eave it up to the FedGov to cook up a cockamamie scheme where a billion dollars is siphoned from taxpayers to destroy perfectly working vehicles and screw poor people who can't afford a brand-new car and would actually appreciate and use said 'clunkers' which are summarily crushed and taken out of circulation.

Cash for Clunkers Breaking Down
It's unbelievable that the government has set aside $1 billion of taxpayer money to remove roughly 250,000 drivable vehicles from the road. And the situation is getting messy as thousands of people who didn't need a tax break went out to get one to accompany their new vehicles.

Hoping to boost new car sales, the government sold "cash for clunkers" playing on environmental sensibilities. But the waste this program brings is irresponsible and the fuel-standard improvements required are a joke. These working-condition vehicles could have gone on used car lots, available to people who can't afford new cars. Or they might have found their way to charitable organizations or relatives in need.

But this is better, right? President Barack Obama and Congress created an artificial rush for new cars while destroying working vehicles, giving people who can afford new cars a big tax break and leaving auto recyclers and lower-income car buyers in the dust. What a wreck.

And now, they want to find *another* billion dollars to keep this horrible program going?

The people I know who took advantage of the program turned in little-used but perfectly usable minivans and SUVs (so that means they weren't on the road polluting the air anyway) to be destroyed. Marginal environmental benefits, very real physical destruction of the wealth of the nation, all aided and abetted by the fools on Capital Hill.

Ok, rant done.

aturday brings me to my once-every-two-months ritual of donating blood at the local Red Cross, where I am attached to tubes and get about 50 hit points drained into a 500mL bag. Free cookies and snacks abound in the donation place, as well as free WIFI.

It is a strange and somewhat surreal experience, watching your life literally drain out of your body even in such a controlled environment - the steady filling of the blood bladder, the antiseptic smell of iodine on the arm.

The questionnaires - always adjusting to current realities, now focus on Swine Flu and ask a blizzard of questions related to exposure risks that donors' lifestyles might put them in contact. Oddly enough, being gay male automatically excludes you from blood donation - a strangely archaic restriction in this day and age.


Still - all for a good cause, and for those who care, a free blood test (since the Red Cross runs a full-spectrum test on donations each time they come in).
If you're healthy, over 110lbs and not a gay male (hey, I don't make the rules. :( ) go forth and give life!

Eased off on Crossfit last week while I'm down a pint, but I'm feeling ready to rock starting this Monday.

s taxpayers, we are badgered and harried into guilt of how we are morally obligated to bail out the longsuffering public-sector government employees, especially in this blighted economy.

What do your taxes buy? Compare your salary with the following San Francisco employees (keeping in mind that these folks have lifetime pensions EQUAL to their ending salaries after 20 years of work; an annuity that pays 250k/yr would cost in the open market between US$4.5 Million and $5 MM).

Next time you hear city officials bleating about how impoverished the city is (as a pretext for raising more taxes), take a long hard look at the chart and ask what those new taxes are buying.



Is it too late go get a nursing degree to nurse at the teat of government largess?

s some of you already know, I've been volunteered to curate/host an Alternate Reality Game at the upcoming BIL Conference in February.

Thematically, we're choosing Water as our vehicle - riffing on the fact that half the world's population does not have reliable access to clean, potable water.



Participants in the game will be issued an empty water bottle at the beginning of the game; for the entirety of the ARG, they will not allowed to drink anything except what is filled in the bottle by redeeming Potable units they earn through various tasks around the Long Beach area (obviously, we are on the honor system here! :) ).

Everyone will be issued a small supply of cards, (for inspiration, see the stuff made by Akoha) - 'gray water' counts as non-drinkable water allowances that can be traded for [X] minutes of showering (again, obviously we're on the honor system :P ), very rare 'potable' cards which can be turned into Gamemasters for [X] mL of water poured into their bottles. Other cards will be held by NPCs across Long Beach, which they will give you for completion of various tasks and puzzles.

Among the cards will be tasks, pieces of puzzles, and most importantly - components of a BioSand Filter which every team will race to assemble (once a team's BioSand Filter is complete, they are free to redeem all their remaining greywater shower-allowances tokens for 'potable,' effectively ending the game).

Part scavenger hunt, part fundraiser (we will set a portion of the participation fees as donation to Human Translation, an ambitious project to provide clean water to people in Cambodia), the Water ARG will be hopefully be a fun way to get to know your fellow BIL attendees while solving puzzles across the Long Beach area.

A number of things are already set - but I wanted to also get feedback since we won't have much time/manpower to playtest the game before it goes live.

Poll #1317603 WATER Alternate Reality Game
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 11

Are you going to TED2009/BIL2009?

Would you be interested in participating in a 72-hour Water ARG as described above?

