Apts Analytics

I found a new agent and he has better properties. Hmm.. interesting the first agent was showing me crap. What the hell dude. I guess if you show someone crap.. then show him 1 good prop, the dude is going to take it immediately. Is that the strategy? My coworker says he has a pimp place he is going to move out of so thats another option.

I was also looking at the economics of this situation and it was interesting once I crunched the numbers. (Hey this is like my real job doing Analytics). Here's the deal, relative to income I am looking at paying:

type    % of gross  % of net    % of adjusted net*
cheap      15.00%    25.00%      17.65%
okay       18.75%    31.25%      23.08%
pimp       22.50%    37.50%      29.03%

*adjusted net is because I pay rent pre-tax out of my paycheck. So for this I take [rent*(1-taxrate)] / [(gross-rent)*(1-taxrate))]. gross is just rent/gross, net is rent/net

Now the interesting thing is.. in SF I was at these metrics:

type      % of gross   % of net
slum*      12.01%       18.33%
mtview**   20.21%       30.86%
sf pimp    24.00%       36.92%

* yes i slummed it in menlo park in 2002-2003 before buying in mtview.
** i owned in mtview, but i am basing it on mortgage.

So whats this mean? I guess it means if I want to pimp out I shouldn't feel so bad about it since the %'s aren't worse than my prior life.

Another interesting survey figure from a Gisco professional survey on monthly rent:

             AUS     Canada GBP       India  Singapore  U.S.
Median       $700    $818   $934      $141   $501       $1,000
% of salary  18%     18%    16%       12%    24%        19%

IT sucks

Not to be mean but IT can suck.

I'm on the trading floor and its way cooler to be further from IT. Let me give you an example.. I go down to the 29th floor and low and behold.. they have rows of sweaty slobby dudes packed in like sardines coding away. Very few chicks. Another day I go to the IT security room to get a SecurID card and man the room smells like bad body odor. Let me tell you kids who are reading, get the hell outta IT.

IT tends to attract people with bad personal habits. Its an engineering thing. If you are a geek then you are usually unaware of everything except bits, bytes, and logarithms and dont care about showering and brushing your hair, etc. Its sad but true. The influx of 3rd world participants (to be politically correct, although I really mean is Indian & Chinese) to this mix is making it worse and worse.

Kids!! move on.. don't become a geek. The death of the american programmer has been exaggerated many times before.. but they really should just die already.

A funny tidbit.. everyday at about 3pm they grab all the trash and dump it on a mat behind this glass door (end of the stairwell) and these dudes segregate the trash. In japan you have to seperate burnable, paper, bottles, and unburnables. I guess at my company someone said screw that idea, lets just hire slaves to segregate for us and we can feel like its America. There you have it.. when labor rates are low, you get these perks. I also got a $9 (Y1000) haircut at Yurakucho station that was really quite good. These japanese have great pride in their work. From trash segregation to haircutting, they are hardcore!!!

Work Life and Apt Hunt

Belated beach pic.


In theory I'm not supposed to put my real name or real face anywhere in this blog, so I put one where everyone is blurry so no one knows who is who. I am hiding on the right next to the fire lampcan you see me? wink wink.

Work Life so far is pretty good. Working till 7pm or so. Not bad. But it is clear this is a dead period and training time.. so I guess it will get worse. I feel like I'm a bagger, the girl next to me never leaves before me and is always there before me! wtf.... but the work so far is cool.

Apt hunt on the other hand is looking real bad. Oh god damn.. I was misled before with floorplans and stuff.. now I realize I am going to have to pay some major chink-change to get a smoking bachelor pad. My initial budget was like $1500. Then I raised it to like $2k after rethinking where I want to live and how phat. Now I think I may need to go to the next level. Damn that is frickin lame what a waste. Gotta be careful though to not overcommit, I have a condo I need to pay for in SF.

I'm computing my burn rate in Tokyo and so far it isn't bad. Vig confirmed that a typical food+entertainment budget of $1500 a month is good. Go out a few times a week, treat a few ladies out, eat lunch out everyday, snacks, etc. I never kept track of budgets closely but it sounds about what an SF budget would be. These ain't cheap places to live.

Only in Japan

Only here..would you see something as odd but normal as this.



And part2:



I'm having problems getting other stuff off my camera. Need an SD reader that works.

My voice sounds weird. You ever wonder why your own voice sounds weird to yourself? Or is that only myself. I think I sound gay. Oh well what can I do.

Kamakura Beach

We went to this beach in Kamakura. The beach is alot like a college party beach like Rosarito or maybe Daytona beach. Lots of bar lined along the beachfront with lots of drinking and eye candy. Difference is that its all J-candy here.

