Lord Don't Slow Me Down

Hello again, it is yet time again for my traditional "holidaze" entry. So yeah it is Christmas Eve (or to be technical Christmas Day) so I might as well talk about the latest happenings and ruminations on the year. So to start off, it has a been a pretty eventful past month for so. First things first, I went to Korea for a week at the beginning of the month. It was the first time I had been there is a long long time. So I don't really have strong memories of the last time I was there (other than I played the Air Wolf arcade game in my hotel lobby at my last visit). This time, it was actually more pleasant than my expectations. I was there for not-so fun family business involving wills and inheritance issues. Not to all who plan on being rich: Leave a will, spend it all. or donate it all to charity. Do not let the kids figure it out for themselves. It was rather cold (it snowed). Also I gained five pounds because I ate Korean food all the time. Not the same country that I remembered definitely. However, the completely insane driving was still crystal clear. The plane ride there was about 12 hours. Luckily there were in-seat movies, which meant I watched like 5 movies on the way there including Die Hard 4, Harry Potter 5, and Ratatouille, all of which I never found the time to watch them this past summer.

After I got back from Korea, I then went to leadership training for work. Yes I know, me and leadership. A scary thought. However, the morning on the training, I found that my driver's side window had been smashed and my car relived of my Oakley sunglasses and iPod. Yup, my car got broken into right outside my apartment in my car port. The sunglasses and iPod were out of sight but I left the iPod adapter in the cigarette lighter. Therefore, the thief must have been put two and two together. This year has not been kind to my car. Thanks to uncaught thiefs and hit and run bumper ruiners, my car has suffered almost 1400 dollars worth of damage. The funny thing is that I eitehr (a) slept through my car alarm or (b) my alarm didn't go off. Either outcome is not encouraging. I didn't think that I was that deep of a sleeper. Nor is a car alarm very helpful if it doesn't go off if someone smashes the window. In fact, I found it highly ironic that as I was cleaning up the many many pieces of glass from inside my car, I found the piece that had my "Car Alarm" sticker intact that is suppose to deter thieves.

In other news, it is the holidays again. This year has been particularly non-holiday ish because of the Korea trip, work, getting my car fixed, etc... Yeah, I just didn't feel any of the holiday spirit. As many people have pointed out before, the holidays just keep losing its festive feel as you get older. I don't what I can do to rekindle that spirit. It also didn't help there was a lack of holiday party invites for me this year :-( I did do my holiday shopping relatively hassle free as compared to some other years. One cool thing I did for the holidays was see Cirque Du Soleil. I saw Kooza in SF. I have to say that it was well worth it and definitely matches up to the hype. They had some really draw-dropping acts.

So I suppose I should speak a few thoughts on 2007. Supposedly this was the year I transitioned to normal work life and in many ways I did. I got promoted by the way so I must be doing something right. I traveled to a whole slew of places. Hung out with my friends, got a bike, went to boot camp, almost got into a serious car accident, but overall I have to say 2007 was far less eventful than 2006, as I suppose years should be. As some of you may remember (actually none of you), I made some resolutions last year. Let's see how I did.

1. Exercise: I did this - bootcamp for a year straight. Plus I started biking.

2. Eat Right/Cook More: Okay so this didn't happen with all the free food I get at work. It happened more than 2006 but not by much at all.

3. Volunteer: Well I volunteered once because of a work offsite but then I did do one volunteer activity on my own. I really should have done more but I fulfilled the basic requirements of this resolution.

4. Read More: Yes, I did read more thanks to my extensive traveling and having to kill times on planes and in airports. Unfortunately, that means I have been buying more books that I still have not found time to read.

5. Vacation: Yup, took a few days off to go to Vancouver this summer.

6: Dating: I went on dates with four (4), yes count'em four women. The outcomes, well that's a different story. But ah well, at least I went out.

So what are my resolutions for next year.... here is a few I have been thinking about.

I am holding over the dating and the volunteer resolutions from 2007 to 2008. Hopefully to improve upon them. The volunteer one should not be too hard but the dating one, well yeah that could prove to be tougher. But here a few new ones:

1. Keeping in touch: I have been noticing that I haven't been keeping in touch my old grad school classmates, old college friends, and other acquaintances as I should be. So I making it a resolution to send more emails, make more calls, go out more with some of my friends/classmates/aquaintances that I don't see as often.

2. Biking: My biking as dropped off because of winter but I could afford to be riding more often. So I am making a resolution to get on my bike more often and ride.

3. Financial Stuff: For the vast majority of all the jobs I have had in my life, I earned enough basically to pay the bills and rent. But now that I making enough to think about investing and saving, I should really spend more time understanding financial investment stuff. I am pretty sure I am missing out on earning something right now.

There are probably some more but I can't think of them of right now. So I might be adding some later. But I should finish up this entry. On a final note, some of you may notice that I name all my blog entries after Oasis songs. But I have pretty much exhausted all their songs for now so I will be reverting to some other naming scheme going forward. So be on the look out for actual description blog entry titles from now on. I hope everyone had an interesting 2007 and best wishes in 2008. Happy holidays, seasons greetings, and yes, even Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Until next time, peace on earth.

Just Getting Older

Hi again. Just updating the few of you of what has been happening. So what has been going on with me? Well I am happy to report that I fulfilled yet another one of my New Year's resolutions and volunteered for the first time this year (technically my second by the first volunteer event was part of a work offsite). I volunteered as part of One Brick . I volunteered with about a dozen other people at Art in Action . Art in Action is a non-profit that provides art education to schools that can no longer offer art education on their own. So I spent a few hours assembling art kits, including have to roll super thick construction paper into tight bundles. It actually was quite a bit of fun.

So what else is going on? Work has been uber-busy. The more and more I work with product managers, the more and more I believe that have little understanding of the basics of time. Primarily because they have been laying down absurding tight deadlines so no other reason other than apparently moving uber fast is always better than moving just regular fast. Which reminds me of the past BayCHI meeting that I actually showed up for. It was Jeff Johnson of GUI Bloopers fame came and talked. One of his major points was that management is often the major cause of bad UI. A major reason why is that managers are rewarded for faster time to market. Johnson says that time to market is important but even more important is faster time to adoption/profitability/customer satisfaction. A rush to get to market that results in poor UI will most likely lead to longer time to adoption/customer satisfaction/profitability and therefore less overall success. Johnson's agreement (and I agree) that a little longer time to market will pay off in less time for adoption and profitability. And this argument was actually backed up by some Harvard studies.

For the past Thanksgiving, I did my normal thing. I had dinner with Jinah, Drew, and Drew's family. And then I went to the SF Auto Show. The auto show is always good but this year was a bit more relevant for me since I am considering getting a new car in the next year or two. All though I am philosophically against SUVs, sitting in some (especially the BMW) made me think twice. I did also enjoy the Volkswagen GTI. But the big thing that happened this past week was that I attended my 10 year reunion.

It was held at the Sonoma Chicken Coop in Campbell. Ironically it was only a few blocks away from where i used to live in Campbell from 2001 - 2004. Phill , Nick, and I attended because basically we are the only ones from our high school class we keep in touch with. The experience was very surreal. You realized that you are getting old when you realize it has been 10 years. Plus I didn't recognize a lot of people. And some people didn't recognize me. But that may be because (and I don't like to brag) I was looking pretty fly that night. Had my cool new jacket, jeans, and oasis t-shirt on. Some there are some of my major thoughts on the event:

1. Women generally age better than men. Overall, the guys didn't fare as well aging wise than the women. A major theme of the evening for the guys was neck fat. It was probably a good thing I was way underweight and skinny in high school since now that I have gotten fatter, I am looking normal rather than puffy.

2. I, along with Nick and a few others, hit the open bar a little hard. Hopefully there is not too much video footage taken by me by Phill during that time.

3. It was much more pleasant than I thought it would be. There didn't seem to be any old cliques. Plus none of my old circle of "Friends" showed up which didn't bother me at all because well...they weren't very nice people back then. I probably wasn't that nice either but at least I admit it.

Like I said a surreal experience. There were a few doctors, a few lawyers, a few real estate agents, lots of people working at start-ups. But no real huge superstars and also no real huge failures. I guess if you got super successful you have better things to do than attend your 10 year reunion and you probably would skip the reunion if you became a major failure. I had fun and as a result of the reunion, I got a few more people adding me on facebook these days. Don't know if I will go to any more reunions in the future. But for a 10 year reunion, this past one beat my expectations.

Finally, I am heading off to Korea for about a week to care of some not-so fun family business. It will be the first time in a LONG time that I have been back. I would be more looking forward to it if didn't come right at the start of the holidays. So be on the look out for a blog entry about my Korea trip. i have to run to pick up my laundry. So unitl next time, peace on earth and happy holidays.

Hung in a Bad Place

Hello all. Can't it be - more than one entry per month. What has the world has gone too. But there are some things I've been wanting to say. Mainly continuation from last entry but here are some updates.

