NabloPoMo Day 6: 'Tis the Season

Day 6!

It's the holiday season. No, really. This year, I promise myself to start the holiday baking and related prep early. Like, now. I've already made the list of victims giftees and inventoried the boxes from last year, and went to Surfa's to get a few more that I needed. This week, I need to decide on what cookies to make, calculate the quantities of ingredients I need, inventory what I have, then go shopping for the rest. People seem to think this holiday baking is a lot of work but I really like the right-brain-ness of the tasks that need to be done. Will update the progress, if only because it'll make an easy post. Hahahaha.

No deep thoughts or burning questions today. Feeling kind of mellow and tired.

Walked in the rain with my friend Jenni this morning. It was glorious! I love the rain, even if it was a little windy and stormy. I don't know when was the last time I walked in the rain or even drove through it. Whenever I walk in the rain, I suddenly feel like I'm seven-years-old again, walking to and from swim lessons, marveling at the myriad of hydrangeas lining my walking route and the cascading shades of pink, blue and purple.

I've seen some hydrangeas in the LA area but they don't seem to be too popular. Do they require too much water? I guess they are not native to the area. Although I totally support the planting of native plants and drought-resistant plants to minimize the amount of water needed to maintain a garden and yard here, I do have a soft spot in my heart for hydrangeas. But the ones I've seen around here don't seem to be as full and lush as the ones in Japan. But then again, the rains in Japan are much different from the ones here so I suppose that helps to explain the difference. That, and the soil content. I love how the pH level in the soil affects the color of the hydrangeas. So scientific, yet artful. Very cool.

About where we walked - for the past nine weeks, we've walked up the steps of the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook. It is a project of the California State Parks, and supposedly one phase of a larger parks project that should convert much of the Baldwin Hills, including I presume a lot of the oil fields that maybe no longer produce oil, and connect to the Kenneth Hahn Regional Park. I didn't realize this until recently but the walking trail that was cut into the hills going up to View Park on Stocker Avenue is also part of the same project. Somehow they're all supposed to connect. I hope they do in my lifetime!

I remember many years ago when I was working as a community activist, I attended several information sessions on the need for parks and green space in LA, how LA City at the time (maybe still) had one of the lowest per-capita green space in the country. There were representatives there from the Tree People and LA Conservation Corps, as well as other groups, but I don't recall much tangible coming out of there. It seemed like an insurmountable task, really, to create green space in urban areas. Issues of acquiring land, cleaning and maintaining the park, and others stymied us as we knew there were very limited funding for these types of projects as a stand-alone project.

A few years ago, I was with my mom and she wanted to go walk around Lacy Park in San Marino so we went. I was shocked to find out that the park is free only to residents of San Marino (might even have been that particular area around the park) and, at least on the weekends, I think, they charge a couple of bucks to non-residents to "use" the park.

This was kind of sad to see. I daresay San Marino has a way higher amount of green space per capita than the city of LA or even neighboring cities like Alhambra. And yet, I suppose it's natural instinct to protect what you have, but for an outsider like me, it seems so selfish. I realize the residents are paying taxes to maintain the park. But is that reason enough to close it off or at least put up some barrier to entry for non-residents?

I guess one lesson is, though, that to have a successful park project, the residents surrounding the park need to really take ownership, and care for it and protect it. How do we do this in urban areas where people live in homeless shelters and worry about when they might eat next? Where people spend two hours on the bus after work and come home after dark?

I wish I could come up with answers for these problems. Actually, I think I need to come up with better questions. Somehow I feel like I keep asking the same root question. Hopefully this spate of daily blogging will trigger something in my brain and come up with something useful by the end of the month.

Need to do some testing for work and then off to bed. Another week of daily posting to come, I hope!

NaBloPoMo Day 5: Football, Food and Volunteering

Day 5. The weekends will be a challenge, although theoretically I should have more time to write. It's 10:23 pm now, let's see what I can bang out in 1.5 hours.

