the jungle, revisited

hello everyone, i hope this entry finds you well.

its been a while since i've posted. been too busy in the flurry of internship applications, classes (well class is never THAT busy), finding a job, reading books (attempting to), seeing friends that i haven't seen for months, and just plain catching up with good ol' new york.

new york is great. stern (nyu business school), on the other hand, sucks. just the mentality that is going around now like the influenza, infesting the innocent tender minds of the students. everyone has turned into a zombie, applying without discretion to internships, going to recruiting events, whoring themselves out to all recruiters and (for those desperate) anyone in a business suit.

it is disgusting. the world of undergraduate business relies on the financial world, which is governed by the bulge banks, large investment houses on wall street. ugrad finance students would listen to every word that any investment bank releases. 'oh, goldman sachs said to take this derivatives course? i'll take it three times and get the four related books from the library in addition to the two books recommended for the class..' and now with the banking and financial crisis, the biggest banks are fucking up. major consolidations in the industry (bear stearns+jp, bank of america+merrill, RBS and ABN, citi shitting everywhere, etc), nationalization (partly RBS), and of course death (lehman). who the hell are the students going to turn to?

so here they are, going crazy over recruiting and applying to internships, as if that was the sole purpose of coming to nyu, instead of getting a bachelors of science degree (which is true, sadly. why else learn fixed income instruments if i can't get a job making tons of money?). people talking about people talking about people about who got what interview at what time for what division. all of a sudden we're back in high school talking about college admissions.

wall street and the world of finance runs on information. nyu stern is a giant bubble. no one really knows what is going on out there except that shit is going to go down and more shit will go down this year. who knows how long we'll be in this recession, or what the financial landscape will look like when we finally emerge out of the cave. will a finance degree still be worth it? will working on wall st be the same, big bonuses and models and bottles?

(hardly. obama already criticized wall street for those bonuses, especially now since banks are getting bailed out by the government. but that is for another entry)

so this is it, this is us, wandering in the depths of some cave trying to find our way out. only time can tell what the future holds.

- andy

china style

'china copied the soviet union's communism for 30 years, then the soviet union collapsed. now, china has been copying the united state's capitalism for 30 years, then the united states collapsed.'

my dad tells me, chuckling.

'china is always doing things its own way. to not follow exactly other countries. because it is so different than them.'

to be continued.

i love my chinese milk

only in china can you be blessed with the experience of having contaminated milk. but this is only one of the problems caused by china's rapidly growing domestic demand.

in china, milk suppliers don't have a central farm of cows where all the milk comes from.  instead, they get milk from various farms across the country. a middle man gets the milk from a farm and then gives it to the suppliers. the middle man, unable to get enough milk for the distributors, dilutes the milk to meet the quota. the dilution in the milk is where the problems come from.

contaminated milk is just one small problem exposed by chance that the added mixture causes kidney stones in babies. there was a chance that the dilution could have gone unnoticed for a long time. we do not know exactly which cow our milk is from and whether or not that cow is certified to produce milk for humans. furthermore, we do not know where our produce is grown, where our meat comes from, etc. the chemicals sprayed on our apples to keep off the spiders, chemicals given to our chickens and shrimps to keep them from getting diseases; we can only trust our FDA to ensure that what we can buy is of acceptable quality. and who knows what internal problems or external pressures the FDA may have. unless you grow your own produce, you never know what exactly  you are putting inside yourself.

and that does not stop at produce. pharmaceutical drugs, recreational drugs, shampoo, toothpaste, toilet paper. thanks to capitalism, as long as there is demand, there will be supply. but also, we are never completely certain how the tylenol reacts with the biological shit in our bodies to make us better (unless you are a chemist or biologist or biochemist or have that obscure expertise that you spent your college years achieving). hopefully capitalism, perfect competition, will push companies to provide better quality. but the existence of domino's pizza and other companies valuing cost leadership say otherwise. best bet is to make  your own toothpaste.

