Benjamin Wey's World

Moving...

2008-04-11T21:38:36Z

Not away, just moving my blog to my previous blog at blogspot. I had forgotten about this blog, so now I'll be keeping it real and stick with the original. To read about what's happening to Benjamin Wey, read all about him in his original blog. Thank you livejournal, you've been good to me. G'bye!

-Benjamin Wey

Racist or Funny?

2008-03-31T12:03:16Z

So this video was forwarded to me, and at first, I LOLed. But then after watching it a few times, it got me thinking... I can see how this is funny, and I can see how this is racist. How do you think everyone sees it? Check it out here.

My Easter Sunday Recap

2008-03-31T11:30:20Z

My Easter Sunday Recap... Vegan BBQ for eats, and P.O.C. for entertainment....

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Weekend Plans

2008-03-23T00:44:31Z

- Had a long week.

- Still thinking about Irish Carmbombs.

- Haven't seen Cooper since Monday.

- Still listening to the Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly.

- Will Probably watch the Departed with Cooper and some Guinness.

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The Equation For The Perfect St. Patty's Day Party

2008-03-23T00:36:06Z

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! You know what that means? A Monday night of binge drinking... Since most of the pubs are gonna be packed tonight with drunkards, why not be a hooligan at my place tonight as Cooper and I are planning to throw an Irish bash that should hopefully be remembered. There'll be lots of carbombs, and lots of Irish punk. Check out the pics below for what you can expect for tonight's party.

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My Apologies To The Writers...

2008-03-17T10:00:28Z

I don't know if what I'm about to do is illegal or wrong, but I just can't help myself. I just have to watch The Office Season 4. I recently found this site called, Hulu.com, and I can watch The Office Season 4 on there for free, without having to download anything. They also got many other shows like the Simpsons, SNL, and Family Guy. I can see that my life is going to be glued to my computer screen playing catch up on my shows. My Apologies to the writers that were on strike for this kind of thing...

Still Caught In The Office Hype...

2008-03-17T09:46:18Z

So as I mentioned in an earlier post, Cooper and I have been caught up in watching, The Office on DVD. Last night, I finally finished Season 3, and I was just left hanging. I seriously couldn't go to sleep since I was so excited that the two main characters, Jim and Pam finally got together (Sorry if this spoils anything for some of you). But now I'm a little bummed out. Season4 isn't out on DVD yet, and apparently watching the reruns online on the official site is a pain in the @$$. Cooper told me he tried watching them, but it was lame because the videos just took too long to load, and when it did, the qualtiy was kinda choppy and laggy. I don't know... Does anyone know where or how I can watch season 4? Or am I and Cooper doomed to wait till summer time till the DVDs comes out?

Still thinking about Jim and Pam...

Still Thinking About The Weekend

2008-03-12T08:26:20Z

So I'm bored in class right now, and still thinking about the weekend. In fact, I'm thinking more about the dvds that Cooper recently bought-- which are all 3 seasons of The Office. I should be paying attention and taking notes, but instead I'm listening and somewhat participating, while reading "office haikus." I hope my life doesn't end up so mundane that I have to write therapeutic haikus. Here are some haikus from Ian Macallen's site.

Beautiful intern
Screws up my report, Lesson:
Should read resume

Forget new girl’s name,
She is neat and organized.
She won’t work here long.

Magna cum Laude,
Four-point-oh. Master’s degree.
I answer the phone.

Weird tech support guy,
You smell like rotten tuna.
Don't sit next to me.

Hot girl works downstairs.
Morning chit-chat made my day.
She quit yesterday.

Water Cooler Girl
Drinks five glasses per hour.
Does she work at all?

The telephone rings.
I want a Secretary.
Realize I am one.

I hope I never end typing with one hand for hours...

What I Did The Weekend After My Bay Area Trip

2008-03-12T07:46:33Z

So my weekend wasn't all that exciting, but nonetheless, still good. It was actually pretty chill. Cooper and I stayed in most of Saturday and just bbqed with a couple of friends. The food turned out awesome. We grilled up some: veggie burgers, cooper's "sweet sexy skewer"-- which impaled a variety of onions and pineapples sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, tofu, sweet potatoes, asparagus, and corn. Definitely good times. After dinner, we were supposed to watch The Godfather, since Cooper bought some Francis Coppola wine from Costco, but none of us really felt like watching a 3-hour gangster film, so we ended up just watching The Office, instead.

Veggie Burger

Sweet Potatoes

Gangster's Wine (Coppolla Wine)

What You Can Do

2008-03-10T05:32:43Z

Looking Forward To The Weekend

2008-03-10T00:18:38Z

God, I wish it was Friday already. I just want my weekend to get started and be as fun as last weekend. But I doubt it will be. Last weekend was just one awesome Northern California weekend. Maybe I'll catch a movie. I haven't been out in the theaters for a while. Cooper still bugs me, asking if I've seen "There Will Be Blood" yet. Maybe I'll catch that. It did win an Oscar after all. I still have San Francisco on my mind... But oh well..

