Author: stlplace

Categories
Stocks

Poor man’s MBA courses

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Below was probably written in year 2008

Background
the substance, the guts, not just the marketing stuff (a good friend of mine attended a famous MBA program in the US, he told me the school asked them to market themselves ever since they joined the program). Of course, one thing you will miss is the classmates you meet in MBA program, as we know business is not just about product and service, it’s also about relationships between people.

A typical MBA program, cost $60,000 and two years full time (2 x whatever salary you earn before quit your job to join MBA).

Charlie Munger: learn a lot things by himself.

MIT Open courses (it includes many courses from other schools too)

Accounting
I suggest people don’t skimp on this. Pay a few hundred bucks to get “Financial Accounting” and “Managerial Accounting” from your local community colleges. Accounting is the language of business, it’s difficult to start learn by oneself.

Finance
CFA program:

Categories
advice and tips

My trips

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Below was written in 2008

Half the fun is “planning the trips” and “getting there”

In 2006, I decided to visit Australia by myself.

Research in Borders bookstore, maps, hotels
air ticket via United

Expedia check out hotels

Found this wattle house via. book, verify via trip advisor
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g255060-d286116-Reviews-Wattle_House-Sydney_New_South_Wales.html (not sure if this links works in 2025)

In 2007, my wife and I spend some time in Sanya Marriot for our honeymoon, booked via. Ctrip, took photos at the beach

Travel in US
Summer 2000: Yellowstone trip (mount Rushmore, crazy horse, beartooth highway…)

holiday 2000: CA bus tour (Yosamite, San Fran, San Diego Sea world, Univeral Studio, Disney)

2003: Florida

2004: Maine, Acadia National park

2008 Summer: Yellowstone and Grand Teton, Jackson

Categories
Fun math-and-edu

Learn Cantonese

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I started learning Cantonese 粤语 from Duolingo about 40 days ago: learn via the Duolingo app or website is relatively easier than using tape recorder for TOEFL back in year 1995/1996. This is my 1st attempt to learn Cantonese. Note 粤语 was very popular when I was in college (1989 to 1993). I didn’t get chance to learn then, probably because I didn’t think too much of it at that time too.

Here is some background I put on YT (in mandarin).

Why I decided to learn Cantonese now?

Two reasons:

First, I noticed the beauty of Cantonese and its resemblance to ancient Chinese 古汉语或文言文。Those beauty is available in other Chinese Dialects 方言 too. But my expectation is most dialects won’t survive in the foreseeable future, as we saw the China population continue moving into urban areas, and the population or standardization of mandarin cross the whole country, and to some extent cross the Chinese communities all over the world. In fact, in the old days in Shanghai I can hear many people talk in Shanghainese (or Shanghai dialect), now it’s quite rare. Even my brother who is in the bay area of the USA and I occasionally talks, we use mandarin, instead of the Ningbo dialect.

Second, I think I may move to HK and live there for an extended period of time after my kids going off to college. I liked HK a lot during our short visit last summer. (Update 09-02-2025) Re: moving or living in HK or SZ, my older daughter reminded me the other day, that I need to watch our younger daughter (aka her younger sister) a bit even if/when she goes off to college. This is a fair comment – I don’t intend to leave her completely when she is 18 (or 22 for that matter), and I will make sure either I will be present, or a trusted friend is around if she needs anything. I recall even in recent years, my parents who is almost 80, would remind me this or that – in their eyes, I am always a kid 🙂 Same rule applies here.

Some new knowledge or confirmed information

Cantonese could have different writing compared to mandarin Chinese, e.g., 古巨基 in 粤语 VS 古巨基 in 国语 (this one is actually simplified Chinese) vs. 台湾正体 (traditional Chinese). You will noticed even if you know mandarin either simplified Chinese or traditional Chinese, a lot of times it’s still quite hard to understand the Cantonese.

Also, I write about a related blog post Cantonese song and lyrics writer.

(Update 09-02-2025) I came across this free resource online (saw it via RedNote, or Xiaohongshu) by Chinese University in Hong Kong.

Categories
Stocks

You shall seek the truth

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(Below was written on 01-08-2008)

and the truth will make you free. That’s the word adopted from the sign at the main building of UT-Austin.

In investing, I felt my understanding of a stock is sometimes like a blind man’s view of elephant. The main reason, is not because I am not insider. I know many great investors (hint: the old guy at Omaha) have developed their own ways to find and value good stocks, which I do NOT have. So what will I do? I will seek the truth through:

1) Academic study: through CFA program
2) Participate in the market, learn from practice and own mistakes
3) Learn from others’ success and mistakes

=========================================
http://www.mitbbs.com/article/Stock/27936951_4.html (this link no longer exists because the website is gone a few years ago)


很多人喜欢等picks.更多人喜欢千辛万苦的找2 baggers, 3 baggers, 10 baggers.

