down here in texas, i’ve been doing some things i’ve never done before.

Like picking fresh strawberries from the farm! Yes, I pulled these off the plants myself. Well, they looked a lot better before I froze em. I actually pulled a whole lot of strawberries, like a couple pounds worth, which was amazing, because I was eating as much as I was picking!

Then, picking fresh blackberries. These were a little tougher to find, actually. And those blackberry bushes are thorny! Watch out! These also looked a lot better before I froze them. And ate most of them.

But, what’s a boy to do with all these berries? In my soy yogurt? Yes, but I got way too many berries. Smoothies? Yeah, why not. But, I hate cleaning out that blender. Jam? Yeah, whatever. Who makes jam? Come on, that’s crazy. Only white people eat jam.
Hmm . . .

I know, let’s make a cobbler! (which is so much easier to make than pie.)

Hmm, some butter, some sugar, some salt, maybe a dash of this and that. And holy moly, I just made a cobbler!

You kids know how much of a pie fetish I rock. But making pie sure is a big pain in the butt, especially if you make the crust from scratch too. But a cobbler, wow, that was a whole lot easier. It’s like making berry pie in lasagna form. Plus, instead of having to make 2 pies for my piggy self, I can just make one big cobbler. Mmmm . . .

Oh yeah, that turned out great. I wish these photos could capture that delicous aroma and the way the filling was bubbling as I pulled it out of the oven.

Do you notice the slivers of almond I added for texture? How about the real vanilla bean from Madagascar that a friend gave me. (Yes, B, I saved them until now!) Or, even, the sprinklings of coconut shavings just to make it more fatty and sweet!

So, in memory of all the men and women who’ve put on a uniform and served this fine country of ours, I salute you! Happy Memorial Day! I will pay tribute to your sacrifices for this country by adding some Blue Bell Cinnamon Vanilla ice cream to my piping hot cobbler!

Happy Memorial Day everyone!

Hope yours was as fun as mine!

(I got to see X-Men 3!)

(And go hiking too!)

i’m walking down Avenue A, between 6th and 7th street, and suddenly I hear a girl say to me, “Nice outfit!”

i turn to look at her, to make sure she’s not saying it to anyone else. And indeed, she said it to me!

NYC!

Just got back to Texas last night, and I already miss it. Some highlights:

The Roots show at Radio City Music Hall! Not just a super-dope show, but the unannounced special guests! Mos Def, Erykah Badu, Rahzel, Dice Raw, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Dave Chapelle, and the president himself, Jay-Z! Man, amazing amazing night. Just a fun time, plus I spent it with someone very close to my heart and we celebrated our long awaited freedom.

Yankees-Mets at Shea! Whoo-hoo, an amazing game, plus I got to hang with some good pals too. Our seats were in the second to last row too, but the game was tight all the way until the last inning. Great time!

So, I got to hit Jackson Heights 2wice! And eat a whole lotta Chaat! Mmmm. And Dosa too! But actually, after snacking on all that Chaat, I couldn’t finish all the Dosa I ordered. Which is typical of the pig that I am. And the best part, catching up with old pals and seeing baby Ella!

Seeing old pals, drinking lots of good beer and whisky, catching up with the b-ball playoffs, and most of all, just reminiscing bout my city.

But the best part, hands down. Seeing my kids again. My former students still hold a special part of my heart, and seeing them a year later, and getting the chance to teach one final lesson to them and say good bye is a feeling I can’t describe. I get emotional a little, hoping that they’ll remember all the life-lessons I’ve tried to give them, and they’ll remember me as they go on and make their way in this crazy world.

Much love to all the kids in the big city who came out to say hi.

Happy Mother’s Day, everyone.

Especially to mom. I got a chance to spend Mother’s Day with my mom for the first time in 10 years. Much more fun to give flowers in person than through the internet, huh?

I love you, mom. I’m still trying to make you proud and make the world a better place.

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1) I finished my first year of the PhD! Whoo-hoo! I actually pulled an allnighter to finish my last paper, can you believe?

2) The day I’ve been waiting waaaay too long for. Two years in the making, and it’s finally here. Feel a huge amount of mental stress suddenly disappear . . . but, suddenly other strange emotions emerge as well. I’ll have to talk about this later.

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So, I’ll be in NYC next week, kids. Gonna check the Roots at Radio City Music Hall, the Yankees/Mets game, and a whole lot of other fun. Whoo-hoo!

Keep it real. Remember the many people out there who’ve devoted their entire lives to serving God and spreading the good news of Jesus. Much love to all of them, especially my pal who’s off to Spain. Big ups.

just reread some old posts. wow, i sound like a pathetic, whiny, little malcontent. i sure hope i haven’t become as lame as this blog makes me sound. i started to wanna punch myself in the face for a second.

so enuff with the fluff then, let’s talk about real issues fo’ once.

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tonight, in my equity class, we talked a lot about white priviledge and how the whole population of teachers in the US consists mainly of middle-class white women, while the students represent kids from all spectrums. Somehow, we started talking about how, as white people, we can still be culturally sensitive when teaching African-American students.

I almost put my head down to cry. (but I didn’t, because I was eating a delicious piece of homemade peanut brittle.)

What the heck is wrong with people? One girl in the class even said, “You know, sometimes, I feel like I’m so white. When I’m around other white people and African-Americans are around, I just feel kind of ashamed of my whiteness.”

It took some serious biting of my tounge to not shout out, “Wow! Now you know how they feel each and every single day in the white man’s world, don’t ya.”

But I didn’t. I just kept eating my peanut brittle.

Some of you who know me deeply know how much I can’t stand the world being viewed as strictly black/white. Cuz, in that spectrum, where the heck do I fit in?

Neutralize my race, so that I have to fit into the black or white category, and you’ve silenced my voice. And that hurts.

You know, I never ever felt so non-white until I moved back to Texas. These last couple months really opened up my eyes, we still have some rampant racism rolling through people’s heads, some ridiculous amounts of segregation, and a whole lot of white privilege down here that people don’t seem to even realize.

Sometimes it makes me angry.

Sometimes it makes me sad.

But otherwise, it just makes me hurt. Because it’s not a one-sided issue anymore. It’s not when I was a kid, and I realized that to make it in this game, you had to succeed in the white man’s world, you had to play the model minority, you had to step on the backs of all the other minority groups to smile real wide and say, “yes, ma’am, please take another handful of my pride away, because I don’t need it where I’m going.”

And so we make it to the big colleges. We get the good jobs. We recklessly spend the money, all the while perpetuating a myth, that asian-american students are good students.

But at what cost? I’ve played into the white-man’s game, and for a while, the money, the booze, the ‘dro, the vacations . . . it made it all worth it. Or at least it dulled the pain, just a little bit.

Until you see first-hand the inequities of the system. You watch friends scratch and claw their way to the top, and you realize, hey man, i’ve had all this goodness handed to me, not ‘cuz i’m smart and hardworking. Hell, anyone can be smart and hardworking.

But ‘cuz I’m yellow and I don’t cause trouble, and frankly, if you’re gonna pretend that you ain’t racist, it’s a lot easier to throw good grades, opportunity, and cash at someone chinky like me rather than a Black kid or Hispanic kid with the same qualifications.

I’m sick of it.

I’m workin hard to change the system, to spread truth and reveal the ugly lies that people’ve ignored for so long they don’t even notice them anymore. And it hurts so much more when I realize that my classmates, people who’ve devoted their lives to being great educators, to helping children, that deep down inside, they’re still a big part of the problem.

Here’s to some real knowlege dropping, that it’ll open some eyes around here.