March of the Penguins

Over the weekend, I watched March of the Penguins on DVD. I'm kind of bitter about the situation because back when the movie first came out in the theaters, and I told people I wanted to see it, I got all kinds of weird looks. Either "what the heck is March of the Penguins" looks, or "I know what it is, why the heck would you want to watch a movie about penguins?" looks.

But then as time went by, I kept hearing from friends who went to see the movie, and pretty much every one of them said it was good. To make things worse, some of them were the same people who gave me those weird looks before!

Anyways, I'm glad I finally got to see the movie and I did like it. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's basically a 90 minute nature documentary about everything penguins have to go through to mate, have a baby, and raise the baby until it's ready to survive on its own. But it's probably better than the typical show on Discovery Channel or Animal Planet, since it's hard to film in Antarctica and follow these penguins for months. Also, they got Morgan Freeman to do the narration, which must have cost a pretty penny. He did a good job though. That means I have now seen 2 movies that he narrated, and liked both of them.

I won't say too much about what happens in the movie because you should watch it for yourself, but I'll just say that it's pretty amazing how much those penguins have to go through, just to raise one baby and survive the cold. Before watching this movie, I didn't really know much of anything about penguins. Except that they always made me angry in MarioKart when they get in my way and make me spin out.

Actually at one point I did wish I was a penguin, because it seems fun to be able to slide across the ice on your belly. But now that I've seen that the Antarctic isn't very hospitable, I decided that maybe being a penguin is not for me.

Mariah, You're On Fire

I've been listening to a lot of Mariah Carey's stuff lately, new and old, and felt inspired to write a blog about her.

As most of you know, I have always had a soft spot in my heart for pop music, so it should come as no surprise that I'm a Mariah fan. Which I am, and have been for years. But I don't think I have ever fully appreciated her greatness until recently.

When I think about how her career and her image has changed throughout the years, it's pretty amazing. She started out as this young sweet girl with a fantastic sounding voice, who sang mostly cheesy love songs. As she got more popular, she started being categorized with other "divas" like Whitney Houston or Celine Dion. Her music also began to sound more hip-hoppy throughout the 90's, although she always maintained some of her pop music roots. At one point she even made a movie, although I don't think anybody ever bothered to watch it.

Mariah has worked with everyone from 98 Degrees, Brian McKnight, Boyz II Men, and Whitney Houston, to Bone Thugs, Busta Rhymes, Puff Daddy, and Jermaine Dupri. She's gone from being married to a record executive that Michael Jackson once called "evil", to dating the star shortstop on the Yankees. Who else can even come close to that list of accomplishments?

One thing I have never been able to figure out is whether or not I think Mariah Carey is hot. There's been moments when she has looked great, but so many other times when she's looked too fat, too hoochie, or both. Right now I'm still undecided about that so stay tuned.

But one thing that can't be questioned is that her voice has always been awesome. I think a while back, I made a list of best female voices in my blog, and I don't remember exactly where I ranked her, but she's gotta be in my top 3 for sure. Considering how much has changed in the music world since her career started, and in the pop genre alone, it's a wonder that she's still at the top of her game today, and a lot of that has to be due to her voice.

When I look at my current Winamp playlist, it's almost all Mariah songs. Part of that is due to it being Christmas season, but still, I can't believe how many great songs she had that I completely forgot about. If I may, I would like to present my personal top 10 Mariah Carey Songs:

10. Whenever You Call (f. Brian McKnight) - I'm probably leaving out a better song because of this, but I can't not include this song, because of the memories. One of my shining moments of college was when me, Anuj, and Brian were howling this song at the tops of our lungs while playing MarioKart.

9. All I've Ever Wanted - One of her lesser known, and most underrated songs (at least I think it is). Music Box was a great album from top to bottom, and this song probably just got lost among the others. But I think it belongs in the top 10.

8. Hero - Speaking of which, the most overplayed song from Music Box. I don't mind that much because it's still a great song though. Inspires me to look within myself, and find a way.

