Rest In Peace Brother Mike Serkanic

There was tremendously sad news this past week about one of my UCSD fraternity brothers Mike Serkanic. Apparently he drove 20 hours straight from California to Arizona, where he was in dental school, and drank 3 Rock Stars along the way. He made it to his girlfriend's house and collapsed while taking a shower. According to the email thread, the doctors believe his heart stopped working. His brain had lost all functionality, and his parents had to make the difficult decision to pull the plug.

My heart goes out to the Serkanic family.

Although I hadn't spoken to Mike since college, I messaged him once on Myspace congratulating him when he had gotten into dental school. I had the opportunity to spend a lot of quality time with him while he was a pledge for Sigma Nu. Frankly, I really liked Mike. He had Abercrombie good-looks, smart, down-to-earth, and not a single person I know had anything bad to say about him. Mind you, this is college, EVERYONE has something bad to say about someone.

I rushed Mike hard, because he was the type of person you just loved hanging out with. And let's keep it real here, his dizzying good looks would go on to help us attract many women to our mini-social circles. I remember when he was a pledge, I told him that I would pick him up at midnight on a school night to go serenade a friend's sorority sister in her dorm room. He along with another pledge, Gabriele, sat in my truck and we all made sure we had enough courage juice to go on. You see, I made them dress in black and accompany me in singing Joe 'I Wanna Know' to a pretty attractive girl - waking her up in the middle of the night to do it.

We made it through laughing the whole way home. It was a pleasure to see Mike and Gabe go on to be the best of friends in college. I'd like to think that I gave them the courage throughout the rest of their college career to have the audacity to go up and make a fool of themselves in front of women (an endearing trait), but I doubt it. Mike would've been fine either way. He was a class act who will be missed.

If you have a story or pictures to share of Mike, please post a comment and email me the pictures at SVBachelor@gmail.com. I'll quickly put them up.

Sincerely,

Kevin L.

What to Say in a Wedding Toast

Just several hours before my sister's wedding (and in bed on a Friday night at midnight!), I haven't yet figured out what I'm going to say for the welcome toast. It shouldn't be too hard right? Afterall, I come from a background of impromptu speaking. Well, it IS!!! So shut the hell up!!!! Just kidding (but not really). It's hard to toast and 'say a few words' and do my sister justice. You see, she's the most influential person in my life.

Often times argumentative, critical and verbally abusive growing up, she grew into my biggest fan - full of praise, support and guidance. For a screw-up like me, I can't imagine that's an easy thing to do. As kids, we would have epic battles over the remote control - patiently waiting for the other to eventually need the use of both hands before pouncing in a full-out wrestle session for control of our viewing pleasure. Losing would mean one more hour of Facts of Life. Winning would mean Ducktales. This was serious business.

My G.I. Joes do owe her a debt of gratitude though, because without her Barbies they all would've been fighting over Scarlett. Contrary to popular belief, my G.I. Joes were much more than just meatheads. Oh sure, they'd love to fight each other in epic gun and fist battles, but they also had a warm and tender side when courting these large Amazonian women who were more than a foot taller than them. No complexes here! Fortunately for them, Barbie clothing comes off very easily. (I would learn later on in life, that that is not the case with real women!)

When my sister went away to college I cried. It marked the first time that she wouldn't be a part of my everyday life. As the older sister, she was all I knew in a household of demanding, weird, and funny parents. While I was the only member of my family saddened by this departure, I really had nothing to fear. My sister would make it a life long habit of including me in everything she did. When I went to visit her at Stanford, I saw how much fun she was having and I thought to myself that this 1.7 GPA really isn't going to cut it. I turned it around right then and there and worked hard to hit that elusive 2.3 mark that everyone strives for.

When I went into a career of television, traveling to far off remote states, my sister was with me every step of the way. Making sure to come out and visit me when no other friends would make the trek to a place like Pocatello, ID. I can't say that I'm THAT surprised though. At my high school basketball games she was there. At my school plays she was there. At my parole hearing she was there. When I beat up my landlord she was there.

At this new stage of her life, I'm no longered just saddened by these events. I'm excited. It should be noted that I may be the most sentimental person in the world. I linger maybe a little too long, but I also cherish every moment in the past. With my sister, there's no shortage of moments to cherish and that's sometimes a tough proposition for my weepy, sentimental-ass. As she marries a man who makes her laugh and takes good care of her, I know she's in good hands. I'm excited about a future with a new brother-in-law, maybe one day a niece or nephew, and if I'm lucky - a woman to share these new moments with my new family. But even with the excitement, that doesn't mean I can't hold on to my moments with my sister.......

For that, I toast my sister and her new husband and the many memories we'll share in the future as family.

Sincerely,
Kevin L.
The Silicon Valley Brother

How to Score with a Woman .... the 2008 way

My coworker Ruth showed me this video today, and it's hilarious. I kept thinking of one of my friends who fits the bill exactly (you know who you are). He even scored with the girl too, although his ending has not yet been written.



Sincerely,
Kevin L.
The Silicon Valley Bachelor

Team Spain Can Kiss My Ass

If you ask me, there hasn't been ENOUGH hoopla over Team Spain's basketball picture for an advertisement running in Spanish newspapers.

I wouldn't say it's an issue of them being racist, but moreso insensitive and insincere. Their apologies have been matter-of-fact. Take for instance these quotes when pressed about it during press conferences:

Spain's coach Aito Garcia growing testy during questioning - "I can't understand this. Who's discussing this? You're discussing this."

Spain's point guard Jose Manuel Calderon - "I think we're talking about things that don't matter. We feel bad, but there is too much talk about it."

