Final feature broadcast

direct links:http://s59.photobucket.com/albums/g287/replayed_memories/?action=view&current=100w2pmflashmobbroadcast.flv

Links to flash mobs in video:

Seoul dance flash mob: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuJUjW0RaHM

Seoul time stop flash mob: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AMqtt6RGoU

Thailand flash mob: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTZsfZm1PbA

Vancouver time stop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqm8MOixayc

Bay Area dance flash mob: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xYjja35rg0

France dance flash mob: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwEZ9d3oCmg

IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) #2

Upon searching around several sites, and sitting in front of the TV while attempting homework, a recent news story caught my attention. ABC’s evening local news reported on an arrest that took place in West Oakland at a BART station on Saturday. Michael Joseph Gibson, a 37 year old man was causing a disturbance while on board. He was considered intoxicated and was yelling at other passengers. Soon after a BART policeman boards and takes him off the train. The policeman makes his way toward a wall to complete his arrest, the plait glass from the window in front of the pair shatters.

The recount is accompanied with a video taken from a witness’s cell phone. The video is taken from afar, and at an angle where you mostly see the policeman’s back. Many people are saying that this is another display of police using unnecessary force, and relating it to a previous BART incident where police shot a civilian on accident.

The article from the San Jose Mercury unravels Gibson’s background of mentally instability and being bipolar.

One thing I want to address is the fact that the YouTube video played a key part. Without it, this news piece wouldn’t have as much impact if it was just reported by the news casters and read by newspaper readers. With everyone jumping on the trend of upgrading their phones, especially phones with cameras, there is a slow growing trend of videos that are blurry, sometimes with out-of-sync audio beginning to surface as resources for news stories. Sure it is convenient, and it does give us more visuals about the situation, but it also has some negative impacts. These videos are usually shot at vague angles that do give the gist of events but sometimes not enough details. In the case for Gibson and the unnamed policeman, many people are speculating that it’s the policeman’s fault the glass broke, because he slammed Gibson hard into the glass. When watched the first time, it looks like he did, but after watching it a second time you begin to notice Gibson’s arm that the policeman isn’t holding on it is thrown out. For some this video is just another bad impression of the police force. For others it’s an example of a mentally unsound drunk man, someone who should be avoided.

So who is at fault for the broken glass? In my opinion, I believe both of them contributed to breaking the glass window. It is a known fact that when one is about to collide with any surface, by instinct hands are thrown out to cushion the impact. Such is demonstrated by Gibson’s free arm being thrown out. And in order to complete an arrest, an officer usually forces the person up against the wall, or on the ground. In the policeman’s case, he was pushing Gibson’s body up against the wall to arrest him which requires force to direct the man forward. With the aide of the policeman’s force, the strength in Gibson’s outstretched hand penetrated the glass, causing it to break.

My conclusion is based off of what I call common sense, and my budding imagination. So it’s possible I may be wrong.

sources:

http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_13848161

fish out of water

The last fish out of water experience that I had took place last year at De Anza community college, the quarter before I transferred to San Jose State. It was a bright and sunny spring day where I was spending my lunch hour sitting in the sunken garden by the library. Apparently at the same time, a club event was going on around the same area. Among the many students that were leisurely lounging around in the spring sun on the benches, and on the grassy field, several people were standing, some were in small groups discussing, while others were roaming, gravitating towards the students that were there before them. I was seated at a bench, under a quite corner shaded by trees and accompanied by ducks as I was flipping through a Japanese magazine with buds blasting with music tucked in my ears. Suddenly one of the people who were roaming around makes her way towards me. She was a middle-aged Asian woman, who was dressed in a nice button up shirt and black slacks. Tucked in the fold of her arm was a file folder, she towed a smaller and older Asian woman behind her. For someone who doesn’t like to talk to strangers, I was already feeling a bit uncomfortable when she smiled as she made her way towards me. At first the words that came out of her mouth were mute because of the music I was listening to, but out of politeness I had to pull one out and ask her to repeat her statement again. She asks if I would allow her to talk to me for a few minutes, and being a person who doesn’t like to turn people down, I agreed. She seats herself next to me on the bench and introduced herself as a woman from a near by Korean Christian church, and that today they were having an open event where they gathered and informed people. Her companion takes a seat at the end of the bench next to her. She first asks me if I’m Christian or Catholic. Still a bit uncomfortable, I tell her that I’m Buddhist, despite the fact that I’m only a Buddhist in name and not in practice. She pulls out a sheet of paper from the folder and produces a pen out of her pocket. She held the paper in the same manner a teacher would in explaining a worksheet. She starts explaining the contents, about how if you are faithful enough, God will forgive you of your sins. She asked me for personal stories and I told her about my brother’s behavior, and she applied it to her paper. I respect other people’s religions and belief but from the spontaneity of this all, I was starting to feel out of place, and it was quite difficult for me to pay attention and understand what she was talking about. I found myself checking my cell phone frequently, the time drew near for my math class, and while she was explaining to me. I wanted to tell her that I had to go so many time, but being someone who can’t handle being rude to people I stayed with her and listened to everything she had to say until she finally said that she had to go, ten minutes before my class started.

