Since starting at Adobe, I’ve made it a point to take public transportation. Our San Francisco office charges for parking, so they offer subsidies for BART and a GO Pass for Caltrain. While taking public transportation takes longer for me (About 1 hour door to door), I’m constantly rewarded with the feeling that I’m doing my part in helping the environment.
I definitely have to say that I enjoy Caltrain much more than BART. Coming from Berkeley, BART is always packed and it’s hard to get anything done. Speaking with long-time BART riders, it seems that it has gotten even more crowded since gas prices have risen. On Caltrain, I’m able to read and work on my laptop.
I’ve been working at Adobe for three weeks and this is the first time I’ve driven into work… I had somewhat of a guilty feeling when I got into my car today. On the bright side, I was able to find street parking so I didn’t have to pay the $10 for parking that Adobe charges.
Work
This weekend on Saturday we had an all day marriage prep class. Surprisingly St Vincent’s Chruch in San Rafael is a huge estate and still is a school for foster boys. The church takes them in and now funded by the state, the boys undergo counseling and rehab. I was so impressed by this church’s grounds, it still is gorgeous and so pretty! They were setting up for a show that night in the courtyard and I think it makes a great place for a wedding. See some pics below.
The marriage prep class was slow but we were able to finish it one day and got the certificate. Overall I think it was not bad, the instructor was very good, we were in an interesting locale and the pre-marital counseling actually spurred some interesting conversations between the two of us.
I also had a baby shower today and posted some pics below.
Wedding
A guilty pleasure for Mara and me has always been a chocolate cake a la mode after dinner. On Friday night, Mara and I had a date at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in San Francisco. She had the Filet Mignon and I ordered the Cowboy Ribeye steak. While our steaks were very good, in the back of our minds we were looking forward to the chef’s special chocolate molten cake after dinner.
Now something that Mara and I share is our belief that the chocolate cake has to be complemented with an equal amount of vanilla ice cream. Not enough ice cream ruins the whole experience for us. We spend most of our energy rationing the ice cream to ensure that there is enough for the whole cake. I’m not going to lie to you… it’s a stressful situation.
Back to Friday night…. we ordered an additional scoop of ice cream to go with the cake but it still wasn’t enough! We were so unhappy with the experience that Mara and I bought a huge chocolate cake tonight and paired it with twice the amount of ice cream! Though our eyes were much larger than our stomachs, I think it’s safe to say that we got our fix tonight.
Dining
I took advantage of this long weekend to catch up on my tech news… it’s been a tough few weeks. There’s been a tremendous amount of chatter about Yahoo/MSFT. While I don’t feel particularly strongly about either one of these companies, I decided to scan into the financials of Yahoo. In my opinion, in the last several years, the only company that has done less with as much resources than MSFT is Yahoo.
One look into the income statement of Yahoo reveals why shareholders should be critical by Yahoo’s current management team. From a technology point of view, you can’t ignore management’s inability to create any new innovative products and services. While Yahoo owns a tremendous amount of real estate, it’s inability to monetize it effectively has been downright disturbing.
Now, for the financials… while Gross Profit has grown about 10% from FY06 to FY07, and 18% from FY05 to FY06 (Primarily through top line growth), the resulting Operating Income and Net Income are just downright shocking. Just looking at Operating Income, it’s dropped 27% from FY06 to FY07… and 15% from FY05 to FY06. You don’t have to be a financial guru to be appalled by these numbers. Taking this into context, Google has been growing their bottom line around 36% in FY07 and the whole tech industry has seen substantial growth over this same period.
One of the most shocking fact that I noticed is that Yahoo’s R&D costs have grown from 30% and 45% in the last two years. You would generally like to see a correlation between R&D spending and top line revenue, but we see very little evidence of this.
While being acquired by MSFT may not be the perfect option, the management team’s inability to grow the company and provide a long-term coherent strategic vision is concerning. This is a play that will help MSFT gain the scale economics it requires, improve it’s operational performance, expand it’s R&D capabilities, and help MSFT reposition itself. Whether you believe MSFT will be able to accomplish this, I admire that they are actively seeking ways to grow.
Yahoo shareholders deserve better than what their management team has done for them and I firmly believe MSFT’s offer presents a fair exit. And judging from Yahoo shareholder reactions, it looks like they agree.
Misc.
