Beantown

Boston here I come!

Networking

Glasses

I went to a networking event this evening and volunteered for the German American Business Association (GABA). This was my first time getting involved with them. I had a good time. I get a chance to expand my general knowledge when I attend these events. Here's a bunch of random stuff I learned & people I met:

- A guy from Pet Express who helps transport pet for expats and others who move internationally. They handle all the paper work and administrative matters of transporting an animal. The most difficult animals they transported were elephants and giraffes. Generally they deal with cats and dogs though.
- An office manager from Accent on Languages who manages translators and interpreters. Interesting fact learned was that translators get paid by the word and interpreters make more money than translators.
- A female entrepreneur who advises clients on insurance matters like key person insurance, etc.
After I mentioned that I was looking for organizations to get involved with, she recommended that I join the Financial Women's Association for great events and networking opportunities.
- The project manager for GABA introduced me to someone from Women in Business.
- A couple of people who work for Antenna, a consultancy that does PR for renewable energy companies.

Overall, it was an interesting event and I expanded my horizons.

Concrete jungle

Lunchtime

I often like to take a brief walk after lunch just to get some fresh air and do some people watching. My favorite perch is at Embarcadero 4 overlooking Justin Herman Plaza, which is pictured above. When I took my picture, I did not notice all of the details. See the caption above. That's the beauty of capturing a moment; you can enjoy the details at a later point in time.

Beach volleyball & bikinis

I'm Walking on Sunshine

Now that the Olympics are over, this is the perfect time to blog about the sport beach volleyball!
My biggest pet peeve about the sport would be the uniforms. Do they really HAVE to wear two piece bikinis to play the sport effectively or do they just want to flaunt their toned bodies to the rest of us less blessed mortals?

They claim that the benefits of bikinis are that they enable the players to stretch better and prevent sand from getting in their swimsuits were they to wear one piece suits. I don't buy it. Their counterparts in normal volleyball play the game fine in tank tops and shorts.

Speaking of sports, I must say that I really disliked Physical Education (P.E.) in high school and couldn't wait for it to be optional in my junior and senior years of high school. Firstly, I didn't appreciate having to change into my gym clothes in a communal space in the locker room. Secondly, I've always had a fear of being hit by balls. Hence my intense dislike of volleyball. When a ball was lobbed over the net, I had no intention of diving for it to prevent the ball from hitting the ground. The only sport I partially liked was tennis.

School systems need to reform P.E. and make it relevant to modern day lives. For instance, they could encourage teens to do yoga, martial arts, aerobics, dancing or use exercise equipment.

Photo streaming

Testing this feature of embedding a Picasa web album into a blog.

Grammar

Prim & Proper

Don't you just hate it when you make grammatical errors? I made one in my last blog post, but my sister pointed it out, so I have since corrected it. I inadvertently typed "it's" when I should have used "its". Many people make this mistake.

The rule is as follows:
1. "It's" is a contraction of two separate words "it" + "is". Example - "It's a beautiful day today".
2. Its is the possessive form of the word it. Example - "Its (the car's) wheels are dirty."

Here's a picture of folded hands BTW.

Happy hormones

Blossoming beauty

Just finished power walking around Golden Gate Park (GGP) for 1.5 hours so I'm coasting off of an endorphin high at the moment. That's why people feel so good after exercising. It's addictive.

So what's happening outside of my little world? Plenty!

• The Olympics just had its closing ceremony.
• Obama announced his VP pick to be Joe Biden, a veteran of the system. (So much for Change, huh? Still need to woo those more conservative Democrats who feel comfort in the familiar.)
• Fall or rather autumn as the Europeans like to call it is coming up on 9/22/2008.
  

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in my own universe that I need to pull back and look at the bigger scheme of things.

Monkees

Humans apparently aren't the only ones who can be obese these days. Check out the monkeys in this video.

Photo 51

From Dawn till Dusk

City College of San Francisco offers a photography course for beginners called Photo 51. I spent my entire Saturday there soaking up as much info as possible on this first day. There was tons of stuff to absorb like a sponge - lab rules, schedules for the rest of the semester, hand outs to pick up, supplies to buy, etc.

I think I'll learn a lot from this, but it's tough sitting in a room for 6 hours on a Saturday. In addition, the teacher is very strict. Absolutely no talking or side conversations when she is talking. While I understand the courtesy behind this, some of these conversations are perfectly valid. For example, what if I just wanted to find out what page we're on? My neighbor is perfectly qualified to tell me. I don't need to interrupt the teacher for something simple like that.

