So, I'm thoroughly cleaning up my room in preparation of moving up to DC starting Monday. I came across an old Social Studies book I used in 5th grade, published in 1986. I thought I'd crack the book open because I was interested in how the book portrayed Cambodia, since this was during the Khmer Rouge era. As it turns out, out of a 502 page book about the history of the world, the whole of South-East asia was only mentioned in less than one of the pages. Yes, in a section called, "Southeast Asia - a meeting place" which took up less than a single page, they covered all of SE Asia. Cambodia got a sentence and a half: "The ruins of great Hindu temples still stand at Angkor in modern Kampuchea. Buddhism is now the main religion in Kampuchea, Burma, and Thailand."

In contrast, the USSR got 45 pages, and the Middle East got its own chapter with a section on each country.

Yay! Congress has
granted Bush fast track authority (FTA) otherwise known as Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), which is a great thing for global free marketers, since now the US now is finally free to negotiate and agree to trade deals without getting bogged down in Congress in partisan and special interest politics. This will boost US export industries (more exports), consumers (cheaper prices), and help foreign economies, especially export-oriented emerging economies trying earnestly to raise the quality of life for its peoples. This is, of course, all moot if Bush continues to kowtow down to special interest industry groups doing stupid things like the Steel export tarrifs, or the farming subsidies - helping nobody but big corporations (steel and farming), not small independent steel mills or independent farmers.

Hmmm, I haven't posted in a while. I'm just packing, getting ready to drive up to DC with Amy on Monday. It's actually quite a production, because I'm only now finally unpacking from my move back from NYC (a year ago!).

Last Saturday was Amy's birthday. Everyone email her and wish her a belated birthday. The friday night before, I took her out to dinner at the Grape, and then a bunch of us met up for drinks downtown at Moosh Bar. It was an awesome night, and ended up with me assisting Roy puke no less that 4 times.

Then, over the weekend, our family took an impromptu vacation to Chicago! (It was planned a week and a half beforehand when we realized that all of us had time off in our schedules). It'll get harder and harder for our family to get to spend time together like this, so I'm really glad it happened. Things we did in Chicago: Ate deep-dish pizza, missed the Venitian Nights fireworks, shopped on the Miracle Mile, took the architectural boat tour, ate dim sum, met up with old Plano family friends, ate at the original Mortons of Chicago, browsed art at the Chicago Institute of Art.. Watch out for pictures coming out soon.