Beyond Necessity

Simplified Schemplified

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:20:00 +0000

Have you ever wondered why some chinese characters were simplified and some weren't? I do. For example, why in the world did the Communists not simplify the character 的(de) ? It is probably the single most used character in the modern script. 8 strokes! 8 f!@$-ing strokes. If any character deserves to be simplified, it would be this one. But it was not. They could not bring themselves to do something like this:

No, the anti-Japanese sentiment are strong in these ones. How much simpler it would be if they only adopted this simplification scheme for the character?

Side note: Taiwan is going to experience its fair share of anti-Japanese sentiment given the recent fishing boat incident.

Family Trees

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:10:00 +0000

My grandfather pulled out a book of geneology for those sharing out last name today and we had a very pleasant, long conversation. I've been asking to discuss a number of things with gramps, especially some issues regarding naming. I have come up with a few names I would like run past gramps.

There were a lot of things that I learned. For example, I didn't know that the Wen surname can be traced back to Shanxi province to the city of Taiyuan, which is the provincial capital today. I had visited Taiyuan with friends when I studied in China as well as other places in Shanxi province.

My own family geneology traced via the pateral line is a short one only because the records are hopelessly incomplete. Any past achievement has been washed away by the river of time. My brother and I start with a clean slate. The stories make up for their lack of length by being interesting.

I also learned an alternative interpretation to my brother's name. It doesn't deviate much from how I have come to understand it, but this new derivation firmly plants it in a Confucian context. This is very enlightening.

Also: I set in motion the process to replace the very important thing I lost.

Further South and Further Out

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:36:00 +0000

Day trip to Kending. Realized I did some things I should not have done ex post. Lost something very important. Rediscovered the bug lover in me. Climbed rocks. A very good day, but a very tiring one. Here's a butterfly I found today. Sadly, my camera is doesn't do it justice:

It is beyond me to identify this one. It was a big one.

Making my way down this sandy hill was difficult. It might not look like a very long distance or a very steep descent. Take a look at the tiny people that dot the top of the cliffs. That gives a bit of perspective. The beach was abandoned.

Did you know, did you know, the sea tastes like steamed crabs. Oh wait, it's the other way around. See how silly we are when we become so distanced from the act of catching out own food?

Counts of non-East Asians: 98
White: 95
Latin: 2
Indian:1

Graduation Redux

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:20:00 +0000

Today I attended the graduation ceremony of the cousin I'm staying with in Kaohsiung. He is the same year as I am. The weather was beautiful by southern Taiwan's standards, which means very hot and not too humid. It's amazing to see all the graduates walk around outside in their gowns. Is there some secret I'm missing here? That, or I just tend to sweat more easily. The actual ceremony was held indoors with several overflow rooms that had large projections of a live feed of the proceedings in the ceremony hall.

I caught this funny picture while I was wandering in the hallways (I mean, who wants to hear those old blokes blather about graduation anyway. I've discovered that regardless of location, they tend to talk about the same things.)

It reads "Mom...I've graduated!" There's something a bit overdone in this poster that hit my funny bone. I'm amused.

The best part of the ceremony actually took place after it ended. Some insane graduate student got up on stage and started talking about something I couldn't quite parse properly. It turns out he was proposing to his girlfriend. A group of undergrads, including my cousin started chanting "別想不開啊!" which might be translated literally as "Don't keep your thoughts closed!" This is to mean that in the event she turns him down, the guy should not check off the suicide box from his list of final solutions. It was certainly a bit of mean-hearted jeering. Naturally, I laughed.

This weird story managed to make the second headline on Yahoo Taiwan's homepage. Pics or it didn't happen you say? Take that! It's number 2:

Here's the link to the article in Chinese. It can't be that easy to get the girl to say "Yes" can it?

Night Markets

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:56:00 +0000

Night markets are a must experience event when you are in Taiwan. These are designated locations where local businesses set up stalls to sell food or game stalls where you can play to win prizes. These places open up for business at night, hence they are called night markets. They are invariably busy places with plenty of people. I even saw seven foreigners tonight, which ups my totals for this trip.

Night markets are fun. I went to one located in Tainan today called Dadong Yeshi - The Big East Night Market. I was in Tainan today because my cousin had a friend who was graduating from a fine arts college in the city. She was giving her graduation recital and had sent this cousin of mine a hand-written invitation. He thought since she had gone through this much trouble, it would be very bad for him not to show. So he rallied me and two other friends to attend.

