One of the great things about living in a new-to-you country is that the holidays come as a pleasant surprise - who knew you were getting Monday off? This coming Monday, as it turns out, is Deepavali. Deepavali, also called Diwali, is a major Indian holiday, and Indians are a big presence in Singapore (including all but one of my work colleagues). It's a "festival of lights" which may have originated as a harvest festival, or may mark the anniversary of the release of a group of political prisoners 2,500 years ago, depending on whom (and what) you believe. Whatever its origins, Deepavali is now celebrated by lighting oil lamps - and now in some places, fireworks - to celebrate the triumph of good over evil in all people. And of course, being an overeducated expert on world cultures, I knew all that without resorting to Wikipedia. Yessir.
But seriously, I really find the whole thing inspiring. Maybe it's the elections and the extremely ugly rhetoric we've heard from some quarters, or maybe it's more personal than that, but I really like the idea of everybody taking a minute to consider the good and bad within and making sure the good side wins. I've had a few wins and a few losses in that area myself lately. Nobody's perfect, huh.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
The 401K(eg) Plan
From a friend back in DC:
If you had purchased $1000 of Delta Airlines stock one year ago, you would have $49 today.
If you had purchased $1000 of AIG stock one year ago, you would have $33 today.
If you had purchased $1000 of Lehman Brothers stock one year ago, you would have $0 today.
However, if you had purchased $1000 worth of beer one year ago, drunk all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for recycling, you would have received $214 today as redemptions. Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-KEG Plan.
If you had purchased $1000 of Delta Airlines stock one year ago, you would have $49 today.
If you had purchased $1000 of AIG stock one year ago, you would have $33 today.
If you had purchased $1000 of Lehman Brothers stock one year ago, you would have $0 today.
However, if you had purchased $1000 worth of beer one year ago, drunk all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for recycling, you would have received $214 today as redemptions. Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-KEG Plan.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Taking the VERY scenic route
A couple of weeks short of six months since I arrived in Singapore, and now my worldly posessions have joined me. I've managed well enough without my winter clothes, and books I've mostly already read and CDs I have saved to my iPod, but it's still nice to have everything in one place again. As it looks more like my stay here is going to be longer and more stable than I'd hoped, I guess there's poetic justice to having it all finally arrive.
But still, six months? I know it's an awfully long way, but six months?! Really, there was no choice. During the past few moves, I have intentionally kept everything with me regardless of the hoops I have to jump through to get it there, since it's always been unclear where the fates were going to send me next, and how long I would stay there. (The colossal false start that was Luxembourg is the perfect example of this, but it's not the only such example, only the most extreme one.)
But this has led to jumping through a lot of those hoops, and it was only going to get worse. When I first decided to move to France, I went to a great deal of trouble to pack everything neatly back in Denver and rented a minivan to drive it all to the post office...only to discover that I had misread the guidelines and most of my boxes had to be re-packed. I bought the appropriate boxes and did the repacking right then and there, out of the back of the van in the post office parking lot. It took well over two hours and was awfully tedious, although the woman behind the counter complimented me for my patience. ("Most men would have gone off the deep end by now." I was so relieved to be done when she said that that I managed to let it go by - barely.) While decompressing over a well-earned lunch at Red Lobster afterward, I vowed never to put myself in a position like that again.
Only I did. First of all, there were two moves within Denver before I took off for Paris, with everything I still had with me at that point. These were completed by taxi, which ought to earn me a few Palin-points for acting like an ultra-average American on some level or other. Then, when I got to France, all those boxes I'd repacked at the last minute had gotten there safe and sound...but they were delivered to the temporary MBA building at the far end of campus as the real MBA building was being renovated at the time (my colleagues will, by now, have envisioned the long walk back to Expansiel that involved...maybe some of them even saw me lugging those boxes up from the grande ecole).
Never again? Wrong. Luxembourg. That time I rented a truck, which wasn't too bad. Of course, since the whole sojurn in Luxembourg was cursed from start to finish, it's only fair that moving back to Paris couldn't be too easy either. I didn't really make it clear at the time, but the move back to Paris was on extremely short notice. (I wrote that entry immediately after the decision was made, and was too stressed out and depressed to dwell on the whole thing at the time...the fact that I was depressed about moving to Paris shows I wasn't thinking things through very clearly, I suppose!) I found out on Monday morning that I would need to take another class, and by Thursday I was back in the city of lights prepping for class and making appointments to look at rooms.
