DPung

Haven't posted in awhile

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:44:00 +0000

So, I haven't posted in awhile... I'll give you a quick recap of what I've been reading online...

First off: http://www.salon.com/opinion/paglia/2009/08/12/town_halls/

I agree, Pelosi is crazy. Get rid of her. Un-American?? Swastikas?? Seriously? Which brings me to my next point:
http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2009/08/obama-health-care-logo-sparks-controversy/

Not that I agree with Obama's health care plan, but this is just ridiculous. People need to find something else to do. I can kind of see it, but I find it hard to believe that anybody would purposefully put a swastika in the logo....

Moving on!
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/politics/Death-to-Obama-Sign-Holder-Detained-53134147.html

Just so anybody doesn't know, I clearly am not an Obama supporter. I do not condone anybody getting killed or anything like that, but isn't this supposed to be one of the great freedom's of the US? Freedom of speech? Can I not say, "that man needs to be shot!" without fear of being investigated by the Secret Service?

My mom recently made a similar comment regarding Taiwan's president, Ma Ying-jeou, regarding the typhoon that hit the island and how his administration is handling the disaster...:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.13d33a191587de8d62270d95e984c2ce.501&show_article=1

Clearly, you know who my mom supports in the Taiwanese politics... Very sad for the people in south Taiwan...

Next!
http://wcbstv.com/cbs2crew/new.jersey.teacher.2.1126563.html

$23k? Seriously? Thats like... 30% of her salary! I think that's a little harsh!

And I just found this freaking hilarious: http://community.detnews.com/apps/blogs/henrypayneblog/index.php?blogid=2041

You can feel global warming when you're flying?????

This last one: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/14/criminal-prayer-case-stirs-protests/?feat=home_headlines

I'm torn about. I can understand the separation of church and state, etc. I can understand that in the presence of students, you have to watch what you say... Its not entirely clear, but it seems that at one event, there were no students present and at another, there were. Maybe it was wrong at both events, I don't know, but is this really a criminal case? Does this really warrant jail time? The thing that really gets me is that they forbade the class president, a known Christian, from speaking at her graduation ceremony in fear that she might say something religious.

Are we going to let fear decide things for us from now on?

Students

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:50:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

I came across this video from an email I received. I found it kind of interesting since I guess I'm in that in between period where I'm no longer a student, but I don't quite feel like a working person since I'm only about 3 years out from school.

At first, I agreed with the video, but after thinking a little bit, I kind of felt like they were complaining. I know that I'm guilty of it as well, but I think that there will always be a generation gap. I accused my parents of not understanding, especially since they grew up in Taiwan and I grew up in the USA. However, as I grew older and had more responsibilities, I began to understand that its not really a generation gap or a technological gap, its more of a maturity gap.

Maybe some of the points brought up in the video are valid and that maybe we are on the cusp of an educational revolution with the technology we have today. However, given that that technology is still not readily available or accessible to students across the country like paper and pens/pencils, I don't think there is really any gap at all. If there were to be a gap, its in the eyes of the students. Maybe the students at Kansas State University feel this way (I'm sorry, but 200 edits by 350+ collaborators does not really impress me and does not speak for the vast majority of students), but there are plenty of students who cannot afford to spend the money on technology like laptops, etc. Even when the day comes where laptops are seen as commonly as paper and pens, I don't think that will solve what these students think is the problem. I think it will allow for easier access to resources and possibly bring about a new kind of informational revolution.

The problem isn't the lack of technology. It's a lack of perspective. The students perceive the classes they attend, the books they buy, etc. to be relevant. True, maybe the actual content of the classes may not be relevant 5 years later, but basic concepts and foundations are built there. I probably don't remember more than 10-20% of what I learned in pharmacy school, but I do know the basic studying, learning and concepts were learned during that period. I am thankful for the education that I received. Maybe I spent too much time in the library. I would be lying if I said I didn't do well at school (at least later on). But I don't think that high GPAs translate to success since success is defined by yourself.

One of the things I learned after school and after residency is that the amount of things that need to be done in a day does not diminish because I was done with school or residency. In fact, you could say there was more that I had to get done. The only difference was, I was equipped with the tools and skills necessary to get it done.

I can bet you that 50 years from now, students will still be complaining of irrelevance or of a technological gap. Technology will always be updated. Relevance and success is in the eyes of the beholder. Higher education is not a requirement. Your college education is a privilege. You can choose to attend.

