People interactions

My friend Diana made an observation today that reminded me of something I've been thinking about on and off for some time. Hence I am reposting my comment on here:

" I think it’s true that many ppl behave differently depending on the setting and the frequency of interaction. e.g. in a large group setting -> person is more likely to be more lighthearted / casual VS smaller group of friends or 1 on 1 where person has more potential to be more personal… but then it isn’t always so cut ‘n dry as another variable could be personality.. while it’s true that some or a lot of ppl behave differently in person vs email/blog..there are those who could behave the same. I think I could fall in this latter category due to the fact that
1) I don’t always articulate my thoughts in person/email/blog and
2) I do not wear my heart on my sleeve
..I also think the more time you spend with a person the distinctions can become blurred. "

As an addendum to my comment, I wanted to reiterate my belief in that the more time you spend with a person the distinctions of how you percieve another person can (but not always) become blurred. Some barriers to this include frequency of interaction, timing, and first impressions.

Irwin & Tina

My cousin Irwin & Tina got married this past Saturday at Sunset Church in SF. The banquet reception was at New Asia in Chinatown, SF. There was a moment of nostalgia during the slideshow where a childhood picture was shown of Ed, Irwin and myself sitting around the kitchen nook of their house. Congratulations again Irwin & Tina!

"family friendly" picture of Irwin's bachelor party crew (7/10)

Top R -> L: Steve, Irwin, Pete, Matt, Allen, Morris, Brian, & Ray
Bottom R -> L: Simon, Me, & Kev

The Island

Jim, Sabrina, and I met up and saw The Island. This movie was pure Michael Bay..fast edits & edge-of-your-seat action sequences..became borderline derivative at times on the subject of human cloning but overall thoughtful. Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson were both effective in their lead roles but Steve Buscemi was an absolute riot! I'm not sure why many of the supposedly "futuristic" cars looked the same as today's and there were a lot of "futuristic" product placements including a much more sophisticated version of Cisco IP Communicator! The Island goes down as one of my favorite summer flicks for this year.

Dinner with Eric

Since I can't make it to Eric's bachelor party this coming weekend I took him out to Rock Bottom. It was a Tiverton apt reunion as Josh and Danny joined us as well. These guys haven't changed all that much since college...which is actually a good thing. During the course of the evening, I observed that Eric pretty much can't drink even if Ivy's life depended on it.

Diana's "21st" b-day

Here is picture from Diana's b-day dinner at Paragon that I am stealing from Jim ( conveniently photoshop'd and resized for me, thanks Jim ;-) ). It was speed dating seating minus the dating portion. Small gatherings like this are always fun.

Fiscal Year '05 Performance Review

People who know me well know that I am not into self adulation. But I just wanted to share a piece of good news. I recently met with my direct manager and I was very pleasantly surprised by my '05 review and rating. It's ironic to me because I personally don't think I worked as hard this year as I did in previous years and yet I received the highest rating in my career so far -> ???!!! But it couldn't have come at a better time as I am continually trying to show positive results and yield more productivity even though I am working remote. By the Darwinian nature of our rating system the flip side of all this is that I am under more pressure to work even harder, yield even more postive results, and blah blah blah in order for me to retain my rating & ranking. I think being happily married has definitely skewed my perspectives on work-life balance. To put succinctly -> more life and less work. I am a firm believer in not working your whole life away.

"Don't touch that squirrel's nuts."

Why enjoy one movie when you can enjoy two? The next movie we saw was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.. The breadth of characters that Johnny Depp can play is nothing short of amazing. I really enjoyed the eye candy (no pun intended) as well as the song & dance numbers. I really was craving chocolate toward the end!

