Economics @ Home © Volume 1 Issue 14

Patience

Those of you who frequent this site should know two very obvious things. First, my posts have been less frequent of late. Second, the layout and the look has changed tremendously.

There are several reasons for this change. As 2009 is drawing to a close, I am looking to end Volume 1 of Economics @ Home. With the new year, Volume 2 will begin with, hopefully, a vengeance.

Also, I am testing out this new look for the new year. I will also be changing my site name to EconAtHome.blogspot.com. So far, nothing is ready yet. Please don't get overexcited. The reason for the name change is so that I don't mix business with pleasure. A Walk to Remember will be reverted back to its old use, which is for personal blogging.

Economics @ Home will start anew on 1 Jan 2010. Why the need for such a change? On one hand, many things have changed in my life, and changed significantly they have. I have been working on several other projects as well, and this will be discussed further on another more auspicious day. Nonetheless, with so much going on, I have found it much harder to post regularly.

I read somewhere that the reason for the lack of performance is usually not because of the lack of motivation. Usually, it is due to the inability to remove the obstacles that are in the way. 24 hours a day can sometimes be too little. But now, I have readjusted my path and hopefully I will be able to sidestep whatever obstacles that I was facing before.

Going forward, there may be a few changes to Economics @ Home other than the outlook and the volume number. What started out to be an ambitious weekly newsletter has proved to be somewhat unrealistic at this point in time with my work commitments. If the earning potential of Economics @ Home has the ability to keep me fed, there would be no doubt that I will focus more energy on it instead. However, this is clearly not the case, and so, my work commitments still come first. So, for 2010, I intend to reduce the frequency of the posts to once every fortnight, still on Sunday. This comes as a very difficult decision because my honour, pride, and everything good is at stake when I lower my standards for myself. Trust me, it is still my goal to produce a weekly newsletter. I am in the midst of searching for a part-time author to fill in the gaps when I run into time hurdles. If you are interested in applying for he co-author position, please drop a comment or your contact in my C-box and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

I also intend to continue updating the Lean and Mean Machine. To keep the long story short, the Lean and Mean Machine is still very much alive. It has been somewhat dormant for the past two months because its sole client, i.e. me, temporarily ceased to use the services of L&M, so there was zero monetary activity for the company.

There has also been no change in terms of the stock portfolio of the company. You can bet that I will release a full disclosure for the year ending 31 Dec 2009 by the end of January. Hopefully I can get it done sooner, but of course, I like my margins of safety.

So with that said, I urge you readers to stay patient, and look forward to the new issues of Economics @ Home in Volume 2. Remember that the site will change from 1 Jan 2010. You will only be able to access the old issues from the new site.

More sneak previews will be provided as I finalize some of the finer details of the launch of Volume 2. Until then, I thank you for your continued support and I hope that you continue to follow Economics @ Home.

The NeXT Years: Steve Jobs before His Triumphant Return to Apple

I have posted a story about how Steve Jobs was fired from Apple and what he did after that. He subsequently returned to Apple as its CEO after a long detour.

Please check out my other blog for the complete story. I assure you that it is a story of a real fanatic.

Here is the link:

inspirational-doses.blogspot.com

Please feel free to comment.

I did not write the article, but as Picasso said,

Good artists copy, great artists steal

Greatness

Ever since I started working in my new company, I feel more and more like I am on the right track towards this path of "greatness". I am not so foolish to believe that I am great or will definitely become great some day. Nonetheless, today I discovered that in order to even be on the right path to greatness, the minimum requirement is to be a fanatic.

You have to be crazy about what you do. For example, there are people who eat football, sleep football and most definitely talk football. These people are destined to be great football commentators. However, being fanatic is only a necessary condition and is definitely very far from being sufficient. Perseverance is another irreplaceable ingredient. But that is a story for another day. I did blog about perseverance once (Perseverance). Maybe I will extend that another time.

