The New Jeopardy Contestant

When I really think about the game show Jeopardy, I'm surprised a show that is so nerdy and 'intellectual' has had such longevity in American television. With mindless shit like Deal or No Deal I'm glad Jeopardy lives strong. May it last forever. Unlike Trebek's mustache.

Yeah. That Happened.

Anyone watch the 1st Round table tennis match between North and South Korea? Or the DPRK and the ROK if you wanna be technical about it.
 
Well, I noticed something in the NBC broadcast. After the match, just as the two competitors shook hands the camera cut away so fast anyone who blinked might not have seen this:

The cut-away was so conspicuously rough I can just imagine some stooge in the editing department leaping across the room to slam the Censor button. Normally, they transition between footage with a sparkling NBC logo. This time they whipped away to show something unimportant like people standing on the sidelines.

You stay classy, NBC.

I Am Really Curious

I wonder how they are pronouncing this guy's name.

Jang Jeekay? Jang Jike? Zzzzzhang Zzzzheekay?

Jingoist Cunt John Leonard

What the fuck is this?

John Leonard, a U.S. swim coach, believes Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen's gold medal victory in the women's 400m Individual Medley event was due to "genetic manipulation" or "doping".
(- -)
She set a new world record and beat the second place swimmer, Elizabeth Beisel (U.S.), by a good two body lengths or almost 3 seconds. Leonard's choice words to describe this accomplishment: "disturbing" and "unbelievable".

Where were these words when Ryan Lochte (U.S.) sped to gold in the men's equivalent earlier today? He finished a full three body lengths ahead of the rest of the field. More than 3.5 seconds faster than the silver medalist, Thiago Pereira. Nothing but praise and accolades for him though.

Oh hey, I have NBC on behind me and I just saw the women's 200m individual medley. Guess what commentary I hear as the swimmers prepare?
"...and there's Yee Sheewen. Some... er, top sports officials have questioned the validity of her performance".
Yeah. Right. 'Top sports officials', as in a single official. Your official.

By the way, her name is pronounced like the sentence, "Yeah, sure, when". And she got gold in the event, mo' fukkas.

NBC Commentators

The NBC television network secured the rights to broadcasting the XXX Olympic games here in the United States. 
And it sucks ass, man.
They never shut up. It's like they believe they aren't doing their jobs unless they constantly talk. Throughout the women's Team Archery medal events they babbled incessantly.
South Korea (ROK) faced off against China (PRC) in the gold medal match. Russia dueled the Japanese for bronze.
My biggest problem was that they kept making comments with insulting undertones. Or maybe I'm just touched in the brain. (%___)

Pho 79

I have a craving for noodle soup. The cup noodle didn't satisfy as much as I thought it would.

Speaking of pho, here's a story for you. Years ago, my brother walked into a Pho 79 (a chain of Vietnamese restaurants here) and said, "Fo seventy-nine? I heah you numba one!" in an exaggerated FOB accent. The head chef promptly kicked him out.

And that's the story. Thank you for your attention.

LOL

Tea With Milk

So, we Asians like tea. But it turns out the British like tea as well. Hooray for healthy choices, eh?

But then what do they do? They put milk in it...

(= =__)


Antioxidant properties destroyed. Nice going.

I guess they weren't thinking about health at all... too bad.

Disproportionate Number of Males in China

This Draft perfectly dove-tails with the topic of the previous post.

As you have probably heard, there exists a disproportionate number of males in China right now. Last I checked the ratio was about 120 male births to every 100 female births, meaning there's about a 1.2 male:female ratio. While this might not seem like that big a number discrepancy, you must keep in mind that there are about 1.3 billion people in China now. That's a short scale billion, by the way. A thousand million, not a million million. So a 1.2 imbalance builds up right fast.

As you probably also know: there's a One-Child policy in force. The policy was implemented for some good reasons: chiefly to control population growth in order to decrease poverty, which it did spectacularly.

This by itself did far more good than harm. However, in conjunction with the traditional exaltation of having a male first-born, we run into some serious problems. When you only get one and you make it a son... where are the daughters?

Before you point them out, can we all assume we know the agricultural and social incentives for having male offspring? Stronger field hands in the family, continuing the family name and all that. We know. Or we should anyway.

Well, all those reasons were well and good in the day, but they don't hold up in post-industrial society, and so we get to the crux of my previous argument: tradition's yoke on the collective mind.
There are a lot of men in China now who will never have the chance to start families simply for want of a mate. To put it crudely, there just aren't enough girls to go around, heh. Furthermore, not all those girls need marry either! The bind tightens ever more...

