I turned 42 yesterday and took a Me Day. Below is a multiple choice list of things I was planning to do mixed in with what I actually did. Take the quiz to see how I spent a rare day off -- from work, from responsibility -- and check your scores in the comments.

I woke up at:
1) 5:30, when Maceo couldn't sleep so I dutifully kept him company and we watched the sun rise from our porch
2) 7am, the usual time, and got Maceo ready for daycare while Wifey got ready for work
3) 9:30am, I slept through the morning routine, a rarity Wifey gifted me on the b-day
4) I'm still sleeping

In the morning, I...
1) Walked the dog, got coffee and leisurely read the paper
2) Took the dog to the groomers and drove to Kaiser to pick out some new prescription glasses
3) Put out some fires at work (from home) and went to the gym.
4) All of the above

For lunch, I ate:
1) Todai, cashing in on the free b-day meal
2) A Clif bar and a glass of milk
3) A Double-Double at In-N-Out w/Wifey and Maceo
4) A spicy two-piece from Popeyes, with a Popcorn Shrimp side


During the afternoon, I...
1) Played in my afternoon work soccer game, showered, and shopped for new boots
2) Hit up Nordstrom Rack, bought bookshelf speakers and went record shopping
3) Got a violent body scrub at the Korean spa and took a long nap
4) Read some books, vacuumed and straightened the house
5) 2&4
6) 1&3

For dinner, I
1) Invited friends over for pizza and beer
2) Met up with Maceo and wifey at my favorite Japanese place
3) Ate leftovers
4) Hit up the other Todai on the east side

Dessert was... (candle included)
1) Key lime cheesecake
2) Deep fried Twinkie
3) Green Tea ice cream
4) Chocolate molten lava cake from Trader Joe's

Answers in the comments section!

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I just put up a long post on my other blog about the free concert I took The Pumpkin to in early June at which the Barenaked Ladies performed from their new children's album, Snacktime. The Pumpkin frickin' loooooves that CD, and it's hardly ever come out of the car since I got it for her [okay, okay, and for me too]. I love how, except for how short they are, some of the songs could totally just be regular cuts from one of their "for adults" albums. I mean, have you heard the lyrics to "Raisins"?

Raisins come from grapes,
People come from apes,
I come from Canada.

I came in first place,
In a non-existent race,
To rebuild the Parthenon.

The Parthenon’s in Greece,
Or was it in Grease 2?
I can’t keep my movies straight.

When I make mistakes,
I use a lot of salt,
Salt makes mistakes taste great.

I don’t want to be a bother, but I think the phone’s for you.

(Whistling verse) x2

I’ve got orange pants,
I wear them when I dance,
But I don’t get out that much.

You are just too loud,
I passed you in a crowd,
Thank you and keep in touch.

I don’t speak Chinese,
Not even words like ‘Please’,
‘Thank you’ or ‘How are you’.

But I can parle Francais,
I parled a bit today,
It seemed like the thing to do.

I don’t want to be a bother, but I think you’re in my seat.

(Whistling verse) x2

I mean, how is that any more or less kiddish or grownupish than "If I Had a Million Dollars" or "Another Postcard from Chimpanzees", right? That's what's awesome about this album, and again, The Pumpkin absolutely loves it, and loved seeing them perform live. We even got them to autograph her CD and her copy of their lyrics-as-picture-book. BTW, she can't pronounce Barenaked Ladies, so it comes out something like "Bear Kid Ladies." Maybe that makes more sense to a 3-year-old.

Now, this being Rice Daddies, I have to take the opportunity to mention that, among the throngs of fans with and without children swarming the fake park thing in the middle of The Grove in LA, there were a lot of Asians. I mean, you know, enough to notice, if you're obsessed like me. And right near me, up at the front near the stage, where I crouched in order to stay near The Pumpkin, who was in the middle of the couple rows of tiny chairs they put out for some of the kids, were two families with Asian American dads, white moms, and two kids each. [One of them even blogged about the concert and how he taught his son to go up and ask for the set list after the show.] Also right near me were at least a few more Asian American kids with various parental units hovering nearby. What does this have to do with anything? Context, my friends, context.

