day after black friday shopping

so i finally had time today to go buy some clothes and other things i wanted:

from Gap:
-2 pairs of standard fit jeans
-black button up long sleeve shirt
*$117.17

from Sunglass Hut: pair of Versace sunglasses
*$238.15

not waiting in line at all
*Priceless

not sure how RF this makes me, but id say more ballin' than RF

gnight folks, i'll be back in berkeley in like 16 hours. Read More......

Brogger's Quarterly: 'Tis The Season

Winter is the season where you see certain patterns worn more than any other time of the year. It's not to say you can't wear these on a normal basis year-round, you definitely can. For some reason, certain patterns are more appropriate for the holiday season. I love it.

The colors of red, green, and everything in between really inspires the holiday spirit for me, and I figured I'd introduce the readers to some popular winter patterns and fabric as well as clarify some common terms.

What's the difference between plaid, flannel, and tartan? The answer, tips, and more - after the break.

Plaid VS Flannel VS Tartan

Can you tell the difference? Well, you shouldn't be able to, and I know I can't. Why?

The terms seem to be interchangeable due to etymology, pop-culture, and definition. Let's clear this up.

Here's a fabric/pattern lesson:

Plaid refers to the cloth itself, not the fabric. It's the actual piece of cloth you wear. The pattern just happens to be in the familiar check pattern because it's originally a Scottish term. A "full plaid" refers to the piece of cloth wrapped around the shoulder and fastened in front and worn with a kilt (bagpipes included).

Flannel is a soft woven fabric, spun from wool or cotton. We see it as a check pattern the most because it was made famous in the 90's by rock music. It was a hit with grunge and alternative rock musicians and listeners. Smells like teen spirit, right?

Tartan is the actual term used to refer to the criss-cross pattern you see in most plaid and flannel. It's woven horizontally and vertically with multiple colors. Tartan is most associated with Scotland because kilts usually use the pattern, but through some American English translation of tartan, most of us just call it plaid. So the term "plaid shirt" is correct in most cases because the shirt is made out of cloth, but if you wanted to describe the pattern tartan is more accurate. Meh, whatever.

So, technically, the picture above could be plaid or flannel, but they all have a tartan pattern.

Other Patterns

Argyle is a holiday favorite. To the eyes' illusion, it looks like a bunch of diamonds. If you tilt your head, you can actually see it's just a diagonal checkerboard.

Personally I like the size of the argyle you see the on the left. Sometimes I see patterns that are too small (so many diamonds) that it's too busy or too large (one or two huge diamonds) that look gaudy.

Argyle sweaters and vests are sure-shot winner.


Fair Isle is a little more obscure. You might have seen this eclectic design before, but not really know what to think of it. It seems a little too busy and random in the designs at first glance.

The Fair Isle design originates from... Fair Isle, a tiny island north of Scotland. Wah-wah-weh-wah!

It describes a technique in which you alternate weaving different colors together. Designs tend to repeat themselves in different lines down the pattern.

While it may look busy, it has an old-world traditional feeling to it. Kinda like how cardigans used to be grandpa-styled and now they're super fit-cut and cool for hip kids, Fair Isle designs can also be "cool" and "with it" okay?

Left to right: mini-gingham, gingham, tattersall

Gingham originally was woven as a stripe pattern, but since the English started making it, it's been woven into a check pattern. Something about those United Kingdom countries making lots of check patterns...

Tattersall is a check pattern of horizontal and vertical stripes of two colors on a lighter background. Makes for a good spring shirt too.


You can differentiate gingham and tartan because the check pattern of gingham is just around two or three colors. Tartan is multi-color with interweaving horizontal and vertical layer of color. See the difference even though the color scheme is similar?

How to pull it off

Keep it simple. Since wearing one of these patterns is already a statement in itself, keep your other clothes fairly simple and solid colored. We don't want to mix all these patterns together.

It's about the contrast. Pair a patterned shirt with jeans and a solid color scarf for a simple classic look. What if you only have solid color clothes? No problem, pick yourself a patterned scarf. That burst of color among your solid clothes will stand out.

Oh, and there's no reason why this all doesn't look good on women either.

Happy Thanksgiving, and cheers.
Read More......

picture perfect

what do beauty, fashion, and the environment have in common?

this is the answer
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The Day the Earth Stood Still

Some of you may have seen the trailer for the 2008 remake of the ancient-yet-classic The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). It came before Quantum of Solace for me. Isn't it exciting that awkward Keanu Reeves is gonna be back in action, this time as an alien come to give earth a very important message. I'm sure peeing my pants in anticipation.

