One year ago today: April 3, 2019, not one looker.
Five years ago today: April 3, 2015, hero survivor, my eye.
Nine years ago today: April 3, 2011, trouble is brewing.
Random years ago today: April 3, 2005, When Hollywood was Hollywood.
Cedar panels—not just for fencing any more. I’ve got the table saw set up this morning to complete the bathroom. Here’s me pricing out a fence panel that sells for $50. Using the wider planks and using three cross-members instead of two, I still come out ahead by $20. Thus, I may just make the back shed more of a priority than it is. There are boxes stored inside here that were never meant to be kept inside. Right now, it is 9:00AM and I’m out of coffee. Since I have not been near anybody for 36 hours, that sneezing fit this morning was allergies.
The state has been arranging affairs for years to create the situation where everything you do updates your file. Buy a new car? Get in an accident not your fault? Ride an airplane? Let’s see AND record your ID. If you have the time, read Article 8, the European Unions treatment of privacy rights. US citizens have no such protection. If you have time, read Article 8. In other news, a Venezuelan warship rammed an empty cruise liner. The navy ship sank. You see, it was one of those cruise ships reinforced to sail through ice floes. Oops.
What’s this, they’ve found an intact 40,000 year old wolf’s head in Siberia. Frozen and severed, likely hunter’s trophy. Discover in June last year, it offers proof that humans were around in that area a lot longer than thought. What ever happened to that 42,000 year old horse from the crater over there? The horse that still had blood in its heart. Weren’t they supposed to clone that? Anyway, the question remaining to Americans is how the Democrats can blame all this on Trump.
Remember the FIRE movement, the “financial independence retire early” philosophy? I could claim it is just an expanded but less than brilliant copy of my “mining the phone company” plan. I said create just enough wealth while you are young to retire early, using the money to leverage your lifestyle, I did not say to leverage your stock portfolio. Word is the stock market collapse is zapping these people badly. On the other hand, the stock market has not affected me in any material way. Unless you count Forex, but that has nothing to do with the virus. And while this might not make sense directly, I’m starting to develop an aversion to hearing stories about married couples in money trouble.
These people didn’t pay attention, they invested in stocks. They trusted their ability to outsmart the market. That works somewhat when the market is overall expanding, but the New York Times is reporting on 30 and 40-ish people who thought they had money to live another 60 years are now living in their parent’s basements to ride this thing out. I figure they made two big mistakes. One is thinking a million dollars was a lot of money. Two, the stock market is like putting money in the bank, the worst place ever to invest.
My only real worry is inflation, while for them inflation is but one of many. And I’m taking dead aim on becoming inflation-proof. Music comes to mind. The biggest boom in entertainment was during the Great Depression. What we have here is a not-so-great depression. People are getting their asses kicked out of the market, some forced to sell everything. The comical part about them not listening is they probably think they can get back into the market on the same terms. Um, not any more, Brandon and Tyler, let’s first see some state-sanctioned ID. Say, this ID doesn’t link to you taking that much cash out of your combined accounts. Step over this way . . . And anybody who thinks these people got rich by obeying the rules has shit for brains.
As I just found out with money orders, when anybody has more than $1,000 in cash, you may be required to justify a few things. Hint, if you do buy multiple money orders, don’t buy at the same location. Banks are on the lookout for consecutive serial numbers. And at the far end, cash the highest serial numbers first, and try to do them on different days or different bank accounts. For those who ignore this advice, well, put it this way, what breed of 40-year-old “millionaire” has to go live in his parent’s basement.
The Moran Mansion.
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Here’s your progress photo on the bathroom. These are the back panels, there is a strip that will cover the gaps. I believe this is known as board and batten. I’m ready for the medicine cabinets, which just went up in price to $160 each. That would take all my ready cash, so I might wait until the scrunch is over. The system is crazy, putting 700,000 people out of work for a virus that will likely spread anyway. I cut some baseboards and they look pretty decent. Then I replaced that original banged up door knob set with that fancy “crystal” set I got for a dollar. Dang, had to modify the door. It works perfectly, although it doesn’t really match the other hardware. Hey, for a dollar.
Another conference call, whoops, the millennials have renamed that to some buzzword, made it into a phone app, and added the spyware. This meeting was about the AuvoriaPrime software. It is, by professional standards, very poorly written. An example, it keeps on running after your trading stops, sometimes executing trades you made hours or days earlier. The company is lite on originality and heavy on the touchy-feely scale. They are also into well-tossed marketing slogans, most borrowed elsewhere. Don’t say nothin’, these people are really rapt into this donkey, they honestly believe it is an enduring business model. Like I said, just until other people start doing it.
What’s the destiny of these shallow business models? Take a gander at what happened to cell phone plans and imagine that in every instance. Like the outfits that won’t tell you the price unless you sign up as a member, and what is your date of birth? How about key in your PIN so some drop-out loser clerk can better assess your grocery needs. The call today was an hour long as I endured verbal diarrhea like “commitment to quality”, “elevated professionalism”, “scalable” and “hyperlocal”.
Always remember, if you are between 35 and 45 to put your favorite lame quote under your photo. According to the rule book, this training is supposed to last 60 days. I see a few things wrong with that. Other than my doubts about stomaching these people that long, there is the issue that if it takes that long to learn the software, there’s something wrong a lot more serious wrong with it. As far as I’m concerned the 60 days is for them to assimilate you into the corporate culture. Fat chance. Do that and you’ve heard about the tail wagging the dog?
I’ve now read some 15 articles on robot trading and they all shout “buyer beware”. Most of these programs work by scalping, a term for making thousands of trades at a few pips each. The word is things go along for a while until the market adjusts to such trading and becomes unstable, wiping out all your cash. As for free Forex trading offers, there have been rumors if you account somehow builds up, the account just disappears.
ADDENDUM
The spare tire well seems to be for a full size tire. That small emergency toy tire is too expensive to repair and is limited to 35 mph. Phooey on that. I’ll clear the other clutter out and throw in a real tire. Again, more flats in Miami than the rest of my life combined. Even crazier, four of the seven flats I’ve had in this state were driving from my place toward JZ’s, not including my $750 Father’s Day flat on the sidecar.