7. Everytime I Close My Eyes (f. Babyface) - I might have ranked this song higher, if Kenny G wasn't in it.

6. Vision of Love - I think this song came out before I started listening to music a lot. But that did not preclude me from appreciating it as much as her later work.

5. One Sweet Day (f. Boyz II Men) - Another song that was very overplayed at the time, but understandable because it was so good.

4. O Holy Night - Having grown up in the church, I remember when we had to practice this song in Sunday School for one of our kids' Christmas Eve shows, and I can say it is one of the most difficult songs to sing. But Mariah did an awesome version on her Christmas album with ease, which makes me all the more impressed. I haven't heard any other versions of the song that have even come near to the quality of her rendition. Except for maybe Eric Cartman's.

3. Breakdown (f. Bone Thugs N Harmony) - I always forget she did this song, but every once in a while I go back and listen to it, and it gets stuck in my head for about a week. Such a catchy song. "...well I guess I'm tryin to be.... nonchalant about it... and I'm goin to extremes... to prove I'm fine without you... but in reality I'm... slowly losin my mind..."

2. Dreamlover - The first Mariah song I ever heard. Loved it back then, still love it now.

1. Always Be My Baby - I could probably say the same thing for any of the songs on this list, but I can't imagine anybody except Mariah Carey making this song work. It might not be the most difficult to sing or even the catchiest tune, but I put it at #1 because it's quintessential Mariah.

My Real World Application

(Note: If it's not already patently obvious to you, THE FOLLOWING ENTRY IS A JOKE. I apologize in advance if nobody thinks it's funny, but I had fun writing it, so that's why I'm posting it.)

We often wonder why in so many years of Real World, MTV has yet to cast an Asian guy in any of its seasons. But I realized that probably none of us have ever really done anything about it. So I decided to put together an application that might finally help us (meaning male Asians) break through to MTV. See below

*****

Dear MTV Producers:

I have been an avid fan of the Real World for many seasons now, mainly because of how accurately it portrays the life of a young adult in America. I think I speak for all of my peers when I say that all of us can truly relate to the setup of your show.

We all know exactly what it's like to have a job handed to us, without ever having to apply for it or show any semblance of qualifications beforehand. It's also pretty standard for us to live in a posh house that is decked out with the most luxurious furnishings (short of the stripper poles that the rappers in Cribs have, of course).

But what makes your show the most worthwhile, in my opinion, is the tremendous effort that your producers make to incorporate diversity into each cast. Other than the fact that every season centers around one or two "alpha-male" Caucasian characters (Brad from SD, Steven from LV, Danny from Austin, MJ from Philly to name a few), to go with the Caucasian, preferably blonde and hopefully attractive, but more importantly, slutty females that desire them (Cameron from SD, Trishelle from LV, Melinda from Austin, and Sarah from Philly), the show's diversity is truly admirable.

Without Real World, I would have never been introduced to such characters as the big angry black man (David from New Orleans), the not as big but just as angry black man (Steven from Seattle), the dorky angry black man (Adam from Paris), the angry black man that looks like Dee Brown (Nehemiah from Austin), and the surprisingly gay but, you guessed it, angry black man (Karamo from Philadelphia). It's not just black men who are angry in the show, though. We've also witnessed the domineering angry black woman (Coral) and the crazy psycho lesbian angry black woman (Aneesa) as well, which is important to know.

However, if there is one shortcoming to the Real World, it is the considerable lack of Asian cast members on the show. Although we have seen a few of them so far (my count is 2.5 with Janet from Seattle, Jamie from SD, and Christina from Paris), it is hardly a complete representation of the Asian race. For one, all three of the above are Korean (Christina being half-German as well), and beyond that, all three of them are female.

In my opinion, what your show desperately needs is a real Asian male representative cast member. And yes, as you may have guessed by now, I would like to offer myself, a Chinese-American male in his mid-20's, to be a part of your next cast.

If you haven't already tossed this application to the trash heap after reading that last sentence, let me just assure you that I have a lot more to offer MTV and the Real World than you may expect. If you select me as a cast member, I promise to make your next season of Real World the greatest ever.

