Identification has long been used in history to label, and some ways, define who we from the moment we are born. My name is Tiffany Duong and throughout my short and naive existence, I've struggled with the task of finding out and identifying who I am. In some ways, it’s easier to know who we aren't. For example, I know I’m not going to find myself in a bag of psilocybin or tetrahydrocannabino compounds and that I’m often not who my Virgo horoscope tells me I am supposed to be. I come from both urban and suburban, from a household where you take off your shoes at the door, and from an extended family that set up residence in the Bay Area in hopes of a better tomorrow. I've always been curious and snoopy as a child, constantly investigating the latest reason behind the new car on the block or obscure pregnancy of the only neighborhood cat. Playing detective sometimes lead me to doors of bricks with a stern scoldings, but sometimes they lead me to new insights and perspectives. I guess a natural inquisition to uncover more about myself and the history of where I am is what brought me to this class. I’m like hiking, playing with my dog, outdoor activities with friends, painting on vinyl records, and listening to podcasts on productivity while procrastinating. I also have a deep rooted anxiety of failing and being unprepared, so as I try to balance my hectic summer schedule in attempts to succeed academically, I find  that I have less and less time for the things I like. I think it’s interesting how this need to be adequate in school, which translates into to finding out who I’m going to be in a few years, paradoxically takes up so much time from me being who I know I am now. I find that I am very concerned about my well-being lately. I am concerned about how I will fair against my classes this summer. I am concerned how my sedentary life of sitting for hours in class and hours to study has led to me being fluffier than I’d like to be. I am also concerned that I will never have enough time, patience, or self-discipline to learn how to consistently meditate or get in the habit of doing some sort of mindfulness practice to keep me grounded. I suppose there are a million and one things to worry about as person in a sea of voices all crying out for guidance, but at the end of the day, I am grateful for all my first-world problems. I hope looking to the history of our past will help decipher the mysteries of finding my own sense of self. If Columbus could find the Americas, maybe I too will be able to find my own free America.

Back to the Basics

Recently I've found myself in a room with notebook paper and my pen making sweet love to the college-ruled lines within it. It's always been easier to write, to scribble away the mistakes, to rewrite several drafts, and to proof-read and edit manually. Well not easier per say, but a hell lot more rewarding.

Sometimes to move grow and move forward, you have to remember your roots and start at the beginning.

Just thought I'd follow up on my previous KONY post. 
I prefer not to take any sides on the KONY controversy until I do more research, but there are a lot of things that I've seen and read that have lead me to believe that this campaign is strongly motivated by marketing and propaganda.
Remember if you buy into what they're selling, just be sure you know what you're purchasing.

International Awareness

If you haven't already heard of or seen this video/ movement, please take 30 minutes off from your facebook/twitter/other form of social media to watch this short documentary.


In lack of better words, wow.
In order not to deprive my aching body from sleep, I will attempt from being too verbiage.

     Primarily, I think this is great. This film was released on March 5th and has already gone viral throughout the interweb. It also amazes me how astounding the amplitude of sudden awareness of this social media platform. I'm sure there are two sides to every story, but I don't even want to get into that. I'm curious as to why the world is finding out about this NOW? Aside from facebook (deactivated), the newsfeeds/timelines/dashboards/etc. of all my social networks have been abruptly bombarded with KONY. What is KONY?

KONY 2012 is a film and campaign by Invisible Children that aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice.

He is THE WORST LIVING CRIMINAL. He abducts children and makes them use guns to kill their own parents. He takes girls and forces them to be sex slaves. He calls his abducted children the Lord’s Resistance Army, AKA the LRA. He has abducted over 30,000 children and forced them to be child soldiers in Central Africa. He remains at large because he is INVISIBLE to the world. FEW know his name, even FEWER know his crimes. WE ARE MAKING HIM FAMOUS! Because when he is, the world will unite against him and demand his arrest.

