Vinh Pham

I don’t get it.

I don’t get why we risk our lives to go snowboarding. Driving up the snow covered mountains is extremely dangerous and people spin out all the time. I myself have been in a car that hit a snow bank after slipping on the ice. Putting on chains is a pain the ass, and make your car rattles like hell. With chains on, you have to drive hella slow so it takes forever to get to the snow park. When you get to the snow park, there are tons of people there so it takes forever to get on a lift. On days when there are hella people, the snow is solid ice so falling is a painful experience.

Snowboarding equipment cost a ton of money and is a pain in the ass to bring around. It also sucks when you buy snowboarding equipment but have no time to go snowboarding, so you end up wasting all that money. Lift tickets are also expensive, and you are not guaranteed good snow, or good space to snowboard in. Basically, you could end up paying $50 for a lift ticket and have to stand around waiting for a lift, or dodging people on the slopes.

Snow makes life almost unbearable. It’s cold, slippery, and cold. Yes, very cold. It makes your car get stuck, you fall on your ass, and you have to shovel that shit every morning just to open your door. A snow ball fight is not as magical as it seems on TV. A snowball is usually hard as hell and could give you a damn concussion if someone hits you really hard with one. Also, the cold weather makes your skin itch and crack and you bleed.

The novelty of going on a snow - cabin trip wears off within hours as you realize its freaking cold and there ain’t shit to do but stay indoors and play board games. I do enjoy the board games, but I am pretty sure we can play board games at home without risking our lives driving up the mountain.

Don’t get me wrong. I love snowboarding. It is extremely fun, but I would rather NOT break any of my bones.

Anyways, in the spirit of griping about shit, here is my advice: stay home, get pale, and beat off. Wait till the summer and go do some water sports… Also, in the summer time girls wear less clothes, that’s always a good thing…

Fergie - Clumsy

First time,
that I saw your eyes,
boy you looked right through me.
Play it cool,
but I knew you knew,
That cupid hit me.

You got me trippin, stumbling, flippin, fumblin
Clumsy cuz (because) I’m fallin in love, in love
…..
So in love with you

Can’t breath,
when you touch my sleeve,
butterflies so crazy.
Whoa now,
think I’m goin down,
friends don’t know whats with me.

Link to the actual music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN9vm95SocU

I find it kinda strange that my guy friends don’t seem to get hung up on girls. Ever since middle school, I have always been “clumsy” over all the cute girls around me. I guess you can say that I am a really really really lucky guy because I have been pretty successful at tricking girls I like into liking me back :).

But anyways, I guess the point is, if you like someone, the worst thing you can do is NOT tell them you like them. Who knows, maybe they feel the same “clumsy” way about you?

Sometimes I wish I was an international spy,
carrying out many dangerous and mysterious missions.
Sometimes I wish I was a Hollywood star,
basking in the fame and smiling for the cameras.
Sometimes I wish I was a corporate tycoon,
making deals worth millions of dollars.
But most of the time,
I like being who I am,
because I get to be your man.

The bayareafastrak.org website is pissing the shit out me. I have been to this site several times to try and pay for my toll violations because the detector did not pick up my transponder so I got a ticket.

You are supposed to be able to use the website to look up your “toll evasion” violation number and then proceed to remedy the problem by adding the car to your account using the online form. However, each time I have done it, I get this error:

