I cooked dinner for Nancy and her roommates tonight. I think they were impressed with the dishes I created out of the few ingredients they had available. Perhaps I should become a gourmet chef-for-hire...

So there it is... Me, lost among a list of political big wigs. Unseen Unheard.

I hand squeezed five oranges and made only one cup of juice... That's some hard work...

2nd Gen programs - great turnout!

Michelle, Nancy, & Jess.

Gloria & Alice.

Nancy & Jen.

Little Jessica & Little Alice.
Yea, I know, it's like me and all the girls...

Weekly lunch with Mengting. Laundry and grocery shopping on my day off. TV break with Lisa. I really enjoy these simple days...

Lunch and hiking with Judy today...

This coming Saturday...

I need a Taiwanese grandma to hook me up with some bah-tzangs...

Congratulations to TAYL's very own Tyson for surviving another week on Beauty & the Geek! Those blindfolded rubik's cube solving skills can take you a long way...

Accomplishments this week:

1. I created a plan to develop a domain name that I now own: TaiwaneseAmerican.org - a portal site to 2nd generation Taiwanese American national events and organizations. It will be beautiful.

2. While chatting with Anna, my hero, about her future possible documentary projects, I defined a new academic sociology term, which I think has never been used. Well, at least Google says so: Immigrational Classism is prejudice, discrimination, mistreatment, or lack of respect by an immigrant group towards another immigrant group oftentimes, but not necessarily, of the same ethnicity. The term is commonly used to reflect the differing reasons that initiate immigration patterns and the resulting politicosocioeconomic segregation (i.e. professional brain-drains, political shifts, economic status, immigration laws, refugee status, etc). Yea, I worked on it for about 5 minutes, so excuse me if it's not completely coherent yet...

3. After months of contemplation, I finalized my Life Mission Statement: To positively impact individuals and community by cultivating personal values and passion, motivating progressive change, and realizing community potential.

4. While eating lunch with Mengting at Ikea (yes, you can eat a good meal there) and talking about the Taiwanese community, I came up with the vision to "revive" the 1st generation Taiwanese American Association (TAA) in a more 2nd generation form because it plainly should be an all-encompassing umbrella type organization. Who sees this vision with me?

I updated my "speaker biography," which is always a strange process for me because it feels a little like bragging when I list accomplishments and leadership positions. With my Asian upbringing, I still feel a bit uncomfortable doing that. But, over the years, I have realized that bragging in a humble fashion is definitely a good skill to have when presented appropriately. You just gotta sell yourself sometimes, and hope that you're just a good deal, a real deal, in other people's eyes. I say, if you're just honest about yourself, people will see that.

I'm certainly a bargain today.

It's noon. I need to get out of bed...

Judy is visiting from Chicago!

Ta-da! My pet project for the past week... The NATMA 2G website!

I have to continue shaping my life mission statement. And remembering what the important things in life are.

I've been a sporadic blogger lately, with good reason. I've been busy working on a secret project. It's so secret that I don't even know what's going on...

I live on an earthquake fault... and the earth below me is shifting. How do I know? Because one day, my door frame was no longer "square," and the door wouldn't close...

I'm impressed.

Jeanette has quite the artistic perspective.

More med friends, more food.

Holiday lights of a grand city.

Dinner in Little Italy with the old med classmates.

It's raining here too. Must be the global warming thing...

Happy New Year from Chicago.