Clinton, Can I Work For You?

After the formal Secretary of State announcement today I feel it's more my destiny than ever to get on with this Foreign Service job. I love Clinton! Hope she stays around long enough while I make my way through another round.

Meanwhile, work is work. More or less what I expected, but not where I wish I was at this point. Paycheck is still a nice thing to look forward to again, and I have my baby daughter to keep me busy, happy, and hopeful for a better tomorrow. Speaking of which:

Jury Doodie 2 - Anticlimatic Conclusion

After four years waiting for the defendants, 5-6 hours of jury selection, and another 6 hours of my waiting time, the two parties involved agreed to settle on what seemed to me and the other jurors like a petty sum of money (~$75k). What really irks me is that I don't get to even see the courtroom. I don't get to take an oath, I won't be listening to any opening arguments, and I most certainly won't get to decide on awarding anyone some petty sum of money...
Ah well. We did get to see the judge who came in to our jail cell (I mean waiting room) to tell us all we are being honorably discharged of our responsibility - thanks for waiting around for hours (I mean, doing your duty!). So, the system works, I guess? I won't know for sure for another 8 years, which is when they can start calling me to serve again...

Jury Doodie

I am sitting in the Brooklyn Supreme Court waiting for my day in court – as a juror. Last week I was selected for a case after failing to find anything that would render me partial or subjective in a seemingly petty civil suit involving a motor vehicle accident. I thought the actual court date would be more interesting than the selection day but so far it’s more waiting. When I have something more interesting to say other than that I am pleasantly surprised with the availability of WiFi I will report back about this development.

In other fronts, my team and I seemed to have survived the wave of cuts at Barclays after the swallowing up of the American portion of Lehman Brothers. I am still gainfully employed...

Change We Could Not Believe Happened...

Girl, oh girl, what crazy times!
Elizabeth is growing into a fine infant. She is gaining weight at around 1.5oz/day. She's over 8lb now and is starting to outgrow some of the smaller newborn outfits in the closet. Before we'll know it we'll need a whole new wardrobe. Connie is handling motherhood really well, much better than she is handling her mom who is living with us for the last few weeks to help with chores like cooking and taking care of Lizzy some nights when we are both ready to collapse into heaps of tired.
Weekends have so far been great! We have Lizzy all to ourselves and we get to leave the house (under house arrest otherwise). I can spend all day with her as opposed to the few hours I have on work days :(
But who knows, I may be laid off soon seeing how things are going. My bank has so far been spared and has even been picking off some of the roadkill from the past few weeks, but I may be made redundant during the whole streamlining process. One can dream, no?

Here is another load of pics:

Good Times For A Change...

For my newborn daughter, Elizabeth (Lizzy), any time is good for a change and change is most of what we do with her since the day she was born (September 12, 10:39pm). It's cliche but all she does is eat, sleep and poop. All we do is feed, rock, and change. Still, in-between diaper-arranging, burping, and singing twinkle-twinkle little star we get to enjoy a wholly original high and sigh with parental contentment:

Getting Over It

No, not me failing the Foreign Service Oral Assessment... That too, of course, but what I am talking about getting over here is that the Democratic party's presidential nominee is Barrack Obama. I have been delaying the inevitable in accepting this foregone conclusion. Clinton ran a losing campaign and has only herself, her staff and her husband to blame. No amount of Chelsea doing her best with young voters all over America's campuses could help. So now what do I do?
Hillary gave what I felt was a magnanimous speech and came across as a real champion on Tuesday night at the convention. Sure there are hard feelings and a cold, calculating, selfish reason for saving face in front of the party. But it was great to see and much appreciated. She convinced me I needed to do the right thing in November and vote for someone I still do not trust or respect - to help promote the party platform and avoid a worse fate than a lousy Obama presidency. And what exactly am I afraid of with Obama at the helm? Well, there are a few issues at stake:

1. Losing the Democratic Party's momentum. A bad presidency by any Democrat could reverse the gains made in Congress and in state governments everywhere around the country. Obama has a higher risk of disappointing because of his unrealistic promise to change Washington. How can you change Washington from the inside? Obama is a politician within the Democratic party of the two-party system. Why does he or anyone else think he can end partisanship? And, more importantly, do we want to end it? Are two parties too many for us? Do we want a single-party state like China instead? I never understood this campaign platform, I still don't understand it, and I doubt I will ever understand it. I hope he means to "change" things for the better, but I feel like uniting Democrats with Republicans is a no-starter. And I am also unsure about how American citizens will be heard once lobbyists are thrown out of DC. Will there be a national referendum on every bill? Isn't lobbying a way for active members of our society (in this case the monied part) to get their voices heard. I just wish everyone forgets about the "blueprints for change" and not blame him for this crazy campaign rhetoric.
   
2. Screwing up health care. Obama's campaign rejected universal health care. As someone leaning towards the European model of Social Democracy I see Obama's plan as a half-assed strategy. Failing to bring down costs of health care and rationalize the system is going to leave many people uninsured and sick, and without reducing or stabilizing the financial burden we cannot do anything of significance with the budget (forget about fixing any other welfare like the bankrupt social security, or doing something about the economy and our dependence on oil/global warming).
3. Screwing up foreign affairs. We have our hands in more honey jars around the world than ever. I am sure any administration will be better than the Bush Jr one with regards to foreign relations, but it is not obvious how well Obama understands the core issues. Picking Biden was a good start and I would rest easier about this one were it not for the scary potential of failing to secure our old alliances, to reassert our moral dominance (not the military or economic ones), and to insure global peace and cooperation.

Obama, I am planning to vote for you, because you won the right to carry the Democratic platform to the White House. I'm hoding you alone responsible for your success. Please, do not screw this up!

Foreign Service Application: Phase 4

Fail, get over it, and wait another year before trying again...
Alas, I am now another statistic (%90 of those who take the FSOA fail the first time). My quest to become a Foreign Service Officer must pause at this time and resume in March when I can restart the process by taking the written exam. The exam was just as I expected it, but despite preparation and anticipation I did not pull off a passing performance. While I passed the Structured Interview, I failed the Group Exercise (ran of out time during my presentation, among other sins) and the Case Management (ran out of time again) tests. I received a 5.0 score for the day and the passing score is 5.25.
The group of people I was testing with were all really interesting and highly qualified. I would not be surprised if everyone else passed (except that it would be a statistical anomaly). Their experiences ranged from working for NGOs in Baghdad to being spouses of active FSOs. Everyone was well-traveled and educated and the day passed quickly through many discussions and sharing with everyone. Meeting and speaking with them has convinced me further that I am on the right track and that the Foreign Service is a good choice for me, whether it happens or not.
I am glad I have a new job to look forward to next week, and a new baby daughter to pour my energies into!!! The idea of being an FSO and the road I've taken so far toward it have helped me to gain focus in my life and insights into my goals and wishes. I do not regret starting the whole process - I have had a great year and now a new, exciting future to experience...

Back to Work

After months of hunting, interviewing, and dealing with pushy head hunters I am finally in sight of an offer letter, a first day of work and most importantly, a paycheck...
I ended up with a programming job at a big bank in midtown - sigh - but I am very excited about the role, which is as close to quantitative analyst I might be able to get without a PhD. Incongruously, the team works on Mortgage-Backed Securities, so this may be a very short-lived position. I may start sometime next week after I get back from Washington DC and my Foreign Service Oral Assessment. And I will have to take a week off once my daughter arrives (scheduled for the week after). So, it's going to be a slow start to be sure.

Rat-Brained Robot

This is a BBC story about a really cool research program that uses a rat brain to run a mechanical robot (thanks Gill for bringing it to my attention). It reminds me of my days as rat neurosurgeon at NYU Medical Center. I was working on the other hybrid possibility (rat body, machine brain - well, at least machine-influenced brain).

In other news, I have been interviewing almost daily on the phone and in-house with several financial firms, as well as some alternatives to Wall Street shops. I am hoping to get an offer or two by the end of the week. If I start work in the coming few weeks it will be a crazy month ahead - new job, foreign service test in DC, and the birth of my baby daughter. Speaking of babies, today we had our baby care class where we got to diaper and swaddle scary baby dolls. I'm ready for the real thing (or rather, ready for someone else to do it while I watch from an odor-safe corner).

