Daily Scribble

Selling old kitchen cabinets

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We are remodeling our kitchen, remove the old cabinets and install new ones. The problem is what to do with our old cabinets? Technically speaking, the old cabinets are junks to me. Actually they are worse than junks, because if I would have to spend some money to hire a garbage collector even I want to throw them away. There is a 2nd hand market for old cabinets, I see many listings on Craigslist, the only problem is I have no idea how much my old kitchen worth.

My only reference on pricing are listings on the Craigslist. 2nd hand cabinets are selling from a few hundred bucks to a few thousands. The same set of cabinet has different value to different people. It depends on how well the cabinets fit their kitchen. On one hand, I want to get as much as I can from the old cabinet. one the other hand, I want to get rid of them before my contractor install the new cabinets. If I set the price too low, I didn’t get the most out of it. If I set the price too high, it may not be sold. Since I don’t know the market price for my cabinets, I can’t even name the right price.

My solution to the problem is to listing my cabinets as a close bid auction. I set up a time and let people come to see the cabinets, make measurements and ask questions. They write me their best offer and I simply pick the best offer at the end of the day. To make it fair, I ask them to put their offer in an envelope and I am not going to look at their bid before the end of the auction. By doing this way, I can avoid dealing with the bargain hunters and I don’t have to feel bad being ripped off for selling the cabinet too cheap.

The final price is much better than I had expected. I listed $500 as the base price. I would be happy if I can get a few hundred bucks more. Most of the offerings are around $800, but I got two offerings just over $1000. I figure the highest possible value I could get should be around $1200-1300. Since it is a best offer auction, according to auction theory the expected value of return is a bit less than the true value because the buyers would will not bet the full amount of their true value, I am quite happy for what I got.

Setting up the auction and answering emails and phone calls is time consuming. Not only that I got more money for my old cabinets, it is also a good learning experience observing how the buyers response to my auction.

News Clips

Secrets of the Economist’s Trade

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I think I have the potential to be an economist, I think I am as cheap as them. Next time when my wife complains about me being cheap, I can tell her I am just concern about economy efficient.

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Daily Scribble

Beginning of the ski season

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The skiing season is pretty short this year due to the Olympic. The Sea to Sky Highway is closed during the games for normal traffic and hotels in Whistler will be ridiculously expensive. That means I have to use up most of all my ski passes before the Olympic in February.

Today is my second skiing day in season. I feel much better than my skiing first day before Christmas. Last time I sign up for lesson and I am so out of shape that the instructor bump me down from level 6 to level 5. I am getting a bit better today, plus we have really great snow, a very powder day. Skiing on powder snow is very different from skiing on groomed runs. If you don’t go fast enough, your ski will sink. I got trapped twice today in knee deep snow, digging myself out is pretty exhausting. You also have to lean a bit more backward on powder snow, or your ski tip will catch the snow and make you fall.

A few years ago, when I took my instructor class, I was told I lean too much backward. Since then I consciously try to lean more forward. This time, the instructor told me I am leaning too much forward, looks like I over correct my stands. It is important to keep your balance even between your ankle and arch. Leaning backward speed you up and makes you lose control. Leaning forward put too much pressure on the ski tip and make it hard to turn.

When I go to Whistler, I always have the noodle bowl and a cup of coke for lunch. Somehow the portion of the noodle bowl seems getting smaller and smaller every year. The cafeteria server only gives you half a bowl of noodle and fill it up with the empty space soup. That portion is definitely not enough to feed a hungry guy had exercised the whole morning. The portion is so small this year that I finally decided I am not going to get rip off the Whistler. I fix the problem myself and get even with them. I simply ordered two bowls and merge the noodles before checking out at the cashier. Now I get a full bowl of noodle, as shown in the advertisement, instead a pathetic half empty noodle bowl.

News Clips

Tongue twisters

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I always thought Chinese is the most difficult language to learn with its tonic pronunciation and different writing system than European languages. It turns out the grammar rules of the most difficult language is way more complicate than Chinese. I am a believer of universal language theory, why the world need so many languages. It would be a lot more convenient if everyone speaks the same tongue. But, I may revise my position after I take philosophy of language.

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生活隨筆

我的2009年終報告

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證卷交易所規定所有上市公司﹐必定要預備一份年終報告﹐總結過去一年的成績﹐夠測未來一年的動向。若果我是一個上市公司﹐我會這樣寫我的年終報告。

工作上今年較去年有記錄良好增長﹐前年差點以為所屬部門要解散﹐怎料大難不死必有後福﹐今年下半年開始大量增聘人手﹐每個星期也要面試請人。我把手下的高級印度工程師﹐掉換做加拿大新丁工程師﹐很高興是正確的決定。雖然訓練新人要勞心勞力﹐但始終自己人做事比較可靠。另一個副產品的收獲﹐是去年印度吃了三個月咖喱﹐今年只用去三個星期。相比其實手下全部是印度人的同事﹐我每星期只需要和印度開一晚電話會議﹐算是很好的工作生活平衡。寄望明年部門業績和人頭﹐一直會持續高速增長﹐可以升職加人工。

持續進修上今年比去年勤力﹐去年只讀了一科﹐今年讀了二科﹐不過還未達到每個學期讀一科的目標。明年第一個學期要先專心考PMP試﹐第二和第三個學期才重捨書包讀哲學。可惜去年設下的其他進修目標﹐完全交白卷一項也沒有做﹐今年一定要考二級滑雪教練牌﹐獵牌和IPSC牌。射擊技術進度也未如理想﹐未能按目標每星期練習。經過一年多的努力﹐長槍試過能射出一百環滿分的最好成績﹐不過水準不太穩定。短槍技術進度一般﹐扣板時手指的動作不夠清脆﹐影響彈道瞄準的方向。飛靶技術則完全荒廢生疏﹐不記得有沒有拿過枝870出來。今年買了臺單輪單車﹐原來是打算學識後用來陪老婆跑步﹐現在還未能做沒有扶手下也不跌下來。可惜入冬後天氣轉涼經常下雨﹐只好等夏天到來才繼續練習。因為買了新的關係﹐明年我報讀了木工班﹐學識後可以自己做簡單家居維修。

娛樂上去年我看得太多電影﹐電視和動畫﹐沒有把時間用來看書。今年讀了二十二本書﹐比去年多了七本。今年看了十二套動畫﹐比去年下跌了五套。今年看了二十八套電影﹐去年看了四十套。今年只看了三套電視劇﹐去年看了五套。沒有營養的電視劇跌幅最大﹐明年希望能保持這個趨勢﹐花多些時間看書就對了。今年還有些重要電影未有時間看﹐如果明年能有多些時間看電影﹐保持在四十套右左就最理想了。今年發表很少網上評論文章﹐後半年甚至完全不曾發一文。不想寫沒有資料搜集和理論分析的吹水文﹐可是又不能騰出時間思考和寫作﹐結果積存了很多時事評論的文稿﹐只寫下主要點子卻久缺有力的推論支持。明年希望這個情況能夠有所改善﹐盡量每個月發表一篇有水準的評論文章。

總括一句﹐想做的事太多可用的時間太少﹐而且有很多時間被無無聊聊地浪費掉。新一年新開始﹐明年要善用時間﹐方能達成最多的目標。