Red Cross

I recently volunteered for the Red Cross. What surprised me was how strict they were in terms of making sure that the volunteers were proper, committed people. I'm subject to a background check as well as an interview. In essence, it's like applying for a new job! It's probably a good thing, it weeds out the people who thought "why not?" and sign up for it. And truth be told, a part of me is in that category. It's easy to volunteer for stuff, but it's harder to stay in it for a long period of time. Red Cross does emphasise the "we want you to be doing a job that you want" instead of the "throwing bodies at it" approach that many other agencies take.

So I did do some browsing and I'm thinking that the Disaster Response Reserves sounds interesting. I'd like to be able to use some of this project management skill (or lack thereof) to help out in disaster situations. And surely if I can work calmly in a disaster situation, everything else in my normal line of work will be a piece of cake!

I went to the orientation the other day, to get a history on the organisation and all that jazz. A few random facts:
- Red Cross symbol is the second most recognizable symbol globally, number one being Coca Cola
- Red Cross responds to about 8 "incidents/disasters" per day. Obviously a disaster is anything where bad stuff happens, right down to a family.
- Red Cross have about 4,000 volunteers in the Greater New York region, and they are aiming for 10,000. That's bigger than my company!

It will be interesting to see how this goes. My previous concepts of charity were more slanted towards teaching a person to fish, as opposed to giving the fish away. With disaster relief, it's really all about giving stuff away to make sure people get through the initial "survival" phase. Will see if it's fulfilling or not. Either way, any charity is better than none.

Poverty

It's probably because of my personality, but I like books that provide clear step by step instructions on what they are about.
With "The End of Poverty", Jeffery Sachs does this, providing an operations guide for countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals agreed upon in 2000.

What was interesting was understanding some of the causes of poverty, and getting rid of some of the myths, especially of African nations. Some causes, such as corruption and mismanagement, affect a countries state a lot less than I had previously thought, which geography, disease and nutrition causes countries to get stuck in the poverty trap.

What was also interesting was that birth rates for poverty countries are high most likely because parents understand that they will lose some of their children and in order to compensate have many more kids. This in turn leads to population growth that the country and land cannot support adequately. If mortality rates of children goes down, then there is less risk of losing their children and parents will naturally reduce their family size (similar to richer countries).

I read an article once about how the human mind has difficulty comprehending large numbers. When you see a statistic 1 million children die from malaria each year, it's sometimes harder to imagine that than the 4000 that died in the World Trade Centre. 1 million is a staggering number from a preventable disease, but these people are nameless, faceless. Say what you will about Bill Gates, he can comprehend that large number, and recognises that significant amounts of money needs to be invested to combat that disease.

Here's to hoping we reach those Millennium Goals by 2015. Given the financial crisis, it's going to be a tough ask.

Acting

Acting class is still going strong. Having asked for some new material, my teacher pointed me in the direction of some plays written for American-Asians. Playwrights such as David Henry Hwang and Philip Kan Gotanda have contributed to plays that address the issues migrants face in belonging to this country.

Frankly I never knew that these types of plays existed! And it is refreshing to read scripts that I can relate to, at least on some superficial level. My previous attempt at a monologue had me as some "Southern gentleman", out of Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie".

Of course, we still have some shockers, Hangover being the current movie that I can think of. Unfortunately, Asians are now being typecast not in their mannerisms but more so in their job line. Great example would be that nerdy analysis guy in "CSI", the nerdy Princeton Korean guy in "Harold and Kumar".

It's also great to see that there have been more non-stereotypical roles for Asians in cinemas these days. John Cho seems to be doing well, acting as all sorts of roles (yes, I am a fan, did you know he's 37?), from space cadet to some cop.

I still have an aim to get in a play here, but given the sheer talent of the people around me, it's going to take a lot longer to achieve the goal. Still, it's good to use that part of the brain, and once in a while we all want to be someone else for a change!

Perhaps the best indicator that we are on even ground is when people don't write about these issues any more. It's just, "he's a good actor".

Achievements

Reading the book "Against the Gods" (thanks Baba!), it details the history of risk, and how society moved from thinking of the future as pure uncertainty to one where it can be (sometimes) quantified.

The book describes the many people that contributed to risk assessment, from philosophers who thought about probabilities in life to mathematicians that provided the theorems on calculating the utility and expectancy of events.

What was more remarkable was the amount of achievements that these people had acquired by such young ages. Fibonacci wrote his book Liber Abaci when he was 27. Edmond Halley was a member of the English Royal Society by the time he was 22. Daniel Bernoulli was Professor for Mathematics by the time he was 24.

I don't know if it's because the life span of people in those days were shorter, but people seemed to be awesome early. Of course, history would have a bias to people of note, so we only read about famous people who would have been the top 1% of their society.

We are definitely getting to an age where I can see some of my friends really powering ahead in their pursuits / professions, and it's fantastic to see that. It just makes me think that I need to do more with my life. What's my contribution? What can I do that will make an impact?

