so, why should i care about Euro/US Dollar ratio?

hi everyone, Pro tian will teach economy class again. Don't write on your notes yet, i want you to keep your heads up and THINK.

So, why should you care about Euro/US dollar ratio? Because it is directly related to inflation, employment rate and US dollar buying power. Let's be more specific: every American somehow owes debt if they ever use credit card. If the total national debt is, say 12 trillion dollars, the total cash amount should be at least 12 trillion dollars, otherwise the debt will never be paid off. When the debt increases to 14 trillion dollars, another 2 trillion dollars cash bills need to be printed. This causes inflation, ie, the true buying power of US dollar decreases. So, why is inflation rate of US dollar (~2%) relatively lower than other country, say China Yuan? It is because other countries buy US dollar bills to preserse their economy. It's like store some gold under your bed in old time. Those smaller countries buy some US dollars, just in case when their countries' economy system go poor, This keeps US inflation rate lower and debt system running. However, the smaller countries only buy most stable currencies that they trust, when Euro/US dollar keeps going up, more funds will shift into Euros and inflation rate increases. Euro/US can not go up constantly for too long, otherwise the investors will switch their funds from their business to this foreign currency exchange market, which will cause employment rate lower.


But don't worry, the US and European central banks and big companies will make sure nothing go wrong. What should we do to help the economy? I don't know, I am just a pro, not an advisor.
p.s. A little inflation is actually healthy. Actually inflation can not go too low, because that means there is not enough expend demand which is bad for economy.

us dollar/ euro

US dollar/Euro has reached a new low. If I was a US citizen, I will vote for a president who can bring us prosperity, not someone who can prove he/she is right. Why is the reason for billion-billion dollar iraq war if it didn't bring us cheap gas? I would never be a republican.

negative tax

What if we are paid by negative income? Do government owe us tax then?

Imagine an afternoon,

Boss: "hey Tian, your new monthly income is -$100,000."
Me: "Greeeeeat! Now I can make $15,000 tax every month!"

Isn't that great?

Wait, how to deal with the -$100,000 amount?

Imagine,

Me: "Boss, when will the -$100,000 transaction post in my account?"
Boss: "Oh, same old question. According to our contract, your payment will be realized 100 years later."

Is that better? If I open a company "Negative Power, Inc.", will you join?

George Stobbart

"Sometimes I got the feeling that communication with Pearl was like sending signals out into space,
maybe if you waited long enough you`d get an intelligent answer back,but it was a long shot."
------ George Stobbart

Amazon Kindle, finanly the dream e-book reader, but ..

Amazon.com's new product came out on Nov. 19th and it is already a sold-out.

Great features:

1. papaer-like screen. electronic paper and ink.
2. 10.3 ounces
3. up to 2 weeks battery life

4. wireless internet

Draw-back:
priced at $399, new books around $9.99.

Famous comment:

"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.

It will be, but not at price $399. People don't want to pay $410 just to read a book.

Had thanksgiving dinner at Karl's house

Today Yuejian and his girlfriend picked me up to Karl's house for a thanksgiving dinner. This year they made a honey-lemon flavored turkey, and a bigger one than the last year's, a garlic flavor one. Which one is even better, this year's or the last year's? hmm, hard to say, but what did I say to Yuejian? "It's sooooo much better than the turkey sold in Coffman Union's." Really.

I put a banner on top of my computer screen: "The internet is for information only" to limit my daily mandatory web-browsing time. Now I obviously break it, but that' s ok.

don't get lost and robbed

Don't get lost and don't get robbed. The things that I should achieved at least in Jackson.

In order not to get lost, I need a GPS (global positioning system). Hopefully I will buy it on this black friday.

In order not to get robbed, I will need a potato cannon. But since foreigners can't hold guns in US, I am imagining that I can master a magic spell that turns a gangster into a sheep for 5 five seconds. 5 seconds are totally enough for me to do a lot of shit to him..

credit

So I checked the car sale ads again and found fine print of "Requires *** credit score" which I am 20 points below. Then I was worried, and asked Yucheng my friend,

"I am 20 points below their requirement, I think I am doomed."
"Come on. You are the one who buy it, so you should be the master"

Reeeeeeaaaaaaaaly????

I guess I was poor for too long and it changed my mindset.

Redefine myself.

answering phone

I was looking for an apartment in Jackson yesterday, and found plenty of them on google map. Even though it was a Sunday, I still called a number. A woman answered,

"Hidgeland apartments, how may I help you?"
"Can I ask for the price for a one-br?" I said.
"I don't have any information about the apartments, this is just an answering service." She said.
"errr, ok. But can I ask some generous question about the neighborhood?"
"I don't have any information sir, please call management tomorrow. This is an answering service." She answered.
...

Is she a robot? She must be a black-accent disguised automated answer machine. Then I found the neighborhood data on city-data.com, to find in the zip code area 75% population is black and 27 sex offenders reported this year in that neighborhood. Then I found a nicer area and still looking for an apartment.

2007 Chevy Cobalt LS, 29k miles, $195 per month for 72 months, 0 down. Deal or not deal?

2002 Kia Spectra, 59k miles, $4900, can be financed. Carfax shows an accident in 2004 with damage cost over $500. Front bumper covered with plastic. Am I too cheap?

