I have to begin this post with an apology. It has been months since I have last written a post. The cause of this is two fold, one being the fact that I am back at work again. For those of you who don’t know, I am again toiling away in the currency markets, this time on Wall Street. The second excuse is that I had no idea that people were actually reading this until friends started harassing me about not updating it. I look to regularly posting from now forward.
Back to my current post, I heard this the other day.
It always amazes me when an artist can take someone else’s song and make it their own. I can’t really say its better than the original, but I can’t say its worse either. It’s by Ray Lamontagne, a solid acoustic guitarist. I have heard other covers as well, but this is by far my favourite. I also a youtube link for your pleasure.
So I have been in New York for almost 3 months. At this point I think I am starting to get it. When you speak to people, they seem to have a real sense of pride in calling themselves a New Yorker. It’s different than other places, such as Chicago and Osaka, that I have lived. In other places people are proud of their city. I was proud of Chicago, but not necessarily proud of being a Chicagoan. I think this sense of pride comes from a simple fact that living in New York City is hard. I found the transition to Japan more difficult, but in many ways my daily life was more simple. Embrace 12 hour day, go on auto pilot. In New York, you have to struggle to find an apt. Once you have found one, the laws are set up in such a manner that land lords and tenants often hate each other. Real Estate is incredibly expensive. Driving is impossible. People ask for money of a daily basis. The pace of life can leave the people around you short tempered and irritable. The upside is that all of the finer things in life are at your fingertips. I have found an amazing church on the upper west side. Central park may be the most picturesque urban park I have ever seen. The ethnic food scene is diverse and authentic. It’s a city of highs and lows, and people feel pride in making it work.
As Y and I have started our life in New York, we have accepted the fact that we have some work to do before we can embrace the peaks of New York living. We need to start where we are and work our way up. In keeping with this theme, it is only fitting that the very first restaurant we went to in Manhattan was Cafe Fonduta Pasta. This restaurant is ranked by state senator Jeffrey Klein as the worst restaurant in New York City. Thats not worst as in worst tasting… no worse than that. Worst as in most, and most flagrant health code violations. We had no idea. This meal was a few months ago. I don’t really remember much about the meal besides that it was a bit expensive for the quality of food. Anyways, It can only get better from there…
Ok, so I was orginally introduced to Crema by a good college friend, who’s girlfriend’s bestfriend is good friends with the owner… who I think knows kevin bacon. Anyways, this is a nice restaurant at 111W 17th Street. I know what you may be thinking, why does a guy who lives in Jackson heights, a community that has a large portion of Mexicans and Columbians, travel all the way to Manhattan for Mexican food. Well I guess the easy answer is that if I am looking for satisfaction, I can stay in Jackson Heights, but if I am looking to be entertained, then I head to Crema. I have eaten there twice now. The first time I had duck served on tortillas, a spicy yet sweet meal that was great. Everyone at the table seemed satisfied, but it was not enough to warrant a blogging. Saturday deffinitely took it up a notch. We started the evening with guacamole and chips. They were quite delicious, but Y tends to make guac once a week. I would have to say they are quite comparable, so at $12 its a bit steep. I had the Halibut, a generous fillet that was marinated in coconut milk and served on a bed of diced tomatoes, vegetables, and sauce. I also had a card for a free margarita. It was very good, but I am not sure I see myself paying $12 for one. The highlight of the night was Y’s meal. She had a corn masa turnover with zucchinni, portobello mushrooms, and “mexican black truffles.” When we inquired about the truffles, the waiter described it as a fungus that grows on corn. I immediately knew what he was talking about, aflatoxin! Aflatoxin is a huge black and white fungus that grows on corn, and will glow purple if shown under a black light. Normally a farmer will have to throw out a batch of corn if it has too much aflatoxin in it. I had heard that it is sometimes used in french cuisine, but this was the first time experiencing it. I can’t even begin to describe it. Everyone needs to try it… at least once!
