ANY BOHAN PHOENIX FANS OUT THERE?


Two weekend from now in LA!! I don’t want to go alone :(
Nick Ut recalls the day he met 9-year-old Kim Phuc and saved her life.

The USC Women’s Student Assembly hosted activities to foster body acceptance. Click here for the full video.

Day of the Dead is a time for celebration rather than mourning. Click here for full video.
aries: passionate verging on obsessive. defensive of both themselves and the people they love. few layers; what you see is more or less what you get. good-hearted, intelligent. always up for a challenge, but becomes stressed out very easily and handles stress very poorly. even when they’re tired, they somehow seem so alert and two steps ahead of you. responsible. they prefer to lead and lead very well. interesting, competitive, loyal. although they like to be correct and love to prove people wrong, more than anything they just want someone to listen and expand on their point, not disagree with it. romantic but they like to pretend that they aren’t. they seek instant gratification and hate doing things that they’re not naturally great at (but they’re naturally great at a lot). can be very self-absorbed, but it’s not conscious. so loving and so lovely. the yang to my yin, the storm to my calm. a friend who completes me.
taurus: extremely nice, and they never want to hurt anybody’s feelings, so they tend to skirt around the truth or omit their opinion. truly, genuinely kind, the sort of person you hope will always stay in your life, the sort of person you feel like you really need. dependable, hardworking, stable. they have been through a lot, but looking at them, you wouldn’t know it. will ultimately put themselves before you (which is a good thing), but is always there for you when they can be. very realistic; they know what they can achieve and expect themselves to do so. private to a fault, and doesn’t usually express their feelings. there is something about their soul that makes me smile whenever i think of them. one of the people i love most in this world. my equal, the friend who i hope knows how much i love them.
gemini: endlessly charming, supportive, and brave. always wants to make everyone happy, often at the expense of their own desires, so they’ll do things they don’t want to do but be kind of grouchy about it, leading others to believe that they are picky and that they change their mind too much. frequently changes the details of a story to either make it more interesting or get out of trouble. wants more than anything to see and experience the good in the world but is very often a victim of the bad. overly-trusting. they can make any experience memorable, and they are the most fun you’ll ever have. quite self-critical but they also know that they have a certain power over people. forgetful, tolerant, warm. often feels quite overwhelmed and may not handle this feeling wisely. crazy but kind. the one whom words fail to describe. the biggest piece of my heart, my mother.
cancer: both friendly and intimidating. difficult to read. patient and cooperative but more often than not, they think their idea/opinion is better than yours. very, very smart. super dependable, so sensitive, hold grudges like it’s their life’s calling. courageous. behave very differently around authority figures, likes being seen as innocent and cute. they will keep your secrets but they will kind of hold them over you, and they tend to taunt others by saying, “i know [x] about [y] and you don’t.” very funny, dark, and sarcastic once you get to know them, but initially sweet and sugary. survivalists; they protect themselves first and their loved ones second and don’t really care about everyone else. friendly. once they’re in a relationship, they become rather absorbed by it and neglect the other parts of their life. dramatic, obsessive. rather strong-willed. when they’re having an off day, get out of their way. they will never forget anything you tell them. they see life as an inside joke. my figurative fraternal twin. the friend who is just like me but whom i’ll never understand.
leo: impressively loving, astonishingly generous, the whole universe in one person. soft and loud, wild and cautious. they are full of power, grace, and energy, and they awaken within you the sense that you are good and that you can do whatever you want to do. even when they’re quiet, their presence is felt. very self-critical, constantly questioning their worth. always in need of validation, which is why they like to be the center of attention; in order to know that they’re a star, they require a standing ovation. they want to love themselves, they need to love themselves. such a romantic, wants to be wooed and adored, and they’ll gladly return the favor. soothing. they are so easy to trust, but they are more careful with their own secrets than they seem. they love with every bone in their body. they want, more than anything, a best friend. loyal, inventive, go-getters. great listeners. can somehow empathize with every situation, but are mildly obsessed with themselves. love winning. my idol, the part of myself i hope i grow into, my aunt.
virgo: hilarious, dependable, treats you like their kid. trustworthy, sympathetic. they are fascinating and unique, but they are too attached to their own magic. more obsessive than they like to think they are. they take criticism very well, perhaps because they dish it out even better. level-headed but aspirational. they prefer to be the less loving one in all of their relationships. feels guilty for feeling sad or emotional. curious and interested. can talk for hours if you let them. kind and smart, wants to be special and different from everyone else. treats the people closest to them the worst. believes in tough love. loves to joke and be sarcastic but usually takes it a few steps too far. perfectionistic, which leads them to put little effort into things that they feel they can’t do flawlessly. the one i protect who thinks they’re protecting me. the friend whom i loved right away.