After the show, we dropped off one of the girls in our party and picked up another. She is the daughter of a good family friend of mine. Having 1 year of college under her belt in Tainan, she served as our guide to delicious food like so:

We ate delcious food, played games, and collected booty at the end of the day:

I don't want to spam the blog with too many pictures. That's what albums are for. I'll find time to upload the pictures later. Wait! Where am I in these pictures? Hiding of course!

Counts of non-East Asians: 76
White: 73
Latin: 2
Indian:1

The Joys of the Countryside

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 03:38:00 +0000

Today my cousin had a full day's worth of classes so I took a trip up from Kaohsiung to the city of Chiayi. I have some family living there from my mother's side in the nearby city of Puzi, so I decided to visit them for a day.

Southern Taiwan is more agricultural. There are also more people who speak the Taiwanese dialect which is largely incomprehensible to a speaker of Mandarin. It's an offshoot of a particular Minnan dialect spoken on the Mainland but with time, differences developed between the. Supposedly, however, you can still work out most of the other by knowing one of the two. As you travel north, the number of people who speak Taiwanese declines. Speakers, some of whom speak Taiwanese exclusively, are concentrated in the south. It is also interesting to note that speaking more Taiwanese has a positive correlation with being associated with the DPP, while the opposite sees a positive relationship with the KMT.

One of my uncles owns a chicken raising operation around the Puzi area. He also has a small plot of land where he grows his own food. The surplus he sells or gives away. Chicken farming is the key money-making business. He raising baby chicks starting from when they are in their cute yellow stage until they are ready to be slaughtered for their meat. It was at this place many years ago that I caught and killed my first chicken, thereby alerting me to the nature of what it means to be a meat eater. It's not much an accomplishment. These are domesticated creatures after all. The chicken was delicious.

The rain, which has been following me around throughout this trip, did not let up today. I sat with my uncle and aunt outside in a sheltered area looking out into his fields and the longhouse-like structures that housed his chickens. We drank green tea and ate grass jelly. By the way, grass jelly goes great with some milk, I discovered.

A friend of my uncle showed up shortly before we finished our second round of tea. He brought some vitamins. My uncle produced another cup and the three of us drank together. The newcomer spoke Taiwanese, a language I could only understand about 10% of. He went on for a bit with my uncle and then he decided to start talking to me. I answered his questions in Mandarin. This must have puzzled him, because it appeared as if I understood what he was saying. In fact, I didn't. I simply made some assumptions based on what I could pick out from his words and body language what he was saying and from that, I planned my reply. My lucky streak was lucky. When I finally admitted how little Taiwanese I knew and how I was figuring out what he was saying, he seemed a bit surprised. It's amazing what you can pick up when you try.

What is That Thing?

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:12:00 +0000

My cousin and I made a trip to Taipei today to take care of some of his personal business. We blew a lot of money on the HSR tickets, but the results were satisfactory so I consider it money well spent. I managed to lose an umbrella and hit up a few more 誠品. It's goes by Eslite in English. I'm not too sure how to pronounce it. It has induced me to purchase a few CDs.

Anyway, as I was making the best of my time while my cousin took care of his business, I got hungry and found a nifty (read: small) Japanese restaurant. At the cashier's counter, this is what I saw:

What is that thing between its legs? I'm sure there's something I'm missing here. I laughed. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of my delicious katsudon, a dish filled with symbolism.

Oh yeah, since Computex is in full swing. The number of foreigners in Taiwan has shot up dramatically. This is evidenced by the jump in the total number of them spotted as documented below.

Non-East Asian Count: 69
White: 66
Latin: 2
Indian: 1

Shopping for Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:39:00 +0000

There is a chain store in Taiwan that puts Barnes & Noble and Borders Books to shame. It's a book seller called Chengpin (誠品). I love the place. That, or I like shopping for Chinese language books. I found this picture book titled 想太多的豬之豬眼看人生 (literal trans: The Pig Who Thought Too Much, The Pigs-Eye View of Life). It's absolutely hilarious because "The Pig Who Thought Too Much" = Me.

There was another Taiwan chain called 夠壞堂 (Literal trans: The Bad-Enough Hall) where I managed to pick up a number of funny stickers. They're like bumper stickers but with a Taiwanese sense of humor. Here's two examples:

The Chinese on the sticker to the left reads in translation "I don't want to be a nice guy!" This pokes fun at the most commonly used rejection phrase here in Taiwan. Supposedly the girl would say something like "You're a really nice guy so I think you ought to find someone else better than me to go out with" or something close to that. It's the phrase ever boy hates to hear coming from the girl he likes.

