Check it Out

Does anyone else find it annoying when you're buying something at the store and the checkout person comments on what you're buying?

Example: You're buying a book, and as you hand it to the checkout guy, he looks at what you're getting and goes "great book man".

What is the correct response?

A. "Umm... thanks" - It feels like a compliment, so almost by reflex, I feel like I should thank the guy. But when you think about it, it doesn't make sense. Should I feel proud of my choice of book? Cause chances are, if I'm buying it now, I probably haven't read it yet. So really, he's complimenting whoever recommended the book to me for having great taste, whether it's Oprah's Book Club or in this case, Wu's Book Club. The reflex reaction is kind of like when you go to the movie theater, and the guy ripping your stub goes "enjoy the show". You wanna be like "thanks, you too", but then you realize that while you're enjoying the show, he's probably gonna be ripping stubs for the next 2 hours and saying "enjoy the show" to hundreds of other people. So you feel dumb.

B. "Mind your own forking business and just give me my damn book" - After you feel dumb, then you feel angry and blame the guy for making you feel dumb. If he would just do his job and stop trying to be nice by talking to me, then I wouldn't have felt dumb. So a part of me wants to berate this kid for this reason.

C. Give him the eyebrow raise and a polite smile/nod - A healthy compromise between choices A and B, and what I usually decide upon because I'm a nice guy like that.

Anyways, this doesn't just apply to book-buying. Another example:

You head to the express lane at Jewel with a 18 pack of Coors Light, chips, dip, Margarita mix, etc., and the lady goes "big party tonight eh?"

First of all, who are you, some sort of detective? Encyclopedia Brown, perhaps? Second of all, notice I'm in the express lane. Realize that this means I don't feel like wasting time chatting with the cashier about my plans for the evening. And you know what, I just don't like the feeling that the person checking out my stuff is paying attention to what I'm getting. Even though it's probably unrealistic to expect them to not notice what they're scanning, at least make some effort to keep the illusion alive that you're just doing your job and not trying to analyze each item I'm purchasing.

Where does it end? If I show up at the register at Best Buy with 128 MB of RAM, is the guy gonna be like "upgrading your memory eh"? If I buy 2 pairs of boxers at the mall, is the cashier gonna be like "I guess you're a boxers man, I see"? If I get some Mach 3 Turbo replacement blades at Walmart, are they gonna say "enjoy your shaving experience"? If so, what should my reaction be?

In conclusion, I would like to say that everyone is annoying, and from now on I'm buying everything online.

Excitement

- I usually don't pay much attention to weather reports, but I couldn't help noticing that the forecast for the week calls for highs in the 40's. Just a few days ago I wrote something about being miserable because of all the freezing weather, and after weeks of single-digit temperatures, 40 sounds downright tropical. Man.... am I warped or what? Oh, and if it turns out that Tom Skilling is just toying with me, I'm kicking his ass.

- Haven't talked about the Illini much this year, but I have to say something after 2 big wins against Michigan State and Wisconsin. Everyone's saying how Big Ten is so disappointing and the conference is way down this season, but I think they're just getting warmed up now. When tournament time comes I fully anticipate that we'll step it up and go deep. Oh, and someone should go buy Bruce Weber a Speed Stick. When it comes to armpit stains, it's better to be defensive than offensive.

- 2004 Yahoo Fantasy Baseball is here! OH BABY

- Here's a story about the Pumpkins: http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/19/music.corgan.reut/index.html

Haven't heard anything about good old Billy in a while. My favorite quote: "Did it help that bassist D'arcy Wretzky was fired for being a mean-spirited drug addict, who refused to get help? No, that didn't help keep the band together, not at all."

Haha, "mean-spirited drug addict"... I'll have to use that one sometime.

Parry Shen - The Other Side

Last week I wrote a blog in which I listed the "Least Inspirational Asians" in the public eye right now. One of the people I included was Parry Shen, who went from playing the lead character in Better Luck Tomorrow to appearing in Dell commercials. For a link to that blog click here.

Well, I guess you never know who is gonna end up reading your blogs, cause apparently Parry found his way to my blog, read what I had to say, and emailed me with his reaction. Since then, I've gotten to correspond with him a couple times and I decided to share some of his thoughts on the subject here on my blog as a follow up.

This is what he had to say about my original point, that "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.":

[PS] Valid point. Believe me - I agree with you but just to let you know, I'm trying to do my best man. Just to let you know though, you wouldn't believe all the stuff I've had to reject between the film and now so that when something like a Dell commercial comes along that doesn't require me doing an accent or delivering food - dude, I'm all over it because basically, I need to stay in the game and cover my regular daily life things like eating, pay my mortgage, and taking care of my family.

