First day of work tomorrow.

Excited.

pensive.TaiwaneseAmerican.IrisChang.liverhurts.shouldiwashjeansnow?.onemoreyear.why

doestimemovesofast.activism.soft?.doasiansgetmarginalizedinsociety?.isourgeneralstereotype

actuallynegative?.amiagoodfriend?excited.Newyork.isitgoingtobeacareerilike?proud.feellikewriting.

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its hard to alway start a post with a clever line or title. So I started my post today with the first few themes running through my head as my first night as a senior wanes to an end. First, Hey Day was tremendous. For unlucky majority who are not at Penn, hey day is  the traditional moving up ceremony for juniors who are on the brink of their final years of college, and sadly their final years of Penn. Red shirts, foam hats, and wood canes are a ubiquitous sight as juniors sporting these uniquely Penn adornments weave drunkenly through campus. On the edges of the massive mob of intoxicated(frequently on alcohol, less frequently on life) revelers an imposing gauntlet of seniors assemble awaits, armed with condiments, flour, chocalate sauce and other weapons of mayhem and stench. Today I got blasted (for lack of a better word). I dunno what they were throwing on me, but one of them put something in my face that just made me gag immediately. Yating, you think i was too drunk to remember your angelic face throwing crap on me, but blessed with crystal clear, LCD-like memory capabilities since birth, I remember vividly the events of today. and yes, I am an elephant. I stomp in anger and hold grudges for centuries. Ah precious memories. A big thank you to penn and everyone for what has been an incredible 3 year journey. I owe everything to you, and to those select few, you have been there for me at the start and i'll know you'll awlays be there at the end. Thats love.

Okay. lets stop off the Penn line, hit a transfer, and board the Asian American el for a second.

During the academic year, I usually try to read a few books for fun. I'll read a few pages during breakfast, several more when I'm at work, and flip through another 10 right before I sleep. This semester, I waded my through The Chinese in America, by Irish Chang (lent to me by my wonderful Chinese teacher Grace Wu (Take any class with her! shes fucking tight)), and absolutely loved it. I joined asian clubs and such when I came to Penn, but I was always came away unfulfilled. It was always just parties and date auctions, fun, but missing essentials, like a club sandwich without the ham. In 400 pages, I learned more about culture/my history then I have in my 21 years. I never really thought about how sometimes asians/minorities are marginalized in society, that newspapers ran headlines that read "American beats Kwan" when Tara Lipinski beat Michelle Kwan in the Olympics even though Michelle Kwan was born, raised, and trained in the United States. Nor did I know that immigrant wave from Taiwan was comprised mostly of well-to-do people with higher levels of education. I always figured they were rough scrabblers who scratched their way to the priviledged life they lead today. After reading the book, I concluded that as an Asian American, there is patent disconnect between myself and my parents, grandparents, and race. By leading such a sheltered, soft life, I can't imagine stuffing myself into a box and eating crackers in the dark for a week just to get to America. Nor being the recipient of fear, envy, jealousy, or hatred because asians annihilate others in the academic rat race, representing themselves in astronomically disporportionate rates relative to their actaul presence in the US. (I found it mildly amusing that UCLA's nickname during the 80's was University of Caucasians Lost among Asians). I've been spoonfed since diapers, and that has made me into something else entirely - The apathetic, culturally removed asian american. Its weird to me how little I hear about asian american activism. Aside from abercrombie and fitch protests, I dont hear too much information relating to asian american rights, even though I think i'm very involved in the asian scene again at Penn (again, asian scene at penn = parties, social club....although with our new, very enthuisastic PTS Phyllis, I think a cultural component will become more visible)  Its not only asians, i feel our entire generation jsut dont really give a fuck. and yes, we're sheltered, but the settings aren't too different from the heydays of activism, the 70's + 80's. They had the vietnam war, we have an ongoing one. Generation 1980's and beyond, lets face it. most of us are just self-absorbed people who frankely dont give a damn about anything besides themselves and whats going to happen next on 24.

I hate it when race matters, but its foolish to ignore it as well. I always wonder if asians are unfairly marginalized in american popular opinion. And then I wonder if we really do live up to and deserve our stereotypes. Are we, as a whole, usually ineffective communicators (excluding those who can't speak English, because, well, knowing English would be the first step). Are we naturally better better at academics or work harder? Why are these qualities teased then, and how come sometimes asians are depicted as geeky and romantically challenged people? Do we just whine too much? ahaha could be possible, i do know a lot of whiners, including myself when I'm get in these weird xanga writing moods and write a singl e20 page dissertation about me me me in one sitting. Its always weird for me when people tell me i'm not like other asians, or I'm a 'white' asian. Hasn't happened too much in college as I've jumped into asian circles and enjoy being a part of them, but when it does occur, i never really know how to react. Do I say thanks, and acknowledge it like a compliment? Why the fuck would it be a compliment? Or do I ask a few pointed questions and come off sounded like a die hard ASIAN PRIDE supporter. on the contrary, i always feel a little defensive when asians I know come up to me and scream " oh mygod you are so asian now" "another ASIAN party!?!?" I know they just mean to tease, but it always comes off sounding so negative and condescending, and i'm probably partly to blame for reacting that way too, being slightly ashamed to be associated with a cliquey asian crew, which is painful for me to admit. These people, asian americans or other race, they say they are only joking, but they make remarks about it so frequently that I feel they take it more seriously themselves then they think.

