Alpha Asian

So yesterday my coworkers and I were given a rare opportunity to reach the very top of the Transamerica Pyramid. Security is extremely tight at this building, since it is a recognizable San Francisco landmark. The building was the intended target of a foiled terrorist attack involving the hijacking of airplanes (this was in 1995). After 9/11, access to the very top has been completely restricted. People can book the 48th floor, which is the top floor with windows. As you can see from the picture, however, there is still quite a distance from that floor and the very tip of the pyramid. In order to reach the very top, you have to start at the 48th floor and climb several stories of stairs. These weren't ordinary stairs, however. This was a steel rail stairway extending up at a steep 60 degree angle for approximately 6-8 stories. These stairs were so steep, that it felt like we were climbing ladders. So imagine climbing a steel ladder several stories high, and you get...

The baseball playoffs are here. And last night's National League Division Series playoff game between the San Francisco Giants and the Atlanta Braves was an amazing event for Giants starting pitcher Tim Lincecum, who is half Filipino. The 5'11" pitching ace threw a two hit shut out and struck out fourteen batters! I didn't watch the entire game but saw enough to know that Lincecum had his fastball humming! He threw consistently in the low 90's and had batters off balance with change ups and the occasional curve balls. Additionally, Lincecum broke the Giants franchise record of 10 strikeouts in the post season. At one stretch, he retired 19 of 20 batters. The Freak (as he is sometimes called) just dominated the Braves. The man's a stud on the mound.

So a couple of nights ago, I was the guest host and moderator for the Big WoWo podcast. Byron, the blogger of Big WoWo, normally moderates these podcasts, but he wanted to debate with the guest, a controversial blogger who goes by the moniker the "Asian of Reason." The guy is... oh... I don't know... NUTS! He says he's a Chinese American student at Johns Hopkins University who believes in the concept of "human biodiversity." Sounds like a benign term, but HBD is essentially a neo- eugenics philosophy. Picture forced sterilizations, Gattaca and Brave New World. I looked through his blog to prep for the podcast, and I found some of his posts pretty funny. When I was talking to him during the podcast, I thought this guy was playing a character, like Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers movies. But I don't think what he is writing is satire. This guy believes in this stuff that he writes. This guy is one of those bizarre WTF Asians, like Mong...

Ok, I live out in the DC suburbs, Maryland to be exact. I get called by my brother while I'm at work here reviewing an affidavit, telling me I might have trouble going home after work because of a hostage situation in the Discovery Channel headquarters in downtown Silver Spring, MD. I live north of that area. Some Asian guy is holed up in there with hostages. Oh, great. Had to be an Asian guy. How nice. One of my college buddies is a senior vice president who works for Discovery. I'm thinking of who I can call, who do I know in the Montgomery County Maryland Police Department to get the 411. I know some MCPD guys on the task force but they're in narcotics. They wouldn't be involved in this hostage situation. I check the TV in the conference room at work. There are plenty of MCPD uniform rollers out there. I have to laugh because that's what patrol guys and gals do. If they hear something interesting coming in over the radio, they all want to jump in on it! Anyw...

Well, I watched most of the game today. The kids from Waipahu, Hawaii lost a hard fought baseball game, 4-1, to the kids from Japan. Team Hawaii had played 5 games in 5 days, all elimination games and they had come back from deficits to win their games. Today, they ran out of gas. I was pulling hard for the kids from Hawaii and I was thinking how funny it was for the kids from both teams to look across the field and see other kids who look just like them or very similar. Obviously, Hawaii has a big Asian population and one that is quite mixed. The team had a lot of Japanese-American kids or Polynesian kids and it was good to see them do well, they had a great tournament, so congratulations to them. I can only hope some of these talented kids can go on and pursue their athletic dreams and reach the highest levels of their potential if they so desire. They will be the next generation of Alpha Asians. I have to admit, though, that ---especially in the '70's---, I always wante...

  Propaganda never sounded so good, comrades!