Year after year, New Year’s Eve fails to live up to the hype.

Who likes useless tickets, long lines, overpriced drinks,
forced countdowns, or awkward midnight kisses anyway?

This year, preempt the disappointment and party it up the
night after the second to last day before the evening of the
last day of the year (that’s Tuesday the 30th).

No bullshit. Just good friends, booze, dancing, and art.

RSVP:  http://www.nyeveeve.com

Last week I was contacted to make a video for a new Kanye West produced Jay-Z song for RED & the Global Fund to Fight AIDS in Africa. It launched today (World AIDS Day) at red.msn.com. And while I’m happy to be able to help the cause I’m also more than a little bit excited about getting a chance to make something for the likes of Jay-Z and Kanye. I’ve been turning down client requests to use Typographic Illustration for 5 years in hopes that one day the phone would ring and it would be Hova. The video can be seen on (RED) WIRE, or at this direct link on MSN video (I will update with an embed-able video shortly). I’m pretty sure that this is the first rap video to end with a download source code link.

Jay-Z on iLike – Get updates inside iTunes

After getting out of advertising completely, I often get asked about my experiences, etc.  So, rather than writing a lengthy post, I’ve decided to go old school and make a list of five things I’d like to share.  I’ve spent the past 2 years trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life , and hopefully some of these things will resonate with others.

I believe that society and our culture encourages a risk-adverse path in life.  That’s why you see so many talented and creative people working at companies like Accenture and industries such as advertising.  It’s safe and easy to be an account planner or consultant.  And our society even encourages it with college, recruitment, etc.  This has led a lot of people to go down a path they didn’t want to go and becoming completely un-fulfilled.

Disclaimer:  Take this with a grain of salt.  I’m still figuring things out every single day.

1.  Steer in the right direction. The best advice anyone ever gave me as to figure out where I wanted to go 1,2,5,10,20 years down the road and make sure that every decision put me one step closer to that goal.  For example, I want to eventually launch my own startup within the next 3-5 years.  When I had a choice between two jobs: one that paid a lot (not aligned with my goals) and one that didn’t pay a lot (but aligned with my goals) – I chose the latter.  Having a clear direction of where you want to go is the best way to navigate.

2.  Fulfillment. If you’re looking to find fulfillment in your life, watch this TEDtalk by Tony Robbins titled “Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better.”  He discusses the “invisible forces” that motivate everyone’s actions, and even high-fives Al Gore in the front row.

3.  Paypal Mafia. I talk about this article all the time and it’s one that changed my life.  As lame as that sounds, it really did.  I was amazed at how a group of people could leave Paypal and start other companies like LinkedIn, Kiva, Yelp, Going etc.  I knew I had to be in a similar environment.

4.  Make Ideas Happen. In a recent interview with PSFK, they asked what inspires me.  I thought about giving a ton of trite and lame answers but ended up keeping it real at the end.  “But out of it all, I stay inspired by pushing ideas to fruition often against the status quo. There’s nothing more inspiring and fulfilling than making ideas happen (mine or others).”  And it’s true.  At the end of the day, there’s nothing more fulfilling and inspiring than making ideas happen.

5.  Entrepreneurship. To relate it back to advertising, there’s nothing more fulfilling than reporting back to yourself.  When you believe in an idea, you make it happen, and you alone.  You don’t have to put together a 100-slide presentation to “sell it in” nor do you have to go through layers and layers of bureacracy to get something approved.  Like Nike says, you just do it.  Within this environment is when amazing things happen.  I encourage everyone in advertising to get the hell out STAT.  Why build someone else’s broken brand when you can create your own?

Hopefully, this will shed light on some things I’ve learned from the past two years.  The hardest decision for me was to pick a goal 5/10/20 years down the road and stick with it. My entire life was laid out for me: go to UVA for 4 years, go to VCU for 2 years, work here for a year, etc.  But, none of this was aligned with what I wanted to do or with my personal goals.  It took me over 2 years to find my way (I’m still trying to figure it out), and when I laid a goal of where I wanted to be 5 years down the road (it was extremely hard to commit to something so far down), everything else fell into place.