Pachelbel's Canon in D's Nuts

We drove to the Thousand Islands area in upstate NY on Friday for our friends Cris and Margo's wedding. Traffic was horrendous - first on 278 all through Staten Island, then on I-80, then on I-81 with all of its crazy single-lane construction zones. Got to the area really late as the pre-party was winding down. After a week of rushed practice (due to a last-minute notification), Scott and myself (the two best men) finally had a few minutes to see how our Pachelbel's Canon sounded together. Most of that time was spent tuning our guitars to one another, but we did get some confidence and got an idea on how to best arrange the duet.
In the morning, after a hearty breakfast at the Guzzle in Thousand Island Park, we met back for another practice session. We also jerry-rigged shoulder straps so we could play while standing. We finally locked in our arrangement about an hour before the time of the ceremony. We had about a minute and a half prepared and we were worried about not having enough material. But in the end, we had so little time to play we didn't even get through half of our arrangement :( Still, I think it sounded pretty good.
The rest of the wedding ceremony was beautiful, and the reception was fun. We had loads to drink and everyone got silly, but mostly me. After the wedding, we went mini-golfing ("another sport I suck at"). I got a chance to shine at Ms. Pacman in the arcade (high score is mine!) after a frustrating and embarrassing 18 holes of mayhem - clubs flew, balls hit way out of bounds, many language violations were issued by the decorum judge (Todd).
Congrats Cris + Margo!

Peace-Building, Job-Hunting, and Merry-Making

Last week I finished my last required NYU course in the professional certificate for Global Affairs program. For my final paper, I did a quantitative analysis of certain inputs (foreign aid, military troops, police, and civilian personnel) that go into peacekeeping missions to try and see if any set of inputs seemed to correlate positively with mission success compared with the others. It was a great experience and I got an interesting result as well. I am waiting for feedback now.

I have also gone into high gear with job hunting. I started getting some more callbacks and am doing some C++ tests for a couple of places - we'll see what I end up landing. I scheduled the Foreign Service Oral Assessment (FSOA) for August 25 - earliest possible date - and am in the process of filling out an online security clearance form. It is taking a while, since they want to know all the places I've lived in and visited in the past 10 years. There were a lot of weekend trips in Europe while I was living in London and it is hard to find all the dates.

Other than that I am continuing to enjoy the summer's wedding parties and bachelor bashes. In the past few weeks I designed my friend Cris' bachelor party shirt, attended his party in Boston (paint ball game in which I got a few welts on several body parts, and poker game in which I lost my $20 - but still a super fun night), and just this weekend I was up in Montreal with my wife for my friend Scott's wedding (rehearsal dinner, pictures, ceremony, reception, and Rock Band sessions). It was a great affair - emotion-laden, embarrassing, fun, exhausting, and climactic. Good food, and many good friends I don't see often. And now that that's over and the bride and groom are on their honeymoon, the same group of people are preparing to meet in a few weeks in the Thousand Islands region for another matrimonial round of merriment. Bring it on!

Honey Get Your Gun

This is the text of the second amendment:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

I was surprised that today's Supreme Court overruling of Washington DC's ban is practically the first ruling on the 2nd amendment. I was not surprised by the ruling. Regardless of the interpretation and comma wars, apparently guns are here and they're here to stay. Is it time for pacifists to arm themselves? I mean, who's gonna protect me from the "well-regulated Militia"? And who is the "Militia"? Do we actually need it to secure our free state? Do I owe my freedoms and privileges to it? I don't get the relevance of this amendment in today's world.

Just like I don't get the ban on quartering of soldiers (see next amendment by ordinal order). I mean I get the reasons then, but I don't get their relevance now. That is, I love the US military - maybe not the policies of the DoD - and the soldiers to a large extent are just doing their job (supposedly for me, I pay them). If I was asked to quarter a returning veteran for charity, I wouldn't mind so much... for a while - like fish, guests start to stink after 3 days (Ben Franklin). These two amendments were put there because we didn't trust the president not to turn his army on us. Today, if we mistrust the intentions of our government, we should be more concerned about being eavesdropped on and renditioned to some faraway place for "questioning." I'll gladly give up my right to own a handgun for an amendment protecting me from those new threats to my freedom.

Bloomberg Summer Picnic - '08

This past Saturday I attended my eighth Bloomberg summer picnic, and although it feels like they are cutting back some and despite the loss of novelty I still couldn't help but to enjoy myself. It helps that we had friends and family to enjoy it with us. I'll keep the verbiage to a minimum on this post since there are lots of pictures - this will make up for the last extra-wordy post.

The Saga of Lauren Borgata and Other Unmentionables

I noticed that I left out a few gaping holes in my personal narrative of the past three months. Some of these oversights were noteworthy events that lent some color to my otherwise-unemployed life.
Namely, these are:

• FIRST NYC Regional Championships Weekend
• Cris's party weekend in Atlantic City
  
• Scott's Boom-Bachelor Weekend Bash

First thing's FIRST. If you've been reading along up to this point, you'd know that I had been involved as a volunteer mentor with a group of high school students at a relatively failing school in a relatively failing part of Brooklyn - helping to design, build, and program a human-sized robot for a regional competition. Well, sometime in the beginning of February, after 6 weeks of frenzied work, we shipped the robot for inspection and then began a waiting period of two months. And after that long wait, on April 6, we arrived at New York's Javitz conference center for the FIRST Regional Championships. I both volunteered as an event coordinator (manning the so-called Pit Information Desk), as well as a mentor for my team that weekend. Long story short, we placed 40-something out of 60 teams. Clearly, a failure by any competitive standards. But I was proud to be a member of the team, and all-in-all I think the students, teachers, and administrators involved had a pretty good time. See how happy they are in the picture (after our final, successful, round - already knowing that we didn't make it to finals).

Along with everyone else I seem to know, Cris is getting married this year. His wedding is in August. Apparently unrelated to this matrimonial affair, he organized a man-only trip to Atlantic City with shenanigans (alongside gambling) in mind. I decided to refer to this as a bachelor party at some point, only to later realize this was really a birthday party. He'll excuse me if I can't make it to the "real" bachelor party in Boston later this summer. A lot of gambling, a fair amount of drinking, and very little sleep happened. I remember being in our hotel room and turning on a lot of lights and getting frustrated with curtains trying to take a picture, only to be told by co-shennanigites, not too politely, that I had my sunglasses on. (I remember this because I'm still being reminded of it by some of them every time I see them, which is relatively a lot because everyone is getting married and having related and unrelated parties all the time!) Anyways, what turned out to be the thesis of the weekend was an exploration into the mysteries and realities of a certain chick who we not-so-endearingly nicknamed Lauren Borgata. This was a girl that one of the boys (let's call him Moe) flirted with for most of Friday night only to embarrassedly terminate his delightful evening by excusing himself from the table to throw up. Now, if there was no money involved, this piece of trivia may have transpired unnoticed, but a bet was made about the likelihood of said Moe's ding-dong making contact with said chick's wet parts (kids, excuse my crassness, but this is what male adults do when they get together on a faux-bachelor party weekend). So, the losing side of the bet made it their agenda to extract some joy out of tormenting Moe to make up for their monetary loss. The rest of us just joined along as is customary in these circumstances. Besides insulting Moe's ding-a-ling's prowess all weekend, we also started hypothesizing about Lauren who showed her class by adding her digits as "Lauren Borgata" to Moe's phone before she split. That is how the nickname Lauren Borgata came about. At some point, there was even a desperate attempt to find a matching "Lauren" from AC on Facebook. In the end, she turned out to be a pastry chef and a surfer to boot. She could've been the one, Moe. (if this has offended anyone I truly apologize and breathe a sigh of relief I didn't divulge the really bad stuff)

Scott's real bachelor party took place a few weeks later in a fun house in the middle of nowhere in the southern part of Adirondack park. The house was wacky, in some good ways and some bad ways. It was big enough, but the living room was a bit small, and the TV was a relic, which took some out of the fun of late-night Wii bowling (but surprisingly not enough to stop us from doing it until 5am). We had loads of food (I'm still eating leftovers!) and many many cases of cases of beer and other alcohols. We had a fire pit, and tiki torch oil, which made for great pyrotechnic displays (and arguably helped to start the fire as well). We had a tiny pool, with a diving board at water level, and waters at below freezing temperatures - I would say testicle size for most attendants that weekend was below their normal average. We played lots of sports. We had a volleyball net (which did not stop some people from trying desperately to put up a separate, more rickety net - a project that was abandoned after an hour, and when we started playing badminton without them at the volleyball net). BTW, I suck at badminton. We played touch football. BTW, I suck at football. A Frisbee was tossed as well, and Todd got it in the back of the head while BBQing. We had a half day of water sports - tubing, wakeboarding and water skiing. I tried tubing twice and I felt muscle pain in my forearms where I never noticed I had muscles. I tried to water ski too, but after two tries I gave up - it took too much effort to get into the right position just to have 2 seconds of flailing around and getting your body dragged through what feels like a solid wall of water. 2 of the 3 bathrooms flushed properly. There was a human-sized statue of a personified hot dog pouring ketchup over its head. There was a trash can called Mr. Swallows with a top the shape of a man's face with a huge gaping mouth. One of the bathrooms was decorated with a half-wall made out of blackboard, with many attempts at wit written on it - like "we aim to please, so please aim!" As you can see in the picture, the deer head in the living room saw some action as well... It felt like a good time, so I assume it was! And if it seems like it was tamer than the Atlantic City weekend, it is only because I'm trying harder to censor myself after the whole Lauren Borgata spiel above... For more pics of this event, visit this album.

