I wanted to talk about an experience I had today because I basically...want to talk about it.
I work at a job that can be pretty dumb. I show people previews for new movies and survey them for their opinions about it, over 5-10 minutes, at a cart near a local Edwards Cinema Theatre in a large complex. Basically, it gets annoying for many, as they don't like being drilled for all the questions.
Anyway...
One of the carts near us is for local homes in a rich area where I live. The person running it is often someone different every day. Today, the man running it was a vietnamese (I think) man who I assumed to be Chinese before today. I heard him tell someone else he was Daoist. I'm in cultural anthropology and I'm an idiot and I try to anthropologically be indifferent about all cultures and customs, listening for the purposes of wanting to listen, rather than socializing. (most of my classes this semester suck, so I try to apply stuff I learn to my life to pretend I'm learning something).
Basically, I've said "hi" to him a few times, but I'm usually trying to scout for people of whatever age group or ethnicity or sex we're looking for that day, ask them if they want to see the preview, and sometimes I forget he's there. Today, maintenance opened a hatch on the bottom of the concrete floor where I work (outside, in front of the theatre) and me and a few other people there were like "OMQ theres been a tunnel under us all this time?"
After I examined the tunnel I went back to work (if oyu call it work), going back to where I would "recruit" new people to watch the preview. This happens to be next to the Vietnamese guy's cart. I kinda smile at him as he gives a polite smile/nod thing. His face is usually expressionless or he talks and you have to try hard to find his sarcasm. Then I tell him about the tunnel, I point to it, and say "theres a tunnel under this concrete." he starts talking about "yeah, I don't doubt it, with all these poles and lights and electricity and plumbing, plus all the needs for the Edwards right next to us. You know, that's why this country is Super(Spudra? Spadra? Supra?) Communist. When someone dies here, no one knows about it. Not like in my country. There, if someone is killed, we know. Here, no one knows, no one cares."
Here's where the story gets interesting...
This is as close to word to word as I can get, it's kinda summing up what he's saying as I 'anthropologically' (study of people) listen to see what he has to say. I'm curious as to what a chinese or vietnamese person thinks of the USA, and I listen in without saying anyhting:
He starts talking about how theres so much conspiracy in the United States. I think the first thing he talks about is Viagra. He says "yeah, you know, in all the water they have chemicals that make the people less sexually able, that's why they sell Viagra, so people can be more sexual, or make children," or something. Then he says, "Yeah, and Viagra! It costs $1 to make the pills, but they sell it for $10, which is a 1000% profit. It's all a cospiracy to make money. And the major corporations, like drug companies. Have you heard of Phetomahaloidon'tknowtherealnameazine?" (me: no, what's that?) "well it's a drug that they use...I used to work in a prison (I'm assuming like a vietnamese prison) as a guard, and they use this drug on patients. You know these patients, they have psycho..what is it, psychological problems? depression and things? They give them these drugs, in a month or two, they die, and no one cares. It's conspiracy. This drug, one dose is equal to 6 sleeping pills, and they give people 3 doses a day. You know, like in prison, if a person is tied to a post for two weeks, then the guard lets them go and says "run," they cant do it. So the guard will shoot them. Same thing, the mind doesn't work for a month, it's not psychologically bad, it's chemically bad, and it doesn't work, and they die in one month or two months. Very bad.
( he also told me about how there are like 30 state prisons )
Yeah, there are 30 prisons, and it's a conspiracy to make money. Just like insurance companies and things. They put people in jail for little things. They put a murderer or rapist in jail with a man who smuggles things like marijuana or cocaine, when you can jsut get a doctor to perscribe you marijuana (in California there was a short time where marijuana was legal in the state) or ...what's the drug for depression?
(me: prozac?)
Yes! Prozac, people can get spaced out with prozac, after a month or so with prozac you'll be just as bad with cocaine for a month, your brain will be gone. So why are these people in jail for drugs? It's for money. California needs money for prisons, that's why it makes punishments so bad for small things. People go to jail for a simple DUI or DUI, like minor jails, county jails, and state jails are for small things like drugs, but they're still mixing them with bad people. They're doing harsh punishment because a prison isn't a prison without prisoners, see? They need money.
(note: I figured out he was actually a US prison guard, not vietnamese)
(note: I really wanted to counter alot of the stuff he was saying, but when I tried to say "yeah, but marijuana isn't legally perscribed anymore..." he started to make a big deal "yeah, ok, ok, but the other ones, other doctor perscribed drugs" and I didn't want it to turn into a 'thing' so I let him keep talking without intervening.)
(then...we talked about something else maybe, but the last thing I remember is this)
And like the JFK assassination, people make you president and they take you out when they want! This whole nation is communist, lots of conspiracies, you just have to look. This is what happened with JFK (whispers) well in my opinion, you may think something else, but this is what I think. There was a war with Christians and Roman Catholics, and JFK said he would be roman Catholic, and the Christians wanted him out, because they were tired of Roman Catholics. So they killed him. They smacked the pope in the face when they killed him. I mean, with all this CIA and FBI, they say they don't know what happened, i mean come on, how can't they know? They know, they just won't say. See? Conspiracies.
/END SPEECH
That's all I can really remember of the whole ordeal, I just wanted to tell someone that whole story. Basically, he probably told me more, but that's alot of stuff when you're working and trying to listen at the same time. I may have missed a few details or misinterpreted what he said, but he didn't speak perfect English, and I tried to be sympathetic and listen.
I've had a tough last couple of weeks, and I normally probably wouldn't have listned to this speech, I was also pretty dang tired, and I didn't feel like saying "go away".
Anyway, what do you guys think about this? (assuming you read the whole thing)
[This message has been edited by Veger (edited March 16, 2004).]
