triscribe

I can’t believe it’s already 2009.

Getting ready for the inauguration: apparently, the US Supreme Court’s going to rely on some nifty little traditions; a fascinating look back on history on Law.com.

Somehow, I shouldn’t be surprised that this NY Times blog post came up - I was wondering the other night on whether the Times Sq. revelers would eat or go to the bathroom…silly me to really wonder…

As I noted last year, I think this is turning into a way cool New Year’s tradition: an outdoor NHL game! This time, in Wrigley Field?! Awesome! (I’d be too chicken to brave the cold, but this is a nice - maybe insane - way to remember the origins of hockey).

The Daily News editorial in 1/2/09’s newspaper, honoring Chief Judge Kaye on her retirement (second item; not the one about Gov. Blagojevich of Illinois).

New Year’s Eve: I joined friends for dinner at Bogota Bistro in Park Slope - pretty good food, I must say; and then board games. What fun - great hilarity ensued!

New Year’s Day - I actually didn’t get to watch that much of the aforementioned outdoors NHL game on the big screen HDTV at home, since the siblings and I headed out into the frigid cold to enjoy a bit of Manhattan. Dropped by MoMa (or at least enjoyed the shop, since we didn’t get to check out the Van Goghs - hard to get those timed tickets); got cupcakes at Magnolia at Radio City/Rockefeller Center; then some bit of dining at Congee Bowery (thumbs up for the food and decor); and then a visit at Whole Foods (Bowery) (where I understood that the Top Chef season in NYC located the food shopping).

2008 in review? Hmm…

Memorable sports stuff: the Giants’ Super Bowl! Can they make 2009 just as memorable? We’ll see!

The Mets made 2008 an unpleasant one, as do the Yankees, plus farewells to many, including Paul Newman - as this post attests.

Labor Day Weekend 2008 in Washington, D.C.

Went to Chicago for the vacation - see here and here.

Of course, FC and P’s special day in 2008! (a triscribe highlight!)

Living in history on Election Day 2008.

I did another novel for National Novel Writing Month; I may actually be tempted to edit it in 2009. I never did say I wasn’t crazy!

Birthday dinner at Momofuku!

There is so much more that I’m probably forgetting. Anyway, last but not least: 5 Years of Triscribe! My God, time flies when you’re having fun with the Triscribers! Have a Happy and Healthy New Year, Triscribers, to you and your friends and families!!!

Dare I do new resolutions? I’ll likely just renew 2008’s resolutions and strive to do better.

Welcome to my annual New Year’s message/note/blog posting. You’re getting this because you somehow participated in my life this year, or - for this year most significantly - are one of the many people I’ve connected or reconnected with through Facebook.

The procedure is as follows: I  review statistics of the past year, followed by a hopefully amusing anecdote, and then conclude with resolutions for the next year.

Statistics

Megabytes of Email this year: 3895 (up almost 300%, also mostly spam, and I’m only counting Gmail, since it is an incredible pain in the neck to figure out with certainly how much space you are using in an Microsoft Exchange account.)

Miles in a rental car: 0 (I didn’t have occasion to rent a car this year - good thing too considerig the cost of gas/petrol.)

Miles in a Zipcar car share: 1564 (up 50% from 2007, but now kind of torn between them saving me a bundle not having to own a car or pay crazy amounts for gas, and them screwing up my reservation for the one day I really needed it in October, and then afterwards getting socked for a bogus repair bill ).

Miles in a plane: 8270 (down 35% from 2007). Will have to do something about this.

Places visited this year: Washington, D.C.; Red Bank, NJ; Lakewood, NJ; Seattle, WA; Mohegan Sun, CT; London, England

What We Can Believe In

In case you haven’t been keeping track, I got married in October to my longtime sweetheart, Pei.  We invite you to check out our recently and extensively updated wedding website at

http://www.peiback.com/wedding

Among the features include professional photos, accounts of how we got together, were engaged, and survived our wedding day, a complete musical playlist, and online videos of the ceremony and the banquet. If you were there, several mysteries can now be revealed; if you couldn’t be there, we hope that you will be able to enjoy some of the happiness of our day. We are thinking about a 2009 Asia World Tour, maybe in the latter half of the year, so if you’re in Asia, let’s talk.

