Sorry… February 8, 2008
Posted by iamashadow in Nintendo, PC games, blog, blogging, computers, games, life, personal, random, sick, thoughts, video games, writing.add a comment
So, no update yesterday, sorry about that. I discovered Steam, online service for selling video games. So I downloaded lots of demos and bought a couple of video games. Okay…couple is small. Anyways, my laptop slowed down to a crawl and couldn’t use it. So yesterday I was dealing with a broken computer but now I’m back. Yay. And I’m sick or getting sick. A cold. 
But that will not stop me from writing my posts and than sending them out so they can be posted. Hopefully I won’t do anything else stupid on my laptop but than again, this is me who we are talking about and I love those video games. And for the curious, I got Half Life 1 and 2, Deus Ex, Max Payne, Deus Ex: The Invisible War, and a demo of Dawn of War. In my computer I already had Star Craft, World of Warcraft, Rise of Nations, Fable: The Lost Chapters, Civilization IV and the Expansion pack of Beyond the Sword and Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Needless to say, I almost like PC gaming as much as I like Nintendo.
End of the Month Blogging January 31, 2008
Posted by iamashadow in blog, blogging, fear, heroes, mentors, personal, quote, quote of the day, quotes, thoughts, videos, youtube.add a comment
January has come to an end. The month’s most popular posts are the following. Illegal Immigrants and Crime first, followed by Immigration Enforcement and the About Me post. As of the moment of this writing I’ve passed the 1700 views mark, with 1400 of those views from January. The best single day was having 82 views.
My favorite video that I posted was the following, Fear Politics.
My favorite quote is the following, from Martin Luther King Jr.
“An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.”
As for what I hope for February, hopefully continue to blog and have better posts than in the past.
Personal thoughts of the day January 25, 2008
Posted by iamashadow in blog, blogging, college, friends, life, personal, random, school, thoughts.add a comment
It’s been a bad week. Well, maybe not bad. I don’t really know how I feel actually. I’ve been taking part in a fund raising scheme some friends made up in order to raise money for scholarships. I don’t think we will be able to meet the demands that we put on ourselves. It’s depressing to say the least. As for me personally, the long weekend was bad. I ignored some of my work and now that has come to bite me in the ass. I’m getting better though, I’m finishing a paper for my Spanish class tonight. Hopefully it will be good. And yes, I speak and write Spanish but that doesn’t make the master of the language. My English is a lot better I believe. At least with English I don’t have to worry about accents and such, I hate the little things. I can’t hear them but that’s because I’m semi-deaf from my left ear. I always ask my friends to walk to the right of me so I can hear them.
As for other things, I’ve been feeling like crap for some unknown reason. The back of my neck hurts and I’ve been sleepless. I unfortunately stress out easily. I hate it but meh, what I can I do right? I think all in all, it must be the fault of my meds. Or rather, my almost complete lack of them. I’ve been rationing them because I’ve been too busy with things to set up an appointment. Bad choice on my part, I know. I’ll try next week. I need to see my doctor anyways, stuff we need to talk and demons to try to extinguish. I think it is stress though.
A friend and I were talking about a bit our lives and how similar they are to our peers’ lives. Yet so different. Being an immigrant makes your perspective of life a little bit different. This weekend I was planning on trying to enjoy myself by having dinner today with old friends, maybe going to see a play and go so another play on Saturday. Yes, I like plays. I want to go away for a while, and forget about things. I haven’t really been playing video games either, which is a bad sign for the people who know me. I love video games, about my only escape. I still go to classes though, or try to get myself there. I’m not feeling terrible, but feel that I’m on my way there. I have to see someone or something. I don’t want to get depressed again and put the burden on those around me of dealing with me. It’s not fair.
Everyday, I go to class, procrastinate, do my work, play video games, hang out. In biggest sense of the word, I’m like everyone else, at least on the outside. But on the inside, wow, such a different landscape and view. Such a different outlook of life to that of my friends. So many different expectations. Different problems. Different thoughts, dreams and horrible nightmares. A different life. I wish I could live like them, like most people around me. And my back hurts, as if I was carrying a heavy burden. Maybe I am, maybe, but I don’t know. I don’t know anything. Hopefully I’ll get better once I go see a doctor and can get back my daily anti-depressants. Hopefully next week will be better, and the pain will go away, at least the physical one.
Anyways, I’ll continue to blog and hopefully will have something immigration related soon. I know that’s what you come here to read, even the anti-immigrant people come to see those so they can try to defeat my point of view and not about me complaining about life. I’ll have something up soon.
