Wow

Been a busy week. Sorry for the delay in getting a post out there. I was working every day except for Christmas and the rest were filled with festivities. Plus, our infant is sick, so it has been stressful.
Got a couple of pet projects I am working on. Otherwise, been busy with swimming lessons, etc. for the family.
Spent an hour playing Smarty Pants on the Wii with my wife last night. It was nice to get some time for us to have fun. My son really enjoys the Lego Star Wars game on Wii.
Will be missing the family get together in NY this year. Kind of sad, but it will be a full weekend and there is so much to do. I need to clean up after the holidays, the older boys have swimming Sat. morning, Brendan and I need to work on his Pinewood derby car for Cub Scouts, Brendan has piano on Sunday, and coming up on Monday is the High School Musical on ice event with Brendan and Mateo.
If you don't know what the High School Musical is, lucky you. It is kind of like the Disney version of the modern day Grease musical. Kids of all ages rave over this thing. Boy did Disney hit a home run with this one!! Anyway, really not looking forward to going into Philly on New Year's Eve for it, but hopefully it will work out. In retrospect I think we have been to every Disney on ice show there is/was. Kind of weird since I don't think I went to a single on-ice event as a kid. Wasn't really into that sort of thing.
Anyway, hope you are all doing well.
Talk to you soon!
-K

Not much

That's about what is new. I am just having fun finishing up with holiday nonsense. Funny how hard it can be to mail a package. I finally succeeded today after trying for the last 4 days. Every time the PO was either packed to the hilt or the automated machine was full or down. Fun stuff. All in all, can't wait until the world returns to normality.
I cannot wait to see my boys in their Christmas concert tomorrow. They were practicing the songs today. They will be so cute up there!
Brendan earned his bobcat badge this week and is on his way to the tiger badge. I was very happy. My whole tiger cub den has earned their bobcat badge and are on their way to Tiger. We are preparing for a trip to the firehouse to learn about fire safety in early January and we will be carving the car for the pinewood derby. I think I can win it using some of my engineering skills. I think the key is straight, easy rolling wheels. Straight is the key, as you don't want vibrations in the wheels to increase friction. I also think that some graphite powder on the axles will do wonders. As for weighting, I would like to be just at weight. As more weight means more friction on the wheels. Otherwise, there is not much else you can do to improve. no fans or other motor devices allowed.
Any bloggers out there have any ideas, I am up for hearing them.
As for the stock market: we must wait it out until next year. People will not be doing much of anything good for about a month. Then its quarterly and annual earning season once again and look out.
Well, its late. I'm tired.
Talk to you soon!
-K

Hello

Hey out there, not much new to report. Had a den meeting last night that went well, but I sort of felt unprepared despite my preparations. I am sure it was okay and that I am being overly critical, but perhaps I need more activities to make the children feel more engaged. At least I can say that my tiger cubs will be getting their bobcat badges.
As for the holiday shopping, I think we are in for it, as we have a lot of shopping to do. I am hoping that we can get it all done. Mostly we have shopping for others to do and only to grab a few things for the little ones.
Boy has the market been a downer lately. All gains over a few days seem to get erased by a single day's decline. I can see how the boomers must be feeling a bit nervous, as their retirement is based on the market performance in almost any fashion. There really is no place to hide from what we are in. I guess the moves to make are in where you are now when the market does recover. It will recover, but is a question of when. Hang in there and we'll make out fine.
Well, I think I will head out with the baby in tow to try and get a Christmas card for my wife. Actually two, one from the kids as well.
Well, talk to y'all soon!
-K

Interesting

So, not much new to report. I will be pretty busy here in the near future, so who knows what I'll be able to get up here in the next couple of days.
Couple of things that astounded me:
Volkswagen created a super-clean, super-powerful, super-efficient diesel engine. It runs cleaner than gasoline, has comparable power to a v6 using only a v4 2.0 L engine, and gets 74 mpg. Amazing. I cannot wait to see that make an impact. (In this month's popular mechanics magazine)
This one takes the cake: MIT has posted its course curriculum online for anyone to download for free. That includes lecture materials, exercises, assignments, and all the other wonderful things you did in college. They are not from this year or last, but range in years from 2003-2005. Not that statistics has changed much in two short years. I think they will be statistically valid ;). I am 100% serious, you want to study like an MIT student, here it is: MIT's OCW materials
That will revolutionize education online.
Well, that's all I've got for now. More when I can,
-K

What now????

