ghanarama's Xanga

Thursday, March 04, 2004

Thu, 04 Mar 2004 06:21:50 GMT

Capoeira class again tomorrow. Just what the blisters on my feet need...more aggravation. I better be able to kick some ass at the end of this, or there'll be hell to pay.

Wednesday, February 25, 2004

Wed, 25 Feb 2004 13:14:32 GMT

No Spring Chicken
So Sunday was my birthday. Woo woo! A whopping 24 years under my belt. I'm still not feeling any older, but isn't that generally the case? On Saturday night I went out with some friends to a concert (Dead Prez) and then out to SF to a club. We were trying to go to an afterhours club after 2am (most stuff shuts down then. I still don't get why), but at the door we were warned it was lesbian night. Now as hot as that may seem in one's mind, I often find that the lesbian of the mind and the lesbian of the street bear very little similarity, so I opted out. I did randomly run into a Princeton guy from the class of '03 that I knew that had been visiting SF for a week while waiting in the line. Our world. So small.

Jogo de Corpo
I had my first Capoeira class today. It kicked my ass big time. I'm pretty sure I have blisters on my toes from spinning around on them for an hour and a half. Incidentally, if you should happen to sign up for a "beginners" class of anything, be very wary. Of the 25 or so people there, I'd say 4 of us were actually newbies. They just throw you into the mix and you try your best to keep up. I first got suspicious when the student instructor said I was brave for having signed up for the series of classes rather than just for a single class as a shopper. Ooh the soreness. I hope I can survive Thursday's ordeal.

Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Tue, 17 Feb 2004 21:18:24 GMT

lisazapato: your day of reckoning is nigh....

Thursday, January 08, 2004

Thu, 08 Jan 2004 08:41:29 GMT

Time spent at home in Florida was great. Just about the nicest weather for this time of year that I've ever experienced. It was in the 70's most days. Winter, ha! I laugh at thee! Of course my return to the Bay Area was marked by cold and rain. When does the rainy season end again? I'll be counting down the days.

I'm studying for my prelim these days. The exam is next Friday. Let's hope things go better for me this time. *sigh*

Friday, December 26, 2003

Fri, 26 Dec 2003 06:16:52 GMT

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night....

Monday, October 27, 2003

Mon, 27 Oct 2003 00:42:24 GMT

Welcome to Atlanta

A few weeks ago I found myself in Atlanta for the Richard Tapia Diversity in Computing Conference. I presented a gigantic (4'x 8') poster of some of the research I've been doing. Let me tell you, it was definitely a huge pain in the ass printing and transporting that thing. I guess I only had myself to blame, though, since I arrived there and nobody else really had posters of those dimensions (even though those were the ones posted on the web site). Lesson learnt, I suppose.

Atlanta was a refreshing change from the monotony that had sort of settled in as the semester proceeded. While there, I hit up this club, Vision, definitely the largest and classiest club I've ever been to. I heard something to the effect that it can accomodate 3000 people, and I believe it. I think bourgie (sp?) would be a good way of describing the scene. There were a lot of extremely well-dressed black men and women (myself included, of course) chilling at the various bars and lounges, and hitting up the dance floors as well. Overall, not my scene, but it's nice to have checked it out. I also got to meet up with one of my old friends Denise who's doing a philosophy Ph.D. at Emory. She refused to join me at Vision, which I found interesting, but we checked out other parts of the city, like Piedmont Park, apparently a big-time gay-guy-with-dog hangout. We randomly stumbled upon an AIDS walk going on there, and for some reason I started feeling slightly guilty for not being a part. Had I known..., you know...

Atlanta also offered a lot in terms of everyday characters. My two favorites were 1) The guy who sat down next to me while I was eating in the Underground and lectured me about Christopher Americanos who "stated claim to America", along with Christopher Africanos, ruler of Africa and enslaver of the continent, and 2) The woman of indeterminate, though certainly non-white, ethnicity, who yelled at a guy next to her that she was "tired of Georgia niggas telling [her] how to raise her child." Yeah. Welcome to Atlanta...

Marine World

Yesterday I went to Six Flags Marine World with one of my roommates, Steve, and my friend Greg. It's about 25 miles from Oakland in the-middle-of-nowhere, CA, in this case referred to as Vallejo. Apparently Marine World used to be all about the animals, mainly aquatic, I guess. I believe it was then bought out by Six Flags and they put some rollercoasters in the park. Most of the coasters are in the front and the animals in the back because the animals understandably get FREAKED THE HELL OUT on account of the rides. For a place named Marine World, though, we certainly saw a random assortment of animals, like reptiles, elephants, giraffes, tigers, and other such creatures only marginally affiliated with water. The rides were pretty cool, though. They had a Medusa coaster, like the one in New Jersey. I think that was the only coaster in common. The lines were actually good as well, but the blazing sun wore us all out as the day proceeded. My only saving grace was this guy who I saw operating at least two of the rides we went on. He was obviously displeased with his line of employment and made smart-ass comments on the PA system. He'd like to say stuff like, "When you get off the ride...go ride a pony. The pony ride is $5.00, but the memories are priceless" in a really sarcastic tone. His crowning achievement, though, was broadcasting his hip-hop ring tones from his cell phone onto the PA. He had one of those polyphonic ringers that produced decent sound and I couldn't stop laughing when hearing 50 cent's "In Da Club" coming from the speakers, or Jay-Z's "Big Pimpin'". Six Flags guy, you're my new hero.

