Nice guys finish last

I would really wanna know who came up with this phrase? Let me guess, some asshole(s) who got ahead in life by back stabbing. But let's see if these "wise guys" really finish first. What does finishing first mean anyway? Money? Power? Combo? Do these really make them happy?

The rich and famous are considered the epitome of happiness, but we really don't understand how miserable they really are until you read their biography. They may seem happy because they have all the comforting elements at their disposal, but underneath, there is a different story going on. Yes they spend a lot of money and they all look happy and beautiful, but don't you think most of the time they behave like that so they cover their biggest insecurity and issue called lack of happiness?
Sadly, this phenomenon is not limited to the rich and famous; any person who treats others unfairly would be included in the unhappy bunch. The way I see it, the manner in which you treat people, sets up your environment and the way you want to be treated by them. With power and money, you may artificially "earn their respect and obedience," but in reality, people don't care about you. You usually see right through this harsh reality, and understand you are not really wanted and loved; result: lack of happiness.

The moral of the story is, when someone is not nice to you, or treats you unfairly (boss, your congress person etc.), he/she will be punished sooner or later, and not by an invisible hand (e.g. God), but by themsleves. They are responsible for their own misery. Just try to be a nice person, and you will be happy, and you will "finish first."

I am not saying this cause I think I am a nice guy and as the result I won't finish last. I guess I wanna be a nice guy since I don't think it is worth being an asshole and artificially get ahead in life, but right under seemingly happy surface, stay so unhappy. Who cares about being rich and powerful; happiness is the point of life, and it sure doesn't come in the form of money and power. However, our human nature drives us very strongly towards money and power and we consider them as THE source of happiness.

Hollywood Movies

Is it just me, or Hollywood movies really suck? Have been sucking actually for sometime now. How many factors are contributing? Let's count: Not a whole lot of talent, in the story writing, acting, directing and everything; running out of stories to tell, people are getting stupider so they need to be fed crap so they go to the theatres, any intelligent story won't sell. I'm not even gonna start how great movies used to be blah blah blah.

Movie studios have been doing terrible as the cost of movie making is going up and movies don't sell as much. A step up for actors and producers used to be from TV to movies, but in the past several years the flow has reversed. Big names like Donald Sutherland, Gina Davis, Charlie Sheen, Jerry Bruckheimer etc. have all flocked to TV for more money and recognition. While we are on the subject Jerry Bruckheimer is a genius. This guy is really exploiting TV and with such shows as CSI (with all its franchises) is making shit load of money.
Anyway, TV was and is king. However, just wait, with the growth of DVR (TiVo-like recorders) and the ability of skipping commercial, the TV idustry will go under a big reform as well. This is in addition to entry of major telcos (Verizon and SBC) into the TV delivery arena and competing with Comcast and Cox's of the world driving the TV subscription revenue down.

So what is next for the movie industry? Well I really hope the movie industry reinvents itself and stops paying these no talent ass clown actors and actresses less money and pay more attention to quality as opposed to who should be in it. For the love of God, does Kirsten Dunst deserve millions of dollars she gets paid for stupid movies she is in? Don't wanna sound like a snobish jerk, but Europeans are making some great movies. Just try A Very Long Engagement. And with so many things happening in our world, you can really watch and learn from amazing documentaries that are available even on Netflix. Give it a try, you won't regret it; and PBS is always offering great documentaries too and in HD!

Stock Market et al

It was a nice weekend (at least on the West Coast) and we are all ready for Monday and to see what will happen to the stock market. Google rocked the market with their results which I don't see what the big deal is anyway.

When you start with no profit, it is fairly easy to multiply your income and revenue, so I don't get all the hype. The stock price rocketed 12% to all time high with nearly $100 billion dollar market cap. $100 billion dollar market cap! A tiny company with only 3000 employees is worth $100 billion dollars. Let me give you some points of reference: Chevron-Texaco is $119 billion with 56,000 employees worldwide, all the refinaries, oil rigs etc. Cisco is $106 Billion!, McDonald's has only $40 billion market cap and our beloved Yahoo stands at nearly $50 billion.
OK, don't get me wrong, I think Google is the best thing that has happened to the Internet in the past 3-4 years and it really moved the industry forward, all I am saying is, please don't screw it with hype.

Speaking of hype, God bless hype and irrational exuberance. The beauty of the whole thing is for the past two weeks, the market was taking a nose dive and all the analysts were trashing the tech sector. But now, everything is changed, now you hear all the brilliant analysts changing their mind and telling people a lot of other companies are undervalued. Well let me tell you one thing about these investment banking analysts: they get paid when the stock they are covering trades, so the more hype and trading, the more money they make. Do you remember the year 1999?

The same brilliant analysts who were hyping all the Internet stocks causing a major bubble, all of the sudden when the bubble burst, they strated trashing the whole sector. Let's get this straight, the Internet was never dead, the industry was just too early; 30% Internet penetration and mostly dial-up during the Internet boom era. Right now we stand at 80%+ of which 40%+ is broadband. The market has been ready for sometime and thanx to Google all the idiots of the industry, excuse me the investors and analysts just realized how important the Internet is AGAIN!

