Posted 8:01 PM by Andy
It has been a while since I penned a journal entry, and since people are still languishing in the after effects of the Chinese New Year, it's a good time to archive my thoughts.

Work. The merger with Tom closed in late January so we started immediately to define requirements for the new platform. I worked on the buying flow, with a focus on a simple version of the highest trafficked page called View Item. Now I'm defining an onsite messaging product. The lump-sum payments from the buyout should hit at the end of the month so I will get a nice cash infusion. My product management group has been whittled down to 5 people as a few have left or transferred groups. The Tom programmers are highly activist in the design process, i.e. they question the validity of features that have long been staples of the eBay trading platform like reserve price. We spend a lot of time convincing them of the merits of the existing design. The plan is still to launch a new site by July.

Vacations. I like to travel to recharge whenever I have the opportunity to do so. After Christmas last year, I took off for Bangkok on a whim. It was refreshing to escape the frigid weather here and bask in the tropical climate there. I wasn't particularly aware of the political instability there when I went. I was about to go to an outdoor plaza for New Year's celebration until the bomb scare diverted me to a club. The celebration there consisted of singers on stage performing American west coast rap and Thai pop songs. I met Tun, a development finance professional at the United Nations for dinner one night. I also met Toon, a thin and lithe girl who had tattoos etched on several places of her body. I took a day trip to Pattaya. The beach was overrun by tourists so it wasn't that relaxing. For Chinese New Year, I ventured out to Tokyo for the first time. It was surreal. Besides the language barrier, I enjoyed the modern amenities of the world-class city and the courteous nature of the Japanese people. The cute and stylish girls everywhere also attracted my attention. I met up with Mariko for dinner one night. I hung out with Annie and Nicole another night. I spent a day at Roppongi Hills, the posh cultural and entertainment complex in Roppongi. The museum there featured an exhibition on laughter. I hit a club that night. The guy-girl ratio wasn't great, and the foreigners were very aggressive as usual. It was a good way to end my trip though before flying back to Shanghai.

People. I go out very rarely these days. My philosophy has become “let the people come to Mohammed.” In other words, I don't exert much effort to meet new folks but will gladly make friends with whoever I happen to run across in my daily life. I've met a few interesting girls in the last few months. Bernice is a reformed former party girl who I met during the Alpha course. We went to a couple concerts and shared a few dinners together. She moved to Hong Kong late last year. I wanted to rendezvous with her in Tokyo but we couldn't sync up. Carol is a leader of women and also has a sultry yet intimidating look if you don't know her. She's connected to Element in SF. We hung out a few times in group settings. She's trying to set up a small group for Bible study. I met Melina through Melody a month ago. She's Indonesian but spent some time in the US. We're supposed to hang out but haven't connected yet. Wai and Karlai visited from New York so we all kicked it with Sim for a couple nights. Sherry celebrated her birthday a few weeks ago so a small group of us enjoyed Yunnan cuisine before lounging at Aqua and Glamour Bar.

Competition. In bball, I'm still one of the regular players on the SMIC playground. Some of my peers who used to play have now retired. I play mainly with Jeff K. A couple weeks ago he got into a fight when a scrawny Chinese dude was up in his grill playing physical defense. I jumped in from the sideline and broke them apart, telling each party to relax. The crazy thing was the Chinese dude's friend was trying to get it on a la Stephen Jackson of Indiana Pacer fame. Jeff is usually a mild-mannered guy but I guess he took offense. I play a balanced game now, mixing in baseline drives with jump-shots and floaters in the lane when I shoot, and threaded passes to cutters when I pass. On defense I can lock up most guys around my size. In poker, I have been losing small amounts for a few sessions until the last two. I cashed 865 RMB on 100 RMB buy-in playing 50 jiao, 1 kuai blinds against Len and others at Godfrey's place. I cashed 215 against Rob and his pals on New Year's Eve. Luck definitely plays a role, but sometimes you have to make your own luck. In fantasy bball, after starting the season in last place, I've steadily climbed up the league rankings and currently hold first. My number 1 pick Wade dislocated his shoulder last week, so I dropped him dispassionately. I will find a way to be in contention down the stretch.