Gettin my swerve on!

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No sleep til brooklyn

I stayed home lastnight to go to bed at 9pm - didnt get to sleep until 12 and still woke up several times. Tonight I drank with friends until 12. Tonight was a better night!

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Miss universe japan

I went to the miss universe japan contest tonight...20 beautiful Japanese women competing to represent japan at the miss universe pagent. The word among my Japanese friends is that they don't really look Japanese and are selected to appeal to foreign judges. I don't know if I agree but I do know It may well have been the first time in my life that I found myself thinking, "man! these girls are just too thin"

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Just checking in

I've been crap about updating but I'm hoping that installing an LJ client on my iPhone will help

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cutting samples/interrupting patterns
I just spent the evening cutting and editing sound samples... I have this strange idea of using a sampler in the office for a bit of levity/noise making at appropriate times to liven things up a bit.

good weekend. I broke the seal on 1 month off of drining by having dinner at Spirros with Sam, AJ, Rick and Stumpy. Afterwards we went up to G&s and continued the power drinking. I My body is no longer conditioned to process superhuman quantities of alcohol so near the night i was tettering on the knife-edge of ..well.. lets just call it having too much. AJ handed me a bottle of water unprompted so it seems you could tell i was on the edge...while i was in the bathroom, rick filled that water bottle with vodka. I came back, took a big swig and had quite the shock but im glad to say i didnt got over the edge. everyone was much amuzed

This morning I slept in but was not to beat up. As I went about the day getting things done I came to realization that i get significantly more done when I spend fewer nights "out on the piss"... this month off was a good thing. A pattern interruptor if you will. I'll still be spending a night or two per week out with friends but I think I'm off the several night a week schedule that use to be my pattern. theres just to much I want to get done.

It looks like projecthasselhoff/kungfupimp is down right now. I'll have to dig in and figure out whats up there.

Walk a mile in a man's shoes
When I started as a stock broker, I was doing research sales and there was this salestrader who... well, I suspected was an good guy (especially as he was a good friend of a good friend of mine) but most of the time in the office he was gruff, irritable and made it clear he didnt want to be spoken to...a grumpy bastard. He was also very into boxing.

now, i get it...

I have been doing what he did for a couple of years now and at the office I am also gruff, irritable and dont want to be spoken to if I can avoid it. Its the unrelenting stress of 12 hour days, constanly knowing that if you hit the wrong button you could lose the someone millions of dollars in moments and there is a constant stream of people yelling at you to hit those buttons faster and telling you how much you suck at hitting the buttons. Anyone who does this job has extremely high levels of stress hormones. Those hormones are intended for fight or flight response and if left unchecked do horrible things to your body and mind. By doing boxing training after work i must be burning off those stress hormones... its pretty damned close to the "fight" part of "fight or flight" that they were intended for.

After boxing practice, I'm wiped out tired but feel *waaaay* better than I did a couple hours earlier after finishing work. Goodbye stress hormones...maybe I'll be less of a grumpy bastard... well, at least until 6am tomorrow

Where have the past 2 to 4 years gone? - damned I'm tired
I was going to post a long entry about how the past few years have just disappeared on me... but damned im exhausted. I just got home and its time for bed because i have be back in the office as usual at 6am. wait a minute.... that must be where the past two years went!

Anyway.. im tired and grumpy. im not drinking, eating less, and working out like a madman everyday... the calorie defecit is getting to me and im losing things getting forgetfull etc. goodnight.....sleep will help

Im really not sure a man can have too many guitars

I planned on buying a guitar this weekend and well... I bought two. The first was the one I meant to buy - A nice classical guitar. I didnt have one and it will be great for learning to play a little latin Jazz and flamenco. The other was just beeging to be bought... I had some store credit, it was on sale and it was almost exectly the guitar I had just been deisgning in my head and planning to build.

