Hu for Northshore School Board Election Notes

Some observations

Julia Lacey's people invited me to drop out of the race, but I
declined.

Incumbment Sue Buske has filed the "I won't spend any money" form
for the PDC. Julia I'm told file for the full form. I don't intend
to knock myself out for this race, but filed the full just in case.

Lacey's evidently gotten the lion's share of endorsment from democrats, teacher employee and what looks like another professional union or two. That's OK, as the "radical reformer" of the bunch and known conservative I wouldn't expect their endorsements. I don't know who's going to back buske if all the liberals have jumped ship for Lacey.

Talking with parents at the graduation ceremony where my son was
drummer in one of the bands, one parent was impressed that I knew
her son and many of the other students at Bothell high. I ran into
one woman who knew Buske, and sure enough supported her. Another
music parent knew her but had some deep reservations and conceded
I would bend just as far backwards to get the bands to Oregon.

I wandered around the Parade July 4th. Dawn McCready, the maverick
currently on the board was hanging with the scouts, who had some
complaints about access to schools and handing out flyers. I ran into
the guy with the votebothell.com website, and one parent who pulled his kids from the schools because of math. Ran into my bass player friend from Everett Symphony who helps with strings and teaches substitute and state senator Rosemany McAuliffe who I had always told over the years that WASL was bad bad bad, she said "we're improving things". No real negative vibes from anybody, and perhaps a dozen who recognized me as parent or real estate client.

Only Kathy Swanson had a convertible in the parade surrounded by a half-dozen kids and parents with hand-made signs in addition to various city council and Gossett for county council.

Lying mentioned it might be a good idea to promise to stick around for a term before trying for legislature since the current board gets to pick the temporary successor not the guy who quits.

BTW, this covers both snohomish and King County, so any endorsements from either county would be helpful if you have connections in either place.

Primary is Aug 18, just one month away.

I've created a facebook page for the campaign here

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=101864513126&ref=nf

1998 Piece on Anti-Asian violence and the Continuing Crusade Against Chinese Immigration

Originally March 27, 1998 by Arthur Hu
for Seattle's Asian Focus Magazine
"The Chinese Must Go!": Matloff's Myth of a Programmer Shortage
Arthur Hu's immigration facts page can be found at
http://www.arthurhu.com/arthurhu/index/immig.htm


Details on Norman Matloff's immigration and welfare page can be found
at http://www.leconsulting.com/arthurhu/index/matloff.htm


Seattle Asians may wince at ObeChine's use of a Chinese caricature as
a restaurant sign. But visit the Washington State History Museum in
Tacoma to see a poster which headlines "The Chinese Must Go!" Not
everybody remembers the times when organizations like the "Knights of
Labor " used the threat that that Chinese immigrants, who were often
attacked and ridiculed for wearing pigtails and oriental clothing,
took jobs away from Americans. Angry mobs once lynched and burned the
Chinese out of every major city in the west. The anti-immigration
movement not only drove most Chinese workers back to China, but
passed laws practically banning all Chinese immigration until the
Civil Rights era.

Today, Microsoft is asking to lift the cap on H-1 visas because their
demand for foreign programming talent will soon hit the current
ceiling. The Chinese are building operating systems to tame
Cyberspace for barons like Bill Gates as they once built railroads
for Leyland Stanford to settle the West.

But it is Republicans, lead by Michigan's Spencer Abraham, who are
fending off attempts to roll back immigration. And it's not Pat
Buchanan, but the obscure Norman Matloff, computer science professor
of the University of California at Davis, a Democratic of Jewish
heritage who has become the nation's architect of arguments based on
his relationships to the Chinese community to cut back if not end all
immigration. Instead of ignoring this man, Asians should seriously
start examining charges that this man is steadily on a path that may
assure him a spot in history as the one man movement who carried the
legacy of the anti-Chinese movement into the information age.

Matloff has been quoted in the New York Times, US News and World
Report, even Seattle's own free Computer Source newspaper for his
presentation to Information Technology Associations of America
asserting that the widely publicized software worker shortage is
a "myth". Matloff is always careful to note that he is married into
and active in the Chinese community, and hardly the picture of a
xenophobe.

