Experience Admerasia

Ah-Chu

2009-07-16T11:23:00.000-07:00

Steven Chu is the United States Energy Secretary who has just returned from his first official visit to China. Judy Chu just became the first Chinese-American woman in Congress today. Way to go Chu's, they aren't related, they just happen to have the same name. Even the woman that Judy Chu beat in the election to get to the position was also a Chu. Steven Chu and his associate Mr. Locke chilled with experts and officials in China to discuss energy. He's actually so impressed with their advancements and strategies that he thinks it's quite possible that China could catch up and possibly surpass the United States on that front. There ya go! A little more relevant, Asian American working for his country. Now here's some fun stuff, enjoy:
Russell Peters

Strike Master Mike

2009-07-15T07:25:00.000-07:00

Here's a shout out (text out?) to my boy Michael Swenson. He just won the Senior Babe Ruth Tournament in Greenwich, Connecticut, pitching 7 innings for the win. His team, Rink and Racket, are champions for the second year running, but for Swenson his baseball season is far from over. He's been recruited to the Greenwich All-Star team, to play in a few Connecticut wide tournaments, and is planning on continuing his hot streak on the mound, infield, and at bat. The title doesn't refer to his baseball prowess, but his bowling talents. During the winter Mike also led the Varsity Bowling team to State Finals, and he's pretty darn good at bowling.

Big news: Hilda Solis left a seat open in Congress when she left to become Obama's Labor Secretary, 2 front runners for her position from the state of California were Judy Chu (Democrat), and Betty Chu (Republican). 62% voted for the Democrat, and on Thursday she'll be flown into DC, to be sworn in. Actually what's really odd is that they're both cousins with each other through marriage. Now the reason why this is huge news, is that she's the first Asian American Woman to be elected to Congress. The times are changing eh?

Wild Wild West

2009-07-14T08:10:00.000-07:00

You must remember that movie made in 1999, with Will Smith and Kevin Kline, along with the promotional song with same title, neither of which were very good, but were amusing at the very least. "When I roll into the (Wild Wild West). When I stroll into the (Wild Wild West). When I bounce into the (Wild Wild West)." It's time to lead this topic into a more relevant one. Don't want to get too far off track like most of the other entries. So Western Union, a prominent client of New-A's.

Originally it was widely known in the US best for exchanging telegrams, until it disbanded that service because of technological advancements. Now Western Union has over 350,000 locations in over 240 countries and territories, and specializes in money transfer, money orders, and other commercial services. I'm only throwing out this tidbit of information because until a day ago, I hadn't much clue of what they did either. Yes that's right reading this blog can actually teach you things. Like, did you know that the Scottish National Flag, St. Andrew's Cross, is technically the oldest national flag still in use! It goes back to the 9th century. Here's another fact, today July 14th is a national holiday in France. Bastille Day, the French celebrate the storming of the Bastille, and French independence.

Back to Western Union, it's only logical that they attempt to advertise more to foreigners in the US because their main product is transferring money to almost any location in the world, which is exactly what many Asian Americans do. They send money to friends, and most importantly family back home. Advertising in language for their major niches is a solid idea, and will definitely increase business in a declining economy.

Entourage

2009-07-13T07:15:00.000-07:00

Season 6 of Markie Mark's (Mark Wahlberg) HBO (Home Box Office) premiered last night. The main cast of Entourage:
Vince-Adrian Grenier
Drama-Kevin Dillon
Eric-Kevin Connolly
Turtle-Jerry Ferrara
Ari-Jeremy Piven
While this first episode was actually not a very strong start to the show, this behind-the-scenes Hollywood show was welcomed by viewers anyways, just 'cause the gang is so darn enjoyable to watch. However the only decent plot of the episode had to be Lloyd (Rex Lee) pushing to get a promotion from Ari, because the rest of the show was surprisingly boring, consisting of simple one liners, and lame comebacks.

In other news, Eun-Hee Ji of South Korea sunk a 20 foot putt on the 18th hole for birdie to win the LPGA tournament at the Saucon Valley Country Club yesterday. While I did not personally see the coverage of the match, I hear that Ji put on a quite a show getting birdie on 3 of her final 6 holes.

What's Your FC Doing On Your Shirt?

2009-07-10T07:31:00.000-07:00

Now if you thought I swearing with those asterisks, you sir, are thoroughly mistaken. It just stands for face which is a basic component ofr the new t-shirt project. Let me back up. Okay, like 15 entries ago I talked about eCommerce and how we're going to try and implement that into the site, to make some extra cash, brand Admerasia, and try all sorts of cool stuff. Just the last entry I showed you some cool flash drive concepts, and here's another idea presented; T-shirts. Again our creative department let their minds roam without a leash, and they came up with some pretty crazy ideas.

A simple concept design with Admerasia, and a group of staff photos on the back. A cheap generic idea.

Another pretty simple idea with the phrase, "I am AdmerAsia n". Cute, they also took some pictures of people and threw them into the bottom.

Here's the Admerasia logo vertically done on the right side of the shirt and then pictures of people's eyes and upper part of their head in the frame.

This plan has a basic Admerasia logo across the chest, but a larger full facial picture of the wearer that stretches around the left side, visible from the front and left.

As cool as it would be to utilize some of these designs, it's kind of illogical because of the designs. A single t-shirt with one of these full screen prints is around $300!! The price is so expensive because it's insane to set up the entire process for such a large graphic and only order 1. Too even make the prices sellable we'd have to bulk order a ridiculous amount in an effort to lower the price to around $15. Because of these restraints I think we'll end up with one of the more generic ideas, and simpler designs, but hey it was cool to see them, wasn't it?

