「犬日記」iPad購入

ケイがあの話題になっているiPadを
三週間前に…購入できた！

It's been three weeks now since...
kei bought his iPad!

me with iPad

あのiPadが犬にも使いやすいんだ！
これでネットもfacebookもできるんだワン

I had no idea how canine-friendly it is!
I too can now surf the Internet and check my facebook on the go!

楽しい……
yipeeee.....

「ケイ日記」Voliatility in Crude

Title: Volatility in Crude
by: kei

From: Economic Times (Reuters), on how India's decision to cut oil subsidies could bring economic stability to the world economy.

Volatility in Crude - how subsidies brought the world down!

Market analysts remain fiercely divided about what caused the doubling of crude oil prices between Q1 2007 (when they averaged $58 per barrel) and Q2 2008 ($124). But three factors were crucially important:

Extensive price controls and subsidies on refined product prices across most of Asia and the Middle East ensured households and firms were insulated from the rise in oil prices. Price controls broke the “invisible hand” and meant regional consumers faced no real pressure to reduce consumption or switch to alternative fuels despite the doubling in crude costs.

The entire burden of adjustment therefore fell on households and firms in the advanced industrial economies. Prices had to surge high enough to force deep cuts in the western world’s oil consumption to offset supply shortages and unrestrained demand growth in emerging markets.

Oil producers were unwilling or unable to materially increase supply in response to soaring prices. In the short term, supply is fairly fixed.

Those producers holding spare capacity (mostly Saudi Arabia) either had the wrong sort of crude (heavy, sour) or doubted that adding additional barrels to the market would make much difference, given inventories already appeared to be at reasonable levels and there was no sign of physical shortages.

Hedge funds and other “managed money” participants built up a (then record) net long position in oil futures and options on the assumption that although prices were already high, they would need to rise even further to “choke off” demand and balance the market.

In particular, many investors seem to have concluded that neither emerging market demand nor crude supply would be very responsive to prices unless they spiked to exceptionally high levels.

The interval between mid-May and early July 2008, when prices started peaking, saw two significant developments which probably convinced many participants the market was turning: China announced huge increases in state-controlled gasoline and diesel prices to take effect from June 20, and Saudi Arabia said at the Jeddah summit in June it would increase output to 9.7 million barrels per day.

By the start of September — well before the collapse of Lehman Brothers brought on a liquidity crisis — crude prices had already fallen almost a third to around $100 per barrel.  

「ケイ日記」韓国行ってきます

Title: Korea on Business
by: kei

とにかく出張が多い仕事は昔から憧れていました。
「夢」まで言えるほどだったかもしれない
I always wanted to work at a job where I could travel a lot.
I suppose you could even say that it was my "dream" ...

それで、「夢が叶った」とも言えるほど幸せな生活の中、
夢って憧れ過ぎていいことしか見えない、中途半端な想像に近い・・・
と思ってしまうときは無いとは言えない！
... and now that dream has been realised, in a manner of speaking, in that I travel a lot - however I've also realised that dreams are merely, incomplete, biased constructs in our mind where we only see how good it would be and never once think about what would not be good.

昔は決して口にもしなかった一言だったのに・・・
出張ばかりで、さすがに疲れていますから、
「疲れた〜」って無意識でいってしまう様になっちゃいました。
Not so long ago, I had the energy to keep going and going, but now find myself often complaining about how tired I am; and rightly so, because I do travel quite a lot and it takes a toll on you.

出張で日本中を廻りながら、
四季の流れで変わってゆく日本を観てきた。
Travelling for work, I have been all over Japan and seen more of it in less than two years than most people do living here a lifetime! I have seen Japan in all its glory through all four seasons and it has been great.

出張でラスベガスまで飛んで、
あの有名のべガスストリップの賑やかな夜景を楽しんできた。
Travelling for work, I got to go to Las Vegas, and enjoy the famous lights of the strip.

出張でいっぱいANA・JCBカードを使用し、
毎月１万マイルを貯めるようになった。
Travelling for work, I have become very good at collecting miles one way or another, so much so that I am now collecting 10,000+ miles every month.

そして、

出張で今度は初めて、
ずっと前から気になっていた韓国へ行くことになりました。
Travelling for work, I will now be making a short trip to South Korea, another country I can strike off my list of "countries I want to visit".

ブルゴギー、ビビンバプ、キムチ、チジミ、アニョハッセーヨ
の韓国語の５つの言葉しかしゃべれない僕には、
とにかくお腹が空かなさそうな出張になりそうですね☆
And since my Korean language skills are limited to 5 words: Bulgogi (grilled meat), Bibimbap (Korean rice bowl), Kimchi (Korean pickles), Chijimi (Korean omelette) and Anyohaseyo (Hello), if anything, I feel I will not go hungry during this trip - which is a good thing because I love Korean food :)


・・・


では、韓国へ行ってきます！
See you when I get back!