Personal on Nick Wang

Inauguration of Barack Obama - never been so proud as an American

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:48:05 +0000

Been watching it on TV this morning, everybody is in such joyous mood for this historic moment. I have to admit, when I first moved to Seattle 18 years ago, I was taken aback by how behind the times the USA was in comparison to Hong Kong. Also, I didn’t have any interactions with the African Americans here because there simply weren’t too many of them where I lived. (Issaquah Washington was predominantly White.) Basically, everything I know about the Black population was from the news and media, so it was natural that I didn’t hold a very high opinion about them. This continued all the way through college and even to the time I worked at Microsoft, where all my colleagues were either White or Asians. It really wasn’t until I moved to New York and started working at Yahoo! that I finally got to interact closely with Blacks and Hispanics. Now, 2 of my best friends whom I would always visit when I go back to NYC are Black and Hispanic. Recently, I can still hear from my relatives living in the US, racist comments toward our new President due to the color of his skin. This surprises me now, but I guess it really shouldn’t be too surprising… I suppose if I had stayed in Seattle forever, I may still have a low opinion of Black people. (When I say my relatives though, I’m talking about the older generation who have been living here for a while but haven’t really mixed in with the general public due to language barrier.) I’ve also met a guy who moved from HK to NY for a year of work, he had only just moved to NY when we went out for dinner and he said it straight out that he didn’t like Black people. LOL… I don’t blame him as he had just moved there from HK, but I wonder how he feels about our new President… In a lot of ways, the USA is really very conservative and “behind the times”, I think the world had a false sense of “the land of the free” before, but finally gotten a real taste of it through the last 8 years of hell thanks to George W. Bush. I think many of us feel the same as I, that we haven’t felt proud to be American for a long looong time. Personally, I’ve never been so proud as an American! I’ve been proud to be Chinese American, a proud Yahoo employee, proud to be a local New Yorker… but never just a plain ol’ American. 18 years, first time! A new era! Let’s hope this will teach everyone in America to be more open and tolerant of other people… … Now, if we can just get rid of all the conservatives in the country! (LOL! Joke)

Private: Tokyo U Studies is Fail, but Work in Tokyo is Go

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:36:34 +0000

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #666; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

Denial Letter from Todai :(, originally uploaded by cloneofsnake.

This is the letter I got back from the University of Tokyo. Yes, after months of research and preparation and writing that long ass research proposal, this simple 2 liners is what I got. “Sorry, you didn’t pass.” As I’ve noted before, I found out that they had removed the English info page for the foreign research student program in December. That already gave me a signal that they really are not ready to accept anyone… except may be the Monbusho scholarship receivers. So, I’m not too surprised. That was back in end of December. After that, I moved on to plan B, moved to Hong Kong to work with a couple of my college schoolmates on a web business. Also trying my hands on the local HK job market, but HK is a strange place… it values nothing other than Finance. My choices here are either work at an investment bank’s IT department and make tons of money but be bored to death, or go on my own starting a business. There is very little to choose from in between, there isn’t any large Internet companies that value high level IT folks and willing to pay a fair amount for them. (I guess everyone can easily get cheaper IT people in China.)

However, the good news for me is, back in February, I was contacted by one of friends whom I had met in New York, and whom had helped me tremendously with my applications to Monbusho and Todai. It turns out, his company is preparing to expand to the US / English market and he’s in the process of recruiting experienced IT professionals like myself. This is why networking is so important folks! Throughout the years, I’ve enjoying knowing and working with a lot of talented people. I am always interested in knowing what they do, what are their personalities, what are they good at? Because I know, one day, I’ll need their help or I’ll know someone that’s looking for someone with some specific skills, and I can hook them up. This is professional networking. For example, in this instance, my friend here found me, and I’m already looking at my list of professional friends… whose skills will I need? There’s an Associate Manager of Strategic Partner Development at Google, who used to be a Business Operations Analyst at Yahoo. She was extremely good at explaining to our customers how our business was helping them. (using data that I provided her.) She can really help out on communications. There’s an experienced Marketing Director who used to work for Microsoft and has since moved on to greener pastures. She can surely give us good advices in marketing. There’s an advertisement editor at Google/Youtube who could help on the ins and outs of advertising. A long time friend of mine who went to Cal Tech, and is now a Senior Mechanical/Manufacturing Engineer at General Motors. A manager of Corporate Social Responsibility at Burberry, who knows a lot of people and is definitely a good person to have in the current “environmentally conscious” corporate world. A multi talented designer from France. An I.T. security expert. Numerous talented developers and engineers…. etc. All of these people play a part in my plan for the future of the US expansion of this Japanese company! Really looking forward to this challenge! Next time, will update this blog on my recent studies on Drupal and web development.

Comments

admin — 2008-04-10 09:53:21

Azad!!! Whassup bro?!!! Congrats on the planned marriage! LOL… (wonder how lil’ bro is doing w/ his kid…) Man! Your biz is doing good enough for u to move to Hawaii huh?! That’s awesome! Dude, I have so much to talk to u about! I’ve lined up this opportunity in Tokyo, I’ll manage their expansion into the US market! May reach out to you if the owner is interested in the Latin America market. I’m really excited about this opportunity! His business is revolutionary! And my goal is to help it become a household name!!! Also been working with new web marketing firms in HK and Japan, I’ve been thinking how I can connect you to them… Let’s talk about the details over the phone! Jose IM’ed me last month, not sure how he’s doing though. Dude, how much tax u have to pay for last year? I paid that shit load for my Yahoo stock options, but could only get $7000 back from uncle Sam… Shit! LOL

