One decade in my apartment

This month marks the 1 decade anniversary in my apartment.

Unfortunately, I don't even remember the exact date of moving in, but I do know it was in July 2003.

Also, this was before I started blogging, and before I started the habit  of writing  my "personal daily journal" which is actually a daily listing of what happened that day.  As you can see, my record-keeping habits has improved since I moved in to my new home.

 But yes, I am so happy to be able to live in the same apartment for so long.

1) First, a little background information

To truly understand my joy of my 1 decade anniversary in my apartment, you would know a few details of my life before I moved in.


For the first 14 years of my life, my family was living in a public housing complex. That complex is officially called "Puahala Homes" but it is commonly known as "Lanakila Housing". It's near a school, park and avenue all named Lanakila, so you might as well call the hood "Lanakila Housing". That's in Kalihi, an area of Honolulu with a reputation for public housing complexes and old run-down houses.

Well, by the time I was 14 years old, my parent's income was too high to continue staying in a housing complex built for low-income families.

What to do, what to do?

My parent's income too high to stick around, and they felt it was to time to "buy a house" (really, it's the bank loaning them the house on the condition they make monthly payments. It's just an ego-boost, not a statement-of-fact to call it "buying a house")

Well, they "bought a house" in some suburb in some other part of the island.

 Also, 14 just happen to be the same age as when a person goes from middle school to high school.

Shall I go to some school where in my parent's new community, a school where I dont even know anyone? Or shall I just go to the same school where my friends are going, where at least I know who the "bad guys to avoid" are?


 There's absolutely zero guarantee to being in a "safer school" if you move to a small suburb area in Hawaii. Remember, most Hawaii public schools are in mixed income districts. Most Hawaii schools have at least a suburb-type area and a ghetto within its district. 

Yeah, my solution was use my grandma's address (in the same community my parent's just left for "having too much income") and go to the same high school my friends were going  -- McKinley High School!  And use that address without getting caught. Not as easy as you think!

And during that time, I was spending some days in my grandma's home (back in the "hood") and spending other days in my parent's house (in the suburbs).   I thought it would just be simpler if I just stayed in my grandma's home all day every day.  

 My father didn't like that idea probably because he felt he was being personally rejected by the idea of me not living with him. My mother sympathized with me, but was a bit too deferential to my father. We went back & forth on this issue. 


(there's more to the story to this, which you can read at  http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2010/10/my-first-3-decades-of-life.html and go to part 5 of that blog post)

After 4 years of all this arguing with my parents, my grandma finally said "just let the boy stay in my home already".

My father still didn't like it, but he was outnumbered by myself, my mom (who FINALLY showed some back-bone after years of excessive submissiveness), and my grandma.

But by the time it happened, I was almost finished with high school (with only a select few classmates who had any idea all this was going on in my life).





After high school ended (c/o99), I was an undergraduate student at UH-Manoa. During the semester, I was living in the dorms. During breaks, I was either living my grandma (still in the hood) or with my uncle's apartment in Makiki.  So yeah, a lot of moving in and out for a few years.  I was still too angry to move in with my parents way out in the other side of the island. 

I was tired of moving in & out, and tired of not having much privacy either. 

Well, my mom came to the rescue.   She knew someone leasing apartments near UH-Manoa with a good, credible deal!   Also, my father finally accepted that I just wasn't going to live with him, and he helped out too. Yeah, it was to make up for all those years. But healings got to start at some time.

2) Moving in!

So on July 2003, I moved in to my own apartment.  It was walking distance from UH-Manoa where at the time, I was still an undergraduate student.  It is a studio apartment with basic neccessities.  I dont need extra luxuries.

And I get to live by myself .   I can play my stereo when I want and I can have silence when I want.  I dont have to worry about niele room-mates asking stupid questions.  I do what I like when I like. That's the life :)

I continued to stay there, even after I was done with my under-grad years at UHM.  The area has easy to many bus routes.  It's easy to get to my workplaces and easy to get to all the important places in Honolulu. Close enough to Waikiki, Ala Moana, Kahala Mall, and downtown Honolulu.  That's the life :)


3) Home Maintenance. 

Having my own space, means I can store more stuff!

Problem was, I collected too much stuff, and I was too distracted to do much maintenance. As far as I'm concern, home was a place for sleep and storage.

But last year, I finally started to get rid of useless obsolete crap in my apartment. I wrote about the experience in the following blog posts. 

 http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/06/my-war-against-clutter.html

 sample paragraphs

I admit, I have been becoming a packrat!

