Sunday, November 1, 2009

Mostly laidback sunday

For those of you who do not know, I was born in philadelphia, pennsylvania. At the time my dad was in the marines (which consequently always gives me a nice bit of humor when it is time for me to give folks my birth certificate but I digress) and I was born on the base. As such I grew up a philly sports fan, and I mean a real fan I went to the games of pretty much all the teams Sixers, Eagles, Flyers, Phillies, Wings(the lacrosse team for those who don't know that name). And yes I am a typical philly sports fan I cheer if you play hard boo if your stinking up the joint and I will go down for you every year. I'm such a homer that I only watch the superbowl if my team is in it to not give any ratings to the other teams(yeah yeah I know but what about the game, while I am a football fan I wanna watch the eagles play). And kind of sick irony living down here in memphis tennesse I'm in cowboys country that's right no matter how much the cowboys are sucking at the time if they are on and my eagles are on the cowboys are on my TV. Thankfully I have found some sites with nice gamecasts/gamecenters etc that can if nothing else show me the play by plays.  It's not the same as watching it but it is way better then waiting til after the game to watch the highlights on ESPN, or the NFL network.

Before you ask yes I anguish like most philly fans as the post season nears I don't care what sport because sometimes we will overachieve(sixers since AI left), sometimes we will come close (eagles almost every year), sometimes we will drive you insane(flyers I'm just gonna leave it at that) and of course sometimes we just win (phillies). I know we get trash talked to us because we are supposed to be the worst fans in the world, but come on we're pretty fair if you think about it if you play with all your heart here and leave it on the field, court, or ice we will love you forever. If all you ever do is run your mouth and under perform we don't need you. Call it blue collar, call it hard nosed we don't care if I got pony up money to see you play I better get my money's worth. Nobody embodied that more then allen iverson, anybody who says they don't get their monies worth watching iverson is lieing the guy leaves it all on the court. Every second he is on there, he may not go to practice but he plays til the final whistle and it isn't about his stats. A few years ago we had a game were he had 8 points but we were losing by double digits with a few minutes left, he had a streak I think he had scored double digits every game of his career to that point. We couldn't win he sat and let a few rookies get some playing time. Think about it, he could have been in the hall of fame or had the record for most games with 10 or more points but he ain about personal records he wants to win.

In my opinion billy king got fired two seasons too late. Yeah yeah I know what time it is yes I saw the phillies lose, it was a heart breaker we were where we wanted to be top of the 9th tie game, our closer at the mound. Good job by Johnny Damon, that double steal took away lidge's slider and as they say the faster it comes in the faster it goes out. Can we fight back to new york, yes we can. But not if our bats don't wake up yes we allowed a whole bunch of runs through either errors or boneheaded pitching but the last two games our offense has pretty much died when we needed it. It's kinda funny in each series before this we were kings of the RBI whether it was ruiz, howard, or werth we could get somebody on base and then somebody would drive the runs in. This series too many errors and just can't seem to get a decent rhythm going. I mean we can do damage with two outs we just aren't.

I know changed the entire direction of the blog, but as I have said before I am a random person. I have millions of thoughts pouring through my head at any point in time and what comes out is what comes out. Sometimes it will be entertaining, sometimes informative, sometimes it will be odd and wrong(though for the purposes of this blog I have tamped that down, but if you find my name on other sites well uncensored me it is). I think I am starting to like this format a little bit more. Say it the long way, yes I know I love the speed of a four letter send off but this is kinda forcing me to use the rest of my vocabulary which I have not done in a long time. I used to be a lot more creative, I won't say as prolific I mean I can spin a tall tale with the best of them(and might here), I can engage on almost any subject, but I do like to curse when I do it. Call it my small bit of rebellion against the rest of the so called intelligentsia, I hate pretense and pompousness it just irks the hell out of me. And as much as some say profanity is the domain of the small mind that is a lie. I mean think about it, if brevity is the soul of wit and the quickest way to tell someone off is a curse word, how is being profane small minded, in essence it is brief. In reality just like with free speech folks want to be able to say stuff and control what you say back to them, which in essense isn't free speech.