OK, this pic is a couple of years old but it's me and Jonathan "Jet Ski" Franklin, UCLA star running back. Just had to post, because we were at the thrilling game where UCLA eked out a 1-point win over Arizona State to tie for first place in the Pac-12 South. It wasn't always pretty but a win's a win.

Earlier today, I volunteered with a group of Anderson alums and current students, as well as University of Virginia alums, at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. I hadn't ever been there but I've known about it and its good work since years ago. I might have even donated money some time ago.

So I met up with some friends there, and there were lots of other groups there, from KPMG, various USC student and alumni groups, and others. Probably, oh I don't know, 100 people in total? Maybe more. So we broke up into groups and were put into different areas of the warehouse to sort produce, bread and other foods. The UCLA/UVA group sorted bread and squash.

Anyway, the only reason I mention this is, while I realize the need for organizations like the LA Regional Food Bank, I must say I'm still not comfortable with groups like ours volunteering for just a few hours one Saturday. It's a little hard to articulate, and I was talking to a friend last night and couldn't quite get across what I wanted to say.

So here's my beef (no pun intended) - I could be totally off, but I feel like well-to-do people use volunteer opportunities like this to feel good about themselves, like they're so concerned about the plight of the poor or the homeless or whoever is being served. In the meantime, they continue to drive their luxury cars, go out to eat at expensive steakhouses and shop at Whole Foods.

After they're done with their three hours of volunteer work looking at donated bread to make sure there is no mold, no holes, and there are nutrition facts and expiration dates on the package and packing them into boxes, they go on their merry way, not giving the social ills plaguing the poor and disenfranchised much through for the rest of the year.

Maybe, just maybe, they do go back to their daily lives and urge their Congress people or state legislators to do something about the unemployment rate, or the cost of health care, or the cost of child care, or the cost of housing. Maybe they also donate money to the food bank or other organizations that help feed the poor. Maybe they run their own businesses and actively create jobs and hire locally. Maybe they're blogging about their experiences and getting the word out among their friends and family to encourage them to do something. Do they support raising taxes to increase services to the poor? Do they protest cuts to Medicare, food stamps, and education? Maybe, hopefully.

I think that because I am more used to thinking about root causes of social issues like hunger and joblessness and trying to address them at that level rather than the immediate needs, that I feel kind of frustrated at people who eagerly volunteer to drive to south LA for a few hours and think they're helping to eradicate hunger or poverty.

My friend had also done this type of volunteering at the food bank several times in the past, and she was telling me that the reason why she did it was because there is a real, immediate need now and that's what she wanted to address, even though she knew it doesn't do anything about the long-term root causes.

I think what bothers me is how easy it seems to get a 100-person turnout for a 3-hour stint like this, while I'm not sure that these people, or their friends and family, will come out to a rally at City Hall, let's say, to protest the number of homes foreclosed upon in the city, or lobby their local representatives about the issue.

I know I'm not doing as much as I should or could be about all these root causes, and admittedly, mine was one of the luxury cars lining 41st Street this morning, so I'm being a bit hypocritical. But as I watched all the Mercedes, BMWs, Infinitys, and other cars, I couldn't help but to wonder - if all of us donated $1,000 a year, which surely we could afford if we're able to afford these cars, to nonprofits like the food bank or CPAF or LTSC, or even foundations like the California Endowment, how much more effectively can we address the root causes?

Just wondering.

NaBloPoMo Day 4: More Bread and Japanese

Day 4. No longer a "mikka bouzu". Phew.

In my continuing quest to use up bread flour, I tried making this rosemary focaccia. The mixing and kneading went well, but the rising didn't, not so much. Since I usually bake at night and it's been getting cold, I've been setting the oven to the lower temperature and letting the dough proof in there, but I recently read another recipe that said to put a vat of hot water in the lower rack in the oven, then let the dough rest in the rack above it. So I'll try that next time. This one was a little dense for my taste, but some people at work really liked it. Til next time.

