A view of life

This was the view from my front door this evening at 730pm. Interesting skyline. Yep I'm living the good life man.

River Rafting in Gunma

went river rafting. water was splashing right into our faces. Good shit. I'm tired.



Highlight was.. talking to my coworkers 20yo girlfriend. Damn that is good shit, dating someone so young. Wow, I wonder what thats like. Well he's only 26 so its okay. If I dated a 20yo I'd have to keep it on the DL because everyone would give me the child molester look.

On that topic though, my other coworker (39) is dating a 25 yo girl. He was telling me how he had to kick her out because although they've dated 3yrs or so (since she was 22 and he was 37), she is psycho. She routinely freaks out, breaks dishes, has put a knife thru his drums, smashed his guitar, destroyed other items in the house, thrown out his clothes, stolen his keys, credit cards, made him sleep in the bathroom, he's had to stay in hotel rooms instead of his own apt, etc etc. Holy smokes man... he says she is super hot, but geez how much is a guy supposed to put up with for a smoking hot girl? Sure I could for 4-6 months of good times, but come on now.. thats out of control.

I was telling him, as a white dude, management level dude at a major bank.. u r money. Go find yourself another hot j-girl and stop wasting your time with this girl who will probably cut off one of your body parts overnight.

illegal pic

i think in japan people get arrested for taking pics like this.

Focus

I am going to try to keep blog posts concise.

Thats my 2008 goal. Keep it simple.

Purchase List

Word on the street is that Banks (including mine) are dying. Bonuses will suffer so no big $ bonus this year? Nah I think it'll be ok, us IT folk are not that leveraged, plus giving out $50k to peons in IT is a drop in the hat to these guys. But who cares, I'm trying to get promoted to AVP thats my main goal for 2008.

My list of stupid things I am thinking of wasting money on lately:

• MacMini
• Shuffle iPod
• New Cell Phone
• New Backpack
• Gym Membership
• Digital Camera
• Timberland Boot Company shoes
• Chinese Tourbillon watch

Yeah living without purpose means spending w/o meaning. However I see I blew thru ~$10k recently from traveling, so I am trying to slow this bad trend down a bit.

I ponder if the economy is in a dire recession. All indicators are such, but the nation is in denial. If the money is flowing out of the US and dollar is weak, then the masters of the universe already know what is really happening. That being said, yes the US is trash.

On the work front, I heard that BeeGiiAye my old company had some major projects that went bust. I think over-engineering is a danger that banks have when they get too many architects and become IT top heavy. One needs to review the concept of "the rise of worse is better" to build simple solutions quickly to solve immediate needs. Seems like hackery, but in reality its how a fast moving Investment Bank needs to operate. Time will tell.

I been slacking lately. But I did hit the gym. I am progressing in life.

What is on my mind

I took a sleeping pill tonight called Ambien. I need to try to start my week w/ better than my usual 2-3hrs of sleep at a time. I have chronic issues where I wake up every 2-3hrs and do something like check mail, eat an apple, drink water or something. On nights that I come home at 4am, it means I'm up at 7am, on nights I'm trying to get a full night of sleep it is kind of worrisome that it is affecting my waking performance. I cycle thru.. sleep @ midnight, wake at 3, 6, then try to get up at 8am... but alas i think my 3rd cycle is more like 10am so i struggle. lately been waking at 7am to get to work before 8am, which is maybe a better cycle for me.

Anyways given the Ambien I may knock out before saving this and if I wake up in a schitzophrenic craze and kill myself then this is the last log of my activities. I should save this now just in case.

My latest obessions are.
- Tourbillon watches.
- Replacement cell phone
- chicks
- traveling plans for fall and xmas

tourbillon are typically $50,000+ watches but the chinese (those bastards) have started pumping out real tourbillon movements and OEMers are putting them into $500 watches under no-name brands. This may change the market. In fact I may get one of these $500 tourbillons simply for the engineering marvel around them.

My phone's camera died. Ugg.. I love the phone, but love having a camera in it. I find it to be the ultimate in utility to capture any moment. The single flaw is that it has no flash and terrible low-light ability to take pics. To fix/replace my phone will cost $150-$180. Sheesh... what a rip. I could replace w/ a diff model but nothing eclipses what I got now. I could go for an international phone but hmm.. there are cheaper ways to roam internationally. Or maybe I will wait for an iphone to appear in Japan and become one of those groupies.

