Hey Mom, It Was EPIC!

For those of you who have read or seen the Namesake, you'll know that it was heavily focused on the immigrant experience and more specifically, the challenges faced by their children. Growing up as the child of Indian parents definitely has had its share of ridiculous experiences. There are some concepts and ideas that are simply impossible to fully communicate to your parents. This divide among generations and the funny moments and conversations they produce I dubbed "Jhumpa Lahiri moments" in honor of the author of the Namesake.

A classic Jhumpa Lahiri moment of mine was centered around skiing culture. Growing up outside of Boston, most kids definitely spent weekends and vacations at the slopes. I never really understood why their winter jackets would have these random tickets hanging off of paper clips, or what "fresh powder" meant, if not something to cure a rash. Slowly, especially as my friends in high school started snowboarding, I decided this was something I could really get into.

Bringing this up with my mother was an amazing conversation. To those who have grown up skiing their whole lives, it probably makes all the sense in the world. However, just picture someone straight out of a tropical climate and explaining to them skiing. Her response was effectively, "So...you're telling me, you want to go out in sub-zero temperature. Put on a bunch of layers of uncomfortable clothing and shoes. Then, go down the side of a steep mountain at speeds approaching that of a car, and you achieve this speed with two little sticks on your feet, potentially seriously injuring yourself and even potentially dying. And to top it off, you spend hundreds of dollars on those sticks and the tickets for entry to the mountain??? No thanks." (and remember, she didn't even address trying to drive a 2-wheel drive sedan into a treacherous mountain trying to get to the mountain).

Needless to say, I never really got into it until post-college when I decided to try to bring some happiness to the otherwise dreary NYC winters by learning to snowboard. The past few days have been amazing, as the major snowstorm from the weekend translated into absolutely ridiculous conditions all week, with mid 30s sunshine, blue skies, and powder. As I'm still getting the hang of the culture, and only recently learned things like what a Hot Toddy is, I'm still amused by some of the lingo. I heard the word "epic" used by five different locals (both during lift chatter and at a bar) and I guess that's the only word to describe some of these past few days. I conquered my first double-black diamonds, and then after getting cocky nearly did break my arm. When my Mom asks me how the week was, I can now legitimately answer her with, "hey Mom, it was epic."

'Bama

I thought the State of the Union isn't for a while? I guess I'm still watching.

A friend of mine who's black a few years ago asked if I had heard of the then Congressman from Louisiana, Bobby Jindal. I answered with "He is my Clarence Thomas". I don't love the guy, but I can't deny, between Jindal on the stage tonight and Slumdog on Sunday..go India!

Really Rick?

One of the most amazing times working on a trading floor is right before a major economic indicator comes out. The floor is in absolute silence for the few seconds before, and then explodes into hyperactivity when the number is out. CNBC always has had a correspondent, Rick Santelli, who's energy level matches the moment as he opines on the data right after its out.

Rick has made himself a bit famous after a major rant last week about the Obama housing plan. After watching it, he has suddenly become the "face of the opposition" for conservatives and right-wingers who are opposed to bailing out homeowners. To all those who have legitimate gripes with the Obama housing plan (and I have my own doubts but think it's a necessity in the the overall comprehensive approach), this is NOT the youtube you want to advertise. Really Rick? I imagine his life is fairly sheltered, but yelling among a mass of derivatives traders about the government being unfair is not the best PR move right now. "This represents a cross-section of America"?



I was a little surprised when Robert Gibbs (Obama's press secretary) answered the rant at a very personal (and kinda funny) level, but then it once again dawned on me. Just watch: Santelli will naturally escalate the situation and continue to yell and will be the de facto spokesperson for "fiscal conservatives", and these clips will be aired on every news show and just make the average American hate the vague concept of "Wall street trader" even more. You are basically going to make "trader" the new "fundamentalist christian crazy" and a rallying point for the general population. To Rick and the guy who whistles and yells "moral hazard" in the video, please shut up..you're making us all look worse.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Get me a Gas Guzzler

The annoying liberal in me was always somewhat indignant about people buying massive SUV's and trucks who had no real use for them. After this weekend, I have resolved that I will never attempt to travel through northern New England in a vehicle that isn't in the crosshairs of Greenpeace.

