Category: Fun

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Fun

Looking back at year 2007

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rear view mirror

The following was my the new year resolution for year 2007. I am putting my comments in italic.

Personal
Spend more quality time with family and friends; cut Internet and TV time.
Did the first part, I did spend more time with my parents, brother’s family, and my wife (girl-friend). Whether quality or not is up to them to judge 🙂

Second part, I really need to cut more aggressively on TV and Internet. I need to do more reading this year.

Drive safely. Walk safely. Drive and walk safely.
I did ok. I drove more local vs. highway, because I felt it’s more relaxing to drive local. I need to exercise more.

Financial
Pay off the Home Equity Line of Credit (currently 8.5% interest rate).
Not done. As the rate dropping, I found it’s a good idea to borrow and invest if I can get better return than the borrowing rate. I think my debt is at very much controlled level.

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Fun

Merry Christmas

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snow man pic

Also, I will be visiting families and probablly not updating this blog for a week or so.

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Fun Stocks

Mission impossible: beat the index

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For the mutual fund, besides being the leader in its category each year, one key performance measure is to beat the bench market index. For instance, if a fund is invested in emerging markets, one key bench mark is MSCI emerging market index (EFM, an ETF tracks this index). For reference, the index is up 33.44% from Dec 21 2006 to Dec 20 2007.

But, beating the index is very hard. Consider Bill Miller, the legendary fund manager of Legg Mason Value Trust, and he is going to underperform the market second year in a row after beating S&P continously for 15 years. Here is a link to the fund details. From the portfolio, Bill hit a home run with Amazon, but he also had dogs like Sprint, Yahoo and to a lesser extent, eBay. The following is Performance of Monthly and Average Annual Total Returns (as of 11/30/07, source: Legg Mason site).

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Fun IPO

NetSuite IPO update

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It priced at $26, according to AP news.

I did NOT bid on NetSuite IPO eventually. Two things: it raised price range from initial 13-16 to 16-19; and I noticed NetSuite is not profitable so far. On the other hand, when its bigger rival, the on-demand software provider SalesForce (CRM) did IPO in 2004, it was about to turn profitable.

Don’t know the exact reason why the recent weak Mr. market valued it so high. I remember more than 3 years ago CRM was priced in mid teens range during IPO. I suspect the recent strong show of VMWare is one reason. Like the Baidu situation in 2005, it did IPO one year after the successful IPO of Google, people (who missed GOOG) bid up BIDU from the IPO price of $27, to openning price of $70. The night before IPO I was planning to buy it at $35, and get out at $42. My plan did not get executed because I was way too conservative 🙂

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Fun

Free gift certificates for restaurants

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Since the economy is so bad, I am going to give away some gift certificates for restaurants.com. Just do my part to boost the US economy 🙂

Seriously, I am going to give away up to Four $25 gift certificates (valid in the US only), to the loyal supporters and friendly commentators of this wonderful stlplace. Note “this blog looks nice” etc. does not count. Tell me what you really think: you will likely to receive the certificate that way. Also note I do not decide this solely on the number of comments (you left). Or if you would like to give some practical advice regarding this blog, I will appreciate it very much too. You can find my email address at the right side bar under author.

This runs from now until Christmas Dec. 25. All the friends are encouraged to participate, but not family members. Note this is mostly for fun and my token of appreciation, as you can buy a $25 certificate for under $5 from eBay. Also some restrictions from restaurants apply.

For participating restautants in your area, click here.

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Fun Life

New house

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The other day, I heard some interesting words on the TV:

If you want to be happy for a day, buy a lottery ticket; if you want to be happy for a week, buy a new car; if you want to be happy for a year, (don’t remember exactly) buy a new house; if you want to be happy for the life, find your soul mate.

While I do not agree everything been said here, I do think house is a very important part of people’s lives. Recently the slowdown of US housing market, and subsequently the sub-prime loan crisis has burned many home buyers and investors. At the same time, I have seen my family member and good friend moving into brand new houses. It may not the perfect or best time in terms of the housing market, but I think the happiness of “owning the home” is not over rated. This is further validated by my mom’s happy voice when she told me the news of “home buying”.

Town house
(an open house I visited a while ago)

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Fun

Thanksgiving gift

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Copied from DanBin’s blog.

2007年感恩节礼物——人生八宝

人生八宝：
1、结交两个好友：运动场,图书馆。
2、配备两个医生：运动,乐观。
3、练好两项本领：做人,做事。
4、多吃两样东西：吃苦,吃亏。
5、构建两个支柱：人文知识,科学素养。
6、追求两个一致：兴趣和事业一致,爱情和婚姻一致。
7、记住两个秘诀：健康秘诀在早上，成功秘诀在晚上。
8、争取两个极致：把潜力发挥到极致，把生命延续到极致。
生命如歌 感恩无言 为你祝福！

这是我的友人发给我的2007年感恩节礼物
与博友分享，也祝福你们！

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Fun Stocks

Peace of mind

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My wife joked with me that I ONLY got talktive and excited when talking about the stocks. I know that is largely true, and that was the case with yesterday evening’s gathering with my old friends. The good thing is unlike my wife, my friends are also interested in stocks.

For me, it is always interesting to learn some of the success stories and mistakes from others. But I still believe I learned most from my own mistakes: mistakes I made in the past, and continue to make now. Of course it would be better if we could learn from other mistakes, because the mistakes in stock investing or trading could be costly 🙁

If I could give my friends one piece of advice on stocks, that’s not going to be a stock pick, a good book, or where the market will go (will Shanghai composites test 4,500 before going up again?).

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Fun Stocks

BF shopping round one: cordless phone and quickcam

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I got this GE 5.8 GHz cordless phone and Logitech QuickCam, at Office Depot (near Clayton and Big Bend). The phone costs $4.99 after mail-in rebate, and two QuickCams cost $9.99 after MIR, plus tax. It appears to me OfficeDepot has some deals that BestBuy or Circuit City don’t offer. Another nice thing is OD is less crowded.

GE cordless phone pic

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Fun

Stayed in China for too long?

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Signs that I spoke Chinese too much lately 🙂

This morning I went to St. Louis bread co. to get bagel and coffee. The cashier/servant asked “how can I help you?”. And I said:

那个(na ge means let me see), (realized I was speaking Chinese) Asiago Cheese bagel bread sliced, and a small coffee, for here.

This is just like when I was in Shanghai, I said lots of “excuse me”, when I walked too close to somebody else.