Do not judge a book by its cover. Just don't!

Prior notice: I hold no grudge against any person, moment, event, whatsoever. I have accepted everything and I am completely humbled (a little bit shaken) by everything that occurred and I would try to rectify everything....

I was late for class today. It is weird considering the fact that I realized a lot of stuff about me yesterday when I took a long walk.

I thought to myself: What prohibits me from going the extra mile? Do I sometimes get lethargic or indolent because I'm tired? Or am I tired because I'm lethargic?

More often than not, I actually feel like it's my inner drive that limits me. I think I could expand my own Production Possibility Frontier (PPF) if I just exert more effort. I actually thought I'll go the extra mile from then on. I thought I could make it. I was so inspired at that point.

A couple of hours after, I woke up early at around 4am to make sure I could be on time and stuff. Problem is, I had to recheck my paper for that extra mile. I left the house at 7:50am giving myself an hour to travel since our professor has a 7:30 class today. I thought I could be as late as 9am-the original schedule. But then, I looked at Pasong Tamo and saw how traffic it was. I remembered that they were fixing some streets and it would cause traffic. I decided to get a cab to make sure I get to school on time.

Reasons for taking a cab:
1.) MRT would take me an hour or more before I could get to school.
2.) Traffic on the way to MRT.
3.) Walking takes long; it's hot today.
4.) It takes me 40 minutes the most to get to school. That's more than 30% time savings from MRT.
5.) Our place is really commercial (a little ghetto probably) and it is near everywhere else in Makati so it has lots of vehicles).


The problem is, for some reason, the cabs were extremely scarce and I was able to call 6 of them but they all denied me a ride to Ortigas. I was already losing hope at around 8:20 but I could not make it to school if I take the MRT at that point so I took a leap of faith and waited some more. I even texted Diane to tell sir I was gonna be late. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to tell sir but that's another story. So I got a cab at around 8:50 and I got to the classroom around 9:20. I even took out my ID before entering so I would not get scolded for wearing the IEP lace but exhibit tardiness. I have always said that I do not want to disgrace the school and more so, the institution in any way possible. I stood beside the door for a long time; not being acknowledged or whatnot. I found it prudent to keep on standing because that was our prof's instruction when arriving late. I felt happy when I was finally acknowledged. I was so sure he was going to understand the situation...

What do I get though? Pure judgments that I am a spoiled rich kid who refuses to take public transportation. I appreciate his sharing of his past experiences and I actually understood his situation because I have been through those types of situations. I admire our professor! I think he's strong! And I know he has a lot of virtues in him. What I couldn't take though were the judgments and assumptions that resulted to my connotation of a spoiled, rich kid. The bad thing about it was I could not even correct him for it would make matters worse. I just took everything in. Knowing that doing so is most prudent. However, I would like to correct certain things that were implied in the long hotseat:

1.) I am not a spoiled rich kid. I belong to a middle-income class. I might get around 8,000 pesos a month but I am not a spoiled rich kid. I buy my own clothes. I buy my own toiletries. I don't ask my parents for a lot of stuff. I live a simple life. I do not even have enough money for dates! And I do take the MRT to school. I used to be chauffeured by my dad to school in a Pajero but that has not been the case for more than two years now. I do not refuse to take PUVs. I just made a decision to take a cab for the aforesaid reasons and it was too late to take the MRT when I realized my wrong decision. Lost time was sunk or incurred already.

2.) Secondly, I have had my shares of kick-in-the-crotch situations. I waited for my dad for 5 hours in school because I was so sure he was gonna come. I left my cellphone and I was so confident he'd come for me. At 12 am, I took the bus home and I got lost thrice. But I found my way home at around 2 am. I had a 7:30 am class the following day and I had to come up with my first draft for my 6pm class. This triggered my commuting career since I did not want to rely on my dad after this incident. During my 2nd year birthday. My mom only had a simple dinner for me and everybody was already eating when I got home. I had to type some paperworks for my dad 'til 2am and I still had a third draft to submit. But I did so without complaining. It does not really sound like a spoiled brat, does it? (I had a great birthday last year but that's a different story.)

