Zaki Blog

Lost's 100th Episode

2009-04-30T09:00:00.002-05:00

I think that the lostpedia blog is really funny. It starts by saying that "For some people, this is Obama's 100th day in office, but for Lost fans, it is a momentous 100th episode of Lost". WARNING: A spoiler of this episode's ending!

Daniel Farraday is one of the most interesting characters on Lost. I think even on TV he has a certain geeky personality that morphs his moral standing at times. We find out that he has Lost his memory, but gets it back because anyone who goes to the island becomes healed. His knowledge of time travel is the most interesting thing about him, but like all Lost characters the question is not WHO is he, but WHY is he on the island?

With his death in this episode, there are only a few reasons that I think he needed to be there.

1. To tell Desmond to go back
2. To tell Pier Chang about the incident
3. To influence who Whitmore and Eloise Hawking become

And suddenly understanding the reason for him on the island and his death becomes clear. Something will happen to Pier Change because of this. Something will happen to Charles and Eloise because of this. And Desmond is somehow still tied.

But what a tragic way to die. You're mother tells you who to become and your father gives you money, knowing the entire time that you will only end up time traveling to the past and getting killed by your mother. There are still many things I wish to know about Daniel (making him the new Libby), but that's okay because I think his death in this 100th episode was very well made.

The Crazy Month of May

2009-04-27T23:17:00.007-05:00

Hey I thought this would be cool to do. These are my plans for the crazy month of May. As these things happen, I'll blog about them! That way I can keep life posts and opinion posts separate. Woo hoo! Here's some notes. 1.) I graduate 4 times and am going on 3 roadtrips 2.) James Morrison is my favorite Artist and 3.) I can not believe that I am graduating and that Elena is getting married!

May 1 Lavender Graduation
Lavender Graduation is a special graduation for LGBTQA students who acknowledge their academic careers as well as their identities and struggles (Q=Questioning; A=Allies who are straight). This goes down as one of the best days of my life because it is a milestone. I was talking to a friend about how hard it was for me to be public about anything 3 years ago, but I have come so far. The banquet was awesome; we did not get home until 7am, which I have not done since I have been in Japan.

May 3 JACL Scholarship Luncheon
My sister got a scholarship from the Japanese American Citizens League. There was about 10 people awarded and I coincidentally knew 4 of them.

May 5 James Morrison Concert in Indianapolis
After a 4 hour drive from Chicago to Inianapolis, we got to the bouncer at Vogue Theater only to find out that it was a 21+ show and Hongjoo didn't have avalid ID. This was the worst thing ever as it was our favorite artist. We went back to the car and dug through the baggage. We found her Japanese Foriegner's Card ID. We brought it back in hopes that the bouncer would let us in even though it was all in Japanese. Long story short, a beer and a taquila sunrise later, we were listening to James Morrison LIVE! This was one of the best days of my life!

May 6 Econ Final and Honors College Graduation
My Econ final would have been better if I didn't go to a concert the night before. We'll see how this one unfolds haha. As for Honors College Graduation, it was a very nice, small, and intimate ceremony were our Speakers were great (Anita Alvarez!) and everyone could be proud that we graduated with Honors and a collective sense of being future leaders of the world. What's more, my granparents, parents, aunt, and Tita came so it was as if I was an only child- it felt great to have my one day!

May 7 Last Community Leadership Program (CLP) Session
I missed it :/

May 8 The Last Day of Class
On May 7 I took an all-nighter to finish my Senior Thesis. I also had to put together my comic book. So on May 8, tired from working on my project all night, and turning it in 4 hours late, I submitted my thesis in hopes of getting an A and receiving highest distinction. But I wasn't done yet. I went to the computer Lab and printed out my comic book. It turned out really well even though I turned it in 5 hours late. I walked to the train station as I always do when I leave school, but this time it felt different. It felt like the end of a a long Chapter of my life. It was a great feeling mixed with a sense of bein lost. I was no longer a student in school after 18 years, I wasn't sure where I would go next. But I was done.

My Courses:
English 109: City of Heroes
Economics 121: I got an A!
Sociology 490: "Straight-Acting" Gay Boys: A Study of Masculinity in the Childhood of Gay Men
Sociology 499: A Historical Analysis of Patient Navigators

I could get straight As!

