I arrived in San Francisco yesterday after a grueling two-day travel schedule, and I literally kissed the ground I was so happy. I still haven't stopped smiling, 15 hours later.
The best part about being back is being around so many Americans. I've spent the past year observing Vietnamese people through the lens of my American identity, comparing their customs and manner to that of Americans. Being gone for a year, you start to lose touch a little with what Americans are actually like, and I missed interacting with them all the time.
Coming to San Francisco I was just cracking up laughing at so many people that are ridiculous in their own way and are the type of characters that I just don't see in Vietnam. Some aging hippies on the flight, some polite thuggish looking guys, a 300+ lb dude with a pony tail, skater punks,nascar enthusiast guy, beer guts, and yes even the uber-cool hipsters: they all tripped me up laughing and made me so happy to be back.
Most people I've talked to say that the novelty of being back in the USA usually wears off after about two weeks. Maybe. Right now though all I can think is: America rocks!
Top Five Things I Missed the Most (In Descending Order)
1. My family and friends. Obviously.
2. Zaxby's sauce
3. A short break from work
4. Cheap golf
5. Not fearing imminent death traveling from point A to B
I can't even think of 5 things I didn't miss right now. Maybe prices. For example, SIM Card + minutes in Vietnam: $4 ; USA: $64. Seriously, that's bullshit.
Lastly, for the record and for my parents, here's a video Julia put together about our climbing of Mount Fancy Pants (or Phans Xi Phan if you're a stickler). It was a 15km hike to the top of the highest mountain in Indochina. I came to regret bringing a huge backpack with tons of stuff I didn't need (like four hardcover boks... for "options"), but it was an amazing climb. It was a tough climb though, I could barely walk for a week afterwards after taking on steep paths and terrain for 30km during two days. The video is just some flip camera footage while climbing with a healthy focus on our somewhat-sketchy tour guide:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGGipJuv_oM
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Post-Accident Motorbike Return & Interesting Trip to the Old Quarter
Hanoi is a spiteful mistress. Mere days after recounting the four minor road incidents I'd had during the past ELEVEN months, I had my most serious yet when I slammed into a car that had abruptly stopped at an intersection.
This post isn't about that, but the short story is that the front of my bike was cracked, the driver of the other car spent five minutes pointing at invisible damage to his car before trying to extort some cash out of me. I won't even go into the fact that he took my keys from me (I could have punched him for that), that it was partly his fault, and that I was the one hurt and bleeding. He left his car in the middle of the intersection and pretended to call the cops, I refused to pay him or let on that I knew Vietnamese, and we were at an apparent stalemate, with both of us sitting on the side of the road presumably waiting for the cops to come.
The cops weren't coming, and after 15 minutes on the side of the road, his extortion strategy had failed and he gave me back my keys. The worst part about the whole affair were the old Vietnamese dudes sitting on the side of the road laughing at the stupid westerner who'd driven into a car. Anyways, with a bloody knee and bruised ego, I continued on my merry way to work.
A week later, it was time to return my rented bike since I was departing for vacation at home the next day. Growing up in America, I've got it ingrained in my soul that auto-mechanics were born to rip you off, so I was a little worried about returning my damaged bike and having to pay for repairs. This turned out to be no big deal, as the entire front shell of the bike was fixed for only $26, much less than the $100+ that I had suspected it might be.
But the real treat was what happened on my way back. Vietnam's soccer squad was playing in the semi-final of the Southeast Asian Games, a big deal for the Vietnamese. Before heading out to the old quarter to return my bike, I'd seen that Vietnam had beaten Singapore 4-1. When I reached one of the main roads leading to the old quarter, the road was packed with people riding their motorbikes carrying gigantic Vietnamese flags, honking their horns, and laughing and shouting their heads off. I realized that I was headed to the same place they were, the old quarter, and I was dreading the nightmarish traffic that awaited.
As I continued making my way toward the old quarter, the shouts and laughs of my companion motorbike drivers gradually shifted my mood from annoyed (at traffic) to a celebratory, and by the time I reached the old quarter I had my helmet off and was laughing and shouting with everyone else. I knew this kind of scene doesn't happen often, so I bought a huge flag from one of the dozens of entrepreneurial individuals that magically appeared with large inventories of Vietnamese flags, paid him $3 for it and joined the madness of traffic hooting and hollering and driving around the lake.
This post isn't about that, but the short story is that the front of my bike was cracked, the driver of the other car spent five minutes pointing at invisible damage to his car before trying to extort some cash out of me. I won't even go into the fact that he took my keys from me (I could have punched him for that), that it was partly his fault, and that I was the one hurt and bleeding. He left his car in the middle of the intersection and pretended to call the cops, I refused to pay him or let on that I knew Vietnamese, and we were at an apparent stalemate, with both of us sitting on the side of the road presumably waiting for the cops to come.
The cops weren't coming, and after 15 minutes on the side of the road, his extortion strategy had failed and he gave me back my keys. The worst part about the whole affair were the old Vietnamese dudes sitting on the side of the road laughing at the stupid westerner who'd driven into a car. Anyways, with a bloody knee and bruised ego, I continued on my merry way to work.
A week later, it was time to return my rented bike since I was departing for vacation at home the next day. Growing up in America, I've got it ingrained in my soul that auto-mechanics were born to rip you off, so I was a little worried about returning my damaged bike and having to pay for repairs. This turned out to be no big deal, as the entire front shell of the bike was fixed for only $26, much less than the $100+ that I had suspected it might be.
But the real treat was what happened on my way back. Vietnam's soccer squad was playing in the semi-final of the Southeast Asian Games, a big deal for the Vietnamese. Before heading out to the old quarter to return my bike, I'd seen that Vietnam had beaten Singapore 4-1. When I reached one of the main roads leading to the old quarter, the road was packed with people riding their motorbikes carrying gigantic Vietnamese flags, honking their horns, and laughing and shouting their heads off. I realized that I was headed to the same place they were, the old quarter, and I was dreading the nightmarish traffic that awaited.
The Scene of the Scene
As I continued making my way toward the old quarter, the shouts and laughs of my companion motorbike drivers gradually shifted my mood from annoyed (at traffic) to a celebratory, and by the time I reached the old quarter I had my helmet off and was laughing and shouting with everyone else. I knew this kind of scene doesn't happen often, so I bought a huge flag from one of the dozens of entrepreneurial individuals that magically appeared with large inventories of Vietnamese flags, paid him $3 for it and joined the madness of traffic hooting and hollering and driving around the lake.
As a white guy carrying around a Vietnamese flag driving a motorbike, I got quite a lot of attention. It was fun, and a little overwhelming, and I couldn't really get over the feeling that I was an impostor. Sure, I was happy Vietnam had won their game, but I wasn't overjoyed. I certainly wasn't as happy as everyone else about it, and I knew that the only reason I was even driving around the lake with everyone was just partly for the sake of doing it. You might even call it a mini-challenge. Really I'm just good at entertaining myself.
Challenges
Its easy for people to settle in their comfort zones and cruise through their days without doing new things and expanding their horizons. Problem is, you don't learn or grow very much this way, and its kinda boring.
I think I've discovered an anecdote that I've been applying for the last few months: giving myself specific, short-term challenges. Maybe "discover" isn't the right word, but I do think I've atleast made an admirable attempt putting into action a wide-range of different challenges. Below are a few examples of ones I've done, and at the end I've listed out a few that are potentially on the horizon. I'd love to hear any ideas you have for new ones, as this is a process that I don't plan on cutting short anytime soon.
Here they are:
Hanoi Fear Factor Challenge: There are tons of kinda crazy/weird stuff to do in Hanoi, but on any given day you're just not going to feel inclined to say, eat duck embryo. So, when my brother was here we created and did the "Hanoi Fear Factor Challenge". This consisted of riding around town and completing a range of events, which were:
1) Eating dog: yes, that's right, I've eaten dog. This will be the subject of an upcoming post, but let me say two things: first, these aren't cuddly poodles, they're dogs that were bread like you might breed chickens. Second, it tasted terrible, which was mostly due to the shrimp paste that comes with it, which reminded me of throw-up.