You can tell when somebody is trying to tune you up to curse them out, they just hope you don't oblige them. Usually I will on here I won't. Which is kinda funny I don't give this blog any pub currently as I don't know what I wanna do with it how can I ask folks to read it? I mean I have a few ideas, but as I have yet to really get them off the ground how can I tout my blog on such and such site? I mean yes I tout my ply blog mainly because it has a good year and a halfs worth of material. My rants of going to various places for work, driving here in the M or my visit to the ATL this year. My compositions on there are extremely scattershot to say the least, I don't think I have too many subjects of common theme on there save some rants about mississippi and tennessee drivers. I mean there are a few movie reviews(which I haven't done in a while, hell I went to see astro boy last week too it was good by the way), I think a few drink recipes, some pictures from when I barbequed over the summer(not of me barbecueing I was holding the camera).

IN essence it was like actually spending a few moments in my mind(trust me you don't wanna be in there too long I'm a little bit maniacal so you don't wanna be driven slightly mad thinking ok what is he serious about and what is he playing about) and yahoo 360 man that one well that one saw some extreme highs and lows, a few of the blogs on myspace too.

Ya know I don't wanna let this be too random, this was another glimpse into who I am. Yes blogging for the sake of putting something on this blog so in essence I get used to coming here to blog. To living within the rules I set for the blog and letting my creativity flow through it. I'm not really one for limits or rules, I have always had a problem with authority so to force myself to work within some is gonna probably pay dividends in the future. Hopefully you will see examples of that here.

Okay off to drown my sorrows in some alcohol after a tough loss

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Man what a game

I'm banning myself from ply tonight. I'm gonna let the yankees fans lick their wounds, I know this hurts to be dominated in the first world series game in your new stadium but they have been talkin smack since they won game 6 on sunday.

I mean I do understand they are "the payroll", they are the most storied team in baseball, but we're the defending champs. And the philadelphia phillies went about it like it was last year and they weren't playing the New york yankees, penantville. And yes watched the game start to finish it was great. 3 more wins to back to back world series championships I'm a philly fan who gets to say back to back titles man that feels nice

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Where was I

I was holding the door for you while you were chasing after him askin why was he doing you this way?
I was stopping to help you pick you things up off the ground after he knocked them from your hand to show you how strong his pimp hand was.

I was asking you your dreams and aspirations while you were telling me how much I needed to be ready to spend in order to keep you happy. Never once telling me how we could build together or what our future would be.

I was being laughed at for asking your name, for speaking to you with respect and acting like you were more then just a big butt and a smile, a bra size, and a receptacle for my semen.

I was stopping to help you with your car trouble or lend you a dollar when you were short because you had to pay all the bills or give him money "to go look for a job" when all you see when you get home is another 6 pack in the fridge.

I was helping you figure out how you might be able to put some money away for your kids future while you were trying to convince him that if he just came back you would try whatever he wanted in the bedroom.

I was sitting there defending my gender while differentiating between guys like me and the ones you love to date because all men are dogs, even though this dog just helped you out a tight spot.

I'm sitting here mentally laughing at the excuses now that you have heard my pedigree, witnessed my nature and can not even in your own mind deny my caliber but now you are going down all the reasons why well I just ain right for you.

I sat there in the corner being made fun of while you went up to those bad boys and showed the young men coming up that the alpha male isn't the responsible, the respectful or the hard working one but the one who treats women as disposable play things only good on her knees or on her back.

I was trying to walk by your side but now I'm sitting behind a pane of glass that reads : A good man, extinct because nobody wanted him until it was far too late to save him.

Monday, October 19, 2009

The Brewster's Millions theory

Now I'm sure most people have seen the movie Brewster's Millions starring Richard pryor and John candy. This is the story of Montgomery Brewster(I had to look it up on imdb I knew his name just not the order) a minor league baseball player with dreams of playing in the bigs. His dream was to play a game against the yankees. One day he is about to lose his minor league job as a pitcher(brewster is getting old) and he gets a mysterious visitor. Brewster thinking he is getting called up to the majors is gleeful, but it is going to be the strangest meeting of his life.  Brewster is shown a film an old man(old white man) tells him that he is his last living heir, and that as his last living heir he has inherited his entire fortune, but there is a catch. In hopes of teaching brewster a lesson so that he does not blow his new fortune he has to spend 30 million dollars in 30 days so that he may inherit 300 million. The analogy given, "my father caught me smoking one of his cigars in the closet one day and to break me out of the habit he made me sit there and smoke a box of cigars until I couldn't stand the taste of them".

