Y2 Combinator is a new kind of firm: a company that starts companies that starts companies. We help company-starting companies through what is for many the hardest step, copying the Y Combinator site without making silly mistakes.
lol.
Monday, February 18, 2008
silicon valley humor
X showed me Y2Combinator:
lol.
lol.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
rating everyone
My dear friend Reza has a wonderful idea. Every one of us should receive a rating and reviews.
You can read his full post here. It's like DontDateHimGirl.com expanded to all areas of life.
I endorse this idea!
It may make sense to separate the ratings along different axes: career, friendship, relationship. That way, a workaholic who ignores their significant other could have 5 stars on one axis and 0 stars along the other, as opposed to a confusing average of 2.5 stars.
To protect against spamming, you would enter a secret question for each category. Only people who are qualified to rate you would know the answer. For example, the work one could be "What is my desk location number?" so only your real coworkers could rate you.
Potential romance secret questions are left as an exercise to the reader.
This way, when my profile is posted, I won't immediately be voted down to 0 stars by thousands of angry Asian men.
Imagine a world where people could easily point their cell phone at you and give you a plus or a minus vote. If you let someone merge in, the other driver can give you a small star. If you stop and help someone with a flat tire, you might get lots of stars. If you cut people off or cheat on the carpool lane, you get bad karma. That's similar to PageRank. We all look at reviews for movies, restaurants, books, hotels, etc. And we look at the star rating on youtube, netflix, etc. Why not have it for people?
You can read his full post here. It's like DontDateHimGirl.com expanded to all areas of life.
I endorse this idea!
It may make sense to separate the ratings along different axes: career, friendship, relationship. That way, a workaholic who ignores their significant other could have 5 stars on one axis and 0 stars along the other, as opposed to a confusing average of 2.5 stars.
To protect against spamming, you would enter a secret question for each category. Only people who are qualified to rate you would know the answer. For example, the work one could be "What is my desk location number?" so only your real coworkers could rate you.
Potential romance secret questions are left as an exercise to the reader.
This way, when my profile is posted, I won't immediately be voted down to 0 stars by thousands of angry Asian men.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
More stats on the world. (updated)
It would be lovely if there was easy access to more fine-grained statistics about the world. It would help in making risk assessments.
For example, I enjoy creative writing. I'd like to estimate my chances of ever getting published. If it's low, e.g. 1%, I just won't bother sending out manuscripts. Instead I'll write solely for enjoyment.
A panel of authors once said that 10% of aspiring writers get published. This number is not helpful. The pertinent data would be a set of writing samples at various levels of ability. For each, it would aggregate the percentage of authors who eventually got published.
Burgeoning writers can then look for a level similar to their own (or ask friends to rate them) and get the associated probability.
Another example is marriage and divorce. Supposedly there are well-known factors that influence the probability of staying together. The well-touted 50% divorce rate is skewed by shotgun weddings, according to a story I heard. If you're not marrying due to unexpected pregnancy, your divorce probability falls below 50%. But it rises if you live together first. Your marriage also has a much better chance if the ratio of positive to negative interactions exceeds 5:1.
It would be nice if there exists a service where people could pay money to fill out a bunch of information about them and their significant other, and get a customized probability score. They might decide to ignore it, but at least curious people can get an assessment.
Another example is startups. 90% of startups fail. Are these startups with great founders and innovative product ideas? Or is it skewed by people who caught entrepeneur fever, without accompanying skills?
Stats are good. More detailed stats would be better.
Some comments are along the lines of "I'm sure if J. K. Rowling knew her chances of getting published were very low , maybe she'd would have never written Harry Potter."
This completely misses the point of the spectrum-odds. J. K. Rowling is an amazing writer. She is a master of suspense. She weaves a spellbinding world. If she used the spectrum system I talked about, she would probably find that while overall odds of publishing are very low, the J.K. Rowling-specific odds are actually high.
