Before and After

Original Living Room with TV sitting on top of the fire place.

Issue: TV is too high and not ergonomic to watch TV when sitting on the couch.












Solution: Move TV to next to the fireplace. Re-arrange couch to face TV. Piano needs to be moved to dining room with this new arrangement.

Happy Halloween

Outsourced?

Just the other day, there was a campaign commercial telling me why I shouldn't vote for a particular candidate- an apparent fear of job outsourcing to places like China. I am never big on Americanism, given I, like most consumers, buy just anything that's cheaper. For an advertisement such as this one, I wasn't swayed just yet.

Going global suddenly became a black curse among job seekers, regardless of how well multinational companies, like IBM, Microsoft, or Apple, are doing. Rest assure that these companies continue to employ many on the American land. They simply figured out a way to cut back in places that they aren't efficient at. You may think I am writing in favor of globalism, I am not. I am simply writing to rationalize my emotions. Back in 2000, when I was a junior in high school, everyone wanted to be a computer science major, including myself. After the dot-com bust, computer science wasn't cool anymore. Emerged from a business background, I developed a deep appreciation for delicate business processes. But over the years, I held a post in technology field and kept my business background as a backup. With a combination of these two, I have become a master of efficiency, with Internet technology as my tool and business intuition as my logic.

True, in the recent years there has been an exponential increase in technology and many jobs are diminishing. American companies have access to high quality labor at a low cost and better technologies; when efficiency is gained, jobs are sometimes impacted. A new resentment soon rises towards globalization and the dollar value return on a technology job rises to new skepticism. Politicians have raced to accelerate this fear and voters are encouraged to act on it.

But let's get a bit creative here. When a dollar is invested aboard, the margin of profit increases and the salary for the American workers becomes more generous. We take this salary to purchase goods- actually affording more goods made aboard, benefiting from the already low-cost structure there.

I am not worried but I recognize the pressures placed on technology jobs. Even so, technology workers aren't the only ones susceptible to the outsourcing trend. I emphasize on the concept of efficiency. When a company realizes how to do more for less, any one in any field is affected. For example, the primary function of my old job was to create a more efficient production line. And reducing headcount by far yields to high cost-avoidance. Then there are ways to reduce headcount- eliminating processes, combining processes, or introducing technology. These jobs are vanishing, not outsourced, not replaced with foreign workers. Whether this process improvement yields more productivity is irrelevant, the company in the end saves money to achieve at least the same result. Increased productivity does not necessarily mean higher profit for company- as you may learn from the theory of constraint, you're just producing waste.

Some people propose that a better education in science and technology will help America regain its competitiveness. I do not think this as a smart solution. As more students are studying science here, so are the students aboard, and education out there is just as good as over here. And producing talents excessively without parallel demand gives inventory and it is costly to maintain it (I am reluctant to call it waste, but it might as well in manufacturing's term). The work ahead involves equipping one with more than one skill and often considering both hard(technical) and soft(creative) skill. I see my business background as my emotional side- this is part of me that gives me creativity, expanding my perspectives; next my technical skill as my rational side- allowing me to judge the worthiness of my perspectives.

Now, revealing the true intention of this post. I hesitated to make one decision recently because of the term "outsourced". The position I applied for was to be outsourced to a global company for budget reason. I debated if I should partake in the outsourcing nature, but eventually I accepted it. It is for the greater of these two companies, and myself of course. If you look at globalization as a whole, the free flow of knowledge across regions should icon the free flow of goods worldwide. I am happy with the decision I made and truly embrace it.

Boeing Job Hunt Timeline

I even have time to plot this timeline chart... I know I am being impatient since this is a big company. But we all know the agony of a waiting game.

I am only doing this to see if my wait is justified and how silly I am to be waiting by the phone and email, that 425 area code telephone call. I don't really know the complete process of hiring and I am trying really hard to recollect my past experience. And times like this, your brain just seems to be blank.

I am guessing it will take longer than one month this time.

Certainty

Our brain cells do tricky things to our mind. Most of us are gifted with imagination and with that, we can form many plausible scenarios right inside our head. It's like paying one movie ticket but watching many different movies. All are played within the same short time frame. Then, our mind is able to draw conclusion based upon these different movies; we create the sound, fulfil the plots, and make our own ending. If it doesn't please us, we rewind everything and repeat this process again.

As imagination goes, we love certainty too. I don't know if I should call it "the wishful thinking" since some imagination is not what we desire to be... but we like doing it so for where else permits you to do and redo events- and all happening this fast. Soon after these rehearsal, we may find ourselves losing factual bits. We try to recall what was done or said- and all desperately trying to differentiate our imagination from reality. We grabbed onto some words leftover from memory; it seemed maybe that was the important piece after all.

So I refuse to imagine at times. The dreamy, daring scenes are risky and heartening. Quite frankly, my imagination is tilted towards a dramatic loud ending (some call extreme?). I assure you this does nothing good to my well-being. The truth is in front of us; we may ask and we shall receive. For once, I disregarded my imagination and I ran for clarity. The path wasn't stretched long and the theatre inside my mind is gracefully put to rest for good... for now

Rain Love 寄雨

The road not taken

Yesterday, I was asked why I blogged when I could just write my feelings in my journal? I do both actually. While blogging keeps an optimist perspective on my thoughts, writing in my journal reveals my "after-thoughts". I write about my feelings mostly in my journal, you know, the thing about love, relationship, my desires- things ought not to shared with the world yet. Where on blog I use it as my platform to evaluate, mainly to make, my decision.

I keep these decisions open to the public because someone out there may find them valuable. Perhaps, they may have the same doubts, or they may have wise advice for me. The web is neutral; I won't be judged for making a decision and I listen to everyone's say. It helped me get through my days when I know these postings will reach to a certain population one day.

Anyway, it has been a week since I "dropped" out of law school. I am reluctant to speak in this manner since how do you drop out when you are never enrolled? You see, back at my old job, we had a fellow who dropped out of law school- he finished his 1L at Seattle U and figured that road was not for him. I asked him then why he even went if he was clueless initially? He gave me an answer that may be common for most people in law school today- he didn't know what he could do after college that pays decent money. That statement there truly sounded like a drop out to me. Unfortunately, this young man took his own life after a year at the job. My prayer goes out to him.

I used to think I could adapt my love for writing to love for law. Not likely so. I just can't write about something I don't believe in; and I can't be convincing if I can't believe. So with all, this is what I love:

Promise

Before the first sight, before the first night
Before the arcs of many moons a Promise I had known
From the solitude of my walls echoed a soft whisper
“I am falling in love with you”

Fall bloomed red with desire; Winter longed with her sorrowed swoon
Lashed by the snow stream thawed by spring wind
We heaved with shivers of joy, anticipation and loss
The stuff of life; the stuff of love!

Love, the chariot of Apollo, knew of no reasons, knew of no seasons
Faith, ever fragile a mistress, danced her terrible fate
A Promise, not lived, is not believed
A dream, not believed , easily caved

I choose to Live that Promise
Not as a soft whisper in the dark
Not as a painting, a page or a frame
But as a day and everyday in the light of the sun