3.) Thrid, I went from Makati to Cubao without knowing how to get there or anything. I did this because I had to get a check for my dad. I also went to Kamuning a few days after for the same errand. It was my first time but I did not back out because my dad needed me.

4.) Fourth, it is not true that I am solely dependent on whatever comes. I find my way to execute things the way they should be executed. When I failed the Ateneo exam because trigonometry was taught in senior year and the questions were trig questions by nature, I knew I had to look for another school. I went to UA&P on my own with a couple of friends. I did not know where UA&P was. I did not know anything about it. I just knew it was a good school and I had to take chances. I studied trigonometry in 4 days to prepare for the exam couple this up with my practices to represent my school in the Inter-Don Bosco school competition. I passed the entrance exam and become part of the top 100 applicants.

5.) Being a Makati boy, I did not even know where Shang was. All I knew was the hotel in Makati but I went to healthway alone. I was the only one alone for the physical examination. I enrolled myself. I enlisted myself. ALL ALONE. My mom did not even know where my school was. They just gave me the money and I had to take care of everything.

6.) I am looking for a way to study abroad and I am doing this alone as well.

I wish to say that I am not mad or anything. I am thankful that our professor shared us those thoughts because those would be helpful to us. I know his intentions are good and I appreciate everything. However, I feel that I have been misjudged without any significant proof. I was hurt because I was typecasted to be someone I am not. But this is something that I have forgiven. I am by no means, okay. I just needed to get this out of my chest.

Economic Concept of the Day: Opportunity Cost and Optimization

So I changed the heading of my blog yesterday because I thought it contained mild hilarious profanity that some people would not appreciate. Let us make the internet more kid-friendly. Stop swearing! Haha!

So amidst this pressure, I thought I should find an economical value in this situation. For today, we would learn about the economic concepts of Opportunity Cost and Optimization. By now, it is to be expected that we would have a considerable amount of reality and we would all be aware of the presence of limitations. If you are around the same age I am (19 turning 20) and you still think you have infinite money, time and energy then I advise you to take a hike to Basilan and engage yourself in battle, then we'll talk. (If you're still alive and healthy.) As for those who have a great sense of reality, we should by now be aware of the presence of limitations and scarcity.

For Example:

A kid studying in grade school has an allowance of, let's say, Php 100/day. He wants to grab a meal that costs Php 100 pesos (rice, ulam, drinks and dessert inclusive) but he also wants to buy a rather inexpensive card ( in my time it was Pokemon and Magic cards, now it could be anything!) for the same amount. Let's say that he brought a not-so-tasty but edible food. No doubt, the kid would buy the card in place of the meal because it would give him more pleasure. He has a full stomach even if the food was not as good as the one in Amici di Don Bosco (or school cafe, I dunno) and he gets to add a certain card to his deck.

Let us change the variable: Let us say that the kid failed to eat dinner last night and breakfast this morning. Let us also say that he forgot to bring his baon. Would he still buy the card? Possible if he's stubborn but if he's rational enough, he would probably buy the food in the cafe.

What influenced this decision? It is his desire to get the best out of a given situation. He had two choices. One is to buy the card; the other, to have something to eat.

The main point is, given any constraint, people would look for the best choice or alternative at his disposal to increase his well-being.

So, what does this have to do with my current situation?




I wanna watch a movie and probably go out tonight but I have a lot of pending activities in school so I want to compute the Opportunity Cost and optimize my well being.




Hmmmm.... I dunno yet... haha! LOL! Of course I'll finish my papers first then carry on with Prince of Caspian or Get Smart on Sunday! Possibly, get a parfait in icebergs! =)

So, what are the possible outcomes of my situation? errr... I'll read the book first... *sighs*

Pressure....