I could be approaching this the wrong way. Perhaps the better question should be "what strengths do I have so that whatever I do has the greatest impact?"

Of course, as I write this, having come off a massive night in town, perhaps the focus is in the wrong place at the moment!

I Feel Used.

I've heard about it here and there, but never experienced it myself until last night.
Random girl comes up and dances up close. She's fairly cute, I'm a willing partner.

I suggest to go have drinks at the bar, she obliges.
One mixed drink, one shot, of course paid for by me, as I asked her to go to the bar. Conversation flows fairly easily, I learned that she's doing dentistry.

Back to the dance floor, a bit more dancing, then it's "I gotta take this call, will be back". Never comes back.

Warning signs for the future:
1. The fact that she wanted to down a mix drink. Who does that??
2. The "let's get back on the dance floor" call quite soon after the drinks were finished
3. The (possibly fake, but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt) phone call to move away from the dance area

Let that be a lesson for all you single guys out there! Still, the dancing was pretty good :)

New York - Jun and Vegas

Catching up on pictures.

New York - Jun 09



Good to get some flower shots in again!

Las Vegas - Jul 09



Go the hungies!

Belated Birthday Review

I did a search on "birthday" on my site to see what goodies came up. Quality posts!

Obviously things have changed a lot since last year, let's look at some "age-changing" factors:

Things making me feel older:
- Heavier drinking has made my liver older.
- General fitness has declined. However, having just gotten a bike (fixed gear!) I'll be looking to turn this one around
- More responsibility at work, more engagement with global teams, talking to more senior staff
- Living by myself.
- Thinking about my next step in life, and working out the future

Things making me feel younger:
- A somewhat more "lax" attitude to responsibility, or rather, saying "yes" to more things.
- Having no savings (due to moving costs, lease break fees, excessive holidaying) has made my bank account younger.
- Getting told at dance parties "I thought you were mid-20s!". Must be the dance moves.
- Getting booked in LA by Korean cougars.

So overall I'm about square! That sounds about right. Perhaps the Asian gene of looking "ageless" applies not just physically but mentally and emotionally as well.

A quote from last year's post still applies:

I've heard that men are in their prime during their 30's, as they have got their shit together and are really making a decent contribution to themselves and to society at large. Perhaps this birthday milestone is just a sign along the road that I am traveling, an acknowledgment that things are now coming together and that I am finally starting to be a wise man.

New York Summer

Summer finally hit this weekend with some glorious weather. It was great just to walk around, soak up the rays and enjoy New York. Things on the hit it list:

- Play some pickup basketball
- Go to Hamptons, need to get on the party list of a friend who has a timeshare of a condo there
- Go to upstate New York, apparently there is some apple picking thing to do.
- Kayak on the Hudson river
- Check out another Jones Beach concert
- Play some beach volleyball at Long Island city
- More public theatre shows. If I can score a Shakespeare in the Park ticket, I would definitely go
- Back on the exercise routine, surely there are enough days left in summer to get ripped and then still have time to show it off :)

Other activities that have occurred / already booked in:
- Watched Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds. I am impressed at the energy of that guy (given he is late forties?), as well as the number of hit songs that he has written. One thing was that when he did sing those songs together, it was noticeable that they all have a very similar beat and style. Highlight was some of the classic Boyz to Men songs
- Seeing Bei and Reenie in consecutive weeks. Always fantastic to have friends come and visit, I once again marvel at how easily we can travel globally. See you guys in November and thanks Reenie for the present!
- Seeing some relos come from Kingston in Canada for the weekend.
- Late night funky Jazz at Blue Note. Makes me wish I could play a saxophone, or any musical instrument, for that matter.
- I cooked! Steamed fish and choi sum! And amazingly, no one got sick!

I've taken to saying "yes" to pretty much anything, and it's been good fun. One thing that I have refused to do is to start any form of long distance running. That, to me, is just no fun, plain and simple!

Sydney, Singapore and Hong Kong

Photos are up.

Sydney

Ben & Syl's Wedding

Singas & HK

La-La Land

I think weekend trips are brutal, leaving Friday, taking the red-eye back on Monday and straight back to work.

That being said, Los Angeles was great fun. It had all the makings of a good trip:

1. Key events ie NBA finals game 2 (go Lakers in OT!)
   
2. Stoopid photo opportunities at every turn
   
3. Travelling companion willing to go out, hitting random Korean clubs. Perhaps 2 people attempting to share one bottle of vodka was a bit too ambitious.
   

I think LA is too much car travelling. The pavements are empty, everything feels far away, it's not something I'm used to. Of course, if I did live there I would get some awesome car to cruise around in! It has this ecclectic mix of architecture, from spanish to modern to old school chateaus. This actually makes the neigbourhoods such as Beverly Hills quite fun to drive around.

Definitely need locals or friends of locals that can tell you where to go out at night, but that "close at 2pm, no more alcohol" rule is ridiculous. Remember, unlike New York, start early!

Would I live there? Nah, not my thing. Good to visit though.