Although it took place on the campus that I was so familiar with, that one moment seriously made me feel as if I was somewhere unfamiliar.

Japanese Internment Essay

In the midst of World War II, and after the event of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. This order called for evacuation and relocation of Japanese people living in America including citizens to interment camps. The reason for this order was to prevent possibilities of Japanese spies in the US to send messages to Japanese battleships. These possibilities were mere assumptions. Approximately 1,800 out of 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans were forced into internment. In the Santa Clara county nearly 3,000 Japanese people were forced to leave their homes and possessions in order to move to San Jose State University’s gym where they would wait to be transported out to interment camps all over the country. Many entrusted their possessions to Buddhist and Methodist churches for safekeeping. These internment camps were first established on horse race tracks, fairgrounds and other large areas, and were sometimes shared with other internment groups such as the Italian American and German American internment camps.

Among those that experienced life in the internment camps was Ruth Asawa. When she was 16, she and her family which consisted of her mother and five siblings were taken to the Santa Anita race track in Arcadia, Califfornia. Although the living conditions were crowded, there wasn’t much for her to do, as opposed to the hard work that she had to do on the family farm. She learned art from other internees that worked as animators from the Walt Disney Studios and when she was free she expressed herself artistically. Thanks to the help of the Japanese American Student Relocation Council, a Quaker organization, she only spent eighteen months at the internment camp. The organization made it possible for Asawa to attend college in Milwaukee Wisconsin.

In 1994 the city of San Jose commissioned Asawa to create a Japanese American Interment Memorial which is a cast bronze relief sculpture that sits in front of the Robert Peckham Federal Building in downtown San Jose. The bronze sculpture has many vignettes that depict scenes from the arrival of Japanese immigrants to the events of internment up to the aftermath of the whole ordeal.

I think that the vignettes that depict the arrival of Japanese immigrants and the image of having to take them away on a bus and forced out are compelling. It is the combination of both of these vignettes that is compelling. The arrival vignette depicts curiosity, hope and bravery. It shows the beginning of the Japanese-American culture and the harmony and diversity that the city had. From the position of that image, it spreads out to depict the hard work and achievements they made after arriving. In contrast, the image of the bus that takes them away is positioned in a way that all those achievements the Japanese Americans have made since they arrived are being taken away. Especially since it is at the other end of the memorial, it marks the end of the rights and privileges that they have earned.

There is a possibility that history may repeat itself. It may be possible that a similar situation will happen in the future. But due to the human rights that we have today, if such an event should ever arise then the factors would be quite complex. The reasons will go beyond racial backgrounds, national decent and physical attributes.

sources:

http://www.japantownsanjose.org/history.html

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/630390/posts

http://www.pbs.org/childofcamp/history/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment

http://www.ruthasawa.com/index.html

Word of the Week: Word #11

1: The Word: Soliloquy
2: Where I read it: Short story titled "Andante" written by Tablo
3: The sentence I found it in: My father raised a hand, gesturing into empty space. A soliloquy in some forgotten play.
4: Dictionary definition: an utterance or discourse by a person who is talking to himself or herself or is disregardful of or oblivious to any hearers present
5: New Sentence: Melissa's singing was messy and loud, a soliloquy meant for just her shadow. She was unaware that Kurt was listening at the doorway with a smile on his face.

Word of the Week: Word #10

1: The Word: vehemently
2: Where I read it: A news article from the San Jose Mercury website
3:The sentence I found it in:But Richard Konda, executive director of the Asian Law Alliance, said he "vehemently disagrees" with the police assertion that kowledge of Pham's illness would have changed nothing.
4:Dictionary definition: characterized by rancor or anger; violent; strongly emotional; passionate or intense
5: New Sentence: The way she vehemently tapped her finger, it was obvious she was unhappy about the outcome of their argument.

