WHY?s Up: Rockridge (North Side Oakland)

.:*Map Thing (YAY!)*:.

(It's on here somewhere)

Okay, so if I'm being honest here I really thought that Rockridge was going to look like...well, Fruitvale really. I didn't even know that Rockridge was right next to Berkley until the day of the trip! When I first got there I thought, "...We're back in Walnut Creek." But after spending sometime, you start to see a lot of the "ghetto-ness"; so it's more like a combination between Fruitvale and Walnut Creek. There are a lot of white people, but you saw a lot of minorites there too (40% minority and 60% white...I'm guessing).

It was definately a lot cleaner in Rockridge than in Fruitvale, I'll give them that. There are also a lot of stores and restaurants (my favorite was the bakery; they give free samples...too bad I don't remember the name. Oh well, we have it on video). It seemed very quiet over there, too. However, a friend of mine did say she saw some kids slappin' some music hela loud, so...yeah, it wasn't that unsettiling over there, like Walnut Creek was (I felt really out of place there, and I'm white!).

It was cool, though. We interviewed this one guy; Asian and realy cute. I love Asian guys, but I digress. He had this cast oon his leg, so naturally, I asked him about. He and his friends were "wall running"' (don't ask me what that is, I don't know. I only know that it's some martial art's thing), and he fell on his leg wrong. Super. Special. Awesome. If only he was a little younger...*sigh* (-_-)

Me and My Family

Well, the teachers who conduct the WHY?s Up Postsession at my school thought that this would be a good idea. I don't really think so since I don't mind airing dirty laundry. Here it goes:

The Parents:

("No," my parents do NOT look like giant apples)

My parents are very...interesting people. And I don't mean "intereseting" in the good way. It's obvious that they hate each other; I just wish that they would get a divorce and be done with each other. We're all almost eight-teen anyway...

The Oldest:

(My brother being ... himself)

My brother and I get along the best, hands down, out of everyone in my family. Our personalities differ greatly, but we're both the same in that we have an abstract way of thinking; we even have our own vocabulary (though most is attributed to Jim Rome...you know, from Sports Center. He's freakin' hillarious). He's an uber sports fanatic (his first love will always be baseball, though), but he absolutley HATES college basketball. He can also kick my patootie in all things Pokemon (T.T)...he loves to rub that in my face... jerk.

The Middle/Black Sheep (Baa):

(I was feeling weird when I took this picture...but then again, when aren't i?)

Yes, my good people, I am the middle child; I am the Black Sheep of the family. Though it's not true that all middle children turn out to be the Black Sheep, it's true in my case; my mom even said so (and it's funny because I was born in the Year of the Sheep. Coincidence? I think not) There's not really much that I can say about my self; I feel that you can only understand a person once you met them; you never know when someone's lying to you about how they are.

The Youngest/The Evil One/Brat/Baby/Spoiled Child:

(on the bootom it says, "'Angel' my evergreen grass!" They won't let me use bad words)

I think that the title says it. I've always had to give everything nice (like my PDA) to her. We have NEVER gotten along, and the only time that we are ever in the same room is when we're alseep (Do you know how bad I want my own room?). You would think that since we're only 14 months apart that we'd be the closer of the siblings.

WHY?s Up: My Trip to Chinatown

.:*Oakland's Chinatown*:.

(An ethinic enclave full of wonder sights, smells, and sounds)

Initially, my perceptions about Chinatown were very simple ones, like "There's Chinese people there," and things like that. But really Chinatown is just more about the kind of people that live there; there's so much cultural and energy there that you can't help but be swept up in it (or maybe that's just me since I have a thing for everything Asian). Chinatown, for me, is like a Christmas present; there's so much anticipation to open it up and find out all it's mysteries. I really wish we could have stayed there longer (and I really wish that I had brought some extra spending money; there's so much cute stuff over there \(*^o^*)/)

As far as surprises go, we saw a lot of different kinds of food that others might think is pretty disgusting. But when you think about it, we all eat things that others would think are slightly strange or disgusting (my favorite kind of meat just happens to be cow tongue...mmm yummy!). Also, I found out that Oakland has an Asian Center. That really surprised me; and a lot of the other students as well. I'll have to go back there soon. (Yay, personal field trip!)

For me, the only difference between Fruitvale and Chinatown was the ethinicity between the people: Fuitvale is full of Latinos and Chinatown is full of Asian (mostly Chinese) people. Which also means that the cultural bachground in each place is different; but to me, they really aren't. The people who live in these places now, came there because their ancestors wanted to have a community in the United States where they were around others with the same kind of background. So yeah, to me I don't really see that much of a difference (but that's just me I guess; I see everyone connected in some way or another).

WHY?s Up: Garbage on the Fruitvale Streets

.:*Yummy*:.

(Unfortunately in Oakland, this kind of thing is a very common sight.)

Our school, Life Academy of Health and Bioscience, is conviently located near a Jack-In-The-Box, a Pollo Loco, and of course, a McDonald's (the King of all Greasiness! Bow down before the McDonald's almighty power...then order some fries with your unwavering loyalty to the beef patty! Muwahahaha!) Sorry, got a little carried away there. Anyway, while we were walking around the area near our school, looking for random pieces of garbage in our community (which was not that hard, considering that where ever you turn, you'll find your self knee-deep in garbage...well in most areas). We found a lot, and I mean A LOT of fast food...stuff on the streets. It's pretty pathetic if you ask me, because when you think about it, it's like were helping to advertise fast food to people.

