Redonkulous

Can't figure out what to do with all your money because you're a rich hedge fund manager? Maybe you should buy a new phone.

Of course, you could also save the money and instead buy a house. And a small island to put it on.

Want to make a ton of money? Be a Hedge Fund Manager

I found this article recently stating that the top 25 hedge fund managers make an average of $350 million a year. The exact number is $363 million, but what's 13 million dollars at that point? If you don't know, a hedge fund manager is basically someone who manages a large, expensive stock portfolio. They decide what to buy and what to sell. I always knew this was a high paying job, as they are in the sector that we write software for, but I didn't know it was enough for each one to feed a small continent. A few other things to emphasize from the article:

• $363 million a year. Seriously, let that set in.
  
• The top hedge fund manager made $1.5 billion dollars last year.
  
• Despite being overpaid, at least the salaries are somewhat performance based. Thier starting salary is based on how much money the fund takes in (the manager is likely to get about 2%, and on average each of the 8000 hedge funds takes in about $150 million a year). But the real money comes from the bonus the manager will make off the fund's profits (anywhere between 20% and 45% of a shit ton of money)

So of course after this article, I looked around for how one becomes a hedge fund manager, but have yet been unsuccessful. Should anyone else fid out this information, feel free to let me know.

A few more reasons I like Boston

There's a ton of free publications meant for Boston and Greater Boston. The Boston Phoenix, Dig, and Improper Bostonian all come to mind. I can't say I read any of them regularly, but I do read them often, as lately I pass by the distribution stands often. I bring this up because the current issue of Improper Bostonian is the Wedding issue, that evidently they do every year. A few good articles in this one, I especially enjoyed the Groom's Survival Guide.

I'm also a big fan of EarthFest. As you might have guessed, it's a festival celebrating the environment and nature (in other words, the Earth). It's run by a local radio station (WBOS) and they get a ton of sponsors to give out free stuff. Most intriguingly, Ben and Jerry's is often there giving away free samples, sometimes of new flavors (I remember their unveiling of Dave Matthew's "One Sweet World" ice cream). They also get a bunch of bands to do free concerts at the Hatch Shell all day, thus signaling the beginning of the start of "Free Hatch Shell Concert Season". Those seasons will be going on hiatus soon because of construction on Storrow, but for now I will continue to enjoy them.

Of course my only problem with EarthFest is that it almost always falls on a day that I can't go. This year is no different, as I will be traveling to NJ for a wedding, but I highly suggest anyone who can to go this Saturday (May 27th) and support Boston and the environment.

Al Gore on SNL

I know, I been busy today with three posts. But this video is one of the better one's I've seen recently. Thanks to Josh for IMing me the link. Anyway, the following is Al Gore recently on Saturday Night Live:





That's my first attempt at embedding a movie. If it didn't work, here's the link on YouTube

Photos

I've uploaded a bunch of photos to my kodak gallery site. They can be seen by clicking here. There are two different albums: pics from our recent engagement party at Becky's parents house and pics from my graduation. I believe the technical term for how many pictures I have from graduation is a "shit ton." I tried to eliminate the ones that were egregiously blurry and not as good as others, but I'm sure there are plenty of duplicates anyway.

Sucks to BU

BU is a rival school of mine, so I can say that. Anyway, here's a picture of their graduation in the pouring rain. Nothing matches caps and gowns like pink ponchos. And nothing says "Happy Mother's Day" like forcing your mom to sit in the rain for the university she paid over $150,000 for you to attend.

New Smash Brothers Movie

My freshman year in college in early December, the release of Super Smash Brothers Melee happened to coincide with the first "Reading Day." Reading Day's are right before finals and are meant to be full days with nothing to do but study. Instead, we played this game, which we affectionately called "Smashy." We played and played and played. Until 5AM. No joke. To this day, we are still hooked on this game, and it tends to be big at the gaming parties I still go to (yes, I'm a nerd).

When the new Nintendo system (Revolution or Wii or something, I don't know what they're calling it lately) is released sometime next year, the new Smash Brothers game will be released. New characters, new boards, same old Smashy. Anyway, here's a video of what they are working on so far: Smash Brothers Brawl!

Grove Street for Life, Playah

I promise, I won't speak Gangstah again for a while.

