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hiyaa by Dana Oshiro is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.  

November 23, 2007

Thanksgiving and Buy Nothing Day

I passed out after stuffing myself with turkey and brandy slush last night. It was before the pie. I know this because as I lay there with my eyes closed and mouth slightly ajar I was spooned dessert bites. Is this the true American Dream?

BUY NOTHING DAY
Today is Buy Nothing Day. I reminiscence about Canada whenever I think about Reverend Billy and the folks from Adbusters. I love their flashmobbery and their buffoon politics.

It's so simple - Don't hoard shit you don't need. For instance, I'll try to stop hoarding all the clever things to say.

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November 17, 2007

Lists

This week I sprang into action as an adult after a series of awful events erased everything I've worked on. Thank you to my tech friends for having the tact to shut the fuck up. It's important to remember that I am the marketing director not the CTO and that when my eyes are filled with tears I don't want technical advice - I want a hug and a beer.

THE TO-DO LIST
The week ended well when I met with the folks from Stylemob. Cofounder Sasha Cagen just wrote a book called, "The To-do List" - a series of lists that reveal who we are.

As a communications person, I wrote a list of the worst things I've ever said or written:
  • I'm sorry, we have not seen your son in 2 months
  • It appears you do not qualify for financial assistance at this time. Do you have temporary housing?
  • We are taking steps to rectify the issue of the uninvestigated infant deaths
  • You have been in contact with someone suffering from HIV
  • While they recovered more than 100,000 pieces of DNA evidence, your sister was not a match. They will call as soon as they locate the body.
After looking at the list I realized internet crises are for complete wimps. While I feel thoroughly shat upon this week, I know that for the most part I am one lucky bastard.

THE GIVING THANKS LIST
  • My Love and Best Friend
  • Cool Friends
  • Supportive Family
*Funny how some of the worst moments can make you feel the most loved. Thanks.

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November 11, 2007

Dev House

Handsome took me out for a romantic evening at Dev House. Picture looking at the backs of 200 heads typing and half - interacting in dotcom pissing competitions. I remember this event being less saturated with douchebags.

In some cases I actually enjoyed conversing with others, but for the most part I felt my life was being questioned by complete strangers. Nevertheless, after hearing others pitch their projects, I gained confidence. Y2K called, it wants its ideas back.

The reality is that everyone is working on the next Flickr, Twitter, Skype, Oracle, Office Suite or Facebook. This is what you get when an infinite number of monkeys type on an infinite number of computers with only Odwalla juice to nourish them. Outside of a few pockets of great content, the tools are being used to aggregate porn, create spam and sell banner advertising.


Cialis just emailed to say that the size of my penis is proportionate to my success. As an Asian woman, I am lamenting my business fate.

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November 03, 2007

Terrorism vs. Activism

A few days ago the guy who preemptively set fire to this year's Burning Man was arrested for trying to blow up Grace Cathedral with some explosives tied to his chest.

This is the point when a harmless kook becomes a deadly terror. I'm never great at reading this, which is why 2 wks ago a man in the Mission called me a "flat ass Jap" and then wanted to fight. We didn't, but judging by the fact that he was high as a kite and 120lbs, I'd say it'd have been a fair fight.

KOOK TO CHAOS
I'm reading a book entitled, "The Way the Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground". Before now, I just assumed that apart from the Black Panthers, everybody was a drug-loving peacenik during the sixties. Not so. There is a whole camp that went out looking for a fight in the perestroika/tumbling regimes sense. The book starts slow with a backgrounder to civil rights but things have just gotten bad and Cathy Wilkerson has killed 3 friends by blowing up her parent's Greenich Village home. Bombs do that.

WHEN GOOD KIDS GO BAD
When I was 20 everything was black and white. Capitalists WERE pigs, the system WAS corrupt and I was gonna build a universe composed completely of sunshine, found-object art and hippie feminist zines. I just needed to either tumble the system or get off the grid. After reading this book, I've been looking into sixties factoids. Did you know that in 1967, while the Grateful Dead were popularizing the Haight-Ashbury "turn on, tune in, drop out" experience, Dr. Ted Kaczynski was teaching mathematics at Berkeley? Imagine Unabomber tutorial sessions. I'm beginning to realize that the activists in the sixties were just as atomized as we are today. I'm also beginning to realize that the really hardcore ones were kinda freaky.

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A flying roundhouse axekick to absolutes

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