I have a tiny suggestion for all these old fat cats who don't understand technology but money is oozing out of their asses: START USING TECHNOLOGY. Then you don't fuck most of us who don't have much money and depend on our 410K and savings to live and retire. Just let the market grow at a reasonable rate and let us live our lives.

Jon Stewart

I never idolize anyone, but this guy deservs a tribute. I hope people realize how much crap Jon Stewart discovers and shows to people on TV everyday, and I might add his humor is second to none. His program on Comedy Central called The Daily Show is getting better and better every day, and his sidekicks who think they can make it on their own as the result breaking away, are missing out working with one of the best comedians ever.

Yes he makes fun of everything and everyone, but he is making people see the truth! We people have extremely short attention span, we need people like him to show things to us this way. And what is wrong with laughing anyway.
And by the way I have heard him here and there (CNN and his own show), he is no dummy. I dare any intellectual to challenge him; he can pull it off.
Please don't try to lable him democrat so you discredit him; with this administration and all its screw ups, it is hard not to make fun of them on a regular basis. He gives a hard time to the Democratic party for its wussyness (if that's a word ;)) In addition, you know what, I admire people who make fun of themselves, and he does a good job of it.

Martha and DeLay

Are Martha and DeLay the guiltiest individuals in the US? That is why they get so much coverage? Or we are just so bored that we need to be entertained with some small crime these people have committed.


Didn't Martha go to prison over some insider trading that helped her save $60k? $60K! for her $60k is not even pocket change. How stupid she was and how stupid the government was to go after her and spend so much money to convict her. It turned out Imclone did great and the stock jumped a great deal later on.
And DeLay for $190K for campaign money? C'mon. You could have made much more money off of those oil tycoons in TX. Message to democrats: if you guys came up with this trick, you could have done much better than this with all the mess this administration is making.

Why doesn't the government go after executives of all these companies that thoughout the years have abused their power to make more money? Yea yea, the government has gone after Enron, MCI, Adelphia etc. but I think they could not not go after them since these companies screwed up soooo bad. But there are so many more companies that their executives didn't get in trouble at all. They caused a lot of suffering for their employees and investors alike, but they are sitting in their comfy homes, enjoying millions of dollars they made. I can't help not to think of the word corporate governance as just a buzzword companies and the government like to use all the time.

The government won't do a whole lot cuz what it does would be considered interference with businesses, in addition many industries don't have strong Union to pressure the companies and we sure know what human nature can do when he/she is given executive power.
How much of the economic downturn we have been experiencing in the past several years has to do with management abuse of their power and misjudgment? I'd think A LOT. Yes, our economy suffered at the macro level, but it also greatly suffered at the micro level, and no one was responsible for it more than the incapable and corrupt managers who just cared about themselves.

Rice defends policy on Iraq

Today secretary Rice gave testimony on Iraq to the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee and she really defended US policy regarding Iraq and Afghanestan.
You know what, I really admire her. I think no one could support so much screw up and stand and look so strong. She says, "I have said our strategy is to clear, hold and build. The enemy's strategy is to infect, terrorize and pull down." I think the point is Ms. Rice, how you are going about it is screwed up! Not what. You and the administration didn't have a plan going into Iraq (fine, you made one mistake), but let's do it right, NOW. Signing the constitution means nothing if there is so much corruption in Iraq that you cannot enforce it. This is in addition to the fact that security is so messed up, people can't care less about the constitution which they don't understand what it is and what it can do in the first place.

But the funny (and sad) thing is if the adminstration admits they have made a mistake, the smart public we have think of it as a sign of weakness and will not support whatever the adminstration will do even IF they do the right hing. So the moral of the story is, I don't blame the admininstration for all the mistakes, but the people who don't understand and above all DON'T CARE about that part of the world and don't demand the right action. Pretty sad; we are very stupid.

Bush's Oct 6 speech regarding Iraq and terror

OK I am NOT gonna dwell on the fact that terrorism is getting more complex and is everywhere cuz it is. And we are responsible for the most part of it.

What I am gonna pick on and analyze is the fact that our xenophobic president keeps targeting and redeculing Muslems and adds an adjective here and there which I don't understand what it is he is trying to acheive. He is alienating more and more muslims, even the good ones. OK Mr. 2-digit IQ, for the love of your god, don't make this war a religious war. If you read some history books growing up, you would have known making a conflict a religious cause, is the worse and most distructive act a leader can do.

Does the crusade mean anything to you? How about Arab/Israeli conflict, how about hundreds of years of dark ages, no? doesn't ring a bell? How about losing Iran to religious fanatics? not yet... let me see, oh how about Ireland?
Don't make this a religious conflict, all the crazy terrorists who happened to be Muslim are gonna win more support if you make this a Christianity/Judaism vs. Islam conflict.

Islam is 1384 years old. Chritianity was in the dark ages when it was the same age. Understand that and act accordingly! If you understood or hired people under you who understood how life is in that part of the world, you would have made much wiser decisions.
You know the beauty of all this is? People don't care enough to kick you out of your job. If any CEO had made so many mistakes, trust me he/she would have been spending time with rats in the prison.