| Nostalgic Barbie |
[Jul. 4th, 2008|10:10 am] |
I saw this post(The Thinking Girl's Barbie?) on Slate and recalled an interesting piece that I had written many years ago. Time flies fast I dare say.
Even right now, there are still limits to which directions I allow my intellectual curiosity to go. |
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| Inequality |
[Jun. 30th, 2008|08:21 am] |
I read this article on inequality this morning, and two thoughts surfaced rather quickly.
One, that equality under capitalism and democracy is probably an idealistic prayer; reality is that the Gini might be reduced after the initial inequality between the asset class and mass population after the birthing pangs of progress, but that's in reality merely a temporary groundswell mingling in with the rise of a middle class. There are few (if any) empirical work done on inequality in post-industrialised (Potter's 5th stage) societies.
Secondly, regressive taxation is probably the source of inequality. On the excuse that capital gain taxes and progressive taxes stunt economic growth, most tax systems in industrialised nations are mainly regressive. My favorite examples included mass subsidised tertiary education (which is proportionally less utilised by the lower class families, thus making it regressive); and an over reliance on consumption taxes in the taxation basket; which by nature penalises the less well off.
Hardly a surprise then, that inequality is widening.
Empirical surveys attempting to prove Rawlian justice as a mainstream demand often fails; it appears that humans enjoy playing the luck of the draw. As such, I personally agree that inequality is both reasonable and acceptable.
However, I dislike the mass media's propagating the fallacy that economic progress for a nation often leads to greater equality. |
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| Semi-Colons |
[Jun. 23rd, 2008|09:22 am] |
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I had an Old Post discussing one of my favorite punctuation marks (the semi-colon) back in February; apparently, this topic is back in vogue again. Slate Article as linked... |
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| Random Musings |
[May. 7th, 2008|10:07 pm] |
Life is so random.
1. Blood clots in the left cheek as I bit myself many-a-time while chewing due to an emergent wisdom tooth.
2. By weird luck, helped a friend reunite with her sheltie lost since 6 months back.
3. Spent monday and tuesday programming macro grabs; amazing end point to an old life.
4. Finding out that my personal possessions at work merely fills up a small duffel.
5. Keeping fingers crossed that ... ... (Oh, that's personal. Ask me privately and I might tell.) |
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[Apr. 22nd, 2008|08:08 pm] |
To many more dog years to come...
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[Mar. 23rd, 2008|09:00 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Lene Marlin - One Year Ago | ] |
This is funny, but on the eve of a double anniversary, all I can think about is: what a crazy 12 months it had been.
I read recently that days spent working in an investment bank should be measured in dog years; by that measure, I am already past the decade mark. That's a very long time. I have matured and have established myself as somewhat irreplacable at my desk. Yet, as I reflect upon the 'who I was' one human year ago, I can't say I have changed very much; but in reality I have shifted myself to the cusp of what would probably define me for the rest of a real decade or so.
Many have said that they are glad to see me chase my passion; a few wonder if I truely knew I was giving up, or if I comprehended what I was getting myself into. Personally, I see it as partially seeking a dream, and also taking a calculated risk (much akin to the semi-bluff pot raise at post flop with an open-end straight flush draw). If there's hesitation on my part (and lets be honest here, there is), it probably because the stakes are unusually high.
Some measure value using quantifers such as 'bottles', a day's wage; or as my intern likes to put it when refering to his maximum downside risk: cheaper than one dead crocodile. Personally, for day-to-day matters, I frame value using the standard buy-in amounts at the poker table.
For this particular decision that I had to make, the sheer value disparity required more imagination: I returned to the asset class that helped me frame what annual compensation should be like when I was a 4th year undergrad. As such, my conservative estimates of potential present value impact for this 5 year commitment was measured to be equal to a Mini Cooper. As an aside, that was the toy I promised myself when I reached VP level.
So what swayed my decision when push came to shove in the form of a final offer on Good Friday afternoon? I guess it's the fact that even one year ago, I did spend a day in my precious block leave checking out how viable it is to persue post-graduate studies overseas. That even right now, that cost scares me, but more importantly, I have firm committments now locally that I am unwilling to forsake, nor take next step to seal at the moment. That I have the best qualified experts at hand to guide me in my future pursuits, in a field that I am keenly attached to, and at a level of compensation which albeit is less, but is what my future boss would say is out of line with my peers in this new industry.
Those intangibles, and the potential upside of new dividends reaped 4-5 years from now is probably what makes it worth the Mini that I would be giving up at the onset of the commitment. And that's what I would have to tell myself, for now.
