You can’t do over.

Do you march on with a bigger smile on your face?

Do you close your eyes again and wish it was all just a nightmare, and when you wake up again, things will be back to the way they’re supposed o be?

I also spend a lot of time in the gaming society. I browse various video games forums all day long, eager to pass on tips and updates I learned with complete strangers. I patiently answer questions, no matter how repetitive or stupid they are. (Mind you most of the gamers are <18 years of age.)

I always think this hobby of mine is a complete waste of time. I’m better off doing _______ (fill in the blank yourself), I’d say.

But today I came across the transcript of a speech given at the WEB 2.0 conference. The transcript deeply moved me. It touched a spot in my heart that I’ve always suspected existed, but didn’t know where.

The article is long. Before you lose your patience and don’t see how Gins has anything to do with Web 2.0, allow me to summarize a little for you:

The author was once asked by a TV producer that where people find time to contribute to Wikipedia. He said

“No one who works in TV gets to ask that question. You know where the time comes from. It comes from the cognitive surplus you’ve been masking for 50 years.”

What’s a cognitive surplus? Basically it the brain power of people with ample free time thanks to peace, booming economy and modern technology. And what do we do with the free time? We watch TV.

So if you take Wikipedia as a kind of unit, all of Wikipedia, the whole project–every page, every edit, every talk page, every line of code, in every language that Wikipedia exists in–that represents something like the cumulation of 100 million hours of human thought.

And television watching? Two hundred billion hours, in the U.S. alone, every year. Put another way, now that we have a unit, that’s 2,000 Wikipedia projects a year spent watching television. Or put still another way, in the U.S., we spend 100 million hours every weekend, just watching the ads.

At the end of 20th century TV is the major source of entertainment. In the 21st century, some of us started using our energy on the net:

there’s an interesting community over here, there’s an interesting sharing model over there, those people are collaborating on open source software. But despite knowing the inputs, we can’t predict the outputs yet because there’s so much complexity.

The truth is, the majority of the work done, from blogging to open source software, will not have a significant impact to the society. To rub salt into the wound, most of these attempts will turn futile. Should we stop?

The way you explore complex ecosystems is you just try lots and lots and lots of things, and you hope that everybody who fails fails informatively so that you can at least find a skull on a pikestaff near where you’re going. That’s the phase we’re in now.

The author’s conclusion, to all of you fellow bloggers/web 2.0 contributors:

…ask ourselves, “If we carve out a little bit of the cognitive surplus and deploy it here, could we make a good thing happen?” And I’m betting the answer is yes.

Smart girls would never admit it though. What they say instead is, ‘I wish men were smarter, or there were more smart men. And I wish men were not as shallow’. Translation: I wish I were dumber, and that way there’d be more intelligent men. And i wish I were prettier, so more men would notice me.

Disclaimer: I’m not saying smart girls are ugly, I for one am not. But a girl always wishes she were prettier and skinnier.

This one is difficult. You guess the person’s mood by looking at his/her eyes only.
Mind in the Eyes

WATCH OUT, sunscreen HAS TO BE USED and reapplied daily when using any of the products below. And they shouldn’t be used during the day. Otherwise you’ll end up with more brown spots or other sun damages. Also, do not store them in the bathroom (too warm and too moist).

Bleach brown spots / freckles

Brand: Epiquin Micro 4% Cream
Ingredient: HYDROQUINONE

Anti-aging: reducing fine lines and wrinkles, reducing roughness and improving coloration; treat acne

Brand: Renova 0.02%
Ingredient: TRETINOIN (Vitamin A derivative, or retinoic acid)

Notes: Vitamin A family products work by increasing skin cell turnover rates. In other words, skin cells die faster, new cells are generated, and collagen is produced. Hence skin looks younger and firmer, skin-tone is more even, and all that good stuff.

Treat acne problems

Brand: Differin
Ingredient: ADAPALENE
Notes: Differin has gel and cream types. For my skin, gel is too harsh and drying, so I opt for cream.

Treat acne and psoriasis, anti-aging

Brand: Tazorac
Ingredient: TAZAROTENE (Vitamin A derivative)

Notes: Tazorac is very similar to Renova. Both are Vit. A derivatives, and work by increasing skin cell turnover rates. See notes above for Renova. Tazorac causes more irritation than Renova, and cannot be used by pregnant women. My personal preference is Renova, because of irritation problems.

So I’ve been meditating, or trying to meditate lately. I downloaded a bunch of short meditation Podcast on iTunes. They range from 7 to 15 minutes, and I can do quick ones while at work. I just sit at my desk and close my eyes for a few minutes to slow myself down.

But even 7 minutes is hard. My thoughts are always flooding and my heart rate speeds up whenever an exciting thought or idea comes in.