But consider roots of this evolution from his criticisms of the
Chinese community he has become active in. In the Feb 1994 issue of
the conservative National Review (later attacked for another
unflattering portrayal of Asians), Matloff argues in "Easy Money,
Lost Traditions" that 50% of Chinese elderly immigrants are
committing fraud by collecting SSI despite sponsorship pledges of
support. This article was the spark that lead to legislation that
made all noncitizens ineligible for any means tested benefits. His
response? The laws didn't go far enough since naturalized citizens
are still eligible.

In 1995, I calculated from an employee newsletter that probably 35%
or more of Microsoft's newest developers were immigrants, not just
the 8% aliens usually quoted. Most industry leaders decry cutting
back on the source of one-third of their best minds. But
in "Debugging Immigration" from NR October 9, 1995, Matloff says that
immigrants are not only not needed, they're harmful.

They are not as skilled or innovative as natives. Whether it's Time
Man of the Year Andrew Grove of Intel, Charles Wang of Computer
Associates, or Jerry Yang of Yahoo, he boldly proclaims that with the
exception of An Wang, immigrants have made no essential innovations,
and are no more essential than Indian motel owners. Immigrants are
hired only because of their cheap labor, not their talent.

If they dominate 90% of their world markets, or created these
multibillion dollar markets and associated wealth out of thin air in
only two decades, it would have been done equally by natives alone.
In fact, Intel and Microsoft have "bungled" not advanced PC design,
in his opinion. Immigrants don't create jobs because their hiring
networks take jobs away from Americans and lower hiring standards.

He counters the remarkable academic record, and overwhelming
predominance of over-representation of Asians in every education and
industry statistic from employment rates to patent filings with the
only evident area of under-achievement, awards from professional
societies like IEEE and ACM. Matloff choses to slam the abilities of
the only ethnic groups than can rival the Jewish Americans in high
tech. His is only education study ever published which concludes that
the academic skills of Asians are not greater, but lower than those
of natives.

In the San Francisco Chronicle May 20, 1997, "Asians, Blacks and
Intolerance", and testimony to Congress "The Adverse Impacts of
Immigration on Minorities", Matloff paints both the Asian and
Hispanic communities as harboring hatred towards the African
Americans. Oliver Wang wrote back that he appears to "bash the same
community he claims to have been active in".

Does any racist poster provide detailed footnotes on the internet
that prove that the Chinese (and Hispanics) are shameless racists,
the Chinese (and Russians) flagrantly abuse the welfare system, or
that Chinese (and Indians) are harmful to US leadership in high tech?
Isn't this massive catalog of cultural defects documenting Asians the
same way that Mein Kampf categorized Jewish contributions to Germany?
Isn't being America's top expert on opposing immigration, a professor
quoted by the New York Times, and who has succeeded in inspiring
legislation, far more dangerous and subtle than any hate email, or
skinhead web site? And why is it that no civil rights organization
leader has ever issued a public rebuttal or condemnation of such
attitudes?

Matloff's positions are so far off reality they would be comical if
the consequences weren't so potentially disastrous for a city where
Microsoft is the #1 creator of millionaires, and each job creates 3.5
to 5 new jobs compared to 2.8 at Boeing. Matloff says stopping
immigration would force companies to hire natives, but figures cited
by Electrical Engineering Times shows only 6% of new programmers come
from foreign countries in a pie that grows by 10% per year. 11% are
the very unemployed workers Matloff says should be hired first.
Matloff's paints a picture of a career field in depression when
programming has the lowest unemployment rate (not even 1%) and the
highest pay of any nonprofessional degree career.

Matloff says there wouldn't be a shortage if Microsoft simply hired
the other 98% of applicants they reject. His most famous line is that
that any programmer can be productive in any technology within 2
weeks. If most PhD's, and people with the latest hot skills are
foreigners, he counters that no programming job requires any specific
training, experience, or degree. Logically, this leaves immigration
status as the only background factor that is reliably associated with
the lack of programming talent.

Thus, Matloff presents "Cindy", an unemployed defense programmer
whose resume is devoid of any current career keywords as prime
example of "exceptional" talent. Only a man who can wave his
credentials as a computer science professor can get away convincing
people outside the industry that Cindy is superior to H-1 workers
like the Armenian earning 6 figures building Microsoft's next web
browser, or the Canadian doing 3D scene rendering at Sierra Online.
The only underpaid sweatshop H-1 workers I've known are ones like
this Armenian who have worked their way up into the big time.

