ramblings of a madman

a great day for america

2009-01-21T00:21:00.004-05:00

today i woke up at 3:30am for a day trip down to dc to witness the inauguration of our 44th president. the bus left at 5:00am from meetup, which sponsored the trip for employees and organizers. we arrived swiftly at 8:45am, just a stone's throw away from the capitol, and we could see the massive crowds slowly descending on the mall. the next hour was spent looking for parking, but the moment we jumped off the bus, we were tasked to hand out nametag stickers that said: "hello my fellow american, my name is..." with a fill-in-the-blank space at the bottom for people to fill out where they were from.

to tell you the truth, i had no idea what reactions i'd get from handing out these nametags. when we reached a corner where a street team had already handed out a bunch of these nametags, i could see handfuls of nametags just littered on the sidewalk. this was a bit disheartening.

our group walked toward the mall, and i was hoping to simply hand them out to nearby people when we reached our final standing spots. but as we were going up a street where hundreds of other americans were pouring toward the mall, we randomly ran into scott, our ceo at meetup! he told us, just turn around, face upstream and just start handing them out. people will take them (and eager they were too)! we handed them out to people of all ages and everyone was excited to put something on themselves just to celebrate the occasion. some of my favorite moments were:

randomly running into scott, his nose red from the brutal cold, just handing out nametags, shouting "hello!" and getting a big "hello!" back from strangers.
trying to hand out a nametag to little kids, but having them reject them, and then seeing them turn around and then asking for one. also, having people say "hi rich!" because i had a nametag.
emeline (another meetup employee) filling out a nametag for a group of women, and finding out they were from tennesee too, and the immediate bond they had when they found out they went to the same school.
suzzy (a friend of mine who joined me on the trip) walking around the lincoln memorial and noticing someone with a nametag, said hello to him and he enthusiastically saying hello back!

i'd have to say the whole nametag experiment went well. maybe it helped meetup or maybe it didn't, but it definitely showed how excited people were just to wear something with their name and where they're from. besides all this, despite the cold, despite being squished amongst what seemed like millions of other americans, besides barely being able to see obama take the oath, it was a great day for america. being in such a historic place, with so many people filled with hope and joy, was plenty for me to have a positive outlook on our future.

greetings from milano

2008-11-15T11:46:00.002-05:00

so a friend of mine asked that i blog about my adventures through europe. i'm currently at an internet cafe in milano on the third floor of this massive electronics/bookstore called fnac. it kind of reminds me of sogo back in taipei.

some highlights have been climbing up to the duomo, checking out the beer place birrescio lamberte mentioned in the nytimes, and just walking through the streets and eating a ton of proscuitto and pansecotti. on a scary note, i passed out while walking to the bathroom on the plane. first time that's ever happened to me. hopefully its the last.

only have 30 minutes of internet time so i'll report more later.

o-b-a-m-a!

2008-11-05T01:24:00.004-05:00

i had written an e-mail to my friends exactly 4 years ago, about how distraught i was with how the elections in 2004 had ended up. how strangely different it feels 4 years later. back then i was fearful about america's future, about how much shittier it would only become under bush. and now tonight instead, i am hopeful. obama's win has given me so much faith in us, the american people, and really given face to what the american dream can be. i look forward to seeing how the next 4 years will pan out. also, i can full heartedly say that i had i known back then that obama would win 2008, i would have preferred a kerry loss back in 2004.

sport imitates life

2008-02-03T23:47:00.000-05:00

back in 2003, i remember watching game 7 of the alcs. i was in nyc on a weekday night watching the game at tg whitney's as one of two boston fans in the bar. pedro was pitching on the mound. red sox were up in the eighth. it looked like we were going to win it, but alas it was not to be. i had to walk through crowds of yankees fans on the streets to finally make it home and wallow on my own.

fast forward 2008. it's the superbowl and its the patriots and giants. patriots are up 14-10 in the fourth quarter with 30 seconds left. it looked like we were going to win it, but no -- the perfect season was upset. again, i had to walk through the streets amongst celebrating new yorkers with not a single patriots fan to be seen.

why after being in this city for more than 4 years does living here still feel so on my own?

red october

2007-10-22T01:00:00.000-04:00

talk about total mood reversal. one week ago i was down in the dumps since the sox were 3-1 in the alcs. but they came back one week later, albeit no full moon, and made it into world series again!

facebook as self-branding

2007-10-11T00:33:00.000-04:00

this is a great article in time about facebook. it reminded me of all the things i love and hate about facebook -- especially the paragraph about it being a self-branding tool for people to don their best, rather than true, flawed selves. it also made me realize how vastly different other certain social networking sites are, and how these sites will emerge as great forces that, unlike facebook which reduces daily contact to pokes and posts on a wall, will build upon our inherent needs and emotions to meet people and build true friendships offline and face-to-face.

thoughts on the past year

2007-10-04T23:52:00.000-04:00

at my last job, i took a seminar called "managing personal growth." in one of the activities, we had to choose our top five values. they were based on personal observations and loosely on peer ones made by a good friend. it was no surprise that i came up with the following as my top five values:

inner harmony
wisdom
adventure
personal development
creativity

the goal of this seminar was to try to align my values with my personal life as well as my work goals. after finding that my last job satisfied very little of these, i tried to find a job that does -- indeed, my current one does.

but it's strange, after working two months, i'm finding that my personal life, with regard to hobbies, travelling, and relationships is lacking in almost every single one of these areas. looking back on the last year of my life, at the age of 25, i've grown a lot. but there's a lot more i can do to really make sure that i'm leading a fulfilling life, and i'm not just coming home after each day, each weekday and weekend, feeling that the day was wasted.

four years ago...