Today at the 6th minute, I opened one eye to check how many minutes I have left. Then I noticed the tree outside my office window was swaying slowly with the mild wind.

The tree is deciduous. Right now it’s completely leafless and full of tree nuts hanging from the bald branches like Christmas tree ornaments.

On the tips of branches, I saw tiny baby green buds showing their faces for the coming spring.

The scene was so beautiful and it calmed me down instantaneously.

I kept my eyes open for the remainder of the podcast. For a few minutes I became the tree. I swayed with the fluctuating floods of thoughts. I just let them come and go without resisting. Underneath the busy brainwaves, my true and calm self, is slowly emerging. It’s growing so slow that you may not see it at all. But oh it is there.

Mac vs. PC vs. Linux — South Park Style | Compiler from Wired.com

Now, 7 months have passed, how did iPod socks fare? How does my iPhone look?

I honesty don’t think iPod socks provide much protection. Most importantly, iPhone doesn’t need any protection.

I will still continue to use the sock. Not only does it look so cute, it provides nice friction when I hold the phone. I only dropped the phone without the sock on, because it gets slippery.

It’s such a great fashion statement. In company meetings, I see many girls with impeccable blow-dried hair, subtle yet beautiful makeup, well-tailored suits, and the cutest heels. As soon as they put their iPhones on the table with bulky masculine black leather cases… the record scratch sound goes off, music stops.

This is taken from Dr. Kaplan’s site

When selecting a sunscreen, look for products labeled “broad-spectrum UVA and UVB” protection. The package should include a list of active ingredients. Look for physical sunblocks, such as titanium dioxide or zinc oxide. These ingredients work by actually deflecting sunlight away from your skin, and are much more effective sun protection than chemical sunblocks, such as Avobenzone, octocrylene, and oxybenzone.

To my horror, I realized my favorite hand cream, Cetaphil Daily Facial Moisturizer SPF 15 (I know, facial cream for hands? But no hand lotion has SPF in it, at least not the drug store ones), contains only chemical sunblocks. I need to shop for a safer one.

Also as a side note, I have not seen any sunscreen that does not protect UVB since… 1995? Leave me a note if you see one. I don’t know how many times I heard sales ladies telling me, “our product is unique because it protects against UVB”, and I immediately thought they just repeated the sales pitch passed down from the 80’s. Even dermatologists warn me about sunscreens that only protect against UVA. It really bothers me how professionals don’t do a reality check once in a while to see how the world has evolved.

But then again, let me know if you are aware of a brand that has not kept up.

I’m so bored I whipped out my cell and started calling my old friends. I haven’t done that in a long long time. Now i spend most of my life in the cyberworld, and sometimes I feel like I’m losing the connection to the real world, that the cyber world is more tangible than the real one. I feel weightless, like a balloon let go by a child, quickly drifting away from the ground.

After talking to some of them, I feel grounded again. It feels good to be back.

The reasons for the move -

1. I just want to play around with WordPress, and start writing plugins. This is my way of forcing myself to learn more about php and java scripting, and God knows what else.

2. I realize most of my readers are girls, and they are only interested in cosmetics. I’ll concentrate more on that side in this blog.

3. I swear I’ll figure out a way to export blogsome blogs!!! <— new year resolution #7

I’m planning to move my geekie stuff here like mentioned above. I’m considering merging some of my travel posts to the other travel blog, although I haven’t decided.

In the meantime, please pardon the occasional funky look of the blog. That means I’m trying to take things apart and reassemble them again.

I tried executing the command in Terminal, and I got the error message “-bash: command not found”. I moved the directory to where ‘class-dump’ is located, and tried to execute there, and it failed for the same reason.

I googled “install shell command” “install unix command” and tons of other terms, but nobody included a dumbed-down, step-by-step instruction on how to do it.

So here’s how I finally did it-
go to Finder, menu bar “Go to Folder”,

and type in /usr/bin.

Here you’ll see all other commands. Then just copy and paste the file in here. It may tell you that you do not have permission to modify bin, and if that happens, click “authenticate”, and type in the administrator’s (my, in my case) password. Then go back to Terminal. You’ll be able to execute the command from any directory. It’s that simple.

The giant Pacific octopus was given the toy for Christmas and has even learned to dig out food hidden in a secret box at the back of it.
‘He’s fascinated by it,’ said Matt Slater, of the Blue Reef Aquarium in Newquay, Cornwall. ‘He attacks the net we use to fish the toy out every time we try to take it away.’

I think most of us take Microsoft for granted, and under appreciate Bill Gates.  No matter how Bill got where he is today, and how shitty Vista is, we can’t deny that he made the greatest impact in the 20th century and continue to influence the 21st.