but regarding the milk scandal in china, its not just the middle man that takes the blame for the babies. it is because of the still developing economy in china. people who are pressured to cut corners, who intentionally overlook poor judgment calls, in order to cover up deficiencies to maintain sales. they are doing what they can, operating in their best judgment. it is no one's fault. the bad milk is just a sign that chinese economy and standard of living still has a long way to go.

andy

allocation of talent

http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2008/11/11/The-End-of-Wall-Streets-Boom

this is an article written by michael lewis (author of liar's poker for you finance buffs) about the end of the wall street era.  he talks about liar's poker as a book that was supposed to warn the rising workforce of the meaningless jobs of becoming a small cog in a giant corporate machine, to 'deny the offer from merrill and go out to sea'.

of course, all of my finance friends recommended the book as a quick look inside the world of finance, world of investment banks. lewis intended to raise awareness of the misguided, morally bankrupt realm of deal making and risk taking. if anything, the grandiose lives of the bankers mixed with the crude, collegiate environment propelled finance's appeal greatly. stories of bankers who owned everything, could do whatever they wanted, only glorified the jobs in finance.

until now, when the world of finance finally crumbled on itself from its overdose on 'hubris'. the huge bonuses, as well as a life of material wealth and financial stability, attracted the smartest minds from all over the world. more and more undergraduate business programs were established to cater to the new demand of going into finance and getting a job on wall street. one in four people you meet are studying for a degree in finance or economics. but now, the supply of qualified interns dwarfs its respective demand. and all of those bright students who caved to money and power (both of which are not sustainable, both defined by those surrounding you) instead of going into art, engineering, natural sciences, are now getting the short end of the stick: getting a finance job but not living its corresponding life circa 1980s-2000s, or not even getting a job at all.

balls.

but maybe it is our fault for allowing ourselves to be blinded by wall street's promise of material wealth. and this is what we get, the financial crisis and a blunt reality check telling us that there is more to life than investment banking at goldman sachs, that money doesn't equate to happiness.

-andy

one world, one dream

beijing does not take lightly the duty of letting those stepping off the plane immediately know that it is hosting the olympics and that china is on the precipice of great economic reform.

i was surprised that the chinese officials didn't beat us over the head with 'one world, one dream' baseball bats when we got off the plane. but replace the baseball bats with visual stimuli and you can sort of imagine what it was like.

同一个世界，同一个梦想 (one world, one dream)

my dads response: 'and you know what the one dream is? to get rich!'

how incredibly true. this olympics is china's coming out party to the world, to show everyone how capable china is of doing business. and under the unforgiving gun of the chinese government, how could have the beijing olympic opening ceremony (or the athletes representing china) have not been awesome? if anyone fucked up during the opening ceremony, there were guards ready to shoot him 2008 times, in honor of the olympics.

but with such an astounding opening ceremony to mark china's entry into becoming truly a world force, everyone is quick to criticize. and when i say everyone, i mostly mean the western powerhouse built upon political and economic freedom that calls itself the united states. things like 'ohmahgahd, china needs to free tibet and shit. china needs to allow personal liberty. china needs to stop poisoning children through milk' (but i still contend that its the poison that gives the milk is chalky yellow color and gritty taste!). it is no doubt that china has problems. only a mere twenty some years since the move from planned economy to market economy, but the progress so far has been astounding. but like life, like any nation, there are going to be problems. there is always a balance, a trade off--authoritarian government vs. quick economy reform, keeping the RMB cheap (which means keeping china labor cheap) vs. allowing more people find jobs (urbanization), etc.  but lets all be mature and let america do what it does best: examine the rest of the world from its own self-righteous soap box, toppled so high on its own bullshit that i am impressed that america even knows where it is located on a world map.

