Dream Vacation

One week in New York City or a two week trip snowboarding in the Alps is good enough for me, but not for some.

Nothing is EVER only Good or Bad, is it?

“No one is recommending an economic crisis as a health measure.”

Maybe we should.

Flightline: Week 1

If it seems like I blog more about money than flying, it's because why would I blog about something that I'm living and breathing for 15 hours a day? But after this first week on the flightline (5 days, 5 flights, flying is fun, but it can get kinda draining, not to mention demoralizing).
Demoralizing. Exactly, because right now, we are all horrible pilots. Sure, some are better than others, but seriously, we'd probably fail as kamikazes.
Some highlights from this week:
Had a good dollar ride. That means the first ride you have in a plane as a pilot.
Didn't get sick. And I mean vomit, because that happens to people, not at all uncommon.
Broke out of the pattern 8 times within 1/2 hour. That'll stir anyone's stomach. I held it down. Good for me and my uniform. And the crew chief.
Pulled 4 Gs. First G-awareness exercise was flown by the IP, then another one by me two days later. It's actually not that bad, didn't even have to strain that hard to keep the blood going to my brain.
I didn't descend fast enough. That was the bad part. Then the IP took the plane and barrel rolled it two thousand feet down. "Um...Sir...I hadn't FENCEd-out yet." "Oh, I thought you did."
I think I can hack it. Sweet.

Prosper vs. Other Investment Tools

How do I have time to blog after getting on the Flightline, you ask? It turned out that our flight commander was nice enough to give us an Intro Day, and today is basically a chaffe day. But my dollar ride is scheduled for Monday...Hopefully I won't throw away the entire weekend.

This post is in response to my friend James' comments comparing investing in Prosper vs. Roth IRA and Thrift Savings Plan, etc.
Both of us are Prosper lenders and Roth IRA investors. I'm a big fan of Roth IRA and have been maxing mine ($4000/yr for us young'ns) for almost a year. I haven't done anything with TSP though, preferring instead high-yield savings accounts (EmigrantDirect, etc.) because I don't have a lot of money, so liquidity is nice. Prosper, though, began as kind of a help-me-help-you type of thing and turned into another investment tool for fun. On LendingStats, Prosper investors with the highest returns on investment (ROI) also take big risks with sub-prime high-interest loans, but I'm not comfortable doing that. Unless one is very lucky, a lot of investment is needed to counteract the effect of even just one delinquency on the ROI.
For the sake of long term investment, I naturally put more weight (=$$) on tax-advantaged Roth IRA. Since my investment horizon is 35-40 years, I've chosen a more aggressive and risky mutual fund for my Roth IRA; I'll choose a more conservative one closer to that glorious day of withdrawal. However, in the short term, Prosper actually seems like a very stable investment, returning at slightly better than high-yield savings, neither one of which is tax-advantaged, but comparatively much more liquid than Roth.

Where will we fight next?

I have no idea why the Ed Center was pushing me to learn Urdu and Hindi, it seems like Korean, Arabic and Farsi are far more likely to be useful over the next 2 decades.

The Secret Billionaire That Never Was

Chuck Feeney is an amazing man, one who truly lives by the saying "You can't take it with you", or better yet, a Gaelic proverb which he is fond of, "There are no pockets in a shroud."

Which reminds me, if you work for the federal government, Combined Federal Campaign really is a great way to give back to the people. There are more than 10,000 participating charities of all kinds, and you can find the listing here, complete with a short blurb on what they are about, how much of your donation goes toward operating expenses, etc.

Prosper Risk Analysis: 4 months later

While I was bored in Pueblo, I posted some graphs showing the historical risks associated with Prosper.com loans vs. various parameters. Here's the latest, with data pulled from LendingStats.com. These are all the loans from the inception of Prosper and thus not a snapshot of the conditions now. Compared with the last analysis, there's a general rise in risk levels across the board. Of course, the percentage of Defaulted loans would be higher since the delinquent loans a few months ago became defaulted over time. Use these to modify your search criteria when choosing which loans to bid; my preferences are below.

Disclaimer: I'm doing this mainly for investment, and my comments reflect that. Even though Prosper.com contains an element of people helping people (something that drew me to the site in the first place), I can't be too liberal with my small amount of income, especially after my first and only (so far) default with a high risk loan. The performance of my portfolio can be found here.

I used to search anywhere from AA-D, but now I generally invest in AA-B grade loans now only.

Lower DTI ratio loans are still risky, but notice the higher risk of higher DTI compared with the last analysis. Now I'd probably limit my search to somewhere between 20 to 40, which could substantially limit my options.

Sorry for the lack of title. This is the loan amount chart (of course you were smart enough to figure that out!). It used to be that the higher the amount, the safer the investment, but no longer. I'm thinking $10k to $20k as my new param.

Again, always, always, always bid only those loans with account verified. If some newbie borrower hasn't done it yet, use the Q&A feature to let them know that they should, for everyone's benefit.

This parameter used to not concern me, but now with the risk levels rising all over, I just might start limiting my bids to homeowners. After all, that's a collateral you can count on for small Prosper loans.

Auto-fund means that the loan closes as soon as the amount of bids equals the amount requested; it's for desperate people who can't wait another few days: dangerous investments.

UPT: Phase I (The Fun Parts)

When you see pilots hanging off a parachute, they never tell you how much it hurts the nether regions.

Pretty smug before being dragged by a truck to 150 feet. And then fall to the ground.

