Something is rotten in the state of the Yellow American Grasshopper

So, I don't mean to complain (or misquote Shakespeare), but I've been in this really negative state of mind for the past few weeks and I can't quite seem to shake it off... Maybe it's just this time of year... An annual HalloWHINE, if you will. =P

I guess I'll start with REAL news: baseball. Something has seriously gone wrong in the world if the Red Sox are the dominant team in MLB and they've won TWO world titles in the last four years.

I was walking back to my apartment tonight and BOTH old cat ladies on my floor had decided to keep their apartment doors open and sit around the hallway chatting with each other. The smell of kitty litter flooded the halls and nearly 10 cats were wandering around. It made me sick to my stomach-- and kind of reminded me of the feeling I had when the Red Sox won on Sunday (not kidding...).

The fact that Joe Torre is leaving the Yankees is also pretty sad. I seriously thought/hoped that Don Mattingly would get the position-- he was perfectly groomed for the job!!-- but it wasn't meant to be. Now all I can do is wish Joe Girardi the best of luck in the position of Yankees manager and bid Joe Torre and Don Mattingly a fond farewell.

New York will miss you guys!

(And good riddance to A-Rod, who in his time with the Yankees has done ZIPPO for the team in the post season. I can call him a selfish fraud, like many columnists have, but I won't repeat the obvious. He might be a power hitter, but he hasn't won his team a World Series. =P)

In other news, I found the PERFECT character to be for Halloween, but I unfortunately cannot find the right attire.

Therefore, for Halloween 2008, I will dress as (drum roll, please)....

DOUG FUNNIE!!!! (from the 1990's Nickelodeon show, "Doug"!)

All I need are the red sneakers and the green sweater vest and I'm set!

He was always writing in his journals, talking about his life and going through the daily grind.

I really appreciate the fact that Doug was just an average guy-- a great role model for me as I was in junior high.

And the fact that he was so in love with Patti Mayonnaise really reminds me of how I was feeling about a certain someone...
I've been remembering old episodes of Doug all weekend and I couldn't get the theme song, or the WONDERFUL music (i.e. Banging on a Trashcan, Killer Tofu) out of my head.

Thank goodness for youtube!

Anyway, as promised, here are a few selected photos from my San Francisco vacation (courtesy of my wonderful May-May and her digital camera!!)...

This is me, "sliding" down one of San Francisco's highly inclined streets:

And here I am with the beautiful Meimei, in front of Alcatraz Island:

And here's your Yellow American Grasshopper, feasting on some wine grapes!!

Unfortunately, photos of my solitary bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge were taken on my disposable camera and are unavailable for online viewing at this time. (Maybe I'll upload them one day and share them with the world...).

I also wanted to mention an "Ugly Betty" moment that I had in San Francisco (of course, I didn't realize that it was an "Ugly Betty" moment until well after the fact... =P).

My friend was turning 25 and we decided to go to a chick bar. I decide to look my 'best' and threw on a tank top for the occasion-- after which I got complimented by the most inappropriate source in the world.

It was totally reminiscent of the second(?) episode of "Ugly Betty" where the title character undergoes a horrid makeover and gets wolf-whistled by some construction workers.

"ME!?!?" she asks them, with a big smile on her face. And after they nod, she thanks them!

Oh, the small things that unattractive people appreciate...

Something is certainly rotten in the state of the Yellow American Grasshopper.

I think it's my whole outlook on the world.

I'm gonna go meditate now...

Already, the crappy "personal day" and the Chinese girl dolphin...

I'm taking a personal day off to run a few errands and it's already coming out pretty annoyingly.

I was barred from this lecture I wanted to attend this morning (which, by the way, had forced me to wake up at 8AM-- I could've slept in!) by these administrators who had given me wrong information about the event. And don't even get me started on their inability to accept responsibility for their own mistake...

So now I'm sitting around a Starbucks, updating this blog (for any of you who still read this)...

