Mala Words

S*HIT Emil says

2012-01-21T19:28:00.002-05:00

Emil:"I want more blueberries."
Me: "But you already had two cups, you want more??"
Emil: "Yeah, I'm a monster!"

Me: "Emil, you wanna go take a bath?"
Emil: "No, I'm too busy!"

While playing jumping on the mattress nonstop for 30 min
Emil: "This is wild! We are having fun!"

While eating dinner at the table
Me to husband: "Now we've got 2 kids, Emil being a big brother and Oskar being a little brother maybe it's enough kids?"
Husband: "Yeah, maybe."
Emil: "What are you talking about, Mommy?"

TBD ;)

Milk Experiment

2011-04-21T20:06:00.004-04:00

My last 10oz of pumped stash is finally gone! The 2 bags of breast milk came out of the freezer this morning. I didn't know what I'd do with them then. I wasn't prepared to just dump all of it into the drain. Looking at them brought back memories of those tightly scheduled 3x a day pumping sessions, the fluorescent lit pumping room at SLF and all the washing I had to do daily with all the breast pump parts. Those were some busy times and I'm glad it was only for 5 months. Many mothers have had to do it MUCH longer.

So after coming home from dinner this evening, I thought to have Emil try the milk out before his bedtime. After all, I pumped those for him right before I quit my job. They were prepared to him anyway. Sure, it was in the freezer for 11 months, definitely not the freshest. But it wasn't unsafe.

The milk tasted okay to me. Although much different from cow milk, sweeter and milkier (not sure how to describe the taste). I warmed the milk, gave the cup to him, awaiting a reaction. He took a sip, then another small sip, did a double look at the cup then put it down. Without saying anything! I suppose he honestly prefers cow's milk now, which is a good thing! He drank the replacement cup of warm cow milk in one take, so clearly he didn't like the breast milk that much.

Even though I had weaned Emil back in December, getting rid of the last bit of the stash was the ultimate end to our breastfeeding relationship. We had a great run, my little man!

The Blue Curtain of Cringe

2011-04-11T20:01:00.003-04:00

I've been back on FaceBook for almost a year now, and my feeds are pretty full on most days. With many friends from college, grad school and work having kids, I get a fairly good amount of birth news.

Usually it's stuff like "First Name Last Name, xx lbs xx oz, xx inches long, born at xxx hospital at xxx time this morning!" It's very cool to see new babies being acknowledged in the cyber space in almost real time. Not to mention sometimes I haven't been in touch with the parents for a long time and it's nice to share a part of their lives.

Along with the newborn stats, there are often birth photos. You probably have guessed it by the title of this post, some those photos contain the Blue Curtain that I often dread seeing. It's the surgical blue curtain drawn above the mother's chest from a caesarean birth. Mother is smiling in her surgical cap, while the father dressed in a blue surgical gown, holding the baby to her face.

Yeah, so I'm seeing more of those photos than I would like. There are situations where a c-section is necessary to save lives, like breech births and other complications. In the US today, that's probably not the reason why most c-sections are carried out. I won't get into the specifics of the debate because you can read it on your own or just watch The Business of Being Born. I mainly just feel sad seeing those photos because the mothers are my friends. They are all college educated, professional women who are generally healthy and below the age of 35. I just don't understand why this is happening to them so often. More over, I just wish something could be done so this wouldn't happen to another woman I know.

You can't really walk into a baby shower and tell the expectant mom "hey, do you know the c-section rate in this country? Before you open up another wrapped onesie gift, please switch from your OB to a midwife and write up a birth plan!" That just won't work well. Expectant moms want and should hear the warm and fuzzy. With friends that I know well and really care about, I suppose I wouldn't shy away from giving such advice if I think they haven't heard it already.

Earthquake, Libya, global warming, the US budget, too many things to fix in this world, ain't it. But I wouldn't mind if the Blue Curtain of Cringe is eliminated though. Seems like it'd be more easily done than the other things aforementioned.

Bye Bye Diapers!

