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Saturday, November 3, 2007

FEMINEM

Today I got my inspiration to write from a song I heard. The song is about the importance of seizing the one opportunity that you may have in life for greatness. The lyrics drive home to the listener the story of a guy who spends his whole life working towards a goal and drops the ball. Then the singer gives advice on how to seize the moment when it comes half of which could be interpreted to conflict the other half of his advice. I like some of Feminem's music but basically he's a punk.

Here's my take on greatness. Greatness is measured through achievement. Achievement is gained through success and failure. I won't deny it is much better to achieve success, but failure should not be overlooked as a factor. Failure occurs many times on the way to success, even for those who achieve greatness. Here is a little disclaimer: I do not classify people like Feminem, Paris "Legs Wide Open" Hilton and many other pop icons who are popular as great people.

Let's face it most people will most likely never achieve greatness. Fortunately for me the path to success is the same. I relate the process of achieving success to riding a bull. The bull represents life, lasting 8 seconds represents success and getting thrown is obviously failing. Basically, bull riders train their butts off day after day to last eight seconds with a beast that wants nothing else but to throw the rider off their back and trample over them. They suffer the pain of riding weak bulls, hitting the ground and the daily grind of workouts. Then all their dreams and work is put on the line the moment they mount the bull in the gate. The horn sounds, the bull rips out of the gate bucks up a few times, throws the rider in a couple of seconds sending the rider to smash in to the ground. Many riders even have to endure the pain of having the bull maul and gore them after being blasted into the ground. Well this is how life treats us.

Every time riders have a near death experience (aka getting on a bull) they face success or failure. When those riders lie there in pain there is no doubt they have been defeated. Yet they come back to those gates to ride and face defeat again knowing the pain. Again, just for the chance to succeed for 8 seconds. Success isn't about waiting for the one opportunity you have in life. Success is about failing time after time and getting up and doing it all over again until you succeed.

The story, life will kick your butt left and right. Just keep doubling down until you win. Failing isn't the same thing as being a failure. END GAME.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Make Dat SCRILLA!!!!!!!!!!

I am NOT a financial professional with credentials to provide advice. I am giving my perspective on how I invest my money and how I manage risk. You should keep in mind I consider myself a young investor and if you want don’t consider me young I will duke you in the nose. Well that being said let’s jump right in.

My first goal is to make absolutely sure to take full advantage of my companies 401(k) match. You will not find a better return than your companies match. I usually use this money to invest in 10 or more of the riskiest mutual funds (small cap, mid cap, international) offered on the plan, they offer the highest potential returns. I do invest in some large cap funds.

I put money that doesn’t go to my 401(k) into high risk investments a.k.a. growth stocks and mutual funds with an international focus. I like high risk investments because they offer high returns. I manage my risk by investing in multiple stocks or funds. To do this I diversify by company, geography and by market segment. Keep in mind one or two companies can under-perform in a market segment but ten are less likely to do so, a country can experience inflation making products unaffordable but if this happens globally everything remains equal, and finally a whole market segment can go down but there are many segments. Consider the IT market it did really well until the bubble burst and investors incurred huge losses. That is okay if you had money in other high risk industries. I also find it important to diversify geographically to do this I invest in internationally focused mutual funds. They have resources I don’t have to research many companies in many countries, and again I spread my money like butter over as many funds as possible.

How does my risk management strategy really work? I select a population pull a large sample and get as close to average results as statistics allow. When I diversify I focus on the average expected return. I find as many stocks with a high average expected return as possible. Currently, I invest in ten of them a month. By using good sampling techniques I think I am guaranteeing myself a higher return than the standard market average.

My next step involves maxing out tax deferred investments Roth and 401(k), and admittedly I still have some work to do. Once, these are filled up with high risk and intermediate risk investments I will go back to investing in my trading account.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Why Are Fast Food Companies Ruining My Life

I know when I order fast food I am opening myself up to a mile long list of health risks, ut this is not my gripe. y problem is with their legacy to fame being fast affordable and efficient. For the most part fast food joints do a great job on delivering these expectations. Ther is one spot that they not only drop the ball but accidentally kick it twenty feet away.