First off, I am typing this entry from my new MacBook Pro that I got last week. Let's just say: color me impressed. It is is superfast, superslick, and a much welcomed improvement over my old Dell. The only thing annoying is that I can transfer over all my music from my Ipod onto it because of Apple's crappy DRM. Plus it is super light. In other news, I had a low-key Halloween. I went to a co-worker's Halloween party. My costume was the Liberal Media, which unless you are a delusional Republican, doesn't actually exist. Workwise, things are going as usual. Last week, I ran an in-lab usability study, which happened to be my first for quite a while since I basically spend the past few months mostly doing field work. Speaking of work, tI was watching PBS just now and I saw a documentary about the place that I work at. It is sorta funny and surreal to watch it. I mean, I had never seen a documentary about any of the other places I have worked at. While it is my job to think on behalf of users, it is always enlightening to see the impressions of Google by outside people. So here is my running commentary that I took while watching the documentary, The World According to Google:

Hey Marissa Mayer! She looks much tanner than in real life.
I know Frederick. I have been in a couple meetings with him
Volleyball - yes i have played the court on several times. Including once where I saw a guy severely dislocated his toe. By the way two of those guys playing play nearly all the time.
London office! I've been there
Good description of Google life Frederick. I have said almost the exact same thing
Nice shot of the jet-pool lifeguard asleep with his Powerbook
Oh the billboard equation sign - I heard that actually didn't turn up very good candidates.
Yeah don't remind how popular Google is with MBAs. I have a very low opinion of them.
Oh gawd - Vint Cerf - damn strait , critical thinking by the user does come into play. Google doesn't make dumbasses any smarter
Brewster Kahle - oh gawd - I heard he is a real asshole in real life. And that comes from somebody who works at the Internet Archive.
I know that whiteboard!
Yes Googlers do say "Don't be evil" probably too much internally.
Franz Och - ummm heard of him.......
Smart water! Yes we get free smart water - Och is drinking smart water - therefore he must be smart.
I guess they put that bottle in front of his computer to obscure the mac logo
That shot of London is taken right in front of the office.
Its gmail dumbass! Not Google Mail.
I've never heard wind chimes at Google - where the hell are those?
Now he says Gmail.... Yeah don't mention that we fought the US government when they wanted the data. How now Ian Brown!
Wow the book scanner thing. Wow when I asked the Google Books guy about it he was super secret but they let a film crew in. Bah you!
Boo Stanford Library shout out. Where's the University of Michigan mention?
Brewster Kahle - crazy eyebrows man crazy
Wow, "There are others...." Did Kahle just admit to being an "Other." Lost reference
Yeah Todd sitting on the floor!
If I had time to do 20 percent time than I would do it. Yeah, it is really hard to find 20 percent of your time to devote to anything besides your projects.
Wait a minute, I only used Encyclopedia Britianica in my elementary school library because it was the only encyclopedia available. Do I lack critical thinking skills because of that?
Long Tail reference! I was wondering when someone would say that.
Very mumbled non-answer to the Google Earth security issue.
"I'm sorry but that's my perspective" Marissa Mayer - WOW that was a nice way of saying f-u asshole.
New job title for me based on Ian Brown's comments: David Choi, User Experience Researcher, Ministry of Truth
Two Googlers chatting at a table - no wait! They aren't because they are wearing visitor badges.

Getting to the major point of this entry, is that I wanted to talk about getting older and living life, which were major themes of last entry. I saw Into the Wild a few weeks ago. As some of you know, I am a big fan of the book written by Jon Krakauer, more known for this other book Into Thin Air. For those who don't know, Into The Wild chronicles the tale of Chris McCandless, who deliberately gave up all his possessions, donated all his money, and cut himself off from this family to travel the road and become immersed in nature. He ended up dying in Alaska. There are two camps of people when it comes to judging his life. The conflict is documented well in this Men's Journal article. His supporters admire him for his desire, zeal, and passion for trying to live his life with nature. His spirit represents a desire to throw off the artificial barriers of society and to live something more meaningful. The other camp says he was an overly idealistic and naive greenhorn who stupidly got himself killed and is only famous because somebody wrote a book about him. Well when I first read the book several years ago, I deeply appreciated and admired McCandless for what he was trying to do. Maybe it was because I was still in college, working too many jobs for too little money, taking too many classes, for a goal that seemed too far away. I suppose I wanted to find meaning in my own life that seemed only to be filled with unclear obligations. But I have reread the book many times since then, and I have to say that I am more and more falling into the other camp. I read some of McCandless's writings and they come off as an arrogant, wildly faux erudite idealist who preaches to others about the evils of modern society when he quite honestly didn't spend that much time in it. I sometimes look back at my old previous blog entries from 5 or 6 six years ago and I cringe how much of a know-it-all I sound like. Or how I often blew things way out of proportion and how preachy I got. I suppose growing older makes you wiser and also humbler. Which is a good combination in my opinion. For myself, I like the opportunity to increase what i do know but also be more aware of what I don't know.

I said when "I suppose growing older makes you wiser" and really should have emphasized "suppose." I was bored a few nights ago so I went back to the a couple of online forums I used to frequent a couple years ago. You know, just to check if they were still around and were other people still going to them. Much to my surprise, there were more than a few members still around from back when I was there. And they are still arguing about the same thing. Still arguing the same points. The deluded right-wing Christian. The angry Asian guy who is mad at the world. The trolls who are merely there to piss everyone off. Still spouting their half-truths, unsubstantiated claims, un-provable or statistically invalid "facts" to show how the other side is so stupid and wrong. Quite honestly, it just made me sad. I moved on and while I still strongly believe in many things, I no longer feel the desire to debate them online. As the cliche, I found better things to do with my life - like going to and graduating from grad school, keeping in shape, working at a great company, and spending fulfilling time with my friends and family. I would like to think that I have made some forward progress in my life. But looking at those forum members who are still there, still sniping at every point, still posting dozens of messages per day, every day, makes me think that no everyone wants to or is capable of moving on from that. As much as contributing to an online forum have the potential to be intellectually stimulating, there is a whole world out there that could use some help. So in that vein, I am volunteering for the first time in a long time this upcoming weekend. So yeah when I gripe at least I can justifiably say that I am actually trying to make the world better rather than sitting at a computer screen and complaining.

That's all from me. Until next time, peace.

D'Yer Wanna Be a Spaceman?

Hi all, been wanting to add another entry of late but haven't gotten around to it. Well, I am making a concerted effort to start doings things which I will get to later. First off, some updates from last time. I have confirmed that I will attend my 10 year high school reunion coming up next month. Yeah most of the people I polled came out in favor of attending. Be on the look out for an entry at the end of November about it. Next is that after I posted my last entry blog entry my personal laptop finally gave out. Its power supply was spotty and it finally gave out. So my Dell gave me 3+ more or less good years, which is just about as long as any laptop ends up lasting. I ordered a replacement, I won't say much but it is shiny.
So what else has been going on? The usual stuff. Work, boot camp, bike riding (I went on a 25 mile and 16ish mile bike rides in the past few weeks plus my off and on rides to work). Been hanging out also, went to a house party in Cupertino, bowling/Karaoke/drinking in the city, Oktoberfest in Campbell again, and the Clarion Alley Street Mural block party in the Mission. For the later event, I was rather hipster under-dressed for the Mission. So basically I have been humming along as usual, ordinary routine. Which would seem to be okay. However, I have been in a more reflective mood as of late. So maybe that is not all okay.

Recent events have gotten me thinking about life. The first off is that I watched the excellent documentary 49 and up on PBS two weeks ago. In a nutshell, it is part of a series of documentaries where the filmmakers follow a set people from when they were seven, every seven years. So it is a fascinating experience watching them grow up and age. But one thing struck me is that one of the checkpoints is of course, 28 and I am 28 now. So you see them at 28 and compare them to what they are now (49), and for many of them it is night and day. Well one thing is obvious all of them look much worse at 49 than 28 which makes me want to keep regularly exercising. But more importantly most of them were doing much different things than they were at 28. Well I happen to really enjoy what I am doing now that I am 28. But I have no clue what I will be doing at 49. I would like to stay in the field but who knows, I may end up somewhere totally different. It is eye-opening to see the changes throughout life.

Another thing that I got me thinking was the great news that Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global warming. Think back 7 years ago after he lost an election, which by all accounts he should have rightfully won. On top of that, for the next few years after that he was laughed off as has-been and wash-up. But look at things now. Everyone almost universally agrees (with exception of the Republicans who are in full reality denial mode) that he would have made a tremendously better president than a former alcoholic whose greatest regret in life (by his own admission) was trading Sammy Sosa for Harold Baines. But I doubt anybody would have blamed Al Gore for simply fading away after he lost in 2000. He could have quietly joined a few corporate boards (basically get paid for showing up), done the lecture circuit, maybe become a faculty member in name only at some university. But he didn't. He re-devoted his life to what he really cared about and now people are literally begging him to clean up the toxic waste dump George W Bush has left behind. So that got me thinking, is there anything more than I could be doing?

There were some more serious things that happened that gave me pause. One is that I finally got around to watching Randy Pausch's Last Lecture A lot of my co-workers were students of Randy Pauch's at Carnegie Mellon. For those of you who don't know, Pausch has a non-treatable form of cancer which leaves him only three to six months of good health left before he dies. So literally it is his "last lecture." I really recommend everyone watch this lecture. It is about achieving your childhood dreams and gives some great advice about life. What struck me about it is how optimistic and energetic he is about what is obviously a very tragic event. He doesn't want to die obviously but now that it is upon him, he is determined not to keep him from enjoying what little life has left. Well I am not dying anytime soon (I hope) so it made me wonder. How much more could I be enjoying life, doing things that challenge me, etc.