Dan's comment captures this well:
Another set of comments imply "Don't give up writing just because the odds of publishing are low." Who said anything about giving up writing? If you actually read my post above, I said:
The time spent on printing out manuscripts, binding them, and mailing them could be spent on doing more writing.
Why do we promote making blind decisions? Instead of saying, "The odds are low, so you should avoid discovering what they are." we should be saying, "The odds are low, and you should find out exactly what they are, so you can make a rational choice on whether you will try anyway."
For example, I enjoy creative writing. I'd like to estimate my chances of ever getting published. If it's low, e.g. 1%, I just won't bother sending out manuscripts. Instead I'll write solely for enjoyment.
A panel of authors once said that 10% of aspiring writers get published. This number is not helpful. The pertinent data would be a set of writing samples at various levels of ability. For each, it would aggregate the percentage of authors who eventually got published.
Burgeoning writers can then look for a level similar to their own (or ask friends to rate them) and get the associated probability.
Another example is marriage and divorce. Supposedly there are well-known factors that influence the probability of staying together. The well-touted 50% divorce rate is skewed by shotgun weddings, according to a story I heard. If you're not marrying due to unexpected pregnancy, your divorce probability falls below 50%. But it rises if you live together first. Your marriage also has a much better chance if the ratio of positive to negative interactions exceeds 5:1.
It would be nice if there exists a service where people could pay money to fill out a bunch of information about them and their significant other, and get a customized probability score. They might decide to ignore it, but at least curious people can get an assessment.
Another example is startups. 90% of startups fail. Are these startups with great founders and innovative product ideas? Or is it skewed by people who caught entrepeneur fever, without accompanying skills?
Stats are good. More detailed stats would be better.
Update
Some comments are along the lines of "I'm sure if J. K. Rowling knew her chances of getting published were very low , maybe she'd would have never written Harry Potter."
This completely misses the point of the spectrum-odds. J. K. Rowling is an amazing writer. She is a master of suspense. She weaves a spellbinding world. If she used the spectrum system I talked about, she would probably find that while overall odds of publishing are very low, the J.K. Rowling-specific odds are actually high.
Dan's comment captures this well:
Many of the comments are supporting ignorance. "You probably won't succeed, so it's best that you don't know the odds." Ridiculous: if the overall odds are against you, all the more reason to know the conditional odds.
Another set of comments imply "Don't give up writing just because the odds of publishing are low." Who said anything about giving up writing? If you actually read my post above, I said:
I'd like to estimate my chances of ever getting published. If it's low, e.g. 1%, I just won't bother sending out manuscripts. Instead I'll write solely for enjoyment.
The time spent on printing out manuscripts, binding them, and mailing them could be spent on doing more writing.
Why do we promote making blind decisions? Instead of saying, "The odds are low, so you should avoid discovering what they are." we should be saying, "The odds are low, and you should find out exactly what they are, so you can make a rational choice on whether you will try anyway."
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Quantum Hoops!
Last night I went to see the documentary "Quantum Hoops" in Berkeley.
It follows the Caltech basketball history, focusing on the team's losing streak between 1985 through 2006 (the year the film was made). During all those decades, the Caltech basketball team did not win a single game.
I bought movie tickets online, for fear the showing would sell out. My companions laughed at this. They were right about the audience turnout. But we did run into a number of Techers in the theatre.
The documentary had a number of clips with the current coach:
He's so awesome.
He talks about how Caltech players put academics first, and the entire team has only six students who played high school varsity. They compete against colleges that offer basketball scholarships, where most players were starters on their high school varsity team.
My favorite line in the film came when he talked about reducing the point spread from 60 points every game (in 2003) down to only 10 points (in 2006).
It follows the Caltech basketball history, focusing on the team's losing streak between 1985 through 2006 (the year the film was made). During all those decades, the Caltech basketball team did not win a single game.
I bought movie tickets online, for fear the showing would sell out. My companions laughed at this. They were right about the audience turnout. But we did run into a number of Techers in the theatre.
The documentary had a number of clips with the current coach:
He's so awesome.
