Silby's Xanga

Another epic e-mail from Appa

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:25:05 GMT

subject Fwd: Your Verizon Wireless Shipment Notification (Order #8***)
mailed-by gmail.com

Appa, did you order something from verizon?! I didn't... Is this your work address?

subject RE: Your Verizon Wireless Shipment Notification (Order #8***)
mailed-by hotmail.com

Hi, Silvia,

Good Morning!
How are you sweety!
Thank you for your notification.
Always, When you have a strange things happen to you,
let us know like this time.
Everythings O.K.!
Actually,I have to explain to you before get the blackberry phone.Sorry ^^..
If you want same stuff,you have to wait until next year
May ,then you have a qualify to get the free phone.
Because my phone has broken,so I have to get the phone right away.very urgently...and free phone...
Now, I believe you understand what situation I got.
When are you coming home?
I miss you...

Love
Your Great DADDY!

o.m.g. I heart Daddy Kim...

The Human Connection (with Jude Law)

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 21:12:58 GMT

"What have I got? Really? Some money in my pocket, some nice threads, fancy car at my disposal, and I'm single. Yeah... unattached, free as a bird... I don't depend on nobody and nobody depends on me... My life's my own. But I don't have peace of mind. And if you don't have that, you've got nothing. So... what's the answer? That's what I keep asking myself. What's it all about? You know what I mean" --Taken from the movie Alfie..

This morning I indulged myself in watching the movie Alfie played by Jude Law. (Jude Law...what a hottie). I caught the middle of it and quickly picked up on the storyline of Alfie's womanizing lifestyle that ultimately leaves him (spoiler alert) broken and alone in the end.

Alfie ends the movie with a great revelation and question for himself. What IS it all about? Is our life really our own devoid of our ability to impact others?
Examples of us thinking our own personal choices don't affect others?
*the choice of using our degree to work for a company that pays well but isn't life-giving
*the choice of buying non-fair trade products
*the choice of not telling your friend that you have an eating disorder
*the choice of not allowing "interruptions" to happen in our lives
*the choice of sleeping around and justifying the other person just as "friends with benefits"
(i realize i'm probably going to get a lot of heat for saying all this)

No matter how much I think I am my own individual who make certain decisions and choices in life, it isr foolish to think that my decisions are purely isolated from my friends, family, community, and the rest of the world.

I don't know what that may look like for others but I know if I choose to hide certain parts of myself from my community, it signifies a distrust that prevents me and them from experiencing a greater deeper relationship. On a larger scale if I choose to buy a product that exploits certain lands or people, I am sustaining a system/business that practice injustice. I am connected with the brother living on the street looking out for his next meal. I am connected to the child bonded in slavery making my next trendy t-shirt. I am connected to my friend who took the risk in sharing her deepest wounds. When I with hold my full self, I am stifling and hurting relationships and this world. This is the great human connection.

I lose opportunities to practice transparency and authenticity that can lead to freedom in creating real genuine relationships, healing, redemption, life-giving choices, and in Alfie's case peace (The list goes on).

And no, i'm not saying we should carry the weight of always wondering how our personal decisions are going to affect everyone around us. That fosters a humanity to an unhealthy lifestyle and culture of being a people pleaser (which to some degree is already true).

What's amazing is that I worship a God of grace who does not expect me to have it all together—that if I make unhealthy decisions, there's room for God's love and mercy to press in and heal those areas of brokeness.

I really have been wrestling with my being/role [insert social/work title here] and haven't reached a "solution" up until this movie and that is that God is a God of grace. Weak? It makes sense in my head. Ha!

So, what is it all about?

Parkway Speakeasy...don't leave me

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:02:59 GMT

I swear...

A little piece of me just died. The owners of Parkway Speakeasy Theater are pulling the plug this Sunday, March 22, 2009.

http://www.parkway-speakeasy.com/

You've been one of the reasons why I love Oakland... I feel like someone just ripped out my heart, dragged it across shards of glass, and threw it against a wall.

I know I'm being melodramatic... but this is how distressed i am. WHY?!?!

Because there's too much to say about how AMAZING this theater was to me, I will sum up my experiences with a haiku as my euology:

An eclectic crowd

chilling on couches with beer

watching cheap movies

I am thankful to experience you while I could... R.I.P Parkway.

