Such a rainy day yesterday was. I went to my classes and to Q&A. Tried to help Shiva pack stuff for her flight home. Slept over. I fell asleep, thus making Shiva fall asleep. Woke up early this morning. Well, I woke up a few times to check my watch. For some reason, I was afraid our alarms wouldn't go off and Shiva would miss her flight. Alarm went off at 7h30 and every five minutes after. Finally got up around 7h55. Continued packing and stuff. Rushed. Flight was at 10h10. Tried to finish by 8h30. Then tried to finish by 9h00. Could not. Called Marian L for a ride >_> Shiva got to the airport twenty minutes early. Sad, we could have had more time together ;-;
Afterward, Marian was driving me toward campus. Then to Costco, but it wasn't open yet. So we went to Office Depot (didn't buy anything) and Trader Joe's. Then back to campus. Chilled for a lil bit in her room, talking. Then she kicked me out XD She had to go meet with friends in Milpitas. I called Mother to see if I should take the light rail home. No, instead, I waited at Hoover Hall for her to come pick me up. Took about half an hour.
Bought In N Out for Brother. Mother ran errands. Then finally home and food around 13h30. Texted Shiva to find out if she had gotten home yet. She had been home for a while. She forgot about me ): haha jk, she forgot to call me because she was exploring her new house.
Then I tried to do some homework (That was the plan for today), but I couldn't focus much. I focused enough to print something out XD Then I went to my room to organize some papers. Then started watching "Watchmen." Shiva texted me, and I stopped watching the movie. What I've watched so far... I'm not that impressed <_< It's an interesting movie, but the acting is kinda lacking, I think.
But anyway, I haven't really done much else today. Except eat quite a bit. I'm about to eat now XD
Oh, I'm sad that my Spring Break starts when many other people's end :( But I hope to get out of the house at least once this next week. Otherwise, I'll be a reclusive, good student and get my homework done. And maybe catch up with/stay ahead of my papers and stuff <_<
Hm. Yeah. Ok. My brain feels dead now -_- But I shall finish some assignment tonight!
Friday, March 25, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Midterm Season and Various Other Things
So it's that time of the semester. Yay o_o Shiva and I had a 8-page take-home midterm for Social Change due on Wednesday (She also had another 6-page midterm to write for the same prof but different class). Needless to say, we didn't get that much sleep the night/morning before it was due. Hella stressful, especially for Shiva ): I'm sorry I couldn't make it any easier.
I had my Global Society midterm today. Because of the take-home midterm, I rested for most of Wednesday after class. Didn't get to study much for the next midterm. So sad. When I took it, I couldn't recall information. Or I'd confuse different programs with each other (like SAPs, GATT, and WTO). Friggin' multiple choice stuff. The essay was all right, though I know mixed things up (four ways workers experience alienation in capitalism, according to Marx). Oh well, I tried.
So today has been an interesting day...
Around noon, after SOCI 105 and 104, I followed Shiva to Clark Hall because she had helped an Anthrolopolgy prof set up an LGBTQ speaker panel. Mackenzie L, Crystal N, and Shiva were supposed to be the speakers. I was supposed to just sit in and watch. But Crystal completely forgot about it--she didn't even remember volunteering for it. So I stepped in, nervously. But the panel wasn't that bad. I mean I was probably blushing with nervousness the whole time and had a fast heart rate for the majority of the class time. But I survived. A few silent moments. But the class asked intelligent and varied questions, ranging from polyamory to religion to unisex restrooms. Mackenzie seemed to talk the most. I think Shiva spoke a lot too. I spoke the least XD
But yeah, that was fun. Tomorrow, there's another panel for the same prof. At 10h00. I'm probably going to that one too, but hopefully, just sitting in this time XP Well, maybe.
Anyway, when I was waiting at the light rail stop to go home, I met a guy named Jesus (It's Spanish, just in case you didn't know). I had actually met him last week at the same place, but I didn't talk to him much then. I wasn't much in the mood to talk to him then. Today, I had seen him in the morning walking to campus from the light rail, but I didn't say hi. But when we were both going home, we talked on the light rail about music and random things. Interesting guy. Reminds me of Harrison. A few of his mannerisms and how he speaks are somewhat similar to Harrison's haha. When I first saw him, I thought he was related to Harrison. And you know it's a coincidence that I met him at the light rail stop, whereas I ran into Harrison on the light rail. Similarities haha.
Anyway, Jesus is a freshman, though he's apparently 20 years old. I can't get over how much he reminds me of Harrison. But I'm sure if I keep talking to him at the light rail or wherever, he'll start to seem more different from Harrison :P But yeah, new light rail buddy? Maybe.
Hmm, so... Oh yeah, Jesus' name reminds me that there were "Jesus freaks" standing in front of the light rail stop, shouting at people to follow Jesus Christ. But they left a few minutes after I arrived. Seems they may have been there for a while.
Anyway, that was today. I'm extremely tired, but I want to try to get some things done before I try to go to sleep early. Need to wake up early tomorrow to get to campus.