Long story short.
Do something.  Make something.  Stop thinking about it, just do it.
Ideas are worthless.  They are a dime a dozen.  The valuable ones are the ones that happen.

This paper is about social structure defining an advantage in creating good ideas, and people reproducing the social structure as they discuss their ideas. The hypothesis is that people who live in the intersection of social worlds are at higher risk of having good ideas.

Ronald Burt pointed out the importance of “structural holes” — those nodes (people) that connect networks. If I know person A and person B and person A and B ought to know each other, but don’t, I am occupying a “structural hole” in their intersecting social networks, and making that introduction could create social capital [...]

Download the entire research paper by Ronald Burt here

RSVP by visiting http://www.behance.com/events

2.  Gmail Goggles (Thanks to Trumpet for finding this).

According to the Gmail Labs blog, “Sometimes I send messages I shouldn’t send. Like the time I told that girl I had a crush on her over text message. Or the time I sent that late night email to my ex-girlfriend that we should get back together. Gmail can’t always prevent you from sending messages you might later regret, but today we’re launching a new Labs feature I wrote called Mail Goggles which may help.

When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you are really sure you want to send that late night Friday email. And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you’re in the right state of mind?”

3.  New Orleans 100 Mixer

The New Orleans 100 is a worldwide initiative that will highlight and encourage discussion among millions about 100 of the most innovative and world-changing ideas to take root in the city since Katrina.

Come join us to celebrate the innovators, social entrepreneurs, and creative mavericks that make up the NOLA100.

RSVP is required and the secret location will be emailed on Monday, October 27th.
Come drink for a cause, party with a purpose, and hit up Rebirth for one dope after party. Everyone is invited, so tell all your friends!

4.  504ward

The Idea Village is launching 504ward’s $100,000 Business Competition for entrepreneurs with business ideas that retain and engage the 23 – 35 year old demographic in New Orleans.  Please visit our youtube page to get your creative juices flowing!

5.  Fifty People, One Question

Fifty People, One Question: Restored from Benjamin Reece on Vimeo.

(Update (10/2/08): Thanks to swissmiss for pointing out that “hate” is a strong word, so I’ve changed it to “dislike”)

As I’m putting together and curating The Feast Conference, I’ve started to generate some new ideas to make the entire conference experience unique and different.  As someone that goes to a lot of conferences, I have developed a personal list of things I would like to see that I’m incorporating..

1)  No panel discussions.  I haven’t been to any panel discussions that added any value, were informative or useful.  It’s just a bunch of people having a big ego-fest or one guy dominating all of the speaking to prove that he is the smartest one in the room.

2)  18-minute presentations.  All speakers at The Feast will stick to a strict 18-minute presentation (TED-style) to make sure that they present concise, short, and inspirational presentations/talks.  I read somewhere that the average attention span for a person ranges around the 10-minute mark.  We’ve decided that 18-minutes would be a good time frame, and would also prevent speakers from digressing on a tangent.

3)  Breaks between each speaker. We’ll be adding some type of multimedia experience between each speaker.  Kind of like eating ginger between each sushi roll.  We’ll be playing music videos, short 3-5 minute films to switch things up.

4)  Young Stunner Speakers. We’ve brought in young speakers who will wow the crowd with their valuable insights and passion.  There’s so much to learn from this group!

5)  Extra long breaks. I have an extreme case of ADD so I get restless when I have to sit for a long time.  We’re giving a 30-minute break every 1.5 hours to give people to relax, network, and eat!

6)  Networking opportunities. We’re sending personal emails to introduce people to each other BEFORE the conference.  This gives them the ability to have at least one person to approach and talk to when they come to The Feast.  We have a bunch of other networking ideas but we’ll keep those secret as we can’t reveal all of them.

7)  Healthy organic food. We’ll be providing organic, natural, and healthy food that should energize people and not make them suffer from “food coma” which happens at most conferences.  We’re not counting corners as all of our food will be locally sourced.  Mmmmm delicious…

8)  Legendary After Party. I mean, who doesn’t like to party?

