baby's first painting

As has been the case for so many people, I've recently connected with a lot of old and long lost friends through Facebook. One of these friends is the daughter of one of my high school teachers and someone with whom I had a few classes when I was in high school. After trading a few notes, we decided to meet up when I was back in my hometown for Christmas. The little lady and I hung out with her for a while at a bakery that was popular when I was in high school, which was a lot of fun. I hadn't seen her in almost 15 years, so it was great to catch up and take a stroll down memory lane.

This friend is currently working on a master's degree in film history at NYU, and is quite the artist--something I had totally forgotten about. I asked her to show me some of her artwork, and after reviewing it and liking a few pieces, I decided to buy one. It came in the mail yesterday, and here it is:

I've never purchased an original work of art before, so I'm pretty excited to have it. Abstract art isn't for everyone (admittedly, I'm not a huge fan of it myself), but I really liked a few of her pieces because of the mix of colors and patterns, as well as the overall bleak feeling--no happy artwork for this crotchety 32 year-old, thank you very much.

It'll be up on my wall very soon.

25 random things

I've been tagged. I'm supposed to write 25 random facts or whatever about myself.

1. Between my freshman year of high school and the end of undergrad, I studied Spanish, Portuguese, French, Latin, Mandarin, Cantonese and Korean for various lengths of time. My degree is in Mandarin, so I guess you could say that I'm a linguist. I really miss actively studying languages.

2. When I was a baby, I choked on water (I think), turned blue and almost died. To this day, I still have problems with liquids going down the wrong pipe, and end up choking at least once or twice a month. I probably just need to slow down.

3. I've dieted like crazy over the last six years or so. If you took the absolute value of my weight gains and losses, it would probably be over 300 lbs. I just need to lose weight and learn how to keep it off.

4. I'm very particular about the order in which I do things when I get ready in the morning: brush teeth, shower, weigh myself, put deodorant on, shave, and so on. If I deviate from this order, like shower before brushing my teeth, I usually end up forgetting to do one or more things.

5. I always put my socks on before I put my pants on, unless I've already worn the pants in question once.

6. I won a photo printer in a drawing at the office a few years ago. It's pretty cool, but I've never used it. The little lady seems to like it a lot, though.

7. On one of our first dates, the little lady and I were walking on the hill at the south end of the BYU campus (Maeser Hill?). It was dark, and a deer jumped out of the bushes. I pushed her in front of me to make sure that I wouldn't get hurt. There's nothing like a little "every man for himself" in a relationship. And she didn't even dump me.

8. Our first date was dinner in the Red Lantern Chinese buffet, near BYU. I think she was nervous (either because I made her use chopsticks, or because it was our first date, or both), and didn't end up eating very much. We also went to the same place the first time our parents met.

9. How did we meet? I was Becca's supervisor. "Want a promotion? How about a date?"

10. I originally planned on majoring in biochemistry when I started college, with the intent of eventually going to med school. I dropped the idea after talking to my doctor uncle, who advised me to find something else to do if I only cared about the money. Good advice--money was really all I was thinking about at the time. I do sometimes wish that I had a job where I really made a difference in people's lives, though.

11. I love teaching/training people, but prefer to do it one-on-one or in small groups. It's hard to give people individualized training and attention when you're dealing with a large group.

12. I've often told people that have worked for me that they know they're doing a good job when they no longer need to talk to me at all during the day. That might sound rude, but what I really mean is "When you're competent enough to have earned my trust and to be able to make decisions for yourself, then you don't have to ask me questions any more, and we can each focus on our own work."

13. I've always been a collector: stamps, rocks, glass, sports cards, Garbage Pail kids cards, books, CDs, and watches are just a few of the things I've collected.

14. When I'm in Hawaii, I love to order Portuguese sausage and rice for breakfast at McDonald's. Not your typical breakfast, but then, I never really cared about only eating certain foods at certain times of the day.

15. I became a much happier person when I stopped hating myself for liking heavy/death/speed/thrash/whatever metal. When I was in high school, I used to tell people I'd someday stop. These days, I listen to it more than ever.