2007-07-06T18:56:00.001-04:00

it's scary to think that today marks the 4 year anniversary of when i came to nyc.

and now i'm onto my third job.

me as a simpsons character

2007-06-29T02:24:00.001-04:00

via akshay 's blog, i wanted to try my hand at creating myself as a simpsons character. i'm about as good at doing this as creating a mii.

first run of many

2007-05-23T21:34:00.001-04:00

i ran with my company today in a media challenge race, pitting against media companies such as sony, abc, nytimes, etc. it was my first timed race in a while. with the extra incentive to beat the other companies, i definitely pushed myself harder than my usual 8:30-9:00 pace.

we did the lower loop in central park twice. one lower loop is 1.7mi so two is 3.4mi. i pulled off a 26:59 finish time, which brings me to a 7:56 pace. not too shabby! next race i'm going to try to shave 30 seconds off my finish time.

weekend commutes in nyc

2007-05-23T00:42:00.000-04:00

i recently had a foray with google gadgets. i was thinking of a tool that would be unique useful for me to see on a regular basis, and came up with a google gadget that would display the weekend service advisories for nyc subway commuters. it was a total bitch to parse the html page since it didn't adhere to dom standards, but after observing some patterns of how subways and advisories were listed, i was able to create a straight up xml file from it.

see the fruits of my labors here. to add it to your google personalized homepage (igoogle), click on the link below!

also, this is a work in progress. so feel free to leave comments on how i can enhance this gadget. future things i will add will be links to maps and routes of individual subway. and also a mouseover which will display details about the service disruptions.

into the wild

2007-04-03T01:18:00.000-04:00

this pretty much sums up a lot of what i've been feeling lately. i sent this quote to a friend on 11/15/04, nearly two and a half years ago.

"i'd like to repeat the advice i gave you before, in that i think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. so many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. the very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. the joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. if you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. but once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty."

- into the wild by jon krakauer, p56-7

realizations of the day

2007-02-18T02:11:00.000-05:00

kashi golean crunch! (tm) gives me major gas...
... and i always thought it was a sudden case of lactose intolerance.
chiquita bananas from gristedes never lose their green color...
... though they turn brown and exhibit an odd greenish-brown hue.
the upper west side has some ghetto bars where homeless people wander in...
... and if said homeless people hit on your friend, you should pretend to be her bf.
72nd st crosstown bus doesn't run from 1-4am...
... but the 86th st bus does, 3 times from 1-2am!

syncronicity

2007-02-16T11:39:00.000-05:00

i had my moment of syncronity rushing to work this morning on my 25 min commute.

it started in the subway station at 96th st where i start my commute: a subway musician was playing "besame mucho" on the guitar while singing in tenor voice. at my transfer, i came down the stairs to the platform at 59th/lex. an old man was serenading on his violin the same song, "besame mucho," while a man leaning on a nearby staircase sighed con gusto, "besame mucho!" dropping a few coins in the man's donation bag. and at the end of the platform, near the end of pre-walk to the back of the train, a clarinetist was lost in his own improvised version of the same song, "besame mucho." three musicians, one song.

are all the subway musicians conspiring to tell me something? or is this a song that all of them play repeatedly at this time of year? you can probably tell what's playing on my ipod right now.

no four-peat

2007-01-22T11:28:00.000-05:00

from sportsguy:

"I can't believe how many readers predicted the following ending of the Pats-Colts game: Vinatieri shanks the game-winning field goal, rips off his jersey to reveal a Pats jersey, then runs across to the Pats sideline and jumps into Belichick's arms as Jim Nantz screams "Noooooooooo! Noooooooooo!" and Peyton Manning breaks out the greatest Manning Face of all-time. Would I sacrifice three months of my life for this to happen? Yeah, probably."

unfortunately, that didn't happen.

update: but this did.

my liver becomes one year older

2006-10-05T10:30:00.000-04:00

ho-hum. another year.

walter

2006-08-01T22:27:00.000-04:00

here's a recent painting i did for my summer painting class at sva. this was only my second oil painting ever, and it was a learning exercise in a renaissance/baroque style. i started the painting with a bottom layer mixture of burnt sienna and yellow ochre mixed with turpenoid. on a second layer, i painted an outline of the model with raw umber and added patches of yellow ochre and white to reflect lighted areas. in the background i painted a white/black and blue hue -- the pale color representing objects in the distance. i then painted flesh tones with a mixture of cadmium yellow and cadmium red, with shadows painted with a cobalt blue and bit of yellow mixture. in the final stage, i also added highlights of red alizarin, which is now officially my favorite pigment.

it was a great learning process, and i can definitely see faults in my painting. with oils, there is always the option of painting on another layer to fix those faults. but leaving it as it is is a great to keep this as a way of looking back to see my progress.

this painting measures 24" x 36".

where the hell is matt

2006-06-23T00:01:00.000-04:00

my friend normie sent me a link to this youtube video of a guy doing the same dance in a ton of different places (machu picchu!). the video and his website are here: http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/index.html

i absolutely love this video and i love the idea that he just quit his job and travelled the world. i can only dream.

company

2006-06-21T23:59:00.000-04:00

i just finished reading company by max barry. this book is a must read! if you liked office space, this book takes similar corporate lingo and situations and puts it in a quick page-turning, 2-page segmented, hilarious novel that makes it perfect for a commuting corporate monkey like me.

the book follows a new grad, jones, as the "new chimp" who never asks questions, starts asking questions about a company which he realizes doesn't know what it does. the book has many twists, which i will not mention here otherwise ruining the key storylines in the book, that make you think about how corporations work, especially with regard to management.

the book covers terms like the golden handshake (bonus upon signing), the golden parachute (severance pay) and the golden handcuffs (staying on because of a promise of a bonus). but more importantly (for me), it covers situations like the dreaded "re-org."

now being exposed to a recent re-org of late, barry's take on a re-org is definitely implausible, but does expose some issues of a re-org. the excitement of what it may bring, employees getting the boot, chaos ensuing after its implementation, and the the "shake-out," where employees that are put into meaningless positions leave the company. all of this is easy to relate to, which made the book a much more interesting read.

the best parts though are the interactions between the characters. my favorite character was the main character jones because of his youthful naivete and drive. i found that i really wanted to strive to be like him -- to challenge the corporate structure and make my place in the company; to not be the chimp that does things because that's the way things are done.

barry makes some great observations of corporate life, such as how projects are managed. if four people are put in a room and are not allowed to leave until they complete a task, but their tasks change every few hours, will they ever finish? no!

