Month: December 2005

  • despite how much i hate liberals this is…

    despite how much i hate liberals, this is … satisfying

    facebook pulse.png

  • funky WordPress 2: saved post editing, cat permalink

    WordPress 2 (the pseudo official version.. not RC, available under /downloads, but unannounced as of yet under /blog ) bugs/malfunctionings found so far:

    1. When clicking previously saved draft posts, the screen moves automatically to /text/?p=POSTID which obviously doesn’t exist yet, and so it shows an error message.
    2. The new permalinks structure (neat small .htaccess!) seems to be unable to process nested categories as independent categories. Previously, all /de /en /cr /es , all nests of /a (as in ( /c/a/en ) were accessible at /c/en , which now returns There is no “” category (which is funny, as it should at the least show “there is no “en” category”) but they are now only accessible under the logically correct (/c/a/en ) category permalink.
  • LA Holy City Convention, October 2005

    Approximately 8,000 koreans gathered in Crenshaw Christian Center Faith Dome (scroll left) in an event called LA Holy City Convention 2005 (성시화 대회) during October 7-9 under the catchphrases “Whole Church, Whole Gospel, Whole LA!”, “Love Jesus Love LA!” etc. The dome’s capacity is 15,000, which I heard was the original aim of the convention.

    It’s basically an evangelization drive, from how people are portraying it. It was three days of regular worship in korean language, and from what I see in their schedule, the special gatherings for pastors and college students, respectively, have seminar/workshop components on past work and what actions to actually take. I only went to their Friday worship, which was the first night.

    Participants had to sign up beforehand, and apparently there was an admissions fee – which apparently was paid for by our church for the five of us who went there. Staff youth were checking each individual for passes at the entrance of the dome and giving out the schedule, a glossy paper 27-page introduction to the purpose of the drive and schedule for the 3 days. The friday worship overlapped with the young adults (청년) worship, so that’s the group that went.

    In a video presentation, sponsoring parties introduced basic concepts and past work under a similar concept. Strangely, 이명박’s giving Seoul to God was not mentioned as part of the overarching movement of 성시화 (did his work also get a bad reception in the christian community?), but 춘천 (1974? was that right?) and 포항 in 2004 were presented as cases of successful 성시화 evangelization drives. The historic model was Calvin’s mayoral ruling in Genova.

    In discussing the work of 성시화 in 포항, presenters used the word “공장 노동자”. Usually 박정희 supporters prefer the term 근로자, “hard worker”, so that was strange. They also showed some 달동네 scenes from the city, I don’t know what the purpose of that may have been.

    The rationale for the need of such a drive was the spread of “crime”, “tatoos” and “drugs” in the community. Presenters emphasized that such strongholds of christianity as LA, which produced the great envangelizers Billy Graham and Bill Wright (CCC), could not cross arms and sit back when there was a need for God.

    Someone else also said that the US was the new Rome of the world, and that Rome was the center of classic meditarranean multiculturalism, peoples from many races and lands coming together, which was won over by christians and the fact of Rome as an imperial power became an advantage for christianity. Since there is an english hegemony in the world, where people are pushed to learn it as a matter of remains of colonialism, economic survival, or social arribismo, koreans in LA were in a comfortable position to make use of that position and start evangelizing. There was also mention of doing media work with newspapers.

    There was a mention of praying for that korean congressman who was involved in the 폭탄주 사건. Little Arnold and Antonio Villaraigoza were present in the worship, and even some black folks, and they were given headphones by the event staff. Generally it was not very accessible for english speakers, though.

    One way of introducing the relevance of this to the context of LA was that LA was “Los Angels” and that it meant to be the city of angels -_- which historically incorrect. The main noun in the original city name was “pueblo” (village) – “Village of Our Lady the Queen of Angels at the Porciúncula River”.

    All income generated during the convention was to be spent in future evangelizing work, as well as establishment of church-sponsored scholarships for latino and black students.

    During the worship, this was how people were arranged. Generally, there was a lack of attendants in churches located in white suburbia.

  • Tactical adoption of ethnic identity to overcome side vulnerability

    I often try to avoid recognition/downplay their weight, in reaction to how much generally (older) people I know seem to have come to cherish recognition to the level of fetish.

