Although Kingston is a harbour city, its own shores are too dirty and small for most beachgoers. Therefore, on the weekends, most city-dwellers looking for a break head to either Hellshire or Lime Cay, both about half an hour from the city in different directions.

Lime Cay was the first of the two that I visited. It was Wayne's last full day in Jamaica, so we decided to cut him some slack and head to the beach with his friend Marvin, who is doing cool robot stuff here. Lime Cay is a little island just outside the Kingston harbor, and getting there requires a first stop in Port Royal, a small town at the end of the Palisadoes (peninsula) past the Norman Manley Airport. Port Royal is notable because it used to be THE hangout spot for the real pirates of the Caribbean until a huge earthquake left most of the city underwater and most of its residents dead. Nowadays, Port Royal is more a tourist attraction than a residential area. From Port Royal, you took a ferry (the "Y-Knot") out to Lime Cay, passing several smaller and less idyllic cays on the way (like Gun Cay, still covered in British fortifications). The ferry ride over was definitely bumpy; if it had been a car, I probably would've gotten ill, but for some reason the water instills reassurance and calm in me and I spent the ride grinning as the boat jumped through the choppy waves. The girls in front of me were not so excited-they were determined not to get wet (a strange thing, considering their destination!) and covered themselves with towels while shrieking instead. (more...)

I am not addicted to Facebook. I merely treat it as an extension of my brain, that's all.

But now, Facebook has grown out of control. Cancer of the extended brain. And it's time for some blogotherapy.

In case you don't know what I'm talking about, here's an update. Facebook has been gradually rolling out new features ever since it went public, but most of these have been small, optional additions. Yesterday, however, a design-changing element was introduced: a "news feed" that alerts you of every move any of your friends make on Facebook.

So what's wrong with this?

(more...)

Dear MBTA,

I love you. I love you very, very much. Without you, I would have a sad time walking to MIT all the time, nor would I have access to the beautiful plethora of food that is scattered all over Boston. The Red Line is like the sister I never had, etc., etc.

Sure, you're inefficient and you break down all the time, sometimes stranding me in Boston Common for an hour. Sure, during the winter the "emergency shuttle fleet" runs probably more often than the actual subway. But you're a public transportation system. All that is to be expected, and I'm from Ohio so I don't have very high expectations for public transportation anyway.

Then came along this stupid Charlie Ticket thing. You take all this trouble to renovate EVERY SINGLE STATION (but not all of them at the same time! Oh no, there has to be the longest, most awkward transition period in the world) so that they can read these cards. Except, all of the token-operated rotating things also read cards-monthly passes. Why didn't you just rewire/reprogram the monthly pass card readers??

It's supposed to be convenient, I guess, but it's really not. The machines are much slower than going to a person and getting tokens, and the cards are hard to use for first-timers who don't know that there's a "correct side". The doors have weird sensors so that they don't open at an intuitive time, and sometimes close on your stuff/foot/ass. Worst of all, since we're still in the transition period, about half the stations *only* take tokens while half the stations *only* take cards...which makes me a sad panda.

I wouldn't even really care about all of that, though, if it weren't for the fact that you're spending ridiculous amounts of moneyon all this reconstruction. Why, oh why, can't you just use it on other things? Things people actually want, need, crave? Things like the Kendall Band. Two out of the six handles for the public art/musical instruments in Kendall Station are broken-why can't you just fix these so I can play with the chimes again??

BAD MBTA.

It's been a pretty amazing hour.

"How you deal with stupidity is the most important part of how you learn." - Charles Nesson, following a sad story about a dog giving up.

His point was that people "learn stupidity", or rather learn that they are stupid, and when things don't work for reasons that aren't their fault, they believe that it is due to their own incompetence. And overcoming all of this is essential to learning.

I think this is the most important thing I've heard in a long time.

And right before class, I was at a Berkman Luncheon where Doc Searls, the new Berkman Fellow and the guy who wrote "The Cluetrain Manifesto". He gave a talk about the language and the metaphors we use when talking about the web and how they affect policy. It was a really, really amazing talk on the power of metaphors in how we think, one of my favorite topics. Very enlightening.

