 2012!

I do not doubt for a second that those involved in KONY 2012 have great intentions, nor do I doubt for a second that Joseph Kony is a very evil man. But despite this, I’m strongly opposed to the KONY 2012 campaign.

KONY 2012 is the product of a group called Invisible Children, a controversial activist group and not-for-profit. They’ve released 11 films, most with an accompanying bracelet colour (KONY 2012 is fittingly red), all of which focus on Joseph Kony. When we buy merch from them, when we link to their video, when we put up posters linking to their website, we support the organization. I don’t think that’s a good thing, and I’m notalone.

Invisible Children has been condemned time and time again. As a registered not-for-profit, its finances are public. Last year, the organization spent $8,676,614. Only 32% went to direct services (page 6), with much of the rest going to staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production. This is far from ideal, and Charity Navigator rates their accountability 2/4 stars because they haven’t had their finances externally audited. But it goes way deeper than that.

The group is in favour of direct military intervention, and their money supports the Ugandan government’s army and various other military forces. Here’s a photo of the founders of Invisible Children posing with weapons and personnel of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. Both the Ugandan army and Sudan People’s Liberation Army are riddled with accusations of rape and looting, but Invisible Children defends them,arguing that the Ugandan army is “better equipped than that of any of the other affected countries”, although Kony is no longer active in Uganda andhasn’t been since 2006 by their own admission. These books each refer to the rape and sexual assault that are perennial issues with the UPDF, the military group Invisible Children is defending.

Still, the bulk of Invisible Children’s spending isn’t on supporting African militias, but on awareness and filmmaking. Which can be great, except that Foreign Affairs has claimed that Invisible Children (among others) “manipulates facts for strategic purposes, exaggerating the scale of LRA abductions and murders and emphasizing the LRA’s use of innocent children as soldiers, and portraying Kony — a brutal man, to be sure — as uniquely awful, a Kurtz-like embodiment of evil.” He’s certainly evil, but exaggeration and manipulation to capture the public eye is unproductive, unprofessional and dishonest.

As Chris Blattman, a political scientist at Yale, writes on the topic of IC’s programming, “There’s also something inherently misleading, naive, maybe even dangerous, about the idea of rescuing children or saving of Africa. […] It hints uncomfortably of the White Man’s Burden. Worse, sometimes it does more than hint. The savior attitude is pervasive in advocacy, and it inevitably shapes programming. Usually misconceived programming.”

Still, Kony’s a bad guy, and he’s been around a while. Which is why the US has been involved in stopping him for years. U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has sent multiple missions to capture or kill Kony over the years. And they’ve failed time and time again, each provoking a ferocious response and increased retaliative slaughter. The issue with taking out a man who uses a child army is that his bodyguards are children. Any effort to capture or kill him will almost certainly result in many children’s deaths, an impact that needs to be minimized as much as possible. Each attempt brings more retaliation. And yet Invisible Children supports military intervention. Kony has been involved in peace talks in the past, which have fallen through. But Invisible Children is now focusing on military intervention.

Military intervention may or may not be the right idea, but people supporting KONY 2012 probably don’t realize they’re supporting the Ugandan military who are themselves raping and looting away. If people know this and still support Invisible Children because they feel it’s the best solution based on their knowledge and research, I have no issue with that. But I don’t think most people are in that position, and that’s a problem.

Is awareness good? Yes. But these problems are highly complex, not one-dimensional and, frankly, aren’t of the nature that can be solved by postering, film-making and changing your Facebook profile picture, as hard as that is to swallow. Giving your money and public support to Invisible Children so they can spend it on supporting ill-advised violent intervention and movie #12 isn’t helping. Do I have a better answer? No, I don’t, but that doesn’t mean that you should support KONY 2012 just because it’s something. Something isn’t always better than nothing. Sometimes it’s worse.

If you want to write to your Member of Parliament or your Senator or the President or the Prime Minister, by all means, go ahead. If you want to post about Joseph Kony’s crimes on Facebook, go ahead. But let’s keep it about Joseph Kony, not KONY 2012.

~ Grant Oyston, visiblechildren@grantoyston.com

Grant Oyston is a sociology and political science student at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada. You can help spread the word about this by linking to his blog at visiblechildren.tumblr.com anywhere you see posts about KONY 2012.

Food for thought.

Good to see both sides of the story

I think all three questions are basically the same question, and my answer to all of them is basically, yes. lol yeah…i dont really see anything wrong with it hahha