Who are they to decide there's too much talk about it? As someone who grew up in a town of 30,000 in Texas, with fewer than 5 Asian families in town, that gesture brings with it a lot of racist and hurtful feelings. I can't begin to describe how many times that gesture was used to make fun of me as a child. Granted kids can be an unforgiving lot regardless, there is no other gesture today that illicits so much anger and pain for me. It played a large part in me growing up not wanting to be Asian. It took many years for me to backtrack and embrace my cultural heritage.

The right way for Team Spain would and should be for them to apologize profusely whenever questioned about it. They have no right to say there's too much discussion on this matter. They are not the offended. It would have been nice for the Spanish coach to reprimand his team in public, apologize to everyone who has been offended, acknowledge how the gesture has hurt many Asians living in other countries and maybe suggest he we will have his team undergo sensitivity training.

I often admire the African-American community for quickly rallying for issues that affect their community and condemning those offenders. Their battles have helped out all minorities and immigrants from other countries. We owe them a tremendous amount of gratitude for the battles they have fought in making the United States a more racially tolerant and understanding country. There's still a lot more work to be done, but the Asian-American community needs to step up forcefully as well, so that Asians who have been persecuted and embarassed, no longer have to suffer from the shame of insensitivity and ignorance.

In the meantime, I will be rooting for Team USA to put a real hurtin' on Spain.

Sincerely,

Kevin L.

The Silicon Valley Bachelor

Applying George W. Bush to Everyday Life

Foreword: Every once in awhile I feel the need to put back on my journalism hat and explain things to the masses. Also note, I am neither Republican nor Democrat.


It was great news to hear today that France had brokered a peace agreement between Georgia and Russia - who were mired in war. It's also a shame to know that George W's policies and actions would never have rendered such an outcome. By publicly calling out Russia's actions as 'unacceptable' and demanding they withdraw their troops, W has followed a tactic he's used throughout his presidency that has further diminished our standing in the world. France, on the other hand, went in and behind the scenes worked on something called 'diplomacy'.

Let's go in and apply W's tactics in everyday situations that we can all relate. Mind you, he publicly called three countries, North Korea, Iran and Iraq, the 'Axis of Evil'. W likes to reprimand and try and embarrass countries in the public. So think back to your Elementary school days (congratulations if you are in Elementary school and reading this - I could barely read), let's say the biggest, strongest and richest kid in the school called the three trouble-makers in the school 'punks' (see 'Axis of Evil'). What do you think these three kids are going to do? Stand down, and try and clean up their act?

These are kids with their own personalities, their own friends (allies), and their own family members (constituents). Not saying their trouble-making actions are acceptable, but there is no way in heck they will go back to their friends and family and take being called a 'punk'. It's just going to make them more resilient. By no means will they challenge the strongest kid to a fight, but they will do everything in their power to undermine the authority of the self-appointed school hall monitor (see W). They may call him names (see Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) or ignore him (see Kim Jong Il), but they surely are not going to go out like a 'punk' in front of their friends and family. Everyone has their pride and honor and you CANNOT and should not take that away from them in a public forum.

For the school hall monitor, the only other option is to beat the kids up (see Saddam Hussein). Can the hall monitor beat everyone up? Maybe. But sooner or later, you find some kids that are almost as big, strong, and rich as you are (see Vladimir Putin and Hu Jintao). It's going to be harder to beat everyone up and half the school is beginning to tire of the well-intentioned hall monitor's act. Sooner or later, when you threaten and make demands from people who have their own strong personality, you start to be seen as the bully yourself. No kid in school wants one of their classmates telling them what to do and calling them out over the PA system.

France (see Nicolas Sarkozy), on the other hand, (a**holes they may be), was the kid who got along with the jocks, nerds, stoners - wasn't the biggest, strongest, or richest, but respected everybody. As such, the tweener kid went in and talked to the other kids, related, brought in some of the 'punk's' friends, reached mutual ground and probably presented scenarios that would be bad for all. This was done subtly, diplomatically, and tactfully - never escalating the situation into what could have turned into a cold-war and, worse case scenario, an epic after school fight between the two big kids and their friends.

W didn't have to tell the world he's the strongest kid in school - it's a well-known fact. You think Don Corleone needed to tell you what he could do to you? Still, he would sit his enemies down and politely impose his will and make them feel like they were doing him 'a favor'. AND it would be behind closed doors so they wouldn't be embarrassed and 'lose face'. For W it's too late to learn diplomacy. I just hope the next President can lead the world, having learned a thing or two in Elementary school.

Sincerely,
Kevin L.
The Silicon Valley Bachelor

How to Create a Website .... and look sexy doing it

I love me a lot. Yesterday, I bought four domain names of myself. Well, technically, MerchantCircle, the company I work for, bought them. They own me - literally. But that's ok, I steal a lot of thumbtacks and paper clips from them. And if they ever had to eat me, that would suck for them. There's no meat on these bones, everyone would feel gipped and disappointed - much like the women in my past.

MerchantCircle just released an awesome new feature, that instantly pulls all the content from your MerchantCircle listing (think Myspace or Facebook for business owners) and instantly creates a website for you under the domain name you just bought. No need for figuring out how to host the domain, html jibberish, DNS-something-or-other, or paying someone to build it for you. It really is freakin' cool. Check it out below:

Don't I look handsome in that picture? I'd give myself a 4, so you know what that means in the Rule of 13! Come hang out with me and find some good looking people! Anyway, anytime you want to change something, you can just change it on your MerchantCircle listing. There's several different web looks you can go for, some of which you can find under my various web domains I bought:

http://www.kevinleu.com/

http://www.kevinleupr.com/

http://www.klpublicrelations.com/

http://www.bayareapublicrelations.com/

As the great Ron Burgundy said, "Hey everyone, come and see how good I look!"

Sincerely,

Kevin L.

The Vain Narcisstic Bachelor