Proposition: A friend or family member of yours made a risky plan, where the chance of success is small but the reward is great.
Question: Do you support their risky plan or advocate against it?
Monday, January 19, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Review: Coriander Gourmet Thai
About $12 for two items meal
Ambient:
It's a shopping center in San Francisco, what would you expect? A lot of people, kids, teens, adults. Always packed with people till the stores are closed.
Food:
I'm not a big fan of Thai food, but this is one of the better ones. The food is quite good, certainly exceeded my expectations at a place where you don't expect to taste real food. I would highly recommend trying their fried rice. I'm not sure how they cook it, but it's not greasy at all, just the right texture and tastes amazing. I believe I tried 4 different dishes so far and they are all quite good. They also give you more than enough food to feed your hunger. Great deal at an over priced food court.
Rating: 7.5/10.0
Verdict: Thumbs up
Review: Davis Sushi Buffet
$13 for lunch sushi buffet
$17 for dinner sushi buffet
Ambient:
It's not a big place. generally not crowded. It includes a sushi bar as well as tables. Music is fairly mellow and not distracting, services are nice. The thing is it's just not a very attractive setting, maybe it's the lighting, the atmosphere is just very bland. If there wasn't a sushi bar, you might mistaken it for a Chinese restaurant.
Food:
I can't remember if I had lunch there. The dinner was OK, the selection of sushi is limited, total less than 10 varieties (not including other type of food). Some are decent. There's no limit on Sashimi, you just have to ask the chief.
Rating: 5
Verdict: Thumbs down
Monday, January 12, 2009
Continued: American Express Blue Cash vs Bank of America BankAmericard
So following up my previous post, here is a comparison of the two credit cards and their cash rewards.
1. Exchanging for Cash
Look at the table above, the only time you get full cash reward is when you redeem 25000 points, which gives you back $250, giving you 100 points per $1 ratio. Less than 25000 points, your exchange ratio is less than 100 points per dollar. For my budget it takes about two years get that many points and redeem for cash, this is when I use this card every chance I can get. You might count this two year period a disadvantage for BankAmericard.
In comparison, the Blue Cash card is an annual credit, automatically applied to your account, no points to exchange etc. It's simple and you don't have to remember it!
Verdict: Blue Cash wins.
2. Cash Reward Rate
Because both cards are not simple 1% or 1.5% cash back calculation, we have to do some math to get an idea, which one is better and when. What's interesting is the rate of cash back for Blue Cash is none linear, we'll get to that. But first let's look at BankAmericard, here are the terms:
However, this way of rounding is not always the same for all Bank of America credit cards. As I was looking through some of them with flashing cash rewards, when you actually read them in detail, some of them always round to the smaller whole point or other gotchas that make them less appealing. BankAmericard is definitely one of the better ones on this term comparing with other Bank of America credit cards.
Side note: I do want to raise a concern that I found some inconsistency on the extra 0.25% points I'm getting from the monthly transactions. Some months I get less than 0.25% while other months are quite consistent. So I picked up my phone and called Bank of America. Their agent had no clue how they calculated the points, and she said the bonus points are "up to" 0.25% rather than a flat implied fixed 0.25%. When I challenge her to tell me where it is said in the terms, she actually doesn't have access to the terms of the cards...what? Exactly, that was my reaction. But anyway, I asked her to send me the terms so I can read them myself. Her explaination for not having access to the credit card terms is that "Bank of America offers too many credit cards, the computers can't store all the terms." When I heard that, I stopped further conversation and thanked her for her help and moved on. Obviously, they are still running their system on DOS or 386 computers.
Now looking at Blue Cash, it's a bit more complicated because before you spend $6500 on your total transactions using this card, the cash back rate is bad: 0.5% for regular purchases, 1% for groceries, gas, and drugstore purchases. But after you spend $6500, a new formula kicks in for all the transactions after that: 1.5% for regular purchases, and 5% for groceries, gas, and drugstore purchases.
So it's really a function of what you spend your money on and how much you spend. After one year of using this card for every purchase I could use it for (despite some cashier's face turn blue when they see my American Express card and some owners looked at me as if I have a gun in my hand and robbing them with my card), I stand at about 1.16% cash back, given that I haven't really cooked that much. In a very optimistic month, when I was cooking quite often, I spend about $250 on groceries. Let's be wasteful and add another $100 for gas (imagine it's $4 a gallon), total $350 (no drugs), that's $4200 over the year. If you spend $10000 over the term of the year, you will have an overall cash back rate of 1.5%. Here is the formula:
x = 4200/10000
(6500*(x*0.01 + (1-x)*0.005) + (10000-6500)*(x*0.05 + (1-x)*0.015))/10000 = 1.5%
So if you have a big family (more than 1 person), cook your own food most of the time, spend more than $10000 a year with a credit card, you'll get more cash back than if you use BankAmericard.
Verdict: As I explained above, it's not a simple who wins in this case. If you have a deep pocket and willing to spend the money, by all means, use Blue Cash. If you are on a budget (i.e. spend less than $10000 on credit card purchases a year) and don't cook often, BankAmericard is your friend (assuming you have another banking account with them).
