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.

The Secret to Peace of Mind is

Lotion. My squeaky sneakers are squeaky no more! All thanks to lotion. I put lotion around the orthothetic sole and now it's only the tchak tchak of my crutches that gives away my coming and goings.

So it was definitely not Jeff Dunham style lotion. No SIREE. Nothing like this.

Nothing at all.

Also, if you are able to, you should watch Celeb to Binbotarou (セレブと貧乏太郎). It's a fantastic jdrama about rich spoilt girl and poor working guy. Not exactly a very innovative plot, but the I think it's a comedy that's kinda like Scrubs, where the little touches show that it's a good series. Plus it has a very catch ending theme song.


I totally dig the princess outfit.

Hobbling About

I started work today and hobbling around on crutches is not the easiest thing to do. At least the building has an elevator. I remember back in JC where I had to climb stairs to get to class in crutches! At least I had an excuse for being late back then. Now I kinda feel like that crocodile from Peter Pan. Whenever I move about, there's that distinct Tchak Tchak noise of crutches. Anyone can tell I'm coming around. In addition to that, I have squeaky sneakers which makes me rhythm in motion when I go about. Tchak squeak Tchak squeak.

On the bright side, recovery seems to be going fairly smoothly. I hope to be off 2 crutches by the end of the month and off all crutches by mid of Dec.

Ninja!!

Never mess with a 8 handed ninja.


I hope everyone enjoyed their halloween. I know I did. At least I had something to celebrate before becoming hobbled with my ACL reconstruction surgery. Here are a couple of nuggets I have found just surfing the net in my bed-idle time.

Looks like the LIBOR rate is FINALLY dropping down. Hopefully this means not just optimism at the changing of the guard of the USA president but also a less paranoid outlook by the banks.

Hopefully this will in turn lower mortgage rates so that if/when I can finally finance my home purchase, it will be cheaper.

A couple of indicators of how the world will fare should be able to be seen in the differential between the LIBOR and 3 month US Treasury Bonds rate. When things settle back to normal, this differential should be ~1%.

Also, historically the US housing market has found its "sweet spot" with a 6 month inventory. Currently, it is about 10 months worth so demand is still lagging behind supply by quite a bit.

And joblessness numbers should be sub-400,000 before the economy starts to recover.

All the information was gleamed from Yahoo! Finance.

As the clock ticks down

So by this time tomorrow, I fully expect to be in bed with at least 3inches of sterile wrap around my knee. I'm going in for an ACL recon tomorrow morning, hopefully, this will be last time they cut up that knee again. 4 times before the age of 80 is 4 times too many already.

6 weeks in crutches means a shutdown in the holiday season. The forced inactivity whilst everyone else is planning parties or holidays... Ugh. You can't join your friends to ski, to celebrate Thanksgiving, to go bargain shopping, nothing at all. I plan to catch up on my manga, anime and learn VBasic for Excel macros. Maybe I'll try to record "Pai Ka" versions of songs and use the brace and crutches to gain sympathy viewership. Haha.

An operation is kinda like a paradigm shift in your lifestyle. One day you lead a normal life, where you won't think twice about bending down to pick up a quarter that has fallen down. The next day, you become bedridden and are advised not to shower for another 3 days(!).

Oh well, for all the inconveniences, at least I have my parents to help me along and if it means that I don't need to cut the knee open again, it will be a price I am willing to pay.

At least I have an excuse to stay home in the cold and sleep in when it's snowing outside. Haha.

Back in MichiGAN

Which means more youtube surfing. This time I have a dancing storm trooper. Danny Choo, revered otaku figurehead. (Z you might enjoy that site).

South Park Yourself

What do you guys think? Looks similar? Go and try it yourself here.

Feel the beat

Today's post will be a PSA.

If you ever encounter someone who's suffering from heart failure or has just gone unconscious and have the balls to try to perform CPR on them, just remember -

"Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
Im a womans man: no time to talk..."

Apparently research shows that Stayin Alive by the Bee Gees is the almost perfect rhythm for doing chest compressions. The ideal rate is 100 beats per min, Stayin Alive clocks at 103 bpm. So you can always help someone by singing "Ah Ah Ah Ah Staying Alive~~!!"

Mktg 101

How to attract people to your game?

Step 1. Use attractive female actress
Step 2. Talk about recruiting people to said actress cause
Step 3. Insert penis joke

End product should look something like this.

How Rhythm Games can Merge with FPS

For a preliminary concept, I'd say not bad. Needs more crit rockets though.

ドンドンモエアガルゼ！！

I went to a chinese buffet for lunch today and this was my fortune.



I will work harder this year!!!

Red Alert 3

Makes for a pretty neat MTV. And so many chixorz...


But then you have to contend with DRM. After the Spore DRM fiasco, I wonder how it will finally turn out for EA.

Hmm...

最近我的朋友请我到他的组屋的人的派对。我认为这应该是好机会较新朋友所以答应了。可是我忽略了一点。一件很大的东西：这派对是印尼人举办的。除了我以外，其他人都会讲印尼话。。。 真是有点尴尬。。。 食物非常好吃，可是95%的对话我听不懂。。。 而且主持人不会讲中文，把我的名念成“姐姐”。。。发誓下次我会自我介绍为“JJ"。。。 幸亏有好心人故意用英文跟我聊天。 可是现在就有点矛盾-下次应该不应该再回去呢？ 我一生中这是第二次发生这种情形。第一次是韩国人。那更惨。那一餐，我只说了两句话。。。

If it were you, what would you do? Any suggestions?

And on a brighter note, I finally have a break through in Fukai Mori by Do As Infinity! The tab is finally clear to me!! Practice practice practice!!

