FamiLee Life

Back Home

I arrived in Connecticut last night. It was a very humid day, following a week of on-off rain that has drenched the east coast. Feeling immediately sticky when I stepped outside the airport terminal, I was relieved to find my brother waiting for me at curbside. We settled in for the 20 minute drive home and caught up on things. It's always nice to see family.

I come back home about once or twice a year. Usually, it's once at Christmas (that's a given) and maybe once during the summer or for some family event (or emergency). It has worked out fine for me. I was born and raised in Connecticut but I never really yearned to come back home once I left. At seventeen, I was out and never looked back. Since then, I've lived in Great Barrington (MA) in the heart of the Berkshire Mountains, Boston (MA), Richmond (VA) - the Capital of the Confederacy, Davis (CA) - Bicycle Capital of America, Sacramento (CA), Austin (TX) - Life Music Capital of the World, and now Minneapolis - The City of Lakes.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am here to help my dad with his art exhibit and to celebrate with him. It's exciting. He's already called me first thing in the morning to make sure I am awake, even though we can't start on hanging the frames till noon (3 hours away). He's excited for sure.

I am staying in my brother's house which is literally a skip away from my dad's place. Well, it's about 1/2 a mile down the road. Close. Too close for me but I think my brother handles it well. My dad, fortunately, is an independent guy, so perhaps it would not be so bad.

Here is my real and imagined itinerary for the short weekend trip. I plan to get dressed in a bit and make my way over to Dunkin' Donuts for some coffee and donuts. A true New England experience. I wish Minneapolis would get a DD franchise. It seems a shame. I love donut shops and don't find Krispy Kreme at Mall of America or way out in Maple Grove to cut it. A DD close to campus would be heavenly. There used to be Connor's Bakery near my house but it closed down last year. A real bummer.

After getting my fill, I will make my way over to the cemetary to vist with mom and tend the grounds. Then, I will head over to my dad's place to say Hello to my 93+ year old grandmother who is still alert and healthy. She will probably ask about my romantic life and make sure I am going to church. We will laugh too. She always laughs. At noon, my dad and I will head over to the town library to start with the installation. I expect it will take all afternoon. Afterwards, my dad, his wife, and I will likely go grab some Korean food for dinner. There actually is a very good Korean-Japanese restaurant in Hartford and it's not a dive either. Ichiban is my dad's stable and he probably eats there on a weekly basis. He walks in without waiting for a hostess and almost always will seat himself at a big long table near the back of the restaurant. It's like his Cheers moment or something.

Tomorrow will be a day of rest, I hope. I will check on the exhibit and see what little things need to get done. Otherwise, I hope to visit with a high school friend or two and use the day to relax. We shall see what transpires.

Until I return to Mpls...

Grad School, Coffee Shops, and Academic Life

Back when I lived in Richmond, VA (murder capital of America and one of the most segregated cities I have ever known), I was attending graduate school and trying to figure out what I wanted to do with a Ph.D. in psychology. Did I want to teach, engage in research, or conduct therapy? When I started school, I thought I could do it all. I soon learned that it was near impossible. So I had to choose.

My initial experiences teaching undergraduate students was nerve racking. I taught a few semesters of Intro to Personality, starting in my third year of grad school. I was trying to learn the material days (even hours) before I was expected to teach them the material. I found my oratory skills to be less than admirable. I struggled to tell decent, relevant stories. It was a challenge to make coherent sense of seemingly disparate theories, concepts, etc. On many occasions, I would have a student (or ten students) who was overly entitled, inappropriate with boundaries, or just rude. Still, there were aspects of teaching that I enjoyed. I liked it when students' eyes lit up when I explained a concept or theory that was pertinent to their lives. I liked it when students could link together ideas and critically analyze issues. I could see light bulbs shining bright in their heads. I gradually found my teaching competence and confidence increase. Still, I was disillusioned. I guess I had more idealistic (and corny New England) visions of teaching -- booklined offices, sport coats with patches on the elbows, tea and cookies, deep philosophical debates....Oh, I was young!

After my first year of graduate school, I started my counseling practicum which is a fancy word for counseling training. It was our chance to receive hands-on training as counselors/clinicians. One of my first clients was a young White man who had relationship problems and struggled with feelings of inadequacy which he covered up with an air of grandiosity. Upon seeing me, a young looking Asian American man, I could tell he was dubious. After I introduced myself, he jokingly asked if I was related to Bruce Lee (not funny). The next session, he reported to me that he left the first session doubting my competency because I was Asian and he was White. Then, he said that he thought more about it and decided that Asians are very hard working and, as such, I would probably work hard to help him. I held my tongue at this gross model minority comment and we actually had a productive number of sessions. This experience was a challenge and I found counseling over the next few years to be a mixture of satisfaction, frustration, and tedium. I liked it enough and was fairly good at it. Still, it was not calling me, as I thought it might be.

As part of my graduate education (en route to the PhD), students were expected to complete a masters degree based on an empirical, quantitative study. I approached this task with lots of confusion (what would be my topic?!), eagerness, and complete lack of competence. There is so much to manage in a research project and it is all self-directed! I found myself engrossed in readings. Books, journal articles, fiction, poetry. I read therapy books, sociological books, history books. I was all over the place. But I also was hungry for more. I found myself linking together random thoughts and ideas, watching them slowly meld together in unusual ways. Making connections that were unexpected (to me and sometimes to my advisor). Over time, I picked a topic (on loneliness and the need for social connections in life) and went about designing a study. It was an ambitious project. My advisor was supportive but (I suspect) a bit suspect. Could I do it? Could I pull it off? After many false starts and literally hundreds of hours collecting, entering, analyzing data, I did complete the thesis. It was exhausting. My brain felt like it had been beaten after 10 rounds of boxing.

Graduate school is all about time management, perseverence, and finding joy in the small things in life. By the time I had finished my master's degree, I had little joy left. I was exhausted. And yet, my graduate education was just beginning! I still had to study for my preliminary exams, propose/defend my dissertation, and complete internship.

I needed time to myself....

It was during the end of my second year in graduate school when I decided to work in a coffeeshop just below my apartment in Shockoe Bottom (the hip food/bar district of Richmond). It was called The Corner Coffee Shop and owned by two women who were in their mid-thirties. Back then, they seemed old! Hahahahahaha. The shop was very kitchy and nowadays we see this sort of place all over. But it was novel and old-school at the same time in 1993. I had been going to this coffeeshop for the last year. I was burned out of grad school, needing to study for my preliminary exams, and tired. To regroup, I decided to work at the coffeeshop for a summer. It was the best decision that I made.

