Alan the Prophetic

Well well, isn't this a surprise. Seems like I've taken a 14 month hiatus from my blog, only to return in 2009. As it may be difficult for me to discuss everything that has crossed my mind in the past 500+ days, I guess it would be best if I just start over as if I had never stopped...

Now you may be wondering why I am coming back to blogging, or why I stopped in the first place. Well, obviously having a girlfriend contributes a lot. Now instead of talking to myself I can talk to her. However, it is difficult for me to truly speak what is on my mind. I am much better (and more comfortable) writing about what is on my mind, and I know now that this will always be the case.

Also, since my girlfriend has been away for the past 2 weeks, I have a lot more free time on my hands (not meant in a derogatory way, of course). I just so happened to stumble upon my blog and read some of the old entries and it brought a nostalgic feeling back. I remember the late night/early morning blog writing, listening to jazz or some sort of hip hop, and just speaking my mind.

And so here I am, listening to will.i.am at 1 in the morning (late by my standards now), restarting my blog all over again.

I wrote some pretty deep entries back in the day. Some of them dealt with how my future would turn out. Some were sort of "inspirational" messages I would write to myself to keep me motivated. Others were about some of the hardships I went through and how I managed to get through them. Interestingly enough, a lot of them apply to me today. Here are some examples:

I'll start with this one:

Saturday, December 31, 2005

I'm going to stop relying so much on blogs to get my point across.

20 years now I've let my emotions build up inside me. Me? I'm too nice of a guy to tell someone to their face how I feel. So I write everything down, a way of venting I suppose. I don't think that it's good for me to bottle up like that, so from now on, I'm just going to tell people right then how I feel. Whether they are my friend or not, and if I so happen to lose a friend, so be it. The forgotten mind will no longer be forgotten.

Believe it or not, I did stop relying on my blog to get my point across.


Now going in chronological order:

Monday, August 01, 2005

Anyways this post is meant to be a reality check. For all of those who have been living in this dream world for the (insert floating point # here) (insert unit of time here) and now have hit a low point which you haven't experienced in quite some time. Welcome to life. Life isn't meant to be perfect. Sure there are high points, but those high points are only rewards for getting through the hard times in life, and going from the high life to rock bottom is the most difficult part in life. However, one can only get stronger by sucking up and dealing with it. I feel that this is the difference between successful people and deadbeats. Successful people can deal with hardships and deadbeats just keep on whining about how much their life sucks and don't do anything about it. And when I say successful I don't mean financially wise, I mean happiness wise.


This is especially true with the way the economy is now. I have had friends and colleagues who have lost their jobs and are just moping around wondering "Why me?" If the economy has directly affected you (as I'm sure it has), I hope this message helps you get to where you want to be.

Monday, September 26, 2005

It's 7:59am. You can feel the sweat crystallizing on your forehead as you await the sound of the bell. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people just like you are packed onto the Floor. They are nervous as well, news of the yet another hurricane impacting Florida have caused a panic in the orange juice industry, causing many people to sell sell sell. The game is simple, make more money than the person next to you. You've both learned the same thing in college, you've both been in the business long enough to know all the tricks in the book. It comes down to strategizing and dedication. Are you willing to get up an extra hour early to read the journal and stay on top of the news? Are you willing to take the risks that nobody will take? That's the difference in this game.

8am. The opening bell of the market is like the bell to start the 1st round of a tyson vs. holyfield match. People are pushing and shoving for position, sweat is flying everywhere and landing on your freshly dry-cleaned versace suit. As people are selling their orange juice investments, the price of orange juice drops dramatically. You think to yourself, "Man, what an opportunity to buy." You remember reading an article you found on the Internet at 3 in the morning last night about the demand for Brazilian orange juice. Amidst the chaos and hysteria, you calmly pull out your smart phone and make a few calls to a couple of contacts in Brazil. You've put a quarter million dollars into an industry that was supposed to be going down for a while. The guy next to you overhears part of your conversation, he calls you crazy, says you are nothing but a rich amateur trying to be a hotshot. You just smirk at him and walk away. Later that day, news hits that Brazil is importing 50% more orange juice to the United States. Another frenzy. Players pushing and shoving to get a piece of the pie. But not you, you sit in the corner with a big grin as you watch the ticker report that orange juice has gone up 25%. At 3:45pm, 15 minutes before the closing bell, you sell your investment at 35% more than what you put in. By the end of the day, you walk away $87,500 richer. The guy next to you loses money today by selling oj at a low price then buying at a higher price. You smile at him as you both walk out the door at the same time. You know you belong here. This is why you quit your other job as the computer nerd at a big bank. Because you live for the pressure, you live for the excitement, you live for the glory of looking at the guy next to you and knowing you are better than him.