I still remember how young and lively he was when I was little, and seeing his agile figure it reminds me how fast time flies (and how old i am).  While saying goodbye to him, I’m also saying goodbye to my younger days, and a big chapter in my life.

I was shocked to realize that there is nothing for me.  No joy, excitement, nor despair.  Just void.

Do I have any goal this year? no. Resolution? no.

I don’t know where I lost my passions as youth along the way.   

2008 will be the year of nothingness.

I’m proud to announce that busygirl is part of the blog action day.  It is an initiative by lighter footstep.  The idea is to have lots of voices on one topic, on the same day.  If you’d like to participate you can just click on the link and get involved.

I am an environmentalist.  Here are the simple things I do to contribute protecting the environment:

 - I try my best to use both sides of paper

 - limit the number of paper printouts 

 - I changed 2 lightbulbs in my house to the energy saving ones

 - I turn off lights and unplug chargers when not in use (almost obsessive compulsively)

 - I recycle all my batteries (target & wholefoods both take them)

 - I recycle or donate computer equipment, since they impose environmental damages 

I know I need to do more.  But at this point there are simply too many mixed messages and incomplete information.  For example, are hybrid cars really good? If my japanese car’s mileage is great, it’s probably as good as a hybrid car, since I’m concerned about the environmental damage the manufacturing process for hybrid cars cause.

There are a lot of websites that ask you to donate to green funds to offset your carbon fooprint.  This sounds like a wonderful idea.  But does it really work? Who are the recipients of my contribution?  What are they doing with the fund? Is my money better spent somewhere else?  But for those of you who’d like to contribute this way, this site is a good start.

For now, I’ll stick to simple things and try not to harrass my family and friends.  One tip I learned recently, is that cell phone chargers, when plugged in (even without connecting to your phone), drains power as well. So unplug it when you’re not charging.  Hey, it’s good for your electricity bill too.

A small study links the type of bacteria living in people’s digestive system to a desire for chocolate. Everyone has a vast community of microbes in their guts. But people who crave daily chocolate show signs of having different colonies of bacteria than people who are immune to chocolate’s allure.

That may be the case for other foods, too.

So we are (in some way, at least) controlled by the little guys in the guts? We humans like to think we rule the planet, when in fact microorganisms are the fittest in most environments. I personally like to think that eating chocolate and prefer pepsi over coke is out of my free will, not the microbes in my guts.  And I’d also like to think I went to school, got a job, and maintined a healthy diet is for myself, not for the masters in my guts.

This research gave a new meaning to "gut reaction". 

<Photo credit: nature.com> 

But all my friends and myself hate using sunblock on the face.  We usually apply day lotion with SPF, but then we don’t reapply it throughout the day.  Now, the sunscreen will only last an hour or two, depending on the SPF and your skin.  Eventually even if SPF is high, the lotion simply wears off and your skin is NAKED under the sun.  Reapplying sunscreen is a pain though.  Sunscreen is usually thick, even the oil-free kinds, and how are we supposed to apply it when we have make up on? Don’t mention it clogs your pores and cause breakouts.

I’ve probably tried all sorts of facial sunscreens, from department store to drug store brands.  To name a few, I’ve tried Cetaphil, Aveeno, Oil of Olay from drugstores. And Lancome, Estee Lauder and Shiseido from the department store, just to name a few.  For a while I thought Shiseido Extra Smooth Sun Protection Cream SPF 38 is impressively light, and a lot of my friends use it.  With Shiseido though, I still didn’t reapply when I wear foundation.

But recently I found Clarins UV Plus Protective Day Screen SPF40 , and as soon as I used the tester I was blown away. It is the best and lightest, bar none.  It has a matte finish, and not greasy at all (the texture is more watery than any products I’ve used). The SPF is 40, which is strong enough, and oil free of course.  And it’s small enough for me to carry in my small purse. I’ve been reapplying it 4-5 times a day (I live in CA, mind you), even with powder foundation on.  I haven’t had any breakout from it. 

Take Control of Being A Whiny-Assed Apple Customer The Missing Manual for Dummies will show you, the whiny-assed Apple customer how to leverage your inherent ability to bitch, bitch, bitch. Whaaaah! The iPod’s battery runs out after five years! Whaaaah! Apple bricked my iPhone after I took a soldering iron to it and installed a bunch of crap I downloaded from a Nigerian web site! Sure, you already sound like fingernails on a blackboard to anyone within earshot, but how can you weasel your way up to annoying bloggers, members of the press and even Apple executives? Read the book!

 
What’s your favorite?

