What a blast!  Damien Rice rocked the house at the Borgata in Atlantic City and I’m so glad I got a chance to see him play live!  Raquel and I were right in front so we saw and heard everything all nice and clear.  This was something we said we would do before and I’m glad we decided to go

His music sounds just as good, if not even better, than his CDs.  So much emotion he puts in his songs…it’s unbelievable.  Lisa Hannigan is an AWESOME singer as well.  Jeff can’t say anything about her anymore because she definitely deserves to play along side the great Damien Rice haha.

He played at least 9 songs, some old and some new.  I think they were the following:
1.  Volcano
2.  Me, My Yoke and I (WOW…all i can say…)
3.  9 Crimes
4.  The Blower’s Daughter Part II (made a girl weep behind me)
5.  Cold Water (excellent ending!  I want this version!)
6.  Eskimo
7.  The Blowers Daughter
8.  Cheers Darling (smoking and drinking while playing!)
9.  a cover song by Lisa

Yup, “Me, My Yoke and I” and “The Blower’s Daughter Part II” are my new favorite songs .  I do gotta say though; his newer songs are quite a bit raunchier than his older songs.  He went from “we might kiss, if we are alone” to “you wanna be fucked inside out” Yea it sorta threw me off, but his songs are still great so it doesnt matter. 

Small clip of the bridge part of “Volcano”.  Yea, would have recorded more but the security guys caught me :



Great concert…too bad Damien Rice was only a special guest so he only played for an hour .  O well, just his part was worth the admission.  We didnt even stay for Fiona Apple section of the show haha.  shoot, i was there for The Rice!

Some pictures:


Posing next to….lemons


dark pic of the Damien Rice crew.  Wish we could have used our flash


A REALLY creepy image of Lisa Hannigan next to Damien Rice.  Looks like she’s gonna eat someone.

On a side note, the Borgata Hotel/Casino looked gorgeous inside.  I wanna go back there for all that other stuff in the future (and when i have the money haha).

Pay attention to the Statue:

Urgh, I’m tired of being so nervous about being assigned on a home
visit for my psych research!  I just need to just do one that goes
smoothly and I’ll be alright.

Welcome Week is gonna be busy.  It’s gonna be interesting to see how I’m gonna my duties for both Woolie and SGA. 
Woolie stuff comes first, and for the most part I can do both things at
the same time because I’ll be at the same events.  However, SGA
wants me to wear their shirts at some of the events.  Hmmm…well
at least Crystal will be in the same situation as me, so I won’t be
alone

Honestly, I can’t wait till school starts at UMBC again.  There’s
so much stuff that I’m looking forward too, including my first year
living on campus!  So excited…I just need to get a few more
things (TV, comfy chair, etc) and I’ll be set. 

——————————————————————————————

O yea, I’m extremely excited to see Damien Rice live!  I’m gonna
see it w/ Raquel at the Borgata in Atlantic City.  I hope his
portion of the show is just as long as the Fiona Apple part, but seeing
that it’s really her tour that’s probably not gonna happen.  O
well, he should play at least most of his songs since he only had one
CD out.  I need to start listening to Fiona Apple so I can become more familiar with her songs.

For those who haven’t heard of Damien Rice, he’s a really great singer
from Ireland who puts so much passion into each song.  You would
have most likely heard his single “The Blower’s Daughter” in the movie
Closer.  The song was played at the very beginning and at the very
end.  In case you forgotten what it sounded like, here’s the music
video for The Blowers Daugther, by Damien Rice:

I do admit though; the video does make Damien Rice appear extremely creepy
with the way he gets closer and closer to the girl after each
frame change when it doesn’t even look like he’s moving forward at all!  Still an excellent singer
————————————————————————————-

Yep, it’s gonna happen; the wonderful Korean film “My Sassy Girl” is being Americanized, and it looks like Elisha Cuthbert(24,
The Girl Next Door) will play the title female character. 
Ummm….yea, I’m not sure if this film will be able to deliver the
goods like the original.  Who knows…I’m gonna keep an eye on
this one. 
What do you guys think of this?

