Monday, July 4, 2011
July 4th, 2011: Hot Coffee, Cool Parties and a Decreased Risk of Alzheimer's Disease
Happy Fourth of July!
What a terrific holiday this has been…and best of all, I’ve recently been exposed to another powerful paradigm shift. A new study shows that coffee can help stave off the symptoms and memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Researchers at the University of South Florida, where the study was conducted, think that coffee may even have preventive effects against AD!
This study, which was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease on June 28, 2011, evaluated memory function and disease development in mice with induced AD. The results were very specific in that the only thing that was effective in preserving and improving memory over the long term was caffeinated coffee---not decaffeinated coffee and not other types of caffeinated drinks.
The primary mechanism was associated with increased blood levels of a growth factor known as GCSF, or granulocyte colony stimulating factor, which is associated with improved memory and a decrease in the brain’s production of beta-amyloid, which is the plaque found in the brains of people with AD. GCSF creates new connections between brain cells and increases the birth of new neurons in the brain. Coffee also has anti-inflammatory properties.
It seems that we should all be benefiting from these benefits, but the researchers stress that Americans just aren’t drinking enough coffee to reap those benefits. In fact, we average about 2 cups a day. When it comes to memory, the benefits really kick in at the 4 to 5 cup mark. That’s where the paradigm shift comes in. More really is better. Researchers suggest that we start ramping up intake in our 30’s when AD can start to develop.
Everyone, including Americans, wants to be healthy. Coffee, it seems, may help us achieve that goal. I also want to be able to remember all of the cool parties we have attended on July 4th and the beautiful fireworks that lit up the night sky this past weekend. And, of course, I want to remember the look of awe in my children's eyes.
The information about AD is new, but here's what we know: We also know that coffee significantly reduces the risk of Parkinson’s disease, type II diabetes, breast cancer, prostate cancer, liver disease, and stroke.
Finally...one more question: Do you like your coffee hot or cold? On a hot day, I still like my coffee hot. Hot water and hot healthy drinks are an excellent way to detoxify the body and build the digestive system. So have a hot cup of coffee as you watch the fireworks! It’s another dimension of hot (and healthy) fun in the summer time!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Who is tiger woods
I hate to beat a dead horse - but this latest Tiger Woods fiasco has brought up so many issues of identity. Is he black? White? Asian? Cablisian? What? So to clarify once and for all I would like to draw your attention to an old clip of the Dave Chappelle show where it was determined long ago who his true racial group is =).
http://vodpod.com/watch/1645590-racial-draft2
As we venture into this new decade, I'm inspired by changes in life which the end of 2009 brought. The most important being the full legal and physical parent of my children. That was a life changing event which has given me a great deal of peace knowing my children will be close to me every day. So everyday I wake up and I find my self not wondering what race I belong to, who my "real parents are" if I have sisters or brothers 3000 miles away on the Korean Penninsula. I wake up knowing I am a father. And I will always be bonded and grounded with that idea. Being a father has it's own identity issues, and benefits. And I embrace them all.
For over a decade I've been asking - begging Hollywood to cast/see me as a human being with 3-dimentional human flaws and strenths and to show guys that look like me as a human being. But my reality is better than Hollywood. My kids are my audience and they get to see the many facets of me. I don't need to audition for them, I already got the part. And it's a lifetime epic. So as this new decade begins - I enter it knowing that by the end of it, my children will be graduating high school and entering college. So I know I only have 10 more years to really put my fingerprint on their lives, to drive them to a place called happiness and put them on a path towards success.
I do believe that the next 10 years is going to be the most exciting and rewarding of them all. I pray that God gives me the strength and wisdom to make good choices and to find patience when I feel the overcome with frustration.
I pray for all of my friends and family - for strength through tough economic times. And for a economic turnaround in this next decade.
As for Tiger Woods - I pray for him. More importantly, I pray for his children. For they are the only ones who loose here - who cares about sponsors, money, fame, fortune. After knowing what life is like first-hand when divorce is eminent, I can relate to the kids who will most likely will be dragged in and out of family court.
Happy New Year!
http://vodpod.com/watch/1645590-racial-draft2
As we venture into this new decade, I'm inspired by changes in life which the end of 2009 brought. The most important being the full legal and physical parent of my children. That was a life changing event which has given me a great deal of peace knowing my children will be close to me every day. So everyday I wake up and I find my self not wondering what race I belong to, who my "real parents are" if I have sisters or brothers 3000 miles away on the Korean Penninsula. I wake up knowing I am a father. And I will always be bonded and grounded with that idea. Being a father has it's own identity issues, and benefits. And I embrace them all.
For over a decade I've been asking - begging Hollywood to cast/see me as a human being with 3-dimentional human flaws and strenths and to show guys that look like me as a human being. But my reality is better than Hollywood. My kids are my audience and they get to see the many facets of me. I don't need to audition for them, I already got the part. And it's a lifetime epic. So as this new decade begins - I enter it knowing that by the end of it, my children will be graduating high school and entering college. So I know I only have 10 more years to really put my fingerprint on their lives, to drive them to a place called happiness and put them on a path towards success.
