Winter Doldrums

I think February is definitely the worst time of the year for me. It's not just that it's cold, it's that it's cold and there's pretty much nothing to really get excited or happy about.

At least in December, you got the holidays, which means days off, presents, Christmas music, etc. In January, you got the NFL playoffs and the birthdays of three great men in history (Martin Luther King Jr., Chrastastic Chrastopher, and yours truly). Then in March, you obviously have March Madness and baseball Spring Training, and by that time it's getting warmer too.

The only major "holidays" in this month are like Lincoln's Birthday or President's Day, and I don't get either of those days off from work. Other than that, the major occasions I can think of are Groundhog Day (very unclutch) and Valentine's Day (not a big fan, see last year's blog). Meanwhile, the days are still bitter cold and the streets still salty. It's just demoralizing sometimes.

Well, at least it's the shortest month. Unfortunately, this year it's still a day longer than it's supposed to be, and I can't say I'm too happy about that.

*****

Music

A look at the songs I've been listening to:

Cassidy f. R. Kelly - Hotel
Hilary Duff - Come Clean
N Sync - I'll Never Stop
Joss Stone - Fell In Love With A Boy
Outkast - Happy Valentine's Day
Ryan Duarte - You
Britney Spears - Toxic

The Joss Stone song is kind of funny if you like (or have heard) the White Stripes song "Fell In Love With A Girl". First of all, you don't usually expect anyone to cover a song like that, especially so soon after the original song was popular. Second of all, when you cover a hard rock song, you don't expect it to sound all soulful or R&B-ish. Finally, when the song sounds as if it was sung by someone like Aretha Franklin, you don't expect to see some white teenage girl singing it in the video.

I was going through some of the old videos on my computer the other day and came across the one for N Sync's "I'll Never Stop". I think this one was only released in Europe or Japan or something. But anyways, watching that video and listening to the song brought back lots of memories. For some reason I always think of Chras when it comes to old school N Sync. Good times, good times...

Least Inspirational Asians

Among the cheesier websites I have been to lately is http://www.i-am-asian.com, apparently run by McDonald's as part of its stupid "I'm lovin' it" campaign. Some of it was so lame, I didn't know if I should laugh or be mad about it.

I followed one of the links from that site to another site dedicated to Asians, where they had these lists like "Top 20 Most Inspirational Athletes" or "Top 50 Most Inspirational Asians of All Time". I went through a couple of these lists and while they included a lot of good Asians, reading through them kind of made me realize that we don't really have a lot to look up to in the Asian American community. For example, Russell Wong and Jason Scott Lee were pretty high up on the All Time list, and while they aren't bad actors, they aren't exactly "inspirational" as far as I'm concerned. And on the athlete's list, they actually had the gall to list Byung-Hyun Kim. I was like, are you facking kidding me??! Why don't they just go ahead and list that Japanese gay-porn guy that's trying out for the Cleveland Indians too while they're at it?

Anyways, since the subject of "Most Inspirational Asians" has already been covered too many times, I decided to make my own list of "Least Inspirational Asians". Not trying to hate on my own race, but I think my point is that not just any publicity is good publicity for Asians. Just cause they make it on TV or become a household name, doesn't make it a good thing. Now, I didn't spend a lot of time narrowing down this list, so I just listed the first 5 that came to mind. If anyone has any others to point out, feel free.

5. Chad Hugo - I never liked the Neptunes to begin with, but the sad fact is that he continues to be little more than the grossly overlooked member of an overrated 2-person band. I don't know how he is, musical talent wise, but most people don't even know who the guy is so it doesn't really matter. And if they do, it's always pretty much just as "Pharrell's sidekick", more or less. It's a very typical example of the way Asians are almost always portrayed as secondary characters throughout this society, that we rarely if ever are capable of taking a leading role (to be fair, the same problem faces pretty much every other minority, not just Asians).

