All Things Yummy

Trinh seems to be genuinely surprised at the current trends in sexual standards (though I don’t think this is something peculiar to the modern world - I think there were times of stricter moral standards and looser times, and these kind of things happened throughout history either condoned by the society (think Roman, Greek cultures, or from the bible, Sodom and Gomorrah ) or hidden but active nevertheless (Gay communities before being gay was hip?)). This is one of the things that’s dangerous about relativism.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is for an interesting article on the National Post about declining moral standards in Universities, which interestingly enough comes to us from the UW Daily Bulletin.

With females now outnumbering males at universities across North America with a 60:40 ratio, the theory of scarce resources — or crudely put, the fact that there are not enough guys to go around — is going to increase female competition for male attention, driving down moral standards, Dr. Sax says.

…

“Just look around any campus and this is what you’ll see: The girls are all dressed to the nines, trying hard, and the boys, they look like slobs, they look like they aren’t trying at all,” says Dr. Sax. “Why do the boys think they can get away with this? Because they can, quite frankly…. What are the consequences of this three-to-two ratio [of women to men]? Young men are in short supply and they know it. They have a sense of entitlement …

“We’ve seen an astounding transformation of sexual mores … There’s no dating anymore, no [sexual] bases or order of sex acts anymore — We’re seeing this because men are scarce.”

I don’t know how much I agree with Dr. Sax on whether this is the driving issue on declining moral standards, but I’m sure it does play a role. Coming from an Engineering school where ratio was closer to 90:10 instead of 40:60, I suppose I could have little jaded view of this “problem”. :p

Gary and I volunteered today at the Silicon Valley Habitat for Humanity with other Altera Employees. There are 5 houses being built at the Murphy Ave in San Jose and we helped put down the second story floor for one of the houses and helped getting the beams in place for another house. Unlike the Stanford people who were there, none of us had brought a camera so we couldn’t take pictures or anything… though I suppose you could also say that by not bringing the camera, we were more respectful of what we were doing - that it wasn’t some kind of expedition thing for us where you go out, help out for a day, take some pictures, and put it in the resume. On the other hand, you could say that by posting it here, I’m doing the exactly same thing. Bah, dilemma.

Anyway, from hammering, I got insane number of blisters on my hands. ‘Tis the life of a white collar cubicle monkey, unable to yield a hammer for more than couple of hours… Once I build up my callouses, I’m sure it’ll be all okay. The beam moving part was eerily reminiscent of the solar car days when we were moving those 3 ton moulds around… except what we were a lot less careful with a lot less tools and a lot less people during the solar car time. At least the solar car thing is finally helping out in some real world task.

The new running shoes do work, no more back pains or foot cramps for me. I’m now up to 3 mile runs at an average of about 10 minute miles. I don’t know whether I should try to start speeding up, or I should try for longer distances first… Something tells me that speeding up will end up building endurance and building endurance will end up building my speed, so maybe I should just go for speeding up instead, at least the workout will go faster.

What was the last thing that I wanted to say… few odds and ends, I guess. I got recognized at work for doing well, which is always good. I also finally tested out the Yamaha P70 digital piano - it was surprisingly good. The sound was, from what I could hear in the fairly noisy store, close to being undistinguishable from a real piano, but the real difference maker was in the keys. It still didn’t quite feel like real piano keys (it rebounds too slowly, for one thing, and still has that slightly mushy feel to it) but it’s close enough that I could play it without getting too annoyed by it. $699 at the store in Santa Cruz, $599 at online stores… I’m guessing I’ll be receiving a rather large package in the mail in a bit.

I went to De LaVeaga Disc Golf course with Gary today and played a round of disc golf. After spending an hour driving around to find the place (NOT Branciforte, but N Branciforte!) we started around 3PM and finished bit before 6. It’s 27 holes, with all par-3’s (making me about 100 over par overall) but as a beginner, it was surprisingly easy to get into. Walk through the redwood forest is wonderful and there are certain holes with a GREAT view. The hole 27 is called the Top of the World and far off into the horizon, we were wondering whether we were seeing Monterey on the other side of the bay. I’d highly recommend it if you’re around Santa Cruz area and want to spend couple of hours walking through some gorgeous trees.

I’ve been also running recently, slowly getting the speed and consistency up as I start doing more running. I’m hoping to train up to a 5K run but we’ll see what happens. I’ve noticed that I usually get cramps on my left foot and on my lower back (right side) after 20~25 minutes or so, and I’m hoping a new pair of shoes will fix the cramps. Any runners there with similar experiences? I suppose I’ll find out next time I go for a run…

Here’s an insightful and interesting article, and here’s a funny commercial. (Cheers to Willem, Fabian, Johanna, Swiss…) Also here’s a very funny blonde joke.

So, it’s the President’s Day next monday, so I have 3 day weekend… hmm, what to do, what to do…

I’m finally breaking down and buying an iPod. I figured it might be handy to have one around especially when I’m cycling or running. I was hoping to buy a device based on WMA so that I could sign up for subscriptions, but they’re as expensive as iPod while being not as well designed or built… so I guess I really don’t have a lot of choices on this matter.