Friday night I was headed up to Sugarbush with a bunch of friends in two cars. After seven hours of driving and a McDonalds super sized extra value meal (isn't it funny how when you're on a road trip, fast food is suddenly totally fine?) my rented "full-size" Nissan Altima was about two miles from the condo. There was a major blizzard slowing us down for the final 30 miles, and just when it looked like we were there, enter the infamous West Hill Road.

For those who have never driven in snow and ice, there is an art that one is educated in if you grow up outside of Boston. A good deal of the time you have no control over the car and you just work to control how the car skids. However, as we took one of the final lefts onto West Hill Road (which is in fact a massive hill) and Google Maps told us we had about two miles to go, an ominous yellow sign appeared: "Snow tires and 4-wheel drive required. Steep and winding road ahead".

"This shit is easy, I grew up in Massachusetts" was what went through my mind so I plowed up the hill, probably endangering the lives of the three of us in the car. Probably 100 yards up the hill it was apparent, we had absolutely no shot. As the smokey scent of burning rubber and sound of spinning tires surrounded us, we decided to back down the hill and rethink our strategy. Of course at this point, even with all three of us having omnipotent iPhones, no one had service.

After a bit of consultation, the decision was made: We were going to hike it. There was amazingly a large driveway at the bottom of the hill we could leave the car in, and two miles didn't seem to be the end of the world. As we changed into ski/weather resistant clothing, I asked for the printout of the directions to see exactly what we needed to hike. Already this seemed to be somewhat of a ridiculous adventure. Looking at the directions only confirmed this, as, I shit you not:

29. Turn left to stay on W Hill Rd - 1.3 mi
30. Turn right at Inferno Rd - 1.0 mi
31. Turn left to stay on Village Rd - 144 ft
33. Turn right at Middleearth Dr - 312 ft
34. Sharp left at Hobbit Hill - Destination will be on the right 174 ft

That's right, we were entering into a two mile hike in a torrential blizzard and Google was telling us that we were to travel Inferno Road to Middleearth Drive to Hobbit Hill. After being somewhat suspect that we had been dropped into a reality role playing game, we began the trek. Amazingly, small town America came through big for us. Within five minutes, a very sturdy-looking SUV headed the opposite direction stopped and someone picked us up and drove us to the condo (if anyone is in Sugarbush and eating at Timbers, please look for Chris and continue to thank him for us).

We finally made it and ended our Fellowship. Unfortunately, the other car in our group wasn't so lucky trying to get back to NYC last night and got stuck on Highway 89, ending up at a motel. I'm in Vermont the rest of the week and hopefully the Altima doesn't end in death, but lesson learned: If you're not willing to shell out the extra cash for the SUV rental, just don't go snowboarding.

BOLT!

Thank you to those who suggested I take Bolt Bus rather than Greyhound. Dear lord this is glorious. Apparently Bolt Bus began service in the Spring of 2008, but you have to book at least a week ahead in general for peak hour buses. As someone with very little planning skills, this was the major roadblock for even considering Bolt Bus before and forgetting about it as an option. Well, I dont need to travel peak hours anymore! Bolt bus it is.

First, the driver provided a Southwest/Virgin Airlines style funny introduction, including the ever hilarious "Introduce yourself to the person sitting next to you. It's early in the morning and you should know who you're sleeping with", which led to a pretty awkward smile between me and the fat dude next to me. Secondly, the bus left completely on time and the process was very, very orderly in leaving.

Most importanly, Wifi on the bus!!!! Everyone, slowly sing along with me: Wifi on the Bus!!!!Wifi and a laptop can pretty much keep me entertained for days on end. There was once a somewhat "philosophical" question a roommate conjured up about the relationship between man, technology and privacy. If there was an invasive surgery that implanted a chip into your arm that meant you could get solid wifi reception wherever in the world you are, would you allow for the surgery?

No question about it, yes. Oh, and there are AC outlets on the back of the seats. Forget world travel, I may just re-discover Americana, Bolting across the country.