Finally, one of my former SI classmates, Mark, was struck by a drunk driver earlier this month. He still hasn't regained consciousness. The last I saw Mark was back in March, when he was visiting the Bay area for a conference. I had lunch with him at Google and went out to dinner a few times. He seemed to be having a great time in his new job. In the weeks after graduating SI where I was waiting for Google on if I was getting an offer, he would organize weekly poker games that were a lot of fun. Anyway, it was sort of surreal thinking about what happened to him. My last memories of him were of a fun, living, laughing guy (who challenged me to go into a club that I thought was a brothel) and to hear his condition now, well it just leaves me speechless. Mark didn't get a last lecture but I wonder what he would have said.

Most of my close friends know that I am not a religious person, in fact I am an atheist. Which leads some people to think I am not spiritual. I guess if you equate having religious beliefs with spirituality than I am not. I guess I believe that most things in life happen because of choices individuals makes with a small remainder of random shit that happens. Randy Pauch's cancer falls into the random bad shit that happens to good people. Mark's tragedy is because of choice. Not his own but of the drunk driver who chose to risk people's lives when he put that key in the ignition. When you think about it that way, it is much harder to be an atheist than say a Christian in my opinion. For example, a Christian may believe Randy Pauch's cancer may be unfortunate but since he is a good person he will go to heaven. Or in the case of Mark, God will help heal Mark and/or send to Hell the drunk driver who hit him. But for an atheist, it is just a random interplay of certain genes and factors that caused Pauch to get cancer and it was idiotic drunken asshole who decided to hop in his car rather than take a cab that ultimately led to where Mark is right now. Change one or two things around, and maybe Pauch's cancer is treatable and he won't leave his three young children without a father or maybe that drunk driver leaves two minutes later and misses Mark but then again maybe he hits someone else. To me, its the randomness and the impact of some strangers' choices. There is no absolution in the end. No God that will make sure Pauch and Mark will end up alright and conversely, make sure the drunk driver is eternally damned. Nothing.

So yeah, what does this all mean. For anybody who reads it, take what you will. For me, I am going to start doing things I want to do before some random event or someone's choice decides for me. So that means less procrastinating and more going out of my comfort zone. Do I think this will last. I don't know. But I think the events of the past few weeks tell me that is worth a shot. Take care everyone. Until next time, peace.

Acquiesce

Hello again after another super duper long break. Yes, I know my blogging frequency has taken a huge dip this past year. But be prepared for another super duper long entry. You might want to grab a tasty beverage right now to prep. I'll wait. I have my own tasty beverage with my carmael shake here in Coffee Society in my old stomping grounds in Campbell. So let's get to it.

First off, I travelled to North Carolina last week for hopefully my last field study for work this year. I went to Raleigh. It was first time ever visiting the true South. Prior to that, I had been in Virgina for about 30 minutes in 1996 so I suppose that doesn't really count. So what were my impressions? Well it was well...quite Southern. The accents were there and I didn't pick up on any of the pervasive racism that is supposedly there (granted I was there for only 2.5 days). Had a great deal of fried food and my first taste of "sweet tea" or as I dub it "cavity creator." In addition, I overheard one of the waitresses in this bar gleefully exclaim that her father was getting out of jail in 3 days. I did go out to a couple of bars in Raleigh which were alright. One highlight is that they had Bells, which anyone who is formerly from Michigan will tell you is a treat. I do have to admit that I had a very good meal at Sullivan's Steakhouse in Raleigh (I highly recommend it) althought it quite spectacularly destroyed my per diem that day.

Other than that, work has been the same ole same ole. I have a report deficit which I am studiously trying to work off. For all you up and coming user research/usability professionals, doing many field studies in a short time span is great for getting lots of data. The problem is the data analysis and report writing take time and usually get pushed aside what with meetings and other pressing matters. So unfortunately, that means having to write reports for studies that were done sometimes weeks after they were conducted. And I quite frankly admit that I am not the quickest at data analysis. For nearly all my studies (field or usability), I review all the notes, watch the entire video, and then make notes on top of notes. Some UX people never look at the video unless there is something of particular interest and rely totally on notes. Some more agile minded UX people won't even write a full report but instead send out a quick summary of the big findings they remember. They argue (justifably)that most people won't read a full report so it is best to hit them with big ideas. That's true, but I still write out a full detailed report but include a summary at the beginning that takes about a minute and a half to read. I also put the summary in the email when I send out the report so a person could probably get a good idea of what happened without reading the report. My reasoning is that field studies are a pain in the ass to schedule and organize. Might as well get as many findings as you can from them. Hopefully the hand full of people who actually take the time to read the full report will appreciate it.

Enough about work, what else is up? Quite a lot actually. A couple weeks ago, Vishnu came back into town for some interviews. Dude man, he comes into town way more often then I did when I was at Michigan. Anyway went for some drinks and also attended the Cal game where they pounded Louisana tech with Percy, Chris, Jen, Amy, and Joe. I remember Vishnu and I had an argument about college football and basketball and whether the players should get paid. I argued (quite factually) that most college football/basketball programs lose money, drain resources that could have gone somewhere else, and of the programs that do make money and win, it is well known fact that most of those players have zero intention actually getting a college education. I argued that the NFL and NBA should set up an actual substantial minor league system similiar to MLB. Vishnu agreed with me on most points but did point out that he liked the commaderie, community, and pride that a big name college football gives to a university. I didn't really understand that at the time but after going to Michigan and finally getting a chance to be part of a school that had a big-name athletic program, I have to admit he has a point. Going to a MIchigan football was an awesome experience and sitting in the young alumni section at the Cal game reminded me of that. All these people coming together who would probably never associate with each otherwise, to root for their school. What also impressed me was that there was an alumni band in addition to the student band. And you could definitely tell many of the members of the alumni band were by no means young alumni yet they felt a strong enough connection to their ala mater to do what they do. Made me think of that perhaps I should snark on school spirit as much as I have in the past.

This past month has also been a more frequent party month for me. A couple weeks ago I went to party that was one of those I-don't-really-know-the-people-throwing-the-party parties where the only reason I got invited was that I was at a previous party and the planners invited everyone from that party. So I meet one of the party planners through someone else (one could call him the lamer version of me) Apparently there were a lot of people at this party because when I asked around how people knew the people who were throwing the party many would say, "I know them through X, who actually isn't here yet). In addition, I also attended a co-workers End of Summer Party, which ironically took place on the same day it rained for the first time since the beginning of summer. Later that evening I attened Noor's house warming party, which in effect was an SI alumni reunion.

Anyway, Srah posted the Great CD Swap of 2007 whose theme is "My Favorite Songs from the Past 10 Years." According to the rules the songs didn't have to come out in the past 10 years but could have become your favorite in the past 10 years. So here is my list, although I am probably going to leave some out.

1. Don't Go Away by Oasis
Obviously I couldn't have a top music list without my favorite band. Don't Go Away comes from either their much reviled or much underappreciated album, Be Here Now. I have to admit it is a far weaker album than What's the Story Morning Glory but this song is definitely one their best, even though the guitar solo at the end goes on a little too long for my taste. It is my second favorite Oasis song behind "Don't Look Back in Anger."

2. Inside of Love by Nada Surf
A very good song from a very good album. It was one of those songs I heard once and then I went out and bought the album after. A great song for the heartbroken, lonely, and/or bitter. And anybody who has felt any of those in the past 10 years is a flat out liar.

3. At The Stars by Better Than Ezra
My favorite Better Than Ezra song which probably begs the question to most people, "They had more than one song?" Yes they did. Reminds me of summer time.

4. Snow on the Sahara by Anggun
A pretty song by a pretty singer (who has a great voice).

5. Oh Yeah by Ash
There is a funny story on how I discovered this band. I bought their CD in the fall of 1997 thinking it was actually the band, Hum, because I liked one of Hum's songs. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I listened to the album and it turned out to better than Hum.

6. Truly Truly by Grant Lee Buffalo
Another song that reminds me of summer time. Unfortunately, I found out they used the song on Dawson's Creek which pissed me off because I really couldn't stand that show.

7. Life in Mono by Mono
Yeah, its that song from that pretty terrible version of Great Expectations with Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow. However, I always harbored a soft spot for the song.

8. Run to the Water by Live
The second release from their second best album, The Distance. What made this song so great it came off The Distance which was ten times better than their previous crappy album, Secret Samadhi.

9. It's Over Now by Neve
Don't blame you if you have never heard of this song or this band. Its a good song off the soundtrack of that terrible high school horrow/sci-fi movie The Faculty (which is remarkable only for the fact that it has Jon Stewart getting his fingers cut off in it). And for some reason, they decided to re-release the song againg two years later.

10. Miss Misery by Elliot Smith
An Oscar-nominated song from Good Will Hunting. Thus begins my many picks of popular songs from artists/bands that I really know because of that one song that everybody else knows. Hey I never called myself an indie god.

11. Maps by Yeah Yeah Yeah's
Yeah I know this song is not at all representative of their work but I like it.

12. Beautiful Like You by Joydrop
A great song by a band I know nothing about other than this song.

13. For The Movies by Buckcherry
Again this is their only cross-over mainstream song. I didn't like any of their other stuff but hey, it is one of my favorites from the past 10 years.

