Destroy & Rebuild

A Few Reasons Why Men Prefer Asian Women. Part I

2011-12-25T16:52:00.001-08:00

The question often arises, "Why do men prefer dating Asian women?"

Whether it's asked out of sheer envy or morbid curiosity, men of all races have their laundry list of reasons. Well today I'm breaking it down for you. In fact, this is a subject area that a friend of mine and I have both explored, experienced and now firmly agree upon. It is what sets Asian women apart from females of other nationalities. Notice how I said "Asian women" as opposed to "Asian-American women". The difference may seem subtle but the "American" aspect has a significant influence on a woman's demeanor. Some positive, some negative. I am here to discuss the latter that can be attributed to American Feminism as the culprit for stripping away the cuteness and femininity that many men find so attractive in Asian women.

So let's start with cuteness first (I'll cover the other reasons in parts two and three of the series). I'm referring to what Koreans call aegyo -- a contemporary expression to describe cute and playful behavior derived from the word aegi meaning "baby" in Korean.

Here's an example of aegyo courtesy of the K-Pop group Kara.

[Update] Some of you may not know Korean. So here's a quick summary of the clip. Han Seung-Yeon from Kara who is wearing the red hat is very good with aegyo in public. Other members of the group struggle with this and attempt to show aegyo on the show. Notice the audience's reaction.

How is this NOT adorable? If you're female, seeing this might make you sick to your stomach. But remember this isn't about you. It's about why MEN like it. And if you want to compete, then you should learn to play the part.

NOTE: Do not get this confused with being submissive. Submissiveness is about being meekly obedient or passive and is probably the number one stereotype used to describe Asian women and why they're so much better than the competition. It's also the number one gripe Asian-American women make next to being viewed as exotic. Being cutesy is not equivalent to submissiveness.

For those of you who are still having trouble with comprehending the concept of aegyo think of it this way. It's same type of behavior and tonality you might use when you want to be pampered, and if done properly in moderation it is absolutely adorable and ATTRACTIVE.

Take a look at most of the American female celebrities today and they all possess this tough, independent veneer that can be pretty fucking obnoxious. You know...the Angelina Jolie, Avril Levine and Rihanna types. Besides being a total sexpot, could you imagine Angelina Jolie being cutesy? How about Avril Levine, the skater boy who said see you later boy? What about Rihanna, who is becoming more and more androgynous by the album? I swear if these women acted any tougher they'd be borderline shemales!

Why so serious? Seriously not attractive.

Don't get me wrong either. The 1960's feminist movement did some wonderful things for the advancement of gender equality. I think it's great if you're a successful woman earning your own money on par with a man's salary, owning your own home, buying your own shit and all that jazz, but going around touting that you're some "independent woman" is seriously lame. Men will recognize your independent persona without you having to make a public announcement about it. You don't need to go around telling the world that you are, just like I don't need to go around telling everyone that I'm confident. And if you really like being completely independent then pay the other half of the goddamn bill and stop bitching about how chivalry is dead. The worst would be to sing a song that relishes in your independence when your previous one was about, "Bills, Bills, Bills". Now that is Child-like and is far from adorable.

It's not like American women never had this touch of cuteness before. Remember Marilyn Monroe? My God she was the embodiment of this which is what made her so dashing physical appearance aside.

Sad to say that many women I meet these days seem to lack this trait which I find much more ubiquitous among Asian women, hence my attraction to them. Perhaps it's because the female dissenters think cuteness is fake and a sign of weakness. Well I can easily say it's about as fake as getting fake tits, but we all know women in the U.S. don't do that!

50 Female Phone Numbers. 48 Stale. Still Gaming

2011-12-02T20:33:00.001-08:00

Shocking? Hardly.

I've gotten 50 numbers in the past several months after going out 3-4 times a week and I've only been able to meet up with two. These were all cold approaches at bars, lounges, clubs, bookstores, restaurants...you name it. And after all that, I was only able to achieve two 2nd dates after initial contact. That's a 4% success rate of getting a 2nd date and guess how many of those actually translated into something further.

Z-E-R-O.

And yet, I'm still pressing onward. I've gotten rejected just about every way possible:

"I have a boyfriend"

"I usually don't give out my number to random people"

"Please delete my number from you phone"

Or better yet, the frequent no response which makes you wonder why she gave you her number in the first place. In fact, I'm surprised I haven't turned into a complete asshole yet considering the amount of work I've been putting into this Game. As someone once told me, "Learning is painful."

Sure I've had my occasional make out sessions with women the same night but that doesn't mean crap if you don't end up going on a 2nd date. Women have no idea what it feels like to be rejected the way men do. It really fucking hurts sometimes. Hell, there's even been times where I've come close to crying. It takes a lot to overcome approach anxiety and once you do, there's still an uphill battle that requires you to withstand a woman's unresponsiveness to your calls, texts, emails, messages or any modes of communication.

One would think that after 48 stale numbers I should face reality that I suck at this Game and just throw in the towel.

Until I'm married, never that.

Asian Finger Bangin' B-Girl

2011-09-25T21:28:00.000-07:00

I have to share this with you all because it's creatively brilliant. Props to Ms. B-Girl DeeDee for holdin' her fingers down on the table top dance floor!

...And ya don't stop!!

The Slanted Screen: An Afterthought

2011-09-19T19:34:00.000-07:00

I sent one of my friends Alpha-Asian's blog reposting of The Slanted Screen. He replied with an interesting afterthought I'd like to share with my readers.

Thanks for sharing.

I heard about this documentary a few years ago, but never got around to watching it. I think in some ways the progression of Asian-Americans in Hollywood was, and is, inevitable. AA's typically come from cultures that have stood the test of time. The values of these cultures - work ethic, frugality, patience, etc. - are still relevant and effective today.

Of course, these values are only part of living a truly fulfilling life in America. The values of American culture that are typically missing from AA's are the ones that we aim to cultivate in the game--rebelliousness, bravado, sexuality, dominance, etc. It's already apparent to me that AA's are generally much more attractive now than 20 years ago. The prominence of AA's will continue to evolve; and I think this is a direct result of the work of our parents and grandparents. You need a foundation of survival before you can run off and game. I believe there will be a time when AA men will pull any type of woman just as easily (more passive game; less active game). Unfortunately for us, we're not there yet, so we've got to fight the current.

Interestingly though, as with so many things in life, these perceptions shift dramatically from place to place. An asian girl I met yesterday pointed out that she didn't think I would be into her, because all the asian guys she knows only date white girls. Even my ex once commented she was surprised I was into her, because she just assumed (by my attitude and demeanor) that I only dated white girls. And this is not the first time I've heard this.

Science-fiction writer William Gibson once said, "The future is already here--it's just not evenly distributed."

Sincerely

Gaming - Track 1: PRESS PLAY

2011-09-14T21:07:00.000-07:00

"Enough about you dude. How about some stories from fellow comrades of yours?"

Glad you asked. I've decided to post this story from one of my buddies who has learned the tricks of the trade. Though the story ends with him finishing at the 1 yard line as opposed to a touchdown. Nevertheless, it is still a fantastic story.

Others can suggest limitations for us. But only we can impose them ...

Two thousand something. Me to my then-girlfriend, Asian: "I promise myself, before I die I will bury my face between a white girl's legs."

Present day. I have buried my face between a white girl's legs.

And long legs they are -- she's 5-9 in bare feet, a former model who used to get paid to tan.

We met a couple hours earlier at a party thrown by a mutual acquaintance. She made an immediate impression when she entered -- tall, outgoing, with strong bone structure and a stylish haircut.

In the first few minutes after she arrived, she managed to reveal to the room that she spoke French and had modeled in Europe for a long time.

At some point later in the evening, I suddenly found her at my shoulder. She was beaming. And indirectly asking about my relationship status: "So you've got a girlfriend -- she couldn't make it?", or something else transparent like that.

I recognized the indication of interest for what it was and kept my cool. Not only did I answer in a non-needy way, I was brutally honest -- our relationship had gone through the wringer, my heart was broken and so on. But I made clear that the split was definite, that I wasn't pining over her.

She gave me a similar story of her own. We proceeded to banter for 10 or 15 minutes about nothing consequential. Truth be told, I wasn't keeping track of conversation threads. I was gauging her interest by disqualifying myself ("What do you do?" "I'm unemployed."), putting on mini-vacuums, eye coding elsewhere in the room and varying the openness of my body language. She double- and triple-checked on the subject of whether I had a girlfriend, probably to test my congruence.

I concluded that I wasn't being nearly as interesting as her behavior made me seem. All systems go.

We'd exchange numbers, at the very least. Or that's what I figured until I suddenly saw her in the foyer, bundled up and ready to leave. She hadn't said goodbye to me, hadn't even looked in my direction.

Maybe her buying temperature had dropped. Maybe she got cold feet. Or maybe the social pressure was too high.

Only one way to know for sure.

I gave her a 10-second head start out the door, then said my own goodbyes, bundled up and left.

I was expecting to catch up with her outside. But I made it down only one flight of steps before I heard her voice, a floor below me. She had stopped on the landing.

"Are you following me?" she asked, coyly.

"No," I said when I reached her. "Are you waiting for me?"

She laughed and turned to continue down the steps.

And she reached back for my hand.

Game on.

As soon as we got outside, she put her arm in mine. She announced that she was drunk and that she didn't know where we were going (translation: "Take advantage of me!"), and I said the same, along with, "Are you kidnapping me?" Role reversal.

I noticed through all this that she was walking with purpose. And so was I.

She questioned me again about following her, and I teased her for waiting. After a couple rounds of this, she made her intentions known:

"I think you're really attractive."

That was all I needed to hear. I stopped her in her tracks, pulled her close and kissed her, tongue and all. No pullback.

Just as quickly, I pushed her away and killed the momentum by introducing everyday topics -- biographical info and the weather, for instance. I dropped in "Where do you live"? -- that oldie-but-goodie. We continued walking, and I stopped her intermittently to kiss her again.

"Let's have one more drink," she said. She needed a little more coaxing, apparently.

We passed a couple blocks without seeing a bar. Then her request changed:

"Take me to the subway. I'm going home."

Buzz-kill. I decided that if we did find a station nearby, I would send her off by herself. I wasn't up for pumping her buying temperature under the glare of fluorescent lights, with a Greek chorus of bums watching. (It was past midnight.)

But another couple blocks went by, and no subway station. She admitted that she didn't know where we were.

I took that as my cue to hail a cab. When we got inside, I kept my mouth shut. We hadn't said where we were going, so whatever directions she gave to the cabbie would be the final sexual IOI I was looking for.

To her place, she said.

The making-out resumed. Mind you, I hadn't even broached the topics of sex or going to her place at this point. But that's not my style. Some guys are dominant and highly sexual; I happen to be safe and comforting.

I have no problem with building sexual tension. But I save the explicit talk until the threshold of no return.

Sun Tzu:

The rush of water, to the point of tossing rocks about. This is shih.
The strike of a hawk, at the killing snap. This is the node.
Therefore, one skilled at battle --
His shih is steep.
His node is short.

She let loose with assorted Anti-Slut Defense phrases as the cab drove: "This is crazy!" "I just met you!" "I don't even know you!"

I said in return, "I didn't know you existed before tonight." My meaning: I'm no better off than you in this situation, and I'm not responsible for assuaging your anxiety.

The ride wore on. She went to telling me how sexy she thought I was, how much she liked my hair (amid grabbing handfuls of it).

Then she said what had to be one of the most beautiful phrases I've ever heard from a woman:

"I have an Asian fetish."

And a little later:

"I'm taking you home with me."

At her place, she was quick to get me on the couch and start stripping the both of us, with the lights full on. This woman knew what she wanted and wasn't shy about it.

After our first, unsuccessful attempt at sex, we agreed to try again in the morning. But suddenly there she was, sitting on the couch dressed in her nightie, staring past me and speaking solemnly.

"You're going to leave now. We're not going to have sex in the morning. It'll be some other morning. I would prefer that."

I may have responded verbally to this. I don't remember.

What I do remember is picking her up, to peals of laughter, and cavemanning her into the bedroom.

Gaming: PRESS RESTART

2011-09-07T00:13:00.000-07:00

My friends and I started picking up again. Yes, what some of you shun and call a scam I call fun!

It's a skill that I believe has been neglected by too many Asian-American men, because they're too busy becoming academically inclined instead of being socially inclined. That's not to say one shouldn't focus on college and their career path, but I believe that in order for Asian-American men to advance in a white and black American society they should master the Art of Socialization and Seduction.

I refer to the both of these as an art because it follows the definition of what an artform is. When I think of the word "art" I associate it with the word "skill". There are two definitions of this word. According to Google art is defined as,

1. The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.
2. Works produced by such skill and imagination.

If being able to talk to beautiful and even not so beautiful women were so easy, then why wouldn't everyone be doing it?

Plain and simply put, it's probably one of the most challenging things a man will ever do in his entire life. And in order for something to become a skill, it takes PRACTICE. That is what the Game is about. Being able to attract a woman because you're of a certain ethnic background, height, etc is not Game. It's more luck than anything and doesn't require any skill. Having a non-Asian girl attracted to you because she "likes Asian guys" doesn't require any skill just like a white guy who gets an Asian girl who "only dates White guys". What skill did you develop and perfect to become an Asian? Oh that's right, you didn't because you were born with it. In fact, you spent more time honing your SAT skills back in high school than anything else (Btw, there's nothing wrong with this either...just an example of what I mean by developing a skill. You should be focusing on your studies as a student. Don't misconstrue my point).

When you first start off doing some sort of art, it's very unnatural or robotic. As you continue your journey whether it be involving martial arts (see previous post LOL), dancing or even something stereotypical such as programming, you gradually become fluent in that artform. It is at that inflection point where people begin to characterize you as "a natural" when in fact several years ago you might have been socially inept. There are very few of us out there who are innately social creatures with the ability to socially navigate through a circle of strangers. Its daunting and in some cases terrifying. However, I've become inspired by my close friends who are all on a mission to do something bigger and better for not only themselves individually but also to the Asian-American male community as a whole.

I know for a fact that my fellow Asian brothers and I shocked everyone in the club in SoCal this weekend when people saw two Asian guys Gaming some of the hottest White, Asian, Black and Latinas in the club. And it ain't hard to tell when you see out of the corner of your eye that everyone is looking at you, because you're making out with an attractive caucasian women who is taller than you on the dancefloor!

Time to press restart and Game on.

My Only Asian Boy

2011-08-20T22:34:00.000-07:00

Wow. I find this racist, hilarious, hot, lame and totally from the 80s. I can't help but laugh. The stereotypical Chinese tunes, the reference to Asian as "Orientals" and the "Karate Chop" punchline.

After seeing the east and seeing the west, she wants to find the guy that she likes best. This girl only wants the Asian dick.

Looking Past Colorlines

2011-07-06T10:49:00.000-07:00

Diane Farr posted an article on CNN yesterday regarding interracial dating I thought I'd share with everyone here with this excerpt in particular.

Pronunciation aside, it hadn't occurred to me that Seung and I made a mismatched couple. Mixed-race yes, but I couldn't fathom that my race could make me the "wrong kind of girl" for anyone.

Yes, it was white privilege that blinded me to the fact I might be the bottom of the barrel on someone else's race card.

Who would've thought "white privilege" would become disadvantageous when dealing with Asian parents? I know a lot of Asian moms who would be clamoring to get their hands on that sort of setup, but this is where the tradition and attachment to culture overrides any kind of privilege. Now if Diane were the daughter of Bill Gates maybe that'd be a different story.

Marrying or even dating someone who is culturally distant from you can be an herculean challenge that takes work. A lot of work. Getting a beautiful girl's number, taking her out on a date...heck...even sleeping with her can be a walk in the park compared to going up against Asian filial piety forces. In fact, it doesn't even need to be exclusive to ethnicity. Would it be any less challenging for someone to explain to their parents how they should accept their significant other from the housing projects when they were born and raised in The Hamptons their entire life?

Man up fellas. It's Game time, not Lame time.

2011-06-18T22:01:00.000-07:00

Just read a post from a female reader who visited my blog (and frankly, I'm pretty curious as to who it is so if you happen to be reading this, feel free to shoot me a message).

So the point of my little post here? Asian men, stop complaining and ask us out! You may get shot down, but man up and just do it! We Asian girls want to go out with you! We don't reject you nearly as often as we reject every other race!!! This whole dating game is just a numbers racket. The more girls you ask out the more you'll eventually go out with!!

There you have it fellas. An attractive Asian-American woman who's got your back. Now it's time for you to execute. And if you can't or don't have the balls to do so, then I highly suggest you seek some professional consulting. Speaking of which, one of my colleagues is attending Asian Playboy's ABC's of Attraction bootcamp this weekend and it happens to be his 2nd time. He's progressed quite a bit since his first bootcamp experience 3 years ago, but now he's taking his Game to the next level. Now mind you, this guy is intelligent, upper middle class, sociable and does quite well with the ladies and even he is willing to go the extra mile to improve his Game. Meanwhile there are a lot of AA guys I see out there who aren't owning up to the fact that they are ultimately responsible for their own misery.

So, if anyone would like to send me a personal success story of a recent pickup encounter, please email it to me and I will gladly post it on my blog in order to highlight and commend you on your accomplishment.

Asian Fetish or White Fetish. Which is it?

2011-06-16T03:44:00.000-07:00

Here's a post I saw on Craigslist in light of the recent debate over interracial dating. I think the person who posted this comment raises a valid yet understated point because the focus has been so one-sided where white men are constantly being harshly accused of having Asian fetishes. But, isn't it the other way around? These guys thinks so.

Being a Caucasian man, I've heard the phrase, "Asian fetish," used a lot these days. It seems that everywhere I look, there are white men with Asian girlfriends and wives. I don't know exactly what the official interracial dating statistics would show, but my guess would be that the Caucasian male coupling with an Asian female is probably the most common interracial relationship in America. I have to admit, that I too am attracted to Asian women, but in my defense, I find women of all races to be attractive, and I have never found myself to be zeroing in only on Asian women.

I have to admit too, that I too am attracted to women of all races. They just need to be physically attractive. As long as there's a physical intrigue, my penis sees no color lines or racial barriers.

In a recent conversation that I had with an Asian female, in my place of work, this young woman wanted to show me a dating site that she had been looking into. She wanted my opinion on some of the perspective bachelors that she had been reading about. One of the bachelors had a picture of himself posing with what appeared to be an ex-Asian girlfriend. The first thing out her mouth when she saw the picture of the young Caucasian man with an Asian woman, was that this young Caucasian man obviously has an "Asian fetish." She rejected this particular bachelor for what appeared to be a white guy, with an Asian fetish.

In my opinion, my Asian female colleague was jumping to conclusions about the bachelor pictured with an Asian girlfriend. An Asian fetish, in my book, would constitute a Caucasian man that only dated Asian women. The conclusion of an Asian fetish cannot be drawn from just one photo, in a man's dating profile. Asian fetish aside, if a person is going to create a profile on a dating site, posting pictures of yourself with an ex-girlfriend, or an ex-boyfriend, is not a good idea.

My Asian colleague continued to show me pictures and profiles of other perspective bachelors on the dating site, and one fact really began to stand out to me. Every perspective profile that she had chosen was that of a Caucasian male. It became very evident that my young Asian female co-worker definitely has a Caucasian male fetish. As the saying goes, my Asian co-worker is the pot calling the kettle black.

Another white guy agrees with the previous poster by adding his own personal experience to the mix.

I agree that many of the Asian female-white male pairings are a result of the asian females having a white male 'fetish', not the opposite. My ex-girlfriend (asian-american) only dated white dudes. Many, like her, claim that they are open to all dating all races, but their standards for other races are so high, while the standards for whites are so low, that de facto, only the white dudes stand a chance. Just look around at many of the pairings you see. It's clearly the white guys who are on the winning side of these pairings. Therefore, how can you blame the white guys for seeking out asian women. If you can easily get an asian woman who should be out of your league vs. having to bust your ass to score with a less attractive female of another race, most guys will take the easy path. It's in our nature.

Case in point. What guy, regardless of race or nationality, wouldn't want to take the least path of resistance in the dating game? Can't hate on that. He continues...

And, I don't think that Asian American women are much different from other American women. They are not meek or subservient, just ask their husbands/boyfriends. White women are just bitter that they are being passed up and are lashing out in jealousy. All women subconsciously seek men of status and white men clearly have the highest status in the US, although in certain US subcultures that may not be the case (a whole other discussion). Asians are just more attune to the race/status correlation since being a minority makes you more conscioulsy aware of it and theirs is more of a white-washed culture. I don't see white women being that open to dating non-whites either. Again, they are 'open' to it but the standards are different depending on the race, e.g. a asian dude better be exceptional to have a shot.

Recall Freakonomics if you forgot. Men of Asian ethnicity must make 250K more on average for a white woman to consider dating them, which means what? Yes, Asian-American men do need to be exceptional. YES, exceptional and I'm trying to take a positive spin on this. Just like how AA men were taught by their first generation parents on how to be in school, AA men need to be exceptional in the dating Game as well. That means get your shit together. Get some money, get some style and execute in the field. Being exceptional should not be exclusive to education and career development but akin to all other facets of life. There's nothing wrong with striving for excellence.

Just checking in...

2011-06-10T00:16:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd check in to see how my blog is doing since I've walked away from it for awhile. Perhaps, I'm not the only one who's been busy doing things outside of blogging Asian-American issues but it seems to be a trend. Frankly, I'm quite glad to see this happening as well. That means many of us are moving past these topics and progressing on to bigger and better things like pursuing our careers goals or accomplishing personal projects. Yes, the things that create value for us besides bickering about political and social issues entailing the Asian-American population.

There still has been a lot of back-and-forth arguing about interracial relationships based on a blog I published a while back. I never expected so many readers to come across such an old post of mine to battle it out, but I guess its still an ongoing debate. Some speak of how the posters here are against miscegenation and bigoted. I completely disagree.

Look, I'm not against interracial relationships and I doubt anyone in this day in age staunchly rejects the notion of two people from different racial backgrounds getting involved with one another. Not to be flippant, that was never the argument. The argument stems from the imbalance of AMs in entertainment and the dating scene. That's it.

