Top Ten 2010

Hi Everyone:

Sorry to be late, my little cold turned into a fever and I was down for about 3 days, feeling much better today - my body's way of telling me that 2010 was too much fun!  Happy New Year - I appreciate all the updates, Holiday cards (both print and electronic) and best wishes that we have received - it makes this a fun time of the year!

Top Ten List 2010

Hi Everyone:  Once again, my annual New Year's tradition of writing the Top Ten list for the year just ended.  It's a great way to reflect on the year(s) past and thank everyone for the many blessings that have come my way.  My best wishes for a great, healthy and fruitful 2011 to all!

10.  Weddings - Last year's engagements turned into this year's weddings First up was Ankur and Devi's wedding.  Devi is from Southern India and in that part of India weddings are not as boisterous or colorful as your imagination of an Indian wedding.  Undaunted, our side of the family made enough noise for both and we welcomed Devi into the family with a bash for the ages!  Later in the year we celebrated Babi and Bhavi's wedding.  I reverted back to my old wedding videographer days and used my new iPhone 4 (sob!) to shoot footage.  Fortunately the footage survived and probably sometime in March I should have the finished product (see Apple Technology below).

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9.  Reunion Yale '90 (and beyond!) - I had the chance to go back 20 years (gulp) and catch up with many college friends.  Too many people to mention (in general my observation is that we are fulfilling many of the roles that we put for ourselves in our college essays  - from curing cancer, playing key roles in journalism and culture, leadership roles in (helicopter) business, winning political positions (Chevy Chase, MD), being appointed for top legal positions, kicking ass on the Daily Show, etc, etc, etc... and most importantly while raising the next generation of superstars) and too short a time - like any great event the reunion weekend left you wanting more.  It was also good to catch up with Mike and Sue at the Guggenheim in NYC.  We also spent time with Ed, Cheryl, Rory and Alec along the CA coast later in the summer.

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We continued onwards to Smith (just cause it happened to be on the way and to show Yu-Fen where Brian and Liz got married), and then also to New Hampshire where I showed her Dartmouth.  This was my first time back there and I was very impressed by the upgrades to the facilities! Yu-Fen was more impressed by Queechee Gorge and the covered bridges.  It was great to visit the campuses where I spent most of my post-public education life.

8.  Apple Technology - My love affair with Apple technology continues to grow.  This year I bought a MiniMac which came with iMovie 11.  This allowed me to get back into one of my passions - which is film making.  I have often said that films are the art form of our generation and with the continued technical advances, that even a neophyte like me can make movies speaks to the ease and simplicity of the technology.  I made a film which was intended as a gift - The Labors of Arshad and Sabah, into an epic comic-romance-drama that highlights the struggle of a couple's saga to emigrate to the US in the face of the tyranny of Homeland Security. As you can tell from my haughty description of it, I went overboard and what started as a gift to the couple ended up being a 45 minute spoof - you can see the trailer that I (or rather iMovie) made here: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuKv_wyvwvA [cid:3377441008_11179390]  <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuKv_wyvwvA>

Unfortunately my love affair with Apple like most romances had its share of tragedy this past year... as my iPhone 4 was stolen ...from my hand ...on a bus - very traumatic.

I'll wait for the iPhone 5 as YuFen has rightly pointed out that I have spent my Apple budget for the year - (sob!)

7.  Investments/Business - This one will bore most people so you can skip to the next one now.  The strategy I put in place last year paid off rather handsomely as our portfolio recovered.  The allocation into MLPs paid off as the risk of credit totally freezing thawed and as a result assets yielding 10 to 12% rose in value to their historic yield closer to 6% (which meant prices almost doubled).  Along the way I've used Google to create some pretty good analytical tools that enable me to keep a close eye on all the MLPs - which means nothing when everything tanks/rises - but useful for relative performance - I think?

Having this outside perspective helps me in my business - an important part of which is to make investment decisions involving real estate.  My real estate investments now yield at least 7% for investors with room to rise.  I'm planning on more real estate investments this year, please contact me for more information.

I would be remiss without thanking my property manager Preston for his help in the operational aspects of the business.

I would also be remiss without complimenting myself on learning (using Drupal, thanks Jordan) how to create and maintain a 150 page website - www.metal-tex.com <http://www.metal-tex.com/> .  Prior to this year for Yu-Fen's metal fabric import business we were hiring cheap Indian web developers who we had to nag to death if we wanted to make changes/revisions. Now instead of hiring a cheap Indian who needs to be nagged halfway around the world - Yu-Fen has one living with her.  (that didn't come out right :))

6.  Carnegie - Although many of you may doubt that this ever happened I took Carnegie's Effective Communications and Human Relations class at the end of last year and followed that up by being a mentor to the next class.  It was a great experience and one that reminded me to "Don't criticize, condemn or complain" and to practice my public speaking skills.  Most of all seeing Stacy Linder, our instructor, lead by example was inspiringly illustrative of the principles in action.

5.  Trip to Los Angeles - Throughout my time in California, I have tried to make it down to LA once a year.  This year there were a few important milestones that provided the occasion for the road trip down.  Mark (who has been in Iraq for the past two years) did an amazing job surprising Keitha and we celebrated their engagement with Keitha's parents and a host of their friends from across the continent.  Congrats Mark and Keitha!  We stayed with Capri, Dave and Andrea who we were happy to see recovered quite well from her breast cancer treatment - continued great health and don't over-do it!   Finally, we made it down to the Huntington beach where we saw a few of Yu-Fen's friends including Ruth and new boyfriend Nick.

4.  Annual Christmas Ski Trip  In what is a huge ski year we continued the tradition of spending Christmas at Tahoe.  The massive early snow storms provided great skiing conditions, I totally flew down Northstar's Backside and Lookout runs.  The guys (Arshad and Jaleel) thank our wives for three awesome meals and allowing us to ski!  An added bonus was skiing one day with Michael and Anne-Renee!

3. Giants and World Series Game 5! - This one came so out of left field that it was miraculous.  What started as the traditional Yankees march to the World Series :) ended up with me totally coloring myself black and orange.  It was a blast watching half the games with Kristina at various sports bars, including one where I offered to buy Jonathan Sanchez a beer.  It culminated with Ed emailing me on Friday saying that if I could get to Texas on Monday he had an extra ticket for me.  With as much time as a Tim Lincecum fastball crossing homeplate, I clinched a plane ticket.  I flew down to Arlington on Monday and arrived in time to see Lincecum with the Giants winning it (in a luxury box) a few standard deviations past their statistically expected year!  An amazing month of baseball - thanks Kristina and Ed!!!

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2.  It's a Girl!  Coming Soon - May 2011!!!  She timed it perfectly to be included in this year's list!

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1.        As always all the people in my life who make life worth living!  We can't wait for the many changes 2011 will bring and look forward to sharing these experiences!