Tuesday, April 29, 2003

- waking hour -

Just attended the fishbowl series for Vienna Teng. Kinda (early) Tori-esque -- she even said "she" when referring to one of her songs. She was pretty funny and well-spoken, too. Did you know that she's an Stanford-educated CS major who used to work at Cisco as an SDE? She also has the same piano as me -- sweet.

Here is the set list:

The Tower
Homecoming
Gravity
Between
Unwritten Letter #1

On CD: Vienna Teng, Waking Hour. Since the 'Bag gives Sarah McLachlan an assist for his college-era success with the 'Bag Lady, we wanted to recommend the best new Guarantee-to-Get-Her-in-the-Mood-Because-She-Can-Tell-You're-a-Sensitive-Guy music. (Not that we would ever be so calculating.) Seriously, though, if you were into Tori Amos (before she got all creepy) and McLachlan (before she stopped producing anything), Teng's voice and piano skills will knock you out.

Friday, April 25, 2003

- show me the money -

According to The Millionaire Next Door, here is a quick rule of thumb to compute one's expected net worth:

Multiply your age times your realized pretax annual household income from all sources except inheritances. Divide by ten. This, less any inherited wealth, is what your net worth should be.

Wednesday, April 23, 2003

- irreconcilable differences -

It takes half the total time you went out with someone to get over them.

- Charlotte, Sex and the City

Friday, April 11, 2003

- office space -

I'm so amazed by the length to which some companies are willing to go, in order to screw their employees out of fair pay raises (I ain't naming names, but they know who they are). I wouldn't be as pissed off if they were just honest, but no -- they always have to put a "positive" spin on everything, desperately trying to hide the fact that they are just too cheap to pay us what we deserve, or the fact that they don't care about losing seasoned, dedicated people since they can always hire cheaper, newer people.

They claim that since our stock is finally doing ok, our "overall compensation packages" are supposedly worth a lot more now, hence making pay increase and supplementary bonus completely unnecessary. Huh? Do they really expect us to buy that we're getting paid *more* although our bonuses are being taken away? What kind of fucked up logic is that? Should we expect pay cuts if the stocks were to go any higher? Puhleese -- I may be stupid, but I ain't *that* stupid.

And if they think I'd be staying put at this thankless, vastly underpaying job just because of the so-called "golden handcuffs" and the prospect of facing the shitty job market of late? Well, they'd be right. Shit.

Monday, April 7, 2003

- in bloom -

I can't believe David Bloom is dead. Why couldn't it have been Geraldo?

BTW, Margaret Cho's new show wasn't all that great. It didn't suck, but it was definitely not worth $40/ticket. Oh well, at least she didn't recycle any of her old stuff. My favorite joke: SARS = Severe Asian Racism Syndrome. Bruce Daniels, who was the opening act, was actually pretty funny -- except he didn't have a *single* bit that was his own. Every single joke had been stolen from somewhere. Where the hell was the intellectual property police?

Wednesday, April 2, 2003

- disco inferno -

So, I watched American Idol for the first time since Tamyra got voted off last season (not counting the ever-hilarious audition segments, that is). A few random notes:

Simon doesn't even try anymore -- I mean, we're lucky if he says more than a sentence. I still love the way he says "competition," however.
No true stand-outs this season. I like the 2 Kims though.
Did you see the hair on that guest judge (some dude from Earth Wind and Fire)? He looked like he had been trapped in a 70s time capsule. Someone should tell him that it's year 2003 now.
Trenyce is like a poor man's Tamyra: not as pretty and not as talented.
I don't see why everyone is so crazy about Ruben. Sure, he's a pretty decent singer, but I just don't see his fat ass going anywhere in showbiz. And please lose those ridiculous "205" shirts. Ugh. Simon thinks he should win this competition -- which, of course, means he won't.
I think that Marine dude (Josh?) should be the next to go. As Simon said, he really was "absolutely dreadful."