Grateful v3.0

There are just so many stories in the news I want to write about but they all make me sad and tired. The father and two of his sons killed in a completely random, not "road rage" as the press is saying, act in SF; a suspect has been arrested and while he is innocent until proven guilty, it doesn't look like he's innocent based on evidence. But his fancy pants lawyer is working overtime to spin the gang member as a sweet family man with a wife and baby including having the wife on the news saying, "Everyone is surprised" as they show pic after pic of him with his fellow rough gang members. BS you're surprised. BS. I just don't even know what else to say. Bullshit.

The huge accident on 880 today that shut down the freeway and killed two people. I'm sorry.

The fires, asthma problems, housing crisis, Bank of America laying off 7,500 employees after buying Countrywide, young kids that are sick - does anyone else just feel sad from the world sometimes?

I don't take being grateful for things lightly but I want to be grateful as a discipline, to turn away from what comes too easily - everything else.


So with that, things I'm grateful for:

1) Health insurance and being healthy

2) Healthy Choice chocolate fudgesicles

3) A working fast cool computer

4) My free tv

5) the Alameda library, free books

6) Mitch and Nora








Nora's paw looks like a shrunken money paw, lol.

Grateful v2.0

I am grateful for:

1. Carpooling with Greg, Jon, and this week Wayne. They make me laugh and Greg can be a good gym buddy, too. (Good luck with all the stuff going on right now, Greg)

2. So I Think You Can Dance - ah yeah

3. Getting to leave work today at 3pm and come home and chill

4. My mom coming to visit next week, dinner with my brother and wife, and taking a day off work to go see tigers :)

5. Feeling motivated at work today and finishing a lot of random projects including creating a cool excel tracking sheet

I am v. proud of myself today for a) not eating any chocolates from the candy jars at work, and b) going to the gym and doing 40 minutes on the elliptical. Go me!

Grateful

(It has now been a year since I started the blog, wow time flies).

I am grateful:

1. For my and my families health
2. For a good affordable oscillating remote controlled fan from Costco
3. For time and space to be more chill
4. For discussions at community dinners
5. For having a job, not being unemployed
6. For my cats Mitch and Nora who are the cutest cats ever
7. For having enough food and my needs met

Karaoke and other important things

I sang karaoke three times in one week, twice at work. Ah yeah, this is def my kind of work. I sang YMCA, All My Life by K-Ci and Jojo, and badly badly sang My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion. Karaoke is fun!

Not sure if it's because I'm older or this workplace feels different, but I find myself talking about my church and faith a lot more at work than I ever have before. Community dinners come up naturally in conversation esp as I bring in leftovers or take up a coworker's offer of buying her tamales for my dinner next Monday night. One coworker was fascinated by our community living and told how she has tried to start a community with shared living for awhile and studied European community models but hasn't seen it take off. We agreed that there is prob have to be a bigger shared vision like spirituality. Another coworker stopped me in the halls to share how she and some of her friends are thinking about buying property together to move in and have their parents move in, as a new approach to community and caring for elder parents.

I really think ppl are hungry for community and shared life.

It's freaking hot in Oakland, sweating here in bed, watching my borrowed TV, and catching up on my writing.

The borrowed TV - I feel like it's a way God has answered one of my simple prayers. I've been TV-less since Dec. 1 and I've liked it but now have been wanting a TV. One of my fave shows, So You Think You Can Dance, is on and bc it's live, it's not a show you can watch online. Tired from work, I've been tired of going to other people's houses to watch TV. I just want to to veg at home with a TV. So I've been thinking about this for a few months (and had already decided in Jan that I would get a TV again in Aug for football season) and getting a job opened up ideas. I started researching this wkend online but I struggled bc I just didn't feel like it was the right time to spend money on one. And I'd only buy an HD one bc of the upcoming analog change. So I kept going back and forth but there was no right I could feel right about it esp as I really really want an iPhone in July and will be getting one. How could I splurge twice when I just got a job??

So last Sat I saw Jody's old TV in Kristin's room and, things ended up with me borrowing her old analog TV. I had a few glitches with setting up my dvd player and tivo (doesn't work too well without clear vision, boo) but at least I now have sitcoms and SYTYCD and movies. Even though I didn't clearly pray for this, I wanted to not spend money and be wise about my situation and I feel like God agrees with that and helped me honor that. I got what I was craving while not spending money I didn't want to spend. It's not perfect but it gives me a few more months before I feel I have to buy one.

I feel grateful :)

Random

An interesting article on No Child Left Behind, the history, and current vision.

Did I mention that I renewed my passport last month, mailed it on a Monday, and received the new one back the following Thursday? Only a week and a half. I was impressed.

Last week, after our Board mtg that ended after 11pm, our pastor and another leader were standing outside a car and were held up at gunpoint. I had left but headed upstairs to chat with Wayne. As we were on the porch, talking about how late the ice cream truck comes by, we saw two youth running somewhat oddly to chase the truck down. Were those guys the robbers? Could I have been robbed also, if I had walked and chatted with them instead of going upstairs?

Mo and Nic are gone, in France. Cleaning their place today. I miss them.

Thanks Pin for coming over and installing my wall heater. Not like I need it right now but good to have.

Tomorrow we're celebrating Philippine Independence Day at work with yummy Filipino food at lunch. I'm really excited!

I'm wiped, time for bed. Early tonight, for a change.

Ok I might be obsessed

Yes, I'm googling Steve Jobs and reading all the articles that come up as I listen to this morning's keynote presentation about the new iPhone. Go to apple.com to see it.

Here's Jobs' commencement speech for Stanford in June 2005.

Ok, I need to go to bed now!