2011-03-31T20:24:00.003-04:00

Emil achieved a major milestone last week, he's potty trained! The little man learned it in a week or so, and has now moved onto regular underwear. Let me know tell you, a 21 months old toddler in tightee whitees is just too cute! Size 2T/3T is the smallest most brands make for boys' underwear, thankfully Emil is a big boy for his age.

Not having to change diapers is a fantastic gain for me and Kristian. It wasn't too bad when it was just breastmilk poop. But once he started eating the same food as us, the gross factor went straight up.

Before I started this, I had heard mostly about 3 year olds resisting potty training. I'm glad I did it now because power struggles with a 3 year old Emil would not have been fun.

I tried when Emil was 13 months and he was already holding pee for 3 hours at a time. Cognitively he wasn't ready for potty though, so I quit and waited until he was 18 months old. If you have a child in diapers, don't wait too long to potty train! Readiness for most kids is on either side of turning 2, and once you miss that, you may end up with a 4 year old in diapers.

Working Families

2010-12-07T14:19:00.003-05:00

There is a lot of discussion about extending GWBush's tax cuts in Congress. I often hear news people and politicians using the word "working families". Mostly they say "working families" need money in their pockets to feed their kids, pay mortgage and buy clothes, etc. Therefore, as the logic goes, we should extend the cuts for the "working families" but not the "rich". The rich here is families making more than $250k a year.

Here's my question. Are rich families not working? Do they just get money somehow but not via our standard definition of work? If they do in fact have to work to get the $250k, then why aren't they considered "working families" and get the tax cuts too?

Remembering Kathy

2010-01-08T21:51:00.002-05:00

My college friend Kathy Chavez past away on Wednesday. She had fought cancer courageously for 13 years and the latest round of tumors took the last bit of energy in her. She was an inspirational figure to many and made each of us's life a little brighter. I'm grateful for her friendship in the last 7 years. Below is the eulogy I wrote for her funeral.

Kathy, I'm sorry I can't come to say goodbye in person tomorrow. Rest in peace.

"The doctors and nurses say I'm a living miracle!" Kathy told me on the other end of the phone when asked about her latest bout of cancer treatment. She sounded proud, not a bit of fear. Indeed, Kathy lived her life to create a miracle; a miracle for her family, for her friends and most of all for living a full, informative and positive life in this world.

Kathy's positive personality was a highlight in McClelland Hall long before I befriended her. She was one of the oldest students in the classroom and yet she never shied away from asking thoughtful questions to the professors and helping her classmates. I got to know Kathy better when she returned to school after taking a semester off to undergo further cancer treatment. For the first few weeks of our friendship Kathy didn't tell me she had cancer. Of course, she also never mentioned she had maintained straight A's every semester.

"You can do it!" She would tell me when I dreaded the next day's economics exam. Learning to her was an opportunity not to be had again and she seized every moment of it. There was something sacred in education and she treated it with uttermost respect and seriousness. She made it look easy for the rest of us twenty something college students. To us, it was the hang-over from Friday night's party that made studying seem so impossibly hard. For Kathy, being a wife, a mother, a daughter as well as a cancer patient were not that hard, she could always find time to study.

Even though there were 20 years of age difference between us, Kathy was someone I could always talk to about my private struggles. She was not one to start giving advice just because she was older. She listened, with a kind heart and forgiveness. She never assumed anything, never jumped to conclusions. I can't help but wonder if she ever thought my struggles were trivial compared to what she had to contend with, but she never made me feel that way. To her, everyone regardless of their background, age, motivation deserves to be heard and everyone's struggles are equally important.

When her treatment was taking away her memory, her ability to drive and check email, she said with some sarcasm "I really should do better at staying in touch, you know I've just been so busy living my life!" I didn't need to tell her to not apologize, I knew she wanted to make me laugh.

Kathy, I'm going to miss your cheerful Hello on the phone. I will remember the wonderful trip Naomi, you and I took to San Francisco. The wine tasting we enjoyed and the slight buzz we felt afterwards. I will remember the short chats we'd have right before the 8AM ECON class. I will remember the delicious meals we made together in your kitchen. Most of all, I will remember how miraculously you lived your life and tell your miracle to my son, Emil.

