indiegogo campaign

hello everyone! please take the time to check out this indiegogo campaign! these youth are trying to raise money for their film to take it to a leadership conference in washington dc! donate if you can, and also share it with your friends and family!
 

here is a brief description of the film:

A Clean UA is a documentary short by the Southeast Asian Young Men's Group. The film follows Peter Phan, a 17-year-old Vietnamese American, as he decides to quit marijuana. Using a hand held camera, Peter journals the difficulties and challenges of his path to recovery while exploring the benefits of being sober. Peter begins his film just after he's suspended from school for smoking marijuana during lunch break. He's determined to quit marijuana "cold turkey," but he's not expecting the difficulties that arise from quitting: pressure from friends, loneliness, and symptoms of withdrawal. Peter filmed his documentary over a six-month period, and with his film, he aims to promote more open dialogue about this issue with his peers and other youth in his community.


A Clean UA from Joseph Mills on Vimeo.

find out more info about the film and the youth here at indiegogo.com

president Obama takes a trip!

i have not posted here for some time, but for good reason (at least in my head.)  i found myself busy with another website; yes, i was cheating on this website with that one.  but now that the election is over, my responsibilities over there are somewhat diminished, i feel inclined to say a few things here and prove that this blog isn't completelly dead.

but i find that the news that president Obama is taking his first international trip since reelection, (and this includes stops in thailand, cambodia, and myanma,) is a nice segue from my other pro-Obama website and this one here.

here is an article about the planned visit to asia, including a visit with aung san suu kyi.  apparently Obama has plans to push for further reforms in the burmese government, and also his visit in cambodia will coincide with the east asia summit.  let's hope he gets an hour or two to stop and have some saloh machou at one of the local restaurants. 

regardless of how one might feel about this past election (my feelings haven't changed from four years ago,) let's all pray for safe travels for our president and happy outcomes for southeast asia. 

(and thanks emerson for reminding me that i still have this blog.)

hillary clinton visits Laos

admittedly, i'm a bit late on this one.  i've been busy with some blogging elsewhere (related to the presidential election,) but this has been on my radar for a while now. 

secretary of state hillary clinton visited Laos this past month, and in doing so, she pledged that the united states will support the ongoing efforts of bomb removal.  the usa is spending 9 million this year towards the efforts. 

but this is a great first step to our nation taking responsibility for the legacies of our clandestine war 40 years ago.  read this blog for an excellent look at that legacy and its consequences:

http://kevishere.wordpress.com/2012/07/14/hillary-clinton-in-laos/

and of course, legacies of war website has great content as well:

https://legaciesofwar.org/

here are two articles from (ny times and bbc) about clinton's visit:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/12/world/asia/on-visit-to-laos-clinton-is-reminded-of-vietnam-war.html?_r=1&src=recg

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18792282

it's about durn time

i've been waiting for this all my life.  (well, it would probably be more accurate to say that i've been waiting for rooster sauce flavored doritos... but i will take what i can get.)  thank you emerson for this link:

http://gizmodo.com/5934792/sriracha-popcorn-genius-or-megagenius

also, did yall hear that macdoughs is gonna try out some curly fries?  is it possible that i died and went up to heaven?  don't tell me if i did.  but i've really been waiting for this one.  and when it shows up in your local golden arches, then yall all gotta thank the filipinos.  they got more than just jose rizal and manny to be proud of; they paved the way for the food achievement of the year! 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/foodbeast/mcdonalds-curly-fries-philippines_b_1739341.html

representing!

just wanted to put it out there that Laos is representing!

thanks to la for putting this graphic together... (i stole it off her facebook page!)

the food pic

first check out this website that is actually kinda funny... and then read my comments below. 

http://picsofaznstakingpicsoffood.tumblr.com/

seriously... i will admit that i am white right here and now, and even i know that this phenomenon is not unique to asians.  i got all these white friends of mine that be posting some serious food pictures on facebook and instagram and twitter... (ok, maybe not twitter... by the way, what is twitter again?  and now that we're done with twitter, what in the heck is tumblr? and why is it missing an "e?"  is this a statement fo some sort, or is somebody lazy to write the whole word?)

so for proof - i submit some food pictures off of facebook posted by white people... 

ok... i was wrong. i only found these two pictures from white people.  one is of a market which is food related, and the other is... what is that??? is that even food?

on the other hand... i did find these few photos posted by one of my Lao friends over the past few days...

so maybe i am wrong... but i really think that the only thing this proves is that asians eat more photo-worthy food than white people.  i mean, who wants to see a picture of a squash casserole? 

come sail away

it is that time of year again... another group of people off to Laos for a summer of study and fun.  (also known as the sail program... which aptly stands for "summer abroad in Laos.") i always feel a tad bit jealous that i never took a whole summer off when i was a younger to do something like this.  well... head to the Lao studies website to check out their bios, aspirations and aspirations...  there should be some links to their blogs as well - so stalk them as they do what all of us wish we could do. 

http://www.laostudies.org/2012-sailers