San Francisco San Jose Trip Jan 08

Pics of family in San Jose, my Grandma has cool glasses.
















































Exploring SF on my own











Margaret Cho @ Haight Street

New Jack City Climbing

New Jack City Climbing in March. Good times.

Subprime stated loan approval process

I got to thinking about this subprime credit mess and all i can say is "no wonder we're in this mess". I worked for a subprime company for two and half years during the mortgage boom. Our approval process can only be described as easy and lenient. An underwriter's their job is to determine if a borrower is credit worthy enough for their requested loan amount. A good underwriter should be questioning the reasons for requesting the loan and calculating if the borrower can actually afford the mortgage payments. And if the borrower can afford it, the underwriter should look at what documents support that income stream.
These basic principles can be disregarded when using the Stated Loan. You no longer need income supporting documentation. Subprime will just take your word for it. Hey... and if you over state your income, dont worry we'll kindly suggest what figure the borrower should be making.
A trashman is making 110k a year. Seems in excess? Yeah probably, but Subprime will calculate the actual debt ratio and we'll kindly suggest that he really only needs to state 70k for approval. Subprime will suggest this to an account manager because management is stressing the importance of working as a "team". Then the account manager will tell the loan broker directly that they should re-submit an application with a 70k figure. But wait... a trashman making 70k a year, where can i sign up for that job? Oh Subprime just saw that the borrower has a business license. This is now legit because all business are extremely profitable and are always making tons of money. No problem. Stamp -> Approve -> Fund it->. ("i'm Subprime funder, we'll fund it and gather the documentation afterwards).
Welcome to subprime lending. No wonder we're in this mess.

Negativity fosters more Negativity

I have this belief that negativity is passed on to other people. I also believe that positive energy is also passed on to other people. When an unfortunate event occurs in your life, we as people tend to have a negative energy that consumes us. We may not even realize that this energy is inside us but onlookers can spot it. Its in your body language. Its in our tone of voice. Its in our attitude.
If we realize there is this energy in us we have a choice. We can pass it on or we can try to reduce it. I find that the weaker beings in us want to pass it on. "Eye for an Eye. I want to get back at that person. I want revenge". I'm sure we're all guilty of passing the hate on. Our emotions get the best of our rational thinking and we seek revenge. And if we're unable to get revenge, maybe we pass that negative energy to those around us. Those deserving or undeserving of it.

I don't blame the weaker being in us for passing it on. It consoles us. A great example of this exchange occurs primary students. You'll observe a child who is picked on and in turn the child who was the receiver of insults now wants to deal them out. They'll insult right back and if they're unable to they will carry it with them or deal it out to someone around them.

Reducing the negative energy in us is difficult to say the least. Human instinct instructs us to take the path of least resistance and reducing that energy is not easy. Sometimes we can channel the energy into something positive or productive. Hobbies are a great channel and expressing the energy physically is also a great outlet.

I theorize that the exchanged emotional energy is within us and not destroyed but rather it manifests itself in other forms. I relate this to a similar theory used in Chemistry. A chemist believes that matter is cannot be completely destroyed. Instead it is reduced/converted to a different element or converted to energy. So if you burn a piece of paper, the paper still exists but exists as ash and as heat that was released during the burning. The same applies for our emotional energy. It is released, stored or the emotional energy is changed.

I hope when sh*t happens i'll be able to channel it into something positive. This probably won't happen but at the very least i will try to acknowledge the negative energy that comes inside me.

I Am Legend

I recently watched the movie I Am Legend starring Will Smith. Surprisingly, it was a short movie and the plot moved fairly quickly. Befitting for those with short attention spans. In the story, civilization has ceased to be civilized. An airborne virus turns everyone into an aggressive zombie that is out to kill anything that hasn't been infected already. Will Smith plays the hero where he is the only survivor in NYC and is on the search for a cure.
I've been giving the situation some thought and was thinking what to do if you were the only survivor in your city. What would you do and where would you go?
So in case everyone turns into zombie around you.... you should go to a Wal-Mart first. It has non-perishable foods, medicine and weapons. Its your one stop shop. Much better than malls or supermarkets or sporting good stores.
So just in case everyone turns into a zombie and you're the only survivor, you'll know to go to Wal-Mart. I'll see you there and we'll plan some more.

Babes on Blades vs Tequila Shooters

New hockey pictures are up.

Babes on Blades vs Tequila Shooters

http://photosinajiffy.shutterfly.com/action/

The Science behind a lap dance

Interesting read... And for the perverted-minded, its not what you think.

Lap Dance Science