The New I-Pad

With the I-Pad set to release in about 2 months time, it is time to check out how great this new gadget will be.

This review of the I-pad highlights its most enticing features.

I am most impressed with the unlocked 3g connectivity and strong battery life of 10 work hours. To top it off it, it is going for an affordable price ranging from $500 to $600, making hard not to imagine people walking around with one in their backpacks in the near future.

Sad to say, this will totally kill other computer manufacturers. Time to buck up, guys. The bar has just been raised.

我老婆是个购物狂

两个男人在闲聊。

甲：“你知道吗？我老婆是个购物狂。跟她出去，一定要牵着她的手。一松手，她就会到处逛，怎么追都追不回来。”

乙：“那算什么？我老婆那天病了。就有三家店倒闭。”

妻管炎

时间看了我的报告，告诉我，“你得了妻管炎。”。

“医生，那是什么病？”

“简单来讲，就是怕老婆。病因分两种。一是夫妻间拥有不平等的地位和权威，以致妻压过夫。第二种是因爱，因为太爱，因为太尊重。怕她生气而伤身；怕她郁闷而生皱纹；怕她不开心而没有灿烂的笑颜；怕她受委屈而难过掉泪。绝对不能让自己心爱的女人受到一点点的伤害，尽其可能予安全感。而“安全感”也无非就是一种风来、雨来、哪怕是天塌下来，都会和她一起“顶着”“扛着”“挡着”和她一起承受，无论穷富，永不离弃的一种“感觉”而已。”

“那。。。有得医吗？”

“如果是第一种病因，医疗方案倒不少，成功恢复率达八成。不过，我看你属第二种，而且已经病入膏肓。”

“那么。。。我还有多少时间？”

“最坏打算，一辈子。你最好有心理准备。”

“医生，不要让我老婆知道，我怕她担心。”

“咳，你真是无药可救。不过，有些事就算不说，她也一定会知道。”

“谢谢你。医生”

“祝你做个幸福的病人。”

Financial Reform To Come

An Obama Plan That Just May Make Sense


Quite an interesting article breaking down Obama's new plans for Wall Street. Just yesterday, Obama proposed freezing non-security accounts' budgets. It does indicate that Obama is taking prompt actions behind his words.


Some ask "Why now?". Maybe it is because his support is dwindling. But I am compelled to think that the economy is only now barely stable for him to push for the financial reforms that he claim is needed.

Anyways the next few weeks could be interesting as we play audience to a political and financial battlefield.

谁是狼？

知道东北那些人是怎么杀狼的么？

在锋利的三角刮刀外面冻上厚厚的羊血。然后把刀柄冻在雪地里等狼来上钩。狼舔过刀子的时候会割到自己的舌头，会尝到它自己流出来的血。因为刀子把他的舌头割破了，于是更加努力地去舔食，却不知道那原来是他自己的血，终因失血过多而死去.......

如今，奸人当道，欺诈拐骗，无所不精。他们未必拥有过人的智慧，却懂得利用人性的弱点，为达目的。人性的弱点就是“贪”。不过“贪”其实也是人类的优点，由贪而争，由争而动，成为社会的基础，进化的动力。奸人却不仅是贪，更存歹意，为其目的，不择手段。姑且不论其受害者是否无辜或技不如人，奸人的本质是腐败，是人性的毒药，社会的害虫。

也许是教育的失败，也许是资本主义社会进化的结果，也许是一种不变的天理循环。咬文嚼字 也只得到一堆哲学论，问题没有解决。有人被骗，就有人获利。又有谁希望是被骗的那方？此乃基本生存之道。

非也。因为彼此缺少了信任，因此才没有互利的观念。因贪而生疑，变得以小人之心度君子之腹。当然，如今又有多少个真君子呢？越不群却无处不在，让人心寒。

曾经有人说过，信任乃真正的财富。信任一旦失去就万难找回。心一旦腐烂就难以恢复。人要变的聪明，学会自保，却切忌莫被眼前的利益蒙蔽，迷失方向，忘了做人的原则。

让我们一起努力，让世界多一份温暖，多一份希望吧。

Uehara Takako - 心跳

Name: Uehara Takako, 上原多香子
Profession: Actress, singer, and model
Birthdate: 1983, 1-14
Birthplace: Tomigusuku, Okinawa
Height: 158cm
Weight: 42kg
Blood type: A
Hobbies: Read comics, listen to western music, & chat w/ friends
Talent: Swimming