      Summarily, this campaign is to raise awareness on the injustices and enslavement of child soldiers in Uganda. This sounds vaguely familiar to a book I read sophomore year, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah and the movie Hotel Rwanda. According to the video, it's been 9+ years of awareness of this issue, but where has the rest of the world (or America) been? There have been 11 of films on this matter, as well as novels, articles, exhibits, autobiographies. It's so typical and disgruntling of society have to wait until the campaign fits our social agenda to be aware. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful that they utilized social media to spread awareness, but we had to wait until it was one click away on YouTube to truly know anything. If it wasn't for this film you've seen through one of your social networks through a computer screen or phone, how much would we know? And I include myself on being the 90% of the world unaware of this issue.

Kony is now the moniker of evil, but do you know what has led us to this point? No, not really. Because privilege only enjoys social justice when it isn’t strenuous.


This is just one example of how powerful social media and propaganda is on controlling what we see simply by convenience. Like it or not, social media plays a pivotal point in our generation and it's nice to see some good out of it.

But on the legitimacy and purpose of this campaign... that's a whole other post.
     

Stupid Cupid

Flowers are the universal language of love

Despite all the people hating on Valentines Day, it was pretty damn good. It's already three days later yet I'm still inhaling chocolates by the truffles. Some call it Valentines day, other's call it Tuesday, Singles Awareness Day, or my favorite, unimaginative, consumer-oriented and entirely arbitrary, manipulative and shallow, interpretation of romance day.

Whatever you call it, be grateful. Who cares if you don't have a Valentines on Valentines Day? Some people don't have mothers on Mother's Day or fathers on Father's Day. Love yourself.

Vagabond Hearts

     I always seem to encounter the phrase, "Home is where the heart it". As true as that may be, my fellow peers and I are rapidly approaching a pivotal point in our existence. To flee from home and get lost in the world, ironically to discover who we truly are.

     While many are eager to dive into their lives of the typical four year plan to graduate from a CSU/UC with an impressive degree, I find myself wanting to stray from that future. The kind of future we were told to pursue as children, the kind of future that "guarantees" success and financial stability, and the kind of future you could proudly boast about having while being interrogated by a future mother-in-law.

     Once I jokingly told a few people I was going to take a gap year in order to join the CCC (California Conservation  Corps) before college to find out more about myself and what I love to do. Despite their insight on my joke, preconceived notions of disapproval were already evident in their faces and words that followed which summarily said failure. When I told people I wanted to become a community college transfer student because of financial issues, that ensued a plethora of comments meticulously calculated to show their distaste in such a decision. Such as how miserable people in JC tended to be, how people never transfer on time, how some people don't even transfer, how it disappointing it will look to others, etc.

     I reached an option to attend community college because after financial aid, grants, scholarship I MIGHT get, and loans I MIGHT be unable to pay back, I will still have a large sum of college debt to pay off. I'm not from a well-to-do family, consisting of a single mother with a part-time job who also tries to work from home when possible. Without the help of some wonderful family friends, our house would have been taken away by the bank. I simply cannot afford to jump right into a UC or private. That's the ugly reality.

     For our government classes at school, we are visited by a Heald College representative to give us a reality check on the real cost of living on our own. We tally up our living expenses into a monthly sum which came to $1835. It also showed that if we had a part time job of lets say $20/hr. working 40 hrs. a week, we'd be at $2,704 a year. Not enough to even cover two months. Yeah, it was a bit exaggerated to scare us into saving and spending wisely, but it does hold some truth for the few that plan on living alone.

     A friend from an AP gov class was talking about the experience she had and basically thought the whole thing was downright stupid. I asked her why and she responded by stating that she'd never be in that situation because her mom is going to pay for everything. She is a smart girl, and she is probably going to have a smart future, but I guess she doesn't realize that not everyone has the luxury of being a daughter to a self-made millionaire. 

It just kinda sucks. I'm ready to brave the unknown, but that's exactly what it is, UNKNOWN. Why is everyone trying to tell me how to be successful the right way. Trying to conform to the norm of what everyone else is doing isn't always the only way.

