Two months ago, Swtaznxtc90 and I decided to reenact Cyanide and Happiness comics strips just for fun (click here to see the original entry).  Well, I had so much fun doing it that I decided to do some more!  This time around, I had a few more Xangans helping me out.  Hope you enjoy our versions of the following C&H comic strips:

Back in early high school, I started a list of things I wanted to experience in my lifetime.  Since then, I’ve added and crossed off numerous items as life went on.  Some of the ones I’ve listed are probably really common (i.e. meeting and marrying my love, having kids, visiting Japan/Paris/etc.) while other ones are…well, I rather not say them publicly here ().  Yes, anyway…

As I looked through my list, I noticed that many of the items happened to be media-related.  I know for some people this type of experience doesn’t matter much, but I always found it appealing to have a taste of fame, even if it’s only for 15 minutes.  Luckily, ever since I wrote my bucket list I have managed to achieve several of the things I’ve listed.  For example:

Appear on television – Complete!

While being the dumb guy who didn’t know what tuberculosis was in the local news wasn’t what I had in mind, I guess it will have to count.  You can see my original entry on about this here.  By the way, this took place during junior year of high school, which explains the silly hair.

Appear in a newspaper – Complete!

When your high school tennis team wins it first match in over 25 years, it’s apparently worth noting!  Yeah, we were pretty awful.  I don’t have the newspaper article on me, but just take my word that it exists.

Appear in a calendar – Complete!

Not sure how many of you knows about the BFN Online Store, but it’s basically the Xanga store.  In late 2009, I entered into a contest that would feature the winners on the 2010 Xanga calendar.  I ended up being Mr. July.  Sweet!

Appear in a book – Complete!

I didn’t know how feasible this was at first, but I managed to cross this off my list after being featured in the Xangans book last year.  Random note: I thought this was only sold online, but someone told me they thought they saw it in a bookstore not too long ago.  Hmm…

Appear in a magazine – Complete!

I’ve done this twice so far, both in tennis magazines (surprise, surprise!).  The first one was about finding love on the court and the most recent one was about college tennis players that ended up in tennis careers.  I definitely had some input for both!

Appear on angryasianman.com – Complete!

See the rest of the article here

I finally became the featured reader of the week on this popular Asian American issues/news website a couple weeks ago.  This was a big deal for me since I’ve followed this site for a long time and I’ve even met the guy who runs it (funny enough, during the same time as the San Diego Xanga meet).  FYI, he’s not so angry of a person in real life.

Items still in progress:  appear in a comic (waiting for nimbusthedragon to change that in the future!), appear as an extra in a television show or movie (if for nothing else, so I can tell my future kids, “You see that guy being eaten by the alien?  That’s your daddy!”), and being part of a viral video (any ideas?).  There’s still time to accomplish these things, so we’ll see how soon I will be able to check them off my list!

I bet many of you had brushes with fame too.  What are some of your experiences?  If there’s an article/video clip online, you should show me!

Wow, it still hasn’t fully hit me yet.  Is it actually true?  No more long, late night classes?  No more papers?  No more class presentations?  No more exams?  Really, no more frickin’ papers?!

Oh yes, it became true the moment I turned in my final exam last night.  I’m done!  I officially finished graduate school and managed to do so with straight As and no loans to pay off. 

Where to go from here?  For now, I will continue doing my thing with my current job.  After all, it was my dream job coming out of undergraduate and I’m just starting to make a name of myself within the industry, so I want to see what else I can offer.  I am, however, planning on using my master’s degree for my organization, so hopefully I can end up combining two of my passions (tennis and psychology) together.

It feels good to finally have my master’s degree!  You all must address me as Master Alex from now on, you hear?  (just kidding)

Let me end this by showing you a portion of my final presentation.  I originally was going to be boring and do it normally like everyone else, but my classmates and professor urged me to do something extra since it wouldn’t be an “Alex presentation” without something creative.  I was not going to sing again like last time, but I did do a throw back to one of my first presentations where I talked and interacted with myself on screen.

