Vinh Pham

1) Larry Kudlow - “We still believe that free-market capitalism is the best path to prosperity”, “Goldilocks is alive and well!” - Yea right, you republican ass-kisser. This guy actually supports Bush. Anyone who still support Bush the way this guy does must be out of their mind. How does this guy still have a TV show?

2) Dylan Ratigan - He’s like that guy at work that just doesn’t know when to shut up. He’s always wasting airtime making stupid jokes no one seems to understand. I don’t understand how this dude still has a job. I bet if you add up the minutes used by this dude making dumb jokes, you would save a good 15 minutes for actual market reports.

3) Jim Cramer - I like Jim Cramer’s show because he gives you ideas on stocks to look at. But you shouldn’t be buying based on his recommendations alone. The reason he’s on this list is because he supports Rudy Giuliani on his show. Typical Republican-loving bullshit. If he would just stick with stocks, he may actually be OK. (Despite the fact that everyone on the internet seems to think he’s an idiot)

4) Jumping the gun / bad news reporting - Sometimes they report news they have not even confirmed. There are so many times they reported merger talks that never actually happened. Their shenanigans drives the stock market up and down like a rollercoaster.

5) Yelling, screaming, and technical difficulties - I don’t think a day goes by without some sort of technical difficulties. Come on… fire the technicians! On top of that, whenever they have a panel of experts, it alway results in a yelling match. WTF?? Seriously, there has to be a way to moderate discussions without it turning into a cock-fight!

In conclusion, CNBC sucks ass. I would welcome some good competition!

Women… they will NEVER.. EVER… EVER… EVER… tell you what they want.
They are the masters of the double-talk. Every day of their lives is “opposite day”.
If you don’t believe, you are a total FOOL. Any man who have been in a longterm relationship knows this is absolute FACT.
Here is my guide to help you along, and to remind myself next time I get tricked:

1) Words Uttered: “no”
Meaning: “yes”
EXCEPTION: when it comes to sex or any sort of physical contact like kissing, hugging, etc…

2) Words Uttered: “I don’t care”
Meaning: “figure out what I want, and make it happen”
EXCEPTION: when you tell her you are sexually frustrated

3) Words Uttered: “Do whatever you want”
Meaning: “Do EXACTLY what I told you, or else you are dead meat”
EXCEPTION: when you are with her at the mall and shes ready to enter FOREVER 21.

4) Words Uttered: “You don’t have to if you don’t want to”
Meaning: “You have to. You have to. You have to. And you better WANT IT!!!”
EXCEPTION: There are no exceptions. This is always a HAVE TO.

Seriously, men of the world, this list is VERY VERY VERY VERY IMPORTANT. Memorize it and use it in your every day life if you don’t want to end up like me right now. Trust me, I will be referring to this list in the very near future. Good luck.

This weekend I got into a debate with my girlfriend’s family members about the potential use of nuclear energy. Being a so called “tree-hugger”, although a very bad one, I was opposed to the proliferation of nuclear energy. I have two reasons for my position:

1) Use what we already have - I personally feel that we could create a sustainable world to live in, if everyone on this earth could learn to live in a sustainable manner. In other words: cut back on waste, choose environmentally friendly alternatives, and stop reproducing like bunnies.

2) Nuclear energy is a treatment for the symptoms, not a cure for the disease - Yes, nuclear energy could provide us with enough energy to last us many lifetimes, but then what? When will our obsessive need for “more” stop? I think its a better idea for us to just cure the human “disease” of always wanting “more”.

Anyways, I pretty much loss the argument because my knowledge of nuclear power is very limited. So what does a naturally curious person like myself do? I Wikipedia “nuclear power” and began reading. It was a pretty interesting article and I got a pretty comprehensive summary of the nuclear process. But what made me raised an eyebrow and eventually led me to write this blog entry was this one line:

“Today we stock containers of waste because currently scientists don’t know how to reduce or eliminate the toxicity, but maybe in 100 years perhaps scientists will”

Ok… I am a gambler at heart, but even I would be afraid to make this bet. But no worries, there are plenty of “nuclear scientists” out there who have already made this bet for all of us :). So scream out loud with me, “I see your 100 and raise you ALL IN!!!”.

Anyways, I guess my point is. I see why nuclear power is necessary because fossil fuel is ruining our environment, highly unsustainable, and is controlled my loonies (come on, you know its true, its not like oil fields are controlled by nuns or the Dalai Lama). But I think that instead of seeing nuclear energy as a magic bullet, we should approach it as more of a last alternative, or a temporary solution. The real solution is to change the way we think and live our lives.

Btw, sorry, no one is building a nuclear bomb here. Just a provocative title to attract your attention.

Colbie Caillat - Bubbly

I’ve been awake for a while now
You make me feel like a child now
‘Cause every time I see your bubbly face
I get the tinglies in a silly place

It starts in my toes
Makes me crinkle / wrinkle my nose
Wherever it goes
I always know

That you make me smile
Please stay for a while now
Just take your time
Wherever you go

Link to YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PWfB4lurT4

Do you know that you crinkle your nose when you try to be cute? It lets me know that you want something from me.

