happy moon day

今天我想起村上春樹的1Q84–天空掛着一大一小两個月亮的世界。男主角天吾在公園溜滑梯上面，看到天空上的兩個月亮，而女主角青豆此時就藏身於對著公園的一座建築物裡。他們未曾相遇，卻終於置身於「同一個世界」裡。

兩個月亮的世界代表現實上不存在的世界，但在村上春樹的筆下，所有離奇的現象都可以用現實的方式去解釋。

當我望著月亮的同時（其實在投射自己於那個不存在的世界裡！），我想...那個他也在看吧。這樣也是一種浪漫..是嗎？

Ah.

I just want to have something substantive and special written on my obituary.. That's why I prioritize work and success over relationships... Please please please. I don't wanna lead an ordinary life and have people remember me that way.

Just a thought...

Today's one of the days where I feel overwhelmed by the amount of reporting I have to do.

And I kept questioning myself, why did I have to choose such a challenging topic? Why did I have to exhaust myself in this way?

I ran into a few restaurants and got kicked out by some, when I expressed that I'm a student reporter and am working on a story about good restaurant models (in fact, wage theft is my focus).

I wanted to find out if restaurant workers earned above the minimum wage, got overtime pay... etc and verify that with the owner/ managers' responses.

Some managers were nice and allowed me to talk to their employees, but it's apparent that they're imposing pressure. From time to time, employees would exchange nervous glances with their bosses, or became so tensed up when their bosses walk over and 'listen.'

It's only normal to deflect responsibilities.
You might ask, who would confess that they exploited undocumented workers anyway? What's the point?

I know some of them are lying. But it's one way of raising consciousness. Customers should be able to distinguish which restaurants held their actions accountable, and that they're starting to think of the process behind a cheap meal.

So I really don't expect to go back to certain restaurants from now on. Some certainly hated me for asking such sensitive questions, but for the most part, I really don't want to eat something that's cooked by low-wage workers who have been exploited and isolated victims.

別再找藉口！

In my mind

My heart is pounding and I can't sleep.

No matter how much I occupied myself with work, every night ends up like this.

Stare into emptiness. Evaluate how I acted today. How others acted. Time passing. Opportunities fading. Regrets mounting. The good others did to me. The bad I did. Vice versa.. Balancing all those.

What screws me most is the picture
of how things should've turned out.

competing values...

It's interesting how Disney started creating cartoons for adults and carried propaganda content. And although this was released on 1943, the example used in this cartoon still holds true!

bb

constructing my own catastrophe

如果我還是這麼後知後覺

如果我還是這樣容忍你

如果我還是跟你笑著當沒事發生

我就沒有盡力保護自己，或斬斷所有可能傷害自己的機會

等於綁著雙手任你宰割

這已經是一種錯，還能怪誰

"As I see it, you're living with something that you keep hidden deep inside. Something heavy. To tell you the truth, I myself carry these things around inside. Heavy things. That is how I can see it in you."

The psychology of evil

Philip Zimbardo, who led the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment, gave an interesting talk on the nature of good and evil. In relation to moral development, how do certain situations seduce ordinary people to perform actions that they recognize as immoral? If we all have the capacity for evil, why do some become a reality and some not?

How and why do the photographs of Abu Ghraib prisoners acquire emotional and moral relevance? Please share what you think of Zimbardo's arguments!

desensitized?

 Hollister Models Mock Asians at Opening of South Korea Store

When the A&F flagship store opened in Hong Kong, the media made fun of HK women who were crazy over a cluster of shirtless models during the opening. It always amuses me how brands like A&F and Hollister have such receptive audience in Asian countries, while most consumers were completely oblivious of the discriminatory practices of models in South Korea (not to mention past complaints on the company's discriminatory hiring practices). In Hong Kong, I found it a little disturbing that there is not a single Asian among the models, although most consumers cared more about the "All American look" than racial insensitivity. And so, the role of news media is crucial in educating the public about racial controversies and promoting discourse in the public square.

controversial bus ads story here

good day!

the most beautiful people are those who have a conscience and relentlessly pursue justice; those who do NOT justify an unjust mean for the "greater good."

sometimes i think that the greatest sin is not those who committed a crime but HOW they package themselves– to repeatedly claim that they are a better person than they actually are...and to obscure the pain they caused to others instead of acknowledging it.

xx

只清楚自己不想要的，卻不知道自己到底想要甚麼

好苦惱。怎樣也想不到feature story應該寫什麼。還有9283124709樣野未做...
***

I've been reading Corner Office of the NYT. The Q&A approach is easy to digest and relatively concise...especially when you're reading about successful entrepreneurs, I'd prefer reading this over a long, detailed profile story. Corner Office is, in a way giving a more honest depiction of what the CEO is like instead of painting a rosy picture.

But aside from writing about prominent figures, I'm much more interested in covering ordinary people– especially those who don't have a voice. I've heard about day laborers standing under intense heat near Jones Ferry Road, Carrboro (just few minutes from Chapel Hill), hoping that a construction truck would pass by and pick them up for a paid job– for a day. Most day laborers are immigrants, documented and undocumented alike.  And because of their lack of English skills, fear of immigrant operations and the yearning to earn a decent living,   these laborers are often tricked into working without being paid.

I can totally picture how worried (AND over reacting) my mom would be if I told her that I'm interested in this topic and I'm going to spend days talking with the day laborers so that I could get their side of the story (though I'd really need a translator...) But this is how it'd work.

First profile story running tomorrow!

there're certain kinds of behavior that you cannot get over with

我總是覺得，情意結會令人放下自己的標準。

明明有些行為是不能接受的，但想起某某對我的好，就會找各種理由出說服自己－他其實沒有那麼差，我也沒有那麼好。就當扯平吧。


或者人真的偏向相信美好的信念，就算幻想破滅，還是不想承認自己有多愚昧。

因為得知莫莫背後所作所為而顛倒自己對愛情及友情的期望，對所有東西都抱著懷疑的心態。

是難熬的。但其實生活就是不斷的跟陌生人熟起來，然後跟熟的人變得很陌生。

那些值得留在心中的人，我會狠狠的愛你們。