But why should we?

Joe. My. God has posted on the subject of gay culture fading away to a more heteronormative view of the world. As noted by the author of the quote, some LGBT people sees this as a fair trade-off. I say "oh fuck no!"

I understand where people would say that the assimilation of LGBT culture into the mainstream culture is a good thing. We have been fighting for our rights to be viewed as normal people and normal citizens. We want to show people that we are harmless and productive members of society. Most of us are!

But that doesn't mean we should lose our culture. The very thought makes me think of all the forced assimilation that Native Americans went through. Or the Aborigines. Or Asian Americans. Native Americans were force into a European imposed hegemony. They lost traditional culture. Where one culture was more egalitarian in their treatment of sexes and gender, the hegemony made sure they reflected their ideals about sex and gender. This is what worries me about the assimilation of LGBT culture into the mainstream; The will lose something that could be valuable later on. Furthermore, it implies a superiority of one culture and one group over another. Asian Americans were seen as "model minorities" because they assimilated faster and fitted into the the Western ideals of how proper people should act. If LGBT culture were to do the same, it would be like admitting that the fundies are culture is better. As I've put in my Southeast Asian culture class, we are internalizing the colonialism, making the struggle for autonomy all for naught.

Mind you that I'm not cultural relativist. Practice that are detrimental to society as a whole should be done away with ("honor" killings, burning witches, headhunting, institutionalized sexism, and things like that.) Still, I don't see how being a diva or dressing in fabulous colours make you a determent to society. In the end I think we should not seek to erase LGBT culture for a normative view. Instead it should be a piece of the picture like a part of a grand mosaic. So be productive, be normal, but be a flaming diva if you want to be too.

Haegeum

Ethnography

Here is a modern Apache person. The reason I chose this photo is because I want to question our perception of indigenous people. In our society, we tend to look at indigenous people as archaic and outside of time. This is false. Indigenous people are, in fact, contemporay people.

Here is another indigenous group, the Ainu:

Random Model: Joel

Random Model: Hugh Plummer

Gisaeng and Geisha: Then and now

Notice that modern portayals of Geisha and Gisaeng tends to emmulate western notions of orientalism and the hyper-feminization of Asian women.

Random Model: Nick Youngquest

I'm not dead

Just hella busy. I've been doing school relate stuff and haven't had the time or the will to update regularly. I've also started doing Native American beadworks.

Balloons

I've been playing Pokémon Platinum. One of the pokémon is a ghost creature called Drifloon. It's supposed to be a balloon animal of some sort.

Balloons were originally made to be instruments of science, where one could research weather patterns. It's still used to some extant but it's being phased out due to more efficient methods. Balloons have since been used for transportation, decoration, entertainment and even medicine. There are now even balloon art, which is a form of non-permanent sculpture.

Balloons are made out of a number of materials ranging from rubber to polycholorprene. Balloons are popular with children, and is ubiquitous with celebrations. They do, however, pose many problems. Airborne balloons can easily become pollutants as the material they are made off are not easily degradable. They pose a danger to wildlife. For children, balloons are suitable only for a certain age range due to choking hazards.

Ube macapuno cake

2 1/2 cups cake flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup ube (purple yam), cooked and finely grated
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup corn syrup
7 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
7 egg whites
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup white sugar
6 drops red food color
6 drops blue food coloring
1 (12 ounce) jar macapuno (coconut preserves)

1 cup evaporated milk, chilled
3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 drop violet food coloring

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line bottoms of 3 - 9 inch pans with parchment paper, but do not grease. Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
Place grated ube in a large bowl. Mix together 3/4 cup milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla; gradually blend into ube until smooth. Blend in corn syrup, egg yolks, and oil. Beat in flour mixture until smooth; set aside. In a large glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Gradually add sugar, then red and blue food coloring, continuing to beat until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the whites into the batter, then quickly fold in remaining whites until no streaks remain. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the center of cake bounces back when lightly tapped. Invert pans on a wire rack and let cool upside down. When cool, run a knife around the edges to loosen cake from pans. Fill between layers with coconut preserves, then frost top and sides with butter icing.
To make Butter Icing: Combine evaporated milk and 3/4 cup sugar. set aside. Cream butter until light and fluffy; gradually add sugar mixture, and continue beating to desired spreading consistency. Add food color, one drop at a time until desired tint is achieved.

large

Archäologie

Dvaravati was an ethnic Mon kingdom occupying what is now much of central Thailand.

Random Model: Stephen Bamber

Stars

You know, people make these look so easy. After all, it's just one strip of paper being folded repeatedly and then crushed in the end.

Whenever I make them, 2 out of 5 end up perfect looking while the rest look like a wad paper ball.