One of my friends is still unable to hear from her family in Rangoon, as they have shut out all outside communications within the country to the outside world.

I don't mean to make light of a very serious situation, but Patrick Chappatte made a very telling comic about the current state of affairs on Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoons website (http://www.cagle.com/news/MyanmarMassacre/1.asp):

And I just read a story on msnbc.com about how a father bound his daughter's hands and feet, so that she could swim in China's Xiang River (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21126016/):

He claims that she *wanted* to do this, so that she could one day swim the English Channel, but a newspaper report mentioned that she came out of the cold water blue in the face.

I can't help but use this as an indictment against traditional Asian parenting. This is EXACTLY the kind of thing that many Asian parents (at least from my experience) force their kids to do, and then tell the public about how the kid did so on their own accord.

Of course, all kids need *some* sort of pushing from their parents, in order to get anywhere in life-- but Asian parents seem to take things to the extreme. And even worse, they turn it into a collective societal thing, where they're always trading bragging rights with other parents.

I could go on and on about this, but I'll stop now.

Wake me up when September ends...

So I've been pretty discontent this past week for a host of reasons...

Although I was happy to see the Yankees' successful rally into a post-season (13th year in a row! Thanks, Joe Torre!!), I was really disappointed by the Mets pathetic loss today (which team has EVER blown a 7-game lead, with 17 games to go?!?! seriously...)-- not to mention that da Bears are having a pretty shitty season so far (even after benching Rex Grossman).

Random sports news aside, things haven't been going as I've hoped and it's probably a lot in my head.

This morning, I participated in the same Tunnel to Towers Run that I did last year-- but this year, nobody I knew was interested in running... =(

I woke up about an hour before the race and got to the starting line in Brooklyn 10 minutes late. The trucks that were meant to hold our baggage had already left and since the starts of the races were staggered for different groups, I ended up next to the armed forces.

I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to keep up with some of our servicemen, but the mugginess of the tunnel (along with my extra baggage weight) damn near killed me-- and my hands were so full that I couldn't high-five the officers who were waiting in the tunnel, in tribute to their fallen bretheren.

Disappointed...

On an unrelated topic, things haven't been progressing as I would have liked with a certain someone.

I know the problem is that I'm too passive to make a power move, but somehow I wish that things would just naturally fall into place...

And I've been very disturbed by the recent civilian uprising in Myanmar-- especially the killing of Buddhist monks.

Not to sound like an old, jaded man-- but I totally don't get what's going on in the world today.

There's also a bunch of other stuff that I can't even begin describing, but this is about all I can share at the moment.

Apologies for the lack of illustration-- I promise that I'll post up photos from my wonderful San Francisco vacation soon!

Catching up...

Apologies for being MIA the past few months.

I was too busy being sexy on the beach to write on the internet. B-)

Anywho, I figured that I'd catch up on a few back topics that I missed...

First off, the men from the Doghouse Radio Show-- J.V. and Elvis (blog page: http://jvandelvis.blogspot.com/).

A few months ago, these radio COMEDIANS were fired for making supposedly racist comments against Asian Americans.

Basically, they did this prank phone call to a Chinese restaurant where they had a computer speak to the restaurant workers. They made some dumb remarks (e.g. "slimp flied lice") and being the post-Imus era, the so called "representatives" of the Asian American community got into a huge uproar which eventually led to the Doghouse show being canned (and ultimately, the scrapping of the entire radio station, 92.3 Free FM).

Counter-protesters called upon the free speech rights in the United States Constitution to defend J.V. and Elvis, but I also disagree with that.

Hate speech should NEVER be tolerated, but J.V. and Elvis' remarks were anything but hate speech.

It was a JOKE (albeit a pretty stupid one).

If the Organization of Chinese Americans wants to advocate a cause, they should be looking to better conditions for immigrant workers in Chinatowns across America or helping out Southeast Asian refugees who aren't able to obtain the resources they need to create a better lives for themselves.

