Banker's Blog

Some good and unexpected SuperBowl car commercials

2012-02-09T15:33:00.001-08:00

Seinfield wants the first NSX

2012-01-31T08:49:00.000-08:00

Wow, car companies are all pulling out the big guns for this upcoming SuperBowl. I definitely didn't see the plot twist at the end. Very clever.

Too bad I'll be in Hawaii. I guess I can watch it there?

Ferris day's off with a Honda CRV

2012-01-30T13:55:00.001-08:00

The new CR-V rear really looks like the XC-60...

This is pretty cool

2012-01-30T09:34:00.000-08:00

They created several flying RC models in the shape of people to fly around the NYC skyline.

I love this city

2012-01-27T16:33:00.001-08:00

This is why I love SF. Look at the views!

This is awesome!

2012-01-27T14:26:00.000-08:00

This is a classic

2012-01-27T14:09:00.001-08:00

How the Audi R8 is built

2012-01-26T19:59:00.001-08:00

Wow, pretty cool. Now I want one...

Sound of the New Toyota Hybrid TS 030

2012-01-26T12:17:00.001-08:00

Holy cow. If my hybrid sounded like that, I'd drive it everyday!

I'm going to really miss the outgoing 997

2012-01-25T17:10:00.000-08:00

I love the design

Well, you don't see this everyday

2012-01-25T10:18:00.000-08:00

I guess this is how they drive in eastern Europe. Nothing says road rage like some AK-47 and ramming.

Line between life and non-life

2012-01-24T15:13:00.000-08:00

The line is not as clear as you think.

2012-01-24T09:03:00.000-08:00

Okay, when I last went to the SLS AMG Driving Academy, I did not get the opportunity to see and drive this car...

HD live cam videos of the Afghanistan firefights

2012-01-24T08:58:00.000-08:00

I'm not too sure how this is kosher with the military brass since this may give away their positions to the enemy, but I guess a lot of soldiers now have HD flashcard cameras issued to them by the military staff. This is a good idea since it gives both live feed as well as footage for the military to review after an engagement, and what they use look like the same equipment people can buy at REI for mountain biking or skiing. The one interesting thing I found was that some of these videos made it onto Youtube.

Nothing graphic or gory, but it's interesting to "experience" and "participate" in an actual firefight. This is nothing like how they depicted it on TV and movies.

There's a lot more videos from this feed from Funker530.

Some Americans just need one of this

2012-01-24T08:45:00.001-08:00

I wish I could hand these out to some of the people clogging up my television bandwidth.

The new 911: Identity

2012-01-24T08:44:00.001-08:00

Porsche definitely likes to make every one of their commercials emotional and poetic. I'm not too sure I like the new design concept though. The rear stance of the 911 looks "off". That being said, my favorite comment has to be from Richard Hammond, "it's called the 911 so the Americans know what number to dial when they crash."