Cat's Out... Ode to Wife

Everyone I know reading this should be cognizant by now, but I am finally ready to share with the entire digital world the wonderful news of my wife's pregnancy. She is just starting the third trimester now. We are delighted, excited, scared, anxious, and many other conflicting things besides. I look forward to being a daddy but I am also concerned about my career and what financial future I might have post-Bloomberg.
Yes, it's a topic I've avoided for months now. My guilt over living the life of an unemployed house-husband; mooching off his pregnant, working wife. Most people who know me feel comfortable joking about this around me, and it has started getting to me despite my sometimes egging on this oh-so-jovial topic. I don't care about gender roles, but I do need to contribute to this marriage more than just my [waning] good looks and [often jarring] charm (oh, and ~3 square meals a day).
Hmm... I am still taking courses at NYU (got straight A's last semester), and am working on a more meaty research paper for my Peacebuilding course, which will hopefully set me on track to get a better stab at an analyst job. Meanwhile, I have floated my resume unenthusiastically on some software scouting job boards and have been looking for the right opportunity to come knocking down my door - a juicy, short-to-medium term contract. It's slim pickings in the market right now, and I have a slight-to-huge aversion towards working in Finance again.
My attempts at landing a job in public policy have come to naught so far, but I feel I have increased my potential through coursework and networking with staff (especially last term's International Law professor, and my current Peacebuilding one). Passing to the OA has been a consolation this week, and a short-term contract has, graciously and politely, presented itself on my doorstep - if only it were juicy.
So, I'm going to be a father! And I hope I can give my little girl her heart's desires. My planning could not have been worse, but you live and learn. Hopefully, things will start looking up soon. My wife, meanwhile, has been most often extremely supportive (rest of the time, monstrously guilt-inducing!). I hope to repay her graciousness one day, but I doubt she will ever be as reckless and impractical as me and require such support on my part... It's one of many, many reasons I am lucky to have found her.

Foreign Service Application: Phase 3

I just received my result letter today from the State Department. I passed the Qualifying Evaluations Panel review and am now invited to participate in the Oral Assessment (OA), sometime in late August. Yay me!!!
The OA is a day of group and individual exercises in front of live examiners from the State Department. The test site is in Washington D.C. The only good thing about it is that you find out the results (pass/fail) on the same day. It's the final exam, but even if you pass there are medical and security clearance processes you have to get through. Also, passing all of those does not guarantee a job offer. You need to score high or else you pass but your name languishes on a list of low-grade qualifying candidates until it falls off. So, need to do well. Something to be anxious about, again.

Democratic Matchmakers

So, Obama is the presumptive nominee and since yesterday there have been rumors of a Clinton campaign reaching over for the Vice President slot. But neither Clinton nor Obama mentioned this possibility in their speeches today. Are they a reluctant pair caught in a web of matchmaking frenzy instigated by the DNC, senior Democrats, and the media? As Clinton supporters, my wife and I are not that thrilled about this ticket, although I think it's a sure winner for Democrats. Personally, I'm leaning towards Green Party, but would consider voting for Obama/Clinton. I'm still hoping for a miracle, somehow... Tradition!

An Unexpected Visit to the US Merchant Marine Academy

I went for another bike ride today, and tried to get out of my comfort zone by leaving New York City altogether. I crossed over into Nassau County in Long Island, just. Rode through Great Neck and tried to reach the waterfront, which ended up requiring to enter the US Merchant Marine Academy, which I did not know was there and does not seem to be represented on the map. Good ride, but had a few trying moments. You can get more details by clicking on lines and place-marks on the map itself. Blue is way out, red is way back.


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Queens Bike Ride - It Feels Good

View Larger Map

I officially started my 2008 summer biking fitness program yesterday. Some parts of Queens have great Greenways (for instance, a hidden ~2-mile path called the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway that connects Cunningham Park to Alley Pond Park - see map). Despite my wife's pestering I neglected to apply sunblock and when I got back home after 3 hours or so, my skin was tingly red. Still, it felt great coming home exhausted, knees buckling in the elevator. I look forward to a some more adventurous rides out of the city and into the wilderness of Long Island proper. Perhaps finish summer off with that NYC-Boston ride I've been fantasizing about since last fall.

OD on OC

Names and events have been altered in order to safeguard the true identity of my ex-New York friends (Sick and "NEE!") who now live in a cozy 1-BR in the middle of a cozy planned community in the heart of cozy Orange County. The tiny and well-kept neighborhood has a heated pool, well-maintained landscaping, and a fairly young, professional population. The place is a 5-minute drive from some nice beaches with dramatic overhanging cliffs, wild surf, and joggers with dogs. No signs of poverty, other than For Sale signs on a bunch of lawns - this is one of the harder-hit housing markets in the country. I went out early morning before everyone woke up to inspect the beach and see what all the fussing was about. We had spent the last three days hearing so many gripes about the area from Sick and "NEE!". To be honest, I'm ready to move in...

OK, so maybe people are a bit more fake, materialistic, and soulless than your average suburban paradise. But it's nice to be around a facade of medium wealth for a change. Compared with the harsh realities and extremes of New York City, it's a breath of fresh air. And what's more, there's the literal fresh air... The things that bothered me the most are the silly cars everyone seemed to be driving. When EVERYONE has a sporty convertible or a hummer, they can no longer posses any kind of status symbolism, but the people here don't get that. They also drive like crazy maniacs - something that seems completely gratuitous on the many-laned roads of the OC. Also, my friends complained of a lack of non-chain food and hospitality establishments. We witnessed that when we failed to get a seat at one of the only mom & pop shops in the area early Sunday (but to be fair, it was Mother's Day, too). So fake people and plastic-coated safe and boring food. These are legitimate concerns, but nothing to go on a killing rampage over... Get over it, you two, or else!

Hike, Bike, and Mike

Connie has been re-learning to drive on this trip and the ride from San Francisco to our Napa destination was her first major accomplishment, so yay Connie! And it should have been quite a lot of fun for her. First, I navigated her to and through Lombard's "Crookedest Street" destination, and lots of tourists probably videotaped her slow run through it. We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge, and then through wine country. And she made good time as well!



Our B&B (Lavender) at Napa's Yountville was great. Comfortable, luxurious, and they even give out bikes for use during your stay. We had the afternoon to explore so we started with a complementary wine tasting at a place next door. After that, we came back to the inn for some refreshments and hors d'oeuvre. Then, Connie needed some rest, so I took a short bike ride through some back roads lined with vineyards and pleasant-looking homes and estates. In the evening, we met up with our Orange County friends at the nearby French Laundry. Dinner was great. Lots of catching up, great food, super wine, amazing service. We woke up mid morning for a mediocre breakfast (but who needs it after the previous night) and a drive up to first Frog's Leap winery, then Heitz Cellars tasting room. Frog's Leap required reservations for a proper tasting so we only got a glass of Chardonnay and enjoyed a lazy stroll through the cellars, and the rest of the estate. The place had a very cozy atmosphere, like an affluent commune. Now that I think about it, I didn't see any men except the ones working in the garden or pumping wine-in-the-making from tanks to barrels. I guess the place oozed a certain feminine elegance. It was enjoyable, although the wine was only so-so. Heitz was a different story - simple tasting room with little frills, but the wines we got to taste were mostly good, with some distinct winners in the Cabernets and the Port.

