The Best Laid Plans

I just realized that my last post was my 500th. 500 posts covering about 6 years. Wow, I've been doing this thing for quite awhiles already. I feel like patting myself on the back.

Anyways, to the post proper. It seems like a great number of buttons have been pressed and a significant number of phone calls were made to ensure that all the vendors for this particular job that I'm working on will go down onsite tomorrow to troubleshoot the equipment. Apparently the jobsite still has intermittent issues with the equipment which I feel is not really related to things under our control. Admittedly we can fine tune it some more and we need to fix some bad parts, but most of the problems seem to be issues that involve the electronics and communications of the equipment. Which is not my company's area of expertise nor scope of supply. But when your stuff doesn't work, regardless of reasons, you have to fight for your own reputation and have to show you are willing to go the extra mile for the client.

But it's also something akin to extortion I guess, since we are working WAY beyond our contracted hours for this job. And we will not get compensated for it. We might be able to offset it with the backcharges for changes to our equipment done onsite but who knows. All I know is the global headquarters called our company to say 'Git 'er Done'. Perhaps it's pandering to power but when the bigshots call, you listen. I find it a bit distasteful, but we are a small business so we need to make them happy. I want to explore this idea in a future blog. But I'll leave it like this for now.

It's just that it seems that the next couple of months will be a busy busy period for us. There are an estimated 5 startups from now till next Mar/Apr. Which makes me really really glad that I'm going on a long vacation this X'mas. Cos I don't know when I will get a chance next year. Feast or famine I guess, that's the rhythm of the business. 就是因为这一点我想尽快拿到绿卡，过后箬想走就能走。

Also, just so I can boost my ego, I'm posting here for posterity some of the comments people have made about my guitar playing. I did a collaboration with my friend for Extreme's More Than Words, with her singing and me playing the guitar. For the record, I don't think the praise is warranted, but I'll accept it anyways. Haha.

(10:20:09 PM) J: my sister thought i'm using a background song because the guitar was so good
(10:20:11 PM) J: OMG......

Observations from a Job Site

So I'm currently in the Mid-west doing a start-up. I have spent 30 of the last 36 days here onsite at the Holiday Inn Express. And these are just a couple of things I have observed in that time.

1. When you spend 30 days in the same hotel, the staff knows your name. I asked to extend my stay twice this week and both times, the staff just set things up in the computer without asking for my name or room #. I guess they know my name and face very well now.

2. I have finished 2 tubes of travel sized toothpaste. So 1 travel sized toothpaste will last on average 2 weeks.

3. When things go bad, they might go bad in a hilariously tragic way. My equipment was running the last couple of days without incident but yesterday was a looong day. First of all, there are 2 sets of equipment here on-site. We had to shut one (called set 2) down due to a lack of feed yesterday morning. In the process of shutting set 2 down, there was a crash due to a mis-timing of the sequence. This inadvertently caused set 1 to crash as there was a programming error that caused set 1 to monitor the status of set 2. Since we only needed 1 set of equipment, we restarted set 1. We were trying to clean up the mess that crashing set 2 caused and so we went to lock out the equipment to be safe. The operator who was helping me then turned off the wrong set of equipment. So set 1 went down again. We then restarted set 1 and resumed cleaning up set 2's mess after we locked out the correct set. Then when we wanted to restart set 2 to check if we had cleaned everything up, we discovered the cross-referenced programming as set 2's equipment crashed again and led to another crash on set 1. Again, we restarted set 1 and then it was running fine for another hour when the discharge equipment that collects product from my equipment crashed. This led to yet another crash on set 1. All these crashes occured in a 6 hour period. I was sooo ready for a beer by the end of the day.

4. The Colts rock.

5. There are really some unpleasant people in the world who think that they can bully everyone else who is more 'junior' than them. I am not looking forward to working with that person again. 真是个自以为是的王八.

6. Bringing a guitar on-site was a good idea. At least I get to practice a couple of songs on the good days.

7. I cannot wait for vacation next month! Looking forward to happy times and Success!

当你的公司要被卖的时候应该怎么做？

今天我的上司确定了公司要被卖的谣言。最近几个月我们总公司决定要卖我们北美部门。

听说我们的竞争者想买我们的公司。如果真的被他们买了的话，我觉得公司会有超大的改变。我们公司文化，风俗一定会换。我对这个件事有点不安。不知道我绿卡的申请程序会不会受影响。加上会不会被逼搬到新的城市。Sianz.

