The good thing about business meal is that the meal is free. It is paid by the company. The bad thing about business meal is you eat with colleagues, and some of them are really picky on food. I was sent down to Santa Clara with an older guy from Mainland China. So when my local friends are busy, I am stucked with him. He taste is strictly Chinese, which I don’t really mind. However because he has diabetes, he cannot eat any sweet. He is so careful about his diet to the extend that he ensure the chef does not put sugar into the dishes. I guess with my allergy on shell fishes and egg, I shouldn’t blame him for his troublesome diet, since I am equally troublesome. Anyways, the food we can order is very limited. Despite the lack of choice, we came up with a very good menu tonight. We ordered steam rock cod, snow pea for main dishes and abalone for appetizer. I havn’t had such a satisfying meal for a long time. If I have to pay for the meal, I would order cheaper dishes.

I can understand picky on food out of health reason. It is a life and death matter, gota be serious. In the Santa Clara office, I am working with three Indians and they are all vegetarian. It is not fun eating with those guys. Selective diet base on religious reason is plain stupid. Why can’t religions update their out of date diet laws to be more civilized? Those diet laws are unscientific and unrational, left over from the dark ages. Yet, this is not the worst reason for selective diet, at least there is hope to enligthen them. I know some vegetarian stop eating meal because of humantarian reasons. They think eating animal are cruel. They are just a bunch of nuts! It is HUMANtarian, only applicable to human, not to animal. Animals are food for human, their have no right except being eat by us.

As long as we don’t eat the animals to extinct, so that the food chain won’t collapse, what is the problem of producing meat as cheaply as possible provided that it won’t affect our health? People in ancient time cannot afford eating meat all the time. Transforming from mostly vegatarian to a balanced meat and vegatable diet is a hugh progress for mankind. Turning back on meat and eating only vegatable is a step back in our civilization. Man can only be prosperous if we keep the progressive spirit. Say NO to vegatarian if you don’t want humankind lost its edge in natural selection, dethrone from the ruling seat of all living beings and an eventual extinction.

I love travelling to the Bay Area.  I have a number of best friends from LSC living here.  When I come down here, I usual travel in a very short notice.  They break their daily routine and drive all the way to have dinner with me.  I feel reliefed and can talk without holding back with this group of friends.  We talk about all sorts of thing, any topic that we can think of.  That makes sitting through all those boring meeting for the whole week worthwhile.

After dinner, I have a long chat with my best friend.  He knows me really well, he senses my problems and try to give me some good advice.  Just like most people working in my company, my career is merely gliding.  Actually, the company itself is gliding.  I can’t find  my direction in life.  He is quite a different person than me.  His career goal is to become a VP or even a CEO and I think he will achive his goal, provided where he is right now.  To a certain extend, he don’t have to worry the same kind of mundane stuff in my consideration, so his choice is easier.  I want to blame my problem on the matter of luck, but I know I share part of the blame.  My friend gave me encouragement and motiviate me to take actions.  I feel more energetic and hopeful talking to him everytime.  Now, I just have to answer the question, what do I really want and start running.  Put it in another word, what is my meaning of life?

I am travelling to the Bay Area for a bussiness trip. I flied out on Sunday evening, so that we can rest a night before having endless meeting on Monday. When I waiting in line for the custom, I bump into an old friend of mine from university taking the same flight. I havn’t keep in touch with her for a few years, all I know is that she is living in Vancouver. We chatted and catch up with each other in the waiting room. She is finishing her Ph.D and moving down to the States with her boyfriend. I am joking that I can blackmail her by telling “stories” to her boyfriend, since I know this girl thru her ex-boyfriends. Two of my lab partners and a housemate of another lab partner went out with her back in Waterloo. What a small world.

I am flying with Air Canada this time. The airplane they use is an unfamiliar new model, E190 from Embraer. I always thought commercial airplane is dominated by the duonoploy of Boeing and Airbus. To my surprise, Embraer turns out to be a Brazilian company. I don’t expect a 3rd world country would have the complex technology of building an aircraft. The aircraft is pretty nice, each seat has its own entertainment system. I picked the movie “Children of Men” to watch, what a mistake. I didn’t realize the flight is too short for the movie. Even with the usual delay of circling over the Bay waiting for the runway, I am still 15 minutes short from finishing the movie. It is the first time I wish the plane will delay more, so that I don’t have to keep wondeirng what is the ending of the movie. I guess I have to wait till my flight back to finish off the movie.

This is new a real survivor reality show coming up in Dutch. The players are patients waiting for kidney transplant, the prize is a kidney transplant.  Put it simple, the winner can live and the losers are very likely be dead while waiting for a kidney from the national donor list.  Just like other reality show, the audience will vote off constants one by one.  Just that the audience are not choosing who can will a million dollars but decide who can live.  Some critics say the show is unethical, disrepect human life.  I think it would be a good show, since the players life is on the stake. 

Let’s face the truth, we don’t have enough fresh kidneys for transplant and artifical kidneys is still a few years away.  People will die from kidney malfunction unless we start harvesting kidneys from prisoners.  The question is how to allocate the limited supply of kidneys and save a few lifes.  The current system is on first come first serve basis mixed with somekind of kidney lottery.  Literally, the patients have no control of their fate, they can just wait in line until it is too late or hope being lucky.  We can’t say a system with inderterministic result and no inputs from the patients is fair.  In this contest, the patients take control of their fate into their own hands.  As long as the rule of the game is fair, the allocation of the kidney is also fair.  If  you are the patient, which way do you prefer to get your new kidney, sit back waiting for luck or strive you best to win your life?