Friday, January 31, 2003

As a public service announcement to all of the Mac OSX users out there, there are good instructions on enabling CGI access for Apache on Michael Syke's page.

Sunday, January 26, 2003

The first Asian American application to work at Borders that I have ever received was handed in a couple of weeks ago. Hurrah.

I was sitting at a red light, at the intersection of Kraemer and Yorba Linda, when I saw a phenomenon of nature that I haven't seen since I left Spain years ago: a group of birds flying north in a V-shape. In Spain we would see these reguarly, in a rotating pattern with the seasons. In fall, birds would fly south, crossing the Strait of Gibraltar to the warm desert winds of Morocco. In the spring, they would return, flying V's fletching (is that a word?) across the sky to their Old World summer homes.

Tangentially, I just happened to be returning from Fry's, where I bought the first piece of my new computer. Say hello to the Shuttle SS51G, one of the smallest computer cases on the market today.

Wednesday, January 22, 2003

In today's post, Scott Andrew drops the word "whuffie", a word and concept that has stuck in my mind since I read Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. It's basically a currency that measures the worth of a human being, based on the value assigned to them by society. Whatever I do these days, I think "would this generate whuffie for me?". For example, dumping pollutants in stream could lead to monetary profit but would generate a plunge in whuffie, while rescuing a kitten from a tree is an act of charity but also yields plenty of whuffie. So far, I can't see a practical implementation of this. But maybe someday.

Monday, January 13, 2003

Craig's List is a horribly popular mailing list for the young and hip of San Francisco to rant, sell stuff, and hook up. Today, I found out about the Best of Craig's List, which makes for amusing reading, especially the one about the ALL UPPER CASE TYPING SUPPORT GROUP.

And it made me wonder, what would Ryan, the GM at Borders, would think of putting up a bulletin board in the cafe for people to post things. It would probably be against corporate policy or something. Yah, that's right, Borders ain't the rebel you thought it was. In fact, we're downright respectable! But I won't go trashing Borders until I actually suggest it. Over and out.

Sunday, January 12, 2003


  • Shuttle makes very cool SFF cases to hold your PC.

Saturday, January 11, 2003

I first heard about Jin the MC (sorry, white boy speaking; Jin tha MC) at Angry Asian Man, which pointed me to an interview with Jin at Generation Rice. I downloaded a freestyle session he participated in, and it rocked. This week, Angry Asian Man informs us that Jin tha MC has been named one of Rolling Stone's Next Wave, people to watch for in the coming year. My pop-culture prescience is not often wrong...

Monday, January 06, 2003

The Borders that I work at is in La Habra, at the corner of Beach Blvd and Imperial Hwy. If you take Beach south for about a mile, you reach Buena Park. La Habra has a large latino american population; Buena Park has a large Korean community. Every week, I get a few customers asking where our Spanish book section is: "At the end of Literature". Surprisingly (or not surprisingly, given how corporate, centralized and homogenous Borders is these days), we have no Korean language books. Not that people ask; I think there are specifically-Korean bookstores that sufficiently cater to the compact Korean communities, whereas Spanish bookstores are few and hispano-hablantes are ubiquitous in California.

On the employment side, at our Borders we have at least three employees of hispanic descent, and none of korean. Is it that korean kids don't have to work for spending money? Or do they work at other places?

When I went to subway for lunch today, I tried to hit the Philipino Fast Food restaurant down on Beach, but it was closed. So I settled for Subway, which our SPO man K had recommended earlier. Behind the counter were a light-skinned young man and a dark-skinned older fellow. I found it amusing that one lady was able to order her sandwich in Spanish, while the Korean-looking customers had to order in English. That's what they get for steering their kids away from low-paying, no-respect McJobs (and should I say, alas, Borders-jobs).

Sunday, January 05, 2003

Scott wore a name tag that said "Hello, my name is Scott" for two years straight, and wrote a book about it. Published independently. Should I order it?

Wednesday, January 01, 2003

Happy New Year, folks. I went out to see a movie with Dave and Richie, and we ended up watching the new James Bond. It was a good reminder of why I started my movie "fast".