So hurricanes Katrina and Rita have come and gone, and left in their paths millions of dollars worth of destruction, countless shattered dreams, and the potential for the monolith of all celebrity press junkets known to arise once more:

The Telethon.

Ah yes. We remember the telethon. We just had one for Katrina, and before that there was one for the tsunami victims. What better way to inform and remind America and the world that Hollywood’s elite are working hard to collect your money to help others. And to entice you into opening up your wallets and doling out some generosity, musicians and the like will sing songs for you that bear the theme of whatever environmental disaster they are trying to build back from (recall the Foo Fighters’ rendition of “Born on the Bayou” for the Katrina benefit.)

So I expect that there will be one for the recent storm Rita…and of course they’ll be accepting monetary donations so get ready to pull out your wallets again.

Now the point of my entry is…remember Live 8? Oh yeah…that one. That was supposed to benefit the starving people of Africa. It could be considered one of the largest telethons ever because it spanned multiple countries on multiple continents. Artists sang, actors did monologues…spared no expense, it was a huge affair. And my greatest criticism of it was…?

They didn’t collect any freakin’ money.

They built awareness. Awareness feeds Africans, right? WRONG. Money = food = feeds Africans. The whole Live 8 thing was like ripping of your arm and waving it back at you. Or better yet, taking that dismembered arm and using it to give yourself the middle finger. That’s what Live 8 was.

Where hunger is practically a continent-wide epidemic in Africa, and no one is collecting money from Live 8 to support them—why the hell is it that we’re collecting money to help victims of Katrina and Rita? What’s the difference between the two situations besides the location? Very little. If you look at the basics, you’re trying to help people in need. The only difference, I suppose, is that we’re less apt to turn a deaf ear on protesting, angry, hurricane victims as we are starving Africans in another part of the world.

You realize the ridiculousness of Live 8 if you were to apply it to the hurricane relief situation. If we were to put on a benefit concert and only collect awareness, is that going to satisfy the homeless families who were stuck in the Super Dome for three days? “Here…you lost your home in New Orleans…how about some awareness?” Right…

A bit of a hypocritical issue we have going on here, isn’t it? It seems that the forumla that appeared to work so darn well for Live 8 doesn’t even apply to the hurricane disasters. And there are a lot more starving Africans that there are displaced Americans. What is the deal?

I watched “Corpse Bride” last night.

Interesting premise: Nervous groom accidentally “marries” a dead woman and finds himself stuck in the underworld. It’s quite simple, but the movie is really charming. Too bad it’s only about 70 minutes long.

(For a corpse, she doesn’t look too shabby…)

Anyway, the whole “Featured Content” listings have peaked my interests, and so I’m putting up another link to another site that I found to be of interest:

http://www.xanga.com/shekwanisback

By “interest” I mean “appalling,” and by “appalling” I mean “how the hell did this site get on Featured Content and I didn’t?”

This man, I guess his name is Shekwan, writes an entry about how he wants racism to end. But by racism, he only means racism by white people against black people. And he furthers his argument by putting up a website link to a page that documents crimes against white people by black people. Then he finishes it off with hoping that white people all get raped and lynched.

A previous entry of his, which apparently no longer exists, says that white people caused hurricane Katrina.

That last bit was supposed to insinuate that he’s crazy. The rest of my prose indicates that he is a complete hypocrite. Where is racism defined as being purely “white vs. black”? And why does racism that’s “black vs. white” not fit that definition? On the one hand, I am one of the many who believe that African Americans deserve reparations for the slave trade—but there has to be an end to the give-and-take or else all we’re doing is perpetuating the discrimination.

And apparently wishing that all white people have bad things happen to them doesn’t constitute racism. I guess I’m missing something here.

I was called a chink today, and told to go back to China where I belonged. That said, I agree that racism is an everlasting stain on American culture. Regardless of how you choose to define it, it pushes humanity back every single time someone uses a racial epithet. And it’s not hurtful, it’s just annoying. Because who are you to judge me based on my race? Who am I to judge you for yours?

In no way am I going to condone this man’s site. I find that it is the epitome of everything that is wrong with race relations in this country today. The double-standard where you can pull cheap shots at me, and I can’t do the same to you because my actions would be categorized as racist while yours would be hailed under the banner of free speech. Give me a break. I pay my taxes just like the next American does (well, I don’t…but I will eventually), and as far as I’m concerned there is no rightful excuse to point out someone’s ethnic background and try to turn it on them like it’s a sin. That’s wholly unfair and truly mars any form of justice and tolerance some of us have tried to build.

Am I a chink? Hell no. I’m Chinese. My parents are Chinese. I have no reason to be ashamed of who I am, and no one is going to make me feel that way.

It’s pretty sad that this man thinks that white people caused Katrina. How is that even remotely possible? Last time I checked, I don’t recall any particular advancements in weather control by anyone. And I’ll be he thinks white people caused Rita as well.

Well I have news for him: Rita was caused by penguins. Duh.

See, this is why I should be on Featured Content—more complaining! Less racism!

I just finished watching “Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children.” I guess I expected something too specific, so I was a little disappointed by the movie–but it is rather satisfying if you’re a fan of Final Fantasy 7 who, like me, felt shafted by the game’s ending.

Good stuff: animation was excellent. The characters looked, well, pretty freaking fantastic.

Oh Aeris…Aeris…you’re still my favorite!

Bad stuff: storyline dragged on too much, and male characters looked too much like women. One could say that’s typical of Japanese anime, but these guys were too feminine even by anime standards.

Watch it anyway. There are sites where you can download it for free…and unfortunately I don’t think it’s worth buying.

