world of hoagie

Longing for Revival of Palm

2012-01-22T21:05:00.000-08:00

I finally upgraded my cell phone to another smartphone that was not a Palm phone. Maybe it's nostalgia. But for whatever reason, I am, apparently, a Palm fan. I can actually claim that I had the first smartphone -- Handspring. Don't know what it is? Back in the days when Palm made just PDA's (personal digital assistants), a few Palm folks broke off and created Handspring company. It was short lived. But it did make the first smartphone -- it combined your Palm PDA with a phone capability so that you can just click on your contact and call. It was big, with a clunky top module to convert the PDA to a phone... and got noticed by gadget loving guys (I got stopped a few times from folks who wanted to see the novelty).

Now that I upgraded to an Android phone, I long for Palm to make its revival like a Phoenix. Why? Because the Android interface is not as intuitive as Palm (I have a Palm Pixi). I never had an iPhone so I can't compare. But Palm's operating system is pretty intuitive and simple. Things aren't so convoluted to get around. Android, not so much. Android is kinda like knowing Unix -- it's great once you figure out all the roads, but it's not an intuitive road. Palm's operating system is clean, user-friendly, and uncluttered.

Here's hoping that Palm makes another revival. Until then, I guess I'll still keep my Palm Pixi around... and get used to my new Android phone.

The New Year

2011-12-31T18:20:00.000-08:00

Anticipation and hope

Carry me this last day

Of this year

That tomorrow

The first day

Of next year

Will be the start

Of new adventures

In this so-called life

That connects so well

This last day

With the first day.

Happy New Year!

Revoke Bank Charters

2011-12-04T19:56:00.000-08:00

Apparently, banks are still mired with mortgage mess. As this article points out, one of the attorney generals walked away from settlement discussions to settle the mess with bank -- Massachusetts' attorney general used five banks for illegal foreclosure and loan servicing issues (ummm robo-signing).

Lawsuits are one way to go. But corporate entities, like banks, are fictitious creatures. What does that mean? It means that these entities are created by documents. Government agencies approve these documents to create the entities. Banks are one of them. Federal banks are created with a charter approved by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). OCC approves the charter, regulates, and supervises national banks.

So, I'm just wondering, if banks are not playing by the rules, couldn't the OCC revoke bank charters? And if it can, wouldn't that be simpler? Just a thought as we still hear about mortgage mess created by banks.

Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico

2011-10-16T20:20:00.000-07:00

So my dad and I went to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico during the Columbus Holiday weekend (I realize it's not a holiday for most people who don't work for the government). It was a fascinating, short weekend trip. The Cavern was pretty amazing, and unfortunately, because it's pretty dark, most pictures were not great.

We flew into El Paso, Texas and drove 150-160 miles to Carlsbad, New Mexico. Although the flight from Los Angeles was direct, the United plane was a small plane. That route was the most cost effective way to get there, with flights into Russell, New Mexico at double the price for the flight. Along the way, we stopped at Guadalupe Park as well. The drive was pretty easy because there was absolutely deserted.

We stayed at Holiday Inn Express, which is furthest from the Carlsbad Cavern. My dad and I agreed that if we go another time, we would probably like to stay at Best Western or Marriott's, which were closer to the Cavern.

The gas prices were so much cheaper in both New Mexico and Texas than in California.

Anyway, a pretty interesting trip. And here are some pictures that actually came out ok.

The entrance to Carlsbad Caverns National Park for tickets and information. You can take the elevator down 750 feet to the Caverns!

The picture doesn't do justice but here's one of the columns I saw.

The Great Room (I think) was full of columns and limestones.

They limestones hanging from the ceiling were everywhere! Not to mention on the floor.

There were little pools of water, where water dripped from the stones in the cave. I don't think you would want to drink this water.

Inside the cave is in the 50's... cold for me! That's my fleece jacket!

My dad and the column of limestone.

The column from the ceiling and floor... just about to meet!

We were walking and came upon this narrow passageway. Not sure if you are tall, you can walk through here!

If you don't take the elevator down 750 feet, you can walk down to this natural entrance to the cave. It's pretty steep going down. We cheated and decided we would ONLY go down and take the elevator up...

Outside the Cavern, it's pretty deserted with nothing around. Apparently there was a recent fire so everything outside was pretty much burnt.

Outside the Cavern it was pretty windy. That's me at the nature walk trail above the Cavern.

Watch More TV So Social Media Remains Just Social Media?

2011-10-02T19:28:00.000-07:00

Back when "social media" first rose - and I consider Friendster to be the first "social media" site - it was really just social. The sites allowed friends and family to connect with each other. But have you noticed that in the last few years, Facebook and Twitter are inundated with businesses, commercials, and politicians? I suppose you could say that it may have been inevitable. Businesses, etc. wanted a way to reach public and figured social media was the way to do it. At the same time, people are watching less television because well, you can get Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, internet videos, etc. etc. So I'm guessing that businesses feel compelled to move more into social media world to reach people.

So then, I wonder - if we watched more television, would businesses stay out of social media? Would it just be social media for your friends and family?

Long-Term Unemployed Probably Make Better New Hires

2011-09-18T19:33:00.000-07:00

Part of the problem of job malaise in this economy is that a lot of employers are looking to fill positions with those who are currently employed. I remember reading a lot of news articles, and this New York Times article is one of many that talked about how employers are turning away people who have been unemployed for a while. Basically, the idea is that employers want to fill position with those who have most up-to-date skills because such employee would be more productive, and employers apparently generally believe unemployed would be at a disadvantage against those who are currently employed.

But hiring someone who has been unemployed and had been looking for a job for a long time may be better because such person may become a more productive and loyal employee. Why? Someone who has been unemployed will be a lot more grateful to the employer who hires that person out of probable financial desperation. Someone who is currently employed already has a pay check and probably is looking because he/she is disgruntled and burnt out at the current job. That person probably doesn't face the same dire economic desperation because however disgruntled, that person still has a steady paycheck. Once the unemployed person is hired, that person will likely work extra hours to catch up on the learning curve a lot more than the person who is so burnt out that he/she had to jump ship to another job. The unemployed person will likely go a further distance to prove he/she is worthy of that job. So the unemployed person will likely learn what's necessary for the job just as quickly if not quicker than the person who was employed. And the person who had been unemployed for a while will NEVER forget that you are the one that gave that job to break that desperation and unemployment. Which means, that person is likely to be much more loyal than the person who simply views the new job as another job.

So, wouldn't hiring someone who has been unemployed months and years (which apparently is common now) be better? Just something to ponder about, all you employers with jobs.

Yosemite

2011-08-28T20:36:00.000-07:00

So I went to Yosemite for the first time in a very long time earlier this year. It was quite gorgeous, with snow still pretty thick in some parts. This was back in April of this year. Waterfalls were plentiful, unlike the last time I visited as a kid... when California was in severe drought and there were no waterfalls! Here are some pictures.

This is me by the river. I have no idea what river that is but it was a pretty site!

See what I mean about the snow? It was quite beautiful when the sun was shining with the snow still on the ground.

That's me and my parents by the O'Shaughnessy Dam.

This tree was just so weird, I had to take a picture...

And a picture that captures the El Capitan, the Half Dome, and the Bridalveil Waterfall.

A deer!!!
So we went to see some really tall trees at Mariposa Grove. Unfortunately, it was way too cold (and too snowed in) for us to hike the trail but I took some pictures of the tall trees. I look like an ant in front of this tree.
The path for Mariposa Grove...
A random picture I decided to take while walking through Yosemite. It was a gorgeous day, and trees seemed taller than ever.
And finally, theYosemite waterfalls. The big one and the little one.

WebOS Not So Unpopular as HP Thought

2011-08-21T20:02:00.000-07:00

So it turns out today, HP's Touchpad, which runs on Palm's WebOS, went on fire sale price of $99 for 16 gb and $149 for 32 gb. What happened? HP website and every major retailers are posting that they are out of stock of HP's Touchpad. It turns out that there was a demand for the "dead" Palm's WebOS operating system. Although Apple's iPad is ruling the tablet world right now, this apparently shows that there is demand for other tablets if they are priced right. It's an amazing testament that the demand for a discontinued product was so high that Touchpad sold out in less than 24 hours pretty much everywhere you go. But maybe the demand would still be there if the Touchpad was placed at $200-300 range initially, and HP kept making them. It seems that people who either (1) want alternative to Apple's iPad or (2) can't afford to pay $500 for a tablet would be willing to buy an alternative.

It's a shame that HP couldn't see that before deciding to kill Touchpad altogether. Maybe today's result may lead to change in HP's thinking... or, more likely, it may lead to change in the rest of the tablet makers if they want to gain an edge over Apple's iPad.

Choi Sung Bong -- Korea's Got Talent Story

2011-08-14T20:18:00.000-07:00

I received an email with forward of a Youtube link of the performance of Choi Sung Bong. He performed to get in "Korea's Got Talent" show -- and it's the story of Cinderella. He grew up homeless and found comfort in music. The Youtube video went viral, and quite a few (maybe a little more than few) saw his audition performance.

If you didn't see it, then here's the Youtube video of his audition performance.

It appears that he also made it through the semi-final. This is an article on his story and some excerpt of his interview.

And this is his semi-final performance.

And this is another video with English subtitle. In case you wanted to understand what they were saying...

Growing Up...

2011-08-08T20:44:00.000-07:00

So I took a little hiatus from blogging, what with some personal stuff I had to go through. The hiatus gave me time to reflect, which might be what the federal government and S&P might also want to do.

Throughout the debt ceiling debate between Congress, the White House, the Republicans, the Democrats, the Tea-Party, and whoever else, there was only really one strong consensus from the American public. Stop with the political rhetoric and posturing and do the job. The bitter battle of words didn't interest the public. Knowing that the government will do the job did.

However bitter and long it took, at least the government actually passed something in time. (Well, then Congress immediately took off for a 6 week vacation, promising to work on jobs, and leaving FAA workers high and dry, which can be another post in itself)

In the meantime, S&P apparently was also disgusted by the government's failure to act in unity. So much so that S&P took it upon themselves to ignore the $2 trillion math error and that the U.S.A.'s debt ratio to GDP is on par with other AAA graded sovereign nations and downgraded the United States of America's credit rating has to be downgraded. Maybe it's not actually disgust but more political posturing on S&P's part as well. And maybe it's a bit more than all that according to this article but that's how I end up summing it.

I can't help but think that all of this reminds me of kids in the playground. You know, the screaming match of "it's mine, it's mine, I'm right, you're wrong" "ha ha I fooled you"... except by folks whose actions reach beyond a kid's playground.

Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream once -- and that dream came true. And I too now have a dream. I have a dream that one day, politicians and people who make major economic decisions will act for the good of the American people and not their parties or lobbyists. I have a dream that one day actions of such people will move Americans to sing praises for the unselfish work they did for the American public instead of taking vows to elect them all out. I hope I get to see that dream realized.

Korean Dramas

2011-04-10T19:32:00.000-07:00

My dad is not very computer literate. But somehow he figured out how to watch Korean dramas online and is completely addicted to watching Korean dramas online. Then, my friend mentioned how she got addicted to watching Korean dramas on hulu.com. So the result? I ended up tooling around... and got hooked on a couple of Korean dramas on hulu.com. The reason for addiction? Because hulu.com uploads all episodes and automatically starts playing next episode! Thankfully, my will power takes over to turn off the computer... or rather the need to sleep. In the meantime, I found a couple of other sites such as koreadrama.org, which hopefully means no more automatic episode uploads.

Post-Apocalyptic World Books -- Sometimes They Are Wrong

2011-03-20T19:39:00.000-07:00

In the last few years, I noticed that a lot of authors wrote about post-apocalyptic world. The Nobel Prize winner, Jose Saramago, wrote a book called "Blindness." It's about what we would do if we all suddenly lost our sight. Another great book written by Cormac McCarthy called "The Road" is a journey of a father and a son in a post-apocalyptic world.

The common theme of these books (besides that they were both made into movies) is that for the most part, people turn against each other -- each fighting for his or her survival. Becoming cruel creatures, humans seem almost worse than animals. And there is a lone voice or character in this dog-eat-dog post-apocalyptic world that cries out against people's cruelties... which gives some hope for readers that not all people will throw away all humanity.

Reading such post-apocalyptic books, readers definitely get the sense that the authors don't have much faith in mankind. When the situation turns dire, some authors believe that there will be anarchy and people will throw away any semblance of morality, civility, and altruism.

It turns out, fiction may just be fiction -- real life woes have shown that sense of humanity is stronger than some of us might have given credit. Last year, we watched 33 Chilean miners survive... with the unbelievable willpower to share their last bite of little food they had left until they were found. Right now in Japan, where the earthquake and Tsunami devastated parts of the country, disrupted power and food supply, we are witnessing a society of people who refuse to loot and voluntarily conserving energy.

I guess reality can sometimes surprise and inspire us with more hope than fiction.

