Why I Can't Vote for Romney

Romney's a successful businessman, a capable organizer, and a guy who gets things done. These are great characteristics. Unfortunately, he's also extraordinarily expedient. He's more interested in the ends than the means. And the ends are often personal ends rather than policy ends -- as his flip-flopping on the abortion issue suggests. While Romney's approach often wins over the shareholders of a company, it does much less for citizens interested in preserving constitutional rights, maintaining transparent government, and getting the straight facts. Time and time again he's shown himself more than happy to put a healthy spin on the truth.

That's exactly how he landed in the mess over his father's supposed march with MLK. And while his attacks on McCain at last night's South Carolina debate weren't outright lies, he once again revealed his willingness to take the easy route, rather than the honest one. According to Reuters, Romney attacked McCain (who had been speaking in favor of educational programs to retrain workers) for admitting that some jobs are leaving Michigan and not coming back. Romney declared, "I disagree. I'm going to fight for every single job, Michigan, South Carolina, every state in this country, we're going to fight for jobs and make sure our future is bright."

Romney's many things, but he's neither stupid or naive. The man knows that times are a-changing, and that the best hope for the autoworkers of Michigan and the textile workers of South Carolina is retraining for the new economy -- what McCain is proposing. Once again Romney is more interested in giving voters what he thinks they want to hear than in promoting policies that actually address the real issues at hand. And that's why I can't vote for Romney.

Backing Mac

Despite always being interested in politics -- and majoring in Political Science in college -- I've never made a donation to a political campaign. I usually back a particular candidate, and I'm more than glad to share my views with others. But we've always taken the position that, to the extent we have money to donate, that money is better spent going to our church or another Christian organization like InterVarsity, World Vision, or Focus on the Family.

This year, for the first time, we made a donation to a political campaign -- the John McCain campaign. Our donation wasn't large -- just $25 (so far, at least). But a colleague of mine who previously worked for the McCain campaign said that every bit helps -- and may generate more support by demonstrating that the candidate has support. We supported McCain in 2000 too, and one has to wonder how the world might be different if more of his supporters had stepped up to the plate then.

Christmas Card 2007

We actually sent out Christmas postcards this year! They went out a bit late -- and a few still need to go out. However, for those who we may have accidentally left off the list, here it is:

The three of us started 2007 navigating the crowded streets of Hong Kong, straining to catch a glimpse of the ball drop in Hong Kong's Times Square. While we didn't get close enough to see the ball -- or Times Square, for that matter -- we continued to stay on the move throughout 2007.

Just a few weeks after returning from Hong Kong, we drove south to Anaheim for the Craft and Hobby Association's winter trade show. CHA Winter is the most important sales event of the year for Maya Road, the craft supplies company we own with Deborah's sister and brother-in-law. With the Lau grandparents watching Jonathan back at the hotel, we were able to do some effective hawking of Maya Road products. In May we finally took a long-overdue trip to Raleigh, Augusta, and Atlanta with Jonathan. We enjoyed seeing some friends we hadn't seen for years, and Jonathan spent some quality time with both sets of grandparents. We were on the road again to Southern California for a wedding in June, and in July we flew to Chicago for the CHA summer trade show. We spent a weekend up at Lake Tahoe in September, and in November we returned to Hong Kong for Thanksgiving. Jonathan enjoyed spending time with his great grandmother and fighting over toys with his cousin Noah. We're looking forward to spending Christmas this year in Raleigh, before we fly back home to the Bay Area to ring in the new year.

On an individual level, Jonathan started 2007 fairly stationary, but was crawling by April, walking by June, and running by his first birthday in July. He's gone from cooing and babbling to mastering his first handful of words. Parenting has definitely had its stressful moments, but it's also been enormously fun, and we're thankful every day to have Jonathan in our lives.

Professionally, Deborah is still at PayPal working on building new online payments products, and I'm still at Google providing end users with all the content that's fit to copy, distribute, create derivative works of, display, or perform. When she's not hanging out with Jonathan and me, Deborah spends most of her free time designing exciting new crafts products for Maya Road; we're already gearing up to launch more than 100 new products at CHA Winter in February 2008.

As we look back over the year, we are amazed by God's many blessings, and the kindness and support of all our family and friends. Thank you for being in our life. We hope to see you in 2008.

