Obligatory Surfing Post

Did I do something wrong, Mother Nature? Was I being punished for my hubris, Lord Poseidon?

Today was just rough. Really choppy surf. In quick succession, the waves would knock me askew, knock me off my board, then completely flip me over.

Apparently, I have forgotten how to paddle. How to fall off? Still remember quite well.

Refugee Orphan Christmas (and Ham!)

Not sure how it became a tradition, but for the last three years, I have hosted a Christmas Day dinner. Usually the attendees are some friends who, like me, either chose not to, or could not, make it home for the holidays. And a giant ham. I think the hams have only gotten bigger every year. This year was no different.

The recipe for the ham comes from Alton Brown ("Ham I Am -- City Ham"). Also watch the YouTube video, which is very helpful.

I also tried documenting the process in pictures:

Mustard (wet) layer:


Brown sugar (dry) layer:


Now there's supposed to be another "wet" layer of bourbon (I used Gentleman Jack) applied via spritz bottle as well as another "dry" layer of pulverized ginger cookies, but by now, my hands had become too sticky to handle my camera. The final product:


Pro-Tip: Use a meat thermometer for the roast itself (all roast recipes, really) and an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is heated correctly.

It was delicious. But now still so much ham left over.

The rest of the Christmas Dinner menu:
- Potato Salad
- Candied Yams
- Green Beans
- Corn Bread
- Winter Salad
- Pavlova

Each of these, there are many recipes for online. I generally just wing it as I've made these so many times before.

Set aside 6-12 hours to prepare everything, add friends and lots of wine. Enjoy.

Crazy Quakers

My parents decided, when I was between the ages of 7-9, that public schoolin' wasn't good enough to be Successful Asian Doctor/Engineer/Lawyer! so they sent me off to Germantown Friends School. After the 4th grade, they realized such a high-priced education would be wasted on me (I mean, I didn't even get into MIT!), and so I went back to public school.

It was a Quaker school, meaning every Thursday, we would spend an hour or two sitting in "meeting". It wasn't church because there was no direct religious messaging going on, and everyone was just supposed to sit silently and reflect. That is unless you had something to share with the whole school, whereby you then stood up and said it.

Around holidays, the meeting would inevitably turn into what was called a "popcorn meeting" because there would be many students and teachers standing up to wish everyone a "Happy Easter!" or "Happy MLK Day!" or "Happy You Don't Have the Clap Day!", often in succession, like popcorn in a pan. One time, our teacher expressly told us not to participate in this kind of activity, because it wasn't very meaningful to the meeting. I don't remember much of anything that I learned in grades 2-4, but I did remember that moment, when the teacher specifically told us that echoing holiday wishes to a public audience wasn't really useful or meaningful.

Anyways...Merry Christmas, Everyone! Happy Hanukkah and Happy Kwanzaa if you so choose! And may the New Year bring you love, happiness, and success!

Oh so I figured out why I wrote the "Roommates" post...

....I need a name for my new apartment. All my previous house shares have had a nickname, what should the new one be?

Also, I'm soliciting donations to help me pay for furnishing this new, unnamed place. I am offering exclusive naming rights based on sponsorship levels.

TD Ameritrade Tropicana American Airlines Apartment anyone?

Girl Pop.

My Future Wife

My Future Mistress

Who said music had to be dark, serious, and about angst and misfortune? Life has enough of that already. Sometimes, I just want to listen to something that's fluffy and meaningless.

Roommates

Freshman Year of College (2002-2003), Mudge House: MK. I could barely remember the kid's name, that's how well we got along. Totally different people. He was an uber-geek that loved to hang out in Wean Hall playing CTFwS. I was even more of a shut-in than I am now and rarely left my dorm. Yeah, Freshman year sucked.

Sophomore and Junior Years of College (2003-2005), Webster Apts: JH and DH (not related). This is when I first learned to cook: Top Ramen with tuna, Top Ramen with eggs, Top Ramen with cheese, and most anything I could put on a George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine. Also, I learned not all roommates respect your stuff.

Senior Year of College (2005-2006), Beeler St: Four guys I loved and am still Bros with. One I did not and no longer keep in contact with. A lot of good times at that house. From "renting" TVs and punching holes in walls to late night Wendy's runs and setting your roommate's sweater on fire. Good times.

Berkeley (2006-2007), Crack House: KM & JW. The sum total of our living room was four G-branded bean bag chairs, a foof couch, a 42-in LCD, and a foosball table. Despite this, I had a serious girlfriend at the time. How, I cannot begin to comprehend.

San Francisco (2007-2008), Clipper House: Let me just sum up the roommates at Clipper House by saying I went to the wedding where two of them got married. Flying in from Australia. And I will go to all of their weddings, if and when they choose to get hitched, and if they'll have me.

San Francisco II (2008-2009), China House: From the Clipper House, I met two Craigslist randoms who turned out to be THE BEST ROOMMATES EV4R!!1! Although this house was marred by insufferable neighbors. Who, to quote my roommate, "Really need to get fucked. In the ass."

San Francisco III (2009-2010), New China House: THE BEST ROOMMATES EV4R!!1!++. I bought a lot of tools and did a whole bunch of home improvement projects on an apartment I left after a year.

Sydney (2010), Real World House: I lived with a bunch of students, drifters, and working holiday visa holders making their way through Australia. I shared a laundry with 13 other people. I also shared a kitchen without an oven. I imagine if I were still a 20-year old backpacker, I would have enjoyed living there, not having to worry about furnishing an apartment or having stuff that wouldn't be destroyed. Fortunately, I am not now, nor ever was a 20-year old backpacker.