I worked for the whole summer, made a new group of friends with coworkers who were musicians, artists, and full of life...importantly, non-academic life. They had similar interests to me, in music, philosophy, lifestyle. It was refreshing.

As the summer winded down, I found myself renewed with energy and with more clear direction. Using the time as a period of reflection, I had discovered my career direction. It was tentative but it was more clear. I had decided to pursue an academic career. I realized that it was not possible to do everything, but an academic career provided me with the most options and opportunities. It allowed me to dabble in different domains which would keep my interest engaged at all times.

So here I am today...in Minneapolis, at the University of Minnesota, and (for today) sitting in another corner coffeeshop.

A Belated Father's Day

By Ung Lim Lee

Next weekend, the 1st week of July, I will be traveling home to Connecticut to visit my father. Well, that's not very exact. I actually am going home to attend my father's very first public art exhibit at the town library. He is now 73 years old, retired (though he still works a bit at the family business), a widow, remarried, and spends a lot of his days painting. Painting has been his life long passion since his childhood in Korea. I am very proud of him and can't wait to see the exhibit and to see the joy on his face.

My father grew up in Sariwon in northern Korea as best I can discern. I am hesitant with this fact because he has never told me exactly where he grew up. I learned this bit of family geneology from a great uncle who once drew me a family tree of my father's side. I do know that his family was Christian (3+ generations in NK), which is really not too surprising because Christian missionaries were quite successful in this region of Korea. They also at one time had some wealth, owning a pottery factory of some sort. I just recall my mom teasing my dad about having grown up doing nothing but playing Korean chess. My dad would just laugh.

His father (my grandfather) died at a young age from what we now believe to be tuberculosis. He must have only been around my age when he died. It was hard to get medicine back then during the Japanese occupation. As the oldest child and only son, my dad was responsible to care for the family. I am not sure how this all occurred back then because he was still so young. Plus, my father had lost his left arm (just below the elbow) in some mysterious train accident when he was still a boy, around 13 years old. Not surprisingly, my grandmother was a strong presence in the family (and throughout my childhood).

What I do know is that my father studied art in high school and eventually at Hong-Ik University when the family migrated and reunited in Seoul during/after the Korean War. He never graduated from Hong-Dae though. I recently asked him why not and he only replied that he changed his major and didn't have enough credits. I suspect the family also ran out of money. Times were tough back then.

All these years, art has sustained my father. He worked in advertising for over 25 years prior to starting a family business, but he always was doing art from painting to inventing. Growing up, I remember art supplies everywhere. We didn't have lots and lots of toys but I had my pick of charcoals, paints, markers, pens, tape, rulers, sliders, drafting tables, velum paper, etc. He taught me how to write in blocked letters, how to shadow, how to use perspective, how to draw faces. I still remember, if I jar my memory and practice.

Yet my father never had an art exhibit. Instead, he just painted and painted and painted. Changing his techniques and media from time to time. He painted on the cheap. He had old beat up brushes, used scrap wood for a canvas, and always looked for art sales to buy paint at a discount. He would buy cheap, factory produced paintings, cut out the painting, and simply use the frame for his own art.

In 2002, my mother was planning an art exhibit for my father to celebrate his 70th birthday. He was very excited and was painting a lot back then. Unfortunately, my mom died just less than a month before the slated exhibit date. My father also had his share of health problems and the exhibit never materialized. For a couple of years, my father put down the paint brush.

It's a bit delayed but my father's day is now upon us. I am happy, happy for him. He is getting to show his art to the world and he gets to do what he's always dreamed of doing. It may have taken 40 years of life in America but he is getting to finally live his American Dream.

Happy Belated Father's Day.

New Standards for Race-Based Admissions

Just a quick follow up to yesterday's post about yellow peril in academia. A new guide was recently released that helps universities have better procedures in place for admissions in a post-affirmative action era. It follows on the heels of the 2003 Supreme Court case that involved the use of race as an admissions criteria at the Univ of Michigan. You can read the lengthy manual here (it's available free!), titled Admissions and Diversity After Michigan: The Next Generation of Legal and Policy Issues.

Yellow Peril In Law Schools :: Debunked

Back in the day (i.e., late 1800s), the first large wave of Chinese immigrants to these shores led to unfounded fears by White settlers that they would be pushed out of work and livelihood by these yellow people from the orient (ahem, I use these words derisively). This ridiculous, unfounded fear became known as yellow peril. In reality, such racial fears were used by Whites to continue to oppress and disenfranchise generations of immigrants and Blacks. It was an image that eventually came to create a wedge between various racial and ethnic groups (Chinese vs. Japanese or Asians vs Blacks), all the while allowing Whites to remain outside the fray -- even though it was the Whites who perpetuated the racist fears.

Fast forward one hundred years to the end of the 20th century and start of the 21st century. In the late 1990s, universities, particularly law schools, were having affirmative action policies challenged. Some law schools lost major court decisions and had to effectively ban affirmative action. A big "fear" was that the ban on affirmative action would not only hurt Blacks and Latinos but it would lead to a rapid, rabid growth in the admission of Asian Americans. In other words, Asians again would be the yellow peril -- this time in education and law! And again, it would pit Asian Americans against other racial minority groups and leave Whites as innocent bystanders.

Well, there is an article in the Chronicles of Higher Education (click on Continue Reading link below) which focuses on a recent article in the Michigan Journal of Race and Law that challenges this unfounded fear. The study found that Asian Americans were not gaining admission into law school in disproportionate numbers. In fact, the rise was minimal. The study author, Mr Kidder, goes on to say that this type of modern-day yellow peril "effectively marginalizes [Asian-Pacific-Americans] and contributes to a skewed and divisive public discourse about affirmative action [in which the Asian-American students] are falsely portrayed as conspicuous adversaries of diversity in higher education."

Amen.

State Bans on Affirmative Action Have Been of Little Benefit to Asian-American Students, Report Says
By PAULA WASLEY
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Chronicles of Higher Education

Contrary to predictions in a widely cited 2005 study that said Asian-American students were the biggest losers in affirmative action, those students made only minor gains at law schools when the practice was banned in three states, according to a new study.

An article in the spring issue of the Michigan Journal of Race & Law challenges the 2005 study, in which sociologists at Princeton University predicted that Asian-Pacific-Americans would occupy four out of every five seats created by accepting fewer African-American and Hispanic students if affirmative action were eliminated at elite universities (The Chronicle, June 17, 2005).

The new article is based on an analysis of enrollment data from law schools at the University of Washington, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of California's Berkeley, Davis, and Los Angeles campuses from 1993 to 2005 -- a period that spans the era before and after affirmative-action bans took effect in those states. The author of the article, William C. Kidder, a senior policy analyst at the University of California at Davis, determined that, in fact, the enrollment gains for Asian-American students were far more meager than the earlier article had predicted.