I do like to keep stuff, though I'm definitely NOT one of those who keep old food wrappers for "sentimental value". I'm NOT that crazy!

 and

I kept telling myself, one of these days, you'll have time to organize those piles!

Time to face reality --- I'll NEVER have time to organize those piles!


So last night, I started throwing a whole bunch of paper piles in the big trash can outside! 

 ------------

and this one, a month later  
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-apartment-gets-make-over.html


 sample paragraphs

It's just about 3 weeks later, and I'm feeling like I'm living in a brand new place, even though it's the same studio apartment I've been living in for 9 years.

A lot of old outdated papers? Thrown out!
Big grey containers with piles of articles? Thrown out!
Old stuff that I haven't used in years? Thrown out!

Some stuff, I kept! Especially stuff I've been looking for that was hidden in a pile of useless papers!

But yeah, you'd be surprised what stuff is still in your house if you haven't had time to clean-out your stuff in YEARS!

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and this one
 http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/10/32-years-of-living.html

sample paragraphs

Since, then I have gotten a new refrigerator!

The old one was leaking! But I didn't have enough to get a new one! Though I tried to rely on my pride and am striving for more self-reliance, I couldn't take the waiting anymore. I just mentioned the issue to my parents, and they got a good deal for the refrigerator.

This also means my mother won't be able to buy additional birthday or Christmas gifts. That's fine! The new refrigerator is more important than anything else I could've gotten as birthday/Christmas gifts.

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and one more
 http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2013/01/new-years-resolution.html

sample paragraphs

 And my new year started with my father coming in do repairs on the bathtub face plate, as well as replacing some filters in my toilet. :)

So yep, my new year's started with focus on home maintenance.

  4) My Life Today

This year, I returned to UH-Manoa as a graduate student.  And living where I'm at means I can just walk to school again :)

And I can still have easy access to many important places in Honolulu.

I'm more serious about home maintenance, and collection management these days.  My apartment is much cleaner than it was 1 year ago. But the work is never over!

I'm living on my own. No roommates, no one to tell me what to do, no one to get nosy about my private life!
That's the life :)


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Overall, I like living where I'm at.  :)   

I hope to stick around for a few more decades!  


  

Basic Research - It's Not That Hard!

First, I want to start off with my facebook comment of the day 
 

J.Lo performs at a private party for one of the world's worst dictators. J.Lo's reps then said "“Had there been knowledge of human rights issues of any kind, Jennifer would not have attended.”

It's called using Google or Wikipedia. Sheesh, in fact, you could've easily learn these things in the pre-internet days with an encyclopedia!
 

#LearnToResearchDammit!

 Learn more at
 http://www.forbes.com/sites/rahimkanani/2013/06/30/jennifer-lopez-love-does-have-a-price-performs-for-turkmenistans-dictator/

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Look, I don't expect everyone to have PhD level intelligence.  I don't expect everyone to be able to find obscure information about stuff!


But basic information about geography and history is not hard to find!

And it wasn't hard to find before the Internet either!

And I know that from real life experience! 

 The internet wasn't used by the general public until I was in high school!

But there were plenty of geography-related books, atlases, and encyclopedias  at the public library when I was a kid!   


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And what is sad is that the United States of America (aka world super-power) has one of the WORST statistics when it comes to geographic knowledge! 

http://freewayflyer.hubpages.com/hub/American-Ignorance-of-Global-Geography

 Knowledge of global geography in the United States, however, seems to be uniquely bad. In one study, the United States scored 117^th out of 193 countries on a test of global geographic knowledge.

and 

For the wealthiest nation on earth, a country that intervenes in the affairs of countries all over the planet, this is both disturbing and embarrassing.

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I was lucky that when I was growing up, my family had many books at home. There were encyclopedias and atlases.  I could read them all day.

And this was in a public housing complex in Kalihi, not some rich mansion in East Honolulu!  

And if any parent is saying "I can't afford books for my kids", well.............................do you spend money on alcohol, tobacco, weed, fireworks, TVs,  and stereo systems?  (and yes, there are people in Kalihi housing projects who spend money on such stuff!)

If yes, then you can afford a few books! 

I don't expect parents to be able afford every educational technology out there. I don't expect parents to re-create the Library of Congress at home. 

But dammit, give your kids basic access to knowledge!  Give them some books or at least a library card! 

