New York, Part II

I took a trip out to New York this weekend, thought I would write about it. This was actually my 2nd time to the city, the last time being 2 summers ago (for a recap of that trip see here).

This trip was different in that it wasn't so much about doing the "touristy" things (not to say we didn't do any), since I already got to do a lot of that stuff 2 years ago. So I guess we tried to experience NY more as a normal New Yorker might, without having to rush from one place to another.

Some pictures and thoughts from the trip:

I really hate flying. One might have thought that as someone who flew on airplanes a lot as a kid, having taken more than a few 14 hour trips across the Pacific Ocean, that a 2 hour flight from O'Hare to LaGuardia as a grown man wouldn't be that bad.

Nope, I hate it with a passion. Maybe it's just that I'm bigger now and get more cramped in the airplane than I did when I was an 8 year old. But I think it's more than that. I hate rushing to the airport. I hate having to take off my shoes, coat, watch, wallet, cell phone, laptop, crack pipe, etc., and put them in the stupid little trays just to pass through security, and then having to reclaim all those things and put them back 10 seconds later. I hate waiting at the gate hearing some guy on the PA system call out the names of everyone on standby.

I hate how stupid people sit in the wrong seat, as if they're not gonna have to move 2 minutes later when the owner of the seat shows up, holding up everyone else in line in the process of reshuffling. I hate the smell of the air, I hate how they make you turn off your CD/MP3 players for 10 minutes after takeoff because they supposedly interfere with the cockpit communications (they most definitely do NOT).

Anyways, back to the weekend itself:







Thanks to my sister's hotel points, she reserved me the "suitest" hotel room I have ever stayed in. As the pictures show, there was the typical room with the bed. But there was also second room connected to it with a second bathroom, couch, desk, TV, and a pretty nice view (3rd picture - As you can see my photography skills are awful, I got reflections of my shirts sleeve and lamps in the room itself).





Probably the most "touristy" things we did were visiting a couple Seinfeld landmarks. The first picture is the restaurant that the Seinfeld cafe was based off of. Apparently after further research, it is also the restaurant that Suzanne Vega's song "Tom's Diner" is about (think opening scene of Christian Slater movie, "Untamed Heart"). The second picture is the soup restaurant that inspired the "Soup Nazi" episode. Unfortunately it was closed when we got there, but there were some flyers there with the picture of the "real" soup man, and he does look a lot like the actor that played him in Seinfeld.



Thanks to Olivia's cousin's recommendation, we had dinner at Peter Luger's Steakhouse, which many claim is the best steakhouse in New York. After eating there, I can't argue that claim, the food was really really good. I recommend it to anyone who visits New York and loves steak (be prepared to spend some significant cash though). For more information see here.





Walked through Central Park, something we did only very briefly last time. Unfortunately it was really cold pretty much the whole weekend, so we didn't spend that much time outside. The second picture is of a bunch of ducks. Kind of random, but I thought it was so cool how they kept diving under water to catch fish. I wish I could do that. There were also 2 baby ducks (you can kind of see one of them in the middle of the picture), and I must say baby ducks are so very cute.*



Spent a few hours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or as cool people call it, the "Met". The place is pretty huge, definitely bigger than Chicago's Art Institute. We only got through less than half of it before getting tired, and that's without looking very thoroughly at the parts we did walk through. One could easily spend days there if one was so inclined. We were not so inclined, although there was some pretty good stuff there. I wished I had some of those Chinese paintings on those cool scrolls, to hang at my house. That would be pretty sweet.

* The "Cute" Rule: I'm not sure if I came up with this rule myself, but I follow it. The only instances where it's okay for a guy to say something is "cute" is if it is in reference to girls, animals, babies, or baby animals. As far as I know there are no exceptions to this rule.

Catchphrases

I think I have written some about this topic before, but just thought I would try and come up with a quick reference list of "catchphrases" that tend to come up a lot in the corporate world. Consider it as kind of a wikipedia/urban dictionary for the workplace, if you will.

Although I know how stupid and annoying these phrases sound, at times I still catch myself almost using them. I can't help it, it's the sheer amount of exposure I get to them on a day-to-day basis. So to remedy this, I have tried to come up with alternative ways to say the same thing, just to prove that you CAN get the same point across, without sounding like a stooge.

