Stock: Facebook (fb) option

Been thinking of buying FB stock and learn how to trade options intelligently.  This is the first option I’ve ever bought. A co worker seems like he’s experienced at option trading so I’ve asked him for some guidance.  He recently bought some so I followed suit at a better price than him.

Bought Jan 14 $20 call option priced at $7.  So I need FB to be above $27 sometime before Jan 14 to make money.  Seems like a reasonable bet.Basically need FB to be up 5% by the end of the year.  Hopefully it’ll be OK.

A bit interested why he bought that call price as opposed to a higher call price.

Negotation 101

Any time a negotiation takes place, so does anchoring. When a prospective
employer asks how much you made in your prior job, your answer typically anchors
the employer’s offer. (Remember this when you negotiate your salary,
but set the anchor only as high as you realistically can.) Finally, the more
precise your anchor, the smaller the adjustment. Some research suggests
people think of making an adjustment after an anchor is set as rounding off
a number. If you suggest a target salary of $55,000, your boss will consider
$50,000 to $60,000 a reasonable range for negotiation, but if you mention
$55,650, your boss is more likely to consider $55,000 to $56,000 the range of
likely values

Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. (2013). Organizational behavior. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson/Prentice Hall.

Tutorial: Import Brandman gmail to normal gmail account

This is a tutorial that will teach you how to import your Brandman gmail account into your regular gmail account.

  1. Log into your gmail account.
  2. Click on the settings icon on the top right:settings
  3. Once in the settings page, select the “Account and Import” and the look in the “Check mail from other accounts (using POP3)”. Then click on the “Add a POP3 mail account you own”
  4. Once you click on this a pop up box opens: gmail-addamailaccount
  5. Enter your email address and click “Next step”
  6. Then you need to enter in your password and pop3 settings:
  7. Fill out for POP Server: brandmanpop.gmail.com and port 995
  8. Select other options if you want and then you should be done.

Music: Fitz and The Tantrums

Went to their 3/6 concert at House of Blues Sunset.  It was a long ass wait until they came on. Got there at 7 and they didn’t go on until after 9.

Didn’t know much of their music beforehand but they were pretty good. I liked the fact they part of their music is just a jam session. Their music is kinda like a pop soul type music. Most impressive thing about the band is how much energy that girl brings. Best usage of a tambourine I’ve ever seen. She was going pretty wild with it.

Cambodia travel tips

Cambodia Visa: Took a flight from Taipei to Phnom Penh. I did my visa online but it isn’t really necessary. You can just do it at the airport and the line wasn’t that long.

Screw the buses take a shared minivan:  Lonely planet recommended taking the bus.  From Phnom Penh to Siam Reap I took the Mekong Express and it was OK. It’s not an upscale bus, it’s an older bus from japan, but upscale bus because they give you a hot towel, water, and some bread. I’d say there is a better option.  There are companies that you can buy a seat on a minivan type car.  The car is much newer than the bus, seats look much more comfortable and probably faster too. Same price range too. Didn’t know of this option until I was in cambodia.

 

Anime: Sword Art Online

Finished watching the Sword Art Online (SAO) anime today. Today, I watched episodes 13-25. WOot!  They’re ~22 min episodes so it goes pretty fast. Obviously I liked it esp in the first 14 episodes.  The last 11 episodes were not as good do to a twist in the storyline.  A bit strange with the plot change in the middle, kinda kills the momentum but you can only kill monsters for so long I guess.

I liked the series because I like the ideal of really living in the game world. I’d be a fighter trying to gain strength. Surely beats going to school. I’m pretty bad at MMO games so only having one life is very scary but certain things would be really cool like cooking or fishing as you can see in the anime.

Also raises the question of online vs offline personalities. This is a subject I find pretty fascinating and think about sometimes. Maybe a blog for a different day. I’m going to watch the SAO special epsidoes today (2013/03/03 Update: not worth watching).

The series can be found on Hulu.com or google ‘animefreak’ for a commerical-less source

SAO synposis from wiki:

Virtual RealityMassively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) called Sword Art Online (SAO) has just been released. In the game, players control their avatars just as they would with their real bodies using the Nerve Gear, a VR Helmet that stimulates the user’s five senses via their brain. However, on its first day out of the beta testing period, the players soon discover that they cannot log out

 

So the players are stuck in this game where it becomes their lives and they can not be respawned either.  In order to free them from the game they have to defeat all 100 levels.