IWA #6 Creating My Superhero

“The Invisible Man”, that’s what people call me. My task is to help people fight against crime, and create a secure feeling for the society. Some people even think I’m better than a police. Long story cut short, I am going to tell you how it all began. One night, I was attending a wedding party in a classic and scary castle with my fiancée. I was in my tuxedo at my friend’s wedding party. She was rich; She was a famous artist. Thus, she hired this one castle that was located in a remote area near a forest for her wedding so that paparazzi would not know and record the wedding.  It was a private party with only around a hundred people in total attending it.

On one occasion I had to excuse myself from the crowd to go in the restroom. There was one restroom nearby the main function room that was in renovation, while another one was located at the end of the hallway. The castle was dark and quiet. I didn’t dare to walk to the farther restroom so I purposely entered the restroom that was in renovation. It was dark, with only few yellow lamps near the mirror. As I was coming closer to the mirror, I was shocked as there was light coming from the mirror and there was a gravitational force that pulled me towards the mirror. I couldn’t pull myself away; I was pulled in to the mirror. After few seconds, I was thrown away out of the mirror. I thought I was lucky as nothing serious happened to me. When I came back to the main function room, people started to scream. They were shouting, “The ghost of this castle has come to disturb us!”

People started to run away from the castle and the wedding ceremony was ruined. In fact, people screamed as they thought they saw a ghost in tuxedo. It was me. I became invisible after I was pulled in and out of the mirror. This eerie happening later on spread on the news.  In fact, the restroom in which I entered had already been labeled ‘in renovation’ since the castle was first built. It was a haunted and mysterious room.  People who entered it had always disappeared.

         People were always frightened when they saw me on the street, so most of the time I hid myself. An idea suddenly struck my mind. Why won’t I use this invisible power to help people? From then on, I used my power to help fight against crime, although most of the time the people I helped also became frightened of me.

IWA #5 My unique Valley Fair experience

As a person who comes from a small city with just a modest shopping mall, to me, Valley Fair mall is awesome. Never have I been bored of visiting the mall, regardless of whether I go there to buy things or just hang out with my friends to kill time.  But, this particular visit is a lot different than usual. I had to pay attention to the architecture of the mall, its lighting, the stores, and happenings that take place inside the mall, which I usually never did. This time, I was bringing a pen and a paper with me, and ran behind time as I was given limited time to complete the assignment. Some people even approached me and asked me what I was doing. It felt weird in the beginning, but nevertheless, I found this assignment so attractive. I was like on an amazing race show. Interesting.

I feel comfortable hanging around in this mall. Its simple and classic architecture provides a glamorous feeling for the visitors. More importantly, its natural and not-too-bright lighting gives a sense of convenience for people. I believe this is done purposely as I once read an article on how lighting affects how long a customer will be around in a store. The lighting in Valley Fair mall gives an impression of ‘heaven’ inside the mall. Once we get into the mall, we get into our comfort zone already. It seems that we don’t even care about what happens outside the mall and just wanting to spend more time inside. Time flies really fast when you are at the mall as you enjoy it.

             However, I feel that the society is kind of segregated in the mall. Seemingly, the branded shops are located together in a group, with more affordable shops are also clumped together in a group, yet the two categories are located at a distance between each other. The most vivid indicators would be the two entrance doors that the mall has. One entrance door is located next to Nordstrom, which is a high-end department store, while the other one is located near Macy’s, a more affordable store. A much more clear segregation is visible between the ground floor and the second floor of the mall. As we know, the entire branded and high-end store are located at the ground floor. The ground floor also seems to be wider and more luxurious as it has ceramic floor, while the second floor only has carpeted floor. I conclude that the mall is trying to impress every customer with its extravagance. However, I noticed that only a few people dared to enter these branded stores, while a few visitors just passed by the stores; much more people are on the second floor than on the ground floor.

        One problem with this Valley Fair mall is that most of the stores are not affordable for most San Jose residents. According to the statistics, majority of San Jose residents only have medium income range. Furthermore, with an average of 3 kids per household, for sure the residents cannot afford most of the stores inside. I believe, the management of this stores should implement more affordable stores and cut down the number of branded stores inside the mall. There are two major shopping malls in San Jose, The Valley Fair mall and Santana Row. Santana Row is a mall full of branded stores already, so why don’t we make the other one more affordable? Should some people want to buy these expensive items, they can just go to Santana Row instead. So, everyone is better off.

