March 10, 2010
A highlight of Good Will Hunting is the realization that there’s no need to stop learning if you still have time to pick up a book. Below are notes or ideas from a recent loan from the library.
Book: Understanding Hedge Funds
Author: Scott Frush
Book Review
As the third book on the topic I’ve read in a few months, I was hoping for a quick read to polish off the more general topics of the hedge fund industry. Unfortunately, this book concentrates too strongly on generalizations, and the amount of true knowledge contained in its pages is no longer than my notes listed below.
The author, Scott Frush, must be new to the copy & paste function of Microsoft Office, because repetition is a common style used throughout the book. Concerned you won’t remember the commission structure of hedge funds? Worried that you may not know the regulatory differences between hedge funds and mutual funds? Fear not, Frush copies and pastes his brief paragraphs throughout the book. It’s a wonder that his editor managed to make each repetition read like separate pieces of content through the magic of rearranging words.
Further, Frush frequently comes off as a salesman of hedge funds, making grand statements such as “Contrary to what the media says about hedge funds, fraud is not widespread,” without any sources or explanations. His opinionated comments are stated as facts throughout his chapters, whether discussing regulation, the weaknesses of mutual funds, or the importance of having a small management structure leading a fund.
Without a better word to explain it, much of the content comes off as elementary. Do not expect an in-depth discussion on the hedge fund industry. As a primer, the book may be of value to newcomers, but make sure to be flexible on skipping pages (or at times even chapters).
At the least, the book provides a few laughs, assuming laughter will prevent you from throwing the book during one-off sentences (which are never explained) like this:
“Regulators do not like hedge funds, which is basically alright as hedge fund management teams do not especially like regulators.”
Key Book Notes (Cliff Notes):
Hedge Fund Style
- Tactical (or Directional)
— Macro-Centric
— Managed Futures
— Long/Short Equity
— Sector Specific
— Emerging Markets
— Market Timing
— Short Selling
- Relative Value (or Arbitrage)
— Convertible Arbitrage
— Fixed-Income Arbitrage
— Equity Market Neutral
- Event-Driven
— Distressed Securities
— Reasonable Value
— Merger Arbitrage
— Opportunistic Events
- Hybrid
— Multi-Strategy
— Fund of Hedge Funds
Common Practices of Hedge Fund Managers:
- Use of Short Selling
- Employ Leverage
- Conduct Hedging
- Utilize Futures & Options
- Pursue Arbitrage
- Target Specific Markets
- Incorporate Position Limits
- Set Buy/Sell Targets
- Follow Stop-Loss Restrictions
Strategies that Target Opportunistic Situations Via Event-Driven Hedge Funds
- Distressed Securities
- Reasonable Value
- Merger Arbitrage
- Opportunistic Events
October 3, 2009
* 1 (16 oz.) pkg. dried green split peas, rinsed
* 1 meaty hambone, 2 ham hocks, or 2 cups diced ham
* 3 carrots, peeled and sliced
* 1/2 cup chopped onion
* 2 ribs of celery plus leaves, chopped
* 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, minced
* 1 bay leaf
* 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped, or 2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
* 1 tbsp. seasoned salt (or to taste)
* 1/2 tsp. fresh pepper
* 1 1/2 qts. hot water
Source: About.com
July 9, 2009
While at one point I considered myself a dedicated gamer, a lack of time has pulled me from the medium. For the past five years I average the completion of one game a year. As a dedication to the remnants of my hobby, each game completion will earn its own review.
 Wake up to the Wind SPOILER ALERT – This article includes references to the ending sequences of the game.
Wake up to an adventure that seems unsure of who is actually in control. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker suffers because the user’s interaction with the game is never consistent. There is a frequent conflict between the free-roaming nature of prior Zelda titles, and the controlling, child-proof, scripted adventure presented by the game’s designers.
Long before Grand Theft Auto established open world gaming as a headline grabber, Shigeru Miyamoto, The Legend of Zelda’s creator, released the original The Legend of Zelda as an open world sandbox game, where players could travel the entire landscape, enter any dungeon, and play through its adventures in almost any order the gamer wanted. As the franchise evolved, The Legend of Zelda series rewarded the gamer for creativity. Dungeons increasingly relied on mind-bending puzzles for completion. Players walking off the beaten path were rewarded with additional heart containers that increased the damage they could take in combat. Even computer controlled characters started to beg for Link to travel on his free will to other lands to help deliver goods to other characters.