May 10 Graduation!
Today I graduated. This goes down as one of the best days of my life. I'm glad to see some of my struggling friends have made it, I'm laughing that we couldn't shake hands because of the H1N1 outbreak so we fist pounded the Dean, and I look forward to what lies ahead.

May 14 CLP Graduation
May 21-25 Elena's Wedding at Annapolis
May 27-31 Roadtrip to Toranto

Sawyer to LaFleur

2009-04-27T20:17:00.003-05:00

There are only 4 more episodes of Lost until the finale of Season 5 and I think that I've settled on my favorite character. It was a hard choice because Hurley and Desmond have the moral soundness, Juliet is a miracle worker, Sayid kicks butt, and Ben is the best character on television. But I have settled on Sawyer because of what he said about Winston Churchill.

Sawyer used to be a selfish man who would keep resources on The Island for himself, but now that it's been three years, he has not only changed his nickname to LaFleur, but has become a strategist.

Jack: So where do we go from here?
Sawyer: I'm working on it.
Jack: Really? Because it looked to me like you were reading a book.[Sawyer smiles]
Sawyer: I heard once Winston Churchill read a book every night, even during the Blitz. He said it made him think better. It's how I like to run things. I think. I'm sure that doesn't mean that much to you, 'cause back when you were calling the shots, you pretty much just reacted. See, you didn't think, Jack, and as I recall, a lot of people ended up dead.

Jack: I got us off the island.
Sawyer: But here you are... Right back where you started. So I'm gonna go back to reading my book, and I'm gonna think 'cause that's how I saved your ass today. And that's how I'm gonna save Sayid's tomorrow. All you gotta do is go home, get a good night's rest. I do what I do[He leads Jack to the door and opens it]

Sawyer: Now ain't that a relief?
Jack: Yeah.

And it has always been these kind of characters that intrigue me. The ones who are can pack a punch, but store their physical strength for a time when their intelligence enhances it. I love characters who can execute a successful plan, improvise when necessary, and not reveal their plan until a climactic moment. This makes Sawyer dynamic, more interesting, and more attractive. He has become my favorite character. [And even though I don't like her, I hope he chooses Kate]

Marginalized Childhoods and Comic Book Writers: What is the Connection?

2009-04-23T15:53:00.004-05:00

I wrote a paper for my English 109 course, Graphic Novels, with the above title. I worked on it during Spring Break and submitted it early. Imagine. A student submitting something early is nearly unhead of! I put a lot of work into this and loved the outcome. Here's my thesis:

"The ideal childhood is one of caring parents, innocents, and fun, but not all children experience this ideology. Children do not have the power needed to improve their conditions because they are young dependents. Comics, a medium sometimes thought of as childish, often have child characters struggling to better their lives. This essay uses four graphic novels from different genres in order to examine how the ideology of childhood is not always true. I argue that children, who normally have little power to change their lives, and the authors who write about them become empowered by the literary, artistic, and sometimes fictional tools that graphic novels enable. "

The four books I used were:

Barry, Lynda. What It Is. Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly, 2008.
Bechdel, Allison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. New York: Mariner Books, 2006.
McGruder, Aaron. The Boondocks: All The Rage. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007.
Moore, Allan. Watchmen. New York: DC Comics, 1986.

The reason I'm blogging about this is because my professors gave a comment and it really made me happy. I also applied a lot of sociological theory to my paper but did it in lay terms. This means the last 4 years of my life weren't meaningless as I have proof that I'm good at analyzing the world. Now all that's left is to save it!

"Excellent work Philip - you could definitely make this longer and use it for a writing sample for graduate studies"

Navigating Through Cancer

2009-04-19T22:33:00.003-05:00

- If you're black and have cancer, you're more likely to die than if you were any other race
- More white women have breast cancer, and yet, black women still die more often of it
-Latinos have the highest instance of cervical cancer, and yet, blacks still die more
- There is more prostate cancer instances and deaths in blacks by a lot, like almost twice as likely to die
- Asians have the lowest instance of cancer, but this is different for each group (Pinoys have greater risk of prostate cancer, )

The reason why there are such gaps in healthcare has a lot to do with access. There's a lot of way in which the healthcare system doesn't allow black people to get healthcare. One is that most black people are poor and have no insurance. Also, there is no cure to cancer so you can either A) Engage in low risk behaviors to NOT get it or B) Get it detected early before it spreads and get proper and timely care. The problem is that many groups, especially racial minorities, urban poor, and isolated country folk, can't do B because they don't speak english or they don't know where to go or they don't trust "white people medicine". Hence, there are PATIENT NAVIGATORS.