We drove out of Napa down to San Simeon on the central coast going through 50-100 miles of amazingly scenic US-1. There, we went on an evening tour of Hearst Castle. The trimmings were a bit contrived, but the grounds and the house were well-kept and inspiring. I especially enjoyed the pool, kitchen and library. We had quick dinner with our friends and in the morning parted ways temporarily as we had planned a visit with our ex-colleague Mike Eisenstein who also recently moved out west, as well as a dinner with Connie's family. We had a nice, but short, visit with Mike and his girlfriend Bobbye in Santa Monica. Mike cooked us a delicious breakfast and we reminisced about the past and prognosticated about the future. Dinner was at some Chinese restaurant in Irvine and turned out to be a nuisance as everyone Asian in the area decided to have a pre-Mother's Day dinner that day, that place. We waited an hour for a table, but the food turned out to be OK and we left late but satiated. Not that it stopped us from moving straight to a cheese and cold cuts meal with our Orange County friends on whom we decided to impose for the night. They had been bitching, whining, moaning, grumping and grouching about their new surroundings ever since we met them for dinner at the French Laundry two evenings back. Now it was time to see what all the fuss was about...

Western Delights

Our second day in Yosemite we woke up early to get a short hike in before we had to leave to the next stop on our California trip. I chose a moderate trail as I was tired of the flat meadows - up to the footbridge at the base of Vernal Fall. I planned to get up to the bridge and back (~1.5 hours), but Connie was feeling adventurous and led us half-way up the full ascent to the top of the fall (the 680-granite stair Mist Trail). At the half point or so I chickened out of finishing the slippery climb of the Misty Trail, and having now just read a Wikipedia summary about Vernal Fall, I am relieved we did not in fact die trying even that. At least I had a practical excuse - checkout time. Vowing to return to Yosemite one day and at least finish that climb, if not to go all the way to Nevada Fall and climb up Half Dome to boot, we packed our things and drove on West to San Francisco.

Five or so hours later we were on the Bay Bridge marveling at the City's downtown skyline. Having had a restaurant cancel our reservations for the night due to kitchen malfunction, we decided to go to Berkley and sup at the famed Chez Panisse. We started the evening at a nice beerhouse called Jupiter. Good brew, outdoor heated garden seating, and live (albeit mediocre) jazz. Chez Panisse was nice, but nothing special except for some exquisitely cooked squid. It was a good impromptu evening and Connie got to drive my hammered ass back to the hotel and claim some props. We took it easy the next day and started our day late-ish with a lunch of clams and more clams at Hog Island Oyster Co. Delicious "chowdah" and great service in this unassuming yummery. Then we hit the unpleasant but inevitable Fisherman's Wharf for a bit of a walk, gift shopping, sightseeing, and a terrible, yet obligatory, bread-bowl clam chowder. Why is SF's number one tourist attraction such a letdown? We then took a very long bus trip and uphill walk to the Legion of Honor Palace - one of two tiny halves of the main fine arts
establishment of SF. At least the view was nice from up top Lincoln Park. Dinner at Jai Yun was also a letdown, but not completely. And on the next morning we did a quick review of SFMOMA, but there wasn't much there. The city is just not as hopping as New York and it's got its charms but... Oh well, on to Napa.

Glorious Sequoia

We had a week back in New York after Panama. I found out I had passed the Foreign Service exam formally, but now have to wait 12 more weeks to find out if the rest of my application was good enough to move on. I started applying to some jobs in the public sector for which I am qualified (for instance, software developer for UN). If I can't get hired within that sector, I will go back to private sector. Can't sit on my hands for a year as I make my slow way through the Foreign Service process. But all of that is on hold for another week, as we are vacationing (again) in California...

We arrived on Saturday with Connie's parents, rented a car, and drove down to Orange County to meet up with my in-law's relatives (Uncle Joe - cousin twice removed, and his extended family). Everyone was there for Uncle Joe's son's wedding. We had an informal lunch with the family, visited Uncle Joe's impressive O.C. home and garden, checked into our not-so-impressive hotel, and made our way to Newport Beach for the wedding itself. There we met more family (including the couple, either of whom I did not know at all), drank, ate, and danced.

The next day we sent off Connie's parents to a seperate Chinese bus tour and made our own way northeast towards Kings Canyon & Sequoia National Parks. Or so I thought, until I realized I had mistakenly selected National Forest instead of National Park from the GPS Points-of-Interest menu. So a 6-hour drive turned into a 9-hour drive, including a speeding violation along the way, and a huge brunch at a Denny's. The park's Giant Forest of Sequoias and General Sherman (largest living tree by volume) were amazing. Wish we had more time but it was getting late already so we drove on to nearby Fresno for the night, stopping at Hooters for dinner.

Woke up early for another longish drive to Yosemite National Park. Yeah, we're park-hopping. After hearing so much about the park I found that Yosemite truly delivers. When the valley opens up before you as you drive east into the park, it's like a scene out of a fantasy movie. Granite cliffs, waterfalls, and a luscious-green valley floor. Breathtaking. We made a few stops along the way to snap some photos, got close to Bridalveil Fall (and got wet for all the effort). Did a few short hikes during the day, and in the evening went looking for bears based on a tip from a park ranger. The strategy is to drive along the valley floor looking for traffic jams caused by bear-oglers. Bear jams, as the ranger called them. We luckily happened on one at the right time and place and caught a yearling as it made its way across the drive, climb onto a fallen tree trunk and get busy tearing bark off in search of grubs. We had also seen deer and other smaller animals all over the place. A very rewarding experience.

Today we move onto more civilized pleasures in San Francisco...

Beach Bumming

This was the view from our little beach hut equipped with hammocks and a beach chair. The little slice of heaven we called our own for a day was on Santa Clara beach on the Pacific coast of Panama, an hour or so West of the canal. This was a relief from days of eating gefilte fish and matzos in between naps at my parent's place in Panama City.

The next day my brother had an interview in Colon, which is a free trade zone in the Northern side of Panama on the Caribbean coast. So we found an even better spot - Langosta beach - to rest our weary tummies. This little bay even had a small reef to explore with our snorkeling gear. And we even met a guy from Canarsie, Brooklyn!

Panamaniacs

We're in Panama City, Panama with my parents for Passover. It is quite humid here, and it has been pretty cloudy since we got here on Saturday, though yesterday it didn't rain. Weather forecast for the rest of the week looks the same - cloudy with chance of scattered showers. Oh well, so far we've been pretty much hanging out: sleeping, eating, TV, chatting, pool, etc. I've decided to get back in shape starting this week, so I'm doing laps in the pool and some stretching/yoga.

Last month we were in Las Vegas for a wedding. We stayed at the Wynn Hotel, which for all its hype was just OK - not worth the money. The wedding - Connie's junior high school friend Kathy & her long-time beau Ming - was cute. We got to help last-minute as the impromptu keepers of the cash (part of a more general welcoming committee role). The only safe place I could think of was my rental car's baggage compartment (the boot).

The day before the wedding we drove out to the Grand Canyon, since I had never been there before and I really wanted to see it. It was roughly 5 hours each way, so a lot of driving (and NOT on historic Route 66, but the super-fast Arizona highway - screw you, Disney!). The canyon was great. We hiked a bit on the rim in different locations and took pictures at a few great spots. I look forward to returning there for a proper visit including getting down to the canyon floor itself.

We also got a chance to do a brief Hoover Dam tour. It was pretty cool and they let you take photos and video of the entire thing. Security is somewhat tight on the road getting there, but it seemed fairly lenient, given we were right on top of the generators on the Nevada side. The thing is massive and it was built really fast, considering the location. Why can't America execute such projects anymore? Or are they going all around us, but not as interesting? Well, right about now would be a good time for something like that, given we are clearly in a significant downturn. I mean the whole Iraq occupation is massive and interesting, don't get me wrong, but if we could only use the money and manpower for some impressive domestic works. Like China and its ongoing Three-Gorges dam project, or Iran and its Uranium-enrichment facility at Natanz. These countries know how to spend their money properly...

I'm Still Here, Just A Bit Fazed

Sorry for the pause in posting. I hope to make up for it in the next few weeks.
My excuses are numerous - studying for a Chinese phone test for the Foreign Service application, wedding in Las Vegas, volunteering for four days at FIRST's annual New York Regional Robotics Competition, and writing papers for the three Global Affairs courses I am taking. But the overriding reason for my silence has been my concern for my father's health, which took a turn for the worst at the end of March. I found it hard to blog due to my concern over his condition, out of respect for the man, and from a bit of guilt as well...
I am looking forward to seeing him along with my mom, younger brother, and cousin. He is in a relatively stable condition, recovering from his ailments. Luckily, I do not have to wait for long as I am going on a short 1-week visit to Panama with my wife over the Passover holiday next week. I have to finish all of my papers before we leave so I will likely not post too much this week, but keep tuned in as I catch up on all the happenings of the past few weeks soon, including one big news item...