So at one point, after watching my babygirl patiently waiting in her seat for almost an hour-and-a-half (cuz if we didn't get there that early, she wasn't sittin'), amusing herself by "reading" her copy of the picture book of the lyrics and singing along to the CD copy they had on the speakers, I finally squeezed through and convinced her that no, we wouldn't miss the beginning if I took her to the Nordstrom to go potty before the show. And this blond mom with a couple of kids in the row behind The Pumpkin, one of several adults who didn't quite get the concept that the fact that the chairs were tiny meant that they were supposed to go to the kids, looks at me and says, "You're doing a wonderful job with all these kids."

At first, I don't quite get it. I mean, it's crowded, it's loud, I'm trying to get my daughter to follow me to go pee. I just said, "Thanks," and tried to squeeze back out to the sidewalk. Is this another "wow, look at that dad actually parenting" kind of thing? And then it hit me. All the kids directly in front of and to one side of The Pumpkin—Asian, with no discernable Asian parent nearby. Um, did this lady actually think that all the Asian kids were mine? I mean, cuz, what, I was the only Asian dad she saw and they all had to be related, right? OMFG.

So maybe I'm wrong. But for the life of me, I can't think of another explanation. I mean, I was only ever talking to one kid—my one kid. Heh. I got a good laugh out of it, at any rate.

Anyway, go check out the photos and videos [one for each song they performed, though, unfortunately, I didn't have a good angle to get special surprise guest accordionist Weird Al Yankovic on camera during "If I Had a Million Dollars"] I have up on my blog at my new work project, RaisingBakersfield.com, and enjoy.

Labels: all Asians are related, baby's first concert, Barenaked Ladies

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In the classic Spike Lee film "Do the Right Thing," one of the most powerful scenes occurs after Radio Raheem is choked to death by the police. The scene is a reference to a 1983 incident in New York City where graffiti artist Michael Stewart was apprehended for defacing public property and killed by the arresting officer in a similar manner.

As in real life, the angry black crowd who witnesses the slaying eventually becomes a riotous crowd. They demolish Sal's Pizzeria and soon their rage turns to other non-Black businesses in the area.

Quickly they head for the local Korean market yelling, "It's your turn now, mothafucka!" But Sunny, the Korean owner tries to fight them off with a broom all while yelling, "I no white! I black! You...me...same! We same!"

The mob spares his store realizing that he too is a racial minority, and begins to disperse with one of the older characters yelling to the mob's leader, "Leave the Korean alone! He's alright!"

It's an interesting situation.

Here in New York City, there has always been tension among the black and Asian communities. While attempts have been made to bridge the divide, there is still no sense of entente between them and they have never considered themselves to be "the same." The rapper Ice Cube even went so far as to highlight the tensions in his classic song, "Black Korea."

I think much of the distrust has to do with the fact that many Koreans don't feel the sense of racial prejudice that has plagued the black community for generations. The so-called "model minority" may face certain obstacles due to race. However, they never faced the oppression and second-class citizenship that defined America in the pre-Civil Rights Era.

And to be frankly honest, I think many Koreans (particularly immigrants) are racist towards black people. I'll take that even further and say that most Koreans are racist towards anyone who is not 100% Korean. This is evidenced by the controversies in Korea right now over whether half-Korean children should be given full citizen status. Where does this sense of ethnic superiority come from? Has their cultural and ethnic pride been reduced to racist xenophobia?

Those are questions for another time.

What surprised me today was coming across this article in the BBC stating that the HIgh Court in South Africa has ruled that Chinese South Africans are to be reclassified as black people.

It made the order so that ethnic Chinese can benefit from government policies aimed at ending white domination in the private sector. The Chinese Association of South Africa took the government to court, saying its members had been discriminated against.

An estimated 200,000 ethnic Chinese live in South Africa.

The association said their members often failed to qualify for business contracts and job promotions because they were regarded as whites. The association said Chinese South Africans had faced widespread discrimination during the years of apartheid when they had been classified as people of mixed race.