I really love my school and my course... It's probably because my school is the best economic school in the Philippines! Yes! Go UA&P-IEP! I have learned to love the system. It is really difficult just to get by through the day. We have professors who graduated from Hokaido, Purdue and Pittsburgh this current semester. We would soon have a professor from Harvard for the second term of our Econ. Hist. Just last sem, we had a prof. from Cornell and Australia. We even have a prof who was related to European companies regarding their finances for acquisition and merging of several companies. Man! It is really overwhelming to be surrounded by such brilliant minds.

As the title of my blog indicates, I would like to have this short moment of vacuum. A moment in time when I have nothing else to do but simply blurt out whatever I am currently thinking. The thing is, I had a really hard time with Math Stat this afternoon. I understood what the professor was saying, the bad thing is, it does not follow that I could do the solution independently. What makes it hard is the fact that I did not expect that we would be 244 pages behind readings. I do not know how I could cope up with the readings considering the fact that I have two essays to write and I do not have any clue what to write about yet. I was also planning to read 3 chapters of Macro; another 2 of Micro; the 40-page Laborem Exercens handout by Pope John Paul II for Work and Society and a whole lot of news for our morning recitation on Monday. I know that Graduate School is not supposed to be a walk in the park but I didn't know it was gonna be a walk in the desert with no oasis anywhere near in sight.

The weird thing is, despite the fact that I have so many things in my plate, my entrepreneurial and capitalistic spirit is still burning. I want to do something other than school. But I can neither find the time nor the energy to do so.

I'll start cracking on my readings in the hope that I will find some good insights for tomorrow's research. Why does the submission have to be on Monday? :(

Well, I am in UA&P and I am in IEP. I should be excellent. I do not wish to disgrace our tradition. I still have in my mind what Dr. Mariano, our University President told me in my freshman year. "If the university produces beer, you'll be one of our finest brewery." :)

Added Information: An IEP alumnus of UA&P took a significant role in drafting the recent tax break for minimum wage earners. Kudos to you my co-economist! I do not know who you are but the feedbacks we heard from Dr. Terosa earlier makes me proud to be part of what you have gone through! :)

I hate it when things don't go the way they should be...

I was supposed to attend a research workshop for CivitasAsia today. I have only attended one meeting and I pretty much missed 90% of what was discussed. I really wanted to make it up today but my mom told me last night that we should see my godfather today. He's the present commissioner of Philippine Regulations Commission and he might be able to help me get into Columbia Business School. For one, I need someone who could help my parents finance my education and stay because it is pretty expensive. Also, I do not really have that much actual work experience to enter into a graduate program there. Moreover, we really just cannot afford it. I have not actually inquired about the actual cost but in University of Ontario it is somewhere between 3,000-4,000 Canadian dollars excluding your day-to-day expenses. We just cannot afford that (Especially CBS is in the US!). That's almost twice of what I pay in UA&P and I would spend more in my day-to-day life there because I'd be spending dollars. It would be cool if I could get to do some sideline job or something but it is clearly stipulated in the admissions link that they expect the students to perform actively in school. Thus, there is a high chance that I can't take a job.
So the plan was I would not attend the workshop but I failed to inform Ms. Vina because I could not find any of my cellphones. Turns out I left it in my parents' bedroom. The sad thing is, we were not able to go to our appointment either because my godfather or ninong is not available in the afternoon and we failed to leave early morning. Everything is just screwed up. I wasted an entire day doing nothing. I just buried myself into watching Bill Gates and Charice Pempengco in youtube. Man! That girl could sing huh? I got goosebumps! I got so spooked out I actually felt her taking my energy from me. In other words, nakakakilabot! Grabe! There are times when I would actually make myself close my eyes. How could someone so young and so small (physically) sing that way? It is just weird that I felt tired after watching her for 40 minutes. Man! I'm so proud of her! Go Philippines!
Did you guys know that Bill Gates would start his full-time philanthropy? Yep! He will remain chairman in Microsoft but he would spend most of his time in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I hope they would be successful in distributing vaccines to the less fortunate. No abortions and infertility medications please! I hope the articles are just rumors! But seriously, come on man! Just because a country is poor does not mean they should not multiply! So please!!! Do not kill innocent babies!
So anyway, too much digression on my part. My mom told me we're visiting my godfather on June 25. I do hope we could sort out something here. I wanna study in Graham and Dodd Investment program so bad! I hope I get to meet Warren Buffett in person. If this proves to be impossible, the least that I could have is study in his alma mater. Even if they would just give me a couple of months! It is more of the experience that I want. It is simply not the tangible asset of having a CBS diploma that I want. I want to have the intangible booster of being part of that institution. I want to have that feeling that I am actually one of them. I think it would help me out a lot!