Not All Blu Ray Dvd's Are Created Equal

2011-03-13T19:51:00.000-07:00

The first blu ray dvd I rented and popped into my blu ray dvd player was "Prince of Persia." It was a jaw-dropping experience because the picture was sharper and clearer than HD channels on TV. It literally seemed to "pop" more. Thinking that blu ray dvd's were all going to "pop," I bought "Zombieland" in blu ray. I was disappointed because there wasn't that jaw-dropping "pop" I expected.

It turns out, not all blu ray dvd's are created equal. Some are formatted better than others. The only blu ray dvd's I have seen that popped are "Prince of Persia" and "Repo Men." It would be nice if the packaging disclosed what was formatted at the highest HD level and which are not. In the meantime, this website reviewing blu ray dvd's will have to do.

Making Opera Relevant

2011-02-27T19:14:00.000-08:00

My sister got a Groupon coupon to see Die Fledermaus -- a comedic opera -- for this weekend. The performance was by Center Stage Opera, at the Madrid Theatre in Canoga Park, California. I was excited because one of the arias I'm learning right now is in this opera. Other than that, we had no idea what to expect; we have never seen any performance at this theatre.

The performance we saw last night was quite enjoyable, and I thought a way to make operas engaging for today's audience. The entire opera was in English. Recitatives were not sung -- only major arias were sung. Dialogues and lyrics were changed for more modern setting (like reference to TV show). In short, the opera was fun and engaging. My sister who doesn't like classical music and opera was laughing throughout the opera and thought it was well done to engage audience to the opera.

The quality of musicianship was a bit uneven -- orchestra needed more practice. The two lead ladies singing sopranos -- Katharine Gunnink and Jennie Lister were absolutely amazing. When Ms. Gunnink was singing, unfortunately, male singers seemed as if they weren't singing. And Ms. Lister's high D's (that's above high C above staff!) shimmered brilliantly and effortlessly.

If operas could be changed to such format, I can see younger generation (kids and young adults) could find operas actually fun and not see it as just as "culture." Who knows? Young people may even choose it over movies, video games, or .. Farmville! The point is, opera, should be a living art. And I thought Center Stage Opera found a way to make a favorite opera relevant to today's world... and hope it continues to find new ways to make operas relevant.

Functioning Democracy

2011-02-21T14:45:00.000-08:00

So if you have been paying attention to the news lately, our federal government has not yet passed a budget. There's some talk of government shut-down come March 4 if Congress fails to pass the budget. Why? Because we are going to run out of money. What that means is not quite clear. But we can make some educated guesses. Those who receive social security checks may be affected. Those waiting for the government to process something in general (passport, visa, etc.) may be affected. And those working for the federal government? If you are not "essential," you will not be working (no paycheck) until the government passes the budget.

Half-way around the world, people are dying -- protesting, demanding, dying for democratic governments. These people want to shut down autocratic governments so that democratic governments, that represent people's voices, can be in place. And function.

We already have a democratic government -- our founding fathers fought that war for us. So that today, we are not the ones shedding blood and giving up our lives. Now, it must remember to function, instead of coming to a standstill... and be a shining example, instead of tragic mockery, of what democracy is AND can be.

Use of Recycle Bags

2011-02-13T19:47:00.000-08:00

For the last few years, to go green, a movement has begun encouraging using own bags for grocery stores. You have seen them -- grocery stores even sell those bags. The thinking is that plastic bags are being wasted.

But for me, I actually use plastic bags. I use them as trash bags, instead of buying trash bags. Plus, paper bags from Trader Joe's are used to recycle newspapers (along with the paper bags). So, I decided to use the recycle bags for grocery shopping at Zion's -- Korean grocery store. Why? Because it tends to give me 20 plastic bags (seriously!) for buying only a handful of grocery. The cashier there tends to throw few things in a plastic bag and give you lots of bags. And while I do use plastic bags, I don't have that many trash cans.

It's been a little weird using my recycle bags, because I don't see any other patrons at the Korean grocery store bringing their own bag. At Trader Joe's, though, where I really can use a little more paper bags, I don't get enough. And I see everyone else in there with their own recycle bags. Kinda ironic to me.

Tunisia and Sudan

2011-02-01T20:17:00.000-08:00

So after following the Tunisian revolution, now it seems most news media is focused on following what's going on in Egypt... and only Egypt. It's sort of the typical pattern of the media where one subject seems to dominate and then the topic is dropped without much follow-up.

Remember just a few weeks ago, we were talking about the revolution in Tunisia? Don't you wonder what's going on? After all, with revolution, things must still be going on there. Even Twitter search doesn't reveal much. Well, it turns out there has been an arrest of the previous interior minister according to this article. The ex-president's asset is frozen according to this article. But as this Economist article points out, it appears that the interim government may be viewed by some as occupied by same old authority figures.

In the meantime, there has been another historic, international event -- Sudan will be two different countries as 99% of South Sudan voted to break away. And the result of that vote is recognized and honored by the North Sudan. The break will also end their civil war. I may not be a historian, but that seems pretty historic to me. You can read a little blurb in this article.

In case you were wondering what's going on, like me, that may not be covered by the mainstream media right now.

Museum Month Coming Up for San Diego

2011-01-23T19:04:00.000-08:00

Every February, Macy's generously sponsors San Diego Museum Month. You can pick up a free pass at any Macy's store, and pay just half the admission price for participating museums. More information is here. Of course, museums are free in Washington D.C. but I'll take 50% discount any day. ;)

Reflection After the Tragedy

2011-01-09T21:02:00.000-08:00

It's a terrible way to begin a new year -- an attempted assassination of Congresswoman, Gabrielle Gifford, and death of six people. It appears the suspect has been behaving oddly for some time and posted incoherent rantings on the internet. According to this New York Times article, those around the suspect, Jared L Loughner, have noticed that his behavior had become increasingly odd. So much so, the community college would not allow him to return to college without a mental health evaluation.

The media, politicians, and others reflected today that if the political discourse were less acid, this might not have happened. Perhaps.

I add another reflection. Maybe when community members do notice increased odd behaviors of someone, our society should allow someone to actually take action instead of turning away from the person. Jared L. Loughner's odd behaviors led to isolation, but free, because people turned away from him. Perhaps if the community college made him take a mental evaluation test and forced help/therapy, he may not have been free to attempt such tragedy. Or perhaps it could have been friends or family that forced him to be evaluated and treatment. It seems that even when people recognized that someone seemed like they need help, our society wasn't (and still isn't) set up to force help on that person... which led to harm. Perhaps that's something we could think about too as we reflect what happened on January 8, 2011.

2011 Resolution

2011-01-03T09:21:00.000-08:00

Ok. So I don't really make new year resolutions. But there is one resolve I made a few years back (I think on my birthday??) that's been running for a while, and I am determined to finish it. No, it's not about my weight. It's about my books. Yes, books.

I love to read, and I love libraries. Free books, who can complain? Unfortunately, that means I end up reading lots of library books before the due date and none of the books I actually buy or have been gifted to me by friends. (Friends, if you are reading, please don't buy me books anymore... I feel guilty).

Anyway, so here's a list of books that I actually own but have not read (some for YEARS!). I really, really want to read all of them and will not go to the library to borrow new books until I do.
1) Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro
2) Desperation by King
3) The Fencing Master by Perez-Reverte
4) The Surrendered by Lee
5) Lacuna by Kingsolver
6) Don Quixote by Cervantes
7) Persuasion by Austen
8) Armadale by Collins
9) Guns, Germs, and Steel by Diamond
10) Collapse by Diamond
11) 4 Novels by Dickens
12) Collected Stories and Poems by Poe
13) Short Stories of O'Henry.

Who knows? Maybe this is the year I do finish all of my books I own.

Last Trip of 2010: Las Vegas - Valley of Fire

2011-01-03T08:59:00.000-08:00

My family and I took a little trip to Las Vegas - to see a state park, Valley of Fire - over the holiday break. Because we don't gamble, it was actually a good trip. Lots of food (buffets at Cosmopolitan, Aria - i.e. new hotels), sleep, and nature.

Valley of Fire is a little ways out (about an hour drive) from Las Vegas. The park is quite striking; red rocks and sands in middle of brown/green mountains. Here are some pictures. Happy New Year!
Here's a little description of the park.

Reminded me in part of Arches park at Utah with all these red rocks!
We completely lucked out and saw this animal grazing by the side of the road. Can you tell what it is?

I didn't know petrified had another meaning until I saw this log. =P
Look, petrified log!

Can you see red rocks against green mountains?
We also saw petroglyphs. It's a day I learned a couple of new words, because I've never heard of petroglyphs either.

I figured all this out. It's a map to treasure buried somewhere in this park. ;)
And yes, I was there!

Celebrating Imperfection

2010-12-19T19:37:00.000-08:00

So I finally caught up with the rest of the world by upgrading my tv to a flat panel recently. And with it, I started watching HD channels. As my friends awed and oohed at the clarity that is mesmerizing, we noticed that actors, news anchors, and everyone are not perfect. HD provides such clearness that you can see every, tiny wrinkles and flaws. I can see how actors and news anchors would not like HD.

But after a while of pointing out all the flaws, I actually like realizing that actors are imperfect. How comforting to know that actors are also human, with flaws! So, here's to celebrating imperfections and flaws.

Thanksgiving, Korean Style

2010-11-28T20:20:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving dinner in our family is slightly different... because we add Korean style to our dinner. What does that mean? Well, we have slightly different utensils -- chopsticks. And we add other food... like rice, boochim, etc. ;) Here's a picture of our Thanksgiving dinner. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Right to Free Speech

2010-10-24T19:37:00.000-07:00

What does right to free speech mean? There has been quite a bit of reaction over NPR's firing of Juan Williams. NPR has been criticized by left and right for firing Mr. Williams based on his comment. The outrage is probably based on our notion that one should be free to express one's opinion -- you know, free speech?

Except that right to free speech does not guarantee your job -- employer can fire you for any reason, including saying anything it does not like. Remember the phrase, "dooced"? For blogging your work and being fired when your employer finds out about it? (By the way, this is the woman and her blog that started the phrase.) It happens ALL the time, not just to journalists. Technically, NPR had the right to terminate Mr. Williams.

It's an odd thing to remember but basically, right to free speech means that the government cannot throw you into jail for saying something. It has nothing whatsoever to do with your paycheck. But is it truly free speech if you can lose your livelihood? Losing your paycheck is a significant threat to stifling what you might want to say, isn't it? So maybe it's not unlimited right to free speech... just a qualified right to free speech.

The Cost of Moral Choice

2010-09-05T18:43:00.000-07:00

Craigslist, a popular website for finding just about anything, has taken off adult services link and replaced with the word "censored." Many state attorney generals wrote to Craigslist to take down the service because it allowed prostitution and sex trade. According to this article, Craigslist had initially pointed out that it vetted all adult services ads and that the ads were no worse than other ads at other site.

It's disheartening to realize that in this modern age, slavery and forced sex labor is still an on-going problem. See this National Geographic article (full article only in print) and website of U.S. Department of State's Office to Monitor and Combat Human Trafficking. Whether or not Craigslist's "adult services" section had been used by those engaged in forced sex services may be debated, but at least taking down the section ensures that Craigslist "adult services" site is definitely not used. Craigslist is losing some money by not having the site up (at least in the U.S.) but moral choice is not always about the money. And hopefully, state attorney generals and other organizations can convince that this should be permanent.

Democracy at Work with 2 Senators

2010-08-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

So apparently, if you want to pass a bill quickly, you just need 98 less Senators. On Thursday, two Senators flew back to pass a $600 million border-security bill, according to this WSJ article. It is amusing to hear that law can be passed quickly (record 31 minutes). But the article raises some questions. What is the point of electing those who are supposed to represent people if they don't actually participate in the voting process (albeit, the article does point out it had been passed previously)? Is this really "democracy"?

And these days, we have cell phones and internet; is it really necessary for Senators to fly back to be physically present to vote? Why could they not vote over the internet or phone?

So many questions, and probably no answers.

Life Without Facebook

2010-07-12T22:14:00.000-07:00

So I signed up for a Facebook account because so many people asked me to be on it. And I even had a post here about how I refuse to be on Facebook. After being on it, I decided I should have stuck with my original instinct and deactivated my account. And now that I don't have an account with Facebook, has my life changed a whole lot?

Actually, it has in a way. Before, people bugged me to get an account and asked me what was wrong with me for not being on Facebook. After I announced my decision to pull out of Facebook, asked everyone to contact me if they want to keep in touch with me outside of Facebook and didn't have my contact info (which generated all of 2 inquiries out of whatever number of "friends" I was connected with), and then went off-line after multiple warnings.... the big difference is that no one is bugging me if I saw some picture that was posted on Facebook, if I saw the status of someone, and if I am on Facebook period. For some reason, the fact that I tried and decided to delete, caused people to leave me alone about not being on Facebook. Maybe people felt that it was the cool thing to do with all the privacy issues Facebook was having. Who knows? But unlike before when people thought I was just wrong not to be on Facebook, now they all seem to respect my decision.