The second sticker is funny because of the English translation. The Chinese simply says "Do not feed (the animals)"

Update on weather: It's supposed to rain until Saturday.

Special Counts:
Number of Gaijin seen IRL: 27
Number of white people: 26
Indians: 1

City Names and More Funny Toothpaste

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:26:00 +0000

Kaohsiung is the second largest city in Taiwan, although it is much smaller than Taipei. It is located in the southwestern corner of the small island. If the traffic is good, you can get down from Taipei in about 4-5 hours. The new high speed rail (HSR) will take you down to the city from Taipei in about 2 hours. Southern Taiwan is supposed to be a little less humid but hotter in general than northern Taiwan, but yesterday when I came down, it was raining all the way. In fact, I think the rains have been following me wherever I go. Keeps the temperature down.

I'm told that the area where Kaohsiung was built was originally called Dagou by the aboriginal people. The Chinese wrote it as 打狗 (literal trans: To hit a dog). When the Japanese occcupied Taiwan, they changed the characters but kept the sound. Perhaps they found the orignal pair to be a bit distasteful. Using Japanese pronunciation, they substituted the original pair with the new characters. When the Chinese regained control of the island, they kept the Japanese characters but read their sound in Mandarin. This is how Kaohsiung's name came to be. Interesting.

This one was the final straw:

Whitemen toothpaste? This is just too much. I should get a shot of the two brands right next to each other.

Counts of things:
Number of non-East Asians spotted: 21
Number of White people: 20
Number of Indians: 1

A Change of Setting

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 03:20:00 +0000

I just got back to Hsinchu from Taipei. This is just a pitstop. I'm going to be making my way down to southern Taiwan, cutting a path along the western coast. The trip will take a week. I'll be with a cousin of mine. Southern Taiwan is very different from the north. You would think that for a place so small, it would be rather homogenous in terms of lifestyle and wealth distribution but that is not the case. Southern Taiwan is decidedly less urban and poorer. It has more agricultural industries and the people there are supposed to be friendlier.

This is the toothpaste I brush my teeth with everyday:

Does anyone recognize this? This brand of toothpaste is called Heiren (literal trans: black man). It is in this way that I start everyday with a smile. I swear Chinese people are so racist.

I'm keeping a number of counts:
Total White people spotted IRL thus far: 19

I'm keeping a glossary of the alphabet that gets worked into Taiwanese lexicon:

A-qian 錢 (To embezzle money)
B-xing ganyan 型肝炎 (A disease of the liver)
P-ke 客 (A buyer for retail purposes)
X-guan 光 (X-ray)

Album Themes

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Sat, 31 May 2008 14:33:00 +0000

I've taken a number of pictures by this point in my vacation and I'm organizing it into albums that I'll post when I finally get back but that doesn't prevent me from sharing some of the fun does it? I've organized them into a few themes that I thought would be appropriate.

First up: The Bad English Tour Album
Taiwan is not Taiwan without the bad Engrish! These messed up signs are often unintentionally funny and sometimes just very, very wrong (gets faceplam, scroll down to the second divider to see my contritution.)

Second up: Fatty's Tour Album
My roommate during my semester abroad in China had a friend up in Northeast China whose name was... get this: Fatty. Would you like to guess his body type? This album is dedicated to Fatty and all those people who enjoy good food and omnomnom. It is sometimes also unintentionally funny.

What, What? Iz dis sum Fried Chiken? Or....

Why, it's a Taiwanese treat. Finely chopped white radishes wrapped in dough and topped with scrambled egg. I took nearly 40 minutes of waiting in line to get these. Delicious! Fatty approves.

I have many, many more album themes to introduce, but given my time constraints (I can't be posting all the time. I have to get out there to collect material!) I'll introduce them little by little. I'll also update the various albums with representative pictures that I find particularly fun and interesting. All the picture will eventually be uploaded online a some photo sharing site when I'm through.

ENJOY

Doggies

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Sat, 31 May 2008 01:47:00 +0000

Another reason why I love this cousin of mine:

Aren't these doggies the cutest things ever? I'm a dog person, because dogs are loyal and I value loyalty very highly. It really amazes me how humans have managed to breed the loyalty instinct so deeply into a dog's being. Dogs will die from grief of being disconnected from their owners. That is beautiful. I can't say I can do the same for a dog.

