Guard Dog

I grilled some venison (marinated in whisky, garlic, olive oil, onion powder, and salt) with mushrooms & zuchinni for dinner. I just poured a glass of nine year old bourbon (Knob Creek of course) with two ice cubes and now I'm gonna play fallout New Vegas. Ceaser's boys better watch out, I'm coming in loaded!

I've GOT to remember that line! Too funny!

There is never a bad time to invest in securities if you are careful. You need to understand why a stock rises and falls, and what makes a company profitable. I think in the last thread I went into some detail about EBITA and the types of debt that a company can carry. The reason why we have the iPod, iPhone, etc today is because that in the late 1980s Apple had a strong earning percentage with a low debt service. This means they had the capital for long term R&D projects like that. You just will not see that kind of explosive growth from a company like IBM for a number of reasons, the biggest of which is they do not have the capital to do that without a serious reorganization. Thry sub most of that anyway. I know Krezack is looking at loading his portfolio with dividend paying stocks. Unless you are putting in a LOT of money that is a fine long term choice but it will not get you the 10% near term goal you are looking for. The best way to hit 10-20% near term growth is small cap stocks where small variations in trading volume can swing the price. Dividends are just pennies on the share most of the time so unless you have a hell of a lot of stock we're not talking about a lot of money. Also dividend paying stocks are usually have a huge volume of shares and are not very actively traded because the folks who own hundreds of thousands of share are counting on those dividends so they are only actively bought and sold by speculators (people like us) so the price stays fairly stable. They will not grow in value at any great rate over the years. I have five rules for stock investing. They are: 1) Know your exit before you enter. Never buy a stock without know exactly what you want to sell it at and you are reasonably sure it will hit your mark based on your research. 2) Never adjust your stop loss once you've decided what it is. 3) Diversify 4) Diversify 5) Diversify.

Keep fighting Tarna, we're all thinking of you!

We talked about that in June IIRC it was going for around $170-$180 and today it is at $187 with a lot of up and down since. Mostly down, it peaked somewhere north of $200 very briefly this year and hasn't sniffed it since. Like I said back then, there is not a lot to love about IBM if you are looking for rapid growth. If you're looking for 10-20yr performance it is a fair choice, but you would not have to look hard to find better ones. It really comes down to what your expectations are. I think Krecack bought in somewhere around $10k. If the goal is a safe place to park that money where it will likely pay better than bank interest then a company like IBM is the way to go.

My dad used to rub bourbon on my gums when I was teething as a baby I heard. My mom was afraid it would make me a drunk. Oh.... wait... Serously I've heard that works.

Fio, any word from Tarna?

The Ultimate Edition (or something) was announced recently, which is basically that except it's not called GOTY. It's coming in early Feb. 2012. That figures.

Well I finally broke down and bought Fallout New Vegas. I had been holding out for a GOTY edition with all the DLCs but if there was going to be one we'd have heard about it by now. Besides, it's going for $14.99 at Walmart so what the heck. It just finished loading so I'm going to drink a few beers and give it a look. And by the way Obsidian guys... no more Steam games. Seriously. Steam is an intense burning pain in the *** and it sucks the joy from the whole experience. It's the only reason I never bought Shogun 2 TW. So, cut that crap out.

I don't blame you in the least. Why do you think I've been arguing that we need to strip these suckers of as much of their power as possible? I'll make a libertarian of you before it's over Calax. The college commies can't have sunk their claws too deep into you yet!

Congrats on the new family members!

I celebrated by watching the Florida Panthers lose a heartbreaker to the Jets. Then spent the rest of the night watching Paranormal Activity (very good) then Paranormal Activity 2 (not so good).

It's easy to get turned around in that place. The parking lot is poorly lit and barely numbered and every exit looks the same. But it was funny!

You went to MDCC? Cool, now there is an up chance that i've bumped into you in real life. Yep, I finished my AA there from 1996 to 1999, all at night. Then I got my BS from FAU, finished in 2003. When were you there?

