My Best Friend's Poem-Yolanda K.

I once belonged to you
I once was your girl
I once was your yo
I once was your wife
Those days are gone, they’ve been
Silly of me to think I can just come back and reclaim
You don’t belong to me and you’re not the same Steve
I was silly to think things could ever go back to what they once were
I made a stupid mistake that I can never undo
I love to think that our love was so true
That we’d get back and see our love through and through
It’s not so, you aren’t the same beau
You aren’t the same you
I’m not the same yo
I respect you, admire you, and still love you somehow
But I’ve tried to win you back, and now I take my bow
I can’t win you back, I cannot fight, I cannot try to reunite
What once was, is no more
And I see It clearly now, and I will not make my heart anymore sore
What we’ve gone through, is no joke
I fucked up and can’t revoke
It is so clear now, I see it so
So with that said, I can’t say no more
Steve, you’re a beautiful man, a beautiful person
But we’ve grown so distant, it’s a bit disappointing
I will not try to make you mine anymore
My heart and I have grown tired and will no more
You deserve every bit of happiness
And in the last two months I’ve discovered that I’m not your bliss
With that said I leave it at this
I wish you the very best of happiness
I will not pursue you anymore
This poem seems unjust, but its true…I hate the way it feels to try to date you
So after I hit send, I will not try to continue to remend what I ruined on my end
I will always keep you in heart, and wish you the very best

Yo

Global Warming!

I decided to rent a documentary called "An Inconvenient Truth", a film by Al Gore. He starts by showing pictures of how the glaciers looked at one time and it certainly is not beautiful now. It looks like dirt and rocks, nothing beautiful about these wonderful sites or a place to travel to.

So what do you think will happen in 50 years? It made me think about what could happen once the earth has reached its highest level of global warming. Our kids’ kids will not see trees, the sun, or be able to play outside! What can we do, we ask ourselves, after the damage we have done over the years? How can we slow the process down, or stop our ozone layer from melting away? This is our only home, the only planet that we humans own until we find another planet.

Recycle, clean the air, stop big industries from polluting - how? When money talks? How can we humans start to take this situation serious? One person cannot just do it alone; it takes a group to get the word out and make both Houses of Congress pass a bill that will help the environment. We need to do more than just rent a documentary to let us know what is happening to our earth. We need to start now to help our kids’ kids have a place were they can breath clean air and be able to walk outside. Our earth is heating up each year more and more, and new viruses have occurred because of the warming of the earth’s atmosphere due to the destruction of trees in Brazil.

Although Al Gore has tried to pass a bill, he was not successful since the Senate and House turned his bill down because we are not that serious about wanting to do something. He even says it all has to do with politics, and laughs.

I ask myself what can we do? We do not have the money as many industries have to buy out those politicians to be in favor of preventing the earth’s ozone from melting away. Even though Al Gore continues to travel all over the world to teach about what is happening to our planet, he has reached few countries and few states in America willing to do something about pollution. He still says not all countries want to do anything because it would effect their business if his bills pass.

So what is more important: money or your health?

I recommend you see this documentary for yourself. You can see what we have done to our beautiful earth, and what is happening to those beautiful sites once loved by tourists. For example, in the Peruvian mountains Argentinean ice has melted completely, leaving only small amounts on the top of the mountain. We need to start cleaning up, protesting for our planet, and demanding our Congress start taking Global Warming seriously! Let’s try to do our share, even if it is something small, to help our planet. We need to think about the future or our kids’ kids future. Fifty years is not that far away, time goes so fast that we won't even realize fifty years have gone by.

SJSU Disability Expo 2006


Today I attended SJSU Disability Sport Expo 2006, and it made me think about how much we take our arms and legs for granted.
At first I participated in Boccia event. You had to throw balls and try to not make it pass the white ball. I kept throwing it underhand and the ball would roll further then the white ball. Later as I lost the event against my friend Karla, who made me see what the secret was and that was to throw it up and let it land on the ground so it would not roll so much. We learned that you had to throw the ball in order to not pass the white ball.

The second event that I joined was indoor soccer funny thing about this was that my friend and I at first thought this will be fun and easy since we both played soccer but we realized that we could not use our feet, we would be sitting on a wheelchair. It was hard to not lean back on the wheelchair and you must move with one hand, while holding the ball in the other hand. You would only get to catch the ball three times and after you would pass it to your team member. You would also have to move your wheelchair by pulling on the wheel three times and throw the ball or you lost. Of course our team won…yeah!

The third event, which I had a blast and out team won was sitting volleyball. In this event you could not use your feet, you must sit all times, you could move but you must have one butt cheek touching the ground. It reminded me when I used to play volleyball, but much harder and challenging versus when you stand you have control of your legs to move fast.