Regardless, I think the assignments will be fun and it will "force" me to spend time focusing on photography. That's the value of classes. By the way, you see a picture of the NYC skyline above. It was taken while on the spirit cruise. I love the gradation of colors in the sky going from blue to pink.

Rainbow chair

Colors

This is a picture of a colorful plastic chair at the MoMA. I don't think it would be very comfy to sit in, but the colors sure look flashy!

Having been in NYC for a couple days, I can now better understand what makes California unique. California is known for its great weather and outdoorsy, health-conscious and liberal people. I think Californians also tend to use the word "like" much more than those from the East Coast. We sprinkle the word "like" everywhere. I even hear professional people use it all the time. Of course they're not giving a presentation to clients when they're speaking like that. They do that more in their downtime and in casual conversations.

Also, if you've ever seen what professionals in California wear to work, you'll notice that they like to wear Northface jackets over their shirts and ties. It quite popular.

P.S. - My first photography class starts tomorrow, bright and early at 9 AM. It doesn't end till 4 PM. It's quite a good deal considering I only paid $80 for this course that goes till December. Hopefully I'll learn something useful.

Flatiron & Tokio Hotel

Flatiron in NYC

I thought I would continue with the New York thread the rest of this week for a change since I usually take pics of San Francisco. Here's a picture of the Flatiron Building. We have something similar to this in San Francisco. I think it's called the Flood Building. I'll post a picture for comparison one of these days.

So I checked out SFgate for blogging ideas and came across this article about the German teenie band called Tokio Hotel. There were two spelling errors in this article:
1. It's spelled "ueber" or "Über" if you have the ability to type a umlaut. That's what those two little dots on top of the 'u' are called.
2. The band members hail from Magdeburg, not "Magedburg"

I should become an editor!

The Streets of New York

MoMA

My flight left New York's JFK airport this afternoon, so I had a couple precious hours this morning to venture out of the hotel and actually look around NYC. I decided to walk to the Flatiron building, Rockefeller Center (which I couldn't find), and finally the Museum of Modern Art aka (MoMA).

The entrance fee was on the steep side, but I wanted to see the artwork there. Coincidentally the museum has a special exhibition of Ernst Kirchner's artwork. The focus is on his Berlin streets series. His artwork is characterized by the jagged humans and lurid colors.

I enjoyed my 2 hours in the museum. As I was walking the streets of New York City, I realized how fast the pedestrians are walking! If you hesitate for even a moment, you will be mowed down by the people following immediately behind you. I consider myself a fast walker, but these guys were even faster. That's saying a lot! Manhattan is just so hectic and full of people. I can't get over it. Traffic is crazy. Cars are honking. People run red lights. I did not notice many bicyclists though. Interesting. Seeing how hectic and harried everything was in NYC made me realize why these people are so stressed out all the time. The pace is slightly slower in San Francisco, even if you're in the Financial District. Here's a fun list I found on the Internet - a list of the fastest walkers in the world as of 2007. See where your city ranks.

Conference Day 2

Punjab dancing

The second day of the conference had better sessions IMHO. To kick off the day, we had some hip hop Indian dancers. It was quite interesting as I didn't know how Indians danced. In the morning we had a panel discuss workplace challenges unique to Asians and they also provided tips on how to overcome these challenges.

First day of the conference

Lady with a Lamp

I survived my first day of the conference!

It started pretty early with breakfast at 7 AM. Then a general session for all the participants was arranged. I went to that. Volunteered for a couple moments with the registration desk and got a really nice light blue polo shirt for that. One of the sessions I chose to attend was about emotional intelligence, but I thought it was way too high level. I wanted some practical, nitty gritty stuff.

After some other sessions we were bussed off to Chelsea Pier for a spirit cruise around the body of water that surrounds Manhattan. It was done well and the skyline at night is unforgettable! We saw the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building lit up and the Chrysler Building, the Brooklyn Bridge, which were some of the more recognizable landmarks.

Sensory overload

Times Square Bustle

New York City is a city of superlatives. The masses of people, jumble of lights, colors and advertisements at Times Square are overwhelming. Everything is larger than life in this city including the prices! I can only take this city in small doses because it just assaults all my senses at once.