4. Parry Shen - I don't have anything personal against the guy, it's just that seeing his life does the opposite of inspire me. After getting the lead role in the first respectable "Asian American" movie in this country, I guess he didn't have "Better Luck Tomorrow" because the next thing you know, he's playing a scrub character on a Dell commercial. Instead of showing everyone that an Asian American actor can succeed in the industry without whoring himself out (see Jackie Chan), his career demonstrates that the opportunities out there are realistically very few. By the way, I would have included his Better Luck Tomorrow co-star John Cho on this list, but at least his career kind of went in the opposite direction, going from the "MILF guy" to the "got-his-head-bashed-in guy".

3. Lucy Liu - Yeah, she's successful, but at what cost? Her characters do very little for the Asian community other than to perpetuate the chinky-eyed, white-washed image of Asian girls. It's not a positive thing at all if you ask me.

2. Jackie Chan - In the All-Time Most Inspirational list on that site I talked about, Bruce Lee was listed as #2, and I think that was much deserved. Not that he made Asians look awesome in every way, but in light of the time period he was in and the impact he was able to make, he was definitely inspirational. Unfortunately, I think Jackie Chan has caused us all to take a step backward from that. I won't deny that his movies are entertaining, and yes he is successful, but again, at what cost? The common stereotype of Asian guys is that we're all short, have fobby accents, and lack any sexuality or sexual identity; Jackie Chan reinforces all those things. I think a lot of the blame falls on him for the fact that, such as in the case of Parry Shen, Asian actors in general can't be taken seriously in the mainstream. Basically it's saying to any aspiring Asian guys out there that unless you're a goofy jump-kicking kung-fu man, there's no place for you to ever really succeed in Hollywood.

1. William Hung - I don't think I need to explain this one that much. Watching this kid do "She Bangs" on American Idol is arguably reason enough for no Asian to ever want to open his/her mouth to sing, ever again. And to top it all off, he's an engineering student. Way to represent, dawg.

*****

2004 Chicago Auto Show

Had a chance to go to the Auto Show over the weekend. It was painful to see all the pretty cars, not so much because they were too rich for my blood, but because they were all shiny. Have I mentioned before that I hate salt?

One of the cars that I sat in and impressed me most was the BMW 6-series coupe. The interior looks cool, the body style is nice, and there's this really cool sunroof-type thing that basically makes up the entire roof panel in the front. I didn't get to see how it retracts or (or if it does at all), but it definitely looked sweet either way. Man... what an all-around bad ass car. Very very drool-worthy.

Speaking of drool-worthy, we saw Andrew Firestone (the Bachelor, 3rd season) in person. Nobody else seemed to recognize him or know who he was, but it was definitely him. He looked a lot skinnier and younger than on TV, at least from what I remember. For a few exhilirating moments, we were standing about 2 feet away from this guy. Well, I guess it wasn't all that exhilirating for me cause I don't swing that way. If only it were Britney instead... one can only wish.

Chen Can't Cook

For a long time now, I've been saying to myself that I gotta learn how to cook. I mean, you can survive on frozen pizzas, fast food, or going out to eat only so long before you realize that it's not exactly the best way to go. Health wise, money wise, whatever. Not only that, but I've always believed that cooking could be a really great lifelong hobby, and seeing that it's such a useful skill anyways, why not try to learn?

Well, throughout the past few years, there have been the scattered times when, for one reason or another, I've actually picked up a pot or pan, used a cutting board, fired up the stove, and cooked something. Some of these experiences have been successful, for example, I think I've mastered the art of saute-ing spinach with garlic (oooh I'm awesome), fried rice with ketchup, and once I followed a recipe to make a salmon fillet dish and it wasn't too bad either. Whenever I happen to taste (har har) success, it builds confidence and gives me some motivation to continue expanding my cooking horizons by mastering more things.

Unfortunately, there are also the times when I mess up something so simple, and it makes me so ashamed that I'm afraid to ever pick up a cooking utensil again. Once I messed up the process of hard-boiling eggs, don't ask me how, but I did it. Another experience that comes to mind is when I cooked a burger and set off the fire alarm at the townhouse.

Well, this week I suffered another setback in my journey towards becoming Iron Chef. Believe it or not, I managed to somehow ruin my sandwiches that I eat every day for lunch. Since I was getting kind of bored with the plain bread with meat and mayo and nothing else, I wanted to soup up my every day lunch sandwich by adding some extra components. I bought a head of lettuce, some tomatoes, and slices of cheese.

