Personal Dork Assistant

Supply Chain

Went to visit/audit a few of our suppliers due to some potential quality issues which had escalated to the end-customer. Drove down to the big industrial area in Jongli about 40 minutes away from Taipei. It's a mixture of big industrial parks and small, almost ramshackle buildings scattered amongst rice paddies, evidence of the rapidly haphazard industrialization in post-war Taiwan. There were grumblings about the EPA, which is probably a good thing, considering the history of the area.

Our application is considered low-volume and specialized enough that small, technology-driven Taiwan-based suppliers are still the best sources, not that we didn't try to source from mainland China companies, with unsatisfactory results. Despite the complaints of cut-throat costs, having to import foreign workers, and offshoring customers, the undistinguished middle-aged bosses with the smoke or bing-lan stained teeth are still wearing gold watches with shiny diamonds and driving Benzes (AMGs, even). There's still something to be said and something to be made from getting your hands dirty and making something, so long as they're not dumping the junk into the nearby streams. A bubbling nickel-plating tank looks like something straight out of a sci-fi nightmare and doesn't smell much better.

Hey, at least now I know what's going on down there when I look out the airplane window on the final descent toward Taoyuan Airport. We'll have to steer the customers to the nicer-looking factories, though.

I've Got A Fever

...and the only thing that can cure it is more Beaver.

In light of the exciting breakthrough for Caltech Men's Basketball team, it would be uncouth of me to neglect the even greater accomplishments of the Lady Beavers.

History was made tonight before a capacity crowd in Caltech's Braun Gymnasium when the Caltech Women's Basketball team won for the first time ever in conference (SCIAC) play upending the visiting Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens by a score of 55-53.

Now a win in conference play is something the guys still haven't managed in the last 22 years. Maybe it'll come in time for some real March Madness.

More Beaver Fever (Snatch 2!)

Sam sent me the news.

Yes, Caltech's mighty Beavers won an NCAA basketball game, after losing the previous 207. I don't know how they found a less athletic opponent and convinced the Bard College Raptors to come out to Pasadena, CA from Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. But the Techers made the most of the home-court advantage.

Coach Roy Dow and his squad of brainy — as opposed to brawny — Beavers beat Bard College of New York 81-52 on Saturday night, ending a mathematically improbable run of 207 consecutive NCAA Division III losses.

The well-documented travails of the alma-mater's basketball team was sufficiently grave to garner an SI column (full text). Good for Coach Dow to stick it out and finally break the duck.

We're Number One!

Once again, Caltech is at or near the top of a college ranking.

Namely, the percentage of Asian students amongst top-tier American universities.

Of course, the popular media overlooks us once again and picks UC Berkeley as the more interesting example of the Asian invasion in higher education.

I ask Mr. Hu what it’s like to be on a campus that is overwhelmingly Asian — what it’s like to be of the demographic moment. This fall and last, the number of Asian freshmen at Berkeley has been at a record high, about 46 percent. The overall undergraduate population is 41 percent Asian. On this golden campus, where a creek runs through a redwood grove, there are residence halls with Asian themes; good dim sum is never more than a five-minute walk away; heaping, spicy bowls of pho are served up in the Bear’s Lair cafeteria; and numerous social clubs are linked by common ancestry to countries far across the Pacific.

There may be something to the stereotypes: "About 95 percent of Asian freshmen come from a family in which one or both parents were born outside the United States." Although they do spend way too much time talking about it. At least the article didn't paint all Asians as insular nerds.

As president of the Asian-American Association, he has tried to dispel stereotypes of “the Dragon Lady seductress or the idea that everybody plays the piano.” His closest friends are in the club. It may seem that he has become more insular, that he has found his tribe. But Mr. Lee says he has been trying to lead other Asian students out of the university bubble. Once a week, they go into a mostly black and Hispanic middle school in the Bay Area to mentor students... It came about because Mr. Lee looked around at the new America — in California, the first state with no racial majority — and found that it looked very different from Berkeley. And much as he loves Berkeley, he knew that if he wanted to learn enough to teach, he needed to get off campus.

New Year Resolution/Announcement

My resolution for 2007:

1. Get married
2. Other things

The GF and I have been dragging this out a long time (well, me mostly) and we finally decided to get engaged on Valentine's Day. Aside from the obvious connotations, it was a good time for the ceremony since all the family will be in Taiwan for CNY including dad. It'll just be a couple of tables for the engagement banquet, mostly close relatives. GF was worried about mom and family not liking her but 戴阿姨 sat down and noted that everyone on both sides are fully supportive. Or maybe she just browbeat everyone into it.

Either way is okay with me.

Mom is already on the job with her usual efficiency. Booked the Grand Hyatt to squeeze it in between when Mom & Dad get back to Taiwan and when GF's family is going back to Hsinchu for CNY. The Hyatt is nearby so grandma doesn't have to travel far and 二舅 has a membership at the that takes 25% off. Went to the jewelry store to pick out rings and things. Grandma is contributing the slightly impractical gold jewelry set, mom is donating a diamond from her inventory (at least not contributing to the problem), and I'm taking care of the engagement rings. Not sure if I have enough influence to have the shark fin taken off the menu, though.

Picked up the platinum rings the other day and couldn't resist taking a test drive. The GF had her heart set on a wedding shop and after she was satisfied with the Internet opinions we went ahead and booked it. Could've dickered over things like extra invitations, etc., but they were already offering a special promotion package, and the peace of mind for getting it done fast was worthwhile. Now we'll just wait for the spring flowers to bloom before taking the obligatory silly-pictures.

Had already booked an Italian trip for the latter half of the CNY break, which should work out nicely as a post-engagement pseudo-honeymoon. Or give us enough time together for us to realize that it was all a bad idea and still get out of it before it's too, too late. Hey, I'm fully committed. I even bought a DSLR camera in preparation for the trip. Thanks to Mr. Thompson for the semester of high school photography class so I know what an f-stop is and how shutter speed relates and all that. Of course, the camera is actually charged to the GF's credit card because she gets 1% rebate plus six-months-same-as-cash. Trust is good.

Happy new year, everyone!