Suburban Dreams

One thing I love about being home in suburbia: Costco. Where else but home would your Mom ask you, "Do you want some soup?" and then pull out the most absurd, yet great tasting massive box of congealed, frozen french onion soup packets?

Domo Arigato

A few may know, I have long held a goal of mine is to attend a Davos summit. For no real particular reason other than I enjoy having a somewhat random goal to consider when evaluating shorter-term life decisions.

Man, I picked the wrong venue. At this weekends G-7 the Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa apparently showed up at a press conference looking drunk. Upon closer examination of the video, he doesn't just look like "I've had a six-pack over the course of a football game" drunk, he looks "its 4am and I'm about to eat three slices of sausage pizza" drunk. He defended himself saying it was the unfortunate combination of "exhaustion" and "cold medecine". Now, I know Nyquil can knock the hell out of me, but if you have just met with the six other preeminent financial leaders in the world, shouldn't you have taken Dayquil? Either he is lying or my next laid off task is moving to Japan and starting my own high-profile medical practice.

First video is straight footage of Mr. Nakagawa, the second is a news report.

I guess if your country's GDP just declined near 13% annualized one may resort to some liquid courage to face your counterparts. Also, it cannot be a splendid time working for a Prime Minister who's current approval rating is 7%. That's right, 7%....and we thought Americans were unhappy with Bush.

Writing on the Wall

As one who hath drank the Obama Kool-Aid, I was a little shocked by the Geithner testimony and plan and fully fell victim to the day's "lack of details" talking line that permeated all news shows. However, while the insolvency debate is a convoluted one on which I don't have all the facts, I had my light bulb moment regarding nationalization while reading over Geithner's plan again and a number of comments made by Obama officials in the past week...I now believe there is a plan.

I began volunteering with a grassroots Obama group right after the Dem primary was finishing up, and I was amazed at the plan outlined by a campaign official at one of those first meetings. So many factors like the message discipline of 'No More Bush', hope and change, and not getting too dirty were held to like religion. Focusing intensly on fundraising through the internet and grassroots mobilization of volunteers to swing districts (we were told from day one that as New Yorkers we would be deployed to Pennsylvania). Even targeting a single electoral vote in Nebraska (which they eventually won) was clearly outlined. The intense discipline was astounding and throughout the campaign, even as polls shifted and others doubted. There were many crossroads where the punditry complained that Obama "did not win the day" which always appeared to me to be a ridiculous sentiment. However, don't get caught up in the day-to-day appeared to be the mantra; focus on the bigger picture.

Watching CNBC has began to be a cringeworthy exercise, as a hungover-looking and angry Maria Bartiromo constantly yells about how "the Dow is down 400, the market hates Geithner's plan". I was at first a little surprised by this 'lack of detail' as the meme went, and began to wonder myself as to how there wasn't any bold, clear course of action after a month's worth of supposed preparation.

 Then in the past few days, as there has been a coordinated message from the entire political world: some form of nationalization isn't off the table. Obama and Geithner's original resistance was somewhat weak-willed I felt. The more I have read about 'stress tests', I now believe they are just an euphemism for "yeah, we know things are fucked up, we just dont want to completely freak you out and fake having a ready solution, Hank-style" and some form of nationalization is already in the works as we await the results of these 'stress tests'. As much as the 'market' didn't like Geithner's original questioning and plan, I think he realized the utter disaster that Hank Paulson's piecemeal approach wrought on markets (We'll buy toxic assets, no we'll capitalize banks, oh yeah, buy some assets, etc.). If a longer-term nationalization of sorts is in the works, there was no reason to indicate that this is the intention if the specifics have not been worked out. So what that the Dow was down 400, in the past six months that's become a blip on the radar, not a black swan. Lawrence Summers even said:

The president has really asked us all to focus on the medium term, the long term, not to focus on market movements on a day to day basis, that’s not really the test we’re going to apply in judging whether this plan works.

