Identity

I never liked identifying myself as Asian or Chinese when I was growing up. I attribute this to the fact that when I was growing up, I was surrounded by Asians. I went to after-school with all Asians, and BLS and Harvard were full of Asians. Thus identifying myself as Asian seemed silly because I had nothing in common with many of the Asians I was surrounded by. To lump myself in the same group as them because we shared a skin color seemed a bit silly.

But somewhere along the way, I realized that there weren't that many of us. I mean, it's not like one day I woke up and realized that I was surrounded by white people, but it was a change being in environments with around 15% Asians to being in populations where I was the only one. And at some point "perception is reality" became my motto because it doesn't really matter if I identify myself as Asian or not - if everyone else defined me as such, I was Asian. And being among white people made me more aware of certain Asian cultural traits like modesty, emphasis on academics, and cheapness.

So why do I bring this up?

On Sunday, as I walking to Barnes & Noble in the Prudential, a man suddenly came up behind me and rather brusquely asked "Hey! When is the Chinese New Year?" When I responded with "I dunno, Jan 25th", he gave me a look and somewhat incredulously asked "You mean you don't know?" So I socked him in the jaw.

Ok, so that last part was a lie, but that's what I should have done. In retrospect, I should have selected a retort from the following:

1.) So solly, me no speak English.
2.) The first of the year, duh! (What's this Gregorian calendar you speak of?)
3.) I'm Korean. I hate Chinese people.

But alas, I only stared at him, said "No" and walked away. Which is why I'm not a stand-up comedian but instead a two-bit blogger.

Oh, and I find that beer commercial where the guy learns how to pour beer from an old Chinese guy offensive as well.

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Progress towards 2006 goals.
Pounds lost: 0
Optimism meter: ok
Angry Asian meter: high

Goals

New goal for the new year:

1. Lose 10 pounds by July

Snippets of a conversation

Me: Watching all this football gives me inspiration to go for it on 4th and 2
YH: you think you're at 4th and 2?
Me: no
Me: more like i'm at 1 and 10
Me: and deciding whether to snap the ball
Me: or whether just to forfeit the game outright

Followed by:
Bo: just ask yourself: what would manning do?
Me: throw an interception?
Me: blame my teammates?
Bo: maybe qualify that with "in the regular season"

People Who Just Plain Suck

Updated 5 people who just plain suck list:
1. George W., Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, et al.
2. Robert Kiyosaki (of Rich Dad, Poor Dad fame -- read this joker's column on Yahoo! to know what a huge schmuck he is)
3. People named Derek
4. Danny Ainge (he might even be worse than Rick Pitino, and that's saying something -- Brian Scalabrine anyone)
5. Carson Daly

New Year

Looking back on 2005, I can only conclude that it was sort of a "blah" year. On a personal level, nothing really memorable happened in 2005. I fell far short of my personal goal of 7 personal revelations (I had zero), and I think my most significant achievement was getting my car windshield fixed. I even topped the one date I went on in 2004 by going on zero in 2005.

I don't think it really hit me that it was going to be 2006 until I was watching VH1's "I love the 90's" two weeks ago. What troubled me was that 1999 seemed so recent -- I mean, I still have those songs on my playlist, and I remember watching those shows they're talking about -- yet it's over 6 years ago! It bothers me to no end that we're closer to 2010 than to 1999, and that my memories of the 2000's are hazy and vague at best. But it's all good. The way I figure, '03 was still a college year, '04 was getting used to work, '05 was working, and '06 will be growth.

So it's '06, another goddamn year. I feel emboldened. Hopeful even. Damnit, I need a drink.