While I try not to embarrass or reveal too much about my delightful offspring, when I asked Mikey awhile back about whether he minded me posting a particular picture of him, he paused and then said, “Mum, my whole life has been lived on the internet,” or words to that effect. Almost carte blanche, to a proud mum! But today I am merely in awe. Mikey had a tough start in life, being dragged from the hanger prematurely (as I think his birth notice actually read) but then guided to a safe landing by caring and able hands.
And it is on his birthday that the incredible good fortune we have had strikes me hardest, and this being his 19th, and him being my last baby … well you can imagine what an emotional basket case someone like me might be. So in lieu of words, pictures.
Happy Birthday!
Nicely done, xty!
That’s all for now. Heading out to meet mrs. O for a fish fry and a brandy old-fashioned sweet.
We had a Simba moment with Mikey because my dad died two weeks after we brought him home from the NICU, and we had been told to keep him away from crowds until his immune system was sturdier. But then my dad died so we had to go to Toronto and dad was a popular Prof and we had a wake that was very crowded at my parents’ house, and his sisters in particular really wanted to see the new baby, that we had named after dad, but we couldn’t keep parading people through the upstairs, and my parents had this staircase with poles running floor to ceiling (that you could get your head stuck through) and we carried Mikey half way down and held him out for the crowd to see. Totally surreal.
And then we went straight to the cottage, where there weren’t any people.
try not to tear up Xty. 😛
It turns out that Stevie Wonder was a preemie too, and in the early days they were not good at monitoring oxygen levels in blood and would err on the side of too much air, which leads to retinal detachment, and that is how he lost his sight. They didn’t mention retinal detachment until Mikey was about 2 months old – but it was another bullet he dodged, and he has defied all sorts of odds, and even left doctors almost depressed when they couldn’t find anything wrong with him.
Well, there you have it. A few weeks ago I was musing about the fact that all three markets I watch, stocks, gold, and bonds, were all above their 200 day’s, and wondering which would be the first to fail. As of today, Gold has given up the ship. I was IN on 2/14/14 @ 1318, and OUT today 3/28/14 @ 1294. This is what we call a “whipsaw”. Whipsaws are the bane of trend traders everywhere, and can get bad enough sometimes to make people abandon their systems altogether (usually at just the wrong time).
I look at them as the cost of insurance. What I’m insuring against is the risk of getting caught on the wrong side of a major trend. People try all kinds of ways to reduce the cost of whipsaws. Everybody has their own “secret sauce” as it were.
When was that a few weeks ago I was daydreaming about selling Facebook short at $70? Dang. Wish I’d had the nerve to do it. It’s $60 now.
I’m chickenshit as a trader though. Of course, maybe that’s why I’m still in the game!
I sold more physical silver today. All my ’64 Kennedy’s. I swear I must have caught the top tick of the day, lol. “George just lucky, I guess”. (that’s a line from “George of The Jungle”). I have one more tranche to unload, and then I’ll have no silver at all, except for those sterling spoons, which I love.
Don’t worry. The gold stash is still intact. I still have my membership card in past, present, and future recovering gold bugs anonymous.
Provident is paying about 4% over melt for halves, in case you were wonderin’.
to help get Mikey’s party started.
yup Mikey, these very same assholes voted for Reagan! 😛 😛 😛
HBD Mikey Mike, …while they still mean something. At least something fun.
(I lost track of which one i was on in my late 30s… it took me 3 years to get it straight in my head again)
“19” it is….
Proverbs 19:1 Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool.
Xty, i know you made it a great birthday! Congratulations to you too!
glad everyone is here.
We did indeed have a great birthday, fun dinner out, and in Ontario 19 is the legal drinking age. Given that it is 18 in Quebec, a 10 minute drive away, it is not so special, and he luckily isn’t much of one for the sauce, being an apple that didn’t fall far from the tree. But he had a beer and we ate all sorts of interesting yummy food. Brother, girlfriend, talked with distant sister, mum, dad. Doesn’t get better.
And now the ‘rents are leaving him the house for the night, as we are off to the in-laws. So it does get better.
I am sick to death of articles in the financial media about “how to hedge” this, that, or the other thing. Short strategies, options strategies, currency strategies, buy supposedly noncorrellated assets, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. All additional complexity. Keep your leveraged long core, and do all this other crap to reduce your risk. They are selling the idea that somehow you can get something for nothing.
Here’s the gospel from Eric O. You wanna reduce your risk? You wanna reduce your beta?
Then sell something. For cash. Period.
All this other crap is coming from paid shills who are trying to generate fees and commissions for Wall Street.
