Supporting Evidence for Previous Post

Here are some disturbing articles I happened to come across yesterday.

Myth: Toilet Seats Are the Dirtiest Thing in the Bathroom
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Health/story?id=1213831&page=1

Fast-Food Ice Dirtier Than Toilet Water
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=1641825&page=1

Horror Stories from Ground Zero

I was in the men's room around lunch time... While I was peeing, somebody flushed in one of the two stalls, got out of the stall, and proceeded to walk straight out of the men's room. I heard nothing from the faucet, nothing from the sink, and nothing from the paper towel dispenser... no nothing... Is it me, or does this sound rather fishy?? o_O I don't know what's worse; peeing without washing hands, or pooing without washing hands. I wonder how these kind of people live with themselves. =T

The only clue I have to this person's identity is his white sneakers. (And I have a hunch about who it might be) I hope I don't have to shake hands with this guy in my lifetime.

So after the nasty guy left, I heard someone in the other stall mutter: "c'mon now". (*scratches head and wonders what was going on*)

OK. I think I'm going to use the restrooms on the other floors more often from now on.

Nice Chinese Girl

I've been asked the question, "What do you look for in a girl?" on a number of different occasions. It usually goes something like this:

"So what do you look for in a girl?" [The person tries not to laugh]
"Um... I don't know... What do you mean?"
"What's your ideal girl?"
"Mmmmm.... I guess it depends. But I really don't have any set requirements. It's all a fuzzy blob in my head, really."
"So you'll settle for anything and everything that moves, breathes, and resembles a girl?!?!" Pfffffft
[Awkward pause while the questioner rolls on the ground while laughing]

I've thought about this topic from time to time, but I never had any luck in coming up with a definitive list of qualities I look for in a girl. When it comes to describing how I think, the word "fuzzy" fits just about right. Things generally have a good fuzzy feeling or bad fuzzy feeling. My friends all have a good fuzzy feeling; better friends, better fuzzy feeling. People/things I hate... bad fuzzy feeling. It's like my gut feeling, except... fuzzier. So whoever that girl is, I better have a good fuzzy feeling about her, dammit.

I'm not sure how this happens, but I usually end up with "a nice Chinese girl" description in the end, after some thinking. However, I generally don't get much further than that.

The word "nice" pretty much covers everything I would ever think of. The girl has to be nice, because if she's not nice in my books, then I probably wouldn't have considered in the first place. Since I can't offer more specific descriptions, "nice" is just an umbrella term for the time being.

Before people get all PC on me and ask, "What?! Are you racist? Why only Chinese?!" I need to clarify and better explain myself. I guess I never had any strict requirement for the girl to be Chinese. However, I bring it up just because I realized at some point that I would appreciate it if she were Chinese. I figured that it'd be easier if she spoke Mandarin Chinese, and better yet, Taiwanese. It would make communication with family and relatives so much easier. I just don't think I want to make my grandmother learn English in order to communicate with her. It's just awkward when you're limited to only smiles, nods, and gestures. I suppose it wouldn't really be a problem if the girl turned out to have blond hair, blue eyes, and spoke both Mandarin and Taiwanese. Also, I would like my kid(s) to speak Chinese fluently, if possible, and it does help if both parents are fluent as well.

And I guess in terms of physical appearance, I've always felt that it's kinda unfair to list stuff like "she must be pretty", or "she must be tall", or "she must be cute", since I wouldn't want her to expect whatever is equivalent from me. Though, I suppose it doesn't hurt to aim higher anyway, with my dashing good looks and other-worldly sexiness. (*rawr*)

So anyway, during my 6-hour drive back from LA last Sunday, some of the words I've been searching for all this time *finally* popped up in my head. This topic came up at some point during my weekend in LA, and it's been nagging in the back of my head ever since I somehow ended up with the "nice Chinese girl" requirement again.

I decided to jot down these descriptions, for recording purposes, but won't really go into much detail. It will probably ruin it if I try to explain too much anyway, like my long, pointless explaination of "nice Chinese girl" above.

• She must have a kind and gentle heart. It is what it is... nothing more, nothing less.
• She must be caring and considerate.
• She must be understanding. I know I have many flaws; what I'm aware of, I try to alleviate or correct it within reason, but I am not and cannot be perfect. I try my best, and I hope she understands.
• She must have determination/perserverance. Life is a long journey, and there are many bumps along the way. Though problems could seem impossible at times, nothing can't be overcome. I gripe about my problems, but I don't like to back down and give up on things. It's important that she has similar feelings about this and is willing to take on challenges.
• She must be playful/have good sense of humor. this is kinda related to the "cute" description you often see. what's cute? Being young at heart, taking things in stride and having a good sense of humor.

