Posts from — April 2007

I think the news about the gas truck explosion scared everyone. BART wasn’t that busy and, from what I’ve heard from coworkers, the roads were not too busy as well. I guess a lot of people did stay home or change their hours around to the non-busy times, as Caltrans recommended.

I understand that a lot of commuters are affected by this (a number given in one article says 75,000 directly use that route a day while 250,000 total people will be affected daily) but I still think too much of a big deal is being made on this.

I mean, the Governor declared this a state of emergency? Really? Ok, maybe that was the only way funds can be cleared fast to fix it, but it’s a bit dramatic.

“I’m mad,” one lady said (I don’t feel like putting her name here. I got it from an article and I wouldn’t want her to Google her name some time and end up here). “My life is upside down, and I don’t know how long it’s going to take.”

People are living in war ravaged countries and face the possibility of death every single day. If a bit of traffic is the only thing you have to worry about, consider yourself living a privileged life. Yeah, it’ll be a hassle for a lot of people, no question, but you just have to deal.

My route to work is way to close to this. There’s going to be some crazy traffic tomorrow.

On Wednesday, April 25th, the students at San Jose State did something a bit different in honor of Palestinian Awareness Week. Instead of scheduling a lecture to explain how life for a Palestinian is, they showed it.

Securing a section of campus, students from the club Students for Change staged a dramatization of a checkpoint, one in which many Palestinians must pass multiple times a day. Students played both soldiers Palestinians. The soldiers continuously pointed fake guns at the Palestinians and detained them by making them kneel down, tying them up and, at times, blindfolding them.

This dramatization went on for a few hours in middle of the school day, piquing the curiosity of many passing students and faculty alike.

Of course, a demonstration like this cannot go unanswered by those who believe such checkpoints are necessary. Protestors of the event wore custom made t-shirts that read “If I were a suicide bomber, you would be dead by now.”

Check out the article written in the Spartan Daily, San Jose State’s daily newspaper: Spartain Daily Article

College has always been an important venue in which activism thrives. Add that to the fact that activism has always been prevalent in the Bay Area, and you get an event like this. I have to admit, I thought it was pretty creative and, judging from the article, the multitude of pictures I viewed from the event, and from what I heard about it, it attracted a number of students and brought the issue of life of Palestinians and the oppression they face right to them, creating a lot more awareness than previously existed.

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I wrote this for the other site I manage for my committe, but figured I’d post it here too. My younger sister who still goes to San Jose State told me about it. I was looking at the number of pictures she took and it was crazy.

The protestors, the ones who wore the ill-worded t-shirts, apparently left after a short time because the students involved in the demonstration took to ignoring them after an initial discussion/debate.

After the event was over, SJSU’s administration came by to say that the club did not indicate the proper nature of their event when they reserved the area. Apparently they did though, including the fact that this was a dramatization.

I told my sister that maybe they were a bit uncomfortable with the nature of the act because of the Virginia Tech shootings, since the students portraying the soldiers were carrying around psuedo guns made out of cardboard tubes. Yeah they looked fake, but maybe the mere idea of guns on campus made them a bit weary.

I really miss that aspect of college. I remember putting on events with the MSA that were protested for the stupidest reasons by those that opposed the speaker, the event, or whatever. The protestors represented only a very small minority of students as I would sometimes get stopped by other students who were at the event to say how good it was.

I remember one time we had to play serious damage control as the Spartan Daily published an article for an event we hosted with only the viewpoints of the opposing side. Good time, good times.

Joe and Monkey is one of my favorite web comic strips. I got my “Caution: Dangerous When Awesome” shirt from the creator’s store.

Joe and Monkey at GoComics

The other day, I attended a lecture at UC Berkeley titled Can We Talk About God? Devotion and Extremism in the Modern Age. The event was sponsored by Zaytuna, KPFA, and Cody’s Books.

To tell you the truth, I wasn’t about to go.

The event was on a Tuesday in Berkeley and while I already told my mom that I would just head there after work, I spent a great deal of time debating myself as to whether or not I should even go. Eventually, I decided to go because every time I miss a Zaytuna event, I hear about how awesome it was.

So I went.

And it was awesome.

The talk featured British philosopher Roger Scruton and Muslim scholar Imam Zaid Shakir. The two of them first spoke separately and then joined in a discussion with moderator Sandy Tolan, author and professor at UC Berkeley.

Scruton, a conservative himself, discussed how secularist law should should be the dominant form of law over religious law in a country. He ended his talk by asking if Muslims could deal with secularist society, such as that of the U.S.

After pointing out that God has always been present in many aspects of the U.S., mentioning how Presidents swear their oath on Bibles and so forth, Shakir talked of the issues that God presented in this society. Out of the three issues he presented, the last one dealt exclusively with Islam, the issue of how we can talk about Islam in the public realm.