SSS minus the S

Second semester seniors without Sutherland?
     Surely none of us thought we'd end our year without our eccentric, unconventional mentor. I say mentor because to many, he was more than simply our English instructor. You don't often come across teachers of such open mindedness and respect for their students; I suppose would explain the recent calamity within the classroom. Which leads me to questions that probably will never be answered. What part of the corrupt curriculum was pernicious enough to make one just up and leave their job with no back-up plan? But more importantly, which wayward teacher is going to be assigned to instruct the material?

     Well it all depends on what period you have. I think one (or more) have Ms. Baxter, a former ELD teacher. While the rest of the classes were left to the care of AP English teacher, Ms. Roenicish (however you spell that). To the dismay of many students under the instruction of Ms. Roenisch, she has already devised a whole agenda replete with the typical senior curriculum. On the first day, we were told that in one semester, we will be reading 6 books as a class (consisting of a few plays and a Shakespeare). 6 books a semester is not a lot, but as a class? Meaning time to read, annotate, analyze, discuss, and report on, which could add up to be a lot of time. Also, we will be indulging in vocabulary units including being tested on them weekly. Oh the joy. First impression: A very by-the-book way of teaching with little room to budge. Like she even said verbatim, "I'm a rule follower,". It's not to say that she isn't a good teacher, but such a drastic transition in teaching styles could take a while to get used to.
     While in Ms. Baxter's class, from what I hear, she wants to keep the idea of blogging as being a part of the class. I'm definitely in the wrong period. But vocabulary?! Really?! We're seniors -______-' I mean, don't get me wrong, expanding your vernacular is a great way to get ahead in life but from years of personal experience, if students aren't actively willing to do it, the information will not retain in their minds. What we'll actually learn will be better ways to cheat, given that most of the Sadler-Oxford WS book answers are online. Lol, just ask anyone with Stein.
     I miss Sutherland and how currents events discussions would go off into a whole other tangent. I guess when life gives you a new tardy policy and Ms. Roenisch, the best you can do is to keep writing!

CP: Fences

     In the play write Fences, August Wilson entices readers by creating the perplexing story of Troy Maxson, an African American man that ostracizes those around him due to his own vindictive past. The setting takes place in the late 1950's - 1960's in Pittsburgh, PA; an era that emphasizes the aftermath of slavery through a time when discrimination was legalized through the Jim Crow laws. Troy's abusive relationship with his father proves to be the origin of his embittered attitude towards the white man. This also depicts a history of Southern slavery and how it has effected future generations through a cycle of abuse. Troy turns out to be a reflection of his own father in terms of the harsh treatment he gives his own son, Cory. Are Troy and Cory locked into a cycle of abuse?
     As a brother of 11 and the son of an unsuccessful sharecropper, Troy was always fearful of this father because his unethical teaching methods and referred to him as the devil; the root of his problems. He decides to leave home at a young age and in his own eyes, finally became a man. Though he has a steady job, a family, and a house, a reoccurring theme is apparent throughout the play: A fractured father-son relationship.
     The main cause of Troy's dysfunctional relationship with his son Cory is created by a generational gap. They possess different historical perceptions because Troy is confined to the socio-cultural fate for African Americans before the War, giving him the inability to accept new changes during the post war period. He cannot see past his own knowledge and experience, so Troy internalizes the oppression he faced and therefore, he refuses to give Cory the chance to play college football to make a better future for himself, but instead to work forever at the A&F grocery store to make a hard, honest living.
     Eventually, our tragic-hero dies a and Cory returns after joining the military. After years of being absent from the household, he and his father never reconciled their differences, leaving Cory still without closure and loose ends. After he decides not to attend the funeral service until Rose tells him not attending will not make him any more of a man. I don’t believe the same repetitive cycle will continue with Cory and his future offspring. What Cory has that Troy didn’t is his mother, someone that shows love and compassion toward the innocent, which will reflect onto Cory and his actions. She is the prime example of what Cory is capable of, loving and nurturing someone regardless of past mistakes without incriminating them or wielding any animosity or resentment towards another.