I do believe that the next 10 years is going to be the most exciting and rewarding of them all. I pray that God gives me the strength and wisdom to make good choices and to find patience when I feel the overcome with frustration.
I pray for all of my friends and family - for strength through tough economic times. And for a economic turnaround in this next decade.
As for Tiger Woods - I pray for him. More importantly, I pray for his children. For they are the only ones who loose here - who cares about sponsors, money, fame, fortune. After knowing what life is like first-hand when divorce is eminent, I can relate to the kids who will most likely will be dragged in and out of family court.
Happy New Year!
Monday, November 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/us/09adopt.html
As a child, Kim Eun Mi Young hated being different.
DIFFERENT Kim Eun Mi Young in an undated photo with her brothers, David, left, and Shawn. Growing up, she says, “at no time did I consider myself anything other than white.”
When her father brought home toys, a record and a picture book on South Korea, the country from which she was adopted in 1961, she ignored them.
Growing up in Georgia, Kansas and Hawaii, in a military family, she would date only white teenagers, even when Asian boys were around.
“At no time did I consider myself anything other than white,” said Ms. Young, 48, who lives in San Antonio. “I had no sense of any identity as a Korean woman. Dating an Asian man would have forced me to accept who I was.”
It was not until she was in her 30s that she began to explore her Korean heritage. One night, after going out to celebrate with her husband at the time, she says she broke down and began crying uncontrollably.
“I remember sitting there thinking, where is my mother? Why did she leave me? Why couldn’t she struggle to keep me?” she said. “That was the beginning of my journey to find out who I am.”
The experiences of Ms. Young are common among adopted children from Korea, according to one of the largest studies of transracial adoptions, which is to be released on Monday. The report, which focuses on the first generation of children adopted from South Korea, found that 78 percent of those who responded had considered themselves to be white or had wanted to be white when they were children. Sixty percent indicated their racial identity had become important by the time they were in middle school, and, as adults, nearly 61 percent said they had traveled to Korea both to learn more about the culture and to find their birth parents.
Like Ms. Young, most Korean adoptees were raised in predominantly white neighborhoods and saw few, if any, people who looked like them. The report also found that the children were teased and experienced racial discrimination, often from teachers. And only a minority of the respondents said they felt welcomed by members of their own ethnic group.
As a result, many of them have had trouble coming to terms with their racial and ethnic identities.
The report was issued by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a nonprofit adoption research and policy group based in New York. Since 1953, parents in the United States have adopted more than a half-million children from other countries, the vast majority of them from orphanages in Asia, South America and, most recently, Africa. Yet the impact of such adoptions on identity has been only sporadically studied. The authors of the Donaldson Adoption Institute study said they hoped their work would guide policymakers, parents and adoption agencies in helping the current generation of children adopted from Asian countries to form healthy identities.
“So much of the research on transracial adoption has been done from the perspective of adoptive parents or adolescent children,” said Adam Pertman, executive director of the institute. “We wanted to be able to draw on the knowledge and life experience of a group of individuals who can provide insight into what we need to do better.”
The study recommends several changes in adoption practices that the institute said are important, including better support for adoptive parents and recognition that adoption grows in significance for their children from young adulthood on, and throughout adulthood.
South Korea was the first country from which Americans adopted in significant numbers. From 1953 to 2007, an estimated 160,000 South Korean children were adopted by people from other countries, most of them in the United States. They make up the largest group of transracial adoptees in the United States and, by some estimates, are 10 percent of the nation’s Korean population.
The report says that significant changes have occurred since the first generation of adopted children were brought to the United States, a time when parents were told to assimilate the children into their families without regard for their native culture.
Yet even adoptees who are exposed to their culture and have parents who discuss issues of race and discrimination say they found it difficult growing up.
Heidi Weitzman, who was adopted from Korea when she was 7 months old and who grew up in ethnically mixed neighborhoods in St. Paul, said her parents were in touch with other parents with Korean children and even offered to send her to a “culture camp” where she could learn about her heritage.
“But I hated it,” said Ms. Weitzman, a mental health therapist in St. Paul. “I didn’t want to do anything that made me stand out as being Korean. Being surrounded by people who were blonds and brunets, I just thought that I was white.” It was not until she moved to New York after college that she began to become comfortable with being Korean.
“I was 21 before I could look in the mirror and not be surprised by what I saw staring back at me,” she said. “The process of discovering who I am has been a long process, and I’m still on it.”
Ms. Weitzman’s road to self-discovery was fairly typical of the 179 Korean adoptees with two Caucasian parents who responded to the Donaldson Adoption Institute survey. Most said they began to think of themselves more as Korean when they attended college or moved to ethnically diverse neighborhoods as adults.
For Joel Ballantyne, a high school teacher in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who was adopted by white parents in 1977, the study confirms many of the feelings that he and other adoptees have tried to explain for years.
“This offers proof that we’re not crazy or just being ungrateful to our adoptive parents when we talk about our experiences,” said Mr. Ballantyne, 35, who was adopted at age 3 and who grew up in Alabama, Texas and, finally, California.