What's surprising for me is that I'm no longer bothered by this issue, simply because I am confident enough to date beautiful women of any ethnicity. I'm spending less time blogging about it and actually doing it instead which is much more fulfilling. And as much as I love my Asian-American sistas, she doesn't even have to be. All she has to be is a beautiful person who is R-E-A-L.

What do I mean by R-E-A-L? I mean, if you're superficial who places high value on exterior appearances and has an affinity for expensive paraphernalia, then don't pretend like you don't. There's no point to claim not to be "like one of those girls" because your personality will reveal itself in the end regardless of how hard you try to conceal it. I, along with many others, will have much more respect for you as a person if you expose the truth than to characterize your personality as being that of a tree-hugger when you're obviously not.

Asian Male Picking Up in REAL time

2011-04-10T15:48:00.000-07:00

I came across this clip on YouTube today which I wanted to share with all of my Asian brethren. I'm not really into the Game anymore but I still like to play once in a while.

Let this be a testament that you are not helpless with the ladies. It's a Game. You have to practice and hustle if you want to breakthrough the limiting self-belief that you can't date a hot chick.

Response to UCLA White Girl On Asian Rant

2011-03-17T05:24:00.000-07:00

There's been an onslaught of critical responses toward Alexandra Wallace's racist diatribe toward Asian students at UCLA. My cohort is the one who actually informed me of her YouTube video bashing Asians and how the rant went viral. When I heard first the news I became a bit angry since I thought it was going to be extremely condescending and blatantly racist. Before making any rash judgments though I had to watch it for myself, and after viewing the Wallace's clip I must say that her statements aren't completely wrong.

Could she have softened up the tone? Yes. Could she have omitted the mocking of Asians with her, "Ching Chong Ting Tong" comment? Abso-fucking-lutely. In fact, that line is what pissed me off more than anything, because I grew up having to listen to that and thought people in the 21st century would have changed the way they hear Asian languages due to globalization, the Internet, tolerance and understanding. Well it looks I was wrong.

Now I have to concur that Asians are spoiled a little too much by mom and dad. Does that make it a bad thing? Yes and no. I'm not going to get into that debate now but it is true. Secondly, I have also experienced Asians talking on their cell phones in the library which is also annoying as hell because its a LIBRARY, not a coffee shop! Let's not forget it's not just Asians who talk on their cell phones in the library though. I've seen plenty of other people of different ethnic backgrounds yapping away on their phones which could simply be a function of the Asian population majority at UCLA who coincidentally are answering and making calls in the library.

My point is, I am not angry at Alexandra. Additionally, I'm hoping she's not a bigot and want to give her the benefit of the doubt that she was simply stressed out from cramming for finals and needed to vent. The best response I've seen to her video post is the one below.

After watching her response it put a lot of things into perspective for me. Here I am complaining about a bunch of useless crap going on in my life, meanwhile the people of Japan are in shambles after a devastating 8.9 earthquake + tsunami utterly destroyed a community of people and is on the verge of nuclear meltdown. I want to say thanks to sunah17. I commend your response in taking an unfortunate racialized situation and turning it into something positive for all of us to watch.

Don't Fall For It: Women With Many Guy Friends

2011-03-11T04:24:00.001-08:00

Yes, I know you readers out there have heard of this before. The old, "I have lots of guy friends" remark that you hear a certain woman make. So what the hell does all of this mean? Simply put, these women are THE WORST. They are the scum of all scum: high maintenance, competitive and downright egotistical maniacs and like vampires, they will suck your blood dry.

Where and how did I come to such a bold conclusion? History. Not just my personal experiences because that would be very myopic. I have seen this occurrence time and time again among my homies and other friends. But let's just start with my personal experience first and I'm sure some of you fellas out there can relate.

So I recently met a beautiful girl (not a dime but silver dollar at that) who I've become friends with...sorta. The first criticism I remember her making was about how she wasn't like the girls from LA in that she wasn't "high maintenance". Now the funny thing is, I should have known better and saw that as a red flag since 1) Not all women from CA or even LA are high maintenance. In fact, I think LA has some of the coolest most down to earth girls out there in the US and 2) statements like that are usually hypocritically contradictory. Sad thing is, I actually believed her for a second. Maybe she's not high maintenance, I thought to myself. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Goddamn.

When we started hanging out her phone was constantly blowing up. I'm talking text after text, call after call, email after email and naturally so. Remember she's a silver dollar, but it doesn't stop there. When we'd go out to happy hours, she somehow knew 19 out of the 20 guys from the group and was still getting hit on by new ones left and right. All I could do was sit back and watch it unfold until it dawned on me. This girl is a hundred times more high maintenance than the LA girls that she's so critical of. She's so high maintenance that she constantly needs attention, be placed on a pedestal and have her ego jerked-off from the hands of men until she emotionally climaxes.

Don't try to play the Game with her either. If you ignore her, trust me, she has a 100 more guys who are waiting in line to give her attention. In her mind, you're just another guy who "wants me" and she'll incessantly exploit you for the sucker that you are. She'll pretend to be all sweet and girly in front of your face, but behind your back she's talking shit, calling you an asshole, laughing at your sorry attempt in trying to Game 'her and when you finally cave in and call...guess who's bringing her dinner? If it ain't you, its some other douchebag.

Usually women who have tons of guy friends will also invariably claim that they're "not like other women". For some reason, they just can't get along with other women and that women have "never liked me". Bullshit. Don't buy into this one either fellas. You know wanna know why? Every woman with tons of guy friends says the exact same shit. I kid you not. THE EXACT SAME SHIT. So how does that make her so unique from other women now? Oh right... it doesn't!

The women who are actually different are the ones who are good-looking, stay low key and have more female friends than guy friends. They don't need a barrage of men hawking at them or tending their every beck-n-call in order to make them feel worthy, because they haven't become cynical creatures fueled by their own arrogance and selfish-motivations. And as a female being friends with another one requires something that good-looking women have rarely had to do in their lifetime which is to put in the work to build a relationship. It takes a lot of effort to establish a relationship and build trust with a female especially when you've been jocked your entire life. Look what men have to endure just to get a date with a woman. You think women want to deal with the same challenges?

My response to a piece on Race & Attraction

2011-01-29T21:28:00.000-08:00

Hey Masir
No idea if you are involved in the PUA community but would like to hear your comments on this article written by PUA "Roosh" on his popular website, this guy written a few books like 'Bang' if you've heard of that one.

Anyways he talks in this article about the 'totem pole of racial attractiveness' in he writes which goes like this for men:

"Let’s start with the ranking for men, from most desirable to least desirable. If you placed a handsome representative from each category in a lineup and let the world’s women pick their favorite, here’s who would get the most votes:

European men with darker, sultry features from countries like Spain, Italy, Portugal, and France
Northern European men with light features from countries like Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, and Norway
Western men with medium features from countries like England, United States, Australia, Canada, and Ireland
Middle Eastern men with darker but slightly rougher features from countries like Turkey, Greece, Morocco, Iran, and Algeria
Latino men from countries like Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and ones in Central America
Arab men from countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan
African men
Southeast Asian men from countries like Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia
Indian men
Asian men from countries like Korea, China, Taiwan

and for women

How about if we did the list for women? It’d be similar to the mens list but with a couple changes:

Northern European women (+1 movement)
European women (-1)
Western women (no change)
Latina women (+1)
Middle Eastern women (-1)
Southeast Asian women (+2)
Asian women (+3)
Arab women (-2)
Indian women (no change)
African women (-3)

Mentions Asians here:

"why are Asian women viewed more favorably than their male counterparts? It’s because they are seen as submissive and compliant, qualities that make for a good partner. Plus Asian genetic features are more pleasing on the feminine form. And how about African-American women—do they see a boost like with African-American men? I don’t see that. Media portrayals have not been kind to them—they are shown to be combative and promiscuous. There are some exceptions to their perception (Ethiopian women fare rather well in being desired by men), but unless the African girl has a shade like Halle Berry or Tyra Banks, she will have trouble competing with other women higher on the list."

Anyway that was pretty brief compared to the whole article

http://www.rooshv.com/totem-pole-of-race-attractiveness

Am very interested to hear your viewpoint on this

This email landed in my inbox not too long ago. I was hesitant on writing up a piece on it, but I decided to do it just to reiterate that this topic is seriously getting old. In fact, I'm probably doing a disservice to the Asian-American community by revisiting it so I will apologize in advance. The funny thing is, I'm not even annoyed by it as much as I am amazed at how people out there are relentlessly in pursuit of marginalizing entire ethnic groups whether it be Asians, Blacks, Mexicans, etc.

Let me make one thing clear. Asian-American men are not at a disadvantage in the dating game, period. There was a point in time where I had this twisted view of the world where I believe that they did. Truth is, its all relative. If you think you're at a disadvantage, well guess what? You will reflect that kind of mindset and persona in your demeanor which will make you look very insecure which is an invariable formula for failure. I've undergone an enormous transformation within the last 6 months and looking back at my previous blogs and commentary on other sites its actually quite embarrassing to say the least.

Just to prove my point, I was in Virginia not too long ago and saw tons of hot AFs with AMs. Let me put that shit in bold...HOT ASIAN WOMEN with ASIAN MEN. Some of the guys these women were with were good-lookin' dudes, but I also saw others who were with women I believed to be out of their league. So what could it be? Well, it could have meant several things. 1) The guy has serious G-A-M-E and a kick-ass personality. 2) The guy has serious money. 3) It was completely serendipitous. Whatever the reason, it didn't really matter because they were with their Asian Queens and other guys were jockin' with jealousy. All in all, it made me proud and it also reinforced the notion that I must continue to take responsibility for my own unhappiness in the dating world (not that I'm saying I'm unhappy because I'm the happiest and most confident I've ever been to be absolutely sincere).

Oh yeah and last time I checked, Korean guys in substantial numbers, are sought after in many parts of the world.

The Asian-American guy and his threesome in Greece.

2011-01-08T18:15:00.000-08:00

Before I tell you this story, let me say that this is not my story by any means. Yes, I enjoy playing the field and flirting with women but I'm not quite as adventurous. Anyway, here it goes.

One of my good Cambodian-Chinese friends just came back from Greece and he had one hell of an experience. He had a threesome with a very beautiful woman and her husband. Whatever happened to the one penis per fantasy rule? Well he has no qualms about sharing a woman with another man, literally. The woman was so beautiful it didn't even matter to him.

You're also probably wondering how in the hell did he manage to pull that off? I had the same question. Apparently, because there aren't that many Asians in Eastern Europe, Asian men are viewed as being very exotic. I've heard this to be true in South America as well but I'm not 100% sure since I've never been to either of these places. I can only speak on behalf of my friends' experiences. I guess there's only one way I can really find out!

So when her husband approached and asked my friend, we'll call him "Jego", if he wanted to sleep with this beautiful woman who ended up being his wife, he nonchalantly agreed. Personally, I wouldn't have taken such a proposal all that seriously, but according to Jego he felt reassured that he wasn't going to get jacked. *shrugs*

Props to Jego though for pulling that one off because I know for sure as hell I couldn't do something like that unless I was completely inebriated. Wait, he did say he had 8 shots of whiskey...

New Years Resolution: No More Facebook

2011-01-03T01:56:00.000-08:00

Traditionally, most New Years Resolutions require painstaking efforts for me to maintain simply because I'm trying to kick a dirty habit or conversely start a good one which I don't feel like doing, but this year is different. This year I've declared a New Years Resolution which I'm confident I'll actually be able to adhere to.

My New Years Resolution is to stop using Facebook.

It's not indefinite since there are some friends I'm connected with who use it as their primary means of communication. If I absolutely must contact them then I'll have no choice but to login, but until that day comes I'm done with Facebook. D-O-N-E. I've wasted countless hours doing nothing on that site probably amounting to several weeks worth if not more. While Facebook can be characterized as a social networking tool, I find it to be more of a menacing time vortex where I'm constantly logging in, checking profiles and commenting on aimless blurbs. The worst part about it is when my so-called "friends" socialize with me in this virtual space like we're best buddies yet are inexplicably unable to meet with me in person for even thirty minutes after not seeing each other for over a year. Wow. Seriously?

Look, I know everyone has busy schedules and tons of priorities. I have mine too. But what really started irritating me is how Facebook has become a social crutch for a lot of people out there where they no longer want to interact with people the good old-fashioned way in person. No, they'd rather Facebook someone and apparently it's sufficient.

That's not to say social networking is entirely meretricious. Services such as Meetup, LinkedIn and Apple's Ping have some real intrinsic value through their services, but when the NY Times reports Goldman Sachs valuing Facebook at $50 Billion I can't help but to cry out bullshit.

A Look Back On My 2010 Blogs

2010-12-23T19:29:00.000-08:00

Looking back at my blog posts throughout 2010, I displayed a plethora of envy and resentment towards many groups of individuals. Although my arguments aren't completely without merit, when I re-read them now I have to chuckle because all I see is one angry Asian kid who wanted to vent and voice his scathing opinions regarding Asian-American IR dating disparities. Of course, there were other topics I've blogged about in the past as well, but the IR debate consumed my person to the point of sheer contempt and downright bitterness. Once I purged this sentiment from my mind, I noticed a considerable change within me.

I believe Better Asian Man has stated it best,

What I realized after my transition period is that even if all negative media portrayals of Asian American men were replaced with good ones, and even if all white male romantic leads were replaced with Asian American male romantic leads tomorrow morning, that still wouldn’t produce any tangible result for my romantic life. Even if all of that stuff I was “fighting” against went away, I would STILL have to learn how to get good with women and make myself into a better man.

This is one of those simple, yet harsh realities that I refused to acknowledge quite frequently. I would make excuses or justify my shortcomings by placing blame on residual factors such as the media or entertainment in hopes that somebody else would pave the way for me so I could just ride their coat tails. That kind of mindset has zero positive impact on my personal development and is an amalgamation of whining (unattractive) and laziness (also unattractive) in its purest form.

Imagine if a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, let alone any company for that matter, operated in a similar fashion. If the CEO went on a diatribe about how the government and his competition have an unfair advantage every quarterly earnings release instead of reaching out for help by hiring the right resources and executing on a well thought out strategy, that person wouldn't be CEO for long and would eventually fall off in the corporate world. The dating world is no different from the corporate and it shouldn't be.

To each and every one of you who have posted on my blog, contender or defender, I wish for all of your forthcoming holidays to be filled with joy, peace and brighter days ahead.

So what is teaching English in Korea REALLY like??

2010-12-01T17:54:00.000-08:00

Nowadays, guys going abroad to teach English in Asia are a dime a dozen. In these tough economic times, its actually not that bad of a gig if you consider what these programs have to offer. Go to any job site such as Monster.com or just Google, "Teaching English Abroad" and you'll get tons of hits. Here's an example of one I found online yesterday. The salary and benefits are decent for recent college graduates looking to experience life in Asia and as a teacher there.

Compensation

From $1800 ~ $2700 (per month)

Benefits

One month Bonus (after 12 months)
Free airfare
Furnished housing provided
21 Days Paid Vacation
Partial Medical Insurance Coverage
Save up to $15,000 per year <== I have no idea where they came up with this figure.

You only need to be a native English speaker with a 4-year college degree willing to travel and live in Korea. Those are probably going to be the easiest qualifications you will need to fulfill throughout your entire career.

What I always find fascinating about these Asia-Pacific based English programs is how they always cater toward recruiting white people. You may ask me, "Well what's wrong with that?" My answer, "Not all white people are extraordinary English speakers or teachers." Don't get me wrong. I'm sure whites probably do excel in English over non-whites even after dissecting SAT scores. Feel free to disprove me here. I'm curious as to what the breakdown is really like.

Let me put this in a different perspective though.

Imagine if American software companies went recruiting for programmers in Asia and all of their advertisements had nothing but Indians, since everyone knows that Indians are like the Mexicans of IT. If you're Indian, you're genetically predisposed of being good with science and engineering. Though it may be generally the case, this is where it turns borderline ridiculous. (This isn't a knock against either ethnic group. I have the utmost respect for both of them as they are hard working contributors to society.)

Back in university, one of my best TAs was a white guy who taught English in Japan and lived there for 4 years. Even he was dumbfounded by the absurdity as to how the schools he taught at disfavored native English speaking Asian-Americans from teaching sitting them on the bench majority of the time. Apparently, this preconceived notion of "White English = Right English" was a common theme at many of the schools he taught at. Eventually he gave the staff reasons as to why he believed this sort of thinking was flawed. He argued that:

Asian-Americans raised in America are just as fluent in English as him.
Asian-Americans are no less qualified to teach the language.
Students someone of their ethnic background or similar speaking the language with such fluency as an inspiration.

Granted, this doesn't mean these English teaching programs will not hire you because you're of Asian descent. Times have changed since then and the world is embracing globalization and ethnic diversity albeit advertising and marketing has not.

Alas, this brings me to the title of the topic at hand. So what is teaching English in an Asian country such as Korea really like? Ladies and gentleman, watch and learn.

Typical fight between couples over gift giving

2010-11-22T10:38:00.000-08:00

I found this on a blog called Asians Not Studying. This short really captures the essence of what men have to deal with when it comes to giving women gifts. Yes ladies, we understand that you are very sentimental beings and enjoy gifts where we put a lot of thought and effort into giving you the perfect gift. Sometimes, it just isn't that easy to convey. Hopefully the next time your significant other buys you a gift you won't be so quick to judge. Enjoy!

Asians Helping Asians

2010-11-02T04:02:00.000-07:00

Yeah yeah. I know its been a long time since I've blogged about anything worthwhile or anything period, but the fact is I've been busy working on my career. To be quite frank, I'm not in a position where I'd like to be so I've been searching for a new gig aggressively to put me back on track. Perhaps one of these days I'll divulge a bit more on my trials and tribulations in the workplace, but for now I want to focus on this cool clip I found recently.

Seeing Asian-Americans going over to to help other Asians, such as K-Popstar sensations Tae Yang, SEVEN and 2NE1 with their choreography proves once again that music and the dance is one of the best ways to unify people of all ethnicities. It also illustrates how Asian-Americans are making social progress here. If this doesn't convince you, then I suggest you checkout who's been reigning at the top of the Billboard Charts lately.

New female K-Pop group to debut with Teddy Riley production!!

2010-09-26T20:50:00.000-07:00

Source: AllKPop.com

Several months back I wrote a blog on Teddy Riley collaborating with Jay Park to produce some new music. Not sure what has become of that project, however according to AllKpop.com a new and upcoming girl group Raina is set to debut in both Korea and the U.S. under Riley's production. I've said this once before but Teddy Riley is a musical genius, "Yep yep". For those of you who don't know already, Teddy is the godfather of New Jack Swing along with a significant chunk of contemporary R&B. It's sad that not a lot of people know him as being as the key instrument behind so many popular artists: Guy, Bobby Brown, BLACKStreet, Michael Jackson, SWV, Jodeci, Boy George and the list goes on.

I just hope their debut in the U.S. actually gets some rotation on the radio. I'm not holding my breadth though since radio stations are notorious for only playing the most watered down, mainstream shit. Every song on the radio seems to get play 100 times per day. Its annoying how they don't branch out and play something that isn't being pushed my major labels. Oh well, that's a topic I'm not going to discuss now since I can go on and on how bad I think music in America has become.

Tony Hsieh: The Asian-American CEO of the Year

2010-09-24T08:19:00.000-07:00

Tony Hsieh may not be the Asian-American man of the year but he is definitely a legitimate candidate. Yahoo! published a story on their website not too long ago which really sparked my interest, because yes he is Asian-American, a male at that and in a high profile position that most Asian-Americans aren't exposed to in their careers. Whenever I read up on financial news or stories on successful business leaders, rarely do I see an AA male in the limelight. So to see Tony sitting in the drivers seat and consistently winning the online shoe business race for a renown company like Zappos, man that shit is inspiring!

Amazon purchased his billion dollar company last year and left him as CEO. He is getting paid a measly $36,000 annually to run the business which he made even prior to the acquisition. His only requirement, that he would get to run the company as a separate organization from Amazon maintaining the corporate culture he and his team nurtured. That culture is based on Happiness. He applies it across the organization, top-down to bottom-up.

If you haven't noticed already Tony has a different philosophy as a business leader than many other corporate executives that I've read or heard about. Most of the them numbers driven. How can we lower operating expenses? How can we drive revenue and increase that top line growth? How can we reduce labor costs?

The fact that he cares about his employees' well-being is a powerful statement in today's world of business. I've noticed more and more these days that the happier employees are at their company, the more likely it is to flourish and succeed regardless of the economic times. Zappos is a prime example of employing this ideology. How many times have you been disenfranchised or detracted from working at your current gig simply because you weren't happy with the way they were treating you? I bet everyone who reads this knows what I'm talking about. Even within the first year of employment, the value of a high salary may diminish very rapidly if you don't like being where you're at.

For instance, your boss is a slave driver. He is always overworking you and demanding more without commensurate reward or recognition. Any suggestion you or your team provides goes in one ear and out the other. He just focuses on the day-to-day and never looks at the whole picture. Strategy is just a word he utters as opposed to an actionable item. Career development? Ha! Forget it. No time for that in this corporate setting we have work to do!

Then there's communication. It is lacking so much that you don't know when you're getting product and service updates until you're sitting down in front of the customer asking yourself, "When the fuck did they change this?" One of my favorites though would have to be when management establishes some sort of business objective for the year and the boss doesn't translate what it actually means to the team on a working level. How does it affect the working modus operandi? Best of all, there's the annual "Ra-Ra" cheerleading speech and presentation the executives give once a year where instead of talking about how they're going to grow the business, they yap about how they need people within the organization to "step it up". Newsflash guys, but you can't pull out the "step it up" card at every all-hands meeting and expect it to be effective. After a hearing it for the fifth time, it just becomes noise and we know the imaginary bonuses you speak of are nothing but lip service.

This really makes me think about my current gig. My company could learn a lot from Tony...

Why Asian-American Men Should Feel Empowered

2010-09-12T21:47:00.000-07:00

While I was down in Irvine last weekend my friend was explaining to me how I asked one of my friends how he felt about interracial couples. Here's how the conversation kind of went.

Friend: This city is becoming predominantly Asian. Even when you go to the supermarkets here you'll find a bunch of interracial couples standing in line.

