It's a sign

The other day, I went running. It reminded me of several things, the first of which is how much I hate running. But running is one of the only physical activities that makes me feel like I actually worked out. Something about sweating or whatever.

Before, I used to take my iPod shuffle (the white USB stick one) and kind of stick it in the waistband of my shorts. That would work well enough for me, as I don't feel a $100 device deserves a $30 armband.

This time, I had a problem. The shuffle kept popping out the top of the waistband, or slip down my shorts. The reason? Somehow, I suddenly have these large protrusions of soft, rubbery flesh right above my waist. According to Google, they are called "love handles". I don't feel out of shape, but all of a sudden I have gained enough fat that my shuffle can't stay put in my waistband.

I think this means I should either:

a) Give up, get fat, eventually buy a scooter so I can get around.
b) Run more.

Damn. I think it's going to be choice "b" because I like being able to see my toes.

Death defying

I just moved down to North Carolina, a normally less than 8 hour drive that ended up being more than 9 hours due to traffic.

I'm not very good at these long drives, at least not by myself. The first time I drove any longer than an hour was when my mom took me up and down the East Coast to visit colleges. I started out ok, but by the time I crossed the New Jersey border into New York, I was ready to fall asleep.

You see, as a child, I had been conditioned to fall asleep in the car. Long trips were usually done at night or in the early morning, when I was tired. I was used to falling asleep and waking up just as we got home. The same conditioning is a great asset on long flights. I'm able to fall asleep just as the plane pushes back from the gate and wake up just as we touch down.

This "skill", however, nearly killed me twice. The first time I had done a long trip by myself was when I moved to Atlanta from Chicago the day after college graduation. If I remember correctly, it was more than 12 hours drive, and the last part was done in the evening. I recall calling some family and friends to keep awake, but I nearly ran off the road in the mountains of Tennessee. That would have been bad. I distinctly remember thinking that I wasn't going to make it to Atlanta. Somehow, I made it.

The next time I would make a journey like that was when I moved from Atlanta to New Jersey. This time, the drive was even longer, about 15-16 hours with traffic. Fortunately, my brother and sister had come down to help drive some of my stuff back, and so I had company, which helped... until my sister fell asleep. I drove on, forcing myself to stay awake. I did the usual things, turned up the radio, slapped myself (hard) and drank water. I found an old packet of Lifesavers candy under my seat that had been there so long, most of them had melted into multi-flavored chunks. The sugar gave me the jolt I needed to stay awake long enough to make it across the New Jersey border. Those Lifesavers lived up to their name.

Alas, even though I was less than 25 minutes from my house, I just couldn't stay awake any longer, and I exited the highway and pulled into some random person's driveway to take a nap. At about 3 AM, I finally reached my destination.

I was not looking forward to this move because my past experiences driving long distances were not good. I do fine if I have company, and while I'm holding a conversation. But by myself, the unending road and foliage whizzing by only encourages my mind to drift into unconsciousness.

But I made it. Next up, advances in garbage can technology and adventures at Super Target.

Gone phishing

How savvy are you at detecting scams?

Here's a test you can take courtesy McAfee.

I scored 10 out of 10, since I'm paranoid.

The Navy Shower?

The Navy Shower

This reminded me of the dorms at Tsinghua University in China. For us international students, we were lucky enough to have our own bathrooms in relatively new buildings. The buildings were maybe 2 years old. The catch? We paid 8x the rent compared to local students. Also, since our building was built on a rushed schedule, and rather cheaply at that (everything in China is done this way), our hot water pumps would clog all the time, resulting in days, even weeks without hot water.

So I and a few of my friends took advantage of another perk of being an international student: all rooms were equipped with an electric hot water pitcher. When the hot water would go out, we'd boil water and mix with cold water, and take "showers" that way. I was able to make do with only one liter of boiled water! Nothing made me feel more connected to my heritage than pouring water over myself with a little cup while squatting.

Some things you'll never get

A followup to my previous post about getting an iPhone.

