I had a good time spending my time with AJ (SDM 06) and his family over the weekend. I had a lot of interaction with his kids who are aged 5 and 6. They are so full with energy, reminding me of what I was when I was a kid that age. Maybe it's the age factor, I really enjoy my time with the kids. I am sure raising children requires significant time, energy, love, patience, and sacrifice; but ultimately I am sure there's no better feeling than to feel love and watch one's children grow up. For the first time, I really enjoy being around with kids and believe that I will make a good parent or guardian.

2/5/2006 5:28:25 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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Personal

As most people know, I am a moderate when it comes to politics. I don't like to be labeled as either a liberal or a conservative. I also don't want to be neither a Democrat or a Republican. I think that America is too diverse to be represented by just 2 parties. That's why what Camille said yesterday during lunch made a lot of sense to me. He observed that when the political views of the people in this country are represented by only 2 parties it makes it easy for politicians from either party to take a stance on an issue and blindly advocate their solution to be absolutely right while sneering at the views of their opponents. It becomes easy for either party to spin any political discourse as being good vs. evil or conservative vs. liberal. However, the issues that politicians are tackling with are by nature ambiguous and framing the issues under the context of drawing to either side of a set of binary views become unproductive and even misguided. I think that any political discourse has to be based on a platform that brings people to the center with common actions. So is having more political parties a solution to forming a more centrist government? Having more political parties can provoke better discussions and offer more choices. On the other hand, having too many parties can slow the political process and suppress efficiency. So what is a good model? Also, should government always strive for moderate political agenda or policies?

2/4/2006 5:40:42 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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Politics

Today marks day 2 of the negotiation workshop that I am taking and it is all about practice - a negotiation class just isn't complete without practices. The students finally got the chance to practice the theories learned yesterday with a case study followed by a mock negotiation (or what the professor call simulation). Since the course was sponsored by the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, the context of the case study and the simulation was specific to real estate development. After today's exercises, I can certainly appreciate the negotiations that take place between grassroots advocates, developers, town selectmen, and of course lawyers. The professor stressed that negotiation is negotiation, it is independent of the context. He said: "What you learn today can be applied to international diplomacy, trade negotiation, labor dispute, and salary negotiation." Indeed, I really enjoyed the class and thought I got a lot out of it. I definitely recommend this class to everyone who is looking for a class to take in next year's IAP.

2/1/2006 8:36:29 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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School

I have always considered communication and negotiation important skills to have in the business and policy world - there's no escape form interactions and transactions. So to focus my learning on negotiation, I attended a negotiation workshop taught by Prof. Lawrence Susskind today. During our class introduction, I had the misfortune of saying: "I have heard that negotiation a important 'soft' skill to have." This remark was immediately objected by the professor who insisted that negotiation is not a soft skill. He prefer to associate negotiation as a "hard" skill with lots of maneuvering.

We started the class by identifying the determinants of successful negotiation and how they can be applied to give the negotiator the advantage. Interests, efficiency, and relationships are how we measure success in negotiation. It is important to identify the interests of every party involved in the process, especially your interests - some negotiators don't even know what their interests are before going into negotiation. Next, there's efficiency of outcome. Ideally, all negotiators should strive for the goal of being "Pareto efficient," which is defined as "an outcome to a negotiation if there exists no other outcome that is better for at least one party to the negotiation and not worse for any party to the negotiation." In other words, you should always seek for the optimal package for all parties to the negotiation. Last but not least, there are relationships to maintain. Sure, you can go for the hard bargain approach but in this day and age, you still have to deal with the other party after the negotiation process. Therefore good relationships should always be maintained. For this reason, Prof. Susskind advocated the mutual gains approach to negotiation where all parties focus not on what a party will gain but rather what mutual agreement means.

I think if there's one take-away from today's class, this is it: "Dont' be nice. Niceness gets you nowhere. Instead be trustworthy, not trusting. You want the process and outcome to be efficient and that the interests of all parties are met, whether I'm liked or not." I look forward tomorrow's mock negotiations to put today's theories to practice.

1/31/2006 12:28:37 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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School

Eimear, Karine, Camille, and I watched the Squid and the Whale. And no, the movie is not a documentary about squids and whales. However, you will undoubtedly understand the origination of the title at the end of the movie. I mostly enjoyed the movie but do find certain parts a little disturbing. The central theme of the movie mostly revolves around the 2 children whose lives were dramatically disrupted with the separation of their parents. There is one technical flaw in the movie that pesters me a lot. The movie is set in 1986; yet I kept seeing the modern versions of Subaru Outlook and other car models in the movie. I attribute this to the film's low budget. So it is no big deal. Overall, I like the movie. I give it a 7.5 out 10 rating.

1/28/2006 11:08:24 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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Movies

Brian made an interesting observation last weekend while we were exploring the East Village for food. He said that if you stumble upon 2 restaurants, one with a Zagat rated sign and the other without, always pick the former. Make sense... But the best tip on dinning in NYC came from Brian's roommate John who recommended that Menupages is a must-have for every diner in NYC. This website not only have over 4000 restaurants rated by users but every listed restaurant has an on-screen menu available for viewing. So you can check out reviews, rating, menu offerings, and prices online. Too bad, this website only shows restaurants that are based in NYC.