MaSir: I'm not surprised. Do you see a lot of Asian guy/white girl couples?

Friend: Naw dude. Its never like that.

MaSir: Does it bother you?

Friend: Nah, its cool. I don't got a problem with it. I mean getting all jealous over it is a sign of weakness.

MaSir: Makes sense.

That's all it took for me to realize how lame I was being. Whenever there are discussions on message boards or blogs about the IR disparity, its always about how Asian men are getting shafted and how the women are traitors. Yes yes, I've been guilty of that plenty of times before. Looking back at it now it has recently come to my attention that those feelings of envy I had displayed were signs of weakness and lack of true confidence. But why?

Let me put it this way. Have you ever seen a movie where there are two guys fighting to come out as the winner of the game? Sure you have! The prize could revolve around women, treasure or some position of power. Now what did you think of the guy who was jealous of the protagonist who was outsmarting and out-gaming him? Well if you're like me, you probably saw him as a bitter, rotten, poor-sport not to mention it being very unattractive. Most of all, this guy looks weak. Instead of investing the time to improve his game, he's off whining about some setback or unfair circumstance he's had to endure and although he may have some merit, his complaints are so loud that it drowns out anything remotely positive in his personality. The guy with true confidence and perseverance embraces defeat by training harder and longer to subdue any mental obstacles which he encounters along the way. Think of Rocky.

So why should Asian-American men feel empowered instead of feeling jealous during these present times? Before I share with you my reasons I'd like to hear yours first.

Debunking the Asian American Male Stereotype

2010-09-09T19:07:00.000-07:00

This past Labor Day weekend was awesome.

After being absent from the nightlife scene for the last couple of months, I decided that it was time for a little break from the Bay Area and go hang out with some friends down in SoCal. I called up one of my buddies from college to see what he was up to Friday evening. Surprisingly he was available during the holiday weekend and didn't have any plans to go anywhere. Perfect. My next destination; clubbing in LA.

We roll up to the spot four deep and the place is packed with Asians. The first thing I noticed is that there were a ton of beautiful Asian women (yes, my favorite) as well as some sharp lookin' Asian dudes. I was quite pleased to see this because instead of looking all ghetto or thugged out, they looked pretty alpha and stylish. Now some of you might be thinking, "Why the hell were you checking out the guys MaSir? Are you gay?"

Clubbing in LA. Good times!

First off, I'm a straight Asian dude who loves pussy, tits and ass way too much to ever be homolicious (No offense to my female readers our there. I'm trying to make a point). Think of it this way. When I see an Asian-American male holding it down on television you want to give him his props because he's representing something that goes against the stereotypical norm of the goofy, nerdy or fobby Asian male. The media does not sufficiently capture or display this Alpha Asian-American Male (3AM) demographic to the American public so naturally I was elated to see my fellow Asian brothas looking 3AM.

There was something else I noticed that night which kind of ties back to what many of the AA female pundits have been crying out about all along. Regardless of a person's skin color, girls will be girls and boys will be boys. What I mean is as much as I've been harping on the significance of ethnicity in the past, its really trivial in the grand scheme of things because Game will supersede this phenomenon the majority of the time. I think many AMs out there, including myself, have assumed that AFs should pledge allegiance to us because we share the same cultural or ethnic backgrounds. This becomes a moot point once they're out there on the market.

One of my close AM buddies is simultaneously seeing two attractive white girls and a hot Asian girl. I used to argue with him on a regular basis how Asian men have it so bad in the American media and entertainment. His response has always been the same.

"I wish my Asian brothers would spend less time complaining about that stuff and more time improving their Game. The majority of America is still white so naturally they will want to cater toward a white audience, because that's where the money is. Even if Hollywood does portray Asian men in a positive manner, how is that going to change how successful Asian men are with women? Would it be beneficial for us? Absolutely. But if Asian guys want to just ride coattails off of that image, then they're just being lazy and not taking any responsibility for their own failures."

I will grudgingly admit he is absolutely right.

Randall Park, one of my favorite AM comedians, recently wrote a piece on how he used to attribute Gedde Watanabe (aka Long Duck Dong) for much of his dating woes during his adolescent years. Just like my friend, Randall has come to embrace a similar philosophy as my friend stated above.

If only I had this understanding earlier. Maybe I wouldn’t have blamed Gedde for my misfortunes with the ladies. Maybe I would’ve blamed more relevant things like my bad hygiene or my bad personality or my insistence that Sally Lawrence could be “turned around.”

Yes Randall, there are those Sallys of the world that you just can't turn around and I hope your article (along with mine) helps other AMs realize that they should cut their losses, build some character and improve their personal hygiene, since having the cush job only goes so far to make you 3AM.

Positive Reinforcement

2010-09-02T18:14:00.000-07:00

Over the past several days I've been contemplating about my attitude towards the notion of being an Asian-American male. When I originally established my blog I had the intention of having it be a positive experience for my readers until recently where I've seemed to trail off into a negative oblivion. Just a few weeks ago I started bombing BigWoWo's blog with all kinds of negativity and criticisms toward Asian-American women, yes my very own sistas [sic]. What was originally intended to be a recourse for my fellow AA brothers to defend their ground AA women who reject us, turned into an online slug fest. I let a heated debate get to the best and worst of my emotions,

I rest my case. No permutations of “doing both” makes sense anymore. The numbers are statistically significant enough that warrant an undeniable trend. It does not happen by coincidence but subliminally driven motives influenced by external white-hegemonic factors which Asian women have succumb to. If you disagree, then as stated earlier, why aren’t there more Asian Female/Black Male couples? Why not Asian Female/Latino Male pairings?
There is no legitimate response because its the goddamn truth. You argue that “Asian women have more in common with white men on a socioeconomic level.” Well last time I checked, Asian men are the most financially well off so that throws this argument out the window.
Don’t you realize how absurd these “activists” sound and even the ones who defend them? Oh yes, its just so happens that all of my employees are white. I’m fighting against discrimination in corporate America, BUT that has nothing to do with the fact that every single one of my employees are white and I only hire white candidates.
Yes, this is how all of the so-called activists sound to us.

While reading through some of the harsh yet appropriate responses I realized I was being very self-centered. Albeit, there are other Asian-American men who can understand and empathize with me when it comes to the undeniable imbalance of AF/WM couples in North America. After apologizing to the offended parties I decided to disengage from the blog altogether, because the so-called "dialogue" was becoming an infinite loop of finger pointing, resentment, envy and eventual anger to which I was actively contributing to.

Human beings are funny creatures. We're very negative in our ways of thinking. Just look at the news for instance. There's a saying that no news is good news. Well whenever I read the news its always filled with negative headlines about how terrible the economy is or how so-and-so is getting a divorce. And predictably there I am consuming all of that crap every day. No wonder why I'm so jaded!

Now in order to change my tone and outlook on life to become a much more positive person, I thought I'd start off with my blog and I feel the title Destroy & Rebuild implies that I'm heading in the right direction. Granted its going to take an earnest effort on my part to accomplish this, but I want to outweigh the negative with positive reinforcement. I will try to focus on the positive achievements within the intercontinental Asian community, and in the process, highlight notable individuals around the world making a difference.

With that I already have my next topic in mind.

"And you wonder why Asian women don't go for Asian men"

2010-08-31T19:23:00.000-07:00

"And you wonder why Asian women don't go for Asian men". That was the subject header of the email that I received from one of my closest friends and yes, he happens to be Asian as well. "Great." I thought to myself, "Another article making a mockery of Asian men." Well not exactly, since the authors do a good job of reporting on strictly the facts. The story does however, give Americans ammunition for teasing Asian men.

CNET published an article on how Japanese men are treating virtual girlfriends to beach vacations and more. Apparently, Konami's Love Plus Plus dating sim has enthralled a number of Japanese men to the point where they spend the money on these virtual girlfriends. The players even take these virtual gals to the Atami hot spring and resort to spend some quality time with them. Some even take pictures with them.

At first glance I laughed and felt pretty embarrassed, but after giving it some additional considerations I didn't find it to be that embarrassing after all. Some of you might be vehemently against it cringing at the sight of another stereotype in the making. However, there could be some good that comes out of this. There's a stereotype out there that Asian, especially Japanese men, aren't all that affectionate towards their girlfriends, or that Asian men are workaholics and study bugs which impedes the way of spending quality time with women. Whatever it is, a 21-year-old man was quoted with saying how this could serve as a good practice for when he gets a real girlfriend. He has a valid point.

Simulation is an excellent way to learn. For example, let's take a look at pilots and soldiers. They spend countless hours behind sophisticated simulators before being unleashed into the real world performing the same acts. It offers them a fantastic means of practicing and sharpening their skills. If the artificial intelligence behind these programs is advanced enough, it could certainly serve as an aid for men who are clueless with women.

The guy who pokes fun at these men is like husband who comes home and makes fun of his wife after he see's her watching cooking. "Why do you keep watching those cooking shows and pretending? You still don't know how to cook." She responds, "Why do you keep watching porn and pretending? You still don't know how to fuck!"

Update on Federal investigation of violence against Asians at Philly High

2010-08-28T10:24:00.000-07:00

"School administrators insist that they took all allegations seriously and disciplined students when appropriate."

I'm sure Philly School District administrators took the allegations seriously. They just didn't do a goddamn thing about it. Installing security cameras and adding a few more security guards isn't enough to mitigate this kind of racially-motivated violence that Asian immigrant students have endured for the past several years.

The Philadelphia Inquirer is keeping us abreast of the recent developments in the perennial Philly High School beatings against Asian students. It states the Justice Department finds merit in the claims made by the Asian students and has advised school officials to take some action. Personally, I'm a bit disappointed with the response from the Feds because "advisory" is too open ended and quite vague of a response. However, I still have faith they will follow through with eventual mandates that are much more specific and resolute to eradicate violence, race or non-race related once and for all. Superintendent Arlene Ackerman did a fantastic job in handling these hate crimes didn't she?

Can somebody please present to her the "I don't give a fuck" of the year award and pay her another fat bonus?

This would have been the perfect opportunity for Ackerman to shine as a community leader by harshly reprimanding the students who brought such a ruckus onto school grounds and ultimately take some corrective action by establishing policies to substantially reduce juvenile violence. School is where young aspiring minds want to learn and socialize with their peers peacefully. Maybe I'm just old school (no pun intended) but I thought school, by convention, is safe haven for students. Of course, when you don't have the proper leadership in place you can throw all of that out the window. Leaders these days who actually take some responsibility and blame for their mistakes are few and far between. Regardless of the person's ethnicity, I guess people are people and sinners at that; myself included.

Nevertheless, its good press and the Philly High incidents have gained national attention. If the Justice Department decides to take some coercive measures against the inaction of the Philly School District, they could even go so far as to sue them to force change. Whatever the settlement is, it will require the school district to improve the treatment of Asian students. The light is at the end of the tunnel.

As Q-Tip once said, "Keep it movin. I ain't got no time for shuckin and jivin."

On To Something Positive: K-Pop Hitting USA

2010-08-27T11:08:00.000-07:00

Out of all of the periodicals out there, I think Time magazine has always been a little more international and cutting edge when it comes to politics and pop culture. This week the magazine boasts an article about Korean Pop music going global with the help of the internet.

Taeyang's Solar album debut hits No. 2 on iTunes R&B charts

It amazes me how times have changed since I was a teenager listening groups like Seotaiji and Deux. After entering high school and college subsequently thereafter, I took a break from listening to K-Pop altogether since there were new artists coming out every week. Keeping up with the trends was just too much for me. The only viable medium to stay in tune with the latest and greatest K-Pop heads was to ask family relatives in Korea, friends who were avid K-Pop listeners or KBS broadcasting on Channel 18. Still too much work.

I should also mention this was a point in my life where I disassociated myself from many things Asian, more specifically Korean: Korean Pride (KP), Korean music, Korean girls, etc. Yes, I'll admit that I wanted to be more "American", which in my mind meant abandoning a lot of my contemporary Korean pop culture interests. In fact, I was so far removed from Korean pop culture that when I got to college my Chinese roommates were the ones asking me about Korean music! Huh?? Who's H-O-T? FinkL? Boa? Sorry, I don't know any of them.

Then something changed about four years into my career. I took a trip back to my parent's motherland and fell in love with my roots once again, and K-Pop came along with it. Only this time, with the help of the internet, there were many people around the world who were following K-Pop artists as well. I first noticed this on YouTube watching K-Pop music videos and seeing comments from users who are from all over the world. Now that I'm back in the states, I still keep up with the K-Pop scene. If you haven't listen to a K-Pop song in your entire life you should give it a shot. The songs are catchy, dance-able and just plain fun. Here is an example:

All of these artists are extremely hard working and talented. Renown American producers are even taking notice of the talent pool and marketability of these idol groups. For instance, Will.I.Am. from the Black Eyed Peas saw one of 2NE1's music videos and immediately wanted to work with them. Back in April of this year, New Jack Swing founder and R&B powerhouse producer Teddy Riley began collaborating with Jay Park (Jaebeom) on an album. Now whether or not it actually gets released is a different story, but the act of Jay working with a musical genius such as Riley himself sends a powerful statement to the music industry - Asians have talent also, not just in math and science. And if that isn't enough to convince you of K-Pop's growing popularity and influence worldwide, then consider Taeyang's Solar album which hit No. 2 on iTunes R&B sales charts in the U.S. and No. 1 in Canada which is a first but hopefully not the only for an Asian artist!

Asian-American men get shafted even in literature

2010-08-22T23:59:00.000-07:00

I've been participating in a heated debate over the performative contradictions in Asian-American female activism on BigWoWo's blog. One of the commenters went on a search to find literature where the protagonist and love interest of the story is an Asian-American male. His findings are appalling, yet not all that surprising to say the least. Here, take a look!

From the Meet Asian American Authors book list from Amazon

The Piano Teacher: A Novel by Janice Y. K. Lee
Based in: WWII Hong Kong
Male protagonist: British White Male
Love interest: White female/Euroasian female

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel by Lisa See
Based in: Olden days China
Male protagonist: None (Though there are abusive Chinese Husbands)
Female protagonist: Chinese females
Soon to be made to a film directed by Wayne Wang (Joy Luck Club 2)

Pearl of China: A Novel by Anchee Min
Based in: Cultural Revolution China
Two female protagonists
Antagonists are Chinese males

Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah
No male protagonist/love interests?
Mainly about a rough childhood.

,b>Dragon Bones: A Red Princess Mystery (Red Princess Mysteries) by Lisa See
Based in: Modern China
Male Protagonist/love interest: White American Male
Female Protagonist: Chinese Female

Petals From The Sky by Mingmei Ye
Based in: China/US
Male Protagonist/love interest: White American Male
Female Protagonist: Chinese Female

Good Things by Mia King
Male Protagonist/love interest: White American Male
Female Protagonist: White American Female

Only Uni (The Sushi Series, Book 2) by Camy Tang
Based in: US
Male Protagonist/love interest: White American Male?
Antagonist: Creepy Asian American Male (but attractive?)
Female Protagonist: Asian American Female

My Year of Meats by Ruth L. Ozeki
Based in: Japan/US
Male Protagonist/love interest: Older White American Male
Antagonist: Japanese Male
Female Protagonist: Asian American Female, Asian Female

The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan
Amy Tan: No need for explanation here.

Sweet Life by Mia King
Male Protagonist/love interest: White American Male
Female Protagonist: White American Female

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Amy Tan Classic - The quintessential example of how to throw all Asian-American men under the bus.

Kira-Kira (Newbery Medal Book) by Cynthia Kadohata
Based in: US
Children’s book, sounds quite beautiful though. No Asian guy bashing!!!! (I think)

Wild Ginger: A Novel by Anchee Min
Based in: Cultural Revolution China
Male Protagonist/love interest: Chinese Male who turns Antagonist
Female Protagonist: Euroasian Female

The Last Empress: A Novel by Anchee Min
Based in: Ancient China
Male Protagonist/love interest:: None, but a lot of pathetic Chinese Males
Female Protagonist: Chinese Female (To be fair, Tzu Hsi is probably judged a lot harder by Ancient Chinese historians because she was a woman ruler, the men during those times have probably done a lot worse).

Unaccustomed Earth: Stories (Vintage Contemporaries) by Jhumpa Lahiri
Short stories that deals with a range of issues.
NO white saviors from what I have read.

The Space Between Us: A Novel ( Deckle Edge ) (P.S.) by Thrity Umrigar
Based in India. Indian female/Indian male?

The Namesake (movie tie-in edition) by Jhumpa Lahiri
Male protagonist: Indian American male

One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Various characters, but no Asian Male?

Itsuka by Joy Kogawa
Fight for compensation for Japanese-Canadian internments.

Telltale signs of China's rising global influence

2010-08-21T00:22:00.000-07:00

Some of you may disagree with me and that's okay, but I think this movie that I found on Angry Asian Man is a harbinger of China's (along with the rest of Asia's) global ascendancy. It looks riveting. And yes, there is an attractive white American female who plays the love interest of the Chinese dude. It's impact could be groundbreaking for the advancement of Asian-Americans in Hollywood.

Dating a Korean/Asian Guy

2010-08-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

Before I share this with you, do not take this video too seriously. Yes, not all Asian guys are like this but I thought it was hilarious. Enjoy. And yes, I totally act that "gangsta". LOL

A Flight Attendant Having the JetBlues: A Look Into American vs Asian Airlines

2010-08-11T23:42:00.000-07:00

There's been a lull with my blogging recently ever since I started this new gig. I'm surprised I was even able to keep up with it for so long, though it helps when you have people visiting your blog to comment and question about your pieces.

So what compelled me to write today was all this hoopla in the news over the JetBlue flight attendant, Steven Slater, who went into a turbulent rage and made a grand exit off the plane after a rowdy passenger became verbally and physically belligerent with him. The whole fiasco begged the question, "Would this have happened on an Asian Airline?"

The reason why I am inquiring about this is simple. Whatever happened on JetBlue, and probably almost every other major airline in America, isn't a unique case. This may in fact be a reflection of what is wrong with American society today as a whole. Let me explain.

Once upon a time, flying was considered a luxury. The flight attendants were mostly young women looking very sexy or at least very feminine. Remember this was prior to 9/11 so security wasn't really an issue. And though you were allowed to smoke, the flights weren't as technologically safe and you couldn't watch movies on your own personal TV, flying in 1950s and 60s seemed much more enjoyable. Then again, I also can't imagine the people on the flight being nearly as rude back then as they are today.

Contrastingly, when I look to Asian based airlines such as Korean, Asiana, Singapore or Japan Airlines, I feel like the customer service and quality of the flight attendants haven't strayed much from the traditional way Americans used to fly. Here are a couple of examples of the Korean and Singapore Airline flight attendants.

Now compare this what you see typically on US based airlines. Originally, I was going to post pictures up but those of you who've flown any major US airline surely know where I'm going with this. The point I'm trying to make is that American based airlines have lost their way and the tradition of flying with class. Just as a significant number of Americans has lost their way in treating others with respect while becoming more self-entitled to everything under the Sun and moon. Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine an Asian passenger dropping an F-Bomb-equivalent to a flight attendant. Its just unheard of and unfathomable.

I believe what many of us have witnessed here with this JetBlue incident is the unintended consequences of how Americans are given too much freedom and self-entitlement where even the slightest form of discomfort turns us hyper-politically correct and super bitchy (e.g. mandating school uniforms, cellphones in prisons, outlandish ridiculous lawsuits, etc). This is a manifestation of a much broader and significant societal problem at hand in America. The truth hurts.

CNN Takes Notice Of "Hollywhite" Washing (FINALLY)

2010-06-19T22:06:00.000-07:00

Wow. I never thought I'd see this on the homepage of CNN but it looks like somebody at the major news network is finally taking notice of "Hollywhite" washing of ethnic-based roles. Maybe next week they'll shed some light on Apple's incessant use of white male/Asian female pairings in their ads! The author dissects a slew of movies released recently where actors of color are unfairly neglected of playing the leading roles while being snagged up by white actors.

Andrew Wallenstein of The Hollywood Reporter appears to empathize with minority actors,

I think this stems from a long-held frustration regarding the access of minority actors to leading roles. It's bad enough that they are far less likely to be cast in those roles in general, and it's downright galling to them that in roles in which they are perceived as having a natural advantage they are still getting beaten out.

Its not just downright galling to minority actors, but also a slap in the face to every non-white American citizen who's lived here since birth. As a child, watching Bruce Lee on screen was an inspiration for many Asian-Americans. It put a spin on the way I viewed Asian men. Like Margaret Cho once said, "You don't have to study to be a doctor when you can be one on TV."

To be fair, I began questioning the diversity of minorities in Asian entertainment. The argument goes something like, "Well you don't see whites starring as the lead in Asian films." This may be true on the surface but try living there before you make such a hasty generalization. I guarantee you will see in an Asian country such as Japan bending over backwards in order to cater to white people. In fact, I've seen white and black guys in Japanese dramas starring in lead roles, on Japanese talkshows, gameshows and Japanese advertisements. Plus, we all know Japanese women are notorious for having a penchant for white American men. Seems pretty fair to me.

An Asian-American guy with the handle "Shad0wrunner" has been doing an awesome job refuting every negative comment against CNN's inquiry of Hollywhite's racism toward minorities. My favorite comment of his, "the business-world of Hollywood will eat itself." I couldn't agree more.

IR Marriage Rates On The Decline

2010-06-14T22:46:00.000-07:00

Miriam Jordan of the Wall Street Journal published an intriguing article which I found quite offensive and insulting. According to recent data trends, the number interracial marriages with whites has declined or stagnated over the past two decades. Some of you will celebrate this phenomenon, others could care less.

Now here's what I find insulting,

For years, that was also the path followed by successive generations of immigrants and children of immigrants in the U.S., including Hispanics and Asians. But new data indicate that the age-old notion of assimilation in America is slowing.
The overall number of interethnic and interracial marriages continues to grow, as taboos against it have faded significantly. An estimated 8% of all couples in the U.S. belonged to distinct ethnic groups in 2008—with more than 10% in California and Texas—a sharp increase from the 3% overall rate in 1980.
But new research concludes that intermarriage rates between Hispanics and non-hispanic whites and between Asians and whites have declined or stagnated over the past two decades, due in part to a surge in immigration that has expanded the pool of people of marrying age in those groups. Scholars call the phenomenon a "retreat from intermarriage."