total 736 -rw-rw-r– 1 pforte pforte 3492 May 28 2005 ViolationError.html -rwxr-xr-x 1 pforte pforte 7170 Mar 15 2005 ViolationGetPayment.html -rwxr-xr-x 1 pforte pforte 7170 May 25 2005 ViolationGetPayment.html.bak2 -rw-r—– 1 pforte pforte 23124 Feb 26 2007 ViolationInformation.html -rwxr-xr-x 1 pforte pforte 17724 Mar 29 2005 ViolationInformation.html.bak -rw-r–r– 1 pforte pforte 18152 May 29 2005 ViolationInformation.html.bak2 -rwxr-xr-x 1 pforte pforte 23168 Feb 26 2007 ViolationInformation.html_old -rwxr-xr-x 1 pforte pforte 7068 Mar 15 2005 ViolationInformationWithPayment.html -rw-r—– 1 pforte pforte 23125 Sep 18 2006 ViolationInformation_new.html -rwxr-xr-x 1 pforte pforte 2533 Mar 15 2005 ViolationPaymentConfirm.html -rwxr-xr-x 1 pforte pforte 8645 Oct 1 2006 detail.html -rwxr-xr-x 1 pforte pforte 12990 Jan 3 2007 dispute.html -rwxr-xr-x 1 pforte pforte 11710 Dec 21 2006 dispute.html_12-21-2006 -rwxr-xr-x 1 pforte pforte 5158 Oct 1 2006 dispute_confirm.html -rwxr-xr-x 1 pforte pforte 3803 May 25 2005 dispute_confirm.html.bak -rwxr-xr-x 1 pforte pforte 9999 Oct 1 2006 dispute_verify.html -rwxr-xr-x 1 pforte pforte 5483 Oct 1 2006 payment_confirm.html -rw-r–r– 1 pforte pforte 4220 May 29 2005 payment_confirm.html.bak -rw-r—– 1 pforte pforte 14009 Oct 28 2006 payment_entry.html -rw-r—– 1 pforte pforte 13942 Oct 6 2005 payment_entry.html.good -rwxr-xr-x 1 pforte pforte 11587 Oct 1 2006 payment_verify.html -rwxr-xr-x 1 pforte pforte 11723 Sep 8 2006 payment_verify_new.html -rwxr-xr-x 1 pforte pforte 3883 Oct 1 2006 scal_acct.html -rwxr-xr-x 1 pforte pforte 5342 Oct 1 2006 tolls_confirm.html -rwxr-xr-x 1 pforte pforte 13387 Oct 1 2006 tolls_res.html -rwxr-xr-x 1 pforte pforte 9158 Feb 21 2007 tolls_verify.html

This is basically a dump of their entire working directory, which could be a security risk??? This is just bad programming, and whoever is responsible for this needs to get this fixed. I would contact webmaster, but there are no emails to write to ( actually the email form is broken too ). I have called customer service to report this like FIVE months ago, but they still did not fix it.

If you work for FasTrak or know how to contact them, please tell them they need to hire some better programmers!!!

In the past few days, the fed have proposed a few laws against what they called “predatory” practices exercised by subprime lenders. Predatory practices include:

1) giving bad teaser rates that may change dramatically,
2) not fully disclosing all the risks involved with a loan,
3) not presenting all the options available to a borrower.

I thought about this and it reminds me of the unethical deals I got offered when I went to buy my car.

1) they tried to sign me up for bad interest rates by showing me low monthly payments with a long loan-period,
2) they don’t mention that I will actually be paying A LOT more in interest if I accept these low payments,
3) they never allowed me to work with them on finding a good interest rate and down payment.

As you can see, these practices are almost identical. Although I did not fall for any of these cheap tricks, I still felt like I didn’t get a very good interest rate because they were unwilling to work with me to find an appropriate monthly and down payment. I am pretty sure that many people have walked into a car dealership and have been tricked into accepting horrible rates because of these unethical practices.

With the recent subprime fall out, I think it is time that the government give a closer to ALL forms of “predatory” lending institutions.

I have not been to the dentist for almost 4 or 6 years now. I just never had dental insurance, and the prospect of finding a dentist has just been too daunting. You can find hundreds of reviews for a digital camera you want to buy, but try finding a review for your local dentists!

Anyways, I finally decided to look for a dentist since I am starting to get scared that my teeth will rot and fall off. Luckily for me, http://www.daviswiki.org has a ton of reviews for dentists in the Davis, CA area. If I lived anywhere else, I wouldn’t have a clue where to look.

I was happy to find several good dentists I would like to visit, but to my surprise, getting insurance to visit the dentist is a lot harder than I thought.

If I chose a popular insurer like Delta Dental, or Liberty Dental, I have to visit one their in-network dentists. This sucks because all of their in-network received horrible horrible reviews. Including accusations of unnecessary operations, and sexual harassment.

After three days of relentless research, and going through several websites learning about how dental insurance works, I finally decided on Blue Cross ( the same company I have health insurance on ). The crappy thing is, since the dentist I want to visit is NOT in their network, many of the benefits of having insurance is offset by higher costs. I have to submit to these costs because I do not want to visit a dentists that has no reviews or worst, a dentist with bad reviews.

This prospect makes me wish we had universal health care.

1) Everyone can visit good dentists - the bad dentists will have to shape up in order to keep their business. Right now bad dentists get away with being bad dentists because people have no options but to go to them because they are “in network”.