I thought about it, and these objects wouldn't survive the archaeological records. At least not here, where there is enough moisture to destroy them. If we were a culture without writing, our knowledge of how to make origami would have to be transmitted orally, and it would join the ranks of the so-called "folk art". (It's a loaded term because of the association of class.)

Now living in a technologically advance society, we can easily access information on how to make these little stars.

I use these as sentimental gifts. It's perfect for little decorative things. Of course, some times the paper can be expensive.

Archäologie

Sometimes it's easy to assume that a large tomb is a that of a king or a male ruler. Because of our current culture, we tend to associate the ruling class with men. It's all part of our blindness to the privileges we give to masculinity. However, through out history, men did not have the monopoly on power.
The Silla Kingdom of the Three Kingdoms period of Korea, was one of the countries vying for supremacy on the Korean peninsula. It's was largely thought that the tombs left behind by Silla was of male rulers. However one of the tomb has been argue to be a female co-ruler based on historical accounts as well as the images and goods left in the tombs.
The assumption that the tombs of the rulers were all male is an example of how our ideology can bias archaeology. We assumed that the Silla rulers were all men because we falsely correlated power with masculinity.

Archäologie Lagen

Miruksa was the largest Buddhist temple of the Baekje Kingdom (one of the three kingdoms of ancient Korea)

Random Model: Ivan Scannel

Can't wait for the season finally

I've been following Dong Yi for awhile. It's been building up for me (even though at this point most people lose interests because the main character, Choi Dong Yi, is no longer a struggling maid). Perhaps that has something to do with my fascination with political intrigue.

Dunce Vs. Dunce

I'm not a fan of pointing out "schism" because it's a double edge sword. If you can point out the right's schism then they can point out the left's schism. No movement is monolithic. Still, it's refreshing to see idiots making an ass out of themselves in thinking the right supports them. Attention hog and authoritarian Michael Lucas got to an argument with Ann Coulter (a person who doesn't need my introduction). Lucas is generally right wing, supporting various conservative politicians. He has a great cognitive dissonance in thinking that the right is somehow gay friendly (like all Homosexual Conservative). I have no sympathy for him and treat him as a horrid enemy of social rights. Well it turns out he and Coulter don't agree and it turns into a shout fight with both sides huffing and puffing without substance. It's funny because Homocons don't seem to grasp the concept that the American right doesn't want them there. They are outsiders in the conservative movement.

Anyways, Lucas should stay with what he's good at (which is directing and producing high budget porn) and keep his simple little mind out of politics.

Random Model: Henry Seroeyen

He's thinking what many liberals are thinking

Shepard Fairey, the artist who created the world's most famous Obama poster, says he has given up on the president's ability to make progressive change. He's not the only one, as many liberals have harshly criticized president Obama's policy of bending to the design of the Republican. PZ Myers have noted that Obama is moving too slowly for us.

Obama position how has always been that of the Democratic party. In order to maintain voters, the Democratic party allows the GOP to do whatever they want, which ironically cause them to lose voters.

Archäologie

Kleider erhaltet dürftig en die Archäologie, aber wir haben die viele Darstellung.

Boxer

This is so cool

Scientists has observed the transition of a species of skink from being egg laying to giving live birth. Evolution in action!

Random Model: Michael Fitt

Already?

Is the USB flash drive already being replaced? Currently it's the best memory storage system out there for the common folks. Of course it has it's limitations. This has prompted companies to research and develop new storage system that will no doubt out shine the flash drive. Currently they are looking into Resistive Random Access Memory or RRAM and they are making head way into developing it for the market.

I have four personal flash drives: an 8 GB, a 4 GB, a 2 GB, 250 MB. This is actually pretty slow and pretty low on memory. But remember how much have changed? It use to be the floppy drive some eons ago in the 90's. Those drives couldn't hold a video file, but they were the best at their time. Now everyone has a personal note book, PCs are ultra fast and inexpensive, and flash drives are in the double digits in memory. I must be ages old because my PC still has a floppy drive. Technology makes you feel old, doesn't it? :P

Two more dead by bullying

FoF, FRC, and NOM must be proud since they are the forces behind stopping anti-bullying laws aimed at protecting minors. They say that these laws promote the "gay agenda" to children. What they really want is for the right to torment and harass gay and social outcast children as much as they want. This way they can coerce children to follow their religious ideals of the "norm". It's working as bullying of gay teens has been on the rise. Now they have two more bodies to show for their efforts. Bigots must be proud.

Random Model: Sean Sullivan

Archäologie

A Goryeo period celadon plate.

Scruffy

It's football season

Not that it means anything to me in particular. I prefer to play the sport than I do watching it.

Today

9-11 (okay not exactly but I already hit the submit button)

Hiroshi Sugimoto (b. 1948)

World Trade Center, 1997

Gelatin silver print; 61 x 50.8 cm (24 x 20 in.)

