Ode To Terence

The following is a small excerpt on the acknowledgments section of my future book on dating.  I had meant for this to be a surprise to T.  But since I already told him that I was going to do this on a drunken stooper, I think it is appropriate for me to post this near his B-day.  If my calculations are correct, T will probably read this blog by the time his B-day comes.  Thanks T, and I'll see you in HK next month!

H

Acknowledgments:

I’ve known Terence Yin (T) for over a decade now, and he knew me ever since I was a little round boy.  I remember the day that I met him, he was wearing some very interesting shoes.  I was maybe 10 or 11 at the time.  Growing up with three sisters, I never really had a brother to look up to.  So I was always in search of male big brother like figures.  At that age, T was it.  My hyper, ADD, childish self looked up to him in great awe.  Not, at the fact that he was an actor, or a celebrity in HK, but because of his presence.

Fast forward six or seven years after High School.  My mom realized that I was getting older and it was now time for me to go out and have fun.  A call to T a long forgotten family friend was made.  T met me in a hotel bar, sipping a Jack and Coke and smoking a cigar reading a book.  He was impressed, “nice man” he said to me, he was expecting an eighteen year old college party boy.  What he got instead was  an eighteen year old that was too cool for school.  That night we went out, and he showed me the ropes in HK.  We went out a few times, but T was busy and had to work the weekends, so we only had limited week nights to come out and hang.  I even lost my phone on one of the nights out.  It worried my mother sick, cause I hadn’t returned home.  But that didn’t stop me from going out some more.

One year later I came to Hong Kong with two friends of mine, and T really showed us hot to party.  We visited the all known hot spot Dragon Eye, which in 2004 was a hot spot.  My friends sat in our VIP area drank jack and coke all night, and got our mac on with the HK models.  It was at this phase of my life I realized how vital T was to my Hong Kong experience.  T knew and I knew, that any time I came to HK, we was getting a call.  This became routine for the next five years and even still today it is.

My mother would say something about T that I felt held a significant value.  “Marsha Terence is like a brother, to Chi Terence is like a co-start and cousin, and to Harry Terence is an Idol.”  Now I wouldn’t say that T is my idol, but I would say that he is my shi fu.  T was my connector shi fu.  Everyone has one.  In Malcome Gladpoint’s The Tipping point, T would be called a connector.  His word started a word of mouth epidemic that would spread.  Hell, I’m guessing that is why he started www.alivenotdead.com.  Now I don’t want people to get the idea that T was only good for partying, because he was great at giving advice as well.  Any networking issue that I came upon I would run it by him.  He had a good influence on my website www.iheartorganic.com. I wasn’t the only one that looked up to T for advice.

My youngest sister, Marsha, isn’t much of a marketer; she was what you would call an introvert.  T would help her connect and socialize and for publicity.  Even today, like all of us, she learns more and more on this topic.  T gave Marsh the guidance or “big brother advice” that our family was lacking.

My oldest sister, Chi, on the other had, experienced T through a more professional basis.  T always said that Chi was an amazing actress, and they worked on a professional level with one another.  Both of them have been in the film industry for quite sometime, and acted as one another’s support group.  If there was a male version of T, it would be  Chi.  She socialized just as much as T, but partied less.  Both had similar philosophies on life, love, and work, but yet they were also distinctly different.

So, in a way my mother was right, we were all highly dependent on T.  We considered him a part of the family, a cousin.  If I was in town he knew I was calling.  If T was in HK while you were in HK he would always include you in the fun that he did.  He is and was always hospitable, courteous and welcoming, but never on time.  That is why one can depend on him, and that is why I write this, as a personal thank you to one of my primary connectors in my life.  We all have a connector in life, and when you realize who that is, keep them in your life because they are the ones who keep your world ticking.

T trained me to be my own connector, I didn’t know it at the time, I’m not sure if he knew it, but that is what he did.  So, Terence if you are reading this, Thank You! and Thank You to all connectors out there.