The end of the world as we know it!

The picture says it all. How can you not believe it? It happens right in front of our eyes. From the recent natural disasters, the wars, and the global economic collapse. I'm not here to convince you when it will happen, but what will happen then, and what you should do.

What will happen?
It's going to be unbelievable, but you should believe it. There will be flood all over the world. It's like Leviathan teaming up with Poseidon to create tsunami up to the roof top of Nepal. Ifrit will crawl out of hell like a beaver underground and spit fire all over the poles causing massive global warming. Things of that magnitude will happen. And worst of all, Osama bin laden will swim to the US east coast and start multiplying himself into millions of bin laden's and flood the street, creating massive immigration problem and fears. People will line up in a path to hell and at the very bottom is the security checkpoint. There stand the mighty TSA with their gloves ready to molest and probe everyone passing by.

What you should do?
What you should do is up to you. You can sit there and watch the storm passes by or you can take action, like me! I've already withdrew all my money from all my bank accounts, sold my car, quitted my job. I also canceled all the graduation invitations and best of all, stopped paying my bills. I also made a poem about this but I'm not going to share it here. However, I forgot to take the money out of my retirement accounts and my stock options but those never earned me money so who cares. It's the end of the world, why do you need money? you might ask. That's the point. You don't, that's why you should donate them all to me. I will only use this money to promote awareness.

Anyway, if you've read this far, you know how serious this stuff is. You should not waste anymore time and start donating money to help my campaign. And with that, I will head over to meet my online friends to play a pick up online game of "Starcraft - Wings of Liberty" ... for the last time!

Some interesting facts

There are some interesting information that I found on this website that just happened the last couples of years.

* On September 18, 2008 the National Debt stood at $9.66 trillion. Today it stands at $14.16 trillion, a 47% increase in 2 1/2 years.

* The country is running $1.5 trillion annual deficits and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

* The States are running cumulative budget deficits of $130 billion in FY11 and expect deficits of $112 billion in FY12. This is leading to conflicts with unions, higher taxes and mass layoffs of government workers.

* The working age population has risen by 5 million, while the number of employed Americans has declined by 6.5 million. The true unemployment rate http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts has risen from 12% to 22%.

* In September 2008 there were 30.8 million Americans on food stamps. Today there are 44 million Americans on food stamps (14% of the U.S. population), a 43% increase in 2 1/2 years. The annual cost has risen by $37 billion, a 100% increase in 2 1/2 years.

* Real inflation http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts bottomed at 5% in early 2009, but has accelerated to 9% today, with further increases baked in the cake.

* Gasoline prices bottomed out at $1.61 per gallon in January 2009 and have risen to $3.54 per gallon today, a 120% increase in just over two years.

* Households have lost $6.3 trillion of real estate related wealth since the peak of the housing market. Home prices have fallen for six straight months.

* Almost 3 million homes have been lost to foreclosure since 2007.

* There are 11.1 million households, or 23.1% of all mortgaged homes, underwater on their mortgages today, with rates above 50% in Nevada, Arizona, California, and Michigan.

* Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the US government and have lost $170 billion of taxpayer funds so far. Losses are expected to reach $400 billion. Along with the FHA, they continue to prop up a dead housing market with more bad loans.

* The Federal Reserve balance sheet in September 2008 consisted of $895 billion of US Treasury bonds. Today it totals $2.55 trillion of toxic mortgages bought from Wall Street banks and Treasury bonds being bought under QE2.

* The Federal Reserve and the Treasury Dept. intimidated the FASB into allowing Wall Street banks to account for worthless mortgage and real estate loans as fully collectible. Magically, insolvent banks became solvent – on paper.

* The Dow Jones was 11,700 in late August 2008 and today stands at 12,000. The Dow has risen 84% from its March 2009 low. The top 1% wealthiest Americans own 40% of all the stocks in America, so they are feeling much better.

* In late 2007, a risk averse senior citizen could get a 5% return on a 6 month CD. Today, after two years of no increases in their Social Security payments, a senior citizen can “earn” .38% on a 6 month CD.

* The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates to 0% in order to allow the Wall Street banks to borrow for free and earn billions without risk.

* Over 300 smaller banks have been closed by the FDIC, with losses exceeding $50 billion. There are another 900 banks on the verge of insolvency, with estimated future losses of $100 billion.