I'm not going to go into all the economic problems and solutions, and the problems that would be caused by the solutions here. Suffice it to say, something's gotta give.

A small disclaimer: Contrary to the popular opinion, the One-Child policy isn't really ironclad anyway. Some families in rural areas are already allowed to have a second child if the first turned out to be a girl, and, of course, people who can afford the fee can have more children. Money opens doors everywhere, eh? (- -___)

Short

I think it's high time I delved deeper into which of her qualities I considered irreconcilably incompatible. As a person I didn't think little of her in most respects, but I have some necessary qualifications for my sig. o. candidates.

Wait a minute.

High time? (•_•)
Think little? (ºヮº)
Shortcomings?! (⊙ ワ ⊙)

Well, I guess I'll save the fatal flaw for the next post. These puns make a compelling argument for another topic.

Yet again, positivity turns my intended course.

I like my girls on the vertically challenged side, in general.
I've wondered about the reasons, myself. Is it because, psychologically, short girls seem more vulnerable and in need of protection? Sounds plausible but I'm inclined to say this isn't my reason because I much prefer my girl to be capable and strong, someone people can turn to for help if needed rather than someone who always needs some from others, you know? Short is just my preference. In all my fantasies thoughts I'm actually not sure how I'd go about a girl my height. Hmm. Good thing I generally don't have to worry about that sort of thing. (^_^)

At the height that she was, S-girl fit just so in my arms, her head at the perfect height to listen to my heartbeat as I held her. It's little things like that which I still think about sometimes. It's actually a bit dangerous. I miss having someone to do that sort of thing with but that's no reason to just find a girl, I think...

Tila Tequila: What Do You Think?

I almost labelled this post with the 'racism' tag but I realized I'm being over-zealous. This post does not, in fact, concern racism. It just had something to do with race.

As you all should know, I appreciate the aesthetics of females of the Asian persuasion. Just so we can establish that bit of foundational information.

On to the specimen in question though. Tila Tequila.

If you've never heard of her, that's good. I would best describe her as one of those "MTV personalities". You know, the kind whose entire career is built on ostentatious behaviour for the sake of entertainment, such that you can't really tell where the real person starts and the fake on-screen persona stops anymore. I direct this question primarily to my non-Asian readers:
Is she hot?
Or even pretty? I have to tell you, with the benefit of my trained eye, she has an oddly shaped face. Is she what you would call 'exotic'?

I know I'm not the first to make this joke, but when I first saw her on her "reality show" I said, "Damn, she looks like an alien."

I mean, really.

When I See a Hot Non-Asian Girl

My first thought: "Huh. Wow."

Second thought: "Aaahhh.... fuck..." *facepalm*

I might actually end up falling for one, hahahaha. Despite my best efforts to the contrary.

Unrelated.

Yeah, simple post today. My thoughts run deep at the moment.

Damn, I Miss Wushu

I'm beginning to feel the lack of easily accessible large empty indoor spaces around here. Acutely.
/(≥﹏≤)\
Back at uni I could go to any one of three gyms within a few minutes walk from home. Here, I'm at a loss. Wushu really does take up quite a bit of space. Especially some of the flashier techniques.

This is way back when I was really crappy. Now I'm just regular mediocre haha.

In other news, I found a kung fu combat technique manual in the bathroom today. Not mine, probably dad's. That's one of those moments when I feel a swell of pride for being Asian. *nyuk nyuk nyuk*

A Racially-targeted Aggressive Dream?

So last night I dreamt that I was walking along, wearing a large and heavy backpack. That's when someone kicked me in the butt and I turned around. It happens to be a guy I knew from uni, last name of Nguyen. I boot him and notice someone else on the scene. I don't think they actually know each other in real life but her last name is also Nguyen. I give her a boot in the ribs too but lose my balance because of the backpack and fall over. Then she jumped up and stomped on me. O the humanity.

A Telling Dream

Sitting at a table outside a café. My phone lies on the table.
=======================
A white girl walks past and says,
Hey, cute phone charm.
Thanks.
What is it?
....I'm sorry. We can't be friends.
=======================

Hahaha. Yeah. That was it.

Any person who grew up in an Asian household would have recognized Ding Dong (or Doraemon) from the children's TV show.

Sasuke a.k.a. Ninja Warrior

So today's find comes by way of one of tracirz's posts. I clicked on the link to Joel's list and then clicked the link next to Learn Parkour which lead me to this blog here.

The guy seems like just my type of person, going out and doing awesome stuff cuz he wants to. But that's beside the point. Looking through his posts I found this one. Man, Ninja Warrior (aka Sasuke) sounds awesome! But I already have K-ON!, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones on my watch list.... (><__)

Video Game - E3 2012

Love of the game right there.