It's the End of the World...

As we know it.
On the 10th of Sept 2008, at 730GMT (130 CST) the Large Hadron Collider will power up. Although I'm no physicist, I think it will definitely help us understand the make-up of the world better. The LHC will basically accelerate particles around in a huge underground chamber at near absolute zero and at near light speeds. What happens when these particles smash into one another is what everyone one is eagerly (or not) to see.

Will it be able to prove dark matter exists? Are there REALLY strings in physics? Will it be able to let laymen like you and me understand what is a Higgs Boson (I have no clue what that page means)?? I will be dying (figuratively I hope) to find out.

And if the world really ends tomorrow, at least I got to celebrate my birthday first! :P

Edit: I just found out that CERN (the organization behind the LHC has actually a very informative rap on Youtube about the LHC. So without further ado, the LHC rap.

Do Barely-Skillful Guitarists Dream of Broken Necks?

So I had a weird, weird dream last night. I can't remember the setting very well, but it was one of those older Chinese street settings you see on 上海滩 and the like. I don't remember what I was doing or where I was going, but I remember walking down the streets with a guitar strapped across my back, like how the 2 dudes from 功夫 were carrying their 古镇(At least, I think it was a 古镇). Why wasn't the guitar carried vertically? I have no idea. Narrative impetus I guess.

Anyways, I was walking into a side alleyway and for some reason, I turned around. And the guitar smashed against the wall. And snapped, into 2 at about the 5th fret. Which really freaked me out. I spun around at the sound and this time hit the OTHER wall. Which made another snap. Right near the body. I remember feeling shocked about the whole thing and thinking "OMG! What shoddy workmanship!". I was also thinking, "Acoustic-Electric here I come!". Then for some unknown reason, I saw that the strings had broken into 3 sections as well and decided to try finger tapping that 5 fret section. And miraculously, it worked! So I tried my hand at tapping awhile before it dawned on me. Why the hell did the string fracture into 3 different pieces? And then I woke up and double checked my guitar to be sure...

Thanks, and a Video

A little while back, I posted something about Animal Abuse. I know have the full song and the cartoon that follows it. I present "Cows With Guns".


Also, thanks to everyone who wished me Happy Birthday. I had an enjoyable time. Not as good as I would have liked it cos of some technical difficulties, but it was still fantastic nevertheless. Thanks again, you guys rock.

Vids

What happens if TF2 experiences the recession that the world is feeling now? It would be something like this I guess.

Watch more TF2 Videos

And THE FRONT FELL OFF.

An Idle Mind...

Is the result of being sick the whole weekend. I left my apartment to do laundry and check the mail. That was about it. So in order to prevent boredom from killing, I recorded two songs and found a couple of Olympics related things.

Here are a couple of China Basketball Team Themed posters. I found them really hilarious. Courtesy of Chinasmack.


I guess the 踢 part of the poster was to keep in theme with TMNT. There's no good term for basketball that starts with a T I think. At least, my Chinese isn't good enough to come up with one. Even "Tak" means to kick, so that rules out Hokkien.

I also came across 2 promos for Raving Rabbits. They always have excellent promo vids and these are no different.

Tonight, I sleep without Blinds

So due to an incident sometime back, my housing complex is changing all the old windows (like mine) for newer, more energy efficient ones. Which is great. I didn't like those old ones anyways.

However, the stupid installation crew came in, installed the windows, moved my stuff around, dirtied my apartment, FAILED TO REPLACE THE BLINDS AND LEFT MY DOOR UNLOCKED WHEN THEY LEFT!! Stupid Americans. 人家说洋人会办事，服务态度好。好个屁。真的很怒。

Hips Don't Lie

But I have no idea what they are trying to say in this case...

Bad Travel Day

So yesterday, I left the job site at 6.30am EST to travel 220 miles back to my office. I reach the office at around 9am and then I get a phone call from my boss, informing me that there was trouble at the job site. Great.

So at 11am CST, I drive the 220 miles BACK to the job site to investigate what happened. Turned out that the troubles occurred at 4am EST. If they had called me BEFORE I LEFT, it would have saved me 6 hours and about 500 miles on my car...

And to top it off, when I was leaving last night (for the last time), I traveled about 35 miles before realising I HAD LEFT MY INVESTIGATION NOTES AT THE JOB SITE. So that added another hour to my travels.

Grand total travel distance yesterday - 3x220 + 2*35 = 730 miles
Total time spent on the road - 8 hours
Total (waking) time spent in a plant/at home/at office ~ 6 hrs.

What a bad travel day...

I'm Your Medic

Remember the uber-cool Soulja Boy TF2 MTV I posted awhile ago? No? Well, here's another cool TF2 themed MTV. This time it's completely original and uberly uber cool.

Without further ado, I'm Your Medic.

To my TF2 pals who read this blog, I expect this kind of medic proficiency from you guys in the future. Practice harder!!

The common folk always pay...

I was reading a couple of articles about the current financial crisis in the US and the over-riding message I'm getting is that if you are in the IB (Investment Banking) world, you get to play dice with other people's money. You rarely rarely lose.

Take big risks and win, you get a fat bonus, take big risks and lose, you lose other people's money AND get bailed out by the government to boot! (which then increases the taxpayers' burden!!)

It's really quite depressing for me. Where is the justice?? Thank god I don't have a family of my own else the burden on me would be even greater. We pay cos the government has to lower rates to encourage spending/borrowing and that leads to my savings giving a measly 2% return and the fixed deposits doing even shittier. I want to invest in the stock market but everything seems to be on the downturn and in-flux. I need to do more research but how I wonder.

