if

I had a hammer...I used to love to sing this song when I was little during assembly time when we had to sing songs with Dr. Burger our elementary school piano player. If we take it retro to the days youtube did not exist and I discovered songs through radio waves, I had NO IDEA this song was sung like this with such an up beat tune. I am strangely upset. This is like finding out santa claus didn't exist.

Yet, after some very reliable research (thank you wikipedia) I knew my ears wouldn't lie to me. "The song 'If I Had a Hammer' was a Civil Rights anthem of the American Civil Rights movement" [via wikipedia]I use dto sing it with such a solemn tone with what I probably imagined to be remnants of folk songs from the south. How strange...here are a few versions.

Hope

you like my new layout! Yes, its not much different from my last one (but it still took me 4 hours!), but it's now more informative and user friendly when wanting to find out more information. It's still a work in process and there are still glitches in the html seeing that I have no html expertise. but I can read & practice trial and error.

One

thing that I have not done enough is talk about my work here. In the midst of falling motorbikes, falling into rice paddies, dancing, learning how to ride a bike and hiding from the sun, I also spend a large portion of my time in Vietnam volunteering at an anti-human trafficking NGO in Long Xuyen, Vietnam along the Vietnam and Cambodian border. It is a project of the Pacific Links Foundation, called ADAPT (An Giang/Dong Thap Alliance for the Prevention of Trafficking). I work on a variety of English capacity things, but by far the most eye opening is my field visits and meeting the young women of the mekong delta.

I will keep you posted on my experience as I go, the last six or so months have been nothing but inspiring and tiring, leaving me speechless and unable to really process what I was seeing, hearing, and experiencing.

For now I will leave you an inspiring video which I found on this volunteer's blog about her journey working at another anti-human trafficking NGO that prompted this post about my work, because prior to this, my blog has been focused on my love for music, fashion, and other nerdy nonsense (which I will not stray away from). I guess I used this blog as an outlet to remind myself of the things I loved and enjoyed in life, the things that made me happy, the "other" experiences that I was having over the mekong, because maybe I didn't want to process the things I saw at work yet.
But now I have, and now I will.

not

much is known about the "The Cults" and they've got us so confused. They don't have a website. No myspace. But what they do have is a free download of their 7"(YES.) They are a couple/duo from San Diego and all they got is this one photo. This pretty bad ass photo. With only three songs they've got me absolutely hooked, with remnants of Kathleen Hannah's voice, the static/echo of the 50's, guitars of the 70's, and maybe a children's choir,  they leave me wanting more.  Take a stab at "Go Outside" and I promise you, the entire song brings you through a story better than any book can. Confusion or no confusion, I'm listening.

2010 Asian American Short Story Contest

when I was younger, my parents asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. 

Do you want to be a doctor? 

No, I want to be a story writer. 

You don't want to be a doctor? 

No.

---

and since then I've been trying to tell stories in as many ways as possible.

maybe this could be one way for you.

for more information click here.

so

when I was younger I would go through "phases of obsession" with bands. My obsessions would result in me listening to the album over and over and over again. Clipping photos onto my walls, binder, etc. And daydreaming the day I would see them live. Proclaiming my love for the band by sketching and etching their name into anything I could find. Dedicating screen names after them. Sitting in my room next to my boombox with my finger on record so that I could capture the song on the radio because I was too poor to buy the album. AH YES. Although my tendency to listen to an album over and over again retains itself,  these days I haven't had an obsession like that in a long time and probably won't again. Usually there are just those bands where I just cannot stop listening. Each song on their album leaves me wanting me more. Some just make me dance. Some just hit me. Most I forget after a few months of listening to their songs. This band may be one of them. But it ain't a bad thing. I'll update this post a tad later about them. just enjoy these videos from TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB pretty damn artsy hipster but who gives a fuck. let's dance.

35 mm