September 11th, 2001

Today is the 8th Anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers in New York. As many media outlets reflect on the attacks, I'm sure many people are also doing so as well. Among the things people are discussing is "How did you find out about the attacks" or "What were you doing when the attacks occurred?"

Back in September of 2001, my work schedule was Monday through Friday 7 AM to 3:30 PM (Pacific Standard Time). My offices were 40+ miles away from home (one way). I had the option to drive or take public transit to work. Regardless of which option I took, it was a brutal commute either way. I decided to take the public transit option. I figured I could get some sleep while commuting.

September 11th, 2001 began like any other work day. As I had to use public transit, I got up around 4:15 AM to 4:30 AM so I could catch a train around 5 AM. The train ride to my destination took about 50+ minutes and I exited the train station right around 6 AM. Once I got off the train, I had to wait about 15 minutes for a shuttle to take me to the office. Because of traffic, the shuttle usually took about 30 to 40 minutes. I got off the bus around 6:50 AM and entered my building a few minutes before 7 AM.

Obviously, as I was commuting, the attacks in New York had occurred. However, I was unaware that anything had occurred. Other passengers on the train and bus did not gave indication that anything major had occurred either. Unlike 2009, mobile web browsing via Blackberries and IPhones were not available in 2001. The only way anyone would have known about the attacks would be to talk to someone via cell phone or perhaps listen to radio reports. Given that is early in the morning on the West Coast, most people (including me) on the train and bus were content to just sleep.

My first indication that something major had occurred was when I walked into my office. One of my co-workers immediate asked me: "Hey, did you know a plane hit the World Trade Center?" I told him "No, I didn't hear anything". My co-worker indicated that he knew something happened, but details were lacking.

After this brief discussion, I started to wonder what had happened. My first thought was that it must have been an accident. My second thought was that the plane probably was pretty small. I just couldn't imagine an airliner "accidentally" hitting a building unless it was some major problem.

The second indication that something major had occurred was when I went to read news sites on the Internet to see what had happened in New York. First, I went to local news sites on the West Coast. The local sites were accessible but had minimal information on the situation. I then went to a CNN's website. IT WAS INACCESSIBLE. I tried a few other national news sites and ran into the same problem.

From there, I knew there was something major happening. The rest of the day went by like a blur. The news slowly started filtering out from the East Coast to other parts of the country. As my other co-workers started to filter into the office, our focus shifted from our jobs to the situation in New York.

Despite the grim situation in New York and the fact that business was slow, my co-workers and I were told we couldn't leave work early. In a way, that might have been a good thing. On such a terrible day, it was good to have people to talk to. The day at the office went by quickly and ended quietly. I was going to take public transit back home. However, a co-worker who lived relatively close to me offered to drive me instead. He figured that might be a safe thing to do given that security all around the country would be tight.

After getting home, I remember watching the news coverage on the attacks for hours. I was just mesmerized and stunned by what happened. This was definitely something that was discussed among my friends and co-workers for weeks after. One concern I did have was that my cousin and her husband lived in New York. Fortunately, I was able to email them and confirm they were ok.

Being in the West Coast, the anniversary of the attacks don't invoke much emotion for me. I didn't know anyone that was killed and I was too far away to feel any direct effects. Despite this, September 11th, 2001 is a date I won't forget easily. The sheer audacity of the attacks are not something that anyone will forget anytime soon.

The Concept of Best Friends

This is not really pop culture or technology related. However, the situation I went through was a tough but great learning lesson. I decided to write about the situation and shared with my friends via email. There were quite a few who told me that liked it and appreciated what I had to say. I decided to share this even though it's necessarily related to the topic of my blog. I hope you enjoy and learn something from it!

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What is a best friend? Usually a best friend is the ONE person someone trusts enough to talk about secrets and life issues that they wouldn't share with other friends.

Who is the best friend? It could be anyone. It could be a grammar school, high school, or high school classmates. It could be someone from your church group or even a co-worker. The best friend doesn't even have to be the same sex as guys and girls can be best friends as well. In fact, some believe that a husband and a wife should be best friends. The one factor that usually ties best friends together is usually that they have known each other for a
long time.

Do best friends last "forever"? I think that everyone wishes that their friends today will remain their friends tomorrow and for the rest of their lives. Many friendships do stand the test of time but there may be some that don't. But even if a friendship does last for years, there will be ups and downs. You may lose touch for a while but reconnect later at an unexpected time.

