POSTS FROM 2001

Well, I'm off for my trip. I'll be back with lots of pictures.

I picked up Experience: Jill Scott yesterday. Good stuff. It seems like I'm moving, yet again, on to a new genre of music after about a year of listening to the same stuff because all the new stuff was teen pop. Thankfully that's coming to an end.

I love people watching in San Francisco:

I was at El Burrito when I spied a supermodel-thin Asian male wearing the de facto all black outfit replete with black driving gloves. Intrigued, I then watched him get into his black SLK where his female companion—also dressed in a slinky black spaghetti strap dress—was waiting. As I sit down to eat my burrito in the empty dining area, these two crank up the house music and start eating in the car. My questions are: Was the burrito place too plebian for them to eat? Why were they dressed up at 2pm on a Monday afternoon?

Cool person #2 was at the post office. She was a short stocky woman, somewhere in her mid-thirties, who was standing in line behind me as we waited for the clerk. Now, as anyone would expect around the holidays, the lines were fairly long and so it appeared to be about a 15 minute wait from where we were standing. Apparently, waiting for any amount of time was preposterous to this woman. In the 15 minutes we were in line, I counted 9 cries (not under-the-breath mutters) of “this is ridiculous!”, 4 exclamations of “I can't believe this!”, and one count of “C'mon lady, go to the counter already!” Nice.

The last sighting was in Borders, where a older woman was slumped back in a chair snoring at twice the volume of the in-store music. I mean, she was engaged in a full on snore-fest apparently from shopping too much since she was surrounded by her shopping bags. I wish I could be as care-free as she was in public.

Ah, I spent all day yesterday making sure that the terrorists have not already won by braving the mob of shoppers spilling out of downtown San Francisco. While I was at Virgin listening to a CD over in a corner of the store, this guy comes over to listen to the CD next to me and then farts. Of all the places inside or outside of the store he could have farted, he chose to do it next to me in a small corner of the store. Ass. I had to leave because the smell was just too much for me.

I made some marble cafe mocha cheesecake for Nancy's holiday thing yesterday. Yup, it was damn good.

This is how you apply the principles of a rice rocket to a PC

I went boarding again yesterday with the ex-Calico crew at Sierra which had 6" of fresh powder due to the storm the night before. I had a blast even though we only spend 4 hours on the mountain and the ride up was a bit rough. We didn't get to the condo until about 12:30 after dealing with snow chains and spinouts since Brian's Maxima just wasn't cutting it in the snow. My neck is quite sore right now from a nice tumble I took.

Two days until I leave for Asia! I'm still scrambling to find things to read in preparation for my 15 hour flight. 15 hours! I don't know how I'm going to be able to handle it, seeing as I was going nuts on my measly 6 hour flight back from Connecticut.

Last Monday I went to a little concert soiree by one of Heidi's friends at a place up in the Cole Valley/Twin Peaks area. It was hosted by a nice doctor-type gentleman and I swear, he had the biggest house in that area. The house was complete with a spiral tower that afforded a view of all three bridges. Very posh.

Wow, this story about the guy who choked to death on his wife's nail during their wedding has got to be the freak accident of the year.

Most definitely, too much time on their hands.

I'm starting to get excited: 6 days until my trip to Asia! I'll be touring around Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Shanghai for a few weeks, with Shanghai as the highlight of the trip since it'll be my first time. While I was at the Chinese Consulate getting my visa, I saw this little girl rub the barrier post with her hands and then rub her hands all over her baby brother's forehead. Ah, to be a kid again and not have to do things that make sense.

I feel out of touch with the rest of the world as I sit here pointing and clicking my way through my cyber-Christmas shopping. The stark contrast of the images coming from Afghanistan compared to life in the US really emphasizes the complacency in which many of us live. I mean, does anyboby else find that our society has become a collective of self-centered egotists? We will sue at the drop of a hat and eschew any responsibilities for our actions. Parents sue their child's high school because the child was cut from the varsity team, like the many other frivolous lawsuits (but to the credit of the woman who sued McDonalds over hot coffee, there were reportedly over 700 prior complaints filed about their hot coffee). Seeing as 9/11 has caused many people to come together, maybe they will also realize that we're already lucky to be living in this country and stop bitching about mundane things.

