Lots of changes has been happening in the past few weeks. The biggest news is that I'm leaving my job at Zynga and becoming an entrepreneur again. My roommates/business partners and I have been working at Zynga ever since we got acquired in February, and not too long ago we have decided to leave and to pursue other opportunities together.
I've never been in combat, but I think what I'm feeling must be similar to what soldiers have felt the night before the battle since the beginning of man. Fear, of the unknown, of failure, of letting down your comrades in arms, is ever present. Mix that with the excitement of doing something extraordinary, taking your life into your own hands. Lastly, there's some anxiety, but not the bad kind. The kind of anxiousness that makes you wish the wait would be over and propels you to action. Put all those emotions into a bad and shake it up, that's what it feels like right before plunging into building your very own startup.
The only difference is that this is our second act. We're much more experienced and although we never lacked confidence before, this time our confidence is backed up by something. And unlike last time, we have no time limit.
So, stay-tuned. We have a business blog and I'm sure I'll have interesting things to write about very soon.
Without being in China, it would've been impossible for me to understand just how important the Beijing Olympics is to the Chinese people. To everyone else in the world, this is just a sport competition. To China, this is a matter of prestige; a matter of honor; a matter of life and death; and a matter more important than freedom.
Just a few examples. All construction projects, there are usually hundreds in Beijing, has been stopped for the past two months. All the laborers (who are usually from the countryside from all over China) has been sent home. All factories within a 100 mile radius of Beijing has been shutdown for the past month to cut down on pollution. Traffic has been severely curtailed. Entire lanes all over the city has been reserved for the few dozen official Olympic vehicles (with the roads re-painted). Cars with license plates that end in even numbers can only be driven on even days and odd on odd days throughout the duration of the games. Sporadic traffic control measures, such as those being employed right now for the opening ceremony, has the entire city pretty much shut down. All of the 2nd and 3rd ring roads has been closed to all but official traffic.
Nothing has been left to chance. Today is a holiday in Beijing. All government offices are closed. The city is dead, and I have never seen Beijing so empty. There are almost no cars on the road, which kind of remind me of pictures of North Korea. Everyone was told to stay home, watch the event on TV, and stay out of trouble. Everyone obeys because no one want to be the cause of something going wrong. As an extra precaution, most of the large clubs in Beijing are closed. Although I have gotten word of a few big parties that will go on after the opening ceremonies. The only thing which no one can control, the weather, is a matter of national importance. The location of the National Sport Stadium (called the Bird's Nest by everyone here) is subject to "precise" weather forecasts in 1 hour increments. Earlier there was reports that there may be rain during the opening ceremony around 8pm, and people are freaking out. CCTV Channel 1 just spent the past 30 minutes clarifying and reassuring everyone that even if it does rain, it would be "light rain" with zero chance of "heavy rain".
This begs the question: why? Why is China taking these extraordinary, nay, obsessive attitude to the Beijing Olympics? One answer I can think of is history. China has always been psychologically burdened by its modern history. A history of humiliation, of subjugation by foreigners. China was never a colony of a western power. It was worse. Foreigners came, got everyone hooked on opium, took whatever they wanted, and didn't build any roads, a government, or administrative functions. So after more than 150 years, this Olympics is a chance to show the world, almost as a "we made it so fuck you". But, in a more polite passive-aggressive manner. I'm being a bit crass, but you get the picture.
So, therein lies the gulf separating how China views this Olympics and how everyone else sees it. To an ordinary Chinese, it's incomprehensible, how issues like Dafur or Tibet can even be on the table when national honor is at stake. Protesters, no matter what the topic of protest, is taken as an egregious insult on not only the country, but the people of China. It's like having foreigners come to America and then shit on the American flag. Only 5 times worse.
It's been very interesting being here in Beijing. Originally I thought it would be like a giant party, as all Olympics are supposed to be. But it turns out to be more of an educational experience and a chance to be caught up in history. I got to see a side of China that I never saw before, and I will probably never see again. This should be an interesting few days.
I've been meaning to write this for awhile, but never found the time until now.
I got the new iPhone the day it came out two Fridays ago. I had to wait in line for 5 hours. But there's something about waiting in line for that long, the more you wait, the more you want it. My roommate and I went to the Apple store on Chestnut street at 3pm. At the time we were told there were about 100 people in front of us, and 15 employees selling the iphone with an average of 20 minutes per transaction. So we did a quick back of the envelope calculation, and decided that the line was only going to take 2 hours. We were wrong.
At one point we were told that there may not be enough 16GB iPhones for us (but luckily that wasn't true). Also half way though the line, we were fed pizza and soda. What I found funny was that the people around me weren't what I expected. I had expected to be standing in line with bunch of hard-core nerds. Instead, the guy in front of me is a 50 year old wedding photographer and the lady behind me is a doctor and a mom. The doctor lady only wanted to stay in line until 5pm, but she ended up having to move her dinner reservation and missed the show she was supposed to attend.