And in that room during the luncheon, there sat Dan Bricklin, inventor of the spreadsheet. Yes, the SPREADSHEET. There sat the executive director of the Tor project. There sat all the other Berkman fellows, all extremely interesting and accomplished people, not to mention some of the nicest people I've ever met. And yesterday, I discovered that John Perry Barlow, co-founder of the EFF and former lyricist for the Grateful Dead, is a Berkman Fellow.

Wow. What an awesome place.

I haven't posted in forever, I know, but I have many things I would LIKE to post about...it's just midterm season =(

But I think this is important.

Tomorrow is, according to some agency that decides these things, Love Your Body Day. Fantastic idea for a day, don't you think, for a nation that has been working so long to do just the opposite of that?

For example, check out this video, by Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty -- it's a very frank video about exactly how the powers-that-be manipulate our idea(l) of beauty so they can sell more products, not caring how many insecurities they stir up in the process.

Beauty != Makeup that hides your face
Beauty != Stylists that imprison your hair
Beauty != Clothes that are supposed to redefine who you are
Beauty != Photoshop airbrushing
Beauty is...

You! Your body! Your face your smile your strange little quirks. So tomorrow, when you get out of the shower (if you decide to shower =P), wait a few minutes before putting your clothes back on. Stand in front of a mirror and be proud of what you see. Stare into your own eyes and smile at yourself. Run your hands along your body and get to know it just a little bit better. Spend some time staring at what you like best about yourself. Ooohhh yeah. Then blog about it. Take a beautiful (according to you) picture of yourself and put it on the internet. Inspire someone else to love their body.

And stop being such a prude, for your own sake. Share that beauty with everyone else =)

So one night, I was on the subway to MIT. This happens often, sometimes several times a week, and I have it down to a science. Go down to the lower level of the Harvard Square T-stop, walk all the way down to the second last bench on the left side of the station, and get into the second-to-last car so that I enter Kendall Square exactly in front of the the exit.

This particular Friday night, the others who had decided to inhabit my car were three men. They were young (18-25ish), black, and looked about as stereotypical urban youth as it got. They sat down about 10 seats away from me.

Lost in my own thoughts, I paid them no attention at first. At one point, though, I noticed that they were passing around several colorful binders. Family pictures or something? I thought. Not exactly the swag one brings to go pick up ladies at the club. I kept looking.

They chattered animatedly, but the noise of the train drowned out their words. They gestured at the binders, passing them to and fro. Finally, on one such pass, one whole side of a binder was pointed at me.

I lost all tact and STARED.

Little colorful paper rectangles peered out at me in neat rows and columns from the pages of the binder.

MAGIC CARDS?

(more...)

Tonight, freed temporarily from problem set deadlines, I went to a screening of "Beyond Beats and Rhythms", a new documentary about masculinity in hip-hop culture. It was really well done and has many interesting insights even if you are already fairly media-literate-get your hands on it if you can!

I won't summarize the movie since the website and extensive media coverage have done plenty of that. Instead, here's a list of my thoughts.

1) The film explains in great detail the necessity of hypermasculinity in Black/Latino communities due to poverty and continued discrimination, but how does the masculinity issue take shape in Asian-American communities? On one hand, Asian kids don't grow up surrounded by images of hypermasculine Asian males (indeed, even the traditional "masculine" Asian man with his poetic prowess, eye for aesthetics, and sensitivity would be considered soft by American culture). On the other hand, the constant notion that they are not masculine enough DUE to their Asian-ness in a culture that values masculinity seems to push many of them to go out of their way to prove it, a drive perhaps manifested in many 2nd generation Asian-Americans' fascination with hip-hop culture. It would be interesting to analyze the differences, similarities, crossovers, and different ramifications in the communities.

1.5) I wonder if Asian communities, finding difficulty in hypermasculinize their men, turn instead to hyperfeminizing the women to compensate.

2) If I end up going to Jamaica, I should bring a copy of this film with me. I think it'd be really fascinating to hear what inmates in Kingston would have to say about it.