Interesting...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:49:00 +0000

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aAKluP7yIwJY

Can this be expected from other major corporations? Who knows, but it definitely doesn't look good. What does this mean? Less jobs for people in the US, less money for spending = economy NOT improving...

Didn't we kind of know that this would happen too? Or maybe not, I'm not an economist and maybe I didn't understand the article completely, but I can tell you that its bad.

*Note: I wrote this a while ago. I didn't post it until now....

Who Really Cares?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:06:00 +0000

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/04/09/rove-calls-biden-liar-bush-aides-challenge-vps-boasts/

Who cares if Biden rebuked Bush or not? Is it really that important in our current situation? There's no point in wasting time and energy into proving Biden right or wrong. I don't really care. I say let Biden continue to make his remarks. I think it only makes him seem more immature and less qualified for the vice-presidency. It makes him look stupid. Or, maybe stupid-er (is that a word?).

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0930196920090409

We don't need this right now, especially considering that Obama is now asking for more money. Not for us though, it's for the war! I don't know if this is necessary. I know that we need to stabilize the region in Iraq before we can withdraw our troops. Maybe these billions of dollars are required to be able to do that. I don't know, I'm not a military strategist. But I'm pretty sure Obama isn't one either.

Anybody else notice that since Obama became president, the media doesn't really focus on the fact that we still haven't withdrawn from Iraq yet? But when Bush was president, the media couldn't talk about anything else?

Do you know what I did the other day? I looked up the definition of socialism and capitalism to get an exact definition of the two. Of course, I didn't get to read everything, but the fact that I had to do that should say something. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but it means I'm concerned. I also looked it up because I read that 53% of polled Americans say capitalism is better than socialism.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/just_53_say_capitalism_better_than_socialism

Interesting...

Stupid me...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 22:59:00 +0000

I realized that I didn't post about Sierra and I having a baby. Stupid me. Anyway, here is the first picture of baby Pung.

It's kind of weird to think that I'll be a dad within the next year. We just had our second visit with the doctor. Apparently the major thing at the second visit is to find the baby's heartbeat. I thought that this would take some time to find, but the doctor, just plopped the little ultrasound thing on Sierra's tummy and the heartbeat came out loud and clear. I thought it was pretty cool.

For those of you wondering, we do have names picked out. I'm not going to tell anybody though, so it'll be a surprise when he/she is actually born. The next big thing for us is to start planning on how to rearrange the third bedroom into a nursery. First thing we'll have to do is move everything out and paint it. Our plan is to put up a chair-rail (chairrail?) around the room at about the waist. Then, we'll paint all the walls white. Our main idea is to have Raian (nephew), Lizzie (niece), Hayley, and the Hommer kids and others come and put their handprints all over the top half of the walls in yellow, green, pink and blue. The bottom half, we'll have those same colors, but in stripes. I'm not sure how we're going to do this yet, but we'll figure it out.

Yes, that is a picture of the pregnancy test. As you can see, I'm not touching it. Sierra is a crazy mommy who has to take pictures of everything. A normal person would probably throw them away. But Sierra has them in her underwear drawer.... (in a ziplock bag). I think she plans to make a scrapbook with them at some point. Our kids are going to be scarred....

Banks and Politics

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 16:21:00 +0000

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123879833094588163.html

I don't normally get that involved with what's going on with our government, but it seems that President Obama has a way of getting me to read about our current situation. I guess that's one good thing that Obama has done. He probably has increased interest in current US politics in all demographics, for good or for bad.

Just in case you couldn't tell, I'm not an Obama supporter.

Also, just in case you were wondering, I read these news articles when I have a break at work to keep myself in the loop in terms of what's going on with our country and the world. I used to go to CNN.com, but after talking with my brother and realizing how narrow CNN can be, I started going to DrudgeReport.com. I like the Drudge Report, but it's very Republican and conservative. So, I'm open to any other suggestions.

If you read the editorial by Stuart Varney, he talks about how the Obama administration won't take back some of the TARP cash, or bailout money, that the government had given to these banks. Just like Mr. Varney, you would think that the government would like to get some of that cash back, regardless of how much or where it comes from.

If the banks are forced to keep TARP cash -- which was often forced on them in the first place -- the Obama team can work its will on the financial system to unprecedented degree. That's what's happening right now.

I don't know about you, but I don't like the way this is heading.

