April 2007 Archives

I'm one year older today... woohoo. Actually I should say I'm exactly one year older today because if you really think about it... it's not like you turn a year older overnight. With each day you are living towards your next birth date so in essence it's a year-long journey. That's why I don't feel any different than I do yesterday other than the fact that now I know I'm a year older.

Why do people celebrate their birthdays? Where did this whole birthday celebration come from and who started it? Did you ever wonder? I always thought it was to celebrate the fact that you're still alive. I know that doesn't sound all too optimistic, but isn't it basically? Aren't you celebrating that you've lived through the year and reached your birthday? It's like saying "Yay, congratulations on making it!" Or is it a cruel joke to remind a person that you're getting older every year? Are you a glass half full or half empty type of a person?

According to Wikipedia, birthday celebrations began during the time of the Roman Empire with a cult known as the Mithras and have pretty much continued through time. So essentially birthday celebrations originated from pagan practices. Quite interesting isn't it? I believe Christmas trees are another symbol with pagan origins. Who would have thought?

Yesterday my internet went down and I realized that it's something I absolutely cannot live without. It's as important as any of your basic necessities in my opinion. So that led me to think of other things I cannot live without in my life. In no particular order:

1. Internet
2. Car (I can say I lived without a car for about a month, but it was really painful)
3. Mac
4. Sketchbook
5. iPod
6. Extra Polar Ice gum
7. Chapstick (I can't stand peeling lips)
8. Cell phone (I think most people would agree on this one)
9. Digital camera
10. TV (Actually I don't have one, but I was having withdrawal symptoms so now I'm downloading shows)
11. Good food (How can you enjoy life w/o it?)
12. Bubble tea (I probably can, but it won't be as good)
    
13. Contacts/glasses 
14. Weekends (I'd age much faster without them)
15. Sunshine (Like I'm not pale enough)
16. Humor
17. Color (I'm not really into black or white)
    
18. Friends and Family (depends)
19. My bed
20. Toilet paper (Can't imagine w/o it)

Ahhhhh!!!! It's just been one of those days when I feel like beating the hell out of a punching bag. This is my 11th week on the job and I thought things were running more smoothly until now. I feel so frustrated that I've been grumbling since I've come home from work and worked out for half an hour on the elliptical. Why does everything have to be a struggle? I was so frustrated earlier today that I could feel my face turn red. Ahhhh!!!! I'm a pretty mellow person too so that must mean I was really frustrated and upset.

I was almost as mad as the time this guy accused me of hitting his spotless red Honda Civic. That was about a month and a half ago when I was carpooling with my coworker. The parking spaces are pretty tight at work and quite tricky to park in especially next to the columns. So when my colleague pulled up next to the red Civic, I noticed that the driver was still in his car. I didn't have much room to get out, but I made sure not to hit his car since it looked spotless. When I turned around to grab my bag in the backseat, he was already right behind me inspecting his car door and began yelling at me.

"I heard it! I heard it! You hit my car!"

I swear I didn't hit his car. I knew he was watching so I was very careful and made sure there was space between the door and his car. But he wouldn't hear it.

"I knew you were going to hit my car. I was waiting for it. That's why I was sitting there waiting. You're so lucky that it didn't leave a dent."

Ahhhhh!!! I hate paranoid people! Of course it didn't leave a dent, I didn't even hit it, moron! That was not the best way to start my morning. I make sure to never park next to that guy now.

It was quite funny though... recently I saw a large Ford Explorer parked really close to his car two days in a row and the spot is marked for small cars only too. Then one day I noticed he didn't park in his usual spot probably to avoid the Explorer, but the funny thing is it was right next to him again. I had a good laugh to myself.

Outsourcing jobs in North America to cut costs is practically a common practice nowadays. For the past ten years there have been reports of companies moving its operations to low cost centers around the world. Just today it was reported that Citigroup is eliminating 17,000 jobs and moving over half of them to countries like India and Poland. Outsourcing work overseas has changed the entire landscape of the manufacturing industry in the U.S. Call centers in India are abundant now. It's not uncommon to call tech support and have someone from India answer on the other end.

I've heard stories upon stories about people who were making a hundred grand or more a year and suddenly realizing there's no way to compete with offshore workers who were happy to do the same job far below the poverty line in the U.S. Sure it's depressing, but if you owned your own business and had a choice to choose between two people who could perform the same job and the only difference is their salary... I think the choice is clear. 

Manufacturing, tech jobs and support functions are definitely the most at risk of being offshored, but I didn't think design and innovation could ever be outsourced. I had an eye opening realization today after finding out from my manager who had just returned from a fact-finding trip to India and China on a mission to search for the best location to hire a production team. My biggest questions have always been the quality of the work, the actual savings after consideration of productivity level and high turnover, customer satisfaction and idea generation. Simply put, India and China are learning fast and can do all of these things well. They understand the design process and fulfilling the customer's needs. Who knows, it may not be long before designers here have their jobs outsourced. The recently released Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie is an example of this reality. Imagi, a Hong Kong based studio, did all the CGI work for this animation and some other Hollywood films for much less than production studios in the States.

