Current Event: Restore Subsidies for Graduate Student Loans!

The recent graduate student petition reminded me of the below quote. 

"The Dao of great learning lies 

in making bright virtue brilliant, 

in making the people new, 

in dwelling at the limit of the good."

The below link is a petition to restore subsidies for graduate student loans.
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/%21/petition/restore-subsidies-graduate-student-loans/TtNGQfHG?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl

Popular TV Shows: Will ABC's Revenge's character Emily Thorne be trapped in her own web of revenge?

Emily Thorne Starts Dating Daniel Grayson as Part of Her Revenge Plot

"Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves." I think this quote would do well for Emily Thorne to heed. As shown in the picture above, Emily Thorne/Amanda Clark started dating her enemies' son, Daniel Grayson, as part of her revenge plot. However, if you look closely at the picture or had seen the recent episodes, you would feel the sense that Emily/Amanda might be slowly developing deeper feelings for Daniel.  Her situation is a perfect example of why revenge should be done or not be done. Ultimately, I wonder will she need to "dig" the extra grave for herself. 

Current Event: Stockton Asian Farmer Market

Although Stockton is a city that is in the middle of nowhere and has no Asian resources like in Los Angeles, Stockton has an Asian farmer market that provides awesome, fresh Asian food resources for those who wish to buy cheap, Asian food (e.g, fresh Chinese soy milk). AS a matter of fact, I regularly attend this farmer market even since I found out about this resource since I am a big fan of Chinese soy milk and traditional Asian vegetables, such as Chinese spinach. Additionally, they sell tofu for ~ $0.50 to $0.75 (3x cheaper) than any store and sell green Chinese spinach and boy choy for the price of $5 for six of them.

Is there a correlation between Modern Music Lesson Training & Confucianism?

Classical music is a component that has always been part of myself. It is almost impossible for me to ever define myself without thinking about music. This blog is to express my love for two important dominant themes that had been part of the culture worldwide: classical music and Confucianism.  However, these two topics were rarely associated together. In fact, most considers those themes as two separate entities.

My personal belief is that classical music training has been innately part of the Confucian tradition societies for thousands of years but just not explicitly expressed as that.

Current Event: Hmong New Year Celebration in Stockton

Last Saturday, I attended the Hmong New Year Celebration with my sister and friends. I am not Hmong and had never seen a Hmong Celebration so this celebration was quite new and different for me. Sadly for me, I did not like the food that were present at the celebration since the food was either large amount of barbecued meat or fried something. Also, the vendor sellers mostly only spoke Hmong, which caused me to have difficulty to communicate with them. However, there were some really nice performances by various performers, such as ethnic dances and singing, and some interesting vendor shops that had very nice hand-crafted artwork.

Current Event: University of the Pacific Hosts the Jon Schamber High School Speech & Debate Touranament in Stockton

University of the Pacific Speech & Debate Team

 A couple of weekends ago on October 28th through 30th, the University of the Pacific Debate team hosted on campus the 32nd annual Jon Schamber High School Forensics Tournament. This tournament a full, two day tournament for the high school students in Stockton or near Stockton. The tournament features the following: CX (Cross Ex) Debate, Lincoln Douglas Debate, Parliamentary Debate, and Radio Broadcasting, Ten Different Individual Events. The Pattern A individual events are Expository, Dramatic Interp, Impromptu, Thematic Interpretation, and OPP. The pattern B events are Oratory, Humorous Interp, Extemp (Combined National & International Topics), Duo Interpretation, and Oral Interpretation.

Current Event: Think Fast! Students Sharpen Lifelong Skills in Debate Competition

Last weekend on November 4th through 6th, one of the largest college debate tournament, hosted by the University of the Pacific Debate team, took place on campus at the University of the Pacific. This tournament was the Paul Winters Invitational- a full, two day IE/NFA/LD/NPDA/CEDA tournament. University of the Pacific's Speech and Debate Team was founded in 1854. It is now one of the oldest, more accomplished, and prestigious debate teams in the state of California. Pacific team did very well and took third at this host tournament.

Science Blast Community Day in Stockton!

Science Blast Community Day
Today, November 5, 2011, this annual Science Blast event was held at A.G. Spanos Center at the University of the Pacific from 8:30 AM to 12PM. This popular event was hosted by the science-related student community from the University of the Pacific and the Delta College.  Numerous children from the community were in attendance.

Culture: Nature vs. Nurture in Stockton

Southwest Hall in 1800s - Stockton State Mental Asylum

Current Southwest Hall 

I recently found out that Southwest Hall, the second largest residence hall at the University of the Pacific, was originally the Stockton State Mental Asylum. This was an interesting bit of information that made me realize that if Kaspar Hauser had lived in Stockton during the 1828, he would most likely had put into the Stockton Mental Asylum, the current Southwest Hall because people in Stockton would had considered him insane for claiming to grow up in a cell and for not being able to speak any human language. Hauser was a German youth who claimed to grow up in a darkened cell and showed up in the streets of Nuremberg, Germany at the age of approximately 16-17. Kaspar was and has remained a hot topic for the psychology realm today due to his unique situation.


Video 1

Culture: Drunken Monkey & Martial Arts

The Drunken Monkey theme from the lecture last Friday reminded me of the "Drunken Monkey" martial arts form in the movies, Last Hero in China and The Drunken Master. Both movies are quite popular martial arts movies (the clips are shown below). As there are numerous martial arts schools in Stockton, specifically Kung Fu school, such as Charley's Independent Wu Chun (been in Stockton for over 20 years), this topic with regards to the martial arts film clips is relevant to my Confucius blog in Stockton.