Some thoughts on some random things

It is 10:30pm, after a good dinner, a nice caffeine drink and a nice poo, I am feeling good. Minus the final that I got tomorrow at noon, everything is good.

I got a mahogany diploma frame and a USC/Marshall School license plate. It was 25% off at bookstore so people went nuts. One of my friends wanted to buy a ring, which was fucking whooping 1000 dollars. I am like... I love my school and all, but no thanks.

Anyways, I got home and opened my May issue of Detail Magazine. Orlando Bloom is on the cover. Hot, but he looked too home buddy style in the pic that doesn't do much for me. So I flipped through the editor's edition of reader's thoughts section and saw some comments made by the readers. I think it is important that the editors had the wisdom to pick these comments out from millions that they receive. They seemed to be simple and yet have a deep resonance of our current philosophical status of our society. Here are some of my thoughts on them.

Comment 1:
"Becks Appeal"
The reader writes "Americas are so naive ['Will America Buy David Beckham?' by Michael Hirschorn, March]. They're in love with the image of David Beckham. But Becks isn't going to come to the L.A. Galaxy and score 20 goals in one season, or even 3. He's not a Ronaldo, or a Zinedine Zidane -- he's just an image machine. But they, more power to him--he's getting paid."

My thoughts:
The reader fails to realize that Americans aren't naive. If anything, Americans would never be naive. This is a country where capitalism runs at its finest. Naive is an insult to Americans. Entertainment business, which includes all media that covers anything we watch is a fine tuned sophisticated business machine. Literally anything is in the entertainment business is running on this piece of machine. Even though the content or subject matter is not entertaining at all, the business model that we use to transfer those information is still the entertainment business model. Let it be war, sports, movies, and games, you name it, everything is running on this machine. Lots industries, even when they are not in the entertainment business still adopt its strategy which is to create perceived value such as Spirit drinks, Beauty products, Fashion etc. David Beckham is a very smart business man. He is certainly a huge star in the UK and since soccer is very popular everywhere else in the world except for the U.S. his stardom is way bigger than it could be in the States. Let the talent factor slide--he does have talent, may not be THE best but was one of the bests out there--he is extremely good looking and create a celebrity aura that no other soccer stars did before. This is all perceived value running at its finest. He seized this golden opportunity to propel and elongate his star years by coming to the U.S. because he knows that people don't give a shit about his scores and all they want to see is how he shops in Bhills and how he dines at the Ivy. I think once people get out of the thinking pattern in terms of creating tangible values for others in order to be successful, then they can see that a lot profit can be made at any given time.

Comment 2:
"Your article about Khaled el-Masri ['The German Prisoner' by Neil Forsyth, March] reeks of a bleeding, ignorant heart. While I do not support a war over oil, I do support removing any safe haven for violent freaks like the extreme Islamists, who believe that God sanctions the killing of any man, woman, or child who does not believe in the same God they do. this profile pities those undeserving of pity."

My thoughts:
This person summons up a good fundamental belief that Americans have. I think it is extremely interesting. I used to think about things in terms of right or wrong. Now I tend to think about things in why they are different. I am from a completely different background yet I grew up in America, so I do believe in a lot of the values shared by Americans. Believing in the American dream but deep inside I have my very own thoughts on a lot of things that fundamental Americans do. I think myself as the true hybrid. I talked about this with my colleagues and I think it is truly touching that a lot of Americans really support what they believe in what they think it is right. Yet it is extremely sad that a lot of Americans do not see things or do not want to look at things at least from a different perspective. While this person arguing that those who eradicate others because of religious differences do not deserve pity, yet he is doing the exact same thing. Americans run things on agendas. They even gave us gays a "homosexual agendas". It is ice cold yet extremely powerful political tool. Once there is an agenda, people become faceless, they become mindless slaves of believes and faiths. It is easier to decimate a "wrong" or even "evil" agenda than killing people. So while you are erasing the devil from this planet because they hold the "wrong" or "evil" ideas, those who follow those ideas become simply casualties. I am not saying that the fundamental Islams are good people but if you look at the war aren't we just the same. While 9/11 is extremely tragic and had a personal effect on me, it was still not the reason why we went to the war. Even justify the magnitude of the war, it still doesn't justify country and we aren't killing the right people. A lot of people believe that we went into the war for oil. That could be one of the reasons but it can't be the major reason. There are a lot of other methods we could have used to paint a better picture, suffer less loss, and gain more than going to a war. I actually wished that we really went to the war for oil because at least we are different from the fundamental Islams. What scares me is that when G.W. Bush was asked if God was behind the Americans in this war, he hesitated and thought about it. If we went to the war in the wrong country killing the wrong people to eradicate a dictator, and we believe God is behind us for doing what are are doing, aren't we just as dangerous as the fundamental Islams? What is even scarier is that Only Americans believe that no matter what the real reason behind the war, we are at least doing something good. The rest of the World doesn't think so and it is our fundamental belief of democracy makes us think that it is alright to step in a country and destroy their current regime just because we deem their leader as the axis of evil. It is horrifying that we are the one who again enthusiastically promote tolerance and freedom and at the same time playing the God of the world. We decide what is right and what is wrong for other people, other country, other culture, and other religion. We Americans certainly did not create terrorists for the world but what we are doing, eye for eye, lives for lives, are absolutely not the solution. It fundamentally opposes to our belief of bringing in freedom to other people. Yet we are still doing it because ourselves become mindless slaves of our fundamental believes. When we are still marking the axis of evil all over the world, the entire world is painting us as the next Hitler, it is truly disturbing and sad for the Americans. I remember this story. A man who wants to change the world and make it a better place has tried everything he could do in his life time. On his deathbed, he reflects and realizes something important. When your aim is high, such as changing the world, you have to start low. Changing yourself is easier and the most effective way to change the world.

Comment 3:
With its fashion, pop culture, sophistication, and pretty-boy models, Details has always been friendly to gay men, but every issue lately seems to get even gayer, what with all the articles on gay culture and the recurring "Gay Or" feature. Hey, I have no problem with gay people. I just want to know -- as a straight man -- is Details still for me, too?

My thoughts:
What this half evolved man reflects a lot of the clean straight dude's concern. Can I still live in a white/black place where I just don't have to see the gays? The answer is NO. Gay culture is culture and it is part of American culture. "I don't have problem with the gays but I just have a problem what they do". Problem is, as horrifying as it sounds, gays aren't that different. We play sports, we work out, and we have normal love lives. I still do not quite understand what gay culture exactly entails. If you look at my labels in my blog, I got this label "gay culture", and it only has a very limited amount of posts in there. The reason is that I really do not know what to put under there. Everything that I do even when I am in the gay place, I still feel that I am not doing anything different. Can people tell me what the gays do different other than our bedroom business? Is fashion gay? Is personal care gay? I just don't get it. People need to realize that today's society you have to deal with people now. You can't deal with things and people with the religious goggles on anymore. Everyone is a person, not a thing or an phenomenon. Culture is culture. Gay or Straight, it is part of lives. Once they realize that we are just people, I don't think they would whine like a little bitch about why the magazine runs an article about gay stuff once every two months.