I think this is my favorite quote out of George Carlin:

Why is the man (or woman) who invests all your money called a broker?

I'm not sure why I'm all of a sudden so facinated by George Carlin in the wake of his death. Its odd. Maybe its because I went to one of his comedy shows. Maybe it was because he's the narrator in those Thomas the Train videos that my kids so loved to watch. In anycase, I'm sad that you're gone, George. And I am thankful for the tidbits of wisdom that you have imparted on us.

In memory of George Carlin.... good night.

More quotes from George (Carlin)

• When someone asks you, A penny for your thoughts, and you put your two cents in, what happens to the other penny?
• If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, doesn't it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted?
• When someone is impatient and says, "I haven't got all day," I always wonder, How can that be? How can you not have all day?
• I thought about how mothers feed their babies with tiny little spoons and forks so I wondered, what do Chinese mothers use? Toothpicks?
• Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck.
• Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
• Before they invented drawing boards, what did they go back to?
• Why do croutons come in airtight packages? It's just stale bread to begin with.
• If the #2 pencil is the most popular, why is it still #2?
• "I am" is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that "I do" is the longest sentence?
• Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part to us, do they?
• Why is the man (or woman) who invests all your money called a broker?
• I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.
• The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done.
  

:-)

In Honor of George Carlin... (BASEBALL RULES!)

This is a reprint of George Carlin's classic bit "The Difference Between Baseball and Football." Excerpted from Brain Droppings by George Carlin, Copyright 1997, Comedy Concepts Inc. Published by Hyperion. All rights reserved.

Baseball & football are the two most popular spectator sports in this country. And as such, it seems they ought to be able to tell us something about ourselves and our values.
I enjoy comparing baseball and football:

• Baseball is a nineteenth-century pastoral game.
• Football is a twentieth-century technological struggle.
• Baseball is played on a diamond, in a park. The baseball park!
• Football is played on a gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier Field or War Memorial Stadium.
• Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life.
• Football begins in the fall, when everything's dying.
• In football you wear a helmet.
• In baseball you wear a cap.
• Football is concerned with downs — what down is it?
• Baseball is concerned with ups — who's up?
• In football you receive a penalty.
• In baseball you make an error.
• In football the specialist comes in to kick.
• In baseball the specialist comes in to relieve somebody.
• Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and unnecessary roughness.
• Baseball has the sacrifice.
• Football is played in any kind of weather: rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog...
• In baseball, if it rains, we don't go out to play.
• Baseball has the seventh inning stretch.
• Football has the two minute warning.
• Baseball has no time limit: we don't know when it's gonna end — might have extra innings.
• Football is rigidly timed, and it will end even if we've got to go to sudden death.
• In baseball, during the game, in the stands, there's kind of a picnic feeling; emotions may run high or low, but there's not too much unpleasantness.
• In football, during the game in the stands, you can be sure that at least twenty-seven times you're capable of taking the life of a fellow human being.

And finally, the objectives of the two games are completely different:

• In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy's defensive line.
• In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! — I hope I'll be safe at home!

I hope that I will be safe at "home" someday, the home that God has built for me. Farewell, George.

john

Working...

Working on Christmas eve really sucks. Oh well. I wish I was home with my kids. At least I get a free lunch... :-(

The Nissan GT-R GT500... I'll take 1x please.
 
wish I can see this in action... I guess I'll see it on YouTube when it debuts in '08... 

Can't wait... 

Kaitlyn slept through the night....

For the first time since she was born, Kaitlyn slept through the night!!!!  Her last feeding from Liz was at around 9-ish, and she slept all the way until 6AM!!!! My goodness!   I went to bed at around 11, so I got a good 6-7 hours of sleep.... Man, that feels good.... :-P

Aaaaawwww.....

I know, I know... I have this on and off relationship with blogs...

In Jesus' 1st sermon, Jesus said: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near". (Matthew 5:17)

Here's a question: How do you know if its true repentence?

