JangChoe.name

Check out Ron Paul’s plan: http://www.ronpaul2008.com/prosperity

The libertarian in me likes the plan. What do you guys think?

I finally watched 28 Weeks Later. It was probably one of the best horror movies I’ve seen in a long time. I’m a little biased because the zombie genre is my favorite among the horror genres. You can say this movie isn’t a zombie movie, but it has zombie themes.

I actually liked this movie better than 28 Days Later. Except I didn’t like the shaky camera work, the plot holes, and the stupidity of the U.S. Army portrayed in the film. I just felt the first movie was too slow. The second movie is more American, faster paced movie.

I guess I’m becoming more American in my movie tastes. I can’t stand those slow-paced foreign films anymore.

Today I tried canceling my Bellsouth account (to achieve one of my New Year’s resolutions), and they offered me naked DSL! It saves me $40 a month! So go and ask for naked DSL at Bellsouth. This is great if you don’t use your landline.

– Jan 16 Edit –

Never mind, I knew this was too good to be true. I’m only saving $20 a month. They require a $5 additional fee to make it work over the empty landline (BS). And the only DSL that is available naked is the $39.99 version. They say it’s because that’s the only speed that can handle being naked (more BS).

So I’m getting a slightly cheaper yet faster DSL. I wish I was a EE or telecoms guy so I can call him out.

To keep some of my resolutions, I decided to use this simple little web app. It’s called Joe’s Goals. It’s easy to use. So if you need to keep track of your resolutions, try it out.

We all know the story these days: Some teenage sister of a pop star is pregnant. Middle school and high school kids having sex in classrooms. Or someone killing over a pair of sneakers.

So are we, as a society, becoming more immoral? Whatever happened to the good old days, like the 50’s? Everything was so picture perfect like Andy Griffith or Leave it to Beaver.

It’s usually the older generation that says we’re more immoral. But every generation says that about the new generation. So it’s nothing new.

No, we’re not getting more immoral. We’re pretty immoral to begin with, so how do we become “more” immoral anyway? No matter what time period we were born, we still lie, kill, fornicate, steal, etc. So get over it you old people. You were probably as hateful and horny as the young kids.

My individual stock account for 2007 went up about 35%. This was because of my biggest winner: Google. Google was up 50% for 2007. I had other winners too such as EWZ and PBW which gave me about 25% gain for 2007. I also made some stupid trades. But at the end, I killed the s&p 500 which only had about 3.5% gain in 2007.

My Roth IRA didn’t do so well. I picked some dumb mutual funds for my Roth. I’m only up 6.5% in my Roth for 2007. It’s decent but nothing special. At least I beat the s&p500. I’m hoping my Pepsi stock in my Roth is going to do wonders in the long run.

I have my 401k with Vanguard. I have no idea how well I did. I think I actually lost money. I didn’t really have much control over my 401k because they only offered Vanguard mutual funds. Which is fine. And I also chose their recommended plan for me. Which is fine too. If I notch another loss for 2008, I should concentrate on my 401k more often.

For 2008, the market already has started off on the wrong foot. S&P 500 down 1.4% on high volume today. Ouch. I hope some of my risky positions don’t sting me this year.

I’ll write them down here in public view so I can keep myself accountable. Roy Baumeister said that we have a higher chance of keeping resolutions if we make fewer resolutions. I think it’s true because most of us are lazy creatures. But screw Roy, I’m gonna be a rebel and see how many I can keep for 2008. I’ve made these around Mid December and already started implementing some of them.

• I’m going to exercise at least 3-4 times a week. And each workout is going to last at least 30 minutes. It’ll be a combination of swimming, hiking, yoga, and qigong/neigong stuff. I’ll probably mix in other physical activities too so I won’t get bored.
• I’m going to max out my 401k and my Roth IRA. In addition to that, I’m going to automatically save and invest about 10-13% of my gross salary. For my investments, I’m going to be patient and not be too emotionally driven when picking my investments.
• I’m going to reduce my expenses by moving closer to work so I can save gas money. I’m also going to cook more often instead of going out to eat so much. I’m also going to take advantage of my company’s disability insurance benefit instead of paying for my own.
• I want to see how long I can survive without a TV and an Internet connection in my house. TV I can do because I do that already. But no Internet is going to be killer. But Internet is a pretty big expense. I’m gonna try to survive by using company’s internet and free Wi-Fi cafes. This also means I can’t work from home. Bummer.
• I want to communicate more effectively. I have a long way to go to be an effective communicator. I want to talk louder. I’m going to self-disclose more often when talking to other people. I’ll also try not to project too many negative emotions such as anger, tiredness, sadness, etc. when talking to people.
• I want to improve my soft-skills by being conscious about them more often.
• I want to read books 25 days out of the month. This does not include the Bible.
• I’m going to read the whole Bible again this year. I’m using a different Bible reading plan and a different translation.
• I’m going to try to write at least every other day. So 15-16 days a month, I’m going to write a blog post.
• I’m going to pray more. At least twice a day not including meals.
• If I remember, on Dec 2008, I’m going to list which of those resolutions above I was able to keep. For 2009, I’m going to calibrate how many resolutions I’m going to make based on how many I was able to keep for 2008.

So I’ve been using Twitter for a few days now. It’s pretty interesting. I kind of like it. Once I started using it, I can see how addicting it could be. Here are some uses I found for Twitter:

• It becomes a mini log for you. You can check Twitter and see what you did a few hours ago. Of course, you have to update Twitter constantly, so it can get tiring. But if you do update constantly, it can get useful.
• If a lot of your friends use it, you can follow their lives on it.
• Depending on who you follow, it can be used like a Digg or a StumbleUpon. People like Guy Kawasaki tweets interesting links.
• You can follow CNN and get news updates.
• You can follow your favorite candidate and see what’s he up to.
• You can probably follow other people to get the latest tech or product announcements.
• If you have a lot of followers, it can be used as a marketing tool.
• It can be used to broadcast messages to your friends at once.
• You can even use it to figure out where to buy a Wii.

And there are many more uses. I think I’m going to use it a lot more. But I need more people to follow. So sign up so I can see how annoying it can be.