Amazing Grace

We're leading this week's study, which covers Ephesians 2:1-10. Here's the text:

1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature^[g] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

This is the stuff that Martin Luther split the church over back in 1517. Salvation by grace, not by works.

A "Glorious Inheritance"

We attend a couples Bible study group, and for the last few quarters we've been going through various topical studies that apply Biblical principles to relationships. While these studies do contain a lot of great material, there's also a lot of fluff. So we were glad that the group decided to spend this quarter going through an inductive study of Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

We missed the first session because of family commitments, but we attended the second session, which covered Ephesians 1:15-23. Here's the NIV version of the text:

15For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit^[f] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

It's been a long time since I last read this passage, but two things in particular struck me this time around.

First, in verse 18, Paul desires the Ephesians to know "the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints". Greg, who was leading the discussion, pointed out that Paul isn't merely saying that the saints possess a glorious inheritance. Rather, Paul wants the Ephesians to know that, from God's perspective, they themselves are a glorious inheritance. The "his" in this verse refers to God. It goes without saying that this idea underlies all of Christianity; why else would God have sacrificed his son? But the challenge, for me at least, is to view others with God's eyes -- to see each person as having the same inherent value as Paul suggests here.

Second, in verse 23, Paul states that the church is the "fullness of [Christ] who fills everything in every way." We ran out of time and didn't get to discuss these last verses. I would have enjoyed getting others' views on 22-23, particularly the meaning of "for the church" in 22. But in 23 it seems to me that Paul is placing a clear obligation on those who call ourselves Christians to execute on God's desires throughout the world. And a large part of that execution must be seeing and treating each person as a child of God.

Ping-Pong

With the addition of a ping-pong table (along with a pool table and a foosball table) to the Legal Department lounge, ping-pong (or should I say, "table tennis") mania has swept the Legal Department. Fanning the flames of ping-pong madness is a Legal Department ping-pong tournament, with separate doubles, singles-beginner, and single-advanced brackets. Trash talking is plentiful, both live and over IM and email. I was particularly impressed by Balaji, who maintained a constant stream of creative commentary for almost an entire hour, both from the sidelines and during actual game play.

One of the cruelest cuts thus far, however, came from a very unlikely source. Stuart and I were finishing up a game when Susan and Rumit, her doubles partner and a new member of the Legal Department, came down for some practice. While I'll be the first to admit that the level of play in the Legal Department is not quite Olympic caliber -- we wouldn't, for example, want to
challenge the Engineering Department -- quite a few of us have memories of holding our own in college pick-up games. Stuart and I are definitely considered above average in the Legal Department, and the ending of this particular game was a decent display of our ping-pong prowess. Susan, on the other hand, is a more casual player, and, by association, we figured Rumit was the same.

Our game ended, and since Stuart owns his own paddle, Rumit came upstairs with me to get a paddle for his practice with Susan. Having just met Rumit, I asked him the standard introductory questions. After a bit of chit-chat, Rumit asked me if Stuart and I would be participating in the tournament. I enthusiastically answered in the affirmative -- at which Rumit asked, without any pretension or guile, "So you're in the beginner bracket, right?"

Ouch.

(As it turns out, Rumit trained with coaches as part of a state championship team in India, so his standards of quality ping-pong play differ significantly from those of the rest of us. In fact, he subsequently made the comment that he didn't think anyone from the Legal Department posed a serious challenge. As before, he stated this as a simple fact, without the intention of insulting anyone or elevating himself in the process. So far, he has yet to play his first tournament game. He's good, but beatable -- mostly because he's still pretty rusty.)

How I Got an Xbox

There's buzz all over the Internet about Microsoft's preview of small bit of the current build of Halo 3, one of the most highly-anticipated console games in history -- at least in our household. Having played Halo 1 and 2, we're looking forward to the release of Halo 3, although we haven't decided whether or not we want to shell out the big bucks for an Xbox 360, given how infrequently we use our Xbox these days. All this commotion has made me think about how we came to acquire our original Xbox -- and the persuasion skills of my friend Andy.

