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January 29, 2006
Happy 4703
Welcome to the Year of the Dog.
Posted by spoof747 at 01:44 AM | Comments (0)
January 28, 2006
chinatown at night
Once upon a time, there was no such thing as an Asian chain supermarket. Fremont didn't have such a prominent Asian population. There weren't any places like 99 Ranch Market, Lion Market, or a convenient way to pick up one's favorite Chinese dish or groceries. Chinese restaurants were fairly few and far apart, enough so that when you went into a restaurant around here, the family running it was much more enthusiastic to greet someone who could speak the language. They'd ask where you were from in China and treat you almost like family in a sense.
This wasn't 30 years ago, this was within my lifetime (yes, I'm older than 30 -- ok this was still around even when I was growing up, ok?)
So where did Chinese people go to get their food on? Chinatown. Back then we had basically two choices, Oakland or San Francisco. Oakland was closer to Fremont, but it was a smaller Chinatown and the one or two really good restaurants had lines out the door (especially Saturday morning for dim sum). Either one was a big family production. Piling everyone into the car and circling blocks to find parking (Oakland Chinatown didn't have a big parking garage until maybe 15 years ago, while SF had the Portsmouth Garage on the east side of Chinatown). We'd hit up places like Jade Villa, Lantern, Empress of China for some dim sum, and then afterwards pick up some groceries from the mom and pop markets.
While my friends at that age always proclaimed their dislike of being dragged into Chinatown, I've always loved it. It was tiring, but exhilarating to be in the middle of so much life happening. People shouting out in dialects that I partially understood. Old men playing Chinese Chess in the park. Just so many people all over the place -- I was always curious to explore. My grandmother used to even pile me onto BART and her and I would go there when she needed to do a weekday run for groceries and I didn't complain a bit. But for the most part, Chinatown was seen during daytime, mainly Saturdays. The only times I was there at night was for wedding banquets and such, and even then I was rushed from the car into the restaurant (Mom said, "Its cold!") so I never really looked around then.
After all these years, I've recently seen a side of SF Chinatown I never saw before -- what it looks like at night. I first had this experience 2 years ago, when I met Jenn and my mother-in-law there for dinner after work. All of the lights and sounds at night made me feel like a kid again, because I had never seen Chinatown in this way. I then had the pleasure of participating in two Chinese New Year Treasure Hunts, part of which involved searching through Chinatown during the Chinese New Year celebration for clues and interesting little facts. Since that time, I've also taken advantage of the fact that I work about a 5 minute walk from there to do some post-work shopping and exploring.
Chinatown still seems so interesting to me. Even though my parents were not part of the original immigrations that lived and worked in Chinatown (they were part of the college wave of the 60s), this place is still part of my heritage. I can make my way around from a language perspective, but barely. But its still *my* language (although not always my dialects). These are people that are from where I'm originally "from". A shared sense of. . .something. I don't know if that makes sense, but there's a sense of belonging that seems stronger here than in other places. Its related to the same reason why I can't see myself living somewhere other than the San Francisco Bay Area (and a few other locations): The Chinese (and Asian) population here. Its hard to explain, but this has provided a sense of security for me from since I was young.
I don't think I'll ever get tired of exploring around here.
Posted by spoof747 at 11:28 PM | Comments (1)
January 27, 2006
man, do i ever get put to shame
Present: Calling Grace to wish her a happy birthday and receiving a casual mention to check out a URL which turns out to be a blog she has been keeping.
Past: Being at Cal and looking over some of Grace's work (she being an English major) and having her read some of what I had written -- random notes and poetry. Being told politely but firmly that writing such things was not my forte, but not in a bad way.
Oh yeah -- Grace is my ex from college years.
Basically, her blog (which has been added "back" to the blogroll over to the right) put me in my proper place regarding my writing. She has been keeping a blog for roughly the same time I have (the past 5-6 months) and she has roughly 10X the output I have. December and even January, I've found both the time and the will to write to be very diminished and sometimes I feel like I am forcing it in order to not count this as something I started but did not finish. I've struggled a bit to put the words down. In viewing her blog, I am reading her writing and it reminds of what a strong voice that she writes with. It takes me back to that time and place where, no other word fits, I felt so. . .small. . .next to how her and how she wrote.
