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By Pete, January 6, 2009 11:54 am

I’m in the middle of writing about my trip to Phoenix. But seeing how it’ll be awhile before I finish that, I figured I’ll share one of the first fail moments of my trip with you guys.

So we didn’t get into Phoenix until late friday night/early saturday morning. After we finally got off our plane, we took the shuttle to the car rental center at PHX (which really looked like a terminal of its own). After about 5 minutes of paperwork, we hopped into our rental car, an orange Dodge Caliber and headed to the hotel. On the way out of the rental center, while I was trying to adjust the mirrors, I couldn’t find the adjustment to the side mirrors for the life of me. So I asked the garage attendant when I heading out. This is how our conversation went.

Me: (Trying not to sound like an idiot) Excuse me, are you familiar with the Dodge Caliber?? Do you know how to adjust the side mirrors??
Him: (Looked at me with a puzzled look) You just use your fingers.
M: (With a look of shock) Oh. Wow. Like… manually?!?
H: Ummm… Yeah.
M: (Turned and looked at Enoch, trying not to laugh) Wow. I didn’t know they still make cars like this.

Seeing how it would be pointless to compare the Caliber with my TL, I decided to make a list of features that were missing in the 2008 Dodge Caliber that I rented compared to the 1994 Honda Accord that I had.

1. Power mirrors
2. Power door locks
3. Power windows
4. Rear window defogger
5. Cruise control
6. ABS
7. A head rest that doesn’t have a hole in the middle of it
8. An engine that doesn’t sound like a lawnmower

With that said, however, the Caliber (at least the base model) is very fuel efficient (supposedly 26mpg!!). I’ve been in Phoenix for almost 4 days now and I haven’t had to fill up once – and that’s with a 45 minute trip one way out to Ak-Chin and back!!!

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By Pete, March 13, 2008 10:45 am

Wow.

“THE WOMAN WHO ROCKED NY” from The Drudge Report, a front and center thumbnail and a link from The New York Times. Is this the Scarlet Letter of the 21st century??

I’ve been listening to this Eliot Spitzer thing from the moment this story hit the news wire (thanks to CNBC). Despite the massive public interest in the case of Spitzer, I really feel that this media attention on this girl was really unnecessary (read: cruel and unusual punishment).

I, unlike Charlie Gasparino, don’t think that prostitution should be legalized (I’m actually surprised that no YouTube video clips has been uploaded given the countless times he expressed his advocacy for the legalization of prostitution on air on CNBC on Monday). But I can not even fathom what this 22 year old girl is going through.

As I, out of curiosity, find myself helplessly reading all of these things about her I can’t help but wonder if Jesus would say the same thing to her as he did to the woman at the well. I really love Vox’s whole idea of “living the church”, it is really challenging. I wonder in this context what I would say to her. Somewhere inside all of this media madness, I think we forget that Ms. Dupre is somebody’s friend, somebody’s daughter, and at the very least, a person. What would you say to Ashley Dupre?

*I should also note that all of this sympathy will go out the window the moment I hear that she is shopping a book/movie deal.

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By Pete, March 2, 2008 8:52 am

What did you want to be when you were young?? I’m sure almost everyone never dreamt of whatever they’ve become today. I know that being a trader (much less working in the financial sector) was never on my horizon until I was at least a junior in college. When I was younger, I wanted to be a railroad engineer. I’m sure had my interest in trains (I LOVED playing with trains when I was a child) not get over shadowed by my pointless dream of becoming a professional athlete after I moved to the US, I might very well be a railroad engineer today.

It’s funny how things work out. I’ve been thinking a lot (more out of random boredom than anything else) if I weren’t a trader (and also got a huge do-over in life) what I would want to be/do. So here’re a few things that’ve crossed my mind.

A musician – I remember feeling so happy when I’ve finally be liberated from the chains and shackles of the obligatory piano/violin lessons as a teenager. Now looking back, I wish I had stuck around with it. Especially, after watching all these videos on YouTube that makes me ridiculous jealous of people with musical talents.

A chef – Maybe if I had worked for a restaurant in the kitchen when I was in high school and somehow had enough courage to decide to not go to college but instead to culinary school, I’d actually have a shot at this. I have actually thought about running like a bistro type thing from my house (that I don’t yet have). It’ll be personal and the menu can be tweaked to accommodate diners personally. The only kicker is that I’d have to have the hell of a kitchen/dining room at this house of mine. My dream kitchen? Three words: Walk-in fridge.

