No on 8 rally

On Sunday, about 8 of my friends met up in Irvine on Alton and Culver to protest against Proposition 8, the proposition that is against gay marriages. I was scared at first, as it was my first rally and had no idea how the crowd react. Would they boo us and try and harrass us or would they be supported. To my surprised, once I arrived there with San I felt comfortable and at home. I was so proud to be gay and to part of this movement for change. San made a beautiful long sign that was long enough for five people to hold together. It said Nooo on H8te. There were moms and dads out there that held signs with us and supported. I even met my good friend that studied abroad with me while I was back at USC undergrad. We were met by very supportive drivers that passed by. They would honk their horns in support, would wave, and cheers us on. This gave me a lot of motivation. Of course we also met some opposition as some would flip us off as they drove by or gave us a thumbs down. There were no Yes on 8 protestors though. I heard that there were a few last weekend at the same street corner but they eventually dwindled down as the number of No supporters grew in size. I got to the site at 11:30 and then left at 2:20pm. My friends left at the same time and went to the rally in Fullerton close to CSUF right in front of a church. Click on the link below to read more on that rally. I heard it was a lot more exciting that the Irvine one as there was a huge turnout on both sides with about 200 No supporters and 150 or so Yes supporters.

Sharing

A huge issue arose in class on Friday morning after our Biostats quiz. Just to give everyone a background, these quizzes each count for 10% of our grade. There are five of them. So early on, we decided to form a study group that looked over journal articles every week, made summaries and then we got together before each quiz to teach eachother the material. Our group was made up of about 10 individuals and only Phi Delta Chi brothers. The controversy arose over the fact that on the morning as we were taking the quiz, an Alpha (member of the opposing frat) took out their notes and low and behold it was the one that I had typed up with David and Jeanette for our study group.

First of all, the fact the notes some how got around surprises us all. I had never even gotten a chance to send my notes electronically to my discussion group members due to time constaints. I only made hardcopies for those that attended our small group disccusion on Thursday. However by Friday, our notes had made its way around the class. Someone, obviously took the time to scan those notes send email them out. What makes me personally mad is that as an co-owner of these notes, I should have the say in whom I want to distribute them to. I may make myself out to be a selfish person in writing this post, but I'm not. I often like to say that what's mine is yours. Relating to this situation though, I just wished that the person who had sent out our notes had asked us first. By not doing so, it is disrespecting me and the other co-owners of that piece. A work is essentially copyrighted the moment it is finished. Those who write it become the owners. As owners, I believe that it is our right to regulate our work, and not the right of those who have obtained our work.

What do you think? Are we being too touchy about sharing our work?

Baterial Resistance ...yikes

It's a scary thought, but it seems to be happening everywhere. It's funny how years ago, penicillin was the miracle antibiotic, and now it is often not as effective as we wish it would be. I guess it inevitable when patients are hounding doctors to prescribes them anitbiotics for their colds and flus, when they don't even have a bacterial induced infection. These sicknesses are caused my viruses, and as of right now, there aren't many medications that one can take to battle a viral sickness such as the cold, or flu. It's just something that you have to wait out.

As a user of antibiotics for acne, I get scared that the bacteria on my face will eventually become resistant. I've been using this product called Benzaclin for a little less than a year now. It's an antibiotic in combination with benzoyl perioxide (product exposes bacteria to oxygen which kills them). I use it quite regularly. I can't help but get scared about missing a few doses and having the bacteria become less sensitive to the product upon resuming. Such was the case when I went back to Orange county to visit my father. Of course, I forgot to bring my medicine with me and so I missed my night and morning dose. After that, I broke out on numerous spots on my face and three weeks later, I'm still getting papules in places I haven't ever been concerned about before. I used to rarely get acne when I was on this medication continuously. We'll see what happens in a few weeks. I'm starting this cream again and it should help to air out the pores. The only thing is that it takes several weeks before it takes effect. It's also harsh on the skin since it has a drying effect.

Most of my friends have grown out of their acne by now. When will it cease to be a problem for me? If I was a girl, it'd be easy; they can actually take birth control to maintain their hormones which helps to control acne. Birth control is obviously not an option for men; I'll start sprouting boobs :P

Memories

These are old pictures from Ryan's Christmas Bday party. Oh the memories. I must have been 21 years old. I believe that it was the first time that I had met Phuong (my fraternal twin sister). So much has changed over two years. Sometimes I do wish that I could just go back and fix a few things, but I wouldn't have learned what I did without those huge mistakes that I made.

Can't wait until after today's Therapeutics midterm. Then I can hang out with Mariah and Phuong on Tuesday and try and figure out what to dress up as for Halloween.

Up early to say NO!

It's really not that early. It's 7:37am, and I am up and ready to tackle therapeutics cramming for my exam tomorrow. I just wanted to write an entry about my friend who has decided to donate on my behalf fo NO on prop 8 as my belated b-day gift. I'm actually really touched, and I woudn't prefer it any other way. No amount of material gifts would ever amount to or equate to the gift of having marriage. I think some of us don't realize the extent of what's to happen within the next few weeks. I'm hoping for the best.

