Have you ever seen this show? It's all the rage with the diaper-wearing clique. If you've ever seen Teletubbies, you can appreciate the drug-induced qualities of this childrens' show. It's like Teletubbies on speed. If you haven't seen Teletubbies, that show is like Sesame Street on crack. Of course, I have never taken speed nor crack so my analogies are purely speculative. If you've seen these shows, and have previously taken speed or crack, please comment with your thoughts.
Sunday, November 28, 2004
Saturday, November 27, 2004
95
Yeah, a 95. I played at Tera Vista, in a friggin' gale. The morning was a cool 10* C (50* F) when we teed off, but that wasn't the worst of it. The wind was howling at 37 km/h (23 mph), with gusts over 45 km/h (28 mph). Needless to say conditions were difficult. That's why I'm not disappointed with my 95.
As is the case with most of my golf rounds, my score could have been considerably better were it not for a couple of holes. I carded a 9 on number 2 when I put my drive in a bunker, shanked my next shot, put my approach into the water, blah blah blah. That was the only disastrous hole on the front, where I finished with 48. On the back 9, I was playing consistently until the final hole. I duck-hooked my drive on 18 out of bounds, and ended up with an 8 for a back 9 total of 47.
On the positive side of things, I birdied one of my most hated holes in all of golf - number 4. It's a 523-yard par 5 that has always given me trouble. I tamed it today and hopefully have gotten that monkey off my back.
I putted well, except for number 7, where I 4-putted! I had no other 3-putts on the day. All things considered, I am satisfied with the 95. It was not one of my best scores, but far from my worst.
As is the case with most of my golf rounds, my score could have been considerably better were it not for a couple of holes. I carded a 9 on number 2 when I put my drive in a bunker, shanked my next shot, put my approach into the water, blah blah blah. That was the only disastrous hole on the front, where I finished with 48. On the back 9, I was playing consistently until the final hole. I duck-hooked my drive on 18 out of bounds, and ended up with an 8 for a back 9 total of 47.
On the positive side of things, I birdied one of my most hated holes in all of golf - number 4. It's a 523-yard par 5 that has always given me trouble. I tamed it today and hopefully have gotten that monkey off my back.
I putted well, except for number 7, where I 4-putted! I had no other 3-putts on the day. All things considered, I am satisfied with the 95. It was not one of my best scores, but far from my worst.
Friday, November 26, 2004
Investment update
Several posts ago, I told you about my Freetrade investment account. I'm happy to report that I've officially made my first trades using this account. The transactions went very smoothly. On Wednesday, I bought several shares in 3 different small-cap companies. At closing of the markets on Friday, my investments were up 4.1% on average, verses a relatively flat S&P 500 during the same time period. Of course, that's less than two days of trading (the markets were closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving, and closed early on Friday), and with small-caps, the prices will surely fluctuate 4% quite frequently. I'm in these for the long haul, so I'm not concerned about their immediate performance, but being in the black is always nice.
It would be in my better interest not to scrutinize these investments so closely - but for now I'll keep a close eye on them. Once the investing novelty wears off again, I'll let them ride and only check on their performance occasionally.
It would be in my better interest not to scrutinize these investments so closely - but for now I'll keep a close eye on them. Once the investing novelty wears off again, I'll let them ride and only check on their performance occasionally.
Hitting the links
I'm getting out of bed early Saturday morning to go play a round of golf for the first time in months. My tee time is 7:50 a.m. I'll post my score post-haste upon completion. Why is it that I can barely drag my ass out of bed before 8:00 a.m. to go to work, but I'd happily get up at 5:00 a.m. to get in a round of golf!?
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Fry's Electronics
So I made a quick stop by Fry's today on my way home from work. While waiting in the rather short line to check out, something occurred to me. What I noticed while waiting to hand over my hardly earned cash is certainly not earth-shattering, nor is it something that I hadn't noticed on previous trips to Fry's.
99% of Fry's employees are physically unattractive people.
Now, I know this is not a particularly nice thing to say, but unfortunately (for Fry's employees - and patrons) it's true. I am not sure why this is the case. Some might say that the merchandise sold at Fry's requires a certain type of person sell it. Perhaps a "nerdy" person is more apt to sell this stuff because they are considered quite knowledgeable in the area in which they sell. The problem is, Fry's employees often know less about their products than my 2 year old son. It doesn't add up.
