i haven't blogged in a while... maybe i can get back into this game somehow

i'm writing from my mother's house in torrance, california, it's lunar new year, and we just spent the night eating thit kho and playing poker.

i asked my mom what my real vietnamese name was today and she told me i didn't have one. she said that my dad believed a bad name would bring bad luck and he was afraid of picking the wrong one for me. so i asked my mom over lunch if she would give me a full vietnamese name and she got excited and started brainstorming ideas. "truong hoang buu" was the one she settled on.

ps my default vietnamese name before this was "vinh," based on a poem my great grandfather wrote a while back (each male descendant is named after the next word in the poem.) my mom felt my brother was more like a vinh so she wanted to give that to him instead.

pps kinda cool my mom chose "buu." "bruce" is the name my dad gave me, "booce" is what my brother used to call me as a kid, and now finally i have "buu." b