Month: February 2007

Catching up

Been awhile…. it’s been a hellish month of January with the work and travels (travails more like it! :(). Started the New Year with an earthquake that reduced us to near isolation of the island connected barely through Skype via two links (NTT Japan and Asianetcom Philippines). Then as that crisis passed and stabilized, we got super busy with our HR tasks – performance objectives settings (corporate, functional, personal), 2006 reviews, and 2007 HR training development plans). Each one takes several hours – for one person, around 5-6 hours at least to properly do everything. Great experience and helped me appreciate more the entire process as well as really respecting teachers and what they do day in and day out.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a week long trip to Shanghai for a big regional conference (Jan 20-27th) and it was fantastic. B- went with me and we stayed at the Westin on the Bund in Shanghai first. First rate hotel and service was fabulous. English speaking staff, super efficient and warm service always. As expect at the Westin, the interior and atmosphere was welcoming. B- and I took a day trip to Suzhou and had a wonderful trip learning about the silk production and Suzhou’s reputation as the silk capital of China (and probably the world). We stopped by the Suzhou No. 1 Silk Factory CO. . The process is amazingly simple which belies the beautiful product that comes from it. We couldn’t help ourselves and indulged in some purchases for what I thought were a great value. We saw of course Westlake and toured some of the places around it. Extremely interesting was the growth and development of that area – commercial and industrial dotted with farms, villages and “old” China.

During my conference, B- went around the city and I was soaking up the rah-rah of the 2007 kickoff for the region. These things are very tiring, meeting people, eating, hearing stories, celebrations etc. One of the awesome things was that we had the 12 Girls Band perform live for us during our gala dinner :-).  They are as amazing as they sound!

Shanghai has great foot massage but I found a place in Taipei that was almost as good. For the conference days we stayed at the Pudong Shangri-La. Unfortunately, despite awesome infrastructure, the “soft-side” was lacking. Still very local, not enough English speaking staff there which was shocking as compared to the Westin Bund. Saw a lot of sites and perhaps when there’s time, I’ll be able to start putting up our personal website and start sharing it. I dont’ think Flicker is the way to go but we’ll see how my time is (not looking good :().

We enjoyed amazing good thanks to a colleague’s wife recommendations. Cheap but spectacular Shanghainese cuisine. Even got a chance to hit up the Xinjiang lamb dishes at Yunnan North Road. Prices were incredibly cheap (4 people, 5 dishes and beer for 100 RMB! :o). Shanghai has the closest buzz to NYC and a great place to go. Not sure about the living due to the haze and likely pollution but I really enjoyed it. Hope to go again and see how the 2nd time feels.

This past week was crazy with meetings, our company’s wei ya which is a traditional year end company party. This year was extra special because my colleague and I had to do dress up (twice). The theme was Casino Royale and there was a 20 min skit that had to be performed by the Executive Committee (which I’m a card carrying member). I was “M” and had to dress up and get some make up done. But the highlight of the night was my colleague and I had to own up to failing to make good on our diet promise. His failure meant he had to dress up as Mr. Incredible because he actually looks like him :). My failure was even more spectacular. I had to dress up in a pink tutu. This past week my staff went through amazing lengths to procure the materials to make one (as at 103-5kg, finding one was impossible). I found that I could actually fit into pink nylons. So we had to perform for 5 minutes on stage in front of some 250 staff & guests. Luckily I had enough booze in front of me and adrenaline to go through it. All in all, wasn’t as bad as I thought but next time, no making idiotic promises while drinking (which is how this bet came about).

Rested up a little bit today, did some shopping and spent a nice evening & dinner with B- to catch up on my working until midnight for this whole week.

One more rest day and then another week. I’ll be taking 2007 one day at a time….

Cleaning a Thousand Cuts

Has anyone noticed things are getting a little bit pricier? My hair cut was a dollar more, my breakfast egg on a roll is a nickel more, my rent is up 5%. Thank heavens I booked my plane ticket to DC for my next March trip before they started the fare war today, which would have tacked another $5. With the MTA budget overruns, I’ll bet that train fare will hit 2.50, and then there goes the slice of pizza. Will this be the tipping point?