Nonetheless, if you look at the people who have achieved greatness, well, let us begin with Galileo. He died trying to convince everyone that the earth was NOT flat. The name still resonates with the world of science today. Greatness is not limited to the field of science. Another familiar name would be Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The musical genius who cared more about music than his health. Technological geniuses, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs (of Microsoft and Apple fame), both of whom did not graduate from college, pursued their passion til no end. Steve Jobs was even fired from Apple (refer to Stay Hungry Stay Foolish), but started NeXT and Pixar even though he was already a millionaire by then. Why should he bother? Now, what about Warren Buffett? He is 79 years-old with an estimated net worth of USD39 billion (should be more if he had not donated the money to the Gates Foundation). Why is he still investing? He can retire and build a time-capsule with his money and fly himself to the next galaxy or do something exciting like that.

I can only think of one reason why these people are successful. They are simply fanatics in their very own fields. They are just so crazy about what they do for a living that no matter what adversities they faced; death, illness, age, being a college dropout, or being fired from the company you founded, if you are crazy about what you do, you will definitely be on the right path towards what the abovementioned people have achieved.

You can call this attribute other names such as passion, love, interest, but those are just milder words for what they do for a living. Imagine if you forcefully prevent them from doing those activities, they would simply go berserk.

So, with this, I urge you to be crazy about what you love doing. Be a fanatic! You'll most probably end up being great, or at least, on the right path.

Effectiveness

So today I learnt something so crucial that I must share with all of you before I forget. I only wish that I have the full article for you to read, but it comes from my workplace and I have no way of sharing it with you unless you have a subscription to the i Capital newsletter.

I must admit that I am guilty of assuming that having a brilliant mind is an achievement. Maybe for all my life, I have been striving towards that. Today, I feel proud to say that I was rocked to the core. I cannot remember the exact contents of the article but what really struck me was the question, "How do you make yourself effective?".

Now the article admits that there is no shortage of brilliant minds and able people in this world. What separates the good from the great is their effectiveness. The difference is in the "doing". All this may not come as a surprise to you. In fact, it was probably common sense.

It is probably very difficult for me to elaborate my feelings when I read the article. However, now, I feel a sense of responsibility and pride in executing my ideals instead of plainly expounding my ideals on everyone. Forgive me for being so naggy in the past. Hopefully it's not too late for me and more importantly, for you to "Just Do It"!

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

So my project and my life as we know it begins :) I have posted my first, and hopefully not last inspiring contribution which I sincerely hope may move even the smallest molehill. Please visit my other blog:

inspirational-doses.blogspot.com

I hope that you will enjoy the reading and video.

Eat Your Own Cooking

Since the beginning of time, actions have spoken louder than words and it is because things are easier said than done. Lately, I have been talking a lot but not actually doing. Who am I kidding? Only myself. Everyone around me seems to buy into what I preach.

Who trusts a cook that does not eat his own cooking? Most people would have known by now that I am currently self-employed. By that, I mean that all income and expenditure are borne by yours truly. As I have told some of you before, in some parts of the world, I would be classified as unemployed. Who am I to argue with that?

It will be foolish to assume that I have been biding my time killing mosquitoes but of course unwise to believe that my time is optimally occupied. While I keep myself productive for the most part of the day, there is also a certain lack of challenge in my life. This has been continuing for a while now, in fact, for too long. What is worse, it has continued for so long that I don't even remember what real challenges are like.

Just the other day, I repeated the words of wisdom that I have taken for granted for a long time. Long have I preached that it is challenges that bring out the best in people. Have I been avoiding challenges of late? That would be very unlikely. Nonetheless, the opportunity to challenge myself again has once again arrived at my doorstep. It is time to let the best be brought out in me. It is time to eat my own cooking.

Inspirational Doses

These are troubled times. Doom and gloom has become such a cliched phrase. Nonetheless, troubled times call for great heroes. If you have read carefully on the side bar on the right, you would have noticed what I wrote about heroes. They are just normal people who acted extraordinarily under ordinary circumstances.