I didn't actually get an iPhone for me. I got one for my dad, who's been wanting to do email and web on the go for a while. Sure, there's Blackberry and Treos, Qs, HTCs, etc. But none of these are suitable for my dad. He needs something intuitive, something easy. Something that behaves the way you expect it to. Something you can use right away without reading a manual. And so far, it works for him.

Of course there are some annoyances that I hope will be fixed soon, such as:

No voice dialing

No integration with Exchange servers to get Outlook mail*

No way to use international SIM cards

No way to edit documents or serve presentations externally

No Flash support

Despite these and other features lacking, I still think the iPhone is a great device. Why? Because it's got my father using cutting edge technology to improve his life and because I know Apple will fix most of these issues in short order. Steve Jobs wouldn't allow his baby to be anything other than perfect.

But there are tons of people out there who keep complaining that they don't get what the fuss is about the iPhone, how it's lacking such and such feature, that this or that device did what the iPhone does and more three years ago.

These are also the same types of people that will never understand why people choose to use Macs instead of PCs, why VHS beat Betamax and why the Wii is a breakaway hit. It's about ease of use, about human-centered technology not machine-centered technology. I can't wait for the day that I don't have to do research just to operate these types of devices. The iPhone is getting there.

iPhone at last

I waited in line today at an AT&T store to get an iPhone. I was #11 in line at this particular store. By the time the doors opened, there were at least 50 people in line. I'm pretty sure the store sold out.

One funny thing I saw was there was a Verizon Wireless tech waiting in line with us, with his truck parked right in front. Here's a picture of when his truck was still in the parking lot.





Some people were camped out since early in the morning. I only waited about 3 hours, but boy I should have brought a chair or something. My ass, despite its cushiony structure, hurt like hell.

Just as the line started moving, the guy next to me starts chatting me up. He's a little shorter than me, Indian, and looks slightly more nerdy than I do. He starts asking me questions like, "So are you excited to get the iPhone?" "Which one are you going to get, the 4GB or the 8GB?" and saying things like, "I heard that the AT&T network isn't 3G."

Now, being a nerd myself, I knew exactly what he was talking about. However, I felt this overwhelming urge to keep my nerdiness to myself. So I played dumb. "3G? What's that?" (3G? Hell yes I want 3G!) "I saw the commercials and thought the phone looked pretty cool." (I've been following Apple and iPhone news for the past six months)

It was very strange. Even though I was probably a bigger geek than he was when it comes to Apple, I felt a need to hide it. The guys in front of me were even worse, discussing things like the future of Apple notebooks and how cool David Pogue's iPhone video was.

Even though I love nerdy things, I feel this need to hide it as much as possible. I guess I just don't want to be the stereotype. Which is why I chose engineering, but not computer or electrical engineering. Which is why I chose biomedical engineering, but did not want to be a doctor. Which is why I decided to teach instead of consult. I asked my friend what I look like to her. She said that I look like an ABC. But that's exactly what I don't want to look like. At the same time, I don't want to look like a FOB either. So where does that leave me?

Big Brother, Inc.

It appears Google is extending its reach with yet another cool feature: StreetView. With Google, you just know this will be super useful. Even though Amazon has had something like this for several years.

So what happens if you're accidentally caught in one of the shots, and you don't want to be in Google's infinite database? Google will take it down for you right? Wrong. It turns out opting out requires you to send Google personal information.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, if we're caught in the background of some newspaper or magazine photo, there's not much we can do about it. After all, we're out in public, and public is public. But I think the problem here is that being caught in Google's StreetView ostensibly means that we'll be there forever, easily searchable, and in contexts that could be damaging to our privacy. Like women going to abortion clinics. Or people going to an HIV testing center. Or you going to a job interview while still employed.

Many people seem to agree that it should be an easy matter for Google to simply blur out people's features so they're not identifiable. After all, what value does it bring to the service to have people's faces in it? Instead, Google's making people jump through hoops to opt-out, and that makes me a little worried about the way Google is infiltrating our lives.