Not really. Trailer Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_bNDv0-ZrU

I'd vaguely heard of the original The Day the Earth Stood Still, it being one of those titans of sci-fi, just like Blade Runner. But we all know how Blade Runner turned out. And if you don't know how Blade Runner turned out, I'm saying it sucked. Or at least, it was not very fun to watch. Regardless, this one felt like it had a different tone going for it, so I proceeded to delve a little further...

Turns out this was based off a 1940 short story by Harry Bates called "Farewell to the Master", in which an alien (Klaatu) and his robot (Gnut) come to earth, but the alien gets shot within seconds cause humans are so damn scared of the guy. The story then revolves around what happens with the robot, who apparently freezes in place when Klaatu dies.

Short Story Link: http://thenostalgialeague.com/olmag/bates.html

The film adaptation is just that, an adaptation. Same idea, different execution. I think this movie still has some flavor some 50 years later just cause of its philosophy, which is pretty interesting enough. The original raised issues of nuclear mutual assured destruction, while the upcoming one will be about global warming. In both cases, Klaatu represents the alien race that's wondering what the hell humans are up to.

Makes you wonder how big a bunch of assholes the whole human race can be.

About the movie itself: I have a hard time judging old movies. It feels like I have to use a totally different scale. So I'm just gonna say it was relatively entertaining and thought-provoking, aside from the dashingly good-looking alien acting a bit like he doesn't belong in society and acts the creeper and basically latching onto this mother and her son, who I'd like to have hit in the mouth for not shutting up at times. But hey, it was a different era of films.

Bottom line: check it out if you like sci-fi a little bit (the thinking kind, not the action kind), otherwise, you can live without seeing it. Same probably goes for lord Keanu Reeves' version come December 12. Except he'll probably shame the sci-fi fans, too. Oh well. At least there's The Matrix.
Read More......

test?

Chuck is a poopyhead

LOL JAY KAY
Read More......

i believe the term is "haute couture"

Lights:
Okay, so as an EECS person, I may not be the best judge of fashion, but I love the bi-annual FAST (http://fashion.berkeley.edu). That isn't to say all EECS majors are bad when it comes to fashion...look at kiyoshi! I'm here tonight to tell you about my experience at the show, and a few of my favorite outfits (and maybe even my favorite models!).

Several semesters ago, (3 to be exact), I e-mailed the show coordinator of FAST to see if I could go and photograph their show. For me, this all started in the Spring of 2007, moved to Fall 2007, with the Rock the Jade Hep B Free fashion show, and then my then-favorite, Character, presented in Spring of 2008. However, we have come a long way from Character. Helen, you did a fantastic job with this Fall show. You and your team worked very hard putting it together, and you deserve every bit of praise for it. Without a doubt, the shows get better and better each semester.

Camera:
On Sunday, I arrived several hours early to set up a small studio area, as well as the lighting gear that I'd use for the show. Thanks to a fellow co-worker, Dennis Mojado, I had everything I needed, and more, to make sure I could capture the show to the best of my abilities. Here's a quick list:

-Nikon D700 with MB-D10 battery grip
-Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR, Nikon 50mm f/1.4D
-4x Nikon SB-800 Speedlights (in possession, only 2 were used during the show)
-2x Quantum Turbo battery packs (faster flash recycle time)
-Bogen Manfrotto monopod (i've learned that my camera gets very heavy)
-6x 4GB Sandisk Extreme IV CompactFlash cards

My fellow photographers reading this probably already know how much I spend on camera gear. I advise those who don't already know NOT to look up the pricing on the above mentioned.

Fashion:
One of my favorite models. She's got the walk and the poses to knock your socks off.



This next girl is one of my new favorites. You can tell by looking in the gallery for the show, because I probably have more pictures of her than anyone else. She modeled at the Rock the Jade show, where I knew she'd have potential. Unfortunately I didn't see her at Character, but was glad to run into her on Sunday.



The next model was wearing an outfit that complimented her body rather well. Smooth and silky, I thought I was looking at an angel when she walked out to have her photo taken.




A quick gander at the BARE Magazine blog puts this outfit at the top of their showcase too. There's a good reason for that. While I'm no expert, I feel that this outfit catches people's attention because of the amount of volume hidden within the folds and frills of fabric. Aerodynamics were clearly not on the designers' minds, but curves and natural earth tones (similar to wrapping a wonton).



Well folks, thanks for reading. Keep an eye out for the link to my gallery for this show. Read More......

Brogger's Menu: Midnight Snack

Hungry @ midnight and little ingredients to work with.