To lighten the mood of this rant, I am posting NBA Superstar Dwight Howard's audition for the host of the (ESPN) ESPYs.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

All graphs and presentations

Should be this cool.



And all half-time shows should be as retro as this.

I like how the cheerleaders choreograph their moves to the song but I like the weird signs they hold up even better.

Murphed Called...

And really messed with my day.

So I'm back in central Nebraska where the cows and goats roam and you can see cornfields until your eyes go green. And I'm here because there is some testing to be done at a facility.

The equipment has been running for about 2-3 months without any major issues. However, since last night (when it rained for about 6 hours non-stop), the equipment has malfunctioned 9 times. We need our equipment to be up and running for about 2 hours to ensure testing conditions are met, but we waited the whole day just to start and stop the thing. For some reason, the burner would keep dying on us and there would be no alarm records, no indication as to what failed. It was a very frustrating Tuesday...

And to make matters worse, the long awaited anniversary party for my company has been canceled. It was slated for early next month but now the next thing to look forward to would be the date the timer on the upper right corner is counting down to. *Hint Hint*. Oh well, enough complaining, let me get back to my work.

Way too cool

Someone has invented their own Sentry Gun! OMG! Without further ado, here is the video.


I know whose house to avoid late at night now.

The Irritating Things

There are many things that irritate people in life. Today, I just saw two things that bugged me. The first was this email I received this morning.

What a fucking joke. I didn't really know to laugh or spit at the email. If I ever get another Lenovo again, it will be to beat the fucktards that built one of them.

The second thing I encountered today was a case of stupid people. I was at the beach (freshwater beach!) today and there was a group of black people there. Everytime I walked past them, one of them would say stupid things like "Egg Chow Fun", "Foo Yong Dan" and then there would be a stupid black girl laughing. I wanted to say something to the effect of "MMMMMMm-mmmmm, I love me some FRIED CHICKEN". But I decided that they were just spastic idiots and should be deserving of sympathy... 臭黑人真笨，连嘲笑也做的这么烂。怪不得不能成大事。。。

I need recommendations

For some reason, my TV is fried. I suspect that the power outage during my vacation is the cause of death but now I am faced with a conundrum. I want to get a new LCD TV. My budget is around 350. But I also want a new electronic keyboard (full keys). That's probably gonna run a little higher. Thus the economic question is which should I get?

New TV in time for the NBA season? Or an electronic piano to complement the guitar? Decisions, decisions, lack of money, lack of money... I need a bigger bonus. Haiz. Haha.

Movie Reviews!

So, I just went to California and spent a whole week for vacation. And it was FANTASTIC. Even though the Lakers couldn't win the Celtics, the weather was still gorgeous, the people still handsome and the food was oh so mouthwatering.

I don't have many pictures with me right now as I really relied on other people's cameras alot but I did see 3 movies in that one week. So instead of talking about my vacation, I'll talk about movies.

The first movie I watched was Kung Fun Panda. From Dreamworks.

It's an animated comedy about furries who know kung fu. If that idea appeals to you, go and watch it. If not, then you might want to watch it for the various movie stars who voice this show. Jack Black and many others do a good job of giving their characters life. It is believable that if the actors were animals themselves, they would symbolize the animals that they voice. So go and watch it. If not for what I said already, at least to hear the secret of Mr Ping's secret noodle soup. The one thing I didn't like about the movie was that even though it did not have the gestalt-ish movie movement in most children shows (e.g. power rangers), the ending of the movie was pretty lame.

The 2nd movie I watched was Wanted.

It's a movie loosely based on the graphic novel of the same name. And it's a good summer movie. No depth of thought, lots of action scenes, nifty special effects and Angelina Jolie. ANGELINA JOLIE. HOW CAN YOU NOT WATCH ANGELINA JOLIE?! That said, if you don't really like action films or want something deeper like A Beautiful Mind (or, if you like, The Cube) you might want to pass on this one. But then again, ANGELINA JOLIE! ZOMG!

W.A.L.L.E (I don't know how to do that circle font thingy).


It's G.O.O.D. If you like robots, who can have a romance, and when the guy speaks like 20 variations of the 3 words throughout the whole movie. If you don't like that, I would say go watch it if you have nothing better to do. It's a touching movie and although the story meanders somewhat, the animation is top notch and the crazy robots will make you smile. If you were considering between W.A.L.L.E and Kung Fu Panda though, I would say go for the practitioners of furry fury.

That's it for now. I will update more when I get the pics.

The WoWtrix...

If the Matrix was set in WoW, it might a little like this.

WeGame.com - WoW Videos

Revisiting a Theme

It's a video.

About a cartoon.

Can you guess?




It's HYBRID PIKA-HI!! Enjoy. I know there are people out there who dig this stuff.

As an added bonus, here is Lupin the 3rd doing something called the carmaldansen. Or ｳｯｰｳｯｰｳﾏｳﾏ (U U Uma Uma).

How Safe is your Chat?

Cnet has an article about how encrypted (or open) popular instant messaging systems are. It's something to keep in mind if you want to talk about any salacious/illegal/embarrassing details online.

The full report can be found here.

Winnie the Heavy

Even the most innocent of childhood memories can be be embroiled in violence. It's very funny violence though. Hehez.


Comic taken from F@nboys Online.

Where Amazing Happens...

NBA Finals start tonight. Boston versus LA. GO LA! CRUSH THE SOULS OF THOSE IRRITATING BOSTON SPORTS FANS! LA in 5.

Rock On!