2) Eating Snake: after eating dog, the snake tasted like a slice of heaven. After they kill the snake in front of you, they drain its blood and gall bladder juice into little shot glasses. These are good for your "virility" and "health", though I think I was still feeling a little queasy afterwards. Also, the snake's heart continues to beat after it has been removed from the body. I ate that as well, and really all I could think about was how much better than dog it was.
3) Paddle Boat Races: The next challenge was a paddle-boar race around one of the lakes in Hanoi... it sounded like a great idea, but you've got to work so hard to go so slow in those things. We were all drenched in sweat by the end of it.
4) Eating Duck Embryo: These are basically almost-born duck-eggs that they cook. When you bit through them you can definitely tell that there was a duck in there. This particular challenge led to a lot of gagging on my part, but eventually I was able to eat the whole thing.
5) Bia Hoi Challenge: Bia Hoi is fresh beer brought to "Bia Hois" around Hanoi daily. The challenge was to drink $2 worth of beer. Since they cost $.16 each (3,000 dong), the challenge was to finish 12 of them the fastest. Granted, they're a little watered-down and the cups are maybe half of the size of a bottled beer, but finishing off with a few beers was a great way to wind down the day.
My brother brought his nice camera around and we filmed a lot of this. He's been busy working on another project, but hopefully we'll finish it over break and I'll post it.
Water for a Week Challenge: Pretty straightforward, don't drink anything except water for a week. After four days of only water, I couldn't turn down some rice wine at the base camp of Mount Fancy Pants (ok, Phan Xi Phan) after hiking 15km to climb it. I got something out of those four days.
Vietnamese Food Challenge: I've never been a huge fan of Vietnamese food, though I had definitely found a few dishes I liked. Still, I never really craved it, and as a result I often ate western, Indian, or other Asian fares, with some Vietnamese dishes in between. But there were so many things I hadn't tried, so it became a challenge. Eat only Vietnamese food for one week. Many people do this all the time, as it can be delicious, its cheap, and oh yeah, they're in Vietnam. I decided it was time to see what's out there.
This one I did for five days in a row before caving. I think I was out one night and didn't have much of a choice, and then that turned out to be a slippery slope. But during those five days I discovered a ton of foods that I wished I'd found months before. You don't even have to win a challenge to benefit from it.
Fasting Challenge: I know this one sounds a little weird, but one day I read something about a religious fast, and then realized that I'd never been compelled to fast in my life before. I had never even gone for one day without eating food, so I thought I'd see what it was like. The night before it started, I went to My Burger My, the best burger in Hanoi, and chowed down as the clock approached midnight. The next day was easy, I was hardly hungry after the midnight feast. Day two began with some unease, and throughout the day I wasn't aware so much of being hungry as I was just jolted into being so awake and alert, my body was just running on adrenaline. That night I was starving, and I remember thinking that this part of the hunger was what it was all about, I couldn't stop thinking about food. I woke up at 5am the next morning in a sweat, and I knew it was time to quit. I got dressed immediately, set out chugging a big bottle of water and looking for a cab. Traffic that morning was terrible, and while idling amidst a sea of motorbikes in the old quarter, I threw open the door and threw up bits of nothingness onto the street. The cab driver turned around, I gave him a reassuring nod and told him I was fine. Two minutes later, fifteen yards further down the street, again threw up.
When I finally made it to the Highlands Coffee by my work, I walked in. As soon as I opened the door I cut the wait staff off by ordering a ham and cheese omelet and a coffee. When it finally arrived, I managed to get two bites in before throwing up again all over the floor. It was kind of ridiculous.
So, in the end I kind of got what I came for: a taste of what its like to not eat for two days. Not something I'm keen on trying again any time soon, and definitely not for two whole days, but not an entirely regretful experience either. What did I learn? Not eating for two days sucks, and if you don't eat for two days, don't end your fast with a ham and cheese omelet.
OK, that's all I can remember so far.
Upcoming Challenges
- Be a vegetarian for one week
- Some kind of fitness challenge?
- Reading challenge
- 4 Hours of Sleep/Night for 1 week challenge
- Blog writing challenge?
- [your suggestion here]
Also, I heartily welcome all fellow challengees... do some of these with me, we'll laugh, we'll cry, we may throw up, but we'll definitely have a good time.
I think I've discovered an anecdote that I've been applying for the last few months: giving myself specific, short-term challenges. Maybe "discover" isn't the right word, but I do think I've atleast made an admirable attempt putting into action a wide-range of different challenges. Below are a few examples of ones I've done, and at the end I've listed out a few that are potentially on the horizon. I'd love to hear any ideas you have for new ones, as this is a process that I don't plan on cutting short anytime soon.
Here they are:
Hanoi Fear Factor Challenge: There are tons of kinda crazy/weird stuff to do in Hanoi, but on any given day you're just not going to feel inclined to say, eat duck embryo. So, when my brother was here we created and did the "Hanoi Fear Factor Challenge". This consisted of riding around town and completing a range of events, which were:
1) Eating dog: yes, that's right, I've eaten dog. This will be the subject of an upcoming post, but let me say two things: first, these aren't cuddly poodles, they're dogs that were bread like you might breed chickens. Second, it tasted terrible, which was mostly due to the shrimp paste that comes with it, which reminded me of throw-up.
2) Eating Snake: after eating dog, the snake tasted like a slice of heaven. After they kill the snake in front of you, they drain its blood and gall bladder juice into little shot glasses. These are good for your "virility" and "health", though I think I was still feeling a little queasy afterwards. Also, the snake's heart continues to beat after it has been removed from the body. I ate that as well, and really all I could think about was how much better than dog it was.
3) Paddle Boat Races: The next challenge was a paddle-boar race around one of the lakes in Hanoi... it sounded like a great idea, but you've got to work so hard to go so slow in those things. We were all drenched in sweat by the end of it.
4) Eating Duck Embryo: These are basically almost-born duck-eggs that they cook. When you bit through them you can definitely tell that there was a duck in there. This particular challenge led to a lot of gagging on my part, but eventually I was able to eat the whole thing.
5) Bia Hoi Challenge: Bia Hoi is fresh beer brought to "Bia Hois" around Hanoi daily. The challenge was to drink $2 worth of beer. Since they cost $.16 each (3,000 dong), the challenge was to finish 12 of them the fastest. Granted, they're a little watered-down and the cups are maybe half of the size of a bottled beer, but finishing off with a few beers was a great way to wind down the day.
My brother brought his nice camera around and we filmed a lot of this. He's been busy working on another project, but hopefully we'll finish it over break and I'll post it.
Water for a Week Challenge: Pretty straightforward, don't drink anything except water for a week. After four days of only water, I couldn't turn down some rice wine at the base camp of Mount Fancy Pants (ok, Phan Xi Phan) after hiking 15km to climb it. I got something out of those four days.
Vietnamese Food Challenge: I've never been a huge fan of Vietnamese food, though I had definitely found a few dishes I liked. Still, I never really craved it, and as a result I often ate western, Indian, or other Asian fares, with some Vietnamese dishes in between. But there were so many things I hadn't tried, so it became a challenge. Eat only Vietnamese food for one week. Many people do this all the time, as it can be delicious, its cheap, and oh yeah, they're in Vietnam. I decided it was time to see what's out there.
This one I did for five days in a row before caving. I think I was out one night and didn't have much of a choice, and then that turned out to be a slippery slope. But during those five days I discovered a ton of foods that I wished I'd found months before. You don't even have to win a challenge to benefit from it.