So yesterday I tried to start my old van (5 yrs. really isn't old). It wouldn't start, but made the characteristic clicking sound which usually indicates a dead or low battery. So I ran to Pep Boys to buy a new battery. The guy looked one up and sold it to me. I didn't get to put it in, since I had a party to go to last night. Yes, there was some drinking, but I didn't get TOO loaded. So this morning for shits and giggles I tried the van once more. Still cranked and clicked, but no start. Fine. I take out the battery and its clearly the wrong size. Fudge: back to Pep Boys. But I now recalled that I had just recently replaced the battery and had gone so far as to dig up the receipt, take out the "old" battery and bring it with me while I return the wrong sized one the store guy gave me. He takes my old battery and runs the free diagnostic on it while I return the new battery. Old battery is fine and fully charged. So I buy a Haynes car repair book (its about that time in the life of the can anyway) and determine it is probably the starter. So I go back home and try to take out the starter. About halfway through unbolting some things I decide: perhaps I should buy the new starter first, that way I can see how much of the entire starting mechanism I need to remove.
Great. So after a trip back to Pep Boys buying the starter, I come home and settle in on some lunch and get the kids to nap time. Back to the Van! I try taking out the starter but I cannot losen one of the bolts that mounts it to the engine. Of course, it doesn't help that the idiots at Dodge put it directly under the exhaust manifold so you can't actually see the bolt or get at it.
Regardless, (notice I didn't say irregardless, as that is not a word) I can't finish the job. So I spend another 30 minutes putting the whole kit and kaboodle back together.
At this point I am not happy. But for S&G's (see above) I decide to try the van. It works. With the old starter. Now do I trust it? Probably not. After all this I am going to take it to Pep Boys and have them put in the starter I bought. After all, it is bound to fail again. Do I really want to find out the hard way??
Fun times.
I got a game for my Wii on Black Friday called Red Steel. It is cool. You're like a bodyguard and you get guns and swords. Fighting is cool and the world is very realistic and 3-d looking. I get extra "respect points" for crouching around and cappin' some bad guys from above or through a window. I only have gotten to play it a couple of times, but you can play against other people and stuff, so not bad for $9.99 at CCity.
Big business news: Compusa out of business. That's what my bro tells me. He lives in Austin and they are a Dallas company, so it made the news, which he works for. News 8 Austin.
Alright, time to get this baby to bed. Giggity.

-K

This guy Murphy sucks.

So, today I am working hard, as always. My wife and I chat briefly about how my middle son wants a mummy toy for Christmas. So much so, that he asked Santa for it in both verbal and written form. Not sure what the fascination with a mummy is, but do you know how hard it is to find a mummy during the Holiday (for us Christmas) season????
So, after an exhaustive search I settled on a stuffed DOG toy that looks like a decent mummy. Of course, I have no dog. But it was the only one that didn't look either weird or super-cheap. Funny thing paying $8 +shipping for a dog toy.
Of course, I happen to be in the middle of ordering it when my supervisor walks in. I awkwardly explain that my son wants a mummy and that I could only find a dog toy and yes, I was ordering it right there. Of course, Tuesday he walked in when I was on the phone with my mother and yesterday when I was on the phone with a co-worker. So, I must look like the biggest slacker ever.
Murphy should be taken out back and caned.
His law of humanity is the worst thing ever created.
So, needless to say, he did seem to somewhat understand, but ya know, I AM trying to get hired here....
Anyhow, murphy's law also dictates that if you are trying to sneak out early, he'll happen to be in the lobby. All in all, not too cool.
As for the order: went through and my son will be happy to get a dog toy this Christmas.

• That dog has a big mouth


• Yo quiero dignity


• Smurf mummy didn't make the cut.

So on with the show. Small slide on the market. Timed the viacom stock.It is a roller coaster and I'm gonna make some (small) spread using my free trading account. God Bless BofA for that one.
Open an e-trade account and save some spread: no minimums, free $25, $1 deposit to start. Easy transfer in and out of your account.
Etrade free $25
Not a bad place to park some money, even if only a little. High rate around 5%. Good deal. No referral bonus for me, so just looking out for y'all. Save a little for a rainy or snowy day.
Or both, like today.
Well, if anyone out there in dreamland can tell me how I can make some money on the side to populate the above mentioned account, I would love to hear it.
There used to be this site called itmoonlighter.com back in the day. One could go and put in a bid on a job and the it was sort of like getting a road paving contract: lowest bidder wins. The site made money by handling all the billing (and of course making a cut) and by posting the jobs/projects in the first place. I never had any luck with that. I just want to use a couple of hours (at most) a night and do something useful and make some money. Not even a lot of money. Just something to stash away to help pay for the $400,000 or whatever the 3 kids will cost for college.
Well, peace to my homies!
-K