Copy Edit the World #2

This is a handout for a lecture that my friend received. In the sentence "To learn more come and here Dr. Berman speak and answer questions", there should be a comma after come, and instead of here it should be hear.



This is a flyer for a meeting on the health care bills. On the line that tells the date and time, I think from should be deleted because there is already a hyphen inbetween 5:00 and 6:00 which already indicates the "from" factor.




This is the last page of my Art History syllabus. Under the section titled "How to fail this class" there are several mistakes. For number 3, instead of a period, there should be a comma. For number 4 delete the w in classmates, study group should be lower case, and there should be a period at the end.



I don't know if this counts, but this is from an oragami book. There should be an "a" inbetween is and Dinosaur. And dinosaur should be lower case.

Word of the Week: Word #9

1. The word: absconded
2. Where I read it: I read it...in the captions while watching the season two of Pushing Dasies...
3. The sentence I found it in: Lily absconded with herself. First time in 30 years, I don't know where she is.
4. Dictionary definition: To leave quickly and secretly and hide oneself, often to avoid arrest or prosecution.
5. New sentence: The group was rejoicing at the fact that they have absconded successfully out of town, unaware that a witness had pointed out their eye-catching vehicle to authorities and were being secretly followed.

IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) #1?

I know it's late...but it took me a while to find a news story that really..."fired" me up.

Wednesday afternoon, while waiting for my 1:30 Japanese class to begin, a classmate asks me if I've heard of the SJSU student that was beat and tazed by police. Responding with a no, he shows me the YouTube video of the dim hallway. I couldn't really make out much, but for sure I could see the refrigerator, and one man just standing there and something going on in front of him. But the sounds alone, the cry of "No, please stop" made me upset, and I refused to watch any further. From the impression of the suspect's pleading I can tell that he was vulnerable. I have a strong sense of justice and can’t stand seeing people being treated unfairly. If a person is in a position to beg like that it definitely means that they can't do anything...so why are the police still beating him? That part ticked me off.

Conveniently someone left behind the Spartan Daily on the table and I noticed the front page news story about the video. And I have to admit, the article was kind of vague and so I fished around the San Jose Mercury for articles. And it’s not really the articles itself that makes me upset, it’s the responses of readers, who are saying that Ho deserved it because he was waving a knife around in the first place. Well, there has to be a reason for him to be waving the knife around right? If you were eating dinner, particularly a steak, what are you going to use to cut it up? A spoon? I’m kind of ticked off that people tend to highlight the violent factors of a story, and forget about the cause of those actions. I’d be pretty mad too if someone threw soap on my food. I’m sure you would too! That’s money!

Because the officer couldn’t understand Ho due to the accent, the officer went to retrieve his ID telling him to stand still. I’m assuming that the officer failed to tell Ho this and just barged into his room? If you can tell him to stand there, you can tell him that you’re going into his room to find his ID. Just because you’re the police I wouldn’t let you into my room without a reason, that’s an invasion of privacy.

Also, many of the readers are hung on the fact that Ho from Vietnam, and here to study. It seems as if they can’t possibly think of anything else to pick out and instead decide to rely on racial comments. I didn’t even know Ho’s name, nationality and living situation until after news articles. So what if he’s a foreign student? The main factor of this whole situation is the question of whether the beating was justified or not.


In the end, I believe everyone is at fault, Ho, his roommate, and the police. No one is innocent.

here are the links to the articles that I read:
http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_13635707?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com
http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_13646146
http://media.www.thespartandaily.com/media/storage/paper852/news/2009/10/28/News/San-Jose.Community.Reacts.To.Aggresive.Arrest.Video-3815484.shtml#5

Word of the Week: Word #8

1. The word: Viscerally
2. Where I read it: An article in a magazine titled "Channel your creativity" by Sage Cohen
3. The sentence I found it in: A poem or story's job is to bring a story viscerally to life from a particular point of view.
4. Dictionary definition: characterized by or dealing with coarse or base emotions; earthy; crude
5. New sentence: His simple words viscerally reached out to everyone, they could tell just by the the way he empasized those words how he felt.

Word of the Week: Word #7

1. The word: aphorism
2. Where I read it: ZZ Packer's short story "Brownies"
3. The sentence I found it in: Back at the A.M.E church where our Brownie meetings ere held, Mrs. Margolin was especially fond of imparting religious aphorisms by means of acrostics -- "Satan" was the "serpent Always Tempting and Noisome"; she'd refer to the "Bible" as "Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth."
4. Dictionary definition: A tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion; an adage.
5. New sentence: Billy interpreted that one line from the lyrics of that new song as an aphorism.

