I think Shiro's pregnant. Shiro and Kuro didn't mate on Thursday, like they were supposed to if Shira had been ovulating. Also they've been hoarding a ton of food, even though I always give them plenty to eat. Hero Material is absolutely thrilled that we're going to have baby hamsters. My feelings are a bit mixed. It was a bit weird to work on my sex demon romance synopsis on Sunday while Shiro and Kuro were…er…doing it. But the idea of babies…!

I need to do some research on how to take care of pregnant hamsters.

Last night, I was stunned to read that Citi is looking to sell off its assets and/or entire operation. I remember how flush and confident Citi bankers were when I was interviewing for my first job out of college. (I was applying to be an investment banker, but I ended up as a management consultant instead.)

Interestingly enough Ford and GM are selling and/or getting rid of some of their corporate jets after the House hearing. I guess Ford and GM felt very bad after the harsh words re: their extravagances despite their “liquidity” problems. Business Week had a more balanced view on this. I have to agree with some of the points made in there. Commercial airlines really suck, in terms of service and reliability. You can never know if your flight's leaving on time or not. The worst are the U.S.-based airlines. Per Japanese businessmen I know, Northwest first class is worse than ANA coach. (I have no idea since I've never used Northwest.)

BTW — Hero Material and I tried to watch Revolver. Tried because t was the most horrible movie ever. We just gave up. The protagonist's motivation was very weird, actions bad (meaning they made me yawn with boredom), plot nonexistent, and too many stupid people doing random things. Yawn.

Finally — Lovely Debora gave me a “I Love Your Blog” award. Thanks, DD! :)

Now…I pass it along to: PBWriter and Plot Monkeys. It's sad, but that's all I have because the rest is all industry and/or finance-related blogs.

You Are 55% Pirate

Garrrr, yer a true pirate down to yer bones.
Yer an originial sea dog, an' ye certainly have earned yer sea legs.
No one be goin' to accuse ye o' bein' a landlubber.
Ye got yer eye on the prize, an' yer willin' to go pillagin' fer some booty.

Would You Make a Good Pirate?

Business Week recently published an interesting article titled “Obama's Victory: A Consumer-Citizen Revolt”:

This column is dedicated to the top managers of American business whose policies and practices helped ensure Barack Obama's victory. The mandate for change that sounded across this country is not limited to our new President and Congress. That bell also tolls for you. Obama's triumph was ignited in part by your failure to understand and respect your own consumers, customers, employees, and end users. The despair that fueled America's yearning for change and hope grew to maturity in your garden.

Millions of Americans heard President-elect Obama painfully recall his sense of frustration, powerlessness, and outrage when his mother's health insurer refused to cover her cancer treatments. Worse still, every one of them knew exactly how he felt. That long-simmering indignation is by now the defining experience of every consumer of health care, mortgages, insurance, travel, and financial services—the list goes on.

Obama was elected not only because many Americans feel betrayed and abandoned by their government but because those feelings finally converged with their sense of betrayal at the hands of Corporate America. Their experiences as consumers and as citizens joined to create a wave of revolt against the status quo—as occurred in the American Revolution. Be wary of those who counsel business as usual. This post-election period is a turning point for the business community. It demands an attitude of sober reappraisal and a disposition toward fundamental reinvention. If you don't do it, someone else will.

I found the article very interesting, although I'm not sure which came first. Is it the consumer need for cheap stuff or the corporate need (driven largely by investors) for profit? I think they feed off each other. In order to provide consumers with cheap stuff (which are now more disposable than ever before) made companies cut cost ruthlessly in order to make as much profit as possible. And as companies cut cost by laying off people and reducing wages, people's need for cheap stuff became stronger.

Speaking for myself, I don't expect companies to provide any help in case their products break before the warranty expires. So I buy from either:

1. companies well-known for manufacturing reliable products, or
2. companies with the cheapest products

The former is usually reserved for big ticket items like laptops, cars, TV, etc. The latter is reserved for little things like ballpoint pens, kitchen timers and notebooks or things that I can live without.

BTW — I do expect and demand that big Japanese retailers do better than their American counterpart. For example, I buy a lot of electronics from a big regional chain store. Its service staff always provide great assistance when products they sold break down and facilitate the warranty process between their customers and manufacturers. Not to mention, its sales people know everything about the products they sell and are happy to spend however much time necessary to help you make the best purchase possible, even if you leave the store without buying anything. I don't have to waste my time surfing the net for information because somebody there will give me the answer I need to make a decision within a second. The store is not the cheapest in the city, but it earned my loyalty, and I absolutely adore shopping there.