For starters, my exceptionally charismatic personality, stinging sense of humor, and devastating good looks alone would most likely make me an instant star with your audiences. But in spite of those facts, my ultimate goal is much grander than simply generating a greater fan base and boosting Nielsen ratings.

I will make it my mission to broaden the scope of what the American public typically sees of Asian people in this country, which, if I dare say, is terribly limited if not completely inaccurate. In short, I wish to show everybody, through my presence on your show, that we (the Asian race) are much more than the quiet, exotic looking creatures that are generally content to blend into the social fabric of our country.

You might ask, "how"? Well, the ways are many, but to give you an idea of some of the things I could do on the show to enlighten your viewers:

1. Frequently talk about math.

Not many people know this, but Asians are good at math. I, for one, was on my high school's math team, went through 4 years of engineering curriculum in college, and have worked for the past 3 years as an electronics engineer. You can't do all that and not be good at math!

Anyways, I figure that instead of hooking up with hot chicks, or getting into fights at the bar, it would be cool to practice solving differential equations or something like that. And you never have to worry about getting arrested for doing integrals, which is nice. Nobody likes to see cast members getting hauled off to jail by the local cops, when that stuff happens it's just an embarrassment to the vaunted Real World franchise.

2. Eat lots of rice, with chopsticks.

Another little known fact is that Asians like rice. Actually, I'm pretty sure we invented rice, like maybe back in the 60's or something. And we don't use just forks or spoons to eat it - we use chopsticks. That may not seem like a big detail, but it's a crucial aspect of our culture that should not be overlooked.

Just the other day I was watching an episode of RW: Austin when Johanna was chowing down on some brats. How boring is that? So for me, when everyone else on the show is using forks to eat "salads" or "pasta casserole", I'll be the one scooping rice into my mouth with chopsticks.

As an added bonus, I know all the words to the song "Got Rice?", which is basically a 2Pac song with the lyrics changed to reflect AZN pride. So, in an ideal situation, you have a potential scene where I could be eating rice, with chopsticks, while singing "Got Rice?". Triple bonus!

3. Practice Kung-fu in the house

If you pay attention to the roles that Asian actors tend to get in Hollywood, it's surprising that none of them seem to ever reflect our proud heritage of Martial Arts. We're always cast as the sex symbol in romantic comedies, which is fine, but so limiting. Nobody seems to realize that Asians can also do jump kicks and fly from treetop to treetop, when that's one of our greatest assets.

So to make people more aware of our skills, I'll make sure to practice my Kung-fu around the house for everyone (and the cameras) to see. Unfortunately, I don't have a black belt in anything, but I have taken some classes in Karate and Judo and that should be good enough. Nobody will know the difference anyways, right?

4. Walk around with a crouch (to give appearance of being short)

While I respect Yao Ming's basketball skills as much as the next guy, his rise to fame has unfortunately led everyone in America to mistakenly believe that all Asians are super tall. It's an annoying stereotype, because I constantly have to deal with questions from my non-Asian friends like "Dudo, you're Chinese aren't you? How come you're not 7-foot-5?"

The fact is, there are a lot of short Asian people that are even smaller than me (I'm about 5'11 to 6' myself). The viewers of Real World need to realize this, so I plan on walking around with really bad posture for the 3 months I'm in the house. If there was an easier way to demonstrate that Asian people are not tall, I'd be all for it. But someone needs to show America the truth, and I'd gladly sacrifice my spinal well being to do so.

There's much more I could add to the above list, like wearing my thick glasses, watching Japanese anime, or singing Ricky Martin songs on Karaoke. But I think I've listed enough examples to point out some of the key elements that have been missing from Real World for so many years, due to the lack of male Asian cast members.

Hopefully the above has shown you the importance of including someone like myself in the next season of Real World. I urge you to consider my application seriously. Don't make me have to tree-hop my way over there and jump kick you!