3) The film emphasized many times that rappers who try to portray a less stereotypical message simply don't get airplay. Will this change with the whole internet revolution thing? If not, will it be because of the digital divide? And if not, then how DO we fix it?

4) It's so amazingly ironic that corporations run by white businessmen control black culture. Reminds me of the image of a master telling the slaves to whip the other slaves, but at a much more insidious level. Eeek.

Yeah. So interesting.

I am not addicted to Facebook. I merely treat it as an extension of my brain, that's all.

But now, Facebook has grown out of control. Cancer of the extended brain. And it's time for some blogotherapy.

In case you don't know what I'm talking about, here's an update. Facebook has been gradually rolling out new features ever since it went public, but most of these have been small, optional additions. Yesterday, however, a design-changing element was introduced: a "news feed" that alerts you of every move any of your friends make on Facebook.

So what's wrong with this?

(more...)

...is a bouncy castle and mimosas in front of Annenberg after a horrid midterm.

...is noticing that Google Maps FINALLY put in the locations of the T-stations around Boston.

...is getting my ridiculous "DRAGON TATTOO" replacement Razr.

Thank you, Pfoho! Thank you, Google! Thank you, Motorola...I think.

I've neglected this blog for a long time, but now I will use it to talk about my very interesting summer job: prison rehabilitation in Kingston, Jamaica.

The group I'm working with, Students Expressing Truth (SET), operates in three different institutions around Kingston, and they're all drastically different from each other. I'll try to describe all three on this blog, starting first with Tower St.

The Tower St. Adult Correctional Centre was called the General Penitentiary before the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) made an attempt to focus on the correctional side of their duties over the punitive side. A brick and concrete fortress with sentry towers and 20 ft. tall walls with barbed wire on top by any other name, however, is just as depressing, and many Kingstonians just refer to it as "GP" anyway.

TSACC is the largest correctional center in all of Jamaica, housing (as of June 22nd, 2007) 1,703 inmates, all male but not all adults-some juveniles get put in Tower St. too. It is one of the highest-security facilities on the island as well, with only Spanish Town Adult Correctional Center in the nearby parish of Portmore as competition. Unlike Spanish Town ACC, however, Tower St. has no death row. It does, however, serve as a receiving center for new inmates in the corrections system, who are often put into Tower St. before a better fit is found. All of these traits means that Tower St. is often considered the heart of the corrections system, and therefore an extremely important site for changes in rehabilitation.

(more...)

Dear MBTA,

I love you. I love you very, very much. Without you, I would have a sad time walking to MIT all the time, nor would I have access to the beautiful plethora of food that is scattered all over Boston. The Red Line is like the sister I never had, etc., etc.

Sure, you're inefficient and you break down all the time, sometimes stranding me in Boston Common for an hour. Sure, during the winter the "emergency shuttle fleet" runs probably more often than the actual subway. But you're a public transportation system. All that is to be expected, and I'm from Ohio so I don't have very high expectations for public transportation anyway.

Then came along this stupid Charlie Ticket thing. You take all this trouble to renovate EVERY SINGLE STATION (but not all of them at the same time! Oh no, there has to be the longest, most awkward transition period in the world) so that they can read these cards. Except, all of the token-operated rotating things also read cards-monthly passes. Why didn't you just rewire/reprogram the monthly pass card readers??

It's supposed to be convenient, I guess, but it's really not. The machines are much slower than going to a person and getting tokens, and the cards are hard to use for first-timers who don't know that there's a "correct side". The doors have weird sensors so that they don't open at an intuitive time, and sometimes close on your stuff/foot/ass. Worst of all, since we're still in the transition period, about half the stations *only* take tokens while half the stations *only* take cards...which makes me a sad panda.

I wouldn't even really care about all of that, though, if it weren't for the fact that you're spending ridiculous amounts of moneyon all this reconstruction. Why, oh why, can't you just use it on other things? Things people actually want, need, crave? Things like the Kendall Band. Two out of the six handles for the public art/musical instruments in Kendall Station are broken-why can't you just fix these so I can play with the chimes again??

BAD MBTA.