Kanye + Healthcare = Awesome

hola from barcelona!

overwhelmed. comment later.

Pulling myself back by the bootstraps

I don't know what is it about emo-ness. It strangely works on me.

I've been quiet a bit on all fronts lately. Unfortunately, this is probably due to a significant down period in my life. I've consciously tried to handle this on my own without the self-serving bitching that came during the high school years.

Epic fail.

I've found myself sinking deeper and deeper into this rabbit hole. Lying to both myself and others more than I'm usually comfortable with. Which is saying quite a bit.

Depression is not an appetizing dish served alone. But that's often the meal you get. I'm not sure if any of you have experienced it before, but to me it felt like a cancer slowly eating me up from inside. I fret about each night, a sense of panic and helplessness washing over my better half as I wander aimlessly in insomnia. Stupid thoughts, thoughts that I would never consciously allow in my better days, freakishly drift into my senses. Every day seems like a nightmare. And every night it just seems like I've about to start another one.

But in this brief moment of level-headedness, I'm trying to chart a course back.

So this is a bit of a confession. I'm not going to delve into the details right now, because I still can't deal with the shame head-on. But taking back your life has to start somewhere, so I'll start by writing this blog post to my closest confidantes. So unfortunately, there won't be any chippy, worldly analysis from this prick anytime soon. This is a battle that has to be won in small, mundane steps, and a blog post that hardly anyone ever reads probably counts as one of them. But there will be more to come. No more escapism in any form. No more denial. No more irresponsibility.

Comments are probably not necessary. But you can wish me luck. =)

Back in the system

After going AWOL on everybody in my life for the past few months, I'm finally back.

It's been great going back on the blogs and catching up with bits and pieces with your lives. Some of you clearly have intellectually outgrown me at ridiculous pace in this short time span. -cough-

But it's probably better to catch up in person. I know most of us will be at Toronto over this week. Tell me if you're ok for this weekend for some physical activity out in the last days of the summer. Any channel of communication is fine.

Steven

Amid all this shitstorm amid the Xinjiang riots, and the ensuing increase in firewall restrictions, I thought I'd offer some lighthearted materials I saw today on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gropecunt_Lane
Now I see where the English get their propensities for euphemism and double entendres from.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moro_Islamic_Liberation_Front
Honestly, there is no way I can take a revolutionary group seriously who call themselves MILF.

Will wax something philosophical, erudite, and potentially pretentious later on. Too lazy/tired at the moment.

Firsts

So after losing about 95% of my virtual portfolio's value (mostly due to Citigroup, haha), I've decided to stop horsing around, put some real money on the line, and invest in something relatively closer to home.

First $20K portfolio established with EnCana and two energy trusts in Calgary.
Commission fees: $117

Damn I hate CIBC.
Damn I need more time.

FINALLY

Thanks for helping me with my chinese firewall problems, you lazy douches =P

KK i will try to blog as much possible.

LOLOLOLOL

 

Apparently blogger.com is still not allowed behind China's firewall. Oh well, send me updates of your life through email! =P

 

In other news, I am in a shady ass internet cafe right now in Beijing. It is a surreal experience, the past 2 days. Oh well, it's a good learning experience all in all.

 

P.S. I won't be reading your comments for quite a while. So...keep that in mind when you post a comment.

Respect for Actuaries: -1

"In the United States, the underwriting loss of property and casualty insurance companies was $142.3 billion in the five years ending 2003. But overall profit for the same period was $68.4 billion, as the result of float [investment capital gains]. Some insurance industry insiders, most notably Hank Greenberg, do not believe that it is forever possible to sustain a profit from float without an underwriting profit as well, but this opinion is not universally held [LOL, are you joking me?]. Naturally, the “float” method is difficult to carry out in an economically depressed period. Bear markets do cause insurers to shift away from investments and to toughen up their underwriting standards. So a poor economy generally means high insurance premiums. This tendency to swing between profitable and unprofitable periods over time is commonly known as the "underwriting" or insurance cycle.

Property and casualty insurers currently make the most money from their auto insurance line of business. Generally better statistics are available on auto losses and underwriting on this line of business has benefited greatly from advances in computing. Additionally, property losses in the United States, due to unpredictable natural catastrophes, have exacerbated this trend."

- source: Wikipedia

Some interesting questions:

What do you consider more morally wrong?
Jaywalking vs. Downloading a song?
Sharing your neighbour's cable hookup vs. uploading a TV show with ads removed?
Smoking marijuanna vs. Downloading MS Office?
Sneaking into a movie theatre vs. buying a movie from the black market?
Stealing a $1.00 chocolate bar vs. Downloading a $65 video game?

The question I found the most iffy was the last two. What do you guys think?

source: http://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/download-decade/if-piracy-is-wrong-whydoesitfeelsoright/article1136934/#interactive