uRB4N's Xanga

How to tell if you're working out one muscle group too much...

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 15:16:09 GMT

After about 8 months of slacking off, I've gotten back to working out in a serious manner. This means that I'm following the same strict diet as before (gah, cottage cheese) and a real dedication towards hitting the weights. After glancing at the mirror when I stepped out of the shower, I've noticed that one tricep is slightly larger than the other. Also, my abs are on par with my chest; almost protruding beyond it.

This makes sense because I love doing exercises that I'm good at and slack off on others.

I wonder if protein powder has an expiration date...

Reminds why I tend to feel little sympathy for Americans

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 01:39:31 GMT

With all the turmoil in the markets these days, followed with the enormous amount of foreclosures in the housing sector, I do feel for many of those out there that have either lost their jobs or their homes. However, there are situations that make me feel otherwise and I'm sad to say, it happens more and more often.

Just today, I was invited to watch the New York Knicks play the Boston Celtics in Madison Square Garden. These tickets are great seats and I was cordially invited, along with a team member, to go with a client and his wife. As soon as we got in, there was a huge food buffet.

All you can eat.

With free beer.

That's just an invitation for trouble because you know that it's going to attract the lowest dregs of society and give them every excuse to abuse a goodwill gesture.

And abuse it, they did.

As expected, the usual group of misfits consisted of a bunch of moronic frat boys who decided to make a total mess of the area in mere seconds. As if that wasn't enough, in a shocking display of idiocy, privilege, and entitlement, decided that it would be awesome to take 10 hot dogs, take a single bite out of each one and then throw them on the floor.

What I find ironic is that this is going to be the same douchebag that's going to complain that some dirty Mexican "stole" his job.

Off the wagon and back on...

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 02:35:17 GMT

I have viewed this new job as a rebirth; a new beginning, if you will. As such, I'm going to start myself on projects that I've been meaning to finish but never had the patience to do so.

With this new job, I'm responsible for so much more and it makes sense for me to take on more personsal projects outside of the office. One of them is getting back in shape. Mind you, I was never out of shape but I want to be able to look in the mirror and think "damn, I'd do me." Another is to start mastering languages, specifically Chinese and Spanish because it would be great value added to my job.

Getting into tip top shape is easy and should take about 3-4 months at the most. Exercising isn't the problem, the appeal of no-so-healthy-thus-good-food is.

Mastering another language? Eh, that's going to take more work since reading and writing calligraphy is much more complex.

It's like a late New Year's resolution and in my 20-something years on Earth, I've also kept my word on all the resolutions I've made.

BTW: If you haven't had a chance to catch "There will be Blood," please do. It's a great movie.

New year and a new job

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 02:02:54 GMT

I was recently enticed away from my firm by another large financial firm, Morgan Stanley. It's one thing for to apply for a job but it feels different when others try to lure you away. It gives you a sense of accomplishment in that others have actually recognized your talent and skill.

At my old firm, the department that concentrated on Latin and South America wealth management involved 147 different groups. Even with this type of heavy competition, we were still the top group.

With Morgan, it seems that they only have about 40 groups. I'm not sure about the exact numbers but it's almost 1/4th the size since Morgan spends most of their time concentrating on other sectors. This is a strong market that they haven't tapped into with force yet.

The deal was enough to pull me away from the firm I was with for almost 8 years if you include my internship. While I'm excited about the new perks as well as new challenges and opportunity, I do have a sudden pang of guilt for leaving the firm that took care of me for so long. One of my downsides (or upside, depending on how you look at it) is that I'm loyal...almost fanatically at times. I've given the firm an almost human soul. What makes matters worse is that I had to burn some bridges in order to make this move. Long story short, I didn't quit because, in the financial industry, quitting and giving you a two weeks notice would give the firm time to move your clients to other advisers. I had to completely catch them by surprise in order to give them little to no time to react. Once I was at my new firm, I was able to call the most important clients and "steal" them.

However, the package offered was just that much better. 22% more money. Higher title. More upward movement. Less competition which translates into more profit and credit coming due to my group. Not to mention better technology and back office support.

I look forward to my new position and all it's challenges and perks equally. Time to move to Park Avenue.

Where in the world...

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 01:12:50 GMT

Americans and their horrible sense of direction and geography was always something of a myth for me. That is, until today. While I was waiting to pick up my baked ziti at an Italian restaurant, I overheard two nutsacks gabbing about a picture of Italy on the wall.

Nutsack #1: "What's that island next to Italy?"

Nutsack #2: "Sicily, it says."

Nutsack #1: "What's to the left of Italy?"

Nutsack #2: "Cooooooooooor-sika."

Nutsack #1: "No, not the island. To the left. What country is to the left of Italy?"

Nutsack #2: *ponders for a minute* "Russia, I think. Yea, it's Russia."

Nutsack #1: "Oh, cool. Didn't know that."

I always thought these stories were an urban legend. Now I know better. It's not that every other country is smarter than us but rather we're so goddamn stupid.

Natural Advantages

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 14:53:47 GMT

I recently had dinner with some friends and we were talking about certain groups of people and their natural advantages in society. No, it's not only about racial groups such as whites having a natural benefit in North American society.

I'm talking about the advantages of all groups such as rich people, women, minorities, majority, etc.