I kinda like it. =) And I love the fact that I don't have to answer to whether I saw some random picture on the Facebook or not.

Coddling Our Future?

2010-06-28T21:12:00.001-07:00

I've been tad busy in the past month or so with personal issues and work load. Combining the two, basically, I effectively abandoned by blog for a while.

Anyway, I read this article from New York Times which made me laugh and then indignant. Basically, according to this article, because law students are having a hard time finding a job, law schools decided to pad everyone's grades. And just like that, everyone's grades are higher.

What disservice to students who worked hard and earned their grades! Comments to the article is pretty long. It's a quite a drastic measure from educational institutions. I guess I think that they should teach our future lawyers (and hopefully future leaders) to find their strength to fight through obstacles that life throws at them instead of coddling them. Hardship is life, and life isn't always rosy. Those who can get through the tough times will appreciate their job more and learn a little something called resilience. If law schools wanted to take a philosophical stance against grading, then they should (1) not have a curve and/or (2) get rid of all types of grades (pass/no pass, a-f scale, number scale, etc.). Otherwise, inflating grades just sends a message to the law students that they are entitled to something they have not earned. And coddling our future lawyers and leaders in a way that may harm them in the long run.

Plea to Silicon Valley and Tech World -- Think SMALL!

2010-05-20T19:53:00.000-07:00

Do you remember the days when you thought who needs 1 GB of space? That seemed way too much space. Except now that everything is faster, all the software is taking up more space. I have a plea to the tech world -- could you PLEASE make programs smaller?? It's ridiculous that I'm getting messages to delete programs because 130 GB of space is not big enough. If we are getting so great at conserving energy, I say please conserve bandwidth/hard drive space/memory. , I'm tired of looking for ways to delete programs, files, defragment, etc. to make room for bigger and bigger files. (Incidentally, Microsoft and Adobe are the worst offenders, at least in my laptop space).

And if we are moving into "cloud" computing (e.g. zoho.com) to make room in local space, I have another plea to make. People don't necessarily want their files stored in 3rd party servers -- please have an option for people to use softwares in the "cloud" but keep files in their own computers. No offense, but I have no faith that any other company or person will be vigilant about keeping my tax files, social security number, and any other documents with sensitive information completely safe. At least if the files are sitting in my laptop, I have only myself to blame (maybe).

The chance of anyone remotely connected to making any of this happen reading this blog post is probably small to nil. But I feel much better having vented out into the cyberspace the frustration of upgrading hard drive or laptop to make way for bigger programs.

Palm Springs and Joshua Tree National Park

2010-05-02T21:19:00.000-07:00

So I took a short break and went to Palm Springs with my sister. Actually, it was to cash in on my one free night stay at a hotel (which I won on some random raffle) and free dinner to go with it. Because we don't really play golf, we decided to go check out the Joshua Tree National Park. I was surprised at how big the park was -- 2 hours to drive straight across from North to South! And I was also pleasantly surprised at how majestic desert vegetation can be. Here are some pictures.

Forest of Joshua Trees. I had seen random Joshua Trees by the freeway but they looked quite beautiful in a field full of them.

A close up of one against rock formations.

Although it was very windy, Joshua Trees did not sway with the wind. The bark of a Joshua Tree was rather interesting.

A different angle of Joshua Trees.

Cactus flower!

This is from the highest point at the park. What you see there, it's San Andreas fault line! Pretty interesting to see one of the biggest earthquake fault line in California.

Self explanatory.

Me in the middle of Cholla Cactus Garden.

Cholla Cactus Garden, in all its glory.

Another angle of cacti... bottom up!

Flower of cholla cactus.

Cholla cactus against the sun.
Other wild flowers with cholla cactus.

Not sure what this is called but looked quite dramatic.

Tale of Two Elections

2010-04-11T20:39:00.000-07:00

So apparently, Mattel held an election to allow whoever voted to decide Barbie's next career choice -- anchorwoman, computer engineer, architect, environmentalist or surgeon. As WSJ tells it, girls voted in large part for anchorwoman. Women in science heard of the election, though, and got busy; they told their associations, organizations, friends, and anyone in the science field to vote for computer engineer. As the viral messages got through, female geeks and nerds turned the tide around. Based on the votes, Barbie is getting her "geek" on coming this fall and computer engineer Barbie is coming this fall (Mattel is also manufacturing anchorwoman Barbie). It's a true testament to what power of democracy and voting (and some geek power) can do.

In a more serious context though, power of voting works if everyone has equal access. Right now, a landmark election is being held in Sudan. It's a landmark election because it's the country's first multiparty election in 20 years, as the NY Times notes. But not everyone had access to vote because the polling stations were not open. See this BBC News site with comments from folks. And shouldn't there be real choices, as in more than 1 choice? Opposition leaders of the parties not in power have dropped out of the race. The only choice left on the ballot appears to be the incumbent president of Sudan, who is currently charged by the International Criminal Court with crimes against humanity. What do you do when there are no other choices? Some of the discouraged folks apparently did not and does not intend to vote. But that would mean that those who voted, and voted for the incumbent president, would be the only ones to have their voices heard. When there is no real choice, then maybe it should be like the multiple choice questions we used to take in high school ... you know, where the last choice is "none of the above." And choose that (or indicate that on the ballot) instead of choosing anyone on the ballot. What a powerful message that would send if people who believed the election is rigged, with no real choice, voted with a message that they choose to vote none of the above candidate. That would be an interesting election result indeed if majority indicated, by participating in election, that they choose not to elect any of the folks running.

Unfortunately and obviously, the reality is much different. And it may very well be likely, as it seems to happen in other countries, that there may not be a fair result because of lack of access to vote and lack of real choice. And that would discourage those not believing in the process to not vote at all. But by all means, I hope those people would then still make their voices heard -- by indicating "none of the above."

Car Analogy

2010-03-30T20:41:00.000-07:00

Do you like elephants? I think they are pretty cool animals. And apparently their uniqueness isn't about having a long trunk. It's that they move like 4X4... you know like a car. As in a four-wheel drive. Each elephant limb moves independently according to this article. I guess we just can't help ourselves analogizing to what's familiar to us... cars!

My Wish List

2010-03-11T21:39:00.000-08:00

Because I know all of 2 people read my blog (but I do thank you all for reading my drivel every so often ;), I'm going to bore you with my wish list. I heard once if you write everything down that you wish would come true, it will (not sure that it has to be a public proclamation but I don't think with the number of people that read my blog, this is really all that public). So here they are, in no particular order and in no relation to reality.

1) Perfect vision. I want to wake up and see the whole world without putting on glasses or contact lens, without burning parts of my eyes off.
2) Wireless, duplex printing, color, all-in-one printer, that is really small.
3) To be a great professor.
4) A flat screen TV, that does not eat up my bill.
5) An electronic reader that I can fold up and open up to 2 or more pages at one time.
6) A library full of books.
7) Time to sleep well.
8) Sleep continuously for 8 hours every day.
9) Time to read all the books I want to read.
10) Play tennis well enough to beat Roger Federer and Serena Williams on the same day.
11) Hit the high F and be able to sing Queen of the Night Aria from Mozart's Magic Flute.
12) Fly -- with just my arms.
13) To be a fabulous dancer at all kinds of dance -- Salsa, Argentinian Tango, Hip-Hop, Ballroom.
14) To have pain-free back.
15) Fall in love with Mr. Right, who also happens to fall in love with me.
16) Become a mother.
17) Chop vegetables really fast.
18) Run like the wind and like it.
19) Become a judge.
20) Be the first trillionaire.
21) Become a rock star.
22) Become an opera star.
23) Paint one original painting that will be hung in all museums.
24) See the whole world.
25) Fly out to the outer space.
26) Visit Pluto and establish it as a planet.
27) Never have my name mis-pronounced.
28) Be fluent in 10 different languages.
29) To be able to do a handstand.
30) Know every piece of music and be able to name it within 3 seconds of listening.
31) To learn the language of Native American and preserve for posterity.
32) Find all my past friends I lost touch with and see what they have been up to (including John Kim!)
33) Become a fly on the wall to see what the world was like 100 years ago.
34) Become a fly on the wall to see what the world will be like 100 years from now.
35) Climb the tallest building. With bare hands.
36) Write the next great American novel.
37) Become an immortal poet.
38) To not be "medically starving"
39) Perfect memory.
40) Perfect pitch.
41) Find my secret admirer.
42) Organized files at home.
43) Personal assistant that can clean, laundry, file stuff away, grocery shop, and call cable/phone/utilities so I can call my friends.
44) To see how mom and dad met... and fell in love.
45) To kiss a Hollywood movie star.
46) To have a Hollywood movie star want to kiss ME.
47) To leave an indelible print of myself in history.
48) To find clothes in my size for any type of clothes whenever I shop... instead of buying clothes that are small enough to fit me.
49) Make snow angels.
50) To have green thumb.

Education as Priority

2010-03-04T20:50:00.000-08:00

So today, students finally rose up and said enough was enough. Students across California staged a strike to protest fee hikes in defense of public education. It's a shame that our society's priority on education has fallen to the point where students have to protest to spotlight this issue.

Although normally I don't like to read non-fiction, I am trying to actually follow through with the new year resolution to read all my books that I have (either bought or given as gifts). One of them is "John Adams." And as one of our founding fathers, what were his thoughts on education?

"Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially for the lower classes of people, are so extremely wise and useful that to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant." (emphasis added)(page 103 of John Adams by David McCullough).

Maybe it's time our government and politicians sat down and thought about our priorities. And I tend to think President Adams was right... education is important enough that no amount of dollars should be cut from it. Make it a priority! Our society's future depends on educating all of our young minds.

Toyota Fiasco -- Remind You of Ford Pinto Memo?

2010-02-25T20:20:00.000-08:00

Maybe people don't learn from history ... or maybe all corporation (because of its structure) inevitably ends up this way.

Currently, Toyota is getting pretty beat up -- what with recalls, inability to explain what is really wrong with the cars, etc. This week in particular, news swirled around how outrageous it is that Toyota's internal memo discussed how it saved $100 million by floormat recall. People are questioning whether Toyota really cares about safety.

But current event reminded me of another part of auto history... that people seem to have forgotten. Do you remember the infamous Ford Pinto Memo? Basically, Ford knew that Pinto had a defect. However, after calculating what Ford would pay for accidents caused by the defect, Ford concluded it was mathematically better to leave the problem as is because it would save $70 million. That is after mathematically calculating for payments for accidents, burned victims, settlements, etc. In essence, human lives -- that we would like to think cannot be reduced to dollars -- were reduced to dollars and were concluded to be worth less than $11 fix on the defective part.

So Toyota appears to have taken similar route of calculating cost v. benefit for the company. To lay people, it's appalling. Yet, I have to wonder, since this appears to be history repeating itself, maybe it's just inevitable that corporate structure leads to such result. At some point, the drive for profit (bottom line) at all cost drives out any other factors such as safety and value of human lives is more than dollar figures... So what's our lesson? Will beating up Toyota mean this won't happen again? I have to wonder...

Firing Entire School System

2010-02-24T20:47:00.000-08:00

So you may have heard, but the school board in Central Falls, Rhode Island decided fire all of the teachers and administrators after years of poor performance. If you haven't heard yet, you can read this NY Times article. Changing status quo sounds like the right thing to do... and apparently the politicians support the move. Yet, strangely, some students appear to oppose it because they believe their teachers were doing a good job. I hope the news media follows-up with what happens after the district hires a whole set of new teachers. Too often, there is a flash of headline and no follow-up on what happened afterwards. After all, in this economy, it's an incredibly drastic move to fire an entire school system.

Dear "Just Another Admirer"

2010-02-13T22:56:00.000-08:00

Dear "Just Another Admirer,"
Thank you for the beautiful tulips. They made my day, especially because I expected another Valentine's Day to pass by me... without much celebration.

When I listened to my voicemail today from my apartment's office telling me I need to pick up flowers, I was frankly quite shocked. As I was walking down that long windy hallway to the office, I thought maybe they got the wrong person. Who could have possibly sent me flowers? Maybe it's a single token flower from some non-profit organization I donated.

When I got to the office, I waited another eternally long 15 minutes while the person who was being helped was finally off on her way. Then the manager went back and lo and behold, she brought back a box of flowers from Pro Flowers shipped overnight by UPS. The huge box was most certainly addressed to me, and it was not a token flower from a non-profit organization.

I hurried back to my apartment to rip open the box. In the box lay a bouquet of tulips... with a card wishing me a "Happy Valentine's Day" signed by "Just Another Admirer."

I was stunned. And then I was wearing the biggest smile. After that, my mind began to race. Who is this??? I began to think of ways to figure out who you are. How could I not? My curiosity remains high. And I hope some day you will reveal yourself to me before my curiosity kills me. But for now, I would like to thank you (and hope that you are reading this) for the lovely flowers. They brightened my day. And YOU brought cheer and hope that the dream of love will not die.

These are the flowers you sent me (although I'm sure you already know).

Whoever you are, Happy Valentine's Day!
And someday, I hope I find out who you are.