The blogring “<3~* Yea I Love my Baby Daddy!! *~<3″ should be renamed to “I Don’t Know what a Condom is~Tee Hee!”

I didn’t actually read any of the blogs, just the profiles of the girls who wrote them. Majority of them are under 20 years old, and have kids who are almost one. Whenever I see girls like this, who have thrown their lives away because of poor judgment, it makes me want to ask: Do you know what protection is? I mean, at all. AT ALL.

I really find it laughable when a girl who’s sixteen calls herself a responsible mother because she “goes to school while raising a baby.” To her, pursuing an education makes her better than the teen mother who dropped out of school to take care of her kid. But the girl who is going to school has her parents helping her watch her child during the day–so how does that make her “responsible”? How does having your mother take care of the baby you created make you a capable adult? It actually supports the idea that you are irresponsible because you obviously can’t raise your child and go to school at the same time. A responsible mother would know how to balance the two out–she would have finished high school before she got knocked up. Duh.

Basically, you can’t be a responsible parent if you rely on other support: i.e. parents, friends, welfare, etc. If you need daycare, you’re supposed to pay for it unless someone volunteers because they’re BORED and not because THEY FEEL SORRY FOR YOU. Your parents should not have to do it, just like you’re parents should not have to house you and your child, or contribute to your nutritinal intake. And that’s not my job either. My tax dollars (if I had to pay taxes, that is) should be going towards other things, like EDUCATION, and not towards girls who think it’s acceptable to have others pay for their mistakes.

I’m dying to know how and why these girls got pregnant. Seriously. I want to know why these girls thought it was acceptable to have unprotected sex. I’m not talking about rape victims or couples whose contraceptive meaures failed for some reason. I am talking about those idiots who thought that pregnancy was a virus contracted by touching poop with your bare hands, then eating a burger right afterwards.

And I don’t want to hear “I never had the talk,” or some other lame excuse related to pushing the blame on others. That just supports the argument that you’re an idiot and can’t take responsibility…I never did understand that one, really. Girls say, “No one ever talked to me about the risk of pregnancy,” but what about all the hype about AIDS and STDs? You know those warnings are all over the place, and yet even that doesn’t deter a person from using a condom? So the “no one ever talked to me” excuse is total crap. If you didn’t know about pregnancy, than you should have known about diseases. And you chose to ignore both of those risks.

…This isn’t to say that I blame teen mothers completely. I think teen fathers are just as pathetic, but men are pathetic as a collective. If you’re going to blame men for being stupid, then you might as well blame dogs for having four legs. You get it? If some men are unreliable when it comes to having protected sex, then the woman needs to make up for this deficit and take care of her own body. BECAUSE IT’S HER DAMN BODY.

I wonder why I never thought of complaining about this before…but I guess it has something to do with my having an aversion to change.

I hate it when people put up pictures of the stuff they bought. That’s even more annoying than having to read about it because it illustrates a lame Xanga entry with lame pictures. I didn’t care before when you described the object in great, unnecessary detail–and I truly don’t care to see it in a full-color jpeg. That’s pretty much insulting to my intelligence and sense of taste. I mean…what the hell are you doing it for? To drive home the fact that you spent money on something? You and the other billions of people who went shopping that day—you guys are all part of some exclusive club where the only thing that’s lacking is exclusivity.

But I guess I’ll join the bandwagon. Check this shit out:

I bought a banana!

The purists are objecting: The pictures I post are of designer brands that cost more money than I make! Blah blah, whine whine…

How is that any different than the picture I put up?

That’s no ordinary banana—it’s a DOLE BANANA, you bitches! High quality, brand name banana.

You know what would be something worth posting up? Your bowel movement. Am I right, or what? A picture of someone’s funky doo-doo would get a rise out of more people, more often than a picture of some fancy purse. Why, just last night I had an intestinal attack that I’m sure would have impressed you guys if I put a picture of it up. It looked like an atom bomb had fallen into my toilet and exploded into a mushroom cloud—a greenish-brown mushroom cloud that was so rank my cats started frantically trying to commit suicide by jumping out the window. Those kidders.

Poo is the right thing to doo…damn, I am good.

It is truly a laborious task to write something that appeals to people other than myself.

I think I’m totally funny, folks…I make myself LAUGH OUT LOUD when I’m alone. “Hahaha Sylvia! You are so funny!” and I reply, “Why thank you, Sylvia, I think you are funny too!“

But no one thinks my ingenuity is very entertaining. I can tell by the LACK O’ COMMENTS…pigs who write about pooping in the grass get more props than I do. I get the hint. You all want me to write about my weekend, don’t you? Conform to blogging’s LOWEST SOCIAL STANDARD and completely ignore the brilliance that is found in hating on society.

Fine. Here.

I woke up, and ran to the mall to get my eyebrows done—only to find that the geniuses who run the salon double-booked me with a hair appointment. The hairdresser/eyebrow person told the receptionist to wax my eyebrows instead—to which the receptionist said, “I’ve never waxed eyebrows before!” And to my utter disgust and disbelief, the hairdresser/eyebrow person replied, “Neither have I.”

Took my eyebrows and ran to another salon. Made an appointment for 1:00. Went home, had a milkshake, took a nap. Got up, got my eyebrows done (one turned out crooked), and went to the gym. Worked out. Felt good. Ate sushi for dinner. Studied. Got green milk tea during a break. Went home. Wrote on Xanga about how I don’t get eprops even though I totally deserve them.

Now, if I get a gazillion eprops for this entry I’m going to quit Xanga and commit myself to an asylum. If I get none, I’ll feel totally invigorated and it’ll re-establish my hope that there is still a chance that the Xanga public has some taste.

Wer-wer.