South Koreans want Cho to be considered non-Korean because of time spent abroad

Look at a portion of this article from the Washington Post:

And from Seoul, South Koreans and their government appealed to Americans not to let the carnage generate racial prejudice against the 2 million South Koreans who live in the United States.

At the same time, a number of South Koreans noted that Cho had lived in the United States for most of his life and said that he should not be considered a South Korean even though he carries a South Korean passport.

"a number of South Koreans . . .should not considered a South Korean even though he carries a South Korean passport"???? So, should emigrating South Koreans be rendered non-Korean after some threshold of being abroad? How long are these South Koreans thinking that threshold should be?


Look, if this guy really did come over when he was 8, then he probably had no choice in the matter, as it was up to his parents whether to bring him along, or leave him behind.

Cho could've naturalized if he wanted to, but I wonder if he even thought of these concepts of nationality and citizenship.

It's all annoying legalism, which people discard whenever convenient (see my post below), and trying to box people into these defined identities.

Here is the article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/17/AR2007041701924.html

Chosun Ilbo: "Virginia Tech Shooter Was Korean"

Ugh, this article totally annoys me because of its two consecutive sentences that contradict each other!

The first two sentences of the article follow:

"The gunman behind the massacre at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia has been identified as Korean-American student Cho Seung-hui, police said. A permanent legal resident, Cho was a senior majoring in English and lived in Centerville, Virginia."

Hello!!! If he was a permanent legal resident, then he was Korean, not Korean-American. If he had naturalized and obtained US nationality, then he would be a Korean-American, or American.

Here is the link to the article:


I'm really sorry, but I can't get the "insert link" button to work right now on my computer, so the address is below:

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200704/200704180010.html

Danny Coulson on Fox

This is my first try at using a blog to "catch" something in the media right away. There was just a live interview on Fox with the anchor (I forgot his name, but it's the one that has been accused of hiding his gay sexuality). Anyway, right after speaking with Paula or Greta, Danny Coulson came on via telephone (there was no image of him talking) to discuss the newly released video clips received from Cho's package by NBC. It said Coulson was a former FBI something.

The first error was Coulson saying Cho Seung-Hui was on a student visa. However, I read elsewhere that Cho was a permanent resident and moved here when he was 8. The anchor did not correct him. Coulson was saying this in the context that Cho should've been deported after being declared mentally ill and stalking the girls.

The interview ended and Coulson said it was a failure of the immigration system to all the victims. How could the immigration service have failed when this guy immigrated as an 8 year old child and never been charged with anything since?

If Cho indeed had a green card, and not a student visa, then I am annoyed that Fox did not correct Coulson (wouldn't the anchor be on top of all the facts at this point of exhaustively covering all the events?), and I am annoyed that somelike like Coulson even worked for the FBI in the first place. With Cho's accent in the videos, it would lead me to believe he was pretty much a native English speaker, or someone who had spent a lot of time here. It doesn't seem to match someone on a student visa who just came here their Freshman year of college. Aren't FBI people supposed to be good at that stuff? This just really reduces the FBIs credibility in my mind, although Coulson is a former employee and not a current one. I wonder what his position was.

Do green cards afford more rights than student visas with regard to this sort of thing? Did anyone else catch this on Fox and make a note of it? Do people record all this live tv on their Tivos to analyze it later? It all goes by so fast, and it's hard to keep track of the rapidly developing events. Just trying to use the blog to make a small record. I would love to hear from anyone else who caught this.

Cashflow 101 Gametime Report

I arrived late to yesterday's game at the library and took over for G, a librarian, who needed to go back to work. AK was a doctor. She struggled with continually picking up duplexes and large down payment houses in the Big Deal pile, which only added to her passive income a few hundred dollars at a time. Because she was a doctor, she had about $10 000 in expenses, which is a lot of passive income to build up.

I won the game by landing on my cheese/dream, fishing in Montana, after I had gotten another $20 000 positive cashflow on the fast track from a few businesses. I got out of the rat race with two high ROI (return on investment) businesses--a coin telephone business, and a pinball machine arcade. Do people achieve 96% ROIs in real life? However, getting out of the rat race took me more than an hour, even after coming late and taking over for G. So, I am back to the beginning of the cycle in aiming to get out of the rat race in under an hour three times in a row.

After the game, LL scrambled to get to the self-storage facility before it closed to store the game over night. I stuck around at the library and found another RichDad Advisors book. It is The ABCs of Getting Out of Debt: turn bad debt into good debt and bad credit into good credit. It is by Garrett Sutton. Robert Kiyosaki provides the forward. Robert must be making a fortune of passive income from his whole series of "advisors" books; every time I turn around, I notice a new title in the series!