Okay so now you know the movie to which I named this theory so what is my theory? I lot of people in these united states make decisions personally and politically against their best interest because in their minds tomorrow their ship is going to come in. They are gonna have an old uncle/aunt/long lost grandfather /whomever die and give them a fortune. This is especially apparent in people who espouse being conservatives or republicans. Because they know they are gonna be rich soon, they do not want to allow anything that will adversely affect their rich selves in the future. So they will allow themselves to be abused, belittled, hell they will sign up to be completely forgotten all because when their ship comes in ooooh are they gonna live the good life then. The thing is it's unrealistic, mainly because in the movie brewster's long lost uncle outlived all the people waiting around to get a taste of his money. And most of these people have large living families which means unlike brewster even if there was something passed down it would probably be split so many ways that unless the person was leaving millions upon millions they probably wouldn't notice it. I mean if you were like the nephew of say Bill Gates(which would have to suck since he seems to be planning to give most of his money to charitable concerns, not faulting him good man but for those 2nd and 3rd cousins they got to hate that) yeah through trickle down economics you might get some money but it might not be more then a few thousand.

Or if the relative was eccentric it might go to a cherished pet(laugh but look it up, how many pooches, kitties, and various other vermin have become multimillionaires because of a crazed owner) so for you to actually strike it rich because a long lost unbeknownst relative pops up out of the blue? Please you have better odds winning the lottery, which some people also plot their entire lives around, which is also silly. Do I have some things mapped out if I were to win the lottery yes, but I still work everyday with multiple other plans on how I might give my family a better chance going forward. I guess you could say I never like to rely on one plant or basket of eggs to feed me. I want options I want to be able to look and say hmm didn't work, didn't work, partially worked, broke even, worked and then reassess from there.

Dreams are not the problem, hell they aren't even a bad thing waiting around for those dreams is, not being flexible enough to look for more then one path to your dream thats an issue. I find it funny that especially in this online forum where most of us work our tails off to do a 9-5 conservatives talk about people wanting a hand out like only they work, when some of us are their neighbors, and coworkers. We all are out trying to give ourselves a better life and yet they deign to speak of your desire for a hand out. Even when some of the people they look up too are taking hand outs everyday. I mean no matter your station in life most folks specialize in double talk, it's bad if you get it but hey if it's given to me you know what I earned this, I busted my tail(or an ancestor, parent, luck of the draw, a fly farted) so I should get this. All the while discounting your bloody, blistered, and cracked fingers your buckling knees, your matted brow.

It isn't because you haven't worked hard enough, it's because in reality no matter where you are most folks don't want to share, I mean whats so special about being a millionaire if everyone is a millionaire? Or a billionaire? There are people who love belonging to exclusive clubs just because they know you want to get in. maybe there are some benefits but the main benefit is seeing the envious and lustful look on your face.

The road to success is a simple one, it's starts with understanding what is success to you. Then it proceeds by figuring out what you are willing to do, sacrifice or wait for to get it, it requires understanding that sometimes you will be hit with a delay, you will be stalled, but that if your truly want it you must be willing to get up regroup and push harder. Now just like brewster you will have people conspiring against you, they too want to be the envied one they just might not want to work or sacrifice for it. If they see you working or sacrificing for it, well that just won't do I mean what if you make it? Then how will they explain how you could do it but they can't man it would be horrible, it would be ego shattering if you found a way to climb out of your gloomy existence to live your dream no no they have to try and hold you back. But that is a blessing, because if you really want it then you will take that opportunity to pull away, to dig deeper and push harder. You will not let them or anyone else stop you. Which is the most important thing on the road to success you got to be willing to regroup even on the darkest and gloomiest day, see that next obstacle as an opportunity to prove to yourself what you have learned, take stock of what you have accomplished and figure out what you need to work on.

