Korea weather forcast

not that a bad weather...

lots of updates - no time

Crap, cant resist this one. WHAT THE HECK is this weather - BLOWING SNOW!

Our gingerbread house, on the way!

So.. to soak up som Xmas spirit, Vino and I decided to embark on a gingerbread house making session - it cant be more fun than this... HILARIOUS.

I cant believe i am such a klutz.. in the end...

almost there.. we ran out of cany strips...

Anothe ruse of St Mark's Square in Venice

It is so cool.. as the famous romantic city Vience, Italy sinks under water... people do sports there...

Duncan Zuur of the Netherlands rides on a wakeboard through a flooded St Mark's Square in Venice.


News Link

Why are planets bright

Thanks to our almighty sun, the planets actually reflect the sun off their atmospheres.

Pretty moon, + Venus, + Jupiter *copied off bbc... =)
***
kisses

New York Times - shopper death

Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death by Customers

By JACK HEALY
Published: November 28, 2008

A Wal-Mart employee in suburban New York died after being trampled by a crush of shoppers who tore down the front doors and thronged into the store early Friday morning, turning the annual rite of post-Thanksgiving bargain hunting into a frenzy.

The 34-year-old employee, who was not identified, was knocked down by a crowd that broke down the doors of the Wal-Mart at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, N.Y., and surged into the store. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital at 6 a.m.

The police said that three other shoppers were injured and a 28-year-old pregnant woman was taken to the hospital for observation.

One shopper, Kimberly Cribbs, said she was standing near the back of the crowd at around 5 a.m. on Friday when people started pulling the doors from their hinges and rushing into the store. She said several people were knocked to the ground, and parents had to grab their children by the hands to keep them from being caught in the crush.“They were falling all over each other,” she said. “It was terrible.”

The Nassau County Police said the man’s exact cause of death had not been determined. Wal-Mart did not immediately respond to phone messages seeking comment.

CONCLUSION: USA is also susceptible to stampedes during sales.. *just like any shopaholic situation there is around the world...

Not sure...

heh.. i wish i travelled alittle more deligently.. cant remember lots of cities that i went.. hrm...

anyhow.

• Create your own travel map or travel blog


• Travel Info at TripAdvisor

Spine Brace

I have scoliosis. What is scoliosis? Scoliosis is defined as a a progressive 3D deformation of the spine. In general, i think it is on the mild side, I have frequent mild pain and mobility limitation, aesthetically, i have a SHORT trunk - sniff. Thankfully, no one really notices as the fashion dictates long T-shirts these days... =)

After studying my biomedical engineering at McGill university, completing my thesis on a spine related topic, i very well know the consequences of a degenerated spine. Naturally, I am also well aware of the treatments available. In a way, i kind of stumbled onto this brace which i believe it is the first brace that has been introduced to adults. For kids, it has been shown to be useful and for adults, to date, great for pain management.

It has been a week since i started wearing this back brace. I am glad that now is winter, so i dont have to think too much about asthetics.. but i cant imagine wearing this all the time in summer...I am to theoraticcaly wear them for 20 hours per day. My next evaluation is on 18th Dec... Meanwhile, my tummy fats are constantly squeezed around.. maybe these fats will get tired of being squeezed and migrate to someone else.. *HEE* Secretly, i wish this brace will "cure" me of this back problem, realistically, it probably will just manage this problem and prevent further deterioration.

Anyhow.. for those people who have friends trying to find a way to relieve their scoliotic symptoms.. i do recommend them to check this brace out..

SpineCor Brace

The Mandarin Language

An old song a friend introduced to me...

fishy road

*meow meow -- FOOD

周杰伦 - 稻香

The first time when i watched this MV, it touched me. A very simple, honest, encouraging message.

思念是一种病

Summer frisbee

i love this picture... **super me in the air.. *WHACK!

meow Meow MEOW

fat looking cat

something caught his eye..

wham!

china car restrictions..

