Xabi Alonso Photobomb

I mentioned in an older post that I am a fan of soccer. Well, I’m also a fan of the players.

Xabi Alonso in particular.

He is just the perfect specimen of a man – classy, manly, and he looks like he should be on the cover of GQ (and I’m sure he has).

Oh, also, his team won the Eurocup (Viva España!)

Enough talk – here’s a gallery of Xabi Alonso. And to my lady readers – you’re welcome.

Summer 2012 Essentials

It’s been almost a year since I’ve done a post about my favorite summer things. Wow my blog is over a year old!

Anyways, here they are:

• Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Sunscreen
  I personally tan very easily and since my father got skin cancer last year, I’ve been a bit paranoid about going into the sun without any kind of protection for my skin. Neutrogena makes the best sunscreen, in my humble opinion, and I always use at least SPF 50 or higher.
• Milani Illuminating Face Powder
  I used to never use bronzer because I feel like my skin is tan enough already. And then I discovered Milani’s line of blush/bronzer/highlighters. I have this in Hermosa Rose and it looks quite lovely. I’m upset I never discovered this sooner.
• Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick (SPF 18)
  I never knew there were such things as SPF lipstick…but there is! I have discovered Rimmel London’s Moisture Renew lipsticks – they’re so pretty, the packaging is great, and they have a great finish! Best of all, they’re SPF 18. My favorite color from this line is Rose Blush.

What are some of your summer essentials this year?

Recommendation Wednesday: Battleground on Hulu

I don’t know about you guys but I’m always fascinated by political campaigns. Most people I know don’t really like politics, but campaigns, and especially Presidential campaigns, are entertaining.

Maybe it’s the way politicians are framed by their opponents, but there’s always a sense of good versus evil; two teams pitted against each other. It’s a publicized feud between countrymen and the stakes are high and the entire world is watching.

That’s why the TV show Battleground on Hulu piqued my interest.

Battleground is a story about a senatorial campaign. Well, specifically the campaigners –  the ups, the downs and everything in between. The main character, Chris “Tak” Davis (played by Jay Hayden) is the campaign manager for the dark horse candidate, State Senator Deirdre Samuels who is absolutely BRILLIANT.

As a volunteer for local political campaigns, I think this show is excellent and very accurate – campaigns get ugly but they bring campaigners together. In fact the only think I can really nit pick at it is that it doesn’t really show how boring it can get at campaign offices, but then again, this is a TV show and every moment should be entertaining. Also, I worked on small campaigns, not a big senatorial one ;]

There are currently nine episodes out and you can view it on Hulu.com. New episodes are out every Tuesdays. I definitely recommend this show to anyone who is interested in political campaigns, or anyone who just likes witty dialogue.

Happy Year of the Dragon

How did you start off the year of the dragon? I started mine eating lots of good food with my roommates:

Yum!

Happy Lunar New Year!

Asians at the White House

Standing in front of the Eisenhower Executive Office

It was a long time coming but I finally made it to the White House on Thursday, January 12. Well, I made it to the Eisenhower Executive Office.

Lead by Eddie Lee, the associate director for the Office of Public Engagement, the White House held a leadership briefing for Asian-American and Pacific Islander youth from all over the country.

It was interesting to say the least. The briefing was extremely educational and informative, as you can imagine, but I learned a lot about myself that day:

1. I realized I don’t identify myself as “Asian-American.” - I know this sounds weird but bear with me. My family mostly stopped associating with other Asians when I was small and because of this, I never grew up around a lot of Asians. Sure, we went shopping at Korean grocery stores at least once a week and I always eat rice and kimchi, but it never went beyond that. In high school, I was the only Asian among my group of friends so I was okay with being one of the minorities and, in fact, I was proud of my heritage. However, when I arrived at the conference and found myself in the middle of a sea of faces that looked like mine, I realized I was extremely uncomfortable and thought that I did not have as much in common with most Asians. I don’t identify myself as being Asian or even Asian-American. It’s only my ethnicity, not my identity. I am Deborah Yi and that’s how I identify myself. I wan to just leave it at that.
2. The “model minority” stereotype is detrimental to our success - Just because I don’t consider myself really Asian doesn’t mean others feel that way either. And because people perceive me a certain way, they will hold certain beliefs that may not be in my favor. I used to think that the “model minority” stereotype was not too bad. I mean, as far as stereotypes go, it could be worse and I’d rather people assume I’m very smart than assume I’m a drug dealer or something. But then I found myself wanting to avoid the topic of my race when I started applying to colleges because I found that once I check “Asian” under the “ethnicity” box, I’d be opening myself up to a whole new world of competition and pedestal. This is not okay.
3. There’s a reason why I don’t want to leave the DMV area - The DC, Maryland, and Virginia area is one of the most diverse and accepting community I have ever lived in. Because of the diversity found here, stereotypes and racism (though it may exist) is not as bad as some of the other places that I recently found out about. People I met at the briefing told me that theirs was the only Asian family ini the area and are subjected to some of the worst forms of racism every single day. It’s sad but it also made me feel quite fortunate to be from an area where diversity is the norm

All in all, it was an amazing eye-opening experience and I feel incredibly lucky to have gone, and though it was my first time at the White House, I hope that it will not be my last :]