Suddenly, I am curious about how the next year would play out; more curious that I have been for awhile. That's probably a good sign. Amen. |
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| For the love of the semi-colon |
[Feb. 20th, 2008|08:40 am] |
One of my favourite punctuation marks; and I admit that I love it for the anachronistic charm that it presents.
Article on NYtimes
To quote an interesting paragraph from it: In terms of punctuation, semicolons signal something New Yorkers rarely do. Frank McCourt, the writer and former English teacher at Stuyvesant High School, describes the semicolon as the yellow traffic light of a “New York sentence.” In response, most New Yorkers accelerate; they don’t pause to contemplate. |
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| Solvent again! |
[Feb. 17th, 2008|11:56 pm] |
Okay... Plodding towards the 2 year mark of working life/career, it comes with great relief to know that I am once again debt free; paid off the rest of my car 'loan' (quote marks coz my mum was the finance company) with the bonus money. Not that I ever regretted the decision, but just that debt feels like such a substantial liability on the balance sheet.
I guess I am the sort that craves dis-encumbrance; the flightly sensation of being able to run off at a moment's notice for an interest that catches the imaginative eye, rather than have to consider too hard the consequences of doing so. Rational that I usually am, I guess I have the shift some weights the other way to give the romantic/irrational side of me a chance to manifest.
Solvency feels good. Someone please hold me back if I change my mind and decide to get an apartment in the next year or so. |
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| The latest salvo... |
[Nov. 26th, 2007|12:54 am] |
Yes, people around me have noticed that I do take time off to redress grievances against myself. No surprise then that I would actually fire off this particular salvo; written with the mandatory brevity, wit and sarcasm. Enjoy...
PS: My own fine was only $6.
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Unequal and Biased Treatment by your Officer
Dear Sir/Madam,
I write in, with regards to Notice Number 74*******H, demanding justice against your officer for selective and biased treatment with regards to the issue of traffic offence notices.
The facts of the matter are as such. I was issued a parking offence notice for exceeding the parking coupon time at 12:11AM on 11th of November. However, a van that was parked 2 metres away from my lot, straddling the pavement on a double yellow line was not fined. Note that the vehicle was parked at that very spot when I arrived (around 21:45, 10th Oct 2007) and was still around when I departed subsequently. (Please view attached photograph.)
While I cannot be sure why your vested officer would wilfully exercise biasness in the course of duty, one can only surmise that the particular vehicle and others, which were not parked on 'official lots' appear to be regular residents, and their violations seem to have been viewed in a more favourable light.
Of course, this is but among the more innocent explanation that come to mind.
Kindly investigate the matter; I would be awaiting your findings and subsequent action. Feel free to get back to me if you require further details.
Regards,
Benjamin. |
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[Nov. 23rd, 2007|01:20 pm] |
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Financial Security: is looking at your bank balance after pay day and kinda realising that a pair of overpriced return tickets to Melbourne and a grand of spending money is only roughly equal to one month's take home. Oh well, still feels sucky to have to return to work on monday; even if I get my new window seat. |
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| Macroeconomics: International Finance |
[Nov. 21st, 2007|08:29 pm] |
The financial world is so subsumed by the impact of the subprime mortgages crisis that it has largely not noticed the unintended consequences of the (repeated) "Bernanke Put".
Last I checked my international finance concepts, there is an inverse correlation between interest rates and exchange rate. The reduction of the Fed rates in the last two meetings might have bolstered the flagging equities market, but there has been a corresponding depreciation of the dear Georgie bill of around 5-10% in the same period, across most floated currencies.
Lets get this clear. Subprime notes, and other complex deriviative products are largely held by institutional buyers and savvy customers. They are supposed to understand their risk exposure on the products they hold; they are professionals... On the other hand, the greenback is held ubiquitously by the world at large. For the common man thinking they can get cheaper holidays in the Americas now, I'd say good luck. Especially since your retirement money and investments held in global funds denominated in US dollar currencies just had a double whammy of reduced growth and foreign exchange hit. That is, if you are not a US citizen. If you are a Singaporean, whose central bank holds around 30 thousand USD per citizen in forex reserve (ballpark reasonable guess, my last research on this was around 2-3yrs back), you just lost more money.
Years from now, people would probably look back at 2007 as the year of the American Treasury bill 'default'.
If America was truely altruistic and is trying to resuscitate the global economy, cheapening their debts at the expense of their bill holders (largely developing countries with 'soft' currencies) probably isn't the most friendly way. As they are no longer a pivotal engine of global growth, one wonders if they may do better to suck it up, and await a less than gentle landing; one which most people think is inevitable anyway.