Like it sounds, the medical system has a new form of healthcare where workers will navigate these groups through the healthcare maze. These workers both 1) Understand the system and 2) Understand the culture of people they serve so that they understand both sides of the reasons why these people aren't getting care.

Some examples:

-2 patient navigators reduced the no-show rate for colonoscopies from 67% to unly 5% in the Bronx
- Spanish speaking navigators got a 100% show up rate to mamographies (breast cancer screenings)

Expect to hear more about Patient Navigators as research is being conducted and programs keep getting funded. This is a big thing that will change healthcare forever to grant access to groups once excluded.

(Now I must write a 30 page paper on Patient Navs)

All Nighter

2009-04-13T22:46:00.002-05:00

I'm going to go to UIC to take an all-nighter. This is kind of an adventure because I don't know where I'm going to go, I just need to find a place to sit and do homework for hours. Researching anything on Cancer is not my thing!

But it's ok because I have Jason Mraz and James Morrison to save me! (And some Econ homework if I get the chance to do it!)

A Life Update

2009-04-07T03:36:00.004-05:00

Current Mood: Senioritusy
Music: Life is Wonderful by Jason Mraz
Life Force(s): Lost (ABC), Senior Thesis writinh, and the mysteries of Love

I Hate Nite Owl

2009-03-24T23:23:00.003-05:00

This has been bugging me for a month and resurfices as I am writing a paper on Graphic Novels.

A lot of people don't like Watchmen for one reason or another. Either because the only girl in the movie was a chauvinistic outrage, or the super heroes weren't very super hero like, or the story was just bad. I hate Watchmen because of the character, Nite Owl.

Nite Owl, like many men do, has masculinity issues. He's only able to get laid when he's in costume. He uses the money his Corporate banker father gives him in order to fund his super hero agenda. And he doesn't do anything useful in the entire story except bust Rouchach out of jail, which didn't do anything anyways... (don't want to spoil the ending).

Maybe it's that I don't like Corporate Bankers especially in these ecnomic times, maybe it's because I think that grown men have to grow out of childish super hero fetishes, or maybe it's because I don't like the way rich white people use their power to secure women, but I do not like Nite Owl.

Good Nite.

Life in Uptown

2009-03-22T12:52:00.004-05:00

Uptown is a neighborhood on the northside of Chicago. I'm house sitting for my brother in the heart of uptown, right near Viettown. Hungover and starving, I ventured the neighborhood in search for food. I did a really cool thing. A very weird thing. A very Phill thing. I bought food from 3 different places and ate it on the curb.

First, I got a BBQ pork sandwhich and an apple from the Vietnamese grocery store on Kenmore and Argyle. Then I got a jackfruit bubble tea from Hai Yen, a well known Vietnamese restaurant. Lastly, I bought sponge cake from Lucky bakery for only $1.00. This was a very good meal, eaten on the north side of the street where the sun would keep me warm from the lakefront breeze.

Uptown is a very mixed neighborhood. First, I noticed the presence of Vietnamese people shopping at the oriental market, eating nostalgic foods, and hunting for parking spots. My socialized perceptions only rarely made out Asians who weren't Viet, like the Filipinos who bought their Asian commodities at the same grocery. As my friend Sebastian would say, this was a Vietnamese ethno-space.

Then there is presence of white people who seemed to fall into two groups: those who lived there and those who didn't. The ones who didn't had a certain curiosity about a neighborhood with Asian characters on store signs, counterfeit goods at display windows, and cheap foreign food. Perhaps they crept in from Lakeview to the south or Andersonville to the West. Or maybe from travelers who wanted to see one of the City of Neighborhoods' ethnic niches. The ones who lived there were used to the Uptown's ethnic vibes and edginess.

Uptown is very edgy with a certain dangerousness lingering in the air. Unshaven black men walk down a street with businesses up and running on the south side, and boarded up ones on the other. It's not just the boarded up shops, it's the iron bars over glass storefronts and an unfriendly sidewalk lacking color. A certain impoverished feeling hits the visual landscape of uptown. For me from my curb, I asked why there are not benches to welcome pedestrians like me. The answer I drew was that it would also welcome homeless men in search of a bed off the ground. Uptown clashes in this way as mixed housing leads to clashes of race and socioeconomic class.

