Secret Garden part deux

From my office I have a view of a roof top garden in one of the other office buildings around the corner. It is quite pretty looking, so I finally decided to do some snooping around today. I'm here now basking in the sun and typing in this rooftop garden as we speak. It's truly an oasis in this concrete jungle. Here are some snapshots from the garden.
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Sunglasses at night

I saw the film "Paris" this evening, which was essentially a love letter to the city. I'm no film critic, but I liked it. It's always nice to see pretty pictures of Europe. If you can't live there, the next best thing is to see movies about it. Plus, the French actors in this film were so easy on the eyes. They have a different attractiveness when compared to American actors. It's hard to explain. Okay, I'll try with an analogy. American actors are like refined sugar - tasty but unhealthy empty calories, whereas French actors are like honey - naturally sweet and hearty.

I'd definitely recommend that people check out the film. Here's a trailer.

Starry Starry Night

Nightscape

Downtown San Francisco's streets are scary even by day, so you can imagine how it can be at night when it's dark. I wouldn't have felt comfortable going on a photo shoot on my own, but luckily a friend of mine joined me. There are a lot of disturbed people who haunt the streets day and night. On one hand I feel sorry for their plight. On the other, my acute sense of self-preservation kicks in and I avoid them like the plague because their instability could lead to anything. Call me paranoid.

Although Frankfurt am Main in Germany supposedly has one of the highest crime rates in the country, the streets at night felt less creepy when I was there. Oh, how I think back fondly to my little attic apartment in Frankfurt sometimes with a supermarket conveniently across the street from my place. My only gripes were that the there was no elevator and it sometimes got really warm there during the rare days when the temperatures rose. Ah ... memories!

Simply Sparkling!

Noir

Why does everything somehow sound more culturally elevated in the French language?

About the Picture: This is the Bay Bridge by night. It's fairly unremarkable by day, but it's so festive when they light it up at night. Everything about the bridge twinkles - the moving cars and the lighted span itself.

About Life: I've noticed an interesting pattern. People who major in theater in college find themselves in their 30's switching to more stable careers like engineering and nursing. I wonder why? Is it because they suddenly realize that it's difficult to survive in this harsh world with only a theater degree? The husband of one of my acquaintances is trying to get a second bachelor's degree because he and his wife want to buy a house and his current salary as an AV person at a university is probably not enough to purchase real estate in the Bay Area. So he is going back to school to study engineering. He graduated from college as a theater major. Theater and engineering are like polar opposites. Good luck!

Then I met someone in Spanish class who is trying to get into the nursing program at city college because she graduated with a theater degree in her twenties and didn't really know what to do with it. Now at 30 years old, she wants to become a nurse.

A couple conclusions I've drawn from these true stories:
- There are lots of idealistic people out there who think studying what they like will help them make a living. It may be possible, but VERY difficult unfortunately!
- You apparently can't do much with only a theater degree unless you're absolutely brilliant and stunningly beautiful.
- Age 30 is a turning point. You begin to reassess your life - how you want to continue living it and any changes that you must make before it's too late.

Night lights

Starbursts

I'm psyched! At tonight's photo shoot, I finally achieved 2 things photographically that I've been trying to do for ages - streaks of red brake lights and starbursts. My sister, ever the critic, said that the brakelights should be higher and the cars should be more visible. Maybe next time. There's always room for improvement. I'm just glad to know how to set my camera to get these effects.

Randomness

Banking

After finishing Twilight, I'm wading into Stieg Larsson's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". It's such a hot item at the SF Public Library that I doubt I can renew it because other library patrons will have put a hold on it.

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to doing a night photo shoot. I hope I end up with some good photos.

Unless you're a dentist, you know you should be concerned when you walk into a supplies room in your office and find boxes and boxes of face masks! That's what I found yesterday evening.

About the Photo: The Bank of California building is grandiose with its Corinthian columns. Of course it's located on my absolute favorite street California Street.

I'm Lovin' It

I'm learning to love this new stability in my schedule. I can actually predict where I will be on any given day with some level of accuracy. What a refreshing change!

