Blahgorrhea

Years ago a friend pegged me as “different” — independent opinions, strange tastes, odd hobbies. He thought I went so far as to relish in being different — that I enjoyed it and embraced it, deliberately accentuating those characteristics of mine most different from the people I associated with. I was reminded of that comment tonight when another friend of mine noticed my wallet and asked, “What is that thing?” [Continue reading…]

As I was peeling a pummelo yesterday, I thought to myself, “This fruit is a pain in the ass to peel.” It’s got a tough, almost impenetrable outer skin, underneath which there is a thick layer of bitter pith that is practically impossible to rip off. But once you get through those layers, you are awarded with sweet yummy fruit, well worth the effort it took. Just like me. If you were a fruit, what would you be?

Happy New Year to my three or four loyal readers. I hope all your resolutions hold up. I’ve recently been enlightened to the idea of a “new day resolution,” making a resolution each day that holds for that day only, thus not suffering the feeling of utter failure in case of not holding true to it. I like it. Resolution for today: post something on my blog. Looks like I’m not a failure yet.

Too bad I don’t have neighbors like this

It is quite possible these days for a company to fire its IT staff and move all internal applications to web apps offered by other companies. It is especially easy to do this at start-ups that don’t even have IT staffs to fire. My boss at my new job decided to go this route as well, claiming we’d be “eating our own dog food” as well as saving on IT costs. Our list of web apps includes Gmail, Kiko, JotSpot and Backpack. I was more than willing to give this approach a shot, but then I realized its drawbacks. [Continue reading…]

Well, I suppose my Japan trip really was a white road adventure just as I had hoped. I was pushed way outside my comfort zone, and I learned some things about myself, most notably that I really don’t like being pushed outside my comfort zone (they don’t call it “comfort” for nothing). Sure, it didn’t turn out ideally (no revelations about my life, no profound insights into the workings of the universe, no inspiration for a good business), but it was an adventure, and that was the point. I will probably not travel alone again, and when I want a vacation, I will head to someplace familiar, someplace warm, someplace easy. Then when I want to travel, I will pick someplace new, and there are plenty new places to fill many years of travel. But for now I will relax in the comfort of my own home, familiar, though sadly not warm.

I view my trip to Japan as my white road adventure, much like Gary Erickson of Clif Bar had white road adventures biking through Europe. Of course, I don’t know if Japan has white roads and red roads (though given their flag, it would seem appropriate). In fact they might use all different colors for their roads. But what that analogy means is that travelling to Japan with only a vague image of a plan is my chance to step outside my comfort zone and grow as a person. [Continue reading…]

You may think that the life of the self-selected unemployed is glamorous and relaxing, but in actuality it has its own types of stress. Take today, for example. I woke up on the early side of 8:30 and after showering and grabbing some toast and OJ, went to go run a few errands. Turns out today is Veterans’ Day, and so the bank was closed. That is one more errand I have to push off until Monday. I came back home and although I have a bunch of household chores hanging over my head, I decided to head out to read at a cafe for a bit. The whole time I was there, I felt like I needed to get back so I could get more things done before leaving on vacation. So I rushed back home, looked up the Goodwill donation center and made two trips to drop off clothes and an old computer. Finally, with a feeling of, well, goodwill in my heart, I decided to treat myself to a burrito, before coming back home to more chores. [Continue reading…]

Things to do in my spare time (in no particular order):

1. Work on my blog. In particular the archive pages need to be created. That is the top priority. Also the who/why/how pages need content.
2. Make travel arrangements for Japan. I have a flight, but now I need some train tickets and an initial hotel reservation. Some more idea of what I might want to do would be good as well. Which brings me to TODO #3:
3. Read. I want to finish Blink, read through my Japan guidebook, reread Anthony Bourdain’s depiction of Japan in A Cook’s Tour, read Vagabonding, and find more books to read.
4. Clean up my apartment.

That seems like a good enough list for now.

It’s 6:15 and I am finally leaving the office. For the last time. After four years and three months of working for Edusoft, I am making my final departure. What with it being Halloween and all, our crazy UI designer made 75 cut-out masks of my face and people put them on in the middle of the day. It was totally disturbing, and yet touching at the same time. My boss said to me some of the nicest things I’ve heard come out of his mouth. And even cynical Derrick showed a hint of emotion when he said, “It’s like I’m losing a second little sister” (alluding to me as the second coming of Ginger, who he previously deemed the kid sis’ he never had). Oh, how endearing.