What's around the kitchen: pasta, tomato sauce, tomatoes, bread, turkey sandwich meat, dried rice noodles, eggs, crowns of broccoli (omgwtf), carrots, frozen corn, frozen green beans

Psh, like I'm gonna do pasta and sauce.

Here's what I came up with: Bird's Nest with Citrus Soy Broccoli

Read More......

Pirates, and no, I don't mean the cute ones like Jack Sparrow

There seems to be some fascination in the news about pirates these days.

WSJ: Piracy v. Private Equity: A Comparison

WSJ: How to Deal With Pirates

Dealbreaker: Harvard Business School 9-197-3922 November 1, 2008

WSJ: Why Don't We Hang Pirates Anymore? Read More......

Asian people...God love 'em

For without Asian people, this sort of thing wouldn't happen:


[pictures taken at Vietnam Village] Read More......

Brogger's Menu: Four Alternatives to Turkey

As efung would say:

"Looks familiar."

You don't have to eat turkey just because it's some holiday marked as the day you must consume an unfortunately fat bird that can't fly. Comon now, it can barely stand up without looking like it takes some effort.

Damn fatty.

I don't know about you, but I've begun to feel really disillusioned by the taste of turkey every Thanksgiving. I've been having that crap in sandwiches for the better part of my life. I find having some sort of variety for Thanksgiving makes it all the better in my expectations of "OMGWTFBBQ THANKSGIVING!!!111oneoneoneoneo."

Let's eat:

Chicken

Well, duh. Everything tastes like chicken, right? So why chicken instead of turkey? Compared to a 10-20 pound abomination of a bird, try several 2-3 pound chickens, depending on how many people you're serving. Two feeds a family of four.
This way, you can ensure that meat is moist, the skin is crisp, and that everyone is satisfied instead of a sadface dry turkey. Plus, you won't be eating something that's been tagged, bagged, and dumped into a freezer kinda like a scene straight out of a mob movie.

Roast chicken is a staple American classic and it's easy to boot. Ram some herbs and butter into the skin of the bird, season generously, pre-heat the oven, and slam it in there.

Brogger's Recommendation: The Best Roast Chicken

Beef

Well, not just any beef. Dear sirs and madams, I shall recommend you step up the plate for this occasion and give yourself a treat for the feast: Filet Mignon.

Filet mignon sounds fancy, but it's just a cut from the tenderloin that's located along the spine. A porterhouse and a t-bone steak include the filet mignon: the filet is just part of the larger cut. It's a premium to get just the filet without any bone, but shit its tasty for it's pure beefiness. If you're going to block your arteries with anything, it's an effin' beef block.

Plus, doesn't wrapping anything in bacon make it instantly better?

Brogger's Recommendation: Filet Mignon with Balsamic Syrup and Goat Cheese

Lamb

Bah bah black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes, marry have I,
Three bags full.

There's some more to it, but I don't care about the wool at all. I care about eating the sheep.

Some don't like the taste of lamb, but it happens to be one of my favorites. It's described as a "gamey" taste. I can only say its a very strong meat flavor. YEA PROTEIN.

Lamb seems like a luxury item, but it probably is about the same or less than the filet mignon. For me, it doesn't leave a lingering fullness of "I enjoyed every bite of that impending heart attack", but more of a "Yes, please pass me more food so I can get a heart attack."

Brogger's Recommendation: Lamb with Red Wine Vinaigrette

Seafood

Sorry, no Finding Nemo here. We're going under the sea and getting us some lobsters and crabs. ...Right.



Lobster,

Or crab?

I tend to go towards lobster for less hassle of eating delicious lobster meat.

However, for all you Asians out there, the ginger-scallion crabs on the right is a well-met contender if you're going the Asian Thanksgiving route.

You pay by the pound for the seafood. Again sorta like chicken, I tend towards smaller lobsters and crabs in more numbers because they taste better even if it is more to eat through. My family bakes lobsters and eat it straight up with melted butter and lemon. For crabs, we do similar or sometimes take the effort to make crab cakes.

Brogger's Recommendation: Baked Lobster with Garlic Butter Panko

Closing Thoughts

"Wait, Chuck. What about vegetarian/vegan options?"

Brogger's Recommendation: Eat meat or the potatoes.

"Okay, but I don't even cook Thanksgiving dinner."

Brogger's Recommendation: Tell your parents/chef/party planner/relative/favorite restaurant that you want something different unless it's a travesty of your family tradition and thou shalt not offend thine superiors.

"My family doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving." / "I'm Asian."