So, the past ten days have been up and down, I guess. Lots of stress from the midterms. Other stressors too. I can't quite recall what's happened lately. It's scary how fast the weeks are passing by. Already done with Week 8 of the semester.
I feel like my brain is forgetting more and more. But maybe it's because I haven't gotten very good sleep in a while. Staying up too late -nods-
Mm, so yesterday, in Social Change, we watched a documentary about the Civil Rights movement. I forgot what the video was called. But it was a heart-wrenching video. Ended it at King's assassination. Made me really sad.
I followed Shiva to her Sexualities class. We watched another documentary, "Dreamworlds 3: Desire, Sex, & Power in Music Video." Disturbing. Truly disturbing. It makes me glad I don't watch music videos anymore, even though that means I might miss out on really good videos. But yeah, anyway, after the video, Prof Rokni challenged the males in the room to stand up to and educate other men on the issue of objectification of the female body. If you get the chance, I recommend this documentary. It is informative about what's prevalent in pop culture, primarily music, and offers puzzle pieces for you to put together, not just a bunch of facts and theories.
Uhh, I can't remember what else I wanted to say ):
So here are the upcoming events and stuff that I remember:
SJSU Spring Break--officially March 28 to April 1 (really, it's the 25th to the 3rd)
Holi Day (Indian celebration)--April 9
Drag Show--April 14
QACON @ UC Berkeley--April 29 to May 1 (Friday to Sunday)
Gender Bender Dance (lesson?)--TBD
Q&A Panel--TBD
Next week, I've got an SPSS assignment, an annotated bibliography, social change art presentation, and plenty of reading that is due or that I need to do. Fun. Hopefully getting a lot of it done this weekend.
Shiva is gonna be busy for most of tomorrow ): But I'll see her during the panel and during her one-hour break in between meetings and stuff. In the meantime, I'll probably be working on stuff and going to the Superior Court downtown because I need to postpone my jury duty. First time I've ever gotten a summons. So exciting. I wanna do jury duty, just not during the semester. But yeah, need to ask questions about what I should do and stuff. After all that, Harrison is gonna stop by campus to pick us up to go to Ikea for an "Ikea party" as he calls it. Apparently, we're going to cram into his SUV with his other friends. Fun.
Mm, so Shiva's gonna be gone for most of Saturday because she's going to a Kendo tournament in San Mateo. I probably won't be going with her. I wanna work on stuff. I'll see her after she comes back though. Harrison and Michelle W want to go get pizza Saturday night.
Sunday, Mother is going on another tour of Buddhist temples for the whole day (Did I mention the first time she went on the tour a few weeks ago?). So I have a dilemma. I want to stay at Shiva's place, but I also need to be home on Sunday to "guard the house." What shall I do? ):
Mm... Yeah, I think that is all I can muster out of my brain right now. So sad.
I had my Global Society midterm today. Because of the take-home midterm, I rested for most of Wednesday after class. Didn't get to study much for the next midterm. So sad. When I took it, I couldn't recall information. Or I'd confuse different programs with each other (like SAPs, GATT, and WTO). Friggin' multiple choice stuff. The essay was all right, though I know mixed things up (four ways workers experience alienation in capitalism, according to Marx). Oh well, I tried.
So today has been an interesting day...
Around noon, after SOCI 105 and 104, I followed Shiva to Clark Hall because she had helped an Anthrolopolgy prof set up an LGBTQ speaker panel. Mackenzie L, Crystal N, and Shiva were supposed to be the speakers. I was supposed to just sit in and watch. But Crystal completely forgot about it--she didn't even remember volunteering for it. So I stepped in, nervously. But the panel wasn't that bad. I mean I was probably blushing with nervousness the whole time and had a fast heart rate for the majority of the class time. But I survived. A few silent moments. But the class asked intelligent and varied questions, ranging from polyamory to religion to unisex restrooms. Mackenzie seemed to talk the most. I think Shiva spoke a lot too. I spoke the least XD
But yeah, that was fun. Tomorrow, there's another panel for the same prof. At 10h00. I'm probably going to that one too, but hopefully, just sitting in this time XP Well, maybe.
Anyway, when I was waiting at the light rail stop to go home, I met a guy named Jesus (It's Spanish, just in case you didn't know). I had actually met him last week at the same place, but I didn't talk to him much then. I wasn't much in the mood to talk to him then. Today, I had seen him in the morning walking to campus from the light rail, but I didn't say hi. But when we were both going home, we talked on the light rail about music and random things. Interesting guy. Reminds me of Harrison. A few of his mannerisms and how he speaks are somewhat similar to Harrison's haha. When I first saw him, I thought he was related to Harrison. And you know it's a coincidence that I met him at the light rail stop, whereas I ran into Harrison on the light rail. Similarities haha.
Anyway, Jesus is a freshman, though he's apparently 20 years old. I can't get over how much he reminds me of Harrison. But I'm sure if I keep talking to him at the light rail or wherever, he'll start to seem more different from Harrison :P But yeah, new light rail buddy? Maybe.