I know Andy from law school, and we used to work together at the same Silicon Valley law firm. Andy's always been a gadget guy, and back in fall 2000, a couple of weeks before the launch of the PS2, he found himself wandering through the electronics section at the local Target. To his amazement, he found a few of the coveted PS2s actually on display. He asked the woman behind the counter whether the PS2s were on sale, and, after some hemming and hawing, she responded, "I guess so." Andy simply replied, "I'll take two." Through the magic of eBay, Andy found a home for the extra PS2, and more than covered the cost of his own PS2 in the process.

So, when the Xbox came out, Andy pre-ordered four of them, thinking he might be able to once again take advantage of eBay. Unfortunately for Andy, the Xbox didn't have the same scarcity issues as the PS2, and, by late November 2001, Andy found himself desperately trying to unload his extra Xboxes. About the same time, Deborah was planning a birthday party for me. Not knowing what I wanted for my birthday, she decided to turn to my friends for help, and, by coincidence, she decided to turn to Andy.

We were still working at the same law firm back in 2001, and it wasn't uncommon for one of us to drop by the other's office from time to time. So it wasn't surprising when Andy stopped by to shoot the breeze. Given his interest in gadgets, it also wasn't surprising when he excitedly told me about all of the advanced functionality of the newly-released Xbox. I told him that I wasn't really into consoles, since I hadn't owned a console since the Atari 2600 and you could get better games on a PC. His enthusiasm for the Xbox, however, was contagious. An hour later, I was pretty fascinated by how the Xbox was optimized for game play. My inner bargain hunter was intrigued by the fact that Microsoft was supposedly losing money on each Xbox sold, in hopes of recouping its costs through game sales. That night, I found myself mentioning to Deb that, while the Xbox did cost a lot, and while I didn't think it was a very practical purchase, it did save you the hassle of purchasing a separate DVD player.

And that's how, a couple of weeks later, I was completely surprised with a Xbox for my birthday. Looking back, it can't be denied that we did get a lot of use out of the Xbox, at least for the first few years, until the built-in disc reader started acting up. Sometimes I wonder, however, what constructive uses of our time we might have made had the temptation of the Xbox not been so compelling.

Ironically, I found myself having a somewhat related conversation with my friend Stuart today. Stuart attended law school with Andy and me, and worked with us at our old law firm (in fact, he and I still work together -- now at the same Silicon Valley Internet company). Stuart told me that neither he nor Andy had purchased a wedding gift for our friend Tony yet, and he was wondering if I'd be interested in pooling our resources to buy a larger gift. I answered in the affirmative, and we chatted for a bit about what gift might be appropriate. We finally decided that the best gift for the newlyweds would be a Nintendo Wii. Naturally, we plan on putting Andy in charge of getting the best deal.

Birthday Boy

It's official -- as of yesterday, Jonathan is one year old! In that year, he's traveled once to each of Las Vegas, Hong Kong, Augusta, and Atlanta, twice to Raleigh (although within the same one-week period), and three times to LA. He's gone from drinking only breast milk to consuming your typical variety of thoroughly mashed baby foods to effectively eating what we eat -- albeit in very small pieces (and without giving up on the good ole breast milk). Starting at an even eight pounds, he has almost tripled his weight. And from being a largely unresponsive lump (except for crying), he now happily claps his hands, says "Da da da", and walks all around the house (admittedly, like a drunken sailor, but still...). Life without Jonathan would be infinitely less fun and fulfilling than life with Jonathan, and life with Jonathan is more fun and fulfilling every day. Happy birthday, buddy!

How to MC a Wedding

I was recently honored to MC my good friend Tony's wedding down in So. Cal. I have to admit I was quite nervous about it, since I'd only MC'd one wedding before -- and that was seven years ago -- and because Tony MC'd our wedding and is an enormously talented entertainer. So MC'ing his wedding was sort of like singing for Rich Mullins.

At the end of the night, all was well -- there weren't any major mishaps, the guests were entertained, and, most importantly, the bride and groom seemed to have enjoyed themselves. When it came down to it, I only really had three obligations. These were:

1. Introduce the wedding party. This was the only thing I could really thoroughly prepare in advance. At my beautiful and talented wife's suggestion, I sent an email to all the bridesmaids and groomsmen asking (a) how they knew the bride/groom, (b) for a funny story about the bride/groom, and (c) for a message they'd like to share with the bride and groom. I told them that their emails would be used primarily to prepare their introductions, but might also be integrated into other parts of the reception. In order to get the responses quickly (since I foolishly waited until just a few days before the wedding to send out the emails), I told the wedding party members that their responses didn't have to perfect, since I'd probably only be able to use a small portion of their responses in any event.

