mjm wired ;)  

What a trip!

I went to Germany last week on a business trip and it turned out to be quite an interesting experience filled with fun, stress, food, booze, late nights and women. Okay, maybe not the last one, but I had a great time (ignoring work). The Germans are a funny bunch. I can't recall all the differences I saw between them and American culture, but I want to mention some of the things that I observed.

Food. The main components of German diet are pork and beer. The menu's consist of 75% 'swine' meals and the remaining is beef (with a little fish and fowl). But the fowl was scarce due to fears of the avian flu. They love the juicy bacon, not the crisp stuff. Even the veggies are sprinkled with bacon!! ... And the portions are huge! Well if you run a meal at 15 euro, that's almost $20 US (ie. everything was just a tad bit expensive -- tip and tax are automatic). The odd part of the meat is that it's seldom seasoned. Just huge slabs of meat. Just huge.

Drink About 5 yrs ago, someone told me that once you get used to German beers you won't like anything else. Hmmm, some truth in that maybe. ... They prefer hefeweizen which to me was a 'misty' beer that seemed a lot thicker. Odd at first, you develop a taste for it rather quickly. Although the dark beer ('dunkel') did have a nicer taste. Curious though, the bars did not have much variety with the harder drinks. Maybe it was their lack of understanding my english?

Toilets The men's standing toilets seemed like little bowls mounted on the wall. No privacy. Just everybody standing friendly next to eachother. Of course, the Germans aren't as uptight as Americans (which explains a lot). ... Toilet tissue leaved a lot to be desired. Interestingly most of the restrooms I saw always had lots of open TP laying around. In the US you have to lock it up so people won't steal it. And the final kicker: the TP is like sand paper!!! Go home and hug your Charmin and tell it how much you appreciate it.

Sex Again, the Germans are open and free. Driving to the hotel, there are posters and billboards all over with ads for "erotic materials". Absolutely no big deal. You can find a 'Sex Shop' in the middle of other stores. Buy some groceries, try on some clothes, pick up some XXX magazines. Curious. And the television isn't much different. After 10 (or maybe 11) the commercials on several channels are littered with all sorts of ads for 'erotic' things. See I couldn't quite figure it out. I thought it was possibly phone sex or something. But it was also SMS messaging, and other weird stuff. But, you see the girls are totally naked. And that's only the commercials. Very odd. --- Don't worry, I was almost never in my room except to sleep.

Lots of other interesting things. ... The autobahn was a bit wild. I saw our cabby pull 165km/hr more than once. ... Lots of absolutely tiny tiny cars. ... No such things as 'non-smoking areas'. People smoke everywhere. And there are cigarette vending machines, with not a few varieties - but 40. Clothes smell. I even saw ashtrays in the stairwells at work. ... Impressive how the restaurants and bars have many english speaking waiters (and attractive waitresses). ... Airport security is about 3x times more intense than in the US. ...

It was a very fascinating trip. I'll bet most of the above isn't too specific to Germany and maybe Europe as a whole, but still hard for me to guess either way. Anyways, I'm glad I got the opportunity.

Even though I do have various degrees of experience across different software, I still consider myself somewhat of a junior engineer. Someone somewhere thought differently. So a "roster" of people was drafted for some workshops in Germany. One person's personal trip was already preplaned, hence he was out (you know who you are). Many people had passport or visa issues and in the end, given the last minute nature, only a subset was able to go. So here I am at 4:45am writing a blog post in a hotel room a little distance away from Frankfurt, Germany. I tried so hard to sleep, but I just couldn't.

There's a workday ahead of me with people I hardly know on a project that's so massive and complex that I could spend weeks just understanding ... and my imput matters. I don't know what impression I'll leave on the German engineers or what effect I will have on this project as a whole. However I'm glad to have a unique chance to be involved and to experience another country.

My eyes have been "opened" multiple times so far and that's not even including the culture shock. More later.

I was having lunch a few weeks ago like normal and the subject of taxes arose. Someone, who was a little new to my lunch crowd, asked if anyone knew of any tax preparation classes that one can take to better learn how to process tax forms. (So this guy needs help with taxes.) I told him my general advice to look online or and obtain information himself. If he's not confident to look to some some software like TurboTax or Taxcut etc. And if he really needs help go to a tax accountant or some financial service and pay for the service and next year use that as your "template". So after yapping all that out, he tells me that it is not for himself but for others. (So he's a nice guy.) I commended him on his charity only to have him comment on my naivete. He wanted to charge for his service.