Matloff's widely quoted immigrant wage gap of 15% is just plain wrong
when accounts usually leave out the fine print. It compensates for
education when immigrants have far more education, and only looks
only at Silicon Valley, which has the highest pay levels in the
world, and most natives live elsewhere. Census figures show 38% of
Santa Clara County Asians in 1990 had BS degrees compared to only 20%
of whites. How can you state that Silicon Valley immigrants are paid
less when those from Taiwan and India had personal incomes of $23,592
and $22.440 compared to $16,178 for the US born? The National Science
foundation found immigrants with an advantage of $1000 to $4000 with
a master's degree, EE Times found their Asian immigrant readers were
$3000 ahead, while even the anti-immigrant Center For Immigration
Studies published figures showing Chinese and Indian immigrants
earned 7% to 12% more than natives.

Alarmists say that immigrants bring disease, crime, and prejudice,
take away jobs, lower wages, and destroy the environment. Yet 19.7
million jobs were created in the decade from 1983-93, over twice the
8,948,475 immigrants who arrived during 1983-92. Recent headlines
show that living standards are the highest ever in history.
Unemployment is at the lowest rates since the 1960s. Doctors and
engineers have the most immigrants, but have the lowest rates of
unemployment. Likewise, cities like Silicon Valley and Los Angeles
with the highest percentages of immigrants have the lowest rates of
unemployment and the most jobs and the highest pay.

Asians have a lower arrest rate for nearly every crime reported by
the Justice Department. Fears of TB aside, Asians and Hispanics have
equal or better indicators for almost every OTHER health risk like
cancer, infant mortality and life expectancy, even among the poor.
Asians and Hispanics commit lower rates of hate crimes than natives,
and often support affirmative action

Despite predictions of decline, living standards have improved by
nearly every measure with increasing population. Natural resource
reserves and food production is up. Air pollution is down. Americans
live longer, drive and live in better homes and cars, and take better
vacations. We can surf the web for the New York Times and afford
computers and digital video and sound that would have bankrupted the
defense budget only a generation ago.

The real immigration welfare scam is that working age immigrants are
paying for the Social Security checks of elderly whites, while their
own parents won't even qualify for SSI. MIT economist Lester Thurow
says that Social Security is basically a welfare system since current
workers pay retirees far more than they ever put into the system.
Because most immigrants arrive at younger working age, while few
elderly take the leap, Census figures show nonHispanic White
households collected $2500 per year in welfare and social security,
compared to only $1500 for Asians or Hispanics. When Uncle Sam is
counting immigrants to keep social security afloat, the elderly
parents that they sponsor should be eligible for Social Security, not
kicked off of SSI

Don't fooled by the threat of what immigration "might" bring. The
bottom line is higher incomes and standard of living and more jobs.
The real conservatives are optimists who live in a world where
everybody wins, and nobody is the object of blame for economic
decline that just isn't there.

Norman Matloff Makes Business Week, I'm named as his critic

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jun2009/db20090626_585028.htm
An Academic's Labor Helps Fight H-1B Visas
Norm Matloff, a computer science professor with a Chinese-born wife, says the U.S. skilled-immigrant visa system exploits workers everywhere
By Moira Herbst

Not many computer science professors are activists on immigration policy. But Norm Matloff of the University of California, Davis wears both hats. He has been a vocal critic of the H-1B visa program for skilled immigrants since the mid-1990s, and now maintains a Web page and e-mail listserv discussing offshoring and the H-1B visa program, which he calls a "sham." He says his motivation is to protect and preserve tech job opportunities for the students he teaches.

...
Matloff posts opinionated blog entries on the Web site of Numbers USA, a group calling for lower levels of immigration. His writing prompted one tech worker, Arthur Hu of Bothell, Wash., to create a Web page criticizing Matloff, whom he calls the "Hatchet Man of Asian Immigration."

