blog.mchiu.com

Response Roundup

Haven't done this for a while, but might as well just take the responses from the past month or so:

June 20, 2005
New design, new website, new network of blogs...

Comments

I like the new interface but you may want to change colors to less bright ones... the colors are killing my eyes!!

Posted by: Carrera at June 21, 2005 07:42 AM

Well Mr. Carrera, I have been trying to modify the colors and layouts and experimenting with what does and does not work. Currently, I figure that everyone probably uses their computers on a screen resolution over 800x600, so I have been experimenting with widening the size of the blog space, and pushing the sidebar over a little more, and assuming at least a 1024x768 resolution. I also changed the background color a bit, so hopefully the contrast of colors isn't too bad. But in any case, just keep the comments rolling in. I am always open to new ideas... :D

July 12, 2005
People with attitude

Comments

i live and drive in taiwan. and thats all ive got to say about that.

He he he... that's pretty funny Min Gump. Taiwan drivers are pretty bad out here. I had this discussion with my boss the other day since one of my co-workers from Taipei is visiting here, and she doesn't want him to be driving out here (which really has to suck for him, being here in California and all, and without a car). My boss' basic explanation was that drivers from Taiwan 1) on the freeway, are not used to the "high-speed" driving of California... Hmm.. 70mph just doesn't seem to be all that fast, but now that I think about it, everytime I get stuck behind some asshole driving at 50mph while the rest of traffic is travelling at 70 and above, it is almost always a Chinese or Mexican driver... I now catch her drift... 2) They are not really good at observing rules of the road. Her example was that if a Taiwanese driver is driving along the road in the far left lane, and suddenly sees that their street is coming up and they need to make a right turn, they will swerve over immediately in order to make it over, instead of looking behind them to make sure it is safe to do so... Hmm... I don't know if that is necessarily a characteristic that can be attributed only to Taiwan drivers though...

Posted by: min at July 13, 2005 09:07 PM

Driving in Tokyo is no better. The worst or should I say the least with driving manners are Taxis. They will cut you off at any point and drive in middle taking over two lanes, slow down meaninglessly, pull over at the last second to pick up customers, run red lights, park illegally to take naps... etc etc.. buttfucks ruin the streets of Tokyo. That's why you have to drive carefully but also extra aggressive.. otherwise you'll be stuck in taxi traffic.

Posted by: J at July 14, 2005 11:44 AM

Yo J! Taxi drivers are universally rude and arrogant drivers anyway. But the good thing about them is that they are in brightly painted cars so you can at least plan ahead to move away from them when you see them coming up (or coming from behind) and avoid driving together with them. I can say that over here in California, I used to think SoCal drivers were pretty bad, but maybe it was because of the LA Freeway shootings during the 80s that they seem to be a million times nicer than the drivers up here in the SF Bay Area... I was shocked the first time I merged onto the freeway with my blinker on, and people behind me actually slowed down and gave me no pressure to speed up to the point of hugging the bumper of the car in front of me, and no horns had blared either. I thought it was probably just a really nice guy who let me in, but then I was shocked again when I was able to do that over and over again without feeling like people were going to speed up so I wouldn't pass them up. On the other hand, most of the times I did this was while driving on the 405 during 5 pm traffic, so I figure that maybe everyone's feeling is that the extra 30 seconds they lose for letting me in wouldn't be much of a hassle afterall. Another thing that amazed me was that whenever I was cut off unexpectedly, people always raised their hand to apologize for being so rude to cut me off so unexpectedly. Wish people up here were more like that.

July 13, 2005
Funny web videos

Comments

Hahahaha.. that's some pretty funny stuff.

Posted by: J at July 14, 2005 11:35 AM

Glad you liked them J. I've got a ton more, but if you have any other ones that you find, just let me know! :D

Funny web videos

My friend Jun has a blog entry that features some funny videos of a fat kid lip syncing a song, and some gay ramen dude.

I figure that I oughta share the wealth a bit, so here are a few that I find to be hillarious.

1. The Chin videos

A set of three videos featuring these two Korean dudes lip synicing a bunch of songs.

Chin1
Chin2
Chin3

2. The Money video

A pair of Korean chicks doing a karaoke song called "Money".

Money

3. The Star Wars Kid

An oldie, but goodie! :D

Star Wars Kid

Enjoy! :D

Interesting keyword searches

So I was looking at the different statistics on this blog site, and one section of the AWStats reporting tool will show the keyphrases that lead to your site. It is pretty interesting what keyphrases lead to my site, and makes me wonder what the hell am I actually talking about on this site? Hmm....

For your enjoyment, here is the top 10 key search phrases that make it to my site:

1. you got served part 2
2. i hate chinks
3. fucking.com
4. j&j hawaiian bbq
5. www.farting.com
6. www.frankie s.com
7. www.stupid deaths.com
8. eating toilet
9. eating on the toilet
10. cupertino fuck

People with attitude

It was a good few years I guess... When I first returned home to the Silicon Valley at the end of 1999, it seemed that the ridiculous amount of money people were receiving from their jobs, and the overblown job titles that they all held, really got to their heads and it turned lots of people into these idiotic, arrogant pricks. The stock market crash that came about soon after, and then 9/11 attack seemed to have made most of these types of people disappear instantly.