       Another problem would be the need of racial diversities among employees working at the mall. Although the race group is San Jose is about equally diverse with Asians, White, and Hispanic being the majority with around 30 % of the total population each, it is clearly seen that majority of the employees are White. Few of them are Asians and Hispanic. I saw most of them work at the food court instead. I am sure some of these Asians and Hispanic people feel this unfair. The make up majority of the population also, but why is it hard for them to get more proper jobs inside the mall? Would it have been wonderful if the employees were equally diverse just like the population? I believe everyone would be content if it does happen.

IWA#4 My fashion history

My fashion crime began when I was in my first year of high school.  Previously, I was a just a timid boy who never cared about my fashion and was never updated with the latest fashion. However, everything changed as I entered my high school year. Before high school, I could not try any fashion because I was overweight. Although I liked some particular clothes and pants, I could not buy them because they don’t have the sizes for me. Soon, I realized that I needed to go on a diet.  I was aware that I needed to keep in shape for my high school years; I didn’t want my schoolmates to make fun of me because I am obese, like what happens on most TV shows nowadays. In fact, in the end, my diet was successful. I lost 20 pounds.

That moment was the turning point in my fashion history. I started trying different kinds of looks and updated myself with the style that was going on that time. Slim fit shirt, slim fit jeans, skinny pants, etc. I am a kind of person who likes to try new things, so this moment was the real deal for me, the time that I had been waiting for. Among all, the craziest thing that I ever did was to have a “bangs” haircut, which is basically having your fringe cut even. At that same time, Korean pop music was growing its popularity in the industry. Almost every teenager regardless of boy or girl was crazy about it, especially in my circle of friends. Most of the Korean guys had the bangs hairstyle, thus I was attracted to have the same hairstyle.

Everytime I went for a haircut, I always went by myself. So, one day, when I came back home after I got a haircut, my parents were deeply shocked to see me in my new “bangs” hairstyle. At first they thought that the barber had mistakenly cut my hair. So, I explained to them that there was nothing wrong with the barber and it was purely my decision to have this hairstyle. My mother was kind of confused to see why I decided to have a hairstyle similar to most of the girls in my school. She emphasized that my hairstyle was too girly. Similar things happened in school. Even worse, some of my friends made fun of my bangs hairstyle and called me gay because of my hairstyle. I was perplexed. Does having a bangs hairstyle, which some says girly, make a guy look gay? Not necessarily. Yes, it may look awkward, but I was just following the trend.

 I liked the changing process of fashion. As long as I’m comfortable with my style and it does not hurt others, why should other people’s comment too much about my style? I never really had my own style until one day, my aunt gave me an advice which made me realized something. She was telling me not to follow the trend in the market, but rather I myself should set the trend for others to follow. Back then, I did not really know what my aunt was telling me. But most importantly, I knew that I had to develop my own style. Fashion is like an icon or identity. I myself don’t have a wonderful sense of fashion. Most of the time, I only wear something that I feel comfortable of wearing. Even though some may look down on my fashion, I don’t care about it much, as I believe that fashion is a way to express yourself. Of course, everyone has his/her own way to express him/herself, and that makes each of us unique.

IWA #3 Blogging and the media

Among all the six blogs that we were assigned to read for the last three days, the “Angry Asian Man” blog by Phil Yu intrigued me the most. Being an Asian American himself, he tries to convey to the public that Asians also have a voice in public. Many people may have stereotyped Asians in America being the group of people who are conservative, always quiet and hesitant to raise their opinions. Through this blog, he wants to bring out the idea that public’s opinion is totally wrong. Also, he points out about racism that happens in the United States, especially towards Asians. I believe Asians are the most common victims in the United States. They are often viewed as second-class citizens in America with the white people being the first-class citizens. I could understand cases where native Asians become the victim of racism in United States, maybe because of their immigration status and their imperfect English proficiency. However, having an Asian American becoming a target of racism sounds ridiculous to me. They grow up with other fellow Americans and gradually adopt American culture. Yet, what makes them inferior to other Americans from other ethnicities?

