Thursday, November 6, 2008

Let's Make History.

(I couldn't get the captions to line up with the photos, so they're numbered... you'll have to follow along... any suggestions brother?)


1. Walking towards the first entrance point. All the streets downtown were shutdown and people were milling everywhere. There was all this nervous energy buzzing around. There were some early celebrations; people hoping for the best. There was Obama-gear everywhere in sight. If you were in favor of John McCain and you were in Chicago, you kept your mouth shut. It's Obama Land here.


2. Heading into the first checkpoint. Only 70,000 people got tickets to be in the first section and were some of them.


3. Everyone with a ticket was able to bring in one guest. Since the tickets sold out so quickly and so many people were desperate for tickets. Some held up signs asking to be a guest. We had one unclaimed guest spot in our group so we made Jason, who flew in from the Bronx for the day, a very happy man.


4. I was Ashley's buddy!!


5. Night starts to fall... We waited for hours between the first checkpoint and getting into the rally. It was worth it.


6. The whole group from Wheaton in Chicago (plus our new best friends we stood next to for five hours).


7. Me, Lauren, and Trisha. (I'm wearing my Hawaii sweatshirt in solidarity!)

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8. President-Elect Obama makes his acceptance speech! I saw him in real life!

At ten o'clock the news flashed across the screen "BARACK OBAMA ELECTED PRESIDENT" and everyone went crazy. There was screaming and jumping and crying. It was actually really powerful to stand there and realize I had just seen something so historic. The realization that for the first time in history, an African American had been elected the President of the United States only sunk in half-way. I was completely speechless for a long time.

The last few days have been great ones to be in Chicago. Everywhere people are celebrating the election of a Chicagoan to the White House (I know, I know, he's Hawaii's own...). Today we were on a field trip to a community art center in Kenwood, which is where his home is and we saw his motorcade drive by. There's a spirit of celebration in the air everywhere and I'm so excited that I can be here for this time. It's truly historic.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

They're Here!!

My connections at Chevron inform me that my baby has arrived in Kapolei!! My major project this summer was producing this cookbook and it's finally printed! Here's the picture Dad sent me... woo!

Friday, October 10, 2008

Educational Inequalities

Hello... It's been a long time... again. So sorry. I actually have been doing a lot of homework, really I have. And exploring Chicago. That too. :)

We've been learning about a lot of interesting, but difficult stuff in class. In addition to gentrification and everything that comes with it, recently we've talked about educational inequalities. We recently read an article by Jonathan Kozol, author of several books on the public school system, about this very subject. I'll include a few of the paragraphs so you can get a sense of what the article says since it's pretty long, but I'll also include the link in case you want to read more.

"Many Americans who live far from our major cities and who have no firsthand knowledge of the realities to be found in urban public schools seem to have the rather vague and general impression that the great extremes of racial isolation that were matters of grave national significance some thirty-five or forty years ago have gradually but steadily diminished in more recent years. The truth, unhappily, is that the trend, for well over a decade now, has been precisely the reverse. Schools that were already deeply segregated twenty-five or thirty years ago are no less segregated now, while thousands of other schools around the country that had been integrated either voluntarily or by the force of law have since been rapidly resegregating."

...

"High school students whom I talk with in deeply segregated neighborhoods and public schools seem far less circumspect than their elders and far more open in their willingness to confront these issues. "It's more like being hidden," said a fifteen-year-old girl named Isabel I met some years ago in Harlem, in attempting to explain to me the ways in which she and her classmates understood the racial segregation of their neighborhoods and schools. 'It's as if you have been put in a garage where, if they don't have room for something but aren't sure if they should throw it out, they put it there where they don't need to think of it again.'

I asked her if she thought America truly did not 'have room' for her or other children of her race. 'Think of it this way,' said a sixteen-year-old girl sitting beside her. 'If people in New York woke up one day and learned that we were gone, that we had simply died or left for somewhere else, how would they feel?'

'How do you think they'd feel?' I asked.

'I think they'd he relieved,' this very solemn girl replied."

http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2005/American-Apartheid-Education1sep05.htm


I'm going to be writing a paper about the disparities in education within the Chicagoland public school system, so I'll probably have more to say about this in a month or two. In the meantime, it's a little food for thought!

On a side, and more uplifting, note, I'm writing this from a great little cafe I found 10 minutes from my apartment. It's cute AND there's free wi-fi. What a find!

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Delinquency

I know, I know... I've been terribly delinquent about posting anything recently. I apologize. Somehow, even with three day weekends life has been incredibly busy and there hasn't been lots of time to sit down.