Dentist cleaning tomorrow morning – yay! I have the 9 AM appointment, and I just found out my Corporations professor has the 8:30 AM appointment.

Weekend!

Thank goodness for weekend.

Updated my little website.  Fixed a graphic, minor tweaks here and there, particularly on the links page.  Check it out!

TV:

“Ugly Betty” – episode deserved a thumbs up.  As much as I didn’t care for the conspiracy storyline, it worked out very well (the cast is major talented, I must say – this would have floundered at the hands of lesser talents).  Daniel found out that his long-thought-dead brother Alex was now… Alexis – via a sex change (like, gee, Alexis, seriously no one in the family knew of your deep-seated gender confusion?) – and the Meade sibling rivalry remains, causing their father’s magazine empire to face a major – uh – transformation.  Betty had her own sibling rivalry issues with her sister Hilda (who seemed to be irritating the models at Fashion Week until it turned out they like her – which frustrated Betty to no end).  Hilda and Daniel kissed (!), but more because they were drunk and foolish over their sibling issues.  Hooray that Betty and the accountant are getting closer again!  Justin, Betty’s nephew, got to enjoy Fashion Week by being Wilhelmina’s temporary assistant (Wilhemina having been blinded by faulty botoxin injection’s swelling up around her eyes).   Too funny.  Heck, even Betty’s dad’s immigration problem is turning to be not as tragic as it had been awhile back – not when the federal investigator is now trying to make him love her – uh, talk about conflict of interest, lady!

“Grey’s Anatomy” – Meredith’s mom, Ellis, got to be lucid – temporarily, though.  Wow, Ellis Grey as lucid was curiously interesting.  Ellis as senile Alheimer’s patient who still gnawed at her daughter was one thing; Ellis as lucid – clearly in conflict.  She missed the last five years of her life, and picked up where she thought she left off with Meredith – arguing with Meredith to go to med school (back when Meredith, evidentally a perfectly focused and bright girl, probably was still recovery from partying with the frats of the Ivy League – yeah, right).  Only, Meredith did go to med school – yet Ellis is still disappointed, because Meredith just wants to be happy with her man – not aggressively out to be the cardiac surgeon her mother was.  Ellis is imperfect – even those interns (re: Cristina) who idolize her knew she messed up on the life-career balance thing – Ellis mostly knew she screwed up her life in giving up the love of her life, the Chief.  The scene with Ellis and the Chief – aww – amazing stuff.  Her making him promise to look after Meredith (before she went back into senility); Meredith’s heart-breaking moment of basically telling her mom that she both loved and hated her – and saying that only hope was what helped her believe that one day a cure would let them finally get to know each other – what stuff! 

It reminds anyone why this show is called “Grey’s Anatomy.”  It’s always more compelling when Ellis appears and Meredith comes across as such a person.  Yeah, Meredith has her friends and McDreamy, but she’s often very much alone – being her mother’s daughter – and it was nice that the Chief is someone who can understand.  If he’s a father figure for anyone, he’s probably the closest thing for Meredith, who can barely face her own biological dad.

Cristina Yang’s jerking around Burke’s marriage proposal was a bit much – but gee, will she learn from Ellis’ (personal) mistakes?  And, George and Callie getting married – crazy – and inevitably, Izzy adopted the role of irritating sister-in-law, spewing all kinds of bile at Callie (good for George to defend Callie).  Liked seeing how Dr. Bailey was loving her clinic – she’s a surgeon, yes, but she’s a great doctor and a good person.

Last but not least by any means: the report on global warming is out, and what does it mean?  

In a grim and powerful assessment of the future of the planet, the leading international network of climate scientists has concluded for the first time that global warming is “unequivocal” and that human activity is the main driver, “very likely” causing most of the rise in temperatures since 1950. 

They said the world was in for centuries of climbing temperatures, rising seas and shifting weather patterns — unavoidable results of the buildup of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere.

But their report, released here on Friday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said warming and its harmful consequences could be substantially blunted by prompt action.

“could be substantially blunted by prompt action” means what?  We all get hybrid cars?  use more wind and solar power?  Recyle, re-use, etc.?  What Would Al Gore Do?