Breaking News!

I'd like to think of myself as compassionate. I care for my fellow man. But when you flaunt your immense wealth by ridiculing the masses and acting like a spoiled brat on TV, you're just asking for it. That is why I support Paris Hilton being in jail. It's probably also why the "Jail Paris Hilton" petition had at least twice the signatures of the "Free Paris Hilton" petition that Paris herself started. I support it even though jailing Paris costs two to three times as much as jailing a standard convict.

She thinks she's being targeted because of her fame. I totally agree. Did you think infamy only had an upside? She also had an incredible opportunity to turn her entire image around, to be America's sweetheart instead of being almost universally hated. Too bad she screwed that up with the behind-the-scenes deal to serve only 3 days in jail.

But the real news is that Paris is finally getting a reality check. She called Barbara Walters and described her experience. "I feel like I am in a cage."

CONGRATULATIONS! THAT'S WHAT IT'S SUPPOSED TO FEEL LIKE!!

Leopard Features Announced!

Even non-technophiles must rejoice: Apple's new operating system, Mac OS X Leopard was demoed today with lots of cool new features announced.

The best thing about Apples new operating system releases is they usually make older machines faster even while adding new bells and whistles.

One probably unsung but very exciting addition is a VoiceOver upgrade. Now, your computer can read things on the screen to you in a pretty natural-sounding voice. Even cooler is that it can now read Japanese and Chinese.

Man, if they had that when I was studying Japanese... nah, I'd probably still end up not remembering anything.

Eat for $5 a week

I found the recent Time photo essay on what the world eats to be fascinating. They tallied up the total food expenditure for one week for families around the world, then took a picture of them with all the food.

The first thing I noticed was how the families from industrialized nations consumed so much more processed food. Things like cereals, bottled drinks, cookies, chips, etc. One family from Southeast Asia had surprisingly little green in their diet, and I was also surprised to see that the two American families ate a significant amount of fruit and vegetables.

I think I'd be a little scared to see what I ate in one week. It might just be a table of gummi worms and cheddar cheese.

Blast from the past

It's amazing what you find when you go through old stuff. Especially when you're a packrat like me. Actually, I'm a reformed packrat. Ok, maybe a reforming one. Trying to anyway.

Here's a little snippet from 1998, almost 10 years ago. Man. Saying that makes me feel old.



Wow! $1 per disc, what a deal!

Too bouncy

DOAX2 is out for Xbox 360. A trailer of this game has been deemed "too bouncy" for the general public. Watch at your own risk.

I'll bet the research for this game was enjoyable. Especially when doing scientific research to perfect the physics engine.

Is this game a good enough reason to get an Xbox 360? Along with Guitar Hero II, I think definitely yes.

The hunt is over

I finally got my hands on a Wii. Not for me, mind you. It's more for my parents. They are completely addicted to Wii Sports. When a game system has a following from the 50+ crowd, I'd call that a success.

I got a heads up on the weekly ads for today, and Best Buy had them advertised. I arrived at the store one hour before opening, thinking that would be more than sufficient. Turns out, when I arrived, there was already a huge line at the door. Fortunately, I got a voucher for #20 out of 23 available. Five more minutes, and I would have been SOL.

While I was waiting for the store to open, I headed to Sears to get a replacement part for a lawn tiller. I couldn't find the lawn and garden section, so I tried to find someone to ask for directions. Since it was early in the morning, most store employees were stocking shelves. I approached a young black man dressed in a shirt, tie, and vest.

"Do you work here?"

"Uhh... no."

I had made an embarrassing mistake. Did I approach him because he was black, and that meant he was more likely to be an employee than a customer, or did I approach him because he was dressed up and looked like he was at work?

I'd like to say that it was 100% the latter, but I can't be that certain.

Anyway, if anyone else is looking for a Wii, Best Buy says they may get more in on Monday, and Target is rumored to be getting some in for next Sunday.

