Our One Year Anniversary!

I'm always a bit late in general. Whether it's to basketball practice, school, or even birthday parties. At least I'm fashionably late.

Anyways it was our one year anniversary for Cool Asian Kids on November 18th. We were going to have a huge celebration and have giveaways....but laziness got in the way, as always.

But anyway, in this one year of blogging about what we like and do as Cool Asian Kids, we became more connected to what is happening around us via social media.  My sister and I were able to become more involved in things we wouldn't normally do. We were invited to volunteer at the Asian American V3Con. We were asked to guest blog for other sites and reviewed books, comics, movies, music, and electronic gadgets we liked. We even posted our own artwork on our blogsite for folks to enjoy.

By entering in contests and giveaways we discovered through sites that we follow, we got tickets to attend events such as the Asian American Film Festival and the Supply Cup soccer fundraiser hosted by KevJumba. Attending these events made us appreciate Asian American films and filmmakers, as well as socially conscious endeavors that Asian Americans were pursuing and promoting through social media. We are also tickled to learn that we were beginning to start a small following of our own.

We'd like to thank everyone who has been encouraging us and following us this year. We welcome any suggestions for our blog for the upcoming year and we hope to do some new things too to make our blog even better. So watch for updates regularly!

Cheers everyone!

Electronic Gadgets and the 4G Network

As a result of volunteering at the V3Con social networking conference, we had the opportunity to test use Verizon's 4G network using a couple of awesome devices: The Samsung Galaxy S3 smart phone, and the Samsung Galaxy 7.7 tablet.

Here are some disclosures: For a couple of years now, because of my lack of self-control in using electronic gadgets, (I used to text and IM into the wee hours of the morning during school nights and once texted over 900 times a weekend when I had only a 1500 texts per month plan), we have parent imposed restrictions placed on all our cell phones and computers. While we have wifi access on our computers and tablets at home, only our dad has 3G access on his cell phone. The concept of unlimited data use and live tweeting from anywhere, anytime, was new to us until the Verizon 4G network was make available to us . . . temporarily.

Having unlimited access to test use the Verizon 4G network for a whole month was a dream. We used it for everything, from watching movies on Youtube, to using the GPS (and I especially needed it one time when we didn't know how to get to the gym my basketball game was at.), listening to music, to live tweeting my basketball tournament and the Supply Cup Soccer Tournament, and to promote our blogs from everywhere. We posted pictures we took, made movies of my robotics competition preparation. Even mom got excited over a new money saving activity: downloading ebooks and audiobooks from the Los Angeles Public Library so she doesn't have to buy books to read. The 4G network was faster than my dad's 3G network in terms of streaming programs from the internet. It was much faster than our wifi capabilities at home using Uverse.

As for the devices themselves, we split up reviewing them. Chloe reviewed the Samsung Galaxy S3 because she doesn't have a smartphone. I reviewed the Samsung Galaxy tablet 7.7 because I don't have a tablet.

Chloe:
The Samsung Galaxy S3: For a kid who has a dumb phone with only 250 talk minutes and 200 texts, this smart phone is quite an upgrade and an attention getter. I was happy to show off it's sleekness everywhere: at sleepovers, in school, and at parties. It's like going from driving a Prius to a Ferrari (not that I drive).  The moment I powered the phone on, I noticed that the screen resolution is beautiful. The phone's screen is huge and much larger than dad's iPhone 4s. Photographs taken with the phone are crisp and clear. It was so convenient to take a picture and tweet it immediately anywhere and anytime. As I mentioned, using the skills I learned from V3Con, I used the phone and Verizon's 4G network to live tweet and post pictures of my VFW Basketball tournament when we came in 2nd Place. I also used it o to live tweet and promote the charity Supply Cup Soccer Tournament hosted by Kev Jumba, and attended by some favorite Asian American stars: Dante Basco who plays Prince Zuko from Avatar, the Last Air Bender, Wong Fu Production guys, The Fung Brothers, etc. Since we blogged about those events, being able to promote them via Twitter also drove traffic to our blogs. Really cool.

I love the large size screen, but the size of the phone makes it hard to just slip it into my pocket and run about with it. I have to put it in my back pack, or worry that it might fall out of my pants pockets and break. I like Android keyboard swiping, and other convenient Android features. In some ways, I like the phone much better than the iPhone because the sound quality is great and the screen resolution is amazing! The phone is also really good for drawing on because of the big screen and the touch sensitivity. If I ever get a smart phone, I wouldn't mind getting the Samsung Galaxy S3. You can do so much with it without having to switch devices. As of this writing, I accidentally dropped my dumb phone in the school's girls toilet. It has not come back to life despite placing it in a bucket of rice for a couple of days as some online posts suggest I do. So, hint hint, mom and dad, I need a  new phone!

Eileen:
The  Samsung Galaxy 7.7 Tablet: Like the Samsung Galaxy S3, the screen resolution is excellent. It is so clear that the screen image on it looks like a photograph. This tablet is definitely smaller than the iPad 3 that Chloe uses for school. We have mixed feelings about this. I liked the smaller size because it is really convenient to be able to carry it around in a purse and bring it to school, or on a bus. The iPad is a bit too big for that. Putting the tablet on a shelf and using the 4G network to stream shows on this tablet, I can watch TV shows or movies while using the exercise bike. This made exercising quite pleasant.