 
 

Living in the Past

You might've heard the phrase "you can't live in the past".

I'm thinking "what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

But as I get older, I want to re-make the phrase.

You can live in the past once in a while but not all the time!



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1) You can't totally escape the past

I mean, you can try all you want, but you're not going to erase all your memories from the past. The only way you can do that is to get a concussion or take some drugs. But I'm sure you don't want to go that route!
--
 

Throughout evolution, organisms had to take note of the dangers around them, otherwise, they're lunch.

As for humans, you have to take note of who's a danger towards you. Otherwise, if you keep going towards someone proven harmful to you, you're only going to take more abuse.

This is why people hold grudges. It's evolution's way of saying "You know this person is harmful, ACT LIKE YOU KNOW IT!"

Pretending that everything is OK will put you in additional danger!  

After all, gazelles don't approach lions like everything is just fine! Instead, gazelles hold grudges against lions. It's called survival!

Of course we're not lions or gazelles!  

But humans can only hold so much crap for so long!  Hold it in for too long, you will explode! 

This is why I tell my life stories on my blog.   Doing so have release all that negative energy out of me, and makes it easier to move on with life!

2) You still have to adjust to the times

In other blog posts I have mentioned an uncle who kept saying negative things about facebook even though he didn't even try it.

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-debate-with-facebook-hating-uncle.html

That same uncle also complains about "there's no good music anymore" and also complain about the new cultural groups moving to his neighborhood. He also said our former neighborhood (Kalihi) is getting worse in crime (NOT TRUE AT ALL! ) 

Now, THAT guy is someone who spends too much time living in the past. He spends too much time being nostalgic about a glorious past that never was. He spends too much time being pessimistic about the present and the future.   

 
In other words, that guy's mindset is stuck in time.


And the funny thing is that his mom (my grandma) is more at peace with the changes in our community and our world than my uncle is.


That also reminds me of former classmates who complain about "the kid's nowadays" and "we don't have good music anymore".

Seriously, STFU!


I deal with kids all the time. Even though some of them are nuts, I really don't think they're worse than my generation.  I think my generation was worse, since there were more gang violence when I was growing compared to now!  I also think the new generation is less homophobic than my generation!

And this stuff about "we don's have good music anymore"?  Anyone who says that stuff is someone who is stuck in the past! 

I still listen to some stuff of my childhood and teen years. But I also  listen to some of the new music coming out. I love music from Bruno Mars ("Treasure" is my new favorite jam), Kesha, Flo Rida, Rihanna, fun, Macklemore, Monsters and Men, Icona Pop, Swedish House Mafia, and much more.

A few years back, I used to complain about "rock music getting more soft". No longer. For one thing, we got the new 101.5 FM on the radio playing hard-rock/heavy-metal.

Plus, times change.  Harder music (meaning heavy metal and gangsta rap) just doesn't speak to the younger generation like it did mine. That's not a bad thing at all!    That means the younger generation is growing up in better situations than my generation, and isn't that what we wanted for our kids all along!

3) Enjoy past memories and MAKE NEW fun memories

You don't want to be too distant from your good memories of the past.  It's good to re-visit your fun times from your childhood, teen years and young adulthood.

But if you catch yourself saying "life sucks now", STOP!

Find something fun to do! It doesn't have to be expensive. Take a walk around. Go to block parties when you got the time. Enjoy some of today's music. Call up some friends and do something!

And if you don't like where your life is going, start making new plans for the future.

So yeah, enjoy some old memories. Then get off your seat and Make Some New Fun Memories!

Life is too short to be miserable all the time!

Mercy for the former friends?

(note: all the paragraphs from the original post have been deleted! This post was originally a response to former friends that I had serious disagreements with, and I had posted names and photos of them. As far as I'm concerned, while we might continue to view the world through different lens, I felt it was time to take down personal info of those involved


I have kept a copy of the original post just for evidence sakes. Also, just in case trouble starts again. 

I have kept other blog posts in which I expressed disagreement with their thoughts without mentioning their names.  But as far as I'm concerned, I'm done with having this public rivalry with former friends.)

Chosing Your Own Path

It's great to have ambition.


However, there are always "party poopers" out there who come to you claiming to be "realistic".

They may say stuff  like

- that's a useless major
- are there enough jobs in that field
- why don't you find a more steady career
- just go with the flow


If you say stuff like that, then YOU might be THE unrealistic one.