The Choice For Me Is Not Lead-Free

Not sure how many of you out there will find this information useful, but in the past few weeks at work we have been getting briefings about a brewing problem in the electronics industry, which may or may not affect the general consumer population.

I won't bore you all with the details, because it's kind of a long story about the kinds of stupid stuff that happens when environmentalists and politicians get together. But basically what happened is that the European Union decided a few years ago that we need to eliminate the use of lead in electronic components.

The problem is that there is a reason people used lead in electronics to begin with, and that is the fact that there's not really many other solutions out there that work as well as lead. Again, won't bore you all with the details, but to make a long story short, lead-free electronic components tend to develop weird phenomena and don't last as long as their traditional leaded counterparts.

While research is still being done to see what can be done about the problems that come with lead-free parts, the world is already moving ahead and starting to follow suit with the European initiatives. Actually, many products have already made the transition to lead-free in the past few years - for example, if you bought a Motorola cell phone in the past 3 years, chances are good that it was built with lead-free solder. But as far as the electronics industry as a whole, 2006 is when this lead-free thing is really supposed to take hold.

Before you run out in a panic and file a class-action suit against some company for selling you a defective part, let me repeat that research is still inconclusive. Also, the problems seem to mostly affect long-term reliability. If you get a new phone every year or two anyways, which most of us do, then it probably won't matter that much. These problems do tend to affect engineers more than anybody else, and especially in the defense industry, where equipment is expected to last for many years without maintenance.

Still, certain "expert opinions" presented in our briefings have recommended the following tips:

1. If you ever have a choice of buying a "RoHS-compliant" vs. "non-RoHS-compliant" version of a product, go with the non-compliant one. (If you ask the employee at Best Buy about RoHS compliance, he probably won't have a clue what you're talking about, but just keep an eye out)

2. If possible, wait until 2007 or beyond before buying new electronics. The hope is that by then, some or most of the issues that are popping up with the lead-free transition will be worked out.

3. If you do buy an electronic gadget or appliance in the next year or so, it might not be a terrible idea to get one of those "extended warranties" that stores sometimes offer.

So take that for what it's worth. It could be a whole lot of industry uproar over nothing, like the Y2K mess. Or it might actually end up being the cause of Earth's final apocalypse. You just never know.

I'm not sure what I'm planning to do myself. I don't normally get those warranties, but maybe if I buy a new cell phone or X-box or something, I'll consider it next time. Especially cause I like keeping stuff for more than a couple years if I can. Anyways, we'll have to wait see what happens.

Gossip Folk

Yesterday I heard the news that Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey officially separated. Can't say that I'm all that surprised, based on what we all saw in their 2 seasons of Newlyweds on MTV.

What's interesting to me is that it seemed like the tabloids have been reporting that for months, if not more than a year, about their separation. All along, both sides fiercely denied the stories, from what I can remember. But in the end it looks like they turned out to be 100% right.

I honestly don't follow the "celebrity" gossip as much as some people, so I can't write that much in depth on the subject. But as a general observation, I'm starting to wonder if maybe these entertainment shows and magazines actually do know a lot more than we give them credit for.

Like with the whole Jennifer Aniston/Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie love triangle, it started with just rumors that Brad and Angelina had a thing developing on the side. Like Nick and Jessica, they all blew off the stories at the time. But next thing you know, Brad and Jennifer break up. And since then, what do you know, a relationship between Brad and Angelina seems to be revealing itself more as time passes.

Of course, there's the times when it's pretty obvious that the stories are being manufactured or blown out of proportion to attract more attention. When you take a picture of Matt Damon kissing some actress as they're shooting a movie together, and use it to suggest that those two are hooking up, that tends to not be so credible. Or if you run a headline in huge font that asks a question like "Is J-Lo marrying her 90 year old gardener?" and then force readers to turn to page 28 to find out the answer is "No", you can't realistically expect me to fall for that trick more than 8 or 9 times before I get wiser.

I'm just wondering if maybe there's really something to these "experts" and their analysis, like how they read between the lines and break down quotes of what the celebrities say in interviews to figure out what they're really thinking.