* The Federal Reserve initiated QE2 in November 2010, purchasing $70 billion per month of Treasury bonds and attempting to create a stock market rally. They have succeeded in creating a tsunami of energy, food, and commodity price inflation across the globe, sparking revolutions among the desperately poor in the Middle East.

* Wall Street banks “earned” record profits of $19 billion in 2010 after nearly destroying the worldwide financial system in 2008 and raping the American taxpayer in 2009.

* No Wall Street executive has been prosecuted for the fraudulent actions committed by their banks.

* Wall Street banks handed out $43.3 billion in bonuses in 2009/2010 for a job well done. The average Wall Street employee received a $128,000 bonus in 2010. In 2008, the year they crashed the financial system, they still doled out $17.6 billion in bonuses.

* The median household income in 2007 was $52,163. Today the median household income is $46,326, an 11% decline in three years. Real average weekly earnings are lower today than they were in 1971.

We're going backward. A lot of people don't even know those happened. Some know but don't really care because they do not directly affect them. With the debt at this rate, even if they tax everybody 100% for a long time, they wouldn't be able to pay off the debt. What the government is doing is print more money to make it worthless and the debt will go away, what a joke!

The economy and political systems in America are so corrupt. In a real free market there's no such thing as "too big to fail" that the government has to bail out. If one company fails, the opportunity will open for better ones to rise. What the government did was backing up their buddies (or campaign donators) from Wall Street. Their "solution" to fix the economy brought unintended (or intended) consequences and lay out a path for future storms to come that could potentially be worse. We can't afford another crisis similar to the one in 2008 but it's going to come. Last time we still have houses, jobs, retirement accounts, savings ... Many people already lost those and don't have anything left.

I love many things in America but there are a lot of wrongs. These systems are so corrupt and we go to other countries telling them to model after us? I don't know if I should laugh or cry.

Is US dollar becoming worthless?

Today, I had an embarrass moment. After eating lunch, I took a walk to CVS and bought a bottle of Pepsi. I came to the register to pay. The clerk scanned the bottle, I took out $2 and gave him. After awhile waiting to get my change back, I asked "Is something wrong? Is the cash register stuck?" (I was serious and sincere). He replied "It's $2.04, you're 4 cents short". I didn't have any more $1 bill so I had to use my check card. What an embarrass moment! I overvalued the dollar and thought $2 would be enough for a bottle of soft drink. Since when is it $2? When I was in college (which isn't decades ago), I can buy the same thing at the same place for $1 / $1.25. Now after 2,3 years it's double? Is it inflation or the dollar doesn't worth shit anymore? If they keep printing out money out of thin air in Washington DC to pay debt, next year a bottle of Pepsi will cost $3. The next thing is US dollar will lose its place as the world's reserve money. 8,10 years ago if you graduate and making $50,000 / year that's a lot of money, now you gotta be making $100,000 to be able buy the same stuff you did 8,10 years ago. It makes no sense. I want my paycheck deposited in my bank in gold, please.

My European Adventure Summary

My European Adventure Summary
Notice it's called an adventure instead of a trip / vacation because it wasn't simply a relaxation. We experienced everything from getting stuck at the airport overnight to eating at fancy restaurants and visiting some of the world's most famous attractions. Here are the places we visited:

1) Holland – Amsterdam (We went pass security scan and went outside of Schiphol airport for a drink while waiting for transfer)
2) Switzerland – Geneva, Fribourg, Gruyeres, Bern, Interlaken (Bernese Oberland) and Jungfrau (Bernese Alps).
3) Spain – Barcelona, Madrid, Toledo
4) France – Paris, Versailles
5) Germany – Berlin, Potsdam
6) Italy – Venice, Florence, Pisa, Rome, Vatican city, Naples
7) Greece – Athens, Delphi

7 countries (technically 8 because the Vatican is a separate country and a city), 21 cities in 29 days. This required intensive planning and endurance to participate.

Here are my rankings and summary based on my experience:

1. Best/worst experience:
Best experience is probably in Berlin, Germany. Food is cheap, people are nice, free tour, pub crawl, everything seems to be great there. Worst experience: dealing with EasyJet and its greedy staff. I wrote a long rant and sent it to them and published it on several forums online. Nowadays, it’s pretty easy to destroy your name with the internet. I don’t travel to Europe all the times, so if I don’t have a pleasant experience, I’m going to make sure other people know and don’t fall for it. If I’m a terrorist, you know what airline is my target. Yeah, you heard me!

