a real win

Wow, it's been two days and I haven't posted about the 49ers win against the Rams yet!

I was at the game on Sunday, and the first half was so great it felt surreal. I haven't seen a 49ers offense execute like that in...maybe ten years? It's too bad the second half was horribly boring due to the whole ball-control offense scheme which resulted in no points being scored by the 49ers after halftime. For part of that time I was still convinced they were going to throw the game away somehow (having been at the Eagles game earlier this season where they blew a 26-17 lead in the fourth quarter), but somehow they didn't. Of course, the Rams are a pretty horrible team, but it was still extremely satisfying to see a decisive victory against any opponent.

fondue night

Yesterday we had some people over for fondue. The cheese fondue was so-so; even though we used European wine, it still separated too easily, and required reheating every so often. I think next time I will try an even drier wine, and maybe more cornstarch or flour. The chocolate fondue turned out well; I added Grand Marnier to the chocolate, cream, and sugar, which I think worked out well. Nothing like fondue on a cold night, especially on a Thursday with two NBA games to watch. Okay, it's not really "cold" these days, but it is getting dark earlier so it definitely feels like fall.

lost in translation?

I've been following the recent petition and protests initiated by Taiwanese university students and professors, and I'm happy that there is a non-partisan effort to reform the Taiwanese government. What I don't understand is why the effort is being called the "wild strawberry" movement. I'm sure I'm missing something; it probably makes sense in Taiwanese or in Chinese.

random oddity

In my buliding here at work, in the women's bathroom, there is one stall which has a much narrower door than all the other stalls. As a result, it tends to be the last stall to fill.

One day last week, when the bathroom was particularly crowded, I ended up in that stall. I was curious, so I counted the number of bathroom tiles that fit between one side of the door and the other, and discovered there were ten. Each tile is maybe 1.5 inches wide (definitely less than 2 inches), which means that the door is about 15 inches wide.

I think I'm a fairly average-sized person, and if I walk through that door with my shoulders square, I will touch both sides. I wonder if anyone ever has any problems fitting through it? I guess one can always turn sideways to get through...

a different kind of Vegas trip

I went to Vegas a couple weeks ago with some people who hadn't been to Vegas almost ten years. I think I go there so often that sometimes I forget to look around when I'm there. To them, The Venetian, the Bellagio, the Wynn, THEhotel at Mandalay Bay; all were new and interesting and photo-worthy.

We wandered the shops inside the Venetian, stopping for gelato, ate lunch at a cute bistro inside of Paris called Mon Ami Gabi, and checked out the famous Bellagio lobby and fall/Halloween-themed display. We also stopped by THEhotel's lobby, just because I love their decor, and caught the Bellagio fountains by night. Other highlights of the trip included yet another visit to Samba Brazilian Steakhouse at the Mirage (I always forget how good they are), a morning workout at the Wynn Spa (available only to hotel guests), and brunch at the Pinot Brasserie, inside the Venetian (delicious but I was not fond of our waiter).

Some photos:








I always like to plan one special meal when visiting Las Vegas. This time, for dinner on Saturday night, we went to Daniel Boulud's DB Brasserie. Obligatory food photos follow...

Steak tartare appetizer (my favorite):


Mussels & fries (very generous portion, delicious fries):


Beef tenderloin (very tender, I preferred it to the ribeye):


Ribeye for two:


Profiteroles:

weddings of 2008

I'm going to a wedding this afternoon, the next-to-last of the year. The last is a destination wedding in Jamaica, in December. We're staying at a villa next to the beach for a week. Poor me, right?

