"With one eye on terrorism and another on what has already been lost to terrorists, New York officials unveiled a redesigned Freedom Tower today whose height and proportion, centered antenna and cut-away corners, tall lobbies and pinstripe facade evoke - both deliberately and coincidentally - the sky-piercing twins it is meant to replace." (NYTimes)

I'm sorry, but this is what happen when you have a design by committee fucking around with a tower design, tepid and uninspring. The silhouette of Statue of Liberty in the original design is gone now and we end up with an obelisk. What a shame.

This tower just look like another John Hancock tower two blocks from where I live.

55 miles so far and in jeopardy. I will have to stay awake all night working and doing exit interview with one of the leaving trainee. Sleep deprivation is just bad for your run it's not even funny.

This blog has definately suffered due to my postings on nomadlife blog and redneck texan, two blogs with stark and distinct personality which exhaust most of my blogging time and ideas.

Alf told Trent when we were up in Wisconsin that I'm a Monday to Wednesday liberal and Thursday to Saturday conservative, which I have to admit is a pretty difficult thing position for me to be. I have trouble fully adopting either two of these ideas because I have huge doubt and reservation on both of them and I found myself jumping from one side to another from issues to issues. I will have to elaborate more on this when I have more grey cells to allocate in writing about it.

The struggle also happens in my head tyring to hold into the ideas of being an idealist and pragmatic. The founding of SilverKey derives from my idealist instinct to always create, build and invent something different and yet it was run in a mostly pragmatic manner, distributing controls and authority to as many people as possible and doing the fucking up-learning-create cycle as fast as possible. The only thing that we do by the book is accounting and nothing else. There is no book for the nothing else part.

42.5 miles so far in 3 days, 2.5 miles short than the target 45 miles. I will have to run the rest of the course alone due to slight injury by my running partner. Reflection: This running thing is a bitch to do.

I was still working pretty furiously earlier tonight when I notice a friend had left a voice message on my phone. The message said "savour this moment because this is the only time that I will tell you that you are right again. He called me for dinner tonight". She laughed in disbelieved when I told her earlier that this one guy was hitting on her all night in a dinner at a friend's place last week.

Ah, a little victory on a working Friday night.

"The Supreme Court ruled that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses for private economic development." (NYTimes)

This is so wrong in so many level. It's wrong for the poor and it's wrong for the middle class. It represents the tyranny of the majority (town council) and whoever have the most money.

Wish me luck. I'm taking up a challenge from a friend to run 104.8 miles (the distance of 4 marathon) in 7 days starting this Friday June 24 until June 30, which averages to about 15 miles a day. That's about 2 hours a day which adds up to more or less 14 hours endeavour for the week. Add on top of that 15 minutes of warm up in each session which adds 1.45 hour to the total time.

The most distance I've done in a week is about 35 miles, so this represent quite a steep climb to the next performance level.

Inshallah we'll cover 100 miles  in 16 hours.

This  challenge is a part of our effort  to continually shorten the number of days to cover these 16 hours of running. The ultimate will be being able to run continuously for 16 hours, which off course fall into the category of "ultra marathon".

Once I  accomplish this, the next level would be to compete in the Badwater Ultra Marathon, the hellish 135 miles run starting in Death Valley which has to be completed in 60 hours.

After completing that competition, the next logical and very expensive step would be completing the Seven Summits. It will off course be funded by SilverKey :)

I always wonder where my physical limit is and this is a good way to find that out.

"I have a 3-month internship at Silverkeytech, and I'm ecstatic,Adam & Dody (my boses) took me out to dinner" (Alia)

My team in Chandigarh would call me "sir".

I'm used to the idea of leading, but still not comfortable being called a boss.

with sunny skies and full belly.

was the first time I step on Brisbane, Australia, 17 year old and eager. And all the miracles that could possibly happen, happened after that date.

Cheers to Kangaroo Point, Wollongabba and Morningside for hosting me as part of their community during my 4 years stint there

I just found out my family back in my island has been taking care of 30 Chinese fisherman captured by the Indonesian Navy for the past three months. They were detained under open detention policy so they can move in and out of their facility quite freely. I think the local Navy base notified my dad (my Dad is well known in the base due to his previous shipping business. And my grandpa pretty much saved the supply line of Indonesia's army during the Malaysia -  Indonesia border war with back in the 60's with his "take all supply you need - pay later" policy) about their capture and ask for assistance in language and supplies. So my parents simply opened the house and make these fishermen our guests (they will still have to return to their detention facilty at night) and created a support group within the Chinese community in the island while their case is on trial (all of them will be deported back to China)

This makes me a proud son.