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

At the very beginning of ZZ Packer's story Brownies, it felt like something was already happening. She didn't need to introduce the reader on the full details of the setting, but she did so gradually in a subtle way. The way she described the girls of Troop 909 was quite unique using reference to ice cream. Using such reference seemed a bit abstract, yet at the same time it sounds like something a very sharp minded 4th grader would think. The way Packer describes how the characters look and dress are so vivid and exact that I can picture it in my mind without difficulty. Anecdotes were cleverly weaved in to the sentences to give background information on characters and the setting in a short amount of words. Her use of metaphors and similes helped enhance the images like when she used the simile of Daphne’s expression when she was reading the guide book. Quotes were incorporated into the paragraphs in the same way a reporter would write an article, with proper source notations so that the readers wouldn’t get confused. With the narrator’s participation of the whole situation, it seemed like she was more of an observer, who just happened to be at the right place at the right time to see it all. I like how the suspense built up, and how the unlikeliest thing would happen at the end of the climax. Her writing style is quirky, easy to follow, and captivating.

NPR Radio interview analysis

The NPR radio interview that I was listening to was Fresh Air, an interview with the director of Were the Wild Things Are.

The interviewer, Terry Gross, seemed to have known a lot about the book and movie, taking in consideration of details and how they went about filming with techniques and costumes. She was able to point out the contrasts between the movie and the book. She asked questions that asked for reasons behind how and why the main child actor was chosen. Questions were asked that would appeal to the movie’s uniqueness. The questions were short, but they drew out long answers. When the interviewee, Spike Jonze was having difficulty in finding exactly what to say, the Gross asked the same question but re-worded and more specific in order to draw out the kind of response that was fluid and understandable. This made it seem like Gross created a comfortable environment for Jonze. Gross lets Jonze say what he had to say with out interrupting unless he was having difficulty elaborating his answer or to stop him to be more specific in how something came about. It seems like her questions, as the interview progresses, dives deeper into the behind the scenes/ influence for the movie. What I learned about interviewing from this interview was to let the interviewee talk as much as possible, and only interrupt in order for them to explain their answers more in depth. Also to allow them to take their time to answer so that it creates a comfortable environment instead of a rushed one.

Reflection on the AB 656 assignent

I really don't have much to say, mostly because I've forgotten many things since Monday, and the fact that I was probably still sleepy. But I have to say this was a new experience. And as a person isn't in the journalism major, I found it quite difficult when interviewing people, because I didn't know exactly what to ask. Not to mention it felt like I was just thrown into the water with this whole ordeal because I didn't have any prior knowledge on the budget cuts and all... gathering background information wasn't too hard, but orgaizing it all into the news story was quite difficult... All in all I'll have to say...yeah this was intresting, but a challnge.

Mystery Character

She has lived many lives. She has died countless times, only to reborn as a new person each time. However her own life has yet to end. She is capable of temporarily absorbing someone else's life as if it were her own. She is sometimes stoic, often times heroic and strong giving off a majestic and exotic image. She has been acknowledged for her ability to express herself well. Her capabilities allow her to jump from one genre to another. She is candid, and allows nothing about herself to be hidden. She is poised and confident in how she carries herself. Her beauty and compassionate heart is known world-wide.

Word of the Week: word #6

1. The word: labyrinthine
2. Where I read it: Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of The World by Haruki Murakami
3. The sentence I found it in: My fingers nimbly trace out the labyrinthine seams of light as I grow able to invoke the images and echoes with increasing clarity.
4. Dictionary definition: of, pertaining to, or resembling a labyrinth; complicated; tortuous
5. New sentence: The labyrinthine math equation always sent Bob into confusion, just looking at it alone gave him a headache.

Word of the Week: word #5

1. The word: monotonous
2. Where I read it: Short story titled The Rat written by Tablo
3. The sentence I found it in: He was surprised at the pleasant scent her hair had left lingering behind. He let himself fall into it, but soon the smell became unidentifiably monotonous, like a color laid over a similar color, until it was completely lost.
4. Dictionary definition: lacking in variety; tediously unvarying
5. New sentence: Pretty soon the responses of the students were beginning to sound monotonous, they either had ran out of ideas for new answers, or lost motivation.

Copy Edit the World

Click on the thumbnails to see the corrections in full view.


Last week I got the chance to go to San Francisco State because my friend had to pick up some documents. So she left me alone to roam around the Science department building. I found this flyer on the Anthropology Department's bulletin board.

