(Continued from Au Revoir, Kitchen God) So, it's after midnight and my work with the Kitchen god is done, even though the rain never let up. I was going to edit the previous post to show photos of the preparations that I made, but I decided to create a second post because there was so... Continue Reading →
We all know what constitutes Beauty in our present-day world. The artificially constructed image created by the trillion-dollar beauty industry informs us in no uncertain terms, what is necessary to have in order to be considered Beautiful. The images show up everywhere we look to influence our lifestyle and to sell us things that we... Continue Reading →
(Continued from Hexagram 18 - Poisonous Dark Sorcery) Cổ Trùng In the ancient world, the word Cổ Trùng include poisonous toads, frogs, snakes, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, as well as various other types of animals we would not normally consider poisonous. This also includes certain types of ticks and butterflies, and even bacteria and viruses. Please... Continue Reading →
If anyone told you that they had a firm grasp of history because they went through years of university, studying through historical books on the subjects, don't walk---run away from them. Run far, far away. They only have the officially sanctioned, creative-writing version of what actually happened. This version is fine if all we want... Continue Reading →
Vietnamese Women Rule. OK, so maybe not at this time, but in the past we did...kinda, sorta, in a way. Even as early as two-thousand years ago, we were a Matriarchal society. In my previous post on the Trưng sisters, I noted that not only were they twin queens of a huge geographic area, their... Continue Reading →
(...continued from The Trưng Sisters (Part 3)) The Beauty During the three-year reign of Trắc and Nhị Trưng, people saw them everywhere. They never stayed in one place for long---always on their elephants and always on the road. Their swords were never sheathed, they were constantly keeping the troops trained and motivated, maintaining connections with... Continue Reading →
(...continued from The Trauma of Being Different) Back in 2007, I went back to Việt Nam to visit the northern areas and to see the sights. During my three-week sojourn, I wandered through more temples and ancient structures and caves than I can remember off the top of my head, but I do remember wandering through... Continue Reading →
(...continued from Damn Stubborn Water Buffalo) This is my firm conviction. We Vietnamese should not claim folks as our people if they refuse the claim, meaning if they insist that they are not Vietnamese, we should not place that honorific on them...even if it's true. I remember when I was younger, much younger, I dyed... Continue Reading →
I feel like a child who has inadvertently wandered into an old dilapidated castle where nothing but shadows of ghosts still haunt. The glorious grandeur of the place is still evident---the large halls and high ceilings adorned still, with the remains of what must have been magnificent furnishings and fixtures, their colors faded and aged... Continue Reading →
(...continued fromThe Trưng Sisters Part 2) And so it was, hidden in the mists of the jungles, within the dark dank caves of the mountainous region of Mê Linh that Trưng Trắc and her sister, Trưng Nhị, along with an entire regiment of rebels began their year-long preparation to go up against General Tô Định. To understand the scope of... Continue Reading →
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