For years I told myself I was working so I could afford to play music but i have always avoided spending money on a guitar thats already made right, instead i buy something cheap and bit by bit fix it up, eventually spending as much or more than I would have in the first place. This guitar needs no modification and is a perfect platform, if i decide in the future to do some modifications. Besides... it didnt cost that much and fills the role that ive been wanting to buy a Zakk Wylde Les Paul to fill (that Zakk Wylde Les Paul would cost about $3500 and I spent around 25% of that)

Only a fool quits drinking in January
These are the words that greeted me at the top of an email the other day... when i was a few days into my 4 weeks off drinking in January. Im now over two week in and am going to make it the full 4 weeks of not drinking but I can describe how I feel about being sober for a month in one word... boooooooooooooring! It is amazing how many social activities (at least for me) revolve around drinking. I've even visited Geronimo's a few times and had a coke while everyone there was bellied up the bar, drinking at full speed.... i didnt stay long. I had to get home to my exciting night of TV and sleep.

Bah! come on Jan 31st!!!

Brad in the boxing gym
Ive started training at a boxing gym here in Tokyo... in preparation for fighting in a big charity event in June. The gym is great, nothing pretentious, no big attitudes, several professional fighters and they are mostly amused to have the big, slow, old white guy training at the gym. I really enjoy the workout.

Tonight was my second night of training and my colleague Tom joined tonight. He's a 6'2"-6'3" ish and weighs about 210, so hes not as big as me but he's alot closer than anyone else there. He's all gung ho to start sparring...after some work on the heavy bag and with the mits we were both pretty shattered but still looking foreward to sparring... gotta learn how to take a punch as well as throw a punch!

Great day of skiing in Shigakoen

Today I had what I think to be the most enjoyable day of skiing I've ever had. Most of the times I've skied, they have been great trips but everyone is so much better than me, that I spend most of the day getting the crap beat out of me trying to keep up with my friends then the rest to the day waiting for them at the bar. Mike is better than I am but not by so much that I couldn’t keep up, nor was he trying to get me to do slopes that were waaaaay beyond me.

In the afternoon after the kids gave up, Mike and I went a couple of hills over, winding through various lift to get there but we finally got to the peak of the highest mountain here and had an absolutely great run back. Challenging enough but not brutal... mostly red courses with an occasional black course for a challenge or green for a break. We finished too late and wound up one (closed) lift away from where we needed to be so had to walk the last bit but it was a great day of skiing.

Dinner at this resort is a big affair. big long tables, 10 course meals laid out for each guest...served from 6-7pm. If you want to eat at a different time you are just out of luck. I liked it and ate my fill but a few of the guys didn’t like the fact that they couldn’t identify several dishes so they probably didn’t enjoy it quite as much

After dinner they turned the lights on out on the slopes and several of us did a couple hours of night skiing – very cool – made cooler by the fact that it’s a full moon.

Most everyone's legs are shot... as are mine. Although, the hot tub here at the hotel helped. I’m laying here typing this while most of the rest of the guys are downstairs drinking scotch and hitting on Japanese 'snow bunnies'... or so they say (really? I saw a few today but this place is not exactly crawling with 'snow bunnies') I’m really pretty exhausted so I'm going to try and get some sleep

Weekend ski trip with MIke, Roland, Saori and the crew.

I went Skiing this weekend with the Aikido crew and their kids. All together there are 16 of us

1-3: Mike + 2 kids（Kyle 9, Jay 6）
4-7: Roland + 3 kids (Roland jr 14, Lynne 12, Oliver 6)

8-10: David + 2 kids (Tobi 12, laney 6)

11: Saori + 2 dogs (Nara 11, Lucy 11… hey c’mon they’re like her kids)

12-15: 4 Andrews

16: Me

It feels like a short weekend despite being three days. fridat night i had ot go to bed early so they coule pick me up at 5:15 AM. It was a slow trip up here and we only got 1.5 hours in on the slopes before they shut them down.

It a nice group with skiers and boarders at literally all levels (unlike most other trips I’ve been on where I’m the slow one in the group) Saori isn’t skiing at all just watching the dogs and some of the kids. I’m sharing a room with the 4 Andrews. The ski lodge is nice and they seem okay with accommodating 16 gaijin in their midst.