Fasting Challenge: I know this one sounds a little weird, but one day I read something about a religious fast, and then realized that I'd never been compelled to fast in my life before. I had never even gone for one day without eating food, so I thought I'd see what it was like. The night before it started, I went to My Burger My, the best burger in Hanoi, and chowed down as the clock approached midnight. The next day was easy, I was hardly hungry after the midnight feast. Day two began with some unease, and throughout the day I wasn't aware so much of being hungry as I was just jolted into being so awake and alert, my body was just running on adrenaline. That night I was starving, and I remember thinking that this part of the hunger was what it was all about, I couldn't stop thinking about food. I woke up at 5am the next morning in a sweat, and I knew it was time to quit. I got dressed immediately, set out chugging a big bottle of water and looking for a cab. Traffic that morning was terrible, and while idling amidst a sea of motorbikes in the old quarter, I threw open the door and threw up bits of nothingness onto the street. The cab driver turned around, I gave him a reassuring nod and told him I was fine. Two minutes later, fifteen yards further down the street, again threw up.
When I finally made it to the Highlands Coffee by my work, I walked in. As soon as I opened the door I cut the wait staff off by ordering a ham and cheese omelet and a coffee. When it finally arrived, I managed to get two bites in before throwing up again all over the floor. It was kind of ridiculous.
So, in the end I kind of got what I came for: a taste of what its like to not eat for two days. Not something I'm keen on trying again any time soon, and definitely not for two whole days, but not an entirely regretful experience either. What did I learn? Not eating for two days sucks, and if you don't eat for two days, don't end your fast with a ham and cheese omelet.
OK, that's all I can remember so far.
Upcoming Challenges
- Be a vegetarian for one week
- Some kind of fitness challenge?
- Reading challenge
- 4 Hours of Sleep/Night for 1 week challenge
- Blog writing challenge?
- [your suggestion here]
Also, I heartily welcome all fellow challengees... do some of these with me, we'll laugh, we'll cry, we may throw up, but we'll definitely have a good time.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Lessons in Learning Vietnamese
I've lived in Vietnam for exactly 11 months now, and for 8 of those months I've taken Vietnamese lessons. I have two tutors that teach me Vietnamese during my lunch hour every day. This is a good example of the power of "opt out" psychology. If I didn't have a Vietnamese lesson lined up every day, it would be difficult to motivate myself to study, what with all the other things I'm busy with, plus simply being exhausted after a full day of work. But by having my lessons arranged, I have to actually call and cancel every day, which I rarely do.
Presently, I'd call myself conversational. I can usually get what I want wherever I go, I can participate and follow basic conversations, and I can express complex ideas, though usually in some weird "walkaround" way. Since I study every day, I've made a ton of progress, and at this point probably speak the equivalent of what someone would after studying for 2 years in university. Maybe that's just me stroking my own ego, I never can tell.
Anyways, Vietnamese is a really tough language. Its got five tones (flat, rising, falling, wavy, and question mark-y... don't ask). Check out Tila Tequila speaking Vietnamese if you want to hear an example and be entertained(? not sure that's the right word):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkyfM3UZBnI
Like I was saying, its a tough language. The tones are really difficult to hear, and if you don't say them *exactly* the way you're supposed to then noone will understand you. Seriously. See #3 in this post for an example: http://www.carpeminutam.com/2009/03/25-random-things-jess-in-vietnam.html
Anyways....
Coming to Vietnam, I knew I wanted to learn the language. Vietnamese is only spoken in Vietnam, Vietnamese restaurants the world over, and quite a few nail salons in the U.S., just living in the country is justification enough to study it. Most people here don't speak English, or if they do its likely that the English they do speak is tortured and limited, so learning Vietnamese can make your life here significantly easier.
Presently, I'd call myself conversational. I can usually get what I want wherever I go, I can participate and follow basic conversations, and I can express complex ideas, though usually in some weird "walkaround" way. Since I study every day, I've made a ton of progress, and at this point probably speak the equivalent of what someone would after studying for 2 years in university. Maybe that's just me stroking my own ego, I never can tell.
Anyways, Vietnamese is a really tough language. Its got five tones (flat, rising, falling, wavy, and question mark-y... don't ask). Check out Tila Tequila speaking Vietnamese if you want to hear an example and be entertained(? not sure that's the right word):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkyfM3UZBnI
Like I was saying, its a tough language. The tones are really difficult to hear, and if you don't say them *exactly* the way you're supposed to then noone will understand you. Seriously. See #3 in this post for an example: http://www.carpeminutam.com/2009/03/25-random-things-jess-in-vietnam.html
Anyways....
Coming to Vietnam, I knew I wanted to learn the language. Vietnamese is only spoken in Vietnam, Vietnamese restaurants the world over, and quite a few nail salons in the U.S., just living in the country is justification enough to study it. Most people here don't speak English, or if they do its likely that the English they do speak is tortured and limited, so learning Vietnamese can make your life here significantly easier.
You can order a beer without knowing Vietnamese, but if you want a cold beer without ice and a comfortable chair in the corner, you should probably know some Vietnamese. You can write down an address for a taxi without knowing Vietnamese, but if you want to chastise the driver for taking the long route and order him to stop honking the stupid horn at regular two second intervals, you should probably know some Vietnamese. You can payoff a motorist following an accident without knowing Vietnamese, but... actually in that case its better to just play the ignorant foreigner and pay up, lest they decide to really go after your wallet by threatening to involve the police.
Beyond the convenience of being able to function properly in Vietnam by knowing the language, there are other benefits to learning Vietnamese. A westerner speaking Vietnamese brings a smile to the locals' faces, and they'll open up to you in a way that you'd never see otherwise. Generally speaking, the Vietnamese aren't exactly known as the nicest people on the planet. That's not to say they can't be friendly, but just being here and being a westerner doesn't mean that people are going to want to help you. I attribute this to Vietnam's history- this has been a tough place to live for decades, and I think the harsh realities of Vietnam's war-torn past manifest themselves in people's attitudes towards strangers. This issue is compounded by a general distaste of obnoxious backpacker types, who regularly invade the country wearing what appears to be underwear and acting as if they own the place.
Another key point is that language is a gateway to the culture. If you want to understand Vietnam, there's no better way than to learn the culture. Not only does learning the language allow you to actually interact with people and experience the culture yourself, but the structure, vocabulary, idioms, and usage of the language tell you about the culture in ways that are hard to grasp if you've never learned another language. You won't find this information in any particular word, but taken in aggregate its an essential part of the culture.
A quick and obvious example: there are 17 pronouns in Vietnamese, and the correct one to use is determined by your gender and relative age. Embedded in these pronouns is a core component of Confucianism, relationships. Your relationship to others determines your duties to others (e.g. student to teacher, father to son, brother to brother), and in Vietnamese you can't say something without first establishing what that relationship is by using the correct pronoun. In my experience, typically you are either "em", "anh", or "chi". "Em" is for someone younger than you, but is also used when speaking to waiters or people serving you somehow, even if they're older. "Em oi!" (literally hey you [younger]!) can be heard at every restaurant, as people are continuously shouting at their waiters from across rooms to get their attention. "Anh" is simply an older male, and "chi" an older female.
The last benefit I'll mention is the pure intellectual pursuit of learning another language. I hated studying languages in high school, and Spanish was my Achilles heel grade-wise: I may have gotten one non-B in Spanish through all of high school. I enjoyed learning Latin in a different way (and in fact my affection for Latin is reflected in the name of this blog), but generally speaking I found language study tedious, useless, and boring. Simply being able to apply what I was learning has made studying the language tedious, practical, and interesting. Two out of three ain't bad.
I've tried a few different ways to make learning Vietnamese more interesting. One is that I type all the words I learn into a Google Doc, and then download them to my iPod Touch. I've got a program on there that makes flashcards out of the words, tracks which ones you get right and wrong, and then reshuffles the wrong ones over and over until you get them right. If you've got an iPhone or iPod Touch, download GFlash Pro, and you can make your own flashcards out of anything. Its a great way to study whatever while you're on the go. Wish I'd had that growing up.
I also recently started a group, titled "Tieng Viet WhaWhat." Apparently the name has caused a lot of confusion, which personally I find hilarious. As a good friend pointed out, there's probably only a certain 5-year age span that gets that, and most of those people aren't in Vietnam. Anyways, the idea is simple: host a bi-monthly dinner and everyone that shows up is only allowed to speak Vietnamese. You get to meet new people, hoc tieng viet (study Vietnamese), and hang out and drink beer at the same time. Its been a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to more of them.