It is ironic eh? The rich never gets touched...


Getting round it

Car restrictions have been re-introduced in Beijing, in an effort to cut pollution. The BBC asks Beijingers their views.

Ouyang Shaonan, 23, a businessman

This is a good policy that means there will be fewer cars on the road. It will not affect me because I have two cars. If I cannot drive on one day, I will use my other car.

haaaaaaaaaaa.......................

Thanksgiving at Mont Tremblant

It is a holiday on Monday, today. Thanksgiving is traditionally dedicated to Canadian farmers who have toiled hard throughout the year and it is the time to celebrate their harvest. For us,... its another reason to just enjoy alittle rest. So, a friend of mine rented a car.. n.. we went to Mont Tremblant, to look at the pretty leaves.. relax, breathe some mountain air. =)

Wanabe monkey!

Froggie...

Dont you think the architecture is pretty!

I ROCK!

hrm.. where is the ball...

Guess where am i...

a pretty baby falcon

Anyhow.. work starts tomorrow..

Useful up-todate terminologies

A-C

Administration

A rescue mechanism for UK companies in severe trouble. It allows them to continue as a going concern, under supervision, effectively to try to trade out of difficulty.

A firm in administration cannot be wound up without permission from a court.

Bear market In a bear market, prices are falling and investors, anticipating losses, tend to sell. This can create a self-sustaining downward spiral.

Bond

A debt security - or more simply an IOU. The bond states when a loan must be repaid and what interest the borrower (issuer) must pay to the holder. Banks and investors buy and trade bonds.

Bull market

A bull market is one in which prices are generally rising and investor confidence is high.

Chapter 11

The term for bankruptcy protection in the US. It postpones a company's obligations to its creditors, giving it time to reorganise its debts or sell parts of the business, for example.

Commodities

Commodities are products that, in their basic form, are all the same so it makes little difference from whom you buy them.

That means that they have a market price. You would be unlikely to pay more for iron ore from a particular mine, for example.

Credit crunch

The situation created when banks hugely reduced their lending to each other because they were uncertain about how much money they had.

This in turn resulted in more expensive loans and mortgages for ordinary people.

Credit default swap

A swap designed to transfer credit risk. The buyer of the swap makes periodic payments to the seller in return for protection in the event of a default.

A bank which owns a lot of mortgage debt could swap it, but would have to make a pay-out if those mortgages were not repaid.

Return to list

D-F

Derivatives

Derivatives are a way of investing in a particular product or security without having to own it. The value can depend on anything from the price of coffee to interest rates or what the weather is like.

Derivatives can be used as insurance to limit the risk of a particular investment.

Credit derivatives are based on the risk of borrowers defaulting on their loans, such as mortgages.

Equity

In a business, equity is how much all of the shares put together are worth.

In a house, your equity is the amount your house is worth minus the amount of mortgage debt that is outstanding on it.

Fakeaway

A home-made, belt-tightening version of a takeaway - think, a curry made with a jar of sauce, bag of rice and a packet of poppadoms from the supermarket.

Futures

A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell a commodity at a predetermined date and price. It could be used to hedge or to speculate on the price of the commodity.

Return to list

H-K

Hedge fund

A private investment fund with a large, unregulated pool of capital and very experienced investors.

Hedge funds use a range of sophisticated strategies to maximise returns - including hedging, leveraging and derivatives trading.

Hedging

Making an investment to reduce the risk of price fluctuations to the value of an asset.

For example, if you owned a stock and then sold a futures contract agreeing to sell your stock on a particular date at a set price. A fall in price would not harm you - but nor would you benefit from any rise.

Hypermiling

Techniques used by drivers to get more miles to the gallon, such as coasting in neutral and keeping tyre pressure high.

Investment bank

Investment banks provide financial services for governments, companies or extremely rich individuals. They differ from commercial banks where you have your savings or your mortgage.