Jennifer Town, 33, agreed.
“A lot of adoptees have problems talking about these issues with their adoptive families,” she said. “They take it as some kind of rejection of them when we’re just trying to figure out who we are.”
Ms. Town, who was adopted in 1979 and raised in a small town in Minnesota, recalled that during college, when she announced that she was going to Korea to find out more about her past, her parents “freaked out.”
“They saw it as a rejection,” she said. “My adoptive mother is really into genealogy, tracing her family to Sweden, and she was upset with me because I wanted to find out who I was.”
Mr. Ballantyne said he received a similar reaction when he told his parents of plans to travel to Korea.
The Donaldson Adoption Institute’s study concludes that such trips are among the many ways that parents and adoption agencies could help adoptees deal with their struggle with identity and race. But both Ms. Towns and Mr. Ballantyne said that while traveling to South Korea was an eye-opening experience in many ways, it was also disheartening.
Many Koreans, they said, did not consider them to be “real Koreans” because they did not speak the language or seem to understand the culture.
Mr. Ballantyne tracked down his maternal grandmother, but when he met her, he said, she scolded him for not learning Korean before he came.
“She was the one who had put me up for adoption,” he said. “So that just created tension between us. Even as I was leaving, she continued to say I needed to learn Korean before I came by again.”
Sonya Wilson, adopted in 1976 by a white family in Clarissa, Minn., says that although she shares many of the experiences of those interviewed in the study — she grew up as the only Asian in a town of 600 — policy changes must address why children are put up for adoption, and should do more to help single women in South Korea keep their children. “This study does not address any of these issues,” Ms. Wilson said.
Ms. Young said the study was helpful, but that it came too late to help people like her.
“I wish someone had done something like this when I was growing up,” she said.
DIFFERENT Kim Eun Mi Young in an undated photo with her brothers, David, left, and Shawn. Growing up, she says, “at no time did I consider myself anything other than white.”
When her father brought home toys, a record and a picture book on South Korea, the country from which she was adopted in 1961, she ignored them.
Growing up in Georgia, Kansas and Hawaii, in a military family, she would date only white teenagers, even when Asian boys were around.
“At no time did I consider myself anything other than white,” said Ms. Young, 48, who lives in San Antonio. “I had no sense of any identity as a Korean woman. Dating an Asian man would have forced me to accept who I was.”
It was not until she was in her 30s that she began to explore her Korean heritage. One night, after going out to celebrate with her husband at the time, she says she broke down and began crying uncontrollably.
“I remember sitting there thinking, where is my mother? Why did she leave me? Why couldn’t she struggle to keep me?” she said. “That was the beginning of my journey to find out who I am.”
The experiences of Ms. Young are common among adopted children from Korea, according to one of the largest studies of transracial adoptions, which is to be released on Monday. The report, which focuses on the first generation of children adopted from South Korea, found that 78 percent of those who responded had considered themselves to be white or had wanted to be white when they were children. Sixty percent indicated their racial identity had become important by the time they were in middle school, and, as adults, nearly 61 percent said they had traveled to Korea both to learn more about the culture and to find their birth parents.
Like Ms. Young, most Korean adoptees were raised in predominantly white neighborhoods and saw few, if any, people who looked like them. The report also found that the children were teased and experienced racial discrimination, often from teachers. And only a minority of the respondents said they felt welcomed by members of their own ethnic group.
As a result, many of them have had trouble coming to terms with their racial and ethnic identities.
The report was issued by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a nonprofit adoption research and policy group based in New York. Since 1953, parents in the United States have adopted more than a half-million children from other countries, the vast majority of them from orphanages in Asia, South America and, most recently, Africa. Yet the impact of such adoptions on identity has been only sporadically studied. The authors of the Donaldson Adoption Institute study said they hoped their work would guide policymakers, parents and adoption agencies in helping the current generation of children adopted from Asian countries to form healthy identities.
“So much of the research on transracial adoption has been done from the perspective of adoptive parents or adolescent children,” said Adam Pertman, executive director of the institute. “We wanted to be able to draw on the knowledge and life experience of a group of individuals who can provide insight into what we need to do better.”
The study recommends several changes in adoption practices that the institute said are important, including better support for adoptive parents and recognition that adoption grows in significance for their children from young adulthood on, and throughout adulthood.
South Korea was the first country from which Americans adopted in significant numbers. From 1953 to 2007, an estimated 160,000 South Korean children were adopted by people from other countries, most of them in the United States. They make up the largest group of transracial adoptees in the United States and, by some estimates, are 10 percent of the nation’s Korean population.
The report says that significant changes have occurred since the first generation of adopted children were brought to the United States, a time when parents were told to assimilate the children into their families without regard for their native culture.
Yet even adoptees who are exposed to their culture and have parents who discuss issues of race and discrimination say they found it difficult growing up.
Heidi Weitzman, who was adopted from Korea when she was 7 months old and who grew up in ethnically mixed neighborhoods in St. Paul, said her parents were in touch with other parents with Korean children and even offered to send her to a “culture camp” where she could learn about her heritage.