AZ from Yahoo!NY — 2008-04-10 00:59:58

Hey there Nicky-James, wow, so this is what you have been up too, hiding in HK huh! Man, I miss you bro and all your old nintendo games. How’s life in HK? I still live in NY and business is doing great. Never went back to 9-5. Actually, my gf and I are looking into getting married and may be moving to Hawaii. I’m just waiting to settle a few biz stuff. Heard from Jose? How are your wife n family doing? Email me. Peace and Prosperity

Yoyo Boy, I’d rather have you be your naughty self

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:15:45 +0000

January 23, 1999, I was at your birth place minutes after you were born. I took my eyes off you and you fell from the sofa down to the carpeted floor when you were only days old. I washed you in the bathroom sink when you pooped all over your bed. Weeks later, I took you home… I don’t remember how many weeks old you were… and I keep thinking if I had took you away from your mom too early. I also wonder if I should have fed you can food rather than science Diet puppy dry food. You were a bundle of joy at my house! It was only me and you, you followed me all around, looked up at me following me and hit the wall and yelped! When I practiced my piano, you played with my old sock which I made into a ball for you, and one time you got the strings to tie all around you and then you freaked out and yell! You hid behind me and backed into a corner when some strangers visited us and scared you. You were brave and learned to climb the stairs when you were still so tiny! When I thought you were ready to sleep with me, I let you sleep on top of my blanket and later that night, you pee’d a big one right on top of me! When you were around 5 or 6 months old, my mom came home and I had to give you back to live with your parents and your aunt Miki. That’s where you learned all your bad habits. I brought you back home after a few months and you were all grown up already! You raised your leg to pee, you liked to pee at clothes and plastic hanging down to your height level, you pushed over the garbage bins and dig all the trash out for human food while I was sleeping or when I had gone to work. I would slap you on your bottoms hard, but you never changed your ways. I finally got you neutered… but all your bad habits are already here to stay. You really liked visiting SiuBak, even when you were a baby, you dominated over SiuBak… you were the alpha dog back then! Then, in January of 2002, I brought you to New York, that’s where we stayed with Jojo, the tea cup Yorkie. It was there in the basement where you dug out and ate all the raw pork that was thrown away! Another time, you dug out a Cadbury chocolate bar from my cousin’s suitcase and ate a whole quarter of it!!! These 2 incidents had to be pretty harmful to your health. In June of the same year, SiuBak came to join us and we moved in with Queenie in August. You 2 kept each other company while Queenie and I goes to work. For 5 years, we strolled the streets of our neighborhood in Astoria, walked around Union Square where you 2 goes to the dog playground. We flew back to Seattle a few times for fresh air and visited old friends. We drove to Montreal and Quebec during their Jazz festival and we had to sneak you 2 into motels! We can tell that you 2 are getting old… We bought you nice sweater from Gap so you’re less cold in the winter. We paid more attention to your diet and moved through different brands until we settled on mixed Innova dry food plus can food. I even tried raw meat specifically made for dogs one time, and you 2 really liked it! In late 2006 though, we started to notice that your belly had suddenly grown fat. We brought you to the vet but they all said it was normal. In mid-2007, we brought you 2 back to Seattle where we said goodbye to our old homes and moved to a new house. You 2 stayed behind while Queenie and I went back to pack things up in New York and flew to Hong Kong for our wedding. I flew back to pick you guys up from the dog hotel the week after our wedding. You were a mess! I brought you to the groomer and they had to shave your hair real short again. It sucks coz it’s so cold in Seattle this year! We stayed together at the new house, not doing much… saw another white Christmas… you were too cold to go out! We bought you a new sweater, but it doesn’t look good and you don’t like it. 1 month and 2 days since I came back and picked you up at the hotel, January 9th, 2008, you woke up as usual, real hyper and you seemed hungry coz you haven’t been eating the dry food. I gave you and SiuBak some plain yogurt and you ate it up real fast! Even had some of SiuBak’s share!! We went out to run some errands and came back at around 2pm… you had puked everything out and you looked real guilty. You had also pee’d at a plastic box and I slapped your bottoms for that. For the rest of the day, you just laid there on the couch… you didn’t eat any dinner even when I mixed in some rice for you! You went upstairs after me, laid there in midway, poop coming out of your bottom, I saw you were moving your belly in and out… I thought you were just having trouble defecating… but then, you went downhill real fast! You couldn’t stand up, I picked you up, and you had no strength in you… I searched for the closest veterinarian hospital that still opens, while you gasped for air. At 10:30, we head out toward the hospital, but you probably had already passed away. I kept doing CPR on you, holding you in my arms… but when we arrived, the vet took a look and told me, you’re already gone. Small dogs have very little blood, so most likely, a tumor in your tummy had ruptured and you had internal bleeding… which drained you of your life very fast. By the time you were gasping for air, it was already close to your final moment. I’m sorry… You were only 8 years old, but I guess you had it your way your whole life! Just like your master, you always choose the thrill and rewards of being naughty, even if it means taking punishment afterwards. Oh you had gotten me so angry so many times!… But, holding your body in my arms, I thought to myself… Oh how I’d rather have you be your naughty self now… I’m so sorry… I don’t believe in heaven or even a spiritual world… I know that when a brain goes out, that’s the end of everything… but right now… how I wish there is a dog heaven, so I can see you again when I die… You’ll always live on in my mind… Yoyo 1999-01-23 ~ 2008-01-09 R.I.P.

Comments

overoften — 2008-03-21 01:24:12

A beautiful tribute.