Brogger's Recommendation: See you at *Insert Favorite Chinese Restaurant Here*

Photos and recipes courtesy of Serious Eats, Food Network, and random Google searches. Read More......

let it be

I'm sitting in my chair listening to old Beatles songs right now. I wonder who the first guy was that put magnet, guitar, and amp together. Just goes to show that while us EECS nerds might sit around all day fiddling with code or circuits, we're also responsible for almost all of modern pop music...yeah, better recognize. clapton would be nothing without maxwell...james clerk maxwell. Read More......

Broggers Quarterly: The Fit Guide to Shirts

Any piece of clothing you are considering buying should fit you. Many people size up for the sake of comfort, but clothes can be comfortable and look good on you too. I always see shirts that are too big for a guy, but I don't think most people are going for the Urban gangster look on campus... Here's a quick-guide to how shirts should fit your body:

First, check the length of the shirt. A button-up dress shirt is cut longer than a casual button-up shirt so make sure what you're looking for is what you want. Here's the difference of what it looks like when you wear a dress shirt casually the wrong way and a casual button-up the right way.
Very good, gypsy. I will look at your treasures. In the first picture, you can see the shirt drops down to where the pants leg separate into two. This shirt is too long to be worn untucked. On the right side, you can see the length difference. An untucked button-up shirt should drop right past the waist to avoid a baggy or over-sized look.

If something feels too tight, do the "I'm an airplane" trick. Arms straight up. Arms side to side. Wave arms in circles. Whooooosh. I guess this might be a better example: If you can't fully extend any part of your body and move around comfortably enough to run around - it's too small. Although, if you have fabric bunching up at your arm, shoulders, and the shirt is poofing outwards when you tuck it in - it's too big. Everything should fit comfortably flush with your body so you can show it off.

Sleeves should reach your wrist bone and should have no excess fabric bunching up near it or on the sides. The shirt should run flush with your arm and hug your shoulders. No poofing either on the sides for tucked-in shirts. Walk around to see if it poofs with movement or with your arms raised. The picture on the left shows both excess sleeve material and poofiness from the sides. On the right, we can see how it's showing off his figure because of the right fit. Sexytime.

What about short sleeved shirts and polos? The same applies, but now you don't have any sleeves to worry about! Yay one less thing to consider.

When considering a button-up short sleeve, make sure it just fits your body. Before you even button-up the shirt, pull the two sides past each other - how much room is there? If you can pull one side of the shirt past the buttons, consider sizing down. It should reach flush with your body when buttoning up. Alternatively, you could button-up the shirt and see if you can fit a fist through your shirt from the top - it's too big if you have successfully Over-9000-Gundam-punched through it.

For polos, have it sit just past your waist. The sleeves should be right between your elbow and shoulder, so you can partially show off those guns of yours. You can see this in the two pictures above.

Next time I'll write about shirts in more detail, but for now, go find a shirt that fits you. (photos courtesy of GQ and JCrew) Read More......

My Turn (a review of Quantum of Solace, with some spoilers)

Over the past month, you've had a healthy dose of the 4 other broggers' areas of expertise. Whether that be kiyoshi's financial analysis, or chuck's fashion faux pas, or even victor's rare gems of insight into the human condition and friendship, or eleung's superb ability to document the slightest whimsicalities of the day, you've enjoyed it all. At the very least, you've stuck around to read it all.

Needless to say, it's time that efung step up to the plate and dispel the notion that my time is spent on pewter figurines and used underwear. So what, pray tell, do I bring to the table?

I watch a damn lot of movies.

Without further ado, here's my review of Quantum of Solace, which I watched Friday night with Jimmy, Christa, and Rachel. See how I snuck that shout-out in there too? I'm good at that too.


Anyways, I'll make it clear from the beginning that Quantum of Solace was, for the most part, an enjoyable movie. Being an action movie, it delivered by having action. There was no getting away from it, frankly. That said, I've got a lot of crap to pick with QoS for failing to live up to Casino Royale.

The trailer: too much revealed. All the best scenes of the movie were given away in the trailer. What the hell was the point of that scaffolding+rope scene if you show 1) Bond epically breaking in through the ceiling and 2) picking up his gun just in time to shoot the dude? And fantastic, you show a shot of Bond walking out of the desert like a badass, raising a silenced UMP45 (or something like that), and you don't include it in the movie. So maybe it was really just a promo shot. And if that's the case, then damn. Couldn't have hurt to include it, since by this time, they'd already made Bond *godlike*.

The Bond Theme: srsly? When I went home for the USC game, my brother played "Another Way to Die", and I didn't even realize it was the bond theme until he told me at the end of the song. What the hell, man. I don't have a big problem with either Alicia Keys or the White Stripes, but this song is not memorable at all. So if this were just a b-side to the next White Stripes album, I wouldn't think twice. I might even have liked it. But this garbledy nonsense should not pass for a bond theme. Just saying.