Ichikawa Yui

Profile

Name: Ichikawa Yui

Birthday: February 10th, 1986

Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan

Height: 158cm

Blood Type: A

Anna Hathaway - Princess

Name:	Anne Whitney Hathaway
Date of birth:	November 12, 1982
Birth Place:	Brooklyn, New York, USA
Nationality:	American
Height:	5' 8
Nickname:	Annie
Education:	Graduated from Millburn High School Attended Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York in 2000, majored in English and minored in Women's Studies Tranferred to New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study in 2005
Eye Color:	Brown
Measurements:	34 - 24 - 34

Vancouver: Fundamentals don't apply

The UDI (Urban Development Institute) had member lunch, some 1,100 attendees yesterday. The captains of the real estate industry gave speeches. The general consensus is that prices will be up sharply this year, as they have already surpassed pre-crisis levels.

The real estate market in any city does not stay down for ever. However Vancouver has shown itself to be quite resilient. The Vancouver real estate market corrected in September 2008 but had the shortest stagnation period of any city in North America. In fact, Vancouver has had the quickest recovery of any city in the World.

Its recovery can be attributed to several reasons.

1. Strong immigration to B.C. (Led by Chinese, the strongest growing economy in the world.)
2. Recovering U.S. economy. (Highly doubtful as explored in my previous post)
3. Recovering B.C. economy. (Supported by new immigrants but jobs and overall consumer spending continues to suffer.)
4. Inter migration to B.C. (Driven by favourable market conditions in B.C. and deteriorating market conditions at home)
5. The HOT money from Asia wants to be here. (Stable banking system, world’s best place for living, safe haven for refugees/criminals because of human rights laws)
6. Shortage of inventory for sale. (More buyers than sellers. Sellers market.)
7. Shortage of land. (Properties in prime location are limited.)

When it comes to Vancouver, fundamentals do not apply. After all, this is a market supported by people several times richer than locals. As long as the rich continue buying, it justifies the argument that this city is just that special and good times last.

Proposal For Financial Reform

While everybody agreed that the health care system was broken with prices too high and coverage too low, nobody likes the proposed solution that came from nearly a year of debating how to fix it. No wonder. Without offering a single answer to the issue of runaway costs, Congress decided to make participation in the broken system compulsory. Ridiculous and Obama took the fall.

Today, Obama spoke of his proposal of an overhaul of regulations prohibiting banks from running proprietary trading operations solely for their own profit and sponsoring hedge funds and private equity funds. He also proposed expanding a 10 percent market-share cap on deposits to include other liabilities such as non-deposit funding to restrict growth and consolidation.

“Never again will the American taxpayer be held hostage by a bank that is too big to fail.”

This proposal will affect trading at major banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs, which today announced over $13 billion profit for 2009, a record year, voiced doubts on the proposal.

Ending Federal Reserve oversight of Goldman Sachs “has virtually no chance of ever happening, it’s just not something we spend time on,” Goldman Sach’s CFO Viniar, 54, said in a conference call with journalists today. “We’re now regulated by the Fed and I expect we will be on a continuing basis.” “You have global institutions around the world who are set up in a certain way and to put rules in place that roll back the financial system by 10 years I think is going to be a very, very hard thing to do,”

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, both based in New York, were the two largest security firms before converting to banks in September 2008 during the global financial crisis to gain access to Federal Reserve lending facilities. Today’s proposals raised questions about whether they would opt to revert to securities firms so they could avoid the new rules.

Critics claim that if this proposal freezes or reduces the banks’ ability or willingness to invest, other investors will pull back until other asset managers step in to take up the slack.

On the other hand, how do you justify the struggling economy, taxpayer bailouts and growing bank profits at a time of 10 percent unemployment, as well as a federal deficit that rose to $1.4 trillion last year if no financial reform is being made to prevent history from repeating?