2) Reduces the confusion involved with getting dental insurance. Even as a college graduate, I find the lingo of dental insurance hard to digest. To be honest, I still have no clue on many of the features, exclusions, and limitations in the dental insurance plan I signed up for. I just want to get my teeth cleaned, why does it have to be so hard??

3) Universal health care will likely encourage people to get regular check ups on the motivation that it is easy to access. This “preventive medicine” practice will greatly reduce the burden on society because it will keep us all healthy.

In conclusion, I am disappointed at the health care system. For someone like myself who has no employer, or employers who won’t pay for my health insurance, it is a maze to walk through just to get some help. I am currently paying for my health care coverage, but I hate the thought of actually going to see a doctor or a dentist because I have no idea who I am allowed to visit, and if I can afford it! I am a single male with no illnesses and I already feel beaten by this system. I can’t imagine what a mother with child, or someone who is ill would feel when confronted with this broken system.

If things were perfect, we should all be allowed to have a doctor of our choosing, and know exactly how much we have to pay for it, instead of having to guest how screwed we are going to be financially if we decide to call on one. That’s exactly how I feel right now with dental insurance and health insurance. I am constantly afraid that my co-payment will be too much for me to handle, or I will simply get denied because I forgot to dot an I or crossed a T.

Sucks…

The flailing US economy has been putting a big frown on my financial status. Some how I managed to enter the market at a time when most companies were hitting 52-week highs, only to find out that about two weeks later, a strong pull-back began to ensue.

If lets say I entered the market three weeks later, I would essentially be picking bottoms, or at the very least, getting a chance to buy companies on the cheap. I would even settle for getting in earlier in the year, before the big run-up, so that I would have some nice cushion to fall back on.

But no, I got in right before the storm, and it wiped me out.

I am not poor, or broke, just yet, but it would be nice to earn some extra money ya know.

Anyways, I am trying this new strategy that my friend got me convinced on it. It’s called “straddling”.

Basically you buy both the “call” and the “put” options of a company right before a time of high volatility, such as earnings, news, etc… No matter which direction the stock price move, you stand to gain money because you are invested in both directions. This works best when one side moves a lot more than the other side, and you are able to get rid of the loosing end for a nice exit point, while riding the winning side to a nice profit.

Yea, I have no idea what I am doing. It just sounds logical? (and fun!)

Although I really hate the people who comments on digg.com, I can’t help myself to reading their comments. I guess I just can not turn down an opportunity to hear what other people have to say. This helps me see things in a different perspective, and it helps me decide where I want to stand on important issues.

However, like I said, I hate the people that comments on Digg. They are hypocritical and self-righteous. They think they have a solution for everything, yet they do nothing (except for crashing servers, they are definitely good at that). They are, in a sense, a bunch of kids. Or more specifically, a bunch of teenagers who think the world is their oyster. Face it, you are too chicken to eat a damn oyster.

Anyways, here is a list of things Digg loves.

1. Ron Paul - If you said “Ron” who?? You definitely don’t Digg.
2. Hating Hillary - If there is one thing they love more than Ron Paul, its hating Hillary.
3. Trashing Women - If you wonder why they hate Hillary, its probably because they just hate women in general. Yes, for a group of people deathly afraid of, and have had limited contact with women, they seem to hate them a lot. Ok Ok, you are right, they also don’t agree with her politics, but that’s no fun.
4. Hating on Religion - Some are atheists, and some just hate religion. If you are evangelical, avoid Digg at all cause. They will make you feel like shit or infuriates you like hell (oh yea, don’t mention hell, they don’t believe in hell).
5. Marijuana - eh, who doesn’t.
6. Apple - iPhone this, iPod that, oh btw, did you see the latest pics of Steve Jobs shaving?
7. Hating Fanboys - Ironic… For a place that loves Apple, they hate people who loves Apple.
8. Government Conspiracy - The government is tracking us and monitoring our brainwaves. They want to control us and will kill all those who opposes them. The president is a pawn of big corporations seeking to make money by sending you to war and causing 911.
9. Liberalism - When you think the government is out to get you, the only solution is to look out for yourself. Don’t pay taxes, buy a gun, and f0ck the pigs! Yup… that’s the typical Digg sentiment. I myself prefer having police officers around to protect me from crazy tax evading, gun wielding, women hating Digg’ers.
10. Games - But no worries, Digg’ers won’t take over the world soon, they are too busy playing video games.

Let me just reiterate that this list may not reflect the opinions of ALL Digg’ers, however, it’s just what I noticed from the one who writes and digg comments.