You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Random' category.
I take the same route to work every morning, yet this morning, something felt different. Perhaps it was the snow on the branches or the beaconing light of the service truck that made the route feel “new” again. I’m not sure, but it was a strange feeling, one that I have not felt for some time.
I have started reading the book, T’ai-Chi Ch’uan Lessons with Master TT Liang again. I have read the book before, but this time through, things feel new. The simplicity of the format and message make more sense now than they did before. Passages that I threw aside as mumbo jumbo now have more meaning.
Repulse the monkey is no longer just some arm movements, but it now had deeper meaning than it once did. From the outside, the movement appears simple, yet executing this simple movement can take years of practice to master.
Sing … as if no one is listening.
Dance … as if no one is watching.
Love … like you’ve never been hurt.
Live … everyday as if it were your last
I’ve been tagged by Rick of Cook Ding’s Kitchen. I first came across Rick’s blog during my quest to find other taiji related blogs. Some comments on each other’s blog lead to an email exchange which lead to finding out that we have some mutual acquaintances in real life. Such a small world!
I have accepted the tagging and the rules are as follows:
- link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
- share 7 random or weird things about yourself.
- tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs
- let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
7 Random or Weird things about me:
- I started martial arts in second grade, taking lessons at the gym of a local elementary school. After years of Tae Kwon Do, I started chinese contemporary wushu. One day, I noticed my grandma watching me practice the staff in the backyard. Later that day, my aunt tells me that my grandfather used to also practice and train the staff. She tells me that he was able to jump on top of the roofs in their village with his staff. I wish I still trained in the staff…
- For a person who often posts things on the internet, I am very paranoid about sharing personal information online. I know, it’s a weird love and hate relationship.
- I am a bit anal retentive regarding my own routines. Sometimes when things go out of whack or slightly off course, I get a bit agitated. Example, I am pretty anal about GTD and keeping my action lists up to date. I take pictures of high ticket items to store for personal home inventory. I track finances down to the penny. I am paranoid about data backup and have over 1 terabyte worth of disk space for my computer alone.
- I am always researching something. I mostly read non-fictional works and will research for weeks before making a purchase. I have become the ‘go to guy’ for gadgetry and other things related to technology.
- I love podcasts and audiobooks. With a 1 hour commute to work, I try to make the best use of my time. Roughly 90% of the time, my iPod is playing either a podcast or audiobook.
- I like to dance and will throw down with the young-ens
In my early teens, I was all about the running man and kid’n'play kickstep. During high school and college, I was a raver and it was all about poppin and liquid glides. Recently, it’s ballroom dancing. At a family wedding about 2 years ago, I was called out by a younger cousin. I went out into the middle of the dance circle and put all the kiddies to shame.. heheh 
- Anytime the Karate Kid is playing on TV, I will watch it. This drives my wife crazy!
The follow people have been tagged:
Unfortunately, I may break the rules a bit as I only have 5 people to tag. Ohh.. that’s another thing about me, I prefer to hang in small circles. I like intimate groups of about 4-5 people versus big gatherings
Last week, I decided I would slowly phase out coffee from my diet. Back in college, I was a coffee junkie. After graduation, I rarely drank coffee and would sometimes partake once every couple of weeks as a social team outing. After the birth of my son, coffee has kicked in full force due to constant lack of sleep. Now that my son is three, I have decided to cut back on the coffee.
I was going to do the cold turkey thing last week but decided against it when I began feeling drowsy during my 50 minute commute to work in the morning. So I caved and bought a small coffee with some donuts to boot.. yumm The following weekend, I picked up a small can of coffee to tie me over.
This week, I have cut down to prepping about 3 cups of coffee every other day for my morning commute. I used to do 4 cups of coffee (completely fill my coffee mug). So far, so good. Not too many headaches and with the weekend approaching, this will mean 2 more days without coffee.
My goal next week is to cut down to 2 cups of coffee every other day, followed by 1 cup of coffee every other day the following week. This means by New Year’s, I should be coffee free. Yeah!