Anyways, at 8pm I finally got my iPhone. I got the white one, because everyone else is getting the black one. Also it's way flashier because only the 16GB iPhone comes in white. I loved it. I got through the purchase in record time because my 2 year contract with AT&T is already up for renewal anyways.
This is the first picture I took with my iPhone. The guy standing next to me is the Apple sales guy. He seems a bit weary at this point.
I took a leap this weekend and upgraded my wardrobe. Lately, I have been getting a lot of comments about my style. Well, I finally gave in, and now I wonder why I waited for so long.
I went to Nordstroms on Saturday and bought about $1400 worth of clothes. That's right, I spent almost 1.5k in a single spree. I predict that's going to be more common.
I got three pairs of designer jeans, custom fitted. What a difference it makes, I never thought jeans could feel like that. The material, the fit, the style, they suited me just right. One pair of 7s works for both work and play. One pair of Stiches is a little edgy and fits my urban hipster look. The last pair, Joe's, is more dressy. I also got a very cool belt to go with these jeans.
I also bought shoes. I got a pair of classy black dress shoes, a pair of brown leather every day (urban hipster) shoes, and a pair of boots. They feel and look amazing.
I'm a totally different person now. I went from dressing like a student to actually somewhat stylish. It was an order of magnitude change. It makes total sense. I'm going to be wearing these clothes every day, why shouldn't I spend more on it? The cost amortizes very well. I'm extremely satisfied.
Last weekend I had an epiphany. Maybe epiphany is too strong of a word, but it was a pretty strong realization nonetheless. I'm not giving enough back to the world.
There's no doubt in my mind that I will to do something great that changes the world one day. I don't have a clue what that something would be, but since that's in the distant future, I don't have to worry about it just yet.
What about right now? I'm not a celebrity; I don't have millions of dollars; and I lack any political power or influence. Is there something that I can do, however small, that could make the world a slightly better place? I think there is.
Right now I'm living comfortably. I have a job that pays well and I have spare time that I use to pursue hobbies and recreation. In fact, I'm in the midst of a major quest for personal development. But still, I feel that's not quite enough. I'm intelligent; I have decent skills building software; and I like challenges. So there has to be something I can do that's fun, interesting, and at the same time, help the world.
So, I'm gathering ideas of projects to pursue. One thing I could do is build applications for the OLPC; create something useful for people in developing countries. Or maybe I can create an iPhone or Android application that would be useful to scientists. There are many possibilities and now I just need to do some research before I start on something...
I wanted to write this story for a few days now, but didn't find time until now. I was in LA last weekend and had a lot of fun. It was surreal from the start. Within hours of landing, I found myself in the middle of a movie set.
I arrived a few hours before my roommates, so I decided to go and check out the campus of UCLA. It was the week in between graduation and summer term, so the campus was deserted. I walked around aimlessly, took a few pictures and just as I was about to leave, I saw a girl sitting on a bench talking on her phone. She looked at me, I smiled, and she ran towards me (I gotta do that more often).
She asked me if I had some time, because she was helping to make a movie and her help didn't arrive. Since I had nothing to do, and I was in a mood for adventure, I agreed to help her. It turns out, they were part of the LA Film Festival's 72-hour film challenge. They have 72 hours to make a movie, from start to finish. I got introduced to the director Insung, and the two actors, Rick and Maureen.
My job was simple. Hold a reflector dish to bounce light toward the actors' faces. In fact, I've done this many times before since both my dad and my uncle are avid photographers. The scene was quite touching. The man (a janitor) is proposing to his girlfriend (some recently made actress). It occurred just as the sun was setting in the background. The actors were very good, and there wasn't a script, they basically just ad-lib it.
So, after we're all done, we took a picture.
The coolest part is that this is a very small film. There's (from left to right) Insung, the director, Rick and Moreen, Me and Aimee. That's it!
The movie is already made, and you can see the final credit screen where my name is prominently displayed.
Anyways, I was very excited to be a part of the Hollywood experience, especially only a few hours after arriving in LA for the first time. I swear... this stuff only happens to me.
When I was a kid, I loved Indiana Jones. It's one of the first movies I saw in English, and the third Indiana Jones movie (the one with Sean Connery) remains one of my all time favorites. So I was very excited in the weeks leading up to the opening.
Well, I can't say that I was totally disappointed. The fourth installment is still a lot of fun, plenty of action, and quite family friendly. However, I must have grown up in the mean time.
The movie is only enjoyable once you shutdown your brain. For example, I know Indiana Jones got Hitler's autograph and found the Holy Grail and all, but as soon as he survives a nuclear blast, well, it set the tone for the rest of the film. The plot was thin, and no one hid the fact that this movie is all about fun, and not believability. Cate Blanchett's Russian accent was atrocious. All the characters were one dimensional (some, even inter-dimensional). But for a fun two hours, sure, it's worth it.
