(NYTimes article link)

November 9, 2009
Adopted From Korea and in Search of Identity
By RON NIXON

As a child, Kim Eun Mi Young hated being different.

When her father brought home toys, a record and a picture book on South Korea, the country from which she was adopted in 1961, she ignored them.

Growing up in Georgia, Kansas and Hawaii, in a military family, she would date only white teenagers, even when Asian boys were around.

“At no time did I consider myself anything other than white,” said Ms. Young, 48, who lives in San Antonio. “I had no sense of any identity as a Korean woman. Dating an Asian man would have forced me to accept who I was.”

It was not until she was in her 30s that she began to explore her Korean heritage. One night, after going out to celebrate with her husband at the time, she says she broke down and began crying uncontrollably.

“I remember sitting there thinking, where is my mother? Why did she leave me? Why couldn’t she struggle to keep me?” she said. “That was the beginning of my journey to find out who I am.”

( Read more... )

More proof that systemic racism can be just as harmful as intentional racism.

Here is what I imagine Elly will write for her class:
( Elly's Short Story )
******************
A note on the names: Lynn gave most of her major characters the middle names of their real-life counterparts. Aaron's middle name is Michael, Kate's middle name is Elizabeth, and Rod's middle name is John (yup--Roderick John Johnston!). So I imagined Elly doing the same with Michael, Liz, and John. I liked the idea that John's full name is John Pat Patterson because of the whole Roderick John Johnston thing. :)

• 21:01 had no idea the car seat reclined this far and now doesn't want to get up and go into the house #

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Total active volunteers this week: 40

^Owwww.

We have several admins and high volume folks who are taking time off right now due to personal reasons (and don't any of you dare feel guilty about it, because you need that time off and this is a volunteer thing, after all), so we're going to need all available hands on deck this week in order to keep things under control.

Remember: just five touches gets you on my weekly report! And if you have questions about requests, we're here in IRC and learn_support for assistance. :-)

This time, Writers With Drinks features Lost writer/producer Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Butch Is A Noun author S. Bear Bergman, Campbell Award winner Mary Robinette Kowal, poet Naomi Quiñonez and fantasy/mystery author Kat Richardson. At The Make Out Room, 3225 22nd. St., SF, for just $3 to $5 sliding scale.

I just heard of Jonathan Lee Riches. This man cracks me up. I heard about him from his lawsuit against the Gosselins and Octomom, but I also discovered a partial (?) listing of his lawsuits which include the following gems:

• Against Starbucks: "Plaintiff also alleges that Defendant Schultz is friends with Michael Vick, and that Defendants want to burn him with hot coffee."


• Against the IOC: "Plaintiff further alleges that he ran 26.2 miles in 1 hour 58 minutes , but the defendants won't allow him to join the Olympics because he is White. Plaintiff also alleges that defendants forbade him from racing at Churchill Downs and sent Tonya Harding to break his knee caps."


• Against Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber: "Plaintiff also alleges that defendant is rounding up all the Teds in the world to hurt him, including Ted Kennedy, Ted Bundy, Ted Turner, Bill and Ted, Ted Nugent, Teddy Bears, and Teddy Rumpskin."


• Against Barry Bonds: "Plaintiff also claims that Barry Bonds sold steroids to nuns and gave mustard gas to Saddam Hussein as part of the oil-for-food scandal."

That's just a sampling. The guy seems to really have it in for OJ Simpson, BTW.

Today's strip will probably remind us that John doesn't play fair or support Elly in any way because he expects her to have to interact with her children when she's being a big-time, famous writer; since he's not a male Deanna who lives to isolate his moody failure of a spouse from the inconvenient need their children have for love and affection, he's the worst monster in history.

I'd say that we were in for a deluge of letters about how cute last Sunday's strip was; since her fans have no attention span, they'll chalk the previous effort to Elly following orders and move on.

Yesterday I posted the following tweets...

( From Twitter timeline @thirtysix... )

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Sunday, November 15th is the start of Transgender Awareness Week! Kick off this important event with the TransFM charity podothon! From 6pm-10pm on Sunday, November 15th, we'll be raising money for the Transgender Emergency Fund (TEF). Guests will include Gunner Scott, Director of the Massachusetts Trqansgender Political Coalition (MTPC), Jesse Pack, co-founder of TEF, members of the current steering committee, and many more.

Tune in next Sunday to the TransFM broadcast and join us! To tune in, set your browsers to http://www.transfm. squarespace. com or listen directly at http://www.live365. com/stations/ ethanstp.

TransFM welcomes live callers, so dial up the studio at 978-518-1835!
For more info about the TEF, check out http://www.tgemerge ncyfund.org.

