And now, the job search shall commence. First step. Cover letters. Is this how cover letters should be written?

Copy. Paste.

What makes a great leader? What makes them so different?

For my psych paper due a few weeks ago, other people chose Oprah. Ghandi. I chose to write about Obama Barack for a great leader.

A few years ago, I applied for the unit supervisor position because my supervisor urged me to do so. Despite my outstanding record as a consultant, I didn\’t get the job. I didn\’t get an interview. I never really figured out why and blamed it on the politics of the way rescomp was ran.

Yet later, I discovered it\’s not that. It\’s because I didn\’t establish concrete relationships with the upper management. In society, people do favors for people they like. They hire people they like, even if the record doesn\’t match. What I liked about my past supervisors were the ability to understand my weaknesses and balance them with my strengths. In leadership literature, they say the most important qualities of a leader are: empathy, motivation, self-regulation, self-awareness and social skill.

There is one person I know who puts a lot of emphasis on performance. He told me once that he wants to be a manager because he likes control. In the real world, he said that people care more about performance than learning. During my internship three years ago, the CEO in the company led the projects. Yet a lot of us, especially the interns, felt disillusioned. He was disconnected with us, preferring to work separately. He attempted to inspire us with speeches that outlined the company vision. But that was it.

This is why they say great leaders can be found in the hall, socializing with people they don\’t even work with. It\’s important to build those strong trusting relationships in the very beginning. Leaders are not born. They are made. They are the ones we trust. They are the ones we believe in. And perhaps that is why they lead us.

I <3 Frownies.

Lately, I have been fascinated more so with food. Which probably isn\’t good for me, but why avoid good food?

Pittsburgh, after more than a year here, surprisingly has many good food places. I wouldn\’t recommend any Chinese restaurants of course, but everything else Japanese, Italian, American, Vietnamese, Spanish, Peruvian, French…so exquisite. Another reviewer says the same thing too. I don\’t know what it is about this area, but the breakfast here is always so good. And breakfast has traditionally been my least favorite meal of the day. Of the places I have been to, I recommend Pamela\’s, Grand Concourse, Zenith Tea Room, The Bagel Factory, Crepes Parisennes, Ritter\’s Diner.

Happy quarter-century to one of my favorite people in Pittsburgh, Carol !

There are people who are generous and nice, but Carol is exemplary of this. I still have to get her back for all the times she paid for me. Excellent music taste, adventurous, incredible designer, one of the best designers I have met (one day I\’ll steal her powerpoint slide designs). Most of all, she knows exactly when I am in one of my moody moments and has that innate ability to get me out of them. A rare gift for most people in my life. Happy birthday, Carol! :)

Also, I would like to thank the Upcoming Birthdays Widget. If it wasn\’t for you, I wouldn\’t remember all my November birthdays. Nobody ever wants to have a Sixteen Candles moment. Thanks to you, every time I hit f12, I know becomes so old!

Thanks to Alex and his love of Piebald, I present the GreaseMobile.

It\’s a vehicle that is completely green. A diesel vehicle that runs on vegetable oil. Apparently, restaurants and other stores throw out gallons of grease each day. So inspired by that waste, someone designed a GreaseMobile. Instructions for conversion is on the website.

I question its effectiveness. What are its tradeoffs? How does it compare with other fuels? At the same time too, does it create pollution? How safe is it?

I love art installations that demonstrate a concept, but have a great narrative to it.

Thanks to Kyle, I bring Tagged, the RFID project. It is an art installation in Germany that demonstrates the technology of RFID. And according to wmmn:

The installation consists of a large shelf and tagged everyday objects in it. When one of the objects is placed in the central empty cubicle of the shelf, associated information (picture, movieclip, sound or music collages) are being displayed on the screen above.

All objects have been stolen by the same lady, who now proudly presents her “trophies”. Each object gives a hint about where how or why it has been stolen. Spending more time exploring the stories, one is able to draw conclusions about the thief’s personality and her criminal career.

I just find that fascinating. And RFID tags.

Procrastination is…setting goals for myself in the near future.

I shall one day learn Dreamweaver.

I shall actively pursue networking contacts for jobs.

I shall write my paper for my Behaviors of Groups class.

I shall buy tickets to fly home this winter break.

I shall write the thank you letter I wanted to send to my high school teacher six years ago.

