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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Belated 25 Things

Every firm I work for blows up somehow... am currently trying my darndest to stave off the inevitable.

I am very into washing my hands, esp w foaming hand soap.  Not OCD, but maybe like 10-12x per day.

Star Wars, Transformers, GI Joe.  In that order.

I once ate 14 taco bell tacos about half an hour after eating a bowl of bibimbap at church.  I used to eat an entire bucket of KFC for dinner sometimes.  Wow.

Call me an asiaphile, but I think chi paos are hot.  HOT.

Everything I know, I’ve learned from educational TV programs and magazines.  The Da Vinci code and Wind Up Bird Chronicle are probably the only books I’ve read since college.  I’ll read the crap outta the Economist or Foreign Policy, tho.

I'm the only person I know never to have had an ipod.

I used to work 90-95 hr weeks, week after week, month after month, until the credit crisis ended the madness and saved my life.  Thank you, Barney Frank.  Thank you, his lover at Fannie Mae.

My favorite Madonna song is take a bow.  No kidding.  Too bad she has no talent.  Maybe some mysticism and spells will help her find some.

I think I believe that ghosts are just distortions that allow us to sense other dimensions.  Not sure why I think that but somehow I do.

Sometimes I fear developing Alzheimer’s in my old age and only remembering the following sequences: 007 373 5963 and up up down down left right left right B A Select Start.

My favorite food of all time was the old Pizza Hut Supreme, circa 1980-1990, when they made the crust all oily and deep fried.

I think the Hills is the worst show on TV.  Just hate it.  It reminds of so much that is wrong about this country.

I work next to a kid whose dad made a $110mm bonus in one year at my old firm.  Dang, why won’t he pay for breakfast?

I have poor hearing and ringing ears from listening to music WAY TOO LOUD while driving way too fast in hs.  Smashing Pumpkins and Chili Peppers, among other things.

My dad is as lazy as I am and overslept the day he was to report for the military.  Still, he claims to have had a near photographic memory and managed to go to the best HS and college in Korea without ever studying.  My hero.

When I was about 7 or 8, I had a spinal tap to check for meningitis.  No biggie.

Nobody can beat me in RBI baseball.

I was awake for a tissue biopsy a few yrs back and could feel the drip drip of my insides bleeding.

In my next life, I’ll be Italian and riding a red Ducati Monster.

I prefer live hockey games and televised football games.

I love what I do.  Not necessarily my current firm, but just in general.  I love what I do and I think I'm good at it.

Hockey left me with concussion problems and a torn labrum.

One or two diet cokes every week day.

My favorite song right now is live your life by TI.  the yodeling in the beginning is catchy.



Sunday, May 10, 2009

here we go again...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090510/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gm_inevitable_bankruptcy;_ylt=AsVKhExGapJlg0nokSNncvH9xg8F;_ylu=X3oDMTJ1a3AybDFkBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwNTEwL3VzX2dtX2luZXZpdGFibGVfYmFua3J1cHRjeQRjcG9zAzIEcG9zAzIEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNleHBlcnRzc2F5Z20-

Obama's GM restructuring proposal
$27 billion of govt loans => swap for 50% of stock
$27 billion of bonds => swap for 10% of stock (i've never heard of anything so egregious.  no cash payout?)
$10 billion of UAW pension claims => swap for 39% of stock
an additional $10 billion of UAW pension claims stays outstanding, no haircut

if the govt had not meddled and provided loans (which only delayed the inevitable), then bondholders would be in the same situation but would be in a position to convert maybe 50% of its bonds in exchange for 100% of the stock instead of convering 100% of its bonds for only 10% of the stock.  UAW pension claims should be wiped out, since they are junior to bondholders (unless we're talking about sub debt), so how does the UAW get 4x the payout??  on a dollar for dollar basis, it's more like 11-12x the payout that bondholders are getting.  to paraphrase michelle obama, i am ashamed to be an american and am considering renouncing my citizenship for HK.


Sunday, February 15, 2009

as a follow up to my previous post, here is a more comprehensive listing of the '01 miami squad:

clinton portis RB
willis mcgahee RB
frank gore RB
najeh davenport RB

andre johnson WR

jeremy shockey TE
kellen winslow TE

vernon carey OT
joaquin gonzalez G
bryant mckinnie G

ed reed S
sean taylor S

antrel rolle CB
kelly jennings CB
mike rumph CB
phillip buchanon CB

dj williams LB
jon vilma LB

vince wilfork DE
jerome mcdougle DE
william joseph DE

so in addition to a ridiculous backfield, they had shockey and winslow as their TEs and andre johnson at WR (second best WR in the league after fitz).  on D, they had ed reed and sean taylor as their safeties... wow!  too bad their QB was that bay area momma's boy dorsey, who was terrible.  still, i think this team could have beaten a pro team like the browns or cardinals maybe.


Thursday, January 22, 2009

i love america

my close friends come from lots of different places, like seattle, california, nyc (ahem, queens) and philly.  but few grew up in rural america like i did.  we had cold winters, didn't notice we were broke bc everyone was broke and drove around aimlessly in our cars on weekends.  the rules were simple: wear flannel, smoke reds and drink coffee black.  so although i grew up in a blue state, nyc skews the reality that upstate, including my hometown, is definitely more red state in a lotta ways.  my hometown was far enough upstate that it wasn't a suburb of nyc - you know, places where ppl claim they're from 'the city' and aspire to move there one day (ahem, long island and northern jersey).  nobody in my hometown aspired to move to nyc bc it never occurred to us to do so.  anyway, i spent a few weeks in detroit for work, and my hometown feels like a lot like detroit.

so even tho everybody in my current demographic (nyc, wall st) hates the auto bailout, this detroit sports writer (who wrote 'tuesdays w morrie') convinced me that econ 101 isn't smart enough to know what everyday americans in detroit do... which is that manufacturing is important and outsourcing doesn't always make sense.  bc frictional unemployment is sometimes permanent unemployment.  bc an auto worker can't really be retrained to be a software engineer.  and maybe that preserving an american way of life is worth spending some of our tax money. 

the article is long but the video interview on charlie rose is sufficient (the first 5 minutes are chit chat, so skip fwd to minute 6).  he talks about leaving behind big city life to be closer to friends and family, the beauty of producing something tangible and the inability of a nation to "lawyer" its way to the top.  i've sent the article and then the video to a dozen friends and received no response.  i think i was just curious if they see the america that i see and love it like i do.  bc when i see the middle of the country it reminds me where i came from and what i valued, before i cared about flipping companies for profit.  i wanted to see if this story resonates with ppl who didn't grow up in a rust belt type of town, like my hometown.  and bc charlie rose rocks.

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/9910

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/the_bonus/01/07/detroit/index.html


Friday, November 28, 2008

in HS, i used to argue that some of the old miami hurricane teams could beat a terrible pro team.  after edgerrin left, their RB depth chart was portis, gore and mcgahee.  i don't think any pro team has ever had that kind of RB depth in any year.

my hero.  he played in a cover band that played in bars and clubs in asia and then got noticed on youtube and made it to he big leagues.  i love how the keyboardist screws up the intro and how the guitarist can hardly play the solos, classic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88nfiZ-yy5Q

he's now the lead singer for the actual band.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUkksIV8dC8&feature=related

friends, prepare yourself for my tribute to arnel next time we go karaoke or play rock band.



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