A week after that, I'd already been back with my rented Citroen to drag most of my stuff back to Paris, but not quite all. I had to come back to close out the apartment anyway, and figured I'd carry the last of my clothes and such in my suitcases. No dice. I overestimated what would fit in the suitcases. Luckily, I had a couple of boxes lying around, so I texted my new roommate for her postal address, ran to the supermarket for packing tape, and just made it to the post office with my two boxes of clothes before a rather nasty rainstorm. The storm meant I was pretty wet for the last train ride back to Paris - all too fitting considering the way things had been going at that point - but I'd conquered the moving beast once again.
Never again? Close enough. I mean, one can't very well mail 20 boxes of CDs, books and clothes from Paris to Singapore on a reasonable budget, especially without an address to send them to. So I broke down and hired professionals, after once again meticulously packing everything...only to be told they could have done that for me. Just as well, I'd rather have them packed so that I knew where everything was.
Not so fast. The moving rep told me he would have to break down all the boxes, take inventory, and re-pack them at the warehouse in London before they got on the boat for Singapore. He also told me not to send any DVDs because anything more risque then your average Disney movie wouldn't get past the censors in Singapore. (I now know he was wrong about that, but my DVDs are at least safe back in America where I sent them instead.) At least my job would end with the boxes being picked up.
I think they told me to expect the trip to take about three months. Not unreasonable, as long as that sounds, but hopelessly optimistic as it turned out. Other observations, now that it finally has arrived, include the fact that they did not really have to repack anything. Everything arrived just as I shipped it, in the same boxes with my handwriting on the sides and no evidence that they'd ever cut the tape on any of them. Which no doubt means I'd have had no trouble getting the DVDs into the country anyway, even if I did have any porn (which I don't!). At least it's here, in any case.
Amusingly, after the trip took months longer than it was supposed to, the delivery company told me to expect them "between 2 and 5" on Monday afternoon. They arrived at 2:15.
But still, six months? I know it's an awfully long way, but six months?! Really, there was no choice. During the past few moves, I have intentionally kept everything with me regardless of the hoops I have to jump through to get it there, since it's always been unclear where the fates were going to send me next, and how long I would stay there. (The colossal false start that was Luxembourg is the perfect example of this, but it's not the only such example, only the most extreme one.)
But this has led to jumping through a lot of those hoops, and it was only going to get worse. When I first decided to move to France, I went to a great deal of trouble to pack everything neatly back in Denver and rented a minivan to drive it all to the post office...only to discover that I had misread the guidelines and most of my boxes had to be re-packed. I bought the appropriate boxes and did the repacking right then and there, out of the back of the van in the post office parking lot. It took well over two hours and was awfully tedious, although the woman behind the counter complimented me for my patience. ("Most men would have gone off the deep end by now." I was so relieved to be done when she said that that I managed to let it go by - barely.) While decompressing over a well-earned lunch at Red Lobster afterward, I vowed never to put myself in a position like that again.
Only I did. First of all, there were two moves within Denver before I took off for Paris, with everything I still had with me at that point. These were completed by taxi, which ought to earn me a few Palin-points for acting like an ultra-average American on some level or other. Then, when I got to France, all those boxes I'd repacked at the last minute had gotten there safe and sound...but they were delivered to the temporary MBA building at the far end of campus as the real MBA building was being renovated at the time (my colleagues will, by now, have envisioned the long walk back to Expansiel that involved...maybe some of them even saw me lugging those boxes up from the grande ecole).
Never again? Wrong. Luxembourg. That time I rented a truck, which wasn't too bad. Of course, since the whole sojurn in Luxembourg was cursed from start to finish, it's only fair that moving back to Paris couldn't be too easy either. I didn't really make it clear at the time, but the move back to Paris was on extremely short notice. (I wrote that entry immediately after the decision was made, and was too stressed out and depressed to dwell on the whole thing at the time...the fact that I was depressed about moving to Paris shows I wasn't thinking things through very clearly, I suppose!) I found out on Monday morning that I would need to take another class, and by Thursday I was back in the city of lights prepping for class and making appointments to look at rooms.