I went to a store yesterday to shop for nifty souvenirs and had my eyes opened. I used to think that for being in Wharton, I was fairly well attuned to the Arts and culture. I have the knowledge and capacity to enjoy those things that are beautiful. I follow the publications of public intellectuals on a variety of topics. I was so full of myself that I looked down on on people who lament that their Wharton educations have turned them into money-mongering zombies and how they wished they could have studied the Arts. "It's your own fault, bitch!" is what I thought.

This store showed me how much more I had to go. The creative, the beautiful, the useful all come together here. The inspired designs I saw there fascinated me and at the same time shamed me. How little I knew of the beautiful! I'll have pictures of the things I bought later when I get the chance to post.

Side Note: InTerCaPiTaLiZaTion is alive and kicking in Taipei of all places. The one place I thought they could get it right, they get is wrong, massively wrong. This is disappointing

Don't Ever Want to Grow Up

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Thu, 29 May 2008 05:22:00 +0000

My mother was the baby of her family and so I have cousins who are many years older than I am. I'm hitching a ride up to Taipei with one of these cousins. I had called her earlier this week to see if she's around. The first thing she said to me after we had exchanged greetings was,

"Hey, hey, guess what?"

"Wat?"

"I quit my job last month!"

(?!) "You wat!? Is that okay?"

"Yeah, this means I have the most time to spend with you out of everyone."

She's a real gem. A female Peter-Pan. I remember years ago, I couldn't believe it when I heard that she was getting married. That lucky bastad. She lives and breathes the Internet and makes a well-to-do living off of site design and consulting. If there's anyone who can provide me with endless laughs, she would be the one. This trip is shaping up to be very exciting.

Another Entry On My Series Regarding BANDITS

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Wed, 28 May 2008 23:24:00 +0000

Taiwan stocks rose after Ma Ying-jeou was elected to the office of president. In the days after he officially took office on 5/20, those same stocks have been getting killed. The economic outlook is poor given the backdrop of rising input prices coming from commodities. This news has been playing on television so much these past few days, I'm beginning to get sick of it. So today, I switched and as I moved up the channels, I hit a block of these investment advice shows. Think Jim Cramer's Mad Money except the sets suck and the hosts are even worse.

One saying I keep close to heart is "Listen to the lies a man tells others and you will learn how he intends to profit from them." These onscreen analysts on these investment advice shows are BY FAR, BY FAR the biggest con artists, liars, and financial advice bandits I have ever seen. The is simply no comparison for the intensity of misinformation bundled in every fifteen minute soundbite or misanalysis that is So stupid at face value that even a moderately educated person can, if they want to, see through it. But they exist, so I suppose there is a market for this kind of smut on television. **shudders**

Misguided technical analysis based on short time series abounds. Unverified claims issue forth like a stream of sewage from their smarmy mouths. And FEAR! Not moment passes when they are not selling fear or well-spun, quote-mined, indignant I-told-you-so's. "Didn't I say this stock is going to go up." "Yes, and what about all those which you said were going to get a bump but did not? What about those, bitch?" These people play the retail investor like fools. They have no SOULS. Naturally, I lol'd.

Anyone who falls prey to these con-men deserve it. Caveat emptor!

Afterthought of the day: After I took Dr. Victor Mair's class on Chinese language, script, and society, I never could look at the Chinese language the same way again. Every time I see some sign, I can remember a point Dr. Mair mentioned in class. Ah HA! Another one! Is it Shueiyuan Rd. or Shuiyuan Rd. ? This was another changed street name romanization only 1 block apart from each other.

MIT, Signage, and Other Funny Language Matters

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Wed, 28 May 2008 00:20:00 +0000

I was driving past an office building in Hsinchu today and saw the letters MIT proudly displayed on its walls. I know two acronyms for MIT: the well known Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the lesser known Made in Taiwan. This one stood for neither. I swear this is what I read: MIT -> Managed Internetted Technooffices. Emphasis mine. Hooray, poor Engrish is alive an well on the island of Formosa. I was lmao. haha, Mao, lol.

I think road signs in Taiwan have improved a lot compared to what I have seen online and on my last trip here. The Romanizations on them have become far more standard. No more annoying InTerCaPiTaliZaTion. Romanization are largely harmonized under Pinyin standards but noticeable expections exist. For example, the place I'm staying at right now is generally romanized as Hsinchu, but under Pinyin is should be Xinchu. For some reason, I don't think this artifact of history is going to change soon.