Great rules to follow

2012-01-13T09:42:00.001-08:00

So starting today… from MarcAndAngel

Stop berating yourself for being a work in progress. – Start embracing it! Because being a work in progress doesn’t mean you’re not good enough today. It means you want a better tomorrow, and you wish to love yourself completely, so you can live your life fully. It means you’re determined to heal your heart, expand your mind and cultivate the gifts you know you’re meant to share. May we all be works in progress forever, and celebrate the fact that we are!
Stop doing immoral things simply because you can. – Start being honest with yourself and everyone else. Don’t cheat. Be faithful. Be kind. Do the right thing! It is a less complicated way to live. Integrity is the essence of everything successful. When you break the rules of integrity you invite serious complications into your life. Keep life simpleand enjoyable by doing what you know in your heart is right.
Stop meaning what you don’t say. – Start communicating clearly. Don’t try to read other people’s minds, and don’t make other people try to read yours. Most problems, big and small, within a family, friendship, or business relationship, start with bad communication. Someone isn’t being clear.
Stop wasting time and money trying to acquire more of everything. – Start focusing on quality. High quality is worth more than any quantity, in possessions, friends and experiences. Truly ‘rich’ people need less to be happy. Live a comfortable life, not a wasteful one. Too many people buy things they don’t need with money they don’t have to impress people they don’t know. Do not spend to impress others. Do not live life trying to fool yourself into thinking wealth is measured in material objects. Manage your money wisely so your money does not manage you. Read The Millionaire Next Door.
Stop spending time with negative people. – Start spending time with nice people who are smart, driven and likeminded. Relationships should help you, not hurt you. Surround yourself with people who reflectthe person you want to be. Choose friends who you are proud to know, people you admire, who love and respect you – people who make your day a little brighter simply by being in it. Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you. When you free yourself of negative people, you free yourself to be YOU – and being YOU is the simplest way to live.
Stop trying to change people. – Start accepting people just the way they are. In most cases it’s impossible to change them anyway, and it’s rude to try. So save yourself from needless stress. Instead of trying to change others, give them your support and lead by example.
Stop being lazy and cutting corners. – Start avoiding future headaches by doing things right the first time. Always put your best foot forward. Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment. Why give less than 100%? Life is too short to waste it by living below your full potential. If something is worth doing, then it’s worth doing well.
Stop procrastinating. – Start taking action and making changes. Action and change are often resisted when they’re needed most. Get a hold of yourself and have discipline. Discipline is choosing what you really want over what you want right now. Putting something off makes it instantly harder and scarier. What we don’t start today won’t be finished by tomorrow. And there’s nothing more stressful than the perpetual lingering of an unfinished task.
Stop worrying and complaining. – Start focusing on the things you can control and do something about them. Those who complain the most accomplish the least. And when you spend time worrying, you’re simply using your imagination to create things you don’t want. It’s usually only as good or bad as you think it is.
Stop being dramatic. – Start spending less time gossiping about problems and more time helping yourself and others solve them. Stay out of people’s needless drama and don’t create your own.
Stop trying to be everything to everyone. – Start focusing on being everything to someone. Helping or pleasing everyone is impossible. But making one person smile can change the world. Maybe not the whole world, but their world. So narrow your focus and be yourself.
Stop making promises you can’t keep. – Starting under-promising and over-delivering on everything you do. Period.
Stop blaming others. – Start accepting responsibility for everything in your life. Blaming others accomplishes nothing and prolongs the complications you’re facing. Either you own your problems, or they will own you. Your choice. When you blame others for what you’re going through, you deny responsibility – you give up your power over that part of your life.
Stop reacting without a plan. – Start planning and working toward specific goals. Make a list of your top 3 - 5 goals. What’s most important to you? What do you value most? What 3 - 5 things do you most want to do in your life? Simplifying your life starts with these priorities, as you are trying to make room in your life so you have more time for these things. Having a plan, even a flawed one at first, is better than no plan at all. There is good reason why you should wake each morning and mindfully consider what and who you will give your day to: Because unlike other things in life – love, money, respect, good health, hope, opportunities, etc. – time is the one thing you can never get back once it’s gone.
Stop confusing ‘being busy’ with ‘being productive.’ – Start tracking and measuring your progress. Being busy and being productiveare two very different things. Results are more important than the time it takes to achieve them.