One article which shows Phil’s hatred about racism is the “post secret: Asian men turn me on”, which portrays a scene where a white woman dating an Asian man. The picture further explains that the parents of this white woman were actually teaching her to date a man within her own race. However, in the end she fell in love with this Asian guy. This story does not explicitly show racism towards Asian, yet, we can infer that the parents of the white woman seems to see that people from other races are of lower class people. In real life, we rarely see a white and an Asian couple, and most of the time the number of white man-Asian woman couple far outweighs the number of Asian man- white woman couple. Seemingly, a white man is far more superior to an Asian man, thus making it’s almost impossible for an Asian man to attract a white woman. So, how could this Asian guy in the picture attract a white girl? Phil, through this post, emphasizes that although people think that Asians are lower class citizens, people should count them too. It was not plausible for an Asian to get a white partner, but this story illustrates that it’s no longer a rare case now.

The article of “green hornet movie trailer hits the web” shows a little different thing. It displays the appearance of Asians in the mass media, for example, more and more Asians are getting into the Hollywood film industry. The “green hornet” is actually starring a Taiwanese actor named Jay Chou, who is making his first appearance in Hollywood. We all know it’s hard to get into Hollywood. Furthermore, unlike numerous other action movies in general, where they have white guy as the main character, this film has Jay Chou as the main character and the protagonist. Even though Jay may have language difficulty in starring the film, as he is not a native speaker, Phil is still looking forward to the release of the film, as he would like to see an Asian guy being the main character. Having an Asian guy taking the most important role in a film can possibly change people’s perception about Asian. People may start to think that Asians could also strive in everything that others can do, and not the group of people who can only keep quiet.

Another engaging post from Phil’s blog is about the “11th annual San Diego Asian Film Festival opens tonight”. The festival is mainly about the celebration of the best of Asian American films. In my opinion, this festival does not only target Asian audiences. It invites everyone to learn more about the Asian culture and appreciate Asians’ talent. For Asians themselves, this festival can serve as a gathering event as well as a media to appreciate their root and culture. In retrospect, this blog aims to engage every reader, yet particularly Asian readers so that they can understand and further appreciate their identity. The blog also serves as a media for Asians to voice up their opinions and continue to pursue their quest for equality.

IWA#2 Red Pill vs Blue Pill

If I were given the chance to choose between the red pill and the blue pill, I would have chosen the red pill for sure without any further thoughts, like what Neo did in ‘The Matrix’ movie. Firstly, I realized that these two pills indirectly reflects about the human’s characteristics. The blue pill represents a person who always accepts reality, never daring to make a move, and just follow the flow. On the other hand, the red pill represents a person who has the courage to face challenges in life.

I believe, most of us would choose the red pill like me for certain. It is our human nature that we always feel curious in everything. We use our imagination to think imagine things that we desire whether they are good or bad. Often times, we only expect the good things and never expect about the risks that follow. Neo experienced the same thing. When he was given the choice, he chose the red pill without any deliberation . Neo was curious about how cool the matrix world is but he never understood that because of the choice he made, he put himself into danger. Secret agents were chasing after him.

For me, personally, I am concordant with Neo’s decision. I am a kind of person who likes challenges as I think that life is boring without any challenges. I am always sure that I can handle these challenges. Yet, sometimes I feel that I have made a wrong decision. Many a time I think that I should not have taken these challenges in the first place. Unfortunately, in life, you can’t turn back the time and you can’t undo things that do not turn out in the way you wanted them to be. Regrets do arise and they always come late. In the middle, Neo did regret that he took the red pill at first. Taking the red pill seems fun at the beginning, but it only caused more troubles to him afterwards. However, there was no turning back for him. Earlier on, he was fully informed that once he made his decision, he had to go through the process. There was nobody influencing Neo. Thus, it was purely his decision. Another lesson that we can learn from this film is that, just like Neo, most of us are still careless in making decisions. Sometimes we don’t think twice about what will be the outcome of our action and what are the consequences. A simple mistake can actually lead into troubles.

Should I have taken the blue pill, I would not have any regrets either. I have had too much of an amazing experience. Yes, it’s true that swallowing blue pill causes the story of memorable journey to end, however it does not mean that I will totally lose all the memories of experience that I had. Who knows maybe I can use my imagination to create a much better virtual dream world in my dream, in my unconscious mind rather than if I have taken the red pill.

