Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Recap since the baby
Emil is 7 weeks old tomorrow, yeah! He's going for 15 lbs right now, giant, I know.
To recap since my rant about motherhood, the following has become true, oh my goodness.
1. I've been to a Babies R Us store. Although to my defense, I went there because it was a gift. My thoughtful coworkers decided I must need a gift card from there, instead of, say stores like amazon.com or Costco where prices and selection are both better! So if you are gifting to someone expecting or new parents and reading this, remember that any giftcards will do but amazon.com, paypal or even grocery store cards are much better than a specialty chain like Babies R Us! Parents will still need to eat and they can't have stuffed animals for lunch no matter how cute they are!
2. I have a diaper organizer. My neighbor actually gave it to me. It's not a full blown diaper bag, more like a toiletry bag. When you are breastfeeding, there really isn't much you need to lug around in a big diaper bag. The most important is probably a few diapers and some wipes, which can fit into most purses. Anyway, we do bring the organizer with us when we go on walks but we only had to use it once to change Emil. It was at a friend's backyard BBQ.
Everything else has gone as planned, including a drug-free natural birth, no blog or facebook page devoted to my son, no nursery or baby decoration in the house.
I have been fanatic about uploading photos to Flickr, but that's mostly because both Kristian's and my parents live far away and want to see their grandson grow.
To recap since my rant about motherhood, the following has become true, oh my goodness.
1. I've been to a Babies R Us store. Although to my defense, I went there because it was a gift. My thoughtful coworkers decided I must need a gift card from there, instead of, say stores like amazon.com or Costco where prices and selection are both better! So if you are gifting to someone expecting or new parents and reading this, remember that any giftcards will do but amazon.com, paypal or even grocery store cards are much better than a specialty chain like Babies R Us! Parents will still need to eat and they can't have stuffed animals for lunch no matter how cute they are!
2. I have a diaper organizer. My neighbor actually gave it to me. It's not a full blown diaper bag, more like a toiletry bag. When you are breastfeeding, there really isn't much you need to lug around in a big diaper bag. The most important is probably a few diapers and some wipes, which can fit into most purses. Anyway, we do bring the organizer with us when we go on walks but we only had to use it once to change Emil. It was at a friend's backyard BBQ.
Everything else has gone as planned, including a drug-free natural birth, no blog or facebook page devoted to my son, no nursery or baby decoration in the house.
I have been fanatic about uploading photos to Flickr, but that's mostly because both Kristian's and my parents live far away and want to see their grandson grow.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
HypnoBirthing class crowd
Thursday night was our HypnoBirthing class at Mt. Auburn Hospital. HypnoBirthing is one of the natural birth methods taught to expecting parents these days. Not to spend too much time discussing the merits of HypnoBirthing, it’s mostly about using hypnosis relaxation techniques to let your body accomplish a natural, comfortable birthing.
After everyone sat down in a circle, the instructor, Meghan, asked each of us tell the group what jobs we had, what we did do for fun, etc. About half way into the icebreaker, before my turn, I was having such a hard time holding back laughs that Kristian was giving me a face. I had realized this was absolutely the highest concentration of "white people" I'd been with in recent times. White people as in stuffwhitepeoplelike, not in the sense of the race itself.
Granted, we do live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the north-eastern capital of liberal, highly educated, and high income hipsters. Our city may be smaller than Seattle or Portland, it contributes quite significantly to “white culture”. An abundance of intellectuals, high-tech companies, universities, proximity to the ocean and maybe just the fact that it's New England, makes Cambridge a hot bed for hipster living.
Here are the highlights about some of the expecting parents:
Dad #1: Just started his solar energy company. Attire: Patagonia fleece jacket and Chaco sandals.
Mom #1: A librarian.
Dad #2: A PhD candidate in engineering at MIT. A mountaineer who is "always looking to climb some snow covered peak". He's about to go away for a month long research trip overseas.