The government wants to control the banks, just as it now controls GM and Chrysler, and will surely control the health industry in the not-too-distant future. Keeping them TARP-stuffed is the key to control.

I don't like that either, especially considering my job is included in there. Honestly, I don't know how it will affect my job, but so far, the hospital does a pretty good job on their own determining their finances, reimbursement, etc. Do I really want the government to control that?

If Rick Wagoner can be fired and compact cars can be mandated, why can't a bank with a vault full of TARP money be told where to lend? And since politics drives this administration, why can't special loans and terms be offered to favored constituents, favored industries, or even favored regions? Our prosperity has never been based on the political allocation of credit -- until now.

This just kind of scares me. This too:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/business/30auto.html?_r=1

Which brings me to the Pay for Performance Act, just passed by the House. This is an outstanding example of class warfare. I'm an Englishman. We invented class warfare, and I know it when I see it. This legislation allows the administration to dictate pay for anyone working in any company that takes a dime of TARP money. This is a whip with which to thrash the unpopular bankers, a tool to advance the Obama administration's goal of controlling the financial system.

And this also.

Some crazy stuff.

Police....

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 17:53:00 +0000

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Officer-who-detained-Moats-shouldn-t-see-the-str?urn=nfl,150809

I read this article while I was taking a break at work... It kind of makes me wonder how people even learn to be so senseless. If you don't feel like watching the clips, what happened was, Ryan Moats, a NFL player for the Houston Texans was caught running a red light while driving to the hospital with his wife, grandfather-in-law and other family members because his mother-in-law was dying. From what I can gather, this is dying in the sense that she could die at any second.

The police officer in the video clip, followed the Moatses after witnessing the running of the red light to the hospital where the family got out of the car and attempted to get in the hospital to the dying woman. Not shown in the video clip, the police officer actually drew his gun and allegedly pointed it at the people getting out. Ryan Moats' wife ignored the office and rushed into the hospital while Ryan stayed behind where he attempted to inform the officer of the situation. What follows is about 10-15 minutes where the officer struts about and does everything he can to slow Ryan down and display his authority as a officer of the law.

Excerpts from Officer Robert Powell and Ryan Moats:

Moats: You really want to go through this right now? My mother-in-law is dying. Right now! ... I got seconds before she's dying, man!

Powell: If my mom was dying I'd probably be a little upset too, but when I saw flashing red and blues, I would stop.

Moats: Did I not stop at the red light?

Powell: You stopped, then you drove through the red light.

Moats: I stopped, I checked the traffic, I waved the traffic off, then I turned.

Powell: This is not an emergency vehicle. You do not have the right to control the traffic.

Moats: OK. All right ... just go ahead and check my insurance so I can go ahead and go. If you're gonna give me a ticket, give me a ticket. I really don't care, just ...

Powell: Your attitude says that you need one.

Moats: I don't have an attitude. All I'm asking you is just to hurry up. Cause you're standing here talking to me...

Powell: Shut your mouth and listen.

Moats: Shut my mouth? Is that how you talk to me, too?

Powell: Shut your mouth and listen. If you want to keep this going, I'll just put you in handcuffs, and I'll take you to jail for running a red light.

Moats: OK. All right.

Powell: I can do that.

Moats: OK.

Powell: State law says I can.

Moats: Yes, sir. Go ahead.

Powell: If you don't settle down that's what I'm gonna do.

Moats: Yes, sir.

Powell: All right, If you don't settle down, your truck's illegally parked – I'll tow that as well.

Moats: Yes, sir.

Powell: OK, I can screw you over. I'd rather not do that. Your attitude will dictate everything that happens, and right now, your attitude sucks.

Moats: Yes, sir.

Powell: OK, I turned my red and blues on as you were going over the bridge ...

Moats: You think I'm gonna stop when my wife's mother is dying?

Powell: You are required to stop. What you're doing does not matter. Red and blues, you have to stop. I can charge you with fleeing right now.

Moats: Yes, sir. ...

Powell: I can take you to jail. I can tow your truck. I can charge you with fleeing.

Moats: Yes, sir, you can. I understand.

Powell: I can make your night very difficult.

Moats: I hope you'll be a great person and not do that.

These kinds of situations just make me shake my head and wonder where people get their self-inflated sense of importance. It made me really sad to hear that his mother-in-law died before he could get in to see her.

