Just more cat.

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Lantern floating today, that should be interesting if not totally fun.  Hopefully the kids will enjoy it.

Happy Mem Day.

Vogue Fail

I know this was up somewhere before, but RACIST MUCH, VOGUE?  yeesh.

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I don't care if he "knew" what he was posing for, the implications and insinuations of this picture are clear.  

It will never end, will it?

And then, just to lighten the mood, this, just because:

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Malcolm X and Yuri Kochiyama - Happy Birthday yesterday

May 19 - the day 2 great people were born (though 4 years apart - Yuri Kochiyama turned 88, Malcolm X would have been 84).  I found this on RaceWire and it was so inspiring. It's just about Malcolm X, one of my heroes of all time. Written by Grace Lee Boggs (amazing!!), but posted from the site noted.

via www.adriennemareebrown.net/blog

yesterday was malcolm x’s 84th birthday. happy birthday el-hajj malik el-shabazz. here’s a wonderful post from grace lee boggs on knowing malcolm.

today i’ve been thinking about the violence of last night here in Oakland, and the lessons of malcolm’s life. at one point in his life, malcolm, aka detroit red, was engaged in a violent, survival-based life. he was doing cocaine, robbing rich people, menacing society, and shaming himself and his people.

the brother who committed this violent, awful crime last night is someone who has the potential of malcolm x within him. every single person who engages in desperate, violent acts, has that potential. for malcolm, it took going to prison, discovering god and humility, feeling the call to greatness and the power of words and service that was waiting in the wings of his life, finding himself and staying true to himself. his life was so short and so powerful, and it focused around this pivot to greatness. what would it take for the perpetrator of last night’s violence?

because i actually would go so far as to say that malcolm’s greatness came from the depths to which he had sunk. that is why his story stays with us, that is why we read his autobiography and then recommend it to people we love. that is why he was was our “manhood”, our “black shining prince”. because he was not just the story of a clean, neat life; doing the right things and succeeding personally. his was the story of vulnerability and impact - only by being vulnerable to his circumstances and his need for something greater could he transform into malcolm x. and only by being impacted could he know the full story of humanity - impacted by the place and time and people to which he was born; impacted by the circumstances of slavery and racism; impacted by desperation and ego; impacted by love, by god, by community.

the places he reached in the hearts and minds of those who heard him and followed were deep, and dark. the places where we hate ourselves, and believe we are inferior; the places where we believe we deserve no better. he used humor, ridicule and rhetoric to slip past the walls that surround the black community and say this tiny life of mental slavery and prison is not the way for us. we are a great people. we have to unshackle ourselves, and then love each other enough to free our greater selves - the community.

and that could have been enough. but at the end of his short life, when he could have chosen a road of limited but stable success, he humbled himself even more, he made himself even more vulnerable. he opened his heart to the people he had only ever thought of as his enemy, and saw that they too were human, were struggling, were creatures of deep spiritual potential.

i hold malcolm x in my mind’s eye when i think of what happened last night. i send my heart out to the little woman i held yesterday, and then send it out the further, harder journey to the man who beat her. i meditate on the humanity within him, the divine spark that he is holding, however deep down.

i hold malcolm x in my heart when i think of all of us, sitting with this unparalleled potential to love, restore, heal, grow and learn, pushing that part of ourselves down under layers of bitterness, sarcasm, hate, distrust, fear and even strategy.

can we reach out to those engaged in vastly different strategies than ourselves and ask to learn? can we travel outside of our comfort zones to grow our hearts? can we humble ourselves to the divine power so much greater than our individual needs that it can provide enough for everyone?

are we vulnerable enough to surrender? whether it is to forgiveness, or to greatness?

happy birthday, el-hajj malik el-shabazz. you humbled us all.

Get Real

This will be brief because I'm not in much of a long-entry kind of mood, but I heard an incredibly sexist comment come out of a male in his late-20s today.  As Andy said, "I didn't think they made them like that anymore." 

Something about how a woman needs to cook a man his dinner when he gets home, and the way it was said?  It was bad.

Seriously, fuck that.  

You don't even have to be incredibly self-aware to know that's a ridiculous comment to make, even half-serious.  Get a life, and learn how to respect women.  Shit like this makes me so angry sometimes!