So I just beat GTA: San Andreas, and though the game has been out for close to two years now (what can I say, I was behind the times on this one), I thought I'd share my thoughts. I'll split this into a couple sections: first, some thoughts on the game that if you haven't played it won't spoil anything for you. I'll put a big SPOILER ALERT sign or something when I start the second section which will be anything that I can't really put in the first section. Finally, a few brief thoughts on the news recently for the next GTA.

Before I get started, let's start with the basics. Grand Theft Auto is a video game series. This version is called GTA: San Andreas. Yes, this is the series that has gotten a lot of press for being incredibly violent. And yes, within the game I killed many people and spilled my enemies blood on the streets. No, I am not a violent person, and no, I do not think your kids, my kids, or anyone's kids should be anywhere NEAR this game.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way...

First off, I thought the game was awesome. I haven't seen a bad review for this game yet, and I'm not about to start. I'm ballparking around 200 hours of entertainment and I'm probably around 85% completion (The stats saymore like 60 hours, but that doesn't count all the times I attempted a mission, failed, and reloaded the game). The soundtrack was awesome as you would expect: nothing brings me back to middle school like hardcore 90's gangster rap (yes, I loved that stuff).

GTA games don't compare to other games because of the do anything full interaction environment. If there's a person on the street, you can talk to them (read: shoot them). If there's a car, you can drive it, steal it, hit it, or just plain blow it up. If you steal an ambulance, you can become an EMT briefly. Etc. etc. etc. So since I can't compare this to other games, I'm gonna compare San Andreas to Vice City, the previous edition of the GTA games for PS2. I thought they did a great job keeping what was good about Vice City, but they still managed to add a ton of new features that worked will with the existing environment. You can swim in San Andreas, which was definitely lacking in Vice City. Any planes you find can be flown. The map is essentially supposed to represent an entire state complete with highways, deserts, and small, boring shanty towns where you don't want to be. You can ride bikes! After you meet girls, you can start dating them and you get a progress meter for how much she likes you. You can even bring her flowers. Awww.

They did remove a few things from the Vice City environment that I really wished they hadn't. I was very disappointed when I realized I couldn't find any rampages in San Andreas. A rampage is when you are given some small amount of time to kill as many people as possible with a given weapon. I know, not a real life scenario, but SO MUCH FUN. There also seem to be much fewer properties to buy with associated missions. For some inexplicable reason, they also seem to have removed the firemen missions. This was a big surprise when I spent half an hour looking for a fire engine so I could do the missions and become fire proof. Finally, there are a bunch of weapons that you can't seem to buy anywhere, which makes it very disappointing if you want to, say, load up on rocket launchers and try to shoot down planes at the airport.

I thought the plot line was great; but I thought the character development was weak in some respects. Mom, if you managed to read this far, you read that sentence correctly. And yeah, I'm still talking about a video game, they do that sort of thing now. Anyway the standard GTA plot is you are some guy (in this case, Carl Johnson, or CJ) who starts in the town with nothing for some reason and has to claw his way to become the city's crime boss of sorts. I definitely thought the progression from peon to boss was pretty well set. Not very many twists and turns, but it's not like it's supposed to be a Dan Brown novel. The character development for CJ was great. Not only do you get to watch him progress in his quest to gain respect, but you get to change his style as he develops though hair, clothes, tattoos, etc. With all the different skills the game keeps track of (biking, swimming, gambling, specific weapon skills, strength, etc.), the character truly reflects your likes and dislikes as well. My one character criticism is that there are a number of characters that CJ interacts with that tend to move in and out of the plot to loosely. I never really know where some of these guys came from or why they were gone for so long, etc.

One other criticism of the game: definitely some things overlooked while trying to rush this game out. There are some race sections that are impossible to navigate without perfect memory because the road is pitch black (and these are indoor, regardless of the time of day). Other small things like that which I noticed but can't mention until the next section...

===================== SPOILER ALERT!!! ==================

You've been warned.

I really liked the ending for this one. The mission was awesome, with the added bonus that if you beat half of it and then failed, the next time you ran the mission they started you halfway through. I was really worried Sweet was gonna turn on me cause I really hadn't seen him much for the later 2/3's of the game, but I was happy when he didn't. Big Smoke is another example of what I mentioned earlier with the characters, I really hadn't seen or heard much about him until the very end.

I was a little disappointed that the storyline didn't use more of the landscape. It seemed like there were a number of small villages and country sides that were never touched. I can't remember ever going onto the docks in the south eastern corner, and I never had to go to boating school in the northwest (though I will later, of course). I suppose that's something else it seems they overlooked while rushing the game out.