I’ve been working on wedding invitations all week. I found out that they were spelling a name with a “J” instead of a “Y”. No wonder it looked strange, and I had them change the font to two different font styles so that it would be right when in reality it was the wrong letter. Argh. Nonetheless we are close to a final sign off on the proofs, still waiting for a couple more approvals. I will be so happy when I get to see the actual pieces of paper with “Request the honor of your presence…” Hehee! This will be a big check off once done.
Wedding
Last Thursday, I turned in my last assignment and my summer has finally started! I’m truly excited about the wedding this summer, despite all of the “todo” items left before the big day. It has been a quiet few days without school and before I have to start work, so I spent some time reflecting on the last few years and the where Mara and I are headed to next.
Reflecting on the last 10 years, it seems obvious to me that they can be split into several chapters.
1997-2001: I think most will think of their college years to be the most transformative years in their lives. To me, these 4 years were a breath of fresh air. I got lost in the last two years in High School and used these four years to focus myself on my studies. The most important lesson that I learned at UCLA was that there were 24 hours a day and you could use all of them if you tried hard enough to.
2002-2003: This year was probably the darkest and most miserable in my life. What happened during this year confirmed a lesson that my father tried to teach me early on: When you’re in a questionable situation that is difficult to get out of, you absolutely have to get away from it as soon as possible. Leaving Los Angeles was the best decision I ever made… I just wish that I did so earlier. Additionally, the passing of my grandfather brought tremendous pain. Out of this chapter, I became stronger and learned a lot about myself.
2004-2006: These three years can be summarized as my Mara/SD/Qualcomm/Career Search years. WIthout a doubt the happiest years I’ve enjoyed in my life. Mara and I met short before I left for Qualcomm and it’s been such a great 4 years. I’m thankful she stayed with me through all of my crazy ideas and adventures. My time in San Diego and Qualcomm was very enjoyable. I always loved San Diego ever since the first time I visited… I always wanted to live there and always wanted to work for Qualcomm. Having accomplished this, I dug deep and thought hard about what to do next to advance my career.
2007-???: I’ve used these two years to transition from my previous life/career to my new one. My education at the Haas School of Business has already opened many doors for me career-wise and will continue to do so. Also Mara and I got engaged in 2007… We’re slowly transitioning to our new life together. Everyday I feel fortunate and thankful that we will spend the rest of our lives together. When I was younger, I always worried that “happily ever after” wouldn’t happen… if I could only go back in time to re-assure myself that I had nothing to worry about :).
I’m really curious to see what the next few years will lead me. There is so much I want to get done and so little time. Regardless of what happens with my life…. I feel absolutely blessed that Mara and I will be writing new chapters in our lives together.
Life
It is so hot. My car temperature read three digits for the first time a few days ago and thankfully it has been “only” in the 90’s since. I don’t have air conditioning at my place except for a ceiling fan. It keeps the air moving but unfortunately the fan is not in the bedroom either. It cools down a tiny fraction at night but when the air is still, even the bed seems to be giving off heat. Despite it all I am grateful that I don’t live in a humid climate with no air conditioning. It could be much worse. So for the time being, it’s ice cream, cold water and staying in cool dark places for now.
Uncategorized
Last Saturday most of the bridesmaids and I met to get our dresses fitted. Si Arima is this nice Japanese lady who works out of her home and was recommended by a lot of the bridal websites for the south bay. She was conveniently located across Rivermark and hurried us along when we chatted too much.
Dhivya, Surai, and Jyoti made it to the fitting and hopefully the finished work will be good. I’ve been waiting to get my dress fitted so that I can send it out for a good clean and press. I asked for it to be pinned and now I need to make sure it fits! It’ll be so much more exciting to see it in its final form. The veil I tried on there made the whole thing more real! I must say, after the SF picture shoot with Tiffany I feel like it’s finally hitting home. I still have so much to figure out!
Uncategorized
Is it vain of us to have so many pictures? No. Really. We do have a lot now. And the big day isn’t even here yet. We will be receiving a big album from Taiwan and I don’t want to make another engagement album with the Adeline and Grace Photos. Seriously 
I posted a few of the pictures that I like and for the full album go to here…
www.pictage.com/435792
Event key: nguyen
You can also find this link in the right side navigation bar with the new thumbnail picture.
If you have trouble seeing the album leave a comment. Because it works fine on my computer but the website recognizes me and automatically logs me in. You may have to register with the site to view the pictures but you should be able to see the event once registered.