Oh well, only time will tell how it goes. I should just aim to get out of this start-up as soon as possible. It's already been 4+ weeks and counting. Ugh. Hopefully I will get out soon.

Fiscal Madness

So the US is now 1.4 trillion dollars in debt. That's a whole lot of money. It's almost 6 times Singapore's estimated 2008 GDP. Most of it is the result of the economic crisis, the Bush era tax cuts and stimulus plan and the Obama stimulus plan. If someone owed that much money, I would imagine they would want to "tighten up" their belts but not the Obama administration

In light of the fact that there will be no Cost of Living Expenses Adjustment this year (since everything is cheaper this year than last), Social Security is not increasing it's monthly payment to the elderly. The monthly payment is tied to inflation to ensure a certain standard of living for the seniors. So if prices actually fell this year, there shouldn't be any increase in payments. Sounds fair right?

However, since the elderly are a disproportionately influential voting bloc (i guess being retired means that they have the time to go out and vote and nothing else to do but pay attention to politics), the Obama administration is talking about giving them another bonus $250 this year. Their basis for this payment? To compensate them for the lack of an increase in their monthly Social Security payouts. Think about this. For no rhyme and reason, the Obama administration wants to pull 13 billion dollars out of their asses to pay for an unjustifiable cause. And to top it off, they do not have any plans to come up with this sum other than borrow. This is untenable position. My father taught me not to spend more than I can earn but it appears that politicians are willing to sell the future to buy votes in the present.

I am no fan of the G.O.P. but I wonder how different is this administration different from the past? Instead ofTerri Schiavo, you have COLA for seniors. It makes one wonder if politicians are all painted with the same brush but just show different colours... It's disappointing.

The Winds of Change

So it's been a really cool year. Summer was more like a warm Spring, with the number of >30°C dagys countable on both hands. It was kinda nice to be able to escape the heat and humidity. But now, it's Fall and I think the weather has no intention of ever becoming warmer than normal this year. It's early Oct and it's already 10°C... Ugh.

It's my 6th year in the Midwest and ever winter never gets easy to handle. But I guess that makes the nice, sunny days all that more precious. Perhaps the changing of the seasons is also analogous to my changing life. I just did my first solo project, which means I have an increasing responsibility. I like that. It keeps the mind engaged and busy. Idle minds just turn to things that I cannot write on this (relatively) SFW blog.

Also, I like to think that I have started a new chapter in my social life. Moving up the real estate ladder and trying to meet more people (or at least, meet people more). This can only bode well for me. So let's see how it goes.

Finally Resurfacing

So September has been a hectic month for me so far. I was moving into my new place for the first week of the month then I had to hit the road for a job in South Carolina. In fact, I'm typing this at the airport in SC (free wireless at the GSP airport, very nice).

When I get back, I'll assemble the pics of me furnishing the new place but for now, I'll leave you guys with a pic of Jennifer Love Hewitt. She's so hot!!

Disappointing Returns...

So it's my birthday today. I'm busy with moving and stuff so there wasn't really any celebrations. Just ate some black forest cake my mum bought.

But I did decide to try my luck at the Mega Millions since it was a $252 million dollar jackpot. And the draw was gonna be on my birthday as well.

I got $27 worth of tickets, but as you can see, only 1 ticket actually won anything. And it was a measly $3 as well... I had thought to bank on birthday luck, but it wasn't forthcoming I guess. Oh well, I hope the office pool did better.

Joys of Business Class Travel

So on my recent trip back home, I was bumped up to business class. There's a huge jump in service and food between business class and economy. It's no wonder that there is a 2:1 price premium on business class, but after getting the kind of service I did, I'm definitely gonna try to upgrade myself every time I get enough points.

It's nice!

As you can see, they provide you with a power connection. I think mine was busted or couldn't provide the 230VAC required to power local electronics as I couldn't get it to charge my DS... The 2nd pin hole for the headphones is because it is noise canceling.

The array of seat arrangement options was numerous. I could make the seat slouch or fully recline. And they have a lumbar massage option which I found quite amusing if un-effective. The leg extension was also far too short but I guess they would have ran out of leg room.

They also gave me slippers and a fancy place to put my evian mineral water.