i am inspired by this book, but i'm not sure what to make of it. only time will tell. just a disclaimer -- if you work with me and read this, don't read to much into it. but do read this book. ;-)

google's world cup feed

2006-06-20T21:17:00.000-04:00

has anyone else noticed that google's world cup notifier links to si.com, instead of worldcup.com? wouldn't this make perfect sense?

note that worldcup.com is owned by yahoo. while si.com, which is associated with cnn, is owned by timewarner which owns aol, the company that google has a 5% stake in.

ahh the world of conglomerate media companies.

nyc: most polite city*

2006-06-20T14:57:00.000-04:00

*according to reader's digest

reader's digest did a study where they determined out of all the world cities, nyc is the most polite (can you believe it?).

they performed three types of tests: "door tests" (would anyone hold one open for them?); "document drops" (who would help them retrieve a pile of "accidentally" dropped papers?); and "service tests" (which salesclerks would thank them for a purchase?).

i propose another type of test: "subway tests."

in all these cities, almost all of them have subway systems. why not perform a test to see what the frequency is that a person would give up his/her seat to allow a pregnant woman or a disabled or elderly person to sit. it's interesting to note the type of people who would give up their seat.

i was reading in lonely planet that when you're in prague, you're not supposed to give up your seat on the subway. maybe it's just not a customary practice in czech culture to do so? i think it's messed up.

i remember when moving from boston to nyc i was shocked to how impolite and discourteous people were. barely anyone held the doors open, people never said excuse me, and i rarely saw people give up their seats. however, whenever i do see this happen, i tend to be surprised and it actually brightens my day. there actually are nice people in this world!

me and stanley

2006-04-27T11:21:00.000-04:00

devorah sperber

2006-04-23T11:00:00.000-04:00

it's been a while since i've seen a piece of artwork that really amazes me (fireflies on the water by yayoi kusama). i was searching online for this 3d version of the last supper that was mentioned in one of the google da vinci code puzzles, and i came across this artist named devorah sperber. she created an upside-down mural of the last supper made out of spools which, when viewed through a glass orb, appears like the original da vinci painting (zoomify).

it reminds of something that could be part chuck close and part debevec. i love how its made out of spools, as if it's an unfinished tapestry, where each spool represents a "pixel" of the original painting. i love the idea of reflections and how light refracts to change how something appears, taking something so flat and making it organic. her next exhibition is in 2007 at the brooklyn museum of art. who's in?

point your browsers here for some pictures. she also has on display amazing exhibitions in pr and dc.

luke, i am your parent node

2006-04-20T11:56:00.000-04:00

everyone's sick here, so i was thinking of taking an anti-sick day to prevent myself from getting sick. but, seeing that's impossible, i was thinking of wearing a mask -- not just a surgical mask but a darth vader mask. and i would walk around saying "luke i am your parent node."

one year later...

2006-04-18T11:15:00.000-04:00

it's shocking, but it's hard to imagine that i started my second job out of college exactly one year ago. this year's passed by so fast, and i definitely feel like i've settled down here. where do i go from here?

california dreaming

2006-03-20T01:10:00.000-05:00

i don't know why i'm still up but i am

2006-03-16T01:17:00.000-05:00

a friend told me...

2006-02-21T23:57:00.000-05:00

a friend told me today that if you get rid of all the things you look forward to, then your goal in life will finally be clear.

aim for the arts

2006-02-20T22:35:00.000-05:00

i'm helping organize this event for next sunday. it's the first time i've helped out in an event like this where we've gotten everything donated and everything is being planned on a volunteer basis. we literally have a $0 budget -- the gallery space was donated, the wine was donated, and obviously we are using whatever resources we have to get things accomplished.

if you're free please come to support! it's a great cause for the organization asian professional extension, with which i've been volunteering by mentoring and now being on their young executive board.

rsvp here! http://www.evite.com/app/publicUrl/apexnyorg@gmail.com/aimforarts

a memorable v-day

2006-02-15T03:09:00.000-05:00

so this definitely ranks as one of my most memorable valentine's days. my friend tanya had the ridiculous idea of having a draw-and-date party (n guys, n girls, girls choose one guy each, and pub crawl). she enlisted my help and together we got 28 of our closest friends together for a huge date. it started off at mcsorley's which only serves light and dark beer, and also has the worst service ever. after mingling for an hour, we picked names, picked locations, and went off to do our event. we split up into 3 groups and my group went to alphabet lounge, where there were people setting up for an indian party. afterwards, everyone gathered at bua where we chatted about our dates. then hunger struck and i broke off with some friends to crif dogs. we ended the night at apt, dancing to some random ethnic drum and bass music (which they claimed to be reggae), and saw my friend off to london.

kudos to the organizers.
and kudos to all my friends for being there for a fun night!

revisiting an old desire

2006-01-20T00:21:00.000-05:00

so i've been entertaining the idea of writing a book for sometime, and i've decided that now is as good of a time as any to get the ball rolling. i've made up my mind that i should set up some sort of an outline, so i won't be too overwhelmed by the enormity of this endeavor, ie. number of pages (150-200 pgs), target audience (3rd degree friends), and theme/genre (anything but an autobiography or a memoir called millions of pieces of ass).

the only problem is that i foresee a potential for creating something really cliche or generic. and so, i've come up with the following ideas in order of decreasing hilarity. humor me please.

please don't call me japanese: travels to europe (fiction)
1 + 1 = 10 -- BITter to the end (fiction) (post-grad cs from life to death)
vaccinating the internet (fiction) (ala da vinci code with computer viruses)
you don't have to be an old man to drink scotch (non-fiction/reference)
christians are destroying america (comedy)

just joking about the last one. hopefully in a week i'll be at least 5 pages into one of these books. i figure, spend two hours, two nights a week for a whole year, equivalent to 208 hours on this book and i'll be good to go! where's my writing group when i need them?

happy new year

2006-01-01T11:18:00.000-05:00

this year i resolve to be a better blogger, among other things.

pictures from prague and berlin

2005-12-14T10:48:00.000-05:00

here

and yes, i know i've been horrible with blogging.

