So, using the DBD for selfish purposes, a friend of mine (who is from Tennessee) and his girlfriend (London) are moving from Shanghai to the US at the end of the year. He works for one of the really large global real estate companies (JLL) and does sustainable programs.

He has two choices in his next stop - New York (BOOOO!) and San Francisco (Yay!)

He asked me "What do I recommend about the Bay Area?" - he's from the South, has never lived anywhere except Tenneessee and Shanghai - so only has the stereotypical idea about California in general and the Bay Area specifically.

So - help me put together an email for him and his girlfriend. They're youngish (late and mid 20s) - competative, somewhat outdoorsy, eat, go to brunches, volunteer.

Since I haven't lived in the Bay Area since 1996 and haven't even been in the Bay Area since 2010, I thought I'd ask for y'alls help. Because as much as I like them, I don't think Top Dog and Cal football would convince them over New York.

So why would the Bay Area be the right choice? (JLL's offices are both in the City and on the Peninsula - so I didn't recommend them living in the East Bay. He mentioned that they might not buy a car for a year as well)

Quit liking cheesy things ironically - alright? I actually like Journey, Hall & Oates, Wham!, and lots of 80s music unironically. On the real. Seriously. Without a hint of humor.

Dammit. Word count is short. Here's the lyrics to Journey's Faithfully:

Highway run
Into the midnight sun
Wheels go round and round
You're on my mind

Restless hearts
Sleep alone tonight
Sending all my love along the wire
They say that the road
Ain't no place to start a family
Right down the line it's been you and me
And loving a music man
Ain't always what it's supposed to be
Oh Girl
You stand by me
I'm forever yours
Faithfully
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/journey/faithfully_20075719.html ]
Circus life
Under the big top world
We all need the clowns to make us smile

Through space and time
Always another show
Wondering where I am lost without you
And being apart ain't easy on this love affair
Two strangers learn to fall in love again
I get the joy of rediscovering you
Oh girl
You stand by me
I'm forever yours
Faithfully

Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh oh
Faithfully
I'm still yours
I'm forever yours
Ever yours
Faithfully

Good morning Americans!

Today I started my new job. boomtho just started his last week. Some other people have also just recently started. What are your first day of work stories?

So far I have turned in my documents - photocopies of my diploma, bank card, Hong Kong ID card, Passport and China work visa, picked up my new laptop (Lenovo Thinkpad x220) chosen stationary.

I was supposed to attend orientation, however, the HR person in charge is not here today, so next week i'll learn about my company's policies and how things are done. So I'm just sitting here with the office supply catalog (Chinese staplers suck, I actually bring my own from the US) and nothing to do for now (my boss has been running in and out of meetings all morning)

Here's a good one:

Vanessa Redgrave and family

 

Last updated at 10:00 PM on 2nd September 2011

 

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Our serialisation of a forthcoming book about the actress Vanessa Redgrave and her family on 7th May included the allegation that she had once found her husband in bed with her father. We accept that this incident did not take place and we sincerely apologise to Vanessa Redgrave and her family for the distress and embarrassment caused.

Link

I think the Cal Bears won something on Saturday.

Once you've quit and are waiting out your last days at a job, it can become dull. I still have work to do, plus I need to really start working on my handover lists and what it is exactly that I do around here, but suddenly I have a lot more downtime when I don't need to sit in on meetings about things for things I won't be here for. 

Also, since my current job is supposed to work on strategy for my future competitor, we've really decided that I won't be working on that part of my job at all - I am supposed to help the person I'm handing it over to though - but that's because he's never done pivot table analysis and isn't up to date on the industry in general.

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It's interesting - people think because so-and-so owns a Leica/Nikon/Canon/'Blad etc, they are a good photographer. And on the converse that if they only have a cell phone camera, they necessarily cannot take good photos. 

It's so much about the eye rather than the tools. Here are some of my favorite photos taken with an iPhone.

via farm4.static.flickr.com

via farm6.static.flickr.com

(via ZeHaK!)

Véspera de feriado em São Paulo (via Marco_Y)

international (via di_jo)

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I give you this:

Location: Fightertown USA

<cue music>

I'd say it was the right time
To walk away
When dreaming takes you nowhere
It's time to play
Bodies working overtime
Your money don't matter
The clock keeps ticking
When someone's on your mind

via www.qnetwork.com

I'm moving in slow motion
Feels so good
It's a strange anticipation
Knock, knock, knocking on wood
Bodies working overtime
Man against man
And all that ever matters
Is baby who's ahead in the game
Funny but it's always the same

via unrealitymag.com

[Chorus]
Playing, playing with the boys
Playing, playing with the boys
After chasing sunsets
One of life's simple joys
Is playing with the boys

via www.zadanews.com

Said it was the wrong thing
For me to do
I said it's just a boys' game
Girls play too
My heart is working overtime
In this kind of game
Someone gets hurt
I'm afraid that someone is me
If you want to find me, I'll be
Playing with the boys

via www.tomcruisefan.com

I don't want to be the moth around your fire
I don't want to be obsessed by your desire
I'm ready, I'm leaving
I've seen enough
I've got to go
You play too rough

via malialitman.files.wordpress.com

via www.amoeba.com

Pop Quiz, hotshot - without the googles, which movies did these come from?