In college, my ambiance of choice while studying was Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. I also had this weird routine that on the way to any final or exam, I would put on my headphones with Moonlight Sonata movement 1, repeating continuously for the duration of my walk.
When I get the the exam room, I would sit quietly in my seat, and listen to the sonata. Sometimes students would try to ask me last minute questions, but I have to gently decline to answer as I am preparing my mind for the exam to come. The teacher walks in and hands out the exams. I look at the cover page, close my eyes, turn off my cd player, and begin the exam.
I have always enjoyed this piece, but after seeing Gary Oldman, as Beethoven, playing this piece in the movie Immortal Beloved, I was hooked. In the movie, the father of his student orders a new piano in order for Beethoven to ‘test’, as he does not believe Beethoven can really play the piano. Since Beethoven does not play for anyone, they tell him no one will be home during his test, but they hide out in a secret passage.
Beethoven enters the room, fumbles and slams the keys creating quite an unpleasant sound. The slowly, he turns his head, and lowers it, placing his ear on the piano. There is quiet, then suddenly the sonata begins. Like a soft pitter patter of the rain, the piece gently rises, yet the ears can barely hear. The soft melody causes you to creep in and listen closer…
Ahh…. such great memories. Tonight, when the tensions of the day are still wrought in my body, I listen to the Moonlight Sonata and go to that ‘peaceful place’ in my mind.
Enjoy Wilhelm Kempff playing Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, movement 1:
In our last ballroom lesson class, we focused on the Cha Cha dance. We got into the details of how to properly perform an open break by sliding on the toe and then transferring weight onto the front foot, at an angle.
At the end of class, the instructor put on a Cha Cha song for us to incorporate what we learned. The music he played was great and had a very happy and cheer vibe about it. My wife and I instantly smiled when we heard the music and just began dancing.
At the end of class, we inquired as to the origin of the song and the instructor said: Joe Le Taxi. This song has been in my head for the last 2 days! Joe Le Taxi was released in 1988 by french singer, Vanessa Paradisa, who was 14 at the time of release!
Enjoy:
My wife and I are getting into “Bronze” level material in our ballroom dance lessons. Bronze level mainly focuses on technique for given dances. For example, we got some detailed correction on the Waltz frame. Basically, the wrist must remain straight, yet the palm of the hand should be on partner’s shoulder blade. The only way to really do this is adjust the height of the elbow and to compact the frame.
As we held the frame and received corrections, I got flashback of my taiji days feeling the burn. It is hard to keep the elbow at shoulder level, while the shoulder is relaxed and extended back, while keeping the palm of your hand on your partner’s shoulderblade. I kept getting blasted for my shoulder not being relaxed enough!! Then during the dance, I kept on getting blasted for letting my elbow drop! I tried to cheat a couple of times by resting a bit during the crossover breaks or underarm turns, but once again, I was blasted. Keep the elbows up throughout all movements!
All of this emphasis on elbows and shoulders reminded me a lot of my own zhanzhuang training. I’ve been taking it easy and doing mostly chen style zhan zhuang where the main posture is to keep the hands at heart level or lower, depending on one’s ability to relax. I’m gonna kick it up a notch and go back to yiquan postures for zhan zhuang. There are a couple of postures where hands are kept at shoulder level and then transition to hands at eye level. A bit more variety in the yiquan positions. Also, I’m gonna practice doing zhanzhuang holding the waltz frame!
Next, we were introduced to the concepts of “soft legs” within the waltz. This means, no locking of the legs, keep the knees bent. Ahh.. something I connected to This actually made the ’side-together’ steps of waltz basic much easier to do. We were much more mobile and were able to quickly move and change directions. I started going a bit lower and got blasted for not going too low! The instructor said I’ll lose mobility if I go too low. Just keep the knees slightly bent.
Hmm…. agile footwork concepts? I think we can all see the connection to taiji.