Finally, something to make you laugh — The Matrix Runs on Windows:

Happy Veteran's Day! No matter how you feel about the current war, please do thank them. They've served our nation with their lives so we can enjoy our freedom.

On the writing front — I've given up on NaNo. It's not that I hate it or anything…well…maybe. But ultimately it just wasn't working for me. The current project requires a bit more thought from me, esp. because I'm dealing with a brand new world and characters. Besides, I can't write the middle section unless I'm fairly satisfied that the opening's more or less on the right track. Why? Because I don't want to throw away the entire manuscript and start over. So currently I'm trying to get down about 1,000 to 1,500 words a day, five days a week. I'm not aiming for a super clean first draft, but I want to be able to keep a big chunk of the storyline and so on. Already I cut about 1k from the opening I wrote during my NaNo attempt because it was just…bad. So I've started a new progress table (see below):

Moving on to general life matters — DD asked me about my dwarf hamsters. Shiro and Kuro are doing great. Hero Material and I spent over $100 on new cage expansions and toys for them on Sunday. They have tubes to nowhere, two wheels, a heated nest, a wooden arched bridge, a new feed box, a sand bath, a litter box, hanging wood blocks they can chew on, etc. They're so happy in their little heated nest unit because it keeps them very warm, esp. in winter. Japanese apartments don't have central heating, so it can be fairly cold at night. (May is convinced I'm going to be one of those hovering mothers who's going to spoil my children rotten.)

Some pictures —

Hamster ball:

A brand new water dispenser:

A newly decorated old cage (contains: a heated nest, a water dispenser, a toilet paper core, a sand bath, a litter box):

An expansion cage / secondary unit (contains: two wheels, a water dispenser, a wooden arched bridge, a new feed box, hanging wood blocks, an L-tube):

Two wheels (one new, one old):

Tubes to nowhere (they connect the cages actually):

A bonus pic — Kuro in her brand new litter box!

Speaking of Kuro — as much as I find Shiro and Kuro adorable, I have a small…err…issue. The problem is that I cook, and sometimes even after a vigorous washing with soap, my hands smell a lil like food, so Kuro — she's the glutton of the two — nips or just outright bites my fingers. But she climbed onto my hands last night and sat there for a bit. So for that, I'll forgive her for trying to eat me. I even wrote a haiku dedicated to my hamsters' uber-cuteness:

The haiku critiquer told me that maybe I should expand my imagination since mine only described something as it was. Maybe next time I'll write about the man-eating Kuro.

BTW — The Big Three begging for $50 billion from the U.S. government made the headlines in Japan. Japanese people are astounded that the Big Three want to use $25 billion out of the amount requested on health care.

I'm usually against bailouts in general, and I'm not sure if throwing money at them is going to solve the real reason why they're so cash-strapped: they are losing market share, and their operation is extremely inefficient.

The Big Three seem to believe it's fashionable to blame the subprime crisis / credit crunch for their cash problems, but even when the economy was doing great, the Big Three weren't raking in dough the way Toyota, Honda and Nissan did. Since Ford has just decided to ramp up its gas-guzzling F-series truck production (hey, the gas price fell!), I'm not convinced that the Big Three will use any of the money to build more fuel-efficient environment-friendly cars. Also I don't think the Big Three will be able to survive even after the $50 billion bailout. Why? Because they can't force people to abandon their Japanese and German cars and buy the Big Three cars. Legislating people to buy American cars would be the least American thing to do, and unless the Big Three can make stylish, fuel-efficient and reliable cars that American public wants to buy, they will continue to burn cash at an exponential rate and ultimately fail. There's a reason why Deutsche Bank downgraded GM target price to $0.00 / share yesterday.

Finally, I'll leave you with a haiku I wrote a couple of weeks ago in my Japanese class. The topic was seasonal joys.

Your Personality is Somewhat Rare (ISTP)

Your personality type is reserved, methodical, spirited, and intense.

Only about 6% of all people have your personality, including 3% of all women and 8% of all men.

You are Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

First, everyone go congratulate Monica on her big sale to Berkley! She's an incredibly generous and talented writer, and I'm absolutely thrilled for her.

Second, I finally figured out a difficult point in my story. That's always very satisfying. Also the hero's talking to me more than before, although he's still very reluctant to open up. And this means I should be able to start NaNo on time and hopefully write a good draft.