N* Brown

So a lady's daughter finds a tag on their brand new dark brown couch that describes the couch as "n*gger brown". No, it's not "nagger".

The culprit? Apparently, a Chinese manufacturer used an outdated dictionary to translate the color from Chinese to English. Apparently in this dictionary, the dark brown is translated as the n-word.

Anyone who has visited China, Japan, or most other Asian countries knows this type of thing happens all the time. Things are always mistranslated. There's a whole site dedicated to messed up English.

Even national monuments and World Heritage Sites have engraved plaques with horrendous English, so it doesn't surprise me that a random Chinese factory didn't check it's English carefully. There's no way for them to know. Even if they had employees who studied English in college, I can guarantee they don't come across the n-word much, and can we really expect non-native speakers to know all English slang? Especially when most Chinese perfect their English by watching "Friends". When was the last time you heard the n-word on national TV?

The lady who discovered the tag wants to pursue legal action. I think while the whole thing is more than a little unfortunate, it's a little ridiculous to sue. She's going to end up making everything worse.

Simpler times

Today, I came across a photo of my friends in 7th grade. The thing that struck me was how simple life seemed in that picture. Of course, at the time, things weren't all rosy. There was language arts homework to worry about, not to mention pimples and cooties. But the main thing was, nothing seemed out of reach. Anything seemed possible.

As I got older, slowly, things started to seem impossible. When I was in 2nd grade, I still dreamt of being an astronaut or President of the United States. In 4th grade, I thought I might one day be a great jazz musician. In 6th grade, I would be a world-reknowned artist. In high school, I thought maybe one day I could swing the Nobel prize. Or at least a Rhodes or Fulbright scholarship, or maybe be a pro tennis player.

Now, my future seems much more limited. The scope has narrowed, not necessarily because I didn't want those things anymore, or because I wanted something else more. It was more that as I grew older, I continually hit limitations of what I could do. It's a humbling and depressing process.

Every time I meet a fifty-year old grocery store cashier, I think about how that man was once a bright-eyed and hopeful child. What did he dream of being back then? Did he read the same biographies of great men in history and think, 'I can do that, too!', as I did?

I'm not sure if my future is actually limited, or if it only seems that way, or if there's even any difference. All I know is that I hate feeling that way.

Was my future truly wide open back in grade school? Or was it merely an illusion?

As a teacher, I truly believed (and I suppose I still do) that all children are capable of learning and doing great things. That almost every child has the potential to go to college. But maybe that's not true. Maybe we are each born with our limits, and our lives are simply an expression of those limits.

Get real

Just when I thought reality TV couldn't get any better, VH1 comes out with "I Love New York", "The Flavor of Love", and "Flavor of Love: Charm School". Ok, I know "The Flavor of Love" isn't new, but I've just become acquainted with it. The latest series, "Charm School" is brilliant because it brings back the most crazy and naughty of "The Flavor of Love". I also love how black people make everything so much fun, like giving pretty descriptive nicknames to people just cuz. Like "Hottie", "Pumkin", and "Smiley".

I want a nickname like that too. Then I can be cool too!

The Cadbury Creme Egg Scandal

This just hit the wires this weekend, Cadbury's running a big scam.

I'm as shocked as anyone. But, I have to wonder, why is this getting so much attention when the Dannon debacle of 2005 went unnoticed? What debacle, you ask? Well, around that time, Dannon redid its packaging for its Fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt. They got rid of the plastic lids (that didn't really do anything, unless you tend to eat small containers of yogurt in more than one session), opting to have only the foil sealed top. However, I also noticed that the amount of yogurt decreased! Not only that, but eventually, the containers themselves got smaller. All the while, the price went up a little.

Sneaky! It was like a double price increase! Now, I'm pretty much addicted to Fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt from Dannon, it's so much more fruity and natural tasting than blended yogurts... but I was so shocked at this development that I stopped eating Dannon yogurt for a little while.

