Time to make a list of everything that needs to get done.

This morning was cold, at least by Southern Californian standards. My sister and I had a 10:30 flight to San Jose from LAX, and my father had left the Toyota Avalon at home so that our mother could drive us to the airport. The car was packed, and we climbed into the car. My sister took the back seat, leaving me to take the shotgun position. As my mother started the car, I noticed the check engine light, along with the battery light lit up. The engine started, whined, sputtered and then died, right in our garage.

For the first time since 9-11, I flew on Thanksgiving Day. Now, it used to be that Thanksgiving Day was one of the worst days to fly. These were the people that decided at the last minute that they wanted to go somewhere for turkey day and ended up flying standby. Not the case any longer. My sister and I flew out of San Jose at 3:50 pm yesterday, and expecting a massive swell of people, we got to the airport almost 2 hours early. The extra screeners for the holiday made a huge impact, as we passed through the security checkpoint relatively quickly. The plane was only three-quarters of the way full, and along with the complimentary peanuts and soda, they also handed out as a special Southwest Airlines Thanksgiving treat, 2 pieces of Chocolate with the words "Gobble Gobble". I also realized something about my family today. Everyone in my family reads a lot. When we travel, while other families struggle to cram in that last article of clothing, my family struggles to fit in that last book. We tend to travel with more books than clothes, and while we may not have the clothing for all occassions in our baggage, we've got our books to fill every quiet moment in our time away.

Thanksgiving at our house has always been a fusion between Western and Chinese cuisine. Although we stick to the more traditional gut-busting Thanksgiving day fare: turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, yams, ham and pumpkin pie, my mother also makes fried rice (note: we have never served stuffing at my house for thanksgiving), soup with fishcake and water chestnuts, and these delicious candied pecans. Even though my family was starving, we barely made a dent in the 22 pound turkey my mother prepared.

We've gave 'em the Axe!!! Chop, Chop Chop!

I used to live in Bowles Hall, which is right across the street from the football stadium. It is, without a doubt the most school spirited residence hall, due to its colorful and unique history (and also because in my year a large number of Bowlesmen were part of the Cal Marching Band). Every Bowlesman knows the Bowles Hall Drinking Song, although I had forgotten that the band always stopped by after a home game. The first year I came to Cal, the big Game was at Stanford, and my roommate bussed across the bay with the other Bowlesman to attend. The Bears won that day, and for the next week the trophy of the game -- the Stanford Axe, was paraded around the campus. As legend goes, if you touch the Axe, you'll be blessed with straight A's for the remainder of your academic life at Cal. He and I both touched the Axe, and that myth is definitely busted. Even though i only went to three Cal games (vs. UCLA, vs. Arizona, vs. Stanford) my entire university career, I would have liked to have seen this one.

"Stanford Jonah"

So...then... it's...
Up with the Blue and Gold,
Down with the Red;
California's out for a victory.
We'll drop our battle-axe on
Stanford's head, Chop!
When we meet her, our team will surely beat her.
Down on the Stanford Farm there'll be no sound,
When our Oski rips through the air.
Like our friend Mister Jonah,
Stanford's team will be found
In the tummy of the Golden Bear!

I was going to call it "Monkey Fu" in honor of Kim Possible, but Chimps are from the Ape family, not the Monkey family, and it's Karate, not Kung Fu.

Apparently, hybrids and fuel-efficient vehicles are a little too good. The state isn't making enough money from the gasoline tax (18 cents a gallon). In what must be an obviously high quality drug induced idea, the new DMV director has proposed a mileage tax. Basically, they'd put GPS in everyone's cars, track your mileage, and send you a bill. I think this is a rather stupid proposal, which would end up costing the state more money than it would generate. If the state is short on money, raise the gasoline tax a few more cents. Or raise car registration fees in a fair manner. As much as anyone talks badly about Schwartznegger, he did repeal the registration fees which unfairly targeted new cars, and he did give single occupant hybrids access to the carpool lanes, so as far as I can figure, the Governator knows what's he's doing when it comes to car society issues, and i don't think he would do something as fiscally foolish as taxing mileage when he can just raise gasoline taxes.