The hardest part of the evening was working on leading, partnering and combinations. To mix things up, the instructor had us move a little closer to another couple in a lesson. They threw on some waltz music and had us go at it. I had to really work on leading and being assertive and slightly aggressive as the instructor thinks I’m a little too nice While dancing, I had to maintain awareness of my surroundings at all times. While spinning and leading, making sure I don’t run into the other couple or the instructors walking around. We worked on footwork and how to get out of corner and binds by MIXING AND MATCHING elements of the steps we’ve learned. Note the word ELEMENTS… This is about combining movements together based on patterns of the basic footwork.
If an underarm turn begins during the back-side-together of the basic pattern, what other steps can we go into from this position? This is where you can mix say an underarm turn into a 5th position open break and changing it into balance steps. The idea is to be aware and have the ability to adapt to changing conditions.
One of the funnier things is while we’re dancing, the instructor would start talking to us to try and distract us from our steps. He said dancing is all about feeling it. Once you begin to feel the music and feel the flow, you no longer have to think. If you try and think too much and plan too far ahead, it’ll be too late.
Below is a clip of the 2005 World American Standard Waltz Final. Note the frame of the male lead, especially the right arm!
While stocking up on drinks for the super bowl tomorrow, I tried to find some variants of Hard Cider. My first stop was a local food & liquor shop. They had your run-of-the-mill alcoholic beverages, nothing too fancy, but a good selection.
While there I picked up a 6 pack of Guinness Draught. This is something I had never seen before since I’m not really a big drinker. Basically, it’s got something called a “Rocket Widget” in the bottle:
The patented ‘Rocket Widget’ capsule has been specifically designed for this bottle. When the bottle is opened, the capsule creates a surge inside the bottle, releasing nitrogen and carbon dioxide. This creates the famous creamy head that you find on Guinness draught served in a pint.
I admit, after taking a swig from the bottle, there was definitely a creamy head that was a little bitter and sweet at the same time. Very nice…
I also picked up a 6 pack of Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Berry flavor. I’m usually a fan of Cranberry Lemonade but I hadn’t seen the Berry before so thought I’d give it a try. Looked around for any versions of hard cider (Hardcore, Woodchuck, etc) but nada.
I decided to make one more stop to a new liquor store that opened up in the neighborhood. After walking in, I was confronted with crazy liquors from all over the world. They had stuff from russia, mexico, chile, argentina, etc.. In the front, they had this little table with opened bottles for ‘test tasting’.
The owner asked me if I like wine and I told him sure, even though I don’t really drink wine nor know anything about wine. He asked if I liked sweet wine and I nodded. He then opened up a bit of this german white wine and gave me a sip. It was pretty good and told him to put a bottle on the counter for me.
Next he gave me a sample of something called Coconut Tequipal. It’s basically a mix of Tequila, cream and coconut. It was very tasty and reminded me of pina coloda. I knew my wife would like a taste of this, so I asked him to put this one on the counter for me too.
I then asked the owner if he had any brands of Hard Cider. At first he looked a bit puzzled so I told him some popular brands were Hardcore and Woodchuck and that it’s basically alcoholic apple cider. He began walking back to the cooler with a smirk on his face but not really saying anything. I know.. a lot of ppl think Hard Cider is not a very ‘manly’ drink but I admit it, I like fruity drinks and I like Hard Cider He looked through the selection in the cooler and just apologized.
I told him when I lived in Minnesota, pretty much every liquor store carried some selection of Hard Cider. A lot of them would carry more than one. Even some of the bars serve Hard Cider from bottles.
Oh well, went to two places and didn’t find any Hard Cider. It would be a shame if there is NO hard cider in my area as I do miss the taste. At least I got my Mike’s Hard Lemonade..
What are five books that changed your life?
Inspired by Ms. Genevieve.
- Getting Things Done by David Allen: If you feel you have too much to do and not enough time to do things, Check this out. If you want a “mind like water” check this out! If you just want to “Get Things Done” Check this out! In other words, CHECK THIS OUT!
- Get a Financial Life by Beth Kobliner: After graduating college and not really sure what I should do with my money or finances, this book came in to give me some practical ideas that I could implement immediately! This was the book that became my entry point into the world of personal finance.