On Language
I speak Japanese conversationally. I can help guide Japanese tourists around Santa Monica, but can't discuss economic policies or Buddhist philosophy with them. Having grown up bilingual and bicultural, I think in both languages. (I so related to Paulina Sahagun's "Two Channels" when I saw her perform as part of "A Slice of Rice, Frijoles and Greens" in college.)

Anyway, the other day for some reason, I was thinking about units for counting. It might have been because I was in the Dr. Seuss section of the bookstore and saw "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish".

In Japanese, there are unique ways of referring to units of measure, depending on what is being counted. So counting fish would be ippiki, nihiki, sanbiki, yonhiki, the unit being "hiki" (which changes to "piki" or "biki" depending on what number precedes it). This unit can be used for some animals like dogs and cats, too, but sometimes it's more appropriate to use "tou" (meaning head) for big animals like bulls (ittou, nitou, santou, yontou). Birds are counted in "wa" (meaning "feather") - ichiwa, niwa, sanwa, yonwa.

Even inanimate objects have specific units. If you're counting chairs, the unit is "kyaku" (ikkyaku, nikyaku, sankyaku, yonkyaku), although most people in Japan will accept the use of "ko" (generic term for unit - ikko, niko, sanko, yonko). But why not impress them by using "kyaku"? :)

Plates are counted in "mai" - ichimai, nimai, sanmai, yonmai - which is the same unit used for sheets of paper. Books are counted in "satsu" (issatsu, nisatsu, sansatsu, yonsatsu). I think my favorite is squid - yes, squid has its own unit of measure and it is "hai" - ippai, nihai, sanpai, yonhai. Which, interestingly, is the same unit for glasses filled with beverages ("beeru wo ippai kudasai" - I'd like a glass of beer). Empty glasses, however, are counted in "ko". I can go on and on, there are so many of these different units. Each time one came to my mind, I was struck by the creativity and precision of the language. Amazing.

I guess the English language has something similar, in describing groups - flock of sheep, gaggle of geese, band of brothers. It's so interesting how different languages operate. I might have liked to be a linguistics researcher, if that paid the bills! :)

Today's Reading
Very briefly, but I read this today and couldn't help but be outraged at the initial piece, then amazed and uplifted by the response.

Apparently a conservative nut wrote about how Feminism has hurt women and society. When I read this, I was so flabbergasted. How can anyone think like this? How can he twist the facts and not see the fallacies of his arguments?

Then I read fully the very smart, reasonable response and was relieved. And I laughed, especially at the "Manly Men (TM)". I really don't have much to add or say anything better, but I am just so ever-impressed by talented, intelligent writers who can dissect arguments and provide well-justified and clear rebuttals. I aspire to write like that someday.

NaBloPoMo Day 3: Thinking of Japan

NaBloPoMo Day 3. In Japanese, there is a word - "mikka bouzu (三日坊主)" - for someone who starts something new but gives up after three days, like a monk-in-training (bouzu) who gets tired of reciting chants and gives up his training. I'm hoping not to be a mikka bouzu. Let's see.

This is a pic from earlier this year, when I participated in the Bake Sale for Japan in the LA area, to fundraise to help victims of the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. Hard to believe it's been well over six months since then.

I remember following the news when it happened, and also the blogs of many Japanese bloggers whom I have been reading for the past eight or so years. The magnitude of the devastation was just incomprehensible to me.

After checking to see if family and friends were okay, I was kind of at a loss as to what to do. Yes, I can donate money but I didn't just want my measley donation to go to some random rescue efforts. I wanted to do something meaningful, as conceited as that may seem.

As often happens after a major disaster, after the first couple of months, the news and fund-raising and awareness-raising efforts seem to have declined steeply, particularly in the LA area (I enviously read of my Northern Cal friends organizing and attending various fundraising craft and food fairs...maybe they were going on around here and I just didn't know).

