Eclectic Eccentrics

I don’t mean this in a literal sense, but I see the term “no homo” as a ridiculously stupid phrase that constructs and perpetuates a homophobic environment. I think that sad part about the fact that this phrase is so common (with males in particular) now is that it shows that people are afraid of being gay. They’re afraid of coming off as gay, feminine, or not masculine enough. It indicates insecurity. Not just with one’s sexuality, but with their public image. Not to say that this can all be blamed on the individual, we’ve been conditioned to behave like this since we were born.

If you can’t tell already, I’m fed up with our hypermasculine, gay-bashing society. As kids we’re all taught that in order to be a man, we have to play certain sports, like action figures, wear certain clothes, have sex with as many women as possible, only listen to certain music, this list can go on and on. Young boys’ role models are mostly large, muscular athletes, action stars and super heroes. When I was in elementary school, listening to the Backstreet Boys, N’Sync, Britney Spears, or other boy bands/female pop singers was taboo. You couldn’t do it if you were a guy, or else everyone would call you a girl, or a sissy. As a result, I grew to “hate” them all. I never even listened to them. In fact, it wasn’t until high school that I actually even heard some of their music. I hated them because that’s what I had to do in order to be a man. Thank goodness I (and most of my peers) outgrew that stage, but again, I see the same shit happening today, with Justin Bieber, The Jonas Brothers and Twilight to name a few. By no means do you have to like these things, but it’s stupid to unconditionally hate them.

If you’re straight, then you’re straight. If you’re gay, then you’re gay. If you’re a man or a woman, then that’s what you are (short of a sex-change operation), and nothing is going to change that.

NEWS FLASH: Noticing that a member of the same sex (a celebrity even) is attractive does not mean you are gay. It means that you have eyes, and an appreciation for beautiful people. For example, I find Joseph Gordon-Levit to be ridiculously cute, and people like Ryan Reynolds to be very attractive, but at the same time, I can confidently look you in the eye and tell you that I am a straight male with no intentions of “becoming” gay.

It’s hard for me to convey my exact feelings about this whole topic through a tumblr post, but I hope you get my gist. Stop being homophobic. Don’t be so insecure about yourself. Stop being so close-minded. Not to be cliche, but you are who you are, and that isn’t about to change. 

And if you feel the need to point out to your friends that you’re not gay after every little thing that you say, I think it’s time to find some new friends.

-Tomio

• Stuffed into the middle seat (bitch seat) for a 3 hour car ride with several bags sitting on top of me. Donny needs to learn how to fold his sleeping bag, I barely had any leg room.
• Squeezing near 40 people into a cabin with a max occupancy of 11. The cabin/house itself was actually really nice and spacious though. Besides, I’m used to living in cramped conditions.
• Two shower heads in the same shower for twice the clean-ness?

• Watched Zoolander again. That movie gets funnier everything I see it.
• Woke up to the upperclassmen making eggs and bacon before running out into the backyard to frolic in the snow. I didn’t actually go skiing or snowboarding despite the title of the trip. Too much $$$ that I don’t have :[
• Witnessed several hardcore snowball fights and wrestling matches. Took at least 5 guys to take Fred down.
• Donny is a very sexy snow mermaid. I mean merman.
• Quizzing Donny for his classical art midterm.
• The afternoon was definitely defined by people playing tetris and Donny playing Maple Story. Pretty laid-back.

• Played Taboo, and lost. Luckily, Dale (our appointed team captain) took the fall and had to eat a spoonful of bacon fat saved from the morning’s breakfast. 
• DRD Talent show. ACAF/FACA Tai Chi, Donny’s amazing hair, Kasey’s dancing, Eddie’s Vietnamese martial arts, Bruce, John and Jason’s light shows and of course, Jacson’s magic tricks. It was very entertaining.
• Craniummmmm and the backhand high-five. We so fly. 
• DAMN WHAT A SEXY FISH
• Asian glow. Drank a little bit too much too fast. Lesson learned.
• Watched most of 500 Days of Summer (only interrupted by several trips to the bathroom, see above bullet point) 
• Epic snowball fight in the field in front of the house.
• Snow Totoros with Kristen (KERstin)

• Very large snow penis, which after collapsing became a large snow-slide. You cannot ignore my girth.
• For dinner that night we drove to Harrah’s hotel/resort over the Nevada border to eat at a massive buffet. Yay freshman table.

• Playing the “sugar game” with Derrek and Bruce. Eating Sweet-N-Low packets is kinda disgusting.
• YOU AREN’T ALLOWED TO CALL YOURSELF AN ARCADE IF YOU DON’T HAVE THE JURASSIC PARK GAME. Okay well they did but it was broken. Shame on them. Sandy was crushed.
• Watching people beast it up at the “Jumpin’ Jackpot” game and DDR
• Combined DRD won 647 tickets, and used 500 of them to get another 20 game tokens in the hopes that they could win more at the Jumpin’ Jackpots
• Despite Jesse’s and Bruce’s best efforts, we only won another 100 tickets (spent 500, won 100 or so back).
• Won a whoopie cushion and inflatable hammer for our “success”
• Learned how to play Mahjong from Ryan. Yay, I’m now that much more Asian.
• Woke up, packed and left, but not before taking a “fuzzy hat” picture with Kristen and Derrick and several team shots. My feet got cold.