今日はトテモ充実した日でした。朝、教会へ行きました。ニューヨークで教会に行くのは初めてです。教会の名前はオールドセイントパッツ（Old Saint Pat’s)です。アメリカでこの教会は二番目に古いです。教会はたくさんの人がいたので、恥ずかしくて写真は撮れなかった。教会に行った後でファネリズカフェ（Fanelli’s Cafe）に行き、ステーキサンドを食べた。おいしかったし、値段はお手頃でした。家に帰った後、彼女と私はアメリカの次の一番モデル（America’s next top Model)を見た。なぜか分からないけどこのドラマは一度見ると止まらない。夜、僕は五キロジョギングした。その後、夕食を料理した。バーガーとポテトフライを作りました。今、台所を掃除し、囲碁のゲームで遊び終わったところです。日本語と英語ブログを書いています。この後、大切な電子メールを書く予定です。今眠たいけどトテモ満足していい気分です。
Ok, so I found a fairly detailed site about online gambling here. The logic of the site makes sense and he actually quotes some fairly authoritative sources. The problem is that it seems that poker is legal by induction. (i.e. if a player is participating on a game of skill, not betting on sports, not betting against the house, etc, then what they are doing seems legal) Now I know what you may be thinking, all things legal are not declared legal, but are legal by not being declared illegal, and this is no different. The difference I see is that there are certain aspects of the government that want online poker to be illegal, and are working hard to interpret laws thusly. Given the current environment, I am not sure this is something I want to persue and document on a public website. Will keep you posted as I find new information.
Often when I consume media I find that its stories are predictable, or the conclusions are simplistic, simply an increase in my background on the subject would allow me the same conclusions. It is the rare piece that challenges an individual to think or surprises. I still remember sitting in my friends dorm room in college watching The Usual Suspects in letterbox format. I was so taken back by the plot I literally rewound the tape and watched it a second time because I was sure I had missed things. I was given Fooled By Randomness, The hidden role of Chance in Life and in the Markets., by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, at Christmas. I originally asked for this type of book because of the work I did studying trading interfaces within the FX industry. Traders often struggle with discerning randomness and causality of a movement. I often look at how to better design interfaces to help traders with this discernment. What I didn’t see coming was the aspect randomness plays in peoples lives and things people should do to protect themselves from “a blow up” or a “black swan.” This book was truly an eye opening read, and there are many lessons within that I hope to apply to my life. I hope you all take the time to go out and buy this book, or at least borrow the book from me… but not until I am finished reading it for a second time.
Ok, I have just recently moved back from Japan. While living over there, I never had an oven in my apt., a pretty common aspect to Japanese apartments. I have to say that I have grown to love Japanese food, but one thing that never really appealed to me was Japanese style pizza. Think small pizza with things like mayo, corn, squid, seaweed, or curry on it. Pizza hut is $40-45 for a large pizza too. All that said, I have really missed American pizza and the opportunity to make my own. Here was my first stab at making pizza since I have been back. It didn’t turn out too bad!
Well, this is the inagural post of Luke’s Blog. I have decided to write this because I felt like I needed to get my thoughts down on paper. Well, that and the fact that Yasuko has been asking me for some time to create her a site for her to Blog and post pictures. I have had a bit of time since I have moved back from Japan, so I have put this site up. Expect more changes in the near future. As for my Blog, I will be writing about things that I find interesting. That includes, but is not limited to, FX, Japan, technology, politics, wine, business, and my new home in New York.
Back when I was a system engineer in Japan, I was banned by my company from actually trading FX. This made an odd situation, as I was required to learn the market, watched the psycology of trading, and test most trading platforms but could not actually put this knowledge to use by trading. I also have become interested in poker. I know the rules of poker, but have never really played consistently. I have often heard that most people who play online poker are not experts, so it is quite possible to cosistently make profits if you are dedicated. I also have heard that it can be near impossible to earn consistent profits in FX because you are essentially making trades against professional traders that have far more time, resources, and access to knowledge than you do.
I currently am thinking of an experiment where I put an equal amount in two online accounts. One being an online poker account, the other being an online FX account. I would then track my profits and loses in both accounts over the next year and post them here. There currently two things that I need to work out before I proceed.
1. I potentially see a situation where I actively work one account much more than the other. In the words of the Iowa lottery, “You can’t win if you don’t play.” I need to work out how to even this out.
2. At this point, I am not incredibly sure that online poker is legal. From what I have seen, this seems to be a huge legal gray area right now. I know that US financial institutions can not transfer money to off shore poker sites, so funding an account may prove difficult. I also know american use these sites all of the time, and online poker tournaments are used to gain positions to the World Series of Poker. I just think I need to get a handle on the legality of it before I actually write about it online for the world to see.