Suddenly the word nationalization is on everyone's tongue, from the usual suspects like Krugman to GOP old-timers like Lindsey Graham. The more the establishment and American people become okay with this idea, and read articles talking about how the Resolution Trust Company worked in the S&L crisis, I believe it will soon be made apparent that there will be some level of a large-scale nationalization of insolvent banks. Maybe I have drank too much of the Kool-Aid and the administration really has no idea what their eventual plan is. However, while the punditry continues on with "First Month Report Cards" and the actual solvency is a heavily debated topic on which I don't have all the numbers, I believe a carefully crafted nationalization plan and related press narrative is slowly in the works. And now....we wait.

Sunday Morning Greyhound

The Boston-NYC trip is one that I have traveled many times. Both when I interned and subsequently moved to New York, I would take either the then nascent Fung Wah (or rival Lucky Star) Chinatown bus, which was priced at $15 originally, and then after what we deemed to be a "SARS discount", was knocked down to $10. Greyhound used to be about $35 each way, but slowly to compete with those ever resourceful Chinese knocked their price down to where it now stands at about $25 roundtrip.

Now, as money became a little less tight over the years, for some reason the economist in me has still taken the bus. This decision rather surprises many who easily would shell out the extra cash rather than enter that horrible, dingy basement of Port Authority. However to me, the price differential with the $180 Amtrak roundtrip just doesn't make sense. The difference in time is maybe 20-30 minutes barring obscene traffic (Thanksgiving Wednesday or other holidays I'll take the train). The quality difference is not small; Amtrak you get AC outlets for electronic devices, leg room, and most important, a sterility in the environment that does not exist in the bus. But as my mind works in a constant calculations of price and utility, the nearly 500% price increase isn't properly compensated. For some reason spending $100 on a bar tab or new electronic gadget makes all the sense in the world, but four cramped hours apparently does not rate high in my guns and butter graph.

Now, all this said, sometimes the Greyhound service and experience can still serve to shock and awe (ever since I've lived on the west side, Port Authority is super accessible and a cab ride to chinatown would cost more than the bus itself, so Greyhound it is). Planning to come home for a few days, I headed to Port Authority at about 9:45am on Sunday morning. Normally that would be fine for the 10am bus. I was one of the first 10 people in line so felt confident I should be departing soon. No 10am bus as scheduled. No 10:30am bus. No 11am bus. The line slowly morphed into more of a crowd. The beauty of Greyhound is they know they got you by the balls. You are taking the bus to ride the absolute cheapest possible option. They know that either you stick with the bus, or you're just not going.

Amazingly, as people got more and more angered, there was still no communication from anyone (The Chinatown buses function with a similar lack of customer service, but I always just assumed "they don't speak English"). Finally after a near riot in the basement of Port Authority and people swearing in about 30 different languages, the bus finally arrived at about 12:45pm. I finally managed to get on after three hours of sitting in a crowd at Port Authority, just in time to sit on a bus for five hours. I guess in my cost-benefit comparative analysis, I should also begin to include the money it will take to get drunk to forget about the whole experience. And yes, all the people below are waiting to go to Boston....

Some days

I'm not gonna lie, while it's been a great time so far, there are some times when the recession really starts to get to you. The Iron Claw of the Layoff now seems to be extending into other industries. Seemingly every conversation, whether with parent, friend, colleague, or guy at the deli, seems to be another tale of the Claw clamping down. Last night I met up with a few former co-workers and realized, everyone who is still working seems to be miserable as well.

It's on days like this I think we should all learn something from our friend, Joaquin Phoenix. Yes, it is okay to quit acting to pursue music after learning a few chords on the guitar while emulating Johnny Cash. Yes, it is okay to withdraw from society, grow a beard and long hair and wear sunglasses. And Yes, it is okay to appear on David Letterman and act absolutely fucking nuts and somehow get away with it. Yes, yes we can. Some days we all just want to

It's 68 degrees!

That's all I have to say about that.

USA-Mexico World Cup qualifier tonight at 7pm. 

Capoeira'ing

Sometimes you have to eat your words. I tend to enjoy making bold statements and have learned the fine art of this practice well. In about 2002 I made the statement repeatedly that "capoeira is the stupidest thing I have ever seen. You would be better off spending that much time learning to hacky-sack". Well, last Saturday I took a capoeira lesson.