10.05.2005 = 24

2005-10-05T17:57:00.000-04:00

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Kate Winslet, 30; Guy Pearce, 38; Karen Allen, 54; Bernie Mac, 47; me, 24

Happy Birthday: You will have a creative edge this year that will help you surpass anything you've done in the past. Guard against daydreaming and procrastinating. Don't let your personal life cause you to be unproductive. Try to work things out so you don't waste a year that's perfect for advancement. Your numbers are 9, 12, 13, 28, 31, 39

subway tool

2005-08-01T23:14:00.000-04:00

i remember when i used to go to dc all the time, i went to the metro page and i could type in my starting and ending points and figure out how to get to my friend's apartment (ok fine, ex-gf's apartment). well guess what! there's a nyc equivalent. check out http://www.hopstop.com/. i typed in my apartment location and my work location, switched it to "more street walking/less transfers" and it knew exactly how i get to work. also, if you tell it what time you're taking the subway, it even takes into account subway weekend changes. how HOT is that? the best part is it tells you the average time the trip will take, which says 39 minutes -- in reality it takes me 35, but i walk pretty fast.

other cool features -- different languages and bus transportation too. i wish i had thought of this.

the new 411

2005-07-06T23:33:00.000-04:00

text messaging is the bane of my existance, i swear, but this is good. so usually when i can't figure out where a place is, i call up my roommates or whoever i know might be in front of a computer and can look a place up for me. i don't want to spend the $2 for operator service just to tell me where a place is. but my friend told me of a great service offered by google -- google sms. you simply text message "(name of place) (zip code)" to GOOGL (46645) and it'll reply with two text messages with a listing of 3 or so places nearby with a place that sounds like what you told it to look up. you don't even need to spell it correctly! sooo longgg lame ass calling of friends!

car fire

2005-07-06T00:51:00.000-04:00

a little pre-snooze excitement before my week starts. i heard a car horn going off from my apartment which is in a highrise complex. i looked out the window and saw this car on fire. the fire trucks got there in about 1 minute, broke a window and put out the fire in seconds. a case of vandalism or something else? the car's just sitting outside right now and there's no police follow-up. i'm tempted to go outside and check it out -- the trunk's wide open...

hot dogs, beach, beer, and fireworks

2005-07-05T12:55:00.000-04:00

badlands booker is rapping about something here

espn guys broadcasting the event live!

this newcomer college kid ate 32 dogs in 12 minutes and got third place -- damn

welcome to coney island. it's a sea of humanity!

mmm.. beer garden in astoria. rode the n all the way from one end to the next

from the n platform

waiting for the fireworks as the sunsets in manhattan from long island city

happy 4th of july everyone!

great article

2005-06-09T14:46:00.000-04:00

nerds make better lovers

life changing events!

2005-04-18T19:37:00.000-04:00

i got back from london just yesterday, and i started my job at time inc today! details to follow...

random update

2005-03-24T10:55:00.000-05:00

well i'm due for another post. here are some random links for your enjoyment:

fake art in nyc museums - this guy named banksy, a huge british graffiti artist, somehow snuck his art up in four of new york's museums (moma, met, bma, and monh). i thought it was quite tasteful.
gnome gui enhancements - some people are adding features to the new version of gnome to have luminosity and wobbling windows. do you guys remember when after watching that anime lain, i'd been inspired to write my own navi (the gui in the anime). i might pursue this as a side project once i can get all the other various projects i've been meaning to do out of the way. i'm thinking 3d and layering of windows -- but instead of windows have "panels."
solar death ray - this guy's going to be the next dr. evil. but if you go here, it makes him sound like a harmless nerd who's doing this to impress chicks.
and finally... - remember king richard's faire and my obsession with medieval stuff in middle school? this guy's making chainmail on the train! now that's hardcore. linked off gothamist.

numa numa kid

2005-02-17T15:11:00.000-05:00

wow the numa numa kid is officially famous. if you watch the video, the today show will give you an analysis of the video and its ensuing popularity (making it to the vh1 best of week special!). the best part is at the end of the clip, matt lauer and katie couric bob their heads to the song as the music fades out.

kings of convenience

2005-02-17T12:10:00.000-05:00

i caught the tail end of the carson daly show last night, and saw the two guys from kings of convenience perform. i think their music video for "i'd rather dance with you" is my new favorite music video. doesn't the guy dancing remind you of a certain napolean dynamite?

my perfect spot

2005-02-08T16:50:00.000-05:00

well i took a quiz on sperling's best places and according to the site, my top 5 best places for me to live are:

washington, dc
boston, ma
san francisco, ca
new york, ny
long island, ny

san diego's #21 and providence is #27. hmm... maybe i should consider doing something in dc. but then again, this is the same site that said jersey city is the better place for dating than nyc.

dynasty

2005-02-06T23:51:00.000-05:00

what a messy game. at least there's no question about the pats being a dynasty. super bowl xxxix champs!

highlight of the night

2005-02-06T03:19:00.000-05:00

i've said it before and i'll say it again. weird shit always happens at 3am in the morning on the subway. tonight, some guy walked through the between train doors with his pants down, unzipped and belt off and sat down about 6 ft away from me. and the guy across from me said "what are you doing man? zip that shit up!" over and over and over again and the guy didn't do anything. then some girls walked in through the between train doors and sat down around him without realizing his pants were all unzipped and wide open and one girl was being really really nice to him and said "oh yeah it's uncomfortable right?" and then the conversation started getting weird and the guy said "i have no friends, they're all in la" and then the best -- "don't you new yorkers see this shit all the time?" and to end it: "oh i've just made seven new friends." of course, laughter ensued and i got off at my stop at 96th.

new york, new york.

winning the raffle

2005-01-31T13:47:00.000-05:00

here are the pictures from thesquare happy hour as promised:

nick and i celebrate winning the ipod shuffle. loving it!

those darn quizzes

2005-01-27T17:28:00.000-05:00

took this and got this:

You are a XPIG--Expressive Practical Intellectual Giver. This makes you a Catch.

You are a magazine-cover, matinee idol dreamboat. Parents love you and want to set you up with their kids. However, first dates are tough because it takes time for your qualities to come out.

You are generous and kind. You think first and act later. You are cool in a conflict, but your practical side means if your partner throws out emotional appeals ("why can't we do what I want for a change?") they will grate on your nerves, even when the conflict is resolved.