I shall clean my room.

I shall take the hip hop class offered on Tuesday evenings.

I shall go on the Homewood cemetary tour.

I shall take a jog to and around Chatham College.

I shall get myself to a farmer\’s market in Pittsburgh before it closes.

I shall visit the Carnegie Science Center for the first time.

I shall see Harry Potter and read the latest book.

I shall be…a better person.

\”I just wanted to let you know, we will never come back again,\” one person in our group said as we were leaving the chinese restaurant.

For Jack\’s birthday, we opted to go to a restaurant on the other side of the river for dim sum. They only served dim sum once a month. All the pieces are handmade. And these were the selling points as 9 of us went.

Note though, I have never been fond of dim sum in the first place. Some may say that I am rejecting my Chinese heritage. But ultimately, it\’s the fact that I just don\’t enjoy dim sum. The food doesn\’t attract me. Perhaps it\’s because I have had it almost every other week when I was younger. Or perhaps I felt like I was in the position of an unstated children are meant to be seen, not heard rule in my family. Or perhaps, a yearning to be like everyone else and not an outcast created this dislike.

The dim sum at the restaurant surprisingly came very slow. It took at least 10 minutes between each dish to arrive. And furthermore, we split all the items on the dish to the 9 of us. My usual favorite–egg custard tarts–were nowhere to be found. I don\’t know what it was but the other tables next to us seemed to be getting more food. I wasn\’t sure. The pieces were somewhat small and unfulfilling. Most dishes lacked the pungent flavor I was used to in the places in California. But I am biased.

Of any Chinese food, my favorite places have been noodle houses (won ton noodle!) and Shanghainese places (those fried steam buns–ung see gurn)

The comment my friend made seemed a little bit cruel, but it was true. The likelihood of us returning was nil after the experience. Yet, everyone has a bad day right? Maybe someone skipped out on work and made the entire process of dim sum incredibly slow. Perhaps there was a family emergency that caused the staff to start later than they normally would have on this first Sunday of the month. I just can\’t accept that a restaurant chose to give bad service. After all, the hostess and servers were nice to us, apologizing for the wait.

But if I had a choice of brunch, I would trade dim sum any day for fluffy crepes filled with fresh fruit filling and hash browns.

For my weekly solitary movie-watching, I saw Saving Face. It is already typefied in the genre of Asian-American-daughter-caught-in-a-culture-clash-of-an-Asian-mother.

Typical. I did like Joy Luck Club. The Wedding Banquet. And the movie was still good. Yet, what bothers me about these movies is that sometimes the culture is really not there. What Saving Face did well was that there are some asian families that aren\’t that tied to their cultural roots. Some do accept things new to them. Homosexuality. Non-asians. Forgetting to take off shoes at the door. Not eating with chopsticks.

Still. When I write about my own life, I find that I rarely refer to my asian heritage. It just hasn\’t been a big part of my life, growing up in a predominantly Caucasian community. My parents too didn\’t demand that my sister and me stick closely to Chinese traditions. Sure, we did eat dinner with chopsticks and my mom did lay the stove with alumninum foil. Yes, there were Chinese paintings in the house. Yet, there wasn\’t any extreme awkwardness of inviting people over who would be surprised by a different culture. My parents, as far as I know, don\’t participate in the so-called Asian gossip. They don\’t know how to play mah jong or make open belittling comments about who got fat, who was in an affair, etc. (although I remember my Uncle made a comment once about my sister and me – both of us were incredibly insulted…) Only recently have my parents got involved with Chinese soaps. To this day, I don\’t understand yeet hay aka hot air…and the balance of hot and cold. Maybe I am too Americanized.

The strange thing is that my friends at Berkeley taught me the most about it all–when I took time to be part of the Asian student assocations such as the CSA, TSA, HKSA. Not that I regret not knowing my heritage, it just hasn\’t been a big part of my life to begin with.

But then, perhaps that was the point of the movie. It just so happened that the characters are Asian. And that they could be any other ethnicity. It\’s interesting how people complain that Asians are not predominant in the media. But the reason that is…is because we still believe that Asians need a purpose–a cultural purpose–to appear in a movie. Whereas it\’s not the same for African Americans or even Latinos. The cultural reason is not there anymore. And was that why it felt almost out of place that Sandra Oh was in Sideways? But she was good in Double Happiness.