16. When I was in Hong Kong, the police knocked on my door one night. They were looking for some "kids" that had been spotting pedestrians with a laser pen and then dropping bags of rice and saimailo (a grain used to make a certain drink) out the window (I lived in a high-rise building). I truthfully told them that no kids lived in my apartment, and they left. My roommates and I stopped dropping stuff out the window for a while after that.

17. I was hit by a car while riding my bike home from my grandparents' house when I was in seventh grade. I don't remember much, but I do remember that I kept asking about the state of my brand new bike while my dad and the paramedics were helping me out. It was a purple and yellow Centurion Ironman, and it was damaged beyond repair. I wasn't able to find another like it when my dad took me to get a new one. That still bums me out when I think about it.

18. I love Star Trek. LOVE it. I own almost every Star Trek DVD that's ever been produced--probably more than 150, by now. But, I would never go to a Star Trek convention or dress up like Captain Kirk or whatever. I think that stuff is totally lame.

19. One of my biggest regrets in life was turning down an offer to study Latin at Pomona College (one of the nation's top liberal arts colleges) for only $100 in tuition my senior year of high school. I turned it down to spite my high school Latin teacher, whom I did not like. Talk about stupid.

20. Becca is the only girl not of Asian descent that I ever dated. Cue the "yellow fever" jokes.

21. I'm fascinated by apocalyptic ideas and scenarios, like nuclear war. I used to have dreams about such things all the time when I was younger, but not as much now. The closest thing I dream about now is witnessing a plane crash. I have that dream a lot.

22. I love coats and shoes. I have more of either than Becca does, I think. Kind of weird for a guy, but I enjoy the variety.

23. Even though jeans are permitted in my office (either on casual Fridays or if you have a "casual sticker"), it took me almost four years of employment before I finally wore them, having previously deemed the idea completely unacceptable. I now wear jeans multiple times per week since I'm in a phase of fashion laziness.

24. When I was in 10th grade, I read the entire world history textbook on the first night of school. Man, do I love history.

25. I've long had an obsession with words, grammar, spelling, etc. My siblings still make fun of me for reading the Spanish dictionary on a regular basis when I was in high school.

I tag:

Becca
Holly
Terina
Abish
Meredith
Kalola
Casey

old friends

My quest to do something other than work and study is going pretty well. Even if I'm not getting a ton of physical activity, I'm proud of myself for putting the computer down and doing something different for a change.

This morning, I did something I haven't done in years: I finished reading a book. A regular book. "Kitchen Confidential", by Anthony Bourdain. I went through a period from late 2006 to the middle of last year where I was obsessed with his TV show, "No Reservations", so I thought I would read his book. It was entertaining and an eye-opening look at what goes on in restaurant kitchens.

The last couple of nights, I've spent at least an hour reading, with music going in the background and no computer on. It's been a lot of fun, and I think it's helping my overall state of mind. Years of multitasking have taken their toll--I'm rarely able to focus on any one thing for too long. Turning off a few gadgets and just reading has been great. I think I'll continue.

January has been movie madness month here. I've seen more movies than I can remember this month, but here are some of them:

Omega Man
The Great Debaters (which it right now)
Slumdog Millionaire
Doubt
Gran Torino
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Wrestler
Eagle Eye
Thunderball
For Your Eyes Only
Meet Bill
Vantage Point
Maxed Out
Outsourced
Silent Running
The Professional
The King of California
Jackass 2.5
The Illusionist
Tortilla Soup
Seven Years in Tibet
War, Inc.
The Women
Forgetting Sarah Marshall

The best of all these? "Gran Torino", hands down. Good story, funny, a bit of a surprise ending. "Slumdog Millionaire" would be a close second. Any praise you hear for either of these movies is well justified. Anyway, I'm sure I'll be seeing more movies soon.

With spring only five months away, I'm looking forward to having more opportunities to do different things. I've been itching to get into photography more, and my bike has been gathering dust for over a year, so it's time to pull it out. Time will other what other adventures lurk outside my computer and office.

that wasn't too bright

Yesterday, after I finished watching a movie from Netflix ("War, Inc.", by the way. It really sucked), I decided to walk to the mailbox to mail it back before the mailman came. I looked around at my clothing options, and determined that I'd wear shorts, a sweatshirt and slippers outside. After all, putting on pants and buckling a belt can be a lot of effort.