I eventually got emails back from four of the six bridesmaids and one of the groomsmen. (I'm not sure what this says about female v. male responsiveness, but you can draw your own conclusions.) Fortunately, I was able to talk with the other groomsmen at the bachelor party and caught the two remaining bridesmaids before the reception. All of the responses were helpful, but a few of them were amazing -- practically essays. While I was only able to use a small portion of the content from these replies over the course of the evening, it did give me a lot of insight into the bride, whom I didn't know as well. And it reinforced my impression of how well-suited the bride and groom were for each other -- which made the job of being the MC even more fun and rewarding.

2. Keep the reception on schedule. The first key to keeping the reception on schedule was to know the schedule -- and each person listed in the schedule. I spent a couple of hours before the afternoon wedding ceremony pouring over the reception schedule and doing my best to become thoroughly acquainted with it. During the wedding ceremony, I focused on matching names from the schedule with actual faces -- a few of which I was seeing for the first time. (This came in handy later when I needed to find various members of the wedding party and the bride and groom's families.) Immediately after the ceremony, I went over to the reception hall and met with the reception coordinator, a member of the staff from the banquet facility, and the DJ, a friend of the bride's. This was my first look at the reception hall, and the three of us quickly decided where the mics should go and how the wedding party should enter the hall.

By the time the first quests had filled their plates with appetizers and were trickling into the hall itself (as opposed to mingling by the appetizer table outside the hall), we were largely ready to go -- and even on-time. Of course, that didn't last. It took longer than expected for guests to get through the appetizers line, take pics at the photo booth outside, and make it to their seats in the hall. So we were soon running 15 minutes late. And that was the second key to keeping a wedding reception on schedule -- be flexible with the schedule! We never did get exactly in line with the planned schedule, but we didn't overstay our welcome at the reception hall and nothing in the schedule got dropped.

The third key to keeping things on schedule was to stay alert. This meant keeping an eye on speakers to make sure they hadn't wandered off to the bathroom when their turn to speak came, tracking the servers to make sure that the schedule was roughly consistent with the pace at which guests were eating, and ensuring that each toaster had a glass of champagne nearby when the time came to lift his/her glass.

3. Fill in the gaps. Into even the sunniest weddings, a little rain must fall -- figuratively, if not literally. When that rain falls, it's the job of the MC to make sure that no one gets too wet. In Tony's wedding, the rain fell when the computer running the wedding slideshow crashed 10 minutes into the show. The guests had all moved from their tables to the front of the reception hall to get a better view of the screen. As we waited for the DJ and videographer to reboot the computer, I found myself face to face with the clustered guests and confronted with the task of filling the time until we could get back to the program. Looking back, I realize there were at least three ways of accomplishing that goal.

The first is through stories. If I had to redo the reception, I would spend more time going through the emails I got from the bridesmaids and groomsmen to glean two or three really good stories about the bride and/or groom to share with the guests.

The second way is through games. There are many wedding games that come in handy when you need to take up time at a reception; some games even make their way onto the schedule itself. I'm not a huge fan of "Chinese games" and other games that are designed to make fun of the bride and groom, since these have the potential to end disastrously and can be a bit crude. But I love games that recognize specific guests, and one of my favorites is the game that identifies the couple that's been married the longest and has them come up to give the secret to the longevity of their marriage to the bride and groom. That's the game that I relied on when we had our little crisis, and there was definitely something both dignified and sweet when the elderly couple shared their marriage advice with Tony and his bride.

The final way is through attitude. As Tony himself mentioned to me a couple of weeks before the wedding, the majority of the time, if you need to fill in the gap to transition to the next item on the agenda, all you need to do is to say, "Ladies and gentlemen" and launch straight into the next item -- provided you say "Ladies and gentlemen" with enough gusto. In the world of MC'ing, high energy and a positive attitude cover a multitude of sins. Suffice it to say that I found myself saying "Ladies and Gentlemen" many times over the course of the night.

