Had a great time attending a Karaoke party & then hiked Mt. Si with friends. This time I went all the way to the top! The view was incredible. Only drawback was that I didn’t make to Folklife as planned. Oh well still have memories from last year.
My name is kind of like John Smith, just too damn common! Put it in Google, and you get a lot of people who aren’t me! It kind of bugs me, because unlike most Americans, I had an opportunity to choose my first name after I came to US as a kid. Should have given it more thought instead of just plucking one out the thin air. If I could do it over again, I go with something with more memorable, maybe “Kronos,” after the Greek Mythology. That’ sound like a powerful & masculine name. Or at the risk of sounding like a high school Mascot, I could just add a nick name, Andrew “the Titan” Wang.
Political Correctness serves in many case as euphemisms, so not to offend. Many traditional labels are no longer in fashion because they were used in malice or derision. But sometimes the new racial labels have weird names that are just confusing!
The basic way to label race is by color. For example, someone might be White or Black. But you don’t hear many people use Brown or Yellow, except maybe in HBO Prison Dramas. Now if we go strictly by color, then it shouldn’t be offensive, right? Except somewhere along the line, Brown and Yellow got a bit of negative association. To refer someone as Brown, you might imply that they look dirty, or god forbid, crappy! Or if you say someone is Yellow, it kind of brings up images of old western movies, where the best way to provoke a fight is accuse someone, “what are ya, yellow?” Not really sure about how yellow got associated with cowardliness… But apparently it’s not fashionable to call a person of Asian-decent yellow.
Ok, so label by color isn’t ideal. So let’s invent some names then, or borrow from science, or linguistic. For example, Caucasian is a term from anthropology describing white people. It seems to be common these days, and much less Nazi sounding than Aryan. But it kind of conjures a cocky Asian. Or even more nebulas, an Asian dude…
As for “Latino,” which supposedly describes South Americans… But that implies that they were from Rome. Guess since most are Catholics, it’s more of a description of their faith which uses Latin as the default language.
“Negro” use to be a common term, but being too close to “Nigger,” nobody use it much anymore. Similarly “Oriental” was part of the daily use. But too much association to rugs and carpet destroyed its luster.
Well, label by pseudo isn’t perfect either. Let’s try geography then. For example, I’m an “Asian American.” A black person is an “African American.” “Hispanic American“ came from the word Hispania, a former name for Spain. I actually think“Spanics American” is more clearer. But guess it could be confused with “Spanish Americans.” An American Indian is “Native American.” Apparently the “Native” label is granted with residency of about 10K+ years… So looks like Political Correctness has succeed! Slap a place of origin + American. And voilà, we’d get the most non-offensive racial label. It’s a perfect formula!
Wonder when will “European American” become popular…
Disclaimer: This post was written in a satirical manner. If it comes across as offensive, the author sincerely suggests that you get a sense of humor.
Probably one of the biggest stressors in our lives are dramatic people. Instead of taking the time to clearly communicate and solve a problem, some people just decide to get mad. I’ve found the most effective way to deal with these situations is to be calm and speak in a leveled voice.
Not long ago, a girl that I knew for a while blew up on me for “pressuring” her to dance. I was a bit incredulous. Apparently even though she wasn’t dancing at the time, she had a few other people who asked before me. And she wanted to dance with them first. Ok that was actually kind of considerate. But at the time, all I heard from her was that she needed to find someone. That person wasn’t there. So I persisted, and said something like, “dance with me then.” She declined, walked away, and danced with another fellow instead. I actually thought that was kind of rude, but I got over it and danced with other girls instead.
Later in the evening, as she was leaving, she came up to me & suddenly started screaming, saying that she didn’t appreciate being pressured. It definitely took an effort to keep my anger in check. Instead I just said, “Sorry, but I didn’t realize that you had other people already waiting in queue. I thought that you were avoiding me. Hopefully we can dance again in the future.” Had I said anything else, she probably would have gotten even madder. So I just apologized and moved on.
These days, apparently she’s still holding a grudge against me. I find that amusing. From my association with her before this, I thought she was a sweet person. In her defense, she was probably just having a bad day or something. I’ll still be polite around her. But I won’t ask her to dance any time soon.
Salsa is a great way to meet new people. It’s really natural to strike conversations with people that you see often, especially with your dance partners. And sometimes people actually become friends, or something more. One thing that I noticed is that women tend to be better at socializing than guys. Many men are more uptight, especially starting a conversation with another guy that they don’t know.
This tenacity might be compounded when more guys than gals are on the dance floor. So that it becomes a bit of competition. It’s kind of amusing sometimes watching grown men positioning themselves besides a pretty girl and rushing forward to dance with her before other fellows. I tend to take it less seriously, and move around more often, finding girls who aren’t dancing at the moment. And eventually, I end up dancing with many of the popular girls anyway.
