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Wow.  It's been one year since my last personal blog post.  I don't think I've had much to say in the last year, been a pretty boring person.  My kids turned a year older.  I am now 45.  I ran a half marathon in December and have been burned out on running ever since.  My husband is doing fine, still working.  Mom is settling into life in Dallas.  She is busier than I am, what with bridge, volunteering, church, book club.

I have read several good books with my own book club this year:

• The Round House
• The Thirteenth Tale
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

And a few I did not like, such as On Beauty.

Several good movies have hit the theaters:

• Silver Linings Playbook
• Argo
• Les Miserables
• Beasts of the Southern Wild

I've only seen the last two, and loved them.  However, I absolutely despised the Meryl Streep movie Hope Springs.  This one I saw with my mother, and we both came away shocked- that a great actress would star in that move, and that we wasted our money on it.  It's all about an empty nester married couple who never have sex, sleep separately, and have grown apart.  The wife signs them up for marriage counseling and in the end, things work out great.  Pathetic.  Steve Carell played the counselor.  I kept hoping he'd turn out twisted in some way, or at least comedic.  However, he just played it straight and boring.  Such a disappointment.  So, did you see it?  What did you think?

Today is Canton Trade Days.  Luckily, I'm not going.  On the one hand, I'd love to but on the other, I just don't need to buy anything.  Today is also a great estate sale in Dallas featuring vintage Barbies and Barbie cases, old Madame Alexander dolls, vintage clothing, and more.  I'm pretty proud of myself for abstaining from that sale.  It's tempting, but I first need to list and sell the items currently in my etsy shop.  Just can't bring anymore treasures in until I move some out.

Oh!  One new item.  Running dogs.  Yes, running dogs is my new idea for a possible business.  Yes, there are other "bonded" agencies that do this, but I'm planning to start my own little neighborhood job.  So far, I run my neighbor's dogs for free.  Just information gathering at this point.  Question, do you see this as a good business idea?

Thought for the day, from Ron Swanson, played by Nick Offerman on TV's Parks and Recreation:
"When people get a little too chummy with me, I like to call them by the wrong name." 

 - from January 2012 Reader's Digest

Asian Pride

I am experiencing a great deal of Asian Pride lately, and I'm not even Asian.  I'm about as white bread as one can get.  But I'm married to an Asian and have two mixed kiddos, so I think that gives me the right to be proud of Asians.  My husband is Filipino-Chinese, so I get to experience two Asian cultures at once!  He lumps all Asians/Asian-Americans into one big bucket (Japanese, Thai, Chinese, Filipino, etc.), so I do to.  That's ok for me to do if he does it, right?  He can joke about my East Texas twang and fair skin with freckles, my self-tanner adventures and big nose; I can raz him about that "BeBo" song by the Black Eyed Peas, his Asian Fit Oakley sunglasses (yes, they exist) and eating "balut" (a Filipino delicacy of baby duck embryo, hard-boiled in the shell), which he's never actually ingested before.

Now, for the Asian pride thing.  I'm noticing a big dose of amazing Asians these days.  Maybe it's because of my family situation, kind of like when you're shopping for a Volkswagen, you see them everywhere?  No matter the reason, I'm really excited about all the Asians in popular culture lately.  Here is a rundown of my personal favorites.

Yu Darvish- Baseball Player

This 26 year old pitching phenom from Japan signed in 2012 with the Texas Rangers for $60 million for 6 years.  His dad is Iranian and his mother is Japanese.  Pretty good mix!  Especially given he is drop dead handsome and 6'5", weighing 187.  Can't wait to see what this year is like for Yu!

Yu Darvish, #11 and new pitcher for the Texas Rangers.  Google image.

  

Jeremy Lin playing for Harvard, from Google images.

Jeremy Lin - Basketball Player

How could I not add Lin?  He's everywhere these days.  "Lin-sanity" it's being called.  At 6'3", he's not the biggest NBA player but he certainly is having a great season.  Good for him.   On The Today show this morning, ad man Donny Deutsch said he'd love to see Lin forgo endorsing Nike and instead work the Harvard angle... promoting Smart Water and other brands more like him.  We'll see what happens with this guy in the future.  Go Lin!

 Heejun Han - Singer

Heejun Han, American Idol season 11 finalist.

Not everyone watches American Idol this season.  We haven't been keeping up ourselves.  Last night, we decided to watch the final 2 episodes and there was Heejun!  I couldn't believe my ears when the 22 year old from Flushing, New York started to sing.  Great voice, fun personality and good looks (can't wait to see how he changes once the makeovers begin!).  My family was on the verge of tears as he sang "New York State of Mind" and then sealed the deal, making the top 24.  And, he works with special needs kids, making him an excellent role model.  I think the phone lines will be heating up this season!  

Tonya Xiong - Makeup Artist

Tonya Xiong, YouTube makeup maven.  Image from
her YouTube Channel.

I happened upon this high schooler's YouTube video "The Power of Makeup" and her YouTube channel for applying makeup to Asian eyes, to make the eyes look larger.  She is Hmong, and lives in Seattle.  She appears to film all her videos in the bathroom of her home.  Creative!  I found other videos, too, from Hmong girls talking bad about these types of videos saying they are "fake" and making themselves look like their eyes are larger, lids are deeper, lashes longer, and on and on.  Well, hey?  What woman doesn't want to make their eyes look bigger?  I have smallish almond eyes, and find some of Tonya's tips and tricks helpful for my own 40-something-mommy makeup routine.  Check her out, her tips are my little indulgence.  Give this girl a Hollywood stylist job! 

Jay Chou - Actor

Jay Chou from Bing image.



I didn't know anything about this actor until we rented "Kung Fu Dunk" on Netflix, a 2008 foreign movie about a Chinese basketball star.  My 9 year old son and I watched it, subtitles and all, and fell in love.  We even watched it again the same night when my husband and daughter got home from a daddy/daughter dance.  I think seeing a Chinese guy playing great basketball again instilled pride in my kids and hubby (waterworks again).  My son was so excited that he pretended to be Fang Shijie, Chou's character in the show, for the rest of the weekend.  Now, this is the same actor who played Kato in 2011's Green Hornet movie with Seth Rogan, but my kid hated that movie and didn't even want to associate Chou with that character.  If you are into Chinese movies, rent it on Netflix!  This guy is my pick to play Bruce Lee in a bio movie! 

So, these are my current favorites.  Perhaps you have others?  Leave them in the comments section.  Would love to hear who makes you proud!