Conquering rival gang territories: AWESOME! If they removed rampages in favor of this then I suppose I could deal. Also, I was having a lot of fun with the gang territories in the first third of the game, then all the sudden it was all gone, and I got worried I would never see that part of the game again. Me of little faith. I would however have liked to see more gangs than just the three in Los Santos. Personal preference there I suppose.

A few final notes about GTA IV news that just came out. I personally don't care for the XBOX system; I'm recently a PS convert from the PC gaming world. But if Rockstar wants to release GTA on XBOX at the same time as PS, that's fine. But don't deprive me of any "special content" just because of my system. That's lame.

The Fantasy Sports Craze

If you don't understand fantasy sports, and wonder why I don't talk to you during football season, please read this article. In fact, if you and I have spoken at all within the past year, or you intend to speak to me any time within the next year, you must read this article. I'm going to start quizzing people before I start a conversation. You'll like the article whether or not you like sports, promise.

The article: A Fantasy League for the Females (by Bill Simmons)

Hooray for Graduation!!!

This past weekend I graduated from Northeastern. Here is a description of the cool things that happened in a handy bulleted list:

• The procession took 55 minutes. That is a LONG time. And then the ceremony only took 2 1/2 hours. Pretyt impressive, more on that later.
  
• The valedictorian of each college walked in separately, and they announced their GPA individually. Highest of comedies after each GPA was announced. After hearing numbers like 3.91 and 3.93, half the graduates booed when someone from Criminal Justice (I think) was announced with only a 3.88. After one of the valedictorians was announced, someone yelled out "Safety School!". John Vulner, genius of the Computer Science college, was announced second to last with a 3.990. The hundred of us went nuts, cause he was the highest of all valedictorians. Then they announced the guy from Engineering Technology with a 4.0, but if you know anything about Northeastern and the Engineering Tech program, you know that doesn't count. High comedy.
  
• We got the standard speech from the president of the Alumni Association. You know, standard "you've had a good time, don't forget to give us more money." The flip side was that this guys name was Dick Power. Seriously. I'll let you make your own jokes.
  
• Our speaker was the Chief Executive of GE, Jeff Immault. Pretty decent speech: "I always feel nervous coming to these things, because I always assume I was the second choice. I know BC has Condoleeza Rice speaking, and Tufts got Lance Armstrong. Of course, it could be worse. The University of Arkansas has George Steinbrenner speaking, and the University of Colorado got Paris Hilton. Though what sets me apart from all of these speakers is that I'm the only one that can give you a job." Very appropriate for Northeastern.
  
• All 3000 or so graduates walked on stage and were given their diploma. Remember how the procession was close to an hour? Well those took closer to half an hour. They had us all going to the stage in four separate lines, each line a different college shaking hands with their Dean. And to my knowledge, everyone got the right diploma. Pretty well done.
  

Anyway, after the ceremony I had a full weekend of family fun. Thanks to everyone for making the weekend great.

Book Review: Thank You for Smoking

I ended up finishing this book in a little under two weeks. So short book, short review. There were admittedly a number of funny points in the book, but no where near as much comedy as I thought there could have been. The plot was as you might expect: a generic mystery plot written by a political comedian. In other words, not very good.

I think there were also a number of points in the book that were supposed to be character development but didn't really add anything. I feel like you can tell a lot about a book if it contains multiple gratuitous absentee sex scenes. I.E. when two characters begin flirting or leave dinner when suddenly the chapter ends and the next starts with "I woke up to her the next morning..." or "The next day at work was awkward..." Just to make sure we're clear, I'm not asking for the detailed sex scene. But if there's no reason for two characters to have sex, then don't make them have sex just to try and attract more readers. It doesn't work (maybe I'm giving too much credit to my age/sex group there).

Kind of aside from the point, I haven't seen the movie yet and I don't even know if it's still in the theaters. I've basically heard pretty similar things about the movie though.

So again, from "blech" to "wow", I'm giving this a "meh". I promise I'll define that scale somewhere soon, I know it might not mean much to anyone as of yet.

Book I am now reading: The DaVinci Code (second time through)

Past reviews:

• Best American Sports Writing 2005
  

Fire in the Hole!!!

So last night I went to Mohegan Sun with NU Senior Week. I did alright for most of the night, hovering about 20 bucks over even, but I couldn't roll to save my life. I must have rolled 5 times and sevened out within 3 rolls everytime. Then 11:30 hit, and all started to go down hill. I dropped about 75 bucks by 12:15 when the dice came back to me. I decided I'd put the rest down, hope to get closer back to even again and call it a night.

