BTW there are way too many January Birthdays.

So Happy Birthday to Grace Wu (24), Lindy Shibata (24), Concu-Ben Liang (25), Theo Shu (28), Carol Chiu (21), Charlene Yang (23), Pason Wang (26), & Alice Tu (25)

Yeah yeah, so I haven't had time to update this. I've been busy and sick.

But I got 2 great petition fwds from Rena. Please check them out and sign them

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Stop California education cuts! Sign online petition (fwd)

To all supporters of equal, quality education --

Please help stop California Governor Gray Davis's proposed $843 million
budget cuts in education. We need thousands of signatures on this
petition against the cuts before Wednesday, January 30 in order to
convince the Oakland School Board to sponsor a district-wide field trip
to rally in Sacramento to stop the cuts. You can sign the petition at:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/777929958

Everyone is welcome to sign. Please forward this email, and/or print out
the attached petition (there is a return address on the petition). By
stopping these cuts, we can shift the trend in educational policy for
the state of California, and nationally as well. People outside of
California are also encouraged to sign.

Thank you,

Yvette Felarca

No Cuts In Our Children's Future Campaign -
NoCutsInOurChildrensFuture@yahoo.com
Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and Fight for
Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN)

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Ban on Gay Marriages Bill Now in Congress - (fwd)

- Ban on Gay Marriages Bill Now in Congress -

There is a Constitutional Amendment being proposed that will ultimately ban homosexual marriages/civil unions and possibly domestic partner benefits in the future. It is being pushed through Congress quickly so as to make as little noise as possible.

There's so much else in the news right now, that the amendment is not being noticed. This petition is being organized by a second party --it's NOT an "add your name to the bottom and forward" sort of thing. You must go to the site itself in order to sign the petition.

Please pass this along to your friends and family. By doing so, we can convey the message that the Constitution is about human rights, not
just "religious rights."

PLEASE READ, SIGN, AND FORWARD ON...

http://www.petitiononline.com/0712t001/petition.html

Jan. 4-Got an email from Jason Lacsamana asking me to come in to the OCAPICA office Friday. Mary Anne Foo or as the OCAPICA staff call her “Mafoo” asked if I wouldn’t mind helping out with their fundraiser dinner this March as well as other grunt work. So yes people, Jen has a temp job (and a paying one) for now at Oh-Cap-Peek-Ah and don’t call it Oh-Caw-Pee-Kah. Yes, they get really mad at this. ;p

Jason also wanted me to go to diversity training/cultural awareness for the Orange County Police department with him on behalf of OCAPICA. Man, that was an interesting experience. The Orange County Human Relations (OCHR) was helping hosting this one-day diversity training session. Bob Cerince from OCHR was there to facilitate w/ the training. There were about 30 cadets from various police departments in OC and even some from LA, as well some people from the OC Sheriff’s department.

All the guys’ heads were shaved and they were all in uniform. You could feel the testosterone in the air. I couldn’t believe that a good bunch of them were probably around my age. Geez, am I that old already? Most of them were white males a few females, one Black guy, a few Latinos and one Latina, 2 South Asians, one who spoke in a British accent, one Southeast Asian woman and one East Asian man. Jason remarked how this was the most diverse bunch he had worked with.

So we talked and worked with a couple of the cadets and explained what OCAPICA was about as well as give them a very brief crash course on APIAs in a few minutes, which both Jason and I agree isn’t enough. The Orange County police departments needs to have longer diversity training sessions at least more than just one day. There needs to be a continuation throughout their line of business.

There were other groups to assist with the training such Ra’id Faraj, Public Relations Director from Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as well as various LGBT groups.

So Jason and I talked about the diversity of the APIA community. We also talked about the how they need to get to know their community so they can earn their community’s trust. Because with some APIA groups they need to take account that some APIA groups have had a bad experience back in Asia with corrupted police so they may not trust American police. Also they might have a negative view of cops due to skewed and hyped portrayals in the media.

Most of them actually seem really receptive and paid close attention to what we were saying. We just hope they don’t become jaded later in their field because it happens and being a police officer is a tough job, but that’s no excuse for them to lose their fire and open-mindedness they had in the beginning.

I wanted to learn more about what rules there were in the police department for bilingual assistance being that the APIA police is a largely immigrant community. I know in the health care system there are rules and they need professionally trained translators and if it’s a family member I believe they must be 14 years old at least. I remember reading in my public health class terrible incidences that health care personnel were insensitive to this notion. So I’m curious in learning what kind of laws, if there are any, in the police department. True, there not as many technical terms as there are in the health care but I’m curious to know what the rules are. One of the cadets told me there is this AT&T operator program that provides bilingual assistance.