Spacious.

There was also a counter where you could place your drinks or other stuff. Even though I don't normally drink champagne, it was being offered for free, so why the hell not eh.

And now on to another important aspect of the business class experience: the food."

A classy menu.

The snacks given are "higher class" than economy but I think in the end, I prefer the cheaper Japanese snacks compared to the more esoteric things they provided. The free sake is a HUGE plus though...

The main course consists of an appetizer, a main meal and then desert. This was one of the most exotic airline meals I've ever eaten. Considering that I've always traveled economy, it's not a very surprising statement. But it was good. They gave me scallop, abalone, beef tongue, shrimp and a whole bunch of other stuff. And in case anyone was wondering, the blue ribbon is your chopstick holder.

The main meal had fish. But not some lousy fish from a microwave dinner box, this one had a ginger sauce. And they served it with miso soup and rice. They also give you a blue table cloth. Like woah.

Finally, desert. Melon sherbet and ice cream. This is wayy to awesome to describe. My favourite part of the whole course.

In conclusion, life in business class is good. One should try to always upgrade their seats to business class. I know I will keep trying!

An insight to how the big boys play

Interesting read about how the world of High Frequency Trades operate. It sounds like it there's a lot of megabucks and serious computing power involved in major transactions around the world.

No wonder the small fries don't really stand a chance. We get overpowered, overclocked and even played by the big fishes. Sometimes in ways we don't even know. Caveat Emptor I guess.

But that might be changing with the recent introduction to stop "flash trading" or the esp-ish read supercomputers get on the markets due to them piggy backing on the stock exchange servers. We'll see how it goes but it feels good to even the playing field a little.

In a separate note, you always hear stories of how companies do not put enough thought in the naming of their products when selling them in foriegn markets. I recently had to deal with a company called Process Combustion Controls. A pretty innocous name by most standards but the moment I read their name I started snickering. It's pretty unprofessional but funny. Guys and masturbatory references always seem to get along well.

The funniest thing was, after I mentioned this to my colleague, he said that the name was appropos, since they were "a bunch of jerk-offs."

Harry Potter

I'm no big fan of Harry Potter. I've only read 1 book and watched the first 2-3 movies. But this is kinda funny. Hermione isn't hot enough though. Though I think they got Harry spot on.

It's been a while

So I have some catching up to do.

1. Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there. You guys probably deserve the attention more than one day a year for all the good jobs you do.

2. It's the official start of Summer! Hopefully, this will mean that there will be more "summer-like" weather than weird, crazy April weather. Although considering that this is one of the coolest summers in memory in the Midwest, the chances of something weird happening is pretty high.

3. Congrats to the newly graduated! You guys might not have chosen the best timing for that act, but at least it's better than graduating 6 months ago.

4. Proof that TF2 sound effects + bloopers = funny.

Sick

So no updates for now. It was a beautiful wedding, Congrats to the bride and groom. I'm confident that they will have a fantastic future. In the meantime, please enjoy this video.

10 more days

I'm starting to think of local food everytime I go for a meal now. The loh mee, the vegetarian bee hoon... I can almost taste them. It's been more almost 15 months since I've been home and I'm totally looking forward to my first major vacation this year.

I think I could use the break. Although things are starting to get busy here, a break will do me good. 最近自分の生活はあまりよくいかなかった。どんの理由があっても、自分が直したい。。。 Perhaps a change will do me good.

Secret Guide to L337ness.

Tired of losing to scrubs? Seeking the secret to leetness?? Wanna know how to play as Ken in Street Fighter?!? I'm gonna introduce you to the answer to your questions! The secret flowchart the pros use to dominate any challengers!! Use it at your own peril. You will be accused of being too pro!!11oneone1

Invisible Car

How cool is that?! And no, it's not invisible because everyone is staring at the blonde...

The Wonderful World of Reals... with Tax!

Interesting new Xbox Live ad. Quite un-Microsoft like I think. But it's good.



And for some bummer news, Congress is starting to talk about taxing online sales. Again. I hope it doesn't come to fruition although with Chicago having the highest sales tax in the USA (11.25%!!!), uniformity of sales tax might actually mean that I need to pay less... Then again, I'd rather not pay it at all.

