Gong Xi Fa Cai

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Gong Hey Fat Choy! Cung hỉ phát tài!

2015: Year of the Goat.

Please drink responsibly.

The Problem with Valentine's Day...

For the better part of the past decade, I've posted an image of black oil-slick on Valentine's Day...


No commentary. Just a black oil-slick. Where a heart might be.

(It's an image I clipped from the open credit sequence of THE X-FILES MOVIE, btw.)

This is the first Valentine's Day in a long while that I happen to be in a relationship and it occurs to me that "Valentine's Day" penalizes people who aren't in a relationship AND people who ARE in a relationship! If you're a couple and you want to go out on Valentine's Day, it will cost you more. Why? Does that extra profit go towards helping lonely people? It's so cumbersome. Nobody wins.

The Driver's License of Dorian Gray

I got semi-carded at a bar the other night.

"How old are you?"

"Excuse me...?"

"I said, how OLD are you?"

I started to laugh and it occurred to me that I'm asked this so infrequently these days that I had to think for a moment -- how old AM I...? "Thirty-nine."

The bartender gave me another look. "I'll take your word for it."

Understand, I used to ALWAYS get carded. And, increasingly over the years, got a quiet thrill when I handed over my driver's license and saw the shocked expressions when people saw my age. This has become a rarer and rarer incident.

I never thought I'd care about my own age... until I became FUCKING OBSESSED with it.

I was at the gym one time when this guy approached me with a question he prefaced with, "Excuse me, sir..."

"SIR"?! Did I look like I'd been fucking knighted?!? Why the fuck was this kid -- a fellow ASIAN guy, no less -- calling me FUCKING "SIR"??? Because he'd been taught to respect his motherfucking ELDERS?????? FUUUUUUUUUCK YOOOOUUUUUUUUU.

I'm okay. Really. None of this bothers me.