The deficiency in the fast food industry is related to their apportionment of condients in packets. If you are a one packet kind guy or gal this may not apply to you but if you go with ten packets like me then you have the same problem. I cannot figure out why they want me to open ten packets and empty them. Maybe they just don't think my time is important. Maybe they get a kick out of watching consuers struggle to open the occasional packet forged from steel and want to increase the chance they see some one finally rip it open only to get covered in the contents. I don't know what it is but whatever their reason it is wrong.

Why can't they have a packet the size of their salad dressings. There wouldn't be so many full packets thrown out and they would most likely save on packaging. There is also less error involved in placing one packet in a bag over ten (aka dropped packets that have to be picked up and if they are left on the floor in haste become potential safety hazards.

In terms of the benefit I recieve it takes about ten seconds to open a packet of salad dressig and empty its contents. It takes about one minute fifteen seconds to open ten packets due to the fact the small packets are not perforated and are harder to open. Then another ten seconds must be added to the average estimated time as I have to ask for more catsup and get up to go get more when I run out. Prior to going on a diet I ate a conservative 200 meals a year at fast food establishments. Given these conservative number fast food could donate just over four more hours a year to my life as long as I continue eating at them, and I could use the time.

END GAME. FAST FOOD SHOULD HAVE BIGGER CATSUP PACKETS EVERYONE BENEFITS.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Zillow

Lately, I have been researching a new home purchase. I've been using Zillow.com in conjunction with homefair.com. I basically use Zillow to scout out a house in my price range and then reference the address information to be sure the neighborhood meets criteria specific to my socio-economic position. I've found that these Internet tools combined have been very useful and that I should pass the information on. I also, use divinvest.com (I have username and pw as this is my companies 401k provider) where I have access to a long list of financial calculators that help calculate everything from the future price of my retirement savings to what my mortgage payments will be given certain information/criteria. I am sure there are plenty of sites offering great financial calculators, I just like the convienence.

I would really appreciate some posts on experience with roommates specifically from those who have been the owners of the property. I would also like some tips on how to qualify and find get roommates.

Monday, October 29, 2007

SAW IV HOORAY

After Saw III I though this thing was going to be over but IV ramps it up again ad bring the intrigue of the original Saw back to the theatres.There is some bad news though. This movie starts off with a penis, and shows a rape. The good news is that justice is served. This is a good movie and I have not said anything that ruins it for anyone. Nothing here is heavily related to the main plot. I'll tell you though two movies, two day in a row, two penis shots. I've either got bad luck, Hollywood is starting a bad trend or I'm subconciously a fruit. This movie is very gory so watch bringing in the snacks.

Right now I a watching BBC World and this new show is driving me crazy. The strange thing is that it seems to be less liberal than our media. They are ripping Brazil in half right now as relate to having the FIFA Worldcup. No more reviews on this these British reporters sound like rats. By the way how in the world do British and Australian people claim the American accent sounds nasal. It's probably that we think that of them and they just want to piss us off b/c we are better than them. At least we got over the Queen.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Movie Review - Into the Wild

I'm glad the little turd dies in the end. This movie sucked. I'm thinking about writing the directors to request my money back and fifty dollars for the time they wasted. I still can't figure out how this flick was supposed to be inspiring. There once was a bum who decided not to go to law school disappeared completely leaving his parent to worry incessantly. He ran away because his parents fought a lot and he was a big cry baby about growing up. He basically traveled across America got his but kicked a few times, in real life nailed the sixteen year old (should have gone to jail) and ran away from every emotions started to form. Then he went to Alaska and died of starvation. The only satisfying moment in the movie was when he died. Although, I do wish the bear had eaten him, it would have been more painful and I would have got out of there sooner.

Scenes to avoid:
1) Lead character floats down the river naked displaying his penis.
2)Bear doesn't eat him.
3) Moral badgering that doesn't fit reality.
4) Old couple having sex.
5) Every scene where he pretends to Micheal Jackson with the wind blowing across him as he stand with his arms and legs spread while the camera spans around him in some scenic view.
6)The remaining 2 hours of the film not listed above.