He talks about how Caltech players put academics first, and the entire team has only six students who played high school varsity. They compete against colleges that offer basketball scholarships, where most players were starters on their high school varsity team.
Coach: Yeah, Caltech doesn't win championships the way UCLA does, or USC. [pause] But we have a few more Nobel prizes.
My favorite line in the film came when he talked about reducing the point spread from 60 points every game (in 2003) down to only 10 points (in 2006).
Coach: [very proudly] We're only losing by ten points this season. Winning has gone from impossible to improbable!
Friday, February 08, 2008
girltalk
At a big group dinner with Laura and Katherine, two Googlers that I see occasionally.
Katherine: These new "Sex in the City" ripoffs are so lame. Like the one with Lucy Liu. The characters are not believable.
Laura: The three of us need to make one.
Me: Where should it be set?
Katherine: Not here. Or NYC. Oh, it should be set in Rome.
Me: [appraising her] You could pass for being Italian.
Katherine: I AM Italian.
...
Me: Our show needs some kind of drama. Like, my character meets an Italian guy, and he's really cute. But it turns out he has chest hair.
Laura: Yeah! So much chest hair. But he's very sweet to you.
Me: Right, so my character is torn.
Laura: [offhandedly, while eating salad] The hair is on his back too.
Me: [recoiling]
Laura: He cooks dinner for you.
Katherine: These new "Sex in the City" ripoffs are so lame. Like the one with Lucy Liu. The characters are not believable.
Laura: The three of us need to make one.
Me: Where should it be set?
Katherine: Not here. Or NYC. Oh, it should be set in Rome.
Me: [appraising her] You could pass for being Italian.
Katherine: I AM Italian.
...
Me: Our show needs some kind of drama. Like, my character meets an Italian guy, and he's really cute. But it turns out he has chest hair.
Laura: Yeah! So much chest hair. But he's very sweet to you.
Me: Right, so my character is torn.
Laura: [offhandedly, while eating salad] The hair is on his back too.
Me: [recoiling]
Laura: He cooks dinner for you.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
airport brainstorming
At SJC airport this afternoon, waiting to fly to LA for Google's company trip to Disneyland.
Me: "My last couple of blog posts were probably only funny to Googlers."
Dan: "No, they weren't funny even to me."
Me: "What the hell!"
Dan: [shrugging]
...
Five of us sat around a table at California Pizza Kitchen at the airport.
Jim: "XXX broke up after getting engaged."
Me: "Oh, why? He's such a nice guy!"
Jim: "I don't know the story. I just know he broke up."
Me: "If only there was some service that collates people's breakup stories. I want to know the details."
Bob: "This can be a Google product. Organizing the world's breakup information and making it universally accessible and useful."
Me: [laughing]
Dan: "Every day when you log into Gmail, there can be a text entry box, 'Did anything embarrassing happen last night?'"
Me: "My last couple of blog posts were probably only funny to Googlers."
Dan: "No, they weren't funny even to me."
Me: "What the hell!"
Dan: [shrugging]
...
Five of us sat around a table at California Pizza Kitchen at the airport.
Jim: "XXX broke up after getting engaged."
Me: "Oh, why? He's such a nice guy!"
Jim: "I don't know the story. I just know he broke up."
Me: "If only there was some service that collates people's breakup stories. I want to know the details."
Bob: "This can be a Google product. Organizing the world's breakup information and making it universally accessible and useful."
Me: [laughing]
Dan: "Every day when you log into Gmail, there can be a text entry box, 'Did anything embarrassing happen last night?'"
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Friday, February 01, 2008
peanut gallery
At an internal tech talk, I'm standing in the back of the room with my Googler friend JA. We're listening to a presentation about some infrastructure.
Me: Wow, this is really cool. This is amazing. I can't wait to use this.
JA: Yeah. How much do you think XX [the speaker] contributes to Google?
Me: He's like the G that makes up Google.
... Later, the speaker finished, and a second speaker went to the podium.