Your friend,

Cecily

Outrageous baby item of the day

2009-08-12T13:42:00.001-04:00

$112 Burberry pants for infant, no?

Recap since the baby

2009-08-12T13:00:00.002-04:00

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.

HypnoBirthing class crowd

2009-04-18T20:11:00.006-04:00

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. :)

Motherhood Anti-Expectations

2008-11-30T21:37:00.004-05:00

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)

The best blog comment I read today

2008-08-17T21:46:00.004-04:00

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. :)

*

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 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!

Rants

2008-06-16T21:00:00.004-04:00

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.

I've been tagged by Amy

2008-06-15T12:49:00.004-04:00

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

TAB in Cambridge

2008-04-30T17:09:00.006-04:00

Today is our 3rd day of living full-time in Cambridge, MA. The closing of the condo sale was on Friday, we moved in on Saturday. On Sunday, we cleaned up the old apartment in Woburn and officially turned in the keys.

On my way home today, driving on the congested Fresh Pond Pkwy, I was irritated by a TAB. First TAB I encountered on this coast, in her cobalt blue BMW SUV. She honked at me while I was merging into her lane. I wouldn't call it cutting her off because I signaled and pulled in very slowly. She honked at me 3 times nevertheless.

While staring at her in the rear view mirror with my typical angry face, I imagined what her life was like. I started thinking about her CEO father, collecting large paychecks at a semi-conductor company back in Taiwan, which supplied 80% of Dell laptops made in China; her mother, who's 55 but looks like she's in her 30's that flies from Taipei to the States twice a year to shop at various luxury brands outlets, especially Louis Vuitton; her white American boyfriend who has a MA in Philosophy from Harvard and loves eating sushi. I then moved on to imaging their parents-subsidized Huron Village condo and their lonely Westie puppy who is locked in there 10 hours a day while his owners are out driving in the BMW.

Before my mental revenge went too far, I realized all this stereotype was actually the norm in Cambridge. Compared to Woburn, every other couple I see around Harvard Square is an Asian girl in the arms of a white guy. Then, I thought how "average" Kristian and I are in the couple demographics of Cambridge. The popularity of Asian girl/white guy combination has certainly reached a critical mass for me to think my relationship might not be that cool.

Trying to be unique is exhausting. Like I was a little startled when the seller broker guy referred Kristian and I as "hipsters". It was ironic because I laughed a lot at stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com and I didn't really think I'd qualify as a hipster with my Libertarian believes. (Shh, I do love Whole Foods) But I guess joining the gentrification force in North Cambridge (our house is right next to the projects) and buying a post-modernist house qualifies us as hipsters. Maybe it's not such a bad thing.

Maybe being an Asian girl dating/marrying a white guy isn't such a bad thing either. Being unique is also costly: there are more services and social acceptance catered towards stereotypes. It's a matter of appreciating who you are and who you are with, and less on how similar you are to the others around you. Easier said than done, of course, like many other things in life.

No BFF, no love?

2008-03-15T19:06:00.003-04:00

Is there anyone else out there other than me that doesn't have a BFF? Oh, if you haven't caught up with this new idiom, it means Best Friend Forever.

Last time I could tag friends with the BFF acronym was probably in middle school in China. At 13, I was in a group of 5 girls who always hung out together. Still, it wasn't a single person, it was a group. Since then, I can't really name anyone as my best friend.

What happens to people with no BFF's? Nothing as far as I'm concerned. I have plenty of friends that I can call up to hang out with. For day to day activities, I've got my boyfriend.

New book out

2008-01-26T20:07:00.000-05:00

I immediately thought Raytheon directors and VP's when I saw the title of this book:

Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill)

by David Cay Johnston

I've got a half dozen books on the list, perhaps this one is worth piling on.