To cover costs in producing/hosting the game - we are considering charging $25/person to participate - with an optional 'donate [X]' to the water project in Cambodia. Does that sound fair?

Thoughts, feedback - please feel free to comment!

s part of the alumni association of UCSD, I'll be hosting a wine-and-truffles tasting and private tour at Charles Chocolates next Weds Oct 15th.

Founder Chuck Seigel will take us on a guided lecture on the history of fine confections and share his story of how he became a chocolatier and share offerings from his kitchen. Saving a few spaces for friends who've asked me about the factory so if you find yourself in Emeryville, CA next week and want a taste of Chuck's awesome creations drop me a line.

As you were.

o I imagine that 'my people' (real-life friends, readers, birds-of-a-feather bloggers) are, as a population, a largely secular lot - ranging from confidently atheist rationalists to areligious agnostics, with a smattering of 'spiritual-not-dogmatic' and weakly-deist rounding out the population.

Given that, some exposition may be necessary before I get to the punchline of this post, so bear with me.

Said areligious community, and the world of Born-Again Christians who wholly accept the Bible as literal fact have few points of cultural intersection. Books like Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' wildly popular Left Behind novels (a post-apocalyptic serial, based on the literal interpretation of Christian rapture and deeply influential in contemporary-Christian zeitgeist) are virtually unknown to the secularists.

At the core of Rapture eschatology is the notion that sometime (soon!), upon Christ's return to a benighted Earth, true believers/Christians will be swept up by God and vanish from the face of the planet, leaving even their clothes in piles where they stood. Atheists, Muslims and Jews are simply Left Behind to face the consequences of their heresy to be smited by the Almighty for their disbelief.

Now - pulling a mind-job prank on a person whose critical facilities have been addled by such Biblical fantasy is both

[1] absurdly easy
[2] incredibly cruel

... the sort of stunt Penn Jillette would pull if he was in an extra-snarky mood. That the following was orchestrated by a self-described Christian is all the more flabbergasting, and while I felt a tiny bit bad for laughing my ass off, I still feel compelled to share:


DIRECT LINK TO VIDEO

Poll #1190922 Prank 3:16 - Faking the Rapture
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 116

That prank was

whimsical tour through a century of major world conflicts, told through ethnic foods representing their respective countries.



PS: For those of you who can't tell your matzah from your falafel, a cheat sheet of the 'cast'.

o.

A few of you who know me IRL know this has been a HELL of a few weeks - in every sense of the word; your support and caring means more to me than I can convey in a simple blog post. All I can say here is - thank you.

In a moment, I will begin the long drive toward Monterey for pre-TED get-togethers; If I had my druthers, I'd reschedule these things, but unfortunately, commitments are what they are and there are promises to keep.

It's not all downside - I am having dinner tonight at 7:30 with fellow TED attendee Jon Staenberg and some mutual friends/business contacts. Local Monterey folk, LJ friends (I'm looking at you mauitian), are welcome to join in - please message me and I'll fill you in on details.

A repeat from a previous post: are there folks I know in Monterey, or people I should meet with when I am there? Are there others on this list who will be attending BIL or TED that I should meet? Please speak up!

More soon.

wo unrelated contacts in as many weeks suggested I take some of my essay-ish writings/dream journals and publish them on Divine Caroline, which looks to be a user-generated-content online version of the Oxygen Channel.

Does anyone reading this have any experience with/heard of Divine Caroline?

Also: on behalf of a client willing to pay good $ for the right person; I'm looking for a community of portrait/manga artists with a good eye for detail (preferably in the San Francisco area) - is there a specific group/community I should be aware of to make some inquiries?

o.

Through a confluence of good fortune, positive relationship-building mojo and no small measure of social engineering, I will be at the uber-l33t and completely sold-out-a-year-in-advance TED Conference in Monterey, CA. Hurrah!

This will be my first time in attendance, so a question: for those of you more familiar with its attendees and the environment - suggestions, recommendations, input?

Since I will be in Monterey, I've also signed up to speak at BIL, a 'counter conference' that is to TED what BARCAMP is to FOOCAMP, an open-source collaborative counterpart to its expensive, exclusionary cousin. Both have their virtues, and I will be speaking on the topic of positive psychology borrowing heavily from Martin Selgiman's fine work in Learned Optimism.

Are there folks I know in Monterey, or people I should meet with when I am there? Are there others on this list who will be attending BIL or TED that I should meet? Please speak up! :)

his weekend, I will be photographing History Channel's City of the Future contest, where top architecture firms from major metropolitan areas compete to assemble their vision of skylines of their respective cities 100 years in the future.

Local LJ friends/long-time lurkers/friends without blogs ... want to meet up for lunch?