It was a really good lecture and my summary here doesn’t do it justice at all (I almost started typing up my notes to put here, and well, this would then become a lot longer post). They talked about so much more than the above mentioned. I have some more thoughts on stuff that came out of this lecture that I may post about later.

It was interesting that these two people held a captive audience and nearly filled the auditorium on a Tuesday in Berkeley (Please note italics above). Not all of these people were students. A lot of us had to expend effort to get there and it was well worth it.

Y’know what was also awesome about the night? The nonfat white mocha from Caffe Strada, which is one block away from the International House. It was most excellent. Thank you Yelp.

I saw this sign today on UC Berkeley’s International House. Good to know. Good to know.

Well, maybe.

I figure, if I have to go the my best way to get out of it will be my choice of reading material since acting like a racist doesn’t work anymore, I hear.

I scanned my shelf to figure out what book I should take. At first, I was thinking about A Clockwork Orange, but I really don’t feel like reading that again right now. Then, there’s Agents of Repression, a book about the FBI and Cointelpro, but then that might be a bit much.

So, I figured I’d go with the book I’m currently reading, In the Footsteps of the Prophetby Tariq Ramadan. Maybe if they think I’m too spiritual, I wouldn’t believe in such worldly things such as “courts” and “laws” and all that good stuff. One can hope anyways.

I was also wondering that maybe what I would wear may affect the court folks’ perception of me. I debated dressing like a slacker (which is how I’m usually dressed, I guess) but I need to go somewhere afterwards, so I won’t be able to do that.

Of course, all this thought might be all for naught as I don’t even know if I have to go in or not. But I just wouldn’t be me if I didn’t overthink a situation.

You have to give Emeryville some credit for trying to constantly improve itself.

This used to be mostly an industrial place but has given away to businesses, such as Pixar, Chiron, etc. I believe Emeryville was the home of California’s first IKEA store (which I’ve never been to, funny enough, even though it’s only a 10 minute walk away from work).

The city has even put in an upscale shopping area to boost visitors - Bay Street Emeryville.

Which brings me to my post.

Bay Street has not been satisfied by its current offering to the public - retail stores, restaurants, a movie theater, and a chain bookstore. Much like Santana Row of Santa Clara, Bay Street now offers housing in the form of condos as a level on top of the stores. In addition, whoever it is that owns Bay Street is constantly trying to beautify the Street.

The past week has seen the main street closed to traffic due to construction. What these people are doing, I have no idea. But, that doesn’t mean they can’t appeal to the public with their construction signs!

Here’s one example. I did a double take when I saw this because I highly doubt construction folks think about fashion all that much:

The thing is, I’m pretty sure that if I did, in fact, have a fashionable hard hat, they still wouldn’t let me in the construction zone.

These two crack me up:

I overheard one lady reading the sign above out loud: “To spend your husband’s money? That’s horrible!“

I guess Bay Street Emeryville is trying to appeal to older women who use their time spending the hard earned money of their long suffering husbands. Probably at Bay Street’s Apple store, I’m sure.

I was disowned yesterday.

I take heart that it wasn’t just me, but two of my friends as well.

We didn’t mean to get disowned, it just happened.

What started off as an email thread among friends about a recent Yahoo story about Richard Gere and Shilpa Shetty escalated into something more, from Harry Potter, to the British, and then to, finally, a debate about the merits of Clive Owen.

The argument was 3 against 1, the one being a guy who could not understand the appeal of the actor to the rest of us. He finally gave up and composed the following message for us:

The three of us will have to find some way to move on.

Late last week, I was in a convenience store by work. This store is frequented by the many white collar workers of Emeryville during lunch and I was no different, buying myself a bottled frappuccino to add the tad bit of caffeine needed to help me out for the rest of the day.

I was holding the bottle while standing in line, waiting to pay. There was an older man in front of me with his food, also waiting to pay. He turned to look at me and winked.*

“How are you?” He asked me.
I gave my standard response with a smile. “I’m fine thanks. And you?”
“I’m fine,” he answered. And then he continued: “I wasn’t sure if you talked to men but you seemed like a nice person,” he said with a smile.

I laughed a bit and that was that. He paid for his food and left and I paid for mine and went back to work, telling various co-workers this little story. They all thought it was weird and no one understood why he would say that to me. “It’s because I’m a Muslim woman and he thinks I’m oppressed,” I explained.

The other day, I returned to this store to buy yet another bottled frappuccino. This time, no one was standing in front of me in line and I was able to pay for my drink right away.

As I was paying, the guy behind the counter said something to me. Something about whether I can talk to Ben. I couldn’t quite understand him and when I gave him a “What?” with a funny look he said “Never mind” and gave me back my change.

In the short walk back to work, I racked my brain trying to think of who Ben was and why the guy at the convenience store wanted me to talk to him. And then it hit me on the way up the elevator to my floor. He was asking me if I can talk to men!
He had obviously overheard the guy ask me the other day and probably didn’t hear my response.

Unbelievable. I’m done with frappuccinos.

*Yes, this was as creepy as it sounds.