Campaign ads

2008-01-07T19:44:00.000-05:00

One good (or bad) thing about living in MA is you get to witness the media scrutiny on the New Hampshire primaries from nearby but without the congestion and well, scrutiny. I had not had the good fortune to see all major candidates' TV campaign ads this early until this year.

Democrat side
Hilary: 2 version of classic, positive and color-rich ads, second person voice. Lots of videos and photos of her being with large groups of supporters. I'll have to say it is a textbook campaign ad.
Obama: 2 versions of one black/white still photos in a series and another of color video footage, second person voice. B/W one is unusual but grabs my attention almost immediately. The color one nicely compliment it.
Edwards: first person talking directly to the camera about fighting big corporations, nice wholesome backdrop in one version. Another one with just colors as background, him talking about how he fights for "the underdogs."

My favorite is Obama's. I believe they really bring out his strengths, very inspiing. Hilary's are a close second, very convincing. Both Hilary and Obama's ads mention the local NE newspapers that endorsed them.

John Edwards is crazy. He says "he'll fight big corporations that take jobs away from middle class Americans." Doesn't he know most people work for big corporations?!

On the GOP side:
Romney: very positive (we are going to be better and better), saturated and polished colors like pn a day-time soap opera of Mitt talking directly into the camera. He is a very speaker I must say.
John McCain: first person as well, reminding folks he hasn't changed since 2000. A bit boring as it is just a headshot. It made me feel a bit sympathetic for him.

I haven't seen any ads from Guiliani or Ron Paul. My money has been going to Ron Paul, but I'm thinking about giving Obama some push as well. Something tells me to want to keep my pot of contribution for Paul though, although his anti-abortion stands bother me.

When I googled "campaign", I got this list below. Hilary number 2 hit, weird.

Bailing out of mortgage contracts

2007-12-07T13:48:00.000-05:00

Reason can't seem to win in this country:

"A recent Federal Trade Commission study revealed a third of mortgage borrowers didn't know what interest rate they were paying, while half didn't know how much they borrowed. Tougher disclosure standards may well make sense. But, in the end, it simply isn't the government's job to convince people that some financial risks aren't worth taking, or that housing prices can go down as well as up."

Unfortunately, legislation and government intervention will not stop stupid people from being stupid. The same type of raw deal is occurring every few minutes at your local car dealership lots.

All of us know someone who buys that expensive SUV that he/she shouldn't buy, only got talked into it because of an attractively low "monthly payment of $199." At the end of loan length, some 5+ years from now, the buyer ends up paying twice the sticker price for that car. Shouldn't government regulate how people buy their cars too?! In fact, the most effective way of educating people about financial risks is to cut them off from taking out loans all together.

For that matter, people these days finance anything and everything. From vacations, wedding, home renovation, to major appliances, LASIK and child adoption. It's only a matter of time until we hear those who failed at assessing associated loan risk on CNN: "oh, I didn't think financing that $50k Vera Wang wedding gown was going to come back and bite me in the ass later on!"

Of course, home ownership is inseparable from the "American Dream". Many are considered losers in our American society if they are not owning a home by the time they are 40.

However, the efficiency increase resulting from poor people moving from apartments into homes does not counter the added cost of intervening with the free market. This cost has a snowball effect and is an externality imposed on others who can assess the financial risks.

From my personal experience shopping for a home, I do admit looking at the mortgage numbers can get confusing. However, as consumers in a free market, we all need to be thinking about those numbers long and hard before jumping onto the homeowners' bandwagon. Markets afford convenience, efficiency and possibility, but there is a cost.

Bad stuff is down the road if the government gets its tentacles wrapped around the mortgage loans now. And to be honest, it'll hardly alleviate the sub-prime burden from the ordinary consumers' shoulders. Sorry, no support of government intervention in the mortgage industry from me.

Consumerism is so sad

2007-11-28T15:53:00.000-05:00

The real toy story. Michael Wolf documents his journey is collecting second-hand used toys in the US (easily and cheaply acquired), creating an art piece from those toys and then heading back to their source, China, to document the toy factories.

