Alpha Asian

"To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting." -Sun Tzu, the Art of War "A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions." -Confucius "If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there. You must go beyond them." -Bruce Lee "When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you." -Lao Tzu "The greatest pleasure is to vanquish your enemies and chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth and see those dear to them bathed in tears, to ride their horses and clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters." -Genghis Khan "A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essa

A few years ago I was training a coworker who's a classic "muscle nerd."  A muscle nerd has that duality of being both a jock and a nerd at the same time. Anyway this guy was a big guy.  Not only was he tall, but he had a musculature built from years of collegiate wrestling, with the signature cauliflower ear.  He later expanded his ground game into Brazilian jujitsu. This guy's a bit of a hothead.  He's a good guy, but at times I always had to restrain him from acting on his impulses.  After talking to him and getting to know him better, I found out his lack of impulse control and poor anger management was something he had all his life and really didn't give a shit about.  He had gotten into fights ever since he was a little kid. He had related how when he was a teen, he and a bunch of his friends were angry that some big kids from another neighborhood were using the public pool in their neighborhood and pissing in it.  They decided to confront the la

Interesting. So the NFL cancels the Vikings-Eagles game due to the snowstorm that hit the east coast. And Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) went on to express his tough guy stance about how Americans have become "wusses" and then throws in a comparison with the Chinese. Ohhh-kay. "I think it's a joke," Rendell told the local Fox affiliate. "We cancel the game and there's less than 3 inches of snow … I think the fans can make their own decisions about their own safety." "This is football! Good lord, Vince Lombardi would be spinning in his grave that we canceled the football game for the snow." Fox 29’s weatherman John Bolaris offered a correction to Rendell's snow totals but the governor wasn't having it. "There's really already seven inches of snow on the ground," Bolaris said. Speaking to 97.5 FM Monday afternoon, Rendell noted that the Chinese wouldn't have canceled the game: " If this was in

So I ran across this music video by an artist named Siow on the Big WoWo blog. Check it out: And this is what Big WoWo had to say about the video: "The Siow video above is okay, but it has neither a plot nor aesthetics. It doesn’t stand out, and that’s a problem. As the woman who sent the video pointed out to me, Asian men have a higher bar. You just can’t have a 'me too' attitude when it comes to getting out there because you’ll look like everyone else, and because of your Asian-ness you’ll fall through people’s attention. You won’t stand out. And if you have the looks, the voice, the rhythm, the melody, and the talent, there’s no reason not to stand out." For the most part I agree with Big WoWo. If you want to be successful, then you have to stand out. But I think this applies no matter what the race, ethnicity or gender. A boring video is a boring video regardless of the ethnicities involved. Now I have no idea who is this Siow guy. If this Siow guy

Well Merry Christmas, and to all you heathens out there, Happy Holidays! Let me get straight to the point here: I'm going to start blogging and posting again here on the Alpha Asian. My situation hasn't changed. I'm still quite busy with work, family and hobbies. So I won't be blogging as often as I used to. But I've discovered a few things recently that compel me to come back and blog.  I hate to sound vague, but I can't publicly disclose what these reasons are for my return after such a short hiatus.  Let's just say I'm pissed off.  If any of you are interested as to what is pushing me to jumpstart the Alpha Asian blog, then I will have a post on the Alpha Asian Facebook group  (not the fan page ) that will explain everything, since the group is private. "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in." -The Godfather, Part III Also, good news!  If you're getting a Kindle this Christmas, then you can subscribe to th

I received an email from The Asian Playboy asking that I review a podcast of his titled, “Exposing the Myth Behind Why Asian Men Can’t Get White Women.” Well, leave it to this controversial myth to pull me back into the Asian American (AA) blogosphere!  Instead of a podcast review, however, I see this as an opportunity to comment on young Asian male confidence (or lack thereof) in the dating game.  The podcast features JT the Asian Playboy and Will the Better Asian Man , two dating coaches who run boot camps and workshops to help men with their game. They specialize in helping Asian men, but have clientele of various ethnicities.  JT told me that while the title of the podcast says "White Women," in practice, he and his associates encourage their students to date women of various ethnic backgrounds. JT stated that he chose the title to get your attention. Say what you will about Asian pick-up artists (PUA).  I think there are a lot of young Asian men w

Just a real quick post here. We've been contacted by the Asian Playboy to share some thoughts about the ABC's of Attraction. I tend not to get into the PUA world stuff, but we thought there were some important lifestyle and self-transformation things that the Asian Playboy is advocating that is worth commenting upon. Since we're getting nearer to the holidays, we've been pretty busy with life outside of the blog, but stay tuned for more.

Since this week marks the 30th anniversary of John Lennon's passing, I thought I'd toss this out there as an prologue to the previous post about my cousin's brief encounter with the legendary musician and activist. I had talked to my cousin Chris about the photo he took of them during a political rally where he and Yoko were just sitting quietly on a park bench. Amazingly enough, they weren't recognized for awhile and for a moment, they could just enjoy being there without the trappings of fame bearing down upon them. What sparked that conversation with Chris was a family who had more than a brief encounter with Lennon. Lennon and Oko actually visited and lived with the Hong family in San Mateo, CA for a short while. I first read it in the a New York Times article that picked up a story from the Bay Citizen and it got me talking to Chris about his memories running into Lennon: Family Opened Up the Door to John and Yoko The article talks abo

Today's the 30th anniversary of John Lennon's death. Some of you out there are too young to remember what a huge cultural icon he and the Beatles were/are. Trust me, this guy, whether you loved him or hated him, had an impact upon the American pop culture and elsewhere around the globe. And not just as a Beatle, but as his own self, stepping out of the shadow of the Beatles and deciding to act upon his humanitarian impulses. I have a strange tie in with the man, although I never met him or even came close to being in the same area as him. Okay, it's a degree of separation thing that's the tie in. The above photo was taken by my older cousin, Chris, who found the original Washington Post newspaper clipping that featured his photo among his scrap books. He scanned and sent it to me. After graduating from college, Chris got a job as a photo-journalist intern with the Washington Post. This photograph was taken in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, DC.