So once you’re done with all that, here is another little story:

I’ve been a Facebook member for about a year. My wife refuses to join Facebook - she thinks it is just another one of those sites like Friendster and MySpace, and that she would rather network in “real life” (she isn’t a Luddite - you can find her during most any hour engrosssed in instant messaging).

The thing is that Facebook actually works. Chances are the people that you want to know about are on Facebook;  if they want you to know what is up with them, they can have that info pushed to you in a manageable way. This framework separates the who you are targeting part of message writing (you choose your friends and groups and their privacy settings)  from the actual  drafting of the message, which makes it possible for hundreds or thousands of people to be kept up-to-date.

We know for a fact that this form of networking was a pivotal factor in the recent U.S. elections, but what did this do for my life? In brief:

• I went to two Facebook Friends’ (FBF’s for short) independent films, one of which I drove two hours to central New Jersey to see, and the other I was able to arrange sponsorship of a reception.
• I worked with another filmmaker FBF living in Hong Kong to submit a short film in a contest in New York.
• I reconnected with a dozen people from my twentieth high school reunion, a number of which I met again at another high school alumni event.
• I was invited through Facebook back to the anniversary of a college charity fashion show I used to work for 15 years ago, and encountered someone I knew from the Asian lawyer’s association that had worked on the same event a few years before me.
• Facebook was the “neutral” communication channel between the groom’s party and Pei’s bridesmaids. I kept in touch with one of my groomsmen living in Asia, and planned his tux accessories.My cousins in Canada fed me addresses and spreadsheets from their wedding.
• One FBF friend whom I recently had traveled with to Seattle was en route to India and narrowly avoided staying in one of the bombed Mumbai hotels. We were able to see that he was OK in real time.
• One FBF friend asked for tips for a trip to Japan. He used one of my tips to enjoy a fine and inexpensive sushi breakfast in Tokyo.
• One FBF told me about a Taiwanese singer that was going to perform on the East Coast that I had previously seen in Las Vegas with another FBF, and connected with a third FBF that was attending.
• One FBF is starting a consulting business where I was able to immediately refer one friend for an interview, and another for use of her services.
• The farthest FBF reconnects were a neighborhood friend of the family who is now in the toy business in Malaysia, half a dozen people from elementary school, and a member of a religious order who was one of my teachers in high school.
• We celebrated major life events. Congrats to the 3 other FBFs that wedded, the 6 FBFs that had new babies, one FBF that is still expecting, and the FBFs that are moving from and to New York. In addition to our wedding, I also received lots of messages when I became the godfather of my best man’s daughter.
• Just this past week, while my wife was caring for me when I was deathly sick with laryngitis and bronchitis, I also received tips, commiseration, and advice from people that noticed my status.

Now the point here is not necessarily that Facebook is the be all and end all — at some point there will be another next great thing, that’s for sure. And sure, you can probably use the phone, instant messaging, or email to accomplish this the same thing, if you have plenty of time and a social secretary. However, it is astounding that Facebook makes a list like the one above possible today.

You know, the one thing I learned about this marriage thing is we are not alone, and we don’t have to go it alone. This is what we need more of: the hopes, prayers and best wishes of our friends and family. This is what we can believe in.

Resolutions

For two years running, I’ve been putting out two resolutions: the one I’m really going to do (which have included proposing and then getting married successfully to Pei), and the other one that I have spectacularly failed to complete over this time, which is to really learn how to swim. I’ve joined the YMCA, perused the class schedules, looked at the facilities, and even hit the showers, but I have not made it into the pool. I’m going to put this single resolution on again for this third year — let’s see if I can do it.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end.  Pei and I hope that you will have a wonderful 2009. Oh, it’s your turn on Wordscraper!

2008 is winding down and man, it’s been a heckuva year. Am still working through and busy and not a lot of down time.

Still, got a chance to go out and hook up with some fellow walkers/hikers in HK through a Meetup Group. I really like it. So looking forward to more hikes and a bit of photography on the side too. Treated myself a nifty new Nikon D40 and I’m very happy with it. I also really liked Ken Rockwell’s site and donated as well.

Today I had my first alumni interview with a prospective student. This young precocious man was amazing. I felt stupid compared to him but was so energized by his youthful enthusiasm and outlook toward life. A very enjoyable 2 hour chat with him and his parents. I do hope he gets accepted.

