Individual Blog Post #4

Eliot Spitzer’s call girl, Ashley Alexandra Dupre is suing the founder of Girls Gone Wild according to CNN.com.

Dupre said that she was vacationing in Miami when she was approached by agents and Joe Francis, founder of Girls Gone Wild, and offered her alcoholic drinks.

Dupre said while she was intoxicated she was persuaded to expose herself. While still intoxicated she was asked to sign a release form. Her legal council stated that Dupre was only 17 when she signed the contract and not legally competent to enter a contract.

A Girls Gone Wild star at the age of 17 and now a high-priced call girl that’s getting governor’s to cheat and resign, I can only hope Dupre continues to become more and more successful.

Japanese Memorial

Throw your photo albums into your fireplace and watch all your physical memories erase. Toss in some personal gifts and letters from friends and family, maybe some of your favorite clothes and books too. Burn anything of yours that might trace you back to your heritage.

Crazy? Yes, but these were the desperate actions the Japanese Americans had to take in order avoid the Japanese interment camps in the 1940’s

What was the Japanese Interments/Why did it happen?

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans were interned. This was because on February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed an order “Establishing the War Relocation Authority in the Executive Office of the President and Defining its Functions and Duties.” This is also known as Order 9066, which started plans of 10 internment camps where the Japanese Americans would be relocated to. One of the interment sites was Uchida Hall at San Jose State University.

Who Is Ruth Asawa?

On Second Street you can find a memorial dedicated to the thousands of Japanese Americans who were stripped of their rights as Americans and forced to live a caged life in the land of the free, the United States. Ruth Asawa’s, whom was interned at the age of 16, designed the memorial.

My Favorite Part

My favorite part on the memorial was the picture of the families burning their belongings in order to keep their freedom. The vignette shows mothers and fathers tossing their belongings into a fire pit. In the distance you can see a man holding out his hand to his daughter who clings to what seems to be a doll. She tries to protect her doll from her father by shielding herself with her free arm. It is extremely emotional to see the desperation of these people. In order to avoid the internment camps, a life they did not deserve to live, the Japanese Americas had to escape their roots, their identity, their heritage. No innocent person should have to deny himself of who he is, especially in a country that prides itself on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These people were desperate to survive and avoid the interment camps at all costs. Interment camps that they did not deserve to live in. To see people willingly throw their cherished belongings, their memories and experiences, their identity into a fire and watch it all disappear, its heartbreaking.



Memorials like the one Ruth Asawa designed pose a bigger purpose than to be a piece of art or a piece of history. Her memorial is a lesson, it is education, to anyone willing to stop and take a look at it. With a quick glance you get to see the lives the Japanese Americans were forced to live. Education like this is priceless and hopefully enough people will take the time to stop and look and realize the struggles the Japanese Americans had to over come. Maybe then people can appreciate the diversity the United States has to offer.

Individual Blog Post #3

While checking my email I noticed the Yahoo! news feed said something about a mascot's high-five gone awry. Apparently Chicago Bulls' mascot Benny the Bull, aka Barry Anderson, went to high-five a fan and accidentally hyperextending the mans arm and rupturing his biceps muscle. The victim, Dentist Don Kalant, had surgery on his arm and could possibly miss four months of work. He is suing for medical bill, pain and loss of earnings. Although it was an obvious accident, Kalant has already filed a lawsuit at the Cook County Circuit Court. This is an unfortunate situation, however, accidents do happen and you need to pay for them. Kind of like when all the street lights were out on my ex-boyfriend's street, so when I went to park I hit a parked car and now my car insurance is through the roof. 

Drinking Coffee Where else... STARBUCKS!

The Starbucks on Los Gatos Blvd my number one place to people watch. It's not because it has the best coffee or because it's where all my friends hangout. It's not because it's a hot spot to meet guys or because it holds weekly AA meetings on wednesday nights. It's because the Starbucks on Los Gatos Blvd has the creepiest regulars this side of the Prime Meridian. Lets start with exhibit A: "Happy." Happy is a man my friends named after his rather enthusiastic and joyful persona. His usual outfit, which he happened to be wearing tonight, is a light blue t-shirt with a chest pocket and faded dark blue sweat pants covered in lint balls. Tonight, like every night, he found a table for himself, sat down with his coffee and started talking. Yes, talking, to no one in particular. I'm never quiet sure what he is saying but it must be something good because he always has a cheshire cat grin on his face that exposes his gappy, coffee stained teeth and forces his eyes  into tiny slits. Exhibit B: "The Friend." The Friend is also a regular; there hasn't been a time I haven't seen The Friend at Starbucks. The Friend got her name, not because of her obvious lack of real friends, but because she tries to make friends with everyone and anyone who happens to turn up in the coffee shop. Now there's no harm in making new friends and talking to new people, however, The Friend, tends to skip introductions and jump right into someone else's conversations. Tonight for example, The Friend was sitting at a table closest to the front exit, her back facing the table next to hers. At the table next to her a young couple was talking about the current election. The Friend interjects with, "Well I think this country is ready for some woman power!" The couple exchanged confused glances then politely laughed off her comment. When the couple started talking again The Friend was persistent in pursuing the conversation as if she was apart of it the whole time. These are just a couple of the Starbucks Friends that hangout at Los Gatos Blvd. If you would like to check out Happy, The Friend or any of the other Los Gatos Starbucks regulars you can meet them at the corner of Blossom Hill Rd and Los Gatos Blvd next to Jamba Juice. 