A terrible attempt at a short story in which I envision myself as a trader on the NYSE instead of programming. Interesting points here, I wrote this when I thought I was sick and tired of Comp Sci and thought that being good at trading stocks meant you had to read a bunch of websites and buy equities. I was wrong on two things:

a) I could never give up on Comp Sci because it is what I am meant to do, and it is what I am good at and enjoy doing and

b) Making tons of money by day trading is not as easy as reading articles and buying stock. Boy, do I know that now. I'll spare you the details.

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Life is not static. Things will not always be the way you plan it to be. How do you get ahead then? It's like in basketball. A team will run a play once or twice and it will work. The third time, the defense is waiting. They know what you are going to do. What are YOU going to do? How are YOU going to reach your goal? Are you just going to do what you did before? Of course not. That's disaster. The defense will steal the ball from you! So what do you do? You improvise. You adapt. Look at your surroundings, your environment and you make the best possible decision at that time. So next time life gives you lemons, try not making lemonade with it, try squirting the lemon juice in the eyes of the person that gave it to you. (WHAT??? I SHOULD STOP WRITING)

Open up your eyes.

Things happen for a reason. Even the bad things. They are there to test and broaden your boundaries. If everybody had a life without misfortune, we'd be carefree and comfortable, yet life would be kind of boring wouldn't you think? Our failures and the rough patches in our lives will make us grow stronger. There is no point in dwelling from our mistakes because we cannot change what happened. What we should do is not to look back with regret but to look back and learn from what we did wrong because it is failure that teaches us success.


Once again, back to the economy. Just remember that things happen for a reason, and that we cannot celebrate our greatest triumphs until we overcome our biggest downfalls.

Monday, November 27, 2006

Now, you are asking yourself, "Why is Alan telling me all this? I don't want to know about his daily life!" Well, I tell you this because as I was hanging out with all my friends this past weekend, I came to a revelation. I should have seen this coming earlier, but it is only starting to hit me now. I am about to transfer to another phase in my life, I'm about to graduate college and go to the real world and work. I won't have that comfort of being surrounded by the usual friends anymore. It was the same way in high school. The people you are used to seeing on a daily basis, your friends that you hung out with every weekend (or more often), and all of a sudden, we go our seperate ways. We each have our own agendas, and they may or may not include the people we are so comfortable with. So what happens next? I'll graduate, the people I'm so used to seeing in college will also graduate and we'll go our own ways. We may or may not stay in touch, but even if we do, will it be the same? I mean, besides the people I see here at UD, who else do I hang out with from Charter who didn't go to UD? Tiffany and Sammy, that's it. Which UD graduates do I hang out with? Emily, Sandy, and Dan? That's like...2% of the people I know. And I only hang out with them every 3-4 months. It sucks knowing that after I graduate in 6 months, I won't be talking to 95% of the people I talk to now.


Sad, but true. (Can you tell I am getting tired?)

Sunday, December 10, 2006

I need to get out of Delaware. Bad. I need a change of scenery. I need to find a girl, hahaha. Sucks that
I didn't have time this semester to deal with relationships, but maybe in 2007. Or maybe I
could be like Sandy and Emily and find someone like...2 months after they graduate...hahaha!
(By the way, we're coming to visit you guys in NYC this January!) Man, speaking of which, there are a lot of people I want to visit. Sandy and Emily in NYC. Tiffany and crew in Boston. The OG Singapore crew in California. Singapore! (SINNGGGAAPOORREEE!!!) Yeah...I need cash.


Yes, also true too :)

I don't think we're in Delaware anymore Toto

So, the first couple of weeks in NYC have been a real eye-opener. There are things I have experienced in the first 2 weeks in NYC that one would not see in the great state of Delaware. Let's see...

1) On my 3rd day of work, NYC got hit with a huge storm, causing the first tornado in Brooklyn in like...110 years or something outrageous like that. It actually shut down about 90% of the subway system, and so a normal 30 minute commute to work turned into a 2.5 hour journey through NYC. First, the train station that is closest to me was completely shut down, with no trains running at all. Cool! So my roommate gives me a ride to the only line that was running through Queens that day (the 7 train). Of course, the 7 train is completely packed and the platforms were also insanely packed with people trying to get on. 4 trains pass by without a single person able to get on. After a 30 minute wait for a train, I decided to take the 7 train AWAY from Manhattan to the end of the line, hop off, and get back on the 7 train going TOWARDS Manhattan. 40 minutes later, I'm back to the same stop I was standing at, but on the train this time.
Anyways, I make it to Grand Central station (42nd St.) and was about to transfer to another train (the 6) but it turns out that the 6 line was down too. So I started walking. 16 blocks later, I'm 2 hours late for work and soaked in sweat. FUN TIMES!