Technology nirvana. Being a techie, I can't help but pick at the supernatural powers that films bestow on technology. I've learned to suspend my disbelief in some cases, but it's still something that nags (see Cracked's 5 Things Hollywood Thinks Computers Can Do). QoS throws in its vote with an insane Surface operating system that does all the work for you. At least in Minority Report, Tom Cruise actually looked like he was expending some effort when he picked out the files he wanted to look at. Here, you get all the information you could possibly want! MI6 also apparently decided to shell out for a glass wall that triples as a world map and conference phone. And finally, technology's so good that your phone can have a camera that lets you take photos of people 100 feet away so perfectly in the dark without a flash that you can run facial recognition software on them and come up with positive results in a snap. Yeah. Why don't I just shut up and let you believe in the infinite capabilities of computers and intelligence agencies.

Plot Hell. Sadly, this happens too often with movies. Okay, I didn't understand why things were happening half the time, but I can deal with that, especially when you negate it with Stunts Heaven. But when you throw in a line of dialogue that exists for the sole purpose of justifying the title of the film, you are doing things wrong. For that matter, when you throw random shit in for the sole purpose of justifying the film (read: obligatory opening chase scene), you are doing things wrong. And it definitely does not help when a major plot question such as "What is this organization that has people everywhere, and we know nothing about it?" doesn't ever go answered.

Lack of suspense. This ties back to the first point, where I'd seen everything in the trailer. Just think back for a second. Remember the black-and-white opening scene of Casino Royale where pre-00 Bond confronts his target in the guy's own office? Remember that sense of omgwhat'llhappennext? Remember when he goes all-in against a full-house of Aces? Yeah, you do. That's the kind of thing that burns into your memory. That's the mark of something special.

Final word: I walked out of Quantum of Solace feeling like I'd already seen the movie before. Bland villain, unspecial action sequences--that rooftop chase felt like it came straight out of Bourne Ultimatum--bumbling plot with characters I don't really care about. The film was fine, but only as a B-action movie, and absolutely not as a gratifying follow-up to Casino Royale that everyone wanted.

I'll be getting off my high horse now. Read More......

friend zone

You know how everybody fears the awkward "friend zone"? I did too. But if you think about it and grow up a little, it really doesn't make sense to be stuck there. If you're friends with someone but secretly would rather just bend them over a table and fuck them silly, that's not right. That's called being a fucking creeper, someone who's too castrated to state their intentions and yet still horny enough to fake a friendship in hopes of worming their way in.

All healthy relationships, whether friend or fuck buddy or boy/girlfriend or (ma/gay)rriage, are founded on communication. If you can't communicate because you're shy or something you won't succeed. I'm going to take the male POV since that's what I am, but I'm sure it's not all that different when you're a girl. There's no way that meeting and talking to a girl can automatically put you into the "friend zone". Guys chalk their eventual failure up to not being hot enough or not talking smooth enough or some other bullshit. It's not that, it's because you sent a clear signal 'let's be friends'. Or at least, she didn't hear any 'let's fuck like monkeys in heat'-style message in there.

No man can walk into a room and slay girls left and right, unless you're in a brothel or something. But that's okay - you only need to succeed with one. It's not your looks or inability to make fake conversation that makes you end up being every girl's BFF what what you really want is the ATM, it's because you're fucking pussy and won't tell people what you feel.

If you are willing to risk rejection, you won't end up in the friend zone. Take this challenge - if you're stuck in a friendship that you've always wanted to be a relationship, man up and tell the girl you like her. She'll reject you, because you've been a blubbering pussy all along, and you'll feel free at last. It's really not so bad. I've done it before, pathetically through email in fact, but it worked out in the end.

Of course, you should always consider your own values. Some people are perfectly happy finding a partner to commit to and care for, whereas others like to rage around at parties and fuck everything that moves. Find your own happy place, not everyone is a raging party fucker. BE A MAN Read More......

Believe Me, This Is Very Important.

And if you know me, you know it's important if I put a period at the end of that sentence. Which actually ties into something that gets mentioned in what I'm brogging about.

First off, I love Cracked.com. It consistently has the right balance between awesome humor, retarded awesome-humor, awesome retarded-humor, and even poignant revelations on human nature. It's actually legitimately worth keeping on an RSS feeder. But here's the set of articles that are the kicker:

5 Ways to Stop Trolls From Killing the Internet
Pretty cool. An adventurous look into the next iteration of the internet.