Working on Non-Work

2010-02-07T21:57:00.000-08:00

I don't know if it's just me, but I seem to have a perpetual list of things I want to get accomplished that is not work (as in what pays my bills) but not what you would consider entertainment. Basically, they are non-work work.

I made a list to get through this weekend because I got sick of feeling like I had all these loose ends. My list ended up with 16 to-do's. I ended up with 5 that I haven't crossed off. Unfortunately, 4 of 5 are things that I would enjoy doing in my free time -- singing (practicing for my upcoming concert), reading my book/magazines, etc. What got crossed off? Calling my cell phone company (who told me they can't fix text message time stamp because it's Microsoft's fault), getting financial/computer softwares, updating my 2009 finances in anticipation of doing my taxes, etc. Such is our modern life. It's a bit ironic that our technology keeps us just as busy (half of what I crossed off involved using computer, cell phone, etc.). I love technology but apparently maintaining technology in our lives takes up quite a bit of free time.

Although I'm feeling pretty accomplished every time I crossed off something from the list, I think I have to prioritize my list so that next weekend, I cross off things I enjoy first!

Free Market v. the Government?

2010-01-31T20:47:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while, I am rather bemused by seeming contradictions. It was not so long ago that the entire financial system in the U.S. (and the world, for that matter) came to a halt because liquidity in the market dried up. Do you remember all the sound-bite in the news explaining to the mainstream what that means? Everyone was trying to explain why it was such a crisis and how we could enter into another Depression. The government took unprecedented steps by pouring money into the system, watching what letting Lehman Brothers fail do to the financial system, "bailing" banks out, and today, we hardly remember the panic that we felt.

So now that the crisis passed, banks don't want the government to regulate them. What's ironic is that when the banks were in trouble, they wanted the government to step in and pump the "financial system" back up. I attended a telephonic continuing legal education during that time, and the speaker was a financial consultant (don't ask how that constitutes continuing legal education). The presenter was absolutely adamant that the government had to step in because the market was in such systemic failure, that there was no way market could have corrected itself to get out of the crisis.

It turns out, that the free market may not be perfect in practice. Adam Smith's invisible hand may not guide the system away from major pitfalls.

So what would be wrong with allowing government regulation so that we can avoid such catastrophic financial crisis? There's the bureaucracy argument. And then there's the whole shouldn't capitalism mean free from the government intervention argument.

At the end of the day though, maybe it's not about having more or less regulation. Maybe it's about societal values and attitude. During the same time period when American financial institutions were getting inventive in creating "derivatives," "credit swaps," and a whole bunch of mechanisms to be called "securities" to work in a way that basically would allow no one to have incentive to take responsibilities, Canadian banks did not march down the same path. In case you forgot, while the rest of the world, modeled after American financial system, fell into the same crisis because of such exotic financial instruments, Canadian banks were the ONLY banks that did not need to be bailed out by its government. Why? Is it stricter regulation? Maybe it's the people that run those institutions and their attitude of taking the "conservative" approach of not investing in exotic instruments that didn't smell right. And maybe they decided that securities should be understandable and transparent... and those responsible for paying or investing, should remain responsible.

But that's just my guess (and guessing from what Canadian bankers said in the news around that time, that their culture is different). If people want to find loopholes, it does not matter how much laws or regulations are in place... loopholes will be exploited. If people want to play it straight, then it doesn't matter that there aren't additional regulations.

So at the end of the day, maybe the question isn't should the government regulate the financial institutions more. Maybe the question is how do we change the attitude and value of people running the system. And that may be a harder question to answer than imposing regulations...

Small v. Big Government

2010-01-24T20:22:00.001-08:00

My friend and I got to talking about whether it's better to have bigger government involvement or less. It came up because my friend pointed out that more people are somehow connected to government involvement -- direct employment, indirect employment (contractor), beneficiary of some program, etc. -- these days than now.

After our discussion, I started thinking. What's the point of having a government, if it wasn't involved in our lives? The basic notion of having a government is that it was formed to do things for the people that we could not do individually. So government makes rules, protect the people, and enforce the rules. Since we all pay to the government, then don't we want government involved?

The alternative would be to live in a society with no government. Then, of course, there is no society. Every person for him or herself. Philosophers tell us that we would not want to live in such a place. I have no idea whether we would or not. However, in a place with no government, I wonder if people would naturally start coming together, start establishing some sort of rule (don't kill me I won't kill you, this plot of land is mine and all that grows on it is mine alone, etc.), and eventually government would spring up.

Just a random thought on how people actually would like it if there was no government...

Pants on the Ground

2010-01-13T22:04:00.000-08:00

Ok. I had to treat myself while working after hours on bankrupty stuff. So I ended up watching American Idol, Season 9. You have to watch this YouTube video of this 62 year old man singing his original song, "pants on the ground." It made me laugh... along with all the judges. And Simon may be right.. it will probably be a hit!

Holiday Season

2010-01-01T10:58:00.000-08:00

Although the moon was not actually blue, I celebrated the end of 2009 and coming of 2010 by getting a peak at the blue moon. Although a bit hectic, I did manage to have a get together with my friends for a little holiday gathering before the end of 2009. And this morning, I was in the mood to put on a han bok (traditional Korean clothing) to celebrate the New Year's Day with my family. And of course, we ate dduk gook (traditional Korean soup). Below are some pictures. I am off to celebrate the new year with some sun and relaxation in Maui... and maybe I might even get to see some turtles and whales!

Happy 2010!

Making merry wee into the night with friends.

The only time we get to sing Christmas songs are during the holidays. So, at my insistence, we sang some carols.

Another shot of the holiday gathering.

My sister doesn't like to be in photos (although I did manage to get one with her). My parents and me on 1/1/2010.

My parents celebrating the New Years Day.

And finally my mom and me. Han bok is pretty uncomfortable ... so as soon as the pictures were taken, I promptly changed. ;)

Holiday Gifts and the Spirit of Giving

2009-12-21T20:18:00.000-08:00

So apparently, there is a new book out by Joel Waldfogel that talks about how we are wasting a lot of money by buying gifts during the holiday season. Wasting a lot... or $85 billion per winter. So instead of giving gifts that the recipient doesn't want (and waste $85 billion), we should just give cash or gift card.

Except that logic seems just a bit cold. Isn't it that the thought should count? And even if the gift reflects the giver, more than the recipient, I tend to think that has endearing value as well. For example, to go back to my favorite short story -- The Gift of the Magi -- the gifts turn out to be of no use to the recipients. Because both donors thought so well of the other, that the gifts become useless. And the gifts are wasted on the recipients. But the selfless thoughts of both donors are what make this story so endearing... and make them the wisest of all givers.

So in defense of giving gifts, not cash or gift card, I have once again gone against my parents' wish and bought my entire family something. Who knows? This year, my family could be surprised and love my gifts. If not, I don't mind being part of $85 billion waste in giving gifts.

News Sources

2009-12-13T21:19:00.000-08:00

News, as objective as reporters want to be, still has a slant because reporters are human. There was a horrific rape and murder of a Korean American woman in Venice (in L.A.). She was 3 months pregnant with twins. The mainstream American news media such as ABC and LA Times reported about the crime, that the landlord called the police when he saw what was happening to the victim, and that the police caught the 22 year old suspect.

Korean news media from Koreatimes.com reports the same crime -- that the Korean American woman in Venice was murdered and raped, she was 3 months pregnant with twins, the landlord called the police, and that the police caught the 22 year old suspect. But the Korean news media also reports something else -- that the police arrived at the scene within 2 minutes of the call and did not enter the victim's residence to stop the rape and murder. It reports that for 7 minutes the police waited. During that time, the victim was eventually murdered. And yes, the police caught the suspect after the murder. (Yes, it's in Korean, and I suppose you can try to translate on your own if you don't believe my summary).

If the Korean news version is true (and Korean news source allegedly quotes the landlord who told the police to go in and stop the crime), that's a pretty crucial bit of information that seems to be missing from the mainstream American news source. I wondered why that is.

I like to give people some benefit instead of assuming things that may not be true. So I asked the reporters of LA Times of the news article if they were aware of the information missing in their article (but is carried in Koreatimes.com article), if they verified it wasn't true, and forwarded Koreatimes.com article for their reference.

It seems sad that someone could have gone in to at least try to stop the murder but did not. And also sad about what our expectation and reality of help we can receive from others when we are most in trouble. But if true, ultimately saddest if the mainstream media ignored this bit of information for whatever reason.

Different news source with different tales of the same event reminds me that it is still worthwhile to read news from many different outlet because of pieces of information that may be missing intentionally or accidentally.

Cool YouTube Videos

2009-11-30T21:38:00.000-08:00

So I don't surf YouTube. Whenever someone sends me something, I wonder how did you come across such video?? But there are two that caught my eye today. One was actually something that got featured at ABC World News. It was a story about how all the hospital staff of Providence St. Vincent Medical Center at Portland, Oregon decided to promote pink gloves (for breast cancer awareness) danced to music and wore pink gloves. This is the video.

And then a friend of mine forwarded this... it's just WAY too cute and amazing. How does a kitty know to act like a surprised baby??

These 2 videos made my day. =)

Year End Giving

2009-11-22T20:56:00.000-08:00

It's getting to the end of the year. All year long, I ignore phone calls, emails, and mail asking me to donate money to various charities. Then at the end of the year, I sit down to figure out where I want to donate, I kid you not. Last year I donated on 12/28/2008. No one can guilt me into donating any earlier than that because my charitable donations come after I figure out how well I did on keeping up with my budget for the year.

For the last couple of years, though, I seem to slowly expand my list of charitable organizations to donate (my list doesn't necessarily stay constant from year to year depending on what I want to do). The list grows because with the downturn in economy, charitable organizations are also suffering from decreased donation like this article says. And this year, about 50 million Americans, including almost 17 million kids, were struggling to have enough to eat according to the USDA study as reported by Washington Post.

So, it's not as if I am infinitely wealthy. In fact, even the extreme rich folks focus where they want their charitable contributions to go. But I am lucky enough to be working, and unlike some folks who are worried about job security, I am in a relatively secure position. Thus, I feel that when others are decreasing their donation, I can and should increase mine.

Based on the economic climate, my priorities for picking charity are: (1) ease hunger for the community; (2) allow medical access; (3) education and schools; and (4) art/music non-profit organization. This year, I'm throwing out environment as one of my priorities to make room for other priorities. I add #3 because I strongly believe we should always make education our top priority. Unfortunately, whenever there's a downturn, education seems to be the first area government cuts. So, I include in my priorities to donate to offset in my small way the cuts education endures. I add #4 because art and music have a place in our lives. Music touches lives and is part of what defines our humanity. As a musician, I simply feel it must be part of our lives. So I include it in my list of priorities.

With these priorities I set for myself this year, I need to pick which charities fit my priorities to donate. I generally check American Institute of Philanthropy to see which charities are efficient in using donations for their mission. I also check various charities I have bookmarked throughout the year to review and see if any of them fit what I set out to donate. I also look at my list from last year. I have about 8 organizations that I can list after reviewing all of these. Do I keep donate a little bit to each or pick 4 and donate more to each? That's a decision to make after Thanksgiving.

Trading Moto Q for Palm Treo Pro

2009-11-16T21:04:00.000-08:00

So I have a long history of using Palm (or Handspring, when that was an offshoot). I got the first ever "smartphone" which was a Handspring, with a huge device that when you add, converted PDA into a phone as well. It was awesome to use... but had awful reception. I got it in early 2000's. After it broke (because I inevitably dropped it), I also lost all my contact information. So I got a Palm PDA... going from black and white and eventually colored Tungsten. I still carry it.

So about three years ago, when I decided I needed a phone with data plan so I can actually check my personal email from work, I was debating whether to get a Palm Treo or Motorola Q from Sprint. Frugality got the best of me, and I ended up getting a Moto Q. It was functional -- I could check my personal emails. But I thought, what if I got a Palm?

With Palm Pre out, I have been wondering how to get my hands on it. It would be perfect -- get rid of my old Palm Tungsten, have a great phone, and not follow the herd in buying an iPhone. Because my Sprint plan expired earlier this year, I went to see if I could get it without losing my plan. No dice. I have SERO plan... $30 per month, 500 minutes, unlimited data and text messages. Sprint doesn't allow these plans for Palm Pre.. and it wouldn't even let me pay full price for it. So, after looking around and talking to the sales rep, I decided to get Palm Treo Pro.

It's rather funny because it's the only Palm phone that does NOT use Palm's operating system. So, that also means, I cannot get rid of my old Palm Tungsten. But so far, I really like Treo Pro. I was able to download Opera Mobile and Skyfire. I like Opera Mobile for getting quickly to my email sites... but Skyfire for getting to just regular sites such as Lala.com... and listen to my mp3's! How cool is that? It also has Mobile Office so that I can edit Microsoft documents if I wanted to, storage card space that would allow me to expand up to 32 gb, camera (which I'm still trying to figure out), ability to move between different open applications, and more stylish phone.

