May 2012
8 posts
“When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything...”
– Creator Entity, “Godfellas”, Futurama.
I love this show.
rabbit hole
The farther I get into academia, I find the more that I wish to write. But at the same time, the less I’m willing to write about it in public.
I don’t know what I feel about this yet.
The Post Grad: A Few Things I Believe In →
thepostgrad:
Always consider context. Always ask about context.
Never go cold turkey. It never works and you’re likely to relapse.
Subtlety is key. High-quality work is always praised, but can be rarely described or pinpointed.
If you’re a good writer, you’ll go very far in life. Write as often as possible.
Being “critical” is never the goal, mission, or purpose of anything. It’s a mode...
reading parallels
“That is, by rendering myself exotic through the performance of authentic Indian womanhood for a particularly white Australian mainstream audience, I felt empowered, desired, and desireable.”
-Sweating Saris, Priya Srinivasan
What am I performing to be desired?
What am I performing?
What am I?
in[FACT]uations
why do i keep thinking every mundane activity i do would be more fun with you right now?
April 2012
6 posts
The hardest job everyone THINKS they can do →
Teaching is understanding how the human brain processes information and preparing lessons with this understanding in mind.
Teaching is simultaneously instilling in a child the belief that she can accomplish anything she wants while admonishing her for producing shoddy work.
Teaching is understanding both the psychology and the physiology behind the changes the adolescent mind goes through.
...
Glenn Omatsu's Keynote @ APAAC, UC Irvine, Jan....
I didn’t have a chance to talk about it, but APAAC (Asian Pacific American Awareness Conference) at UCI was fantastic this year. Also, Glenn Omatsu delivered one of my favorite keynote addresses I’ve had the pleasure to hear. Always relevant, but it’s always helpful to have a reminder.
Glenn Omatsu
APAAC, UC Irvine, Jan. 28, 2012
The Movement, Then and Now
I want to...
March 2012
6 posts
“One does not give up racial privilege, neither in the United States nor in South...”
– The “Morphing” Properties of Whiteness - Troy Duster
3 tags
thicker than water
This is how I’ll remember you.
Eyes wide, hands weathered yet clasped. You are modest but glowing. Your children are safe in your hands and there’s hope in your faces. You survived oceans and uncertainty, gambling with war and destruction so that I wouldn’t have to. It paid off. In your one-mattress apartment, you slept soundly with your family huddled around you, despite the...
3 tags
anchor
Thinking about post-grad life hasn’t been difficult for me lately. I have a guarantee of where I’ll be in the summer, where I’ll be in the fall, and hopefully where I’ll be for the two years thereafter.
And the back up plan was to always go home. East Side San Jose. Where a room was there for me for the last 20 years. Where there was family.
Things have taken a different...
2 tags
February 2012
3 posts
4 tags
January 2012
8 posts
6 tags
Picture Son: How to Love Yourself and Your Gay...
Something I wrote for the most recent issue of Non Song. Intersections between being Vietnamese-American, second generation, and gay. Enjoy!
Picture Son: How to Love Yourself and Your Gay Vietnamese Children
By Trung Nguyen
I kept watch at the mailbox every day for the first two weeks of May during my Senior year of high school, memorizing the exact window of time the mail carrier approached our...
“It is true that there are many great schools in this country that offer every...”
– Linda Darling-Hammond, The Flat World and Education
7 tags
faith
There are photos of my family at church which are older than I am. Looking through the albums, the church book-ends one era to another for my family: my parents in front of the church that sponsored them here, my middle sister’s baptism ceremony, my oldest sister’s confirmation ceremony, my own baptism, marriages of my uncles and aunties. There are even a couple of photos of me dozing...
mind sailors
http://knowthesaurus.tumblr.com/ask
What’s everyone doing tonight?
December 2011
13 posts
11 tags
2011 Retrospective: The Clip Show
Looking back, 2011 was full of interesting things. Let’s review in pictures (aka me posting the cutest pictures of mine)!
Jan, 2011: Vietnamese Culture Night
I’ve been a part of VCN as a performer (actor, designer, dancer) since my second year — it was truly where I developed my confidence. This year was particularly special as I was here in the role of a modern dance...
1 tag
Love is that which enables choice. Love is always...
words to live by.
nobody gonna want you if you don't want yourself
Why I Won't "Teach For America"
lessoninteaching:
If you know me, you probably know I’m pretty anti-TFA. A little thing I wrote up a few months ago sums up my thoughts:
When I tell people—strangers, professors, friends—of my plan to become an elementary school teacher, the number one response I receive is a version of “Oh, so you’re applying to Teach For America?” Because I’m a private-school educated junior at a top...
san jose
Being at home in San Jose for the last two weeks has made me come to realize how much of an extrovert I am. I’ve been constantly exhausted and nonproductive in my isolation.
I derive most of my energy from being around people.
more i grow, the less i know
getting older hasn’t translated to getting wiser. yeah i might be a little more of a smartass than i used to be and i can drop book knowledge when the time calls, but i’m hardly anywhere close to finding answers.
a few things i need to confess —
i hate how after x number of years of being out and trying out hundreds of different permutations of relationships, hookups, and...
pedagogy
reward curiosity.
something to remember if i ever become an educator.
Anonymous asked: what is your stance on colour blindness?
Anonymous asked: why do you support affirmative action?
Words and Steel: Reclaiming "Asian American" ... →
wordsandsteel:
I know I don’t really repost much on Tumblr, and rarely if ever bother to write something of my own, but I’ve been marinating on a few thoughts partly in response to (but long brewing beforehand) a recent API students town hall held on campus a few days ago. This in no way is meant to denigrate the hard work of the student organizers who put it together or to dismiss the real...
willpower
December 1, 2011 - May 1, 2012. 5 months.
Gonna keep myself accountable to this.
November 2011
15 posts
8 tags
9 tags
sad reality of mentorship
I’ve had the blessed honor of mentoring and interacting with a great number of youth, particularly youth of color, in my last four years of college: Breakthrough Collaborative, SEA Admit Weekend, High School Conference, SASC-SI are some of the highlights. Across my undergraduate career, I’ve interacted with hundreds of young folk only half a decade younger than I. It’s been...
bullshit
Too “political” my ass.
What’s political about dropping out of school because you can’t afford it? What’s political about having to choose between a higher education and a roof over your head? What’s political about being punished for the mistakes of the wealthy (re: corporations and banks) as they get away scot-free?
If too “political” means...
9 tags
