Category: Thoughts

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Boycott Myanmar’s Natural Gas (Thiland & S. Korea, among many)

NY Times Article

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, may become the new “Tiananmen Square”.  The merciless ruling junta refuses to let go of its selfish grip on the country.  As more and more people are killed by this junta’s military, if something doesn’t change soon, things will just become worse.  The countries that have the power to influence Myanmar’s junta are giving in because of their need for energy source, mainly Myanmar’s natural gas.  South Korea is among the bidders… I can only pray that other countries are smarter than that and remember their own dark pasts.

People of Myanmar are becoming wary and beyond being tired of the ruthless murders.  But before things could get better, I am afraid that it will have to get worse first.  Tiananmen Square incident shocked and brought much needed change to China.  People must rise together, or they will fall together.

I pray for a peaceful change, but just like in any other countries (including South Korea), sacrifices were made before changes were made.  Let us pray for a peaceful (as peaceful as it can get) and successful change for the better of the country and the people of Myanmar.

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Perks of working for large company as an underpaid engineer

Though I b*tch and complain about being underpaid and under-appreciated at work, there are some good perks that I cannot ignore or forget.  First is the health benefits.  That alone has saved us a load of money… just having our kids saved us easily $40K! 

But the 2nd (and bigger) perk is the flexibility in the work schedule.  As most of you know by now, Soojin’s ankle has made me take more time out of work to do things that are necessary.  For example, today’s schedule went like this…

7:45 Take Anna to school
8:15 Come back home
8:45 Take Soojin and JJ to UBC for mothers’ Bible study
9:15 Get into work
10:15 Leave for my doctor’s appointment
11:45 Come back to work
2:45 Leave to pick up Anna from school
3:30 Stop by court to pickup application for Soojin’s temporary disabled parking permit
3:45 Drop off my prescription
4:15 Back at work
5:45 Leave for home

Tomorrow, I have to pick up JJ from pre-school at noon, drop him off at home, come back to work, and go pick up Anna again at 3 pm.  These kind of flexibility work schedule could not be possible if I worked at smaller companies or bigger responsibilities with more pay.  I thanked God today for my job.    I don’t want to leave transporting my precious kids to someone I hardly know!

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The Astronaut Farmer – Review and Thoughts

So I got a chance to see this movie and watched it at first with reservation.

At first, it sounds like a whacked up comedy job, but as the plot thickens, I saw the dream and hope of one man, and his family. In reality, it hit home for me even more so because I have always wanted to go into space. However, chance of getting into the astronaut corps is worse than my becoming a doctor! So the fact that he’s an aerospace engineer like me hit me. On top of that, even more reality of the fact that he has a family to care for and responsible for hit even harder. Astronaut training takes a long time, and a lot out of you. I just don’t know if I could put my family through it.

In the end, I still cried for its touch on humanity, not losing hope, and chasing the dream caught my attention. The flow could’ve been better, but I didn’t watch it for that. Acting though was very well done, I must say. Dad was now a hero. Just for that alone, it was very touching. 4/5 is what I give it.

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How do you work so late??!

For the personal record, I had to work 10.5 hours today! 😮 For some, it’s not that unusual. But see, for me, that’s very very very rare. How rare? Very rare. Like my steak, it’s rare. 😛 Why? Even from my high school years, I decided that I would not be a workaholic and not spend most of my time at work, and lose the time with the precious family.

So for the past 9+ years of working, I have avoided jobs that require too long of hours, too much effort, and responsibility. Don’t misunderstand me. I do my job and give it my best. But I deliberately didn’t want to (and still don’t) be a manager. Way too much politics aside, management not only requires much time and effort, but also much ass-kissing. Yeah, you read that right here. 😛

However, raising kids is expensive. 🙁 So one needs to make more money. Cars are not functioning well either. So one tries to get a better paying job (trust me, rocket scientists definitely don’t get paid). But seeing how I got home close to 8 pm, I barely had an hour with the kids. My cousin used to put in 100+ hours a week and slept at work! 😮 How does one put in so much?! Is it worth all that money?

My kids are already 3 and 5. Anna goes to Kindergarten this fall. JJ is so cute and so energetic. Time flies too quickly. I swore to myself that I would not be a workaholic or too focused on money. I still remember when JJ was a baby… that moment passed so fast!