Perspective

Hello world.
This week has been a bit much, all in all. I was not able to get around to blogging and there are very good reasons. I don't think I can mention them all just yet. But there are.
Tuesday night I was completely chewed out by my lovely wife for being late leaving work. Long and short of it was that she waited in the van for me for 45 minutes, while I didn't answer her calls to both my desk and cel phone. I was talking to my Director, but he would've understood if I had answered the calls while we chatted. But I was rude and my wife let me have it. I didn't speak more than a few words to her the rest of the night. As for making up, didn't happen as another little bombshell diverted our attention. She is pretty sad and now I need to focus on trying to bring her back around to the happy side of life.
I guess that is the way it is sometimes, huh? Things can go well for a while and then life challenges you. Looking at life, I think I tend to be a glass half-full kind of person and my wife is the opposite. I suppose the balance keeps us under tension at times, but helps to balance our view of the world; our perspective.
At any rate, the holidays are approaching (started already for some ;) Happy Chanukah!) It seems like this year snuck past me while I worked. I don't know that I like that feeling. I really like to enjoy life more.
Seems like an eternity since I worked at Commerce. The more time passes, the less I miss the folks who don't keep in touch, and the more I miss the folks reading this here and now. Thanks guys for keeping in touch. I am surprised that some people I thought would stay in touch dropped me like the plague. I suppose to some extent I must have mis-judged them. Well, I cannot let that get to me. Perhaps I'll send people fruit baskets or something to remind them that life is "sweeter" than work alone.
I actually had a longing for one more long commute, but after the recent "blizzard" ;) I thought better of that longing. I am not missing the commute at all. (Even when commuting in silence while being yelled at.) Yes, you heard right, me in silence!
As for stocks, the rising market makes me even more skeptical. What fundamentals have gotten better? Perhaps oil, but the housing and "credit crunch" are in their Little Nicky stage on their way to full-fledged devilhood. Jobs, spending, and consumer sentiment are at 5 year lows. Yes, that means people are about as bummed out as they were after some crazy fuckers dropped two buildings and killed thousands. That is certainly not a good sign. And though the fed has lowered rates and banks are getting their funded money cheaper, the consumer doesn't see much of that, which means the banks are pocketing the difference to make up for the "people" who decided to buy too much against their home equity. Why do we always pay for those idiots? I suppose in a free-society that stuff happens.
Well, hope everyone is getting on out there in happy land.
Some funny posts to make you laugh:
Classic example of how rich people think they are environmental, but aren't
Notice the taglines: premier usually doesn't equate to cheap and poisonous and one of the 100 best citizens (where... in North Korea??)
Classic picture humor. Spend hours. They're damn funny.
That's all for now.
-K

OK, now for a break

So, I get it. Enough about the stocks for the weekend. Busy weekend ahead. The older boys are starting indoor soccer tomorrow. This is the first season of indoor, though they have both been in outdoor before. Then we are going to get a real tree tomorrow, in lieu of Sunday (wintry mix?). So I guess Sunday frees up for some football....
Shipoopi?
JC's first word was uh-oh, very fitting. His third word, though, was football. (Second was simply ball). He seems very enthralled by football and cheers for the teams as they run the ball. He even seems to pick up when an incompletion occurs, because he says " Ohhhhhhhhhh". I am completely fascinated by his interest at 17 months. He now can say a version of touchdown and raises one or both of his arms. It is damn cute.
My other two are not too interested in football just yet. Though my wife and I have brainwashed them to like the Ravens and Broncos. They are also brainwashed by their teachers to like the Eagles, so needless to say, they are confused as to who to like.
The same situation happens in baseball with the Yankees, Orioles, and Phillies.
They like the Blue Rocks too (Wilm.'s AA team), but that is okay since it is the hometown team, right?
Well sort of.
At any rate, things are going well. I saw an old buddy from MBNA (yeah, that place) and he talked about maybe wanting to go back. But it's simply not the same after BofA took over. I think he wouldn't like it nearly as much as he did before.
I suppose after 15 years of working for the same place you will feel attached when you helped it grow from a fledgling company to a mega-corporation. I guess that is the nature of change, right?
Just remember the good times >;)
(note the sarcasm).
Well, my wife is off to a show with a friend (girl... giggity). So I get to spend quality time with my best buddies and watch the taped shrek-the-halls, eat ice cream, and party. Party time at the Kuntz household.
Later out there folks,
-K

P.S. More stock stuff to follow next week, I promise.

See?

Alrighty then! I don't mean to gloat, but talk about CBH pulling through. In the last five days it corrected from the $35 range to nearing $40. Sell at $40, buy at $35-$36. As many times as possible between now and March.
Anyway, another fine pick is NUAN. They are a voice communications company that has deals with Tom-Tom and other card manufacturers. Get this: You can say your destination to the device and it will then map it out. How cool is that? Well, NUAN (Nuance Communications) makes that possible.
Check them out as a buy in the $19 range and a superbuy at the $18 range.
PCU (Southern Copper) looking to make a comeback.

On a completely unrelated topic. Superbad comes out on DVD soon. Buy it, rent it, whatever. Funniest goddamn movie I have seen in a while. I laughed the entire time. It is written from the vantage point of a pubescent-teen-male-just-about-to-graduate-high-school point of view. That explains why my wife wasn't that amused by it. I, however, found Mclovin to be the funniest character since Napolean Dynamite. Kudos to a quality comedy. Perhaps this wasn't the greatest 9-yr. anniversary movie to see.....

Well, nothing much else new around here. Trying to blog and work on a side project of mine own. Not sure of the value of it. Certainly not a quit-your-day-job type of thing. Perhaps it will have no takers. We'll see. I found a need I couldn't fulfill online and decided to make my own. While doing it, decided I could maybe try this out as a thing. Not finished. Got a bit of coding to do.
Let y'all see it when done (whenever the hell that is).