“But I hated it,” said Ms. Weitzman, a mental health therapist in St. Paul. “I didn’t want to do anything that made me stand out as being Korean. Being surrounded by people who were blonds and brunets, I just thought that I was white.” It was not until she moved to New York after college that she began to become comfortable with being Korean.
“I was 21 before I could look in the mirror and not be surprised by what I saw staring back at me,” she said. “The process of discovering who I am has been a long process, and I’m still on it.”
Ms. Weitzman’s road to self-discovery was fairly typical of the 179 Korean adoptees with two Caucasian parents who responded to the Donaldson Adoption Institute survey. Most said they began to think of themselves more as Korean when they attended college or moved to ethnically diverse neighborhoods as adults.
For Joel Ballantyne, a high school teacher in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who was adopted by white parents in 1977, the study confirms many of the feelings that he and other adoptees have tried to explain for years.
“This offers proof that we’re not crazy or just being ungrateful to our adoptive parents when we talk about our experiences,” said Mr. Ballantyne, 35, who was adopted at age 3 and who grew up in Alabama, Texas and, finally, California.
Jennifer Town, 33, agreed.
“A lot of adoptees have problems talking about these issues with their adoptive families,” she said. “They take it as some kind of rejection of them when we’re just trying to figure out who we are.”
Ms. Town, who was adopted in 1979 and raised in a small town in Minnesota, recalled that during college, when she announced that she was going to Korea to find out more about her past, her parents “freaked out.”
“They saw it as a rejection,” she said. “My adoptive mother is really into genealogy, tracing her family to Sweden, and she was upset with me because I wanted to find out who I was.”
Mr. Ballantyne said he received a similar reaction when he told his parents of plans to travel to Korea.
The Donaldson Adoption Institute’s study concludes that such trips are among the many ways that parents and adoption agencies could help adoptees deal with their struggle with identity and race. But both Ms. Towns and Mr. Ballantyne said that while traveling to South Korea was an eye-opening experience in many ways, it was also disheartening.
Many Koreans, they said, did not consider them to be “real Koreans” because they did not speak the language or seem to understand the culture.
Mr. Ballantyne tracked down his maternal grandmother, but when he met her, he said, she scolded him for not learning Korean before he came.
“She was the one who had put me up for adoption,” he said. “So that just created tension between us. Even as I was leaving, she continued to say I needed to learn Korean before I came by again.”
Sonya Wilson, adopted in 1976 by a white family in Clarissa, Minn., says that although she shares many of the experiences of those interviewed in the study — she grew up as the only Asian in a town of 600 — policy changes must address why children are put up for adoption, and should do more to help single women in South Korea keep their children. “This study does not address any of these issues,” Ms. Wilson said.
Ms. Young said the study was helpful, but that it came too late to help people like her.
“I wish someone had done something like this when I was growing up,” she said.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
You Go! John Cho!
I had heard that John Cho was going to be the first Korean Actor to be starring on a major television detective show called - Flash Forward. What I didn't know is that his character has a fiance and his fiance is Gabrielle Union - drop dead gorgeous Nubian princess! I was floored! The role was complete with on-screen kisses and even a post coital hotel scene describing their wedding day.
In 2000 when I met my now ex-wife I was doing lots of modeling and acting gigs. And once the word got out that my fiance was African-American soon after we got many phone calls from my agency about doing print ads together. We did spreads for Baby Talk Magazine, Parenting Magazine, and even a campaign for Martha Stewart Bedding. We were the anomaly in the industry. And quite possibly the only Korean male and Black Model real couple at that time. And our children were snatched up as soon as they came out of the womb by Tommy Hilfiger, Toys R us, Baby Phat, Target, and the Children's Place for ad campaigns. It was a truly amazing minute in all of our lives.
So FLASH FORWARD 9 years into the future. John Cho is on a television show where in 6 months he will be dead so eventually his marriage is over too! So the question exists...Do Korean Male and African American Female Marriages Last? At least in the television show death becomes him. But in my reality,the truth of the situation is much more complex. However, I did meet a couple in NYC that was together for like 15 years or something. So they made it through the fire. But seemingly my marriage didn't and we crashed somewhere between super stardom and waiting tables.
But what I am happy to see is that John Cho's Character is a huge breakthrough in Asian Male Sexuality on film. So kudos John you are my shining light and are the champion that Korean Males have been waiting for to help the transition of the image of Korean/Asian American Males in mainstream media. Thank you for the writer (Lindsay Allen) who chose very progressive visual. To finally see a couple on television that emulates what my marriage was is so amazing, and to see him portrayed as a male who actually has a penis which hot women might desire is doubly amazing! Eat your heart out YUL KWON! John beat us both to the punch! It's amazing to see how being a pot smoking financial analyst in HAROLD and KUMAR can take you places!
I hope that the show's popularity grows. Hopefully it will have a bit of a ripple effect where even in middle America, interracial marriages become somewhat normal as same sex marriages, but then again those ultra conservatives might define a marriage as a unity between a man and a female of the same race and proponents of proposition 8 would be once again dancing in the streets.
