fantasy on thin ice

A friend told me. "Single guys in their 30s are the most productive because they know how to manipulate." But, Guys in their 30s are looking for quality instead of quantity.

maintain a balance

A while ago, a person asked who am I. One description I gave is worth writing down.

"I do not like to compete with others, I like to compete against myself." You can tell from my hobbies, I am a golfer, I am a hiker. I have been an underdog through out my life. I take losses with genuine happiness for the winners. My winnings cause minimum pain for the losers. But the ability to create immense amount of pressure to the front runners who can not stand losing is something I enjoy ;-) and I do not want the table turned around on me.

So compete against myself, or exert pressure on others :D

A book

Some people are books with a lock. Unless you can open them, you won't get to read them. I am an open thick book that's challenging to read.

Dow 7500 ... 7000 ... not for the light hearted

Yesterday Dow broke 8000. Today it's at 7500. AC360's bald financial analyst will say something like "Anderson! This is unprecedented! 5 Trillion dollar wiped out in 2 hours .... Let me explain what happened!" I stopped watching him after hearing 4 - 5 times of him saying that in 2 weeks.

Mr Buffett's BRK-A is trading at $77000/share, down from 150,000/share within 1/2 year. When the Oracle of Omaha has just lost half of his wealth ... I think market is erratic. I am going to start buying some when the Dow0 hit below 7000.

It's going to be a very very cold winter, I want to go on a budget/backpacking traveling again, to somewhere warm.

a tech talk

I gave a talk today. Topic was about our software, the problem it's solving, the components it's build up from. Went well.

True to yourself

I am ever more convinced that one has to be true to oneself.

That might mean complete un-traditional approach to things, not winning favors with people you care, might be unethical, might be ridiculed, might upset others ... It should has a limit, somewhere before getting to "illegal". 

If you do not understand the actions or the thoughts of someone you care, but believe they are being true to themselves, I think the best things you can do for them and yourself are to be supportive and maintain respectable disagreement.

George Orwell's dairy

I like his dairy. Simple, clear facts and extra detail in description, sometime complimented with drawing.

Sunny Sunday

In my mind it's the last great sunny weekend before the short winter arrives. Warm sun shine was creating heat draft in my car. 5th day that I had C2H5OH, moderated to 1 unit each of the last 2 nights. San Francisco's house price is dropping. I haven't seen amazing value yet, but getting there. I will sense it when it's under valued. 

Yahoo had a link on the front page "Needy moves you must nix", here are the 4 points:

1) Needing his approval.

2) Relying on him for Fun.

3) Reading into his action.

4) Gluing yourself to him.

Somewhat agree.

Another interesting comment:

"Single women get serious when they meet the right man. Single men get serious with whomever we happen to be dating when we're finally ready to settle down."

Really? I wasn't like this in the early 20th, at least I didn't think so.

Opinion on Rent and mortgage payment.

I believe in a healthy investing system, the ability to save and manage financial risk should be valued, the value should be reflected in terms of rent vs mortgage, rent should be more than the monthly payment for the ownership, factoring in the tax deduction and equivalent return on interest from the down payment. We should be rewarding people who has higher credit ratings and people who are able to save a respectable down payment e.g 20%. So until the rent is more expensive than the total cost of ownership, it's not the right time to invest in houses. Current credit melt down should help us to revert to the healthy investing system.