Our good friend (a next-door neighbor in Viet Nam) who lives in Philly has a teenage son. Her son dropped out of middle school because he was getting jumped by black kids either from his way to school or home. Philadelphia Weekly finally picks up on this heartrending story with similar situations:

Dozens of the alleged incidents are relatively minor—name-calling, verbal threats, petty robberies, random punches in the head while walking down stairwells, and general intimidation. But according to Chen, at least six times last school year those minor incidents escalated into massive rumbles where outnumbered Asian students were pummeled by packs of teens, sending several of the victims to hospitals. Like the day last October when a group of around 30 kids allegedly attacked five Chinese students after school in the Snyder Avenue subway station, one block from school. That incident started when a black student walked up to a Chinese kid in the cafeteria, touched his hair and allegedly threw a carton of milk at him. Rumors of threats filtered through the school on the day after the subway rumble, and the notion of continued violence froze Asian students. 


Little Eric got beat up two days since he started school this week. I am worried about him.

I signed the petition to stop the violence and help save Bat Nha Monastary, which is under severe governmental pressure to be abandoned. Find out more info at the Petition Site, sign and spread the word.

Last week Dana and I had determined that we would spend our Saturday working on our retaining wall, a project has been pushed off for way too long. Saturday morning, we went to Hai Ky Mi Gia for a savory breakfast before we work on the project. We did a bit of grocery shopping at Eden and a farmer market near by our house then headed home. It was time to feed Cu Dao. Then we dropped him off at her sister’s house so her mother could babysit him.

Her mother made lunch and invited us to join them before heading to Home Depot. While having lunch, we realized that we didn’t measure the space. We went back to do the measurement so we could get the right amount of bricks. We hopped on YouTube to see how to build the retaining wall.

Now we are ready to head to Home Depot to get the bricks. We would need about 100 pieces so we were thinking of renting a truck. We drove to Home Depot. Instead of making a left turn to Home Depot, we made a right turn into the Korean supermarket. Dana ran in and checked to see if it has what we had been waiting for. A minute later, my phone rang and she said, yes, park the car and come in. Half an hour later we walked out with two big-ass jackfruits about 20 pounds each and the rain started to pour. We looked at each other and knew exactly what each other was thinking. Without a word, we laughed and drove home. We enjoyed the jackfruits. I also made a banging bap xao tom kho for dinner.

A friend has written a post on how his girlfriend flipped out when he mentioned to her someone look like his ex.

While I am not an expert on relationship, I have learned a thing or two from my experience. Don’t ever ever ever mention your ex to your current. To a woman, mentioning your ex means that you’re still thinking about her. You still miss her or have a thing for her. So don’t talk about your ex because it could only hurt your current relationship.

Not only that you don’t mention about your ex, you also don’t mention anything that associated with her. If your ex does nails, don’t talk about nails. If you say nice things about nails, she would be like, If you like nails so much why don’t you go back to her and you can can your nails done everyday. If you talk trash about nails, she would be like, You still mad and jealous because you still love her.

So you can see, you lose either way. Actually I do not want to hear about my wife’s past either. If I don’t know about it, I don’t think about it. I can’t change the past anyway so why putting that in the picture. Just focus on the presence and be happy with what you have.

Haven’t heard My Tam’s “Hát Với Dòng Sông” for quite a while. It’s still quite catchy as hell. Not sure why many people were tripping off on the hook: “Tình yêu đến em không mong đợi gì, tình yêu đi em không hề hối tiếc.” I personally love the line. It’s a lyrical way of saying “I really don’t give a fuck.”

On our way home from Wildwoods, we had a flat tire in the rear passenger side. We didn’t know how or when it happened. All that we could recall was that we heard either a pop or we hit the pothole after about 2 miles from the hotel. We drove for about 10 miles and stopped in to get gas. One of the employees at the gas station noticed the flat. It was completely flat.

I pumped air into the tire and checked to see if there was any hole. Couldn’t spot anything. So I drove on and stopped every 15-30 minutes to see if the tire was deflated. Nothing happened. We drove all the way home, which was like 5 hours. The tire still looked fine.

I checked it again this morning and it still looks fine. Does anyone know why or how it deflated? Or if this has happened to you before?

The first phrase of unifying the GW’s web experience is now live. Read more about the redesign here. My role was to import the content of the School of Business into Vignette.

Michelle Maykin who struggled with Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a cancer of the blood, and inspired so many people through her web site died yesterday. She was 27. Rest in peace, Michelle.

“Tinh Viet Kieu” alone is worth the price of the album, which amounts to a cup of Ramen.

Moving from Chinese-translated ballads to Vietnamese sentimental ballads, the dull duo collaborated on an album that primarily designed to let people take an afternoon nap.