I'm writing all of this down in case, seven years from now, I'm once again called upon to MC a friend's wedding. If you've stumbled across my blog because you've been called on to MC a wedding and find these suggestions helpful, please feel free to borrow from my experiences. Also, if you have any related suggestions or comments, please feel free to leave them below.

You Gotta Dress to Impress

My friend Darryl is one of the funniest guys at work. It's not just that he tells great stories or makes hilarious comments, but he also has a few quirks that add to his appeal. Case in point is his approach to attire.

A few months ago I ran into him in the microkitchen at work to find him wearing a very expensive, very sharp-looking suit. At my Silicon Valley hi-tech company, most people wear jeans or khakis to work, and it's only a little less common to find people wearing shorts and a T-shirt -- as I wore today. Wearing a suit is highly unusual. So my immediate response to seeing Darryl all decked-out was to ask him, tongue-in-cheek, "You interviewing someplace?". He laughed it off -- and responded similarly when the next two people to walk into the microkitchen asked the same question. Darryl explained that he was dressed as he was in preparation for a negotiation with a major potential partner of the company. We asked him if the negotiating team from the partner was in our building. To our surprise, Darryl smiled broadly -- and explained that the negotiations were actually going to be conducted via conference call!

Assuming then that he was dressed to impress his client, I asked him if the rest of our negotiating team was camped out in a nearby conference room. Darryl smiled broadly again -- and told us that the client was in another buidling and that he would be taking the call from his desk! It turns out Darryl was indeed dressed to impress -- but the person he was impressing was himself!

Darryl is an excellent negotiator, and it's true that dressing the part can help you better play the part. In my book, however, shorts and a T-shirt are almost always preferable to a suit. Darryl did insist that a $2,000 suit could be just as comfortable as shorts and a T-shirt. That very well may be true, but I can buy a hecka lot of pairs of shorts and a hecka lot of T-shirts for $2,000!

My Two Favorite People

I wrote a song for Deb's 31st birthday back in March. Here it is:

2006 Christmas Update

Since we weren't able to get a Christmas postcard out before we left for Hong Kong to celebrate Christmas and New Year's, I figured I'd post online what we would have sent out. Enjoy!

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2006 has been an amazing year here in the Liu household! We ended 2005 with the news that Deb was pregnant, and we found out in February that our new addition was a boy. In March, towards the end of her second trimester, Deborah was able to fulfill a long-held dream of visiting Italy, as we spent a whirlwind babymoon going through Florence, Venice, and Rome. I ate a lot of gelato. In May, we became an aunt and an uncle a couple of weeks sooner than expected when Deborah's sister Caroline gave birth to her son Noah on May 28. And about five weeks later, our lives totally changed when Jonathan made his very ruddy appearance on July 9.



The first couple of months with Jonathan were challenging, but we benefited greatly from grandparent support, with Grandma and Grandpa Lau spending the first month with us, and Grandma Liu coming out for the second month. In between, we celebrated Jonathan's one month birthday with a traditional Chinese banquet with family and, a week later, a party at our place with friends. By October, we were ready for a family reunion and scrapbooking trade show in Las Vegas. Jonathan met Grandpa Liu for the first time, as well as his cousin Noah, his aunt Caroline, and his uncle David. He and Noah also served as "booth babes" for the Maya Road booth at the show -- and were very popular with the largely female Maya Road customers. Jonathan was also glad to make his unique contribution to the ambiance of the Maya Road booth.



As the year comes to end, we're preparing to take Jonathan to see his great-grandmother in Hong Kong, where we'll be spending Christmas and New Year's. We're very thankful for God's many blessings to us over 2006, and the kindness and support of all our family and friends. Thank you for being part of our life. We hope to see you in 2007.



David and Deborah

Italian Holiday

Who says you can't plan a trip halfway around the world in a week? We had been planning to go on a babymoon for quite some time and had decided to venture to Italy, where neither of us had ever been. We originally hoped to go in early March, but work kept on getting in the way -- not uncommon here in Silicon Valley. With the clock ticking, we finally decided that we just had to go. Thanks to Mobissimo, we found a good deal on the flight and bought tickets on Thursday to depart for Italy the following Thursday. With the flight settled, I spent a crazy week tying up loose ends at work, making hotel arrangements, figuring out how to get from one city to another within Italy, and planning our itinerary. I'm going to post my reviews of the various places we visited and stayed at in successive blogs. In the meantime, we're getting ready to fly from Rome back to the States tomorrow, having spent two nights in Florence, two nights in Venice, and three nights (not counting tonight) here in Rome. Ciao!