However, it is definitely hard being on a ski trip and not drinking! This whole taking a month off drinking sounds like a good idea but damn it takes some will power when they break out a nice bottle of scotch and a bottle of Bundy rum. I took refuge last night in my room writing code for the website update (geek!) while the guys drank in the hallway sitting by the vending machines and ashtray, eventually recruiting several of the Japanese guests into the impromptu hallway party.

Today I took a few nice easy runs don green slopes and several runs done some reds...building a little confidence on the slopes but have taken a break for lunch as my legs were starting to go. I’ll be hitting harder after lunch and really looking forward to night skiing.

life as a graduate exchange student
A friend of mine from the MBA office at SMU sent me an email asking about how things were going here and when I wrote the reply, I thought it made a nice summary of how things are here so here is a copy

*********************

Barbara,

Things are going well. The classes are very good. A few of them may be a bit too easy but one in particular was the best class I have ever had so it alone was worth the trip. My classmates are a mix of very serious students and people who came here hoping for an "Asian Vacation" and somehow this place works well for both groups. It is also a good opportunity to develop a list of contacts from around the world.

My schedule would be pretty smooth except for the fact that I am taking Mandarin classes at a private school 5 days a week and it takes an hour each way to get there. So including class time, it takes 4 hours out of every weekday.

The food here is no problem, but then again I like Asian food. pretty much anything you want is available, you just have to work to get it... which for me means 45min-1 hour travel to get in to the city and going to a Sports bar or steak restaurant. First thing I will want when I get back is some of Mom's cooking :)

My classes are not terribly diverse but that is by design. There are the usual array of MBA course available here but I wanted to take classes here that I cant get at SMU, so almost all of my classes are China specific

*Investment and finance in China
*Politics and the socioeconomic environment in China
*Management in Chinese context
*China's external relations and their economic impact
*China' economic development and reform
*China industry analysis

The living arrangements have worked out very well but might take some people a while to get used to. The university has housing for graduate students. I share a 4 bedroom apartment with 3 other MBA students from around the world. They are all nice guys, so I lucked out there. My bedroom is about the size of a small dorm room and the apartment was not nearly as clean as one would hope when moving into a new place. To put it in perspective.... despite being lived in by 4 bachelors, on an average day it is cleaner than the day I moved in (I was the first to arrive). That being said it is a pretty nice place. The campus itself is stunningly beautiful. It is built into the side of a mountain that is on the ocean. The campus starts half-way up the mountain and goes all the way to the beach. My apartment has a beautiful ocean view.

We had a few days of break between modules so I just came back from a trip to Beijing. I went with a Chinese tour group and we visited all the famous spot in Beijing (e.g. the emperors palace and we climbed the Great Wall.)

Hope everything is going well there. I'll see you in a few months

Brad

Brad Smith SMU - Cox School of Business
MBA candidate 2006 HK Cell: 852-6572-9141
Investment Finance bfsmith@ust.hk

And lo the diet beginneth...
I started dieting again today...part of my never-ending quest for getting/keeping in good shape. I am going to drop this extra weight i gained in japan and it would be nice to show back up at school 25lbs smaller than anyone there has seen me.

ah ketosis my dear friend and old enemy... we meet again...

suddenly I feel lethargic and dumb as a rock.

BTW, tonight I downloaded the pics from the Beijing trip and they look great. Lots of cool pics. I also took alot of pictures of some fairly mundane items and architecture because they were often decorated with ornate patterns that I think mom would be interested in for quilting patterns.

back from Beijing
I just made it back from Beijing. Great trip. went to the summer palace, forbidden city, climber the great wall again... Lots of good photos. Bought some nice souveniers and some nice clothes. Ill try to write it up in te next couple of days and post a few of the hundreds of photos that I took.

