The end of me

I just signed up for Yelp.

reidy.yelp.com/

It's highly addictive. This will be the end of me.

Why the internet is so dangerous (or awesome)

I won't go into specifics, for fear of reprisal from co-workers, but I want to remind us all that anything you say or write can end up on the internet and if you don't control the content, will stay there forever. Old blogs, random comments or forum posts, can all come back to be embarrassing web pages associated with your name. It's like, a permanent record. Not so cool.

So anyway, the reason I'm noting this is because at the behest of a co-worker and some snooping, I found some random Urban Dictionary definitions, Google AdWords sponsored listings for various queries, a MySpace page, YouTube videos, a Xanga, and a brand new website by my co-workers. Kind of incriminating them, but really interesting for me, since it really shed some light on what the people I work with are outside of the job. Or, what they were like before working at Google.

But, the title of this post was about why the internet is so dangerous and awesome. It's dangerous for obvious reasons, but awesome in that I got a good laugh out of all of the funny defitions one of my co-workers used for his own nickname. So face it, if your name is on a webpage, it's gonna be indexed and placed in Google search results. Instead of screaming libel, we might as all get a good laugh out of it.

Reality Check for East Palo Alto

When I told my co-workers that I lived in East Palo Alto for the first time, they were all surprised; some asked if I thought I was safe while others jokingly asked if I had ever been shot at. I've realized that it's not the best neighborhood, but I've found it pleasant. No problems with neighbors (they even have some nice children who run up and down the street) and I have my own bedroom/bathroom all to myself. Rent is cheap and I have ample parking in our driveway or the street.

Well, so much for that.

This weekend, MLK weekend, of all weekends, East Palo Alto was hit with three major crimes. A murder. A vandalism of an elementary school. A shoot-out leaving one man wounded. All, just a few blocks from where I live.

It's pretty scary stuff. I drive by the intersection everyday where the murder occurred. Last Thurdsay, I recall seeing police cars and paramedics at a blocked off area of the road where it all happened, probably an hour after the murder. To think, if I had left one hour earlier, I could have been caught at the intersection when the drive-by happened. But, what baffles me is that the next day, at that same intersection, life is back to normal. Kids are playing out in the streets. People walking around like nothing happened.

People move on. Life has to go on, or nothing would be normal.

The question, I am currently confronted with, is if I can or should continue to live here. I have the means to move out. Should I fear for my own safety? I'm not completely certain of my decision yet, but I'm willing to stick things out until my contract ends in August. My understanding is that these crimes have been committed by people outside of EPA. My housemate mentioned that some people are getting out of jail and settling old scores. If it's a one-off thing, then I think I'll be okay. If it keep up, however, I think I would seriously consider moving.

Success! Traveling and Presenting

I had posted last week that I had purchased a pair of noise canceling headphones. During my flight to Chicago they turned out to be a blessing. My flight was delayed about 4 hours, so I sat in the airport and read the Kite Runner while having the noise canceling activated. It allowed me to concentrate better, and I think prevented me from being as fatigued because I didn't have to constantly hear all of the airport noise. So I highly recommend noise canceling headphones!

Of course, the transition from Chicago to St. Louis was a little hectic. We landed at 10:20 and my flight out to St. Louis was supposed to depart at 10:50. Once we landed I rushed out to my plane, running through the terminal as fast as I could. I had my backpack and carry-on bag with me, and got tired pretty quickly. But, when I turned the corner and saw the terminal lined with cots and people already getting ready to sleep, resigned to the fact that they would be spending the night there, I decided that there would be no way that I would spend the night in Chicago. So I ran and caught my plane - but of course, it wouldn't leave for another 45 minutes due to additional boarding of late passengers and bad weather.

Christmas was the first time our family had been together since June, and the first time I had been home to St. Louis since last December. Plenty of things had changed - the roads, the things in my home. Nonetheless, it was nice to catch up. My family loved the Google gear I got them =) So it was a successful holiday! And back to work on Thurdsay.