A true Hand of God

Taken from NASA's X-ray Observatory, this is actually the death of a star. The blue rays are X-rays emitted as a star loses energy and collapses onto itself. It takes 150 years to traverse from the base of the palm to the tip of the longest finger. And it happened 17,000 years ago. That's the awesome thing about astronomy, it's a study of stars and our past. Due to the limit of the speed of light, it's the one form time travel that is possible - we see what happened hundreds and thousands of years ago as it reaches us from light years away. Amazing.

Here's to hoping that in the next decade, we see a "finger of God".

Show me the Money...

Yeah! The 400 dollar tax rebates should be kicking in this month. Which means I get another $40 bucks take home pay per month. Woo!! That should be enough for a stag party back home.

An Interesting Anecdote

So I was at a job site when someone told me this story.

He is a person who is in-charge of doing projects for a huge multi-million dollar company. His most recent project involves the overall of some process equipment to the tune of a few hundred million.

His story was as follows: About 5-10 years ago, this company had outsourced the maintenance of their railcars to independent contractors. After doing a cost-benefit analysis, it was determined that by creating its own maintenance department, it would break even within 6 months. Thusly, the storyteller was tasked to go to the current contractor to find out how they operated.

His cover story was that he was inspecting the railcars currently under repair. So as he toured the facility, the one question he kept asking the production manager was "What would you differently, if you had a chance to start over again".

After he came back from his trip, he wrote up the repair sequence and within 2 years, the company had created the railcar maintenance division.

After hearing that story, I decided to never tell the whole truth to anybody who isn't in the know. An innocent sounding question might lead you to lose billions of dollars of business in the long run...

March Ramblings

So, I haven't posted in about 3 weeks. Lots of things, well some things, happened in the meantime and I was lazy/busy with other stuff to post. But anyways, here's a quick recap.

1. I went to Houston for a week. Pictures will be posted tomorrow. But Texas in winter is a good place to be. It was the 2nd week of March, Chicago was just starting to thaw out (low 40oF's/5oC's) but it was already in the 70oF's/20oC in Houston. My god. I want to move there soon...

Anyways, I had a fun time hanging out with my friends. I went to see NASA (not really worth the admission) and just enjoyed the nice weather in general. The chinatown in Houston is humongous. It's a sprawl that covers at least 20-30 blocks. About half of it is Vietnamese though. But it's huge. I've never seen so many Pho places next to each other before.

So I was eating supper with my friend at a cafe in chinatown and I ordered a bowl of taiwanese beef noodles and he ordered calamari. He made the additional comment of trying to keep up with me and the waitress actually called him out on that. Since obviously beef noodles>calamari, the waitress said that there was no way he was matching me. That just cracked me up. I gave her 20% tips.

2. Since the weather is getting better (no more snow!! no more 30's!!), I've started walking outside. I can't really jog yet (Doc says in another 3 months) so I'm walking until the weather gets nice enough to actually bike. At least I'm getting some low impact cardio done. Not really that great, but it's a start. It's kinda cool to do your circuit training by the lake. Although it's still only ~50oF/10oC and windy, I like seeing the waves crash against the concrete barriers. Makes me feel like I'm in a kungfu scene, training by the sea.

3. Also starting is my investment tracking plan. I haven't made a decision about HOW to invest (which brokerage firm to use) but I've already started faux trading. Haha. I've decided on a few things.
1. Any stock must pay dividend.
2. No stock should have a P/E ratio of >30.
3. ETFs are ok
Let's see how I fare.

4. Did my taxes... I'm in the 25% tax bracket.. Ugh. And I owe IL more tax. Ugh. AND the new (allegedly non-corrupt) IL governor wants to increase IL tax by 50%!!! From 3% to 4.5%. My gods, it's depressing living in Chicago sometimes. The parking rates just went up, from $1/hr to $3.5/hr in downtown and $0.25/hr to $1/hr around my neighbourhood. Thank god I don't go downtown much and have garage parking. I hate the mayor of Chicago...

So anyone who is interested, is now up to date with my life. Cheers!

Yao Ming Sucked...

At least in the game I attended like Saturday. The one and only time his Houston Rockets played in Chicago, and he had a bad game... Figures. And I had paid good money for the tickets too. At least the Bulls' inflatable mascots kept cracking me up.

Like this dude for example. I have no idea who/what he is but a 10' tall red plastic bull bouncing around is hilarious. Even when you're not drunk.