Speaker #2: I'm going to talk about project Y. First, an overview of how Google search works. [shows slide with blob of "The Web" connected to "crawler" and then "indexer"] Now, some engineers here may not know what the indexer does.
Me: [whispering to JA] Really?
JA: [smiling] How about the crawler. What does that do?
Me: He should explain what "The Web" is.
JA: [gesturing toward the Google logo on every slide] Or what is "Google"?
Me: Wow, this is really cool. This is amazing. I can't wait to use this.
JA: Yeah. How much do you think XX [the speaker] contributes to Google?
Me: He's like the G that makes up Google.
... Later, the speaker finished, and a second speaker went to the podium.
Speaker #2: I'm going to talk about project Y. First, an overview of how Google search works. [shows slide with blob of "The Web" connected to "crawler" and then "indexer"] Now, some engineers here may not know what the indexer does.
Me: [whispering to JA] Really?
JA: [smiling] How about the crawler. What does that do?
Me: He should explain what "The Web" is.
JA: [gesturing toward the Google logo on every slide] Or what is "Google"?
so how much data was generated while we were talking?
A friend reminded me of this story last week, and it made me laugh.
A few months ago, I was talking to an engineer in a nearby cubicle.
Engineer: [describing his project which does some amazing stuff]
Me: "Wow, that's cool. How much data does that generate?"
Engineer: "X terabytes."
Me: [startled] "Woah!"
Engineer: "... per minute."
A few months ago, I was talking to an engineer in a nearby cubicle.
Engineer: [describing his project which does some amazing stuff]
Me: "Wow, that's cool. How much data does that generate?"
Engineer: "X terabytes."
Me: [startled] "Woah!"
Engineer: "... per minute."
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
funny (to me, at least)
Me: "Dan, it turns out you're the #15 commenter on FriendFeed."
Dan: [very seriously] "So who are numbers one through fourteen then?"
I went to Hearst Castle earlier in the month. The library contained a tall vase with white lilies. I couldn't figure out whether the lilies were real, no matter how much I stared.
I was reminded of an incident from my childhood.
When I was eight, my uncle visited the US from China for a one-year fellowship. One day, my parents went to the bank to open a checking account, and took him and me along.
My parents sat at a bank representative's desk filling out the new account form. I pointed at the leafy plant on the desk and asked my uncle in Mandarin, "Is that plant real?"
My uncle replied, also in Mandarin, "Modern plastic plants are often very realistic. They look real, the texture feels real, and they even smell real. There's only one way to tell."
He snapped off a leaf between his fingers, and placed it in his mouth. After two chews, he announced, "Yup, this one's real." I nodded in satisfaction.
When I looked up, the bank rep was staring open-mouthed at us.
Later I considered it from the bank rep's perspective. A family comes into your bank to open a checking account. The uncle and niece speak to each other in Mandarin, and then out of nowhere, the uncle picks a leaf off your plant and eats it for no discernible reason.
I still laugh when I think of it.
Dan: [very seriously] "So who are numbers one through fourteen then?"
I went to Hearst Castle earlier in the month. The library contained a tall vase with white lilies. I couldn't figure out whether the lilies were real, no matter how much I stared.
I was reminded of an incident from my childhood.
When I was eight, my uncle visited the US from China for a one-year fellowship. One day, my parents went to the bank to open a checking account, and took him and me along.
My parents sat at a bank representative's desk filling out the new account form. I pointed at the leafy plant on the desk and asked my uncle in Mandarin, "Is that plant real?"
My uncle replied, also in Mandarin, "Modern plastic plants are often very realistic. They look real, the texture feels real, and they even smell real. There's only one way to tell."
He snapped off a leaf between his fingers, and placed it in his mouth. After two chews, he announced, "Yup, this one's real." I nodded in satisfaction.
When I looked up, the bank rep was staring open-mouthed at us.
Later I considered it from the bank rep's perspective. A family comes into your bank to open a checking account. The uncle and niece speak to each other in Mandarin, and then out of nowhere, the uncle picks a leaf off your plant and eats it for no discernible reason.