As much as I wish it were as simple as just making a list and checking things off the list everytime I meet someone, I just don't think it's all that reasonable. I am much too logical/reasonable to believe in ever meeting someone who will possess all these traits (and whatever else I come up with later). I'm not saying that it's impossible. I just think that something like this only happens in movies. And even if someone does meet all my criteria, that doesn't mean there will be attraction either, does it? (I'm sure Mother Teresa fits my descriptions, but she's not my type xÞ) Ultimately, I expect to find someone who possesses some combination of these traits to various degrees (we'll just say that she's "nice"); it's negotiable as long as the attraction is there. Love is about accepting both the good and the bad. =)

I only hope that I would realize it when I finally meet this person.

[All this thinking really hurts my head.]

What Do You Think?

http://kevan.org/johari?name=robchang

This a test that checks your awareness of your own personality. Could be interesting.... since I'm one of the most disconnected people I know (in terms of how my inner perception maps to the reality).

You choose 5 or 6 positive adjectives describing a person, by clicking on them (the box turns white), and see how your choices compare to other people's choices.

And, gotta take the bad with the good.... so here's Nohari, the inversion of Johari. In this case, you list out 5 or 6 BAD descriptions.

http://kevan.org/nohari?name=robchang

Random Thought #3

You know, it's been quite some time, and I'm still seeing news about protests and violence over the controversial Danish prophet cartoons (link to the cartoon with the turban being a bomb). In the end, both sides are wrong, and they should just leave it at that, and move on to bigger and better things, like world peace or sending someone to Mars.

First of all, it was wrong of the cartoonists and the newspapers for publishing the cartoons in the first place. Everyone is entitled to his/her own beliefs. Freedom of speech is great and all, but it should not be used as an excuse to incite and provoke reactions. If you already know that Islamic law prohibits any depiction of the prophet Mohammad to prevent idolatry, then you shouldn't be drawing these cartoons and make them public. It was also wrong of all the other newspapers that decided to reprint the cartoons in the name of "free speech." That was very, very inconsiderate. It can get really personal when you start provoking people, specially when religion is involved.

I read an article today on how they now have bounties on the cartoonists (link to news). I may not be that religious, and I'm definitely not a Muslim. But... dude, I cannot believe that any self-respecting religion would advice its followers to kill, or exact revenge. Just get over it already! Yes, it's wrong for the newspapers/cartoonists to do what they did. They'll probably burn in hell, have bad karma, or reincarnate as slugs... depending on your religion. Isn't that already enough punishment? I'm not saying that Islam is the only religion that has ever caused its followers to kill (remember the crusades?), but everyone should take a step back and look at the fundamental values in these religions.

I propose that we ship all the drugs found in the tunnels under the US-Mexico border to all the regions of conflict around the world. Maybe people will argue less if they're high and happy.

Plight of Engineers

Happy Valentine's Day

Was having a friendly debate with a friend about the significance of V-day.....

Friend: doing anything for this special day?
Me: v-day, x-mas....etc... they're all just marketing ploy
Me: everyday should be special day
Friend: if everyday is special day, then they cease to be special
Me: no... they're all special days
Friend: so you need specially special day
Me: don't need no stupid holiday to do something extra nice
Friend: but you see, ppl don't do somethign special nice those days
Friend: that's why
Friend: use this day to make it happen
Me: yes.. special occassions are only reserved for holidays
Me: i can see it now.... "hey hon, you know how today is veteran's day? well, since i figured that marriage is like a war, i bought you these flowers... and a new mop"
Friend: hahaha
Friend: dude
Friend: that's great
Friend: you shoudl publish a book with quotes like those!
Me: i am hilariously funny =)
Friend: dude, i think that one needs to be made into a t shirt
Friend: dude, you got more of those quotes?
Friend: we can sell t shirts online!

Anybody wanna start a online t-shirt shop? =)

Random Thought #2

Apparently none of my managers or co-workers have anything to do today. So, it was decided last week that a conference call is needed tonight from 9pm to 10pm (and likely to go over, from my experience) to discuss a new product we're about to take on. I hope their SOs or spouses are happy with this kind of dedication to work. Not that I have too much personal time, but I still like to think that I try to keep my personal time away from work, well... personal.