 Sailing in The Wind Waker Unfortunately, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker forces the gamer into a controlled experience. While older games rewarded exploring players with lush geography, mysterious woods, canyons, reflective lakes, and even bridge underpasses, The Wind Waker rewards gamers with… more water. Travelling The Wind Waker’s landscape is like looking out the window while flying over the Atlantic Ocean. While British Airways planes may not face an occasional shark attack, the experience is largely the same. Gamers who want to travel and explore are kept company with nothing but animated waves and the occasional rain shower. The talking boat that Link pilots is constantly reminding him of his next scripted task, and many of the hidden islands only become useful when a certain item is equipped by Link, or to put it more appropriately, when the game’s designers want you to take advantage of the hidden islands. It’s their story, not yours.
It says something that in the game’s final sequence, Link doesn’t even have a chance to stop the franchise’s lead villain, Gannon, from collecting a magical, game-ending Triforce. Instead, the child-aged Link is slammed to the ground by the taller, older Gannon, and left to lie on concrete while Gannon unites the three magical triforces to complete his plot to punish the world. As the arch enemy chants a spell, an older, white-bearded King of Hyrule appears out of nowhere, grabs the Triforce, and saves the day. He may have a half hour of camera time in human form in the entire thirty-hour game (throughout most of the game he existed as Link’s sail boat), but this old man plays the deus ex machina and ends up being the one who saves the world. After the game permits Link to finally fight Gannon, the old man wishes nothing more than “hope” for the future for the Link and Zelda’s own lives.
 Epic Cinematography During Sword Fights Despite its limitations, The Wind Waker does excel at presenting the trademark aspects of the Zelda experience. The risky artistic design of the game presents cartoonist images that mirror the older, more famous Zelda game, A Link to the Past. The cell-shaded art style represents what the 2-D A Link to the Past would look like if one could pull the camera down to the ground for a 3-D view. Throughout the game are subtle inclusions of previous franchise songs, characters, and gameplay homages. Traditional weapons such as the boomerang, crossbow, and sword are brought to new life with additional control options. New weapons, such as a wind-propelling leaf, spark creativity in the gamer towards exploring new ways to explore the adventure.
For aging gamers lured by other next-generation experiences, The Wind Waker does everything right to make one believe that Link, the game’s hero, is the true Gaming Hero. While playing the game, it becomes evident that few videogame heroes have the history, grace, or creativity of Link’s adventures. Through cleverly leveraging prior titles through the game’s storyline, and adding emotional impact through cell-shaded art, Link’s Wind Waker adventure plays out as a unique and imitation free tale.
 Gliding Through the Wind with a Giant Leaf Yet for all of the franchise celebration, in the game’s concluding moments, Link is knocked to the ground by Gannon, while a computer controlled old man saves the day. In that ending, after the last button is pressed, the harshest reality of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker sets in. The gamer could not control the end of the title. Link may have fought Gannon, but he didn’t save the Triforce.
Perhaps the Wind Waker is a dream you can rarely control.
July 8, 2009
There’s a wonderful feeling to look back at videogames and see that they can have the hidden depth of other art forms. My favorite films are those that are crafted with great detail by the director, with subtle references and Easter eggs planted inside the reels. Like a good book, a good film or game can have depth beyond what is captured in the front-end of a story.
Below are a list of “secrets” showing hidden depth, surprising design decisions, and even some development cheats behind popular videogame franchises.
Super Mario Brothers - The bushes in Super Mario Bros are actually just colored clouds placed on the ground.
- Perhaps to save storage space, the ghostly Boo’s laugh in Super Mario 64 is generated by playing Bowser’s laugh at high speed.
 Mario Clouds = Mario Bushes Mega Man - By taking entering button combinations using a second controller, a friend can make your adventure in Mega Man 3 a mega adventure with slow motion enemies, invincibility, and extended jumping abilities.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman, the creators of the Ninja Turtle comic franchise, cleverly mixed a Watchmen reference into the NES arcade game cover art. Take a look at the smiley face on the skateboard (and the drop of blood).
