Keep the Dream Alive

Hello after a long break yet again. I have been fairly busy this past couple weeks so apologies for the long break into betwee entries (more on that later). So what has been going on? Well I suppose I should start off with recapping the rest of my London/Berlin/New York trip that I finished up at the end of May. Instead of just a regular recap, I will do it Stephen Colbert's "Tip of the Hat, Wag of My Finger" style. So here we go!

A Tip of My Hat to: No open container laws in either London or Berlin. Yup, seeing people crack open beers on the tram is quite a site. Plus no need to hide that beer in a brown paper bag!

A Wag of My Finger to: Exchange rate in the UK! It is nearly two dollars for every pound meaning everything literally costs double than it is marked. I bought a chicken tikka and Sprite at the train station that cost me 11 bucks! Curse you Bush Adminstration that racks up trade deficits!

A Tip of My Hat to: German breakfast. I had breakfast and brunch in Berlin, both of which are some of the best I have ever had. Cheese, meats, croissant, egg, marmalade, great coffee. That's the way to start the day.

A Wag of My Finger to: Easyjet. Think of it as the European version of Southwest except not as on-time, less clean, more crowded, and less friendly. As my co-worker Alex now calls it, "Sleazyjet."

A Tip of My Hat to: Indian food in the England. We had quite a bit of Indian food in the UK and I have to say it is was very good. Who says colonalism/imperialism is bad? Thanks to the British imperialism in India, I got to enjoy really good Indian food, which leads to:

A Wag of My Finger to: English Food in England. Needless to say, besides breakfast food, English food ain't that grand. Lots of meat pies with curious choices for vegatables and other things that don't please the stomach. I actually had Fish and Chips in London and I think it was probably the worst fish and chips I have ever had. And it was 10 bucks too!

A Tip of My Hat to: Berlin beer gardens! Which are super cool and German beer which is really good and quite intoxicating. Needless to say, Alex, I and his super cool friends who let us crash, hit the town quite hard. Alex said it best, "If we had stayed an extra day, we would have died." And finally,

A Wag of My Finger to: Drunk non-disabled guy in a wheelchair on the NY subway. As many people can attest to, you meet a lot of strange characters on the subway in NY. So there was this guy in a wheelchair who clearly had the use of his leg, who was drunk off his ass, yelling about how the goverment was trying to kill him and how his friends all left him. I wonder why.

There was a whole bunch of other stuff that happened including me pitching my site-seeing tour in London and seeing the major sites on foot, Berlin foot tour, jack-hammers at 7 AM in Berlin, stealing plastic bags from old ladies at the London Airport, and Coney Island on Memorial Day. Did you know the hotdog eating record in 1984 was 8? Its like 59 now. Oh yeah, I did was work stuff also on that trip because they were...like sorta...paying for it.

So what have I been doing since I got back? Well first off it took me a few days to get rid of my jet lag. I was really delirious when I got back from NY since I had fully adjusted to the time zone changes. Work was also busy since I had to catch up on work while I was out, write up the stuff we did on the trip, and also mentor my intern and new-hire that started while I was away. Last weekend, I went to the De Anza Flea Market and then chilled out with the southbay crew. This very weekend, Phill came back into town so I hung out with him most of today. Yesterday, I went to the San Mateo Beer fest, which was quite fun. And, for the record, I behave responsibly, although a tiny bit lethagically.

Anyway, some of my friends pointed that some people I know have talked about direction in their lives. Basically, it is about how some people don't know what they want to do/still looking for the right job/going back to school/etc and some people who know exactly what they want and are working for that. It got me thinking about my life recently. I have to admit. I lived a pretty directed life almost past 10 years, takeaway for maybe 1 year when I was 18 when I didn't know what the hell I was doing. But basically, I directed my life to accomplish some very clear goals. When I was at De Anza, the goal was to transfer. When I moved out of the house, the goal was to earn enough money to pay rent and eat so that meant getting part-time jobs and internships. When I was at Santa Clara, the goal was to graduate and get a job. After I graduated undergrad, the goal was to work at Cisco and apply to grad school. When I got to grad school, the goal was to learn as much as I could and get a well-earning job in my field. Plus changing from MIS to HCI wasn't a monumental career switch. After I graduated from Michigan, the goal was to find a full-filling job, which I did. So basically, I was always working to something very clear-cut until now. I mean I have fulfulling job that interests me and I am working on advancing there. But what about the rest of my life? While career is important, I don't want to be defined by my job. So it has been about a year since I graduated and left Michigan. So what have I accomplished?

First off, there is of course my job which I have learned a lot in and still find very interesting. I did move back to the Bay Area where I got my apartment, furniture, and all the basic trappings of yuppiehood. I go out with my friends almost every weekend. I did go out on a few dates and did technically date someone for a short-time. I am taking boot camp to stay in shape. But I guess nothing I have done could be definitely qualified as moving in any particular direction. So some people would say that I should yet again set a direction for myself and get married, settle down, work to get that promotion, and all that mature jazz that people in their late 20's should be doing. And I sometimes do feel that maybe I should be doing something more technically productive than drunkeningly passing out at Beerfests, at my birthday party, or on various other occassions. But then again, I have lived a fairly directed life for last several years. I mean while others got time to be "less directed" by getting to go to frat parties, partying with their dormmates, backpacking in Europe, going to Spring break, or just couch surfing on their parent's dime, I was working three jobs, taking an overloaded course schedule, and being generally stressed out in my directed lifestyle. And I don't want to end up like these super type A investment banker students that I read about in The Running of the Bulls by Nicole Ridgway, which is about Wharton business school students practically kill themselves for the glory of working 100 hours a week at an investment bank. So maybe I should split the difference. I'll start doing productive things like volunteering, spending less time watching Giant's games on TV, but still hang out with my friends, co-workers and do fun things. And no, I am definitely not getting married anytime soon.

So I guess I will end this. For those who have a strong direction in their lives: MOre power to you. Just remember to stop for a minute or two to take a look around and smell the roses. Some of the most interesting parts of life are unexpected stops along the way. For those who need to find direction: Don't stop looking but at the same time, don't keep jumping from rock to rock. Someday, you might not find any more rocks to jump to. Sometimes things may not seem for you at first, but if you work at it, you find an acceptable middle ground. So until next time, peace.