We can officially blame the lack of blogging to G. Now that he is in Boston for a few days to recruit for Y, I am back! In college and when I was living by myself in Waltham, I felt the urge to blog when I turned off the TV, dimmed the lights, and put on nostalgia-invoking music. Though this aspect of my life hasn’t changed much, an update is still overdue.
So, it’s been more than one year since G. and I moved over to Silicon Valley. How does life here compare to Boston? Here are some highlights:
Pro. The weather is always amazing. Like 60s to 80s in the summer with no humidity or rain. And 40s to 60s in the winter, which is California’s rainy season. When I first heard “rainy season,” I thought it was some monsoon season with rain for forty days and forty nights. No, no. Rainy season here merely means that rain is a possibility.
Neutral. There are a bunch of Asian people here, particular Chinese and Indian people. There are some Asian people who have been here for generations, some whose parents immigrated here, and some who went to grad school in the United States and stayed behind. There are two Chinese bilingual channels on T.V. And at work, there are intramural cricket leagues. And if you walk around from one table to another table in the G. cafes, you can hear all sorts of different Chinese dialects (and not just Mandarin and Cantonese either).
Con. There is a lack of diversity in careers. It’s easy to play the name game at parties, because everyone works for some big tech company, or once worked for some big tech company before they decided to try their own startup. When I give people a vague description of what I do with two words that are essentially meaningless, “product” and “management,” everyone knows exactly what my job function is. Phrases like “Web 2.0” and “real-time auction” and “angel funding” are at the tips of everyone’s tongues. This sort of makes me gag, but c’est la vie.
Con. You have to drive everywhere. I once decided to run errands without a car, and it took me no less than four hours to (1) drop off a pair of pants to be tailored and (2) pick up some stuff at the pharmacy. Our corporate campus is now so spread out that when I don’t feel like hopping on one of those communal bikes or don’t have the time to wait for a looping shuttle, I will actually drive just to go to a meeting.
So, that’s life in general. And then there’s work. Work has been great. I’ve been lucky to have good managers and really interesting projects. It’s true that the Gplex is sort of like its own little commune. There’s the food, laundry, video game systems, gym, masseuses, communal bikes, shuttle buses, cars you can borrow to go run errands, airport shuttles, and the food. It’s one thing to serve gourmet meals three times a day and have fresh home-made snacks at all hours of the day, but the most ridiculous new development is tea time, when the kitchen staff push around a cart with teas, finger sandwiches, and scones du jour. What the heck? One part of me is like, damn, I am so lucky. And the other part is like, damn, this is so extravagant and wasteful. Let's feed some kids.
Word-of-mouth marketing at its very best: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FahBBnfHAQ
Cost = $0 Impressions (as of today) = 489,200
Why can't the users for one of our products create a catchy video and give us free eyeballs like this? We really need to tap into the creative juices of the college students demographic.
AJ and Bekah had a blind food-tasting party last night. I'll let him post the details, but essentially, we blindly tasted foods like: generic cheddar cheese versus expensive cheddar cheese, organic locally grown apples versus cheaper supermarket apples, 1% milk versus 2% milk, Coke versus Pepsi, etc. The results were fascinating and convinced me that perhaps marketing isn't so fluffy of a career after all. :)
I'm trying to get into the habit of posting to this journal again, and my attempts have included long-ass summaries of I've been up to since my last post. Needless to say, that was too much work and I just never posted. Now, I shall get back into the swing of LJ postings by starting with a very short and simple entry about the Dixie Chicks and the Grammys:
I am not suggesting that the Dixie Chicks won so many awards last night because of the political tide turning or anything (though that seems to be a very strong possibility), but I felt that the comments they made and others made when receiving or presenting the awards were in poor taste. It's one thing to express your personal opinions about the war to your fans and audience members. But it's another to gloat about it and flaunt this sort of victory in front of a national audience. A little modesty can go a long way.
