Chinese Thanksgiving
Had an American Thanksgiving yesterday at the house of my mom's friend. The food was great. Turkey, ham, stuffing, potatoes, cranberry sauce, pies, and a bunch of other things I can't think of right now. This was the first time I've eaten a "traditional" Thanksgiving meal. Usually it's just...
CHINESE Thanksgiving. My mom had the idea to invite family over to have a Chinese Thanksgiving tonight. Great Chinese food, and lots of fun times with family.
Friday started off with some quick Black Friday shopping. I picked up Wii Sports Resort from Target. As you can see above, I am clearly a jedi master in training. This picture is of the match I became a true "pro" in wii sword-fighting. (You become a "pro" in the game once you hit level 1000.) Wow I'm a geek (and proud of it).
Here's my Uncle David. He had never played with a wii before, but after he got a hold of a controller, he wouldn't put it down. There were several moments where I was scared he would throw the controller accidentally in to the tv. My mom though, encouraged him to play harder. She said we could use a new tv!
Mom woke up pretty early to start cooking. She gets really in to it, and doesn't let anyone help. Shucks, how am I supposed to learn how to cook? In this pic, she made this Chinese soup...I can't really describe it well, so lets just leave it as Chinese soup.
The aftermath. I didn't want to take any picture while we ate, but here's what was leftover. There's so much left over that we probably have lunch and dinner for tomorrow too. I think we had about 7 dishes total. My mom is a cooking fiend 
This dork here is my cousin Brandon. (Or as the Chinese Bakery lady put on the cake "Brando") Friday was his birthday, so we celebrate Chinese Thanksgiving AND his 19th birthday. He's thinking about going back to college. He had dropped out before. I'm proud of him, and hope he sticks with it.
When all the "grownups" started talking and playing mahjong, my brother and I snuck upstairs to watch a Thai movie called Chocolate. Wow. I think the best way to describe the movie is Kill Bill, in Thai, with less blood. Oh, and the main character, pictured above, is a mentally handicapped girl who is able to learn martial arts moves as she sees them, and then kicks ass. Like Rain Man but mimicking martial arts instead of card counting. Not much of a plot, but it's awesome to see a female martial artist.
Beatles Mood
I got the new Remastered Box Set of the Beatles Albums. (13 albums, 200+ songs). After much listening, here's my top 10. (It was really hard to cut it down to 10 but somehow I did it.)
My Top 10 Favorite Beatles Songs (Click this link, then click the link on the next page to listen)
1. In My Life
2. I've Got A Feeling
3. Let It Be
4. We Can Work It Out
5. Yesterday
6. Hey Jude
7. P.S._I Love You
8. Something
9. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
10. A Hard Days Night
Strangely, after I picked my top 10, I looked at the top 5 and it seems like it could be a life motto for myself.
In my life I've got a feeling: let it be...we can work it out yesterday.
I'll ponder on it.
Health Fair in Monterey Park
Went to check out and support Asian Pacific Health Corps' annual health fair in Monterey Park. All the services were free, so community members (most Chinese) had access to bone density screenings, hep b screenings, bmi screenings, dental screenings, and much more. It was well attended. Here are a few pics:
The kid seemed very prepared to have his teeth checked (with stunner shades and all).
Pharm students did some counseling with many, MANY first generation Chinese folks waiting in line.
Training room for parents to see how they can keep their children's teeth healthy.
It's good that there were plenty of signs in multiple languages. However, interpretation is a different story.
---
The event was great, but it made me think more and more on language access. Sure these are great resources, especially since they were free, but you could see the language barriers that exist. As I walked by, I could hear a lot of the people who were volunteering there say "I need to find someone to help me translate to this person," or "I'm sorry, I don't understand what you're saying." At one point, in the bigger auditorium, a white pharm student got up and started telling those people sitting down and waiting, that they were going to start new testing and that people had to sign up for it. Sadly, he said everything in English and there was no Chinese translation. There were looks of puzzlement everywhere.
How do we expect to keep our communities healthy when language access is not a priority? I don't blame the org who organized the event. No, they did a great thing by putting this event together to get resources to these community members. Just like with our hospitals, it's just a matter of trying to make due with what you have. Sure, having interpreters is a great thing and very needed, but that costs money. Often times, and I saw it today as well, you have family members, or others who are not trained to interpret. This can lead to consequences in the health of our community members. If my mom were to take me to interpret for her regarding issues of women's health, I would have no idea about the correct terminology!