Or there's also the more obvious stuff such as a couple not showing up to an event together, not wearing their wedding rings, etc. Although with those kinds of things, I suspect it could all just be games their publicists play to work the media. You gotta think that when the celebrities say or do certain things in public, they must know that it's going to be studied under a microscope by people who do it for a living, so they better be extra careful. Some of the "clues" they drop might be subconscious, but it's hard to tell sometimes.

Then again, maybe these gossip shows are just throwing random crap out there to see what sticks, and when stuff actually comes true, they take credit for it for breaking the news first. When it doesn't, it's easily forgotten.

Maybe I just lack understanding of the industry, like there is some sort of hierarchy of gossip magazines with varying levels of credibility Like I get the sense that US Weekly is one of the most "respected" sources, while other magazines on the same rack may not be as believable.

Now that I think about it, the same stuff happens in the sports world too, except not in the "who's dating who" kind of story. More like who's getting traded, who's getting fired, who wants to move from one team to the next. I've lost count of the number of times a rumor comes out that some coach is about to get canned, followed by the team publicly denying it and giving him a "vote of confidence", then a few days or weeks later they give him the ax anyways.

Or if any of you follow college recruiting, the rumors that fly on the internet seem to come true more often than you would expect, all coming from nameless "sources". One kid will name School #1 as his leader, then all of a sudden another school's name will pop up, followed by his parents and coaches saying "no, the School #1 is still his leader, we still like them the best", but in the end everyone is surprised when he dumps School #1 for School #2.

The whole Larry Brown "saga" of last year might be the best example. All of a sudden he decides to take time off from the Pistons because of health reasons. Meanwhile everyone is speculating that he is unhappy in Detroit, and it's all a ploy to get him released from his contract, so he can take the position as the Knicks' coach, which was his dream job all along. Not saying he completely made up his health problems, but look at where he is now. Coincidence? I think not.

Anyways, what is my point in all this? That we should all run and believe whatever rumors we hear on Access Hollywood or read in US Weekly? Of course not. As much as we as a society need to be grateful to the industry that brought us such brilliant nicknames as "TomKat" or "Brangelina", I don't think it's the greatest idea to take these people's word as gospel.

After all, most of us probably remember the day Princess Di was killed in a car accident as her driver was trying to outrun paparazzi. Don't be fooled by the pretty faces of Maria Menuous or the tower of manhood that is Pat O'Brien. These aren't the most respectable people who are bringing you all those photos and dishy details.

I guess what I'm saying is, don't believe the "celebrities" themselves either (and certainly not their "publicists" of all people). Someone denying a story has almost as little credibility as someone floating a rumor, at least it seems to be the case with these things.

So yeah, don't believe anyone, and you're good.

*****

Eric Gordon Verbals to Illinois

By the way, I can't mention the subject of college recruiting in a blog, without including a note of excitement for the newest future star of Illinois basketball, Mr. Eric Gordon!

As many Illini bball fans know, there hasn't been a whole lot to be happy about as far as recruiting goes in the past few years. In fact there's been a lot of downright terrible moments I could name. Just a few days ago I was reading a feature on Jon Scheyer in my ESPN the Magazine that made me want to puke. Among the highlights, "[Coach K] really gets me. I feel like he has my whole life planned for me", and him talking about facing racism on the court for being white. Poor, poor Jon.

Honestly, I didn't think I would ever see us win a recruit over Duke, and that just makes this news all the more notable. Hopefully this will be a watershed of more to come, but that remains to be seen.

Of course, as I've said before, recruiting and high rankings aren't everything. It's definitely nice to get guys who stay 3 and 4 years to watch them develop, instead of players who play one year and then declare for the NBA. But from everything I've heard about this kid, it sounds like he's going to be a great player, with a great background and attitude. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing him in that orange jersey in 2007 and beyond. Assuming nothing big happens before then, of course. After all, we did witness the Bill Self/Villenueva debacle only a few years back. But I'll not ruin this fine moment with talk of those things right now.