three days into my week-long San Francisco trip and i’ve made Starbucks the official hospitality spot for myself. i signed up for their $40/month unlimited WiFi plan so it’s a good way to get some work done on the road. i’ve been to about 4 different starbucks in the area, and i’ve eyed a few more with temptations to stop by. my one lingering question has been – do i buy drinks everytime i stop by or can i just use the internet? i mean, i do pay a whopping 40 bucks for the service, so i guess drinks should be optional, right? well, my caffeine craving has taken care of the dilemma most of the time because i just get coffee (latte or cider sometimes).

this particular starbucks i am at right now, right across from the SF Shopping centre, is really tiny and has only bar-style window seats… and no electrical outlet. So, with my battery running out, im gonna hop on over to the one on powell and o’farrell. catch you later!

when i walk into my boss’s office sometimes at work, he just likes to yell out – “just do it kang, just do it.”

sometimes he would just be walking by my desk and he lets me know – “just do it kang, just do it.”

it’s been a quick two months. if any season moves too fast, it’s definitely the summer – especially this year with its more-than-tolerable weather, my prime location in new york city and great friends all around. not to mention a most worthwhile internship at the National Football League – a most unexpected turn in my pre-professional development.

in such sentimental moments when i just sit back and relive the summer in my mind, it’s easy to just go on and on recalling all the precious moments and trying to capture them somehow in short descriptions. some think it’s too “sappy” to resort to such maudlin excesses, so maybe i ought to just talk about today.

i stayed a bit later at work today and discussed my school year part-time schedule with my boss. i did a decent enough job to want them to keep me there, so i will accept. more rewarding however, was a chance half hour with my favorite human resources generalist jessica. as i was getting ready to leave, she asked me to proofread something as a favor. it happened to be an email newsletter for the innovative development network, an organization for young professionals looking to “make a difference” in the world through good works and raising awareness of critical issues. i helped her to make a few corrections and in return, she gave me valuable career advice and helped me to see all kinds of options that were open to me as i near my after-college job search. she opened my eyes to consulting, banking, and just about anything, reminding me that no career path stays the same and that i would be doing all sorts of things, so no need to restrict myself from the start. i came away a bit excited and somewhat assured that if i just try, things will work out fine.

i walked over a few blocks from 49th and park ave. to st. bart’s cafe, which is located on 51st and park. there was a jp morgan chase mixer going on and albert was there, so i decided to go and find him. i saw a bunch of columbia kids there looking to get some face time with jp morgan chase employees. i felt high from having had real face-to-face time with someone who had worked at jp morgan for more than 3 years – whatever was going on at st. bart’s didn’t interest me. albert and i took advantage of the open bar and downed two beers before heading out with tony, who was working this summer at a bank without getting paid. albert, on the other hand, makes double what i make as an IT intern at McKinsey. we walked over to 7th ave. where he met esther for dinner and i found myself taking the 1 up alone, getting a chance to do some quick tom wolfe reading (almost almost done with hooking up).

i come home a little bit buzzed. i soon find myself on the steps with deum and wook after having gotten some food from m2m. we just talk the usual guy stuff – a little about jobs, a bit about marriage and a whole lot of nonsense that i can never remember, but it’s a good time and the weather is nice after being dreary and wet the past two days. it’s a bit sad i haven’t seen too much of deum around this summer, but it was nice to still be able to have dinner with him. both he and wook have been working at ccit this summer, and i remembered back to just last year, when it felt like i never left campus while working for columbia college today. sometimes i let wook borrow my metrocard so he can go around the city without travel worries.

i come back and i’m on the phone for a bit with a web client. i’m feeling good because i’ve just gotten a new client, a women’s organization from harvard, and i’m about to make some progress on this client, the graduate student advisory council at columbia. my plan is to get as much work done in san francisco as possible. how romantic, designing websites with the golden gate bridge as a backdrop or trolleys going to and fro not too far from a cafe table where i’ll be sipping away at coffee in the morning trying to get free wifi to work. speaking of which, i will need to plan for the san fran trip soon. i communicated with warren through gmail about potential things to do there and i especially liked a bike tour although warren warned that the one i chose rode right through gay town, which isn’t anything to worry about considering i hang out in greenwich all the time without a hitch. we’ll see. but yeah, super excited about sf.

albert and christina join me and joyce last minute to watch garden state at lincoln square loews theater. feels like i’ve been there one too many times. garden state, which also happens to be where i am from (jerz). zack braff, in his writing, directing, starring triple-play debut does a great job of creating impressions that feels “off-kilter” as the nytimes would say, and at the same time, there is something so eerily familiar because i happen to be from new jersey and i can remember white boys like some of the characters in there who roamed the halls of my school. of course, this always leads me think about how i would want to make such a movie, but from the asian american perspective. man, does it ever get old for me?

after the movie, which we all like to a degree although i think joyce and i expected something a bit more. speaking of joyce, natalie portman’s spontaneous motormouth character reminded me of joyce, who demonstrated in tower records shortly afterwards by dancing around and acting all wild. the four of us found ourselves at fiorelli’s, a nice looking italian restaurant with a bar. i ordered some random port which tastesd way too carmelly and syrupy. we all shared a plate of proscuitto and cheese with olives and a piece of garlic, of which i ate half and can still feel resonating in my breath every time i taste my tongue. it was nice to just sit and relax, talking about random things with people, thanks to the forces of summer, came together to share drinks and hang out on a cool wednesday night. my favorite moment came when joyce was impersonating her 94 year-old grandfather on a motorcycle and then talking about how healthy he is. she said something about how her grandfather could “outlift his son-in-law” and i thought that was incredible, a 94 year-old benching more than someone younger than him! but of course, she meant “outlived,” and i leaned over to albert and laughed at how our summer lifting obsession had us thinking in strange ways. joyce used her shameless “charm” to get us small slices of watermelon, which truly did help me feel that summer essence – the cool sweetness in my mouth that only summer evokes – but of course i am trying to sound poetic and not doing a good job. bert, headed you-know-where, and christina, who lives in an absolutely beautiful apartment on 38th and 5th ave, took a cab downtown while joyce and i stuck it out in the subway waiting for the 1. we got the 2 instead and we had to trek from 96th. it was a quick walk thanks to the weather and joyce’s entertaining company. i think she should become a serious actress because she is just so good at being expressive. she works at the rare books/manuscripts center on the 6th floor of butler and always talks about hating her job.

