2008

2008 was an extreme year for me. Well, as extreme as it can get for a completely ordinary guy like me. It was the year in which I have worked hardest in my life. It was the year I was most stressed, aged most, got most gray hair, became unfit most, etc. It was the year I lost most (in terms of money). It was perhaps the year I learnt most as an adult. It was the most professionally satisfying year of my career. And, it was the year when the rewards of the hard toil of being a parent have started to show - spending time with my 2 year old son is such a delight, despite the frustrations and the hard work.

2008 was also an extreme year for me in decision making terms. For someone who freezes when trying to decide which pair of socks to wear, it was a monumental effort to decide to buy a house (strictly speaking, it was more like buying a mortgage, which came with a house), and then to decide which house to buy. And then to decide to do some upgrades and the million decisions associated with it. I think I made more decisions over the last few months than all the decisions I have ever made before.

There was at least one side-benefit to being too busy - I rode along in blissful ignorance the whole year when the financial markets and all my investments went into the toilet. I simply didn't have the energy to pay attention, leave alone take any evasive action. I am a lot poorer today than I was an year ago, but I sort of don't care. I certainly didn't experience any stress from that. (I like to think of it as following the strategy of "staying the course", as recommended by John Bogle ;)

2008 also ended the lives of two of my favorite authors - Arthur C. Clarke and Michael Crichton. That really is bad.

2008 also saw my favorite sports team (Indian's cricket team) scale some new heights. These are exciting times if you are an Indian cricket fan.

2009 is certain to be challenging, both personally and economically. I guess I'd call it a good year, if I manage to do two things: contribute to the happiness of my loved ones and give my psyche some contentment.

Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

The plot may not be that sophisticated, but the writing is breathtaking. especially the last chapter where The Jew is about to go to the gallows - it's amazingly written. Suddenly you start feeling for the bad guy!

Boo... for Books

This is it. I am throwing away all my books and burning down a few libraries. I am probably going to be the first Library Bomber (of this century at least).

When Britney Spears "wrote" a book, it was joke. When Sarah Palin signed a book deal, it was quite ironical, but not that funny. Now this: Joe the Plumber (who is not a licensed plumber and whose name is not Joe), is "writing" a book. At least the earlier bimbos did something which can be called achievements. But this guy, a cheap-shit who doesn't pay his taxes, got some attention just because the "country first" candidate was so desperate for power that he was ready to sell his soul... wow, someone please wake me up from this nightmare.

yearning for a little R&R

It's been a long 2 months since the last post.

These have been absolutely the most hectic and the most productive weeks of my life. It has nevertheless been exhausting, and unhealthy. And I am looking at a few more weeks of this. I don't remember what it is to be relaxed. I don't remember how it feels to get 8 hours of solid sleep. I don't remember life without a hundred niggles and little pains all over the body. I so much wish to not have to rush every minute of the day. A vacation is so alien in concept, I am afraid to think of one.

Ironically, in the middle of this craziness, a strange thought occurred to me. What if I was stuck in an eternity with nothing to do? How would that be? It'd be impossible to do nothing. So, what would I do? I'd build things, I guess. Especially using a computer, because that's pretty much the only skill I have. But it's also a convenient one, because after all, everything in the universe seems to come down to information - storing, replicating, communicating - and a computer is pretty decent at handling information.

So may be I'd start building stuff on my computer. First, I guess, for the heck of it, I'd redo the stuff that's already been done. There would be enough time, even for a dim-wit like me, to be able to build complex stuff by trial and error; say an operating system from scratch or a virtual reality simulation.

Soon I guess I'd want to build new stuff, may be build my own virtual fantasy world. I'd define the laws of that universe. I'd build in a bunch of knobs such that tweaking each a little creates a new universe. Again, with time on my side, I'd start creating very interesting, complex stuff. Stuff that interact with each other, stuff that does stuff; stuff that may even start wondering how they came about, if there is a creator, if there is a point to all the fuss in their world, and if they really have be rushing all the freaking time.

Pain in the Neck $%^*

I am not new to sprains, but this one is special. It took me to a doc for the first time (for a sprain), it made me take a prescription pain med for the first time, it made me collapse from dizziness (not a first, but the first significant one). And it made me aware of one of my fears, which I thought I have mastery over: fear of pain.

It started slowly - may be some bad sleeping posture, may be too much computer work - but suddenly got bad when after a nice long warm shower, I stupidly gave my neck a jerk. Sleeping absolutely still probably caused the dizziness - though the doctor theorized it was the pain that did it. We agreed to disagree.

So I have been prescribed two meds - one a strong pain killer and the other a muscle relaxant.

Do you read the warnings and side effects of these meds? It's always amusing. Unless, you are a bit faint at heart, in which case, you'd probably prefer your sickness to the possible ("rare, but very serious") side effects of these chemicals.