A week after that, I'd already been back with my rented Citroen to drag most of my stuff back to Paris, but not quite all. I had to come back to close out the apartment anyway, and figured I'd carry the last of my clothes and such in my suitcases. No dice. I overestimated what would fit in the suitcases. Luckily, I had a couple of boxes lying around, so I texted my new roommate for her postal address, ran to the supermarket for packing tape, and just made it to the post office with my two boxes of clothes before a rather nasty rainstorm. The storm meant I was pretty wet for the last train ride back to Paris - all too fitting considering the way things had been going at that point - but I'd conquered the moving beast once again.
Never again? Close enough. I mean, one can't very well mail 20 boxes of CDs, books and clothes from Paris to Singapore on a reasonable budget, especially without an address to send them to. So I broke down and hired professionals, after once again meticulously packing everything...only to be told they could have done that for me. Just as well, I'd rather have them packed so that I knew where everything was.
Not so fast. The moving rep told me he would have to break down all the boxes, take inventory, and re-pack them at the warehouse in London before they got on the boat for Singapore. He also told me not to send any DVDs because anything more risque then your average Disney movie wouldn't get past the censors in Singapore. (I now know he was wrong about that, but my DVDs are at least safe back in America where I sent them instead.) At least my job would end with the boxes being picked up.
I think they told me to expect the trip to take about three months. Not unreasonable, as long as that sounds, but hopelessly optimistic as it turned out. Other observations, now that it finally has arrived, include the fact that they did not really have to repack anything. Everything arrived just as I shipped it, in the same boxes with my handwriting on the sides and no evidence that they'd ever cut the tape on any of them. Which no doubt means I'd have had no trouble getting the DVDs into the country anyway, even if I did have any porn (which I don't!). At least it's here, in any case.
Amusingly, after the trip took months longer than it was supposed to, the delivery company told me to expect them "between 2 and 5" on Monday afternoon. They arrived at 2:15.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Why I love the progressive blogosphere
There's lots I'd love to say about Gov. Palin and the debate, but I'm too busy at work right now to go into it in much detail. But I did want to offer this up right away.
From Jonathan Chait at the usually-mediocre New Republic:
I don't know how much the right still goes around predicting that the progressive blogosphere will be the death knell of the Democratic party, by way of pulling it too far to the left or creating an echo chamber or whatever...my guess is it's still pretty common. But Palin's misrepresentation of Reagan is exactly the sort of thing they used to get away with all the time (in fact, Reagan more or less built his career on such intellectual dishonesty). Her fans will still believe what they want to believe, but those of us who are interested in the truth can now set the record straight next time we hear people reciting the soundbite in line at the supermarket.
Incidentally, I don't think Palin was lying. I think, like most Reagan-worshippers, she doesn't know much of anything about the truth of his record. It's all too common on the right - when they want to drum up support for a particular point of view, they just say "that's the way Reagan saw it" and there's no further need for discussion. The issue of whether or not he really would have supported the issue in question doesn't matter at all (and, often as not, isn't really answerable anyway since his record is so convoluted and inconsistent, and he spent so much time lying about his own past). In any case, this article has the truth about that quote and what he really was getting at.
From Jonathan Chait at the usually-mediocre New Republic:
Palin's final quote was from Ronald Reagan, warning that without vigilance, "you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children's children, what it once was like in America when men were free."
In fact, Reagan was not warning about a general lack of vigilance about freedom, he was warning what would happen if Medicare was enacted.
I don't know how much the right still goes around predicting that the progressive blogosphere will be the death knell of the Democratic party, by way of pulling it too far to the left or creating an echo chamber or whatever...my guess is it's still pretty common. But Palin's misrepresentation of Reagan is exactly the sort of thing they used to get away with all the time (in fact, Reagan more or less built his career on such intellectual dishonesty). Her fans will still believe what they want to believe, but those of us who are interested in the truth can now set the record straight next time we hear people reciting the soundbite in line at the supermarket.
Incidentally, I don't think Palin was lying. I think, like most Reagan-worshippers, she doesn't know much of anything about the truth of his record. It's all too common on the right - when they want to drum up support for a particular point of view, they just say "that's the way Reagan saw it" and there's no further need for discussion. The issue of whether or not he really would have supported the issue in question doesn't matter at all (and, often as not, isn't really answerable anyway since his record is so convoluted and inconsistent, and he spent so much time lying about his own past). In any case, this article has the truth about that quote and what he really was getting at.
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