The Gods are Smiling

My day's been pretty long and I'm pooped. After work I went to a meeting of this professional organization I'm a member of. This meeting was followed by dinner at Henry's Hunan, which serves spicy Chinese cuisine. While I enjoyed the chance to network and socialize, it just sucks the energy out of me by the end of the day. I don't know how some people can be so energetic after work. Maybe they are smoking/imbibing/inhaling energy enhancing concoctions to give them an extra boost. Who knows? I certainly don't.

About the Picture: This is a photo of performers dressed up in traditional Chinese garb of some old time period way back when.

Mooncakes

Happy Autumn! I noticed that today was the first day of autumn. Tis the season to do fall things like dressing up in thick sweaters and carving & gutting gourds just for the heck of it.

In addition, let's not forget that this is the time that Chinese people celebrate the Moon Festival. The above is a picture of a mooncake. I don't quite care for the salted egg yolk in the center, but the rest of the cake is tasty. This delicacy contains lard, so it's not for constant consumption. Indulging in moderation is fine though.

All-American

What have I accomplished today at work?
I participated in a couple conference calls mostly as a listener. I reviewed documentation related to the company wide program I'm supposed to assist with. I'm still in the sponge state at work, meaning that I need to soak in as much as I can, as fast as I can.

About the Photo: Chinese people lining up for free goodies and giveaways in Chinatown. If it's free, they will come. Ha ha!

Abenddaemmerung - Dusk

Okay, I finally read Stephenie Meyer's New York Times bestseller "Twilight". Yesterday I pushed through the whole entire book at one sitting almost. Since most of the book consists of teenage dialogue in simple language between the main characters Bella and Edward, it was a quick read. For the uninitiated, Edward is a vampire and Bella is a human. They fall in love and therein lies the conflict of the story.

Overall, the book was a page turner, especially towards the end when the tracker caught Bella's scent, but how realistic is it that Bella, a new girl, would suddenly become the hottest chick in town upon arrival? Come on! The vampire bit is more realistic. And also, who wears beige leather jackets? In one scene, the gorgeous Adonis Edward offers Bella his jacket, which is a beige leather jacket. How weird!

I still can't quite grasp why it is such a popular book, not just with teenaged girls, but also with grownups. It seems like any teenage romance story that many other storytellers could have written (but didn't). One thing that did amaze me was the thought that one person (the author) could become a job creator. It was because of her creativity and her ideas that a book was written, a movie filmed, which created tons of jobs for the stars of the movie, the publishing industry, etc. How cool is that? Does that mean we all have the power to be job creators once we discover our own brilliant idea?

Class is in Session

Going to class is like going home. It's a comfortable place where I understand the rules of the game. Saturdays are class days for me. I quite enjoy the learning Spanish. Today we learned about items in the classroom, how to pluralize nouns and also how to tell time. Telling time was the difficult part of the lesson. It was hard for me even learning how to tell time in English as a kid! Definitely not my forte.

About the Photo: This is a picture of a sad and abandoned looking classroom at CCSF.

Following the Crowd

To jean, or not to jean. That is the question.
This being Friday and this being America, we have casual Fridays at my new workplace. Casual Fridays are minefields because they are huge gray areas with potentially disastrous results if the wrong clothing is selected. There are no guidelines on what constitutes acceptable Friday casual office wear. And although they are called casual Fridays, you can't REALLY wear whatever you want. Your clothing still has to be presentable at least.

Since I wasn't sure if my colleagues and boss would take the opportunity to wear jeans, I dressed in business casual instead. Now that I know people in my group actually do take advantage of this, I will probably do it next Friday.

Oh yes, I survived one week in my new job and delivered a work product to my boss' boss too. Cool beans!

Missing

You don't realize how good you have it until "it" is gone. I'm referring to the little office amenities I miss since I've changed jobs. In my old office there was a nice break area called "the Commons" where you could eat your lunch. There was a TV, plastic utensils and paper plates. At my new office, there's one little breakroom that no one really uses because it is windowless and depressing looking. The kitchen is bare. I looked through all the cabinets and only found paper towels and a few plastic forks. My hypothesis is that the more hours a company makes you work, the nicer the office. That might explain why it's so great at Google - free meals and massages, toys and games all over, etc. They want their employees to spend their whole life at the company! Maybe it is a good thing that the kitchen at my new employer is on the threadbare side.

About the Photo: This was the most interesting thing in my line of sight this evening. !Disculpe!