There was an floating bull balloon riding around the stadium at half time. If it had resembled a flying penis, I would have thought that I was back in college.

This is Benny the Bull. Apparently, he likes to take fanshots with his finger in his nose. I credit his originality but find his sense of hygiene very lacking.

Derrick Rose. The 2008-2009 NBA Rookie of the Year. Watch out for it. The kid is good.

Yao Ming as seen through a sea of balloons. I realised that both the Bulls and the Rockets have red and white as their colours. So for all the Bulls fans in the stadium knew, Yao Ming could have felt quite at home.

Awesome tickets, good game and great company. Although I wouldn't pay this price to see the Asian Sensation again, I had a fun time. It's great when you don't have any pre-domininat rooting interest in a close match.

裁员

今天我公司的head office裁了45个人。也就是说大约25%的人员。 这45个人当中，我认识一两个人。今天和他们MSN时，有点奇怪的感觉。想说几句安慰的话可是又担心自己会被裁。。。 下个星期，大老板会做公司Q2-Q4的经济估计，真希望有好的评估。否则的话，有可能我公司也会裁员。。。

Till this is resolved, no large purchases for me. I will also change my internet from Com-I Suck You Dry-Cast to another carrier so I can get their new subscriber discount...

Long absence...

Yeah, so I had a long absence from posting. I think my motivation just tanked this month for some reason. Busy with work, new achievement pack for Team Fortress 2 and just a general malaise I think...

But anyways, I'm back and starting to write shit again. First off, 没想到因为有了同事的link，就有其他的同事也过来探访我的blog.以后写东西要更加谨慎。能用3种语言来写这个blog就是有这个好处。虽然有时候没有人知道我想说的话，也有几次我说的话，不想让人明白，只想发泄一下。

In any case, because of the said achievement pack and because Street Fighter 4 is coming out for the PC AND because it's already 2.5 years old, I think it's time to start looking for a new PC. I was just messing around on newegg to see what OEM parts cost and then I went to Dell to see what a pre-assembled PC would cost and I think Dell has damn expensive labour...



As you can see, Dell charges a $200 premium on upgrading from the core i7 920 to the 940. That's almost 100% more expensive than the OEM upgrade. The upgrade to the i7 965 is even more bullshit. It's over $400!! WTF. They must be hiring all the retrenched Wall Street brokers to install these processors or something... Just by looking at this comparison, I think I'm going to have to build the next one from OEM parts. This way, any savings can be put to the "Fly home and see friends get married" fund. I doubt there will be much dissent here regarding that course of action.

Ok, that's enough for now. I hope to spec my rig by next week and then I'll start to talk about more important things like housing. Lol.

Life Lessons from Mario

Taken from Kotaku, Mario explains the complexities of a relationship.

First, the basic premise.


A suggestion on how to overcome the huge barrier.


The another take on said obstacle, with a caveat included as well.


The law of unintended consequences hits.


A possible ending to the story.


A very illegal alternative ...



I guess the lesson to be learnt is, invincibility will not help you when you try to get a girl. It cannot overcome large gaps, nor help you bounce on turtles to get to the other side of oceans...

Week 02 of 52 Review

So, after the first 2 weeks of the year, how are my resolutions holding up? Let's review.

1. Lose 2 lbs per month.
a. Weight - There's a problem here in accuracy of the scale. I read 225 but I think it's dubious as weight varies according to the time of day I measure. But I'll call it maintain for now.
b. Exercise - I have been more or less exercising ~5x a week. A bit behind my ideals but still fairly consistent, considering I am not biking at home...
c. Diet - Smaller portions have been a challenge. Especially on weekends. Weekdays, I generally eat less as I can't be bothered to cook. But weekends... I gotta come up with something.

Overall Grade: 3/5. Still a work in progress, but consistency in execution is a start.

2. Manage my finances better
a. Budget - Fail. Have not set a budget. So there's nothing to adhere to. I will set one for Feb 09.
b. Investment - Some research done, now I need to identify which brokerage I would like to use.

Overall Grade: 2/5. Some effort done, but not enough.

3. Get out more
a. My mum just left and it was really cold this past weekend.

Overall Grade: N/A. Will have to wait till end of the month to re-evaluate. Weather has not been kind in Chicago to going out.