- The Way of Energy by Kam Lam Chuen: In my first formal lesson of taiji, the instructor introduced us to something called Zhan Zhuang aka Standing Meditation, aka Univeral Post posture. The idea is simple, just stand there and try to relax. It’s amazing how such a simple thing can reveal a lot about ourselves and provide us with a further understanding of our body.
- The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff: I was interested in trying to understand what taoism was all about. I tried to look at some academic writings on the subject but didn’t really know what they were talking about. I had seen Pooh as a child and having some taoist concepts being tied to these characters made the information readily accessible. Not only for taoist studies.. this book can provide insight into how we see ourselves.
- Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki: “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few”.
Last night, decided I was going to skip on the morning coffee and try to brew some green tea for the commute. Wow.. not a very good idea. I got some decent sleep last night yet I was horribly drudging along without my morning caffeine kick.
The crazy thing is I got some pretty decent green tea too! I ordered some TenRen Dragon Well Green Tea (1st grade) a couple of months ago, not too shabby if I say so myself, but I guess still not enough kick for me. However, I have been trying to use tea as my afternoon kick instead of the usual 20 oz Mountain Dew Soda (I KNOW…. it’s bad for me.. but one of my vices). I’ve managed to nearly cut out soda for the past couple of weeks… slowly…
Anyhoo, I caved in and went down to the cafeteria and got myself a medium Starbuck’s Sumatra blend. I feel much better now.
Wow… just had some major flashback to my college days of studying mandarin Chinese. I remember the first day of class, the instructor telling us Chinese is a *very* difficult language to learn. He noted it could be one of the hardest and only the motivated, dedicated, and intelligent folk will prevail (or something along those lines.. ).
The class met everyday and consisted of weekly writing assignments and tests on pinyin, character recognition and verbal competency. IT WAS VERY TIME CONSUMING… I spent hours practicing writing characters and memorizing both the pinyin and kanji for new phrases. I rewatched old school kungfu movies to see if I could pick out phrases from the Mandarin dialogue.
The hardest part for me was getting the sentence structure correct. English to Chinese is not a direct word-for-word translation. From an English speaking perspective, things hop around a bit in the Chinese language. There’s a nice little word map found in The Psychology of the Chinese Language [via] that nicely outlines what I’m referring to.
If I could go back and change one thing about my college time, I would’ve started learning Chinese earlier in my college career. I didn’t give it a shot until my senior year so I just barely scratched the surface.
I recently ran across a group called Delerium during my eMusic Free Trial. The group is like a mix of Enigma, Dead Can Dance, and Deep Forest. One of their more popular song is called Silence featuring Sarah McLaughlan.
I was a bit shocked after watching the video as I never imagined it being about people running. For some reason, I figured it’d be some sort of melancholic setting with a driving scene…
A week ago, I surprised my wife with ballroom dance lessons. We had a private instructor and covered the basics for 4 dances in roughly an hour. We did some rumba, waltz, foxtrot and salsa. We had such a great time that we signed up for a group of private lessons. Last night, we had our first private lesson.
My wife got some dancing shoes and I tried some on, but decided to pass for now. They kept insisting I was supposed to wear a shoe that was sized 2 numbers smaller than my American sizing. Not to be a poor sport, I tried them on, but they were WAY too tight. My toes were hitting the tips and the soles didn’t cover the base of my foot. However, it was interesting to note the bottom of the shoes were lined with suede! I would’ve never guess, but I guess that’s how you get the gliding motion.
We started the session off with a little rumba. He asked us to get in our frames and he proceeded to adjust our posture. For me, chin parallel to the ground, and shoulders facing square. Right hand fully on the partner’s shoulder blade. Left hand out and open.
Quick-Quick-Slow
Quick-Quick-Slow
We did a couple counts of the basic box step to loosen up. He then showed us how to incorporate a turn. For the male part, the turn is initiated by guiding my partner under the left arm (with my right hand) as I step back. Slight force with the guiding right hand, keep the left hand loose so the partner can turn. The left hand can either be held with hand flat, hand as a circle, or hand as a point.
The turn is harder to do than it looks. It’s such a basic stance but we have to work on keeping enough distance between us so we don’t bump into each other and keeping rhythm. A couple of times, he would even start talking to us and asking about our day to see if we’d lose rhythm.. such a tricky guy!