Another example was this road I saw romanized as Sinyuan Rd. The Pinyin should be Xinyuan Rd. I was about to note it down when I saw at the next intersection from when I first noticed it the first time that it was properly romanized as Xinyuan Rd. Spellings change! One block apart from on another! I can't wait to go down south in Taiwan where supposedly due to their politics, their signage and Romanization are even MOAR messed up. Gotta luv those DPP hardliners.

There are other funny mixings of English and Chinese. I was watching a period comedy and one character said: English (Hey! Please don't touch my) CHN(ball {read: chiu, 球}). For some reason, this was really funny. Another time, I was at a local supermarket (WalMart clone) and the recorded annoucement playing over the PA was in English: "And let me remind you that our Four-Season sauce goes GREAT with Zongzi!" This is awesome. I am so easily amused. That kept me laughing for a good fifteen minutes.

There will undoubtly be more interesting examples of Taiwanese language foibles, Chinese or English, as this trip continues.

NOTE: There are a lot of Asian people in Taiwan. I'm not comfortable around so many Asian people. It's not Natural, you know what I mean?

Du EET! Stab me again

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Tue, 27 May 2008 00:56:00 +0000

I've been struggling with the last symptoms of a nasty cold these past few days. Fever is down, but there is still minor inflammation of the throat and fluid in the ear. Went to a specialist clinic a few blocks away to get my throat and ears checked out. The doctor told me he could give me some pills for my throat - Asians love their pills. As for my ears, he could either give me perscription for them which would take a while to work or he could poke a hole in my eardrum and draw out the liquid.

"The only thing with the second method is that it would hurt. A lot. But it's fast. You can take your time to think about it."

"O Rly? It just hurts? A lot right?"

"Yes."

"Oh, okay. Do it."

It didn't hurt nearly as bad as I had imagined it. That, or perhaps I'm a glutton for punishment. I could hear the fluids being drawn from the small syringe he inserted into my ear. Fun times. Now I'm feeling all better. He has strong medicine.

ALSO: I'm on the verge of winning a bet with my thesis advisor:
1. WTI or Brent Crude breaks 140/barrel...
2. ???
3. Profit!

The New Opium Dens...

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Sun, 25 May 2008 22:58:00 +0000

Internet Cafes!

For a small fee - 20 to 30 NT$ - you can enjoy an hour of escape from the real world and emerse yourself into the world of online games. I found a few places around the location I'm staying at in Hsinchu at the moment where I can go to check mail and post items. These places are invariably rundown, smokey dens where mmorpg players gather to kill time. There are so many options to choose from. Of course, you have your players who prefer Blizzard: World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Warcraft III. There are games with a more oriental flavor like Silk Road. Korean games are also pretty popular. And then there's me, the person browsing enturb and chatting away on irc.

The clientele is heavily skewed to younger folk, but you can find older people here as well - 30, 40, even a 50 year-old. Smoking is ABSOLUTELY permitted, so the air quality is pretty bad. The computers are configured for high-end gaming and BYOD is forbidden.

Lol, a 30 year old Obasan just walked in and sat down on a terminal in front of me. This place does get all sorts of people. The comparison with Qing Dynasty opium dens I think is an apt one. When life is depressing, you can always count on one of these places to make you feel better! Open 24/7, serving all with some change to spare!

Forgot to mention

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Sat, 24 May 2008 19:40:00 +0000

Addedum to post on 24th:

My passport number sports the mark of the beast: 666

Ha! Cursed!

I'm not really feeling jet-lagged. Am working on gathering necessary materials. I have a credit line and I'm not afraid to use it!

Taiwan Trip

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:25:00 +0000

For Joyce, who could not be here but is doing something far more important for the world.

There's not much to report seeing how this is my first day in the country. There's a lot to do, but it must be planned first and the properly liasons must be made. So I guess for my first entry, I'll post a few things from my flight.

The flight from STL to TPE via LAX was a relatively calm one with next to no problems, but a few things did pique my attention.

-At STL, during the securty check, there was a woman with her baby in front of me in line who was a total hick. She placed a plastic bin on the floor (the metal table was full at the time with other people's stuff), took out a laptop and DROPPED it into the bin. It must have fell at least by a foot. Ourwardly, I was giving my disinterested stare, but inside I was on the verge of exploding. ZOMG, WTF.

-Had a 4 hour layover at LAX. I spent the time drinking beer at a bar and reading finance papers. Typically, I don't do these things at the same time. Typically. Exceptions, exceptions. Diebold's papers on sign prediction go great with a Bud. Try it! On second though, please don't.