Hmm, so... Oh yeah, Jesus' name reminds me that there were "Jesus freaks" standing in front of the light rail stop, shouting at people to follow Jesus Christ. But they left a few minutes after I arrived. Seems they may have been there for a while.
Anyway, that was today. I'm extremely tired, but I want to try to get some things done before I try to go to sleep early. Need to wake up early tomorrow to get to campus.
So, the past ten days have been up and down, I guess. Lots of stress from the midterms. Other stressors too. I can't quite recall what's happened lately. It's scary how fast the weeks are passing by. Already done with Week 8 of the semester.
I feel like my brain is forgetting more and more. But maybe it's because I haven't gotten very good sleep in a while. Staying up too late -nods-
Mm, so yesterday, in Social Change, we watched a documentary about the Civil Rights movement. I forgot what the video was called. But it was a heart-wrenching video. Ended it at King's assassination. Made me really sad.
I followed Shiva to her Sexualities class. We watched another documentary, "Dreamworlds 3: Desire, Sex, & Power in Music Video." Disturbing. Truly disturbing. It makes me glad I don't watch music videos anymore, even though that means I might miss out on really good videos. But yeah, anyway, after the video, Prof Rokni challenged the males in the room to stand up to and educate other men on the issue of objectification of the female body. If you get the chance, I recommend this documentary. It is informative about what's prevalent in pop culture, primarily music, and offers puzzle pieces for you to put together, not just a bunch of facts and theories.
Uhh, I can't remember what else I wanted to say ):
So here are the upcoming events and stuff that I remember:
SJSU Spring Break--officially March 28 to April 1 (really, it's the 25th to the 3rd)
Holi Day (Indian celebration)--April 9
Drag Show--April 14
QACON @ UC Berkeley--April 29 to May 1 (Friday to Sunday)
Gender Bender Dance (lesson?)--TBD
Q&A Panel--TBD
Next week, I've got an SPSS assignment, an annotated bibliography, social change art presentation, and plenty of reading that is due or that I need to do. Fun. Hopefully getting a lot of it done this weekend.
Shiva is gonna be busy for most of tomorrow ): But I'll see her during the panel and during her one-hour break in between meetings and stuff. In the meantime, I'll probably be working on stuff and going to the Superior Court downtown because I need to postpone my jury duty. First time I've ever gotten a summons. So exciting. I wanna do jury duty, just not during the semester. But yeah, need to ask questions about what I should do and stuff. After all that, Harrison is gonna stop by campus to pick us up to go to Ikea for an "Ikea party" as he calls it. Apparently, we're going to cram into his SUV with his other friends. Fun.
Mm, so Shiva's gonna be gone for most of Saturday because she's going to a Kendo tournament in San Mateo. I probably won't be going with her. I wanna work on stuff. I'll see her after she comes back though. Harrison and Michelle W want to go get pizza Saturday night.
Sunday, Mother is going on another tour of Buddhist temples for the whole day (Did I mention the first time she went on the tour a few weeks ago?). So I have a dilemma. I want to stay at Shiva's place, but I also need to be home on Sunday to "guard the house." What shall I do? ):
Mm... Yeah, I think that is all I can muster out of my brain right now. So sad.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Western Regional Conference
The conference was a disappointment ):
The theme was "Unchecked Boxes: The Faces Behind the Labels." It sounded interesting, the workshop names sounded cool, and I had heard positive reviews of the conference from years past. However, I didn't really learn anything new, and I didn't have much opportunity to interact with people in the workshops I attended.
So on Friday, I went to SJSU campus. A while after 17h00, Ton drove Shiva, Theresa S, Nikole(?), and me to Berkeley. Traffic on 101 and 880 -_- Got to Berkeley around 19h00. Registered in the MLK Student Union, got a yellow bag (included a pen, conference evaluations, program, an ad for QACON, and a T-shirt). Found out that Shiva and I were to room with Thien V and Steven P, who was planning on having people in our room for night-time fun/partying in 307. Not happy. Went to the opening keynote speech stuff. Did not pay attention much because I was sick (for the whole weekend too, and I had gotten Shiva sick too, sorry!).
Dinner with Shiva, Ton, Paul W (Shiva's friend), Jason, Diana, Alex L, Michelle P, and Cathy B at the so-called "Asian Ghetto." Shiva and I split a Tom Kha from the Thai food place. We and a few others bought food from the Thai place and brought it over to the Italian place to eat with the other half of the group.
Then time to go to La Quinta Inn to check into our rooms. Shiva and I had asked to room with another group of people because we wanted undisturbed sleep. Stayed with Crystal, Karishma, Cathy, and Michelle in 224. Six people, two beds. Still a comfy fit. Shiva and I slept sometime around midnight or 1 (I don't remember).