i’m back in my room and i close the night with a small aim convo with josephine about summer coming to an end. she tells me that she will be leaving for home (wisconsin) on august 7th, a week earlier than planned. guess she misses it a lot and she must be tired of all the frog research with her SURF program. of course, such talk about home and end of summer only has me more nostalgic and sentimental than ever, but i guess in a way, it’s some sort of happiness, just like that time last year coming back home from the beach with warren, nigi and face when we couldn’t stop playing dashboard confessional’s so long sweet summer. i miss the moment and the people so much, and i’m going to miss the characters of my summer story so very much as well. she was right – just when you feel so comfortable and you can be yourself, it’s time to move on let those bonds reset. will we meet in a month? well, as my boss would tell me without hesitation, just do it kang.

aside from the brief moments when i just want to be a writer, a filmmaker or some other sort of pretentious, artsy fool, i am most inclined to a business-first state of mind. why? i guess it started with my idolization of microsoft – the way it was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, the way it blossomed with some luck and maneuvering and the way it was so often hated because it was just so damn successful. i didn’t mind that they stole ideas from other companies, notably apple – which i admire in some ways, but often feel contempt towards the brand because it whores itself to people who think they are trendy and chic with computers. i remember the days when i used to fetch the New York Times from my front yard each morning, flipping immediately to the sports section to read about the Knicks and then flipping to the Business section to read the latest about Microsoft taking over Quicken or Microsoft battling it out with Netscape. i just loved the way Microsoft always beat quarterly estimates, put a lot of money back into research and development and refused to back down. of course, people might ask about their monopolistic behavior and their predatory ways and how i could possibly side with such an unscrupulous company, but i don’t know – i guess it’s kind of like the same way some people still love the yankees.

that is to say, the only microsoft product i’ve bought – besides their mice – was windows 95. i fundraised with kids around my neighborhood about 9 years ago through garage sales, and placed an order with tiger direct to have it shipped to my house on the day of its release. that was hotness. of course, it was only after three or four reinstallations that i finally got it to work, but i was thoroughly pleased with the new interface. i made my round around town installing windows on all my friends’ computers (mr. gates would not be too pleased to learn about that). since then, i’ve been using bootleg copies and oem pre-installed versions of office and windows, but i still have lots of love for the big M.

now, why did i write about Microsoft? it’s sort of random, but i guess i was trying to talk about how i value performance and being on top. considering that we are plugged into a capitalistic system, it may be the “right” frame of mind to have. but this is all so very ironic to me because my appreciation for a huge capitalist machine such as Microsoft underscores the profit-driven, success-oriented culture that has impressed itself in me throughout my life. i’m on my way to being just another cog in the machine. but there’s another spin to it because those who disdain the capitalist ways and feel that they are “above” the money-making, material grubbing lifestyle are often no better! people talk about “selling out” (i’ve surely made this point with hidden envy at those who go into finance) and love to criticize people who go into banking, law, etc. but why the bitterness? i feel like in our awesome (does that come off too sarcastically?) capitalist society, money isn’t the primary commodity, but status (i am totally copying tom wolfe here – i read about it in a chicago tribune article from the early 1990s) dominates.

i have a friend who got into med school as a junior in college (one of those early programs) and is well-respected for his high grades and great work ethic. why do you want to be a doctor? to help people, of course. to make advances in medicine. but how about the prestige? what about the “doctor” title? or how about continuing your family’s lineage of male doctors? surely, such perks/pressures have factored themselves in some way or another into the life decision. that is not to say it’s a bad thing, because who is ever able to resist being good at something and being admired for it? but my point is, more often than not, people do things because they are taught (somewhat programmed) to achieve a certain status for themselves. some may have lofty status expectations while others may be willing to settle, but if people all had it their way, who wouldn’t want to be a Microsoft?

what do parents love to talk about? my son/daughter goes to school X, which is prestigious. my son/daughter works here, makes this much, is good at such and such. nothing wrong with bragging about your genetic offspring, but besides giving their son/daughter a free promotion, what’s in it for them? status! oh, you – as a parent – raised a child of such caliber? awesome! my mom told me that much of the ivy league euphoria (me at columbia, my sister at dartmouth) has faded away because you can only tell so many people so many times before you really don’t think it’s a big deal. but perhaps if i had been at harvard, yale or princeton, it would’ve lasted longer for my parents. oh well. but status reigns!

so when i think about Microsoft and its awesome status, i ask myself – how can i, as an individual, be great like that? and i guess, in a somewhat-sad-but-oh-well kind of way, that’s the way life keeps moving along. oh yeah, i like that girl because we get along and she’s cool, but how will she come across to my friends? parents? will she look good and make me look good? that internship – how will it beef up my resume? how will it impress my peers? will i be able to meet people who can hook me up with a job? the benchpress – yeah, i don’t lift as much as some other kids my size, but for an asian dude, i am pretty strong. i can bench more than a lot of my friends and that makes me feel good about myself and allows me to gain a certain status – awesome, cool, i want to keep doing it. sweet. wonder when that JD or MBA will come along [damn, i always make a point of mentioning that every freaking entry]. ha.