ADM #1

2009-07-09T08:38:00.000-07:00

Admerasia's creative department has fabricated some ideas for the flash drives for promotiomal usage, and possibly for sale. We've got a bunch of face ideas (cause the staff here is the most important thing):
-Sticker Faces:

-Magnet Faces:

-That Thingy; that when you tilt it you can see another picture:

Here's one built out of a spongy gel type material that seems fun:

Another cool concept is a customizable person:

A Da Vinci Code style code breaker type of USB thing (my personal favorite):

R16 Incheon

2009-07-08T10:15:00.000-07:00

R16 stands for Respect-16. It's an international cultural exchange that features a b-boy competition. It also has events like urban art galleries, hip-hop concerts , a graffiti festival and a movie festival. This September will be the 3rd annual event, in Korea. The past 2 years it took place in Seoul, South Korea, but this year it will be in Incheon. Incheon is actually just a city over from Seoul, and they're connected by a subway system. Admerasia has been approached to create a small campaign to expose R16 to Americans. We're suppose to figure out a way to get college aged people to spend the money and have the time in late September to go across the entire world to watch a 3 day tournament that has little to no prestige, or perhaps we can convince them to visit the barren tourist attractions in the busy port city of Incheon has to offer. If you didn't get it, that was pure sarcasm...

Here's a 12 year old at the competition:

Here's part of the final battle (sounds very low, jack it up!):

Dinner For Two

2009-07-07T06:53:00.000-07:00

www.opentable.com check it out. Pretty darn awesome. I made an account a couple of weeks ago, because I like making reservations for dinner. I feel more important and suave when I arrive at the restaurant and I can say, "Yes, I have a reservation... Kwan Ng." Yeah, you're jealous. So basically they've got a catalog of loads of restaurants in most cities in the United States, and you can sign up for your reservation for free on the site. They help organize the restaurants by price, reviews, location, or cuisine style. Now of course the site has got to make money somehow, well they offer loads of services from limos, to having flowers delivered to the table. I have yet to utilize one of these offers, but I have been starting to rack up the dining points. Once I reach 10,000 I receive a $100 gift card, to use at any of the restaurants. Now that's pretty cool, I'll still be spending more money than I'll be getting back, but it's a nice thing to aim for. So far I've been to Ideya, Madison Bistro, Ethos, Pala, Smorgas and Union Square Cafe all of which have been pretty darn good.

Racism?!?!

2009-07-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

I really wanted to talk about Orientation today, or July 4th, but it turns out I'll be talking about racism. Honestly, I never really cared for the topic. People would say an Asian joke, look at me and ask me if that's racist, and I always responded "No, I don't care." I've never met a truly "racist" person. Plenty who sterotype, or maybe even doesn't like a certain race, but never someone who actively hates a race. I've visited a large amount of countries, states and cities, and never have I once experienced something like this.

I now realize it's an understatement to say that I grew up in a sheltered environment. Greenwich, Connecticut is probably the most guarded place around. Of course there's a good deal of diversity, but no one really hates someone else just because of race, and many sterotypes are broken there, because we all tend to be of the same (higher class) demographic. We took loads of surveys at orientation, and each always had a question about diversity, like "Will you make friends of a different race?", "Do you think you'll get along with minorities?". Orientation went great, but what I'm going to talk about is Saturday evening/Sunday morning in Long Island, New York.

(FEEL FREE TO SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH, IT'S JUST BACKGROUND INFORMATION) I had invited a couple of my buddies to hang out during July 4th at my uncle's place in Long Island. I figured we could get away from home for a weekend and just spend the days relaxing. swimming, playing soccer, socializing with people we'd most likely not interact with, eating plenty of food that was barbequed, and sleeping... Anyways, it's pretty late out, probably near midnight and we decide that a Wendy's run is in order. We really wanted those 99 cent sandwiches, and frosties. When we get there, the fast food restaurant had already closed, but the pick up window was open, we had gotten there via 5 minute walk so we decided, just to go to McDonald's across the street. We ate there, but returned to the Wendy's in an effort to use the pick up window and still get frosties. We weren't served since apparently it's required to have a car, so we started walking away.

(THIS STORY IS CENSORED, I TOOK OUT ALL THE REALLY BAD WORDS) Now I take full responsibility for the following events. These guys in a beaten up Buick, drive up to the pick up window and yell to one of my friends, "You in the orange shirt, you're gay! Yeah, I'm talking about you faggot!" Evidently, they beleived that because my friend happened to be wearing an expensive orange polo, he's gay. Now, 4 years ago I would have let it go and run away, but nowadays I won't let anyone get away with that, nor would I back down. I turned around and yelled back, telling them to basically shut up and say that to our faces. Of course, there would be no story if they didn't, they got out of the car and the 4 of them were clearly bigger than the 3 of us. My friend in the orange shirt, was the smartest and quickly speed-walked away heading back to the house. I, being the thick headed idiot I am, turned around to confront them, while slowly walking backwards to the down the street. They reached us and we were still both yelling at each other. Mainly it was me versus the smallest one of them.

