Tricia Wang

this is the obama inauguration recap that everyone should watch - Baratunde speaks

just found out 2months later from kenyatta cheese that this is the best recap of the obama inauguration experience as told by Baratunde through his twitter and flickr stream. Baratunde is funny. I like him.

remolinas remolinas

remolina remolina
la dureza albergando la tierra de pimpollos
las memorias emplumadas esparcidos por las oleadas de las remolinas 
y el cabellero hace mi piel relucia con remolinas como una curva del sendero nocturna que vuela - 
pero puedo ver la ruta de la remolna remolina goteanda por las estrellas
por que mis ojos dibujan remolinas en tu imaginacion
de una vida donde que la pastura nunca conoce al horizonte, y solo en las remonlinas podemos ver los ceceos del lengua fuego porque yo respiro remolinas remolinas

swirls swilrs
the hardness cups the earth blossoms
the feathered memories scattered through the surges of swirls
and the hair makes my skin shine with swirls like a curve in the night path that flies
but only I can see the route of the swirls wading in the stars
because mis eyes draw swirls en your imagination
of a life where the pasture never meets the horizon
and only in the swirls can we see the lisps of a fire-tongue
because I breath swirls swirls

lovely photo taken by crazy shin

virgen de al resistencia remix de space fungi

this is super cool  - made by space fungi

I love creepy allison harvard chan even more! go Jay on the imitation!

best part of this episode is when paulina says that  creepy chan alison harvard looked like a "hung over olsen twin." 

Alison Chan - you have SAVED ANTM! Tyra should thank you for even agreeing to give a part of your life to this show. Ratings plummeted for ANTM last season because we all hated mckey - backstabbing and boring - that is a horrible combination.Viewers would rather watch a backstabbing crazy freak than a boring one! 

If Tyra is smart, she would keep you on the final round - because of you, disconnected teenage boys and young men now watch ANTM because physically you are freaky awesome - and intellectually you are humbly curious - that makes you approachable but freaky - the perfect formula for 4chan love.  

I stopped caring about missing ANTM episodes last season - but because of you I can't wait to escape my reality for 1 hour every week!  You make paulina exciting to watch - and Jay can't stop imitating you! 

And kenyatta cheese's Know Your Meme posted a story about the evolution of creepy alison chan harvard. 

ok I misinterpreted this anti-pot commercial -I interpreted the "bad" things as cool!

watch this commercial that tries to warn you about the dangers of pot.

The first time I watched this commercial I thought it was going to be a message about staying youthful and not caring what others think - or something like that. Well as I heard the words in quotation marks, this is what I thought in capitalized letters.

"I stole from my little sister." OH COOL I DID THAT FROM MY BROTHER ALLL THE TIME!
I left my girlfriend 27 messages last night." WOW HE'S REALLY INTO HIS GIRLFRIEND TO CALL THAT THAT MANY TIMES - HE MUST BE REALLY SORRY ABOUT CHEATING ON HER
"I let people draw on me." WOW THAT IS GREAT - I WISH I COULD BE THAT LAID BACK TO LET FRIENDS DRAW ALL OVER ME - I NEED TO HAVE A DRAWING PARTY SOON!I  I HAVEN'T LET PEOPLE DRAW ON ME SINCE HIGH SCHOOL!
"I ditched my friends and let them find their own way home." HAHA - I SHOULD TRY THAT ONE DAY!

UMMM I don't think that they wanted me to do that. then I went to the website- above the influence - thinking that this was a commercial about not doing heroine or meth - but it's about FREAKING pot!! arggg America sometimes you suck!  We don't have a ban on fire arms but we ban pot - so now US guns flood Mexico so that the cartels can use them to sell to the US pot and cole. If people REALLLLY want to fight "drugs" - then they need to fight the legalization of fire arms in the US - it starts there, then those people need to go away so that we can legalize pot and tax the plant. Read this article from the La Times to understand this topic - the War we Gave Mexico - The drugs, guns and culture that fuel the violence all are linked to the U.S.  This is the excerpt that explains it all -

"...three of the region's former heads of state -- including onetime Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo -- recently issued a report urging the U.S. to consider legalizing at least marijuana. Fat chance.