I love the edginess and diversity of Uptown. The last 2 days have been pretty sweet. I can be in more high-end hoods in a matter of minutes via bike or just take the red line from Argyle. This is so useful. I got a haircut from Andersonville. I've been partying in Boystown the last few nights. And a drunk taxi ride home is not expensive with this proximity. But Uptown has its own unique nightlife. There's Big Chicks on Sheridan which I've been to 3 times in the last 2 months since they have awesome parties every 1st thursday of the month. Then there's always good bars around Lawrence.

As I seep Internet from my neighbors in this 5 story apartment complex, I've got to say I loved living in Uptown for the past 4 days. It has good food, great access to the rest of Chicago, and an edginess and life of its own. Or Maybe I just love having my own place with 2 cats.

Don't Blame the Individual!

2009-03-19T02:15:00.004-05:00

I had a heated debate with one of my friends today so I've come running to my blog so that my view can be heard and put out there. I welcome all constructive counter arguments and disagreements.

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If social behaviors replicate themselves over and over again in certain social groups, how can individuals be held accountable when there is a obviously a problem as a group? Even if one and only one individual finds a way to stop that behavior, that does not solve the problem as a group. I argue that individuals contain the power to change themselves, but because there are such solid structures in their social groups, it is hard for behaviors as a group to change.

Here are my examples.

Black people (and other urban poor people) and street crime. So if the amount of people being arrested for street crime is mostly African American, how can you blame one black guy for engaging in street crime when the number of black people in street crime is so large. Is the problem really criminals or the structures of disproportionately poverty in black communities, lack of jobs, and cultural issues within the African American community.

So how can you blame one person for a street crime, when it's obviously a social problem as a group?

Don't blame the individual. Blame the socioeconomic system that keeps the poor poor and the rich rich. Blame the legal system and how (it just happens) that people of color disproportionately go to jail. Blame the media that emphasizes sports and BET over education and social justice.

Gay people and hyper sexual activity. So if the amount of gay, and bi, and questioning, and confused men who have multiply, or many same-sex partners is so high, how can you blame one gay man for having so much sex when this is obviously a group social issue among gay men?

Don't blame the individual. Blame the state for not letting gay men settle down through the institution of marriage. Blame American male culture and media images where masculinity is defined as having sex with a lot of people whether gay or straight. Blame the way that men separate sex from emotions.

Lastly, how can you blame one Filipino for going into nursing when Filipinos as a group tend to go into nursing? This example is different because being a nurse is not a social problem, but I'm emphasizing the notion of choice. Do Filipinos have a lot of choice in becoming nurses or not?

How can one Filipino person not become a nurse when family structures from hard-working immigrant parents pressure you into it? When economic incentives persuade you? When cultural forces surround you?

How can you blame one, when there are many as a group?

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Within any social group, there are structures that are just plain old hard to get out of whether it is a structure as complex as masculinity or as simple as being a nurse. I ask how do people get out of these structures. How do poor urban youth avoid crime? How do gay men avoid sleeping around? How do Filipinos opt out of nursing? These are not easy behaviors to surpass and if you have, if you don't fit the stereotype I ask, "How did you do it?!"

Maybe you think I'm stereotyping, but if these behaviors are replicated among a group, they are true to an extent. Doesn't it take a change of neighborhood, a steady boyfriend, or a huge fight with your parents to overcome structural barriers? Don't you think that's hard for the indivdual to do? Isn't change even harder for a whole group of people to do? Don't blame the individual for social problems. Blame a society that does not care for its poor, does not include its gays, and does not have the guts to stick up to some being in a higher authority be it your Filipino parents or your government.

If you want poor people to stop street crimes then stop your government from passing economic policies that favor the rich. If you want gay people to stop having promiscuous sex, legealize gay marriage (and moreover, redefine the definition of masculinity to not mean sex). And if you want Filipinos to stop being nurses, well no, that is impossible.

You can not completely completely completely blame one person for the behavior replicated by many. Change is not impossible, but it does not happen one person at a time.