During one of "taunts" I stuttered on a word, and the guy took his chance. "Hey, you speak American, Chinese boy?" and I classicly responded with, "Yes, I speak English." He came back with, "But we're in America right now." At this point I had turned around and started walking away, when 2 of them cut me off. My third friend could have walked away too, but he stayed to help me. 1 of the guys behind me punched my in the ear, and the other guy behind me threw one into the back of my neck. I'm surprised I took both hits without falling or even yell in pain, the only reaction I had to it was that my hat had fallen off. My friend leaned over to pick up my hat, and as he was getting up one of the guys yelled "Here's my Jackie Chan kick," and proceeded to kick him in the "gentleman's area." Every guy knows how much it hurts. I'm proud to say that he took the surprise kick, just grunted, stood up, and stared right back at them. 2 of them had already run away since their recent actions had acquired attention and some people were honking there horns. The kicker ran away quickly, and the last one said, "You ain't no Bruce Lee, you can't fight," and he walked away too. They called us more names and taunted us more, and I still couldn't let it go. I don't know why, but I refuse to get pushed around even in a bad situation like this. I continued to yell back, refusing to recognize their "strength," they had attacked us and ran away before we could do anything? One of them came back from their car, and we did one of those face to face, pissed off, pre-fight stares while yelling at each other. His gang called him back, he faked a punch, and ran away.

In retrospect, we decided that while they originally were aiming for my friend in the orange shirt, because they thought he was the one talking back to them, when they saw me, they instantly targetted me because of my race. It's severely disappointing that people still act this way. My friend who stayed with me earned a great deal of respect since he could have left me there. I've already told the story to multiple audiences, and I've gotten mixed responses.
1. Impressed that we took these hits, and didn't fight back.
2. Blame the entire event on me, for provoking/instigating the entire event.
3. Blame the other group, and just hope we're okay.
4. Think we're lucky that they didn't have weapons of any sort (which we are).
5. Glad that we stood our ground, and didn't let them walk all over us.

Oh, did I mention they actually asked for our money too. I told them we're not giving them our money, and they gave up on it. They obviously weren't very experienced muggers. We're lucky that we walked away from it without any injuries, and perhaps in the future I should be more careful. That's my story of the July 4th weekend, I'm an American, always considered myself one, more so than those guys ever will be, and proud of it. I'm just frustrated that there are still some people in our nation that act like this...

PreOrientation

2009-06-30T07:52:00.000-07:00

You may or may not know that this autumn I'm off to attend the University of Massachusetts: Amherst. When people asked me where I would be attending school in the fall, I always said it like this:
"Amherst... (pause, wait for them to look at me skeptically, or say that's amazing, then say) UMass Amherst!"
Now while it may not be one of the best schools in the world, it is somewhat respectable; ranked 104th in the entire nation. That's not too shabby. Of course I haven't got a clue of what I want to study while I'm there, nor do I have any intention of picking very early on. Now in effort to relate this article back to more Admerasia-esque topics, here's a little statistic. Over 50% of Asian Americans have a bachelor degree or higher a higher level of education, while the national rate is around 27%.

Anyways, July 1-3 I'll be up in Amherst, Massachusetts for the preorientation. Signing up for new courses, learning what campus life will be like, and taking placement tests. I've already taken their math test, which I did horrificly on, despite me being Asian... Haha, a little racist joke. Hey, I can say it, I'm asian. Okay so let's back up to the horrific score on that test. When I say that, I actually mean abysmal, unlike those obnoxious smart kids who this a B- is going to ruin their reputation. No, I got 7 questions correct out of 40... Now if we do the math here, I've earned less that 25% on the examination. Why wasn't that question on the test!?

USA!! ALL THE WAY!!

2009-06-29T07:43:00.000-07:00

It's very difficult for me to talk about anything else other than the Confederations Cup in South Africa. On a frigid night in Johannesburg, the final game of the tournament took place. The United States had gotten through on mainly two games; a 3-0 whooping of Egypt, and "The Miracle on Grass" 2-0 humbling of Spain (the number one ranked team). Now the Brazilians show up ready to save the "football" world by stopping the underdogs from taking the trophy home.

Now this game was the first FIFA (Federation International Football Association) final EVER by the United States Men's National Team, and despite the loss, it's the first time we've ever taken home a trophy. Ask any true fan of the USA National team and they'll tell you we deserved to win that game sunday. At 2:30 on ESPN, the underrated, underappreciated, disregarded Americans took the field for the start of the single greatest most significant game of all of their careers.

The first half was a wonderful display of American Soccer, not European Football, but American Soccer. Our formation is almost a 3-3-2-2 . We play with our heroic captain Carlos Bocanegra, with "Gooch" Onyewu and DeMerit as almost like 3 centerbacks. The unheard of Jonathon Spector valiantly dominated the right flank, while Feilhaber, and Clark added support as defensive midfielders. Donovan and Dempsey took roaming midfielder positions and showed up all over the pitch as wingers, strikers, midfielders, and defenders. Our striking pair up top consisting of the previously invisible Charlie Davies, and the always formidable ex-Red Bull Jozy Altidore.

Have you ever seen Mighty Ducks 3? The really bad sequel where the inspiring team goes to Seton Hall and beats the Varsity team there? Anyways, the coach in that movie taught them how to play a type of game that would help them win despite their opponents being superiorly skilled.