-Pulling into TPE, the captain gave his customary speech. I started yawning and all I heard was "And I would like to remind the passengers on board **Insert My Yawn Here** is a SERIOUS CRIME and may be punished by the death penalty." When he got to the end, my ears perked up. WhAT? WHAT can be punished by the death penalty? I didn't hear it. What if I do it by accident. Oh No! Given my track record with these things, I get that feeling that this is gonna come back to haunt me. Darn!

-On the way to the customs agents, I noticed an advertisment by a company called Vishay . They were selling electronic..... components. I'm talking about resisters and capacitors. They were hawking those things like retail consumer goods. I thought, "I gotta get me one of those!"

-Final observation: NT$ is trading slightly higher than 30NT$/USD. WTF? The dollar has really fallen.

Thats all for nao!

Ah! Islamic Finance

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:38:00 +0000

There is a friend of mine who will make his career in Islamic finance in the next few years after graduation. He's one of those muslims who has no problems rubbing shoulders with anyone and the two of us get along very well. I will never forget how much I enjoyed his comedic company since freshman year.

So I sat him down today during lunch so he could entertain me. One thing that came up was this question I asked him, "So, you're into Islamic Finance right? Can you fool God?"

He laughed. "No, I don't think it makes you any more pious as a muslim, but enough people care that there's a market for these products."

"So these providers are like bandits preying on muslim's superstitions?"

"Well, not exactly..."

I lol'd

If I Had Figured This Out Earlier

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 03:21:00 +0000

There is a difference between liking something because you are good at it and genuinely liking it. I'm thinking strictly in terms of academic subjects. This confounding of the two certainly gave me some grief back in high school where I couldn't tell the difference.

If you truly like something, it'll give you the will power to make it through the times when you hit a wall. I didn't realize how important this was until I started encoutering things I couldn't understand... How I wished I had figured out this earlier.

ETF Bandits

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:58:00 +0000

Okay, most ETF providers charge reasonable rates and for most products there is a fair amount of competition offering similar if not identical products that I would think costs would have converged. But compare this to This! There is a 20 bps difference between the BlackRock fund v. the Vanguard version. As far as I can tell, they are essentially the same thing (perhaps someone reading this can correct me if I made a mistake on this one). Imagine an extra 20 bps will be shaved off right away if you select the BlackRock fund over the Vanguard one.

What's the big deal about 20bps anyway?
- Well, if you are someone who worries about 20bps, Congratulations.
- Another way to think about this is if you believe the equity premium is, say, 6% real going forward, you've just effectively squandered 3.33% of your future increase in wealth by a poor choice of funds!
- A third way to think about this is that giving away any amount of money when you have a perfectly suitable alternative is unacceptable.

Beat Them Back All the Time, Every Single Time

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 17:39:00 +0000

Florida and the state in which I will be working in are in the process of reviewing their school standards including standards for science. Particularly contentious in the case of Florida is the inclusion of teaching evolution being made explicit in the wording of the new standards. Oh, and the anti-evolution crowd are crying bloody murder and for "equal time". Great, just great. Let me just cross off another state on my list of places where I would consider starting a family.

Evolution is the foundational framework underlying all of modern biology. There is no legitimate, standing scientific theory that stand in opposition to it. See Kitzmiller v. Dover, our modern day Monkey Trial. Perhaps it's unrealistic to think that religiously motivated creationists would ever learn their lesson to keep science in the science classroom and religious beliefs in RE. Though, I admit seeing these Luddites beaten back and laughed off the stage every time is a guilty pleasure. They must be and will be beaten back each and every time. Florida citizens, for science!

You Have Been Waylaid!

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:15:00 +0000

Two events over break: 1. Retired the trading strategy. Needs some reworking. 2. Found a real job. Now I just have to make sure I graduate by finishing my thesis and completing my credits.

BEHOLD: The Merrill Lynch Wealth Management Process. This highly factual graphic definitely signals to me that my (potential) account with Merrill is being handled by a safe pair of hands!

Sensational headlines

noreply@blogger.com (the plainest guy) — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 11:20:00 +0000

Always with the sensational headlines (then again, did I expect any other when it's the Daily Mail?):

Eco-boat powered by human fat attempts round the world speed record

It's not all powered by human fat, but so what? The thought itself is very provocative. If there is a way to make harvesting of human fat cost effective, cosmetically pleasing, and safe, this country would be the Saudi Arabia of biofuel. This is like hitting three birds with one stone.

On another note: my strategy backfired on me in the most fantastic way possible yesterday. Damn you, made of total fail! I need to build some common sense into this thing.