CE: Quakes and shakes

An earthquake and an aftershock, both on the Hayward Fault near Berkeley, rattled the Bay Area on Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.The first quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 4.0, struck at 2:41 p.m. The second, a 3.8, was at 8:16 p.m.

San Francisco Earthquake 1906

     Vivian Ho did an article covering the Bay Area quakes for The San Francisco Chronicle. The first quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 4.0, struck at 2:41 p.m. The second, a 3.8, was at 8:16 p.m. Both quakes originated from Berkeley but could be felt all throughout the East Bay and in San Francisco.
     Well it's common for us here in California to feel a couple shifts and shakes a couple times a year. But this time it was almost surreal because the first one occurred during active school hours, which is pretty out of the norm for me. I guess I'll just share my opinions since I have less than ten minutes to zoom through this.
     The first earthquake happened during 5th period during physiology with Wilson. We were taking notes and suddenly there was a loud rumble and the room shook a little. I didn't think much of it. Maybe someone jumping around outside, that one fat kid fell again, or just a loud truck. It took me a while to realize it was an earthquake. But no one died... so I don't understand why people were screaming and freaking the fuck out. Calm yo clitoris gurl.

Earthquake prepardness kit

     The second earthquake was while I was at home. I was browsing the web when I hear my mom screaming and freaking out. I ask her what's wrong and she proceeds to ask if I had just felt the earthquake. Well I had headphones on and I was wondering why the bass suddenly got really intense, but other than that, I didn't think much about it.
     After it all ended, I went off on my mom because I've been warning her about earthquakes and how a lot of people are predicting that a big one is going to hit soon. I've stressed the importance of emergency supplies and  earthquake kits to her, but she disregards my feeble attempts and brushes me off like a piece of lint. OKAY NOW YOU LISTEN THEN. I swear, sometimes it's like I'm the parent taking care of a child. But that's okay, safety first kids.
     I encourage everyone to have a plan or emergency preparedness kit/plan in case a disaster does occur. Happy Friday.

RE: Ink'd

"Don’t get it because it’s cute. Don’t get it because you just want one. But get it, because it actually means something to you, motivates you, or defines you."

     I liked the topic of this post by Kristen about getting tattoos, especially for that last sentence. Tattoos have existed from ancient times, carried on the bodies of everyone from sailors to circus folk and spies to criminals. For a long time, they have played an important role in historic rituals and cultural tradition. However in recent decades, it has emerged to the forefront of popular consciousness, evolving to become typical on the average citizen. They even have tattoo cosmetic make up for eyebrows, lips, blush, etc. Everywhere you go, you see teens to grandmother's inked up, it has become a trend that can help one define one self but also be subjected to submission into cultural conformism. I respect the art of tattooing and it's history, but honestly some people are just ridiculous with it.

     It's a little short-sighted when people expeditiously commit themselves to a tattoo that's simply irrelevant. Your necklace may break, the fau tree may burst, but my tattooing is indestructible. It is an everlasting gem that you will take into your grave. -Verse from a traditional tattoo artist's song. Tattoos are markings that will last forever or involve a pricey and painful process for removal. Don't get a fucking Hello Kitty cause it's "cute". That is NOT cute. Wouldn't it be much more self-rewarding to get a tattoo that symbolized something or actually conveys depth to it's expression other than it's cute? Getting tatt'ed at a young age might look wet or make you look like a bad bitch now, but don't regret it later when it impairs your chances at a job opportunity or when you get fat/prego and that shit stretches with your belly. Well hey, it's your body. Who am I to dictate what you can do, lol.

     Either way, tattoos are making a strong comeback and has been more accepted than it has ever been. Artists combine the tradition of tattooing with their personal style creating unique and phenomenal body art. I do plan on marking myself someday, but until I'm sure of what I want, I'll stick to sharpies and non-permenate stick ons.