LINK here

The fact those girls wear masks makes me think the media wouldn't have a single article if a dozen of them got sick or died from toxic fumes or lead poisoning working in the factory. One infant dying from those toys in the US makes headlines in major media outlets.

Life has a price, doesn't matter what the amnesty international says. What is the price of your life? I'm still thinking about mine. ;)

I love the Economist

2007-09-13T12:38:00.000-04:00

A page full of rankings from the Economist website. Free to non-subscribers and full of rankings only one click away.

Denmark achieves #1 in Business Environment Ranking. Hooray!

China fact of the day - milk

2007-09-13T12:26:00.000-04:00

I still eat meat, albeit I'm trying to stop eating beef all together. Pork on the other hand will be hard for me to give up, so tasty. Plus pigs can feed up leftover human foods, less damaging to the land, no grazing needed. I could care less for chicken, but I usually get chicken or vegetarian burritos at Chipotle.

"In China, for instance, people are eating double the amount of meat they used to a decade ago."

Link to article here.

Another thought, dairy cows also pollute a lot. I don't see environmental groups targeting the Milk ads? Fact, humans are the only mammals that consume milk on a regular basis in adulthood. In the US, Americans are milk faithfuls, drinking several gallons a month.

Other than calcium, what other benefits of drinking milk are there? Calcium pills are abundant and affordable these days. It seems obvious that the dairy farmers and milk industry boards sponsoring the Got Milk? ad series benefit the most from us consuming more dairy.

I'm not saying drinking milk is bad, but a glass a day is probably over-rated and driven by commercial interest, not health. It leaves a huge carbon footprint when a cow is generating methane and eating up perfectly nice grasslands.

Don't even get me started on the stupidity and short-sightedness of celebrity endorsements in environmental causes, diseases, Toyota Prius and world-poverty issues. The talking heads sure haven't been hesitant to promote milk drinking either!

Some interesting facts about milk via MR blog. One particular comment:

"2. In some parts of the United States, milk is more expensive than gasoline."

This is true where I live. However, I don't think it should be a cause for concern. If anything, we are drinking way too much milk. More importantly, gasoline prices have a lot of catching up to do. The market price of gasoline, without US meddling in the middle east, government subsidies and interferences from OPEC, etc, world-wide gas price should be a lot higher. And it will only get higher as fossil fuels are finite resources. Quit whining you polluters! (me included)

Globalization and New England apple season

2007-09-08T10:07:00.001-04:00

As September rolls around, apple picking is fast approaching. Some early harvest varieties such as Ginger Gold are ready to be picked right now. Later ones, including my favorite variety, Fuji, won't be ready until late October.

Last October, Kristian and I took a fall foliage trip through NH and VT. We stopped by Green Mountain Orchard in Putney, VT on the way back to Boston. After loading up on MacIntosh apples in our tummies and bags, we took a hayride with the kids around the 128 acre orchard.

Chul messaged me this morning about apple picking up here. I was surprised to find out there are actually apple farms within 40 min radius of Boston as well. According to this Globe article, Nashoba Valley area used to the apple growing center of New England.

Interesting stats:

"In 1947, Massachusetts had 23,000 acres of apple orchards, according to Robin Helrich, an agricultural statistician with New England Agricultural Statistics, which is part of the US Department of Agriculture. Last year, there were 4,100 acres of fruit-bearing apple trees in the state, she said."

I also didn't know Chile exports apples to the States since grapes were a lot more commonly labeled Product of Chile. I reckon if carbon footprint labeling was to become standard on foods and durable goods, local grown fruits and veggies would regain popularity quite fast.

Way to go for the local orchards to adopt, and apply algorithms of hayriding, cider and donut shops to keep their businesses running though.

Christian Studies

2007-08-23T17:21:00.000-04:00

Yahoo! Mail ad seen on my login page:

Yes, you may pursue a degree in Christian Studies according to this ad. Better yet, if I were the pretty young lady above, I'd want to get my Master's degree in it in 10 months! What is Christian Studies anyway. It's obviously not a divinity degree. I'm guessing it's for reborn Christian stay-at-home moms who are bored out of their mind?