Mr. Kidder's study found that Asian-Pacific-Americans made up 12.9 percent of the enrollments at the five law schools with affirmative action in effect, as compared with 14.3 percent without. That marginal increase, he said, lagged behind the overall rate of growth in the enrollment of Asian-Pacific-Americans in American law schools generally during the same period.

Mr. Kidder criticized the earlier study as falling prey to a "yellow-peril causation fallacy" by confounding the positive effects of affirmative action on the enrollment of black and Latino students with an admissions bias against Asian-American students in favor of white students with similar credentials. That fallacy, he said, "effectively marginalizes" Asian-Pacific-Americans "and contributes to a skewed and divisive public discourse about affirmative action," in which the Asian-American students "are falsely portrayed as conspicuous adversaries of diversity in higher education."

The new findings come as Michigan residents prepare to vote on a ballot measure this November that would ban affirmative action by public colleges and other state agencies.

"This study is important because what typically happens is that Asian-Pacific-Americans are excluded from the civil-rights dialogue, and then are suddenly introduced as spoilers in the affirmative-action debate," said Frank H. Wu, dean of the Wayne State University Law School, in Detroit, in a written statement. "The better approach is to oppose bias against Asian-Pacific-Americans even as we encourage inclusion of African-Americans and Latinos."

Seoul Searching :: The Update

On Saturday night, Harlow's Monkey (aka Jae Ran) was featured on KTSP's On the Road segment (see earlier post). I had never seen the original airing of Seoul Searching, so I was curious to watch the update. But I missed watching it "live" because I was enjoying the evening with Holly as she performed with Mu Daiko and One Voice Mixed Chorus in St. Paul. After the amazing show, we all celebrated with Holly (who had composed and performed her own song) at Moscow on the Hill.

I finally watched the segment on the internet today. You can catch it all, in three streaming segments, at KSTP (click here). You need to use Netscape or IE to view it (unfortunately). For Jae Ran's own review, visit Harlow's Monkey.

Mostly, it was a poignant snapshot of the modern lives of two Korean adoptee women in Minnesota. In general, these sort of programs overdramatize things to bring in the ratings. Still, I was left feeling that Jae Ran and Kim have a lot of courage and dignity. Kudos to them for having the guts to open their lives to the public.

Here are a few major/minor gripes which are mostly about the oriental images evoked in the first half of the show.

First, the reporter (Jason Davis) is seated at a table at King's Restaurant, a Korean restaurant that also serves Japanese sushi. He talks about Korean dishes, such as kimchee, as the image fixates on sushi. Uh...hello? He said, Korean food! It must all taste and look the same to the cameraperson and producers. Later, he comments on the famed Korean barbecue meats, like bulgogi, as the camera focuses on a plate of kalbi (short ribs), not bulgogi.

Then, he narrates about Jae Ran and Kim's flight to South Korea. To depict this image, they show a plane flying over Europe, India, China, and finally Korea. Uh, hello? Have you ever taken a trip to South Korea? You fly westward over the Pacific to South Korea. No wonder our nation's children stink at geography. It also is telling that they show the plane flying over Europe and the rest of Asia. It is a bizarre homage to the great Western powers and the fact that Asians are all the same (India, China, Korea).

Later, it shows the two women in Seoul, South Korea. In the background is this traditional (I assume) Korean folk music which makes Seoul, a major cosmopolitan city, seem like some orientalist opium den. It is even more freaky to hear a White man's English narrate over this bad, bad choice in music.

Alas, KTSP needs some cultural consultants or they need to fire the ones that they have. I'm available for the right price....

WikiHow :: The Tech Nerds DIY Guide

I just came across WikiHow and am slowing finding myself trolling the site. It's the Home Depot for tech minded people. But the site is not just about DIY tech-related stuff (such as LifeHacker). Instead, WikiHow is the community based "how to" manual for all sorts of things. For example, it gives insight into How To Have A Great Conversation or How To Tell Jokes Without Laughing At Your Own Punchline. But it's not just about social graces. You can learn How To Run Up A Wall And Flip or How To Keep A Baby Entertained.

It's a fun site to expand one's base of triviality. Which is something that people who know me know that I truly love.

Animal House :: The Drowning

This will (hopefully) be the last of a series of stories on Alvin the evil chipmunk and his pack of friends. To fully appreciate this final segment, it might be helpful to read the earlier posts here, here, here, and here. For a humorous sidebar, click here.

We left off with the capture of Alvin using a homemade chipmunk trap made from a cardboard box, gift wrapping tube, and hardware cloth (wire mesh). Flush with victory, I was cocky and self-satisfied with my ingenuity and craftiness. Nothing feels better than beating a crafty creature at his own game! But this champion feeling was short-lived as I heard another chirp in the basement. Yes, there was another damn chipmunk in my house. Somewhere in the bowels of the basement, it was there.

I returned to the trusty gardenweb site to figure out my next plan. I was hesitant to call in pest control again because they basically told me everything that they would do and I realized (and they even told me) that I could do it myself for a whole lot less. Holly was unwilling to let me use d-con poison (which would have led to a more torturous death) and offered to help me devise a more "natural" death. So, here is what I did.

Project Drowning....

I got a 5-gallon plastic bucket, filled halfway with water, a bag of safflower seeds (or you could use sunflower seeds, if you wanted to catch a chipmunk and/or a squirrel, as squirrels don't like safflower seeds), and an old 1x4 wood plank (about 4 feet long). I put the half-filled bucket of water in the basement and filled it with seeds till the water was completely covered (or disguised). I then created a ramp with the wood, so a chipmunk could easily walk up on it. I scattered just enough seeds on the board with a larger pile at the end by the lip of the bucket.

Holly and I were skeptical of the effectiveness of this method, but we were game. I mean, would a chipmunk really see the seeds floating and leap off the plank into the hidden water? The folks on gardenweb raved about this method, but really?

We awoke the next morning to investigate. Both of us were a bit freaked out to actually check on it. I suspect we each would have the courage if the other was not present but levels of efficacy, courage, and responsibility seem to decrease when there are two people. It's akin perhaps to the bystander effect (a la Kitty Genovese tragedy).

At any rate, we go downstairs and don't notice anything floating in the water. This is our tactic to determine if the trap was a success. However, we do notice that the seeds are gone! Ah ha! There is a creature down here who likes safflower seeds. I notice the hulls of the seeds scattered on the basement floor. Yet, oddly, no creature floating in the bucket. We are running late for work, so Holly fills up the bucket with some more seeds, thinking perhaps there was a glimmer of water which led the craft chipmunk to not take the plunge. We also reload the board with seeds.

