<center>2004.09.04</center> <a name="leaving4retreat"><h3>leaving 4 retreat</h3></a> <p>토요일 아침 sat morn 854a: dangit, is it that gas prices really <i>do</i> go up on wknds? sometime earlier this wk, like on thurs or so, i saw that that so.called "moe's" gas station in east san jo (mckee n' 33rd) had $1.81/gal gas (according to <a href="http://www.sanjosegasprices.com" target="_blank">sanjosegasprices.com</a>). however, 2day the cheapest gas is $1.86/gal @ that same stn. shoot. yesterday, i needed to refill n' wanted to fill up @ costco, but i didn't have time, so i just bought ~2 gals @ the nearby valero 4 $2.02/gal. *sigh* 2day, we leave on our church retreat. i need gas 4 that. shoot, what the heck? how come gas prices shot up? i heard that oil fell to a record 6.month low! then 'gain, do u 'member when i sed in my journal that i heard that oil hit a record hi, but that the gas prices i saw were rather low; n' thus i suspekted that gas prices'd skyrocket in sept? well, beno; now it's sept! <p>sept often has that back2skool feel. even tho' college starts in aug, i'll always 'member sept as the back2skool month cos my k-12 yrs were like that, u know? albertsons's 'lready selling <font color="orange">hallow</font><font color="black">een</font> candy, as i sed b4. isn't it insane? i mean, stores were selling <font color="orange">hallow</font><font color="black">een</font> candy back in aug. <p>last nite, the beautiful <a href="http://www.realestatesforcharity.com" target="_blank">kaela hwang</a> n' i took duk kyung out to watch <i>harold and kumar go to white castle</i> @ the amc mercado 20. i used my superkewl $6 movie vouchers. maybe i should buy more? i bought 20'f them. yah, maybe i should've bought more. *shrug* how was the movie? it was pretty kewl; but i dunno... as i've been saying @ times that i've 4gotten to how to have fun, i found some parts sort'f immature; even tho' geez! it's not like ne1 should expekt some oscar winner movie out'f this. i told duk kyung it was a movie 'bout a korean guy n' an indian guy just doing nuthin', sumpthin' like <i>dude, where's my car?</i> even the movie itself pokes fun @ itself 4 falling into that category. there <i>r</i> some blatant inconsistencies in the movie, which we al noticed; but eh! those don't really phase us. it's just stuff like, "why is it nite n' then day n' then nite?", etc. i mean, if u'r really immature or anal u'll freak; but eh! just deal w/ it. i'm still glad we saw it. like, on <a href="http://www.bjunkyard.com" target="_blank">bronx's junkyard</a> forums, there were some asian.ams that promoted the movie saying, "go watch it! support asian.ams in movies!", etc. on the flip side, there were some certain asian.am uncle toms that sed stuff like, "<font face="times new roman" color="black">i will <i>not</i> go to see <i>harold and kumar</i> just cause it has asians in it.</font>" <font face="comic sans ms" color="blue">geez! way to sell out to "the man," buddy! do u <i>hafta</i> try to subvert every attempt that asian amerika makes to try to get an equal foothold in society?!</font> the 1 thing 'bout <i>harold and kumar</i>, relative to asian.am cinema, that <i>sort'f</i> irks me is that it's sort'f a decade behind in that it's still sort'f like those films in which some young ppl deal w/ their asian.am identity relative to this white/black dominated amerikan society. do u understand? i mean, sometime, i'd like to enjoy a film made by asian.ams 'bout asian.ams but w/o ne emphasis on the fakt that they r asian.ams in a white/black dominated society, but that they're just ppl. do u know what i mean? sumpthin' <i>close</i> to that is <i>charlotte sometimes</i>. however, the hapa filmmaker intentionally casted a hapa as the guy who steals gurls in order to make certain asian guys go off n' say stuff like "white guys are always stealing our women" kind'f crap. he purposely casted a <i>hapa</i> cos, well... u could say they're teknically <i>wrong</i> cos the dude that's stealing the women is 0.5 asian... but i dunno... our filmmaker friend jason sed that, when it comes down to it, in hollywood hapas rn't given the same treatment as "full.blooded" asians, but r treated like whites... unless that other part isn't white, then well... don't be a smart@$$; u understand what i mean! so... what can i saw 'bout <i>harold and kumar go to white castle</i>? it stars the superfamous john cho n' this dude kal penn. the theatre was packed w/ asians - south asians n' ur cjk asians. in san jo, it's prob'ly more accurate to say cjkv since there's a big vietnamese population here. i mean, u could tack on as many letters as u want if u think that <i>some</i> asian ethnic grp'll complain 'bout being slighted, but don't 4get that i don't even consider myself as chinese buy taiwanese yet usually just say "cjk asians." it's un4tunate, but pilipinos 2 often get left out in these somewhat demographic discussions. i realise they feel marginalised, n' that's why they've, @ times, split off from mainstream asian.am sociopolitiks. do u know what i mean? <p>[a li'l later] 941a: oh, while we're on the topik'f south asian cinema, didju realise that this new reese witherspoon <i>vanity fair</i> movie's by an indian direktor n' takes place in india? i mean, i <i>know</i> i'm not a literary person but didn't realise that i was <i>this</i> illiterate! wow, why don't we go c it? unless u'r 1'f those uncle toms that's gotta akt all b!tchy n' say, "no, i will <i>not</i> go watch <i>vanity fair</i> just cause it has a south asian director," etc. <p>ok, so we leave to our retreat soon. i need to walk sooni. i need to pack. *sigh* what should i expekt from this wknd? i dunno cos ppl won't tell us; n' honestly? that really frustrates me. i don't like that; i'll tell u the truth. what's the agenda 4 the wknd? <p>yesterday, i went to albertsons to buy some fud 4 duk kyung 4 his stay @ our house w/ sooni. u know that the nearby albertsons has a self.checkout area? i toldju that, right? home depot also has this these days. i like it. some'f u might say that u prefer the ol' fashion way where u gotta make stoopid small talk w/ the ca$hier, but well... i'm totally fine w/ this. some ppl'd say this is an example'f teknology gone wrong, but i'm ok w/ it. <p>u know, i'm <i>very</i> unhappy 'bout not getting exercise lately!<br><br><br>