True repentence is based on two things:
1. True repentence comes from God and causes inner change...
2. True repentence bears fruit.

I think point #2 is what we often overlook - true repentence means that not only did something change inside a person, but that inner change actually produces good, meaningful results (bears fruit)

An obvious example of this is looking at Peter and Judas in the new testament. Both Peter and Judas repented, but how can you tell who "truely" repented? Well, Peter repented, and went on to be a great apostle of Jesus, while Judas repented, and then hung himself. Judas produced no "fruit"...

Thanks for Pastor Rick Park of Living Bridge Fellowship for his sermon...

January 24, 2007 - Third day of work in the Gothenborg office.

Nothing much to report, just working real hard to day. Since I don't have much to say, let me tell you why I am here. On our new devices, I am responsible for the audio portions of the next generation phone. In our previous products we've always done analog audio routing, and that was easy, because all you have to do is hook up the wires to the speaker and you are done. The drawback there is that you don't have the flexibility of being able to "mix" in different audio streams.

So, now comes the digital age, and our new products will have all their audio routined digitally, instead of being connected in analog. This means that we have a lot of flexibility in terms of what we can do with the audio, such as mixing, filtering...etc. Also, it makes it a lot easier to change since its all digital, and you just manipulate it with a few lines of code.

Anyways, so welcome to my world! This is what I have been doing for a living. Because the audio portion of this new phone is sooo huge, we have some contractors that does about 90% of the coding, and I currently do about 10% of the coding and 90% of project management. As our contractors starts to roll off their contract (we'll be down to 3 contractors from 15 pretty soon), I will have to take over.

Thus, I am here - to push them along, to learn from them what they do, to ask them to clarify to me what they have done, and most importantly, to put a face to all the names that I see.

Before I came on this trip, it was hard working with our counterparts in Sweden - everytime something breaks, we blame them - and then when there are delays, they blame us for not giving them clear directions. I used to think that they are just contractors, and that they get paid for doing what we tell them to do (which is why I think that contracting sucks). Worst of all, non of them really cared about our project as a whole.

As it turns out, we have one of the nicest and best groups of contractors that I had ever worked with out here. They are sincere, and works really hard. And now that I can put a face to all the names, it definitely makes working with them a lot easier and more fun. So far, it has been a great trip, and well worth all the money that the company spent on me coming out here!

john

January 23, 2007 - 2nd day of work.

Well, the 2nd day didn't start out so well, as you can see in the following...

Boy it was cold! It was also snowing pretty hard when we left the office. Today is a day full of work, so I don't think I will have much to say, other than work, work, and more work!

Hope you guys are enjoying my boring blog (according to Catherine...) hmmm.

john

January 22, 2007 - First day of work in Gothenborg.

Well, didn't get off to a good start. Slept only 4 hours last night, met my boss late down stairs for breakfast, and the first thing that I saw when I went down stairs was:

-6 degrees c? I thought they made a mistake. So I asked the lady at the front desk - yes, it was -6, and that apparently is the high for today. Although, she said - it should be pretty because the sun should be coming out.

Well, turns out, she was wrong. This was what I saw when we got off the bus to walk into the office:

Boy, it was coooooold! ok, time to work!

john

January 21, 2007 - VasaMuseet.

VasaMuseet, or the Vasa Museum, is built around 1 historical find - a 1600's Swedish battleship. This ship never really saw the light of day, as it sank in the Stockholm harbor as soon as it left the dry dock. Some engineers of the time made some gross mis-calculations about the ship and its weight, and loaded it with too many cannons. As soon as the ship sailed, it took in water, and went straight down.

The reason its so interesting is that Stockholm harbor is full of mud. So as soon as it sank, it pratically sank right into the mud - where it layed until the 1980s, when the ship was raised by the Swedish Navy. Because the ship was fully submerged in mud, it was still mainly in tact. It wasn't subjected to the ocean currents and the air and water that would've eroded it away. The boat was preserved in such prestine condition that it actually floated by itself after they cleaned out the mud on the insides.

