Document your life

Figured I’d at least try to write a post of some depth and thoughts. First, this is a trackback from Jason Lamberton’s entry on Chaos and Order.

If you could scroll down to the end of a fairly long entry, he said he is in the process of becoming a Deaf professional blogger. A professional blogger is someone who blogs daily and able to earn a living on ads profits, donations, or sponsorship with media companies like About.com or Weblogs Inc. One well-known professional blogger is Jason Kottke.

Well, I’m proud to say that I was the one who came over his place and helped him set up a new blog (that shall be unveiled later whenever Jason decides to). I suggested him to use WordPress so that he’s in complete control of his own work instead of being stored on other servers like Blogger. Jason and I went back a long time ago—wow I can actually start saying “A long time ago…”—when our mothers were classmates at Illinois School for the Deaf before his mother moved to California when she was a junior. We didn’t meet first in person as we were one of the early members of AOL version 1.0 I think they’re up to 9.0 now or something? Finally, in 1994, we came to visit the family and that summer, I broke my ankle while playing basketball. It was awful and I was stuck in a cast for 8 weeks but I could walk not too bad without the aid of crutches. Anyway, that’s how we met and fast became good friends. I remember we loved to play NHL 95 on SNES. We managed to score more than 30 goals in one game, heh.

A lot has changed since we played that game on SNES. We’d play together on the floor hockey team when he was a goalie and I was a forward during my freshman year at Gallaudet. Recently, he was studying to get a Phd but as you can see from the entry, he dropped out of the fellowship program. Now, his goal is to become a professional blogger. Let’s help him!

We’re at a point where we really need to decide what we want to do with our life. That’s what we talked about the most when I was over his place. We both realize that it’s important to document our life because when we’re gone from this place, nothing is left except our shit. No one is going to crack our skulls open and read what’s inside our brains. Jason said there is a kit that allows you to print your diaries and put them in a notebook for archives. For now, we could save our diaries on a server but what if something chaotic happens? No proof to show we did exist. I’m thinking abt printing all of my entries and put in a binder so I can reflect and remember.

One thing I learned while chatting with Jason was how he doesn’t want to be affiliated with anyone. He doesn’t want anyone to be telling him what to do and he has tons of ideas he desperately wants to see to happen. So, we were discussing how blogging can work out for him so he could share his ideas, document his life, and earn something out of it. He has this idea about vlogging. It’s a way of using ASL to document ourselves instead of just typing words. The only way to “print” ASL is to videotape ourselves signing. I think it’s a cool idea and I’m thinking abt using my webcam to record my signing. Never mind, I’m gonna do it now… *turning on the webcam and signing to myself for vlogging*

*update* – that didn’t go well as I thought—need to work on compressing video from 10mb. I’ll need to find a decent video editor. But if you got a big bandwidth, see me on vlog here.

You should see windows media player embedded in the webpage (sorry mac users) and you will need to wait a few minutes before the video shows up.

Flock

Testing this new Flock web browser that allows you to blog directly from ur browser instead of going into the blog page at all… Wow, it does work… I highly recommend you to try.  Ofc, it’s free. 

Well, looks like I don’t even need to go into my website to post an entry.  I can also edit entries from this Flock browser.  It’s being called a social browser that uses my del.icio.us bookmarks as favorites.  So that means whenever I happen to reinstall browsers, I don’t even need to save my bookmarks since it’s being stored on del.icio.us servers.  Cool idea and what’s more, this is actually based on Firefox browser, so it’s not yet another web browser who wants to fight Microsoft’s IE. 

Fall is here…

You know it’s Fall when you find yourself completely in the dark after you step out of the building and you feel the wind blowing at you with some mist spraying at your face. When you get into the car, the first thing wasn’t to put your seat belt on but to turn the heater on and set the wipers on delay mode.

It’s been more than a week since I’ve started working at Google. I can’t indulge too much details here but I do want to share my experience here so I can reflect back when I hit 50 if I’ll live that long. The job is everything what I always want in a job. I’m not a whiz programmer who can make a working calculator right from the scratch in one sitting. What I enjoy the most is just looking for problems, find them and then solve them. I enjoy tweaking things, making things work and work on different things. This job isn’t focused on one thing only and we have flexibility to do what we enjoy working on. That way, we end up being jack of all trades. I’m learning Linux to improve my skill and enough that I will no longer need to use Windows again except for several programs such as Envision and Nextalk TTY emulator. I’ll probably vmware it eventually. However, that’s not the best part of this job. The best part is communication. In our geek world, we don’t really need to have to talk to each other through voice–in fact, some people actually prefer IMs over using their voice so some people don’t have to be distracted while listening to their fave mp3 songs. I’m glad I chose this field, so I don’t feel disabled.

