jessicalum.com/blog

I wanted to take a moment to shift some attention to three amazing publications that I’ve been helping out with, or have helped me out a great deal over the last year.

Many of the organizations that were started to reach out, broadcast, and appreciate the amazing work of Asians and Asian Americans (or Asian Canadians, Asian Brazilians, etc.) are struggling under the financial burdens of the economic environment, especially in the journalism and print media industry.

Organizations like Giant Robot, Nichi Bei Weekly, and Hyphen Magazine are some of the few unique publications that cover and serve Asian Americans, but they are constantly in need of support.

3 Ways to Save Our Magazines, Our News, Our Community:

1. Subscribe

By subscribing to these publications, you get access to exclusive, awesome news, features, interviews, photos, art, and a way cool publication to put on your coffee table! But if that’s not enough, you give back to publications, as they earn not just cash from your subscription, but they can get better numbers and revenue from advertisement. It’s really a win-win situation when you subscribe.

• Giant Robot – 1 year subscription starts at $24, or more for cool GR swag
• Hyphen – 4 issue subscription for $18
• Nichi Bei Weekly – 3 months for $12

2. Donate

Donating gives you good karma.

But what’s more (tangible), Giant Robot and Hyphen offer free gifts with certain donation amounts! Amazing! Our favorite word: FREE!

• Join the Giant Robot Army of Donors, get amazing gifts by GR artists like David Choe and Takashi Murakami
• Join Hyphen magazine’s Overachiever’s Club, get free gifts and make your parents proud
• Donate through Paypal to the Nichi Bei Foundation or give goods

You can also get tax deductions by donating to non-profit pubs like Hyphen and Nichi Bei, which is pretty sweet for us working folk

3. Spread the word.

Whether or not you’ve got extra lunch money towards subs or donations, you can always cash in on free speech!

Spread the word about the importance and amazingness of these publications with your friends, parents, brothers, sisters, and hundreds of cousins. Got a rich engineering uncle? Accountant mom?

Also, share the scoop on the publications on Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Tumblr, MySpace, your blog, wheatpaste, open mic nite.

More Info on the Publications:

Giant Robot:

Founded in Los Angeles in 1994 by Eric Nakamura and Martin Wong, Giant Robot started out as a hand-stapled photocopied zine. Within a few years, it became one of the strongest, most comprehensive sources for Asian and Asian American pop culture. It has since expanded into a Giant Robot empire, including four retails stores and one restaurant: 2 stores and GR/eats restaurant in Los Angeles, GRNY in Manhattan, and GRSF in San Francisco’s Haight neighborhood. Giant Robot just celebrated their 15th year Biennale show in Los Angeles’ Japanese American National Museum. Over the past 15 years, GR has showcased the work of hundreds of local and international Asian and Asian American artists to an audience of every color and shape. GR covers urban artists, amazing Asians doing crazy things worldwide, mainstream and underground cultural trends, cool toys, films, and as they say, “Asian Pop Culture and Beyond.”

Hyphen magazine:

Hyphen magazine was founded in 2002 when a larger Asian-focused publication, A. Magazine, ceased publishing. A group of recent college grads got together to dream up a way to fill the void left behind in Asian American news, community and culture coverage, while offering something fresh and new for readers.

Hyphen focuses on Asian American activism, issues, and everyday people doing amazing things. Check out the Hyphen site and blog for a sampling of subjects Hyphen covers.

Nichi Bei Weekly:

Formerly the Nichi Bei Times, the Nichi Bei Weekly is a part of the Nichi Bei Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to serving primarily the Northern California Japanese American community. Historically, the Nichi Bei Times was the leading Japanese American newspaper in the USA. Founded in 1946, the NBT’s goal was to connect the fractured postwar Japanese American community. Currently, the Nichi Bei Weekly strives to represent, cover, and address the concerns of the community.

Recently, the Nichi Bei Times had to close its doors and reevaluate its role in the community. As many subscribing readers are aging and younger readers are far and few, NBT was bleeding revenue. Determined to continue serving the community, Nichi Bei editor Kenji Taguma began the Nichi Bei Foundation, a non-profit organization designed to keep the paper alive in a weekly form.