9)  Great Speakers. Unlike most conferences, we’ve spent a lot of time curating a great speaker lineup to ensure high quality, mind-blowing speeches.

So, I guess that leads to my next question.  What else can I do to ensure a great experience at The Feast?  Even if we can’t incorporate it into the conference this year, it’s something we can add to The Feast 2009.

1. What are some things you’ve liked about conferences?
2. What are some thing frustrate you?
3. What are some thing you’d like to see?
4. What would make The Feast crazy awesome?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

The idea for The Feast came from a couple of places. Being based in New York, we’ve noticed a strong creative and social community without an outlet to spark innovation and connect with other likeminded innovators. Couple that with most conferences being lame (i.e. panels where the speakers brag about themselves) and the ridiculously high prices that conferences like TED and Pop!Tech were charging; we decided to bring something unique, creative, and affordable to the NYC community.  Hopefully, it’ll be a unique, inspiring, and extraordinary experience for everyone!

The weather is changing, leaves are turning and it’s back to school time at alldaybuffet. So put on a sweater and come out to our next Cause for Drinks on September 24th to support some great educational nonprofits for the fall season. It’s our last big one of the season! So don’t forget your backpacks, space travel, and spy supplies, this one’s gonna be a doozy.

Check out the facebook event here.

NYC
6-9:30 PM
Gallery Bar
120 Orchard St.
Starting Bloc. A partner of The Feast, Starting Bloc educates, empowers, and connects emerging leaders to drive positive social change across sectors.
host: Jerri

Seattle
7-9 PM
McLeod Residence
2209 2nd Ave
826 Seattle is a nonprofit writing center that helps students, ages six to 18, develop their creative and expository writing skills through workshops, publishing projects, and one-on-one help.
hosts: Steve

Chicago
6-9 PM
Between Boutique Cafe and Lounge
1324 n. Milwaukee Ave.
826 Chicago is a nonprofit writing center that helps students, ages six to 18, develop their creative and expository writing skills through workshops, publishing projects, and one-on-one help.
Host: Ashley

Minneapolis
The Imperial Room
417 1st Ave N.
CURE is a nonprofit that supports breast and prostate cancers.
Hosts: Sarah and Herb

San Francisco
Tunnel Top
601 Bush at Stockton
San Francisco School Volunteers
Hosts: Jan

And a great response from this blog post called “Why I will Never Date a White Guy: Asian Girl/White Guy Not for Me.“  Love it.

Last week at work, a white male co-worker was shocked when I told him that I prefer dating Korean/Asian men. When I then pointed out that all my ex-boyfriends have been Korean, he was literally stunned (edit – this was the same coworker who told me that he thought this socially awkward geek we know in the office would end up w/an asian girl since so many of us are so desperate to date white…he then stated that he can say this to me because I clearly do not fall in that category).

STUNNED. He acted as though I had made a huge sacrifice by forgoing the opportunity to be with a white guy, also known as “God’s gift to women” in his eyes (gag me now).

Little did I know that my nonchalant, casual comment would soon spread like wildfire. I had people coming up to me (both men and women) saying, “Is it really true that you only date Asian guys?” They treated my casual comment on my dating preference as a true shocker of the year. In my humble opinion, there is no way that such a reaction (shock, stunned, surprised, etc) would have occurred if I were, say Jewish or Black, and said that I preferred Jewish or Black men. So why is it such a shocker that I, as an Asian woman, would prefer dating an Asian man? Because this country has had a long (and I mean LONG) history of desexualizing and trivializing Asian men to the point that the masses just accept these stereotypes as being true. Let’s face it – Asian guys do have it a lot harder in this country than Asian women. Asian women have a history of being portrayed and seen as the sweet, submissive, Me-Love-You-Long- Time girl. And on the flip side, we have been viewed as being overly sexual for the white man’s pleasure (again, gag me now).

Hollywood stereotypes stemming from characters like Long Duck Dong in  Sixteen Candles have caused irreparable harm to the image of an Asian guy in this country (F**k you, John Hughes).

While white men were the white knight, capable of saving the day AND getting the girl, the Asian guy was just the chump or the one-dimensional moron incapable of being attractive.