Stop over-committing and trying to do too much at once. – Start saying “no” more often. If you never say “no,” you will take on too much and get nothing accomplished. In the beginning, you need to say “yes” to a lot of things to discover and establish your goals. Later on, you need to say “no” to a lot of things and concentrate on your goals. Once your goals are established, focus on doing one thing at a time and doing it well. Also, leave space around commitments in your day. Whether you have appointments, or things you need to do, don’t stack them back-to-back. Leave a little space between things you need to do, so you will have room for contingencies, and you’ll go through your day much more relaxed.
Stop being inefficient simply because you’ve always done it that way. – Start opening your mind to making positive changes. If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting. Many times we live with unplanned, complex systems in our lives simply because we haven’t given them much thought. Instead, streamline your life by finding better ways of handling common tasks. Focus on one system at a time (your cleaning system, your errands system, your paperwork system, your email system, etc.) and try to make it simplified, efficient, and logical. Then, once you have it perfected, stick to it. ReadGetting Things Done and The Power of Less.
Stop cluttering your space. – Start clearing clutter. Get rid of stuff you don’t use and then organize what’s left. If you have a cluttered living or working space, it can be distracting and stressful. A clear space is like a blank canvas, available to be used to create something great. Getting truly organized and clutter-free can vastly improve anyone’s life.
Stop overloading your mind by consuming useless information. – Start unsubscribing from useless e-lists and news feeds, and keep the TV off. Limit your time on Facebook, Twitter, CNN.com and your other favorite websites, etc.
Stop obsessing over the past and future. – Start being present. Paying more attention to the current moment can make a huge difference in simplifying your life. It keeps you aware of life, of what’s going on around you and within you. It does wonders for your sanity and stress levels.
Stop waiting for things to be perfect. – Start thinking of how many things don’t get done in this world simply because people are waiting for the perfect time, place and circumstance. If you’re waiting for the perfect conditions, ideas or plans to get started, you’ll never achieve anything. A good idea without action is nothing at all. Keep it simple and just start. Focus on the next positive step forward.
Stop focusing so much energy on trying to avoid mistakes. – Start learning from your mistakes, then smile and move on. No matter how smart you are, you will make mistakes. Trying to avoid them will only waste time and complicate your life. There is a lesson in every mistake you make, and learning the lesson is how you move forward.
Stop making emotional decisions. – Start taking a few steps back so you can think things through. When you’re caught up in the moment and your emotions are soaring, you’re bound to make poor decisions that will lead to needless complications. The best advice here is simple: Don’t let your emotions trump your intelligence. Slow down and think things through before you make any big decisions.
Stop being unhealthy. – Start taking care of your body. Start sleeping eight hours every night. A tired, malnourished mind is over-stressed and rarely productive. Your health is your life, don’t let it go. Eat right, exercise and get an annual physical check-up. The The 4-Hour Body is an insightful and entertaining read on this topic.
Stop holding on to intimate relationships that make you unhappy. – Start looking out for yourself when it comes to intimate relationships. It’s better to WAIT, and give your hand to someone who will never let go, rather than holding on to the outside of a hand that has never fully opened for you. If someone wants you in their life, they’ll make room for you. You shouldn’t have to fight for a spot. Never, ever insist yourself to someone who continuously overlooks your worth. Remember, anyone can come into your life and say how much they love you. But it takes someone really special to stay in your life and show you how much they love you. So slow it down. True love is worth the wait.
Stop holding on to hate. – Starting letting hate go! Keep your sights set on the future. Holding on to hate and anger is like grasping hot coals with the intent of throwing them at someone else – you are the one who gets burned. If you want to forget someone, and move on, you must give up hating them. It’s hard to forget someone you hate, because hate takes pieces of your heart – thereby keeping this person within your heart. If you want to forget them, let go of the hate, and create peace in your heart instead. Also, remember that whenever you hate something, it usually hates you back: people, situations, and inanimate objects alike; which will only further complicate your life.
Stop pretending like you know everything. – Start accepting the fact that there’s a lot you don’t know. Nobody has it all figured out. Nobody knows more than a minuscule fraction of what’s going on in the world. Why? Because the world is simply way too vast for any one person to know everything well. And most of what we see is only what we think about what we see. The sooner you accept this, the sooner you will stop making the same unnecessary mistakes, and the sooner new doors of opportunity will open in your life.
Stop giving what you don’t want to receive. – Start practicing the golden rule. If you want love, give love. If you want friends, be friendly. If you want money, provide value. It works. It really is this simple.