That's when I started the roll to end all rolls. It started innocent enough; I hit a hard 8 point, then a long 5 point, and a 6 point. Now, at Mohegan, they have what's called a fire bet. You put money down when a shooter starts, and if they hit 4 individual points, it pays 25 for 1. Five individual points is 250 for 1. Six individual points is that enticing yet improbable 1000 for 1. We had started a tradition of whenever someone we came with was rolling we throw a dollar down on the fire bet each. You know, just in case. So anyway, I'm now rolling for a four alarm fire. Two guys at the other end had put down 5 bucks on the fire bet, so they're starting to get antsy as well.

I should also note that it's now about 12:30 and our bus leaves at 1 o'clock (though we are supposed to be back to the bus at 12:45). So I'm continually yelling at the dealers to get me the dice. Nick (I think) decided that ever time I throw for the fire bet I had to yell out "Fire in the Hole!!!" any time I was trying to hit a fire point. High fun.

Anyway, my come out roll for the 4th point was a 9. Another 9, and we have a four alarm fire. Fire in the Hole!!! Took me only a few roles. We're now in a four alarm fire. The guy next to Nick, who wasn't on the fire bet but probably had already swung up a grand or two, tipped me 25 bucks. The entire table is starting to go nuts, 3 pit bosses start watching and they ended up shutting down the table behind us early because everyone came to our table. Seriously, I think everyone still at the casino came to our table, which at 12:30 on a Wednesday morning was about 20 people.

I think I've once seen a four alarm fire pay out. I have never seen a 5 or 6 alarm fire. I need to hit either the 4 or 10 point for 250 bucks. I'm into it now like you wouldn't believe. I told the table I'm feeling the 10, which the guy at the other end of the table was calling "Flower Tops". Keeping my ego in check, the come out roll for my fifth point was not a 10. But it was a 4. Fire in the Hole!

I hit the 4. The table goes ballistic. Two guys at the end of the table now have $1,250 from their five dollar bet. Me, Nick, and Josh are, to say the least, up for the night.

Now, however, it's quarter to 1. We're supposed to be at the bus, well, now. And we haven't done a color change and cashed out. Of course there's no way in hell we're leaving. We start figuring on hotel rooms, cabs and later busses back to Boston. Hell if we hit that 6th point we could take a limo back to the city. Josh said "If you guys take a limo back I might come with you!" (he was going back to his place in CT afterwards).

At this point the dealers are having trouble keeping all the bets straight, compounded by the fact that the middle dealer was new and had no idea what she was doing. Further compounding their troubles is the fact that everyone is screaming, especially me ("Gimme 'dem bones!!!"). Every so often the dealers would put chips in front of me like I just won something. I know I had been rolling for a while, but I hadn't remembered putting anything on the hard ways, so either they were messing up or people were placing bets for me to keep me rolling. Fine by me, I like money.

Back to the table. People are itching to get in on this hot table, doing things that you normally don't. I'm dehydrated and ready to pass out from yelling so much, but I wasn't going anywhere. Guy at the end of the table is screaming "Think flower tops kid, Fifty-Five!" Come out roll for my sixth point is a six. Not a problem. I still win money for hitting points, and I was bound to double up on something. I throw a bunch of numbers, dealers keep giving me that phantom money that comes from who knows what bet. I hit the 6 point, no problem. Go figure, next come out roll is another 6, and I hit that one too. I've now hit 7 points.

All stories must come to an end. At 12:50 on my 8th point attempt I sevened out while trying to hit another 8 point. A briefly dejected table quickly came back with a rousing applause. I ended up winning $400 on my own roll in about half an hour, and I did the worst between me, Josh, and Nick. Total winnings on the night came to about $330. We didn't have time for a color change, so Nick and I took our giant stacks of 1's and 5's straight to the chip counter to cash out.

We ran back to the bus, and made it as the last two on with about 2 minutes to spare. We overheard a couple of drunk guys in the back of the bus talking about how they got to 3 points which almost pays the fire bet.

Nick and I looked at each other and just laughed.

Wedding Site

We have set up a small wedding web page on The Knot that has some details about our wedding and a great picture of two good looking people. You can find that page here.

The page is made by The Knot, I'll continue to post other details here. But that site is kinda fun anyway.