Honestly, I don’t think I’m getting that old, but winters in Boston feel longer and colder every year. Anyway, I just wanted to give a quick update on some of what’s happened the past couple of days.
Still cute
As you all know, I really love my nephew Anderson. He’s the cutest 3-year-old I know, and no, I’m not (that) biased. We spent the weekend together, and I must have played Jingle Bells on the piano with him about 50 times. I got a little sick of the song by the end, but man… So cute!
HRAACF SoCal
I went to my first AACF SoCal reunion. Weird. Almost everyone (I knew) was surprised to see me because very few knew that my parents had moved to SoCal. It was great seeing folks though and catching up on what’s been going on. We also got an update on fellowship happenings. I know most of what’s going on anyway, but it was neat getting the students’ perspective. Unsurprisingly, one of the most important updates they had (from their perspective) was that Francis is now dating.
Jeff Gu
I got to visit my dear brother Jeff Gu’s gravesite for the first time this morning. We had a great time of meditating, reminiscing, singing, and praying. For those of you who don’t know him, Jeff was the sort of guy who took life by the horns, and really was seeking after God’s will for his life. Confused as the rest of us, but believing deeply in the promise. We all miss him a lot, but know that he’s waiting for us. Jokingly, some have commented that the Sox may have won last year because he had so much time to intercede on their behalf. 
World Vision
So for the past month or so I’ve been thinking a lot more seriously about leaving Boston. One of the first steps I’ve taken is to visit World Vision in Monrovia, just minutes from where my parents live (easily within biking/blading distance). I figured that my chances of actually getting to talk with someone were pretty small, but I asked some friends to pray that the right contact would be made.
So anyway, I show up, tell the receptionist why I’m there, and she tells me that they no longer accept any sort of hard-copy application materials. I’m bummed, of course, but I tell her that I know a fair amount about the organization but I wanted to get the personal experience. She says that the guy who ordinarily would give tours is out on vacation, which obviously makes a lot of sense.
Well, as I’m turning to leave, another gentleman tells me that he’s got a couple of minutes and would be happy to answer any questions that I have. Turns out that he’s the Director of Evaluation (I’m not sure what that means, but it sounds important—I imagine that he works with the various projects all over the world, helping them to measure “success”) and we talk for a while about my background and then he tells me some what he sees in the future for World Vision, specifically as it relates to information technology.
Praise God! I don’t think I could have made a better contact! He gave me his contact info, so I’ll probably drop him a thank-you email in a few days, and a thank-you card a few days after that. Hopefully by the time I’m ready to move to SoCal, they’ll have a position ready for me. 
Seriously, though, I think God’s hand is in this, but I’m not sure exactly what he’s saying yet. Pray with/for me!
Paul English has one of the most useful pages I’ve ever seen:
http://www.paulenglish.com/ivr/
Once upon a time, I thought IVR (Interactive Voice Response) was a really neat technology. I remember when airlines first got it and me and my brother would call all the time to find out the information for various flights.
Now, I just long for the days of being able to talk to a real human.
Every now and then, I think an IVR system is great (if it’s got short menus, good navigation, and good voice recognition), but most of them are pretty bad, and it’s hard to get useful information in a timely manner. Worse yet are the times that you actually need real information and not canned responses…
Paul’s page is great for two reasons:
- It lists some hard to find customer service numbers (Amazon’s, for example)
- Once you’ve called, it tells you the secret of how to talk to real people.
Invaluable.
Tonight was the last small group with Jadyn present. We had a blast! I love kids. 
I’m not sure why we connected so much tonight (she’s typically been pretty shy around all of us, and I haven’t really tried hard to draw her out (overshadowed by Craig and Kyle)), but yeah… Tonight, we had a great time. Even though I’m not really fluent in “two-year-old.”
God be with her. Praise you that she had such loving foster parents for a time. Help her to grow in you. Amen.
Okay, so this is kind of random, but I recently ran across various music and video clips that I thought were hysterical. It turned out that each of them was a different file format, so I decided to post them along with some other favorite files of other formats. Enjoy!
