Blogging is for losers. Period

What a fine compliment. One that comes from someone who has committed his life to discovering the meaning of life or the origin of the universe, among a few other trivial pursuits. But none as trivial as blogging.

No but really, I feel very complimented. I like it when people are not afraid to possibly offend me, as long as they speak up. So good job Mr. Anonymous, you have earned yourself your own quotation being honored as one of my blog post titles.

Ok, updates for the weeks past. Went to my sister's graduation last weekend, which I was really glad to have skipped work to attend. Her high school did a much better job than mine did. My school's ceremony was too orderly, too disciplined, too centered around the idea that if any one of us fucked up in marching around or saying things at speeches we'd get raped. Whereas my sister's was actually entertaining to watch. Free emotions, free ideas. This is what graduating is about I think. Finally being entitled to say things for yourself. Man I wish I went to Mountain View High. Then again all the cool people went to Los Altos. But enough about me, big congrats to my sister! I know she is going to be very important, worldly-famous person, and I'm glad because she's very cool, and I'm proud to be her brother.

My first two weeks at my new job have been good. I've met some cool kids there, so that's good. I was afraid during my first week that I would be stuck with some particular people I had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting the first day I got there... won't name any names but, I'm glad I'm not stuck with them now.

This weekend has been relaxing for once, thus why I have time to put up another post. I've been reunited with Pandora, listening to all my favorite stations. I couldn't listen in Singapore because the site is unlicensed outside of the US. I also went to see "Up" in 3D. I was really surprised at what a fantastic movie it was, since I heard little about it before. Why does Pixar never disappoint?

Now the only thing missing from my normalized life is tennis. I've even spammed facebook friends to see who's in Houston available to play, and so far no response... come on, what's up?

Ugh don't give me any sympathy people. Give me a good fight.

Oh snap. India lost to England in cricket. Let me try to console my roommate, before he floods the place with bitter tears of curry.

A brutal end to my half-year long vacation

Wake up at 6:30. Get dressed. Eat cereal. Get on the train. Sit down at my cubicle. Look busy on my computer. Leave after 9 hours. Come home exhausted. Rustle up dinner. Shower. Skype a bit. Go to bed. Repeat. It seriously feels like I'm living the life of that animated girl in that song Shaiyan once showed me on YouTube.

Ok I exaggerate. It's actually kind of fun. I would tell a lot of stories about work, but I think I would get into serious trouble if I publicized this kind of information. So see my private blog if you want the real story.

And to keep things interesting for me on the way to and from work, I try to imagine what living in Houston would be like for a foreigner. The way I saw Zurich or Singapore. Because Houston is a pretty boring major city, to tell the truth. But as a foreigner, watching American habits and customs might actually be somewhat entertaining. For one, hearing English and Spanish on the Metro, and having a sort of "honor system" for the fare to get on. Seeing all the different races, especially blacks, since you don't see many of those in Asia and only some places in Europe. The oak trees everywhere. The homeless people lining up outside the church across the street from Lovett. The skyscrapers in downtown, with business people and crazies on the sidewalks. The underground tunnel system. Rice campus. The museum district. The huge portions that you get served at restaurants.

Oh I can also mention the drive to Houston. So I left Los Altos, California at 3am on Thursday. Got to El Paso, Texas at 10:30pm that night. That's 1,152 miles in 19 hours. Dad and I took shifts driving. And unfortunately, while on my shift, I got a speeding ticket going 80 on a 65mph highway in New Mexico. New Mexico is officially now my least favorite state. They should just go back to Old Mexico, completely useless to us. Ugh and I can't wait to be 25, then auto insurance companies won't continue to bleed me for all I'm worth. Woah Ryan, be careful what you wish for. Being older is never a good thing.

The trip after El Paso was fun though. Stopped in Fredericksburg to see the grandparents, who were swell as always to see. Then Aunt Phyllis's new place in Seguin. Get BBQ from Luling. And finally, onward to Houston.

And once I got to Houston, I got my new CAR! And it's a beut. I should put up pictures, dark gray Honda 2009 Accord, the best look for the Accord yet.

Now I have to do some real work. Yes, even now I have homework. I have to write a program, in Java. Hopefully I'll pull through. Asking Quincy a lot of questions though on Skype haha. I should seriously split my wages with him.

Signing off!

On the road again...

Wow, awesome week. Went to Berkeley, twice. And to Santa Cruz, twice. San Fran once. Frat parties, movies, theatrical plays, beaches, redwood forests, biking in the hills, barbecues; basically I tried to cram in my entire dream California summer vacation into one week, and I was fairly successful.

class QuincyChan

QuincyChan.squeeze(lemons,tribbles);

That's right. I called a method within my class QuincyChan called squeeze. What does he squeeze? Well, the arguments in this case are lemons and tribbles. And Quincy has an infinite supply of lemons growing in his yard. Big, juicy ones. Which he gives out to everyone. And he teaches me Java. Which is great, because I am a total airhead when it comes to Java. And when I get to Texas I will have to prove that I am an expert in the field.

And tomorrow the great journey by automobile towards Houston begins. 20 hours straight drive. Will probably be done in about 2 to 3 days by my Dad and I. I actually look forward to it. Dad is a cool guy, and I can catch up on a lot of sleep in the car.