Friends, family, extended friends and family,

Most of us have a bit of your own renewable resource to give this holiday season — blood. A little prick and a few minutes of your time may save a life, or help lives like mine.

Several news sources have highlighted the depleted blood supply (especially rare blood types) from November through January, since there are fewer or no blood drives going on. [Source: Chicago Tribune and the Sacramento Bee]

So if you’ve got the time or inclination, your blood donations could save lives!

Also, if you’re interested, you can donate to BloodSource under my name, which is where I get blood units from if/when I need transfusions. It’d be a nice gesture for BloodSource to know people support them in appreciation for them supporting me. And it doesn’t matter what kind of blood type you’ve got! Anything is appreciated.

Though I fortunately haven’t needed any transfusions since April (my vampire days are over, for now), but I may need them soon in the coming months to combat the side effects of radiation–my red blood cells and platelets might drop below what’s normal and safe.

Also, registering for the National Marrow Donor Program can dramatically change and tangibly save someone’s life. Leukemia, more so than even my own condition, has a good chance of going into remission from a bone marrow transplant.

Right before my last treatment, I had the awesome opportunity to meet Janet Liang, a fellow Bruin in a similar predicament as myself — at 22 she was diagnosed with leukemia, just this past August.  Here’s her site: HelpingJanet.com

People of Asian and mixed descent have an especially difficult time finding people who are a bone marrow match. From what I understand, this statistic is largely due to the fact that marrow matches tend to be in the same ethnicity, and there just aren’t that many Asian or Asian American donors. Here’s the Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches site.

Finding a match for Janet, or any patient with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and marrow-related diseases, will give them an even greater fighting chance — and a hero to thank!

So please, PLEASE, consider helping out! You could be helping us all kick cancer in the butt.

Sincerely, and with tons of love,

Jessica

We all know what they say about first impressions. They leave…an impression.

Yadda yadda, cliche cliche, lead with your best foot forward, etc etc.

But in this new social space of Internetworking, social rules shouldn’t go out the door.

So here’s some good old fashioned advice from my warmest intentions to men out there, who are probably already confused about face-to-face social conduct, and are now trying their luck in cyberspace.

How not to do it:

Here’s an exact quote from a craigslist posting. No offense to poster. Listed under Strictly platonic.

What should I say about myself. I’m a 23 year asian/white mix male college student. 6ft tall, wears glasses pretty much all the time.

Hold on, hold on. Never, ever, begin a personal with an obvious question that doesn’t even end with a question mark. [Bad grammar -3 points]

Okay, so you begin with the physical description, way to go; like in a real social environment, this is how others would immediately see you.  [Understanding of social dynamic +.5]

I don’t smoke or do drugs, very rarely drink.

[How pleasant, but some might think boring.+/-0]

I’m shy but trying to being more outgoing. I’ve been told I’m nice though I should talk more.

Shy, okay, a lot of us are. A lot of us try to be more outgoing. But am I trying to being? Bad grammar. -1. I like a literate  man, as do most women. Be more careful about how you represent yourself!  Also, you let other people determine your worth? Your qualities? “Nice?” How generic! A lot of people are “nice”. How is this interesting? Relevant?  [Bad grammar -1, Generic -2, Irrelevant -1]

Not a big fan of sports, but I practice marital arts 2-3 times a week. I like art and playing guitar as well.

As a sports fan, I’m not impressed. But personal bias aside, sounds good, list those interests. Martial arts, cool. But mentioning art and guitar…how generic, again. And wait…do you have a job? Direction in life? Women like men with both qualities, and at least the latter….just being pragmatic here. [Boring -2, Generic -2, No money -0.5, No goals -2]

I like anime and manga(I’m not a hardcore otaku, but I try to learn about the more recent anime coming out) and go anime conventions here in Southern CA.