In this matrix, you're just stupid!

I have a handful of time in my hands right now so I get to do a lot of stuff I usually would not have time to do. The magic of time. I watched Kung Fu Panda yesterday and man! That was probably the most hilarious movie I have seen in years. I don't wanna spoil the movie for anyone so I'll keep my mouth zipped. Here's the movie poster:

Kudos to Dreamworks! What a splendid job you've done! Kudos to Sam Concepcion as well! That's big huh? Working for an international movie? That's really something! So anyway, I actually wrote this blog so that people could watch a video that I recently saw. Probably a week ago. But I thought you would want to see it. The talk was given by Guy Kawasaki, author of several books such as The Art of the Start, The Macintosh Way, etc. He gave this talk in TieCon Conference 2006. I was absolutely entertained with this video so please do watch it. It would be helpful for entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.

P.S. Watch out for topic number 6! I thought that was the funniest!

You could see the video from this link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3755718939216161559&q=guy+kawasaki+art+of+the+start&ei=6ONLSK-ABoqawgOYidHnCw

Anyway, if you are serious about business, ehem, like me, ehem, you would definitely find this video informative. =)

It's not about the money!

So, I talk a lot about business stuff right? If you do not know this about me yet, then you are most probably less than an acquaintance. To most people that I know, I care about or I have at least engaged in a conversation for at least 30 minutes, they would know that I am a business-oriented person. TRUST ME YOU WOULD KNOW!

Certain manifestations why I am business-oriented include:

1. I am awesome in Monopoly! I have never lost in this game!
2. Most of the books that I buy are business books. Not necessarily all about business but a lot of them are actually related to business.
3. My favorite TV show is The Apprentice.
4. People have heroes in their lives outside the family circle. Some people would refer to celebrities or athletes or politicians or philosophers probably. My personal hero outside the family is Warren Buffett. Not because he donated billions of dollars to charity, not because he is down-to-earth, not because he is the richest man in the world, certainly not because he's pro-choice but because Berkshire Hathaway is one of the most successful companies in America. I think it belongs to Fortune 3.
5. Some people love to gossip about people's lives and whatnot. I get really hooked up when I hear that there are new talks and speeches being made about business.
6. I read annual reports for the fun of it. Yes! For the fun of it!
7. I do not like accounting which is weird considering I like annual reports but the moment I realized I needed it for stocks, I actually became interested in it.

However, to judge me as a money-oriented, blood-sucking, cold-hearted, tycoon is very unacceptable. I am saying this because somebody already made a mistake of calling me money-oriented, oh I'm sorry - TOO MONEY-ORIENTED!

There is actually more to me than business. There is more to me than leverage and stocks and bonds. I am a person. Need I say more? hehe...

Truth be told. I have never invested in a business before. I wanted to but my capital is too low and the stockbroker won't accept anything less than a hundred grand. The thing is, business and money-making do not ring common bells to me. It is not as dissimilar as apples and oranges but they are not necessarily the same thing to me. It does not even follow that business would spurt out money. To me, business is something that entices me. It is something that excites me. It is something that I do not mind doing for the rest of my life.

Let me ask you this question. Have you ever felt so passionate about something that you have completely defied everything that kept you from doing it? Did you climb off your window and took your dad's car to go to a party you were not allowed to go to? Did you travel 20 kilometers just to visit your love ones despite the fact you have a report to submit the following morning? Did you commit yourself to Gawad Kalinga to help build houses for the poor every week despite the fact that you already have a full plate in your household? Finally, did you date someone secretly even if your family dislikes the person? If your answer is yes, then you and I are not so different.

