Zhi's Post

Rather than comment, which is never read, because it doesn't show up on RSS feeds, I thought I would comment in another post. Imagine my narcissism.

This is called getting older. This is why you cannot convince your parents of your "progressive" views. Because other adults have spent hears hearing opinion passed as fact and truths jaded and picked at by sniveling commentators (in the old world "pundits") . They are just as certain of their views and the ascribed validities as you are. No information comes from a primary source anymore, and every contradictory piece of information, further substantiates their opinion that they have made the right decision and that everyone else is wrong and misguided.

Imagine the entire world going around like this... it paints a pretty bleak picture.
You have the following options:
- Be a starving artist - proclaiming your views artistically and politically to the world through the only true form of expression - (note: rock band and guitar hero do not count.)
- Kill yourself (please make sure to get your whole head in front of the shotgun)
- Go into hiding.... forever
- Be jaded about everything and join the ranks of intelligent adults
- Add your voice to the fray, and find constant frustration about not being followed or heard
- and lastly, Understand that this is the way things are, pick your battles, surround yourself with like minds and people that are interested in hearing a well reasoned, articulate and well researched argument, and ignore everyone else. (My personal choice).

Love, Alex

Credibility

I am sometimes described as someone who is too trusting, and to some extent, I agree with that assessment. I am easily fooled, readily hoodwinked, effortlessly gypped. However, something has changed my views of the world recently. From "news" channels that blatantly pass off opinions as fact and agenda and objectivity, to politicians who spin and lie to my face, to editorials and blogs who do nothing but point out instances where the other side of the aisle is lying and deceiving. All of this information then filters and trickles down to the average person, and what I am seeing more and more of is public discourse governed by talking-points and misleading "facts".

I'm not going to get on my soap box over talking-point politics, but I want instead to focus on just one aspect of how this is affecting me. This is created for me a 'credibility gap' between my brain and everything I hear. When I see a politician speak (particularly one that doesn't agree with me), the only things I think about are how he/she is wrong and how to pick apart his/her arguments. When I read an article, I question the author's objectivity and instantly distrust any statement that sounds like opinion, even reasoned ones. I know the world isn't black and white, and trying to see everything so defensively is probably more of a personal problem than one that can be fixed by this most awesome of blogs, but how can I rectify this? How can I view any source of knowledge, or piece of information without the prejudice that it might be wrong or misleading? Not everything I hear, see, or read can be a debate-style back and forth, battling for the decision of my logical mind. But how do I cope?

F***ing itunes and their m4p

I just bought a ps3 and it is bad ass. I want to make it my media center for my living room so I don' t have to blast music out of my comp. But ps3 can't stream m4ps, and installing codecs that allow wmp to play m4ps also don't fix it. The only thing I can think of is to convert all my music into mp3s but I really don't want to do that because it's going to take up alot of space.

Since you guys are the most tech savy people I know, I come to you for help. Any advice would be appreciated.

I've been watching Weeds 1st and 2nd season on blue ray.... so good.... thanks for the rec.

Find Your Happy

This is an old post, but a good one. Something I've been thinking a lot about recently.

link

Find your happy.

Trip Report: Maine, July 2008

I'm assuming no one else regularly reads this blog, so everyone who is reading this was also there. So it's kind of like a group diary. In fact, my next post will be about our feelings. And how that cute guy in 7th period English is totally into our best friend, but not us, and it makes us so jealous.

But I digress.

Trip Report:
Location: Portland, ME
Dates: 2008-07-02 to 2008-07-06
Attendees: Ajay, Alex, Azim, Fu, Jack, Kanna, Zhi
Rating: 9.0 out of 10, but only because the Ukrainian Judge is a jack-ass.

- First off, big thanks goes out to Alex for planning most of the trip. It was awesome. Also big thanks to Alex's folks who let us use their places. I'm sure we brought down both their property values with our non-whiteness.

- Awesome effort on getting everyone to come out this time. I'm really proud and happy that we made it happen. By my count, we had 5 working professionals and 2 full-time grad students, from CA, CO, IA, and NY, and we all managed to take some time out for this reunion. I hope we can keep this up.

- Drinking was an awesome idea. Whoever decided that we would use our time getting sloppy drunk is a genius!

- White water rafting is super fun. I think I'll try and do that more often. I'll have to see where I can do that here in CA.

- I would just like to point out that I am the greatest kick-ball pitcher of all time. If there was a Kickball Hall of Fame, I would the the first and only inductee. They would then close the place down for being 'too Asian'.

- If we were playing Kickball according to the rules, a foul ball is defined as such: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/downloads/y2008/official_rules/02_definition_of_terms.pdf
Basically, I was wrong on that call. Also, to settle the discussion, if the ball is touched by a player, it is judged foul based on the position of the ball when it is touched, not on the position of the fielder.

- Food seems to be a re-curring theme when I hang out with Alex. As such, the food on this trip was good, but not great. The sushi place was good, especially the pork belly appetizer and the spicy shrimp roll. The Salt Water Grill was decent, but non of the food was that great and the service was obviously sub-par. The Grill Room was nice, but again, the food not very memorable. Alex, you should so go back and hit on that waitress. And I'm sorry about the wine.

- As I gathered, the next trip idea thrown out was Chicago? Can I just start the lobbying process for Vegas again?

If you have anything to add, feel free to edit this post or comment.

peace