Maybe I will go for the first one. Any suggestions?

The Sims 2

My wife Ying comes back from CA for a week and helps me pack and move. We played a very popular computer game "The Sims 2" together for a few hours before she got bored. Then I kept playing, trying to master and beat the game. Unlike other games which are so addictive when they starts and become repetitive after a few hours of playing, "The Sims 2" is the opposite: it does not look exciting at first, but you know there is a long way before you can master it.

The characters in the game are called the sims, who have six stages throughout the whole life-span: baby, toddler, child, teen, adult and elder. Their lives are driven by their "aspiration", and their performance is determined by their "mood". There are seven types of "aspiration" which the player needs to choose when creating a sims: Family, Fortune, Knowledge, Popularity, Romance, Pleasure and Grilled Cheese (Eating many grilled cheese sandwiches). Mood is determined by how well their daily need is filled. It can be interesting when a sims has to go to school when he is full of urine; or a sims needs to sleep so bad that he passes out on a couch in a night club.

You can have babies, with human or,.., err aliens. You can choose the action "try for babies" with another person of opposite sex who is in a love relationship with you, or you can use a telescope and get "abduct" by an alien so that you can have a weird-acting alien baby. Unlike other games in which fun comes automatically to you, "The Sims 2" asks you to explore fun by yourself, which you may or may not like.

Another fun part of the game is that you can open your own business, but that needs other tweaks. There are many videos on youtube about many interesting life stories about different sims. This game is the second best seller of computer games of all time, only next to the original "The Sims".

Even though this game is interesting in all aspects, it lacks one characteristic of an exciting game: addictiveness. But since I will start work soon, I can not get addicted to computer games any more, "The Sims 2" might become a casual fun for me.

moving

So I decided to take the research associate job at Jackson state university in Mississippi. As a foreigner, aerospace engineer goes nowhere, so this is a chance to do a career transition, as I will do research on Hurricane on the new job. It's a pain to relocate and leave my friends, but life permits changes, isn't it?

I miss the Friday nights at the rock church. The first persons I met I believe are Sarah S., Christine, Lane and Gina. Then the salsa dance, then the Christmas ball, when Christine told me we didn't have to hold hands, oh this person got character I thought. Then Will came back from Israel, then the retreat to his cabin. Then Karl invited Yuejian and me to his home for Thanksgiving dinner. I thought I might have been in Minnesota forever, but I am tired of being poor.

People have to have something in common to be together, say 3 years. What we have in common is that we believe in God and the desire to communicate with each other. So we did. I have made many decisions during the five years, I hope this one will be a right one. At least I hope it will do good to my career. Getting too used to the U of M campus makes me not want to do anything, I hope moving to a new place will make me read more Bible and eager more.

About a month ago I experience a sudden heath danger at midnight. I didn't know what it was wrong: I felt dizzy for 5 minutes and it stopped before I decided to call ambulance. Since then I realize that everything has an end. If I will die tomorrow, the struggles I have today will seem ridiculous. Take it easy, I will leave Minneapolis and have a new start.

At the new place, I will rent an apartment, buy a new car, make new friends. I will use this blog as a journal.

draw on facebook

I tried out the drawing application on facebook today, here are the results.

job interviews

I have been through 3 job interviews, not all of them were fun though. They deserve a blog post. There might be some criticism and show-off, which should not be viewed as proud.

The first interview was at Fort Worth, Texas. It was horrible, and I had made every possible mistake during the interview. Long story short, basically I talked too much. Speaking of personality, how could people want more of you if they already know everything about you. So I changed my strategy accordingly in the latter interviews: I talked when it was necessary, and everything I talked had some relation to landing the job. Yes I talked too much, from the weather of Minnesota to the fact that there are some bugs flying inside my TV tube. Everything. So I fall into the "too nice but thanks" category. By the way, I lied during my presentation at the interview and caught right on spot, and I thought the secretary has a nice ass and stared at her ass at every single chance. The interview was supposed to finish at 4 pm. But at 3pm they all left with a "nice to meet you but has to go for Friday". I knew I was done.

After nights of insomnia, repent and tears, I went to the supercomputing institute for an interview about a supercomputing consultant job. It a user-support job. This time I treated as an exam and had a score of myself in mind. So I did not blow it this time. But God it was such a long day, eight different people interviewed me on one on in turn, with basically the same questions. I collapsed after I walked home. Yesterday they asked me for an extra interview on next Monday because "I live here so it is convenient"as she said. I don't know if it's a good sign, but I have to go there on more time.

So I was excited about the supercomputing job and smiled even during sleep, as if I was in my first love. In this unrealistic mood, I went to Jackson, Mississippi for another interview. I didn't really want this job, but I don't want to miss a chance either. So I was polite, a little distant during the interview, until he said that he offered me a job with well payment and benefits. Then I realized this is for real. So right now I am still confused, money or my first love?

I came back to Minneapolis yesterday. On the Halloween night, an African girl walked up to me and asked me if I want to sleep with her. God, speaking of offer, thanks, but no thanks. (I hope my wife wouldn't read this but I swear nothing happens).