hello moto.

A new survey conducted by the marketing agency, 11mark, polled 1,000 americans on their cellphone habits reveal a few disturbing statistics. Roughly 75% of americans use their cellphones in the bathroom, while for people between 28-35 that percentage jumps to 91%. For men it’s 74%, while 76% of women are texting/calling/surfing the web (clearly they’re the better multi-taskers). Droid users are also more likely to use their phones in the bathroom, with 87% responding that they use their phones on the toilet, while blackberry ranks at 84%, with iphone users lagging behind at 77%. Blackberry users however, are mostly likely to answer a call (75%), vs droid (67%) or iphone users (60%). Iphone users are more predisposed to make purchases while indisposed (22%), versus only 10% of cellphones users overall. I didn’t read through the whole study (I think you have to register), but the press release offered the juiciest stats (read into it what you must…). It’s worth pointing out that the list of cellphone activities polled does not include blogging…

“The writing is on the stall,” says Nicole Burdette, principal, 11mark. “This study confirms what we all know – that the last private place is no longer private. And, that the “mobile-everywhere” phenomenon is flushing out a host of new opportunities for savvy communicators.” (I’m sure there was absolutely no pun intended there)

I know smartphones are intended to make us more connected, but my goodness, the stats are a little disturbing. For people (nearly) in my generation, 91%!! That’s a little disturbing (I wonder if anyone is reading this from behind the stall door…I won’t judge). As a male droid and blackberry user in my 20’s, I can say the statistics definitely do not look good for me. It’s becoming increasingly self-evident that the new saving grace for cellphone users everywhere is going to be the awesomeness that is triple-ply.

please don't drink and drive.

This morning I learned that Brooklyn, one of the guys down at starbucks, passed away over the weekend. It's saddening to think that someone so young could just die because someone else decided to get behind the wheel drunk. I think he was either younger than me or at most my age. I'm definitely going to miss that guy, and I don't think going on coffee runs will be quite the same. He was one of the jolliest guys down there, and would always say something random or wear a hello kitty headband just to make people in line smile. Please keep his family in your prayers.

don't lie to your kids.

*disclaimer* the post below consists of 90% fiction, 5% truth, and 5% punctuation. Also, I am the last person on earth that should be giving advice about kids, but hey, it’s a slow day…

I will, of course, admit that there's much in this world that perplexes me (sometimes a little too much). Many things that, if I were to explain to my kids years from now, I would be at a loss. Of course, being me, I would likely make up something extremely convincing and completely wrong to tell them and then go look it up afterwards.

Of course, not wanting to look dumb in front of your kid weighs heavily on any dad, so the solution is simple. Normally, I would advocate truth and honesty in a child-rearing situation. But this is a pivotal event in a father/son relationship. The answer you supply and the manner you deliver it will determine whether your child will respect you or not going forward. If executed right, your child will think you’re awesome. Stammer and fumble your way through the explanation or tell them you don't know, and your child will wish Mister Rogers was their dad.

Simply put, lie and lie till your pants are on fire.

For example, one of the questions many kids will ask (apparently) when they don't want to go to sleep is "daddy, why is the sky blue?" Of course, this is one of the first things they teach you as an econ major at Davis. The sky is blue because the edge of the atmospheric bubble that we live in creates a giant mirror, and is reflecting the blue in the ocean. I would probably follow that up with "for example, the sky in oklahoma is brown". Since I'm asian and our people naturally gravitate towards the coasts, I could easily get away with that one.

A tougher one would likely be, “daddy, why are you making a funny face in your driver’s license picture?” Yes, this will inevitably come up, and when it does, I must have a super-duper convincing explanation for why the DMV requires this. Apparently it’s a sort of field sobriety test. Sad people drink to drown their sorrows. Since they’re sad, they can’t make happy faces. If you get pulled over with a happy face, you’re not driving drunk. Of course, when sober people get pulled over, they’re always smiling. Moral of the story, always smile at a cop.

Of course here’s one that my father told me (I didn’t realize till much later). When my son asks me if he can get a dog (which I’m pretty sure he will), I must calmly explain to him that dogs are essentially specially trained domesticated wolves, and that they act like your friend and hold in their poop indoors to gain your confidence. Then when the time is right, they’ll eat you. Yes, your boy will believe that pretty much up until when they go off to college (±10 years).

Ok at this point I’m gonna stop, partly because I’m bored, and partly because my Pinocchio nose just went through the monitor. I guess I have to write something nice at the end to bring my blog karma back into the positive.

