Sports.

I hate professional sports.
To some degree, I even hate collegiate sports too just because it further promotes the idea that sports-figures are 'god-like'.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not generalizing about athletes. Honestly, the physical and personal commitments athletes have to undergo are no less than those committed to a craft or an art. And if they're lucky and really good at it, they'll receive the attention they deserve.
I also am not judging against sports themselves as I love to play soccer, board, even shoot a few hoops every now and then.
What I hate is how misguided this country's values are. I understand to an extent, the United States' firm policy of self interest. That's fine. That's what most countries do anyways it just so happens that the United States turns out on top most of the time.

No. What I hate is that there are whole pages/magazines/news channels simply DEDICATED to sports. And what more, male dominated sports.

Frankly, it's disgusting. I'm willing to bet 1 of every 5 people you ask could tell you some random ass stats about some college football nobody from three seasons back, but when asked who the prime minister of Canada is or maybe the president of Mexico, two of our neighboring countries, they would be clueless.

USA Today and Seattle Times and probably alot other newspapers as well, thought that Michael Vick's suspension from football merited front page attention, but on the same day when hundreds of people are dying in Greece because of forest fires, the birthplace of Western civilization, it got pushed back to what, page 10? 11?

I absolutely despise die-hard fans. You know. Most of the players on your "home team" were imported from all across the country, and in the Mariner's case especially: from Japan. Look, I might understand it a little bit better if say, the Seattle Seahawks or the Mariners had only players from the state of Washington. THAT would make sense. But instead, you have professional teams, mixed with people all over the country, drafted together under:

1. Different contracts that guarantee players multi-million dollar salaries for playing a fucking game

2. Team names that happen to include the name of the city you live near and a cute mascot to go with it.

I think if we had as many sports analysts and reporters invested in worldly concerns like war, poverty...I feel like Americans would be much more knowledgable about things that actually matter.

Still think I'm retarded? Let's put things into perspective shall we?

In South Korea, they have three seperate channels for watching Starcraft tournaments. These people have huge crowds to watch them live, and then hundreds, if not thousands more watching on TV. They have endorsements, contracts all to play a game. Sounds stupid doesn't it? That people devote so much time and energy, practicing hours a day, reading magazines about different strategies, watching different game play to get better, spend countless hours watching strategies of those before you...for a game that they'll probably stop playing in 20 to 30 years anyways. You would say what to these people, "Oh wow, get a life"

Now just imagine. A country that idiolizes athletic players, most of whom can't string together coherent sentances, for playing. a. game. No one knows who wins noble prizes anymore. No one cares about people who give their lives everyday to causes greater than themselves, whether it be humanity, religion etc. No. What America cares about, is who wins the fucking superbowl. Goddamnit. Does anyone even remember who won last year? Or the year before that? Or before that?

Often times religion is cited as being opium for the masses. Because it 'numbs the senses'. There is a world, that right now, is wrapped up in so many fake values, colorful banners, flashy television, screaming fans, mascots, that to look outside is unthinkable; impossible.

Plane Day

So my mom and dad called me to tell me happy plane day. In my family, Plane day is the day, 20 years from January 13th when I arrived in my plane, a bundle of joy, from Korea. And as corny as it is, I did a lot of thinking about myself. Most of it was on the John yes, but a lot also happened when I was working.

So my manager told me that I have an issue with doing everything myself and not asking other people for help. I brushed this off as, "well I do things better/faster than most people I work with" or the more modest "I lead by example and hope other people will follow"

When in actuality, it has a lot to do with me growing up. Ever since I was little, or as far back as I can remember, I always felt different. Well not just because I was the only person in my family with black hair and small eyes, but also things were just fundamentally different.

My interests, which were definitely more Asian than my brothers or family in general, already separated me when I was younger. Now, psychologically people could analyze that and say it's not because I'm Asian but just because that's my preference. I disagree but until I get myself psycho-analyzed I'll stick with my own theory. Anyways the point is I've always felt different.

And then I realized that it was not just because of how I acted, but how I was treated. Don't get me wrong, my parents cared and loved for me as much as they did for my other brothers. I never doubted that for a second. But now I think I know. I think my mom and dad gave me special attention and treatment because of my adoption. Not because we had similar interests, but because I was adopted and they felt like I needed more attention. Or when they reserved their anger on me but not my brothers because I was adopted.

My whole life I've been singled out and sympathized with by my family when I have this ignorant, and rather stubborn pride where I'm not satisfied until I'm treated as an equal. That's why I work so much, not cause I necessarily need the money, but to prove to myself and to my parents (in some way) that I can handle myself and don't need help. I HATE it when people feel the need to baby to other people because they feel sorry for them. As stubborn as it sounds, I know people, like my parents, have the best intentions for me, but is it so bad to want to be respected? Or even treated the same as your peers? I dunno. I don't know how to gauge it unbiased but that's just how I am now. Why I like to do things on my own, without anyone's help, or the need to pay and not have any people feel obligated that they need to watch out for my needs or whatever, because I can do it myself.

Eastern Zhou History

In ancient Chinese history there was a time period when main China was ruled by what is known by the Zhou Dynasty. Since the landmass of China is so huge, when analyzing from a historical standpoint, one often divides this dynasty into two fronts of East and West.

The Eastern Zhou Dynasty had three main schools of thought which affected the leadership and how the culture of China was to be shaped in the present. There were the Daoists, Confucianists, and Legalists.

Daoism: Fundamentally, and very generalized, is the belief that leaders should not put emphasis on anything and should instead seek to inspire virtue and tranquility within their kingdom. The idea behind it was that if the leadership didn't promote competition there would be no greed and deciet for if there are no defined terms of value, then what would be the point of stealing?

Confucianists: Practiced vigirous ritual and sought to establish the gentleman. To honor your ancestors and practice fealty to the divine Emperor was to shape the human behavior and thereby establish peace. The divine Emperor was above the law and everything would be balanced out by Heaven and Earth.

Legalists: Those who practiced the strict following of rules. For without rules to define human behavior then humans would go amiss and not work together for the common good. Strict laws to move to the greater good would always look towards the long term good of the people, even if they may resent it now.

We can learn alot from history and as I learn more and more about the philosophies in Ancient China, sometimes, on the very rare occurance you can actually take what you learn in the classroom and model your own life after it.

I won't pretend to be a philosophier or to be completely knowledgable about these schools of thought at the time, but the more I think about it, I'd have to say that if I was a Zhou scholar at the time, I would be Daoist.

Daoism is hippy ridiculous nonsense because everything has value to it and I believe it is a very basic instinct for people, especially in America to automatically assign value to things, and thereby shapes how one acts. But I think that that's the problem. Everyone is so caught up with what is valuable, what isn't. What's ugly and what's beautiful, when in reality, in defining and voicing what one thinks is beautiful or ugly, you really are finding what is ugly in the beauty.