Alright, I think thats enough for now on learning Vietnamese. Câm ơn và tạm biệt! .
A quick and obvious example: there are 17 pronouns in Vietnamese, and the correct one to use is determined by your gender and relative age. Embedded in these pronouns is a core component of Confucianism, relationships. Your relationship to others determines your duties to others (e.g. student to teacher, father to son, brother to brother), and in Vietnamese you can't say something without first establishing what that relationship is by using the correct pronoun. In my experience, typically you are either "em", "anh", or "chi". "Em" is for someone younger than you, but is also used when speaking to waiters or people serving you somehow, even if they're older. "Em oi!" (literally hey you [younger]!) can be heard at every restaurant, as people are continuously shouting at their waiters from across rooms to get their attention. "Anh" is simply an older male, and "chi" an older female.
The last benefit I'll mention is the pure intellectual pursuit of learning another language. I hated studying languages in high school, and Spanish was my Achilles heel grade-wise: I may have gotten one non-B in Spanish through all of high school. I enjoyed learning Latin in a different way (and in fact my affection for Latin is reflected in the name of this blog), but generally speaking I found language study tedious, useless, and boring. Simply being able to apply what I was learning has made studying the language tedious, practical, and interesting. Two out of three ain't bad.
I've tried a few different ways to make learning Vietnamese more interesting. One is that I type all the words I learn into a Google Doc, and then download them to my iPod Touch. I've got a program on there that makes flashcards out of the words, tracks which ones you get right and wrong, and then reshuffles the wrong ones over and over until you get them right. If you've got an iPhone or iPod Touch, download GFlash Pro, and you can make your own flashcards out of anything. Its a great way to study whatever while you're on the go. Wish I'd had that growing up.
I also recently started a group, titled "Tieng Viet WhaWhat." Apparently the name has caused a lot of confusion, which personally I find hilarious. As a good friend pointed out, there's probably only a certain 5-year age span that gets that, and most of those people aren't in Vietnam. Anyways, the idea is simple: host a bi-monthly dinner and everyone that shows up is only allowed to speak Vietnamese. You get to meet new people, hoc tieng viet (study Vietnamese), and hang out and drink beer at the same time. Its been a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to more of them.
Tieng Viet WhaWhat Meeting
Alright, I think thats enough for now on learning Vietnamese. Câm ơn và tạm biệt! .
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
A Privacy Threat You Probably Don't Know About (and should)
You hear a lot these days about online privacy, the main concerns seem to boil down to:
1) People you don't know having access to your personal information
2) People taking your "identity" and using it for bad purposes
3) Websites building "profiles" of you and tailoring their services around information you don't want them to have
These are valid concerns, of course, and mainly revolve around people you don't know getting personal information about you and using it.
There's also another concern, illustrated by a grad student's discovery 15 years ago that 87% of Americans can be identified with only their birthdate, sex, and zip code. It's an interesting story and you can find it here. The concern is that someone you've trusted with information (knowingly or unknowingly) can link it to other information they have and get personal information about you.
I'll give you two examples:
1) Online surveys: If you've ever taken an online survey and entered your email address (for instance to be entered for a prize), its very simple for someone to look at each of your individual answers based on your email address. More nefariously, if you send survey invitation emails through a service like SurveyMonkey, they create a unique link for each email address. Thus, even if you don't enter your email address, the person giving the survey can still see which answers YOU gave.
2) Website traffice statistics: Let's use my blog and my dad as an example. Let's also say that I want to see how much my dad really loves me, which I'm going to judge based on how many times he checks my blog.
I track the visitors to my website using Google Analytics. My dad lives in Anderson, SC, and I'm pretty sure that noone else living in Anderson is checking my blog. So, I just sign in to analytics, set the date range for this year, and check the traffic detail for Anderson. So, dad, just how much do you love me?
1) People you don't know having access to your personal information
2) People taking your "identity" and using it for bad purposes
3) Websites building "profiles" of you and tailoring their services around information you don't want them to have
These are valid concerns, of course, and mainly revolve around people you don't know getting personal information about you and using it.
There's also another concern, illustrated by a grad student's discovery 15 years ago that 87% of Americans can be identified with only their birthdate, sex, and zip code. It's an interesting story and you can find it here. The concern is that someone you've trusted with information (knowingly or unknowingly) can link it to other information they have and get personal information about you.
I'll give you two examples:
1) Online surveys: If you've ever taken an online survey and entered your email address (for instance to be entered for a prize), its very simple for someone to look at each of your individual answers based on your email address. More nefariously, if you send survey invitation emails through a service like SurveyMonkey, they create a unique link for each email address. Thus, even if you don't enter your email address, the person giving the survey can still see which answers YOU gave.
2) Website traffice statistics: Let's use my blog and my dad as an example. Let's also say that I want to see how much my dad really loves me, which I'm going to judge based on how many times he checks my blog.
I track the visitors to my website using Google Analytics. My dad lives in Anderson, SC, and I'm pretty sure that noone else living in Anderson is checking my blog. So, I just sign in to analytics, set the date range for this year, and check the traffic detail for Anderson. So, dad, just how much do you love me?
Hmmm, looks like a lotta love in March, starting to fade away through April and total disappearing for three months in the summer. Where were ya dad? Oh, and only averaging three and half minutes on my blog? Just 2.91 pages per visit?
I'm kidding, of course. First, there are lots of obvious factors at play that distort the accuracy of this: what about visits when he was traveling? What about others in Anderson who visited? What if his work uses privacy controls that hide this information? Then of course there's the fact that correlating blog visits with love is a foolish errand. Just teasing ya dad.
BUT, I bet you my dad wasn't even aware that I could track this information. I could do the same for countless friends: I mean, how many people do I actually know that live in Laramie, Wyoming? (What's up Hank!) Or Jamaica? (Yo Jon!)
Kinda scary, huh? While you can put in controls that hide your location from websites, most people aren't aware of them or don't want the hassle. I don't do this, partly because its a hassle and partly because lots of websites use this kind of information for positive things. I don't mind more relevant ads, or content tailored to my location or past history, which all require this kind of tracking.
In the case of the internet, you've often got to choose between the greater of two goods (or the lesser of two evils), balancing privacy and relevancy, safety and convenience, anonymity and personal interaction.
In the case of the internet, you've often got to choose between the greater of two goods (or the lesser of two evils), balancing privacy and relevancy, safety and convenience, anonymity and personal interaction.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Thought Experiment #231
The other night at dinner, my stomach was reaching full capacity and I reached the point where I was just picking at my food. I was using chopsticks and tried to pick up a single piece of rice from my plate. Naturally, this got me thinking: "If I were only allowed to use chopsticks and could only eat one piece of rice at a time, would I be able to survive?"
You might be surprised by the answer.
Assume that you've got to sleep for 6 hours per day, which gives you 18 hours to eat. It took me 58 seconds to eat 5 grains of rice with chopsticks, so let's call it 1 minute = 5 grains of rice. At one grain of rice per 12 seconds or 5 per minute, that means you can chow down 5*60minutes*16hours = 4800 grains of rice per day.
So, does 4800 grains of rice pack enough calories to keep you alive?
According to this calorie calculator, I need 2604 calories per day to just sit there for 18 hours and sleep the rest. However, this calculation is partly based on my weight, and I'm assuming it goes down as you lose weight. In fact, in order to survive humans need a minimum of about 1500 calories per day.
The way it works is that if you eat less than the calories you burn, your body uses its fat stores. After these are depleted, it breaks down your internal organs until eventually you suffer organ failure/ cardiac arrest. Lovely thought, no?
Anyways...
One cup of cooked white rice has 184 calories . One cup also has 7200 grains of rice. That means that one grain of rice has 184/7200 = .025556 calories per grain of rice. Eating 4800 of them would give you just 123 calories, far short of the 1500 you need to survive.
"Well," you say, "as you eat more grains of rice with chopsticks, you'll get quicker at it."
