There will be great headlines on Nov 5.

I believe many more spectacular headlines are to come in the next four years.

Over NPR I heard
the term Manic Pixie Dream Girl for the first time. Amazingly I'm drawn to all the movies they listed
that I have seen: Eternal Sunshine, Almost Famous, Stranger than
Fiction, Garden State, Amelie.

If I had to pick my favorite MPDG it
would be Faye Wong in Chunking Express. I really don't see any wrong with bubbly and beautiful girls that "teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures". (To quote the Nathan Rabin). So I've heard that either you absolute love these characters or absolutely despise them. I clearly favor them. What side are you on? Here are a few clips to help you decide.

In response to the "Girls Are Bitches" blog entry by IsisMari.

It seems a little sad, that regardless of whether or not a girl is actually playing games, us guys will interpret any sign that you may not be speaking your mind… or hinting something and doing something else… as a game. Because dudes just say whatever it is they have in their heads. It's frustrates us when the ladies don't.

From what I have seen men tend to view trust as something that is out in the open to everyone. Women tend to view trust as something special and shared and not easily given. And I think “games” is just a term people came up with to hype that difference. Sure it makes it sound catchy and easy to relate too, but it oversimplifies things. The intentions of the woman is not truly represented if you brand her actions as a game. Also when a guy calls it a game, he just does not want to take the time to understand her better. Which is sometimes the right thing to do... to just let it go and move on.

I didn’t get a chance to read all that people commented to IsisMari's blog, but my comment was that it is a bad sign when a guy is really forceful and he believes your action to be a game. It shows that he likes games. So if you aren’t really like that, he’s not actually chasing the real you, he’s chasing a misperception of you. When the truth comes out, one can expect that sort of guy to lose interest.

Taking your time to know someone before committing to a relationship is hard. Real hard. For those of us that have chosen that path, we have keep faith that it yield a much more beautiful and meaningful relationship when we finally find that one person in our lives. I can see why it’s closely linked to folks who are strong in religious faith because it definitely takes a unique mindset. Then there are those of us who are more agnostic about religious… but still faithful about the human spirit and about life.

What keeps me going? Knowing that there are plenty of people in the world with common beliefs. Faith is chosen by yourself. Faith is sustained when you see it reflected in others.

Part of the reason I really like my job is that I'm just immersed in a
whole breath of gadgets and tools the internet has to offer. So here are two things you probably recognize:

1. Microsoft
2. Searching for Videos

But seriously... how many of you actually have used Live Search to search for videos. I admit I hadn't until my co-worker compared the different video search offerings and mentioned Microsoft had a damn good product. Microsoft bashing aside, they know how to make a good UI. I know Google favors content over fluff, but some basic layout designs can really make a significant different.

Go ahead try it yourself. Punch in a video to search for and mouse over some results. The filters are a nice touch, I think.

have you ever wondered whether the lyrics to the green day song was meant to be heard on this very day?

Well the title of this article I read pretty much says it all.

Microsoft dishes dirt on IE8 'pr0n mode'

So this InPrivate feature for the next IE will allow you to surf without your History being kept and prevent cookies from being stored. You know... to help save users the time and energy they spend of going into their settings and deleting their cached files after surfing and doing things they would rather not have people know the did... so I've heard.

And apparently there's already strong movement of this of this functionality already among other browsers. Safari already has something similar. Firefox has plug-ins for it, and considered adding it to FF3 but ended up dropping it. Come on... y'know you're going to test it out as soon as it hits the ground.

I see currents. Observations of story progressions around me. People moving in strong directions. I see many possibilities for me. I decided to draw something.

I searched around online for photos and came across a page about underwater currents to use as inspiration. The illustration above was made with one my favorite facebook applications. Graffiti. I get to doodle and share my electronic art. It even has a feature where you can play your drawing as a video... showing how sequential steps taken to develop the piece. For example you might see layering techniques taken. Well some artist have used this as a way of embedding notes and messages in bottom layers. So in my piece I put this sentence in my first layer.

"We see currents and we wonder… which path to take…"

It's not the most eloquent of words, but it's what I had on my mind. I figured out that I can embed this as a playback on my blog. Here it is below.

The notion of currents and tide relating to life reminded me of a phrase I put into several old friends' yearbooks before we all went our separate ways. The phrase was "Time and Tide". But the odd thing was, I had no idea what the phrase really meant, if anything. I took the name from a Magic card, and I thought it sounded catchy. So I finally decided to actually look up the context, and it turns out it's part of an idiom.

"Time and tide wait for no man."

Which is suppose to mean to one should act without delay. Interesting how tide takes on the symbolism of opportunities in this case.

Yesterday I got a chance to hang with two of my college buddies. One whom I had not seen in 7 years. And I found out random facts about his life, like he's done stand-up comedy before. Anyways toward the end of the night we ended up watching the Olympics together.

These Beijing Olympics have actually been absolutely phenomenal to watch. Highly entertaining and a little unreal at times. There was Lezak's clutch performance in the men's 4x100 freestyle. The much talked about .01s difference between Phelps and Cavic in the butterfly.

And last night was also phenomical with Phelps' eighth gold medal with the US victory in the 4x100 medley, and then there Usain Bolt's theatrical win in the 100m sprint. So here's what my friends and I were ragging about. The entire competition for World's Fastest Man seemed like it was much more of a show than a sport. Take for example this picture:

Now if you were running for the biggest race of your life and every fraction of a second counts, would you do any of the following?
1) Wear a beaded chain around your neck? (Powell. above far left)
2) Wear a gold chain around your neck? (Thompson. above middle in red)
3) Wear shades and have long dangling braids? (Dix. above second from the left)
4) Flap your arms out like superman, and beat your chest to show that you're the shit when you're 10 strides before crossing the finishing. (Bolt. below in yellow)

Well maybe the beaded chain doesn't fall under that category, but for most of the others it suggest that it's more important to these athletes to look good that it is to devote 100% to the sport.