YouTube20-20zunePhone20ad

Photo collection of college mascots, on TIME.com

Apparently the reason I was so impressed with the iMovie is that I’m not an advanced user. More experienced users are complaining that the new iMovie is lacking in features that the previous iMovieHD had, and that Apple should call this new program “iTube”. As a result, Apple offers free download of iMovieHD for those in need.

Note that installing iLife 08 doesn’t override the previous version of iMovieHD. It’ll replace it on the dock, but iMovieHD is still in your application folder.

Well, the new iMovie pleases users like me who just want to do youTube. I still have high hopes for it though. It shouldn’t be too hard for Apple to integrate the advanced features into iMovie, should it?

After browsing iLounge, macForum and tons of blogs, I narrowed down to iQase.com. I like the Side,  (watch YouTube) because it’s the easiest to remove. Ritz is good too cuz it doubles as a card holder, but because of the wrap-around, it’ll be hard to remove the phone as well. If I don’t remove the phone from the case when calls come in while I’m browsing, I’ll have to use the headset as the proximity sensor on iPhone is blocked by the case. Flip seems like the best compromise, but it’s out of stock.

While I was debating which ones to get, my boyfriend told me that tight skins or cases are not recommended for iPhone for fear of overheating. At this point, I thought maybe I don’t really like anything that’ll cover up the beautifully designed iPhone. After all, I just need something to separate the junks in my purse from the iPhone.

What about iPod socks? I thought. It’d be perfect. It’s cute, it comes in 6 different colors for under 30 bucks, and because iPhone is so slippery, I can easily squeeze it out of the sock for incoming calls. It turned out to be a nice solution. And I figured out if I put the iPhone in head down, I can easily access the home button and the slider easily by squeezing out the iPhone just a little bit. This way I don’t have to remove the phone completely in order to answer a call. Another good thing about the sock is that it’s so soft, I can feel the side and top button to adjust the volume, turn it on and off, and switch to vibrate mode without removing the phone as well.

From now on, I can directly execute javascript commands in my terminal. Here’s mozilla’s resource page on Rhino.

Once, long ago in Russia, a Baron decided to expel all the Jewish peasants from his estate. The peasants pleaded with the Baron, but he sat there bored, petting his favorite wolfhound. After a few minutes, he waved them away. Just as they were leaving, a rabbi who had noticed how fond the Baron was of his wolfhound, said: “You know, we’re very talented at making dogs speak.” Intrigued, the Baron allowed the Jews to stay on for a year, to teach his dog how to talk. Outside the Baron’s castle, the Jews wailed: “Rabbi, how can you make such a promise? We’re doomed!” The Rabbi replied with a shrug, “Anything can happen in a year. The dog could die. Or the Baron could die. Who can tell?”

I hate to admit, but I’ve been worried about this trip as soon as the diving class started. I was relatively comfortable in the pool sessions but I was afraid I’d panic in the ocean and shoot up to the surface at the slightest discomfort. I tend to forget some of the prep procedures, such as turning on the air, connecting the tank to the BC. I’m clumsy at putting my fins on with one hand, and my mask keeps sliding off my face or gets tangled up in my hair. In class, my buddy was always 10 steps ahead of me and had to assist me just so we could hurry up and get into the pool; the dive masters in the class usually had all their eyes on me as though something would go wrong with me the moment they take their eyes off me, while the other three classmates roam around freely in the pool. Besides, I didn’t know what to expect when it comes to the water temperature at the ocean.

All my worries proved to be unfounded. The weather was nice over the weekend. It was sunny and around 60-70 degrees, and the water temperature was between 52-56. We started debriefing at 7am just so we can get good parking spots and don’t have to drag our gear too far. The parking fee is reasonable, at roughly $1 per hour. Most students will dive twice on Sat and twice on Sunday, but my group voted for 3 dives on Sat and 1 on Sunday. I didn’t like the idea too much, but my buddy and the other two classmates from Texas (we call them “the texans”), who all are excellent swimmers and in tip top shape, happily said to the instructor that “don’t worry about Rebecca, she’s outvoted.” Word of advice - bring your own friend to a scuba diving class! No just kidding. My buddy is a great guy and all my classmates are really nice and have a great sense of humor.

Back to the story. The dive masters warned us about the poor visibility at Breakwater, but I was still shocked as soon as I started descending to see that it’s pretty much in a milkshake condition. I could barely see my buddy 3 feet away from me. Breakwater has sandy bottom, and is packed with beginner divers who can’t control their positions and tend to kick up the bottom with their fins.

We breezed through all the drills (a few required drills in every dive). I don’t know if it’s because they’re easier to perform in salty water or because we’ve got plenty of practice beforehand. All of them felt as easy and natural as breathing. After we proved that we could perform the required tasks, we went on tours with dive masters. So during the weekend we went on 4 tours in total.

