...and I missed the coup. I always miss out on everything good.
My Daemon
"Clergymen who kidnap children. Witches who aren't wicked. Even a pair of sexually ambiguous angels." FINALLY! If it is one thing I hate in fantasy movies, it is sexually explicit angels. Well, sexually determined (sexually obvious?) may be a better word. The other day I was out and about with some friends, one of whom urged me to not see The Golden Compass because it will lead directly to the downfall of Christianity. So much like the effect of the petitions from mission companions urging me to write to HBO for them to stop the series Big Love and the denunciations against Krakauer's book Under the Banner of Heaven, I promptly decided to see the movie when it comes out.
I found out, however, in doing a bit of online research that they watered down the anti-religious elements. So I just ordered the trilogy online to add to my Christmas vacation reading list. (A bit of irony in there--reading the trilogy that will bring on the apocalypse during Christmas.)
Also, I played around on the Golden Compass site, trying to roll around in the muck as much as possible. According to their survey, my soul that lives outside my body should take the form of a snow leopard. Sweet! How can I hate a movie that portrays me so effectively? Daniel Craig's daemon is also a snow leopard. I think the Bond connection we both share is obvious.
Typhoon rolling into Manila. Hopefully I will be able to get out of here tomorrow night--I have to be in Boston on Monday and I am looking for at least an evening in LA. If I had to bounce straight from Manila to Boston, I think I would slit my wrists. Plus I need to pick up my winter gear.
Back to my #(% financial model....
T-day
It is my opinion that Thanksgiving dinner is best enjoyed alone in Manila. Most of the Filipino analysts I know had a team dinner planned--which would be ruined if attended by a weird white guy that reports back to headquarters. Instead, given my lack of a dinner companion, I decided to live-blog my festivities. Unfortunately, I lacked the cajones to bring my laptop down, so I used Web 0.0 technology--my moleskin notebook--and my phone.
Frankly, Live-blogging makes a great dinner companion--probably the best I have had in the past few months (no offense to any of you whom with I have eaten recently, except Kent--I hope to offend you). The anecdotes were poignant, the banter witty, and the observations astute. Live-blogging correctly pointed out that pretty much all of the 20+ waitresses were exceptionally young and attractive, even if one had pointy Spock ears. Live-blogging also keenly noticed the slit on the side of one young woman's skirt went up right up to her hip. Always an eye-drifter, that Live-blogging....
But the food...oh the food. The Shangri-La caters to a number of different customers--Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos, Americans, Europeans, and they had a sign up for halal (Indonesian muslims or Arabs?)--so think a buffet many times over. They have all the main components of any successful buffet:
Things on a Stick: No joke, all 5 and 1/5 food groups are served on a stick--your basic four, plus desserts (which you stick in the flowing fountains of chocolate and strawberry-dip-that-looks-like-french-dressing) and baby octopus (which I think deserves its own baby food group).
Things that are Roasted: All of the cast of Animal Farm, minus the horse, turned out for this one. Now that I have wikipedia-ed* Animal Farm, most of the cast in fact stayed away. How would you even prepare Moses the raven? Ms. Lemon, I expect a recipe for candied raven's claw in the comments and on your totally awesome candy site for which you get paid to write and bake and eat. Anyway, Squealer was definitely laid out on the table. Maybe the turkey, goose, beef, and duck came from Charlotte's Web.
Things in Shells: Everything you would expect--if you expect that I would refine that statement with something that clearly negates it to try to be humorous like "if you expect sea monsters" (the actual text of my first draft), you are wrong. Cleverly they stacked the more traditional snails and spiders of the sea in ice sculptures that spelled RED--the theme of the night (the restaurant is called Heat, you get the picture).
Things That Are Desserts***: The mini cold-stone ice-cream bar and the fresh crepe and ice-cream dish were both tempting, as were the cakes, pies, and breads. My favorite, however, had to be the sub-category of Things That Are Desserts But Are Also in Cute Dishes and Backlit Dramatically.
After the main meal, Live-blogging and I played a traditional family Thanksgiving game called the Candy Game****--each square of a 20-square board has candy on it and you take turns getting goodies. I think dice are involved somehow, but it's not gambling because you always get something for nothing. But instead of playing it, we just talked about it. And instead of talking about the Candy Game, we talked about money.
Conversations about money while dining luxuriously in a third-world country are always sobering, although Live-blogging would prefer the term buzz-kill. The smart, dedicated Filipino analysts I work with (who have a great job by local standards) make less than 1/10th of what I do. Live-blogging mentioned something about market forces etc., me being 10 times as valuable, and was distracted by Slit-Skirt talking to Spock-Ears.