In other news, I have to say, I don't think anyone takes their hobbies more seriously than the Japanese. If you read any manga or watch any anime in which the characters are still in school (there are plenty of them) you've probably noticed how dedicated extracurricular club members are to what they do. For example, if a character is the captain of the team or some such, it will be a big part of their character. That's not just an exaggerated characterization used in the fiction. It's how it is in real life, too.

The Departed vs Infernal Affairs - A Precursor

I could will post a longer (winded hehe) review post concerning all the areas where The Departed [2006] fell flat as a remake of the Hong Kong film, Infernal Affairs [2002], or even as a stand-alone film but for now I will only concern myself and you with one scene: the elevator scene.
.
.
.
Despite what I just said I still almost posted a rant here....
(- -___)
Infernal Affairs is such a great movie that I get especially rant-prone about it.

Go YouTube 'the departed elevator scene' or something. Watch it.

In a word: messy. Just so messy. Bang! Bang bang! Bang! Are you serious? How the hell are these three deaths not going to get back to him? That's two (three but technically Costigan's file got deleted) dead cops and the body of a guy who some one at the station will remember seeing come in a few days before. And those blood splatters are going to paint an odd picture for the forensics team when they notice that these three didn't neatly off one another, not to mention seeming to wipe their guns clean after.

Not to mention the other little bang at the end when Wahlberg's pointless, and pointlessly foul-mouthed, character offs Damon. (- -___) Plenty of paralipsis in this argument...

Then the final cutaway even shows a large rat crawling across the rooftop. What amazing subtlety.
Hmmm. "Pointlessly foul-mouthed." Wow, that kinda applies to the whole movie doesn't it? By golly.

And from Infernal Affairs. That's the original there. And I think to myself, what the hell did William Monahan think to himself when he adapted that scene? Monahan wrote the screenplay for The Departed, by the way.

Ah, hell. Even if Americans needed their movies dumb-ed down, dirtied up, splashed with violence and spoken in English to appreciate them *I* would appreciate if they knew where they were getting their stuff. Anyone remember the Academy Awards for the year The Departed won? The presenter described The Departed as being based on a Japanese film. *Sigh* I did not need another reason to think that it's a bunch of fools running things over there at the Academy but they gave me another.

And there's still a good amount of rant in this post. Maybe I need counseling....

Oh oh! One last note. I found this comment on one of the YouTube vids of The Departed's elevator scene.

Damn, this guy... he doesn't know how right he is. Nor how much more right he could be. I really don't know who is to blame for messing up the ending, Monahan or Scorcese. That shock you got from that death in the original movie gets muddled and lost when the antagonist in The Departed, Sullivan (Matt Damon), didn't walk away clean. He got cleanly shot by Wahlberg's character. I sighed soooo hard just now I inhaled. It's like a sign that reads, "Remember kids, crime doesn't pay."

Game of Thrones

So after I watched that YouTube cover of Train's "Soul Sister" with those AA's I subscribed to some of their channels, leading me to this guy, Jason Yang, and his current featured video:



Owing to the fact that I don't watch much television I hadn't heard about this show. But damn! I've only seen the first episode but it's pretty awesome. Now I understand where all these "Winter is coming" images of the guy I only knew as Boromir come from. His name is Sean Bean by the way. Also there's the guy who played Roland from A Knight's Tale [2001]. He's a king now! A great leap from squire to a knight I say!

My rusty Japanese and Yu-Gi-Oh!

Speaking of Yu-Gi-Oh!, I started playing Nightmare Troubadour on my bro's NDS. I noticed that he had a Japanese ROM, probably by mistake since he also has an English one loaded too. In case you're wondering, these are all on a Top Toy flash card. My Japanese is still good enough that I can understand the gist of the lines but my kanji vocabulary is lacking. Playing this game is only sort of helpful for practice though. I think a visual novel would be more intensive on dialogue, hmm?

Quick music post

I don't have a lot of time so I'll just share some A(wesome)A(sians) with you here. 

J-Pop #2: Shining Star

There's a hurricane a'stormin' outside so I wrote this post on Friday. Thanks to the miracles of Post Scheduling this should come out here on Sunday at 3:00pm.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok, this one is pure J-Pop, I swears it. (^^___;;)7
From Nami Tamaki, one of the genre's greatest.



Before Hallyu hit me in college my anime love sailed me through a lot of J-Pop territory. On the other hand, I didn't listen to a lot of radio. As a result of this I grew up appreciating music without having to understand the lyrics.