其实这都不是最重要的. 资金管理和风险控制比什么都重要.

环顾一下, 能够经过很多个牛市熊市生存下来的大牛, 而且越来越富的, 选股不一定第
一. 但是资金管理和交易风险控制肯定是第一.

选股选得再好, 不懂资金管理和风险控制,到最后还是得衰败. 因为没有人能够一直都
对..就算是70%都对也没用. 碰巧那30%是all in 加margin的话, 不被wipe out就很幸
运了.

一举翻好几倍的, 每个牛市都不会少. 但是每一次牛市结束, 生存下来, 继续靠炒股增
加财富的是少之又少.

Categories
Fun Fun Video Saint Louis

昨天圣马20/21英里处的供水站

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油管短视频：YouTube Shorts

Categories
401k and Personal Finance

Say bye to Robinhood Gold, for now

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Today I decided to pull the plug on Robonhood Gold. I joined the Gold last year to take advantage of the 3% match of Roth IRA, which is $240 for $8,000 worth of IRA. But in last few years, I am increasingly tired of their gimmicky, including but not limited to the expansion to Cryptos (remember they did the countdown around the new year, and give away Dogecoin and bitcoin), and now I started to appreciate what Charlie Munger said about them (a casino).

Full disclosure: I participated in one of the countdown and received 18.67 units of Dogecoin, worth $3.40 today, down $2.55 from the day I received it (I think it was 12/31/2024). Personally I am with Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger re: cryptos, and I think they are poos.

I will probably pull out my money when there is no fees associated with the withdrawal. Also note I am a very early customer of Robinhood back in year 2015 when they were brand new, and I do appreciate their zero transaction fee revolution to the brokerage industry. But it seems now they are the bad guys: which is not uncommon – somewhat reminds me of this blog post, and this video: I recall Mearsheimer commented the youth will be corrupted when they rose to the power.

Tariff impact in the USA

(The Guardian) From peppercorns to plastic forks: US businesses that rely on Chinese products reel from Trump tariffs

Categories
Politics

America’s drug problem

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Or drug pandemic. Now I am a strong believer of “ultimately it’s an America’s own problem”. Not Mexico’s problem, not China’s problem, not Colombia’s problem, neither Afghanistan’s problem either.

George Yeo on China’s Century of Humiliation : I first saw this one from RedNote.

I understand no US president will ever admit this fact. But fact is fact. The demand of drugs in the USA created all the supply in Mexico, drug cartel and so on. If you lived in the US for a while, you will understand the drug problem is wide spread, because the drugs are widely available. In addition to the fentanyl which is in the news a lot in recent years. The opioid crisis in the USA is a epidemic in last 26 years. And personally I think this is more than a medical problem or medicine problem, it’s rather a society problem. Think about this: if someone tries to smuggle those kinds of drugs in Singapore or in China, he or she will likely be prosecuted and possibly punished quite harshly. In the USA, not only people get away from those kinds of crazy stuff, the new laws are passed to make the lighter drugs (I don’t know a better word other than lighter), such as marijuana. I just could not grasp why law makers would go that direction. I do understand some views or rationale of the libertarians.

If you never been to the USA, I think the Netflix series Ozark is a good intro of US drug problems.

PS: 华人会被投入集中营吗？ (2025-04-22 07:34:09) I found some of the comments to be interesting too, one example is shown below.

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见道2025-04-23 03:31:16回复悄悄话做为少数族裔的华人尤其是第一代移民，不要幻想什么融入，你永远是非我族类的人除非混血3代以上再谈融入，这是生物本性决定的，不要怪别人。所以，所有为少数族裔争取利益（即使是表面文章）的政党，团体或人物，华裔移民应当支持或鼓励，至少不能支持如MAGA之类的政党，团体或人物，因为其本质是反移民及白人至上的。当危机或战争来临时，以国家需要（政治的或经济的）牺牲少数族裔太可能发生了！

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I recall back in Nov 2016, when DT was elected (over HRC), I did have this fear. Of course, now the fear is even more intense considering the recent development.

Blame others is always easier

But it doesn’t fix the problem. I wrote below on 01-31-2025

This is also a problem of “blame others instead of self-examine or self-reflect”. In a way it’s similar to the victim mentality. Both are not helpful. Here is another example of victim mentality: which was mostly made to get voters or get voter turnout in political campaign. It (anti-Christian bias in the USA) doesn’t have many teeth. Quote here: Critics see the task force initiative as unnecessary and pandering to Trump’s base. But some Christian supporters said it is overdue, claiming the Biden administration had discriminated against them through actions and inactions.

I don’t know how long this web page will exist – both are US government web pages: but it seems the new admin is purging a lot of web pages in the government websites.