—————————————————————————————
Funny Joke I found:

Two young boys walk into a pharmacy one day, pick
out a box of Tampax and proceed to the checkout counter.
The man at the counter asks the older boy, “Son,
how old are you?”

“Eight,” the boy replies.

The man continues, “Do you know
what these are used for?”

“Not exactly,” the boy says.
“But they aren’t for me. They’re for him. He’s
my brother. He’s four. We saw on TV that if you use
these you would be able to swim and ride a bike. Right
now he can’t do either one.”

—————————————————————————————–

Finally, from the wonderful world of SAM (www.secretasianman.com):

Yup.  True story

Agreed; we need some more Asian actors to appear as sex symbols for the
general community.  Especially for the Asian male population, we need regular Asian guys starring in
Hollywood movies where they aren’tnerds, martial artists, or Triads etc.  In real life, regular asian guys exist; now
we just need an Asian actor to step up to an open-minded film director and/or studio
willing
to put an Asian male lead that deviates from the stereotypes. 
Better Luck Tomorrow was a start, but things will not change until
something like what I’ve mention happens in a major movie.  Feel free to comment on this. (I’m off the
soap-box now )

From the words (and picture) of SAM on this issue:

“The shaky status of Asian American masculinity is nothing new. Over and
over again we are put in asexualized positions and denied the classic
American hero roles that all the other races have enjoyed. Hell some
females have enjoyed a more masculine role than we have. What’s it
gonna take to break that unmasculine stereotype?” -secretasianman.com
—————————————————————————————–

I’m TIIIRRREDD…… X_X
(Note to self:  don’t play so much tennis after working out; you will feel it the next day )

(warning:  tennis dork rambling coming up)

Been
training pretty hard for this coming tennis season.  My goal is to
be in the top 4 of our club (which will not be easy as it is looking
like now!).  I just need to keep on working on my ability to
handle the heat, my footwork and my serve and I should be set.  My
serve has gotten better over the past week.  I figured out some
things that I need to do to keep in my rhythm.  My control is a
whole lot better…now I just need to work on adding another 10-20 mph
into my delivery and I’ll be completely satisfy .

Today definitely gave me some confidence in my match mentality. 
Thank you Tony for helping me out w/ my serves and returns
yesterday!  With that help I played a good set against this guy
(whom i met at friendly’s heh) where I won 6-1.  The one game I
lost was completely my fault…my concentration waivered and I couldnt
get a ball in.  Lost like 7 straight points…but I got myself
back into it and broke back.  Yea..still got a lot to work on…

(end tennis dork talk)

———————————————————————————————————–

Has anyone been keeping up w/ America’s Got Talent?  I’ve been sorta hooked onto it, especially this all asian accapella group called At Last .  Haven’t heard their sounds yet?  Check out these clips of their two performances so far:

Great rendition of that “Ain’t No Sunshine” song (i know that may not
be the correct title).  Love the harmonies!  Check out
Brandy’s reaction haha

..And their Semi’s performance.  Check out their little Regis ditty at the end!

I’m rooting for these guys as they head into the finals.  It
doesnt matter too much if they don’t win; they already got a lot of
publicity so it’s all good. 

Hope they don’t run into this girl right here: 

Dont know about you, but anybody who can contort her body that way to shoot an arrow using her feet (and make a bullseye!) earns my
respect.  MmmMmm, she would be a fun girl to have around eh? 

———————————————————————————

A couple of wonderful comic from secretasianman.com:

gross indeed

race jokes everywhere!
————————————————————————————–

Hey look what I found…its a music video where Kal Penn (aka Kumar) and another asian guy is rapping in the style of Lazy Sunday.  Brandon Routh (aka Superman) makes a surprise guess appearance towards the end as a cop.  Check it out:

“That’s what happen when you try to eat my Condoleezza Rice!”  Awesome…watch it all the way to the end.  Trust me…

Im fried from today!  I hung out at Centennial Park today for my
Dad’s workplace BBQ.  It was really hot, but not humid so it
wasn’t too bad.  good family time!

