My friends,
Buying a house is like slapping yourself repeatedly in the face with a sock full of Jell-O: It’s messy, but kind of fun. Try it. This week has been eventful for Jameelah and me. We found this cool little house on a hill in a neighborhood we like, filled with light, with a yard, [...]
Healthy self-esteem is sorely lacking among many Asian Americans. While some can try and hide behind their careers, wealth, beauty, family connections, or accomplishments, its become apparent that our culture has done a poor job in building self-esteem.
Healthy self-esteem is rooted in our uniqueness as human beings and not on what we can do or [...]
Dear everyone,
Jeeze, I’ve never had writer’s block this bad before, if you can consider blogging writing. It’s like my sense of humor has been drained by a…by a…damn, something funny should go here. By a Dyson vacuum cleaner? See what I mean? It’s awful. I blame it on stress. And Netflix. But mainly stress.
The fiancée [...]
You may be married. You may have kids. You may have been together for some time. In any case, you can’t seem to find the fire in your romance anymore. What can you do? No amount of inspiration works. You know that flowers, chocolates, exotic trips, and dinner dates all seem to come up empty [...]
You might say my years at Microsoft were my formative years. In the first three years with the company, I was working 100-hour weeks and I never took a day off. Well, that’s not entirely true – I took one day off. That discipline continued during my remaining years with the company, but a lot [...]
Hi everyone,
Some people are getting angry at M. Night Shyamalan, who made “The Sixth Sense” which is an awesome movie. Why are they mad, you ask? Because he’s casting all White people in his next movie, The Last Airbender, which is a popular animated show where the characters are mostly Asian. They think he’s racist. [...]
Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
– Aristotle
Dating is hard enough as it is but dating in an Asian American context is made even more difficult because of our culture. Asians pride themselves on their marriages, families, children, and continuation of the family lineage. Despite this obsession on fostering marriage, kids, and [...]
My friends, I chaired my first neighborhood council meeting today, attended by about 25 people in the neighborhood, and I think I might have offended an elected official by telling him, in so many words, that his time was up and I needed to get back to my agenda. If I’m giving up American Idol [...]
Dear everyone,
These days, it’s been easy to get irritated. I realized I have gotten more jaded and impatient than usual, even at work. “What? Little Kenny is crying at our after-school program because his grandpa is ill? Argh! If only these kids would think about the inevitable progression of age before they bond with their [...]
Over the MLK Jr. Day weekend, I watched Cary Fukunaga’s 2009 film, “Sin Nombre”, meaning “Without a Name”. The film is unique in that it depicts the current perilous and epic journey immigrants from South America and Mexico take to reach the U.S. In this case, a Honduran teen travels with her father and male [...]
“To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.” -Soren Kierkegaard/Danish Philosopher
The challenge of life is in the hard work of discovering ourselves. The question, “Who am I?” usually crops up after someone encounters a major crisis such as a job loss, divorce, or death of a loved one. [...]
Dear everyone,
Jameelah and placed another offer on a house, this time for an extreme fixer upper. I mean extreme. In fact, it’s threatening to dissolve right now due to rain. And ironically, it’s only ten blocks away from the house we got outbid on. This way, we can always drive past the beautiful house we [...]
Dear everyone,
On Christmas night, when the world was rejoicing at the birth of baby Jesus and families gathered around the fireplaces in the spirit of love and togetherness, Jameelah’s car got broken into, and they took her backpack, which had my camera. But even worse, Jameelah is a teacher, and her backpack contained 28 fourth [...]
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” — Theodore Roosevelt
Authenticity is defined as being genuine or real. When it [...]
Now I’m not saying he did, and I’m not saying he didn’t, but I do know that quite possibly, the biggest fight in the history of boxing is being held up by a few drops of blood. In the past few weeks, Filipino boxing sensation Manny Pacquiao and his team have effectively halted all further [...]
To the Editor,
We watched with repulsion the return of the “Bodies” exhibit to Seattle this fall. We are offended and disgusted at the disingenuous attempt to disguise the commercial displaying of human bodies as “education.” There are ways to educate the general public about the human body and disease without mining dead bodies for their [...]