Bob wanted us to use Sundeep’s case as a scenario. The 2 cadets from Anaheim in our group were embarrassed to hear what a terrible job the Anaheim PD had done with the case. I mention how even though Sundeep’s case was an Asian on Asian hate crime, it was hate crime nonetheless and to keep in mind what a hate crime can be as opposed to being an assault.

I was curious to see on the board that someone had given an Asian Cultural Awareness course. Both Jason and I were curious in finding out who gave this because it had happened before we had arrived and from what I heard from Bob, who was a concerned that the guy, whoever gave the workshop, had passed out a big packet on Asians and when Bob was glancing thru the packet, he noticed that there was description on how to tell what a Cambodian looks like, which seemed insensitive, stereotypical and very damaging. Something OCAPICA and OCHR plans to look into.

Afterwards went back to the OCAPICA office to help out Susan with scanning photos and didn’t leave the office til 8. Being that I wasn’t planning on goin out that Friday night because I was broke and had originally thought I was goin to Mammoth for the National TACL retreat that Friday so made no plans. But for some strange reason at the last minute Rob cancelled it because too many ppl had scheduling conflicts or something. Ah well. Nothing wrong with a quiet chill night at home.

Jan. 3-Noticing that I was involved with recent hate crime prevention events Edwin from FX Networks invited me to the screening of Sins of Father starring Tom Sizemore and Ving Rhames, at the Zanuck Theatre in the Fox Studios lot in Los Angeles. It’s about the 1963 Birmingham, Alabama church bombing that killed 4 young Black girls. The movie is based on the “The Sins of the Father” article by Pamela Colloff, which ran in the Texas Monthly. It is told thru the eyes of Tom Cherry, former KKK member and bombing suspect Bobby Frank Cherry’s son.

So I invited Charmy to go with me to go check it out. When I was going to UCLA I always used to past by the Fox Studios lot and now I was going to get a chance to go check it out. We arrived there and they had some security measures, to drive up to the lot, they set it up so that in order to drive in you had to zigzag your way in. Though they never checked my ID as they said they would. tsk tsk. Got there early and they had a reception with free food and drinks. Luckily Charmy came with me or I would have been bored and lonely since everyone else there seemed to know each other or were part of the entertainment industry. Everyone there seem to be smoozing with each other so Charmy and I hung out with each being that that scene really isn’t our thing. Though we meet one interesting and friendly writer name Gail? Gale?, who we ending up talking to the whole time and watching the movie with.

After the reception ended they had buses that drove us to Zanuck Theatre. We past by a building with the Simpsons painted all over it and then arrived at the Zanuck, when I noticed the red carpet. Good lawd. They had a couple of photographers snapping photos of the cast and crew. Tom Sizemore was there. That was interesting. Would have been even cooler if Ving Rhames was there. After that found a seat in the front since some of the seats were reserved. Someone from Fox or either FX talked a lil bit about the movie and introduced some of the cast and crew and also Tom Cherry was there. Both him and Tom Sizemore were sitting a few seats behind me.

Great movie, excellent story and acting, check it out if you have cable. It airs tonight on FX. Interesting take on hate crimes, which is a topic that is very relevant to America today, since many Americans seem to want to forget or are unaware of our dirty past, which actually wasn’t too long ago. This particular case in actually the longest manhunt in FBI history according to the FX networks site.

And too you people that think I’m being anti-American I’m not there’s nowhere else I want to live besides America because I am an American. I’m saying this because it needs to be said so that our country can continue to improve as a society. This something that’s not going to change overnight but is going to take years. Plus haven’t you people heard of the first Amendment?

At the end of Sins of the Father, they mentioned how Bobby Frank Cherry couldn’t stand trial because he was seen as mentally unfit. But afterwards the movie, someone annouced that just recently a judge declared that Bobby Frank Cherry was faking his illness and was able to stand trial, which will be happening later this month. To read more about this click to the 2 Washington Post’s articles
WP article 1
WP article 2

Afterwards I had mention beforehand to Charmy that I was craving Roscoe’s Chicken ‘N Waffles, since in OC we don’t have such fine treasures. The deal was sealed especially after watching Ving Rhames’ character mom fried some chicken in movie. So went to the one on Pico and I ordered Scoe’s Special #2 with the gravy on the side. And it was mmmmmm good. Who would of thought chicken and waffles would make such a great combo. And not just any fried chicken and waffles. Some of the best I’ve ever eaten. Yes, there goes my cholesterol. Ok, I can’t be eating there for a while especially since I’ve been turning into blubber since I moved back home.

Jan. 2-Woke up early to go to Pasadena. Man, I am not a morning person especially since I didn’t get much sleep the night before. At the last minute my Uncle Bob decided to close our Pasadena store this December. So we were goin there to clean up and move the remaining products to our Cerritos store. My dad had already left to go to the store early that morning to continue with the moving. My mom, brother, cousin Johnny and I were going to meet up with him later that morning. By the time we got there we found out that my Uncle Bob had got the dates wrong on the lease and we weren’t going to close til next year. So all that packing my family had done the day before was a waste. >8( And we didn’t even have to wake up early. So we ended up putting back the stuff we had packed.

