I’m reading the Aziz Ansari’s book “Modern Romance: An Investigation“, in which he accused men of being bozos for asking a girl out by texting instead of calling her. According to Ansari, calling a girl is a sign of courage and seriousness, while “texting facilitates flakiness and rudeness.” His observation is consistent with the advice I often see in dating columns (yeah I’m that kind of girl who reads dating columns), and I think it might as well be the most outdated advice ever, at least where I live.
[Day 207] Quick update on what I’ve been up to
As some of you have kindly pointed out, I haven’t blogged for a while. Here are two possible explanations:
- Juggling school, teaching, writing, and a decent social life is rough.
- I’m an unmotivated, lazy piece of sh*t.
So, to keep you up to date with my life, because you know it’s sooo exciting, here are some of the things that have happened to me recently.
Continue reading “[Day 207] Quick update on what I’ve been up to”
[Day 171] Lying with statistics: why Allan Lichtman’s predictions aren’t that good
One of my favorite sayings was the one populated by Mark Twain and frequently (probably wrongly) attributed to the late British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” I get slightly annoyed when accredited newspapers use statistics to manipulate readers.
This afternoon, I saw this headline on the Washington Post:
[Day 169] The magic of phonetic writing
In my anthropology class, there is this lady who comes to every lecture with a peculiar-looking keyboard and transcribes everything everyone says in the room. The average rate for English speakers in the US is 150 wpm, so I estimate her writing speed is well above 150 wpm because she gets everything everyone says right, even manages to insert things like *bell chiming* or *indiscernible sound in the background*. This is really impressive, given that professional typists only have the speed of 75-85 wpm.
So, after the lecture today, I decided to come and introduce myself to her. When I told Sarah, the lady’s name, about my fascination with her typing, she was very excited. She told me she loved talking about that because she thinks it’s magical too. Here is a picture of the setup that she uses:
[Day 165] Why American cafes have to-go as default
Today, I had a great chat over a cup of coffee with Jon Gauthier, who is, by the way, a delightful human being. When our coffee arrived, Jon remarked:
“It’s a shame that here, in California in general, you have to tell the barista that you want it here, else they’ll default that you want it to go. In Europe, if you don’t tell them anything, they’ll default that you want your coffee in a nice cup.”
Continue reading “[Day 165] Why American cafes have to-go as default”
[Day 164] Life without Facebook
Hey,
I just want to let you know that I’ve been off Facebook for a month, and I haven’t had any desire to get back on it. It’s liberating. Here are some aspects of my life that have become much better without Facebook.
- I feel more connected to people. It’s ironic since Facebook is supposed to help you connect to your friends, but I feel that connections on Facebook are superficial because they are too convenient. Now, people I interact with are people who really want to interact with me. They would go out of their way to get my number or to send me an email. And I do the same to people I want to connect with.
[Day 153] Packing for a year-long trip: Tips from Asher Leiss – the waterfalls guy
Asher Leiss is a good friend of mine who once spent 5+ years bumming around the world. He’s now based in Taiwan to learn Chinese and is kind of a celebrity there because he has explored hundreds of waterfalls and documented them all. Talk about passion. Check out his website and Facebook to see a crazy white dude jumping off different waterfalls.
When Paul told me that he’d drop out of school to travel for a couple of years, I asked Asher to give him some packing tips. Paul found them helpful, so I hope that you find them helpful too. I’ll also prepare some packing tips and post them soon-ish.
[Day 136] Meet Richard Stebbing–my unbelievable boss
Last summer, I worked under Richard Stebbing and he is kinda a genius. I googled him the other day and found out that he finished his undergrad engineering degree in 3 years with straight A-plus. He then became a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, finishing his PhD also in 3 years. Every time I see him code, I’m like: “Wow, you can do that?” When he wasn’t blowing me away with his coding skills, he made a sport out of making fun of me.
Continue reading “[Day 136] Meet Richard Stebbing–my unbelievable boss”
[Day 95] How two penniless backpackers produced an award-winning travel show and got Anthony Bourdain on it
Two years ago, two backpackers came to me with an ambitious proposal. They were two American guys who just quit their high paying, Bostonian jobs to pursue the dream of having their own travel show. They had no money and no connection. Like all protagonists of rag to riches stories, all they had was an idea, load of enthusiasm, and–this and is different–an “eye candy.” Ray, the aspiring director, playfully pointed at his friend Mark, who was tall, lean with tousled hair and a sun-kissed smile. They wanted to have Anthony Bourdain on their show. They needed Anthony Bourdain on their show. The entire existence of their show banked on the participation of Anthony Bourdain. I didn’t quite understand their reasoning at that time–I didn’t even know who Anthony Bourdain was. But I figured it was some sort of fanaticism, and I’m drawn to fanaticism like a moth to a flame.
[Day 94] Best jokes from the Grotto – San Francisco’s got comedians
Today, Tucker and I went to “Good Times in the Grotto” and it was lit. In Tucker’s words, all the comedians “are surprisingly good for a free basement show.” It was down in the basement of a sports store in Mission. I knew I was going to love the place when I walked in and people smiled at me and the first person I talked to turned out to not work in tech. Score.
Below are some of the best jokes from the night. My memory is quite bad so I don’t remember all who said what. But the lineup includes Roman Leo, Hence Singleton, Morgan, Ben Lupinetti, William Lushbaugh, Ruby Gill, Nando Molina, Jazmyn Washington. If you try enough combinations, you’ll eventually get it right.
Here you go!
“When my girlfriend rides a bike it looks like she’s exercising but when I ride a bike it looks like I don’t own a car.”
“When I need encouragement I think of Ray Charles. He was a blind man who did heroin. Think about it for a second. If he could find the vein I can find a job.” – Nando Molina
Continue reading “[Day 94] Best jokes from the Grotto – San Francisco’s got comedians”
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