Updates #1 - Christmas, Home is Here, and Más

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! 

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope everyone had an incredible and joyous Christmas. Happy Holidays to all as well! Also hope everyone who celebrated the 9 Posadas had an incredible celebration and festival. I had a great Christmas. I had family come over for Secret Santa reveal, present unwrapping, and Christmas day feast. My Dad was my Secret Santa. He got me a new pair of Cole Haan tassel loafers which look awesome. I got my dad the Bose SoundSport wireless headphones. He always listens to his Spotify playlist but never had a nice pair of headphones to listen to his music. So now he has a pair to use. I got few other wonderful gifts for my loved ones too. I wish I had saved up to get my dear friends gifts but I was on a budget for Secret Santa. Christmas for the most part worry free. I still stressed about finishing up stuff for affordable housing community placement and research. I did not make any other plans this holiday season other than staying put and compiling research on economic development. Lets see what the New Year has in store. My New Year's Resolution is to not have any New Year's resolutions because New Year's resolutions are overrated. They hurt confidence and self-esteem. Resolutions that people make for the new year they inadvertently break them due to life's circumstances. So instead of inflating expectations with high-pressure goals, I recommend prioritizing set goals to loosely follow but not fanatically adhere too. Motivation is key however I think positive reinforcement is crucial. So be positive.

Home is Here Update

Demonstrators Holding a Marching Banner 

Outside Baltimore City Hall

Many I am sure are wondering where is the Home is Here blog post. I have written several paragraphs with pictures. But, I am having writer's block but also adjusting to my lazy self. I am super lazy when on break. Like I said though I am having difficulty focusing and writing it. I want to write an inclusive and appropriate narrative of the march. A story of humanness. I feel compelled to write this Home is Here project because Christian Brothers University and the Memphis local news failed miserably to write and publish the human story of 38 college students from Memphis, TN marching for DACA and TPS from Baltimore to DC. CBU and the local news chose to ignore a moment of humanness when students, many who are DACA recipients, refused to stand idle when over a million Americans' livelihoods including their own were threatened by a pathetic, hateful, and fucking racist administration. That is why I am writing on the Home is Here March. Others need to learn and listen to the source of resistance and why this march was necessary to indict the administration for Trump's bullshit belief rescinding DACA was justifiable. I do not want this story to be written exclusively. I believe the story should not be written so much from my point of view but from the record of the brave marchers who marched beside me. When I am going to post these blog posts they will not be written in the manner to typify, marginalize, or stereotype any ethnic group, national demographic, or indigenous people and cultural group. It will be neutral and inclusive. The posts will poke even challenge prevalent misconceptions of uninformed or racist US citizens by showing a wider glimpse of community organizing in immigration advocacy. A misunderstanding for example is the belief that immigrants arriving at the US are entirely Latinx or Hispanic. FALSE. There are many groups from Africa and Europe who desire admittance and refuge in the US. My narrow views were challenged on the march. First, I was uninformed of the fact a considerable population of Korean Americans are undocumented. Koreans represent a sizable portion of the undocumented population in the US. The non-profit NAKASEC which organized the Home is Here March in collaboration with Make the Road NY are representatively advocates for immigrants from Southeastern and Eastern Asia. Their leadership educated me on a more complete, multinational picture of US immigration. However, how the posts will be recorded will be from the minds and voices of those who marched. I am debating if I need to release the posts in a series or in one megapost. I will still think about it. I will ask friends and peers for their suggestion on this. When to expect a post will be late January.

Family Christmas in the ICU

On a somber note my friend experienced a holiday season with a family emergency. Her father was rushed to the Emergency Room because of a serious injury. He has been in the hospital ICU for a while due to complications. My friend created the fundraiser to raise money to pay for the expensive hospitalization costs (our healthcare system is fucked up). I highly insist people to donate and alleviate the cost-burden. Please click on this GoFundMe link to donate. I sincerely wish and hope for the best to happen and for her father's speedy and full recovery. 

Chemex Coffeemaker 

The Chemex pour over

I love coffee. Bebo café todos los días. Lo tomo en la mañana y la tarde. I recommend to all my friends to purchase the Chemex pour over. It makes incredible coffee. They range from small size to a 12 cup. Pictured is the 8 cup one. It is glass blown in a hourglass shape. Fashionable it has wooden grip around it and leather rawhide to tie it. Modernity is the adjective to modify this coffeemaker. It has a smooth pour. Coffee is made in less than 5 minutes. The method in the pour over with the Chemex oxygenized filters authorizes masterful extraction. It is simply bliss. 

Coffee being made

How you make the coffee is with your medium-course grind (coarse is next best grind) put you preferred number of tablespoonfuls into the filter. With your boiled water, just pour in a circular motion. First, dampen grinds and let it bloom - lets grinds bubble. Wait 30 seconds and pour until a quarter inch from the top of the glass rim. Repeat a pour if you want more coffee. It is amazing to watch it do its work. It is a admirable piece of coffee physics. The Chemex 8 cup coffee maker is around $30. Other sizes vary. I recommend going to the store such as Sur La Tabla or other kitchenware stores to support local business. It is a very popular product. Make sure to purchase Chemex filters as well as these are separate from the coffeemaker.