(Image courtesy of Powerpoint clip art and my awesome Powerpoint skills)
Happy Birthday Mom!
Black Eyes (Not the Peas) and Old Friends
2003, and a couple of days ago in 2010.
That’s me and my friend Minh. We were roommates during EAP in 2003, in our 4 months in Hanoi. Since then, we’ve only met up a couple of times, but the friendship is still there, and despite the time gap and changing roles in our respective lives, the relationship dynamic is still the same as well.
Not sure if you can tell, but I have a black eye on the right side of the photo- picked it up a few days ago during basketball, accidental downward strike of the (someone else’s) elbow into my face.
My first black eye ever!
Manly!
As you would expect, as if from a movie script, I had to go to a potential client meeting with it. No one asked any questions or stared impolitely, which is actually a bit surprising in Vietnam. My own team couldn’t help it when they saw me the day after it happened.
Related posts
The Washington Post’s 5 Myths Series
I really enjoy and learn from The Washington Post’s 5 Myths Series. Every couple of weeks, there’s a new argument about a much-argued and often emotional subject for many, taking a look at what people often believe about that subject. Here are snippets from 5 Myths about gun control:
This helps explain why, even though the United States has overall rates of violent crime in line with rates in other developed nations, our homicide rate is, relatively speaking, off the charts. (1. Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.)
Data from 2008 in Chicago show that 81 percent of homicides were committed with guns and that 91 percent of homicide offenders had a prior arrest record. (2. Gun laws affect only law-abiding citizens.)
Our research suggests that as many as 500,000 guns are stolen each year in the United States, going directly into the hands of people who are, by definition, criminals.
The data show that a net increase in household gun ownership would mean more homicides and perhaps more burglaries as well. Guns can be sold quickly, and at good prices, on the underground market. (3. When more households have guns for self-defense, crime goes down.)
I personally believe all handguns should be banned in the US. In Vietnam they are, and though I’m sure guns do exist in the country (there are gangs and gangsters here, after all), I have always felt secure that I would never be shot, no matter where I was or what time at night. Maybe it’s all mental? Maybe. Nonetheless, most things are all in our minds.
Some other recent articles from the Post:
5 Myths about California politics (By Bruce E. Cain, June 6, 2010)
5 Myths about working mothers (By Naomi Cahn and June Carbone, May 30, 2010)
5 Myths about who gets into college (By Richard D. Kahlenberg, May 23, 2010)
5 myths about Supreme Court confirmations (By Kashmir Hill and David Lat, May 10, 2010)
5 Myths about the European debt crisis (By Carmen M. Reinhart and Vincent R. Reinhart, May 9, 2010)
5 Myths about immigration (By Doris Meissner, May 2, 2010)
5 Myths about green energy (By Robert Bryce, April 25, 2010)
5 Myths about the Catholic abuse scandal (By David Gibson, April 18, 2010)
5 Myths about China’s economic power (By Arthur Kroeber, April 11, 2010)
5 Myths about your taxes (By Roberton Williams and Rosanne Altshuler, April 4, 2010)
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