At the center of the museum is teh Vasa itself, somewhat restored. The three masts of the ship were never found, and the top planks have been eroded away. They were able to restore those and thats how you can see the picture today. The ship itself was majestic - it was adorned with many many ornaments or symbols that protects the ship itself (a lot of good that did, right?) Anyways, the living conditions on the boat was rather tough, and the decks were a lot lower so you'd hit your head all the time (except, that people back then were a lot shorter than we are now cuz back then they were mostly malnutritioned).

As well, it was also sort of a small Swedish history museum. It contained a small section of the history of the ship building and the life of Sweden back then. Boy it was tough! I'm glad at least it wasn't so cold when I was growing up!

:-) After the Vasa, we were ready to do some real work - take the 3 hour train ride into Goteborg (or Gothenborg) to really go do some work!

:-)
john

January 21, 2007 - City Hall.
There it is! The city hall of Stockholm. It was build in the 20's (1920s, of course!) and its still used by their "congressmen" today. Being that its a socialist country, I guess they don't really have a Congress, but a meeting once a week between all the high level officials from various parties (there are 7 parties in all represented). The sessions are open to the public, but with the invention of the television and the newspapers, no one really goes to the sessions anymore. Last year, they averaged 1.7 people in the audience per meeting.

Despite the hour walk it took us to get there, (that includes time that it took to read the map, get lost, study the map some more, getting more lost, debating whether we should hire a taxi, getting coffee, checking out the local train station, buying souvinours at a souvinour shop that was owned by an Indian guy that spoke Swedish like the guy on the Simpsons), the tour was well worth it. We saw the blue room (which is the room where they serve dinner during the Nobel prize ceremonies. It was pretty big, impressive, and comes with a set of marbled stairs. Up stairs, after going through numerous chambers and resting quarters for people depending on their social status, we come upon the gold room, which is where the dancing takes place.



Upon its completion in the late 20's, the Gold room was heavily criticized by the Swedes at that time. Their biggest complaint was that it wasn't built to the traditions and the style of the Swedish culture. As you can see in the pictures on the right side, the art isn't really traiditional, and neither is the color. But, from today's perspective, its quite a piece of art. the whole room was lined with gold plated tiles (Noticed - "plated", so not worth stealing) that measures 1/4" x 1/4". This means, back then, each tile was placed by hand. That is impressive in itself. Anyways. It was an impressive sight.

Two other tidbits of information thats interesting that might be worth mentioning: The tower means 106 meters tall, which is exactly 1m taller than the city hall tower in Copenhagen. They have to be one step better than the Danes. Also, they ran out of money towards the end of the construction of the City Hall. So instead of a City Hall without a roof, they decided to offer the Swedish people a chance to "buy" a piece of Sweden by buying a roof tile. You are allowed to wirte on the roof tile whatever you wished, and that is how they were able to finish the construction of the City Hall. Although, the only hard part is - how do you go see your tile?

Upon exiting City Hall, my boss had the unfortunate mishap of stepping in a puddle that has ice on the bottom. He slipped, got soaked in freezing water, so we had to go back to the hotel and change. Good thing he took the fall for me (no pun intended.) hahaha.

On to the Vasamuseet!

January 21, 2007 - Stockholm.

What a beautiful city! well, at least from what I can (or can't) gather, which isn't much. Its COMPLETELY white outside!!!!! We had breakfast at the Lady Hamilton Hotel, and then just took off walking around old town. Even through the snow, I can see the narrow alley ways, the cobble stone roads, and all the dinky little gift shops that are tucked away in the alleys. It was pretty cool. Its every bit what I imagined a typical European city to be!

