Illusions

Something wrong with the current startup wave is that there's still an element of trying to revive the past, at least a memory of how things were during the boom. People may be trying to do it differently, more cult-like, perhaps, as the article says, but there's still something that smacks of uncreativity. And the problem with the social networking space is that there are as many social networking sites as there are people. So you either have to join as many networks as there are people out there, or everyone is going to be in their own individual network, which does not make a network.

Living in topsy-turvy tech time: The global economy never rests, nor do the driven -- some say crazy -- workers of Silicon Valley

An interesting quote from the article, "'This kind of addiction of availability is about more than work -- it's a franticness that is hard to shut off," he said. "It creates the illusion of being alive. But a lot of it is pedaling to nowhere.'"

It made me think of people who are always on the go, living life as they say, sure, experiencing a lot, and enjoying themselves. There is no time to think about the meaning or purpose of the life they are living, aside from the seeking of pleasure perhaps. Interesting how one person's "living life to the fullest", some would see as a life of emptiness. And something along the lines of vice-versa.

If you want to know what's a cool new product or technology, this is cool:

High-tech entrepreneurs unveil a sporty electric car

As I said before, the day of the solar-powered plug-in hybrid or electric vehicle is not that far away. The communications portion of the trio of technological revolution is already pretty mature. It's the energy and transportation portions that are ramping up. But when I thought Google was really awesome, nobody else seemed to.

I tried out Google Spreadsheets yesterday. Yup, it's starting to be a real net-OS, and it really is going to take over the world of the desktop OS. The Google search box is the equivalent of the Unix command-line. If you think about it that way, and Microsoft history, perhaps it's not too crazy to think of Google stock prices continuing upward. However, the latest article about Larry and Sergei and their party airplane was really unbecoming, even if it's just media or jealous newsfeeders. Too much success and perhaps it's possible to lose one's way.

Greening

It's a little hard to not eat any dairy products after having eaten ice cream every day in an attempt to fatten up.

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Somebody do this please, since I envision better than executing. Smart public transportation. Despite all these Spare the Air days with free transit, it's just impossible to get to and from the train station in a reasonable amount of time and fashion, if much of it consists of single-directional bus routes that only stop once per hour and only during commute hours. This is something for cell phones and PDAs with wireless access, or maybe just a gadget at bus stops and in buses. Riders signal their location and destination, and shuttles/cabs dispatch to pick them up dynamically, so buses only drive when and where they're needed, and reduce waiting time for riders to a few minutes so they are more likely to use it. Some computer program can dynamically update the route in transit as new customers signal in along the way.

You just want to be able to hop on, like the Internet.

So the book said... revolutions in communication, transportation and energy technology in society are all linked. I dunno... like paper, horses, and wood? Telegraph, trains, and coal? Telephones, cars, and oil? Internet and wireless have put the communication changes well underway, we're sort of working on energy with solar and such... but transportation has not yet seen any significant movement.

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Business Week had a cover story titled "The Greening of America". This commonification (ok what's the real word) of being "green" is proceeding at a pace even surprising to me. Although it's more media than everyday actions yet.

And some Stanford people are marketing a "Good Magazine". I wonder what the "good" schmooze-fest was like.

I dunno... bottom line is probably not only that this stuff is "good" but there's finally a visible enormous amount of money potential in it.

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I haven't been told what I saw when I had to look up some information in my directory entry, a change in title, or promotion, unless that was a bug.... Hopefully it comes with some more money too. I'm not sure how to be a senior software engineer who has no current job experience doing real development work. Ah, so I really must do something before I really become too senior.

Chicken

It's kind of late for me to be grilling chicken and eating it, but I didn't eat enough dinner before going to tai chi class. I eat too many chicken drumsticks, because they're the easiest thing to cook.

Last time I went to the Marina, I was looking for Sichuan pepper. However, nothing was named "Sichuan pepper." Something looked like it, but had a weird name called "prickly ash." Between my deciphering a Chinese word here and there, a vague idea that I was looking for something with little twigs and pepper-like things, and by logic of elimination, I concluded that this must be it. Anyway, I'm trying it on my chicken...