Phrase: "touch base"
Meaning: To meet or contact with someone for the purposes of exchanging information
Example: "Wait, so should I stay or hit with 12 against a dealer showing 2? I better touch base with Chras and find out, before I go to the blackjack table."
Alternative: "talk to"

Phrase: "close the loop"
Meaning: To resolve an issue that is not yet resolved
Example: "Before we move on to the next topic, let's close the loop on whether we think JJ Redick is Brokeback Mountain or not."
Alternative: "get an answer"

Phrase: "OBE"
Meaning: Acronym for "Overcome By Events"
Example: "Our plan was to acquire the wafflemaker, but unfortunately that mission has been OBE."
Alternative: Actually I kind of like this one. I may start using it.

Phrase: "disconnect"
Meaning: a lack of communication
Example: "Deep down, Stephen and Kristin probably loved each other more than anybody else, but their relationship could never overcome the persistent disconnect between their feelings."
Alternative: "misunderstanding"

Phrase: "burn the candle at both ends"
Meaning: to double productivity
Example: "I really don't want to watch 'The Notebook', but my girlfriend is making me. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I could burn the candle at both ends and fast forward through the parts that suck (i.e., the whole thing)."
Alternative: "hire more people"

Phrase: "the cat's meow"
Meaning: ????? Somebody enlighten me please
Example: I can't remember how I heard it used, but I did hear a manager say it once and remember being confused and amused at the same time.
Alternative: "the bee's knees"?

Phrase: "playing phone tag"
Meaning: When you can't reach someone directly, and end up communicating by leaving messages on each others' voicemail
Example: "Where in the hell are all my hoes at? Can't a brother make a booty call without having to play phone tag?"
Alternative: I guess there is no good substitute for this one. But I still refuse to use it. The only "tags" that are cool to play are Freeze Tag and TV Tag.*

Phrase: "COB"
Meaning: Acronym for "Close Of Business", referring to the end of a particular business day.
Example: "Today, I will attempt the very dangerous stunt of staying 5 minutes after COB - on a Friday!"
Alternative: "end of the day"

Phrase: "Nastygram"
Meaning: An email with a scolding tone, sent to express displeasure
Example: "Stupid Dave traded his best players to Ryan last week, and now they're lighting up my fantasy team. I'm going to send him a nastygram."
Alternative: "angry message"

Phrase: "Bleed all over"
Meaning: To mark up a document with many changes, referring to the red ink generally used to do so
Example: "I'm lucky I don't have an editor for this blog, he/she would probably bleed all over it and take out the parts that suck (i.e., the whole thing)."
Alternative: "edit"

Phrase: "popozao"
Meaning: In Portugese it means "bring your ass on the floor"
Example: "Po, po, po, po, popozao, popozao."
Alternative: "I'm a complete tool, yet somehow I got Britney Spears to marry me."

There's more, but that's all I can think of right now. And I just work in engineering, I bet it's twice as bad if you do sales or consulting.

As always, if anyone has any to add, feel free to do so.

* Edit: I forgot to include "Laser Tag" as a cool tag to play, my bad.

Random Lookalike

Probably not many people will know either or both of these guys, but you all know how I love figuring out who looks like who:

UNC Freshman Tyler Hansbrough and Matt Kennedy Gould from the Joe Schmo Show


Maybe I'm the only one, but I think the likeness is uncanny. If only I could've found 2 better pictures.

The Chief



The other day on the news, there was a story about the University of Illinois (my alma mater) appealing an NCAA ruling about Chief Illiniwek, the school's "mascot". Apparently because the NCAA feels that the Chief is "hostile" and "abusive", they banned the school from hosting postseason competition.

This blog isn't going to be about the NCAA ruling itself, but it got me thinking about the Chief debates that I always heard about while I was at school.

During my 4 years at U of I, I remember the Chief being a frequently discussed issue, but never cared to get involved on either side. I basically just deleted the emails I got from the Pro-Chief or Anti-Chief groups, walked by the rallies those groups held on the Quad, and neither cheered nor booed the Chief when I went to basketball or football games.

So let me preface all that I'm about to write by saying I fully admit that I'm not the most well informed individual on the subject of the Chief. I don't know all the history and the facts, so just take what I'm writing for what it's worth.

I guess I never really understood what all the uproar was all about. Like I said, I don't really have a strong opinion one way or another, but I think if I were to lean one way, it would be Pro-Chief. I like the fact that our school's name has some unique tie to the state's history, and I think it would be a shame if it ended up being changed to something generic like an animal or color for no good reason.