But of course. His reasoning was that he had lots of spare time and that he should pick up something to do. (Okay, he's a bored guy.) I suggested he persue an interest and cultivate a hobby. He said that he already has hobbies: watching movies and listening to music. Hmmm ... I thought hobbies were recreation, so I told him straight that a passive activity is NOT a hobby. And something like a sport, or collecting, or playing a game - something that involves active participation -- that's what I call a hobby. He agreed, but none of it makes money. Hmmm ... (So, he's looking for money.) So I see the motivation now. I don't know if I understand really. He's a decently paid engineer with a wife who's also well employed, and between the 2 of them (no children) they easily pull 6 figures. I'm not judging (really), just that I don't know if I understand some people.

Persue what truly makes you happy, and hopefully the money will follow. Sure we all make compromises because we need money. However the chances are that through the persuit of money it is highly doubtful that the happiness will follow.

I wanted to end this post right there, but I have been incredibly active (busy!!!) with one of my computer hobbies. It does make me feel like I've accomplished something, and the fact is that the "benefits" do follow.

Whenever I have multiple denominations of bills in my wallet, I have to have them stacked in order, a special order. At the bottom are the $20's, then come the $10's, then $5's and $1's respectively. If there are multiples of the same bill, the cleaner ones go to the bottom and the uglier ones near the top. They all have to line up perfectly and no bill can be folded, crooked or have its edges leafed inwards.

My justification: it makes it faster for me to count my money and withdraw it from my wallet without letting others know how much I have. Efficiency and safety? Plausible. Could there be something deeper? Perhaps.

It is about a month into the new year (1/12 over, about 92% left). Anyways, I have just started on one of my main new years resolutions ... from 2003. I've finally started working out on a regular basis. Granted, I didn't do it all on my own - I have buddy who's a big motivator. The physical exercise doesn't seem as important as the fact that I actually did something. I have an apparent tendancy to simple plan out everything but never act. One of the managers at work dubs this as "paralysis by analysis". And he's right, more than he even realizes when it comes to me.

So while I'm not out to impress the ladies with a sculpted bod, I am intent on making myself do the things that I want but hesitate over risk or some sort of uncertainty or doubt. I need to do something for me. And while I don't plan on leaving my calculations and risk assessment behind, I am starting to do more and bring myself out of this complacent notion that merely being comfortable is satisfactory.

If that isn't a good ANY-TIME-OF year resolution, I don't know what is.

Wow! How blog worthy! Google's email service finally gets a stupid delete button! Took you guys long enough.

Don't be fooled. You may think your email is being deleted however chances are it still sits in their system while their databases build a more accurate profile of you. Oh well!

I was doing some after Christmas shopping today and I ran into my high school Calculus teacher. He just called out at me "What's your name? Don't I know you?". I walked past him a few times in the shirts section and didn't notice but a good look at his face and I knew exactly who he was. He seemed happy enough to see me even though he didn't remember my name. It's been over 8 years, and I'm surprised he even noticed. He asked about my brothers and sister and lastly about me. He seemed to note things by that particular year's good students (namely the genius's and overacheivers). I know I was a good student, but not perfect. I learned every topic without incidence (except radial integration, curse you theta!!!). I only had to tell him the name of one arrogant indian guy (not me) and it all came back to him. I remembered his class very well, and even though he as a teacher did not have a profound influence on me as a person, he was a good teacher and somehow I know that he had some genuine faith in me (I got a 5 on the A.P. exam, so at least I was okay in his eyes).

When I told him about my younger brother's success and about my sister, he finally asked about me and told me "Looks like you're not doing too bad yourself!". I was still dressed from work, tidy and neat with all my new Christmas clothes, shoes and jacket. Yeah, I would say I looked okay, but probably not for the same reasons he thought. After I wished him well and said bye, I felt disappointed in myself. I regret I didn't ask him how everything was going for him and that I remembered his class and all his nuances and mannerisms with some fondness. I'm not sure why I should care, but then of course, I'm still a bit surprised he remembered me at all.

I wonder if teachers ever find out how far reaching their influence actually is?

Well I just wanted to wish all my friends and family and unknown internet readers a very Merry Christmas. I know that this year has been tough for many so if you stop and think about it, chances are that the simple things you have in life put you well above the millions in poverty, homeless or with broken families today. And even though this day isn't different from others, it's a good day for reflection, whether religious or not.

Well I'm terribly sick at home, but it's a nice home with loving family. I couldn't ask for more.