I choose to dedicate my blog to all the troubled people in this world during these troubled times. If my capacity would enable me to share an inspirational story to motivate you, I would. Given my dire circumstances, I look to all you faithfuls to share your stories with me, and with everyone who visits my blog.

Please send your stories to inspirational.doses@gmail.com

From today onwards, I have created a new site under inspirational-doses.blogspot.com to cater for all the inspirational stories you can provide. Of course your stories may or may not be edited for public viewing and originality is encouraged. I really look forward to being inspired and motivated by you. Thank you in advance for your contributions.

For those of you who have totally missed what I wrote in the side bar, here it is in full font size :)

There comes a time when life simply refuses to grant you a breather, puts you down in the hollows and in many occasions drive you towards madness. I hope that you can indulge in my sharing and cherishing of the little things in life that provide us with that glimmer of hope to go on, to pass this day, in hope that tomorrow, we will be called upon to answer our calling. You see, "heroes" are not born extraordinary people. They are ordinary people, given an extraordinary circumstance and acted extraordinarily. This may happen maybe once in your lifetime, and for that one time, you will know that "life" as we call it, is forever worth living.

NBA Chess

The playoffs are on. For those of you who know me well enough, you will know that I am a Spurs fan. No, I do not support Tottenham Hotspurs and don't try to talk trash to me about their 5-2 defeat at the hands of the lucker team (also the worst team on the planet).

In the NBA, the Spurs refer to the San Antonio Spurs. I think the video is very well made in many ways. The narration suits the on-screen events. Nonetheless, to the amateur eye, the kings of basketball may appear to be masters of the black and white jungle. But to the trained eye (like mine), they are so amateurish. One glance at the way these ballers hold the chess pieces tells me that they probably have never played chess in their lives.

You're probably thinking that I am taking this too seriously, but you are the one who is taking it too seriously. I just meant it as a joke. The late Eduard Gufeld would have said that their basketball is better than my chess.

Anyhow, as to how I obtained the video, I use some backdoor software to rip it off the Chessbase website. I don't believe I am infringing copyright laws as this video is made for advertizing purposes and I am merely serving the same purpose.

P/S: I am disappointed they did not include Tim Duncan.

He's Just Not That Into You

Disclaimer: I reserve the right to spoil your movie experience should you choose to read this without having watched the movie. For those of you who have already decided not to watch it, please proceed without caution. I also reserve the right to spoil your blog-reading experience taking into full consideration of your kindness and generosity in visiting my blog. I also reserve the right to deny you the privilege of enjoying the contents of my mind-blowing piece of work. Last but not least, I hope you will run to the cinema or download the pirated version or do whatever it takes to watch the movie really soon so as to not disrupt your blog-reading experience in this site. I thank you for coming and hope to see you again soon.

When I watched this movie yesterday, I find it inevitable to think that if what happens in the movie really applies to myself, and to the people around me. Maybe to a certain extent it's true. I have not been involved in the dating scene for a really long time now and I don't really recall what it feels like to wait for someone to call you back.

But the movie certainly points in the direction of what I wrote about women in "Empty Promises". When you like someone, it's so hard to not think about them. Even when you try not to think about them, you're still thinking about them. Do you find yourself pacing around waiting for your date to call you? Do you check your phone every 15 minutes for your special someone to call you back or text you?

With the vastness of the world being squeezed by the tight electronic net, more and more relationships are e-based. People dwell on actions like, "Oh my gosh, he superpoked me, does it mean he likes me?" or "He didn't reply my wall message for him, what's taking him so long?" or "Why hasn't he uploaded that picture we took together? He promised to do it as soon as he got back home." and 1001 many other things you can imagine yourself thinking with regards to facebook (apparently the new "in" thing).