In the second line the comma after students should be removed, and a period should be added. Also the comma after there should be deleted as well.


My manager at work made me do some skill building exercises. This is one of the handouts she gave me. This handout is distributed to all the Payless Shoes Sources in the nation.



For line number five, today is spelled wrong.


This is a handout of guidelines for oral presentations in my Japanese class.



For the first sentence of this page many items needed to be inserted and some deleted to make it flow more smoothly. It should read "First, find your partner who you will work with. Basically, there has to be two members, but if the class is odd in the number of students, you can chose to perform the oral quiz in a group of three."

Fly on the Wall

It's been a while since I've had time to write something creative...I'm sad that I had a struggle for a while...hehe...


Silence hung in the air of the dim hallway of the BBC building. There was the occasional clatter of the opening and closing doors of the restrooms. Among the people that were littered here and there along the corridor walls, no one said a word, only keeping to themselves.

A figure emerged from the bright opening of the building’s entrance. Eyes followed the girl who was walking down the hallway clutching a book in one arm. Her other arm supported the cell phone to her ear. Her quiet voice amplified down the hallway, bouncing of the walls and suspended in the air for a while.

"My Japanese class changed classrooms..." "I think it's this one..."

She stopped in front classroom 103 and peered through the window. She then glanced left and right down the hallway hoping to see someone from her class.

"I guess I'll talk to you later" She uttered into her phone as she lowered herself into a sitting position next to the door. After putting away her phone, she opened her text book and read.
Minutes passed and more people trickled by, she glanced at every passing person as if she was waiting for someone. By now a few people stationed themselves inches away from her, obviously waiting for the same class. She once again glanced left and right and noticed the familiar faces, confirming that she was in the right place. She then went back to her book.

Three girls walked by and stopped in front of the 103 door. They too peered through the window like she did before and then glanced down at her.

"Are you waiting for this class?" One of the three girls asked her.

"Japanese?" She replied.

"No...this is supposed to be our English class"

"But my teacher emailed us saying that we've moved to room 103"

"But we've been using this classroom for a while"

"I dunno...My teacher said we'd be changing rooms because the other one is too small for our class"

"Well then...let's see when our teachers get here"

So there her conversation with the three girls ended. She went back to her text book, and the three, who were now standing around as if to circle her were having their own conversation. They talked back and forth loudly about class assignments, totally unaware that the girl was trying to study. She had no room to move out of their way, nor did they have the decency of moving some place else to leave her alone.

Finally when it was safe enough to enter the classroom, the three girls quickly pushed their way through the classroom door to claim their seats as if trying to beat the girl to it.

Word of the Week: word #4

1. The word: Impediments
2. Where I read it: Art History assignment webpage
3. The sentence I found it in: The year is 1857. How do you get to school and what impediments do you encounter?
4. Dictionary definition: obstruction; hindrance; obstacle.
5. New sentence: Since this was a take home assignment, there were many impediments on his concentration as he tried to finish the essay as fast as possible.

Word of the week: word #3

1. The word: Simulacrum
2. Where I read it: The End of Mr. Y by Scarlette Thomas
3. The sentence I found it in: Then the whole system becomes weightless, it is no longer itself anything but a gigantic simulacrum -- not unreal,but a simulacrm, that is to say never exchanged for the real, but exchanged for itself in an uninterrupted circuit without reference or circumference.
4. Dictionary definition: an effigy, image, or representation
5. New sentence: Mary's painting could be seen as a simulacrum of her surpressed anger.

Comparing Media

For this assignment I choose the coverage of the murder of the Yale graduate, Annie Le on September 18th.

On NBC's Today show the coverage was approximately three minutes. With five sources, a email, public statements and a interview with a NY daily news reporter. It seemed that compare to the newspaper and online news source, the segment relied on visuals with images of the email and cuts from the Police Chief's statement, and the Yale Universiy President's speech. It gave out details about Clark's personality and seemed abit rushed and not together due to the video cuts.

In the New York Time's coverage the article seemed abit long. There was the picture of Annie Le, an image of the arrest of Clark, and police chief Lewis. Their sources were similar to NBC's but an email was not mentioned and instead they had a reference on Clark's personality from a representative from the union of the technicians at Yale. The major source was the Police chief. This article seemed more detailed in the crime scene and the complexity of why they could not investigate quicker.

In the Stamford Advocate's online news article, the main source is Chief Lewis' news conference. There are even references to other news coverages such as NBC's Today show. It explained the process of investigating the evidence and recounting the whole situation from the beginning. I think this is more like the news paper article rather than the TV coverage.