However, the smaller screen size is also a drawback in the sense that everything appears a bit smaller on the screen.  While I'm okay with it, my parents complain that they need to wear reading glasses just to look at the news online using this tablet.  So I guess for older people, maybe the small size of the tablet is not so appealing. Otherwise, I think the tablet is quite good, although I haven't seen the new iPad mini yet, so I can't compare them.

We Actually Put in Hard Work at V3Con.

We wrote in the last post that we went to the opening awards night for V3con on Friday.  We were hoping to do a follow-up post about the conference on Saturday, but we got...busy.  With school, that is.  First day was Monday.

Anyways, V3con was a lot of fun.  We had to get up at around 6 a.m. in order to get to the Japanese American National Museum by 7a.m. which was the time we had to get there to help set up and get ready to volunteer.  Because we hardly ever get to go to events with a bunch of adults without our parents, we felt a little out of place.  So many of the other volunteers there were much more experienced than we are, so it was pretty intimidating to be around them at first, but they turned out to be really friendly and helpful. We created a business card just so we can passed them out to people.

Now, about the actual volunteering: Chloe and I were assigned to a blogging team to post about various panels and tweet about the conference.  We weren't scheduled to write blog posts until the afternoon, so we spent the morning mingling with other volunteers, eating Panda Express, and listening to speakers.  I had a lot of fun tweeting from my new phone (I've never had a smartphone before, and now I realize how convenient they are for social networking) and Chloe used her iPad to take pictures.  

Then we got around to blogging about the panel discussions.  I learned that beyond the mega Youtube Asian comedy stars like KevJumba or NigaHiga, Asian Americans use social media to promote a wide range of causes and viewpoints. I got assigned to some interesting ones: Using Digital Media to Promote Non-Profits, Getting Some Social Media Skills, and Comic Relief: Anime and Manga in the Digital Era.  Chloe wrote a post about how Asian-American bloggers use social media to cover health issues (click here to read it!) and another about social media's impact on blogging.  All of the panel discussions were interesting. I even got to listen to some awesome people I've been wanting to meet for a while, like Lela Lee (creator of Angry Little Asian Girl), Kun Gao (co-founder of Crunchyroll, how cool is that?!), and David Choi (that crazy-good youtube singer!).

We also got some cool stuff from the conference, including an awesome volunteer t-shirt.

V3con T-shirt, McDonald's bag, dragon piggy bank and AARP pen!

That's not to say the whole experience was painless.  Each panel discussion lasted about an hour, and we were expected to be able to complete most of a post within that time frame.  I had 3 panel discussions to blog about in a row -- no breaks in between.  I had an emotional meltdown about halfway through the last one, because I still hadn't finished writing the first post by that time.  I was so stressed out.  I ended up having to stay later to finish the posts while the rest of the attendees headed off to the Bloggers Showcase, including Chloe.  She got to meet all kinds of cool people while I got to finish blogging...  Joy....

Despite the minor trauma, We're really looking forward to going back again next year.  Everyone was so supportive and fun to be around!  We hope to keep in touch with them and to have the opportunity to attend V3con again!

V3Con Reception: Vision, Visibility and Voice (and Food!)

Chloe and I have been invited to volunteer at the V3 Digital Media Conference!  We went to the opening awards reception today at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena to meet fellow bloggers and learn about the conference.  Our job tonight was to tweet about the event. It was a little awkward at first, I'll admit - Chloe and I were the youngest ones there.  It was great for us to talk to the more experienced bloggers around, but that did not eliminate the awkwardness.  Being surrounded by adults I've never met before really got me to realize how much of a kid I really am.

Reception under Paper Lanterns at the Asia Pacific Museum

Not going to lie to you guys here: I had my eye on the food from the moment we got there.  It looked awesome - steamed buns, dumplings, meatballs....  But when we dropped off our stuff in the volunteer lounge, the person who was showing us around told us to feel free to "eat the sandwiches for the volunteers".  Subway sandwiches.  Whoop-dee-doo.


So Chloe and I wandered around, not eating food in hopes of eventually figuring out a way to sneak one of those steamed buns.  Then about an hour into the event, Ms. Shraddha Swaroop  kindly informed us to feel free to eat some of the food at the event, to which I responded, "We can eat the food here?!" I promptly helped myself to the dumplings, the steamed baos and the meatballs. The soft drinks were great too.

Steamed baos at the V3Con Reception

Despite the impressive food at the convention, we got to meet some of the even more impressive and prominent Asian-Americans in the media today, such as Gil Asakawa and Jane Lui (again :D). We even got to see Phil Yu (a.k.a. Angry Asian Man)!  We didn't have the opportunity to talk to him because he was constantly surrounded by people who wanted to chat with him.  Frankly, Chloe and I were not sure what Mr. Yu looked like, and we were afraid that we'd accidentally approach a random Asian man, thinking he was Phil Yu...which is probably the exact thing Angry Asian Man would get Angry about.  We decided not to risk it. Maybe tomorrow. 

We know that we'll meet even more Asian American people in the media tomorrow, and look forward to attending some of the panel discussions. Our job will be to blog and tweet about the event! What a treat to end our summer. Back to school on Monday!