14. Fight Test by The Flaming Lips
In my defense, I actually did buy the album and ended up liking many of their other songs. But not in my defense, I only bought the album because I liked this song.

15. Side by Travis
I actually like a few other songs by Travis better ("Driftwood", "Turn") but this is the song from the past 10 years that actually got me into liking Travis. Like a poser, I ended up checking out all their albums from the library and ripping them.

16. Honestly by Zwan
Zwan was very quickly ended Billy Corgan side band that imploded quite spectactularly a few years I have to say that this song was pretty good. I listened to it nearly everyday for 2 weeks on LaunchCast.

17. Polyester Bride by Liz Phair
Chaulk this one up to the De Anza Flea Market. I heard about Liz Phair but never really listened to her stuff. At the De Anza Flea Market back in 2002, I saw whitechocolatespaceegg on sale for cheap so I bought it. I turned out to be a pretty good album.

18. The Scientist by Coldplay
I know it is the epitome of soft rock/mainstream/adult top 40 radio to put a Coldplay song on a favorite list. But to be honest, it was a song I really liked in the past 10 years.

19. Walk On by U2
What's even worse than putting a Coldplay song a favorite's list? Putting a U2 song on a list. However, I still do like this song very much even though it every DJ in the country played it in the months after 9/11.

20. Regret by New Order
Most of the songs I have listed have come from the time period (1997-2007). However, this song comes from an album released in 1993. But I didn't hear the song until 2000 when CWP$ recommended to Phill to download it when we took our infamous trip to Chico.

21. World Wide Suicide by Pearl Jam
Like almost everyone else, I was pretty surprised when Pearl Jam released their last album that actually sounded, well not like crap. This song really kicks ass, both musically and message wise.

22. Shady Lane by Pavement
To tell you the truth, the only reason I decided to listen to Pavement is becasue I saw lots of Pavement posters in High Fidelity. Since I assumed Rob (John Cusack) had good taste in music, I listened to a few songs on a larf. I then did the library checkout/rip thing with about 5 albums.

Wow, that was a long entry right? Wrong, its getting even longer. Speaking of the past 10 years, guess who finally got their invite to their 10 year high school reunion recently. Yes, yours truly. It turns out that my former high school student body president also works at Google and spotted me in the cafeteria (for the record, my job is totally better than hers) and sent me a message about it. So it is in Nov. and I have mixed feelings about attending. First off it costs 70 bucks and secondly, are my rather mixed emotions about that period in my life. As I have mentioned many times before, my high schooler was a super overachieving high school that was way overcompetitive. I had an inferiority complex of sorts while I was there. For many years afterward, I had something similiar to the "Prove to Everyone" that Wil Wheaton describes in his book, Just a Geek. Basically Wil Wheaton had great success as an actor when he was young (Stand by Me and Star Trek: TNG) but when his career cooled-off, he spent much of the after years trying to prove to everyone he was a child-star fluke. I guess you can say I also had my "prove to everyone" time.

Ideally, people think children who become successful adult have a linear progression towards success all through their lives. Not so for me. When I was in second grade, I was actually put into below level reading since apparently, I had trouble reading. Two years later, I was put into above grade level English becasue apparently I had suddenly got some much better at reading. I actually went to the 5th grade reading class when I was in 4th grade. Then somehow I tested in the Gifted and Talented Education program. So pretty much after that until 7th grade, I thought I was smart. When I transferred to a different, richer, and much more academically better distrcit, I did terrible and got crappy grades. I guess I wasn't so smart anyone. So that is how I entered in high school, feeling that I was sorta smart but not anywhere smart as my overachiever Harvard bound peers. So I did things to try to prove to everyone I was a good as them such as getting involved in Future Business Leaders of America, where I became president and to my embarassment, the parliamentarian for the entire FBLA bay area region. After messing up and flubbing around academically in high school, I graduated I think like 130 out of 310. I ended up at community college and working at the Warner Brothers studio store at the mall. Needless to say, I felt like a loser because many of the people I went to high school with were at top-name universities (For example, some of the FBLA officers I served with went to Caltech and John Hopkins while I was busy stacking Porky Pig bean bag toys for $6.50/hour). I felt I need to prove to everyone that yeah, I wasn't going to be one of those people who peaked (and I didn't even peak that high) in high school, middle school, or god forbid elementary school.

Then something funny happened. I actually started doing really well in college both at De Anza and then at Santa Clara (where I gradudated cum laude while working 30-40 hours a week at times). I remember I was interning at AOL, I went to an intern event where I was surrounded by interns who went to Berkeley, Harvard, and Stanford. I was wondering why the hell I was even there- wasn't I much stupider then they were (I bet none of them ever had to stack Porky Pig toys). I worked for a while and then applied and was accepted to two very good grad schools (U of M and Carnegie Mellon). I thought to myself at once that isn't going to grad school something that people who graduated 1st, 2nd or not 130th in their class do? What was even more amazing is that I ended up being in the UX group at Google, the ultimate geeky/super nerd company (but yes I do remember that I did say I was going to be the stupidest person in my group which I don't think I am but even if I am, being the stupidest person in my group in Google is not bad comparatively). And you know what, I heard through the grapevine that some of my former overachieving classmates are now high powered attorneys but many of them, well didn't amount to anything special or anything more than me. Although back in high school, I totally thought they would. So do I have anything to prove them at the reunion if I do go? I guess not anymore. I still don't know if I will go or not (even though more than one person has said I should). If anyone is dying to know if I do, stay tuned to this blog.

Wow, that was a super duper long entry! Kudos to anyone who actually read all of it. Until next week, peace.

Bring It On Down

Hello again after yet another long break from blogging. Life continues as usual for me, which essentially consisted of work and ummm non-work. So yeah work has been uber busy for me. Since I have been doing all these field studies, I now have the not-so fun duty of analyzing the data and writing the reports. I have a backlog of reports to write so that is pretty much how I planning on spending the next week and a half. And yes, I'll be heading out to North Carolina for hopefully my last work travel trip of the year. In addition to that it is performance review time which brings it fair share of stress. But there have been some cool moments. The week before last, I went to house warming party (or as they say across the pond, flat warming) and this past week I went Karoke Bowling where I got to sing "I'm Gonna Be (500 miles)" by the Proclaimers with an actual Scottish person. Although I am still unsure what the exact definition of "havering" is. And yes, I am on the UX Dodgeball team again and unbelievably we actually won a game.

So what else has been going on? Oh yeah, I was literally seconds away from a potentially serious collision yesterday. On Saturday night, DJ, CWP$ and I were carpooling up to Kenny's party. The party was in Lake Merritt part of Oakland, which doesn't have the best reputation. Yeah, my sister Jinah even warned me about locking up and not leaving anything valuable in my car. So we were driving in Oakland to Lake Merritt when I was driving through his intersection where my direction had a green light for literally 10 seconds. To my left, this other car comes speeding down 50, probably closer to 60 miles per hour through a red light. I slam on my breaks and the other car literally skims the front of my bumper and rips off my front license plate. The other car did not slow down at all after he hit me and speed off without stopping. A few more inches and yeah he would have slammed right into my front side full speed. And the even worse thing is that the other actually slow downed a little bit before running the red and then sped up when he went through the red light into the intersection. Yeah 3-5 more seconds and I would probably be typing this blog entry from a hospital bed or worse.

I fully recovered from the incident and enjoyed the rest of the party. It had more of those just graduated from undergrad, first post-grad job types there. It is kind of nostalgic looking back at the part of life but also kinda annoying to question I was that naive when I was that age. And apparently this party was attended by literally the stupidest 27 year old alive because everyone who talked to him wanted to punch him in the face. For the record, I am 28 so it wasn't me. After the party we went to the Lake Merritt bakery for chicken and waffles (I had only the chicken because I am not a waffle type of guy.) Today, I helped Jen move along with Percy and Doris. And I ended up inheriting even more of Percy's stuff to go along with most of his old dishes and kitchenware.

Oh yeah some random stuff that I am going to do mini-rants on:

1. Young couples with kids in stollers who don't say "thank you" when you open/hold doors for them. Geez I was only trying to make sure your kid doesn't end up with a malformed face when the door slams him/her in the face. Yes, obviously that sentiment doesn't deserve a thank you at all. Such rude behavior is the very defintion of being "lame."

2. Couples who are jonesing for kids who interogate couples with kids and make conversation very uncomfortable for single people. At Walter's BBQ, there was this newlywed couple that was clearly jonesing/wanting for kids who literally spent an hour interogating this other couple who had a year old kid about breast-feeding, labor/birthing techniques, and other topics that would great for a private consultation with a doctor but not when I am trying to eat.

3. Friends of my enemy who are my friends. Well I wouldn't go as far as to say "enemy" but I have a few friends who are still friends with people I am no longer friends with for good reason or with people I just find not to be good people. Hell, I am friends with people that some of my other friends don't care for. But my only qualm is to make sure to keep those friend groups separate. Usually, once the divison has been made clear, I choose a side and stick with it. And if I don't choose a side and remain friends with both, I keep the circles as separate as I can. Meaning I don't even mention any activites I did with one set of friends to the other set, who obviously could care less. That's the way it should be. Total separation.