Obama can’t get everything right, but in this case, he has my vote.

H2 - 决战前夕

春心莫共花争发, 一寸相思一寸灰。远远的看着你修长的黑发扎着一束大红色绸带，良久。然后，不知不觉地走到你的身旁，瞭望着你也瞭望的孤月。

“今天，听到了所有人的祝贺与鼓励。”

“嗯。”你的回应轻的仿佛听不到。

“但。。。总觉得少了些什么。”我自己都不知道想说些什么。

沉默了良久。夜静无声。心也仿佛停了下来。

“今晚真美。我们也好久没有。。。”什么时候变得这么陌生，真的很久没有毫无保留的互相倾诉了。“想一人静静真难，你总是有办法找到我。”

我勉强一笑。“因为你的心会带你到最重要的地方，挑起感情，引起回忆。。。曾经在这里，跌过，哭过。幸好，当时有你在身边。”深深的吸了一口气，“也许今天。。。只是想听到某人的关心。”

也许是久违的默契，我俩同时相望。你的眼神带着无限温柔的问候。在你水汪汪的明眸，仅是碧绿涟漪的色彩，只有我的影子。而我眼里也只有你那明媚的倩影。彼此就如水晶般透明，不需言语。

我告诉自己，拥有这一秒已经够了。

“好了，夜了。该回家了。你也早点回去吧。” 我的声音在颤抖。

我发现已经无法平静的看着那恬淡简朴的你。只能选择转身，深深吸了一口气后，踏出道别的一步。

“比吕。”多久没有听到你叫我的名字。有一种魔力让我的脚步停下。

“加油。”轻柔的鼓励吹过，一颗心就如此沉了下去。想要踏前，脚底却有千斤重。

“加油。”百川情感一涌而至。我告诉自己，只是一步，忍住疼，重重的踩下去。然后，一步一步保持你我之间最好的距离。

隐隐约约的再次听到“加油”。是你的呼吸在我心里吹走了所有犹豫和矛盾。

想要往前，却连一步的勇气和决心都没有。心就留在原地。

明月当空，身后来了紧紧的拥抱。就这样，忘了什么叫坚持，忘了彼此的身份，忘了身在何处，忘了时间的无情。就这样，绵绵的相思融化，再升华。我闭上眼睛，感觉那身后的温暖，感觉那冰冷的泪透背穿心带着深情的无奈，泪流不止。

爱的脚步，从不由人。我们都清楚，明白。

我爱你。但永远在他之后。

你爱我。但永远忘不了他。

Fill My Cups: Booze for Boobs

Booze for boobs. While it is no doubt a publicity stunt, response to Singapore’s OverEasy club’s novel event has been overwhelming. According to the event’s Facebook fan page, more than 200 people have confirmed their attendance and about 300 others indicated possible attendance. Overeasy can hold about 300 people.

The prize for the most well-endowed women are coveted bottles of vodka - a tie-up with Belvedere Vodka.

Otherwise, the bar sells each bottle of vodka at $168++.

There will be no touch test so ladies, you can rest assured. Two mystery guests will be checking and visual guess-timating how the cup sizes of the ladies, then giving out drinks accordingly. A Cup will get 1 drink, B Cup will get 2 and so forth.

Some feel the event is denigrating for women. Others are enjoying the attention they get. Guys probably won’t mind more of these events. I was actually opting for the no-pants day which popularized in the U.S..

Hey, you can never have too much fun!!

Wall Street? You can't handle the truth!!

The world is in depression? Maybe so, but bankers are enjoying a large and controversial deluge of annual bonuses. The economy may be in the dumps, but Wall Street enjoyed record profits of $50 billion in the first nine months of last year—"nearly two and a half times the previous annual peak in 2000."

Why? Indeed a good question. "Profitability," adds the state of New York, "has soared because revenues rose while the costs of doing business—particularly interest costs—declined" (in other words, thank you Federal Reserve). As most countries cut their interest rates, this runs true across the board.

Personally the bankers and related are heavily spoiled, and the industry is providing them with reason to be. Those in the financial industry are indeed highly mobile, can and will simply seek work for someone else if they are denied some ridiculous compensation. As such, they argue that record profits should equate to record compensation.