But for now this small victory goes to John Cho! My first Korean American on-screen hero! Way to go John! I was hating on you for stealing my Captain Sulu role in the new Star Trek but now, I'm living my life vicariously through you. Keep it up!
VSCL
In 2000 when I met my now ex-wife I was doing lots of modeling and acting gigs. And once the word got out that my fiance was African-American soon after we got many phone calls from my agency about doing print ads together. We did spreads for Baby Talk Magazine, Parenting Magazine, and even a campaign for Martha Stewart Bedding. We were the anomaly in the industry. And quite possibly the only Korean male and Black Model real couple at that time. And our children were snatched up as soon as they came out of the womb by Tommy Hilfiger, Toys R us, Baby Phat, Target, and the Children's Place for ad campaigns. It was a truly amazing minute in all of our lives.
So FLASH FORWARD 9 years into the future. John Cho is on a television show where in 6 months he will be dead so eventually his marriage is over too! So the question exists...Do Korean Male and African American Female Marriages Last? At least in the television show death becomes him. But in my reality,the truth of the situation is much more complex. However, I did meet a couple in NYC that was together for like 15 years or something. So they made it through the fire. But seemingly my marriage didn't and we crashed somewhere between super stardom and waiting tables.
But what I am happy to see is that John Cho's Character is a huge breakthrough in Asian Male Sexuality on film. So kudos John you are my shining light and are the champion that Korean Males have been waiting for to help the transition of the image of Korean/Asian American Males in mainstream media. Thank you for the writer (Lindsay Allen) who chose very progressive visual. To finally see a couple on television that emulates what my marriage was is so amazing, and to see him portrayed as a male who actually has a penis which hot women might desire is doubly amazing! Eat your heart out YUL KWON! John beat us both to the punch! It's amazing to see how being a pot smoking financial analyst in HAROLD and KUMAR can take you places!
I hope that the show's popularity grows. Hopefully it will have a bit of a ripple effect where even in middle America, interracial marriages become somewhat normal as same sex marriages, but then again those ultra conservatives might define a marriage as a unity between a man and a female of the same race and proponents of proposition 8 would be once again dancing in the streets.
But for now this small victory goes to John Cho! My first Korean American on-screen hero! Way to go John! I was hating on you for stealing my Captain Sulu role in the new Star Trek but now, I'm living my life vicariously through you. Keep it up!
VSCL
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
ADOPTING CHANGE.
It's less that 1 hour from October. And my gosh it feels like one of those wonderful Autumn days where you just want to curl up next to your loved one and watch endless hours of must-see television shows. If there's one thing I can say that I really enjoyed in the past 12 months of my life it was the reintroduction of Vegivision Night. Which I typically didn't identify with but now it's a part of my culture.
What is veggivision night? Veggivision night is you a night where you and your girlfriend/boyfriend catch up on as many episodes as possible of television shows you've recorded on your DVR or that are online. In my case it was shows like The office, The Dollhouse, One Tree Hill, Grey's Anatomy, Gossip Girl, Lie to me and more. It was a nice mixture of inter-office comedy mixed with micro-expression sleuthing, medical malpractice, mind-erasing and the ever popular randomness of adult guy-girl drama.
I was just joking with a friend of mine who's relationship recently ended - and we were both like, I hate to admit this but I like to watch those shows (listed above) albeit most of them would be deemed chic oriented, we both laugh cause we knew that we watched it side by side with our girlfriends which gave us the ultimate excuse as to why we both know the plot lines of such female targeted melodramas. Ah love and the things you do for it!
But heck I DO like Romantic and "Bro"mantic comedies and dramas that have been infused into our daily television/ Hollywood release schedule. I'm not afraid to admit that sometimes I do like to be caught up in a film that has crazy romantic ideals that give me ideas about how I would like my relationship to be. I want to be a better man to the woman of my dreams and sometimes those darn writers just know exactly what to say and how to say it! I guess it's a curse and a blessing. Because on one hand - they can steal your thunder, by being so uber sophisticated with their language and romantic lingo you feel like a that guy who just showed up to the girl house with a single white rose and she has 5 dozen roses from him. The stem just went limp. Or worst case scenario the two of you walk out of the theater or into the kitchen for a break and she says - why can you be more like that guy? Thanks mister talented, writer guy. Anyway I'm getting off track here.
My buddy and I actually had a moment of bonding because we both agreed that we first started watching the shows because our female counterparts asked to watch it together (cause that's what loving boyfriends do, right?). We both marveled at what saps we were how being push overs was a common thread when it comes to girlfriends. But with a chuckle, we also both agreed that those days were fond memories that we will miss this year.
But in some cases change is good. I'm adapting and adopting new behaviors and habits like running, going to the gym more often, eating better, staying more organized, and getting back to just staying in and organizing my life while I can. Best of all I've been getting more calls from Ford Models for work opportunities. So I'm shooting to get my model physique by Christmas (so I can't do too many vegivision nights). I just moved from my apartment where I was last year. The one I was in last year was super temporary! But this apartment I'm so excited about cause my children get their own rooms and bathroom - decked out in Sponge bob licensed decor.