I saw decorator crabs .
They select pieces of seaweed and small animals from its habitat and fasten them to hooked setae (Velcrolike bristles) on the back of their shells, to camouflage themselves. I saw giant kelps ,
lots of other colorful seaweeds, and countless sea stars.

I didn’t see that many fish, but it’s not hard to guess that they want to steer clear of beginner divers. I imagine at any another dive site nearby we’ll see more abundant sea life.

Anyway, I really fell in love with scuba diving. The underwater world is so fascinating, and it’s really different seeing it with my own eyes than from the Discovery channel on HDTV. It’s quiet and dark down there, and I could hear nothing but my own regulator and the bubbles coming out. I also like the weightless feeling. The combination of senses and seeing these amazing creatures in their natural habitat is beyond words.

(photos are from Monterey Bay Aquarium’s website.)

I absolutely loved this movie.  I’d say this is the best movie i saw this year.  The story line sounds simple: a newly promoted, nice-looking blonde had a one-night stand with a chubby stubby underachiever, an aspiring porn site entrepreneur, and she was… knocked up.

It’s the kind of movie that the story line sounds worse than it really is. It has so much more to it! I laughed until i was out of air throughout the movie, but most importantly, the issues the characters struggled with are deeply heart-felt.  The issues raised are commonly seen in movies, such as irresponsible men vs. responsible women, bored husbands vs controlling wives, stable family vs exciting life experience… What’s refreshing is how the characters react to the problems in this movie.  Too often we see movies that offer surprising but unrealistic twists that magically melt the obstacle, or present characters that have high enough EQ to solve the conflicts, or comedians who laugh everything off. In "knocked up" though, the characters pained through the struggles, tried to solve them but didn’t always work out. They tried to ease off the tension with humor which occasionally backfired.

One of my favorite scenes was that at the daughter’s birthday party, the father holding the cake was called by a friend as "..a bad husband", when he was kicked out of the house by his wife and went away to Vegas not too long ago, but just reconciled with his wife.  "I was expecting the story to take a down turn again, but he just paused for a sec, and happily walked out the yard singing "happy birthday" with his head up.  Hard to believe he’s the same guy that told his friend that

"marriage is like a real Everybody Loves Raymond, only that it’s not funny and it doesn’t last 22 minutes. It lasts forever!”

I laughed a lot and had tears in my eyes for a few scenes. Overall it’s witty but not pretentious, some jokes are dirty but not in bad taste.  There are a lot more important characters than shown in the trailer, so the story is richer than it seems.

It’s funnier than 40-year old virgin and it touches your heart. A must see! 

Avoid this movie at all cost. 

I wrote a macro to copy values from named ranges into arrays. In my first try I used a For..Next loop to read and copy values into arrays, and later I found out that I could just directly copy them from ranges into arrays. The only catch is that, when copying values from ranges, the values will be stored in 2-dimension arrays, even if your values are in a single-column (or single-row, multiple columns) range. Say if you have values from cell A1 - A10, values will be stored in arrays "ARRAY[1][1]" to "ARRAY[10][1]". Since I don’t know the number of values just yet, I declared dynamic arrays (Dim ARRAY as Variant, rather than Dim ARRAY[a][b] as Integer). Here’s the code (green fonts are comments, red are not in the actual code, but footnotes explained below):

Option Base 1
Option Explicit (Note 1)
Private NumArray1 As Variant, NumArray2 As Variant

Sub populateArray()
Dim myRange As Range, my2ndRange As Range

Set myRange = Range("NamedRange") ‘fixed range (Note 2)
Set my2ndRange = Range(Cells(2, 3), Cells(2, 3).End(xlDown)) ‘range size depends on user input (Note 3, 4)

‘Here we go, start populating data.  It’s [destination array] = [source array].value

NumArray1 = myRange.Value (Note 5)
NumArray2 = my2ndRange.Value

‘test the results 

Debug.Print "NumArray1[1,1] is " & NumArray1(1, 1) & ", & NumArray1[9,1] is " & NumArray1(94, 1)

Debug.Print "NumArray2[1,0] is " & NumArray2(1, 1) & ", & NumArray2[9,1] is " & NumArray2(9, 1)

End Sub 

Note 1: option base 1 makes all arrays start with 1, rather than 0.  Without specification, your first array will be stored in Array(0,0). In my example, my first value is in Array(1,1), 5th value is in Array(5,1), so on.

Note 2: one way to define a range is to use named ranges.  This is good if the cells are pre-populated and won’t change.  If the number of data cells will change, it’s better to use the next selection method.