Not just humans (hoomins?)

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I'm like becoming the cat lady.

Cutesies

Got to watch concert footage today, so that was way fun.  It was in lieu of the last half hour or so of practice, a good chill night.

Went into the prison 4 times this week, only to discover all 4 times that they were on lockdown. Apparently things are "out of control" out at the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility (read: lots and lots of fighting).  Anyhow, we saw a few clients today anyway, but had to go up to their module to work with them (instead of having them meet us in a room in the central area of the facility).  They've been locked up in cells for days now without much relief from their cages, so they were glad to be let out for a little while.

I've been working mostly with the boys, since the girls' side is so much smaller and are in very different situations (i.e. not so long-term), and it's interesting being a woman and teaching them this class.  It's a very gender heavy situation, what with them relating to Andy because he's such a cool and comfortable guy, and them relating to me because, well, I'm a female.  That, and we can both get them in a good job setup after they leave.

It's just been an interesting situation, discovering what the gender dynamics are like on both sides (girls' side, boys' side) and seeing how that really affects that overall environment of the facility.  The boys' side is very male dominated, with prison guards pretty much dictating everything that should happen and being very macho about their responsibilities (the perfect spot for exercising your male privilege, if you will), whereas the girls' side is much more laid back and everyone just seems to be much nicer, generally speaking.  There are, of course, more female guards also, though the head supervisor there is a man.

I dunno, those thoughts were much more drawn out than I had originally intended.

I really just wanted to blog to post this:

Also can be found here, this pic and MORE on the site.

I found it off of Lynne's gchat message and I can't get enough cuteness now.

And then, this.

hahahaha

Okay scratch that last post, NOW my life is complete.

I thanked AAM via email for posting about Count Me In, and this was his response:

Candice,

Had to do it. You guys rock. And that photo of you? AWESOME.

Phil
angryasianman.com


Hear that APC!? YOU ROCK! YAY!!

I think my life is complete.

Angry Asian Man - 30 Most Influential Under 30: Count Me In

It's Hot in herrrrre

I got bitten at taiko practice yesterday, not once, not twice, but like 8 times.

And now my legs look tumor-ridden, these bites have gotten so HUGE. I had to walk outside like this today. Hope the cortisone helps.

Watch Star Trek, it's the shit, foreal. Diversity win! (not only racially, but Spock is a HAPA FRIEND!) There could be more women, though. That was a serious thought mid-movie.

Watching Danny DeVito on Inside the Actors Studio. Brilliant.

Lolcat of the day.


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Happy Mother's Day

Pics!

Since I never post pics, here are some randoms.

Kelsey's beautiful new tattoo, courtesy of Hart and Huntington's, the Hawai'i version.  It was such a great experience to sit through that with her, and it definitely inspired me to maybe, someday, get one of my own.  Whether or not that will actually happen is anyone's guess.  But this was great, and I hope she's excited as I am that it came out so amazing.

I really never go to the beach on my own, but with Kelsey around we had plenty of tanning and bonding time.  I'm a nice few shades darker because of it.  Good times.

From concert day!  The month of April, during the concert experience, was the most stressful, tiring, and still great taiko-related month I have ever had to go through.  The concert is really the reason I got so sick, but I think it was worth it.  I'm glad though, these things only happen once a year.  I can see it's FOR A REASON.  Anyway here, with Courtney, Kelsey and Cara.  Wonderful.

The rest of the taiko posse: roomie Maki, Greg, and Emi, celebrating my birthday, belatedly, at D&Bs.  It was seriously the most fun Monday night ever.  Lots of playing and laughing and eating and drinking.  We won so many tickets that night!!  Okay.  One last one.

So a la Scott Chan, hahahaha a drawing.  But it's not community or thought related at all.  This is from a book Megumi gave me called "Do You Doodle?" and it is seriously the best invention ever.  After a stressful day I can come home and draw random stuff to prompts like "Decorate the room for a party" or "There was an old lady who swallowed a..." and there are pictures like the above one to help set the stage.  

Okay so now I remember why I never post pictures.  It takes so. damn. long.  

Sleep time!