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Weekly update #8: "Coaching, Inspiration, & Progress?"

Let's begin this weeks post with soccer. I'm a coach now?! I officially received my little 4 & 5 year old girls team roster last week after my background check cleared & we had our first official team practice the next day! 5 of our 7 team members showed up & I thought that was a decent turn out considering families are coming off of summer vacation & the parents had less than 24 hours notice.

This weeks entire post could definitely be one loooooong post about soccer, because I actually learned a lot in that short amount of time, but I'll try to just say a few points. First off, my daughter doesn't know much about soccer, but check out this soccer pose she went right into last week without me even giving any instruction 😂

I simply lifted the camera & told her to smile & she said, "Wait daddy, I have an idea." and proceeded to pose like this. She also decided during practice that she did not like sharing her new ball & had a small melt down. Luckily, when I got roped into this coaching gig, I was able to recruit my cousin Charlie as an assistant coach and he quickly began to lead the game of Red light/Green light we were playing while I had a little life coaching moment with my daughter about sharing.

During our practice last week I also realized, this team of girls is a group of pre-schoolers & kindergarteners & this season is going to be more about teaching them life skills, like sharing, working together, learning what your right & left foot is, what the inside & the outside of your foot is, & simply how to just pay attention & follow rules. At this level, it's more about having fun & using the game as a tool for learning teamwork. Seeing that I actually do have early childhood development schooling & I was a pre school teacher, I was able to flip that mental switch early in practice & I have a lot of fun ideas on how we can run this weeks practice. I'm actually looking forward to it as a pretty entertaining part of this week.

Moving onto a film that arrived in theaters in San Diego last week, a film called Brigsby Bear. I believe it's official release date was actually August 4th in select theaters, but my high school buddy, Ben, & I went to watch the first showing available in San Diego which was last Thursday, the 10th of August.

Ben & I actually went to school with the Director & the lead character of the film, Dave McCary & Kyle Mooney, so we were pretty stoked to be able to attend a film made by people we grew up with. And man, this film didn't disappoint! I don't say that just because of a personal connection to the film, I say that because it was genuinely really good. Scoring an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes & 4.5 stars by fans on Fandango isn't easy to come by. In fact that's quite a feat! The movie is endearing & also slightly creepy, which instantly gives it the credibility to become a cult classic. It's hard to review this film though without giving part of the story away, so I just encourage you to go watch it.

As a big fan of film, I enjoy going into a movie as blind as possible... and with this film you don't need to know any back story as you would with say, a Marvel comic based film. In this case, the less you know, the better. I feel that our expectations from Kyle being a current SNL cast member & our knowledge of the projects that Dave & Kyle have done in the past gave us a feeling that we were going to see a movie that had that sort of humor, the Good Neighbor/Lonely Island type of sketch comedy. What we saw was more on the lines of Napoleon Dynamite, or the less popular but oddly funny movie, Bernie, starring Jack Black.

Seeing that we attended the first showing in San Diego, we also received some fun give aways including a replica shirt of the one Kyle wears in the film.

I know I definitely left the theater genuinely inspired to finish some of the documentaries my buddy Pete & I are currently working on & I also got the itch to put a local crew together for short films & possible 24 hour/48 hour film festivals. You know something is good when you get that "sign-me-up!" sort of feeling.

Another part of this week that was exciting for me, was I actually had the opportunity to meet with quite a few other creative dad's this week and came up with ideas to make this site more than just my personal blog. Really starting to get a sense of what "The Creative Dad Network" could grow into. Go figure, you talk with other creative dads, & we come up with a bunch of cool ideas. Now I just have to choose what avenues will be the most beneficial for a potential growing audience & true network of creatives. But I'm particularly excited to get more dad's on here contributing to the writing aspect of the blog.

Our dad merrit badge/logo has also come together quite nicely with the help of my buddy & fellow creative dad, Todd. The goal here was to create a logo that was inclusive of some of the many ways you can be a creative, while still maintaining an adventure sort of feel. I personally draw inspiration from the mountains and I know a lot of other creatives that just need the occasional reset away from day to day dad life, so that's why we included those in the logo. The life of a father is definitely an adventure, and we hope to create a community of dad's that encourages each other to do that better.

The last part of my week wrapped up somewhat depressing, but at the same time happy to see progress within my own city. I never want this blog to become overly political, but I felt like we got a chance to see or expose a HUGE black eye for our country this past week with the white supremacists rearing their ugly head in the south. I know most reading this will know exactly what I'm talking about, but if you don't, you can simply look up the #Charlottesville hashtag and find plenty of disgusting pictures of mobs with angry faces screaming & in some horrible pictures even beating black american citizens & others who opposed this Nazi & white nationalist gathering. This truly disturbed me & I don't wish to show the images because I don't like giving these people attention they apparently are seeking.

In a few days time, I have also seen our city coming together making clear statements against this kind of hatred & Ive been able to witness the beauty of art, bring community to a bunch of confused citizens. Last night I stopped by an event being held in downtown San Diego at our county administration building & it was refreshing to hear prayers, and songs and see people united peacefully. I saw a friend of mine, who is a cop, and a SWAT team member, able to monitor the event without the need for helmets, clubs, shields or tazers, because people seemed to be there for peace.

I grew up in the south from 1st to 8th grade, & I know it is full of fun, loving, and genuinely good people, but it's past is something that is not pretty, & it was truley a shame to see, for some, nothing has changed & things have possibly even gotten worse. I know that myself & some other black friends of mine were definitely told growing up that girls we were interested in dating, couldn't date us because we weren't white. I know that certain towns in Georgia have still had segregated school dances within the last 5 years. I know that there are definitely still parts of the south that I would never want to drive through alone at night. Some may say this isn't true, but I think the events this week prove that a very ignorant & hateful way of thinking is still very much alive.

I am however grateful that I was raised in the south & in a community that generally accepted me. I am grateful I learned to say my yes sirs and yes ma'ams, and raised by a village of people that looked after me well, & to this day encourages me to be all I was created to be. I definitely had my moments where I felt out of place. I remember a time in 1st grade where two older white kids started harassing me in the bathroom calling me "Chinese boy" repeatedly and I just locked myself in a stall. Their name calling only showed me how uneducated they were and ignorant to other races, generally labeling any non-white or black kid Chinese. You want to talk about being a minority, I only knew of one other Filipino kid in the town that I lived in. There were definitely other Asians, Mexicans, & Indians, but we were few & most of us moved there because our parents were in the Air Force & stationed there. Generally, you were either white or black.

But I also know that we can move past this. Not by ignoring it, but by spurring each other on to reach out in love. I know what it's like to feel out of place, but I also know what it's like to raise my kids in Southern California, where people are generally more concerned with the fast moving pace of their own life to care what color you are. Maybe that's a bad thing, maybe it doesn't build the type of community you want to be a part of, but for me & my little mixed race family, the laid back Southern California way of life is a blessing that I can't take for granted. I also am not ignorant to the fact that we have a large community of Chaldeans & other middle eastern citizens that live here that are constantly labeled as "terrorists" just because of the way they look, that my friends is also very wrong.

One of the best parts about this city though, is the fact that if you want to talk about serious issues with someone, and you're willing to approach in with an open mind, we have a ton of chefs making amazing food around here. Let the culinary arts help settle the score 😊


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