Stop Dragon-balling My Name!

Many times over the years, my last name has been mis-spelled as "Tien", instead of "Tian". This included credit card bills, water bills, you name it, all kinds of bills. What else do you get in your mailbox these days? Nothing but bills,  advertisements or advertisements disguised as coupons or checks. Our email inbox is not that much better either and is probably more creepy. Because in physical mailbox we usually get random ads, so random that sometimes you laugh at those who sent them. However, our email inbox is an entire new ballgame. The ads were much more precise and targeted, almost like the advertisers were reading our minds somehow.  So precise that I almost suspect somebody was spying on me. Although they got my last name spelled wrong occasionally too, and without exception, they always mis-spelled it the same way: Tien. I wonder why.

One day, before boarding a flight from Newark Airport, I was passing by a TSA staff checking my passport before allowing me to be stripped of my shoes, temporarily parted with my phones and other precious belongs, and scanned by a weird door like those in Stargate. After peeking at my passport, he raised one of his eyebrows and smiled at me, and uttered these two words:"Tien, Dragonball!"

What the heck was that? Without understanding what he meant, I squeezed a smile like I usually do when I don't understand something. Hinting that I was allowed to go, he give me a weird puzzling smile, the mystery of which almost rivals that of Mona Lisa. 

Quickly putting on my shoes and belt from the bins after passing the Stargate, I pulled out the phone and googled "Tien, dragonball".  And I saw this: 

Obviously this bald, three-eyed Kong Fu master was a pretty popular character in the Japanese manga series Dragon Ball. If a TSA staff knows so much about Tien, then all the misspelling from my bills and emails made sense now. Those mis-spellers were probably all Dragon Ball fans. Even the mystery smile of the TSA dude made sense now. I might not be entirely bald but I'm not proud of my dwindling hair either. With a giant pair of glasses constantly on my face, I could definitely use a spare eye in the mid of my eyebrows. At the moment I was almost jealous of the Dragonball Tien. How could you possibly get away with dressing up in green with a red belt like that these days?