For example, I have met so many white people who feel insecure because I know how to speak two languages, English and mandarin. I've never given it much thought because speaking mandarin was a natural advantage I had. My parents would constantly speak it and I naturally picked it up. I can't read or write it well but I can hold my own in a conversation. I've never given it much thought at all and so many people are pissed I'm not taking advantage of my parents' linguistic skills because I speak to my parents in English. It's like having my own private tutors. In my defense, I don't think any ABCs really tap into this resource. Finding an ABC who can speak their native tongue is rare and one that can read and write it is almost impossible.

My friends got even more pissed when they found out my dad speaks English, French, and mandarin while my mother speaks English, French, Shanghainese, Cantonese, mandarin, and Taiwanese. Both also read and write it. "It's like a gold mine which you don't care about!" they shouted.

Anyway, this all started when one of my white friends acknowledged that while there is white privilege in this country, he would do nothing to fix it. After all, why would I, as someone who stands to benefit, want to even the playing field?

We went on about how Asian guys have more of a hurdle to clear with white -and- Asian women because women are constantly bombarded with pictures of white men being the most desirable. Why would white men want to give up that advantage? Yes, I know that any personal representation kills stereotypes but that's a different topic. As much as people like to play down media portrayals, it does help. However, before I digress further, I wanted to mention that media representation doesn't hurt Asian men as many would like to believe but rather it helps portray white men as better since our image of beauty has been altered.

This makes me wonder about a lot of things. Why would anyone want to make the playing field even? Why would men want to get rid of sexism? Why would women not take advantage of the courts and their tendency to favor the woman in a custody or divorce dispute? Why wouldn't the dominating power in the world not abuse and exploit smaller and weaker nations?

To the victors, go the spoils, no? If the strong have always prevailed, shouldn't that give them the right to abuse the weak? They rationalized that going against this formula totally goes against Darwinism in that only the strong survive. The ones that are weak have to adapt or die.

Thoughts?

Tom: "I was watching this show about how this gangmember was acting all hard on television stating how the gang will live forever because there will always be someone to take his/her place if he died. And then, we have government officials coming on saying how they'll never be able to fix the problem. That annoys me. There is always a way to fix the problem; people just don't like the solution to fixing it. If I sealed up the whole neighborhood and killed everyone in it, the problem will be solved. Sure, it's callous but with everyone dead, the problem is gone."

Gary: "I guess you're just mimicking what the book Starship Troopers said."

Tom: "The movie?"

Gary: "No, it's a book. The book was based more about military doctrine than fighting space bugs. The bugs in the book were an afterthought. The movie was the opposite because people want action and can't stand listening to government policy. I mean, look, even with hardly any mention of the government policy, they still accused the movie of promoting facism."

Me: "That's because that's what the book was about; facism."

Tom: "How so?"

Me: "Long story short, it was a society that was divided into two groups, citizens and civilians. Citizens are people who perform public service and assist the state. Civilians are people that do not and support themselves. An example of a citizen would be a soldier, postal worker, police officer, or fireman. An example of a civilan would be a businessman or someone who doesn't want to be involved in public service. Since they serve the state, they can vote and have other perks without government approval such as going to tuition free college, having a driver's license, or having children. Civilians need government approval for all that but none of them can vote because they only benefit themselves.

Anyway, the quote that Gary was referring is as follows: I wonder what the fathers of Hiroshima would say. Nothing because the fathers of Hiroshima are dead. Nothing has solved more problems in human history than violence and the threat of force."

Live and don't learn...

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 00:48:26 GMT

This is not the first nor second time I've been boned by Western Digital and their POS hard drives. This makes it the third time and it was an external "My Book" 500g drive. One day after turning it on, I heard a loud grinding noise and, no surprise, the computer was no longer able to detect it.

There goes all my hard work downloading all those movies and shows.

Fuckers.

It's who you know, not what you know...

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 01:26:36 GMT

One of the fringe benefits of having a parent that was very good friends with the father (passed away recently) of Vera Wang is getting free loot from....Vera Wang.

Since when did Vera Wang make dinner accessories such as cologne, tea sets, plates, and silverware?

These things never work...

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 22:09:23 GMT


	MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

I'm not sure why my friends send me these internet gags when they never actually work. This type of facial recognization software seems to be more about facial expression than anything else.

Granted the picture is pretty old but I mean, c'mon, Mark Wahlberg? I sure as hell hope I don't look like a woman.

Also, who are half those people on that list? Anyone know?

How?

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 23:09:52 GMT

How annoying can people be?

People can be so annoying that they make watching my 2 year old cousin a walk in the park.

How dumb can people be?

People can be so dumb that they leave half a packet of sugar in the public pantry because they think someone would actually use it rather than open a brand new packet of sugar. This is not the way to save money, people.

How lazy can people be?

People can be so lazy that rather than fill up the water cooler, they will drain it bone dry and move to the other water cooler on the other side of the office. They can be even more lazy by not filling up the copier with paper and moving to another copier on the opposite side of the office.

PS: I know that you know it's empty because there isn't a drop left in the cooler so you must have stayed there and held down the tab until it stopped and that the copier was empty because it still had your print job in memory.

How cruel can people be?

People can be so cruel that they would coo at a box of puppies but tell a homeless man to fuck off and get a job in the space of 6 seconds.

How thoughtless can people be?

People can be so thoughtless that they would wait until after I've paid to get into the subway that the trains aren't stopping at this particular station.

How cold is it?

It's so cold that I can run from 52nd to 31st street in a 3-piece suit with an overcoat while not having a drop of sweat anywhere on my body.