Tomorrow My Verizon FIOS is installed! I'm purchasing a nice sectional sofa and matching television stand so that I can open my house to old friends, out of town visitors and future friends and just basic viewers of televised entertainment! And for the first time I've splurged and purchased the RED ZONE NCAA AND NFL football package. Which I experienced for the first time in California while visiting my friend in Tahoe 3 weeks ago. It was awesome. I realized how far I've gotten away from my identity where I used to actually be a sports fan, touting sports memorabilia, and cheering and getting excited about games, upsets and the thrill of a Cinderella story.
Actually it started a long time ago when I moved from Chicago to New York. I didn't make the transition where I identified as a New Yorker so I was still a die hard Chicago Bears, Blackhawks, Bulls, CUBS and SOX fan. (yes internal north side south side fighting). Now that I'm on the east coast I was having yet another split identity, do I identify with the Yanks, Mets, Giants or Jets?
And this is where I get all jealous of people who have THEIR HOME TEAM! I miss Chicago for many reasons- especially family but also sports!
But anyway it's getting close to October than I thought.
On my DVR, I'll still be recording and viewing the episodic dramas and comedies I've grown to love. I actually can't wait to see what happens on the Office and Lie to me!
If any of my long lost buddies wanna come and join me for a weekend marathon of episodes missed! Don't be a stranger come on and have a Veggivision weekend with me!!!
ttyl!
VSTC
What is veggivision night? Veggivision night is you a night where you and your girlfriend/boyfriend catch up on as many episodes as possible of television shows you've recorded on your DVR or that are online. In my case it was shows like The office, The Dollhouse, One Tree Hill, Grey's Anatomy, Gossip Girl, Lie to me and more. It was a nice mixture of inter-office comedy mixed with micro-expression sleuthing, medical malpractice, mind-erasing and the ever popular randomness of adult guy-girl drama.
I was just joking with a friend of mine who's relationship recently ended - and we were both like, I hate to admit this but I like to watch those shows (listed above) albeit most of them would be deemed chic oriented, we both laugh cause we knew that we watched it side by side with our girlfriends which gave us the ultimate excuse as to why we both know the plot lines of such female targeted melodramas. Ah love and the things you do for it!
But heck I DO like Romantic and "Bro"mantic comedies and dramas that have been infused into our daily television/ Hollywood release schedule. I'm not afraid to admit that sometimes I do like to be caught up in a film that has crazy romantic ideals that give me ideas about how I would like my relationship to be. I want to be a better man to the woman of my dreams and sometimes those darn writers just know exactly what to say and how to say it! I guess it's a curse and a blessing. Because on one hand - they can steal your thunder, by being so uber sophisticated with their language and romantic lingo you feel like a that guy who just showed up to the girl house with a single white rose and she has 5 dozen roses from him. The stem just went limp. Or worst case scenario the two of you walk out of the theater or into the kitchen for a break and she says - why can you be more like that guy? Thanks mister talented, writer guy. Anyway I'm getting off track here.
My buddy and I actually had a moment of bonding because we both agreed that we first started watching the shows because our female counterparts asked to watch it together (cause that's what loving boyfriends do, right?). We both marveled at what saps we were how being push overs was a common thread when it comes to girlfriends. But with a chuckle, we also both agreed that those days were fond memories that we will miss this year.
But in some cases change is good. I'm adapting and adopting new behaviors and habits like running, going to the gym more often, eating better, staying more organized, and getting back to just staying in and organizing my life while I can. Best of all I've been getting more calls from Ford Models for work opportunities. So I'm shooting to get my model physique by Christmas (so I can't do too many vegivision nights). I just moved from my apartment where I was last year. The one I was in last year was super temporary! But this apartment I'm so excited about cause my children get their own rooms and bathroom - decked out in Sponge bob licensed decor.
Tomorrow My Verizon FIOS is installed! I'm purchasing a nice sectional sofa and matching television stand so that I can open my house to old friends, out of town visitors and future friends and just basic viewers of televised entertainment! And for the first time I've splurged and purchased the RED ZONE NCAA AND NFL football package. Which I experienced for the first time in California while visiting my friend in Tahoe 3 weeks ago. It was awesome. I realized how far I've gotten away from my identity where I used to actually be a sports fan, touting sports memorabilia, and cheering and getting excited about games, upsets and the thrill of a Cinderella story.
Actually it started a long time ago when I moved from Chicago to New York. I didn't make the transition where I identified as a New Yorker so I was still a die hard Chicago Bears, Blackhawks, Bulls, CUBS and SOX fan. (yes internal north side south side fighting). Now that I'm on the east coast I was having yet another split identity, do I identify with the Yanks, Mets, Giants or Jets?
And this is where I get all jealous of people who have THEIR HOME TEAM! I miss Chicago for many reasons- especially family but also sports!
But anyway it's getting close to October than I thought.
On my DVR, I'll still be recording and viewing the episodic dramas and comedies I've grown to love. I actually can't wait to see what happens on the Office and Lie to me!
