現可得到在 Google Play!!! https://play.google.com/store/books/author?id=Chinie%20Chin%20Chen&hl=en 我的名字叫陳小城 。 我是陳國的皇帝。 我們是一個小王國, 最近成立的。 我是第一個皇帝!!! 我想與大家分享我們的故事闗於我們如何建立陳國跟我是如何成為其皇帝。 這是一個故事關於信仰、 謙卑、勇氣、智慧、領導、戰略、創造力、和 愛.......關於選擇生或死.......關於尊重對手和了解他的欺騙.......關於神助和強大力量.......和關於永恆救恩。 在內、我們告訴個故事關於如何陳國戰鬥惡魔 、而勝利又喜悅!!! 這也是一個故事於橘子和書籍??? 來吧、給我們一讀。 你會被感動、開明、流淚、在你座位前緣!!! 享受!!! 現可得到在 Google Play!!! https://play.google.com/store/books/author?id=Chinie%20Chin%20Chen&hl=en Now available in Google Play: Breaking News!!! Jeremy Linsanity has been traded to....the Los Angeles Lakers!!! Hip hip hooray!!! Hip hip hooray!!! For he's a jolly good fellow.... Oh, we could hardly contain our joy. One of our proud sons have come home!!! Jeremy, you must visit our headquarters...Monterey Park, Arcadia, Temple City, San Marino!!! Now, recently we blogged about the current state of Linsanity with the thinking that he would carve out a niche for himself in Houston. But then, out of nowhere, this divine gift drops out of the sky. Thank you, Lord!!! Well, when life throws you a curve ball, you gotta wait on it, read the spin...and then still knock it out of the park. So, we scrambled our wits together to proudly bring you the Linsanity State of Emergency!!! Being traded to the Lakers presents both a golden opportunity as well as a litmus test. You see, Jeremy is now entering the final year of his contract. How he performs this year will steer the trajectory of his career for maybe the next 5 years. Plus, the Lakers are a team that has wiped their own sleight clean and are starting with a pretty blank canvas with only a portrait of Kobe on it, and his paint will only stay on for 2 more years. So now, Jeremy Lin, we get to find out, with much incentive motivating, what game you got, big boy!!! We shall proceed with our open-heart surgery dissection of Jeremy's game. 1) Challenges After three years and intense media scrutiny, Jeremy's mental make-up has proved itself to be strong. He's weathered many ups and downs and endured uncertainties to position himself at the doorstep of opportunity. Having said that, his basketball game continues to face familiar challenges. The single biggest weakness of Jeremy's game is on-demand outside shooting. If you look at his stats, the percentages say he's a good shooter from three. But that stat is deceptive because there's a difference between hitting three's versus hitting three's on-demand. In the NBA, one of the names of the game is to impose your will on your opponent. You decide how the game should be played and force them to come along. One simple strategy to impose your will is to see who can't hit from the outside and keep making that guy shoot that shot. When a team adopts this strategy, the opposing team then must counter it by hitting that shot on-demand. Not percentages...hit this shot...to force them to change their strategy. It is a shot with purpose and not percentage. Jeremy's stats look good, but during the game, the other team exploits this weakness and lets him shoot three's by purposely backing off him. For these types of three's, he struggles. Hitting three's off of fast breaks or with a ten point lead is not the same as hitting three's when needed. 2) Aesthetics The NBA game is a combination of competition and entertainment. The entertainment aspect of the game is becoming increasingly important as the NBA tries to market itself to casual fans and overseas. So, it's important for a player to be both effective on the court as well as having a certain aesthetic quality to his game. For example, even though an air ball counts as 1 miss, it is really more than just 1 miss. A player who shoots an air ball just looks bad. You can't have too many air balls. With Jeremy, the aesthetic challenge to his game comes from his turnovers. Now, he is an aggressive player who likes to put pressure on the defense; so, he's going to be taking chances out there. But still, just like air balls, certain types of turnovers count as more than 1 turnover. Jeremy has been shown to be vulnerable to being forced into bad looking turnovers, the ones where he gets caught in the air and has to throw the ball up for grabs or where he has trouble handling the ball against a feisty defender. This just can't happen. He's got to eliminate that from his play. A steady solid player is much preferred to a swashbuckling risk taker who gets boomeranged with his own risk-taking. So, these two things, hitting three's on-demand and being solid with the ball, they comprise pieces to the puzzle of winning basketball. And they are big reasons as to why Houston Rockets coach Kevin McHale benched Lin in favor of Patrick Beverly, a less spectacular but more reliable player. McHale knows winning, and he was right to make that choice. 