Anyhow, I wouldn't classify this as the best movie ever, but for those of you who enjoyed "Love Actually" will enjoy this as well. The chemistry between the comical star-studded cast is pretty amazing. The movie contains many of my favorite actors and actresses and they played their role well. There wasn't any head of the cast or anything like that. All of the co-stars blended in and didn't exaggerate the motive of the film which made the ideas completely accessible and easy to relate to. Nothing was made to be more than what it seems.

At the end, all I could say is that I tried to express the same ideas, but they simply did it better. Kudos to the makers.

Financial Explosion

I first saw this on Cheng Teik's blog... so credit to the man. I am re-posting this on my blog just because I feel that too many people talk about the financial crisis without knowing what they are talking about. If you feel that way, here is a way to educate yourself. The animation in this video is pretty cool as well. It's pretty instructive and the diagrams make things just so much clearer. Hope you enjoy!


The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Impossible Is Nothing

I did not sign a contract with Adidas to promote their slogan and what not, and not that I am being paid to pass their slogan around. For the few chess enthusiasts who visit my blog, this is a tribute to all of you, with many hopes that you will return for more. I have posted a beautiful chess puzzle and I sincerely hope that you will return the favor by giving your all in solving this problem.

Here is a little background on the problem which I found in ChessBase.com:


A game begins with 1.e4 and ends in the fifth move with knight takes rook mate.


This may seem like an easy problem at the beginning. However, when you have tried it for a while, you will soon realize why I chose the title of this blog. Furthermore, when you find the solution, all things will become even clearer. Here is what Frederic Freidel, an author for ChessBase.com has to say about this problem:

This is the starting position. All you have to do is enter some legal chess moves, so that the game ends on move five with the stipulated knight takes rook mate. Easy enough, don't you think? Maybe not. When John gave me the problem originally, he sealed the answer in an envelope and asked me to return this unopened, with the solution written on the back. Together with Ken Thompson, one of the people behind Unix and C, I spent many hours trying to solve the problem (and Ken spent at least an hour trying to read the contents of the envelope over a bright light). In the end we tore the thing open and admitted humiliating defeat.

There is a nice story about this problem. In 1986, during the turmoils after Kasparov had won the world championship and was forced to face an immediate rematch, both he and Karpov went to Lucerne to meet with FIDE president Campomanes. I was with them and we had a long car journey together from Zurich to Luzerne. To entertain them I gave the two top players in the world John's puzzle. It kept them busy during the ride and for the next couple of days in the hotel. They couldn't solve it.

Before we parted I did the Nunn on Garry: I sealed the answer in a hotel envelope and told him to return it unopened with the solution. I didn't hear from him for many months. Then one day I came home and found a number of messages with a phone number where I should call Kasparov urgently. I did so and found him in a distraught state. "You are a dead man, Fred," he said, "you have put me in a very embarrassing situation." Turns out he was running a session of his chess school, together with Botvinnik, and he had given the problem to his students. When they couldn't solve it and asked him for the answer he had told them to try for another day. Meanwhile the hunt was on for the envelope, which unfortunately could not be located. When I told him the solution on the phone I could hear Mikhail Botvinnik gasp in the background. And Garry, who was convinced I had stated the problem incorrectly, couldn't believe that he and his students had missed it.

Another little story? I was telling the above to Vishy Anand and Vlady Kramnik two years ago in a little restaurant in Wijk aan Zee. They were listening bemused, thinking that I was probably adding a lot of journalistic dressing to the whole thing. But then suddenly a Grandmaster sitting at the adjacent table turned to us and said, "Are you talking about the problem which Kasparov gave his students back in 1986? Well I was one of the students!" The Grandmaster was Boris Alterman, now grown up and one of the seconds that has helped Garry in some of his matches.

- Frederic Freidel

Empty Promises

After hunting high and low to find a decently interesting topic to talk about, I have decided to settle on the juicy topic of women. Believe me, I tried to look for something else. Ideas that crossed my mind were:

1. Cars

I wanted to do a comparison between a BMW 7-series vs a Mercedes S-class but then I realized that my knowledge was not only very limited, but I haven't even been in any one of those cars. All I can tell you is that the BMW looks cooler than an S-class. The S-class has a more mature feel to it. Basically, it's meant for old men in their midlife crises. One good analogy that comes to mind is the Mac advertisement. It is obvious that the Mac guy is the BMW while the geeky, serious looking dude who dresses smartly is the S-class. I shall leave this discussion at that, and perhaps continue it another day.