Christmas is coming up faster than you’d think. To be inspired, I found this really cool stuff that I’m gonna use this holiday season – Photo stamps by Yahoo. With this feature, you can put your very own picture right onto a postage stamp. Now you don’t have to be famous to be on a stamp. :-)

Gentoo Linux screenshot w/ Gnome

Pardon my sports babble

Ok, the sports media is all over the controversial play that happened during the game two of ALCS between the Chicago White Sox and the Anaheim Angels. Having seen the replay a dozen times, I’ve come to a conclusion that the ball never hit the dirt and the reason why it was so damn confusing was because the catcher’s mitt was on the ground and the ball just went into the mitt, even though the mitt was on the ground—still doesn’t mean the ball did hit the dirt. However, that wasn’t even the point because the home plate umpire couldn’t even see the ball anyway. He was, in fact, unsure if the ball had touched the ground so he kinda left the play wide open but the catcher never did anything to seal the play. He just assumed that the umpire made the out call due to the handsign, which was for a strike call. So, the hitter, a catcher himself, knew there was a benefit of doubt, decided to run to the first base (he said he never heard the verbal cue from the umpire so he ran but I think it had to do with the benefit of doubt and his catcher instincts). The Angels catcher never made the tag, the hitter taking the shot to run to the first base and that’s the whole play. We could argue all night whether if we should have an instant replay like other sports or that the umpire made a confusing strike/out call by his handsign. But in my opinion, this could be all avoided, had the catcher tagged the hitter especially when the stakes are high and when there is a doubt involved.

It’s been refreshing to see NHL highlights after their one year lockout and there’s a new rule in overtime: shootouts. Paul Kariya is really a master at the shootout. He’s 2 for 2 thus far. The key success? never give a daylight of a time to the goalie to see what is your shot going to be or ur next move. I really like the shootouts ‘cuz it puts more emphasis on your skills, help save costs on operation (you would think all those alcohol beverages would help offset the operation costs but it doesn’t), more anticipation on the outcome because that will be determined in a matter of few minutes, not twenty minutes or double overtimes. On other sports related news you can try Maxomil soccer pool table and discover a new sport activity that everyone from the family or company will enjoy.

I can’t wait for NBA to start. Go Manu Ginobili! and am really curious to see how the miami team is gonna play this year with the almost competely new roster except for Shaq and Wade. The same goes for Kobe and Lebron—how big are they gonna be this season.

Michelle Wie, who just turned pro, is so fucking lucky. I really envy her and I find myself looking at her tan legs—she does have nice legs.

Damn, look at this perfect-picture posture! they should use her posture for their official LPGA logo.

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Tag Trend

Oh boy, there is a tag trend going on as I’ve been tagged twice simultaneously by Kertong (you a soft-hearted for listening to the moron’s whinings and changed the tag on me!) and Euge to tell five quirky things about myself. I’m not gonna list five things twice ‘cuz if I did that, no one would want to visit my website again. Here goes:

5 random quirks/factoids/quirky factoids/factual quirks — you get the idea…

1) Initially wanted to have four or five kids in the future ‘cuz I’m so damn tired of having a small family—only four of us, my parents, my grandma and me—at thanksgiving or christmas every year. You see, my dad’s an only child, so am I and we have no siblings. My mom’s parents passed away before I even got to the US and she has a brother but we haven’t seen him in two years or so. It’s probably the deaf thing, how sad. My dad’s father passed away two weeks after I left for college. My grandpa was a nice kind quiet guy who served in the World War II, loved the St.Louis Cardinals, had not one but two heart bypass surgeries (they used the artery from his left leg to replace the no-good artery to his heart) and let me smoke his long pipe. I still remembered his last words to me. I was visiting the grandparents for the last time a day before my parents and I get on the road trip to Washington DC. As I was going to leave, my grandpa, sitting in his favorite la-z-boy chair, asked me when I will be back visiting them again (he would say please come back soon whenever I come to visit them) and I said no this is the last time before I head to college. He spurted out “Oh shit! I better get up and hug you for the last time.” Indeed, we hugged for the last time ever. So, it’s been four of us ever since and it somehow feels smaller and smaller every year, if that’s even possible. However, now that I realize how expensive is to raise a kid, I’m not so sure about wanting four or five kids anymore.

2) Ok, the first one was pretty long. For some reason, I don’t like putting on my clothes in the bathroom after I finish shower. I guess I get claustrophobic in there. I just dry myself off, wrap the towel around me, walk out of shower to my room and put on clothes or just shorts if I’m not going anywhere.