Travel plans are... spend a week in HK in fall, work out of the office and spock out if I would want to move to HK. Xmas.. maybe spend some time in Hawaii.. maybe spend alot of time in SE asia like Thailand or Vietnam like for 3 weeks if possible. I actually enjoyed saigon alot last time so I think it'd be nice to do a 2-3 week stink out there.

If i use the same gym and routine i was on, i'd be quite healthy (and tanned).

Girls? Hmmm.. I need new material thats all. I witnessed more whiteman game fri night -- hung out w/ 3 guys. I found that they have sigificant advantage, but closing is always a matter of game execution. If you are ultra white great looking then of course no prob. But just a typical good white guy still needs to do something to get a shy girl out and into his apt. whispering, "come to my place" or "lets go fuck" doesn't really work that well I see. Part of the problem is his wing is there holding her back. Must get rid of wing. Anyways 1 guy was doing nothing and getting nothing. 1 guy was on full attack but really didn't get much except amuse some girls. Last guy had many girls pushes his way (by yours truly) but he didnt like any of didn't want to close any as eventually they wandered off.

Oh, I talked to a few, the last one said i should stop touching her. I was like what is this a business meeeting we're a a club whats a little hand on your back and/or leg got you down for. I keep doing it and say you dont like it you can leave, this is our table. I was basically winging my friend, and she was winging hers, so i guess we both didn't give a shit about this situation. I was quite drunk at this point so not sure what I said but something like that. I was like whatever u skank. ahah. a friend once said keep pushing the girls button till they slap you or get up and leave. from a true playa of the game that was told.

thats club life. "in da club"

Back From Saigon

2nd time around I have to say Saigon is much easier for me to handle.

The 1st time.. issues were
- intense traffic
- intense heat and humidity
- pollution and poverty
- got a nasty stomach virus/flu

This time... I think I was prepared for all of the above, and found a nice gym/pool to relax at and spent alot more time getting my hair/face washed and a massage. It helps because its so fricking hot that getting a nice 3pm wash really refreshes you. Also staying around the swank Sheraton area is much nicer.

The good/bad of the situation in Vietnam is...
- prices are rising fast. Probably +30% from when I was last there. Hotel rates have doubled.
- side effect 1 of prices/inflation/growth -- more expats, english speaking locals
- side effect 2 -- there is going to be a further divide between rich/poor


There is still alot of fucked up shit in VN that Boo refers to as "TIV" (This is Vietnam). Like how pricing is variable.. taxis like to charge you whatever they think they can rip you for, everyone is trying to sell you shit, every taxi-motorbike seems to think I want to go for a massage w/ 2 girls, etc.

I witnessed a tourist get her handbag grabbed by a motorbiker. I had bought an imitation Mont Blanc work briefcase/bag and was thinking.. shit if I walk around Saigon w/ this, will a thief try to rip it off ? But then he'd be ripping off an imitation created by his own people!! But I suppose he wants the stuff inside not the bag itself.

Anyways time to sleep, I am fricking beat down.

If I got nothing going on over xmas I think I'll spend 2-3 weeks in Vietnam next time and really live the VC life.

Back in Saigon

There's a quote in the beginning of Apocalypse Now where Martin Sheen wakes up and growls.. "

"Saigon, shit, I'm still only in Saigon. Every time I think I'm gonna wake up back in the jungle."

Saigon, or HCM is a jungle by standards of someone who lives in the posh 98th percentile of world living standards.. last time I felt this place was too hectic for me. But this time around I'm finding it easier to swallow. I guess thats what life experience teaches you.. it numbs you to mayhem. Ie, u get used to it.

Note I was quite impressed with Taipei (Taiwan) for the 10hrs I was there. I had some great Beef Noodle Soup. Scratch that off the list of things to do!

Okay back to chilling.. I have a few hours to kill while I wait for Boo and his friend to arrive.

I had some revelations.. but goes to show carry a pad with you. At my age brilliant ideas come and go quickly.