My yellow-ness and a revisiting of the Kwon-za celebration...

So immediately after I posted about Yul Kwon's Survivor win, I had a conversation with one of my really good guy friends about Yul as an Asian American male role model and he brought up a good point....

Yul (shown above with "Survivor" host, Jeff Probst) was one of the popular Asian guys. That is, he was on plenty of sports teams and was likely one of the in-crowd in high school and college. He was also a part of the national Asian-American interest fraternity, Lambda Phi Epsilon.

Now when I was in college, the Lambdas basically seemed like a group of guys who thought "We're Asian, so let's party!!" and they were definitely not my role models.

And in reality, I don't think Yul is my role model either (although I am still THRILLED that he won and remain pleased that he can be a role model to other young Asian American males out there).

When you're a young boy, it is probably easy to look to someone who seems similar to you (at least on a superficial level) and want to emulate them. However, now that I'm technically a grown up, I find that most of my close friends are my role models-- as they all possess at least several qualities that I either admire and/or wish I had more of. They may not be the same race, gender or age as me, but I feel that they are all amazing people that I wish I could be more like.

......

In another turn of events today, though, I emailed my old city councilman-- the Honorable John C. Liu of Flushing, New York.

He was one of the original protesters against the *racist* "Survivor" season and I was curious to see what his response would be-- in light of the fact that the show turned out to be a positive representation of all races and a reflection of the diversity within the United States of America.

Here was the email response I got from his office:

Thank you for contacting the Office of Council Member John C. Liu regarding this important issue. Even if the end result is one you approve of, it doesn't justify the means by which CBS irresponsibly promoted racial segregation as a way to pump up ratings (and their bottom line). While corporate apologists may characterize community opposition as "misguided," the vast majority of those who responded toour campaign supported the notion that national broadcasters must be held accountable for their actions.

Now I question whether they are being facetious with me, since I doubt anyone would consider this to be an "important issue".

But moreover, I question that last sentence-- which is basically akin to saying something like "While some elephants like to splash water on their backs, some monkeys like to jump on trampolines."

What the heck are they talking about? And just because I happen to support CBS's show and believe that they owe the network an apology for their misguided protest does not make me a "corporate apologist".

Wonderful New York City Government rears its ugly head again..

Yay for diversity of opinions in the Asian American community. =P

Brilliant Bureaucracy...

Question: Has anybody ever gone completely insane at the Department of Motor Vehicles before?

The folks at the DMV (especially in New York City) show such incompetance and disregard for customer service, that I really wonder if anybody's just ever snapped while they were there...

Celebrating the Yul-tide!!

So I got a nice early Christmas gift on Sunday!

And no, I'm not talking about my night at the Carnegie Deli (with family + Woody Allen Sandwich + Strawberry Cheesecake) and Carnegie Hall (with the Vienna Boys Choir).

I'm talking about Yul Kwon's win on "Survivor: Cook Islands"!!!

Not only has someone of Asian ethnicity won Survivor-- but for the first time I can remember, there is a positive representation of Asian American males for millions of people across the country to see.

I find this to be really significant, because growing up without a father, I personally had nobody who I could look to and say, "I want to be just like you."

I am very proud to say that for at least this moment in time, young Asian American men have somebody in the spotlight for them to aspire to be: Valedictorian of his high school, Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford undergrad, Yale Law School, McKinsey consultant, Google Business Strategy Team-- Yul's got a pretty impeccable resume!! =)

And ladies-- he was one of People Magazine's "Sexiest Men Alive" 2006 and he's single too!!

.....

My skydiving bud and I got into a debate over gmail chat earlier today, where she basically asked me " why does your role model have to be the same race as you?"

Here was my response:
me: "you don't necessarily have to have [a role model] be the same race as you."
me: "but it makes it more accessible."
me: "the same way that female role models make it easier for young girls to think 'maybe I can do that someday...'"
...
me: "someone once told me.
that I'm Asian.
so therefore, I can't get a 6-pack.
cuz Asian guys generally don't have 6-packs!
but 2 out of the 3 Asian guys on Survivor DID have 6-packs!
so it makes me feel like I actually can grow one now!"

So needless to say, I feel inspired!!!

However, it also made me think about myself...

As I was walking to my car yesterday morning, I remembered that I had auditioned for a reality television show before and looking back, I am quite glad I wasn't called back-- because I just realized that I would have been a horrible example for an Asian American male.

Despite that I'm a real person, I sometimes find it troubling that I embody some of the Asian male stereotypes (e.g. I am pretty good at math, am pretty slender and probably a bit awkward) and for that reason, it would probably be best to keep guys like Yul Kwon on the front line when looking for Asian American male representation.

AND Yul was also born in Queens, New York!!

WaY tO rEpReZeNt!!! ;-)

(I also wanted to give a quick shout out to Brad Virata, another Asian male on this past season's "Survivor"-- and a member of the final jury. He was a good-looking, athletic, intelligent, openly gay Asian American male and I am proud to be part of the same race as he and Yul.
And to anyone who might want to challenge Yul's representation as a part of the "Model Minority Myth"-- there's a pretty weak argument for that, considering that the model minority is more about a quiet, obedient, diligent race than about an individual who possesses strength, intelligence, morals and good looks. =P)

Active few days!!

So wow... I've had a pretty active weekend-- which is totally unlike me!!

In addition to the 4 drinks I had on Friday, I had 4 glasses of red wine on Saturday and went to my friend's cousin's friend's party.

After visiting a bunch of Washington museums and monuments on Saturday and Sunday, I drove back to NY-- feeling horribly ill.