Laughable argument but let us evaluate what this really means.

Exactly where are these alternative job opportunities that warrant leverage for "outsized compensation"?

In case you haven't been paying attention, the "official" unemployment rate for the U.S. is 10% but the actual percentage of working-age people that have a job has fallen to levels last seen in the early 1980s. Of those who are of working age and not in prison (that is, available to work) only a smudge over 58% are employed - a six percent drop, roughly, since the hayday in 2006. Since numbers if interpreted corrected do not lie, that's roughly 98 million people who could be working but aren't. Beyond the "structurally unemployed", some 25 million people were added to the workforce from 2000-2009 yet not one of them actually became employed, while in the last 18 months some 9 million were fired. A very large percentage of those fired, along with many who entered the workforce, are highly-skilled individuals.

So exactly where are these alternative jobs for the "mobile" workforce?

Answer: Nowhere. A job is better than no job, whether you get a $5 million bonus or not. But that is no reason not to feed the greed by making up lame excuses for making 50,000 times what the average low-end worker makes per month.

As for the "record profits", despite what the quarterly report claims, they are simply a grand-scheme fraud to protect the public from mass hysteria and anger at the system.

Simple math. We'll call it "subtraction."

During the bubble years, hundreds of billions of dollars in Home Equity lines were written. A good number of these were securitized and sold off, but not all - there is a huge percentage of them sitting on these bank balance sheets. If the property is worth less than the first mortgage that they are behind, they have zero recovery value in a foreclosure.

This is one of the schemes that was promulgated by "mark to fantasy" accounting adopted in early 2009. These loans were worth nothing, being carried at dramatically above their actual market value, the homes collaterals would go into foreclosure and receive a fat zero recovery. This means that virtually every large bank is still insolvent, as none of these loans can be refinanced if the property is underwater and as a consequence the "recast date" is a hard wall that will force them to default.

Now let's ask the seminal question: What has factually changed about the character of these "assets" on bank balance sheets since March?

Here's the scorecard on the fundamentals behind the valuation of these "assets":

1. Home prices have continued to decline. That is, more homes today are worth less than their first mortgage than were in March of 2009.
2. The "skew", that is, where those declines have happened continues to be centered in Arizona, Nevada, California and Florida, just as it was.
3. Mortgage performance, that is, the percentage of loans that are current has continued to deteriorate. Indeed, it has deteriorated a lot since March of 2009.
4. The so-called "HAMP" program is a dismal failure, having led to fewer than 10% of the so-called "qualified trial mortgages" turning into permanent modifications. While everyone makes excuses nobody pays attention to the elephant in the room - the 2004, 2006 and 2007 warnings from the FBI, HUD and private credit analytics firms that about one in ten of these exotic loans were made to people who actually provided an accurate income. That is, nine in ten HAMP "modifications" are failing not because the program is defective in its design but because the person in the house could not ever and still cannot afford it.
5. The recast wall for OptionARMs is closer today than it was in March of 2009. A disproportionate percentage of HELOCs are behind these sort of tricky loans.
6. The labor rate (percent of employment-age people actually employed) has fallen 1.5% since March of 2009. That is, 3.6 million fewer Americans are working today than were in March - half of them by coming into the workforce anew, the other half as a consequence of losing jobs and dropping out of the workforce.

How is it possible for you to make "record profits" while your asset quality continues to deteriorate, payment performance continues to deteriorate, the ability of people to pay loans you gave them continues to deteriorate and the recovery value of the assets behind those loans continues to deteriorate?

You get to define "record profits" by intentionally understating both fair value and reasonably-expected losses. Major institutions are paying out "compensation" with what amounts to fake money that was in fact not earned (due to all the hidden losses) is almost precisely what Madoff did with his clients – albeit a much larger scale. Can someone spell ponzi? Maybe that word is too hard to learn.

Unfortunately, such a strategy is purely temporary as the underlying quality (or lack thereof) of the assets will eventually break light, forcing recognition. By then, these "earnings" will have evaporated, leading questions “Where have my money gone?”.