2. Most unexpected
Madrid, Spain. This could easily be listed in the worst experience but I saved that for EasyJet. May 22nd, 2010 Champions League final in Madrid. The street was flooded with Inter Milan and Bayern Munich fans, people picked pocket in metro, pilots decided to go on strike to watch the game, we slept at the airport, hundreds of people were stranded. For more details, see here. I feel sorry for those who rely on public services in Spain during the world cup, especially the championship game. I bet everything was shut down.

3. Most/least expensive
Most expensive is probably Paris and Spain in general. Least expensive is Switzerland. Okay, that’s misleading because I have family in Switzerland so I didn’t have to spend as much money as I did in other places. If you don’t have family, Switzerland can easily be the most expensive place to visit. Greece is very inexpensive also, probably cheaper than some things in America.

4. Most romantic
Forget Paris or Rome, the most romantic city is Venice. The floating city with ferries, the gondola rides, the bridges and small shops, restaurants. I’d put Interlaken and Jungfrau region second and honorable mention goes to Paris.

5. Best museum
Take a guess: Louvre? Vatican Museum? Nope. It’s Borghese Museum in the Borghese Villa. It’s a small museum compared to the others but its quality is the best. The Sistine Chapel inside Vatican Museum is no match for Borghese’s art. The hundreds sculptures inside Louvre can’t be compared to “the Rape of Proserpena” or “Apollo and Daphne” or “the David” – a self portrait by Bernini. Each statue here has pictures and paintings from the wall and the ceiling to describe it. The bad thing is that you have to check in your camera. I had a sneak shot but forgot to turn my flash off and immediately was surrounded by museum staff. They seem to take their job very seriously.

6. Best Sculpture
It’s hard to choose because I’ve seen so many paintings and sculptures throughout my trip. But I’d say the Pieta by Michelangelo inside St. Peter’s Basilica. The incredible details and expressions he put into this master piece is unbelievable.

7. Best attractions
This is the hardest because each place has its own attractions. It’s very hard to rank them from top to bottom. Here is a list of some great attractions: Gruyeres village and castle (Switzerland), Versailles garden (France), free tour in Berlin (Germany), the Vatican, Ancient Rome (Italy), the Acropolis in Athens and Delphi (Greece).

8. Best scenery
Hands down it’s Switzerland, especially Interlaken and Jungfrau region. The waterfall, the mini cable car, the ferry across the turquoise lake with houses on the side of the mountain, the temperature drop and seasonal change within minutes from summer to winter going up the elevation.

9. Best food
Each place has its own style but overall I like tapas in Spain, then ice cream and pastas in Italy, Berlin sausage was awesome too.

10. Best/worst castle
The best castle is probably castle of Gruyeres in Switzerland base on its look. For the inside, the castle of Versailles and/or the Palacio Real in Madrid probably top the list. There are several bad ones worth avoiding: Castle of St Angelo is one of them. The other one is Palazzo Vecchio near the beautiful Vecchio Ponte (bridge). The small castle in Potsdam outside of Berlin.
The best castle garden is definitely the garden of Versailles. It’s beautiful, open space, there’s a lake, bike rental, music inside the bush is very romantic, fountain of Neptune, sculptures, ice cream shops, water dancing at night and so on.

11. Most/least favorite place
Most favorite is probably Berlin just because of the reasons listed above. Least favorite place is definitely Madrid as there’s nothing to see besides the King’s Palace.

These could easily change the next day you ask me. So there you have it, my big, fat, European adventure.

Delphi, Greece

The next morning we got up early to go to Delphi. Delphi is an ancient city northwest of Athens, around 3 hours bus ride. They said Delphi was the center of the universe. We took the bus there. It was 13 euros / person each way. If you want to visit Delphi, you can visit it for couples of hours as there is not much to see. We were there for only 4,5 hours and we saw everything outside. However, we didn't visit the museum there because we saw so many museums already. The view is beautiful. The ancient site was okay, not what I expected. I got the map of the entire site so we knew what to expect. We climbed all the way up to the theater and they stopped us there, didn't allow us to go up the steps. From what I heard, you have to climb all the way up to the top of the theater to have a much better view. In the afternoon, we went back to Athens and prepared to leave. 3 days in Athens was great. I wish we went here earlier because it was our last destination, we were exhausted and couldn't do much. I wish I could go to some of the islands.