My cover has been blown

My fellow employees have found this blog. There goes my freedom of expression =(

When Jenny's gone...

I become very bored and lonely.

For a little background info, Jenny has left for a trip to Asia, where she will work in the Google Tokyo office for a few days before hopping over to Qingdao to see her Grandparents. I, in the meantime, am continuing the work thing in Mountain View, and attempting amuse myself while she's gone.

Some things I've done:

- Played video games: Probably about 24 hours worth during the weekend. I got a game called "Just Cause" for Xbox 360, which is just like the Grand Theft Auto series. You fly around a gorgeous island, completing missions to overthrow the government and grabbing territory from drug lords and corrupt government officials. While the quest for 1000 Xbox achievements points continues on that game, I have only left the house to do the following...

- Eat - at Google...three of my four meals were there. Well, I only drove their twice. On Saturday I got enough chipotle BBQ pork loin to last through dinner. And Saturday was some thai chicken. Very very good!

- Gym - I'm proud to say I went. Made me feel worthwhile.

- Shop - took my butt out to get some clothes I really didn't need. I went to Express Men at Valley Fair and bought two pairs of jeans and a t-shirt. I also stopped by Old Navy and got some socks and boxers. That made the trip worth it.

So what will I do the rest of this week? I've done all my Christmas shopping, so it will be more of the same. Work, gym, video games. Gotta get it all out of my system before Jenny comes back!

Xbox obsessed

The best thing about Xbox 360 is that there are achievement points associated with each title. 1000 points can be obtained for each game, based on completing certain objectives. For me, I've always been obsessed with completely beating a game - getting 100% completition in GTA Vice City or beating Farcry/Fear/HalfLife2 on the hardest setting.

But now Xbox live records a gamer score, with all of the points associated with the games you've played. It totally makes me keep playing games just with the point of getting achievements to have a higher score. I'm around 5000 points, but people online are as high as 50000. Maybe one day I'll reach that much!

Thanksgiving Recap

Awesome things I did in Hawaii:

- Attended the Triple Crown Surfing competition in the North Shore of Haleiwa. The waves were killer - 10-15 feet high.

- Ate at Kua'aina burger. 1/3 burger with 1/2 an avocado on top. And fries. Best. Burger. Ever.

- Ate at Alan Wong's. Menu included:

• Baked Lobster Mousse Wrapped in Nori with Crab Avocado Stuffing
• Steamed Clams with Kalua Pig, Shiitake Mushrooms in a Foil Bag
• Hamakua Springs Whole Tomato Salad with Li Hing Mui Ume Vinaigrette
• Maui Cattle Company “Garlic Steak” - Pipikaula Potato Gratin, Boursin Goat Cheese, Roasted Vegetables, Red Wine and Shallot Glaze
• Waialua Chocolate Sampler

- Shave ice at Wailoa Shave Ice. Green tea and strawberry. Yum!

- Watched Kicking and Screaming and Blades of Glory.

- And spent time with family :)

Thankgiving

I flew out this morning to Honolulu for Thanksgiving. Surprisingly, the drive to the airport (granted, at 6am) was nice and quick and getting through security to the gate was also quick. Plus, the flight itself was quiet (no kids or high school groups to annoy me). I watched Transformers, which was pretty bad but passed the time.

Seeing family in Hawaii is always nice. We had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner. I will be spend the next few days relaxing on the beach and at home!

Changes

I've learned a lot in the past few weeks. I took out my first loan. I bought my first car. I bought car insurance. Up next - becoming a California citizen!

Honest Tea

At work I drink tea. Lots of it. I've fallen in love with Honest Tea's "Just Green Tea," drinking maybe 3-5 glasses a day. It's so addicting, 0 calories, organic, and healthy! And, as a side project, I've been collecting the bottle caps, which have quotes. So far I have around 60 unique ones, that I hope to get up on the internet one day. I'll rank first in SERPs for Honest Tea quotes!