Note 3: Range(A,B) selects all cells between cell A and cell B. Assume we don’t know the number of data cells, Range(Cells(r,c), Cells(r,c).End(xlDown)) is a good method.  This is just like click on Cells(r,c), and then press Control + Shift + down arrow.

Note 4 One thing about Cells(). It’s Cells (row, column), so Cell C2 is Cells(2,3), not Cells(3,2)

Note 5 I see in many web forums and how-to sites that implements for..next or other fancy loops to populate arrays.  It took me a while to figure out it can be as simple as this!

Kiehl’s - All sport non-freeze face protector SPF 30, $16: Good for the slope.

Primers with sunblock

Smashbox - Photo finish SPF 18,$42

Sue Devitt - Microquatic blue anti-aging SPF 30 $48 Daily Sunscreen Wipe (sephora.com)

Shady Day Daily Sun Protection Wipes SPF 30 $9 (shadydayinc.com)

LibraryThing.com is a free website for you to maintain lists of books you’ve read. You can review, rate, add tags to the books you’ve read, and you can see other users who share the same books as you do and see other people’s comments as well. If you have too much time you can record details about when you bought the book, started and finished reading.

Here’s a link to my catalog. Only a few books there now since I just started building. It’s by no means the total number of books i’ve read all my life!

The author, an Asian American HR, recruiter and coach, pointed out that only 0.29% of corporate officers of Fortune 500 company are Asian women. Even in Silicon Valley, where Asian Americans comprise 30% of technology professionals, Caucasians hold 80% of managerial positions, versus 12.5% Asian Americans.

I, like most people, gave little thought about Asians’ problems advancing their careers. The stereotypes of Asians are they’re hard working and highly educated. Note that 44% of Asian americans over age 25 have graduated from college, the highest percentage for any racial gruops, compared with the 27% average for the US population. And according to feedback from recruiters and HR directors, there is significant representation of entry-level Asian talent in corporations.

Once I started thinking about it it’s easy to identify the reason. It’s so painfully obvious that I don’t need to restate here. But I think, and the book agreed, that most Americans judge your personality by your Asian face, and it’ll just require extra effort from us to break the first impression.

I’m starting to feel the bias when I’m climbing up the corporate ladder. Sometimes when I go to clients’ with a male staff, they’ll automatically address to him. I know it’s the combination of sex and race… I wouldn’t call it discrimination, but maybe natural reaction. I bet most people aren’t even aware that they do that. Like the lyric of my favorite musical, Ave Q, “everybody is a little bit racist…”.

I haven’t finished the book, but can’t wait to see what tips she provided to counteract the bias.

I wasn’t sure if I was able to find an apartment in such a short time. Bay area is consisted with numerous neighborhoods and some I heard are not safe. But it’s not as simple as avoiding those neighborhoods. Most of the areas that are close to downtown are ‘mixed’, as in some blocks are nice and some blocks are ‘less nice’, so to speak.

Initially I wanted to stay as close to downtown SF as I could. The person that killed the thought was my boss, a PwC partner. Obviously he knows the best how much I make, and instead of offering a raise, he barked, ‘Are you out of your mind? You can’t afford it!! Move to East bay, and no, not the east bay that’s close to the bay like Oakland, but go over the hills and the valley to as far east as you could, like Pleasanton, it’s a mere 45 minute BART (bay area rapid transit) ride to the city.”

Riiiight. I thought. I’m not taking 45 minute train ride each way every day! So I started by looking into the part of east bay that’s close to water, like Emeryville and Lake Merritt. It’s less than 15 minute ride to the city. I went so far as to pay application fee for a tiny little studio in a gorgeous condo right by the bay, and the unit has a view of the water as well. I was pretty excited even though the rent was over 1000 and the kitchen was so small that I doubted if i could fit a microwave oven in it. Only a few hours later, I drove by the BART station and saw that the parking lot was so small that I didn’t think I’d ever get a spot past 7am. If I can’t park there, that means I can’t take the BART. How the heck am I supposed to go to downtown? How do people in this neighborhood go to SF? I bet you most people are students or local commuters, who don’t have to go across the notorious, always jammed Bay Bridges.

Then I started looking more east. I found an apartment complex that’s right by the BART station in Walnut Creek. Rent is about the same for a studio that’s slightly larger, but the kitchen is full-size and the best part, there’s washer and dryer in the unit.

After all, I ended up with what my boss suggested. Go as far east as you can. But hey it’s not bad, it turned out that the BART ride is ONLY 37 minutes, not 45! The 16 minutes i save a day is enough for me to take a quick shower huh?

All in all, for friends who might visit me in the future, Walnut Creek is my new home. Although it’s a bit far from the city, it has all the retailers that you can think of. Well, although I can’t name all the retailers, i’m convinced that wherever Tiffany is located, everyone else must be there.