First, the statement was made as I was walking around Union Square with a girl I was kinda seeing who personified a lot of what I hate about rich, overly liberal and privileged types. She was one who would talk about the plight of African children yet ignore the poverty that was a few blocks east of her apartment. She went on that day about how "amazingly beautiful the capoeira demonstration was" and how it truly was "poetry of the body". As I tend to be of the cynical variety, I decided I had to take a stand against capoeira. I wont deny that this might have also been influenced by the fact that all the guys were shirtless with six-packs and I probably was hungover and had eaten 2 burgers at 4am the night before.

Anyways, I realized that I want to get in better shape, improve my flexibility, balance, and 'real' strength as opposed to just lifting weights and running the way I have in the past. In the end, I love dancing, am not exactly a fighter, and like music of all types, so capoeira actually seemed a natural fit. I looked up classes and found one at the Alvin Ailey dance school up in midtown west. For those who don't know what Capoeira is, it's a Brazilian dance-type martial arts where two people perform in a circle and essentially improvise a series of acrobatic moves that dont involve contact, but rather avoid contact skillfully. 

Bringing two soon-to-be victims along with me, we went into the class and were greeted by four people in 'capoeira outfits' which are basically ass-tight white pants that I generally find really hot on girls and shirts of varying style saying 'capoeira' on them. The instructor, well, his shirt was naturally sleeveless, and he could be one of the most beautiful people I have ever encountered. It actually became a joke afterwards of how almost absurd a character he was as his English was broken, his muscles were massive, but the guy could also do insane things like spin on his head and do side flips. Of course at the end of the class we found out he could also sing and play this crazy instrument called the Berimbau.

The class was brutal but fulfilling. It was a little nerve-wracking that about 10 minutes into a 90 minute class we did some exercise where you steady your body on your elbows and destroy your abs. This was after doing a series of really slow push-up type exercises and a variety of other crouched type poses. I thought I might have to just remove myself from the class and give up, which would've been a bit embarassing as there were a few somewhat chubby people in the class as well. I've basically realized I have no actual core strength and think my body atrophied after sitting down for seven years.

The class slowly got more fun as we practiced something called a 'ginga' which is the basic side-to-side move that all capoeira is based off of. After a little while one starts actually feeling their balance improving, and starts throwing a little rhythm and sass into their 'ginga'. Of course just as we were getting comfortable, the instructor said "now its time for handstands". Now, I have certainly not even attempted a handstand since I was eight and thought this might end in serious injury. Luckily there was no real pressure to execute a handstand and I just kinda messed around trying to throw my body slightly up. Apparently a lot of capoeira moves are based from a handstand type pose and it's important to slowly develop a proper handstand. Well, we'll see about that, though it would be a cool party trick.

We ended the class in the circle or 'Roda' and the teacher started having people go in and try to engage in capoeira fighting. Of course, when people were apprehensive, he said "ok, ok, I guess I'll participate" and proceeded to do some of the most insane, acrobatic shit I've ever seen up close. I was pulled in for a brief second and threw out some fierce 'ginga-ing' even though I could barely lift my arms.

It's now Wednesday and I think I'm just starting to feel healed from the pain of the class and probably will head back very soon. I will say that over the past few days, when you read about ex-NFL players getting addicted to pain killers, I think I felt a little empathy.

Nuevo Narcocorrido

So yesterday afternoon began my attempt at transcending my Playstation 3 Rock Band stardom and actually playing the real guitar with people again. A good friend who I played in bands with from literally age 11 to about 17 (just picture four 6th graders rocking out in a band called 'Kamikaze'. Yes, that was us) plays bass and is a full-time musician in the city. After telling him about getting laid off, he brought up us playing together and I was definitely excited at the prospect.

He just acquired the keys to some studio space located actually near me, so we met up around 1pm. I hadn't carried my guitar around in a gig bag in ages and hate admitting it...it felt AWESOME. The studio was an interesting deal: apparently someone owns the entire building, the first floor is a performance space, the basement is the practice area, and the top few floors are apartments that are rented out. Apparently Jeff Buckley was living in one of them right before he died...now that his hipster cred.