    When the OITs gave the BRU campaign award, I realized that despite my efforts, recognition was successful in stirring my emotions (ie: I couldn’t control my face expressions), which could become problematic in later, smaller meetings. So maybe it’s better for my long-term growth to just admit that I have a person/al part that desires recognition and accept/enjoy recognition when coming from our side of the trench. Repressed desires can become a major vulnerability, esp. if outsiders find out.

    So enjoying recognition may be a viable tactic (short-term plan) with the ultimate goal of preserving a stable/immune personality.

    Similarly, I may sometimes get swayed more easily by political touting, because I chose to not identify as anything ethnic. (I don’t have a problem with labeling myself with the biological/political “asian”) In other words, there may be psychological grounds for which I started name-dropping with people, who partially got the point that I am prone to an environment of confabulation. My intellectual background is weak in anything beyond non/lean-ideological direct action, so it works a lot more in the direction of “oh, you are red too! ho ho!” than an actual discussion.

    Because I have more grounds to start with (cultural and racial) when I pick up “korean”, and won’t feel as insecure with even something like “activist”, I may be taking the right steps towards making myself less vulnerable to ideological play. I mean, as long as I can swallow all or part of the nationalistic bullshit that comes along. (It’s faster to take part of it for granted, than to trying to prove wrong to those who claim I’m not “korean” because I don’t do X or believe Y) . Which path, it doesn’t really matter.

    Because after being in the field a few years, I’ll drop the korean; that’s why it’s (personally) tactical.

    But naturally I won’t be the same person a few years from now.

  • "patents" can't "back" drugs

    So on channel USA (DirecTV #242), Leptoprin (obesity pills) ads claim that this is a “USA-patent backed product”.

    Now, a patent can’t “back” a drug. The FDA “backs” (approves/proves) drugs. All a patent does is assuring the pharmaceutical corporation has exclusive rights over the drug as an intellectual property. You can’t get away that easy, na na.

  • sticking around a house with no heating in…

    sticking around a house with no heating in the middle of LA winter may be the shortcut to tuberculosis. it’s in my best interests to run away to my uncle’s. soon.

  • identifying the sin

    A: Teacher what’s this paper?
    YoKim: it’s the circle of holiness. Who can recall what 전도사님 talked about today?
    T: Oh me me!
    YoKim: no someone else besides T… hmm E can you tell everyone what was the message today?
    E: Nah..
    YoKim: ok then let’s have T answer it. Silence! Everyone listen to T.
    T: she showed how our heart gets dirty with sins, and that Jesus’s blood makes us clean.
    YoKim: good! It’s also important to remark that Jesus’ blood makes us holy, because we are all holy persons to start with, so when our sins are forgiven, we become holy again. Here we have… the circle of holiness! We’ll all go around and talk about our sins from last week or the week before that. Alright? Let me give you two examples. Hey A! Stop yelling at J.
    YoKim: So I like playing computer games. Last saturday, the one before yesterday, I was playing a game and I was so excited that
    P: what’s the game’s name
    YoKim: oh it’s in korean so you may not know – it’s 대항해시대, you travel in ships and to trade and stuff. Anyway saturday morning I was so excited about the game that first thing after I got up was to run to the computer. And I should have had a time for God, like praying and reading the bible, but I didn’t!
    T: Is the game fun?
    YoKim: Yeah real fun. Now why was what I did a sin?
    J: because you didn’t have breakfast.
    YoKim: No, not having a breakfast is generally not good for you.. but it’s not a sin. I sinned because I put the game before Jesus! That’s why it’s a sin. Silence! T stop cussing at A.
    T: but she started it!
    A: No you started! u-g-l-y ugly!
    E: u-g-l-y ugly!
    T: you are stupid!
    E: ugly!
    YoKim: hey guys, stop! Ok let me give you the second example. You all know President Bush, right?
    T: oh he’s a failure~
    YoKim: you all know he started a war with Iraq, right? He says he sent troops to help the Iraqi people out, but we all know that’s a lie! He wanted the oil, and because it’s so expensive, he wanted all the oil for himself. E, quiet! So why is the Iraq War a sin?
    J: because he went for the oil
    YoKim: exactly! He put the oil above Jesus, and went into war without really asking God what she wanted him to do!
    P: Hey teacher do you like Bush?
    YoKim: no, that’s not what we are talking about right now. So let’s go back to my sin – I think my sin can be summed up as “game addiction”, that’s the core of my sin. Now for Bush, his sin can be summed up as “capitalism”! Got it? Now let’s go around and tell our sins from last week.
    T: well last week I..

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