slow boat to china

my chinese consulate friend // san francisco

...and by "boat," I mean "very long flight(s)," but you get the idea.

At any rate, it's an announcement fairly long coming, and many (if not most (or maybe all)) of you are already aware of the news, but just to make it official: I'm moving to China for a year. Specifically, Shanghai. So yeah. Color me stoked.

i quit this bitch!

I wrote this back in the days when we were all firmly entrenched in the Space, but once again, the words are relevant. So here it is, slightly altered for accuracy's sake:

Saints be praised — I have begun the process of shaking off my shackles of cubicle oppression. BE GONE, vile headset; thou hath no power over me! The time of my rebirth is now. A new day is dawning, and I rise to greet it with open arms and a brilliant smile. The gods may feast in bacchean ecstasy on nectar and ambrosia, but I shall soon taste the sweet fruits of victory and emancipation.

I have given my three weeks' notice...

Rock. 

And now, some musical entertainment:



So apropos.

recession proof

Get it? :)

It's officially official: I've been laid off (although I volunteered to be (long story)). Friday 20 February is my last day, and then preparations for my long-awaited reverse roadtrip kick into high gear (yeah, it's only been about 18 months, but that's a long time for me to live anywhere, let alone on the wrong coast).

You didn't think that all that talk about a newly unemployed 20-something was hypothetical, did you?

housing hypotheticals

Just wrote a new blog post for work and thought at least the first half was worth sharing here.

This seems like it should hardly come as a shock, but newsflash! from Seeking Alpha: Home prices have increased more rapidly than rents, it's significantly cheaper to rent than to buy (not even taking into account the costs of taxes and insurance (albeit also not factoring in that mortgage interest is tax deductible, I'll give you that)). Conclusion: Financially, there is no motivation to buy a home aside from price appreciation. Thus, in a market where homes are depreciating in value (i.e. the current one (in fact, the Wall Street Journal reports that price declines accelerated in 4Q2008)), it is illogical to buy a home.