7 Reasons the 21st Century Is Making You Miserable
Just effing read it. At least it made me remember why I chose to work for a psychology major over CS or econ.

*bookmarks* Read More......

Broggers Adventures

Video compilation of UC Jazz at Yoshi's and yours truly crew of broggers going to lunch, dinner, and more!

Click on the video below to go to Vimeo to see the HD version because it's oh-so-shiny.

Enjoy.

Adventures from Charles Liu on Vimeo. Read More......

Credit default swaps and novation requests

I am going to do my best tonight to procrastinate and generally not do work , so I figured I would school you gentlemen (and whoever else reads this tomfoolery) on something I'll bet you've heard of if you've followed the Wall Street meltdown.

Imagine you buy $100 million in 10-year bonds from Google. The buyer of a bond is said to take on "credit risk,", the risk that the borrower cannot pay off bond in a timely manner.

You (the buyer) decide to call up Goldman Sach's and ask for insurance on $100 million notional of GOOG 10-year bonds in order to protect yourself from losing money on a (potential) Google default. Some number crunching is done by the quants, and they give you some percentage, say, 100 basis points (100 basis points == 1 percent). This means that every year that Goldman provides insurance against Google defaulting on their debt, you pay them .0100 * $100 million = $1 million per year.

Now, that 'insurance' you just bought is actually called a credit default swap. You pay them for taking on Google credit risk, and they pay you back if Google defaults. When the price of a credit default swap increases, that means that people are betting that a company has higher likelihood of collapsing. Here's a chart of Lehman CDS right up to their bankruptcy.


So now let's say that Google goes bankrupt because it hires too many young, inexperienced programmers from Stanford, and it defaults on its debt. Let's say their bonds drop in price to $0.20 on the dollar, which means that people expect that only 20 percent of the value of the bond will be recovered in bankruptcy court. Had you not bought the CDS, you would be out $80 million. But because you were paying GS for the insurance on the debt, they pay you the difference between what you paid, and what the bond is currently worth. In this case, they pay you $80 million, and you have no net loss.

Here's another hypothetical situation: Let's say you're quite sophisticated, and decide to sell a CDS to Morgan Stanley on $100MM 10-year GOOG bonds. Since you've both bought and sold an identical CDS, your position nets out to zero. Here's why: If GS pays you $80MM because of a Google default, you would have to pay the exact same amount to MS because you're providing them insurance on the same default.

But here's the new novelty: What if YOUR firm goes bankrupt? What happens to GS when you can't pay the $1MM premium? And what about MS paying for protection on the GOOG debt? They're paying you for nothing?

This is precisely what happened to Lehman and Bear Stearns: nobody knew what would happen to their CDS trades. What resulted was "novation requests", where buyers and sellers of CDS would try to find offsetting trades (such as the one above) and eliminate the guy in the middle. In our example, GS and MS would eliminate YOU as the counterparty in the middle and deal directly with each other. The first ever Sunday trading session occurred so that traders could match trades and issue novation requests to eliminate Lehman from the middle of CDS trades.

Don't you love derivatives? Warren Buffet calls them "financial weapons of mass destruction" Read More......

Broggers Quarterly: Lace-Ups Follow-Up

I've received some questions regarding how the lace-ups would look for casual occasions, since they more or less work for business casual to business wear. This is how you would go about wearing them on a night out in the city or at a nice restaurant. Some looks, ahead:

The Plain Toe: Worn with corduroy pants

The Wingtip: Worn with dark blue selvage jeans

The Cap-Toe: Worn with black jeans Read More......

The Bear-Market Rally: Demystified

In case you haven't been paying attention, the stock market has had some interesting action lately. Though I didn't have the guts to actually put my money where my mouth is, I think this perfectly exemplifies the notion of contrarian trading (where you bet that the collective market wisdom is wrong). I'm going to try to keep this simple and explain it in pictures:

Here's a chart of two months of trading. The Dow drops 29% in this period. Thing's ain't looking too good.


Now look at the six trading days following the market bottom on October 27. The bailout is working! The capital infusions are strengthening our good banks! The recession is over! That's what the press wants you to think...There was very little bad news in the newspapers that I was aware of, and I'm sure there were people thinking to themselves "The stock market is a leading indicator of our economy, now that it's going up, it must mean that we're out of a recession! I mean, we've already been in it for 10 months or so and the average recession is only 11 months long, so it's gotta be over soon." The market rallies 18%.


Now look at the past two days:

The market drops 10% in TWO DAYS! The volatility is incredible, in Intelligent Investor, Benjamin Graham (the mentor to Warren Buffett) claims that average price appreciation on equities is about 4% a YEAR! Yes, when you smooth things out over ~250 trading days a year, it's reasonable, but the market swings taking place today are a few-times-a-century phenomenon. I put cash in my brokerage account so that I could buy-in once the two-week rally crashed. We'll see if tomorrow looks good. Read More......