Return to list

L-P

Leveraging

Leveraging, or gearing, means using debt to supplement investment.

The more you borrow on top of the funds (or equity) you already have, the more highly leveraged you are. Leveraging can maximise both gains and losses.

Deleveraging means reducing the amount you are borrowing.

Libor

London Inter Bank Offered Rate. The rate at which banks lend money to each other.

Liquidity

The liquidity of something is how easy it is to convert it into cash. Your current account, for example, is more liquid than your house.

If you needed to sell your house quickly to pay bills you would have drop the price substantially to get a sale.

Loans to deposit ratio

For financial institutions, the sum of their loans divided by the sum of their deposits.

Currently important because using other sources to fund lending is getting more expensive.

Mark-to-market

Recording the value of an asset on a daily basis according to current market prices.

So for a futures contract, what it would be worth if realised today rather than at the specified future date. Also marked-to-market.

Negative equity

Refers to a situation in which the value of your house is below the amount of the mortgage that still has to be paid off.

Profit warning

When a company issues a statement indicating that its profits will not be as high as it had expected. Also profits warning.

Return to list

R-T

Rating

Bonds are rated according to their safety from an investment standpoint - based on the ability of the company or government that has issued it to repay.

Ratings range from AAA, the safest, down to D, a company that has already defaulted.

Recessionista

A person who manages to look fashionable on a tight budget.

Securitisation

Turning something into a security. For example, taking the debt from a number of mortgages and combining them to make a financial product which can then be traded.

Banks who buy these securities receive income when the original home-buyers make their mortgage payments.

Security

Essentially, a contract that can be assigned a value and traded. It could be a stock, bond or mortgage debt, for example.

Short selling

A technique used by investors who think the price of an asset, such as shares, currencies or oil contracts, will fall. They borrow the asset from another investor and then sell it in the relevant market.

The aim is to buy back the asset at a lower price and return it to its owner, pocketing the difference. Also shorting.

Spiv

A term popularised in World War II for flashily-dressed chancers involved in black market dealings. A fictional spiv is ladies' man Private Joe Walker in Dad's Army.

Newspaper headline writers use "spiv" as shorthand for traders who play for high stakes.

Stagflation

The dreaded combination of inflation and stagnation - an economy that is not growing while prices continue to rise.

Staycation

Staying at home for your holiday in a bid to save money.

Sub-prime mortgages

These carry a higher risk to the lender (and therefore tend to be at higher interest rates) because they are offered to people who have had financial problems or who have low or unpredictable incomes.

Swap

An exchange of securities between two parties. For example, if a firm in one country has a lower fixed interest rate and one in another country has a lower floating interest rate, an interest rate swap could be mutually beneficial.

Return to list

U-Z

Unwind

To unwind a deal is to reverse it - to sell something that you have previously bought, or vice versa.

When administrators are called in to a bank, they must do the unwinding before creditors can get any money back.

Write-down

Reducing the book value of an asset to reflect a fall in its market value. For example, the write-down of a company's value after a big fall in share prices.

FYI: this is copied from BBC.co.uk...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7642138.stm

Quote of the day..

**All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him. - Buddha**

bowling weekend ( Ter is 27)

The guys

The girls

Pretty girls

Eyeing to steal the cake..

Hogging the desserts

presents

yoh!

pretty dress!!

Did i ever mention i am really bad at bowling....

For those who can understand french..

My resident cat

Majestic eh?

so proper

yawn!

Of course, it continues that I have a pretty cat, ok ok, i know this cat looks more... handsome and fierce. He has his own temper alright, but so far, we are coexisting.

Christian the lion..

TOUCHING... i want a lion tooo!