Days go by and the bait is still on the plank. No signs of chipmunks. No chirps, no poop droppings, no floating bodies in the bucket. Hm.... I start to feel a bit disheartened. Meanwhile, I set about using a canister of expanding foam to seal every possible nook and cranny around the house to ward off future critters. I love this toxic stuff.

It is now Saturday. Nearly a week has passed since we began Project Drowning. I look in the basement and notice that the safflower seeds have actually begun to sprout! Plus, the water and seeds are getting moldy. Yuck. We decide it is time to give up on the experiment. Sigh. Holly agrees to clean out the bucket because it was her desire to use this method (vs. d-con). However, the bucket is heavy with water, so she asks if I can bring it upstairs and outside. I carry the bucket up and out.

When I get outside, I decide to take one "last" look inside the bucket. Maybe there is something in there. I look and.....HOLY CR*P there is a dead chipmunk floating in the bucket!

I immediately shout out this fact to Holly. "Holly, there is something floating in the bucket! We caught a chipmunk!" Holly is on her way outside when she hears the news. Flustered, she replies (repeatedly), "What?! I have to get a hair clip! Just a minute! I have to get a hair clip!" I have no idea why she needs a hair clip but I wait. I am shocked, freaked out, and oddly satisfied.

We stand there trying to determine the best method of disposal. We are honestly freaked out by this success and grossed out by the idea of having to dispose of the bloated, dead critter. Neither of us had thought this far ahead. We thought we had lost when in fact we had won. I get a big, heavy plastic garbage bag, cover the bucket, and we invert the bucket (water and all). I drag the bucket to the garbage can. However, before I dispose of it, I poke a small hole in the bottom to drain the water. I watch as safflower seeds stumble out of the bag, half worried that maybe the foot or nose might poke out. Fortunately, it's just water and seeds. After it drains, I toss the bag into the trash.

As I walk back to my house, my neighbor John from across the street sees me and walks over to the sidewalk. I can tell that he wants to know what all the excitement is about. I explain the story. He tells me that he found a flying squirrel in his bedroom the other night. He and his wife were lying in bed when they noticed a shimmering set of eyes in the dark. He turned on the light to find a squirrel in the bedroom hiding out by the flowers! Much more confident than me, he proceeds to get some heavy duty gloves, picks up the startled, stressed out squirrel and deposits him outside. I ask if he discovered its entry point (my biggest concern, obviously) and he nonchalantly says that he didn't and isn't too concerned. I am left wondering why not? I also leave wondering what is happening to our urban sanctuary? We are being overrun by nature's creatures. There needs to be a better harmony in this relationship.

We spend the rest of the day in shock and awe at the drowning. I truly hope there are no more animals in my house.

Searching Seoul

Harlow's Monkey (aka Jae Ran) and her friend, Kim B., will be featured in a documentary on Korean adoption tomorrow (Saturday) night on KSTP News at 10:35 pm. Click here to see the preview. Unfortunately, you need to open IE to watch the video (not Firefox, argh!).

The documentary was filmed a few years ago (as you can tell by the hairstyles and clothing -- hehe) when Jae Ran (aka Kendra) and Kim were traveling to Korea for the first time. They were recently interviewed again to see how life has changed and stayed the same. Check it out or record it to watch later.

Cooked Chipmunk!

Ah, I bet the headline got your attention! One of the many great things about the internet is that you can search for nearly anything, from the obscure factoid to a freaky fetish. Another upside to the internet is that you can find solace in knowing you are not alone in the world. Others too have this wretched problem and help is on the way! For me, the internet was extremely useful in searching for sites that explained the best ways to remove/evict a chipmunk from my house.

So, you might be asking, what does Cooked Chipmunk have to do with the usefulness of the internet. Well, there is a nifty blog tool to help me understand who is coming to my blog and from what referring URL. I check it from time to time to see the general hit rate of my blog. Are people reading it? From which cities, states, and countries? Just the basics. No wiretapping or anything exciting.

After my series of chipmunk blog entries, I noticed more and more people were checking out my blog because they too have a chipmunk problem. Apparently, when they google the keywords chipmunk, ceiling, problem, house, etc., they sometimes get referred to my site. Pretty cool.

Now please take a moment to do an experiment...google the keywords "Cooking Chipmunks." As you will see, my blog comes up as #1! Amazing. Who on earth is trying to cook a chipmunk! I ask this question because I discovered that someone found my site by keyword searching for "Cooking Chipmunks." Fascinating. If you look at the #2 referred site, you will find a pdf labeled Chipmunk Soup! I was shocked at first until I clicked on the pdf to discover it is some sort of hiking newsletter and it is a title in jest.

I am still perplexed over who would want to cook a chipmunk and if it is even possible to eat one, given that they only weight about 5 ounces!

Welcome to the wonderful world of the internet!

Korean Video Killers

In 1981, my family and I visited South Korea for the first time since my parents had immigrated in the mid-1960s. It was pretty amazing for me, being U.S. born, to experience a different culture, especially one that was a part of my heritage. Since then, I have returned to Korea three times on my own and have watched and marveled at the economic and industrial changes to the country, especially Seoul. It is as cosmopolitan and megatropolis-like as any major Western city. Today, South Korea boasts itself as the most wired country in the world. The young and old know how to surf the internet and you can find pc-bangs (or internet cafes) on nearly every street corner.

In 2001, I was a visiting scholar at Yonsei University for a few weeks in the summer. A professor in psychology (Dr. Whang) was very helpful in showing me around. In asking him about his line of research, he told me that he had written a book about internet addiction. It piqued my interest and I learned from him about the Korean youth obsession with video gaming and instant messanger and the like.

These days, you can read in the news about such public concerns in South Korea. Last year, for example, there was the sensational story about a man who died while playing 50 hours of video games (see here). Just the other day, I read a story in the International Herald Tribune titled "PLAYING TO DEATH IN A WIRED KOREA." It is about people's addictions to video gaming in Korea. I have appended the article at the end of this entry.

It's a crazy, crazy world.

PLAYING TO DEATH IN A WIRED KOREA
------------------------------------
The International Herald Tribune, June 12, 2006

Playing to death in a wired Korea

Kim Hee Young, 24, knows how addictive a fantasy world can
become.

For six months after her admission to a top-notch Seoul
university in 2000, Kim said, she secluded herself in her
room more than 20 hours a day, prowling a virtual world where
she morphed into a tank gunner catapulting fireballs at enemy
castles inhabited by trolls and elves. She slept only a few
hours a day and ate at the keyboard. She was losing weight,
relations with her parents, got testy, and she was failing
nearly all of her classes.