I still laugh when I think of it.
Monday, January 28, 2008
sassy, in three parts
Eating brunch with a guy friend, at Foreign Cinema. He's talking about a girl he likes.
Friend: "I should invite her to an event. How can I do it casually?"
Me: "Pick something you know she likes to do. What are her hobbies?"
Friend: "She takes ballet classes."
Me: "Why don't you invite her to the San Francisco ballet?"
Friend: [raising eyebrow] "You realize that I would then also need to go to the ballet."
Over dinner at Ronald McDonald House, a mother is talking about her newborn who was born with her intestines outside of her body.
Mother: "They rushed her from my C-section immediately to the ICU. They hooked up a device so that her intestines are suspended over a cavity in her abdomen, and over the next few days, gravity pulled them back into her body."
Me: [shocked]
Mother: "But she wasn't gaining weight for the next two months. The doctor said it could be the [long medical term] condition, but he didn't want to do a test to check because that condition is so rare."
Me: "So what happened?"
Mother: "I told the doctor, 'Being born with your intestines outside your body is also extremely rare! Do the test!'"
(In happy news, the newborn later gained weight. Mother and daughter were discharged from the hospital today.)
Last month, I told my brother about a Stanford writing class I took. We were each asked to bring two pages of a published work from an author we admired. I brought Harry Potter, which was denounced by a middle-aged Indian student CJ for being "cliche". Another person brought the Foundation trilogy, and CJ criticized both Asimov's writing and science fiction in general.
Finally I asked what he brought. He announced that his "two pages from an author you admire" was his own published work. He proceeded to hand out copies of his story, each with a stapled photocopy of his acceptance letter to a local literary magazine.
Tonight, at the grocery store with my brother:
Me: "I'm taking another writing course. Guess who I saw on the first day. Remember that guy I told you about, who brought his own published work?"
Tom: "Of course I remember that dumbass."
Me: [shaking with laughter]
Tom: "Oh sorry, was I being too truthful?"
Friend: "I should invite her to an event. How can I do it casually?"
Me: "Pick something you know she likes to do. What are her hobbies?"
Friend: "She takes ballet classes."
Me: "Why don't you invite her to the San Francisco ballet?"
Friend: [raising eyebrow] "You realize that I would then also need to go to the ballet."
Over dinner at Ronald McDonald House, a mother is talking about her newborn who was born with her intestines outside of her body.
Mother: "They rushed her from my C-section immediately to the ICU. They hooked up a device so that her intestines are suspended over a cavity in her abdomen, and over the next few days, gravity pulled them back into her body."
Me: [shocked]
Mother: "But she wasn't gaining weight for the next two months. The doctor said it could be the [long medical term] condition, but he didn't want to do a test to check because that condition is so rare."
Me: "So what happened?"
Mother: "I told the doctor, 'Being born with your intestines outside your body is also extremely rare! Do the test!'"
(In happy news, the newborn later gained weight. Mother and daughter were discharged from the hospital today.)
Last month, I told my brother about a Stanford writing class I took. We were each asked to bring two pages of a published work from an author we admired. I brought Harry Potter, which was denounced by a middle-aged Indian student CJ for being "cliche". Another person brought the Foundation trilogy, and CJ criticized both Asimov's writing and science fiction in general.
Finally I asked what he brought. He announced that his "two pages from an author you admire" was his own published work. He proceeded to hand out copies of his story, each with a stapled photocopy of his acceptance letter to a local literary magazine.
Tonight, at the grocery store with my brother:
Me: "I'm taking another writing course. Guess who I saw on the first day. Remember that guy I told you about, who brought his own published work?"
Tom: "Of course I remember that dumbass."
Me: [shaking with laughter]
Tom: "Oh sorry, was I being too truthful?"
Friday, January 25, 2008
offspring ~ software
Today in the cafe I ran into a young Googler. We got to talking about his relationship, and he revealed that he's preparing to have kids soon.