"Defense. See, unlike scoring, defense never quits. But to play great defense you need one thing above all else. Confidence. Listen, if you learn nothin' else when you're here, you learn this, all right? This is not just about hockey. It's easy to be confident when you have control of the puck. It's very, very difficult to keep that confidence when you gotta take whatever strange bounces life throws your way. Don't be careless, but don't be too careful either. You cannot be afraid to lose! That's how you gain the confidence to attack the game when the puck isn't yours. That's how you attack life... even when you think you don't have any control. And that's how you play real defense." -Coach Orion

I don't want to talk about the actual game. Dempsey got a stroke of luck with his early strike from Spector's gorgeous cross, while Donovan and Davies paired up to display the best attacking play I have EVER seen the Americans put together. Then everything went downhill. I disagree that the Brazilians won that game. They played a dirty, dishonorable, immoral, shameless match, that the referees refused to recognize. Multiple times our players were slapped, studded, held, runover, punched, beaten down, and elbowed, yet our players took these cheap shots like men and continued playing like winners. Our players were tripped up and knocked over, but they got up and ran harder. Yet, these efforts go unnoticed by the referees who still call the Brazilian's late dives, and overacted stunts. Of course we all look back on the clear penalty kick that Charlie earned inside the 18-yard box. I would have much rather lose to a more respectable team like Spain.

I must bring this entry to an end since it nears on the brink of me rambling on too much, all I can hope is that this game opens eyes to US Soccer and the players. I pray that classy European teams look into buying these fantastic American players who have proven themselves on the world stage against the best; and that US viewers continue to watch these games to improve the stability of American soccer.

Aussie Rules

2009-06-23T07:59:00.000-07:00

I'm talking about Australian Rules Football. This game is like a combination of soccer, rugby, american football, and basketball. Played in converted cricket fields, it's a hoot to watch. My friends and I saw our first game ever on television and we watched the entire thing since it was so entertaining. The match contested two teams, the Brisbane Lions and Carlton Football Club. We've decided to become Lions fans since despite them being the losers in the game, but they played the game fair and gave it all they've got. I even created my own AFL dream team (their version of a fantasy team), and I ranked pretty well, racking up 1200 points in a gameweek, that the leader scored 1800.

So the governing league is the AFL. Not to be confused with the Arena Football League, this is the Australian Football League. 16 teams, their names, nicknames, and then a fun fact:
1. Adelaide FC (Crows)-The only team undefeated in Grand Finals.
2. Brisbane Lions (Lions)-The only club based in Queensland.
3. Carlton FC (Blues)-Tied with Essendon with 16 Titles.
4. Collingwood FC (Magpies)-Holds the record for most runner up finishes (25).
5. Essendon FC (Bombers)-Tied with Carlton with 16 Titles.
6. Fremantle FC (Dockers)-The only team to never make it to a Grand Final.
7. Geelong FC (Cats)-Longest winning streak of 23 games.
8. Hawthorne FC (Hawks)-They won last year's premiership.
9. Melbourne FC (Demons)-The oldest club in the league (1858).
10. North Melbourne FC (Kangaroos)-Their mascot is a gray and red kangaroo.
11. Port Adelaide FC (Power)-okay, sorry
12. Richmond FC (Tigers)-i'm quite
13. St Kilda FC (Saints)-bored, so
14. Sydney Swans (Swans)-these teams
15. West Coast Eagles (Eagles)-don't get
16. Western Bulldogs (Bulldogs)-fun facts...
Oh wait! Eric Bana, that bad-ass actor from Troy, Munich, Hulk, Funny People and some other movies, is a huge fan of St. Kilda FC.

Congradulations!!

2009-06-22T10:11:00.000-07:00

No I'm not an idiot, I meant to spell the title incorrectly. It's a pun!! Friday June 19th 2009, the senior class of 2009 at Greenwich High School graduated. For the first time in nearly a month it didn't rain, and our 4 hour ceremony outside was under a blistering sun, and an uncomfortable humidity. Guys in red, girls in white, and teachers wore black. Two valedictorians and four salutatorians, the class president, vice-president, and treasurer all made speeches. Most of us the graduates probably were not paying attention to the majority of the speeches, since some people (including myself) had blown up beach balls and were passing them around. There were plenty of bubbles floating around as well which were entertaining. So now we're no longer High School Seniors, but College Freshman. Whoa big change!!

A weird thing that's happened to me during my education is that at every school I've attended when I graduate the headmaster/principal retires. Happened at Cos Cob School (Mr. Butera), Central Middle School (Dr. Bulger) and now Greenwich High School (Alan Capasso (yes he allows me to call him Alan!)). I guess my grade just exhausts them to the point where they cannot take it any longer.

I apologize for my absence. I had to return to school last week to confirm my eligibility for graduation, hence the large absence of posts. But I've returned ready to continue the blog, and excited that we'll be ready to move it into a new site soon. The extensions/subdomains of the Admerasia site are nearly ready to be finalized, and when it is, the blog will be included.

AAAZA!!!!

2009-06-11T07:08:00.000-07:00

I'm not just yelling random things (which is what I tend to do in real life), that's actually the name of the ex-Admerasia branch in Los Angeles, California. So Aaaza, on Wilshire Boulevard, focuses on the large Asian population in California. This west coast branch is managed by Peter Huang, and Kevin Vu, started in 1997 and they recently became an independent company and now only considered a sister company to Admerasia.

Today we had a meeting with a company called EliteSEM. SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing, we had a conference to discuss what this company can bring to the table. Basically they offer programs that can create, manage and report a complete digital campaign. They set up the keywords and the advertisements, control all money being spent and use it based on certain trends, and can report on who, where and when the advertisements are clicked, and the percentage of the time a transaction occurs. Now while the process is impressive, it really is invaluable to us until we have a client that really wants to concentrate their promotions through this more complicated single digital front.

I'm off to go film some more random stuff so I can build a somewhat decent video of this process. I haven't had much time to really develop the movie, but I hopefully will have a decent short film to present of it.