Poll #1123628
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 21

Lunch/Get-Together at Ferry Building?

outhern California.

Have a few social calls and year-end business meetings that require my presence from Dec 13th to Dec 18 in Los Angeles and San Diego.

The Usual Suspects are welcome to email me with your schedules - would like to Hike with the Geeks on Sunday before heading down to San Diego for a few meet-and-greets.

Lindsay, Lexi - the offer for a quick tutorial afternoon of range-time/shooting is still open - how does Sat afternoon (Dec 15th) sound right now?

Hope you are all well. Talk soon.

This post will self-destruct in 24 hours.

s motorsport enthusiasts know, the movie "Cannonball Run" was based on a long-standing underground race driving from NYC to Los Angeles - and the most recent record of 32 hours and 7 minutes (set back in a day when police cars couldn't break 95MPH) seems like an impossible time to beat in this age of high-speed pursuit vehicles and radar. Rally Car driver Alex Roy spent two years obsessing about the record, and the story of his pursuit in breaking it (and numerous speeding laws all across the U.S.) is documented in this story:

The Pedal-to-the-Metal, Totally Illegal, Cross-Country Sprint for Glory, in Wired Magazine.

Video of Alex discussing legally questionable modifications he made to his BMW M5 in preparation of his attempt at the record

He's written a book about the story, and will have a movie out in early 2008; Alex will be in town for a wine and fancy h'orderves served book signing at an exotic car dealership Enigma Motors in Dublin, CA on Nov 26th (Monday after Thanksgiving).

We're getting people from the Diablo Porsche Club, Bay Area BMW club, Enigma's own clientele, and motorsport enthusiasts there - and anticipating a crowd of 150 people (capped at 200).

I introduced Tim Ferriss, author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller The Four Hour Workweek, with Alex for a phone interview; the conversation is now live at Tim's website Meet the Real Fast and Furious: 130 MPH, Creating Supercars, and Breaking Records.

If you want in on the fun: http://alexroy.eventbrite.com (code: kaialexroy)

s some of you know, November is the month for Nanowrimo, better known by its full name: National Novel Writing Month. Aspiring scribes of varying talent commit to a hard 50k wordcount by the end of November, using the occasion as a vehicle to eliminate procrastination.

Now, like most low-traffic blogs, the average Nanowrimo project isn't worth a second glance, unless you're connected to the writer somehow.

Through an odd confluence of searches related to recent semilucid dreams and no small measure of serendipity, I stumbled across a Nanowrimo project that blew me away with its sharp dialogue, sardonic antihero protagonist, and a richly nuanced cast of supporting otherworldly and mundane characters - Descant.

A quote:

I’m not a sorcerer.

I tell you this, because it’s usually the very first question almost anyone who comes into my office asks me. They expect a man who deals with the supernatural to be some sort of supernatural being himself, I suppose. It's odd that they ask, really, considering that very few people really believe in the stuff, but I guess that doesn't mean they're not intrigued by it. Tolkien, and Rowling, and Lewis, and all those other writers who created fantasy worlds sparked the creative imaginations of the human race and made them wonder if any of that fiction was based in reality.

It is, obviously. I'm just not a part of it - not really anyway.

...

I suppose that means half my customers are disappointed when they come to my office expecting to find some steely-eyed Gandalf-meets-Columbo type character, and what they get is me- Desmond D. Descant, Paranormal Investigator, just a normal average guy. Almost.

- Chapter Two: Whatever the Case May Be, Descant

Like any work-in-progress, the tale as it stands can use some editing - but the objective of Nanowrimo is volume, not perfect prose - and for an unedited stream-of-consciousness story, it's a hell of a yarn.




-

o.


A good friend and lifelong Florida resident recently accepted an offer to be the new Art Director of a major San Francisco-Headquartered web portal, and will be wheels down in SF next week at Oct 17th.

Because of my supposedly large number of contacts here, I've been volunteered to be the ringleader of a Flash Mob welcoming her to the area. Right now, we're envisioning two stages for that evening:

Working with the Cacophony Society, we will have a small welcome-mob at the SF Terminal when she crosses baggage claim, and then segues into a mixer/wine-and-chocolate tasting somewhere in
the city. Participants will have printed instructions on what to do at each stage, and the idea is to make her a temporary 'celebrity' by having a crowd of 'paprazzi' and autograph-seekers crowd her as she steps out of a limo into Union Square.

If you or someone you know is in the SF Metro area and want to be in on the fun, please reply below.

Details forthcoming.


Poll #1070249 Flashmob - Oct 17th 2007 7:00 pm -> 10:00 pm
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 18

You in?

s a seasoned curmudgeon, not much gets to me - and if you would have told me a Life Insurance commercial from Thailand would be the thing that wrenches at my jaundiced heart on a Sunday evening, I would have laughed at you merrily before showing you the door.