To further my point, consider this. I can buy most of the same stuff at other chains such as Best Buy, Circuit City or Radio Shack where the employees in these retailers are generally more attractive (ok, maybe not Radio Shack). Walk into Best Buy and you'll usually see a relatively attractive college or high school student working the floor or check out counter. Don't get me wrong - some of the employees at these places are as equally unattractive as employees at Fry's, but the percentage of unattractiveness is substantially higher at Fry's.
So why is this the case? Does Fry's go out of its way to hire these folk? I sincerely believe the answer is YES. My theory is that Mr. Fry (if that's his real name) was himself an unattractive introvert and set out to give people like himself a fighting chance in the fashion-model-Barbie-loving real world.
So the next time you're at Fry's, take a good look around at the staff - if you can stomach it.
99% of Fry's employees are physically unattractive people.
Now, I know this is not a particularly nice thing to say, but unfortunately (for Fry's employees - and patrons) it's true. I am not sure why this is the case. Some might say that the merchandise sold at Fry's requires a certain type of person sell it. Perhaps a "nerdy" person is more apt to sell this stuff because they are considered quite knowledgeable in the area in which they sell. The problem is, Fry's employees often know less about their products than my 2 year old son. It doesn't add up.
To further my point, consider this. I can buy most of the same stuff at other chains such as Best Buy, Circuit City or Radio Shack where the employees in these retailers are generally more attractive (ok, maybe not Radio Shack). Walk into Best Buy and you'll usually see a relatively attractive college or high school student working the floor or check out counter. Don't get me wrong - some of the employees at these places are as equally unattractive as employees at Fry's, but the percentage of unattractiveness is substantially higher at Fry's.
So why is this the case? Does Fry's go out of its way to hire these folk? I sincerely believe the answer is YES. My theory is that Mr. Fry (if that's his real name) was himself an unattractive introvert and set out to give people like himself a fighting chance in the fashion-model-Barbie-loving real world.
So the next time you're at Fry's, take a good look around at the staff - if you can stomach it.
Monday, November 22, 2004
Friday, November 19, 2004
New Skin
I'm sure my regular readers have noticed that I have applied a new template to this site. The old template hurt my eyes. I find this one a little easier on the retinas.
Cheap Investing
After being away from the stock market for quite a while, I've decided to get back in the game. In the past, I used Sharebuilder as my means to purchase stock. It's simple to use, and allows you to buy fractions of shares in companies. For example, if you only have $50 to invest, but the company you want to buy costs $100 per share, then Sharebuilder will sell you 0.5 shares in the company. It's also an inexpensive way to invest - costing as little as $1 per purchase (depending on the type of account you set up, and how many times per month you purchase shares).
The Sharebuilder model requires you to set up a regular investing schedule, which will draw money from your checking account and automatically invest it into the companies you specify. One downside is that shares are always purchased on a regular schedule (always on a Tuesday, at the interval - weekly, twice a month, monthly - that you specify). This does not give you the opportunity to time the market. Of course, many investment gurus tell you that attempting to time the market is a futile effort. Sharebuilder promotes dollar-cost averaging into the market, and when you do this, you don't care about a fluctuation here or there in the market - therefore timing the market is not even a consideration.
With that said, you may be surprised to learn that I've decided to take my business to a new brokerage. While Sharebuilder is inexpensive, and convenient, nothing can beat a brokerage that is free. That's what Freetrade (from Ameritrade) brings to the table. They are a commission-free online brokerage, offering 20 free trades per month. The nice thing is that limit orders are free as well - many brokerage houses charge more for limit orders than market orders, so this is a nice feature.
All accounts opened at Freetrade are margin accounts - and thus the Freetrade business model is revealed. They're hoping that most - if not all - of their clients use margin to purchase more shares of the company into which they're investing. Of course, this is not required - you can put cash in your account and use only cash to invest (this is what I will be doing). They also keep costs extremely low by offering a no-frills web site and email-only support. In setting up my account, I had to contact customer service via email a couple of times. I was amazed with the response time. I would expect perhaps a 24 hour turn-around time for my requests, and for most companies, achieving a 24-hour turn-around time would be stellar. In almost all of my email requests, I received a response in less than 15 minutes! In my opinion, that's pretty amazing.
The only "catch" to opening a Freetrade account is that you have to fund it with $5000 cash (or transfer $5k worth of shares from another brokerage) before it is activated and available to use for investing. I basically moved this cash from my savings account to the Freetrade account, but don't plan to use it for investing. I will set up a regular deposit from my checking account for investing purposes, and move the initial deposit back into an interest-earning savings account shortly thereafter.
Now, it's time to sit back and watch my money work for me once again.