2. Politics

What can I say that hasn't already been said? In today's newspaper, an MP passed away while another quit his position. The past few weeks have seen frogging like nobody's business and everyone has said their piece. Those people who have not kept quiet about are still telling the same stories about things that other people pretend they want to hear. The first step to solving all problems is to admit there is a problem. Everyone knows that. Everyone wants to blame someone. Once again, this discussion is simply overheated and probably a no-brainer for me. By talking about it, one can pretend to feel good about being superior to the party that he/she is blaming but we all know nothing can come out of it, not just by bitching.

3. Economics

Doom and gloom is around every corner. Keep badgering the US banks. It's all their fault. The Americans. They want to pump in another what? How many zeroes is that? Yeah, yeah, once again, everyone has had their chance to speak. We should feel a sense of relief that the new president has first world thinking. He acknowledges the problem. Step 1 complete! So now you buggers out there who are still pointing fingers and bitching about how the money should be spent and how it should not be spent, or how silly the financial allocation is, or how they are wasting it to banks that no one in the world can trust, well, please give your solutions. I would like to hear something that no one can refute. In bad times, every step you take is going to look bad. Every one wants a piece of the blaming finger.

On that note, I proudly say that I have no viable perfect solution. Reform is necessary, but I don't think I know enough to claim in what areas should the reform be in. So, maybe on another day, we can continue this discussion upon hindsight and you can hope that you were right and you can say "I told you so" in my face. But for now, let's just hope for the sake of the citizens of the world that you are wrong.

4. Sports

So I've pretty much gone through all the current issues that most people can talk about. Among other things such as the sacking of Scolari and the Steelers winning the Superbowl and the Spurs pwning the Celtics, sports will always be sports. Somebody always beats somebody else and the winner is remembered, the loser is forgotten.

5. Women

Well, women are number 5 on my list of important things to talk about? I remember when I was much younger (half my age!!), my classmates and I used to productively utilize our schooling time (in between classes, of course!) to chatter about what was deemed the most important things of our lives at that time, girls!

Fortunately for you and for me, this will not be idle chatter. Let us hope that at the end of the day, one of us leaves this site with at least some sense of awareness of what I am about to share with you.

Please be advised that I do not write this as a closet pervert, not that you should have any reason to believe I am one, but I write this with the intention of banding the men with similar experiences against the evil clutches of women-kind!

What is so evil about women? This question reminds me of a mathematical proof once showed to me by a classmate. At that point, I thought it was clever but it has been completely overused and underappreciated since then. That said, let us be clear about one thing, it is impossible to understand women (as men).

I have never attempted (never is a strong word, but I say it WLOG (Yeah, yeah, bet you can't use WLOG in a regular sentence like I can)) to understand women. Things women do that drive most men nuts:

OK, I had actually prepared a long list of silly things women do, like taking long showers, spending ridiculous amounts of cash on vanity products etc. but I decided to discard it for the simple reason that who hasn't heard it already?

I'd like to share a fictional story about Adam and Eve (forgive the biblical reference)

Eve texts Adam at 11.03 am one Saturday morning,

"Hey Adam, how are you doing? Just wanted to wish you good morning! I love you!"

2 hours and a few minutes later, at 1.08 pm, Adam finally struggles to get out of bed, no thanks to his Dota buddies who insisted on "One more last game" for the 6th time at 4 am. Adam drags himself to the bathroom, brushes his teeth, shaves (and do all the hygienic things that most men do :P) and then jacks off while he takes a shower, steps out, puts on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, grabs his cell phone, parks his butt on that magical sofa, flips the TV on with his well-trained clicking finger or thumb, looks down on his phone and then finally sees the message that Eve sent him about 3 hours ago (It's 1.59 pm now). So Adam opens the message and thinks to himself, "Aww, that's sweet..." (Adam is a nice guy by the way, he is just nocturnal).