china has come a long way. but there are plenty of problems that plague the country. morally corrupt conduct, uncontrollable pollution, rapidly growing wealth gap between urbanites and peasants, the baby boom generation leaving the work force, and china's growing reserves. in many ways, china's economy and culture reflects a lot of early american economy. a period where there was a huge market for fake goods. brewing really light beer (places in the world that are more developed have darker beers, i.e. europe. places that are still developing have lighter beers, i.e. china, early america). too many to address in the scope of this entry.

on the plus side, the chinese now have this opportunity presented to them: to become incredibly wealthy. when the shanghai equity market began to show real returns over the past two years, so much hot money flowed into stocks that even the beggars on the side of the street were talking about P/E ratios and market caps, to the extent that it redefined the words 'bubble' and 'mania'. it is evident that everyone in china has that ambition to succeed, always thinking of new ways to make money. they now can see the results of a market economy that is fancy cars, nice condos, expensive clothes, and subsequently a higher demand in luxury goods, such as nicer stores, nicer clubs, etc.  life now is in stark contrast to life during the planned economy (i'm sure all the chinese reading this have heard their parents talk about their poor lives). some frequent stories that my parents share with me include having 'salt water soup' as a usual meal with the very occasional boiled egg, sharing a pair of pants with siblings, and having a specific schedule for the caller and the receiver to use the village telephone.

the drive to get rich is so strong that it is not surprising the amount of cheaters (骗人, or 'swindlers') out there. and since the government is too busy worrying about getting itself rich that they cannot keep its eye on all 1.3 billion chinese people and their daily transactions. for instance, there were two men who bought and resold these plastic bags that are worn to help lose weight. they had a profit margin of 50%. naturally, they wanted to increase their margin, so they decide to make their own plastic bags. these bags were of incredibly shitty material. after some time, consumers eventually showed skin hives, rashes, and other negative reactions due to the shitty material. the law was then notified and tried to catch the two men, to no avail: the two guys fled the country with the money.

and that is just one example. the chinese are always thinking of selling new fake shit, of selling new machines that make fake shit, of selling fake machines that make fake shit, of teaching people how to make fake machines that make fake shit, etc. capitalism at its rawest.

and it will only be a matter of a few years to see how this new development takes hold. something the world hasn't seen yet, a force so massive, a power so unweildly, a bunch of asian dudes trying to fit on this piece of rock hurtling through space. now they have a purpose.

-andy

the american economy

it has been too long since i have graced the blogosphere with my presence. but it was tonight, after a conversation with my roommate mark over a stuffed bowl about the current direction of the american economy, that prompted me to write here.

to better frame this, keep in mind the nature of united states capitalism: the rich get richer (by exploiting their riches to control market movements) and the poor get poorer. also remember that the us federal reserve is a private corporation and that when the fed turned private in 1913, the united states signed its proverbial soul to the devil: wealthy international bankers who, like any banker, always has his best interests in mind (mortgages, for instance: banks will loan you money but ask for collateral--if you default on your payments, the bank gets your house). so the united states became a corporation, built on top of conglomerates, congress, and lobbyists. eventually, the government is working for lobbyists/corporations and not for the everyman, the american.

the infamous 'american dream' as middle school teachers preached to our young minds about their hopes and aspirations always included upward social mobility. for example, any dumbass sitting next to you can strike it rich in america (keep in mind that this mindset was held before the 9-11 attacks--i'll mention why further on). america to everyone, to our parents who immigrated here from china or india or wherever, was a beacon of opportunity. so our parents, being asian, studied hard and were awarded with the chance to live a new life in america, where their first generation asian babies can move up the social ladder (because they don't bear the burden of thick asian accents that have prevented our parents from moving up) and won't have to suffer a life of hardship they endured as children (thank you mom).

so now, thousands of americans are working for their american dreams, wishing that some day their dumbass minds can somehow produce a 'hot' beat or that their dumbass looks can land them a role in a movie. but everyone knows that a standard measurement for social class is the amount of money chilling in the bank account.