(CDC) Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States, 2003–2023

Products – Data Briefs – Number 522 – December 2024

(NIH) Drug Overdose Deaths: Facts and Figures

Drug Overdose Deaths: Facts and Figures | National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

Btw, the American drug problem is a symptom of the society’s problems: it’s definitely not only on Mexico’s Cartel or the supply of raw material from China. If the Americans don’t take Fentanyl, the drug trade from Mexico will be cut in half. But it’s much easier to blame on others, and the new president started to apply additional tariffs because of this.

Categories
Life Music

你曾是少年

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第一次听这首歌，是因为我最近开始听Ayen阿昕的歌。S.H.E【你曾是少年】吉他彈唱 Acoustic guitar cover 畢業季｜Ayen何璟昕: btw, 我同意Ayen阿昕唱完歌后说的那一段鼓励毕业生的话。很多年之前，我应该还是大学低年级，有一次系里让我们全年级去一个大的阶梯教室开会，有一个日本留学生（研究生）给我们讲话：他用中文写了两个字，初衷 (Original Intention)。他说的也是类似的意思：就是提醒我们不要忘记出发前，我们最初的想法。

这里有official video – S.H.E [ 你曾是少年 Wings of my words ] Official Music Video (｢少年班｣電影主題曲).

KKBox 有歌词。以下摘抄几句：

或許再過上幾年 你也有張虛偽的臉
難道我們 是為了這樣 才來到這世上
這問題來不及想
每一天一年 總是匆匆忙忙

你我來自湖北四川廣西寧夏河南山東貴州雲南的小鎮鄉村
曾經發誓 要做了不起的人
卻在北京上海廣州深圳某天夜半忽然醒來 站在寂寞的陽臺
只想從這無邊的寂寞中逃出來

======

At the same time, somewhat related topic, please read this one as you see fit – 人到中老年少折腾

PS:

I came across this video 20岁和30岁的我：跨越10年的合唱《给十年后的我》 (Douyin, Bilibii) and think it has similar meaning.

Categories
iPhone app Music

Playlist

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Music playlist is quite common nowadays. For me personally I was a bit late to the party. I did use playlist on my iPhone Apple Music app, and on my YT: both desktop and iPhone. But recently since I started to participate the group exercise class at the J, I realized playlist and music in general is a big deal. I believe the Yoga teachers at the J has a playlist too.

An example or case study

清新女声何璟昕：薄荷糖般的味道甜入我心 (QQ Music QQ音乐 ) Note: you will likely need to log in to see the content. For me I use my WeChat login (SSO) for many China-based website/apps. You can read more about Ayen 何璟昕 here

I created a few Playlists for Ayen 何璟昕 on YT and YT Music – this one specially for original songs – Ayen阿昕原创+新歌. Note I have the premium subscription for YT and it allows me to listen to the YT Music in the background, in addition to some other features such as skipping ads in a video.

And I just noticed she has some playlists on YT too: this one is for 翻唱 cover – Ayen cover 何璟昕的翻唱

She did quite a bit of 翻唱 (cover, or acoustic cover) in last few years. I like them all. Some of songs are new to me because I left mainland China in summer/fall 1997. Below a “mixes” of 翻唱 cover songs I listened on 04-08-2025 early morning – “Mixes are playlists YouTube makes for you” per YT. I think the link above may expire after certain time. Btw, I think “mixes” or the YT generated list is a good way to explore what’s out there, because YT will recommend new songs. So in other words, this kind of playlist has some discovery functions. Update 04-20-2025 Btw, I realized this is a dynamic list. Update 04-28-2025: I started to appreciate the computers (and the AI) may have an edge or advantage to create playlist, based on the listening history. The recommendation algorithm may be similar to the social media posts suggestion.

【Mr. 森林】Acoustic guitar cover | Ayen 何璟昕 (Oct 16, 2020, this is YT upload date, same below) Hint: this one has about one minute of funny behind the scenes 花絮/彩蛋 videos in the end – made me realize that it’s not easy to learn a new song and so on. Obviously, it depends on the song itself too. Also, I think many people would appreciate some of the light hearted carefree nature in the behind the scenes 花絮/彩蛋 too.

梅艷芳 – 似是故人來 Acoustic guitar cover 吉他弹唱 粵語翻唱+旗袍 | Ayen 何璟昕

千千闕歌 | 吉他彈唱 cover 陳慧嫻/張國榮 經典粵語歌 | Ayen 何璟昕 (Apr 17, 2020)

Eason 陳奕迅 – Shall we talk 女生版 Acoustic cover (Jan 21, 2022) I didn’t pay attention to Eason 陳奕迅 to be honest, and only till very recently I read his Wikipedia page.