Hooray, the Chinese government is finally sticking up for its people and putting human rights ahead of economic growth and attracting foreign investments. The government's policies have fluctuated dramatically from pro-capitalism to pro-socialism and back in the last century, and is finally adjusting and finding a happy medium. I've always personally believed it's not up to the foreign companies to come up with standards for sweatshops, but the country's responsbility to ensure that its people are not being exploited. Now that China has some bargaining power (richer and still home to the largest labor force), it can finally push back. I still believe that every country that currently harbors foreign sweat shop labor will eventually push back when it has the economic and political power to do so. I hope this is the first example in a trend.
California life is still going pretty well. The only furniture left to buy is a bigger TV and a coffee table. We've also been pretty social -- hung out with AJ and Genevieve in Berkeley a few weekends ago, and then went on a 30-person hiking trip organized by Karen Guo this past weekend.
Work is going well too. Silicon Valley life is pretty interesting, especially since we are supposedly in the middle of the bubble 2.0 and Grant and I work for rival companies that are apparently bidding against each other for all these expensive (ahem, overvalued, ahem), youth-oriented, social-networking internet firms. It's hard for everyday conversation (both at work and at home) to deviate much from discussing the latest internet trend, acquisition rumor, funny video, etc. I figure that if and when this bubble bursts, I will likely be laid off, and that will be a convenient and timely transition into motherhood.
In the meantime, work is pretty interesting. My current role is more of a business development one than actual marketing / product launches. Compared to past jobs, it's more high level, less micro-management. I get to design the projects so implementing them makes much more sense to me. I only do analysis that I think will help make a decision. But of course, because of the additional responsibility, I am also much more accountable for actual results and targets. I am grateful that after 3 years of working full time, I have finally moved on to a non-entry level job.
Anyway, enjoy the photos from the Muir Woods trip. The hiking trail was actually a lot more adventurous than I thought it would be. For much of the trip, we had to walk carefully on a 2-ft wide path along the side of mountains. And the amazing thing was that when you look down, you barely see the bottom of the redwood trees, when you look up, you barely see the top of the redwood trees.
Pretty light.
We hiked 7.5 miles like this, one person walking behind another.
I think it was lady bug mating season, because these bugs were going at it! They were all over the forest. We must' stepped on a million of them throughout the day.
Look how tall the trees were!
We came across this peak after taking a wrong turn somewhere around Ocean View trail and Lost trail.
After the 7.5 mile hike, we rewarded ourselves with a high calorie and satisfying dinner in SF's Chinatown. Genevieve and I said hello to another 2003 Quincy house blocking group at the restaurant, having a reunion of their very own. Afterwards, we walked through a night market and watched sailors (Fleet Week) pick up hot Miss Chinatowns (pageant night).
Grant and I have lived in California for a month and a half, and I’ve already been working for a month now. We’re getting used to the monotonous but perfect weather every day, the suburban life, and the driving. Our apartment now is approximately 3 times the square footage of our Boston apartment (we each have our own bathroom) and smells infinitely times better (pine trees instead of kitchen grease). On the downside, we no longer live in the middle of Copley Square, and a 10 minute walk brings us to the downtown area of our suburb – a street stretching about 4 blocks long of (primarily Asian) restaurants and shops.
Work has been going well. I’m getting lots of responsibility early on which is very nice. What I am most impressed by is the company culture – it really feels more like a college campus than a corporation. All the buildings are spread out, so I sometimes end up walking for 5 minutes just to get to a meeting. Distinguished politicians, authors, and scientists are often invited on campus to give talks. Rock bands are invited to perform. Starting at 5pm, you can see various clubs – juggling club, volleyball club – gather around to practice “after work”. Everywhere, there are flyers advertising various extracurricular organizations – book club, volunteer opportunities, fitness clubs. Of course, the breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks are just amazing. No expense is spared in the preparation of these free, delicious, organic, and gourmet meals. (Think ceviche bar, and seared scallops, pumpkin ravioli, and duck confit in a single lunch.) Other than the amenities and activities, the culture is also pretty unique. Everything is surprisingly open and everyone is encouraged to be social and active. People are expected to schedule in lunches to socialize with co-workers they may not work with and gym / meditation time.