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Let's look at "that's a useless major" crap.


People say this crap about majors in the arts, humanities (ie. philosophy, linguistics, etc), and social sciences (ie. sociology, anthropology, history, etc).

There's this stereotype that those majors only lead to "serving coffee and flipping burgers"! Bull-CRAP!


In real life, those majors do lead to  real-life opportunities for entrance into  graduate school programs in law, public administration, social work  counseling, and (my favorite) library and information science.

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What exactly is a "useful major" anyways?

Just because a major is in demand now, doesn't mean it will be that way forever.

For example, one of my high school classmates started his college career as a ICS (information and computer science) major. That was his passion. Plus, at the time, there were many computer/internet companies gaining prominence.

But then ............the tech bubble burst! 

When that classmate graduated, it was harder to find jobs in his field.

The same was true about finance majors, real estate agents, architects, (all supposedly steady career paths)  when the financial meltdown occurred in 2008.


What I'm trying to say is Nothing in Life is Guaranteed!



Those chumps who say stuff like "get a steady career", are the same chumps who don't believe in taking risks in life.  They don't understand how life works. They don't understand that in order to experience greatness, you must take risks!


Where there are any guarantees when Bill Gates started Microsoft?

Where there are any guarantees when Steve Jobs started Apple?

 Where there are any guarantees when Mark Zuckerberg started facebook?

 Where there are any guarantees when Russell Simmons started Def Jam Records?


  Those people took major risks. They risked failure, they risked bankruptcy, they risked humiliation. 

They also made businesses that totally altered their industries!



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People will also tell you accept the world as it is. They dont want you to rebel against injustice. Their favorite phrase is "go with the flow"


Did Martin Luther King go with the flow?

Did Susan B. Anthony go with the flow?

Did Nelson Mandela go with the flow?

Did the Founding Fathers go with the flow?


Hell no, they made their own flow!

They took major risk. They didn't only risk failure, they risked violent death. 





And yet, their contributions improved the lives of so many, that they are now eternal heroes! 

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So what I'm trying to say is Don't waste your life satisfying the "party poopers" who tell you to "go with the flow", "only choose steady careers", "that's a useless major", "dont let it bother you"  or other self-defeating nonsense. Those people are NOT your allies, they DON'T have your best interest in their hearts!

Nothing in life is guaranteed anyways! Ambition requires risk! Take those risks!


After all, you only live once!

Drones and GMOs

Sometimes, activists like to scream "ban this" and "ban that" anytime something has a side effect. But before you join their brigade, you might want to study the issue



1) Drones

Am I for or against drones?

Depends!


If we're sending out drones to bomb Al Quaida hideouts, then do it!

But if we're just sending out drones to take sides in someone else's civil war, then screw it, don't do it!


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In World War 2, we didn't stop the German or Japanese fascists by singing peace songs.

We bombed military targets.

Some bombs missed and killed innocents.

But whose fault was it?

It was the fault of the German and Japanese governments for starting wars in the first place.

While their people didn't like getting bombed by the US warplanes, they also understood that their own governments was at fault.

That's why after World War 2, the Germans and Japanese citizens just gave up with imperial impulses. They also didn't retaliate against the US after the war was over. They just re-built their country instead. They re-built it so well that they even sold their surplus cars and electronics to us.

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With drones, we damage the enemy with putting less of our troops at risk.

But we still should be careful about where to send our drones (and troops) to.

We shouldn't get involved in other countries civil war. 

It's best to keep our troops, drones, planes, whatevers out of the conflicts going in Syria, Mali or other troubled spots.


After all, we nation building to do at home.




2) GMO's

Am I for or against GMO's.


Depends.


Whereas many activists stereotype all GMOs as health hazards, I wont' even go there.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/project_syndicate0/2013/02/gm_food_golden_rice_will_save_millions_of_people_from_vitamin_a_deficiency.html

Finally, after a 12-year delay caused by opponents of genetically modified foods, so-called “golden rice” with vitamin A will be grown in the Philippines. Over those 12 years, about 8 million children worldwide died from vitamin A deficiency. Are anti-GM advocates not partly responsible?

Golden rice is the most prominent example in the global controversy over GM foods, which pits a technology with some risks but incredible potential against the resistance of feel-good campaigning. Three billion people depend on rice as their staple food, with 10 percent at risk for vitamin A deficiency, which, according to the World Health Organization, causes 250,000 to 500,000 children to go blind each year. Of these, half die within a year. A study from the British medical journal the Lancet estimates that, in total, vitamin A deficiency kills 668,000 children under the age of 5 each year.

