Gee, Think.

Yesterday was the last day of Chinese New Year celebrations with Yee’s Hung Ga. This was my first year at the near year celebrations with the association. What an experience it was. We spent four days running around the New York chinatown boroughs of Brooklyn, Flushing, and Manhattan between this last weekend and the one before that.

For those that aren’t familiar with the tradition, the Chinese calendar is based on the moon rather than the sun. This is why Chinese New Year is also called Lunar New Year, because it is the start of a new year in the calendar which runs according to the moon. In the Gung Fu tradition, the Lion and Dragon will move throughout the neighborhood chasing away evil spirits and bringing good luck. Each animal has a distinct musical rhythm associated with it. The music is played by a team composed of a large drum (roughly 30 inches in diameter) at least one set of cymbals, and a gong. When the Lion or Dragon is on the street, the music is very loud. It must sound powerful and strong to accurately capture the spirit of the moment. For the team playing the music and protraying the animal this means that a high level of enery is essential. This what livens the spirits of the people who meet the animals.

Yesterday we marched through Manhattan Chinatown 100 strong. We had four teams, two lions and two dragons, all moving together down the streets with banners at the head. Our Lions were hoisted 15 feet into the air again and again atop a long red pole. When there was enough space, the hoisted Lion would be surronded by double dragons swirling and undulating backand forth. It really was a spectable to behold.

I felt proud to be a part of such a group of energetic and strong individuals who could come together to spread positive energy to so many people.

I have been practicing Ashtanga Yoga since July.  I took about two months off from it due to professional commitments, but have now gone every week for about two months, possibly more.  I still have so much to learn about this form of exercise, but I have already greatly improved in flexibility, strength, and endurance.

Strength in yoga practice is different than body building strength.  In yoga, strength is built by holding your body in varios poses.  The repetition of these poses slowly strengthens the muscles involved. I find that the muscles I’m strengthening through Ashtanga practice are mostly muscles that I hardly use.  I’m sure that’s partly because I have a desk job, but also because the yoga poses bring these rarely used muscles to your attention.  I have seen people in the class perform movements and motions that require incredible strength, flexibility, and control.  These movements are hard to describe without pictures.  Maybe I will post some references to specific poses later on.

What I really enjoy about Ashtanga is that flexibility and strength training go hand in hand.  Through the exercises you can strengthen your back but also make it easier for you to bend your back to tie your shoes, pick up the paper, etc.  I was a runner in middle and high school, so I stayed limber through daily stretching.  This stretching was haphazard when compared to yoga.  I did enough to loosen up, but never enough to dramatically increase my flexibility.  Yoga has given discipline to a part of exercise that I formerly considered the equivalent of parsely the side of a porterhouse steak.  Just there for decoration.

I would highly recommend yoga to anyone interested in increasing their strength and flexibility, not to mention relieving a bit of stress while you’re at it.

Triumphantly, I’ve returned!!

I’ve recently been challenged with the opportunity to see just how far I can take my dedication to my profession. The past couple months were a trial in persistance, faith, and relentless self-affirmation. I met long hours as sunless mornings and late nights. I saw what it is like to become completely absorbed in a project work schedule. There were weeks when I saw my fiance only when she was either sleeping or driving me to the train station. I missed engagements with friends and family. This was a challenge for my own endurance, and also for our resiliency together. I personally felt the costs of such a schedule, and can now say without question how far I am willing to go and under which circumstances. Part of the cost to me from the process was time with these people. After paying those costs, I’ve realized how much I enjoy that time. I appreciate time with friends and family on an even deeper level now.

I learned the meaning of expectations and deadlines. I felt great about meeting deadlines, and felt the excrutiating anxiety of missing them. I put all of my energy into my work, even through the weekends, and there was still more to do. These were challenges that I had not previously met. I feel excellent about the effort I put forth, and that’s a feeling that I could not have from any lesser collection of demands.

The work that I do is very different from the work of any of the men from previous generations in my family, and yet we can still talk to each other about our seperate experiences as similiar tests of “what you’re made of”. I put forth the best effort I can because I hope to be able to hold myself up to their example of work ethic.
This experience was challenging, but something I see as a positive chapter in my life. It was a time when I was able to say that no matter how tired I feel, no matter what kind of pressure I’m feeling, I’m just going to keep going on because I believe that by going on, we’ll make it. We did make it. We got to the other side, and my team was able to contribute to the good of the whole through our individual self sacrifices. Knowing this is the best reward I could have for the effort I put forward.