陳奕迅 – 苦瓜 粵語吉他彈唱女生版（完整版）| Ayen 何璟昕

鄭秀文 | 終身美麗 Cover 吉他彈唱 何璟昕 (Feb 15, 2019)

一人有一個夢想 – 黎瑞恩 (Mar 30, 2021)

陳奕迅 Eason – 最佳損友 Acoustic cover (Aug 28, 2021)

謝安琪【喜帖街】Kay Tse 鋼琴+吉他彈唱 這是一首關於懷舊的粵語歌 | cover by Ayen 何璟昕 (Mar 22, 2020; make sure watch till the end 🙂

衛蘭歌曲串燒！低半度/驗傷/就算世界無童話/街燈晚餐 新歌老歌 吉他彈唱cover | Ayen 何璟昕 (Mar 1, 2020) This is a new experiment of singing 4 songs together (one after another) – 《低半度》《驗傷》《就算世界無童話》《街燈晚餐》

王菲/李健 – 傳奇 Acoustic cover｜吉他彈唱｜Ayen何璟昕 (Sept 30, 2022)

盛夏的果實 – 莫文蔚 Acoustic cover｜吉他彈唱｜Ayen何璟昕 (Aug 12, 2022)

你的眼神 国粤双语版 cover蔡琴/卫兰/林志美 Acoustic cover｜吉他弹唱｜Ayen何璟昕 (Sept 9, 2020)

周傑倫《回到過去》女生版宿舍版吉他彈唱 | Ayen 何璟昕 (Sept 25, 2020)

一场游戏一场梦 – 王杰 Cover 吉他弹唱 – 电影《风中有朵雨做的云》插曲 何璟昕 (Apr 7, 2019)

粵語民謠「四季歌」女生版 Acoustic cover 生活需要一些安靜🍃｜粵語歌吉他彈唱｜Ayen何璟昕 (Jul 22, 2024) My comment: one of my favorites, I like this simple folk song 🙂

阿郎戀曲（許冠傑）Cover 吉他彈唱 何璟昕 (Jul 16, 2017)

一生何求 陈百强 (Feb 26, 2021)

Other playlists I plan to create

Some of my older readers may know I have an iPod Nano 7th generation. Right now I just sync all my iTunes songs that I like from Mac to the iPod. Thinking creating playlist next (from Mac, then sync to the iPod Nano).

Usage of playlist

I think there are at least two use cases for me. One is the background music during work. Another one is background music for sleep. I used to listen to the radio (more specifically NPR or over the night it’s more likely BBC World News), but listening to news has its downside, because sometimes the news can be depressing, and other times news would keep me awake. I prefer some calming music over news. A secondary factor is using iPod nano as radio drains battery more quickly.

More on YT Playlist

I found playlist is integrated with YouTube Studio (I create YT video there too). I have 203 playlists: I think I need to clean up some. Also the link above is only available to me (because I am the owner of my YT Studio account).

PS:

Google search “can people make money from curating music playlist”

Search Labs | AI Overview

Yes, people can make money curating music playlists. Platforms like Playlist Push and others offer curators payment for reviewing music and maintaining active playlists. Pay varies, with some curators earning $1.50 to $15 per song reviewed, depending on their playlist’s listenership.

Btw, I just noticed two of my YT Music playlists have more than 1,000 views.

Ayen阿昕翻唱

and

Ayen阿昕原创+新歌

Categories
Career

Monday is not my favorite day

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Originally written on Feb 15, 2005 (this a bit more than 20 years ago 🙂

Monday is not my favorite day. When I first started to working (on Oct. 2000), I was still taking 2 evening classes in my university. And one class (Computer Graphics using Java) was hold on Monday evening. At that time I was fairly new to programming, and I usually spent the whole weekend on the homework and then went to work on Monday.

Monday morning was our team (group) meeting, my boss is a good guy, but he is a bit abusive, and he always tried to pick on someone or some projects on his Monday staff meeting. When I first started, I happened to be on a project he paid a lot attention because it was a new product and had tight release schedule everything. So that’s another reason I hated Monday. I remember one morning he said another developer (Mr. M. in his 50s) and I wrote some shxx code and Mr. M. argued that we were not writing shxx code.

These days things are better because I no longer take Monday evening classes (when I took classes in community college later on, I tried to avoid Monday evening classes). So I did have my regular weekend. And I no longer have the Monday morning group meeting. I left the group, my former boss actually left the company (I missed him actually because under he bad temper he has a good heart and cares his people. Much better than some guys who smiles at you but stabs you in the back when chances arise (my Computer Graphics professor, he gave me the only “C” I have in my 3 years’ course work at Rolla). But I still don’t like Monday in particular because my brain does not work well that day, and now I have one on one with my current boss. He is a decent guy, but he also asks tough questions (he knows the stuff).

Continue reading “Monday is not my favorite day”