It was absolutely delicious. I was, however, surprised that the Sriracha sauce isn’t as spicy after cooking, and I wish I’d put in that “Asian chili flakes” that Kai said would “burn your ass.” The older I get, the more I find myself craving extremely spicy food.

Anyway, the Superbowl is known a lot for its commercials, and in keeping with the tradition, GOP Senate hopeful Pete Hoekstra ran the following ad saying that his opponent was spending too much money and borrowing from China. It depicts a Chinese woman riding a bike in the rice paddies and telling Americans how China is reaping the benefits of jobs and money from bad American policy. “Your economy get very weak, ours get very good.” Yeah, watch out for those Chinese women in the rice paddies–they’ll give you an earful about politics and economics if you let ‘em talk! Actually, I’m not sure what a woman in the rice paddies is talking about anyway…are the Chinese stealing jobs from American farmers growing rice in China?

The actress is clearly an American without an accent, but in keeping with the tradition, she’s gotta fake one. And this is one of the worst Chinese accents I’ve ever heard. Alexandra Wallace had a better accent.

Oh well, logic was never the forte of some of these politicians–at least not when talking to the American people. Hoekstra, according to his Wiki, is an immigrant himself, born in the Netherlands. So he can’t be racist! Err..right.

On a happier note, some black ministers in Detroit have gotten involved and have called on Hoekstra to apologize. At least Hoekstra is bringing the minorities together.

“The Asian woman speaking in this video would be no different than him having a black person speaking in slave dialect,” Williams said in a statement Monday. “If Pete Hoekstra does not see any wrong in this commercial, he doesn’t deserve to be in the race.”

Related posts:

1. Superbowl 44: Saints win!
2. Romance of the Three Kitchens/Cooking With Kai
3. Cooking making a comeback

Thanks to Eurasian Sensation, who posted this article: The One-Shot Society. The article is about the educational system in Korea, where students cram like mad for one college entrance test, a test which determines the career that they will have for the rest of their lives. In Korea, as the article mentions, people rarely change jobs, so it’s imperative that students get into the best university and then into the best company. We’ve spoken about this trend in Korea and how it limits their opportunities to make decisions later in life, which is why many Koreans try to become doctors.

I think this system is reflective of what Koreans value: intelligence, diligence, preparation, and consistency. This system will greatly help Korea in many ways, but of course, there are side effects as well. I like how the article mentions the tech entrepreneur who can’t find employees because he’s not Samsung. In the U.S., that guy would have no problems recruiting (especially with our high level of employment).

I can’t really say whether their system is better or worse than ours–they don’t seem to have the stagnation or unemployment that we do. What I would like to say is that America has an ambiguity problem. I think we like to think that we value education, but we really don’t. Whereas Koreans value intelligence, diligence, preparation, and consistency, Americans value selling and entrepreneurship. I remember one of Robert Kiyosaki’s books where he tells a novelist that if she wants to be a well-known writer, she should learn to sell, so that she can sell her book. Even our most powerful citizens, the politicians who run this country, spend much if not most of their time selling themselves to voters.

I think that’s ultimately our problem these days. We’ve got great salespeople and a great culture of entrepreneurship and sales communication. Outside of the low-cost computing innovations, we just haven’t invested in creating great new technologies to sell. Whereas in the past we were going to the moon, taking on nuclear technology, or miniaturizing transistors, we no longer invest as much in the new technologies that we need: green technologies, alternative energy, etc. We need to shift more of our resources into research, so that we have great new technologies to sell to the world.

Related to this topic, Shark Tank is back. Today, there was a great episode in which a manufacturing entrepreneur told the sharks he wanted to keep jobs in the U.S. and refused to outsource to Asia. The sharks told him he was being stubborn and short-sighted. One shark told him that he should follow Apple’s example. Another said that even though it was not cost-effective to manufacture in America, it would still create jobs here since they would eventually need sales and marketing people! So you can where our nation’s focus is.

