Turn Up the Sun

I should be editing together my final eCommunities paper right now but I left the previous drafts with my professor's feedback at home so there is really no point on working on it now. So I decided to add a blog entry so my trip to the DIAD is not a total waste. The weather in Ann Arbor finally improved so it has been in the 60-70's as of late. So it definitely feels like spring (plus the undergrad girls on campus have shown their opinion that it is spring by wearing less clothing). The nicer weather has been great and also signals transition, which is pretty appropriate right now. I finished my last class this past Monday. Erika decided to take some pictures of our last classes in Rooms 311 and 412. I have one last class assignment (my eCommunities paper) to finish and then I am completely done with schoolwork.

So two years seem to have flown by. I don't remember attending my first class but I do remember attending my first SI related meeting which was this crappy time management workshop where I learned to categorize the priorities of my life as rocks, sand, and pebbles. But even though the time went by quickly, I do feel that a lot has happened since then. Lots of stuff has happened in my life, both professional and personal. I have made new friends, discovered new academic and career interests, experienced new things. There is also a sense that alot has changed with the world since i started at Michigan. For one, many of old friends did things, experienced different things, and have made major life changes that I was not around for. So if I do end up back in the bay area, a lot will be different than when I left or even when I was back last summer. I guess that does show that time has passed and while it seemed quick, a great deal transpired these past two years. When graduation gets a little closer, I do a major wrap-up/reflection post like I normally do.

Speaking of post-graduation, a little update on the ole job search stuff. Amazon has decided to fly me out to Seattle next week for hopefully the final round of interviews. So I need to get myself psyched up about that. As for what else has been happening, there hasn't been too much. Last weekend, I went to the SIMPLE BBQ where I ended up swearing in front of a few professors' kids by accident and then went off to Maurice's end of the semester celebration party. Now that was one hell of party. I helped set-up and then stayed pretty much to the end. Unfortunately, I had too much to drink that night and had to bum a ride from Amy to get home. I was hung over well into the next day where i had to take the bus up to NOrth campus to get my car and went to the SIGN BBQ. I would have had more fun at the SIGN BBQ but yeah, the previous night's partying made it difficult. On Monday I went to Noor's thesis defense. It was pretty interesting and I also took some pictures of me attacking her thesis and then Noor successfully defending it (photos to be posted to the photo blog sometime later). Her thesis concerned blogging behavior which is pretty cool. I admire the fact that she still blogs after researching about blogging so much. I did my eCommunities research paper on an Asian American art, culture, and identity online community called the Fighting 44s. I have heard some people say that you should never research something you like or love since you end up hating it since you spend all your time researching it. I think that is what happened to me. I used to more into Asian American issues and current events a few years ago but quite honestly, studying a community like the The Fighting 44s, makes me want to less involved even more. While the community itself has admirable goals, a significant but really active portion (although minority)of Asians on the site spend all the time griping about yellow fever, Asians who are sell-outs, and attacking anything and anyone who doesn't share their views. Quite honestly, it is quite sad to see so many expend so much negative energy in bashing others under the guise of "helping the movement." If that is what "helping the movement" is, then I don't want to be part of the movement whatever it is. What saddens me more is that the Internet has huge potential to bringing people and resources togther, to build social capital, and break down information barriers but more and more we seem extremists like those on the Fighting 44s and those people on Wikipedia who distorts articles with propoganda to match their idealogical views. It's a waste. Sometimes I think the Internet would have been better off if it stayed in the realm of academica instead of becoming the feeding ground for petty, narrow-minded, ignorant fools to propograndize their bigoted viewpoints. But I guess if I want to my own little space on the Internet to ramble on about edgeless people and The Friend of Friends, I suppose Ann Coulter needs to be afforded the same space to spout her racist and bigoted views. Free speech, don't yah love it.

To try and end this entry on a lighter note ummmm actually I don't have anything else to report other than ummm... Arrested Development Season 3 is coming out in June! Hooray. Until next time...peace.