For anyone that lives on the East Coast, or knows where the NASDAQ opening bell is aired (I've heard on CNBC at 6:30 AM?), Karin will be there for the opening bell tomorrow morning. I've found the live video feed, but they don't have the opening bell recorded the way NYSE does.

I'm in a point in my life where I have to start thinking about my next career step. Do I want to join a start-up or work at a large established company. In my opinion, there's no one answer. Both have their benefits and both have their drawback. The right answer is which type of company is best for the person. I'm not going into a comparison between the two. If you want, e-mail or comment below.

I'm just at the point where it's hard to decide. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

It's not a secret that I love food. I described it once in my new product development class as this: I love eating because it brings people together. There are so many great memories that I have enjoying a meal with family, friends, and strangers. You can always talk about the food, and enjoy each others' company at the same time.

That was paraphrasing it. I'm too lazy to look up what I actually wrote right now.

The problem with this is that I tend to overeat. I enjoy food a little too much. Not to the point where I'm getting obese. But as my twenties fade and I approach my thirties (next June!), I don't process food as quickly as I used to. The pounds do add on, and I have to be more conscious about it.

So that got me to thinking why I always eat. And this expanded to why people overeat. My conclusion is that it's based off two things: instinct and greed. The example I'm going to take is from summer internship at Qualcomm. Qualcomm's a busy place, especially in the QCT division. Because of this, there are work lunches 5 days a week. And for a large company, that means there are catered lunches 5 days a week. Multiply that by the number of conference rooms on a floor, and you get a lot of leftovers. So come around 1-2 PM every day, there will be leftovers that appear in our break room.

So the problem that occurs is that I've eaten lunch, but there's free food. And anyone that knows me (everyone who reads this), knows I love free food. I used to get calls from Geoff at Claim Jumper when they couldn't finish everything to help, "clean up." I've matured past that stage of my life, but if you walk by the break room, there's often something that looks delicious. Lasagna, spinach salad, pizza, hummus. There's a plethora of food. So it's hard to pass up. My thought process is this:

Instinctually, humans don't know when they're next meal is. So any time there is food, you should gorge so that you can survive the "harsh winter." In reality, food is now plentiful and you can get it anytime of day. To achieve that discipline to not eat even when you're not hungry or even hungry is a hard task. Something many people struggle with.

Greed plays the second part in this equation. Free is always hard to pass up. Free cars; free swag, free food. We love it. So when you walk by food that you know the value of, it's hard to walk away. I would be a whale if there was free shrimp cocktail in the break room all day.

I don't think this is something that applies to me only. I've heard about the "Google 15" that new employees put on because of the abundance of free food at Google. But how do we curb and control this?

I remember last year when I tried to tell my buddy, Anuj that, "awesome" was played out. I must now say that "awesome" is coming back. In the past six months, I've heard it more and more, and I've also added fuel to the fire by using the word myself. I hope that we can bring it back.

Among the many things that are coming back, New Kids on the Block, My Little Pony's, I think "awesome" may be the best thing to return. I hope it stays. That would be... awesome!

In the past, there was a time when people laughed at people who spoke in geeky terms such as "world wide web" and "PDA." We called them, "nerds" and "dorks" and couldn't understand why they spent so much time there. Those were other people. I was the person with the PDA.

But nowadays, everyone speak "Internet." Which covers, "website," "email," "google it," and "crackberry." I was spending some time with new family from out west, and they all speak "internet." Now I'm not saying anything about people in the midwest, or anything like that. This is just a single case of a couple, and difference in understand of leading edge. Nothing else.

They had never seen an iPhone live. In my culture, we breath, sleep, eat technology. But for many other people, their passion is family, faith, sports. So I don't believe one is right and one is wrong. One is forward thinking and one is in the past. You should always do and study what you enjoy. That's the point. And for me, being surrounded by so many people with the same interest, I often forget the passions of others. I love meeting new people, learning new cultures, and enjoying new ways to have fun. That's the wonderful part of our society.

I was watching a video on Jonathon Blow Responds to Braid Pricing Criticism.It made me realize that the next generation of gaming should be the short session cinematic gaming. I think the classic idea of gaming is still possible, where people play games that are 20-60 hour sessions. But for someone like Karin, she wants it to be siccinct and like a movie. The short session games that are currently available may have great gameplay (PopCap), or just be a time waster (poker, pai gow, TextTwist). But they don't have a great story though. And that's what movies have.

And I wouldn't say it's a 1-to-1 analogy that anyone can make a long movie, but it take a pro to make a 90 minute masterpiece (Pixar), but there are some that can do that. If you can make that, then you can use digital distribution to all platforms quickly, and have more money since you'll be selling at a lower price point. But follow Braid's lead in charging a premium to differentiate yourself from the competition. Show them why you're charging the increase.

The publisher than can capitalize on this next movement of gaming, will be a winner.