Witty Wednesday

2009-06-10T08:49:00.000-07:00

I'd like to introduce Sporcle. It may not be new to you or many people but it is to me, and it's a fantastic tool to waste away the hours of the day, and test your knowledge. It's got quizzes from US presidents, capitals of Europe, and NFL leading quarterbacks, to movie quotes, and music lyrics. Well try it out and enjoy wasting hours away!

There's a new campaign section that will be an addition to the website. Here we're hoping to attract new clients that haven't got a clue about Admerasia, and they can have a free trial type campaign. So the point is we get smaller clients through these "ad-for-free" idea, and hopefully they'll stay on longer after the original promotion is over.

It helps that Admerasia is a full-service advertising agency. This means we can provide nearly every step of the process of creating and marketing a campaign in house, which is convenient and significantly impressive. Any client that wants to market a new product or service to the asian american community would benefit by working with us, since we help promote it very well. So go check it out when the site goes up and running, and suggest it to your friends/business owners.

The Old Man Is Snoring

2009-06-09T06:44:00.000-07:00

So this morning back in Greenwich it wasn't raining at all. There seemed to be a light drizzle overnight but nothing in the morning. I took this to mean that it wouldn't be raining in the city either. Well I was wrong. Since I like walking in the morning I exited Grand Central Terminal quickly, and upon seeing the rain I grabbed a free newspaper, to help cover me from some rain. Now while I was quite content with my makeshift umbrella it wasn't until I reached the office that I saw what happened. I was settling into my office when I realized my hands were entirely black. Then it hit me, the rain had gotten the newspaper wet, and the ink had run off the paper and onto my hands. Oh and it didn't only dye my hands, it got on my pants, shirt, and earphones. It's been very difficult to remove from my hands, and it refuses to get off my white earphones. So in the future do NOT take newspapers with large dark inked pictures and hold them above your head in the rain. If you try it don't say I didn't warn you.

The Hangover

2009-06-08T09:23:00.000-07:00

A great comedy hit to start off the summer's blockbusters, despite it not being a blockbuster of its own. A bunch of my friends and I went to go see it opening night and had an espcially enjoyable time and I recommend it for anyone to see. That is if you like any sort of decent comedy.

Zan Ng, the founder of New-A the holding company of A Language Bank and Admerasia, has decided to help out the eCommerce project by offering some of his own paintings as possible artwork we could potentially use since he owns the rights to them. I've been looking through his inventory of paintings, because he has so many, and trying to pick some to be uploaded to a digital copy so we can sell/share the image to others. I'm not sure people would actually pay for these medicore paintings, but we could definitely brand with the logo on them and just give them away for free.

So my internship is winding down and coming to a close. It is potentially possible that I stay on and continue working here after this week is over, but I'm not completely sure if that is what course I will take. That decision is not for at least a couple more days, but if I do leave, the blog will be taken over by other members of the office and hopefully be transitioned into the new parts of the website. For now though, I'll be back.

Thursday I Don't Care About You

2009-06-04T10:50:00.000-07:00

So every Thursday there is a company wide meeting that basically is just to help get the staff thinking in a digital mindset, and away from the traditional styles. Transitioning into this new age, is difficult, but truly necessary if the company is going to survive in the future years. So Admerasia is leading the way into this digital era, while the other asian american advertising agencies are trying to catch up.

The title of this blog entry is obviously referring to that song! You don't know the song do you? Well let me jog your memory... "I don't care if Monday's blue, Tuesday's grey and Wednesday too, Thursday I don't care about you, it's Friday I'm in love." A fun catchy tune.

Kwan-Day

2009-06-03T06:53:00.000-07:00

Back at Greenwich High School, for some reason some teachers started calling Wednesday, Kwan-Day. It happened my senior year, when a couple of my teachers all the sudden started doing that, then loads of students did, and now I forget what was the catalyst was. So people would say things like, "Damn it, I've got a test this Kwan-Day." Or "Awww, we don't have class Kwan-Day."

So now these construction guys are actually digging up the floors and just tearing right through. Oh and since the boards they are pulling up aren't in convenient size for transportation, they've decided to slice them all into smaller pieces, hereby creating an earful of din, just constantly going all day. Most people in the area have moved to different areas that are slightly further away so they can actually get some work done.

We're now finalizing the official title, keywords and description that will go into the meta text of the Admerasia site. It's a simple process and idea, but we need to finalize it as a group, so that part is taking its time, since it isn't a priority.

Generalization

2009-06-02T07:06:00.000-07:00

My personal favorite cartoon ever made by man. Yes there are some really great ones by aliens, but this is just awesome. Sam Gross of the New Yorker, great stuff buddy.

So the renovation is still going on. These big tall guys are just banging away at everything, breaking it all making a huge mess. Sounds like fun. Maybe they'll let me help out... Nah, I'm wearing some nice clothes, wouldn't want to get it dirty. Got a styling polo, nice khakis, oh and a banging pair of brown shoes.

Went out for lunch today to meet a friend. She told me to meet her in between 18th and 19th streets on 7th Avenue. For some reason I understood 9th street and proceeded to look for the nonexistent 7th Ave, and West 9th Street. I got lost and ended up on Houston Street in Greenwich Village. She called me wondering where I was, and redirected me back to the restaurant that was just 6 blocks from the office!

It's been hard for me to be creative since there are so many noises coming from the center of the floor where they are smashing away at the floor and walls. Don't judge me, this is not some of my best work.

Be Whimsical

2009-06-01T07:02:00.000-07:00

I'm going to craft a poem about "whimsical",
Whether or not you read it is up to you.
I can't promise that this will be a classical,
But I will try to make it somewhat musical!

