Every so often I check up on my name on Google. I hold out small hope that the web will have documented something amazing that I've done, or at least list several links that highlight my significant contributions to society. Usually it just comes up with my Facebook and LinkedIn pages. Which is sad because I don't think I've logged in to LinkedIn since 2008.
When I was unemployed, I created a personal web page that has since gone dead because it was hosted through my graduate university and they eventually took away my web access after I graduated. Revamping that (or at least transferring the html files to a live venue) is on my list of things to do once I have tons and tons of time because I'll only be completely responsible for the well-being of another totally dependent human.
In the meantime, I check my Google stats out of curiosity.
Today I discovered that there is another Erin Gong. Okay, I actually already knew that from a past Google search. At that time, I was surprised and disappointed - I had felt so confident in the absolute uniqueness of my multi-cultural name. Darn that industrializing China.
But things have moved to a new level. After following a few links, I found out today that this alter ego actually lives in the same town I live in (population 114,000), now attends the university I graduated from, and has some background in social psychology (my master's thesis referenced a lot of social psychologists).
Do you think we're fated to meet in the near future?
More to the point, will some future employer try doing a background check on me and find this alias self instead (reasonably thinking, what are the chances that 2 different Erin Gongs existed in the same small, midwest town at the same time?). I hope she keeps a clean record.
And maybe I'd better get that personal web site up and running.
Showing posts with label Chinese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chinese. Show all posts
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Sunday, June 13, 2010
No Mess Zone
From 7 to 11pm last night, we attempted steps 3-6 of home baby preparation. The result? We now have an office (close to) up and running in our bedroom, and the beautifully-painted baby room is now a temporary storage unit for everything we don't know what to do with.
This process feels a lot like moving into to a new house. We like to use the "No Mess Zone" strategy for projects like this. Pick a small area in the house. Take anything that doesn't belong in that area get it out of the way - not put away, just out of the way. Arrange any big furniture pieces in that area and start filling in with the essentials. Think in terms of high priority items and needs for accessibility.
Once that's done, the area becomes a "No Mess Zone". You aren't allowed to put boxes, junk, or stuff you don't know what to do with in that area. If you have something you know you want to put there, then you have to give it a place.
Piece by piece, the whole house becomes a No Mess Zone. In the meantime, when I feel stressed out by moving, I can retreat with a piece of chocolate into a No Mess Zone to regroup. I've found that, depending on how well the organizing goes, No Mess Zones actually have a shelf-life of about 6-18 months. After that, it's usually time to do a little de-junking. And sometimes life circumstances (e.g. new human being in the household) can require major No Mess Zone renovations.
Now, from the safety of my office No Mess Zone, I can finally post the remaining photos of our trip to Italy back in April/May. These photos are all from Venice. By the time we got to Venice, we'd been traveling with the whole family for 2 weeks. Everyone was tired. The pace was slow. And we didn't talk much or really do much other than walk around the streets and canals.
So a few thoughts on Venice, and then I'll let the pictures tell the story.
Venice is now a beautiful and sinking tourist town. Abe's mom described it as "Consumerism built on Decadence built on Decay." Abe described it as, "If you went to an extravagant, Venice-themed amusement park, it would feel a lot like Venice." The buildings were beautiful, but falling apart. We heard more English spoken here than anywhere else. The shop keepers were often Chinese, selling Venetian masks and glass made in China.
Still, there was a surreal and ghostly quality to the city that made it an unforgettable experience.
This process feels a lot like moving into to a new house. We like to use the "No Mess Zone" strategy for projects like this. Pick a small area in the house. Take anything that doesn't belong in that area get it out of the way - not put away, just out of the way. Arrange any big furniture pieces in that area and start filling in with the essentials. Think in terms of high priority items and needs for accessibility.
Once that's done, the area becomes a "No Mess Zone". You aren't allowed to put boxes, junk, or stuff you don't know what to do with in that area. If you have something you know you want to put there, then you have to give it a place.
Piece by piece, the whole house becomes a No Mess Zone. In the meantime, when I feel stressed out by moving, I can retreat with a piece of chocolate into a No Mess Zone to regroup. I've found that, depending on how well the organizing goes, No Mess Zones actually have a shelf-life of about 6-18 months. After that, it's usually time to do a little de-junking. And sometimes life circumstances (e.g. new human being in the household) can require major No Mess Zone renovations.
Now, from the safety of my office No Mess Zone, I can finally post the remaining photos of our trip to Italy back in April/May. These photos are all from Venice. By the time we got to Venice, we'd been traveling with the whole family for 2 weeks. Everyone was tired. The pace was slow. And we didn't talk much or really do much other than walk around the streets and canals.
So a few thoughts on Venice, and then I'll let the pictures tell the story.
Venice is now a beautiful and sinking tourist town. Abe's mom described it as "Consumerism built on Decadence built on Decay." Abe described it as, "If you went to an extravagant, Venice-themed amusement park, it would feel a lot like Venice." The buildings were beautiful, but falling apart. We heard more English spoken here than anywhere else. The shop keepers were often Chinese, selling Venetian masks and glass made in China.
Still, there was a surreal and ghostly quality to the city that made it an unforgettable experience.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
"Serve the people whole grains of delight!"
So I was rotating our food storage today (I can't believe I'm saying that...) and came across several boxes of granola bars we need to eat. They are best by 09/2009, but I think that's more of a suggestion. Besides, I wasn't a huge fan of these to begin with, so the best by date is really irrelevant.
While I was switching the bars to our "to eat" cupboard (as opposed to the "save for times of extreme famine" bins in the closet), Abe pointed out that the back of the box looks like a 1950s Chinese propaganda poster.
"We will progress into the bright future of nutrition!"
"Serve the people whole grains of delight!"
"Forever march on the victorious path of Nutri-Grain!"
While I was switching the bars to our "to eat" cupboard (as opposed to the "save for times of extreme famine" bins in the closet), Abe pointed out that the back of the box looks like a 1950s Chinese propaganda poster.
"We will progress into the bright future of nutrition!"
"Serve the people whole grains of delight!"
"Forever march on the victorious path of Nutri-Grain!"
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