For myself, I've experienced ups and downs in recent years with one particular friend. She was someone I had met in high school and we had a great relationship for many years. She was instrumental in me learning and growing to be the person I am today. Though I never called her my best friend, in many ways I treated her like one. I revealed to her many things that I wouldn't always reveal to other friends.

A few problems would come up though. First, she lived in the East Coast and constant communication proved to be difficult (even with email, instant messenging and cell phones). Second, she had her own group of friends and among them was a guy she always called her best friend. Third and last, she was constantly busy with her job. She was so focused on work that people like me (especially living far away) were lost in the shuffle.

I was pretty patient and gave my friend the benfit of the doubt. However, my frustration slowly built because my friend just was not calling back or replying to my emails. About four years ago, I finally lost my patience. I called my friend and left her a voice mail expressing my frustration with her lack of communication. To this day, with the exception of running into her in San Francisco (by accident), I have not spoken to her since (some emails written, but that's another story).

Not having someone that had been one of my oldest and closest friends was difficult. However, it made me realize how much I had neglected some of my other friends that were in the Bay Area.

I was very fortunate though. I had some old guy friends around that I had hung out with for years. It wasn't much of a problem to talk to them more. Another college friend also resurfaced. We had been good buddies through college but lost touch for a few years after we graduated. Fortunately, we were able to reconnect and the years away were good. It may me appreciate this person even more and our friendship is better than ever. Along the way, other friends have surfaced and I appreciate their company as well.

What have I learned through this experience?

First, no matter how much we want people to stay the same, people change. For my friend in the East Coast, perhaps work and other life issues dictated that those things take precedence in her life. Even if she wanted to communicate with me, sometimes friendships have to take a backseat to other priorties.

Secondly, I learned that I like to have a diverse group of friends and having a best friend isn't appropriate for me at this point in my life. I have many great friends and calling any of them a "best" friend is a disservice to everyone else. There is one big change. Instead of relying on one person as I did in the past, I have a few select friends that I like to talk to about certain things. Perhaps one day, I will have a best friend and ideally that would be my wife. :)

Thirdly, I think having a best friend can be limiting. Talking to muliple people with different jobs, backgrounds and lifestyles provide perspective. I can talk to married friends with kids, married friends without kids, single friends, old bosses and others. No matter much life experience a best friend may have, they are still only one person.

Lastly, be open to change yourself. I've learned (and read) that certain friendships are only meant to last for a certain time. Maybe the friends are there to help you for a specific reason. Once they have done what they needed to do, they will move on. While this may be sad or frustrating, be aware that other friends will eventually come and take their place.

So these are my thoughts. Whether you agree or disagree with what I had to say, I'd love to hear people's thoughts.

Nintendo Wii Update / Mental Health Benefits

I usually don't blog twice in a day, but I thought this would be interesting. I wrote in a previous blog post about my Nintendo Wii as an exercise alternative. See the article linked below (or on the left nav bar in August):

http://www.throughabceyes.com/2009/08/nintendo-wii-as-exercise-alternative.html

Since I wrote the post, I've personally played the Wii quite a bit. I use it as an exercise alternative on those days I don't get much physical activity. I've even used the Wii recently to supplement any other exercise I've done during the day. I currently only have Wii Sports to play with but it's been good enough thus far.

I also mentioned that my mom's doctor recommended she get more exercise. While walking should be my mom's primary form of exercise, I introduced my mom to the Wii to get her some additional exercise as well. I initially planned to just have my mom do the Wii Fitness portion of the Wii Sports package. Alas, that plan didn't work out. My mom struggled with the speed of the baseball and tennis games as her reaction time wasn't good. Given time and practice, she probably would have gotten the hang of it.

However, I wanted something she could learn more quickly. After exploring, I found that the bowling and golf target practice games worked well. Both games required only simple button pushing and arm movements to play. I should note that I taught my mom to simulate the action bowling a real ball and swing a golf club instead of flicking the write like some people do. I figured that would get her more exercise (I do this myself as well). It took my mom a relatively short amount of time to learn how to play both games. In fact, my mom torched me in one round of the golf target game 495 points (!!?!?!) to 255 points.

Admittedly, the physical benefits of playing these games aren't huge unless we play it for hours. However, burning off even a few calories is beneficial for someone her age. One unexpected benefit may be for my mom's mental health. My mom got a great deal of joy scoring 495 points on the golf target game (I don't think she cared about beating me). I underestimated how the sense of accomplishment could make someone feel better.

There are many studies on how the Nintendo Wii has helped various segments of society. While I don't have any scientific proof to back what I see, I definitely see the Wii has had a positive impact on my mom. I didn't expect how much she would like playing with the system but I am not complaining!

