That new 007 Rogue Agent commercial just cracks me up everytime.

View from our garage today. If you like snow, then you obviously don't live in it six months a year.

THANKSGIVING LEFTOVERS

Thanksgiving came and went. My brother visited. My mom made her annual turkey dinner at our house. Amy insisted on eating it with kim chee. Sun Su ate too much turkey. And baby Ooseung didn't get any. Poor baby.

I can't believe it's been over two weeks since my last post. Time flies. Here are some random pics and random thoughts.

My brother is wearing a Chin Tiki restaurant shirt in the picture above. It's been closed for over a decade but it was featured in the movie "8 Mile" with Eminem. My mom used to work in there back in the 1970s. I remember her huge hair and "exotic" island girl waittress uniform and her nylong nylon stockings. When my brother and I were small we used to think it was funny the way her stockings would snap back when you'd pull on them - especially when mom was wearing them. Mom didn't appreciate her little ankle-biters' amusements as she was running off to work.

Ooseung, Amy, and Sun Su. Don't blink! Doh!

Amy makes a great mother. She's no-nonsense, but she can also be gentle and thoughtful with the kids. Like any mom, kids can stretch your temper to the limit. Especially a two-year old boy. She's afraid she's going to snap some days. Other moms reassure her and even I tell her how her mom and my mom both used to swat their kids (as in us) like flies and we still turned out pretty well. And if you believe the comics on BET, their parents hit them daily and they have the utmost maternal respect and love. It's not easy being a mother.

Me and my girl, sweet Ooseung-ee. Future Brazilian Jiu Jitsu champion of the world.

Baby Ooseung is starting to "do" things finally. Like waving "bye" and "playing phone" with handheld objects. She makes clucking noises with the new front teeth she's been sporting. Appah (me) makes clucking noises right back at her and she laughs with me.

In some ways, I've been favoring Sun Su just because I can actually do things with him. I also don't want him to feel neglected since his ummah (Amy) has to spend so much of her attention on the baby. I don't really feel like I could favor either one though, once Ooseung starts walking and talking too.

Amy likes to make Ooseung-ee play the girly role already. Pink this, pink that, hair clips, baby jewelry. I have plans to rough up her edges a little as she gets older. We'll start with "how to choke someone out in ten seconds or less" and then move on to arm-breaks. No helpless little belle will my daughter be.

Yeah, baby girl's got a little bit of a mono-brow problem, but she'll probably grow out of it when her head gets all big like her ummah. (Hahaha!) And if it doesn't, I might have to start drawing my Corean avengers with closer knit eyebrows.

Good news for our cat, ... The LIGER! He is finally letting Sun Su pet him and Sun Su is finally petting him without pulling out clumps of cat hair. Sun Su actually asks to see ... The LIGER! on a daily basis. (The cat's domain is in the basement with me.) Sun Su feeds and waters him too.

It is a good experience in responsibility for Sun Su as well as being gentle with animals. Plus, it just may have saved ... The LIGER!'s life. Now whenever Amy or her family starts talking about getting rid of the cat, I can counter with, "Sun Su loves that cat. You will break that little boy's heart if you get rid of ... The LIGER!"

... The LIGER! loves Sun Su now too.

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I'D LIKE TO THANK THE ACADEMY

Woohoo! I've been nominated for a Diarist Award.

It brings back memories.

Like being on the old diarist.net email list with its resident trolls and enjoyable troll bashing. (Yahoo recently cancelled my account due to inactivity.)

The debates on whether we were "diarists" or "journalers" or "journalists." Or "diary" versus "journal." What "truth" versus "Truth" in journaling meant.

The word "blog" didn't even exist back then. I still think it is the most annoying word on the net, but in some cases, it's appropriate that way.

Or when I was one of those people who others complained about (and even despised) because I was so frequently nominated.

Or when I went to my first and last JournalCon and I made a couple of bitter enemies because I failed to say more than "Hi" to someone or something.

Or like when I was nominated for Best Multimedia Site and someone on the panel itself said it was a pretty poor selection this quarter. (This actually annoyed me more than anything else ever did.)

I also saw how awards can splinter a community. I don't like competing with my friends. Unless it's a video game.

Then I moved on to other communities only to learn with time that every community is the same. Same drama. Same roles, just different people. And every community changes, and when the people change, you always miss the "good ol' days."

Friends became enemies and enemies became friends.
Old enemies were forgotten or forgiven and replaced with new instigators.
Old friends became people I still wonder about or occasionally look up.
People I will never meet for as long as we both shall live.

I grew up with that crowd, as far as my online self is concerned.

I am glad to see the Diarist.net group is still kicking. With new blood, apparently. I don't recognize anyone in the panel or categories anymore. But of all the awards I've seen, the Diarist Awards has always been truly about The Writing. Gotta respect that. It's a dying art in the world of "Attention Deficit Disorder" posting (which I enjoy actually) and whiney cut 'n quote "debate" blogging.

So check it out if you are looking for new writers and journals. Or go and nominate someone they missed next quarter.

They definitely deserve a plug. I won't be mad or disappointed if you don't vote for me either.

I'm over all that. I learned a lot.

(Like how red-centered text just isn't "so cool" anymore. Haha!)

(I'm also much worse with returning email than I was back then.
Sorry. I'm not "snubbing" people's emails.)

ADDENDUM: I spent 2.5 hours replying to emails that have been sitting around since September. Sorry about that. I always like to blame it on the baby.