My mom decided to call it a day. So she suggested that we check out the floats from the Rose Parade. It was packed. There were ppl from all over. This was the first time I had seen the floats up close. I wished I had my camera with me. It’s pretty amazing how detail the floats are in person. They even turned on a couple of the floats. The float from China Airlines called “Enjoying Taiwan” was in honor of the indigenous Taiwanese. (Click here for a sketch version of the float). It earned the international trophy. I wonder which indigenous groups they had represented in particular. I hope it was an accurate and sensitive portrayal. Maybe I’ll ask Niwa if she knows what groups. I noticed Pacific Times had a photo of that float on this week’s front page.

Went to Peter Chang's place to celebrate New Year's Eve. Peter had candles lit all over his place; there were some out in the patio and even some in the bathroom including the bathtub. Very nice. *hint hint* guys take note I also really liked the black lights in his cousin Tom's bathroom. Hey, so I'm easily entertained. Buncha ppl from TACL as well as Peter's friends and co-workers were there. I tried some Smirnoff Ice for the first time and it was pretty tasty. Unfortunately, since I have no tolerance to alcohol (damm these genes) I turned red promptly and got a wonderful headache as well. So I pretty much plopped myself on Peter's super comfortable couch and tried to watch Algeria and Dralion on Bravo. Yes, jen such the party animal.

Arrgh, it sucks that I can't really drink and I top of that I was still getting over my cold. So for the rest of the night I was entertained by watching Jason and Randy dance around. I won't describe it because I don't think I would be able to give it justice. It's freakin' hilarious is all I'll say. Jason was pretty wasted. Being loud and obnoxious. I'm sure Suan was really proud. I was very entertained by making Jason lift up his shirt, lick his fingers and rub his nipples. Nice visual I know. ;p

The party didn't end til 4ish. Peter though crashed before all his guest lefts so we decided to have a lil fun with our defenseless host. hehe. No one had any permanent markers on them so all the girls took some photos with our sleeping beauty. The guys were going to take one with Peter as well but Peter looked like he was about to wake up so we stopped. I ended up crashing at Peter's place as well as some other ppl since I thought Rich and Pason's place would be packed. By the time I woke up I was the last guest left at Peter's place since Jason had to take his sister Joannie to LAX that morning. So I helped Peter clean up the place.

Later went to Rich and Pason's aparto and found that everyone was pretty dead. Grace and James were the only ones awake. Eventually we woke up Jason, Rob and Rich. Pason on the other hand was a lost cause so we left him at the aparto. Went to K-town to treat Grace to a birthday lunch at Hodori . Man, I love that place. It's 24/7/365. Can you believe that? And it scored an A. Saw Huey, one of the OG TACL members there. We ordered almost everything off the menu and pretty much ate up everything. Afterwards I went home since I had only 5 hours of sleep. Took a nice shower and went to sleep early since I found out at the last minute my family wanted me to be in Pasadena early morning to help with our Pasadena Hallmark store. Arrgh. 8(

Finally, Blog is back up. Well, here's the post I was planning to have up awhile back.

Cough cough hack hack hairball…mmm phlegm. Ah yes it’s great to be sick. Yes, everybody jen caught a cold for Christmas. bleah. Any cute and single doctors in the house? Or any single male cuties that want to play doctor? heh heh

Yes, I’ve been pretty unproductive this past couple days. Though I did go out to post-Christmas shopping (madness I say, MADNESS) at South Coast Plaza with Ricardo. And I just came to the sad realization that I have no clue in buying clothes and shoes for guys. Let’s say I’m not your typical girl. Plus my love life is non-existent so I haven’t had to worry about that. I don’t follow fashion trends and what not so I have no idea what’s in or out and I don’t really care to know what’s chic or like ya know so like 5 minutes ago. So what I usually buy guys are comics, art supplies, stuff from Skeletons in the Closet, LA County’s Coroners gift shop or mini-riceburner toy cars or other random gag gifts. Hey, man I can’t afford expensive shit. Jen is still in ghetto student mode.

But back to shopping story Richard couldn’t find anything he wanted to buy so we headed over to Mitsuwa formerly known as Yaohan since he starving and as I was ordering a curry pan from their bakery I noticed the woman I was buying it from was Janet’s mom. Small world, indeed.

BTW another one of my high school friends is getting married. For those of you who know Erin Yenny, she’s getting married to Joe this June. Another one bites the dust. Uh… I mean congratulations. Yeah, that’s it. ;p

And is it just me or did everyone have huo guo for Christmas? Rich’s family did so did Steve’s family.