"Everything here is eatable. I'm eatable, but that my children is called cannibalism and it is frowned upon in most societies. "

Fantastic 4 not that fantastic

After Viks got off work on friday night we squeezed in Fantastic 4. With certain films I sometimes take a contrarian view. Two examples of this are Mark Steven Johnson's Daredevil (especially the Director's cut!) and Michael Bay's Armageddon. I was really hoping the critics were wrong on this one but this time I fell somewhere in the middle. Overall, I thought the movie was fun and engaging but in the end left much to be desired. My wish list for the next F4 sequel -> flesh out the characters more and in the next brawl with Dr. Doom at least make it seem like he has a fighting chance.

In the Mood For Love

Viks and I saw "In the Mood for Love" last night. I watched bits & pieces a long time ago but never finished. I think I appreciated this film more on this quasi-2nd time around. While not a perfect film in my book, I think what worked for me was,

-Wong Kar-wai's use of music to really accentuate the film's atmosphere.
-The long camera takes on each of the lead actors which allowed the audience to absorb the subtle expressions of emotion on their faces, thus revealing a whole lot while seemingly imparting very little.
-how understated the film was..sexy without being overtly sexual, eloquent without being contrived, and dream-like without ever leaving the realm of possibility.
-the sexual tension between the two characters and their portrayal of lonliness, longing, and restraint ...subtle but superb performances by both leads.

2046

I am very much looking forward to seeing Wong Kar-Wei's 2046. Talk about an all star cast.. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Zhang Ziyi, Chang Chen, Maggie Cheung, Faye Wong, Gong Li... which reminds me I need to finish watching In the Mood For Love and see Chungking Express.

What Goes On in Vegas Stays in Vegas

This past weekend was my cousin Irwin's bachelor party. Our party comprised of 12 guys and we rented a house about 15 min away from the strip. As expected, it was weekend of inconsequential activities and pure hedonism. Out of respect for my wife's wishes I did not go to specific establishments nor did I participate in acts of perversion ;-) That's not to say I did not enjoy myself. Many of Irwin's buddies whom I met for the first time were really cool and fun to hang out with. There was this guy "Mike" who came with his "employees." "Mike" struck me as your stereotypical Vegas local by his mannerisms. What was funny was that his vocabulary consisted of "M*****######!" after every other word and his favorite catch phrase was "Pigs in the blanket!" which we all had no clue of what that meant at the time. I queried Urbandictionary and the definitions are here and here. I'm still unsure of it's context. Of course Vegas would not have been complete without a little gambling. We were up til 4am Saturday morning. I learned to play a little Pai Gow and I was up 3 dollars on the Star Wars slot machine but ended up losing it all. Even though it was just a loss of $3, all I could think of at that moment was "Mike" shouting "M*****######!" Alright Irwin, hope you've been enjoying your last few days of bachelorhood ;-)

"Pigs in the blanket!" .... "M*****######!"

Domesticated

Viks and I share one car. I am often at home without a car to go places. It can get pretty hot during the day so I often prefer to stay indoors during the day. Initially I thought I would suffer boredom or claustrophobia. It turns out I really don't mind being "stuck at home" for a variety of reasons:

1) no car = no going out to buy food = have to make my own lunch or starve! = save $$$!!!
2) To break the monotony of sitting all day, I sometimes get up to do household chores e.g. laundary, making the bed, dishes, kitchen cleaning,vacuuming, filing of papers / shredding..
3) I am fortunate to have the home theater that I really enjoy watching movies on.
4) I love relaxing in the loft, gazing out the window, IM'ing friends, gaming on my PC, "window shopping" online, researching investments, reading up on current events, technology, and home theater forums/news groups.
5) greeting Viks when she comes home from a long day at the hospital.

Low key 4th of July weekend

It was a low key 4th of July weekend as Viks started residency last week and worked most of the long weekend. With the limited free time we had, it was "War of the Worlds" and "Bewitched" in lieu of fireworks/bbqs :-) The tomatometer pretty much sums up how I felt about each film.

We started work on our backyard and it should be done by the end of next week. I really would like to have a housewarming sometime but seeing that I am bit far away from people I have been reluctant to send out invites.