Sure, she has degrees in English, you'd think that might help one's writing just a tad bit. The rub was that writing, while something I didn't enjoy, was something that I was supposedly "good" at. That "good" came from years of the public school system and whatever tests were out there giving me results and feedback that said I was "good" at English and at things like writing essays. Of course, since this came from outside and not from within, it never occured to me to do something like writing for myself, or expository writing. I kept a diary (I suppose I should follow gender rules and call it a journal) in my junior high and high school years, but it was a rather dry read, mainly because I was just attempting to capture all the facts about what was happening to me, instead of just writing. I did well in English class, passed the English AP, things like that.
Then along comes g, who would and could write for joy rather than for obligation. In comparison, I felt I was just an imposter who could connect the dots of writing. Premise. Detail. Detail. Detail. Conclusion. To be clear, she was never disparaging or discouraging about what I wrote but the gap between our writing abilities was very apparent. And that had absolutely nothing to do with her being an ex. That is a novel for another day and time.
Flash back to now, after having read her blog (ok, I scanned it first for mentions of me -- moment of vanity, but then I did read it) -- it just shows me that I still write sometimes for the wrong reasons. When I started this blog, it was meant to be a record that I could someday show my daughter of what growing up with her was like. It expanded to include (and sometimes got stuck on) my work life. Along the way, I've received some complimentary words about what has been written here. Since I'm a sucker for compliments, that's gotten into my head a little bit and thrown me off my game. I've spent posts trying to be witty, posts trying to be poignant. And now I've read someone who reminds me that the best way to be those things is to be oneself. And if you aren't either poignant or witty, don't intentionally try to be.
thank you (and I do really mean that).
Posted by spoof747 at 07:03 PM | Comments (0)
January 26, 2006
splurge
Tri-City Sporting Goods is closing. People outside the Bay Area may not know about this place, but it was a mainstay of Fremont's commerce (and TV commercials) when I was growing up. "The World's Largest Sporting Goods Store!" is (or was) their slogan. You couldn't beat their 50% off off-season snowboards, or the variety of what they carries.
And now they're closing, with everything in the store 40-70% off until they sell out completely. While I heard about this a few weeks ago, I couldn't make it out to the store until this past weekend. It closes on weekdays at 8pm, and everyday at work I would watch the clock and plot to get home in time to go, but something would come up or I would just miss the train and conclude I didn't have enough time to get there.
The Tchao family finally made it out there on last Saturday afternoon, after some more work I had to take care of. Sure enough, a lot of the store seems to already be gone. They've actually moved a lot of the stock forward, as what seems like the back half of the store is already empty.
And I somehow still managed to spend over $400.
Maybe it was all the shopping I was unable to do over the holidays, maybe it was the lack of time I've had to do my usual bargain researching I do on a regular basis. But its like my usual financial limit trigger was off, and I was grabbing everything in sight. "50% off! HALF the price!" kept ringing in my head. So what if their regular price might have been a little higher. So what if they've done this in the past just as a regular sale. This place is CLOSING, so I'm not going to be able to do this again.
Or so the mantra in my head went.
And it went on long enough for me to pick up the following:
A pair of Adidas basketball shoes for $50.
Ok, so I haven't played basketball regularly for the past 18 months. But I'm going to go back, I swear. And my Nike Air KGs (Flightposite III) are just ugly. Hopefully these have enough cushioning for me when I play, as my knees don't like it when my shoes don't have enough bounce in them.
Update: Apparently, these are the a3 Superstar Ultra 2.0, which was adidas's answer to the Nike VC Shox. Now I'm really looking forward to breaking these in.
A baseball glove for $70.
Damn, I didn't know baseball gloves cost this much. But on the other side of the "I don't really exercise anymore" is the grim reality that the majority of guys my age end up playing sports like golf, bowling, and softball. I don't play golf, I rarely bowl, so I figure my destiny will be played out on some company softball team (although not with the current company, that might be a little amusing). I have a glove, but its the same glove I used in Little League in a past life. On me these days, it looks like I'm one of those baseball players in the 1920s.
