Sidenote: I have nothing against asian dudes, spiky haired or not.
Here's our startup bus pitch video. http://www.youtube.com/user/StartupBus#p/u/8/k4mixo4-SMs
Show me an investor who takes us seriously and we'll be there to pitch within 24 hours. Or if you know TechCrunch people who are interested, we got wired coverage but it's not like it's 96 and people still read wired. http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/03/meet-startupbus-buspr...
That said, it's a lifestyle business that pays the bills and allows me to do crazy stuff like startup bus.
$10k is your "fuck you money", provided you can rely on making it every month. This might be easier said than done, though.
For me it's being able to support yourself and your family in a fairly comfortable western middle class quality of life. The FU part is that, if you're making this independently and reliably, you don't need to care about the TechCrunch/etc bullshit the OP mentioned.
For another person it might mean living in a West Village townhouse and sending your kids to private schools. For yet another it's owning a private jet and the 49ers. In these cases you probably need more than $10k/mo.