Blogging for a Month January 20, 2008
Posted by iamashadow in blog, blogging, life, personal, thoughts, writing.6 comments
December 20 was the day I started blogging and it is now a month later. I have found it an enjoyable thing to do, blogging, despite the negative comments by some people. I mean, seriously, anti-immigrants are not going to convince me to their side and you don’t see me posting stuff on their websites. I have better things to do…like update my site.
So once again I ask all my readers if there is anything that they think I should do improve my blog. Aside from being more careful with grammar and the like. I love to write but I just can’t get to seem to grasp the grammar work. It’s quite sad actually. But anyways, I might change the format of the blog just for the hell of it too.
So thank you for the people who have commented, even the negative commenters, you amuse me. Also, I would like to thank the people who have added me to their blogrolls, thanks for considering my blog to be good. A special thanks to Moleman from the blog A Case of the Denver Doldrums, dude, you are awesome. While I don’t know much about your situation, I hope you get better and continue to write. I try to read your blog everyday, and on your last post, do try to write if you can. Writing is awesome, it is a great therapeutic technique. It helped me out during my depression. So, thanks for considering my blog a cool one, I think the same of yours.
Anyways, I hope everyone continues to check out this site since I still plan to update it everyday. Maybe not with immigration stuff but most of the time it will be that. I think I need to get better at reviewing things too. Oh, and if anyone wants to know more about me, just ask. I hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend!!
So… January 14, 2008
Posted by iamashadow in blog, blogging, college, friends, friendship, life, movie, personal, thoughts.add a comment
So…I didn’t have posts for Saturday or Sunday. Sorry. There have been a lot of things going on. Mainly hanging out with friends and miscommunication with the people helping me with the blog. So, anyways, I’m back this Monday. I will be a lot busier than I thought I was going to be. I finished buying all of my books and discovered the fact that I’m going to have to read 12 novels this semester. Or I think it was 12, I got to double-check. Plus my other classes also have work. This weekend mainly comprised of reading a thriller, seeing the following movies: Juno, Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail, and Fight Club. After watching Monty Python I made it my life’s purpose to have a killer rabbit and have a flamethrower/bazooka shooting stick. Fight Club is one of the weirdest movies I’ve ever seen. Only Mulholland Dr. beats it. As for Juno, I highly recommended it for everyone. It is a great funny movie, and the main character is great too. I’ve also been playing lots of Guitar Hero III, which is no excuse for not updating the blog so I apologize.
Being back in school is great though. I guess I love school so much I never want to leave, which is why I want to be a teacher. Maybe one day… Anyways, I’m back. Sorry for not updating but I’ll try my best to do write something everyday. I think I’m going to have a cold though, which sucks. I took some Tylenol so that might help. I was going to write something on Saturday but I was suffering from massive headaches. I realized it was because I missed taking my medication. I’m an idiot sometimes. Which reminds me…I have to go to my doctors soon. Better set up the appointments. So, I’m back and better than ever. Hopefully I won’t miss another day!
Back to school! January 5, 2008
Posted by iamashadow in Immigration, blog, blogging, college, friends, friendship, human rights, illegal immigrants, illegal immigration, life, mentors, personal, school, thoughts, undocumented students, writing.add a comment
Ah, school. I’ll be getting back to school very soon. That means that my ability to write posts will diminish. At home, I don’t have a life, at school I have the semblance of one. So if one day I don’t post, it’s probably because I was too busy with schoolwork/friends. I apologize and I will sincerely try to keep the blog updated.
As for my school, I really wish I could write the name down but alas, I won’t. I can say that it is a really beautiful place. Specially on the fall. I like fall, my favorite season and my birthday falls on it too. I really like the falling leaves and the red colors. I walk at nights a lot of the time just to see it. At school I’ve been able to find very good friends. I miss them very much during the breaks. I miss classes too actually, especially now that I’m better at academics.
What I’m trying to say is that I’m grateful to be at the school for accepting me despite of everything. Not just grateful, extremely grateful. I could never say thank you enough.
I had never expected to go to college. If anyone had told me during my junior year of high school that I was going to end at the school where I end it up, I would have laughed my head off. I remember last assignment for my AP English class dealt with college essay. I don’t remember if I did the assignment or not (probably did) but I felt it was useless. Immigrants like myself don’t go to school. I remember the first real tour I had. It was with a friend and three teachers, two of which had graduated there, and it was a great afternoon. I loved the place, I still find it funny that I didn’t actually know where the city or school were even though both are close to the town I lived in, but than on the way back home my attitude change. I told myself that I shouldn’t have hoped to be there. I shouldn’t have liked the place. I shouldn’t have enjoyed it because in the end, I was going to be rejected or I wasn’t going to have the money necessary to attend even if accepted. I couldn’t have any hope on the matter I told myself. Needless to say, I was quite depressed about the whole business of applying to college. But by some sheer luck or a miracle, I end up going to school in a state that counts me being out-of-state. And by some sheer miracle/luck/voodoo mix, I got the funding necessary to go there as well. Now I’m on my way to doing an undecided (I’ll decide this year…) major.