It makes me sick that some activists called the firing of J.V. and Elvis a "victory for the Asian American community". They do NOT speak on behalf of anyone but their own small group and they certainly do not represent my own opinion.

J.V. and Elvis are COMEDIANS and as comedians, it is their job to make jokes-- which can sometimes fall flat. They apologized for their comments (and J.V. even mentioned his wife, who happens to be Asian American) and made it very clear that they are NOT racists. They've done this EXACT type of prank to Catholic Book Stores, Hotel Receptionists, etc. (with much funnier results) numerous times!!

If Asian advocacy groups really want to find entertainment that is blatantly racist against Asian Americans, maybe they should look no further than those moronic "Rush Hour" movies, which somehow keep topping the box office. =P

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In another Asian American-related topic, I wanted to mention that lunatic who tried to jump off the George Washington Bridge in June.

In the middle of the morning rush hour, some crazy man decided that he'd walk up the cables of the George Washington Bridge and throw himself off.

Instead of actually following through with his plans, though, he just stayed on the bridge for hours as police and fire workers tried to talk him down-- eventually climbing the cables themselves and rescuing the man.

I personally don't know what it feels like to be severely depressed, but I believe that if I ever were feeling that badly, I would never cause the type of disturbance and waste in resouces that this man caused. People were stuck in their cars on the bridge for 3-4 hours because of him!!

Someone called these values I have very Asian-- since I feel this need to cause as little inconvenience as possible for the people around me-- and I kind of wonder if it is...

We live in this culture of shame, where we are so conscious about how everyone else sees us and try so hard to hide our shortcomings.

I once came across a blog by an Asian American woman, who had some interesting insights about mental health in the Asian community (blog site: http://wrathfulgrape.livejournal.com/):

"... if there is one thing we Asians are good at, it's covering up things with a shiny perfect veneer while denying that there are very real problems that we should not be ashamed to address."

From your perspective, what does clinical depression feel like?

"I am an Asian American and in the general perception among Asians, I am not allowed to feel this way. I am expected to just pull myself up by my bootstraps and deal with it."

Sadly enough, I feel that she is right and somehow, I wish I could solve all these problems in our community...

=(

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And in a psychosis-related topic, I've been listening to these two versions of a song by my FAVORITE rocker, Ryan Star.

He has one song called Perfect which I've related to multiple times.

In an acoustic version (on his piano), the lyrics are as follows:

"Rubber bands are holding me together,

I need the perfect smile for my mother.

Look, we've done away with our disease.

When I'm dead, you'll know me by my teeth...

You're perfect now, just smile."

This version of the song (from his "songs from the eye of an elephant" album) had a very personal feel and I could just imagine someone looking in the mirror, thinking these thoughts to himself as he felt like he was falling apart.

In a newer version (on Ryan's "Dark Horse" CD), the song is performed with a live band at a concert and the lyrics sound more like he's talking to someone else (instead of to himself):

"I wish that you could see what I am seeing,

A mirror in my eyes for your believing.

I'll never know the reason that you cry.

Just know that I believe you'll be all right...

You're perfect now, just smile."

To me, I hope that it means that after being able to convince himself that he's perfect, he's able to pass along the feeling to another person...

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Anyway, that's the end of my random rambling/ranting/catching up for this cloudy Sunday afternoon...

Thanks to anyone who still reads this stuff! ;-)

Lucy Liu in a VAMPIRE MOVIE!!

One of my biggest gripes has always been the lack of Asian American representation in entertainment.

Back when I was in high school, I actually acted in a few shows and considered becoming an actor. One of my college recommenders actually saw me perform and encouraged me to apply to NYU Tisch.

But my mother, being the practical Asian parent, sat me down for a talk.

"Honey, I love you and want you to be happy," she said. "But you're an Asian male and to be totally honest, you're not good-looking enough to be successful."

So that was the end of that dream.

