10/05/2011: Lunch talk with Aaron @ Ajisen. This place always reminds me of Ajishin in Novi, MI, but it's not as awesome.
Among many of our conversation topics discussed today was investments: from day trading, to being an active trader versus passive, how much risk one should take, and if diversification is really an optimal plan. Almost every book on investments out there sides towards keeping a well diversified portfolio and they have statistics to back up that it usually beats active trading- as the saying goes, “boring wins.” But after heavily arguing my point for some time, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Steve Job’s mantra to “think different” and especially to not “live the results of other people’s thinking.” I still feel that diversification is the best way to invest, and I know I’ll do well being rooted in this strategy. But I was reminded that while it’s important to keep what I read & study as firm foundations, I should be open to other ideas and avoid tunnel vision. In short, I’m often baffled by Aaron’s subjective opinions and probabilities because they usually have absolutely no basis… but I still appreciate his ability to think different… often very different.
I’m sure I had my camera with me, but I was probably too embarrassed to start taking pictures of food in front of her parents. Regardless, we enjoyed awesome galbi & galbi jjim, and afterwards headed over for a tour of their condo nearby. After hanging out there for a short time, Esther, her friend Jason, and I headed out to Gaam (two days in a row for me!), and then to Orange to meet up with the rest of the group. Again, no pictures, bummer.
Aaron, Chris and I decided to catch dinner together while Aaron is still in town. Aaron initially suggested a tapas place in Belden Lane, but we switched it up to a French seafood restaurant called 
I continued my birthday celebration over the weekend with golf at Stonetree GC in Novato, CA Saturday morning. I was a little nervous due to the way I was hitting balls at the range on Thursday, but was secretly hoping I had taken the rust off a bit and would hit better on Saturday. Nope. I played the entire course like I was hitting at the range… note to self, go to the range more. It was a beautiful course on a beautiful day nevertheless (with the exception of the cold front that crept up on us in the final two holes), and a day spent golfing is a day spent well. Thanks Chris for golf! And beer! And the hot dogs!
Back at home we prepared for the birthday house party. Guests quickly trickled in and I went from sober to… not so sober a little too fast. Let’s not drink so fast from now on, yah? Thanks to all who made it to the party, hopefully I gave you some alcohol and didn’t drink everything by myself!
After defeating death Sunday morning and afternoon, it was birthday dinner time at Local Kitchen! It was the perfect venue, primarily because some of us were starving to death and it was all-you-can-eat pizza night! Thanks everybody for a delicious dinner!
It all started with a short email from Aaron in December saying he wanted to set up a reunion in LA. That reunion has come and gone. Since alcohol killed most or our brain cells this weekend (the little we had left… and I’m sure it killed a lot more than just our brain cells), the blog will need to be pieced together by pictures.
Will and I drove down to LA on Wednesday night after work through the Pacheco Pass. I usually prefer the Bay Bridge way because I don’t want to deal with going through the local streets at Gilroy, but it wasn’t as bad as I remembered. The ride was 100x better when not done solo. We got in close to midnight on Wednesday so we kept it fairly chill and stayed in. (Picture: Aaron decided to jump in the shower just about the time we would arrive… so I cleaned my car while we waited)
I went home on Thursday for a quick lunch with the parents + aunt, and then they ditched me so I went back up to Aaron’s for dinner. On my way I picked up PB from the airport who got in earlier to avoid the massive snow storm in the east coast. We were supposed to eat dinner together, but freaking Aaron and Will were full from a power shake (or whatever it’s called) a couple hours earlier; at least now we know it works. We tried a few places, but it was relatively late and everything was closed, so headed to 
Soon Isaac called from LAX and Aaron left to pick him up after dropping us off at 
The great thing about LA, which is the biggest reason I moved to the west coast as opposed to NY, is all the open grass and the abundant choice of sports! We woke up and first headed out to 
We were a bit afraid that golf would be rained out, but it turned out to be a great day with the exception of about 5 minutes of rain. This is usually a very crowded and time consuming course, but the rain kept most people away and we were able to get through almost all 18 holes. We even got a good look at a perfect rainbow (TWO actually, one on top of another). All my practice lately after work really paid off because I played the best 15 holes of my life. Team Aaron + ME beat team Chris + PB, so they bought us dinner at the Korean/Chinese restaurant 
After dinner, we spent the last night at 
