chainwhip

10 months ago

20110307: playpen playtime (Taken with instagram)

1 year ago

#Treme - dredging up memories

#Treme reminds me of childhood Sundays going to church near that old N’Awlins neighborhood: http://bit.ly/9LcjiC

Before my parents and some other like-minded folk struck out and started their own Chinese Church in Metairie @ Memorial Baptist, we attended the Chinese Presbyterian Church of New Orleans. It was roughly 5 blocks south of the formal boundry of the Treme and while the building still exists, the actual Church meets in Kenner now. I always thought it odd that smack-dab in the middle of an all-black community was our ethnic Chinese church. I remember driving from our mostly-white Kenner or Metairie suburb on I-10 to Carrollton then on up to Bienville… the smells, sights, sounds, and even the pace of New Orleans neighborhoods seemed so strange and foreign.

Soon enough, they became familiar though still not quite my own in terms of culture - now I still view the Treme mostly as an outsider but I can still dredge up flashes of memory through the car-windows of my mind: funeral processions and impromptu musical marches through those aged, weary neighborhood streets of the Big Easy.

More info from National Geographic:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/05/new-orleans/treme-interactive

3 years ago

Objectivity, Darwin, and Sputterings

Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller?

After reading some opinion pieces about this controversial documentary, I am looking forward to seeing what all the fuss is about:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2004353967_chapman17.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/uc/20080418/cm_uc_crbbox/op_235852;_ylt=AhcgIkjWaICSg1m_dhywKAqs0NUE

I think this film will go on to add to perceptions about academia’s closed-mindedness.

3 years ago

Rip NPR a new one

Let me preface this post by saying I listen to NPR incessantly - my radio dial is pretty much stuck on 94.9 (KUOW Seattle). But listening to a music review of a single noted composition (B flat for the entire song), I couldn’t help but think of how ludicrous the piece was… I kept visualizing Dana Carvey or Mike Myers spoofing this on SNL - just imagine them performing the skit using the exact same words as the NPR review…

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89284569

It’s even better if you listen to it.

3 years ago

Recent Family Pics

Kickin’ around w/ dad @ the soccer fields.

Ring-around-the-rosie! Fun with Popo.

Hello world!

3 years ago

Shame vs. Guilt

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0331/p01s02-woap.html

Most asians understand “Mien Ze” or “Diou Nien” well - the words certainly elicits a visceral reaction from some of us, but until reading the CS article linked above, I had never considered the concept in “guilt-based” or “shame-based” terms.

In the below quote, I find the implications interesting:

” Though this is not a hard and fast rule, Zheng suggests, in general terms ‘guilt means you try to be good in the eyes of God; shame means you try to be good in the eyes of your neighbors.’ “

This goes a long way in explaining the Chinese “me-first except when it makes me look bad” culture.

The Shame