Let's say you're the world's most amazing chopstick user, and you can eat a single grain of rice every second. For 18 hours per day. Every day.
That would give you a remarkable 1476 calories per day... but alas not quite the 1500 you would need to survive.
So, what have we learned today? Even with the most finely-honed of skills, without properly using the right tools you'll slowly wither away.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
The Tribulations, Observations, and Consternations of a Motorbike Rider in Hanoi
The hierarchy of the road here is quite simple:
( Bus > Car > Motorbike > Bicycle > Pedestrian ) < immovable obstaces
A good friend pointed out an important caveat to this: motorbikes have strength in numbers, and collectively can influence the behavior of larger vehicles. This is also driven by the fact that in an accident, the assumption is that the car is at fault.
That motorbikes are so prevalent gives them a category of their own, and there are four types of drivers:
Insane-Agressive: these individuals are outta control, and no doubt have obscene accident rates. They're flying at break-neck speeds through traffic, making a point to show off with unnecessarily-quick and darty manuevers. They have absolutely no regard for the laws of physics or Hanoi, and eventually become subject to Moore's. There's a limited number of these guys (and they are all guys), I think because few people have such a low regard for their own safety. Those few that do race around are subject to an ass-whooping by the cops and also subject themselves to the laws that Darwin so beautifully described. Let's just say that this evolutionary pressure keeps the population numbers of this group low.
Sane- Agressive: If there's an open space in front of them and they haven't maxed out their speed, they're all over it. Calculated risks, occasional obedience to traffic laws motivated primarily by one's mood, and a concern for temporal limitations and how they might be overcome characterize this group.
Lolligaggers- They don't want to crash, probably because their kid is standing on the seat taking in the view and cherishing those warm blasts of black-air being thrust in their face by the bus in front of them. They take it easy, go with the flow, and keep things safe. Your parents definitely belong in this group, as does your girlfriend, and all the other smart people in your life.
Whereas Insane-Agressive and Sane- Agressive put most of their attention on actual driving, the Lolligaggers are much more social. Think about it: your cruising along a crowded road in the open air, with dozens of people within talking distance. I crack up sometimes thinking about if the U.S. was like this, what kinds of things people would shout, the failed pick-up attempts, the showboating, the small talk.
If you want to survive riding a motorbike in Vietnam, its not enough to be able to skillfully operate a bike. You also have to understand the traffic pattern over here, like the impossible puzzles that are slowly solved at intersections with dozens of bikes trying to squeeze through each other, the casual disrespect for traffic lights, the log-jammed nightmares that occur when streets meant to handle pedestrians become bus routes. Here seems like a good place to interrupt my monologue with a video clip a friend took, an absurd occurrence that you just have to see for yourself:
A few insider tips for driving a motorbike in Hanoi:
1)I go faster than most traffic, which means that I don't have to worry about people passing me, which is a significant source of danger on the road. By going 10km/hr faster than everyone, I can focus on the traffic from the other direction and obstacles in front of me. The only way to know about traffic coming from behind you is through sound (or light at night), so eliminating this worry makes the fact that I listen to music/ podcasts while driving a little bit safer.
2) While I go faster than most traffic and seize all "gaps" presented in traffic, at intersections you've got to slow waay down. Intersections are the most dangerous place on the road, and you've got take it easy going through them.
3) If turning left, use your [censored] turn signal. Also, don't do it from the middle of the right side of the road, where people passing on your left will slam into you as you cross the lane to turn.
4) Understand that traffic signals are casually ignored by many people, so don't assume everyone else is stopping as you move forward after a red light.
5) Buses are bigger than you, and don't care about you, and won't think twice about running you over. Also, I think some taxis have an active deathwish for their fellow motorists, so be prepared to swerve out of their way.
Break Number 2: A few select pictures
Motorbike loving:
Courtesy Julia Plevin, professional photographer and cultural critic:
In the 10 months I've been in Vietnam, I've been in four motorbike "incidents", as described below. The first two were my fault, the second two were other's fault:
1) Accidental "off road" driving: coming home late one night, I was speeding along the empty streets and didn't see a sharp turn ahead. The sidewalk barrier was sloped upward reasonable, so instead of trying to make the sharp-turn, I turned my bike toward the sidewalk, since there was grass on the other side and it was safer than hitting the sidewalk barrier at an angle. Came to a jolting stop in the grass, and by "jolting stop" I mean I eventually fell over going at about 4mph. Embarrassing and novice mistake, but glad I handled it well and turned out OK.
1) Accidental "off road" driving: coming home late one night, I was speeding along the empty streets and didn't see a sharp turn ahead. The sidewalk barrier was sloped upward reasonable, so instead of trying to make the sharp-turn, I turned my bike toward the sidewalk, since there was grass on the other side and it was safer than hitting the sidewalk barrier at an angle. Came to a jolting stop in the grass, and by "jolting stop" I mean I eventually fell over going at about 4mph. Embarrassing and novice mistake, but glad I handled it well and turned out OK.
2) Tight turn fall-over: Again late at night on empty streets, tried to make a sharp turn around the temple of literature a little too fast. My tire pressure was low, so when I put the bike at an angle it just fell right over. I wasn't going that fast, but had a little bruise on my leg and my ego.
3) Pedestrian crash! Yes, while returning from work one night I hit a pedestrian. Luckily for him he was a strong and stout guy, luckily for my crash statistics, he jumped out from behind another car and I had no choice but to hit him. It was definitely his fault. I was going maybe 10-15 miles per hour before I slammed on the brakes and then hit him. He went sprawling maybe three feet, then jumped up and sized me up angrily. My first reaction was "Are you OK?". That was settled pretty quickly, and I couldn't help my next reaction: anger and nervousness. It had been a scary situation that could have ended much worse for both of us. I then shouted "Mat cua anh o dau?", which means "Where are your eyes?". There was little else to do, so I drove off thanking my lucky stars.
4) T-boned at an intersection: Again coming home from work, was t-boned by another bike at an insane intersection that sees six streets come together in an incomprehensibly unorganized way. At any given point, there are 100 motorbikes and 20 cars at this intersection, all taking the path of least resistance. I'd almost made it across, and was passing in front of a car when someone slammed into my left side. Somehow my bike stayed upright and the other person fell. But, they nailed my foot. I stopped for a moment, looked back and saw that the lady was OK and already was putting her bike upright, so I resumed going home. My foot was swollen to twice its normal size for a week, but eventually the bruising went away.
I'll close by noting that motorbike accidents are very common over here, and most expats I know have seen the aftermath of atleast a few fatal crashes. I've seen two of these, as well as countless other more minor incidents.
In Vietnam, as of two years ago, all motorbike riders are required to wear a helmet. There's even a somewhat shocking infomercial before movies where a small child dies because it wasn't wearing helmet. Because of the real danger involved, I wear a huge full-face helmet, even though its outta style amongst the Vietnamese. Its anti-social in many ways, can cost more than the minimum wage for one month, and just isn't in-style. This doesn't keep me from wearing one or ragging on friends that have the other things, those pieces of cardboard that sit on your head with an adjustable chin strap. Laaaame.
I'll concluded this post with an amusing little anecdote. When I arrived in Vietnam, I already had a motorcycle license that I'd gotten four years ago in college by attending a three-day course and passing a driver's test. I'd actually forgotten how to ride a manual bike. When I went to go rent a bike in the old quarter, I paid $5 and gave them my driver's license and they gave me a manual four-speed Honda Wave. I realized I had no idea how to operate it, and this problem was compounded by the seller's inability to explain it. This was going to have to be trial and error, and I spent a clumsy twenty minutes navigating the throes of old-quarter mayhem in a clumsy and jolting haze. It turns out not to be that difficult though, and I quickly figured it out, adjusted, and thus began my motorbike adventures in Vietnam.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Anti-Blog Apologia
I started this blog nearly a year ago, the first post was January 14th. Since then, this blog has gotten 629 visits from 412 unique locations in 25 different countries. Mainly I think the visitors are my parents and Facebook friends that have looked up my profile, saw this website listed, and checked it out. Yet I've only made a paltry 10 posts in the last 11 months, and none since May. And since May, I've received 310 visits, and each of those that came looking for something new left disappointed. You've been great, I haven't.