I left this comment on the article page:
BW interviewed me for this story, they didn't mention that I seeMatloff as the 21st century legacy of California's Workingman's partywhose motto was "The Chinese Must Go". Matloff is the only academic who asserts that Chinese (and other immigrants) not only were not essential to Micrsoft or Silicon Valley (despite the tons of Asians and Indians as employees or founders) but are LESS productive thanother ethnic groups such as EuroAmericans who have lower test scores, grades, and less represented at MIT and Stanford. Odd that man who spends so much time dismissing the qualifications of the Chinese can claim to be a champion of civil rights.

I got some nasty feedback from people who read the BW article:

Hey fraud:

I was just reading your little pro-Asian propaganda blog.

How can you outright lie like that and say Intel and Microsoft were founded by immigrants?
Intel was founded by two Americans: Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce. Microsoft was founded by two Americans: Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.

Both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were college dropouts so there is no correlation between degrees and successful tech companies. I have personally worked with a lot of PhDs who can't ship a product.

Now that most Americans have been driven out of Silicon Valley, the CA economy isn't doing to well, is it? Where is all your high talk now of Asians being smarter and better than Americans?

Where is the Chinese operating system? Where is the Indian operating system? Name one software product created by either of those two countries that anyone uses.

Name one major tech company anyone has heard of that was founded by ALL Asian immigrants.

Why hasn't the huge FLOOD of Asian guest workers who began arriving in 1998 kept the U.S. economy going as promised? Why was 1998-2003 the biggest immigrant wave to the USA in 100 years and we're now in the biggest depression in 70 years?

You have a lot of explaining to do.

Signed Mike (who didn't respond to my answer)

My response to this is that I never said that Asians founded all of these companies (Grove was an immigrant key player in Intel), but both Microsoft and Silicon Valley are full of Asian and European immigrant employees and managers who wouldn't be there if they weren't doing a good job, and I have interviewed with and worked for companies owned or run by either East Asians or Indians. Even Asian Americans not only admit but complain that they lag behind Euro-Americans in management and founding the most important companies, though their contributions as founders is still pretty significant. The idea that the current economic crisis is due to too many immigrant high-tech engineers rather than giving out too many loans to people who couldn't afford or didn't really need homes is a new one to me.

Matloff himself wrote a response "I might say the same for Arthur Hu. With hundreds of millions of Web users, there is likely to be one that rants against any topic under the sun, and it happens that one of Arthur’s topics is me. That’s fine, but some readers of the article may mistakenly take this to mean that Asian-Americans agree with him on the H-1B issue, which they don’t. Every time I’m invited to speak to an Asian-American conference, such as the Asian Pacific American Conference on Law and Public Policy at Harvard and the Asian-American Out of the Silence Conference at Stanford, I get solid support from the audiences. This should be no surprise–with so many Asian-Americans in engineering, H-1B puts their jobs at risk. My support from my own students, two-thirds of whom are Asian-American (not Asian foreign students), is also quite strong. I’m proud to say that they’ve nominated me for various teaching awards, some of which I’ve been fortunate to win."

VDARE also hosted Sanchez who dismissed me with a nasty name and said that I was obsessed with hating Matloff, which is odd for a blogsite that largely promotes the interests of Euro-Americans to accuse others of being Indian-supremacists or politically incorrect.

What continues to bother me about Matloff since the times we debated back in the 90s in emails is how he claims because he's married into the Asian community he can't possibly be harming it. The thing that kills me about the Fundamentalist Mormon persecution is how many ex-members like Flora or Carolyn Jessop are willing to jump on the persecution bandwagon against their former culture, and how people can be so politically correct about being nice to people of all colors and genders AS LONG AS THEY'RE NOT XXX OR PRACTICE YYY in which case it's ok to spread all kinds of vile lies and insults long after it was proven they raided that ranch on the basis of people who never existed and things that never happened. As a bicultural person myself I'm quite capable of supporting or insulting either Asians and Americans.

As I often ask, where in the heck are the politically correct police when you need them? The far-left Asian American Movement appears to give Matloff a complete pass as long as he's not goring the Affirmative Action ox, and helping demolish the dreaded Model Minority stereotype with his claims that Asians and other immigrant Americans are LESS effective in tech than white, black, or Hispanic Americans. Most Asian American activists have never heard of this guy, but you'd think they'd know about the only guy who is quoted for arguing that more Chinese immigrants will harm America.

