What is that expression? I mean really. What is that? It’s like this half asleep “how yooouuuu doin?” Atleast the hair is nice, I guess. But

friend request denied.

From Gawker.com:

The White House has tapped two D.C.-area techies to run the government’s tech infrastructure. His CIO, Vivek Kundra, turned out to have a rap sheet. Now his CTO Aneesh Chopra, has a drug problem.No, not that kind of drug problem. But Chopra, before getting named White House CTO, served as Virginia’s secretary of technology. He made his name automating Virginia’s healthcare industry. One of the specific achievements he was lauded for was getting the state’s scattered doctors’ offices and clinics to file electronic prescriptions. Web 2.0 fanboys love him. Sounds great, right?

Sure, until we heard that hackers had broken into a Virginia state drug-prescriptions database and are demanding ransom for more than 8 million patient records. A state official said the FBI was investigating. Chopra, as the state’s tech boss, may not have configured the server personally — but he should have made sure something like this never happened.

An FBI investigation: Where have we heard that before? Oh yes, at Kundra’s previous job. Before becoming White House CIO, Kundra ran Washington, D.C.’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer, which has been mired in a bribery scandal. He was briefly suspended, even though he hadn’t been named as a target of the investigation.

The natural conclusion to draw: Obama’s techie hires talk a good game. But when it comes to actually keeping our nation’s servers safe from attacks within and without, they’ve fallen down on the job. President Change deserves better than a bunch of smooth-talking PowerPoint jockeys. He needs hackers, not hacks.

Take a listen:

It took me a couple listens to get into it, but I like it.

-the original BIG

We are currently talking about Mental Health and Mental Illness in one of my Social Work classes right now.  I was just thinking about how “not-a-big-deal” therapy and counseling are for me, but still I felt the urgent need to keep my therapist visits a secret from my parents.  Why do some/a lot of South Asian families find it so hard to talk about our emotions and problems?  Even my South Asian friends are that way.  It’s sort of contradictory to overly emotional Hindu bhajans, not to say all South Asians are Hindu, but you know what I mean.  I guess it makes sense considering that a lot of South Asians’ have a trend of overachieving and never admitting it when something is wrong.  Why is everything such a secret as if it’s shameful and embarrassing?  I just want to provide some links for my fellow South Asians who find it hard to talk to people:

South Asian Mental Health Awareness in Jersey

http://www.naminj.org/programs/samhaj/samhaj.html

SAWNET: Health Issues for South Asian women

www.sawnet.org/health/

“The Indian-American film star will be an emissary to the Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities, along with arts and entertainment groups,” according to the New York Daily News.

The actor campaigned rigorously for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential campaign.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123896998996190775.html

Get your Kal Penn dose here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/07/kal-penn-leaving-house-fo_n_183904.html

So we pull into the parking lot and we were a little shaken but mostly over it. I get out of the car and there are two desi guys approaching me. description: imagine a desi person. in a tight short sleeve shirt (in jacket necessary weather). miniscule muscles completely flexed, spiked hair, very guido-ish. now picture two. They were like “WHAT THE HELL? WHAT WERE YOU DOING? DIDN’T YOU SEE OUR CAR?” In the distance, a gujju looking desi girl emerged from the back seat, looking pissed off, as well as a straight up fob, who just looked confused. The second they saw me, and it registered that I was a fellow indian person, a girl at that, who furthermore was apologizing profusely in a high squeaky voice, they just kind of froze and then turned around and walked back to the car, looking generally pissed that there would be no altercation. They tried to maintain their toughness as they walked back to the car and drove away. 

And that is the time I almost got beat up by desi gangsters. 

Although, if I could have a redo, I totally would have gotten down on my knees and been like “maaf kerdegieyyyyyyyyy.” with tears.

desi-auntie-posing-as-openminded: I have told my son he can marry anyone as long as they are not Muslim, Christian or black.

my uncle: Ok, so it’s alright if he marries a white man then?

Of course the auntie just kind of recoiled and had a couple of involuntary spasms.

Desi people, especially young Desi men, like to pretend to be open-minded about black people. A lot of young desi men like to show their open-mindedness by going so far as to emulate “black culture.” You know, they write things like “dAmN, sOn” on each other’s facebook walls. Or they dress very ghetto fobulous (intentional misspelling) in oversized t-shirts and those hats with the stickers on them. They listen to rap music and throw out gangster-sounding phrases at random. I knew this one guy who liked to say “what up dawg” and every term that had finally filtered down to mainstream white society. He had a lot of “swagger.” Until one night when I asked him to come to a Dem Franchise Boys concert with me b/c I was going to try to scalp my ticket. So he comes, but after 30 seconds of standing on the sidewalk, he is clearly uncomfortable and says, “let’s leave soon. There’s too many kalus around here.”

Other things desis like pretending to be open-minded about: professions other than medicine and science, non-desi food, Hindus or Muslims (depending on which they are, it’s the opposite).

I wish I could say this trait is specific to the first generation, but sadly it’s not. Too many desis have managed to successfully pass down their stereotypes to the next generation, mine.