The Sharebuilder model requires you to set up a regular investing schedule, which will draw money from your checking account and automatically invest it into the companies you specify. One downside is that shares are always purchased on a regular schedule (always on a Tuesday, at the interval - weekly, twice a month, monthly - that you specify). This does not give you the opportunity to time the market. Of course, many investment gurus tell you that attempting to time the market is a futile effort. Sharebuilder promotes dollar-cost averaging into the market, and when you do this, you don't care about a fluctuation here or there in the market - therefore timing the market is not even a consideration.
With that said, you may be surprised to learn that I've decided to take my business to a new brokerage. While Sharebuilder is inexpensive, and convenient, nothing can beat a brokerage that is free. That's what Freetrade (from Ameritrade) brings to the table. They are a commission-free online brokerage, offering 20 free trades per month. The nice thing is that limit orders are free as well - many brokerage houses charge more for limit orders than market orders, so this is a nice feature.
All accounts opened at Freetrade are margin accounts - and thus the Freetrade business model is revealed. They're hoping that most - if not all - of their clients use margin to purchase more shares of the company into which they're investing. Of course, this is not required - you can put cash in your account and use only cash to invest (this is what I will be doing). They also keep costs extremely low by offering a no-frills web site and email-only support. In setting up my account, I had to contact customer service via email a couple of times. I was amazed with the response time. I would expect perhaps a 24 hour turn-around time for my requests, and for most companies, achieving a 24-hour turn-around time would be stellar. In almost all of my email requests, I received a response in less than 15 minutes! In my opinion, that's pretty amazing.
The only "catch" to opening a Freetrade account is that you have to fund it with $5000 cash (or transfer $5k worth of shares from another brokerage) before it is activated and available to use for investing. I basically moved this cash from my savings account to the Freetrade account, but don't plan to use it for investing. I will set up a regular deposit from my checking account for investing purposes, and move the initial deposit back into an interest-earning savings account shortly thereafter.
Now, it's time to sit back and watch my money work for me once again.
Friday, November 12, 2004
Yellow pee
I don't drink enough water during the day. My pee is always yellow. For some reason, I just can't drink plain old water. I buy that Propel "fitness" water that's sold by Gatorade, and I can actually drink that stuff. However, I dislike the kiwi-strawberry flavor.
If you find that your pee is also too yellow, you should try Propel. I would suggest the lemon flavor, and then you can branch out from there if you desire.
(Note: I do not represent Gatorade or its parent company, Pepsi. But, if you are reading this, and you work for Pepsi, and would like to send me money or free Propel, I will accept your offer. Just don't send any of the kiwi-strawberry flavor.)
If you find that your pee is also too yellow, you should try Propel. I would suggest the lemon flavor, and then you can branch out from there if you desire.
(Note: I do not represent Gatorade or its parent company, Pepsi. But, if you are reading this, and you work for Pepsi, and would like to send me money or free Propel, I will accept your offer. Just don't send any of the kiwi-strawberry flavor.)
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Music currently playing in my car
My car has a 6 CD changer. I also have a 20GB Dell DJ that's almost full, but I haven't purchased the hardware yet to use it in my car. I'll get it eventually. Right now, only 4 of the CD slots have anything in them. Here are the CDs currently in rotation:
- Green Day - American Idiot
- Chevelle - This Type of Thinking (Could Do Us In)
- The Tragically Hip - In Between Evolution
- Sam Roberts - We Were Born in a Flame
These are probably the most recent CDs that I've purchaed, and all are excellent. The one that I'm really wearing out is the Sam Roberts CD. It is truly fantastic. I hadn't heard of him until I saw him open for The Tragically Hip a few weeks ago. He and his band sounded great that night, so I seeked out his CD. Since I bought it, the other 3 CDs haven't seen much playing time.
Sunday, November 07, 2004
Marry an American
The Presidential election just ended, with George W. Bush winning his second term in office. Personally, I didn't care who won. However, there are many Americans (mostly liberals) who are not pleased with the outcome. If you're one of these people, and would like to "escape", this site might interest you.
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Do I hate it when people do this? Yes.
When did people start asking themselves questions and then answering them? I don't know.
Should people do this? No.
Is it annoying? Yes.
Should people do this? No.
Is it annoying? Yes.
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Up north?
Is West Virginia considered "up north?" Compared to Texas, I suppose it is. But when I hear somebody say they're from "up north", I assume they mean New England, or Michigan, or Minnesota. I met a lady today who said she was from "up north - West Virginia." I guess it's all relative.
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