I get it from both sides being so conservative and libertarian that I'm a free marketer for tech immigration. Look, if we're going to live in a big diverse world where we can move across borders instead of having to invade each other militarily to visit each other's lands, we need to spend less time working on what's good for each other's groups, and work toward what's good for everybody, otherwise we'll keep playing this ridiculous game of promoting only the interests of the politically correct groups of the day.

immigration matloff h-1 visa tech employment economy asian american race

What in the world does "50% of children are not ready for kindergarten" mean???

The challenge of 50 percent of young children not prepared for kindergarten
Washington's missed opportunity for school
readiness

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2009301888_guest05bancroft.html
Washington state missed a critical opportunity to ensure that at-risk children were ready for school when Gov. Chris Gregoire vetoed a legislative plan to help, writes guest columnist John Bancroft. The challenge of 50 percent of young children not prepared for kindergarten still needs solving.

What in the world does "50% of kids are not ready for kindergarten" mean? Where is this study? They didn't pass the WASL? Did you know that 50% of children are below the median too? How many not ready for preschool? How many children are "unready" the moment they are born? These are same people who created "standards" for 2 year olds, and created as WASL test that declared that 70% of students, including the above-average as "below standard". How's this for a concept. You are ready for kindergarten when you are 5. What percentage of 5 year olds are ready for kindergarten? My math says 100%. Who figured out that if you're not 5 by end of August, you'll be ready the next year??? Hey public, these are the people who are running your schools. Wake the heck up. WASL is one silly idea down, fuzzy math, graduation exams, and universal whatever still to go. I dare the Times to allow me or anyone else to do a guest editorial on how the 1993 education reform has ruined public education for my generation of kids. That's why I'm running for Northshore Public Schools school board this fall. www.arthurhu.com/elect.htm


By John Bancroft
Special to The Times
PREV of NEXT


WASHINGTON'S decision-makers missed an exciting opportunity this year to address what is a serious learning gap: only 50 percent of our young children are ready for kindergarten.
All parents want their children to succeed in school, but family income and a child's age often present stumbling blocks that make this difficult to achieve.
Children who turn 5 by Sept. 1 are automatically enrolled in kindergarten. Since Washington's Constitution declares that basic education is our state's paramount duty, we take for granted that any family, rich or poor, can send their child to public school for free. Public education is considered a key ingredient of American democracy.
But for children who are not 5 by Aug. 31, parents are usually on their own in helping their child prepare for success in school. Some kids get to go to a part-day preschool, at parent expense. But for many families, preschool is often too expensive.
In fact, since fewer and fewer families can afford to have a stay-at-home parent anyway, more children are in full-day child care, typically at enormous cost to their parents. Low-income at-risk families can rarely afford either quality child care or preschool for their children.
In response to this gap, the federal Head Start program was created to help low-income parents get their children ready for school. Kindergarten teachers immediately noticed the difference. But Head Start has never been adequately funded to serve all eligible children, even though slots are available only to families earning less than about $18,000 a year.
In response, Washington created its own state-funded program, Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP), to serve more of these at-risk children. Even so, Head Start and ECEAP programs fill up fast. Children then languish on waiting lists, often never served. We cannot imagine such a thing happening at our local elementary school. Whether a child comes from the poorest or richest family, schools are required to provide space to all children, entirely at taxpayer expense.
The 2008 Legislature created a Joint Taskforce on Basic Education to overhaul public-school financing. Republican and Democratic legislators, supported by a wide array of children's advocates, led the task force to recommend that preschool for at-risk children become part of our state's basic-education responsibility. Since numerous studies show that children unprepared for kindergarten are much less likely to succeed in school, assuring this readiness for at-risk children was deemed a crucial state priority.
A bipartisan coalition led the Legislature to pass the Education Finance Reform Act, sending the bill to the governor for signature.
The legislation allowed the state years of lead time to implement this reform, which mandated that all at-risk children eventually have voluntary access to preschool. Waiting lists for Head Start and ECEAP were to become a thing of the past, a giant step toward assuring that all children succeed in school.
But in a surprise move, Gov. Chris Gregoire, a strong supporter of early learning in the past, vetoed this entire section of the education-reform bill. She promised instead to propose legislation next year to create a state-supported preschool program for all children. This will be a tough battle.
The 2010 Legislature faces a very tight budget, and may hesitate to pass a major new program not financed through the basic-education-funding formula. The governor, joined by parents and other children's advocates, will have to work hard to bring their proposal to fruition.
Meanwhile, too many of Washington's preschool children will be told this September, "Sorry, this isn't your year." But if helping parents raise children who can succeed in school is one of our state's prime duties, we need to make it a reality for all our children.
John Bancroft is the president of Building Better Futures, which develops capital projects to expand services for children and their families. He has been an early-learning advocate in Washington for 30 years, and is a member of Washington's Early Learning Action Alliance. Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company
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Comments (4) fallstaff Lake Forest Park, WA57 comments
June 7, 2009 at 9:41 AMRating: (0) (0) Log in toreport abuseR N Carter: Suffice it to say that I never attended any preschool, did not go to kindergarten, entered first grade one month BEFORE I was six years old, and graduated from high school at age sixteen. On my college entrance exam I scored 98+ percent in logic.R N Carter Seattle, WA194 comments June 6, 2009 at 11:39 PMRating: (0) (0) Log in toreport abuse"fallstaff" -- Pity you added "What "progressive" socialists and their camp followers will one day have to come to grips with is that a substantial percentage of those at the bottom of the economic ladder are there because they are also at the bottom of the intellectual ladder, and alchemy can't change that" to an otherwise sensible post.
Where are you on the "ladder"? Where do you consider yourself to be? Where does the evidence of your post suggest you are?fallstaff Lake Forest Park, WA57 comments
June 5, 2009 at 10:06 PMRating: (0) (0) Log in toreport abuse'can't change that,'fallstaffLake Forest ParkcommentJune 5, 2009 at 10:03 PMRating: (0) (0) Log in toreport abuse"Serious learning gap: only 50 percent of our young children are ready for kindergarten." God forbid! How did we manage to struggle through most the 20th century, first with no kindergarten, then with mostly only half-day kindergarten, let alone no massively public funded preschool? Anybody who contends the framers of our state constitution intended to create, or themselves instituted such a system, is clearly delusional. What "progressive" socialists and their camp followers will one day have to come to grips with is that a substantial percentage of those at the bottom of the economic ladder are there because they are also at the bottom of the intellectual ladder, and alchemy can't that.