"Hey baby, I just woke up not long ago. I'm starving. You've had your lunch, right? I think I'll just stop by the cafe outside to pick up some food", Adam unsuspectingly replies.

Adam heads out the door, gets a call from his good friend, Chuck, who invites him to go for a movie. Having no prior plans, Adam accepts, grabs a quick lunch, heads out with Chuck and the guys to catch Saw V. Little did Adam know that 30 seconds after he replied and slid his cell into his pocket, Eve had replied:

"Hey you! I was thinking maybe we could catch a movie later. Maybe some dinner afterwards. What do you think?"

If only Adam's cell was not in "Silent" mode. He had classes on Friday and forgot to switch the modes. One knows too well how the vibration doesn't really feel like anything when you are walking with the cell in your pocket. Girls, if the cell is in your handbag, you wouldn't notice a vibrate right? Especially with that arsenal of "goodies" in your bag.

Unknowingly, Adam sits through the 2 hour movie that started at 3 pm, and ended at 5,36 pm because of advertising. Guys being guys, went on to get a few good rounds of Dota going at the nearest LAN shop and before they know it, it's 7 pm, and time for dinner. Now, hold your horses, you bet that Adam didn't check his cell and went to dinner with his buddies, right? Wrong! Every guy checks his cell phone after walking out of a LAN shop. After all, they have to check if their girlfriend texted them. To his surprise and panic, Adam sees 2 unreplied messages and 1 miss call and replies immediately:

"Hey, I am so sorry. I didn't see your message earlier. I was out with my friends. We went to watch Saw V. I know you're not really a big fan of horror movies. It's kinda late to pick you up for dinner now, but I will make it up to you another time. I'm really sorry".

Perfectly honest mistake by a perfectly honest guy who really cares about his girlfriend. While some girls may understand that and accept his apology, but it is all too common that some girls may start giving a guy like Adam a cold shoulder. Reason?

Well, at 11.03 am after Eve texted Adam, Eve goes to freshen up, gets all dressed up (which by then is already 12.30 pm), hoping that Adam would have replied by then and he could swing by, pick her up for lunch and catch a movie (She was planning to watch Saw V with him because she knew how he loves horror). Thinking that she might appear too desperate or being too clingy towards Adam, Eve decides not to call Adam and bug him. "He's probably taking a shower". At 1.30 pm, Eve begins to think, "He's taking an awfully long time to reply. I wonder what he is up to." Another 29 minutes of see-sawing goes by, not knowing if she should or should not call Adam, thankfully Adam replies. "Phew". Eve jumps in shock of her ringtone, opens the message immediately and smiles. "Finally, he replied". She quickly replies his message, hoping to at least catch a movie with him later.

The rest as we deem to be history happened. Now, in between the hours of 2.00 pm to 5.30 pm, she texted Adam:

"Hey, are you back from lunch yet? I haven't heard from you. What are you doing? Did you get my message?"

Another 40 minutes goes by. Eve calls Adam. But his cell was on silent mode. Apparently the vibration wasn't that great either. Perhaps it was off because he was in the cinema. Who knows...

Now Eve is beginning to get really frustrated. "What is Adam really doing? Why hasn't he replied my message? Why didn't he pick up my call? He must be playing computer games with his friends again. Is he out with another girl? I guess that's quite unlikely. He's not the cheating type. If only I could see him. I made sure I left my schedule open this weekend just to see him. I even decided not to go to Jenny's birthday party because it was the premier weekend for Saw V. What is he doing? Where could he be? Maybe he is watching the movie with his friends. Why didn't he invite me along? Is he embarassed about me? Does he think I am too clingy? Am I too clingy? Should I give him more space? Why am I so frustrated? He probably just didn't see my message. But why would someone own a cellphone and not be reachable? Might as well not own a cellphone".

