Author Archives: Efren

About Efren

Efren is a 30-something queer Filipino American guy living in San Francisco. In the past, he was a wanna-be academic even teaching in Asian American studies at San Francisco State, a wanna-be queer rights and HIV activist, and he used to "blog" when that meant spewing one's college student angst using a text editor on a terminal screen to write in a BBS or usenet back in the early 90s. For all his railing against the model minority myth, he's realized he's done something only a few people can claim--getting into UCSF twice, once for a PhD program in medical sociology which he left; and then for pharmacy school, where he'll be a member of the class of '13. He apologizes profusely for setting the bar unintentionally high for his cousins. blog twitter

Tim Lincecum: the Other Filipino Sportsman Making News

Posted on October 31, 2010 by Efren

As San Francisco becomes overwhelmed with Giants and World Series fever — especially as they are now one game from winning their first World Series since moving from New York — I’ve begun reading news articles about start pitcher Tim … Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, Sports | 4 Comments

Asians Behaving Badly: Woman Accused of Vandalizing Luxury Cars

Posted on September 29, 2010 by Efren

From SFGate.com comes a report about a woman arrested numerous times for vandalizing numerous BMWs and Mercedes all over the Bay Area, and is now being held on $1 million bail in Santa Clara County Jail. Nancy Ni apparently had … Continue reading →

Posted in (simple), WTF | Leave a comment

Asians Behaving Badly: Hostage Taker Arrested at Discovery Channel HQ

Posted on September 1, 2010 by Efren

CNN, along with a number of other news organizations, has reported that James Jay Lee has been arrested at Discovery Channel’s headquarters near Washington, DC after taking hostages and demanding that the discovery take a more “enviromentalist and anti-capitalist agenda.” … Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events | 4 Comments

San Francisco Chinese Counterfeiters Busted in Fisherman’s Wharf

Posted on August 3, 2010 by Efren

There are lots of things one expects to see when one walks around San Francisco’s tourist trap, Fisherman’s Wharf: smelly noisy sea lions along Pier 39, people eating New England clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl (which I’ve still … Continue reading →

Posted in (simple) | 4 Comments

Math Whizzes Help Find Obama’s, um, Foci

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Efren

In yet another example of inadvertently promoting stereotypes, six junior high math geniuses — most of whom happen to be Asian American — visited Obama in the White House to talk about math education. Apparently, the bulk of the visit … Continue reading →

Posted in Education | 4 Comments

Vicki Manalo Draves, The First Asian American Female Gold Medalist, Passes Away

Posted on April 19, 2010 by Efren

Vicki Manalo Draves, a biracial Filipina American diver, who was also the first Asian American female Olympic gold medalist, passed away a week ago. In 1948, nearly 40 years before Greg Louganis, the first male Olympic diver, who won both … Continue reading →

Posted in (simple), History, Sports | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Wow. Just, wow: Half-Drag on Pilipinas Got Talent

Posted on April 8, 2010 by Efren

The Philippines has their own version of the now infamously popular America’s Got Talent called Pilipinas Got Talent (obviously) with their own Pinoy spin on things. Mostly cute kids and talented male and female singers and dancers but once in … Continue reading →

Posted in Entertainment, Music, WTF | 2 Comments

80s New Wave and Vietnamese Americans

Posted on April 1, 2010 by Efren

In yet another sign that I am WAY too old, the blog You Offend Me You Offend My Family writes about the 80s New Wave scene and how the Vietnamese American immigrants embraced it as their own. According to them, … Continue reading →

Posted in (simple), Entertainment, Fashion, Music, WTF | 4 Comments

Are Asian American men really small, or just insecure?

Posted on March 25, 2010 by Efren

As most of you have noticed by now, I’m always interested in posting stuff about Asian American (straight) men’s issues and the rather annoying paradox of representation in American media: Asian American men bitch about not being represented in the … Continue reading →

Posted in (simple), Discrimination, Entertainment, Observations | 8 Comments

Filipino Food & Assimilation

Posted on February 25, 2010 by Efren

So my Filipino Facebook friends have all referenced this article today about Filipino food in American culture in the Los Angeles Times discussing how Filipino food has remained “unassimilated” despite the relative prominence of Filipino chefs in various parts of … Continue reading →

Posted in Food & Drink, Observations | 6 Comments

LGBT Vietnamese Americans March in Tet Parade in Orange County, CA

Posted on February 13, 2010 by Efren

For the first time ever, a contingent of LGBT Vietnamese Americans will be marching today, February 13, in the Tet Parade in Westminster, CA in Orange County, which is also known as Little Saigon and one of the epicenters of … Continue reading →

Posted in LGBT, Southern California | Leave a comment

NSFW: Keni Styles as a (Straight) Sulu in a Porn Movie

Posted on January 27, 2010 by Efren

Honestly, I’m surprised this hasn’t been done sooner: on the heels of the awesome Star Trek remake that was done last summer, a recently released porn’s just been released parodying Star Trek called This Ain’t Star Trek XXX 2. (Note: … Continue reading →

Posted in Entertainment, Movies, WTF | 10 Comments