A Call Option of Sorts

I am supposed to be sleeping. Hell Week is, in a sense, over. The worst has passed and there is only the weekend to look forward to. What was supposed to be a dinner-movie-clubbing thing tomorrow turned out to have to exclude its only male participant - moi. In any case, I wouldn't have fitted in with 10 other ladies (much to their disappointment, so I believed).

So... I'm supposed to be sleeping. See, it's like a call option (and here I launch into the "What I learnt in Biz school mode"). A call option, in its most basic form and which I can express in words, is an option which when you buy, and which when exercised gives you a share of a particular stock at a fixed price. The price is predetermined as is its maturity date. An American option allows you to exercise the share before the maturity date, while a European option restricts you to exercising it only on the maturity date.

This is what happened: I bought a couple of call options known as sleep. When I so choose to exercise them, I am supposed to get sleep. However, I decided that I might need to keep awake later today (so as to read my Corporate Finance Policy M&M bull) that I hedged my bet by drinking two cups of coffee. One at the bar (the free kind) and one while lounging at TCC with a groupmate.

What happened with hedging such was that I am now kept perpetually awake by the coffee (quite akin to somebody holding onto plummeting stock which they are using to hedge against their call option). However, I haven't been able to exercise my option to sleep - the coffee is keeping me awake.

All that shouldn't be making any sense to you nor any student of Finance - ask me again in the morning.

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I also figured that, since I'm almost done torrenting Mai Otome episode 25, I might as well just keep awake a while longer, wait it out, and watch it.

See, the thing about me and anime is that I blame my friend Stripey for making anime such an allure. I'm into the philosophical - harem - yuri - kawaii - techy - mecha - humor - you-name-it-they-got-it shit and anime provides the right mix of everything to make another fan out of me. I'm of the opinion that animation in the States seem targeted at only 2 markets: the male kid so that he will buy the action figure (works for girls too - anyone recall My Little Pony?); the adult who's into somewhat adult humour (I used to like South Park and The Simpsons). The japs seem to view that divide as a spectrum, and fill the market with products that straddle the entire range - look hard enough and you can find anime of any stroke and niche to meet your particular fetish.

Of course the somewhat significant one doesn't know (at least not till recently) that anime is becoming a hobby of sorts. She hasn't made any fuss of it, so long as I'm still the addicted to her I suppose. At least I'm not into collecting figurines in super short skirts, so I'm far from descending into otakudom.

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Damn... that download isn't done yet.

See, I have this friend (don't we all?). He is somewhat attracted to this girl who he's hanging with a little too much. The thing is that they are colleagues and they click really well. He's into girls with spunk like her - she's into males of a particular fair colour though.

The problem is they both have their others. And thus he pretends that he's her best pal and all, just so that he can hang around with her. Well, he's not really pretending per se - he's really the pal-ly kinda guy. She seems to wanna hang out a lot too - it's not really a problem isn't it? They're just pals hanging out, nothing beyond walking that plateau, shooting breeze and talking about the weather (and other more savoury topics).

Maybe it isn't a problem - girls like certain kind of guys because they exude that kind of brother-vibe. You know: they think you're the kind of guy who'll make a great Brudder. Not like in a pesky little kid sibling who pisses on your toys and plays doctor with you. I mean the kind of Brudder who offers a listening ear, an open mind, and passes no judgement. The safe kind of guy who's cool about the gals around him and offers emotional support. The Brudder doesn't get the gal - the Jerko does and that sucks doesn't it? (Say, was that all in the present tense?)

Perhaps it helps that the others are in the land of far, far away. Absence is supposed to make the heart grow fonder (to someone else??). In my friend's case, absence meant options - options meant opportunity, so why not explore some options then? Live life with no regrets, so they say. What's to lose? And if the options don't work out, there's the fallback plan isn't there?

He's a confused one, that friend. I think he should look for the tangible, and stop asking himself the 'What ifs'. Life isn't about what it can become if you'd done this or that. Life is about having walked the road and asking where to go next. The counter retort to the 'What If' is 'What If it is not'. Answer that question first, my friend.

[Maybe I should start charging for useless emotional advice by the hour... hmm.]

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The download's done! Me - out.