With the start of a new quarter I've been trying to do all the reading for my classes, instead of like most quarters in which I got by merely going to class and diligently taking notes. I'm taking three history classes this quarter and I figure since those classes are for my major, it'd benefit me to try harder in those classes. Its likely time I started to work hard anyways.

Today I went to The Block to watch a Better Luck Tomorrow a movie that was pimped by one of my friends. This movie is supposed to be a landmark of sorts in that it is directed and largely produced, and starring Asian Americans. Ebert and Roeper have given it their approval and on Rotten Tomatoes it has a "Fresh" rating of 83% at the time of this post. At first I was conflicted about this movie because it seemed to be overhyped on account of its "Asian-ness," so to say. But then I came to realize that its good that Asian Americans are getting exposure in mainstream media (MTV's been airing commercials for it for the last 2 weeks and if it gets nationwide release, even more mainstream exposure) but I worry that by billing the movie as good "Asian American" fare, it will perpetuate at least a bit more racial inequality within society. Shouldn't the movie be just a "good" movie instead of a "good Asian American movie"? I hope that makes sense.

Also, there seems to be a growing trend of stereotyping Asian Americans as gangsters now. Certainly the media is all about stereotypes, but it seems that the majority of Asian Americans within the media, at least the younger ones, are no longer college-hungry, SAT freaks and instead have become Rice Rocket drivers in an attempt to either find a new identity for themselves... or I don't know what. But just look at Fast and the Furious for example. The "bad guy" in that movie was an Asian and he certainly wasn't typecast as an Asian (at least I don't think so), though his part was fairly small. And in Better Luck Tomorrow, these Asians break away from the stereotypcial mold of studious teens to being drug dealers and party goers, or whatever it is that they do.

I didn't get a chance to watch it tonight because the final 3 showings of the night had sold out, which is a good sign in terms of the movie's success and a credit to the promotion of the movie by people like my friend, unfortunately the large majority of the ticket buyers looked to be Asian American meaning this movie, while it marks a major foray of Asian Americans into Hollywood, its core audience is fairly specified at this point in time and that it has yet to really break into a large percentage of American society. What I hope this movie does is it becomes something of a "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" in that its merely a good movie, in that it could be "My Big Fat Russian Wedding" and it still would be just a "good" movie and not a "good Greek movie." Then, I think this movie becomes more important in terms of its overall affect on Hollywood, mainstream society, etc.

On a different note, I would like to tell you to download the Matrix: Reloaded trailer. I had to change my pants after watching it.

Notorious BIG - Juicy

Finals approach, as does spring break, and I'm here writing my history paper. I finally chose a major, like 3 weeks ago, after wavering my first year and a half in college. History/Law & Society is my choice. I've liked history classes and the law and society seem to be a good addition since without it I'd be very lax on my coursework since the history major isn't too hard to fulfill, in terms of units. I want to get the max out of my 4 years. As far as what I'd do with this major... well, I haven't gotten there yet. Law school, maybe, but not likely. Teaching? Maybe, but I don't know how effective a teacher I'd be. Whatever, I only just picked a major, I've got time.

Yesterday, I watched Bush deliver his "ultimatum" speech to Saddam. Here's what I've got to say about all this war stuff. I'm sort of on the fence about going to war and being all for waiting and trying to use diplomacy. I don't want to say I'm "anti-war" because I can forsee where war could be necessary. Then there are the anti-war protestors. They obviously have valid points, considering the death and destruction that would undoubtedly result. But as far as what the politicians have been saying goes, I can't say I trust either side.

The Bush side of things certainly has all sorts of holes in its argument. From what I can gather, George W. Bush wants to go into Iraq because he has yet to disarm following the UN resolutions passed after the Gulf War. Thats almost 12 years. Certainly ample time has been allotted to Saddam to relinquish or destroy his weapons of mass destruction. This reason, in my opinion, is a good one. First of all, its not like the United States placed this demand upon Iraq, it was a United Nations resolution to do so, and as such it would be a global thing. Then last year in November 2002, there came resolution 1441 that was a two step process that had them demanding that Iraq disarm and everyone passed it except for Syria. Basically it called for a two-step process saying that if Iraq didn't disarm, then the UN Security Council would debate it again. So fine, then we'll have a new resolution in the UN allowing us to go in, as Bush said in his State of the Union address that he would call for a resolution to find out what all the other countries were and find out who was supporting the US and where everyone stood on the matter. But last night, in his ultimatum, Bush has unliaterally decided to go into Iraq (seeing as how Sadaam has vowed not to exile himself). Although it may seem that Bush had gone back on his word, he merely wanted a resolution in order to find out what cards everyone was holding and since France's Chiraq has come out and said that he will veto any resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq at any time, calling for another resolution seems pointless.

But something that seems to have been overlooked by many is the fact that Reoslution 1441 had said that:

"There's no 'automaticity' and this is a two-stage process, and in that regard we have met the principal concerns that have been expressed for the resolution. Whatever violation there is, or is judged to exist, will be dealt with in the council, and the council will have an opportunity to consider the matter before any other action is taken." (Source: LA Times)

But now Bush has gone and claimed that he can go in, even without the approval of the United Nations. Tricky tricky feller that Bush, slipping that one by us, eh?

