@yawen » yawen

Hello 2009

yawen — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 06:38:50 +0000

Happy 2009! I realize it’s already been more than a week into it. I’m slowly easing into the year and revisiting this blog. I’ve made some small design tweaks and text edits. This year, I’m not going to let this blog sit and collect dust! This post is a start.

So far in 2009, I’ve:

Gotten more involved with the CouchSurfing community through attending and organizing events.
Gone to American Museum of Natural History for the first time.
Signed up for a creative writing class

and I will be planning to:

Ice-skate for the first time in many many years!
Re-vamp my site & blog
Travel to Montreal, Quebec (Canada)
Continue studying French
Read! Book recommendations are welcome.

New York Encounters

yawen — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:37:39 +0000

“Would you not block my way?” – a hurried woman behind me on a cross walk near Penn Station (34th St & 7th Ave, NYC). I looked around me only to see around 3 other people crossing the big avenue.

“What is that upstairs, an Asian singles party?” – a woman commenting on the crowd at the Sosauce social last night at Piano’s (LES, NYC).

“Hey miss…” After turning around to face this man in a large jersey, he continues, “You’re beautiful…. but you have an ugly personality.” Before I can react, he’s nearly out of eyesight and goes, “You’re not my type anyway!”

Radio Snippet (1)

yawen — Sat, 10 May 2008 00:53:26 +0000

I used to be a college radio DJ and even DJ’ed some events. Unfortunately, I’ve currently have less music resources – I’m no longer backed up by KDVS’s large music collection, so I’ve decided that I’m going post snippets of my playlist here from 2004-2006.

The Future – Askeleton
Don’t Let Our Youth Go To Waste – Galaxie 500
It Must Have Been Days – Pagoda
I’ve Lived On A Dirt Road All My Life – Manitoba
The Pages of Lisa, Bright & Dark – Baskerville
Everybody’s The Same – Dear Nora
Crown of the Lost – Piano Magic
Letter from Belgium – The Mountain Goats
DSCO – Sweet Trip
Whole wide world – Laptop
Holland – Tranquilizer
Distance is the Sun – Tracker
Just enough – Paul Schneider
Bigger Beauty – Jason Collette (of Broken Social Sauce)
Empty Pictures – Elf Power
I’m Just Gonna Close My Eyes For a Second – Beauty Pill
Frolic – Komeda
Knee Deep at the NPL – Camera Obscura
Rain – Blake Babies
Burning Hearts- My Favorite

The Vegetarian Factor

yawen — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:40:24 +0000

[This is a piece in progress -5/8]

As a vegetarian, or a “vegan”, I’m often confronted with the question – Why? I feel like I want to counter why do you eat meat? Though it’s more than choosing not eating eat tomatoes or mushrooms, it’s still a matter of taste. Yet, there’s more to it – if you look beyond just the choice, and the consequences of your choice of food, vegetarianism triumphs. I will highlight my reasoning with two major points: The Heaviness and The Moderation.

The Heaviness: Meat makes me feel heavy, a sort of unbearable and unhealthy heaviness in more than just my stomach. Maybe it has to do with the slaughterhouse imagery, or even the trips to Chinatown. In a word – I feel disgusted. Just because meat is readily available and prevalent does not mean I should ingest it. Why should I, unless it’s out of pure convenience? To me, passing up meat does not seem like I’m ‘giving up’ anything, except it’s nutritional value, which may just as well be substituted.

The Moderation: Consider how much of our resources are allotted for food, and how personal choices would impact the source of it all – the animals and the crops. It’s not just about animal rights, but also about a host of human ethics including environmental ethics. For example, for the sake of eating meat, the natural environment is dissipating. Meat produce requires an incredible amount of land & energy resources, more so than pure vegetation. Although we have always been responsible for this deprecation, we can neutralize or control our consumption. It’s about Moderation. This is similar to the carbon-emission energy movement: if you cannot better the environment or eliminate waste, at least moderate your usage. Similarly, food could be moderated. I’m probably not saving the world, or even so many animals. But if we’re a little more moderate in our consumption, we’re being just that much more pleasant to our world and ourselves.

The Top Spins (50708)

yawen — Thu, 08 May 2008 03:05:15 +0000

Sampling of the top songs of the top artists of the year so far, according to iTunes.

I Don’t Really Love You Anymore – The Magnetic Fields
The Opposite of Hallelujah – Jens Lekman
Paper Planes – M.I.A.
The Quiz – Hello Saferide
Tire Swing – Kimya Dawson
And I Found This Boy – Maia Hirasawa
Past in Present – Feist
Developing Active People – Via Audio
The Park – Sambassadeur
Little Wounds – Herman Dune

Remnants of My Past [Virtual] Self

yawen — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:29:56 +0000

First, it started with searching for my name. Just so you know, I am definitely not used to having my name plastered everywhere on web pages, much less a domain name of my actual name. So, searching for my exact name did not render myself, but of distant strangers. Not surprising. In my earlier internet years, I was hung up on aliases. I wanted to remain anonymous and I was semi-successful; that is, you couldn’t find me if you searched my full name… but if you searched the right keywords, you’ll find me.

And what do you get when you type in any of those? I’m scattered about. I believe I’m most notable for my free diary designs (made mostly for Diaryland), and my “Which Sylvia Plath poem are you?” online quiz (back when online quizzes were novel, and arguably more interesting — in the early OKcupid days).

I’m glad I finally have my own name out here in the virtual world now. I own it.