Tuesday, March 31, 2009
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.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
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...
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...
Monday, March 23, 2009
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!
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!
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
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.
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.
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