so sure, only .0001% strike it rich in the hollywood industry, record industry, professional sports, the lottery, etc. what is a pretty sure fire way of getting money? well, what is the study of money in society? the economy.

one way that people raised money for building infrastructure or buildings were through finding investors and paying dividends. this is the early and basic idea behind companies and shareholders (for short history of stock market, see here). eventually, by the 1980s when trading equities and bonds became really hot (the movie 'wall street' also added to the hype), everybody started getting into it.

around 1980s, investors assessed companies based on their market cap and rate/amount of dividends paid towards shareholders (this was called fundamental analysis, analysis based on the general workings of the company). only a handful at the time were using technical analysis, which was based on huge amounts of data. soon, everybody started seeing the yields of the stock market and wanted to get a piece of that 'get rich quick american dream'. but when people enter the stock market, the general yield goes down. think about it this way--the market is always trying to reach efficiency and when more people are chasing after the same amount of return, each individual will receive a smaller portion of the proverbial market pie.

have you ever heard people say that putting money on the stock market is like gambling? by the 1990s, when the advent of the internet brought about online brokerage systems and any dumbass sitting next to you can put money into an account to start trading stocks, everybody was throwing money at everybody else that the movement of the stock market became essentially random. so random in fact that the second school of thought behind trading equities is that 'everything is random'. bizarre, huh?

so taking that principle and applying that to the finance industry, we notice that this first generation born into immigrant families are all going to graduate with some sort of business degree (of course there are exceptions, you engineering masturbators, but i generalize for the sake of this entry) and enter the finance industry with the american dream deeply embedded into their minds. but with so many people who want to make quick money off any sort of market (equities, bonds, etc) the yield is getting lower and lower. now, by 2000s, most traders use technical analysis over fundamental analysis because we now have the computer power to run simulations. soon, mark speculates that trading will all be done with algorithms (maybe within 10 years) and there will be no need for an actual trader to sit at a computer, looking for a sign to enter the market and then, subsequently, looking for a sign to exit. and of course, paying that trader a lot of money and giving him amenities like a comfortable chair with lumbar support, free snacks, a black car that will take you to as far as northern new jersey, etc. market efficiency and the constant improvement of technology will eventually get rid of human traders.

as if that isn't one factor that i am concerned about (i want to be a trader, that is the whole purpose of my undergraduate degree in finance), the united states economy is tanking. it all began with the subprime mortgage meltdown. before any word got out about people unable to pay their mortgage loans, the dow jones industrial average (the standard used to measure the american economy) kept hitting record highs. is that a sign that america is artificially inflating its own economy, or that american people are just plain retarded? the federal reserve cut interest rates to 4.75% on september 18th and may cut it again tomorrow (today, october 31) to help out the market. but if the feds continue to help out the market, then the dollar will continue to depreciate.

when my parents moved here, they were able to find a nice home and live decently with $70,000. but now, people who graduate and earn the same amount of money can't even find a townhouse to live in (apparently houses in detroit are cheap, if you are interested). the turning point of the united states economy is the 9/11 attacks. it was then when things began turning sour. the federal reserve putting more and more money into the market; corrupt politicians working in their own best interests; enron, world com, and other corporations cooking books and practicing corporate scandals; and everything, especially gas prices, are getting more and more expensive. the quality of life in united states isn't as it once was, the land of opportunity, the land of greatness, where everyone can exercise the freedom of speech. after 9/11 and the patriot act established by george w. bush, the first amendment went out the window. america is becoming shittier by the second. i want to raise my kids elsewhere.

so how can i get the money that i so hunger and thirst for? i can't make much in the united states finance industry (unless i suck mad balls, aka investment banking). its in china's market. china, a young united states, if you will, will soon rise as an economic power. we should catch the wave and make our big bucks before its too late.

so all of you chinese money chasers out there, take advantage of being chinese--the reign of america as the super power will soon be over.