Flow bindings for $101.
This is one that I'm on the fence on. I probably shouldn't have bought this. I have bindings already. But if I either get another board or my other bindings get old or have problems, this is a quality brand that is also known for being compatible with any snowboard boot and allowing the boarder to step in at any time. On the downside, they only had it in the Camo pattern. Luckily, as you can see, it isn't your weekend warrior type camouflage, but a more updated, tech-type style. Still, dunno when I'll make use of these.
Snow helmet for $70
Ok this is justifiable, now that I'm a father. Need to keep the ol' noggin intact if I'm going to make like a fool and go flying down hills in my old age. :)
Rental set of ski equipment (skis, boots, poles) for $120
An old, scuffed up set of Rossignol ski gear used i don't know how many times. But for that price? As long as they're usable, its worth picking a set up. Especially if I plan to take Naomi out on the slopes at some point. She can choose whether she wants to board or to ski, but I have better control of skis so it would be easier to train her if I'm skiing alongside, instead of toppling over on my board.
Assorted other sundries
Which were mainly thrown in the cart by Jenn, so I got no business posting about them.
Posted by spoof747 at 11:05 PM | Comments (1)
January 25, 2006
commuting vignette #2
to the lady whose luggage fell on my knee in the BART train,
yes, the handle of your luggage fell all the way across the aisle and smacked me in the kneecap. But you don't have to wince and apologize as if you felt it yourself. It actually didn't hurt all that much. maybe if you and your friend had a more secure hold on your suitcases, it wouldn't topple over like that. especially given the size and unwieldyness of the huge bag you dragged onto the train. maybe your friend's suitcase wouldn't have toppled over and nearly hit someone else 10 minutes later.
or maybe, you could have just packed lighter and saved us all the pain.
Posted by spoof747 at 02:02 AM | Comments (0)
January 17, 2006
Review: Love Monkey
just got finished watching the pilot for the CBS show Love Monkey (tuesdays, 10-11pm). i've been looking forward to checking this show out ever since I saw the early commercials and was like, "Cool! Ed is coming back to TV!" For those of you who don't know, the star of Love Monkey is Tom Cavanagh, also the titular character of the dearly departed NBC sitcom, "Ed". Ed was one of those shows that everytime I watched it, I thought I would like it. It had a quirky sense of humor and Ed's character was a diehard romantic. All of the things he came up with to woo Carol were amazing. Unfortunately, I could never get into it because it seemed like I was always watching in the middle of various storylines, and I never could get an episode where it was a good enough jumping on point for me to continue watching.
Now Tom is the star and central character in Love Monkey. The show's premise of having a guy go through life with his various friends discussing their loves and lives has been done so many times, but i think what makes this show were the various actors in these roles. Larenz Tate is great as one of Tom's buddies, a rich bachelor enjoying the single life. Another buddy is Jason Priestly in a completely anti-typecast role for him. He is the happily married husband to Tom's character's wife. Jason, its like your 90210 character grew up. And of course, Tom Cavanagh, who delivers in the same rapid-fire style of dialogue that marked his run as Ed. The fact that Tom (also his character's name) is a music rep out looking for new talent gives this show a hook to bring on new bands, or at the very least, put together a respectable soundtrack. The premise seems more like something that would be on the WB but is done in a more thoughtful manner here (Of course, if this show *were* on the WB, there would be a studio audience laughing every 5 minutes, joke or not, every character would be 10 years younger, and the last 2 minutes of the show will be essentially an informercial for the music played that night). Plus, I'm also digging Judy Greer as Tom's best friend who is always there for him and is his straight shooter. Hopefully they will let it stay a friendship and not turn it into the "best friend into lover" stereotype.