1. My brain is like oatmeal. I yelled at Kenny today for coloring outside the lines! Megan and I are starting to watch the same TV shows, and I'm liking them! I'm losing it.

2. You're everyone's problem. That's because every time you go up in the air, you're unsafe. I don't like you because you're dangerous.

3. I'll see you at the party Richter!

4. A: "Who do you favor in the Virginia Slims tournament?"

B: "In women's tennis, I always root against the heterosexual."

5. A: Here's to the army and navy and the battles they have won. Here's to America's Colors - the colors that never run!

B: May the wings of liberty never lose a feather

6. Oh, for pete's sake. He's fleein' the interview. He's fleein' the interview!

7.Got me my Cheeze Whiz, boy?

8.Sonny, true love is the greatest thing in the world. Except for a nice MLT: a mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomato is ripe. They're so perky, I love that.

9.  We're going to the ice-cream factory and see how ice-cream is made. Now anybody who doesn't wanna go can get off right here.

10. This is a dude who, 700 years ago, totally ravaged China, and who, we were told, two hours ago totally ravaged Oshman's Sporting Goods.

Answers after the jump

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Jabberwocky ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:

Long time the manxome foe he sought—

So rested he by the Tumtum tree,

And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,

The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?

Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"

He chortled in his joy.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

Aside from places I've lived or had work projects, Tokyo is the place I've visited the most. And there's lots of crazy things about Tokyo, but the craziest is Shibuya Crossing. 

From wikipedia:

Shibuya is famous for its scramble crossing. It is located in front of the Shibuya Station Hachiko exit and stops vehicles in all directions to allow pedestrians to inundate the entire intersection. Three large TV screens mounted on nearby buildings overlook the crossing. The Starbucks store overlooking the crossing is also one of the busiest in the world

I took some photos when I was there last week.

via i52.tinypic.com

(Gosh I hope this works - if not the gif is here)

I almost bought another new camera over Christmas, and then I sat around and wondered why I would even need a new camera. (except for the old adage about appropriate amount of cameras to own is x+1 where x is the amount of cameras you currently own.)

But I like photography. I don't think I'm very good at it, but in the interest of creating another DBD and proving to myself that I really don't need the Olympus EP-2, here's some of my favorite shots I've taken over the last 4 years (with my Nikon d80 and my Ricoh GR 2)

This is a sunset over La Pederia in Barcelona Spain, taken with my Nikon d80. Shot at around 7:10pm, Nikon 18-135mm, at 18mm, f3.5, 1/6, ISO 400.

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It's 7pm Shanghai time and there's no new DBD. So here, I'm writing it.

1. My favorite current player:

Chuck Hayes (Modesto's finest!)

Dude is the best post defender I've ever seen - especially considering his height and size. Quick hands, great feet, anticipation. You just stick him on power forwards and centers and watch their stats decline.

via www.nba.com

2. Best offensive team - Argentina 2000 - 2004

via news.xinhuanet.com

Okay this is a bit dated, but the best offensive performance I've ever seen was the 2002 Argentina team killing Team USA in the World Championships. Such a thing of beauty - like watching Barcelona toy with opponents.

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Lots of people have made really wrong predictions in life. Perhaps no one has ever gotten it this wrong.

From Newsweek, 1995 Clifford Stole

 

The Internet? Bah!
Hype alert: Why cyberspace isn’t, and will never be, nirvana

After two decades online, I’m perplexed. It’s not that I haven’t had a gas of a good time on the Internet. I’ve met great people and even caught a hacker or two. But today, I’m uneasy about this most trendy and oversold community. Visionaries see a future of telecommuting workers, interactive libraries and multimedia classrooms. They speak of electronic town meetings and virtual communities. Commerce and business will shift from offices and malls to networks and modems. And the freedom of digital networks will make government more democratic.Baloney.

Do our computer pundits lack all common sense? The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.

Consider today’s online world. The Usenet, a worldwide bulletin board, allows anyone to post messages across the nation. Your word gets out, leapfrogging editors and publishers. Every voice can be heard cheaply and instantly. The result? Every voice is heard. The cacophany more closely resembles citizens band radio, complete with handles, harrasment, and anonymous threats. When most everyone shouts, few listen. How about electronic publishing? Try reading a book on disc. At best, it’s an unpleasant chore: the myopic glow of a clunky computer replaces the friendly pages of a book. And you can’t tote that laptop to the beach. Yet Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we’ll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Intenet. Uh, sure.