1/25/2006 11:02:08 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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Food

Last Sunday, we went to La Gamin Cafe, a French cafe across from the Sushi Nazi, for brunch . Surprisingly, this is same La Gamin Cafe that Camille regularly dine at in Boston South End before it closed down a few years ago. I deduced that the food here has to be decent if Camille, a French guy, likes it here. Sure enough, the food was good and the staff were attentive (as opposed to last night's nightmare at Ebisu).

Afterwards, Eimear, Camille, and Brian went to the Body World Bodies exhibition while I went to a cafe to work on the take-home-finals for my Electrochemistry class. We met back at the apartment later that evening before ventured out to the Village for more culinary adventure. We stumbled upon a local Turkish restaurant, which was completely empty. We would have walked past the restaurant had Eimear not pointed us to the fact that an ad to the restaurant showed that they were having all-you-can-eat mezes that night. It was simply too enticing to pass, so we gave it a try. The service was quick and the food, well, instantaneously. I was a little skeptical about this but the food turned out to be awesome. For the rest of the night, we basically kept it low-profile to recuperate.

One of the perks of visiting NYC is to experience its rich, vibrant culinary jewel trove. I am glad that we did just that. More importantly I managed to spend significant time with friends. My only regret is that I didn't catch live music performance. Maybe my next New York trip will be music-oriented. One place that I really want to check it out is CBGB, the Mecca of Punk and New Wave, which will be close indefinitely on Oct 31, 2006. Time is running out... Another trip to NYC is imminent.

1/24/2006 8:26:48 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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Travels

Night 2 in NYC has one theme in writing - SUSHI. The first sushi encounter was amusing and the second one was disgruntling. Here is how it started...

For dinner that night we decided to go to a hole in the wall sushi place where Brian's friend has been raving about for sometime. This sushi place, which located on 543 E. 5th St, is really tiny (20 ft by 20 ft, no kidding) and doesn't even have a name. So small is the place that Brian has to go in first to ask for a table to accommodate for an oversized party of 5. However, Brian was repeatedly berated by the proprietor with "NO! NO! You go outside!" It was actually funny to watch Brian and the proprietor through the window. As soon as Brian opens his mouth, the lady would just shout back with a "No." So it is of no surprise that this place has now earned the nickname of the "Sushi Nazi" after the fictional character, the Soup Nazi, from the sitcom Seinfeld. For some reason, this hilarious made me want to go back to the sushi place even more.

Feeling rejected, we went to Ebisu on St. Marks Place to satisfy our cravings for sushi. Although Brian has not eaten at this place, he had taken a liking to this place and wanted to try the place out because it bears the same name as one of his favorite sushi place in San Francisco. With its chic and clean decor, this place certainly looks expensive; but we were only too willing to get our lips on raw, fresh fish that are laced with soy sauce and wasabi. Unfortunately, the experience at Ebisu would leave a really sour taste in our mouth. One of my pet peeves is to wait for food when I am hungry; I get really cranky. We ordered the food at around 7:30pm but it didn't get served till 9pm. That's 1 1/2 hour of crankiness not just from me but everyone at the table - and there's no excuse for this wait. We just kept peering at the sushi bar the whole night. This place has a sitting capacity for 40 customers and seems decently well-staffed with 4 waiters/waitresses, 2 sushi chefs, and some unknown kitchen staff. I couldn't understand why it would take the sushi chef 1 1/2 hour to prepare no more than 50 pieces of sushi for our party? When the sushi did finally arrived, we were still disappointed because the portions were small. Having starved for 1 1/2 hours, we easily devoured the sushi in less than 5 minutes - so much for savoring the delicacy. To add insult to injury, this experience ended costing us big bucks!!! This place was a huge let down. The $5 lamb sharwama and falafel that we had later that night at a corner eatery were much more satisfying.

1/23/2006 8:12:34 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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Food

Eimear, Camille, Brian, John (Brian's roommate), and I had a slow start the following morning before we finally managed to drag ourselves to Paprika, a local brunch place in the East Village. The restaurant was jam packed at around 1pm but was almost empty before then. It seems like people have just woken up at 12 noon and suddenly realized that it is time for breakfast and lunch, supporting Brian's claim that the East Villagers are a nocturnal bunch. At around 4pm, Camille, Brian, and I went for a run along the East River from the Williamsburg Bridge to the Brooklyn Bridge. The temperature that day was 55 F, a perfect temperature for running. It really felt like spring that day.

1/23/2006 8:11:08 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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Travels

I am currently blogging from Brian's apartment in the East Village in New York City where I have been staying in the past 2 nights. As the countdown for Eimear's grand departure to Ireland continues, a trip to NYC to hang out with our good friends, Siobhan, Steve, and Brian, was imminent. The fun begun as soon as Eimear, Camille, and I arrived in NYC on Friday night. We met up with Siobhan, Steve, and Siobhan's guests from Ireland and Germany, and then ate at some Indian restaurant in the East Village before settling down at a bar for some drinks. I can't remember the names of the places that I have been to on the first night. Nonetheless, this is a good start for our stay in NYC.

1/22/2006 2:55:06 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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Travels