This is what the person behind the retail counter is really thinking about you when you do stupid things. Try to be nice.

It is a sad milestone for America when obesity has reached the level where a father has been ruled that he is too fat to raise his kids.

Another sign of the times: Cell phone providers are shortening their off-peak hours to because we're using them too much.

Wow, this is scary. I typed my name into Google's image search and it returned every picture of me that has ever been posted before this site was launched. I guess this is one of the downsides to having a unique name because searching for “John Hwang” returns a lot more random pictures. In any case, it's a wakeup call to how little privacy we have these days. Did you also know that I can get directions to your house just by entering your phone number? It only works if your number is listed in the phone book, but it'll definitely make you think twice about giving out your home number. You could always resort to giving out the Rejection Line number—always good for a laugh.

I just picked up Sting's All This Time album that's a great live set he performed on September 11, 2001 in Italy. I really like this version of Brand New Day; it's definitely a must have for Sting fans.

Fucking gorgeous. Those are the only words you needed to describe the weather when I went boarding up at Sierra at Tahoe yesterday. The sky was pure blue, and there was absolutely no wind at the top either. The snow was a week old but it wasn't too bad, even on the ungroomed trails. The only problem I had was with the 2 billion other people there. It took us a good 40 minutes to buy a lift ticket, and this time it wasn't a problem with the tellers or the credit card system—it was the morons who were asking questions like, “So do you have 2-day passes?” and “How much is a half day ticket?” Nevermind the gigantic sign above the ticket window that listed all the prices. I think they should get a toll booth type setup for the ticket sales because everyone was lined up right in the middle of the main concourse, causing all the other people who weren't buying tickets to constantly be cutting through. I doubt that anything like that will happen, seeing as the ski companies haven't seen revenue growth in years and might see a decline as a result of 9/11.

The real treat though, was on the ride home when we encountered a few rice rockets doing their thing. Integra #1 was behind us in the middle lane when we both tried to pass on the right at the same time. Integra #1 felt he needed to show us up by trying to pass first so he floored it (as evidenced by the ear-grating whining noise generated by whatever blue-light special mods he installed) and nearly hits us on the right before we swerve back into the middle lane. For the next 30 minutes he flitted around us trying to egg us on even though we gave him plenty of chances to get ahead of us. At that point, two new Integras—Integra #2 and Integra #3—sputter past us in a rice rocket frenzy causing Integra #1 to give up on us and go frolic with his newly found buddies. Problem solved.

So all those premonitions about John Ashcroft being an unsuitable attorney general have now come to fruition. The mere fact the the press is questioning proposals set by the administration “only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve.” Apparently we never got the memo that the attorney general's office has been renamed “The Ministry of Truth.” How long before it becomes “patriotic” to hang up posters that read, “WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”?

Nothing says "donate some money" like a group of Raiderettes in santa outfits.

Oh those crazy mormons and their rules. I wonder what they would do if one of their students got naked and tweaked out? If they were thrown in jail, would they whine about the lack of bacon and eggs?

Did you know that deadly pirates still exist?

I went down to Palo Alto for a meeting this morning, and during my 40 minute drive I saw 4 genuine accidents—not just fender benders but real car-crunching, spinout, cross-the-median type accidents—all involving SUVs. Now, I know that sedans get into accidents as well, but I hate SUVs so I'm going to take the time to berate those drivers. For some reason, SUV drivers tend to think that the SUV is some kind of magic vehicle that transcends the laws of physics and consequently drive like the pace car just left the track. Allow me recap on the ills of the SUV: they are bigger so they aren't as nimble as cars, they are heavier so they take a longer distance to brake, their center of gravity is higher so they are less stable, and they block visibility for other drivers. Having 4-wheel drive doesn't mean anything either since 1) when you slam on the brakes your car does the same thing as a 2-wheel drive car 2) half of the SUVs out there are driven in 2-wheel mode anyway. The real kicker is, an SUV probably cost you a hell of a lot more than it's really worth since companies like Ford reportedly pocket up to $15,000 on a single SUV, so you basically paid a ton of money because the car companies know you're willing to shell out for it and not because it's an advanced vehicle or anything.

Just a thought.