Evening Escapades

Schroeders

There's this little German bar/pub in the Financial District called "Schroeders", pronounced in American as "Schro-ders", rather than with the umlaut sound. ;-) My new work group treated me to welcome drinks here last night. I had a non-alcoholic Bitburger. Tonight I came out of hiding and went to an event after work. I'm so proud of myself for forcing myself to do things after work. Generally I just go straight home, but this needs to change gradually. This is after all one of the reasons I found a new job - so that I could have more personal time. Work should not equal life.

So at work I had to research a law that impacts the company and then my boss sprang a mini quiz on me by asking me to present my findings to him. I don't really like being tested considering it is only my second full day on the job. Anyhow, I produced my first "deliverable" in Powerpoint today because I know he likes Powerpoint. I think it met expectations. It's still to early for me to draw any conclusions on my work colleagues.

On the other hand, I have drawn a conclusion on a new dress shoe I purchased online recently. See picture here. Anyhow, this devil has been killing my feet! Yes, it is relatively flat, but the back of the shoe scratches my Achilles heel. It especially hurts when I try to walk on the street because it is rubbing my foot the wrong way. It's giving my foot serious bruising because the leather is hard, rather than supple. I don't think I will ever buy shoes online again. It's been a huge waste of time and money. Now I can't even wear this shoe and will have to spend money buying another shoe at a real shoe store. Ugh!

The New Scene

Here are snapshots of my new workspace and the view out the window. There's so many new items to learn - acronyms, company structure, technical topics, etc. It's going to be busy busy busy.

I pledge allegiance ...

The Initiation Pin

Like a little kid on her first day of school, today was my first day of my new job. I had a day of orientation during which they discussed the intranet, benefits, defined harassment and got to know the organization a bit. Since the orientation ended a bit early, I dropped by the office to ask my boss about when I need to show up tomorrow. I also briefly met some of my new colleagues and saw my new workspace. My cube looked nice. I get to sit next to a window with natural light. Yay! The "real" work starts tomorrow.

My goals for my first 90 days will be to do the following (excerpted from the book "The First 90 Days"):
1. Promote myself
2. Accelerate my learning
3. Match strategy to situation
4. Secure early wins
5. Negotiate success - "This means carefully planning for a series of critical conversations about the situation, expectations, style, resources and your personal development. Crucially, it means developing and gaining consensus on the 90-day plan."
6. Create coalitions

About the Photo: From now on, I must pledge allegiance to my new employer just like school kids pledge allegiance to the United States of America every morning. The photo is of a lapel pin with the logo of the new company. It's a pretty cool pin that holds together using magnets.

Duel or Duet?

Twisted Canopy

On Sunday evening in Germany, a televised debate took place between the candidates for the German chancellery - Angela Merkel and Frank-Walter Steinmeier . I watched snippets from the ZDF "heute journal" and it was interesting to hear the lukewarm feedback from undecided voters. Instead of a hyped up TV "duel", the viewers got a "duet" from the two candidates. Watching snippets of the debate, made me grateful for the "colorful" TV debates that took place during the last presidential election in the US with characters like Sarah Palin, who was always good for a couple laughs.

About the Photos: Taken with BlackBerry in Golden Gate Park. The squirrel was in the mood for modeling as he stared straight at me with those beady eyes and struck a pose.

Dream a Little Dream

Natural

Call me materialistic, but I'd like to get a new camera.
I've been on a number of trips with my DSLR and it really weighs me down. Generally I'm carrying the DSLR and another lens in a shoulder bag that ends up cutting into my shoulder by the end of the day.

What I'm looking for now is a small camera, preferably pocket sized for vacation shots. I'm not giving up on the DSLR, because nothing can beat the capabilities and high quality photos that come from a DSLR. However, when I'm on vacation, I mainly take touristy snapshots anyhow, so a little digital camera should suffice. Plus, it makes photography so much more flexible and fun when you don't have to drag out a DSLR. The picture above for example was taken with a point and shoot and the quality of the photo is not too shabby.

I've got my eye on Canon's G11 because it preserves quality and is lighter than a DSLR. Still it's not a perfect candidate because it is still not small enough to fit in a pocket.

Doing Business in ...

Farewell vacation, hello work as of next Monday.