3) When I first came to the US, landing at the O’Hare airport in Chicago, my first ever meal in America was nonetheless a happy meal from McDonald’s. My parents and I were all snuggling together in the backseat with my uncle (mom’s bro) being the driver. My stomach was starting to grumble a bit and that’s when I spotted the golden arch of McDonald’s and I pointed my finger there. My dad immediately knew what I mean. It was probably our first communication exchange and the first time anyone actually understood me. ASL (American Sign Language) rules!

4) I’ve broken my bones three times. First one was when I fell off a monkey bar, and I was dumb (blame my stupid reflexes) to stick my left arm out as the first point of impact when I landed on Earth again. Second one was my ankle when I was playing basketball and went up hard for a rebound and on the way down, my left shoes caught someone’s shoes and my ankle touched the hardwood before everything else did. Third one, hopefully my last one, was my wrist when I was fighting for an extra yardage while carrying the football in a varsity high school game. One linebacker was holding my shoulder pads by the neck (it’s called a horse tackle which is being illegal in the NFL this year and that’s how Terrell Owens got hurt last season) and then one fat lineman just jumped out and landed me onto the ground and my wrist got stuck between me and the ground, then *snapped*. Ouch.

5) Ah, last one.. uhh, oh, whenever I’m waiting for something, like an elevator or metro subway to come, I would do a golf practice swing, pretending I’m out on a golf course, hitting a hole in one or a 300 yards drive. The purpose for this is to stay in form and check my swing technique.

Now I get to TAG three people and they are kimmisan, elisa, and adam. :-)

The marginalization of Asian men

Asian Women: Up For Grabs

Fell upon this article. This girl says it all! She observed why Asian men aren’t particularly attractive to other races except their own kind. Here’s some excerpts:

“First, the media never portrays Asian men in a dominant role. They are always portrayed as nerdy, geeky, brainiacs, with no sense of themselves and no ability to attract women. In other words, the media portrays Asian men as incapable and undesirable.”

“Second, American society has many negative stereotypes towards Asian men. It has become a complete joke to think that an Asian man could ever “satisfy” a woman. Their “manlihood” is the constant subject of jokes and insults. For this reason, most women view Asian men as asexual and feminine.”

“For these reasons, Asian women, and women in general in American society are taught to view Asian men as undesirable and feeble. As you will see, this is the reason why Asian women are now up for grabs…”

“So what is the end result of all this? Asian women are “up for grabs” and this has essentially devasted Asian men. Asian men are getting the axe on two levels here. First, they are only seen as being able to date their own kind (other Asian girls). At the same time, their own kind, at an increasing rate, tends not to prefer them sexually.”

I’m probably a perfect victim of this. At my deaf school, all the way from kindergarten to 12th grade, I was pretty much the only Asian male in my class every year and was known as a “school freak” although I felt I didn’t study that much. Moreover, I never had a single girlfriend myself and the fact there was a total of only 150 students in the entire high school didn’t help much either and not to mention, half of them were mentally-challenged or had more than just one disability. However, my experience in college has gotten better—I guess because it’s more diverse and students were more open-minded.

Last week, I watched a Gallaudet football game and there were cheerleaders rooting for the team. They had 3 male cheerleaders and guess what? not even one male was a white. Two Asians (one was obviously a Korean but the other one, not sure, looked like a Thai to me) and one Hispanic. They were a perfect example of what Asian males are portrayed as: asexual and feminine. And what of the varsity football team? not even one Asian on the team! Even Yao Ming, currently the tallest player in the NBA, is perceived as a soft, weak center.

I couldn’t agree more with the last paragraph. My Asian roommate (half Japanese and Chinese) is dating a white girl—he has never dated an Asian before and doesn’t plan to. My good friend (Korean) is attracted to Puetro Ricans or Hispanics (basically looking for Jessica Alba lookalikes), although he’s now curious about dating a Korean girl because he’s getting tired of getting pushed by girls in the past. There’s another friend (Chinese) who has a baby with a PR girl too. I think one major reason why Asian men don’t want to date their own kind is that they would be perceived as too Asian or dating a white girl would help them to look more American. Look no further than Tiger Woods who’s a half Asian and Africian-American. He got married to a white model girl.

Clearly, Asian women are up for grabs.

p.s. check this out too – Seeking My Race-Based Valentine Online

For example, a study published last year in Social Science Research examined 1,558 profiles that white daters living in or near big U.S. cities placed on Yahoo! Personals, which, much like Match, lists 10 racial and ethnic groups users can select as preferred dates. Among the women, 73% stated a preference. Of these, 64% selected whites only, while fewer than 10% included East Indians, Middle Easterners, Asians or blacks.