I don't know that I am 10 times as valuable. I think a lot about the relative wealth disparity among nations while I am here. Why hasn't reform come to Philippines? Why isn't there better infrastructure, education, and health care? Live-blogging, the bastard, asks why I am so concerned about this when on the way to work on Monday I couldn't be bothered to scoot over to the other side of the taxi, roll down the window, and give a blind old woman a few pesos? You know, why I can't I do my part? Multiply my apathy and selfishness by billions, he says, and there is your answer to how national resources get squandered. Like I said, a real jerk--mentioning that while knowing that I sat on the other side of the taxi each day since then hoping to see the woman again.
Anyway, a true Thanksgiving this year. The trip has highlighted a number of things that I enjoy quite by accident--health, employment, family, etc. I could make a Venn diagram to show how the intersection of all of these elements is so rare, but I don't know to represent the irony of saying you are thankful for family while adios-ing them to work through the holidays. Maybe just a dotted circle.
Notes:
*I just started a revolution by verbizing** Wikipedia
** Dido with verbizing
*** Parallelism is a feature of good writing. That's why I tortured that construction to fit with the rest of the categories. I mean, I wanted the categories to feel as tortured as the body of the post.
**** While Grandpa's definition of "candy" included candy, it also included knives, hammers, scimitars, battle axes, BB guns, and all manner of junk he could find at a discount hardware store. I understood the subtext of what he was trying to say though--violence, and the tools of violence, are sweet.
Frankly, Live-blogging makes a great dinner companion--probably the best I have had in the past few months (no offense to any of you whom with I have eaten recently, except Kent--I hope to offend you). The anecdotes were poignant, the banter witty, and the observations astute. Live-blogging correctly pointed out that pretty much all of the 20+ waitresses were exceptionally young and attractive, even if one had pointy Spock ears. Live-blogging also keenly noticed the slit on the side of one young woman's skirt went up right up to her hip. Always an eye-drifter, that Live-blogging....
But the food...oh the food. The Shangri-La caters to a number of different customers--Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos, Americans, Europeans, and they had a sign up for halal (Indonesian muslims or Arabs?)--so think a buffet many times over. They have all the main components of any successful buffet:
Things on a Stick: No joke, all 5 and 1/5 food groups are served on a stick--your basic four, plus desserts (which you stick in the flowing fountains of chocolate and strawberry-dip-that-looks-like-french-dressing) and baby octopus (which I think deserves its own baby food group).
Things that are Roasted: All of the cast of Animal Farm, minus the horse, turned out for this one. Now that I have wikipedia-ed* Animal Farm, most of the cast in fact stayed away. How would you even prepare Moses the raven? Ms. Lemon, I expect a recipe for candied raven's claw in the comments and on your totally awesome candy site for which you get paid to write and bake and eat. Anyway, Squealer was definitely laid out on the table. Maybe the turkey, goose, beef, and duck came from Charlotte's Web.
Things in Shells: Everything you would expect--if you expect that I would refine that statement with something that clearly negates it to try to be humorous like "if you expect sea monsters" (the actual text of my first draft), you are wrong. Cleverly they stacked the more traditional snails and spiders of the sea in ice sculptures that spelled RED--the theme of the night (the restaurant is called Heat, you get the picture).
Things That Are Desserts***: The mini cold-stone ice-cream bar and the fresh crepe and ice-cream dish were both tempting, as were the cakes, pies, and breads. My favorite, however, had to be the sub-category of Things That Are Desserts But Are Also in Cute Dishes and Backlit Dramatically.
After the main meal, Live-blogging and I played a traditional family Thanksgiving game called the Candy Game****--each square of a 20-square board has candy on it and you take turns getting goodies. I think dice are involved somehow, but it's not gambling because you always get something for nothing. But instead of playing it, we just talked about it. And instead of talking about the Candy Game, we talked about money.
Conversations about money while dining luxuriously in a third-world country are always sobering, although Live-blogging would prefer the term buzz-kill. The smart, dedicated Filipino analysts I work with (who have a great job by local standards) make less than 1/10th of what I do. Live-blogging mentioned something about market forces etc., me being 10 times as valuable, and was distracted by Slit-Skirt talking to Spock-Ears.
I don't know that I am 10 times as valuable. I think a lot about the relative wealth disparity among nations while I am here. Why hasn't reform come to Philippines? Why isn't there better infrastructure, education, and health care? Live-blogging, the bastard, asks why I am so concerned about this when on the way to work on Monday I couldn't be bothered to scoot over to the other side of the taxi, roll down the window, and give a blind old woman a few pesos? You know, why I can't I do my part? Multiply my apathy and selfishness by billions, he says, and there is your answer to how national resources get squandered. Like I said, a real jerk--mentioning that while knowing that I sat on the other side of the taxi each day since then hoping to see the woman again.