Well, much love to my homies...
-K

P.S. Oil barrel prices drop: XOM makes more money. Watch for record 1Q08 earnings if the price keeps dropping....Good buy? You decide. I vote yes to high dividends and great returns.

Hey

So, buy or hold. I fear the market is on a down turn. And it might last for a while. Warren Buffett recommends ETFs for a reason. Basically, you can buy into a large chunk of stocks and sit on it. (Not figuratively or literally).
For an uninformed investor, guessing timing and which stock is most likely to recover is hard. I can't say. The only real factor here is oil prices that can turn in our favor. All else is not looking good. Housing bad, credit crunch bad, war bad. Our only economical saving grace will be lower oil barrel prices. Some experts think it can happen. Gas Buddy <--Interesting site. Allows you to plot up to 6 yrs. gas price history. Plot the U.s. price vs. oil prices. See how the margin (gap between the lines) pull away very wide lately? That means one of two things: speculation on the price of crude oil is way out of line and large correction will happen soon. (Say yeah for everyone, incl. our economy.) Or it could mean gas at the pump will spike to $4 this winter.(Boo for everyone but the conservationists who will love the drive for green tech.
(Please check out links to Popular Science in previous post for something to hope for)
All in all, stay the course. Nothing has come out to drive things either way. Consumer confidence dip did not substantially impact market today, leading me to believe we are in a temporary plateau.

Otherwise, things are fine for me. Not much new.
Hope all of you reading this are alright!
Amusing Filipino humor

Hang in there for now!
-K

Welcome Back

Hello out there again!
I had a decent Thanksgiving. Thankfully for us we went to my wife's uncle's house for Turkey day. He is an Ear-Nose-Throat Dr. and was able to check out my oldest son's illness. He had strep. After finding a Rite Aid that was open all day on T-Day and getting a 'scrip for amoxocillin, B was on the road to recovery. What a trooper. He was clearly in pain and tired. So he slept a lot during his time off. I have to say, though, that he could've have been much worse for the illness.
As for the rest of the family, we had a good time. I didn't actually eat any turkey,
I had a whole lot of food, though.
Not much else interesting going on. Kind of wish I had some external money coming in from outside, moonlighting type of work. Not sure how that would happen. Things like that don't really find me.
Anyway, the market has been a real bummer. I am fearing that it will get much, much worse before it gets better. I am going to try an bail out of some of my stocks as soon as they see the light of day (a.k.a. a profit, even if small). I fear the U.S. economy is on the way to a recession.
Interesting topic, talk about making money. Usually, before a corporate acquisition, the company being acquired goes through a somewhat predictable cycle. (So does the buyer... we'll get back to that in a moment).
The news hits the street and the company being bought is at say $38/shr. The acquisition specifies a buy-price of $42/shr. Therefore, once can assume that the stock will reach $42 in value. This causes an immediate jump in price to near, but below, the target buy-price. See this graph as an example:
CBH gets bought
Notice the upswing after the acquisition news came out in the beginning of October. So over time CBH falls back in line with the market. But remember, come March when the acquisition happens (and possibly upon the news of the approval by the OCC), the stock will convert to TD Banknorth stock at the equivalent of $42/shr. At a current price of $65/shr. that means you would get somewhere in the ballpark of .65 share of TD per share of CBH. Near the acquisition date, though, the trading price will be pretty close to the sale price.
As an example, see MBNA. Notice that after the large drop (due to them severing more people than expected in March), the stock recovers back to the $21.50/shr. range. Then, after the announcement of the acuisition in June, the stock spikes to near the $26+ acquisition price, dips a little and then closes above $27 around acquisition time. So you can time the buy between the announcement and the actual sale to make a "guaranteed" return. As an example, buy CBH at $35 now and sell prior to the March conversion at $40-$42. Easy money right? It gets sweeter...
Post-conversion the acquiring company always drops. Why? Because of valuations. TD made $4 billion in 2006. If it now has acquired CBH, that means more shares outstanding (based on the above ratio). So, initially, the stock price will plunge as the earnings/shr. looks inordinately low. Over time this will correct itself. See Bank of America's share price around the time of the MBNA acquisition:
MBNA sinks another profit
Notice the large drop around July 1st, when the acquisition went through. (Also notice the recovery by the end of 2005, once merger and speculation details settled out and the profits started to roll in).
Bottom line is this:
1. Buy CBH LONG now at the basement price of $35/shr.
2. Sell CBH LONG at $40-$41 around the end of February, beginning of March
3. Buy TD Banknorth (TD) SHORT around the beginning of March
4. Sell TD Banknorth (TD) SHORT after it's drop has begun (perhaps wait a week or two to maximize profits)
5. Buy TD Banknorth (TD) LONG directly after your SHORT sale.
6. Sell TD Banknorth later, once it has recovered and gone up.

