SFAAFF

Last week I saw a couple of films in the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival: Citizen Dog and Music Video Asia 2006. The first was a surreal, fantasy film with some funny characters. The second was a collection of music videos from Asian artists. It was cool to see these films, not because they have anything to do with Asian artists, but because they're just different from what I usually see. Sort of like the San Francisco International Film Festival.

I'm really not into the self-segregation behavior that ethic groups often exhibit. I saw this a lot while at Berkeley. There were many race-based organizations that just kept to themselves and didn't want to interact with others. I can understand looking for support from your cultural group if you're new to the country, but many of the kids seemed to be American born from Los Angeles. So I just didn't get why they wanted to cut themelves off from everyone else.

Another thing about cultural stuff at Berkeley. I think that they can teach kids to be racist through their American Cultures class requirements. Well, at least in my situation they taught me various names and stereotypes associated with racial groups. I would never have thought about them otherwise. I can see how it would be beneficial for kids who don't realize that they can be harmful, but it's funny how it had the slightly opposite effect on me.

Letting Go

Sometimes you have to let go of something in your life that you want so much that it constantly pains you not to have it. I'm usually quite competitive and will keep trying to get what I want. However there's something that I just have to move on from for now. I hate giving up or feeling that I haven't tried hard enough or that I won't find the same thing again. But what else can I do?

I'm an Engineer

From an email forwarding:

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She reduced altitude and spotted a man below. She descended a bit more and shouted, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man below replied, "You're in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You're between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."

"You must be an engineer," said the balloonist.

"I am," replied the man, "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is,
technically correct, but I've no idea what to make of your
information, and the fact is I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been
much help at all. If anything, you've delayed my trip."

The man below responded, "You must be in Management."

"I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"

"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you're going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you've no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault."

Cluster Modeling

Here are some shots of me posing with the product I've been working on for the last 2.5 years. Its codename is Honeycomb, which is an archival storage product (for medical records, entertainment, banking, etc.) to be released later this year. The marketing name will be Sun StorageTek 5800. These pictures were taken while at the contract manufacturer which will be assembling the product. I was there showing them how to perform the software installation (which I developed) and initial testing of the system. The stylish jacket I'm wearing is laced with conductive threads to dissipate static electricity while on the factory floor.