You see. My parents definitely have high expectations from me. My mom is a Ph. D. who got straight A's since her M.A. She also graduated magna cum laude in college. My dad is a self-made mechanical engineer who used to sell pandesal every morning before going to school just to have an allowance. Now, our family is nowhere near to ultra rich. We are actually part of the middle class. We earn enough money to live decent lives. My parents are very particular with education as you might suspect. They sent us to good schools so that we could be successful some day. I am grateful for everything that they have done for us but most of you would not know that my parents do not agree with my path in business. It is kind of like a Romeo and Juliet; only it is more of the geeky version. So geeky that you'll find yourself having internal vomiting. The thing is, for most of my life I have been dreaming of becoming SOMEONE some day. It does not have to be cool. It just has to be SOMEONE. When I was a kid. I wanted to become a scientist. Imagine that! What kind of a kid would want to become a scientist!? Hmmm... Try..... ME! hehe... I would put apart the toys that my parents gave me then I would put them back in. When I receive a toy, my main concern would be putting it apart rather than taking care of it and keeping it intact. I loved tearing up toys to see how they were made! Sadly, my science teachers never got my attention. What's up with the eclipse and the body systems!? How could you attract me to study that!? So, I resorted to medicine. Now, I used to be skinny but we all eventually became healthy. And I promised my parents and my siblings that I would become a doctor and I would invent the most advanced; fail-proof diet pill that you would experience weight loss with just one pill! I would call it Super Slim! hahaha! When my dad would tell me. "Don't eat too much. I'd respond and say, "Never mind! I'll fix it up when I become a doctor!" hahahaha! Then came high school. I got myself to a Technical school and I was and still am and will forever be happy to have been a Bosconian. I wanted to become a computer engineer. I wanted to be like Bill Gates! People seem to say that the guy is geeky. But to hell with it! He's the coolest GEEK there is! I learned programming and website making and Flash presentations until I found myself in Industrial Electricity. Then came my musings for hardwares. I wanted to invent an actual product! I wanted to be like Thomas Edison or Grahambell! Shortly after this, I figured, hmmmm.... I want to be a CEO. I want to be THE BOSS! I ain't working for anybody but me. If I screw things up, my ass is on the line. If I make a killing however, I get freaking rich! hahaha!

So came senior year and I had interests in Conan O' Brien, Jay Leno and all those talk show stuff. I won an extempo speech and I thought, "Hey! I could be a public speaker! A host!" hahaha! So I thought I could take Comm and be in business and talk in public and stuff and that would be ccol but eventually, it faded. Everything I wanted for myself faded. Like faded jeans! (no laughter? Ok...) They all faded in front of my eyes! And the sad thing is, I didn't give a tiny rat's ass. Nothing mattered to me! Despite the fact that I worked hard to train myself for it! It didn't matter to me that I did not want it anymore. It was like, Pfffft. I don't want it anymore. Big deal! Until I went to a business seminar. I learned about Robert Kiyosaki who influenced me but I do not agree with. But my craving for information became stronger. I was hungrier than ever. I liked business more than I liked food (haha!), or school (I like school though), or TV shows, or vices, or even girls probably. Haha! Business was a topmost priority other than my family and well, God of course! But even so, business became a big part of my life. I thought about it day and night. I do not feel bored with it. I find it the coolest thing to ever be in existence! I started to see the company beyond the label! I started to see the organization beyond the price tag. It was a wonderful moment. My sisters thought I was being geeky as hell but I never felt business was geeky at all! I thought it was something that is and will forever be part of my life.