In all, I'm glad I traded up from Moto Q (the battery was dying on me so it had to go). And maybe by the time the 2 year contract expires, I can trade up for Palm Pre.

Chef in My Kitchen

2009-11-01T19:37:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, a chef graced his cooking skills at my kitchen for a delicious (and incredibly filling) dinner. Mike, a friend of my friend Benny, graduated from a cooking school and just started working at a hotel in Coronado. I challenged him to cook dim sum, and he whipped up ridiculously tasty dim sum I definitely couldn't get anywhere else. Below are some pictures.

Potstickers made from scratch, including the sauce.

Chicken satay, with a hint of Jamaican influence in the sauce for a great kick to my taste buds!

Coconut shrimp.

Midnight rice -- spicy Thai fried rice with beef and red chilies.

Mike the Chef!

Buying a House/Condo in SD? Don't Think So.

2009-10-25T21:17:00.000-07:00

I've been looking since last year for a place to buy. After waiting for about a decade for real estate market to finally come to its senses, I figured this was now the right time. So what do I find? I find that to buy a place in my range, I'm getting elbowed out by all cash offers from investors. This article from Voice of San Diego describes EXACTLY what I am going through. My offers aren't bad. In fact, I've been told that my offers would be "contingent" offers in case what sellers accepted didn't go through. But I am not doing all cash offers -- my offers still involve loans and downpayment. And how many have I offered? I'm pretty sure I have submitted at least 10 offers to buy condos with no luck. I stopped counting. But like most buyers who actually want to live in the property they buy, I'm also not going to increase my offer to a price that is not reasonable. If investors want to be stuck with property that they can't even walk away from (all cash offer means you can't just walk away to leave it to bank for foreclosure if you can't flip or find renter) because they think the real estate market is going to turn around that quickly, good luck to them. I sense that most prudent buyers who didn't get caught up in real estate frenzy (as most comments posted in the article show) will rather sit by frustrated than throw more money than what the property is worth.

San Diego Asian Film Festival

2009-10-18T21:39:00.000-07:00

As a movie lover, I like to attend festivals especially if there is one held locally. When I lived in the San Francisco bay area, I attended SF International Film Festival without fail. San Diego scene is a bit smaller... but I'm always amused that there are more festivals than I know what to do with here. Last month, I saw a few movies at the San Diego Film Festival, held at the downtown Pacific Theatre in San Diego. Unfortunately, I felt the movies I saw were lesser quality than the movies I've seen in the last few years.

Right now, San Diego Asian Film Festival is going on in San Diego from 10/15-10/29. In festivals, you never know what you might like. It's a hit or miss, and generally there's something you don't like seeing. So far, though, I am delighted and really impressed by the quality of the movies I've seen. I saw White on Rice, which was a hilarious movie about an unemployed, divorced Japanese man living with his sister's family in America. One of the few films that actually made me laugh out loud this year. I also saw The Things We Carry; it was an emotionally charged movie about sisters who had to deal with a mother who was addicted to drugs. For a 77 minute film, it felt longer because of intense drama. Hopefully, these movies will somehow make it out of the festivals and end up being shown more widely...because they definitely are better (funnier and more dramatic) than some bigger Hollywood movies I've seen.

Finding Ways to Surf Faster

2009-10-13T20:07:00.000-07:00

My attention has been devoted to my laptop recently to try to maximize power, disk space, and see if my use has been efficient. I have plenty of things to do (uhhh bankruptcy work) but one of my drives keeps telling me I'm about to run out of space. I also wanted to check if I can install Microsoft Windows 7 because, well, Vista is pretty darn slow.

In the process, I deleted out some old programs. I also got to see how much space some of the programs takes up. Being ridiculously redundant that I am, I actually had 4 different web browsers -- Internet Explorer (came with the laptop), Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Google Chrome. My default browser I used was Firefox. It was one of the innovative browsers that came out with tab browsing and was nimble. Well, that was then. In horror, I realized that Firefox and Chrome took up 40-60 megabites. Opera takes up less than 8. And despite Google's campaign that it's an insanely fast web browser, Opera is incredibly fast. In fact, Opera even comes with Opera Turbo to kick up the speed if a site is too slow. So being the rebel that I am (or so I like to pretend), I decided to take out Firefox in favor of Opera.

Then I discovered new Yahoo! homepage can be customized. It can be customized so that I can preview sites I normally brought up when I first open the web browser .. such as email sites (yes sites) and news sites. Awesome! Now I can go to one site -- Yahoo! -- and quickly preview all the sites I would normally tab through. If I get emails I care to check, I will then click through to go to my email sites. I also discovered iGoogle has similar customizing feature. However, iGoogle is too busy because it comes up with pages with small preview panes of each sites, whereas Yahoo! interface is extremely clean.

So last weekend was spend figuring out how to surf through computing world faster... so I can spend more time in the real world. =)

Life on a Curve

2009-10-04T20:45:00.000-07:00

When I was in elementary school (in Korea and here in America), basically, I was graded based on objective means of achieving the grade. Meaning, if you get everything right, you got a 100 out of 100. And if everyone in the class also did well, they got the same score. That means everyone could conceivably 100 and everyone would get an A.

Starting in high school, there were some classes where "curve" for grading the class was introduced. During college days and beyond, getting graded based on a "curve" was the norm. What being on the "curve" meant is the teacher or professor decided that top 10% would get the top grade, vast middle would get average, and then bottom 20-30% may fail. Each test would result in some folks necessarily getting A and some folks necessarily getting C, D, or F. Needless to say, students hated it. I would still hate it if I were a student right now. If everyone did equally well, why punish some and not give credit to everyone? What is wrong with giving 100 out of 100 (based on objective means) if that's what a person did?

Well, apparently in life, we MUST decide that only few things are great and rest much not be. This WSJ article discusses how consumer reviews are too positive. So, now there's a movement to try to find reviewers who will give negative reviews or count only negative reviews for determining ranking for businesses. In general, my observation is that people tend to give positive reviews when they are impressed and talk about them with their friends. People will also give strong negative opinions when something really bother them. But if things were ok? Most people probably wouldn't remember and not take any action. So then it's not really a surprise that online consumer reviews tend to be positive... because folks who were really impressed probably went online to review. Why bother reviewing if things were so-so?

So if business impressed some folks so much that those people took the initiative to give positive reviews, should some business still be penalized? Isn't it great that a business does something that impresses some folks enough to take the initiative to give positive reviews? And what is wrong if surviving business got great reviews? Isn't it possible that businesses that do not generate positive feedback are out of business anyway? Basically, the article is pointing out that we as a society must grade all business on a "curve" and that's how our life should be. Which is really too bad... because I really miss the simplicity of going for 100 out of 100 and encouraging everyone else to do the same so we can all be great. But hey, that's just me.

By the way, in making the above observation, I am assuming that negative feedbacks are not deleted by anyone monitoring the review sites. Obviously, any business generating such negative reaction that people take the initiative should get negative review. If negative reviews are being deleted, shame on those deleting them. What happened to free speech, what our founding fathers fought for?

Public Transportation and Sightseeing

2009-09-27T21:10:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles is not known for folks using public transportation. When in L.A., I actually liked taking the metro subway station. Unfortunately, as this metro site shows you, the metro subway station doesn't really go to that many places. L.A. is geographically big and becomes a huge challenge for taking public transportation. That's why when I read this WSJ article about this reporter attempting to sightsee around LA. using only public transportation, I read with a lot of bemusement and giggles. Although the reporter did spend only $30 for sightseeing around L.A. in 5 days, it sounds like it took a really long time to get from point A to point B using just public transportation. Although with L.A. traffic being what it is, I wonder how much time the reporter would have saved by driving to get to same places.

I did learn something new though. Apparently, there's a site by Michael Brein that has guides on how to sightsee cities based only on public transportation! That's pretty cool.

Spontaneous Combustion... in Manure??

2009-09-23T21:34:00.000-07:00

And you thought you heard it all. There's another fire raging in L.A., in the Moorpark area right now. The cause of the fire? Spontaneous combustion of manure. Yup, not batteries, not electrical lines, not anything man-made. Manure.

According to this L.A. Times article,

The cause of the fire, which started Tuesday, is still under investigation, but Ventura County Sheriff's Department officials have said it appeared to have been started by spontaneous combustion of manure from a local ranch.

That has to be the weirdest piece of news I have heard in quite a long time.

Driving Saturn Aura in S.F.

2009-09-13T19:24:00.000-07:00

Whenever I travel and rent a car, I end up getting to know a car I didn't even know existed. I traveled up to San Francisco bay area over the labor day weekend and rented a car from National (a rental that I've never heard of). And the car I got? Saturn Aura. Aura?? I have heard of Saturn but thought there was one Saturn. I was quite pleased with the car though. It was mid-sized car, handled smoothly although the steering wheel was a bit bigger than Toyota Camry's that I was used to. It made me think about a new car for future buying purposes, and that certainly isn't a bad thing for American cars.

Below are some pictures of San Francisco!

I went to Rassela's with a friend to enjoy some great Ethiopian food and live music.

It was a beautiful weekend, and I got to enjoy the view of the bay bridge.

Another view of the bay bridge and the farmer's market by the Ferry Building.

Farmer's market and Market street.

Another view of the farmer's market at the Ferry Building.

Increased Written Communication, Less Face to Face Interaction

2009-08-30T20:00:00.000-07:00

I read an interesting article from WSJ talking about how Generation Y is deprived of opportunities to understand non-verbal body cues because this generation is too busy texting, im'ing, etc. In other words, too much short written communication has replaced full face to face personal interaction. The comments section indicates a healthy disagreement (appears to be mostly divided between Gen Y and other generations).

Instead of debating about whether the use of technology is good or bad, my sense is what is lacking today is educating folks about good manners, decorum, and proper conduct. It wasn't so long ago that people knew when one person is talking, it is considered rude to interrupt. If you must, people apologized in advance and interrupted for good reason. How many times have you encountered someone who apologized (or even said "excuse me") for having to use the cell phone while you were out on social outing? Or to text? Or to call someone back? There appears to be the sense and urgency that because technology allows people to respond immediately, you should instantly look at your cell phone or your computer no matter what social setting you are in. But the truth is, people (older generation mostly) with good manners will apologize in advance or not check their cell phone or computer under same circumstance.

Good manners don't necessarily have to be tossed out the window because of advancing technology. And good manners have to be taught. Instead of bemoaning Gen Y's lack of face to face interaction, perhaps that could be addressed by instilling good manners to kids in school so that they understand an interruption, even one that comes in the form of technology, is rude.

Interesting Sites.. Which Ones Last?

2009-08-16T21:07:00.000-07:00

So when I read an article or blog or something where someone mentions a new company/website that seems interesting, I bookmark it. Sometimes I would go back and really use it quite often. (www.librarything.com). Other times, I would go back once in a blue moon to see why I bookmarked certain sites.

Inevitably, I find quite a lot of sites that got a lot of splash initially are now dead. There were sites promising better "bookmarking" capability. Markaboo.com was one, and it appears it's not live anymore because I can't get to it. Online karaoke (www.singshot.com) tugged my heart (being a singer and all) but alas, it also seems to be dead. And what about teleflip.com? Seemed like a good idea...to be able to text from your email for free. And I used it a couple of times... tricking people into thinking I was texting from my phone (and cause quite a lot of confusion apparently when they tried to text back). Alas, also dead.

What is not dead, however, is www.zoho.com. This is started off as free online word processing website and it appears to have grown. WAY before Google doc's and Microsoft's own minimal online version. And now the editing function for the word processor appears richer than when it first came out. There's footnote/endnote function (it didn't when I first reviewed it quite a few years back). The buttons are intuitive. And yes, it can be shared online with others so you can have collaboration. Zoho has pretty much all office products online. I'm so glad it's still alive... because it kicks butt and it is one of the original creator of online word processing software (www.ajaxwriter.com appears to be dead... ).

A lot of music sites appear to be still around too. amiestreet.com is still around, which is awesome. Unlike Amazon.com or iTunes with set prices for each mp3's, buyers price the music. Well, technically, demand sets the price for the music. If lots of people purchase the music, the price goes up. If not a lot of people purchase, well, it starts at $0 so I guess it remains free. So NO set price! If you pay $0.98, that means people really like it. It's true demand and supply forces at work to price the item. I think I'll go check out some music and buy some good undiscovered music... at bargain price (hopefully) ;)

What is Wrong with Our Health Care?

2009-08-09T21:22:00.000-07:00

So the flavor of the month is health care. But in order to fix "health care" it would be helpful to understand what is wrong with it. I asked a few people but there doesn't seem to be a clear answer.

The main concerns really focus on the cost/finance/economics of health care. So what do we have? One, the "cost" of health care is too high (presumably the premiums that either employees and/or employers pay). Two, there are lots of uninsured people who presumably may or may not get medical attention; if they do get medical attention, then they end up raising the "cost" of health care.