After working in this group over the past few years, I'm beginning to notice that, while the management has been stingy with the headcount, our responsibilities have been growing steadily. I guess we learn to work smarter and faster to cope with everything, but still, having to handle so many different products and releases simultaneously just kills my productivity. I used to deal with 1 or 2 releases at any given time. For the past few months, it's been about 3 releases, as we're pushing to get some free database product out the door soon.

A free database product is a great idea and all... good for gaining mindshare. But these trigger-happy release managers need to realize that this free database does not earn the company any money, and need to get off my case for putting higher priority on other releases that do generate revenue and affect the company's bottom line. Putting out a free version of the database is only to delay the inevitable, as the database market is mature and the database is a cheap commodity these days. There's mySQL, and Microsoft's SQL Server Express, to name a few. The database will end up like Linux. Free and open source. You want money? Gotta offer premium service and support for the customers.

Oh yes, I was saying that they need to get off my case because there's only 1 of me. I'm half of the entire installation QA team that my employer has to offer this side of the Pacific. They want more productivity? Hire more. Not just in India; because the quality of talents there is dropping, the wages rising, and the companies are practically kissing asses to try to keep their talents from bolting for better, higher-paying positions offered by the next outsourcing company. It wouldn't hurt to decrease the headcount there a little and hire another person or two here. I swear we'd get so much more done if we actually kept the ratio of engineers about equal between the US and off-shore, than having just one of me deal with several foreign engineers.

Random Thought #1

Just a random thought. It occurred to me that if you're trying to get over someone, or if you want to block all means of communication with someone, you probably shouldn't try to find out what that person is doing.... i.e. not checking with his/her friends, going through mutual friends, reading websites/blogs, using search engines, stalking through chat programs or blogs. No investigations, no feelers, no info, no problem.

Salads

When I get lunch at work, the food usually comes with some sort of side salad. I don't have anything against vegetables, cooked or raw, but I don't like it when they start getting "creative" and mess with my salad.

I like MANLY salads (dunno if this is an oxymoron, or if such a term even exists). I like it straight up: leaves/stems, dressing, and nuts (from time to time). I don't like other random crap that they try to toss on these salads to jazz things up a bit. I don't like strange moldy/smelly cheeses (stick to the basic American/Swiss/cheddar/mozarella/parmesan); I don't like random fruit bits cut in funny ways (fruits and vinegar/oil just don't mix); I don't like having to spend any time picking out the items listed above; I especially don't like strange, foul, cheesy surprises in my mouth after failing to detect a stranded bit stuck to the underside of a leave, like Millenium Falcon inside an asteriod in Star Wars Episode V. Just.... leave my salads alone.

Random Blurbs A-Coming

My thought process has been a mess lately... waaaay too many things going on. So, I've decided to try dumping more crap onto my blog and see if this helps offload some of the burden from my head.

As a result, there might be more postings on a random basis.

Bad Morning

Went to bed at 1am last night, and was somewhat awake by 7:30am this morning. It just seems strange since I don't usually wake up that early. And I'm supposed to be dead tired from making my roundtrip to LA this weekend too.

It just seems like I haven't been sleeping as well lately. My body is used to not sleeping in (unlike back in college when the concept of morning classes didn't exist) anymore, and it really doesn't help when I stay up really late. I've also had a lot to think about, both consciously and subconsciously, in terms of life, work, and myself, and that just adds to this whole jumble of sleep-deprived mess. What's worse is that when I go to bed, my body feels dead-tired, but my mind seems to be fairly alert. So it actually takes me some time to fall asleep.

I vaguely remember waking up in the middle of the night a number of times. I think I was having nightmares or something, because there was a sense of fright, but I don't know why I felt scared, or what I was dreaming about. I am a wimp when it comes to scary things, so I don't really want to know what I was dreaming about.

Anyways, my throat felt like something *could* be developing, so I tried to sleep it off some more. After another hour or so of tossing and turning, I finally got up, with the I-think-I-might-be-getting-sick feeling in my throat still. At least I'm not hacking away like when I got super duper sick a month and a half ago. I think that's a good sign. =)

Maybe I need a vacation.

Time to work.

Nutella!

While in Costco the other day, I came across nutella. The dark, nutty, buttery, silky-smooth, butt-enlarging, chocolate hazelnut spread that I first tried in college. So they sell them in packs of 2. Each jar is 750g, which makes it a total of 1.5kg of nutella ecstacy (or for those metric-system-challenged individuals, it's about 3.3lbs). I took some pictures using a standard coke can as reference.



Before you rush off to your local Costco, it seems like not all Costcos have this. =)