It has been brought to my attention that people use google to search for “kien” + “vuu.” Or namely, two people, Kien himself, and his lovely yuja chingoo Sonja. So as shameless plug to my site, let me recount how I hung out last night with Kien Vuu, Jenta and Sonja at Typhoons down in PB. ^_^

Basically we hung out and chilled, and then this heavy metal band came on to give a mini-Wed nite concert. They all looked really old, but were really into their performance. They mostly performed the music of more famous bands like Motley Crew, and did a skit-like show between the songs. Most of the skits involved bringing up a random girl to the stage and trying to get her to flash everyone, sometimes successfully, and most times not.

So it was an interesting experience, not really my type of music, but decent vibes from the crowd. So I asked Jen, how come we’ve never tried coming before in the whole time we were in SD, and her response, was, “Well, its mostly white, why would you want to?”

As usual, a lot of things that Jen says to me go off like time bombs in my head. I think I sorta nodded at the time, and said, “Oh,” all the while thinking that coronas were four bucks cheaper two blocks down the street. However, hours later, her comment hit me in its totality.

Woah, we’re racist. Or rather, the sum of our actions define us as such, no? If the fact that the primary constituents of a certain establishment are a different race from us, and that alone makes us not want to go there, how is that any different from any conventional definition of racism?

Well, let me first step through my rhetoric and establish some context. Jenta is a darling sweetheart who loves bunnies and cute little animals, and I am a self-absorbed bastard who has few scruples when it comes to proving a point or winning an argument. What Jenta really meant, is that why would you want to go someplace where you are different from everyone else, and where you don’t really fit in. I mean, Typhoon is not a place where you “get along” with everyone who there, rather its has an image and you go if you believe that image represents you. Nonetheless, in terms of dealing with differences in people, the ideal answer would be to say, that all people ought to bridge the gaps that divide us. However, not everyone does, and for people who do, probably know that it requires a non-trivial investment of time and energy. My parents, who have lived in the US for over three decades now, and are naturalized citizens, are hardly “American.” Their friends and social groups are Taiwanese. If fact, if it were possible to export all the non-Taiwanese people out of San Diego, I’m sure they would be up for it. Joking aside, I know part of the reason that they’ve never bridged out of their comfort zone is because they feel a lot of social anxiety interacting with people who are not like them. I never really noticed any of this until my old college roommate and brother-like friend(CRED…shout out to romeo and kai as well), Mike Andrew who came to visit and spent about a week at my house. My parents of course, tried very hard to accommodate Mike, for which he was very gracious. However, they weren’t my parents. Hardly. They were completely different people that I’ve never seen act that way before. It made me realize the amount of effort and total transformation that they must put up with in order to interact with someone that they don’t believe understands Taiwanese culture. Actually, Mike does know a lot of about asian cultures in general and as the week progressed, my parents were able to loosen up their façade a little and had a really good time meeting my friend.

Anyways, back to Typhoons, my problem with a party environment that’s mostly white(non-asian) is strongly tied to the fact that the girls are mostly white(non-asian). I mean, to be honest, forget the guys, it the lack of viable girls that makes a difference in my mind. I’m sure Jenta felt that the converse of the situation was true as well. Assuming though that I had a loving girlfriend, I wouldn’t mind going to different places than someplace that is completely uniform.

I guess it never really bothered me too much to differ from the group in some way, or rather I’ve become accustomed to it. Even if I’m really similar with everyone, I’ve always been able to pick out a certain qualities that everyone else around me shares that I lack. I’ve never really met anyone I’ve considered to be like me, or even say share 75% of the qualities that I identify myself with. I guess that’s why I feel the need for having so many divergent social groups, something to mix and match with the psychotic conglomerate mass of characteristics that is Victor.

Sometimes though…I think I get into trouble when I try to mix people. I try to take people from one sphere of my life and carry them into other aspects. Perhaps in my eyes, its all the same, and it feels all the same, but its probably not to others.

[ esca | 1:48 PM | ]

 

Random thoughts since previous blog

Congratulations to Ellen for recently joining the fabulous 21 and over club. May you drink legally now to your hearts content. Bottoms up and up and up…

Went clubbing with Vu up around Anaheim last week. Took Ellen up to see Vu as well and hit up the Boogie. It was my second time going there. The place is really huge, smaller than E Street but probably more dance space as even people will dance up on the DJ booth. They periodically have dancing competitions around the DJ booth and for some reason invited guys to dance. Guys in general don't dance very well standing in place, body rolls are just meant for girls. Eighteen year olds can get in as well, although you *won't* be served alcohol. Overall, lots of fun, pretty hot, quick drive up and down.(partially due to constantly changing plans. “Come up, don’t come…come up, oh shit its already 11:15) Was told that I drive like “as if I were in a video game.” Hmmm, pretty good assessment. Still not decided though, if that should be taken as either an offbeat compliment, or more likely, as constructive criticism. I’ve been told in harsher terms that “its ok to gamble with your life, but NOT with the lives of others in the car.”