3) Leadership Now, assuming Jeremy works to shore up the previously stated weaknesses, he would be poised to take a giant leap forward on the biggest stage in basketball. He may find himself being the starting point guard of the Los Angeles Lakers with Kobe Bryant to play off of and Jack Nicholson sitting courtside. Any hint of great play from him will ignite the sparks for Linsanity the Sequel. We know that Jeremy is great at running the pick 'n roll play. When his coaches have ran that play frequently, he has lit it up; when they don't, he's been inconsistent. Now, Mr. Linsanity, you have a team who went out and traded for you. You need to take charge out there and be a floor leader. Pound the ball on the floor and bark out orders. Demand for that big guy to come set the screen. Lobby your coach to call your play. Get in the face of opponents who try to take cheap shots. Argue with the refs, take a tech to make a point and influence future calls. It's time for you to take the bull by the horns and mold your team according to your game and not the other way around. Also, you have the perfect partner to help you do this in Kobe Bryant. He is the walking definition of "I'm doing it my way." So, there it is. Hit the three that makes them pay, no more sloppy turnovers, and you control your own destiny. We're pulling for you, Jeremy. Go out there, kill it, and represent!!! This has been the Linsanity State of Emergency. In a famous biblical story, two women came to King Solomon with a dispute over who is the true mother of a baby. Solomon hears their case and then makes a decision. He calls for the baby to be cut in half. As the guard comes to cut the baby in half, one of the women jumps out and cries out to save the baby, "that'sa me baby!!!", while the other woman remains silent. From that King Solomon determines that the true mother is the one who tried to save the baby. Ahhhh...wisdom....hmmmm. Well, this biblical framework played out in real life involving me baby...Chinese characters!!! Yes, there is now a dispute over who invented Chinese characters. Koreans are claiming that they invented Chinese characters and are planning to register their claim with UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization). Whoa!!! This cannot be!!! This is certainly a topic needing some analysis. To do so, we shall reference King Solomon's logic. In 1966, Chairman Mao set China off on a cultural revolution to purge Chinese culture and economy from capitalist influences. The purging included the burning of books, closing of universities, destruction of paintings/calligraphy, and extermination of millions of protestors. The Chinese culture with Chinese language within it was under attack!!! In the violent struggle, millions of people resisted the movement. The price they paid was that they were lined up and shot. The ruthless overturning left China using the simplified version of Chinese characters. The traditional form of Chinese characters is now only used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, both of whom were shielded from the revolution. Taiwan was its own independent country, and Hong Kong was under British rule as a result of the Opium War. The Chinese characters are beautiful, diverse, and multi-functional; they can be used in calligraphy, decorations, ornaments. They are a treasure worth fighting to preserve. It's astonishing to think that a people were willing to die for a language. Today, the traditional characters are an endangered species compared to their simplified counterparts. China has taken back control of Hong Kong, and at any moment, China may invade Taiwan to take it back, also. Sometime in the future, there may be another fight over these characters. That fight will be extremely uphill for the traditionalists. It may be difficult to save the traditional characters. We need to fight the good fight!!! To paraphrase Eminem, will the real mother please stand up. In the process of writing our blogs, we have seen many videos on Youtube. Ahhh Youtube, what a revolutionary concept. Youtube gives aspiring actors, comedians, entertainer, etc. a forum to showcase their talents that otherwise would not appear on other media such as TV and movies. Here are some of our favorite Youtubers. 1) Ray William Johnson Ray William Johnson started out reviewing other videos that have been posted on the internet. His commentary on other people's videos quickly became very popular and he was at one time the most viewed person on Youtube!!! This is one amazing concept built on top of another amazing concept. He simply reviews other people's videos!!! He has since branched out into making his own music videos, scripted shows, a podcast, etc. He will be appearing in movies and perhaps have his own show one day. He's also a bit...vertically challenged...hehe. 2) NigaHiga Right about the same time, Ryan Higa, a.k.a. NigaHiga, was also wildly popular doing comedic videos on Youtube. He produces comedy bits where he plays different characters and does different types of voices. His brand of comedy is a combination of stand-up comedy, scripted skietches, and music videos. He started out posting some home videos he made with his friends in high school and continued to build his show from there. BTW, he's currently living in Las Vegas!!! Great choice!!! 