While reading the Economist, I found this audio series on doing business in various cities. Check out the "Doing Business in" series here. The first one I listened to is London. It's quite interesting. I wish there were a script. I totally agree with the narrator's comment that she would miss the BBC if she did not live there.

Doing Business in Frankfurt:
- Agree with the narrator's comment of avoiding Frankfurt during trade fairs.
- Agree with the comment that you should get to the point during business meetings.
- I didn't know you could go into the Commerzbank's cafeteria just for lunch, even if you don't work there.
- Agree that Frankfurt is a safe city. I feel safer there than in SF unfortunately.
- The narrator recommends the hill towns outside of Frankfurt such as Kronberg.

Doing Business in San Francisco:
- Agree that SFO is a nice airport
- Agree that SF is not a taxi city like NYC
- Be prepared for all types of weather in SF
- Agree that Americans are workaholics (unfortunately)
- Agree that business meetings will often happen in Silicon Valley
- Agree that Palo Alto is the best place to stay at when down in Silicon Valley based on what I've heard
- Agree about the tipping culture. It's a good idea to have a bunch of $1 bills handy.

Orthodoxy

Early Bird

While fishing around for an interesting article to blog about, I found this one in the New York Times on how Muslim women reconcile their need for modesty with their need to keep fit. The core of the dilemma lies in the realm of exercise clothing.

Generally speaking, exercise wear tends to be form fitting, aka fitted, body hugging, tight, or indecent depending on how you view it. To wear such clothing would be disrespecting the womens' vow to remain covered and modest. Hence the dilemma.

What to do? Some resourceful Muslim women form their own women only groups, while others find a way to exercise in less revealing clothing. Personally speaking, I think striking a balance between modesty and exercise is very doable. There's no need to go running around in a park in skimpy clothing if you're not comfortable doing so. Some people are just extremely comfortable in their skin and what they broadcast to the world, but not everyone has to fall into that category. The only thing you'll have to accept is that your shopping trip to find exercise clothing may just be a bit more difficult if you're looking for stuff that does not hug your body.

About the picture: I took this picture this morning as you can see by the long shadows cast by the metal barrier. The lighting truly is better at this time of day than midday when there are is no shadow play. The color of the sky turned out nicely as well if I do say so myself. This photo has strong leading lines that bring the viewer's attention to the middle of the image. Unfortunately there's nothing really interesting there, except for the land mass, which is Treasure Island.

The Quest for Perfect Dim Sum

Chinese Take Out

On a quest for the best dim sum in town, I tried out this place in South San Francisco called Grand Palace. We ordered the usual suspects - steamed shrimp dumplings (ha gow), sui mai, shrimp rice noodle rolls and steamed tofu skins with minced pork. The food is decent and edible and the environs are relatively clean. However, I did have some issues with the taste of the shrimp. The shrimp meat consistency was hard and solid, rather than al dente, like fresh shrimp meat should be. In terms of pricing, the Grand Palace is average with small dishes costing $2.55, medium dishes $2.95, large $3.95 and special $4.95.

In general, this restaurant cannot compare in quality and taste to Koi Palace in Daly City, where the ingredients taste fresh, which means the dim sum is superb. The only drawback is that Koi Palace is pricey.

Dangerous Message?

Veiled

In America there live some very very disturbed persons. Just read this article to find out why. Today being the first day of school for many youngsters, President Obama told students across America to study hard because they are responsible for their own education. Essentially it's a message that is positive and true and one that all students should take to heart. That's why I am just stunned that some Americans can find fault with this speech. Some people said that they didn't want the government poking their noses into their children's education as this is the parents' responsibility. I personally don't see any harm in Obama's message, which is so self-evident and proper. I guess as President, everyone will find a way to criticize your actions. As they say, you can't please everyone.

About the Photo: I participated in the Worldwide Moment of Peace by taking the photo above. For the sake of full disclosure, I was supposed to take a photo at 5:09 PM, but I didn't do it till around 6:09 PM.

Recycle

Angels of Business

I've been engrossed in Victor Hugo's novel "Les Miserables" today. The author gets long winded about French history and other topics that seem to get in the way of the plot, so I just skip these sections. Yes, I am a rebel.

