Thanksgiving

I had probably my happiest Thanksgiving since I came to US and started celebrating it. Nothing fancy - baked a Turkey, opened a wine, decorated a Christmas tree, played some Christmas songs on piano, my in-laws all gathered at my place. I think it is the first time I truly feel like celebrating with a family. The past Thanksgivings it was fun having dinner and party with friends, but never the homely feeling.

For once I think it would be perfect if my parents were there.

Less is More

Read an article today by one of my favorite technical blogger titled Choices == Headaches. A very nice written piece, which talks about the numerous options on screen to shut down Windows in Vista, why it is more confusing and frustrating than useful to the users, and how he think it should be simplified to a few choices. Quoted by the author from another article, "We normally assume in America that more options ('easy fit' or 'relaxed fit'?) will make us happier, but Schwartz shows the opposite is true, arguing that having all these choices actually goes so far as to erode our psychological well-being.”

I found it very true, especially when this applies to our daily life, when we are looking for jobs, buying clothes or home decorative items, thinking of where to go for the vacation, choosing what to read from news, etc. The modern world has provided so many choices for our material needs, and so much information to absorb everyday, that sometimes we feel overwhelmed. This is truly a paradox. Not once have friends complained to me the various career paths he or she is choosing from, and don't know how to decide. This is rarely a problem at our parents' time, when they have limited choices, even assigned to jobs when they graduated. Also consider the hundred of TV channels we can choose from, and the numerous blogs in my Google Reader which I would like to go over everyday.

This is really a paradox, and it can only get worse. I wonder when a day would come when we spend more time choosing then consuming. i.e. spending more time flipping between channels than really watching TV.

Weather in Seattle

I was in Seattle for business trip the past week. The weather there was depressing, raining the moment my flight arrived till the day before I left. But on the last day, it was sunny, and the lake looked prettier than ever. I almost wanted to take the day off to do some sight-seeing. Almost. I guess if the weather had been nice for a couple more days, my week up there won't be so productive.

Comparing to Bay Area where we take the sun shine for granted, I definitely was more excited with the rare sun shine in Seattle. I often wonder why we gain more utility not from the absolute value of something (constant sunny weather), but the delta (from rainy to sunny). Would I be happier to live at a place that rains frequently but has sunshine once in a while, or a place that constantly has sunshine?

I guess that's why happiness isn't always proportional to material richness.

Our Shower Door...

...shattered on its own. Yes, no kidding, I repeat, it shattered into pieces on its own. Last Saturday we were watching TV downstairs, and suddenly heard a loud noise, which was like lots of objects falling. At first we thought it's something else on the street and didn't pay much attention. But after a while when I went upstairs to get changed, I found that the inner shower door has shattered into thousands of pieces and the entire tub was covered with glasses. The glasses were also all over the washroom floor. The first thing that came across my mind was someone has broken in, but then I found all the other windows were tight. Apparently the door just shattered with no apparent reason.

We called up KB Home and they had it cleaned up and replaced the following week. I tried to research for the cause of this mystery, but cannot find anything on the web. When a guy finally came to replace the door, I asked him if it's normal that the door will shattered on it's own. And he said "Yeah, this happens. Maybe it's because of some glitches in the tempering process, usually in a stock of a couple hundred doors, we notice one or two shatters on it own."

So at least I know our house is not a Monster House. I guess this rarely happens, and we should thank God that this doesn't happen when we were taking a shower.

Working Women. Sick Women.

Recently heard a couple incidents about women who worked too hard and became sick.

A coworker of mine in the Beijing office was in hospital last week, suffering from lungs inflammation. Potential culprit may be she worked too hard a while back. I heard that she even slept in the office one night.

I was told by my parents on the phone of the stories they heard from their friends in Shanghai. The daughter of my dad's friend, who is around my age, got kidney problem and had to visit the hospital 3 times a week for cleaning. It was pretty sad because she was smart and pretty, but she pretty much would have to live like that for the rest of her lives. She was pessimistic and didn't expect to get into any relationship.

So my wife is working crazy hours these days. Today she went to work around 8 and didn't get off till 10. And what's worse is she doesn't like her job, so the work is really depressing to her (and depressing to me, as a result). Not once have I asked her to quit, but we both know that there may be more serious issues if she do quit and stay at home and do nothing. We had big problems back in Beijing before she found an internship and classes to take. Some women just can't stay at home.