As a show of my desire to make amends, I've decided to post this picture of bonafide Chicago pizza. No Mom and Dad, this isn't Due's pizza. I promise we'll go there, though. This is Giordano's, but still quite excellent.



And on that note I need to get back to writing a paper. This was just a way to avoid studying further. Haha.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

I'm Motivated

I've finally mustered the motivation to write and post pictures. I know, I know... that's a pretty lame statement. You're probably thinking, "How much effort does it take to click a few buttons and put pictures online?" But let me tell you, it's summer; pretty much anything beyond sleeping requires motivation.

David and Holly came to visit. Dad and I took the week off from work. All five of us went to Lana'i. This small island is home to approximately 3,000 people. It was a wonderful, beautiful, very relaxing vacation. We also goofed off around Kailua. Much fun was had by all.

Note in these pictures how beautiful everything is. Also, in the picture of the rock, if you look closely you'll see that it says "JOHN KUPAU - 11/28/29" the day the foundation was laid for the old lighthouse we were standing on. Pretty cool, eh?






Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Suh-Wheat!

I got a new camera today! And I'm pretty excited about it.

Along with that excitement came in-car picture taking as well as mirror shots. Oh the joys of new cameras...


Friday, July 4, 2008

In honor of the 4th of July...

Tomorrow is the Fourth of July! In light of my love for history and recent reading of 'Mayflower' by Nathaniel Philbrick (HIGHLY recommend it), I wanted to share this picture. My friend recently spent some time in Massachusetts and took this picture of Provincetown Harbor where the pilgrims first landed in 1621. Pretty cool, huh?! Yay history!




Also an added bonus today: A cool Paul Rand poster I found online. Rand is a famous designer who created, among other things, the IBM, ABC, AT&T, and UPS logos. (Those are all three letter acronyms... interesting.) Here's an example of his work that I like.


Monday, June 30, 2008

All in a Days Work

I had the distinct pleasure to spend a day on Kauai last week working a Chevron hole at a golf tournament. What a bummer... I had to spend the day outside in a beautiful place! I also got to meet the governor of Samoa and lots of University of Hawaii football coaches (it was a "celebrity" golf tournament fundraiser). I took some pictures because it was just so beautiful. (note the carefully placed CHEVRON sign on the golf course :)

Just as a note, it's mildly funny the first 3 times you hear, "You're giving me a $5 gas card? That'll get me, what, only one gallon!" But when every single person who passes your fundraiser booth tells you this, it becomes not so funny. Seriously, it's five dollars; take it or leave it! (Not that I'm bitter or anything...)

But yeah, beautiful Kauai! Woo business trip!

P.S. I'm perpetually puzzled about using smiley faces within parentheses. (Should it be like this? :) ) (Or just this? :) It's a puzzler.


Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Shoogie Boogie

Interesting things to note:

1. A new Amos Lee album came out this week. That's exciting.
2. I'm going to Kauai on Wednesday for work. I get paid to travel - sweet deal. I'll be working at a golf tournament all day. It will be long, but fun.
3. I am a terrible sun screen applier.
4. The ability to video chat across thousands of miles astounds me. How is that possible and who figured it out??
5. I really like books. I also like people who like books. My boss is well read and it's fun to be able to talk about books we've both read and make recommendations to each other.
6. I like paper-shredders.
7. I've done almost everything possible to reformat my PC at work to look like a Mac. It's kind of fun.
8. I really love my mother.
9. I really love my father, too.
10. Pictures of summer (so far).


Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Memorial-izing


Inspired by the musings of Ashley Elizabeth, I decided to post this picture. It was taken at the homecoming of our friend from his deployment with the military. It was so wonderful and beautiful to see his children welcome him home. It was so fun to be there for that moment!

And yes, I am surviving corporate, full-time ness. :) I work long days Monday through Thursday and then get a three day weekend! It's pretty exciting. My time is mostly filled with putting together a company cookbook to sell for charity, poster ideating, and a new economic research project. The economics will be interesting... Analyzing numbers has never been my strong point, but by the end of the summer I'm going to be a lot smarter about this whole refining petroleum thing!

I also began an office mural today. I've begun to recruit break-takers to draw little pictures and put them up on a blank wall next to my desk. Community art? I think perhaps... So far my biggest contribution has been an illustration of my favorite punctuation marks. I love (parentheses), [brackets], and {these guys}. Call me a nerd, but if you tell me that all of life can be explained using mathematical equations, I'll throw it right back at you. :)

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Identity Crisis

My blog may or may not be having an identity crisis.
I'm just saying...

P.S. I'm having a craving for "PLANET EARTH." As they say in the Northeast, it's wicked awesome. The other day, Dad asked me what the plot was. My response? "Umm... the Earth is cool?"