This place is full of sweaty despair, fully announced by the "pardon us for the dust, we are in reconstruction" sign and the rubbles of building repairs. The floor I'm standing on is dirty from the footmarks left by the thousands of travellers passing through this hub. The gleaming metropolist East of this place is a stark contrast to the gloomy mood inside. We have plenty of people in this box, but there's no party. This is a camp and we are all refugees.

I'm going to Milwaukee and this what 14 dollars buy me, a one way ticket to the city on a Greyhound bus. I'm on a mission to spread the gospel of Liberalism straight to the heart of one red state household  in one  night and God help me I will succeed.

For now I have to deal with this boredom and smells. The entertainment value gained from staring at a braless cutie a stone throw from me doesn't last very long. She told me her name is Laura, although I suspected that she gave me a Vegas name. Our conversation ended abruptly when we get into the question of what you do for a living. Apparently my Vegas answer of "Chinese Restaurant Delivery Boy" doesn't impress her much. My dirty white shirt, sandals and shorts attire fit the part too well. The "Speculative Capital" book I'm reading didn't give anything away as she responded "ah, interesting. It must be a hard job" and disgustedly turn her head away.

The only other significant observation worth mentioning here is a parade of women with orange glow on their body, thanks to the magic of fake tan spray. I still can't understand the reasoning behind this tanning craze.. Ladies, your skin is beautiful naked.

Right now I'm thinking murder. Our bus is already thirty minutes late and there is no one seems to care. I suspect this comes with the package. Get on with our bus and get your "extremely annoyed" experience for free. The half part of the deal finally arrived 34 minutes late and this will be the end of this note. The lesson from the episode? next time get on Amtrack or get a car.

 

I have been immersing myself with a brilliant book "Doubt: A History : the Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson"  (amazon.com).

This book digs in and chronicles the generations and personalities behind most movement and transformation of faith both on the Western and Eastern religious/philosophy traditions, switching back and forth starting from the Greek philosophers to the its Chinese Brethens to the "Hindus" to the Baghdad Reinassance, slowly revealing the dynamic nature of faith and the fall and rebirth of God.

Well recommended.

"But if Clinton was indecisive, he was also supremely resilient. This is the quality that seems most to impress Harris, and the one the title of his book emphasizes. Clinton may have been a man plagued by uncertainties, but he was also a man who never gave up. Not when the Republicans humiliated him in the 1994 election; not when they seemed to have him cornered in budget negotiations the following year; not when the Lewinsky case seemed as if it would force him out of office in disgrace. ''I'm the big rubber clown you had as a kid,'' he told Newt Gingrich, his Republican nemesis, in 1995. ''The harder you hit me, the faster I come back up.'' That very trait -- documented by Harris in situation after situation -- portrays a strength of character seldom acknowledged by Clinton's many critics."  (NY Times)

He was PGP (Pretty Good President)

" As the briefings went on last week, I began to notice that they were not being delivered in American-accented English. The first project was introduced by a man born in Romania. The second, by a native Pole. The third, by a scientist who had emigrated from Russia. The fourth, by one from Greece. The fifth presenter was from New Zealand, the sixth was another Romanian and only the seventh sounded as if he had been reared in the United States. All the rest had come from around the world to study, in several cases to start companies, and now to lend their skills to this national security effort.

Several of the foreign-born scientists told me afterward that their counterparts at home would have a much harder time following their example, because of post-9/11 visa restrictions to keep America "safe." " (NYTimes)

Right now is about close to midnight, I'm working on my second shift, alone in the Chicago office, but in the company plenty others in the SilverKey network. It is admittedly a pretty strange reality.

Today is a pretty bad day, a day where one customer problem dominates every single important second. The problem was solved conclusively, so yeah it was a good ending, but this type of day I can do without.

2.5 years with SilverKey taught me one thing: this job is a young unattached man game. This game is hard on a family man. There are plenty of strecthed time where work consume every single part of your waking hours, because that's what it takes. Good for work, bad for family. I'm looking forward to the day where 8 hours a day would be more than what required of me so I can concentrate on building a family and do other things instead. But that's later. For now, where I am is good.

" 525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes - how do you measure,
measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee. In
inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife. In 525,600 minutes - how do you
measure a year in the life?"

Oh, yeah, you know the musical. It's soon to be in theather.

"Everyone is working hard, but are they really? And can you win in business, on your own terms?