Saturday morning was an early start. Alarms went off at 7h00. Continental breakfast. Michelle drove us and Cathy to the conference. Initially, we were going to take the bus ($2 one-way), but we realized it would be slightly cheaper to drive and park. When we got to the Berkeley campus, we all went to the opening ceremony. Again, did not pay enough attention (though, the speeches didn't motivate me much anyway when I did listen closely). Too sniffly and coughy. I brought my bandanna to tie around my face so that I wouldn't be coughing all over the place and all over people. I felt like a wannabe gangster XD But the bandanna was useful. It helped me breathe easily at times.
So Shiva and I went to all the same workshops because we were interested in pretty much the same ones: how to raise a gender-neutral child; comparative fluidity of sexuality and ethnicity; transitioning from academia to the workplace--coming/being out in the workplace; and media portrayal of homosexuality. The actual workshop names were generally in the same ballpark as these descriptions.
One of the workshops that Shiva and I both wanted to go to was for Queer and Asian people, but it was canceled at the beginning of the conference ):
So you know, when I hear the word "workshop," I usually think of a group of people learning new tricks, methods and/or ideas to apply to their work or life. However, none of the workshops I went to did this. The facilitators (mostly other college students) did not teach anything new. They would say one or two things and then let the audience say opinions. The facilitators didn't even really comment much on the opinions. So I couldn't really connect what many people were saying with what the purpose of workshop was supposed to be. Also, there were tangents and secants. I found myself listening to the stories and opinions, agreeing and disagreeing but not really connecting to the comments. I don't know how to explain it.
Oh, when Shiva and I went to the fourth workshop, we left after a few minutes. Shiva asked one of the facilitators about the workshop, and they said that the actual workshop did not fit the description that was in the program. So disappointed. It was supposed to be about how the media perpetuates homophobia and negative images about the queer community. Instead, the workshop was to let people create "ally maps," a map of your support system. Nothing to do with media apparently... So yeah, we left. Went back to the MLK building, up to the fourth floor; Shiva and I laid on the ground to rest because my tummy had been hurting since a little while after lunch. I'm sure people were wondering why there were two people lying on the ground haha...
Afterward, at 16h30, it was Storytime. Meeting in supposedly large groups of people according to first name groups. I stayed with Shiva because I didn't feel like searching for the place I should have gone to for Storytime.
Storytime itself with Shiva's group was a bit mundane. The two facilitators, Eric and Sol(?), didn't really do much to keep the group going. Nor did most other people, definitely including myself haha. Long stretches of silence with the facilitators asking, "Would anyone like to share a story?" When someone did share a story, Eric would just say, "Thank you for sharing. Would anyone else like to share?" It was like he was stuck on repeat. He shared one short story of his own. A few people shared twice. About half the group didn't share anything. Shiva shared our story about the guy who yelled "NOOO!" at us when we kissed. But anyway, eventually, Shiva and I left early after an extremely long silence.
We had been hoping that Storytime would make up for the workshops, but it didn't. Instead, it provided stories that mostly meant nothing or stupidity. Very few were actually entertaining or meant something important. The one story I can remember that I liked was from the girl who went to Viet Nam to study and work with the deaf community in Hanoi. Her story was awesome hahaha XD
Mm, so the "free" lunch that came after the second session was meh. I got a vegetarian sandwich (a chunk of avocado and a bunch of sprouts on ciabatta bread), macaroni salad (couldn't eat it; made me feel sick after a few bites), fruit chunks (watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, and pineapple--decent), and a cookie (tastiest part of the whole meal).
Dinner was troublesome. Miscommunication, delays, and such. Shiva, Paul, Ton, Michelle, three WRC people (Terra, Matt, and a girl whose name I don't remember), and I went to an Indian restaurant (called Naan... something...). Paul didn't want to go there and wanted to check other places, but the group went there anyway. He wasn't happy because (later he told me) he was telling everyone that that particular restaurant sucked--the food wasn't that great, the service was bad, and he had seen the workers spit in people's food before. Ultimately, Paul paid for the buffet and didn't eat because he was upset (he wasn't just upset about the food situation though, just so you know).
After dinner, Paul left abruptly but came back immediately. Ton left to go back to the hotel. While Shiva and Michelle went to Michelle's car, I went with Paul to Blondie's so he could eat pizza. Talked with him. Matt and Terra joined us. Talked about the conference and workshops. Generally not too impressed.
Afterward, Paul and I went to go meet up with Shiva and Michelle on campus. Paul was going to leave but didn't. Hung out, walked around looking for restrooms. MLK and surrounding buildings were all closed. MLK was closed in preparation for the dance. So the four of us walked to Dwinelle to find a restroom. Something was going on there, so the women's restroom had a line. Ooh, the restrooms had signs that said the restrooms were to be gender-neutral for the weekend because of the conference. Except women still went into the women's and men still went into the men's. Sad haha. Michelle and Paul left to go to the MLK. Shiva and I went up to the third floor to use the restroom. Empty and open. Woohoo! Old school restroom, so spacious. Reminded me of a dormitory restroom.