Pull that ejection handle....and the sounds of a toilet flushing comes on. The best of Air Force training technology.

Nika watched helplessly as they took us up to 35000 feet pressure altitude. And then we took our masks off.
It's like being drunk, within 5 seconds. But no hangover!

Better healthcare in Cuba? Not so fast...

It's not the main point of this article, but semi-capitalist America remains a much freakin' better place to live.

Another Place, Another Summary II

I wouldn't really count our living arrangements in Cal City as "having our own place" because we were hardly there to own it. Laughlin is different, we got assigned our own house, and except for Xmas/New Year's break and maybe Thanksgiving, we are stuck here in our shweet new home.

My name is above the front door, how tacky awesome is that!

We did our best decorating minimalistically. Gotta thank a few people for the dining room. Thanks to Brian for the table and chairs. Thanks to Shannon and Maxim for the adorable salt and pepper shakers on center display. And thanks to Yan for the bottle of Armenian Kognak.

I don't know if this wall in my study was meant to encourage me or scare the rest of you. That condemned G-suit has my name on it, and no, you can't borrow it for next Friday night.

No more of Andy's handcrafted nasty-ass projector stand. My seat is beneath Darth Vader. Recognize.

Despite the spartan furnishings, we do still get visitors from time to time.

Another Place, Another Summary I

From California to Texas, this PCS was definitely my longest road trip ever. 3 weeks and 3 states later, I finally have time to blog about it. I prefer letting the pictures do the talking.

Disclaimer: Practicing photography while driving is highly awesome, and should only be done by awesome people. If you suck in general and at driving in particular, don't be stupid.

Hyeah, it really was hot outside.

Cacti!

Storms are always beautiful.

The Open Road.

A quick stop at Fort Bliss in El Paso. The Army is just...different.

Who knew that Texas is a scenic state?

If you think you'll like Transformers, go see it!

Part modernized childhood nostalgia, part military recruiting, Transformers is 100% kick ass. From the opening minutes till the end the intensity never let up--directly correlating to how muscle fatigued I felt afterward--except for a few Michael Bayesque drawn-out and melodramatic moments.
Before I go any further, why the hell did NYTimes let Manohla Dargis review this film? "...Epically assaultive noise and nonsense"? Hey, Paris Je T'aime is playing in the artsy theater down the street and Little Children is probably coming out on DVDs. Beat it. No one who's pumped up about Transformers wants to hear about her political and social whineries; in fact, I shouldn't even have read her review, an epically assaultive waste of my geek literary quota. She obviously did not grow up with the international Transformers phenomenon and thus cannot appreciate, and her snobbery automatically disqualifies her every opinion of this film.
On to the cool stuff. True, it was distracting for me that throughout the movie when the subtitles suggest that it's some place--Middle East, Nellis--I knew what's what. But who cares? Edwards re-pre-sent! That flightline and tower belongs to the 412 OSS, biatch! I didn't mind, I was just so proud. The Air Force really dealt out all kinds of favors for Michael Bay, supplying almost every type of kick ass planes we've got and enough technical advice to keep their appearances believable. Psss...a bit of insider knowledge: Predator drones are still only prop-driven! Finally, nothing beats the moment when SSgt Rat's face is on screen for an entire 2 seconds, with a heroic head turn and an enthusiastically delivered line! Someone I know and worked with is on screen in a movie that's going to be seen by millions of people! My stock just went up another few points. Wait till Ironman, I don't care how crappy it's gonna be, especially if Manohla thinks so.

Shuttle is gone

Atlantis took off from Edwards back to FL. I missed it again.
But at least I'm not burning in the desert.

Ivy+ @ Mezzanine

My first time in an SF club didn't turn out to be the pandemonium I had hope for. The DJ was instructed to play nondanceable acid jazz, and Ivy+ Leaguers...well...just aren't that into dancing, I suppose. Met some cool people though. Shout outs to Margeret, Luis and Sondra!

Check out Geoff's newly launched site for connecting people's night lives. Have some fun, live a little.

Gah!

The Space Shuttle Atlantis landed today at 12:49PDT right out side my office window.

But I wasn't there!

Combat Foosball

I finally got video posting to work.

Words for the Young Officer

Lt Col (Retired) A. Hardee walked into the office out of the blue on Friday, and left me with these nuggets of wisdom 45 minutes later.

• The old guys should take care of the younger guys.
• Don't ever neglect your PMEs. SOS, ACSC, Air War College...do them by correspondence if you have to; in-residence is hard to get.
• Expect to fly regular jobs for a few years before you get the opportunity to even try out for special ops.
• Be a good XO. Your life will be hell for 2-3 years, you won't get credit for anything, but thereafter you'll be very valuable to a flag officer. They will protect you because you take care of the details.
  
• Work at the Pentagon if possible, even though you pilots don't like desk jobs.
  
• Watch your back, being an officer involves politics.

Anti-gravity Helicopter

The Russians figured it out first. Again.

The Perks of Being a Recruiter

• Helping young guys figure out that the AF is/isn't for him (it is, unless you're a tool, then we tell you that and send you over to Army)
  
• Being called a RAPper
• Working for an SrA = no boss
• Eating at Chilly's for 50% off
• Internet without filters
  
• Eating at Super Buffet for free (Thanks, random guy who paid for our lunch). America does love us
• When the aforementioned SrA takes leave, I own the office
  

That's Right! F-ing A.

“We cannot tolerate a two-tiered jail system where the rich and powerful receive special treatment."
Rocky Delgadillo, prosecutor of Paris Hilton