While many might see that as a really harsh conversation, I actually really appreciated my mom's candidness and am glad that I didn't take that path.

And after seeing the reception for a recent film starring a popular Asian American actor (who happened to also graduate from my high school), I can definitely understand the reality of why more Asian Americans don't pursue entertainment careers: the industry is just not very accepting.

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A few months ago, I attended the TriBeCa film festival and saw a movie starring Lucy Liu, called "Rise: Blood Hunter".

It was a horror thriller about a reporter, Sadie Blake, who was writing a story about teenage "vampire" cult, but ended up being turned into a real vampire herself. She wakes up in a morgue and spends the rest of the movie attempting to gain revenge against those who killed her. It was sort of like a mix of "Kill Bill: Volume 1" and "Underworld"-- but probably closer in quality to "Kill Bill."

Surprisingly, the movie was extremely entertaining and I found it especially interesting that Ms. Liu's character did not have any qualities that pegged her as Asian American; her part could have easily been played by a Caucasian actress!

But what I did not appreciate is how the movie poster completely changes Ms. Liu's face to a point of unrecognizability-- the eyes have obviously been enlarged and dyed a different color. And furthermore, the lack of promotion for this film has been extremely disheartening; "Blood Hunter" was put into limited release earlier this month and there's been virtually no word on this movie. Even clunker movies like "The Grudge 2" or "Gothika" received more marketing support than this!

I wonder if this says something about the amount of faith that the entertainment industry has in movies that are led by Asian American actors...

In case anyone's interested in checking out this flick, here's the website: http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/rise/index.html

(And just as a sidenote, I wanted to mention that Marilyn Manson and Nick Lachey both make cameos in this movie! Hahahah.)

Remembering Vincent Chin...

On the night of June 19th, 1982, a Chinese American man named Vincent Chin was attacked by two Caucasian men, Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz, who had just lost their jobs at a Chrysler auto plant in Detroit, Michigan.

They thought that Mr. Chin was of Japanese descent and blamed him for "stealing" their jobs.

On the night of his bachelor party, Mr. Chin was beaten over the head with a baseball bat by those two men.

Four days later, he died from injuries he sustained during the beating and the 400 guests, who were invited to his wedding, instead attended his funeral.

The two men who killed Vincent Chin were eventually given three years probation and fined $3,780.

This case is considered the incident that galvanized the Asian American community to start the pan-ethnic Asian American movement.

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Two nights ago, I saw a premier performance by the Pan Asian Repertory theater of "Carry the Tiger to the Mountain" - a staged documentary of the Vincent Chin case.

While I was touched to learn more about the story (I had studied it in my Asian American History class-- back in my days at good ol' U of Pee), I was seriously disappointed that today, twenty-five years after Mr. Chin's attack and subsequent death, the Asian American community has again slipped into seeming apathy.

The 25th anniversary of the case that supposedly brought together Asian Americans around the United States is barely causing a ripple in our community.

Hate crimes are unfortunately not a thing of the past and Asian Americans still experience the same ignorance and bigotry today that they faced twenty-five years ago.

For these reasons, I strongly urge anyone, who is interested in Asian American issues or wants to learn more about this case, to see the performance. It runs until tomorrow night- 25 years to the date when Vincent Chin died.

http://www.panasianrep.org/productionevents.htm?link=production

Back after a brief delay...

So I know haven't posted in a while (apologies to those who actually read this stuff!) and given that I am now a full quarter-century old, I've decided to come back!




There were about a zillion topics (many related to Asian American issues) that I've wanted to write about in the past few months, but internet access in my apartment has been limited and I was loathe to use my work time to blog. Now I have a t-mobile wireless internet account, so I might spend some more time posting.
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Some new events that have happened in between the lunar new year and the passing of my 25th rotation about the sun (and I will try to blog about all of these topics in due time...):

* Tragedy struck Virginia Tech in the form of an Asian American maniac, leaving me to question general Asian American values.