I have decided not to write this poem,
It's boring, unrelated and quite dull.
Don't get mad and try to be physical,
Just laugh it off and go be whimsical!

One more stanza just because,
My advice does have some flaws;
Do not become too whimsical,
because you'll end up lackadaisical!

Moving on; there's a renovation going on in the middle of the office. Well they actually haven't started, but they are putting those plastic sheets everywhere that you can only see silhouettes through. That covers the only non frosted-glass wall, besides the window outside, and our doorway. Now when we want to leave we have to duck and sneak underneath these sheets, which is quite fun, but getting tedious. What's weird is that they set up the sheets and it seemed like we were in for a loud afternoon, but they left and haven't done anythi... Oh wait, here they are. And they've got tools now. And now they are banging away. I guess I spoke too soon eh?

Now what exactly are they renovating? Good question. Admerasia had a leak in the roof, because of the company above us lack of care for their floor, water damage spread into the center of our floor. So they are removing the roof, pillars, and floor, and have to recreate it because they are all moldy, bent out of shape, and weakened. Water is strong...

YIFDAR

2009-05-29T06:40:00.000-07:00

Hey do you play Scrabble? Great game, possibly one of my favorite board games of all time. It's also a slightly entertaining game to play during school, or when you're extremely tired but you don't want to fall asleep. So you take a word, let's try Admerasia, and just rearrange the letters and create a good word from it. The best I've got are "admires", or "misread". Another example is EOEAWSM which reorganized is "kwan"... Nah just kidding, it's "awesome". The joke here was that I was referring to myself as synonymous for awesome!! Enjoy, the game so you don't fall asleep in class.

Now Johny's... For the past week I've been really trying to find "my" place nearby. I found Johny's since it's right across the street. I've visited other places up and down 6th and 7 avenue. 124 W. 25th Street, NY, NY 10001 is the best so far. It's delicious, the guys there are really cool and friendly, not to mention the food is delicious and cheap. Enjoy it. So far I've had hot sandwiches, this pizza thing they make, cold sandwiches, and burgers. Best I've had in the neighborhood.

Apparently today is payday, or at least that's what I hear from my coworkers. Unfortunately I'm not on the same boat as them, since I don't get paid... It would be easier to get out of bed in the morning if I got paid. I was almost late this morning got into the office at 9:33 AM, the latest I've ever been. I missed my train but still managed to get here on time. Not that half an hour would have made much of a difference, but it's the principle! Here's a video project I made for Chinese class with my friend Josh Hu-Goldowsky.

пока!! That's Google translator for ya!

Thursday = Third Day

2009-05-28T06:24:00.000-07:00

“Thursday. Just remember third day. Monday, one day. Tuesday, two day. Wednesday, Wait? What day? THURSDAY!”-Joey Tribbiani! A great way to remember that Thursday is what day? The Third Day!!

Do you know what eCommerce is? It's just electronic-commerce shortened like electronic mail. So guess what it is now? [pause] Yes! It is the buying of selling of products/services through the internet. If you didn't get it right you fail the test, and I order you to buy me lunch someday in the future. So Admerasia wants to get in on this eCommerce thing. Yeah at first, I was wondering why? But here are a couple of reasons:

Try something new and have fun doing so.
Make extra money and possibly profit from it.
If we can do it ourselves it's possible we can do it for a potential client in the future.

In the upcoming months we hope to start stocking up on certain items that we can start selling to people through our website, therefore creating more internet traffic. New product ideas are sprouting up all around the company, to help spread the Admerasia brand. The online store will contain a random amount of items, from prepaid credit cards to custom built flash drives.

Now the company wants me to document this process, and create some sort of movie by the end of it. So this blog will start to host videos as well now!!! Exciting, isn't it? I've got a tiny bit of experience making using iMovie. Here is one of my past works, that to be completely honest was a total mess:

Whatever, don't judge me. I promise my video documentary will be much better than that. Kwan OUT!

The Asian Sensation

2009-05-27T06:24:00.000-07:00

Yes, my title does rhyme and does refer to me. At a football pep rally last autumn, I was introduced as The Asian Sensation, mainly because they really couldn't think of anything better.

Ya know there are loads of Asians in America nowadays. On the first of this month, statistics were released that state the Asian American population increased by 434,000 to become 5% of the nation's entire population, and are now totalling 15.2 million! Exciting, right? That may be the first time I've given actual percentages and statistics (US Census). "Oh, here's a fun fact: You made out with your sister, man!!" Haha!! Please appreciate the Eurotrip quote, it's the funniest part of the entire blog entry. The actual fact I wanted to present is that in 2005, the average income per household is highest in Asian households than in any other racial group. Okay why the heck am I throwing out this data? Well for one, it helps my blog stay a little more on track since I tend to just rant for long periods of time... But not this time!! The point is, those millions of people are who Admerasia targets at this time and that high average income is what we want to get them to use (for our clients).

Actually at this time, Admerasia is trying to move more multiculturally in attempt to expand business. They're now spreading, mainly to the Eastern European areas, but are really willing to try any sort of new language and style, which is pretty cool.

I'd like to take a moment to mention some Asian sports players. It's always cool to hear about successful Asian players in "non-asian" sports. Hideki Matsui, Ichiro Suzuki and many others have dominated American Baseball, while Yao Ming and a couple of others have made an impact in the NBA. Ji-Sung Park starts for Manchester United. I have yet to really hear of a truly Asian NFL player, but like the other sports, with a little bit of time and training I'm sure we'll hear of some really good players in that sport as well. Oh, there's Kwan Ng of the Greenwich High School Varsity Football Team... Sound familiar? That's 'cause that's me, ya sillay goose!!