In the morning, we said goodbye to Athens and took our flight back to Milan. I was surprise how easyjet didn't check for bag size. I guess it depends on the airport and the staff. We arrived at Milan and bought tickets to go back to Fribourg, Swizerland. I still had about 50 euros left in my wallet so we used them all for our luxurious meal on the train (including some sushi). As the sun started to come down, we were leaving the country side of Northern Italy heading into the mountainous Alps of Switzerland. We passed by the small town of Sion as I saw 2 policemen getting on the train checking for passports. Far away on the mountain sides, there were couples of houses with lights on here and there. The sun disappeared as the night felt. I closed my eyes and rested a little bit realizing that my Europe adventure has come to an end.

My big, fat Greek adventure

Okay, not really. I was there for 3 days. Athens is a vibrant city. It's very crowded, 1/3 of Greece's population is in Athens. It reminds me of some of the cities in Asia. The instant we got here, there were signs and banners everywhere at the metro and public places protesting the government. There were lots of polices blocking streets and protests. We arrived at our hotel, Chic Hotel. It was a4 star hotel but seems like a 3 star. The staff was nice, though. By the time we got here, we were exhausted, we could barely walk. I was thinking of sleeping in the hotel for awhile but I didn't want to waste precious travel time. Plus the street of Athens was live with actions everywhere, I didn't wanna miss it. We bought the 3-day public transportation pass to go on the metro for free. Well, Athens was like Berlin. Their metro and bus are base on an integrity system. You don't have to buy tickets but if you get caught, it's 60 times the price of the ticket. If you're going to the airport I think the fine was 300 times the ticket. We ate lunch at a local restaurant. I had chicken gyros it was very good and costs only 2 euros.


The first place we visited was the Acropolis. I was tired and we had to walk uphill to the top to see the Parthenon and the temple of Athena up there. But it was worth the effort. They are still rebuilding a lot of stuff around here. What strange is that everywhere we go in Athens, there are stray dogs. These are unwanted dogs being left by their owners on the street. They are not dangerous because the only thing they do is sleep all day. It's kind of sad. I heard during the Olympics in 2004, they killed all these stray dogs in couples day. That's horrible. Anyway, the Acropolis was nice. Next stop was the Temple of Olympian Zeus. This shouldn't be an attraction because the only thing left are the columns and you had to buy tickets to go in and see them. Luckily we didn't have to buy tickets for any of the attractions we went to in Athens because it was a holiday I think (or maybe they encourage tourists to come around this time). The Panathinaiko Olympic stadium was nice, but we didn't go inside. This was the stadium that hosts the first Olympic in 1896. Next we went to the National Garden which is right across from the Olympic stadium. It's the weekend and there's not much to do here so we left. That's pretty much it for Athens. You can go see all the main attractions in a day or two.


Athens metro is very easy to use. Our hotel was near Omonia station but we mostly went to Syntagma to eat as it was a big stop. There are a lot of archaeological artifacts found here when they dug up the ground to create the metro system in Athens. So, the entire metro is like a museum with lots of things to see. I think the metro here is still under construction because there are only 2 lines. At night, the city is alive with lots of restaurants, bars, and people walking around. It was fun.

The next day we visited the Athens flea market. Here you can find pretty much everything from dirt cheap to expensive stuff. We didn't buy any. Everything here is cheaper compared to all the other countries we went to in Europe (maybe cheaper than America too). In the afternoon, we went to Lycattabus Hill. This is definitely a must-go if you want to see the view of Athens. We took the metro to the hill, then walked up for about 20 minutes. There are lots of houses around here with orange and cherry trees. I would recommend to walk up the hill around 7pm and then take the cable car down at night after you've seen the sunset (around 9pm). You can see everything from top of the Lycattabus Hill. You can see the Acropolis, the Ancient Agora, the Olympic stadium, the garden... everything. As the sun goes down, your view also changes and it's very different every half hour until the city lights are on.