Failure is not always a bad thing it gives you the opportunity to try again with more information than you had before your failure, you now know what isn't going to work, so that you can look at the problem from a new angle with more determination.

Forced another one out

I would love to say I have been bitten by the blogging bug again but I have not. I had a thought in my head and I decided to put it out there. Both of the blogs were aimed at poking holes in some fallacies that people have been perpetrating lately I am about to do a third one, well I am contemplating doing a third one I gotta make sure I haven't done it already hell I need to do another one on here this one was fully planned for here and I have just remembered it(what part of I have a mind full of useless information and it usually takes alcohol to unclog it. And I haven't been getting my drink on much lately). I'm calling it my "Brewster's Millions" theory. But I'm not gonna spoil it by typing it out here, I said I was gonna make it it's own blog and I will. I think I have been a little mentally lazy lately I come home I veg out a little I do not get much else accomplished I need to change that a lot of things I need to do. I think this will be my 9th blog on here which thinking of how prolific I have been on other sites that I actually visit this is a little sad but then again I started this blog right before I got really busy. Then on top of that I really haven't sat down to think any of the ideas I had in my head through any further then the first few fleeting thoughts.

And if I am gonna cut out the profanity I really have to think them out, I gotta decide what I wanna say, I have to proof read them thoroughly mentally and then they get the green light. Now if I can start doing that you may see the numbers on this blog fly up. The truth about me is simple, while I may plan things out to the last degree usually when it's time to do them I just prefer to wing it. I over plan everything so that all my anxieties are gone. I mean if I don't have a topic yes I can be a little random but if you have ever given any of my blogs a read even in my scatter shot manner I tend to be a barrel of laughs as well as intelligent, witty, on point and intriguing. The only thing I am not is focused and I do need to get focused, I can fly by the seat of my pants just fine but looking forward at least in my mind I need to be a little bit more determined. I need to push a little harder there are a lot of traps out here waiting to get me stuck in a slight malaise, have me moping, and meandering it isn't hard I'm moody by nature. So if something can slow me down it just might be able to hold me there for a minute.

And right now, a part of me kinda wants to back off, never one to shy away from flames, or scars I think a part of me is saying whats the pay off. I mean has a brick even cracked? Has one budged? do I see any progress from slamming into that obstacle one more time, and maybe I am getting older but then a part of me, a part of me is still breathing fire, it's just a wall. That brick looks old, it looks crumbly, I feel give each time I hit it, it's not stopping me it's slowing me down, and I don't have time to slow down.  Look how much further it has moved back since last time, I see the scrape marks on the ground. Unfortunately for the part of me thats wants to slow down, those scrape marks are making me hungry, I'm starting to remember I like collecting scars, every scar is a story, an occurrence in my life a ripple like in a pool caused by some interaction whether in be on the surface or underneath. And personally I like my ripples all of them, they occurred in some of the strangest ways and have left me with hilarious stories.

So watch the shadows it seems the tiger may be about to reawaken and all the warning you will have is the glint from his eyes

Friday, October 16, 2009

Did a new blog on ply tonight

By ply of course I mean multiply, same name there as here. You could call this a second attempt at forcing myself to blog. As of late mentally I have just not been in the game. I keep trying to get this blog off the ground but not to use a cop out I am a capricorn and moody by nature. When the mood strikes me I can be a blogging fool (granted the proof of this is now kinda gone because 360 is no more, previously one would have noticed a sporadic amount of blogging then a huge concentration followed by more sporadic blogging), and while I do not want this to just become my blog about my other blog, nor do I want it to seem like my bragging aha I got in at a good price on certain stocks blog I really haven't found a direction for this blog yet.