I am actually in NYC for a professional conference and will be here until Wednesday when I fly back to SF. They have a full program planned. My objective will be just to shake some hands and get to know some folks. In other words, we're here to hone our schmoozing skills.

Golfing - The final episode

Trois moi

I went to my final golf lesson in the 3 part series. Today we were putting, chipping and then practiced some driving. They had the same guy teaching it and I think he must use the same jokes with every group he gets. It gets old, especially the part about, "Did you tell them how good I was?" before or after driving the golf ball into oblivion far far away. He seems kind of full of himself at times. Anyway, that's off topic ...

It wasn't as fun today because I wasn't able to hit as many balls as last time, but I'm still thinking of taking group lessons eventually. Plus the weather not cooperating - it was grey and foggy at Harding Park. However, when I left and started getting closer to home, the sky just cleared up and the sun was shining. What a difference a couple miles make!

Here's a clue to my next destination tomorrow. I'm waking up at 3:00 AM to take a plane here.
Yay! I hope it will be a fun event. More details to follow. :-P

High rise

Overachiever

I quite like the picture I took this morning because you can tell that it's somewhat foggy in the city and the skyscrpaers are still shrouded in morning mist. Lovely if I do say so myself.

Short!

Haircut

I went to Studio Lagorio for a not so cheap haircut today after work. I needed to get it cut, but couldn't fit in a trek to my preferred salon called Oxenrose. So here I am in the picture with hair that is too short. It doesn't look anything like the hair in the magazine. Then again, it never does, does it? I'm not very satisfied with my cut. I wish the stylist had left some longer hair on top so that I could style it. The stylist was trying to channel Katie Holmes' new pixie cut, but don't think it really worked out.

Now I've just got to wait until it grows out. The only positive about the haircut is that I don't have bangs in my eyes. Weird fact - the German word for bangs is pony!

Guilty pleasures

Skylark

Everyone has their guilty pleasures that they keep under wraps. Mine would be reading up on celebrity news every so often. The latest news is that John Mayer dumped Jennifer Aniston. Poor Jennifer Aniston! Read about it here in the Daily Dish at sfgate.

Apparently Jennifer A. set a timeline for their relationship. She was probably ready to settle down and get married, while John Mayer still wanted to keep his freedom and play around. I wasn't really surprised to read this. It was actually only a matter of time. After all, given their age difference (Jennifer A. is older than John Mayer), is it surprising that they have different priorities at this point in their lives? I think she should have known better than to get involved with him. She should have stayed with someone closer in age to her like Owen Wilson or Vince Vaughn. She was rumored to have been with these people a long time ago.

Why am I so well versed in celeb gossip? I wish I knew my GAAP half as well!

Bad composition

Out of the frame

Here's an example of a poorly composed picture. I admit I didn't spend enough time composing it. One cardinal rule that was broken in the picture above is that the guy is looking outside of the frame. His gaze inadvertently causes the viewer to wonder what he's looking at, which leads the viewer's gaze also outside of the picture. Not a good thing.

By the way, I read an interesting article on Salon.com this morning -> click here. It's about an American born Indian woman who gets so frustrated with the Western dating system that she decides to go back to India to find a mate.

Summertime in the city

Sun worshiper

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco, said Mark Twain.
Many people would tend to agree with him, especially given the weather we had last week. Personally, I think the biggest draw about this city is the weather because it's perfect! Okay, maybe it's for people who tend to like it more on the cooler side. As I'm typing, I see the fog whipping through the neighborhood.

This is why I think the weather's perfect. It's cool in the morning, but it warms up and then it cools down again. This afternoon I was able to snap the shot up above of a sun worshiper wearing nothing but shorts, lying on the grass near "Cupid's Span" reading.

Red egg party

In the Chinese culture, red egg parties are for celebrating the birth of a baby. Eggs dyed red and ginger is served along with other food. Traditionally it was timed to occur when the baby becomes one month old. These days parents can organize a party whenever they feel the child is ready make its public debut.

There was dish after dish of food. First it was dim sum, then shrimp, chicken, sweet and sour pork, vegetables and finally fried noodles.

Fried eyeballs

Provence

My eyeballs were pretty fried after spending hours upon hours researching the worthiness of hotels in different cities in the Provence region. I have a pretty standard routine to do due diligence on these places before I will select them.