"BLT" [Better Luck Tomorrow] came out of the Hollywood system, not as a result of it. You're right, now everyone will see how scarce the opportunities are... if we had a choice, you think we'd still be doing Dell commercials?

I also asked him what he thought about Jackie Chan and Lucy Liu:

[JC] I'm kind of interested to know what you think of people such as Jackie Chan and Lucy Liu, because while they have been successful in your field, they haven't exactly furthered the cause of Asian people in a larger sense. I like some of their movies, but at the same time, I feel that people like them are at least partly responsible for perpetuating some stereotypes and holding the country back from real progress.

And here's part of his reply:

[PS] Jackie has mentioned he now only wants to do films without Martial Arts and be more a leading man actor - so, he's trying but honestly - I'm just as guilty as the studio execs - I'm not sure I'd pay money to see that or even think he'd be able to pull it off

Lucy has seen "BLT" and loves it - and wanted to merge her production company with Justin Lin's because although she gets a lot of roles - she knows they are not doing much to break her out of that mold

So what's the option? Keep working so you are at least known - making either $5 million a picture or absolutely nothing and not working and disappearing into oblivion - it's a tough choice.

Breaking the $1 million barrier was HUGE for Asian Americans and that only happened less than 3 years ago.

It's easy to point to figures in the public eye and to a certain point they do have a responsibility - but to shoulder the responsibility of an ENTIRE community? I don't know about that.

There are a lot more Asian Americans in daily life who let off-color jokes, comments, the way they are treated at their jobs just go by and letting things slide by in their day to day. People who take jobs that aren't necessarily helping break "stereotypes" - but when an Asian American actor has to look for job after job after job - is it always going to be under optimum conditions? No. Not for any job - there ALWAYS is some compromise (more hours, but good pay, boring job but hot coworkers, etc.) Taking an acting job is no different - you are just seeing that compromise publicly - sometimes it will be bigger than others. But when I hear people complain, I always wonder, "Well, what are THEY doing themselves to change things instead of pointing and commenting?"

And we have yet to see the larger picture. Lucy with all her money from those types of roles, now has the funding to produce her own pictures. I probably would not have been ready or had the confidence to shine at my "BLT" audition had I not built up my acting chops and smaller and sometimes stereotypical roles.

So after hearing what he had to say, I have some more revised thoughts to add. First of all, I should qualify my original statements by saying that while it is discouraging to see the progression of Parry's career in the past couple years, there does come a time where "a job is a job" and you have to take what you can get. And like he said, it's not just in Hollywood - pretty much everyone at one time or another has faced job insecurity and had to compromise or accept something lower than his/her ideal expectations. I'm personally glad that he at least made the effort to avoid the "Chinese food delivery boy"-type roles which blatantly degrade our race.

My original point stands: there's not a lot to get inspired about when it comes to opportunities for Asians in this country. It's not necessarily Parry Shen, Jackie Chan, or Lucy Liu's fault, but it's clear that our society still has a ways to go in this respect.

I'm still undecided on whether or not the Jackie Chans and Lucy Lius of this world are doing our community more harm or good. If it turns out that they manage to eventually rise above the current state of their careers and somehow expand the opportunities for other Asians in the industry, then great. If taking a lot of meaningless roles is just a means to build up enough money and/or credibility to achieve greater things, so be it. But I really hope that we'll see some of these "greater things" soon, because in the meantime, I think they're holding us all back.

One more subject to note, Parry Shen's thoughts on everyone's favorite FOB engineer William Hung:

[PS] Mostly everybody is doing their best. But AA in films is still in its infancy - there's still a lot further to go. William Hung I agree, it hurts a little but you know what? That's really him. There are truths to some stereotypes and the American public has latched on to him. But William's not playing a character - he's going out and doing his thing and trying to "sing" his heart out.

Yes, there are definitely truths to pretty much every stereotype and this one is no different.

Anyways, another reason I wanted to write this follow up blog is because Parry is doing a tour of universities across the country to speak about these kinds of issues. He says plans are in the works to bring the whole cast of Better Luck Tomorrow with him to Urbana sometime in April/May. I think I'd definitely be interested to attend that, if it happens, and if anyone else wants to go with me, let me know.

Other than that, check out his website for more: http://www.parryshen.com

The Simple Life

Sunday morning, I woke up in my bed at home and my first thought of the day was "dang, it's frickin freezing in here". Then, I realized that even though it was the dead of winter, I was still in a heated house, wearing multiple layers of clothing, and covered by two blankets. I wondered how many people out there would probably kill to have any one of those material comforts and suddenly, I felt pretty silly to find myself complaining about the temperature.