I work at a job that can be pretty dumb. I show people previews for new movies and survey them for their opinions about it, over 5-10 minutes, at a cart near a local Edwards Cinema Theatre in a large complex. Basically, it gets annoying for many, as they don't like being drilled for all the questions.
Anyway...
One of the carts near us is for local homes in a rich area where I live. The person running it is often someone different every day. Today, the man running it was a vietnamese (I think) man who I assumed to be Chinese before today. I heard him tell someone else he was Daoist. I'm in cultural anthropology and I'm an idiot and I try to anthropologically be indifferent about all cultures and customs, listening for the purposes of wanting to listen, rather than socializing. (most of my classes this semester suck, so I try to apply stuff I learn to my life to pretend I'm learning something).
Basically, I've said "hi" to him a few times, but I'm usually trying to scout for people of whatever age group or ethnicity or sex we're looking for that day, ask them if they want to see the preview, and sometimes I forget he's there. Today, maintenance opened a hatch on the bottom of the concrete floor where I work (outside, in front of the theatre) and me and a few other people there were like "OMQ theres been a tunnel under us all this time?"
After I examined the tunnel I went back to work (if oyu call it work), going back to where I would "recruit" new people to watch the preview. This happens to be next to the Vietnamese guy's cart. I kinda smile at him as he gives a polite smile/nod thing. His face is usually expressionless or he talks and you have to try hard to find his sarcasm. Then I tell him about the tunnel, I point to it, and say "theres a tunnel under this concrete." he starts talking about "yeah, I don't doubt it, with all these poles and lights and electricity and plumbing, plus all the needs for the Edwards right next to us. You know, that's why this country is Super(Spudra? Spadra? Supra?) Communist. When someone dies here, no one knows about it. Not like in my country. There, if someone is killed, we know. Here, no one knows, no one cares."
Here's where the story gets interesting...
This is as close to word to word as I can get, it's kinda summing up what he's saying as I 'anthropologically' (study of people) listen to see what he has to say. I'm curious as to what a chinese or vietnamese person thinks of the USA, and I listen in without saying anyhting:
He starts talking about how theres so much conspiracy in the United States. I think the first thing he talks about is Viagra. He says "yeah, you know, in all the water they have chemicals that make the people less sexually able, that's why they sell Viagra, so people can be more sexual, or make children," or something. Then he says, "Yeah, and Viagra! It costs $1 to make the pills, but they sell it for $10, which is a 1000% profit. It's all a cospiracy to make money. And the major corporations, like drug companies. Have you heard of Phetomahaloidon'tknowtherealnameazine?" (me: no, what's that?) "well it's a drug that they use...I used to work in a prison (I'm assuming like a vietnamese prison) as a guard, and they use this drug on patients. You know these patients, they have psycho..what is it, psychological problems? depression and things? They give them these drugs, in a month or two, they die, and no one cares. It's conspiracy. This drug, one dose is equal to 6 sleeping pills, and they give people 3 doses a day. You know, like in prison, if a person is tied to a post for two weeks, then the guard lets them go and says "run," they cant do it. So the guard will shoot them. Same thing, the mind doesn't work for a month, it's not psychologically bad, it's chemically bad, and it doesn't work, and they die in one month or two months. Very bad.
( he also told me about how there are like 30 state prisons )
Yeah, there are 30 prisons, and it's a conspiracy to make money. Just like insurance companies and things. They put people in jail for little things. They put a murderer or rapist in jail with a man who smuggles things like marijuana or cocaine, when you can jsut get a doctor to perscribe you marijuana (in California there was a short time where marijuana was legal in the state) or ...what's the drug for depression?
(me: prozac?)
Yes! Prozac, people can get spaced out with prozac, after a month or so with prozac you'll be just as bad with cocaine for a month, your brain will be gone. So why are these people in jail for drugs? It's for money. California needs money for prisons, that's why it makes punishments so bad for small things. People go to jail for a simple DUI or DUI, like minor jails, county jails, and state jails are for small things like drugs, but they're still mixing them with bad people. They're doing harsh punishment because a prison isn't a prison without prisoners, see? They need money.
(note: I figured out he was actually a US prison guard, not vietnamese)
(note: I really wanted to counter alot of the stuff he was saying, but when I tried to say "yeah, but marijuana isn't legally perscribed anymore..." he started to make a big deal "yeah, ok, ok, but the other ones, other doctor perscribed drugs" and I didn't want it to turn into a 'thing' so I let him keep talking without intervening.)
(then...we talked about something else maybe, but the last thing I remember is this)
And like the JFK assassination, people make you president and they take you out when they want! This whole nation is communist, lots of conspiracies, you just have to look. This is what happened with JFK (whispers) well in my opinion, you may think something else, but this is what I think. There was a war with Christians and Roman Catholics, and JFK said he would be roman Catholic, and the Christians wanted him out, because they were tired of Roman Catholics. So they killed him. They smacked the pope in the face when they killed him. I mean, with all this CIA and FBI, they say they don't know what happened, i mean come on, how can't they know? They know, they just won't say. See? Conspiracies.
/END SPEECH
That's all I can really remember of the whole ordeal, I just wanted to tell someone that whole story. Basically, he probably told me more, but that's alot of stuff when you're working and trying to listen at the same time. I may have missed a few details or misinterpreted what he said, but he didn't speak perfect English, and I tried to be sympathetic and listen.
I've had a tough last couple of weeks, and I normally probably wouldn't have listned to this speech, I was also pretty dang tired, and I didn't feel like saying "go away".
Anyway, what do you guys think about this? (assuming you read the whole thing)
[This message has been edited by Veger (edited March 16, 2004).]
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