It was great playing again in a semi-band situation but the sad realization was my playing stalled somewhere in 1998 whereas Chris has definitely evolved for the past ten years, which I guess would make sense as he actually is a musician. To compensate, we went right back into covers of a bunch of 90s songs like Smells Like Teen Spirit, Patience, etc. The basement was freezing and occassionally I'd have to put my hand directly on the tiny space heater just to get it warm enough to play...again, more hipster cred. From trader to starving artist trying to play in a freezing basement studio in a matter of days.

The other great introduction of the afternoon; when I asked Chris what other music he's been playing, a friend of his from Mexico recently introduced him to Narcorrido music. Apparently there's a genre of Mexican music that romanticizes drug dealers as the modern day cowboys, and draws up 'corrido' music which is the music of classic Mexican ballads. Apparently they're trying to take these old songs and make rock versions of them. Nuevo narcocorrido...it's all I listen to now.

Compliance, it's Everybody's Business

Who knew? All those awful compliance exercises about money laundering we'd have to sit through and complete or else be reprimanded by management; who knew it'd come in handy?

This might be very obvious, and maybe I was just blinded by wishful thinking, but I nearly fell victim to a craigslist scam:

I am trying to sell a second guitar of mine (a Gibson Limited Edition Flying V Silverburst if anyone has any interest) and advertised it on Craigslist. Someone responded a day later indicating they wanted the guitar, were located in Washington State, but would send a certified check and arrange for a pickup/shipment.

Sounded great and I was happy to have the transaction essentially over with. The check then comes with a corresponding email from "craigleo2000@gmail.com" indicating that his "secretary screwed up and sent a check for $3200 that should've been divided up for a few purchases". I should just cash the check and send the remainder to the recipient of the guitar via Western Union:

Anncy Graziano 

51 Amherst Ave

Waltham, MA 02451

Now, having been trained by the Bank of America Compliance Team, the number of red flags this raised was innumerable. Did a quick google of Ms. (or Mr.) Graziano, and apparently a student at UMass Medical....seemingly credible.

The check actually came. It looked legitimate, but my anti-money laundering training had me very suspicious. I continued to email craigleo, asking for either a phone number to contact him, or for the number for the shipper so I could organize the pickup properly.

After much resistance, he just emailed me back saying I can contact the shipper at "fastshippinguy@yahoo.com". 

After already giving up on the transaction, a quick google search led me to the a whole post about this scam.

After the recent Facebook "London mugging" scams, I am convinced the entire Western Union business model is based around money scams from Nigerian princes, London muggings, and Craig Leo. Anncy Graziano, if you're an innocent victim in this, I wish you the best. 

Morning Realizations

I've noticed that the first hour or so of my day is spent still in bed, but surfing all the same news sites, financial and political blogs, and sports sites that I would've while at work, but now instead of sitting on my chair I am just on my back all morning. Basically, I switched from trader to prostitute (but what's the difference? HEY-O! that joke brought to you by the Taxpayers for Common Sense)

I also realized that in the last 4 nights I've slept about 40 hours. In the past in a full week on average I'd say I slept exactly around 40 hours. Does that mean I can now just not sleep til Sunday night and my body will adjust fine? I mean, it is Thursday; others will start going out now.

Musings over the #B6 Basil Chicken

One of the little things I realized I had never partaken in while in NYC is just a plain and simple lunch special at a restaurant. The reason being for the seven years I've been here, we ate lunch at our desks every day, and on the few occasions  we'd go out for lunch with clients, etc. it would be to a fairly fancy establishment. I feel of all the tasks on my agenda, this surely must be one of the more accessible ones.

I went to Pad Thai where I saw the sign "Lunch Specials starting from $6". I got the Basil Chicken, extra spicy, which was in fact $6 and came with a choice of appetizer, from which I chose the Fried Dumplings.