I know what the title says but I don't roll with my laptop like I used too and as I have been driving more I don't get as much backseat blogging time(dunno how I would do it on my phone though), I have been twittering a little more no where near my spring levels but I have been tweeting more 300 tweets so far this month. I wanna go read a good book or two, hell a good graphic novel most of my life as of late has been work, paying bills and alcohol. No I am not dependent on alcohol we have a loving relationship and get along just fine. But I have not been doing much else, though I have started gaming again, just beat marvel ultimate alliance 2 through once on heroic going anti of course but I do want the iron spider costume(don't judge me it looked cool) for web head. Now I do mildly disagree with the new costume not having any bonus attached as well as there only being ONE new costume, the last game had a few for everybody. I love the fusion attacks some are more impressive then others.  And what marvel did to speedball wow, I used to own his first appearance(damn brothers and by brothers I mean my actual siblings). I don't even mind the stupid collect X amount of crap to unlock such and such character stuff. though there are a few characters they better make downloadable: She-hulk she's just cool always liked her, spiderwoman she had some fun attacks last game, I would love to take bishop for a spin, it would be nice to have the spiderfriends together so I guess firestar. And cloak and dagger man they are a blast from eye damage past(I say eye damage past because I used to read in low light on long car trips spiderman, cloak and dagger, power pack, west coast avengers, x-men, new warriors, yes you detect a marvel bias and guess what you can do).

Speaking of Marvel: Disney please do not screw up the greatest comic book company in the world, yes recently on SOME things they have lost their way(iron man armored adventures tony as a teenager, I mean yes there actually was a teenager ironman story line out there for a hot minute but where's the alcohol abuse) but come on the movies have been hot. Yes I am scared about Captain america, Thor, Deadpool if ryan reynolds does not play him(Ryan come back your perfect don't let DC trick you, green lantern sucks okay the original green lantern sucks the new guys are kinda cool), The avengers movie.

My thoughts on the new Nightmare on elm street, I will give jackie earl hale a chance. If he plays him a little wittier then he played Rorschach in watchmen he'll be a great freddy kruger. I am always against remakes unless the are of a higher quality and basically retell the story better then it was told in the original (Batman begins, The incredible hulk, Star Trek yes I am giving the new star trek props). Haven't been to the movies in a hot minute either I think the last thing I went to see was GI joe, haven't done a review in a hot minute either.

Welp a nice moderately sized blog without the peppering of my usual four or five letter words and no F bombs man I must be getting mature perish the thought. Catch ya next time I darken bloggers doorstep again

Thursday, September 10, 2009

5 month check in

Back in April I wrote a blog about the stocks I had bought starting after January of this year(look at the date up top people for the geniuses who read it after the date changes). Now my 6 month check up period has come and gone, and while at the 6 months those stocks looked decent today most of them look a whoooole lot better. Thus why I say be patient when investing(which with one of my stocks is now becoming torture because it may not be full home run but baby you on your way to third base and I'm thinking of telling you to turn on the jets).

Now again investing is SUPPOSED TO BE A LONG TERM THING. So even with the gains I have gotten up to this point I am not selling, because first I am still in short term capitals gainsville and second nobody has really shot the moon and there should still be some growth to come.

Now back to the stocks I had purchased an update:

Ford Motor Co Del Com Par (NYSE:F) purchased @ 2.7076 a share on 1/09/09. Well at over 7 bucks a share today not a home run but at damn near 3 times what I paid for it I ain mad. Ford pulled the turn around a lot quicker then I thought. Now granted if ford shoots up into the 20's in the next 6 months I may sell and the reasoning is simple that's a lot of money. Once ya hit 10 times what ya paid for something unless you see a stock split on the horizon take ya money you've earned it.

E Trade Financial Corp Com (NASDAQ GS:ETFC) purchased @ 1.26 a share on 2/12/09. It's above a 1.60 a share so I've made a little money but you look up above this puppy and you go, meh it's gonna take some work. Which is cool investing is a marathon not a foot race. It was beat up for a while got under a dollar a share for a minute but it has been moving mostly up. I say if we start to see a big turn around next year I think E*trade will benefit. I mean over the last decade a lot of normal everyday folks have been forced to learn about investing. And in this last debacle the mysticism surrounding "experts" has been severely tarnished so do it yourself brokers who charge decent commissions should benefit. I mean while you may not have a lot of time, if your gonna spend your money you're gonna be a lot more willing to spend some of it after you see how wrong experts can really be.

