Whiskey and Cigar Aint For You, Babe

Being an only child, I grew up with myself, also 1)  a whole bunch of male cousins; 2) my grandparents. Buzz words: male; old.

I wonder whether this makes me more inclined to hang out with older dudes? This may sound SUPER sketchy, but being able to converse on big stuff, like economics, philosophy, and world, cynically, getting enlightened, over whiskey (gin and tonic for me) and cigar is just brilliant. I am not interested in sports, hopefully their testosterone level has gone down enough that they don’t care either, or they have just been so awesomely nerdy that they have never cared in their life. Young boys (which may actually be better) and older women and young women who possess whose unworldly qualities would DEFINITELY do too. Basically I just want some platonic and deep discussion with people that I look up to. Plato and Socrates would pat me on my back for having this aspiration.

It is really a product of social psychology, unfortunately. Stereotypes. Basically when I think of why I naturally buy this stupid stereotyping, I feel very unPC. Maybe our minds are still stuck in the down of women liberation, where women are still trying to break free, yet all higher space is dominated by male. Mentors are always male, and then we have protoges and protogees. You would think naturally when protogees grew up we would have mentress. Nope. What’s a mentress anyways? We are still living in an age where it is much easier for a woman to win a sexual harassment allegation against male boss than the other way around.

People, sexual harassment aint rape. We can talk about all the technicalities in a rape case and whether it’s possible for a man to get raped, but sexual harassment cases are different. We have an even playfield here. Well, only if women in power are sexy….

That will be my over-exposing-over-the-internet intro for today’s topic. Well, I don’t have much to say anymore….oh well.

So this interesting article showed on in my Corporette feeds today caught my eye. It is called Maybe It’s Not Just Dinner. It starts off by saying “It all boils down to sex”.

Oh how wonderful,buzz word, sex.Then the article goes on to make the following points (all references are in business context, such as “men” = “men in business”; and as usual, I exaggerate a lot; you are a fool if you think I am all serious)

1. Men are very uptight these days. Try ask your male boss out for coffee and talk? Look into the mirror, don’t even think it’s possible unless you are, excuse my words, butt ugly. Easy to be misunderstood if you are at least decent looking. We are young, and we are cute.
2. Men have some good reasons to be uptight, such as a) things happen; b) repercussions can be bad.
3. Sex/money-power trade is still happening. Look left, look right, your male boss may slept with some subordinate, and your female boss may have been slept with (pardon my sexist language, we both benefit actually) to get where she is now.

I think we need to grow up, as a biological species. We like our romantic partners because 1) they are hot; 2) we like their personalities. And this is definitely over-simplifying things. Ideally your romantic partner is the optimized combination of all qualities you dig. So this colleague of opposite-gender, yah you are attracted to him/her, because he/she possesses some but not all qualities (including meeting at the right time) that you desire. so you dig them, but not as much.

I hope this is not difficult to understand. Emotions have layers, human relationships have layers. Acknowledge it, admit it. Of course, ideally humans would have standards too, but…ok this issue has layers. Basically, we would think it would be OK to just like someone as a friend/colleague, etc, right? In her previous post, It’s Just Dinner, Really, Chen clearly thought so. Forget about the shenanigans in Mad Men. That was 1965. But of course, who am i kidding. Not all souls are love-seeking souls. That’s why things do happen. Dirty nasty natural things. With layers of course.

Now everyone becomes suspects. But com’on, aren’t we all suspects in the world of love?  😛

Maybe the way to level the play field is: promote gay rights. Then we make more relationships suspicious. Then gossipers get tired.

But basically my idea of intellectual whiskey hours can be tossed out now.

I Think Dating/Mating Is All About Timing Is the Most Commonly Bought Lie

I mean, seriously.

But maybe it’s meant to be like this. As it only contradicts the Hollywood idea, which may be false.

So? Conclusion-less.  Sometimes I wish I were a pompous ass.

*shrugs

I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Written About Cats

Well, more like, Haddie, my roommates’ asshole cat. But I love him so much, mostly unrequited.

More to come.

 

 

Tax Love: 14 Ways a Tax Lawyer Says “I Love You”

[This post is inspired by the link I previously shared on this blog. I am not attempting to outsmart economists, but it might conjure some dry laughter. Happy Valentine’s Day ]

Yes yes, I know, we’ve all been there: the frowning face of your significant other over the dullness of your personality and the dryness of your attempted humor; the shame/embarrassment he/she subconsciously shows when introducing you to his/her circle; and the worst kind: the every-now-and-then accidental omission of the word “tax” before the word “lawyer”.

This is life. Our life.

The natural or unnatural sensitivity of ours over numbers may have been nagging you, and you have no idea. You look up from piles of returns and codes and look around, finally have eyes lie on the calendar: oh dear, it is 02/14/2012.

It is not too late to rush to Tiffany’s and buy a pair of ear studs. But you are currently unemployed and only working as a tax preparer. Creativity or craftsmanship is not your strong forte (duh). Well, actually we can’t help either, in any substantial way at least.

But we are still lawyers. We can talk, somewhat. Here is some pillow talk for you. Hopefully it will defrost the frowning face. Some of them may be lame.

And thank you, RG and MP. May the respective relationships of yours are ever-existing like IRS, and be the third thing you can’t escape besides death and taxation.

Here we go.

14 Ways a Tax Lawyer Say “I Love You”.

1. I will never complain about taxes if IRS is owned by you.

2. Your existence in my life makes me think I am subject to the Buffet tax.

3. We shouldn’t file joint returns, because with you I only realize gains.

4. Our love will never depreciate, because it is a real asset to my life.

5. You checked my box on our LLC.

6. All the gain you bring to my life is capital — nothing ordinary about you.

7. I’ve just enacted a treaty between Me and You and I’m gonna withhold nothing.

8. When we’re accruing interest on our bond, you make me want to report everything!

9. I can’t determine your transfer price: there ain’t no internal comparables, there ain’t no external comparables… hell, there ain’t even anything functionally similar!

10. I will always be there as the counterparty in a swap for you, taking on variable, short, long … whatever position you want..

11. My love never comes in contingent periodic payments… there is nothing contingent.

12. You can merge with me anytime, because I’ll always have a continuing interest in you.

13. You showed up on my balance sheet and erased all my previous NOL in life.

14. You’ll need to report me to the IRS now, because there’s no risk of losing me.

Cute Nerdy Link: 14 Ways an Economist Says I Love You

Cute Nerdy Link: 14 Ways an Economist Says I Love You

Saw this at a friend’s gchat away msg. Due to various reasons, I can’t share there. But this is clever.

I am drafting the tax lawyer edition and have sent out idea soliciting email. Too bad I am not great with graphs. Lawyers do not do graphs anyways. Maybe a spreadsheet.