Have you wondered why Wall Street failed?

2012-01-12T08:37:00.001-08:00

Because more likely than not, most rich people have little or no common sense either. You can't fix stupid.

There's a common bond between all of us

2012-01-10T18:01:00.001-08:00

The new Porsche 991 in review

2012-01-10T15:13:00.000-08:00

I still think the last model was the best looking (besides the 993) but hopefully this new model will eventually grow on me. The car has an amazing sound and the performance is just spectacular.

San Francisco in the 50s

2012-01-10T09:46:00.000-08:00

My, how time has changed in the city I grew up in. Things look familiar, but yet still different. Some things I didn't even know existed, but makes a lot of sense now that I have seen this video. For example, all the "ruins" around lands end near the sutro baths was part of a tram system, and along Ocean Beach was actually an amusement park not unlike the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk.

Source.

I am really glad they removed the Embarcadero Freeway though, the San Francisco financial district is so much prettier and nicer without the overpass (pictured below).

And if you're looking for even earlier footage, here's one from 1906, right before the big earthquake/fire. After seeing that footage, the setup of the Ferry Building by my office makes a lot more sense.

Tebow

2012-01-09T18:39:00.000-08:00

This past weekend's game is just crazy.

This is so true though. The only way I can figure out how they made it to the playoffs.

Esther Lederer: “Hanging onto resentment is letting someone you despise live rent-free in your head.”

2012-01-04T17:18:00.000-08:00

In the long run we inevitably hurt ourselves more than others do. Someone in the past did something that we found hurtful. They did or said something, or failed to do or say something, and we experienced physical or emotional hurt. It’s bound to happen. Each instance of hurt only happened one time in our past, and yet we have the faculty of memory that allows us to recall that incident over and over, and thus hurt ourselves over and over again. That’s how in the long term we can end up hurting ourselves more than the other person did.

Of course we often don’t think of this is as hurting ourselves. We tend to take the mini-dramas that unfold in the mind as being real, and indeed we respond to them as if they were real. When we recall someone saying something cruel to us we feel hurt in much the same way we would if they were here, now, speaking those words.

It’s absurd, really, that we do this — that we keep running through painful scenarios in the filmhouse of the mind. We watch the same movies over and over again, experiencing the same pain over and over again. It’s a form of self-torture.

In fact we often embellish the hurt, imagining whole scenes that never actually happened or imagining that we know the thoughts and motives of another person, as if we were omniscient. Sometimes we even invent scenes that might take place in the future, rehearsing for conflict. These imagined arguments and conflicts may never happen — the future is always uncertain — but we manage to feel the pain of them right now. Self-torture.

I sometimes find myself replaying clashes from the past. Sometimes I think I’m doing it to try to convince myself that I was in the right: “Look how awful he is. Hear the terrible things he says. I’m the injured party. I deserve sympathy.” But when I notice that I’ve slipped into one of these resentment-fests I often try to break out of it by thinking “Who’s arguing with whom?”

It’s obvious when I think about it that I’m arguing with myself. The figure in my imagination who looks like that Fred isn’t really him. It’s not a real person. It’s just neurons firing in my brain, creating a virtual reality representation of Fred (that weasel!) through which I can talk to myself. I create a virtual representation of Fred (the louse!) from one set of neurons and one of myself from another set, and the two parts of my brain have a battle with each other. Isn’t it crazy! And yet we do this all the time.

And it’s so hard to let go of our resentments sometimes. We can keep noticing resentful thoughts arising and try to let go of them and we can keep doing this literally for years and the thoughts will still keep emerging.

Ann Landers’ quote (Esther Lederer was her real name) is a good reminder about the ways in which, through resentment, we give space in our minds to people we have conflicts with. Although of course it’s not really them we’re renting space to.

As well as stopping myself short by reminding myself that both parties in these resentments are myself, I’ve found that I need to have empathy for myself. That, ultimately, is what I think I’m looking for in harboring these resentments. I want sympathy. The drama I’m imagining in my mind is played out for an audience. So who’s the audience? It’s me. But it’s not the same me who’s involved in the argument. That me, remember, is a virtual reality version of myself, conjured up to play a part in a struggle with the virtual Fred (that no-good hound!). No, I think who I’m looking for sympathy for, ultimately, is my real self. And it’s because I’m not giving myself empathy that I have to play the fantasy over and over again.

So why am I not giving myself empathy? Generally it’s because I’m too busy identifying with the virtual-reality me who’s busy fighting with Fred (the snake!). I’m too busy taking his part, thinking I’m being attacked by someone else, to realize that both actors in the drama are parts of me.