Met up with Michelle and Paul again at MLK. Were about to go in to the dance. Except I read a sign posted outside that said "NO (something), NO WEAPONS, NO BOTTLES." I realized that both Shiva and I were carrying our knives XD I pointed it out. Whew. Would have been so bad to go through the metal detector with all the cops standing right there. Though the knives are legal, they probably would have kicked us out and not let us in. So we all went back to Michelle's car to put away the knives.
Sat near the entrance to the parking garage for a while to talk. Learned a little bit about the romantic(?) pasts of Shiva, Paul, and Michelle. The sky was lightly sprinkling. We walked back to the MLK. Got inside. There was a drag show going on. I find it sad that though I've seen drag kings and queens in person already (at QTIP's drag show last year), I'm still kinda uncomfortable seeing them now. I dunno why I am, but yeah. It could be all the make-up that they put on that scares me. That could possibly be it--excessive make-up on anyone would scare me.
Anyway, the dance itself started sometime before 23h00, which was sad because the dance was supposed to end at midnight. But I wasn't really into the dancing. I tried to get into it, but I just wasn't feeling it. I really had wanted to just go back to the hotel and sleep. Or just sit somewhere and not be around so many people. But I stayed at the dance. Interesting dance moves that people do nowadays. It seemed that there is a new stomping kinda dance craze for some songs. I don't know. A lot of people seemed to be doing the same thing, so that's my assumption. Mm, so when Shiva was finally really getting into the dancing and the music, the dance ended XP Sad. They should have started the dance earlier or made it last longer.
So, back to the car. In the pouring rain. Back to the hotel. Late-night leftover Tom Kha dinner with Shiva, so that we could take Tylenol Cold. Ton came into our room with the other four girls to talk and eventually to sleep on the floor because his roommates, as well as floormates, were too loud.
Btw, Shiva and I are, or at least I am, surprised. So at 2 in the morning, we were out of our room looking for a recycling bin. Couldn't find one, so went back to our room. I ran up the stairs, and Shiva chased me XD As we were running back to the room, a guy who worked at the hotel yelled at us because there were people trying to sleep and we were making too much noise. So we walked. Later in the morning when we woke up, we found out that the third floor people were chatting and partying it up all night and morning without any complaints -_- Grr.
Anyway, Sunday morning. Were supposed to wake up around 7h45. Got up around 8h15. Got ready and packed some stuff. Had another continental breakfast. Back to the room to pack the rest of our stuff. Shiva and I brought our stuff out to Ton's car. Theresa and Nikole weren't riding with us back to SJ. Ton drove us to the conference. We were late. Did not want to be late for the fifth workshop because Shiva had been told that the "Fuck the Media: I Love My Queer Body" workshop would be a good one. One of the conference organizers had said so; he had also told her that we had went to all the bad workshops or something. So yeah, we rushed to get to this workshop.
The three of us were twenty minutes late, I think. Was hopeful that we didn't miss anything important. We didn't. But we didn't really experience anything different from the other workshops we had been to. Three facilitators choosing audience members to speak up about body image. Only heard one person specifically mention anything about queer image. But quickly the comments turned back to just body image in general.
So the three of us left about twenty minutes before the end of the workshop. Felt rude, but we didn't feel like subjecting ourselves to redundancy (dunno if that's the right word to use). Lost Ton for a while. Went searching for him. Couldn't reach him by phone. So I told Shiva to go to another workshop that she had wanted to check out, which was about talking about gay marriage in South Asian cultures. I found Ton, who had to go back to the workshop because he dropped the parking garage ticket somewhere. While I waited for him, Shiva called me and told me that the other workshop had been canceled at the last minute ):
So the three of us decided to just go home. Except we had a few bouts of panic before leaving Berkeley. Shiva couldn't find her camera, yellow WRC bag, and later her iPod. Found all of them. Camera was hidden very well in her messenger bag; yellow bag was taken by Michelle by accident; and iPod had been placed in my backpack (I didn't put it there!). Ton then couldn't find his cell phone. Rushed back to the inn and checked the room. Found his cell phone and a cookie XD
Then we were out of Berkeley. Sadly, we didn't get to go to the marina. But we did see the bay for a bit along the freeway. Now, Shiva wants to go to the beach again :P
Little traffic. Got back to SJSU within an hour. So fast...
So I feel like the workshops could have been so much better if the facilitators had been trained beforehand, so that they could better direct the workshops. You know, instead of saying a thing or two and letting the audience speak. While it is good that we are learning something from our neighbors in the audience, the facilitator should add in more insight, knowledge, and advice. Do something to engage the unengaged. Tell us something that we don't already know (Shiva and I felt like we had already learned in school everything that was spoken). Have extra facilitators on standby to take over if the main ones can't make it, so that workshops won't get canceled so easily. And since the workshops were mostly full of attendees speaking, they should all be called "caucuses" instead, like the Femme Caucus and the Masculine Caucus (I kinda wish I had attended the Femme one because Mackenzie L, Mallory V, and Theresa S were facilitating that one, I think, and attendees spoke highly of it).