* Some lunatic tried to commit suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge during morning rush hour a few weeks ago-- causing tons of congestion and lost productivity, which made me quite annoyed. Some friends have since told me that I have "Asian ideals", as I believe that one should cause as less difficulty for everyone else, if they are really depressed to the brink of suicide.

* I met http://instantyang.blogspot.com/ writer, Jeff Yang, AND "Survivor: Cook Islands" winner, Yul Kwon, at this talk on Breaking Stereotypes of Asian American Men.

* My FAVORITE radio DJ's EVER were fired for being supposedly "racist" against Asian Americans-- which is total bullshit, since J.V. and Elvis' Doghouse Radio Show always made fun of EVERYONE (of all races and ethnicities) and was NEVER serious in its pranks.

* My interest in microfinance, especially through organizations like http://www.kiva.org/, was piqued; and coincidentally, I saw an off-broadway production, "In the Heights" (soon to be ON Broadway), that really related to this issue of investing in less affluent areas.

* I attended a Knicks game (vs. the Timberwolves) and those lewsers completely blew it.

And as these new developments were occurring in the world around us, the powers that be decided to give me more responsibility and entrust me to manage a new hire! Who woulda thunk that I'd have my own employee someday? heheheheh.

Anywho, there's just a sneak preview of what's to come. I'm also seeing a performance on the death of Vincent Chin (i.e. a Chinese man who was killed in Detroit 25 years ago-- by two white men, who thought he was Japanese and had "stolen" their jobs) in a few nights and I'm sure that'll be even more stuff to post!

Cheers to everyone!

Finishing up the year of the-- dog-house!! WHAAATTT???

So I had a pretty eventful Presidents' Day Weekend Saturday! (and apologies for not posting for a while-- internet's been down at the old studio...)

I woke up early to meet with one of my kiddies (i.e. mentees, from this Asian Mentoring Program at UPenn) at Bobby Flay's (i.e. one of the Iron Chef America) Mesa Grill Restaurant in Union Square! My little bro's applying to grad schools now and he ordered the sweet potato hash with poached eggs:

I can't believe how fast time has flown-- I had met my kid when he was just a freshman and now he's interviewing for PhD programs across the country!

Boy, do I feel old! (and jaded too-- since he's still very much involved with Asian American activism on college campuses, from which I feel so far removed...)

And afterwards, I walked over to Circuit City in Union Square see my two FAVORITE radio entertainers-- J.V. and Elvis of the DOGHOUSE Show!!

(For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Doghouse is this brilliant radio show that runs from 9-noon on weekday mornings on 92.3 Free FM-- www.923freefm.com, in case you were wondering where I stole the above photo from. The hosts are these hysterical boneheads, J.V. and Elvis, who do the greatest phone pranks and character voices in the world. One bit that they always have is a caller yelling out "DOGHOUSE!!" and they reply "WHHAAATTT???")

Of course, I was too intimidated to actually talk with these celebrities, so I just got their autographs and told Elvis that they have a great show. Check out their blog, if you have time: jvandelvis.blogspot.com

Afterwards, the day promptly went downhill... I went to see this show at radio city which had pretty good reviews:

It was a Chinese New Year Spectacular, and for the past few weeks, these Asians dressed in VERY traditional Chinese costumes were on almost every street corner in Manhattan handing out flyers for this show. I was thinking that the show would be horrid, but for some unknown reason, my mom and sister really wanted to see it.

It was definitely a lesson for me to trust my instincts more.

Not only was the show bad (it was just a bunch of talentless performers trying to sing and dance, while wearing tremendously exaggerated costumes), but there was this horrid theme of "Falun Gong is good" running through all of the songs.

(For those of you who haven't heard, Falun Gong is this religion that is supposedly being persecuted in China. The demonstrators seem to love putting together these graphic protests, full of fake blood and corpses all over the city.) All of the singing that day was about "slaying the red dragon" (a very subtle metaphor for Chinese communism =P) and "following the Way."