Dad #3: A freelance film producer. Attire: beret hat and a scarf, while sipping from his SIGG bottle.
Mom #3: Owns her own organic foods restaurant in town. She said they "love hiking, backpacking in the mountains and traveling."
Dad #4: An engineer. Loves hiking, backpacking and mountain biking. Wife and him are on ultimate frisbee teams.
Mom #4: A research assistant at Lincoln labs. She is outdoors, sports nut as well. She didn’t stop playing ice hockey until she was 13 weeks pregnant.
Mom #5a: A social worker for troubled youths in Boston.
Mom #5b: A librarian.
Dad #6: A psychology PhD, fellow at a hospital and waiting to get his state license to practice.
Mom #6: Cultural anthropologist, teaching at Northeastern University. Got her degree from Columbia. Both said they love skiing and snowboarding up in NH and VT.
Dad #7: IT Consultant. They are "very big into white water rafting".
Mom #7: Teacher. Loves traveling.
Dad #8: Conducts orchestra at Ithaca, NY. (I’m guessing Cornell related)
Except for two couples, one was Kristian and I, everyone confidently stated their passion for the outdoors. It was either hiking, backpacking, mountain climbing, rock climbing, white water rafting or something else. The class instructor is a married lesbian with 4 kids. There's another lesbian couple students.
In 15 minutes, I’ve accomplished the feat of witnessing first hand the following white people behavior:
* Organic Food
* Traveling
* Snowboarding
* Outdoor Performance Clothes
* Having Gay Friends
* Frisbee Sports
* The Ivy League
* Graduate School
* Bottles of Water
* Non-Profit Organizations
* Scarves
* Making you feel bad about not going outside
What can I say, it really was like playing stuffwhitepeoplelike bingo!!! Me and the orchestra conductor couple were Asian, everyone else was white. Speaking from a white culture perspective though, Asians are pretty white already. Oh, and since I'm an Asian girl married to a white dude, #11 Asian Girls should be on the above hit list as well. :)
After everyone sat down in a circle, the instructor, Meghan, asked each of us tell the group what jobs we had, what we did do for fun, etc. About half way into the icebreaker, before my turn, I was having such a hard time holding back laughs that Kristian was giving me a face. I had realized this was absolutely the highest concentration of "white people" I'd been with in recent times. White people as in stuffwhitepeoplelike, not in the sense of the race itself.
Granted, we do live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the north-eastern capital of liberal, highly educated, and high income hipsters. Our city may be smaller than Seattle or Portland, it contributes quite significantly to “white culture”. An abundance of intellectuals, high-tech companies, universities, proximity to the ocean and maybe just the fact that it's New England, makes Cambridge a hot bed for hipster living.
Here are the highlights about some of the expecting parents:
Dad #1: Just started his solar energy company. Attire: Patagonia fleece jacket and Chaco sandals.
Mom #1: A librarian.
Dad #2: A PhD candidate in engineering at MIT. A mountaineer who is "always looking to climb some snow covered peak". He's about to go away for a month long research trip overseas.
Dad #3: A freelance film producer. Attire: beret hat and a scarf, while sipping from his SIGG bottle.
Mom #3: Owns her own organic foods restaurant in town. She said they "love hiking, backpacking in the mountains and traveling."
Dad #4: An engineer. Loves hiking, backpacking and mountain biking. Wife and him are on ultimate frisbee teams.
Mom #4: A research assistant at Lincoln labs. She is outdoors, sports nut as well. She didn’t stop playing ice hockey until she was 13 weeks pregnant.
Mom #5a: A social worker for troubled youths in Boston.
Mom #5b: A librarian.
Dad #6: A psychology PhD, fellow at a hospital and waiting to get his state license to practice.
Mom #6: Cultural anthropologist, teaching at Northeastern University. Got her degree from Columbia. Both said they love skiing and snowboarding up in NH and VT.
Dad #7: IT Consultant. They are "very big into white water rafting".
Mom #7: Teacher. Loves traveling.