So what reason does my company have to keep me around if someone offshore can do my job for a lot less? That's a hard reality that many designers onshore may soon face. For now cultural knowledge of our home country and experience give us the advantage, but one day that may not be enough as India and China are gaining ground and learning fast from the exposure to many foreign companies. Designers will need to continually grow and enhance their skills as well as wear many different hats. It won't be enough to do what they're good at doing. In order to ensure value to the company, designers must be able to lead and manage other creatives and think in business terms. Most creatives wince at the thought of having to sell their services, manage costs, figure out ROI and the like. How boring! Where's the fun in that? But it's so necessary in order to do the work you love.

I never understood why design programs are lumped in with the fine art progams and not paired with the business curriculum. In order to compete with a world that's becoming more and more globalized, design schools should really redesign their curriculums to give creatives a better edge. I can go on about that, but that's another topic entirely.

Lately the weather's been quite nice with the exception of some mornings or evenings with rain, but that is much better compared to a couple weeks ago when we had rain almost everyday. I woke up this morning to overcast skies, but no rain in sight. Clouds hung around all day with intermittent breaks of sunlight which cast a pretty rainbow right outside my window. In some ways I don't think it's completely sunk in yet that I'm living here in Vancouver. Now that I've had the chance to slow down and enjoy the view a little, I've begun to realize this is now my home. It's strange to say it because I still feel like I'm a visitor. A few nights ago I had a dream that I was back in Chicago and I felt so much at home. It was such a nice comforting feeling... the kind that puts you at ease. Perhaps it was the holiday weekend that made me think of home.

The benefit of working in Canada is that you get more holidays compared to the U.S. It's a blessing and a curse. We had last Friday off and some companies even have Monday off. I know if I was working in Chicago, I'd only get out a couple hours early Friday. The Canada Post closed Friday and today along with all other government agencies. Unfortunately a lot of stores and malls closed early Friday and completely on Sunday.

Isn't that wild?! It's as if it's Christmas holiday. How dare they rest on the Sabbath! What was I to do with myself? How do I satisfy my consumerist addiction? Not to worry, I made a mad dash to Ikea before it closed at 6pm and went through the store in about 40 minutes (that must have been a record.)

It's definitely a culture difference compared to the U.S. Canadians take their holidays seriously, not like Americans who spend their free time shopping rather than with their families or perhaps it would be more accurate for me to say shopping with their families rather than time alone with them.

In the U.S. where bigger is better especially with vehicles, here it's the opposite. Smart cars, Yarises, Versas and Fits reign the roads here. Expensive gas, narrow lanes and tight parking spots make little sense for Hummers and Ram trucks. It's quite nice and I prefer it this way. There's not as many insensitive road hogs tearing up the streets and cutting you off left and right in their huge arse trucks with their I'm-the-king-of-the-road attitude. Obviously they're trying to make up for their shortcomings. It's that or their extremely dumb to not only spend tons of money to buy such a monster of a vehicle, but to also spend loads filling it up.

Today's flavor of the day: Lychee bubble tea
Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Since I've been here, I've noticed a variety of candy bars that are special to the Canadian market. I don't normally eat candy bars, but decided to give some a try. Aero is one I see everywhere and in a variety of flavors so I assume it to be quite popular up here. The packaging is quite enticing, however I was pretty disappointed upon discovering that it's basically a chocolate bar filled with nothing but bubbles of air. I thought it would be crispy, which would make this so much better, but no. On top of that I was fooled into thinking that there's a lot of chocolate in one bar, but with all the air bubbles you don't really get a good value for your money.

The other candy bar I've tried is Coffee Crisp which is pretty much like a mocha-flavored Kit Kat bar that's one gigantic chocolate wafer. This was much better than Aero and quite good. I've also seen Big Turk at many checkout counters, but I'm still a little afraid of trying this one. It's really the name that throws me off, which can easily be misconstrued for something else by one letter.

Cherry Blossom tree in Stanley Park

Today's flavor of the day is strawberry milk tea. Tastes like bubble gum. I give it two stars out of five.

Over the weekend I had a chance to do more exploring of Vancouver. You can find pictures in my gallery.

On a completely different topic, I was speaking with someone about my background today when I started to ponder on whether or not it is appropriate to use the terms ABC, BBC and CBC. If you don't know, ABC stands for American Born Chinese, BBC stands for British Born Chinese and CBC stands for Canadian Born Chinese. In our very PC world today, is it ok to use these terms? Would any of these aforementioned groups be offended to be labeled a three-letter abbreviation?

Personally I've heard and used the three letters to characterize myself many times before, but now that I find myself with other groups of "_BCs", I'm not sure if they find the label offensive. If anyone can shed any light on this topic, I'll treat you to a bubble tea!

Be sure to get your passport if you haven't already and are planning on coming up to Vancouver to visit me! USA Today reports a record number of passports being issued in the U.S. The standard wait for a passport is 10 weeks. That's right, 10 weeks! So if you don't plan on shelling out extra moola to get it quicker, apply now.