What the Internet hucksters won’t tell you is tht the Internet is one big ocean of unedited data, without any pretense of completeness. Lacking editors, reviewers or critics, the Internet has become a wasteland of unfiltered data. You don’t know what to ignore and what’s worth reading. Logged onto the World Wide Web, I hunt for the date of the Battle of Trafalgar. Hundreds of files show up, and it takes 15 minutes to unravel them–one’s a biography written by an eighth grader, the second is a computer game that doesn’t work and the third is an image of a London monument. None answers my question, and my search is periodically interrupted by messages like, “Too many connectios, try again later.”

Won’t the Internet be useful in governing? Internet addicts clamor for government reports. But when Andy Spano ran for county executive in Westchester County, N.Y., he put every press release and position paper onto a bulletin board. In that affluent county, with plenty of computer companies, how many voters logged in? Fewer than 30. Not a good omen.

Point and click:Then there are those pushing computers into schools. We’re told that multimedia will make schoolwork easy and fun. Students will happily learn from animated characters while taught by expertly tailored software.Who needs teachers when you’ve got computer-aided education? Bah. These expensive toys are difficult to use in classrooms and require extensive teacher training. Sure, kids love videogames–but think of your own experience: can you recall even one educational filmstrip of decades past? I’ll bet you remember the two or three great teachers who made a difference in your life.

Then there’s cyberbusiness. We’re promised instant catalog shopping–just point and click for great deals. We’ll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obselete. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month?Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the Internet–which there isn’t–the network is missing a most essential ingredient of capitalism: salespeople.

What’s missing from this electronic wonderland? Human contact. Discount the fawning techno-burble about virtual communities. Computers and networks isolate us from one another. A network chat line is a limp substitute for meeting friends over coffee. No interactive multimedia display comes close to the excitement of a live concert. And who’d prefer cybersex to the real thing? While the Internet beckons brightly, seductively flashing an icon of knowledge-as-power, this nonplace lures us to surrender our time on earth. A poor substitute it is, this virtual reality where frustration is legion and where–in the holy names of Education and Progress–important aspects of human interactions are relentlessly devalued.

What things have you really gotten wrong? 

*Actual paraphrased title of a pamphlet I purchased in North Korea, authored by Kim Jong Il

Just wanted to share some photos from my trip

Kim il Sung Stadium

Mansudae Grand Monument

Monument to the Glorious Fatherland Liberation War

Two notes - the guy on the left is shooting a machine gun with his mouth because he has no arms the guy on the right is missing a right arm and his left is heavily bandaged - so he's carrying a grenade in his teeth

In the background is the Ryugyong Hotel also known as the hotel of doom and the worst building in the world.

Mass Games - there are over 5,000 gymnasts and dancers on the field at any one time. That DPRK flag in the background? Those are 8,000 (or more) junior high school kids doing card stunts. Unbelievable.

The DMZ - what Bill Clinton described as the scariest place in the world. You can see tourists on the South Korean side and half of my tour group leaving the building in the middle. Where the dirt changes to concrete is the demarcation line - and soldiers spend all day staring each other down. Tense place.

The President and the General - this was in Kaesong

Monument to the Three Charters of Reunification

Like I said, it was the most interesting place I've ever been. Sad. Crazy. All in one.

I have a lot more photos - over 380 to be exact. If you're interested in seeing them, leave a note below and I'll email you the site they're on.

Chancellor Tien was the 8th Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, and served as Chancellor from 1990 through 1997.

I think more than any other post-FSM Chancellor, Chancellor Tien was the embodiment of the campus spirit. He not only fought vigoriously to protect the academic strength of the University, while being the first Chancellor since the FSM to support the idea of top flight athletics co-existing harmoniously with Cal's reputation as one of the top universities in the world.

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Last night Team China played a game in Qingdao against Argentina's . . .well, I think it was like their C squad. I have spent all morning looking for the box score, but I can't seem to find it - but most importantly for us, Max Zhang came off the bench and did some stuff.

Also, this was the debut of the black China uniforms, so that was pretty cool.

I'm going to dig around when I find some time this afternoon, but I read some of the game reports it sounds like he was good and mobile and changed some shots on defense, but awkward and not very fluid on offense. (My reading Chinese is not great - so maybe geofreak or yellow fever or someone else could take a look too)

There's an post-practice interview with him here -  again, no time to sit down and translate (its in Chinese of course) - maybe I'll work on it tonight.

Most importantly - photos. BIG MAX! (after the jump)

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