Foreign Service Officer Application: Phase 2

As I previously mentioned, I took my Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT) first week of March. I now have to wait for 3 months to find out how I did. If anyone wants to take the FSOT, here is a list of recommendations on how to study for it:

• Read the weekly Economist magazine for a year or two (online link)
  
• Also read BBC news every day as time permits (online link)
• Read a US History book.
  (My recommendation is A History of the American People by Paul Johnson (a Brit). Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States is also good but not so much for preparing for the FSOT)
• Read the Congressional Quarterly Desk Reference on American Government. It's a FAQ.
• Read the Consitution (several times until you've memorized all the articles and their subsections, and the 27 amendments - note: this number may change by the time you read this, but not likely).
• Try to create and memorize lists of significant acts of Congress and Supreme Court cases.
• Learn world geography. Here is an interweb game that's useful for that (Scott, you asked for a time waster? You got it).
• The State Department website has a sample test you can download for $20. Highly recommended. The actual test is exactly the same (slightly different questions).

You can find this information and much, much more (a lot of it is repetitive nonsense) by joining the FSOT Yahoo Group.

Furthermore, if you have any foreign language skills, you will be asked to list them on your application and then you will be asked to take a phone test to prove your skills. Since I had put down that I know a little bit of Mandarin, and since Mandarin is on State's list of Super Critically Needed Languages, I have been asked to take a Mandarin test in March. According to the website this means I had passed the FSOT, but I did not receive a formal results letter. Just an email saying I should test for Mandarin ASAP. My test is on April 3 so I have been spending the last week just refreshing my Mandarin skills. I have little confidence in passing this test, but it's optional so hopefuly it won't hurt too bad. Anyways, I wanted to also add a link to the Foreign Service Institute Foreign Language Courses page. They have the study guides and tapes all available online for free!

The RIse of the Machines

I haven't been impressed by a robot since I visited the MIT AI Lab oh so many years ago. Not that much has happened in the field since. Honda has been making biped robots that just look like huge versions of old toy robots. I had seen a pogo stick robot do some amazing balancing tricks, and I have seen robots catch balls thrown at them. There's even a roomba now. But I have never seen a robot getting kicked by a person and not losing its balance! Until now.

Corrupt Politicians

Spitzer, Spitzer, Spitzer.
You know what, it's not the sex, although I have little respect for that desperate quality in men who need to pay for sex or the company of strange women. It's not the lying, either. We all lie. White lies, lies of omission, lies of ignorance, lies to protect, and well, lies to cheat! Spitzer didn't lie to me, really. But he did make me think that he would never do such a thing. It's the bar. If you're gonna set the bar at some arbitrary point of reference of your own choosing, you better meet that bar, buddy. That's your own standard. Nobody told you to make it high or low, but once you hold other people to it, you gotta live by it too! So, call it hypocrisy or simply not living up to my or his own expectations.
I don't like it when politicians fail their own tests. It's frustrating. They are the role models of society. You want them to do well. As opposed to celebrities like Paris Hilton or Britney Spears. I like to see them get into trouble with the law. If they don't, I would also be disappointed. They wouldn't be living up to their own standards of stupidity and unethical behavior...
Now, I know the Clintons have been implicated in many a scandal. I mean you have Bill's libido for one thing, but that's just icing on a cake of oopsies:

• Whitewater
• Cattle Futures Trading
• Filegate
• Travelgate

As a Hillary supporter, I have to admit that these little scandoodles raise a red flag, and this Spitzer shenanigan is just bringing this issue to the forefront for me. I like to think of myself as a relatively just person, though I am not a saint and would usually not go out of my way when presented with a lite moral dilemma (like finding money on the street). Especially if by ignoring the ethics I get some material benefit from it... I would be just as big a hypocrite if I didn't admit that. So, what about the Clintons? Is their moral compass more screwed up than mine? Roughly the same? Am I the right judge?
I reconcile my moral distaste with the notion that the Clintons live life on the less than savory edge of a Reuben - say the sour edge (from all that sauerkraut) - with the fact that they seem to always get away with it. Well, at least the ones that really matter. Consensual adultery is legal. Lying under oath isn't, but then again, got away with it. There is something to be said about being smart and sneaky enough to make sure nothing you do wrong can bite you in the ass later. And so far it seems to me they use that power for good instead of evil, which is what matters most in my personal moral calculus.
So, I think I would have pardoned Spitzer had he not made himself out to be such a straight shooter. It's like when they catch these fire and brimstone, gay-bashing evangelical crazies in bed with two men and a goat. It's the bar, stupid...

Social Divider, Political Uniter

I know people have moved on from the actual candidate race to the more alluring debates over super-delegates, Florida and Michigan re-dos, and the value of popular vote vs. delegate counts. So this might seem like really outdated material in this dynamic primary, but I am still stuck on why so many Democrats have fallen for the change rhetoric. I mean, if those Democrat voters wanted change so badly, why not agitate for Nader and support the Green Party with millions of dollars instead? I know the Green Party is more radical than Obama, and with enough support (votes and monetary contributions), they too can get a shot at the podium in the general election.
The reason they would not go for the Green Party is that they are not really voting for change. They are voting for the youngest, slickest man in the room. You might call this Democratic primary season Political Idol. Obama represents youth, charm, and a great vocal range (just kidding!). Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll. You can see that by looking at the cult-like following and the screaming, fainting masses at his rallies. So, while people accuse Clinton of being a polarizing figure, they cheer Obama for his unification theory (I will reach out, and people will unite around my cause... What is my cause? Who cares!). But is he really a uniter? That remains to be seen.
Hillary, on the other hand, IS a polarizing figure when it comes to social issues. Because she stood by her husband during a sex scandal. Because she changed her hair styles too many times for some folks out there. Because she is a powerful and power-hungry woman (how dare she?). Because she can play the game as good as the boys can. In fact, by playing the game well, Clinton has proved she can be a force for bipartisanship when it matters. See the different bipartisan legislations she has co-sponsored with Republicans (Immigration, Health Care).
So what do you want Democrat Obamaites?
You want change? Go Green.
You want new politics? Go Dream.
You want Rock & Roll? Go Obama.
You want a strong, efficient, and wholly different Democratic president? Go Clinton...

BBC News - Jihadist Cyber Attack?

Is it just me or is the entire BBC website down? I'm not just talking News, I mean everything.
Do you think it has anything to do with the launch of the BBC Arabic TV channel??? Hmm...
Well, I apologize for any inconvenience if the 3 of you reading my site actually use the BBC News Radar links on the right-hand side :)

Dress Rehearsal For Robot

I've been really lazy downloading pictures and videos off my camera, so here is a month-old clip from the high school where I was volunteering with the FIRST program, building a robot. Since then the robot has been packed and shipped off for holding until the NY regional competition in April. I have not been going back to the school but I do sometimes get calls from the team asking me to help with some programming question; they are practicing with a similar robot they built and programmed (with my help) for last year's competition.

What We Do For Good Eats

Connie and I are going to California for a wedding in May. We plan on driving around a bit after the event - Yosemite, San Fransisco, Napa. The best rated restaurant in the states is The French Laundry in wine country, so we wanted to make sure to hit that. We've been to Keller's Per Se in NYC, but it's never enough with us... So this place has limited seating and you have to call exactly 60 days before the date you want. We're going with a couple who just moved to Cali, and they reminded me that today was the day to call. At 12:57pm EST (3 minutes before the reservation office opens) I started dialing... with 3 phones (2 cells, 1 land line). Connie and I rang furiously for 21 minutes. Then, I finally got through and was put on hold for another 10 minutes - a nail-biting, stressful moment. Finally, I get a reservationist, only to find out there was a private party that evening (line of bullshit?). So I get a table for lunch, at 11:15am :) Oh, and as if my nut-sack wasn't black and blue already, I'm reminded that, if I dare not show up or let them know 3 days before the date that I am not coming, I will be charged $100 per person!

For Sale By Owner... Another Mission Accomplished

We closed on the Brooklyn apartment today, finally. We sold the place without any middlemen (except for the lawyer, and the lending bank). Just put an ad on craigslist (not too aggressive, once every week or two) and a put a sign on the street-facing window. We showed the place about 20 times or so (1-2 times a week for about 3-4 months). It's a great deal: save ~%6 of sale price for no cost (except the sign we bought at Lowe's to hang in the window) and a few weekend afternoons hanging out with wackos for 30 minute tours.

Mission Accomplished... "What's Next?"