I then talked with a friend who was trying to organize a large-scale fundraiser. She is friends IRL with several Japanese blogger/professional photographers, who have volunteered at disaster sites and have photos from those areas. My friend wanted to showcase those photos, to bring a sense of reality to the disaster, to show people that it's not just something we watch on TV, that people like us are still, even today, living through its aftermath.

I hope to help in this effort, and to help continue to raise awareness of the needs. There are worldwide efforts by the Red Cross and other worthy organizations, to be sure. But I wonder how much help is reaching people in small towns? How much help is really being provided by corporations donating excess inventory and getting tax write-offs?

As a close friend often says in emails - More soon.

NaBloPoMo Day 2: Bread and Amendment 26

Day 2, yay me.

I know, this is such a sad-looking photo. But I'm putting it up just for record-keeping purposes. I love to cook and bake, but for whatever reason, have never been successful at baking yeast breads. I now have an abundance of bread flour that I'd like to use up soon, so I've been gingerly trying my hand at yeast bread recipes.

This was my attempt at Japanese cream-filled bread ("cream pan"). Aside from the obvious spillage, the bread itself was kind of dense, but not too bad taste-wise. Well, I'll keep trying.

On a more serious note, as I've started to read up on progressive and feminist issues, the topic of abortion has caught my eye. First, it's an issue personal to me, as it is for many women. But also, on a general feminist level, I feel quite outraged and dismayed at what's going on in Mississippi and elsewhere.

Next Tuesday, November 8th, Mississippi voters will decide on Amendment 26, which will define a fertilized egg as a legal person (much like how a corporation is a legal person), which makes abortion and some other means of birth control, as well as possibly some miscarriages, murder.

This is apparently the work of a movement within the anti-abortion contingent that call themselves "Personhood." This is just insane. How does a mass of cells with the potential of life trump the rights of a living woman or girl?? How can you possibly charge a woman who suffers a miscarriage because she slipped and fell with murder, because maybe she shouldn't have walked on a slippery sidewalk or wore shoes that some might consider too high? (I've grown fond of 4-inch heels and even though I'm not the pregnant one, I take offense at anyone who challenges a woman's right to wear whatever shoes she wants to.)

It seems the initiative is likely to pass, and there are others states considering such measures. How is this getting done without more general knowledge of it and outrage against it?!?

About the personal part - I was a teen mom, pregnant at age 15. I did seriously consider abortion. I knew I didn't have the means to raise a child, and I knew my boyfriend at the time, age 16, didn't have the means to support us. I was naive, ignorant and uneducated (about reproductive health, options, etc.), and ultimately I was unable to get an abortion. Fortunately for me, I was able to rely on a family willing to support me, us, through it all and now my son is grown and is finishing college. But just because my story has a happy ending or because my son will likely grow up to be a productive member of society doesn't mean it wouldn't have been right for me to have the choice to abort.

I hope to be able to speak more intelligently, less emotionally, about this soon and help spread the word. In the meantime, these have been good resources and food for thought:

The Abortioneers

Anti-Abortion and Pro-Choice? article by E.J. Graff

So What If I Hadn't Been Born? article by E.J. Graff

Moment of Conception article by Pema Levy

NaBloPoMo Day 1: 99% on the Bus

NaBloPoMo, here we go.

David Brooks wrote a NYTimes Op-Ed today about "Blue Inequality" and "Red Inequality", and the need to address the Red Inequality by closing the education gap in those states. As always, Paul Krugman wrote a beautifully articulate response, in parallel with a slightly more caustic reaction from the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Living in a "Blue Inequality" city, David Brooks made sense to me in the first few paragraphs. Yes, I do see entire shopping centers devoted to luxury handbags, $200 jeans, $5000 works of art. Yes, I can see firsthand the 1% in shiny new Bentleys driving by the 99% riding the bus (me included).