Jordan is insinuating that one has to marry a white American male in order to integrate into American society. C'mon...seriously?

This is exactly why people like this are making it harder for American born Asians like me to assimilate. I grew up in a very white community, yet was frequently made fun of for being Asian. It sucks being an outcast when you're just a kid and want to fit in with everyone else. Now here I am two decades later and it seems like 1980 all over again.

And the MTV Movie Badass Star goes to...Rain!!

2010-06-08T02:24:00.000-07:00

Much props to Rain for winning MTV's Badass Star award beating out a slew of solid contenders: Sam Worthington, Angelina Jolie, Chris Pine and Channing Tatum. You worked your fucking ass off to get to where you are today. You are a true soldier and an inspiration to many of us.

Keep reppin' hard my brother.

The Best Commercial of 2010

2010-05-28T23:40:00.000-07:00

Just watch it and you'll see why.

K-Town Cowboys - I'm Diggin' It!

2010-05-28T00:48:00.000-07:00

I first heard about K-Town Cowboys from one of my brother sites Alpha-Asian and now I'm diggin' it! Sorry James, I've been agonizing waiting for the next one! I was a bit skeptical of it at first but its been pretty entertaining and fairly accurate.

What I like about K-Town Cowboys more than anything is how it depicts Asian-Americans, specifically Korean-Americans. We're normal, fun, easy-going and enjoy Gaming just as much as the next American guy. The two words I want to underscore here is normal and American. No, not the kind of shit Hollywhite incessantly shoves down our throats, but what you're more likely to find here in America.

Of course, its not going to be 100% spot on because its fiction, but the producers do a superb job of incorporating many of the real K-Town elements in the show. Some of them I actually cringe over which explains why I wasn't too fond of the whole K-Town culture growing up. Nevertheless, I can still relate. Hopefully someday you will too.

Funny Craigslist: Dummy’s Guide to Asian Girls with White Fever

2010-05-27T01:35:00.000-07:00

Last week I blogged about an unfortunate, yet amusing post about some Asian girl who got her bum-hole blitzed during some casual encounter. Up until now I've either heard or read about a vast number of Asian-American women complaining about how they're sick of meeting guys with "Yellow Fever" and treating them like an "Asian [fill in the blank]". Is it just me or does this sound like a self-fulfilling prophecy?

If you're an AA female and the only guys that you happen to date are white, then it shouldn't be all that surprising that you encounter countless guys with Asian fetishes. It's going to happen.

This is where I think a significant percentage of Asian women who act like they're disgusted when they meet guys with "Yellow Fever" have it all wrong. As much as some non-Asian (white) guys have this fetish for Asian women, the same can be said for vice versa. Its all explained in this post I found on Craigslist shown below.

Dummy’s Guide to Asian Girls with White Fever
The WHIGGIE (White Guy Groupie)
A brief profile of Asian girls afflicted with “White Fever”
ORIGINS: A subset of women of Asian ethnicity, usually found residing in major U.S. cities, although they have been known to appear overseas occasionally. Closely related to their cousins, Yellow Cabs (Japan), Gwei-Po’s (Hong Kong), Sarong Party girls (Singapore), Twinkies and Bananas.
NOT TO BE CONUSED WITH: Intelligent, emotionally-secure women who are free of identity problems, self-hate, racial prejudice and chips on their shoulders.
CHARACTER TRAITS
- Poorly developed self-identity. Pathetically insecure with themselves and their ethnicity.
- Resentment of father’s traditional, authoritarian upbringing (whether real or perceived).
- Brainwashed into believing that they, as AF’s, are more desirable than other women in exotic lotus blossom kinda way. Willingness to pander to western media sexual stereotypes of AF’s, which they perceive as marketing advantage.
- Thoroughly whitewashed. Desperate need to fit into “mainstream” (i.e. white) society and to distance themselves from their Asian heritage. Racial inferiority complex.
- Feigned air of superiority when dealing with members of own race and any other minority groups. In need of major attitude adjustments.
- Exaggerated, whiny, Encino-esque valley girl accent.
- Delusions of grandeur… “I want it all…and that begins with the right (i.e. white) guy…” Asian-American princess complex.
- Uncanny ability of determine one’s nationality, occupation, earning capacity and make of auto within three minutes of commencing a conversation.
- Exaggerated perception of white males’ value in increasing AF’s social status.
- Ignorant and narrow-minded, eager to adopt and perpetuate fallacious western media stereotypes of Asian men.
- A compulsion to trash Asians, particularly Asian men, in order to justify their autoracist tendencies, placate their guilt and bolster their self-esteem.
- Extremely shallow, self-centered, argumentative and boring.
- Disdains ethnic studies; regards it as a major threat to her carefully constructed, self-deceptive whiggie identity.
- Despises all Asian men, with the occasional exception of their brothers (after all, they share the same genes.
- Believes that racism does not exist because she, as an AF, has never experienced it first hand, or is too dense to realize it. Besides, those Asiaphiles are so nice to her (while plotting to get into her pants.
- Gets a warm fuzzy feeling when watching The Joy Luck Club, while snuggled up to her geeky Asiaphile boyfriend.
- Believes that the only reason an Asian person would disrespect her is because they are racist.
- Has lost count of how many WM’s she’s done this month.
- The wet-dream come true for socially-handicapped Caucasian nerds who are unable to attract Caucasian women.
- Threatened and insecure in the presence of any culturally-perceptive Asian person or any AM not fitting her stereotype of the quiet , marginalized, “model minority” geek.
- Fundamentally insecure, utterly confused, lacking in self respect.
- Many aging whiggies, after being used and abandoned by WM’s in favor of younger, more nubile whiggies and being rejected by AM’s who see through their transparency, develop a bitterness towards all men, period.
- Denial of all of the above.
FACIAL EXPRESSIONS: a) Look of contempt when eyes meet those of any non-white male, converting to beaming grin upon sighting of WM victim/target; b) terminal pout or c) bimboish expression that defies deep thought.
TYPICAL ATTIRE: Anything trendy, mainstream-looking and seductive (especially if it’s black and tight). Big hair (perhaps their most valuable asset) tossed with hand every 15 seconds. Wonderbra. Fanatical whiggies have been known to undergo certain procedures such as eyelid surgery, breast augmentation and vaginal tightening operations in order to increase their marketability to WM’s. Blue contact lenses and bleached blonde hair have even been sported on occasion. Note: Attire may vary depending on the specific type of WM being targeted.
I.Q: Too low to measure.
NATURAL HABITAT:
Personal ad columns (“exotic, slim, SAF seeks successful, generous SWM”), cheerleading squads, sorority houses (role: token “oriental sisters”), T.V. newsdesks, B-grade Kung-Fu flicks, trendy nightclubs (usually found necking with aging WM’s), Chinese restaurants (slumming with the WM and demonstrating that she’s “in touch with her heritage”), anywhere else frequented by White males.
TYPICAL WHIGGIE QUIPS:
Age 10: “Mom, why do we have to be (Chinese/Japanese/Korean)? Do you have to dress like that? And what’s with Dad and his accent?
Age 12: “Mom, I want an eyelid job for Christmas, okay?
Later on…
“I’ve always only dated white guys. I don’t know why, I just have.”
“Race doesn’t matter. I just happen to like white guys. It’s just a preference.”
“We are the world, we are the children…We…”
“I’ve gone out with all kinds of guys…Dutch, English, French, German, you name it. Even went out with a Jewish guy once! After all, love is color blind.”
“Eeeew, Jennifer, how could you go out with that (insert minority group here) guy!?” Totally gross!
“Oooh Roger, you’re like soooo strong and intelligent. Did you say you drive a beemer? Kewl! (giggle).”
“I want to learn English better…you maybe teach, handsome man? Are you U.S. citizen?” (Yes FOB’s can be whiggies too!)
“Like why would I want to go out with an Asian guy? They don’t own me or anything. Uhh, and besides they are all male chauvinist …and domineering too…yeah that’s it! Didn’t you see The Joy Luck Club?”
Like, I’m dating *out* of my race, so how can I be racists?!! Duh!!
CLOSELY RELATED TO: Racists, bigots, wannabes, ho’s, chameleons, white supremacists, a fish out of water.
MEDIA REPRESENTATION/ROLE MODELS: Connie Chung, Amy Tan, Lisa Ling, Margaret Cho, Sheryl Wu Dunn, any of The Joy Luck Club protagonists (except the one who married an Asian dude).
NATURAL COUNTERPARTS: Asiaphiles…who else?

I didn't write it but I agree with about 90% of it. He should've added Esther Ku and Michelle Malkin to this list of "MEDIA REPRESENTATION/ROLE MODELS".

Boycotting "The Last Airbender"

2010-05-23T21:44:00.000-07:00

Go Racebending.com! Let's smash this illegitimate representation of Asians in Hollywood. I already signed the petition in boycotting this movie last year due to Hollywhite's recent advertising blitz around The Last Airbender, and I figured I would let all of my readers know exactly how I feel about the casting for this movie.

It is a slap in the face to every Asian-American. We are still the outsider who cannot play a leading role in 2010. It is a slap in the face to the fans of Nickelodeon's animated Avatar: The Last Airbender series who expected the movie to stay true to its creators. Most importantly, it is a slap in the face to every white American who is not racist, but must now be associated with this group by convention of ethnicity.

The perpetual portrayal of Asian males as villains, nerds, FOBs or extras is just another instrument the "powers that be" used to paint us as trivial members of society. We are Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man". In fact, when I see a cast for a movie as blockbuster as this one its as if Hollywhite is saying,

C'mon...You know how it is...We just can't have Asian-Americans, especially Asian men, shown in a sexy, charismatic or positive light. Its one of the few ways we can continue brainwashing women of color that we are the best. By the way, I'm dating some hot Asian chick I met through extra casting.

Doesn't Paramount remember how well Dragonball-Z did? I wonder if the execs at Paramount know its now 2010.

Grace Park is awesome

2010-05-19T19:25:00.000-07:00

Grace Park is beautiful. I don't say that too often since I don't find Asian women all that beautiful. Cute and pretty yes, but beautiful is a little bit tougher to come by. Don't ask me what the difference is because that's another discussion altogether it itself. So the first time I saw her was on a Canadian TV teen show called Edgemont and it was love at first sight. Okay, maybe not LOVE but I guess you could say I was a bit infatuated with her. She had a refreshing look with a demeanor of the all-Canadian-Asian girl which is quite different from the US. If you go to Canada, you'll know what I'm talking about.

NOTE: I love Canadian TV shows because they're much more ethnically diverse as opposed to the US. Everyone should watch Edgemont if you get the chance. If Canadian hotties such as Grace Park, Kristin Kreuk, Sarah Lind, etc. aren't good enough reasons for you to watch it, then I can't help you.

I think the role that took her career to the next level was starring as Number 8 and Boomer in the hit TV series, Battlestar Galactica. My friend was a huge fan of that show. I was never into SciFi all that much besides Star Wars but given the rave reviews from critics and viewers alike, I should probably watch it sometime when I get the chance.

Then just today I read online that she's going to be playing in a remake of the 1960s TV series Hawaii Five-0. I wasn't even born when the show came on but I do know it was famous, because everyone uses that term "5.0" when referring to cops. In addition, its notable theme song.

Congratulations on your new starring role in Hawaii Five-0!! Much love and success to ya.

P.S. Gain about 10 lbs. for me my Grace. As beautiful as you are, yes, a few lbs here and there wouldn't hurt.

Ouch!! That must've hurt.

2010-05-15T18:49:00.000-07:00

I came across an interesting rant on Craigslist and thought I'd share it with you. It hurts reading this. No pun intended. Word of advice to the Asian ladies who meet guys with yellow fever. You might want to clench your butt cheeks extra hard just in case you encounter a fetishizing, Asian female ass-fucker. Ouch!

To the guy who fucked me last night, FUCK YOU.

Look, I understand you have a thing for asian girls. When it comes down to it, I suppose I have a thing for white guys, even ones as old as you. And there I was last night with two of my Korean friends, and yeah, they did look hot, and yeah, I thought so too, so it didn't really bother me that you kept referring to us as the hottie asian chicks; that's why we're freakin on each other. Besides, I've gone down on white chicks and even though I was only doing it because I thought he'd like it, I'd much rather go down on either of them so I suppose I have a thing for asian girls too.

I can even deal with the asian themed porn back at your apartment. I used to please my ex-boyfriend and he'd watch asian porn. I can even handle butt sex. There are times when I've almost enjoyed it, but really I'm just tolerating it, because I like pleasing a cock.

But please, don't just cram your fucking dick into my ass without any lube or prep. There's a reason that porn whore can do it. Because she's a fucking PORN WHORE who takes money in exchange for never being able to shit again. That reminds me, when you're fucking a girl in the ass, but didn't give her any money, she's a SLUT, not a WHORE. You called me and "asian whore" like fifty times before you came, and as uncomfortable as that butt sex was, I was thinking "And I'm fucking ESL." And the way you came, pulling my hair and slapping my face with your dick: not fun for me. Remember, you did NOT prep my ass, so your dick was covered with shit. There is no way I was going to suck it no matter how hard you pulled my hair.

Pretty much the only good thing about that sex was that it was at your apartment, so I could call a cab and leave without calling the police and being forced to file a rape charge that would ruin my family just to get you out the door.

When that is the standard, you're a pretty lame fuck and that's probably the reason you don't have a girlfriend. You're a lame fuck who's been lost to a fantasy world and now confuses having fun with watching a porn whore. You're a lame fuck who raped me when, under the right circumstances, I would have gotten an enema, lubed up, and let you sodomize me. I know my friends told you that I'm on the rebound and I wanted to get laid. I wanted to get laid all weekend, and you seemed pretty nice, handsome, and your apartment didn't scare the shit out of me, so you would do, and if not, well there's Saturday night, also. You just fucked it up for all the cool guys who could have gotten a freaky weekend of NSA pussy, because now my asshole hurts and I fucking HATE MEN!

Cunt Punters vs Cock Blockers

2010-05-06T23:22:00.000-07:00

I never thought another female would serve as an even bigger obstacle than another guy when trying to game a girl with a group of her female friends in a night time venue.

A couple weekends ago I was out with one of my buddies hitting up a bunch of different bars and clubs in the city. He's been single for a while now trying to get back in the game so I figured I'd be his wing for the evening. I played defense for him several times which gave him the opportunity to isolate his target and get a phone number at the very least. However, it made me realize how difficult it is to be successful if you don't have the support of your friends when there's an additional female player in the mix. This isn't to say you cannot be successful gaming in solitude such as Asian Playboy and Mystery have proven time and time again, but having someone there to play "D" is pretty valuable when you have Cock Blockers and Cunt Punters hindering your chances.

And now, I don't know what's worse. I feel like women who've punted me or my friends are more challenging to deal with because I have to gain their trust. Its tough enough as it is to gain the trust of one female, but her friends too? Yikes! Most guys are pretty cool with opening up and socializing with you, but women find every guy threatening. Its really weird. Is there a jealousy factor involved? I don't know.

So my friend tried hitting on one of these girls that night. She gave him the cold shoulder. Well just like Aaliyah said, "If first you don't succeed, dust yourself on try again." Sure enough, he did on the dance floor and she reciprocated. Meanwhile watching from a distance, some crazy girl came up to me and kept insisting that I "break her off". You know. . . those crazy girls that want to dance with you to every song like it's playing 120 BPMs.

That's when I saw the Punt. Her friend jumped in after one minute and immediately pulled her back. Damn it! I got distracted with this crazy and let him lose one of the best looking girls in the joint. By the time I told her "Thanks but I have to go check up on my friend", both of the other girls left. Sad thing is, I believe this happens all too often.

Let me rewind back to early 2007. I'm at this yuppy restaurant /lounge/club down in Santana Row in San Jose by myself (yes, while on business trips I used to roll solo to a lot of night time venues to work on my game). After coming out of the restroom, I headed on over to the bar when I made eye contact with this pretty hot Asian girl. She stopped me, placed her hand on my wrist and asked if I were Vietnamese. Random, I know. I replied, "No. Would you like me to be?" and smiled. Her other Asian girlfriend pulled her away like I was some disgusting freak of nature. So here I am, standing alone wondering why in the world her friend pulled her away when she is obviously interested (or super inebriated). I took a step back and went up to the bar to buy a drink only to find the two of them on the dance floor a couple minutes later. "Fuck this. I'm going to dance with this girl. I know she's into me", I hear my internal voice whispering.

Standing with a military posture, I sauntered over to the floor making solid eye contact with her and followed up with a sly grin. She responded and we were off. After the 3rd song I decided to go in a little closer and our bodies started touching. I asked her what this strap was doing around her waist while snapping it. It was obviously her throng strap. She laughed and pushed her ass against me harder.

Suddenly her Cunt Punting friend came in and yanked her away from me once again to go dance with these two white guys. I don't want to say it was because I wasn't white. Who knows? Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't.

What confuses me is why women do this to begin with. Do women really believe that the majority of men in bars and clubs are creepy? I would never automatically dismiss a female as being a hoe just because she goes clubbing. Maybe I'm just a creepy looking guy. Whatever the reason may be, I learned one important lesson that I was reminded of a few weekends back.

Win the trust of her friends ASAP
Have a wingman to play defense

Or prepare yourself to get blown out. Women are bigger punters than men are blockers.

UPDATE: Jay Park on StirFryTV

2010-04-24T22:05:00.000-07:00

Ever since I read about Jay Park creating a buzz in the states, I went searching for the interview he did with StirFryTV.com but had no luck. Then several days later after checking YouTube again lo and behold, his interview with StirFryTV ended up on my YouTube homepage. Perfect timing. Check it out!

Jaebeom (Jay) Park To Work With Teddy Riley For His U.S. Debut Album

2010-04-22T09:31:00.000-07:00

Holy shit! NEWSFLASH for all of you readers out there. This is big news because it encompasses so many positive elements. We have an Asian-American MALE sex symbol and popstar icon who is breaking sound and racial barriers with this announcement. He has already been gaining momentum by starring in a movie called Hype Nation scheduled to be filmed this year.

Former K-Pop 2PM member Jaebeom Park will be working with one of my favorite producers of all time! For those of your who are too young to remember or even weren't born at the time, Teddy Riley is the founder of the late 80s-90s New Jack Swing and contemporary R&B sound.

YEP YEP!!

Teddy was also part of a R&B trio called Guy releasing many New Jack Swing and R&B classics such as "Groove Me", "My Fantasy", "Let's Chill", etc. If you don't know about Teddy from his days with Guy then you definitely will know him as a BLACKStreet member producing hits such as "No Diggity" and exec. producer for Michael Jackson's, Dangerous album.

When it came to R&B producers, I always felt that Teddy Riley never got the kind of recognition and commendation from the mainstream as other artists-producers out there. Hopefully, his collaboration with Jaebeom will reignite his flame as a producer and catapult both of their careers to a higher level popularity and notoriety.

I have a message for Jay Park.

Jay,

You are in good hands working with a musical genius like Teddy Riley. Hold it down and keep representin' for your Asian-American brethren. You have a solid fan base worldwide. I'm 100% confident this project will be a success.

-Masir Jones

P.S. I'm envious of you being able to work with Ted.

Hip Hop Legend Guru RIP

2010-04-20T23:23:00.000-07:00

One of the pioneers of hip hop music has tragically passed away. I always thought Gang Starr was an underrated hip hop group that never received the kind of praise and accolades from the masses that they deserved. I guess because they never sold themselves just to have Mass Appeal.

Guru, may you rest in peace.

Yes, I am an Asian-American but not Chinese.

2010-04-14T06:06:00.000-07:00

There's nothing worse than having some ignorant fool who tries to say something in an Asian language that you don't speak. Especially if he's a white guy. Let me explain.

Yesterday some delivery guy from UPS came to drop something off at the office in D.C. and I ended up signing for it since the secretary was unavailable. I gave him my last name which is not Chinese and he says to me, "Ahhh. Xie xie". I was stunned like a deer caught in headlights because I hadn't heard someone say something so ignorant in such a long time. After he left I was a little ticked off. I started to wonder if he was being yet another racist white guy or was he just trying to be friendly.

The way he said it though sounded like he was trying to be funny, but its just sounded really tasteless and racist. Is this how the rest of America outside of the westcoast and NYC still view Asians? Would you be offended or give him the benefit of the doubt that he was making an earnest attempt to connect with you? Apparently, Dave Chappelle thinks Asians all look alike so I wouldn't be surprised if others do.

What do you think?

Asians in Washington D.C.

2010-04-10T11:37:00.000-07:00

So just a brief update.

Sorry if I haven't been posting any new material lately. I recently moved out to the Bay Area in California and have been busy adjusting to life here and the new j-o-b. I have to head on out to D.C. for work and was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for any cool Asian hang out spots, towns, clubs, bars, etc.

I know this might sound weird, but I have always found it fascinating to meet Asians from other parts of the world outside of Asia. Especially here in the states, because I'm always wondering how much of their demeanor, personality and attitude is shaped by their daily environment versus their cultural background and upbringing. For instance, if you meet Koreans from LA K-town versus Koreans out here in the Bay Area, you're bound to notice a distinction in their swagger. Or take a trip to Alhambra or Montery Park where its practically nothing BUT Chinese people versus a Chinese person out in North Dakota (are there Chinese people in North Dakota?).

The point I'm trying to make is that its just really cool to see someone Asian out in another part of the world and even though you don't know them, you feel like you have an instant connection with them. Now Sarah Palin must know how we feel when her ass went to Hawaii.

So once again, if any of you readers out there have any recommendations, let me know! I'll check it out, take some photos and post them up when I return!!

The Return of Vanishing Son

2010-03-31T19:28:00.000-07:00

For those of you who were too young or never even heard about this series, you're in luck. As I mentioned in my previous blogs, the televised movie series Vanishing Son is one of the few movies where an Asian-American man gets romantically involved with a white woman. And not just any white woman. This was the HOT Noxema chick of the early-mid 90s who he repeatedly makes passionate love to.