My friends,
This week is Christmas, a time for us to celebrate the birth of Jesus by giving and receiving gifts. And if you’re anything like me, you haven’t started shopping yet. Of course, if you’re anything like me, then you should congratulate yourself for undeniable sexiness. I’m just saying; it comes with the territory.
Gift giving is [...]
To the Editor:
We are dismayed that the organizers of the “Bodies: The Exhibition” have chosen to bring their exhibit back to Seattle. There are ways to educate the general public about the human body and disease without resorting to the mining of dead bodies from overseas for their prurient shock value. We are offended at [...]
My dearest friends, and the Obnoxious Republican,
Before I begin this week’s ramblings, I want to say that I hate, hate, HATE that STUPID Levi Jeans commercial where the idiot narrator says, “Pioneers, oh, pioneers” repeatedly while a bunch of moronic half-naked young people parade about, drenched by rain and living life. You haven’t seen it? [...]
The holidays are upon us and it’s my first holiday season back in Seattle where I can celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year with my family since I left more than 12 years ago.
As with most Asian families, our holidays and celebrations revolve around some aspect of eating. It’s part of our cultural heritage [...]
In the supposedly post-racial Obama era, most people would now find it unfathomable that a race-based attack in high school could happen, yet on Dec. 3 twenty-six Asian students, both international and US-born, were deliberately attacked by their peers at a South Philadelphia high school. Apparently, racial tension at this high school have been escalating. [...]
Dear everyone,
Today I went to talk to Al and Arnie to strengthen our backup offer. There is a one percent chance that the deal could fall through, so we should be ready in case it does. We increased our offer to exceed the accepted one by just a little bit.
Since yesterday though, I have started [...]
My friends, our offer on the house was rejected. We had offered full payment of the house, with the concession that seller pays for closing. The other couple offered full payment, but that the seller pays for half of the closing. We were beaten by a couple of grands! I’m really bummed out. I was [...]
Ever since Manny Pacquiao’s TKO win over Miguel Cotto, I’ve been asking myself one question: “Do Pacquaio fans actually watch boxing?” Don’t get me wrong, the triumphs of the former Filipino flyweight have been impressive, but some of the comments floating around the public are taking it too far. Here is the top three I’d [...]
They say that tough times call for tough measures. So when the state made drastic cuts to its Basic Health Plan earlier this year, many believed that it was an unfortunate, but necessary move to balance our budget. Now, with the state facing a deficit of over $2 billion, health care advocates fear that Basic [...]
“Did you know about the storm that hit Vietnam and the Philippines? How do you feel about what happened to our parent’s homeland?” I asked a friend, My Hoa Nguyen.
“It’s horrifying and depressing,” she said. “It’s tragic how these things can happen. It’s a good thing the U.S. and other nations are providing aid. These [...]
My friends,
I apologize for being absent these past few days. Things have been crazy, and I feel like I’ve eaten an entire bar of Trader’s Joe’s 17-ounce dark chocolates, but without the high. First, things have settled down at the office. We had a 3-day staff retreat, where we all got to know each other’s [...]
There will be a slot of time allocated each meeting so neighbors can complain about lack of composting bins, sure, but we will also work together build a strong vision for our neighborhood, a vision of peace and harmony and potlucks
Dear everyone,
For weeks now the fiancée and I have been trying to plan our wedding. By “we,” I mean Jameelah, and by “planning,” I mean Jameelah coming up with some sort of idea and me furrowing my brows and muttering stuff like “Party favors? What are party favors?! I don’t know nothin’ about birthin’ no [...]
Gambas Japanese and French Restaurant
2230 Third Ave Seattle, WA 98121
(206) 728-5092
Ganbat Puntsag was a lawyer before becoming a chef. With over thirty years of culinary experience, Chef Puntsag pairs his Japanese Izakaya and French dining background into beautifully crafted plates of familiar Japanese flavors and French inspired plating.
Recommendation:
Sushi sandwich with a 2007 Gruner Veltliner from Austria, [...]