Grant and I have also done some fun things on the weekends. The most recent of which was sailing in the bay with my friend Vicky, her boyfriend Bo, and some of his friends.
Here are some photos:
The dock in Sausalito
The boat we rented
Look how tilted our boat was
Highlight of the trip: sailing under the Golden Gate (This picture is very misleading. My hands are merely hovering over the steering wheel. The person who actually knows how to sail is standing to my left driving.)
The beginning of summer seemed like such a long time ago. I knew that it would end with a move to California, but there were so many other events in between – taking the GMAT, Grant’s thesis defense and graduation, our potential engagement – that the move seemed to be really far off. Instead of thinking about our leaving, I thought about the next upcoming event. Luckily these distractions prevented me from getting too sad about moving away. But now all of these things have been accomplished. I took the GMAT. Grant graduated. We are engaged. And the movers are coming tomorrow morning to move all of our furniture and possessions to California. Soon we will be settling into our new apartment and starting new jobs. I guess that’s how life happens. You anticipate certain events, they happen, you are kind of bewildered that these events took place at all, and you go on anticipating new events.
So this is not really the standard engagement post, but we are engaged! It happened about a week ago on our way to hand in Grant’s thesis. In his defense, the entire affair was much more romantic and well-planned than that. (: We celebrated with a semi-surprise announcement at a party this past Saturday. Everything has been happening so fast. It will take awhile for us to feel normal again.
So I am at my parents' home right now cleaning out boxes of stuff to prepare for my move to California. I came across some elementary school report cards. There was this section in the back for teacher and parent comments. An excerpt from third grade that made me laugh out loud:
First Quarter Teacher: F is doing excellent work in the third grade. Dad: Thank you very much for teaching F. English is F's weakness since it is her second language. Is it possible for you to give her more homework to practise? She is learning long division with two-digits divisor.
Second Quarter Teacher: F bubbles over with enthusiasm. She performs well in everything. Dad: Thank you. I still believe she needs more homework.
Haha. In my father's defense, I really did have poor English skills in early elementary school. He was probably used to the extra attention that my second grade teacher gave me. She worked extra hours with me and with my dad to help me catch up in reading skills. Thanks to her, I was able to go from knowing only parts of the alphabet to reading at the third grade level in a year. Good teachers are so valuable.
This is a New York Times articleon the Brookings Institution report of the "Ghetto Tax" paid by the urban poor. The main point is that the urban poor are often over-charged by businesses because they are less likely to comparison shop on the internet, less mobile to purchase goods elsewhere, more likely to pay high interest rates on items like televisions and cars, etc. Now, this may seem unfair and everything, but hey, we live in a capitalistic society and we can't expect these for-profit businesses to give up an opportunity on good old price-discrimination, even if it does mean that those who have less will sometimes end up paying more.
A type of "Ghetto Tax" that the article does not mention is a personal pet peeve. If anything qualifies as a "Ghetto Tax", it's the government lottery. This is truly a tax on the poor and desperate. At the very least, it's a tax on the risk-loving and statistically-challenged segments of the population. And what's worse is that this form of gambling is sponsored by the government and our tax dollars! The state government advertises about the wonders of the lottery on bill boards and on television during primetime hours! (I always groan disapprovingly whenever one of those tongue-in-cheek lottery advertisements for a private island organizer or gold bars counter comes on.) The function of the lottery is essentially a regressive form of taxation, where those who buy lottery tickets voluntarily subsidize through social benefits afforded by government funds the non-lottery-ticket buyers. Doesn't this system of the poor subsidizing the rich work against one of the specific purposes of taxation in the first place -- income redistribution? Down with the lottery!
In times of conflict, it's always interesting to read about how the issue is being covered from different points of view. The BBC has compiled the following excerpts.