Dad #8: Conducts orchestra at Ithaca, NY. (I’m guessing Cornell related)
Except for two couples, one was Kristian and I, everyone confidently stated their passion for the outdoors. It was either hiking, backpacking, mountain climbing, rock climbing, white water rafting or something else. The class instructor is a married lesbian with 4 kids. There's another lesbian couple students.
In 15 minutes, I’ve accomplished the feat of witnessing first hand the following white people behavior:
* Organic Food
* Traveling
* Snowboarding
* Outdoor Performance Clothes
* Having Gay Friends
* Frisbee Sports
* The Ivy League
* Graduate School
* Bottles of Water
* Non-Profit Organizations
* Scarves
* Making you feel bad about not going outside
What can I say, it really was like playing stuffwhitepeoplelike bingo!!! Me and the orchestra conductor couple were Asian, everyone else was white. Speaking from a white culture perspective though, Asians are pretty white already. Oh, and since I'm an Asian girl married to a white dude, #11 Asian Girls should be on the above hit list as well. :)
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Motherhood Anti-Expectations
On my first blog entry after becoming pregnant, I'd like to rant a bit about what I have observed about pregnancies, babies and parenting in today's America. Rather, this is a list of things I SHALL NOT DO as a new mom.
1. Since plenty of people have asked this question (either out of well-intended curiosity or felt obligated to ask it to make conversation), I will not "decorate" the "nursery" and paint the walls either pink, blue or yellow depending on the sex of the baby. I happen to think white walls are beautiful in our spare bedroom. In fact, I don't plan to find out the sex of the baby so people will not give me all baby things pink or all baby things blue. The downside is I might end up getting everything yellow, because of course, yellow is a "neutral" color. That's like the first lesson you learn in parenting 101, duh!
Who ever said baby girls shouldn't wear blue and baby boys can't be seen in pink? Gimme a break people. The other thing I will try to do (though I may fail miserably at it) is to resist buying a whole bunch of cartoon print baby stuff. Don't really want Whinnie the Pooh or Mickey Mouse crap all over my baby and my house. Baby stuff that are black, brown, non-cutsy or with little skull print on them is welcome!
2. I will not blog or build a Facebook page for my baby. Babies are babies because they don't know, can't and probably don't want (if they knew) to blog or write their Facebook pages. They will be too busy eating, pooping, sleeping and crying. Plus, all the flash from the huge number of pictures taken by parents can make an infant plenty dizzy. You can tell the babies about their earlier days when they are older if you wish. But building an on-line identity of your baby without their consent is not something I will engage in. Leave the babies alone!
3. I am choosing to go with a midwife, not an obstetrics/gynecology doctor. One thing I must clear up is that I am not a hippie/holistic medicine nut. I don't eat 100% organic and I believe in science. Also, I am going to a hospital to give birth.
The reasons I'm going with a midwife is 80% science based. Statistics show midwives deliver a higher percentage of babies without induction, epidural and Cesarean section, provided if the mother is healthy. There are also other studies out there that show a positive correlation between an epidural and longer duration of labour. The other 20% is that I have heard and seen enough to conclude that people are over-treated and over-medicated in the U.S. in general. So I plan to resist the mainstream inclination to get ob/gyn to "actively manage" or dictate the terms of a birth.
C-section surgery, for example, is more profitable for the doctors and hospitals. It's faster and more predictable, and you bill it to the insurance company as a major surgery. Some doctors (I'm not saying all) prefer c-sections because overall it's a better alternative for them. They may get to eat dinner at a normal hour! Something like 27% of women have babies via a c-section in the US, which is a crazy high number. Of course, there are many other reasons for a higher rate of c-section besides a doctor's preference, such as older age of the mother, higher rates of obesity and diabetes. But I still think there are many unnecessary c-sections out there.