This will net you some $$. Just review the MBNA-BAC merger and others to verify.
Don't know what buying/selling SHORT is? Check this out: Shorting


OK, so enough of that. I am looking into trying out for the Series 7 certification, since I seem to have an interest in investing and providing advice.
Well, have fun out there.
Talk to you all soon!
-K

Hello

Hey everybody out there.
Not much new. Just looking forward to Turkey-Day. I hope everyone has a good day and a "gobbles" down some food.
Hope all is well out there.
Later,
-K

If it were me....

So I got the question of where to put a chunk of money in today's market. I will tell you that I was in the same predicament about 2 weeks ago with my rollover from my cbh 401k. Here's the deal:
A lot of people will tell you to invest in the market more as it drops. I think that is a partial truth, as you can never predict accurately the end of the drop. It is a catch 22 in that the prominent folks who put it out there where the end is directly affect the end by influencing people about where the end is. So, if you tell people a stock will go up, it might just do that for the sole reason that people will buy it based on your advice (higher demand=higher price). That's why a lot of people out there can be right about price increases when they are the cause. That is why the SEC has some pretty clear guidelines on public advice and insider trading.
So here's my 2 cents. I took a chunk and invested it in two locations: Diamond Offshore and Target. Why? Because Target is awesome and we all know it and will continue to have shoppers due to its price advantage and friendlier atmosphere than Box-Mart. Diamond offshore books contracts for 10 yrs. providing drilling equipment to large oil companies at around $500,000/day. You do the math. This thing will continue to be a dividend-ATM for years and years. Plus oil will continue to get more and more expensive and harder to find. A boon just happened for the fine country of Brazil:
Brazil finds oil, moves to Beverly Hills
As a result, the deep-sea rigs that only a couple of companies (DO included) can supply will become hot commodities.
Outside of indiv. stocks, which I don't recommend if you do not know how to read a financial statement, don't follow business news, and don't care to, you should consider either specialty funds or exchange-traded-funds (a.k.a. ETFs). Look into iShares, which has a whole series of S&P matching funds based on the lesser S&P indexes. For example, they have growth, aggressive growth, small-cap, etc. based on the S&P categorizations. Let's face it, S&P has been doing this forever and everyone always compares their funds to the S&P. That has to tell you something. No one ever compares to the DJIA, as they are so skewed to manufacturing and American Classic stocks like GM, Ford, etc. (The hell with those guys).
In addition, look for funds that are based off of commodities, like metals, corn (in high demand due to spike in ethanol production), petroleum, and other industrials. In a recession, commodities continue to hold value, particularly gold, since they are tangible goods. I would say that since gold is at a record high, perhaps that should be shied away from. Sure it can go 10 $1000/oz., but it could also fall back to $250/oz, like it did in the early 80's shortly after its last record runnup.
So, depending on where you have your money, choose funds appropriately. If there is a price or load advantage to pick one run by the same company that holds your IRA, that could be a good bet. If not, look to low-cost fund providers like Vanguard, ETFs, and others like Fidelity.
Be cautious of expense ratios as those eat into returns right from the get-go and impact you long term.
Does that help? If you are looking for specific stocks, I like/hold these myself in various accounts and would recommend them:
DO - Diamond Offshore (oil rigs for deep sea exploration)
PCU - Souther Copper (as the name suggests it is mining)
TGT - who doesn't know Target????
BAC - banking without as much sub-prime impact as other large; solid div.s, solid earnings. Hey they are brutal, so you know they rake in the cash
INTC - in price war, but clearly beating up AMD. Look for them around $20 and then buy
XOM - We all know exxon mobil makes more money than anyone. Consistent dividend; oil production development that will yield volume results in the next year to year and a half will increase earnings.
SGP - pharma giant that produces consumer goods out the ying-yang. constant earner and dividend payer


As for ETFs: small cap or aggressive growth (there is overlap here). Because institutions can not invest large amounts of money in small-cap stocks, they are largely for small-time traders like us. Think about it: if a company has a million shares of stock at $25/shr., someone large cannot invest more than $12.5 million without becoming the largest shareholder and as a result literally run the company. Plus, if they buy large quantities of stock in a single run they will drive the price up ridiculously high. So small-caps go untouched because large funds are not in the business of owning companies nor investing small amounts of money. That's where we can play. Do your research, though. Once bitten twice shy for me. I would be cautious with this. It is like gambling, since a small company that folds up generally has no divisible assets left after creditors and you will get nothing.
Shit, that happened to me in 2001 with MCI (worldcom) and they were huge! I couldn't even get the share certificate to use as TP, since the cost to print it would exceed its actual value.

Hope this helps!
-K

P.S. I am not a certified advisor and have no expertise at all. If you listen to me you will lose money. Hope that covers me for my liability ;)!!

Hello there!