Now, in 2005, it seems that they are coming back... No, the ludicrous amounts of money and stupid job titles aren't necessarily back, but there is definitely a considerable amount of traffic on the streets again, and I somehow keep running into assholes all the time these days.

Back in 2000, I actually remember that I thought it was much easier to drive in LA than in the SF Bay Area because if I put on my turn signal to indicate that I need to change lanes, most of the time, people will slow down to let me in. In the South Bay, I remembered seeing some really aggressive and arrogant driving all the time. Once, while trying to merge into the commuter lane during commuter hours, I signalled to indicate that I was going to merge in, but it just caused the single rider asshole to speed up and blare his horn at me. Another time, I got caught in gridlock, and my car was in the middle of the intersection when my light turned red, and some asshole tried running his car into mine, but the spineless prick slammed his brakes before he reached my car. The funniest, but probably the most dangerous thing I ever witnessed was on the freeway though.

I was driving along on the freeway in the far left lane, and this asshole in his shiny new BMW is tailgating me at 75 mph... I can't move over because there is a string of cars in the lane over, so I figure that maybe I can just speed it up, and he'll stop. I take it up to 95, and this dick is still tailgating me. I finally find an opening, and move over and let him get ahead of me, except that I guess he didn't notice that since I had sped up so much, I caught up to the next wave of traffic, and he was stuck behind another car, whose speed I was matching at around 75 mph again. That car finally moves out of the way, but then these college kids in a beat up volvo merge in and it looked like they cut him off, but it was moreso that he was speeding up. All of a sudden, I am watching these two cars go back and forth cutting each other off. First BMW asshole guy would change lanes and cut back in, and then they would do the same. I decide to pull back. The college kids happen to be getting off at the same exit as me, or maybe they were baiting the guy to get off that freeway and go fistacuffs or something. I slow down even more because if they were baiting him, I wanted to watch the fight, so I wanted to follow them off the road. So the kids are changing lanes to get off the freeway, and BMW asshole guy is following them. They are reaching the exit ramp, and BMW asshole guy is now close behind, but it looks like he is about to slam into the barrier that seperates the exit ramp from the rest of the freeway. That would have been funny, but it didn't happen. Instead, he hesistates for a second, the kids get onto the exit, and he pulls his car back into the freeway and takes off. Man... another dot-commer with no balls... surprise, surprise... It would have been a good fight though... 4 college kids vs. 1 yuppie looking dude...

Another thing I used to notice a lot back then was on my drives to San Francisco going up the 101, without fail, while driving in the fast lane, a car behind me will pull out of the lane, speed up ahead of me, and sometimes would merge back into the lane ahead of me, and I would think to myself, "Wow... you were behind me, now I'm behind you. You're gonna get there a 1/2 second faster than me now. That sure was worth the effort." What was really entertaining to watch would be the car behind me changing over a lane, speed up ahead of me in the next lane, then speed up again by changing over another lane, all the way over to the far right lane, and then change all the way back to my lane, only to be in the same place again behind me, ahead of me, or at best, 1 or 2 cars ahead of me. I guess it made things interesting for them to continuously change lanes, and it made things interesting for me too because I would laugh at them, and have some entertainment on the otherwise boring ride.

Aside from driving, people always pulled attitude outside of their cars as well. Especially consultants... I wonder where they are now? One funny incident happened outside of a bar in SF. I went out for a breath of fresh air, and this one white guy came up to me and started talking to me. He asked me if I were Chinese, and then started speaking to me in Chinese. It was a bit difficult to understand him, but eventually I caught on that he was speaking in Mandarin language. Yes, he was quick to point out that he is a consultant and blah blah blah... Then started to talk about his Chinese girlfriend, and all these Chinese women he had dated before in the past. All of a sudden, this Chinese woman pops up behind him, and I tell him, "Oh... I think your girlfriend wants you to go back inside." Without missing a beat, he looks at her and says, "Oh? You want to talk to me?" and I start to walk away, relieved that I can get away from this arrogant guy, only to hear her say, "No! I want to talk to him!" pointing at me. It took me a few seconds, but I finally realized that it was one of my friends from college that I hadn't seen in ages. Oops...

So recently, I am getting cut off left and right whenever I drive, and people are starting to give me attitude again. The other day, at the gym, while taking a shower, I look behind me, and this guy is giving me this stern look of attitude. I was pretty much done, so I grab my towel, and move away from the shower thinking that there is a really long line outside, and said "sorry...", and the guy continues with his mean stare while entering the stall. While I am drying up, I glance around, and notice that out of 5 working shower stalls, only 2 are being used, and this asshole is in one of them. What a fucking dick... I guess the shower stall I was using was specifically meant for him... sheesh!

There are a lot more of these similar incidences that I have noticed over the past several weeks. Well... the one good thing about it all is that I now have a lot of interesting things to blog about!!! :D