A Whole New Mind

Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future

Daniel H. Pink

ISBN 1-59448-171-7

I love this book. I am a programmer. I work in the financial district of New York City’s Manhattan. I’m constantly flexing my left brain muscle with “L-Directed” thinking. Pink’s book has some real meaning for a guy like me.

In the first part of “A Whole New Mind” Pink discusses three big topics: Abundance, Asia, and Automation. Yea yea yea… Haven’t we all read that in “The World Is Flat” by Thomas Friedman? I read Friedman’s book before I got to Pink’s. I can’t say who inspired who or if the books were conceived independently but I can say that the first couple chapter’s in Pink’s ‘Conceptual Age’ felt like a compressed Friedman. Actually that’s a good thing because not everyone wants to pick up Friedman’s 600 page tome. Pink does a good job of getting the facts and the story of global change across. These first 50 pages are essential to someone looking to learn more about globalization and its potential affect on individuals.

Pink’s Part Two, ‘The Six Senses”, is awesome! As a technical professional I feel a yearning to flex my right brain muscle. I love music & art, but I just don’t make time to enjoy it. I’m not going to guess at the reasons for that, but Pink encourages a guy like me to take the time to learn more about the arts that I love. It’s encouraging to feel like creating or enjoying art is “productive”. Pink discusses the numerous benefits of arts in our lives and even the necessity of becoming more well rounded people. His “Whole New Mind” is a mind that uses both its left and right hemispheres. A whole mind is a mind that exercises analysis and creativity regularly. It’s a mind where logic and empathy coexist.

So far I’ve only read through the ‘Design’ and ‘Story’ Chapters of the book’s second part, ‘The Six Senses’ but I already feel inspired. Yesterday I made a quick still life sketch at work and I’m planning to visit some of the design museums that he mentioned soon.

I highly recommend this book!

My work schedule is demanding. The work load has increased recently.  My work day lasts about an hour longer each day, which translates into an hour less at home enjoying the domestic scene. Is it worth it? Is it necessary? Will sacrificing those extra hours now pay off for me and my family in the future?  These are the questions I’m asking myself. I have not yet come to the conclusions. There is no doubt that the extra hours result in extra compensation. In certain ways, that makes our lives easier. At the same time, although I am compensated additionally for the extra hours, I am not as able to keep up with the household chores or get enough rest.  This puts strain on my relationships and health as I become less rested, less energetic, and have less time to get everything done. So how do I find the balance? I expect there to be some amount of sacrifice and toil in my life. From
what I hear, life is not just a walk in the park. Actually it’s quite hard to get by, even in a land of opportunity. So the question really is: how hard is too hard? I don’t want to sacrifice my health, physical or mental, for success and
comfort. I don’t want to sacrifice my realtionships either. Those things are worth much more than a salary. That’s definitely true. At the same time I accept gladly that life is not all peaches and cream. I take my work seriously and work hard to get it done. But how will I know when I am working to hard? I’m guessing it’s like love; when you know you just know. It’s nothing someone can give you a formula for. For the time being I am going to keep on working hard because I don’t think I’ve quite reached that danger point where work and personal life are imbalanced. I’m going to
be conscious of the trade offs and strains that I see forming. If I get too wrapped up in it I hope I’ll see it before it creates problems.

Is it too late for my poor QQQUJ options? It could be. I hear that
these last two weeks are really when the time value gets sucked out of
the options. So out of the money options are not really the place to
have your money. Well, all I can do at this point is hope that the
market falls hard enough tomorrow and the day after to see if I can
recover my 8 cent cost basis.
My trading account is hanging in the balance here. If I am able to exit
the position with some scrap of captial still remaining, I will
definitely not buy current month options again. I was really playing
with too short a time frame.
If I end up losing all the money in this position, I’l have to wait
until I’ve done some more saving before I can practice again.
I think one of the biggest lessons to learn is patience. I rushed into
some poor quality options because they were cheap and I was too eager to
play the downside. Now I realize that it would have been much better to
wait until the direction of the market was more certain. Then I could
have profited more from today’s striking 70 cent loss in the Qs.
Instead I’ve lost money in my trade and also in the opportunity to
capitalize on such a dramtic move.

Last night we went to our fourth weekly ashtanga class. This time it was with a different yoga studio. We both enjoyed the differences between this teacher and our usual teacher at the yoga and healing center in scoth plains.