I mean, even with the vent in my room covered up, it was about 50 degrees at the lowest. Yes, it's cold, but maybe I should be thankful for what I have, especially compared to the less fortunate out there? At that point I felt like such an ungrateful, spoiled brat.

Later on, I was thinking about what it would be like if I had to cut out certain things that I've grown accustomed to. A few of the things I considered:

1. Cell phone - I've written about this before, but this is one thing that I never had up until about 4-5 years ago, and now I can't imagine life without it. Lately I've been trying more actively to not let it take control of my life, but there was a point when I couldn't go anywhere without bringing it. If I didn't have that thing with me at all times, I think I'd physically panic at what might possibly go wrong or what emergency situation might arise with me cell phone-less. Realistically, that kind of situation almost never comes up, but I can't help but to still have that constant worry in the back of my mind.

2. High-speed Internet - I still remember the first time we finally got my computer hooked up to the dorm network at FAR in freshman year of college, and were amazed by how fast webpages loaded and files transferred. Up until that time, I'd only ever experienced the internet through dialup on AOL, when it took an hour to get one mp3 and when you loaded up a page, you could actually see the individual pictures, buttons, and icons and stuff "filling in" one by one. Now, even the thought of ever going back to dialup makes me cringe.

3. Gillette Mach 3 Turbo - I haven't tried the Schick Quattro at all yet, but I think the Mach 3 Turbo is probably the best that's out there as far as a "close shave" goes. Whenever I used to go home for the weekend and have to use a simple one-blade, moisturizing strip-less razor that doesn't pivot, it always left me feeling so unkempt. Eventually it bothered me so much that I decided to buy another Mach 3 Turbo for Darien, so that I wouldn't have to endure such agony when leaving my comfort zone in Palatine.

4. Mobil 1 Synthetic - I've been changing the engine oil in my cars for a few years now, but only in the last year did I make the switch from "normal" oil to synthetic. The claims I heard were that synthetic makes your engine run smoother, perform better, last longer, and improves gas mileage. Well, after a few change cycles with Mobil 1, I'd say that I've seen none of the above occur. In all fairness, I guess the "last longer" thing remains to be seen and is gonna be hard to ever judge. But anyways, even though the stuff costs a lot more than the regular oil, and doesn't produce any noticeable improvements, I'm still reluctant and even afraid to go back. Why? Because the experts say it's bad to go back. I don't even know why I should listen to them, because these are the same biatches that told me my gas mileage would get better and my engine would run smoother, and that didn't happen.

There's more stuff I could list, both major and minor things, but I don't have time to go through all examples. The point is, all the things above are things that I've lived without in the past, but now that I have them and have gotten used to it, it seems unlikely (or impossible) to ever give them up.

Well, all these things also cost me in some way or another, the most obvious being financially. And I'm starting to wonder whether or not I really need every last thing. I mean, it seems that throughout the years, my needs have only ever gone up, never down. Everything I listed has in some way become a sort of new addiction that needs to be fed, not much different from an addiction to cigarettes or some other drug. If I don't have my cell phone, I really feel like a part of me is missing. If I didn't shave with my Mach 3 Turbo, I can't help but feel like my life is less satisfying than if I did.

Of course, the other side is that these things do legitimately add utility to my life and it wouldn't be fair to say that they're merely addictions that cause a drain on my bank account. It's just that sometimes in this world we live in, where we're surrounded by advertisements telling us what we need, we lose track of the value of simplicity in life. I think all I'm saying is, there comes a point where you need to sit down and seriously evaluate your lifestyle, your habits, and reasonably figure out what you really need and don't need.

For example, I recently decided that I didn't need 600 rollover minutes a month, after noticing that in 1 year on this plan, I had about 5000 rollover minutes accumulated. So I switched to 800 shared minutes on a family plan. It's something little, but I guess you gotta start somewhere.

One statistic I heard recently is, certain societies in the past used to work 47 days out of the year and spend the rest of the year doing whatever they want. When you first hear that, it sounds so crazy and impossible, but then I think about it, and maybe the idea isn't really so farfetched or unattainable, even in today's world. If I cut out all my costs to just my basic, basic needs, like food and shelter, that means all I'm really spending is a fraction of my yearly salary. That in turn means that I technically only need to work a fraction of the year to support my needs for the whole year.

Of course, it also means that during the time that I'm not working, I won't have much money to be spending on hobbies. Which raises the question, would I rather work a small part of the year, and do nothing but sit around and relax for the rest of the time, or work the whole year, but maybe take a couple week's vacation, drive a nicer car, live in a nicer home, etc.? I don't know, but it's something to think about.

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...