So I guess this entry pretty much serves to wrap up my summer. I did a hell of a lot of traveling and had some fun times. All and all a very enjoyable summer. As for September, it looks like I got a few things coming up. A few parties to go plus I have to do some long overddue stuff. Oh yeah, there is a new person in my apartment community. Just goes to show yah that I have impeccable taste when it comes to apartments. Anyway until next time, peace.

Where Did It All Go Wrong?

I actually wrote this a few days ago but I am posting it now.

Hello from somewhere between Salt Lake City and Philadelphia. I am typing this entry on the plane since thanks to my crappy Windows installer, I have newly installed DVD player software that didn’t bother to install the DVD decoder so therefore I cannot watch any DVDs on my laptop. I didn’t discover this until about 35,000 feet in the air hence making downloading a decoder impossible. But it has been a while since I last wrote, so I guess I should be giving an update on what has been happening. I’ll be uploading this entry to my blog when I get on the ground. The reason I am on the plane is that I am conducting some field studies in Utah and Pennsylvania. Which leads to me my first update:

Work has been a struggle this past month or so. Mainly because the super-duper project that I am on has decided to make life much harder. Quite honestly, I don’t care for how the project is being managed, which to me seems not at all. Case in point, I went to New York last week for what I thought would be all-day meetings only to discover that I was there for one meeting, that lasted approximately 70 minutes. Plus an particular engineer (btw, the vast majority of engineers that I have worked with are cool) has been more than a minor irritant because of his unyielding belief that the way you make a quality UI is to apparently release it fast as possible without getting any usability input. And apparently anything to the contrary makes me an enemy of engineering in his mind. You see, I have been accused of not being able to take criticism. I think I have improved over the years. But I guess I made the realization that I can’t take criticism from people who know jack shit about what they are talking about (essentially people like Bill O’Reilly and Ann Coulter). For example, I am pretty sure Steve Nash could care less of what I thought of his deficiencies in his basketball game were. Seeing that I am a terrible basketball player, I am not surprised say someone like Steve Nash, or a college player or a high school player or hell even someone who regular plays pick-up games would probably disregard my criticism and give it the low level of respect it deserves. Needless to say when I get criticized about user experience by people who have little or no background in it, it annoys me.

But enough griping about work, what else is going on? Weekend before last, I went to Tahoe with CWP$, DJ, Shannon, Doris, Jen, Joe, Amy, Jeff, Phill, Percy, Chris and a few other people I can’t remember off the top of my head. Again, we did a mountain biking trip, except this time at NorthStar. Actually, it wasn’t as much mountain biking as careening down a trail at fantastically dangerous speeds on a mountain bike. It was quite fun and this year I didn’t take a spill like last year. The weekend before that, Vishnu was back into town for one of this very little prior notice visits. We went to dinner and then to a club called Suede, which I recall going to except I cannot recall when nor who I was there with. But I remember going. It was one of those Asian club party thingys for someone’s birthday who I didn’t know who Cheng isn’t I did know until he realized it was not the person he thought it was. In other news, all of you who were interested in the “date” I went on from the last entry can stop holding your breath as in there are no more dates to report on. Ida says its my negativity that turns people off. I don’t know about that. Would people rather date assholes who are positive all the time. “Hey girl, I just cheated on you with your best friend but we’re definitely still on for dinner on Saturday night!” Its beyond me and I suppose will still be beyond me for quite a while.

Finally in noteworthy news, this August marks the seventh (7th) year I have been blogging. Which is quite an accomplishment. I no longer blog as frequently as I used to. However, it is nice to be part of a semi-exclusive club. I don’t think many people can say they have blogged continuously for seven years. I looked back on some things I wrote and I have to admit some of it comes off as really uninformed, way overdramatic, and some of it is just plain stupid. But it is seven years worth of stuff that I have written for mostly my own consumption but also the select few of you who bother to check-in on me over the years. So thanks for reading. And probably in the next seven years I will go to write even more uninformed, melodramatic, and narcastically stupid things with hopefully a few insights and witty observations interspersed in between.

Until next time, peace.

For all of those who are wondering, I am currently flying over somewhere in the United States which a few cities that have some lights. Looks kinda like that movie, Tron.

Better Man

"I started biking to work. Josh does it, and he lives a lot farther away than I do. And also, it saves gas money, keeps me in shape, helps the environment, and now I know it makes me really sweaty for work."

- Jim Halpert from The Office

Hello again after a long break. And as you may have guessed, one thing that I started doing is riding my bike to work. For the first time since like elementary school, I am riding my bike to school/work. Part of the reason is that I have been bikeless the past couple of years. So let's rewind to a few weeks ago. CWP$ and DJ were looking for bikes because they are signing up to do a triathon. So CWP$ asked if I wanted to tag along to look for bikes. So I said yeah and we went to a few bike stores. Eventually, we found a store, Calmar Cycles that actually knew what they were talking about. I ended up getting a hybrid bike (mountain bike body with more road bike tires). I like it alot. My ride to work is about 30 minutes. And yes, riding to work in the morning and back home in the afternoon does make me really sweaty. In addition, wearing my bike helmet also gives me helmet hair. Perhaps I should look into a getting a hairmet.

So what else is going on? Well the rest of the Vancouver trip was a hoot. Olga and I decided to go to Chinatown so we walked there. Now we had met up with a relative of a Googler earlier who told us there was one street we should avoid but neither of us remembered what it was (on a side note, I do remember that he has a girlfriend, a fact he mentioned many many times). So we ended up walking down said bad street (for anyone who wants to know it is called Hastings Street). So you know you are heading into a bad neighborhood when you start seeing pawn shops and check cashing joints. And then cannibus clubs. And then people smoking marijuana on the street. And then meth addicts standing on the street. And then drug addicts actually smoking crack on the street. And then two guys trying tubes around their arms either to shoot-up or to show off their non-existent biceps. But eventuallly we made it to Chinatown. When I got back from Vancouver, I had to fix some stuff with car. Before I left from Vancouver, my tire blew out, ironically, when I was pulling into the parking lot to Calmar Cycles. So when I got back from my trip, I tried to get it fixed. Unfortunately, I left the light on in my car before I left thus draining my battery. So yeah I had to get it jumped to then take it to the tire shop. So yeah, maybe it is a good thing that I am riding my bike more.

Last weekend, I went to Doris's birthday in the city. Note to self in the future, make sure to keep track of the number of bottles of wine your party is consuming, especially if they are 70 bucks a bottle. Earlier in that day, I went to Half Moon Bay and the beach. The best thing about the beach is when you stand where the tide comes in, the current takes away the sand under your feet. It is a cool feeling. In other news, I haven't exactly been in a rut but I guess I have been feeling like I had been at a stand still (unlike some people who have directions in ther lives, so you better get out of the way.) Yeah, so biking to work is part of a more wholesale effort to try some new things out. So yeah, I am planning on actually volunteering on the weekends, upgrading my wardrobe which consists of about a dozen Google shirts and basically the best of what is left of my clothes from grad school, and possibly doing a relay or sprint triathon. Yeah I realized I have gotten into a routine, which is basically going to work, going to boot camp, then hanging out with my friends and/or vegging out on my couch on the weekends. Not there is anything wrong with that. I just feel that I should try doing something different and new. And in that vein, I may have what someone may construe as a "date" this weekend. Needless to say, my track record in that area has not been good as of late. But hey, it is something different than what I normally. And I guess that is good for me.

Anyway, hope everyone is having a swell summer. Until next time, peace on earth.

Lyla

Hello from the Blendz coffehouse on Robson Street here in beautiful Vancouver, Canada! Olga needed to travel to Canada for some immmigration stuff so I decided to tag along to chill out. What do I think of Vancouver? Well it looks a lot like the Bronx from Rumble in the Bronx, Oakland from Romeo Must Die, many different locations from Battlestar Galatica and the X-Files Seasons 1-5 and any other movie/TV series that has used Vancouver as a substitute for the city they actually should be in. In all seriousness, Vancouver is a beautiful city. I biked through Stanley Park, which is quite scenic. On a side note, I must say, even though I boast I have plenty of AzIaN PRiDe, Asian tourists can be really annoying. We were biking through Stanley Park, which has a separate paved path for walkers and for bikers/rollerbladers (apparently roller blading is still cool in Canada - thus proving that Canadians are still the dorky/uncool cousins to Americans). Needless to say, all these Asian tourists apparently couldn't tell from the little rollarblader and biker symbols/signs on the road to say off the path. So they would be walking on it PLUS not getting out of the way. They would cross over the path without looking. The most annoying is that some idiotic Asian tourist had his car door open along the path so it was blocking it. I mean why I don't just run-over/collide with an 60 year Asian grandpa on my $5 dollar/hour rented bike... I mean (in Gob Arrested Development voice) - COME ON!

I was went to Gas Town, which is some tourist area of Vancouver. It has a steam powered clock which sounds about as interesting as it is in real life. Also saw some French movie called Paris, je t'aime, which was quite good. People up there seem nice plus I hear much more French than I am used too. The bubble tea here is also equivalent to that of the Bay Area. Food here is also great. Went to a good Korean place the night I arrived and then a good Seafood place last night. I also did some shopping because I realized my clothes are looking like...well like crap.