Related posts:

1. Writers, Cultures, and Points of View
2. Global Warming and Indigenous Cultures
3. Fractured Cultures and Asian American YouTube Stars

Schadenfreude. It means pleasure at someone else’s misfortune. It’s German. English has no word for it, although English speakers most certainly feel it.

I’m at a loss after Jon Jones choked Lyoto Machida unconscious. And it has troubled me, because I don’t have words to express what I’m feeling. Somewhere in some language there must be vocabulary to express the sentiments:

1. Jon Jones: There must be a word to indicate my feelings towards him. “I dislike his arrogant personality but I like his arrogant martial arts style so I might as well deal with it,” therefore I feel **** about him.

2. Lyoto Machida: “In the fight, I got revved up after he won the first round, and even though I expected him to lose before the fight, I thought he might be able to turn it around and therefore got my hopes up, and now I feel let down, even though I had no right to expect him to win,” therefore I’m undergoing an emotion known as ****.

3. Chan Sung Jung: “I don’t think of this guy often and have no recollection of his style, even though I’ve seen his art many times, yet every time he still manages to wow me with crazy superhuman moves,” so in my mind, he is a ****.

By the way, I commented on the fight here. I commented before I posted, just because I wasn’t sure I was going to post, but I did anyway. Just another symptom of the **** I’m feeling in the aftermath.

Related posts:

1. Lyoto Machida to Fight Jon Jones at UFC 140
2. UFC 129: Machida is BACK!
3. Jones vs. Rampage

I was awoken the morning of 9/11/2001 by a phone call from Japan where I lived in New York. I had a ticket to fly to California at 4pm later in the day. My original plan had been to fly to California on my normal early morning flight. But as I was unemployed and accustomed to sleeping in late, I opted instead to fly a little later. A friend called from Japan, and she said something about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center, and had I heard about it. I said that wow, that must have been a pretty bad accident. She then said that another plane had just crashed into another tower.

She was talking really really fast, so I was wondering if my Japanese was lagging–I can speak and understand basic stuff, but it’s not perfect or fluent. I lived in Midtown Manhattan, far from view of the towers, and the day looked like any other. I said, “So if I turn on the TV, it’ll be on TV?”

“I imagine so,” she said.

“All the channels?”

“Yeah. Probably.”

I turned on the TV and was stunned.  “Must be a terror attack or something,” I said.

“It has to be,” she said.

When we had hung up, I got a call from my friend Roy, who works in Midtown too. He said he just wanted to check if I was okay since I was unemployed and could be anywhere–job interview, sightseeing, etc.. I thought it might be good to call my family, but New York’s phone lines were down. I finally made it through, waking up my family on the West Coast, letting them know. I also let them know that the airports were closed and that I wouldn’t be making the 4pm trip.

I had no plans, no job, and so I spent the rest of the day either watching the coverage or going out in the street, where I could see hordes of people walking up Lexington. I didn’t feel like we were in any more danger, but it was surreal to watch. My own circle had been fortunate. I had an uncle working in the towers, but he was in one of the lower floors and got out in time. An old coworker from the old company where I worked had quit (like me) and had an appointment, but he wasn’t due until 9:45 or so, and he was able to see/hear the planes crashing into the building before going inside. Everyone I knew survived.

I didn’t fly out until a week or so later, and over the next few days, I don’t remember ever seeing New York so friendly. No one argued. No one shouted. Everyone moved out of the way for their fellow human being. The President vowed to destroy the people who did this, and his leadership was strong.

This is the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. We should stop today to remember the people who lost their lives on 9/11. See Metrodad’s beautiful post about his friend Andy here.  See the new 9/11 memorial here. Free free to talk and share your stories below.