Next, we did some Cha Cha:
1-2-3-CHA-CHA-CHA
1-2-3-CHA-CHA-CHA
The hard thing about the Cha Cha is to do the Rock Steps directly forward and directly back, not angled. Also, when doing the CHA-CHA-CHA, MOVE SIDEWAYS! I did some Cha Cha before, but the Cha-Cha-ing was done in place, not moving sideways.
After we did the basic steps for a bit, he showed us how to do the “Side Flairs”, which basically looks like dancers stepping “in” to each other, but then turning to the side and flaring the outer arm. Quite a fun move
Begin the setup for the flair by holding the both of the partner’s hands at midsection height, directly in front. CHA-CHA-CHA, then flair to the sides. The instructor emphasized the stepping into the flair should be initiated by the waist, not the hands.
We then covered some technical details about stepping and turning. For me, he said to slide/glide the steps instead of lifting and stepping. I then commented on how it was like bagua mud walking step and my wife just rolled her eyes and smirk while the instructor gave me a slightly puzzled look
By the end of class, we really worked up a sweat. It was great fun and we’re looking forward to our next session.
My homework items:
- Keep the frame. Some tension in right hand, left hand loose. Shoulder’s square, chin parallel to the ground
- Glide steps. Don’t lift the feet too high off the ground. Glide them.
- Replacing Steps. One foot replaces the other foot.
- Lead with the hips in the rock step and flair steps, not with the arms
- Commit the step. When stepping forward, REALLY step forward and shift the weight into the front leg before executing the side step
Hmm.. a lot of the homework items seem quite similar to taiji principles…
What are your top 5 martial arts movies? Here’s my list in no specific order:
- Drunken Tai Chi
- Tai Chi Master (aka Twin Warriors)
- The Karate Kid
- 5 Masters of Death
- Best of the Best
I have the fondest childhood memories of Drunken Tai Chi. This one stars Donnie Yen and is a comedy to boot! One of my cousins would often turn down the volume and make up his own dialogue in the movie, which was quite funny. I really love the taiji training sequence, even demonstrating the illusive ‘bird in hand’ technique in which one is so skilled and sensitive that a bird cannot take flight!
Ahh.. Tai Chi Master with Jet Li. This one is awesome how it shows some pretty cool taiji fighting techniques of really using your opponent’s force against them. It shows Jet Li doing some of the Yang 24 form in addition to what appears to be a very stylized wushu version of the Chen 56 competition set.
The Karate Kid.. what can I say about this? I’ve actually written about this movie before. This is one of those movies that I will always watch whenever it’s on TV even though my wife really hates it! Fond memories of watching Daniel-San doing the crane and overcoming all challenges! Definitely one of those inspirational films.
5 Masters of Death was one of those movies that was always on ‘USA’s Kung Fu Theatre” when I was growing up. The basic plot is about a group of 5 students looking for the traitor of shaolin after the temple gets burned down. All the secret hand shakes, tea ceremony sequences and bad-a$$ style call-outs make this a classic. “Ahh.. I see you’re doing the tiger style. Well, your tiger style is no match for my dragon style!” This is one of those movies that is often sampled in the Wu-Tang Clan albums if you listen closely
Best of the Best just rocks! Sure, it contains the cheesy b-actor, Eric Roberts, but he was the bomb in this movie. This is one of those inspirational dramas that just makes one feel happy. The fight sequences are awesome, the storyline is awesome and definitely a must see!
What are your top 5 Martial Arts movies? Feel free to either comment here or on your own blog with a link back to this original post!
[tags]taiji, random, top5, movies, martialarts[/tags]
Do You like Taiji?
__ Yes
__ No
__ Maybe
hehee.. I had a flashback of those days in elementary school where you would write a little note asking “Do you like me” and fold it up into either a little square with a small flap that you could pull to open, or if you were really skilled, a small heart or maybe a little crane. Were things so easy back then?
Back in the days, if someone said you suck, or your taiji sucks, the answer would be decided in some type of brawl. “In the playground, at 4pm today, we see who sucks!”