I wonder if it's too late to get our ticket money back...

And I also wanted to mention that I was quite offended to discover that the performers were mostly Chinese-AMERICANS!

The entire show had these garishly exaggerated costumes that only served to reinforce very ignorant stereotypes about Chinese people. The emcees were a white man (who narrated for the English speakers) and a Chinese woman (who narrated for the Chinese-speaking audience members and had this horrid accent whenever she tried to utter a word of English)-- God forbid they actually try something original and PC and have bilingual Chinese Americans act as emcees! =P

So anyway, as an Asian American, I was very put off at the idea that my fellow Asian Americans would put on a performance that was not only sloppily organized, but one that puts Asians back into these typecast roles that I've been seeing all my life.

Thumbs down to NDTV, the organizer of this horrid affair!

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So with that, I bid farewell to the year of the dog (i.e. the second such cycle, since the year I was born).

And say hello to the year of the PIG!!!

Mourning da Bears loss...

So this last weekend, I went to Chi-town to watch the big game with some proud Chicagoans, and hang out with some friends.

I was quite impressed to see the city decked out for their NFC Champion team--even the lion statues outside of the Art Institute had Chicago Bears helmets on!!!
(me with my beautiful soon-to-be doctor friend, in front of one of those lions...)

I bought a Bears hat just for the occasion and barely took it off all weekend, traveling all over the city to show my support for da Bears.

Here I am on the El (i.e. elevated train/metro) with my Michigan med school friend, who felt up my liver and let me feel her's too (while still wearing da Bears hat!):

And in front of the Millennium Park with my Fizzalicious gal pal:

And for a while, it seemed like it would be a glorious victory: Devin Hester returned the opening kickoff for a 92-yard touchdown, giving da Bears the lead-- only 14 seconds into the game!!

My native Chicagoan buddy and I were pretty optimistic!! Things were looking good at the end of the first quarter! (By the way, I HATE how my eyes are always closed on indoor digital camera photos...)But unfortunately, it was not to be and everything went downhill in the second quarter...

And worse... =(
So I'll swallow what Bears pride I had (after about 2 days in Chi-town) and take my hat off to Peyton Manning, who wins his first Super Bowl, is named MVP and can put to rest his reputation as a choker:

*Disclaimer: I have to admit that I am not a big football fan by any means, but being in Chicago and having the whole city putting their hopes on this scrappy, underdog team made me more involved in the game. And to those who swore in advance that Rex Grossman would choke: bugger off! (although you were right... =P).

Last year in review... (Part III)

A photo of my Meimei getting triple pigtails!!:

And here she is, being a fishey (i.e. pescado!!):

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An egret hanging out on a tree by the water fountain, just outside my corporate office building one day last April:

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I love Vitamin water, so I bought FIFTY-THREE bottles when Target had a sale (99 cents each!!):Here they are, laid out on my bed-- 4 rows of 13 bottles (of assorted flavors), with an extra bottle on top:___________________________
One day, I saw all these ducks outside in this parking lot by work and decided to take a few shots of them:

More stupidity in Ivy League Schools (i.e. Princeton)

So I know I said I wouldn't comment on the Princeton issue, but I had chosen to join the sea of voices writing letters complaining to the editor of the Daily Princetonian and today I received a response from them:

"Thank you for your Letter to the Editor. I hope you had a chance to read our joint statement with the Asian-American Students Association.

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2007/01/22/news/17158.shtml

Thank you,

Anna Huang
Editor, The Daily Princetonian Opinion Page"


And the editorial goes on to say again how the Daily Prince editors "regret" that people were hurt by their joke column and that they are co-sponsoring a discussion forum with Princeton's Asian American Students Association.

What really gets to me, though, is how those editors don't just apologize for their stupid mistake and total lack of common sense/foresight. They keep shirking the fact that their joke was in horrible taste and say that people don't understand/have no sense of humor, rather than take responsibility for their actions and acknowledging all of the uproar they caused.