Of course, the cynic in me thinks that they might just want to allay the hardships of recession till 2008-2009ish, after the elections are over. So that their people could vote for the next president worrying about the economy in the future, rather than the present economy itself. Afterall, embittered jobless people who have lost their homes could well vote for any radical independent candidate rather than the imbedded establishment. It is indeed supposedly a land of democratic idealists, who are on the verge of perhaps swearing in their first black or female president in 2008. Pardon me while I say big fat hairy deal.
The world on the other hand, would probably forgive this double default, but they would never forget it. The day of George Washingtons NOT being used ubiquitously as a global currency have arguablely moved into the nearer future. One cautions that the day it gets used as a fish and chip wrapper has just became more than an firm impossibility. |
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| Online Poker |
[Sep. 24th, 2007|11:13 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | snoozy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Enrique Iglesias - Escape | ] |
Playing at Full Tilt is affecting my poker style adversely; it increases the tendency for me to risk seek even after odds calculation. Using it to try out new styles is also not very effective since few players stay in the same room for hours on end for me to capitalise on building a table image. Needless to say, playing for funny money makes it even less of a real world testing ground. I guess the major advantage left is that it allows me to track how poorly I play under fatigue, and then to factor that in under real life conditions.
Yawn... Lets see if I can find anyone to do some real world shopping with me today. Life in the next 3 months? It's either going to be very restive with a pot at the end; or it's going to be action man reincarnate once again. Actually, I prefer the latter. *Fingers-crossed* As we say in poker terms, I have two live cards going into a raised preflop. Ain't it great that everything in life has a poker metaphor? =) |
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| Definition: "An Angry Email" |
[Sep. 15th, 2007|02:57 pm] |
"An Angry Email" can be defined as a short terse electronic correspondance lacking in prefunctionary greetings. It is a functional device explicit in purpose. Used well, it invokes guilt from the receiver for under-performance on their part. It should not be confused with a close relative: the "Rude Email".
I consider myself to be an excellent user of the occasional "angry email"; it gets things done. That said, I do not encourage indiscriminate use of it. Professionally, "rude emails" are unacceptable. |
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| Something's wrong in this 'hood |
[Sep. 12th, 2007|10:51 pm] |
It's some little things that worry me about the way this state is going.
My request to be sent some documents took more than the 3 days they say it'd take.
My formal complaint on another matter went 10 working days without any response, even the angry email I followed up with only returned with a generic, automated response.
Methinks we are increasingly being served by civil imbeciles; a gradual decadence similar to the Asimovic 'Galactic Empire', albeit on a smaller scale. |
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| Thought bubbles... |
[Jun. 2nd, 2007|01:32 pm] |
i. Still can chow through 200 pages of dull material in 2 hours. This mugger still has the knack. May I pass and redeem my 1200 bucks tomorrow. And so say we all... (ala Battlestar Galactica)
ii. Dog and car needs washing... But time's a luxury I do not have this weekend...
iii. No tennis and late night poker this week makes for a sad boy.
iv. Looking forward to the mid-month Krabi break.
v. Gosh, got to catch up with various people after my exam, and before the trip. Can think of 3 individuals and 1 group right off the head. I really have been missing-in-action.
vi. Somewhat thinking of how to pack in 6hrs worth of coffee into the exam hall tomorrow. Or maybe I should head out for caffeine tablets instead.
vii. Both eyeballs hurt from overuse and lack of shuteye. Got to address the matter soon.
viii. Actually did flip through the 'Recruit' section today; would the midyear sunk costs of 5-6 grand hold me back?
ix. Got to get back to the books. Past year questions here I come... |
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[May. 22nd, 2007|08:26 pm] |
Two bouts of illness in one month. And both were of the more serious nature. No doubt the first was brought along by many a late night spent out, but I suspect the round two was sparked by the gung ho attitude of showing up for work on the 2 days out of 3 that the doctor put me down for bed rest.
Well, the doctor last friday was smarter (and prettier actually). When she realised that I was not about to quit work for the day after the consultation, she proceeded to give me medicine of the strongest nature: the kind of antibiotics that gives you stomach cramps and gastric for hours on end and forces you to stay in bed. In my more lucid hours, I have read the pamplet; it is strong stuff. Apparently, on twice the dossage I was taking, the drug could treat a few forms of STDs. Gracious...
So, the whole weekend and monday to tuesday was mostly spent in a daze of sorts. Tennis was out. Poker was out. Even short jaunts out have to be timed within the medication window that I know myself to be physically able. At least I had booked monday and tuesday down as study leave, so ample preparations have been made for my colleagues to share my burden. Being ill also means that I'll have to wing the rest of the study materials on next week's study leave.