I know the following topic isn’t the most popular to discuss readers of this blog, but I want to ask about it anyway. Why is it that the Caucasian male in an Asian female / Caucasian male couple is always accused to having the “Asian fetish”? Why isn’t the Asian female ever accused of having a Caucasian fetish of some sort? I’ve definitely heard my Asian girlfriends wax on about how they think German guys are hotter than Australian guys, or whatever – much like a bunch of White “Asian fetish” guys debating over whether they prefer Korean girls or Vietnamese girls.
Is it because it’s still more common for the guy to do the pursuing in the relationship? And we assume that since he plays the more active role and that the girl plays a more passive role, the White guy is the one with the fetish, whereas the Asian girl is just following along and will accept whomever regardless of the pursuer’s race? The Asian female is always labeled as the one who is selling out, as if there is Asians are become extinct as a race, and we all have to work hard to preserve the purity of the Asian race? Maybe because I've only heard about this topic from the point of Asian males, so it is easy to label the other race as the one with the fetish. Maybe White women sit around and gripe about how too many Asian women have too much of a Caucasian fetish nowadays. (Though I find this very hard to imagine.) Anyway, my point is if we are going to resort to accusing people of having fetishes, which I am sure is a small part of some relationships, I think we could at least accuse both members of the relationship of having some sort of fetish.
Coming back from Genevieve’s see-you-later dinner, Joanna and I experienced her 2nd worst and my very worst MBTA commute ever. The Red Line was down between the Kendall and Park Street stops, so a shuttle bus commuted people back and forth. While walking to the shuttle buses, there were two men dressed in ripped black dresses with studs and chains as accessories with their dog on a leash. They would encourage the dog to run after and bark aggressively at other commuters and command the dog to “Fuck him up! Yeah, fuck him up real good!” The men and dog got on one of the shuttle buses, Joanna and I decided to get on the other one. In hindsight, this was a bad choice.
The second shuttle bus was quite full but we were able to grab seats. A bunch of pre-clubbing young women who were scantily clad caught the eye of this one very drunk and belligerent man. Visual image: 300 pound, 5’10” white male in his 50s without front teeth. He started harassing one girl who was in a bikini and a low cut shirt, and to be honest, she didn’t seem to mind much and even told him it was her 21st birthday and later asked him to buy her a drink. He proceeded to do some sort of revolting strip tease for her, to the amusement of her friends and the disgust of the rest of the bus. We all looked the other way while shielding our eyes in case his hanging gut was in the line of our peripheral vision. The movement of his body and clothing caused his body odor to waft through the bus. This particular odor can be best described as 1 part vomit, 1 part feces, 1 part sweat, and 2 parts alcohol. Wanting to impress the young lady with his musical talent, he began to rap nonsense very loudly and gesture/dance belligerently. To engage his audience and make sure we all received a good view, he paced up and down the bus like some sort of rock star on stage at a concert. As though showing off his two talents of strip teasing and singing weren’t enough, he then began to share with us his acrobatic abilities. He repeatedly kicked up his feet so that they would hook over the handle bars on the bus, and then hang upside down from his feet and remain upside down for a minute or so, rapping nonsense the entire time. This act of rapping and flipping upside down and yelling and pacing up and down the bus went on continuously, without interruption, for the entire ride.
Now, I’ve taken T rides on weekend nights before and know to expect a few drunk and loud people, but this really tops them all. Though his verbal harassment of passengers and nauseating body odor were unpleasant parts of the ride, I accepted them as all part of weekend night commute. It was really his kicking his feet up and hanging by the bars that disturbed me. I was afraid that he would kick me in the head while kicking up to hang upside down, or that he would fall on me while he was hanging upside down. I was also convinced that he would fall on his head at some point and break his neck. Most of the passengers seemed pretty frustrated with the situation. Joanna and I held each other and consoled ourselves by memorizing the bus number and planning our complaint campaign. When we heard the bus driver finally calling someone and describing the situation, we were relieved, but then he started laughing and holding the phone toward the crazy man so that the other end could hear the rap. It turns out the driver was just calling a friend to share the fun times.