After two and half years of thinking about it, I finally took the Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT) today. The long anticipation for the test date has instantaneously turned into an anxious wait for results (10 weeks). Even if I pass the test, it will be another 10 weeks before I know if I passed the review process (test results and personal narrative submitted during registration). Then another 3 months before I can do the next test (FSOA or FS Oral Assesment). I feel cautiously optimistic about my chance to make it to phase II, but we'll see. I know a few questions I got wrong, and I felt extremely pressed on the essay writing part. I can't say much more because I signed an Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). I probably broke the NDA just by saying I signed it, so 'nough.

The real question (thanks for voicing it on gtalk, Scott) is "What's next?" I have no test to study for so no excuse to stay home. I do have 3 papers to write for my classes and I need to do well in case it's back to school. But I definitely need to start doing something to find employment (paid or not) to further my goals of going into public policy research. I will report more on this development as I regroup this week.

Before I go, I just want to give my wife a big shout-out for supporting me so far in my craziness (and a bit of lazyness).

Tuesday is the New Thursday!

Holy Jebus, what a fighter, hey? You go get him, girl...
Well, Obama had a rough week. First, Clinton came at him with knives during the Ohio debate. Then, SNL tore him a new one on a sketch of that debate. The news cycle was still rehashing his wife's unpatriotic line, when his campaign got pooped on with the NAFTA-gate debacle. These hampered his chances to win in this Fantastique Mardi set of primaries. Of course, deluded voters in Vermont (the "Freedom and UNITY state") begged to differ, but who cares about them. Ohio, a major swing state and a renowned predictor of primary winners (like New Hampshire), has gone big for Hills.

De Beers Class Action Suit

Hey, this is sort of a public broadcast announcement.
If you purchased any diamond jewelery and paid >$1000 from any retailer between January 1994 and March 2006, you can get up to %32 of the original price you paid back! The resulting claim amount depends on how many people file claims against the ~$130 million settlement that was reached with De Beers. The settlement is for a suit against commodity price fixing by the diamond monopoly.
I just filed my claim through the official diamond class action settlement site.

Capitalism At Its Best (and Slowest)

I've made my first cent today out of my new shameless commerce division (sorry, Car Talk guys) - see links on right hand side below...
I never thought this pass-time would be able to generate revenue, but my adSense account shows I have $0.01 in my account right now from 1 week of being online... At this rate I'll be able to retire in 100 million weeks or 1.92 million years! Woo hoo!

Clinton, You're Killing Me!

Tonight's democratic debate was more interesting than the last few as Tim and Brian asked nuanced questions all over the board. Clinton came across like a ticking time bomb and made some inappropriate gaffes that would probably help seal the deal against her with any undecided voters in Texas and Ohio (if they even exist). First she complained about always being asked questions first (whiny and insincere - she likes answering the big questions first, because then Obama can only say - "I agree with everything Hillary said"). Then she criticized Obama on not rejecting Farrakhan's support (but got the sound bite wrong - she ended the diatribe saying "it's not enough to denounce, but you should also reject"; that made no sense. She should have said "you should reject the support, not just denounce the speeches"). The mistake cost her the point, because he just made a joke about it.
Obama was just as cool as can be. The black Paul Newman, or a 21st Century Marlboro Man.
I still hope and think she could win. But I think she's doing a terrible job debating him. He jabs at her subtly, while she pounces awkwardly. They showed a clip of her making fun of his naiveté of hope. She should have made the point of the invalidity of the "uniter" idea - 1) there is no reason to believe both sides of the aisle would become liberal if he were to become a president, and 2) he has no experience that indicates he could pull off such a miracle. She could also have linked this delusional fantasy to Bush's 2000 campaigning as a "uniter, not a divider" - showing how 7 years of a "uniter" have caused one of the widest rifts in the population (the only thing we all agree on is that we've had enough of his unitin'). Why isn't she better prepared on this??? Why didn't she defend NAFTA in general, instead of concentrating what's going wrong with it (it needs tweaking; more importantly, our country is best when it evolves - we used to be an agricultural economy, then we became a manufacturing country, now we're gonna create new green technologies, biotechnology solutions to diseases we never thought we could fight, tourist space flight, and who knows what else. NAFTA is part of a liberal economic policy that helps all countries compete on a level playing field and we're just going through growing pains that will eventually lead us to becoming stronger than ever)? Why did she sound cagey on her tax return? Why did she mis-pronounce Medvedev and say "or whatever is name is"? Ugh...
Last week I thought Obama's supporters were deluded. Tonight, I feel disillusioned.

"Dissent is the Mother of Ascent" - Nader '08

Thank holy mother of christ for Ralph Nader...
I am so tired of seeing and hearing and talking about Mr. Old Fart, Mr. (No)Hope, and the honorable senator from New York. So it was nice to see Michael Moore's favorite politician and the leader of the Green (and slightly Red) Party on Meet the Press today announcing his third-party bid for the presidency. He has no chance and I do not support all of his radical stands on policy, but he would make an interesting third wheel at the general election debates. He ripped on Obama, and Tim showed a clip of Obama trashing Nader which I hope will now get more airtime, because it features a halo-less Obama.
On the other hand Nader is older than McCain. Why can't the radical, hippie, feminist Green party produce a younger, less bile-filled candidate for the top office? He's too cranky to excite voters in today's ballot market.

Procrastinating Is My Middle Name

I finally submitted my Foreign Service Written Exam (FSWE) online registration, with 4 days to spare before the deadline for the March test window. I had my online form saved as a draft for over 3 months :) Thank you to everyone who has been helpful (my wife, especially) in the process. I now have to wait for confirmation of my test time. I hope I wasn't too late for March (first come, first serve basis and they have a limit of 5000 people per test window) as that would suck and I may get lashings for it. Hopefully the ball and chain comes back relaxed and in good spirits from her little trip to Cancun (bachelorette party). Washington, here I come!

Last (?) Democratic Primary Debate

Obama sounded like he had a cold tonight. Or has he grown hoarse from shouting empty rhetoric?

Clinton continues to discuss issues with clear concepts and specific policy ideas, while Obama continues to be vague, concentrating simply on the idea that creating a united coalition of policy makers would solve all of our problems. I don't understand why he thinks he would get Republicans to approve any liberal agenda, and I'm not sure what past experience in his career has shown such a capacity to unite opposing political constituencies. If "everyone has a seat at the table" there may be even more rhetoric and less serious reform...

CNN made sure to push them towards nastiness, basically asking each to discuss the other's suckiness. Clinton said she was amused seeing an Obama supporter go mute when asked what some of Obama's accomplishments were... Obama said she was silly for saying he was plagiarizing other people's speeches, and that it is absurd to say that the millions of people and media organizations who voted or endorsed him have been duped and will soon see the light. It may be absurd, but I feel they have been duped. Same way as Bush voters were duped. Why is that so hard to believe in today's media-frenzied society? Every media outlet says Clinton HAS to win Texas and Ohio, but they are neck and neck in delegate counts, so why does she HAVE to win these states? Neither has a chance of getting to the 2025 delegate count before convention so let up pundits! "Clinton's Last Stand", "Last Chance for Clinton", "Make or Break For Clinton". Is this media imitating polls or are polls being influenced by the media frenzy?

Bee Can Moon

My International Relations professor likes to rip on George Bush, and I like to rip on him... He called the current Secretary General of the UN "Bee Can Moon" (1 of 3 syllables right, a failing grade). He also repeats a lot of what I hear on NPR, which is annoying. I like NPR, but I get it for free on the radio. I don't need to pay $500 to hear the same stuff regurgitated with pronunciation mistakes...
Still, this week was quite dense with interesting foreign affairs that we discussed in class:

• US and EU have sanctioned Kosovo's deceleration of independence, while simultaneously noting it should not be taken as as precedent. Basque, Taiwan, Abkhazia and South Ossetia (not to mention Palestine) would be right to call these Western powers hypocrites when it comes to supporting self-determination as a general human right.
• Castro stepped down. Can we get over him, and open trade with Cuba as we have done with other repressive regimes (China being the 800 lb. gorilla in that argument)? Besides the benefit to the people of Cuba, this would also help curb Hugo Chavez's influence in the region.
  
• Pakistan elects an overwhelmingly secular government (even in the NWFP) demonstrating disapproval with the undemocratic Musharraf regime. This could possibly weaken pro-Taleban and Al Qaida forces in the North Western region.
  
• We shot down our own satellite. This was obviously an arms-race muscle flexing. To be honest, I couldn't help but root for it - missing would just give more fodder to war hawks.

