I'll give you something to swine about...

Quite frankly I am just plain tired of the media hysteria that has ensued over the last few days with respect to the Swine Flu. Don't get me wrong, pandemics are serious, but in this particular instance rather than fanning the paranoia flames, perhaps we should be putting this strain into perspective. Did you know each year 36,000 people in the U.S. die of complications related to the standard flu? To date, one person in the U.S. has died due to Swine Flu.

Did you also know that the World Health Organization was expecting this, apparently we were past due for a pandemic since they occur ever few years. Luckily, it was caught fairly early and it's epicenter is Mexico rather than a third world country without the means of containing the spread of the strain.

Bottom line, all y'all media peeps need to chill.

Sarah's Lesson for Today

You should not try and change your office's water cooler bottle while wearing heels.

Also, it is helpful if you work in an office where you are neither the youngest person employed nor surrounded by coworkers who are men with "bad backs".

Drink up people...

Tip your 40s to Bea Arthur

RIP

Roast of Pamela Anderson
Bea Arthur Uncensored
comedycentral.com
Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games

More Hodge Podge

I caught the last 15 minutes of the AMC show Breaking Bad yesterday night. In those few minutes there was a severed head riding a turtle and a dismembering landmine explosion. Which makes me think I really ought to start watching this show consistently again.

I was in the elevator this morning and this older lady asked me if I was real. I half expected the Olivia Newton John song Magic to start playing. I told her I don't understand what you mean. Then she pointed to her hair. Oh, I responded, yes, my hair color is pretty much real. Then she replied in disbelief, but your Japanese. I did not know what to say. Luckily the door opened on the bottom floor and we went our separate ways. An odd encounter, to say the least.

I have had cable for a few weeks and the best thing I have seen is this commercial:



That's all for now...

Love This

Creative packaging will always have a place in my heart.

http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2009/04/01/clever-and-creative-shopping-bag-designs/

I think this is especially clever:

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!

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!