Going into 2009, the operative word is to survive, build on for the future, try to improve on my health hopefully through regular hikes/walks, hobbies and forget about the work more. Continue going back to my blog and get a couple of IT certs here and there. And let’s see what happens!

Warmest wishes - be safe and joyful!
=YC

On Sunday, I saw “Frost/Nixon” the movie - great watch and great cast. (Probably not a coincidence that the real original Frost/Nixon interviews are now out on dvd). Frank Langella oozed Nixonian in his portrayal as Nixon; Michael Sheen as Frost - well, I had no idea that Sir David Frost back in the day was so light-weight (ok, I’m not so familiar with Frost), and the rest of the cast was good too. Recommended.

I’m not a big enough movie-viewer to make a list of 2008 movies, but suffice to say that I really thought well of “The Dark Knight” and the films of AAIFF’08 and “Wall-E,” and even “Iron Man.” “Quantum of Solace” was also a decent watch. I didn’t hate the X-Files movie (although I’m probably the only one).

For 2008 in review, TV critic David Bianculli on his tv top ten list; and tv critic James Poniewozik on his tv worst list and his Tuned-In (mostly tv) Persons of the Year (and his top 10 best 2008 tv stuff and top 10 2008 tv episodes (I agree with Poniewozik - the Lost episode “The Constant” was quite an episode for 2008).

Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker also has his best/worst of 2008 lists (I agree with him on “Fringe” and “Lost” as among the best; and on his worst - “Knight Rider” and “The Moment of Truth (really shitty, FOX, really)).

EW also has a best and worst episodes list - sooo happy that they included the amazing “How I Met Your Mother” episode with Ted’s lovely 2 minute date.

Among the great pictures of 2008 in the year’s end issue of EW is a funny gallery of photos where the “How I Met Your Mother” cast pose in the year’s big events (the guys posing as the USA men’s swim team’s big gold win at Beijing 2008 Olympics and a posing from a scene in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” were strangely amusing to me for some reason).

My personal Top TV list for 2008 - which I had posted on Bianculli’s website and re-post here: (in no particular order and intentionally adding what others might not have mentioned, plus unnecessary commentary!):

1. “Fringe” (FOX) - I’m glad FOX is giving the series a shot; it seems to be getting stronger as the season continues - and I love the father-son relationship of Walter and Peter.

2. “Lost” (ABC) - what a season! Very interested to see what will happen when it returns.

3. “How I Met Your Mother” (CBS) - what fun was the end of last season, despite the strike! And this season has been some great laughs.

4. “Life” (NBC) - I was stunned that NBC renewed it after the strike-shortened first season, since I thought that series I liked wouldn’t succeed (and I liked it in 2007). But, the couple of episodes I caught this season was great fun, even if I still don’t quite appreciate the conspiracy storyline. Damian Lewis is great; and Adam Arkin and Sarah Shahi are underappreciated.

5. “Eli Stone” (ABC) - It was the fun series of spring 2008, and I was happy that ABC returned it. I missed much of this season, much to my regret; boo to ABC for cancelling it.

6. The Presidential coverage - for good or bad, this was quite a tv event of 2008; as I’m a PBS snob, kudos especially to Jim Lehrer and the Newshour crew for their work during this election year and Charlie Rose for his interviews and roundtables.

7. “Aliens in America” (CW) - sweet, short-lived series on friendship and family with good humor, and kudos for trying a little something different in the age of a more diverse America (when an American family hosts a South Asian Muslim foreign exchange student, things get amusingly complicated); I’ll even give a little kudos to CW for “Reaper,” which was a bit more fun than I expected.

8. Again, I’m a PBS snob, so I’ll also add “Great Performances” for its coverage of the NY Philharmonic’s concert in Pyongyang, North Korea (I even blogged about it); and “Masterpiece Theatre” (for continuing to give quality drama, even in such troubling financial times, which began awhile ago for “Masterpiece Theatre”/”Mystery” when they had to be under one umbrella), especially for rescuing me during the strike.