Last word, you may want to also consider other benefits come with each card, such as fraud protection, purchase insurances, travel convenience, etc. Both are good credit cards and may very well be the only card you need. Treat yourself something nice with the cash back for a year of hard work :).
1. Exchanging for Cash
BankAmericard
| Cash Redemption Options | |
| Point Value | Cash Reward |
| 2,500 | $12.50 |
| 5,000 | $25 |
| 7,500 | $37.50 |
| 10,000 | $80 |
| 15,000 | $120 |
| 20,000 | $160 |
| 25,000 | $250 |
| 35,000 | $350 |
| 50,000 | $500 |
Look at the table above, the only time you get full cash reward is when you redeem 25000 points, which gives you back $250, giving you 100 points per $1 ratio. Less than 25000 points, your exchange ratio is less than 100 points per dollar. For my budget it takes about two years get that many points and redeem for cash, this is when I use this card every chance I can get. You might count this two year period a disadvantage for BankAmericard.
In comparison, the Blue Cash card is an annual credit, automatically applied to your account, no points to exchange etc. It's simple and you don't have to remember it!
Verdict: Blue Cash wins.
2. Cash Reward Rate
Because both cards are not simple 1% or 1.5% cash back calculation, we have to do some math to get an idea, which one is better and when. What's interesting is the rate of cash back for Blue Cash is none linear, we'll get to that. But first let's look at BankAmericard, here are the terms:
Earn 1 base point and 0.25 bonus points (for a total of 1.25 points) per each dollar of new net retail purchase transactions (qualifying purchases less credits, returns, and adjustments) charged to the card each billing cycle. You will also earn an annual bonus match of 25% of your yearly base points that were earned and awarded from January 1st through December 31st each calendar year. This annual bonus match will appear on your February or March monthly billing statement. Points are calculated at each transaction, rounded to the nearest whole Point, and are subject to verification.At first sight, it seems pretty straightforward, 1.25% cash back with a 25% bonus on the base point if you have another banking account with Bank of America for a total of 1.5% cash back over the year. But look at the text I highlighted above, each points are rounded per transaction, meaning if you spend $1.45 on one transaction, you get 1 point because 1.45 rounded to the nearest whole point is 1. Similarly if you spend $1.95 on a transaction, you actually get 2 points. So should you be concerned about this? Well, unless you are making many small transactions which will always round to the smaller whole integers, then yes, but for most of us, this doesn't make too big of a deal.
However, this way of rounding is not always the same for all Bank of America credit cards. As I was looking through some of them with flashing cash rewards, when you actually read them in detail, some of them always round to the smaller whole point or other gotchas that make them less appealing. BankAmericard is definitely one of the better ones on this term comparing with other Bank of America credit cards.
Side note: I do want to raise a concern that I found some inconsistency on the extra 0.25% points I'm getting from the monthly transactions. Some months I get less than 0.25% while other months are quite consistent. So I picked up my phone and called Bank of America. Their agent had no clue how they calculated the points, and she said the bonus points are "up to" 0.25% rather than a flat implied fixed 0.25%. When I challenge her to tell me where it is said in the terms, she actually doesn't have access to the terms of the cards...what? Exactly, that was my reaction. But anyway, I asked her to send me the terms so I can read them myself. Her explaination for not having access to the credit card terms is that "Bank of America offers too many credit cards, the computers can't store all the terms." When I heard that, I stopped further conversation and thanked her for her help and moved on. Obviously, they are still running their system on DOS or 386 computers.
Now looking at Blue Cash, it's a bit more complicated because before you spend $6500 on your total transactions using this card, the cash back rate is bad: 0.5% for regular purchases, 1% for groceries, gas, and drugstore purchases. But after you spend $6500, a new formula kicks in for all the transactions after that: 1.5% for regular purchases, and 5% for groceries, gas, and drugstore purchases.
So it's really a function of what you spend your money on and how much you spend. After one year of using this card for every purchase I could use it for (despite some cashier's face turn blue when they see my American Express card and some owners looked at me as if I have a gun in my hand and robbing them with my card), I stand at about 1.16% cash back, given that I haven't really cooked that much. In a very optimistic month, when I was cooking quite often, I spend about $250 on groceries. Let's be wasteful and add another $100 for gas (imagine it's $4 a gallon), total $350 (no drugs), that's $4200 over the year. If you spend $10000 over the term of the year, you will have an overall cash back rate of 1.5%. Here is the formula:
x = 4200/10000
(6500*(x*0.01 + (1-x)*0.005) + (10000-6500)*(x*0.05 + (1-x)*0.015))/10000 = 1.5%
So if you have a big family (more than 1 person), cook your own food most of the time, spend more than $10000 a year with a credit card, you'll get more cash back than if you use BankAmericard.
Verdict: As I explained above, it's not a simple who wins in this case. If you have a deep pocket and willing to spend the money, by all means, use Blue Cash. If you are on a budget (i.e. spend less than $10000 on credit card purchases a year) and don't cook often, BankAmericard is your friend (assuming you have another banking account with them).