Hey,
Van, happy to hear about the kids comin' to town. You will be a happier and healthier spirit for a while. Like having your batteries recharged.
Dave, I know man. Doesn't it seem like you work to live and then live to work? Like some kind of vicious cycle. The great thing about life is the in between. Loving, living, relaxing.
Don't under-estimate the power of a kid-hug.
On other news, turkey days snuck up on me and I am now starting to get excited. It means I can be thankful for surviving another year and had that many more hugs and love to savor.
Nothing to report on the market. It hit a 10-yr low today. wtf?
Well, folks, that's what gambling is all about. Legal or not, right?
Hope all is well out there in the rest of the land.
Couple of fascinating articles about the green-tech wave:
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/flat/bown/2007/green/item_59.html
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/flat/bown/2007/innovator_2.html
These people rock and will change the face of energy in the next 2 years. I just hope an pray big business doesn't get to them first.
Later,
-K

Sick.

OK, so I got it. And I feel like crap. So it'll be brief tonight before I get some early shut-eye. Baby sick again, wife still sick, and now me. Hangin' in there, but drawback of contracting: nowork=no$. So, I am bearing through as much of the work days as I can fever.
ON another note, worried about damn stove. Made beeping and gave a "fault error". Upon dissection and further inspection, small burnout spot on the inside of the digital display. Translation: use it and endure the incessant beeping or buy the new display (hereto discontinued by the fine folks at Sears) that I found at one single place after googling the 'net. Sounds risky. Beeping isn't that annoying is it?
Who needs a damn stove or range anyway. Nuke the crap.
Well, I need to go rest.
Have fun out there world. Try to blog more later when sane.
-K

P.S. Bad market: big up then big down. I am getting seasick. I think I'll just close my eyes and wait.

P.S.s. Experts >;) are more and more convinced that gas prices will drop, barring an Iran invasion. Some crazy nuts think as much as a 30-40% drop. I wouldn't be surprised if they are right a year from now, but only if Bush doesn't do anything stupid. (I guess you could assume we are doomed)

Perhaps this should be illegal:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=92d_1194493089
as should this:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=76d_1194360708 {Gosh darn funny. Can you make fun of the man, he gets a lot of poon.}

Hello, common sense, where art thou?

OK:
So nothing much has changed in the economy, but today is a huge up-swing in the market. Is that because of the drop in oil prices? Maybe. But maybe the market is this roller coaster as everyone tries to time the market. Well folks, the downswings in the market have been getting deeper and wider (larger drops and longer depressions).
Why is this? Well, because there is not an infinite amount to be made. For every $ made, someone is losing a $. Common sense. We need to work on the problems with the economy before we hope to make more money overall.
Here are some common sense ways:
1. End the war-gusher. Yes folks, we tapped the jugular here and are pissing away money and more importantly lives. What do we expect will be gained anyway? Love the troops, hate the war.
2. Housing. Let's all buys homes we can afford. Let's afford the homes we have. Elaborate financing is a house of cards. All us sensible people knew that.
3. Cars: fuel efficiency, reasonable sizes, car pools. Those are the ways they did it in the 70s.
4. Stocks. Invest in some stocks that you think will last. Now, one can never see the future on this, but pick solid picks like Target, Exxon Mobil, and others. What about Schering-Plough? They will always sell us their OTC medicines and we will always need them. Good earner.
5. Save, save, save. Nothing beats saving to prevent your default on loans. Having a nest egg at a nice place like ING helps. (Ask me how, I'll send you a link and we'll both earn some $$)
6. Love your job. If you don't try, how can you complain about not getting the money "you deserve". The key to wealth and success is hard work. Less than 10% of the most wealthy Americans made their money through hard work. Particularly the Warren Buffetts, the Bill Gates, and the Steve Jobs.
7. Use your mind and your intellect. Don't impulse shop, don't impulse invest. Both are bad money-losers.

Okay, enough of that. Hard day. Everybody is recovering from sicknesses in the family and I had to mow the lawn in the dark. It needed it. It had been 9 weeks! Then running around for dinner and stuff. I am tired, tired, tired. But, need to push on 'cause there is too much to do.
Well, I'll add to this later (if I find the time.)
Hope all are well out there in the real world!
Big hello to all my buds and any wandering eyes out there.

Thanks for listenening!
-K

Big picks coming through this week: bank stocks! (Told you.) Expect more from them. Look to big commodity earners like RIG, DO, XOM, and PCU. They are big earners and paying large dividends.