Me: "Really? Are you ready for that?" [He's only 23.]
Him: "Is anyone ever ready?"
Me: "That's true."
Him: "It's like a work project, actually. You're not 100% sure that it'll work out, but you trust in the people doing it."
:)
Me: "Really? Are you ready for that?" [He's only 23.]
Him: "Is anyone ever ready?"
Me: "That's true."
Him: "It's like a work project, actually. You're not 100% sure that it'll work out, but you trust in the people doing it."
:)
Monday, January 21, 2008
MLK Day, redux
Last year's MLK Day was a comedy of errors on my part. Little did I know it would become an annual tradition.
I met Omst and Neha in the afternoon at Ritual Roasters. Neha is starting grad school at MIT, and the two of them are flying to Boston tonight. Once again I found myself saying "I will miss you" and "Send photos" and "I hate change".
The outflux of my friends moving away is significantly higher than the influx of new friends. If this trend continues, in two years I will have no friends living in the same city as me.
Then I can start acquiring my 19 cats, or my 1 pig.
After departing the cafe, I was greeted with a parking ticket on my windshield. The meter had run out fifteen minutes prior, and the parking maid had already come and gone during those minutes.
I wrote a check for the ticket and ran out in the rain to drop off the wet envelope in a mailbox. I drove to my nail appointment, got the address wrong, and arrived late after walking four blocks in the rain. The salon cancelled my pedicure, but still gave me a manicure.
It was shortly after dusk, the hour of melancholy, and I sat in my car looking at the torrent through the streetlamp lights. I decided the solution to fix this day was to go to Sugar Cafe. Specifically, I would go eat their mini-burgers and write on my laptop.
When I arrived, the barista informed me the kitchen closed early.
"I still see plates of mini-burgers coming out of your kitchen!" I protested, to no avail.
I sat down next to Sugar's gas fireplace with my laptop, and pressed the un-hibernate. To my absolute horror, nothing happened. The screen stayed black. My laptop made no acknowledgement of my action.
This has never happened before. Did it rain on the laptop earlier? How much work was on it that was not backed up?
Fortunately, after I arrived at home and plugged it in, the laptop turned on.
There's a xkcd comic, where the protagonist says after six hours of fiddling with his computer, "I'll be happy if I can just get it back to the state it was in before I started."
That describes my day today.
I met Omst and Neha in the afternoon at Ritual Roasters. Neha is starting grad school at MIT, and the two of them are flying to Boston tonight. Once again I found myself saying "I will miss you" and "Send photos" and "I hate change".
The outflux of my friends moving away is significantly higher than the influx of new friends. If this trend continues, in two years I will have no friends living in the same city as me.
Then I can start acquiring my 19 cats, or my 1 pig.
After departing the cafe, I was greeted with a parking ticket on my windshield. The meter had run out fifteen minutes prior, and the parking maid had already come and gone during those minutes.
I wrote a check for the ticket and ran out in the rain to drop off the wet envelope in a mailbox. I drove to my nail appointment, got the address wrong, and arrived late after walking four blocks in the rain. The salon cancelled my pedicure, but still gave me a manicure.
It was shortly after dusk, the hour of melancholy, and I sat in my car looking at the torrent through the streetlamp lights. I decided the solution to fix this day was to go to Sugar Cafe. Specifically, I would go eat their mini-burgers and write on my laptop.
When I arrived, the barista informed me the kitchen closed early.
"I still see plates of mini-burgers coming out of your kitchen!" I protested, to no avail.
I sat down next to Sugar's gas fireplace with my laptop, and pressed the un-hibernate. To my absolute horror, nothing happened. The screen stayed black. My laptop made no acknowledgement of my action.
This has never happened before. Did it rain on the laptop earlier? How much work was on it that was not backed up?
Fortunately, after I arrived at home and plugged it in, the laptop turned on.
There's a xkcd comic, where the protagonist says after six hours of fiddling with his computer, "I'll be happy if I can just get it back to the state it was in before I started."