4. My last rant is my aversion of expensive and special purpose baby stuff that parents love blowing money on. The list starts with $1000 strollers, $500 crib, bottle warmers (cus a microwave is just not cute enough for your new baby), nursing pillow (cus regular pillows will make your baby sad) and designer baby clothes like Ralph Lauren for infants (your baby must look preppier than your neighbor's).
I'm sure the list will grow since I haven't stepped into a Baby r Us yet. (I hope I won't have to)
1. Since plenty of people have asked this question (either out of well-intended curiosity or felt obligated to ask it to make conversation), I will not "decorate" the "nursery" and paint the walls either pink, blue or yellow depending on the sex of the baby. I happen to think white walls are beautiful in our spare bedroom. In fact, I don't plan to find out the sex of the baby so people will not give me all baby things pink or all baby things blue. The downside is I might end up getting everything yellow, because of course, yellow is a "neutral" color. That's like the first lesson you learn in parenting 101, duh!
Who ever said baby girls shouldn't wear blue and baby boys can't be seen in pink? Gimme a break people. The other thing I will try to do (though I may fail miserably at it) is to resist buying a whole bunch of cartoon print baby stuff. Don't really want Whinnie the Pooh or Mickey Mouse crap all over my baby and my house. Baby stuff that are black, brown, non-cutsy or with little skull print on them is welcome!
2. I will not blog or build a Facebook page for my baby. Babies are babies because they don't know, can't and probably don't want (if they knew) to blog or write their Facebook pages. They will be too busy eating, pooping, sleeping and crying. Plus, all the flash from the huge number of pictures taken by parents can make an infant plenty dizzy. You can tell the babies about their earlier days when they are older if you wish. But building an on-line identity of your baby without their consent is not something I will engage in. Leave the babies alone!
3. I am choosing to go with a midwife, not an obstetrics/gynecology doctor. One thing I must clear up is that I am not a hippie/holistic medicine nut. I don't eat 100% organic and I believe in science. Also, I am going to a hospital to give birth.
The reasons I'm going with a midwife is 80% science based. Statistics show midwives deliver a higher percentage of babies without induction, epidural and Cesarean section, provided if the mother is healthy. There are also other studies out there that show a positive correlation between an epidural and longer duration of labour. The other 20% is that I have heard and seen enough to conclude that people are over-treated and over-medicated in the U.S. in general. So I plan to resist the mainstream inclination to get ob/gyn to "actively manage" or dictate the terms of a birth.
C-section surgery, for example, is more profitable for the doctors and hospitals. It's faster and more predictable, and you bill it to the insurance company as a major surgery. Some doctors (I'm not saying all) prefer c-sections because overall it's a better alternative for them. They may get to eat dinner at a normal hour! Something like 27% of women have babies via a c-section in the US, which is a crazy high number. Of course, there are many other reasons for a higher rate of c-section besides a doctor's preference, such as older age of the mother, higher rates of obesity and diabetes. But I still think there are many unnecessary c-sections out there.
4. My last rant is my aversion of expensive and special purpose baby stuff that parents love blowing money on. The list starts with $1000 strollers, $500 crib, bottle warmers (cus a microwave is just not cute enough for your new baby), nursing pillow (cus regular pillows will make your baby sad) and designer baby clothes like Ralph Lauren for infants (your baby must look preppier than your neighbor's).
I'm sure the list will grow since I haven't stepped into a Baby r Us yet. (I hope I won't have to)
Sunday, August 17, 2008
The best blog comment I read today
Originally posted by Pffefer on Danwei, which I copied it below.
I have similar thoughts on the American voters. What happens when Obama is the President of the United States, is that Americans will continue to complain about the electoral college system, the suburbs, the health care system, big corporations, high gas prices and China. :)
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I love how some people love saying "it is not you, it is your government that we have a problem with". It's got to be the cheesiest line ever. Has it ever occurred to you that if one day China democratizes you might not like it any more than you do today? Has it ever occurred to you that a free and democratic China might be no less threatening than you think it is today?