I don’t want to miss my kids’ growing up. It’s been hard and busy at work. But I can’t see myself working this late for the most of my life! Even four to five hours a day with my family isn’t enough! But one?! Shiiiiiiteeee! I think I will just keep on driving my jalopy and and keep on living in our apartment. 😀 (Please no comments about how it’s a waste of money and should invest in a house. That’s another post!)

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A boy and a girl: The difference

So the two of us, Soojin and I, are not too favorable on “conditional raising” of our kids.  That is, I don’t believe in giving the boys just “boy toys” and “girl toys” for girls.  Well, much to my surprise, as I try to play with my kids that are fighting some kind of fever, I find JJ playing with cars on a rug that has roads drawn on, and Anna playing with dolls and stuffed toys putting hair clips and and hair bands on them!  😀

All this without us giving either of them any special treatment or conditioning!  It’s just another proof that God has made us unique and special.  On top of that, our kids have been fairly superb being sick and all.  Even amidst sickness, they were so playful and affectionate… especially towards their mom.  🙂  Mommies are the best when you are sick.  Hands down.  I don’t blame them at all for going to their mom so affectionately when they are sick.

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Working for government can be stressful

So with the OMS pod blanket damage, we’ve been super busy delivering all kinds of data, querying CFD solutions like there’s no tomorrow! Today was no different as a NASA customer requested for dynamic pressures at four corner points of the affected thermal blanket. Well, some …. difficulties arose. Provided points of interests were … to keep things simple, conflicting. And my lead engineer was almost panicking thinking that the data I acquired from the solutions for Mach 4 was… not so kosher. So we were putting lots of time to make sure and understand that the values I was providing were “reasonable”.

Time came to deliver the data just before I had to leave to go home so Soojin could go to work. Well, the NASA customer responded very fast with his estimates of the data! 😮 I freaked. I felt like I was taking something like SAT test or something of that significance!! When we finally compared the data, and saw hoe the two agreed very well, you wouldn’t believe my sense of relief!! Whew!! 😀 I was just feeling like a 5 tons of burden was lifted from my back! 😛 But it sure is stressful working for a government civil servant!

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What makes me a nerd/geek

Well, I was not born a nerd… but I soon became one. 😛

So here’s what I consider to be the stuff that made/makes me geek or a nerd

1. Took Calculus in high school… in my junior year
2. My favorite author in high school was Arthur C. Clarke
3. I spent countless hours playing RPG games on my hard-earned NES
4. My Verbal SAT score was almost half of my Math SAT score 😮
5. I observed how calculus was applied in real life
6. I loved to derive equations and formulae
7. I memorized a car’s performance and features
8. I could tell what car was on the road after a quick glance
9. Star Trek: The Next Generation is da bomb
10. Capt. Jean-Luc Picard is da man. “Engage”. “Make it so, Number One.”
11. I love sci-fi and fantasy movies
12. Was a fan of Lord of the Rings before the trilogy movies came out.
13. Went to Polytechnic Institute for college. ’nuff said
14. I was a bookworm when I turned nine. All I did was read.
15. My GPA from college … was high. We’ll leave it at that.
16. My major was aerospace engineering.
17. I catch up on latest technology developments
18. Gizmodo.com : Need I say more?
19. My hobby is building and tweaking computers.
20. I like to fix computers
21. I help moderate four computer/technology forums
22. I play loads of games, mainly on PC
23. “Final Fantasy VII” is a masterpiece
24. “Baldur’s Gate I & II” are masterpieces
25. I play GRAW (Ghost Recon: Advanced Warrior) online almost daily
26. I thrive on cool gadgets
27. Yet I’m very weary of technological advancements
28. I can compress DVD into a smaller compressed video files
29. I know “pi” to 11th place.
30. My job is a rocket science.

Is that sufficient to be categorized as a nerd/geek? I believe that geeks are mostly pretty benign and safe people. Nerds however can be somewhat stuck up. 😛 Geeks are the ones that make the world go around. Understanding people that are different from you is part of what makes you a human. Fearing difference is the beginning of violence among humans. Trying to understand that difference and embracing is what love is.