A guilty pleasure for Mara and me has always been a chocolate cake a la mode after dinner. On Friday night, Mara and I had a date at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in San Francisco. She had the Filet Mignon and I ordered the Cowboy Ribeye steak. While our steaks were very good, in the back of our minds we were looking forward to the chef’s special chocolate molten cake after dinner.
Now something that Mara and I share is our belief that the chocolate cake has to be complemented with an equal amount of vanilla ice cream. Not enough ice cream ruins the whole experience for us. We spend most of our energy rationing the ice cream to ensure that there is enough for the whole cake. I’m not going to lie to you… it’s a stressful situation.
Back to Friday night…. we ordered an additional scoop of ice cream to go with the cake but it still wasn’t enough! We were so unhappy with the experience that Mara and I bought a huge chocolate cake tonight and paired it with twice the amount of ice cream! Though our eyes were much larger than our stomachs, I think it’s safe to say that we got our fix tonight.
Dining
I took advantage of this long weekend to catch up on my tech news… it’s been a tough few weeks. There’s been a tremendous amount of chatter about Yahoo/MSFT. While I don’t feel particularly strongly about either one of these companies, I decided to scan into the financials of Yahoo. In my opinion, in the last several years, the only company that has done less with as much resources than MSFT is Yahoo.
One look into the income statement of Yahoo reveals why shareholders should be critical by Yahoo’s current management team. From a technology point of view, you can’t ignore management’s inability to create any new innovative products and services. While Yahoo owns a tremendous amount of real estate, it’s inability to monetize it effectively has been downright disturbing.
Now, for the financials… while Gross Profit has grown about 10% from FY06 to FY07, and 18% from FY05 to FY06 (Primarily through top line growth), the resulting Operating Income and Net Income are just downright shocking. Just looking at Operating Income, it’s dropped 27% from FY06 to FY07… and 15% from FY05 to FY06. You don’t have to be a financial guru to be appalled by these numbers. Taking this into context, Google has been growing their bottom line around 36% in FY07 and the whole tech industry has seen substantial growth over this same period.
One of the most shocking fact that I noticed is that Yahoo’s R&D costs have grown from 30% and 45% in the last two years. You would generally like to see a correlation between R&D spending and top line revenue, but we see very little evidence of this.
While being acquired by MSFT may not be the perfect option, the management team’s inability to grow the company and provide a long-term coherent strategic vision is concerning. This is a play that will help MSFT gain the scale economics it requires, improve it’s operational performance, expand it’s R&D capabilities, and help MSFT reposition itself. Whether you believe MSFT will be able to accomplish this, I admire that they are actively seeking ways to grow.
Yahoo shareholders deserve better than what their management team has done for them and I firmly believe MSFT’s offer presents a fair exit. And judging from Yahoo shareholder reactions, it looks like they agree.
Misc.
I’ve been working on wedding invitations all week. I found out that they were spelling a name with a “J” instead of a “Y”. No wonder it looked strange, and I had them change the font to two different font styles so that it would be right when in reality it was the wrong letter. Argh. Nonetheless we are close to a final sign off on the proofs, still waiting for a couple more approvals. I will be so happy when I get to see the actual pieces of paper with “Request the honor of your presence…” Hehee! This will be a big check off once done.
Wedding
Last Thursday, I turned in my last assignment and my summer has finally started! I’m truly excited about the wedding this summer, despite all of the “todo” items left before the big day. It has been a quiet few days without school and before I have to start work, so I spent some time reflecting on the last few years and the where Mara and I are headed to next.
Reflecting on the last 10 years, it seems obvious to me that they can be split into several chapters.
1997-2001: I think most will think of their college years to be the most transformative years in their lives. To me, these 4 years were a breath of fresh air. I got lost in the last two years in High School and used these four years to focus myself on my studies. The most important lesson that I learned at UCLA was that there were 24 hours a day and you could use all of them if you tried hard enough to.
2002-2003: This year was probably the darkest and most miserable in my life. What happened during this year confirmed a lesson that my father tried to teach me early on: When you’re in a questionable situation that is difficult to get out of, you absolutely have to get away from it as soon as possible. Leaving Los Angeles was the best decision I ever made… I just wish that I did so earlier. Additionally, the passing of my grandfather brought tremendous pain. Out of this chapter, I became stronger and learned a lot about myself.
2004-2006: These three years can be summarized as my Mara/SD/Qualcomm/Career Search years. WIthout a doubt the happiest years I’ve enjoyed in my life. Mara and I met short before I left for Qualcomm and it’s been such a great 4 years. I’m thankful she stayed with me through all of my crazy ideas and adventures. My time in San Diego and Qualcomm was very enjoyable. I always loved San Diego ever since the first time I visited… I always wanted to live there and always wanted to work for Qualcomm. Having accomplished this, I dug deep and thought hard about what to do next to advance my career.
2007-???: I’ve used these two years to transition from my previous life/career to my new one. My education at the Haas School of Business has already opened many doors for me career-wise and will continue to do so. Also Mara and I got engaged in 2007… We’re slowly transitioning to our new life together. Everyday I feel fortunate and thankful that we will spend the rest of our lives together. When I was younger, I always worried that “happily ever after” wouldn’t happen… if I could only go back in time to re-assure myself that I had nothing to worry about :).
I’m really curious to see what the next few years will lead me. There is so much I want to get done and so little time. Regardless of what happens with my life…. I feel absolutely blessed that Mara and I will be writing new chapters in our lives together.
Life
It is so hot. My car temperature read three digits for the first time a few days ago and thankfully it has been “only” in the 90’s since. I don’t have air conditioning at my place except for a ceiling fan. It keeps the air moving but unfortunately the fan is not in the bedroom either. It cools down a tiny fraction at night but when the air is still, even the bed seems to be giving off heat. Despite it all I am grateful that I don’t live in a humid climate with no air conditioning. It could be much worse. So for the time being, it’s ice cream, cold water and staying in cool dark places for now.
Uncategorized
Last Saturday most of the bridesmaids and I met to get our dresses fitted. Si Arima is this nice Japanese lady who works out of her home and was recommended by a lot of the bridal websites for the south bay. She was conveniently located across Rivermark and hurried us along when we chatted too much.
Dhivya, Surai, and Jyoti made it to the fitting and hopefully the finished work will be good. I’ve been waiting to get my dress fitted so that I can send it out for a good clean and press. I asked for it to be pinned and now I need to make sure it fits! It’ll be so much more exciting to see it in its final form. The veil I tried on there made the whole thing more real! I must say, after the SF picture shoot with Tiffany I feel like it’s finally hitting home. I still have so much to figure out!
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Is it vain of us to have so many pictures? No. Really. We do have a lot now. And the big day isn’t even here yet. We will be receiving a big album from Taiwan and I don’t want to make another engagement album with the Adeline and Grace Photos. Seriously 
I posted a few of the pictures that I like and for the full album go to here…
www.pictage.com/435792
Event key: nguyen
You can also find this link in the right side navigation bar with the new thumbnail picture.
If you have trouble seeing the album leave a comment. Because it works fine on my computer but the website recognizes me and automatically logs me in. You may have to register with the site to view the pictures but you should be able to see the event once registered.
Wedding
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