Out of Whoppers

While traveling in Las Vegas with my wife and in-laws, my brother-in-law David and I made a lunch run to Burger King. My father and mother-in-law had asked us to bring back Whoppers for them, but David surprised me by ordering double cheeseburgers – which were on sale for $0.99 – for them instead. He explained that, on an earlier trip to Wendy’s, our father-in-law had spent a long time ordering what turned out to be a plain hamburger. David later discovered that it wasn’t that our father-in-law didn’t like cheese or particularly desired a plain hamburger, but rather that he wanted some sort of hamburger product for as little money as possible. However, by trying to figure out the best value on his own, he ended up spending $1.50 for a plain hamburger when he could have enjoyed a bacon cheeseburger for $0.99. So this time around David decided to take matters into his own hands, insisting that our parents-in-law probably wouldn’t even notice the difference.

He was almost right. Everyone was happily munching on his or her sandwich when my mother-in-law asked, “Didn’t I order a Whopper?” I nearly busted my gut when David responded, without losing a beat, “Oh yeah. They were out of Whoppers.” Our wives looked up in surprise, only to meet David’s mischievous smile. Our mother-in-law simply responded, “Oh,” and went back to eating.

The real kicker is what happened the next day, when David and I were sent to Wal-Mart for supplies. Our father-in-law asked us to bring back a bottle of Jergens lotion for extra-dry skin. We had split up the list of items, so I didn’t notice the lotion until we were standing in the check-out line. I almost died laughing when I noticed that, while David had indeed grabbed a bottle of lotion for extra-dry skin, the bottle was not a bottle of Jergens lotion. Instead, David had grabbed a bottle of Equate lotion, Wal-Mart’s generic brand!

Swish-Swoosh

We went to the doctor's earlier this week for a short checkup. No ultrasound this time, but the doctor did take out a device used to listen to the baby's heartbeat. It took a moment to find the heartbeat, but we eventually heard a steady, rapid swish-swoosh sound, like the mummuring of the wind over rushes. Very cool. We lost the hearbeat, and it took the doctor another moment of sliding the listening device over Deb's tummy to find it again. The doctor explained that the baby was quite actively swimming around in there. Also very cool.

White Elephants

Most folks will have a white elephant gift exchange before Christmas, but it always made more sense to me to have it after Christmas -- when you actually have gifts you want to exchange. For those who are unfamiliar with the white elephant concept, this is how it works.

Everyone brings a wrapped gift that's valued at a certain amount (in my experience, this is usually around $10). While one purpose behind the event might be to dispose of something you don't want to keep, you don't want to bring something you really wouldn't want to be stuck with yourself. (I used to participate in an annual gift exchange with a group that liked gag gifts. These definitely liven up the gift exchange, but it stinks to find yourself taking one of these home.) In fact, depending on how the game goes, you very well might be taking back exactly what you brought.

You drop off your gift in a pile with the other gifts, and you're given a random number from one to the number of participants in the exchange. This number dictates what order you will draw a gift in. The lower your number is, the earlier you get to select a gift. The catch is that, when it's your turn, you can choose to either open an unopened gift or steal a gift previously opened by someone else. However, so that the person with the highest number does have too much of an advantage, a limit is put on how many times a gift may be stolen -- usually two or three, depending on how many people are taking part in the exchange. Other endgame variations are also common, for example, allowing the person(s) with the first one or two numbers a chance to steal at the very end.

We happened to be in Thailand the week before Christmas, and a friend of mine from Bangkok told me why this exchange is called a "white elephant". As you probably guessed, white elephants -- which are more chalky grey than truly white -- are very rare. As a result, they are considered favorable portents and, in Thailand, automatically become property of the king. But at the end of the day, there's not really anything particularly special about a white elephant vis-a-vis a regular grey elephant. And depending on what you need the elephant for, a particular grey elephant may be even better than a particular white elephant. So a white elephant gift exchange merely recognizes the fact that one person's ordinary grey elephant may be another person's white elephant, and vice versa.