Finally, I was asked to try Goal Ball boy was this event challenging and needed a lot of concentration, and listening to the bells inside the ball. You would be blindfolded and could not pass the tape on the floor. You would throw the ball to the other side and try to make it pass through the players, like playing Red Robbin but you would see where you were going. I felt alone, not being able to see what was coming my way but to listen to the noise of the ball. It made me nervous and scared because I did not know what was happening or who was winning.

In the end I started to think, mostly on this last event how scared I was. I had to make my brain hear the ball coming towards my way or the other way. It would have to be a training process if I ever was to become blind and scary at the same time. I know now a little bit more what disabled people have to learn or what they feel when they feel helpless. Although, I feel that they are more appreciative of what they have and live life to the fullest we take for granted. I know now that disabled people should not be taken for granted and they still have a healthy life as we do.

What is section 8?


Section 8 is a Housing Authority Voucher program. A program that began during the Great Depression to help housing crisis in 1960s and 1970s in assisting low income families pay their rent.

Housing Authority would select families from the waiting list. A list of people who waited up to 5 years. Once they called you, you would be placed in a subsidized unit and determine what was your share to pay, which was 30% of your income, as the rest was paid by the Federal Government. I believe it is 40% of your income now.

Most of these families under this program would have to abide and qualify by the rules given to them in order to receive a voucher. Their incomes were checked every year and every year an investigator would come to check the house or apartment to make sure it was up to their standards. As the general rule was “All subsidized houses or apartment must meet Federal Housing Quality Standards to ensure families have a healthy and safe place to live.”

Now that you understand what section 8 is, let me tell you why I am talking about it. I had the opportunity to help a friend out who has section 8. She is a single mom with four kids and needs to move out due to the fact the owner of the house she lives in wants to sell the house.

She gave HUD (Housing Authority) her notice but wait, she gave them an advance notice of 90 days. Her last day was supposed to be October 30, 2006. She kept calling her case worker and after calling three – four times she finally got a hold of her on October 20, 2006. So what happen during this whole time? Why did she not call her back? The case worker excused herself by stating that she knew who my friend was, and could not get the voucher number. She just forgot to generate the papers for her to pick up.

Being stressed out with my friend, I decided to go with her and check some of this places that accept section 8. Let me tell you that this is not “Federal Housing Quality Standards and safe place to live”, so what is the meaning of “quality and safe” for the Federal government?

Some of these homes had toilets in front of the lawn and old junk cars. Once you entered these houses or apartments for rent you could immediately smell mildew and most were located in a bad neighborhood.

We saw gangster selling drugs, alcoholics coming out of houses and once you looked in Kelly’s Law website of all registered molesters around that area, let me tell you multiples live in the same street or around the corner!

My friend started to cry because she was living in a nice, quiet, safe and perfect place for her kids to live in. I gave her a hug and told her to not give up and have faith. So we continue to search and search.

We found a house that was being remodeled but the owner was asking to much for rent, which Housing Authority will not pay. Second, we found a duplex and it was nice but the owner wanted to much for deposit. Finally, the tenants of both houses liked my friend that they kept calling her in order to work something out with the deposit and try to negotiate with HUD. Now it is up to her to choose as she has two weeks till she moves out.

I do not want to give you a bad impression about section 8, although the Federal government has built nice subsidized apartments but have you gone inside these places? The rooms are the size of a prison cell, especially those with 3-4 bedrooms. Once I entered the apartment I felt like I was in a tiny box with no room to even breath or move.

So next time you hear someone call you and ask you if you accept section 8: think about it and just listen.

One important thing to remember its guaranteed money and you won’t ever be told “I DO NOT HAVE THE RENT!”

I just hope that many of you stop thinking that it’s a program for losers, druggies or people that do not care about their families, who take advantage of the system. Yes, there are those who do but I know someone who really needs it. She does not fall in any of these categories but is a wonderful person with goals and is almost done with school.

What will happen next?

