Family Photos

Take photos of your family.

My mom, aunt, and uncle in Kyoto Japan 1941. My other aunt (who hadn’t been born yet) sent me this photo today.

Distance is no object—that’s why we have Skype and screenshotting (Cmd-Shift-3 on the Macintosh).

My brother, father, and sister-in-law in Providence 2010.

I’m going to try to use ScanCafe to digitize my parents old photos quickly. I am receiving it as “a thank you gift” during KQED Public Radio’s last pledge drive. The idea is they send you a box, you fill it with photos and slides, and then they give you DVDs with them digitized.

We’ll see how that goes.

Update: Here they are (and some of the ones here).

Posted on June 2, 2010 by tychay 5

Blame it on Bollywood

Yesterday, I walked onto a Bollywood set.

Literally.

On my way back from McD’s, my apartment building was lit by three lighting/grip trucks. The lights were overpowering the sun.

Lighting my building
4th and Brannan, South of Market, San Francisco, California

Olympus E-P2, Panasonic Lumix G 1:1.7/20 ASPH.
1/4000sec @ ƒ1.7, ISO200, 20mm (40mm)

Carrying McDonalds and shooting from the hip at the same time. Take that, Leica!

Continue reading →

Posted on February 27, 2010 by tychay 2

bebo recruiting math

: Image via Wikipedia

I got an e-mail from a recruiter at Bebo looking to hire me into the same position I had at Tagged. This caught my eye:

ABOUT BEBO:
Bebo (www.bebo.com), Located in San Francisco; with over 40 million registered members viewing billions of pages monthly, it is the largest social networking site in the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand, and the third largest behind MySpace and Facebook in the US. Officially launched in July 2005, received the 2006 Webby Award People’s Vote as the best social networking site in the world.

Our people can boast demonstrated records of success in viral online marketing and social media, having come to us from such companies as Google, Ringo, Tickle, BirthdayAlarm, Friendster, Organic, Yahoo, and MTV.

From its $15M initial round of funding back in early 2006 (from Benchmark Capital) Bebo has enjoyed positive cash flow since day one.

Our recent merger with AOL will bring tremendous opportunity by combining Bebo’s fast growing user base with the social graph of AIM and other assets.

Third place in the U.S.—really?

Facebook US rank: 3
MySpace US rank: 5
Tagged US rank: 108
Hi5 US rank: 288
Bebo US rank: 394
Friendster US rank: 534

Hmm, Tagged passed Bebo just after they got bought out by AOL for $850 million (and while I was working there) and Friendster right before I left. Given that Friendster passed on hiring me twice—that’s the sweet taste of satisfaction! 😀

Depending on the metric, you might make a case for it being #4, but to displace Tagged? Really? Not to mention, completely pissing on the hard work I did there. 😉 Besides this slight isn’t exactly going to make me jump ship from my new job back to my old one—just with a different color scheme.

Continue reading about Remembering bebo after the jump

Posted on November 19, 2009 by tychay 6

Lolcats can never be FAIL'd

Last month, my friend and fellow kimchee-eater, M.J., had three books sent to me. FailNation, How to Take over Teh Wurld, and Graph Out Loud. That’s important that I have friends like her because I’m usually the last to know about the latest memes.

Three new books and their respective websites: FailBlog, ICanHasCheezburger, and GraphJam.

I mention this because if you happen to be in San Francisco today at 6:30pm you really need to go to the book launch party. I came to get their last book signed:

I’ll certainly be there in order to get the books signed (and then give them away later, like I did last time).

Ben Huh signing their first book.

See you at the party!

(Full disclaimer, I now work for Automattic—though I didn’t at the time M.J. sent me the books. ICanHasCheezburger, GraphJam, and Failblog are VIP customers of WordPress.com.)

Posted on October 28, 2009 by tychay 1

Champagne Starbucks

Shared a morning with two friends who are leaving Facebook after four years. Then I noticed I was the only one with ratty shoes.

I’m the only one without the cool shoes
Starbucks, South of Market, San Francisco, California

Leica M8, Cosina-Voigtländer NOKTON Classic 40mm f1.4 S.C., B+W 486 IR Cut
1/125sec, iso160, 40mm (53mm)

Even Cyan was sporting the Kitteh.