I tagged along with Vig as usual and his posse of girls. He's got quite a harem.

Beach is not that clean in Tokyo. Its not horribly dirty but far from a Honolulu in terms of ones desire to go into the water. It was so damned hot that I broke down and went in, despite my urge to avoid the cesspool conditions.

Another thing is.. if you are a few pounds heavy in Tokyo man it is tough. Everyone is really skinny. Good news for us in looking at girls of course, but bad for a guy like me who is maybe just 5-8lbs overweight or so. Wasn't feeling it! Oh well. Afterwards had dinner, went back to Tokyo and had another round of drink but man I felt filthy like a 'ho after being out all day and at the beach and heat. Nice to finally take a shower!

Word.

-- Oh Vig was interrogating the girls about why they don't find this friend of theirs datable. Kind of a nice guy, but alas "nice guys" finish last right? More on this later.

My Desk

The system I am working on is really complicated. Geezzz.. all this C++ too. I'm not stressed just yet, but it is impressive that this system developed in 1.5yrs out of nothing with really just 2 people working on it.

I'm quite glad that I was a power unix user/admin in my early career. Those skills always seem to be useful in IT groups. Everything is strung together with shell scripts and a myriad of technologies that people experienced with Unix systems are used to tracing and figuring out. Thats how Gooacle Apps is. A bunch of random crap laid out everywhere that you have to spider thru to understand. So.. its the same shit really. But I think its something I am good at figuring out so I feel I'm in a good area technically.

The C++ side is another story.

Learning the Mortgage biz is cool.

This is the view from my desk. Notice the weird phone thing. The 2 screens to my right are 2/4 screens that my right-side neighbor uses. There is a TV on the wall to the right thats always on CNBC and world clocks on the wall so I always know what time it is in NYC. Kinda cool. I would take a broader pic, but I kinda wonder if its a violation of proprietary xyz to take a pic of the trading floor.

Man I had a crazy dream last night. I don't remenber much except seeing an old friend Bussel Gon from MHS. He and I were unfriendly for a bit in HS but all was fine. So I run into this guy in my dream while at a wedding and he is very friendly and invites me over. At his place is some "Ho" who I tr to get friendly with and she freaks out so Buss starts macking w/ her and then starts banging her. However, I am confused because in a few moments I realize.. the girl is a dude, she has a penis (also has boobs, etc) so there are 2 penises in play. I freak out and try to leave and the dude (Buss) tackles me and tries to keep me from leaving.

I'm freaked out so I run away and seem to have lost my $500 pair of Alden shoes. Dammit!!! Anyways that is freaky man. Really bizzaro.

My Tokyo Phone

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/things-we.d-like-in-america/casio-adds-a-51-mp-cameraphone-to-its-exilim-line-285094.php

Pretty cool. Its a 5mp camera with a good lens + cell phone. I was going to buy a camera so this saves me the cost of a camera & the bulk of having to carry one. I love camera phones. Who knows if it sucks or not but who cares. Not activated yet gotta pick it up tomorrow.

But.. let me tell you, the sign up process was fricking nasty. I asked for a dude who spoke English but alas.. guys working at cell shops do not speak much of a word, or are very shy about using their english. Man once I get out of my domain its really tough... they would presumably talk about contracts, options, insurance, terms, billing, etc and I felt like I was in VietNam or something.

Goes to show.. man all those foreingers, mexican & chinese alike who sign up for stuff in the US don't have a fricking clue what they're buying. Probably what happened w/ Option-ARM (mortgages) with teaser rates, etc. Pretty scary I was like "uh... yeah okay sounds good... are we done? can i get my phone now?"

Cost of phone. about US $120 w/ 2yr contract. Wow amazing huh? Cancel fee? Only $85! Monthly is going to be about $60 including internet but with only 244min. Apparently people rarely have long conversations on cells so 150-250 is common for a month. Weird, I've used 500 / month regularly before in the US.

Blood Type G

BTW -- Of course, the blood type question came up.

You can't go out in a gang with girls without this topic coming up. I need to study the game.
http://j4jgirls.blogspot.com/search/label/Blood-Type%20Game

Day 2 - first night out!

I met up with Vig tonight to go to his friends party where some coworker was singing at a bar. We were late so we had some food and drinks afterards. Bill was $26. Next step was another bar, bill was $11. See its not that expensive in tokyo to go out. $37 for the night. Thats nada by SF standards, the cost of living is relative and tokyo economy has been in the dumps. Its not the most expensive place in the world anymore. I'd say London is easily. However we been spending $14 on lunch going out... thats a bit high.