Below are the rejected choices for the engraving on the iPod… It’s a lot more difficult than I had expected. As for the actual engraving… hehe, I figured I’d be unique and do something completely different. :p

What do they think I am, an engineer?
I’m happy, but it’s not like I’m ecstatic.
I’d explain it, but there’s a lot of math.
Reality continues to ruin my life.
It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.
It goes on.
Stolen From: daniel.yum@…
Don’t Panic
Mostly Harmless
Do Not Eat

Here is the route that we took while we were on the San Francisco Treasure Hunt.  Only about 8 miles, I thought it was longer…  Elevation data is interesting, though

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.
-Robert Frost

I’m currently listening to Walk Out In The Rain by Bob Dylan (Covered by Eric Clapton)… It feels… appropriate somehow.

Walk Out In The Rain by Bob Dylan

Walk out if it doesn’t feel right,
I can tell you’re only lying.
If you got something better tonight,
Don’t mess up my mind with your crying.

Walk out in the rain,
Walk out with your dreams,
Walk out of my life
If it doesn’t feel right
And catch the next train.
Oh, darling, walk out in the rain.

I have come from so far away
Just to put a ring on your finger.
You’ve said all that you’ve got to say,
So please don’t feel the need to linger.

Walk out in the rain,
Walk out with your dreams,
Walk out of my life
If it doesn’t feel right
And catch the next train.
Oh, darling, walk out in the rain.

It’s rainin’ inside of the city,
My poor feet have walked ’til they’re sore.
If you don’t want my love, it’s a pity,
I guess I can’t see you no more.

Walk out in the rain,
Walk out with your dreams,
Walk out of my life
If it doesn’t feel right
And catch the next train.
Oh, darling, walk out in the rain.

I think I’ve been over the hill 4 times in the last 7 days - first went and bought some furniture, then attended an Alumni event where I met Lawrence and whole bunch of people that I didn’t even know where in the area. There was the hockey game between San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks where Gary and I got the free tickets to, and lastly, bunch of us participated in the San Francisco Chinese New Year Treasure Hunt. As bunch of guys who didn’t even know the city, Gary, Rowena, Elan, Eric, Preet, Brian, and I managed to find all the clues and finish with 5 whole minutes left (though we had to sprint through the last 15 minutes). We’re pretty sure we got all the questions right, but I’ll link to the rankings page once it gets up.

The treasure hunt is basically a big clue solving quest where you start with a sheet of riddles and solve them to figure out the location in which the final question can be solved. There were couple of them that got us completely stuck and we had to make several trips back (and several detours due to the Chinese New Year parade that was going on at the same time) but we all had a blast seeing all the nooks and crannies of San Francisco. The Treasure Hunt took us through many parts of San Francisco that typical tourist won’t see and we all had a great time learning more about the city while solving all the quests. On top of that, we were walking around for good 4 hours (plus 15 minutes of running at the end) so we got a nice workout out of it as well. Anyway, all the pictures are located on my gallery.

With all the running and cycling and walking I’ve been doing lately… I’m going to be pretty sore tomorrow…

I read through Norah Vincent’s Self-Made Man couple of days ago. Since then, I’ve had the time to sort some of these things out and observe for myself the things that she points out in the book. First of all, a short synopsis: Over a period of 18 months, Norah Vincent, a female journalist, becomes Ned, a man. As Ned, she looks at the world from man’s perspective, infiltrating various places where women would not have access to and experiencing things that women would not typically experience.

Through out the book, she finds that being a man isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, that it’s not a bastion of empowerment that it’s portrayed to be. Being a man comes with their own set of headaches and problems and that some feminists’ approach of bringing woman over man may not be the best approach since we’re all so closely linked and related. She makes some very astute observations that as a man, I had unconsciously followed without even realizing it. After reading through her observations and comments, I was able to consciously notice the type of bond that happens in a male relationship and the possible problems that rises with issues of intimacy and communication between men.

For me, the most interesting parts in the book dealt with Ned’s attempts at dating other women. As a lesbian, Norah was able to separate issues stemming from gender from the one stemming from sexuality. She notes that many women’s expectations of man are flawed and conflicting, and that their previous relationships that may have been a result of a specific person ends up being attributed to the entire male gender, where all males are stereotyped into a certain negative image. This means that each new man not only has to prove himself, but also have to take the burden of all the other relationships that may have come before him. I’m sure the reverse is true and I guess that’s what Hank Williams meant when he sang Cold Cold Heart.

Another love before my time
Made your heart sad an’ blue
And so my heart is paying now
For things I didn’t do…

Interestingly, I found the book to be sometimes overtly sexual, but that might just be from my lack of real world experience… If Sex In the City is any indication, maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised. At the very least, this book is an entertaining and thought provoking look at just how different the two different genders are and just how similar and linked the two different genders are.