Think about it: you're walking down the street, and you're feeling kind of hungry. "I'll just make something when I get home," you tell yourself. But then, you kick and empty McDonald's cup (which just might be the one in this picture, you never know), and then suddenly, you don't want to wait until you get home to eat something; you're hungry now. Oh, and look! McDonald's just happens to be conviently located across the street from where you are right now! "You know what? I think I'm gonna get me a BigMac. I don't care if one bite of that thing takes off ten years of my life; I'm hungry." Then you die of a heart attack at age 44, and your last dieing thought was, "I should've gotten a gym club membership."

The End.

("Muwahahaha!" - McDonald's Cooperation)

Square Bear Rants #1: Text Messaging

.:*Square Bear*:.

Okay, so this has been bugging me for a while and now I finally have a place to talk about. Text messaging. It's only real purpose is to let kids secretly communicate during class time. I mean, the person you're texting obviously has a phone, so... WHY DON'T YOU JUST CALL THEM?! Wasn't that the whole purpose of the cell phone, to talk to people? I just can't understand everyone's fascination with text messaging, and I'm probably one of few teenagers who feel this way. I'm sure a lot of adults do, though. This is definately on my Top 5 Pet Peeves List.

And another thing that pisses me off about text messaging: text linguo (I don't even know if I spelled that right). You have no idea just how much this gets on my nerves. I recieved an e-mail from my brother a couple months ago and he used a text linguo replacement word for "what". That replac ement word? ..."wat". It's just "what" without the "h"! WTF? Like it's really going to kill you to type that extra letter!! Seriously people! Is it really that streneous of a task to type one extra letter? Urgh, I need to go punch something...

Other Text Linguo Words That Piss Me Off:

• "That" to "dat"
• "The" to "da"
• "E" to "3"
• "A" to "@"
• "Me" to "meeh" (And I thought the whole point was to type less letters!)
• "Your" to "ur"
• "You" to "u"
• "Cool" to "kool" or "koo"
• "S" to "$"

Life Academy's Mini Triathlon (April 26, 2008)

.:*Green Kitsune*:.

(I photoshop-ed that myself)

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Just thought that I'd post the video I made of Life Academy's Mini Triathlon that was held on my birthday! *cough* April 26, buy me something *cough* It's not that great because 1) I don't have steady hands, 2) I don't have a vodeo camera, so I used my friend's digital camera, 3) I only got footage of the '09 class (my class) because they're awesome. I don't think that last one was really that important to mention, but...who cares?

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You can also find this video on my YouTube account: GreenKitsuneTheOG (http://youtube.com/user/GreenKitsuneTheOG)

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If the video doesn't come out, can find it on the side bar of this page under "My YouTube Videos"

WHY?s Up: Differences in Interviewing

.:*Walnut Creek*:.

.:*Fruitvale*:.

It was definitely easier to interview people in Fruitvale than it was in Walnut Creek, because you can make connections with people who live in the same kind of community as you; you have things in common that you can talk about. We had around the same percentage of rejection rates, though, but we were able to get a lot more interviews (though that might be because we used voice recorders instead of video cameras, but whatever...).

There are a lot of positive things about Fruitvale, which unfortunately gets covered up by all of the negative aspects of things like gangs and drugs. But where else can I get a bag of fresh fruit on almost every street corner? Where else am I going see chickens in someone's backyard? Where else can I use the word "hella" and not get weird looks that seem to say, "Umm...what does that mean?" You really have to come and experience Fruitvale to understand what it's all about. You can't have someone tell you what it's like here; you need to feel the pulse that is Fruitvale in order to understand it.

But I'm not going to lie; Fruitvale has its bad parts. Which neighborhood doesn't? All the tagging* on the sides of buildings and houses; the prostitutes walking down the street in broad daylight; drug dealers on the corners; drive by shootings; robberies. All of these things make Fruitvale a very unattractive place for a lot of people. That makes me really sad because there's a lot of bright and educated minds that can help change the way the community operates in order to change how we live. Unfortunately, they are constantly being beat down by a system that prefers to keep the people ignorant about their own intelligence.

Now, relating to my topic on which I was interviewing people in both Walnut Creek and Fruitvale, which was: Economics. Basically everyone in Walnut Creek is EXTREMELY financially stable and everyone in Fruitvale is not. Okay, so that's not technically true. Every place has its upper, middle, and lower classes...there just happens to be more of a gap between the middle and lower classes in Fruitvale than in Walnut Creek. I swear, every person we interviewed in Walnut Creek owned their own home...some even owned their own businesses. I mean, we even saw a woman who owned 2 Bentleys and a Mercedes. Another guy we interviewed owns a Porsche. Do you have any idea how bad I want a yellow 911 Porsche Turbo? But I digress. In Fruitvale, people are struggling a lot more to make it. We met this one guy, and he told us that after his job as a painter was over, he needed to find another job. Now he's selling ice cream with his cart on the side walk. How sad is that? When I see that, it just really pisses me off. America: where immigrants can be great ice cream sellers. That's not super special awesome...

*tagging: writing profane or unnecessary language on objects that serves no purpose to beautify the neighborhood; graffiti without any artistic value. This is my definition of tagging, which is a lot different than graffiti.