"I occasionally conked out and slept an entire day to refill
my energy," Kim said. "What amazed me even then was that
there were so many people like me out there. We formed a
guild and took turns to keep battles against our foes
going around the clock."

Kim knew it was ruining her life and she tried to kick the
habit but couldn't. Finally, she thought the only way to
salvage herself from the depth of gaming addiction was to
leave South Korea, the world's most wired country, where
widespread high-speed Internet connectivity makes online
games a national pastime. Six out of 10 South Koreans ages
9 to 39 consider themselves frequent online game players,
according to a government-funded survey published this year.

"I first thought of going to the United States, but I knew
I would return to the games as long as I had high-speed
Internet," Kim said. "So I went to Taichung, a Taiwanese
city, for a Chinese language course. I took the game CD
with me, but in Taichung the Internet was still slow, and
I could finally quit the habit."

Kim is now back in her school and highly motivated in her
dentistry studies. But an estimated one million South Korean
gamers suffer symptoms of serious addiction, experts say.
These people are so obsessed with online gaming that they
neglect eating and bathing, skip school or quit jobs,
playing the games for hours or days at a stretch - and in
several cases a year, until they drop dead.

"If other countries have drug and alcohol problems, we have
online gaming addiction," said Kim Hyun Soo, a psychiatrist
in Seoul whose clinic receives one new serious gaming
addict a day.

Experts say the problem in South Korea may provide an early
warning of things to come for other countries.

South Korea has the world's highest per capita rate of
broadband connectivity, at 78 percent. It is a trend
created by South Koreans' fascination with new technology,
a government policy of encouraging the Internet as an engine
for economic growth, and urban clusters of high-rise
apartment blocks that make broadband networks commercially
viable.

Here, Internet cafés are as commonplace as phone booths
once were, and most are filled with people playing online
games.

Here, the fan Web site with the most members - 600,000 -
is not for a sex- symbol pop singer but for Lim Yo Hwan,
a 26-year-old online gamer with a 250 million won, or
$268,000, salary from SK Telecom, a leading mobile phone
company.

Under corporate sponsorship, platoons of young cyberspace
warriors like Lim eat and sleep in dormitories, training
for "e-sports" leagues that participate in competitions.
The games are broadcast live on cable channels or watched
at e-sports studios, where hundreds of fans cheer or weep
over their heroes' fates. Last year, 100,000 people
gathered at a beach to watch Lim play the science-fiction
game "World of Warcraft" on giant screens.

Experts say that South Korean society's relentless focus
on competition and its shortage of recreational
diversions force millions of students and adults to
escape into cyberspace and battle for the status they may
never achieve in the real world.

In multiplayer role-playing games, they are transformed
into knights who slays dragons, spaceship captains who
save the world from aliens, or princesses who crusade
for a lost throne in medieval Europe.

"In the games, you can lead a large guild even if you are
a teenager," said Kim Hyo Jung at the YMCA's counseling
center for Internet addicts in Seoul. "People much
older beg you to accept them into your alliance. This is
a fascinating escape for teenagers, for example, who are
bullied or can't otherwise adapt to the pressure-cooker
school system where all efforts are focused on getting
good grades."

Some play themselves to death. Last year, the deaths of
at least seven people were attributed to excessive game-
playing. In August, a 28-year-old man died after nearly
50 straight hours of playing online games. In December,
a 38-year-old day worker collapsed and died at an Internet
café; his logs showed that he had played for 417 hours
in his last 20 days. There are private telephone
emergency services that dispatch ambulances for children
who collapse while gaming or refuse to come out of their
rooms, where they remain glued to online games or
threaten violence at intervening parents.

In South Korea, children get used to the Internet at
early age. A survey last year by the Ministry of
Information and Communication showed that nearly half
of children between the ages of 3 and 5 use the Internet.

"In South Korea, the Internet has become a baby sitter,"
said Lee Kyong Ok, a professor at Duksung Women's
University in Seoul.

Gaming consoles like Sony's PlayStation have never
taken off among South Koreans to the degree seen in the
United States. Instead, online role-playing games,
where participants make friends and band together in
clans, have a strong appeal to Koreans, who live in a
tightly woven and hierarchical Confucian society.

"One problem with those games is that you build your
online persona through countless hours of battles, and
you develop a huge emotional attachment to your game
character," said Chang Woo Min, a onetime online gamer
who is now a counselor at the government-run Center
for Internet Addiction Prevention and Counseling.

Chang cited reports of youngsters who traced the
players who killed their characters and attacked
them physically, or girls who resorted to
prostitution for game-playing money.

Kim Hyo Jung of the YMCA recently counseled four high
school students who were in a jail, charged with
swindling 20 million won from other teenagers who
wanted to buy virtual weapons, like a magic sword, to
fight better and upgrade their game levels.

The fantasy role-playing game "Lineage," created by
NCSoft, the largest online game company in the country,
is so popular that its magic swords are sold for as
much as 3 million won in real cash on numerous Web
sites where people trade in online game items.

The volume of such trading is estimated at a trillion
won a year, according to the government-affiliated
Korea Game Development & Promotion Institute. In
"item factories," owners equip their rooms with
computers and hire people who play games to accumulate
online weapons for sales or strengthen clients'
gaming characters.

The number of people who received counseling at the
government-run center increased to 32,800 last year
from 2,600 in 2002. Parents report children who steal
money and do not come home for days and even weeks,
practically living in Internet cafés, and sons who
refuse to find jobs and play games all night and
sleep during the day.

"I cannot concentrate in the library, but when I
enter an Internet café, I feel my brain clearing up,"
said an 18-year-old whose interview transcripts were
released by the center with his consent. "I play the
games as long as my money lasts. I cannot stop myself."

The authorities require Internet cafés to keep their
distance from schools, and they open camps for
teenage addicts and distribute booklets on the
dangers of game addiction. In addition, they are
training hundreds of counselors, who visit schools,
Internet cafés and military units.

Game sites advise players to take breaks and to "not
confuse their real self with their game characters."

In the 28,000 Internet cafés in South Korea, minors
are banned from entry after 10 p.m. The authorities
have even discussed reducing the points of gamers who
play for more than three consecutive hours. But such
talks have produced no agreement, amid concerns that
such restrictions would jeopardize a high-growth
industry and worsen the problem of teenagers stealing
adult online identification numbers.

"Sooner or later we will be able to announce our
measures," the minister for information and communication,
Rho Jun Hyoung, said at a news conference in May. "Since
South Korea is one of the most active and developed
countries in the Internet, the world is paying great
attention to what policy we will adopt on this problem."