I personally don't know any nursing, marketing, technology (note: it's a nice and generic technology), business that's accredited by a trustworthy institution that lets you finish a Master's in 10 months online.

I wonder if those ads actually get a lot of clicks and have fools signing up at their website. Would be interesting to do a study on the ROI of Free-College-Info.com alumni, wouldn't it?

This American Life

2007-08-18T17:38:00.000-04:00

I sat in the parking lot of Super 88 Market in Malden, MA to finish listening to today's This American Life episode on WBUR. The weather was extremely pleasant, sunny, very breezy perhaps even windy, low humidity, early fall like weather. I rolled down the windows, sat behind the steering wheel of Trogodor and listened. It was hilarious. Hilarious in the sense that life is so silly, reality is entertaining.

Since my car radio wasn't turned on until 3:30pm or so, I was able to catch the last part of the program. It was about the host Ira Glass tagging along a private investigator named "Jonathan" around Chicago suburbs. "Jonathan" was working on a cheating case that the husband was paying him $50/hr for surveillance on the wife.

Ira and Jonathan encountered a few things that you and I might find interesting in the world of the private eyesb. The wife left to meet her lover an hour late; she never noticed the PI's car following her even though it was quite a long drive and they were right behind her car; she took her time to reach the restaurant, a very un-romantic, large, family oriented place; and the guy she was meeting had rude table manners that made him not so attractive. Hmmm. Then it took Jonathan another 5 days to finally catch them going home together, completing his case. Of course, the husband was calling his wife "that lying bitch" when Jonathan confirmed his suspicions. Ira made this scene so satisfying with his cool and articulate delivery.

The best part was the demographic of this couple. They are like in their mid-20's! I was certain that, from all the PI scenes in the movies, people who hire PI's to spy on their spouses are almost all mid-aged couples who have been married for a while. Perhaps their marriage was getting dull, things weren't as exciting and one or another was looking for some fun outside of the marriage. I'm not sure why I found it so funny but perhaps I was entertained because it surprised me. Ira definitely made a note of that.

Listen by clicking on the link above if you want to hear it for yourself.

Lost and Found works!

2007-08-07T11:45:00.001-04:00

Icelandair has moved up in my "Airlines to Fly or Avoid" book. I left my camera on their flight from Boston to Iceland about a month ago. Yes, it was the 3rd camera I've lost in the last 3 years. Doh! (I need a bionic camera)

So I emailed them 2 weeks after flying with them, via a generic email address found on their website. The Reykjavik Airport police wrote me back within a day and said they had my camera!

"Hello,

Your camera is here at Lost and Found keflavíkairport. If you want it to be sent to you by mail then we will need your address, full name and a mastercard number.

Kv. Daði H. Kristinsson
Iceland Police
Lost and Found

I did have to pay $32 in shipping charge but hey, it sure beats buying a new camera! It arrived in an international shipping box yesterday. With a population of 309,699 total, Iceland perhaps functions much more efficiently compared to large nations like the U.S.? Everyone probably knows everyone else and each other's business. I'd think it'd be hard to commit heinous crime too.

At any rate, I'm a big fan of IcelandAir. Hooray!

~ Cecily

Have you had enough of the Minneapolis bridge collapse? Me too.

2007-08-04T22:24:00.000-04:00

Minneapolis bridge collapse. So far 5 people had died; 8 missing. Numerous cars fell into the river when the bridge collapsed. Maximum possible death toll: 13. Yes, 13, ok? How many people are dying in Darfur or Iraq on a daily basis?? Do they get an instant 250m dollars, heck no! Substance, please.

I just don't get it. Since day one of the collapse, we were informed structural engineers from state had raised questions about this bridge, more than once. It was not on the list to be fixed because the state simply didn't allocate enough money to maintenance.