Stanford 25, USC 24

Work has been much of the same and I continue to feel more distant from Stanford. That is, until this Saturday, when I checked NCAA scores and found that Stanford had beaten USC 25-24! I couldn't believe it! Jenny and I were on campus that evening, and were fortunate enough to catch a large crowd gathering around Maples. Over 1000 students, alumni (as old as upper 50s) came out to cheer on the newly revitalized Stanford football team as they rolled in at midnight. As far as sports moments at Stanford, this ranks right up there with Nick Robinson's trey at the buzzer to beat Arizona in 2004. For once, an entire campus was united and behind the football team, which just last year had only won one game. And now that I'm an alumni, I can really see how the players, they're just kids too, were so happy to get off that bus to fans. Many of them, for the past four years, got off the bus at midnight to an empty campus, rejected from yet another lost. But that night, they were heroes and they deserved it. Guess all of the good things happen once I leave. But, as they say, once a Cardinal, always a Cardinal.

Officially no longer a student

Classes start tomorrow at Stanford. Now I really am no longer a student. =[

The Day I Almost Died

Yesterday I crashed into a tree and probably totaled my car. I was heading to the gym around 11am and it had been drizzling all morning. When I made a slight left on E. Bayshore, my tires lost traction and my car turned left. I over-steered to the right, causing my car to do a 180 that took me onto the embankment to my right. I collided with a metal fence and a tree, damaging my front bumper, driver door, and rear of the car. Luckily, I was not hurt and the impact was probably at 5-10mph.

As I was sliding out of control, the only thought that really went through my head was "Oh shit, I might die." This has probably been the closest I've been to really hurting myself, and surprisingly, I didn't think very introspectively about anything. A part of me said, "No, I want to live," but I felt the outcome of the situation was beyond my control - I was at the fate of my car and the surroundings I would run into. Guess I'm more existential than I thought.

I'm surprised I'm not more shaken up about the situation as a whole. I probably have to pay a ton to get a new car, but part of me is excited about change in my life. Guess that's me and my optimism about any situation.

Anonymity and Access to Information

If you log into Facebook, you'll see that they're opening profile pages to search engines, allowing anyone's profile page to appear in Google search results. I'm sure thousands of high schoolers are crying foul at this moment, worried that the "I fall asleep in AP Bio" group they joined will get them in trouble. But is it really that big a deal? Is it an invasion of privacy? I don't think so, and I want to take a few minutes to outline my position on net privacy.

Ever since I started full-time work, I've realized how much information about you is on the internet. If you haven't Googled yourself, do it right now. And if you have an uncommon name (like myself) you might be surprised with the results. Under my own name, I have a few op-eds I wrote while at Stanford, some forum posts about my time as a high school debater, and for some reason, some non-existent webpages in another college organization I was briefly a part of. But, in the grand scheme of things, this information is not that big of a deal. If you look at the myriad of Yellowpages, or reverse phone lookup websites, you'll find that your address, phone number, and even previous addresses all appear. I did it for my father and I was surprised that data shows our residence in Maryland, Connecticut, and Missouri (all true). The Yellow Pages is a directory that has existed in print form for many years and nobody had a big problem with this. If you did, you could not list your number. You could opt-out.

For some reason, putting information on the internet causes a greater fear. I don't blame critics - with an address on the internet, anyone across the world could find where you live, as opposed to a local Yellow pages where local residents would be able to access that information. But, this is the trade-off we see with the benefit of the internet and search engines like Google. Google, in an effort to provide more and more quality results, can understand that a query for your name, or even a phone number, will return a result that a user, ultimately wants. Yes, it borders on stalking, but we do it for celebrities all the time, why not extend it to our own lives. At the core, this is transaction of valuable information that a user ultimately wants. Sure, it's unsettling at first, especially if something embarrassing comes up. There are appropriate escalations for that, such as removing the content at your own behest. But at the same time, that is the beauty of the internet as well - it is dynamic and ever changing. Back to the main point - I'm a supporter of the greater access of information on the internet. I think it ultimately pushes humans closer together.