libra: angelic, enchanting, sweet. picky. they are so afraid of offending someone that they have to know someone really likes them before they’ll be honest with them. so many layers. funny and diligent. treats everyone like their best friend, but when you are their best friend, there is just something so slightly different about how they treat you, something that makes you feel amazing. good at everything. completely unable to make decisions. gossipers. they want to like everyone, but they just don’t. absolutely hates saying no, but will do it if it’s 100% necessary. sleepy and goofy around people they love. works hard to look good, trendy. smart, fair. nervous around authority figures. fearful of loss and of growing up. secret control freaks. they are at once youthful and wise. crazy patient on the outside, just crazy on the inside. always somewhere on my mind, the one who i was always meant to know. my very best friend, my soul’s sister.
scorpio: the best listener. truly wants to know everything about you. extremely devoted, passionate. knows you very, very well. so funny, so kind. will stick with you through thick and thin, always on your side. gives great advice. the person across the room who you can’t stop staring at. secretive, fearful, romantic. both observant and judgmental. will hate you for judging them while they judge you. their heart is bigger than anyone else’s, and all they really want is to fill it to its brim with love. very often the sidekick, but they stand out to me. they are quite obsessive and they rarely wait for explanations. they want to own the people they love. intuitive. loves you soooo much. impossible to know fully. deep, powerful. the ocean flows inside them, yet all too often that ocean is stormy. the person many people think i am, the person i sometimes i wish i was. my confidante, my partner in crime, my heart, my friend.
sagittarius: the most supportive and dependable person on the planet. an amazing friend, the best person to have in your corner. honest and disorganized, friendly and capable. very quick to anger and has a hard time admitting they’re wrong. devotes themselves wholly and completely to their partner and puts them on a pedestal, but once they’ve moved on, they’ve really moved on. tends to succeed, lucky. has a hard time seeing the truth of a situation and often must be told what’s really going on. charismatic and caring, overly generous. can spread themselves thin. guided chiefly by morals which they never abandon. has a strong sense of right and wrong (specifically, they’re right, you’re wrong). my backbone, my other mother.
capricorn: pensive and stoic. has a brain that never stops going. they wake up every morning in the climax of a novel they’ve written in their sleep. loyal, just, intimidating. cold and private. mean to people who are mean to them. shuts down entirely for seemingly no reason. the wisest of all. mature. silently romantic. victim of their thoughts. intense, original. they want someone to fall really deeply in love with them, but they close themselves off to everyone. admires the beauty of the world, moved by small details that many people miss. always thinking of the future, no matter how good the present is. judgmental. wants to be better than everyone else. exceptionally smart. often falling apart on the inside. can think themselves into sickness, into joy, into anything. loves to be alone, hates more than anything to be lonely. soft on the inside. the best leaders but they don’t like to lead. kind-hearted and always doubting it. immensely fatalistic. the dreamy head behind my eyes. myself.
aquarius: very patient. analytical, detached. they have favorite people and things and they will be honest about who and what these favorites are. they love you, they just can’t tell you. wants to be cared for without caring in return. easy to talk to, somehow always makes you feel safe. impressive intellect. generous with the people they love. genuinely good, inspiring. easily overwhelmed. resorts to humor when offended. doesn’t try very hard to act like they like someone they hate. wants to be special. artificially nice to authority figures. can be surprisingly mean without intending to. very good liars. super funny. compliments mean a lot coming from them. the person i forget i am, the friend i should talk to more.
pisces: kind-hearted, funny. to really know them, you kind of have to know them forever. so easy to love. hates to think about the difficulties of the world and prefers to just have fun. very much in the present and tries not to think about the future. as such, they sometimes behave without thinking and wind up messing things up for themselves. they tend to be kind of lazy in regards to some things and extremely passionate in regards to others; there isn’t a lot of balance. can be very mean and very angry. won’t apologize first when you’ve made them mad. must express themselves in some way. no matter how much they say that they love you, they always love you more than that. quite sensitive, hates few things more than being called annoying. super generous, always wants to be there for you but hates not being able to make you happier. truly the sweetest. my favorite person, my brother.
Farewell to all my friends who have left or are leaving for college soon! May we meet again.
shout out to We Bare Bears for including Muslim people in their amazingly accurate diverse set of side and background characters
YES YES YES
Here it is. The video we spent all weekend making and I spent all last night editing. I present, “These White Walls” I’m still waiting on permission from the band to make the video public on my channel, but I wanted to post it here anyways.
A personal column piece I wrote January 2013 for the school newspaper. The names have been changed to protect the identities of my, um, entertaining friends.
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They were asking me to kill myself.