Thus far, there has been no protest from the black community with the reclassification of Chinese as black people. In fact, their shared struggle against white majority rule may lead to closer ties in a nation where white South Africans still earn around 450% more than their black counterparts, 14 years after the end of apartheid.

Labels: race

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Wir sind hier in Frankfurt am Main...

Something I learned recently is that Germans aren't the only ones who refer to their home as The Fatherland (das Vaterland). I had heard of Filipinos referring to their homeland as Amang Bayan, and I knew that the Pilipino word for father was ama, but I'd never put two and two together until recently.

But wait, there's more...

Sing along now:
In the Philippines, they do it
In Tibet, they do it
The Thais and Vietnamese do it...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatherland

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Quick shameless plug:

In advance of Father's Day, I'm on a dadblogging roundtable on NPR's Tell Me More with Michel Martin today, with Keith of African American Dad and Jeff of DC Urban Moms and Dads. The streaming audio of Tuesday's show should be up on the website by around 9 a.m. PST (12 p.m. EST).

UPDATE: Here's a direct link to the segment.

[In the meantime, check out my partner-in-crime's blog for videos from our just-ended, amazing family Alaskan cruise vacation, which my parents took us on for our 10th anniversary (the actual date's at the end of this month). The Pumpkin had an awesome time, as did we all.]

Labels: dadblogs, disl, NPR, Tell Me More with Michel Martin, travel with kids

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I was having a random conversation with a buddy of mine yesterday. We were talking about how absurd it was watching the NHL playoffs on television and seeing so many grown adults with their faces painted. Who the hell does that?

I'll tell you who DOESN'T do that...Asian people.

I'll bet in the history of fandom, you won't find any adult Asians painting their faces in support of their team (the sole exception being that scantily-clad Korean chick from the World Cup who was trying to get a modeling contract.)
Anyway, for the next few minutes, my buddy and I tried to come up with a few other things that Asians/Asian-Americans would never do or say. Here's our short list...

1. Leave their kids in the car.

2. Have sex with their students.

3. Get killed by a grizzly bear.

4. Claim they were abducted by aliens.

5. Put leashes on their kids.

Any other ideas? Throw 'em out there.

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Sadly, I got an email saying one of the Rice Daddies Empowerment in Diversity Challenges expired due to lack of full funding within its five month window.

Let it not happen again!

I took the donation I was refunded, and used it to partially fund another RD challenge looking to buy Multicultural Celebration books. It's only got two weeks left before it too gets its plug pulled, too!

No! Think of the cutest pound puppy, and then imagine that its a multicultural book. Or the promise of a multicultural book. You don't want that potential multicultural puppy to stay in the pound do you? It might make Soulsnax cry.

blatantly-heart-tugging photo from Pound Puppy Rescue's facebook site

Labels: diversity, education, empowerment, soulsnax, thisislarry

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One of the fun games we play is for young Mace to show us his faces: happy, sad, surprised, and mad. So when photo day rolled around, guess which one he wanted to flash? No coaxing from the staff could dissuade him.

A brief moment of 2.5 year old folly or a sign of future rebellion?

SD

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The last time a quake this size hit China, about a quarter million people died. However, much of that was because China then - like Burma today - shunned foreign aid. Not this time: China seems willing to accept whatever help it can get.

NPR - whose All Things Considered staff was already in Chengdu when the quake hit - has a list of possible charities for those interested in contributing.

The story about the Dujiangyan middle school which collapsed is heartwrenching. I cannot remotely imagine the anguish running through these victims' parents.

Labels: Chinese

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It's Mother's Day, and whether you dismiss it as a "Hallmark Holiday" or you do the full-on brunch/flowers/jewelry thang, one thing's for sure:

We love ya, mamas, and we wouldn't be here without ya. [Heh.] Thank you for everything - for putting up with our crap, for being the partners and mothers we and our babies need, for being you.

And remember - it's always Mother's Day on RiceDaddies.com.

Labels: baby mamas, better halves, Mother's Day

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