I dunno. Maybe I'm being too negative or critical, or I was too sick to enjoy the conference. But I was greatly disappointed. It also felt like everything was crammed into the days, so that there was no time to really kick back and talk to a lot of people.
But anyway, that is the gist of the weekend I had. Not completely satisfying, but the group of friends with which Shiva and I shared a room made the weekend bearable and fun. Good conversations that helped pick things up a little.
Oh, btw, BMUN was this weekend as well. Saw high school students in suits and formal wear. Brought back some memories. Mostly of BMUN training haha. But yeah, I was hoping to run into Madame or Phipps somewhere, but I wasn't free for much of the days to run into anyone sadly.
That's all I can recall at this moment. So good night. I'll add more if I remember anything else. Hopefully something pleasant.
Oh oh, wait, I never updated about Queer Prom. It was great! I mean, Shiva and I showed up late to the setup. But the dance turned out pretty well. The ballroom was so big that it looked like there weren't that many people there. But it turned out that almost as many people showed up this year as last year. So that's good. DJ played amazing music (Kaskade and Deadmau5!). Photographer (friend, Phil) did an amazing job. Most attendees seemed to be pleased with him. His shots were pretty good too. It was also great to see friends dancing. Amy, Lisa, Stephanie, and Christine came. So did Harrison and Marian L. Fun to watch them dance. There was a massive conga line. Just a bunch of good stuff. Some bad stuff happened, but I didn't find out till a few days later though. Some guy was drunk and passed out in the men's room. Also, the maturity level of a few people could have been higher. But anyway, yeah, that's it.
Ok, sleep time haha.
The theme was "Unchecked Boxes: The Faces Behind the Labels." It sounded interesting, the workshop names sounded cool, and I had heard positive reviews of the conference from years past. However, I didn't really learn anything new, and I didn't have much opportunity to interact with people in the workshops I attended.
So on Friday, I went to SJSU campus. A while after 17h00, Ton drove Shiva, Theresa S, Nikole(?), and me to Berkeley. Traffic on 101 and 880 -_- Got to Berkeley around 19h00. Registered in the MLK Student Union, got a yellow bag (included a pen, conference evaluations, program, an ad for QACON, and a T-shirt). Found out that Shiva and I were to room with Thien V and Steven P, who was planning on having people in our room for night-time fun/partying in 307. Not happy. Went to the opening keynote speech stuff. Did not pay attention much because I was sick (for the whole weekend too, and I had gotten Shiva sick too, sorry!).
Dinner with Shiva, Ton, Paul W (Shiva's friend), Jason, Diana, Alex L, Michelle P, and Cathy B at the so-called "Asian Ghetto." Shiva and I split a Tom Kha from the Thai food place. We and a few others bought food from the Thai place and brought it over to the Italian place to eat with the other half of the group.
Then time to go to La Quinta Inn to check into our rooms. Shiva and I had asked to room with another group of people because we wanted undisturbed sleep. Stayed with Crystal, Karishma, Cathy, and Michelle in 224. Six people, two beds. Still a comfy fit. Shiva and I slept sometime around midnight or 1 (I don't remember).
Saturday morning was an early start. Alarms went off at 7h00. Continental breakfast. Michelle drove us and Cathy to the conference. Initially, we were going to take the bus ($2 one-way), but we realized it would be slightly cheaper to drive and park. When we got to the Berkeley campus, we all went to the opening ceremony. Again, did not pay enough attention (though, the speeches didn't motivate me much anyway when I did listen closely). Too sniffly and coughy. I brought my bandanna to tie around my face so that I wouldn't be coughing all over the place and all over people. I felt like a wannabe gangster XD But the bandanna was useful. It helped me breathe easily at times.
So Shiva and I went to all the same workshops because we were interested in pretty much the same ones: how to raise a gender-neutral child; comparative fluidity of sexuality and ethnicity; transitioning from academia to the workplace--coming/being out in the workplace; and media portrayal of homosexuality. The actual workshop names were generally in the same ballpark as these descriptions.
One of the workshops that Shiva and I both wanted to go to was for Queer and Asian people, but it was canceled at the beginning of the conference ):
So you know, when I hear the word "workshop," I usually think of a group of people learning new tricks, methods and/or ideas to apply to their work or life. However, none of the workshops I went to did this. The facilitators (mostly other college students) did not teach anything new. They would say one or two things and then let the audience say opinions. The facilitators didn't even really comment much on the opinions. So I couldn't really connect what many people were saying with what the purpose of workshop was supposed to be. Also, there were tangents and secants. I found myself listening to the stories and opinions, agreeing and disagreeing but not really connecting to the comments. I don't know how to explain it.