Walking down the cobble stone roads, I can picture on a (warmer) sunny day, the street filled with tourists, along with all the traiditional swedish music and dancers in the squares, with small tables and chairs outside and people sitting around drinking coffee. Its not anything I've ever seen or experienced before in my travels around North America and even Asia.

Anyhow, we walked around some more, and it was starting to get colder and colder as the wind picks up. So we decided to try to find our way over to the City Hall, which is also where the Nobel prize ceremonies are held every year.

Well, that sounds easy, but old town, being "old", doesn't exactly have straight streets - its windy, and goes all over the place. It took us another 1/2 hour of walking around in circles to find how to get out of old town....

By the way, thats not me in the picture, thats my boss. We decided to take pictures of each other and just mail each other the pictures, but he hasn't mailed me my picture yet, so...

john

January 20, 2007 - The Lady Hamilton Hotel...

The Lady Hamilton "Hotel" should really be named the Lady Hamilton "Bed and Breakfast". Its a really small (literally), and quaint hotel. We found this hotel from Expedia, and it looked pretty cool.

Everything is great, as you can see from the pictures. It evens comes (for free) with an apple, vitamins, bottle of water, and a bag of nuts! The room didn't have a window, but rather a sky light, and a slanted roof - thus, "the attic".

Everything was ok until i hopped in the shower and hit my head. The slant really made the shower stall smaller, and I think by the end of the shower I had hit my head about 4 times. Multiply that by 2 (one shower at night and one in the morning), that 8x. One'd think that one'd learn....

Cute hotel though. If you're ever here, remember to ask for a room that is NOT on the top floor!

john

January 20, 2007 - In case if you didn't know, I am in Sweden! Yes, I am here on "official" company business, but that doesn't mean that we don't get to have fun. Anyways, so far my experience have been pretty positive, and figured I'd share some of the scenary with you from Stockholm, and Goteborg.....



After a 12 + 2 hour plane ride, boy was I ready to get off the airplane. We landed in Stockholm at around 10PM local time, and this is what it looked like from the plane. It looked cold! From there, we took a taxi to Gamala Stan (Old Town) where our hotel is, and I spent the night in the attic.

-john

In case you didn't hear about what John Kerry said that caused such a big controversy, here it is:

What Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said about Iraq: “You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

Hmmm. Here's what he meant to say....

What his spokesperson, Amy Brundage, said Kerry’s prepared text called for him to say: “Do you know where you end up if you don’t study, if you aren’t smart, if you’re intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush.”

I dunno - sounds like they made this up AFTER what John Kerry said to try to make up for things...

YIKES! Although, I'm still sticking with the democrats!!!!
john

Tidbits of Shanghai (part 1)

(For more pictures of Shanghai, please click here)

Two views of "The Bund": the Bund at night, and the Bund during the day:
At night:
The bund is a beautiful place to be at night. The lights that outline the builds are simply incredible - its all about the show. The lights change color constantly, almost like the fourth of July fireworks here at night.

Unfortunately, we went to the Bund on a day where everyone else was there - the last night of the national holiday. There were sooo many people! My goodness. It was like being on a crowded bus, all the time! It took us about half an hour to cross the street to the other side because there were so many people. At least we didn't lose anyone (stayed together through it all...)

What is more impressive though, I think, is the day-time view of the Bund. Check it out:
I think this view is more incredible because it shows just how immense the buildings were, and how many immense buildings there were along the Huangpu river. It was amazing. From what I heard, most of these buildings are designed by world-class architects.... (this makes San Francisco look like a small town) The other part of this is that these buildings are not just concentrated in the Bund area, but are spread out all over Shanghai (but not as impressive). Our hotel is about 40 minutes by taxi away from the Bund, but you will see these world class buildings all along the way.

Hope you will get a chance to visit some day!

john

1 man, 2 cultures (reflections of trip to Shanghai)

(disclaimer: if I sound racist in this posting, please forgive me...)