Guitar Hero - Who hasn't heard/played this game? And now, there's a portable version out on the Nintendo DS. But being a handheld, there is no gibson for you to jam as you play. Instead, there is a new dongle to attach to your DS. Afraid that your jam sessions will be ruined by this foreign "instrument"? Not to worry, here is the How-To Guide for this handheld version. Enjoy and ROCK ON!

How On Earth...

So I ordered a comic from Amazon.com about 2 months ago. Since it was a pre-order, the book finally was shipped last week. The estimated arrival date was May 22 but man, was there some shipping cock up or what...
They were 5 days and 2,000 miles off target...
I seriously hope that that's a typo on the shipping info. I will call them tomorrow and try to hash this thing out...

Avast me Mateys!

Atari founder Nolan Bushnell recently suggested that the latest approach to combat PC piracy is to use A Trusted Platform Module (TMP) chip. Basically, the TMP chip is a chip on the motherboard of the computer that is supposed to check and confirm the legitimacy of any PC software installed on the computer. If the software is legit, the chip allows it's usage. If the software is pirated not, the chip is supposed to prevent it's activation.

I'm not a computer expert so I cannot comment on how technically sound this method of DRM is, but I think that using borderline draconian methods to protect their IP is not the right way for companies.

The image of a typical pirate is someone who is young and has relatively low (no) purchasing power, like high school kids. I believe most pirates are not really interested in purchasing the actual product. It's more of "since I can get it for free, I'll try it" kind of attitude. Thus, such anti-piracy measures aren't really helping companies increase their revenues. People who can't pirate the game aren't necessarily going to want to play it regardless. And then the real users are the ones who have to suffer the indignity (& inconvenience) of the anti-piracy procedures.

I think as most people grow up and see an increase in purchasing power, they will stop pirating goods as they are in a better position to buy what they want. Thus companies should spend their efforts in making (& marketing) a product that these users will buy. They can include freebies (vouchers/posters/etc) with purchases, allow legit users to have exclusive interaction with the programmers, etc. These are things that cannot be downloaded nor digitized for free sharing. That should be the way to go I think.

Piracy should not be condoned, but heavy-handedness is not going to win people over to the big companies' side. I hope that corporations realize the futility of forcing people to do what they (i.e. corporations) want.

P.S. Ninjas are cooler.

LCD Hunting?

Then here are some things to look out for (straight from the Pro's mouth)

1. Backlight leaking. When it's all dark, the edges glow.
2. Uneven backlight lighting - If you have say a monotone blue wallpaper, the blue on top looks different than the blue below. This is less obvious on small monitors but 24'' and above is pretty obvious.
3. Color (observe the Americanized English) gamut. Most LCD on the market now uses panel that produces only 78% of the color spectrum. The new ones which most manufacturers are transitioning to are >92%. Makes hell of a difference. Make sure you don't get something that manufacturers are trying to dump.
4.Warranty. Worry less about dead pixels these days. The backlight usually dies first.

There you have it. Things to ponder when you next hunt for the 32" FragFest Baby to allow you to game and chat with the gf/mom/random hot chick at the same time.

I'd never

Thought that I would see the word "tits" on the headline from a respectable news website.



If you're interested in finding out more, you can click here.

If you ever...

Wanted to see a white boy (Stephen Colber[t]) do a DDR throwdown with an Asian (Rain), here's your chance. Although in the spirit of the Colbert Report, it's really more of a comedy, it's still a chance to see Stephen's (not so cool) moves.

Some back story.


The actual challenge.


Enjoy.

Also, because I had to, hear is how Team Fortress 2 applies to relationships. In the wise words of ICE.

Some Last Thoughts...

Before my operation tomorrow. I'm going for an arthroscopic exam to remove any floating bits of meniscus in the knee and to determine if my ACL is still ok.

It's kinda worrying to know that walking on gravel could lead to such an injury. I might have to consider a career change if the doctor determines that I have a weak ACL again... I can't risk the hazard to my knee like that. Which would suck since I like my company and my job... Sigh.

Oh well, at least some old friends will be coming around soon. That's really awesome. Hopefully my leg will be better and I won't need crutches to show them around. It's a good time to visit the US, the dollar is so weak (1.3!! OMG). My purchasing power just keeps falling...

In something completely off-topic, but completely relevant to the nature of the blog, guess what occupation this lady had before this pic became public?

She''s definitely an inspiration for an American Pie movie. And she was also the mayor of a small town in Oregon. I'd vote for her. Haha.

Ok, I'll post again after my op. Just to show I'm alive.

Chicago Traffic is Horrible...

Or how I spent 3 hours traveling for a 15 minute transaction...

So I bought a pair of orthotic in-soles over the weekend to try to help my flat feet. Since I was bringing an acquaintance around town, I went to the factory outlet about 60 miles west of Chicago.

Turns out that the in-soles didn't fit my feet and I went back today to exchange them for a pair that did... 60 miles from my office, google maps says about 1 to 1.5 hours of travel. Like so.

However, when you account for traffic density, the actual journey becomes more like this.


Although, in all honesty, I think this is a better representation of what's going on.

I left my office at 5pm. Got there at 7:15pm... And then got home at 8:30pm. And the most irritating part is, on my way there, the traffic towards Chicago was light. Like maybe 1 car every 10-15 meters. And then on my way back to Chicago, it became 1 car every 3-4 meters... I love Chicago traffic...

GF TF2

Is a lot of laughs. Enjoy.