My favorite part was when the NBC commentator said as Bolt circled the field after the race, "They have now gone into the realm of video game times."

So one of the featured Xanga articles spoke to dating between “Asian Girl/White Guy” and the differences between “Asian Guy/White Girl”. To quote somekoreanchick:

“Let’s face it – Asian guys do have it a lot harder in this country than Asian women.”

This implies that in America pop culture Asian women have been elevated to be seen as attractive because of their ethnicity, but Asian men not the same way. There’s a chime of truth to that.

And in one of the comments, someone pointed to a hilarious YouTube video where it suggested part of the cause was that many Asian men have low self esteem. There’s a chime of truth to that as well.

Such as with many things in this world the causes can stem from both the environment and oneself. The world is shaped by us, and we shape the world. However, rather than a discussion about relationships, I want to put the focus on a specific way I feel that Asian guys have it harder. There is a lack of relatable Asian Male role models in American culture.

Exhibit One – US Mainstream Asian Male Icons Today:

Here are the ones I can think of. These people I highly respect but do not idolize.

Yao Ming
Why he’s a hero to many: Dude are you kidding me? The guy is a towering Goliath, and rolls with the NBA big dogs.
Why he’s not my hero: I can't dribble well enough to save my life.

Jacky Chan
Why he’s a hero to many: The man is sick. Jacky kicks ass and does it in a clever and humorous way that no other celebrity can. He’s like the Fred Astaire of Martial Arts Comedy.
Why he’s not my hero: A little too funny for my taste.

Jet Li
Why he’s a hero to many: Serious ass kicker. In a much more traditional and stylish way. No joke when he’s won the Martial Arts World championship across multiple years.
Why he’s not my hero: Quite honestly. I think it’s his high pitched voice, with his accent.

Exhibit Two – US Mainstream Female Icons Today:

Here are the women I can think of. If I were a chick, I’d dig these chicks.

Connie Chung
Once of the icons of a successful and beautiful woman. Total news anchor ownage!

Amy Tan
She’s intelligent and beautiful. And her works inspired many women of our generation.

Sandra Oh
Now we’re bringing sexy into mix. Maybe the only Asian American actress that doesn’t get on my nerves.

Counterargument One – Rich Asian Guys.

So many of you will mention that outside of Hollywood, there are plenty of smart and successful men to look up to. What about some of those rich Internet company guys?

Jerry Yang
co-founder of Yahoo!
Why he’s not my hero: It’s his hair. I don’t want to be like him, if I don’t want to have his hairstyle.

Steve Chen
co-founder of YouTube
Why he’s not my hero: Umm… So if I didn’t mention his title, would you even recognize his name or face? Great dude. Just not rockstar status.

So what is it that those 3 women I pointed out have that I’m looking for in a role model, that those men do not. It’s a mix between being savvy, attractive, confident, and sophisticated. If I were to choose a word… it would be charisma.

Counterargument Two – What About Bruce Lee?


Bruce Lee
Good point. We know the man has an indestructible aura of charisma. He’s stylish… And he looks good in a suit too.

Bruce Lee in a suit

The only reason why I don’t have him as a hero is a simple one. He’s dead. Bless his soul, don’t mean any offense to the great master. But he left the world before many of us could see what impact he would have on the American Media. I might even speculate that if he were here alive today, even in his old age… he would lay the smack-down on any Asian American male stereo-type and stigma. How dare you call my brethren a bunch of pansies? Bi-otch! Ka-tah!

So What Next?

What is an Asian guy like me to do? I’ve worked at 3 large companies in my career, and just an observation… but Asian women have been much more successful in achieving the executive positions. So not only is it hard to find out-of-reach Asian male celebrities as role models, I found it hard to meet real world Asian male mentors as good role models. So my solution was the following. Look outside my race, and look outside my country.

Looking outside my race isn’t hard as it is most important to find a role model you can relate to with a given personality and style. Either that you are or aspire to be. And personality and style are never defined by the color of your skin or slant of your eyes.

Secondly is to look outside my country. I had several Hong Kong celebrity role models growing up. They are legends in their industry in their own right, they just don’t have full recognition yet in the States. But don’t you think people’s perception of Asian guys would change if these were on US Weekly and other celebrity news outlets?

Andy Lau
Renowned singer and highly accomplished actor.

Tony Leung
Hands down my favorite actor.

And in closing, I should acknowledge the my father fits the standards of my ideal role model perfectly, regardless of gender or race. I’m really fortunate to have him as my pillar of a charismatic Asian man. Not many folks have it so lucky, and my goal was to shed light on that.

Wow. The wonders of the internet. I got back in touch with a friend whom I hadn't seen or heard about in ages. Too long ago to grasp without really doing the math... But now that I really think about it... 1997 to now... that's eleven years.

It's a shame because we were good friends... just happened to lose touch. What I realized today was that reconnecting was actually really easy. We had a nice chat for over two and half hours... from general updates over to the most random things.

I think it's reassuring to know that it's not hard to do. That although the two of you may have changed in many ways throughout those years, that familiarity is still there. Once we know each other, we are never strangers ever again.