apis_cerana

This journal is friends-only! Comment to be added. :)

Edit 9/15/06:
People who were originally in my friends list are still there, no worries.

Edit 7/2/08:
Moved this to the top of the page.

Edit 1/4/11:
Made all friends-locked posts prior to 12/30/10 private.

Come join us at ljteaswap --
We're a friendly, safe comm for swapping unique leaves with fellow tea aficionados. Once a month there will be a swap between members of the community and every once in awhile, there will be special themed swaps. :) If you have way too much tea and you'd like to give away some, or if you're just looking to try new teas, this is your comm!!

Hello --
I just did a pretty massive friends cut of dead/inactive journals, folks who don't really comment, folks I don't really consider to be friends, and folks I didn't know were on my flist at all. If you have been cut by mistake or want to be put back onto my flist for some reason, please let me know.

With modifications, from
http://cookpad.com/recipe/412065

Ingredients:
- 1 pkg. thin rice noodles
- 2 chicken thighs, bone-in
- bean sprouts, 1/2 pkg
- chicken bouillon/Chinese chicken stock
- fish sauce, 2T
- red chili flakes
- 1 stalk green onion, chopped
- white wine, 3T
- Juice from 1/2 lime
- 3C water
- cilantro, to taste
- sriracha sauce

Dissolve bouillon/stock in the water, add chicken thighs and wine. Simmer until chicken is tender and cooked through, about 30 minutes to an hour.

Remove chicken from broth and shred into pieces. If thighs are bone-in, debone. Add green onions.

Boil noodles according to package instructions. Drain and set aside in serving bowls.

Add seasonings -- fish sauce, chili, lime, a bit of salt and pepper, to taste. Add bean sprouts and cilantro and simmer for a minute. Pour the soup over noodles, garnish with cilantro and serve. Add as much sriracha sauce as you want!

I just saw a great documentary and thought I should share it with y'all -- it's called Crips and Bloods: Made in America. It's available on Netflix to watch online, so if you have an account, get on it!

Trailer:


It's about the origins of the Crips and Bloods gangs of South LA (and beyond), as well as current situations and personal stories about gang members. It was very, very well made and insightful, with great archive footage and interviews.

What was most eye-opening about the movie was the fact that what caused the gangs to form went back decades; the institutionalized racism that kept Blacks "in place" in the 50s and 60s, as well as the forced dispersion of many Black Panthers and other Black Power movement leaders were integral in the increasing of violence in Black communities. And the violence continues because of racism today, with the ridiculously high levels of incarceration among Black men (due in part to the failed "War On Drugs"), awful school systems of lower-income areas, and lack of mentorship and guidance among youths -- in one area of South-Central LA, according to a study, the kids were experiencing PTSD at a higher level than similar-aged children in Baghdad.

It sickens me that all this is happening in the US, where people from all backgrounds are supposed to have the same opportunities to succeed, and where everyone is supposedly equal.

And I didn't really know what to blog about at first, since I'm constantly throwing out random thoughts about race without ever really focusing on it...but then I saw this Youtube video



It's a short, very interesting documentary about eyelid surgery.

I think the "are girls getting it to look more 'white'?"-sorts of questions have been discussed enough on other blogs so I'm not gonna get into that too much here...

What really bothers me about the ongoing dialogue about Asian eyelids are the white people who are vehemently and vocally opposed to eyelid surgery for Asians -- most of the time, they seem to think that they're trying to fit in with western beauty ideals and trying to look white, or believe the stereotype that all Asians have small, monolid eyes. And the people who are most vocal about this sound like they're very new to the field of anti-racism; they still don't know about white-knighting and how they can unintentionally silence POC about topics that don't concern them (it reminds me of discussions about Black women and natural hair, and how it always seemed like more concerned white feminists were discussing it, and POC voices were silenced and ignored).
In online discussions, I've seen Asian women who were basically told to stop being so influenced by society, they're beautiful the way they are, etc -- all well-intentioned, of course, but ignoring what most Asian and Asian-American women go through which makes them go and get surgery because, of course, they have no idea what it's like to be Asian.

Even my very open-minded, supportive mom told me while we were in Korea, that maybe I should get double-eyelid surgery there because it's cheaper and it will make me look better. I actually thought about it, but later dismissed it. I don't think she's ever brought it up since.
My other friends (mostly Korean; the Japanese people in this area are usually children of people who work at a company here for 1-3 years and leave, and I didn't have much of a connection with them) were not so lucky. They got pushed and prodded by their mothers and peers to get eyelid surgery; they were made to feel inferior because they didn't have double-eyelids.
Most of my friends only had Asian friends and lived in prominently Asian areas -- they would probably find the idea that they're trying to fit in with whites odd, and the thought that they're trying to look "white" rather insulting, because they have a very strong sense of cultural and racial belonging.

It's true that western beauty ideals do affect what the rest of the world perceives as being beautiful, but it's much more complex than "WOC want to look more white". In Japan, double eyelids are often seen in idols on TV, who are supposed to look "kawaii (cute)" moreso than "kirei (beautiful)", because that's the ideal there. Double-eyelids and bigger-looking eyes signify youth and innocence, and that's why the more loli-type Anime characters have bigger eyes, too.
There are more models who have less pronounced double-eyelids (known as "oku-butae") or monolids because it adds to their "kirei"-ness.

When I used to feel down about my looks (eyelids-wise, because I live in the US and have friends who don't care about my lids, I haven't felt badly about them in years), I looked at all the beautiful successful women who embrace their monolids:
Han Ji-Hye, Kayo Sakata, Ryo (fffuuuu-- she's so hot), Noriko Aoyama, Mikako Tabe (who randomly looks a lot like the [white] bride of the wedding I'm attending soon :x), Sayoko Yamaguchi (RIP), Ayako Kawahara...

Looking up their images made me happy again :)

shirogirl and I recently started a community that might be of interest to some of you -- it's called asian_outrage and it's a place for Asians and their allies primarily to vent out frustration about racism against Asians, but also to have a discussion about those issues in a space that is Asian-friendly. :)
Please feel free to read the rules and join in; we're hoping it'll turn into a fun community!

I thought it was about time I changed my frigging username!

apis_cerana means Asiatic honey bee. :))

Edit: I used to be vash_donutangel.

Finally! A huge-ass post of all the photos that were sent from the friends I made at Viet Nam. My camera was stolen, so I can't upload any of my own photos. :(

( Clickety click!Collapse )

Also, I'm going friends-only. Will be putting up a banner, etc. Soonish.