But what does US media concentrate on? John McCain's alleged affair with a lobbyist 8 years ago. Shame on us, Americans.

!%$%#@&*%!

What this guy says...

Cupid's Cheap Shot

St. Valentine's Day is the worst fake holiday of the year. If you're single, you feel extra lonely. If you're in a relationship, you feel obligated to celebrate your love. This entails over-paying for meals, flowers, chocolates and greeting cards. Worst part is that you expect everything to be perfect, and since perfect never delivers you always get let down in the end...
This past Valentine's Day, my wife and I went to see a taping of the Colbert Report (sorry Grace). It was the only night open for months. We had to wait for hours, and Colbert is funnier on TV - he's looking right at ya and all the awkward tension is gone. Dinner went horribly (crappy table after reserving weeks in advance, ran out of bread, etc). Got back tired, upset, and stressed out. I wish we just stayed home. When will we learn the lesson? 1 Billion Valentine's greeting cards sold each year - sick...

Blast From the Past

I've been connecting with random people from my past 30 years of life. Friends and acquaintances from Israel (elementary school), Florida (middle and high school, and one year at FIU) that I find or who find me on Facebook. One of them sent me the scanned page out of my middle school yearbook. Not sure, but I think it's eighth grade. It's kind of fun but also sad - how much we all change and how little we have in common despite some coincidental past geographical or social convergence. One thing I'm relieved about is that I'm not nostalgic for the good old days. I'm as happy now as I've ever been and I'm extremely excited about future prospects.

Taking classes at NYU this semester is definitely breathing wind into my deflated, unemployed sails. Out of the three courses I'm enrolled in - International Relations, Middle East Affairs, and International Law - the one I thought I would like least (International Law) is the one I like best so far. Part of it has to do with the guy who's teaching it. He's young, energetic, interesting and he's not elitist or radical as the other two can come across... The one who teaches Middle East is quite big in the field - he's been on the Daily Show :)

Don't Gobama and Get Hillaryous!

Indicative of my sorry mood, when I found out Clinton's campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle resigned on Sunday I immediately assumed the worst - Hillary asked her to do something ethically corrupt a la Primary Colors. This was reinforced further in my depressed mind by today's news of the resignation of deputy manager Mike Henry. After reading a few editorials about the ins-and-outs of the Hillaryland campaign and the so-called resignations (see this and that), I feel a lot better... I have to remain steadfast in my convictions - Hillary is the better candidate for the Democratic ticket. She is a liberal with moderate/centrist credentials, a tough cookie who has been standing up to unending negative attacks, and she is stronger analytically. Her competition is simply afraid of getting into policy discussions with her, because she can run laps around him. I'll concede Obama's grasp of the English language is better than Bush's, but other than that I'm not sure how much better he'd be. If he does win - sadly, now a real possibility - I hope he will fix his broken record (Change, Unity, and more Change) and not become a "Uniter." Wow, some pundit on CNN just quoted Bush's line from his 1999 campaign - "I want to be a uniter not a divider." Is Obama going to start recycling old Bushisms?
Now, THAT's HILLARYOUS!

Vroom Vroom - Look At It Go!

Last week we did some driving practice with the robot:



Danny is driving it... Mohammed is yapping about something excitedly... Others, like me, are just loitering or looking on with varying degrees of interest.



It's getting there. It better get there. This is the last week before we have to ship the robot to the competition. I was there to see the arm go on and we loaded a program that moved it up/down. I will be back there Thursday and I hope the thing will be completed, mechanically speaking. I don't think anyone wants to be there all weekend, which is likely to happen anyways.

Primary Blues

I'm totally depressed about the primaries right now...
First off, I have to eat my share of crow for getting the whole Republican primary wrong. Romney bowed out and McCain is a clear front-runner, despite Limbaugh and Coulter shouting and whining about it. McCain's a good guy, so I'm happy to see the Republican party fall behind a sane candidate. Take that social conservatives!
Second, Hillary Clinton is falling behind all the time on the delegate count and tomorrow's Potomac Primary is looking like another Obama sweep. On national polls pitting Obama and Hillary against McCain, Obama does better. It's getting to me so much that I'm turning racist. Obama is making me racist... Last night durring the Grammys I was cussing at all the black hip hop artists - Kanye West, Rhianna, etc.
Amy Winehouse (a Jew from England) didn't make it any better - she's a total slag. That's weird, I did a goole search for "slag Amy Winehouse" and got a lot of hits. Apparently I wasn't the only one to see her and have the word "slag" pop into my head. Amy "Slag Heap" WInehouse. They just have to stop giving awards to the dregs of society. I mean kids watch these shows...
Ranting definitely gets me in a better mood. I am almost ready to believe Hills still has some hope tomorrow. When people (read: my wife) assumed the worst when the polls came out for New Hampshire I stayed positive, and she pulled through. Maybe the polls have it all wrong again... Let's go Hillary!

Super Mardi - la Rhetorique d'Obama

Just in time for primary elections all over the tristate area, Massachusetts and other points South and West I figured out what's wrong with Obama's general oratory. I've been reading an introductory textbook of Comparative Politics and it has helped me to focus my own political convictions and to formulate another reasoned attack on Obama's campaign platform. For the sake of this argument, I will stay clear of foreign policy- it's a can of worms I want to use as bait in a future diatribe...

Obama talks mostly about change. In terms of political attitudes, change is the banner of radicals (change by force) and liberals (change by gradual reform). I consider myself and the good guys to be liberals, so I should be in love with Obama. The problem is Obama mainly talks about changing the way politicians interact with each other and the general public. He is not really talking about actual on-the-ground change as in reducing economic inequality in America or amending our institutions in meaningful ways that will significantly affect people's lives. He might mention these, but they are not the backbone of his campaign. Sure, politicians seem slimier than ever these days and it would be great to have a more honest, transparent, and even bipartisan body politic in Washington, but all of that is just hot air (read: carbon emissions) unless it brings about actual improvements to our existing, failing institutions. As a liberal and socialist-leaning person I am looking for a candidate who will stand for such reforms.

After living in Britain and seeing a marked difference between their poor and inner-city populace compared with ours, I think one of the greatest problems in our country is that we have a large population of relatively poor, uneducated and unhealthy citizenry. It's sort of an outrage when you think about the general wealth of this nation. Socialist democracies in Europe and even our neighbor to the north have managed to keep their general populations smarter, healthier, and more economically equal without sacrificing much liberties if any in comparison (in fact, the current administration has managed to test the limits of our apathy by taking away some basic liberties such programs as wire-tapping and the suspension of habeas corpus). It is time to learn some lessons from our trans-Atlantic friends and change tack. We need socialist institutions such as national health services (trim the fat, literally), better school system across the country (pay teachers more, fire shitty educators), and - even though it hurts to say it - a more progressive tax system that takes from the rich and gives to the poor. Does Obama promise any of this? No.

In the one domestic policy issue that Clinton and Obama agreed to disagree on - health care - Clinton is the more liberal of the two. She wants mandatory coverage across the board (as a start). Obama is more conservative and simply hopes to reduce costs enough so that most people will elect coverage - laissez-faire health care. Is this is the voice of change? Or is it simply a facade of hope you want to hang your delusional portrait of a brighter tomorrow on? Clinton has been a fervent advocate of socializing our institutions to the modern standard a Western industrial superpower should be measured against. She doesn't necessarily want to be buddy-buddy with her colleagues and bring C-SPAN into every nook and cranny of Washington. She wants to make a positive difference in the lives of the general population of this country.

So Democrats and lucky Independents (living in states with open or modified closed primaries), exercise your vote wisely and seek true reform rather than empty words. Choose Clinton, and keep in mind that Obama will make a great running mate in the fall...

On a decidedly and completely different note, I just happened on this link while googling "clinton obama ticket" - it's a few quick stats on campaign financing. It appears Clinton has raised the most but has spent less than Obama. Evidence of fiscal responsibility? To be researched further in the future if needs be - hoping today is D-Day for Hills.

I am a Giant fan...

of great parties and winning lots of money. This weekend the Giants upset the Patriots' perfect record season by taking home the Super Bowl ring. We were in Boston staying with a friend who was throwing a Super Bowl bash to celebrate what seemed like a sure victory for the New England football franchise. Tough luck. The party was great, though, and we enjoyed being the oddball New York supporters in the room. When the game ended, I got a call from a New York friend who wanted to make sure I wasn't being gang-raped by our host and his posse, and that my new car with NY license plates wasn't being set on fire by rioting fans. To top of it all off, we won over $400 in a Super Bowl Squares pool - took half-time and 3rd quarter!
Meanwhile, the JeffTech Robotics team worked feverishly all weekend to get the robot base up and running. Mohammed (my programming partner) and I downloaded the program we wrote into the robot controller... and found a bug :)
In the following short video, you can see me using a joystick to move the robot. The kid that interjects a comment is Mohammed. He's a 16-year old senior originally from Bangladesh. Good times.