To work or not to work, this is the problem.

Politics

Well, I am not referring to those in the office, which engineers rarely need to deal with. I am referring to the election in the States this week and the corruption incident in Taiwan.

On US: I found that I am paying more and more attention to the politics here.
- Back in year 2000 I only started to pay attention to the election when the news were all taking about the recounts, and I had little idea about the difference between Democrats and Republicans.
- I had no impression of the 2002 election. I actually never realized it happened.
- In year 2004, I was all for Kerry, and I remember refreshing CNN.com once every 10 minutes during the day to see the latest results. I even listened to one of the debates before the election.
- This year, I was reading news about the projections before the election, and also checking the news closely during the day. I even both to look up what GOP means. I got excited when I heard that the Democrats took over the House, and I refreshed CNN.com once every 5 minutes at night to see the latest counts in Virginia and Montana Senate race.

Nevertheless, I don't really consider myself American. Not yet.

On Taiwan: The latest incident in Taiwan really created a mess. And it was a mess even before this, when the "Red" organized the 天下围攻. When I talked to people in Mainland China about this, their first reaction was Taiwan's government was "too" democratic and it was not good, that this could be chaotic - just look at how they physically fight each other in the meetings.
But in my view I really appreciate the true democracy in Taiwan, and I am truly glad that there is democracy in a Chinese region (not country, to be politically correct). Guess what would happen if someone suspects President Hu of spending money inappropriately?

It only happens in China...

[I wanted to blog this a couple days back when I was still in China, but the stupid GFW blocked beta.blogger.com. I don't know why www.blogger.com was still allowed though.]

So there is this China-Africa Cooperation Summit in Beijing these days. I don't need to be told to know about it, since the signs are everywhere.

- It is in the news on newspaper and on TV all the time. Interestingly I was at the airport and the news shows the Chinese president shaking hands with each of the leader from the African nations, and there are 30+ of them.

- On the freeway from the airport, there are poster flags on the lamp posts on the both sides of the road. I counted it, there is one flag every 20m. Given that the freeway is about 40km, there are 50 * 2 * 40 = 4000 flags. Guess how many labor it takes to put them on in one day.

- There are huge banner boards on the side of the main freeways, 二环 and 三环, which shows pictures of Africa, with elephants and lions. I almost thought I am in a zoo.

- I was told that at 王府井, there is an exhibition titled "The Mysterious Africa".

So here is the other side of the story:

- There were more than 150 traffic restrictions (交通管制) within Beijing in a single day. This means, certain sections of roads can be closed for 30 minutes anytime during the day. What can you do when you are in the car? Wait. You can imagine the reaction of commuters and taxi drivers.

- The taxi driver told me at one time there are 1400+ cars lined up on a certain section of the freeway.

- Because a sister of the wife of an African president wanted to go shopping at the Silk Market (秀水街), the entire shopping center was closed down for 2 hours.

- I went dining at the Grand Hyatt hotel, and I had to pass through the metal detector, and my bag the X-Ray machine. While I was having a drink at the lobby with my friend, I was constantly annoyed by the "Beep" sound.

- A friend at another 5-star hotel told me the security guard goes so far as following him upstairs, to make sure he is a guest staying at the hotel.

And of course these are never mentioned in the news.

Fun Economics

Freakonomics blog today has an interesting article about a research which suggests Internet pornography may lead to lower rape rates. Hopefully this is not as controversial as the statement in the book which claims the passing of abortion laws in the 70s leads to lower crime rates in the 90s.

I think I become more sensitive to the rules of economics around me after reading the book. Today I had dinner at a local Beijing restaurant. Afterwards, we were given some cash coupons which can be used towards any meals in the future. Someone then suggested implementing a website to allow for exchange or selling of coupons. I immediately pointed out that if such a site becomes popular, the end result can only be that the restaurants stop giving away coupons, since the intended goal of retaining the customer would fail and the coupons will go to customers who already plan to go to the restaurant. This is equivalent to giving discounts for no reason. As a result, the popularity of such a site will eventually lead to the death of the site.