Similarly, at a news conference this week, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. set off a firestorm when he mentioned in passing that the U.S. should consider restoring its ban on the sale of military-style assault weapons. That prohibition, adopted in 1994, contained a clause requiring Congress to renew the ban after 10 years. To nobody's surprise, Congress didn't, and now assault weapons, semiautomatic pistols and .50-caliber rifles that are illegal in Mexico flow into the hands of the drug traffickers there from an estimated 6,000 American gun dealers in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

Thus, America's political decisions to treat drug addiction as a crime rather than a public health problem, and to legalize AK-47s but not pot, fuel an incipient civil war in Mexico."

kenyatta cheese is a celebrity!

 
photo of kenyatta cheese taken by ronen v. at SXSW

Can you suggest 3 RSS feeds for my reader? Help Me Help Myself!

in my attempt to re-organize my RSS feeds I'm starting fresh with google reader! 

Now I went into RSS overdose a few years ago when I had over 1,000 feeds for 20 different topics and 1million unread posts that give my nightmares of being an failure in rss world.

This year, I'm RSS stronger and smarter - I was so obsessed with them when I first understood the concept of RSS in 2001 - it blew me away BUT I didn't have the right tools then that could manage this information saturation. I od'ed pretty badly and just stopped blogging on www.youmeiti.com when I couldn't handle anymore RSS feeds with grad school becoming the priority.  Well now with google's rss reader  I feel like I can conquer the world!

Well - I'm ready to try this again and this time I'm asking for help before I go information crazy.  Before I go through my old RSS readers, I actually just want to start fresh and ask for your recommendation on 3 RSS feeds that you think I absolutely have to have in my google RSS reader.  Please include your blog - I want to make sure that I have your feeds in my personal friend folder!

Thanks so much for your help!

tricia

here's my  public rss shared links so far to give you an idea of things I like to read,

Finally someone who writes about ANTM and Tyra Antics with Class, passion, and Intelligence

Dear Rich Juzwiak, you've made it into my google RSS reader - I love your ANTM commentary - you have brought ANTM back to life  - cuz it was seriously about to be nixed from the 3 shows that I have time to follow.  

Your blog has the best coverage of ANTM that I have ever read! And I want alien child or Fo to win - I'm leaning towards alien child right now - she's so sweet and comfortable in her freaky self - what a role model for america!   

ALIEN CHILD ALLISON HARVARD makes ANTM a worthy show to watch this season!!!!  And thankfully kenyatta cheese's Know Your Meme Project has featured this wonderful creature that has been adopted by 4chan. 

Tricia Wang Objetivo 2009 Territrio: The Year of Information Management

I think it's about time 3 months into the Western New Year of 2009 and 1 month into the Chinese Buffalo Year that I make a public declaration on the 2009 goals that I am 90% confident that I will not fail to accomplish. 

I feel very happy about accomplishing my 2008 Wireless Goals   - the most important being the switch from Verizon to AT&T so that I can finally become one with my Nokia N82. Now that I've made the switch, my call qualities have radically dropped - I hate AT&T but at least I can use my Nokia N82 with happiness whenever I go abroad to a GSM loving country. My quad-band phone brings me unlimited amounts of happiness with it's wifi and 5 megapixel camera!  I guess the upshot is that I have rollover minutes - but AT&T you seriously need to improve your network cuz I have wayyyy too many dropped calls now and I can't stand your customer service. 

So quick update on my 2008 goal of discriminating against people based on their cellphone carrier so that I could maximize my in-network calls -  - I have actually stopped making voicecalls unless I am driving in California or walking to the subway in NYC. Otherwise, I only do text messages - which means that I have technically stopped discriminating against friends who are on other carriers. I have increased my online chatting time by installing Fring on my Nokia N82, Adium on my Mac and Pidgin on my PC so that I can be available practically anytime.   SO seriously - how much more accessible could I be in 2009?

The only downside of having a Nokia N82 right now is that it is not support by google mobile apps because it's running legacy s60 - that SUCKS@#$!  well it supports contacts sync for now (so no calendar!) but it doesn't support it for accounts through Google Apps - so that means I am out of luck for now - oh well thankfully Goosync solves all the problems!

So I've decided to name this year's goals in honor of Oaxaca's 2009 goals for a more unified state - reflecting my goal for a more unified Tricia Wang!  El Partido Revolucionario de Tricia Wang - VA 

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT = INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE + INFORMATION BALANCE

My goals this year are shaped around the theme of information management. We are in a social transition where most  information is entirely managed through digital systems.  But the problem is that we don't always have the RIGHT TOOLS to manage our information. 

