Phochick says:

So, after much resistance, the IE has entered the world of blogging! Ah, the horror, we'll be writing raw, unedited entries with dangling participles. We'll be contributing to the growing mound of Internet garbage with useless tidbits of pop culture gossip. We'll type away at the computer, ranting about an issue without thinking about it more than a minute before we hit "Publish Post."

Okay, I've finished dissing blogs enough to be a complete hypocrite and begin my first blog entry.

The IE had an exciting night at Jumbo restaurant on Wednesday, May 16 with our 17th annual Community Voice Awards - yes, 17 years - one of the first groups to give out awards to Asian Americans in the Pacific Northwest.

It was the best dinner event ever as we were proud to honor many "unsung" heroes in our community: Mai Nguyen, Kip Tokuda, Neighborhood House and Muckleshoot Indian Tribe. We honored 1st Lt Ehren Watada with a young leadership award - named after a prominent young leader Matthew "Tatsuo" Nakata (we won't forget you Tatsuo!).

No matter whether you agree with Watada's stance or not, once you meet him, you can do nothing less than have the utmost respect for him for standing up against the man! There is not one insincere bone in Watada's body - he is a boy scout through and through - and if he says he would do anything for his country - he would! He would also never do anything wrong, so for him to say no to the war in Iraq - you know it's for a damn good reason. Thanks for coming to our event Lt, we support you!

We ate a ton of food at and made lots of money for our little non profit. Did you know Jumbo is likely the Americanization of the Chinese word for Precious Pearls? Jumbo rocks!