The first show had its rough points. The supporting characters do not have much depth at this point, and there's almost too many of them, which will mess with storylines, if everyone needs to have a bit to play every episode. I found myself at times forcing a bit of laughter. Even the musical act that Tom lauded as an incredible talent seemed like a John Mayer clone to me. I *want* to like this show, but I'm not sold yet. Let's see where they can take the premise and the character development.
Love Monkey
Tuesdays, 10pm - 11pm
CBS
Posted by spoof747 at 11:55 PM | Comments (0)
January 16, 2006
bwahahahahaha
from the San Francisco Chronicle's Daily Dish column:
Tom Cruise has given his pregnant fiancee Katie Holmes a unique 27th birthday present -- a DVD compendium of every movie he has acted in.
The "War of the Worlds" star, 43, decided there was no better gift for his wife-to-be than a full history of his long and fruitful career.
A source tells British newspaper the Daily Express, "Each was inscribed with a special handwritten love message to the future mother of his child."
click here to read the rest of the story
Posted by spoof747 at 05:59 PM | Comments (0)
January 11, 2006
its a whole new ballgame
how is your 2006 going so far? following resolutions? doing anything differently?
I don't make resolutions by choice because I don't feel I do a good job of holding to them. Yet for some reason, I've been trying to follow some unspoken resolutions of mine with actually a fair degree of success. I guess I fear putting them out on paper in stark black and white and (eventually) failing to fulfill them. One of the one I've been wanting to do is help out around the house and help out Jenn more often. There were too many times last year, especially towards the end of the year when I was working on the release when I would just come home and be a zombie, leaving Jenn to cook what she could and clean up and still try and take care of Naomi. At best, I would hold Naomi while I was watching TV or something like that. I'm trying to get to a more equitable division of home and work and thereby have more time to help at home. So far, I've had that, partially because we finished one major release (although there are others on the horizon). But I've made it a point to try and help clean up around the house because I know how tired Jenn is after a full day with our daughter.
Other than that, the main goal is to get work to a point where I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing and working a decent amount of hours (as opposed to the indecent amounts I'm working now). Some of my prayers have appeared to be answered already. Samir sent Issam back to our project to help me with hiring out the open spots on the team that I haven't had time to fill so far. They're also going to help with documentation of process, which is yet another thing that has needed to be done for so long here but I could never start because all my resources were fully occupied.
The beginning of a new year is always unusual to me because there is this orgy of energy that is expended at the end of the previous year. First with Thanksgiving, then the mad mad holiday season, with its shopping rush and enforced Christmas spirit, and then the stereotypical New Year's celebration. Regardless of whether you participate in any of that, the world around you does and its almost as if the next 3 months are spent recovering, spiritually and financially. You can see this even with schoolkids. We are indoctrinated into this mentality because there are holidays for all three of these events, and then the next major holiday? Easter (And no, I'm not neglecting Martin Luther King, but its not considered a "major" holiday, as it is a US-only event and not even recognized by everyone here). And for some reason, my friends who have birthdays during these first few months of the year tend towards low-key events too.
So it feels like everyone disappears and you are left to your own devices. Which is fine. Right now, I'm all for getting myself together. Myself = taking care of the house and home (what else?) Its so funny to step outside myself and watch Jenn and I eagerly pore through ads for Lowe's and Home Depot and watch HGTV and discuss how to paint, rearrange or buy furniture and think back to a time when this type of conversation would have gone over our heads because we were too busy thinking about the next movie to watch or the next get-together to plan or how fun was last weekend? Maybe we'll get back to that mode of thinking once we do what we want to the house. I definitely don't want to be one of *those* people who get trapped into a never-ending cycle of remodeling and redecorating. I want to finish and then step back and enjoy.
Posted by spoof747 at 08:15 PM | Comments (0)
January 05, 2006
beard papas in SF
mmmm, had these in New York, but now apparently they are opening in San Francisco. I can't wait.
Like most people, I had already vowed no more sweets after the new year. But that was before I heard about Beard Papa's, opening this month in San Francisco. This will be the first Bay Area venture for the Japanese dessert cafe chain, which is set to expand throughout Northern California.