I am just glad that everyone got off that bus safely.
Okay, this was originally supposed to be a complaint letter, but I think I will tone down the sarcasm in the actual letter and post this to LJ instead.
Lots of stuff have happened since the last update:
1. I got a job offer on the west coast 2. I turned 25 3. I gave my notice at work (this Friday will be my last day) 4. Grant got two job offers on the west coast 5. I went to Chicago for a fun trip with my college roommates
I am very blessed. I have had the privilege of having supportive family members and friends all my life. There’s never been a moment in my life where I’ve felt really alone or unloved. This past Saturday was one of those days that made me realize how lucky I am to have so many friendships. I spent the afternoon with my college roommate friends and the night at dinner and bars with the married people friends. At both events, there was great conversation – the perfect combination of knowledge exchange, humor, and discussion. It will be very difficult to leave all these wonderful people when I move to the west coast. It’s a good thing that Grant and I are moving out there together and we will have some friends out there already.
Anyway, on a similar note, the 2006 second annual college roommate reunion in Chicago was a smashing success. Last year, Harriett came to Boston to see Joanna, Juliana, Genevieve and me in Boston. And this year, the four of us all went to Chicago to see her. We had a blast catching up and seeing the city -- it was actually the first Chicago trip for a couple of us. We did a ton of touristy things and ate very very well. Here are some touristy photographs from the trip:
1. Steppingstone (the non-profit at which Grant and I volunteer every Saturday morning) is credited for helping increase minority attendance at Boston Latin (my alma mater, and Boston's best public exam school).
2. It references an important but often ignored education issue where Black/Latino kids who do well in school are seen by their peers as trying to "act White" and traitors to their own identity and background.
3. One family recognized and tried to counter this destructive social phenomenon by emphasizing the importance of education in all aspects of their children's lives. They provided a "book-rich" environment that promoted intellectual curiousity. And named their son Stanford.
Widening Latin's portal April 11, 2006
A DRAMATIC and unanticipated jump in minority admissions at Boston's most prestigious high school calls for more than a round of congratulations. School officials can now determine if there is a relationship between specific academic enrichment programs and a 31 percent jump in the number of black and Hispanic students invited to Boston Latin School.
In 1999, minority enrollment fell sharply after the city retreated from a legal challenge to a 35 percent set-aside for black and Hispanic students, and has generally hovered at 16 to 18 percent. But this year, about one-quarter of the 460 students who met the strict requirements for Latin School are black or Hispanic. Academically, that is no small victory in a city struggling to close the achievement gap between white and minority students. The healthy bump in minority enrollment also reinforces Latin School's reputation as a place where low-income students can outperform students from the wealthiest school districts.
Part of this success belongs to the school department's Exam School Initiative, which scours the city's public schools for bright, motivated elementary school students and prepares them for the entrance exam. Last Saturday, roughly 200 of these fifth-graders accompanied by parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles wedged into the Latin School cafeteria to hear pitches from upperclassmen and administrators at the city's three exam schools, Latin, Latin Academy, and the O'Bryant. The stakes are highest for families living in poor neighborhoods drenched in anti-intellectualism.
''In some urban environments, it's cool to be a dummy," said Lester White, a driver from Mattapan. White said that he and his ex-wife always took care to provide a book-rich environment for their son Stanford, a fifth-grader at the Lee School in Dorchester. It has paid off in excellent grades and intellectual curiosity.
It's not enough to identify promising public school students. City officials need to ensure that their students can compete for Latin School seats with those now attending private and parochial schools. Much can be gained by examining academic histories. Seventeen of the successful applicants, for example, participated in the after-school and summer programs of the respected nonprofit Steppingstone enrichment program. Public school officials are now trying to determine how many attended their three-week summer test prep course offered each July. Once they determine what works, the next step should be to approach foundations and the generous Latin School alumni group to expand such opportunities.
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