When I ask how these problems arise, we get to no clear answer. I was told it's because the pharmaceutical companies raise cost of drugs to insurance who in turn would raise cost to everyone else. Another person told me it's because all the uninsured somehow raise the cost of insurance (but if the insurance doesn't cover, and hospital doesn't get money from insurance for the uninsured, how do they raise cost for the insurance? I would think it would raise the cost for hospital but this is an aside.). Another person pointed out that it's all the frivolous lawsuits that raise malpractice insurance which raises health care cost (once again, if that raises malpractice insurance rates, how does that translate to health insurance premiums rising? I thought those were two different insurance companies, but again this is an aside). Someone else thinks it's because we are a nation of obese people and just generally unhealthy, raising the cost of health care because we require more complex procedures (diabetes associated with obesity, heart problems associated with obesity, etc. etc.).

I guess what I'm trying to understand, in this health care reform issue, is do we know what the underlying problem is? In order to solve a problem, it would be helpful to understand the problem. And right now, I don't have a sense that I clearly understand the root (more likely roots?) of the problem... and maybe it's because I haven't researched thoroughly. But when I get different answers from different people, I get the sense that most people do not have a clear idea of the problem either. And perhaps that may be the problem to solve first... to get America to clearly understand what the problem (and the underlying cause) is. But that's just my humble opinion.

Moving My Law School Outline Website

2009-08-02T22:01:00.000-07:00

So Yahoo!'s Geocities is shutting down. Unfortunately, all my law school outlines are at Geocities. Why? Because it's free. So now, I have to look for another web host and transfer all my files. The thought of moving all those files just bum me out. It took 3 years of work (mostly right before finals) to upload all those files. Not that it's the prettiest of sites, and I'm sure some law is outdated. But my basic premise was for law school outlines to be readable once you click through a link.. instead of downloading a file to view the outline.

I started searching for web hosts but if you know of a good one (preferably free... because I am frugal), please leave me a note.

On a related, but not really related topic, I took my mentee, who just graduated from law school, out for lunch on Saturday. She just took the bar and made a comment about using computers to take the bar. That made me quiz her about the law school finals and use of computer. When I was in law school, having my laptop in class to take notes was a novelty -- I was one of 3 or 4 students who did that. She told me that now, everybody has a laptop and that there is a software to take finals with laptops. With free wifi, apparently people are surfing the net in class, and professors compete with internet for attention. On the flip side, people IM answers to you if professor starts questioning you. I found all of this fascinating. And my mentee was quite bemused by my questioning... of what was to her a very basic thing in school now.

Like my outlines, probably, I felt a bit outdated. ;)

Hilarity of an Honest Question

2009-07-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

Because my friend heard that this may be the last year that Comic-Con will be held here in San Diego, we bought tickets to attend Comic-Con for Sunday. We saw some folks in costumes. I saw a LOT of people with various gadgets (iPhone, souped up netbooks, other phones that seem even cooler than iPhone) walking... with a sword on the other hand.

We ended up watching a preview of the Smallville's next season and Q&A of the panel, which included the actor that plays Superman in that show. I don't really watch the show, but I have to admit the actor is good looking. So the funniest moment for the audience of 6,000 (that's how many the moderator said was in the audience) came when this girl went up to ask her question. The first thing she said... she didn't -- she sighed. And the entire audience was busting up with laughter.

Then she said, "Mr. Tom Welling, my questions is for you. Could you tell me what was the most exciting or interesting thing that happened on the set and could you make it long so you could keep looking at me?" It was so hilarious, I thought I would start crying from laughing so hard. The entire audience's laughter was enough to drown out the answer.

And the actor was pretty accommodating. He said "Well" BIG Pause. Big laughter from the audience. "I would say" ANOTHER BIG Pause. And another gale of laughter from the audience. And so on. And yes, he looked at the girl the WHOLE time. And in the middle of his answer, she sighed once again.

It was the funniest moment of my life. Someone should put that in Youtube. Oh wait. It is. =)

Resigned

2009-07-23T21:52:00.001-07:00

All right. I got tired of everyone bothering me. After a couple of years of saying no, I just created a Facebook account. I'm not telling you though. You are going to have to find it. I put in almost no info.. except my name and my picture. So there. Now you can quit asking me if I got a Facebook account.

I feel resigned. Although as I observed today, I think younger generation (I guess I'm no longer that young!) is not on Facebook as much... it's been invaded by older folks. So how hip could it be now??

To Save or Gamble?

2009-07-19T21:42:00.000-07:00

So I read this WSJ article encouraging innovative ways to get people to save. And it just seems so wrong to appeal to people's gambling side to save! Although as a friend pointed out, technically, people don't lose money. They just earn less. So people aren't gambling.

So the premise of the article is basically there are savings products out there that give reduced interest rate. In return, you get to enter into a raffle so that you have a chance to win a big prize by opening up the CD or savings account.

But I am sure if you do the math by taking statistical chance of winning, you are far better off putting all that money into a straight savings account or CD with higher rate! Besides which, the idea of marrying gambling into savings product just seems so odd... maybe I'm just getting old!

My Entertainment -- My Trash Can

2009-07-12T22:02:00.000-07:00

It takes little to amuse me, apparently.

I bought a trash can from Costco, after debating whether $45 for an automatic kitchen trash can (actually 2... there was a smaller one inside the big one) is worth it. After thinking how much I get annoyed about having to buy the plastic top cover from Target every few months, I decided a quality trash can may be worth it. Plus, it has infrared censor so that the lid automatically opens if you move your hand or make some type of motion near the lid.

I found out that I LOVE the trash can (powered by 4D batteries, which were not included). I'm just tickled that it opens when I have my hands full of chopped up vegetables, peeled cucumbers, etc. to throw away. And I get amused that if I walk too close, sometimes, it just pops open.

Yes, simple things amuse me. And my trash can has officially entered as one of my entertainments. Here's a couple of pic's.

It's About the Money

2009-07-06T19:34:00.000-07:00

So over the 4th of July weekend, the news was all abuzz because Governor Sarah Palin gave her resignation notice. There were speculations and criticisms. In general, the pundits criticize her move as a step backward politically if she wanted to move forward. Did you actually see the entire video? This is the entire resignation speech as posted on Washington Post.

Around 8 minutes into the speech, she talks about how she had to spend more than $500,000 in legal fees defending herself from frivolous ethics charges, especially when there's no way to stop person from just filing charges. If you recall, before the election, all the candidates released their financial positions. Palin and her family was the least wealthy -- in fact, they were (and probably still are) the only candidate that could be classified as middle class to upper middle class. She doesn't make millions, and the family didn't have millions. For a middle class family, more than $500,000 in legal fees is a LOT of money. Do you have that much to spend? I don't. And I don't have a family to support.

At the end of the day, she appears to have given her resignation because the family doesn't have sufficient money to keep spending money on legal fees to defend herself against frivilous charges that were piled on after she burst into the national political scene. I am not a Republican. But I think it's ridiculous that politicians are crucifying her move without giving a second thought to her family's finances.

Without being in the position that keeps draining her finances, she could be free to pursue other deals (talk show, book deal, etc.) to bulk up her finances. That may give her more freedom to once again pursue political positions where even if she has to spend money on frivolous or meritorious charges, she has the financial wherewithal to do so.

It's a really sad statement that this American society is so litigious that someone without money (well, gobs of money) cannot maintain an elected political position.

I disagree with most of Sarah Palin's positions. But I'm also disgusted that money is pushing someone out of the political position. And I'm also amazed that this sad fact seems to have escaped the notice of other politicians. Have and have not's apparently run all the way into our political system.

No More Secrets

2009-06-28T20:08:00.000-07:00

In law, thoughts are not punishable -- actions are. Tom Cruise's movie, "A Minority Report," depicted a futuristic society where people could be jailed for thinking of committing a crime. This report by 60 Minutes shows that that future may not be far off. Technology has advanced so that computers can read simple thoughts by charting our brain pattern. I wonder about a world when we have truly no privacy -- but then again, I am sure we can also create technology to block mind reading as well.

because there was a beginning

2009-06-25T21:56:00.000-07:00

before the beginning
the anticipation percolating to being the first
foreshadows the inevitable.

after the beginning
the inspired reach stretching to the next
masked the inevitable.

but because there was a beginning
veritable and sure
must close with an end.

and because there is an end
connected to the beginning with unique nexts
a singular beauty lies encased

Solutions Not Just Protests

2009-06-21T21:32:00.000-07:00

California is in major budget crisis. Everyday, the news covers services that are proposed to be cut by the governor. People that are affected don't want those cuts. There are petitions to stop state park closures and protests to stop cuts to state home-care program.

Unfortunately, California is in a major budget crisis. By July 2009, without a budget that balances revenue to expenditure, California government will have to issue IOU's according to many news source (and this is one of them). It's tough to be the program that is on the chopping block. But perhaps petitions and protests are not the answer to financial problem. Instead, it would be more productive if people who are affected reviewed the actual budget and pointed out what else could be done so that affected programs can be saved. Is there belt tightening that could be done elsewhere? Is there a way to generate more revenue?

And going through line by line and then pointing out what could be done instead, would actually give constructive solution. Think that can't be done? The proposed budget and past finances is actually on this website. My understanding is, any government agency (federal, state, county, etc.), actually has to disclose all of this information publicly. (I could be wrong). It's just that no one actually bothers to review it and get back to the people that make decisions.

So, instead of petitions and protests, I say take apart the budget and propose a better solution.

Positive (Optimistic) Words Do More Harm Than No Words

2009-06-15T20:17:00.000-07:00

So apparently now there's a study that debunks the power of positive thinking. This Economist article talks about how most people tend to accept ideas that they already hold. People's tendency is to resist when they are told something that they don't view the same way. So, for folks with low self-esteem, telling themselves that they are loveable actually produced a lot more negative reaction than not telling themselves anything. Science changes everyday (including periodic tables... with man-made elements!! but that is a whole new post onto itself) so who knows how long this theory will last. What made me laugh out loud was the comment by diamonddriller on June 14, 2009 at 19:34. THAT was classic.

Saving More Than Money .. By Being Lazy

2009-06-14T21:20:00.000-07:00

So besides saving money these days, in California, we have to save water. California has been in drought for years now, and we do not have enough water for the amount that Californians have been consuming. San Diego is under mandatory water restriction, and we are supposed to consume 20% less water (I suspect we should actually consume much much less...).

For the most part, if you own a home, that means making sure you don't water your garden as much, don't wash your car, etc. But if you live in a multiplex building (condo or apartment), what can we do?

For starters, I started turning off water whenever it's just running if I'm not actually using the water for the task at hand. That means, when I brush my teeth, the water will be turned off while I'm brushing but I will turn it on when I need the water. Or in the shower, I turn off the water when I'm soaping.

I have also heard that one uses less water if you use the dishwasher when it's full instead of doing dishes by hand. Check this blog post about this. So, I started to use my dishwasher more. In order to make sure you use less water, though, you need to fill up the dishwasher. For someone who doesn't have a large family or mouths to feed, that means waiting maybe a day or two before washing dishes so that the dishwasher can be full. That's kind of a hassle (yes, I realize the irony) but I decided if it's good for the environment, I can learn to be lazy. ;)

Savings Caveat

2009-06-11T21:52:00.000-07:00

So if my previous post didn't indicate, I like to save (i.e. I'm parsimonious... look it up if you don't know what that means ;). But I like to remind myself for what purpose I'm saving. Yes, there's the retirement thing. Financial independence thing. But it's also so that I can spend the money in ways that I enjoy the most. And I remind myself that I should spend to help others or to treat others... because I do enjoy bringing joy to others. While I stick to saving, I also remind myself that generosity shouldn't go out the window simply for the sake of sticking to my saving goal.

I have a friend who is financially responsible. She is frugal and doesn't spend excessively. However, this same person also paid for her roommate's rent while her roommate/friend was unemployed. I forget a lot of things in life (my brain apparently takes too much abuse from information overload) but that is something I never forgot. Saving doesn't trump generosity... if our family or friend is in need. Or if the occasion calls for it.

Personal Finance Mumbo Jumbo

2009-06-08T21:47:00.000-07:00

So I am slightly bemused by all the attention given by the media to personal finance/savings sites and tips. There are some free sites that are apparently available like mint.com where you can keep track of your expenses. I like to read about savings tips... but basically, old fashioned common sense seems to work for me. And while cynics wonder if American saving behavior will disappear once economy looks rosier, from my personal experience, I have kept all my habits I picked up just prior to and during the layoff I experienced during the dot com bust of 2001. Along the way, I tweaked my habits and added here and there. So what did I do in 2001 that became ingrained to my daily habits?

1) I started tracking every expense.... so I could be certain that I did not spend over the severance amount I received. You heard that many times. I started by writing down on blank paper -- one sheet for each month. And then a few years later, I realized the virtue of excel spreadsheet. I did not wait until the end of the month but literally, when I came home, I would note everything I spent (every tea, coffee, parking meter, etc.) before I forgot. It was scary in the beginning (the first month or two), but as I started tracking I realized the concrete numbers gave me more comfort than some ambiguous notion of what I had and was spending. It gave me the freedom to know when to stop eating out or to take the liberty to eat out with a friend.

