To da New Year!

It's been a long long winter. I've finally snapped out of that winter funk, and i'm ready to tackle on issues that no one really cares about. January is a useless month. Nothing really goes on in this month; people are getting acclimated to writing a new numerical year, people are holding on by a emotional thread to their under-ambitious resolutions, people are watching playoff football waiting for the superbowl to start their year, that's about it. No one, absolutely no one, does their best work in the month of January. No one cares when there's eleven months left. That's why the most underhanded laws are attached to bills and passed during this winter funk. It's a non-religious lent that everybody agrees to on a subconscious level. You just kinda live through it, take notes, and wait for a better month.
That's what i've been doing, watching, observing, filling up notes, and waiting. Now that the superbowl is over, I can finally get back. Expect this to be longer than most of my blogs. Fair warning, there will be images, videos, and opinions that will undoubtedly be offensive to all. I kinda apologize for this, but only because my Confucius upbringing has taught me to be polite and fucking apologize for everything.


December 28th:
Chris Rock once defended the tiger that mauled its owner Seigfried against media depiction of primal craziness by saying: "that tiger didn't go crazy, that tiger went tiger." The mauling at the San Francisco zoo, a zoo that is a five minute bike ride from where i live in dreary, cold, fog-infested sunset district of San Francisco, is just a bizarre incident. But, it serves to prove my belief that all zoos and that zoo in particular needs to be shut down, the animals need to be sent to land reserves, and the land needs to be converted into one gigantic Costco. Honestly, why do we need zoos anymore? Growing up, i always thought that zoos and circuses were the same thing. The circus just seemed more dangerous because the performers (when not scooping up pounds of elephant dung) seemed to mock the animals with bright clownish outfits, and training whips. It just never made sense to me how a lion tamer tamed a lion with only a whip. Isn't that just like fishing for a shark with only some twine?
Zoo were the humane circus. No whips, no performances, just lazy animals sleeping. But somewhere in the name of profitability, even that line blurred. There's a certain hypocrisy in the structure of all zoos. Often ran like a corporate entity, its' directors and board members promote the beauty and preciousness of wildlife to sustain profits. But the sustainability of these animals do not rely on profits. What they need is big land to roam around in and an absence of human beings to bother them. Since the mauling, the question of the zoo's fault and future has been brought up in the media. People, often parents, have defended the zoo, citing it's vital part to the city's culture, and to their kids awe. But, what are we saying to our kids when we take them to the zoo? "See little billy, imprisonment is a part of life, and for these animal, life is imprisonment. It's okay to imprison life as long as long as you get some kind of hedonistic joy out of it." In this time and age, there are other ways. Why can't we put webcams around these land reserves and allow kids to watch them online. They could see the animals closer than they would in zoos, and the animals would be left relatively at peace. And the last reason, for just destroying the zoo structure is this: Planet Earth, as in the Discovery Channel's documentary show. If you think your kids are amazed to see a chimp swinging on trees, wait till they see a monkey tribal fight.