There are many reasons, but mainly it boils down to
1) being busy with other things (blog has not been a priority)
2) the nature of a blog in my mind
Point 1 will likely be the subject of an upcoming update post, so I'll leave it for then.
Point 2 here is vaguely worded because it needs a longer explanation. Most of the posts I've made have been about things that are important to me and things that I know will interest others. I have tons of ideas all the time that I'd love to write about, and get feedback from interested friends. But many of them seem trivial a few hours after I get the idea, or its so random I don't want to put it next to more "serious" posts, which could make people think I've gone off the deep end.
All this is ending, today. For the next week, I will make one post a day to rejuvenate this old hound, and after that I'll commit to at least one new post per week, hopefully more.
There are several reasons for this change of attitude. One is that over the last year, I've had a lot of great experiences, and I've realized that a blog is a great way to keep in touch with friends without imposing yourself on them. I want to take advantage of that. Also, in some way its a type of diary- I wish I'd been better about posting so that I could look back and have a clearer sense of my frame of mind, what I've been doing, how I viewed the world/Hanoi, etc. Finally, writing on a blog a good way to practice focused writing and remain critically engaged.
OK, enough blog apologia, but I just wanted to let you know whats up.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Meandering Towards a Life Philosophy
Whenever I tell someone that I "majored" in Philosophy at college, there's a 38% chance they'll ask a question along the lines of "Who's your favorite philosopher?" or "So you've got it all figured out?" Another 20% of the time they can barely get an unbelieving "Why?" out of their mouth quickly enough.
In the former case, its a little bit of a tricky question for a few reasons. The first is that I never put any serious effort into remembering exactly who said what- "was it Locke who first developed the idea of the state of nature?"- I don't know. If your goal is to come off as the wistful, untouchable, deep and self-absorbed philosopher, I don't recommend this because if you can't name drop Spinoza or Hume you'll probably come off as a poser. Seriously though, I don't recommend this because without remembering who said what, its much harder to place ideas in their context, which the more I've learned about philosophy the more I've appreciated. Plus, you'll do better on exams.
Another reason that question is difficult is that despite my degree in philosophy, I've read barely a fraction of what's out there. This was driven home to me when I came to Vietnam and realized that the fact that I had never studied eastern philosophy left a gap 4 billion people wide in my qualifications as a philosopher.
The reason I didn't pay much attention to names was that I was intrested primarily in the ideas themselves, both the grand and minor trains of thought that woven together form the patchwork fabric of man's attempt to make sense of the universe. That's what science is, and all science originated as philosophy. You'll find the first phyiscs, biology, and physics in the likes of Aristotle, and only once we had a means of discovering facts about scientific subjects did they transition from philosophy to science. This works well for questions that DO have answers (go away, relativisists). There's a physical explanation for how plants grow, why you come back to earth when you jump (well, kind of. We still haven't reconciled General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, but we still have a pretty solid idea of what gravity is). For questions that don't (yet) have answers, well those you'll have to explore in the realms of philosophy. How do you physically explain the way you experience sounds, or tastes? What happens if you go beyond the edge of the universe? What does that even mean? And most relevantly, why are we here? What should we do with our lives?
Of course, there is no one answer to this last question, but you can acknowledge that and still believe that some ways of thinking about it are better than others. You might also recognize that exposing yourself to the different ideas out there will give you more armor and ammunition for when you blaze your own trail in pursuit of your answers. Which all is to say that my goal in studying philosophy was to immerse my mind in the thoughts themselves, in the hope of internalizing them so that I would be better equipped to figure things out myself.
This brings me to a last point, all going back to my explanation about why I find it difficult to answer the question "Who is your favorite philosopher?". Most (not all) of the philosophy you would study in school deals politics, or ethics, or morality, or existence, or the nature of the universe. It is nearly all abstract; abstract in that it won't give you a blueprint for exactly what to do, or it won't tell you exactly what to do, it will give you some abstract representation of what kinds of things you should do. In any case, they nearly often neglect to strike a balance that I find acceptable between a person's various needs. Completely understanding political philosophy won't make you a self-actualized person, nor will a fully-informed ethical code; its how it all weaves together and affects the way you actually live that is important.
Putting everything together and thinking about how you should or want to live your life is something you have to do for yourself. Its a never-ending process, but below you'll find a stab I took at outlining my personal philosophy. For one of my favorite classes during my senior year, "Engineering Dreams: Entrepreneurship and Good Work", the final project was to put together a framework that represented your approach to life. Below is the result of a semester's worth of knowledge, a lifetime's worth of experience, and about twenty-five hours of good ole' fashioned work.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Continuing Life Education in the Digital Age
For those of us that miss college for reasons beyond the parties and social scene (though I miss that as well), there are a lot of great options for keeping your mind stimulated. Plus, no homework, no tests, no 9am class! Here are a few places I recommend for getting your intellectual fix:
Ted.com - Ted.com features talks from dynamos the world over on a seemingly endless amount of topics. You can see entrepreneurs, forward-charging academics, and titans of industry discuss the cool things they are up to and ideas they're working on. The videos range from 3 minutes to an hour+, and most are accompanied with powerpoint slides, providing stimulating visuals to keep you on your toes. One of my favorite websites by far, if only I had time to watch them all.
AcademicEarth.org - Academic Earth features lectures from college professors at some of the best schools on the planet, again on wide variety of topics. These are much more, erm, "academic" I would say, but a great way to explore new topics with the depth and rigor of an academic.
GFlash- In my opinion, flash cards are one of the best ways to gain and retain new knowledge, but they're a hassle to create and carry around. GFlash is an application for the iPhone that makes it easy to create flashcards. I put all the new Vietnamese words I learn in my lessons into a google spreadsheet, and GFlash creates flashcards for you. After each flashcard, you tap a check or an "x", and GFlash remembers which ones you got right and which you got wrong. After going through them, it repeats the process with the ones you missed, with a few you got right thrown in for good measure. Best of all, you can download other flashcard sets that other people have created. For example, I'm also learning morse code (kinda) and the names of the bones in the human body.
Wikipedia - you don't need me to tell you this, but a universe of knowledge is at your fingertips!
Obviously, this is just a few of the many resources available. How do you keep learning? What's missing from here?
Friday, April 3, 2009
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
The idea of this just made me laugh out loud. Written by Seth Grahame-Smith (and of course Jane Austin), Smith splices the classic novel with zombies ("unmentionables") in an apparently praise-worthy way. While I haven't read the book, as a huge fan of zombie movies I'm sure that its entertaining. I'm hopeful that this book starts a new genre, I'd love to see Tom Sawyer spliced with an alien invasion, or The Count of Monte Cristo as a vampire tale.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Absence, Explained
I've been pretty bad so far about providing updates, but I've got an excuse. I've been working on several other projects, explanations of which you'll find below:
JumpersJumping.com - I love photos of people jumping. Here's how I put it (albeit a little facetiously) on the website:
"This page is a tribute to jumpers everywhere. Behind their vain affront to the laws of gravity lies a more sincere and awesome tribute. In their moment of suspension they revel in their freedom and power of will, and inadvertently permit the observer to peer into their very soul. It is an act of power, but also of exuberance and even intimacy. "
If you've got a picture of yourself jumping, send it to me and I'll throw it up there. Eventually, I want to have enough pictures to make a coffee table book out of it.
CtrlV.org - Yet another novelty site, the point of this is that it gives you a random cross-sectional peek at what other people are doing. You go to the site and press the "ctrl" & "v" keys at the same time. This is a shortcut for the Paste function, which places whatever text you last copied into the box. You can check out the site to what random people have last copied.
TimelessCanvas.com - There are tons of oil painters over here, and they do some great-quality work. Paintings are perceived in the U.S. as a luxury item, but over here you can get them made at a relatively cheap price. The idea is to partner with wedding photographers and get them to offer paintings of a specific wedding photo as part of the photo package. We arrange the painting, framing, and delivery, and the photographer gets a commission.