In other news, I went to count'em, three BBQs on the 4th of July. I went to Cindy's one for Lunch, stopped by George's in the afternoon, and the had dinner BBQ with Jinah and Drew. And overall very gluttonous day on my part. I also have been shopping for a bike with CWP$ and DJ. I have settled on this hybrid bike and have test-ridden it. In a quite ironic moment, I was pulling into the bike shop parking lot and then my car got a flat tire. So I plan on buying it later this week and riding to work on days that I don't have boot-camp. So that is pretty much what is up with me. I gotta run since my battery is dying. Until next time, peace...Canadian style.

Rockin Chair

Hello yet again. My blogging has become less and less frequent as with the readership of this blog apparently. Ah well, I guess this place will always be my place to vent and ramble against things I don't like...which is pretty much everything. So what has been going on? Not much apparently. Of recent news worthy of note, I got a belated birthday gift from Jinah and Drew of a brand spanking new watch. I have been watchless since Michigan so I got a new nice one that I can show off. In other news, I ran the Hang 10K relay at work with 3 of my co-workers. Unfortunately, I had boot camp earlier that week that really worked over my legs so my legs were throbbing by the time I finished my leg. Thankfully I ran the first leg, unlike last time where I had to sprint to the finish to hold off a guy behind me.

The next two things that happened relate to the major point of this entry, which is yet again, growing old. Weekend before I last, I was at Santana Row with Jinah and Drew where I ran into a former classmate of mine and his terribly unfriendly wife. Walter filled me on all the gory details of their almost completely arranged marriage. One of the major bits that I remember (besides the golddigging, the manipulation of family, extreme jealousness, and controlling nature of said unfriendly wife), did stand out very much. Walter was telling me this sad tale of marriage arrangeness and I kept asking why did my old classmate go through with it. Walter replied that our classmate's father had basically told him that he was "getting to that age" where he needed to settle down and get married. My former classmate is two years younger than me. Just goes to show you that yes, perhaps not all advice from one's elders is good advice. It also shows that quite disturbingly that people think 26 is the "getting old/settling down" age.

Also on that note, I went to a house warming party this past weekend. It was a mixture of crowds, which consisted of the group I usually hang with and another group that were friends of some of the housemates, which were mostly recent college grads. Anyway, when I arrived at this party I soon realized that at the ripe old age of 28, I was the oldest person at the party, something which I don't think has been case since...well ever. Thankfully, Percy showed up and he out-olds me by a wide margin. But for a short-time, it did sorta freak me out. I remember back when I graduated from SCU, the first two or so years after were alot of hanging out, still reminscing about undergrad at times, and the whole still trying to figure out what the hell you want to do. Plus the recent college grad age-range allows for some acceptable level of immaturity, which was on full display at this party. Altough such level does not include throwing up the sink which apparently somebody did at this party. Anyway, it was sorta weird watching these recent grads because I remember that time five or so years back and now realizing that yeah, I am not at that phase anymore - hence being the oldest person at the party (granted for a short-time).

Anyway, tying this all up and I went to Valco (the once good mall that has now hit rock bottom) to watch Knocked Up today with Walter. Anyway, many people have commented how great Valco was and how back in the day, you could go to either Valley Fair or Valco for decent shopping. Somewhere along the way, Valley Fair got more popular and therefore better and Valco got crappier and crappier. For a while, I couldn't understand it because Valco had a decent location. I just thought it was all the good stores left for Valley Fair. But as I walking through the now almost empty Valco mall to kill time before the movie, I dawned on me that Valco looks...well old. If you watch like early 90's action or teen movies that take place in malls, well it looks like that...except it is 2007. Which got me thinking, do I now look or feel, well for the lack of a better term, old? I sure hope I don't. Because I have a great deal of immaturity left in me plus a strong disdain for pretty much everything domesticated in life. Enough of me and my paranoia. Until next time, peace.

Keep the Dream Alive

Hello after a long break yet again. I have been fairly busy this past couple weeks so apologies for the long break into betwee entries (more on that later). So what has been going on? Well I suppose I should start off with recapping the rest of my London/Berlin/New York trip that I finished up at the end of May. Instead of just a regular recap, I will do it Stephen Colbert's "Tip of the Hat, Wag of My Finger" style. So here we go!

A Tip of My Hat to: No open container laws in either London or Berlin. Yup, seeing people crack open beers on the tram is quite a site. Plus no need to hide that beer in a brown paper bag!

A Wag of My Finger to: Exchange rate in the UK! It is nearly two dollars for every pound meaning everything literally costs double than it is marked. I bought a chicken tikka and Sprite at the train station that cost me 11 bucks! Curse you Bush Adminstration that racks up trade deficits!

A Tip of My Hat to: German breakfast. I had breakfast and brunch in Berlin, both of which are some of the best I have ever had. Cheese, meats, croissant, egg, marmalade, great coffee. That's the way to start the day.

A Wag of My Finger to: Easyjet. Think of it as the European version of Southwest except not as on-time, less clean, more crowded, and less friendly. As my co-worker Alex now calls it, "Sleazyjet."

A Tip of My Hat to: Indian food in the England. We had quite a bit of Indian food in the UK and I have to say it is was very good. Who says colonalism/imperialism is bad? Thanks to the British imperialism in India, I got to enjoy really good Indian food, which leads to:

A Wag of My Finger to: English Food in England. Needless to say, besides breakfast food, English food ain't that grand. Lots of meat pies with curious choices for vegatables and other things that don't please the stomach. I actually had Fish and Chips in London and I think it was probably the worst fish and chips I have ever had. And it was 10 bucks too!

A Tip of My Hat to: Berlin beer gardens! Which are super cool and German beer which is really good and quite intoxicating. Needless to say, Alex, I and his super cool friends who let us crash, hit the town quite hard. Alex said it best, "If we had stayed an extra day, we would have died." And finally,

A Wag of My Finger to: Drunk non-disabled guy in a wheelchair on the NY subway. As many people can attest to, you meet a lot of strange characters on the subway in NY. So there was this guy in a wheelchair who clearly had the use of his leg, who was drunk off his ass, yelling about how the goverment was trying to kill him and how his friends all left him. I wonder why.

There was a whole bunch of other stuff that happened including me pitching my site-seeing tour in London and seeing the major sites on foot, Berlin foot tour, jack-hammers at 7 AM in Berlin, stealing plastic bags from old ladies at the London Airport, and Coney Island on Memorial Day. Did you know the hotdog eating record in 1984 was 8? Its like 59 now. Oh yeah, I did was work stuff also on that trip because they were...like sorta...paying for it.

So what have I been doing since I got back? Well first off it took me a few days to get rid of my jet lag. I was really delirious when I got back from NY since I had fully adjusted to the time zone changes. Work was also busy since I had to catch up on work while I was out, write up the stuff we did on the trip, and also mentor my intern and new-hire that started while I was away. Last weekend, I went to the De Anza Flea Market and then chilled out with the southbay crew. This very weekend, Phill came back into town so I hung out with him most of today. Yesterday, I went to the San Mateo Beer fest, which was quite fun. And, for the record, I behave responsibly, although a tiny bit lethagically.

Anyway, some of my friends pointed that some people I know have talked about direction in their lives. Basically, it is about how some people don't know what they want to do/still looking for the right job/going back to school/etc and some people who know exactly what they want and are working for that. It got me thinking about my life recently. I have to admit. I lived a pretty directed life almost past 10 years, takeaway for maybe 1 year when I was 18 when I didn't know what the hell I was doing. But basically, I directed my life to accomplish some very clear goals. When I was at De Anza, the goal was to transfer. When I moved out of the house, the goal was to earn enough money to pay rent and eat so that meant getting part-time jobs and internships. When I was at Santa Clara, the goal was to graduate and get a job. After I graduated undergrad, the goal was to work at Cisco and apply to grad school. When I got to grad school, the goal was to learn as much as I could and get a well-earning job in my field. Plus changing from MIS to HCI wasn't a monumental career switch. After I graduated from Michigan, the goal was to find a full-filling job, which I did. So basically, I was always working to something very clear-cut until now. I mean I have fulfulling job that interests me and I am working on advancing there. But what about the rest of my life? While career is important, I don't want to be defined by my job. So it has been about a year since I graduated and left Michigan. So what have I accomplished?

First off, there is of course my job which I have learned a lot in and still find very interesting. I did move back to the Bay Area where I got my apartment, furniture, and all the basic trappings of yuppiehood. I go out with my friends almost every weekend. I did go out on a few dates and did technically date someone for a short-time. I am taking boot camp to stay in shape. But I guess nothing I have done could be definitely qualified as moving in any particular direction. So some people would say that I should yet again set a direction for myself and get married, settle down, work to get that promotion, and all that mature jazz that people in their late 20's should be doing. And I sometimes do feel that maybe I should be doing something more technically productive than drunkeningly passing out at Beerfests, at my birthday party, or on various other occassions. But then again, I have lived a fairly directed life for last several years. I mean while others got time to be "less directed" by getting to go to frat parties, partying with their dormmates, backpacking in Europe, going to Spring break, or just couch surfing on their parent's dime, I was working three jobs, taking an overloaded course schedule, and being generally stressed out in my directed lifestyle. And I don't want to end up like these super type A investment banker students that I read about in The Running of the Bulls by Nicole Ridgway, which is about Wharton business school students practically kill themselves for the glory of working 100 hours a week at an investment bank. So maybe I should split the difference. I'll start doing productive things like volunteering, spending less time watching Giant's games on TV, but still hang out with my friends, co-workers and do fun things. And no, I am definitely not getting married anytime soon.

