Knitta, please.

This is probably the best play on word of the day via a recent nytimes article.

Knitta, please is the website of yarn artist Magna Sayeg.
Her blog is also playfully called Knitta, por favor.

Also for overall knitting greatness, have a look at my friend's blog: Aromy's Originals. Not only does she have a bad ass name, she knits pretty bad ass things. Here's some of her awesomely cute work:

---

Just had a talk with the mother. My uncle is taking my grandpa and grandma to France on First Class (or so we hear).

"I have no idea when you will be able to pay for me a first class trip to France."
"How old is uncle?"
"He is two years younger than me."
"Ok, so 50 years old?"
"Yeah"
"Ok when I'm 50."

In the background I hear my dad ask "How is work?" That's how he usually talks to me, through the background when I talk to my mom. She hands the phone off to my dad. And I chit chat with him for a bit. I tell him about the poor people I met in rural villages of Vietnam.

"That's why I went to America"

I've been entertaining the idea of going to Taiwan on my way back. I'd really like to see the country side and visit a shelter for abused foreign brides and trafficking victims (with a good amount being Vietnamese). Also I want to use my Chinese and Vietnamese. I had tried to use my Chinese in Laos with the Chinese community there. They immediately gave me a better price.

"Why didn't you say you could speak Chinese earlier? I could of chatted it up with you"

In Vietnam, there is this ongoing joke about the Chinese who live in Vietnam.

"Oh you are one of them"

Apparently our existence is very furtive, as people can rarely identify the fact that I am Chinese unless I tell them so.

---

One of my favorite topics and least favorite topics to think about is racial identity. I suppose I can't get away from it seeing that I studied it in University. I have a theory as to why Vietnamese locals consistently identify me as Japanese or Korean.

A foreign Asian can never be considered American. American to Vietnamese locals means white.
Due to this formula, Vietnamese locals need to label my foreignness as something, but obviously it cannot be American because I am not white.

Therefore I have to be the "next best thing" and the explanation of my foreignness would be a foreign asian in the category of Japanese or Korean.

Rarely Vietnamese-American, this category does not truly exist at its core.

"You look Japanese or Korean"
"It's because I'm American. You probably don't know what a Vietnamese American looks like huh?"

---

I'm a strong believer of "friendship vibes." That is when you suddenly think of a friend (without trying) and they pop into your life randomly in the next few days via email or gchat or phone or something else.