Pixar Is Going Up Arthur Hu May 27, 2009 Hu’s On First

Pixar is Moving Up

Russell and Carl

I love Pixar, but they must have finally noticed my annual complaints in all its diversity, they have never before cast any Asian characters. In Cars, they cast Cheech, but passed over hippie Tommy Chong. Ratatouille’s Collette looked Asian, but wasn’t cast that way. While a couple of mainstream papers such as USA Today noticed, you’d think Pixar was trying to keep it a secret that Wilderness Explorer Russell who keeps the grumpy old man company in his flying house is as Asian American kid. Though his accent is American, he’s got those almond eyes and straight black hair.

Jordan Nagai is a Japanese American, which would make him a sansei plus a couple of generations. Hollywood has given us cute Asian child sidekicks before. Future Hawaii first lady Vicky Tiu was teamed with Elvis in It Happened At The World’s Fair in 1962, while Jonathan Ke Quan clung to Indian Jones as Short Round in the Temple of Doom.

On the Pixar Blog, one commenter mentioned that person from Pixar told him they were looking for an Asian child, though 400 kids showed up for the auditions. At seven, Jordan got the part after he was spotted as that kid who would not stop talking. While it’s certainly not necessary to cast an overachieving scout as an Asian, it’s nice when it is so common to cast non-Asians to speak Asian parts.

Jordan Nagai and Russell

Photo by Jesse Grant - © WireImage.com

Viki Tiu and Elvis

Short Round

Geek Chic

When Jordan grows up, will he play another cool geek? Grant Imahara of Mythbusters, and Masi Oka from Heros and Get Smart are both pretty popular now. Even in the new Fast & Furious, gopher Agent Sophie Trinh in a modest pantsuit by Liza Lapria got more screen time than any number of women shaking their booties and Asian guy heros / villains.