2) I'm walking down Broadway in Queens with a friend of mine and from a distance we see a person in a bright pink dress. As we walk closer towards this person, we notice that it was actually a guy wearing a dress, and that he was walking down the street talking to a guy in a camouflage army uniform. As we get even closer, we notice that he has a live pigeon resting on top of his head. No joke. I thought it was a fake bird, until it started flapping its wings. The crazy thing was that NOBODY on the streets thought it was a weird thing. They acted normal, walking around like it he wasn't there. Meanwhile I'm trying to hold back my laugh and I'm looking around trying to see if anybody else saw this, but no!

3) There is this church, called "The Rock Church" that is about 2 blocks from my apt, which I think is one of the shadiest places around the apt. During the day, it seems like a normal church and everything, (I think it might be a southern baptist church with all the music and stuff, correct me if that is a wrong assumption), but at night time, there are raves and rock shows and crazy underage gangster kids smoking outside. Also during the day time, there is a crazy anti-Christian woman that sits outside the church and yells at anybody who goes in. I was walking home one day and there was a guy who just came out of the church and got in his car, and the crazy woman kept shouting at him saying "the Jesus lover was going to run [her] over". Finally, the guy replied "I'm not gonna run you over lady, but I am gonna choke you with that scarf around your neck if you don't get the fuck out of my way." That's not very Christian like...

4) I have [over]heard some of the craziest conversations on the subways and out in public. Despite having this stereotype for being hardasses, New Yorkers are actually pretty funny. My favorite conversation that I overheard went something like this:

Older brother: Yo, check out the Jetsons' hair.
Younger brother: Who are the Jetsons?
Older brother: You don't know the Jetsons? They dem' n***as from space!

Now, what's funny about this is that if you've ever watched the Jetsons, they are about as white as you can get.

Other conversations overheard

5) I was in Chinatown the other day, feeling pretty happy because I just bought a "Movado" watch for $15, when I was crossing a really busy intersection and saw 2 boys pissing right on the corner. Out in the open. Not even trying to hide the fact that they were pissing behind a fruit stand. In fact, I overheard the boys saying how he was gonna piss longer than the other one. Once again, there had to have been over 100 people who witnessed this "competition", but everybody acted like it was nothing!

So, in summary I have learned that anything considered "out of place" in Delaware actually occurs daily here in NYC and that I just something I will have to get used to....maybe. No, that's a lie. I will probably still laugh at them.

But seriously, I am loving NYC, it is definitely a different experience and something I needed to do while I'm still young. I'm exploring the city still, checking out all the places that you wouldn't see in Delaware (jazz clubs, ethnic restaurants, crazy bars/clubs, Times Square) and I've met some really cool people while getting to know other people a lot more. This is something I could get used to.

A Farewell to What I've Known

Hi. This will probably be the last blog post before I go through major changes in my life. It's kind of crazy, really. I think it finally hit me that I am not a college student anymore. I spent a lot of time on Main St. this summer; hanging out at all the "old" places I would be when I went to school like Shaggy's, Kate's, Grotto's, and it just didn't feel the same. Maybe it was because it was summer time and the bars were empty, but for some reason it didn't feel right.

I've been at home mostly for the past week and a half getting ready for my move to Queens and trying to hang out with everybody I can before I move. However, none of my friends can hang out during the day because they are all working, working somewhere in MD, PA, DE, or some other far away state. There was once a time where I could call up somebody, anybody, at 2pm for a beer a Grotto's and just hang out, but no longer.

(I feel like none of these paragraphs connect...whatever.)

Here's a random story. I was driving home from UD one night when I decided to call someone just to talk, which is pretty rare because I don't talk on the phone often, or for very long. UD is about 30-40 minutes from my house, and I made the call while on 95. I had a very good conversation with this person, but what freaked me out was I was completely engulfed in my conversation with this person, that I felt like I wasn't paying much attention to the road. In fact, about 5 minutes before I got to my house, I was stopped at a red light and I thought to myself "Wow, how did I get here?" I literally could not remember my drive from the time I made the call until I stopped at the red light. It was then I realized that I needed to get out of DE. Why? If I can subconsciously navigate my way through 30% of northern DE, I've been here too long.

And so starts a new book in the series of my life. I think the title of this book will be called "Alan Nguyen and the Hustling Metropolis". Doesn't have the same ring as "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," but I think it has potential to be one of the best books of the series.