Wedding
I finally got a chance to download the pictures Mara and I took in Hong Kong from my camera. I think they came out really well!
http://grommit.com/gallery/v/mchou/2008_HongKong/
Travel
Welcome to our new website. We obtained a new url and it should be a lot easier to remember than the previous one. We’ve also transferred the previous posts from googlepages to this url so it should be all here. If you like rss feeds you can also now subscribe to this blog and it will download to your Google reader or similar app.
New pictures are up from our engagement session at Catherine Wedding Photography in Taiwan! Click on the picture to the right. It turned out a lot better than I thought and I think of them as good memories of a very tiring day but good day. Enjoy!
Wedding
Mara and I just returned from our trip to Taiwan. Over the last week, we visited my relatives, shot our engagement photos, shopped, went sight-seeing, and ate a ridiculous amount of food. I had several thoughts about our trip. What struck me the most was how little my family in Taiwan has changed. They are undoubtedly most warm-hearted, generous, and kindest people I know. Second, I was surprised by how passionate people are about politics in Taiwan. Even a week after the election, the election was still on the tip of the tongue for everybody. Lastly, I always forget how amazing the food is in Taiwan. Mara and I ate non-stop from the moment we stepped off the plane until we boarded our flight back to San Francisco. Every time I return from Taiwan, I always look forward to the next time I go back.
Travel
The 2008 US News and Report ranking for the best MBA programs in the United States came out yesterday and the Haas School of Business is now ranked 7th in the United States. This is a improvement on our ranking last year and I’m tremendously proud of our school’s upward rise in the elite ranks of the nations best business programs. Having been at the school for almost a whole year, I can truly attest to the collaborative and student-led environment at Haas. And over the past year I’ve had the privilege to work with so many intelligent and interesting students.
http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/grad/mba/search
MBA
So we’ve been in Hong Kong for a couple days now. It’s Monday mornng and we had breakfast at 7:30 am because we slept 12 hours last night. Still dealing with jet lag I guess since we came back to the room to rest around 4 pm and work up at mdnight! So we slept for the rest of the night and woke up this morning. We had dim sum already and it was really good. But I must say that the dim sum at home like at Fook Yuen is just as good so no new delights here in Hong Kong despite being in dim sum’s birthplace. Food has definitely been good so far.
My big shopping was on the first day we were here. We found an Esprit outlet and spent a couple hours there. Michael was so patient with me. =) Today we are going to go see the Giant Buddha, a big old gold statue of the buddha that sits outside.. Pictures to post for later!
Travel
Today I accepted a summer internship with Adobe as a Product Manager. I will be working with the Mobile and Devices team (MDBU) in San Francisco. The team leads the evolution of the rapidly changing non-PC ecosystems. It focuses on delivering solutions that enable carriers and operators, handset manufacturers, consumer electronic device manufacturers, and mobile designers and developers to differentiate their products and build new businesses. MDBU focuses on Flash and PDF-based solutions to create compelling experiences on any non PC device.
Work
Surai was so awesome as to organize a birthday dinner for me at the Four seasons restaurant! She also treated me to a manicure earlier and we window shopped a little while waiting for dinner. It was so nice to see everyone and the first time where we’ve gone out to a birthday dinner that was this expensive. I guess this is to herald in my 30th birthday. I really like this picture of us. Thanks again everyone!You all made it special.
Birthday
I met with my florist Leanne on Saturday and she seemed very nice. Again she works from her home and her pricing is close to what Loan paid. We spoke for 2 hours on what flowers, color, and all the decor that I would need. Whew. I left a deposit with her and have now started to change my mind about what I want with what I had just told her! But I’ll save her the headache and let her know all my changes closer to the date. So another good thing to check off my list, get a florist.
Wedding
We pretty much finalized the menu. We picked and chose and swapped out certain dishes until we got this modified version which hopefully our guests will enjoy! Once we go to our tasting I’ll write the reviews for these dishes. See the full menu under the Wedding information link.
Wedding
Reuben made this for me, isn’t it cool? I love it!
Wedding
I added some links under Wedding Information. The links are pretty self explanatory. I’ve been getting them from our vendors so I’ve been meaning to share. It will always be here if you need it. And yes I am going to Asia in a few weeks. Should be fun!
Wedding
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