Okay, so that's what I've been up to, and why there haven't been many blog updates. My camera just arrived from the states, so expect more updates, and photo-enhanced updates at that.
Cheers!
Friday, March 6, 2009
Essential Websites
The following is a list of websites that I use regularly and love. Browse through the list, I'm sure you'll find something useful. If you have any more that should be on here, leave them in the comments section!
News:
DrudgeReport.com - Matt Drudge has the power to make headlines, and his site, blending political, social, technological, and entertainment news is one of the most visited sites on the web. Check out his wikipedia entry and that of drudgereport.com for an interesting synopsis of his rise to media promenance.
Slate.com - An online magazine with a great cross-section of well-written articles on nearly everything.
Salon.com - Similar to Slate, see for yourself
NYTimes.com - You guessed it, the online portal for the NY Times
Alltop.com - I love the idea of this site- its a "magazine rack" that serves as a portal to blogs and magazine articles on a huge variety of topics
Slashdot.org - "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters" is their slogan. A user-driven site that satifies the geek in me that wants to hear about the latest happenings of interests to "nerds". You'll understand the name if you spell aloud "http://slashdot.org".
Techcrunch.com - Follows technology and internet-based startup news
open.salon.com - Salon's website that is created by users. Front-page items determined by the community.
HuffingtonPost.com - The liberal version of the Drudge Report, with a more "progressive" and
modern interface and lots of dynamic content
Business:
Analytics.google.com - If you have a website, Analytics is the best way to track hits and monitor usage
Bnet.com - Lots of business-related articles. A good bit of it is trash, but some of the articles are insightful
Learning:
TED.com - Do yourself a favor and go there now. Videos of speakers at TED conferences, on the cutting edge of Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Design.
AcademicEarth.org - Like TED.com, but class videos of prominent academics from schools like Harvard and Yale
Random:
Mint.com - Awesome website- you give it access to your bank accounts online, and it will track all of your financials. And its free!
Elance.com & Guru.com - The place to go to outsource nearly every task on a project by project basis. Elance minimum is $50, at Guru its $25. Anything from web design, to research, to business plan writing, to getting a virtual assistant to take care of menial personal tasks is available from these website. Think outside the box and take advantage of what you can accomplish using these sites.
Stumbleupon.com - The easiest way to throw away five hours, stumbleupon opens up the web by directing to sites you'd never find otherwise but still love
Digg.com - User-driven news site, with links to articles online and ordered by the number of "diggs" each article gets
Trends.google.com - What gets more search volume, "Coke" or "Pepsi", "blue" or "green", "alpha" or "omega"
Gmail.com - C'mon people, get with the program!
Pandora.com - Internet radio station that is guaraunteed to introduce you to new artists that you'll like
Social:
Twitter.com - A new "hot" internet property that lets you read and share 140 character long snippets of life/thoughts. You can find me on twitter at http://twitter.com/carpeminutam
Facebook.com - Blah. Find me here.
Linkedin.com - Social networking for the career-minded. Find me here.
TV/Music/Etc.
Hulu.com - Watch movies, tv shows, etc. online. Best part about it: its legal! Was started by NBC, FOX, etc. to get revenue from all the people watching their shows online...
ThePirateBay.org f The place to find torrent files on the internet. You can find almost anything on this site.
uTorrent.com If you want to download torrent files, you need a bittorrent program to do so. Utorrent is on of these.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
25 Random Things (Jess in Vietnam Edition)
Slate and Salon recently ran pieces about an internet meme called "25 Random Things". Essentially, people wrote a facebook note with 25 random things about them, then tagged 25 of their friends in the note. Those friends were then encouraged to do the same. I've been remiss in not providing a solid update on what's been going on since I moved to Vietnam. That said, I think a 25 random things is in order- it allows me to cover a lot of ground without the need for some grandiose narrative arc to hold all my thoughts together. So, here goes, 25 random things related to the last two months since I've been in Vietnam.
2) Nearly as bad as the actual pollution in Vietnam is the noise pollution. The roads are dominated by motorbikes, and everyone makes liberal use of their horns. Often times, its born out of frustration as much as it is necessity, but either way its a huge annoyance. I've started counting how many different beeps I hear in a given ten second period, and usually I'll hear more than 10 in that time period. I'm just thankful everyone's not armed.
3) Vietnamese is an extremely difficult language for a foreigner, with six tones (one more than Chinese) and a strong emphasis on pronunciation. Sometimes, I'll repeat over and over the name of the road I'm trying to go to, and if I'm trying to go Pasteur Street, I'll say"Pass tuer, Pahtoo-er, Pashtoo-er, Patoor, Passtoor". All to no avail. Then I'll write it down, and the motorbike driver will say "Ahhhh, Pass-Toor". I have no effing idea why he didn't understand me when I said it the EXACT same way, but apparently its very difficult for the Vietnamese to understand unless you say it perfectly, on account of the emphasis on pronunciation. Sometimes its funny, usually I'm just left scratching my head.
4) If you haven't already, check out fmylife.com . I found it two weeks ago and I laugh out loud every time I check it.
5) I went kitesurfing for the first time four weeks ago in Munei, a pleasant beach three hours from Saigon. Scary as hell. The kites are extremely powerful, as you'll know if you've ever seen the videos of guys getting launched twenty feet in the air with them. When I first got in the water with the kite, I was immediately launched six feet into the air, leaving my instructor behind before getting slammed into the water and being dragged by the kite face-first. I could barely breathe, the instructor was shouting "pull the release!", and it took me a good fifteen seconds of madness before I could release the kite, stop the insanity and enjoy a breath of nice air. Things got better from there, and you haven't heard the last about me and kitesurfing.
1) Crossing the street in Vietnam, I feel like I'm playing the human version of Frogger on level 20. There aren't designated crosswalks typically, and the sheer volume of traffic (85% motorbikes, 10% cars, 5% buses) can be terrifying. You have to take one step at a time and remember that you don't get multiple lives!
2) Nearly as bad as the actual pollution in Vietnam is the noise pollution. The roads are dominated by motorbikes, and everyone makes liberal use of their horns. Often times, its born out of frustration as much as it is necessity, but either way its a huge annoyance. I've started counting how many different beeps I hear in a given ten second period, and usually I'll hear more than 10 in that time period. I'm just thankful everyone's not armed.
3) Vietnamese is an extremely difficult language for a foreigner, with six tones (one more than Chinese) and a strong emphasis on pronunciation. Sometimes, I'll repeat over and over the name of the road I'm trying to go to, and if I'm trying to go Pasteur Street, I'll say"Pass tuer, Pahtoo-er, Pashtoo-er, Patoor, Passtoor". All to no avail. Then I'll write it down, and the motorbike driver will say "Ahhhh, Pass-Toor". I have no effing idea why he didn't understand me when I said it the EXACT same way, but apparently its very difficult for the Vietnamese to understand unless you say it perfectly, on account of the emphasis on pronunciation. Sometimes its funny, usually I'm just left scratching my head.
4) If you haven't already, check out fmylife.com . I found it two weeks ago and I laugh out loud every time I check it.
5) I went kitesurfing for the first time four weeks ago in Munei, a pleasant beach three hours from Saigon. Scary as hell. The kites are extremely powerful, as you'll know if you've ever seen the videos of guys getting launched twenty feet in the air with them. When I first got in the water with the kite, I was immediately launched six feet into the air, leaving my instructor behind before getting slammed into the water and being dragged by the kite face-first. I could barely breathe, the instructor was shouting "pull the release!", and it took me a good fifteen seconds of madness before I could release the kite, stop the insanity and enjoy a breath of nice air. Things got better from there, and you haven't heard the last about me and kitesurfing.