Virus

So, This weekend was extremely tiring. 80% of the fam was sick, incl. me. My infant started us off on Wed. last week, then it was my 4 yo on Thursday, then my wife on Sat. night. Meantime, I have been fighting off the fevers and cold stuff. I am not allowed to be sick, as someone has to take care of the others. Miraculously, my 6 yo didn't get sick yet. My baby is almost fully recovered and the 4 yo is on the mend. But my wife had a 101.4 today on the ear thermo. That left me running around doing all the normal 2-person tasks. I am pretty damn tired.
All that running around just reminds me how hard it must be for single mothers or fathers. How dare the republican right laid into single mothers in the late 80's. You try wiping your baby's ass while carrying your feverish 40 lb. 4 yo in your arms, all while sporting your own fever. Not too easy. I can't imagine how it must be. 'Course I had to take care of the wife as well. My oldest helped me clean the play room, his bedroom, and (god bless him) he tried to sponge the table off as well.
I rewarded him with his favorite special treat: three musketeers bars. He helped me make it through the weekend and even went online, printed, and colored a get well sign for his mommy. How nice is he? Better than me. I didn't do anything super special for her.....
Well, a new work week begins. This one will be interesting I suppose. I am really hoping that I get picked up full time. We'll see. Last week was bad for the stock market :( But I am holding for now and have either commodities-based stocks (gas, oil, copper, etc.), target (LOVE Target!!!), and some banking. YES, banking! You watch these banks make their money back without breaking a stride or lowering a dividend. How? Easy: someone will be financing the foreclosures, the purchases of the foreclosures, and the forclosed-people's new homes. It will end up evening out in the end. Good time to get in on some all-around banking funds or ETF's to avoid any single source of risk. Need a cheap place to start? Check out ING. Email me and find out how you and I can make money by you opening an account. Low auto-investment downpayment and low continual contribution. Cost of bring lunch vs. eating out for a month. Good stuff.
Well, that's all for now. For anyone out there reading this: hang in there. Love you all. Ya, I do!

For now,
-K

Hello again

Hello again out there!
How's it going. Fun weekend. We had some final soccer games for the kids, some birthday parties, and other fun this weekend. It was pretty crazy, but in a nice way.
This upcoming weekend will be crazy too, as we're taking the family to B'more for a engagement party. It will be nice, though, that the in-laws will be there to assist with the kids. That makes it easier for me to enjoy the basics: eating, talking, socializing.
As for the week, it will be an interesting one. Many deliverables this week at work and of course the people who need to provide me stuff are late. Isn't that always the way it is?
I like the talk to my old CBH friends. I miss everybody there. I cannot say I miss the commute, gas prices, tolls, etc. But I miss the folks I worked hard with over the last 2+ years of my life. I am much less stressed out at this job and I LOVE picking up and dropping off the kids. Very fulfilling to me.
And I guess that is what it is all about, huh?
Stock market down this week, but no worries. It is all about people worried about banks. Well folks: banks will recover. Remember, they have money, they make money, and they acquire money. They will be fine. Amazes me to think that some of the larger ones are losing $11 BB in bad debt. That is more than everybody you know will ever make. And they will lose it and bounce back. Amazing. Sometimes you have to wonder how the f these banks got so large in the first place.
Hey, it is there fault for extending risky loans and the consumer's fault for taking them. If everybody lived within their means, there wouldn't be any problem now.
Anyway, enough of the ramblings.
Check out the picture above. Me looking kinds of homely, getting a hug from my little guy.
Well, that's all for now.
-K

Halloween

Hello out there trick-or-treaters, sorry for the delay.
Halloween was fun, though I missed Brendan and Mateo's parade at school. I had a moved conf. call that unfortunately made me miss. One other side-effect of only being a contractor.
So, my wife took the kids (all 3) and I stayed home to hand out candy. I got to read about a third of Cell by Stephen King, which is a book more back to his horror-movie type of roots. So, on Halloween night, that was a treat. I was surprised by the sheer number of 12-15 yr. olds who were out treatin'. They were mostly nice, though some of the kids were "hootin and hollerin" as they walked down the street. No matter, though, they weren't paperin' and weren't eggin' so it could be so much worse I suppose. Didn't get that many overall treaters' so I got some good reading done. (and sampled some candy.... to ensure freshness).

Work was okay, got some spread for helpin' out a friend on the side. That was nice. I like moonlighting quite a bit. Wish I could get more. To quote the Wedding Singer: "No, sir, I have no experience but I'm a big fan of money. I like it, I use it, I have a little. I keep it in a jar on top of my refrigerator. I'd like to put more in that jar. That's where you come in."

Well, there's like only two people who read this. So Hi Dave and Hi Van. Funny that you are both CBH folks. Hope all is well out there. Hang in there both of you. I know you are both going through hard times in different ways, but remember this: "Keep your pecker hard and your powder dry and the world will turn." (anyone know that one. from one of my top 10 movies of all time --see below)

It's gotta be true. How could it not???

Miss you guys.
(Go Broncos!)
-K


My top 8 action/warmovies in no particular order. Its hard to rank greatness on this scale and only 8, not 10 because its late and I'm tired....:

* Pulp Fiction What now? Let me tell you what now. I’ma call a coupla hard, pipe-hittin’ {fellas}, who’ll go to work on the homes here with a pair of pliers and a blow torch. You hear me talkin’, hillbilly boy? I ain’t through with you by a damn sight. I’ma get medieval on your ass.
* Platoon (yeah, that's the one above.)
* Tombstone I'm your Huckleberry. Why, that's just my game.
* Apocolypse Now I love the smell of napalm in the morning..... .....smells like victory
* Goodfellas The way I see it: everybody's gotta take a beating sometime.
* Full Metal Jacket The deadliest weapon in the world is a marine and his rifle. It is your killer instinct which must be harnessed if you expect to survive in combat. Your rifle is only a tool. It is a hard heart that kills. If your killer instincts are not clean and strong you will hesitate at the moment of truth. You will not kill. You will become dead marines. And then you will be in a world of shit. Because marines are not allowed to die without permission! Do you maggots understand?
* Black Hawk Down "When I get home and people ask me,'Hey, Hoot, why do you do it, man? What are you? Some kind of war junkie? I won't say a goddamn word. Why? They won't understand. They won't understand why we do it. They won't understand that it's about the men next to you. And that's it. That's all it is."
* Gladiator Today I saw a slave become more powerful than the Emperor of Rome.