As my buddy DL mentioned, it was my brotha Russell who represented and held it down for the Asian-American men out there proving, yes, Asian-American men ARE sex symbols in the country they were born in, America.

I even did the dirty work for you so you can watch the part I'm referring to when I speak of "passionate love".

Keep it on the DL: Dating Non-Asian Girls - Part 5

2010-03-21T00:24:00.000-07:00

My friend X, whom I mentioned earlier, is now doing very well with women. In fact, not too long ago he was dating two girls and had to make the decision of which one he wanted to keep as his girlfriend and which he had to let go. It's quite a change from his earlier days. When we were in high school, he was so nervous with girls that he used to flush bright red, clench his fists, look straight down at the floor, and walk past silently whenever the girl he liked waved hello at him. He had tried his mother's way, becoming rich and successful, but when that didn't bring him the beautiful women and happiness it had promised, he had to overcome his shyness and gain more experience talking to girls directly. We got to talk and share our successes and failures with each other and discuss what we could do better. I think that having him to talk to and seeing the kind of progress he made pushed me to assess my life and do more with myself as well.

For a long time, I'd always avoided examining my failures. I hated seeing what I'd done wrong because it always brought back that lingering voice from my childhood telling me that I was worthless and stupid and nobody could ever want me, but seeing how X turned his love life around I now understand that examining what I've done wrong is much more important to a happy, successful life than celebrating and showing off what I've done right. That's really the biggest lesson of all here.

When you go out in the dating world or the professional world or even academic world, you're going to put forth your best efforts, but trying means failing most of the time. As you fail, don't beat yourself up and don't place blame, figure out what you could have done to produce a better outcome. When you get shot down, it's easy to say, "Whatever, she's a bitch" and keep trying the same things over and over, or tell yourself, "Oh man, I'm such a stupid loser!" and give up. Unfortunately, it's not productive to do either of those things. It's much harder, but ultimately much more helpful and rewarding to figure out what worked and what didn't, change your approach and your habits, and try again.

Remember also that there are times when there is nothing you can do. If the circumstances are such that there was no way to get what you wanted, let it go and move on. The circumstances will be different next time. As the old adage goes, "For every door that closes, another one opens."

--DL

Keep it on the DL: Dating Non-Asian Girls - Part 4

2010-03-12T17:29:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have been keeping up with the Keep It On The DL mini-series, I believe the points DL mention below are quite sound and reasonable. Albeit they may be common sense to most of you readers out there, but the key point is to actually employ these tactics. Otherwise it becomes meaningless; yet another case of the theoretical and book smart Asian guy. I just started using some of these myself and it feels a lot more natural.

What is natural? I can't say I know what it is to the fullest but I do know what it's not. Its definitely NOT pretending to be a nice guy and putting up with an attitude just because she's hot if she happens to give you one. That's called being a chump.

First, don't try too hard to impress. A lot of guys think that in order to get the girl, they need to be really entertaining and charming and show off all their nice clothes and fancy cars and highlight how great they are. That is a big mistake. Turn this situation around for a moment in your head. If you met someone and he or she was trying really hard to show off to you, trying to prove how awesome s/he was, would you find it more attractive or annoying?

Nobody likes a showoff and beautiful women have guys trying to show off at them constantly. Beautiful women, like the famous, wealthy, and politically connected, have people trying to get with them all the time by showing off all the great things about themselves and they can see through it. They know that you're only trying to impress them because of how they look or their fame or money or political power. However, if you give them the opportunity to impress you with their achievements and attractive aspects of their personality and show them that you value something other than their looks or what they can do for you, you'll win their respect and admiration.

This may be especially difficult if you grew up in a household like mine because your instinct will tell you that you aren’t good enough and you have to try to prove your worth to her, but resist that urge! Wealthy men don’t have to tell you they’re rich. Confident, attractive people don’t have to prove themselves to anyone.

Second, don't be punk - fakin' the funk - thinkin' that hard stuff while spittin' that extra junk. What I mean is, if you really aren't impressed with a girl or she's inconsiderate or boring or annoying, don't act as if she's the most courteous, fascinating person in the world. Be polite, but don't put up with it. If you fake it, at best you might manipulate her into something with you that you'll both feel bad about later and at worst she'll see through it and peg you as a desperate sycophant. Besides, calling people on their bullshit often makes them respect you more.

Third, be assertive and decisive. A lot of people with low self-confidence mask what they want and sabotage themselves. They think that by anticipating failure, they can soften the blow to their self-esteem so they say things like, “Hey, I was wondering if you might want to go on a date with me but you probably don't so it's okay...” and they are either too eager to please or lazy so instead of coming to decisions on their own, they waffle and say, “I don't know, whatever you want.” Realize that you are your own person with your own desires and voice them. Make firm decisions, look people in the eye, stand up straight, and don't qualify, equivocate, or apologize for what you want.

Fourth and most importantly, don't put too much pressure on yourself. This actually applies to all areas of your life, whether it's dating or job interviews and is an extension of my three previous points. If you say to yourself, “I can't fuck this up. I can't lose it. I'll never find another girl this hot/job that pays this well/deal this good again. I'll do anything to make this work” you are sure to fuck it up. There are always other girls, other jobs, other whatever. If you put too much pressure on yourself to succeed with this particular one, you will find yourself trying too hard to impress, faking it, and compromising what you really want. Real confidence means entering into a situation knowing that you can lose and having the serenity of mind to accept that potential outcome and learn from it even if it hurts.
A little bonus tip I have is not to be cloying or clingy. Give her space. Let her miss you. It's always better for her to want more of you than to be around too much so that she wants less of you.

To Be Continued...

Keep it on the DL: Dating Non-Asian Girls - Part 3

2010-03-08T13:35:00.000-08:00

Four of my former lovers (3 White & 1 Black) specifically had a thing for Asians. In case you don't believe that girls get the Yellow Fever too, let me refer you to the following examples,

And...

"What about Latinas?", you ask? Take a look at this couple.

And of course, Victor Kim from Quest Crew holdin' it down with Lizzy Richardson from the San Diego Chargers cheerleading squad!

EDITOR'S NOTE: These are not rare instances. They only seem to be rare to frustrated Asian-American men because mentally 1) we believe the shit imposed upon us by the media-entertainment complex. Everyone knows their depictions of Asian-Americans in general is a STRETCH from reality. 2) A handful of asshole white males (yes, there are some bad apples of the bunch like Hollywhite - John Mayer types) get some twisted enjoyment out of belittling other ethnicities, meanwhile bashing white women who date outside their race. 3) A number of Asian-American women often times play a harsher Game with Asian-American men as opposed to other ethnic males. In retrospect, I came to the startling realization that AA women have been less open to my approaches as opposed to other Latina, white and black women. DL shares with us similar experiences.

I think dating other races may actually be easier than dating East Asian girls because I’ve received snottier treatment and harsher blow-offs from East Asian girls than I’ve ever gotten from any girl of another race.

In part I have to thank the short-lived TV series Vanishing Son for the fact that I never had issues with dating outside my race. Looking back, the show wasn't very good, but I was only 12 when it was on, so it didn't matter. What did matter was that the main character of the show was a handsome, confident Chinese man who lay the lovin' down on all kinds of ladies. He was like a Chinese Shaft and that definitely made an impression on me.

Another part of the reason I have always dated girls of other races is that I always resisted my mother’s attempts to manipulate me. I know it’s cliché to blame your mother for your issues, but I do believe that a lot of the problems that Asian American men have in their love lives come from our mothers’ derisive treatment and harmful conditioning.

Some times guys ask me how I date girls of other races which is a difficult question to answer because I honestly don't think it's any different than dating East Asian girls. I think there are four key things to remember in any kind of dating scenario:

Don't try too hard to impress
Don't fake it
Be assertive and decisive
Don't put too much pressure on yourself.

You'll notice that there are a lot more don't's than there are do's, and that's because guys screw up potentially good situations by doing too much more often than by doing too little.

More details next time...

Keep it on the DL: Dating Non-Asian Girls - Part 2

2010-03-06T12:33:00.000-08:00

For some reason a couple of days ago my blog was down for an entire day so I couldn't post the 2nd part of my guest writer's piece. Thankfully it was merely a glitch of some sort on Google's part (at least I hope it was). Anyway, continuing with DL's piece...I bring you Keep it on the DL: Dating Non-Asian Girls: Part II,

All of this is a roundabout preface to discussing my own experiences with dating, interracial dating in particular because I've never dated an East Asian girl and the majority of girls I've dated have been White. As I mentioned before, I am Chinese, I'm not very tall (5'7”), and until very recently, I've never had much money. Both my parents are janitors and I put myself through college working as a bus driver and a line cook. However, none of those things was ever a real obstacle in my love life. Yes, I know that height, race, money, and social status matter to some girls, but our own insecurities about those things often hold us back more than the girls' concerns about them.

Once, after I had kissed a girl good night, she said, “Hey, are you shorter than me?” I said, “Probably, I'm not that tall. Is that a problem for you?” She said, “No, is it for you? Some guys freak out over stuff like that. I dated a guy once who got really upset when he found out that I make more money than he does.” Of course, I didn't care at all about our height and wealth disparities. In fact, I like dating girls who are within two inches of my height in either direction. You don't have to adjust your car seat and mirrors when you drive each other's cars. Also, it makes having sex while standing much easier!

What this means is that you should try to put race out of your mind in the dating scene. If you see a cute girl making eyes at you, don't doubt yourself because she's White or Black or some other race that you don't think could ever be into Asians, or taller than you or whatever, just go for it. The worst thing she can do is turn you down and even in that situation, you end up with an amusing and embarrassing story to tell your friends.

Most of the girls I've been with have told me that I'm the first Asian guy they have ever dated, not because they aren't into Asians but because Asian guys never approach them. Race has only rarely come up at all. A few years ago, I was on a road trip with one of my former girlfriends and when we stopped for gas, she asked me, “Do you feel like people are staring at us? Why is everyone looking over here?” I shrugged, “Maybe because we’re an interracial couple.” She started laughing, “Oh my God! We ARE!” It mattered so little to her that we were of different races that the fact that other people noticed it caught her off guard.

To Be Continued...

Keep it on the DL: Dating Non-Asian Girls

2010-03-03T14:10:00.000-08:00

A cohort of mine, I call by the name of "DL", has been overcoming what some Asian-American men as insurmountable obstacles in the world of interracial dating since his teenage years. As laudable as many of us might see this, DL states he rarely had any issues when it came to dating outside of his ethnic background as a Chinese-American. Curious with how his life experiences and outlook might vary from other Asian-American men frustrated and discouraged with the IR disparity, I asked him to guest write for Destroy & Rebuild. Take it away DL! **Shines spotlight**

When I was a kid, my mother gave me a talk about why I should only date East Asian girls. She said that everyone with darker skin (i.e. Southeast Asians, Hispanics, Blacks, Arabs, central Asians, and almost every other racial/ethnic group you'd care to mention) were dirty, lazy, and not to be trusted, and as for White girls, they wouldn't ever go for me anyway. Naturally, the first time I brought home a Filipino girl my mother had a fit. When I was 17, I brought home a White girlfriend, one with blue eyes, red hair, and classic Nordic features, and my mother asked, “What's up with you and this Mexican girl?” She simply could not wrap her head around the fact that I was dating a White girl so her mind just rejected the idea.

Like a lot of Chinese men, I grew up in a home where my mother constantly berated me, telling me that I was stupid and worthless and would never amount to anything unless I lived my life exactly the way she told me to. She told me I needed to stay home, study hard, get good grades, and not “waste my time” having a social life, playing sports, or talking to girls. If you grew up in a strict, traditional East Asian household, this probably sounds familiar to you unfortunately.

Too many of us buy into that conditioning. Too many of us end up believing that we aren't good enough, aren't desirable. Too many of us think that no girl will like us now, but if we get good grades, we can get the high-paying job and the wealth accumulated from that job will bring us all the beautiful women of our dreams. That is a bunch of bullshit. If you're in the workforce now, you know

[good grades ≠ high pay] & [high pay ≠ success with women]

A good friend of mine (we'll can him “X”) bought into this belief for a long time. X is Chinese-American like me. He worked hard all throughout high school, never got any experience talking to girls, and would beat himself up if he didn't get high enough grades. He finished college with a 3.1, which is good, but not super impressive. Nevertheless, he started his own company and was making $300k in annual profits within two years. Still, X did not know how to talk to girls. There are a lot of jokes about how girls are gold-diggers and all you need is money, but honestly, how would that work? Would you get girls just by putting on a tux and walking around flashing cash at everyone? If that were the case, that Millionaire Matchmaker show never have come into existence because rich guys wouldn't need that freaky lady to set them up on dates.

To Be Continued. . .

My Favorite Sketch Comedy Of All Time

2010-02-28T15:09:00.000-08:00

This might be a bit old, but I still think it is underrated and without question a riot.

Randall Park's Dr. Miracles is my favorite sketch comedy of all time. His work captures what I believe is missing from a lot of comedy today - the silly, fun factor and of course, Asian Americans. The 4 part series is packed with perfectly timed uproarious jokes and unforgettable lines all spawning from the perverted theme of being gifted with life-saving oral sex. If you haven't seen it yet, you'll be in for laughs galore.

Randall deserves more credit and notoriety for his comical genius.

Thanks Randall! Keep up representin'.

Dr. Miracles - Episode 2
Dr. Miracles - Episode 3
Dr. Miracles - Episode 4

These Girls Have A Point

2010-02-21T14:51:00.000-08:00

Last year I ran across this video before I started blogging and decided to revisit it to share it with you all. The Asian-American girls in this clip have a point (they're also pretty hot ^_^). Obviously they're half-joking, but I can't entirely dismiss their impression of how Asian-American guys act when it comes to picking up women. As for the accuracy of the other ethnic males, I have no comment but I suspect it's warranted based on their personal accounts. What I can say is that this is all too common among many AA men. I've been guilty of this myself occasionally. Yes, its terrible.

After watching the video I asked one of my female friend's what she thought about it. Sad to say, her sentiments were contiguous with the video's message about Asian guys,

It's pretty true...I mean its a tad exaggerated, but it falls along those lines. Asian guys are too shy. If you're lucky sometimes they'll come up to you. That's why an asian guy who is not shy...he can get a lot of asian ladies b/c they like the confidence =P. Nice little trick huh?

A woman's beauty can be intoxicating. You stand there not knowing what the fuck to say to her even though you want to because you're mentally deifying her to the point of self-intimidation. This is what bites AA men in the ass. This self-limiting belief that she will reject us because we may not be rich enough, good looking enough, tall enough, or whatever simply because she is physically attractive should not deter you from talking to her.

Rejection is not the end of the world. You will still live to see tomorrow. The Earth still turns, the sun will still shine and the stars will continue twinkling. What has helped me is to think of it like looking for a job. Instead of blasting a resume, you blast your personality out there just as you would when job hunting you might,

Stretch the truth a bit, promote your best qualities, and show how you're going to add value by partnering with them.
Demonstrate how you're different from the (other male) competition.
Have stellar references i.e. your wingmen.

If you do a good job of gaining their trust and keeping them interested, many women will actually forgo their typical requirements of having you to be a certain height or ethnicity. You might even get that 2rd or 3rd interview and finally the job!

I believe the key takeaway from the clip is this. You have to at least be willing to open your mouth and make an effort which requires stepping out of your comfort zone and start getting comfortable with rejection. Even if a girl rejects you or you fear looking stupid, it shouldn't matter because 9 times out of 10 you will never see those people ever again.

As Asian Playboy once said, "She's not rejecting YOU. She's just rejecting your SKILL SET" just like any employer would.

Time Magazine's way of celebrating Valentine's Day

2010-02-16T00:17:00.000-08:00

When I see articles such as this one from Time magazine, I'm not sure what the hell they're trying to accomplish.

This Valentine's Day, more of us than ever will be looking for love online. And if recent studies are any guide, relatively few women on mainstream dating sites will bother to respond to overtures from men of Asian descent. Likewise, black women will be disproportionately snubbed by men of all races. Yes, even though America has been flirting intensely with a postracial label for some time, color blindness is not upheld as an ideal in the realm of online romance.

Yes, its no surprise many women on mainstream dating sites won't bother responding to Asian-American men and black women. 2nd-rate journalists such as this one think they're being the "good guy" by exposing this imbalance in the world of online dating. My question for them is, "What's your fucking point?"

Newsflash ignoramuses. This ain't news and its not exclusive to online dating either.

I have a better idea for mainstream media reporters and journalists. Instead of publishing meretricious articles of the already well-known interracial dating disparities, how about uncovering the plausible root causes of this imbalance? If you need help, I can even point you in the right direction. Start your investigation by examining your own industry and how it perpetually desexualizes Asian-American men while incessantly promoting WM/AF couples.

Don't date him! He's a creep with an Asian fetish. Women are fighting back.

2010-02-12T10:49:00.000-08:00

Too fuckin' funny.

I found the post below on www.dontdatehimgirl.com. The premise of the site is to expose the latent sinister side of men which may not be so obvious to women upon their first encounter with these so-called creeps, liars and manipulators and women are fighting back. Take this example below. This fellow has an Asian fetish, but that's not what the women that he's dated find repulsive.

...fancies himself an actor-model and has a preference for Asian women. On paper, he looks good - calls you, says he does charity work, close to family, cute. However, he is also an immature, narcissistic alcoholic and drug user. He reels you in by pretending he's your basic "nice" guy, "what you see is what you get" according to him. He gains your sympathy by telling you his tale of woe - his ex-wife was a ho who did him wrong and cheated on him. His famous love 'em and leave 'em move is to email or text that he is extremely ill and was almost hospitalized, then ignore you when you try to look in on him. RUN AWAY FAST if you don't want to get hurt. You'll never change him or get him to commit, no matter how tempting his "I'm just looking for the right girl to fall in love with again" speech is. It's all lies. He will take what he wants and disappear. Oh, and one classic loser date move - he "forgot" his wallet and credit cards, he only had money to pay for the parking garage and even then, he had to borrow additional funds from, you guessed it - his date cause he didn't have enough!

Its the fact that he's deceitful and smooches off of women. I guess being a white male with the tiresome Asian fetish doesn't win him any additional brownie points. Here's another interesting one,

This *** LOVES Asian women. ..., NYS attorney by day, a 38+ year old moneysucking, liar, cheater, and sex-fiend out there. Do NOT date this guy. He will use you for your money. He will never settle even though he pretends to be kind and caring. He's not. This guy has serious commitment issues.

And the list continues,

...54 years old is a CHEATER. Ironically his favorite show is Cheaters. He came on strong at the beginning pretending to be a man who is single with morals and values but he had a few girlfriends all along while pursuing me and when I was his girlfriend. He is deceitful. He has an Asian fetish. Ask him about the current Asian women in his life - Judy, Jane, Carla, Nicole in Vancouver, Carol in London, Lin in China and the list goes on. Most of these women are illegal aliens that he takes care of financially and legally (green card, work visa etc.) He loves to joke with his male friends that he is in search of NP meaning new pu**y. He is also a member of the Cha Cha club in Torrance a gentleman's club and we all know what that means. He spends thousands of dollars to spend time with their Asian girls that he says he drives home because he doesn't want them riding a bus. He meets women off www.pacificsoulmates.com and other Asian women looking for marraige sites, yet he has never been married. He gets very angry when confronted with the truth so watch out. He is a pathological liar and he shows no remorse. He acted as if we were in a serious relationship while all the time he was cheating on me every chance he got. He has no conscious and he lacks emotion.

Out of curiosity I looked to see if there were any Asian men getting bashed for being fakers and phonies. Sure enough, I found a couple. For instance, this guy is a professional. So ladies and gents, make no mistake. Deceitful individuals such as the alleged come in all shapes, sizes, and colors.

A Commendation Letter

2010-02-09T08:31:00.000-08:00

I received an email from a reader not too long ago. It looks like there are others out there who share my sentiment of learning how to be social and attract women - a common issue among many Asian-American men and one possible solution to address it.

Dear Masir Jones,

I agree with your assessment that learning pickup skills is a step in the right direction for Asian America men, and I'd like to give you props for your candor and sincerity in sharing a brief glimpse into your upbringing (I'm referring to your happily ever after poem, and the three paragraphs that follow it).

I share a similar experience to you in that certain things that you mentioned (getting into a good college, not going to parties, not trying to meet girls, career comes first, etc.) were also emphasized to the point of being absolute religious law in my parents' household, and any deviation from that was harshly rebuked. For me, this process began when I was an adolescent. In one instance (probably when I was in the 3rd or 4th grade), my mom reprimanded me repeatedly for being too facially expressive, and not being "serious" enough. (How the hell is a 4th grader to be expected to be "serous?!") So, right from the get-go, expressing emotions was already disallowed. That, in turn, made it easier for my parents to emotionally restrict me, and for them to completely reign-in my sexuality in terms of going out and trying to meet girls in order to fulfill their ultimate plan of having me get into a good school, get a good job, and climb the corporate ladder-- all before ever having a shred of social skill or any remote chance of knowing how to get a date with a girl.

So, I just wanted to thank you for taking the time out to write the YAPP blog entry, particularly for one statement in it. It's because of people like you that Asian American men (who might happen to not good with women) have someone to go to as a point of reference for making their own choices in life. The statement I'm referring to is: "From my experience for instance, I've developed and improved much of my social skills by the actual application of PUA theory and its teachings. Yes, I've gotten laid from it as well..." For many Asian American men (myself included), simply knowing that this is possible is in itself ground breaking. In my case in particular, I was once completely mired in Asian angst to such a deep extent that I did not even believe that I could find a girl in America's dating landscape. When I turned 29, I basically gave up on the U.S. I was actually in the process of looking for a job and an apartment back in Taiwan with the intent of having my network of 13 cousins introduce me to a girl over there so that I could get married and live out my life in Asia. But because of a personal statement from one of my friends (that was similar to the one I quoted from you above), I was able to turn myself around, re-apply myself, and here I am now, back in NYC, with a girlfriend that I love spending time with, and I've been with her for almost 2 years now, and it's wonderful. None of this would have been possible had I not first seen my friend go through a similar experience. When he told me what he had been learning, and the success that he was able to get with girls, I thought to myself, "hey, if my friend can learn how to get better with women, then so can I. He's Asian American just like me!"