What really ticks me is bogus valuations that continue to be claimed by institutions and their refusal to come clean about the false profits being made. The fact that these institutions could escape such a levy by breaking themselves up and thus not being subject to it offers a positive. Broken up they would lose their seminal argument for why they should be "too big to fail".

We are past the point when we argue that allowing all of these institutions to go bankrupt would have destroyed the economy or lending generally. If any, it would have destroyed those who bought fraudulent securities and those who issued them, which is actually the only right thing to do.

When the FASB decided to (temporarily) suspend mark-to-market and replace it with mark-to-whatever-you need-to-make-your-quarterly-bonus, it ripped out one of the last pillars of true accountability.

The most common rationale for the move was the idea that banks shouldn't be penalized by short-term movements in the asset price, if their intention is to hold the loan until maturity. Sounds legitimate, until you look under the hood: no rational accountant would have allowed marking bonds at par, simply because of the plan to hold them until maturity. There's another issue at work, namely, the creditworthiness of borrower. Nobody believes these crummy loans are worth a hundred cents on the dollar, including the guy who just sold them for 35 cents.

Similarly, according to The Canadian Press, President Barack Obama said with reference to his proposed plans to impose a $90 billion tax levy on big financial institutions to recoup some of the costs of the financial crisis:

If the big financial firms can afford massive bonuses, they can afford to pay back the American people.

The $90 billion Obama will extract from Wall Street won’t even begin to shrink the monster deficit the Fed has run up. But that is a problem for the next administration (probably Republicans). Who said politics isn’t fun? As Obama’s assistant Rahm Emanuel put it, ‘Its a shame to let a good crisis go to waste.’

Now, do we live in a world of fools that none actually realize when market conditions are characterized by unfavorable valuations, overbought conditions, over-bullish sentiment, and upward yield pressures, the market’s tendency is exactly that - to make continued marginal new highs for some period of time, followed by abrupt and often steep losses virtually out of nowhere? I think not. Many simply live in denial, hoping to postpone the problems to such time in the future when they would not be around to suffer the consequence.

Obama Musical "Hope"

Obama musical story "Hope" premiered in Frankfurt, Germany yesterday. The main character is presented less on a political level, but rather as an emotional person who fights for a new, more forgiving and peaceful world and a better future. Songs are in both English and German.

Check it out!!

Crossword unsolved

Running in blocks of crossword,
a pen between my toes,
words, in flights of fancy,
took off in numeric rows.

The lines marched on in order
- an expression of escape -
and a comma, not a full-stop
passed sentence by mistake.

Italics leaned lazily,
the bold wrapped up in smoke.
They waited back at base-camp
but still no wordsmith spoke.

The words fought and bled for space,
red crosses past the page,
ignored their printed orders
and deserted in a rage.

In the mutiny that followed
were cries for reinforcements
came screaming was Dictionary
with help from punctuation!

The muddle in blood puddle
dipped slowly into the sea
and it drowned inside a teacup
which was drinking thoughts from me.

Running in circles in a teacup,
the words were ankle-deep.
I took them out and dried them
but they all looked rather weak.

假期结束

昨日，结束了三周的假期。在飞机上，望着窗外的越来越小的城市，沉思片刻，心语如沸腾的瀑布，倾泻而下。剪不断，理还乱，是离愁，别是一番滋味在心头；念新加坡那亲切的奶奶，念那温柔美丽的佳人，念台湾的新奇与好玩，念那些新结识的朋友。

九个小时的飞航时间就那样简单的吃一顿宵夜，看一场电影，睡一个短觉。睡着梦着，我仿佛看到了我的家。温哥华，我回来了。

筹备婚礼其实真的好累，不过Sharon 肯定比我还要辛苦，却没半句怨言。得妻如此，真是三生修来之福。这两年，身边亲友喜讯不断，不知是年龄，还是吉日之故，但总是让人一乐。俗话说，人生因爱而美丽。我真的有点迫不及待。

下机不久，我就被拉去参加李老师举办的健康饮食讲座。国以民为本，民以食为天。可见健康饮食的重要性。讲座重点如下：

1）健康的基础是动机意志力(Motivation)。健康要靠自己。

2）“偏”乃万害之首。一切需适可而止，太多或太少皆是祸害。

3）平均饮食并无标准。所谓的标准都是因个人的消化，吸收，运用程度而异。

听完讲座后，时间将近10点了。时差的疲累开始扩散。哪知家里还有一封信等着。加拿大最高法院召我2月1日为初选评审员。明早还要回信推掉。

算了。还是先睡个觉。今天，已经够折腾了。

Frueza Bruta

First of all, let's all jump up and down to celebrate my 500th post.

