Leftover Chinese Takes a Breath

Yeah, instant Hilarity Month was actually a convenient excuse to not write things for a while. I've been living life. The last few days in particular have been a doozy. Early spring turned into mid-summer and now we're back to doing things outdoors or doing things in different cities. Get ready. Now I present to you a list of events from the recent past. Some strange, some hilarious:

An overly dramatic and possibly frightening actress took a tour of my apartment while I was home a few weeks ago. She talked my landlord's ear off for about ten minutes while I was trying to, you know, enjoy an afternoon at home. I kind of hope she doesn't get the lease. The 'For Rent' sign was posted a few days later and is still there. On Friday afternoon, I stepped out of the bathroom and into my living room. My eyes were immediately drawn to somebody standing on the sidewalk staring into my apartment. It was that same woman.

A canoe rental up the Chicago River is a good and smelly time. Go upstream a few miles until you're tired, then ride the current back. Among other things, I learned: how to drive a canoe, there are absolutely no bars near the intersection of Foster Ave. and Kimball Ave, and; undercover cops will try to close a city park on you at two in the afternoon.

Basketball in 90+ degree weather is a bad idea. Stand-around defense gets employed fairly early in the game. We played a few games of Lightning as well. Hadn't played that game in decades. Definitely not much of a basketball player these days. I bet my half-assed volleyball skills have deteriorated as much as my half-assed basketball skills.

I'm back to six-ish hours of sleep a night. It's kind of nice.

. . [~] . 0 (Grumble) Grumbles .

Leftover Chinese Isn't Sure How to Feel About This

CNN reports the verdict regarding a family in Wisconsin accused of enslaving an illegal immigrant for over nineteen years. They paid the victim a very small amount of money while denying basic lifestyle needs like...um...basic independence.

This story is of significance to me. The family in question was a big part of the Filipino-American community up where I grew up. While I didn't get extremely close to the family's children, our parents got along just fine and they always sent my dad a really nice bottle of wine and/or a holiday ham every Christmas. They are very friendly folks and largely harmless. Most importantly to me, they almost always brought fried chicken to the bi-annual summer picnics.

Folks back in the community caught wind of this story as it happened and while the newspapers talked about federal investigations, raids, the fact that they lived in a $1.2 million dollar house, and secrecy, the Filipino community shared stories about who called the Feds, if anybody else knew they were keeping a maid (my folks didn't know), and jokingly: who's next on the witch hunt...

That's where I'm somewhat conflicted about this story. On one hand, the family was practicing typical wealthy Filipino culture. It's not uncommon to walk into any large homestead in the Philippines and find a family with the help of one or a few house girls. These people come from impoverished families and the money earned goes a long way towards making their families enough money to afford things like...food and a nice place to live. The host families are generally kind and treat the maids like another member of the family. They provide housing, food, family secrets, and it's usually a sad moment when they part ways. We call them ya-ya's.

That was the basis of their defense. They gave someone a chance to live in the states while helping her family back home take a step up the ladder.

Susan French, a prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights division in Washington, D.C., told jurors that the 'family's' stance that they wanted to help, not exploit, an impoverished Filipino woman was "bogus" and "preposterous."

Despite what the prosecution contends, the family really did mean well. On the plane ride to the states, they didn't say to each other: "Let's buy a big house, hire a ya-ya from the Philippines and exploit the hell out of her and not let her out of the house ever and pay her nothing." They really did want their children to grow up in somewhat the same atmoshpere as they had been raised. Being in a foreign country, they wanted their children to experience life 'back home'. They were just confused about where/when to adhere to American culture.

I do think they probably should have allowed some independence. They should have swallowed their pride a bit and acknowledged to the public that they did have a maid. They should have at least given the maid her own money (in addition to the money they paid her family back in the Philippines) and a chance to live in the States (and attain citizenship) on her own once the children grew up (10 years ago).

I think they just got too comfortable practicing their culture without learning that things are done differently on this side of the ocean.

Is it worth a possible 45 years in jail, deportation, and essentially the break up of a tight-knit family?

I don't think it should be that severe...but I'm brainwashed by my people's culture.

They did wrong but sort of meant right. That's why I'm not sure how I feel about the conviction.

Track the story here as told by the media:

-10/19/04
-3/10/05
-3/16/05
-5/15/06
-5/17/06
-5/18/06
-5/19/06
-5/20/06
-5/25/06
-5/26/06

. . [~] . 0 (Grumble) Grumbles .

Leftover Chinese Interrupts Instant Hilarity Month

I haven't had much time to write or take pictures lately. Call it a mix of being fairly busy/lazy and realizing that instant messenger chats are not entertaining enough (I'm forgetting to save the good ones) though a bad/good waste of time.

My weekend was nice, though. Typical weekend scenes shown below:


Still get out once in a while to stare into my beer.


Still have a live animal in the apartment.


Still going to baseball competitions in hopes of seeing something hilarious go down.


Still talking pleasant walks to put everything back into perspective: Fresh Air. Good friends. Good times.

Instant hilarity to resume...

. . [~] . 0 (Grumble) Grumbles .

Leftover Chinese Talks Hazing, You Tube, and um...Arbys

When I'm not talking about food, current events will be the topic. The below is an example of a meandering conversation...and it somehow leads back to Arbys:

- Leftover Chinese: dude, did you see those pics of the NU soccer team hazing?
- Friend: They passed my peripheral vision last night on the television but didn't really register.
- Leftover Chinese: Here
- Friend: holy crap!

