Just Jason Being Awesome

Happy Chinese New Year from Shane and Me!

2010-02-13T18:15:00.000-08:00

and one more:

A hidden Pepperdine graduation requirement apparently

2009-12-30T10:15:00.000-08:00

Amy: lol

i think 5 couples got engaged in the last 2 weeks

i want to shoot someone

oh is that not a proper response?

me: hmm

Amy: hahaha

me: is that like a Pepperdine graduation requirement?

Amy: i think so

i missed that memo

me: make sure your diploma is still legit then

Amy: hahahah

oh no!

My two new favorite tools

2009-12-22T15:11:00.000-08:00

Shoutout to my new favorite online tools:

EtherPad
http://etherpad.com

Etherpad totally blows Google Docs out of the water. Unlike Docs', Etherpad is actually real-time, allowing for an awesome notepad for collaborations and brainstorming. Its the best remote brainstorming tool I've ever used. Props to them! ..Although I hear Google just bought EtherPad...which makes me a little scared to see what will happen to this awesome product (I hear it might get incorporated into Wave)

Dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/

Managing documents across multiple computers has always been a pain for me. This app makes it incredibly easy to share files! All you have to do is install the client on each computer and then just dump whatever file(s)/folder(s) you want into the shared folder and voila!--its available for every associated computer. This is what Microsoft should have done to begin with, instead of the useless Microsoft file-sharing system that was built into XP/Vista. A cherry on top with Dropbox is that it allows you to just as easily share a large file (<2 GB) to anyone! This is much, much better than YouSendIt.

New York, New York

2009-12-06T23:53:00.000-08:00

My New York leg was EPIC. It was a whirlwind visit that saw way too many ridiculous late nights/early mornings--but it was so worth it.

It was incredible! I was able to spend a lot of quality time with family (especially prepping yet again an awesome thanksgiving dinner). Jenn and I are 5 for 5 with this stuff, and we're practically at a point where we can cook up a thanksgiving feast in our sleep. On top of all that, I was able to see so many of my NY buds (OT bros, old Hill'ers, TCHS alums, and more). NYC + Philly reminded me of how grateful I am of my amazing friends, and that though we're on opposite sides of the world (or at least I am) and doing our own thing, when we get together...its as if nothing's changed.

Photo dump!

Highlights:
-First night out with Ed and Kai at my new favorite NYC bar (so long as Jenn lives where she lives)
-Thanksgiving feast: 17 lb turkey, mashed potatoes, mac'n cheese, green bean casserole, stuffing, apple pie, pumpkin pie (more like pumpkin soup), and lots of wine and champagne (no port!--Edlyn's fault)
-The Slipper Room with BSingh and the TCHS gang
-Mac and Cheese (albeit a ridiculous amount) with JHuey =)
-Theta Tau Alumni Brunch! (best line: "...yes, he keeps the hat on" - Tozzo, and this is why we're bros)
-KBBQ and Karaoke
-5 AM MCD's run with Edison
-Watching Barca beat Real Madrid in "el clasico" with Tedde
-Going to MSG with Ed to watch Orlando destroy the Knicks
-Jennifer's stupid neighbor who (supposedly) fell asleep while cooking
-Jenn pretending she was sick to skip work and watch Indiana Jones at home with me
-Asparagus Pizza, Shake Shack and a midnight Chicken and Rice run with Dan (all in one crazy night my stomach has yet to forgive/thank(?) me for)

Philly! - Bro Love

2009-11-26T12:04:00.000-08:00

What a great weekend back in Philly!

First night out in town: Rodeo!

Rodeo wouldn't be the same without Pam

Some OT love with Leckie, Roberto and Chuku (who by the way is a karaoke beast)

With Michelle

Keira!

Next night, Theta Tau initiation and party! Congrats to the Etas, and it was great to see OT still going strong. I went and introduced myself to the new kids and they were like "yeah, we know all about you already!" creeepy. The night, of course, ended at Crown Fried Chicken.

Michelle and her room (oh the good ole' Hill days...)

Dinner with Kuong, Metter, Tozzo, and Leckie

Rob was back in town for the last night, and that was awesome. We had drinks at Smokes and then went on one of our epic 1 AM, 35-block bromantic walks back to Tozzo Mansion. Then the next day we had lunch with Tozzo by his work for a good old roomie meal.

And now for my two favorite food items on campus:

Tacos Don Memo

New Deck "Awesome Fries"!

mitfahrgelegenheit!

2009-11-19T20:05:00.000-08:00

Just got the BEST email forwarded from Dfar:

Total inside joke from the whirlwindbromance that only him and I (oh and Alison and one Claudia Rodomski from Leipzig) would get. But man, that was such a fun trip!

Like my new tatt?

2009-11-16T14:44:00.000-08:00

Eulogy for Grandma

2009-11-12T14:43:00.000-08:00

My Grandma's infamous slingshot story has been all the rage these past few weeks. As the story goes, my Grandma was once at a street market when she was a little girl. This police officer (who was a I think was some former member of the Indian Army or something) told this little girl to shoo. When he turned away, my Grandma reached into her pocket, grabbed her slingshot, shot the dude, and ran away. Hahahah...go Grandma! And the funny thing was that many, many years later after she had moved to a new city and started a family, the man was passing through town one day and still recognized her as that mischievous little girl! Good story.

This is a copy of the eulogy that was given by my Great Uncle at my Grandma's recent funeral. From a historical perspective, its pretty interesting--I didn't know a lot of what she had to go through to get here. What a strong woman. Its always good to know where you roots are from. =)

--

Oct 31, 2009

Eulogy for Mrs. Shwe Lian Phan (4/12/1919 – 10/24/2009)

By Christopher Lee, Ph.D.

I would like to say a few words to give tribute in loving memory of Mrs. Shwe Lian Phan.
Mrs. Shwe Lian Phan was born in Pakokku, Burma on April 12, 1919.
She was the 2nd eldest child of seven children of Mr. & Mrs. Kim Ngoke Leong.
As for her own family, she was blessed with and survived by

Five children consists of three sons and two daughters, and
Nine Grand children

Her children and their family members are:

Eldest son Ricky & Make Phan and two grand children
Second son Hock & Eva Phan and one grand child
Eldest daughter Mary & Dr. Vincent Ho and two grand children
Second daughter May Shan & U Soe Myint and two grand children
Youngest son Andrew & Rosa Phan and two grand children

She is survived by four of her siblings: two brothers and two sisters.

Younger brother Sik Chu Leong
Younger sister Shwe Pain Tor
Youngest brother Larry Leong, and
Baby sister, my wife Pamela Lee

Her parents, Mr. & Mrs. Leong, emigrated from China to Burma in the dawn of the 20^th century. At that time China was in the final years of the Qing Dynasty. Both men and women wore pigtails in their hairdo; including her parents. They first settled in the town of Pakokku where she was born. Being immigrants to a new country, life was a struggle at the beginning. Later Mr. Leong moved his family to a city called Prome, known as “Pyi Myo” in Myanmar. In historical times, Prome was the capital city of many Burmese Kings. In Prome, their business was good and the family was able to grow and prosper. Mrs. Shwe Lian Phan was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend a Chinese girl school in the capital city of Yangon during her teen age years. In those days, educating a girl in the family was not a priority, and sending a girl to a far away city to study was a rare instance unless the family was very well off.

Disaster set onto Burma when World War II broke and the Japanese invaded Burma from the south. In an effort to escape the Japanese occupation, her parents abandoned their businesses and belongings and ran for dear life towards the northern Burma with the hope of escaping to Yunan China. They reached as far as the outskirt of the boarder town of Bhamo, but were unable to scale the mountain ranges and rough terrains at the border to China. The advancing Japanese army caught up and her family had to stop running and take refuge in a remote village outside of Bhamo. The struggle to survive was intense. After the turmoil settled enough to move again, her parents moved the family to Shwegu, a small village town south of Bhamo on the bank of the mighty Irrawaddy river.   It was there that they hid, took shelter from bombings, and struggled to survive versus hunger and sickness. That lasted for three long years during the oppressive Japanese occupation.

World War II finally ended in 1945 when Japan surrendered. The family then moved to Mandalay, the capital city of the last King of Burma. Her father was a talented businessman and he quickly re-established his businesses and prospered. She married Ah Kyaung Phan on Sept 23, 1946 in Mandalay.   The newly weds setup and operated tea shop in a small town Pyaw Bwe and they had their first born son Ricky in 1947. After a large fire consumed much of the town of Pyaw Bwe in the following year, they moved back to Mandalay and later settled in Myingyan with the help of Mr. Liu, her eldest sister’s husband. That was where they spent almost thirty years of their lives operating a successful tea shop and various trading business. During that period, her family was also grown to include five children.