Cast Iron Enameled Pot

I was thinking of starting a separate blog for objects I love, but will just add them to my primary Cashflow 101 blog for now.

This pot has oak handles, attached with screws.

The orange enamel subtly changes hue from top to bottom.

The bottom reads: "Marquis of Queensburry Design, Royal Hunt, Gourmet Cookware, Made in England." There is a small horn between "royal" and "hunt"

This is one of my treasured finds at a local thrift store =)

I checked online and found this particular Marquis of Queensburry was involved in a design consultancy. It was at a time when people would buy things because an aristocrat designed it. However, the page also said the consultancy's objective was to bring good design to more people. I have no idea if this was sold in N. America.

I've been interested in cast iron for awhile. Our household has always used cast iron skillets, but I learned of dutch ovens from my wonderful fanatic professor. I'm interested in old companies like Copco.

Reminder: this is a doodad!

Current Status

Initially, I though this blog would cover my experiences playing Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow 101 boardgame. I've played about 20 games since last August, and it might be too much to try and recount all of it. Let me try and bring readers up to speed with the relevant and important points.

I think I stumbled upon Rich Dad Poor Dad in 1999 at Borders. I ordered the game a year or two later and played with my Mom once or twice, but she wasn't that interested. The game sat unused for a number of years. I went away to Boston after 9/11 and got an Associate of Arts.

In mid-2006, LL posted on craigslist asking for Cashflow 101 players, and I responded right away. We met at the library a few days later and would continue to meet weekly. Because he was still trying to recruit other players, and I wasn't sure I could make all his desired gametimes, I offered to let him keep the game so that he could have on hand should there be a game I couldn't attend. Getting the game to LL took some back and forth. He never called me and it all had to be arranged through email. When I met him at the library and saw his layers of Walmart plastic bags, I put two and two together. I asked if he was homeless, which he confirmed. Since this time, LL has stored the game in his storage locker, which he visits morning and evening to get the appropriate items for daytime or nighttime homeless life.

I am frustrated with LLs procrastination, as well as my own. I see much of myself in him, which scares me. I started this blog in October, and he was talking about startin one way before that. In fact, LL is the one who gave me the idea in the first place. LL is still "studying" magazine articles on blogging and a book called Blogwild, for small business blogging.

Every so often, we will meet several times in one week for games, as we did last week. I especially went for this after LL read the letter from Robert included in the game saying that getting out of the rat race in under an hour three times in a row is a good benchmark to shoot for. This was something specific and measurable to shoot for. Specific and measurable is criteria frequently cited as very necessary for success in goal-setting and project management literature. After playing every week with no progress in the real world, I started to press LL about where we were going, and he did finally say that we should be playing less than once weekly by the end of 2007, and spending more time on application. When LL found Robert's letter with the getting out of the rat race 3x in a row in under an hour recommendation, it made it much less vague, and me more satisfied.

I have been able to get out of the rat race (GORR) in under an hour two times in a row. Then, I broke the cycle and had to start again. I was able to GORR an additional time in under an hour before the next game which took more than an hour. So I'm at the very beginning again.

Right now, I just want to avoid LL. I sense so many hypocrisies in him and it's driving me nuts. We had some arguments which I might try documenting later and were practically flaming each other on the email. I've been told by friends before and LL himself, that I'm way too sensitive about these things. It's true that LL thinks arguing is "fun" and he's always "joking" because he thinks I'm "hillarious."

Casey Serin and Robert Kiyosaki

This is a truly amazing blog and story. Casey Serin is younger than me--he's 24 and I'm almost 28!!! He has bought several houses. It appears two deals were good, and the others were bad. These houses are available on his website. Casey's blog has his extensive story about how he got in over his head. Here is a recap of his actions covered by an amazing USA Today article. Wow!!

Casey Serin has also had the opportunity to meet Robert Kiyosaki at his Arizona offices! I found these photos from his flickr photostream with a creative commons search.

Even after all that's gone wrong, Serin still has a gutsy 2007 goal--that is, $5000 is positive cashflow by the end of the year! Wow!

Secondhand doodads and the fastest game of Cashflow 101 ever!

This afternoon I spent $17 on doodads at Savers and learned I could have saved 20% if had brought in some donations as I entered the store, so I could have saved $3.40 if I had been more mindful, plus I shouldn't have gotten these doodads anyway!

It turned out to be the fastest game I've ever played--less than one hour from start to finish. I got a positive cashflow house on my first small deal even including borrowing the down payment from the bank! I borrowed the down payment for the second house and made a $65 000 capital gain on the first one. This let me get a plex and a pinball arcade on my next two turns so I could get out of the rat race. I won by rolling a 6 on a cookware infomercial investment which got me an additional $50 000 positive cashflow in the fast track to win.

I can't believe I didn't have any kids and was downsized only once!