Can somebody tell me how this is a good thing?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 06:57:00 +0000

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/23/AR2009032302830_pf.html

Seriously, how is this good? I know that the economy sucks (yes, that is a technical term), but how does this help?

On a totally unrelated note, I read this the other day (Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/education/18college.html?_r=1), and I found it to be pretty interesting. Now that I think about it, it is sort of related in a twisted way, maybe. Follow me on this:

Students feel that since they do the work, they deserve an A. They feel that since they put the work into it, it is their right to get a good grade. This same mentality is then seen as they grow older, where they feel, they deserve to buy expensive cars, big houses, things that cost a lot of money (because they work hard) that they cannot actually afford. But, by golly, they deserve to have all these expensive things and nobody is going to stop them from getting them.

Next thing you know, EVERYBODY wants to have the big house, nice car, etc., because they deserve it! They work hard! Darn it, we live in America, the land of golden opportunities! I should be able to buy a big house, nice car, send my kids to school and not give a crap about them, but public education better teach them how to be nice people since, because, you know that's what school is for... Who needs English and math? But the schools better give them As in everything because they work hard and they deserve it...

Maybe, I'm crazy? Or maybe my logic is flawed somewhere.

Has anybody else had/seen this before?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:03:00 +0000

Sometimes when I'm at work, I play around with my hair (ie, rubbing my head because its short and feels funny). I noticed that I have a single hair at the top left of my forehead that is clearly separate from the rest of my hair... Has anybody sen this before?

Regardless, Sierra plucked it for me and now my forehead is hair-free. I just realized that I should have taken a picture of it...

I don't understand...?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 02:51:00 +0000

Sierra was sitting on the couch, playing around on the laptop. I'm trying to get her to go to bed, so I turn off her laptop, close it and unplug it. She asks me to put it under the couch. Instead, I just put it aside. She starts to get really upset that I'm not putting it under the couch and I really don't understand her insistence on putting it under the couch. She points at our window, which is a very large window and doesn't have very good curtains so people can see right through it, implying that people can see it in plain view.

Keep in mind, this is our living room where our TV is. Yes, our brand new plasma TV.

Clearly, our beat up, crappy 5 year-old Toshiba laptop (with 2 missing keys on it and a cracked panel) is much more valuable, than our brand-new TV. Of course, they would have to actually break into our home first.

Ridiculous

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:30:00 +0000

I haven't posted anything in awhile because a blog just takes too much time to maintain. Regardless, I am going to try and keep this updated. Of course, updated means one post every three months or so.

My brother sent me this link today while I was at work. I found it somewhat amusing. I guess I shouldn't find it surprising that Pelosi and others working in the government should get some kind of special treatment. What I found really interesting is that her aide had the nerve to get angry about it.

Who's paying for this? How does that stimulate the economy? And how is this appropriate when 500 million Americans lose their jobs every month???

New-Fangled Blogging Tools and Narnia

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 31 May 2008 04:02:00 +0000

In an attempt to make my blog more accessible, I put a "feed" on it. I am not exactly clear what it means, but it took me about an hour to figure out. This is my basic understanding of what a "site feed" is. The feed allows me to break down my website (blog, personal site or any website I want) into little chunks so that it can be viewed from a feed reader without the person actually being at my blog's URL. This way, people can subscribe to a number of websites and read what they want to or what has been updated recently on all of their subscribed websites all at one location.

Does that sound about right? All I hope is that I have put the link to subscribe to my site/feed/whateveryouwanttocallit correctly and that it is accessible through FeedBurner. I tested it out with Google Reader and it seems to work, so let's keep our fingers crossed.

Sierra and I went to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian tonight. It was not the best time to go see a movie. The moment we pulled into the parking lot of the mall/theater, I knew there was trouble. I did not expect there to be such a huge crowd to go see Sex and the City. I also didn't think there would be so many people going to see IJ4. Thankfully, we were able to get our tickets quickly. I went into this movie with some reservations only because I expected much more from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but more to come on that at another time. For now, I am going to make sure my feed is working and that I get to sleep at a reasonable hour.

And no, I am not linking Sex and the City to it's website (I don't even know what the URL is).

Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 30 May 2008 01:06:00 +0000

For my second post ever, I am going to give a review on the new Indiana Jones movie.

My first thought was how thankful I was that George Lucas did not direct this movie. I am sure there are very many Lucas fans, but my opinion of him as a director is very low, but we can talk about that at another time. His skill as a story teller is a different case though. Most of his brilliance as a director should probably be attributed to his story telling.