That describes my day today.
Friday, January 18, 2008
slightly amusing
Me: "Are you going to work on Monday? It's Martin Luther King Day."
"I need to check."
Me: "I'm not."
"Oh, is all of Google shutting down for the day?"
Me: "Yeah. [pause] Well, our web site will still be up, probably."
"I need to check."
Me: "I'm not."
"Oh, is all of Google shutting down for the day?"
Me: "Yeah. [pause] Well, our web site will still be up, probably."
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
how can
I'm really disturbed that Britney Spears is dating this unattractive paparazzi cameraman.
Even in 2005, my friend said, "What happened? Two years ago she was the most unattainable woman in the world."
And now look.
How did this happen?
Even in 2005, my friend said, "What happened? Two years ago she was the most unattainable woman in the world."
And now look.
How did this happen?
Sunday, January 13, 2008
a few Paris photos
The breath-taking Museum d'Orsay.
One of the best paintings that I saw.
My friend Wenarto happened to be in Paris at the same time. We met up on New Year's outside of Louis Vuitton.
Wenarto was the only person along the Champ-Elysses who was dressed like this.
Sorollo House replaces my friend Eileen's house as the nicest house I've ever seen. (Sorry Eileen!) It combines high ceilings with gorgeous art by Sorollo.
Photo of the Louvre, from inside the Louvre.
My parents claimed they looked through the entire Louvre in one day.
Me: [surprised] "How did you manage that?"
My dad: "The last thirty minutes, we just walked nonstop through room after room."
Me: "Did you actually look at the art in the rooms?"
Dad: "Basically no. But we got through all the rooms!"
Tom performing "eater's pose" by my request, at a coffee shop in Madrid.
Friday, January 11, 2008
RSI
Three weeks ago, upon landing in Madrid, the pinky and ring finger of my left hand felt numb. I figured it was due to sleeping in a cramped pose during the flight.
The following week disabused me of that notion, as I developed pain in my deltoids, forearms, elbows, neck, and wrists. Around New Year, I stopped typing for five days.
Upon return to the US, I went to a doctor. He told me that I have blackberry thumb, tennis elbow, carpal tunnel, and tendinitis. I'm not sure why all of them appeared at the same time.
Part of the prescription involves cutting down on laptop and blackberry usage. A pity, as I used to enjoy lying in bed and typing emails to friends.
The following week disabused me of that notion, as I developed pain in my deltoids, forearms, elbows, neck, and wrists. Around New Year, I stopped typing for five days.
Upon return to the US, I went to a doctor. He told me that I have blackberry thumb, tennis elbow, carpal tunnel, and tendinitis. I'm not sure why all of them appeared at the same time.
Part of the prescription involves cutting down on laptop and blackberry usage. A pity, as I used to enjoy lying in bed and typing emails to friends.
Monday, January 07, 2008
[land, home] of the [free, brave]
This morning, Tom and I got on a plane in Paris to fly back to SFO.
Tom has a cold, and has been blowing his nose every minute. I gave him a kleenex packet from my purse, but that wasn't enough. He collected both of our drink napkins throughout the flight.
Tom: "When we land in Philly [for our stopover], I'm going to buy some food and take FIVE HUNDRED NAPKINS. God bless America."
Me: [laughing] "You don't even need to buy food to take napkins, usually."
Tom: "Oh, I'm also hungry."
... We landed in Philadelphia, and started walking toward the customs area.
Tom: "Ah, America. Time to be fat and proud of it!"
Me: "You've got half of that down." [nudging him]
Tom: "That's right -- I'm very proud."
Me: [grinning] "Of course, that's what I meant."
Tom: "And you've got the other half covered."
Both of us laughed the entire way through the customs line.
Tom has a cold, and has been blowing his nose every minute. I gave him a kleenex packet from my purse, but that wasn't enough. He collected both of our drink napkins throughout the flight.
Tom: "When we land in Philly [for our stopover], I'm going to buy some food and take FIVE HUNDRED NAPKINS. God bless America."