As usual, the class was demanding. I’ve developed a little more control in some of the poses, but I am still learning the basics.  The major improvment I saw in my practice was in my state of mind after class was over. Usually I have been worked so hard that I can hardly think. Usually my reptillian brain takes over and my thoughts simplify to water, water, water, and a small bit of food, followed by a deep sleep.
Last night’s class left me with enough energy to carry on a conversation in a pleasent mood. There was a moment about 15 minutes after class that I felt my energy slipping away, but I pulled it back and enjoyed the rest of the evening.
I think that either I am adapting to the practice and thus better able to act normally afterward, or last night was just a good night.

I’m continuing to surprise myself. When I remember my state of mind 18
months ago, on 17th February 2005 I know that I could never have
predicted myself ending up spending hours a day studying the stock
market. I would have laughed hard and long if someone had explained my
fate to me. The jersey living NYC working part wouldn’t have been so
hard to believe, but becoming immersed in the financial world would have
been.
I think I know myself better having gone through this change. My
occupation is drastically different than a year and a half ago, but I
still have a lot of the same likes and dislikes. The type music I
listen to hasn’t really changed. I still love the outdoors. I still
love to write. There’s also a lot that hasn’t changed.
When the world around me has changed, when I’ve altered the entire
environment of my daily life, I find myself looking inside to find the
familiar. Amidst the changes is when I find out what is constant.
Through the changes I must choose to hold onto what I wish to remian
constant. It is a conscious choice, and not a daily pattern or habit.
Perhaps the world can fully change a person, but I’m not ready for an
overhaul. I like a dynamic existence full of changes and variety, but I
don’t plan to lose myself in it.

I used to take snapshots of this riverfront factory when I started
riding the PATH train almosy a year ago. Something about it really
caught my attention. Now I really couldn’t tell you what it was.
Maybe it was the smokestacks. There’s five huge columns coming out of
one building, and two of them are smaller in diameter than the other
three. It’s curious. It’s also strange in the way it sits exactly on
the water’s edge. This is surely a sign that the factory dumped into
the river for sometime.
It’s a dilapidated mystery. I wonder who owns it, if it still operates,
etc. I can see the smokestacks from my office building. They are way
off in the distance, past the Jersey city skyline, but they are there.
I guess I could still tell you what about it caught my attention.
Going through the seasons here reminds me that I’ve been around a
while. I’ve looked at this factory five days a week through fall,
winter, spring, summer, and soon fall again. Somehow, I’m surprised to
be going through the seasons. The seasons are so familiar, but I’ve
become used to adapting to new things so often. The seasons are
juxtaposed with the landscape. I have always known the seasons, but
never known a life like this. The busy daily life, surrounded by some
many people, and the urgency are all new. They too, are becoming
familiar. That is the strangest feeling. It’s like when you catch
yourself calling a new place home without thinking about it. The fact
that you didn’t think twice of calling it home means it’s home, but if
an old friend points it out to you its a shock.

It’s only been two days that I’ve had a subscription to the Elliot Wave
Financial Forecast service and already I am sold. This could have
something to do with the fact that their forecast suggests what I need
in order to exit my option position profitably, but let’s just assume
that I’m objective for a moment.
I’ve read through Frost and Pretcher’s “Elliot Wave Principle” over the
last couple months. It was by no means a light read. It was filled,
make that jam packed, with rules, guidelines, ratios, and plenty of
chart examples. I re-read most of it and found that I absorbed much
more on the second time around.
After my second reading I decided to try and put the theory into
practice. This was a triumphant day for me. I was quite pleased. If I
remember right, my very first wave count was no correct, who would
expect it to be? I thought to myself that I would practice the
art/science of wave counting until I become proficient enough to publish
my own forecasting service.
I knew that Robert Pretcher was still actively forecasting the markets,
however, and I was quite curious to see HIS wave counts.
I have since subscribed and so far I love it.
In the half dozen issues inlcuded with my subscription, I have found
incredible detail in the elliotwave.com team’s analysis of the financial
markets. They set specific targets and also include when to asume
they’ve been wrong. Even better, they don’t forecast when the aren’t
certain what the market’s next move will be. If they cannot find a
satisfactory wave count they admit it. I think this is much better than
constantly forecasting whether or not you are sure.
It remains to be seen if I am able to correctly interpret their reports
and put them to profitable trading use consistently.
I am really impressed with the ammount of work that must go into these
reports. It looks much better than something that ibcould manage to
create on a part time basis. However I am still holding out that if I
continue to study the application of the wave theory through this
newsletter, I will one day be able to use it on my own.