2) Once I found a job a year or so later, then I started tracking my version of cash flow... just noting cash coming in and cash going out. If I moved money between savings account to checking, that was not noted. Basically, money going out translated to anything coming out of my checking to pay bills or cash withdrawals. Money coming in was salary, or other miscellaneous items (refund). Then each month, I would total up cash that came in and subtract cash that flowed out. That would be my "savings" for the month.

3) After a few years of just tracking that, I realized I should set a goal for saving instead of blindly saving. Otherwise, my instinct was to not spend anything other than the bare necessity but having a goal helped me to actually spend some money for leisure (concert, books, etc.). I took my gross income and calculated 30% of my gross. That became my goal for total savings for the year (I heard Oprah was told to save 30% before she became mega-rich so I figured that's a good goal to live by).

Then I set a budget to figure out what my goal "expense" should be per month. I did that by taking my net income from paycheck and figure out my net income for the year. Then I took that number and subtracted my total goal (30% of gross income) and divided by 12 to get my goal "expense" per month.

4) I used to use Yodlee to get the snapshot of my investments. Then I thought what if someone hacked in and could access all my account? I got paranoid. So then I started another excel spreadsheet to keep track on weekly basis. Is it a pain to update manually on a weekly basis? Yup. But I broke it down to categories I like to keep track.

So basically, my habits grew out from one simple advice -- keep track of expense. All else sort of grew out of that once that became second nature. I also think that once you get in the habit of thinking about savings, you seek ways to keep track of what you need to keep track. So the basic point? You don't necessarily need all the softwares and websites to help you ... you can start with a piece of paper and pencil. But taking the concrete step every day really goes a long way. Mine has... for 8 years and counting.

Labor Economics

2009-06-07T14:03:00.001-07:00

Immigration trends are reversing in developed countries according to this WSJ article. Drop in immigration indicates sign of times -- recession that means less opportunities in the developed countries. Migration pattern follows labor economics -- labor goes where there are opportunities.

Sunset from Costa Rica

2009-06-07T13:56:00.000-07:00

A set of sunset pictures from Costa Rica is my favorite. The picture was actually taken when I was at a restaurant called El Avion at Manuel Antonio. The sun was actually setting in the opposite direction but the light was bouncing off of the clouds, with some gorgeous effects.

Persevering... to Cut Off Cable Service

2009-06-01T21:25:00.000-07:00

Apparently it takes a lot to discontinue service. Recently, I switched from Cox Cable to ATT. I have issues with both services, but for now, I am going with the cheaper alternative (i.e. cheaper of the two evils?). Plus, ATT is giving me a free DVR service to boot so I can record the French Open.

So today, after verifying with ATT that my telephone number has transferred to ATT, I called up Cox to cancel my service. As customary these days, I went through some sort of automated dialogue. After determining that I wanted to cancel, the computer put me on hold. I promptly put the hold on speaker phone and got my dinner ready. Then I watched the World News on ABC. And then I started watching a re-run of Two and a Half Man. It took nearly 45 minutes before a live representative got on the phone so I can cancel Cox Cable.

I was tempted at times to just hang up and call early tomorrow morning. But I was determined. At some point after 10-15 minutes, I decided -- I must persevere. I will not let Cox win its battle and get more money from me by psyching me out to get me to hang up by putting me on a long hold. And lo and behold ... I won! It is I that is triumphant! My determination not to give up... not to cut off that really really annoying music by hanging up... to suffer through 45 minutes of muffled music that distracted from concentrated TV watching experience...ahhhh. It felt good to know that the representative had to get to me. The representative tried to tell me I was a fool for switching. But I didn't care. After THAT long of a hold? Why would I want to change my mind to go back to Cox? Do you hear that Cox? I WON the battle of perseverance! =P

Costa Rica Vacation

2009-05-25T18:56:00.000-07:00

I've been out of town for two weeks... first for work in South Carolina and second for my vacation to Costa Rica! I went with my cousin, Gene, and a friend, Stephen. It was a fun vacation but a little exhausted after basically a week of hiking. I think I'm done exercising for the whole year. ;)

Our first stop was Arenal Volcano/La Fortuna. We flew into San Jose, Costa Rica but went directly to Arenal Volcano area on the first day. The main attraction was the active volcano, but we did not get to see the lava flow. It turns out, we were staying at the wrong side. The lava flow is only visible from north or west side of the volcano... La Fortuna, where it was cheaper to stay, is on the east side. But we got to enjoy Baldi hot springs.

After spending 2 nights, we moved onto Monteverde for some more nature intake. We visited Selvatura Park for walking around suspension bridges and Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve. The cloud forest was pretty awesome but the guide did talk about how the climate change was affecting both animals and plants.

After spending 2 nights there, we went to Manuel Antonio area. There is a small park, Manuel Antonio, where we saw monkeys, sloth, woodpecker, crabs, etc. It's right by the Pacific Ocean so we got to relax by gorgeous beach too.

We arranged this trip ourselves, after deciding that the travel agent was not being totally honest. Guidebooks (Lonely Planet, Frommer's, and Fodors) were helpful to varying degrees. But they did not prepare for some things.

1) If you want to see the lava flow at Arenal Volcano, stay at Arenal Observatory Lodge or north/west side of the volcano. We met someone who basically saw quite a lot of activity because they stayed there. It's a bit pricey but you won't get to see any activity staying in La Fortuna. And you can only see red lava glow at night so you might want to hit the hot springs during the day and then look for lava in the evenings.

2) La Fortuna and Monteverde cities preferred US dollars over their own currency of colones. In fact, the price quotes were so horrible, we did everything we could to use US dollars. The lesson, don't change all your money (like my cousin did) to colones. You will be using US dollars quite a lot.

3) On the other hand, Manuel Antonio area preferred colones over US dollars. So before you get there, make sure you have colones.

4) Cost of goods is NOT cheap compared to the cost of goods at US. The exchange rate won't save you. So be prepared to pay basically what you would at US. For example, bottled water (small) cost $2.

5) We alternated between rain forest and cloud forest. Regardless of which forest, it's humid. And there are lots of bugs. Buy an insect repellent if you forgot to bring one.

6) Don't eat salads or raw vegetables. You might get food poisoning (which is what I think happened to my cousin).

7) Guidebooks will tell you that roads are awful in Costa Rica. That's kind of true. However, the road from San Jose to Arenal Volcano/La Fortuna is not awful. The road from La Fortuna to Monteverde is really really really bad. Our transportation from La Fortuna to Monteverde consisted of taxi, boat across the Arenal Lake, and then taxi to our lodging at Monteverde. As soon as we crossed the lake, we were on unpaved, gravel road all the way to our lodging. There were no road signs. Although lots of packaged tours will include rental car, you might want to stick with obtaining private shuttle/taxi service between cities to save yourself stress of finding the road and trying to drive stick shift for hours on unpaved road.

The road conditions from Monteverde to Manuel Antonio was similarly awful (although after a while, we did hit some paved road).

8) We flew from Manuel Antonio to San Jose on Nature Air, one of Costa Rica's domestic airline. The airplane is really small... 2 turbo engine plane. And there's no air conditioning. But the air time is very short so it might be worth trying to fly between cities to save some time on rough roads.

9) Restaurants and hotels automatically add 10% gratuity on top of 13% tax so don't feel that you need to leave tip. You already are.

10) At Manuel Antonio, we stayed at Vela Bar Hotel which was in a great location. It is literally right across from the free beach. And it's on the road, near the entrance of the Manuel Antonio state park. The guide books make it sound like this is the only hotel at that location. However, there are at least 3 other hotels. They seemed nicer ... and a couple seemed to have swimming pool. They are: Hotel Villabosque, Cabinas Espadilla, Hotel Playa Espadilla. Costa Linda, one right next to Vela Bar Hotel, appears to be a hostel for backpackers and advertised room at $10 per person. All of these hotels are located at probably the best location in terms of access to the beach and the state park. Other nicer hotels are kinda far (although you might have a view of the Pacific Ocean) and you would have to drive in order to access the beach and the park.

11) It's probably worth it to have guided tours at Monteverde. For Manuel Antonio State Park, we were fine without a guide.

There are too many pictures to try to upload. So here's the album link for Costa Rica pictures.

Costa Rica 5-2009

Predicting TV Hits

2009-05-10T20:17:00.000-07:00

Ok. So I try really hard not to watch television, but I'm just addicted. Maybe it's my genes -- I'm just prone to watching TV. Over the years, I noticed that I tended to watch a TV show before it becomes a mega-hit. And then I would drop it after it becomes very popular because the series would get too contrived, too long, not as great, etc. etc. For example, I watched the first season of X-Files before it became a cult hit. I followed it until towards the last 2-3 seasons when the plot just got too contrived. I was also the first season watcher of Alias. Alias gained momentum after the first season (and after a year or two, I stopped watching just when it gained more audience because the story became convoluted).

I'm not saying everything I watch becomes a cult hit. You could also argue that if you watch too much TV, some are bound to be hits.

With the help of Hulu (it is evil!), I actually started watching Dollhouse on Fox. I have to admit I was a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series) and Angel. Joss Whedon is the creator of all 3 shows. The storyline of Dollhouse is... well, morally shocking. It involves brainwashing people and manipulating them to be fantasy slaves to rich people (the short version). But for whatever reason, it is addicting. Maybe because it's morally repugnant? Who knows. But if my past TV watching is any indicator, it might actually become a cult hit.

Sleep and Eat More, Work Less!

2009-05-05T19:25:00.001-07:00

France apparently holds the record amongst the industrialized nations as the one where people sleep the longest according to this WSJ piece today. Not only that, people in France take longer to eat their food (twice as long as Americans) and have 30 days of mandatory vacation leave. Yes, that's right -- MANDATORY leave of 1 month. Can we spell e-n-v-y?

On the other hand, I guess I should thank my dad for making the decision to emigrate from Korea to US when I was a kid... because Korea holds the record for being the most "awake" nation.

Why I Still Don't Facebook

2009-05-05T08:02:00.001-07:00

I don't know how much grief I'm getting from my friends who are convinced Facebook is here to stay. I still don't believe it unless it's popular 10 years down the road. Why? What's to say hi5 isn't going to be the next Friendster/MySpace/Facebook? Looks pretty much same to me and just may become the next "Facebook."

Still tired of profile creating. Although this site, www.particlebrand.com, has my interest peaked. Robo.to in particular promises that it will keep all your status updated in one easy calling card.

Washing Hands 101 + Pandemic Preparation Kit

2009-05-04T10:08:00.000-07:00

What with swine flu news and precautions on keeping up with hygiene, I learned something that seems like it would be elementary. I learned how to wash my hands. I was also amused to hear on NPR that basically, adults can learn from little kids on how to wash hands because kids scrub, rub, and wash hands for a longer period than most adults. Never say you can't learn from kids.

So, in order to wash hands properly according to CDC, you are supposed to use soap and lather our hands. I hope we all knew that. We are also supposed to wash thoroughly under running warm water for about 20 seconds (sing Happy Birthday song twice). I hope you knew that because I did not.

Something else I did not really think about until listening to NPR last week -- If a major pandemic does break out, then potentially it may have the same effect in our society as a major natural catastrophe such as hurricane, earthquake, or fire. Meaning, that people will not be in stores, perhaps credit card transactions won't go through (because there won't be people working in that sector), water may not be running (because there won't be people working in that sector), etc. etc. In natural disaster, we are aware that we should have a kit and emergency money. I realized the value of actual cash -- not credit cards -- when everything shut down during the hurricane in Alabama. Having gas for your car is also a pretty darn good idea because pumps won't work at gas stations to fill up your car. And last but most importantly, water and food???

All of which, we should have. But this guy (I forgot his name) on NPR was talking about how the American government was doing disservice to the public by not advising people to basically get their basic emergency kit ready and handy... in case our society does come to a halt. The message was basically that if we have to stay in our homes for a while, having plenty of water, food, and cash goes a long way.

Learning something new everyday.

The Swine Flu Pandemic of 1976

2009-04-27T22:21:00.000-07:00

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.

Being the Butterfly

2009-04-23T22:13:00.000-07:00

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.

My Trash and Recycling Bags

2009-04-22T20:03:00.000-07:00

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???

Would You Still Be Working at 103?

2009-04-15T21:19:00.000-07:00

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. =)

Foot Following the Hand

2009-04-13T22:05:00.000-07:00

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.

What's in a Name?

2009-04-09T20:41:00.000-07:00

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.

Facebook Trumps Free Law School Outlines Resources

2009-04-01T22:18:00.000-07:00

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.

AIG Bonus -- What's Not Highlighted

2009-03-25T22:30:00.000-07:00

If you have not heard of the outrage over bonuses AIG gave to its employees, I guess you are blissfully not listening to the news these days. Which may not be such a bad thing. Amongst all the politicians' outrage highlighted in the media, what is not highlighted is that the bonuses were NOT given to the same folks who put AIG (and us) in this mess. They are bonuses given to retain or pull in people who can untangle AIG (and us) from this mess. These are some of the few articles that seem to highlight and/or mention it -- an opinion piece in WSJ. Search on Google which turns up this blog site, Welker's Wikinomics, that aims to drive this point home. And this Seattle Times article points out that folks who created the mess have left AIG and those receiving retention bonus are not the same folks.