Of course there's the Big Brother-ness of this proposal that has privacy advocates up in arms, and if we can't trust Diebold machines to tally votes correctly, do you really want something calculating mileage for you and then billing you?

The game world will still be there. It's just that their online avatars won't be.

Every character has a starting location specific to his/her race. For instance, all Humans start in Northshire Abbey, all Dwarfs and Gnomes start in Anvilmar, and Night Elves start in Dolanar. All four of these races are part of an Alliance, and as such, can travel freely without fear of getting attacked by city guards. Dolanar however, is on a separate continent separated by an ocean. Recently they've added a boat as a system of transit, but before, the only method of long distance travel was through griffons and hippogriffs, and thar required in game money. To travel on foot through the distance would take several hours, and would also involve travelling through extremely high level areas, and so long distance travel was generally not done on foot.

One of the problem with MMOGs is that each MMOG tends to develop their own vocabulary, a sort of dialect associated with each game. While some terms and acronyms flow from game to game, some terms are game specific. This makes telling stories about the game events to non-players pretty difficult. Each storytelling session pretty much entails defining all the player actions in non game vocabulary in order for it to make sense to the layman.

Interestingly enough, Blizzard has published a glossary of in game terms that are used in WoW in order to get the new player started.

"I will make the assertion that the most twitch aspect of the game is fishing. It requires a good sense of timing and dexterity, and it'll likely be the area of the game least impacted by grief players and network lag. It also provides food and money, which is always good."

Wednesday is always bagel day at work. As we filled up on coffee, bagels and shmear my co-workers and I started swapping insights and stories about Blizzard's upcoming Skinner box: World of Warcraft (WoW). A good chunk of my co-workers are ex-Blizzard, so we've seen the game at various stages of development. This leads to some interesting stories.

According to the Bartle Test, when playing these types of games, I am 80% Achiever, 53% Explorer, 46% Socializer, 20% Killier. I am what is known as a "Power Gamer" - a player who uses the knowledge of the game's dynamics in order to meet their goals quickly and efficiently. In WoW, I have come to realize that I play it no differently than how I played EQ or DAoC or any other MMOG.

For more ramblings about WoW, read on.

Trivia: Brad Bird, who wrote the screenplay for Iron Giant, also wrote and directed this film.

My favorite headlines from this article:

"How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?" - Daily Mirror (UK) (pic)
"Oh God" on a black page - Guardian (UK)
"Oops — they did it again" - Tageszeitung (Germany)
"Europe's Nightmare" Facts (Swiss)

For those history buffs out there, let me just segue to Brazil in the 1970s. In the late 60s, Brazil had undergone an industrial revolution of a sort, growing the GDP 12 percent annually, and it looked as if was going to be an economic miracle, demonstrating the power of military and economic rule. They invested heavily into the infrastructure of the country, building dams, atomic energy plants, highways, which all came to a standstill when the oil crisis happened. They reduced their trade exports, the price of imports increased, their currency was overvalued, and so the government borrowed billions (this is 70s era money, mind you) to get them through this crisis. They were 80% dependent on imported oil, a statistic not too far from where the U.S. stands now (The US imports 56%, which is projected to rise to 68% by 2020). Brazil became a credit risk, inflation soared, productivity declined, and foreign debt increased. 30 years later, they still have not recovered, and most families still live in poverty there.

That's America 5 years from now. Instead of spending on infrastructure costs, we've squandered our wealth on the military. We've overextended our credit, and that will come back to haunt us. When the war in Iraq is over, when Americans return from their tours of duty, when massive unemployment and inflation runs rampant, when we are down, the U.N. will kick us in the teeth by demanding war reparations for starting a war in Iraq. Can we take enough of the oil wells in Iraq to make this worth it? Because it's all about resources. Osama may have had the idea to bring the World Trade Center down by the events in Lebanon, and I'm guessing that seeing the troops light Kuwait's wells on fire as they were withdrawing made an impression on Dubya. Everyone needs oil, and as demand for the black gold increases, the price will increase. Perhaps Bush intends on using the oil reserves to finance the war, but if the reserves can only satiate America for 60 days, what then when day 61 rises? Won't the gas price still be upon the American consumer? When people look back at 4 years ago, and they look at today, can't they see that life was better 4 years ago? That with Bush, things have only gotten worse? That unemployment has risen, that we've become involved in a war we didn't need to be involved with? Afghanistan in 2001, Iraq in 2003?