But alas, there is nothing I can do about that. =P
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Separate from the fact that the Daily Prince's editorial staff shows pretty poor judgment, I also wanted to comment on the Jian Li case.

A few random thoughts:

1. Despite the fact that I dislike Princeton University, I have to admit that it is a pretty darn hard school to get into-- so Mr. Li is acting a bit presumptuous in feeling that he is *entitled* to a spot in their class of 2010 (at least that's the sense I'm getting from him).
   - The school probably has hundreds (if not more) qualified applicants and cannot admit everyone-- and let's face it, the admissions process can be a total crapshoot sometimes (not to mention that extracurricular activities and essays also count a lot, and can be pretty subjective).
   - Princeton is nobody's "safety" school and I think he would have a better case if he was rejected from a less selective college (i.e. the charge of racism would be more blatant).
2. However, I did go to a specialized high school that had an overwhelming minority population (i.e. mostly Asians) and I noticed every year that Princeton would always reject most of the candidates-- including some applicants who were in the top of our class and were easily accepted into all of the other high caliber schools to which they applied (e.g. Harvard, Yale, MIT, Columbia, UPenn, Stanford, Cornell, Dartmouth, Northwestern). But the few students who were accepted by Princeton always seemed to be white (and pretty WASP-ey) or a non-Asian minority. So I definitely felt that there was of something awry in Princeton's admissions policy. (And this is actually one of the reasons that I dislike Princeton to begin with).
3. And given the way that the Daily Prince has reacted to Mr. Li's case, I feel that there may be more substance to his charge of racism from Princeton University (although this is not to say that this incident necessarily legitimizes the case).

So I guess my point (at least for now...) is: Although I'm not terribly familiar with Mr. Li's case and feels that his argument is probably not air tight, I have definitely noticed something wrong with Princeton's admissions decisions. Furthermore, I believe that the Daily Prince has only further soiled the school's reputation for being inhospitable to Asian Americans.

NOTE TO ASIAN AMERICAN COLLEGE APPLICANTS OUT THERE:

AVOID PRINCETON UNIVERSITY!!

A few random Fri-Night thoughts...

There was an anti-Asian American incident at Princeton University this week and I just have to say that this is another reason that I can't stand Princeton. Other people have already articulated how I basically feel about this issue, so I won't waste time repeating my thoughts.

(In case you're interested in learning more about what happened, though: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/education/23princeton.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin.)

I had to organize this happy hour for work today and I'm realizing a strange fear I have of nobody showing up.

I was telling these coworkers about how at my kindergarten birthday party, nobody showed up-- but looking back, I don't think I've even had a birthday party when I was young. =P

Also, I tried Nobu's this week and the food was terrific! (I took Tuesday off from work to fight a ticket in Manhattan's traffic court, won the case, and went to Nobu for a Restaurant Week Lunch). The rock shrimp appetizer was scrumptious, the beef teriyaki entree was quite tastey and I loved the dessert--spice cake with milk chocolate custard, bittersweet chocolate syrup and currants.

To all New Yorkers out there: TAKE ADVANTAGE OF RESTAURANT WEEK!!

Oh, and girls are insano: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/01/25/belgium.skydiver.ap/.

Too many Asian Americans at UC Berkeley? Naw...

There was a response article by a renowned, conservative economist (who also happens to be black) about the NYTimes article on Asians at UC Berkeley.

I definitely can't re-articulate his argument as well as he can, so I'll just link you guys to his response article: http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell011007.php3.

I think he makes some great points-- AND I found out that he also went to Stuyvesant High School!

Who woulda thought?

Asian Americans in Higher Education

So there was another New York Times article this past weekend that was also about Asian American issues: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/education/edlife/07asian.html?ref=edlife.