The funny thing about being doused chin-full of drugs, is how often you wake up in the middle of a nap, mindful that you are hallucinating about crazy, crazy scenarios (and waking up in cold sweat as well). I can't recall any of them when I am all sobered up. But as far as I can remember, there are no morbid ones. So I am guessing that my mood of late has been quite good, inspite of the various bouts of sickness.
Alas, I'll be back to work tomorrow, packing the two big pus-filled ulcers that have taken up temporary residence beside my tonsil. As least that means I would not be tempted into my usual mug of Starbucks iced mocha. One side effect of this debilitation is my growing independence from coffee. Ah, one more chain broken loose. To think it takes a greater evil to overcome a lesser one. |
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| Choices |
[Apr. 22nd, 2007|03:53 pm] |
I think, that recently, some of my choices have not reflected the poised rationality that training has sought to make me be. I have become wont to give in to those gut-feel inner voices. Not that I haven't done so in the past; my instincts have long served me well. It's just that I tend to differ to them only in situations that I honed to reflexes to function efficiently (FPS games, bridge, exams), and not on subject matters of a more, 'ad-hoc' manner.
It may seem coincidental that I was then perusing a copy of Kundera's 'the unbearable lightness of being', and thus, was perhaps swayed by the argument that since the present does not repeat itself over and over again (as like the repetitive testings in a laboratory), our singular actions along one point in the one way axis of time is in relativity 'light' in the manner of repercussions. Moreover, having only one course to live out, individuals (much like the social scientist) are caught in the conundrum of never having the opportunity to make identical decisions in the same ceteris paribus conditions. Thus, having no real basis to compare our present decision matrix to an identical past decision tree, the odds of arriving at a rational conclusion ebbs to a low.
Of course, the above arguments only persuade that the assumption of rational choices (in life) is mostly flawed. The flip side, that giving in to your instincts all the time, has yet to be examined for merits or de-merits. Even in the occasion that this paradigm of thought was pervading my head, I still endeavoured to fall back on my trained discipline to reconcile between situation and decision. Methinks that at the end of it all, a very reasonable conclusion was reached.
In hindsight, I don't think I would regret the decision. I tend to only regret actions not taken (ain't that life in general?) It was convention and mores that held me back on the choice I made, and while I may seem (and probably am) a sticker-er of social norms, my innate thoughts and opinions are often more deviant than conventional; and when it comes to things I am passionate about, I am usually happy to walk the alternate path.
Then again, sucumbing to passions is exactly what being an average human being is all about.
Pardon this bundled mess of thoughts; clarity of mind and exposition is something I do not retain much of these days. |
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[Mar. 31st, 2007|02:52 pm] |
I stand accused of neglecting some of my friends. Truth be told. I plead guilty but would beg for a light sentence. My defense is as follows...
Lack of time as a working adult. Recently, I caught up with some of my university peers, and it was with a shudder that we realised that the last time we saw each other was on convocation day close to 9 months before. Gasp! For some, that passage of time has already seen a career switch; for others, increment and bonus. *wink*
I am a procrastinator. Hmm, I have four draft emails in my gmail account, an unfinished snail mail card that was last updated around Christmas time, and two overseas stamp in my work bag. Even with good intentions, I procrastinate too much to complete those 'stay-in-touch' stuff that I mean to do. After all, if you know me, you know I need just the right mood and atmosphere to write and create.
I live with the present in mind. I tend not to dwell on past people too much, because current events and matters tend to sweep me off my feet. As I see it, I always have confidence in people who once meant something to me, to be able to sync back in, and integrate fully when we swing back into each other's social orbits. Till then, I take it as a extended break, with more stories to swap when next we meet.
I do miss some people. Some of whom, it is because of spatial reasons that contact is frayed; others, simply because the last we touched base, my senses told me that it doesn't feel right. True, not entirely good reasons. But I'm kind of a fatalist, and if things don't seem right, I don't try too hard to force it to work out.
With that, the defense rests.
(To snooze-land I would go, after waking up at 6am today.) |
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[Mar. 18th, 2007|10:33 pm] |
Aberrations into bliss renders normalcy unbearable to live by;
T'was the relativity of the non-scientific kind. |
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[Mar. 17th, 2007|12:54 pm] |
The mutt I happen to keep around at home just refused two meals in a row. Apparently, he only consents to eating his regular chow when my hand serves as the food bowl. Gosh, maybe he's more aware of the change in my mental state that everyone else. Argh, I'll just run him more to keep him hungry at meal time.
Now reading: Nothing; but I really ought to start on my course pack. |
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