10-22-04

Going solo. Well it was friday afternoon and everyone seemed to have something to do over the weekend so I decided to take off by myself on the motorcycle. I never really had a fixed destination, I just thought I could wander around and see the countryside, maybe top into a great wall section or something. Here are some of the few pictures I took since I was driving all the time.

Oh, hold on. I have no pictures. It seems like I accidentally deleted them all !!!! I would tell you the whol story about the trip, but I think I'm done with that, since nobody seems to read them. Here's a short poll. If I get 15 'yes' votes on it, I shall keep writing them. Seems like I've lost my audience.

10-13-04

Addicted to speed. I was amongst an ocean of people coming back from my university tonight; and when I say an ocean of people I mean thousands of bicycles almost carrying you through the flow without even requiring you to pedal to move forward. I'm not exaggerating. You have never seen so many people on bicycles in your life. I was riding along with the crowd when suddenly two people pass me at a distinctively faster speed. I take a look, two westerners.

Noon-time nap.

It's rare to see a westerner in this new university I'm in. The total enrollment is about 30,000 students out of which 1,000 are foreigners. Out of these 1,000 foreigners probably 5 are westerners. Maybe not that few, but close. All this to say that it had me thinking: it wasn't the first time I had seen this happen, for some reason westerners tend to ride a lot faster than the Chinese crowd. How's that?

That western culture of ours must teach us to think fast, walk fast, talk fast, drive fast, eat fast etc. Heck, I'm the first one to confirm this fact. I like to do things quickly: anywhere from making speedy calculations in my head when looking for the shortest lines at the cash register in the supermarket, to actually speaking fast. However, I think I'm not alone in this trend. I think that since we're little kids we are swarmed with ideas and concepts that make us want to execute things faster.

Where before people only traveled by mules, donkeys, horses or on foot, now we have trains, cars, buses and airplanes. All of a sudden our concept of time has been “extended” since we can fit so many more things into our daily agenda. Then again, time will never be sufficient. Cell phones then become a key instrument (I had never had a cell phone before and here in China I saw myself “forced” to buy one: I hate it, but here it is sitting by my side…charging). They allow us not just to talk to other people, but to talk and communicate while we do something else…like driving! How do we drive? Fast. We have fast lanes, we have HOV lanes, we need to get there, and get there fast. Engineering companies spend millions on research to come out with more powerful cars. Millions are also spent on advertisements that show us these mighty machines with each year more and more horsepower. Subsequently, millions are spent on controlling this speed. Highway patrols (cars, gas, maintenance) radar equipment, helicopters etc. Added to this are all the health costs of speed-related deaths and injuries. After being caught speeding you just might walk into a McDonalds. You'll be standing in line, impatient about getting to the register right away to buy your fast-food. Once in your hands, you'll sit and eat it, fast. Isn't this great? Well, if you're patient enough, you'll actually walk into the restaurant, if you're really in a hurry, you can just use the drive-thru .

So this makes us think: what is so good about speed? Why do we get impatient when our e-mails take an extra 10 seconds to be sent? Or when the computer starts slowly? Does speed make us feel more powerful? More free?

Stephen Bailey, author of Sex, Drink and Fast Cars, offers an answer and even takes it to an extreme one wouldn't have thought of. He says that speed is in fact a symbol of independence, power and even “sexual prowess”. Having control of something powerful like a car with a big engine capable of reaching high speeds and knowing for a fact that others notice this is extremely erotic. How many times have we seen in the movies that “Hot Chick” in a red sports car? Yep, that's the erotic part Bailey talks about in my opinion.

Here's another interesting fact I found. From the CBC Ideas documentary "Auto-Eroticism" Ivan Illich shows us that we're not as “speedy” as we might think we are. (I'm just going to copy-paste what he wrote because the way he puts it is perfect)

“The model American male devotes more than sixteen hundred hours a year to his car. He sits in it while it goes and while it stands idling; he parks it and searches for it; he earns money to put down on it and to meet the monthly installments. He works to pay for gasoline, tolls, insurance, taxes, and tickets. He spends four hours every day on the road or gathering his resources for it, to say nothing of the time spent watching automobile commercials, or attending consumer education meetings to improve the quality of the next buy. The model American puts in sixteen hundred hours to get seventy-five hundred miles, and that works out at about five miles per hour.” (Illich)

All this being said, how fast are we getting to our destination? Are we making our life longer like this? Are those two guys riding faster than the Chinese people getting there faster? Chinese don't seem to agree…at least so far, but things might change.

Here, try this poll bellow and let us see how we all feel about this. I say yes to the question.

10-12-04

Eminem and the First Amendment. In one of his new videos, the once called Marshall Mathers, sweeps clean with Michael Jackson's image as he completely makes a fool of the man who still holds the record for Best Selling album in the history or record industry: Thriller. If you haven't seen Eminem's video "Just Lose It" you haven't missed much other than one frustrated rapper revindicating himself against the musical genius that I think is Michael Jackson. Making fun of his nose surgery, a burnt hair accident back in the 80's and other, Eminem manages to finally change my opinion. Although I think he is talented I simply no longer agree with the way he gets his lyrics done. The guy became a complete sell-out and will now do pretty much anything for attention. Jackson, angry by the mockery, asked TV stations to forbid the video from airing. Only one has paid its dues so far.

How does this fit into the First Amendment (FA)? Should the FA cover this type of mockery or not? Michael Jackson has not filed a lawsuit yet which makes us think that mockery most likely is indeed protected by the FA. Does this mean that the FA gives us the right to mock others?

Eminem makes fun of MJ's incident.