Number 44

It has been about 24 hours since Barack Obama was declared the 44th President of the United States and I couldn't be happier about it. I'm not sure whether I should be proud or ashamed that I heard the news, not from some hardcore station like CNN or MSNBC, but from Indecision 2008 with John Stewart and Stephen Colbert. But really, where else can you hear a rant about the struggles of Hawaiian children making poi and selling tiki torches as a prelude to the announcement that Obama had won?

The thing is, all I've been hearing today is the phrase "first black President" over and over again. By no means am I saying that this isn't an incredible milestone for African-Americans, or anyone who isn't white, or Democrats for that matter. What I'm saying is that Obama won this election by having a good campaign and pushing a platform for change that many Americans believe in.

First of all, Obama is just as much white as he is black. His mother was a white American from Kansas, and his father was from Kenya. And that's another thing; his father is African - not African-American. He's not coming from the same background as many African-Americans whose families have been in the United States for centuries. It makes absolutely no difference either way, but I think it's important not to oversimplify things. He has just as much "African blood" in his veins as Tiger Woods has "Asian blood" pumping through his.

So let's not pin him down with labels and push him into categories just because the color of his skin is darker than that of any president before him. I feel that there is a great danger in doing so. We shouldn't expect him to pander to our African-American population more than any other group, nor should we negate him if he does. He is a man. He is going to be our next president. And, at the very least, he's going to do a hell of a lot better than the last one.

Little People

The other day, while drowning in my comatose stupor of television and rice crispies cereal, I found something very amusing: First, an ad for TLC's popular series, Little People Big World, in which it seemed that the father was suffering from some very threatening health issues. Then a commercial for the children's toy, "Little People" in which children play with plastic toys which, let's face it, they could probably choke on. Let me play it out for you in pictures...

First this...

Little People, Big World

Then this...

Little People from Fisher Price

Is there anyone who is responsible for the sequence in which commercials are aired? If so, whoever was in charge of TLC's that afternoon was a complete idiot.

Or an incredible genius.

The Fabulous Adventures of Mr. Percy

Me (In the storage space above the garage): Why don't you just get rid of some of these suitcases? Do you really need 16 pieces of luggage at a time?
Mr. Percy: Fashion changes.

5 minutes later...

Mr. Percy: Come sit with me while I sew my apron.

Oh yeah, Mr. Percy is my dad. He's a well-established geologist and hydrologist having taught at the National University of Singapore and UC Berkely. He's currently sitting at the dining table, wearing a t-shirt that says "Americans do it best"and stitching a denim apron.

Stuff my friends have said...

"I would have enjoyed reading the bible a lot more if it had Harry Potter in it."
- Kristin, on the importance of religion.

Congratulations!

Congratulations, Mr. Obama, on Sarah Palin's Republican Vice President nomination!

Seems like McCain's pulverizing himself.

Congratulations!

Congratulations, Mr. Obama, on your presidential nomination!


Now for the love of god, please pulverize McCain.

New look!

What do you think?

Hello, Boys

If you are an avid fan of NPR then you've probably heard of Car Talk. Click and Clack are the hosts of the radio talk show where people can call in with their car troubles and they do their worst to fix the problem. About 60% of the air time consists of their deafening laughter.

Just recently I've discovered a new male comedic duo: HG Nelson and "Rampaging" Roy Slaven. These two have been commenting on the past three Summer Olympics and it has been hilarious. This year's show was titled "The Golden Ring" and can be downloaded as a podcast for some very entertaining road trips. Some highlights:

-- Roy suggests a new type of swimming heat in which the athletes must carry another person of the same weight across the pool with them.
-- Roy also suggests classifying the races by weight and age, giving rise to a new swimming race that consists of 11 year-olds weighing 100 kilos.
-- They speculate that London's contribution to the 2008 Closing Ceremony will consist of Paul McCartney singing "Hey Jude" for 42 minutes.

If you'd like to hear some absolute gold look them up on Youtube. The men's gymnastics and men's weightlifting will have you in tears.

Shame on you, Spain

By now the actions of the Spanish basketball team are quite well known. In case you missed it, they posed for an advertisement in La Marca, a Spanish newspaper, by intentionally slanting their eyes. This "Asian eyes" was used as an offensive gesture so long ago I can't believe people actually still use it.


But what is worse than their foolish ignorance, is the lack of remorse that they show in the aftermath. Despite international outcry, Jose Manuel Calderon, a player on the team, insists they thought it was, "...something appropriate and that it would always be interpreted as somewhat loving." After getting booed by the Chinese audience while they played and a great deal of attention focused on what they did, all they need to do is apologize. It's that easy.

And now a new photo of the Spanish women's tennis team has surfaced showing them doing exactly the same thing. On the official website of the Spanish Tennis Federation this picture had a caption that translated "We are prepared for China" (“Estamos preparados para China”). Great.


It would be wonderful if the Olympics were kept free from politics. If the event was simply a celebration of mankind's physical brilliance. Then something like this happens and you are brought back to the pettiness and the stupidity that human beings are capable of.

Stuff my family has said...

"If you want to consider him such an esteemed guest maybe you shouldn't have made him look for poop the last time he was here."

- My sister, in response to my mother's comments that Sachin never sees the house when it's clean.

"Look at that dirty bugger. He looks like a caveman!"

- My disgusted grandpa, in response to the Geico commercials.

We are all rock stars

I'm sorry for all the videos I've been posting lately. I promise this will be the last one for a while. And this really is so worth it...

This post is dedicated to Sachin.

08.08.08

Happy Olympics!

Here's to Beijing on the luckiest day of all!

Dear sweet Jesus

I'm actually excited about a Harry Potter film. Thank god for David Yates, he has almost made me forget the horror that was Christopher Columbus's directing (on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone).

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I wish I was going down under...

If the United States, all of Europe, and Australia are in a race to see which country is the biggest global douchebag, it seems that the U.S. is well on its way to getting the gold.

I'll admit, Europe did have a good lead during the colonial period in Africa and Southeast Asia. But I think our treatment of American Indians when we first "discovered" America, and our continual treatment of them, kept us ahead for quite some time.

However, things changed. Europe seemed to stop caring about being d-bags and started caring about things like Universal Healthcare and something called Education. Whatever.

The United States used to be neck and neck with Australia. We both refused to sign that Kyoto Protocol. (Fresh air is SO overrated.) We both treated our indigenous peoples like they were second class people...if we treated them like people at all. And we basically mistrusted anyone who immigrated to our fine land and contaminated it with their different cultures and menial labor.

But this Kevin Rudd guy. He's a sneaky one. First the Kyoto Protocol. Then the Aborigines. Now this?! Honestly, who does he think he is? Gandhi?

Anyone see a resemblance?

Stuff my friends have said...

"I wish there was a way that I could send audio text messages."
- Kirstin, on voicemail.

"You know, I'm pretty drunk, but I'm still not gay."
- Neel, despite our best efforts.