Silicon Valley Moms Blog

Now this is going waaay too far!

First off, a disclaimer: I work in the game industry. I keep tabs on what's going on in the game market to see who the competitors are, how the sales numbers look, etc.  Also means I see what will come out in a few weeks or months.  It's fun to be in this business, especially since I enjoy playing games.  All good, right?
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This morning, I read an article on Times Online (UK) about a game website.  My jaw dropped and I am still shaking my head at the absolute absurdity of some in my industry who will go anywhere/do anything to make a buck.  The internet is buzzing today (NP, New York Magazine, Guardian) over this.
This website has an estimated user-base of 200,000 since it launched last month in UK aimed at girls aged 9 - 16.  They already have 1.2 Million users in France.   That's great for any website but what really disturbs me is that it attracted so many young girls so fast when it "encourages girls as young as 9 to embrace plastic surgery and extreme dieting in the search for the perfect figure."  Argh!  We have enough body image problems without having a website where, according to one of the founders, David Evans, "the story in the script had been created by “lads” and no professional advice was sought about how girls may interpret issues surrounding weight loss and gain."  Idiots!

... and I was inspired

Anyone who knows me in real life, knows that I am a pessimist when it comes to politics.  That sentiment has served me well in my life so far.  In my (conscious) life time, I have yet to be affected emotionally by anyone in the political arena... not even my father.  I have seen news coverage of people crying when President Kennedy was assassinated but felt strangely unaffected myself.  I have heard people talking about how [insert some political leader's name] pushed them to volunteer/change their life/change their perspective.  Me?  Nothing.  Nada.
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For me, they are all just ... politicians; selfish, scums of the earth waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting mass and steal our hard-earned money away from us for their own purpose.  Ok, maybe not that bad but you get the picture.  Unadulterated cynic, that's me and most politicians I've come to know have not disappointed me one bit.

Until yesterday morning, with my morning cup of mocha, when I read Obama's speech, did my carefully crafted  wall crumble ... and I could not stop the tears from rolling down my face.

What would you tell your daughter(s)?

It's quite disturbing how much news a 6 yr old girl can absorb in just 9 seconds.  I usually listen to NPR during the morning drive to work and this morning was no different.  As soon as I was on the main road, I turned on KQED Radio and started listening.  Of course, they were talking about the NY soon to be ex governor.  I made it to the El Camino Real signal light when a little girl's voice piped up from the backseat saying, "Umma, what's a pross-tuh-pu-shun ring?  Can I get one?  But I only want it if you say it's OK.  OK, Umma?"

O. M. G.

Ever have one of those moments where you feel like you've come unstuck in time and everyone around you is moving really really slowly?

Product Review for Moms: Silicon Valley Style

As part of my job, I read too many really dull a lot of product reviews to see what would be best of my company.  Mostly, it's software application reviews and they all seem to have a yawn-inducing standard template that everyone who does these reviews seems to follow.

So, this morning when someone at work sent me an email with words "You MUST read this right now - fascinating new tool on the market!" on the subject line, I wasn't too thrilled.  Suppressing a shudder, I clicked an article reviewing Color Pencils. 

The reviewer noted that the devices only uses a 6-bit technology, yielding just 24 colors, noted that color selection (that is, getting a pencil out of the box) is buggy, and that documentation was poor. They however support a wide range of uses, and accessories (like a pencil grip) are supported.

Only in Silicon Valley!

The Great Pokemon Debate

Once again, this mom is behind the 8-ball.  C proudly brought home his first Pokemon Card he received as part of the behavior feedback mechanism program in his class.   That is to say, his teacher gave it to him for his achieving 5 stars for good behavior.  Now, I have seen these cards (a friend's son was always showing him his collection of cards) but C was never really that interested before. 

Now, however, it's all about HPs, damage points, rare cards, and what each card is worth.  The whole class has been abuzz, trading and discussing the relative merits of each pet.  Well, maybe not the whole class but definitely the boys.  Having received his first card, on Thursday, he had traded up to 7 cards by Friday afternoon, then down to 5 by Monday.  "But Umma, these are better cards so I traded my low HP cards for this one.  Look!  a Hundred H. P.'s!"  Big eyes and excitement bubbling out of him... expecting same from me.

