fish obsession.

i am becoming obsessed with fish. not for eating, goldfish.

it started innocently enough - you go to a pet store, buy a bowl, some rocks, some food, and a couple of cute fish to keep. naturally those guys die off, and you go back to the pet store asking what you can do to keep the fish healthy. i remember one conversation i had with the pet store owner, a youngish, hippie girl, complete with dreads and hemp skirt. the conversation went something like:

"so...i had these goldfish, but i wasn't too successful with them. i got them here and they didn't last very long."

"what did you keep them in?"

"a bowl...this one..."

"a BOWL?! you can't keep fish in a BOWL."

"but, you sold them to me..."

"if you keep fish in a bowl you're KILLING them. they can't BREATHE. you're SUFFOCATING THEM."

"uhm, ok." off to petco i go, where the sales associates are stupid and mind their own business. nor do they make you feel like an icthocydial maniac. why the hell did you sell me the fish and the bowl in the first place, lady?!

at some point this innocent interest became a mission. i can keep a stupid goldfish alive for longer than 6 months.

anyway, di and i got a tank. a small, 6 gallon one. one that now i know is also a "fish-killer" because fish need huge tanks to get by. about 10 gallons per fish. good lord. hell, it'd be nice if i could have a 2000 sq ft. apartment, but it's not gonna happen, so i'm going to deal with it. likewise my fish will have to deal as well.

so we weren't too successful with our first few fish. turns out the water in san francisco is killer to fish, because of all the chlorine and chloramine they add to the water to make it palatable. so the irony now, is our fish drink better water than we do, since i go out and buy spring water in bulk to change their tank water with.

i've recently learned that getting a tank with a filter is not enough to keep happy fish. nor is spring water. you need to get a "nitrogen cycle" going by fostering the growth of good bacteria, that breaks down the ammonia in the water (produced by fish poop) and turns it into nitrogen. however, too much nitrogen isn't that good either, so you need to convert that into nitrates by adding epsom salt, and la la lalalalala i've completely lost track of how to care for these suckers.

dude, i might as well get a hamster. at least it's a mammal, and i KNOW what the hell keeps them alive. warmth. milk. exercise. none of these frickin' ammonia ph nitrates, all the chemistry i've forgotten years ago.

either way, i still do it, spend tons of time and money caring for these fish. why?

when i see happy fish, i'm happy. sigh.

random thoughts.

- being unemployed raises some new, interesting ways to approach your days. for example, every day this week has been for a specific goal. monday was fish day - go find a fish store in chinatown (more on this later), come home, clean the tank, and get it running healthy again. oh, before i go on, a moment for prosecco...who hung in there valiantly.

...

anyway, tuesday was car day - take the car in for service, long overdue, and get it washed and waxed. i didn't get to the wash and wax part, because it's tough to service your car when it's just by yourself. after dropping the car off at sf honda (located at the corner of 12th and market), i walked to 2nd and market. about 2 miles. and then to pick up the car, i walked about another 15 minutes before i managed to catch a cab.

"metro" moment - yesterday before dropping the car off, i realized that i had the "rent" soundtrack and norah jones cds sitting in my car, the radio was tuned to techno music, and i was wearing a mickey mouse shirt.

today is tax day. at some point i will peel myself away from the computer to go to h&r block...which i'm not looking forward to. IRS, please spare my savings account...i can spend the money a lot better than you can! bastards.

reading like a madman.

so since i've been unemployed, i've been reading a lot. here's a list of what i've read so far:
- gig
- smart mobs
- the alchemist
- the paradox of choice
- blink
- wicked
- the life of pi (in progress)
- reading lolita in tehran (next)
- native speaker (after next)

plowing through these books, sitting in front of my computer, playing nba street vol. 3, and watching back to back to back episodes of 24...oh, my eyes.

*oops*

it's been quite some time since i blogged. i apologize for leaving any of my loyal readers hanging with the answer to the question i posed in the last blog entry. i'm sure all 2 of you were hanging by the seat of your pants.

anyway, to answer the question, it's called the endowment effect. once you own something, even if it's not the exact thing that you want, you *own* it now, and having to give it up gives you some kind of pain, simply because it's already yours. so if i were to tell you first that i was going to give you a pen, and give you the opportunity to swap it for a mug, the chances of you swapping are now much higher because you haven't owned the pen yet - it is, in your mind, still an abstraction. so there is no pain involved in giving it up. another way to think of it is you haven't incurred the opportunity cost of taking one thing and sacrificing it for another.