Oh, when Shiva and I went to the fourth workshop, we left after a few minutes. Shiva asked one of the facilitators about the workshop, and they said that the actual workshop did not fit the description that was in the program. So disappointed. It was supposed to be about how the media perpetuates homophobia and negative images about the queer community. Instead, the workshop was to let people create "ally maps," a map of your support system. Nothing to do with media apparently... So yeah, we left. Went back to the MLK building, up to the fourth floor; Shiva and I laid on the ground to rest because my tummy had been hurting since a little while after lunch. I'm sure people were wondering why there were two people lying on the ground haha...
Afterward, at 16h30, it was Storytime. Meeting in supposedly large groups of people according to first name groups. I stayed with Shiva because I didn't feel like searching for the place I should have gone to for Storytime.
Storytime itself with Shiva's group was a bit mundane. The two facilitators, Eric and Sol(?), didn't really do much to keep the group going. Nor did most other people, definitely including myself haha. Long stretches of silence with the facilitators asking, "Would anyone like to share a story?" When someone did share a story, Eric would just say, "Thank you for sharing. Would anyone else like to share?" It was like he was stuck on repeat. He shared one short story of his own. A few people shared twice. About half the group didn't share anything. Shiva shared our story about the guy who yelled "NOOO!" at us when we kissed. But anyway, eventually, Shiva and I left early after an extremely long silence.
We had been hoping that Storytime would make up for the workshops, but it didn't. Instead, it provided stories that mostly meant nothing or stupidity. Very few were actually entertaining or meant something important. The one story I can remember that I liked was from the girl who went to Viet Nam to study and work with the deaf community in Hanoi. Her story was awesome hahaha XD
Mm, so the "free" lunch that came after the second session was meh. I got a vegetarian sandwich (a chunk of avocado and a bunch of sprouts on ciabatta bread), macaroni salad (couldn't eat it; made me feel sick after a few bites), fruit chunks (watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, and pineapple--decent), and a cookie (tastiest part of the whole meal).
Dinner was troublesome. Miscommunication, delays, and such. Shiva, Paul, Ton, Michelle, three WRC people (Terra, Matt, and a girl whose name I don't remember), and I went to an Indian restaurant (called Naan... something...). Paul didn't want to go there and wanted to check other places, but the group went there anyway. He wasn't happy because (later he told me) he was telling everyone that that particular restaurant sucked--the food wasn't that great, the service was bad, and he had seen the workers spit in people's food before. Ultimately, Paul paid for the buffet and didn't eat because he was upset (he wasn't just upset about the food situation though, just so you know).
After dinner, Paul left abruptly but came back immediately. Ton left to go back to the hotel. While Shiva and Michelle went to Michelle's car, I went with Paul to Blondie's so he could eat pizza. Talked with him. Matt and Terra joined us. Talked about the conference and workshops. Generally not too impressed.
Afterward, Paul and I went to go meet up with Shiva and Michelle on campus. Paul was going to leave but didn't. Hung out, walked around looking for restrooms. MLK and surrounding buildings were all closed. MLK was closed in preparation for the dance. So the four of us walked to Dwinelle to find a restroom. Something was going on there, so the women's restroom had a line. Ooh, the restrooms had signs that said the restrooms were to be gender-neutral for the weekend because of the conference. Except women still went into the women's and men still went into the men's. Sad haha. Michelle and Paul left to go to the MLK. Shiva and I went up to the third floor to use the restroom. Empty and open. Woohoo! Old school restroom, so spacious. Reminded me of a dormitory restroom.
Met up with Michelle and Paul again at MLK. Were about to go in to the dance. Except I read a sign posted outside that said "NO (something), NO WEAPONS, NO BOTTLES." I realized that both Shiva and I were carrying our knives XD I pointed it out. Whew. Would have been so bad to go through the metal detector with all the cops standing right there. Though the knives are legal, they probably would have kicked us out and not let us in. So we all went back to Michelle's car to put away the knives.
Sat near the entrance to the parking garage for a while to talk. Learned a little bit about the romantic(?) pasts of Shiva, Paul, and Michelle. The sky was lightly sprinkling. We walked back to the MLK. Got inside. There was a drag show going on. I find it sad that though I've seen drag kings and queens in person already (at QTIP's drag show last year), I'm still kinda uncomfortable seeing them now. I dunno why I am, but yeah. It could be all the make-up that they put on that scares me. That could possibly be it--excessive make-up on anyone would scare me.
Anyway, the dance itself started sometime before 23h00, which was sad because the dance was supposed to end at midnight. But I wasn't really into the dancing. I tried to get into it, but I just wasn't feeling it. I really had wanted to just go back to the hotel and sleep. Or just sit somewhere and not be around so many people. But I stayed at the dance. Interesting dance moves that people do nowadays. It seemed that there is a new stomping kinda dance craze for some songs. I don't know. A lot of people seemed to be doing the same thing, so that's my assumption. Mm, so when Shiva was finally really getting into the dancing and the music, the dance ended XP Sad. They should have started the dance earlier or made it last longer.
So, back to the car. In the pouring rain. Back to the hotel. Late-night leftover Tom Kha dinner with Shiva, so that we could take Tylenol Cold. Ton came into our room with the other four girls to talk and eventually to sleep on the floor because his roommates, as well as floormates, were too loud.
