Placed the order

Yes, yes... the economy, recession, housing has been discussed ad nauseum. After a lot of thought I decided to pull the trigger. Part of me figured I should do my small part to boost the economy!

Tech layoffs and BA home pricing

At the investment club at my work, I've noticed more and more consensus that Bay Area housing pricing will continue to experience further downward pressure in line with the rest of the country due to the domino effect of all the macroeconomic events leading up to corporate layoffs. I've also been anticipating some degree of BA layoffs since April and I came across this site that is tracking layoffs. Nifty site! Now, I am not sure how many of the companies listed here today are actually in the Bay Area but it will be interesting to see if the big Bay Area tech companies are gonna break sooner or later and the effects (if any) to the housing market. Bay Area housing pricing is something I've had a lot of passion around given our circumstances and I would imagine for many other people as well. Or maybe I am just too much of a Burbed addict ;)

Edit 10/23/08: I tend to agree with Joe's comments.

Assassin's Creed

With all the doom and gloom lately, I really needed some good escapism. I recently started playing Assassin's Creed for the PC and wow, it is one of the most beautifully made games I have ever played. Check out the video review above and you'll see what I mean. This is one the games that really showcases next generation graphics. The open world feels huge and real. The animation is impressive. I like the fact that the game takes place in the Third Crusade and that you rely on stealth vs kill everything and everyone in sight. It's a nice break from the first person shooter genre. As much as I like PC gaming, I have to admit that I have a very short attention span and get bored of games fairly quickly. But Assassin's Creed has managed to get me to want to keep on playing.

Credit default swaps in plain english

This is the best "straight talk" segment I've watched on how we went from subprime/CDOs to credit default swaps (CDSs) to the current financial crisis. It does a great job in demystifying what credit default swaps are. After watching this you can't help but feel angry about how this kind of greed and deregulation can exist today. Talk about the biggest Ponzi scheme ever. It's incredible.

Oh how it hurts

Have you looked at your 401K lately? I am down -30% YTD. It's mainly attributed to the fact that I am in all stock funds and no bonds. However, despite the staggering paper loss, I would not make a major change to my asset allocation since I feel I am reasonably diversified (within stock funds) and I am taking the long view on all this (err.. make that super long). I know a few people who switched out of their stock funds before the big crash and reallocated a good chunk to bonds & MM funds. Good for them. I didn't market time my 401K as I did with our taxable accounts. In hindsight, maybe I could have reallocated the 401K at the same time as the taxable accounts when the obvious red flags came about and got back into the game when fundamentals looked more promising. Well, no sense in beating myself up over this now. It's water under the bridge. Just have to ride this one out and hopefully make the right call next time. It just hurts cause you realize this potentially sets you back a few years in terms of retirement.

I am still trying to better understand how deregulation (or lack of regulation) in the CDS derivatives market led to this mess. I thnk it's something to strongly consider as we head to the voting polls in Nov.


Edit 10-9-08: After sleeping on it, I've now changed my mind about trying to market time 401K. I think it's true that it's virtually impossible to time the market bottom and if you miss the good "up" days (which you never know when they will occur), then you really take a hit on your long term returns. Also you can't "day trade" 401K like you can with non-retirement equities. 401K transactions take much longer. I remembered again why I withdrew the taxable accounts in March - shorter term goals. I convinced myself again to know our goals, risk tolerance level, and just stick to the plan. While it's not much of a consolation right now, I do think it's good to see the market returning to more sound fundamentals.

Decision 08

After the two presidential candidate debates and one VP candidate debate, you can feel the momentum is swinging in favor of the Blue team. The Red team have got their work cut out for them. I can't wait to watch the next new SNL .

The Godfather Trilogy (Blu Ray) - Coppola Restoration

I take back what I said a long ago about technology just merely being a means to an end. Yes, the film itself is the most important component in the overall experience. But I have to admit that the technology piece is having more weight than before. For me, this new restoration coupled with the HD format takes the Godfather experience to the next level. Thankfully, there is no butchering of these films via DNR. The grain is there but it's not distracting. Viewers expecting a razor sharp image or rich color saturation will be disappointed. But from all sources I've come across, the subdued look has been the intent by Coppola. And that's fine by me. While I certainly love the razor sharp and highly saturated look of the newer big budget films, I've come to the realization that not all films are going to have those characteristics and that higher resolution does not necessarily equate to higher levels of sharpness. But that doesn't mean the picture can't/doesn't look amazing. On this set, there is a nice documentary disc that is in HD (and razor sharp btw) and gives a nice history of the restoration process. And you get a good perspective on how the picture and sound were before (VHS -> DVD) and just how challenging and painstaking it was to get to the current restored version.