New Blog ?

I may start a new blog called... life with a Japanese Wife.
coming soon

Tales of what weird things they do.....

Today i mentioned the mean income in japan is ~43k $USD and she said omg are you crazy??? and i said uh.. yeah, you don't realize the typical person is poor in almost all countries. You are in the top 5% of living conditions in the nation, and top 2% worldwide. You gotta go visit africa sometime baby.

Anyways she heard some myth that 10% of the Japanese population makes more than $150k, and I said hmm I don't think so. metric I heard/read is that top 3 or 6% make > $75k. Couldn't find demographics.

She was shocked.

Work Ponderance

I ponder the question.. is going into management really a value add to my bottom line?

I need to get data.. like are managers making more money or are some developers doing better? I am thinking maybe I'm a well paid developer so that a step into a minor management role is not going to get me much money per-se... not until sr. management when the bucks really start rolling in.

So given the added stress to manage a team and own a product, is it worth it? Am I going to make.. what $10k more or $20k more? bah.. for the extra 20hrs a week plus stress etc. Gotta wonder man.

Yes I am a bit stressed at work. Lotta bullshit have to deal with on my quest to make $500k a year.

But in reality maybe I don't need that much money. I think I just need like $1mm cash to put down on a house then I'm good. For a decent Tokyo house we are looking at $1.4mm. God damn, this sucks living in expensive places. Same predicament in SF, where I guess $1.2mm will do for a decent place (last time I looked). But in SF interest rates are 6.5% for jumbo, so a loan on $800k is the same as a loan on $1.2mm @ 1.5% in Japan. Interesting eh??

I ponder I coul move to a cheap town -- but then the pay sucks and its cheap for a reason (like nobody wants to really live there). Total catch-22 dude... wtf can I do.

The key is to stop wanting and just live free.

Ponderence

Really thinking I will settle down soon. I'm too damn tired. I went out w/ my friend last week and damn he is money. He picks up a new girl just like that. He's a super nice guy but seriously this gal was totally into him and has chased him down to her house and back to his house. I don't get that kinda play, its so annoying. haha.. not a reason to settle down, but just goes to show single life aint all that!

I have maybe one last urge left in life though.. and its a tough one. Tough call tough call.. getting old and am tired. I find going out for a few kicks on Sunday I'm tired by 8pm and want to go home and rest.

Anyways my GF is a good housewife and mom material. Sure don't make money but I guess I can support the family, what else am I living for? Hmmmm just have that one last itch at work.... Also the problem of where to work and live long term troubles me. But shit thats troubled me for years its not going to change.

Same old shit same old shit

Is it the same old shit to do the Vegas trip every year?

And then the same old shit to do the HKG trip every year?

Yes its hard to say.. if we truly need to keep re-inventing ourselves and coming up w/ new shit to do, or if the same old shit is really good

So I been to HKG and Macau like what 5 times now. Hmm its fun, gambling, smoking, drinking, etc.. lots of fun. But I look around there are 2 major types of people. The young kids and the old men who are probably married. Then there is the 3rd type which potentially me, which is the dude who has no wife and no gf and has nothing better to do with his time and money but to gamble and shit. So is that my life?

Hmmm I ponder it. I think the problem is that I'm 36 now, and I mostly hang w/ people 23-32 so a bit younger shade. Peer group is critical to the urge to merge.

Another thing is that I realize having money makes being single alot easier. Not having to worry about anything financially helps. Although it doesn't exactly help me get closer to any goal of buying a $1mm house or anything since I'm fairly unfocused on spending. I don't think I'm tracking my spending much nowadays. I imagine I'd be shocked at the amounts I pay for stuff like travel, food, and taxi. Oh well.. I figure if I do settle down that part will come under control in a natural way. If I'm single then no need to worry about myself so much.

Anyways life continues forward!! slowly anyways.

Let me think about it.. as I go to T's wedding I'll ponder marriage and kids for myself.

Sun is gone!

Wow that is so weird..

I worked at ORCL then PSFT then SUN...
and now I really just worked at ORCL after they bought eveyrone else

I guess its good for my long term resume. Now I can fold all these companies into one. Looks like I worked 4 yrs at the same place.

3.5yrs Oracle, 2yrs Sybase, 3.5 yrs HPQ.

My life would be cleaner if Barclays bought Lehman, then I could say I worked at Barclays for now 4 years..

Maybe if you work long enough all the companies out there fold into each other.. so eventually we'll all be working for the government or for China.

Cost of having a stay at home wife

Travel to US for 1 week, total cost estimate: $7,000 -- due to discusions w/ tom i decided to do an inventory since i was sure it was not close to 10k, i thought closer to 5k at first.

Big ticket items:
Airfare 1420 (Intl) + 200 (LA-SF) + 500 (LV)
Hotels 400 (Vegas) +600 (OC)
Vegas spa, golf, dining 1500
Car 300 (OC)
Dinner, dining, drinks, disneyland, etc.
Minor shopping -- did not buy anything really.

Yep you can pretty much cut that in half if you are single ! Why? One thing.. if you are single you can just sleep on somebody's couch.

In this economy blowing $7k here and there maybe not wise.

I'm going to Macau in 2 weeks though there goes another $5k !

Vegas Dreams

Is it the case of marginal utility value, ie, loss of value of doing the same thing over and over again, or have we changed, or did the event change?

Vegas 2009 was fun, but not as fun as 2007 or 2008. For me it was because I took the GF along which slows life down for me. Lesson learned....

But it was fun to see the gang, mixing golf into the mix was a great idea for sure.

I learned that.. Wynn rooms are nice, but not as nice as Palazzo and not as nice as Venetian Macau. I may try to stay at Wynn Macau and see how it compares so I can properly survey the world.

Otherwise the usual GF drama ensues.