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

time for workie

i start my summer job tomorrow morning! i'm doing an internship at chevron for the summer, which i believe will include elements of history and graphic design. perfecto! i should have a better idea of what my position will look like after tomorrow. in the mean time, i'm off to bed since dad and i will be leaving earlier than i would ever wake up... looks like it's back to the high school 5:30 alarm days. wooooo summer job! :)

Thursday, May 22, 2008

one reason i love summer.


currently on loan from the public library.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Stalingrad

One of my favorite things about summer is the chance it gives me to read... a lot. My first project this summer was to finish the book 'Stalingrad' by Antony Beevor (a book I was theoretically supposed to read all of in class this semester, but only got halfway through). So, I finished the book today, and wow, what a sad, sad story.

The battle of Stalingrad took place during World War II between 1942 and 1943. Estimates put the number of casualties from both sides at more than 1.5 million. ONE POINT FIVE MILLION. That's incredible. Beevor's book recounts in detail the suffering of soldiers (and civilians) on both sides who beyond the physical violence of war, underwent starvation, extreme frostbite, and debilitating disease.

The part that really got to me was this: Towards the end of the battle it became obvious that the Germans were going to lose. They were encircled by the Soviets, trapped, starved, and severely under-provisioned by fuel and arms. The suffering of both armies, but in this case specifically the German, was beyond belief. A surrender would have saved countless lives of those who had miraculously survived thus far. Hitler's order was this:

"Surrender out of the question. Troops fight on to the end. If possible, hold reduced Fortress with troops still battleworthy. Bravery and tenacity of Fortress have provided the opportunity to establish a new front and launch counter-attacks. Sixth Army has thus fulfilled its historical contribution in the greatest passage in German history."

Surrender out of the question.
How extraordinarily sad.

Friday, May 9, 2008

wooo summer!

hey hey, i'm a senior!
it's summer time!

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

7 hours... 12 pages...

Woooooo!! After weeks of researching the Jewish women in the Holocaust, I wrote my big history paper today! It took me seven hours of solid writing, but I got 'er done. :) Twelve pages... that's the most I've ever written - and in one day! Now just one final tomorrow, some packing, and hanging out with people until I go home!

P.S. Here's the first paragraph of my papety-pape:

"The horrors of the Jewish Holocaust are well recognized and well documented. The Nazi’s systematic discrimination, collection, and extermination of Jewish men, women, and children is one of the most reviled events in human history. Genocide, while horrific, is not unique to Nazism. Yet it is the cold, calculated, and widespread nature of the Holocaust that sets it apart. Six million European Jews were murdered in the effort to ‘rid Europe of the plague of International Jewry’ – to paraphrase Hitler. Within studies of the Holocaust, the accounts of men dominate academic literature. In many ways, the male experience has come to be accepted as the ‘normal experience.’ However, Jewish women, while often left out of academic study, have much to say in their accounts of Nazi oppression. According to their stories, the Jewish woman’s experience during World War II and the Holocaust is uniquely female and deserves to be told equally with that of men."

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

final web design project

i put my final web design project online today... you can check it out at:
www.ajenda.net/wheaton/hepburn/musicbox

it's finals week... two down... one big paper and one final to go!
(plus packing)

"oh-oh, halfway there, oh-oh, living on a prayer!"

Monday, May 5, 2008

We Called It "Family Vacation"






One of the greatest, shortest, longest vacations of recent history... Ten of us drove to our friend's lake house in southern Indiana for an incredible weekend of tubing, ATV-ing, sitting in the sun, and general relaxation. Here are some pictures!

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Happy Lei Day!


May Day is Lei Day in Hawai'i! So happy Lei Day! Today is significant for many reasons:
1. I worked my last day at Crossway today. We had company lunch... I love company lunch.
2. A week from today, school is OVER.
3. Today is the anniversary of Goebbels', the Nazi head of propaganda, suicide. So, I'm a history dork... what can I say?
4. It's Lei Day!

Alright, it's back to working on this research paper... Nope, not the big one; just a 5 pager on teen pregnancy. It's due in 16.5 hours... here we go!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

birthday days!






Woooo I'm 21!! Here are some pictures... Luckily I'm in the library right now about to research my okole off about the Holocaust and Nazi Germany, so the internet is great! Sunday night I had the lovely surprise (thanks to my parents and friends) of a night in the city complete with limo and 8 close friends. It was so great! Monday I skipped all of my classes, enjoyed an awesome Phil Keaggy chapel (complete with the first ever that I know of standing ovation and encore) and spent the rest of the day in the city looking at art and architecture with Dave. Yay art! Yay history! Yay pictures! Yay birthday! Okay, I really have to study now...