Bay FB 2008

I attended the Bay FB Party 2008 on Saturday. Although we showed up a little late to the BBQ, it was still very fun to see some old and new faces. Most importantly, I got to hang out with some of my good friends (pic above) that I haven't seen for a long time.

A little bit more about the party. It has three portions.

Part A - BBQ: It is a very well organized event with 140 attendees. Besides the massive amount of food, there are many ice breakers and games. Details please see pictures here.

Part B - Dinner: Followed by the BBQ, the whole group split into 4 and went to different restaurants for dinner. In addition to the food, we had various interesting conversation. A sample of topics include but not limited to benefits of eating Oyster, 8gua on so & so's husband's past, and what's going on inside of Yahoo.

Part C - Game/Dance Party: I devoted majority of this party to playing poker. It was definitely strategic and a long game. With a minimum buy-in of $5, I walked away with a humble 2nd place. Nini said she wants to play poker too! That will make the game more interesting if she does actually play with me.

By the time I got home, it's already way passed midnight. However, I am sure that was time well spent. Thanks to all the organizers who made this happen.

China and I

If you are reading this and you don't know I am Chinese, shame on you! I am one of those unique populations that is frequently mistaken as "banana" or "twinkie". Like many of my friends, we grew up and got educated in the western world. Some of us have also done some crazy travel in life and got a mix of all Western cultures! Nevertheless, we all have strong ties to the motherland. Either we speak and write Chinese fluently or our parents are in China or we spent close to half of our lives in China prior to immigration. However, that's not the point of this post.

The point of this post is really on the question

"where do people like us stand?"

Not many of us can claim that we are American. Simply, we look and talk differently from typical American. We eat things like Beef Tongues and use Chopsticks. Not many of us can claim that we are true Chinese either. We have spent a significant part of our life outside of China. We are not up-to-date with the Chinese way. Our way of thinking sometimes are pure "white", so to speak.

I have had this conversation with quite a number of our friends. Some friends of ours are quite troubled by this fact. I personally think this is really our true advantage. Early on in life, my mentor Mr. Franz taught me that "Americans come in all shapes, sizes, and colors". This is the banner that was hanging off the wall that I spent a good 4 years with. I also think I am as much of a Chinese as anyone else. For starters, who has dated a girl with a Chinese flag hanging off of her wall? We all have differences, with a billion some Chinese, you are set to be different from others.

The beauty really comes in when people like me can pick and choose who I want to be. I choose to be an American on some issues and I choose to be a Chinese on others. I enjoy eating delicious Chinese food which might well turned out to be too much for any American. I enjoy the awesome capitalism in action. Interestingly, you have more capitalism in a local market in Shanghai than in New York! Sure, I have an "Obama Rama Air freshener" hanging right above of my head in office and my favorite president is Bill Clinton. Nevertheless, I am also very supportive of various issues on the republican side. This degree of flexibility is what makes me very happy to be where I am.

Now, what do you think?

Independence Day

Happy July 4th!

I spent most of my last month with my client at Mission & 6th. Right around the corner, there is a building that troubles & entertains me twice a day.

In the morning, I would drive by this building (see picture) thinking how creative the landowner is. What is the purpose of this doing? Are there people living in there? If so, what kind of people would live in there?

In the evening going home, I would totally get frustrated with all the homeless on the street. Somehow, all of these homeless just all decided to pile up around Mission & 6th! I somehow think it is related to this building. All this creative juice must encouraged a lot of craziness. Using our native florida-grown Charles' quote on this:"SF just has a very high frequency and a high density of craziness all at once. Mostly around Mission & 6th."



*facebook readers cannot see the pictures in this blog due to incomplete import feature of facebook