Last word, you may want to also consider other benefits come with each card, such as fraud protection, purchase insurances, travel convenience, etc. Both are good credit cards and may very well be the only card you need. Treat yourself something nice with the cash back for a year of hard work :).
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Scam?
Sent from: katewille04@aol.com
** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY --- AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY
** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-homeI just got this email today from my apartment listing on craigslist. If you don't find this email fishy, you need to check in with the nearest scam victim help center because you are a noob in life.
** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping
** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html
Hello Leaser,
my name is katherine Williams, i am an pediatric nurse and a make up artist
as part time,i was opportuned to see and i read through your posting on
craigslist.com concerning the advert you posted, i am expressing my sheer
interest in taking up the room, what are the modalities in taking up the place,
please have the requirements sent in these form
*Total rent Required before moving in
* Utility Bills
I will be anxiously waiting for your email ,I want you to know that i
really need the room now and i am the serious type paying rent ,when emailing me
please tell me more about the place and more pics if you have...I am open to
any type of lease..
Kind Regards
Katherine
No normal person writes like this. First of all, there's no consistency of capitalization and spacing. And second, even if English is her second language or even the third, the way she expresses herself is almost like a mail-order bride from Russia, that's it: exaggeration. Whatever she says even with the right grammar don't make sense because of the context. What's amazing is there are people who actually got scammed by her for $2500.
A little googling will also show that she also goes by the name Nicole Wayne misspavez00@aol.com.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Gas Price Going Up and The Job Market
After my recent road trips along California coast on Route 1, the price of gasoline has gone up to close to $2 per gal. The rise happened faster than it dropped a month ago. Let's hope it doesn't go up to $4 a gallon again.
Job market has been bad and I can see this trend while I was looking for jobs in the last few months. In September/October 2008, there were still many opportunities for computer graphics in the following markets: movies, games, science labs, graphics software/hardware. But the list of jobs has been getting shorter every week. I am just glad that I actually got the position I wanted. A good source for graphics related job posting is Creativeheads.net.
Job market has been bad and I can see this trend while I was looking for jobs in the last few months. In September/October 2008, there were still many opportunities for computer graphics in the following markets: movies, games, science labs, graphics software/hardware. But the list of jobs has been getting shorter every week. I am just glad that I actually got the position I wanted. A good source for graphics related job posting is Creativeheads.net.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Cooking Coarse by Chef Todd Mohr
I recently discovered a series of Youtube videos called Cooking Coarse by Chef Todd Mohr. I'm quite impressed by his informative presentation on basic cooking techniques. One of my favorites is his video on how to dice onions and peel garlic (it's almost like magic).
Monday, January 5, 2009
American Express Blue Cash vs Bank of America BankAmericard
I always believe that if I can use one thing to do the job, there's no need for two. Despite knowing all the horror stories of some people's misfortune with their credit cards (and how evil they are), I use mine diligently. Why? Because it would be foolish not to. Today's credit cards (the good ones at least) always come with some sort of rewards, be it airline miles, free cash or credits, etc. One can easily save over $100 a year by just using credit cards for purchases. It's not a lot of money, but hey, you probably won't complain if it's handed to you for free without doing any work. Not to mention the extra protection you gain against defective items or seller frauds.
Of course with all the good benefits, there's always a catch. The catch is you should always, always pay off your credit card balance in full. This is the rule I follow. I set up an automatic payment for my credit card accounts to electronically transfer the balance from my bank account every month to pay off the amount I spent that month. I never miss one payment or late for as far as I can remember. So, for me I want the credit card with the best rewards and that's the card I will always use.
For some reason I have a decent credit rating so I was told and I have two of the best cash reward credit cards one can have: American Express Blue Cash and Bank of America BankAmericard. It's actually not entirely clear which one is better at the first look. As usual, if I can carry one card, I'd rather not carry two. So, I'm going to do a little bit of comparison here to see who has the honor to stay in my wallet.
Continued in another post...
Of course with all the good benefits, there's always a catch. The catch is you should always, always pay off your credit card balance in full. This is the rule I follow. I set up an automatic payment for my credit card accounts to electronically transfer the balance from my bank account every month to pay off the amount I spent that month. I never miss one payment or late for as far as I can remember. So, for me I want the credit card with the best rewards and that's the card I will always use.
For some reason I have a decent credit rating so I was told and I have two of the best cash reward credit cards one can have: American Express Blue Cash and Bank of America BankAmericard. It's actually not entirely clear which one is better at the first look. As usual, if I can carry one card, I'd rather not carry two. So, I'm going to do a little bit of comparison here to see who has the honor to stay in my wallet.
Continued in another post...
Sunday, January 4, 2009
My most popular photo on Flickr
According to Flickr stats:
- 13 people call this photo a favorite
- Viewed 4,807 times
BTW, you can buy a commercial license for this photo here: istockphoto
Friday, January 2, 2009
Future Destinations
Places I want to visit in the next 10 years.
Dominican Republic
France
United Kingdom
Italy
Japan
Egypt
Greece
India
Germany
Switzerland
South Africa
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