Whenever a dictator rises, there are those that quietly leave the country. People think in this day and age that things in America can't get bad enough to warrant leaving. And maybe they're right. Maybe these next 4 years will be peaceful and prosperous. Maybe the Bay Area is enough of a bubble to keep conservatism from creeping in. But, just in case it does creep in, I'm keeping the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website bookmarked, and keeping an open mind about moving to Vancouver.

(image taken from USoutofSF)

"Last month, Drs. Joshua Freedman and Marco Iacoboni of the University of California at Los Angeles finished scanning the brains of 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats. Each viewed images of President Bush, John Kerry and Ralph Nader.

When viewing their favorite candidate, all showed increased activity in the region implicated in empathy. And when viewing the opposition, all had increased blood flow in the region where humans consciously assert control over emotions -- suggesting the volunteers were actively attempting to dislike the opposition."

"And when voters were shown a Bush ad that included images of the September 11 attacks, the amygdala region of the brain -- which lights up for most of us when we see snakes -- illuminated more for Democrats than Republicans. The researchers' conclusion: At a subconscious level, Republicans were apparently not as bothered by what Democrats found alarming."

Subject: * * * ELECTION DAY IS HERE: VOTE ON NOVEMBER 2nd * * *
From: "Declare Yourself"
Date: Wed, November 3, 2004 1:17 am
Priority: Normal

Note the date and time of the message.

Some highlights:

"Your board of elections can tell you where to vote. If you can't reach the board, a nonpartisan hotline, 1-866-OURVOTE, has a polling place locator. So does the Web site www.mypollingplace.com.

No voter can be turned away in any state this year without being allowed to vote. If there is a question about your eligibility, you must be allowed to vote on a provisional ballot, the validity of which will be determined later. But if you are entitled to vote on a regular ballot, you should insist on doing so, since a provisional ballot may be disqualified later on a technicality.

If you experience problems voting, or if you see anything improper at the polls, you may want to get help. It is a good idea to bring a cellphone, and phone numbers of nonpartisan hotlines like the Election Protection program's 1-866-OURVOTE and Common Cause's 1-866-MYVOTE1.

As long as you are in line before the polls close, you are legally entitled to vote. Do not let poll workers close the polls until you have voted."

Morning Foods (These might be eaten at other times, but for me, I associate it with breakfast)

• Chinese Donuts with sweet soy milk
• Rice Porridge, with sides of soy sauce cucumbers, pork sung, brown egg, sweet egg, broiled fish, eel, or preserved duck egg
  

• Braised Beef Noodle Soup
  This is one of my favorites that I can't eat anymore due to my avoidance of cow meat. A great cold-weather dish, I have many memories of coming home after a rainy day and finding heaven in the warm noodles and the spiciness of the broth.
• Imperial Spareribs (sometimes called Peking Spareribs)
  I don't remember how I came to discover the dish -- but I do remember my father always ordering this dish for me at Chinese restaurants enough times that I learned the name of the dish -"gin giu pai goo"

• Peking Duck
  One style uses pieces of bread, the other uses mushu wrappers. Either way, duck is the yummiest of all birds, even if a bit greasy.
• Steamed Crab
  

• Stir-Fried Rice With peas, carrots, green onion, and slices of chinese sausage
  
• Ba Zhang
  I have to use the Taiwanese name for this food item, since I've never heard it translated into English. Ba, I believe means Meat or Pork. This is a pyramid shaped rice bundle, wrapped in a bamboo leaf. The rice is glutinous (sticky) and mixed with shitake mushrooms, chestnuts, pieces of pork, bamboo and brine shrimp. (I used to pick out the brine shrimp when I was kid, I don't do that anymore).
• Pork Sung Sandwich
  Other kids had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as their favorite, but I preferred the Pork Sung sandwich as one of my favorite afterschool quickies. Two slices of white bread, a heaping spoonful of pork sung, and you were set.
• Curry Pork Horns
  Joli-jau. These little pastries are filled with spiced pork, onion and curry.
• Cha Su Bao
  Barbecue Pork Buns. Yummy. I like them steamed best.