Anyway, I think it's safe to say the wedding count for 2008 is complete? The final tally:
- Patty & Teddy: May 10th, in Warren, NJ
- Mike & Sophie: May 24th, in Sonoma, CA
- David & Boryana: June 7th, in Berkeley, CA
- Jen & Mike: September 13th, in Honolulu, HI
- Danny & Emily: October 4th, in Half Moon Bay, CA
- Henry & Paige: October 5th, in San Mateo, CA
- Amy & Tony: November 8th, in Portola Valley/Millbrae, CA
- Nina & Michael: December 8th, in Silver Sands, Jamaica

With the eight this year, I will have been to 41 weddings by the end of 2008. I thought that was a fairly large number, but then my coworker told me he went to 18 weddings last year. Wow.

conciliatory tone

I thought Obama's acceptance speech and McCain's concession speech were really good. Both were eloquent, gracious, and substantial. It's kind of sad how the election process turns everything and everyone negative and horrible. Now that it's over, people seem to be reverting to decency. For instance, this site seems like a nice gesture: from 52 to 48 with love.

asian parents

Someone sent me these links last week but I didn't get a chance to look at them until today. They've been cracking me up all morning.

this year's pumpkins

Another year, another pumpkin carving party. This year's was scheduled to coincide with the NBA's season opener, so that people could hang out and watch basketball before/after carving.

Due to not having found/drawn a template in time, I decided to freehand my pumpkin this year. I think it turned out okay:


Other pumpkins:



I thought the Houston Rockets logo on the center pumpkin in the first photo was especially appropriate for the first day of the NBA season. The "leaky heart valve" pumpkin at the bottom right was also clever.

Here's a detail of the most intricate pumpkin:


Apparently it's a "Black Mage" character from the first Final Fantasy. I never played the game, so I can't vouch for authenticity, but the carving skill is impressive nonetheless.

mixed feelings

I had 7:30pm dinner reservations at a nice restaurant last night. By that time, it was pretty clear that Barack Obama would be our next president, and this being the Bay Area, the mood both at work and at the restaurant was pretty jubilant.

It wasn't until I woke up this morning that I discovered Proposition 8 had passed, leaving me horribly disappointed in my fellow Californians. I wonder if the Bay Area can disown Solano County?

Other random election-related thoughts:
- I'm impressed and heartened that Obama took Ohio, Iowa, Indiana, Virginia, and possibly North Carolina. I distinctly remember asking someone if it was normal for North Carolina to be close, because I was so surprised it was even a possibility for Obama to win there.
- California is predicting a turnout of nearly 80% (they're still counting early and absentee ballots). As disappointed as I am about the passage of Proposition 8, I *am* happy that people are at least voting. It's so silly for us to talk about democracy and then not to participate in it.
- The Wolf Blitzer hologram stunt was kind of stupid. Did anyone even care?
- News organizations like to call states really early. Last night they called some states with "0% districts reporting" (based on exit polls, I guess?) which seems awfully premature.
- It seems somewhat unfair that people can donate money to religious organizations and claim them as "charitable" donations and then get tax write-offs, even though the religious organizations turn around and pour the money into things like supporting Proposition 8. I'm fairly certain there was no way to sneakily characterize No-on-8 contributions as "charitable".
- My brother lives in Chicago and he says he heard it was a positive madhouse over at Grant Park, and even by his work (2 miles north) it was pretty rowdy, with people cheering and celebrating randomly all day. Must be amazing to be there, in the middle of it all, right now.
- I find it a little ironic that on this day, when we finally voted to elect an African-American president, that 70% of African-Americans in California voted to discriminate against gay people.
- There are some fascinating tidbits in this Newsweek Special entitled Highlights of the 2008 Election. As a techie, I thought this was pretty cool: The Obama campaign's New Media experts created a computer program that would allow a "flusher"—the term for a volunteer who rounds up nonvoters on Election Day—to know exactly who had, and had not, voted in real time. They dubbed it Project Houdini, because of the way names disappear off the list instantly once people are identified as they wait in line at their local polling station.

In some ways I'm relieved the election is over. It feels like it's been going on forever, and it's been a bit exhausting, constantly being deluged by the latest polls and attack ads and political analyses. I hope this is the part where we get on with fixing the country already. I'm cautiously optimistic.

you should vote

In case you've been hiding in a cave for months, here's a reminder: Today is election day!

Over the years I've spent a lot of time trying to convince various people that they should vote. This year, my college roommate is registered to vote for the first time ever. Yay! I'm not sure I can claim any credit but it's good news either way.