Here you go, me reenacting a conversation I had with my executive director:

It might have been slightly exaggerated for effect.  Just slightly.

Out of here!

“Can you speak Chinese?”

You know, I have a hard time answering that question.  I can speak Cantonese conversationally and understand it well enough, but my grammar, vocabulary, writing and reading skills are shabby at best.  When I was a little kid I used to be much better at it, but over time my language ability faded away as I started speaking more English.  It makes sense though.  Living in the United States, I tend to be around English-speaking people more than Cantonese-speaking people.  Even my parents pretty much stop speaking to me in Cantonese since they were practicing their English skills.  My grandma was really the only one consistently speaking to me in Cantonese at my household, which honestly didn’t help me much since she’s usually asking me about food.  I can say “I’m not hungry yet!” amazingly though!

It’s no surprise to say that I can be uncomfortable with my ability to speak Cantonese, especially around fluent speakers.  It stems back to when my aunts and uncles used to call me out all the time whenever I spoke English to them or spoke Cantonese improperly.  They would lecture me, saying that I’m not really Asian because of it.  They made it seem like there was something wrong with me and for a while there, I believed them.  Can I really be considered Asian if I have a hard time communicating?  If I’m not really Asian, what am I?  I wonder if they thought I was ignorant to my cultural background or that I didn’t care.  That’s definitely not true.

Nowadays, I understand that there’s more than just language that defines the Asian part of me and I’m learning to accept this gap of mine.  Having said that, I wouldn’t mind being able to speak/write/read Cantonese more fluently.  I’ve made attempts to improve it by asking my parents to speak to me in it more, watching Asian dramas, taking a Chinese 101 course, and getting myself heavily involved with the Chinese Student Association during my undergrad years.  It’s tough to learn when you’re older though since by this time my brain is used to thinking in English.  It is also not a good sign that my English isn’t exactly perfect on many occasions (ask me to say “buffet” or “river” sometime.  Actually nevermind, don’t worry about it!).

So yes, this language issue has lingered in the back of my mind for some time now and probably will continue.  Maybe one day I won’t feel as self-conscious about it.  Do any of you have similar cultural identity issues when it comes to languages?

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*On a somewhat related note, I’m featured over on Angry Asian Man, one of the premier Asian American issues/news blogs out there.  Click here to check out my interview.*

I was 17 years old (as pictured above) when I first joined this site.  Initially, I did it so I could comment on a good friend’s blog, back when we were not able to leave comments unless we were also members.  My first post was written on May 5, 2003 at 5:30pm.  At the time, I didn’t think I would be writing much on here so I simply directed people to my Livejournal (I wonder if that’s why TheXangaTeam only gave me 1 eProp on my first post?). 

Over the following year, I treated my blog as if it was my Pulse; entries made up of short (and usually emo) thoughts.  They were pretty bad, to say the least.  Here are a few actual entries I wrote during those early years:

Once college rolled in, I discovered more of my friends using this site.  I continued writing about my day, my feelings, and posting funny stuff for them on my blog.  As years went by, those friends migrated to other websites or stopped blogging altogether.  For some reason, I kept on going.

I eventually discovered the wonderful community in late 2008, after clicking on a random Datingish ad on my homepage.  “People actually talk to strangers on here?  Crazy!” I thought.  Not too long after, I began making a ton of new friends and began putting out better written posts than the ones I used to do.  For whatever reason, people seem to enjoy them.

Today marks the eighth year I’ve been a member on this site.  How many more years will I be on here?  I have no idea.  I do know this; Xanga has been wonderful to me.  It has allowed me to express myself in ways I can’t often do otherwise.  It has allowed me to stay connected with friends, following their ups and downs as they do the same back to me.  It has led me to discover new friends, many of which I have met in person and are now some of my closest confidants.  It truly has given me a lot of memorable experiences that may very well define my twenties. 

For all of that, Xanga has my full support and loyalty.  I hope I stay an active member as long as I can.