Mild Amusement

I normally don't blog about what I do (I'm a software developer), because 1) I've already got a work blog that's more suited for that, and 2) I'm a software developer, so most of the time it's not amusing. Sure, I find it interesting, and I learn things every day. However, unless you already lean towards Computer Science, it's not going to be very amusing to you. So, for the sake of keeping my audience (all 4 of them) happy, I stay away. Today, I'm going to break that rule, because my work actually did cause mild amusement. So, without further ado ... I've got a deadline coming up fairly soon, so I've been coding away for the last few days. It's not busy enough where I'm stressing about it, but let's just say it's a little easier to concentrate on my work these days. In it of itself, that's not news-worthy, but because I've been more productive lately, I've also been generating more working code lately. That...

I carpool to work every day because driving 40+ miles each way does not seem like my idea of fun (living in San Ramon is also not my idea of fun, which is why I don't just move there). However, this isn't your usual carpool - I ride on a 14-passenger van. It's more cost-effective that way, for both the company & the riders. Now, it's hard to keep track of that many schedules, so we keep a calendar on the van. If you're not going to ride the van on a given day, you mark the calendar with your name. It's a low-tech solution, but it works. Today, however, the trusty calendar failed me. On some mornings, I am the first person to get to the van. When that happens, I unlock it so no one has to stand around in the cold when they arrive. I also take advantage of that time to check the calendar to see if we can skip any stops that morning. Today, I noticed that the box for today had Sylvia's name, so I mentally noted that she wasn't riding with us...

As it turns out, I attempted two different feats of endurance in the last couple of days: an eating contest & running a half-marathon. I like to mix it up to keep people guessing, you know? I was actually going to attempt both feats on the same day, but due to some scheduling problems (read: I wanted to sleep in), this was not to be. The eating contest was a pho challenge in San Francisco - they serve you 2 lbs of meat, 2 lbs of noodles, and you have an hour to eat it. If you finish it within the allotted time, the meal is free. Otherwise, it costs you $22 for the attempt. For the record, this was not my idea, but once the idea was planted, it was a given that I was competing (amongst these friends, I've got one of the biggest appetites). The run was part of the ongoing training for the October race/run. I get that it's possible to run "only" 10 miles the week before & expect yourself to be able to finish 13.1 on race day. I don't see why that...

I think someone at work may have called me retarded today. Don't believe me? I'll let you decide. Here are the facts: A. " He speaks so well " is not a compliment B. Someone said "good job on writing that email" to me today. For the purposes of this exercise, I'm treating "he speaks so well" and "good job writing that email" as the same. It's the same sentiment, just applied to a different medium. Assuming that's true, the transitive property means that that person just called me retarded. Then again, I'm competing against, "good job word-smithing that document" and "please snake this with X & Y to make sure it's vetted by the right people." Seriously? Word-smithing? Vetted? Yes, I know what those terms means. No, I'm not impressed. In fact, if you ever hear me utter those words in a non-joking manner, I give you permission to hit me upside the head. Funnily enough, I onc...

are no match for a 3 year old. I was supposed to run 3 times this week, with my long run being today. Normally, I try to space out my runs (Tu-Th-Sat, or Tu-Fr- Su ) to give myself a little bit of recovery time. I can go two days in a row, but it's not fun. This week, however, I didn't quite feel right on Friday. I had done an extra CrossFit workout on Thursday night, and it was all legs. So, I planned on an early morning run yesterday & a long run today. Not an ideal schedule, but I was hoping that with a little bit of luck, I could make it work. I got the Saturday morning run in, and it went fine. My base pace is picking up a bit, so I finished 5.5 miles in a better time than I expected. Even better, I managed to get up at 7AM to do it. That gave me plenty of time to rest during the day. I figured that if I pushed off today's long run until mid-morning or early afternoon, that'd be 24+ hours of rest. Enter the 3 year old. Yesterday, our family happened...

I think some of the funniest moments happen when there's a crowd. Don't get me wrong, I've definitely had my share of laughs when sitting across a table from one other person. But somehow, whenever you get four or more friends together, the odds of pure, unadulterated laughter rise dramatically. Take today - a bunch of us were hanging out for lunch, and in the span of that lunch, I heard all of the following: "See, this is why I hang out with you guys - to reaffirm my Asian-ness" (funnily enough, she said this to me, the half-Peruvian guy) "Boo, you should've done something morally questionable" "Why? Because I'm a grown ass man" "Yeah, we kinda made a scene. There was tackling involved" "Wait, are those potatoes purple?" "I just don't like things randomly invading my personal space" "Dude, if I can talk my mom into doing it, you have no excuse" I kid you not, that's almost exactly wha...

I'm a big fan of speaking simply & colloquially. It's not that I don't understand the five-dollar words, it's just that I find them kind of boring. There's just more soul in slang, and it's hard, if not impossible, to replicate those sentiments with words from the SAT. Maybe it's because the fancy words are less common, so we don't make any emotional attachments to them. Or maybe it's because the fancy words are often used to describe very technical material, so they come off as dry and ... clinical. Anyhow, I like keeping it simple. As a result, I tend to paraphrase people or describe things in unique terms, both of which often lead to amusing results. Take this little gem from a meeting I was in yesterday: Presenter: "We're trying hard to develop a marketing strategy that will target large numbers of students. We're going to take advantage of the mailing lists that the career centers have ... " Me (quietly) : "W...

Normally, when I'm busy, I either have some sort of function to attend, or work to do. It's not necessarily boring (movies, meals, and parties all count as "functions to attend"), but it's very mundane. Not so much this weekend. I'm training for a half-marathon, so I decided to join the Nike run club for one of their training runs on Saturday. My coworker recommended it, so I decided to give it a go. Now, I know that the Nike marathon is mostly for women (it's called the Nike Women's Marathon, so lay off the sexist label, huh?), and I know that Nike sponsors the training/run club. But did my brain connect the dots & realize that there wouldn't be too many other guys there? Nope. That could have been a good thing for me, but I was there to run 12+ miles. If I had time to chat someone up, I probably wasn't running hard enough (not to mention that my group didn't exactly entice me to gather the courage to ask for a number). I decid...

Man, it took me forever to figure out how to name this thing. Most of the obvious names were taken, so samchang.blogspot.com was out. Interestingly enough, so was smartass.blogspot.com, so I was deprived of what would have otherwise been a fitting substitute. I was half tempted to go with a part of the famous Macbeth soliloquy, "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound & fury, signifying nothing." However, that might give the impression that the blog would be about literature, or some other high-falutin', intellectual topic. Clearly, that was out. In the end, I went with what the intent of this blog was - mild amusement for any who read this (and a little bit for the guy who writes this stuff). Maybe the posts will be interesting to you, maybe you'll get a chuckle from the writing, or maybe you'll just out and out laugh at my stupidity/silliness. Whatever the case may be, here's hoping the posts provide you some mild amusement. Sam