Catching Up With Chin

A few weeks ago, I re-connected with my good friend from
Purdue, Sungchin. It's pretty amazing how you can lose track
of friends over the years and with just a few emails, it's like
you just talked yesterday. It's a comfort thing I guess. Anyway,
Chin and his family are now living in Shanghai China where
Chin is an engineer with a joint venture automotive company
called Shanghai General Motors. He tells me that the language

barrier can sometimes be difficult, but most of the engineers

he works with speak English. Chin always made me laugh and

now is no exception. He said he was hesitant to go to China

because he had a vision of everyone wearing Chairman Mao

clothing and carrying little red books! It turns out, it couldn't

be further from the truth, as Shanghai is probably the most

capitalist place he has ever seen with everyone trying to become

wealthy, buying luxury clothes and cars. They also keep building

more and more new skyscrapers every year. I'm glad I re-connected

with Chin. I'm looking forward to chatting more in the future!

No Ifs, Ands, or Butts

I'm in the middle of watching multiple episodes of the television
show, Mad Men. It takes place in the early 1960's and in it, everyone
smokes. Cigarettes are not merely props in this show. They are a
major player and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they have their
own dressing room. They were a significant part of life in that era.

Fast forward to today; July 1, 2010. My alma mater, Purdue University
in West Lafayette has announced a complete ban on smoking anywhere
on campus. In general, I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, but
after reading the article about it, I'm not convinced that the no-smoking
program will be a success.


According to the University News Service article, "Receptacles are now being

placed at 22 approved locations (Purdue is a big campus. After seeing this map,

22 locations is not very generous). Smoking is not permitted elsewhere on

campus or in Purdue vehicles". After seeing a photo of these "receptacles"

(see above photo), I had to laugh to myself that these are in my opinion, a

bit of a joke. I'm struggling to picture a dozen smokers huddling around one

of these "parking meter marries a trash can" devices in West Lafayette's fine

weather from November to April. I don't smoke, but I have friends that do,

and I don't think they should be subjected to huddling around small posts

in the rain or snow.

All of this led me to remember a similar situation that happened

at McMurdo Station a few years ago. It was deemed that there would

not be any smoking in federally-owned buildings on Station. Since

all of the dorms were federal buildings, there would be no smoking

allowed in the lounges. Hence, "smoking shacks" were built to shelter

the smokers when they felt the urge to light up. (Odd that these "shacks"

were also "buildings" but I guess I'm waxing semantics) The trouble is,

nobody uses them. Most smokers stand outside doors to buildings and

puff away, not only ignoring the shacks but alienating non-smokers at

the same time by causing large clouds of smoke (at building entrances)

that must be walked through to enter. In addition, the University News

Service article stated that "Individuals can report violations using the

Smoke Free Campus Concern Form". In other words, fellow citizens/

students should rat each other out!

Lessons to be learned: People are not going to use something that will

point them out as "inferior" to others. Here...you use this building or

post because you are smoke (are evil). Also, people in general won't

tell on others, because no form is truly anonymous. People are afraid

of repercussions...and why should they have to do the University's job

for them. Lastly, when it comes down to it, people are by nature, lazy.

They're not going to walk 100 yards to find one of these posts, when

they can duck out a side entrance to a building to light one up.

Designated smoking areas? Good in theory...poor in practice.

43 Years

I'm not a huge follower of football of any
kind, but if I am going to pay attention to
any college team, it would be Purdue. Yesterday,
Purdue beat Michigan at Ann Arbor for the first
time since 1966. I was a one year old at the
time! I was able to go to a Purdue-Michigan
game in Ann Arbor a couple of years after I
graduated so I can appreciate the magnitude of
such a win. The stadium at Michigan is huge,
seating over 100,000 people (the most people
I've ever been around at one time in my life).
Granted, it's not that Purdue's team is that
good this year...it's that Michigan is that
bad, but it's fun to beat Ohio State AND
Michigan in the same year.

Risk

The year is 1984. I'm a sophmore at Purdue living on
the 7th floor of McCutcheon Hall. My friends at that
time...Chin, Paul, Rich and Byron...we're siting around
a board game in the elevator lobby playing a marathon
game of...Risk. That is the last time I played Risk
and it was 24 years ago. Over half my life ago.
Tonight I played with 5 other guys...several I'm
sure were not even born 24 years ago! I had a great
time. We whipped though the game in 2 1/2 hours and
I held Australia and half of Asia for most of the
game. When it game down to it though, I finished
second. The luck was just not with me. However, I
was lucky in the fact that I got to play a game I love
again, and only had to wait 24 years to do so.