What would make me break my resolution? Cream puffs. Lots and lots of cream puffs, made daily in different flavors like vanilla, strawberry and chocolate and more out-of-the-ordinary tastes like green tea and milk tea.
Beard Papa's is at 99 Yerba Buena Lane (a new street running from Market to Mission streets, between Third and Fourth).
Posted by spoof747 at 01:12 AM | Comments (2)
January 04, 2006
holidaze
Didn't really have time to post anything this past week as I was busy with just regular life. Not work, because I had actually taken the week off -- can you believe it? I had some moments of anxiety when my team called or during other work-related situations, but I actually decided by Thursday to turn off Microsoft Outlook and not start it up again until today. I was actually going to start it last night and prep for work today, but was "convinced" to not do that until today, which makes sense. Why start work early if I am on vacation? It was a much needed one, if not necessarily physically, but mentally. I was able to get my outlook on work and life in general refreshed. Part of that was the ability to spend 100% of my time with my family. Jenn and Naomi were very happy to see me for that time, and I them. Sure, it wasn't much of a rest, because I went from working OT to diaper-changing and baby-carrying, but this is something that is truly important to me. Sure, work brings home the bacon, but the work I was doing at home and to help Jenn actually makes a difference. At least, I hope it did.
Its actually ironic, over my work history, I have oscillated between not wanting to work at all between Christmas and New Year's (and spending it with family) to going into work and collecting pay for that period, since it traditionally is very slow, and pretty much you're collecting money for nothing. With burnout fast approaching for me and a daughter that I can't see enough of, the choice was pretty easy this year.
Having a kid in tow provided another reminder of how life has changed as well. We've been jumping through the family hoops for 3 years now every holiday season -- meaning we do our best to satisfy both families' desires to see us for Christmas. Since both of our families do 2 celebrations on Christmas Day, this means a lot of running around. We usually see our immediate families on Christmas morning and then the larger families on Christmas evening, a few hours here, then a few hours there. Jenn's immediate family sought to lighten the load for us this year by coming over on Christmas Eve, but we didn't help matters by agreeing to host my high school friends that same afternoon. So our schedule read like this:
Christmas Eve afternoon - high school friends get-together at our house
Christmas Eve evening - Jenn's immediate family get-together at our house
Christmas Day afternoon - My immediate family get-together at our house
Christmas Day evening - My larger family on my mother's side get-together at Cousin Josh's house in San Jose
Christmas Day evening - Jenn's larger family on her mother's side get-together at Cousin Teresa's house in the Oakland hills
If I ever figure out how to play with Google Maps, I'll post the routes taken.
I am thankful that my father is an only child. While this was challenging in years' past, Naomi made navigating this even more tricky. Of course, she got the lion's share of gifts this year, but a 7-month old infant, while loving to grab and explore things, isn't the most patient when it comes to sitting down, opening gifts, and posing for pictures. Naomi loves having her picture taken, which is better than most babies, but opening all the presents and posing with their gifts taxed even her. You can see from the pictures I've put on Flickr that she had her share of sour faces in the Christmas pictures. The long drives between things actually worked kind of well, in that it gave Naomi time to sleep between events and us a little time to rest.
Also, it gave me time to realize that it wasn't really our families who drove us to do this. Its always been us. Our families have given us both the license to see the other family only, if necessary. Or like sane people do, rotate between families for Thanksgiving and Christmas. So the reluctance to do so lies directly with Jenn and I. Neither one of us wants to give up seeing our families on Christmas. I guess personally that I see my extended family so few times a year (pretty much Thanksgiving and Christmas) that I don't like skipping mine. Of course, I could just be smart and try to see these people more often. Well, at least the cousins in my generation. :)
The rest of the holidays were spent in relatively quiet time here at home. We saw some friends individually, but most of the time we tried to clean what we could, as it is easier when there are two of us for one person to watch Naomi and the other person to try to take care of stuff. ITs hard for Jenn to do this when I am working, as Naomi exhausts her during the day, and I either get home too late to make any significant progress, or I come home lazy and tired.
Posted by spoof747 at 11:49 PM | Comments (0)