Welcome to the major leagues Doug Greenwald!

If you're a San Francisco Giants fan and were listening in on the radio for today's game against the Milwaukee Brewers, then you got a treat today. Doug Greenwald, son of former Giants broadcaster Hank Greenwald, got the opportunity to broadcast his first major league baseball game. One of the Giants regular broadcasters Dave Flemming had returned home to be with his wife who was expecting a baby. Doug has been broadcasting in the minor leagues for many years now including the past seven years for the Giants AAA team, the Fresno Grizzlies. According to many news reports, if not for the fact that the San Francisco Giants having one of best broadcasting teams in the business (including Flemming, Jon Miller, Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow), Doug might have already been in the major leagues.

On a personal note, I am happy that Doug finally got his shot in the big leagues. I was actually a classmate with him at Wallenberg High School in San Francisco for three years. If you've seen any recent photos of Doug, you will see a physical resemblance to his dad Hank. However, back in high school, Doug was a slim kid who looked nothing like his dad. Because I was a big local sports fan and Doug was also, we hit it off extremely well. We weathered the ups and the downs of the Giants, A's, Warriors and the 49ers (sorry Raiders fans, I wasn't paying much attention back then!).

The one great thing about Doug was that he was a regular kid. Sure, everyone (classmates, teachers, coaches) knew of Doug's background and he was well liked by everyone around school. However, I don't think Doug ever expected to be treated differently and he never looked down on others because of his background.

Though I never asked for them, there was a great benefit to knowing and hanging out with Doug during our high school and early college years. I got to meet Doug's family (dad, mom and sister). I got a chance to visit the broadcast booth at Candlestick before and after a few games. I got some great seats to a few of the Warriors playoff games during the 1990's including losses to the Lakers and Sonics. It was during the Sonics series that I got an autograph from Mitch Richmond, who had been traded to the Sacramento Kings during the off season. Richmond was back in Oakland watching the playoffs which Shawn Kemp had his coming out party. I also got a chance to meet and shake hands with then Warriors (and now Chronicle Live) broadcaster Greg Papa.

As the years progressed, we lost track of each other. Doug spent his college years in the East Coast and I stayed in the West Coast. Recently, as Doug as slowly moved up the ladder in the broadcasting business, I've seen his name pop up in local newspapers. I was happy to see him doing well. Recently, we did reconnect (as many people do these days) through Facebook.

I hope that today's broadcast will be the first of many for Doug in budding his major league broadcasting career. I'm hardly an expert, but from the couple of innings that I was able to listen to, I thought Doug a fine job. If Doug's career goes as well as I think it will, then he may become the most famous person (that I know of) to attend and graduate from Wallenberg High School. Currently, the most famous person to attend Wallenberg High is Asian singer and pop star Coco Lee (Ferren Lee-Kelly in high school).

Wiki Entry on Coco Lee:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_Lee

However, from my friends who knew Coco Lee back in high school, she left Wallenberg before her senior year and graduated elsewhere.

Movie/DVD Recommendation: Viva Cuba

I was reading through several blogs today about Hollywood and the independent film industry and I was reminded about a movie I saw during the 2006 SF International Film Festival called Viva Cuba.

In March of 2006, I went with a female friend (Latin-American) to watch several films in the SF Asian-American Film Festival. A few months later, we went to watch more films the SF International Film Festival and Viva Cuba was one of the films we watched. I read a blurb about the movie in the festival program but otherwise did not know what to expect.

I was intrigued by the story of the two young kids who strove to preserve their friendship despite the many challenges that they faced. However, the one that that stood out was the ending of the movie. Without giving anytime away, the ending was ambiguous yet appropriate. The two young kids were determined to remain friends forever.

If you're looking for a good film that doesn't follow the traditional Hollywood formula, this film is definitely worth a look. The movie is available on DVD at Amazon and other retailers.

(SIDENOTE: I wrote a review on Amazon for the film and recycled some of the words here for the review.)

Whatever happened to Kevin Collins?

The recent discovery of 29 year old Jaycee Lee Dugard after being missing for eighteen years made me wonder what ever happened to another high profile kidnapping dating back a quarter of a century ago.

See an article on the discovery of Jaycee Lee Dugard:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/27/BA4N19EJ35.DTL

It's been over twenty-five years (February 10th, 1984) since Kevin Collins disappeared in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco and was presumed to be kidnapped. As a San Francisco native, I was well aware of Kevin's disappearance because his face was on the TV, newspapers and flyers all over the San Francisco Bay Area and later nationally on milk cartons and national magazines. Being around the same age as Kevin, I think Kevin's disappearance set off also waves of worry with my parents and others with kids back in 1984.