You're a romantic. You enjoy the thrill of the hunt, and you don't just fall into bed with anyone. You pay close attention to your significant other's needs, and this makes you an excellent lover and partner. The problem is that your friends and lovers may find it so easy to express things to *you* that they lose sight of whether you feel as comfortable with *them*! This doesn't necessarily make you feel under-appreciated -- you're too well-adjusted and self-aware for that -- but you may feel restless. Thus you seek adventure in your life outside the relationship to prove and actualize yourself.

Of all the types, you would make the best parent.

You are coiffed.

Didja see "Big Fish"? 'Cause you're like Ewan MacGregor in "Big Fish."

Of the 184381 people who have taken this quiz, 9.3 % are this type.

hot97 miss jones idiocy

2005-01-27T13:58:00.000-05:00

if you haven't heard, hot97 aired a "tsunami song" that heinously poked fun at the tragedy and contained racial slurs against asians. here's a site that has an update on the situation, a link to the original song including a heated argument between the morning djs, link to jin's response, and a petition that's helped get miss jones and her morning crew suspended, hopefully for good. multiple sponsors have already pulled off their advertisements.

philip johnson

2005-01-27T09:46:00.000-05:00

philip johnson died on tuesday at the age of 98. he was a man i consider synonymous with the architecture of new york city skyscrapers and was best known for his work on the at&t building (which to my delight when started working was in full view of my office). i remember in all my architecture classes he was mentioned in almost any reference to modernism and almost every building with glass went back to his glass house. was there not any piece of architecture that he didn't put an opinion to?

also, what was up with those kooky owlish glasses? we will never know.

ipod shuffle

2005-01-27T01:12:00.000-05:00

so thesquare had a happy hour event at light tonight and they were holding a free raffle for attendees. best part was they were raffling off an ipod shuffle. so i filled out a survey and a ticket and mingled around till they held the raffle.

nick joined me at the event and when they were looking for volunteers to draw the raffle tickets, i volunteered nick before he could say anything. as always, nick was a good sport and went along. i told nick that he would draw my name -- and if he did i'd owe him a few rounds of drinks (over the course of many events of course, not in a single night). and so nick and another volunteer went up to draw the winners. there were 3 t-shirt winners and one ipod shuffle winner...

first, the other volunteer picked the first entry -- someone else...

next, she picked another entry -- someone else... still had a chance to win the ipod.

nick was up now. he picked the last t-shirt winner. some other guy.

i still had a chance. i told nick to dig deep. he reached in, opened up the folded paper and he announced, after a gasp --

MY NAME!

i won the ipod shuffle! nick had the BEST look on his face, such a face of incredulity that said everything. we did the buddy shake (pics coming up later) and i was so amazed that my positive mental energy came to something good! people thought it was rigged because no one was standing on the raised level other than thesquare people, nick, the other volunteer, me and my other friend. and all people saw was the guy standing closest to the draw bag was the one who won! ahh does this mean luck is turning my way? i'd like to think so. even the guy who worked for thesquare was like "i can't believe this!"

thanks nick, we'll remember this. ;-)

BARn get together

2005-01-26T02:10:00.000-05:00

so two weekends ago, dr. martin luther king jr. weekend, bryant and i went west to visit our college suitemate andy. we tried to get nick to go, but nick's taking risd classes. and so without the n, the barn became bar, arb, rab, bra -- and thus it was just the bra.

i flew a direct flight straight from jfk to smf (sacramento) on jetblue. unfortunately, due to a huge storm that spanned from canada down to our good old confederate states, all the flights were delayed. after a two-hour flight delay, a diverted flight to oakland, a refueling and finally another take off, i made to it my final destination 13 hours later. bryant on the other hand wasn't as fortunate and he missed his connecting flight from sf to sac, so he had a 24-hour journey which included a free nights stay at a airport motel.

the weather in sacramento was COLD. when we touched down i expected it to be moderate, but because the area was sooo dry, the cold weather hit me instantly. nyc had a high of 61 on that thursday, which was warmer than sacramento. to our misfortune, the entire weekend was cloudy and sunny skies didn't greet us till the day we had to leave.

so i'd have to say that a guest aerobed is the best item for someone with frequent visitors to have (check out deals at fatwallet on this). unfortunately andy only had one, so i got to live out my fantasies and sleep with andy for alternating nights. but wow the aerobed was hard and supportive of my back -- definitely an a+. i had a restful night and woke up at 7am in the morning to skip off to join andy for his cardiology course at ucdavis.

an 8am-noon class... last time i did that was... well never? brown had three hour classes, but 4 hours? i couldn't even imagine sitting through that class -- especially since i couldn't even sit through it. did you know that angina sounds like vagina? it thought it was pronounced an-gEE-na. huff-puff... ran out of that class in 30 min and went to explore the campus.

first thing i noticed was that the campus was HUGE. the med school was way far away from the center of campus -- about a 20 min walk. everyone was riding on bikes and to cross a busy street full of bikers i had to wait a good one min before i could finally frogger my way through the mass. the campus was like... 50% asian and there were so major honeys. too bad i'm not in school anymore. sigh. i walked around to the library, the art galleries (which all didn't open till noon so i was screwed), and the comp sci department (which i stumbled upon by chance). at the comp sci department, i asked about the masters programs, and immediately concluded that their comp sci program majorly paled in comparison to brown's and walked out disinterested. i made my way over to the student center, the bookstore (bought a shirt of course), and sat in the cafeteria doing the aggie (their newspaper and their mascot) crossword puzzle, checking out the girls there of course.

bryant finally arrived and we picked him up at the aeroport. andy took us to all-you-can-eat sushi at a place called fuji and for $10 we had all the sushi boat and soft-shell crab we could possibly want. it was sooo good and worth the wait. 30 plates and 2 fried bananas later we were off to take a nap.

so that night we ventured into san fran and went to an asian party which had a cover of $10 but free before 10:30pm. of course, we make it to the door at 10:30pm on the dot and the girls in front of us are allowed to go in for free, but they try to screw us and make us pay $10. after my beautifully crafted persuasion, bryant and i made it through for free and andy had to pay the cover. best line of the night -- bryant: "look i'm from virginia. i came all the way from dc for this!" i'd have to say that this asian party was better than certain parties in nyc. random note: i had actually walked into this gallery/bar three months ago when i went to san fran with my dragonboat team (jp morgan chase! bank one) so it was funny going back there. ironically there was the jpmc office just two buildings away and i didn't notice it the first time there.