So what does it mean to give myself empathy? It means that rather than taking the part of the virtual me against the virtual Fred (the bounder!) I need to realize that I am in pain. The whole drama is unfolding because I, for some reason, am in pain. This isn’t the virtual me I’m talking about, but the real me. So I need to empathize with my pain.

First I need to acknowledge the pain and accept that it’s there. That’s often hard to do because we can feel a sense of shame around feeling pain, as if it’s a sign of failure or weakness.

Next I need to accept the pain. Pain is not something “bad” that has to be banished from our experience. Pain is unpleasant, but it’s simply another experience. So we need to allow pain to be there.

Next I need to send metta (lovingkindness) to the pain. I have to love my pain. Loving my pain doesn’t mean that I want more or it. It’s not a masochistic act to love your pain. Rather, it means relating to the part of ourselves that is in pain, not blaming ourselves and not seeing the pain as something to be gotten rid of, but simply offering the hurting part of ourselves our compassion. Sometimes this is wordless, and other times I use phrases from the Metta Bhavana (lovingkindness) meditation practice: “May you be well, may you be happy, may you be free from suffering.”

I find that in doing this I’m addressing the underlying sense of hurt that gives rise to the recurrent resentment. When I wish my pain well in this way I find that there’s a sense of reconciliation and even of relief, because I’ve finally realized exactly what it was I was looking for. When instead of simply appealing for sympathy we actually give it to ourselves we start to become healed. We’ve begun to address the underlying cause of our inner dramas and we realize that we no longer have such a need to rent out space in our head to conflicts.

Source.

Things aren't all that bad

2012-01-04T10:56:00.001-08:00

Burlingame, CA: mostly crap dipped in gold.

2012-01-02T19:15:00.000-08:00

Okay, I admit it, the title of this post is kind of harsh, but it pretty much says it all.

Historically, this city has been a really blue collar town. The thing is, the people who are moving into the neighborhoods now are fairly well educated, white collar families, but there is still lot of blue collar living here. The city has done a great job of revitalizing downtown and there are very nice areas of Burlingame, but to be honest, these areas of Burlingame are more associated with Hillsborough and San Mateo Park then they are with the "real" Burlingame. To give you a great example, back in 1995, you could buy a single family detached home in Burlingame by the railroad tracks for $90,000. That's just crazy, it's almost East Palo Alto pricing.

With the normal Burlingame residents, it's not surprising upscale newcomers such as Nectar has such a hard time turning a profit (and eventually having to close down). Red necks do not know wine, nor do they know any manners. This is why you rarely see them hanging out in the tasting rooms of Napa Valley vineyards.

I have gone to great lengths with my lack of Photoshop skills to map out the various regions of the city of Burlingame. Be forewarned, most of Burlingame is not very well off. You will often run into a lot of interesting characters around the residential areas during the day. Funny enough, you don't see them around much on the weekends and during the evening. Maybe they just don't have jobs or they work night shifts.

Because I work between 10 to 12 hours a day in my job in SF, I actually have never ran into any of said individuals. For the first time in a long while I decided to stay in my neighborhood over the Christmas holidays instead of flying out for the week to Barcelona, Hawaii, etc and boy, did I see them in droves.

Fortunately, I only rent, so what I saw over the holidays is a sign for me to start moving out to a better area.

click below for a larger map:

Couple comments about the map. I would HIGHLY recommend at all costs avoiding what I lovingly called "The Tenderloin". The place is full of low lives who for whatever the reason decide to own pit bulls that they cannot control, and frequently decide to let loose in the neighborhood. Then again, if they had that kind of discipline with their dogs, they probably would be better off because they would have that kind of discipline with themselves. Honestly, if an officer of the law is reading this, parking your patrol car here for a day will greatly help fill your month's quota. The only good that graces this ghetto neighborhood is The Dailey Method, and sadly, their patrons are probably the only people who frequent that neighborhood that has any money.

Let's not forget people treating Carolan Rd like a drag strip, cause some smart ass decided to build a quarter mile, 4-lane strip with no lights right next to the railroad and car dealerships, and right next to a school no less.

For those of you who want to see the map of what I really think, click here. But clicking on the link will waive your right to be offended or bitch about what I wrote.