Fun facts about me

I have been dying to write this article even though some of the facts has made me losing my sanity, which I’ll explain in details.  I don’t make those things up, but it’s part of the reason why I have been holding a lot of grudges over the years.  Therefore, please don’t come calling me out if I somehow mention a few names for calling me as such.  You have been forewarned.  So here we go ….

First, I have been told that I resemble someone who are in one of these three categories: Japanese, British, or American-born Chinese (AbC).  So I have decided to break them down and “decode” these myths right now.  While I have watched tons of Japanese dramas, anime and tokusatsu series, I am not a Japanese at all.  In fact, my Japanese is not that good even though I can read and write some Japanese language after learning that language for a year in college, despite of some people might claim.  As for AbC, in spite of the fact I speak just about “perfect English” in daily life, for those who have known me long enough would know this fact by now: I read, write, talk Chinese, specifically with Cantonese, Mandarin, and a certain dialect from Ningbao & the nearby islands around Shanghai area, and I was actually born in Hong Kong in January 1976 (btw, my birthday is coming soon), and I came to San Francisco in June 1989 with my parents when I was 13 years old.  Finally, with regards to my English, this will twist your mind a bit.  Even though I learned English in Hong Kong back in the 1980s, I started to pick up my accents by watching British actors in American television, films and later by listening radio broadcasts from United Kingdom, and the British expats who are living in this country and beyond.  Patrick Stewart, who starred and played Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, Adrian Paul, played Duncan MacLeod in “Highlander: The Series”, Sir David Attenborough, who was famous of making BBC documentaries such as “The Living Planet” and the UK version of “Planet Earth”, were the inspiration on my English-speaking style.  Later on, I listened to many BBC radio shows and World Football Daily (formerly World Soccer Daily), Law & Order UK, and English Premier League whether coverages originated from Fox Soccer Channel or ESPN.  A few other things I have to add that, while my face looks like Japanese, or AbC, the languages I speak gave my true identity (maybe with the exception of my English) rather easily.

A lot of people see me on the bus all the time rather than driving a car, and pondering why I don’t drive at all.  The sad truth is that I have tried my hands on the wheels in my family car a few year ago, but I never really get the nerves calm enough to push ahead – especially when my father gets on my nerves all the time about every little thing that doesn’t see his way of thinking – even when he does the driving, which can cause more chaos than we might all to believe.  In addition, there is one thing I don’t bring up too often this most embarrassing fact to anyone, while I was able to pass my driving test in the first try, I was the most miserable person in written test as I took it 5 times in 1993.  Asides from that horror show, I have yet to shake off the frequent accident that my dad had been involved with motor vehicle crash, especially when I have experienced two of those, which the last one is almost 6 years ago from a 4-car wreck caused by the last car that bumped into us and cascaded into another old vehicle.  Since then, I only tried to drive for three days maybe a year or two ago and not drive since.

Contrary to many people believes after noticing that I have a smartphone as of late, I DO NOT HAVE any sort of video game consoles at home.  I don’t particularly pay attention to those games when I read advertisements from Sunday newspapers, which I essentially skip over every time.  So what are my hobbies? The first one is something I have been physically constructed from the spruces that contained each snap-fit parts, and yes, that is known as Gunpla (aka, Gundam Plastic Model).  For the most part, I have built majority of them in Master Grade models although I also had some counterparts in High Grade when MG version wasn’t available until later on.  The second one is the super collection in music and movies, which I have spent the better part of the last decade finding those that I remembered most about my childhood in Hong Kong, for rightly or wrongly in the way I approached towards obtaining them.

For now, this is my last of the list.  However, for this particular category, please don’t feel annoy when I start mention it, (“What?!”) which you find out the trend when I’m heading to.  (“What?!”) I have a tendency of mimicking my speech pattern on a few professional wrestling superstars when I hear some news that runs afoul with my mood.  (“What?!”)  The trend began when I heard one of Stone Cold Steve Austin’s now-famous promos that lead to the very word I put in parenthesis as we speak, (“What?!”) and I have also paid attention to the promos from the likes of Booker T, (“Tell me you didn’t just say that?”)(“What?!”) The Rock, (“What?!”) John Cena, (“What?!”), The Miz, (“Really?!” )(“What?!”), and CM Punk (“What?!”).  Before you mention something like, “why are you keeping those quotes? It’s annoying,” (“What?!”) there are some instances that I don’t really have much of a choice when I say those quotes,  such as the sudden death of Gary Speed, the persistent buffoonish issues with FIFA, and hateful political speeches made by certain GOP candidates, would literally force my hands into muttering them publicly.  Of course, there’s always the instance known as too much noise around and I end up saying (“What?!”) all the time.  One have to admit, it’s much better than all those infamous and insensitive profanities that’s been heard in various languages around the world.

For now, that’s my list, I’ll add into this if I remember more.  Until then …..