Just got back from a business trip to Shanghai. We had a really good time in Shanghai - although it was super busy, we did get to go out and see parts of the great city. It was quite different, in almost every way: size, people, and the culture.

As soon as I stepped off the plane. I can feel the humidity, along with it, a sense of being 'home'. I haven't felt humidity in a while - although its not very pleasant, but it felt like home. Its like I was in a time warp, travelling back to the time when I'd drop off my backpacks as soon as I got home from school, heading straight to the playground to play baseball, and getting in trouble when my parents get home because I didn't do my homework. Boy it was a great feeling.

After spending 10 days there, I felt that I could blend in, disappear, get lost in the great city of Shanghai. I felt at home, I felt comfortable. I spend most of my time explaining the chinese culture to my co-workers. I really felt that I was proud to be Chinese.

But I am not. I had spent most of my life here in the United States, and I sometimes think and act like an American. I can't speak chinese that well, and I can't write, and worst part is that I can't type in chinese. So in the end, who am I?

I've been struggling with this for a while now. Am I "Chinese American"? What exactly is that? I don't reaally think "chinese american" is a culture - one is either more "Chinese" or more "American", depending on which culture you feel more comfortable in. For me, I can function well in either cultures, but I don't feel like I fit in. Thus, I feel lost. Am I Chinese or American?

My life is here in America. My son is growing up here, my wife was born here in the US. I went to highschool and college here in the States. I can speak almost perfect English, and have a great time when I go out with my co-workers after work. I am a big fan of American football, and I am generally not interested in what happens in other countries other than the US. I celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas.

But am I "American"? Far from it. My wife thinks that I am pretty "fobby". (Fresh Off the Boat) About 95% of my friends are Asians, and I pretty much only hang out with them. I eat a lot more Chinese food than most of my friends can handle, and I watch alot of chinese movies. I don't feel comfortable at a party where everyone is "American", unless they have some Asian blood in them.

On the flip side, even though I felt comfortable and feel like I can blend in in China, I don't think they see me as one of them. For one, I dress differently, and I only have a rudimentary knowledge of the language. I can get by, but I am not sure if I fit in. My ideals are very different. I think that people should be free to do what they do and not be bound by the society. I believe in creating opportunities for myself. I feel that people should not feel obligated to stay in relationships that they don't really want to be in. Lastly, I can barely read, not past a 5th grade level, and I can't write and I type really slowly in chinese. I don't really remember or celebrate Chinese holidays (other than chinese new years).

So, this is probably why I feel so weird these days. Who am I? What culture do I belong to? What is my identity? Part of it is that I feel scared, alone. Sometimes I feel that Liz doesn't understand this inner struggle that I have. Sometimes I resent my parents for bring me to the US when I was 12, and now I don't have a culture that I can identify with. I am somewhere in limbo, drifting from side to side, depending on where I am or who I am talking to. I think if I were to spend a lot of time in either place, I would miss the other.

Through all the books that I read from my classes in Asian American studies, I don't think any of the authors have an answer. Although, one thing is for sure - I am beginning to see the struggles that they have. I used to brush them off as idiots that just don't know who they are. Now I am one of those idiots....

Worst part is, I think I will forget about all this next week. I will go back to my daily routine, live my American way of life, go about with church, and hang out with all my Asian American friends here. That is why I am writing this down this time.

Who am I? Please help.

thanks
john

Settlers Of Catan

http://www.mayfairgames.com/mfg-shop/0480-0499/qps/0483.html

So our friends came over the other night and brought this game over called "Settlers of Catan". I'm pretty addicted now! Its a great strategy game, but it also involves some degree of luck. There are so many ways to win, and the strategy to win depends on the layout of the board! (since the board is different each time)...

As with all games, I'm going to spend a whole lot of time trying to figure out what the best way to win is, and what all the stragegies are.. But I think its complicated enough and has enough degrees of luck where it can be a crapshoot. I'm not sure, but will share my secret(s) with you if I ever figure it out!

j