Which brings me to my point. Business is something that I do not see as a means to an end. Business is my intended end. I had a conversation with a 5th year Industrial Economics student by the name of Migs. He is currently working as a Research Assistant for Mr. Pineda. He is not earning a salary but he is really hyped up about his job. I remember him telling me that it is not about the salary. His current job is not related to money-making. Just the experience and the opportunity to work for a Cornell graduate who works for the best economic school in the Philippines, UA&P and a consultant to multinational firms and senators is already big! Same thing is true for me. I told him prior to his statement that I would work free of charge for Warren Buffett. I have always dreamed of spending some time in Columbia Business School to experience first hand they type of education that he received. I would work for free for business. For some people, they find business as a means to early retirement. They find it as an escape from 9-5. They find it an opportunity to escape Income Tax or earn more money. I don't. Business is not a vehicle to earn money. It is an end that I pursue. There is something about it that soothes me. There is something about it that satisfies me. And if I can spend so much of my money and so much of my time devoting myself to buying books and reading them; reading countless numbers of news articles, then I could certainly say that it would be a much smoother ride in the future.

By the way, business is something that I have never been tired of and the day I stop loving it is the day that I have nothing to smile about for the rest of my life.




I actually forgot. So I'm posting a picture of TIMELY. It's the product I talked about in my first entry... I think? Anyway,



You could visit the website here: goodlandenterprises.freehostia.com

Do not put www. I do not know why it does not work with www.

Monopoly

I might regret posting this blog some day...

A couple of days ago, I decided to browse through my Microeconomics textbook for twenty minutes and I stumbled upon an article that discusses Microsoft´s monopoly. It said in the article that Microsoft is guilty of killing its early competitors such as Netscape by adding MSIExplorer to its OS package. It is quite interesting since I am really curious about the power of monopoly companies.

In the Philippines and most countries, monopoly companies usually render household necessities such as electricity, water, supposedly oil but it was deregulated during the Aquino administration, etc. Other basic needs are encompassed in the competitive market where there is small margin profits and where businessmen would easily say, "Hmmmf! To hell with that." And most of these monopolies are government regulated.

I cannot help it but admire the people who are able to capture a significant amount of market share and are able to sustain its dominance by increasing the barrier of entry so as to eliminate competitors. I commend them for their brilliance. I do not have any issues with Microsoft's dominance of the computer software market. I love Microsoft! I like Bill Gates too. I do not have any problem with Buffett's dominance of a newspaper company nor do I have a problem with San Miguel's apparent strength in the local brewery. I think they are doing a fantastic job and their efforts are giving them significant power to increase profit margins.

However, I do disagree with a couple of things regarding monopolies. For one, they tend to polarize people too much. Polarizing people is a good thing. You must produce a product that would be likened by a lot of customers with different tastes. The downside is it becomes detrimental to people's creativity and the variety that one would expect to find in the marketplace. People would love to have choices.

Allow me to digress, I am a big fan of democracy. In my opinion, if it could be implemented in a Plato environment, that is ideal environment, it is probably the best system of government because it has checks and balances; it empowers the people through suffrage; and it allows for a balanced distribution of power among its members. Now, it may not work because of cultural deficiencies and whatnot but I am just saying that if it could be used optimally and properly, it is the best government system! Now, the reason why I like democracy is amplified by my strong dislike of communism. In my personal opinion, I think communism especially if it is enforced fully would create the worst society ever given to man. For one, to completely surrender all your rights to the government is really wrong. To make things worse, to allow the government to assign your specialization, clothing and designation is pretty much utmost suppression of one's personhood! And this brings me to why I find dissatisfaction in monopolies especially if they are providers of basic needs.

No matter what price is set, if one really needs it, he/she would buy it. This is the explanation for the inelastic demand for necessities. No matter how bad a product is made, if it is the only one available, one would buy it. Lastly, no matter how many protest and cries people do for lowering the prices and increasing the quality of the products and/or services being provided, they can't do anything. Sad but it is true or would be true. The capability of monopolies to suppress people demand and act in a mediocre manner and still profit scares the hell out of me. Imagine living that life. Paying a high price to a bozo who can't do s**t really. That would suck.