Animal House :: The Eviction

Here is the criminal, trapped beneath the stove, frightened and unsure what to do next. He knows he is caught; trouble lies ahead and he wishes he never entered the home. Alas, little does the bugger know that I also was freaked out. Still, I had the obvious edge. I was bigger, I was smarter, and I had access to the internet.

While waiting out Alvin, I google the keywords "chipmunk in house" and the second link is from a cite called GardenWeb. I also find various extension school websites from land-grant universities, including Minnesota. I also happen to find a site that describes how to keep chipmunks as pets! From these sites, the plan is hatched. I will trap the chipmunk. Here are the initial supply materials.

I then proceed to cut strips of wire to cover the open gaps at the bottom of the stove. I weave together the strips to create a barrier. Once the stove is securely closed off (with a little help from clear packing tape), I proceed to make the trap itself. This requires only 2 pieces of equipment - a cardboard box and a cardboard tube from gift wrapping paper.

Once I create the trap, I poke some holes in it for the critter to breathe and then make some windows on the top of the lid which I tape over with the packing tape. These windows let me check the trap to see when Alvin enters. I pad some peanut butter on a napkin as bait and seal up the box. After cutting open a small hole in the wiring, I position the trap. As I am inserting the tube, Alvin makes a dash for it and rams straight into the wired fence, bouncing back a few inches. Flustered, he retreats back. I too am flustered and feel my heart race a bit. With this new evidence, I use some bricks and my garbage can to keep the trap in place.

Peter, the vermin removal expert friend, arrives with a broom handle and mag flashlight to lend me a hand. We rattle behind the stove with the stick but no response. I use the flashlight to locate the chipmunk and he comes running TOWARD the light! With my nose only inches from the fence, it's like he's charging at me! I back away. Insight pops into my head. I flash the light into the makeshift window of the box. With this slight adjustment, the chipmunk scurries straight through the tube and into the box! Ah ha! Amazingly, we caught the bugger. He is trapped!

Success and a smile finally on my face.

Flush with victory, Peter and I tape up the tube hole and walk the box outside toward Lake Harriet. It is by moonlight that we release Alvin near the lake. He scurries out of the box, obviously disoriented. I hope he does not find his way back to my home. Eviction noticed served!

Some experts say that chipmunks have a memory radius of only about 50 yards. I hope so. They say squirrels will travel miles back. The pest control guy on the phone said that it is more likely the chipmunk will join up with another colony near the lake or perhaps die out of confusion and stress. He says it is possible for the bugger to return. My other friend, Peter, texts me a message that says to kill it. I just didn't have the heart to do it. I probably should have though. Let's hope he does not return. Fingers crossed.

We walk back to the home and I have a celebratory drink with Peter. We recount the exciting Friday night (boy, I am getting old if this counts as excitement on a Friday) and then we move on to other esoteric discussions about the academic distinction between rhetoric, communication studies, english, and more. We get a phone call and head out to meet some friends for pizza, beer, and country/bluegrass music at Dulono's Pizza.

The next day...I hear a chirp in the basement......uh oh......

Animal House :: The Sequel

As I mentioned the other day, I had been fortunate to enjoy most of the Spring season with minimal nuisance from the pesky rodents - squirrels and bats - that inhabit my yard and air space. Still, having been burglarized by them on numerous occasion, my guard always remain up!

Enter Alvin the evil chipmunk into the story line (click here for background info).

On Friday afternoon, I come home a bit early from the office to work on at home on a book chapter. Thanks to finally joining the world of high-speed internet, tele-commuting is much easier. I'm sitting in my office, typing away, when I hear a high piercing chirp from within the house! I know this chirp sound all too well. Still, I tell myself that it must have come from outside because there is no way that a chipmunk could be inside my house. Shortly after this exercise in cognitive reframing, I hear some rustling noises. Hm...am I paranoid? It simply can't be. I decide to move my laptop into the dining room to better monitor the situation and to continue to work. Setting the laptop onto the dining table, I walk into the kitchen for a glass of water. Just as I step into the kitchen, I see the little bugger scramble under my stove! It definitely startles me and I stand there for a moment in disbelief. No, no, no, I tell myself but my eyes and ears keep echoing back, yes, yes, yes.

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, folks, Alvin the evil chipmunk is indeed in my house. He makes another loud chirp as he scuttles into obscurity and safety under the stove.

[By the way, I refer to the chipmunk as Alvin and as a he, but he very well may be a she. In fact, in my research, it seems female chipmunks chirp more than males (as a mating response -- great!). However, for dramatic effect, I will continue to refer to the vermin as Alvin the evil chipmunk.]

What the heck! ARGH AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I stand there with a mix of emotions -- freaked out, frustrated, and angry. Yes, it is possible to have contrasting emotions simultaneously. I am living proof. To ease my stress level, I start to laugh. I also seek out support to ease my anxiety, so I call Holly who relays the info to her friend, Kim, who replies that I should contact her husband, Peter, because Peter is apparently an amateur expert in the art of vermin removal. Meanwhile, I leave a message with the local pest control man who calls me back and suggests some useful methods to remove the critter from the house.

As I await the arrival of Peter, I ponder the existential meaning of this day. Then, after finding such an exercise useless, I decide to take action by using google! Thank goodness for google. Using this infinite resource, I find all kinds of sites on their nesting habits, food preferences, and, most importantly, how to remove chipmunks from the home.

After monitoring the stove to make sure he does not get out and now armed with this wealth of internet knowledge, I set about gathering the necessary materials to (a) trap the bugger and (b) remove the bugger.

HEARTBEAT :: Celebrating Body and Rhythm

Just gotta give a quick plug to Holly's upcoming collaborative performance with One Voice Mixed Chorus, a local LGBT and friends community choral group, and Mu Daiko, a local taiko drumming group. One Voice has commissioned Holly to compose a unique performance piece that mixes together taiko drumming and choral singing. It's pretty amazing stuff. Check it out this Saturday and Sunday.

Animal House

I have a lovely home. I really do. It is a quaint 1.5 story cape cod style home that was built in 1923. The previous owners did a lovely job at redecorating and remodeling, so there was little else for me to do except furnish the place to rest, relax, enjoy, and prosper. And for a while, I did.

Then, the animals came. First, every now and then, I heard noises in the ceiling of my living room. I thought, okay, maybe mice. Later, the noises turned into a scamper and I realized I had something larger than a mouse in my home. Soon, I was hearing this noise when I was trying to sleep. It freaked me out, as my bedroom is just over the living room. Okay, I do the sensible thing. I call the pest control guys. He says assuredly, "you've got squirrels" and shows me the entry points in my roof. I simply tell him to get rid of them. Pest control man goes about setting traps and catches three squirrels. We wait a couple of weeks to make sure no more squirrels are around. He finishes up by patching the holes. Problem #1 solved.