Afterwards I hung out w/ berto and jesus at berto’s house.  We watched Better Luck Tomorrow,
their first viewing of it.  I wasn’t sure if they would like it,
but I’m glad that the movie translate well to non-asian folks. 
That’s one of the great thing about Better Luck Tomorrow:  a movie
w/ an Asian cast that doesn’t focus too much on that aspect. 

Secret Asian Man tells it best:

———————————————————————————————————-

Alright, so my first home visit ended up being a very memorable one….but not the good kind.

These home visits are suppose to be alright.  Us researchers just
go to these family who have undergone the therapy to give them
questionaires.   The families are usually extra nice too, and
no major incidences has really happened before.

Then today…

When we got to to the place in Essex, we gave the house a call to see
if it was ok to come in early.  The aunt picked up and, sounding a
little hesistant, said sure.  The aunt answered the door, but she
looked very nervous and even sorta scared.  Once we walked inside
we noticed that their therapist was there, which was kinda odd since
normally a therapist session does not coincide w/ our reearch times.

The therapist then told us to wait outside.  We were out there for
about 5 minutes before he came out and advised us to leave and that the family was considering leaving the state.  Why,
you say?  Apparently there were people looking for the youth that
had guns.

Aiya!!!!!

So we left rather quickly after that…yea, very surreal moment. 
Great first home visit eh?  Now im more nervous than before!

On the bright side, that was the worse thing that had ever happened,
according to the graduate student i was with, so anything else should
be a piece of cake…

Wish me luck on my future home visits!  To think, if that
therapist didnt warn us to leave the other graduate student and I would
have never known about all that and had just been doing our business
when…well i dont even wanna say.  Let just say…close
call.  yea…
—————————————————————————————

Service Announcement.  The more you know…
——————————————————————————————
bulupictures.com presents:

(Above vid) slightly modified version in case you didn’t see it live

That’s it, this is how I will resolve all disputes from now on!  Becareful about making fun of the way i say “brother”; I will bam ya w/ my head, and you guys know my head is huge…so watch it! 
——————————————————————————————-
New comics from secretasianman.com:


Haha, I never noticed how ironic it was for Randy to be on Oreo packets


Spicing up Chinese New Year, college edition!


Reminds me of middle school


Good point SAM…never saw him in that perspective…
——————————————————————————————–
Anyone interested in going to the follow?  Let me know if you are!

The Thai Tennis Association in America (TTOA) will host a women’s Wildcard Challenge that will award the winner the opportunity to compete at the Legg Mason Women’s Pro Circuit Event presented by Singha Beer, which is held during the Legg Mason Tennis Classic presented by GEICO. The Wildcard Challenge provides an opportunity for local stars to play their way into the qualifier of a professional tournament that they would otherwise not be able to enter.

The Wildcard Challenge will be held in conjunction with the third annual Asian Festival. The Asian Festival is a one-day, free-admission event to promote a greater understanding of the Asian culture from Thailand, China, India, the Philippines, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia, etc. The event, which is the largest Asian festival in the Washington, D.C., area, will occur on Saturday, July 22, from 10 a.m. – 9 p.m., at the Lake Newport Tennis Facility in Reston, Va. 

–edit–
Anyone interested in going to the follow?  Let me know if you are!

The Thai Tennis Association in America
(TTOA) will host a women’s Wildcard Challenge that will award the
winner the opportunity to compete at the Legg Mason Women’s Pro Circuit
Event presented by Singha Beer, which is held during the Legg Mason
Tennis Classic presented by GEICO. The Wildcard Challenge provides an
opportunity for local stars to play their way into the qualifier of a
professional tournament that they would otherwise not be able to enter.

The Wildcard Challenge will be held in
conjunction with the third annual Asian Festival. The Asian Festival is
a one-day, free-admission event to promote a greater understanding of
the Asian culture from Thailand, China, India, the Philippines, Japan,
Korea, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia, etc. The event, which is the
largest Asian festival in the Washington, D.C., area, will occur on
Saturday, July 22, from 10 a.m. – 9 p.m., at the Lake Newport Tennis
Facility in Reston, Va. 

