Why are men happier?

I found this on a forum, it was quite funny when I read it:

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Your last name stays put. The garage is all yours. Wedding plans take care
of themselves.

Chocolate is just another snack. You can be President. You can never be pregnant.

You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park. You can wear NO shirt to a water park.

Car mechanics tell you the truth. The world is your urinal: you never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky.

You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt. Same work, more pay.

Wrinkles add character. Wedding dress $5000. Tux rental-$100. People never
stare at your chest when you're talking to them. The occasional
well-rendered belch is practically expected.

New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet. One mood all the time.
Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat. You know stuff about tanks.

A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase. You can open all your own
jars. You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness. If
someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.

Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack. Three pairs of shoes are more than
enough. You almost never have strap problems in public. You are unable to
see wrinkles in your clothes.

Everything on your face stays its original color. The same hairstyle lasts
for years, maybe decades. You only have to shave your face and neck.

You can play with toys all your life. Your belly usually hides your big
hips. One wallet and one pair of shoes one color for all seasons. You can
wear shorts no matter how your legs look.

You can "do" your nails with a pocket knife. You have freedom of choice
concerning growing a mustache. You can do Christmas shopping for 25
relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.

No wonder men are happier.

Race results

Event:	Nike Run Hit Wonder
Year:	2005
Bib:	606
Last name:	Chen
First name:	Tao
City:	Los Angeles
State:	CA
Overall:	2741
Chip number:
Finish time:	01:00:35
Chip time:	00:59:21

Race day

I just came back from a 10K race this evening - the Nike Run Hit Wonder. I was originally introduced to the race by my roommate, who flaked out to go drinking instead. However, I was able to get one of my co-workers and some of her friends to come along, so I had some company. It was an interesting race format, with a sound stage set up and a band playing every couple of miles or so. Playing in LA were Chingy, DJ Z-Trip, Fountains of Wayne, The Donnas, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, The Aquabats, and Nina Sky. The finish was especially exciting, running into the LA coliseum with a cheering crowd and Joan Jett's band rocking out.

The run itself was something, 10 km being the longest distance I've ever run before - I've done that mileage only a couple of times solo back home in Markham under no time pressure. Racing was a different matter, however: with the massive crowd (all wearing the same lime green race jersey) both in front and behind of you; there is no place to go, and so every time you are passed it is a mesaure of defeat. It was pretty competitive though - I was staged with other 9 minute mile runners so there was only a large amount of passing at the beginning.

I'm pretty happy to post that I was able to squeeze in just under the 60-minute mark my first official 10K race, which works out to an average of a 9.6 min. mile.

Rain

We had our first rainfall since March today. Everyone was late to work because nobody remembers how to drive when the streets are wet. Hilarity ensues.

Ze Internets, zey are for porn, no?

Sorry, but I have to post this. This is one of the funniest flash animations I've seen in a while: The Internet is for porn.

FYI boys & grrls, It's PG-13-rated.

Check-raise

I started playing poker again recently, when I found some guys at work who did a Texas hold'em no-limit game once a week or two. It's been quite invigorating, and I really look forward to playing every Tuesday or Wednesday (especially since I won big the last two weeks). Interestingly enough, as I get more into financial analytics specifically and the finance industry in general, I have come to draw some very close parallels between poker and investment management.

The truth is, speaking as someone who has completed all the CFA exams successfully, investments are institutionalized gambling on the vastest scale. People with solely a heavy economics background - as I was at one point in my life - tend to ignore or gloss over this fact, but most quantitative analysis is generally geared to justify the actions of money managers ex post, and at most control total value-at-risk ex ante, to the point that risk can actually be "controlled" (as experience shows, taming risk is no easy proposition). Many aspects of modern capital markets are zero-sum games, such as commodities and derivatives - like poker, where for every dollar winner, there must be a dollar loser. There is even a parallel to the casino's rake: broker fees and trading costs such as the bid-ask spread and cost-of-carry for deliverables. However, the most striking similarity - and here is why I have observed that every institutional money manager is an incessant gambler - is the ironclad relationship between risk and reward. Do you chase the open ended nut straight draw when your opponent simply bets the turn at 10 to 1 pot odds? How about writing a $50 million futures position on the long end of the UK treasury curve? Maybe spice it up with credit default swaps across a basket of BBB+ bonds?

Not all portfolio managers are gamblers, but of the ones that I personally have known, a disproportionate number are, either the first to put down a twenty on making the birdie putt on 18, or spending Sunday morning at the blackjack table in Vegas. Early on, I had put myself on the path to be in investment management, and as I get closer to a point where I can make the jump in my career to be so, I suppose it would be a good thing for me to figure out whether I want to be - for all intents and purposes - a professional gambler. Who knows? Maybe 15 or so years down the road I will be going all-in on the flush draw with millions of your hard-earned pension dollars.

September

Sorry, I've been behind with any updates this week - it's been quite busy at work. In fact, it's a Saturday afternoon and I am back at the office trying to finish off some work. But this is how it is in September when all the clients come back from vacation.

More to come shortly...

San Diego

So lazy, can't even bother to move to the bathroom.

Three weeks later, I finally post photos. This is the heighth of laziness; the downside of great weather.