It's hard to put stuff like that out there, on the internet where everyone can see it. It's like saying, "hey, I NEEDED to be taught how to meet girls." But I believe that ultimately it is personal statements, personal stories, and personal experiences that will motivate Asian American to defeat the stereotypes that permeate life in the U.S. So, props to you for making a step forward to defeat them, and for helping other Asian American men to do the same.

I'll be the first to admit. I needed to learn not just how to meet girls but to be comfortable in my own Asian skin and this was one of the methods for helping me with just that.

Asian American Movie Throwback: Saving Face

2010-01-31T07:06:00.000-08:00

Rarely do I come across movies about Asian-Americans that I believe are actually entertaining and do the community justice. In other words, the movie presents the lives of Asian-Americans as ordinary citizens who play legitimate roles, not ethnically demeaning ones.

It was quite serendipitous, but I recently saw one of my favorite films called Saving Face, a romantic comedy directed by Alice Wu. Surprisingly, not a lot of my AA friends knew about the flick when I recommended it even though it actually has a genuine plot coupled with well written script. It has its hilarious moments and its times of empathy. If you haven't seen it, you should go rent and watch it since I'm not going to spoil it for you other than by saying its about a Chinese-American female doctor living in NYC who is trying to come to terms with her sexuality.

I've probably seen this movie about four times now, but its still a delight to watch. All of the actors are tremendously talented which astonishes me that such great AA actors aren't given more mainstream attention. Part of this could be attributed to the fact that they don't kowtow to HollyWhite's demands of playing stereotypical submissive or fobby Asian roles. Well whatever the reason may be, the cast was given their time to shine in this film. What I like most about the movie though is its depth portrayed by the characters, the sense of realness, and the (just go watch it) scene.

So if you haven't seen it, go rent and watch it already!!

Mounting Friction Between China and the U.S.

2010-01-29T02:36:00.000-08:00

Google isn't the only U.S. company creating friction between to the two nation-states. I've come across several articles now where this friction between Chinese and U.S. based businesses are mounting with not slowdown in sight. Are these early signs of protectionism and future trade wars to come?

As long as China continues to ascend its way to the top of world economies, there's no question investing and conducting business in China is going to be challenging for foreign companies. If you don't believe me, here is a list of examples that have become public recently in chronological order,

September of last year, President Obama imposted a tire tariff against Chinese based tires to protect the U.S. tire industry.
China hit with $2.2 billion software piracy lawsuit for allegedly stealing code to write the censorship Green Dam software.
Google threatens to exit China rejecting government anti-censorship laws and accusatory state backed hacking of Gmail accounts.
China's search engine leader Baidu.com sues Register.com for supposedly allowing for a hack-attack against its DNS to be redirected to the Iranian Cyberian Army.
Baidu wins court case against IFPI for allegedly facilitating accessible downloads to MP3s.
Goldman Sachs beef with Shenzen National Power over oil derivatives contracts that went sour for the latter company. Morgan Stanley had a similar incident 2 weeks earlier capitulating their request for the original amount contractually agreed to be paid.

China may be the beacon of light to a global economic recovery but it is also problematic to U.S. businesses and the latter's global hegemony. The battle has begun.

Identity Crisis For An Asian-American

2010-01-26T12:16:00.000-08:00

This is my last night here in Korea for at least several months before I proceed onward with the next chapter of my life in California. Its been one hell of an experience being far and away from America for such an extended period of time. When I thumb through those pages filed away in my memory of Korea there isn't a single one that I disregard with sheer contempt or regret. Whether they were good, bad, happy, stressful, frustrating or even the saddest of times is interesting but irrelevant; the land I was once fairly distant and unfamiliar with has become my 2nd home.

While my experience in Asia has broadened my horizons in a multitude of ways, I feel awkward returning to America - the land where I was born and raised like most of you - to continue where I left off several years ago. To travel abroad and immerse myself in a different culture for a lengthy timeframe is a fascinating experience, but even more so when the land is of my own ancestry because I can identify with it for some inexplicable deja vu-like reason. For once in my life I physically resemble the majority giving me the opportunity to seamlessly blend in with the crowd without much effort.

Some of you may have grown up in a densely populated Asian environment. If you're one of those individuals, frankly, I envy you a lot. I mean, A LOT. The racially motivated identity crises I experienced from childhood all the way on up to young adulthood always kept me in limbo. A part of me wanted to be white in order to fit in better with the rest of my classmates. This includes not falling victim to,

Slant-eyed taunts and gestures.
"Konnichiwa" or "Ching Chong" greetings.
"Me Chinese. Me play joke. Me put pee pee in your Coke" jokes.
Getting asked the proverbial question, "Are you guys brothers?" and again having to respond, "No. He is Chinese." "No. He is Vietnamese." "No. He is an alien from another planet."
The disreputable, "Go back to your own country" line.
(Surprisingly, I never heard small penis jokes until the latter half of my college years.)

On top of that, half of my K-12 crushes were white girls while the other half were Asian. It wasn't until I entered college did I get a full blown Asian majority experience. I found it hard to adjust to be around so many Asian people all of a sudden since it felt foreign to me. During those days, I was chagrined to see all these "Asian Pride" groups roaming around campus. It just seemed too narrow and ethnocentric. Obviously, I didn't understand the socio-political implications behind the message since I was blind to the ongoing struggle rarely publicized by the mainstream. In retrospect, I regret chastising and not actively participating in these social groups promoting Asian-American awareness.

Hence, the reason why I believe a trip to the motherland is imperative is for the sake of gaining a deeper, broader and more profound understanding of your Asian-American identity. It will give you an appreciation of what your parents battled with to make it in a foreign country, using a foreign language and simultaneously raising you in the process. This is something that should not be dismissed nor taken for granted as some sort of trivial feat. Even if you're adopted, it'll still bring meaning to your life and sense of belonging. Lastly, instead of resorting to that feeling of wanting to be white, you can experience this majority privilege while maintaining your ethnicity, heritage and ultimately your self-respect. In America, you may have always been known as that one Asian [insert specific ethnicity here] person, but in Asia. . .you're just a person.

The Emasculation of Chinese men. Who is to blame?

2010-01-21T11:00:00.000-08:00

America's compulsive disorder of emasculating Asian men in the media and entertainment is widely known and exasperatingly discussed. However, what is rarely discussed is how Asian men are emasculated in Asia. While it has accumulated a mountain of frustration for many Asian-American men living in the US, I don't know if what I came across today is even worse in nullifying the blips of progress Asian males have made to improve their image.

Now I'm neither of Chinese ethnicity nor residing in China, but if Sun Yunxiao has written a book in order to "Save the Boys" from turning them into girly men, then I definitely see this as becoming a major issue for not just Chinese, but for all Asian males worldwide.

In his book Sun claims that,

Chinese boys between the ages of 7 and 17 are 2.54 cm shorter than Japanese boys.
Chinese boys are getting physically weaker.
Chinese boys are now emotionally more vulnerable than girls.

First of all, I'll assume that the three bullets aren't some outlandish claims Sun pulled out of his ass, and he actually did his due diligence in researching and gathering legitimate data. With that, if all the stereotypes Asian men struggle with today aren't bad enough, then this definitely hammered the last nail in the coffin of a slow and painful death of the masculine Asian male image.

Sun argues what I have been griping about all along - Asians unhealthy overemphasis on education which stifles the growth in maturing from boys to men. Yes, as laudable as studying 24/7 and earning high marks on exams may be, too much of anything can result in dire and unwanted consequences.

They say that in order to address and resolve an issue, you must admit that one indeed exists. Fortunately, Sun along with many others including myself, recognize this cultural characteristic as a sociological, psychological and even physiological setback for Asian men,

"...traditional Chinese method of 'caged breeding' raises a child like a little emperor and doesn't encourage independence. Furthermore, “the frequent absence of a father figure and the overprotection of the mother is another factor that makes Chinese boys more feminine.”

I have seen instances of this in other Asian countries as well, though I think there is less of this in Korea due to a law requiring every Korean male citizen to enlist in the military for almost two years. Sun argues the need for Chinese men to participate in sports as opposed to trying to imitate popular culture icons, since they "blur the man/woman divide". He points to Li Yuchun as a primary example of who Chinese boys try to imitate.

This dudette above may be a good singer and have some ambiguously captivating flavor, but it leaves me confused. At first glance, I actually thought Sun's reference to Li was illustrative of how guys in entertainment are beginning to reflect a girly behavioral display. I was going to say Li is nowhere in close proximity to Rain's level of masculinity and sex appeal or Jin's level of rawness until I found out...Li Yuchun is actually female! I think I'm beginning to understand Sun's conjecture.

So who is to blame for this developing trend? Is Sun's book a backlash against A) feminism in China, B) the lack of universally defined gender roles, C) Chinese boys stunted due to an overemphasis on smarts or D) all of the above?

My answer is D) all of the above. Final answer.

Avatar perpetuating a "White Messiah" myth?

2010-01-16T19:16:00.000-08:00

The thought never occurred to me that James Cameron's Avatar was filled with racial undertones rendering the tiresome "White Knight In Shining Armor" cliche. Yes, I am attuned to racial-gender inequality in American society, particularly entertainment, but I didn't think anything of the like while watching it in twice in theaters; that is until last week. The NY Times ran an article from Columnist David Brooks who asserts that the era we live in produces a perpetual "White Messiah" fable.

Every age produces its own sort of fables, and our age seems to have produced The White Messiah fable.
This is the oft-repeated story about a manly young adventurer who goes into the wilderness in search of thrills and profit. But, once there, he meets the native people and finds that they are noble and spiritual and pure. And so he emerges as their Messiah, leading them on a righteous crusade against his own rotten civilization.

He continues stating later on,

Yet of all the directors who have used versions of the White Messiah formula over the years, no one has done so with as much exuberance as James Cameron in “Avatar.” “Avatar” is a racial fantasy par excellence.

This leaves me wondering though, did HollyWhite just slip another subliminal "White Is Right" artificial flavor into my movie drink? I tried my best to look at it from another perspective. Avatar is about taking a stand against corporations and saving the planet which our generation has contributed to polluting, right?

Yes, its a no brainer, but it is also conniving because as Brook argues the movie rests on the assumption that only White males are Alpha enough to lead their crusades. Additionally, only White males can pass the litmus test of acceptance into another ethnic group. Brooks alludes to other movies which present similar themes: Fern Gully, Dances With Wolves, The Last Samurai. I'll add a couple of others to the list: The Last Airbender, 21, District 9, The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift (thankfully, Justin Lin was director who pushed for Sung Kang's role to stay juicy).

What's interesting is that I seriously cannot recall a single movie where a foreigner, an Asian male at that, integrates with White America in a similar fashion, becomes the hero, and gets romantically involved with a White woman. The only movie that comes to mind is Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story which is based on real life events where you see what kind of overt racism Lee dealt with living in America. Has much changed since then? I'm not convinced that it has. Its as if only White men are capable of integrating with a foreign culture, yet we are not.

The media is the most powerful entity on Earth. They have the power to make the guilty innocent and to make the innocent guilty, and that's power, because they control the minds of the masses. -Malcom X

Is this the kind of massive manipulation the US entertainment-media complex is ingraining upon us where sites like Asian Male Revolutions are so critical of?

Dude! Be Vociferous But Not Violent.

2010-01-14T02:48:00.000-08:00

You know the interracial dating scene has become tremendously imbalanced when you read something like this.

Brooklyn--Eight people were arrested after they allegedly beat and robbed a man for being in a Sunset Park bar with the wrong woman. The 21-year-old victim was inside Cafe Mix Bar on 61st Street with a 20-year-old Asian woman shortly after 4 a.m. Thursday when several men began badgering him for being with someone of that race, sources said. The gang attacked the couple outside, the sources said. Cops broke up the melee and arrested Jack Chan, 26, and seven others, said the sources.

Alright, let me get one thing straight. By no means am I advocating that we use violent measures to tilt the dating landscape back to a healthier equilibrium. Its one thing to be a militant minority and vociferously challenge the system, but its another to act with violence against a person simply out of spite of an ethnic mismatch that's not in our favor.

This is not Progress. Its not Acting to better ourselves and its not Voicing to achieve social awareness. This is downright heinous and unacceptable. I understand Jackie Chan was jealous, but its not the guy's fault you ended up having to play Mr. Miyagi's role in the new Karate Kid. I'm just kidding.

Seriously though, I completely understand if there's envy and resentment, but unless the guy instigated an alteracation first, there's no legitimate reason to beat and rob him just because he's with an Asian girl. You don't see an IBM sales rep physically beating up an Oracle one because he lost an account. Let's not forget that Vincent Chin was also assaulted winding up dead because of envy. I sure as hell don't want that shit happening to me when I'm at a bar with my non-Asian girlfriend. That's not how we should play the Game and its definitely not my modus operandi of making Progress.

I'd rather spend that time and energy on a PUA workshop, sending a letter to Hollywood executives as to why we need more Asian American men in entertainment or organize a revolution.

Then again, maybe shit's just hit the fan and it was bound to happen after somebody had a terrible flashback while listening to a NaS track?? *shrugs*

"I shall - stay real, stay true, stay holdin figures
Never put a bitch over my niggaz
I shall never, cooperate with the law
Never snake me I always hold you down in war
If they take one of mine, I take one of theirs
I never break the oath to the death I swear."

-Smokin' -- NaS, 2001

UPDATED: YAAPP - Yet Another Asian PUA Post. One more for the critics.

2010-01-12T07:36:00.000-08:00

I just read through several blog editorials on Pick Up Artists including all of the comments bashing or boasting it. One of the reviews is pretty critical of the Asian PUA movement so I wanted to shed some light on this dark topic of discussion. Despite what critics may argue, the Asian PUA movement is a step in the right direction for Asian American men and I'll explain why.

As most institutions are formed in order to genuinely improve the lives of suffering individuals, the PUA movement is no different. Its analogous to religion. I can't think of a single religious leader whose sole intent was to boost his ego at the expense of corrupting the hearts and minds of helpless persons seeking out a higher Truth. They heard, they came, they saw and they followed. Unfortunately over time, most institutions either undergo some kind of mutation or branch off into modified wretched versions from its original thesis.

Take Christianity for example. You have roughly 10,000 different sects stemming from the same founder. Is this what Jesus intended? I personally don't think so. I'll take it down a notch since religion is a touchy subject.

Lets look at hip hop instead. Hip hop originated from the ghettos of NYC as an underground subculture consisting of 4 elements: Emceeing, B-Boying, DJing and Graffiti. It was a street culture that was mainly dominated by Blacks and Puerto Ricans to provide the urban youth an alternative to gang violence with the leadership of some mighty renegades: Afrika Bambaata, Rock Steady Crew, Kool Herc (he actually coined the term "hip hop"), etc.

Now look what its become. A mainstream watered down, directionless, insipid, formulaic pop music culture associated with ballin', clubbin' and women dancing like video-hoes. This is not the hip hop that I remember and this definitely is not the hip hop that I love and pay homage to. But it has its pluses and minuses like PUAism. Hip hop is helping black people eat while contrastingly dumbing them down. I firmly believe the Asian PUA movement is no different.

When Asian Playboy started his ABCs of Attraction, there was already a well-established PUA movement residing in Los Angeles. Before he discovered the world of pick up artistry, he had successfully achieved his goal of graduating from college and working as an engineer. However, he felt unfilled because something was missing from his life - women. This still plagues many 1st and 2nd generation Asian American men because Asian parents such as mine, chalk up this rosy fairy tale for us when we're younger. Just as women are told these "Knight in Shining Armor" or "Happily Ever After" fairy tales, here is the version I got,

"If you study hard and obtain the knowledge,

You'll get accepted into a prestigious college.

Focus on your studies, not partying with your buddies,

And definitely not going out to meet the lady lovelies.

'Cause once you graduate and the 1st job comes knockin',

You'll be rich! Women will come flockin' and jockin',

Like it was the day before a high school Sadies Hawkins."

Okay, well maybe it didn't go exactly like that, but it was something similar to that effect. The sad thing is, I never even went to a single high school dance. That's right. No Homecoming, no Winter Formal and no Prom. My family was too poor and my parents discouraged it. I had one of the cutest White girls in our class ask me to the Sr. Prom and even offered to pay for the tickets and I still said no. Of course now I regret it, however I had never been to a HS function before so I wasn't sure what the standard procedure was of taking out a girl to a formal dance. Had I been permitted to attend these functions beforehand, I would have said, "Fuck yeah!!".

I had other limitations. Where was I going to get the money for a limo, tuxedo, flowers, etc? The previous week I just got my license so I was still apprehensive of driving. Shit, I didn't even know how to slow dance! Very counterintuitive since I was one of the best b-boy/hip hop dancers back then at school. But most importantly, I had incredibly low self-esteem from being poor and socially inexperienced so part of me truly believed this girl just asked me out of pity.

My bad. I completely digressed.

APB's adolescent experience may vastly differ from mine, but the point I'm trying to make is that he probably invested so much time on getting admitted into a good university and a respectable job that he completely neglected a key aspect of his life; his social life. Now I didn't want to endure the same kind of financial hardship like my parents did, so I only focused on school (and dancing which my parents discouraged too btw). But hey, my fairy tale of having that college education and high paying job would certainly lure the ladies to line up for me right? Uhhh...NOT. And why not? Because there are millions of other intelligent college graduates earning a decent or higher paying salary which makes me what? Average. Correction, average with underdeveloped social skills. [Updated Jan. 13th] Isn't this what the PUA movement was originally set out to address?

There's no question that one of the primary objectives is to get laid. What man would not want to have sex with a beautiful women? (Besides a gay one). How can Asian PUAs be criticized of sexually objectifying women when you have guys like Rick Lee and Hung Lo who are performing the act on camera which is much more widely accessible via the web? The intent of both movements is to inspire and improve the masculine image of Asian American men by removing the sexual malware that has corrupted our hard drive. From my experience for instance, I've developed and improved much of my social skills by the actual application of PUA theory and its teachings. Yes, I've gotten laid from it as well, but it was not by using "brute force" techniques. Remember, its how to attract a woman.[End Update Jan. 13th]

Albeit, I never met APB but a cohort of mine attended his weekend bootcamp about 4 years ago and was mesmerized by his talent and ability in attracting women. He clearly had dedicated himself to this craft and wanted to share it with the Average (Asian) Frustrated Chump out there who probably concentrated too much on the fairy tale and not enough on the reality of social dynamics. APB believed and proved to himself that YES, things can be different. You can still play catch up and do a complete 180. You can exude confidence and pique a woman's interest by using certain gambits that are much more effective than a banal, "Hi. How are you doing?" or "I just thought I'd let you know I think you're very pretty." Women rarely respond to that kind of a conversation opener unless you're someone like Daniel Henney. And if your body language sucks, then you might as well throw in the towel before you even open your mouth. I don't think anyone is innately born as an Alpha male. We become Alpha. For some of us its through sports, entertainment or business. For others its by being outgoing and social.

[Updated: Jan. 14th]
I read somewhere that Tom Cruise said if people focused on improving other aspects of their life instead of pretending, then they wouldn't need this. No offense but its easy to claim this if you're a world renown celebrity such as Tom Cruise, The Last Samurai, whose role in the movie ironically reinforces the AF/WM image many of us detest so fervently. He is a deviation from the average Asian American male. Besides, if this is the only aspect of your life which needs improvement, then what makes it any different from improving the other aspects of your life?

To summarize it all, APB and other Asian PUAs intentions are to improve the social lives of Asian American men who lack even the most rudimentary skills to converse with both women and men in a diverse social setting. Everyone eventually has sex whether or not you're PUA. There will always be bad apples who abuse what the framers of the institution intended, but don't denounce an entire movement that is helping Asian American brothers overcome their approach anxieties with women. Especially when its countering the stereotype that we have zero Game and are considered the bottom of the barrel in the dating pool. That ain't so Alpha.
[End Update Jan. 14th]

Who Says Asian Guys Aren't Romantic? Not the TSA!

2010-01-10T18:15:00.000-08:00

Chinese immigrant, Haisong Jiang, is apparently the culprit of the Newark Airport security breach fiasco. The New York Times reports the Rutgers University graduate student, here on a student visa, was arrested for trespassing by ducking past security when the TSA guard was away from his post. The security video showed Jiang slipping by security to give his girlfriend a hug and a goodbye kiss like this,

People close to Jiang say he is just a romantic and loves his girlfriend very much. Who says Asian guys aren't romantic? Maybe he was watching too many romantic comedies or Asian TV dramas where a guy breaks through security to kiss and say goodbye to his girlfriend one last time before he leaves for war. You know what they say, "Men have 2 heads but only enough blood to operate one at a time." This may have been one of those times. I don't think he knew what the ramifications were by trespassing, but Senator Frank Lautenberg of NJ did not find the incident innocuous. Lautenberg is hoping Jiang will face federal charges considering the trouble the security breach caused for the 1,600 travelers stranded at the airport and the flights unnecessarily delayed.

Now is it just me or do you also find this quite laughable? The guy may be getting his doctorate, but he obviously lacks common sense or an understanding of US culture. I think he should be heavily fined at least $1000 for causing the disruption.

But...what about the TSA's lack of competence in handling the whole situation? Here are some interesting factoids. Even Lautenberg was shocked to find out that,

Only ONE security guard was responsible for terminal exits.
Security cameras used by the TSA weren't working properly so they had to scramble to obtain the footage from Continental Airlines.
The Port Authority who plays a critical role in maintaining safety at Newark was not notified of the breach until an hour later after the breakdown.

The guard who left his post should also be reprimanded. Why was he away from his post and not replaced with another TSA personnel? In addition, terrorists are not law abiding citizens for those who don't know already. They will dodge such preventative measures such as security rope. Use some plexiglass with turnstiles or some other kind of lexan barriers. Anything but the security rope you find at your local bank!!

Are Asian Women Easy For Non-Asian Men?

2010-01-06T18:39:00.000-08:00

I sure think so. With all the hoopla over Asian women in America these days it appears that our fellow Asian American sisters are getting a bad wrap, literally. According to a study done by Boston University Professor, Hyeouk Chris Hahm, "Asian-American women were four times more likely to have a sexually transmitted disease over their male counterparts" which leads me to believe that they are considered easy, especially to non-Asian American males i.e. White guys. Someone is obviously fuckin'.