Best Hotel Gym

The best hotel gym-I gotta give credit to Marquis. It’s about 2000 squarefeet (I think), has at least 10 elliptical trainers, probably more than 20 treadmills (sorry I never pay attention to treadmills since I don’t use them), and a lot of bikes and a few stair climbers. The number of cardio machines is astonishing. If I have you blindfolded and drop you off in this gym, you’d never guess it’s a hotel gym. All the cardio machines have individual TVs on. It has more than basic weight training machines, and abundant choices of free weights. It even has a spacious corner padded area to do stretches and other floor exercises, supplied with yoga mats, medicine balls, resistence balls and other Reebok powered equipments. And it’s 24 hours.
W hotel The Court/Tuscan has a decent 24-hour gym. The Court and Tuscan are right next to each other, so if you stay in Court, you have to get out on the street in order to access the gym. Hey don’t ask me why they choose to have two hotels on the same block. One time a cab driver pulled up in front of Tuscan, refusing to believe W the Court is right behind him, and I had to drag my luggage back to the Court

Best Bed
Starwood’s Heavenly Bed is definitely the best. Westin, W and Sheraton are part of Starwood. Come to think of it, I don’t remember anything spectacular about Sheraton New York though. Having been traveling for so long, I really appreciate a nice thick, firm and well padded mattress and a comforter. Unlike traditional hotels that offer a bed spread covered with you-know-what, and washed once a month, Starwood give you a real comforter with washable comforter cover. Do they wash the cover is still a mystery. But Westin’s cover is white so I’m guessing they’re forced to wash it more often than once a month. There’s subtle difference between W and Westin’s comforters too. W’s comforters are as comfortable however the cover is somewhat slippery and they usually end up on the floor the next morning. Quite a nuisance.

Unique

Two thumbs up for Library Hotel. It’s not a chain, so the drawback is you don’t get hotel points, but they compensate that with better price and much better and personal services. The most interesting part about the hotel is that the floors and room numbers are organized by the Dewey Decimal System. For example, if you stay on the eleventh floor, the whole floor is Philosophy themed. Room #6 on that floor has books related to “Love” since it corresponds to 1100.001 in DDS. The first room I stayed was “Library Management” (worst luck or what) and the second room was architecture related. I really liked that room because I got to read all about the fantastic architecture around the world.

It serves free breakfast (continental with hard boiled eggs), and 5-8pm it serves free cheese and wine. It doesn’t have a gym in the hotel, but they give you free daily passes to New York Sports Club 2 blocks away from the hotel.

For the budget-conscious
Three hotesl I stayed over a moth each: W hotel the Court, Marquis by Marriott, and Westin at Times Square. My best overall experience was with Westin, mostly because I got free upgrade to a corner suite. I’d say it’s at least 600 squarefeet with two sides of openable windows and heigh ceiling. It feels like a New York Loft. But if I ever go back to New York out of my own pocket, I’d stick with Marquis by Marriott. The rate is really good. I remember it was $219. The rooms are very spacious (rare in NYC), even bigger than a standard Westin room, and as mentioned before the gym is amazing. The only thing everybody hates is its elevators. It uses the so-called smart elevator that you punch in the floor you’d like to go before you step into the elevator, and the system assigns you an elevator. Once you step in, there’s no button in the shaft and it goes to the floor(s) that the system designated it to.

The problem with the design is that a lot of times tourists go by a big group. So if an elevator is assigned to go to 10 floors, chances are there will be more than 10 people for the ride, so one elevator doesn’t take all the people. The guests that failed to squeeze in the elevators in the first place usually would go to some other elevator that they’re not assigned too, and in turn squeeze out other guests assigned to another elevator. Now you can see the compounded chaos. In summer peak season, it’s easy to wait for half an hour for an elevator. And if you forget something in your room? I’m telling you’re better off buying it on the street.

I would NOT stay in W the Court. It’s nice on corporate account, but it’s over $330 and it’s really not all that great. The staff are snooty and they play this W theme music everywhere in the hotel. Every time you turn on the TV it’s automatic loudest volume tuned in the W channel playing that music. After a few weeks in the hotel, the music was officially adopted into the soundtrack my reoccurring nightmares.

There are some exciting aspect of traveling and living off of corporate account. I don’t have to cook anymore (well, personally I really miss cooking); I order whatever I want without looking at the price first; I don’t have to laundry anymore; I don’t have to clean up my room; I don’t have to pay for my cell phone bill, ….

But after the initial excitement phases out, the reality starts to hit.