And when I’m resting on the sidelines, I’ve got no problem asking another guy how he did his moves, or just catch up with friends. I think in general, it’s great to add some conversation to Salsa, instead of some people philosophy of just “shut up and dance.”
Ok, so my sleeping pattern hasn’t been the most consistent in the world. It’s especially hard when laying in bed for hours and not able to sleep. Besides popping pills, the next best and most effective way to get some great zzz is a lot of physical exertion. In my case, jogging does the trick. Yesterday afternoon, after a rather bad case of insomnia the night before, I decided to take a jog along the Sammamish River Trail, a flat paved path with amazing scenery. This was near the Willows Lodge 
in Woodinville, one of the top 100 luxury resorts in the world according to Travel + Leisure’s 12th Annual World’s Best Awards 2007 reader’s survey. People pay $200-$500 per night to stay there and enjoy the same scenery.
The weather was kind of nice, with the sun in and out of the clouds. The temperature, cool. And the wind, ferocious, helpful when against my back, but not so fun when smothering against my face. Besides dealing with possibility of blacking out by this torrent of pure oxygen. I had watch out for random droppings as hundreds of birds flew sometimes aimlessly overhead, screaming like banshees. In the end though, it was definitely a rush… 4 miles suddenly didn’t seem that much afterward.
That night, feeling a bit tired, I decided to head to bed early at about 9:30p versus my customary post mid-night sleeping time. And within minutes, I passed out like being hit with an elephant grade tranquilizer, and slept blissfully for the next 12 hours.
So next time you want a great night of sleep, start jogging!
I quitted my job at an Internet Marketing agency in March 2007, and started a blog publishing company. The good news is that it’s making a profit after expenses. The bad is that it’s growing slower than I expected. I figured that by this time, I’d be buying a mansion, yacht, and sipping martini from a private beach in the Caribbean. 
Ok back to reality, I’m still optimistic about 2009. With 7 money making blogs, & various independent contractors, I plan to improve the quality & quantity of my content, and maybe build a web application.
Regarding health & fitness, I’m in the best shape of my life. Hiked about 8 different mountains in 2008. Jogged 23 miles in December, and plan to run a LOT more this year. I’ve also gotten into the habit of doing 100 pushups & 200 situps every other day. My flexibility has also improve dramatically due to regular Yoga practice, now entering 4th year. At this rate, I should enter a marathon or something. 
My Salsa dancing also improved quite a bit. For an embarrassingly long time, I wasn’t able to hear the beat of some of the complex songs. But then suddenly, eureka, they’ve became a lot clearer, or at least 95% of the time. I’ve also came up with my own moves & combination to better express myself on the dance floor.
Finally got to see Whistler BC this summer, the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics. It’s very charming, yet commercialized, and expensive!
For 2009, here’re my goals
- Run 300 miles
- Do 15,000 pushups & 30,000 situps
- Read & review 20 books
For the past month, I’ve been going to the Hot Yoga in Kirkland. They have a nice $10 for 10 classes package that I highly recommend. The lessons are usually 60 minutes for the most active Power Yoga, and 90 minutes for the Bikram Yoga, less motion, more posing.
During the class, it feels sometimes like you’re melting. Your body begins to sweat even before the first posture. Shortly afterwards, your body becomes drenched with thousands of droplets escaping furiously from every pore of your body. Basically imagine exercising in a sauna and you kind of have an idea of what to expect. So getting enough water is crucial to survive the class, or at least without some serious trauma.
The Yoga instructors sometimes seem like sadistic drill instructors yelling out commands to bend your body to eye popping positions and pushing you to the brink of exhaustion. Sometimes as many as a quarter of the class could be seen dropping to the floor, unable to continue. But for those that finish, it’s very satisfying mentally & physically. And after a while you might even notice new muscle tones that’d make going to the beach much more enjoyable.
Note: Speaking from personal experience here. Winter is coming. So don’t linger outside too much afterward. The drastic change in temperature when you come outside can temporarily wreck the immune system and cause a nasty cold. And if you do get sick, stay home, relax, recover, and avoid spreading the germs to others.
Wow I really outdid myself the last couple of weeks with daily workouts of Power & Hot Yoga, Weights, Runs, Walks, Dancing, and various Group Exercises. I’m stronger, faster, and tougher, but also more hungry, tired, and exhausted.
After a Hot Yoga on Wednesday and 3 hours of Salsa that night, I managed 5 hours of sleep. Damn adrenaline induced insomnia! The next day, after a workout, I decided that a couple of group exercise classes prior to dinner would be challenging. After the first class, 24 Hr Set, I was exhausted. Should have left then. But decided what the heck, and stayed for the Yoga class. By then my arms and legs were literally shaking, and my back ached. Poses that normally would have been a piece of cake became a Herculean feat. I literally collapsed a few times. But I got myself up, and kept going. When it was over, I was numb, but glad!
Lesson: Eating, Pacing & Resting are good before extreme exercise.