3) Kevjumba Kevin Wu, a.k.a. Kevjumba, started out making videos from his bedroom. His style is a bit harder to determine. He does video blogs where he talks about different topics. He also does music videos and sketches. Some of his popular videos involve his dad, Papajumba, and basketball star, Jeremy Lin. 4) Wong Fu Productions Wong Fu Productions is an internet video/movie production company started by three friends in college, Phillip Wang, Wesley Chan, and Ted Fu. They make sketches, web series, music videos, variety shows, interviews, etc. They cover many types of videos with quite a few of their videos dealing with relationship issues. They have gained international notoriety and do global tours of shows in front of live audiences. Remember Long Duc Dong? He was the Asian character in the movie Sixteen Candles. He provided some comic relief to a drama by playing a character who personified many Asian stereotypes. He didn't tell jokes or had funny lines; he just acted goofy. At the time, there was an endearing charm to his character that appealed to the audience. Now, many years later, the roles that Asian actors portray in the media remain largely pigeonholed to this type of character. The repetition of these types of caricatures of Asians on screen has grown tedious and tiresome. What's so funny about this still? The identity of the Asian American has been hampered by such type-casting. It predisposes people to be inclined to laugh at Asians even in circumstances where they are not being funny or even trying to be funny. They laugh because they are used to it. Here at KOC, we protest against this subtle yet powerful illusion that is not representative of the reality. We aim to forge a respectable and dignified identity for the Asian American. So, it is our pleasure to bring you...The Search for Bobby Lee!!! 1) Bobby Lee What better place to search for Bobby Lee than with Bobby Lee himself. Bobby Lee is an actor/comedian best known for his role on the TV show Mad TV. The characters that he played were mostly Asian-type roles such as parodies of Kim Jung Il, Connie Chung, and a blind Kung-Fu master. It was a comedy show, so he played the characters in a manner that poked fun them. And that's our point here. We would like to see characters that are not tied to some form of Asian caricature. We want to find the real Bobby Lee, the one who is...you know...like everyone else. 2) Asian Guy on Blind Date The producers of Blind Date put an Asian guy on the show who fit many Asian stereotypes. Reality TV is not really reality, as there is scripting involved. So, the Asian guy deserves blame also for agreeing to play this type of role. For those of you who watched the show, you might know that Blind Date became a show where many actors/models went to publicize themselves. So, he may have gone on the show to promote his brand. That's the sad part...this was his brand. 3) Jet Li How about we try another Li, Jet Li. Ahhh, now here is someone who commands respect. Jet Li is a martial arts expert turned movie star. He has starred in many hit movies both in Asia and America. The characters he plays are usually kick-ass. We like that. The trouble with Jet Li is that in the spectrum of Asian American, he is almost purely Asian. In fact, he became an American citizen and then renounced it and moved to Singapore. So, here we are searching for our identity, and one of the candidates takes off and leaves!!! Oh no, this can't do. 4) Shark Tank Contestant Okay, how about this one. One of our favorite shows is Shark Tank where contestants present business ideas to try to get funding from venture capitalists. It does not get any more real than giving a presentation to try to get money. Bobby Lee doppelganger, Mary Ellen Simonson, appeared on an episode to pitch her idea of a sticky pad (formerly known as Post-It Note) for sticky pads. Huh??? That was also the reaction of the Sharks. Oh no, here was a golden opportunity to prove our case in front of a national audience and....sigh....fast forward to 25:50 of the next clip. So, what have we unearthed in our search for Bobby Lee, the Asian American identity? Well, in the immortal words of Bono, "I still haven't found what I'm looking for". Proper portrayal of Asian Americans in the media remains illusive. We can only carry on and continue to fight the good fight and demand that media stop the stereotypical patterns and progress to casting Asian characters in roles that are dignified and respectable.