The mailbox is a 1-2 minute walk away. That's not very far unless, of course, temperatures are in the single digits (which I knew) and there's a wind chill advisory in effect (which I didn't know). So, it was probably somewhere between -10 and -20F with the wind chill while I was outside for those few minutes. By the time I got back, I could barely feel my legs. It was kind of a strange sensation, since my legs don't typically get very cold. After all, I'm the guy who's always too hot. The problem is so pronounced that I keep our thermostat at 64F during the winter when I'm awake, and 55F when I'm asleep.

Anyway, I don't recommend shorts for sub-zero weather. I don't recommend even going out in sub-zero weather, but it's kind of unavoidable in Minnesota.

75 days to paradise

For the last few years, I've wanted to take the little lady on vacation early in the year--sometime between February 1 and May 1--since she has a hard time with the long winters here in God's country. And, to be honest, I sometimes tire of them myself. That hasn't been possible, however, with my school schedule. Now that I'm a "high-powered" and "successful" MBA, however, I'm free to do what I want when work's not too bad. So, I've been looking at warm and sunny places to go, and finally booked something today. Here's where we'll be staying:


It's an all-inclusive resort in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. It's right on the beach, and the beach it's on is supposedly one of the top ten in the world. I plan on spending lots of time in the pool or in the ocean.

When life is dark and all hope is lost, there's nothing like a vacation to look forward to and to bring light back into my life. April 8 will not come soon enough.

ho-hum

Every once in a while, the stars and planets align such that something out of the ordinary happens. Tuesday was one of those days. The little lady was deathly ill (still is), and my schedule managed to clear up such that I was able to work from home and take her to the doctor. President Obama was being sworn in right as we turned the TV on when we got back from the doctor's office, and I was able to watch many of the other festivities and goings on while I worked. Normally, none of this would have been possible.

I don't remember ever watching another inauguration. I also don't remember any inauguration being so hyped. I felt like I was witnessing the decline of Western civilization as I listened to idiotic news broadcasts that were dumbed down to the lowest common denominator:

"We really expected Michelle Obama to be wearing something else!"

"Barack Obama's jaw looks a lot tighter today than usual. Must be a lot of pressure!"

"The president-elect and his family are running 23 minutes behind schedule. We don't know how this will affect the rest of his day, but it's going to be a late one!"

The inaugural proceedings were interesting, but weird. Nice hat, Aretha Franklin. Nice witty racist prayer, guy. Way to be inclusive of all Americans with the Lord's Prayer, Rick Warren. And all the tears. I just don't get it, but then, I didn't vote for the guy, either. Sure, he's the first black president. He probably represents many firsts, but I don't really care about that. I vote for the person that I think will do the best job. That wasn't Barack Obama.

Obama's speech was interesting. Thank the previous guy for his service to his country, then come out swinging and criticizing much of what the guy's done during his presidency. If nothing else, Obama succeeded in differentiating himself from his predecessor.

Obama's been busy since he took office. He's following up on things he said he would do, like closing the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I wonder how much he really knows about the place, or about other things on which he's acting swiftly. It seems like there's only so much you can know about intelligence activities if you're not the president or directly involved in those activities.

So, on from the hype and into the honeymoon. I'll be glad when that's over, too.

fat conspiracy

I've recently been visiting bookstores more frequently in an attempt to reconnect with my non-business self. The bookstores I visit most frequently are Borders and Barnes & Noble, because that's what's close to me. I don't know if it's because of New Year's resolutions, but every bookstore I've been in recently has a huge table of books on dieting/weight loss right as you walk in the door. More of these books can be found around the store, and it doesn't take long to find them, since there's tons of them.

In 2006, CBS News reported that Americans spend $35 billion a year on weight loss products and programs. $35 billion. That's no small number, and it means that we are a really overweight people, or we're completely obsessed with our appearance, or both.

It kind of makes me wonder: if I'm in the business of weight loss, why would I want people to lose weight? If everyone loses weight, I'm out of a job. No more diet plans. No more weight training books. No more Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers. No more low-carb, low-fat, low-salt, low-sugar, non-fat, programs (fads) for people to follow.