Cat diets

The controlled feeding experiment took place over ten years, between 1932 and 1942, and over 900 cats were eventually included. The optimum diet consisted of 1/3 raw milk, cod liver oil, and 2/3 raw meat, with one group receiving cooked food instead of raw. The findings were astounding. Within a few generations, the cats receiving cooked food exhibited:

• facial deformities: narrowed faces, crowded jaws, frail bones and weakened ligaments
• an excess of parasites
• all manners of disease
• female cats became more aggressive while males became docile
• difficulty with pregnancy and after three generations, pregnancy failed
• kittens born of these pregnancies often did not survive to adulthood
• kittens showed skeletal deformities and organ malfunctions

Clearly, there was a direct link between the cooking of meat and the resultant evidence of malnutrition in Pottenger's cats.

DO i still look 18??

Muahhhaa..

so, yesterday, like always, I went for my weekly tennis. While waiting, some guy tried to start conversation with me. As the conversation went...

he asked so... "are you also in first year mcgill?"

*muahahaaa..

I said "i just graduated..."

*he blinked*

he continued "oh.. so what did you study?"

I said " engineering"

*He blinked again*

He volunteered "I am first year science..."

I still look as youthful as ever...

Tadoussac

It was a wonderful weekend, getting away from the city. We went to Tadoussac, a small village up north of Quebec. The weather was still abit too cold for comfort. We rented a toyota SUV, drove about 6 hours.. ate LOTS of chips to stay awake *god* *stuffed*

my pretty rented SUV.. ( it was suppose to be a compact, but they had a shortage so i got upgraded to a SUV.. oh yah, so did the fuel cost..)

The bear sanctuary

Tons of wild blueberries in the black bear park. (No wonder the bears are there..)

To get to tadoussac, we had to cross a huge river channel. This HUMONGOUS ship carried us + cars across the channel.

Julia, pierre, terence and me. (Behind is the humongous ship that carries the cars and us back and forth across the channel)

Super wrapped it (it is freaking cold waters!) FYI, so this river has a cold-salt water current running beneath the seemingly fresh water surface. Therefore, there is lots of food (plankton) for whales, and other fishes = thriving ecology.
MY guess is the whales must be abit to swim between the 2 currents. Was told that sharks lurk only in the salty region of water, hence never on the surface.. *whew*

The whale bay

WHALE!!! it was HUGEEE

After the trip (low tide)

All in all, it was great, and i definitely recommend it. Thank god these clothes were provided. Else, I would have froze and died...
***
Back to work tomorrow....

flowers that go pop?!

Karvy Flower that takes years to bloom

Weekend Rendevous

u know,

this weekend has been liberating, and sooo much fun. The weather in Montreal was great, beautiful sun, wonderful parks.. went frisbee, dinners, and clubbing.

GEEZ, havnt clubbed for quite awhile. The anticipation paid off. Vino and I had such a blast, YES, just 2 of us. 10000000 guys tried picking us up. *muahahaa... We obviously got it - duh! we are at the prime of our lives - evil winks*. U know, the club opera is actually not bad! I really liked the Decor. We should have taken pictures. next time.

*GOSH! it is thunderstorming now.. *GRRR*

Anyway, weekend is gone. Gota settle down and start my week.

Let see,
I need to book a korean hotel, cancel an osteopath appointment, book a rental car, send documents - TERENCE!!! U FORGOT TO GIVE IT TO ME! I KNEW IT! *.....

mooooooooooooo*patter patter x10000

moo moo MOO

lets see...

My tennis forehand has deteriorated but my backhand has improved. Still working on it. Summer is so short here that every day is precious. I love sweating it out, exerting my energy and just have something to focus on other than work.

So, today there is a slight break through, I have long-term projects to work on and I will be eased into tech support. Once I become comfortable in tech support than I will take on the role of training and installing in labs etc. FYI, I will get my business card by November!! yeah...

Terence will be going for camping (god knows where...). I refuse to go. HEE. So.. this weekend is FREEDOM.. *BOO TERENCE*

trallala... sneaky... planning..

Pretty pretty pandas!!!