The problem lies in where the money gets spent. Transportation bill hasn't been small, to be fair. However, large amounts of the money from those bills fund new constructions: building bridges leading to nowhere, highways facilitating more suburban sprawling and more vehicular traffic. It is politically popular to do new projects: it creats job; it makes places look like an American dream, concrete lanes diving up green space, packed with shiny roads and cookie-cutter houses. The existing transportation infrastructure, including roads, bridges, railroads and subways have been neglected as a result.

So explain to me why the hell do I need to be listening to breaking news such as these: "the governor is calling state wide inspection of all bridges", 'Massachutes transportation department is also inspecting our bridges per the Governor's request'. First, this is too little too late. You can't fix the briges tomorrow. Second, the fundamental problem was and is not, if and how we do inspections. In fact, we do a fine job at it. The problem is the fricking money. The money is not going where it should be. More money needs to go to maintenance and less needs to go to new construction projects. And of course, unless people start dying, pork barreling is business as usual. In this case, it's bringing home the concrete instead of the bacon, that's of high interest to the local politicians.

Even better yet, that CNN article says our politicians are going to pass a bill up to $250m just to fix this one bridge in Minnesota. If we already know hundreds of bridges, roads in the country may be in need of fixing due to years of neglect, why spend so much on one single bridge? Why not explore options such as building bridge at a different location, a tunnel or even a rail line on the bridge instead of car lanes? Minnesotans, are you ready to stuff your faces?

Chinese men vs. endangered species

2007-07-23T12:37:00.000-04:00

Tigers, bears, reindeers, leopards, wolves, cobras and boas, and now the African rhinos (Economist subscription required) are on the list too.

What do those animals have in common? They are probably all endangered to some degree, and most of them are protected by international laws against poaching. Additionally, all of them are also being hunted because a huge underground Chinese market demands paws, antlers, bones, organs and other parts from those animals. The afore-linked Economist article talks about the African rhinos being sold in China despite regulations sought to protect them.

Of course the claimed medicinal benefits all have something to do with the male sexuality. The Chinese believe the animals parts either have aphrodisiac effects or can cure/alleviate male impotence.

This is obviously no old news to most of us but I hear it so much now that I feel ashamed that I'm Chinese. China, a rapid advancing society with a long civilization is still fascinated with stupid myths and beliefs. How is this possible? Did Confucius have impotence problems too??

I recall at a very young age, images of tiger parts soaked in rice alcohol being sold at morning's farmer's market. My mom used to tell me how those "tiger bone medicine wines" were fake. The sellers apparently used cow bones, glued on dyed cowhide to make them look like tiger bones.

Are Chinese men more genetically prone to sexual dysfunction and impotence? This really puzzles me. I haven't been able to find any scientific studies on this. It does seem to me that whatever the problem those guys have, they sure make a big deal out of it. To the degree that they want to stuff themselves with exotic animals.

People who are always talking about why Asian girls date white guys in the US. If Chinese men have problems getting it up, why shouldn't Chinese women marry non-Asian men? I don't pity those guys at all if innocent animals are being slaughtered in vain.

Another amazing entrepreneur under 30

2007-07-19T19:21:00.000-04:00

While poking around on Wikipedia today, I started reading the page on facebook. I vaguely remember being invited to join the site in 2004 while in graduate school at U of A.

It's funny that something seemingly so amateur and collegiate to me then has spung into a mainstream media outlet with million dollar deals involved in keeping it running. I felt the same way about LinkedIn when my classmate Srini first invited me to join, circa 2004 as well. There were only 2 people that I knew on that site! These days, I'm averaging a new contact almost every day.

What really amazed me was the profile of a major player currently at thefacebook, Matt Cohler. (see LinkedIn) I found his page on Wikipedia and started reading it immediately. It detailed Matt's adventures betweens getting Yale degrees, launching marketing plans at a pioneer IT company in Beijing, playing Jazz professionally as well as being a consultant at McKinsey, funding LinkedIn and now strategizing for Facebook. And all that accomplishment before the age of 30, I reckon? Holy crap!

