it didn't work

self-validation through online networking

I guess 90% of people I know now know what I did over the 3-day weekend (if you're not in any of my networks, I was on friendster, myspace, linkedin, and facebook).

I signed up for Facebook yesterday (after years of plodding from some friends) and overnight, I went from 0 to 33 Friends. I've been away from the online social scene for far too long that I did not know most of my friends at Friendster have now migrated to Facebook.

My Myspace page is still dead.

Then I went to LinkedIn where my Outlook Contact list churned out several people who now have profiles including, much to my surprise, my PhD advisor (formerly known as The Boss in this blog). Even better, he updates his page! It's a little weird to have him on my Connections. And now, I have to go back and re-do my LinkedIn profile just to make it / him look good. Which sucks because I already find LinkedIn intimidating. I take it for what's it worth but I'm still not comfortable posting my resume as my profile. I'm already messed up career-wise as it is. Oh well, too late now... at least using these networks, I can redirect more traffic to this blog and become famous!

welcome to phoenix

Our move back to Phoenix, though hectic, went pretty smooth. It was a glorious day when we left CA with Josh driving a U-haul truck and I driving his car. Communicating over borrowed walkie-talkies, our spirits were high as we made fun of funny signs on the way, such as Little Panoche Road. It was such a relaxed drive that I was able to take a snapshot of the desert vista using my smartphone.

It's been a couple of months and we've totally adjusted. I was surprised how it all came back: the streets, the restaurants, and even the local radio stations. Funny how I judge my familiarity with a place by my knowledge of the local NPR schedule.

Though there are things I had to get used to again to when we moved back:

Due to all the rainfall this past winter, both native and invasive plants have been blooming and pollen count is record high. For the first time in my life, I had seasonal allergy. None of the over-the-counter drugs worked but an air purifier from craigslist did the trick.

Traffic is worse than I remember. But then again, I used to live on campus so I may just remember it fondly as a bicyclist and not as a driver.

Half of my outlook calendar entries got messed up due to the change in the time zone and the fact that Arizona does not observe daylight saving time. But it's still not as bad as Alice Springs in Australia, where I find it funny that their time zone is off by half an hour.

And finally, I had to remember that the Phoenix area is a huge sausagefest. When I was a FOB, I was oblivious to this fact but as I got assimilated in society, I began to observe it almost everywhere. There's about a 3:1 ratio of M/F in most places, and women can capitalize on it. I'm not even a hottie, and I have gotten some favors. Like one time a gentleman at an auto shop gave a me 10% discount without me asking for it. I hoped he was just being nice but then he pointed at my wedding band and said, "That's a nice ring, is that an engagement ring?" It took me by surprise and had to repress a chuckle as I told him it was my wedding ring. This is something I had to get used to again.