Idea Networking: Twitter Beyond Social Networking

2009-03-15T01:01:00.006-05:00

Most people might think that Twitter is a cool site for you to get fast and cheap updates from your friends (Lizell just went to sleep lol), but I argue that this is NOT its richest value. Twitter is not just a social networking tool, it's an "idea networking" tool, and the combination of the two is the maximum value of Twitter.

By "idea networking", I mean that Twitter facilitates a quick and easy way to get information about your interests. Interests can of course include random acts from friends (Manny just ate Korean BBQ), but right now I mean your interests- things you really want to know more about. I found this out as I found tweets about Urban Planning, Gay Rights, and Biking. Here's my advice to connect your interests to your twitter in 3 ways:

1. Search for people or possible usernames.

I searched for "sociology" and found sociologylens. Now I can expand my interests in sociology from a simple blurb (Typification of School Shootings: by socanonymous A recent school shooting in Winnenden, Germany.. http://tinyurl.com/cxb5mw). You can search for Asian or Starbucks or Whole Foods or Food in Chicago (or denver, london, etc).

Of couse, Icould find info about this all over the web from blogs, articles, and googleing, but Twitter adds a new aspect to ideas. These ideas are social in because they're communicated from real people in real time, and these people are willing and wanting to contribute such ideas to YOU as fast as possible. Also, twitter is fast. You can output data at the speed of a text message and input data from multiple people because it take a quarter second to read a one-line, 140 chatacter or less Twitter update.

I also searched for Obama, Gladwell, and Anderson Cooper and it's really cool to be connected to them. I'm also connected to Ellen and Martha Stewart. The search feature of twitter allows you to do 2 things. First, you can check if your favorite, yet far away, celbrities, politicians, and academics have a Twitter and follow them. Who is actually my favorite star to follow is Ashton Kutcher. He is really funny and says some really deep things every now and then!

2. Use tweetdeck to search for ideas you're interested in and find out who has recently mentioned it

For example, when wanted to find Urban Planning Twits I seached for "Creative Class", a term coined by Richard Florida that ONLY urban planners would know. Then, I found Richard Florida himself! Twitter closes a far gap from people who are higher-up by allowing you to know a little of what they know. I followed on to his website link and found out he has a new book called "Who's Your City?" about which city you should live in. I plan to read this book and consider new spots after graduation. So let's take a look at my idea path (horizantal):

Urban Planning --> Creative Class --> Richard Florida --> Who's You City?

And they all go back to me and expanding my interests. My interest went from a broad Urban Planning mass search to finding my favorite Urban Planning writer, to discovering a new book I'll use. What I'm saying is that Twitter brings you closer to your interests by conecting your interests to people who can share ideas about those interests.

3. Look at the friends of your friends

SO after finding Richard Florida on twitter, i looked the people he followed. One was Malcolm Gladwell, and there were others who are professionals in the field. I decided to follow them too. Compared to facebook, on Twitter you're more able to follow people you don't know. I assume it's because twitter is about ideas, and idea sharing is way different than the prive realms of social networking. Let's chart this one (verticle):

Malcolm Gladwell
Urban Planning --> Richard Florida --> Freakonomics
streetsblog

SO from searching for Urban Planning (an idea) and finding Florida (a person), I was able to find more people and ideas. This is exactly why I call it "idea networking". It is not social networking because I'm not going to ask Ellen for a favor (even though she might do it) and I'm not going to ask Britney for free tickets (she won't do it), but I can see what they're doing or at the very least, learn something from them that they want me to know.

Yeah, sometimes you'll get information you don't care for (sorry NYTimes, I don't care that it was Louisville 76, Syracuse 66), but this doesn't matter is because you only spent a split second reading that 140 character or less blurb. This was not a long blog, article, or google chain search wasting your time. Or at least, not too much of your time.

My point in this entry is that Twitter allows you to connect to ideas you don't have. It's not possible for you to come up with all the ideas needed to fill the craving for your interests, but with other people's thoughts you can expand your appetite.

I'm excited to hear what Florida and Gladwell have to say. I aspire to be the creative geniuses they are one day and Twittering them is one step closer to getting their. Idea Networking is real people and real ideas that are easy and fast to give and get, and you don't need to be social at all to follow these people.

This ends my first blog post. Tell me what you think. Let me know if you want me to help you expand your interests with Tiwtter. I hope I'm here to stay. -Phillip (phillozaki at mail after g dot come)