So knowing that and knowing that most executives returned the bonuses, it sucks to be those employees. The mass media and less complete reporting has transformed hard, tough job into a very very thankless job for folks who are trying to undo the mess. Lesson of the day? Apparently, abandon ship as soon as possible so that you are not mistaken for folks who created the problem.

Use or Non-use of the Word "Rape"

2009-03-14T08:37:00.000-07:00

So I have noticed that in the last few years that news media stopped reporting that a woman was "raped." Instead, you frequently hear that a woman was "sexually assaulted." I don't understand what that means, do you?

Merriam-Webster defines "assault" as :a threat or attempt to inflict offensive physical contact or bodily harm on a person (as by lifting a fist in a threatening manner) that puts the person in immediate danger of or in apprehension of such harm or contact.

Legally, "assault" means an intentional act by one person that creates an apprehension in another of an imminent harmful or offensive contact.

So if I string all that together I take "sexual assault" may mean threatening or attempting to inflict harm in sexual manner. It doesn't seem to me that "sexual assault" means someone inflicted harm by committing unconsensual sex.

However, when you listen to the news media, the context makes it pretty clear that they use "sexual assault" synonymously with "rape." It seems like the news media decided the word "rape" carries harsher tone so they decided not to say that anymore. Which is cowardly and unjust to rape victims. Rape is a violent and, in my humble opinion, an unforgivable crime. Why soften that up for criminals who commit rape? Why belittle what happened to rape victims by softening up by using words which do NOT literally translate to rape?

I say, if someone actually commits rape, call it as it is -- it's rape. If someone "intends to do harm by creating fear of committing harm by using sex," then call it "sexual assault." And describe how that person did that to fully and accurately report how the person created the apprehension. Did the person say he was going to commit rape? Did the person bind and gag a victim, stripped himself so it appeared he would rape but did not actually commit rape? Don't let criminals off easy by erasing the word "rape" from our news vocabulary.

Follow This Guy on Twitter for Free Donation to School

2009-03-12T23:14:00.000-07:00

So one of my friends tweeted about this blog where Tim Ferriss is donating $1 for each follower he gets on Twitter, and an anonymous donor is matching $2. So each follower to his Twitter would end up donating $3. He is capping it at 50,000 followers. He already has more than 25,000 followers. It's easy enough to follow someone, so I decided to follow him on Twitter. I hear how education is getting cut, teachers need money, etc. so this seems like a great timely drive. If you have a Twitter account, you might want to follow this guy. Can't hurt.

How Safe is Our Money in Banks?

2009-03-08T08:17:00.000-07:00

Bank failures and financial crisis have flooded our news in the past months. That's not really news anymore. But at least, people count on FDIC insurance to trust that our money in banks really is safe. Or is it really? According to the head of the FDIC, Sheila Bair, she warned that unless FDIC is shored up somehow (i.e. more fees, loan from the Treasury, something), FDIC will not have sufficient funds to cover our money in banks. This is one of the articles I've read (there are others... but very small, obviously to not alarm the public, probably).

The thing is, as scary as this sounds, it makes sense. If all banks fail, and if everyone has to rely on the safety net, yes, that safety net will be stretched and may be gone. But that safety net is there so that we don't have the public running to the bank, pull money out, and cause even more bank failures. If that happens, would having our money under our bed really help? Probably not. That may lead to hyper-inflation and paper money could become valueless.

So really, even if our money may not be safest in the bank, the only hope is to keep our money in the bank and do what it takes to make sure that banks survive. Hopefully, by then, FDIC will also be a much stronger safety net because banks would stop failing. Definitely interesting times to be living through... and may we all rise to the occasion!

Evolution in Action

2009-03-03T06:25:00.000-08:00

I was reading this news article about how the most common flu is now resistant to the main drugs. Which reminded me of the book I read about evolution still working in our times -- The Beak of the Finch. Basically, part of the process for the evolution is that once traits that cannot survive die off, the traits that did survive will start to proliferate. So if a drug has been used to kill off most flu strains, then resistant flu strains that survived will thrive. Well, that means job security for medical industry, I guess. ;)

Thoughtless (i.e. Stupid) Scam Email

2009-03-01T20:13:00.001-08:00

Yes, we all get kzillions of this spam -- someone from Africa has incredible amount of money and needs your help to transfer the money, for which you will get gobs of money. I used to forward those to FBI back when they first started surfacing (yes, you can refer them to law enforcement agencies... because it is a crime). But these days, I just throw them into spam folder and forget about them. On a whim, I read one before I decided to throw into my spam folder. And I just about fell laughing off of my chair because of the last thing this spammer/scammer asks.

"Dear Friend,

I know that this letter may come to you as a surprise, I got your contact address from the computerized search. My name is Mr Sani Mukila. I am the Bill and Exchange (assistant) Manager of Bank of Africa Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. In my department I discovered an abandoned sum of nine million three hundred thousand United State of American dollars (9.3MILLION USA DOLLARS) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer Mr Kurt Kuhle from Alexandra Egypt who died along with his family in Siber airline that crashed into sea at Isreal on 4th October 2001.

Since I got information about his death I have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we can not release it unless somebody applies for it as the next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines, but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him in the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this discovery that I decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and I don't want the money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed bill. Am contacting you because our deceased customer is a foreigner and a Burkinabe can not stand as a next of kin to foreign customer.

The banking guidelines stipulate that the fund should be transferred into the bank treasury after 8 years if nobody is coming for the claim. I have agreed that 33% of this money will be for you as foreign partner in respect to the provision of your account for the transfer, 2% will be set aside for expenses that might occurred during the business and 65% would be for me, after which I shall visit your country for disbursement according to the percentages indicated. Please I would like you to keep this transaction confidential and as a top secret as you may wish to know that I am a bank official. Indicating your interest and also Contact me via this email ( sanimukila1@hotmail.fr )

Please reply with the assurance, come up with the information's showed below:-

1)YOUR FULL NAME...................
2)YOUR AGE...................
3)MARITAL STATUS...................
4)YOUR CELL PHONE NUMBER...................
5)YOUR FAX NUMBER...................
6)YOUR COUNTRY...................
7)YOUR OCCUPATION...................
8)SEX...................
9)YOUR RELIGION...................
10)YOUR PRIVATE E-MAIL ADRESS...................

Yours sincerely,
Mr Sani Mukila.
PHONE ( 00226 71 35 28 65 )"

Ummm. Yes. If the guy needs me to reply back (since he emailed me first) with my private email address, how stupid is that?? It was rather amusing, and livened my Sunday night.

Finding a Romance Article in an Unusual Place

2009-02-23T22:04:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while, I am surprised by an article that I read in the Wall Street Journal... because it doesn't seem like the type of article that the WSJ might carry. The weekend edition carried an article about a relationship (titled "A Long-Distance Connection") that started just before the guy left for Iraq. Literally, the day before he was to ship out, the couple met. And their relationship basically started as a long distance relationship. It's a touching article, and when the news is full of dismal economic crisis day after day, it's actually refreshing to read something that reminds us of hope.

Must Be for the Principle

2009-02-18T20:10:00.000-08:00

Most of my snail mail these days consist of bills (the little that I don't get by ebill), junk advertisements, National Geographics (once a month), and solicitation of my money for random charity organizations. So I was quite tickled by something I received by mail yesterday.

I moved in December to a different unit because my old unit got flooded after raining. Apparently after paying the final bills of all my utilities, I was owed some refund from AT&T (internet, phone, tv). So according to the stamp, AT&T spent $0.42. The refund? $0.02. Basically, AT&T spent 21 times more to deliver the refund to me ($0.02 times 21 equals $0.42). Not very cost effective. I have to admire AT&T's principle to deliver me my refund!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T08:40:00.000-08:00

So, it's Valentine's Day. And I heard long time ago that it was tradition that if a woman asks a man to marry on Valentine's Day that the man cannot refuse. So ladies, if you dare, ask your men! ;)

Anyway, one of my favorite poems by Robert Frost is "The Rose Family." And it may just be appropriate for today. Happy Valentine's Day!

The Rose Family
by Robert Frost

The rose is a rose,
And was always a rose.
But now the theory goes
That the apple's a rose,
And the pear is, and so's
The plum, I suppose.
The dear only knows
What will next prove a rose.
You, of course, are a rose--
But were always a rose.

Koala Saved by Tree

2009-02-10T21:54:00.000-08:00

Couldn't help but notice the name of the firefighter (Tree) who helped a Koala bear in Australia in this article. The other big news... other than the stimulus package news, that is. ;)

My Favorite Movies and Books

2009-02-02T22:30:00.000-08:00

Whenever someone asks me to name my top 5 or 10 movies, I am completely stumped. You would think I would know my own taste. I think the problem is, I watch too many movies. Same thing with books. (Just counted from allconsuming.net -- I watched 11 movies in last 2 months and 9 books in last 2 months)

Instead of remembering the last movie or book that I saw or watched that I didn't like, I decided to sit down and really think about what my all time favorites are. The simple test is, would I want to watch the movie again? And would I want to read the book again?

And I came up with this list for movies:

When Harry Met Sally
Princess Bride
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Welcome to Dongmakgol
Stardust
The Lakehouse
The Way Home
Maverick
Sneakers
Charade
Clueless
Office Space
Matrix
Ever After
Matilda
Wall-E
Bad Boys
Speed
Spiderman

It's kind of a long list, but I wouldn't ever mind watching any of these movies over and over again. In fact, I actually have dvd's for some of them. Sad that only Wall-E made it to my favorite list from last year after all the movies I watched!

As for my recommended book list? I actually ranked my book favorites in the order of preference. But 1-6 are really tied as far as my preference goes.. And "We Wish to Inform You..." gets to the bottom only because it's too heartbreaking to read it over and over again.

Poisonwood Bible
Watership Down
The Centaur in the Garden
Life of Pi
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff
Oryx and Crake
Invisible Man
Blindness
Straight Man
The Stranger
Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Candide
Ender’s Game
Harry Potter books
Reading Lolita in Tehran
The End of Poverty
Supercapitalism
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families

I was thinking of doing a post of books I really enjoyed of all the books I read in 2008. But looking at my above list, I realize that only one impressed me ("Blindness").

So now that I have made my list, I'm going to see if this year adds anything to this list. It's kind of sad that the list is composed of movies and books that I had consumed quite a few years ago... I don't think I'm going to delve deeply into what that means on quality of movies and books I consume so much?!?

Wall Street, Main Street .. AND Red District Asking for Bailout

2009-01-29T19:51:00.000-08:00

So you have all heard about wall street getting bail out. You probably heard about how the government is moving to bail out homeowners -- the main street. What you probably didn't hear about is that the Red District aka Porn Industry has also asked our government for a bailout. You don't believe me? Read this article. I just have to laugh at this justification for a bailout for the porn industry --

But the industry leaders said the issue is a nation in need. "People are too depressed to be sexually active," Flynt said in the statement. "This is very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such but they cannot do without sex."

"With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind. It's time for congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America. The only way they can do this is by supporting the adult industry and doing it quickly."

Err. Ok. Whatever. If Congress gives a penny to the porn industry, I'm going to quit paying taxes.

A Marriage Proposal

2009-01-25T21:02:00.000-08:00

So I received my first marriage proposal... in the most uncharacteristic manner. The man did not bother to get down on his knees; but if the rule is that the man should be looking up at the woman while proposing, then he didn't break the rule. After all, I was standing and he was sitting. So he was looking up at me.

When he proposed, he did not use flowery language or begin with a 15 minute soliloquy about love and marriage. It was direct, short, and focused -- "Will you marry me?"

My reply? A smile and a gentle "no."

Well, you see, since my move to the new unit within my apartment, I have been walking to work by a different route. That route, unfortunately, has a lot of homeless people still sleeping while I'm walking to my work. One of the homeless men decided to propose to me. And while flattered, I certainly could not accept the offer without knowing who the man is.

All of which led me to think back to a question that my friend asked while we were in law school... and a hypothetical question of would you marry someone who was homeless and penniless? I'm pretty sure I was unable to answer that question at the time -- if that would be a quality that would deter me from marrying someone if you truly loved that person. Of course, this was a different scenario, since the man and I did not know each other.

But I was gently bemused to get my first proposal (I took it as a compliment) ... and have since then changed my route to work. I wouldn't want to be asked more than once and wouldn't want to give same answers over and over! ;)

Tim Tam's -- an Aussie Snack

2009-01-19T19:45:00.000-08:00

So my sister reminded me that when we visited Australia, we loved eating Tim Tam's. And Target was selling them a few weeks ago! We bought some... and remembered why we liked eating Tim Tam's. They are yummy. ;)

Caramel and chocolate...

Can't go wrong with that!