driving home -- andy made a booboo and luckily we weren't caught. woke up while dozing in his car (which is a toyota supra '93 so my head was resting against the ceiling) when andy swerved to avoid some guy who missed us in his blind spot and banged my head on the ceiling -- ouch, i was out cold for the rest of the night.

next morning we went to sactown to visit the govinator's home. sactown is SO boring. there's absolutely nothing to do there and its a sad excuse for a city. we went on the tour of the capital building and were joined by people in their 50s and kids under 12. fun stuff. learned that california was instated into the united states september 9th, 1850. also that the ledgers use leather to write on because its easier to write on that then a wood grain surface. less bumpy! other than night, we went over to old sactown. walked around and got lots of free samples of candy. reminded me a lot of disney world with the "old western" theme. never going back to sac again... cept that night.

we went to sactown to go bar hopping. crowd was wayyy older that night. one thing that we learned -- you snooze you lose. it was freezing again that night so the turnout was very sparse. also it was very much of a sausage fest. and why did some guy say "it's all about child psychology" man to andy. one thing i found is that lots of guys like to talk to andy when he's just standing around and they're next to him. i guess he's just a really approachable guy. and one guy said he looked like the guy on american pie! what the heck... speaking of whom, just saw harold and kumar the other day and why can't that scene between maria and harold happen to me!

got back to davis and had food at ihop (miss the ihop in nyc). then next day just played pool which bryant showing off some trick shots and watched the pats beat the colts senseless. hopped on a flight out that night red-eye and got home safe.

lots of good things happened that weekend that i can't really express. but having all had serious relationships back in grad center and young o, we never really had the chance to talk about girls and just about guy things in general. sounds kind of sad, but i guess long term relationships can really demasculinate you and make you lose touch with your guy talk and guy friends. so, lesson is -- don't let that happen and let your fellow man know what's going on witchu! also, great feeling about the weekend was when andy said the weekend felt like a weekend at college. yeah... those were fun days.

back to the work world.

the hunt for real treasure

2005-01-24T13:08:00.000-05:00

so norm sent me a link to a cnn article about a puzzle that if unraveled will reveal real treasures hidden in public places. there are twelve hidden gems (or are they 18-kt gold pieces?) shaped like the creatures in the story. i love puzzles and this one sounds like it'd be a ton of fun to do. maybe it'll lead to some "national treasure" type adventure. anyone up for this?

update: it's a book here. this guy's sold 200k copies which means its grossed 4-8 mil for the publishing company. sick. i wonder if its just a ploy and none of this treasure exists! what's stopping some random person who notices something like it sitting somewhere public and picking it up and not going through the process of cracking the puzzle?

new postal service music video

2005-01-24T11:57:00.000-05:00

postal service has a new music video of their song we will become silhouettes featuring jenny lewis!

hill valley presevation society

2005-01-13T11:19:00.000-05:00

hill valley presevation society does covers of random theme and video game songs from the 80s. highlights include: 3-2-1 contact, thundercats, fraggle rock. i'm on an 80s kick today.

hooked on da brothers!

2005-01-13T10:51:00.000-05:00

ok, so my friend brian posted about a website called yahooligans which contains streaming video of old tv shows, namely the super mario bros super show! my sister and i used to watch this show religiously -- i forced her to record it because it aired before i came home, then when i came home from lextended day we watched it together every night. so she netted watching the show twice each day! oh the horror! now rewatching this show now: legend of zelda, live actors playing mario and luigi. i can see how entertaining it was when i was 8 years old (it came out in 1989), but now... now its SUPER entertaining!

hooked on da brothers and der friendz!

goatee is no more

2005-01-09T23:50:00.000-05:00

this pic started freaking me out everytime i went to my blog... so my shaven.jpg pic is no more either. so now this post simply acts as a marker to remind me of when i went back to me old self.

i'm still alive

2004-12-30T14:32:00.000-05:00

i haven't blogged in a while.
updates in the new year...

happy holidays all!

the young demographic

2004-11-06T11:50:00.000-05:00

check out this page, which shows a map of the us which counts only the 18-29 age range. looks like people who have the most stake in their future know who was the right candidate. it still doesn't change who's in office for the next four years... sigh.

2004-11-03T15:26:00.000-05:00

proof that people don't know what they're getting themselves into:
http://www.norvig.com/hiring-president.html

i got this link off a 2000+ comment slashdot discussion. i'm concerned about what's in store for america, but after reading this blog post, if anything goes wrong in the next four years, all the lies from this administration will be exposed. hopefully the media will not be able to put a spin on it.

bush wins, kerry concedes

2004-11-03T11:34:00.000-05:00

four more years of putting up with his crap...
a day of mourning.

here comes our messiah
he's about to make his preach

sox 2004

2004-10-28T01:11:00.000-04:00

i think we all saw something special tonight. whether you were a red sox fan or not, 86 years of turmoil were destoryed all in one night. the moon was out and the lunar eclipse happened -- an event that occurs not too often, and the red sox clinched a world series title. i am so happy that this happened in my lifetime. and to all the fans out there who dedicated their lives to seeing the red sox win, i wish you the best of luck.

we won goddammit.

