stlplace

Category: Fun

  • Home Inns experience: the good, the bad

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    Here is a happy Home Inns customer (from Google Finance). On the other hand, here is a not-so-happy Home Inns customer, Kunwei, who (I believe) has stayed in the US and Singapore for an extended period time before returning to China.

    So how do we make all of these? Not too much. The thing I want to say is everyone has his/her own criteria. Also things normally acceptable to one person/group may not be acceptable to another person/group, e.g., men normally have greater tolerance over female on cleaness, smoke etc. I think majority of Home Inns customers are happy with the hotels. They got what they paid for: a clean room, and a comfortable bed.

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  • NBA Finals: what’s on your foot ?

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    It’s NBA Finals again, if you ever care. I am not a big basket ball fan, but I was fascinated by the business of NBA in recent years, especially when I saw the popularity of the basketball and NBA in China. If my memory is correct, I heard many stars including Kobe, Kevin Gannett and Shaq, visited China recently. The main reason for their trip: to promote shoes for Nike, Addidas, Li Ning (which Kobe, Kevin and Shaq are repective spokeperson).

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  • Coffee Anyone ?

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    (Update June 7) As you would have expected, the stock dropped again (about 2.66%) after I bought it yesterday. Call it Major’s rule: stock usually drops after Major buys it. 

    (Original) I got a little more Starbucks (SBUX) this morning. After I bought it I realized the stock got cheaper today probablly because Panera (PNRA) issued a warning on its Q2. PNRA was down as much as 13%, partially because of the rising price of grains.

  • Front Bumper Problem

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    (Update June 6) The bumper is on the way now. It’s from: USAUTOPARTS NETWORK, 17150 S. MARGAY AVE, CARSON CA90746, as shown from agsystems. Not UPS or Fedex.  

    (Original June 5) No I have not involved in car accident or anything. I merely demaged the front bumper because of my own carelessness: in the parking lot. Last time when I did the demage to the left side, I fixed it by putting a washer underneath and fastened it. But this time I demaged the right side. I tried the same trick but it did not work. So I went to the bodyshop. The quote is $825 (minimum) for replacement and paint (include labor).

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  • CROX Doubled

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    On Dec 15, 2006 I bought 46 shares of CROX at $42.40. I bought and sold (traded) more CROX afterwards, but I kept those 46 shares all the time. This morning it reached as high as $85.10.

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  • Stock Reading at Mall w/e 060207

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    Went to Chesterfield mall yesterday. Something new (at least new to me):

    1) Journeys is expanding there. The regular Journeys got a new place (first floor, at the intersection), the old Journeys store is “Journeys Kids”. Journeys is a subsidiary of Genesco (GCO). Foot Locker is trying to take over Genesco but was rejected for now. We know in business “No” does not necessarily means “No”, just like sometimes when girls say “No”, it’s not really “No”.

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  • Name Change is Fashion

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    I thought Chinese colleges like to change their names, such as my undergraduate alma mater, Huazhong Institute of Technology (HIT), changes its name to Huazhong University in Science and Technology (HUST) during 1987-1988, it changed its Chinese name again in 1990s (From 理工Li Gong to 科技Ke Ji). 

    It seems some US schools like name changes too. My graduate alma mater, University of Missouri at Rolla, is going to change its name to Missouri University in Science and Technology, so it will be a MUST for short. The main change is replace Rolla with S&T. I can understand the rationale behind this change, but I still prefer UMR to MUST. Although I have been in St. Louis for 7 years now, I miss my days in Rolla (the Wal-mart, Hardeer, Tokyo’s, and friends there).

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  • I missed J. Crew and MasterCard

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    But I don’t regret it. I noticed J. Crew (JCG) IPO last summer, and started pay attention to its stock. I have been their customer since my friend’s recommendation in early 2006, bought some shirts and pants at discount, been happy with them. But, I did not buy their stock at discount last year (it has been at 25 for a while). Why I didn’t pull the trigger? There were two reasons:

    1) I found the ladies’ products made up majority of the sales at J. Crew. I don’t know about ladies’ trend.

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  • Old Bill Gates and Steve Jobs Video

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    Here is a link at YouTube. I vaguely remember Microsoft developed the “Excel” program first on Mac, but I did not know Bill Gates personally worked on “Basic language” for Mac and made 30,000 from Steve.