Let us remember the fallen. Let us also remember the price of fanaticism. Finally, let us remember who we are: A nation built on the struggle to accept diversity.

Random Model: Robert

Ich zustimme

Von Queer.de

Der Genital- heißt zwar auch Schambereich, aber eigentlich gibt es überhaupt keinen Grund, sich für irgendetwas zu schämen. Vor allem nicht, wenn man Veränderungen wahrnimmt, die nicht sein sollten.

Klar, das allerwichtigste Instrument zum Schutz vor sexuell übertragbaren Krankheiten ist das Kondom. Doch um sich einen Tripper zu holen, braucht man sich nur mal im Dampfraum von jemanden einen blasen lassen.

Wenn es passiert ist und man sich irgendetwas "eingefangen" hat, ohne genau zu wissen, was es ist, sollte man nicht zögern, einen Arzt aufzusuchen. Denn anders als bei einer Erkältung oder Kopfschmerzen verschwinden zwar mitunter die Symptome nach einiger Zeit von allein, doch die Krankheit ist damit noch lange nicht verschwunden. Die unbehandelte Syphilis führt nach Jahren zu schweren körperlichen Schäden.

Wir sollen nicht beschämt über unseren Genital sein. Wir sollen nicht beschämt über den Beischlaf sein. Wir sollen er schützen. Das Kondom ist die bestene Idee, aber wenn man es nicht hat, soll man der Arzt oft sehen.

Adoption Equality for New South Wales

From DNA Magazine

The NSW government has passed the bill being debated this week, allowing same-sex couples the right to adopt. The Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby has welcomed the decision, saying it is the removal of the final piece of direct discrimination on a state level aimed at gay couples. The Act now makes all couples, regardless of sexual orientation, eligible to adopt a child

Es is nur ein Kuss

Mark Dean Brown und Björn Czepan hatten eine Aufregung gemacht. Wie? Sie küssen und es war in eine Zeitung. Leute soll entsetzt nicht sein. Es is nur ein Kuss.

DADT ruled unconstitutional

Oh look, those GOProud losers are actually good for something for once. A judge has ruled that Don't Ask Don't Tell violates the 1st Amendment.

EDIT: Okay not GOProud but Log Cabin. Still asinine in my eyes. Apparently GOProud doesn't agree with using the judicial process.

Random Model: JP Calderon

It's resolved. I'm going to go into modeling by the time I'm 22 years old. I'm going to work my hardest.

Random Model: Nick Ayler

Off to bed

I wish it were with this cowboy. :P

Cities I've Visted Pt.1

I use to go to Diamond Bar every so often for Chinese food. I've since found other places to supplement that.

Many of my friends live in Alhambra, so it would have been very hard not to have been there once.

My friends and I would often meet in Rowland Hights to eat Dim Sum and seafood.

I go to West Hollywood ever year as a participant of the AIDS walk. Next year, I plan to attend Pride there.

Well, I technically can't visit Riverside since I live in Riverside. There are, however, many great places in Riverside.

For later:
Upland, CA
San Bernardino, CA
Colton, CA
Dana Point, CA
San Bernardino National Forest, CA
Victorville, CA
Beaumont, CA
West Covina, CA
Baldwin Park, CA
Los Angeles, CA
San Diego, CA
Long Beach, CA
Newport, CA
Huntington Beach, CA
Santa Anna, CA
Anaheim, CA
Fullerton, CA
Chino, CA
Westminster, CA
Carona, CA
Norco, CA
Taipei, Taiwan
Phnom Phen, Cambodia
Battambong, Cambodia
Siem Riep, Cambodia
Sihanokville, Cambodia
Kampong Chan, Cambodia
Kampong Cham, Cambodia
Las Vegas, NV

Hidden

Random Model: Porter Wescott

Ugh...

Focus on the Family (aka Focus on the Patriarchy) is promoting an abstinence only policy in Yunnan, China. Why on earth would the government of Yunnan allow that? The abstinence only policy is failing in the United States, badly. It's failing in Africa, badly and resulting in STD being spread rapidly. I only hope that the students sees this for what it really is: an attempt at hegemony from American Evangelicals who cares nothing for the well being of other. If they truly cared, they'd promote safe sex. Safe sex is proven to reduce STD and unwanted pregnancy.

This whole abstinence only policy stems from heavy misogyny. How? Fundamental Christians believe the only use for sex is to make the woman pregnant. If some one is having safe sex, it means that they are having it to enjoy it. They cannot stand for that. They cannot stand the idea that a woman can enjoy sex, or take control of their own body. The loath at the fact that a woman can use their body for something other than child rearing.

I hope there is a day when the lies and evil of Focus on the Family is expose to the world. I certainly will do my best to do so.

Ethnography