Consider the effect the popularity of the Atkins diet had on meat prices earlier this decade. The price of beef, in particular, went through the roof. Is it possible that Dr. Atkins and representatives from the beef, pork and chicken industries colluded to come up with a diet that would boost the profits of meat producers? Unlikely, but it's possible. And what about all those snack producers (Frito-Lay, Keebler, etc.) working against Oprah to make her ride a perpetual weigh loss/gain roller coaster? I think I smell a conspiracy. Or maybe that's just the overpriced steaks I have on the grill.

one night on broadway

Greetings from Times Square in New York City. As usual, my sleep is off, which is unfortunate. It looks like I'll only get about five hours of sleep total, since I'm being driven to New Jersey in an hour and 45 minutes.

This has been an interesting "business" trip thus far. Several colleagues and I landed at JFK at 1:30 yesterday afternoon, and were picked up by a limo at the airport. I was a bit surprised, but it was kind of fun. I haven't been in a stretch limo since I was asked by a girl at church to her senior prom. I still feel kind of bad when I think about how her mom arranged for us to have this nice stretch limo all to ourselves (What was she thinking???), and I fell asleep promptly after we got in the car, but I digress...Anyway, I had gotten a bit of motion sickness during our landing, and thought I was going to puke in the limo. The driver's driving was all over the place, and he got lost once or twice (come on--how do you get lost going to a hotel right next to Times Square?), so there was a fair amount of jerky movement in the car.

By the time we got to our hotel and got settled, it was 3:30. The rest of the group was hungry, so we decided to go get "lunch". We went to a small diner down the street, and I ordered a monte cristo. It sucked, but in typical Steve fashion, I ate it all. I shouldn't have ordered anything, but then, I didn't realize that we'd be having dinner an hour and a half later. Oops.

This was the view looking down the street from Ruby Foo's, the Chinese/sushi joint we ate at:

That's Times Square, in case you can't tell. Somehow, my awesome camera phone just doesn't capture the grandeur of the lights and billboards and such. Imagine that. Anyway, the food was pretty good, but if you know me pretty well, you know what I think of Chinese places that don't have any Chinese people working in them. Anyway, as is typical of any business dinner, we ordered and ate too much (and drank too much--me with my 10 glasses of water, everyone else with wine).

After dinner, we were taken to see a Broadway musical called "Jersey Boys". Again, if you know me, then you know I hate musicals. "Hate" isn't a strong enough word to describe the way I feel about the idea of a story being told primarily with music. This might sound strange coming from a guy who actually sang in musical-type productions in high school and who loves music so much, so I'll just say this: it's a lot more fun when you're doing the singing yourself. Anyway, a member of the group had requested that our vendor take us to this, which I thought was pretty low class in and of itself. One of my other colleagues and I tried to get out of it, but no such luck.

It turned out to not be as bad as I was expecting, but that's not tough when you have zero positive expectations. It tells the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and since I'm familiar with a lot of their hits, I could at least get into the music a bit.

This was our after-musical activity:

A lot of my business trips are like this. It will go like this:

Colleague 1: Hey, do you guys want to go (out for drinks/to happy hour/to a bar)?

Steve: No, not really.

Everyone else: Yeah!!!

Colleague 1: OK, we're going.

Of course, I have to play along and be a good sport, but man, do I hate bars. Sipping a water or lemonade while else imbibes just isn't that exciting, and since I have very limited experience in bars, I'm not very comfortable in them. I doubt I ever will be.

We didn't end up getting back to our hotel until midnight, but at least everything was within walking distance. It was a day of new experiences, and even if the activities weren't my first choice, it's always nice to see and/or try something new.

I'll be flying out of Newark this afternoon, after meetings and a factory visit. The dream lives on...

second-guessing myself

I don't typically second-guess myself. Second-guessing is a waste of time, unless you're one of those few people that has the ability to travel back in time. Personally, I haven't mastered that yet, but I digress. Anyway, I second-guessed myself for a while on the way to work. It all started with this:

I took this picture of my speedometer/display while waiting at the stoplight outside my neighborhood. In case you missed it, that's "-21 degrees Fahrenheit" in the middle of the display. No, not -21F with the wind chill. -21F straight up. That's freakin' cold. That's the coldest it's been all winter, although I'm sure we haven't seen the worst of it yet.