Related posts:

1. Elian Gonzalez, 10 years later
2. World's Longest TV Drama Canceled after 72 Years
3. Euna Lee and Laura Ling Sentenced to Twelve Years

1. Life is as much of an art as a science. Check out Jon Fitch.  He’s beaten just about everyone but the champion and BJ Penn in his division, but he’ll most likely never get a shot at the title again.  Dana White, after the Fitch-Penn fight, said:

“Fitch is one of these guys that goes, ‘Oh, I want my respect,’” White said. “He just fought a 155-pound guy and went to a draw with him, and in my opinion, he lost the first two rounds—and he’s crying for a title shot?”

He concluded by saying, “You’ve got to get in there and decisively beat people. You have to have fans clamoring for you to fight for the title.”

Fitch wins and wins often, but he just looks ugly when he does it.  Fitch doesn’t win by knockout or submission.  Ever.  And people hate him for that.  It’s not enough for creative class people to just get by.  You have to do something that looks good, something creative.

2. Innovation is key. Dana White is considering firing Roy “Big Country” Nelson (pictured above) after his terrible performance against Frank Mir at Saturday’s UFC 130. If you look at it in purely practical terms, it makes no sense–he’s only lost twice, both times to top contenders (Dos Santos and Mir), and just one fight ago he was in a title eliminator match.  Before that, he was knocking out some pretty big dudes. He’s still arguably one of the best.

BUT in creative terms, he’s failing. He didn’t bring anything new to the table at this fight, and he didn’t look like he had improved in any area of his fighting abilities.  That in itself means that he’s not entertaining people and not getting creative, which means he’s on the chopping block.

Contrast him with Machida, who had done relatively miserably in his three appearances prior to his last.  One creative crane kick resurrected his entire career.  He’s in line for the title shot once again, and deservedly so.

3. What you say is sometimes as important as what you do. This goes back to the discussion we had about entitlement, along with the lessons from Annette Lareau’s Unequal Childhoods.  Check out Chael Sonnen, Yushin Okami, and Jon Fitch (see #1 above). Sure, Chael beat Okami, but they pretty much all fight the same way–they lay on top of an opponent, throw baby punches, and wait for the clock to run out.  However, the big difference is what comes out of their mouths.  The reason Chael-fans like Chael is because he’s the second best trash talker out there (sorry, as usual Chael comes in second place–Rampage still has him beat.).  Chael conveys a sense of entitlement when he talks, whether it’s trash talk about his opponent, excuses about his steroid use, or random insults against people like Lance Armstrong.  People like his words, and so he gets great fights.

Jon Fitch doesn’t trash talk as well, and he doesn’t participate in the creative side of verbal promotion, so while he won’t get cut from the promotion–his record is too good–he won’t get ahead.  Yushin Okami doesn’t trash talk, mostly because he doesn’t speak English, which is another rule of the American Creative Class–non-Native speakers have to learn English to really get ahead.  Yushin Okami will get his title shot, but if he messes this one up, unlike the English-speaking trash-talking Chael Sonnen, he’ll get shoved back to the bottom of the heap.

4. Act like a professional. See Paul Daley, who punched his opponent after the fight because he lost his temper, and is now banned from the UFC, even though the UFC owns Strikeforce, where he fights.  It doesn’t matter how exciting a fighter you are, you still have to act like a professional and follow certain rules.

5. Institutions help make individuals. This is the lesson that no one likes to hear, but it’s true–without big, successful organizations like the UFC, you don’t have MMA.  First the Extreme Fighting Championships went down, then Pride FC, then WEC, then Strikeforce.  There were a bunch of others, and the UFC kept buying them.  The UFC is the only powerful MMA org left; even in Japan, Dream is having trouble paying its fighters.  How does the UFC manage to keep growing in this terrible economic environment?  They pay their fighters squat.  It’s terrible for the fighters, who most certainly have higher overhead and more injuries than most athletes, but it keeps the institution going, and therefore it keeps MMA alive.

The lesson is that there needs to be a platform or institution. Without the platform, it’s hard for individuals to shine in any field.