Btw, Shiva and I are, or at least I am, surprised. So at 2 in the morning, we were out of our room looking for a recycling bin. Couldn't find one, so went back to our room. I ran up the stairs, and Shiva chased me XD As we were running back to the room, a guy who worked at the hotel yelled at us because there were people trying to sleep and we were making too much noise. So we walked. Later in the morning when we woke up, we found out that the third floor people were chatting and partying it up all night and morning without any complaints -_- Grr.
Anyway, Sunday morning. Were supposed to wake up around 7h45. Got up around 8h15. Got ready and packed some stuff. Had another continental breakfast. Back to the room to pack the rest of our stuff. Shiva and I brought our stuff out to Ton's car. Theresa and Nikole weren't riding with us back to SJ. Ton drove us to the conference. We were late. Did not want to be late for the fifth workshop because Shiva had been told that the "Fuck the Media: I Love My Queer Body" workshop would be a good one. One of the conference organizers had said so; he had also told her that we had went to all the bad workshops or something. So yeah, we rushed to get to this workshop.
The three of us were twenty minutes late, I think. Was hopeful that we didn't miss anything important. We didn't. But we didn't really experience anything different from the other workshops we had been to. Three facilitators choosing audience members to speak up about body image. Only heard one person specifically mention anything about queer image. But quickly the comments turned back to just body image in general.
So the three of us left about twenty minutes before the end of the workshop. Felt rude, but we didn't feel like subjecting ourselves to redundancy (dunno if that's the right word to use). Lost Ton for a while. Went searching for him. Couldn't reach him by phone. So I told Shiva to go to another workshop that she had wanted to check out, which was about talking about gay marriage in South Asian cultures. I found Ton, who had to go back to the workshop because he dropped the parking garage ticket somewhere. While I waited for him, Shiva called me and told me that the other workshop had been canceled at the last minute ):
So the three of us decided to just go home. Except we had a few bouts of panic before leaving Berkeley. Shiva couldn't find her camera, yellow WRC bag, and later her iPod. Found all of them. Camera was hidden very well in her messenger bag; yellow bag was taken by Michelle by accident; and iPod had been placed in my backpack (I didn't put it there!). Ton then couldn't find his cell phone. Rushed back to the inn and checked the room. Found his cell phone and a cookie XD
Then we were out of Berkeley. Sadly, we didn't get to go to the marina. But we did see the bay for a bit along the freeway. Now, Shiva wants to go to the beach again :P
Little traffic. Got back to SJSU within an hour. So fast...
So I feel like the workshops could have been so much better if the facilitators had been trained beforehand, so that they could better direct the workshops. You know, instead of saying a thing or two and letting the audience speak. While it is good that we are learning something from our neighbors in the audience, the facilitator should add in more insight, knowledge, and advice. Do something to engage the unengaged. Tell us something that we don't already know (Shiva and I felt like we had already learned in school everything that was spoken). Have extra facilitators on standby to take over if the main ones can't make it, so that workshops won't get canceled so easily. And since the workshops were mostly full of attendees speaking, they should all be called "caucuses" instead, like the Femme Caucus and the Masculine Caucus (I kinda wish I had attended the Femme one because Mackenzie L, Mallory V, and Theresa S were facilitating that one, I think, and attendees spoke highly of it).
I dunno. Maybe I'm being too negative or critical, or I was too sick to enjoy the conference. But I was greatly disappointed. It also felt like everything was crammed into the days, so that there was no time to really kick back and talk to a lot of people.
But anyway, that is the gist of the weekend I had. Not completely satisfying, but the group of friends with which Shiva and I shared a room made the weekend bearable and fun. Good conversations that helped pick things up a little.
Oh, btw, BMUN was this weekend as well. Saw high school students in suits and formal wear. Brought back some memories. Mostly of BMUN training haha. But yeah, I was hoping to run into Madame or Phipps somewhere, but I wasn't free for much of the days to run into anyone sadly.
That's all I can recall at this moment. So good night. I'll add more if I remember anything else. Hopefully something pleasant.
Oh oh, wait, I never updated about Queer Prom. It was great! I mean, Shiva and I showed up late to the setup. But the dance turned out pretty well. The ballroom was so big that it looked like there weren't that many people there. But it turned out that almost as many people showed up this year as last year. So that's good. DJ played amazing music (Kaskade and Deadmau5!). Photographer (friend, Phil) did an amazing job. Most attendees seemed to be pleased with him. His shots were pretty good too. It was also great to see friends dancing. Amy, Lisa, Stephanie, and Christine came. So did Harrison and Marian L. Fun to watch them dance. There was a massive conga line. Just a bunch of good stuff. Some bad stuff happened, but I didn't find out till a few days later though. Some guy was drunk and passed out in the men's room. Also, the maturity level of a few people could have been higher. But anyway, yeah, that's it.
Ok, sleep time haha.
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