Wasn’t this even the case back in the days of taiji legends? We often hear accounts of masters testing and proving their might in fights in defending their art, but what does this really prove?
For instance, in elementary school, 2 neighborhood kids almost got in a fight b/c one of them said bowling is not a real sport (the preferred past time of the other kid). So, like most young kids, they were gonna to answer that insult with a fight to determine if bowling is not a sport and it just so happened the bowler was a lot more in shape and stronger than the baseball player. They never did fight, but if they did and the bowler won, does that prove bowling is a “real sport”?
Should we train a specific sport due to a key figure of that sport? Should we train a specific martial art due to a key figure of that martial art? What is the meaning?
Not sure if this applies internationally, but US residents can check their credit report for free via Annual Credit Report. With all the cases in identity theft and credit fraud and such, it’s definitely something to add to your Next Actions (GTD) list.
My advice, setup three events in your calendar:
- April 1: AnnualCreditReport.com - Transunion
- August 1: AnnualCreditReport.com - Equifax
- December 1: AnnualCreditReport.com - Experian
This way, if you need to make any adjustments to one or waiting for account closing to appear, you can easily check them the following event.
So, do it NOW. I must say that I fell behind and I’m doing my “first” check in June.. 
Take your own Personal DNA Report too :) I must admit, the survey was quite cool in the use of sliders and charts
Over the vacation week, we spent quite a bit of money in short period of time. I consider myself to be kinda frugal, but I think my wife prefers the term “money conscious”. We’ve worked hard in eliminating our credit debt and building a savings blanket and I must admit, it feels good to not worry about revolving credit debt.
I realized over the weekend, I was often hesitant on spending the money on furniture, when in retrospect, I now consider it money well spent. This is especially true when I factor in that I was prepared to spend roughly $4K on a saltwater coral reef tank! Ahh.. $600 is not that expensive for a metal halide based lighting system but is expensive for an entertainment center audio pier?? Hmm.. I think not.
I’m kinda similar when it comes to martial arts. Sure, I try to save money and look for deals but if I tally up the money I’ve spent on martial arts related material (books, videos, lessons), I’m sure I’ll be quite surprised. For example, consider a costs of say $50/month for group lessons. That comes out to be around $600/yr!
While I don’t believe in cutting all corners as that could decay the “quality of life” as we do need to have fun and find ways to enjoy ourselves without breaking the bank. I admit, I have a sore spot for martial arts, gadgetry and aquariums that I really need to reconsider some of the spending, especially in light of creating a feeling of financial security.
The week just went by way too quickly.. it’s been a while but it was nice to have a brief vacation to get centered. The week mainly consisted of chillin and a lot of shopping.
- We purchased a home office set and some audio piers to finish out our entertainment center. It’s about time as we’ve lived in our current home for a little over a year now.
- After listening to some of my vocal/orchestral tracks on my iPod during our travelling commutes, I realized a lot of “breakup” or what some call “smearing” in the highs/lows of the song. Some have noted it’s a flaw in the mp3 format itself and I’ve started re-ripping my CD collection to both FLAC and AAC via iTunesEncode b/c I like the secure ripping features of EAC. It’s all about the AAC 192 VBR. Will I end up re-encoding all of my CDs, probably…
- Spent some time reading taiji related books. Finished reading the translation of the Dong Family Red Book by Alex Dong. Pretty interesting read and it was nice to get a review of the principles and theories of taiji. One of the things that really caught my attention was a passage on not trying to direct the qi or controlling the qi with the mind as the movement of qi will happen naturally. I’ll write more on this later as it sinks in.
We’ve had a HDTV for quite some time, but never really shelled out the extra dough for HD programming, until now My father in law decided to get satellite and he opted for the HD programming. After seeing how clear and nutty a praying mantis looked on Discovery HD, we were sold. It’s roughly $20 extra per month for 23 HD channels. While, it’s true that not all of them are “true” HD, but standard def (SD) rebroadcasted over HD, it’s still all good.
