Peter’s Blog V2

Somebody in my neighborhood is really against large sheets of glass:

After work today, I went with a bunch of coworkers to see Yankees play the Blue Jays.  This was the first baseball game, also the first sporting event since graduating from Tech, that I have been to.  Well, I figured that as I start my fifth year being a New Yorker, this was sort of a necessary experience.

Prior to this, all my knowledge surrounding baseball came from the Mitsuru Adachi comic books, and all I knew about the Yankees was that the entire island of Taiwan raves about Chien-Ming Wang.  As a result, I didn’t know any of the terms in English and couldn’t name any of the top stars.  Then I learned some tonight.

The new Yankees Stadium:

The game:

The remaining gang after 10pm:

So the Yankees got their ass kicked 10-4, so I declared myself a Blue Jays fan and celebrated the victory.

It’s a well known fact that actuaries are dull people, so the term “actuarial drama” is nearly as much an oxymoron as “business ethics”.  Well, guess what?  We’ve got one.

Bruce Schobel, arguably one of the most well-known and respected senior actuaries in the circle, had recently been removed as the president-elect from the American Academy of Actuaries, as a result of a felony he commited 30 years ago.

Bruce was a past president of the Society of Actuaries, and had highly engaged himself in public policy, professional promotion, and education reform for this profession.  At the same time, he’s constantly on online forums to provide information to actuaries and to help students study for exams.  To the junior exam takers and those without powerful top connections, he was somebody who really cared.  As the president of the SOA, he had signed and delivered over 1,000 FSA certificates, including mine: 

Now, it’s a shocker to hear about his ugly history, and it’s reasonable for a profession to expect high integrity in its members and leaders… but for a mistake taken place 30 years ago, are we really gonna lose one of the best individuals out there?  How much should a wrongdoing haunt down its doer long after the laws might have expunged it?

All I know is that somebody with a criminal record can still become the president or congressman of the United States.

I wanna see this!

Trailer on YouTube

I complain too much about my commute, so this time I’ll simply describe it.

After travelling 1/2 stop from home, train came to a stop.  A minute later, voice came from the intercom.

Conductor: “We’re being delayed because of train traffic ahead of us.  We’ll be moving shortly.” (Typical excuse)

A minute or two later:

Conductor: “We’re being delayed because of train traffic ahead of us.  We’ll be moving shortly.”

Another minute later:

Computer voice: “Due to a mechanical problem, this train is no longer in service.”

Computer voice: “Due to a mechanical problem, this train is no longer in service.”

Computer voice: “Because of construction, this is the final stop on this train.”

Long pause.

Conductor: “This is the conductor speaking. Those announcements were not correct.  I repeat, the announcements were incorrect.  Please disregard.”

Minutes later, the train creeped ahead slightly; distance to be measure by feet, or even inches.

Conductor: “Attention ladies and gentlemen, there is a brake emergency in Manhattan.  That is the reason for our delay.  We apologize for the inconvenience.  We will be moving shortly.”

Train moved forward another 1/4 stop.

Conductor: “Attention ladies and gentlemen, we are delayed because of a brake problem in Manhattan; also there is a switch malfunction at 47-50th Street. We will be moving again shortly.”

Minutes later, the train started again and finally arrived at the first station from home.

Station agent: “Because of the problem in Manhattan, the next stop on this train will be Queens Plaza.  This train will be going on the G line into Brookly.  I repeat, this train will be going straight into Brooklyn.”

I got off the train.

Earlier this summer, the German publisher VDM Verlag contacted me about publishing my masters thesis.  Um, okay, I had no idea why they would want to or who they’d intend to sell it to.  But after some research on the gossip-filled online forums, I concluded that it was a legitmate deal and I had nothing to lose.  Weeks later, I got what was likely to be the only copy of this ISBN to be ever printed:

Among many other people’s thesis “books”, mine is printed and sold on demand.  You can buy it (or I can just email you the PDF) on this website:

The big question is, who in the right mind who pay 49 Euros for a copy of my 86-page book?  I thought it might sell better at 4.90 Euro…

WSJ: Review Finds No Nutritional Benefit to Organic Food.

And that’s not all… according to my forestry professors:

1. Farming chemicals (pesticides, etc) are very easy to wash off
2. You probably should wash your food anyway
3. Some plants without external pesticide protection can develop similar chemicals internally to fend off attackers (bugs, people); you can’t wash that off

We did it.  The pre-wedding glamour photoshoot.  Exactly 10 months before our wedding.  In the one and only Central Park of the world.

It was surprisingly an awesome experience.  The weather was gorgeous – sunny, with just enough fluffy clouds, and not at all hot.  The photographer and makeup artist were both pleasant and professional.  Everything went smoothly, clothes fit, prep time was shorter than expected, and we spent more time taking pictures.  The only downfall was that we had to pay a lot of expected hidden costs and dropped handful after handful of cash.  Even at four-digit price tags, everybody demanded cold cash!

It was fun taking bridal pictures in Central Park, with hundreds of locals and tourists watching us climbing rocks, lying on grass, making funny poses, etc.  Tons of random people took pictures of us, some asking for permission (to which our photographers always said “sure – five dollars”) and others secretly snatched shots.  Many also said congrats and other comments (“your dress is beautiful”, “now you guys can have kids”).  We’re unlikely to get this much attention ever again, even on the wedding day (since it won’t be in wide-open public).

Proofs will supposedly be ready in two weeks.  Can’t wait to see them.

Once again Pixar has done a fantastic job with their annual animated film, Up, the flick about an old man and a lot of balloons:

It’s unusual to see any movie, let along a cartoon, to center its story on a whithering old man.  Up had done it so well, that our theater was unusually crowded with senior citizens.

It’s also unusual to hear tough 20-something young people to admit shedding tears.  But the first thing that I heard from both persons who saw this movie before us was how they cried like a baby (or almost there).  We were also deeply touched by the nearly silent delivery of a simple yet loving story of the two common folks.  Maybe this is how love stories really should be told.

What’s more?  Read about how Pixar granted a dying girl’s wish.

We went to see the second Transformers movie on IMAX.  I had never seen a real movie in an IMAX theater before.  This was a great first time.

It’d be asking too much to expect a sequel to top the original, but Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen did have every element from the first movie that everyone raved about: big(ger) robots, big(ger) explosions, hot cars, funny people, Megan Fox, etc.  Sure, the focus on things blowing up might’ve been slightly over done, but whatever.

My personal biggest disappointment was with the Constructicons / Devastator combo.  The Voltron-copycat had been my second favorite Transformers after the Dinobots, so I was thrilled to hear that Michael Bay recruited some of the world’s largest construction vehicles for this.  Unfortunately, this guy didn’t do much in the movie… at all… the camera didn’t even focus on any of the giant machines before they merged into a vacuum cleaner.

(what he should’ve looked like)

The greatest parts of the first movie were the subtleties that fans could pick up on.  Why did we all cheer as the big truck rolled out?  Well we knew who it was before the formal announcement.  In this movie, there were two or three places where I saw an excavator and said, “YESSS!  A Constructicon!!!” and was wrong about it.  That was pretty lame.

What I can say?  Let’s hope the Dinobots kick ass in Transformer 3!

*** Update *** I did not know that the satellite-hacking thingy was Soundwave!  Well glad that another of my favorite old-timers made it into the movie, although that’s quite a fancy ”upgrade” from his tape player disguise.