Liza Lapria

Southland

I loved ADAM 12, so NBC’s Southland looks interesting. But how can they get away with zero Asian parts when there are more Asians than African Americans in Los Angeles? Asians could have been cast as the detective, the honor student shooting victim, the gang bangers, the pedophile murderer, the bus driver, or the scared witnesses. How about drawing from some real history with Korean grocers shooting at kids, committing home invasions against other Asians, or even angry geeks who shoot up immigration classes or colleges?

Gran Torino: Do the White Thing

Walter Mans Up Thao

Ford Gran Torino drawing I did at age 13. That was a COOL car.

Maybe it’s not surprising that a movie starring Clint Eastwood was snubbed at the Academy Awards when it was about Asian gangs and racist Walter Kowalski who will point an M-1 rifle in your face and tell how he stacked dead Koreans like sandbags. Sue Lor (played by Ahney Her) tells adopted uncle Walter “Hmong are a people, not a place”, and “we send our girls to college, our boys to jail” But as an Asian, I see a reverse Kung Fu Kid story. To his Hmong neighbors, Walter represents the exotic culture of white guys who can fix anything with a slip wrench, WD-40 and duct tape. He demonstrates how to properly use ethnic insults as an informal communications style. He “mans up” his young Jedi apprentice Thao played by Bee Vang to ask out the girl and stand up to gangs. The Hmong witch doctor can see right through him while his own young Catholic priest is a joke. In the end, Wally sacrifices himself in a Christ-like pose to save his newly adopted Hmong extended family who treat him as a savior, though he is spurned by his own spoiled children. The boy carries on Walter’s legacy by driving the prized 1972 Gran Torino and Walter’s dog as he drives off past lakeshore. If you can step past political correctness, it’s a tribute to the movie’s quality that it is still playing in some theaters, but watch out for the DVD this summer.

For video Interview click on http://www.traileraddict.com/emd/10993

Pixar Blog article is at (http://pixarblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/who-heck-is-jordan-nagai.html)

IYA2009 Taiwan [Galileo and Prof. Sun]

IYA2009 Taiwan [Galileo and Prof. Sun]
Originally uploaded by josefrancisco.salgado

watch the falling balls

Seattle Weekly Nails Pacific NW Tech Interview Style

I love this one, if you've never gone through a Seattle style tech interview, Seattle Weekly pretty much nailed it this week.

I've been doing these ever since I personally interviewed with Bill Gates and Paul Allen when they interviewed every programmer at Microsoft, and then Steve Ballmer when he interviewed everybody. (Unfortunately, I was never quite "right" enough to actually get in as a full timer, though I've done a few contracts there since). If you do these, don't get discouraged, sometimes you'll need to do a few before landing a job.

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2009-05-13/diversions/ask-an-uptight-seattleite?src=newsletter

Dear Uptight Seattleite,
I'm a tech guy who recently had a job interview with a large online retailer. The usual crew was tag-teaming me—first the ass-kissy HR lady, followed by a dev who expressed his dominance by making me do problems on the white board, a sweaty-palmed project manager, and a half-dozen other bozos. The last one was evidently their specialist in "out of the box" questions. "How would you count all the windows in Boston?"—that kind of thing. At one point he held up a red pen and said, "This is a black pen." You seem to consider yourself something of a specialist in out-of-the-boxness yourself, so maybe you'll know what I should have done in this situation.Tup Tech Tim
Dear Tim,
According to what I've heard, where job interviewers once may have seen themselves as lords and dukes, the current economy has elevated their self-image to something more like Zen masters and Jedi Knights. In his mind, out-of-the-box guy levitates cross-legged above you, his lips twitching slightly as he holds back an ironic smile. He believes your position is so debased that you'll surely tremble at the slightest rustling of his robes.
The right response might be to focus on the only person you can control here: You. Maybe this is an opportunity to set aside the disdain for other people so evident in your letter. To rest the spiritual muscles that now strain under the burden of this disdain. To feel the rejuvenating power of selflessness flow through your veins. Start by admitting to this purveyor of koans that his mastery of paradox is far greater than yours will ever be, and that you hope you get the job just so you can become his mentee.
Of course, maybe you'll find that the price of your dignity isn't subject to decline after all. In that case, I suggest you point a finger pistol at him, say "This is not a squirt gun filled with my urine," and pull the trigger.