A bit of background. Team Fortress 2 (TF2) is a first person shooter (like Doom or Halo) where one chooses a team (Red or Blu) and a class (soldier - with the rockets, demoman - with the bombs, scout - the fast, small one, heavy - the biggest guy, medic - the doc-ish looking one, pyro - shoots flames, engineer - uses the wrench, sniper - has a scope, spy - can turn invisible). And then one team tries to unleash hell on the other.

Bonus video. Monty Python done TF2 style! Watch for the guitar hero pyro!

TF2 - Something Completely Different from David Keyworth on Vimeo.

Oh Shit...

The doctor says I definitely have a torn meniscus at the back of my knee and surgery is recommended to prevent the meniscus from locking up my knee. I'm gonna seek a second opinion from a doctor nearer to home but I think it's likely that I will be going under the knife... Ugh.

So in order to try to lighten up my mood, I've been watching this animation of Architecture in Helsinki(which is an Australian band)'s Do the Whirlwind.
I like it so much that I actually bought it from Amazon.com. Amazon is so cool, you don't need any software to download and the music is copy-protection free. I feel legit now. Haha. Must be the increase in purchasing power.

Not the best of times.

Not the best of times right now. Violence across the globe, religious strife, economics turmoil and I'm not feeling too good either (and not just about my single status too).

First of all, my knee feels sore. The alarming thing is that happened suddenly without any warning. So I'm thinking if this still hurts tomorrow, I'll go and see a doctor. Hopefully, it's not a big deal and I'll feel better when I wake up.

Next piece of bad news is about my bank. JPMorgan recently came up with a deal to purchase Bear Stearns. I read on the Economist that JPMorgan agreed to guarentee $1 billion of Bear's $30 billion most illiquid assets. If Bear Stearns can't get rid of them, I'm doubly screwed. Once via JP and once more via the Fed(since I'm a taxpayer). I hope it doesn't come to this. Ugh. Also from the article is the following.

The bank is heavily exposed to rising corporate defaults. It is also big in home-equity loans, which are souring at an alarming rate. More importantly, it is a giant in the over-the-counter derivatives market, and number one by a long way in credit-default swaps. With such a large derivatives book, the bank can withstand losses of only 15 basis points (hundredths of a percentage point) across its positions before eating through its regulatory risk-based capital, according to Institutional Risk Analytics (IRA), a research firm. These positions are, like those of America's housing giants, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, too big to hedge effectively, IRA says. It also calculates that JPMorgan needs almost five times its current capital to cover its economic risks.

I want to comment about Tibet, but it's late and I'm tired. So I'll leave you a link to pics about how foreign (i.e. non-chinese) people have protested against Chinese action against Tibetans. You don't need to read Chinese, just look at the pictures and form your own conclusions about "westerners".
Lastly, this is a conversation with a relative in China about her opinion on the whole matter. Some editing for space and formatting.

Her: 西藏我没去过. 不过哪个地方是很多人都很想去，特别是中国人.我有几个朋友说一定要去西藏，哪的文化很浓，地方也很好，海拔很高，很多人梦想去哪，特别是搞艺术的，做设计之类的对这个地方很感兴趣
Me: ok.对西藏人要独立的事又有什么看法？
Her: 这次事件搞的满大的，独立我想不太可能的.做为中国人当然不希望他们独立
Me: 那你对“做人不能太CNN"这句话又有什么看法？
Her: 我们做人要实事求是，要厚道.比较同意以上说法，哈哈. 中国人做事也好，我感觉都很有原则，实事求是，做人，做事脚踏实地. 这次事件对中国影响很大的，我同事有去过西藏的，大该去一下，在中国要花1.5万人民币，现在可能又少一点，过去的人都说很好. 像这样地方，去的人一般都是喜欢冒险的，哈哈，不过铁路通了以后，旅游的也很普便了

She says she doubts that Tibet will become independent and that she doesn't wish for independence. On the issue of Western Media Bias against the Chinese government's actions, she says that Chinese people are principled and practical and that everyone should be like that. I guess that's not really answering the question, but I want to sleep already and that's as far as I will get.

Ok. Night all.

Watch the Video, Follow the Instructions

And see how sharp your eyes are.

Post Easter Post

I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter weekend. Even though I'm not religious, since it's Easter, I'd like to take the time to share some takes on the Last Supper.

1. If Jesus were a mouse, I'm thinking the Last Supper might be something like this. Be wery wery quiet, they're eating...

2. A more commercial take on the Last Supper. Although, if food were the main theme, it might be quite apropos.

3. Abstract, with contrasting colours, some might say the Apple is akin to Jesus.

4. Perhaps some people worship this form of Apple Jesus instead.

5. Personally, I worship at this One's altar more than any son of God.


6. Who can resist Lego figures? Lego Jesus FTW!


Well, I'm also back on-site. Using the hotel internet. Which sucks eggs.

Good "QQ" Game. Oh well, I never expected to TF2 anyways. I'm just glad I brought my DS along.

Couple of miscellaneous Chinese vocab.

1. 频频肇事 (pin2 pin2 zhao4 shi4) - to repeatedly create issues.
2. 涉嫌 (she4 xian2) - to be a suspect

Do-Over

This post was originally about someone who was impersonating me as seen above. But like a good friend said, I should grow thicker skin. So that's that.

TF2 Overload

I'm amused at all the creative things people have done with TF2. It's a game but I've seen so many youtube music that utilizes TF2 sounds. It's incredible.

Here are some of the best I've seen. And a special shoutout to AhSeng. Most of them are Scout-based. Bonk!

1. Mortal KomBonk


2. NFL Bonk!


3. Super Bonk Land (Soon to be my ringtone)


4. One of my favourite characters, the Heavy Weapons Guy.


5. More Scout.


And lastly, it's been raining all day here. So naturally my thoughts are about how to keep warm, and what better way to keep warm than the pyro? So here's a tribute to that crazy bastard we all love and can barely understand.