–edit—
——————————————————————————-
I thought this commercial was sweet.  Great message and
everything.  I don’t think this commercial is too out of the realm
of possibility…uh oh, I think im getting sappy again

Liberty Mutual Commercial.
——————————————————————————————
I just discovered this site secretasianman.com,
which has comics that deal with certain issues in the asian
community.  Sorta like…a social commentary.  The lead
character in all of the comics goes by the name SAM (Secret Asian Man).  I think I can start up some comics of my own like this…(Note to self)…

Here’s my favorites:

wonder if any of yall are like this

I think I’ll do this next time

I guess if you put it in perspective like that it does seem kinda foolish eh?

Ah, the lovely stereotypes all gathered in one

Never thought of it that way huh?

not sure about 2-5, but definitely 1 haha.  I am a relatively healthy boy though, so…

All good point, some I’ve haven’t noticed before.  Maybe I should
go ahead and break the asian male porn star shortage… (SO kidding .  Maybe Jose can do it haha)

Bet Dan would like this comic strip

Aw…sorry Feng, Suds, Falak, Howai, Ha and Lai .  you know i’m just messin’ (doesn’t the guy sorta look like me?  I think i can pull of being a Jiang…)

I laugh at all this stuff, but all these comics shows me how many issues
Asians have in America still.  We all still got a lot to learn…
—————————————————————————————

Your results:
You are The Flash

The Flash 80% Spider-Man 55% Superman 55% Iron Man 50% Robin 40% Wonder Woman 35% Catwoman 35% Green Lantern 30% Supergirl 30% Hulk 20% Batman 15%

Fast, athletic and flirtatious.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

–edit–
Good Deal!
Hey, I recently found out about Myxertones.com, a site that
allows you to upload music from your computer and make them your
ringtone on your phone. Once uploaded, you can pick the exact section
and length you want.

It is free to sign-up! You can upload two
songs to make ringtones right off the bat. Each song that you upload
counts as 1 credit. When you initially sign up, you get 1 automatically
and 1 after responding to an email they send you. You can then
continually choose different parts of your songs to be your ringtone
without any additional charge. To upload more songs, you need to either
earn credits (by checking out advertisement or getting your friends to
sign-up) or pay $1.50 per credit (which, honestly, is not too bad).

Here’s
where you come in. By clicking on the link below and signing up, I can
get 4 credits to be used. I was skeptical at first, but it’s all legit.
Check it out by clicking on the button below. Remember, it doesn’t cost
anything to sign-up. Give it a shot
   
–edit–

I ended up not watching fireworks this past Fourth of July, just
because i didnt wanna deal w/ the hassle of potential thunderstorms or
whatnot.  Fireworks are overrated anyways

Instead, I finally got a chance to watch Jackie Chan’s New Police Story:

Hell of a lot better than some of his most recent movies!  Sure,
the plot was kinda crazy, there wasnt too much character development of
the bad folks, and Jackie Chan may have overacted some of his emotional
scenes…but I digged it anyways! 

 
Jackie Chan and Nicholas Tse had great chemistry together, and bad guys do some things that makes you really hate them, especially the one played by Daniel Wu:

o wait, wrong one:

There we go.  He thinks he’s soooo cool…

—————————————————————————————–

Yes, I finally got my tennis racket stringing machine!  Let me know if you guys need me to string your racket for cheap

——————————————————————————————
Yes, the rain’s FINALLY over!  Time to play some tennis!  O yea…

Go Rafa and Justine! 
Can’t believe Rafa is doing so well on grass!  Justine just needs
this Wimbledon title to complete her career grand slam!  Vamos!

O no!  Upsets everywhere in sports today!!!!!  First Brazil
and England are knocked out of the World Cup.  To add more pain,
all of my favorite American tennis players are knocked out of Wimbledon!  James Blake, Andy Roddick, Mardy Fish, Andre Agassi, why?!

NOOooOooooOoOOoOooOooo!!!!!!!!!!

It’s Agassi’ last Wimbledon btw.  He’s gonna retire at the US
Open…hopefully he can stay healthy enough to play all the tournaments
in between now and then.  The tennis world is gonna miss him

——————————————————————————
Anyways, enough of my tennis dorkness.  Guys listen up!  Here
are the rules for us men (bold ones are the ones that were funniest to
me):

1: Under no circumstances may two men share an umbrella.