Now maybe I'm supposed to be in complete shock and dismay, but its not all that surprising if you think about it. Go ahead and yap all you want about the different statistical methods of slicing, dicing and presenting the data to bias the results, but before you disparage Hahm's findings save your breath and do three things for me first,

Take a stroll down the block and count how many Asian Female/White Male couples there are as opposed to AM/WF couples (this works even better if you're in California or NYC by the way).
Go to Craigslist and look under the Personals section and see how many SAFs are seeking out SWMs and vice versa. I guarantee the scale is tipped more so in one direction.
Take a trip to Japan, China or any Asian country for that matter and perform 1 & 2. In this case, you can interchange White with Black as well.

Since traveling to Asia may be a limiting factor for most of you, just by completing the first 2 points, do you still find this hard to believe?

Hahm also discovered that "Asian American women had a higher prevalence of STDs than White women in both 1995 (10.4% vs. 7.7) and 2001 (13.5% vs. 8.3%). The incidence of STDs (not diagnosed with STDs in 1995, but developed STIs in 2001) among Asian American women was also higher than that of White women." I know all of you AFs out there aren't easy, but this is some damning evidence when compared with White women. Incorporating these findings with AFs being 4x more likely to have an STD and it really begins to beg the question.

I don't mean to lambast all of you AA ladies, but try practicing responsible, safer sex by wrapping it up and slowing it down before you either catch a reputation as being an easy lay or something even worse!

Tiger Woods Joke

2009-12-30T23:35:00.000-08:00

I decided to write my own joke in light of the recent scandal. I didn't find any good ones that made me chuckle. Perhaps this one will for you readers out there.

Three guys walk into a hotel. They go up to the clerk behind the counter and ask for three separate rooms. The hotel clerk tells them, "Gentleman you're in luck. We have exactly three rooms left. One room has a bunch of garbage, another room has a bunch of elves and the last room has a bunch of women." To make the selection as random as possible they end up drawing for rooms out of a hat. The 1st guy picks the trashed room, the 2nd picks the room with the elves and the last guy gets the room with the women. The next day they return to the lobby and begin to discuss how their night was. Two of them ask the 1st guy, "How was your room last night?" He says, "Oh man, I felt like a bum." They ask why and he says, "There was so much trash in the place it was like a being in a dumpster." They ask the 2nd guy, "How was your room last night?" He says, "Man I felt like Santa Claus." They ask why and he responds, "There were so many elves it was like being in the North Pole!" Then they ask the 3rd guy, "So how was your room last night?" The guy says, "Man...I felt like Tiger Woods!" They ask, "Huh...Why Tiger Woods?" He says, "There were so many women it was like being on a golf course. I went in and out of 18 holes!"

I've already gone through four revisions of it and willing to tweak it a bit more. Feedback is welcome.

Investing in the Asian American Nation Part II: Far East Movement

2009-12-27T22:48:00.000-08:00

During the earlier part of December, I posted a blog on the necessities of investing in an Asian American identity which has been discussed and debated about on several other AA blog sites. I'm sure as many of you would expect this course of galvanizing of AAs is an inevitable and natural progression of the community prior to the next transitional phase of assimilation.

There are already multiple instances of this "lumping" of Asians and AAs showing up in Hollywood with movies such as Memoirs of a Geisha, Ninja Assassin and G.I. Joe. You may be thinking this is the power of Hollywood at work, but AAs are coming together voluntarily to produce something much more grandiose. Here's what I mean.

The LA Times recently ran an article about a unique up and coming multi-ethnic AA hip hop group called Far East Movement. The group consists of a Filipino American DJ, a half Chinese and Japanese guy and two Koreans. It's funny because I heard there music on TV and other random places but never knew they are in fact AA. Luckily, the web keeps me abreast of the latest trends in American entertainment and it appears as Far East Movement is amassing a huge fan base among AA and other ethnic groups. The progressive nature of music and its multi-ethnic artists today must be reckoned with, and it appears that the head of A&R at Interscope Records actually realized this to sign them. Is this a sign of things to come for AA striving to break into the US music industry? It's quite possible. I hope they produce a groundbreaking album next year with their debut on a major record label.

Congratulations to FM for your diligence, dedication and hustle.

Happy Holidays

2009-12-23T22:21:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah and Happy New Year to you all.

May your winter this holiday season be filled with joy, warmth, laughter, good food and memories to cherish. I say thank you to the World and to the artists, bloggers, engineers, entertainers and anyone else who has inspired me to become a better person.

Many thanks to you all.

Back in California

2009-12-13T09:50:00.000-08:00

I've been MIA recently because of my return to California. Being away from American food for too long started taking a toll on my tummy. Who would've thought I'd seriously be craving this stuff? Mexican food, soul food, IN-N-OUT, fusion cuisines, etc.

It still been a bit of a reverse culture shock since I've landed on US soil. Several things that I didn't realize while I was living here for almost my entire life,

There are a lot of fat Americans. As soon as I arrived at the airport I couldn't believe how many fat people I've seen since then. I bet many many women out here would look so much more attractive if they actually maintained a healthy weight along with their complexion.
Public infrastructure and transportation is lacking. I really don't understand why California doesn't have better public transportation services. The bay area has the BART and Caltrain but that's about it. What about the rest of California?
Diversity. America really is a diverse country and I like to see people of all shades of color hanging out together having a jolly ol' time.
There really is a noticeable imbalance of White male/Asian female couples. I didn't know it was this bad, but it really is everywhere I go in San Francisco. However, I'm not as upset as I thought I'd be since every couple I saw appeared like they were meant for each other. In other words, she ain't hot.
No alcohol after 1:30am. This is just pure bullshit. No explanation needed.
America is unsafe relative to other countries. America can be a dangerous place; not all of the US of course, but its up there when you compare metropolitan areas pound for pound. My friend's neighbor got stabbed to death by a homeless woman just last month. Christ!
People aren't in such a hurry. Work, errands, meeting up people, etc. Let's just chill and take our time.

If I come up with any others I'll add it to the list.

Angry Asian Girl Smashes BF's Game Console

2009-12-06T17:52:00.000-08:00

There are lot of folks who get caught up in video games. Just don't get caught up in it like this guy did. Otherwise you might be bound for Loserville, a smashed video game console and one angry asian girlfriend!

Investing in the Asian American Nation

2009-12-04T18:44:00.000-08:00

Should Asian Americans sacrifice a bit of their cultural identity to come together, unite and speak as one Voice? Should AAs invest in the Asian American nation for sake of advancing and empowering the community?

A guest writer for 8Asians by the name of Koji Steven Sakai wrote a piece I couldn't resist commenting on because it addressed the aforementioned that has always been controversial and countered by many AAs who still hold onto their heritage dearly and rightfully so. Here is an excerpt from the post,

Some would argue that this is just another example of Hollywood confusing and combining all Asian groups together. Japanese. Chinese. Korean. There is no difference. They are all the same. And maybe that’s exactly what they did. But I’m hoping that this is a sign of things to come. A time when Asians (and Asian Americans) can stop defining themselves by their country of origin but by the bigger and broader term, Asian. I’m probably giving too much credit to the makers of Ninja Assassin. But I believe that only by coming together can Asian (and Asian Americans) truly be a cultural and intellectual force on the world stage.

Its an interesting discussion and one that has been neglected for various reasons. A significant number of AAs vehemently reject this idea of having a "bigger and broader term, Asian". They often cite history as empirical evidence as grounds for arguing a slippery slope. WWII and The Korean War, for instance, gave White Americans an excuse to call anyone who was Asian a jap, nip or gook. Obviously, lumping Asians all together may create more opportunities for stereotyping and blatant racism.

But, isn't this inevitable? I sure think so. As much as there are AAs who ridicule their Asian side such as Amy Tan, there are other AAs who forget they are American. They may be ethnically Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Cambodian, Laotian, Hmong, Filipino, etc. but they are American by nationality. And being American means they should invest in the betterment of an American economical, social and political way of life. It's one thing to know your roots, but its another to have so much pride in your country of origin, or parents' country of origin for many of you, that you forget you are even an American to begin with. I pay income taxes in America, not in Korea.

Let's be honest. When was the last time you saw a White girl and said to her, "What's your ethnic background?" Or something like, "You know, you look mixed. Your face looks Swedish. Your tits look German. And your ass looks French." Maybe not in so many words but you get the picture. Its like Chris Rock said, "We don't have time to be putting White people into categories." And I doubt after a while non-AAs will continue to insure they are matching ethnic labels properly.

My last point refers to a comment I made to Koji's post,

It may be difficult to acknowledge, but there has been a lack of solidarity within the Asian community. As white is to Europe, yellow (or brown in some instances, LOL) is to Asia. Both regions are fragmented with an overwhelming number of different ethnicities, all culturally unique in their own right. Yet somehow, these factors did not stifle the progress of the White Americans as it did for the Asian Americans for one simple reason. European-Americans sacrificed much of their heritage in order to invest in this notion of "whiteness" and by doing so, they became the ideal standard of American society. This galvanization of European-Americans allowed them to be the sole beneficiary of this investment and drove faster assimilation. Throughout the course of US history they have leveraged and benefited from this notion of whiteness politically, economically and socially. For instance, running for congress or office, moving up the corporate ladder, qualifying for a sizable bank loan, obtaining lead roles in mainstream entertainment and placing White-American Male as alpha others as beta i.e. the imbalance of WM/AF pairings.

Of course, it also helps when you're the ethnic majority, but nonetheless its systemic impact has proven its significance repeatedly. Even African Americans have more of a cohesive voice than Asian Americans do, and they too came from many different countries in Africa.

Make no mistake. I'm not advocating that we follow similar practices of giving preferential treatment to someone based on them being Asian alone. This makes us no better than any other racist we complain about. The point I'm trying to get across is that everyone in the Asian community should let go some of this attachment to their ethnic-specific identity for the sake of advancing the Asian community as a whole - power in numbers.

I'm not proposing AAs completely reject their heritage. I neither want to be washed up nor be clueless regarding my cultural roots. Instead, AAs should have a community and strive to work together for a common cause of Progress and Asian American empowerment.

Action + Voice = Progress

2009-12-03T13:19:00.000-08:00

Over the years I have come to believe in and follow one simple rule which is an equation that defines Progress.

Action + Voice = Progress

My reasons for this are straightforward. The Progress I made during my life not only reflects this equation, but history provides us with many proof points as well. When I look back to the socioeconomic and political advancement of any ethnic group within this century, I've noticed each made Progress, by taking Action AND raising Voice, but emphasized too much on one variable over the other. The old adage of "actions speak louder than words" provides a much more power-pact punch with a Voice to follow it.

There are two primary examples which come to mind just by comparing and contrasting the Progress made by the African Americans versus Asian Americans. We all know the Black community is vocal. If being enslaved, lynched, mobbed, beaten, burned, segregated, typecast and socioeconomically confined isn't a justification to speak out, then nothing is. Martin Luther King and Malcom X were revolutionaries whose efforts brought forth palpable change in America, because they followed the Progress rule.

What do I mean by this? If you take a look at the Asian-American community, we are known for our academic excellence, hard work, respect for elders and penchant for math and sciences. Asian parents emphasize the importance of education such as studying hard, getting good grades and attending the best universities to hold prestigious high paying jobs. But what about our Voice? Although these are all laudable and wonderful things society commends the Asian American community for, we also have had a penchant for remaining silent even if we're getting the shaft.

My cultural background and parents emphasis on remaining silent plagues me to this day. It is one of the several reasons why I started blogging. The utilization of the web enables many Asian Americans to able to express themselves freely through blogging where they may have been uncomfortable with doing so in public. I believe it is the first step and the right one in finding our Voice to solve the equation of Progress for the Asian American community. Let us continue marching on and Progressing forward.

The Influence of U.S. Entertainment: Asian & White

2009-11-30T01:10:00.000-08:00

To those of you who say that the American media and entertainment industry has a trivial influence on the way people form racist views of Asian men as opposed to White men are either White American or in complete denial of reality. A non-Asian friend of mine sent me an interesting, yet not surprising link as to how a group Japanese school girls see a video of a white guy immediately discern him as Brad Pitt.

http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/01/14/japanese-school-girls-think-they-see-brad-pitt-video/

Now I haven't seen the video, but after perusing the comments its evident that the White guy doesn't look like Brad Pitt. That's actually not what I find disturbing to say the least. I know everyone views people differently and the banality of how "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" has its merit, but the point the I'm trying to make is that the depiction of Asian men are portrayed by Hollywood in a much more negative or emasculated way compared to any other ethnic group. YES, this topic may have been beaten to a dead horse, but you're gravely mistaken. The horse is still alive and kicking and needs to be beaten further. As the old saying goes, "The squeaky wheel gets the grease!"

Several weeks back I did a blog post of 5 Asian men making some headway into the American entertainment industry and yet I feel like it really is just blips on the radar. Its beyond frustrating at times because for once in my life I would like to see an Asian male show some charisma, game and charm in an American movie. Is that too much to ask for? I'm not asking for the entire world motherfuckers!

Not even Rain in Ninja Assassin, an international superstar, singer, dancer and actor outside of the US, who played the lead role as Raizo, was given the opportunity to show any hints of sexuality with a woman. You know kissing and making out?? The shit that men do when we get horny and wanna fuck like any other straight male out there?? But NOOOO...once again, he is pigeonholed into playing a stereotypical martial arts role to prove the rule as opposed to being an exception to it. And for the dissident who argue that ninjas aren't supposed to fall in love are simply ignorant or think denial is just a river in Egypt. Recall the 80's American Ninja martial farts garbage flick starring Michael Dudikoff - a White American male - gets romantically involved with the general's daughter in the movie. Nobody seemed to be talking shit about how horrible and ridiculous that movie was back then. The acting was terrible, plot worse and don't even get me started on the bitch fighting sequences...yet the main character still gets down with a girl...

At least someone else besides me fucking gets it. Do you?

Ninja Assassin Review: The Lost Scenes

2009-11-28T07:08:00.000-08:00

I just saw the flick yesterday evening. Surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated since an onslaught of movie critics were trashing the film as being "a dull blade" due to some deficient acting by Rain and other cast members, and even worse direction from the production crew. Not exactly sure what the critics were expecting from a film budgeted only $30 million to produce, a hastily rewritten screenplay in 56 hours, and someone whose native tongue isn't English, but...I have to concur that many action scenes were filmed too dark or too close for viewers to comfortably digest and comprehend. Lastly, by adding some depth to the characters along with a bit more suspense and thrill to the plot, Ninja Assassin would have definitely been a much better film.

Too Dark & Too Close
I was under the impression that McTeigue would have avoided the same mistakes that plagued Batman Begins when filming the action sequences. Viewers want these crystal clear. What is the point of having an awesome fight scene if nobody can tell what's going on because its too dark? This means the camera has to zoom in on the actors so the audience can see the details. The problem with this is the camera jerks back and forth to capture a chain of movements from each character. My eyes struggle to keep up and makes it confusing. Yes, ninjas fight in the dark but that doesn't mean you can't add more lighting to provide a better viewing experience.

I was also upset with the car chasing scene being shot so close. I love movie scenes where the protagonist has to dodge and maneuver around oncoming traffic from different angles. This is when I get a good thrill ride sitting at the edge of my seat, but shooting it too close defeats the purpose. I don't see any of the potential danger!

Plot Is Too Simple & Doesn't Flow
Spending a bit more time to develop the characters and add a few scenes would have helped tremendously. The mediocre reviews regarding the plot may have turned out better as well. For those of you who haven't seen the movie already, go watch it RIGHT NOW and then come back to read "Ninja Assassin: The Lost Scenes", or else my rendition of what should have been included won't make much sense to you.

In the beginning when Raizo is in the laundry mat, the movie should have shown the entire fight sequence with the other ninja. There's a saying you shouldn't start a fight if you can't finish it. We never see any hand-to-hand combat which would have been nice since there was hardly any throughout the film.
Raizo leaves his apartment after he finishes exercising in his room and walks into the back of a restaurant. From there we learn he is working as part of the kitchen staff cutting meat or slicing and dicing vegetables. This ties in well with his ninja sword skills.
After Mika reviews the video recording which captured Raizo's face, she calls Ryan requests a dinner meeting at a restaurant. Ryan says, "I know just the place" and they both meet at the restaurant which Raizo is working at.
While having dinner Mika is quietly explaining to Ryan what she's discovered and shows him documents containing screen captures of Raizo. Meanwhile Raizo steps into the dining area to go use the restroom and overhears Mika mentioning the words "ninjas" as well as the captured video. Raizo sees something in Mika that reminds him of the girl he had feelings for, immediately puts his head down and returns to the kitchen.
The movie could've expanded on this scene by having Raizo's brother leading a group of ninjas to kill the lights and clean out the restaurant. Mika and Ryan barely flee the place while Raizo is fighting off the ninjas with a butcher knifes and meat cleavers. Then the following scene where Raizo stops a ninja from killing Mika in her own apartment would have made the plot more fluid. It didn't make sense to me when Raizo suddenly decides to rescue this Europol agent in her own apartment for no reason. How did he know of her to begin with? Why did he do it? At least point 4 fills in that gap.

So there you have it. That's pretty much the gist of what I would've modified and added to enhance the movie overall. If you've seen the movie, I'm curious as to what you think would've improved it and just for giggles, what you think of my recommendations.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

2009-11-26T11:13:00.000-08:00

First off I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. It is important we take the time out of our day everyday to say thank you for what we have and mean it with sincerity. I take things for granted all the time; having both arms and legs intact, having my health, having family members and friends, and most of all having you as a reader.

I miss you California.

Movie critic dogs Rain and I dog the critic.

2009-11-24T04:29:00.000-08:00

I've already been reading up on some of the reviews for Ninja Assassin. Apparently, its a dud and receiving a number of bad reviews from critics all over, and that's fine. Harsh criticisms for the movie are probably quite reasonable, but do critics like this asshole need to talk shit about Rain by downplaying his talent and success?

Rain, apparently a music superstar in Korea, must have more presence on stage than he does on screen

How about a music superstar all throughout Asia and most other parts of the world besides the US mainstream? You forgot to mention that English is his 2nd language and probably had trouble expressing his feelings because of this simple fact. But just to insure Rain's character was chagrined sufficiently, he leaves readers with the following,

Did you know? Rain’s Korean movie debut in “I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK” opened at the top of the local box office before collapsing in its second weekend and disappearing from theaters just a few weeks later.

Yes I did know that asshole, thanks to Wikipedia. It was still considered a local box office success. Why not point out the rest of the "Did you know" facts like,

Did you know? I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK won the Alfred Bauer Award at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival and was selected as the opening film for the Hong Kong International Film Festival.

How about,

Did you know? Rain was nominated for and won Best New Actor at the 43rd Baeksang Awards.

Or did you simply omit or conveniently forget to mention those things in your review as well? I'm sure you wouldn't be doing this because Rain is an upcoming, charismatic, talented and popular Asian male heartthrob with the potential of cracking the US market. That would be inconceivable!

Fuck You Amy Tan's of the World

2009-11-22T00:47:00.000-08:00

To the beloved Amy Tan's of the World,

Two simple words. Fuck you. Let me put it in bold as well for even more emphasis. Fuck you. If you are wondering why I have so much animosity for this despicable, poor excuse for an Asian American, please proceed.

This so-called "author", known for her anecdotal diatribes on Asian American men in The Joy Fuck - excuse me - Luck Club, is at best an abomination to the entire Asian community and I say "Asian community" since these notions can extend beyond the borders of North America. It was just recently that I had ran across her book and movie again which triggered my recollections of one of the story's main themes - burlesquing, criticizing and betraying the integrity of Asian American men. Talk about throwing your own men under the bus!! Tan's literature has been subliminally planting seeds of ethnic chagrin and cultural self-degradation in the hearts and minds of many Americans since her book became mainstream. She is the quintessential SELL OUT of the Asian American community while undermining her fellow brothers in the process.

By no means am I claiming that we, Asian American men, are completely excused from the dating mishaps and stereotypes which the rest of America is all too familiar with. Though I have witnessed this within my social circle, it has been the exception not the rule. I do relate and concur with Tan that for 2nd generation Asian Americans or recent immigrants, there is a cultural and generational gap between between parents and children that may serve as a plausible explanation to some of the issues addressed in JLC. However, was it really necessary to taint the image of Asian men in almost every way, shape or form imaginable? JLC essentially gives any non-Asian person the ammunition to shoot down our character and aspirations of being a normal, sought after, or God forbid to the Amy Tans of the world, American lover.

Luckily we have real Asian American women who see through the deplorable pretenses and laughable stereotypes in JLC,

My angst with JLC is that it plays upon all of the Asian stereotypes that were described in my opening paragraph. Asian women are depicted as lonely miserable characters whose ultimate salvation comes when united in marriage with a white male. Furthermore, the author mercilessly smears all of the Asian male characters, confining them to the role of the wife-abuser, or the nit-picking egomaniac.

I support Julia Oh in her campaign to replace or supplement Amy Tan's garbage with literature that is a more accurate portrayal of Asian Americans. The AA community will not turn a blind eye to the racist rhetoric that either Tan or anyone else in her sphere of influence continues to beckon. Enough is enough.

Sometimes I wonder, did Tan ever acknowledge the fact that Chinese mothers - yes, women - are partially responsible for all of the wretched behaviors and attitudes found in the very men she ridicules? These men had to have learned their mannerisms from someone in the family! If not, perhaps they were the few bad apples of the group. What about the rest? For some inexplicable reason, she wasn't able to find a single example of a decent Chinese guy as an exceptional husband. Was Tan the perfect woman to all of her AM counterparts? I highly doubt it. Look Amy, if reincarnation does exist then you must have been one helluva bitch to all Chinese men in your previous life to have encountered so many assholes.

Go fuck yourself.

Kristie Yamaguchi, Michelle Kwan and now Yuna Kim

2009-11-20T05:03:00.000-08:00

She glides across the frozen stage spinning triple axel and toe-loop combinations immaculately yet easily. Powerfully yet gracefully. On par with other Asian skating legends Kristie Yamaguchi and Michelle Kwan, Yuna Kim, representing South Korea, has become the new poster child of the classic winter sport and achieved celebrity status back home. No joke. I see her in advertisements practically everywhere I go in Seoul. By the way, her name is pronounced YUH-na, NOT YOO-na.