More on chicken... I discovered that marinating the drumsticks in various Indian spice powder, in other words curry, gives the chicken skin a perfect crisp and evens out the crisping.

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This post was not supposed to be about chicken.

Remembering, one year ago (and a couple of days) was a first date. Then on the 4th of July, me hanging out with another couple, skipping the fireworks. Maybe we were all wondering what we should be celebrating.

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A man drafts a letter to a woman, many years after their relationship ended, professing he is in love with her and could not get over her, but never sends it. In real life, he can never be with her. He is in love with what he cannot have. In real life, he is with another woman, chooses to be with her by not choosing to not be with her, and doesn't fall in love with her. The worst theft, of time and life, a guy can do to a woman. He says he will leave someday. But when she asks him to leave, he cannot leave. Can't stay, can't leave.

What is up with having one foot in reality and the other foot in the opposite of reality? Those splits must be painful.

Wedding Soup

L and Y's wedding was four weeks ago. The funniest thing was that she wouldn't let him kiss her during the reception when people make the couple kiss. The true emblem of virtue and modesty...

I got assigned to the Stanford draw group table. This is one of those weird occasions when people from all distinct periods of life are present at the same event because I'm connected to the couple in multiple separate paths. First as family friend, so all of our parents and parents' friends and parents' friends' children are there. Secondly through Stanford, some acquaintances I had lived in the same dorm with who are friends of the groom. Thirdly though Stanford again, through the extended Sib-family to the bride. And lastly, the groom is close friends with people I went to high school with.

So, after dinner, I was greeted with, "Would any of you girls like to dance... with your old prom date?" I had almost forgotten. So funny. Not just once but twice as a prom date. Apparently the prom pictures must have been shown around back in high school, because the guys were all joking, "Doesn't she look familiar...? hehehe." I think I was also known to this bunch in high school as the (attractive :) ) female math team captain at math meets, and this reputation followed me to Stanford where I met one of the guys there who knew me as such. Anyway, my old prom date was nice, and even was able to learn a decent basic salsa and cross-step waltz in about a minute. I guess we're not as dorky and nerdy as back then.

Things that seem to be becoming popular for weddings these days, are the honeymoon fund, and the after-wedding party for just the friends.

Risk

What is up with whitewater rafting... three different people have invited me to go whitewater rafting with three different groups on three different weekends in the last few weeks, and I turned them all down. And, all three of them involved some sort of matchmaking, one subtly, one blatantly, and one jokingly.

Unfortunately the incentive didn't work, especially for the two-person unguided rafting. I did that once before. Winsu and I got stuck in a very strong whirlpool after going over a rapid and couldn't get unstuck. He kept yelling at me to paddle while a ton of water poured on his head, but it was impossible. I'm not even sure if someone with ten times my muscles could have paddled out. Sadly, if it were a life and death situation, I still don't think I could have paddled out. We were only saved by the unflippable raft. However, if it had flipped, or we fell over, we would have gotten sucked down into the whirlpool. This is the part I vaguely remember during my high school rafting trip, the guide saying that if you don't maneuver through the rapid correctly and you get stuck in one of these whirlpools, you can get sucked down and never come up. Google searches and vague memory tells me that you're supposed to shift weight towards the front of the raft when going through the rapid, which apparently we did not do, as I was sitting in front. Well, we finally got bumped out of the whirlpool by the next raft that came through the same rapid. I think there's another name for "whirlpool" but I can't recall it now.

So I'll probably never do the two-person self-guided type again, and don't feel a pressing need to do any whitewater rafting for now...

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My etrade account appears to show a nasty bug this weekend. I was like, wow, how did I just make a few thousand dollars? Cool! Oops. One item showed twice the number of shares bought at half the price, so yeah, at the current price, suddenly the value has doubled. What if someone took advantage of that and sold to profit? Would he be responsible or etrade?