California Dreaming

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

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

Learning from your betters

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

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



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

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

Employment Numbers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More information can be found in this Business Week article.

She's 40?!?

ZOMG!!

Financial Sucess

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

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

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

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

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

A look into Video Game Art Desgin

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

I shoulda bought one with a cutout

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

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

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.