Broggers Quarterly: Lace-Ups

Let's get this straight. I'm no professional or snobby style guy to tell you what to wear, but I can at least let you know how to tell shoes apart when you're looking for a nice pair. As part of a mini-series on shoes, I'll start with lace-ups.

Every guy should own a nice pair of lace-ups. Sooner or later you're gonna have to either go to an interview, work in a professional environment, or go on a date somewhere nice. In the case your interview and work environment are casual, I hope you are planning to go on a date sometime in your life.

Don't be fooled by how these shoes suggest a world of "uncomfortable." Either the shoes are of poor quality material and construction (in which case you should look for another pair), or you are getting the wrong size. By now, your feet have stopped growing, and you should know your size. Shoe salespeople aren't just there to hand you boxes. Don't be embarrassed to tell those d-bags to measure your feet if you don't know your size. Different brands may run in slightly different sizes, but expect to be within half a size correct.

Small shoes obviously hurt your feet in the long run. Big shoes make you feel and look like you're a clown, walking around like you have some cramp in your leg. You're gonna walk and be in these for a long time so you better make sure you're comfortable in them. Don't sacrifice looks for comfort. A good pair of shoes will have both.

Sometimes people say they notice your shoes before actually noticing you. I guess you might be looking down at the floor if you're shy and can't look someone in the face.

Or if you're drunk and on the floor.

Lace-Ups (thanks for the pix, GQ)

The Plain Toe: Classic, sleek, no frills. Minimal details means keeping it simple and classy. Dress it up for business wear or dress it down with chinos or jeans. It's a versatile shoe that looks nice without being too formal, but it can be at the same time. Let's stay away from the square-toed ones, though. Unless you like looking like a clown, stick to rounded tips like the one above.



The Wingtip: Versatile? Yes. The stitching gives way for a more casual look, but it can be seen in the office at times. Verdict? Wingtips can be seen in both a casual and corporate setting. In a casual sense, pair them with chinos and jeans on a night out. Wingtips are popular with professionals also because they show that they mean business, but you can wear them casually to mean business as well.

The Cap-Toe: Suit up, my friend. Business casual, at least please. The cap-toe is a common workhorse in the professional environment and for good reason. Ever seen steel-toed boots? Well, this takes a number from that and makes it stylish. The addition of the simple line stitch across the top is to remind you that you're the boss.

The Moc-Toe: Dubbed so because of the stitching that imitates the line of the shoe. Moc toes are what you would say, "srs bizness." I've only seen these worn with suits if not tuxedos. They do look a little out of place when worn casually given the design of them. I'll save these for my future career path and formal occasions. The only time I wore a pair of these was when I was performing in a concert for my orchestra. Yeah, I won't be in these any time soon.

Stay tuned for more next week. Read More......

Dude, I got so drunk, I collapsed on the floor like an S&P future!

There was that one Freshman girl on my floor at University...

This one is really worth reading. How many of you can claim to have experienced this? Perhaps not the drinking-for-the-first-time thing, but the binge-drinking-for-the-first-time thing. Read More......

Overheard in Asian Ghetto

Skinny Asian girl to fat friend: What time is it?
Fat chick: Time to eat!!!
Read More......

The Aftermath: Brogger on the Scene

Love it, hate it, or indifferent it, Obama looks to be the next prez. And damn was it wild tonight. My roommate and I ventured onto the streets of Berkeley to check out the peaceful rioting. In the middle of Shattuck, there was a line of people waving down cars and whistling.

Yawn.

So we made our way up Bancroft towards Sproul, where everyone was heading towards Durant/Telegraph. It was jampacked with people chanting, people climbing the traffic lights. Oh, and of course, drinking and smoking the reefer. The police had to set up roadblocks down the roads so that no cars would even think about trying to cut through the mob.

After we got bored of this, we headed through Sproul and then up towards the Campanile, where it just so happened a band (called The Dance, apparently) decided to set up and play an impromptu concert. Lots of weed here. Met up with some freshman year floormates too.

Screw having a midterm tomorrow.

I couldn't get my camera set right, but here ya go anyway. Notice the appropriately ironic placement of the "Drug Free Zone" sign:

Read More......

Erection day 08. owait...

Yeah, it's finally time to vote. Who'd ever heard of such shenanigans? Get out there, do your part, it's your right and your duty, blah blah blah. Gogogo storm the front. Not kidding, though. Go.

