sotto voce

Just watched Jon Stewart’s tirade against John Thain. I agree that Thain’s 1.22 million office-decorating fee is a little wee bit on the excessive side (understatement of the year), but I disagree with Stewart’s opinion on bonuses.

It’s true that a lot of average Americans (yours truly and her spouse included) get no bonuses this year. But, unfortunately, we’re little minions with no real skills / contribution to our respective company. In other words, we’re pretty much replaceable by the next qualified joe on the street. On the other hand, those people whom Thain gave bonuses too – I suspect – are key players in the company who might be able to get ML back on its feet. Remember that actually there are certain parts / sectors in ML that made profits in 2008, even though too small to cover up the huge loss it made in the mortgage mess. The smart people in this sector are sure to want to jump ship and work for, say, GS or JPM or the numerous hedge funds out there, because they don’t want the risk of getting pink slips in the future. So, I suspect that Thain was trying to prevent the inevitable brain drain from happening by "bribing" these top players with bonuses.

However, he forgot to consider the "let’s hate on those greedy Wall Street bankers" mood that currently prevails. The public demands Wall Street to tighten its belt and share the pain/suffering with everyone else. That’s just naive and Wall Street will still be its own world with its own rules and reality.

What can you say? shrug shoulders

Is it wrong to do a bootyshake when:

Your partner is hanging out with the bros and you overheard him saying:

"Oh yeah, I met with xxx (old high school friend) the other night. She used to be such a bitch to me. Now I get to laugh at her coz my wife is so much hotter than she is."

Right. I don’t think it’s wrong either. 

It takes a while for each of us to learn about the other’s medical history. During the Christmas break, I was surprised to learn from his mother that he had to have a polyp removed from his nose when he was a teenager. In the nose? What?!! Oh, and she asked me to check on his nose occasionally, to make sure the polyp doesn’t come back. Geez, thanks a lot.

And yesterday, he asked me to feel the stitches in his tongue, which he got when he bit his own tongue in two (!!) during a wrestling practice years ago. "Feel the stitches??" he asked. Where, where,... oh my god, shit, I can feel it. Yuck, it’s gross...!!  He laughed while grinning proudly, as if that stupid stitches were battle of scars.

He’s slowly learning mine too… The absolutely terrifying hives I get when exposed to cold, the regular paps I had to have to make sure it doesn’t come back,  the tonsillitis that often makes me a royal bitch in pain,...

I used to think that it’s more practical for husband and wife-to-be to exchange their medical history files right off the bat. No sudden discoveries or surprises. Well, I still think that way and I was supposed to get our medical files from our previous doctors and gave them to our current primary care physician – except that 1. I’m lazy; 2. My files only dated back to 2004, before that my mom was my doc and she definitely didn’t keep a file.

I’m pretty sure one of these days I’m gonna feed him something that he’s allergic to and we’ll have a fun time going to the ER. =)

One application done. Another one to go.

Stress level = maximum

I believe I submitted it 9 minutes before it was closed. Sibeh close. When I told my friend about it, he commented: "Just like how you pulled it off in college, huh?"

Oh well, old habits die hard. I hope it all goes well, although I’ve already thought of the $200 as a money wasted. Well, not really wasted, it’s well-spent on kicking my flobby ass.