Malazan is a tricky series in that people inevitably love or hate it. Erikson doesn't tell his story in a straightforward, chronological way. For frame of reference: Combined with a huge cast of characters and a shockingly in-depth world...it can get confusing. I remember having a lot of trouble in the first few books. It gets easier once you become familiar with the world and its terminology. It's similar to GRRM's ASoIaF in that it nails a dark, gritty atmosphere but whereas Martin has a more low-fantasy world, Malazan is full of magic and gods who like to intervene (resurrection, making pawns, etc). Also, Malazan has a lot of characters but at the expense of depth, unfortunately. You probably won't find well-written characters on the level of ASoIaF. So if you prefer fantasy that doesn't rely on magic, stay away from these books. The closest parallel I can think of is Glen Cook's The Black Company. Chances are if you enjoy that, you'll like Malazan. Thanks, I don't think that's for me.

Funny story. Last night I got a call from a friend who went to a concert over at the Fed Ex forum in midtown. He said his truck had been stolen and he needed a ride. I drove out there and picked him and his wife up, the cops were gone but they had a police report in hand. So I picked them up on the east side of the Forum and was driving around to the the west side to exit when I noticed a shiny red Tahoe sitting right there about 20 spaces away from the exit. I asked him "Isn't that your truck?" It was. The fool forgot what side of the arena he parked on. I laughed and I laughed and the more I did the madder his wife got at him. That was worth the drive!

Point well taken Tig.

Well, if it were a normal case of the blues it probably would. What Calax is dealing with is a lot more complicated and not curable by the "chicken soup" method (something that makes you feel better without actually curing anything). But it certainly wouldn't hurt!

I had an interesting discussion in class with one of my professors back in college. It was in a Calculus class and I was having some difficulty with antiderivatives so I kept asking him questions that kept him on the subject longer than he wanted. He made an offhanded remark on my responsibilities as a student and his as a teacher. I explained to him that he was mistaken about the nature of our relationship. In my view I hired and paid for Miami Dade Community College to teach me the Calculus II class. MDCC then assigned him (as their employee) the task of carrying out their end of the agreement. That means I am not his student, I am his customer and he has an obligation to follow his syllabus and teach the material as agreed when I paid my tuition for his class. Not just "present it and move on". Needless to say he was not pleased to hear that his august and noble profession was really just little more than a paid service provider just like any other person with a job. But, that is what it is.

Now reading "The Savior" by Eugene Drucker about a german musician hired to entertain troops at a labor camp in WWII and has a crisis of conciense when he sees how the jewish prisioners are treated. You can pretty well guess where the plot is going but at least the cliche is delivered gracefully. BTW, how is Gardens of the Moon ? I bought it off the sale rack a while back but have never read it. I have a hard time getting into fantasy unless Tolkien or Martin wrote it.

Calax, you're still at University right? Hit up some bars man! Meet some new people! The noise would exacerbate my symptoms. You need to get a good roll in the hay. That will snap you right out of it, or at least make it go easier.

I have a fair sized garden and I just started raising rabbits. If I could find a way to make my own electricity (and dog food, and booze) I'd be fairly self sufficient. By that I mean make it in the quantities I'd want to be comfortable, not just subsusting.

One nice thing about getting out of design work, I'm getting home on time again, and then enjoying free time once I do get home. I'd forgotten how good that feels. Time to kick back with a big glass of iced tea and watch some Law & Order. Woo Hoo. No baseball tonight. Bummer.

Thanks for the kind words everyone. And you are all correct, she had a great run and went out happy and peacefully. Thats the best any of us can hope for. Except me. I'll be the dumbass that falls off a ladder while hanging a fan or something.

Yup yup... Brown! Congrats, that is outstanding! We were speaking of feeling old earlier, when I started coming to this board you, Krookie, Pixies, heck even Calax were all kids! Wild stuff.