I am still not sure how I feel about Indiana Jones 4. The first thing I said to Sierra at the end of the movie was, "Seriously??" Apparently, Sierra had the same question. I don't want to mislead you though. I thought it was a good movie. It was fun to watch. Was it good enough to be the movie of the summer? The answer to that question is maybe. It all depends on how you look at it. If you're like me, chances are, you've seen the previous Indiana Jones movies. You're probably expecting the movie to be similar to the previous three. If you're 20-something or older and you've seen the previous movies - you're going to go see this movie. For the younger folks who have not seen the older movies, you may or may not go watch this one. My wife, Sierra, is a 10th-grade English teacher. Her students told her they didn't like it. Does this shock anybody else but me? Should I be surprised? When I think about it, I conclude that I really shouldn't. The first Indiana Jones installment was released in the 1980s. This was before the teenagers now were born. Indiana who? They may have seen the other movies, but probably not with the same kind of enthusiasm as I did or anybody else who grew up with these movies. This new Indiana Jones probably doesn't appeal to them like it does to us. I may be completely wrong. Who knows? Maybe I'm stuck in that period where I'm getting old enough that I'm out of touch with the younger generation and I've joined the ranks of "old people."

Besides, do teenage girls nowadays really want to go see a 66 year old actor? I know that Harrison Ford has that older man sex appeal that a lot of girls and women subscribe to. But, isn't he getting beyond that point now? Then again, I may be wrong since Sean Connery has a good 10 years on Harrison Ford.

So, was this 66 year old actor able to pull it off and bring back Indiana Jones with his fedora hat and whip? Well, he didn't use his whip that much, but they definitely focused on his hat a lot. If you ignore the fact that Harrison Ford is really, really old now and not as young and limber as he used to be, he plays a pretty good Indiana. But like I said, you have to ignore the fact that he getting older and it shows. Shia LaBeouf as Mutt Williams was an interesting choice. I think that Shia is a great actor despite having his start on Disney with Even Stevens. I thought his performances in I, Robot, The Greatest Game Ever Played, and Transformers were great. Some people thought he would be the "Jar Jar Binks" of this movie. I'd have to disagree. I think Shia pulled off being humorously ignorant as the younger sidekick (if you want to call him that) without being annoying. And did anybody else catch that his name was Mutt and that Indiana chose his name after the dog?

Cate Blanchett as the Russian chick. I really don't know about this one. I think she did her job as the evil villainy Russian person, but something just didn't feel right. Sierra says that she kept seeing Galadriel. I'm not as obsessed with Lord of the Rings to see that, but I don't think I saw evil Russian chick.

In the end, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg definitely pull off another blockbuster hit. Whether it was due to Lucas' writing skills or Spielberg's directing skill or history, nobody will ever know. If you've seen the older installments, you'll definitely want to see this one just to see where it leads. If you've never seen Indiana Jones before, go see the other ones and then circle back if you like them. To be perfectly honest, I don't know, but I suspect that this movie would not have done as well as it has if it didn't have so much history behind it. I think it's a good, fun movie to watch, but I don't think it's a great, amazing movie.

Welcome!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 26 May 2008 14:15:00 +0000

Welcome to my blog! In the past, I posted on Xanga and more recently, I posted on Facebook. I have decided to start over and try blogging on Google, since Google has created the ability to centralize everything from work to home.

A little bit of history:
For those of you who don't know me, my name is Dan (it says it somewhere on this page). I am currently living in Philadelphia, PA with my wife Sierra. I grew up close to Princeton, NJ. After high school, I attended Rutgers University for pharmacy school. I graduated pharmacy school in 2006. Almost exactly a month after graduation, I married my wife on June 17, 2006. After a week-long honeymoon in Jamaica, we came back to NJ. We didn't stay long though. I had been accepted into a post-graduate residency training program in Pittsburgh. We moved to Pittsburgh in the few days after we returned from our honeymoon. We spent a year in Pittsburgh where I learned a lot about clinical pharmacy and we learned a lot about each other and marriage. After Pittsburgh, we moved closer to home to Philadelphia where I had been accepted into a 2nd-year residency program for pediatric clinical pharmacy. I am currently finishing up the residency program. I've learned a lot about pediatrics and even more about marriage and life. We hope to continue to learn more about each other and to grow closer to God and to each other.

For those of you who do know me:
Hi.