6) In both Saigon (Ho Chi Minh, officially) and Hanoi I've got a motorbike, which is both practical and a lot fun. I've got a motorcycle license in the states, so I was really looking forward to having a bike here. That said, its not like I'm cruising on the open road with the wind in my hair passing beautiful scenery. I'm driving in the city, with dirty air, potholes, and insane traffic. Still, riding a motorbike is a great way to learn a city, and you don't have that feeling of separation from your environment that you get while riding a car, which you probably wouldn't even notice if you haven't ever ridden a motorcycle.
7) Speaking of motorbikes, I've only been in one near-crash, and I wasn't the driver. I let my friend Kiran drive since it was night-time, the streets were empty, and she'd only driven one once. Somehow, we ended up on the highway, and a truck was crossing from left to right way up ahead. In a calm manner, I started saying "Stop, slow down, you're not gonna beat that truck, slow down," all to no avail. When at last it became apparent that a ghastly fate awaited us if we didn't stop immediately, Kiran slammed the brakes, and we wobbled and skidded to a stop mere inches from the truck. Next time, I'M DRIVING.
8) This past weekend I saw a motorbike crash happen right in front of me, something I've been told to expect more of. Near a junction two bikes driving beside each other got tangled up, and both bikes (and 6 people total) flipped over together. The people went flying, the bikes were turned to bits, but miraculously everyone was ok. Everyone got up, looking more embarrassed than anything, and without a word picked up the pieces of their bikes and took them to opposite sides of the road. The fact that an accident had just happenned didn't stop the cars behind them from honking their horns over and over, without regard to whether anyone was OK and ignoring the fact that there was a legitimate reason that accounts for why they were being held up.
10) Today I saw 25 people getting off an elevator meant to hold 15 MAX. INSANE!
11) In Hanoi at midnight, police come into the bars and force everyone to leave, immediately. No finishing your game of pool, no loitering, you just have to leave. Still haven't figured out why this doesn't apply in Saigon.
12) Any line here is maddeningly frustrating, because the concept of a "line" doesn't really exist. Everyone just crowds around the ticket booth or whatever, and tries to force their way to the front. At the airport, people will just walk past you in the line and jump in front; you literally have to block their way and stake your claim.
13) On the roads, there's no room for ego, but at the same time you have to assert your presence and position forcefully. You can't get mad when someone cuts you off, but you also have to signal your intentions and follow through on them so that people don't wander in front of you and cause you to crash.
14) I recently finished re-reading Shantaram, which has the distinction of being the only book I've read twice that I wasn't required to read. Why does it have that distinction? Because its a beautifully-written epic tale about life, love, choices, and everything in between. I'll write a more detailed review soon, but I HIGHLY recommend it. I've given it to maybe 5 people, and all have loved it and passed it along.
15) Speaking of good books, Hot, Flat, & Crowded by Thomas Friedman is an excellent book that gives a broad, multi-faceted look at the political, social, technological, and scientific issues surrounding climate change and what's needed to avert disaster. It crystallizes a lot of things that you'd pick up in bits and pieces if you follow the news, and does so in the way that Friedman is so good at. If you nothing about the subject, read it, if you know a lot about it, still read it.
16) The difference between Northern & Southern Vietnam is similar to the difference between the North & South in the U.S. In the south, people will often go out of their way to be kind or help you if you're lost, the weather is much better (read: warmer), and the atmosphere is a little laid back. In the North, the people and weather are a little colder, and the atmosphere is a little more "hustle and bustle." Just like in the U.S. though, its dangerous to apply these generalities to individuals, as there's a mix of both in each; I'm only talking averages.
[UPDATE: One way in which northern Vietnam resembles the southern United States and vice versa is that Northern Vietnam has a much more conservative culture, in terms of adherence to traditional Vietnamese ways of life. For instance, in many if not most cases, a newly married couple will move in with the parents of the groom, and remain under a certain level of supervision from the elders.]
17) Speaking of Thomas Friedman and Hot, Flat, and Crowded: when he had just finished writing the book, he came out of hiding from the public and gave his first talk at Brown to discuss his conclusions. Right at the beginning of the event, two people ran on stage, one hit him with a pie and the other tossed a bunch of fliers into the air. I witnessed this:
18) The Vietnamese both surprised and pleased when you speak their language, as many foreigners traveling through make no attempts to learn it at all. I don't completely blame them, as its a demanding language that requires patience to learn and use. I'm starting lessons this week, so hopefully I'll be a decent speaker in two or three months. Most useful Vietnamese phrases I've learned so far (spelling of Vietnamese is incorrect): "Macwa" Too expensive, "Mowt Chai Heineken" One bottle of heineken, "Em moi" waiter! , "kum un" thank you.
[UPDATE: By putting this update here, I'm committing myself to provide an update in the form of a whole new post. I've now spent eight months studying Vietnamese and have wiser and more interesting things to say about it.]
19) As a general statement, in Vietnam the rules specify what you CAN do, rather than what's not allowed. This can be maddening when you're trying to do something reasonable that isn't explicity permitted. Quick example: the "five start" (cough cough) hotel I stayed in the first night I arrived wouldn't allow me to take my glass from the bar to my room, simply because it wasn't explicity allowed.
20) As in every country I've travelled to, prices for food, clothing, and household goods scale; they fluctuate based on the the income level of that country. Beer, however, does not scale: in Honduras, Bangladesh, Thailand, the Bahamas, and Vietnam, a bottle of beer will set you back $2.
21) The above doesn't apply to draft beer at "Bia Hois", sidewalk cafes that bring in fresh draft beer every day. The beer doesn't have any preservatives, and you can get a large glass of this fresh brew for $.25.
[UPDATE: Loyal reader, I misinformed you. It's actually only $.16 cents/ beer ( 3,000 đong to be exact)
22) The sidewalk in Saigon and Hanoi doubles for the kitchen, dining room, living room, and back porch of houses in the U.S. Everything here happens on the street, which makes walking around both interesting and a challenge. The sidewalks are packed, and at night the amount of trash laying around is tremendous, though understandable considering all the stuff that goes on during the day.
23) Every morning, loudspeakers throughout Hanoi blast with noise from a recorded voice. I'm not sure exactly what it says, but I think the drift of it is: "Wake up, be productive, your government loves you and cares for you." More on this when I figure out the exact contents of the message.
[UPDATE: I thought about deleting this, but I was totally wrong. Goes to show you the kind of stupid assumptions you can make about a place. The people on the loudspeakers are guys on bikes peddling fruits and lottery tickets.]
24) There's a chain here called "Highlands Coffee," and somehow these bastards get away with charging $2.50 for a regular 'ole cup of joe. Vietnam PRODUCES coffee, and the only explanation I can figure for how they can charge Starbuck's prices in a country with a tenth of the average income of the U.S. is because of suckers like me. I go there because its the only place I know that has reliable internet and a plug.
25) The management team of nearly every multinational company in Vietnam is run by expats. Even with all the Vietnamese people here, there's a shortage of management talent. I plan to apply for a Fullbright next year to investigate this and design a curriculm that helps to address the problem.
[UPDATE: Reminder, anecdote is not data. Yes, there are a lot of expats here in management positions. But its not every management team at all. First of all, all companies must be 51% locally-owned. I haven't seen the exact numbers (if there even are any), but its wrong to frame it as a shortage of management talent. There's actually an older generation of Vietnamese that were involved in the army, and have gone on to take on upper-management positions in local companies.
Also by way of update, I did apply for that Fulbright, as I'd promised. After realizing that the management talent issue was a little misguided, I changed the focus of my project proposal to my true passion: applied entrepreneurship. Small Businesses make up 95% of all jobs in Vietnam, and I proposed to study how innovation functions within these businesses. I want to measure entrepreneurial attitudes, understand how it functions within Vietnam's culture, and what this implies for firms and workers. Basically- how does a shop owner encourage his staff to help grow the business? I want to quantify the desire, intention, and confidence of employees at small firms in regards to being innovative and entrepreneurial in their jobs. Innovation is an important driver of growth, an especially relevant topic right now as Vietnam continues to integrate with the global economy and move forward with market-based reforms. END OF UPDATE]
Ok, somehow I came up with 25 things, comments welcome!
Ok, somehow I came up with 25 things, comments welcome!
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