companies during the dot-com bubble of the late 1990's. Back then, people were fascinated by the concept of the internet and marveled at the wealth of information that had become available at their disposal. As with any bubble-driven craze, the possibilities for the internet appeared to be limitless. It could do...well anything!!! In an interview, Yang was asked about what he thought of the future of the internet. He replied by explaining that the future of the internet was to evolve from a pull-model internet to a push-model internet. By that he meant, the internet had started out as a pull-model where the user would pull information from the internet by searching for it through a search engine. Initially, that was called "surfing the web". It was a lot of fun back then. Yang argued that a more powerful way to use the internet was to be by a push-model where information/content would be pushed or delivered to the user without the need for a search to be done. That perspective would shape the strategic direction for Yahoo! ever since. Yahoo! became dedicated to being a content-delivering web portal. Even today, when you go to Yahoo!'s main page, there is an elaborate layout of links to news, entertainment, sports, games, etc. Led by Yang's vision, Yahoo! focused on adding content to their website. They hired sportswriters, financial reporters, and a whole host of content creators to enrich their website. In their thirst for adding content, they infamously purchased a company called Broadcast.com, founded by Mark Cuban, for an astounding $5.7 billion in Yahoo! stock, making Cuban an instant billionaire. Broadcast.com's business was to deliver live streaming video of events such as sports, concerts, etc. on the internet. At the time of Yahoo!'s purchase, Broadcast.com had never made a profit. This was classical dot-com bubble mania. Today, Broadcast.com and live streaming video no longer exist on Yahoo!'s website, and even now, the technology for live streaming video on the internet is still a bit shaky. This was not just a mistake in terms of a bad purchase; it was a much grander mistake in having the wrong vision. By focusing on pushing content to the user, Yahoo! neglected the pull-model of searching the internet. That opened the door for a company called...Google. Google had the exact opposite vision to Yahoo! They were all about searching the web. When you go to Google's main page, there is a search box in the middle of the screen and not much else. The simplicity of that page is symbolic of Google's mission. They wanted to help you find things on the internet, help you pull it. Their single-eye dedication to this endeavor reaped a cultural reward in that we now called searching the internet "googling" something. With this divergence of visions, Google went on to become a dominant internet player, and Yahoo! was relegated to a niche website. So was Yang wrong in his vision for the internet? Well, he was half right, half wrong. His idea for the push-model internet was only half-baked. When you go to Yahoo!'s main page, yes the content is there for the user, but the user still has to peruse the options and decide which link to click. The content is only delivered up to a point, and then the final step has to be closed by the user. In the world of instant gratification that is the internet, that final step represents a huge chasm with millions of users not taking that final step time and time again. A second mistake in Yang's evaluation was that he underestimated the power of the pull-model internet. When someone is searching the web, that person is seeking information with a measure of curiosity. That means, this person wants to click on links and view different web sites. By helping the user search the web and inserting some ads along the way, Google reaped huge profits. Searching the web is a very lucrative activity with the user actively participating. Yang's half-baked vision was missing the other half, and that other half was worth billions upon billions of dollars. The concept that Yang was missing became the storyline of the movie, The Social Network. You see, the half that completed the pie...was social media. With social media, Facebook and Twitter, the content is fully delivered to the user by other users, some of whom are their friends and family, which increases the likelihood that the content would be clicked. Other times, there may be celebrities delivering the content to millions of followers. A huge number of clicks can be reaped just from one celebrity's tweet, which is less than 140 characters. Yes indeed, the push-model internet is extremely powerful, much more powerful than the pull-model. With social media, an obscure website, silly video, or breaking news story can reach millions of people immediately, without which they would sit idly on the internet waiting for someone to come search for