(placeholder)

pot

My main gripe with pot smokers isn't that I don't like my public bathrooms smelling the way they do... it's the fact that they're implicitly supporting the violence that is going on in Mexico. Drug users in general provide the major source of revenue for violent groups (e.g. those that kill US troops in Afghanistan).

So I understand the whole legalize pot mentality (and I think it's sort of bogus), but until pot - of the non-medicinal variety - is legalized, there really is no excuse for smoking it. It irks me that pot smokers in SF are so blatant about it. I'm surprised there isn't some sort of statewide campaign to label pot smoking as unpatriotic (or something else, I don't think pot smokers in general are too keen about being patriotic).

As for legalizing pot... if it were up to me, tobacco products would be illegal. Alcohol wouldn't. There are responsible ways to drink alcohol, there aren't any responsible ways to smoke or chew. Besides, the government has a history of regulating self-destructive behavior (e.g. seatbelt laws and suicide laws). But I don't feel strongly either way.

taiwan

Now I know what it feels like to be illiterate... well, more like illiterate and mute. The other day I was at a restaurant, and when it was my turn to order all I knew how to do was point at different pictures on the menu and say "can I have this?", haha.

I've always wondered how different I'd be if I had grown up in Asia. The culture and language (does one influence the other?) certainly would have made me a different person. But more importantly, the set of people I could relate to would be completely different. I'm sure there are people here I could probably be good friends with if they had only grown up in the states; right now, though, my relationships with them are limited to the superficial-type. Not that this is an incredible tragedy (it's not like I'm super social and have deep relationships with everyone back home), but the idea that some people are fundamentally "off-limits", to me anyway, is weird? Although really, personality differences often create larger barriers than any cultural differences could.

contractors

So I talked to an Iraq war vet last week, and we got to the topic of military contractors (e.g. Blackwater; contractors in general usually get a ton of bad press). He mentioned a viewpoint not really found in the media, that I found interesting.

Say you're in the US military, on patrol, and you come under attack. You can radio in air support, support from other nearby units, etc. There's always a way out, usually within a few hours. That's not to say you won't suffer casualties, but for every ambush, there will almost always be survivors. So you can take the time to do your job right. Now say you're a contractor, and you're ambushed. There are no direct lines of communication with the US or allied military. The company you work for won't have any sort of air support capability, and there are no nearby friendly units you can call on. You're basically dead. And it's usually not just some of you, it's all of you. To prevent this, contractors will drive extremely quickly through traffic, disobeying traffic laws; and if attacked, they'll fire every weapon they have at their perceived threat before quickly running away.

The way I see it, this means a few things:

1) Contractors aren't reckless for no reason, as is often portrayed in the media. They have an incentive to be reckless. (This isn't to say that there aren't forms of recklessness that are unnecessary, e.g. instances of being intoxicated while on the job).

2) The idea of using contractors is fundamentally flawed. No additional laws, regulations, or added oversight will curb this reckless behavior.

3) If you're going to take the time to integrate the operations of contractors with that of the military, you might as well field the additional cost of simply deploying a few extra units.

It still boggles my mind that there are private companies selling security services in war zones. But then again, the military was designed to win wars, not escort important persons, etc.

bed

This is a picture of my bed. I got the blankets, pillow case, and sheets separately, each time going for the same shade of blue. As you can see, I clearly failed, but I kinda like how everything worked out :)

tennis

So I'm taking a tennis class here. And yes, I know what you're thinking. Why're you taking tennis lessons, you're so good at it already! I know. It's true. But most of the dance classes this quarter conflict with the classes I really want to take.

Joking aside, though, I really look forward to tennis class :) The other day, we had a competition to see who could hit the most balls into the court from a ball machine, and I won a can of new tennis balls! I totally feel like a middle schooler again.

manna

"What? People in Manna date each other? That seems so... incestuous."

- Joce

Looks like things haven't changed much.