We normally don't celebrate Thanksgiving here in Oz, mainly because there's no major sporting event we can associate with it and use as an excuse to drink while wearing team/national colours. However, I thought I might as well use the occasion to list some of the things I am thankful for... some career-related, others are just good things.
Rockett Fuel is thankful for:
- a family that kept me grounded, despite the potential for dizzying highs and lows of the job;
- Rockett Girlfriend, who put up with all the times I was late, or stood her up, or wanted to vent about some of the idiots I encountered at/through work... for making me feel like I can take on the world... and because we can use words like "equitable", "leverage", "portfolio" and "Quistclose" in normal conversation;
- my team, one of the most respected in the market, who endured my inane questions, took the brunt of some of my most wicked email retorts... who taught me that to be a good banker, you need to have truly independent thinking... but to be a great banker, you need to have the balls to tell those thoughts to your client - even if it means losing the business;
- for the red football in the office... hours of mindless 1am fun;
- friends in other banks and law firms... for remaining rather cheerful despite our situation... for the endless rounds of coffee, lunches, dinners, absinthe on my birthday, and entertaining gossip... and for the rare combination of being smart, well-paid, but not being total douchebags;
- friends who aren't bankers or lawyers... for pretending to be fascinated by what I do, for all the life advice, and for making life more fun;
- the drycleaning lady who had to clean my suit after my birthday party - fantastic job;
- junk food manufacturers, who fuelled many an all-nighter;
- all the finance blogs I follow (dealbreaker.com, longorshortcapital.com amongst others) which are much funnier than this one.
Looking forward to Christmas!
Friday 28 November 2008
Monday 10 November 2008
Under A Rock
Well, I semi-deliberately decided in the past few weeks not to blog because (a) there was too much change to adequately process - not that I did much analysis anyway; and (b) I was a lazy so-and-so.
This week I watched the movie "Match Point" on DVD. Why? Because I am a banker, and currently, bankers have no [meaningful] work to do, so we go home and do what normal people have been doing for years. (Some would ask why now, given bankers don't normally have meaningful work anyway, but that's a discussion for another time.)
Play ping pong. Be sexy.
For those who haven't seen it, the opening sequence of this movie starts with a ball hitting the top of the net, deflecting up in slow motion. The voiceover of our protagonist (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers) observes:
"The man who said "I'd rather be lucky than good" saw deeply into life... There are moments in a match when the ball hits the top of the net, and for a split second, it can either go forward or fall back. With a little luck, it goes forward, and you win. Or maybe it doesn't, and you lose."
At the moment, that quote just seems so relevant right now. What a different world we would be in had events turned out differently. What would the world have been, had those infamous Hanging Chads of Florida not been so ambiguous?
I've been in a rather introspective mood the past few weeks, mainly because I now have more time than I know what to do with. While I firmly believe that I am in a good place (at least relative to some of my peers, I am sad to say), there is a certain element of luck involved. I could have been toiling away at another job with less intellectual challenge (and commensurately lower pay), had it not been a lucky coincidence that at the same time I resigned, someone else resigned and left the spot which I now currently occupy. Sure, I am now blacklisted by a large multinational bank, but it's just business (right?).
Just my luck as well that the credit crisis struck as I was hitting my stride, translating to thousands of hours of top-notch work, fully rewarded by... keeping my job. But then my luck could have been worse: I could be hearing about my team closing down through gossip from friends. Something I unwittingly unleashed on an acquaintance at a large Euro bank. Oops.
(Dear friend, if by some stroke of terrible luck you are reading this entry, I am so truly sorry and I owe several drinks.)
I am not entirely sure how much longer my too-short stint in the periphery of high finance will last. I would like to think I will find my feet somewhere interesting, ride it out a couple of years, and then see where God decides I can create the least amount of havoc. In the meantime, I WILL try to continue to blog about stuff I find amusing about my little slice of geek heaven (or what's left of it). Who knows, maybe this Obama guy might actually be onto something :)
My Quote of the Week:
"Global Language Monitor, which follows linguistic issues, reports that in the final debate, Mr. Obama spoke at a ninth-grade reading level, while John McCain spoke at a seventh-grade level."
Not sure which is scarier: the fact that Obama thought it necessary to talk down to 9th grade level, or that by talking down to 7th grade level, McCain managed to win 46% of the popular vote.
This week I watched the movie "Match Point" on DVD. Why? Because I am a banker, and currently, bankers have no [meaningful] work to do, so we go home and do what normal people have been doing for years. (Some would ask why now, given bankers don't normally have meaningful work anyway, but that's a discussion for another time.)
Play ping pong. Be sexy.For those who haven't seen it, the opening sequence of this movie starts with a ball hitting the top of the net, deflecting up in slow motion. The voiceover of our protagonist (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers) observes:
"The man who said "I'd rather be lucky than good" saw deeply into life... There are moments in a match when the ball hits the top of the net, and for a split second, it can either go forward or fall back. With a little luck, it goes forward, and you win. Or maybe it doesn't, and you lose."
At the moment, that quote just seems so relevant right now. What a different world we would be in had events turned out differently. What would the world have been, had those infamous Hanging Chads of Florida not been so ambiguous?
I've been in a rather introspective mood the past few weeks, mainly because I now have more time than I know what to do with. While I firmly believe that I am in a good place (at least relative to some of my peers, I am sad to say), there is a certain element of luck involved. I could have been toiling away at another job with less intellectual challenge (and commensurately lower pay), had it not been a lucky coincidence that at the same time I resigned, someone else resigned and left the spot which I now currently occupy. Sure, I am now blacklisted by a large multinational bank, but it's just business (right?).
Just my luck as well that the credit crisis struck as I was hitting my stride, translating to thousands of hours of top-notch work, fully rewarded by... keeping my job. But then my luck could have been worse: I could be hearing about my team closing down through gossip from friends. Something I unwittingly unleashed on an acquaintance at a large Euro bank. Oops.
(Dear friend, if by some stroke of terrible luck you are reading this entry, I am so truly sorry and I owe several drinks.)
I am not entirely sure how much longer my too-short stint in the periphery of high finance will last. I would like to think I will find my feet somewhere interesting, ride it out a couple of years, and then see where God decides I can create the least amount of havoc. In the meantime, I WILL try to continue to blog about stuff I find amusing about my little slice of geek heaven (or what's left of it). Who knows, maybe this Obama guy might actually be onto something :)
My Quote of the Week:
"Global Language Monitor, which follows linguistic issues, reports that in the final debate, Mr. Obama spoke at a ninth-grade reading level, while John McCain spoke at a seventh-grade level."
Not sure which is scarier: the fact that Obama thought it necessary to talk down to 9th grade level, or that by talking down to 7th grade level, McCain managed to win 46% of the popular vote.
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