If any of my long lost buddies wanna come and join me for a weekend marathon of episodes missed! Don't be a stranger come on and have a Veggivision weekend with me!!!
ttyl!
VSTC
Friday, September 4, 2009
Blue Man Group
Growing up I was indeed blessed with the gift of music. My mother introduced me to musical theatre when I was 8 and I started playing the drums when I entered 5th grade. I learned the drums really quickly and won first place in a state competition in Chicago when I was in 8th grade for snare then later for Jazz Kit. I continued to play the drums through high school but not for the band but for a garage band where we were heavily influenced by all punk and skate music. Later in life I was into more rap hip-hop and r&b. There was always one music video that I loved it was a motley crew video where Nikki Six had some glow in the dark Drum Sticks. I was on a mission to find me a pair but I never succeeded.
Tonight at 8pm. After a full day of attractions with the kids at Universal Theme Park in Orlando I treated the kids and my self to great seats to the Blue Man group. And let me tell you it was amazing! To see the kids energy pumping and the way they were inspired by the performance was just magical.
In 2006 I did an Intel Photo shoot print campaign with the Blue Man Group. I got the inside scoop about the troop from some of the founding members. What was interesting is that there are so many members of the Blue Man Group. And all of the members are very talented in their own right. But signing on to become one of the bald blue men is kind of like doing a work for hire as a designer, or ghost writing. You're no longer john smith - performer trying to make a name for his-herself. You're now a part of an idea. You follow a formula, you have no lines, only pantomime, you don't change the script or add your creative flair you just do the show format.
On your resume you have a new title - Blue Man of the Blue Man Group. But my question is, will having that on your resume help you land more gigs? Like If you have no identity and nobody can say to you - Hey I'm Joe-blow casting director and I saw you in that blue man group show and you really were a stand out performer. I'd like to cast you, john smith in my next major motion picture. The other question I have is at what point does a gig like that become a job?
Okay so the parallel to this blog?
Becoming a blue man performer is like adoption! No matter what you were before you became a blue man doesn't matter anymore. You're a blue man, so you eat, sleep and breath - the blue man identity! I don't know if you have to deal with BLUISM - or BLUJUDICE. But I'm sure loosing your identity is a bit daunting for a while. I mean I'm sure that most of the performers get tired of the same old BLUIST REMARKS - are you having a bad day? Breathe much? Go back to your mushroom! And the ever popular what do you get when you have 3 blue men at the bottom of the ocean - a good start! Oh those witty comical remarks about being blue.
I think the main difference between Blue man adoption and foreign adoption is, as a blue man performer you engage in the act of volunteering to loose your identity as a professional choice for 1 hour and 45 minutes every night at 8pm. In regular adoption you're brought up thinking that you're white when you're actually a different color on the outside but none of those emotions or confusing qualities were ever voluntary. They just were and there was no start and stop time.
I could go to a deeper layer of honesty about this topic but I'm on vacation. So I'll leave it for another entry just wanted to expose the conversation.
What was inspiring about tonight is that not only did my children walk out of that place cheering. More importantly I walked into the lobby - to see what momentous I could get for the kids to remember this experience by and Low-and-Behold I found my Glow Drum Sticks! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? After 25 years of searching for them. My holy grail of percussion frivolous must-haves appeared out of nowhere! So, I splurged and I bought 3 pairs one for my two little ones and myself. We ended up walking out of Universal banging on every surface we could not only to hear the sound but to watch the sticks glow over and over!
So tonight in many ways identified with the idea that as a parent you always want to give your children things you didn't have. So I'm giving them a solid relationship with their birth father, exposure to Korean culture from an early age, and well tonight was topped off with glow in the dark drum sticks for all!
God Bless!
VSTC
Tonight at 8pm. After a full day of attractions with the kids at Universal Theme Park in Orlando I treated the kids and my self to great seats to the Blue Man group. And let me tell you it was amazing! To see the kids energy pumping and the way they were inspired by the performance was just magical.
In 2006 I did an Intel Photo shoot print campaign with the Blue Man Group. I got the inside scoop about the troop from some of the founding members. What was interesting is that there are so many members of the Blue Man Group. And all of the members are very talented in their own right. But signing on to become one of the bald blue men is kind of like doing a work for hire as a designer, or ghost writing. You're no longer john smith - performer trying to make a name for his-herself. You're now a part of an idea. You follow a formula, you have no lines, only pantomime, you don't change the script or add your creative flair you just do the show format.
On your resume you have a new title - Blue Man of the Blue Man Group. But my question is, will having that on your resume help you land more gigs? Like If you have no identity and nobody can say to you - Hey I'm Joe-blow casting director and I saw you in that blue man group show and you really were a stand out performer. I'd like to cast you, john smith in my next major motion picture. The other question I have is at what point does a gig like that become a job?
Okay so the parallel to this blog?
