Busy Tuesday
Busy day yesterday. No work today because of the Cesar Chavez holiday. It's nice ...but I have class tonight. Anywho, here are a few pics from my busy Tuesday:
Press conference at the California Endowment regarding confidentiality and the census. It was a push to make sure our community members know that there are no risks by filling out the census form. No information will be used against people, or be used to search for people who are undocumented. Good media turnout. Hope the message gets through. Pic above is of one of my bosses, Karin Wang, speaking to Korean media.
Later in the day, I went to Thai Town to meet with THAIS Inc. They are a nonprofit organization who are members in the Network I help run. It was a very educational experience for me. I had the opportunity to hear more about Thai Town politics, and how the two Thai nonprofits (the only two) do not get along at all.
When do you drop the pride, the politics, the drama, and start focusing on helping your community TOGETHER? Sadly, as I have mentioned in my other blog posts, this is all too common in other communities as well.
After a long day, a few folks at the office decided to go for drinks at Far Bar. An, Christen and I made it a goal to get a good buzz going. We are a good drinking trio. Apparently we talk really loud and cause a lot of commotion. 
To top it all off, after finishing our drinks, we walked over to the Calbi truck and got some food.
I ordered a chicken burrito, to which Christen yelled out "NOOO, THAT'S THE WORST ONE OF THEIR BURRITOS." The chef was watching us. Good thing you cant spit in food that's already been given to the customer
The Great Escape
Sometimes I see standing up to your (Asian) parents and doing what you want to do with your life, similar to climbing a chain-link fence with barbed wire at the top.
It's tough to climb the fence, but the hardest part is at the apex...and it's painful. But if you can endure, and get through the wire, you are free. Deciding to stand up in the face of family duty and what your parents want for you, is not an easy task. You can pass it off here and there, but eventually, one day you have to stand up to your parents and confront them. Based on how you act, you can either end up back on the same side of the fence and attempt to climb again (although the fall might hurt you so much that you don't try again), or you can end up on the other side of the fence.
However, once you are on the other side, you will always have a fence between you and where you were before. Just like with life decisions, by not following what your parents want you to do with your life and choosing your own path, you have put up a barrier between yourself and your parents, that may never come down. You dream that your parents can somehow come to the other side of the fence, and see your perspective, but being from a Chinese family (heck any Asian family), that's wishful thinking.
REUNION
In the next month and a half, two of my really good friends who left California to challenge themselves and grow, will be returning. I'm really looking forward to the reunions and seeing how much they have each grown.
Growth is beautiful
Lost Love
He looked in to her eyes, and could no longer find the spark that was there before. Her eyes had dulled, and it was then that he knew love was lost.
Prowl
Being at a club lets guys like you get close to women who are not interested in you, but are inebriated enough to go with it. No wonder you are always there.
Power Analysis Training
Helped organize a power analysis training last week for the Health Justice Network I run. The goal was to help our member organizations better understand the power dynamics that are present in our everyday lives, and how we can manage those to better help our communities.
One of the biggest parts of the 6 hour training was a simulation called Star Power (as seen above). I had played a variation of it back in college, and this version was just as good, if not better. I don't want to describe the simulation, in case anyone reading might one day go through this training.
What I can say is that this simulation really helped bring out some underlying tensions in the group. The Network is a coalition of Asian and Pacific Islander organizations. So often, organizations say they represent the API community, but it's all just a facade...a grouping so often used but so often not truly understood. How many "API" organizations actually work with both Asian and Pacific Islander communities?
Going off that, this simulation helped bring about that discussion. What does it mean to be API, and how can there be solidarity? It was nice that there was a mix of both Asian and Pacific Islander groups in the room. While the discussion had to be cut short due to time constraints, it is my hope we can continue this dialogue in the months to come.
Phantom Limb
After the last haircut, I've been having this phantom limb feeling with my missing tail. I reach back every now and then, only to remember it's gone.
Alright...next haircut will be more edgy, and be something similar to what I drew the other day:
Chill Thursday
Went running at Almansor Park with An, Clayton and Dan. It's nice to get out there and workout, especially when you get to see so much of the Alhambra community outside being active too.
Oh and afterwards, we got some Hawaiian food at Shakas and got some BEER! (Hawaiian beer that is)
Kona Fire Rock
Census Press Conference
Census unit in the office had a press conference today to encourage community participation in the census.
Major focus on not being undercounted, like in the last census, and also for groups that don't have check boxes, to fill out their own ethnicity. For example, Thai community members are encouraged to write in Thai in the "other" box. Another big topic was putting down multiple ethnicities, for the hapa folks out there.
It's nuts contemplating how answer these 10 questions can affect funding streams for our communities for the next 10 years!
Tons of camera crews were present. Good outreach for sure.
She spoke about being PROUD to be Korean American and African American. Dope.