OK, I admit it, I could have shown a bit more enthusiasm.  "OK, uh ... that's great.  How did you do on your test?"  Oy!

On Tuesday, I came home to a visibly upset child. 

Chelsea Clinton: having her cake and eating it too?

Chelsea came to Stanford to campaign for her mom.  She's made a decision, as an adult, to paint the large target on herself enter the limelight.  Good for her.  Hope she finds it to be a great experience (not that she needs to build up her resume, now does she?) as well as a rewarding one, as this seems to be the family business. 

Which means she should no longer be treated as an unwilling participant but it seems the media is still pussy-footing fearful of the She-Dragon treating her with white gloves. 

Sears and KMart: Mom and Apple Pie goodness gone awry!

I didn't grow up having Apple Pie (although, the small village where I grew up was famous for its Fuji and Gala Apples) but it was the first phrase that came to my mind as I read this: what happened to the Mom and Apple Pie image that this once great company embodied?

For those of you who need techno-parsing: Sears (and KMart) KNOWS where you've been, what you've been doing, and how you've been doing it! 

Now, this is not the kind of goodness that I was looking for when I logged onto the Sears website... in fact, I think I might just avoid their sites altogether. Is this just sign of the Bush Administration times or am I just being paranoid?!?

Winter Holiday Memories

It's Christmas time and the stress of holidays is getting to me (I even made a list and timeline for getting all the presents ... and I'm behind!) so I thought I'd crawl up to my memory attic and dust off some impressions that are not too rusted from the past.  The more recent memories of celebrating with family you can pretty much see in all the holidays feel-good specials.  However, it's the ones that I haven't thought of in years - decades, really - that seem more interesting to me now that I've gotten so used to celebrating Christmas, the Western Way.

I first came face to face with the "western" Christmas tradition when my oldest sister (who immigrated to Chicago from South Korea 2 years before) sent me a Red and White sock.  It felt very soft and smelled like something that came from a machine shop.  I remember wondering 1)  boy, she must think I have really big feet (not a good thing for a girl in Korea), 2)  why did she send me only ONE sock?  and 3) it must be really cold in America if people have to wear these things.  That was when I was 5. 

The indicators are moving again

I have noticed recently the Silicon Valley traffic is getting heavier again in the freeways, parking is getting harder to find during the evenings, and lines to get into restaurants are getting longer.  This is at the same time I'm reading all the sub-prime mess and how that will push the economic indicators down. 
So, here I am scratching my head trying to comprehend exactly what's going on around where we live.  One thing that's tilting in the "oh dear, we are heading to another tech cycle" is the rise in the level of the rudeness of drivers I've come across recently.  Call it "the return of the bubble" or start of another cycle of madness.  I was starting to feel some uncomfortableness when I came across a funny video.  Humorous, sarcastic, yet dead on.  So, what do you think?  Are we entering another Tech Bubble?

Immigration, Part 2: The Crimes of The Leader

Last night, my husband showed me an article from sfgate about a detained illegal immigrant being denied medical service for Cancer.  It took me a very long time to fall asleep last night and I woke up this morning groggy and still pretty much in a same mood: heart-broken, sad, guilty, angry, helpless and frustrated.

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I no longer even ask how this can happen, as we have seen torture being justified left and right by our executive branch and spine/brain-less Congress doing next to nothing about it.  Ever since I watched Frontline piece on Cheney, I've been very careful of what I say online and to whom I open up about my opinions. 
Because, in that episode, there was one-line that really struck me: An Unfettered Presidency.

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Many have written about this: James Hughes' reaction to the Frontline piece, Lee Hamilton's assertion that "the writers of our Constitution never envisioned an entirely unfettered presidency" (in fact, our fore-fathers were trying to make sure that we NOT go in that direction), and Sidney Blumenthal's article "Bush Besieged" (Excerpt: Deep Bush Corruption).  They are all saying the same thing but in different ways with different vocabulary.

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Do you know what an "Unfettered Presidency" says to me?  Dictatorship!