Last week I read an article about why women, in particular, should vote. I dislike the idea that women should feel more responsibility to vote because of the history of women's suffrage, but I do think it's good to remember and acknowledge the extraordinary contribution of the women who fought for that worthy cause.

I especially liked this part:

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy. The doctor admonished the men:

"Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity."

yet another Taiwan post

After my grandparents left to go back to Taiwan to attend the 10/25 protest, I was curious about how it turned out, but not surprisingly, I had a lot of difficulty finding English news reports of any substance.

Today, as I was reading about the newest protests, I finally found a Reuters article reporting a turnout of "half a million". Impressive!

Less heartening were the more recent reports that Taiwanese protesters and politicians are being denied the right to wave Taiwan flags in their own country, and that they are being kept away from the visiting Chinese official using razor wires. It's like Taiwan, under Ma Jing-Yeou, is slowly creeping back towards martial law again. It's scary and creepy and generally horrible.

BBQ & basketball

My basketball league has been on hiatus for nearly a month now, due to the City of San Carlos' budgetary issues. One of my teammates decided that we should get together anyway, if not for basketball, then for BBQ. She invited us over to her house last Friday, and amazingly, most of the team was actually free.

Of course everyone came bearing side dishes and/or desserts, and I was pretty impressed with the spread. We started with stuffed mushrooms, chips w/ hummus, salsa, and guacomole, and bruschetta with fresh basil, tomato, and mozzarella (courtesy of yours truly and Trader Joe's). With the delicious BBQ chicken and pork ribs we had a garden salad, cornbread, pasta salad, mac & cheese, and corn on the cob. Finally, for dessert, there were brownies, and a banana pudding with Nilla wafers.

Yup, not only can we play, we can cook. Well, some of us. I can only cook.

getting psyched for Jamaica

I'm going to be going to Jamaica for a week in December, to attend a small destination wedding. The bride and groom have been sending out planning details recently, which inspired me to finally go and check out Back-A-Yard, a tiny Jamaican place off of Willow in Menlo Park.

I had the Jerk Chicken plate, which came with salad, two scoops of rice & beans, fried plantains, and of course, the chicken. I was pretty hungry, but the plate was more than enough for me (although I did polish off all of the plantains). The chicken was delicious; less spicy than I had expected, which was good as I was eating with some spice-adverse people, but still spicy enough to be good. I'm told the BBQ items are also quite good, so maybe I'll stop by again sometime before my trip.

tossing traditions

I object to the traditional "bouquet/garter toss" that often takes place at weddings. As I've mentioned before, I go to a lot of weddings, so during wedding season I often find myself explaining why. I've listed my primary reasons below.

Reason #1: Trivializing marriage
In my opinion, deciding to get married is a serious relationship change and both parties should spend a lot of time carefully thinking/talking it out and making sure it's what they both really want. The idea that something as trivial as catching a bouquet or garter could affect such a serious decision at all...well, it seems silly and even insulting to rational adults. Basically, it makes light of the institution of marriage, at an event intended to celebrate a marriage.

Reason #2: Trivializing other committed long-term relationships
This is very similar to Reason #1, but I want to mention this angle specifically because I think it often gets overlooked. People are expected to want to catch the bouquet (and to some extent, the garter). This would seem to indicate an absolute belief that marriage is the "best" relationship state for everyone. I object to passing judgment on people's life choices. Many adults are in committed long-term relationships. Some of them don't believe in marriage. Others are gay and are not allowed to be married in their state/country of residence. Others may feel that they (or their partner, or their relationship) are not ready for marriage at this time. Why would any of these people want to participate in these rituals?

Update: A friend just made another good point corresponding to Reason #2. The bouquet or garter toss defines people who are in committed long-term relationships as "single", thus trivializing those relationships and portraying them as "lesser" states compared to marriage. The obvious solution would be to allow people to define their own singleness, but what ends up happening is that purportedly "single" people who don't consider themselves single are pressured to participate anyway.

Reason #3: Awkwardness
One would think that at a party, the objective of the hosts would be to maximize the enjoyment of the guests. At a wedding reception, the bouquet and garter toss are often the most awkward moments for said guests. I'll focus on the bouquet toss first...