By 1975, it was an opportune time to move on again. Under our sponsorship, she and her husband and the youngest son Andy were immigrated to the US in Sept 1975. The older children later joined them in the following years. Three years after they migrated to the US, her husband predeceased her on April 5, 1978. Life was still a struggle at that time. Even though the children were grown up, they were all struggling to get educated and professional trainings to establish careers in this new land of opportunity. She was a strong minded and witty leader of her family. She kept her family together until the children were able to stand on their own feet and settle with their own families. She was a dedicated and loving mother and grandmother. She touched the lives of many and we will remember and miss her deeply.

On behalf of the Phan family, I would like to thank you all, especially those who came from far away cities. Thank you for your out-pouring of love, support and sympathy at this most difficult time. The Phan family deeply appreciates your time, care, gifts, flowers and words of condolence. Thank you very much.

The Fall of the Greenback

2009-11-10T09:24:00.000-08:00

In the econosphere these past few weeks, there's been much talk about the imminent collapse of the dollar and how its going to bring about chaos for the U.S and the world. This certainly didn't help last week when the Indian government bought 200 tons of gold to hedge against the global expectations of a falling dollar. And this definitely didn't help when the dollar fell 0.8% yesterday, amidst rallies across most of the major indices around the world.

I don't think that a correction in the value of the dollar is necessarily bad though. This is why: I think that the causes for our recent economic woes, while inextricably complex, can be boiled down to the existence of significant macroeconomic imbalances across the world--much of this has been exasperated by the recent strength of the dollar. For example, a strong dollar helped lead the U.S. to a large current account deficit (as a reminder, a current account deficit is when Imports > Exports). Look at a simplified view of the US-China relationship. Because the dollar was valued so much higher than the Renmenbi (though not as a result of natural market forces, but instead the Chinese government's decision to peg the RMB against the dollar), Chinese goods became cheap relative to America's, and as a result, the U.S. became a net importer and China became a net exporter. Helped by this, the U.S. began to develop a nasty habit of becoming the world's most powerful and extravagant consumers, and as China built up a current account surplus and started to accumulate U.S. dollars, it had nothing else to do with that money except 1) hoard it or 2) invest it (which it did both of--with the latter action being speculated to have helped indirectly worsen some of the real estate bubble over the last decade). Now take this U.S.-China relationship and apply it to most U.S. trade relationships across the world...and you begin to see how huge imbalances led to some of our problems.

A chaotic fall in the dollar would be catastrophic. However, a less extreme correction in the dollar would do great things in rebalancing much of the global monetary system and trade imbalances, because they are so heavily based on the dollar. It would help alleviate our current account deficit, and for once, help our exporters out. As we saw over the recent years, the world economy cannot be propped solely on the extraordinary consumerism of American and a few other large powers--demand needs to come from elsewhere. Rebalancing trade across the world will hurt America's economy in the short term (a fall in the dollar equals higher costs--thus lower demand and a slower recovery). But it will do great things in the long term, such as increase domestic demand in emerging markets (including the powerhouses of China and India), and help our global economy grow in a more stable and consistent manner--of which America, as well as the other countries, will certainly benefit from.

--
note: just realized that the above example can't really be extrapolated to represent all of America's trade partners--as China is a special case and one of America's largest trade partners. In this situation, a simple decline alone wouldn't help. The RMB is pegged to the dollar, and so for any good to happen from this situation, Beijing would have to allow the RMB to appreciate relative to the dollar--which does them no good because it horribly depreciates the stockpile of cash that China has been hoarding. This then leads to a whole other problem that US/China needs to deal with...

Oh The Power of Analytics...

2009-11-06T10:28:00.000-08:00

So for the first time ever (and looking back, I'm actually very surprised it took me this long), I joined in a Fantasy Basketball league with some friends. I must say, this has totally sucked away my life. I spend so much time now following the NBA, looking at players' stats, and contemplating adds/drops/trades. Its kind of crazy. Seriously though, if I spend half as much time analyzing the stock market as I do the "NBA Market"...I'd be quite rich by now. But then that's not as fun, right?

Unfortunately for all of my time invested, my team has been doing quite horribly. Granted, its only been a week so far, and my 2nd best player (Antawn Jamison) is injured. I do, however, hate losing, and so am quite perturbed by this. In a bout of frustration last night, I sat down and (in un-abashed Banker-style) built out an excel model for my team's performance.

Judging by the amount of red seen in my team's performance vs. the league averages...you can see just how poorly my beloved "Team Awesome" is doing. Most notably, I'm getting absolutely rocked in the 3PT, PTS and REB categories. No need to panic yet though, this was just Week 1 out of 22 weeks and hopefully we can attribute most of this to early-season jitters.

But oh the power of analytics. This model is great so far, and it flows perfectly so that each week all I have to do is dump in the raw data from last week's performance and it will calculate all of the necessary stats. Not to mention with vlookups, all I have to do is enter the name of the team I'll be matched up against next week to estimate my performance. I think it'll be very, very helpful. By looking at my team's performance relative to the league average...analyzing trends such the standard deviations and skewness, I can determine what areas I can improve on and what areas I should just botch. For example, looking at my results so far, I think that in looking at trades or adding new players, I should work to improve my BLK and FT% categories, as those are the areas I'm not too far from the average in. And I should do so at the expense of my weaker categories--as those I'm way too far behind to catch up in. But hey, its only the first week (<4 games into the season) and certainly not enough data points to come up with statistically significant conclusions. I may just wait this out a few weeks and see how I fare.

Next steps: an overall dashboard to see total performance and improvements? something to estimate my team's performance based on my players' previous performance and extrapolate that to a per-week estimate?

LOL I think I've reached a new state of dorkiness. 8-)

We Will Always Remember You, Grandma

2009-11-01T00:17:00.000-07:00

Shwe Lian Phan

1919-2009

who always brought our family together...

...and who always loved me, even when I was a goofy-looking baby:

Halloween

2009-10-28T15:25:00.000-07:00

To me, Halloween seems a bit cruel this year. Looking around and seeing decorations of tombstones, skeletons, and coffins...it really hits a nerve.

Shannon Brown....again

2009-10-18T22:33:00.001-07:00

And its only just the preseason!!!

Anybody else thinks he should try out for the dunk contest?

Temples of Angkor - Part 1: Angkor Wat

2009-10-14T02:58:00.000-07:00

It is reported that there are over one thousand temples scattered throughout the Angkor region! Needless to say, in three days (and 36-ish temples) I was only able to scratch the surface. Regardless, I had a blast just exploring the entire region and visiting as many temples as I could. I'm a huge fan of Buddhist and Hindu architecture and iconography, and so Angkor was heaven on earth for me. In these three days, I was out from sunrise to sunset and felt like Indiana Jones, just running around exploring as many temples as I could...making sure to check every corner and passageway to see everything. In the next few posts, I'll highlight my three favorite temples: Angkor Wat, Bayon, and Ta Prohm.

Angkor Wat

Spectacular! It was so beautiful that I had to visit this twice.

The temple of Angkor Wat just by itself would be enough reason for anybody to visit Cambodia. In terms of size and grandeur, it is without a doubt the mother-of-all-temples. No other temple in the world comes close! What really surprised me, however, was the incredible condition that all of the bas-reliefs and sculptures were in. There are walls upon walls of sculptures that remain completely intact and are absolutely gorgeous to view. And being a nut about Hindu art, I literally spent a total of 7 hours (in 2 trips) just walking around the temple and admiring all of the intricate details and stories. And I totally would have stayed longer had I not been pressed for time.

Random fact about Angkor Wat that I loved: So in college, I wrote a paper about the symbolism of Hindu temples as "cosmic temples", representing the home of gods (i.e. Mt. Kailasa as Shiva's abode). So it was pretty awesome when I learned that Angkor Wat and its 5 towers was built to represent the sacred Mt. Meru and its 5 peaks. I know...a total nerd moment that I embraced.

And while in Cambodia, I was very very happy to find an old friend....

Ladies and Gentlemen, My Cousin Jennifer

2009-10-11T18:52:00.000-07:00

disclaimer: the following is in no means representative of the rest of the (normal) family.

just kidding, love you cuz!

..but seriously

Jennifer: sorry belay that, dan and i are arguing about balrogs
Jennifer: make that 20 minutes starting from now
Jason: what about balrogs?
Jennifer: he was asking me what it was
Jennifer: he thought it was morgoth
Jennifer: i told him it was a balrog and he said he heard gandalf say morgoth
Jennifer: and then he thought it might have been gothmog
Jennifer: but gothmog lived in the first age
Jennifer: and the war of the ring took place in the third age
Jason: wow.
Jennifer: but then he realized that gandalf said that it was a balrog of morgoth
Jason: ah
Jennifer: which makes sense because the balrog were created by morgoth
Jason: oh totally!
Jennifer: shut up
Jennifer: whatever, lol

Carmelo Anthony!

2009-10-10T08:10:00.000-07:00

Sooo... the Denver Nuggets and Indiana Pacers have an exhibition game here in Beijing this Sunday, and one of my friends, Sean, knew of someone who could get us into the club (Block 8) that Carmelo Anthony and half of the Nuggets were going to be at....

It was ridiculous!!

Melo with J.R. Smith who even in person really annoyed the heck out of me. Anyone remember him in the Lakers-Denver series this year when he was talking so much trash to Kobe? To which Kobe responded: "Better learn not to talk to me. You shake the tree, a leopard's going to fall out" and also sunk a ridiculous clutch 3 over his annoying little face. Yeah, JR Smith is a loser, haha.

Cici and Natalie (visiting from NYC!) were able to sweet-talk their way into taking a picture with Melo!! Pretty lucky, I might add, because they were the ONLY people who were able to take pictures with Melo. I tried right after, and the guard just looked at me and laughed. If only I were a girl...
AND its such a shame too, these girls didn't even really know who Melo was. Ugh. What a waste.

So I guess Melo was alright. The highlight of the night, though, definitely went to the world's biggest Mojito:

First Laker Preseason Game!

2009-10-07T23:28:00.000-07:00

It was awesome to see my boys out on the court again.

Unfortunately was only able to catch like 5 minutes of the game due to my spotty internet. But was lucky enough to catch Shannon Brown's RIDICULOUS dunk live!

And I know its just the preseason and waaay too early to make any calls, but initial thoughts:

-Its going to be interesting seeing what happens out of the backcourt with Farmar and Brown, who are both competing for Old Fish's playing time. Both had really decent games, though I think Farmar is a more stable PG in the backcourt (and distributes the ball better---6 assists today)

-Bynum totally came out with a message today, leading the team with 24 points. The kid said in the offseason that his goal was to make the all-star team this year. With an effort every game like today's, he could definitely do that.

-Ron Ron's debut! Not too shabby, I like his 9 rebounds and 7 assists, which is exactly what we need. But will he be happy with that role?

Today's game got me really excited. Why? I think that this particular squad has the potential to be one of the best teams in Laker history. Yes, you heard me. With a backcourt of Bynum and Gasol and a frontcourt of Kobe and Artest AND a sixth man in Odom...this is definitely a stacked team on paper. There's a reason why 61% of the NBA's General Managers picked the Purple and Gold to repeat this year. But for that to happen, I think that these two things need to happen:

1) Ron Artest is the big wildcard. If he fits in with the team, we're golden and I'll see you all at the parade next year
2) Bynum needs to stay healthy (no more freak accidents, y'hear?)

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

2009-10-06T05:02:00.000-07:00

Got invited by Xujia to join her and her mom for some awesome home-made 饺子 (dumplings) for the mid-autumn festival!

And of course, mooncake!

Then afterwards, the three of us walked around Houhai and enjoyed the new moon (as well as the hordes upon hordes of other people who also thought this would be a good idea). Nonetheless, it was pretty awesome.

Xujia's mom was pretty awesome, and a really sweet lady. Not going to lie, kinda wish she lived in Beijing so she could teach me how to make some great homemade dumplings. I guess this gives me an excuse to hop over to Qingdao? I mean not that seeing the Tsingtao brewery wasn't enough of a reason to begin with...

All in all, a really cool and traditional Mid-Autumn Festival, and I'm glad I got to celebrate it in a very Chinese way (oh and in China too, haha). Seeing the festivities for this holiday makes me really excited about Chinese New Years next fall, its going to be ridiculous!

Later that night, I get this email from my aunt, and apparently this was what I missed out on back home:

Good stuff! Chinese holidays rock.

Vietnam Part 3 - Da Lat , Hanoi, Halong Bay

2009-10-02T08:02:00.000-07:00

(apologies for the recent ugliness of the blog and the fact that the slideshows are cutting across the entire screen, but I figure bigger pictures are better than aesthetics, right?)

Day 3 - Da Lat
-After Nha Trang, we headed up to visit some of Sam's relatives in Da Lat. The bus ride from Nha Trang to Da Lat was intense...it was bumpy and rough, and on top of that, it was raining like no other. That we made it there in one piece is still a mystery to me.
-Da Lat totally reminds me of my Mom's hometown: Maymyo, its a small little town nestled up in the mountains. The weather is substantially colder, and there's also remnants of colonialism everywhere.
-Had a huge lunch with Sam's relatives, ate a lot of great homecooked food! And had a bit of guava wine, good stuff
-At night, rode bikes around the lake

Day 4 - Da Lat and Hanoi
-Woke up mad early to fill in all of our Da Lat sites before we headed out to Hanoi
-Saw the old King's summer palace and this valley with lots of gardens and a huge lake
-Then went to this ridiculous place called "The Valley of Love" which was literally a disgusting valley filled with heart-shaped flowers, heart-shaped photo op places, and a lake to paddle boat in. Totally egregious and cheesy in every sense. Only in Vietnam, I guess.
-Got into Hanoi in the evening, and went all out with food! Ate 4 (yes, 4) dinners that night!

Day 5-6 - Halong Bay
Words are of no more use here. Just look at the pictures:

In all honesty though, although Halong Bay is without a doubt one of the most gorgeous/awe-inspiring places I've ever been to, the atmosphere is ruined by the fact that there are way too many tour groups. It is incredibly difficult to arrange your own Halong Bay journey (because boats are hard to come by), and so 99% of all travelers have to go through a tour...which really ruins the whole mood. I hate tour groups and I would much have rather had the opportunity to just sail around the entire bay and explore it by myself. So while I loved Halong Bay and found it incredibly beautiful, I think I still find places like Yangshuo to be much more enjoyable. Nonetheless, it still is a total must-see for anyone!

Day 7 - Hanoi
-Sam continued on the trip to Cat Ba Island, while I headed back to Hanoi to chill and catch my flight out to Cambodia
-Had the chance to explore Hanoi a bit more, and it was really fun getting from place to place. Literally at every street corner there were people with motorbikes just waiting for customers. Alls you gotta do is hop on the back of one and pay them, and they'll take you anywhere. It was a pretty cool experience!

Coming up next: Cambodia and the Temples of Angkor!!

The PRC's 60th Anniversary

2009-10-01T01:52:00.000-07:00

More Vietnam/Cambodia pics to come, I promise. But today was just too important of a day to not write about.

Crazy day of celebrations in Beijing! It was pretty awesome to actually experience this event in China. While Shane, Han Feng, and I were only able to watch the event in our apartment, we were still able to hear the sound of cannon-fire and roaring jets from our window. Very cool.

First off, please check out my thoughts regarding this anniversary on Wokai's blog.

Now for some more informal ramblings.

The parade itself was really ridiculous! Leave it to China to wow us yet again with an impressive display of scale that was also ridiculously precise--no detail was spared.

Funny though how it first started off with a HUGE and awe-inspiring (if not scary) display of military might (not to mention the nukes that were shamelessly paraded down. now that was pretty scary):

Which quickly turned into a friendly "let's just dance and sing and celebrate" parade with warm and fuzzy flowers, floats, and dancers:

President Hu Jintao is pretty baller. I mean, seriously, who didn't want to be him as he rode down the route proclaiming: "同志们辛苦了!" ("Laborous comrades!") and hearing the defeaning response of thousands of military men and women say: "为人们服务!!" ("We serve the people!"). That was just insane.

But seriously, that Mao-esque suit he was wearing is amazing. I need to get me one of those:

Paulina also suggests that I must grow out my hair like that as well. Will keep that in mind.

Thanks to Shane's girlfriend, Han Feng, who, like all Chinese, had taken a few military classes in school, I know now how to do the military goose-walk! It has now become my favorite mode of transportation. Pedestrians beware.

Little did I know, but this was also China's opportunity to showcase its most eligible bachelorettes! A platoon of women in military uniforms, all in impeccable unison, and carrying rifles? Seriously, what more can a man ask for?

Vietnam Part 2 - Food

2009-09-29T17:25:00.000-07:00

The food in Vietnam was delicious!! I must say, nothing in the world beats dirty dirty South East Asian street food. The dirtier the street stand and the more questionable it looks...the better (I'm sure that's been scientifically proven somewhere). My whole attitude throughout this trip was that if I didn't start having stomach problems, I clearly wasn't trying hard enough.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

Next up: Da Lat, Hanoi and Halong Bay!

Vietnam Part 1 - Saigon and Nha Trang

2009-09-28T06:15:00.000-07:00

I just came back from an amazing 11-day trip through Vietnam and Cambodia and absolutely loved it! Over the next couple of days, I'll be throwing up pictures and recapping the trip here, so check back often!

First off, many many thanks to Sam and her parents, without whom my experience in Vietnam would have been totally different (much less genuine). Its always great to travel in a foreign country with people who know the language, have friends and family, and know where to go.

Day 1: Saigon
-Got in at 3 AM and slept 4 hours in a hammock at Sam's cousin's place. Totally awesome. I love hammocks!
-In the morning we went to the Reunification Palace, and it was humbling to see the site of where the North overran (literally with tanks) and defeated the South. It was also ridiculous to see the extreme amount of bias in the "historical accounts" that were depicted

-Spent the afternoon visiting Buddhist temples
-Had two dinners by the Saigon river and then took an overnight train to Nha Trang

Day 2: Nha Trang
-Definitely one of the best beaches I've ever been to! The water was incredibly clear and the islands out in the horizon totally made me feel like I was in a Lost episode
-The heat and humidity, however, was probably the worst I've ever experienced. If there's anything I learned from this trip, its that I will never ever survive in humidity. Upon seconds of going outside, I would completely soak through my clothes...any longer and I would have been reduced to a puddle. No joke.
-Went to some ancient Cham ruins and a really awesome giant Buddha on top of a hill

Day 3: Nha Trang
-Went scuba diving! My first time ever, and I didn't even need a license (well I'm sure I technically did, but in Vietnam, anything goes)
-Found and played with two large sea turtles! They were both about a feet and a half in diameter, and I tried to hang onto one like a kickboard...but he wasn't too happy about it and sliced my hand with his shell. I'm sure I deserved that, haha

And here are the rest of my pics from this leg:

Coming up next: Vietnamese Food!

Travels!

2009-09-14T20:31:00.000-07:00

Looking forward to some upcoming traveling!

Sept 16-28: Vietnam and Cambodia
Tentatively:
-Ho Chi Minh City
-Nha Trang
-Da Nang and Hoi An
-Siem Reap (Angkor Wat temples!--highlight of my trip)

Unfortunately I just checked the weather and...
-90 degrees F
-100% humidity
-60% chance of thunderstorms daily.

Now I haven't given the concept of "hell" all that much thought, but if I had to imagine the weather...that would probably sum it up in a nutshell.

Also, mark your calendars, cause Jason is coming back to the motherland! (the true motherland, that is)

Nov 21 - Dec 2: NYC and Phillay!
-Thanksgiving just wouldn't be the same without Jenn, Kai and some turkey-lovin ;)
-Hill reunion? OT reunion?
-I owe Bsingh a bottle of green label, and we're going to finish it
-"Awesome Fries" at New Deck are an absolute must

Dec 2: Bay Area
-Spending some quality time in SF, my 2nd favorite city in the world, and also working out of Wokai's Oakland office

Dec 11 (?) - Jan 4: LA
-First birthday at home in 5 years
-Lakers vs. Cavs on Christmas Day?? Seriously, let me know if you want in

And sometime in January, I definitely want to make my up to Harbin for the Ice and Snow Festival. Let me know if you're around and are interested, should be pretty awesome.

A tribute to "Ole Betsy" and "Crack Baby"

2009-09-13T05:15:00.000-07:00

Was surfing on Lifehacker the other day when I found this Do-It-Yourself guide...which is a total copycat of our very own project 4 years ago: "Ole Betsy" and "Crack baby".

Here's how the story goes:

Around the fall of 2005, Theta Tau (by the way check it out, totally AWESOME new website redesign. great job guys!) was just getting off the ground. As with how most great ideas tend to arise, it was the brainchild of Rob, Tozzo, and me one night where we may or may not have been under the influence of alcohol (funny enough, there's a similar story behind the founding of Wokai). I should also add that serendipitously, Neha too was also coming up with this idea at the same time. So the four of us met up and set out to establish Penn's first professional engineering fraternity. By spring 2006, we had grown to 9 total members, and...to be honest, didn't really know what to do. We were all enthusiastic and excited to be a part of something new, but those first steps were the hardest to come by. In an attempt to get our name out, we threw together a Paper Airplane Contest (which in retrospect, could hardly be called a success); however, what we really needed was a legitimate project to get our hands dirty and result something we could call our own.

It was during one of our weekly board meetings when somebody (I can't for the life of me remember who...but it was probably Kuong or Jeremy) threw out the hairbrained idea of building a grill...from a keg. Looking back, I have no idea why I thought this sounded like an incredibly awesome idea (or how this would even benefit Theta Tau), but we chatted about it and all grew really excited by this. After doing some research, Kuong found out that there was no way we could cut through a keg, and so suggested that we find a 55-galloon drum instead. We sat down and drew together the initial schematics of this grill, as well as put together a list of necessary supplies and tools. Micah did the math and calculated that all of the pieces would come out to ~$200. I gave the go-ahead, and we set forth!

By some stroke of chance Kuong found a 55-gallon drum on e-bay. To this day, I still have no idea who (besides really bored engineers apparently) would want to buy a drum on e-bay. I still remember when Kuong called me up that day it arrived. It went something like this:

"Hey dude, the drum's here. I'm gonna need your help to pick it up from the mail room."
"Oh man, I'm a little busy right now, can you handle it yourself"
"...dude. its a 55-gallon drum."
"Oh right, I'll be down in a sec"

Now for gathering the parts. Seigler went home to grab his Sawzall as well as his car. We swung by Home Depot and picked up all of the necessary pieces. Then on one epic Saturday, the 9 of us spent an incredible 15 straight hours in the machine shop to throw it all together.

It was quite a ridiculous day. The morning was spent putting together the drum, nailing in the guide rails for the lid and the rack, and putting together the handle. This part of the grill was beautiful, and so we appropriately called it: "Ole Betsy". By the night, however, we were so exhausted and confused...and this was definitely conveyed in the eyesore of a stand that was produced. The funniest memory of the night was at the end of the day when we were so tired and delirious that between the 6 of us left, none of us could hit in the damn last nail! We all tried and missed, and by the end, the nail was bent in every which way...it was absurd. And so in honor of this misunderstood creation of ours, we called it: "Crack Baby".

This grill was only ever used at most 3 times in its lifetime, and was far from convenient. It was way too big to be carried anywhere (or stored for that matter). Also because it was so large, it required at least half a bag of charcoal to cook anything (although impressively you could cook up to 15 or so hamburgers at a time), as well as a good 6 hours for it to cool down afterwards. In a strictly cost/benefit sense, it definitely was not worth the investment.

Looking back, however, I think we all grew so much from this project. For starters, it was the first significant step that we took together as an organization. I'm not talking about just the ~$200 we invested, but instead also the time and the energy that we all spent to turn this idea into a reality. There were times throughout the day when we were thinking "how on earth is this going to actually work?" And yet we persisted and remained creative, and the result showed. Realistically, we needed these baby steps and these little challenges to overcome before we could throw ourselves and commit fully to our goal of establishing a fraternity...because once we started recruiting new members and growing, there was no turning back. This project, if anything, was a trial for most of the challenges to come.

Secondly, being a rag-tag group of friends and friends-of-friends, this endeavor was the first instance that all of us spent a significant amount of time working together. We were able to grow together and learn much more about one another, thus establishing the foundations of brotherhood that now serve as the crux of our organization. I know that I personally took to heart this lesson in the years ahead and kept this in mind when the organization continued to grow.

So here's to Ole Betsy and Crack Baby, certainly a remarkable and defining experience for us and Theta Tau.

Krugman's argument for a return to Keynesian economics

2009-09-09T08:32:00.000-07:00

Okay this is how big of a nerd I am:
Despite being really tired from a long 6 am - 12 pm day, I came home and was incredibly excited to finally read this Paul Krugman article in the New York Times Magazine. Although it kept me up until 2 am (what?? I'm a slow reader), it is one of the better economics pieces I've read in awhile....and as a result, I slept very very contently. On top of that, it has both challenged and helped the way I view the policies that shape our economy.

Although Krugman is a slightly biased towards Keynesian economics vs neoclassic/Friedman economics, he raises some very interesting points throughout this article. The best part about it, though, is that his prose is very simple and easy to understand--especially for those of us who aren't economists. He briefly outlines the historical trends in economic thought since Adam Smith, and does so in a way that is not only interesting, but also in a way that also drives at his central thesis: that economists and policymakers have to steer themeslves back towards the ugly and unsimplified theories that existed prior to neoclassic/Friedman economics. I'm not going to even try to capture his thoughts (you all should read them for yourself), but they are really good!

First water polo practice in 5 years!

2009-09-06T07:53:00.000-07:00

Had my first club water polo practice today, and it was a ridiculous amount of fun...I had forgotten how much I loved playing polo! I'm totally beat though, and it was probably the best workout I've had in a long time. It was really funny though because I while I could still remember all of the fundamentals and instincts I learned in high school (ex: positioning on defense, offensive drives, executing a 6-on-5, etc), my out-of-shape body was totally failing me. So I'd know when to rotate on defense or when to cover the cage with a hand up....except I wouldn't quite get there on time or I wouldn't be able to get my hands up high enough. The worst were my legs. After running a bit and developing puny and skinny chicken legs (okay, not really), they no longer have the meat to eggbeat and keep me afloat. I can't even get up high enough anymore for a good shot. ...Alas, such is what happens when you get old, eh?

Afterwards, Shane and I found this awesome hot pot place near our apartment, and I swear we ate the equivalent of 4 cows, 1 lamb, and 2.3 chickens. It was glorious.

Funniest story I've ever heard

2009-09-03T08:12:00.000-07:00

From the awesome June Y. Chu (my favorite professor at Penn that I never had a class with):

junechu: My friend Betty was on campus walking around.

Girl comes up to her and asks for directions...

GIRL WAS LOOKING FOR ADDRESS...AT PENN STATE.
The girl was so confused, my friend finally asked her to see what address she was looking for (my friend Betty kept asking UPenn?)...and that's when Betty realized that the girl was six hours away from where she should be.

Woww.

Random Beijing-ness

2009-08-31T07:41:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately due to a freak accident (falling from a table), my beloved camera has been put out of commission indefinitely. This means I have to now shop and haggle for a camera in Beijing. In the meanwhile, here are some pictures for ya'll that I took before said accident.

Picture from Cindy's farewell dinner with Cindy, Ariel, Fulton, Zhang Sheng and Me. Alas now only Zhang Sheng and I remain in the office

Entrance to the office! Its a quaint little hutong...surrounded by many migrant workers

Working hard

Midnight bike ride through Tiananmen....gorgeous

LSE Alumni event with Cherie Blair (Tony Blair's wife)

And in my awesomeness, I created a pretty cool spreadsheet to keep track of my expenses. This whole breakdown totally makes me look like an alcoholic. In my defense, drinks here are much much more expensive relative to food, haha.

Awesomest video ever

2009-08-25T19:02:00.000-07:00

I absolutely cannot stop watching this video. Save for the horrible grammar (this guy is Polish, give him a break), it is ridiculous. Not going to lie, I may have shed a tear while watching this (okay, an obvious exaggeration, as it is a biologically proven fact that Jason does not have any tear ducts). But seriously, check it out:

You know how most people remember where they were and what they were doing during a historical/memorable moment? Well let's take a stroll down memory lane as I recall where I was during all of these great Laker moments:

The historic comeback against Portland in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals - This was their first title run, and my first time ever watching every single Laker game of the entire season (no joke). So I was really angry when the Lakers were down and it looked like their title chances were over. I remember actually getting mad and hitting my coffee table...upon which I received a harsh scolding from my dad. Haha. The Lakers then made their historic run and I quickly became a very, very happy kid.

Robert Horry's 3 at the buzzer to save elimination from the Sacramento Kings - Was my spring break of my junior year in high school and I was up north visiting colleges with Jennifer, Derek, Sam and Cary. We had just gone on tour of Stanford and got back in the car when Sam turned on the radio to ESPN and we listened to the final seconds as Robert Horry nailed that 3 to seal the series.

Derek Fisher's incredible 0.4 second shot at the buzzer - "One lucky shot deserves another" - Shaq. Was watching it at home with my mom. Such an incredible moment.

Kobe scoring 81 points against the Raptors - Was my junior year at Penn and just hanging out with my roommates when Jonathon Seigler runs in the room and yells "dude! Kobe just dropped 81". I scream like a little teenage girl and run to turn on ESPN. For the following week I cannot for the life of me stop watching replays of his god-like performance that night.

Kobe nailing that buzzer-beater of the Suns in the 1st round - As with most playoff games, this was during finals week. I had forced myself to stay in the library and had given myself a restraining order to stay away from any TV in sight. The great thing about the 21st century though, is the internet. =) So instead of studying, I ended up just watching the ESPN Gamecast play-by-play on my laptop in the library. When the score was too close in the 4th quarter, I couldn't take it anymore and RAN home to catch the final minutes (so much for studying). Together with my roommates, we oo'd and aah'd as Kobe caught the ball in midcourt, weaved his way down to the right elbow of the key, and hit that shot over 2 Suns. The fist pump as he strolled down court afterwards was stuff made for the ages.

Lakers winning the 2009 NBA Championships - Watched the game at home with my mom. As soon as the Lakers won and the festivities were underway, I get a text from Amy saying, "hey! wanna go to the riots?"... I jump out of the couch, run to throw on my Pau Gasol t-shirt and we both headed off to Staples. Good times!

Share with me your stories!!

The pursuit of happyness

2009-08-19T18:48:00.000-07:00

Shane and I had a very interesting conversation over dinner the other night where we talked about our views on happiness, the abstract concept of "utility" and why we both consciously choose to live a high-paced/challenging lifestyle. A very good question that came up during our talk was:

"What do you think is harder? Figuring out what makes you happy in life? Or actually doing it?"

Thoughts?

My chances of becoming a billionaire

2009-08-17T18:07:00.000-07:00

Penn ranks 3^rdamong all world universities in the number of current billionaire alumni with 18 current billionaires (27 before the financial crisis wiped out a lot of their savings).

…just some quick back-of-the-envelope math:

Penn has only been around since the late 1700s-ish, but for the sake of our current calculation (and the fact that a "billionaire" is a fairly recent phenomenon), I'll only take the last 50 or so years into calculation (this is assuming the oldest living billionaire is probably around 70 years old and so graduated 50 years ago) This is also assuming that we're talking absolute amounts of money and not about purchasing power.

My graduating year had approximately 2,500 graduates, give or take? I couldn't find (was too lazy to look) actual Penn alumni numbers, so we'll just use the actual population growth rate over the past 80 years...which on the high end averages about 1.15% according to the U.S. Census Bureau. We'll assume that this number rough holds true for the past 50 years (a big assumption, I know, but let’s make it for the sake of simplicity). And of course, we're also assuming that Penn's student body size has grown in proportion to the

population.

We’ll start with the equation for CAGR (compound annual growth rate)

First solve for Penn’s 1959 graduating class size, where:

Final = 2500

n = 50

CAGR = 1.15%

Thus Penn’s 1929 graduating class size is approximately: 1427.

The next step is to find the summation of every year’s graduating class between 1959 and 2009.

First we manipulate the CAGR equation and get:

Then the summation:

Solving for this shows that there have been a total of 95,751 undergraduates in the past 50 years at Penn.

We’ll take the post recession number of 27 Penn billionaires. And so 27 divided by 95,751 yields 0.000282…

In other words, according to my calculations and historical trends, each Penn graduate has approximately a 0.0282% chance of becoming a billionaire!

Wow. How depressing.

If it’s any consolation, here is a major thing to take into consideration:

-By making the assumption that we’re talking about money in absolute terms and not in purchasing power terms, we’re essentially ignoring inflation. This can’t really be ignored because if you compare the purchasing power of the dollar 80 years ago and now…there’s a HUGE difference (in addition, the power of a dollar now versus in 40 years when I will become a billionaire will also be different too). Because of this, the millionaires who lived in the 1960s and 70s could also be counted as “billionaires” by today’s standards. In a similar manner, assuming inflationary trends continue, it will technically become easier for me to become a billionaire in 40 years than it will be for me to do so at the present time (although being a billionaire then will mean less in 2049 than being one in 2009). To take this all into consideration and to calculate my future chances of becoming a billionaire may require some more complicated math that I don’t quite feel like doing. But the general gist is that it will definitely increase my chances of becoming a billionaire (albeit probably only very very slightly).

-Bsingh also adds that to improve my chances, I should isolate just those majors that have a higher probability of making it big (i.e. business, engineering, law, med, etc). But then again, Steve Wynn was an English and Cultural Anthropology major at Penn...so there goes that logic...

Oh well.

(note: I probably could have gotten a much more accurate number had I had Penn’s almanac numbers at my disposal)

My Favorite Penn Pics: 2004-2009

2009-08-17T03:28:00.000-07:00

This is by far my favorite Penn picture:

- Hey Day 2007 -

I got a little bored and nostalgic, so I compiled a handful of my favorite Penn pics from over the years into an album on Facebook. Take a look!

I know, I know, so far not too many China pics. Will take some and upload them soon, I promise!

Aung San Suu Kyi Sentenced for 18 Months

2009-08-11T18:28:00.000-07:00

Really sad, but unfortunately a very expected sentence for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's pro-democracy leader. The junta will basically use any excuse to keep Aung San Suu Kyi imprisoned, and this stupid....STUPID American, John Yettaw, practically gave it to them on a silver platter.

This sentence has drawn international criticism from many of the world's leaders, eliciting public statements from the Obama administration, Hillary Clinton, Nicolas Sarkozy, Gordon Brown, Ban Ki-moon, and so forth...but really, its more of the same story over and over again. Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years! What is going to bring about change? What can bring about change? So long as the junta is in control and has a strong grip on the Burmese people (a grip perpetrated by fear and disgustingly inhumane treatment, I might add), no amount of international criticism, words, or sancations will do anything for the situation in Burma.

Ugh, I wish I could say there is something...some incentive: economic, social, or otherwise that would drive towards change. But there hasn't been for the past thirty-plus years, and nothing has changed since then. In fact, things have gotten much worse. The Burmese people have had a long and sad history of colonialism and despicable military rule...where's the tipping point?! This is so frustrating.

Some futbol action and how I almost died

2009-08-10T00:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Zhangsheng, my coworker, invited me out to play a "friendly" game of soccer in Chaoyang Park (潮阳公园).

I say to him, "You know I never play and am nowhere near competent, right?"

He responds, "Oh yeah don't worry neither are we, we're just all there to have fun"

Right.
So we arrive at the park and look for the pitch that we reserved, and Zhangsheng then talks to the manager of the fields to ask which one we'll be playing at. The guy responds with something like, "Oh yeah you guys are on field 11, playing against the Italian Embassy team, right?"

...

The other teams show up. Turns out it was actually 3 teams in total: one from the Italian Embassy, one team from the Spanish/Portuguese/Turkish Embassies...and one ragtag team of Americans, a Chinese, a Ugandan and a Brit (i.e. us). Our opponents were legitimate "we're-European-so-we-learned-how-to-play-soccer-before-we-learned-how-to-walk" types of dudes...and so I'm thinking, what the heck did I get myself into...

Actually, it was a ridiculous amount of fun! It had just rained hard, and so the field was all wet and slippery. Everyone was in shape so there was a lot of running back and forth, and though my touches and handling were beyond horrible, it was at least an awesome workout for me. By the way, I still maintain that I'd have been an incredibly futbol player (I have the right body for one...disproportionately huge leg muscles) if it weren't for my mom who forbade me to play soccer when I was a kid--for fear of me getting injured...thanks mom!! (just kidding! love you mom!). Instead I was an awkward fish out of water (yeah, literally) on the pitch, running back and forth trying to chase down Italians and Spaniards who seemingly danced around me with the ball.

Here's a funny story though. And it was a great roommate bonding moment with Shane.

Because we had no real goalie, I had volunteered to step in the cage for a bit of time. Shane was playing defense, and with his brilliant skills, managed to touch the ball with his hands (although to his defense it was hardly obvious and shouldn't have been called at all). Which meant...penalty kick time.

...gulp.

So here I am alone in the goal, with absolutely no experience in playing soccer or goalie for that matter. The Italians select their biggest guy to take a shot against me. This dude is at least 6 foot 4 and 200+ pounds with legs the size of tree trunks, and you just know from the looks of him that he's probably killed a man or two with his shot before. In what feels like slow motion, he puts the ball down, takes a long step back, and pauses...a long time.

I shoot Shane a glance that pretty much says "thanks a lot dude. real nice of you."

At this point, my life flashes before my eyes. Okay, so not exactly my entire life, but just a harsh reminder of my buddy Edison who got his front tooth completely knocked out because he was playing goalie at a "friendly" company soccer game last summer. I wonder for a second how good the dentists are in China...

Right before he shoots, I vaguely recall my dad making a comment about how with penalty kicks, goalies should just pick a direction and go for it. So as he begins to shoot, I cross my fingers, say a quick prayer and dive left. Except the shot is pretty much dead center. I jerk back and succeed in tapping it, but it still ends up in the net.

Good news: I survived (with all of my teeth still intact)
Bad news: We ended up losing that game 2-1 (I blame Shane)

Fun times though!

Pics:

At the gate of Chaoyang Park there's a HUGE statue of Shaq! How cool!

Biking in Beijing

2009-08-07T03:15:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite things to do in Beijing is to bike around. Its really fun, but for those who have been in the city, you'll agree with me in that it could also definitely be considered an extreme sport. Cars have no regard for bikers or pedestrians, and other bikers are always cutting through red lights and going in every which direction. Either way, its awesome...its really fun, it allows me to get around fairly quickly and also explore the city much more than I would be able to on foot.

Some recent bike stories:

-Almost got hit by this dude who was trying to text while biking (and you thought California was bad). I dodged him and then gave him the very classic, passive-aggressive Beijing scowl and grunt

-Was biking to work today when all of a sudden...torrential downpour. We're talking about raindrops the size of golf balls. I had to quickly whip out my umbrella and bike with an umbrella up (btw...I think I'm pretty awesome that I can do that), but man, by the time I got into the office, I was totally drenched. Good thing my laptop and phone stayed dry

-I was caught on the wrong side of a merging bus one time, and thought I could speed up and pass it on the front. And then I realized how stupid of an idea that would have been, so just let it pass me instead

-Was successful in being able to piggy-back my coworker a couple of city blocks without either one of us dying

-Bike totally comes with a sweet bike-bell. And you know me, I'm having lots of fun with it! (to the annoyance of anybody around me)

-There's a saying that you're not really a true Beijinger until your bike gets stolen. Any bets on when mine will?

How this global recession can help Asia in the long run

2009-08-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

Key word: can

I read this great article on the current economic state of Asia by Brian Klein and Kenneth Neil Cukier in Foreign Affairs that talked about how this recent economic downtown has affected Asia and what steps they should take to emerge stronger from it.

For the most part, all of the coverage and blame for this recent recession has been directed at Western economies—their consumption binge, the dramatic collapse of the real estate bubble, the lax issuances of risky assets (i.e. subprime mortgages), over-levered banks, etc. And more or less this is all pretty much correct. What has become apparent, however, is that as the recession unfolded, it was more than just the Western economies that suffered. As a result of increased globalization, many other regions of the world suffered—and suffered tremendously indeed. Asia, for example, was hit exceptionally hard. According to this article, Taiwan’s exports and industrial production shrank by a percentage larger than the United States experienced during the Great Depression. In addition, Japan is showing its first trade deficit in 30 years and Singapore’s economy is expected to contract by almost 10 percent, which is the largest decrease since 1965.

Now compared to the contraction seen in many Western economies, this may not seem overly excessive. Yet what is so surprising about these numbers is that this was not supposed to happen! Many of Asia’s financial institutions avoided much of the risky assets that plagued their Western counterparts. In fact, as a result of the lessons learned during the recent 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, most of the governments in the region displayed fiscal integrity and many corporations kept healthy balance sheets. Now add the region’s traditionally high individual savings rate, and this should all be a recipe for economic stability—especially given the circumstances that led to this downturn.

So why was Asia hit so badly? This is why: this recession showed, if anything, how overly dependent these Asian countries are to their export driven economies. Even amidst such aforementioned fiscal prudence, Asia suffered simply because their economies are skewed too much towards exports. To hear this is definitely no surprise. For the last 60+ years, Asia has developed into the export powerhouse of the world. Starting from Japan’s success story, then emulated by the Asian “Tigers” of Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore, and now with the awakening of the “Sleeping Dragon” (aka China), Asia has developed a very strong export-driven economic culture. Don’t get me wrong, Asia’s export-led growth is still an incredible success story. It has lifted billions of individuals from the lowest of poverty levels to (in some cases) living standards that now rival the West. Except now it has become apparent that this model needs to change.

It is never good for an economy to be as heavily skewed towards one element. When this happens, as with the case of Asia’s export-led growth, it significantly affects incentives—which then lead to huge economic distortions. An unbalanced focus on exports means that corporate investment, government spending, and foreign direct investment all flow right into exports and not into other industries that may benefit the domestic economy as a whole. For example, programs that would increase social welfare, such as education, healthcare, unemployment benefits, and social security will get overlooked. As a result, the infrastructure for these social programs is not existent, and as a result, recessions are significantly exacerbated. Many will point at the traditionally high household savings rate of the region and attribute that to a cultural norm. This may be true, but another reason why Asians need to save so much is that because of a lack of social programs such as education, health and social security, there is more of a necessity to “save away for a rainy day.”

Not only do social programs suffer, but skewed incentives in this case lead to a huge income disparity between the rich (those involved in export-industries) and the poor. This in turn has significantly affected domestic demand, which is practically nonexistent in Asia. Although Asia is now a manufacturing powerhouse, the majority of the population cannot even afford the goods that it produces. Now couple that with the high household savings rate, and you begin to see why domestic demand is so low in the region.

This global recession can help Asia in the long run simply because it has exposed much of the region’s economic weaknesses. As the West struggles to emerge out of this recession, it will continue to de-lever itself for years to come. In fact, household savings has already reached record highs. In other words, the West will be in no position to continue its spending binge, and the East will certainly suffer. I think this can be good though. If Asia’s governments recognize this and begin to take steps towards increasing domestic demand and improving social services, this may be the push that the region needs to rebalance its economy. It won’t be easy or painless for the region to apply the brakes and shift away from the model that has provided it with unbelievable growth in the last half-century, but I believe that this is an absolutely necessary step for future of the region.

And the Candyman is back!

2009-07-31T03:15:00.000-07:00

Welcome back LO!

Mark my words: with the return of the Candyman and barring any injuries or Ron Ron catastrophes, the Lakers are now clear favorites to repeat. See you all at the parade!

This is why I love Lamar: Even though Miami offered him a 5-year, $34 M contract (with the added bonus of being in Florida and paying less taxes) and Portland offered him a (supposed) 5-year, $40 M contract, LO decided to stick with the Lakers, a team that offered him a 3-year, $27 M contract (shorter contract and possibly lower money) because he knew that this was the squad that would bring in another championship. And also because he read my blog.

On a side note, rumor has it that this year's Christmas game will be between the Lakers and the Cavs. Not only will it be a Kobe-Lebron match up, but now also the added dimension of a Kobe-Shaq feud. You gotta give the NBA props for knowing how to milk this Kobe-Shaq thing for all its worth, but seriously, its getting a little old. But either way, I'm pretty set on going to this game if it's in LA... anyone else interested?

The secret life of a Beijing cabbie

2009-07-29T03:33:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things to do in China is to chat with the cabbies. Its always a bit of a challenge because my Chinese is far from good and Beijing cab drivers are notorious for having harsh Beijing accents ("rrrrrrrr"). But they are often the nicest people you'll meet, and its always great to hear a little bit about their life and their stories. I remember one of my favorite cab experiences was actually in Shanghai earlier this year with Dan. After telling this driver that my parents were from Burma, he proceeded to give me an incredibly detailed 20 minute history on Chinese/Burmese relations...including famous moments, notable individuals, and the current political climate. Very interesting indeed.

I caught a cab from Wudaokou to my apartment last night, and although it was a bit of a drive, it was a great opportunity to chat it up with the cabbie. I asked him all sorts of questions about his job, and in case you were wondering, here are some of the key facts:

(disclaimer: this is according to this particular cab driver, so the actual truth of it has yet to be verified)

-Cab drivers don't think it is rude if you sit in the back (contrary to my original belief). Truth is, you can sit in either the front or the back and they won't think any less of you

-The average cabbie makes approximately 3000-5000 RMB a month. This is after they have to pay a fixed rate of 3000 RMB to the cab company for the car rental. In addition, all other expenses such as auto insurance and gas are the responsibility of the driver.

-The average cabbie works approximately 12 hours a day (ouch)

-Do NOT tip a cab. In fact, the driver said that it was considered rude and unpolite to tip. He believes that people should not be compensated extra just because of their "good service". He believes that such service should be expected and included in the cost of the ride. After living in Philadelphia for 4.5 years, I could not agree with this any more.

-He, as with everybody I seem to meet in Beijing, originally thought that I was Korean (I seem to get this a lot!)

What Lamar Odom Can Learn from Me

2009-07-26T06:24:00.000-07:00

I just took my first Beijing bus today! One more step towards becoming a true Beijing-ren.

So I went to Zhongguancun yesterday (which is like the electronics haven of Beijing) to look for a laptop cooler. After searching a bit, I finally find the perfect one. It's a Cooler Master brand that's made entirely of aluminum and has a large 200 mm fan. Perfect. I begin to bargain with the store owner, and after a few rounds, it becomes apparent that he won't go below 100 kuai--which he claimed was "doing me a favor". Yeah right, I thought. Seeing that this wasn't going anywhere, I pull the classic bargaining move of "walking out", which consists of the following steps:

1) Scoff at the storekeeper
2) Tell him/her that the price is outrageous
3) Let out a big laugh for dramatic effect
4) Walk away...but walk away slowly in anticipation of the storekeeper running after you

To my surprise, however, the storekeeper didn't chase after me! I shrugged this off and walked away confident that I would be able to find this elsewhere for a cheaper price. So I spend an hour looking around, and to my amazement, no other storekeeper would lower his price under 120 kuai! The first storekeeper was in fact giving me the lowest price!

I was then faced with a huge dilemma. Should I crawl back on my hands and knees to that first storekeeper, admit I was wrong, and ask for his original price? Doing so, however, would not only be humiliating, but it would also concede defeat. My other option would be to let pride get the better of me and just shovel out an extra 20 kuai to buy it elsewhere.

After thinking this over for awhile, I finally decided to suck it up and go back to the first storekeeper. I came back with a sheepish grin and admitted that he was right. The guy was nice and gave it to me for his original price.

So what do I think is the moral of this story? If I could put aside my pride and be a man about things, then Lamar Odom should damn well be able to do the same. That's right, LO, learn from your buddy Jason, and put aside your pride and your ego (and that of your agent's), admit you were wrong, go back to Jerry Buss and ask...nay, beg for his original offer. And Jerry, put aside your huge ego and give it to him, the dude totally deserves it and us fans want a repeat. Got it? Good.

Unfortunately, this latest news does not bode well... =/

Can the U.S. Grow in a Non-Bubble Way?

2009-07-22T19:06:00.001-07:00

I just read a great article in The Atlantic about Nouriel Roubini, an economist at NYU who had received international acclaim for accurately predicting back in 2007 that the then proclaimed “contained” problem of the depressed housing market was actually nowhere near the bottom. After going into detail about the steps that led to our current financial crisis as well as what future problems Mr. Roubini sees unfolding in the years to come, the article ends with this question: “Can the U.S. grow in a non-bubble way?”

Can it?

I think this is the paramount question that our economy faces today. Think about it. We have just barely begun to lift ourselves out of the current recession, and there is already worry among economists that our efforts to revive the economy (i.e. the huge amount of money poured into the system) will in fact lead to near-term inflation and the development of yet another asset bubble. Are you kidding me? We’re not even back to normal yet and there is growing concern about future problems developing?

Let’s take a step back for a second. Any introductory macroeconomics course teaches you about the “Business Cycle”—the idea that the economy fluctuates in a cyclical manner. First there is growth. The growth then peters out, and this almost always leads to some form of recession or slowdown. Eventually, the economy picks up again, bringing us back to growth. Rinse, wash and repeat. These cycles are justified by the fact that with each passing iteration, the economy as a whole is better on an absolute level. In a lot of ways, such cycles are inevitable and arguably immutable. While we like to believe that, in theory, markets are efficient; we must also believe that they are irrational. For example, the “efficient markets hypothesis” states that there should not be any arbitrage opportunities in any truly efficient market. But we all know this isn’t the case. Irrational “mob mentality” leads to the development of asset bubbles, and when these bubbles pop…well, we all know what happens.

For the past 30 years, we’ve gone through quite a few of these cycles—the Savings & Loans crisis of the 1980s, the tech bubble of the 1990s, and the current housing bust. And through this all, it’s almost as if American investors and consumers resemble a bunch of freshmen college kids who never quite learn how to party responsibly. They’ll drink way too much one Friday night, only to throw up all over their friend’s apartment and wake up Saturday morning with a massive hangover. Though they’ll vow to never drink again…come next week, it’ll be pretty much the same story. Our economy is exactly the same way. It’s a bunch of investors and consumers who binge irresponsibly during the good times when interest rates are low and credit is flowing like a tapped beer keg. Then when the recession comes, the hangover hits. Investors and consumers de-lever themselves and those lucky enough to still have jobs vow to save more and spend less. Except, unlike these college freshmen, we never quite learn.

What can we do? Relying on the Fed and on monetary policy to singlehandedly curb inflation as an indirect means to impede the growth of asset bubbles is not sufficient. In addition, it’s also ridiculously hard. Knowing when and how much to raise interest rates is far from easy (its no joke that many refer to it as “performing brain surgery with a sledgehammer”…a lovely image indeed). Monetary policy helps, but I think that a true solution will need to come from a cultural change. We could look to the models of other developed nations. France, in particular, comes to mind (though I cringe at the mere thought of admiring anything French). They have had consistent (albeit modest) growth in recent times and also have not been hit as hard as many other nations. Sure their economy is less volatile, but it comes at the expense of growth, innovation, and entrepreneurship, and to follow this would seem…well, very un-American.

A solution could also lie in our nation refocusing itself and its priorities. Take finance, for example. It is without a doubt a very integral part of our economy—much of our strengths as a nation and the reason we’ve experienced such remarkably high innovation and growth is because our capital markets are very accessible. Yet every year it seems as if our best and brightest graduates all flock to this field (I also feel the same about those entering law as well). Can anyone say: “diminishing marginal returns”? I do believe that in a lot of ways we’d be better off as a whole if we could find some way to incentivise the growth of different and more productive industries—science and technology, in particular, come to mind. A more balanced growth would undoubtedly be better for our country as a whole. However, I’m not sure if this would necessarily diminish the severity of business cycles. Furthermore, I’m not even sure if this is even possible in America.

Why do talented individuals flock to these industries? Quite simply it is because they offer a high compensation, and that they also serve as a stepping stone for a well-paid career path. The foundations of our American culture is built off individualism and self-interest (also known as greed), and while this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I believe that it ultimately is the reason behind our drastic bust-and-boom cycles. It’s easy to blame greed as the reason behind the formation of these huge asset bubbles and the subsequent crash (the media often paints a picture of a sketchy Wall Street financier thoughtlessly pouring money into overvalued tech-stocks or subprime mortgages). But at the same time, it is also this culture of self interest that drives investors to finance startup ventures and new projects. Such innovation and entrepreneurship then leads to economic growth. This is the American way.

So while I do believe that the U.S. can grow in a non-bubble way, to do so would be to completely uproot our culture. Is this worth it? I don’t think so. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like the idea of a recession at all, and it pains me to see individuals struggle to find new jobs or to figure out how to make ends meet. As a country, I think it is imperative that we tackle some of these issues and lessen the severity of these downturns—whether that be through more aggressive monetary policies or a refocusing of our economy. But in the end, our strength as a nation comes from our uncanny ability to innovate and adapt (albeit driven by self-interest), and this is one of the primary reasons why our model has achieved success and why our economy has been historically strong. To temper this would in many ways cripple our competitive advantage and limit our potential as a country.

My Awesome Beijing Apartment

2009-07-21T21:29:00.000-07:00

Now I've had the opportunity to live in some pretty cool places in my life...two particular apartments come to mind: 4002 was (for a lack of better words), simply legendary. I mean when you can call a house by its street number and have everybody know of it...it was pretty legit. We had some great times there, some epic parties, and lots and lots of fun. On top of that, rent was dirt cheap, we were blocks from FroGro and campus, and we had probably the best looking front door in West Philly. My other favorite residence was my summer apartment in San Francisco. This place was literally just gorgeously renovated and it was within minutes of my office, union square, chinatown, etc.

But this new Beijing apartment completely trumps them all.

It is AWESOME.

The apartment itself is really nice. The building is a little old, but our place was just recently renovated. Its a two bedroom, one bath place, with a living room (complete with a 32 inch tv and two large sofas), a kitchen (with pots/pans/stove/coffee maker) and a dining room. Oh and for ~$300 US...its great! But the best part of the place is the location. We're located smack-dab in the heart of Sanlitun, which as Wikipedia quotes:

Sanlitun (simplified Chinese: 三里屯; traditional Chinese: 三里屯; pinyin: Sānlǐtún) is one of the most popular bar streets in Beijing.

We're right between 工人体育场 (worker's stadium) --where Vics and Mix are located (arguably two of the more famous clubs in Beijing) and the 酒吧街 (the infamous bar street) and the Sanlitun Village (a very new/modern mall)...so literally a 4-5 minute walk between either one of them. In addition, the district is home to a lot of embassies and hence, expats, as well. So with just a stroll across the block from my apartment, you'll be able to find all sorts of cuisines: italian, french, a german pub, an irish pub, persian, turkish, japanese, mexican, hungarian, pakistani, a Hooters, and most importantly, a Kro's Nest (um...only the best pizza place in Beijing!). Oh right, and of course there are a lot of good Chinese food around too. All the more reason for you all to come visit!

Unfortunately I'm having trouble uploading a video of the apartment that I took (blame the Chinese government), so for now, simple pictures will have to suffice:

The small bedroom

The big bedroom

Epic first day in Beijing

2009-07-20T18:56:00.000-07:00

Wow. China blocks Facebook AND Blogs? Total dealbreaker. Thank god for proxies, but this is really annoying!

First off, never fly Air China. If it weren't for the fact that I was lucky and slept a good 8 hours on that flight, it would have been an incredibly miserable flight. No personal TV/multimedia system (ie no hours of video mahjong play for me), and the food was not only horrendous (even beyond the crappy quality you'd expect from airplane food), but they also skimped so much on the portions (again, even beyond the two spoonfuls of rice you'd come to expect on ordinary airplane food). Not cool.

But man, what an epic/productive/AWESOME day. I land at around 4 in the morning in Beijing and book it immediately to the hostel...which is a quaint converted hutong near YongHeGong (Lama temple). I meet and have breakfast with Shane, my new roommate, and then immediately go apartment hunting with the agent that we've been talking to. Yes, that's right, on my first day in town and after being massively jetlagged, I have to deal with apartment hunting in Chinese, haha. So we look in the Sihui district and find some ridiculously gorgeous apartments at a reasonable price (but are in the middle of nowhere). Finally, by night we find this pretty awesome recently-renovated apartment smack dab in the middle of Sanlitun. Its kind of ridiculous how great of a location it is...right between worker's stadium (Vix and Mix...and most importantly, Kro's Nest pizza) and the Sanlitun village (jiu ba jie--the famous bar street). So after negotiations/discussions for almost two hours...we secure the place and are moving in today!

Will post pictures of our sweet new place soon.

And I'm off!

2009-07-18T21:22:00.000-07:00

Legendary week.
Love my family, love my friends. And now I'm off. See you all soon!

Lamar Odom Contract Watch 2009

2009-07-17T23:39:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness, this Lamar Odom contract craziness is totally driving me...well...crazy.

First Jerry Buss pulls a 3 yr/$30 MM or 4 yr/$36 MM contract off the table... then Odom is given a 5 yr/$34 MM deal by Miami, prompting Dwayne Wade to plead to LO to "come back home" (seriously?!). And now finally, the word on the street is that LO has made a call to Jerry Buss, and I'm hoping it's somewhere along the lines of a huge apology for rejecting our earlier offer and begging for it back (although I don't particularly like the mental image of LO begging...if that's what it'll take for Buss to give him back his offer, then so be it). But jeez, this whole fiasco is driving me insane! I constantly have Google Reader open and am refreshing my many Lakers blogs...just waiting for any sort of news.

There's no question that the Lakers absolutely need LO on their roster to have a strong chance of a repeat. He is undoubtedly the soul of the Lakers, and I really think that his contribution on and off the court really brings the team together in a way that none of the players on the current roster can. Plus, everyone knows that his versatility and his freak-of-nature athleticism allows him to 1) cover various positions on the court (I mean seriously, in the beginning of last season there were legitimate discussions about this 6'10" dude playing point guard) and 2) create a HUGE matchup problems for whatever poor soul is guarding him/being guarded by him. In addition, a Laker team sin-Odom would create pressure for 1) Bynum to play better and not continue with his streak of injurues and 2) Josh Powell and DJ Mbenga to play a much bigger role when either Bynum or Gasol are on the bench (kind of okay with Powell, but Mbenga...not so much) and 3) Luke and Morrison to step up when Ron Ron is in priso--er I mean, on the bench (Luke has proven himself at times, but honestly, I wouldn't trust him with even holding my 5 month old imaginary daughter...and well.. Morrison...let's not even go there). Finally, without Odom, the Lakers have absolutely no chance at picking up any other decent free agent, especially in this current market (I guess except for picking up Chris Mihm again...but let's hope it doesn't resort to that)

So yeah, I am kinda freaking out about this, but for a legitimate reason. I think the strength of our team and our chances of a repeat totally hinge on what's going to happen in the next few days. *crosses fingers*!!

Inaugural Post!

2009-07-15T16:46:00.000-07:00

Hello World.

Welcome to my blog!
Its more of an experiment than anything--but we'll see how it turns out. I kind of created this after realizing that Facebook status updates and Tweets had a character limit...and well, sometimes my thoughts are more than 140 characters long, haha.

Oh and I'm also leaving for Beijing in a few days where I'll be living for a year. So this will be a great way for all of you all back home to keep abreast of what I'm up to.

More posts to come!