it. The plot of the movie, The Social Network, is that lawsuits were being filed by people involved with Facebook in the beginning stages over who came up with this concept of networking people and sharing mundane information with one another, posting updates of what they are doing and pictures of their lunch. At first, the dispute seemed ludicrous. It was just an idea. Making it come true was the real work. Plus, for some, the whole universe of social media was just one big wastage of time in a fantasy world of imaginary friends. Ahhh...but if this concept had been available to Yang back in the early days of the internet....oh what might have been. In retrospect, this truly was an idea worth billions. A few years ago, we started to follow an NBA player named Jeremy Lin, simply because he was Asian, as he started with the Golden State Warriors, bounced around some teams, and wound up on the New York Knicks. He received limited playing time and usually came in during garbage time for mop-up duties. It was a personal struggle of which he has detailed during interviews. He toiled as the last guy on the bench, and the Knicks sent him down to the Eerie Bayhawks of the Developmental League. Jeremy kept the faith and played only one game down there where he put up a triple-double (28 points, 12 assists, 11 rebounds). Right then, we knew, he was too good for the minors; he was NBA-level talent. He forced the Knicks to call him back up to the bigs. Upon his return, there was one game against the Detroit Pistons where Jeremy came in for the last few minutes and wound up with 4 points, 1 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1 steal. I saw that and said, wow, he's really having an impact out there. So, the rumblings were in the works,...and then, the volcano erupted. The Knicks put him in a game against the New Jersey Nets for extended minutes, and he led them to a thrilling victory. You remember the rest; the onslaught continued, as Jeremy racked up one great game after another and lit the world on fire. The flames have calmed down considerably since then, as Jeremy has settled into a starter/back-up role with the Houston Rockets. So, where are we now with Jeremy Lin??? Let us whip out some technical basketball jargon, as we are pleased to bring you....The State of Linsanity!!! In basketball, the job of the coach is to design plays that would put his players in a position to succeed. Then, it's up to the players' talents to take over and execute the play effectively. That principle fueled the Linsanity run. The then coach of the Knicks, Mike D'Antoni, repeatedly put Jeremy in a position to succeed. For Jeremy's game, that meant coming off a screen on a pick 'n roll play with him handling the ball with his right hand, ending up about 3 feet above the free throw line, and with a big man rolling to the basketball. You put him at that spot, and it is heat-seeking missile red zone of position to succeed!!! Due to injuries to their star players, a losing streak, and desperation, D'Antoni ran this play for Jeremy ad nauseam...that means until you faint, just making sure. Jeremy took full advantage of the opportunity and posted historical numbers. When the star players returned, some jealousy arose, and that might have factored into Jeremy's decision to move on to the Houston Rockets at the end of that season, laughing all the way to the bank!!! Well, now, the situation has changed. He's now on a team that is loaded with talent that is winning. So, the urgency to run Jeremy's bread-and-butter play is no longer there. Instead, Jeremy now has to figure out how to fit into the bigger picture of a championship contending team. His current coach, Kevin McHale, puts him in positions where he has to hit three-point shots from the corner or the wing. At this point in his career, and by NBA championship-level standards, Jeremy shooting three's is...not a position to succeed. It is cold turkey, straight out of the freezer, rock hard!!! So, what to do??? Should he demand a trade??? Complain about his play not being called??? Well, Jeremy, here is our Kingdom perspective. Let's go back to that game with the Eerie Bayhawks. Keep the faith, accept your new role, albeit off the bench as a legitimate NBA rotation player. You need to heat up the cold turkey. Make the three's, and you will force the coach to call your play; the fans will speak up for you. You once proved that you were too good for the minors. Now, the next step up is to prove that you are too good to just stand there and shoot. Our strategy is simple, make the shot, and the rumblings will return...and perhaps...possibly...the volcano will erupt again. We're pulling for you, Jeremy!!! This has been an update from the State of Linsanity!!! |
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May 2015
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