Unfortunately, to this day, the case of Kevin Collins has never been solved. I tried to do some quick research on Google to see what kind of clues were found by the police or any other law enforcement agency but did not come with anything. Kevin's disappearance in 1984 did not generate as much publicity as it could have today. The Internet, cell phones, and other forms of messaging and communication that we take for granted today was not available.

The discovery of Jaycee Lee Dugard made me wonder if Kevin Collins could possibly be still alive after all these years. Maybe I'm being a dreamer but it definitely would be a huge feel good story to find Kevin Collins alive out there. Setting my sights a little lower, even if Kevin Collins couldn't be found, I would love to hear that information had been discovered as to what his fate was. I'm sure the discovery of Jaycee Lee Dugard brought up some unpleasant memories for the family of Kevin Collins. In my mind, it certainly would be great if Kevin Collins or any information related to Kevin could be found.

Why I love my Blackberry....or is it a IBerry....or is it a BlackPhone?

Back around June of 2008, I had been thinking of getting a new cell phone. I'd had my old flip top cell phone for about three years. Though it was working fine, I was looking for some more advanced features like calendars and web browsing. I went around to various stores and browsed at the newer phones. One that caught my eye was the Palm Centro. The Centro had a lot of what I wanted and the phone was inexpensive. Since my old flip top phone was still working, I put off the decision in getting a new phone indefinitely. In my mind, I would get a new phone when the old one broke.

Alas, that time came about a month later. My old flip top phone suddenly died and d-day was here. I had to get a new phone. I immediately went to look at a Centro. However, after playing with the Centro a little more, it didn't quite feel right. The keyboard was a little small and the web browsing was a little limited than I expected.

The next choices on the list were the Apple IPhone (non 3G or 3GS) or the Blackberry Curve 8310. I had played with the IPhone at the stores since it came out but never really looked at the Blackberry. My dad thought I should get the IPhone since I had also lost my IPod Nano a few months back as well.

Despite wanting the IPhone for the novelty factor, I just didn't like the touch screen. Ultimately, after getting a friend's recommendation on the Blackberry Curve 8310 (she had bought it a few months earlier) and playing with it myself, I decided to get the Curve.

Unfortunately, I got a defective phone which rebooted every few minutes so I had to replace it after a few months. However, since I got the replacement phone, everything has been smooth sailing.

While the IPhone has the cool factor and definitely has it's advantages over the Curve, it still does what I need to do including:

1. Email (Hotmail, Yahoo)
2. Web Browsing - This is one area the IPhone had a major advantage over the Blackberry. The Blackberry browser is not robust and Safari does have it beat. However, for basic news reading, most big websites have optimized for the Blackberry. Also, for sites that haven't been optimized, I used Opera-Mini for browsing. Opera is not perfect but it's a decent substitute.
   
3. Games - While the IPhone has a ton of applications for business and fun, the Blackberry also has a few. The Blackberry comes with Brickbreaker (a variation of the old Breakout video games in the 80's). Also, I've downloaded free versions of Pac-Man and Tetris.
   
4. Music Player - My friend reminded me that if I didn't need a separate MP3 player from my phone that the Blackberry could serve as a decent substitute. Guess what? She was RIGHT! Now that ITunes has decided to allow their songs to be playable on other MP3 players besides IPhones or IPods, I can play the same songs everyone else can. I know that Blackberries are generally considered business phones and I personally haven't seen many people listening to music on their Blackberries. But it's much better than one would expect. Plus I love it when people look at me weirdly for I know they're thinking "Is he listening to music on a Blackberry?"
   
5. Blackberry or IBerry - Most IPhone users probably don't care about simulating the look and feel of a Blackberry. However, many creative folks have created IPhone themes for the Blackberry. So while I can't use a touch screen, I have icons that look like the IPhone on the Blackberry. My friends laugh at me for doing this but I'm open minded. I may not like the touch screen of an IPhone, but it doesn't mean I don't like the look of the icons or the interface! :)
   

It's been a year since I got my original Blackberry (7 months for replacement) but it's been fun. I know my phone is quite outdated with Research in Motion announcing a bevy of new phones (Curve, Tour) recently and a rumored new phone (Essex) coming.

However, I plan to enjoy my Curve for as long as it works. When that time comes again, then I will hopefully find another one that can be as fun as the Curve has been!