• My computer is getting pretty hot so I’ll give it a rest, but to wrap it up, I’m really glad that I had the chance to go on this trip. I bonded with a lot of the team and mostly the other freshmen on the team. Joining DRD was a great idea. 
• Hopefully I will have plenty of other stories to tell soon :]

Just in case you haven’t already seen this picture, I just thought I would leave it there. It makes me happy to look at it.

- Tomio

So the other night, one of my roommates (I’m in a triple) Alan just kinda packed most of his stuff up and left. HE refused to tell Michael (my other roommate) and I where he was going, or what the fuck was happening. He took a lot of his clothes and his bedsheets, so it looks like he won’t be staying here in the dorms for the rest of the week. My guess is that this is for his frat, which to be honest sounds really weird.

He was apparently spotted by other people on my floor standing in the middle of a bike path under a bridge just staring at the ground. 

Well…I guess for the time being I’m living in a double now. Very tempted to borrow his PS3 and his TV for the break. And maybe for the time being remove the bottom bed in our bunk (his bed) and replace it with a couch from the floor lounge.

Anyways, about to start reviewing for my chem midterm, which is later in the evening. Fuck.

In the first phase of our “plan” to get hella sexy bulk up for the upcoming spring dragon boat season, everyone on DRD (Davis Racing Dragons) is taking before and after pictures and body measurements before the start of winter quarter (when hardcore team conditioning starts) to track improvement. It was decided that we didn’t perform as well at the College cup race partially because we did not train as hard as other teams. The pictures and measurements are aimed to provide some extra visual motivation to work out harder.

All you have to know however, was that in order to take these pictures, we had ~12-20 people at any given time cramming themselves into Donny’s room/suite stripping and posing, making things really awkward for his suite-mates. The funniest part was sending a steady stream of half naked people up and down the hall to weight themselves while one of Donny’s neighbors was brushing his teeth in the shared bathroom. At least he got a free show.

So much bromance on this team. I love it.

Today, I watched the movie “Departures” directed by Yoshiro Takita with Chris, and I have to say it was one of the most touching and beautiful movies I have seen in quite a long time.

It follows Daigo Kobayashi, a man who leaves behind his career in Tokyo as an orchestra cello player and moves back to his hometown with his reluctant wife. By happenstance, he takes on a job in which he ceremonially prepares the dead for burial/cremation in front of their loved ones.

It’s more than just the story of a man preparing the dead, it’s a story about a husband and wife figuring out their differences. It’s the story of a man dealing with his absent father. It’s a story about life and death, and celebrating the beauty in life, and what we have. It’s really hard for me to explain everything about this movie, but I really suggest that you all go watch it. It won the 2009 Academy Award for “Best Foreign Language Film” if that makes any difference to you.

It’s always nice to watch a foreign movie every once in a while, shake the Hollywood formula off for a bit.

Someone recently asked me whether or not I believed in God, and to be honest, when people ask this,I never really know how to answer. It’s not so much my conflicting feelings about the possibility of the existence of a higher power (implied Judeo-Christian deity in this situation), but more so how to express my beliefs about religion, about life and philosophy.

First and foremost, I don’t like the term “atheist”. I used to proudly call myself an atheist because hell, I didn’t believe in God and I was damn proud of it, because in my self-righteous world I saw myself as a freethinker in a world of sheep, being blindly led around by these so-called “holy men”. I would intentionally look for debates (I like debating people) and intentionally provocative.

But think about it, what kind of “freethinker” bases their entire philosophy around debunking other peoples’ beliefs?

This is not to say that all atheists are like this, but I’m simply describing the vibe that I often get from the atheist standpoint. The 1st Amendment goes both ways. True, there is a separation of church and state, and nobody can “shove their religious ideals down your throat”. However, it applies to you too. If someone wants to believe in God, then it’s their Constitutional right to do so, and no amount of arguing will change that.

Although I am liable to change my mind at any given moment, I like the term “secular humanist”. According to Wikipedia (my source for everything), “Secular Humanism is a secular philosophy that espouses reason, ethics, and the search for human fulfillment, and specifically rejects supernatural and religious dogma as the basis of morality and decision-making. Secular Humanism is a life stance that focuses on the way human beings can lead happy and functional lives.”

I don’t know if there is a God or any sort of higher power. I don’t know if there is an afterlife, if we have any “purpose” in life, or what happens when we die, and I’m not afraid to admit that sometimes this feeling of being lost can be somewhat frightening at times. I feel like sometimes organized religion was created in order to fill this void, in order to give ourselves a feeling of belonging, and quell our fears.

But who am I to judge? As a mortal human being, I don’t have any extra ordinary powers. I don’t have any special insight into the workings of the world. all I have is my ability to reason and speculate, which I plan on using as much as possible. But when it all comes down to it, I really don’t know anything, and most likely, neither do you nor will we ever know “the secrets of the universe”.

So I just live my life and try not to unnecessarily offend people.

(I haven’t contributed anything in a long time, and this really has no point to it, just rambling)

Right now I’m packing my stuff for the College Cup dragon boat race this weekend in Oakland. In order to save money, several people living in the Bay Area generously agreed to house various members of the team who did not live in close proximity to the race site.

I’m excited because this will be my first race with DRD (Davis Racing Dragons), and I’m on boat 1 (the “better, more competitive” boat) along with Donny and Mayur as we’ve had at least 2 years of prior experience paddling. I think this should be fun.

Everyone on the team is so friendly, and even though it can be hard work (paddling in the freezing cold rain is not fun), I’m really glad that I decided to continue paddling.

Let’s fuck shit up.