But I started to lose him when he shifted to the "Red Inequality" states and how we needed to invest in education to close the income gap between the college-graduate and non-college graduates. But aren't the college-graduates in those states still in the 99%? So we'll let the 1% continue to hoard an inordinate amount of income share while the rest of us continue to re-allocate what's left?

I thought we were past the whole, "we can't just be arguing how to divide up the slice of pie, we need a bigger slice!" mantra that I heard in college 15 years ago.

I started riding the bus to and from work a little over a year ago after experiencing so much frustration at driving home, as sometimes it took me over 75 minutes to travel 11 miles (yes, I've taken many permutations of side streets and honestly, it doesn't make much of a difference).

One bus route I take goes through low-income neighborhoods (mine included), and the other goes right by a community college. So I see lots of working class people, mostly people of color, and young students, again mostly people of color.

I'm totally generalizing because there could be others like me who are taking the bus by choice and not out of lack of options, but I daresay the busriders are representative of the 99%. Again I could be totally wrong here but I don't think these people participate in the OWS movement (me included). But shouldn't these busriders and workers and students be the very people protesting?

Why can't we have reliable bus service? Sometimes there's a bus or two missing from the timetable and it takes me 2.5 hours to get home instead of 1.5. It's fine for me but what about the others on the bus who had to get to work on time or get docked pay? Or had to pick up their children from childcare or get fined? Or had to get home, cook dinner, have their kids work on homework, and do other chores? How do they do it all?

And is increasing the educational levels of these people going to improve their lot overall? Are they going to get a share of the wealth that the 1% enjoys? I'm going out on a limb here but I DON'T THINK SO. Education is important but if we can't even secure affordable housing, healthcare, healthy food supplies, and stable jobs, then it's hard to move on past living day-by-day, dollar-by-dollar.

Paul Krugman, as always, is right that we are beyond talking about the graduate- and non-graduate gap, and what we really need to recognize is that we live in an oligarchy. I'm not as hopeful as some that the OWS movement is our answer but at least the message is getting out there. And it's making me think and want to study more, so I hope it's doing the same for others, too.

Getting ready for NaBloPoMo

My super-duper cool friend Jenni mentioned NaBloPoMo on her Facebook status and I realized I had really wanted to participate in that, years ago when my JournalSpace blog was still active (and before JS had its 2006-or-thereabouts meltdown and lost my and many others' blogs). So, I'm dusting off this Blogger page and will try to write again!

I didn't realize NaBloPoMo had a theme for the month, as well as for each day. I feel like I should study up more to make sure I'm following the rules but, well, I'll see what I can do. Reading the site for NaBloPoMo, though, it seems like it's now an ongoing thing? Or is November still the real thing and that's why there's prizes?

For today, just to get started...

I was dismayed to read the news about the breakup of the Occupy LA movement in downtown LA. I realize I don't have much right to criticize it since I haven't gone there or followed it much. Actually, I did look it up when Occupy Wall Street first started gaining steam but the LA movement, at least it's website, seemed so...primitive. Not very informative, no calls to action, no calls for help for supplies, no schedules, etc. Granted, I haven't checked in since but if the above newspost is to be believed, it doesn't seemed to have improved much.

I've seen news of some API community participation but I don't see my activist friends regularly going. Why is this? Why is the movement in LA not catching on? I'm more intrigued by the movement in Oakland and NY and would much rather go there. Is my apathy toward the LA movement something that's festering in others as well?

For the month of November, I'm making a promise to myself to get more on top of reading about the economy, the progressive movement, the feminist movement, and other related thoughts and events. I think I've been away from all this for too long and my mind is craving a higher intellectual level of stimulus than Project Runway (granted, this season was awful).

I hope to become a little more informed, so I can contribute in some way toward these progressive movements. It's a lofty goal but I'm happy to be taking one small step toward it.