However, growing up in a heavily Asian populated city, I always had Korean/Asian friends. I socialized with them, watched Korean dramas and idolized Korean boybands. In other words, I had an ALTERNATIVE viewpoint from Hollywood and the white man’s land that showed me that Asian men CAN be sexy, gallant, generous, talented, multifaceted and complex. My alternative media showed me different portrayals of Korean/Asian men not shown in America, which allowed me to not buy into the stereotypes and ridiculous bullshit that was being sold.

What you looking at?

However, I have noticed that some Asian women DO buy into that shit. And it’s both sad and irritating. While I have nothing against two random people falling in love by chance (Asian/White/Black/Whatever), I DO think it’s pathetic and lame when an Asian American woman proclaims, “I only date white men” or “I don’t date Asian guys.” Not only do I think it’s pathetic, I think they sound pathetic and just really, really stupid. Then when you ask these women why, they list a bunch of reasons that sounds more like it came from Hollywood Stereotypes 101 (unintentionally affirming that yes, they really ARE that stupid). Edit - Discriminating against YOUR OWN race is pathetic because it makes you a self-loathing person.  To want to date someone who SHARES your background, race, religion, etc. is NOT the same as excluding those who do. (So to the people calling me hypocritical, get a fucking clue.  Thank you.)

The truth is, one of the reasons I would never want to date a white guy because I would never want to be perceived by the outside world as being THAT girl (THAT girl has the attributes that I am strongly against and would NEVER want to be associated with.  Yes, these are the girls that make me want to vomit). Yes, I will sound like a bitch but fuck it, let me be honest - while THAT GIRL tends to mistakenly flaunt being with a white guy, I wouldn’t want to walk with my white boyfriend in public for fear of looking like THAT girl. The thought of having anything in common with girls that make me want to vomit is not okay with me (but that is NOT the reason why I don’t want to date a white guy.  I just don’t want to even resemble THAT GIRL because that is NOT who I am). Moreover, I don’t want to be a seen as someone who bought into the bullshit that white media have been trying to sell about Asian guys for decades.

Edit – NONE of my friends are THAT GIRL.  In fact, in our circle, being THAT GIRL meant you couldn’t get an Asian guy to like you anyway.  Sad.  Too bad that viewpoint is never shown in America.

One of my biggest fears is looking like this idiot:  http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ft_kY5KgCnE

Seriously, readers, what sucks more? Racist idiots or the self-loathing folks so desperate to sell out their own people and culture for white approval? Hmmm…tough call, ain’t it? (I choose the latter).

Let’s not forget that (in my own experience), the white guys who ARE into Asian girls tend to be Creepy. Weird. Losers. Weird. Dorks. And Weird. Personally, a cool white guy has never approached me because these objectively cool white guys have plenty of options (mostly other cool white women). They don’t need to look outside their own dating pool to dip into some Suzie-Wong- Me-Love –You-Long-Time action. And if I hear “I once dated an Asian girl” come out of another white guy’s mouth as his opening line, I just might punch him. So if my choice is between some weird, creepy, stereotype-clutching white guy or holding out for my Asian prince (see below, Mr. Coffee Prince, July 4, haha), I will hold out for my prince any day of the week.

And of course there’s the convenience factors – a Korean/Asian guy is more likely to understand my own struggles as a minority in the industry and in this country; we will likely enjoy eating the same foods (even if it’s kimchee everyday); and hopefully, he will be able to communicate with my parents and the rest of my family… at the very least, understand what they are saying OR implicitly understand the cultural values that are almost innate to us.

Plus, I am attracted to Asian guys…and no, NOT LONG DUCK DONG.

** Note:  I have nothing against interracial dating…but it is just not for me.  Furthermore, these rules don’t apply to Asian men who score non-Asian women.  Kudos to them for finding someone who isn’t blindly following the definition of what an Asian man is “supposed to be.”

Just to clarify.  I’m not an Asian activist.  I’ve dated girls from all races.  And yes, this happens.  I guess the real question falls into: how do you change this perception?

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