As you can see, this thought process can go on and on and on. This is called "dwelling". To the unsuspecting guy (I guess he may or may not be innocent, but he would in no way suspect he was doing something very wrong), he will wonder what he really did wrong. All he did was just being late in replying an sms. Besides, his girlfriend has been late in replying his messages before too.

On the other end of things, Eve is all worked up, decides to give Adam a cold shoulder and demands to herself that she deserves to be treated better. So now, what is seemingly a small situation had been blown out of proportions because of an innocent mistake. Eve continues to give Adam the cold shoulder for a few days. Adam still wonders why can't Eve forgive him for replying an sms late. Eve has replied more texts late than he has, as far as he remembers. But of course Eve's reasons were "completely valid".

Now, boys and girls, at some point in our relationships with our significant other, we would have encountered a situation similar to this. So it is my hope that we ponder about this story with an open mind and stay aware that some mistakes can be innocent. The best way to avoid a cold war like this one would be to communicate. Talk to your partners. Be clear and honest.

All this could have been avoided if Eve had said in the first message that she wanted to watch Saw V with Adam. She wanted to "act cool" by not being the clingy girlfriend, or so she thinks and thus played a small role in building this mountain out of a molehill. Adam on the other hand, piled on the dirt by not checking his cellphone every 15 minutes, but can he really be blamed? Maybe... If he was the kind of guy who puts his girlfriend ahead of everything he does, he might have checked his phone sooner.

So, once again, communication is key. I guess I take back my point about women being evil. Nonetheless, the mathematical proof is concrete. Hope you liked the story...

10 000

Nothing like a post with only numbers as titles. NO, silly, it's not a binary code for something. I am not that complicated. It has come to my attention that traffic has dwindled down drastically in the past few months due to the lack of interesting topics published by me. This is mainly because there seems to be a severe lacking of interesting occurrences surrounding my (what is simply termed as) life.

So instead of waiting for things to happen to me, I have decided to go out and find them. Maybe I will take a slightly more proactive stance towards experiencing life. Just the other day, I read a blog of a friend who made it his goal to visit the best food places in town to try out the food and show pictures of them and critique the food etc. I mean, he's not the first person to do it and I am no copycat, but I will work on something equally appealing and hopefully manage to decorate my blog with a few more pictures (so far, I only have Ellen Page).

As for the reason for using the title, I hope to achieve 10 000 hits by the end of this year. Maybe I can put my knowledge on life to good use. Who knows... So, those of you who still read my blog, if you find something worth studying, please let me know, I will look into it and post opinions (my own, if possible) and I assure you that it is guaranteed to be interesting (people who know me know that I most certainly have an interesting take on life. I am a born conspiracy theorist:P ) So, come back soon for more!

Same Old Brand New You

Two days into the new year and nothing much has changed yet. I wrote down my goals for this month/year. Still working on them. Got through five pages of the book that I am supposed to finish by Chinese New Year. Decent productivity.

Because of the insanely long break last month-end, the back-log of the work that wasn't done is catching up to me. Still lots to complete for PnL due to poor system administration. Six more months to bear with this nonsense. After that, the system will be completely revamped. Sweet...

Wasted 45 bucks on Christmas Eve on Sims 2 and a bunch of the expansion packs. The game was fun, while it lasted. I meant the fun. Nonetheless, "Woohoos" are always a good thing. Somehow it is rather sad to enjoy virtual woohoos enacted by virtual characters who are mere figments of my imagination. I created a bunch of characters who are parts of my flawed being in hopes to figure out which part of me is the biggest contributor to my success or what my biggest motivation is. I am still in the testing stages of this project, but so far, I realize that I tend to lean towards financial independence quite a bit no matter which career path I am in.

So I have only confirmed my money-mindedness. Nothing new... yet. I will update my progress if there is any. Stay tuned!