2: It is OK for a man to cry ONLY under the following circumstances:

(a) When a heroic dog dies to save its master.
(b) The moment Angelina Jolie starts unbuttoning her blouse.
(c) After wrecking your boss’s car.
(d) One hour, 12 minutes, 37 seconds into “The Crying Game”.

(e) When she is using her teeth.

3: Any Man who brings a camera to a bachelor party may be legally killed and eaten by his buddies.

4: Unless he murdered someone in your family, you must bail a friend out of jail within 12 hours.

5: If you’ve known a guy for more than 24 hours, his sister is off limits forever unless you actually marry her.

6:
Moaning about the brand of free beer in a buddy’s fridge is forbidden.
However complain at will if the temperature is unsuitable.

7:
No man shall ever be required to buy a birthday present for another
man. In fact, even remembering your buddy’s birthday is strictly
optional. At that point, you must celebrate at a strip bar of the
birthday boy’s choice.

8: On a road trip, the strongest bladder determines pit stops, not the weakest.

9:
When stumbling upon other guys watching a sporting event, you may ask
the score of the game in progress, but you may never ask who’s playing.

10:
You may flatulate in front of a woman only after you have brought her
to climax. If you trap her head under the covers for the purpose of
flatulent entertainment, she’s officially your girlfriend.

11:
It is permissible to drink a fruity alcohol drink only when you’re
sunning on a tropical beach… and it’s delivered by a topless model
and only when it’s free.

12: Only in situations of moral and/or physical peril are you allowed to kick another guy in the nuts.

13: Unless you’re in prison, never fight naked.

14: Friends don’t let friends wear Speedos. Ever. Issue closed.

15: If a man’s fly is down, that’s his problem, you didn’t see anything.

16:
Women who claim they “love to watch sports” must be treated as spies
until they demonstrate knowledge of the game and the ability to drink
as much as the other sports watchers.

17: A man in the company of a hot, suggestively dressed woman must remain sober enough to fight.

18: Never hesitate to reach for the last beer or the last slice of pizza, but not both, that’s just greedy.

19: If you compliment a guy on his six-pack, you’d better be talking about his choice of beer.

20: Never join your girlfriend or wife in discussing a friend of yours, except if she’s withholding sex pending your response.

21: Phrases that may NOT be uttered to another man while lifting weights:
a) Yeah, Baby, Push it!

b) C’mon, give me one more! Harder!
c) Another set and we can hit the showers!

22:
Never talk to a man in a bathroom unless you are on equal footing:
i.e., both urinating, both waiting in line, etc. For all other
situations, an almost imperceptible nod is all the conversation you
need.

23: Never allow a telephone
conversation with a woman to go on longer than you are able to have sex
with her. Keep a stopwatch by the phone. Hang up if necessary.

24:
The morning after you and a girl who was formerly “just a friend” have
carnal, drunken monkey sex, the fact that you’re feeling weird and
guilty is no reason for you not to nail each other again before the
discussion occurs about what a big mistake it was.

25: It is acceptable for you to drive her car. It is not acceptable for her to drive yours.

26: Thou shalt not buy a car in the colors of brown, pink, lime green, orange or sky blue.

27:
The girl who replies to the question “What do you want for Christmas?”
with “If you loved me, you’d know what I want!” gets an Xbox. End of
story.

28: There is no reason for
guys to watch Ice Skating or Men’s Gymnastics. Ever.

29.  We’ve all heard
about people having guts or balls. But do you really know the
difference between them? In an effort to keep you informed, the
definition of each is listed below:

“GUTS” is arriving home late
after a night out with the guys, being assaulted by your wife with a
broom, and having the guts to say, “are you still cleaning or are you
flying somewhere?”

“BALLS” is coming home late after a night out with the guys smelling of
perfume and beer, lipstick on your collar, slapping your wife on the
ass and having the balls to say, “You’re next!”

———-

We hope this clears up any confusion,

The International Council of Manhood, Ltd.