Special thanks to Sofyna for the tickets.

I walked in not knowing what to expect, only to find a man on the stage. He started to walk and then ran, then sprinted as breeze of rain blew at him. Obviously, this is the artistic type of show which you can leave with your own interpretation. My take on the running man is that it symbolizes first of all, all of us. Life moves forward and never looks back. It may go at different pace, but it will always go forward without stop. It does not matter what kind of obstacles stand in your way, you have to break free and continue on your way.

Then the man got shot, fell to the ground and seconds later, he is up again. He starts walking while at the same time undressing to clean clothings. To me, this is the struggle of failure, response, recovery, rebirth and then finding the strength to face the obstacle again.

Another set involves a wave of running pair on the wall. The motion of a flow that turns into rage is like the internal struggles one feels when confronting fear. Then we are directed to the hovering stage of a transparent hanging pool. The performers poses in different forms as the water ripples around creating beautiful shapes. Varying lights and music jabs at the mind, pushing the limits. Then the performers start to mix dives and splashes as the stage decends over the crowd. Weird and somewhat disturbing, yet the crowd was going wild.

Honestly, it did not appeal to me intellectually or even manage to stimulate any impulse that was suggested by the title. It was hardly original as it resembled the Las Vegas's 'O' show which was known for the water effect. Luckily, I only had to stand for an hour for the whole show.

Still, 500 posts is not an easy task and you should be proud of me. By the way, you can stop jumping now.

Haiti Earthquake 100,000 dead and 3 million affected

As I prepared to return to Vancouver, I was hit with the devastating news that a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti around 5 p.m. Tuesday with a force equalling several nuclear bombs combined. About 3 million people -- one-third of Haiti's population -- were affected by the quake, the Red Cross said. About 10 million people most likely felt shaking from the earthquake.

This is definitely not a pleasant way to start the year but it presents an opportunity for people to use experience gained from previous disasters to better help those in need in this time of trouble. The important golden 72 hours are counting down. We have no time to waste.

As the news reported footages of those trapped in the rumbles, those moaning the deaths of loved ones, those wrapped in white clothes with noone to claim, I am asking myself why life is so unfair and cruel.

Some may look at it as a sign of apocalypse. Some will blame the irresponsible exploitation of the ecological system and disruption of the natural world. Some may just dismiss it as an accident. None of this will change the fact that at the end of the day, hundreds of thousands of lives will have ended without purpose. LIVES that is meaningless if it does not explicitly have a monetary value.

Sad. At least, I can still embrace the sadness when I sleep. What about you?

AXE Details cleans your balls

Taiwan Julia's wedding photoshoot (Part 6)

Aren't we all excited that it is finally over? At about half past ten, we are finally done.

Why are there only 2 pictures? You just have to wait for the album to find out.

Taiwan Julia's wedding photoshoot (Part 5)

It is now around 6 in the evening. Painfully trying to stay awake from the jet lag, when will it end? So anyways, I doubt people appreciate me sleeping in the corner so.....

Taiwan Julia's wedding photoshoot (Part 4)

The rest of the photoshoot are back at Julia's studio. By this time, I was feeling under the weather while Sharon and the others are excited and hard at work. The fun part is watching Can (makeup artist) do his magic on Sharon transforming her into a Goddess.

Taiwan Julia's wedding photoshoot (Part 3)

Next stop, 台大 (My first visit as many times as I had visited Taiwan). This was the dress that was almost not picked until I insisted on it. It was also strongly recommended by Julia.

Anyways, it was pushing 2 in the afternoon and this turned out to be one of my more cooperative shoots as Peter (photographer) promised lunch right after. Hey, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.