I left home just before 7am. At this time of day, it would normally take me 20-25 minutes to get to work. Today, however, it took me an hour and 35 minutes to get to work. That's a 280% increase in the amount of time it took to make the trip. It wouldn't have been as bad if there was a bad snowstorm or freezing rain or a severe car accident. Nope. Nothing.

I was supposed to have breakfast with a friend, but had to cancel. My 9am meeting had to be canceled as well, since the other person in the meeting was stuck in traffic.

So, what was I second-guessing? If you haven't figured it out already, I'll tell you: the decision we made to move to Minnesota. I really like having seasons, but sometimes the cold weather is a bit too much, and I miss the warmth of southern California winters. How I'd love to be on a beach somewhere right now...

yup, still winter

We got 5-6" of snow in Chaska today. It started around 8am and didn't stop until after 5pm. I saw five cars or so in the ditch as I was coming home, and another three or four that were in accidents. That's worse than any other storm I've seen in my seven years here.

I like it when it snows. My fascination with snow hasn't worn off despite all the storms I've seen by now. It may never wear off.

rips and slams

A lot of people these days are partially blaming the media for the problems we're having with the economy. I tend to agree. After all, much of a person's willingness to spend money is based on his perception of whether or not he will continue to have money in the future. If you watch/read the news frequently, then all you're going to hear about is how bad the economy is: bankruptcies, foreclosures, layoffs, companies collapsing, inflation, etc. None of this is positive, and none of it is going to lead you to believe that you'll have a job, or a house, or any semblance of financial security in the months and years to come. So, you save your money. You pay down debt. You live in fear, and you contribute to economic stagnation.

Negativity in the news is what gets people's attention. How many people died? How many people are sick? How many people lost their jobs? How much money was lost? After a while, you get used it, and you don't even care that it happens, unless it's an extreme occurrence. I remember coming here and laughing because a big deal was made on the local news because there was one murder that day. Coming from LA, one murder is peanuts. You'd be grateful for one murder, for one day of such unprecedented peace and calm in the city. Not here, however. It was a big deal, and you know what? It's sad that anyone would get to a point where they don't care about such things.

In any case, the media knows about desensitization, and they believe you won't continue to tune in unless you continue to be overstimulated. This is my problem with the media. Not the negativity, but the continual increase in "volume". The hype. The distortion. You can see it in words like this:

rips
slams
tumbles
plunges
plummets

Someone says they don't like something, and it becomes a "slam". The price of oil drops a couple bucks, and it "plummets". One person might be killed, and it becomes a "rampage".

I wouldn't have a problem with this if we all talked that way, but we don't. In fact, I don't know anyone who talks like this--at least, no one that people don't think is full of crap. That's just what people think of those who exaggerate.

I'm tired of it, but I feel like I need to be connected. Maybe I'll just tune in less.

the temptation of sloth

Like many companies, my company is looking to cut costs due to economic pressures. Rather than lay people off right away, however, it devised a "voluntary separation" program under which any corporate employee could take a buyout package. The length and terms of that package would be based on factors such as title and length of service. We were told that if enough employees applied for the buyout package, then there would be few or no involuntary layoffs. Not a bad deal, if you ask me.

The deadline to apply for this package was yesterday, and until yesterday, I never really considered it. My team is productive and growing--faster than any other initiative in the company, I think. Productive/profitable team = safe from layoffs. As I came back to work from vacation, however, it suddenly hit me that I'm not very happy with the way things are right now. In short, I'm being taken advantage of and not receiving much for it. My friends and colleagues are shocked at my workload.

I spent much of yesterday daydreaming of what my life would be like if I didn't have to work at all for a few months. I'd go on a diet. I'd participate in a "biggest loser" contest and dominate my competitors. I'd read books, watch movies and go to a few museums. I'd play guitar like crazy. Maybe I'd take a trip. In short, life would be pretty great. Best of all, I think I'd learn to be "me" again. "Me" before I became a soulless corporate stooge. "Me" before I became obsessed with leadership, profitability, inventory turnover and the like.