I also decided to streamline my process by making all my lunches for the rest of the week at once (instead of one per night). Well, the greediness definitely did not pay off, to say the least. Everything seemed fine at first, I'd rip off a few leaves of lettuce, slice up the tomatos, get a slice of cheese, and just stick it all in the sandwich. Simply repeat the same process for the other sandwiches. I mean, how hard can it be, it's a freakin sandwich you know?

It wasn't until I opened my lunch to eat it the next day that I discovered that my sandwich actually was "souped up", only not in the way I wanted it to be. From sitting overnight, all the tomato's juices and I guess the moisture from the lettuce sank to the bottom and made the bread all wet and soggy. The worst part is, for some reason the cheese melted and got all liquidy too. It was all pretty nasty, but I sucked it up and tried to eat it anyways. Again, I'd have to say that wasn't the right decision.

So now, I've got 2 more of these monstrosities sitting in the fridge at home, and I'm pretty sure that I'm gonna be throwing them out tonight. I just can't put myself through another miserable lunch.

While it does suck that all that food and the time and effort I spent making it is gonna go to waste, the main kick in the balls is knowing that I messed up the simple task of making a sandwich. It's not like making sandwiches even counts as cooking, and I couldn't even do that right.

As I hang my head for this utter and complete failure, I'm thinking that something needs to be done about my food incompetance. One idea I had was to take a cooking class at like a community college or something. I don't know if they even offer those, but I mean to find out. Maybe some of you out there might even want to join me (at your own risk). I kind of miss taking classes with people. I miss the good old days of studying for tests together, copying each other's homework, things like that.

One thing I know: until my confidence recovers and I have good reason to believe I won't mess up any food I try to make, I'm leaving the food preparation responsibility for everything I eat strictly to the pros.

Vote

Yesterday I registered to vote. The form for registering had some weird sections. There was a part where it said "If you have no street address, below describe your home: list the name of subdivision; cross streets; roads; landmarks; mileage and/or neighbors' names" and had a little North/South/East/West cross hair underneath. I guess maybe that's for homeless people who want to vote?

Then there was the bottom where you were supposed to sign your name, but a space saying "If you cannot sign your name, ask the person who helped you fill in this form to print their name, address, and telephone number."

I'm not trying to be insensitive or anything, but it's kind of funny to me when I picture this homeless guy describing where he lives in this form. "I'm in this cardboard box under the tree, 1.8 miles south of Hwy-14 and IL-12. Look out for the furry gray cat who hangs around here at night". Also I'm thinking to myself, if you can't fill out this simple form and sign your name, maybe you're not gonna have what it takes to punch a ballot to vote either?

Anyways, for those who want to register to vote in the state of Illinois, or just want to see the form I'm talking about, go here.

While I'm on the topic of voting, yesterday I caught some of this show on MTV that was supposed to be a promotion of getting people to vote. It's a good cause, but when MTV does these political things it seems to always have a very liberal slant. Maybe part of it is the Republicans' own fault for not taking it seriously, I don't know. But I think the last time MTV "Rocked the Vote", it ended up not being so much of getting people to vote, as it was of getting people to vote for Bill Clinton. In my opinion, that was not really something for the better of this country, but I guess that's another long story for another day.

As far as what was in the show itself, they had this military guy who just got back from Iraq go interview the major Democratic candidates. My impression of the ones I saw:

Gen. Wesley Clark - Seems like a good guy and respectable. If I were to vote for any of the Democratic candidates, it would probably be him.

Gov. Howard Dean - Acted pretty friendly, but you can tell that he's a prick. I can't stand that guy.

Sen. Joe Lieberman - Probably the most stereotypical politician you can imagine. You ask him a question, and he finds a way to avoid it or criticize Bush.

I missed the later part of the show when they interviewed John Kerry, but that's ok because I have a joke:

John Kerry walks into a bar. The bartender goes: "hey John, why the long face?"

Har har. The joke also works with Celine Dion, by the way.

Winter Sucks

8/30/03




1/31/04