I may have already won $500k... in Spain???

I received a ridiculous-looking letter saying I won over $700,000 (quoted in Euros) in a Mega Millions lottery in Spain. My name was apparently picked by a computer on behalf of an American lottery outfit doing good for Americans in Europe (?). Just in case (how can you turn down over half a million dollar without a second look) I googled this up and found links about this specific scam.
I'm watching the CNN Republican debate and I am still predicting Romney as winner despite McCain's Florida win. I have to say I was surprised by that victory. The man sounds tired, frustrated, almost impatient. He speaks low, monotonously, and arrogantly. Despite that and his hawkish tendencies, he would have been my pick if I had to vote in the Republican primary. Huckabee is a more lively character. I just wish he wasn't for the UNfair Tax and raising hell with his gay-bashing. Ron Paul is shrill, but I wish he was given more airtime and debated head-on by the others who basically ignore him or look around wildly when he speaks, insinuating his lunacy. Paul's policies are a bit detached from reality, unfortunately. He's simply a soothing ying to the others' yang. Romney is definitely slick in the negative sense of the word - as in slick and slimy - but he is the better-spoken, less-populist, less-hawkish candidate. Still a gay basher like the rest of 'em, though...
BTW, for those of you living in Massachusetts, I just wanted to say you have a "modified closed primary', not an 'open primary' as you might think. However, as long as you are unenrolled in a party (this includes the Independent Party) you can vote in either of the major primaries. See this for more specifics about your state's crazy regulations.

Blues Busters and Birthday Bashes

We had all sorts of happenings to attend this weekend.
On Friday we went with a couple of friends from Bloomberg/London to the Fatty Crab, which is one of our favorite restaurants in the city - bold East Asian flavors, fun beers, and pretty good value to boot.
Saturday evening we were invited to a blues-bustin' party (according to experts the end of January is the most depressing time of the year). We met lots of new people and ate all sorts of good food including Thai chicken wings, chili, a spicy and savory cheesecake, and something yummy called bigos. There were all sorts of liquors, wines, and beers I've never seen before. We were even introduced to a new coffee-making contraption which I now have to find - the vacuum pot. Just before we left, our hosts cut a 10-pound bar of chocolate from Trader Joe's. This was one WILD party and we were the first ones to leave, too, so who knows what further craziness we missed.
On Sunday we met with friends to celebrate a birthday. We went to a Churrascaria in Long Island - I think this place had the best meat I've eaten in a Brazilian rodizio. The buffet and sides may have been lackluster, but the meat was tender, properly spiced, and grilled to perfection. Afterwards we all came back to our place for tea, coffee, and birthday cake. Adults took turns playing DDR, while 5 little girls ran between their feet and made a general ruckus.
Then last night (Monday) we had tickets to a private showing of Water: H2O = Life, an exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. Some cheese, bread, dried fruit, olives, and lots of drinks. There was the water too, of course... There was a cool spherical movie screen on which was projected (from the inside?) an Earth model, that was cool.



An eventful few days which left Connie drained, and nursing a sore throat :(

Every Tool Is A Weapon - 3 Weeks Down

The JeffTech Robotics team has moved into the building stage this week. We're cutting, drilling, polishing, soldering, and so far everyone still has all their fingers. We also did some programming, concentrating on translating the joystick's XY coordinate system to polar coordinates - a crash course reviewing trigonometry for me as I totally forgot about arc-cosine. This is needed for the type of driving control for 1 joystick required by our current design. Everyone is much happier now that we're doing something real. Somehow the design and strategy and even mock fabrication of a model does not feel as real as handling an angry, noise-making miter saw...

Punditerizing

I'm gonna make my 2008 primary race predictions now, because before you know it, it's all gonna be over and what fun will it be saying to everyone "I knew that was gonna happen. I just didn't want to say it!"

On the Democrats side we have Hillary and Obama (and I guess Edwards, but everyone outside his campaign knows he's done). I have to go on Hillary's side here. As you know I'm a big Hills fan and I even did a bit of grass-rootin' for her before she announced her run. I think she's a centrist and I like that. I think she's a realist and I like that. And I think she's a woman (she is, right?), and I like women. She's as close as I can get to the candidate I want. If she had slightly less connections that would be better, but I'm not gonna go go for Mr. Wonderful just cause of that. Obama is young, shaky on specific actionable paths towards accomplishing his platform goals, which he does not place in bright daylight either. His speeches are filled with hope and change rhetoric but I want to put my trust in someone who knows how to implement hope from day one. Yay, I sound like Hillary. Not only I am FOR Hillary, but I think she'll carry the big states, which is what's important. Obama has young people and some independents. But we know who votes - old people and the base of the party. Besides, his middle name is Hussein. How can Dems expect to win with someone like that???

On the Republicans we have a wider field with Romney, McCain, Giuliani, Huckabee, and Paul. I guess I would say Paul is not really a plausible candidate - maybe as an Independent. McCain I feel is too old and has too many enemies in the Republican party machine to make it to the end. Giuliani may or may not have an upset in Florida, but even if he does I feel he would lose to Romney in the end, who is more appealing in the same way Kennedy was more appealing than Nixon back in 1960. So for me it's gotta be Romney with Huckabee as a wild card that can upset things as he's been doing in the early states. I believe if Huckabee wasn't there to win over crazies from Romney in Iowa and South Carolina, McCain would have been a foregone conclusion by now as he was back in 2000.

So, we have Clinton-Romney to look forward to in a few months. I believe this could trigger a move by Mike Bloomberg to run as an Independent. I would be happy to see this 3-way race and I would almost be OK with any of those winning. Romney is a crazy now, but he's going to be a better President than Bush. He's going to align himself on the less crazy side of conservatives when it comes to the actual presidency. To win, though, he has to act like a crazy himself and I am willing to forgive that later on if he does a good job. Anyways, he's gonna win in that 3-way race, because Bloomberg is gonna steal Hillary's votes (he'll steal mine, that's for sure) and split the Democrats more than the crazies. So, if I have to make an early (and emotionally void) prediction for the whole shebang it would have to be Romney...

By the way, for those of you who don't speak Yonglish, a "crazy" is a right-wing, religious, conservative bigot - the kind that oppose gay marriage.

Nice Day Out

Yesterday, Connie and I went to Sands Point Preserve in Port Washington. I had a craving to see some water and to stretch my car's legs some more. The drive was nice, and we had a comfortable walk along the dead woods and cliffs overlooking a small portion of the Long Island sound. It was a very clear day and extremely cold (~20 F and very windy) so we were lucky to have the wind to our back during the walk. Afterwards we drove around Port Washington just checking out tudors and other lovely homes, did some shopping (finally got that nutcracker), had a slice, and watched No Country For Old Men. That's one intense movie. See my friend's movie review blog for more info. We then stopped over for Hot Pot dinner at our friends' place in Forest Hills near home. It was delicious, overfilling, and chaotic (three little girls wreaking havoc on 5 unsuspecting adults). I can't ask for a much better day than that, really...

Economist Debate & Mediocry

I've been getting involved in the current Economist online debate as a voter and a commentator. I made my pen name "mediocry" based on the name of this blog. I'm not sure I ever explained this name formally here, but I've been thinking about it in the last few days and I just tried doing a google search for it and found loads of links which made me giggle with ironic joy. The name mediocry comes from the fact that "mediocrity" was already taken (I'm supposed to be an underachiever in his thirties, the prototype of mediocrity), and because once I thought of mediocry (pronounced me-de-yaw-cree, like mediocrity, without the tee), it sounded also like Media Cry - as in crying out for attention using this medium... Anyways, it seemed clever at the time.
Now, via google search, I see that many people have used this spelling by mistake for mediocrity or even mediocre. Talk about mediocrity... I also found out today that ever since someone encouraged me to place a link for this website in my gmail tag (thanks Mr. Beantown, you know who you are!!!) people outside of my comfort zone of viewers (there were about 3 of you) have been listening in. WHY WOULD ANYONE ELSE CARE ABOUT THE TRIFLES I SHARE HERE? I don't know... It's public so it's their prerogative! I just hope it doesn't inflate my egocentric sense of all-importance.