-andy

the bankers and our balls

here is my dad's response to the article, debtor nation (harvard magazine, july 2007), which discusses the future of the united states' economy in terms of its increasingly overwhelming trade deficit and global markets:

This is a very complicated issue, depending on how people view it. But one thing is sure: the quality of life in US is decreasing. Almost everything is more expensive than 10 years ago, such as house, food, gas, milk, etc, but the salary stays the same. When Mom and I started working in 1993, we can afford to buy our current house. Look what people who just entered workforce can buy now? Even a small townhouse is beyond their reach. So many people wonder, US may reach the peak. (but people said that in 1990 too).

And how currency works is even much more complicated. You many not know, but the Federal Reserve is a private company. US dollars are not issued by US government, but issued by a private bank. US government has to borrow the money from them and pay them interest. You may go find out more info on this.

-Dad

as much as i want to explore debtor nation and discuss several possibilities and implications of said article, the necessity to understand america's own economy is more important. the direction of america's economy in the global financial markets will be addressed in a later entry.

before i write anything remotely meaningful or significant, let me remind you that the united states is a corporation (also controlled by corporations), banks are run by heartless money chasers (they will lend money, but only if it serves their own best interests in the end, aka house or car as collateral, interest rates, etc), and money is the blood of civilized society (it is the means of all commercial trade and the measure and the instrument by which one product or service is sold and or purchased; the removal of all money or even a low supply of money can prove catastrophic, i.e. the great depression of the 1930's).

have you ever asked yourself how people can exchange green pieces of 'paper' for food and services? or that the number printed on these green things seem to be worth much more than the green things themselves?

the fact of the matter is that the federal reserve is a private corporation (i know, the 'federal' in the name really throws you off). before 1913, when the federal reserve act was passed, the money supply in the united states was controlled by congress. however, the federal reserve act removed the right from congress to 'create' money and gave it to the private corporation that we know and love as the federal reserve.

the federal reserve makes money. literally. they spend about 2-7 cents per bill to print numbers onto a green sheet of 'paper' that passes through so many hands everyday. making something and selling it at 5% premium is considered good business. imagine spending as little as a few cents to print yourself a one hundred dollar bill. that is around a 2000% mark up. sick. and if that isn't sick enough, realize that the federal reserve has its dirty hands in all of our pockets in the form of interest payments.

in order to understand that the federal reserve will ultimately gain all the wealth in the nation through interest payments, imagine playing a large game of poker with millions of other individuals. everyone buys a set number of chips from the house, who risks none in the game. every round, the house will take 2% from the pot. during the game, some people will gain chips, others will lose chips, but the total number slowly decreases. the game continues, and some will run out of chips completely. those who are out can borrow more chips from the house, but only if they sign a 'mortgage' to pay the house back with interest and offer some sort of property as collateral. if the player defaults, then the house will acquire the player's property. no matter who wins or loses the poker game, the house wins. replace 'house' with 'the federal reserve' and you can see how eventually, through interest payments, the federal reserve will get all of its created money back. the bankers risk nothing in this game, they just collect their interest and fees.

the only difference is that the 'poker game' in real life is much more serious. people cannot quit the game except by death. the money people earn will always go back to the government in taxes and interest. in fact, the bankers made it even easier for consumers to borrow and spend money: the credit card. the federal reserve has every us citizen's ball sack in a thorny vice grip. deliciously painful.

and what was the reason for passing the federal reserve act? remember that corporate america and its republic is owned and financed by international bankers. these greedy and heartless financiers decided to privatize the federal reserve. in doing so, they orchestrated one of the greatest money making scams in the history of the world--an entire nation cloaked under propaganda ('helping to pay for america's debt is patriotic') was duped into throwing its hard earned cash at the bankers who created the system. these foreign investors and bankers found a way to get their hands in the wallets of american citizens. however, another unfortunate reason is that the united states needed money to pay for war, namely world war II.