Met one girl out of Vig's gang of friends who was pretty cute. There were like 3 guys and 6 girls. Albiet, the majority of the gals were not that cute, but still.. the numbers game is great. Its all fun regardless! I think I'll ask her out since she seems to love hanging out in Roppongi.

Aac I have arrived, Day 1

Well I have arrived.

I woke up at 3am, 5am.. etc. Jetlag. But at least I was wide awake when I eventually got to work at 845am. The day is a blurr.. as do most jobs, it started slow with reading some e-mail, some docs online, some orientations and meetings. My coworker left at about 645pm. I left at 730pm. Not too bad for a bank in Tokyo but we'll see how it goes longer term.

I am situated on the fixed income trading floor*, right behind my coworker, next to our researcher, and across from our resident quant analyst. Its interesting working on a trading floor, its not as hectic as you might think, but you get to learn by osmosis of listening to 5 conversations at once since everyone sits in tight confines. From day 1 I can see there is alot I have to learn about the mbs business.

Oh one thing, I got juked. The guy who hired me in NY decided not to move to Japan! God damn, this happened to me before. Kinda sucks when the guy who hired you leaves you behind. Oh well thank god for guaranteed bonuses... otherwise I'd be getting screwed once again!

*Trading Floor
I'm not sure who devised this setup, but the idea is akin to the startup style seating that is popular at dot.com startups. Small desks in long rows with people really close to each other so that at anytime you have approximately 8 people within arms reach. The desks all have 2-6 monitors with blinking lights from Bloomberg terminals or proprietary stuff, some desks (including mine for the time being) have a massive command center like phone with 40 speed dial buttons, 2 receivers, a microphone, and other weird stuff attached to it. Other than those things its a regular workspace.

It has begun. Day 0

Well it has begun.

I arrived at my corp apt tonight near Roppongi and yes I am pretty tired. I have to start work tomorrow! No time to get out of jetlag because my friend KK got married the day before in HNL so I came to Tokyo directly after to start my new job.

The corp apt is quite nice. Its a full svc apt with 24x7 concierge, etc. Size is a little over 700ft^2. Compared to my SF apt it has a way smaller living room, but otherwise its quite modern and spiffy. Have to see what I can afford later.

Anyways I went out to eat ramen. I love how all the shops in Tokyo employ only japanese people. Having an isolationist economic system, low immigration, and a stagant economy makes running a noodle shop, being a waitress, or a line cook a regular and acceptable career aspiration in tokyo.

Hmmm need to get a camera.

KWB

I'm going to be one step further to Tokyo tomorrow. I'll be in Honolulu for a few days.. to go to my friends wedding.. and then off to Tokyo on 8/18 when the new adventures begin!

In the meantime, I sold my car today. Sad.. to sell a beloved old pal. Alas, tis life. Lesson #1 in selling a car, don't wait till the last minute. Very stressful. Also get ripped off. Alas.. whats another few $k after this year of waste.

Ever hear of the term KWB? That means Kids-With-Babies. I saw this girl at starbucks and she had a kid. Actually it could be a younger sister, but seems like a kid. Gal was mid-20's or so. Pretty hot actually. Now thats a true MILF!!

The Why

I recall an episode of Homicide, one of the detectives sought to understand the "why" of a senseless killing and racked her brain to find out why. The other detectives told her to forget it and just move on. She eventually confronted the perp in prison and found out the why, and in the end, the why didn't make any sense. The why doesn't really matter at times, sometimes it just happens and sometimes its just meant to be.

For me, the "Why" is important. Part of being an engineer is to always ask the question of why and how. Understanding is engineering.

I tried to understand the Why behind my friends recent suicide and the Why behind my ex-gf breaking up with me. In the end it doesn't matter because its done and in the past. Living backwards doesn't do anyone any good, even for an engineer.

For me, the current "Why" is why I am moving to Tokyo. Many ask, and I give my answers whether they are good and believable I don't know. But here it is, on Aug 2nd, 2007 I proclaim:

"Top 5 reasons why Doug is moving to Tokyo"
5. Family is there, good to reconnect, be closer to mom when she is in Japan
4. Don't want to look back in my old age and wish I had done it when I could have
3. Good mix of friends to hang with and alot of cute girls to date in Tokyo (Read: Girls!)
2. Job prospects look very good there, better than here, although not as easy a life (Read: Money)
1. Decided after gf breakup to try living life a little more. Time for a change (Read: Ex-GF)

So thats it. I wont profess they are good reasons or bad, but thats what I honestly think are my reasons.