I have similar thoughts on the American voters. What happens when Obama is the President of the United States, is that Americans will continue to complain about the electoral college system, the suburbs, the health care system, big corporations, high gas prices and China. :)
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I love how some people love saying "it is not you, it is your government that we have a problem with". It's got to be the cheesiest line ever. Has it ever occurred to you that if one day China democratizes you might not like it any more than you do today? Has it ever occurred to you that a free and democratic China might be no less threatening than you think it is today?
Monday, June 16, 2008
Rants
I've started writing down a list of things that really annoy me, most are related to office etiquette and corporate cultural ills.
So here goes the first group.
1. Preemptive "Excuse me"
This happens in the cube farm I work in all the time. Americans love to say "excuse me" even when it's completely unnecessary. For example, I see a guy walking down the hallway about 20 feet away. As I wait to get water at the water cooler, he passes me and says "Excuse me". Dude, I saw you coming from 20 feet away and I was stationary this entire time. There was no probability of us ever running into each. And, why do you need to apologize for walking on a shared hallway? Americans are so afraid of touching another human body that even the 1% probability scares them enough to preemptively say "Excuse me"!
2. Holding the door open for you when you are 20 feet away
This unfortunately also happens quite often at my office. Between 8AM and 9AM when people rush into the office, I'm bound to have someone holding the building door open for me when I'm barely out of my car. Sometimes this happens when I'm a good 20 feet away. I'm not one to run towards work, so I walk at a medium pace. But those determined folks will hold the door open and look at me smilingly for a good two minutes. In fact, they look so friendly that I feel obligated to half-run up to the door and say "Thanks". Maybe one day my triceps will shrink because I never open doors anymore. Good grief!
3. Phone messages that say "I just wanted to touch base with you...."
No one calls and leaves a message if they want nothing. Yet in America, the most common way to start a voice mail message in the office is called "touching base". I get it's a baseball reference, but what does touching base have anything to do with asking me to change the requirements spec for you? That's called a request, NOT touching base. Say what you want and do what you said you were going to do, world peace achieved.
4. The equaling of "being engaged" and carbon copying someone in email.
If you work in an office environment, I'm sure you've been asked to get someone "engaged" in the project that you are working on. Perhaps it's a corporate virus, but the most common way I've observed people complying to that request is CC'ing the person in question on mass emails and meeting invites. Yeah, flood them with this ambiguous electronic communication and wait for synergy to sparkle!
More to come in the near future.
So here goes the first group.
1. Preemptive "Excuse me"
This happens in the cube farm I work in all the time. Americans love to say "excuse me" even when it's completely unnecessary. For example, I see a guy walking down the hallway about 20 feet away. As I wait to get water at the water cooler, he passes me and says "Excuse me". Dude, I saw you coming from 20 feet away and I was stationary this entire time. There was no probability of us ever running into each. And, why do you need to apologize for walking on a shared hallway? Americans are so afraid of touching another human body that even the 1% probability scares them enough to preemptively say "Excuse me"!
2. Holding the door open for you when you are 20 feet away
This unfortunately also happens quite often at my office. Between 8AM and 9AM when people rush into the office, I'm bound to have someone holding the building door open for me when I'm barely out of my car. Sometimes this happens when I'm a good 20 feet away. I'm not one to run towards work, so I walk at a medium pace. But those determined folks will hold the door open and look at me smilingly for a good two minutes. In fact, they look so friendly that I feel obligated to half-run up to the door and say "Thanks". Maybe one day my triceps will shrink because I never open doors anymore. Good grief!
3. Phone messages that say "I just wanted to touch base with you...."
No one calls and leaves a message if they want nothing. Yet in America, the most common way to start a voice mail message in the office is called "touching base". I get it's a baseball reference, but what does touching base have anything to do with asking me to change the requirements spec for you? That's called a request, NOT touching base. Say what you want and do what you said you were going to do, world peace achieved.