How Can We Avoid This?

2008-03-09T23:58:59Z

I understand the necessity to explore in the name of science, and I understand that in some circumstances some extreme or rather unconventional method is required for the action needed, but how can we avoid something like this from happening again? I know that this may be old news, but I just can't help but comment on it. The picture below is a sperm whale that exploded while it was being transported for necropsy. The cause of the explosion was from the gases from internal decay. It's a horrifying thing to happen in public, and it's definitely unfortunate, but how else are we supposed to pursue the matter? How else could we have conducted scientific procedures if without putting the public in danger? Or is this something inevitable?

Back From LA

2008-03-07T12:02:07Z

So we got in today around 7a.m. I barely made it on time for class, but nonetheless, I still attended. Cooper and Annie thought that I should've just skipped, but I was just wide awake. It didn't make sense either since I spent the whole time driving back. But things made more sense after class. When I got home I crashed out as if I stayed up all night writing an all-nighter after popping adderall.

Anyways, going up to the Bay was fun. We didn't really get to visit any marine life while we were at Monterey on Friday, but we spent most of the day wine-tasting and hanging out with Cooper's family. When we got back to his parents' house we continued to drink some more while watching the movie, Sideways. I thought that the movie choice was fitting since we've been drinking wine all day, but at the same time it wasn't since it was such a depressing film. Nevertheless, the night ended in laughs as we stayed up talking about Cooper's younger days. Good times...

On Saturday, we spent the whole day shopping and eating at a bunch of small places up in San Francisco. I didn't get to buy as many clothes as I wanted since I wasn't exactly in the shopping mood, but I still had fun. At night we ate at this German restaurant called, Suppenküche, which was amazing. Afterwards, we spent all night at Absinthe, where I got hammered like an undergrad that just turned 21. Afterwards, we hung out at Cooper's sister's place (Cait) and crashed. I woke up in the middle of the night to Cait taking a shower and I stepped out onto her balcony to catch a view. It was misty, but it was still beautiful. I went back to bed with my head still spinning. When we woke up in the morning, we realized we had slept through our alarm. We packed up quick and tried to say goodbye to Cait for being a good host, but she's too hung over to get up and see us out. We said our farewells through a locked door. Here our the images that summed up our trip.

Goin' To The Bay!

2008-03-03T05:22:47Z

I just got word that we're going on a last minute road trip. I'm going up to the Bay this weekend to see some old friends and visit some of Cooper's family. There are two things I'm looking forward to: Monterey and shopping in San Francisco. I know I sound like a girl with me looking forward to shopping and all, but there are just too many cool shops that I can't miss. Plus with San Francisco being such a progressive city and all, I'm sure there'll be more sweatshop-free clothing stores other than the sketchy American Apparel. Yes that's right, American Apparel is a sketchy company. You can read all about that here. Also, if you ask me, AA's ads are just too gratuitous and racy. Check out one of their "high brow" ads below...

Apologies And A Reminder

2008-03-01T01:56:20Z

I'm sorry for my previous post, everyone. I didn't mean to sound like a bitching environmentalist. I just get so frustrated sometimes with the way things are. It just bothers me that there's this evident problem (global warming), and somehow it seems like we're all just not doing enough. And by "we" I don't mean you, me, or the common folk. I'm talking about those that have the power-- the ability and the financial back to to really make a difference. It's the corporations like Exxon that make me sick. But I don't want to bitch about it. I just wanted to apologize. On a lighter note, here's just another funny reminder of the issue of global warming...

Interesting Article on Crab Invasion

2008-02-29T21:33:59Z

I recently bumped into this article, "Antarctic marine life threatened by crab invasion," that talked about how there's an army of shell-crushing crabs that are set to invade certain parts of the Antarctic Ocean that were off limits to the crustaceans for millions of years because of the cold water. Sad to say, I'm not surprised since the reason behind it all is "our" doing. It should be no surprise people, that global warming would mess up the flow of things. Because of global warming, sea temperatures in the region are rising, therefore it can be expected that crab populations have already become established in deeper, slightly warmer waters. It is only a matter of time before they expand to shallow Antarctic habitats and completely alter their community structure. Thanks to our irresponsibility, we have allowed an invasion of crabs to totally change the habitat in the Antarctic. So long biodiversity, make way for the big guns.