Back again. ( Thoughts on how to train a housemate... )

hi all am johanna survivor last night from 8 pm to 5:00 I wrote my text messages with my ex-girlfriend. not slept, but it was worth laa that talk, because I could clarify many things with it, and really still love each other, and I am aware that if I want to be healthy, I keep working in my life.
She said she will have a new therapist, I'm happy for her, if she anque not going to talk about incest, from his father.
also speak of my senitmientos when she was ill, and I broke my feeling of being inadequate and unable to help.
things we talk about your feelings and mine, of the root problems.
my insecurity and jealousy, I feel that it is possible to grow.
I just concentrate on my Proes without control, and regaining my self-esteem.
She thought that I did not trust her, but he clarified that the problem was mine, I felt unworthy of being with a woman who for the first time I have a real intimacy.We talked about when we met and we were in a very difficult situation emotionally each. It was in August 2007
I wanted to die, because being gay in a homophobic culture is not so easy.
had lost my children, and lost the university, and had no job.
Emotionally we have not always supported, the problem is when I feel responsible for their emotions, or she of mine.
I know my self-esteem even the injured, and my greatest desire is to build it with very solid foundations with the help of the steps.
I am working on step four, this step is very difficult for me, I feel no more pain
I want to go to college, and work out my emotional and financial problems, and above all be a happy and balanced.
I want very much to be myself and have a relationship healthy.





hola a todos soy johanna superviviente, anoche desde las 8 pm hasta las 5.00am me estuve escribiendo mensajes de texto con mi exnovia. no dormi, pero valio laa pena esa charla, porque pude aclarar muchas cosas con ella, y realmente aun nos amamos, y soy conciente que si quiero que sea sano, debo seguir trabajando en mi vida .
Ella me dijo que tendra una nueva terapeuta, yo me siento feliz por ella, anque no se si ella va a hablar del incesto, de su padre.
tambien hable de mis senitmientos cuando ella estaba mal, y yo rompia por mi sentimiento de ser insuficiente y no poder ayudarla.
hablamos de muchas cosas de sus sentimientos y los mios, de los problemas de raiz.
de mi inseguridad y celos, Siento que con ella es posible crecer.
Solo debo concentrarme en mi proeso sin controlarla, y recuperando mi autoestima.
Ella creia que yo no confiaba en ella, pero le aclare que el problema era mio, que me sentia inmerecedora de estar con una mujer que por vez primera puedo tener una verdadera intimidad emocional

Hablamos de cuando nos conocimos, y que estabamos en una situacion muy dificil emocionalmente cada una. Fue en agosto de 2007
Yo queria morirme, pues ser homosexual en una cultura tan homofobica no es facil.
habia perdido a mis hijos, y perdi la universidad, y no tenia empleo.
Siempre no hemos apoyado emocionalmente, el problema es cuando yo me siento responsable de sus emociones, o ella de las mias.

Se que mi autoestima aun esta lesionada, y mi mayor deseo es construirla con bases muy solidas con ayuda de los pasos.
estoy trabajando el paso cuatro, es muy dificil este paso para mi, no quiero sentir mas dolor.
Quiero volver a la universidad, y solucionar mis problemas emocionales y financieros, y sobre todo ser una persona feliz y equilibrada.
Deseo mucho ser yo misma y tener una relacion de pareja saludable.

 i was thinking yesterday about what will be if i got married.
i felt so much pain because the the honest truth is that my family don't care enough, and i feel so hurt by them that i don't know if it will make me happy to have them there just because we are family.

i feel abandoned by each and every one of them. they treat me as if i am the problem and not my father.
until now when i thought of marrige i was wondering if i would invite my father. 
it's such a hard question.
there are a few that i am connected to like my cousins, but mostly i feel alianated.

it's so hard to realize that this is so.

i have friends who care but it doesn't make up for having to live and grow up alone without anyone realy being there for me.

it's not like i decided to get married. i am still taking time to find out what this new relationship is all about, if it's healthy or not, but we have talked about a possible future together and it brought these thoughts to my mind, and i can't stand the pain.

thanks for listening
may

Let's see what we have to contend with this week; personally, I'd like to see Elly foam at the mouth because John isn't helping her in a way that suits her needs because I'd enjoy commenting on self-inflicted Hells.

It's worse; we have a series of new-ruins that have Elly trying to palm off leaden prose about Scrubbing-the-floor-as-existential-horror as Great Literature. Today's entry "proves" that Mike wants to prevent her from reaching her potential because he's just plain bad.

Panel 1: Button-nosed, dot-eyed Mike asks Young Flapandhonk what she's writing on her typewriter; she says it's a story for her class. He asks if she can read it to him and she says "Sure."

Panel 2: She does a slow burn as he, like any normal child would, asks questions. He wants to know what it's about, if he's in it, if it's about him and how long it is.

Panel 3: She realizes that his evil, unfair need to know what's going on instead of leaving her in isolation with her muse will not cease as he asks if the story will have pictures in it and how much longer she'll be writing.

Panel 4: She screams in rage because she has to interact with her children and her spouse isn't supportive enough to give her the total isolation from the world that she thinks writers need.

Panel 5: Mike tells John that he was right; writers are temper mental.

