Interests:Yukimura-sama!! *hearts* Wait, not THAT kind of interests, you mean? Fine. Here goes: Anime, manga, drawing, reading, making computer graphics, music [anime, K/J-pop/ R&B/ hip-hop and lately angsty nu-metal]... Expertise:Being the biggest procrastinator in the world. That's all I can come up with for the time being, I'll think more about this one later.
Wow. It has been a ridiculously long time since my last post, and... how everything at Xanga has changed! o_0 The interface has certainly gotten spiffier, newly decked with lots of pretty bells and whistles. It's kinda nice, but it has also become infinitely and unnecessarily complicated. I mean, I don't really need all of these stats trackers, do I?? And what's with the disturbingly personal survey -- waving promises of "credits" -- that had just popped out of nowhere and blindsided me as I was trying to navigate my way to my Xanga summary page?? They needed to know the names, birthdays, and email addresses of my family members... WHY??! *grumbles and clicks 'Skip Survey' immediately*
Ah well. I'll browse around, read up about, and tweak these new thingamajigs later... when I REALLY get down to redecorate this place. *looks arounds* This dusty old Barça layout from March of 2007? Deco? That little pic of Ronnie wearing the blaugrana?? *covers eyes* SOOO have to go.
But this post isn't supposed to be about my rediscovering Xanga, it's about dropping in and marking off the days left till the Presidential Election on Tuesday, Nov 4, 2008! This campaign season has definitely been one looooong and exciting ride. As evidenced by my 8-mos-long AWOL status, I've spent all of my time online this year following various news outlets, political websites, and other people's political blogs and forums (and enjoying every minute of it!). LOL. Guess I'm just too lazy (and busy) to blog myself. Besides, by the end of the day, I'd just be regurgitating news and opinions here anyway, and that would be pointless and, frankly, a bother. So, no, I'm not willing to do the day-to-day political tracker thing. Still, as the campaign grinds down to its last few days, I really do want to come back here and write about my feelings and opinions about this election as a whole. If I can dedicate time to cover a few topics (read: raves & rants), great! Continue with these election summaries even after Nov 4? Awesome! Tonight, though, I'm just gonna take it easy and pick the easiest (and fluffiest) topic of the bunch...
My Pick: Top 3 Funniest Videos of the 2008 Pres. Election Campaign!
(Listed chronologically, because they're difficult to rank!)
1. John McCain gets BarackRoll'd at the Republican Convention: I'm in complete awe at the video maker who is dedicated enough to sift through Obama's speeches and video/audio files and painstakingly edited together this little piece of gem. Hugh Atkin of Australia = totally awesome.
2. Saturday Night Live's Tina Fey's Sarah Palin: SNL hit a home-run this year with Tina Fey's portrayal of Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin. Matching the real GOP VP nominee perfectly in physical appearance, voice, and mannerism, I simply love watching Fey's Palin in all of her SNL skits, whether she's partnered with Amy Poehler in the mock Palin/Clinton press conference, going head to head with Jason Sudeikis's Joe Biden in the Vice Presidential debate, meeting (evading?) the real Sarah Palin at her mock first press conference, together with John McCaingetting endorsed by Pres. George W. Bush... By far my favorite, though, is the exclusive Part 4 of the Katie Couric Interview, with Amy Poehler as the confused and bemused journalist. XD
To fully appreciate SNL's spoof, one has to consider how closely it follows the actual CBS interview. Funny, yes, and scary, too!
3. MoveOn.org's 'Don't Let Your Friend Lose the Election' Video: Ingenious! Feel free to customize this video at CNNBCVideo.com and send it to everyone you know! As an example, here's one with my name in it:
4. Sarah Palin Pranked: Lastly, this isn't a video per se, but in breaking news(?) today, Sarah Palin got pranked by a pair of Canadian comedians from a Montreal radio station. In a 6-min long prank call, Palin believed she was talking with French President Nicholas Sarkozy... *speechless* Who was accusing whom of naivete? Failed to vet phone calls at the Republican campaign HQ? Behaved like a "star-struck schoolgirl" giggling in front of the fake French Pres? A preview of what future interviews with foreign heads of state would look like if she were VP??... It's incredibly hilarious, but devastatingly embarrassing to listen to.
Head on over to Daily Kos should you like to view the transcript of the prank call. ;)
Yes, this campaign season has been full of these and many, many other weirder stuff. It has been quite a thrill ride, but just so I don't have to endure any further embarrassment from the GOP (McCain, Palin, Joe the Plumber, the circus freak show and wingnuts which follows them around), Nov 5 can't come soon enough.
Wow, it certainly has been a while since my last update! Passionately following the 2008 U.S. Presidential campaign since the early Jan 8 primaries, most of my online time is now devoted to following articles, analysis, blogs, and websites dedicated to the election, leaving no left-over energy to update my own blog. (No life much? LOL.) Still, there's definitely no better year for a political junkie! ;)
What compelled me so that I feel the need to vent out today? Answer: I'm sick of the media bias, in this case CNN, for the way they cover the presidential campaign. Self-important, biased, totally subjective and unfair in coverage, I can't believe they feed us this garbage masqueraded as "news" designed to inform and educate the masses! Two recent observations of this misbehavior are:
1. The general bias for Obama against Clinton. This is blatantly obvious for anyone who has read or watched a large enough share of political coverage: he is less scrutinized, his triumphs and actions are more celebrated, the ludicrous way in which he is continually being compared to JFK, and the sheer volume of coverage he gets in the media everyday to keep him in the public eye... In short, more often than not, Obama is portrayed not as "one of the Democratic presidential candidates" but as "media darling." How is this fair??! In today's NY Times, the Op-Ed piece "Hate Springs Eternal" by Paul Krugman describes in a bit more detail Obama's "cult of personality" and the media's unjust "Clinton rules".