Alright, I'll see you again when I get to Texas!

Good to be home, all in all...

So I haven't even seen any of my friends yet, going tomorrow to Berkeley to see them. But I'm already very comfortable at home, it's sort of nice not having people calling you all throughout the day trying to do something with you, for once.

It's been great getting back with family especially. Mom is busy as ever at work, but still genuinely pleased to have me home. Natalee had her prom, and it's been good to catch up with her on school... and her thoughts about going to college next year, for which I am able to impart "great" wisdom that she takes in complete seriousness, I'm sure. And Dad is always Dad. Playing a lot of tennis, and always coming home with something new and Singaporean in taste from the market, like a crate of 18 young coconuts that he found on sale (which we take out into the backyard to hack open enthusiastically with a butcher knife), some sugarcane juice, century eggs, even the "baklah" pork jerky, or at least something very similar to it.

I realized that I always miss my family's sense of humor, too. Natalee telling me stories about her high-school bimbos. Mom trying to discreetly tell Dad that the oyster beef has gone bad. Natalee and I singing songs in unison from "Family Guy" (Sooodooomyyyy, hahaha). And Dad coming home from a Jewish wedding, where they made him wear a head-cap yarmulke, and he starts throwing it around with Nat, saying, "Look! Ultimate frisbee!" My family is priceless.

And I've been keeping in touch with my friends back in Singapore. Yay for Skype! Nothing new and exciting from them, but I suppose no news is good news. And I've only been gone for less than a week... admittedly, miss them though.

Oh and hey, why am I blogging now? Isn't the whole Singapore thing over? Can't we call it quits? I've actually grown sort of attached to this blog, I know, it's creepy right? Go out and make a friend, Ryan, stop being such a loner. I would... but actually, I'm sitting here reading books and online manuals on Java... for the summer job. Ugh. I hope this works. Otherwise, find me a professional blogger position somewhere. I can quit this so-called "engineering" then. Kidding, it should be exciting, just not motivated yet.

Ok, back to more "public static void"... how appropriate.

Half a World Away, from my Secret Garden home...

So what am I doing up at 5:30am writing this blog, you might wonder? MAJOR JETLAG. Seriously, I have never had jetlag this badly before. I usually sleep whenever possible, and now I have a really hard time adjusting. I go to bed around 11am my time, which is around 2am in Singapore. Screw me...

The flight back was OK, everyone in Hong Kong was wearing face-masks as part of the swine flu paranoia. I managed to talk with friends on Skype even at the HK airport, yay for free internet again. And when we reached SFO in the afternoon, we flew right over downtown SF with no fog cover, so I saw the Golden Gate, the Bay Bridge, and the city... what a way to be reminded of home.

But bits and pieces of Singapore are definitely still with me. Dad got me some coconut juice, not as good as at home, but definitely good for nostalgia's sake. Holy mango, did I just say "not as good as at home"? I absolutely did not mean to say that... Singapore has grown on me too much. And I brought tons of snack foods and spice mixes with me as well. Food in the US tastes pretty bland after Singapore, must admit. I also told my parents that it felt cold and windy, and they looked out the window to look for the "wind" I was talking about, and then laughed at me like I was crazy. It's actually a heatwave for the Bay Area right now, in the 80s. It actually is very pleasant weather here, I'm just not used to it yet. I'll get out of my long-sleeved shirts and coats once I'm a bit more re-acclimated...

Daren Lam also came to see me the same day I flew back in, he was in the Bay Area for a few days before continuing on to Yellowstone for a few weeks of camping and hiking. He set up his camping hammock in my own backyard in the redwood grove to try it out... it almost felt like I hadn't even left Singapore for a moment with a friend seeing me at home. Plus that hammock is meant for jungles I think, a tent would have done fine here haha. I got to show him my solar panels too, since he was in my Solar Photovoltaics course with me, taught by the one and only Prof. Oruganti.

Another difference that Daren made me realize is how quiet it is here... you go outside and you don't hear so much traffic, people, music, etc. But I think that's just a difference of living in suburbs vs. the city. But still, when I go to sleep, I hear a ringing in my ears because it's so quiet. I'm used to listening to the air-con, a fan, buses, ships, people, etc. As Daren said, he can't fall asleep out here until there's some cars driving by or something to make some noise. Maybe that's another reason I have such a hard time going to sleep.

Ugh... and my summer job is also starting to bear down on me too. I have less than 2 weeks left in California before I head back to Houston to work. I got called the day I cam back, they wanted me to learn Java before I show up for work... oh boy, Java. I have my big book around here somewhere, but hopefully I can just learn online and get Quincy to teach me some. I have this somewhat badly-timed family vacation to Monterey this coming Memorial Day weekend though that I have to do, so hopefully I can see all my friends at home and still learn Java at the same time. Then next next Thursday I drive with Dad all the way to Houston, giving 2 to 3 days for the journey. And once there, I will not even have my own car, since it got crashed a few weeks ago when my aunt was driving it. So I guess I'm walking/metro-ing to work everyday for a while...

Moral of the story, life never slows down. But you're in trouble when it does, I guess. Like I said a long time ago, the jungle's worst enemy: boredom.