Saturday, October 11, 2003

Sat, 11 Oct 2003 08:44:09 GMT

A Mixed Bag
I went to see Tarantino's new film, Kill Bill, tonight. We set out to go to this one theater and when we arrived we found out it was sold out for the rest of the night, the rest of the night being that one last 10.30pm show. How can a show at 10.30pm be the last one on a Friday night? The East Bay is strange that way. We decided to try our luck at another place in downtown Oakland and had no trouble whatsoever. To me it seemed really strange that another place ten minutes away would have no waiting, no lines, and no problems and I still haven't figured it out. My friend Greg's old buddy from undergrad, Eric, showed up to join us there. The guy is a character and a half; totally hilarious. During the previews he teamed up with some kids, possibly sufferers of ADD from what I gathered, and ripped on the previews. They had the whole theater cracking up. Incidentally, the movie was pretty good. Probably the most violent thing I've seen in a while, just as a warning. I'm eagerly awaiting volume 2.

After the movie we tried to play pool at this place, strangely enough, near the original theater we had gone to. Of course, since our night was half-and-half on successes, we got there and they wouldn't let us play because they were closing in an hour. We ended up playing foosball, which I'm starting to dominate in ever since one showed up at my office place. Now if I could only excel at something of use....

Wednesday, October 08, 2003

Wed, 08 Oct 2003 04:57:03 GMT

Total Recall
So it looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to be the new governor of California. I can't believe this! Oh wait, in many respects I can. Let me still take this moment to express my feelings of disgust and shame regarding this whole recall fiasco. This was the first....and possibly last...time I voted in an election (I became a citizen just 7 months ago). The frustration and disappointment I'm feeling now helps me better understand how people can not vote at all. At least I can take comfort in the fact that the Bay Area as a region voted 2 to 1 against the recall; I can still respect my neighbors and others in my community. I can also take comfort in the projected failure of Propositions 54, the Racial Information Ban. It had been called "racism without a paper trail," if that gives you any idea of its merit. Well, I guess I'm going to have to take this one day at a time. Perhaps my faith in humanity will be restored.

Tuesday, September 30, 2003

Tue, 30 Sep 2003 03:22:03 GMT

Back in the Habit
Yeah, so it's been a while since I've posted on this thing. Wanna make something of it? I didn't think so.

Let's see, what's happened here...well, the prelim was a bust (see you in January!), my friends have thrown some pretty cool parties, my roommate left for Italy to be with his girlfriend, we interviewed for a new roommate, we got a new roommate, my ex came up from L.A. where she now lives and hung out with me for an evening...and so on and so forth.

The coolest thing in most recent history is the windsurfing class I took over the weekend. It was bitchin', dude! The first day there wasn't much wind so we looked pretty stupid out there on the Bay, but Sunday's conditions were great for learning. My new roommate Nerayo and I took the class through Cal Adventures. They have this deal where you pay $100 and can take any of their classes during the school year. You could potentially save hundreds of dollars. And I think the rentals are free too. Someone call the cops, 'cause these fools just got robbed. The season ends in a couple of weeks and picks back up in March, so I'll just have to kill some time...snowboarding in Tahoe! My new middle name is 'x-treme' (note the aggro orthography!).

I also recently found out this girl that I used to swim with in high school is now Miss Florida. I went to the web site and there she was. It's weird seeing someone you know occupying that kind of role. It's weirder still, knowing that last year's Miss Florida won Miss America. If you happen to hear the name Kristen Berset in the near future, just remember that I knew her when...

I just did a little internet homework and it seems Kristen is Miss Florida USA, which is apparently different from Miss Florida somehow. As it turns out last year's Miss Florida USA was Carrie Mewha...who also went to my high school. So if any of you ever thought I wasn't surrounded by beautiful women in my youth...think again.

Friday, August 08, 2003

Fri, 08 Aug 2003 17:55:30 GMT

Digital Underground
Mad props to my boy Daniel for bringing me back all of those DVDs from Southeast Asia. I can't imagine how many of those things he has, given the number he was able to get me. I personally wouldn't have been able to restrain myself...

Random Bootleg Merchant: Which DVD you like?
Kofi: ALL OF THEM!