Rihanna and Ne-Yo - Hate That I Love You

[Ne-Yo:]
but you won’t let me
You upset me girl
and then you kiss my lips
All of a sudden I forget
that I was upset
Can’t remember what you did

[Ne-Yo:]
But I hate it

[Rihanna:]
You know exactly what to do
So that I can’t stay mad at you
For too long, that’s wrong

[Ne-Yo:]
Girl, I hate it
You know exactly how to touch
So that I don’t wanna fuss and fight no more
So I despise that I adore you

[Rihanna (Ne-Yo):]
And I hate how much I love you boy (yeah)
I can’t stand how much I need you (I need you)
And I hate how much I love you boy (ooh)
But I just can’t let you go

Link to the original music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIUv3dOBbCk

I love my girlfriend, but I hate how when she pisses me off, it only takes ONE SMILE — ONE SMILE — and I get over it. Not surprisingly, it does not work the other way around

After reading through all the comments on a current digg submission regarding the rampant use of tables, I started to wonder why I even began coding in CSS.

Although I have built a fair number of CSS layouts for web apps (examples in my resume), I have NEVER actually built anything using TABLES. This fact makes it impossible for me to really experience the differences, benefits, and complications between the two methods. Most of my appreciation ( perhaps misleading ) for CSS came from my reading of other people’s experiences, and claims from sites such as csszengarden, a list apart, csscreator, etc…

The comments on this digg submission seems to be preaching the opposite. It made me realize that there are many people out there who do not think that CSS is beneficial when TABLES are much easier to control, and CSS requires a lot tweaking and hacking ( a fact I cannot deny ). They also pointed out that the inherent benefits of using CSS, such as: loading speed, cross-browser compatibility, and development time, are not worth all the troubles and inconsistencies involved with using CSS.

As someone who have a good amount of experience with CSS, I must admit, they are right. Even though CSS is great for building complex designs and DOM scripting with JavaScript, sometimes TABLES are just easier to use. There have been so many times in my professional experience when a client would ask for a simple alignment, and it would take me hours just to achieve the effect. For example, vertical alignment, equal height columns, and of course, like we all know, displaying tabular data.

So there, I admit it, TABLES are SOMETIMES useful and easier than CSS.

But in defense of CSS, I would like to offer some counter arguments. First, a lot of the people who complain about CSS, simply don’t know how to use CSS properly. This is just a fact of life: ignorance breeds prejudice. Just because you do understand “position: relative”, does not mean “position: relative” suck. You suck for not understanding it. Second, with CSS you can change styles easily and in one centralized place. And lastly, the teaching of CSS coincide directly with good SEO practices. When every bit of SERP counts for your company, this is one powerful tool in your arsenal.

In conclusion, CSS is the future and you should learn to embrace it. However, lets not be snobby about CSS because nothing is perfect. Sometimes, the old way just works better. Oh btw, it took me a long time to write this entry because I had to concentrate on my grammar.

Did you know? There are NO freaking coconuts in Hawaii! Don’t believe me? Go to Hawaii and try to buy a fresh coconut. My girlfriend and I had to take a bus to the ghettos of Hawaii, just to find a coconut we could buy. It was almost as if we were going to the ghettos to buy drugs. But sadly, even there, the coconut was not fresh and therefore undrinkable.

Sure… There are plenty of coconuts trees, and plenty of coconuts in those trees. In fact, there are plenty of fallen coconuts littering the highways. But the strange thing is: NO one really sells COCONUTS!!!

It’s freaking ridiculous! On a tropical island filled with coconuts, no gosh dang person actually eat the coconuts. Coconuts have so many different uses, nearly all parts of the coconut tree could be used, the coconut meat is rich with nutrients and coconut water makes a refreshing drink. In fact, I would consider it one of the greatest fruits known to mankind.

I blame the lack of coconut abundance in Hawaii, on the taste buds of white people. I don’t think white people care as much about coconuts, as I do. For us Vietnamese people, coconuts are highly prized, and we would give anything for a sip of fresh coconuts on a hot day.

Anyways, the point is, I am sad that Hawaii does not have coconut for sale. It would be nice if I could buy fresh coconuts on the beach, and drink it while I enjoy the Hawaiian sun.

If there is a show that can hold a candle up to Simpsons, it’s Scrubs, and this is why:

Scrubs - Guy Love

o/` o/`
Guy love,
That’s all it is,
Guy love,
He’s mine, I’m his,
There’s nothing gay about it in our eyes.
o/` o/`

Ok, I just opened a letter from TD Ameritrade confirming my brokerage account. I was just about to sign it and send it back to them, when I realized how screwed up their letter is. They mailed me a letter confirming my account with all these things printed out on it:

My Account Number, Name, Full Address, Social Security Number, Date of Birth, and the zinger.. my Mother’s Maiden name.

This is an identity security travesty. There was no asteriks to mask my SSN, no partial Account Number. and worse, why do they need to print my Mother’s Maiden Name? Don’t they know with that information, anyone can get into ANY of my financial accounts?? Anyone who may have inadvertently, or intentionally intercepted this piece of mail would have EVERYTHING they need to know about me to steal my identity.

I am a gasp that a broker, someone who handles billions of dollars for clients, would be so careless with their information.

I know that just recently they reported loosing client data in a computer security case, but even that is somewhat acceptable. But this, this is outrages. Needless to say, I am not sending this form back to them. In fact, this will probably be the termination interaction with this company.

TDAmeritrade, I demand an apology and an explanation.