After the installation, the first thing I did was very the resolution. Checking the info on my TV, it showed the signal with a resolution of 1080i. PIMP!! But then I noticed that it showed the input coming from Component Video and not HDMI!?!! This kind of turned me off a bit b/c I figured for the best and highest quality picture, HDMI would need to be used.
But I was wrong. After some testing of viewing the same signal over both HDMI and component, it was a general consensus of 4 people the component video output for HD was much sharper and vibrant than the HDMI output. So I guess that closes the case on which video source to use. We’ll keep the DVD on HDMI for the upconversion.
When does it make sense to chase that interest rate? Currently, I’m considering the following:
- ING Direct: 4.15%
- HSBC Direct: 4.65%
- Emmigrant Direct: 4.65%
Currently, we are with ING but they’re just not keeping up with the other banks. When the fed increased the interest rate by say .25%, ING will only bump up by a fraction of that, essentially pocketing the difference and not sending that down to their clients. To me, this is getting to be unacceptable and I’ve stuck with ING b/c I believed they would make things right, but it’s not happening.
Currently, Citibank E-Savings product is offering 4.75% but you have to be banking with Citibank or have one of their checking accounts to qualify. This kind of removes them from the list b/c we already have another bank for our checking.
Based on this rate chaser calculator and using HSBC as an example, I woud lose roughly 2 days in lost interest, however it would only take about 17 days to break even and after that, it’s “money in the bank”. At this point, it really seems like a no-brainer and the only reasons for considering HSBC over Emmigrant is that I’ve heard of HSBC before.
[edit: The Citibank E-Savings/EZ Checking Account actually has three conditions in which to avoid the monthly charges:
- Direct Deposit Into the Checking
- Conduct 2 monthly bill pays
- A combined average balance of $1,500
Personally, option 3 is a winner for me. Since the main focus of the account is for savings, I feel it would be quite easy to keep a minimum of $1,500 in the account.
So, what will the difference in interest rate pay off?
With a balance of say $10,000, the yearly interest would be
- 4.15% APY = $415
- 4.75% APY = $475
Difference: $60
Not too shabby for letting the money sit. That’s roughly a month’s internet/tv bill for some! A good option for those wanting to keep a safety blanket of 6 months’s worth of expenses in a liquid account.
Another season has started for the Fox show, So You Think You Can Dance. I must admit, I am a sucker for this show and tend to watch the whole season unfold, unlike American Idol where I mainly just watch the first couple of shows to laugh.
Last night’s episode was pretty good, the one that caught my attention the most was of this fella that did poppin. He was quite good and could “Hit” really hard! Watching him reminded me of the old days when I was a raver and mostly did “liquid pop” kinda of stuff. I still bust it out ever now and then when I’m at family parties and such and it seems to shock a lot of the young’ens who think they can dance
In the drive into work yesterday, I noticed someone mowing the lawn at 6:30am! While this person may be super productive and start the day early, I couldn’t help but wonder how her neighbors felt? Perhaps it was not such a big deal as it was during the work week and people tend to get up early, but still …
This reminds me a bit of a podcast on manager tools regarding time management, which basically noted that people are generally more creative more focused concentration between the hours of 7am and 10am. I would agree with this as I do feel as if my mind is at full operating speed during this time. Perhaps it has nothing to do with my finishing my morning coffee during that time.
I’ve been feeling some pain in my hips as of late. I’ve often ran across the notion that a lot of subconscious thoughts are trapped in the hips. While I don’t doubt this, what about the idea that the bed your sleeping on sucks? Could that not also attribute to the pain?
For me, I believe this could be it. We bought a fancy big ‘ol, EXPENSIVE, mattress with the hopes of providing good support. Hmm… while it felt GREAT the first couple of months, slowly it started losing it’s shape and has held a mold of my body in it’s midst. Sometime when my wife and I switch sides she tells me that she feels as if she’s wrapped in a cocoon due to the indentation I’ve left.