2. The invisible Republican candidate Huckabee. Picking an old bone, yes, but I still laugh when I think about the Republican Debate on CNN aired Jan 30. Anderson Cooper as the moderator?? One certainly can't find a more camera-hogging, self-important, pompous moron! CNN effectively snubbed Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul during the debate, whose combined on-camera time and speaking points did not even add up to what the moderator enjoyed! They were sidelined as the debate, and Cooper's questions, centered solely on McCain and Romney. IMO, the "McCain vs. Romney" media focus is partly to blame for Romney's (now we know as) delusional "This is a two-person race [between] me and John McCain" proclamation. Pray tell, where is Romney now?
OK, Press bias has long been irritating, but what really ticked me off today -- and what got me to blog about it here -- is this insidious piece of work, a two-minutes segment aired on (who else but?) CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 on Feb 8:
Oh so, according to CNN and their brilliant research, the two reasons why Asian Americans vote overwhelmingly for Clinton are: 1. We are fearful/distrustful of African Americans 2. We are fearful of change
...NOT because Asian Americans support Clinton's stand on whichever social, economic, or political issue, obviously. In fact, at the end of the two minutes, we still DO NOT know WHY exactly do Asian Americans support Clinton. Apparently, the two 'reasons' listed above are good enough for CNN; no further investigation is necessary.
*out-raged*
Please, CNN, DO do further segments on how the different races in America "fear and distrust" each other! No need to do any homework, just interview a handful of people on the streets and broadcast their preferences on presidential candidate as true and valid assumptions on the entire Asian American population! And please broadcast and incite more unfounded racial prejudices! (*sarcastic* if you can't tell)
Heck, are those people interviewed (and chosen to appear on the TV segment) American CITIZENS? Do they even follow the election? Do they even plan to vote??
Instead of a bunch of heavy-accented shoppers and (who to me looks like) study-aboard students in an Asian grocery store, why didn't CNN interview someone with more credential? Perhaps a professor or scholar of Asian decent in political or social studies? Someone from the Asian American Institute or, heck, someone from the 80-20 Initiative whose organization has ENDORSED CLINTON as early as Jan 18?? Quite obviously, CNN is interested not in a serious and logical explanation, but a sensational story on racial prejudice and racial politics -- however ungrounded.
How does that one guy in a Seattle coffee shop speak for ALL Asian Americans that they are "afraid of change"?!!
I will refrain from ranting on (I honestly can rant on and on about this!) but urge you to instead...
Football is a team sport, so I can't really blame Barça's failure to perform on Messi's absence. Still, when the effort from Ronnie, Eto'o & el. fell flat and scoring opportunities were left unrealized, (from a fangirl's perspective) the always energetic and inspiring Messi was desperately missed. Plus, for all of the surrounding controversy and criticism, I was particularly hoping to see Ronnie prove himself to his naysayers tonight -- especially when he was supposed to be benched and Coach Rijkaard's decision to play him was as-far-as-we-could-tell last minute. But *sighs* things don't always go the way one hopes to, I suppose.
Compare tonight's Clásico to last season's spectacular one and, honestly, tonight's was definitely a disappointing letdown. ;_; We had needed this victory, damnit. Now the Liga is approaching winter break and Madrid, having won and are now seven (!!) points ahead, have widened the gap at the head of the table. Can Barça stage a comeback next year? Or are we still suffering from the resulting malaise, the lack of confidence, unity and focus, of last season's defeat?
Here on the shore of Lake Erie, late autumn traditionally sets in right after Halloween. Accordingly, over the past several days, the weather has been overcast, the temperature took a dive and lingered in the low to mid 40s°F. Today it has even started to snow (albeit very light, drifty snow, mixed with a bit of hail)!! And there are still two days ere winter officially begins on the lunar calendar! :D
...And I would be much more excited about the forecasted wintry precipitation if I do not have to spend roughly an hour and a half commute on the road everyday. It makes me nervous just imagining all the white-outs, icy rain, slush, slippery roads, traffic jams, and dangerous driving. Oh, very soon, I'll have to start my morning commute extra early to allow time for possible traffic jams/road blocks/back-ups, too. Ugh.
That said, November is still my favorite month of the year: We're on the other side of fall; the colorful scenery is in full blast; the overcast, autumnal sky is perfectly lovely, so is the 40s~50s°F temperature range; Thanksgiving; three days off from work (w00t!!); and it's the prelude to the holiday season, a jovial anticipation already in the air... :)
November. Wow. Just thought of something: exactly how many months has this layout been up on my Xanga? Methinks I've broken my previous record of "months I keep a single layout because I'm too lazy to change/design something new"! As much as I love this good ol' Barça layout, it's time for a change. Really. *sweats*
What a lazy, real-life Garfield couch potato! ...The cat's cute tho, lol!