I spoke with the little lady, and she wasn't having it. "Too risky", she said. Too bad--few worthwhile things in life are without some measure of risk. Alas, I woke up this morning and was still the corporate whore I was when I asleep the night before.

Today was a new day, however. Productivity sunk to depths never before seen as people gossiped about who had taken the buyout. The list of executives was lengthy (mostly rumors, right now), and in some cases, a shock. Rumor has it that more people than necessary applied for the buyout, so I wonder what will happen next. Just because a person applied doesn't mean that he'll be given the package.

It was tempting. Soooo tempting. I could really have gone for a few months of nothing. Maybe next time...

catalina days and nights

I decided a few months ago that I was going to need to some time away from it all after I finished grad school, so I decided to take a few days while we were in California to go to Catalina Island, which is an hour-long ferry ride from Los Angeles.

I'd been to Catalina for boy scout camp a couple times when I was younger, but I'd never been to Avalon, where we would be staying. It took me a while to find a decent looking hotel online, but what I found was pretty good, if somewhat overpriced. For a few months of my Hong Kong sojourn, I lived near a beach and sometimes spent time on the roof, watching the boats go back and forth and the weather change (this was also the only way I could get any time alone). I decided I wanted similar views for our Catalina stay, so I sprung for a room with a balcony overlooking the ocean. This is what I saw the first time I walked out onto the balcony:



The balcony turned out to be a good choice. I spent a lot of time sitting out on the balcony, surfing the internet, working and/or listening to music. The view also made up for the fact that our room wasn't much larger than our walk-in closet at home (I had been expecting something much larger, based on the pictures on the hotel's website). Anyway, the balcony was nice for sunrises and sunsets:









Notice the fog in the last couple of pictures. It arrived late in the morning of our second day there, and appeared again on the morning of the third day. It didn't burn off until late in the day on the second day, and we left before it burned off on the third day. This put a damper on our plans to see the interior of the island, since we wouldn't have been able to see anything had we taken one of the available tours.

We did pay a visit to the local botanical gardens on the second day, however. It was during our search for the gardens that I slipped and fell, banging up my knee pretty badly in the process. Anyway, we finally got to the gardens, but they weren't what we were expecting. When I hear "garden", I usually think of flowers and the like. What we saw, however, was much different:









This is my favorite of the photos I took on the trip:



After we finished at the gardens, we went to lunch at Jack's, a local restaurant that appeared to specialize in breakfast foods. After a fattening feast of breakfast fare including eggs benedict, Portuguese sausage, biscuits and gravy, and hash browns, we went back to the hotel and passed out for the rest of the afternoon. We only went out again to go to dinner at El Galleon, another local restaurant which appeared to be a bit more upscale. This turned out to be a bad idea, as the food was both the most expensive and the worst of our trip. Remind me to go back to El Galleon if I'm ever in the mood for fettucine alfredo soup again.

Our ferry back to the mainland left at 1pm on the third day, and we didn't do much that morning, other than walk by the casino-turned-movie theater and down the shore.







Catalina was fairly relaxing, but I felt like the trip was a bit of a bust. The fog was a problem, and there really wasn't much to do in Avalon. While that was kind of the point, I had been expecting more excitement and entertainment options. As much as I'd like to see the seals, buffalo and other wildlife in the interior of the island, I doubt we'll go back any time soon. I'm still glad we got away for a few days, though.

pool party 2009

My youngest brother and I decided to end all the talk and get into the pool yesterday morning. I estimated that the water was about 40F, so it was painfully cold. Getting out of the pool felt more comfortable than getting into it. That said, we had fun for the 15 minutes or so that we were in the pool, and my dad even joined us for a while, despite having repeatedly stating that there was no way he was going to get into water that cold.

The slide worked great, and the rock setup was great for diving and big cannonballs. This pool is going to rock when the water is a bit warmer.









In the evening, my nephews wanted to have a fire in the fire pit, so grandpa gladly obliged. There's a gas line in the pit, so there's no wood mess or anything else to worry about. Pretty cool.



Flames in the dark: