Stuck in Dallas, Texas. in the middle of nowhere.
Missed my flight. whoo hoo. Here goes life :-p
Sunday, August 29, 2004
Thursday, August 26, 2004
I've been meaning to blog about the PM's national day rally message for sometime but I keep getting side tracked by work... you know the kind that you're technically paid to do :-p. Seriously, it's my last week here and so things have been pretty much rushed.. in fact, I'm supposed to be writing a couple of reports right now instead of posting...
Monday, August 23, 2004
I'm nearing the end of my Japan stay and somehow getting more stressed. I guess it's the short time span I have to pack up my entire life and move yet again, and still the basic questions like bank account and money and things like that have not yet been settled. But until I get out of this state of mind I shall not blog. Irritable does not make for good blogging :-p
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
With laws like this....
Los Angeles bans Silly String with a fine of between $200-$1000
It seems we have company. In fact even more severe company - at least we can consume chewing gum even if we can't sell it. Makes me wonder why people still laugh at the ridiculousness of the chewing gum law if there are so many other examples around :-p
It seems we have company. In fact even more severe company - at least we can consume chewing gum even if we can't sell it. Makes me wonder why people still laugh at the ridiculousness of the chewing gum law if there are so many other examples around :-p
Monday, August 16, 2004
Addictions
Recently there's been an article published about addiction in rats. In which they prove that after prolonged exposure to drugs (by which they mean 3 months), 17 percent of rats get addicted to coccaine. (Apparently the percentage is 15 percent in humans.) Firstly, from all the fuss made about it, (especially by the agencies that schools would take us to in order to deter us from drugs), I would have thought that the percentage was more. In fact, I had the impression it was 90 percent or something.
Somewhere between, the first time that I realised that the sweet smell in the hallways of my dormitory was actually marijuana and now, I've gotten a lot more relaxed about other people around me using drugs. I don't approve of it and I certainly wouldn't take it myself - I like having control of my brain functions, thank you, but I'm definitely not going to jump up in shock or horror and run for the hills. However, I will have to admit that i was shocked at finding recreational drugs in deceptively small cute looking bottles selling at the local household discount store in Tokyo. Upon asking, I was told that these drugs are non-lethal and that's why they can be sold legally - i.e. you can't die from it so what's the harm? You take it, you feel happy for a while and that's it.
I'm still trying to sort out how I feel towards this concept. On the one hand, I've been brought up to believe that drugs are evil and should not be taken. But on the other, if you can invent something like "soma" - for those who have read brave new world- where it's non-addictive and it makes people happy for a while, is that still evil? One could argue that even if it is non-addictive, it's very easy for people to get sucked into believing that synthetically stimulated pleasure is real and all that's important and neglect their very "real" lives which of course brings us to the concept of why would synethetic happiness be any less real than real happiness. A more practical argument would be that economically nothing would get done and people would waste away living from one shot of soma to the next.
I have to admit that the concept of such a premade happiness from any drug still strikes me with revulsion because I would hate to lose control of my body that way- which is one reason I have never yet gotten drunk. But that could just be my socially instilled prejudices speaking.
Nicotine and Caffeine are also drugs and while I don't do the former, the latter is something most of us do. I got my first caffiene headache withdrawal syntoms yesterday from stopping for just one day after two weeks of coffee- which I would argue is far more addictive certainly than marijuana. And even if it doesn't give me direct brain-altering pleasure, it still affects my mood and concentration. Even if caffiene is far more affordable an addiction to maintian, isn't taking caffiene morally the same as taking some other kind of drug? The more feeling irrational side of my brain is screaming that there is some difference but the rational half is being hard put to come up with a reasonable defence of my logical loophole as to why some drugs are bad but others okay.
Somewhere between, the first time that I realised that the sweet smell in the hallways of my dormitory was actually marijuana and now, I've gotten a lot more relaxed about other people around me using drugs. I don't approve of it and I certainly wouldn't take it myself - I like having control of my brain functions, thank you, but I'm definitely not going to jump up in shock or horror and run for the hills. However, I will have to admit that i was shocked at finding recreational drugs in deceptively small cute looking bottles selling at the local household discount store in Tokyo. Upon asking, I was told that these drugs are non-lethal and that's why they can be sold legally - i.e. you can't die from it so what's the harm? You take it, you feel happy for a while and that's it.
I'm still trying to sort out how I feel towards this concept. On the one hand, I've been brought up to believe that drugs are evil and should not be taken. But on the other, if you can invent something like "soma" - for those who have read brave new world- where it's non-addictive and it makes people happy for a while, is that still evil? One could argue that even if it is non-addictive, it's very easy for people to get sucked into believing that synthetically stimulated pleasure is real and all that's important and neglect their very "real" lives which of course brings us to the concept of why would synethetic happiness be any less real than real happiness. A more practical argument would be that economically nothing would get done and people would waste away living from one shot of soma to the next.
I have to admit that the concept of such a premade happiness from any drug still strikes me with revulsion because I would hate to lose control of my body that way- which is one reason I have never yet gotten drunk. But that could just be my socially instilled prejudices speaking.
Nicotine and Caffeine are also drugs and while I don't do the former, the latter is something most of us do. I got my first caffiene headache withdrawal syntoms yesterday from stopping for just one day after two weeks of coffee- which I would argue is far more addictive certainly than marijuana. And even if it doesn't give me direct brain-altering pleasure, it still affects my mood and concentration. Even if caffiene is far more affordable an addiction to maintian, isn't taking caffiene morally the same as taking some other kind of drug? The more feeling irrational side of my brain is screaming that there is some difference but the rational half is being hard put to come up with a reasonable defence of my logical loophole as to why some drugs are bad but others okay.
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
When patriotism and nationalism just aren't the same.
In today's Straits Times there is an article about Japanese Teachers who refuse to stand or sing the Japanese national anthem. http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/story/0,4386,266606,00.html?
I've been watching this issue for sometime here in Tokyo, and for those who are too lazy to click on the link, basically the national anthem of Japan has imperialistic roots, and the Japanese teachers are protesting the nationalistic return to that era. This is against the backdrop of Koizumi's continued return visits to the war shrine of those killed in World War II which seems to signify a rise in general glorification of the circumstances that led to World War II. Under the circumstances, I can say I'm firmly on the teachers' sides.
I'm not just saying this because I came from one of the countries of the occupation. I think even without the militaristic tones of the situation, people should have the right to choose whether or not to sing the anthem. This isn't an act of disrespect such as burning the flag.
One of the things this drew to mind, was the fact that I've been standing and singing the national anthem for at least 12 years of my life most mornings but this custom doesn't exist anywhere in the States. Yet I can honestly say that the average American is every bit as patriotic if not more than the average Singaporean. Perhaps because what they're defending is something they believe in with all their heart. After September 11, even though you were looked at strangely, if you choose not to display the flag or sing the anthem they definitely don't punish you. And whether you're red or blue, despite all the different beliefs as to what you should do, everyone believes that what they are doing is simply best for the country.
But of course, even though Singaporeans sing the anthem every day, most of us have no deepset understanding of what it means as we sing it. I guess no matter how many times you sing an anthem, if you don't believe what it's about or barely understanding, it won't instill any deepset patriotism in you. America doesn't need any anthems to instill that patriotism because they tie directly into the beliefs of the people. In Japan's case, since everybody does speak the language the anthem is in, I wonder how effective instiling those values will be.
I've been watching this issue for sometime here in Tokyo, and for those who are too lazy to click on the link, basically the national anthem of Japan has imperialistic roots, and the Japanese teachers are protesting the nationalistic return to that era. This is against the backdrop of Koizumi's continued return visits to the war shrine of those killed in World War II which seems to signify a rise in general glorification of the circumstances that led to World War II. Under the circumstances, I can say I'm firmly on the teachers' sides.
I'm not just saying this because I came from one of the countries of the occupation. I think even without the militaristic tones of the situation, people should have the right to choose whether or not to sing the anthem. This isn't an act of disrespect such as burning the flag.
One of the things this drew to mind, was the fact that I've been standing and singing the national anthem for at least 12 years of my life most mornings but this custom doesn't exist anywhere in the States. Yet I can honestly say that the average American is every bit as patriotic if not more than the average Singaporean. Perhaps because what they're defending is something they believe in with all their heart. After September 11, even though you were looked at strangely, if you choose not to display the flag or sing the anthem they definitely don't punish you. And whether you're red or blue, despite all the different beliefs as to what you should do, everyone believes that what they are doing is simply best for the country.
But of course, even though Singaporeans sing the anthem every day, most of us have no deepset understanding of what it means as we sing it. I guess no matter how many times you sing an anthem, if you don't believe what it's about or barely understanding, it won't instill any deepset patriotism in you. America doesn't need any anthems to instill that patriotism because they tie directly into the beliefs of the people. In Japan's case, since everybody does speak the language the anthem is in, I wonder how effective instiling those values will be.
I've come to the conclusion that Singaporeans must be one of the biggest groups of conspiracy theorists as a whole. I mean honestly... we even beat Fox Mulder. And at least he is a rarity. The average person on the street in the US definitely doesn't think there are aliens out there and the government is hiding it. They may think the government is hiding lots of other things and they'll generally let you know it exactly what they think the government's hiding - usually within five minutes of meeting you. However, it's usually something fairly small and standard, like our favourite villian Bin Ladin, or the presence or lack thereof of nuclear weapons in Iraq.
Now the average Singaporean on the other hand, believes in a whole myriad of other things, ranging from - "the football match kanna kelong one!" to "that unit got 'white horse' that's why training so easy" to "actually there's only one person running the country the rest are all figureheads". Erm.. not to comment upon whether or not I actually believe in these theories of course. ;-p
But back to the topic- Singaporeans and conspiracy. I honestly think that proabably part of the reason is that where else are you going to get circumstances where conspiracy IS possible?
"Daddy, Daddy, why are your ears so big?"
"Why all the better to hear you with, my dear."
Case in point, Singapore is small enough that anything you say could potentially be overheard or tracked down. In fact, even better, everyone knows things through word-of-mouth. 1984 could have been based on Singapore with the number of times I've heard the phrase "sssh... big brother is watching."
"Daddy, Daddy, why are your hands so large?"
"Why all the better to hold you with, my dear."
Even better, the government is actually efficient. The keystone of conspiracy theory in Singapore is that it can be done. And who really believes that it won't be done if it can be done?. Case in point, rumours that the Gep is one huge experiment and like any good experiment it has a control group. Now whether or not that is true, the important point was that it could have been done and so the rumour stays alive generation after generation.
"Daddy, daddy, why are... *fill in your own blank here*?"
"All the better to *fill in your own blank here* you, of course."
Honestly, i think the biggest reason is this whole depndency thing that we have with the government. We'll like children really, we complain a lot about the controls that our parents set over us like things we can't say or do, laws, curfews etc. but whenever they don't do something we want them to do like when they reduce our pocket money through cpf cuts, we turn around and complian that they aren't doing their job. Of course the tendency to depend so much on the government also means that you're convinced of the absolute power the government has, leading rise to even more conspiracy theories.
And of course like any good paranoid conspiracy theorist, I'm going to end my post by adding a note that says: *this piece does not reflect the personal views of the author in anyway at all regarding either conspiracy theory, singapore or government. Therefore, anything she has said or not said in this piece cannot be held against her.
Now the average Singaporean on the other hand, believes in a whole myriad of other things, ranging from - "the football match kanna kelong one!" to "that unit got 'white horse' that's why training so easy" to "actually there's only one person running the country the rest are all figureheads". Erm.. not to comment upon whether or not I actually believe in these theories of course. ;-p
But back to the topic- Singaporeans and conspiracy. I honestly think that proabably part of the reason is that where else are you going to get circumstances where conspiracy IS possible?
"Daddy, Daddy, why are your ears so big?"
"Why all the better to hear you with, my dear."
Case in point, Singapore is small enough that anything you say could potentially be overheard or tracked down. In fact, even better, everyone knows things through word-of-mouth. 1984 could have been based on Singapore with the number of times I've heard the phrase "sssh... big brother is watching."
"Daddy, Daddy, why are your hands so large?"
"Why all the better to hold you with, my dear."
Even better, the government is actually efficient. The keystone of conspiracy theory in Singapore is that it can be done. And who really believes that it won't be done if it can be done?. Case in point, rumours that the Gep is one huge experiment and like any good experiment it has a control group. Now whether or not that is true, the important point was that it could have been done and so the rumour stays alive generation after generation.
"Daddy, daddy, why are... *fill in your own blank here*?"
"All the better to *fill in your own blank here* you, of course."
Honestly, i think the biggest reason is this whole depndency thing that we have with the government. We'll like children really, we complain a lot about the controls that our parents set over us like things we can't say or do, laws, curfews etc. but whenever they don't do something we want them to do like when they reduce our pocket money through cpf cuts, we turn around and complian that they aren't doing their job. Of course the tendency to depend so much on the government also means that you're convinced of the absolute power the government has, leading rise to even more conspiracy theories.
And of course like any good paranoid conspiracy theorist, I'm going to end my post by adding a note that says: *this piece does not reflect the personal views of the author in anyway at all regarding either conspiracy theory, singapore or government. Therefore, anything she has said or not said in this piece cannot be held against her.
Monday, August 09, 2004
I've been meaning to do a food entry for some time, mostly on all the delicious food I've had here in Tokyo so far, so since no one has yet assigned me anything else to do right now...
1. Was the delicious Katsu-Don I had at one of those ticket places which seem to serve mostly salarymen. At these places, you buy a meal ticket at the entrance and give it to the cook who usually serves your meal at a round bar counter so you can see it being prepared. For those who don't know what a Katsu-Don is.. it's a breaded piece of pork cutlet fried so that it's crispy and subsequentlyl served with an egg, vegetable and soysauce mixture on top of a bed of rice. Anyone who says that Japanese food only consists of sushi hasn't really lived in Japan that long. In fact, most of the diet of everyday life isn't raw at all.
2. Going on in the same vein about Katsu-Don's, I also had a pretty unique version of this dish at a different restaurant. This place was quiet and done up in dark rosewood colours. Even though it's located at one of the busiest crossings in Japan, if you come alone, you can sit at the counter overlooking the glass windows and watch the world go by below as you eat your meal. Anyway, the katsu at this place was served on a plate with steamed cabbage. Accompanying this dish was the standard dishes of pickled vegetables and a black clay pot filled with dashi, which is a soup made of stock. The way this particular dish was to be eaten was to pour this dashi onto a chopstick's grip full of rice and Katsu mixed with a little paste that tasted of green tea. Definitely something different.
3. At the same restaurant, on a different ocassion, I also had the pleasure of enjoying little beef and onion patties, which came with a small dish with a round egg yolk in which you dipped the patties in before eating with rice. The slightly sweet glaze of the patties blended with the egg yolk to create a rich taste that contrasted nicely against the rice.
4. of course being in Japan, I have to mention raw fish sometime, so here's what I had this saturday. At one of the sushi bars near my apartment, I ordered a Kani-ikura don. Steamed cold shredded crabmeat was served with raw salmon eggs. Japanese crab meat is sweet and good ikura has a taste that is hard to describe to anyone who hasn't had it before. To give you an idea, to me when I first tasted ikura I thought it had been marinated in alcohol when of course that sensation was simply it's natrual taste. This combination of crabmeat and ikura was served on a cold bed of sweet sushi rice, perfect for a hot summer's day.
yep. That's it for my food entry. BTW, as I'm here on a budget, the even more amazing thing is that all of this stuff costs between 6 to 10 dollars, which for Japan or even the United States is rather good, especially considering that no matter where you eat, your meal always comes with a steaming mug of tea. Even though I've been here a while, i only get to go out for food on weekends so that's all the good stuff I've had so far but I suspect I'll be really sad when I have to leave tokyo to go back to providence where the food is definitely nowhere near as good.
1. Was the delicious Katsu-Don I had at one of those ticket places which seem to serve mostly salarymen. At these places, you buy a meal ticket at the entrance and give it to the cook who usually serves your meal at a round bar counter so you can see it being prepared. For those who don't know what a Katsu-Don is.. it's a breaded piece of pork cutlet fried so that it's crispy and subsequentlyl served with an egg, vegetable and soysauce mixture on top of a bed of rice. Anyone who says that Japanese food only consists of sushi hasn't really lived in Japan that long. In fact, most of the diet of everyday life isn't raw at all.
2. Going on in the same vein about Katsu-Don's, I also had a pretty unique version of this dish at a different restaurant. This place was quiet and done up in dark rosewood colours. Even though it's located at one of the busiest crossings in Japan, if you come alone, you can sit at the counter overlooking the glass windows and watch the world go by below as you eat your meal. Anyway, the katsu at this place was served on a plate with steamed cabbage. Accompanying this dish was the standard dishes of pickled vegetables and a black clay pot filled with dashi, which is a soup made of stock. The way this particular dish was to be eaten was to pour this dashi onto a chopstick's grip full of rice and Katsu mixed with a little paste that tasted of green tea. Definitely something different.
3. At the same restaurant, on a different ocassion, I also had the pleasure of enjoying little beef and onion patties, which came with a small dish with a round egg yolk in which you dipped the patties in before eating with rice. The slightly sweet glaze of the patties blended with the egg yolk to create a rich taste that contrasted nicely against the rice.
4. of course being in Japan, I have to mention raw fish sometime, so here's what I had this saturday. At one of the sushi bars near my apartment, I ordered a Kani-ikura don. Steamed cold shredded crabmeat was served with raw salmon eggs. Japanese crab meat is sweet and good ikura has a taste that is hard to describe to anyone who hasn't had it before. To give you an idea, to me when I first tasted ikura I thought it had been marinated in alcohol when of course that sensation was simply it's natrual taste. This combination of crabmeat and ikura was served on a cold bed of sweet sushi rice, perfect for a hot summer's day.
yep. That's it for my food entry. BTW, as I'm here on a budget, the even more amazing thing is that all of this stuff costs between 6 to 10 dollars, which for Japan or even the United States is rather good, especially considering that no matter where you eat, your meal always comes with a steaming mug of tea. Even though I've been here a while, i only get to go out for food on weekends so that's all the good stuff I've had so far but I suspect I'll be really sad when I have to leave tokyo to go back to providence where the food is definitely nowhere near as good.
I was thinking about one of the quotes that stuck in my head from Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett.
The three witches of the story had just been trapped in a tower by the "good" Fairy Godmother. and one of them remarked that "I'd have killed us" to which another replied that that's because she was basically good.
"The good are innocent and create justice. The bad are guilty, which is why they invent mercy."
Beware of those who are good? I don't know. I was just thinking of more like beware of those who think they are good... raising the crusades.. and far more recently, the iraq war as examples.
For the non-Christians out there, this is your cue to stop reading. Please don't get the wrong impression of religion from my thoughts. :-p
We all feel that we can do anything because we walk in path of the Lord, but what if the path we're walking is not really the one that God wants us to walk but only the one that we think He wants us to walk?
For me, I guess my answer is that I couldn't live with thinking of God as a stern, unforgiving and war-like God, so I'll take my chances with believing in my version of the gentler kindly God. So if I am wrong and God does think I'm damned for being but a lukewarm christian and not converting by the sword or even evangelizing then I'd deal with that because I don't think I could live with the sterner image of God as my personal God nor would I be able to live with myself as someone who held to those harsher beliefs - not and still hang on to my sanity that is :-p
The three witches of the story had just been trapped in a tower by the "good" Fairy Godmother. and one of them remarked that "I'd have killed us" to which another replied that that's because she was basically good.
"The good are innocent and create justice. The bad are guilty, which is why they invent mercy."
Beware of those who are good? I don't know. I was just thinking of more like beware of those who think they are good... raising the crusades.. and far more recently, the iraq war as examples.
For the non-Christians out there, this is your cue to stop reading. Please don't get the wrong impression of religion from my thoughts. :-p
We all feel that we can do anything because we walk in path of the Lord, but what if the path we're walking is not really the one that God wants us to walk but only the one that we think He wants us to walk?
For me, I guess my answer is that I couldn't live with thinking of God as a stern, unforgiving and war-like God, so I'll take my chances with believing in my version of the gentler kindly God. So if I am wrong and God does think I'm damned for being but a lukewarm christian and not converting by the sword or even evangelizing then I'd deal with that because I don't think I could live with the sterner image of God as my personal God nor would I be able to live with myself as someone who held to those harsher beliefs - not and still hang on to my sanity that is :-p
Saturday, August 07, 2004
Went on an "Outing" yesterday, that was arranged by my service apartment, I guess it was pretty interesting. *grin* At least I got to meet people. We went to a summer festival light up at an old japanese garden, they had shamisen performances and you could line up to participate in a tea ceremony- which I decided to pass on. (I wasn't sure my legs could survive sitting that way that long- I've tried it before and 15 min is my limit.) They also had a booth where you could write a haiku on the spot and they would write it for you on a long beautiful gold-rimed cardboard piece with a little painting below. Needless to say my first haiku in japanese probably sucks but I get a pretty board :-p
One of the highlights of the evening was defininitely trying to catch goldfish with a little paper wand. The game is something that Japanese kids play at Summer Festivals. There's a whole lot of goldfish in a tub and kids would buy little wands that are made of rice paper, so they break really fast if you're not skillful. Needless to say on my first attempt I caught no fish. *grin*. They're really nice and give you two fish if you don't catch any, but I decided they'd die soon because I wouldn't be here very long.. so I was being responsible. Actually erm, I didn't actually pay for my game. I was translating for one of the fellow service apartment stayers who was playing the game and the guy who was running the store was really nice and gave her a wand when her first one broke and gave me one just because... well actually he said "kirei na ojouchan dake no service" ... i.e... just because i'm pretty. The kids asked how come he doesn't do that for them and he told them to come back when they've grown up! That was definitely one of the highlights of my day. It's not everyday i get called pretty by a random guy without an ulterior motive. :-p
after that, I had dinner at TGIF with two of the guys who worked for the hotel (who were actually sorta cute) and a malaysian guy who just got into town. That was really interesting in a way, gave me an insight into how guys think, although I swear if the guys we know think like that, I'd turn gay. One of the Japanese guys and the Malaysian guy were talking about girls and the girls they were currently going after and their problems and all and they were being open and honest about how guys thought, and honestly hmmm.. I suspect maybe it's just japanese guys... but one of the things he told us was that in Tokyo, the rule is you sleep with the girl on the third date, but now I definitely understand why japanese girls are currently obsessed with korean men. It's proabably hoping the grass is greener on the other side.
Hmm.. they asked me if I'd rather marry a Chinese, Japanese or Korean and honestly my answer was none... at the moment I suspect none of them really appeal to me at all. They're all too MCP.
One of the highlights of the evening was defininitely trying to catch goldfish with a little paper wand. The game is something that Japanese kids play at Summer Festivals. There's a whole lot of goldfish in a tub and kids would buy little wands that are made of rice paper, so they break really fast if you're not skillful. Needless to say on my first attempt I caught no fish. *grin*. They're really nice and give you two fish if you don't catch any, but I decided they'd die soon because I wouldn't be here very long.. so I was being responsible. Actually erm, I didn't actually pay for my game. I was translating for one of the fellow service apartment stayers who was playing the game and the guy who was running the store was really nice and gave her a wand when her first one broke and gave me one just because... well actually he said "kirei na ojouchan dake no service" ... i.e... just because i'm pretty. The kids asked how come he doesn't do that for them and he told them to come back when they've grown up! That was definitely one of the highlights of my day. It's not everyday i get called pretty by a random guy without an ulterior motive. :-p
after that, I had dinner at TGIF with two of the guys who worked for the hotel (who were actually sorta cute) and a malaysian guy who just got into town. That was really interesting in a way, gave me an insight into how guys think, although I swear if the guys we know think like that, I'd turn gay. One of the Japanese guys and the Malaysian guy were talking about girls and the girls they were currently going after and their problems and all and they were being open and honest about how guys thought, and honestly hmmm.. I suspect maybe it's just japanese guys... but one of the things he told us was that in Tokyo, the rule is you sleep with the girl on the third date, but now I definitely understand why japanese girls are currently obsessed with korean men. It's proabably hoping the grass is greener on the other side.
Hmm.. they asked me if I'd rather marry a Chinese, Japanese or Korean and honestly my answer was none... at the moment I suspect none of them really appeal to me at all. They're all too MCP.
Friday, August 06, 2004
Its Friday afternoon and half my desk is gone. Correction: More than half my desk. Apparently it just so happens that some people are travelling, others are at meetings or long lunches or at the gym.
People here work the job rather than the hours. I guess that means that if they're going to put in 15 hour days then they're entitled to leave during the down time if they want. It's a pretty good work environment I guess- minus me of course, who is at the moment bored because I've finished my last asssignments. In fact, I'm on my fourth revision of my second project when I only really needed to do one. Mostly I'm doing it out of boredom and just to see how far I can push it.
What the 'it' in question is, is a model to throw out the best level of investment with the least over collatralization model if you key in the exchange rate, base level of investment wanted and the put price of the securitiy. Of course, me being the bored soul I am, added a whether you wanted the results to be accurate to the original slot in my second revision, a how accurate you want your results to be range slot in my third revision and now in my fourth, I'm automating the process so that the model guesses how accurate you want it to be based on the size of the figure you key in. I swear boredom is literally driving me up the wall. From math geek to computer programming tendencies... this must be some kind of alternate world and definitely alternate me.
5 more hours to go before I can legitimately leave the office.
People here work the job rather than the hours. I guess that means that if they're going to put in 15 hour days then they're entitled to leave during the down time if they want. It's a pretty good work environment I guess- minus me of course, who is at the moment bored because I've finished my last asssignments. In fact, I'm on my fourth revision of my second project when I only really needed to do one. Mostly I'm doing it out of boredom and just to see how far I can push it.
What the 'it' in question is, is a model to throw out the best level of investment with the least over collatralization model if you key in the exchange rate, base level of investment wanted and the put price of the securitiy. Of course, me being the bored soul I am, added a whether you wanted the results to be accurate to the original slot in my second revision, a how accurate you want your results to be range slot in my third revision and now in my fourth, I'm automating the process so that the model guesses how accurate you want it to be based on the size of the figure you key in. I swear boredom is literally driving me up the wall. From math geek to computer programming tendencies... this must be some kind of alternate world and definitely alternate me.
5 more hours to go before I can legitimately leave the office.
Monday, August 02, 2004
I've been working on something I didn't understand for two whole days and today I finally realised the way they wanted me to look at it and it all came together.
What I've been trying to do, is to bootstrap a yield curve given only swap rates in order to price a bond. Of course, it doesn't help that while all the notes supplied tell you how to bootstrap a yield curve using swap rates, and how to then get the zero coupon rates and forward rates from the earlier processes (which by the way involve tons of steps all building on each other - God bless whoever invented excel), none of them tell me what pricing a bond has anything to do with anything! So for the last two days I've been playing with numbers (doing infinite amounts of changing formulas minutely to try and obtain some kindo f an answer, in between searching desperately online for some source that would brilliantly link the two together), not really getting anywere.
Sometime this afternoon, I finally realised that if a bond can be viewed as a series of fixed flows of payments, then the alternative you can do with the same amount of money would be to put it into floating rates. In which case, it's actually like a normal interest rate swap and thus can be priced as one, balancing the present values of both payments in order to arrive at the value of the swap (price of the bond).
My question is this: Why didn't anyone just point that out to me in the first place? Especially since it wasn't a concept or formula that i lacked but a point of view.
And for everybody else who doesn't live and breathe finance and econ as I do at this point of time, erm... essentially it's like when you first learn math or physics and the teachers tell you to memorise the formulas in order to get the answer but then you get your midterm and you actually have to somehow twist your formulaes in order to apply them to some foreign unheard of concept. (This is especially so if you've ever been in GEP and taken the midterms which I swear the teachers get a kick out of setting.)... except, I have no teacher only a bunch of formulas so no concept. I suppose I should be grateful for this agony so that this firmly etches itself onto my memory.
And yes, I'm probably some kind of math geek deep inside my arty farty outer shell. I can't imagine why else I can get such a kick out of having a series of equations click together presenting me with the answer to my complex question. I didn't even mind the lots of minor keying and tweaking that had to take place... put it down to delayed even greater gratification.
Erm... everyone from my old arts class, pretend you never heard me say that.
What I've been trying to do, is to bootstrap a yield curve given only swap rates in order to price a bond. Of course, it doesn't help that while all the notes supplied tell you how to bootstrap a yield curve using swap rates, and how to then get the zero coupon rates and forward rates from the earlier processes (which by the way involve tons of steps all building on each other - God bless whoever invented excel), none of them tell me what pricing a bond has anything to do with anything! So for the last two days I've been playing with numbers (doing infinite amounts of changing formulas minutely to try and obtain some kindo f an answer, in between searching desperately online for some source that would brilliantly link the two together), not really getting anywere.
Sometime this afternoon, I finally realised that if a bond can be viewed as a series of fixed flows of payments, then the alternative you can do with the same amount of money would be to put it into floating rates. In which case, it's actually like a normal interest rate swap and thus can be priced as one, balancing the present values of both payments in order to arrive at the value of the swap (price of the bond).
My question is this: Why didn't anyone just point that out to me in the first place? Especially since it wasn't a concept or formula that i lacked but a point of view.
And for everybody else who doesn't live and breathe finance and econ as I do at this point of time, erm... essentially it's like when you first learn math or physics and the teachers tell you to memorise the formulas in order to get the answer but then you get your midterm and you actually have to somehow twist your formulaes in order to apply them to some foreign unheard of concept. (This is especially so if you've ever been in GEP and taken the midterms which I swear the teachers get a kick out of setting.)... except, I have no teacher only a bunch of formulas so no concept. I suppose I should be grateful for this agony so that this firmly etches itself onto my memory.
And yes, I'm probably some kind of math geek deep inside my arty farty outer shell. I can't imagine why else I can get such a kick out of having a series of equations click together presenting me with the answer to my complex question. I didn't even mind the lots of minor keying and tweaking that had to take place... put it down to delayed even greater gratification.
Erm... everyone from my old arts class, pretend you never heard me say that.
Sunday, August 01, 2004
It's Sunday and as i write this, I am staring at the subway map hoping for inspiration to jump up and hit me as to where to explore today.
Yesterday, I was at Shibuya and Harajuku having walked from the first to the second with the sole purpose of going to the 100 yen shop, which for those not well-versed with the Japanese monetary system is about the equivalant of one dollar. (US). I was also tempted to stop at a Hello Kitty exhibition at a museum on the top floor of one of the department stores just for the value of saying I'd been to it and seeing people's shocked expressions back home but i decided it wasn't worth the 700 yen entry fee.
A note about 100-yen stores: If you've been to a dollar store in whatever country you're from, trust me, it's nothing like one in Japan. Think of the 1.99 store in Singapore, except maybe 10 times the size and with 100 times the variety of items. It's great. This time, I picked up mostly food. I'm a big fan of 100-yen stores because unlike the 1.99 store's premise that if you're going to spend anything as paltry as 1.99 on an item, you might be persuaded to buy tons of useless junk along the way, you actually get useful things in the 100-yen store.
Unfortunately now that all my "errands", which consisted visits to manga and 100-yen stores, have been completed, I find myself with no plans for the day. My brief foray into the insane world of Shibuya on a saturday has left me somewhat turned off crowds. Tokyo on a weekend is pretty much amazing, you'll never see so many people in one place. And then you'll wonder, if there are all these people here, and there are 20 other places which are probably as packed, where do all these people live when they're not here? No wonder, housing in tokyo is usually tiny and expensive.
I also got stopped about 6 times in Shibuya by people trying to convince me to: a)patronise their karaoke, b) buy something or other, c)ask for directions, d)conduct a survey. Now, I know I look Japanese but do I have this "please stop me" sign on my forehead. It's even funnier when I tell them I don't speak Japanese in japanese so that they'll go away.
And speaking of being randomly accosted, at about nine last night I decided to wander down to the main area of Roppongi, where I live, to get some food. The problem being Roppongi is the night life district of foreigners in Tokyo. When I got picked up by no less than 3 different people within the span of 30m of so, I decided that hanging around the area alone was not such a good idea on a Saturday night and went to the grocery store and then home :-p
Which brings me back to the first point, I'm home now and staring at the subway map wondering where to go. If I stay home, I'll feel like i'm wasting one of my few weekends in Tokyo, but if I go out i'll have to fight the crowds. *grin* People would probably kill to have this kind of decision to make.
Yesterday, I was at Shibuya and Harajuku having walked from the first to the second with the sole purpose of going to the 100 yen shop, which for those not well-versed with the Japanese monetary system is about the equivalant of one dollar. (US). I was also tempted to stop at a Hello Kitty exhibition at a museum on the top floor of one of the department stores just for the value of saying I'd been to it and seeing people's shocked expressions back home but i decided it wasn't worth the 700 yen entry fee.
A note about 100-yen stores: If you've been to a dollar store in whatever country you're from, trust me, it's nothing like one in Japan. Think of the 1.99 store in Singapore, except maybe 10 times the size and with 100 times the variety of items. It's great. This time, I picked up mostly food. I'm a big fan of 100-yen stores because unlike the 1.99 store's premise that if you're going to spend anything as paltry as 1.99 on an item, you might be persuaded to buy tons of useless junk along the way, you actually get useful things in the 100-yen store.
Unfortunately now that all my "errands", which consisted visits to manga and 100-yen stores, have been completed, I find myself with no plans for the day. My brief foray into the insane world of Shibuya on a saturday has left me somewhat turned off crowds. Tokyo on a weekend is pretty much amazing, you'll never see so many people in one place. And then you'll wonder, if there are all these people here, and there are 20 other places which are probably as packed, where do all these people live when they're not here? No wonder, housing in tokyo is usually tiny and expensive.
I also got stopped about 6 times in Shibuya by people trying to convince me to: a)patronise their karaoke, b) buy something or other, c)ask for directions, d)conduct a survey. Now, I know I look Japanese but do I have this "please stop me" sign on my forehead. It's even funnier when I tell them I don't speak Japanese in japanese so that they'll go away.
And speaking of being randomly accosted, at about nine last night I decided to wander down to the main area of Roppongi, where I live, to get some food. The problem being Roppongi is the night life district of foreigners in Tokyo. When I got picked up by no less than 3 different people within the span of 30m of so, I decided that hanging around the area alone was not such a good idea on a Saturday night and went to the grocery store and then home :-p
Which brings me back to the first point, I'm home now and staring at the subway map wondering where to go. If I stay home, I'll feel like i'm wasting one of my few weekends in Tokyo, but if I go out i'll have to fight the crowds. *grin* People would probably kill to have this kind of decision to make.