About the picture: This is one of my fave photos from NYC because it happened by accident. I was at Grand Central and wanted a shot of the interior. By accident I overexposed this shot and two men happened to be standing in sunlight that streamed in. As a result, they are illuminated as if by some heavenly light.

Journey Home

I never sleep well the day I need to bid farewell to a city because one of my biggest fears is that I will miss my flight. Today I'm heading back to S.F.

I've already created a little to do list for when I get back. For lunch I ended up trying one of McDonald's healthier but pricier items - a Chicken Club sandwich. It wasn't bad. It definitely tasted more substantial than a McChicken.

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Culture Vulture

I spent the whole day at the American Museum of Natural History today. This museum has dioramas of animals from all over the world and a planetarium among other things such as vitrines of people representing customs and traditions of different cultures. Essentially there was something for everyone at this museum.

At first we could not decide between this museum or visiting the SoHo neighborhood, but I'm glad we settled on the museum because it was like an oven outside! Inside the museum was nice and cool.

Thanks to the museum visit, I now know why certain peoples carry out the practice of creating shrunken heads!

For lunch I had a "recession special" of 2 hot dogs and a drink for 4.45 USD only! Then for dinner we had pizza and cheese cake at John's Pizzeria. Yum!

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Brooklyn Bridge & street vendors

Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge towards Manhattan, I got this view. Afterwards I headed specifically to Murray's Bagel in Greenwich Village to try a New York style bagel. I enjoyed a smoked salmon bagel with plain schmear. I call it destination dining. Other food I'd like to try in NY include cheesecake, hot dogs at Gray's Papaya and a knish, whatever that is.

Speaking of hot dogs, the guy in this picture actually had about 3 customers within the span of 5 minutes. I was surprised that you could actually make a living selling hot dogs on the street. Although I have say that the dogs were teeny tiny! It's probably more of a snack than a full fledged meal.
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Central Park

The weather has definitely cooperated during this trip. I just heard that it was boiling back in San Francisco and we're enjoying mild weather here in NYC. Crazy! The day has been spent strolling around Central Park. Some of the main sights include the Sheep Meadow, Strawberry Fields, the Mall and the Jackie O Reservoir. Lunch was a rip off though. One turkey sandwich for 8 USD and it did not even taste good!

Yesterday I witnessed the ultimate in New York City road rage. A bicyclist and a taxi driver got into an altercation. The cyclist was swearing his head off very loudly and eventually even took the door off of the taxi cab! I've never seen a door fall off so easily. It was as if it we're made of tin foil. Insane!
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Jersey Boys

If you find yourself in NYC, go see Jersey Boys the musical. It features songs from Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. These Broadway shows never fail to dazzle me with song and dance and the oh so dazzling lights. I also love the glittery costumes.
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Midtown Explorations

Today's itinerary focused on Midtown. First we visited the Top of the Rock, which is an observation deck at the top of Rockefeller Center. The ticket costs 18 USD. I prefer this to the Empire State Building because it is less crowded. At the top there are some good views of the skyscrapers and Central Park.

After taking some snapshots around Rockefeller Center and having lunch, the next stop was Grand Central Terminal. I had a stroke of photographic genius ;-) there when I accidentally snapped an overexposed photo that I dubbed the "Angels of Business." It shows two guys in business clothes bathed in an eternal shaft of light from above. Sorry can't upload because I didn't take it with the phone.

Afterwards, I visited the NYC Library in all its Beaux Arts beauty. The main reading room is pretty nice. Now I'm resting until it's time to pick up some dinner before the Jersey Boys show that starts at 8 PM.
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Secret admirer

I am a secret admirer of NYC's infrastructure. For a city with so many people, it manages to stay pretty clean. How does their government do it? San Francisco for example looks dirtier and has a problem with street people. I am just amazed and a little disappointed in SF because it can't get its act together like NYC can.

Enough complaining! What did I do today? Went to the Cloisters, which is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum featuring Medieval Art. It was nice and peaceful there. Then we took the subway back in the direction of the main Met Museum. This place is so huge that 3 hrs are not enough to scratch the surface!

In the evening I saw the musical Avenue Q. It was the highlight of my day because I could just sit back and be entertained by song and dance for two hours. It's kind of funny in certain parts. There's even a song titled "Schadenfreude." Hilarious!
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