The Next "American Gangster Film"

2008-02-28T02:48:54Z

So I was up until 3am-ish late last night/ early this morning, watching "American Gangster." I was planning on reading for school and going to bed a little early, but Cooper was suffering from "insomnia," so we just decided to watch the movie. I thought I was going to fall asleep since it was already late, but from the start, the movie kept me up. I think you should all definitely check out the film because it's not only one of the best movies in the year 2007, but it also features Denzel's most compelling performance.

But this post isn't exactly about the film, "American Gangster." It's about what/ who should the next "it" gangster/ crime movie be about. In 2007, the gangster movie to see was obviously "American Gangster," the year before that, it was "The Departed," and the year before that it was "Sin City." In coming years, I think someone should make a movie about California's own Felix Mitchell.

I learned of Felix Mitchell sometime last year when I caught a documentary about him on BET. If you have the time, check out the documentary below. You'll learn everything about Felix Mitchell and how much of an interesting figure he was to the law and the community. Watch it soon before BET has them taken down.You can find the documentary here, on youtube. I think Don Cheadle would be a perfect fit.

I Just Bought American Gangster

2008-02-27T23:40:38Z

So I just bought American Gangster on DVD today. I didn't get a chance to see it in the theaters, since I was busy and all, so I've actually had the release date of this movie marked on my calendar... But I probably won't watch until the weekend comes. The movie's almost 3 hours long, and since I'm usually coming home tired from school at the end of the day, I don't want to watch the movie all tired. But I heard it was supposed to be good-- like Goodfellas good. I just hope there isn't any stupid cameo appearance by Jay-Z.

Excited for the new Erykah Badu CD

2008-02-27T21:52:58Z

Woohoo! I just got word that the new Erykah Badu cd-- New Amerykah, will be coming out next week. It's been about 5 years since her last album, "WorldWide Underground" last came out. I'm totally looking forward to this, especially with all the artwork being used to hype the album up. It seems like this cd might have a more funky futuristic groove to it. Check out some of the promotional pics below.

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

2008-02-20T12:08:31Z

Happy Valentine's Day everybody! As I sit here in my room all by my lonesome, listening to the Flying Burrito Brothers', Hot Burrito #1, I'm surprisingly not a bitter single. All the roses, and all the guys buying last minute gifts don't give me a sad reminder that I'm single. In fact if anything, it reminds me that I'm kinda lucky that I don't have a partner to blow my money on right now. Since I'm an unemployed grad student and all... But oh well...

My plans for the night are probably dinner, wine, and a movie. My good friend Cooper and I are planning to make breakfast for dinner together, and have some cheap wine. Afterwards, we'll probably watch a depressing movie, like "High Fidelity," or "Sideways." But it's all good! I hope you all enjoy your V-Day!

The kind of turtles I like

2008-02-20T02:34:53Z

Box turtles are pretty much my favorite turtles. My interest and my obsession in them came from a young age. Let's just say they grew to mean a lot to me the way dogs or cats do for other people. You can read about all that here, on my personal page. But mainly I'm interested in land-dwelling turtles, since I own a few box turtles myself.
Most of the people I know who own turtles tend to have the red-eared sliders. These turtles are pretty cool, but they're way too much to handle. It takes a lot of effort to care for these little guys. There's a lot of responsibilities when it comes to handling these guys. Probably the biggest inconvenience is needing to constantly change the tank water, which you need to do frequently if you don't want the room stink.

Thats why I prefer box turtles. I usually have a busy schedule , so I 'm too busy for red-eared sliders. But maybe someday.... For now, it's going to be box turtles since they're low maintenance. It allows me to be busy but still have pets. As long as I change the substrate every few months, make sure they have a bowl of freshwater to swim in and drink from, and feed them, they'll be fine. Plus, they're also a lot friendlier than the red-eared sliders, they don't hiss or snap at you as much.

Reasons For My Blog

2008-02-19T21:55:45Z

About a month ago, I decided to start a blog, something that would talk about my interests since a bunch of my friends are not exactly into what I'm into (which are turtles). But then I think it started turning more into a turtle-lover's web site. And since many of my friends don't necessarily dig turtles as much as I do, I figure I should start over with another blog. One that's more personal and more journal-like, but at the same time something that also talks about turtles. So in the hopes of finding people out there that share the interests as me, and in keeping a journal, I decided to start a livejournal. If you want to know what I'm doing each day, you can check that out on my Twitter.

My First Entry

2008-02-19T05:29:31Z

So as some of you might know, I kinda consider myself to be a "turtle enthusiast." You can see how I'm freakishly into turtles at my personal site. But anyways, as I was picking out the layout for this blog I noticed that there was an "Ocean Turtle Theme." Being the turtle fanatic that I am, I automatically clicked without thought or reading. Unfortunately, the theme was considered an "upgrade;" meaning that I had to pay. So I figure I may as well go with Mr. Elephant and the orange layout. So far it's a good start, compared to my last blog. What do you think?