At only 19 years young, she has gone from an upcoming woman's figure skater to a reigning world champion dazzling audiences, judge panels and viewers like myself. I'll be the first to admit, I'm not a die hard fan of the sport unless I'm watching skating prodigy Jimmy McElroy and sex addict Chazz Michael Michaels competing on ice. When I found out about Yuna Kim however, I took notice of the new Blades of Glory immediately, not only because she's Asian, but primarily because South Korea has never been reputable for ice skating.

So how cute...I mean good is she really? The most recent event was at Skate America which consists of two performances - one short program, the other a lengthier free skate. If you can fall flat on your ass in the free skate portion of the competition which is almost doubly weighted and still manage to win the gold by a hefty 13 point margin, that's plenty good. In fact, that's Jimmy McElroy good. She's so damn good Yuna Kim's main rival isn't even another skater either - its herself. Albeit, she isn't infallible so her coronation as Olympic Champion has been deferred until February.

However, next month's Grand Prix finals in Tokyo will give Yuna the chance of redeeming herself from her recent missteps and reinforcing her title as the new reigning supreme of woman's figure skating. Hey...even Michael Jordan had an off day.

Google's Aspirations of World Domination

2009-11-17T11:18:00.000-08:00

It's quite amazing what Google has done to enhance our online experience on a daily basis. Several years ago my roommate and I had a brief discussion about Google's unprecedented growth and juggernaut presence beginning to mirror the likes of Microsoft. We discussed it half-jokingly because I didn't think much of it at the time. It was obvious that Google revolutionized the web with its sophisticated PageRank algorithm search engine. In no time Google effortlessly surpassed the search engine pioneers of the dot com era until they became a faded memory: MSN, AltaVista, Excite and even Yahoo! Oddly enough everything else Google followed up with seemed either mediocre or just wasn't getting as much traction...for a while at least.

For instance, many users were still using Mapquest instead of Google Maps to look up directions, and when the social networking frenzy caught on, Google released Orkut; another "me too" social networking site against market leaders Friendster and MySpace where users could join by invitation only. Then where was Froogle. A nice pun on frugal, but its price comparison service was a flop never gaining momentum to go head-to-head with Priceline or EBay. After the acquisition of YouTube however, I thought this would be the perfect complement to expand Google's ad service business but it still has yet to turn a profit. There was one point back in 2006 where I even questioned whether the company was overvalued pushing 500 bucks per share because of its growth as a business seemed a bit stagnant.

Perhaps I was too ignorant back then to notice Google clandestinely chipping away from every corner of virtually every IT company to become the next Microsoft. In fact, I think Google has aspirations of world domination by becoming much bigger, more powerful and even scarier Microsoft. Let's not forget either, Google is less than a decade young! There's a only one startling contrast between the two software giants. One makes quality software and the other one, with the exception of MS Office, does not.

The moment it dawned on me I instantly got up and began searching for articles related to Google's threat to the information technology industry. Now Google has always been good to me by helping me find answers to most of my questions. So I went ahead and typed in the exact phrase "Who's afraid of Google?" and it returned, "...Everyone." See what I mean???

Actually, the result was a link to an article with a title matching my query from WIRED magazine. The article summarizes it best here:

...Google has always wanted to be more than a search engine. Even in the early days, its ultimate goal was extravagant: to organize the world's information. High-minded as that sounds, Google's ever-expanding agenda has put it on a collision course with nearly every company in the information technology industry...

Yelp. That sounds about right. It continues on giving warranted examples of the markets Google is ambitious of conquering and which companies are panicking as a result. The list consists of everything and everyone from video, frightening cable and TV networks like Comcast, to the biggest fish in the sea of IT, like Microsoft and Apple, with the release of its new Chrome operating system.

Out of the seven markets which Google is pursuing I still think the list comes up short so I'm adding to it.

GPS, PND

Background: Google kept improving its map user interface and functionality and is almost tied with Mapquest, but it wasn't until the release of Apple's iPhone that probably got portable navigation device manufacturers shitting in their pants. Garmin in response released a GPS integrated smartphone while TomTom began selling a GPS application for the iPhone at the App store.
Google Enters: Both Garmin and TomTom appeared as if they were gradually making a comeback after a severe beating both companies took from the economic downturn. Then in early October Google dropped the A-Bomb (A for Android OS) with built-in turn-by-turn navigation functionality.
Market Impact: I actually invested in Garmin for a while since I thought the company was undervalued given their zero-debt balance sheet and share price trading barely over 11 times earnings. Quite low for such a solid hi-tech company. Luckily I sold my shares roughly two weeks before to buy none other than Google. In one day the A-Bomb announcement caused Garmin to drop by $1.5 billion in market value. Now market and financial analysts are questioning the likelihood of their long term survival going up against the GDragon.

SOCIAL NETWORKING

Background: Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. Nuff said.
Google Enters: So Orkut wasn't much of a success BUT, have you seen Google Wave? It fuckin' incredible. Combine chatting, email and social networking to the next level above and beyond are current notion of Web 2.0. That's Wave. It still isn't available to the public just yet unless you're a developer or invited by another user of Wave already. For those who are interested in the meantime, and if not this will, watch the demo of what Google's developed. Prepare to be blown away. Don't forget that everything being done is in a standard html web browser.
Market Impact: I use Gmail as my primary email account already. Replace that with Wave and you can kiss standard email and social networking goodbye. It looks rudimentary in comparison.

SMARTPHONE OS

Background: Before Google even released its first version of Android the smartphone market was in its infancy. In 2005 I was listening to an analyst's remarks about RIM's earnings outlook for the following year while touting how the Blackberry maker was "crushing the competition". He was right but also failed to realize one simple fact. There really was no competition. I never saw Palm and Microsoft as formidable contenders despite what others thought. Inevitably the landscape changed abruptly in mid 2007 when Apple entered the market.
Google Enters: Google was barely dipping its toes into the water with Android 1.0. It failed to pose as a potential threat to the iPhone, Blackberry, Pre or Windows Mobile, but the release of Android 2.0 last month turned that potential threat into a real and dangerous one.

Market Impact: Unless either Palm or Microsoft come up with something radically innovative that sticks, they might as well call it quits and sell the business while its still possible. My prediction; Apple and Google to be the best of breed remaining in the smartphone OS market by early 2011. As Windows left PC makers at the mercy of Microsoft, Google's Android may do the same for non-Apple smartphone makers. Don't believe me? Motorola, Samsung, LG and Nokia are already turning to Android in the smartphone wars. You have to admit though, that's pretty amazing coming from a company who's core business is founded on search.

While digesting all of this information I started to wonder, "What is stopping Google from accomplishing its ultimate extravagant goal of not only organizing the world's information, but also having us completely dependent on them?"

Just last week I went to a Starbucks in Seoul and found out Google is providing free WI-FI service there. Turns out it is offering free WI-FI service to all US airports this holiday season as well and doesn't look like its slowing down either. Now imagine if Google were to offer free WI-FI at all airports, Starbucks, Coffee Beans and Barnes & Nobles just for starters. Do you see where this is going? Combine these hot spots, Android, a new Chrome OS along with an IT industry continuing to embrace cloud computing and what do you end up with? A company who not only "organizes the world's information" but also completely controls it.

For example, I wouldn't need to install MS Office because I'd be managing all of my documents, spreadsheets and presentations via the web with no need for backups! If I really need to I'm sure Google will create some lightweight client applications for offline editing.

Who needs telecommunications when you have Google providing voice, email and instant messaging services for practically for free? Google Voice does a pretty good job already.

What about all that multimedia? Movies, TV series, MP3s, etc. Well who needs that when there's YouTube? I've listened to more mixtapes, leaked albums and oldschool classics on YouTube for free. As for video, if its a fast enough connection in HD quality, there's no reason for me to even have cable. I hate the cable companies anyway. They've been reluctant to introduce a la carte services for the longest time making me foot the bill for channels I never watch. But as the cable networks like to argue, giving viewers the option to choose will leave a lot of networks such as Playboy or ESPN out of business. Riiiiiight.

So how many Google applications do I use regularly now? Let's see,

Google Search
Gmail
Chrome (used to be FireFox until it started crashing on me once a day).
Gtalk: Chat, voice, video
YouTube: Music videos and songs, short TV programs, movies, instructional and educational videos
Google Finance
Picasa
Blogspot
Google Maps
Google Reader

10 items doesn't seem like much but bare in mind that I don't have an Android smartphone and haven't used Google's Wi-Fi service either. By adding either Android or WiFi to my list and the likelihood of having me switch over to more Google based applications goes up. Ultimately, the release of Chrome OS due next year may increase my use of Google applications exponentially. If Chrome OS fulfills the productivity needs of the average PC user, Google may very well accomplish its ultimate extravagant goal of not only organizing the world's information, but also having us completely dependent on them for all means of communication, productivity and information retrieval.

Destroy & Rebuild

2009-11-14T10:14:00.000-08:00

It hasn't even been a month yet but I decided to change the name of my blog to something with a much more meaningful purpose - Destroy & Rebuild - and I'll explain why. Initially the title of my blog was "MaSir Jones" just like my blog handle as a dedication to one of my favorite emcees of all time. But after contemplating on it for a bit I realized that MaSir Jones just doesn't send the right message I want to convey.

While listening to a track from NaS's critically acclaimed Stillmatic titled "Destroy Rebuild" that's when it hit me. This is the theme of my blog that I've been wanting to showcase all along! Destroy and rebuild is the perfect undertone. Destroy the negative ki and Rebuild with with positive ki.

Positive Energy A Critical Element for success.

"They say the bridge is over, the bridge is over. Nah this is a time we destroy and rebuild it" -NaS, 2001

Why Social Networking Is So Successful And Why I've Grown Sick Of It

2009-11-11T20:30:00.000-08:00

The other day I asked myself why social networking has become such a phenomenal success and the answer became quite clear to me. Its all ego-driven. If you disagree with me then consider this. How fun would Facebook, Blogspot, YouTube or any other social networking site be if nobody gave your page any attention; kind of like my page right now? Hahaha. I'm not begging the question either. I think the question answers itself.

The issue I find with Web 2.0 sites whose entire platform is strictly based on social networking such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and others is that there are very few barriers to entry if none at all. I can say this with conviction because two other colleagues and I made one in less than 6 months! Granted it wasn't exactly successful because I failed to lead my team with the proper focus, strategy and execution. I think it also helps to have the financial backing like Facebook's Zuckerberg probably did being a Harvard student. Nevertheless, social networking can be replicated quite easily. There isn't any major initial cost or overhead to getting started either as opposed to say trying to develop an iPhone killer.

Let me revisit the history of social networking to further my argument. First of all, it was Friendster that created a such an enormous buzz they amassed a cult following in a short time frame. Now if you're going to have a problem when starting a dot com, then that's definitely a good one to have right? Normally I would say yes, but in Friendster's case the exponential growth of user traffic overwhelmed their infrastructure degrading performance so badly they needed IT Viagra. MySpace superseded by capitalizing on their performance issues while catering to artists, musicians and trendies. However MySpace's major mistake was pimping out the entire site with advertisements where ever and whenever possible. After a while, it seemed like MySpace was no longer "A Place For Friends" but merely "A Place For Ads" or "A Place For Spam". Maybe that's why MySpace removed that slogan because they knew the site was no longer a place for friends but just an advertising whore house. Sounds like something NewsCorp would do. A couple of years later, Facebook would dethrone MySpace from its long uncontested reign as king. They were intelligent enough to focus on enhancing the overall social networking experience by not shoving ads down my throat. But sure enough a new player by the name of Twitter entered the market and is now a formidable contender to Facebook.

So with all these one-of-a-kind social networking sites out there, which one do I choose from? I hate to admit it but Facebook has done the best job since Friendster so far, but guess what? I'm already getting sick of it too. As I already mentioned earlier its all ego-driven, and frankly a handful probably sincerely give a shit about my life and how well or horrible I'm doing compared to you. For instance, how many of you have started using the "See less about [User XYZ]" feature on your Wall so you don't get obliterated with everyone else's status BS updates?? I sure have!!

In addition, how many of you have all these so-called "friends" that you actually keep in contact with enough for the both of you to even consider each other as friends? If you were to send them a personal message, would they even respond? I can honestly say with confidence, "Not many." Maybe its just a reflection of my character. Maybe I'm not proactive enough in maintaining relationships with all plus or minus 200 friends I have. Or. . . maybe its because after a while, nobody really gives a shit and we move onto the next trendy site to feed our insatiable egos. That'll probably explain why I rarely log on, update my status, upload new photos or message people like I used to. Besides a few outliers here and there nobody cares 'cause I ain't doing shit.

My words may sound a bit harsh with punctuated hints of cynicism but the point I'm trying to make is quite simple. Instead of just connecting me with people who would probably never try to contact me except to fulfill their curiosity how I've changed, why not provide real purpose services such as LinkedIn, YouTube and Blogspot. I understand the underpinning idea of the network is the same, but its their focus and service offering that makes them distinct and quite useful. One helps me land a job. One helps me learn, laugh, sing and dance. And one helps me practice writing by lauding, lamenting and lambasting about the things I encounter like social networking sites.

5 Asian Men Changing The Face Of American Entertainment

2009-11-07T07:50:00.000-08:00

Recently I've become much more aware of the involvement of Asian men in American entertainment. They're not your stereotypical Asian males portraying repulsive William Hung like traits causing nearly every Asian American male to cringe with embarrassment and sheer contempt. In fact, these guys really do possess talent and confidence. Confidence is of significance here since it is one of the major things Asian American women complain about their fellow Asian brethren lacking.

I remember I went on a verbal rampage complaining about how the White majority controlled media and entertainment industry continues to use these token ugly, dorky, fobby Asian males to incessantly reinforce and perpetuate negative stereotypes. This kind of shit had plagued me since the days of Long Duck Dong from Sixteen Candles. But even with the barrage of racist depictions of Asian men, I believe something positive transpired from it. William Hung may indeed be the Asian Male Anti-Christ but he also re-ignited a sense of social awareness absent in the Asian American community since the tragic death of Vincent Chin. And with awareness, change usually follows.

Granted there will always be those who only pitch-a-bitch about racial inequalities in society without actually trying to better themselves. I find this pointless since it does nothing for the advancement of the community after a while. I have no qualms over complaining if it is legitimate but it can lose its effectiveness over time if there is no follow up with action. Thankfully there are also those who use negativity as a driving force to break through racial barriers imposed upon us. They are the trailblazers who pave the way for others and serve as inspiration to succeed.

I consider the following Asian men as trailblazers. I look to them for inspiration in bettering myself.

Rain (Bi) - What can I say? The man is complete. Yes he's a tall singer, dancer, actor, fashion artist and owner of an entertainment company. Rain is a world renown artist despite what some of you may think. *AHEM* Newsweek. To call Rain "little-known on the global stage" is grossly inaccurate. He was voted as Time's Most Influential Person in 2006 which hit a nerve with Stephen Colbert envying Rain's top spot on the Time 100 list over his 2nd. LoL. They settled their beef on The Colbert Report in a danceoff. Steve, I love you man but just like a lame hip hop dance movie, "You Got Served!" Even if you're not a fan of his music, you have to respect his diligence and dedication in whatever project he takes on. Its no wonder why the Wachowski Bros. were blown away by his performance in Speed Racer and strongly recommended him as the LEAD ROLE for the upcoming blockbuster Ninja Assassin.
Eliot Chang - One of the funniest standup comedians I've seen in a long time and it's refreshing. He is clearly a professional. If he keeps it up, I will definitely put him in the same league of standup legends like Carlin, Pryor, Murphy, Hedburg and Chappelle. Some of you may disagree with me but this guy is seriously a pro. Just watch one of my favorite bits he does on "Dumb Girls". I cried out of laughter.

I truly believe he doesn't get much exposure as other comedians because 1) he's an Asian American male and 2) doesn't cater to pleasing the mainstream by reinforcing negative stereotypes. Eliot even addresses this issue in a standup comparing Asian American comedians to UFOs. "You know there out there but you just haven't seen one." If that doesn't convince you then think of it this way. When an Asian guy comes on stage most of you aren't saying to yourself, "Finally! An Asian. Now its gonna get good!". Guilty as charged.
John Cho - He popularized the acronym MILF from American Pie. Now how awesome is that? So awesome that I'm sure it gave him an unrelenting drive to make it in Hollywood. He was able to score in several comedy flicks such the American Pie and Harold & Kumar series, to a sitcom Off Centre, the role as Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek and now a TV science fiction series FlashForward. That's quite a journey from the humble MILF beginnings.
Byung-Hun Lee - Many of you may not know of him but he was already famous in Asia prior to his US debut as Storm Shadow in G.I. Joe. Byung-Hun or Brian Lee has been acting for almost 20 years. I was really impressed with him for a couple of reasons after watching him in G.I. Joe. First, his acting was pretty good given the cultural differences between Hollywood and Hallyu. 2nd, his English was quite good with a hint of an accent which I barely even noticed. Last year when I saw him in The Good, The Bad, The Weird I thought he played a really good bad guy (contradictory I know). About a month ago I then saw A Bittersweet Life and was blown away by his performance where he plays a ruthless gangster and catches feelings for his Boss's girlfriend. Byung-Hun is scheduled to be in the next G.I. Joe. We'll see if he makes his way into other American flicks. Not bad for someone who's approaching 40!

Daniel Henney - Yes fuckers. I KNOW he's half British-American but he's also HALF Korean and embraces that side tremendously. He looks more Asian to me than he does White. Regardless, his rise to stardom began in Korea by debuting in a Korean TV drama called My Lovely Sam Soon. Apparently Hollywood kept trying to typecast him for stereotypical Asian roles so he went to Korea to jump start his acting career. From there he starred in movies such as Seducing Mr. Perfect and My Father made his Hollywood debut playing AgentZero in Wolverine. Daniel is now part of a CBS TV hospital drama, Three Rivers where he plays a womanizing doctor. See?? Asian men are the comeuppance sex symbols in America not just Asian women. Now I haven't been able to watch the show actually since I'm currently out of the states. When I return you can be sure I'll be watching some of the episodes online. Daniel definitely has the potential to become an even bigger star and better actor but I feel he needs more energy when he's in character. Maybe its because of his suave appeal or the "ladies man" swagger he carries or because he needs to polish his acting skills a bit more. Whatever it may be, I hope he keeps at it and becomes mainstream enough for him to hold a leading role by himself in a Hollywood blockbuster.

What's with the name Masir Jones?

2009-11-05T18:10:00.000-08:00

"NaS is like the Afrocentric Asian. Half man, half amazin'"

If you're a huge fan of hip hop like I am you'll recognize where I came up with my blog name right off the bat. Any true hip hop fan will concur that Nasir Jones AKA NaS, Nasty Nas, Esco, God's Son, etc. is one of the best rappers of all time. He is a rapper's rapper. A poster child of hip hop. He maintains his allegiance to the sub-culture that nurtured him to become the prolific rapper he is while balancing out thought provoking lyrics with beats stylized to captivate the mainstream. Aside from Eminem and Jay-Z, there aren't many other emcees in the industry who are not only on his level lyrically, but also capable of crossing over and appealing to both audiences.

NaS entered the scene during the early to mid 90s, hip hop's "golden age", when hip hop was at its lyrical and beat production apex. Just as how Eric B. and Rakim's Paid In Full revolutionized hip hop music, NaS's Illmatic would follow suit. I once read that if you wanted to illustrate hip hop in a single album, then Illmatic is it. I 2nd that notion and still listen to it on a regular basis like Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Nowadays though I'm a bit disappointed with his recent work. I just don't feel the same kind of vigor in his music I once heard on albums like Illmatic, It Was Written, Stillmatic and God's Son. There were only a couple of tracks I enjoyed listening to on his latest Untitled. "Hero" being one of them. Nevertheless, I still place NaS up there with some of my other all time favorites: Eric B. and Rakim, A Tribe Called Quest, The Pharcyde, AZ, Lupe Fiasco, Jay-Z and Wu-Tang.

NaS, if you're reading this, please make some new jams with Premo and Pete Rock again!

Favorite lines from NaS,

"You couldn't catch me in the streets without a ton of reefer, that's like Malcom X catchin' a jungle fever."

"Slammin' emcees on cement, 'cause verbally, I'm iller than an AIDs patient."

"I squeeze nipples like pimples to get the puss."

"I got sons with guns, they all done crimes. They so wild they even scare my ass sometimes."

"My first album had no famous guest appearances. The outcome? I'm crowned the best lyricist."

A Blogger's Genesis

2009-11-05T06:09:00.000-08:00

Ahhh yes. F-F-Finally! My first blog composition ever. A Blogger's Genesis.

I hope whatever it is you find here is either intellectually stimulating, inspirational or enlightening to some degree. I will try my best to keep my posts relatively concise and to the point so that you will still be inclined to read through each blog post in its entirety.

The main reason I'm getting into blogging is quite simple. I want to improve my writing skills. You see, a few days ago a cohort of mine recommended that I watch "The Last Lecture" by Professor Randy Pausch who is now deceased sad to say due to pancreatic cancer. If you have a childhood dream you want to achieve or any dream for that matter, I highly suggest you watch this or read his book. Just by watching him for one hour, I could instantly tell he inspired the lives of numerous college students and professionals as well. There are many key takeaways from Pausch but one in particular struck a chord with me so deeply I decided to put it into practice immediately and indefinitely. It is the power of indirect learning which he calls a head fake, "The best way to teach somebody something is to have them think they’re learning something else." In blogging about topics I have a concern with or interest in, ultimately, I hope to improve my style and writing speed.

Let me set the record straight though before I embark on my journey into this new world of blogging. There will be times where I may offend you or somebody else from the web. If you dislike or disagree with whatever blog I've posted, please feel free to comment. I know you will regardless! Constructive criticism is always welcome. I am a firm believer in that debating is healthy and a good thing as long as it is comprised of well thought out and articulated, rational arguments. Otherwise it is merely a claim - A meaningless and empty statement with no impact.

So with that, let the blogging begin!