Still, I don't understand why Cadbury's move gets big press while Dannon got away with highway robbery. Maybe it's because chocolate gets more respect than yogurt. Or maybe it's a religious thing, after all yogurt isn't associated with any religious holiday. All I know is Dannon screwed me.

In search of the deal

I've always been a bargain hunter.  But I've recently noticed just how much of my time is spent searching for bargains when I need to buy something.  I'm not happy to just get a decent price, I have this overwhelming urge to get the absolute rock-bottom price. 



Consequently, I spend hours and hours researching my purchases, be it a computer, auto insurance, or cable TV service.  If I buy something, and later find out I could have gotten it somewhere else for $5 less, I get upset and brood about it for days. 



Once, I bought a Gap scarf in Chicago for $20.  It was a decent scarf, warm and stylish.  I went home for break the next week, and saw it at the local Gap on sale for $9.99.  No amount of discussion with the store management worked, and I wasn't able to get any sort of refund.  I didn't have my receipt with me at home, so I considered buying the one on sale, then returning the $20 scarf when I got back to Chicago.  I almost had a nervous breakdown thinking about all of this.  Finally, my mother said to me, "How much time and gas money will it take to do all this?"



I'm working on letting go of "small money" as my parents call it.  I probably spend more time worrying about $5-10 than it's worth, but it's so ingrained in my thinking that I sometimes have nightmares about falling prices-- after I've made a purchase.

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The Application Game

In the past three years, I have gone from completely undecided on my future direction, considering paths in law, business, and education research, to applying to law school, and finally applying to business school.

I'm finally settling on a decision to go to business school, and I'll be in sunny Durham, North Carolina next fall attending Duke's Fuqua School of Business! It's a great relief to finally be done with all the tests, the essays, the waiting... and also all the nervous, pretentious, and often patronizing chat among applicants.

It's funny because if you ask someone where they were admitted, they might say, Columbia. But if they're not too proud of where they were admitted, they'll say something like, oh, a top 10 school. Or a top 15 school. Usually that means #9/10 or #14/15.

I'm one of the unlucky people who don't have a clear idea of what they want to do long-term. This has led me astray, including a year-long quest to go to law school, including taking the LSAT (twice), applying, and finally turning down offers after my gut told me I wouldn't be happy in law school. I wish I had known all that prior to starting, but I was blinded by pure ambition and the desire to impress (myself, mostly). I've believe it's worth it to really spend time exploring and thinking about what makes life meaningful, and striving to do something that fulfills that ideal. This is something I've paid for with a lot of money, time, and disappointment.

But now, relief. Excitement. Hope. I'm definitely looking forward to doing something cool.

Exploding ants

According to a comment on a recent Lifehacker post on getting rid of ants, if you feed ants Cream of Wheat, it will expand once they eat it and their stomachs will explode.

Anyway, this post reminded me of one particularly hot summer in Chicago. My roommate and I were living in an un-airconditioned apartment, so on top of walking around in our underwear most of the time, we also had the windows open all the way. It wasn't pretty, but it was necessary in order to stay in solid form.

An unfortunate by-product of keeping the windows open all the time was a fly and mosquito problem. Lucky for us, we had a few spiders in the corners! Since we were only subletting the place for the summer, we didn't much care about having a few spiders around. Plus, it was an eco-friendly way to take care of the mosquitoes.

This plan backfired. Big time. Near the end of the summer, we took a peek behind the couch where the one or two little spiders were. Instead, we found dozens of HUGE spiders! More than that, there were an equal number of egg sacs!! As we contemplated how to get rid of the spiders, several of the egg sacs burst, sending hundreds of tiny specks in every direction. I think the only thing more disgusting than one spider is a hundred tiny baby spiders swarming at you.

After our screaming subsided, we collected ourselves and hatched a plan. (no pun intended) We decided to use a two-pronged approach: spray with Raid and then immediately vacuum up the corpses and any survivors.

Ultimately, it ended with total victory. Mostly because we stayed the course.