Today, yet again, there's a nutcase who got to work and went in with guns a blazin'. What the hell is wrong with people in this country? All of a sudden, the only solution people seek to any problem is to kill as many people as possible. We've degenerated into a society that believes that it's empowered to throw a fit like a whiny toddler whenever something doesn't go their way—the same way that one of my childhood friends would take away his basketball whenever his team started losing, ending the game for everyone else. These people need to grow a spine, and learn how to suck it up.

Code of the Street gives a lucid analysis on the shunned sub-culture of the inner city. While we often criticize the violence, teenage pregnancies, and drug dealing associated with the inner city, the reality is that these choices are usually better than the alternatives. Perpetuated by the continued neglect by police and public officials, the inner city has sadly devolved into a morass of poverty.

Are you wholly unsatisifed with your current cell phone? Have you gone back to flashing your jap tag instead? Then, have I got the phone for you! These gold-faced, diamond-studded luxury cell phones are the ultimate accessory for the snob-in-training that's trying to ascend into the world of opulence.

White powder = good times.

Who needs fancy organic LEDs when you can just use kimchi? Although you won't be able to get a kimchi LED just yet—even if you spend 16 hours straight in a Home Depot.

Is slapping a supreme justice covered under the USA Act?

Working at home is one of the hardest things to do, as you have no clear division between work and play. Whenever I'm working I feel like I should go outside and enjoy the weather, and whenever I'm out I feel as if I really should be working. Sure, there are many benefits like being able to run your errands during the day thus avaoiding the insufferable congestion in the city. I call it “old-people time” since the 10am-3pm time slot is when most of the other grocery-shopping constituents are three times older than me. Yeah, I definitely need to get a new job.

How fast do you spank the monkey?

I'm embarassed to say that I'm a Cornell alumni after seeing the new Cornell website. The complete disregard for usability, accesibility, and good design befuddles me, in light of the fact that this is the slightly redesigned version after opinions were solicited on the CU-WEB-L listserv.

Gig is a great book about people and their jobs. It's actually a huge compilation of interviews that gives quite an insight into what really goes on in businesses across the US.
Nobrow is an interesting glance at how marketing dictates popular culture in this country, but certainly not much of a surprise anymore considering the huge mega-corporations we have today.

To drivers in the Bay Area: turn on your headlights. Why is it that drivers here don't bother to turn on their lights during the twilight hour or when it rains? And they wonder why traffic accidents increase by 20% when it rains. In New York it's a state law that you have to turn on your lights if you're using your wipers—which is just plain common sense. Is it not cool to use your lights in the Bay Area? Well, I guess that would explain all the dumb things I see on lights such as the light-blocking black plastic headlight covers (sic), and those asinine Dodge Ram stencils on the brake lights. The lights on your car are meant to shine, people! Not to make your car a mobile planetarium.

So now that I've created this blog, I feel like it serves nothing more than to publicize my personal whims and to validate myself as a web professional. It's not like a personal journal where you record your intimate thoughts, and it's not some kind of PR site either; it fills the space between those two, with entries like, “Today I concluded that Jif crunchy peanut butter is the supreme condiment of all time.”—not exactly a confessional and not overtly superficial. Personal enough to illicit cyber-stalkers, but generic enough to prevent them from cyber-stalking your friends and family. So taking all of this into consideration, I give you my first blog entry:

Does any forward-thinking person really believe that the increased airport security decreases the chances of another terrorist attack? Lets closely evaluate a fundamental axiom of human nature: if somebody really wants to do something, they're going to do it. Who needs to rely on sharp instruments, like the newly banned tweezers and nail clippers, when any fool who studies martial arts can kill with his bare hands? Since their hands are a deadly weapon, would you suggest that we handcuff everyone who gets on the plane? What about the metal handles on rolling carry-ons? I can think of plenty of ways to make it a deadly weapon, so why aren't those banned yet? As long as we're using the rent-a-cops and only doing random bag checks, air travel is not any safer than it was before 9/11.

What really irks me is that the National Homeland Security Agency should have thought this through years ago, but thanks to our wonderful politicos, the NHSA was instated 3 years after it was first introduced. The cacaphony of cracking joints amidst this deluge of knee-jerk reactions is deafening.