In the sentencing of Saddam Hussein many are celebrating for his death sentence verdict. Saddam and two of his other high rank members are to be hanged within 30 days. Other lower level officers that work with Saddam Hussein have been sentenced 15 years in prison. Saddam still demonstrated his power and shouted when he was taken out “Long live the people!” and “God is Greater”!
How can he chant words after all the evil he has caused? He has killed many people without a fair trial. So who are those that are saying that the special tribunal must demonstrate Saddam had a fair trial? Why do they want to make sure he has a fair trial, what about all those innocent people he killed in a Shia village? Why are we not questioning Saddam where were the fair trials for them?
Those of the Sunni areas are angry to hear his death sentence demonstrating in streets, well what about those who were murdered by Saddam Hussein? I guess hatred of a different religious sects of Islam can have a person agree with everything a ruler does in order to make his kind of people, like the Sunnis powerful.
In my opinion, I feel that with so many Shias celebrating and Sunnis demonstrating anger towards the sentence will cause civil wars between this two religious groups. To prove that their race will not give in to the new Iraq government becoming democratic. Instead we will see more and more violence, as they have started to put curfews, and many other restrictions on Iraq citizens.
I do not think this will improve what Bush is trying to do or Iraq government in becoming democratic. It will also establish people or terrorists attack against those of the Shia religion supporting democracy. Although, I do agree with the decision made from the Special Tribunal of Iraq that Saddam Hussein should be hanged.

Halloween?

I always wanted to know more about Halloween in the United States. I decided to find out more about Halloween and what people knew about this celebration in the US. As I asked my friends no one could really give me an answer but only that it was a celebration where you could dress up and kids go out for candy. No one knew FROM WHERE it originated and why we use pumpkins, scary ghost, witches and many other scary characters for decorations.

When I arrived in America, I came on the month that Americans dressed up and go around begging for candy. Of course, I was only 6 years old and timid at the time, not knowing English and was interested because my mama told me that we would go around the neighborhood and ask for candy. I was confused why we needed to ask for candy ( estan locos aqui...tocar la puerta y te dan dulce por decir unas palabras!). She explained to me that kids dress up in costumes on the 31st of October, a tradition to go around and trick or treat knocking on doors and saying: trick or treat, as she kept telling me the story my eyes grew bigger and bigger with so much excitement about receiving dulce, something that was not done in South America. I started to like America more and more. I then asked my mom, “are there any other holidays I should be aware of like this that America gives free stuff by knocking or doing something weird?” Mi mama started laughing and my sister looked at me with a look that told ME that YOU are so dumb.’

Now that I am older, I still dress up in costume and try to have all my friends gather for this special day and go dancing. I use this special celebration to catch up on our lives and just be us without our men next to us, who do not know how to have fun or are just boring. We get together and go out for a few hours to laugh, catch on each others lives, and enjoy the night out. It also lets all of us take a few hours off our busy schedule to enjoy our lives instead of worrying about bills, school, kids and any typical daily life stress.

So I decided to find out what Halloween was about in the US and where it originated from and here is a little summary written by Jill Neitz on what and where Halloween first started. So, if anyone ever asks you when did Halloween start or originated from you can tell them the story below:

Halloween:
The history of Halloween goes back more than 2,000 years. The earliest celebrations of Halloween were among the Celtic people who lived in the areas which are now Great Britain and Northern France.
The Celts were people who worshiped the beauty of nature. They worshiped a Sun God and believed that without him, they would not live. They also worshipped Samhain who was the lord of the dead and of the cold, dark winter season. They believed that on October 31 Samhain would call together all of the dead and these souls would take on the shape of an animal. They believed that all creatures wandered the Earth on that night. This was called the Vigil of Samhain.
The Druids, which were the priests of the Celtic people, would build fires on the hilltops in belief that the large fires would help to strengthen the Sun God, and give him power enough to overcome the lord of darkness so that the sun season could continue. They believed that the fires were sacred, therefore they burned dried crops and sacrificed animals to help strengthen the Sun God. At midnight they stop worshipping the Sun God and start to worship Samhain because he will be the ruler for the next six months. This is the starting of the new year. They perform ceremonies through the night to ask the spirits to tell the future of the upcoming year. In the morning each household receives an ember from the fire, this ember is used to start fires in their own homes with the belief that it will ward off evil spirits in the new year.
The Celts continued with their ceremonies until they were conquered by the Roman Catholics. The Roman Catholics brought with them their own customs and traditions. They had established All Saints Day or All Hallows Day on November 1. This was a day in which all saints who did not have their own declared holiday were honored. The church had hoped that by establishing this holiday, it would do away with the Vigil of Samhain and the other ceremonies and celebrations held on October 31 through November 1. But this was not so. Soon witchcraft came about, and October 31 was renamed Night of the Witch. It was believed that the devil and all of his followers (demons, witches) would come out on this night to perform unholy acts to make a mockery of the All Hallows Day celebration. These ceremonies and celebrations continued and October 31 was then called All Hallows Even. It was a night for superstitious beliefs and mystery. Through the years the name was shortened to Hallowe'en and then to Halloween.

Credits to Jill Neitz

Drinking promotes career advances!

Drinking promotes career advances!