So I guess I will end this. For those who have a strong direction in their lives: MOre power to you. Just remember to stop for a minute or two to take a look around and smell the roses. Some of the most interesting parts of life are unexpected stops along the way. For those who need to find direction: Don't stop looking but at the same time, don't keep jumping from rock to rock. Someday, you might not find any more rocks to jump to. Sometimes things may not seem for you at first, but if you work at it, you find an acceptable middle ground. So until next time, peace.

All Around the World (Reprise)

Greetings from London. Right now, I am typing this entry from the hotel bar in the Rubens Hotel on Buckingham Palace Road (that's near Buckingham Palace) in London. Dachoi in the UK, Anarchy! I am in London for work which will be followed with a trip to Germany, then to New York and then back home next week. I arrived in London yesterday morning after a long flight from Las Vegas. Apparently, it is cheaper to fly to Vegas from CA and then go London on Virgin and then to go straight to London from SFO. So we had a layover in Vegas which allowed time to go a casino, drink, relax, and lose money at roulette. I did make $7.50 on slots which I then promptly spent on beer. Las Vegas must collectively have the highest air conditioning expense of any US city because it was 100 degrees outside when we left. It was the first time I have flown to London and my first on Virgin Atlantic. An overall good airline but long flights, unless you're first class, are miserable. Breathing recycled air, close quarters, losing circulation in your legs yeah. I don't know how people do it on a regular basis. I did manage to sleep for a few hours and as a result, missed breakfast. Getting out of London Gathwick was uneventful other than I wrote "Researcher" on the immigration card as my occupation and then I got asked "What do I research?" And no, "Your Momma" wasn't an answer I was considering. The train ride to Victoria Station was quite miserable for me since I was starving, dehydrated, jet-lagged, and had a splitting headache. I did listen to Oasis and Travis on the ride in as a tribute to being in the UK. After that, I crashed at my hotel that somewhat curiously has a large portrait of Henry the XIII right next to the bed. Last night, I went to South London for dinner and some pubs. I had a fun time perhaps too fun. Travel tip to readers: Don't try riding the Tube for the first time drunk. Tonight I went to Soho and I passed through St. James park, Picadilly Circus, and Trafalgars square. So I am planning on seeing more of London, plus Berlin, and then New York. Lot of traveling for yours truly.

So what do I think of London? It is very British. It is kinda strange being the one with funky accent instead of the other way around. I do like the atmosphere of the places I have seen so far. I am slowly learning certain Britishisms such as "in stiches", "rubbish", "bollocks", "toilet" instead of bathroom, and "car" instead of taxi cab. Oh yeah, learning the different coins in the British currency system has been difficult. One thing I am enjoying is drinking proper beer according to some brits in my group at work. That means drinking ales, bitters, and lagers quite a bit. One thing I am not enjoying is the exchange which basically means I pay double for everything dollars when I see the amounts listed in pounds. So yeah London is way fab town. Tomorrow night I am going to see Modest Mouse and Royal Albert Hall so that will be fun.

So what else has been going on? Last week, I worked like a madman since i had to write reports, prepare for this trip, and also mentor my intern. Yup, they actually let me mentor an intern this summer. It's been cool since he goes to SI. I forgot to mention in my last entry that I turned 28 at the beginning of month. So I hosted party where I way over ordered on the pizza and had Sake bombs with Corona in honor of Cinco De Mayo. It was great having everyone come out for it. I had friends from high school, De Anza, Santa Clara, from after work, and from Michigan there. Turning 28 also definitely and most profoundly means that I am in my late 20's. You see when I was 27, I could still argue that I was mid-20's since 27 is a little closer to 25 than 30. But now I am in my late 20's so ideally, I should become more mature, responsible, and stable in my life. Ironically, that does not seem to be the case since I passed out for the last hour of my birthday party and, as mentioned before, somehow drunkenly took the tube back from Herne Hill to Victoria Station to my hotel without getting lost or killed. Granted it probably took longer to get there but I got there. Anyway, I wasn't one of those people who actually listed what I wanted to do in 10 years when I was 18. Well if you count being a FBI agent partnered with a hot red-headed female agent who solved paranormal mysteries and cases. But yeah I have to admit that looking back 10 years, I have to say that I did alright by myself. Sure I made some major stupid mistakes but I landed on my feet in a respectable job. I don't think I would have ever imagined that I would be in London for work when I was 18. But its a strange road life takes you.

To finish up this entry, I will take up the blog challenge that Jude and Serene have issued on their blog. So the challenge is to:

Top 5 Greatest Must-have Indispensable Mixed-tape Staple Love Songs. Songs to set the mood, songs to win that heart, songs about breaking up, songs about making up... These are the songs you would either put on a mixed-tape you were making or would like to listen to on a mixed-tape made for you.

So here is my go:

1. Wonderwall - Oasis
2. Let My Love - Pete Townsend
3. Love Untold - Paul Westerberg
4. Stay - Lisa Loeb
5. The Scientist - Coldplay

Laugh at me if you want. If you don't like the songs I picked, then as the Brits would say, "Bugger off!" Until next time, peace.

Talk Tonight

Hello after a long break. I have been meaning to blog since the last time but have been either busy or feeling too lazy to do it. So yeah this past month or so has been less than a great time for me. If I had written this entry about two weeks ago, I would used the Oasis song "Where Did It All Go Wrong?" as the title instead of "Talk Tonight." But things have gotten better this past week so I guess I will just ramble as I normally do. So yeah, beware this might turn into one of my patented super long rambling entries that has no point other than I can gripe a lot. So what has been going on? Okay, where to start?

Last week, I attended CHI2007 in San Jose. For those who don't know, it is a big conference for people in the HCI field so whole bunch of people from my team went. It also served as a semi SI reunion (at least more of a reunion than the actual SI reunion was last year)what with Noor, Amyaz, Diana, Apete, Cameron, Olga, Cari, Grude, the lamer version of me, among others who made appearances. Overall, the conference was pretty good. I went to some pretty interesting talks including one on self-regulatory behavior in MMOGs and the latest coolio tangile interface from Ishii at the MIT Media Lab. I think part of being a good user experience professional to keep up with the ongoing research in the field. However, the conference did have its flaws. I took some classes from Karen Holtzblatt, who literally wrote the book on contextual inquiry. I was expecting some new insights/learnings but nope, it was rehash of what I already knew. Another thing is that they did a really bad job of predicting turnout for certain talks. Some talks were overflowing with people while others didn't even have half of the room filled. Plus there was the everlasting argument between theory/academics versus practical. Dan Safer did a pretty good job of explaining why CHI isn't for real industry practicioners because it has too much theory (aka the UPA viewpoint). For the uninitated, as I understand it, UPA was an offshoot of CHI that was more focused on practical based matters which some people I know like because of it. While others i know think UPA is just an excuse for a bunch of usability consultants to get together and hawk their services. I guess my viewpoint is that CHI is like the Transformers while UPA is like the Gobots. A lot more people know about the Transformers (they are releasing a live action blockbuster movie this summer) and the Gobots were like a much lamer version of the Transformers that got no respect. It didn't help that the Gobots blatantly copied things from the Transformers. For example, The leader of the good Transformers (the Autobots) is named Optimus Prime and the good Gobot leader is called "Leader one." The Autobots home planet is named "Cybertron" while the Gobot home planet is "Gobotron." So yeah, I guess I am more of a CHI/Transformer fan. If I really wanted to hear experience reports, I could read them online and go to BayCHI more often than I do now. If I am going to shell out hundreds of dollars to go to a conference, I want to see and hear things that I can't hear anywhere else. Plus CHI is going to be in Florence next year.

On a related note, work has not been friendly to me for the past couple weeks. For example, I stayed up late working on a presentation that got a "reserved" reception to be generous when I presented it. Its never fun to stand up and give a presentation that noone pays attention to and/or nobody likes because apparently, I can't read minds. Also on another project I am working on, I am putting lots of effort and time to make the user experience of the product better. Yet for all my efforts, it has been frustratingly hard to make any real progress towards that goal. Its not like the team doesn't appreciate the feedback or input. They appreciate it but not enough to make it a priority. So yeah these are things that almost everyone faces in the workplace but in combination with other things going on, made it a tough time. Personally, it has been a rough time. Remember in my previous entries about me wanting to get back into the dating game. Well, I did and I guess I will just say that I didn't understand fully the commitment, involvement, and responsibility that it required. So I think I will bench myself from it for a while. Also I had some family issues on top of that. Like they say, when it rains, it pours.

I will reserve the rest of this entry to rant about some current events. So I finished reading Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran a few weeks ago. I highly recommend it. It is probably the best book I have read all year. It is highly readable yet damning account of how the Bush Administration screwed up the first year after Saddam fell in Iraq. It details numerous huge mistakes such as relying on partisan loyalists instead of people who were actually qualified to do the job, massively stupid assumptions based on idealogy, stubborness to admit failure, and just a vast array incompetence. During the first years of the occuption of Iraq, I would sometimes watch the TV News, thinking that I could probably do a better job than the Bush Administration. After reading the book, I technically was more qualified to help govern Iraq than some of the people we sent over there. That is a sad state of affairs. It is little wonder we are stuck in the mess that we are now. Some people have criticized me in the past being a stickler on planning stuff out. Well reading this book should teach people that paying extra attention to planning is not such a bad thing, especially when it comes to occupying a country. In addition, I did get to review some intern resumes for this summer. A few people said that prior experience wasn't that important, especially if somebody showed "potential." Well, I am sorry, this book tells me that all the "potential" in the world isn't going to do squat without the experience to back it up.