My gangsta grandma

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:08:48 GMT

The running joke in our family is that our Grandma is like Grandma Madea
Below is a Gchat conversation with my cousin about my Grandma (halmonee) getting in a car accident:

Soojin: Oh hunni did you hear about gramma madea?

me: no what happened?! is she okay?

soojinmkim: she got into a car accident

me: :O WHAT?! IS SHE OKAY?

soojinmkim: a mini winnebago hit madea in her new hybrid

me: When did this jappen?

soojinmkim: last week

me: what the freka?! whose fault was it?

soojinmkim: the homeless man who lived in his trailor

me: oh man~ what the heck

soojinmkim: he hit her and took off

me: so what's going to happen? OMG...and she okay? was it bad?

soojinmkim: so of course our gangsta gramma madea followed his ass

me: AHAHAHAHa are you serious?

soojinmkim: yes girl she followed him and chased him down a dead end street and ran up on him screaming

holding the door open of his car so he couldnt go NOWHERE

me: LOL... omg i hope he didnt hurt her

soojinmkim: She's FINE madea is like 80 she dont need to be chasing no hit and run assholes in MAR VISTA

mar vista is still a little hood

me: dang.. so is he going to pay for the accident? dang. halmonee is gangsta.

soojinmkim: thank gawd that big auntie was home and it was close. oh.. check this. HE HAS NO INSURANCE and LIVES in his trailor park

me: okay.. so what's going to happen then?

soojinmkim: he tried to say he was going to his sisters house and some old chinese couple came out

me: does halmonee have insurance? what the heck? is he chinese?

soojinmkim: and the old man tried to take off again

me: oh heck no. dang this is so drama

soojinmkim: so madea ran up on him screaming and wouldnt let him close the door to his car just standing there like. YOU AINT GOING NO WHERE EE-NOM!!!...then big auntie came to the scene and saw madea screaming at him in his face and holding his door like YOU AINT GOING NOWHERE FOOL. IMMA GET YOU SUKKA

me: dannng i love halmonee. she's legit.

soojinmkim: I know! right

i was like.. umm madea, you are like 80 and imma need you to simmer down cause that man you ran up on couldnve had a gun or a knife. times are tough these days and people are crazy

me: i know. dang that woman is FEARLESS

soojinmkim: Isnt she? i LOVE HER shes fine though. she sitting at home laughing at the situation. she was yelling at him in KONGLISH girl

me: aww is she? im glad..

HAAHAHAHa. omg this is so bad soojin, im like cracking up at work

soojinmkim: i can hear her now. WHAT ARE YOUu DOOING?? EE NOM EE GEE NYANG! YOU DDEH RUH my CHA!

soojinmkim: madea taught me to be the "I AM STRONG SUPERWOMAN" like when she used to whoop my ass for minor things but she climbed trees to feed us oranges madea is the shit. i dunno ANY other grammas who can survive getting hit by a car in her late seventies deal with the death of her husband and still ride around in style in a hybrid while chasing mf-ers down who disrespect her!

she's my IDOL sigh

I love our grandma.

TRANSNATIONAL FEMINIST STUDIES PROJECT: MILITARISM AND GENDER CLUSTER

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:44:10 GMT

Spread the word. Join the movement.

March 3 through 5, 2009

Mills College and the Global Fund for Women are sponsoring the Transnational Feminist Studies Project to stimulate public interest and debates in feminist theory and practice related to militarism, peace, and security, politics and democratization, sexual politics and reproductive rights, and women’s movements internationally. Feminist activists, scholars and members of the Bay Area community will be invited to participate in public outreach programs, community discussion forums, and skill-building exchanges that will bring together activists from key women’s movements around the world.

The Transnational Feminist Studies Project will be launched during March 3 through March 5th, with a focus on militarism and gender. International scholars, activists and film makers from Africa, Asia and the U.S. will address the challenges posed by the dominance of militarism in the world today through a series of roundtable discussions, panels, film screenings, and working meetings during which the visiting scholars and activists will dialogue on setting feminist agendas for scholarship and activism. The week will culminate in a public film screening of the award-winning film about the Liberian women’s struggle for peace, *Pray the Devil Back to Hell, f*ollowed by a panel discussion with the film’s producer and key activists from Africa’s conflict zones.