Oh well, one of the nice things about living here is other people have taste.

Posted on October 27, 2009 by tychay 2

Terry takes the Oklahoma High School Civics Test

1. What Is the Supreme Law of the Land?

The Ten Commandments.

2. What Do We Call the First Ten Amendments of the Constitution?

The New Deal.

3. What Are the Two Parts of the U.S. Congress?

Communists and Capitalists.

4. How Many Justices Are on the Supreme Court?

None. This is a trick question. Everyone knows the only people in court are the judge, jury and executioner.

5. Who Wrote the Declaration of Independence?

Jesus.

6. What Ocean Is on The East Coast of the United States?

The Mexican Ocean.

7. What Are the Two Major Political Parties in the United States?

Republican and Socialist.

8. We Elect a U.S. Senator for How Many Years?

Until they die or get caught in a wide stance.

9. Who Was the First President of the United States?

Ronnie Raygun.

10. Who Is in Charge of the Executive Branch?

Donald Trump.

Continue reading about about Oklahoma after the jump

Posted on September 18, 2009 by tychay 2

Get thee to a nunnery

Reading this article on in the Times made remember something from high school.

Miss Kubic taught the top class in freshman geometry atmy high school. We figured that’s about as perfect name as you could get for a geometry teacher.

Toward the end of the year over lunch our classmate, Adam, said, “Hey don’t you think Miss Kubic looks like Sally Fields in the Flying Nun?”

“I suppose there’s a resemblance. You should ask her if she can fly.”

“I think I will,” Adam resolved.

We left the dining hall, laughing about that, and discussing how Adam would beat a sheepish retreat from the faculty.

Instead, Adam came bursting out of McCune Dining Hall, “She is the Flying Nun!”

“Huh? No way!”

“I asked her if she’s the Flying Nun and she said, ‘Yes.’” Adam explained.

I was gobsmacked.

We found out during class the next day, that Miss Kubic had decided next year to noviate to become a nun. As she was putting a drink on her tray in line, Adam had asked her, “Are you the Flying Nun.” and she had heard, “Are you going to be a nun?” and she replied honestly, “Yes.”

Whenever I think of that, I laugh out loud a little.

I was taught geometry by the Flying Nun.

Posted on July 2, 2009 by tychay 0

Is there a doctor in the house?

John Cole points out that there is a segment of the “intelligencia” out there who don’t know that a Ph.D. entitles you to the honorific “doctor.”

“New York Times columnist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman—who I’ve noticed some econ bloggers refer to as ‘Dr. Krugman’ with no hint of sarcasm—says now’s the time to up our daily allowance of stimulis.”

He got his Ph.D. in 1977, so I don’t understand why people are supposed to be sarcastic if they call him Dr. Krugman. What context am I missing here that would explain this?

Which reminds me, I’m the only member of my family without a Ph.D.

Which reminds me that when I was a kid, answering the phone, I often would be asked, “May I speak to Dr. Chay?”

To which, I’d have to ask with no hint of sarcasm, “Which one?”

Posted on June 16, 2009 by tychay 2

Will

I have a friend and web developer who thinks I’m really smart, but he doesn’t think much of his own abilities. During a particular coincidence of both opinions, he asked me if I’d hire him if I was in a position to make such a judgement:

Me: Of course.
Me: Why do you ask this?

Him: I was just thinking that one day you will be atop the web
Him: And I want to be part of it
…

Me: In general, the thing I find is the #1 thing necessary for success is will. And you have will.
Me: Smarts is a result of will, not vice versa.
Me: So sure I’d hire you.

He tweeted that and someone liked that.

As someone who has leaned on his “smarts” a number of times to the detriment of his own personal development, I truly believe what I said. Every day, I’m starting to realize my inner Socrates:

It seemed to me … that the people with the greatest reputations were almost entirely deficient, while others who were supposed to be their inferiors were much better qualified in practical intelligence…

I reflected as I walked away: Well, I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of; but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite conscious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems to me that I am wiser than he is to the extent, that I do not think that I know what I do not know.

Posted on May 18, 2009 by tychay 1

The Woodwork

You tell that other boy, not to touch the woodwork