Of course, that all depends on what constitutes "good reason".

As a Chinese person, one way I have looked at the situation is this - what if the university wanted to change its mascot to the Illinois Fighting Bruce Lees? I don't think I would have a problem with it, because let's face it, Bruce Lee rocks your socks and everyone knows it. After all, he was Chuck Norris's master, and look at how awesome Chuck Norris has become (see Chuck Norris Facts, warning: some profanity).

On the other hand, if they wanted to change the mascot to one of those chinky-eyed guys in straw hats that you see on Abercrombie & Fitch T-Shirts, that would be a different story. I don't think I was as outraged as some other Asians about those shirts, but still, I don't think "Two Wongs Can Make It White" would be a very acceptable motto for a university.

The point is, I don't think that a school using Native American imagery for its mascots or logos is necessarily offensive or racist in itself. It all depends on how it's done. I mean, a good number of states, cities, rivers, buildings, parks, and even cars are named after Native American tribes or words. Is that offensive?

Or, look at some of the other team names out there that involve different groups of people. Fighting Irish, Trojans, Yankees, Patriots. I don't see anyone complaining up a storm that we are stereotyping Irish people as being combative, or trivializing the bravery of our nation's founding fathers by putting them on a football helmet.

In general, I think people like to name their team after something associated with strength, bravery, or just coolness in general. Such as Trojans, Spartans, Angels, Tigers, Lions, Bears, Eagles, etc. You don't see anyone calling themselves the "Surrendering French" or "Dodo Birds", do you?

Before I ever heard of the protests about Chief Illiniwek, I never even thought twice about the Chief being racist or disrespectful. That's not to say that it's definitely not, I'm just saying that it doesn't strike me as being that way. And leads me to think that maybe it's only an issue because some people were bored and decided to make a fuss about something.

When I look at the various Native American team names/mascots out there, some definitely stand out as being racist while others not so much. The Cleveland Indians' Chief Wahoo logo, for example, seems pretty blatantly disrespectful. And I don't see how an NFL team can continue to call itself the Redskins, if that is a racist slur. On the other hand, I always thought the Florida State Seminoles logo looked pretty cool, and that the Chicago Blackhawks logo was done in a reverent manner.

But you know what? My opinion doesn't really matter. Because I'm not Native American, and I don't know jack about the culture or what it's like to be a Native American in this country. I don't know if the Seminole logo is historically inaccurate, or if a white guy doing Chief Illiniwek's dance is considered sacriligious to a given tribe (if anyone out there knows more feel free to enlighten me).

Anyways I think that's what always bugged me about these Pro-Chief/Anti-Chief groups and their public debates. At the risk of generalizing, on the one side you have the Pro-Chief folk, a predominantly older, conservative, Caucasian group. Then you have the Anti-Chief people, who are usually younger, and include Caucasians, African-Americans, Hispanic, and Asians.

But where are the Native Americans in this debate? Each side will occasionally quote an individual Native American who is either offended or not offended by the Chief, to support their own argument. The problem is, I have heard quotes supporting both sides. For an issue that is supposedly as critical to our society's well being as some of these people make it, can't someone find out once and for all, what Native American people as a whole think about the Chief?

Bottom line is, just like nobody should care whether I think Chief Illiniwek is racist or not, nobody should care about what the Pro-Chief or Anti-Chief groups have to say, because they don't speak for Native Americans. Everyone is so busy arguing up a storm, taking up a cause and getting so passionate about it, when only one thing matters - what the Native Americans themselves think about the Chief.

It's kind of like Carlos Mencia's story about the Taco Bell dog ("Yo quiero Taco Bell"). White people randomly came up to him and apologized to him for the dog being racist against Latinos, because they heard some people thought it was offensive. But he himself never saw it as being racist at all. Actually thought the commercials were funny, and even pointed out that unlike "your bitch" Lassie, the Taco Bell chihuahua could talk.

If it sounds like I am being Pro-Chief, that's really not my point of writing all this. If a credible and comprehensive poll of Native Americans comes out and definitively says, "Chief Illiniwek is offensive", then it doesn't matter how much tradition and support is behind the Chief, or how much it will suck to change the names and logos, it has to go. But it would be just as horrible to make all these changes, just because some non-Native American college kids who are just looking for any cause to fight for say it's offensive.