Decembert 30th:
The story just gets stranger and stranger, with reports that these kids teased the tiger, who in her rage, managed to climbed out of her confinement, hunt the kids down in another part of the zoo and proceed to kill one of them. It's horrible that the kid was mauled to death. I can't think of a worse way to go than to be eaten alive by anything...tigers, sharks, ants. But why were they teasing the tiger?. Don't kids have anything better to do anymore? I got to thinking about my childhood, I never like to tease anything that could bite me, even gold fishes. But i do remember a few friends, who liked to tease animals, and did so regularly. Is there an ingrained behavior in human beings to humiliate animals for pleasure? I did some research (google animal teasing/cruelty/videos), and stumbled upon a bunch of videos and images of people who not only felt the need to tease animals, but a need to film it as well. Here's the link to a clip where a Japanese couple are doing it in front of a chained up lion. This one will definitely fall under: what the hell were the thinking? And how did they get into the cage? This next clip, which i found on the same website, shows that teasing animals isn't exclusive to minorities and michael vick. For all the dieheart animal lovers who in the back of their minds are thinking it's a lower class minority thing to kill and tease animals check out what these white people did with a bear. Warning, this one will just fall under: Fucked up. Both videos are horrendous, and says so much about human nature and nature. Teasing animals has become such a commonplace activity that many zoos now have warning signs for such behavior. According to a zoo official in an interview by The Hindu, primates are the most teased of all animals in zoo. I don't question any longer why they hurl dung at visitors. Hell i would too. I just got a feeling that this disrespect for life did not come out of some kind of deeply-embedded primal survival instincts, but rather from the arrogance of being the most deadly and harmful species on the planet. It's the perfect setup for a huge upset. Lets just hope all the other life forms (tiger, monkeys, bears, bacteria, insects, viruses) do not join forces to kick our asses.

January 2nd:
It's definitely a new year, but doesn't it feel the same. Same president, same war, same indifference, same thing. I will celebrate the new year, when i know there's change coming, otherwise it's just another day to the same era. If the new year were to guaranteed the promise of a new thinking, a new dedication, and a new health plan, but i don't think that's coming soon.

January 15th.
It's been raining for three straight days, and by rain, i mean delude. It pours constantly, floods the drainage system, and the knocks over trees. I'm not a meteorologist but the pictures they show of this storm that covers all of north America, doesn't it look like a hurricane? There were a few images where i saw an elliptical arm, and what looks like an eye of a storm. kinda freaky, but still wouldn't be too much of an impossibility in our modern climate. Below is a satellite image showing the beginning of a small hurricane eye in the "cold" water of the Pacific in 2006. Look, it's on parallel with California, Northern California, damn near Oregon.


January 20th:
Never bet on football. Ever. Unless you have money. Never.

January 28th:
They say this will be bush's last state of the union, and everybody is overjoyed with that fact. I couldn't care less. The damaging effects of this presidency will not vanished with his departure. Like a stale, raunchy fart, it's going to linger, and only get worse before it gets better. But like i did the previous two state of the union, i'm adding my thoughts to his speech to decipher it's true meaning and hypocrisy. My thoughts are in brackets and red. here is a snippet:

Madam Speaker, Vice President Cheney [Real President Cheney], members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens: Seven years have passed since I first stood before you at this rostrum [Seven long long years]. In that time, our country has been tested in ways none of us could have imagined [Imagination actually wasn't needed, just literacy. The scenario for 9/11 was already suggested in a memo] . We faced hard decisions about peace and war [and we decided on the profitability of war], rising competition in the world economy [he means China] , and the health and welfare of our citizens [health??? hahaha]. These issues call for vigorous debate [or non-essential bantering], and I think it's fair to say we've answered the call [to our overload bankers]. Yet history will record that amid our differences, we acted with purpose [malicious, tyrannical purposes]. And together, we showed the world the power and resilience of American self-government [this might be the most honest part of the whole speech, the us executive branch of government has shown it's true might over its people, who have no one to blame but themselves for letting this happen].

I did the whole speech, but thought it would make this blog too long.

Feb 3rd:
Best superbowl this decade. Like many, I gave the giants no chance to win this superbowl. I thought they would make it close, but ultimately lose to the mighty pats. It's great to see Goliath fall. It's great to see perfection flawed. It's great to see other people's dream unfulfilled, especially when they're pompous cheating assholes. The Giants enter the game with no fear and a game plan, and that was it all they needed.

Feb 7th:
The new lunar year is here. Happy real new year to all. May the new year bring with it: academic, career, and personal successes, much money (even the ever decreasing us dollar), and motivation in all y'alls endeavors. It's his year. Listen to the Master Splinter. (This just came into my head, but why was the Asian dude transformed into the rat character?)

"Now, i can finally start my year."