But wait...a couple months go by and I hear a soft scurry sound in the walls by my bed. Again, freaking out!!! It's not a fast scamper like before. No, this time it is accompanied by a muffled sound. I have difficulty sleeping for days before I can't take it anymore and break down. Yet again. I call same said pest control guy. He says, oh, it looks like you have bats in your walls. Apparently, it is fairly common in the city. I say, okay, please get rid of them. It requires tedious patching up of any hole larger than a dime coin all along the roof. He leaves an escape route for the bats to exit but can't return. A couple of weeks later, he patches up these escape routes and problem solved. No more scurry sounds by the bedroom wall. Problem #2 solved.

Seasons have now passed. I have enjoyed the start of Spring. BBQ parties have been held. Late nights with friends. Life is...er...was good.

Till now...

[Come back tomorrow for more on the exciting life of a professor on a Friday night]

Continuing Legacies of the Korean War

In a BBC report, there is a story about a South Korean teenager who was abducted by the North Korean government when he was 13 years old in 1978. Apparently, North and South Korea are negotiating to allow the man - Kim Young-Nam - to meet his mother, now 82 years old, during a family reunification meeting. It's a bitter tragic tale that reflects one of more than 500 South Koreans who have been abducted over the years.

I was personally struck by this story because my father is from what is now called North Korea. His family fled south like the millions of others during the Korean War. As a displaced citizen, he still has yearnings for the homeland. When I was a teenager, for instance, I remember how he would look at a small pocket size book of photographs of childhood friends and relatives (much like the photograph of Kim Young-Nam). I think the booklet was either an address directory or a school yearbook of sorts. He would point at photographs and tell me little stories of about the person. "This person was my best friend." "This girl was my cousin."

Later in life, my father made (and continues to make) comments about wanting to retire in a rural village in South Korea, because it would remind him of home further north. Then, a few years ago, he had the oppportunity to visit a national mountain range in North Korea as part of an arranged tour for South Koreans. It was a heartwarming return home of sorts for him. Since the visit, he has begun to furiously paint scenes from the mountain. I am fortunate to now own one of the paintings. Quite honestly, I think he has used art to help reconcile the trauma and pain of loss and displacement.

Fittingly, I am working this summer with Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis, the Institute for Advanced Studies at the U, and the Asian American Studies Program at the U to bring to the Twin Cities an amazing multimedia art exhibit titled "Still Present Pasts."

The exhibit features contemporary reflections on the impact of the Korean War across generations of Korean Americans, including immigrants, US-born, and adoptees. It includes major installations, paintings, documentaries, performance art, oral histories, and more. It's a wonderful opportunity to combine academic scholarship with art in a manner that fully engages the local community. Still Present Pasts also provides me with an opportunity to look deeper into my own family experiences with the Korean War, the transmission of these experiences across generation lines, and its affect on my personal life and professional work.

I think I will invite my father to visit Minneapolis when the exhibit opens.

Racism Against Transracial Family :: Alive and Kicking

A White mother who has two African American children found racist leaflets on her porch and front door telling her to get out of Winona, MN and that they would kill her children and her. See story below or at the Star Tribune.

Some people might say that this occurence is an isolated incident but one incident is one too many. If this is what one person with strong beliefs is willing to do, imagine all the other people who harbor such thoughts but don't act on it.

Other people say Minnesota Nice. I say, what a load of cr*p. Difference scares people, especially in communities that are racially homogenous, and racial difference can cause folks to act in hateful ways.

Many people have asked me why I study the transracial experiences of adoptees when all the adoptees that they know seem so well-adjusted. Well, I study the issue, in part, because of these sorts of racist experiences. It is not a question of whether adoptees are well-adjusted or not. It is a question of documenting and understanding their lived experiences as ethnic and racial minorities. In itself, it is worthy of knowing and sharing.

Also, it's important to learn what parents are doing to protect their children and their families. How proactive are some families? What keeps other families from being proactive? What works and what doesn't work in ethnically and racially socializing children who are ethnically and racially different than the parents? These are important questions to understand in a society of families who are increasingly multiracial.

I would love to hear people's thoughts and I promise to try to incorporate these suggestions into my research. I promise to try my best.

Winona home peppered with racist messages
Star Tribune
Last update: June 08, 2006 – 3:57 PM

WINONA, Minn. — Leaflets crammed with racist messages and threats were left at the residence of a white Winona woman and her two black children.

"Obviously we're not going to put up with this kind of crap," Pomeroy said. "It appears that you've got somebody who is ignorant and prejudiced and needs to be stopped and we will do everything that we can do to stop them."

Minimalist Cooking and Other Eating Tips for Grad Students

When I was choosing graduate school programs, I decided to go to VCU for a variety of reasons, including liking my advisor, wanting to live in a city, and they offered the best financial package. Sadly, the best financial package was not the greatest, especially compared with the financial packages offered today at Minnesota and other top research institutions. Still, it was the best for me...and the times were different 15 years ago.

I had no financial support from mom and dad and had accrued some college loan debts, so I was really not wanting to take out more loans for graduate school. Fortunately, I never had to take this measure. Instead, I spent some worthwhile time applying for select fellowships and scholarships and actually got some of them. But mostly, I learned to live on the cheap...or rather, continued to live on the cheap (as college was a similar experience).

One of the upsides of this whole experience was learning how to be a better cook. It was during graduate school that I spent a lot of time on the telephone calling my mother to ask how to make X, Y, or Z using the barest of ingredients. She would tell me when to substitute this for that and when I could skip on other ingredients. It was a useful lesson in minimalist cooking.

The other upside was learning to cook creatively with the barest ingredients. One of the staples for me was beans! Canned beans....mmmm....right?! Well, I was weaning off my vegetarian diet but still relied on beans and tofu for much of my protein intake. I learned to make jambalaya and other red bean and rice dishes. I made chilis and tofu stir fry dishes. Sometimes I even added beans or tofu to spaghetti. Other times, I added beans to my white rice (as it was cooking).

I came across a useful website to help today's graduate students live and eat frugally (but fairly healthy). Check out Hillbilly Housewife and this particular entry on eating for a week on $45 for a family of 4 or 6. Like my grad school diet, it's heavy on the beans (mostly because beans are cheap and nutritious). Heck, you can invite your fellow classmates over for some of these meals and still have leftovers!

If you have more energy, time, and money, check out How to Cook Everything by the true minimalist cook, Mark Bittman, who writes for the NYTimes.