Tonight was a much ancipated quiet night in. Rather than go out drinking and engaging in the quintessential collegiate hobby of trying to meet girls, (my liver already absorbed enough punishment today) it was a good decision to stay at home, read, contemplate, and sleep for hopefully 9-10 hours. While i've done some foolish things, been a bad friend at times, and acted like an asshole occasionally this semester, my moral compass has been strong this semester about getting me back to being a good guy. Lately, I haven't had much desire to go out clubbing or get supremely trashed - the compass is definitely pointing north right now.

well, i'm not finished with this post, not by a long shot, i had a few more remarks, a couple of theories left ot postulate, but i'm sitting on tired street so I'm going to cut this one short tonight. With classes finished(yes!), I'll have time to write more later. goodnight moon.

Part II:

basketball was violent today. not like streets of compton violent, but it was some gritty, really hard play. It felt as if we were a group of pitbulls that had not been fed for a week, and the basketball was a piece of steak tossed into our penn. I got thrown down a few times, and some kid fingered my eye socket. Now it hurts to blink and i have one half of a black eye. Ow.

Coming back from the eye doctor is always a drag for me. After two years of being stable, my eyes have slightly deterioated from my previous prescription. I hate it because I just feel there is nothing I can do to prevent my ocular condition from degenerating. Its the same as being short or freakishly tall - the cards have been dealt and you have to play with them....dah well at least i'm being fed well at home. As we walked out, my mom commented that I might have to marry a girl with good vision. She pointed out how my cousins who have one parent with bad vision and one parent with good vision all have moderate prescriptions. So ladies, if you have 20/20, holler at me.

-Wu (troublesd Water Under the bridge)

It's going to be a new year soon!

Stuck in the family van on the way to Ann Arbor, I decided to post a few thoughts about 2005 and my hopes for 2006. As always, this post will have no structure to it, instead winding around and touching upon all the thoughts contained in my hyperactive brain as the year comes to an end. My sister just told me I’m sappier than she expected. I take this to mean that I am deeper than I look, a stoic crevasse of intellectual thought hidden beneath a cheerful and gregarious visage. A silent mountain in possession of many ancient secrets waiting for the right girl to unlock. hahaha

 Joyfully, my cousin is here from Taiwan for the holidays. The Rain of Taiwan and Columbia (only super fobs should understand this reference…sam?), he claims he can annihilate me in a games of ones in hoops, yet everytime we get ready to play, he pleads injury, whining his ass really hurts and he needs Bengay. I should write a wikipedia entry about my cousin, defining a Jerry Lii as “ retired clown who needs to realize that he will never be able to best his cousin in hoops, smarts, or looks, and that he needs a haircut.” Sadly, I myself am growing my hair out, but with strict safeguards in place so that I will never reach fob hair length. (unless fob girls like it! Then long hair here I come!) In one of the saddest turns of my 21 years, my cousin has introduced me to the enthralling joys of Korean dramas, of which I have dived into with guilty pleasure. I don’t even understand the words they speak, nor the Chinese subtitles that are shown, but transcending meaning is reached by gazing into the perfect, mechanically made faces of the Korean geishas who star in these love triangles. My cousin patiently translates what they say into English, as we watch episode after episode late into the night, stopping only to refuel our thirst and appetite as necessary. I hope in 2006 I will find myself wilting under the guiles of those oh so alluring and wily Korean princesses.

My sister wants me to write something about her, a world wide web shoutout regarding how wonderful she is. Being the obedient and respectful little brother I am, I gladly obliged. For Christmas, I bought her a jacket with fur lining the hood. As a citizen of the glamorous university of Pennsylvania, I happen to have front row seats to the never-ending fashion show that UPenn girls put on for the general populace. I have witnessed the dawn of ugg booties paired with a mini skirt as well as their twilight.  I was there to see the transition of super short flippy skirts (an era I really did enjoy I must say) to giant fly-like chanel sunglasses and I am here now to see the rising prominence of winter jackets lined with fur around the hood. Endeavoring this year to find a present for my sister she would not immediately return, I bought her such a jacket from Banana republic. Originally priced at $178.00, I was able to purchase it for a substantial discount. However, in order to maximize the shock value of the sticker tag, I carefully peeled off the discount price, leaving only the original tag in hopes of creating more of an impression on my sister when she came to the mistaken conclusion I purchased a 178 dollar gift for her this year. Hahaha I think she likes it, but she wants to return it for a larger size. In response, I told her coats like that are meant to be worn tight to capitalize on their attractiveness, as evidenced by the lovely transfer susan lee in her facebook picture. 