Fish Out of Water

I know we were suppose to explore another culture's traditional event for this blog, however, I decided to explore women's culture. In most cultures, women cook for their families every night.   Now I know how to do a lot of things. I can french braid hair, I can pitch a tent by myself and I can chip a field hockey ball into the goal. Cooking, however, is not my forte and definitely out of my comfort zone. A lot of women and men find cooking to be fun, creative and delicious. I find cooking to be work, messy and burnt. I guess I could blame my mom, for her cooking skills are not ideal either. Growing up on black, stone hard meat loaf and undercooked pasta never really encouraged me to learn to cook. However, soon I will be on my own and wont be able to pay to eat out for every meal. I figured now would be a good to learn to cook... or at least bake. I attempted to bake banana nut bread. How hard could following a recipe be? Well it just so happens, for me, its extremely hard. First, I didn't have all the ingredients I needed so I had to go to the store. Then I had to puree half of the ingredients in a food processor, which I didn't own, not to mention I wasn't sure what puree was. So I put the ingredients in a blender, which I turned on without putting the top on. Thankfully, my cooking partner slammed the top on just in time. Then i had to sift the other ingredients, which I didn't know how to do so I had to look that up. You would be surprised how hard it is to find the cooking definition of 'sifting' online. Trying to mix in cold, hard butter into the sifted ingredients was the real challenge. It didn't occur to me to melt the butter a little before adding it in. I decided it would be a good idea to try and smash the butter into the sifted ingredients with what looked like oversized brass knuckles. Apparently it was some kind of bakery tool... or so I was told. After that failed, I tried to blend the butter in with an electric blender. After cleaning up the powdered covered kitchen after that bad idea, I just decided that it would be easier to add the rest of the ingredients all together. In the end, my cooking disaster was only burnt around the edges and the center of the bread tasted like actual banana bread. It was a stressful, uncomfortable and messy event but I did learn a lot about cooking. I think I'll see more of it in the future and with my experience from today, hopefully next time it will be a smoother experience. 

Individual Blog Post #2

An artist starved a dog for art! I don't even remember where I first read this story but it's been on blogs, facebook, myspace and all over the internet. Apparently (according to one source) a costa rican artist starved a dog for an art exhibit in Nicaragua. Because Nicaragua doesn't have animal cruelty laws against actions like these, the artist couldn't be prosecuted. It has recently been discovered (through multiple other blogs) that this story was a complete hoax. The story first turned up in a Nicaragua newspaper claiming that the artist Guillermo Vargas, had starved the dog for an exhibit and chained it up, not letting anyone give it any food or water. As it turns out, Vargas found the dog in the streets and used it as an example that people wouldn't care about the dog if it were running the streets starving; only if it were on display would people take interest. Supposedly the dog was fed periodically throughout the exhibit. The local animal shelter released a statement saying that the dog was in a state of starvation and was only in the exhibit for one day before it escaped. Just goes to show you, you can't always believe what your hear, no matter how many blogs you read. Stick to your traditional media!!! Even the blogs on credible organization's websites are not always completely accurate. 

This Weeks Media Blog EDITED

This week Barack Obama has an eight-point lead over John McCain. The Yahoo! article explained that Obama has  his lead over Clinton in the Democratic race to 26 percent points. Earlier this month Barack Obama has two big losses to Clinton in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It is speculated that Obama's losses are from his controversial comments on race and religion and the comment about "bitter" small-town residents who cling to guns and religion due to their economic situation. 

A poll showed that the people think Obama is a better steward of the economy than McCain, however just last month McCain led Obama by three points on the same issue. 

This is huge news. In only a month the country has shifted their view on the candidates. If our opinions can change that fast it is hard to predict who will win in the final election.

Only time will tell who our next president will be. Let the games continue. 

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

Z.Z. Packer’s style of writing is very descriptive. Every paragraph has a lot of imagery and similes to really show what is going on. The descriptions are so vivid and detailed that each reader could imagine the same thing because the wording is so exact and distinct.

For example, in the first chapter Packer is describing the Brownie troop girls laughing. She says:

The girls in my troop turned elastic: Drema and Elise doubled up on one another like inextricably entwined kites; Octavia slapped her belly; Janice jumped straight up in the air, then did it again, as if to slam-dunk her own head.

The way she describes the girls I can actually see them in my head falling all over each other, laughing. She describes the little girls in a way that is real; anyone who has been around elementary school girls would find these characters relatable and realistic. When she talks about the children calling everything “Caucasian” it made me laugh out loud because that’s sometime kids would do. My younger brother is going through that phase right now and calls everything ”Mexican.” He’s not racist (I hope), he just doesn’t really understand what he is saying, he just says it because it’s “the thing to do.”

I also liked how she tied in a simple story about her troop leaders belt made from baby pigeon feathers and brought it back to illustrate how rare Caucasians were in the south suburbs of Atlanta. I thought it was very clever and funny and it made a seemingly pointless story turn into an important comparison.