A couple of my gay friends' birthdays are today, and they wanted all of their friends to do the same (ie donate). Instead of wasting money on presents, they wanted us to donate to No on prop 8. Since Oct. 10th, I've donated various times, but in all I've donated $165. It's something that I don't want to look back on and say that I could have done more. When something like the chance for equality comes out, how could you refuse it? Let's just say that we're blessed that the time for change is coming in this generation. We could have been born in the 1940s when it was not even an option to openly hold hands with another person of the same sex. So, let's make it happen. Don't sit there idly and miss this opportunity. Sometimes it takes someone to take away something before you realize the importance of what you had. Yet even still, as the Pro prop 8 people advertise constantly on TV, some people still don't realize the importance of all of this. If reading my blog helps at all, please go out there and donate. With just a few weeks left, money raised for the campaign will help reach those undecided voters.

The time for change is now. I can't wait 12 years from now for society to recognize me as an equal. I want it now. I'm tired of having to hide and pretend. I just want to be me...

Legislative Day

Today's was Legislative Day at University Park Campus at USC. The event started out with a big breakfast at 8-11am which welcomed Pharmacists, and Politicians, and others that are important in making changes in Policy. Then at 11am, on behalf of APSA we had a health fair until 2pm. We We had cholesterol, diabetes, osteoporosis, and Hypertension screenings for free and in addition to over a handful informational booths. I was in charge of the Skin Cancer and Sun screen booth today since I'm the Director of Cancer Awareness. We were giving out free Coppertone 30spf mini sunscreens and telling people about what they needed to know about sun cancer and how to reduce their risk. It was an awesome experience in comparison to last year when I had less than 5 people come up to me to talk about skin cancer. It must have been the free samples. I brought over 300 samples and have about 50 or so left, so you do the math. I think that's it our booth was a success. Can't wait until November, when we go to a school to educate more students about skin cancer.

Deathnote

Today I finally opened my deathnote figurines that my friend got for me as a present from Anime expo. They're really awesome. I'm still sad though that Rem is missing a wing. Uhhh they gave me two left wings. I was thinking to myself, this can't be! lol Oh well, I guess mistakes happen.

Random

Random day in West Hollywood. I'm not sure what we were up to that day. Was it lunch at Bossa Nova's? Yummy

Romeo and Juliet

I finally watched the rest of Romeo and Juliet tonight. A few weeks ago I watched the first half, and never got around to finishing it. Everytime I walked past the dvd, I wanted to finish the last hour but I didn't want to see the inevitable, the death of an amazing love. I thought I would definitely cry after I watched the movie, but I didn't. However, I'm extremely sad. So many things racing across my head.

Love is somethign that is amazing and beyond all of us. If it is so strong, how can one love a person one day and then want nothing to do with them the next. I say that it's because people throw around the term too loosely. Are they really in love with you when they say it, or are they infatuated? That's why I am always so careful to use the word. I may be hesitant to use it, but when I do, I mean it with all of my heart.

In addition, I see so many parallels in terms of the movie and modern day life. There was so much struggle between the two to find acceptance of their love, it was forbidden love. It almost seems destined that I watched this movie, since at the present, there is the whole battle over equality for marriage at debate (proposition 8). Gays and lesbians are trying to fight for their rights to marry eachother, to celebrate their love for one another publicly, to be treated as equals. There is intense struggle, and the result of the election will change history either way, whether it makes new ground setting precedence or whether it sets us all back years and increases our struggle. I hope that the latter will not be the case.

The movie makes me emotional on so many levels, but mostly it ticks me off too because of the whole debate about the sanctity of marriage at risk with the tolerance of gay marriages. In today's society, is the institution of marriage really all that sacred anymore? Teens and even adults are marrying for all the wrong reasons or without love, to be divorced years later. Yet, somehow the allowance of gay marriages somehow infringes on this sanctity? Well I will agree that in some cases it may, but for many gay couples, they have been with their life partners for decades. They love eachother, period. If that love is not sacred, I don't know what is. However, it is not fair that they are not being given the same rights as everyone else.

I don't see myself getting married anytime soon, but I want that option to be there when I find my Romeo oneday. I want our love to be celebrated among friends and family, publicly.

Uhh, fun times

I'm just being really stupid today, can't concentrate. Chi chi and I went to Baccali today for lunch. I had the Cajun chicken and he had the Malaysian curry chicken. Then we went back to my place and then watched some SNL parodies of Sarah Palin. I stll can't believe how much she looks just like Tina Fei. Anyway, back to studying.

Sunday was the VAPSA health fair in Westminster. It wasn't as crowded as last year, but we still were able to give over 400 flu shots and were able to educate hundreds of individuals. I was in charge of helping the cholesterol screening booth. Was mainly in charge of controlling the line, and then helping students out of they could not get an adequate amount of sample to screen. It was a long day, but it was worth it.

Legislative day, health fair is coming up next Friday at the USC Main campus. We will be having hypertension, cholesterol, diabetes screening for free to the surrounding general area. I will be there with my Cancer Awareness commitee to educate individuals about the importance of applying sunscreen, and teach them how to screen and prevent melanoma and various other skin cancers.

Still getting the hang of it

I'm still trying to get the hang of this thing. I like the layout, but I'm not really sure about all the functinalities. I like the face that Xanga, has the whole footprint thing so I can get a feel of who visits my blog and reads it. However, blogger makes it so much more easier to add pictures straight from my computer.