9. “Law and Order” (NBC) (the original/the mothership) - the 18th season (starting in Jan. 2008-May 2008, due to NBC’s scheduling shenanigans and then disrupted minimally by the writers’ strike) - during the strike had me watching; the cast of new detectives and the new ADA turned out to be more fun than I thought - and less of the melodrama of “SVU” and “Criminal Intent,” which relieved me (if it’s not obvious, I’m not a big “SVU” or “CI” viewer; just not my cup of tea). The 19th season of L&O so far has been also fun, keeping up with the quality of last season.

10. “John Adams” (HBO) - wow.

Extra credit to Letterman, Leno, O’Brien, and Ferguson for their efforts on late night tv this year.

For worst tv of 2008, I’ll nominate “Knight Rider” (NBC) (I may have grown up with and enjoyed the campiness of the original “Knight Rider,” but that doesn’t mean it had to come back, and in such poor execution), and I’ll also continue my disapproval of bad reality tv (of which 2008 seemed to have a lot).

A thoughtful Christmas, as we’re in the middle of an economic crisis and two wars.

The passing of Eartha Kitt, actress/singer/political activist.

A NY Times article on President-Elect Obama’s Hawaiian attitude. We should all have a little Hawaiian zen in us during these hard times and the holiday stresses.

How Christian is Christmas? Considering that Christmas co-opted some pagan practices and then there are those secular tendencies of Christmas, maybe we should try to accept that Christmas is rich and more than we think it is. An op-ed by Laura Miller, regarding C.S. Lewis’ portrayal of Christmas in Narnia.

Columns by NY Times’ Nicholas Kristof and Thomas Friedman to get us thinking about the state of things in the middle of the holiday season of 2008:

Kristof notes that studies out there suggest that so-called liberals don’t individually give as much as so-called conservatives, even though the so-called liberals expect the government to do more and conservatives don’t think it’s the government’s job at all to do much (ok, I’m simplifying). He raises the interesting questions of what does it really mean to be generous during this time of year, and does your political outlook affect your generosity?

Friedman passionately notes about what Americans must do (and I found myself whole-heartily agreeing):

My fellow Americans, we can’t continue in this mode of “Dumb as we wanna be.” We’ve indulged ourselves for too long with tax cuts that we can’t afford, bailouts of auto companies that have become giant wealth-destruction machines, energy prices that do not encourage investment in 21st-century renewable power systems or efficient cars, public schools with no national standards to prevent illiterates from graduating and immigration policies that have our colleges educating the world’s best scientists and engineers and then, when these foreigners graduate, instead of stapling green cards to their diplomas, we order them to go home and start companies to compete against ours.

To top it off, we’ve fallen into a trend of diverting and rewarding the best of our collective I.Q. to people doing financial engineering rather than real engineering. These rocket scientists and engineers were designing complex financial instruments to make money out of money — rather than designing cars, phones, computers, teaching tools, Internet programs and medical equipment that could improve the lives and productivity of millions. [....]

That’s why we don’t just need a bailout. We need a reboot. We need a build out. We need a buildup. We need a national makeover. That is why the next few months are among the most important in U.S. history. Because of the financial crisis, Barack Obama has the bipartisan support to spend $1 trillion in stimulus. But we must make certain that every bailout dollar, which we’re borrowing from our kids’ future, is spent wisely.

It has to go into training teachers, educating scientists and engineers, paying for research and building the most productivity-enhancing infrastructure — without building white elephants. Generally, I’d like to see fewer government dollars shoveled out and more creative tax incentives to stimulate the private sector to catalyze new industries and new markets. If we allow this money to be spent on pork, it will be the end of us.

America still has the right stuff to thrive. We still have the most creative, diverse, innovative culture and open society — in a world where the ability to imagine and generate new ideas with speed and to implement them through global collaboration is the most important competitive advantage. China may have great airports, but last week it went back to censoring The New York Times and other Western news sites. Censorship restricts your people’s imaginations. That’s really, really dumb. And that’s why for all our missteps, the 21st century is still up for grabs.

John Kennedy led us on a journey to discover the moon. Obama needs to lead us on a journey to rediscover, rebuild and reinvent our own backyard.

Merry Christmas!

Well, let’s try to have some hope and cheer: a clip of “The Hard Nut” from YouTube, as I tend to think that it’s never quite the holidays until I view multiple versions of “The Nutcracker.”