4. Career
a. Pilot plant - Learnt how to size conveyors, mixers and RVs
b. Costing - Starting to learn costing (^0.7 measure, ductwork)
c. Academics - Still haven't touched Thermo... Nor Heat Transfer... Fail

Overall Grade: 3/5. Learning Different stuff (Finally!) but still a ways to go.

Well, here's to more progress going on the year.

A Quiet House

For the first time since Nov, my house is silent at night. After I came home from sending my mum off, there was no activity but mine... I think that will take awhile to get use to again.

I'd like to say thanks to my mum for taking care of me whilst I was recovering from surgery. It was fun.

And here's a funny flash Transformers video I came about whilst surfing youtube for Lucky Star information.The flash was made by a chinese artist, but I don't know who he/she is...


And as for Lucky Star, here's the intro to that anime. It's done by the same animation studio as Haruhi. I sense the new Haruhi dance coming...

Why not Individual Funds?

To answer Kenneth's question in the shoutbox, I think that for the time being, an ETF or index fund will give me the best value for money. Why?

1. Diversification for cheap. By investing into ETFs or index funds, I'm investing into a whole basket of different stocks (albeit small slices of different stocks). If I wanted to cover the same kind of ranges with individual stock, I would have to spend a LOT more money.

2. Lack of time/knowledge. I think I probably know the companies I work with and hear about but that will only cover 2-3 industries. That's not sufficient for diversification of risk. I would not want to invest in stock of companies/industries I don't understand, but I don't have the time to research and track every single one. By researching the ETF/IF, I can see what their investment ratios across the industries are, I can see what are the top 10-20 stocks they invest in and that's a less time consuming decision to make I think.

3. Cost of transactions. To invest in stock, every stock I purchase will have a brokerage cost. To get a diverse basket, I would spend a lot more on brokerage cost than if I were to buy an ETF. IFs are even cheaper in that sense.

ETFs vs Index Funds

With my last post, I mentioned that index funds are good for small capital investors like me. I recently read up about Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) which are similar to index funds in that they also track an index and do not look to out-perform the market.

So which is better for my money? Index funds or ETFs? I'll use this post to try to analyze their pros and cons.

Firstly, the similarities - Both are indices. This means that they are a collation of equities that track a specific index. The index can be anything, ranging from the Dow Jones, to Foreign Stock Exchanges or even commodities or currency. So joining either one will result in diversification of your investments. Which is a good thing, considering that I don't have the knowledge nor the time to research extensively into specfic stock at the moment.

Now the differences.

The ETF is treated like a STOCK. This means that a ETF
- can be bought and sold on the stock exchange
- are priced in real-time. It can vary by the hour.
- are purchasing by a broker. This entails that you pay a brokerage commission in your purchase.
- pays out dividend quarterly. Any dividend pay out from the indexed companies will be saved till then.
- has a small (typically ~0.1-0.2%) management commission to the company that maintains the ETF (tracking and composition of the fund).
- generally has a lower tax implication than an index fund (if it is bought and held) since rebalancing does not involve selling and buying of stock.

The index fund is a mutual fund. This means that
- the price of the fund is determined by it's Net Asset Value (NAV), which is valuated at the end of the day. This means that if you sell/buy a fund today, you won't know the exact price till 1-2 days in the future due to calculations of NAVs. - it will generally have a higher (but still small) management commission (typically <1%).
- there are NO brokerage commissions.
- any dividends paid by indexed companies will be reinvested or paid out without being withheld till the end of the quarter.
- typically will have a higher tax impact (if bought and held) since funds will rebalance by buying and selling stocks (hence invoking capital gains).

For the long-run, small capital investor (i.e. ME), I think the most important difference is the cost of owning or making a transaction with the ETF or index fund. I am not interested in day trading nor do i have a lot of money up-front to invest. I would rather purchase something and watch it grow over months and years. If there is dividend, that would just compliment my income.

ETF's have a lower maintenance fee than an index fund. However, it incurs a cost PER purchase. Typically, this cost ranges from USD7 to USD15 per transaction depending on the brokerage used. So ETF's would appeal to someone who makes a one-time big purchase.

Index funds, on the other hand, have a higher (but still quite low) maintenance fee . However, there is usually NO cost per purchase (for no-load funds). This means that if you plan to invest gradually, like a small investment per quarter, it might be cheaper to do an index fund.