I got up at a crisp 7am to beat the rush and I arrived at Heller Lounge at 7:30am. Talk about crowd mentality, there was a line spilling out the doors, but all I needed to do was go inside and get checked in at Line B (read: 2 people long). Judging from the 15 minutes it took them to verify my address and name (speaking of which, somehow I got registered as Ericq, wtf), it's gonna be a HUGE jam during the day. All over the country, I expect. But hell, good for them for volunteering. Someone's gotta do it.

5 minutes later, I'm out the door and I start listening to my iPod again, and damned if I could've predicted which song starts playing. The Crystal Method - The American Way. Of all the songs, this probably has negative play counts, but that's just how things/shuffle work. Got a good kick out of that.

Anyway, hope you're all doing your part for this erection. Read More......

her name was lola

she was a showgirl, with yellow feathers in her hair and a dress cut down to there...

halloween night, despite the rain, definitely was a fun adventure. start by leaving my apartment to head to victors, and seeing several sailor moons, schoolgirl, and other scantily clad costumes, to walk all the way to gaia to see several more girls in nice costumes.

upon arriving at victors, we headed to "the janky" which is actually the nickname for a green house next to a playground where a coworker lives. there, chaos ensued with read cups and 151, which turned into S&M by a dominatrix named candy...or was it crystal, it could've been coconut, she kept changing it. either way, i kept getting whipped because she kept saying "say my name!" but i'm like "you're supposed to tell me when i give you the cash!" it's too bad there wasn't a high enough investment to yield a high rate of return.

several of us headed to mcdonalds for some late night foodage, but we arrived 1 minute late and they had already locked the doors. saddened and dismayed, i returned to the party where we proceeded to wait for chuck, kiyoshi, and his gf. it took them 2 hours to get to the janky, where chuck immediately stormed inside and came out with some bottles. unfortunately we wanted to head back to southside so we made him chug one, and stick the other in his pants (literally).

walking through campus at 1am isn't cool, especially when a car starts coming behind you and parks off to the side. luckily a UCPD cruiser drove by and allowed us to gain significant distance from this shady silver car (i don't think it had a spoiler though). when we got to my apartment, we chilled for a little while chuck tried to get us into another party up the street, except they were being douchebags and not letting people in. denial of entry was immediately followed by a mass exodus from those inside the house, but we stopped caring and went back to my place to hang out.

at around 3:30am i got us a zipcar (scion xA) for a trip to jack in the box (see below) and boy was that a trip. try fitting 7 people in a car designed for 4, maybe 5 if you have small people. it ended up looking pretty shady because at first chuck had difficulty keeping his knees out of sight in the trunk but he finally got comfy and we headed for food. upon arrival, the line was all the way onto the street, but we were hungry.

and for future reference, "pita" is pronounced "pee-tah" Read More......

they say anyone can cook...

...but only the fearless can be great

take this example:

figure 1a) jack in the box supreme croissant


figure 1b) jack in the box supreme croissant, more appetizing view


figure 1c) death-in-a-box


now, at ~4:45am, it sure beats anything you can/feel like cooking, not to mention the workers at JITB probably don't want to be making this shit for every drunk/high/hungry person who happens to know that only JITB is open that late (24 hrs to be exact)

on the other hand, during our stomp over oregon, i decided to go defrost some chicken breast. i had a hankerin' for some spicy chicken a few days ago, so i seasoned it with Lawry's seasoning salt, some "secret spice", and sriracha hot sauce.

figure 2) food proportional to that of Steve's Korean BBQ, but $8 cheaper.


surely, my time is worth more during the week, so paying for a meal seems more practical. thus, i only cook such dericious meals over the weekend.

can you guess what's for dinner? i'll give you a hint....it comes from something that once went "moo!"

which reminds me, i'm almost out of Maruchan ramen. it used to be $1 for 6 packs at Walgreens, but it's back up to 49 cents each. this is surely hard times for our economy Read More......

A damn fine weekend

Oh rovery. Starting the day off right by rocking my 101 midterm, followed by a highly productive gym trip, excellent Halloween night (151!) with a well-timed 4am Jack-in-the-Box run in a superbly-packed zipcar, where, btw, the drive-thru speakerbox showed a corrupt hard drive error (yeah, I know, pics are it didn't happen), and a fine dark and rainy day the next day where we beat Oregon at home.

Makes goin home this week to see the USC game oh so much sweeter. Read More......

lemonade

Good friends are like the lemonade stands of life.

Don't get it? You know that when life hands you lemons thing...

In other news I'm sitting here at 5am finishing up this box of fries before sleeping. yay college! Read More......