UPDATE: heart-warming nike commercial

game 4 world series

2004-10-27T11:47:00.000-04:00

tonight may be the night. and what a momentous night it will be. there will be a lunar eclipse tonight that will start a 9:14pm edt, and be total from 10:23pm to 11:45pm. the moon will take on a red to orange hue... if this isn't a sign, what is! could this be the "red october" red sox nation has been hoping for for the past 86 years?

game on.

motorcycle diaries

2004-10-26T01:06:00.000-04:00

saw the movie motorcycle diaries tonight. what an inspiring movie. the movie follows the backpacking adventures of ernesto "che" guevara and his friend alberto granada. i feel like i should quit work and go backpacking in south america for a year now after seeing this movie. it reminded me a lot of the landscapes i saw in peru, the people of peru and the cultures along the amazon river. they are such a stark contrast to that of the united states.

there are so many rewards to traveling to another country. first being that its an eye-opening experience. second it ends the drone-like nature of the 9-5 world. and third, it really changes one's outlook on life. i was just thinking, as if i were traveling through south america with che and alberto, that if i had a profession that was more useful than computer programming, i would definitely spend a year doing some project out there improving others lives. maybe this is a sign i should go do a post-bacc in medicine then use my skills and volunteer mentality to help others in needy countries. anyone with me here?

red sox over yankees

2004-10-21T01:15:00.000-04:00

best...
series...
EVER.

juxtaposition of the day

2004-10-13T21:52:00.000-04:00

sox in the rut

2004-10-13T13:42:00.000-04:00

my fortune for today:
[ "your love life will be happy and harmonious" ]
[ lucky numbers: 4, 8, 13, 17, 24, 44 ]

looks like 13 -- mientciewicz, 24 -- manny, 44 -- cabrera will have a good game tonight to the tune of 4-8-17.

oh and the back says:

[ learn chinese -- "guo-tie" pot sticker ]

mmm pot... sticker.

$70 million apartment

2004-10-11T15:23:00.000-04:00

well looks like there wont be a holiday party this year. my superboss is selling his manhattan apartment. i was at the place last year and boy was it sweeeet.

alcs 2004

2004-10-11T14:08:00.000-04:00

yankees and red sox. game 1. tomorrow. in the bronx. schilling and mussina on the mound. bring it on.

good flash movie

2004-10-08T15:04:00.000-04:00

awesome bush/kerry flash movie #1: this land from jibjab.com
awesome flash movie #2: good to be in dc

favorite parts:
- "i'm an intellectual... you're a stupid dumbass!"
- howard dean "BLLAAUUGGHH!"

dating, again

2004-09-15T23:01:00.000-04:00

hey asian guys, this is the book for you!

how to date white women: a practical guide for asian men

if anyone actually buys this book, let me know. the reviews seem to paint a false picture of the effectiveness of this book. ;-) thanks norm!

undecided?

2004-09-09T14:27:00.000-04:00

come november, if you're undecided, take this presidential match quiz which determines which candidate best supports your views. i scored something like 74% kerry and 32% bush.

yankees suck

2004-09-01T13:43:00.000-04:00

the bombers lost 22-0 last night to the indians, the worst lost in the yankees 101-year history, and the sox beat the angels last night to come within 3.5 games back in the al east!

i am psyched about this weekend. i'll be going up to boston, and hopefully i'll be able to catch pedro pitching.

UPDATE: i just read about this in sunday's boston globe on an article about how the curse may have been reversed! if you're a believer in signs and superstition, this might have bit the big one:

boston.com article: "...on a night when the moon was nearly full, when the Sox continued their epic surge, and when the Yankees suffered the most lopsided defeat in the history of the storied franchise, Ramirez may have unwittingly done what countless others have failed to do before him. He may well have broken the curse under which the team has labored since Ruth was sold to the Yankees in 1919.

A 16-year-old boy stood up in Section 9, Box 95, Row AA, with hopes of catching the ball. But he wasn't just any teenager. No, this was Lee Gavin, who has lived his entire life in a rambling farmhouse on Dutton Road in Sudbury that is best known to anyone west of Boston as the house where Babe Ruth lived.

On this last night of August, Gavin, a right fielder on his summer league team, positioned himself in the aisle, raised his arms in anticipation of catching his first-ever ball at Fenway Park, and BAM! The ball sliced through his hands and hit him square in the face. The impact punctured his top lip and knocked his two front teeth into a deepening pool of blood on the cement ground."

yankees losing 22-0, full moon, kid who lived in babe ruth's old house getting hit by manny's errant ball all in the same night?

no carb, no rice

2004-08-29T18:30:00.000-04:00

just got back from the protest at rnc. it was amazing and there was a lot of energy directed to get bush out. i've never seen so many people together united with a cause.

here are some pics: imagestation

imaginary gf

2004-08-24T11:54:00.000-04:00

well on the same line as what bryant was talking about with the virtual girlfriend comes imaginary girlfriends! pick out the girl of your choice, and for a preset price (you can choose the length of the relationship) you can receive personalized e-mails, pictures and more! but none of its real.

yes that's right... get one step closer to feeling desperate and awfully depressed.

read this

2004-08-23T16:00:00.000-04:00

vice guide to everything

3d stuff

2004-08-16T18:15:00.000-04:00

this is frighteningly realistic. check out the facial expressions! and it's done in 3dsmax!

the creator has a website with the work leading to this piece (see photo shoot). i can only imagine what other things he's done with his cgi creation... hmm.

revelation of the day

2004-08-04T14:39:00.000-04:00

death cab for cutie's ben gibbard collaborated in postal service with jenny lewis, who sings for rilo kiley, a group that is performing at knitting factory tonight, the jenny lewis who also had an acting career before singing, which included playing the part of haley in the wizard, one of my favorite 80s movies about the release of super mario brothers 3 (raccoon mario! whoo!)

i thought she was hot when i was 8 years old, i still think she's hot 14 years later. ;-)

2004-08-02T13:19:00.000-04:00

make this virtual word tree grow! for each 100 leaves that are added, nec will plant a real tree.

2004-07-27T16:16:00.000-04:00

this is how i've been occupying my time for the past two months. there are two races coming up, one this weekend and the one the following weekend:

Weekend July 31 - Aug 1: New York City International Dragon Boat Festival (http://www.nycdragonboat.org/)

Weekend Aug 7 - Aug 8: Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York (http://www.hkdbf-ny.org)

for both races, races are from 8am-5pm. if you want more info, just e-mail me.

finderguy.com gripe

2004-07-27T10:13:00.000-04:00

i found this website from apartmenttherapy.com that claims it can find anything you want in manhattan for no cost. it sounded like the coolest thing ever. so i went over to the site and typed in what my coworker has had the most trouble finding: okinawan sweet potatoes.

next day i get a reply:

Hello Rich, thank you for using FinderGuy. This store was the only one that says that they have Okinawan sweet potatoes. We spoke with Francine, who explained that their Okinawan sweet potatoes cost $2 per pound. We hope this helps, Rich, and if you go to this store, please mention FinderGuy. Thank you.

nice! so i tell my coworker who goes there the following week and...

no okinawan sweet potatoes. here's my reply:

Hello,

I told my friend who's been looking for Okinawan sweet potatoes in the city (but couldn't find them anywhere on the East Coast) that FinderGuy found a place in the city that had them. Naturally I was ecstatic and together we shouted "FinderGuy is the best thing ever!"