so how does this apply to fantasy sports? the endowment effect causes some fantasy players, imo, to overvalue their guys, because they've had the guy for so long. well, at least it makes for some interesting trade proposals. as an old fantasy nerd (and i guess this involves a bit of psychology too), i'll target players that were recently acquired by the other manager. since he/she hasn't owned the player as long, the endowment effect is less, and therefore the manager is more willing to trade.

i'm sure there are other more practical applications to this theory. as such, i'm too tired to think of them.

prospect theory and fantasy sports.

i'm reading "the paradox of choice" and just came across this very interesting paragraph on prospect theory:

..suppose you are one of a large group of participants in a study and for your time and trouble, you are given either a coffee mug or a nice pen. the two gifts are of roughly equal value and randomly distributed - half of the people in the room get one, while the other half get the other. you and your fellow participants are then given the opportunity to trade. considering the random distribution, you would think that about half the people in the group would be gotten the object they preffered and that the other half would be happy to swap. but in fact, there are very few trades. this phenomenon is called...

before i go on, anyone have any ideas why? post a comment if you do.

attention span deficiency reversal

i'm putting myself through reversal of attention span deficiency training (RASDT). over the last few years of working at a .com, i've gotten used to having 6 browser windows open, each of them representing a thought, or a task. every email that needs my attention also has its own window, and there are other things, such as powerpoint, word, or visio files. and of course there's the leisure windows, for fantasy sports and the like. the end result is that i can't focus on any one thing anymore. while i was working, i'm sure 45% of my day was just spent flipping through the different windows, pausing to scan or think about each one for a few moments, then flipping to the next window. each time i flipped i would think, "i'll focus on this later."

the end result? i can't focus on anything. even as i write this blog, the temptation to flip to a different window and see if i've gotten any new emails, or if there's a new trade in my fantasy leagues, is overwhelming. so, thus the need for RASDT. step one: get through a magazine and retain some useful knowledge. today i tried businessweek's special edition on social security:

"To give America's struggling seniors a lifeline out of poverty, Franklin D. Roosevelt 70 years ago established the Social Security system. The program was never intended to be particularly generous - and even after increases over the decades, the average check totals just $14,000 a year. Yet Social Security remains a mainstay for America's 36 million seniors; two out of three count on it for half their income."

Did you fall asleep? Scan ahead to the next paragraph, this one? Click on "next blog?" If so, you may be in need of RASDT. When i have the program steps worked out, i'll open franchises dedicated to fixing this problem, a la jenny craig. "brian wey's attention span deficiency reversal training program." i'm gonna need some serious branding work before i can sell that in an infomercial.

Speaking of Social Security, it makes it much more fun to think about it in West Wing terms. If Martin Sheen read this article aloud to me, i might actually pay attention.

unemployment and keeping busy.

..:: day 13 ::..

it's been nearly 2 weeks of unemployment, although it certainly hasn't felt that long. i've been keeping busy with travel, the past weekend was spent in lake tahoe learning how to cross country ski. it's actually really fun - you get the feel of speed without the feel of rushing toward impending death, which is what i get when i do anything downhill save biking. it's all about control. on a snowboard or skis, i have none. on a bike, with brakes, i do. also a bike doesn't weigh much, so if it falls on you or you fall on it, you won't do much damage either way. it's not like a 500lb ATV, which paul will attest to.

anyway, it doesn't feel like it's been all that long. i'm not terribly bored yet - it's been like summer or winter vacation where there are some things to do but not a whole lot, and most of the time is spent doing stuff i've been meaning to do but never really got around to it. little things. for example, i wanted to check out a parking garage across the street to see if it would be cheaper. under normal, employed circumstances, i would never find the time or a compelling reason to do so. but now it's something i do have time for, after morning coffee. the garage closes at 7pm btw, not worth the $100 savings.

another example, i'd been meaning to call and change my auto insurance policy because i have a ridiculously low deductible that costs me a fortune, but i never bothered to change it before. now that there's no income, it was one of the first things i did.

i've had the time to watch all of the episodes of the west wing on dvd over again. what a brilliant show. it actually warrants a second viewing, with the fast dialogue and sometimes complex issues. i'm glad i invested in the dvds...unlike alias, which will probably never find its way back into my dvd player. unless i'm hospitalized for an extended period of time, knock on wood.

links.

some photos from december and january:

taiwan:
http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=okmezhb.birgpdyj&x=1&y=f6jjpz

vegas:
http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=okmezhb.33cu2ku3&x=1&y=uwaz08

stress.

people in today's world are under way more stress than they used to be, even say, 10 years ago. off the top of my head, let me think of a few things that we worry about these days that we didn't used to have to worry about:

..:: don't get fat, because you need to look like a magazine cover. wear branded clothes, because if you don't look cool enough you'll never get into the hip clubs. get into the hip clubs, because anyone who doesn't is a loser. practice good hygiene - you need to floss, exfoliate, brush, apply, rinse, repeat, scrub, gargle, trim, moisturize, all that, every day. eat right - count carbs, count calories, count empty calories, count pounds. eat less meat, eat less cholesterol, eat whatever the AMA, the AHA, the FDA, and dr. phil tells you to. stay on top of current events and entertainment, otherwise you'll never have a conversation at a party again. have a good job or career, otherwise you'll never have a conversation at a party again. take exotic vacations, otherwise you'll never have a conversation at a party again. accept that you'll never being able to buy a home. accept that you'll never be able to save enough for retirement. accept that you'll never be able to save enough for your kid's college education. accept that you'll never be able to save enough to get that new BMW that comes out next year. stay on top of technology, because if you have a cell phone the size of your palm people will laugh at you. check your voicemail immediately. check your email every day. spam. respond immediately to whoever wants to reach you at any time of the day. find and retain a great spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend/significant other. exercise, but do it properly. don't get hurt without insurance. don't drive a car without insurance. don't rent, buy, lease, sell without insurance. don't sign your name without consulting a lawyer. don't worry about your credit score, because your FICO score is what matters. don't bother buying anything unless your FICO score is high. don't run up too much debt, otherwise your FICO score will drop. don't miss any payments, otherwise your FICO score will drop. don't give out your social security number, and make sure you shred any documents with your name on it. don't get phished. don't get a virus. don't get spyware. don't smoke. don't breathe second hand smoke. don't breathe second hand smoke on the person next to you, and don't curse, fart, burp, look them directy in the eye, shake their hand, give them a hug, just be prepared to make some witty comment about the weather.

deep breath.

ok i feel better now. i think i'll go have a beer.

ps. thinking about hip clubs, has anyone noticed that the only people in the world that are PAID to exercise their prejudice are the fucking bouncers at clubs? i want a job where i can routinely dismiss people that are fat, skinny, black, white, yellow, ghetto, ugly, noisy, trashy, or whatever strikes my fancy that particular day. "today is the 3rd friday of the month...no lesbians today."

by the way, if you're a little asian man, every day is the 3rd friday of any month.

you have just been ralamed.

sure signs you're getting old.

here's a list, in no particular order:

..:: your back hurts for no particular reason. for example, the other night i lay down in bed and i could feel my back cramping up. c'mon!!! if i can't lie down what the heck am i supposed to do about my back?

..:: you don't like drinking ice water anymore. room temp or warm water for me please. likewise, eating cold fruit hurts your teeth.

..:: you need to put lotion on after showering. i recall being a kid and having snake skin, not giving a shit, and being happy about it.

..:: every pair of shoes has a specific purpose. you have your running shoes. you have your basketball shoes. you have the shoes that go with these jeans but not the other pair, you have the formal dress shoes, you have the work dress shoes, you have the walking shoes, and you have the pimp shoes that you can't wear because they hurt your feet like a mofo.

..:: when you travel you carry enough battery charge cable to lower yourself out the window down to the ground floor of your hotel.

..:: if something isn't in the exact place where you think it is, you're screwed, because you'll never remember where you last put it. oh and by the way it annoys the heck out of you.

...more as i think of it.

unemployment and vegas.

..:: day 6 ::..

oops i've skipped from day 2 to day 6. reason being, i've been in vegas the last 3 days. oh the irony, to go to vegas immediately after quitting my job. being unemployed, however, did provide a convenient excuse not to do anything. i don't really gamble, but now i can say, "well i really shouldn't play because i have no income," as opposed to "i really don't want to play because i'm scared of losing all my money."

i went to vegas for good reason tho, my roommate's bachelor party. that must've been the tamest bachelor party in history. no drugs except for about 2 rounds of drinks, no strippers, no rudeness, and heck, even no swearing. my roommate doesn't swear - he says "freak" instead of the f-word. fuck me. tho i noticed if he actually said "fuck" instead of "freak" he'd cuss more than anyone i know.

i've never been to a club with 10 guys and no girls before. it's really quite sad, when you have a circle of guys on the dance floor, sorta dancing, most of them just doing a guy head bob or sort of gyrating to the music. none of the guys had any game - actually most of them had steady girlfriends and weren't looking to cause any trouble. paul actually came out the winner for the weekend, getting the phone number of a pretty cute girl who's also from the bay area. i excused myself constantly to go to the bar or text message diana.