From ad man caffeineguy.



Grandpa Chew

Also: Father And Son.

Christ, where are these kinds of commercials in the U.S.?

unday, two dozen friends, bloggers and assorted dessert enthusiasts converged at the kitchen of Anthony Ferguson, boutique chocolatier and owner of Cacao Anasa, where we spent two hours with our sleeves rolled up as Anthony walked us through the world of high-end confections. During this process, we created several plates of chocolate-dipped cookies, a dozen pineapple-and-apricot 85% chocolate bars, some rather potent chocolate-flavored alcoholic cocktails, and a exquisite platter of spearmint-flavored ganaches ... all of which were devoured as soon as they were cooled and edible.

Fellow foodie Anita Chu, who managed to exceed even my own chocolate-overdrive weekend, wrote about her experiences at her blog appropriately titled Dessert First.

Interest has been far stronger than I anticipated - even with the late notice, we sold out days before the event, and, given the size of Anthony's kitchen, I had to turn away a dozen or so last-minute queries (sorry guys!) With the strong interest in a repeat of Chocolate Sunday, we expect to announce another Chocolate Sunday at Cacao Anasa sometime in mid-September ... keep your eyes posted if you wish to join in on the fun next time.

Until then ... photos.

	Straining Coffee Beans & Mint Leaves
	Linda & Rob reading the instructions
	Happy as clams - the truffles are almost ready!
	Anthony - ready to rock
	"Heads up!"
	The chemistry of chocolate
	Locke's creation ... truffle ganache ready to be coated with cocoa powder
	Cookies!
	Wait ... one more ingredient ...
	Stirring melting chocolate and sampling when nobody is looking ...
	Chocolate assembly line
	B&W kitchen shot
	Ash - with a potent chocolate cocktail

bsurd and surreal -
Basic Instructions, by Scott Meyers.



Public posts will be spotty while I work out a few things on the personal front. More in a few weeks.

ne of the most common experiences of growing up Chinese-American was the phenomenon of our shared hatred of "That Kid."

I guess this requires a bit of explanation.

In Chinese culture, children exist primarily as source material for parents to brag to others - and in the winner-take-all world of bragging parental one-upsmanship, there can be only one; some kid out there whose accomplishments eclipse everyone else's best efforts and make them look weak and paltry by comparison ... a fact your own parents never fail to remind you of.

Score a 1500 on your SATs? "Did you know Uncle Walter's daughter got a 1600 on her SATs - two years younger than you!"

Graduate salutatorian from high school? "Well, Auntie Beverly's son was valedictorian. At age 15!"

Place in a regional science fair project? "Did you know Dr. Leung's daughter is a national scholar with the Westinghouse Science Talent Search?"

And so on.

The thinly-veiled message, driven into our insecure and impressionable minds since about age 13, is that you are a defective, lesser version of so-and-so's kid, and if your parents could replace you with him or her, they would do so in a heartbeat. Thus, from our early teens, those of us not at the local maxima of academic brilliance in our respective Chinese-American communities grow to loathe and curse one name, one kid (who we may not even know) as the impossible standard by which all our parents compare their children against.

During lunch with Niniane Wang a few months back, she admitted she was "That Kid" in her community - an apotheosis of technical/academic accomplishment that other parents barely known to her family would use to berate their own defective offspring ... and we shared some laughs about a skit I wrote in college mocking that entire phenomenon.

RAW Power
Without a doubt, the biography of Ray Arthur Wang (no relation to above) firmly cements his place as the Golden Child in the world of his parents' friends - BSEE from Berkeley, PhD EE from Stanford, concert-level pianist and professional filmmaker.

It's in the latter he departs from the script of stereotypical Chinese-American career advancement - rather than accepting the sure-thing technical career that a EE PhD would provide, he choose the riskiest path of filmmaker; during his final year at Stanford, he put together an ensemble cast to shoot a film about a haunted car titled Carma that won accolades from a swath of prestigious film festivals and has since fully immersed himself in the uncertain world of independent film production. (Well worth checking out - you can watch the movie at the Carma website.)

Ray, whose initials "RAW" became the basis for the name of his production company "RAW Power Productions" and I have begun work jointly on a screenplay after a serendipitous meeting at a concerto a few months back; I've joked that it's probably a good thing my parents did not know him ten years ago so I am spared being compared to his formidable biography and the need to get over the irrational loathing such comparisons inspire. HA!

More recently, RAW completed the whimsically entertaining project Line for Heaven which takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to the notion of salvation as a Web 2.0 application.

Keep your eye on this man. You'll see his name on an Academy Award inside a decade. Until then, would invite you to check out Carma.