Financial Crisis..

By Kevin Nguyen:

The following is an actual conversation I had with my younger sister, Olivia. She likes to draw, play World of Warcraft, and now, she’s the only fourteen-year-old girl who understands the U.S. economic crisis.

Kevin: Have you been following the news?

Olivia: Yeah, I don’t really get it.

Kevin: Imagine that I let you borrow $50, but in exchange for my generosity, you promise to pay me back the $50 with an extra $10 in interest. To make sure you pay me back, I take your Charizard Pokémon card as collateral.

Olivia: Kevin, I don’t play Pokémon anymore.

Kevin: I’m getting to that. Let’s say that the Charizard is worth $50, so in case you decide to not return my money, at least I’ll have something that’s worth what I loaned out.

Olivia: Okay.

Kevin: But one day, people realize that Pokémon is stupid and everyone decides that the cards are overvalued. That’s right—everybody turned twelve on the same day! Now your Charizard is only worth, say, $25.

Olivia: Uh-huh.

Kevin: At the same time, you’re having trouble paying back the $60 you owe me. So what would you rather do: try and pay me back the $60 or just default and give me your $25 Charizard?

Olivia: I’d give you the Charizard.

Kevin: Exactly. Who wouldn’t? Now, the bank—I mean me—has lost $25 when I expected to make $10. What’s the lesson here?

Olivia: Pokémon is dumb.

Kevin: True, but keep going.

Olivia: That Pokémon cards might be worth less later than they are now?

Kevin: Close. You just can’t rely on them appreciating in value forever. There’s one other good lesson in this analogy.

Olivia: That you shouldn’t lend me money?

Kevin: A-ha, exactly right! You’re fourteen and have no source of income. What would convince me to lend you money if I’m not sure you can pay it back?

Olivia: Because you could’ve taken my $50 Charizard. So you could have either made $10 or gotten something worth what you gave me. If people didn’t realize Pokémon was dumb, then there was no way for you to lose anything.

Kevin: Now, instead of a loan of $50, imagine that it’s hundreds of thousands of dollars; then instead of a Pokémon card, it’s your house. The U.S.’s prosperity was built on the idea that real estate/Pokémon would never go down. Multiply this wishful thinking by thousands of people in America and you can see the scale of our problem.

Since you couldn’t pay me back, I can’t pay my bills and I can’t loan out any more money. Our country is dependent on the ability to borrow money.

Olivia: That doesn’t make any sense. If I borrow money from you, I’m going to spend it.

Kevin: Well, the idea is that you’ll spend it in a way that will make you more money in the future—like college or starting a business.

Olivia: Oh, okay. I have a question for you: did you use the Pokémon example because you think I’m a nerd?

Kevin: I just wanted to make it easy for you to understand.

Olivia: Fine. But stop telling people I play World of Warcraft. I’m totally over that.

Kevin: Don’t worry, Olivia. I used to be into way nerdier things. Have you heard of Magic: The Gathering?

Olivia: What the hell is that?

(source)

Shawa vs. Fendel

This picture says it all. I wanted to post it in here, but it's too wide.

Facebook Abuse?

So these are a series of status updates of someone I know, in the middle of exam-time. I wish I had as much free time as he did at that time. Look at the timestamps!

Random Milan Pt. 2

Discussions on the AC Milan blog got intense so I decided to draw up what I think Milan's tactics should be. Haha!

Random Milan

So I decided to draw a formation:

TURKEY FTW!!

Divine intervention? I think so!

Is this supposed to look good?!

Beirut under Occupation

A very familiar scene

From Naharnet: 'Hizbullah gunmen seized control of key parts of Beirut from Sunnis loyal to the U.S.-backed government Friday, a dramatic show-of-force certain to strengthen the Iranian-allied group's hand as it fights for dominance in Lebanon's political deadlock.'

To cut a long story short, the opposition (Hizbullah) wants power, and so they create chaos, to achieve that. There is no justification whatsoever, for one political party to close down streets, raid innocent peoples' houses, and take over independent media instutitions. Everything about it is wrong, and everything they accuse the government of has no basis. It's pathetic and us Lebanese, are getting sick of their irrational decisions. How much more do we have to deal with?!


What next? What's their plan? What is Lebanon heading to? What's the solution?

Some questions are better left unanswered..

Best Ad War

Best ad war in recent history..

1. BMW started this advertisement
2. Audi answered
3. Subaru needed to say something
4. Bentley Chairman wanted the last word

need a break..

.. in 72 hours, I'll be sitting in the exam room writing my last calculus test ever.. the thought of that is GREAT.. but then again, is that necessarily a good thing? we'll find out next year..

so i needed a break, so i took a screenshot of how i study for calc:

-> what i learned after 4 courses of calc: forget about theory, just learn how to solve problems by looking at the solutions manual and understanding from there.. :D
-> calculus + trance music = :D

so yea, that's about it for now.. hopefully i'll be a bit more active after exams are over.. back to triple integrals.. *sigh*

go kobe go

kobe bryant never fails to impress.. i'm not even a basketball fan, but this is just another one kobe's magic moments..

future laptops?

i came across an article that talked about laptops in 2015..

only 2 out of the 5 really caught my attention;



Cario 2



Compenion

waking up at 6

I realized today that I just need 7 hours of sleep. Every minute after the 7 hour mark is simply a waste of time.

Today I woke up at 6, and we had to run some errands, and we did that, until 11:30, then I had to go to school for a presentation. When I came back home, it was hard to believe that today morning, we ran some errands. Honestly, when you wake up early and get active, you get a really good feeling of satisfaction.

So tonight, I'm gonna sleep early, and wake up at 6 again, and try and study for a good few hours, then go to school for a lab, and then study some more. That sounds like a good plan, one that I've been trying to do for the past 2 years, but it never works out. But hey, after today's feeling, I think it's actually gonna work this time. I just need to sleep in 42 minutes.

FORZA MILAN .... forever

i love this picture.. a friend of mine asked me if the red was supposed to represent blood.. i never thought of that, but it would make sense.. it's a large wound, but a wound eventually gets healed..

creative much?

i came across this video a few weeks ago.. this is what you get if you combine a bit of creativity and a lot of free time;

so?

so i decided to create a blog, just for fun.. the purpose? no specific one really.. just thought that if i created a blog now, years from now, it’ll be interesting to look back at it..

so what am i gonna include? well, anything that crosses my mind really.. perhaps an interesting life event, or an interesting video i stumbled upon, or just thoughts about anything ranging from soccer to politics..