More top 10 lists to come. 'night!

Hi Dave.

That should be said with that eerie HAL computer voice from 2001 a Space Odyssey. Anyway, didn't mean to offend you with my no personal thing. You are totally right, people want to know what's up in your life.
So here goes, I went to work this morning as normal. Must say that I enjoy commuting with the wife and kids and only driving for 15 minutes. Work is okay, nothing spectacular yet. As a contractor, you are sort of the outsider and that makes it odd. People are helpful because they realize they are paying you for a specific job and they damn well better not impede you from doing it. On the other hand, since I am solely focused on a single project, there is little distraction (other than my own ramblings) from the task at hand. Plus, no logging in at night and no worries about whether something I put together is running correctly overnight.
All in all, seems pretty nice now. For now, I feel that I could be more productive, since I am not stressed out. But I am sure in time that will pass.
Took my son to his second pack meeting for scouts and the whole family came. It was mass chaos. I don't recall the scout meetings of my youth being so filled with screaming wild beasts running around. But then again, I was one of them, so perhaps that is why I don't remember. At any rate, I am pretty frustrated about the fact that I am supposed to be the tiger den leader and don't know who is in my den after 2 months. Pretty irritating to me and the other parents.
Can't wait for Halloween tomorrow. Should be fun handing out and eating the candy.
I have drawn baby watch and therefore will be the doorman handing out candy. Also should be interesting. Perhaps during the large lulls in "traffic" I can catch up on Cell by Stephen King. I picked it up from Christmas Tree Shops for $2.99 hardcover. I suppose there might be some missing pages or something to surprise me, but that is a DEAL!!
Gotta love Christmas Tree Shops.

Before I go, a few finance things: 1. when is the best time to invest: NOW; 2. but K, I don't have any money to invest - you do, just don't realize it; 3. watch the FED tomorrow. Big decisions are brewing; 4. Lastly, take advantage of your friends: they are there to shamelessly abuse.

Seriously though: referrals=good. And that applies to new accounts, job referrals, etc.

So now, the sign off.
Later
-K

Another One

Ah yes, to all my friends out there in looking-for-job-land.
Let me know! I can put you in touch with a number of recruiters than can find something for you.

JUST ASK!

Later,
-K

Merge onto the digital superhighway.

OK, a bunch of my friends have started blogging and I just had to get in on it. So here goes. (Let's take wagers as to how many days this lasts!!).
So, I am probably not going to win awards, but then I don't find it useful to ramble on about my day's activities. Instead, lets focus on some stocks, shall we?
So, who knew, NIHD. What a stock to follow. Explosive growth in the South American cellular phone market has made riding this bad boy very profitable. Until they released their killer earnings that is.
Check out the analysts opinions on this one: NIHD . So why does it languish in the low 60's? Who knows. My best guess is that people had a mass sell off in anticipation of a sharp rise, only to be greatly disappointed at their automatic sell orders set pre-market. Well, stupid me not to buy in for more. Since it's post-earnings news and the dramatic drop from $68 down to $52, the stock has made a wicked recovery back to $62, a rise from the low of ~20% ( See for yourself!. Not bad. Expect this stock to be in the 80's by year end as holiday phone sales blow away earnings estimates.
Here's another one for you: Schering Plough. (SGP). Took a killing dropping to a localized low of $28 on Oct. 22nd. Since then, SGP has risen back up over $31, another whopping gain of ~10% in one week. Schering-Plough . Watch this stock too. With a PE of only 25 and a Yield of 1%, this stock is a hold steady for sold earnings. Consider riding the wave on this between $30 and $33.

Alright, had enough? Not even close. Want to cash in on the increase in the price of energy? RDC, DO, XOM are all great, high-yield picks. Pay attention to Exxon-Mobil as they get ready to report earnings later this week. How can you argue with the MOST profitable company on the planet? They stand to make more and more money as the $/barrel goes up. In addition, watch the on-going (YES, even still) saga of the Exxon Valdez. Good news from this Supreme Court hearing could raise the stock modestly. Couple that with good earnings, and XOM could top $100 itself ;).

Some analysts claim oil will drop to ~$60/ barrel. Very likely it is young paduan, but don't expect that to happen before the winter oil season is over. A cold winter could keep elevated prices while refineries and upped Saudi production start to come online.

Well, that's enough ramblings for now.
-K