Afterall, it is never easy to make a decision. It is so funny that greed is a part of our human nature. If we were given the chance, most of ask would surely question if we can try both the red and the blue pills one after the other. However, in this case we can only try one. In the end, we will certainly end up with regrets regardless of which pill to choose. If we take the blue pill, we will regret why we didn’t take the red one, and vice versa. Human is never satisfied with what they have.

Informal Assignment #1

Through the documentary of Examined Life, we get to see eight different philosophers expressing their own ideas about issues arising from our daily real life experiences. Each of the speakers presents their ideas with their own unique ways, which attract different individuals. The ideas presented by the eight philosophers are all fascinating and quite easy to comprehend. However, what Peter Singer said about ethical issues and the moral problems that we human have, caught my attention the most. What was interesting from his talk is that Peter used the setting of the extravagant shopping district in New York 5^th Avenue while he was talking about an ethical issue about money, which I think was quite an irony. He brought up a question of  “what we should be spending our money on?” as Peter was concerned about the fact that people do not feel like they have ethical issues when they spend money on expensive goods. In my point of view, maybe it is their lifestyle or maybe they just want to reward themselves as a result from their hard works. But look, have we ever realized how much we can help people who are really in need with that large amount of money we spend on a luxury pair of shoes or handbag? I believe people should learn how to differentiate between what they need and what they want. In this case, for example, luxury goods are just things that we want, not a necessity. We are lucky that we live in a developed country where we rarely find any cases of poverty, famine, and other serious adversities. Perhaps $10 is not a big sum of money for some of us who have already worked. That is how much we earn for every hour that we work. In contrast, the same amount of money means a lot in a third world country. According to Unicef, $10 can provide 400 children with enough safe drinking water for a day, or else it can provide enough vaccine to immunize 65 children against polio. In his talk, Peter mentioned further that ethics is also about the basic choices that we make in our lives. Have we made wise choices? Do we fell like we have the obligations to help people around us who are in need? Some people may have argued that we are not responsible for these people who are in need, yet, at least we have to have moral obligations to show our care and support for these people. We need to show our love rather than just feeling of compassion towards them. In retrospect, Peter also emphasized that ethics is not about what we do that impact others, it is rather what we decide to do or not to do. Our every action and decisions can make a difference for others, no matter how much it is. As we understand this fact, we should start thinking how we can contribute to this issue. For sure, this world would be a better place to live in if we can help one another, especially those who are less fortunate than us. Life would be much more meaningful if we share it with other people around us and have the sense of togetherness. 

On the same occasion, Peter talked about the absence of ethics that humans show towards animals. He brought up a story about a person who turned into vegetarian after he discovered how the animals are mistreated. Most of us may not be aware that indeed animals are treated harshly before they are slaughtered and sent to the market. They are tortured, restricted together in an unventilated place, etc. Seemingly, humans have taken these animals for granted. It is true that these animals are provided for our consumption, but humans should treat them with better care. Afterall, they are living things too. Who knows whether or not they do have feeling? Just like human does.

Scavenger Hunt

I think that yesterday’s Scavenger Hunt was so interesting. I got to make friends with two people from my classmates and worked together as a team. The hunt was adventurous too, as it allows us to walk around the school and explore new places that we might not have known before.

If I get the chance to do the same hunt again, for sure I would try to make more us of the computer. In the end, when the hunt was over, I just realized that actually we could find most of the things in the list on computer. It is just that my group was not creative enough to think outside the box and just followed strictly to search what was written on the list.

The strategy that my group used was to find the easiest things to find first and save the harder ones for later. We also went to find things that are located nearer to our starting point first. This was meant so that we could at least secure some points from this assignment. In fact, the strategy worked pretty well. Everything seemed good when we looked for the easier things first. We felt good after we secured some points and it only encouraged us to get more points.

The problem that we faced was the short period of time that we were given. We were quite afraid that we could not get the minimum points required.

We came up with a solution to go to a common place in which we could find many things first, which was the library.

In this Scavenger Hunt, we need creativity to complete the task and we also work with different individuals with different creativities. And that reveals that in society each individual has their own different creativities.

Here are some things that we found during the hunt:

1) Bus Stop

2)A copy of James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time

3)Visual and Performing Arts Center

4)A student sleeping in the library

5)Jamba Juice

6)Computer with the screen on Creative Minds blog in the library west computer lab

7)Two Honda Civics of the same color, parked side by side in the parking lot

8)Technorobot