California Dreaming

So it's the holidays folks! I hope everyone had a great year and lets strive to do better in 09!

I'm going to California to end the year off and to escape the ridiculously harsh winter weather up here. I might post over there but I doubt it so HAPPY HOLIDAYS and please don't drink and do stupid things.

Learning from your betters

After starting to learn the guitar, I had wanted to try my hand at composing my own song. It wasn't very successful because I couldn't come up with proper lyrics.

However, one should always try to improve oneself so after seeing this vid, I feel re-energized to come up with something that will reach this quality.



Such gems like "Nintendo got it right. Not SEGA." and "Now backwards you would say, Man Mega!" deserve to be spread to a wider audience.

Now all I need to do is to come up with lyrics to another video game theme...

Employment Numbers

We've probably all heard about that half a million newly unemployed US workers in Nov 08. That brought the unemployment rate in the US to 6.7%. Unfortunately, that's probably understating the number of jobless people in the US.

"Unemployed" is defined by the US Dept of Labour as

Persons are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work.

So this means that anyone who has gone jobless for more than a month will disappear from this count.

Fortunately for me I guess, the unemployment rate for Asians (at 4.8% in Nov) is the lowest amongst the groups listed. Only white women over 20 have found more employment than Asians. Although white men over 20 were pretty close too.

The good news is it looks like the most affected are the young and the not so highly educated. Which probably means that they still have time to get older and get a better education. The bad news is, I'm no longer considered young. But at least I'm considered educated. Hah.

All the numbers can be found at the US Dept of Labour website.

More information can be found in this Business Week article.

She's 40?!?

ZOMG!!

Financial Sucess

I had a discussion with a friend the other day about the pros and cons of investing, with then evolved into a discussion about how to be content in life. I think that everyone has their own individual path to contentment, but that's not the topic of this post.

What I do want to talk about is setting financial goals. Now that I actually have spending power and have some savings, I think I want to try to make my money work for me. To do this, I'm thinking of investing in stocks.

There are a couple of reasons why I think stocks are a good investment vehicle.
1. I'm (relatively) young and can weather the ups and downs of economic cycles.
2. Stocks have historically given the highest rates of return amongst investments
3. I don't have the money to buy property, nor do I have the inclination to shop around to look for ideal buys.
4. US Treasury bonds have abysmal returns.

However, since I'm essentially a "new bird" at this, I don't have much seed money. So I can't afford a full-brokerage nor can I invest in many stocks. So I've decided that a discount broker, probably Scott Trade, and exchange traded funds are the way to go.

With the new year coming, I think this is a good time to start doing my research and invest. I will keep this blog updated with my forays into the financial world. Wish me luck and wisdom.

A look into Video Game Art Desgin

By Square Enix, the makers of such hits like the Final Fantasy Series and other similar RPGs.. And if you've played some of their games, you'd realise how true this is...

I shoulda bought one with a cutout

So it's the end of the year and X'mas is coming around the corner. I was listening to the radio station the other day and they played Jingle Bell Rock by Billy Idol. It's pretty cool and so I decided with a year's worth of practice, maybe I could try to play it as well.

Looking at the tab, you have to play on the 14,15 and 17th frets... Since I have an accoustic guitar, it means me fingers have to be placed near the hole on the guitar. Which makes for real awkward hand positions... So I think I can get it ready in time for the festivities but I shoulda bought a guitar with a damn cut-out.