General Mtrs Corp Com (GM) first off GM is no longer GM at least stock symbol wise it is now Motors Liq Co (OTHER OTC:MTLQQ). Now I purchased the former GM @ 1.80 a share on 2/20/09. Today it's under .80 but bankruptcy is hard, I just hope it can come out stronger and more streamlined hitting the ground running but hey ford more then makes up for what I am currently losing on GM. So I'm not gonna fuss I'm going to be patient, I still see GM cars on the road I know they have some new models coming out that should be better and more fuel efficient. I believe GM can come out and make some gains.

Sirius XM Radio Inc (NASDAQ GS-D:SIRI) purchased on 2/25/09 @ .13 a share. Wow reaching right, I mean who just throws money at something under a buck? I do if the company basically still has a good product, appears to have learned from their mistakes and technically has a monopoly in their industry. Their in radio broadcasting so it does have a radio monopoly plus with HD radio starting to get traction they do have newer better competition on the horizon. Well as of todays trading it's over .60 a share. over 4 times my initial investment, so no complaints here from me. I believed them to be a better investment I mean is Google at 1200 bucks today? I don't think so. Granted Google is in a stronger position, I mean they're Google they still have commanding market share as far as search engines go(and maps, are catching up on e-mail, instant messaging and who ever they set their sights on next). But for the money in a bad economy Sirius was just the better buy.and if they hit one or two bucks again I ain complaining.

Washington Mutual Inc (OTHER OTC:WAMUQ) purchased on 3/17/09 @ .056 a share. I admitted last time this was a long shot, everybody used to love Wamu, it was everyone's favorite thrift yadda yadda yadda. so I figured pffft it's 80 bucks, who cares about that 80 bucks thats going to the movies a few weekends in a row. currently at .16 a share not out of the park but hey 3 times what I bought it for ain't bad either.


Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) purchased on 3/24/09 @ .82 a share. now this one was a slight chase there was more pain ahead in the future but hey easiest way to completely miss out on an opportunity is to always wait for "the bottom". I saw the price I wasn't upset about the price I got myself right with the price I bought it as of today it's over a 1.60 so it's like double hey double is good, double is money still waiting til next year.


Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) purchased on 4/07/09 @ .70 a share. Just like his sister Fannie freddie had some more pain in his future as well but at that price who was gonna complain. not me today it's over 1.80 
so it's over double as well.

I said 5 month check in because the last time I posted what I bought this year it was april, I did my 6 month in june most of them looked okay wasn't perfect but save GM they appeared to be heading in a nice direction, what a difference a few months make from when I did my 6 months eval and now. GM is way under but so what everything else that I bought is in the money, some of them are even 2-3 times what I purchased them for so that when I decide it's time to exit said position for the most part I will be getting money in my pocket even after I pay my commission(which is important). I hope any who jumped in at the beginning of the year like myself are seeing similar gains. Just like the disclaimer I put in the April blog

This is simply a listing of stocks I myself have purchased I am in no way shape or form recommending them to you, I am not insinuating that you will match my results if you buy in today or that past gains in anyway will predict future movements. 

 This is me saying hey this is how I am doing with the stocks I purchased woohoo I've seen some gains(I haven't sold anything so I haven't made any money yet), I've seen some losses. That is all. If you were gun shy at first but wanna try investing because you hope to see similar gains in your investments. Do your homework, read up on the companies you are interested in buying, see how the stock has moved the last few months, and decide how much you can afford to lose. Because if you are wrong you will lose money. I won't sugar coat that, investing should only be done with money you can afford to just toss away. No you don't wanna toss it away yes you hope to get some return on your investment. But if your using rent/mortgage money, car payment money, kids college tuition money  basically bill money this is not a good idea. If you have to start small start small, trust me I didn't start out with 100k either, I bought what I could where I could in amounts that I felt at the time I could justify losing that much money, on this company if it went south(see my comments about Wamu). Again I trusted my research and instincts some of them panned out. GM I understood the strong possibility of them going into bankruptcy (which they did) I bought the stock anyway. So while I look pretty smart right now I'm not breaking out any PRIMAL DATA Super Genius plaques anytime soon(a parody of the old looney toons Wile E. Coyote Super Genius bit).

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