LG Rumor Touch by Virgin Mobile

I decided to go with a Virgin Mobile smartphone with touch screen. The service is cheap at only $25 a month and it gives unlimited web and data. The catch is there is only 300 minutes of talk during the month. I don't normally use the phone often so this is ok.

The other catch is that I can't really download many apps to the phone. I have the basic email/chat program which has a few kinks here and there but its serviceable. It has a web browser and google maps. THen there is the regular stuff most smart phones come preloaded such as calendar, contacts, texting, camera and mp3 player with a memory slot.

I've used it for a month now and although I wish I could download new fonts to it such as adding Chinese font capabilities, I can't really complain for $25 a month. It beats the costs of the Sprint Evo and the Verizon Pro Touch 2 which would have been $200+ with a 2 year contract of about $100 a month with tax. The Virgin Mobile Plans are not with a contract and the phone was roughly $150. I think its a good deal.

If you're wondering about service? Its basically using Sprint's network so if Sprint works in your neighborhood, this should work too.

Genetic food

The Food and Drug Administration is seriously considering whether to approve the first genetically engineered animal that people would eat — salmon that can grow at twice the normal rate. Is this supposed to be good for people?

Cellphone costs

For the past 5 months I was using a pay as you go dumbphone, waiting for the new phones to come out. I saw the Incredible come out for Verizon and the latest launch of the Evo by Sprint. Both of them have awesome technical specifications. I even tried out the HTC Pro Touch 2 before I got pissed off at Verizon and just returned it. All the phones seem to have horrible battery life. I suppose I am still used to not charging my phone for 5 days. These phones need to be charged at least a couple of times a day. I guess the solar bookbags are going to be in higher demand now so that phones can be charged on the go, although they probably wouldn't be able to charge the phone at a rate faster than its usage.

Although all these phones are really nice, I still found that paying all these plans require about $100 a month (data plan + talking + taxes). Maybe its a bit of sticker shock since my plans have always been about $40 including taxes. Would I really be spending that much time on a cellphone and do I really need to be that connected to the internet? Probably not. I spend about 10 hours a day in front of a pc already.

Boycotting BP is not the right target

I know I have been saying that I will not fill up at BP anymore because of the Gulf disaster. However, they aren't the appropriate target we should inflict are anger on. We should really be upset at the government for passing lax regulations under the pressure of lobbyists and the donors who helped them raised their campaign funds.

Boycotting BP will not really affect their bottom line since today, BP owns only about 100 of the 900 or so gas stations bearing its name. The rest are operated by independent business owners. Such a boycott would hurt the individual owners. And really, we do not have many more choices. ExxonMobil is also one of the nation's biggest polluters in the world and Chevron has been denying responsibility for its role in an environmental catastrophe in the Amazon.

Obama has rightly suspended offshore lease sales, but he continues to promote a deeply counterproductive energy policy — on Thursday, during a news conference discussing the administration's response to the spill, he touted a Senate climate bill that would provide massive financial incentives to states that open their coasts to drilling, thus making a repeat of the spill more likely. Those provisions have to go. It's in Washington, not London, where protesters should make their voices heard. Sprint Evo

Olympics 2012 Mascots

Have you seen the new mascots that were just unveiled by London for 2012? One looks like a maxi pad and both of them look like penises... The photo below are the two mascots for the Special Olympics and the regular Olympics. They were unveiled in front of a rainbow too.. the universal sign for gay...
Cellphone Sprint Evo

School Killings

Recently, there has been a trend of people killing elementary school children in China with knives. It has been suggested that this is due to the social unrest with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Also, with politicians and government officials using their power to take advantage of the civilians, these killers seem to be turning to people who cannot defend themselves to get the attention of the government. Recently, Wenjia Bao has responded so maybe this method seems to have gotten the attention of the officials. Whether anything is done is another story though.

In the US and other countries, these kinds of killings seem to be more brutal because the violence is started with a gun. Because of this, they seem to get more press than the killings of schoolchildren in China. It could also be that China tries to repress such news from leaking out of China.

Networking

Being in China, it seems to me that local Chinese white-collared workers are almost stuck with their careers once they begin it. When I say that, I mean that it seems difficult to go from a job in finance to a job in marketing. Although there are many skills that can be transferable, it just seems to be something that is very rare. In the States, I always see people move from accounting to marketing or from project manager to sales but not the case in China.

At first glance, people may think that it is due to the fact that China has too many people and companies would rather hire someone with the perfect skill set but in reality, China has a shortage of skilled people and sometimes may need to hire outside the perfect person. I think a big reason that the people in the US are able to change career paths is due to their openness to network with other people. The Chinese do not network as much.

It may be strange to think that considering that guanxi (relationships) is so important in China. However, there are not really networking events that local Chinese people participate in. When I was there, there would be many universities setting up mixers and also having seminars, mostly for people to network and find jobs. However, this concept is new to the local Chinese. They do have job fairs but these are insanely over crowded and you may only have 5-10 minutes to speak to the recruiter in which you barely have a chance to make an impression. They mainly ask, can you speak English, do you know how to do x, y and z. It seems to me that at these recruiting events, they are also looking for the perfect candidates. Maybe its because companies in China do not want to spend the time training. I didn't get much of a training when I went there so its a possibility.