Something I don't do very often

Which is discuss about finance. WARNING:LONG POST THAT I DON'T REALLY UNDERSTAND MYSELF. READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION. Here is a Financial Times article written by former Fed(eral Reserve) Chairman Alan Greenspan.

With the emerging financial doom and gloom lead by the sub-prime mortgage crisis and compounded with a steadying dropping consumer confidence and rising oil prices, I thought it would be a good thing to listen to what this guy had to say. He obviously knows a lot more about finance than me. So I'm gonna be leaving pointers on what I think is interesting/important.

1. Apparently this might be the worse crunch for the US since World War II. I guess we should be "privileged" to live in such interesting times.

2. The biggest component of this mess is the housing market. And until the liquidation of the excess inventory has happened in earnest, there won't be stabilization. Which means, that it's a good time to go investing if you can spare a few hundred thousand USD (My thoughts). However, single family housing supply has sharply fallen in the past year. Mr Greenspan predicts that in 2008, around 400,000 homes will be sold. And next year's supply is limited as well so that will prevent even more empty houses flooding the market.

3. One of the biggest changes that should occur from the fallout of this crisis is how risk is assessed by the financial sector. I don't fully realise the impact of his words so I'm just gonna quote verbatim here.

To be sure, the systems of setting bank capital requirements, both economic and regulatory, which have developed over the past two decades will be overhauled substantially in light of recent experience. Indeed, private investors are already demanding larger capital buffers and collateral, and the mavens convened under the auspices of the Bank for International Settlements will surely amend the newly minted Basel II international regulatory accord

The manner of risk-taking companies took were not able to withstand the stress when the whole market took a downturn.

One difficult problem is that much of the dubious financial-market behaviour that chronically emerges during the expansion phase is the result not of ignorance of badly underpriced risk, but of the concern that unless firms participate in a current euphoria, they will irretrievably lose market share. Risk management seeks to maximise risk-adjusted rates of return on equity; often, in the process, underused capital is considered “waste”. Gone are the days when banks prided themselves on triple-A ratings and sometimes hinted at hidden balance-sheet reserves (often true) that conveyed an aura of invulnerability. Today, or at least prior to August 9 2007, the assets and capital that define triple-A status, or seemed to, entailed too high a competitive cost.

4. Current models have an X-factor thrown in to model the market. This means that they cannot adequately describe what is happening. Ideally, we should be able to simulate what happens when the market is given to hysteria. As long as we can predict the systematic lows of the market, we should be able to prepare for it. But that is beyond my expertise as to how such things should occur (My thoughts).

I hope that was informative! And yes, I know it was too long. Bleah.

Animal Abuse

Be warned, the following video contains scenes of graphic animal abuse. I do not advise listening to the video carefully. You might choke on your food.



Bad cow pun indeed.

Spring Forward!

So I know I promised to upload pics and I went to Flickr to upload them, but then I realised that they only allow people (myself included) to see the most recent 200 pics. Since I'm not willing to pay $25 a year to change that access and also because I'm not impressed with Flickr's interface, I'm considering switching photo services. Does anyone know if Picasa is any good? I spent a considerable amount of time today downloading all my stuff from Flickr to my HDD and gave up after the 120+th photo. So just a reminder that yes, I still remember.

In other news, it's time to Spring Forward guys. Daylight savings has arrived! I like it. It means when I reach home, there is still light (although maybe no warmth still) when I go jogging. Means I can go by the lake again. And it's always nice to think that Spring is here, after spending a dreary 4 months in the cold, sleet and snow. That means another 4 weeks to a more *ahem* colourful street scene. I'm looking forward to that as well. It also means it's a 13 hour difference with home now. So that means a better convergence of timing to chat and catch up with people back home. That's always nice.

And who says gamers aren't cool? This is Soulja Boy done Team Fortress Two style. Enjoy.



And to the people who understand - Isn't that rocket jump, turn and frag of the scout so damn cool?!?

Breaking News!

Just because I care. This is an extract of an article from the AP.

Men who do housework may get more sex...

Joshua Coleman, a San Francisco-area psychologist and author of "The Lazy Husband: How to Get Men to Do More Parenting and Housework," said equitable sharing of housework can lead to a happier marriage and more frequent sex.

"If a guy does housework, it looks to the woman like he really cares about her — he's not treating her like a servant," said Coleman, who is affiliated with the Council on Contemporary Families. "And if a woman feels stressed out because the house is a mess and the guy's sitting on the couch while she's vacuuming, that's not going to put her in the mood."

So there you have. Guys this is for you, and knowing is half the battle.

Random Thoughts

So, here are some random thoughts that I've been accumulating and been just to lazy to write down.

1. It's not so bad jogging when it's around freezing, as long as the roads aren't icy and the wind isn't blowing. And you don't jog too far, till your nose gets so dry you have to jog with a gloved hand over your mouth and nose. And I'm just glad the weather has gotten warm enough to actually allow jogging outdoors. And I'm grateful that I don't have to go into the field for another month or so. That's some regular exercise time right there. Time to lose that weight I gained during vacation. Haha.

2. My neighbours are far better cooks than I am. I was boiling a soup today with some dried scallops, dates and ikan billis. And whilst waiting for the stuff to boil, I went to clear the trash and the moment I exited into the walkway, the aroma of my neighbours' grilled fish was just too fantastic to ignore. Single asian working male in foreign country = low culinary skill-time.