There's this outdated notion that all women want to catch the bouquet because all women desperately want to be married as soon as possible. In this day and age, that's simply not true. Some women are happy to be single, and some aren't. Some women want to catch the bouquet, and some don't.

I think we can define three groups:
A. Women who are happy about being single
B. Women who are unhappy about being single but don't believe in bouquet tossing
C. Women who are unhappy about being single and do want to catch the bouquet

Women in Group A are happy about being single, and thus don't want to catch the bouquet. Women in Group B are are unhappy about being single but think bouquet tossing is silly and thus don't want to catch the bouquet. Women in Group C are unhappy about being single and do want to catch the bouquet. So, the argument could be made that bouquet tossing is for Group C, right? The problem is, Group C women are unhappy about being single. Making them stand up in front of a large group of guests to "fight" over a bouquet only emphasizes their singleness, which is pretty much guaranteed to make them unhappier. Thus, by definition, no one is ever all that happy to catch a bouquet.

In reality, nearly all of the women who participate in the bouquet toss are usually present due to peer pressure or a sense of duty/friendship. I've attended multiple weddings at which everyone ducked the bouquet and it fell on the floor. Talk about awkwardness! More frequently, some poor bridesmaid will sacrifice herself and catch the bouquet so that the bride will be satisfied.

I've decided I'm not even going to get started on the garter toss. My thoughts are pretty much summed up by "ick". It's sad that sexism is so unapologetically rampant at weddings.

living in a bubble

I read the national news, so of course I know that here in California, we live in a bubble. We have higher emission standards than the rest of the country, we have fresher and more organic produce, we have an Asian population of over 12%, we think high-speed internet is a basic utility, and we vote for Democratic presidential candidates.

I didn't fully realize until recently that the Bay Area is a bubble inside of a bubble. In the last few weeks, I've been bombarded by "No on 8" messages: via personal e-mail, in chat/twitter statuses, on Facebook, on mailing lists, etc. A few of my friends have in fact become very passionate and articulate about reminding people to vote "No on 8". (Incidentally, none of them happen to be gay.) I've heard many people express disappointment that such a measure could even have made it onto the ballot.

Then I read the news, and I am amazed to hear that Proposition 8 is currently projected to be "narrowly" defeated. See, I live in such a bubble that I can't comprehend how it can even be a close contest. Here's hoping it's not...I would love if California set a great example for the country on this topic.

(Being a lazy permanent absentee voter, I already did my part last week.)

pet peeve of the day

To all those bikers who for some reason think that they're pedestrians:
1. No, it is not okay for you to ride on the sidewalk and endanger real pedestrians. For one thing, you're taking up the whole sidewalk, which doesn't really allow for two-way traffic, does it?
2. It is also not okay for you to stop car traffic by riding in the crosswalk; you are not a pedestrian and do not have the right-of-way, unless you are off the bike and walking. Yeah, that's why all those other bikers are stopped back there waiting for the light to change.

priorities

My grandparents, who have been visiting here in California for the past month, flew back to Taipei yesterday so that they could participate in tomorrow's Protect Taiwan march. That's just so cool that it speaks for itself, so my only comment is: 外公外婆加油!

oh dear

In my news feed this morning: Pro-independence protesters in Taiwan have attacked a visiting Chinese envoy. There's video and everything.

On the one hand, I understand there is a lot of frustration right now in Taiwan. Ma Ying-Jeou has been pandering to China at every opportunity, and on top of that, people are afraid to eat anything, due to the Chinese milk scandal. Part of me definitely feels like cheering on the protesters. But, in the larger scheme of things, I don't think this incident is going to help Taiwan's standing in the international community.

Then again, the international community pretty much spits on Taiwan, so maybe we shouldn't care what they think.

milestone?

Last Thursday, I think I may have hit a milestone.

I was running on a treadmill, and somewhere near the fifth mile, my legs started to give out, and my lungs were fine. My legs were actually so tired that they refused to move fast enough to keep up with the treadmill's motion, and for a split second I actually felt like I was going to fall off the machine. Yay for increased cardio fitness!

Although, I guess the alternative explanation is that my legs were having a bad day.