This isn't the best forum to post this stuff, but it's been going through my mind. I'l do my best to keep posts like these off this website. As a side note, I'll be starting to post on my school's marketing blog in the near future. I'm thinking of doing a review of the book I'm reading, Groundswell. It does a great job of talking about the business implications of social networks. Great read. Super nerding out. I apologize.

So I've been a bit disillusioned with my Gen1 iPhone recently. So I thought about what I want most in a phone (personal computing device, PCD), and this is what I came up with.

Display: iPhone. 3.5", large, touchscreen, multi-touch, ambient light sensor

Camera: Nokia N95. 5 MP, Carl Zeiss Lense, dual flash, 640x480 vide recording

Hard Drive: Nokia N96 & iPhone. 16 GB, nuff said

Input Method: I'm a bit mixed on this. I think the thumbpad isn't very fast, plus you can't touchtype on it. I think an external keyboard would be pretty sweet, but then you start getting to accessory overload. I'm leaning towards a dual-slider of the Nokia N95 to have dedicated media player buttons (though i'd want them to use Optimus tech to be dynamic), as well as a regular keypad for quick touchtyping via T9. Maybe a touch interface like the Zune to do circular scrolling, d-pad, and two clean buttons.

Battery: big, 1400MA to last forever

OS: something like the combination of iPhone and Android. Curious to see what they do with their OS.

I think my phone will come about in the next 1-2 years. But what do I do now while I wait for my phone to be created?!?!

Though I don't always show it, I do believe that I have a blessed life. My father was strong enough to afford me and my brother's mistakes as we were growing up. I love him for being so selfless.

Today I had lunch with a SVP at Qualcomm. If there's something to know, it's that the 10th floor at 5775 Morehouse (Building N) is the player's club (CxO, Executive VP, Senior VP). The get to see the entire Sorrento valley and half of them have a private patio. They're also one flight away from a helipad. How ridiculous is that.

He gave me great insight on to my career and goals in life. If you all don't know, I do have aspirations to be a CxO. I think that I have decided that I want to be a CxO of a large company (>5,000). This leads to one point of our discussion, why do you want to be a CEO? Is it the money? Is it to be the arbiter of technology? To be a iGod? Many people want to be a CEO, but you have to ask yourself why? And that was one key I took away. I think the reason I aspire for CEO is because I feel I could do a good job. I think that I could manage a company that was innovative, doing good, and having it's employees be happy. The Utopia of companies. Some say Google is there, but I'm not sure. I've heard plenty of friends say, "it's just another software company. Except they have free food." And to a certain extent it's true. From an engineering perspective, I think Google is a near dream job. You get to program. Free food, and lots of engineers around you that share the interests and passions.

For me, I want the best place for me to excel as a manager and learn how to do it better. To be the best, you have to work with the best. How do I get there? Something for me to think about.

I've been lazy about blogging. Typical.

For those unaware, Comic-Con was this past weekend. I was only able to attend on Saturday and Sunday. But with the number of attendees, I'm not complaining too much. I got a signed and personalized print from Exploding Dog. It will go great in Karin and I's new apartment at Las Flores Apartments. The move-in is this Thursday and I have feelings of excitement, excitement, and overwlehmment (sp?). I'm confident it's the right thing to do, but it doesn't mean it's going down without opposition.

I'll be having a housewarming party later in August after I get settled in. We'll be moving in Thursday and then leaving for a wedding on Friday. Not much time to move in. I started using Twitter after creating an account several months ago. I think it will do better to manage my life which I have trouble sitting down to write on a tradition blog with. Then again, if I can get a persistently online device (personal computing device), I could blog 24/7. I think friends and family may be opposed to me joining the Borg before it's formed.

Also, keep an eye on my flickr. I've been trying harder to upload all the photos I take. The quality isn't the best, but I can't make the camera in the iPhone any better. I can't wait to see if the gPhone will be better.

Current Dream Phone: 3G, large touch screen, good UI, good media player, superb battery life.
Candidates: iPhone 3G, Blackberry Thunder, gPhone.

Forgot to give a wrap-up of the weekend: Exploding Dog, VooDoo Dolls, Bolt, Chris Williams, Byron Howard, UP (Pixar), Peter Doctor, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, Maria Bello, John Hannah, Michelle Yeoh, Luke Ford, Isabella Leong, Death Race, Jason Statham, Iam McShane, Tyrese Gibson, Joan Allen, Natalie Martinez, Underworld : Rise of the Lycan, Rhona Mitra, Bill Nighy, Michael Sheen, Patrick Tatopoulos, Quarantine, Pineapple Express, Judd Apatow, David Gordon Green, Seth Rogen, James Franco, DannyMcBride, Amber Heard, Evan Goldberg, Chris Sanders, Penny-Arcade, Jerry Holkins, Mike Krahulik, Major Nelson (Larry Hryb)

I just have to say that 4th of July weekend was filled with great
parties, philosophical discussions, and karaoke. Mix in me having an
accident out the window of Baby Jesus and get an idea of the magnitude
of drinking by my part.