3. After the previous post about how I think I left a lot of things behind, I had a chat with my supervisor. And was very impressed with his plans for the division and for progress in the company. But the surprising thing was, that even with these visions of grandeur (our own little R&D model, computer simulations, integrated equipment surveys), he still said that it's best not to get pigeonholed and even encouraged me to look for other opportunities when I thought it would be appropriate. He also said that I had some transferable skills already, with all the field work that I have had. That's something I will think about. Realistically, I think there's probably another 1-2 more years before I will start to actively reassess my life. But it's always nice to know you have nice superiors.

4. NEVER EVER BUY ANY COMPUTER MADE IN CHINA. My Lenovo (Curses on the lousy brand!) has seen the Lenovo return DHL box 4 times since Sept 06. I will get a new PC when my warranty expires. I cannot stand this piece of shite that is Lenovo. Ugh, I cannot even begin to describe the revulsion I feel for them. I will have to stop here or I shall pop a vein. Ugh.

That's about all I have right now. I'm going to bed.

Cardinal Sin

It's lunch and I'm blogging. It kinda feels weird. Since I try to not mix work and personal life. But sitting here, I just had a bout of something. Dissatisfaction with the status quo is the best way to put it I guess.

有一种对人生不满的感觉。可能是因为我这次回家时，认了为了来这里，我放弃了很多。我羡慕，我怀念。 But I'm afraid of up-rooting and re-settling again, and to lose all I've done here and start from scratch. To do something I don't really like, with no real alternative. I don't want to work in the most common industries at home, so I need to come up with a better plan.

Perhaps it's just nostalgia talking and I'll get over it in a couple of weeks. But man, I really need some motivation now. I'll just focus on the improving weather and getting back in shape. That should do it for now.

Thanks to All

Who made it a unforgettable trip home. Pics and a recap will come up later. It's 130am and I'm still slightly jetlagged. Which means I should sleep. Scleeeph.

豆腐！豆腐！

This post is about 功夫灌篮 (Kung Fu Dunk). And yes, I know it says 大灌篮 in the pic but it's called 功夫灌篮 in Singapore. So that's that.

It's a light hearted comedic action movie that draws on an anime background and is really a lot of fun. There are ridiculous dunks, random plotlines (or plotholes, depending on your perspective) and not enough pretty girls (but enough pretty boys I think).

Still despite all of it's flaws, me and my friends couldn't really condemn it as a bad movie. I felt that the movie was worth the admission ticket. The acting is ok, the action scenes are cool and Jay Chow can really ball. And the soundtrack is really catchy and was a real plus for me.

我不卖豆腐(豆腐) 豆腐(豆腐)
我在武功学校里学的那叫功夫 功夫(功夫) 功夫(功夫)
赶紧穿上旗袍 免得你说我吃你豆腐

I never believed that 豆腐 could actually be a catchy phrase for a song, but I now know better. With lyrics like this, how can the song not let people laugh?

And since it's Valentines day and also since Valve is releasing a new TF2 map, I have an urge to share the love.



Pyros Rock! Happy Valentines day everyone!

Note to self: Get Capo and practice this.

Baby Care 101

Since there is an increasing number of people I know who are getting/are already married, I thought it would be appropriate to share what are some of the do's and dont's of baby care. All these helpful tips are pretty self-explanatory I believe.

Observe.




Simple enough to follow yeah? For more baby care tips, the whole list can be found here.

Here's to proper child rearing techniques.

Canada, Revisited...

That's the weather I'm facing again. I have nothing to add to that. The numbers do all the talking for me...

Luckily, this time, my trip is considerably shorter and should be less stressful. Everything is up and running and mostly going smoothly. We have to do some modifications but it shouldn't be anything major.

And after I come home (US), I'll be definitely counting down to home (HOME). Unfortunately, that means I'll have a TON of stuff to finish up before I leave for vacation. I foresee 10 hour days in the office again... BUT it will be worth it. WORTH EVERY SINGLE MINUTE.

I'm starting to fill my calender of events for the stay home already. Let's get the stuff rolling peeps!

最后一件事就是想讲日本人。我知道他们能读汉字但是bopian啦。汉字比英文适当吧。我的日本朋友大部分回到日本就如雾一样消失到无影无踪。。。真是气死人。。。想联络也联络不到。靠。不管啦。Dun care liao. Let's rock regardless.

Action!

Hmm, I don't know if I should be ashamed cos I detract so easily or encouraged that I actually tried to live up to the Action! motto I set for myself this year.

I was gonna go home to veg out but I thought I need to bank a cheque my company had given me AND get a hair cut while I was out anyway. So my decision to run errands or just slack at home was based on guilt and the Action! theme. Not surprisingly, guilt won.

Oh well, baby steps. Baby steps.

The year is still young, plenty of chances to break my resolutions later. Haha.

And in a completely unrelated observation, contradiction is the same in both Chinese and Japanese. 日本語の矛盾（むじゅん）and 中文的矛盾(mao dun). Uncanny eh?

Resolutions

So I'm waiting for my car to do its 25,000 mile service and what better time to do my New Years Resolution(s) than now?

I think my keyword this year will be ACTION. That is, take concrete steps towards goals and not put things off. I wonder how long before I start procrastinating this year though, in spite of this decision. Haha.

Anyways, here is the list of things I want to do. And a little bit of how I'm going to do it.

1. Learn about investing. By reading Investing for Dummies (1-2 hours per week, till end of Feb) and then researching online. Via some online brokerage that I've yet to research.

2. Learn about VBA. By reading VBA for Dummies and writing my own code (1-2 hours per week, till forever).

3. Learn how to do barre chords properly and get the Em to Bm transition smoothed out. Then I can play 恋爱 ING better. Learn Fukai Mori by Do As Infinity (have to practice).