4. The equaling of "being engaged" and carbon copying someone in email.
If you work in an office environment, I'm sure you've been asked to get someone "engaged" in the project that you are working on. Perhaps it's a corporate virus, but the most common way I've observed people complying to that request is CC'ing the person in question on mass emails and meeting invites. Yeah, flood them with this ambiguous electronic communication and wait for synergy to sparkle!
More to come in the near future.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
I've been tagged by Amy
1. Post the rules of the game at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the player’s blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.
What were you doing five years ago?
Good thing I backed up my old pictures when I migrated from Windows XP to Fedora.
Looking through the photos, it appears that I moved to the Castle apartments 5 years ago in May. At the time, I was working at my co-op at Honeywell in Oracle, AZ. I worked in Engineering Sciences dept, but really I just processed BOM (Bills of Materials) requests and "worked" on a database project to address parts obsolescence issues.
Some of the other co-ops that worked there: Patrick Kelly, Kristie Wilson (Manalo), Clay Condon, Eli Minson and John Hughes.
There was a giant forest fire burning on Mt. Lemmon in June. The Honeywell plant had to issue air quality warning to the workers due to the smoke. Good thing the fire was contained before it got to the plant site. The woman who started fire ended up going to jail later on; she got lost while hiking, decided to light a fire to get rescued. I say she deserved it.
What are five things on your to-do list for today?
1) Laundry
2) I'm listening to Sia right now.
3) If Roberto and Ruben come back today, I'll go talk to them while they work on our patio. We are putting in a 20x20 paver patio in the backyard.
4) Go to Whole Foods and get ingredients to make Mapo Tofu. I'm a hipster but the main reason I go to Whole Foods is that it's 2 minutes from my house.
5) Maybe go to the gym...I want to look fitter when I get married.
What are five snacks you enjoy?
1) Ice cream, most kinds. I especially love Toscanini's Burned Caramel flavor.
2) Kimchi, yeah, I can eat it without rice. :)
3) Japanese fruit flavored gummies and Chinese white rabbit brand taffy candy.
4) Smoothies. Xoom Juice was my favorite in Tucson.
5) Beef Jerky. Jack Links' peppered is my favorite.
What are five things you would do if you were a billionaire?
1) Lobby American politics and get a Libertarian elected to office.
2) Booked a space tour like the one Sergey Brin did.
3) Give my family and friends money so they are not burdened by lack of money.
4) Establish a foundation like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the goal would be to popularize free-market thoughts to help developing countries. Maybe I should name it the Milton Friedman Group.
5) Enjoy life as it comes.
What are five of your bad habits?
1) Snorting my nose. Sorry, it is gross.
2) Leaving used tissue around, related to the previous item.
3) Getting angry. A lot of things in this world bother me and I get angry really fast. I'm a weirdo for sure, an ENTJ female.
4) Shoes. I buy too many shoes and throw them out almost just as fast.
5) Impatience. A good example is that my Mom and I don't talk much these days because I get impatient with her on the phone.
What are five places where you have lived?
1) Chengdu, China (until 6)
2) Hangzhou, China (until 15)
3) Pittsburgh, PA
4) Tucson, AZ
5) Woburn, MA
There are a few more.
What are five jobs you’ve had? (a short list)
1) University of Arizona main library
2) Nortel Networks
3) UAPD
4) UA College of Public Health
5) Honeywell, IBM, Raytheon....
I put 3 in the last box, too many jobs!
You are tagged:
Kristian
Mette
Chad
Clay
Mai
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the player’s blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.
What were you doing five years ago?
Good thing I backed up my old pictures when I migrated from Windows XP to Fedora.
Looking through the photos, it appears that I moved to the Castle apartments 5 years ago in May. At the time, I was working at my co-op at Honeywell in Oracle, AZ. I worked in Engineering Sciences dept, but really I just processed BOM (Bills of Materials) requests and "worked" on a database project to address parts obsolescence issues.
Some of the other co-ops that worked there: Patrick Kelly, Kristie Wilson (Manalo), Clay Condon, Eli Minson and John Hughes.