A butcher – Ok, I’m not talking about being a butcher at today’s slaughter house and meat packing plants. I’m talking about the old school butchers that gets either a whole carcass or a big part of a carcass that they can choose to cut/package to their client’s own liking. Even though this is not a very glamourous job, I think I’d really enjoy it.

A NBA referee – I still have a shot at this, maybe. =) I actually want to get back into reffing for fun soon. We’ll see how that goes.

A writer – Not sure about freelance writing. But perhaps for a magazine or a blog?? I don’t think I’ll actually be good at writing, just as you can see that my thoughts are pretty unorganized (mostly because my thoughts jump here and there and everywhere). But I just like the thought that I could be technically “at work” at a coffee shop with my laptop. And then once I get tired of writing about something, I’d go start on my own book.

What I love about the lists that we compile as children is that (most of the time) we dream of being something not merely because of it’s monetary rewards, but because of a genuine passion. Either our hearts betrayed us or we’ve settled to the reality of things somewhere along the way of childhood and all that is left now are just traces of our childhood dreams.

I find it pretty sad that the dreams that we’ve abandoned and left behind are so far in everyone’s rear view mirror now. I wonder how many people are doing what they really love.

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By Pete, December 12, 2007 11:41 pm

I love Mark Cuban. And that’s not just because I’m a huge Dallas Mavericks fan, I’d like to think that I’m just a Mark Cuban fan in general (minus the whole “Dancing with the Stars” thing, I’m not a big fan of that show). If you don’t know anything about Mark, you should read this latest blog entry “Warren Buffett , Taxes and the Presidency”. Here’re a few highlights:

“Warren Buffett has been all over the business press recently suggesting that the very rich, those on the Forbes 400 list, are taxed advantageously to the rest of the workforce. That it makes no sense that his tax bill as a percentage of income is lower than that of his secretary or housekeeper.

He is absolutely right.

It makes absolutely no sense that he, or I should pay a smaller percentage of our income than those who go to work 8 hours a day and have to save as much as they can to afford a vacation every year and stress out about whether or not they can pay their rent, mortgage or college for their kids.”

“Right now I hate paying taxes because I feel like I’m giving money to a known crack addict. However much you give, its not enough. They will buy their crack, get a short term high and soon be back asking for more.”

“If you are going to raise my taxes, I want somethings in return.

Raise my taxes by 1 pct, by every 1 pct you cut federal spending. Your choice of raising taxes on luxury items, or on annual income of 10mm dollars per year or more. Cutting spending means the government needs to raise less which allows you to raise the income threshold on which you charge this “Forbes 400 surcharge”

And I want 1 more thing. I want transparency. The way the government publishes information on money it spends ,receives and owes is a joke. No one in this country has any real knowledge of how much our country really owes. There are so many hidden and unpublished liabilities that if our country were a public company, someone would go to jail.”

I really love the crack addict comment. There was actually an article linked on The Drudge Report reporting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has spent $16k on flowers since taking office. Reading that headline made me a little bit sick. I agree with Mark that it’s time for the government to be held to some kind of accountability. Politicians should be doing what they do because they have a talent and want to represent their constituents, not because they can get all sorts of “hook ups” from lobbyists and other advocacy groups. Of course everyone want to promise lower taxes. But the only one that can realistically deliver is the one who will “stop the bleeding” first.

I really think that this is how America will go down. What started out as a young and energetic country with so many dreams and ideas. Now America is more like a fading giant who can’t find enough food to feed himself. Americans love the idea of “more”. Take a look at what we live, eat, drink, drive, buy, and so on… It’s always about more. It is simply our culture.

This is exactly how the current credit crisis started too. People want to live beyond their means and get a “cheap” mortgage on a big-ass house. Mortgage companies sees an opportunity to make a ton of money and ignored the risks. Now that the picture of the aftermath is starting to unfold. You have idiots like Jim Cramer asking the Fed to lower the interest rate more to bailout Wall Street so they can make more money.

All I’m saying is that if you’re at a party and you want a bigger piece of the birthday cake, someone’s going to end up with a smaller piece. You better have a pretty good reason as to why you deserve a bigger piece and why you’re screwing the guy next to you.

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By Pete, May 28, 2007 1:02 pm

I’ve been asked a few times to upload some of my pictures on facebook.com, but I’ve never done it. Just in case you’re wondering why, read the Terms of Use.