Convener: Dr. Amina Mama, Barbara Lee Distinguished Chair in Women’s Leadership, Mills College

Co-Hosts:*
• Dr. Janet L. Holmgren, President, Mills College
• Ms. Kavita N. Ramdas, President and CEO, Global Fund for Women *

Honorary Committee:
• Ms. Charlotte Bunch
• Professor Angela Davis
• Congresswoman Barbara Lee
• Ms. Laurene Powell-Jobs

PUBLIC EVENTS PROGRAM:

*Tuesday, March 3, 2009 * * Venue: Lisser Hall*
6:30-7.00 p.m.
*Fashioning Resistance: A Cultural Show *
Performance art piece, presented by Mills students
Mills students display their ingenuity and creativity in a fashion extravaganza that highlights the pervasiveness of militarism in popular styles and cultures.

7:00-9:00 p.m.
*Roundtable Discussion and Public Conversation*
“Challenging Militarism: Transnational Feminist Activism and Scholarship”

‘Global Development and Human Security’
*Funmi Olonisakin,* Director of the Conflict, Security and Development Group at Kings College, London, author of the book Global Development and Human Security accomplished international scholar and policy activist

‘Researching and Documenting the Lives of Women during Armed Conflict’
*Ruth Ojiambo Ochieng,* Executive Director of ISIS-WICCE, the Kampala-based international feminist network will discuss the use activist-research strategies to document and heal women in the war zones of Northern Uganda and Liberia

‘US Bases and Women’s Resistance’
*You Kyoung Ko*, Anti-militarist activist, Executive Director, Seoul-based National Campaign against Crime by US Troops, discusses the situation in Korea and the faces of US presence in East Asia

‘The Global Import of US Militarism’
Catherine Lutz, Professor, Brown University and author of Homefront: A Military City and the American Twentieth Century, shares thoughts on the local and international dynamics of US militarism and the implications for democratization
Moderated by Dr. Margo Okazawa-Rey, Professor, Fielding Graduate University and one of the founding members of the International Network of Women Against Militarism

Thursday, March 5, 2009 Venue: Concert Hall
Oakland Film Screening *Pray the Devil Back to Hell*, an award-winning documentary about the Liberian Women’s Peace Movement

6:00 p.m. Welcome
President Janet Holmgren, Mills College
Ms. Kavita N. Ramdas, Global Fund for Women
Representative from Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s Office

6:30 p.m.—Film Screening: “Pray the Devil Back to Hell”

8:00 p.m.-8:45 p.m.—Panel Discussion with filmmaker and activists from the Africa region moderated by Dr. Amina Mama:
Abigail Disney, Producer
Yasmin Jusu-Sheriff, Human Rights Commissioner, Sierra Leone
Rose Mensah-Kutin, Regional Director ABANTU ROWA, Ghana

For more information, see http://www.mills.edu/academics/undergraduate/eths/transnational.php. If you are interested in attending the closed working meeting (not listed here) please contact Margo Okazawa-Rey at mor@sfsu.edu.

Tax season is here! Simple steps for the financially challenged

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:30:54 GMT

Hi Friends.
Filing your taxes can be a scary thing. But it doesn't have to be if you have great friends with great information!

This info is for all the folks who was never taught the art of filing taxes. For people like me who have always relied on my parents to complete my tax stuff magically, I never understood the basic basic principles to allow myself to become independent from them. Simple steps like understanding that I need to file for 2 separate taxes for my federal and state never really came across my mind (Yes, how silly. But no one educated me about that). So here is a guide my buddy David E. Barta sent me to help me successfully complete my taxes all on my own! Pretty painless.

Most online services offer to do your state taxes for a cost, but you CAN file your Federal and State for FREE.

Federal Tax Return

• Go to this link:

http://irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=118986,00.html?portlet=4

• Click on "I Will Choose A Company" and select one. I highly recommend TurboTax® Freedom Edition. I have used it the past two years, and it is great. There are a lot of random questions they ask, but you don't have to worry about most of them because we are young and simple and don't have all these crazy property/finance things to worry about. Also, you can set up your tax return to be Direct Deposited (that is, if the government owes you money).

• Two caveats:
(i) Don't forget to save the pdf of your completed tax return for future records!