I could go on and on about how by FEDERAL law, there is a requirement for anyone who takes money from the feds to offer language access. But that's a long ass discussion. If anyone is interested, we can chat. I'll tell you about Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Dymally-Alatorre, or Exec. Order 13166 (google them if you don't want to talk to me )
Folks up at the top have already said that these changes in language access need to be made. How do we make sure it happens on the state and local level, especially when we don't have the funds? There needs to be a paradigm shift. We can't just go on offering services without the language component. Without the language component, in this state where so many of our Asian immigrants are first generation, are we really improving the health of our communities?
Fun with the Camera
Roof of APALC, 6:30PM. Messed around with the Manual function on the DSLR cam.
A Good Laugh
Two Time Warner guys came over this morning to install the new digital cable box. The two Mexican guys were really nice. They put on the shoe socks, double-checked if the Asian channels were installed for my mom, and then get this...as they were packing to leave, one guy said "thank you" in Mandarin to my mom (and his tones were pretty close).
However, as they were nearly out the door, one of the guys looked at a piece of art we have up, and said to the other guy, "YO DUDE, IT'S CROUCHING TIGER! OH MAN WHERE'S HIDDEN DRAGON??"
I kid you not. This happened.
PAC MAN!
Pacquiao defeated Cotto this weekend. I caught the fight (downloaded it) on Sunday.
I'm not one who usually watches boxing. In fact, the only times I have ever watched boxing, has been for this guy right here, Manny Pacquiao. The man is amazing, and it's unbelievable how truly, an entire nation is rooting for every punch that he throws. Heck, not just an entire Pilipino nation,
I feel like most Asians are rooting for this guy too. I remember driving back Saturday night from Chika's recital, and trying to check the result of the fight on my blackberry. Rather than go to yahoo sports of espn.com, I went to facebook. I KNEW that on facebook, there would be some kind of status update (and I was totally right!).
Anywho, pointless post but I have nothing to do before this JACL CRC meeting. Go Pac Man!
Piano Recital
Attended a music recital in Santa Monica tonight. Chika did a stellar job playing two piano pieces. I could not really get any good pictures. (Need to work on how to take pictures in different lightings!)
Panel on Budget Cuts to Health and Human Services
I moderated a panel last night at the API Equality-LA general meeting, on the impact of budgets cuts to health and human services in California. On the panel were Hala Masri (my coworker at APALC who works on the state budget), Jury Candelario (Director of Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team), and Veronica Garcia (program associate with the API Older Adults Task Force).
The panel was about 40 minutes, and that proved to be plenty of time to update API Equality-LA members on the grim situation we were in, we are in, and we will continue be in. Lots of crucial services for community members, especially in the API community have been cut. Right now it's just a matter of thinking what will be cut next, and what repercussions will come from them.
The goal of the panel was not only to inform people of what has been going on, but it was also to ask them to take action. Two points we kept hitting on were the need to advocate, and the need to share stories. Legislators need to hear what happens in their communities, from people who actually reside in their districts. A simple call or a visit to their office isn't that much to ask. Also, collecting stories is huge. Often time advocates go to meet with legislators and tell them about how the current situation is affecting community members. The points are made only stronger if there are personal stories (usually told by the actual person) included.
Anywho, here are some pics from last night.
Panelists
Me moderating
I just thought this was kind of a cool picture so I put it in.
Meeting Today
Woke up earlier than usual, to try and get to work earlier than usual. Mostly successful, even though there was hella traffic.
I needed to wake up early today in order to make sure everything was set for the Health Justice Network Quarterly meeting I was hosting. The thing I am constantly reminded of when doing these things: it doesn't matter how much you plan ahead, shit always happens the day of. Today was no exception.
The room I had set up (with help from my co-worker Hala) on Friday night, was completely gone! Luckily, I was ready for something random like this to happen, and adjusted. (I actually was planning in my head what would happen if someone double-booked the room and didn't use the booking system to let anyone else know, but this was much better) Things turned out well. Here are a few pics from the meeting:
I love HJN meetings. Community leaders from all different API organizations all in one room: networking, learning, sharing, collaborating...it's wonderful (and even more so because I get PAID to do this)
Started the new subcommittee system today. I'm excited and hope it works out well. Before this, member organizations were just coming to meetings every quarter, and that was about it. With this, more folks can get involved, and bigger projects can be worked on!
GO HJN!