Friday, March 27, 2009

Update: NOT Whasian

My sister tipped me off that Whasian is actually in the Urban Dictionary. There are basically 2 definitions:

1) A White person, wanting to be, acting like, or seems: Asian; and

2) one of mixed asian and white decent. whasian = white + asian.
it can be used to categorize someone. whasian can be a negative term in the way that the person can be considered white. a whasian sometimes does not fit into either group properly. subcategories: whinese, whapanese, whietnamese, whorean, whilipino, etc.

Okay, to be crass, both definitions totally suck. Whapanese? Hell to the No.

There is a also another term listed in the Urban dictionary for someone of mixed Asian and Caucasian heritage: Aite. Strangely, I find this A'ight.

I feel compelled to find my Aite brother and set him straight!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

What's Up My Whasian

I went shopping last night and was stopped by a gentleman manning the check out register at one of the stores. He apologized and said he just had to ask if I was "Whasian", he paused and added "you know, White-Asian". When I said yes, he offered up a high-five indicated that he was also of the Whasian persuasion. This was weird, but since he was not unattractive I paid it no mind.

I was thinking about the encounter today though and there are 2 things that bother me. First, for some reason the terms "Whasian" is not sitting well with me. Yes, it is just as generic a term as Hapa, but Whasian comes across as almost offensive to me and I can't pinpoint why. If someone asks me if I am Hapa, I happily reply yes! But if someone now asks me if I am Whasian, I will have to begrudgingly offer up a yeah, I guess so. Perhaps this is because in my mind the term Hapa infers a Hawaii connection? Curious...

The second thing that bothers me about the encounter is that this gentleman felt it necessary to define Whasian for me. What did he think I would mistake the term for? Welsh-Asian? Which I guess would still make me White-Asian. Wealthy-Asian? This was obviously not the case. Although, I was dressed in my best jeans and kicks. Wiccan-Asian? Sorry, but Hawaii's weather is not conducive to the darkly colored Wiccan garb, so I am prevented from subscribing to that particular theology. The movie The Craft was wicked cool though ;)

And just as a technicality, if I'm doing the whole Tiger Woods combine your ethnicity into a new term thing: I am Germaswedirijapanglish.

Germaswedirijapanglish. pride!

Friday, March 20, 2009

Oops, My Bad

Heather said something to me awhile ago that keeps proving more and more true. Awhile back she made some type of mistake and said "Oops, my bad". Then she stopped herself and said, that's something only old people say now, huh? I thought it funny at first, now I realize what a dead on analysis that was.

I attended oral arguments before the Supreme Court a few months ago and the case being beard before ours dealt with sentencing terms. The case also noted a procedural error by the prosecutor wherein he neglected to get evidence properly introduced at trial. After being questioned by the 5 Judge panel, the prosecutor came clean and said, "your honors, that was my bad". Whoa, never thought I would see the day. Which makes me wonder at what point the phrase became both dated and acceptable work place language? Just the other day in fact I was cc'd on an email from an attorney apologizing for not getting an agreement over to us, it was indeed "his bad".

When did this happen and does all language fall into this pattern. Was "Et tu, Brute" once a hip/popular saying, then eventually someone came along and said hey that is something only old people say, like Shakespeare.

Who knows.

In any case I hope everyone is having a good week. Perhaps you are even getting down with your bad selves by getting jiggy wit it?

That didn't date me, did it?

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Bunch O' Stuffs

1) In case anyone was curious about what Heather and I wore for St. Patrick's Day, we opted to retire the Irish Spring soap on a rope from last year and instead wore shirts that read "Irish You A Happy St. Patty's Day". And no, the shirts are not commercially available, we made them ourselves with puffy paint. We keep the puffy paint factory in business. We also sported ol' school crocheted Primo beer can hats. It was pretty sweet.

2) We got the results from the Swamp Romp this past week and although we were not last, we were close. As I always say, if you can't be number 1, then try and be number 313 (of 323 teams). As Heather pointed out, we even lost at losing. We will have to try harder next year.

3) So guess where Heather and I spent our lunch hour on Monday? That's right, watching Korean superstar Rain testify. We were able to use our super fantastic knowledge of the legal system to find out when, where and before which Judge the matter was being heard. I was also able to find out who was representing him and called in a favor to find out exactly when he was being put on the stand. Might I just say that his hair was fantastic, the sheen was almost blinding. Heather was so excited, it was all I could do to keep her from shouting out objections from the gallery. So awesome.



One last thing, sorry about the mishmash of topics here, I was not clever enough to think up a title that encompassed everything. I realize that Potpourri was the crappiest category on Jeopardy. Kala mai.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Sarah's Quick Tip Of The Week

People starting to find you predictable? Friends starting to guess your every move? Well here is what you're gonna want to do; start sending out emails like this to your friends and loved ones:

Hi Bob,

I was hoping you could help me with a favor. You know this city like the back of your hand. Do you know where I can get any of the following:

- A stained glass unicorn
- Vegemite
- An owl
- A Spanish Doubloon
- A plush manatee

Don't ask.

Thanks in advance,
Sarah

The important thing here is to include no less than 5 unrelated items. Try not to include more than 5 because then you seem more crazy than mysterious. Including "Don't Ask" at the end is the clincher. People will be intrigued, but generally respectful of your privacy.

Try it, and you are welcome in advance.

One last thing, does anyone know where I can get a snake wrangler costume(woman's)?

What? Legend has it that St. Patrick banished snakes from Ireland, I want to be festive for tomorrow. ;)

Friday, March 13, 2009

Lucky You Live Hawaii

That article I recently posted about Hawaii being one of the happiest states got me to thinking about some not-so-obvious reasons why we are "lucky to live Hawaii". This one is my favorite:

Do you realize that Hawaii is the only state whose postal abbreviation is also a salutation?

Take that Idaho, with your fancy pants Freudian terminology. You and your just as self-centered counterpart, Maine.

And will you make up your mind Oregon?

I must admit though, I do appreciate the constant state of wonder and awe of Ohio...

Consider yourselves lucky.

ps: South Carolina, you got yourself some pretty sweet initials ;)