 Ninja Turtles Watchmen Metal Gear Solid - Emma Emmerich (E. E.), the delicate and frightened scientist in Metal Gear Solid 2, is named after the Emotion Engine, Sony’s marketing name for the Playstation 2’s graphics chip.
- Not surprisingly, Metal Gear Solid 2 has some interesting production notes.
- The Boss who started it all in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater uses the same voice talent as Family Guy’s news reader, Diane Simmons.
Kid Icarus - When the team who created the Metroid franchise created their original title, they made sure to bring some intergalactic jellyfish along for the trip. Even the manual makes a reference to Samus’s foes.
 Kid Icarus Metroid  Kid Icarus Manual
Ogre Battle - The popular tactical RPG is named after a Queen Song
Secret of Mana - The human face on Mars is also hidden in Square’s ocean.
 Secret of Mana Star Fox - The first level of StarFox matches up perfectly with Dire Strait’s Money for Nothing.
The Legend of Zelda - As shown in the original manual, the beta version of The Legend of Zelda lets a user select between a boomerang or a sword as the gamer’s initial weapon.
- The underground dungeons of The Legend of Zelda fit neatly into a rectangle.
- After completing The Legend of Zelda, the gamer is offered to play all over again in a remixed quest with different dungeon layouts. As shown above, five of the revised dungeons form the letters to spell out “Zelda.”
- The Legend of Zelda 2: Link’s Adventure is created using a map of land found north of the original Zelda’s adventure. Both games share Death Mountain, only the northern cliffs in the original title can be found in the south of Link’s Adventure’s landscape.
- The flute warp song used in Super Mario Bros 3 is actually originated as the tune from the original Legend of Zelda’s warp whistle. The traveling music is also played in the start-up screen of The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
- Five of the masks featured in Majora’s Mask are based off main characters in Star Fox 64.
 Zelda Map  Zelda Map Remixed  Star Fox Hats in Zelda Pokemon
- The islands in each Pokemon represent a different area of Japan.
- The naming convention of the game’s creatures have a hidden logic.
Wii Sports
- Early beta versions of Wii Tennis featured Mario instead of the still in-development Mii characters.
 Wii Sports Mario
Uniracers - In this racing game by DMA Designs (who would later become Rockstar North and create the Grand Theft Auto series), gamers were scolded for naming their uniracer after Sega’s popular and “fast” mascot.
 Uniracers
Conan O’Brien
- And finally, Conan didn’t move to LA for his new late Night talk show, instead he jumped in a New York sewer pipe and ended up in Super Mario World.
 Conan Super Mario World Source: NEOGAF Forums
March 21, 2009
In this city you have to take control of your eyes.
A walk down the street could be full of concrete. Fractured sidewalks are everywhere, their gray color is only broken up by spots of pink and purple gum, the remnants of spit out candy. It’s easy to get lost in this side of the city. There is no real beauty, only manufactured plaster. Everything on the ground here only exists for logistics. It may be dirty, but what’s here can get you places, they say.
But those that look up know there’s another story to this city. The buildings climb higher in competition. The sky is endless. The sun rays fall from the sky and vanish just in time for the sidewalk. When looking up, this city is for dreamers. In bad weather, there may be less to see, but the sky always clears up.
Always keep your chin up.
March 16, 2009
Snow in the evening, snow in the morning, snow in the North, snow in the South.
A cab driver at home has trouble reading signs.
We pull over and scream for strangers (or I do, as I gaze at blurs through my contact-less eyes).
A cab driver here races other drivers, and speaks of the pride and honor of Iranians.
An older woman walking to work stops at a street corner and makes a snowball. She smiles and drops the ball.
A family makes a snowman, using a beach pale.
It’s snowing in March, everywhere.
December 31, 2008
I’m in a coffee shop listening to The Beatles.
Words from Yesterday bounce off the rusted steel-plated walls as I sip hot cider. Someone just turned the volume down. Paul McCartney still sings. Maybe that figures — when I walked in they were playing Radiohead.