Maybe next time, we won’t get the ‘pillow top’ variety. We looked at those “never have to flip” beds but one of the sales folks we encountered basically told us those are marketing schemes in which they jip you on material by only padding one side. It made sense at the time, but now I wonder if that’s truly the case? On our mattress, it says that for best results we should flip it every 30 days. EVERY 30 DAYS!??!! While that’s not too often, it is quite a bit of a chore. However, I must admit, it *DOES* feel better after flipping.
Be careful what you decide to tattoo yourself with if you’re following the recent trend of marking yourself with chinese characters. At least have it looked over and approved by a native speaking chinese b/c you never really know what you’re gonna get. See Hanzi Smatter: dedicated to the misuse of chinese characters in western culture [via Cook Ding’s Kitchen] for examples!
After some review, I realized the latte factor is taking more of a toll than I had expected. I used to get coffee every morning at work and that would set me back about $1.50. While that’s not extravagent nor extreme (like starbucks everyday), it does begin to take it’s toll. This means that I spend about
$1.50 x 20days = $30 / month or …. $360/yr ON COFFEE
Whoa! While that may not sound like much, it’s quite a bit, especially seeing that I cannot justify the cost of a tivo with a monthly subscription of say roughly $15, yet I can spend double of that just on coffee when I could have easily brewed my own coffee at home, which is exactly what I’ve been doing.
For the past 2 days, I’ve brewed and drank my coffee on the drive in. Looking at the savings, I think it’s definitely worth it.
My wife and I have this thing with movies in that we watch the first 15-20 mins of a movie before deciding if we want to continue on. Time is a precious commodity to us and we really can’t afford to waste anytime. I apply a similar thing to my intake of news.
For instance, in podcasts, I will listen to about the first 3-5 mins of the podcasts before I decide if I want to continue on or remove from my list. I’ll generally give a podcast 2-3 days worth casts before I remove them from my sync list.
With blogs, I REALLY HAVE to do this in order to stay sane. There is just so many feeds one could potentially follow that’s it quite easy to go nutty. I’ll follow a feed for about 2-3 days before I decide if I want to keep it. I’ve actually gone through and trimmed a lot of my feeds and have narrowed it down to my essentials. To me, if the news is important enough, it’ll eventually get to me.
In the drive to work this morning, I was listening to a Money Blogger Podcast with JLP from AllThingsFinancial and was pretty interested in what he had to say about children and allowances. Basically, the gist is $1 for every year of age per week with a cap of $10. At first, I was thinking that was a rather high amount until I heard the conditions:
- 25% into Long Term Savings
- 25% into Short Term Savings
- 10% Tithing to Church
That roughly means that out of $10, the child is left with $4/week or roughly $16/month. This is a figure that I can live with! He also recommended letting the children hold onto their money so they get a sense of what it feels like to spend it. I really like this idea and will definitely incorporate into my own outlook. Great podcast with great topics!
Wow.. my whole goal is to get my “mind like water” in GTD speak, however ever since I decided to start carrying around a manbag, it’s been a constant flux of various liquid-based bodies in my mind. Sometimes, it’s like a gentle stream, other times, it’s like a roaring white rapids river.. I guess my mind is still like wather tho.. 
The main chore comes in the form of keeping track of it. Before, I had everything on my person so didn’t really have to put too much effort into tracking. However, there have been a couple of times when I just needed to go somewhere really quick that I forgot to grab my bag and in turn forgot my wallet. Sure, it feels nice having zen pockets and all, but I don’t like the fact that I am disjointed while on the run. I’ve been debating ditching the whole idea of carrying around a manbag on a daily basis and just start stuffing things into my pockets again.
The key items I carry in the bag are: wallet, PDA, iPod, other junk (coupons, pen, etc). I could get away with carrying my wallet and PDA in my pockets, it would just add some bulk but not too bad. The hard thing is the iPod. I don’t really want to carry that around in my pockets. For my wife, she has forgone carrying the purse and just puts everything into her work bag. This seems like a very novel idea and perhaps something I should entertain.
I’m gonna try it for the rest of the week to see how things go. In fact, I just took my wallet out of my manbag and put it into my front pocket. I can already notice the extra bulk, but that’s how it was before the bag so I’m sure I can easily transition back.