Specifically, (this is under the “User Content Posted on the Site” section, emphasis mine)

When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.

What pisses me off even more is:

You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content.

So basically I’m giving away the rights to my work when I upload to facebook. No thanks, facebook.com.

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By Pete, October 4, 2006 12:19 pm

Ever since I’ve officially determined that my car is on its last leg, I’ve been reading A LOT of personal finance blogs. I got started with Get Rich Slowly, then found AllFinancialMatters and StopBuyingCrap. Overall, I would say that the last month has been one of the most enriching periods of my life as far as personal education is concerned. I would strongly recommend anyone to add their RSS feeds into your RSS reader.

One of the major decisions I had to deal with last month was the potential purchase/lease of a new car. In the end, I decided against dipping into my savings and emergency fund to fund this because I didn’t have a lot of time to work the financials out (I wanted to take advantage of the End-Of-September sales before the rollout of the 2007 models), so in the end I’m still hoping that my Accord will last for a little bit longer.

I don’t know if it’s just me being a “FOB” or what, but why is it that at no point in the American education system were we taught how to manage money? I mean I’ve been in classes where we were shown the power of compounding interest, but I mean why do I feel like I was left out in the dark on things like taxes and credit score/reports? With the way our economy/credit system is setup, it seems like it is a fundamental thing for people to understand how these things work before they get themselves into it. Take credit card companies for example, I got my first pre-approved credit card application when I was still in high school. I had a job and everything, so I’ve always paid everything off. In my freshmen year of college, I didn’t pay off my balance but made a decent payment over my minimum and I was shocked how much interest I was charged. It’s like paying $5.00 for a gallon of milk when it costs everyone else $3.50 (ok maybe that was a little exaggerated). The way businesses function as far as it coming to ethics on the younger generation, the best word I can use to describe it is predatory. Most people coming out of college now (myself included) is in debt in one way or another whether that be student loans or credit card loans or car loans. And when you finally get a decent paying job, you’re bombarded with ads that is trying to tell you that you “deserve” something nice, so you put all your debt repayment on the back burner while money pours out of your pocket on things that rarely retain their value. It shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why our bankruptcy filings have gone through the roof in the last few years. A good NYT article titled “Fortune’s Fool: Why the Rich Go Broke” summed it up pretty well,

According to a study by the St. Louis Federal Reserve last fall, most bankruptcy filers are blue-collar, lower-middle-class high school graduates who are already overloaded with debt when they get sideswiped by unforeseen miseries like a job loss or overwhelming medical expenses. Rarely do the rich have to ponder the consequences of layoffs or insurmountable hospital bills, yet the social ledger is chock-full of examples of landed gentry who still dissipate their wealth and run the risk of ignominy.

The question I’ve been pondering is what has changed?? In the 60s-70s, a family could afford “the american dream” of owning a home and putting food on the table merely on the income on 1 person alone. I don’t think I can think of too many stay home moms nowadays. What happened?? Has our standard of living gone up that much?!? The scariest thing out of all of this is the fact that there are people taking out these huge mortgages in California that lasts 40-60 years. With the housing bubble on the brink of a burst, these people are going to find themselves in a really tough situation when they’re “upside down” on their mortgage. I can’t imagine what the bankruptcy rate would be like then.

So here’s some advice, I don’t know where I got it but this is something that I put at heart: “Youth is the trustee of prosperiety”. You can always take on another job and increase your income or force yourself to eat ramen and decrease your spending. But the one thing you cannot get back is time. Don’t underestimate the time-value of money.

Update: For future references, THIS is the ultimate post with all the helpful links when you’re about to make a big financial decision.

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By Pete, April 2, 2006 4:06 pm

One of my all-time favorite blog entries has been one that I made nearly two years ago on friendships. Today, I will attempt to add to that thought after an article I read in Men’s Health about a guy who realizes that being a friend sometimes means ending a friendship. Before I expound on the topic, I’m going to share some of the best lines from the article:

Most friendships drag on and on, in search of some critical turning point that never arrives, so we spend our lives nourishing anemic relationships that do little to nourish us in return.