On the breakdancing side of the sandwich, new moves have been acquired and refined. I am now the disciple of the vaunted bboy Ironik, otherwise known as the cheeky Ronny Gallegos, whose acquaintance I have been overjoyed to find. With the appearance of a consummate emo whiner, complete with harry potter black frame glasses with a tiny lightning bolt in the corner of the lense, Ronny is a fire-hydrant of unbridled power and energy when he breaks. I hope in 2006 to possess even 1/10^th the power this animal of a man has when he gets down and nasty on the floor. Ronny, you will discover that things are definitely more fun on this campus versus shitty little Williams college.

Speaking of colleges, I wouldn’t describe myself as bursting at the seams with Penn pride, but a brief event transpired during my Christmas party that brought out the beastly quaker within me. I was sitting at the table with a few of my cousins, both of which happen to be extremely bright and gifted individuals. One of them currently is a PH.D student are Harvard, and the other was notoriously named second smartest kid in America when he almost won the gameshow “battle of the child geniuses” Their sisters was also at the table, and both are extremely sound of mind as well. As a group, They attend MIT, Princeton and Harvard. So anyways they were talking about something far reaching and stupid like the role of qubits in quantum computing of the future, when I decided to interrupt with a small joke, loudly announcing in the middle of their riveting conversation that this is exactly how I imagined I’d be spending Christmas talking about qubit and quons with this ivy league council we’ve assembled in Bowling Green. And u know what these fuckers said to me (I said fuckers in the most affectionate and lovable way possible) !?!?! They told me “ is upenn even considered part of the ivy league?” hahah so I laughed it off and then I told them how Penn had a facebook group called Princeton sucks at everything, and I’m chuckling right now as I think of their wide-eyed expression of innocence and horror as I told them the facebook group picture was a giant blowup of the Quaker Oats quaker with a poorly drawn in Princeton tiger kneeling giving the quaker head. Then I told them upenn was going to have a couple of beers now and left the table. Hahahaha For any penn students reading this, you should join the group as soon as possible. Because Princeton really does blow at everything. And don’t get me started on MIT. For chrissakes, instead of human athletes, those kids probably build robots to play sports for them. Undeniably, Penn is the greatest school in the Ivy league and in America period.

Shoutout to Tyler for jumping it off last night in Waterville. Moment of the night was undoubtedly witnessing Susan tumbling down the stairs, shaking herself off, then loudly proclaiming to the rest of the room “I’M SOOOO DRUNK!!!!”. Thanks Susan, I think we noticed. Hahaha

So last night, I purchased ticket to my first spring break exotic escapade!!!!!! 1 roundtrip ticket to san juan Puerto Rico for 300 dollars! I actually should have had them for cheaper, but one of the tickets jumped 25 dollars in price as soon as I refreshed to webpage to make my final purchases. @$@*$(@ Airports, them and their sneaky web ticket service. So it’ll be seven days in from what I hear gorgeous Puerto Rico. Hopefully the hotels will be cheap otherwise I’ll be snacking on PBJ and ramen the whole night. Honestly, I think the best way to go is to get fewer rooms and shack up as many people as possible in each room. I will gladly snuggle up three to a bed with anyone…so long as its not Jtzou or dWu. Andrew is okay with me because he has that deep, manly voice. God I can only imagine the lullabies he would sing as we drifted into our dream. Incredible.

            My big gift of Christmas this year was a pair of slippers my sister bought me from Brookstone. Lined with tempur pedic memory foam, these slippers hug my feet with the softness of cumulus clouds. I honestly don’t’ think I’ll ever walk barefoot again. Give my feet two months of ecstasy in these shoes, and they’ll probably blister at the thought of barefoot on tile. Thanks to my sister and my cousin for a good look this Christmas.

            So is anybody else feeling Mariah Carey this year? Y’awl thoguth she was DONE after glitter, but Mariah has twisted 180 and stepped her game up. I love all three of her new songs and they are all featured repeatedly on my “night tunes” song list =P . and even though Tango Redd looks like such a little bitch I like his song “lets cheat tonight”. One last song that I’m connecting with is Mary J Blige, be without you. All of these are solid tunes.

            Okay, as this post digresses and spirals out in an ever increasingly desultory fashion, I feel it is time to conclude my thoughts and sentences. I know I don’t post regularly and when I do, its messy like verbal vomit, but that’s what xanga is for, a literary wastebasket for us to boot and rally. Yet, I love to write and entertain you with my mundane and idyllic life. OHSHTI THEY ARE PLAYING DON’T FORGET ABOUT US ON THE RADIO RIGHT NOW. YES OH GOD YES! Hahahhaha hope you’ve enjoyed my stupid ruminations about 2005

-TWU   (The.Wit.Unleashed.)

Finally I have some time to read for fun. First up is Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It's known as one of the great Russian works of literature. A book so cultured and famous seems like it should be read in a rocking chair, by a coffee lamp, accompanied with a glass of wine. I'm just going to read it in bed with my striped Pajamas.  If i read a page a day, I will finish in 564 days. 

Thanksgiving is coming up; its time to recharge. Looking forward to aimless thoughts, driveway hoops, and throwing turkey at my sister.

just joking on that last one jie.