Natalie Portman Raps

I am perusing AssimilatedNegro and come across his recent entry on White people who rap. It's a good short read.

Best of all, it includes a link to an SNL skit with Natalie Portman rapping. Given that I have a sweet spot for Ms. Portman, I had to watch. I laughed and knew I had to share it with you all. Be forewarned, there are bleeped out expletives in the Natalie Portman Raps video.

A Marriage of True Minds

A MARRIAGE OF TRUE MINDS
Thursday, June 8, 2006
6:00 PM at Intermedia Arts
2822 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis
RSVP: 612-871-4444

Yes, Intermedia Arts and SASE: The Write Place have merged! Come celebrate with us at this you-can't-miss-it night of eclectic performances by special guest poets, writers, spoken word and performance artists including Desdamona, Ed Bok Lee, Gabrielle Civil, Barrie Jean Borich, Carol Connolly, Ibé Kaba, Ellen Hinchcliffe, Marcus Young and more! Learn about our organizations, the artists who call us home and the fascinating possibilities of our futures together as we revel in the power of words. Plus DJ, dancing, hors d’oeuvres and libations!

Celebrity Adoptions

from Secret Asian Man (May 15, 2006)

The American War :: An Art Exhibit

A photograph from "The American War" showing three children who were affected by Agent Orange. Photo downloaded from NYTimes

Back in March, I wrote a blog entry about an artist -- Harrell Fletcher -- whom I met through my friend Peter, another artist. I was perusing the web (checking on Michelle Wie's quest to qualify for the U.S. Open, if you must know) and came across a NYTimes review of a new exhibit of Harrell's work that is travelling the country right now. It is called The American War and it is powerful. I hope it comes to the Twin Cities.

Here is a synopsis of the exhibit (taken from Harrell's website):

In June, 2005 I was in Vietnam for a month as part of an international artists retreat. While I was there I visited The War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, which is a memorial museum for what is referred to in Vietnam as The American War. I was so affected by what I saw at the museum that I went back several times and eventually photographed all of the images and text descriptions from the main museum - over two hundred photos. I used my digital camera and took the shots hand held at off angles to avoid reflections. The images have an oddly casual quality but are still accurate representations of the material depicted at the museum - with a similarly horrifying quality. I decided to print the photographs and exhibit them at various venues around the U.S. as a sort of re-presentation of the material I encountered in Vietnam. The photographs for this show are a selection of about half of all the pictures in the museum's main exhibition hall.

Along with the exhibition I also organized several public events related to the Vietnam War--a film screening of Hearts and Minds, a series of talks by local people who had personal experience with Vietnam, and a group discussion about The Vietnam War and war in general.

e.g., ergo, ergonomics

Being a professor does not mean spending all your time in a classroom teaching. More often, it means sitting in front of a computer screen and acquiring all sorts of bad, bad carpal tunnel problems.

I came across a possibly life-saving website that I need to further investigate to determine if its knowledge is the Truth with a capital T, folks.

Check out Visual Ergonomics in the Office. Based on a cursory review of the site, it appears that I have done everything wrong to be ergonomic. I am, in effect, the antonym of ergonomic. What would that be? Agonomic?

Alvin the Evil Chipmunk

When I tell people that squirrels are evil rodents who destroy homes, most folks don't disagree. They think I'm a bit mad in the head, but they don't dispute my claim. But when I tell folks that chipmunks are deceptively cute and use their cuteness to mask their evil intentions on destroying homes, people think I really am mad. They truly believe in the innocence of chipmunks.

Yes, yes, they are cute. Yes, yes, they make that annoying (tho' some find endearing) chirping sound. Yes, yes, they are friendly and even (dare I say) bold in their approach with humans. But they are still destructive buggers. Now, I don't care if they burrow holes in my yard or even in my garden bed. I also don't care if they eat my flowers or freshly planted basil. Quite honestly, I don't even mind so much when they scare the crap out of me as they scramble noisily (and alarmingly to the unsuspecting passerby) into my gutter downspouts when they hear me (or anyone else) approaching. Then, they peer out from the downspout to observe if it's safe or not.

But when the (evil) chipmunks dig their way into the exterior of my home to make a warm, cozy home...then, I care. On Sunday, I discovered that the chipmunks had chewed through the side of the front door frame of my home.

So, I hopped on my bicycle and rode to the local hardware store to purchase some foam filler, steel wool, and a small sheet of wire mesh. Using the wire mesh, I first made small coverings for the opening of my downspouts to prevent the evil ones from scurrying into my downspouts. Next, I planned to foam the 1.5 inch diameter hole in my door frame to seal it off. However, Holly thought I might kill Alvin and the other chipmunks inside, so she first sprayed water into the hole. No chipmunk came out. Then, we decided to use the steel wool pad to cover the hole.

Now fast forward six or seven hours. It's dawn and I discover that Alvin has eaten his way out of the door frame! Argh! Alvin or friend must have still been inside the burrow when we sealed it up. Now, I have 2 big holes in my door frame! Not fun. Frustrated, I break out the sealing foam (that ugly yellow, toxic stuff) and spray shut the hole.

I checked this morning and there were no more holes, so I assume that I have resolved the problem for now. If I come home and there is another hole in my door frame, I will have to call the exterminators. At some later point, I probably will have to replace a part of the door frame.

More on Asian American Superheroes

Janie Chin and her boyfriend (shockingly, Asian American guy) totally make out in the pages of Greg Pak's "Warlock."
Image courtesy of Marvel Comics and Greg Pak

I thought the all-new Atom as an Asian American superhero was cool (see previous post), but it turns out that there are others out there! Jeff Yang wrote a pretty thorough and interesting article in SFGate.com about the variety of new Asian American superheroes and the history behind this race-volution.

History Lessons Not Learned : From Korea to Iraq

Hapa9 sent me a recent Washington Post article on the discovery of a U.S. memo, dating back to the Korean War, that ordered the shooting of Korean refugees fleeing from North Korea.

The letter -- dated the day of the Army's mass killing of South Korean refugees at No Gun Ri in 1950 -- is the strongest indication yet that such a policy existed for all U.S. forces in Korea, and the first evidence that that policy was known to upper ranks of the U.S. government.

This news comes on the heels of the latest inquiry into the killing of innocent Iraqi by U.S. Marines last November. From the NYTimes article,

A military investigator uncovered evidence in February and March that contradicted repeated claims by marines that Iraqi civilians killed in Haditha last November were victims of a roadside bomb...

The three-week inquiry was the first official investigation into an episode that was first uncovered by Time magazine in January and that American military officials now say appears to have been an unprovoked attack by the marines that killed 24 Iraqi civilians.

Sometimes, we just don't learn or won't learn.