Think of things this way. Why are we paying so much money for gas just because the OPEC is limiting its production? This is what I would call monopoly of energy source. And as we could see, entry to energy provision is really difficult for companies. Why is that? Because cars work with gasoline and diesel! Same thing for Microsoft! I personally use Linux and Microsoft in my computer. I would love to use Linux and let go of Microsoft despite my love for it because it is too freaking expensive. However, I cannot simply do it. Why? Because my printer, wireless lan, webcam,MP3 player, YM and a lot of other necessities do not work with Linux! And I do not have the necessary skills and... well... patience actually... to look for the kernels and install them via Terminals that I think is worse than MS-Dos.

So, there. I actually might have more reasons why I do not like monopolies but I am already lazy to recall them. Don't get the wrong notion though. I admire monopolies and I have high respect for the founder of companies that are able to dominate a market. However, I just feel bad that the consumers are left with their hands tied buying whatever is available.

Blog Christening!

It's my first time to blog.. Yey! Exciting??





NAH! Not really... This is my nth blog! hahahaha!




Nobody would probably read this since I may not spread out the URL to anyone in particular but I thought it imperative to have a sanctuary in the World Wide Web and thus the title, breathing room.



Where do I begin?... Okay. It's as of now past three in the morning and I have been tasked to give my mom a ride to her office at 5:30. Wait for the bank to open and withdraw some cash for my tuition fee, which I must pay today. Also, I would still have to make certain adjustments for my course enlistments so I'll probably lose all my energy today and metaphorically resemble a nearly empty toothpaste tube.



Okay. Off to the blog. I would actually like to take this opportunity to voice out my taxing situation as of the moment. Are any of you Cathlolic? Well, we're in the Philippines, so yes probably. There's an instance in the waning moments of Christ's persecution where he prays in a garden to His Father because He could foresee the pain and suffering he is bound to undertake. Well, it may not be right to make comparison but this is exactly what it is. I have a tough year ahead of me. In fact, I am probably biting more than I could chew (which literally happens at times) but yeah. I'm really scared with the upcoming year that I have. I am just surrounded with too many activities and I am really not in a great shape to enter the 5th year program. Couple those up with my personal goals and outside activities and voila! You are looking at a Carrera being driven at 200 miles an hour by an unskilled driver. I am really anxious not only because I am overwhelmed by the magnitude of the upcoming year but because the intangible pursuits that I have are not even being taken into account yet. Well, come to think of it, millions of teens are probably thinking of the same things anyway. So I should probably just mellow down and try to make the best out of this situation. One thing is for sure: This year is make or break for me. Either I do well or I end up in dismal mediocrity.



Something has been keeping me occupied over the last couple of days and I have been trying to recall a lot of HTML stuff that I used way back in High School. I have been creating a website for my dad's invention. It's pretty cool! The gadget is cool; the website? Not so much. But hey! It has been a long time since I had one.



Anyway, we are actually already using this gadget. It is an anti-car nap / anti-car jack device. It is pretty high tech so I cannot really describe how the gadget functions but I could describe its functions. I have used this twice. When you're driving and in the unfortunate event that somebody forces you out of the car and drives of, the car would stop in half a minute or so depending on how you programmed it. It could also stop if the thief goes on a full stop. The best part is the car would not turn on again unless the hidden switch is found. How much time does the thief has to look for the switch when the other cars are horning? Amazing huh? I prefer having the key switch. He can't turn on the car unless the key is used to reset the device. It's pretty cool. I always feel safe when I use the car. Anyway, the device is called TIMELY, and youc could just check out the unfinished wesite http://www.goodlandenterprises.freehostia.com for the details.



What else has been keeping me busy? I have watched a lot of movies and played bowling and wondering if I could study in Columbia Business School where my hero, Warren Buffett studied. Oh! I got a new dog! Actually, we got a new dog! He's pretty cool. His name is Basty! He had very thick hair when he arrived but we brought him to a pet store to get a haircut because flees might hide in his fur. I'll post pics next time. Hmmm... I'm sleepy. I'll just sleep for an hour. Au revoir!