However, when he went to the store, there were no Okinawan sweet potatoes to be found! Francine wasn't there, but another guy in the produce section said they didn't have them. They only had regular sweet potatoes. He said that Francine must have meant regular sweet potatoes. He wandered around and looked everywhere but he could not find them himself either.

Needless to say, it was a waste of time. And although FinderGuy seems like a neat novel service, we will never trust FinderGuy ever again.

Sincerely,
-rich

conclusion? never trust finderguy with asian food.

UPDATE: i got a couple of really, really nice e-mails from the ladies running finderguy.com (go figure why it's called finderguy). they apologized for the confusion and since it's a relatively new service, there are bound to be kinks that need to be fixed. i imagine i'll be using finderguy again if there's another obscure item i'm desparately trying to find (their database of stores is crazy). but if you use it, be sure to double check with the store itself!

feel safe flying?

2004-07-22T12:59:00.000-04:00

read this

with a follow-up:

here

reflection

2004-07-12T02:05:00.000-04:00

so as i sit here on my carpeted floor i reflect upon the past year that i've lived in nyc. just moments ago as i walked across my apartment to go to the bathroom i heard my downstairs neighbor yell "moron... moron... fucking moron" -- a perfect summary of my life in this studio.

there's too much negative energy... i feel this place as sapped all the goodness in me. those moments when i could lie in bed and think about my day, read, dream, think about friends/girls are now replaced by the distracting sounds of these neighbors. smoking super with harsh coughs every morning, troll/witch screams in the middle of the night, crazy lady downstairs that thinks i'm having wild gay sex.

i'm surprised i haven't gone insane and become one of them...

too many bad memories to mention. focus on the good -- it's great to get out of here. this upcoming weekend marks a new year for me. mentoring, dragonboat, new roommates -- and that's just the next month.

enough -- who cares to hear about my personal problems anyways?

2004-07-09T16:11:00.000-04:00

just made another one... ah what a waste of time.

too much fun

2004-07-09T10:29:00.000-04:00

i just spent a good portion of my morning at work doing this... thanks brian!

michael moore has a blog!

2004-07-06T11:13:00.001-04:00

here

doorman/supers of nyc

2004-06-23T11:47:00.000-04:00

ny doormen (and supers) get anti-terrorism training

i guess this would explain why my super ignores me all the time. i like the line: "they will be warned to be on the lookout for... new tenants who move in with little or no furniture."

that's would be me!
that's right... cower before me.

unfortunate name

2004-06-23T11:43:00.000-04:00

here

50 coolest song parts

2004-06-10T11:17:00.000-04:00

http://www.retrocrush.com/archive2004/coolsongs/index.html

got this off another cool site: all night surfing

yancy gets a dog

2004-06-07T14:28:00.000-04:00

so my sister got a dog last week. and my bro-in-law is maintaining a blog of their progress. the dog's a two-month old husky. he's sooo cute. here's the link: http://www.bonassera.com/Gandalf/

spelling bee

2004-06-03T15:59:00.000-04:00

quick link: this boy collapses at the national spelling bee and then gets up and spells the word correctly. the video is hilarious.

2004-06-01T16:16:00.000-04:00

ah back to brown university for commencement. a great time was had and it didn't rain at all (weather that we certainly didn't have). for all the pictures make your way to this url: brown reunion - 2004

bike across the world?

2004-05-27T16:57:00.000-04:00

so i was just doing some research on biking across america and i saw this website. these people are so crazy! yet i really want to do what they're doing!

http://www.downtheroad.org/

so, if anyone's in for going on a round the world bike tour, let me know. ;-)

2004-05-27T15:11:00.000-04:00

slowly the pictures from my peru trip surface. here i am posing behind an incan doorway after climbing ~210 steps at winaywayna. the views were incredible.

annoyances

2004-05-24T10:04:00.000-04:00

it's annoying that i was once thought to be the delivery man when i walked into my buildling one day during lunch. i had been working at my place a month and usually i walk in without showing my id since most of the security guards recognize me. but one day the security guard stopped me and said "you have the use the other elevator?" wha? she pointed at the service elevator which was for deliveries. i yelled at her for discrimating me for my age and ethnicity (most of the people that work in my building are old and white) and i didn't see her after one week.

ok, so that was in august, but recently joe and i were looking for apartments on the upper east side. we walked around and went into regular doorman buildings asking around if they had a leasing office or any rooms available. so we checked out this place on york and 90th and when we walked to the door the doorman opened the door and said, "no menus!" i was shocked and wanted to fuck this guy over. how could he automatically assume this? what if we were visiting a friend or family or something like that? i was offended and if i had to go to that place again and see that guy i would have made it a fact to make sure he would never say that again to any remotely-delivery-man-looking person.

jazz on the plaza

2004-05-13T13:37:00.000-04:00

for the next 3 weeks on thursdays, there will be midday jazz concerts at 53rd and lexington outside the citigroup building and the e/v/6 transfer station! i just went to the first one today. my thursdays just got a little bit nicer.

brian link

2004-05-13T10:39:00.000-04:00

get bush out of office

line overheard at citigroup building

2004-05-12T09:16:00.000-04:00

"a woman can take care of you, but she's not there to entertain you."

aol cds

2004-05-10T10:52:00.000-04:00

i've had the last straw with those free aol cds that come with magazines. i get magazines delivered to my apartment, and my mailbox is big enough to fit a rolled up magazine, but not a magazine with a cd. so i get a message from the post office that says, you need to pick up a delivery since the magazine you subscribe to has a cd with it. i spend 15 minutes this morning walking to the post office and 10 minutes waiting in line to get... an aol cd! shame on you aol.

back from peru

2004-05-04T17:36:00.000-04:00

i'm back from peru for all those who care.