Saw my third Padres game of the year, on Mark Kotsay batting practice jersey giveaway day, who ended up going 0-4 but had a few good catches. Pretty fun stuff. Watching baseball with a chilled beer and fish taco in hand is just one of the finer summer blessings. As usual, we lost, as the Padres always do when I go down to Qualcomm Stadium. I’ve yet to get a chance to hear AC/DC’s hells bells for Trevor Time. Woe is me.

Entertained Frank’s old college roommate over the weekend. He had done a summer program at Dartmouth and I had a chance to fondly recount what little there was to do there. Except drink. Tried taking him and Frank to On Broadway to hang out with some hotties, but got rejected at the door because of dress code standards. So frustrating… Ended up going to get some soju and bulgolgi and felt better about the night. Yet another event dedicated to Victor drinking.

Got into a discussion about attractive qualities for girls. Strangely enough, race turned out to be a significant factor. Do asian guys go for asian girls because they innately find them to be more attractive? Or is it just that asian girls are more willing to accept an asian guys’ advances? Jon and Frank notably go for blond and busty.(Haha, dunno about the busty, but blond definitely) I have to say I’m partial to asian girls, particularly korean. Although that maybe changing as I’ve recently met some very attractive philipino and vietnamese girls. However, I did mistake them as chinese…I wonder what that means.

Are asians in general picky about their race? Personally, it doesn’t upset me if I’m mistaken for some other race, although I’m quick to say, “I’m actually Chinese/Taiwanese.” Plus, I don’t usually respond with the polite, “I actually get mistaken as _____ a lot.”

Had a disturbing dream about saying goodbye forever to a friend. Foreshadowing? Revealing of inner fear? Felt very unsettled in the morning waking up. Attributed it to usual Monday crankiness until I remembered the dream in totality while getting dressed. Blah.

Played tennis with Trieu and “White Boy” Chris at my complex. Pretty fun, despite not winning a single point personally. My serve was pretty decent however, but just couldn’t get very consistent strokes. Watched Trieu skyball quite a few tennis balls…haha fun stuff.

Was at La Jolla shores for Thien’s bday get together. Nice bbq and warm weather made for great day. Plus, was flashed by a very attractive girl that that everyone seems to know I’m attracted to but I’m in semi-denial about. Or maybe wasn’t so much flashed as looking over when I shouldn’t have been. She was sun bathing and was in the process of loosening the straps to her top to avoid getting tan lines. She must have known what she did right? We were in the middle of a group conversation and two other guys were facing her as well. I tried to avert my eyes but failed miserably. Ok ok, didn’t try very hard at all actually, but would have had to shift body or face significantly to have not seen anything. “Um Victor, why have you completely turned your entire body away from everybody else, and why are you blushing?” “Um no reason, just trying to get some more sun…see its working already.”

Hung out with a lot ex-RB high folks at E-Street and On Broadway. (Hong, Ameer, Adam, Sabrina, Desiree and the other Victor.) Pretty fun stuff, although got stuck outside for E-street 20 min in a sardines-like environment with Ameer. Apparently we were outside when the bar inside closed, or when they stopped serving alcohol, which resulted in both a mass exodus of clubbers and a large scale rush of people outside to get back into the club. A lot of the people outside were worried about retrieving jackets or meeting up with people inside. The result, an impatient drunken angry mob pushing and shoving to get in. Envisioned myself in one of those soccer stadiums with fanatical fans after the home team has lost…to the hated rival…despite being heavily favored…after global overstock on alcohol has sent prices plummeting to record lows. The bouncers were able to keep the front of the lines in check, but it got worse the farther away you were. There were a few belligerent guys, but the girls were definitely more problematic. They would hold hands and trying to pile straight up to the entrance holding hands like a train. Crazy stuff.

[ esca | 12:33 PM | ]

 

I finally moved into my new place and what a relief it was. Staying at home has its perks, but then its staying at home. My place is on Alva rd on the western end of RB. I’m not very familiar with the area, as evidenced by spending 15 min looking around for a Blockbuster.(In my desperation I tried calling Hong for directions…but to no avail as I couldn’t get through) I’m still in the process of setting things up however, as I’m still missing a dining table, cable and internet connection till later next week. Hopefully, I’ll have time to fix my blog site then, or this warped misshapen parody of a site that is.

[ esca | 10:12 AM | ]

 

wtf? what happened to my blog page...bugger jon, bugger. = \

[ esca | 4:08 PM | ]