Word of the Week: Word #2 (?)

1. The word: Aberration
2. Where I read it: Beautiful People by Mitsukazu Mihara
3. The sentence I found it in: Perhaps I didn't dispose of her because she was an aberration, like myself.
4. Dictionary definition: the act of deviating from the ordinary, usual, or normal type.
5. New sentence: Because of the way she dressed the others thought of her as an aberration and steered clear of her whenever she was around.

My Favorite Writing

I believe that through lyrics, you can truly express what it is you want to say. The words are short and straight to the point, if not alluding towards the message in unique ways. Mood could be easily set by how each phrase come out with the aide of melodies and beats. A good example is the first verses of the English version of a song titled “Map the Soul” from the 6th album (also titled Map the Soul) of South Korean, Hip Hop group Epik High.


“I remember my first glimpse of a face,
I saw you smile,
Then I smiled I was straight blown away,
Mesmerized by your beauty from your feet to your hands,
How can one be so beautiful I don’t understand,
Heaven sent, God’s gift without a doubt in my mind,
Sometimes I wonder why our paths decided to collide,
We started out as perfect strangers,
Boy meets girl,
From infatuation to love,
You’re my whole entire world,
Destiny, taps me on the back say'in, hello
But really it was your touch,
Know'in that I’d never let you go,
Then you spoke, I never heard a voice so sweet,
Heavenly and from her words, man, I knew, this girl was deep just like me,
When times to worry, and times to pray we’ll sit and stress over life or just burn the day away,
I know fo’sho, when in our past lives, we had to be friends liv’in and dy’in together,
know’in that we’d meet again, It’s just a bless’in, to have you in my life,
I was destined to be with you a privilege to amazing no questions,
And I’m know’in soon enough we’ll get where we’re go’in,
Just thinking about it, I can feel my heart growin,
And am I tripp’in or is it that I finally see,
I don’t know, but my heart is saying that the one for me, please believe me,
I’m exactly where I want to be, this rhyme is written from my heart to you,
Sincerely…”
Epik High -Map the Soul (Worldwide Version) feat. MYK & Kero One


When I first heard the beginning lines of MYK’s rap, I was instantly caught, forgetting the thought of pressing the next button of my music player. Just in those few words, the lyrics were able to call my attention, wondering what words would come next. In just a few words less than a whole short fiction piece I was able to learn that this man fell in love at first sight with a woman and has found the one. But these weren’t simple words such as “I met a girl, it was love at first sight, and we’ll be together forever”; they were deeper, showing how passionate he was towards the woman. The words give off a majestic feeling, setting a romantic mood – as he calls it, destiny – but at the same time points out reality. These are words that are sincere; phrases that aren’t easily thought up just to serve the point of rhyming or going along with the beat.

Word of the Week: Word #1

1. The word: Insouciance
2. Where I read it: A short story titled "Hate Crime" by Tablo.
3. The sentence I found it in: The letter contained graphic details about the murder, as well as the writer's apparent insouciance about the whole incident.
4. Dictionary definition: (noun) lack of care or concern; indifference;
5. New sentence: Bob's aloof manner towards Jill's problems was a sign of his insouciance for their relationship.

The first entry is always the "about me" post

I am a bit tired and out of it so this entry might not be that great...

To start off my name is Jannie Tran. Although it's meant to be pronounced as "J-ann-e" the correct pronunciation of my name is "Jaynie" (the way that my name should have been spelled if my dad didn't misspell it on my birth certificate). For the 20 years and 8 months that I've been living on this planet my name has been mispronounced and misspelled countless times. I was born and raised in San Jose, and the only place outside the state that I've been to is Vietnam to visit family.

I am currently majoring in Advertising and minoring in Graphic Designingbut considering flipping all that around and major in Graphic Designing. On weekends I work at Payless at the Valley Fair mall. When I'm not at work or at school I like to be lazy at home. I love watching Asian dramas and movies. I like to write stories, and make graphics when I'm not procrastinating by playing around with my acoustic guitar.

I am an avid listener of most genres besides country. I prefer to listen to Korean, Japanese and Chinese music rather than American. Because my dad who often manages the sound systems for stage productions has a lot of music equipment lying around, I took that as an advantage and started a cover band with my friends and younger brother. I can proudly say that instead of a coffee table in the living room, I have a drum set. It's less embarrassing to practice, rather than in the garage where the people on the side walk could see.

So this is all I could think of so far to share. I apologize if it looks like its too long, but I felt like it should be this long.