of course, privatizing the federal reserve served as a way to back big banks in the early 1900s, which is reasonable because during those times the american economy bounced around bank panics. my only grievance is that this economy, based on borrowing and spending, is only in favor of the lenders, i.e. the big banks.

and i'm jealous that i'm a broke-ass college student.

but way back in the 18th century when the founding fathers were laying out plans for our country today, thomas jefferson said:

if the american people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.

was jefferson psychic? jefferson wanted congress to control the money; that money will be the servant, instead of the master, of humanity.

now the rich will continue to become richer and the poor will continue to become poorer. its sad that so many of our own citizens are sent overseas to fight for the preservation of ideals they believed to be true. why can't we at least send the illegal immigrants? i'm sure they have some decent experience with weapons. it also frustrates me that the american government--founded on democracy, liberty, and all those good values that we are taught in school--is one of the most hypocritical deceptive institutions created. they say it is for the people, but is it really for the people when they are hiding the truth, telling two-faced lies, and basically robbing it's people? for brainwashing the public to acquire personal gains?

john f kennedy once warned:

the great enemy of the Truth is very often not the lie--deliberate, contrived, and dishonest--but the myth--persistent, persuasive, and realistic.

the government won't directly lie to the public (ok, i take that back; george bush's weapons of mass destruction, anyone?) but will give a plausible reason to hide the real truth. take kennedy's advice: challenge everything.

-andy

what have you done with your life?

to everyone who reads this, i ask:

what changes can we make to the us to make it a better place?
what changes can we make to the world to make it a better place?

i will post my responses in the near future.

-andy

george w. bush's sick, twisted game

last night, while baking my special cookies, i turned on the daily show to watch jon stewart's take on why bush says the things he says.

we have all seen and heard jokes aimed towards bush's lack of eloquence. in fact, there are several sites out there solely devoted to bush quotations that reveal his idiocy. at first (maybe in middle school), i would defend bush: 'everybody says stupid shit sometime. you can't expect someone to be on their toes with everything he says. its just that the media covers him so much that if we are nitpicky, we can find flaws.'

however, bush's lack of competence has really proven itself true in the previous four years. but is there a reason why he chooses to 'sound retarded'? bush is the president--he must be suffering severe damage to his frontal lobe if he doesn't think the entire liberal domain of america is mocking his poor command of the english language. so he, or his ivy league educated speech writers, must be playing a sick game with the liberals in this country.

before i address bush's sick game, let me remind you that the majority of america (when i say 'majority of america,' i mean the majority of america's voting power) is old, white, and conservative. they reside in what i will refer to as 'middle america'--the large, open space between the east coast and the west coast. people who live in middle america have everything pre-packaged for their consumption; they shop at wal-mart, don't remain in contact access with the internet, watch fox news, and therefore do not interact with 'the world' (of course they are still interacting with the world, but i suppose when i use 'the world', i am talking about keeping updated with the world news; that is another issue i will address at a later time). pretty much whatever they see on tv, they will believe. whether it is the faith instilled to them in the form of religion or through example of their parents during their childhood, generations after generations will blindly follow the institutions known as the church and the government. flatly, they don't think for themselves.

now, bush, that sick, sick genius, preyed on this information for his personal financial gains. he knew that in order to gain support to invade iraq for its oil, he had to establish a rapport with his middle american supporters. and how exactly did he establish that rapport? he talked like a retard. the lemmings that live in middle america don't want a smart president; they want a president that they can have a beer with, a president that they can relate to. when the president constructs a sentence with redundant clauses, that isn't the president showing his idiocy to the liberals: thats him trying to communicate to middle america. and not only that, the emergence of fox news being conservative propaganda (if you don't think fox news is biased, check out this; if you don't want to read through all that text, watch this short video as it reveals fox's absurd ignorance and narrow-mindedness). so people in middle america will watch fox and believe whatever fox tells them. sad, i know. but its even more sad that middle americans probably don't think fox is 'propaganda' material at all.