Got a Case of the Tuesdays

2009-05-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

With no work Memorial Day Monday, we start off the week... Now.

I stayed at the Liberty Hotel in Boston this weekend, it's an ex-prison now a gorgeous hotel, one heck of a staff who were simply awesome. While I do suggest it to anyone who wants to visit the city, keep in mind it does cost around $300 a night to stay there. Important things about Boston? As a 17 year-old; it's important that Boston has a lot of colleges and universites. They've got Northeastern, Harvard, MIT, Boston College, Boston University, Tufts, and loads others. Lots of crazy drunk college kids running around that city.

And as a New Yorker; Boston sports teams suck. How dare you support teams like the Celtics(basketball), Bruins(hockey), Red Sox(baseball), Patriots(football), or Revolution(soccer), when there are New York teams like the Knicks, Rangers, Yankees, Jets, or Red Bull. So what, over the past 5 seasons they have really outplayed us, winning titles and championships and having better season records than us. Nevertheless New Yorkers don't lose faith, we'll be back in the top seat in no time, when our teams decide to stop losing.

I was looking for a place to eat lunch at today, and decided to use Google Maps to do so. They've got this great feature where you type in an address, click search nearby, and you can search the neighborhood for whatever you want, delis, movie theatres, adult themed restaurants, authentic medieval weapons stores, or anything you can think of (it's New York City, there's something for everyone!). I typed in Admerasia's address, and up popped a little arrow on the map. One problem... They spelt Admerasia, Admeriasia!!!! Yeah four exclamation points is a bit much, but give me a break (of that Kit Kat Bar), life has gotten a little bit boring. I've been now tasked to fix these typos, and other errors of this nature; like sites that still say we're at the old address on Lafayette Street. Stupid Yellow Pages, and that's not a racist comment against asian paper... Get it?! [HA] Hey I'm not a comedian, just read the blog, enjoy the minimal information I deliver, and move on with your life.

TGIF

2009-05-22T09:11:00.000-07:00

Turns out I didn't have to go into work today. I spent it, how normal people do when they don't have to go to work slept in, ate food on a couch, watched some tv, waited for my friends to all get off work anyways, and achieved nothing productive. Have a good weekend ya rascals...

FORE-TH-(URS)DAY

2009-05-21T06:51:00.000-07:00

Now I've never really been into golf. A little slow and boring for my taste, but let's be honest, I mainly dislike it because I really blatantly suck at it. I can hit it far and towards the hole fine, just when I get on that green, I "lose concentration" and putt on 5 to 10 more strokes onto my total... You can't even get angry and flip out, or you'll look like a complete tool. I was planning on talking about the time I saw someone get hit by a golf ball, or a joke about how quiet they request the crowd to be, or comment on the heat and length of a game, or even talk about how the execs of the agency like to play it so much, but I've decided to skip all of that and save you (the reader) from reading an excess amount of my awful writing.

Onto a more Admerasia related topic, in the following blod entry I will describe the office... Buckle up, it gets really intense... [Not!] This 6th floor office has got 2 conference rooms. One is maxed out at 5 or so people, while the other can hold probably around 25 people. Both are fully equipped with a table, chairs, a white board, an artistic looking clock, oh and one of those very cool Ghostbuster-esque tripod conference call machines. Both the rooms are quite busy, and have meetings in them most of the day. I've had the privilege of already attending large group meetings, small brainstorming sessions, meetings with clients and update discussions. Now I regret to say that some of those large group meetings, where people are encouraged to come up with ideas for certain plans, are just an absolute mess with little direction. They wind up just being a waste of time.

Then there's the kitchen/hang out area. Yeah that's where the cool staff members hang out. I have yet to use the refridgerator to keep my homemade lunch chilled, because I haven't brought lunch, but I plan on doing so soon. There was a birthday party there for one of the guys from A Language Bank, I don't really know him very well, hence why I haven't mentioned his name or his age, but the cake was a solid pastry. Oh, and have I ever acknowledged that there is free soda in the office? I don't really know why but there is free Sprite and Coca-Cola over there. I don't know about the other employees but it saves me money everyday at lunch.

Now when you get off the elevator, to your left are those meeting rooms, and to your right is that break area. Directly in front of you is the secretary. (No not Pam Beasley, she's a saleswoman now.) The rest of the office is the company, or companies I should say. Behind the secretary to the slight left is A Language Bank, while Admerasia primarily sits in the center and right side of the space. There's the leadership team, the followers team, creative department, finance squad, extreme base-jumping team and etc.etc that are all spread out across the floor.

"IT'S A TRAP!" Sorry about that random outburst but, come on, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Admiral Ackbar, that Mon Calamari is a legend... And I leave you with that thought, may the force be with you! [and also with you]...

Third Time's The Charm

2009-05-20T07:14:00.000-07:00

Welcome back. Today we're going to start off with CMS... That was the acronym for Central Middle School which I attended years ago. Now it stands for Content Management System. Let me clear up why were talking about this; so the Admerasia web site kind of is too awesome for its own good. Now the reason behind it, is that the new site only uses flash. Which is this new complicated thing which Google doesn't seem to really care about. Odd right? I'd think that Google would be on top of that sort of thing. Anyways, to make it searchable; Admerasia is going to add in some older "html" type pages that those bros@Google actually like.