The end.

Then why did you buy the book???

In the effort to recoup the massive amount of money I have poured into textbooks over the past four years, I've been selling books on half.com. It's really easy - just type in the ISBN of each book, set a price, and that's it! No need to monitor a bidding war like on eBay. You only pay a commission when the item is sold. Since school is starting again, I've been able to make a few sales.

Most of the interaction I receive with buyers is through the seller feedback area, where users can leave comments about the interaction. Yesterday, however, I received the following letter in the mail:

"To whom it may concern:

Received the book on **********. Its very nice but was surprised at the price of such a small book. Is there a reason for such a high price? Was expecting a bigger paperback.

Thank you,"

...

Are you serious? Then why did you buy the book? I didn't force you to buy the book. In fact, if you look at the book information, it tells you how many pages are in the book as well as its dimensions. I can't believe someone spent more money and time writing back to me. And, now that I think of it, it's slightly sad that I took even more of my time to blog about it here.

Freaking WHOIS

So during winter break of my Sophomore year, Harry, who is in China, IM's me and tells me that he can't register harryzhong.com, because China's firewall prevents him from going through with the transaction. Since I'm a nice guy, I register the domain name for him, and fill our the appropriate information so he can start building his website.

Now, a few years later, I've learned about WHOIS and lo and behold, if you do a search for harryzhong.com, this pops up:

See: http://www.whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=harryzhong&tld=com

Registration Service Provided By: 2mhost co.
Contact: sales@2mhost.com

Domain name: harryzhong.com

Registrant Contact:

Reid Yokoyama (harryzhong@**********.com)
+1.916715****
Fax:
673 Escondido Road Rm 350
Stanford, CA 94309
US

Administrative Contact:

Reid Yokoyama (harryzhong@**********.com)
+1.916715****
Fax:
673 Escondido Road Rm 350
Stanford, CA 94309
US

Technical Contact:

Reid Yokoyama (harryzhong@*********.com)
+1.916715****
Fax:
673 Escondido Road Rm 350
Stanford, CA 94309
US

Status: Locked

Name Servers:
ns1.2msrv23.com
ns2.2msrv23.com

Creation date: 04 Aug 2004 14:53:54
Expiration date: 04 Aug 2008 14:53:54

Lame. Good thing the address is my old Kimball dorm room from Sophomore year and that the cell phone number is Harry's and not mine. Information on the internet is so public!!

After 4 year's at Stanford

I'm at a lost on how to spend my weekend. There's so much going on around the Bay Area, but I'm so lazy to go out and find things to do.

Rediscovering Reading

To occupy my newfound freetime, I've taken up reading. In the past month I've read Prep, The Search, The Headmaster Ritual, HP7, and the Time Traveler's Wife. All excellent books. Well, the Headmaster Ritual was the worse of them all. I'm now onto The Inheritance of Loss. I feel like I'm doing some hit parade right now, going to Border's and picking whatever was a NYT bestseller a few months ago and is now discounted. Either way, these are good books to occupy myself when I'm tired of staring at the computer all day.

Post-College Boredom

I never thought I'd say it, but having graduated from college means a completely different lifestyle. There's no staying out/up late, because you have to get up early for work and you don't want to fall asleep on the job. Most surprisingly, I've found myself with a ton of free time; instead of having to work on a paper or think about classes all evening, I have nothing scheduled. So far, I've been amusing myself by reading, watching TV, playing video games, or desperately calling Jenny in China, hoping that she'll pick up. I wouldn't say I'm lonely, but it's definitely not as sociable as it once was at Stanford.

Is this college nostalgia?