Today I wandered through the West Village. With various pieces of homework and training tasks to accomplish, I stayed motivated through keeping varied backdrops. I started off in a Church’s public park, leaning against a tree’s branch as I pulled my textbook from my bag. The scenery would change like a slide show: typing away in a potential New Years bar, searching for a Wifi signal in Jimmy’s Bar (100% authentic), or writing notes in my personal pad in an alley to duck the wind.
I remember my iPod’s output losing out to the sound of chirping birds as they claimed their territory on the roofs of the West Village. Not even The Kooks could compete.
Today. Yesterday.
November 18, 2008
Tonight’s drive through the city felt like channel surfing. With my remote I traveled neighborhoods, memories, and my own thoughts.
It all started because I had to pick up a textbook downtown (another random story). I entered through the Brooklyn Bridge, and traveled past my office, only to loop further downtown to pass by another old building which I used to work at.
The building was still there, remaining active through the ever-open deli, but downtown was unquestionably different. There were less private cars waiting to pick up financial superstars, and the once dark canvas of dark cars, dark roads, and pitch black sky was now spotted with yellow cabs, a breed previously somewhat rare in the Financial District. The private cars were a dying breed against their yellow counterparts.
As I continued driving north I passed the hotel I used to stay at. The inside looked as enchanting as ever, presenting a clean sense of bright lights reflecting gracefully off the smoothed marble seemingly used on all walls, floors, and furniture of the hotel.
Approaching Chinatown I drove by two police officers entering as well, trotting into town on horses who’s large stomps could be heard through my car’s doors. I won’t forgot the collapsing of their heavy feet on the even heavier concrete.
Chinatown’s bright lights and foreign alphabet was more alive than downtown’s gloom.
The foreign rainbows of the neighborhood was quickly invaded by a clock tower in the distance. Lit in soft blues, the light reminded me that I would soon reach Union Square. A few more blocks of driving brought more distant buildings into view, including the Empire State Building. The distant buildings transformed the skyline into a welcoming kingdom, one not too dissimilar to something Walt Disney would imagine.
My passage through the East Village was like a memory from youth, in both its brevity and presented enjoyment. I only remembered this moment of my trip because my car paused at a red light.
The trip continued into more familiar territory, and I was thrilled when I caught a magic parking spot, but I’ll keep that story for myself.
Pulling into my spot, I thought over the last twenty minutes, and walked from my car as my travels came to an end.
November 4, 2008
On my way into my building tonight, my doorman told me to look in the mail room, located directly across from the elevators.
In that room, directly visible from anyone stepping out of the elevator tomorrow, on election day, rested a mask.
On top of the mail room table, in the center of a pile of old, unwanted mail, was a rubber mask of George W. Bush.
After seeing that I noticed the mask, my doorman said, “I put it there so people could think about that before they voted.”
November 3, 2008
I was exhausted from Wii Fit before I even played it.
Venturing through Manhattan on a quest of errands, I collected my treasure a little too early.
In videogames, when a character finds a new item, be it a sword, a bazooka, or magic steel shoes, they never are held back by the weight of the item. The new item simply vanishes from the player when collected, only to magically appear once the user pauses and activates the item. It’s brilliant in a fictional world, a hero can hold as many swords as he wants, yet never feel the burden of the weight of steel, gold, or magical dragon bone that forms the many swords.
Today I purchased Wii Fit from the Nintendo Store, all ten pounds of the workout pad/weight scale/game disc. I then carried my ten pound brick throughout this great city, as I performed errands in the city’s various neighborhoods - on the subway, at my favorite grocery cart (for a great smoothy), and through a surprisingly calm walk in the east 30s.
By the time I was home, my biceps were sore. Ten pounds isn’t much, but for several hours of carrying it can add up.
After returning home I completed 30 minutes of active workouts in the game, and am surprised by the challenge of many of the game’s activities. My back is sore, my legs are more flexible, and I’m amazed how difficult their combination workout with pushups was.
It feels like a Nintendo game beat me up.
The game’s interface and challenges are designed for short and easy workouts. Everything about Wii Fit is inviting for daily repetition, from the sleek design of the balance board to the daily BMI and varied, short workout exercises.
My election day tomorrow will not begin with a vote, or an hour of Metal Gear Solid 4. Instead it will begin with Wii Fit.
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