Anyway, a true Thanksgiving this year. The trip has highlighted a number of things that I enjoy quite by accident--health, employment, family, etc. I could make a Venn diagram to show how the intersection of all of these elements is so rare, but I don't know to represent the irony of saying you are thankful for family while adios-ing them to work through the holidays. Maybe just a dotted circle.
Notes:
*I just started a revolution by verbizing** Wikipedia
** Dido with verbizing
*** Parallelism is a feature of good writing. That's why I tortured that construction to fit with the rest of the categories. I mean, I wanted the categories to feel as tortured as the body of the post.
**** While Grandpa's definition of "candy" included candy, it also included knives, hammers, scimitars, battle axes, BB guns, and all manner of junk he could find at a discount hardware store. I understood the subtext of what he was trying to say though--violence, and the tools of violence, are sweet.
I Don't Do Know What It Is...
...that I like about Asia. I will tell you for sure that it is not the view from my window. Manila looks surprisingly drab. What I like about the trip to Manila:
- scrumptious buffet breakfast
- scrumptious room service
- scrumptious female attendant in the fully loaded gym this morning (all the treadmills had 17' touchscreen monitors attached that let you control your workout perfectly or let you switch to your favorite cable channel--suck it 24 Hour Fitness)
- scrumptious (to some, I am sure) gay man cutting my hair this morning as well.
- festive atmosphere--it is only November, but the whole country already has their Christmas decorations up and my hotel pumps some nice Christmas tunes throughout the giant complex.
Things I haven't liked, so far (I am sure that I will find A LOT that I hate):
- Philippines Airlines has crappy seats and horrible food, even in business class.
- Philippines Airlines stocks its rest rooms with Kleenex and toilet paper only. Drying your hands with toilet paper is what a management consultant would call
So to recap, most of what I like comes from my hotel (the Shangri-La, recommend it) and most of what I hate comes from my flight (they don't get the rave reviews I gave Korean Air).
On a more serious note, I do like that Asia is a bit raw, under-developed, in your face--it's hungry and looks like it can eat you. I want to stay involved with the region throughout my career. I love it...and that is the masseuse at the door. Gotta go. For $30 an hour, who can say no?
Things Are Cool....Today
Now that I see Ira Glass his voice on This American Life takes on a whole new meaning.
Stock market. My CFICX hedge (supposed to balance out the S&P and emerging markets downturn) turns out to suck. Thinking of throwing in 200% inverse China exposure.
The power of a triple decker turkey club: after being stuck with a flu shot in my right arm, a tetanus shot in my left arm, and down 2 viles of blood I still went for 2400 meters at the pool. Awesome, just like Demetri says the word.
This is the worst-designed website ever, and they are supposedly a design firm?
Libertarian dorm residents?
Also, according to Ira Glass, this is the best piece of journalism around.
And a website that breaks every design rule, in a good way.
Off to see Free Blood and DJ Spun at The Getty.
Stock market. My CFICX hedge (supposed to balance out the S&P and emerging markets downturn) turns out to suck. Thinking of throwing in 200% inverse China exposure.
The power of a triple decker turkey club: after being stuck with a flu shot in my right arm, a tetanus shot in my left arm, and down 2 viles of blood I still went for 2400 meters at the pool. Awesome, just like Demetri says the word.
This is the worst-designed website ever, and they are supposedly a design firm?
Libertarian dorm residents?
Also, according to Ira Glass, this is the best piece of journalism around.
And a website that breaks every design rule, in a good way.
Off to see Free Blood and DJ Spun at The Getty.
Thanks, Economist
I must say that I think the Economist has the best subscription policies ever. In January 2006, I paid for a one year subscription. One year into it they said it was time for me to renew (and kept putting the annoying covers on each issue that touted the low price of $110 for 53 issues). I put it off. Finally they stopped sending it three weeks ago. Today I get this email from the Economist, saying that Oracle, God bless their egotistical, money-loving, Microsoft hating, SAP fighting souls, gave me a year subscription for free. Hi-fives, all around.
I Want to Be Half An (Iron) Man
I guess I just need the threat of complete failure and possible death to keep me motivated to exercise. In that spirit, last week at one in the morning one night, I signed up for a half ironman in March--1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run. I also applied for a lottery slot on the real ironman (double the half) in Kona. It may come down to something this:
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