However, thanks to the power of Airborne (plus a few extra hours of sleep-- I finally slept for more than 7 hours AND I took today off from work), I was cured! And just in time for my parent company's party!! =D

And again! I had 4 drinks and felt terribly drunk-- but a few glasses of water and seeing someone else throw up twice took the heat off of me.

We had dinner in Chinatown afterwards and I had a great time meeting people from other divisions of my company.

I hope I'm not turning into a total lush... I think I've drank more in the past 4 days than the entire year-- combined!! =P

Hopping around our nation's capital

So after a pretty stressful and mostly sleepless week, I took Friday off to accompany my friend to her company party in Washington DC.

So on Thursday night, I was able to rejuvenate myself by watching "Survivor" and seeing the evil white man, Jonathan, get kicked off! =)

I also got a full 7 hours of sleep that night, before making the 5-hour trek out to DC...

Last night's company party was actually a lot of fun and I think I'm starting to feel a bit more normal (although right now it's just after 10AM-- and I did go to sleep at 4, so I'm still not sleeping normally).

I think I might've hit a speedbump when one of my friend's coworkers from the DC office (she actually works in LA, but her company's based in DC) started to get very belligerent, after I mentioned that I have mixed feelings about the badness of cigarettes (considering that some smokers live till they're 90 and die from completely cigarette-unrelated causes, while some people-- like Dana Reeve-- get lung cancer without smoking at all, I just don't think they've been able to fully explain why cigarettes are bad). And I've seriously never seen a grown-up professional man become so angry and get so worked-up over an issue that he felt it necessary to a scene. At least my friend says it's nothing, though...

Anyway, the dancing was great. I had about 4 drinks (3 over my usual amount-- although spread out across an evening) and got a pretty good workout from bouncing around. (Monday and yesterday were the only days I missed the gym since last Friday...).

My friend's asleep now, so I think I'm gonna make a quick trip to the fitness center.

Time to run!! ;-)

Perfectionism...

It's weird...

I realize that for the past 2 weeks, I've been pretty productive and I can't quite put my finger on it.

I think whenever I get into one of these sucky states in life, I just tend to push through it by doing what I can to move on...

I spent 2 hours at the gym after work today. I did back, legs and arms-- and I also ran 5 miles during the last hour. I think I'm down to 165 pounds now (at least that's what the scale said, after I finished exercising and spent 10 minutes in the steam room) and I'm trying to eat less too.

Anywho, I was watching "America's Next Top Model" and I was sorely disappointed when this pretty girl-- Melrose-- ended up losing. She was a hard-worker and a perfectionist-- similar to how I'd like to see myself-- and it just gets me annoyed when they don't win (kind of like Michelle Kwan not winning the Olympics).

If I think about it, I can kind of understand that Melrose probably racked up a bunch of bad karma throughout the season, by being mean to the other girls. But it just seems like some kind of weird equation that hard work + dedication + natural beauty doesn't lead you to winning the competition (and a less-pretty, unpolished, bad runway girl wins instead).

Makes me think... =/

Sorry for no pictures tonight. It's been a long week already.

I'll try to wake up at 5AM again tomorrow to get into work early. =P

sleepless in New York's Upper West Side...

I'm not sure why, but I've been having issues getting to bed for the past week.

Since last Sunday night (November 26th), I've only been sleeping about 6 hours/night. This past weekend, I went to bed at 5AM on Friday and Saturday-- and woke up at 11AM the following mornings, unable to fall back asleep.

Last night, it was midnight when I got to bed (after a day of finishing my Kaplan GMAT study book, running 3 miles and rock-climbing with a few guys) and I woke up at 5AM this morning, unable to get back to bed.

I decided to get up and do some meditation, to try to clear my head for the day and shield myself from negative energy. And I left my apartment, feeling pretty peaceful-- having cleared my head from still thinking about these people I saw at these two parties I attended on Saturday night.

But as soon as I got onto the entrance of the West Side Highway, I noticed that it was jammed and I couldn't back out.

A car was overturned near the 79th street entrance, so I sat in my parked car for 15 minutes-- still feeling pretty peaceful.

I got to work around 8AM (traffic was fine and I avoided this accident in Stamford, CT by taking a local road...) and surprisingly, I was actually able to finish up much of my work and focus pretty well (probably thanks to the meditation).

I had dinner with my mom and sister in Chinatown and visited a friend at for a bit (and BTW, her dorm had the most annoying security officer ever! He wouldn't let me in, saying that I had to call her through the non-functioning intercom... and then when I asked him to call her through his desk phone, he claimed to not be able to-- only to have his equally stupid supervisor call her on another non-functioning intercom. The moron supervisor guard told my friend "you have a delivery"-- do I look like a friggin delivery person, given that I was not carrying any food??-- through ANOTHER broken intercom, and just presumed that she'd get the message. I eventually had to call her through my nearly dead cell phone to get her to come downstairs... Even more frustratingly, though, the security officer chased us down as we went to the elevator, saying how my friend needed to show ID and I needed to also keep an ID down there-- as a "frequent visitor," which I am NOT. Who the hell did this fool think he was??). But anyway, these gatherings were fun and the evening ended all right.

Now it's past 1AM and I am still up.

Will I wake up early again? =/

Pathetic week...

So this week ended up being pretty lame-- which isn't much worse than I actually expected.

In addition to a packed work week, I just wasted a night-- watching this HORRID un-musical about one of my FAVORITE 1990's sit-coms, "Saved by the Bell."

I won't even begin to comment on how bad the show, entitled "Bayside 2! Electric Screechio!", was. But I assure everyone that it is NOT worth watching.

My friend and I walked out of the theater and we weren't even among the first 10 to leave. =P

Needless to say, I probably could've better spent my time at work, getting more stuff done-- so that I don't have to wake up at 5AM every morning.

Oh well...