Well, not exactly. But they were daring me to devour a spoonful of ground cinnamon in less than minute, without water and on camera – which came pretty close.
Alas, ignorance serves as little excuse, for I was well-aware of the potential consequences; after all, I have been on YouTube. What may seem to the ill-informed like an innocent spice, sprinkled on baked goods and apple sauce, is really a silent slayer, ready to strike when rationality bids adieu. There is a reason why the Powerpuff Girls are awfully tough – and it is not Chemical X.
Entertained by the misery of strangers in pain, I watched – studied – as many attempted to conquer the infamous internet fad which, for reasons beyond me, had lived to see past a decade, only peaking early last year. They were choking and coughing and cursing. And somehow, apparently immune to the sounds of retching, I was still considering the challenge.
“We can do it after school at my house,” Brutus declared.
“Just get it over with,” Mark Antony agreed, as if it were some rite of passage.
I was the only one in my group who felt a little apprehensive. Having taken place during what was considered a pre-apocalyptic time, I rejected the idea of carelessly relinquishing my remaining few weeks of life. So I prompted for someone to search up the side-effects.
“Clogging of one’s airways, inhalation can damage lungs, toxic chemical compound…” Brutus trailed on, scanning the list of risks. “One boy was even put on a respirator and hospitalized, but no deaths yet.”
“Oh, come on,” Mark Antony said, in response to my deer-in-the-headlights expression. “We’ve seen a bunch of people do it before, and they’re not dead. I’ve almost died on a number of occasions. You’ll be fine.”
This did not reassure me in the slightest, but I agreed to it anyways. Curiosity is a killer.
I shared with my lunch buddies my plans for that evening, leaving them horrified, appalled, alarmed – you name it. Followed by a lecture on how pointless it was and painful it would be when my lungs collapsed. After a while, the warnings seemed to weave together into a big “do not do it or you will regret it” scolding – only adding to my indecisiveness.
On one hand, I had my friends and my inner rebel telling me to gain new experiences, and on the other I had people advocating what seemed like the voice of reason.
Peer pressure is a real pain.
Curse my lack of backbone.
***
Fast forward to later that day and we’re hiding out in Brutus’s guest bathroom, a contraband bottle of cinnamon – courtesy of Mark Anthony’s smuggling skills – on hand. The camera was set on its tripod, puking places had been designated and cups of water were filled to their rims.
And clasped between our trembling fingers were three spoons of cinnamon.
We exchanged hesitant looks. Were we really going to do this?
“One, two, three…”
And for a split second I thought, “This isn’t so bad.” Which was when, of course, everything went south.
When I became another one of those YouTube fails.
As if on cue, all of us rushed to our allocated spots, coughing our lungs out and cleansing our mouths with hopes of expelling the majority of the spice before it edged further back in our throats. With hopes of relieving the parchedness that seemed to never fade away. This cycle continued for minutes.
“That was pleasant,” Mark Anthony finally said, rising from her hunched over position on the floor.
“It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” Brutus said.
And that was when they did the most absurd thing: they repeated the challenge – with more cinnamon.
I did not need to be a prophet to foresee that things would not end well for either of my friends. Earlier, I had warned them making such a move was unwise. And between the cloud of cinnamon plaguing the air and the repeated cries for water, I believe I was correct.
Watching my friends reattempt the challenge was like viewing another YouTube video – but no longer amusing. Instead, it was painful to stomach their suffering and I simply wished for it to end. It’s funny how I don’t wish to reverse the events of that day – in fact, I’d like to keep the memory for a while. Even though I have yet to figure out the life lesson masked in all the madness, I’m sure it exists.
“Brutus?” Her dad called from afar.
Fear-stricken, we rushed to lock the guestroom door and, in a frenzied fashion, began eliminating evidence of the endeavors of the last half hour. Soon, the only remnants of the day were the mild tingling of our throats and the cinnamon bottle we had forgotten to sneak back into the pantry.
***
We are a month into our new year and over a month past the day thought to be the world’s demise; if “YOLO” should thrive at any time, it should be now. And before a band of hipsters assemble at the newspaper room, pitchforks ablaze, I’ll say this: as each year goes by, we lose the opportunity create more memories, but gain the chance to start fresh ones – it is evident. I do not write to justify my actions or advocate reckless living, but to convey that through this experience and this New Year, somehow I have learned to see life as a bigger picture and be more thankful for it.
And the next time I do something for a “new experience,” I bet I’ll be soaring midair and strapped to a parachute, having the time of my life with my two friends. Almost killing myself in a good way.
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And if anyone needs a brief recap of the pop culture of late 2012, the cinnamon challenge was all the rage, as was “YOLO,” the Biebs, and thinking 2012 was the end of the world (thanks John Cusack).
-Julius Julienna