There was a giant forest fire burning on Mt. Lemmon in June. The Honeywell plant had to issue air quality warning to the workers due to the smoke. Good thing the fire was contained before it got to the plant site. The woman who started fire ended up going to jail later on; she got lost while hiking, decided to light a fire to get rescued. I say she deserved it.
What are five things on your to-do list for today?
1) Laundry
2) I'm listening to Sia right now.
3) If Roberto and Ruben come back today, I'll go talk to them while they work on our patio. We are putting in a 20x20 paver patio in the backyard.
4) Go to Whole Foods and get ingredients to make Mapo Tofu. I'm a hipster but the main reason I go to Whole Foods is that it's 2 minutes from my house.
5) Maybe go to the gym...I want to look fitter when I get married.
What are five snacks you enjoy?
1) Ice cream, most kinds. I especially love Toscanini's Burned Caramel flavor.
2) Kimchi, yeah, I can eat it without rice. :)
3) Japanese fruit flavored gummies and Chinese white rabbit brand taffy candy.
4) Smoothies. Xoom Juice was my favorite in Tucson.
5) Beef Jerky. Jack Links' peppered is my favorite.
What are five things you would do if you were a billionaire?
1) Lobby American politics and get a Libertarian elected to office.
2) Booked a space tour like the one Sergey Brin did.
3) Give my family and friends money so they are not burdened by lack of money.
4) Establish a foundation like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the goal would be to popularize free-market thoughts to help developing countries. Maybe I should name it the Milton Friedman Group.
5) Enjoy life as it comes.
What are five of your bad habits?
1) Snorting my nose. Sorry, it is gross.
2) Leaving used tissue around, related to the previous item.
3) Getting angry. A lot of things in this world bother me and I get angry really fast. I'm a weirdo for sure, an ENTJ female.
4) Shoes. I buy too many shoes and throw them out almost just as fast.
5) Impatience. A good example is that my Mom and I don't talk much these days because I get impatient with her on the phone.
What are five places where you have lived?
1) Chengdu, China (until 6)
2) Hangzhou, China (until 15)
3) Pittsburgh, PA
4) Tucson, AZ
5) Woburn, MA
There are a few more.
What are five jobs you’ve had? (a short list)
1) University of Arizona main library
2) Nortel Networks
3) UAPD
4) UA College of Public Health
5) Honeywell, IBM, Raytheon....
I put 3 in the last box, too many jobs!
You are tagged:
Kristian
Mette
Chad
Clay
Mai
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I chuckle every time when I see people making the China argument a "human rights" and "democracy" one. While I don't doubt that there are people out there who geuinely care about these, but make no mistake: Whether you admit it or not, it has always been about "us" vs. "them" driven by diverging interests. China has been propped up as a bag guy, challenging the west with its non-Judeo-Christian culture, its non-democratic model and above all, its reluctance to succumb itself to a world order which first and foremost seeks to maximize western interests. Us, the good guys vs. them, the bad guys. So naturally China becomes a bad guy and no good things can ever happen to a bad guy, right? Those western journalists who came to China came with the preconception that China is all about human rights violations, oppressed people etc., so it is only natural for them to see what they want to see which will only reinforce their preconceptions that China is a bad guy (unlike us good guys). So they keep spoon-feeding those negative stuff and BS to people back home and presenting as the only face of China, overtime that's what most people are used to reading and it does not make any financial sense (bottomline-wise) for those western media outlets to break from this decades-old tradition.
Typically this is what you hear about China: A dictatorship who has no regards whatsoever for human rights and common decency ruthlessly suppress its people who are vastly unhappy and fed up with the regime and the only thing that keeps them from rising up is the economic growth that this regime has been able to deliver. What? PEW says some 80% of the Chinese are satisified with the direction in which China is heading? Oh God that's wrong! PEW must be infiltrated by the evil Chinese government and their survey sample consisted of people who are members of the Womaodang only!
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