[further discussion about hazing in general ensues]

- Friend: Man the thing about hazing is you place a lot of trust in the people who are hazing you...All this crap hitting the news seems to be more about taking out aggression and is just plain mean...at least this one was hot.

[Leftover Chinese gets curious about Hazing on youtube.com]

- Friend: wow, a youtube search for 'hazing' yields a healthy number of long haired teenagers holding guitars with videos labeled 'purple haze'

[Further discussion about teenagers admitting their subpar guitar skills]

- Leftover Chinese: if they're going to do a shitty job, why post it in the first place?
- Friend: yeah I know. Did you see the youtube for video phones was just released. I think that's gonna open up [a few entirely] new genres.
- Leftover Chinese: wow. hold that thought. lunch time.

[Lunch time comes and goes]

- Friend: Nearly 3 bucks for a roast beef sandwich is ridiculous
- Leftover Chinese: ha. yes. an original sandwich for $2.85?...Despite what everybody says about the quality at Arby's, it's not cheap.
- Friend: for real. I am slightly intrigued by this roast beef gyro only for the train wreck it must be.

[More chatter Ensues]

So that's the usual game. One topic leads to the next which leads to Arbys. I'd have more to talk about, but I don't. Web Logs get old after a while.

. . [~] . 0 (Grumble) Grumbles .

Leftover Chinese Gets A Lesson in Danish Geography

A grad student friend of mine checks in once in a while to see how things are going. After leaving school at Madison after our sophomore year, he's traveled a life that took him back to California, out to Ethiopia, and back to his European home: Denmark. When he came through Chicago a few years ago, he said America was pretty much a foreign country to him. I wonder what that's like...

- Friend: anyway meng...got to run...good luck with them skirts..
- Leftover Chinese: you too
- Friend: I got a new little honey [emoticon]
- Leftover Chinese: whaaaa
- Friend: [Adjective] waist. [Adjective] ass.
- Leftover Chinese: [Adjective] waist, [Adjective] ass, eh?
- Friend: yup..well shouldn't get a head of myself. [We] only hooked up once...and she's in Aalborg. I'm in Copi...but we'll see...
- Leftover Chinese: I don't know what that distance means. How far?
- Friend: 5 hours by bus, man. Later, dog.

From Copi to Aalbog, he's got it covered. Sometimes we refer to this gentleman as a the International Man of Mystery. The above exchange pretty much explains our reasons for handing out the title.

Later, Dogs.

. . [~] . 0 (Grumble) Grumbles .

Leftover Chinese Recalls Lunch the Other Day

My friends and I have this fascination with dining at Arby's. We'll rarely dine there, but it often gets discussed. If you have enough of these conversations in a given week, you'll call your Arby's pals and make it an event.

The typical Arby's conversation proceeds as follows: One person will wax nostalgic about the last time they dined there. The other person will express disgust towards the notion of dining at Arby's by choice. This will go back and forth a few times leaving one craving a roast beef sandwich and the other repulsed.

That's how my Arby's-centric conversations usually went down with people other than my friends. That is, until it came up at the office. A work acquaintance once socked me in the arm for not letting her know that: (1) I went to Arbys; and (2) I didn't bring anything back.

- Leftover Chinese: I'm dying.
- Workfriend: ARE YOU? Of hunger?
- Leftover Chinese: hunger that can only be satisfied by roast beef
- Workfriend: haha. 30 more min. you can make it

I'm pretty sure Arbys is only common thread between my office and real friends.

Two regular roast beefs, a few curly fries at the expense of occasionally awkward conversation and that 'heavy' feeling all afternoon. That much beef will make you want to take a bath in salad.

...and yes, I'm craving one right now.

. . [~] . 0 (Grumble) Grumbles .

Leftover Chinese Changes His Mind About This Month's Gimmick

Borrowing an idea from Brooke, I will impart some of the wisdom shared between me and my friends through the cursed medium of Instant Messaging.

"IMing" as they call it is as productive as it is a waste of time. It's good if you want to communicate plans or ideas as fast as you can. Not so good when you're trying to work out a disagreement, or lengthy discussion as to why the Milwaukee Bucks aren't good. You spend more time crossing signals and getting much less accomplished as a result.

Let's kick of INSTANT HILARITY MONTH (some exchanges paraphrased for clarity) with an observation about the "new employee."

- Leftover Chinese: so if there's this new [attractive woman] at the office and it's the first week of her job and you see flowers at her desk...does that mean [she has a] boyfriend?
- Friend: yeah, and he's trying to put everyone in the office on notice to back off,
- Leftover Chinese: haha. classic. and so true
- Friend: yeah, he is not sending them for her benefit.

Word to the wise, my friends. Flowers aren't for her benefit when they're delivered to the office.

. . [~] . 0 (Grumble) Grumbles .

Leftover Chinese Resumes Regular Programming

I couldn't think of a theme that would give me an excuse to not post as much, I mean, a focal point for writing. So unless somebody has an awesome suggestion for May, I'll back talking about things around me. So what happened today?

Thousands of immigrants marched by my office. For two hours, I heard the cheers, hoots, hollers, and incessant honking of an SUV parked on the street. The largely minority crowd marched with one message in mind: America is a Nice Place to Live. Please don't send us back.

I took a few picures of the march and received mostly smiles and nods. The guy with the "fuck bush" sign gave me a thumbs up. The marchers were happy to be noticed.

Despite the indignant vibes from office passerby, I think everybody learned a little about the social climate these days...maybe.

. . [~] . 0 (Grumble) Grumbles .