Apart from a number of "unlikely but possible" potentially fatal side effects, my pain killer also has a couple of interesting ones: stiff neck and dark colored urine (both of which are very serious and should be brought to the doc's attention immediately). I think it'll be a bit ironical, if this med should cause me a stiff neck!

The other one, the muscle relaxant, seems a lot more tame in comparison. However, it does have one "completely harmless and temporary" side effect: green-black colored urine. That'll be a nice spectacle, unless of course, it was caused by the pain med :)

Humpty Dumpty

Ever thought about what the heck that nursery rhyme means? Does it make any sense?

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

Humpty Dumpty is usually shown as an egg. May be that's a metaphor, or may be it's literal. Either case, why do you need horses for the repair job? May be make crazy glue?

Also, why so much violence in a children's rhyme? (Jack and Jill is another example.)

But it turns out, there is more to Humpty Dumpty than a foolish egg who chose to sit on a wall. It's said to be anything from a simple riddle to a historic annecdote from mideaval England. Look it up in wikipedia.

make pollution visible, make it smell

Here is a simple idea to tackle carbon emissions - make them visible and unpleasant.

I know California has some tough smog standards, but even then I find it amazing that air is clear and pretty fresh here in the Bay Area. You could be right in the middle of a commute hour grind on Highway 101, and still not really smell the pollution the cars are spewing out.

So I don't really worry about it.

Imagine that the exhaust from your car is black and smells like a dump. I bet you'll notice that pretty soon. I bet everyone will notice the amount of this stuff they are contributing.

But it'll be so unpleasant, we won't like it. It'll never happen, not just for that reason, but more so because we'll need the oil companies to cooperate to make it work, and I don't expect them to be bending over their backs to implement this.

I still like this idea though. A very effective way to influence people's behavior will be to give them immediate and appropriate feedback. Incentives are nice, but they go only so far. A little bit of in-your-face disincentive may work better.

I love these asset bubbles!

I consider the timing of, first the stock market bubble, and then the US housing bubble and the alleged other asset bubbles (commodities, oil, you name it) that are going on right now to be a tremendous blessing for me and my generation.

Imagine being bitten by these a decade or more from now, when, in the middle of our lives and careers, we see a chunk of our lives' savings evaporate into thin air.

By being exposed to these surprises relatively early in our adult lives, I think we have a great opportunity to learn the right lessons and become wise. So by the next time when there is a Robotics bubble or a Near Earth Orbit Real Estate bubble, we'll play that market like the veterans we will be. I can't wait!

But wait a minute: did a gullible green-horn say this back in 2005: "A DESTABILIZING contraction in nationwide house prices does not seem the most probable outcome...nominal house prices in the aggregate have rarely fallen and certainly not by very much." It was none other than the maestro octogenarian Alan Greenspan.

Mm, so much for age and wisdom.

Can a clone be President?

No, I am not referring to John McCain, the Bush clone (as the Dems would like to charecterize him).

According to the US Constitution, only a "natural born citizen" can be President. This the exact wording: "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States."

As any one can imagine, the term "natural born citizen" is open to interpretation, and perhaps an anachronism.

There have been Supreme Court rulings and over-turnings, Congressional laws to address various cases; but still there is some confusion about say, someone born to US parents outside the USA - whether they are considered citizens by birth or by naturalization. (Incidentally, John McCain was born at a U.S. military base offshore to U.S. parents.)

But my concern is about the bio-engineered future - are persons born by artificial insemination, or in vitro fertilization, let alone cloning, considered "natural born"? There is no way the writers of the Constitution could have considered these cases. (In fact, there was apparently no debate or discusison over the "narutal born citizen" clause before the Constitution was adopted.)

If you argue that the Constitution doesn't say "naturally conceived", just "natural born", then how about Ceaserean births? Are those "natural" births?

My point is not to nit pick on definitions and Constitutional gray areas. I often wonder where the balance should be between conserving the sanctity of the Constitution and keeping it updated as values and realities change with time.

I also find it ironical that a country built on immigration has this exclusion, whereas India, a country brutalized by foreign rule doesn't.

important stuff

The important decisions in your life all seem to have some common characteristics:

• Your situation is unique (at least, different from all the people you know)
• You have most probably never dealt with something like that before
  
• There is no single right answer
• Circumstances are never perfect (you'll most probably have to compromise on something)
• There is no deadline
• It's extremely difficult or impossible to predict the outcome
• You can never reduce the data to any formula or spreadsheet or anything simplistic like that (i.e. there are always unknowns and unquantifiables)
  
• No matter how much you analyze, research, meditate, pray, in the end it will still feel like a gamble

But, you'll do well not to succumb to buyer-remorse, no matter what you decide!