Empowerment Politics

With the election right around the corner on November 2, it's time to make a choice between the candidates. My choices will be based on the belief that government exists to empower the individual (my apologies to Hobbes). That doesn't mean that individual liberty is the paramount value. In fact, I remember what they said at my law school graduation -- these are the laws that make men free! What empowerment politics is about is creating an environment in which individuals will be able to best achieve their full potential. This is a paradigm that crosses party lines. For example, welfare and big business are bad for the same reason -- both have the potential for stifling the ability of individuals to achieve. The goal is to foster civil society, local government, and small business.

Against this measure, neither major presidential candidate has much to recommend himself. But my vote's going to Bush.

DanTan.net

The other night we got together with an old childhood friend from the Old North State who was out here on business. While I struggle to post to this blog on a monthly basis, he maintains not one, but two active blogs at dantan.blogspot.com and www.xanga.com/aznrednek (don't laugh at the title; Dan is probably my only childhood friend who packs heat and is a card-carrying member of the NRA). More impressively, he's actively pursuing a career as a singer/songwriter in addition to his day job as a software developer. In fact, since he got into town on Monday, he's already played at one open mic, and plans to hit a second open mic tonight before returning to the Triangle Friday morning. Check out some of his work at www.dantan.net.

Postmodern Pets

I'm not a pet owner -- haven't been one for quite a while -- and with my wife's allergies it's unlikely I will be realizing my dream of owning a dog anytime in the near future. (Despite what some country music tunes may suggest, I much prefer the wife to a dog.) But I never cease to be amazed by people's devotion to their pets. Case in point -- this new online retailer of high end pet products, Postmodern Pets. While I admit these guys have some really sleek-looking products -- apparently their emphasis is on postmodern design -- their most expensive item, the Philipp Plein Dog Bed, sells for $1650.00! To be fair, this site does seem to have some high-quality items that go for considerably less than that. So, to the extent you're looking for a unique item for the style-conscious pet owner, I guess this is a pretty good place to go.

On John Edwards, Redemption Ark, and Fireworks

On John Edwards
Kerry made the right decision in selecting John Edwards as his running mate. Based on charisma alone, I have to admit I sort of like Edwards and the positive message he maintained in the Democratic primary. (As a fellow native of the Tar Heel state, I might be somewhat geographically biased.) Of course, his protectionist views on foreign trade are misguided and abhorrent, and I'm not quite sure what he accomplished in his term in the Senate. Nevertheless, the man can tell a tale like the plaintiff's lawyer he is, and that will only help Kerry.

On Redemption Ark
Enough politics! I finally got around to reading a book I've been eager to read for more than half a year now. Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds. No one can spin a space yarn better than Reynolds, and he has a unique ability to set a breakneck pace through a darkly-riveting universe full of posthumans, aliens, and AIs -- despite the absence of FTL travel! I'm looking forward to reading Absolution Gap, the concluding book in the series that includes Revelation Space, Chasm City, and Redemption Ark, along with a few excellent short stories (Great Wall of Mars is one of my favorite here). Unfortunately, Absolution Gap just came out recently and I am cheap, so it's unlikely that I'll be reading the book until the library gets it (probably two years from now) or I find it on sale at a substantial discount.

On Fireworks
This year we walked from our house to Central Park in Santa Clara to catch the Fourth of July fireworks. It was absolutely fantastic to be able to simply go out the door of our house, take a short walk down the street, and be close enough to the fireworks show to hear the accompanying music! The show itself was nice, but nothing special -- the disadvantage of not being able to take advantage of economies of scale. In fact, as I listened to the disjointed hodgepodge of music that went along with the show, I couldn't help but think about the message on the City of Santa Clara website that had been posted prior to the show. The message indicated that the show would go on despite the city's continuing budget crisis, and encouraged concerned citizens and businesses to contribute to the show. Today's website thanked the contributors, adding: "It's not too late to contribute! Send your checks payable to the City of Santa Clara, to: Fireworks, Attn. City Clerk's Office, 1500 Warburton Ave., Santa Clara, CA 95050." While this setup is admittedly strange to me, I applaud the notion that individuals should have the choice of contributing or not contributing. Better yet, maybe a charitable organization should take over the responsibility of putting on the show from the city government, provided that the organization abides by community standards of decency and appropriateness. Power to the people!