And of course you've got to ask, why now? Why would during the past 12 years we didn't threaten Saddam much about this? My guess is that Bush wants some sort of lasting legacy and he called out Sadaam, threatening force and if he were able to get Sadaam to disarm or even get him out of power, then Bush's legacy as perhaps a peacekeeper would be intact. (Especially if he weren't re-elected next year) Also, by either taking away Saddam's teeth, or even replacing him, they would be able to control the oil in that region, something Bush has shown he is all about. Being from Texas, and having an oil background, he has supported building a pipeline in Alaska (through protected regions) so clearly he is big on the oil business here. So unfortunately for the Bush his story has got some holes and his motives are of particular concern as well.

Then there's France. France, as stated before, doesn't want any sort of force used there because they want to be civil and diplomatic about everything. They don't want to kill innocent Iraqis, nor do they want to have the United States be the center of hatred for pepole in the Middle East. And they don't want to send our troops in to get killed. How nice of them, trying to protect their allies and protect innocent people and the sons and daughters of parents in the military. Very nice gesture, I'm sure. But Bush isn't the only one with ulterior motives. Read here and here. Gee, the Americans aren't the only ones with oil are their minds eh?

At any rate, then there are the protestors in the public that are anti-war for a variety of reasons. Among the popular ones seem to be distrust for anything Bush says, fighting a war for oil, and just plaing being anti-war. I can respect being plain anti-war and believing everything has a diplomatic solution. But distrusting Bush, just because? I don't know about that. At any rate, here's where I stand after all that discussion that probably went unread. There are good reasons to goto war, in that Iraq likely has weapons and a threat of war could get Saddam to flinch first. But with that comes concerns about North Korea's clear violations and of them having weapons of mass destruction as well, why not deal with them? At any rate, I think we should put off war as long as possible and seek something less aggressive than war, but certainly something more aggressive than the "UN Inspectors" who travel from site to site "inspecting" while Saddam moves his weapons from site to site. Obviously if someone were going to come to my house to find something I didn't want them to see and they went from room to room, I'd just move the object to the area where they are not, so that whole inspectors thing wasn't working. Unfortunately, nobody has come up with something inbetween war and not doing anything, and between those two? I would have to lean towards war, as the inspectors just weren't cutting it and its been 12 years of that.

Just my 2 cents. (Maybe more like a quarter, I wrote a bit more than I anticipated)

N.E.R.D. - Rockstar (Jason Nevins Remix)

On Wednesday, I went to the gym to play basketball at around 3:30, having class at 5pm. Well, I brought in my cell phone into the gym and I set it down on the ground where most people put their stuff. At any rate, I brought my cell phone in with the mindset that I would need it to check the time since there's no clock inside of the gym.

I never checked the time, with the mindset that I wasn't going to goto class. When I decided to leave the gym I went to go get my cell phone, but it was nowhere to be seen. My car keys were there, but not my cell phone. Alas, it was stolen.

Crazy karma. I figure, if I had just gone to class and went to check the time on my cell phone, it wouldn't have been stolen and I wouldn't be in such a predicament. Oh well, I needed a new cell phone anyways.

Rehab - It Don't Matter

Well, it has been an interesting week since I got into the accident. My arm is fine, but since last Friday, I've seen two car accidents occur. Prior to Valentine's Day, I'd never been in nor seen a car accident actually occur. But last week I was stopped at a red light and I looked into my rear view mirror as I heard a loud screeching sound. The car behind me got rear-ended by the car behind her. Nobody was hurt and they both got out of their cars and seemed calm. I drove away because I was late to class and I was blocking traffic.

Tonight, driving back from class I was waiting at the intersection, a red light again, and I hear a huge screeching and collision and I see this jeep taking two hops across the center median. This small Nissan (I think) had hit it head on. I stopped for about 3-4 minutes but other drivers who were directly behind the accident (It was down the street to the left of me) had stopped and offered their help and I figured that I'd only block traffic and since both drivers got out of their cars it wasn't too bad.

But as I drove home, quite stunned, I was thinking about it more and more. Maybe this is like one of those Final Destination things, but its not because its not like I'm supposed to die since I wasn't close to death in the first accident and the other two didn't have anybody die nor was I even involved, I was just in close proximity. So then I was thinking, maybe it was a test for me. Like how I had said that the lady who drove away from our accident, after at least partially causing it, was a bitch and what not, and I had driven away from both the two accidents and I didn't stay. I regret not staying at either one now. But both accidents I hadn't witnessed so its not as though I could tell the police anything. And then other people had stayed too. I did wait a few minutes (along with some other cars)... I don't know, maybe I'm a bad, uncaring person too, as far as helping out strangers goes anyways.