In our Sparta newspaper was an article stating that drinking promotes career advancement for women more than men. It demonstrated that women make 14 percent more of income and men 10 percent more by drinking.

I thought about the whole idea of what the editor was trying to say, but as I kept reading the article, it basically told me that I should drink in order to have a better job. Yes, the editor did mention what others thought about the study done and the effects of drinking socially. But never did any other research to verify the facts on this study done.

As I kept reading, it sounded like the study she read about was mostly on networking, although it focused more on "drinking" as the key to having a better career.

I started to think and went to research on drinking socially. I found one study done by Brown University Digest stating that they observed non-drinkers and socially drinkers. The drinkers had slow memory, their reflections were slow, and after having 100 drinks within a month they showed signs of slow brain functions.

So how could "drinking promote better pay?” as the editor used for her heading. It only provokes your body to have serious consequences in the end after drinking so many times within a month; provokes slows Brain functions; risks incurring a DUI that will automatically cost you more money for drinking and driving. It may also result in some becoming alcoholics and losing their jobs in the end. The study also made it seem as if women use their looks and drinking to obtain a higher percentage of pay or career advancement.

Articles like this really make me think about what journalists write and if they actually do research. Perhaps they are under such pressure to write something within a given time that they simply repeat facts or agree with an article or just write whatever they want.

I just do not know anymore about people being so ignorant on the side effects of alcohol and that this study if telling students to go ahead drink all you want, network but make sure you are holding an alcoholic beverage in your hand if not you will never have a promotion or career advancement in your job.

I do not believe that people are still ignorant about the side effects of alcohol. It seems that this story suggests that the study is actually saying students should go ahead and drink all they want rather than network. Or it recommends you make sure you are holding an alcoholic beverage in your hand or you will never have a promotion or career advancement in your job.

My point on this article is that alcohol does not promote career advancement. I feel that the editor misleadingly title her article to give the wrong impression about the subject matter. Also, women do not make more money than men do by drinking alcohol at a network event. I feel journalist should start to do more research on topics they write about before publishing it.

Dating!

Dating can be such a positive or negative experience, but once you date a person they seem so nice and almost perfect.

The reason I am writing about this topic is that one of my friends was looking for someone and she started with the website myspace.com. I told her to be careful when dating people from the web as I heard many weird and funny stories. She happened to tell me that she met this man or young boy who was cute and great body. Listening to this I asked myself what does a great body and being cute have to offer you? She then told me the next day that she will meet him for lunch after class. She was dressed to impress her date. She told me that she felt that something was wrong with him and could not think why she had a weird felling about him that something was just not right. After seeing him for lunch and talking on the phone she started to say that he was stubborn, demanding and that their relationship would only work if she fallows his rules. She figured that maybe it is because he has a strict father.

The second week came and she went to see him, they decided to watch a TV show that was with a cast of African American actors. He came out with a racist remark that made her mad, because to her it seemed that he was contradicting himself. Contradicting himself as being ignorant because he watches shows with characters who are African American. She asked him, "are you against African American?" and he tells her no, I am racist and my family used to own them!

She was shocked to hear this and told me that for him to make such a remark made her see him as "ugly"! I asked her why would he say something like that? She was even shocked because he attends SJSU and talks like that! She told me that after he opened his mouth to say that remark, he kept going on how the blacks are only looking for easy ways to make money and have a talent for dancing and singing but no brains. It made her so mad to hear all this comments that she decided to go home. She has also decided not to talk to him anymore and she was glad that she listened to her instinct telling her there was something wrong with this guy.

I told her that in the first place she should not be looking for someone, that the right person will come along. Secondly, that she really should not have gone to their home when she had only met them twice and felt something was wrong with them. Thirdly, I feel badly for those who are lonely and think they have to go through a dating process. Finally, I told her that she should just focus on school and might meet Mr. Right who will have the same interest as her. Of course, I hugged her in the end to let her know that it will all be okay and I am there for her no matter what.

I am glad that I do not have to go through the dating phase. I remember how hard it was to date and most of the time I didn't like the men I would meet. I even went on blind dates and let me tell you what a mistake it was. I would ask one of my friends call me within 15 minutes and tell me that I had to come home because of an emergency. This would happen on all my dates because they didn't look like the picture posted on their profiles. I would always have a funny story to tell the next day to my friends and they would laugh at me. Some would also tell me that it was mean to do that and what goes around comes around. I told them that I was honest with my profile and had nothing to hide.

Now I have a good man who helps me in any way he can, but at times we have our arguments. I guess it helps that he is not from the United States; he does not think of just taking the girl and sleeping with her as most men here in the US only think of; he has everything that I looked for in a man and a family person. But this will have to wait for another blog story for me to tell you all.