(more)

Similarly, it is argued that golden rice will not be adopted, because most Asians eschew brown rice. But brown rice is substantially different in taste and spoils easily in hot climates. Moreover, many Asian dishes are already colored yellow with saffron, annatto, achiote, and turmeric. The people, not Greenpeace, should decide whether they will adopt vitamin A-rich rice for themselves and their children.

Most ironic is the self-fulfilling critique that many activists now use. Greenpeace calls golden rice a “failure,” because it “has been in development for almost 20 years and has still not made any impact on the prevalence of vitamin A deficiency.” But, as Ingo Potrykus, the scientist who developed golden rice, has made clear, that failure is due almost entirely to relentless opposition to GM foods—often by rich, well-meaning Westerners far removed from the risks of actual vitamin A deficiency.

Regulation of goods and services for public health clearly is a good idea; but it must always be balanced against potential costs—in this case, the cost of not providing more vitamin A to 8 million children during the past 12 years.

As an illustration, current regulations for GM foods, if applied to non-GM products, would ban the sale of potatoes and tomatoes, which can contain poisonous glycoalkaloids; celery, which contains carcinogenic psoralens; rhubarb and spinach (oxalic acid); and cassava, which feeds about 500 million people but contains toxic cyanogenic alkaloids. Foodstuffs like soy, wheat, milk, eggs, mollusks, crustaceans, fish, sesame, nuts, peanuts, and kiwi would likewise be banned, because they can cause food allergies.

In other words, every food item has side effects.

You can spread awareness by labeling GMO foods. That's already being done in Europe.


If you don't like GMO foods, then don't eat it!


But if someone wants to take the risk and eat GMO food, then let them!


After all, pretty much everyone knows alcohol and tobbacco are dangerous, but people still consume them.


After all,  their body, their choice. 

What is an adult?

That was the first question that was asked in my substitute teacher training course.

Now that might sound like a stupid question.

But the whole point was that we were NOT to act like the students under our command.

We are no longer one of the kids. We shouldn't even think of trying to "fit in" with the kids.

After all, we are the adults!


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While that sounds very simple, many adults (even older ones) misunderstand that!

For example, one of members of Hawaii state senators Donna Mercado Kim.

 

Star Advertiser

Donna Mercado Kim

Her son was applying to law school.

Law school!

To even apply for law school, you had to already have earned a bachelor's degree from  a university.

In other words, if you are applying for a law school, you probably have been an adult for a few years already!

In other words, her son is old enough to apply, and do necessary follow-ups by himself!

After all, he's an adult!



And because he's an adult,  nobody else is allowed to gain access to his educational records without his signed permission!  That is federal law that has been around for decades!


Yet, Donna Mercado Kim still thinks she has the authority to nag the president of UH system about her son's application to the law school?

(Learn more at http://www.staradvertiser.com/newspremium/20130522__Kim_disputes_Greenwoods_account_of_pressure.html?id=208451821)


And even worse, her excuse is that she's just a concerned mother?


Fool, your son is old enough to do things on his own!

If he needs your help, he'll ask you! Otherwise back off!

Time to let your son be independent already! He's an adult!

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I'm also thinking about this "adult" thing because back in 2009, I met up with this former classmate that I used to hang out with but haven't talked to in a few years.

Well, that was the reunion year, so that situation in itself wasn't unusual.

But what was unusual was that guy seemed to expect me to have the same opinions, attitudes, etc from when we were still in high school.  And he seemed so shocked when some of my opinions and attitudes have changed!

Well duh, life experiences can do that to you!

Especially when you got a job in which you have some serious role model responsibilities. Especially when the first thing discussed in the job's  training session was "what is an adult?" 


Going through those experiences (and making stupid rookie errors and learning from them) can wake you up and force any person to start being mature and start having a mature perspective!

I just can't be making the same inappropriate jokes like I did when I was in high school. I'm too old for that!

It's just like what Charles Barkley mentioned in his book "I May Be Wrong But I Doubt It"

Random House

Charles Barkley's book

He mentions this "keeping it real" stuff and emphasizing that his reality is no longer being the kid from the projects. He think it's sad and pathetic when adults act like they're still the same person when they were 16. Barkley calls it "keeping it phony" and "BS"


Amen Charles Barkley!