(ii) The Turbotax site will try and convince you to pay them to transfer all your stuff for your California State Return, but don't do that because you can do it on the CA State Board site for free (directions below). Simply do the Federal return on their site.

CA State Tax Return

• Go to this link:

http://www.ftb.ca.gov/online/calfile/tips.asp?Submit=Continue

• Scroll to the bottom and click on "Begin CalFile." But read the instructions before you start.

You're done!!

If this will be your first time filing taxes, I guarantee you'll feel like a rock star by the end of it.
Happy Filing!

Green Curb of Faux Security

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 04:39:56 GMT

A word spoken...

Oscar Grant. Murdered by a Bart Police Officer on New Years Day.
One of the most tragic events that went down while living in Oakland.
Choppers still circling around our neighborhood since 5 pm.
It's 10:30 pm.
Protesters and angry people smashing windows and lighting trash cans and dumpsters on fire.
This is how angry the people are.
People chanting, "We are Oscar Grant" lying in the middle of the intersection just the way Oscar had layed face down right before the cold iron pumped into his lung.
How did this happen? How did the officer mistake his gun for a tazer?

I went to the Fruitvale Bart Station at 4:20 pm to pay my respects and to stand in solidarity for all the innocent victims killed and abused by the police.
I stood watching seeing familiar faces of activists worn out by the endless amount of injustice that pours into the city of Oakland.
Young students of color holding banners of their artistic cry to stop police brutality:
"PIGS WILL PAY! PIGS WILL PAY!"
The old gather hugging each other to hold on to the last comfort they can afford as they've witnessed and experienced a hundred injustices in their lives.
"Hello my brother. How are you doing?"
I wish I could've stayed longer. But my fear of getting ticketed after being parked for more than 12 minutes on the green curb pulled me away from a crowd that stood in confusion and disbelief.
As I hear the last words of a woman speaker about the reality of there being more black men in prisons than there are in college, I break away and walk toward my car.
"Is there a ticket on my window? Oh God, thank God there isn't... Wait, should I feel guilty for moving on so quickly?"

I drive.
I presume my grocery shopping, scavenging for the best deals. I come home

"What in the world?"
Five helicopters perched above and near my neighborhood.
Blue and red flashing beyond a distance.
I rush upstairs passing neighbors who are looking up and just as confused.
I turn on the t.v.
"We are witnessing a group of protesters marching down the Oakland streets from the Fruitvale Bart station..."
"Damn! I should've stayed!"
Five minutes later, live on screen I watch as protesters start furiously shaking the parked police car. A dumpster rolls near with a huge fire inside.
"Maybe it was a safe idea to come home."
Cops bust out all their reinforcement to shield themselves from the truth about institutional injustices that started this mess. This mess that began long before Oscar Grant was murdered.

I saw glued to the tv and hating myself for being safe.
Safe from the physical danger of being beat with a baton by police officers or being intoxicated by the tear gases that was shot at the people who are advocating for truth and justice.

Did my green curb really save me from danger though?
I can't help but wonder what will come of me if I continue to choose a safe path only to protect myself like the police officers who sustain institutions like the prison industrial complex.

To live with community

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 04:14:39 GMT

How do I not become jaded in the process of finding community?
What does authentic community look like?
Are people willing to let me go there?
Am I willing to let people go there?

A God who loves. A promise made. A girl who trusts.

End Govt Sponsored Murder in the Ghetto of Oakland!

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:17:24 GMT

Demand Justice for Oscar Grant!

What You can Do:

Bart Board Meeting
Let your voices be heard!
Thursday, January 8 at 9 pm
Kaiser Auditorium 344 20th St., Oakland
Near Lake Merritt Bart Station

Full Video of police murder
http://www.IndyBay.org/newsitems/2009/01/06/18559091.php

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:45:23 GMT

OBAMA!

WE'RE A PART OF HISTORY BABY!!!!!!

Jen and i decided to grab free ice cream from ben and jerry's after we voted... and GUESS WHO WE RAN INTO AT THE JACK LONDON SQUARE OBAMA PARTY?!?!?!

MR. COOPER from Hanging with MR. COOPER!!!!!!!! and Julia Sudbury, my favorite professor!!!!! hahahah :)

it was an amazing night... Oakland was THE place to be for an OBAMA CELEBRATION!!!