jon stewart views the president's inability to speak to the smarter individuals as his 'struggle to bring higher thought to the masses'. so hilariously true.

stewart talks about how bush uses the phrase 'in other words' in many of his speeches. he says that generally, the phrase 'in other words' is used when the speaker doesn't expect the audience to understand him. stewart says 'but we do understand you; the look on our face is not confusion. it's disbelief.' how can george bush have gotten away with this for so long?

of course this ties into george bush's evil plan to make billions and billions of dollars by deceiving the middle americans who supported him during election times. his speech writers must know what they are doing. george bush is probably this incredibly smart, greedy, soulless man that will sacrifice telling the public the truth for his own financial endeavors. and he has played his role of 'retarded figurehead' so well a few years ago that nobody suspected a thing. but alas, hindsight is twenty/twenty, and not only democrats realize bush's full destruction on american lives and american ideals. we now know the reason for invading iraq was not for WMD's but for OIL. and that bush went to the extent to sacrifice the world trade center just to gain support to explore the middle east (if you haven't yet, watch Fahrenheit 9/11; the bin ladens are big investors in american corporations). if it wasn't for george bush's delicate ploy to 'speak retardedly' to establish rapport with middle americans, then maybe we could've understood his ulterior motives much sooner. smart man, george bush.

on a side note, i saw a clip of neil cavuto's interview with president bush and the entire time was cavuto sucking bush's figurative teat. do you think cavuto really admires george bush that much (enough to get on his knees and open his accepting mouth)? or maybe he gets paid generously for saying nice things to the president (by the way, this interview was aired on fox news)? i cannot decide which of those is more despicable.

regardless, with only 529 days left under george bush's reign, all i can say is: well played, georgie. well played.

-andy

my 43rd entry on this lovely blag

hello readers; let me update you on my day.

today my department had a picnic at the morningside campus, the one that is generally associated with the undergraduate college at columbia university (i work at the columbia medical campus, located on 168st/broadway). there was plenty of free food and alcohol, both of which my hedonist self gorged on. i think i had seven alcoholic beverages (some budweiser, some coors light, some mike's hard lemonade) and i was fairly tipsy. we played a pick up game of football, watched the girls hoola hooping, and just plain chilled. it was fun times, especially since i can't stand office work (such mindless, mindless shit) and this picnic was a good change of pace.

i forget how fun drinking was. i really enjoy hearing myself talk when i'm tipsy.

they also handed out free t-shirts. they are so hilariously lame that i'm going to wear it proudly next year at school. when people ask, i'll just reply 'this was my summer.' for those curious as to what the shirt looks like, the lame (and only important) part of the shirt is the back: 'you propose, we submit'. that pretty much sums up our department's purpose and my entire summer working here. i also copped myself an extra t-shirt for a friend. are you that friend? perhaps.

anyway, i decided to write today because i wanted to leave an imprint of my virtual fist on this random place in the internet that i have deemed my blag. i had so many random thoughts today, most of which i forgot as soon as a new one arose. but i will try my best to retrieve them now.

1) marc and dan (my bosses, dan is technically marc's boss, and the boss of the entire research department) were discussing data and how with the help of the internet with so many users, people are interpreting data much differently than several years ago. interesting shit. consider this--people understand data but in direct comparison with other data, say for example, data over time, or the gdp of america vs gdp of another country. but there are now so many new innovative ways to visualize and present data that now people can view metadata (the simplest definition of metadata is 'data about data'). for a good example of how data is viewed, check out this (debunking myths about third world countries). the future of the internet and technology, i believe, is about new ways of showing, manipulating, and presenting data. before marc and dan had that conversation, i had no idea the impact of data on everything. i'm now certain i will take a data mining class at stern.