Im a little pissed off because the two most expensive items that I bought dont fit (and I paid more than I intended to, its all really nice materials). I bought one short sleeved shirt in the largest size and and 2 long sleve (shirts that could also be worn as jackets) in the next smaller size becasue they fit differently.... but they gave me all of them in the largest size... so now I have to go get them tailored, DAMNIT!!! I already have 3 custom tailoreed shirts in my closet that I have to take back and have redone because they dont fit right (its the usual problem... If its big enough to fit me in the chest, there is enough material slack for 2 of me around the waist)

Damn! It is amazing how fast time is flying past. It has been a week since I posted! well you will all rest easier know that I dont semll like a bowl of ramen anymore. A conscious dietary correction fixed that problem.

Anyway... I had my first exam today. Nailed it. It was investment and finance in China. I really liked that class and absorbed as much as possible. I know I made 2 typos on the final but the important thing was learning the info... besides, there was an extra credit question so I may still have over 100 on the exam.

I smell! ... like a bowl of noodles!

A few years ago when dieting I noticed that it changed the way I smell when I sweat. My girlfriend at the time noticed too and agreed that I had started to smell like a cheezeburger with mustard. Back then I was doing a low carb diet...

Weird, yes... a little disgusting, definately

I was on the stairclimber a yesterday... and apparently I have been eating too many bowls of ramen ( and a copious number of dishes with black bean and garlic sauce) because I have started to smell like a big bowl of Chinese ramen with garlic.

Taiwan and a typhoon
I went to visit Meng Jia in Taiwan this weekend and arrived just in time for a typhoon. Nice trip though. I had dinner with her family as usual but this time her mom and dad cooked and we had dinner at the house. pictures to follow. I would put them up now but I am busy prepping for my finance class tomorrow.

Best MBA class I've ever taken
I had the 4th installment of my "Investment and Finance in China" class taught by Larry Franklin. This class is without a doubt, the best college course I have ever taken. This class alone would be worth the trip to Hong Kong. Like I said, it is alot like drinking water out of a firehose to try and absorb the material at the rate it is being given but man this is some usefull information. Todays session was about international trade finance and how to shift risk and the examples were in a Chinese context but the concepts are applicable to a wide variety of business dealings domestically or between any two countries.

The class is a strong mix of theory and how to practically apply that thoery within the context of real world cases... real world cases with which the professor was personally involved. The biggest shortcoming of many MBA classes is that they are too theoretical and lack the ties to practical application, not so with this class.

Prof Franklin has done more of the things that I want to do in my career than anyone I have ever met. I am going to have to spend some time with him and get some serious career counseling.

Professor Franklin has been working in Asia and actively involved in the China market since 1981. To date, he has raised more than $8 billion for investment projects in Asia. He has successfully completed 54 equity and debt transactions in and with the PRC, raising more than US$5 billion in funds for investment in China.

Until 2002, Professor Franklin was the General Manager-Investments and Head Legal Counsel for Hutchison Whampoa (China) Ltd., responsible for a US$500 million corporate venture capital fund, investing in China and the U.S. From 1989-1998, he was the Deputy Managing Director of the flagship investment banking subsidiary in Asia for the American International Group (AIG), sourcing and structuring investments throughout the Asia Pacific Region. From 1985-1989, he was the China Country Head of The First National Bank of Chicago, responsible for the bank’s worldwide China activities, including offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, Chicago and New York.

mmmmmm.... civilized

I finally found a bottle of olives at the grocery store today... now I can have my martinis the way they were meant to be made ;)

by the way... Here are a few pics from this past month.

drinking straight out of a firehose at full blast
I had the first session of the class that is one of the reasons I came to Hong Kong. The class is "Investment and Finanance in China"... and the teacher is a badass. A westerner that has been in investment banking and buyside finance in china for the past 25 years.

I think it is going to be one of the most interesting classes I have ever attended.... and a tremendous amount of work. As we entereed class today they handed out the class reading and materials. Much like one of my other classes we received a 8.5 X 11 notebook sized book of about 200-250 pages. Unlike my other class, this book is not the materials for the whole class...this was the materials for just the first two sessions!! This means we will likly have about 800-1000 pages of otes and reading material for this one class... a class that meets twice a week for 3.5 hours each session and only lasts 4 weeks. This is going to be like trying to drink out of a firehose.