Well, wouldn't cha know?!

Kal Penn to the White House!

..White Castle... House.. White House... it all makes so much sense! :D

w00t

Aren't you a bucket of surprises, Vermont? Yes you are, yes you are! =D

Good news this morning =)

Oh, Iowa, you send me!

The Boithday

Global Gag Rule repealed.

Okay, 21, show me what you've got!

=D

"Prop 8 - The Musical"

Oh, NPH, you send me!

Having a wonderful time

I stepped out of work on Friday evening to this beautiful sight:

I wanted to catch it on camera, but I don't know if I did the scene justice.
Sunset. Oakland. Fall-ish weather. Mmm!

After I got back from work, I hauled booty over to Safeway and Whole Foods for turkey ingredients and any other yummies I could find. The house had planned to go to SF for dinner, but I was so exhausted, I just plopped myself in front of the TV for some good Food Networkin'. This didn't last long. I fell asleep at about 8:30pm. I.am.so.hardcore.

But! On Saturday morning, Mike and I went to Oakland's Chinatown for comfort food!
[Woops! Not green onions!] Eat eat eat.

After this edible extravaganza, I made a semi-impromptu trip out to Sacramento to meet up with my brother and our good friend for a Prop 8 rally.

Dahlia, Kimler, Blobdizzle.
Such a brilliant flag to carry... look at his equally brilliant expression!
All the speakers were awesome. [Sen. Darrell Steinberg and Margaret Cho, to name a few]
Alas, the excitement led to breaking my camera. If I remember correctly, a person from some APIA coalition was coming up to speak and in my excited frenzy, I somehow ended up throwing my camera right at the concrete. Yes, wtf?

I'll have to rely on my stock of other photos before I can return to my "Plogs in the Life" motion. New camera eventually!
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The weekend was capped off with a Thanksgiving meal with the taiko fam bam. I love them all to pieces and love seeing them well-fed.

Youth and Youth Movements

I will forever be a believer in youth. I love the growth, naivete, creativity, idealism, realism, passion, and exploration that youth encounter and endure. This leads me to recommend a few great youth-driven and youth-centered organizations:

Advocates for Youth
...and their related site MySistahs
East Bay Asian Youth Center

"Forever Young" by Youth Group is playing as I blog this. No, I can't be more redundant. ^_^

More on that ridiculous proposition

This was passed on to me by Jay Benoit, a perennial mentor of mine.

"So I be written in the Book of Love; I do not care about that Book above."

We won't stop just yet

Damn you, Prop 8. If you were a part of the opposition, you'll probably be interested in signing this.

And courtesy of patrickmoberg.com through my home slice, Paul.
Of all the things I've read and seen, this one brought me to tears. Light-hearted reality with a smattering of jest is sometimes the best way to pull at the heartstrings [See: my reaction to The Royal Tenenbaums].

Branded memories

Yesterday was a turbulent day. Oakland and Berkeley were a little chilly. I had a few gonna-puke-soon moments in the office and while in line for Cheeseboard (feta, roma tomatoes, onions). Oh, and the ELECTION!

Memory 1:

I was walking out of the Preservation Park complex just when the sun had set. I had my cell phone strapped to my ear; I was giving a mouthful to my brother.
"Kamille, are you sure you voted 'no' on Prop 4?"
"Yes. I was just kidding earlier."
"Are you sure?!?!"
After this back-and-forth exchange for another five minutes...
"He won Pennsylvania."
"What?! No way! Are you sure?"
"Yeah, they just reported that he did."
"I can't believe he won Pennsylvania!"
At that very instant, a man walking next to me on 12th Street and MLK, who had overheard this, asked, "Who won Pennsylvania?"
"Obama!"
"HELL YEAH! It's in the bag now!"
We were about two more elated screams away from just hugging each other at the intersection.

Memory 2:

Mike and I consumed our four slices of Cheeseboard pizza in front of the TV. Red, blue, red, blue! I was still sickly (still am!), so Mike brought out our comforter, and I pleasantly situated myself on the couch. A good ten minutes later, I saw Alex through our door window.
"I couldn't watch the election alone!"
His arrival... Mike's interest... everything made me feel so proud of our age group, our civic-mindedness, and our refusal of apathy.
We both plopped ourselves down on the couch, chatted about recent and upcoming events and literally, within the five seconds we turned away from the TV to talk about Oracle, "Barack Obama Elected 44th President of the United States" runs on the television. I checked my watch. "7:59?" I thought out loud. "Come on NBC, gotta be that slanted?!" But no, no mistakes. He won. A beautiful silence invaded the living room.

Memory 3:

I pulled myself out of bed this morning so I could attend my Philippine diaspora literature class. I hadn't heard any news on Prop 8. I arrived to an empty class, but a couple of students arrived minutes later.
"Hey, have any of you guys heard the latest on Prop 8?"
"Uh, it passed."
"What?! *bleep*!"
"We can't win everything."

Ain't that the truth.

Again... 2008 has been the year.

Supah sick!

And by "supah sick!", I mean, "terribly unwell"... as opposed to "really, really cool!"

Best indicator of my illness: a text I sent to Derek yesterday.

"I finished a paper at 8- I need to get shot in the face. I usually like keeping these things to people i'm comfy with, but when you're _____, everyone's comfy. We have so few girls, imma be at __ status while dancing, so females are a plus. I might just ____ ___ with them hah. Would they ___? I also just generally cover close friends."

Look, even I don't know what I was talking about. >_<
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One of my brothers called to tell me that he voted this morning. He made my AM very satisfying and inspirational, which gave me the motivation to get my mucusface (eh?) to class.
I am loving the civic ownership and empowerment that's going on today. Even though I'm sick as a kat ::lame rim shot::, I am more than optimistic about the evening results.

Let's make this more snazzy, shall we?

A great friend of mine suggested that I add a little more political flare to my blog. Well, we'll just see about that!

Here are a few issues I've recently been most concerned with:
No on Proposition 4
No on Proposition 8

I can be moved to tears when discussing the above two. Watch out!

(According to the flickr caption) Pistahan 2008 at the Yerba Buena Garden in San Francisco

At the Magno Rubio performance last Friday, people were selling shirts with the same message. But, as I usually say, "I gotz no money!"

This is a less publicized issue, although I feel it is extremely critical for the future of adolescent health. Teen pregnancy prevention programs (MIP, TSO, I&P) have been completely cut from the updated California budget. I owe so much of my foundation in public, reproductive, and teen health to TeenSMART Outreach (TSO), and I know there have been hundreds- if not thousands- of youth who have benefited from this program. Must I repeat the adage?! Prevention is the best medicine, people! So, for the next couple of weeks, a lot of my energy will be invested in salvaging these statewide programs.

Stay tuned for more pontification. ^_^

For my close friends:

If you want to get out of that obligatory (well, not really) birthday present for me, vote.

Here's the info you'll need if you're not registered or if you've moved recently and haven't re-registered.

I sincerely thank you now and on February 25th. ^_^