I guess it did make me feel severely underachieved. This happened before trust me. Most recently it was stumbling upon Steve Jurvetson's Flickr account after being captivated by an interesting photo. I later realized he was a million dollar venture capitalist! In his 40's perhaps, he's lived almost a lifetime of an industry.

I gotta leave work now, but had to write down those thoughts before driving. Time to figure out my lifeplan after 30. Too little too late and/or not even possible with today's economy and success stories?

Econ stats from China

2007-04-03T15:19:00.000-04:00

As usual, I was glossing over my favourite econ blog Marginal Revolution this morning. I came across this article on the validity of econ analyses and statistics from China. Can I just say "wow!" It gave backings to my frustrations with the western world's Chinese infatuation really nicely.

It is hardly surprising that corruption and nepotism plague most developing countries. China, even after drastic reforms in the market, it is still a very artificial kind of place to do business. Many of the economic principles don't apply directly. The author notes that the statistics western economists are collecting under the restriction of not offending the Chinese Communist Party are not reflective of the true nature of the economy. The sentence about high-up party cadres' children controling a large of the commerce is no news either.

I'm pretty happy to stumble upon this, an educational read.

The Ethanol Buzz

2007-03-14T15:51:00.000-04:00

Renewed interest on ethanol, a grain alcohol, dominated the news coverage of President Bush's visit to Brazil recently. It was on NPR every 15 minutes during All Things Considered when I drove home

Is ethanol green? Is ethanol good for us? The answer largely depends on what you consider to be part of the equation. The primary economic motivation of ethanol fuel is to rid of dependency on oil, mostly the imported portion in the United States. Ethanol is also touted as "clean burning" because of its low pollution.

However, the environmentally challenged drivers should think twice before jumping onto the ethanol bandwagon. As I have understood it, producing ethanol can be quite an ethical dilemma.

Brazil, the largest producer of ethanol in the world, makes ethanol from fermented sugar. Where does sugar come from? Sugar canes. Although the majority of the Amazon Rainforest deforested has been turned into grazing land for cattle, I would not be surprised if the same is and will be done to clean out land to grow sugar canes. According to Wikipedia article, ethanol releases 30% less energy than gasoline per volume.

This means we need to grow more corn and sugar cane in order to produce enough ethanol to fully replenish the current consumption of gasoline. There just simply isn’t enough land for growing those crops right now.

Obviously, deforestation has had a dramatic effect on earth climate. It also has had a positive effect on the rural economy of Brazil. It’s just funny to see the media jumping on something “cool” just because it seems like a nice alternative to gasoline fuel. The harsh fact of going true green is you simply cannot accomplish this without an implicit negative effect on the environment while also steering clear of negative economic effects. It is a give-take dillema politicians don’t want to talk about and that the media has a hard time conveying.

Ethanol may give us a buzz in the head, but it is still not worth the hangover for me.

Tour Groups Wanted

2007-03-07T16:25:00.000-05:00

My boyfriend, his sister and I are going to Washington, DC for a weekend trip in April. So naturally, I started looking to see if we could get tours of government buildings while visiting the capitol.

Back in 1995, on my first day of immigrating to the U.S., my Dad and I visited the White House. It was a great day. I hadn't even had a chance to eat at McDonald's and yet I was already inside the building where the American president worked and slept.

Fast forward 12 years, things aren't as simple. According to the White House website, tours are only given to groups of 10 or larger. Plus, I have to contact a congressman 2 months prior in order to get a reservation to go in. Not going to happen for us.

I then checked the Pentagon website to see if we could go inside. Its website states you must be in a group of 5 and larger, and with an educational, governmental or military institution. And get this, also church groups? Anyone up for joining the Church of Cecily? I'll be glad to take my parisoners on a tour inside the American military headquarters.

When did government buildings become so inaccessible to the common people? My guess is 9/11. Is it because the government functions more efficiently with less "disruption" from the outside? Sounds awefully untransparent to me. I feel now I have less chance of seeing the American government in action as a U.S. citizen compared to a decade ago when I was just fresh off the plane from China. Weird? Definitely.