Becoming a blue man performer is like adoption! No matter what you were before you became a blue man doesn't matter anymore. You're a blue man, so you eat, sleep and breath - the blue man identity! I don't know if you have to deal with BLUISM - or BLUJUDICE. But I'm sure loosing your identity is a bit daunting for a while. I mean I'm sure that most of the performers get tired of the same old BLUIST REMARKS - are you having a bad day? Breathe much? Go back to your mushroom! And the ever popular what do you get when you have 3 blue men at the bottom of the ocean - a good start! Oh those witty comical remarks about being blue.
I think the main difference between Blue man adoption and foreign adoption is, as a blue man performer you engage in the act of volunteering to loose your identity as a professional choice for 1 hour and 45 minutes every night at 8pm. In regular adoption you're brought up thinking that you're white when you're actually a different color on the outside but none of those emotions or confusing qualities were ever voluntary. They just were and there was no start and stop time.
I could go to a deeper layer of honesty about this topic but I'm on vacation. So I'll leave it for another entry just wanted to expose the conversation.
What was inspiring about tonight is that not only did my children walk out of that place cheering. More importantly I walked into the lobby - to see what momentous I could get for the kids to remember this experience by and Low-and-Behold I found my Glow Drum Sticks! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? After 25 years of searching for them. My holy grail of percussion frivolous must-haves appeared out of nowhere! So, I splurged and I bought 3 pairs one for my two little ones and myself. We ended up walking out of Universal banging on every surface we could not only to hear the sound but to watch the sticks glow over and over!
So tonight in many ways identified with the idea that as a parent you always want to give your children things you didn't have. So I'm giving them a solid relationship with their birth father, exposure to Korean culture from an early age, and well tonight was topped off with glow in the dark drum sticks for all!
God Bless!
VSTC
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
You are the country in ME!
Ah the CMT music awards were on tonight and I must say. I do find myself falling for that little blond Taylor Swift. She's pretty fun! She's the it girl of the moment.
I find myself more and more identifying with country singers, well because I know my heart is in Texas. But the more and more I take a look at the country scene I realize that there's a huge void! And as the opportunist that I am. I'm thinking about becoming the first Asian American Country Pop idol! Yeee Haw!
How about that! I mean Darius Rucker (the old Hootie) is the Token Black guy! So where's the token Asian guy? So that's it! I'm picking up my geeetar! Strummin up a storm and look out Tim Mgraw! Here comes something spicier, pickled, and barbecued!
Now I have to figure out what my stage name would be for the country diet? Hmmm. I mean I was born in Pusan, Korea which is from the way down South in Korea. So I guess that would make me a Southerner, or Korean Konfederate, right? Maybe I'll redesign the Korean Flag with a ying yang in the center juxtaposed on top of the x star bands of the confederacy! I mean come on, the US South was led by a general with the last name of LEE! So there's definitely some Korean blood lines somewhere in that band of shotgun-wielding cowboys!
So the official name could be Chee Kim. Hmm. Maybe that's too obvious! How about Bi Bim POP. Well that would be a new style of music! I can see it now!
Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner of the top new artist in the Bi Bim POP music category is! Chee Kim! Of course if I was in Korea everyone would be chanting , Kim Chee, Kim Chee! Since you always say the last name first! So I guess I were really bad I'd be covered in pickled cabbage - er maybe I should scratch Chee Kim.
But SERIOUSLY! There's a major opportunity! So I'm going to go for it! Look for my first double platinum album to come out in 2011. soaring to the top of the charts! I hope that I can get my friend to drop some tracks with me. The only Korean American I know who is a hard core country fan. (You know who you are - thank you for being the (country) music in me).
VSTC
I find myself more and more identifying with country singers, well because I know my heart is in Texas. But the more and more I take a look at the country scene I realize that there's a huge void! And as the opportunist that I am. I'm thinking about becoming the first Asian American Country Pop idol! Yeee Haw!
How about that! I mean Darius Rucker (the old Hootie) is the Token Black guy! So where's the token Asian guy? So that's it! I'm picking up my geeetar! Strummin up a storm and look out Tim Mgraw! Here comes something spicier, pickled, and barbecued!
Now I have to figure out what my stage name would be for the country diet? Hmmm. I mean I was born in Pusan, Korea which is from the way down South in Korea. So I guess that would make me a Southerner, or Korean Konfederate, right? Maybe I'll redesign the Korean Flag with a ying yang in the center juxtaposed on top of the x star bands of the confederacy! I mean come on, the US South was led by a general with the last name of LEE! So there's definitely some Korean blood lines somewhere in that band of shotgun-wielding cowboys!
So the official name could be Chee Kim. Hmm. Maybe that's too obvious! How about Bi Bim POP. Well that would be a new style of music! I can see it now!
Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner of the top new artist in the Bi Bim POP music category is! Chee Kim! Of course if I was in Korea everyone would be chanting , Kim Chee, Kim Chee! Since you always say the last name first! So I guess I were really bad I'd be covered in pickled cabbage - er maybe I should scratch Chee Kim.
But SERIOUSLY! There's a major opportunity! So I'm going to go for it! Look for my first double platinum album to come out in 2011. soaring to the top of the charts! I hope that I can get my friend to drop some tracks with me. The only Korean American I know who is a hard core country fan. (You know who you are - thank you for being the (country) music in me).
VSTC
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