Related posts:

1. Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida (Review)
2. Nam Phan on the Ultimate Fighter
3. Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life by Annette Lareau (Review)

This is crazy.  While I can understand that Sonnen gave Silva more trouble than any other competitor, Silva beat Sonnen fair and square the first time, and therefore Sonnen should go back to the end of the line like everyone else.  Immediate rematches should be reserved for close decisions, not decisive wins.  When your top fighters only fight three times a year, it’s important that every prospective champion gets a shot.

Also, the UFC needs a rule change. They need to allow knees to the head when the opponent is down on the ground.  If you watch the old Pride bouts, the knee to the head is the best way to ensure that your lineup isn’t filled with boring lay-and-pray wrestlers.  Right now, we’ve got wrestlers acting like theirs is the greatest and most effective martial art in the world (cough, cough, Chael), while the truth is that they are protected by the rules while shooting for double leg takedowns. A hard, strong knee to the head is the best counter to the double leg takedown. In Pride, freestyle wrestlers were wary about getting caught in the bottom position and facing punishment from multiple knees, which is one reason why lay-and-pray wasn’t as popular a style as, well, fighting.

The good news is that I just googled this, and Dana himself says that he likes knees to the head of a downed opponent and that the rule change could be coming eventually (see another article here).  If it does change, we will see a strong return for the Axe Murderer Vanderlei Silva.  Hopefully it changes before he retires completely.

Related posts:

1. UFC 117 Sonnen vs. Silva Recap
2. Chael "Boring" Sonnen at UFC 109
3. UFC this past weekend, UFC next weekend (predictions)

(Corny but happy and cute video above.)

Thanks everyone, for your contributions to the Building Subcultures and Accepting Emotions thread.  Please keep on adding…the conversation is great, and I’m reading every comment, even if I’m not participating as much as I’d like to.  We’re coming upon our two year anniversary, and bigWOWO has just moved to Peachyhost, a company run by my friend Zach and his friend Keith.  I just paid my big ol’ hosting bill for the next two years.  Some bloggers kvetch about paying bills and stuff–I’m no different, I complain till the cows come home…but as long as some of you are benefiting, it’s totally worth the cost.  I can’t promise that this blog is totally recession proof or boredom proof, but it looks like we’ve got at least two more years of time paid upfront.

I’ve got more to say about activists who have seemingly contradictory personal and political lives, but I’ll save that for another post.  Instead, I wanted to piggyback off of some statements that Kobukson and King were saying in the conversation, namely their advice not to get too hung up on the negative.

Do we have any CommunityChannel fans here?  She’s by far my favorite vlogger (partly because I don’t get anyone else’s jokes!).  Check out the video below at around 9:30, where she talks about how people tell her that it’s easy for her to become popular since she’s an Asian woman. Natalie points out that it’s not true, that most of the top YouTubers are men, and that there are only “three girls” at the top.

The point is that the grass always looks greener on the other side, and people can learn to be happy with what they have. This doesn’t mean that people need to be complacent. It just means that it’s empowering to cherish what you have and maybe share it with others. Sure, AMs suffer from the disparity, but there are many other things to be happy about, and happiness is not a zero sum game anyway. The more you have to give, the richer you are, the happier you can be.  So know what you have, and then give freely and be happy!

The point is that every single person on this planet has something that you don’t have, and you have at least one thing that no other person has.   There is always something to envy about someone else, but the envy doesn’t always bring an accurate picture of what life would be like on the other side of the fence.  I could envy the young people for the free time they have, I could envy the old people for the money they’ve accumulated, I could envy the Man for his privilege. But if I’m always looking with longing at what other people have, and I’m not looking at the good things I have, then I’ll never be happy.

So my message with this post is to keep fighting the good fight, but also keep your eye on what you’ve got, what you’ve accomplished, and what fortune has brought your way.  Do that before even thinking about taking the next step to the next level.  The best activists have wealth to share, and people often already have wealth without even realizing it.

Related posts:

1. Last Post of 2009
2. The NY Post Needs to Apologize
3. The Post-PUA Era of the Asian American Blogosphere