There were also two summers where I lived in temporary housing, but also with roommates:
2004 - In the Wallingford Social Club, although only one club member was present.
2005 - In an Imperial College (London) dorm room with a grad student from Germany who didn't drink and made 8-bit electronica music. Bad 8-bit electronica music.

Sydney II (present), My Apartment: I live alone for now. There's a spare bedroom which I may or may not end up renting out to someone. Buying furniture for this place has been the scariest decision I have ever had to make because it feels "permanent". 'Is this the couch I have for the next Y years? What if I don't like the color in two months? What if I'm allergic to it? And it costs how much?' On the plus side, I dream about the entertainment system I am going to build. On the down side, all the fruits of my newfound financial discipline have gone straight down the counter-clockwise flushing toilets.

In the last 8 years, I have had to move 9 times. At no point did I ever make a decision about living anywhere that had any semblance of permanence. Leaving SF, it took me a grand total of four days to get rid of all major belongings. I don't know what the point of this post was.

The Paradox of Choice

Someone asked me the other day how to find interesting TED talks to watch. Obviously, you just need to wait for me to post them here.



This one is particularly good, and particularly relevant as I spent the better part of my entire weekend trying out more couches, beds, and dining sets that I imagined could possibly exist.

I ended up unhappy because I had more choices.

Discuss.

Protips for Job Interviews

I wouldn't venture to say I have a great deal of experience interviewing or being interviewed. Though, as I approach my 50th interview given at the G, and looking back at all the jobs and internships I have applied to, the number of interviews where I have been on either side of the table is about a hundred. So it's fair bit. I don't even know if this will help any prospective job searchers. Are there any recent college grads or novice job seekers among the eight (OK, really four) of you who read this blog? But, if it happens to help someone who stumbles on this somehow, so be it.

Here are some general tips, some of it applies to technical interviews, but it is also generalizable:

- Be prepared. There's no way for you to anticipate all the questions you will be asked at your interview. We specifically cull our question sets for things that have been asked so frequently as to have ended up on the Interwebs. Brain teasers are also BS questions, and you look dishonest if you already looked up the answer beforehand and answered it too quickly. So, in light of this, prepare on the material that will be tested: you. As an interviewer, I am looking for how well you fit into the role I'm trying to fill. You as an interviewee should be looking for how well you fit into the same role. Know your strengths. Know your weaknesses. Know the top things in your background and resume to talk about. Know past examples to support each of the above. Like G. I. Sun-Tzu once said, 'knowing yourself is half the battle.' Or something.

- Know your shit. In addition to knowing the things you put on your resume and being able to back them up, know the things you know well. This is particularly true for technical interviews. If you say that your best programming language is Java, you better be able to write a `public static void main(String[] args){ }` from scratch. If it's Python, don't start using curly braces and semi-colons. If you say you know something, it should be familiar enough for you to do it on the spot. Small mistakes will happen, but the core should be there. The converse is also true. If you don't know something, don't try to fake your way through it to try and impress anyone; if the interviewer is asking it, that means they know it fairly well. That also means if your particular strengths don't match up well with the job, then it's time to move on.

- Ask interesting questions. Related to being prepared, look up the company you're applying for. When I ask you if you have any questions about the job or the company, these should reflect your interest in the job and the company. This means doing your research before hand. Don't ask me, "What does the job entail?" because you're supposed to have read the job description beforehand. Asking "What does your company do?" may as well get you disqualified on the spot; if you want to work here, you should know. Asking "How did I do in the interview?" makes you look like a tool, and on top of that, I'm not going to answer.

- Dress up. You're interviewing at one of those new-found tech companies with the laid back culture. Awesome! Still dress up. For the fellas, at least put on a clean collared shirt and tuck it in. No jeans. Dress shoes. (For the ladies, I don't know, my best cross-dressing days are behind me.) This is the minimum. I recommend more based on the company and the job. This is for two reasons: One, you can never be over dressed. Two, you don't dress up for yourself, you dress up to demonstrate your respect for the occasion and who you're meeting. Yes, the new techie uniform is a t-shirt (usually ironic), jeans, and shoes optional. No, this does not mean you should dress like your interviewer. You don't have the job yet. If I am an interviewer and I see you dressed poorly, I either don't care or I think it reflects poorly on how seriously you take this. If you are dress well, I either don't care of I think it reflects well on how serious you take this. Notice the explicit inversion. Also, on the off chance you run into a toolbag like myself, who's dressed in a collared shirt and slacks most days, you're going to feel like a bigger toolbag.

- Follow-up. This I don't understand. In the 50 or so interviews I have given, I have maybe gotten a follow-up or thank you email, five times. In the 50 or so interviews I have done, I always sent a standard thank you, with a bit highlighting my strengths etc. (unless the interviewer explicitly would not give me a way to contact them, whereby, F them!) This is a common courtesy and something I was taught by my college career counselor. It's not hard, and there's no down-side. Thank the interviewer for their time. Highlight one or two areas you talked about in the interview and how you match them. Say you're looking forward to hearing back from them. Done.

- Don't FB/LinkedIn stalk your interviewers. OK, this is pretty simple. If you are given the interviewer's name beforehand, don't go and look them up on the Interblags. And even if you can't help yourself, don't try to use this to your advantage. I know we're all curious, voyeuristic creatures, but what do you hope to gain here? Using this information makes you look creepy and desperate to create some kind of connection. At best, it gives you something to chat about, and if you get a job you're not qualified to do only because you BS'ed your way in, you won't do well. At worst, the interviewer is gonna be thrown off by this. In short, don't do it.

Wow, this turned into a full on diatribe. In reality, it might not even be worth anything. But my AU$0.02 on interviewing. Take it with a grain of salt.