vegas was interesting. the best part was going on atv tours - tho it was kind of funny, about half the group will never get on an atv again after that. some of the guys got hurt, had to bail off their machines, or in paul's case, he was trying to get up a hill and somehow slid off the hill and into a ravine, where carey had to climb down and pull him out. i was way up the trail taking pics of the nevada skyline, oblivious to the minor crisis going on below. what a good friend am i. =) i'll post the picture i took while paul was pinned under an atv soon.

i have never been as exhausted as i was the last day in vegas. jetlagged, staying up late at night, and having a 285 lb. bed-mate that snores like a mu'fugger really didn't help (don't ask), and i was on my last legs of energy by the end. i think on the flight back i kept pitching forward in my seat, so the guy next to me kept pushing my head back, and finally pushed my seat back for me so i'd stop pitching forward. i really hope i didn't drool on myself, because i don't remember anything about the flight.

all in all it was a good trip to vegas. both the bachelors, carey and josh, are good guys that will do well, i think.

i have been summoned for jury duty on february 14. bloody marvelous. happy valentine's day to you too.

unemployment.

..:: day two ::..

day one of being unemployed passed without being too boring. it was day one after all. the important thing i'm finding, is to still have goals for the day. for example, yesterday's goal was to get a haircut. not a spectacular goal, but nonetheless one that required some planning in advance. (the haircut turned out to be too short by the way.)

on the way home i stopped at border's to look at some books. at my mother's recommendation, i bought a book called "the alchemist" by paulo coelho. it's a fable about a young man's journey to realize his life dream. actually it reads kind of like a children's story, but still good for adults. i'm about halfway through and will attempt to post some profound thoughts on the book when i'm done. the other book i bought was "the paradox of choice," about how too much choice can be harmful - "how the culture of abundance robs us of satisfaction." i'm looking forward to reading this one.

goal of day 2 - get through some of the easier items on my ever-growing to-do list, the financial survival to-dos, such as reduce my car insurance. there's no reason why i need a $250 deductible when i'm not using my car for anything more than driving to the golf course. come to think of it maybe i should just trade in my car for a golf kart. i'd be classified a low-emissions vehicle and get unfettered use of the carpool lanes. i'd also get killed, but oh well.

other goals for the day, go to the gym, and read some more of these books. i intend to be border's best friend for the time that i am unemployed. oh, come to think of it, i should do some research on potential jobs.

pausing for a thought here: i want to make sure this time i am doing research on jobs, not looking for jobs. maybe what i need to do is make a checklist that i'll take into phone interviews to ask the interviewer about. for example, for my last job disaster, i didn't really check to see how my future group interacted with engineering. if i had done some more prying, i might've found out that my future group had no respect or bargaining power with the engineers and therefore had a miserable time getting anything done. big, big red flag.

Thoughts on Blogging

The business that is sprouting up around blogging is fascinating to me. I'm really interested in how people will be consuming information in the future. It's quite a phenomenon, in the online space, people are moving away from pictures and flash-bang to just text. With blogging, people are moving away from established content sources and bloggers are developing their own brand and their own following. It's gotten to the point where ads can be sold on blogs depending on their content.

Who would've known that online journals would become big business? Not for the people supplying the infrastructure, but for the people generating the content. (Ahem someone want to pay me for ad space here...?)

What's next? Where does all this go? This is a huge question I think, because I feel a change is coming...soon. It's kind of amazing, really. Remember when the internet was relatively new? Everyone and their mother had their own website. That kind of fizzled after awhile, and I'm not sure why. Too much upkeep? Got too annoying? Why did geocities eventually fall apart? What will become of blogging? Things I need to think about.

Alrighty

So here we go again. I'm gonna try to keep this blog more regular, and really I'm typing that to myself as a reminder or a reaffirmation. Doggone it, I'm smart enough...

So I've started career move #3 doing marketing analysis at Xoom.com. So far so good - it's been interesting, trying to get up to speed on all the different tools and thinking like a marketer as opposed to a product guy. But it's refreshing, I find already that I have a different point of view from the other marketers because of my experience with product.

I'm really amazed at the amount of data that a small company can cough up. It's all the tools and data that I wish I had access to at Yahoo! Finance, but never had. You'd think that a large, multinational website with hundreds of millions of users would invest more in developing tools, but no. I guess Yahoo! has more traffic they know what to do with, and it really doesn't matter. At any rate, this should be a good learning experience for me.

Here we go again...

Ok here we go again...I'm gonna try this blogging thing one more time.