Ah, Gates vs. Jobs

Back to smashing our idea of who gives money away. I like Macs and Apple and all, but this is interesting. Back to the theme that Republicans donate more to charities than Democrats.

Until recently, Bill Gates has been viewed as the villain of the tech world, while his archrival, Steve Jobs, enjoys an almost saintly reputation.
Gates is the cutthroat capitalist. A genius maybe, but one more interested in maximizing profits than perfecting technology. He's the ultimate vengeful nerd. Ostracized at school, he gets the last laugh by bleeding us all dry.

On the other hand, Jobs has never seemed much concerned with business, though he's been very successful at it of late. Instead, Jobs has been portrayed as a man of art and culture. He's an aesthete, an artist; driven to make a dent in the universe.
But these perceptions are wrong. In fact, the reality is reversed. It's Gates who's making a dent in the universe, and Jobs who's taking on the role of single-minded capitalist, seemingly oblivious to the broader needs of society.


Gates is giving away his fortune with the same gusto he spent acquiring it, throwing billions of dollars at solving global health problems. He has also spoken out on major policy issues, for example, by opposing proposals to cut back the inheritance tax.

In contrast, Jobs does not appear on any charitable contribution lists of note. And Jobs has said nary a word on behalf of important social issues, reserving his talents of persuasion for selling Apple products.
According to Forbes, Jobs was recently worth $3.3 billion which puts him among the 194th richest in the world, and makes him the 67th richest American. But the standings were shuffled on Tuesday with Disney's $7.4 billion acquisition of Pixar Animation -- a deal that makes Jobs' Pixar holdings alone worth some $3.7 billion.
But great wealth does not make a great man.

(emphasis mine) from Wired magazine, Jan 25, 2006 by Leander Kahney.

Now, the article points out that Jobs could have be donating anonymously. However, his wife gives to political campaigns so they do give in their name.

Does this change how we should see Apple and Jobs?

Fun facts about Steve Jobs

Did you know he's adopted?

And that he and his wife are vegans?

(From wikipedia)

I want an iPhone!

Come on, Steve, release the new iPhone tomorrow in SF! You know you want to ;)

IPhone in 3G! IPhone in 3G! IPhone in 3G! IPhone in 3G! IPhone in 3G!

Stolen identity

Yes, I shred documents and am careful to not share my passwords but c'mon, the odds of my identity being stolen or Social Security number due to my own action are small compared to due to a large security breach. Now Stanford may have up to 72,000 former and current employees' information out there because a laptop was stolen. Well, sheet.

Hmong Hip Hop Heritage

From NY Times

Wow, a radical business concept - it's not for the money

How Craigslist does business differently, and the capitalists can't figure out what to do with it all. From December 2006.

Jim Buckmaster, the chief executive of Craigslist, caused lots of head-scratching Thursday as he tried to explain to a bunch of Wall Street types why his company is not interested in “monetizing” his ridiculously popular Web operation. Appearing at the UBS global media conference in New York, Mr. Buckmaster took questions from the bemused audience, which apparently could not get its collective mind around the notion that Craigslist exists to help Web users find jobs, cars, apartments and dates — and not so much to make money.

Wendy Davis of MediaPost describes the presentation as a “a culture clash of near-epic proportions.” She recounts how UBS analyst Ben Schachter wanted to know how Craigslist plans to maximize revenue. It doesn’t, Mr. Buckmaster replied (perhaps wondering how Mr. Schachter could possibly not already know this). “That definitely is not part of the equation,” he said, according to MediaPost. “It’s not part of the goal.”

“I think a lot of people are catching their breath right now,” Mr. Schachter said in response.

The Tech Trader Daily blog ponders this question: “If YouTube was worth $1.65 billion, who knows what Craigslist would be worth if Jim and [site founder] Craig Newmark ever considred becoming — what’s the word? — capitalists.”

Craigslist charges money for job listings, but only in seven of the cities it serves ($75 in San Francisco; $25 in the others). And it charges for apartment listings in New York ($10 a pop). But that is just to pay expenses.

Mr. Schachter still did not seem to understand. How about running AdSense ads from Google? Craigslist has considered that, Mr. Buckmaster said. They even crunched the numbers, which were “quite staggering.” But users haven’t expressed an interest in seeing ads, so it is not going to happen.

Following the meeting, Mr. Schachter wrote a research note, flagged by Tech Trader Daily, which suggests that he still doesn’t quite get the concept of serving customers first, and worrying about revenues later, if at all (and nevermind profits). Craigslist, the analyst wrote, “does not fully monetize its traffic or services.”

Mr. Buckmaster said the company is doubling in size every year, as measured by page views and listings.

Larry Dignan, writing on Between the Lines blog at ZDNet, called Mr. Buckmaster “delightfully communist,” and described the audience as “confused capitalists wondering how a company can exist without the urge to maximize profits.”

An Engineer's Guide to Cats

This made me lol a few times including the use of cat harnesses," corporal cuddling," and cat cocaine aka tuna.



Is this guy single?? I'd date him!

Long time no blog

Ah, it's been a long time since I've been regularly blogging. Not having internet, not checking at work, and work being tiring has basically been wiping me out. A lot going on folks.

I'm on a new thing where I'm against credit cards, used even responsibly. I don't like our economy becoming so dependent on credit cards and how that increases their influence in government. And I don't like what using credit cards does to small businesses. Use cash, people! It's worked for centuries, it keeps your budget in check, and it's free (kinda)! A paper bill is a happy economy. My new motto. I'm still ok using credit cards for big purchases where you need some time to shift some money around to pay for it or where you really want the points. How about a $300 minimum unless it's an online purchase, hotel room, or travel? How would that change how we shop and what we buy?

Ok, that's the news for tonight.