Experience says no. To win you have to submit to the lunacy of the crazy world we live in. If you won't push the pedal to the floor, you can bet your competitors will. And while you may be motivated even with cushy surroundings and shorter days, the people you hire will take it as a signal that they can relax too. No one will work harder than the boss. That's one of the unfortunate rules of all organization. So if you're on your hard-earned less-stress route to success, the people you hired are acting like cashed-out second-time entrepreneurs too! They can't avoid it, it's just human nature. Of course they'll be disappointed to find out that when you stop funding the project they'll go back to being poor schnooks, and if you didn't blow all your cash (some people do) you'll still be rich." (Mr. Gutman)

It's easy to push the pedal to the floor. Just simulate the working hours of people with two jobs.

May I persuade you to watch the excellent 2002 movie "moonlight mile" and listen to its excellent soundtrack. It's a gentle and adult movie dealing with death and loss in the family.

"what is the point of life? what do i want to do before i die? how do i want to live my life? it's horrifying to realise, but i run the daily grind - the hamster wheel - because it provides a definable framework for motivation." (sarah)

Sarah, David Brooks (of NYT) just write a timely op-ed which I think fit your post nicely, "Life Lessons from the Watergate"

I was supposed to run the Lake Shore Marathon on May 31 last Monday; that didn't happen because to a slight training injury to my left leg. I found out the next day that the event was poorly run and get this, they misjudged the length of the path so the runners were completing 27.2 miles instead of the standard marathon distance of 26.2 miles.

Today was mainly spent on playing 4 hours of volleyballs on the beach  and going to the faboulous loft (no deal though; what a dissappointment). The beach girls today shouted in envy when I told them I will only get sunburned after 5 hours of continuous exposure to the sun. Well, that's the genetic advantage for being born in a tropical island.

The Summer is starting without the usual bagage of Spring Drama. Life can treat you fairly, sometime.

Mike left the building last week and right now is probably located somewhere in Arizona. I cannot help but admire people that return to school after their professional careers. I for one cannot stand the idea of sitting down a paper test one more time. And I think my grey cells cannot withstand the pressure of full time studying anymore as I will be easily distracted and eternally bored with whatever subjects being taught. You smart people get all the good stuff.

I love books and learning but I am not good enough for academic training. There is no MBAs, MAs, PhDs or whatever in my future (well, maybe if they give it to me Honoris Causa)

Another friend is also leaving Chicago next week for Galdstone (?), Texas, a supposed tiny strip of land in near the Atlantic. His girlfriend is studying medicine there and they are buying a 100 year old house. The date for the wedding is April 2006. Speaking of wedding, Mouna is getting hitched soon. Digs is moving to Shanghai. Mike's taking MBA. Jim's going to Law School.

Damn, everybody is having big, bold and life changing  plans.  I have none that I can pull out of my drawer and say,"here it is; I got one too". All I got is a picture in my head that might be just a plain mirage.

nice place, but no deal. The search for a new place continues.

If everything works out tomorrow, I'll be living in a 3200 SqFt loft

Living large baby.

I know I'm late to the party but I'm estatic in discovering System of  a Down through their latest "Mezmerize" album.

"And, of course, that’s what we know as of now. In some cases, it appears that investigations have gotten...uh...bogged down. But, in any event, as far as we can tell, out of 108 prisoner death in US Military custody, at least 27 of them, or 25% appear to be murders committed mainly by US Military personnel, although in one case, the Justice Department is investigating since the suspects are CIA employees. Compare that, to say, 2001, when, in the US corrections system—both state and federal—homicides accounted for 57 of the 3,311 deaths that year, or 1.7%. And that, by the way, includes homicides of inmates by other inmates. The number killed by prison guards, while not broken out, is no doubt substantially smaller still.

25% v.1.7%"

"Murdering prisoners is wrong. Period. Torturing prisoners is wrong. Period. Those are, in fact, supposed to be the types of principles that separate us from the terrorists. But as far as I can tell, there seems to be some problem getting this message down through the whole chain of command. It doesn’t matter whether that’s by negligence, or by design, it has to stop. Even if you don’t care about the prisoners themselves, you have to at least acknowledge that torturing and killing prisoners creates a propaganda and moral defeat for our side. It’s unwise on purely utilitarian grounds, let alone moral ones. Finally, it’s too bad if it offends you to read criticism of our soldiers here. But, after putting in 10 years on active duty as a trigger-puller myself, I’ve pretty much earned the right to make any criticisms I think are appropriate." (Qando)