Do I believe I stole someone’s seat at this university. Of course not. I was accepted as an out-of-state student so I wasn’t even in the competing pool of in-state people. I think I proved myself capable of being able to be accepted by my school work. That and I wrote a novel, a 300 page novel, now BEAT THAT! Haha. I find that crazy even my own standards.
What more can I say? Well, I will never be able to thank enough the people who made it possible to be here today. Again, I send a thank-you to my friends, who I will see soon, for putting up with me. Also, I want to say that I’m in indebted the people who run and make this blog possible. You guys are great!
PS. I still think its crazy, the whole novel project, mainly because it is mind-boggling that there is a finished version of it. The quality isn’t as well as I would have wanted, but it is 300 pages singled-space too, BEAT THAT!
Internet War January 1, 2008
Posted by iamashadow in 2008, Immigration, blog, blogging, dehumanization, human rights, illegal immigration, life, personal, politics, thoughts, undocumented student.1 comment so far
The immigration debate is gaining a large presence in the blogosphere. The rise of the pro-immigrant bloggers is upon us. Fellow blogger Open Borders Lobby is right in all the resolutions she wrote.
The need to combat hate speech that is now categorize as okay needs to stop. I’ve seen immigrants being called parasites, leeches, terrorists, infiltrators (on a side note, an immigrant friend said this one made him feel like Jack Bauer. I laughed a lot), dogs, scum and a lot more. All because the pundits who disagree with an immigration reform call them illegals. Illegals takes away the word immigrant transforming them from people looking for a better life to criminals and more. Without the word immigrant, illegals only becomes the beginning and all the other words follow because it is okay. That is the beginning of the dehumanization. The tide of 20 to 1 against in the immigration needs to stop. The pro-immigration movement and voices need to organize and rise to challenge those those who would deemed immigrants to be unworthy of compassion. Living in fear is something that shouldn’t happen in the 21st century, not in the country everyone considers the best, not in the nation of immigrants.
The Truth December 30, 2007
Posted by iamashadow in Immigration, blog, blogging, illegal immigration, personal, politics, quote, undocumented student.1 comment so far
“Immigrants today, however, have no one to fight for them. Indeed, they are precluded from the fight. With our current attitudes, we complain about them working the high-skilled jobs for which they have been qualified through education and experience, and we sit by silently and allow them to do the jobs that we are unwilling to perform. In the midst of this hypocrisy, we do not even allow them a foothold to secure their rights, in spite of a marked tradition of doing so in the past. This fact constitutes perhaps the most damning aspect against any argument that aliens are not a suspect class…They cannot better their situation and must rely on citizens to take up their causes. They are silenced and shut out of the legal debate.” This was written by Judge Liotti from New York as he thinks it is unconstitutional to deny licenses to immigrants. Fellow blogger Open Border Lobby has more on that, and thanks for the quote by the way.
I believe the quote to be true, going along in the same lines of my earlier post, Silence that kills. It is a killer silence that only immigrants or very close friends of immigrants can understand. It is heartbreaking. I blog in order to break that silence and to allow my voice to be heard. It is the only thing I can do.
Writing=being god December 28, 2007
Posted by iamashadow in blog, blogging, life, personal, quote, thoughts, writing.add a comment
A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it is to be God. Sydney Sheldon.
The quote above is a basic illustration of how I feel about writing. The feeling of control over the destiny of others is an intoxicating feeling, like the one of any drug. Very hard to match. Writing is a paradox. It is hard as hell…and yet one doesn’t mind being hard. It is time consuming but time can fly. It can be torturous and yet so amazing. What drives people to write? I have no idea, I don’t even know why I write but I know I do and I enjoy it immensely, even when I’m complaining about it.
Blogging for a week… December 27, 2007
Posted by iamashadow in blog, blogging, life, personal, politics, thoughts, writing.add a comment
So, it has been a week since I started writing this blog. To all those who have read anything in it, thank you. I have to apologize for all the typos and grammar mistakes. I’m a living a paradox, I love to write and yet suck (at least in the grammar sense I think) at it. I’ll get better at it, I promise. Anyways, I welcome any suggestions that you might have, comments, concerns, hate letters. Its all good.
Oh, and more than one person has tried to comment and the comment has not appeared because it has been caught by the spam detector. Sorry about that, it was not my intention to stop anyone from commenting. I’m still learning the ropes of this so again, sorry.
