Monday, April 27, 2009

The Swine Flu Pandemic of 1976

Swine flu news is dominating all the headlines right now. Living in San Diego, it dominates local news about what's going on here as well. I stumbled upon this Salon article about the swine flu epidemic of 1976, which never took place. It's an interesting look back, albeit a cynical perspective.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Being the Butterfly

So today is Shakespeare's birthday...and my birthday! Back in my college days, I was an assistant to an English professor, who told me my birthday is same as Shakespeare's. So that's a little trivia I haven't forgotten.

The other thing I haven't forgotten is one particular birthday wish. Every year, I get birthday wishes from friends I think of so often but don't get to talk to nearly enough... and then I nearly fall out of my chair that they actually remembered my birthday. One particular birthday wish from the past has stuck with me even now because my friend sent me a quote which was just perfect... It was:

"The butterfly counts not years but moments and has time enough." by Rabindranath Tagore.

I plan on being that butterfly to count another year of hopefully great moments.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

My Trash and Recycling Bags

There's a movement afoot to eliminate plastic bags and paper bags at grocery stores. Basically, to save the environment, the thought is to use reusable bags for grocery. In San Diego, there's a proposal to start levying fees for using plastic bags or paper bags. I saw a local news where the weather woman commented, "But I use the plastic bags for kitty litter!" And she joked that this would cause problem for all cat lovers.

Actually, as a non-pet owner, I have a problem with getting rid of plastic bags and paper bags. I actually use them as my trash bags (for plastic bags) and recycling bags (for newspaper, plastic bottles, etc.). So if I have to use reusable bags, what will I do? I will go buy plastic bags that will line up my trash cans. Which damages my wallet more than it does me now.

Can't we just require people to re-use their bags? Apparently, at least one cat lover, does. Don't other people re-use the plastic and/or paper bags???

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Would You Still Be Working at 103?

So, I read this wsj article today... about investment managers who lived through the Great Depression and are STILL working today as finance managers. Besides the fact that it's pretty interesting to read about what people who actually lived through the Depression have to say (instead of articles from economists who studied what Depression was like compared to now), I'm just AMAZED that someone loves his job enough to be working at 103. All I cay say to that ... I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy. Kudos to Mr. Irving Khan. I think he just went on my list of heroes. =)

Monday, April 13, 2009

Foot Following the Hand

I got this email, and it's maddening. If you can defeat your brain to make your foot not go the other way, I'd love to know!
------------------------------------------------------------

HOW SMART IS YOUR RIGHT FOOT?

You have to try this please,
it takes
2 seconds. I
could not believe this! It is from an orthopaedic surgeon.............
This will confuse your mind and you will keep trying over and over again
to see if you can outsmart your foot, but, you can't. It is pre-programmed
in your brain!

1. While sitting at your desk in front of your computer, lift your right
foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.

2. Now, while doing this, draw the number '6' in the air with your right
hand. Your foot will change direction.

I told you so! And there's nothing you can do about it! You and I both
know how stupid it is, but before the day is done you are going to try
it again, if you've not already done so.

Send it to your friends to frustrate them too.

Thursday, April 09, 2009

What's in a Name?

Admittedly, I have a strange name. I've given up from junior high days to try to get people to pronounce my first name exactly the way it's supposed to be. It's slightly Anglicized (with diphthong) so that it's easier to pronounce.

When my parents got their U.S. citizenship, I had a choice (as a minor) to become naturalized with a different first name. I thought about it for a while. It seemed cool to be able to choose my name as a teenager. But then, at the end of the day, I decided to keep my name just as it is -- my given Korean name without an English name. Why? Because it's the name my dad had thoughtfully picked for me while he was working abroad at a cargo ship. He broke the Korean naming protocol to pick a name that sounds pretty (in Korean) and has a good meaning (to know grace or gratitude). Besides all of that, I realized I couldn't pick anything else as unique as my name.

But apparently, this politician thinks Asian names should be banned, and Asian Americans should change their names. What's up with that? I wonder if she emigrated to say, China, if she would so easily give up her own name and adopt a Chinese name.

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Facebook Trumps Free Law School Outlines Resources

So you know in this day and age, people "google" you, you google them, you google yourself, and so on. And actually, career advices now include googling yourself and/or reviewing multitudes of social networking sites to make sure nothing unseemly pops up. So I googled myself today because it's been a while and I was curious if the results would be the same as before.

My first name is rather unusual. I used to think that it's unusual even for a Korean name. For quite a while now, if you googled just my first name, what comes up is this website I set up while I was in law school. During the mid to late 90's, websites were no more than homepages with a bunch of links to sites that people thought were cool. I figured a website with actual substance would be cooler and taught myself html by viewing various site codes to upload all my law school outlines. While I was attending those classes (it was brutal finishing and uploading them while preparing for finals). Granted it has all my short-hands, but if you know law school study methods, outlines are pretty much a necessity.

Because that website has been around for a long time (now over a decade), it has trumped a lot of other sites (even my blog) if you googled my name. Why? I think it's because over time a lot of other legal resource sites linked to my website as well (heck, it's free and I'm not even getting paid for ads on that site).

But today, I found out the price of not having a Facebook account -- a Facebook account of another person with my first name comes up as the first search result of google. Which made me laugh out loud ... because I'm rather amused that a social networking site should trump a site that tries to give some substance to others. But I guess it's an indication that Facebook is a lot more important than, say, free legal outlines.

More power to Facebook. And if you are curious, yes, I'm still rebelling and I am not getting a Facebook account.