4. Improve Japanese by watching 1-2 hours of drama per week. Currently watching Security Police, which is pretty good and reminds me of the Ambler Warning.

5. Sign up for a gym when I come back from vacation in Feb.

Now I just realised that the stupid morons at Lenovo have, by reimaging my hard drive, wiped out my wireless card software. Which I will have to re-download and reinstall. Gods... I will not taint this feel good post with vulgarities but gods!!

Simple Wishes

Happy New Year dear readers, may 2008 be better than 2007 for all of you!

I'll post further introspections later but I have to finish housekeeping first...

FUCK LENOVO

I was going to post something about my 12 hour connection from Winnipeg to Chicago (only a 2 hour flight normally) but I'm furious at the piece of shit that is Lenovo Tech Support.

I sent in my laptop because I had a faulty NIC card, and when I got it back, my whole Hard Drive was wiped out. FUCK THOSE LITTLE BASTARDS. I will call the tech depot tomorrow to screw that moronic techician. Oh my god, I cannot adequately verbalise how angry I am right now.

So here's a PSA for you guys, save yourself the grief, don't buy Lenovo.

Observations from Continental North America...

1. It is f*cking cold in winter. It's only mid December but there's already like 10 inches of snow on the ground...

2. Night Shift + 20mph winds + Flu + Equipment faults = Worst Buy. It's not fun trying to dig through baked cornflakey animal feed when you're trying to start a 5 million dollar system under pressure and the effects of the flu. It definitely gives you a shot of adrenalin but it's not worth the anxiety.

3. Milk, one of the best ones to get 2 hot chicks (and chicks of different nationalities too).


4. Even though I have coming promises to keep about going home next year, with all my travelling and some careful juggling of vacation/off days, I am thinking about going home (home-home) for the Chinese New Year, with a stopover in Japan. I just asked my bosses for vacation and started looking for tickets. Hopefully, I'll get something done. That would be super awesome. w00t(Merriam-Webster's word of the year)!

You know it's cold when ...

The weather forecast looks like this... And bear in mind that wind chill is NOT accounted for in that number... Ugh.



I intend to run very fast from the car to the office and from building to building whilst I spend my time up here in Canada. It's so cold, that the car has to be running for about 10 minutes before my windshield starts to clear up...

In other news, while up here in Canada, I amuse myself by watching youtube videos. So here are some videos that I thought were amusing.

1. You've seen it done well, you've seen it done horribly, and now, you can see how the pros do it.

And after you do, you can try to practice like the pros.

2. What do you get when you cross John Travolta with a Wookie?


3. You may or may not have heard of the Ace Attorney (Gyakuten Saiban) series for the Nintendo DS but someone used the sprites and animation to do this.

Five hundred dollars anyone?

4. A cooler (and totally japanese) trailer of all the Ace Attorney games (all 4 of 'em).

I HIGHLY recommend this game to anyone with a DS. Start with the first and work your way up.

Wow.

I had many things to wow and bitch about. From not having time to play Team Fortress 2(50% off on Black Friday!), to having to send in my laptop to cos I appear to have a busted network card, but this really takes the cake. The video on youtube was removed by the user, but you can see it at the link below. It's a sad story about gaming and family (not the sad way you'd typically think). Very touching.

http://animalcrossingtragedy.ytmnd.com/

I'm really blessed to have parents who are supportive and allow me the freedom to do what I think I want in life but are always there when things don't go as planned. So a big thanks to them for helping to where I am today. And I think, after watching that, dear readers, you should do the same too.

I wish our band were as cool as this...

Wow. I'd hate to have been one of those people who missed this just because they had to do trivial things like pee... or eat...

Aboot the "Eh"

So from my 48 hours in Canada so far, here are my revelations:

1. I realised that gas in America is still quite cheap. It's about 1 dollar per litre here, which is still more expensive than what I pay for in Chicago (already one of the most expensive places in the US).

2. Canadians DO use "eh" very often. It's as bad as the "lahs" of Singlish. But perhaps even more flexible. I've never heard anyone use "lah" as a response to a question, but you can use "eh" to do that.

3. I always thought that "aboot" was a parody of Canadian English done by South Park, but apparently, it's real as well. Canadians sound very much like Americans except for the 2 above mentioned traits. It's kinda amusing when you are talking to them and they let the "eh"s and the "aboot"s into their mannerisms.

Oh well, I'm sure I'll learn more as I spend more time here. Not too much ado aboot eh yet.

Darkness Falls...

So spring forward, fall back yeah. Daylight savings is over. This means that it's an hour further away from my friends on the other side of the world... That means live communication just got that much more inconvenient.

I never really got the hang of why the time changed anyways. When I woke up on Monday morning, I thought I was late for work, cos it was brighter than what I was used to... And now when I get back, it's so dark. The sky is black at 5pm already... The good thing is, you can tell when winter is ending by looking at the sky as you go home. There will be a gradual change in brightness. Still, that's at least 4 months away... Argh.

Since winter is coming, I guess I'm finally capitulating and looking for a gym. I figure I can still jog outside till the end of the month, then I'm finding a warm indoor treadmill after that... Plus you get to ogle even in the midst of winter. Haha.

Going to Canada in 2 days. I'm not really looking forward to it, considering that it's already around freezing up there... I'm gonna pack my winter stuff and be prepared for the worst. Thankfully, the installation is actually indoors, so at least there won't be any wind. That'll be something to be thankful for as Thanksgiving comes up. Can't wait for vacation!!!!!!