MP3: Christmas Rhapsody—‘tis the season, after all:
http://www.doubtfulpalace.com/artists/PledgeDrive/XmasRhap.mp3
WMV: Finite Simple Group (of Order Two)—a cappella and math humor! Probably more than half of it was over my head, but still!
http://www.math.northwestern.edu/~matt/kleinfour/media/finite.wmv
SWF: The Gambler—Kenny Rogers’ classic with some great video footage:
http://www.martinbreton.com/wp-content/bunnies/videos/Telus-Poker-Rabbit.swf
RM: 8% of My Love—it’s not the best Square One video ever, but it’s the best one currently posted at http://home.comcast.net/~nspil/sq1.htm:
http://home.comcast.net/~nspil/8Percent.rm
MOV: Lord of the Rings—the whole movie with an all-star cast in under 10 minutes:
http://ringil.cis.ksu.edu/Tolkien/Movie/lotr.mov
And last, but certainly not least:
WAV: A happy birthday greeting from my beloved nephew:
http://markstudy.com/sounds/happybirthday.wav
 history. This is not to say that this book is only for Chinese Americans or even only for Chinese. Unless you already know a lot about Chinese American history (back to the 1850s and the Gold Rush), I imagine it will confront a lot of your stereotypes and misconceptions.</p>
<p>I really find it fascinating how Chinese people have been perceived in so many different ways in America including (but not limited to):
<ul>
<li>strike-breakers/job stealers</li>
<li>colored, but honorary whites</li>
<li>heroic allies against the Japanese (<span class=)
WWII)
Communist enemies
The media continues to perpetuate some of the stereotypes of “foreignness.” I remember last year when some illegal Chinese immigrants were (from a single rumor started by their disgruntled smuggler) accused of bringing a nuclear bomb to Boston. The Globe put their pictures boldly on the front page—eight pictures stretching across the entire page. Later when it was shown that the rumor had absolutely no basis in truth, a retraction/apology was printed on one of the inner pages—I never actually saw it myself.
I also remember at the time of the Wen Ho Lee case (do all ya’ll know just how badly this guy was wronged?) that at least one survey I read about said that an overwhelming majority of Americans believed that a Chinese American’s fundamental loyalty lay with China and not the U.S.
Well… I don’t want to digress too much, but this is why I’ve been more and more interested in Asian American issues in the past couple of years. Why I moved to Dorchester to be around high-risk Vietnamese youth. Being Asian American is not an easy thing, no matter what some might tell you.
Anyway.
Overall, I found the book very informative and (as I said earlier) it filled a lot of gaps in my knowledge of Chinese American history. It wasn’t necessarily a quick read for me even though I thought it was pretty well written. I guess I just don’t really like reading history.
It also made me think of two other books that I really like:
Free at Last? was (for me) a first glimpse into the African-American experience. So I grew up in a suburban/rural, mostly white neighborhood and knew hardly anything about Asian American history, let alone African or Latino. And, being totally honest, I used to be against affirmative action (for academic admissions) because I saw it as a system that worked against me just because I happened to be Chinese. I’ve learned a lot over the past five years or so that have helped me to understand why affirmative action is important. And I’ve made friends that have made me want to learn more about Black history. This book was a first step. I still don’t know anything, but now I know a little more about what I don’t know.
” /></a>Oh, shoot, I just remembered another book that makes me realize I don’t know nothin’ about nothin’—<a href= "View product details at Amazon")
Reviving Ophelia is such an important book for men to read. I guess it’s about developmental psychology in adolescent girls. When I read it, it totally floored me. It helped me to understand the toxic environment that girls grow up in, something that, as a man, I had no way of understanding. This is not at all to say that it’s not tough being a boy (or a man), but there are definitely some weird gender dynamics that sometimes make me wonder that any woman could ever learn to trust a man. I need to read this again—soon. If you’re a man, read this. Really. And if you’re a woman? Every woman I’ve talked with about this book has found it really helpful. So everyone should read it.
. Great book, though not a history book (I guess <em>Reviving Ophelia</em> isn’t either). Of course I appreciated the vision casting for what it could look like to be an Asian American leader, but the most moving part of the book for me was the section on forgiveness. Read it; you’ll know what I’m talking about.</p>
<p>Okay, I could go off on several other related books, but I won’t tonight. Holla back though if you have any other good reads in the vein of understanding other cultures. I’m a neophyte, but I want to learn more.</p><br clear=)