Don’t lie to your kids (it stunts your growth). Have a good weekend.

an outpouring of everything good in you...

Over the past few months, so much has been said in the area of relationships. It’s like that’s the main thing on many people’s minds. In Acacia we did a whole series on singleness and relationships (aptly named joyfully single), and a good chunk of it was focused on being in God-centered relationships. Elsewhere, I see viewpoints on relationships and love and being broadcast on the radio, on TV, on blog posts, and even during sermons. That’s not necessarily a good or bad thing, it’s just something that I seem to come across a lot lately. I’m sure with valentines day around the corner, we’ll be hearing about it some more.

The other day I was on Letters of Note and came across this letter from a father to a son. In it, he gives advice to his son Thomas after he learns that Thomas has fallen in love with someone at school. I’ve included it down below (courtesy of Letters of Note…I don’t think they know…my bad…):

New York
November 10, 1958

Dear Thom:

We had your letter this morning. I will answer it from my point of view and of course Elaine will from hers.

First—if you are in love—that’s a good thing—that’s about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don’t let anyone make it small or light to you.

Second—There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you—of kindness and consideration and respect—not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn’t know you had.

You say this is not puppy love. If you feel so deeply—of course it isn’t puppy love.

But I don’t think you were asking me what you feel. You know better than anyone. What you wanted me to help you with is what to do about it—and that I can tell you.

Glory in it for one thing and be very glad and grateful for it.

The object of love is the best and most beautiful. Try to live up to it.

If you love someone—there is no possible harm in saying so—only you must remember that some people are very shy and sometimes the saying must take that shyness into consideration.

Girls have a way of knowing or feeling what you feel, but they usually like to hear it also.

It sometimes happens that what you feel is not returned for one reason or another—but that does not make your feeling less valuable and good.

Lastly, I know your feeling because I have it and I’m glad you have it.

We will be glad to meet Susan. She will be very welcome. But Elaine will make all such arrangements because that is her province and she will be very glad to. She knows about love too and maybe she can give you more help than I can.

And don’t worry about losing. If it is right, it happens—The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.

Love,
Fa

I’m still building on my definition of what love is, and yet, even though I don’t necessarily subscribe to his two kinds of love (i don’t believe true love can be selfish or egotistical), the way he portrays the “good” kind of love, the “outpouring of everything good in you”, the kind that releases strength, courage, goodness, and wisdom you didn’t know you had, well that sums up a lot of what I believe love in a relationship brings out. What surprises me more, is the father in this letter is John Steinbeck, the author of Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden. I fully expected this man to have a very bleak, sad, even slightly twisted view of love. It’s nice to see this aspect of the writer that doesn’t always come out in his works.

With all this talk lately about relationships, this letter brought a smile to my face so I thought I’d share.

going home

Over the last nine years in davis (geez I feel old saying it) there have been quite a few things I wish I'd done when I had the chance. Since coming to davis, I have always wanted to ride one of the original double-decker buses that drove around north davis. I see them at the MU all the time, but since I was always a south davis resident, I never had any good reason to hop on to one of them. Well, I guess now it looks like the window of opportunity is closing.

I was kind of saddened to see this article in the enterprise this morning, but apparently one of the two original unitrans buses, RTL 1014 (from waay back in the 1960's), will be going back to London after 44 years of carrying UCD students around Davis. Apparently it will be retired to the Ensignbus Transport Museum in London, which bought the bus from the university. I hear there are two more old-fashioned double-deckers, but they're not any of the original ones. Well in any case, I've resolved to go for a ride one of these days when I have a free saturday. I'm not waiting around anymore!

random question of the day.

If you were stranded on a deserted island and had a solar-powered ipod, but could only have one artist on it from the following three options, who would it be?

1. Lady Gaga
2. Charlotte Church
3. The Bieber

knowing when to let go

At church yesterday I sat in the back corner next to a compass guy. When the worship leader told everyone to greet the person on the right/left, I turned to him and introduced myself. As we were shaking hands, I gave the customary 1.2 second firm handshake (yes it gets very scientific…), and started to look toward the other person next to me as I proceeded to pull my hand away. Clearly, he goes by a different handshake standard (2-2.4 seconds...must've been on metric system), and did not let go. So at that point he was basically just holding my hand. As I looked back to check on my trapped hand, he let go, gave me an awkward look, and turned to the person behind him. Needless to say the rest of the service was a bit awkward.

*sigh* There should be a unified standard for handshakes so that such church-time crises can be averted.