The most depressing aspect of it is that after work, I have no friends to go to. Yes coworkers hang out once in a while, but coworkers and friends are not the same. It’s true that New York has the best lounges and restaurants, but what’s Happy Hour without good old friends? I remember I used to have this Happy Hour multi-tab-spreadsheet that we passed around to record the location, phone number, happy hour hours, special deals and review of all the restaurants we heard of, had been to, or wanted to hit. Aaaaah, and the power of FRESH WILD SALMON in Pacific Northwest!

The other thing has to do with fitness. Do I miss 24 hour fitness!! The gyms in NYC all closed around 10:30. I don’t know how New Yorkers do it. They work crazy hours yet they don’t have 24 hour gyms? Back in NY I could rarely make it to the gym. The hotel gyms weren’t bad though. The best hotel gym-I gotta give credit to Marquis. It’s about 2000 squarefeet (I think), has about 10 elliptical trainers among other things. All the cardio machines have individual TVs on. And it’s 24 hours. Westin Times Square wasn’t too bad. Although it’s fairly small, it had 3 elliptical trainers and all cardio machines have TVs on. The only thing was they closed at 10:30 too.

Now that I moved to Westin at Princeton, my fitness life dwindled to almost none. The gym has one elliptical trainer that doesn’t work. Refusing to use treadmill, I’m left only with a stationary bike. No individual TVs on the machines. There’s a small TV in the room WITHOUT A REMOTE. Good thing I always carry tons of exercise DVDs with me when I travel, so that’s now the main source of my workout routine. However, I can’t really do weight training anymore, so my muscle has been loosing up and flab has slowly, umm no quickly, crawled back.

Since I work most of the weekend, wardrobe choice is severely limited. I have less than 5 sets of outfit to mix and match. It doesn’t really bother me anymore though. My coworkers, clients and I spend so much time together, I honestly doubt anybody cares what I wear. But lack of wardrobe choice and lack of working out have downward sprial effect on each other. I don’t feel I look good cuz I have nothing to wear, so I feel less motivated to work out, and now I never want to dress up because I’m so out of shape…

I suppose i CAN live without gossipy friends (just kidding!!) and get used to my new flabby arms and thighs. Eating without a budget is the major killer. I was actually happy leaving New York’s worldclass fine restaurants behind, and I thought I could finally quit eating at Princeton. I miscalculated. Now instead of gaining weight on exquisit fine cuisine, I gain weight on greasy Chinese, deep fried chicken and ribs, and tons of chocolate and candies. Really, it’s not worth the calories! But loneliness and stress has got the better of me, and I can’t stop stuffing my face with junk food.

I can’t wait to move to San Francisco, the part of the world that 24 hour fitness rules, that people don’t work 25 hours a day–hmm come to think of it, I’ve heard some rumors about SF office’s crazy hours, and people bike, hike, camp, basically have a life outside of work.

1. I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow is not looking good either.
2. I love deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying by.
3. Tell me what you need, and I’ll tell you how to get along without it.
4. Accept that some days you are the pigeon and some days the statue.
5. Needing someone is like needing a parachute. If they aren’t there the first time, chances are you won’t be needing them again.
6. I don’t have an attitude problem, you have a perception problem.
7. Last night I lay in bed looking up at the stars in the sky, and I thought to myself, where the heck is the ceiling?
8. My reality check bounced.
9. On the keyboard of life, always keep one finger on the escape key.
10. I don’t suffer from stress. I am a carrier.
11. You are slower than a herd of turtles stampeding through peanut butter.
12. Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, because you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
13. Everybody is somebody else’s weirdo.
14. Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience.
15. A pat on the back is only a few centimeters from a kick in the butt.
16. Don’t be irreplaceable - if you can’t be replaced, you can’t be promoted.
17. After any salary raise, you will have less money at the end of the month than you did before.
18. The more crap you put up with, the more crap you are going to get.
19. You can go anywhere you want if you look serious and carry clipboard.
20. Eat one live toad the first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.
21. People who go to conferences are the ones who shouldn’t.
22. If it wasn’t for the last minute, nothing would get done.
23. When you don’t know what to do, walk fast and look worried.
24. Following the rules will not get the job done.
25. When confronted by a difficult problem, you can solve it more easily by reducing it to the question, “How would the Lone Ranger handle this?

What are google and City of SF’s motives of such a great public service?

I remember seeing free WiFi posters throughout Philly downtown a couple months ago while I was traveling, so I dug up old news stories related to that. It turned out to be a long and painful process.

Apparently Mayor Street announced the plan in Sep 2004, and since then, it aroused heated debate and nationwide interests. At that time a specific budget wasn’t set, and it hadn’t been determined if the service would be for free or low-cost. A recent update from Ms. Neff, CIO for the city, indicated that it’ll cost about 15-20 million for the 135