Me: [laughing] "You don't even need to buy food to take napkins, usually."
Tom: "Oh, I'm also hungry."
... We landed in Philadelphia, and started walking toward the customs area.
Tom: "Ah, America. Time to be fat and proud of it!"
Me: "You've got half of that down." [nudging him]
Tom: "That's right -- I'm very proud."
Me: [grinning] "Of course, that's what I meant."
Tom: "And you've got the other half covered."
Both of us laughed the entire way through the customs line.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
parents funny
Walking around Madrid, my mom stops every few minutes to take a photograph. Each one requires many seconds of adjustment for the perfect angle and lighting.
Last Monday, we went to the Royal Palace. Midday:
My mom: "I have very sad news. My camera battery died."
My dad: [clapping loudly] "太好了！ å°±ç‰è¿™ä»¶äº‹å‘¢！" ("Wonderful! Wonderful! It's just the news I've been waiting for!")
... We walk down the street and pass by the grand church next to the palace.
Dad: [poking my mom's elbow] "This church really deserves a photograph."
The rest of my family had to wait for me, to recover from being doubled over laughing.
...
Later, in the hotel room I was sharing with my brother:
Tom: "Mom takes so long with each photograph! We're always waiting."
Me: "I'm just happy that they're getting along. Let's not complain if the holy grail has a little bit of dust on it."
Last Monday, we went to the Royal Palace. Midday:
My mom: "I have very sad news. My camera battery died."
My dad: [clapping loudly] "太好了！ å°±ç‰è¿™ä»¶äº‹å‘¢！" ("Wonderful! Wonderful! It's just the news I've been waiting for!")
... We walk down the street and pass by the grand church next to the palace.
Dad: [poking my mom's elbow] "This church really deserves a photograph."
The rest of my family had to wait for me, to recover from being doubled over laughing.
...
Later, in the hotel room I was sharing with my brother:
Tom: "Mom takes so long with each photograph! We're always waiting."
Me: "I'm just happy that they're getting along. Let's not complain if the holy grail has a little bit of dust on it."
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Tom funny
Sitting inside Notre Dame, under a projector screen spanning the church:
Program Announcer: "This 60-minute movie will tell you about the history of our church. It is intended for young and old alike..."
Me: [poking Tom on shoulder] "Did you hear that? It appeals to both you and me."
Tom: "No, they didn't say yuppies. [pointing to door] You have to leave."
Tom: [talking about how he recently gained weight]
Me: "How can you look the same, but weigh so much more?"
Tom: "I must have gotten denser as I aged. Same body, more mass. Or rather, same volume, more ass."
At a cafe inside the Louvre, holding a book we brought from the States.
Tom: "By the way, I agree that the Pocket Louvre sucks. I looked up 'Venus de Milo' and all it said was 'The Venus de Milo was unearthed in 1820.'"
Me: "Yeah, it's terrible. Feel free to just throw it away."
Tom: "Being in the trash can of the real Louvre would be the greatest thing that's ever happened to that book! I'm going to take it out of the Louvre before I throw it out."
Program Announcer: "This 60-minute movie will tell you about the history of our church. It is intended for young and old alike..."
Me: [poking Tom on shoulder] "Did you hear that? It appeals to both you and me."
Tom: "No, they didn't say yuppies. [pointing to door] You have to leave."
Tom: [talking about how he recently gained weight]
Me: "How can you look the same, but weigh so much more?"
Tom: "I must have gotten denser as I aged. Same body, more mass. Or rather, same volume, more ass."
At a cafe inside the Louvre, holding a book we brought from the States.
Tom: "By the way, I agree that the Pocket Louvre sucks. I looked up 'Venus de Milo' and all it said was 'The Venus de Milo was unearthed in 1820.'"
Me: "Yeah, it's terrible. Feel free to just throw it away."
Tom: "Being in the trash can of the real Louvre would be the greatest thing that's ever happened to that book! I'm going to take it out of the Louvre before I throw it out."
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