I keep trying to rationalize things by saying "I didn't see the accident," and "Other people, who are better suited to stay around, aid the police and what not," have already stopped too. Unfortunately, I think that I just did the wrong thing by not staying. I should've stayed, at least for the second one, the first accident I didn't even see, I just heard and saw the people get out of their cars. The second one had both vehicles moving. Oh well, chalk it up to experience I suppose.

Evanescence - Bring Me To Life This group is awesome. They did two songs on the Daredevil soundtrack and they're awesome.

Its the day after Valentine's Day and I've decided to revive my Blogspot because some eventful stuff has happened to me actually. Unfortunately its got nearly nothing to do with Valentine's Day. I wish I had some awesome story to tell about some hot girl is somehow involved in all of it, but unfortunately it doesn't. Except maybe in my fantasies, but those never happen of course.

My story starts with 5 guys on their way to watch the Daredevil movie at Ontario Mills. As we drove along (I was in the passenger side of the front) I saw a car start to come towards our lane. We were in the far left lane before the carpool lane. I said "Watch out!" I saw the lady in the car next to us look up at me, she was either looking for something on the floor or she dozed off while driving. In either case, she looked right at me and just then the driver of our car swerved quickly to the left in response to my statement and to the oncoming car from the right. We slammed into the center divider almost head on. From what the other passengers told me, we slammed almost headon into the center divider, but I didn't see any of that because I was looking to my right, out the window at the lady in the car next to us.

The next thing I felt was the car spinning across the freeway going in a full 360 and eventually sliding to a stop on the other side of the freeway, almost into a dirt ditch. That was when I noticed that the airbag had deployed and the smell of firecrackers or gun powder filled my nose. I tried to open the door but it only opened a bit and I had to use my leg to force it open so I could get out. At that point I could feel pain on my left cheek and in my arm. I heard faint cursing from the drivers seat and moaning from all the passengers in the car. Getting out of the car we examined ourselves and found that only one of us was bleeding, luckily only a bloody nose and busted lip. Apparently the center rider had slammed forward (wearing only a lap belt) and his face hit his knee, which was propped up in the car. My arm was also in pain, with my left wrist swelling up and the pain becoming very distracting.

Two nice drivers stopped behind us and told us they had saw what had happened. Sacrificing even part of their night was nice, especially when they weren't involved. I looked ahead on the freeway and saw the lady's car stopped in the carpool lane. I thought perhaps she had crashed or she was waiting for traffic to clear before she came back to us. However, I looked away for a while to scream in pain because of my arm and make sure I wasn't bleeding out of my left ear which had been smacked by the airbag and by then she was gone. Her car had driven off. What a bitch. *Sigh*

Luckily the CHP was driving by and three patrol cars stopped and took our statements and called AAA for us too. They were all really nice too, but I guess thats because we didn't do anything wrong really. Unfortunately they cited te driver for not having proof of insurance... but I guess we can't complain about that, they were just doing their job. They left as the AAA tow truck came and we were off to the hospital. I was the only one requiring medical attention as my wrist had swelled up past normal proportions.

At the hospital we waited and found out that Kaiser, my healthcare provider did not allow me to be admitted to another hospital... oh well. So we then went home and I drove with one arm to Kaiser and there I spent over 3 1/2 hours to get x-rayed, put into a splint, find out I have a fractured wrist and get to wear a splint and sling for 2 weeks. Woo hoo, battle scars, I suppose. I couldn't really complain about the long wait at the hospital either because everyone was supernice. And I suppose that sounds like I'm a sissy but I also saw them working too. Its not like they weren't doing anything and you don't want to rush them on paperwork and diagnosis because what if they mess up? Thats not cool so I just waited my turn.

At then end of the night, I ate Jack in the Box, it was delicious I hadn't had anything to eat since lunch and we got in an accident at 9:30 PM. And I got out of the hospital at 3:00 AM the next day. So it was damn delicious.

I thought about what happened alot, however, in the hospital for some 3 hours. I keep hearing people tell me that if just one car had been coming in any of the lanes or if that car had brushed us, anything like that I realized we could've been injured a lot more seriously. And someone told me that some people who are in car accidents are traumatized even if they aren't injured but I didn't feel an urgency to go be productive in life (moreso than usual anyways) nor did I have any serious qualms about driving freeway to the hospital afterwards. Its not that I'm trying to say that I'm better than any of those other people or anything, but I guess I wish I could feel that my life could've ended or the life of anyone else in that car. All it has taught me to realize (as of tonight anyways) is that you can't live in the past. Like if we had left 5 minutes earlier for the movie or if we hadn't sped past a yellow light to get on the freeway and just slowed down and waited we would've just watched the movie. I suppose things happen. I don't know, I'm still trying to find meaning in all of this because as far as I'm concerned, all I can think about is how this is a story that I can tell people next Valentine's Day. I really wish I could feel more lucky that we didn't hit something else... or that my airbag deployed correctly, etc. Perhaps it just hasn't sunk in yet. Definately more as soon as I perhaps find some meaning in all of this and my wrist stops hurting as much, hopefully.

P.O.D. - Youth of a Nation