1. Check out the hotel recommendations from Rick Steves' guide books, which are packed with practical information and many spot on hotel recommendations.
2. Read reviews on Tripadvisor.com, an independent website where hotels are reviewed by everyday normal people like you & me. Thanks to all the great people who take the time to review hotels, I know which ones to avoid and also what to be aware of. I would like to contribute my reviews and pictures after my trip. That would be my way of helping make the world a better place. ;-)
3. Finally, visit the hotel's website to see how it presents itself.

This process can be very time consuming, especially if you want to be thorough. I know some folks can be very spontaneous and just book any hotel they happen to come across in their travels, but I prefer to be well prepared.

Spectacle

Helium

I'm watching the opening ceremony of the Olympic games. It was pretty spectacular the way in which the Chinese director Zhang Yimou choreographed so many people. My favorite part was the gung-fu/tai chi folks in white. They all moved precisely in union. It was all quite impressive, but I think there was a little too much history and a flaunting of Chinese culture (e.g the invention of paper, the printing press, the compass, the kite).

BTW, the balloons above were from promotion day in the office. As always there were some surprises and some people whispering about promotees and those who were not promoted.

Public promenade

Pretty as a picture

I needed a walk today during lunch and headed out to the waterfront. This little nook photographed above is a really nice place to enjoy lunch if you bought it at the Ferry Building. The seats face the bay and the flower baskets are a wonderful touch. Plus, it's really clean there and doesn't smell of pee. What more could you ask for?

Wildflowers

New Life

This is a picture of a wildflower sprouting. I don't have much of a green thumb, but I decided to plant this because my employer was handing out seeds as part of a 10 yr anniversary campaign.

Engaged

Rose

I'm engaged!
Sorry for the sensational statement. I'm actually only engaged per my profile on Facebook. :-P

It was a little experiment really. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, advertising on Facebook is extremely targeted toward the users. Specialized software scans your profile and recommends advertising that is tailored to you. For instance, if you change your martial status from single to engaged, you will start to see adds for wedding photographers. Try it out with your Facebook profile and surprise your friends and acquaintances.

I wanted to test that out yesterday, so I selected the status engaged. Lo and behold, when I signed into Facebook today, I saw an ad for wedding photographers. That is creepy! I wonder what type of advertisement you get if you select the status "It's complicated" or "In an open relationship." Ha ha!! I crack myself up.

Wall Street

Crevices

I'd like to watch the movie "Wall Street" on AMC, but it's after my bed time. Schade

Too Fit to be President?

Jogging

There are some pretty dumb and shockingly ignorant comments from American voters in this WSJ article about Obama. Some people can't relate to him because he's too skinny in a country with 66% of people of voting age are overweight. It's insane and ignorant.

It's gotten to the point where he has to be careful in his comments about food. The article highlights two examples. One is when Obama is on the campaign trail and he makes a point to say something like "I just had lunch, but I think there's still room for pie." Another comment he made was when he was eating chicken and said, "Give the chicken breasts to the healthy people. I'll take the wings."
Becoming President of the United States is like one huge popularity contest. It's not about the issues and their programs. It's all about whether they look good or not! Duh! Isn't that what all of life's about. (Please note the dripping sarcasm here.)

Testing googlemaps

View Larger Map

Proposed itinerary

Pictures of a peach

So the poll results show that Provence wins hands down. I was inspired to visit this region by a National Geographic photography tour that I found online. It's so expensive to attend one of these photo tours! It costs a little less than $4,000, excluding the cost of flights. The lavender fields were also a big draw of the region, but actually I unfortunately won't be there when it starts to bloom in June. I'd better brush up on my francais in time for the trip. I only took a couple lessons a long time ago from Berlitz. French is a fun language to speak because of the weird nasally sounds and the weird pronunciations.

Pictures today are of the different faces of a peach.

Miscellaneous musings of a monkey

Smart Car

I've been seeing more Smart cars on the road these days. They are really cute. If I had to get a car for downtown driving, a Smart car would be perfect. However, I'm not sure if I'd like to drive on the freeway in a Smart because I'm not sure if they can accelerate fast enough.

On a totally different topic, check out this Salon article on high heels. It's linked to a video of a guy wearing heels. He barely makes in around the block in those shoes! It is pretty hard to wear heels especially if the heels are thin rather than chunky. Some of my female coworkers wear heels almost everyday in the office. I'm not sure how they do it. I prefer to stay comfortable especially when I need to work and have my brain function. I do not need another distraction at work in the form of foot discomfort.