Finally, I guess I will add my two cents on the Virginia Tech massarce, even though it is an event that already has had too many words devoted to it. Much has been said about the killer and him being Korean American. Idiots like Pat Buchanan said that if didn't let immigrants in, then massarces like Virginia Tech would not have happened. Plus Korean American communities around the country are worried about a backlash. First off, its utterly silly that him being Korean had anything to do with it. It didn't help that the South Korean government apologized for shooting given the fact that the killer hadn't lived in South Korea since 1992. As many people pointed out, the major characteristic of the killer was not that he was Korean but that he was flat-out crazy. I think MSNBC had the best headline "Killer considered weird, majored in English." Many have descried the fact that he was hospitalized for being mentally unstable, showed bizzare behavior in English class, never talked to his dormmates, and stalked two female classmates. Why didn't anybody step in and intervene? Well, go look the mirror, you'll find the answer. The reason nobody stepped in was because he wasn't anybody's problem and when he did become a problem, he was quickly handed off to someone else. You have seen it. So have I. Mentally ill people on the street, on the bus, and yes, even on campus (as I have blogged before about). And why doesn't somebody come in and help them? Because in this country, the only way a person can get mental help is they recognize they need it or if they pose a danger to themselves or others. First off, a mentally ill person will probably not recognize the fact they are mentally ill and therefore not seek treatment. Secondly, do you how far mentally out of it someone has to be before they are considered a danger to themselves or others? Pretty far gone to get that point. And even at that point, all the treatment needs to do is make the person not a threat. After that, they are free to be as crazy as they want to be. The time to get a mentally ill person help is far before the point he or she becomes a threat. Except in this country, we value freedom so we can't force people to get treatment. We let them destroy their lives, push away the people who love them, and fall into an abyss because they are too sick to understand they need help. The people who decry why his parents, roommates, school officals, and others didn't do more to stop his bizzare behavior and warning signs don't understand that the time to stop Cho Seung-Hui was years ago. Freedom is a two way street. Freedom allows us to express ourselves and live our lives in the way we want. However, it does allow someone to destroy their life even if they are too sick to understand what they are doing. As yes, that sometimes does have consequences.

Sorry to end on such a sad note. Just needed to get that stuff off my chest. Until next time, peace.

Let There Be Love

Hello everyone. It has been a busy past couple weeks for me. So just be warned that this will be a much longer entry than usual. First things first, is that I attended Cameron and Chang's wedding this past weekend. It was held up in Sacramento on a beautiful day. Quite a beautiful (and quite Korean) ceremony and fun reception. It was sort of a mini-SI reunion because Rasika, Nabeeha, Maurice + Caroline, CeDebaca, Cho all showed up. It wan fun catching up with everyone (when we asked each other what we have been up to - we most all said "work"). I guess it seems not much happens to people after they start working full-time. It seems the only times we former SIers meet up is for special events and when people come into town. I think the next big shindig will be at CHI. So a fun time was had by all (including a wicked conga-line started by CeBebaca, the electric slide led by Nabeeha, and the bouquet caught by Rasika). I also did learn that the "Macarena" has been banned by wedding DJs everywhere. After the ceremony, we went to a bar called R15 which is conincidentally located on R and 15th streets in Sacramento. It was my first and probably last time I'll go to a bar in Sacramento. So congrats to Cameron and Chang. Best of luck in all your future endevours.

Today I went to breakfast with Nabeeha and Noor, after which I gave them a tour of Google on which they commented on the messier and more cluttered nature of Google versus Microsoft. This weekend also included dinner with Phill + Shannan, Carl, and Olga. After that I attended a Salsa/Googler party in Mt. View with Olga. I don't think the classic Spanish guitar players appreciated it when I suggested "Freebird" when asked for requests. But the sangeria was good. And in keeping with my monthly tradition, I attended the De Anza Flea Market yet again but did not buy anything.

Keeping with the love theme, I watched a series of short films about love/dating at the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival that was concluding in downtown San Jose. I went with Caroline, Olga, Noor, Nick, and Cindy + Jason. As with many short films in festivals, some of the shorts ranged from accessible to very funny to very esoteric and abstract. Overall, I enjoyed all of them. I also did run into a few people I knew in the past, including Jeff, my former manager when I worked at Navin back in 2000-2002, La Donna who is the student activites coordinator at De Anza, and an intern who I worked with at KPMG in the summer of 2005. Caroline was nice enough to buy me a festival t-shirt to replace the one I bought way back in 2002 when I last attended the Asian American film festival but can no longer locate.

I'll reserve the remainder of this entry to add my thoughts to the minor hubbub I have been hearing about SI, my former grad program. Apparently, its has not a few detractors among its current students. I heard criticism come through the grapevine which has led to some defenses by current students and alums. And as it is in my nature to pile on to stuff people have already said, I post a few thoughts on the subject:

1. Like everyone who attends any grad program, I had my fair share of criticisms. Even as an alum, I question certain things about the program such as the introduction of six new specializations. While I understand there are growing interests in community informatics and social computing, I doubt there are many opportunities are professional specialized in just those areas. I am sure much of the social computing work out there is wrapped up in traditional HCI and information science work that quite frankly, you have to get a solid foundation before having a prayer in doing anything in social computing/networking. Even with that, I have to say my experience was overwhelmingly positive and came out of the program much better off than I came in.

2. This may be a hunch but I think much of criticism may come from students who either (a) came straight from undergrad and/or (b) came from a humanities/social science background. You think classes are not helpful, assignments not meaningful, or professors can't teach? Just try sitting in a front of computer screen for hours a day, relentlessly redoing the same task over and over again in order to hopefully find bugs. Or better yet, sitting through loads of meetings that you don't really need to go to but have to attend because it somehow tangently relates to what you are doing. Those were some of the annoying things I had to do when started out in my first job after undegrad. So getting to go back to school was a welcomed break after 2.5 years of doing some of that crap (and being underpaid for it). So I had to go to some boring lectures (some which of I fell asleep during) and do some bs assignments. It sure as hell beats called into work late at work to handle a "priority" escalation support case that was supposedly crippling the application you are responsible for because it doesn't work when the browser's encoding is not set for Western European.

2b. Anyone who did their undegrad in any sort of technical or science related subject will tell you any number of stories of terrible professors/instructors. Given that many of the most talented technical and scientific minds often head to industry or solely do research at universities, it is little surprise that many universities don't have the cream of the crop teaching undergrad or preliminary classes. So yeah, I took introductory programming with an instructor who didn't show up for the midterm. I took intermediate statistics from a professor whose english was only half-way understandable and then tested on material during the final exam that he said we wouldn't need to cover. And of course, the production management professor who said we would never be successful in our lives and graded so hard that only two people got A's in the class and one of those people was an international student who already had a degree from a Russian mathematics program. So when I hear people gripe so loudly about how poor the instruction sometimes is at SI (especially from the GSIs), I have to admit that my expectations are a bit lower. I guess in humanities/social sciences instruction tends to be better overall than those of us who did our undergrads in technical/engineering/science related fields. Let me just say, you could much worse in terms of professor/instruction than at SI.

3. As many have pointed out already, graduate education is what you make of it. Obviously if you think that all you do is go to class and suddenly become a fantastically qualified professional that employers will fall over themselves to hire, then you need to wake up. I would expect that from undergrads who don't know better but not from grad students. Having done my undergrad at a community college and second tier school, I knew the importance of having to prove that I was more than just a nice transcript. I made sure I did projects, internships, and part-time jobs that complimented and related to what I was learning in the classroom. So by the time I was finishing my last year, I had years of internship/part-time technical work epxierence that many of my classmates didn't bother to get because they thought going to class would be enough to impress employers. I still have not forgotten that Cisco only asked me two questions about my education when I interviewed there when I finished undergrad. They asked "Did I graduate?" and they asked "They are teaching classes in data warehousing now?" after I mentioned I did a project in that class that related to the job.

I took the same approach when I go to SI. Instead of taking classes in making websites and learning how computers worked, I made sure I took usability evaluation from someone who is a giant in the field, I took Information Architecture from the guy who literally wrote the book on it, CSCW from someone who was doing research on it from the start, and so and so on. I also worked part-time, made sure to do projects that had real world deliverables to actual stakeholders, got involved with student groups, to make the most of my time. UM and SI had tremendous resources so my attitude was "I should f-ing use them."

But most of all, I made extra effort to meet new people and spend time with my classmates outside of the classroom. I think that is the most rewarding part of it all. I really miss the weekly happy hours, impromptu get-togethers at ABC, Leopold's, Good Time Charley's, etc, and the parties. Okay, part of me misses all the drinking but even more of me misses being able to easy hang out and have a good time with a bunch of really motivated, smart, and friendly people. Given I have seen more than a dozen of my former SI classmates in the past month or so show that the many friendships I made are probably the most positive reward I gained from going to SI. Oh yeah, and the my cool ass career that I have now that I pretty much owe to going to SI probably ranks high up there too.

Anyway, that is enough from me tonight. Until next time, peace.