It seems like the Asian population at UC Berkeley has burgeoned to near 50% and many people see this as a problem...

As an Asian American and someone who went to a 50%-Asian high school, I have to say that having such a homogeneous population can definitely be a challenge-- since you're ill-informed about the rest of the world and it can sometimes feel like you're drowning in a sea of FOB's and gAnGsTaZ.

BUT on the other hand, I have always found it really troubling that I am constantly at a disadvantage when applying to academic programs-- simply because of the color of my skin. Growing up in a single-parent home in Flushing wasn't the easiest of upbringings, so it's almost unfair that someone like me would be held to harsher standards.

It's become so difficult for Asians to get into elite schools that one student, Yale freshman Jian Li, is actually suing Princeton for rejecting him (despite perfect SAT scores-- on all 3 sections, near perfect grades and numerous AP courses).

It's a bit difficult for me to understand his case, since I am not quite aware of his extracurriculars or essay, but I can definitely agree with some of his points.

Apparently, "in 2005 Asian-Americans were admitted to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, at a much lower rate (54 percent) than black applicants (71 percent) and Hispanic applicants (79 percent) — despite median SAT scores that were 140 points higher than Hispanics and 240 points higher than blacks." So this definitely indicates something afoul with the system.

Unfortunately, though, I am loathe to find a solution...

P.S. I came to the stunning realization today that people are actually reading this blog, so I had to go back and edit/reword some of my thoughts. I hope I've clarified some things!!

Last year in review... (Part II)

When I originally saw my aunt's current house in Westchester, I was pretty horrified by the lopsided floors and the drunken neighbor.

However, I thought that this fire alarm looked interesting-- since I could make out a face on it. Can you also see the two eyes and mouth on the left of the circle?

April 5, 2006: I was probably feeling sick on this day, so I did not go to work.

It was a snowy day, so I took a few photos of the precipitation outside the window of a Starbucks...

Lifting the Toys "R" Us Ban...

So, Toys "R" Us reversed its decision, amidst all of our protests: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2007/01/08/2003343835.

They have redeemed themselves, in my eyes. =)

Thumbs down to Toys "R" Us!

I just saw this New York Times article about a recent promotion that the retail store, Toys "R" Us, ran: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/06/nyregion/06toys.html?em&ex=1168232400&en=ab82366494c299ad&ei=5087%0A

Basically, the promotion was a $25,000 award for the first American born in 2007, but to the corporation's dismay-- a Chinese American baby was the winner.

The parents were not American citizens, but the baby was (since it was born in the United States).

So Toys "R" Us decides to change its rules and disqualify the baby from the contest-- since the parents weren't citizens. Instead, the award went to another family in Georgia and the disqualified winners were given a $100 gift basket (which seems pretty insulting-- on top of the injury).

Now there seems to be some concern that the parents of the Chinese American baby were illegal aliens-- but that's be outside of the scope of the contest, since the award was to go to the baby.

Personally, I think Toys "R" Us should have considered this beforehand and not have awarded the prize to the Chinese American baby, before doing this actual research. Their reneging of the sweepstakes is in very bad taste, in my opinion.

And additionally, I think they should have made their rules clearer to begin with.

Does anyone else think this situation hints at racism? Or is it just xenophobia?

I am definitely in favor of boycotting all Toys "R" Us and Babies "R" us stores, until they at least rethink their actions in this situation.

Last year in review... (Part I)

So I finally figured out how to get my Motorola Camera Phone photos onto my computer and I've decided that I will share my 2006 photos (with more to come in later entries!!) with all of you readers.

Most of them are pretty random, but some tell a story...

Here are some pics of two of my best gal pals at this Turkish restaurant in Brooklyn (I was STARVING for cooked meat that night!!).

Watch as they try to display the ravenous hunger that I felt on the night of February 25, 2006:

And here they are, at the end of the night-- after we went to a Mexican bar/restaurant (which was pretty empty when we were there). Fatigue/Boredom...