The Sad State of American School Textbooks

Richard Feynman explains his disgust at the unfortunate evaluation process used for approving textbooks. It's an old article, but it doesn't seem that much has changed since then. Harriet Tyson gives a more detailed overview of how the system came to be.

Time for a new phone...

Well, so much for my grand plans at getting a Neo. My phone broke (in a very literal way) and I needed a replacement now. The Neo isn't out yet, so I'm getting acquainted with my new Motorola v325i.

Nomadic Work

So I've decided to do freelance work for the forseeable future. I'm busy, I'm working with great people, I do the projects that interest me, and I get paid by the hour. Life is pretty sweet.

New York Apartment Absurdities

Apartments in New York City exist in this funny alternate dimension. They think of having an in-building washer and dryer as a major feature (an in-unit is "luxury"). I even saw a listing for a supposedly brand new apartment that touted the convenience of having a laundromat just down the block.

They're also cramped, overpriced little affairs, despite the funky camera lenses that some people use to make the rooms look bigger in ads. Two "bedrooms" might include what most people would call a living room, and a decorated border between a living room and a kitchen can sometimes constitute a "dining room". Yes, Manhattan magic can make a 580 sq. ft. two bedroom happen. But fine, space is tight, I can deal.

What absolutely does piss me off is the inquisition some people want to put you through for housing. Sure I'll give you a letter of employment. You can know my salary. Run your credit check. But get a load of this:

!!!DON'T FORGET TO BRING THESE DOCUMENTS TO THE INTERVIEW FOR FAST APPROVAL!!!

1. CURRENT ID
2. LETTER OF EMPLOYMENT
3. LAST 4 PAY STUBS
4. APPLICATION FEE
5. W-2 AND LAST 2 YEARS TAX RETURNS
6. BANK STATEMENTS FOR LAST 3 MONTHS
7. CURRENT UTILITY BILLS FOR LAST 3 MONTHS(TELEPHONE, CON ED)
8. CURRENT LEASE (IF APPLICABLE)
9. CANCELLED RENT CHECKS/MONEY ORDERS FOR THE LAST 6 MONTHS
10. 1 MONTH'S RENT
11. 1 MONTH'S SECURITY
(IF GUARANTOR, SAME PAPERWORK)

Seriously, what the fuck? My last two years of tax returns? Three months of bank statements and bills? What kind of bullshit is this? Do people actually hand all this information over? God help you if you split an apartment with a roommate and his name was on the utility bills.

Sleepy Cousins

A salute to my cousin Yeong-un, who can manage to fall asleep just about anywhere. You have to appreciate the first picture in particular. She actually got up out of bed early in the morning so that she could plant herself on the couch.

SPAM in Korea

Most of my mainland friends have difficulty understanding Hawaii's love affair with the pink meat. Still, as someone who grew up in Hawaii, seeing this sign in the food court of a Korean department store brought a smile to my face. 

My Attempt at a Phone Keyboard

The OpenMoko project was announced recently, and I'm really hoping that it heralds a future where phones aren't lobotomized by service providers in order to sell users $2 ring tones. A fully programmable, open source phone is such a beautiful thing, and I can't wait to start hacking on it when it comes out.

Anyhow, I was so excited about it that my mind kept on wandering to different applications to write for it (when I should have been concentrating on my Korean language studies). One of the ideas I had was a new kind of text input method. It's really hard to know what it will feel like without some physical device to test it with, but I do have a small demo page up to illustrate the basic concepts. It's just a quick thing I punched out to play with ideas until I get back to the states next month and can prototype it out on a physical device.

I'm also really, really looking forward to playing with the GPS features. Ah, life is good.