Some thoughts:

- What exactly is in a Thai Iced Tea? I dont really want to look it up because they are just so damn good and I dont want to see a composition of ingredients like "pure and unadulterated heavy cream", sugar, sin, more sugar, maybe a drop of actual tea, and half and half. But of course I had one of these with the meal

- An interesting group of people around me. Down the row was a group of "The Gays" (as this is the heart of Chelsea) getting absolutely wasted on Bellinis. Oh, the Gays...how you make my neighborhood so much more lively.

- Directly to my right were two people who looked very goodfellas-ish, and still using Nextel walkie-talkies. I didnt know they even had those anymore. More importantly, I did realize the first thought that went through my head was "I wonder what those guys are up to?" But I then realized that was more borne of the idea that anyone who has time to go sit down and take an hour lunch is "obviously not working hard enough, so must be scamming".....oh, how work had warped my thinking.

- I also see two women with their children in strollers next to them chatting away. These must be the stay-at-home mom's who meet up over Thai food and walk their children around the neighborhood. Why do they look younger than me? Could they be nannies or au pairs? Or could it be that I'm almost 29, and yes, there are mothers younger than me.

- The food is absolutely amazing. If you are ever looking for quality food at a very cheap price, in a setting that makes you feel somewhat "New York-y", I'd strongly recommend the "Gay Chelsea Thai District". I dont know how they all survive, but there's four places (Nooch, Pad Thai, Room Service, and a new place I think called Shilom) that all have great food, drinks, decor, and a lively scene and are inexpensive all within a few blocks. I guess there is one fundamental truth in life: "The Gays" love their Thai.

Spanish'ing

I have just commenced Season 1 of Mad Men....with Spanish subtitles. The show is amazing, let's see if this also will count as homework.

February 3rd, 2009

My second INSEAD interview has been delayed yet again, now moved to tomorrow. Hopefully I can just get this over with successfully as it's been delayed now three times.

So my new task: learning Spanish...and as this is a somewhat cliche endeavor, I am excited by a new method my roommate pointed me in the direction of by the guy who wrote 4-hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss. The basic synopsis is: completely absorb the 300 most commonly occurring words in print, and then study the language and additional vocabulary through an area of great interest. In English apparently the 300 most printed words constitute about 65% of printed literature. Basically, rather than learning through the grammatical way they try to teach you throughout high school that you forget instantly, you effectively learn in a similar manner that you learned your native language, and most importantly, you learn in the context of something you're genuinely interested about. I spent the afternoon at Barnes & Noble going through a book list of the most frequent Spanish Words and put the top 300 words into an iphone flashcard program.

Of course the weather sucks today and its a major blizzard. I dont anticipate I'll be leaving my apartment anytime soon. Starting my studies by watching a full replay of the Chelsea v. Liverpool match from Sunday on Fox Espanol. Suddenly homework is fun.

A few days late

So as with most of my attempts at blogging, I have naturally been thoroughly unproductive on creating entries. However, a quick recap for my own records:

Last Thursday night went and saw Kings of Leon at Madison Square Garden. Decent show and have never seen so many attractive, hipster type girls at a large concert. I think we know who are the current 'it' band. I will be obnoxious and say, they were a lot better at the Bowery Ballroom in 2003. Yes, I said it.

Weekend was a lot of drinking. I guess the main difference now with weekend and weekday is suddenly there's just more people texting you about what you're up to. Hopefully I can build out my network of daytime people. 

Sunday was an amazing Superbowl. I hate the Steelers but dont really have any love for the Cardinals after they made it and the Pats didnt after that Week 15 game. I won my bet (line was Steelers by 6.5, they won by 4) and it was a great game, so I really can't complain. I do love me that Larry Fitzgerald.

Monday was gorgeous out. Over 50 degrees. Of course I was sitting there thinking "man, if every day is like this, this could be the greatest two months of my life" only to see snow and freezing temperatures in the forecast for the remainder of the week. C'est la vie, I got some errands done and made it back to the Bhangra class. Also spent a lot of the day sitting outside in Union Square and Madison Square Park on my computer and reading. I am a little disappointed as I thought both parks were fully wi-fi enabled, but it doesnt seem so.