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Last Car Production of Honda Civic Type R

This morning, I was reading my RSS newsfeeder and saw this article that made me somewhat sad. Some of you may know I own a 2004 Honda Civic Si (wish it’s a Type R, dammit), but someday it will be! All hatchbacks were assembled in the UK as shown below. While reading this artcile, it said that this Type R hatchback was a massive success, quadrupling the original UK forecast to 35,190 sales and was consisently voted What Car? Hot Hatch Of The Year from 2002 to 2004, BBC Top Gear’s Best Hot Hatch 2002 and Auto Express’s Best Sporting Car 2003.

Now, I wonder why couldn’t our hatchbacks be as successful as it did in the UK. They should have used the Type R engine or a K20A2, same engine found in the RSX Type S. The U.S. Honda Marketing was probably afraid to use the same engine cuz it would hurt the RSX sales. :-(

Here’s to a future engine swap!

my car. you can see some difference like the red seats, headlight projectors, LED indicators on the door mirrors, red emblem logo, and ofc the driver seat on the right side.

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Some five things about myself.

I’ve been tagged by sweet kimmisan.

TEN YEARS AGO I…

entered my freshman year at Illinois School for the Deaf. Played quarterback on the junior varsity team ‘cuz I was one of the few players who could memorize the plays and if needed, explain what we’re supposed to do to a bunch of players who couldn’t understand plays like strong sweep right 345 is. Our record was like 2 – 7. My life was much simpler back then. It was like getting up at 7 am, walk to the cafeteria to eat breakfast (yay we didn’t have to walk in groups cuz we’re in high school now), get back to the dorm, grab my backpack, then walk to the school and wait for the lighting bells to flash. Then, football practice at 3:15 pm, walk to the cafeteria for dinner, return to the dorm, mandatory rule to stay in our rooms for one hour as studying hour (most boys jacked off on playboy magazines anyway), teen center at 7 pm where boys and girls hang out (they make a short getaway plan to get behind some bushes away from resident advisors’ not-so-prying eyes). Lights out at 10 pm. Imagine it’s like a college campus but with more supervision and curfews.

FIVE YEARS AGO I…

transferred from Gallaudet University to Rochester Institute of Technology to purse a degree in information science. Joined a fraternity named Kappa Phi Theta, the only local fraternity on the RIT campus, which ironically was the reason why it got unfounded about a year ago. But thanks to this fraternity, I love drinking beers.

ONE YEAR AGO I…

got a permanent job working as a I.T. specialist under the NASS at the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. My first professional career experience. But in two weeks, I will be working for Google.

YESTERDAY I…

ran for 2 miles, did push-ups, sit-ups on a swiss ball, and lifted dumbbells. Then, played poker at someone’s place where the host’s girlfriend’s father was in town and he was curious how it was like playing with deaf players. I failed to finish in top three. Craps.

FIVE SNACKS I ENJOY…

1) Cheetos
2) Beef Jerky
3) Korean Salted seaweeds
4) Fruits – bananas, apples, and oranges
5) Ice cream

FIVE SONGS I KNOW ALL THE WORDS TO… (I can’t really hear every word but can understand phrases or chorus lines)

1) “I’m Real” by Jennifer Lopez and Ja Rule
2) “Get Low” by Lil’ Jon and the Eastside Boyz
3) “I’ll be missing you” by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans
4) Can’t remember other songs
5) ” ”

FIVE THINGS I WOULD DO WITH A 100 MILLION DOLLARS:

1) Travel the world as much as I can.
2) Then, settle down somewhere (California would be nice) and buy a house for me and one for my parents. I’d like to stay close to my parents who are deaf and I’m also an only child.
3) Bring my biological family–mother, brother, and sister–from Korea to America and help them get started—jobs, house, whatever they need. Father passed away one week later after I visited them for the first time since I was adopted.
4) Buy a sweet-ass convertible car, become a country club member so I can play golf everyday.
5) Invest the money, make some donations, pass on to families/friends.

FIVE BAD HABITS:

1) Make too much assumptions
2) Being lazy or procrastinating
3) Eat damn too fast (my friends think I should join speed-eating contests
4) Take naps, then stay up all night, and end up sleeping late
5) Getting restless easily

FIVE FAVORITE TOYS:

1) my computer
2) my 2004 honda civic si
3) my sidekick II
4) my digital tempstat
5) my pen – I can spin my pen around my thumb

FIVE THINGS I WOULD NEVER WEAR:

1) leather pants
2) those thick colorful knit sweaters
3) turtleneck sweaters
4) overalls
5) really baggy black jeans with a chain to look gothic

and finally…
FIVE PEOPLE I TAG:

Kyung
Jeff
Mike
David
Joshua

Top-selling vehicles, 2005 and 2004.

Interesting, the top 4 vehicles aren’t a car but a truck. Toyota Camry and Corolla outsell Honda Accord and Civic. No sight of any germany vehicles in here.

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