2) just a completely random thought: the next time you brush your teeth, use the hand you don't normally use (sorry if i just offended anyone missing an arm or two, or maybe even three if your parents were in hiroshima when the a-bomb detonated; sorry again if i just offended anyone for the hiroshima remark). i've been brushing my teeth with my left hand for the past couple of days. before, my left hand felt so clumsy clutching the toothbrush insensitively poking the insides of my mouth, but now i feel pretty comfortable. balance and symmetry are important. my right side is so much more dominant than my left and i want to change that.

3) what do you think of the future of the internet? i've been reading articles about google bidding for open airwaves from the FCC, but only if certain conditions are met. verizon/at&t oppose this plan because if it goes through, google's value would increase immensely. can you imagine what it would be like if there was a third service wireless 'wholesaler' for the american public? then people who don't even own a computer can surf the net. interesting lead to follow up on in the near future.

4) speaking of which, access to the internet should be provided to people in third world countries. providing internet to third world countries should be as necessary as providing food, water, education, and vaccinations. with the new $100 laptop, it is definitely possible (large corporations are working together to implement a 'one laptop per child' plan). i wonder which broadband tycoon will take advantage of this new opportunity. likewise, we should invest in that company.

5) what do you think is the new way to interact with technology? before there was a joystick with a button (atari), then a keyboard, then a mouse. there are stylus/tablets so people can draw and write. microsoft surface is pretty intense. wii's motion sensor is intense shit, too (the wii is badass--if you haven't heard of wii-fit, i highly suggest a google search; i am convinced that the wii is going to pioneer a whole new world of video gamers and leave the ps3 in the dust). i never gave this any thought until today when marc was talking about the microsoft surface. the way we interact with computers and technology in general is way taken for granted. i couldn't do shit without a keyboard. microsoft surface is a step in the right direction. we should follow steve job's example: simplicity and intuitiveness. his creations have helped dumb ass retards operate computers (macbooks), listen to music (ipods), and make phone calls (iphone). job's next step is helping dumb ass retards with their lives with ilife.

6) there must be an easier way to move through the internet. lets forget about internet 'browsers' and think of something new. along the same lines, web 3.0 is almost here. how about a facebook application that allows users to choose how to interact with facebook? take your time to understand that last line, because i'm not sure i understand it completely, either ;). but not even a facebook application. how about just something that lets users define how they interact with the web?

7) wireless laptop chargers. lets make one and get rich.

8) the republican party is going down the drain. consider this--ever since the bush administration took office in 2000, they have been working hard to restore the machiavellian executive power of the president that was taken away during nixon's presidency. they allowed, no, engineered 9/11, lied to the american public (seriously, i feel like people just buy the media propaganda bullshit), waged a 'war on terror', created the patriot act (i think this may have been the first move on the public that lets bush do whatever the hell he wants), sent troops to iraq (think vietnam war) and the list goes on. the democrats haven't made any move on the gop, but there are plenty of people who want bush and cheney out of office. there are also rumors of a terrorist attack (could also be engineered by the bush administration) so then bush would pull the 'i told your ass so, america, you should've listened to me' bullshit. seriously, one more year...

9) with 8 being said, i feel like i am more distrusting of institutions. i don't know how people can be so misled about the government. like in harry potter, so many people trust the ministry of magic (of course, with voldemort breathing down their necks, it is understandable). but in america where speech and thought are supposed to be free, why do people bend to the government and are proud to stand behind their leaders? america is a shithole. the government needs to fix the real problems in the country instead of pursuing their own monetary interests, aka oil. people should stop being sheep and think for themselves (especially to those living in between new york city and los angeles).

10) i discovered today that i am an environmentalist. the thought of renewable sustainable energy really turns me on.

congratulations if you read through all 10. after re-reading those points, i realized that i am a major dork.

ASS PUSSY PUSSY SEX GUNS DRUGS ALCOHOL

goodnight, folks.

-andy