HOLD UP. It’s fine that you like anime and manga and all, but NEVER ADMIT THIS! Not on the first impression. NEVER!!!! Regardless of how you spin this, the connotation of admitting interest in such things is very unattractive. VERY. I immediately think: cos-play, sweaty hands, overweight, socially awkward. I can’t help it! The stereotype is rarely true, but that image alone evokes such distaste that the average female would be … repulsed.  You must first dispel this stereotype by proving otherwise before admitting such interests. Also, “otaku”? You nerd. Only otaku themselves use that term to glorify themselves!! True otaku find themselves endlessly flattered to be referred to by a Japanese word. And it sounds so much cooler than “gaijin” or “amerikajin”.  And ANIME CONVENTION!?!?!? Alright, you are from so-cal. There are a lot down here. But still…. [Admits Affinity for Anime -5]

I also like Japanese music (j-rock/ visual kei) but I also like American and British music as well. I like learning about different cultures, like traditions, languages and food.

No harm, no harm. A tad ethno-centric though, Mr. International lover. [Possibly Ethnocentric - 0.5]

I’m looking for someone I can hang out with. I have a couple of female friends, but most of the time, they’re either too busy to hang out with me or flake on me at the last minute. Even my male friends are usually too busy with work or visiting other friends, so I’m usually stuck at home wondering if anyone is going to be free that weekend

Sounds like you need new friends. Guess there’s no better place than Craigslist to find them. But by admitting this, you bring up this question—why do your friends flake on you? There’s got to be more to it than the mere fact that your friends are busy and…lame. And if you’re always the 3rd wheel, the 5th string, the one they always forget to call, man. You’ve succeeded in making me feel pretty bad for you, but I still wouldn’t want to be your friend. Don’t admit that!!!!! Let your merits, rather than your pity party, speak for you. [Admits Self-Pity -4]

So I pretty much want someone who I can actually hang out with and do fun stuff with. Someone I can ask if they want to see a new movie and they’ll gladly say yes or even better, they invite me to go with them to do something interesting, like hang out at a beach or mall or anything else just to get out of the house. Maybe we can even hang out together an anime convention or local J-rock concert.

Ah in this populous great city of angels, how lonely we can still be. But uh…there’s more to do in LA than see movies. Great idea, how non-generic! You probably do need to get out more……..so anime conventions or local j-rock concerts? (I didn’t know that J-rock concerts are local). How often are anime conventions? 3 times a year down here? So maybe the total of J-rock concerts and anime conventions = 5 times a year? Are those the only times you get out?  [Generic -2, Sheltered -1]

It would be nice if we could have some common interest as well (anime, music, culture, etc.) so we can have some stuff to talk about. I want to meet a girl who’s honest, sweet, kind, doesn’t have a lot of emotional baggage, is capable of listening as well as carrying on a conversation, can show me new things and is willing to try something new as well, and above all, can be a fun person to be around

Is that too much to ask?

If only it wasn’t so generic. Most guys want that (even the anime part). But hun, to meet interesting people, you have to be interesting yourself. When you run out of things to talk about (you both finished watching the last episode of Tenisu no Ojisama, now what), and get tired of talking about music (can’t be that much local J-rock out there), stop bemoaning the woes of a decaying culture, and run out of etcs., what are you to do? [Generic -2]

I’m open to anyone though I’d like to meet some Asian females, since I really never had a lot of Asian friends growing up. I live in the San Fernando Valley though I hang out in Downtown LA and the San Gabriel area sometimes.

“Females”? I hate when people refer to women as females. Or men as “males”. We aren’t some sort of specimen or animal species to be objectified. “Lo! Look beyond that yonder bush! See that she-human, running about! A female! How beautiful!” [Bad Diction -2, Possible Misogynist -2]

I’ll be kind and not pick on your generic choice of Asian women. [Generic -1]

I apologize if this is a bit too harsh. If you need help sounding less boring, I will proofread your personal ads for a mere $20 apiece. And if you were the unfortunate lad who posted this craigslist ad, I will mail you a beer and a printout of my advice for free.