It is my goal this year to understand how to practically manage my academic research and personal communication and commitments. I believe two softwares have risen to the top of the list to help me - mendeley and google love.  As for tools - I want to believe that my Nokia N82 and apple laptop or MSI Wind PC that I have converted to an OS are the answers - but they aren't quite complete- these are great tools but I think something else better has to come along. I want to believe that Nokia is going to come out with something that will change the way I use apps to manage my life. I have little faith in Apple because simply their products are too expensive and system dependent on the OS - but I will continue to their laptops still :). MSI Wind - you are the first of netbooks to make me happy - this is the right path of going smaller and smaller. 

So here are my goals this years - a bit contradictory I know but it reflects the inner war I have with robot tricia.

TRICIA WANG OJECTIVO 2009 TERRITORIO!!!

• get my rss reader into shape with google's rss love without OVERLOADING myself with rss feeds
• DO NOT become anxious if I do not read all my rss links
• blog at least 1/week on culturalbytes and youmeiti
• say no to conferences and yes to writing
• master mendeley love
• keep on my journey of living a more mobile life through technology that will save me from being unrooted to any one place
• do not trick myself into believing that technology will bring me more sanity  - peace is from within
• keep loving technology- be in denial that more information can make me less efficient
• understand the complex yet simple fact that I need to  balance an information driven lifestyle with love - do not go crazy with information consumption 
• stay true to my belief that my academic and professional work is not a reaction to the external, but a commitment to my own motivations to understand the topics I research
• resist professionalization (thank you ryan shaw for pointing to mark's post)

thank you to Leah for conspiring with me on starting Objetivo Tricia Wang and thank you to Christena Turner for bringing information architecture to the forefront of 2009!

Save your local nyc bodega! We need our eyes on the streets!

I love bodegas - they are a staple in the NYC landscape - from borough to borough and hood to hood - every section of nyc has a local bodega. Well we have to save them - buy something from your local bodega! in this NY1 report, we find out that bodega owners are suffering from the worldwide econ crisis. Watch the ny1 video about a bodega in Hamilton Heights. "The U.S. Bodega Association reports about four shops close each month. At that rate, they say there could be half as many bodegas in the city within two years."

It is absolutely critical that we support our bodegas!  The  best thing about moving into a neighborhood is developing a relationship with the local bodega owner. They keep you safe - they love you - they watch out for you - they are your morning smile or grump - they are your local friend and they let you cut when the line is long and you need to catch the train and they let you buy on credit if you're short a 1buck.  I've always believed that before you move into an apt in NYC - you should scope out all the local bodegas near you and talk to the owners. Especially talk to the ones that you walk by on your way to the subway.  Bodega owners are Jane Jacob's "eyes on the street." They are community members who know every individual who walks - they know every crackhead to every business person to every mother and to every teenager.

  I remember when I first moved to Sunset Park - the local bodega owner educated me about the gangs of my block. Little did I know - I had moved onto the turf of the Latin Kings - the most violent block of the family-like community of Sunset Park - i guess 61st between 2nd and 3rd was not the safest ;) I later saw my block on a documentary by DCTV on the Latin Kings on PBS! :)

My next bodega was my favortite one of all time Louie - who proclaimed himself as the King of Classon Ave!  - he already sold his store to a new owner who put a on a new face when the neighborhood started seeing higher rents  - see in this picture below - this is the new face of the King of Classon.  Louie was  the first one on my block to tell me about the crack house down the street and when I should take the 26 bus and when I shouldn't. He educated me on the crime patterns of my block and the best route to the train. 

Bodegas are a unique landmark and each borough has something special about their bodega. I love the ones in deeper brooklyn that have their great pre-fab signs that sell NOTHING that is written on the sign. Like this bodega below on Fulton and Franklin (which has been sold to a new owner and renovated) - it didn't have a sandwich counter so no heros - DEFINITELY no fruits or flowers in the summer.  But one thing it did have - cold beer!

Bodegas also are indicators of major neighborhood changes. I remember the time that I spotted a true williamsburg hipster in my block in this picture below with his super hipster haircut and florescent earrings and street find clothing -  and I realized that Biggie would not have been happy - 2 blocks down from where NOTORIUS B.I.G was born - and 6 blocks down from my house - was a hipster citing at a bodega - and I knew it -at that moment I knew this area was being taken over by developers. Surely  - within 2 years we have renovated condos up and down Washington, a beautiful cafe with the best almond croissants where Gossip Girl is filmed and an organic supermarket. Now i work in community development organizations - so I 'm not against neighborhood revitalization but my beef is when it's community growth ignores and tramples over the very people who have made a community vibrant in the first place. Anyways - my point is that this hipster was not from our hood - super weird super weird.