It’s probably wiser to end a friendship before it reaches the E.R. My friendship with John began to die the day I realized he could no longer help me grow. What was left was not friendship, but a trial of endurance, drawing sustenance less from loyalty than from obligation. It finally expired when I saw I couldn’t help him, either. As our friendship moved past its expiration date, even my sense of loyalty became perverted. On the night of the fight, I congratulated myself for being such a faithful pal. But, in retrospect, it looks more like arrogance — the arrogance of thinking only I could help John get over his Hollywood defeats, the arrogance of believing he would never find another friend like me. It’s helpful to keep in mind that the world is brimming with interesting people, and for any friend you may have, you are just as replaceable as he is. More than that, your replacement will probably be more relevant and useful to him. That’s, frankly, the great thing about friendships. They’re not meant to last forever; you should abandon some of them.

As with all the friends I’ve left behind, I’ll always carry John with me. Together, these lost friends constitute a family of their own, held together, like most families, by the unbreakable bonds of shared history and a trace of guilt that never subsides. That guilt is unavoidable. It’s best to accept it and move on. In time, new friendships emerge, to see you through the next leg of your journey.

Foreigners have always viewed the American culture as having disposable friendships, and for the most part I agree. While I know I’ve had my fair amount of dead/nonexistent friendships from the past, I also know that I’ve fought to keep a fair amount alive too. When I sit and think, I mean really think, about which of my friends had clearly influenced my life and caused me to grow, I can come up with a handful. But I think as our lives progress, it will be inevitable that people will find themselves at different stages of life. In the past, I think friendships that began to drift apart would often, almost conveniently, end because of the increased physical distance between two people. But now in the 21st century, we have so many technology that help us focus on staying connected and having different means to help us feel closer to one another, it’s hard to finally realize when a friendship is clearly dead or in the process of dying.

For the most part, being disposable or not, I agree with the article. If you and your friend have nothing more to offer each other, it’s time to move on and get on with the next phase of your life.

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By Pete, March 12, 2006 7:35 am

So if there’s any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy my being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of god, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has high exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:1-11

I had a really good small group over this passage last week. Near the end of the completion of the study, I had a hard time thinking about how this passage would challenge me this week. As of right now, I’m just praying for today to end, because I don’t think I can make it through. And right now, it’s only 7:42am.

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By Pete, February 11, 2006 7:35 pm

Dick Bavetta is my hero. At 66, this guy has reffed a record 2,135 consecutive games over his 33 years referee career.

Most sports fan love to scrutinize refs when they make a call against their team (just look at this year’s Super Bowl, but that’s another topic and another whole can of worms). But having a little bit of reffing experience, it’s unbelievable that Dick has performed consistently over his 33 year career at such a high level. Although surrounded by a few controversies over several calls in his career, I love watching a Bavetta-reffed game. And the few times that they mic him up and you get to hear his conversations with players and coaches: Splendidly delightful.

I doubt I’ll ever ref at a level anywhere near the NBA, but I wish I could do something as difficult and unbelievable as Dick did. The way he has done it with humbleness, honesty, integrity, and perseverance is something very extraordinary. Here are a few articles covering Dick’s streak this week:

ESPN.com
ABC.com Person of the Week
USA Today
MSNBC

Dick at work.

I wonder if that’s how tall I’d look if I’m reffing in the NBA

This is for those of you that made fun of me whenever I called a block. If Dick Bavetta “thrusts”, I’m gonna “thrust” too.

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By Pete, January 2, 2006 8:29 pm

I first found Mary Carlomagno’s “Give It Up: My Year of Learning to Live Better with Less” from this Time Magazine article. I stopped by Barnes and Noble on the way home from church and read a little bit. I returned the next day and finished the book.

This idea of living with less was not foreign to me. During my two mission trips to Argentina, I’ve seen people who lived with a lot less than we (Americans) have and seem to be more happy. So I was initally intrigued to see what this book is about.

The author basically gives up one thing each month and writes about her experience. Ms. Carlomagno’s experiences were mostly insightful, sometimes hilarious. Many of her remarks invoked a lot of thoughts in the way in which I lived my life. She gave up a wide variety of things cold turkey each for a month. Her object of obersations include: alcohol, shopping, elevators, newspapers, cell phones, dining out, television, taxis, coffee, cursing, chocolate, and multitasking.

After reading the entire book, it’s so much easier to see how addictive the American culture is and how simplifying our lives would make it so much easier to focus in on the important things in our lives.

This book is a fun and easy read. I’d definitely recommend it if you got a few hours to kill at the bookstore.