The tough part about doing something for me is having the focus to actually doing it. I am carrying out this new web idea but have been putting if off for many many reasons and one of which is due to my laziness. My friend N.B. is somewhat a web engineer and he’s been putting up sites left and right: shopping deals, plumbing stuff, baby thing…go check them out.
Time to market is essential … I need to get my act together and start writing code. I pick quality over quantity … don’t like buffet that much.
Recommended by a large amount of my friends and to show support for my boat people, aka FOB, so I rented the movie. The Journey from The Fall or Vuot Song tells the story about how Southern Vietnamese suffered after the fall of Saigon in ‘75. The movie focuses on how people escaped the country via fishing boat and the life in re-education camp, just a fancy name for prison.
Executive summary: I would recommend the movie to others but don’t expect too much. The movie was well made by a young director, therefore the acting and filming style are much better than other Viet movies. It’s definitely worth 2 hours of watching.
In depth review:
The story: anything that trashes VC is a hot selling ticket item abroad and so is this movie. To me the movie seems to open up 30+ years old wound and rub salt onto it. The younger generation is too young to know the truth and the older generation is still bitter about it. If you want to educate yourself about boat people, watch a documentary Bolinao 52 by Duc Nguyen. It is probably more authentic and less bias (I just happen to be in love with documentary). As far as learning how Viet people were coping with the new culture in the U.S., I would recommend Vietnamese Diaspora Project by Brian Doan. Other than that, I think the story line was well thought out and presented.
The making: the actings are much more natural with the exception that people tend to scream during their emotions are at peak (for example the scene where Long is in the jungle holding the knife during his escape on an old woman) which makes it very hard to understand what are they saying, or maybe my Vietnamese sucks. I like the idea how they actually used real people from the re-education camp in the movie and the main character (Long Nguyen) went on diet to make him looks very skinny. I like the scene with all the fresh tropical fruits…those rambutans look yummy. The make up and costume designs are really up to the standard.
Well, people always complain how brutal and inhumanity the VC was, which I totally agree. My family was finally stripped and sent to “the land of new hope”, and my dad was in re-education camp like many others. Let me, however, remind you the chilling image of Nguyen Ngoc Long executed a prisoner taken by Eddie Adams on the street in 1968 during Tet Offensive with his hand gun. What about the My Lai massacre in 1968, where 300-500 civilians were raped and sexually molested before being murdered by the US military? Majority of the victims were women and children. Does the image of Kim Phuc taken by Nick Ut running naked cause by napalm mean anything to you? For any given war in the history, there are cruelty, inhumanity and casualties. To some Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Hitler, Uncle Ho and etc… are great leaders but not to others. It’s just a matter of which side you are with. Kids in Vietnam are learning about US and Southern Gov’t crimes and vice versa for abroad kids. The circle of hate is keep on rolling. It’s definitely time to look past the old dusty chapter and starting a new one. I think people should redirect their effort to make the country better than what it is right now. It’s really sad to hear it from my own Viet friend that Vietnam is a big whore house. Just like the U.S gov’t, Viet government needs fresh and modernize ideas.
It’s nearly a year since my bikeaccident and due to an believable gorgeous weather, I decided to get back on my Cannondale off-road bike. I usually go on these trails off of Bear Creek exit and 17 because they are short and steep, good for training so I can hang with the big riders (friends from college) on Sunday. Since I am very familiar with the trails so I left 2 most important items at home - backpack and a tool set. Half way up the trail I veered right to avoid a group of hikers but then I ended up riding over a small branch, so guess what, my cheap Sram X7 was sheared in half. I couldn’t drop down the trail because the chain was dangling and there was no way to take it off since I didn’t have my tool set with me. Only one option left for me was walking. Even that wasn’t easy because I had my biking shoe with metal cleats on. That just ruined my whole Saturday.
One glass in the morning and one glass before my day ends
I’ve switched to “soy” but will never forget you
You’ve built a great foundation in me and taken away nothing
I was left with everything to grow
My replacement is not the same and will never be the same
They don’t have much works to do
For you’ve done them all and inheriting only the best
My routine I keep to have closer images of you
And only to cover up what I’ve missed inside
That’s all I can do when I think of you…
I still have lot and lot of untouched songs I downloaded from my old working days at Varian Inc. I remembered I had 3 computers running at some points and one was dedicated to download musics. Given my background IT, I don’t remember how I got through the firewall but I did it.
Switchfoot - On Fire
“…Give me one more time around
Give me one more chance to see
Give me everything you are
Give me one more chance to be… (near you)
Cause everything inside looks like
Everything I hate
You are the hope I have for change
You are the only chance I’ll take…”
If I do all the talking, that would be called “monologue”. What I really need is a “dialogue”, and it means: conversation between two or more persons (from the dictionary). Why is it so hard for some people to recognize the importance of having a conversation. I don’t think I am the best communicator, yet I’ve realized that and working on it extensively. Even better if there is some depth in the conversation. Starting today, I will drop all the meaningless and shallow conversations. I would rather spending that time working my piano instead. I wished I knew all the recipes then as I know now, I could have saved my dying daisies. Maybe for the next one!
I was lost in the Google food land with my friends and by the time we finished I couldn’t breath … I had too much. The gourmet Salmon hand roll kicked some asses. It’s so easy to lose track of time - I just realized during our conversation that almost half a year just zipped by. So much more left to do.
On a separate note, I went to see a second film (documentary - my favorite type), 1000 Journals, at the SF Film Fest last night at the Kabuki theater in J-town. It was a well documented film, however, I was more intrigued by the actual project itself. I can only imaging how much work involved in making and mailing out 1,000 journals and waiting for them to return. Since it was such a good movie, we decided to stay for the Q&A session and checked out some of the returned journals. They were quite amazing.
“…And i think I’ll want to be alone
So please understand if I dont answer the phone
I’ll just sit and stare at my deep blue walls
Until I can see nothing at all…”
I know it’s not in the Viet (or Asian as a whole) culture to sign prenuptial and having separate bank accounts in their marriage but I really wanted to explore the main reason behind it. My plan was to interview both older and younger generations to see if the younger generation is more open-minded enough to go through this. Unfortunately I couldn’t pull it through. I blamed it on my tax filing and the time frame wasn’t enough for me to interview. In addition, I may address the topic in a bias way because I think it’s the right thing to do. I highly recommend every couple to look into it. My friend E.C. and J.H. have worked out a great separate bank accounts system and they are both happy about it. Well, tell me your view on this - I want to hear. To occupy my time, I did some product photography instead.