Summary: Eventually, Elly fills Mike's head with the delirious fantasy that writers work best when they're isolated from their annoying families and inconvenient real world; also, he marries a woman who is only too glad to keep him from ever having to interact with or know things about his own kids.

Taking my cues from apocalypticbob

Here are the rules:
Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you, for whatever reasons. This isn't your top 15 canon or even books you'd necessarily recommend, just books that have made their mark on you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. 

In no particular order:
The Dark Is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper
Let's explore how the supernatural and existentialism can co-exist.

Watership Down by Richard Adams
The mythology the author presents in this one bowlled me over. 

The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron
'Cos didn't we all once want to build a spaceship out of an old boat and discover an invisible moon?

Charlotte's Web by EB White
This one, I knew off by heart. 

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
But which is the better story?

Foxfire by Joyce Carol Oates
It's a bloody good thing she'd not had this one written (and for me to find) in 1983, else it'd have done me right in. 

In Search of the Craic: One Man's Pub Crawl Through Irish Music by Colin Irwin
A howl a page. Seriously. I roared.

Are You Somebody by Nuala O'Faolain
My Dream of You by Nuala O'Faolain
O'Faolain has been able to explain things to me about myself in a cultural sense.

1984 by George Orwell
I was thinking about this one this very day. :|

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
This was a difficult book for me to read. It was so inaccessible for so very long. 

The Girl With the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts
Read it to bits.

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
I write the way I think; so does this chap. I relate to the fragments and stream of consciousness storytelling.

Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
I've impressions left from this book; I suspect I read it more than once. I've no real detail left, though.

Yesterday I posted the following tweets...

( From Twitter timeline @thirtysix... )

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• 19:48 accidentally stapled my thumb today WITHOUT a stapler. Ouch. #
• 19:50 The Paramount, the Fox, the skating rink, the hat stores... why doesn't Oakland market its downtown as supervintageglam? #
• 23:37 Everyone I went to highschool with: did you know that Davis High is doing Once Upon A Mattress again, this week and next?!? #

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Pinoy Pod joins the commemoration of Black History Month with a special podcast on a little known chapter in the histories of the Philippines and the United States.

When Filipino revolutionaries resisted the U.S. occupation of the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century during the Philippine-American War, thousands of African Americans were recruited to crush the rebellion.

It was not an easy mission for the black soldiers, most whom were mistreated by their Caucasian officers and came to identify with the plight of the Filipinos. Some of them found it hard to shoot at the brown-skinned rebels fighting for independence. A few of the African Americans defected to the Filipino side.

Evangeline Canonizado Buell is the granddaughter of Ernest Stokes, one of the so-called Buffalo Soldiers who fought and later started a new life in the Philippines.

Buell, who lives in Oakland, recalls her grandfather's experiences in the Philippines in her book
25 CHICKENS AND A PIG FOR A BRIDE: Growing up in a Filipino Immigrant Family

In Part 1 of our interview, Vangie Buell shares her memories of her grandfather and the unusual path that led him to the Philippine islands.

Listen to Part 1 at Pinoy Pod

( Read more... )

**I have a few more pictures from The Forbidden Book here.**

I've spoken a time or three on the topic of my dear room-mate The Parasite King, and since it's a topic people seem fascinated by in a sort of horrified way, I see no reason why I ought to deprive you goodly folks of more tales of my amazing cohabitation with him that you, my gentle readers, can marvel at and in some small way appreciate further your good fortune in living with anybody else, or perhaps more fortunately yet, nobody at all.

( The Saga Continues )

So it's not very often that I actually want to drop an excessive amount of money down and buy something.

I've been trying to distract myself from buying a 360 right now. In fact, I know I wouldn't be amazingly happy with the purchase so I know I don't need it.

So in process of trying to distract myself, I looked up alternative accessories for my already in existence Wii because well that would be considerably cheaper. And I found a few things, but that didn't quite get me to satisfaction. (Keeping well in mind, I actually haven't bought anything yet).

Then I decided, well, if I'm willing to spend money, why not spend it on the cellphone. Of all the people in the world who need a smart phone, I'm probably way past having been there. On my smart phone list: there's first the iPhone, but while shopping for the iPhone, I was distracted by the Samsung A887. Which if nothing else looks cool. But I think one of my co-workers has this and they're having issues with it staying off and recieving silent mode anything.

Here's the thing though: I'm trying to control myself right now. None of these things I need. And without a doubt, I'll spend more money long term if I get the cellphone.

Where should I be spending this urge to spend money? First I have a few charities that need my money. That will go much further than this emotional urge to get something that I probably won't be happy with in a few weeks. Then there's the car payments that are coming up. Plus I'm worried I won't pass smog. If that's the case: I need to get a new car then. And that's pretty damn important.

I'm going to settle to go out and grab 2 DVDs. I just bought Glee and I still have yet to entirely relax and enjoy the CD.

And I saw bunnies earlier. 8 week old Lion head bunnies. Do you have any idea how cute those little guys are?

I can save my money for something worthwhile. Like the clock for the kitchen that I'm getting my mother for Christmas.