It really comes down to how much does the transaction cost of the ETF compare to the extra maintenance fee of the index fund. I will search out comparable ETF's and index funds to analyze in a later post.

Some Resolutions...

So to speak, if you can excuse the pun.

I need a new way to do cardio. I had bought an indoor bike but the damn thing is so loud and the floors of my apartment are paper thin. I can't continue using it if I don't want my downstairs neighbour to kill me in my sleep... I was thinking that since it's soo damn cold outside, I would prefer an indoor cardio. Without any gym membership, the best I could come up with is stair climbing.

Pros - FREE, Convenient and WARM (it's gonna be cold till March)
Cons - Socially awkward, Boring

Any one has better ideas?

Also, I think for my investment goals, I shall start by looking at an index fund and putting money in it. With modest investment funds, I don't think I can do more than one. Or perhaps two different investments if I Realllllly stretch my budget. I think that should be a realistic goal. So my object is to identify a fund by the end of Jan.

Let's Do This. 1 week down. 51 more to go.

License Plate Lawls

So I was surfing around and came across this website that showed license plates that got pass the US Department of Motor Vehicle censors. I think this shows that there is NO-ONE in the DMV that understands modern culture or can visualize what a license plate will look like. Either that, or someone there has a weird sense of humour. Most of these pics are NSFW.

2009!

First (post)!

Ok, so maybe that was kinda lame. But with the first post of 2009, I will want to set out some of my goals for this year and review 08 for me.

I think 2008 was quite interesting for my career. It marked an evolution in my career as I started taking on more responsibility for start-ups and projects. I was the point man for the company for the one major start-up in Mar. I started to understand more about how equipment worked as I spent time in the field and saw actuators, switches and electrical panels. However, I still am not quite there yet in design, with my boss here, I should be able to learn more.

I think I kinda wasted my time in Chicago as I mostly stayed home whenever I wasn't on a startup but it was a definite improvement over the previous place I was staying. At least there's MUCH MUCH more food choices here. Some friends who graduated also moved into the city, so I got together some, but I can improve of that in 09.

I finally managed to play barre chords on my accoustic, so that's good. However, the playing is still very sloppy at times and needs more practice. Composing songs is way harder than I thought so I think I should concentrate more on playing instead. Ha.

Exercise was very inconsistent. There were periods where I worked out and then there were times I totally slacked. I need to have better discipline when I go out on start-ups. Need to exercise more and eat less. Luckily, most of the startups should be in summer this time. And that means I can actually go outside to jog/walk. But I gotta watch out for my knee.

Overall, I think 2008 was satisfactory. I enjoyed myself in the new city and the stuff I did at work. However, looking back, I realise that I can do much more in both aspects. 2009 will build on that.

To that effect, I will start a new label "Resolutions09", so I can actually follow my progress (or lack of) throughout the year. So without any further ado, I will list the things I want to accomplish for 2009 and my vision for doing so.

1. Lose 2 lbs per month.
- I have worked out a timetable for my exercise routine so I can gauge my willpower.
- I have promised to set out $10 per month to this goal. If I fail in any month, I will set that 10 bucks aside to treat my motivator (if said motivator actually tries to motivate me)
- Smaller Portions!! I don't snack a lot but I think I eat big portions for meals.
- Eat fruits/cereal(?) before lunch. To try to sate the mid-morning hunger pang.
- Track my progress bi-weekly. Starting from now. Wt= 227lb.

2. Manage my finances better
- SET MY BUDGET for the month!!
- Track expenses per week, instead of per month.
- Start Investing! Or at least actively track things I-would-invest-in-if-I-had-the-money
- Track my progress bi-weekly. Trend Interest rates, Property, Select Investment prices (this to be done from DJ or SP500 stocks)

3. Get out more
- I probably have 5-6 startups this year to go to. Which means a max of 5 months free at home in Chicago.
- Go hang out in Borders.
- Go out every weekend to walk the streets.
- Dance classes(?) if they fit my schedule.

4. Career
- Design my first pilot scale equipment
- Learn about the pros & cons of different equipment. Why is stuff used for specific apps and not others?
- Brush up on thermo!!
- Monthly Review on what I have accomplished in the month.

Wow, this is quite a long post. Well, here's to wishing everyone (and myself especially)the willpower and luck to get through 2009 without breaking any resolution!!