So these new old pages are going to contain sections such as; NEWS, BLOG, CAMPAIGNS, and other sorts of things. Now Admerasia doesn't want to hire more people to update this website, or even designate a single person to be in charge of certain parts. We've decided that a rotation policy is going to be introduced. Ya know, like this week Jill will be in charge of updating the news, and Jack can write the blog. Next week Bonnie can write the blog, and Clyde will update the news. So now the problem is maybe Adam & Eve understand how to do this but Bill and Hillary don't!? We need a straightforward way for everyone to update parts of the site, so easy that a caveman can do it. (Don't sue me Geico... Come on you've moved onto those not-very-good commercials about the little pile of money with googly eyes, can't I have the cave men?).

So the CMS thing will simplify how to update things and change things on the site constantly. We can change pictures, movies, text, news, blogs, tires (not tires) quickly and efficiently without compromising the actual template or site. Imagine if we didn't use a CMS, and someone trying to help with the updating accidentally deleted a couple of lines of script commands and didn't realize it!! Then the site may not even show up anymore and you'd have to search through thousands of lines of content just to find the problem, or worse... it could be attacked by goblins. Okay, well it'd be tough to get attacked by goblins, but you're thinking, "Hey! That'll never happen to me." Never say never... Miss Frizzle from the Magic School Bus taught me that. Don't judge, you know you liked it too.

Okay, now you're updated on this whole CMS situation. At this point we're trying to pick one to use, and let's face it, we're going to go find the reliable, state-of-the-art, elementary, and most importantly free program, and that's where WordPress, Drupal or Joomla comes in. So after we build basic new pages for the site, we can have them be updatable via one of these programs. High-five!! Actually click high-five and give me a high-five. (pause for the high-five) Okay thanks, I know you and I both enjoyed that. I'm off to the World Language Ceremony back at Greenwich High School, later gators!

The ReReturn

2009-05-19T07:06:00.000-07:00

So guess what?! [what?] On the train this morning I got a seat!! Yeah I know... You're jealous, but hey, I got lucky what can I say. This woman got up to leave at the station after mine, so I slyly snuck right into her recently vacant seat. Oh it was comfortable, getting a little sleep while my iPod played some Vega4 softly in the background.

It was a pretty basic day, with lots of research. I figured out as much as I could about the company, its competitors, and the business, through the internet and whoever would answer my questions. The different thing about Admerasia, is that the structure of the company is very open. While there are only a few executives, everyone else has a say in just about everything. No one is limited to just their one area of expertise, which allows a diverse view on a lot of ventures.

I also joined in on some meetings that discussed the direction the company was heading in. So Admerasia traditionally stuck with, well, traditional methods of advertising. They had rarely ventured into the digital market except for the past year. The plan is to really stride onto the internet guns blazing. So the company is focusing on advertising itself so that not only does the brand name get publicity, but to also learn the ropes of marketing on the internet. So this project was followed by a new website, which is quite fancy if I may say so myself.

Hey I bet you, you haven't got a clue what SEO is. Maybe you think it's society of education officers, or sauf erreur ou omission (that's French), or even survivability enhancement options. Alas... It is none of those. (I really wanted to use the word "alas") Oh, wait I've got one more; southeastern Ohio. Yeah that was a good one wasn't it?! Ohio rocks. We'll argue about that another time. Back to SEO. So it actually stands for Search Engine Optimization. In a nutshell it basically is trying to get your website to appear higher on search engines like Google or Yahoo, through the means of adding content, links, updating, reliability, relatability, traffic, keywords, advertisements, interconnectivity, and etc. I just explained a day's worth of research in a single sentence.

So lots of brainstorming going on right now. Trying to raise the publicity of Admerasia, which is harder than it sounds. How do you come up with a way to effectively increase the brand successfully? I'm trying to figure out a plan, but it's not going to well. Well it's still early in my career here, so I've got time to come up with a strategy, until then I'll settle with the small tasks. Later bros!

159 West 25th Street

2009-05-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

So I'm done with high school finally, now here I am early on a Monday morning, off the Metro North train from Connecticut, now in my new office (more of a cubicle).

You know what's really difficult, sleeping while standing up. It's quite a challenge, I've never had to do it in the past, but there were so many people on that 7:20 train out of Cos Cob, that I had to stand. Some of the other businessmen we're sleeping just leaning against the walls. I figured if they could do it so could I... Well I can't. Hey it's harder than it seems. I was tired enough to doze off, but the second I got a little bit of sleep, I'd fall! Either my legs would buckle, or I'd literally tilt over. So the train ride was not fun, I'll have to work on grabbing one of those valuable seats, that way I can catch some shut-eye.

Got off at Grand Central Terminal, which if anyone has been there at those rush hour points, is like a human bee-hive, nothing really like it around. I escaped unharmed and walked the almost 20 blocks to the Admerasia office, where I'd start my first day.

So this VP, Sidney Yee, is in charge of my internship. He's pretty cool and to the point, took me to lunch at Monster Sushi, which is a sushi place (didn't see that coming did ya?) decorated with monster figurines (simple right?). Delicious food by the way, I completely recommend it.

Okay so what is Admerasia?! I had no idea before I was given a briefing, by Sidney, about what goes on. Admerasia is the #1 Asian American Advertising Agency in the United States. What the hopscotch does that mean? Basically this agency, gets clients who want to sell stuff (from cars to hardware) to the asian community in America, and creates a campaign for that. So they're targeting the 13 or so million asians, mainly in the three states of California, Texas and New York.

So I share an office with Dennis Clemente, I've got a window, a phone that isn't hooked up, a computer, an empty desk complete with empty drawers, a basket that's for paperwork but has none and a not too comfortable seat, but hey, I got more than I expected, I just can't wait to actually get started on some work. Till next time!