World cup 2010 quarter final

Germany vs Argentina
July 3rd, 2010
World cup 2010 quarterfinals




A little history behind this rivalry. It started in 1986 when Diego Maradona and his team defeated Germany 3-2 to win Argentina’s 2nd world cup title. In 1990, Germany responded by defeating Argentina 1-0 in the final match. 4 years ago in Germany, these two teams met again in the quarterfinal. Germany won in a PK shoot out after goal keeper Lehmann stopped Cambiasso’s PK. After that, a fight broke out and there were many players suspended. Argentina’s still mad about that and they wanted to revenge. Germany’s also angry because their key players were suspended the following game which they eventually lost to the world champions Italy (did I just say that?). On July 3rd, 2010 these two teams will meet again in the same situation as back in world cup 2006. This time, it’s a lot more intense as there are a lot of players on the current teams participated in the match in world cup 2006. Off the field, there are a lot of trash talkings. Schwansteiger and Lahm accused Argentina of dirty, provocative, and disrespected to the referees and the opponents. Maradona said that the Germans are nervous and insulted Mueller as a ball boy. Tevez wanted to revenge. Messi vowed to defeat Germany for the English and his favorite band. The game hasn’t started yet but already there is a heated psychological war going on. There will be more as Mueller, Bierhoff and other people jump into the conversation. I can imagine a fight between these two during the game.

On to the football part.

Germany’s starting 11 (predicted) 4-4-2

Goalkeeper: Neuer
Defenders: Lahm (c), Frierich, Mertesacker, Boateng
Midfields: Ozil, Schweinsteiger, Mueller, Khedira
Forwards: Klose, Podolski

Argentina’s starting 11 (predicted) 4-3-3

Goalkeeper: Romero
Defenders: Heinze, Demichelis, Burdisso, Otamendi
Midfields: Di Maria, Mascherano (c), Rodriguez
Forwards: Higuain, Messi, Tevez

I’ve watched every game Argentina and Germany played in this world cup (I think I’ve watched most of the games so far if not all). This year Argentina is a much stronger team than in 2006 (or 2002, 1998, 1994). They show more athleticism and skills on their offense through Messi, Higuain, and Tevez. Even their defenders can prove to be very dangerous and have the ability to score goals (Heinze). The fact that they are lead by the legend Maradona is also very important (physically and mentally). Maradona wants to win so badly, he even said “I’m going to put on a jersey and play this game myself”. Germany in contrast is a younger team with lots of strength, skills, but less experience. Their offense is as strong as any offense spearheaded by Klose and Podolski. Their midfield is dominated by young talented players such as Schweinsteiger, Ozil, Khedira, and Mueller. Germany’s strength is in their defense. Captain Lahm, Frierich, Mertesacker, and Boateng can be the difference in the game. It’s going to be a very good match up between Schweinsteiger and Messi in the middle, this could be the deciding factor of the game. Messi has been playing very well contributing lots of assists though he hasn’t scored. When Schweinsteiger plays well, Germany win. As simple as that. I think both have explosive offenses with Argentina a little better on individual skills, play makers, and quickness. Germany is a more even team with strength in every position and collectively as a team. It could come down to who has a better defense or goal keeper. The defense for both sides will have a tough day.

I love watching Argentina and their players showing off individual skills, dancing the Tango on the field. Batistuta was the reason why Argentina is my favorite team since 1994. I was disappointed that several Argentine players were left out of the team roster this world cup. That’s why I didn’t cheer for Argentina. I also love the way Germany played as a team from the opening game, inexperience and almost error free. I never really cheered for Germany before until I came to Berlin this year. It’s such a great place with great people. In addition, after watching the young German players (with a team that is less than 100%) performed, I am rooting for them this world cup. So, my two favorite teams collide in the quarterfinals. Something’s got to give, right? Let’s hope for a great, fair game. I don’t wanna see the referee’s errors decide this game. If necessary, bring on the PK shoot out once again. Personally I think Argentina is slightly better. I think if Germany still have an experience leader like Ballack (arguably the best player on the team) taking the central midfield position, allowing Schweinsteiger to move forward and freely work with Klose, Podolski, then there’s no doubt in my mind that Germany will win this one. Germany’s young squad needs more experience as they progress to more important matches. However, I would hope Germany wins and move on, if it comes down to PK, I think Germany will win. This game is very hard to pick the winner. One small error could mean the result is different, so anything can happen. This is the game that I’m most familiar with, I know all starting players from both teams, yet I don’t know how to come up with a final score. I guess that’s what happened when emotion is involved. With that said, nobody bothers me from 10am-1pm July 3rd, 2010. I will be watching every second of this game. May the better team win. Everybody, enjoy what could be one of the best 90 minutes (possibly more) in this tournament. There certainly will be goals, dramas, cards, probably a fight, and most importantly: expect a thriller world class football.