The one cool thing about the movie was the previews for some of the movies coming out in the summer and in the fall. This year, we're gonna have a great movie season. I'm super excited.
It has been quite awhile since I read any literature of this caliber and I was thoroughly impressed. Gao manages to elicit the gamut of emotions from the reader: lust, anger, sadness, passion, regret, fear, confusion and at the end, peace. The narration, alternates between telling the story in the second person and the third person. The flashbacks, temporally interspersed and at times chaotic, are told in the third person to further the sense of detachment between the author telling the story now and the author who lived in a totally different world.
This novel touched me deeply because the content, his life during the Culture Revolution, is so close to me personally, and yet just out of reach. No one who hasn't lived through it could truly understand it. Both of my parents and all of my grandparents experienced (and survived) this great calamity first hand. My understanding of it, will obviously differ from theirs, but hopefully not too far. However, I wonder how many western readers will really get terms like "Ox Demon and Snake Spirit" (牛鬼蛇神). Things like that evokes completely different emotions from people who lived through the times from those who did not. I remember one time, after mom learned that I have never heard the song The East is Red, she simply said, "how lucky." I think I understand now.
The author showed me everything. Nothing was left out. It was ugly and refreshing and disturbing and intriguing all at the same time. I was emotionally drained by the end of it. I found it very interesting that Gao wrote his autobiography as a work of fiction. He explains:
It is he that you must allow to emerge from your memories, that child, that youth, that immature man, that daydreaming survior, that arrogant fellow and that scoundrel who gradually becomes crafty... While observing and examining him unmasked, you must turn him into fiction, a character that is unrelated to you and has qualities yet to be discovered. It is then that writing is interesting and creative, and can stimulate curiosity and the desire to explore.
This was literature at its finest. It can be read as a progression of his relationship with women, far and near, past and present. Or it can be read as a reflection through two different, but identical persons, one struggling to forget, the other to remember. Or it can be read as a movement through time and place, from the China of yesteryear to the West of today. At the end however, you're forced to conclude that Gao has finally found his freedom, his truth, his meaning, and his life without "isms". But at a terrible price. Is he happy? Only he knows.
On Wednesday, the Olympic torch arrived in San Francisco. My roommates and I decided to skip out of work and went to the Embarcadero to see the torch relay.
The advertised start time of the relay was 1pm. We arrived at Pier 5 a few minutes past 1:30pm and the torch was nowhere to be seen. We walked towards the Ferry building and as we got closer, we saw hundreds of demonstrators and they completed blocked off the street.
The demonstrators, most of them white, held up various signs. Some printed before hand, others, hand-drawn. Most were protesting human rights abuse in Tibet, but some others were about Dafur and Myanmar. I decided to take a stroll in the middle of the demonstration and I was quite taken with the energy and the passion of the crowd. A few people were yelling slogans into the bull horns, like the classic, "Shame, Shame, China Shame", or the crowd favorite, "No Freedom, No Olympics". There are a small contingent of counter-demonstrators (as I predicted there would be), waving Chinese and Olympic flags. However they were vastly outnumbered by the Tibetan demonstrators and were relegated to the corner.
The street was completely blocked off, and there was no way for the torch to pass through the original route. My roommates were using internet on their phones trying to figure out the precise location of the torch and no one knew what was going on. Both sides of the sidewalk was lined with police, but they made no effort at directing the crowd or clearing a path for the Olympic torch.
Sometime after 2pm, we had enough. We got back to the car and headed back to work. However, we made a wrong turn and went through the Broadway tunnel. As we came out of the tunnel, we saw that Van Ness avenue up ahead was blocked off by police. Suddenly we realized that the torch had been diverted. And guess what? Our apartment is on that very same street.
We quickly parked the car, and I ran into the apartment and grabbed my camera (I had forgotten it earlier). As I came out, the torch was just passing in front of our door.
We had time for a group photo before the torch came and you can see the spectators gathered all around us.
The torch (on the left side of the picture) flanked by police on both sides as it makes its way down Van Ness avenue.
The torch was carried right past our front door, with only one protester in the background with a "Free Tibet" sign (probably drawn 5 minutes before the torch arrived).
Afterwards, the news was filled with reports about the torch relay and how the organizers completely deceived the demonstrators. I think my roommates and I are probably the only people in the city that got to see the demonstration on the Embarcadero and the Olympic torch (and have it come to our door steps).
It is unfortunate that the Olympic torch relay had to be conducted this way, but I also experienced the full power of the freedom of speech and assembly. My personal feelings about this issue aside, I'm glad I got to see both events. And I still can't get over the fact that we're just too damned lucky.
Today, I had an accident. I spilled some water on my laptop and now the keyboard stopped working. I am so angry right now, it's not even funny. My computer still works and I have to attach it to an external keyboard to type anything.
I have to get my macbook pro into warranty repairs now. Hopefully everything will work out, but it will take at least 7 days to get it fixed, minimum. This really really sucks.