Here endeth the lesson.
and…good morning!
like Xty quoted, “freedom is just another word, for nothing left to lose.” that’s me. i lost a good part (most) of my retirement savings because i got married to a meme. i wish everyday i just would have spent the money. the people that ended up with my money had enough already. but free i am of the self serving financial media.
now that i have gone back to the puddle and sniffed around, i see that the site isn’t even a metals site anymore. Argentus is the only guy that bothers writing about that. i don’t know why, but it really pisses me off. maybe it’s because after helping so many people lose their shirts, turd doesn’t even have the integrity to shut the place down, sneak off, and hide – well i suppose he is kind of hiding behind his pay wall. and every new face i see over there makes me cringe. like you said EO, these financial con men never run out of new suckers to swindle.
i hope you guys did some reading on public relations strategies like i have suggested. the puddle may not be much of a metals site anymore, but it does get paid for certain “marketing” efforts. i just do not believe anymore that the rot doesn’t go all the way to the top.
like i used to always like saying at the old place, “see ya in hell, and bring my silver”. but not you Blythe, nope. i now reserve that sign off for the mastermind(s) at TFMR.
i hope this works. this has made my day!
here we go. enjoy.
about front groups…
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Front_groups
and this.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Third_party_technique
I wonder how much fringe groups will pay to blogs to have them put some sock puppet accounts on the payroll and have them steer the conversations, push the preferred memes, and bully the nonbelievers. I bet there’s some pretty fancy ka-ching ka-ching in that line of business.
And if you are twisted enough to start with, you can easily convince yourself that you are doing God’s Work at the same time. How awesome would that be? I bet these psychopaths sleep just fine at night. They usually do. It takes a conscience to really have any problem with it.
A musical interlude…
Encore, Kathryn!
She’s just so darn cute!
it’s not even conjecture anymore EO. they have paid actors everywhere now, but especially on the internet. traditional PR no longer works, because there is no trust left in the USA. none. so now it’s all smoke and mirrors. (see third party technique link above) it is really all one great big deception, or matrix if you will.
i had read some really good articles several months ago that specifically discussed paid “sock puppets” on blogs, but i can not even find one of them now. (F U Microsoft, Google, Verizon, et al) this article at least paints the big picture view of what has happened to business ethics and integrity in the USA, and what is now commonplace and acceptable “public relations” strategies…
http://billmoyers.com/2013/11/19/how-a-shadowy-network-of-corporate-front-groups-distorts-the-marketplace-of-ideas/
nice tunes too EO. wow can she ever sing.
does the agenda described here remind you of any one specific poster? or maybe a couple dozen?
http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/What_is_ALEC%3F
That sounded familiar to me. If you google “Raw Story ALEC” you’ll get a bunch of hits. Here’s one:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/16/wisconsin-democrat-who-infiltrated-alec-they-dont-want-people-involved-in-the-political-process/
we are on a roll. i hope someone wakes up from reading these links. one person at a time. slow but sure.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/24/1257996/-Open-Letter-to-Sockpuppets-And-Trolls#
Wow. What a basketball game. Way to go Badgers! Final Four here we come!
Kaminsky was a monster.
FINAL FOUR!!!!!!!!
Fox Lies!
eff ’em Bucky!
The dynamics of spiritual warfare are as fascinating and strategic as a 4-dimensional chess game.
One beginner level concept is the concept of ‘ground’.
Once ‘ground’ (an access point) is lost it CAN be retaken, but the enemy will continue to shoot arrows from this position and the confused beginner will think that the arrows are the problem and not know to retake the ground.
Once the ground is retaken the same arrows will have to be fired from so far away that they can not reach, or will never even be noticed.
Proverbs 25:28 He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.
(any old negative thought can just wander in and take up residence, then invite their friends and turn the whole town into a miserable heap)
Best read of my morning
Don’t be that grumpy retiree people avoid
I would have titled it “Don’t be the ‘Get Off My Lawn!’ guy”.
I like my ramen. I feel like I’m pretty adventurous with it too, for a germanic carnivore. I add stuff to it. Mostly meat, to balance out the carbs of the noodles. Ground beef. Leftover beef roast or pork roast. Maybe a dollop of leftover gravy, with plenty of the fat that hardened on top. Little Russian dumplings (like miniature pierogies, and if you are interested I’ll tell you where I get them), or basic polish egg and flour dumplings if I’m not worried about a carbohydrate blowout. And some hot chili oil. Some garlic. But this guy obviously took it to a whole new level.
Here’s how a kid from Long Island became a king of Japanese ramen
i need to start breakfast, which is going to be epic, but first wanted to play a song in honor of the Wisconsin Badgers, who symbolically represent the first day of Spring for many survivors of the Winter from hell. my brackets busted, but i could not care less.
as to grumpy old men – just quit voting OK! you had your chance and you effed it. and ramen, never, ever again. reminds me of my poorest, darkest days in college.
and now for your listening bliss, Sunday morning Elvis…
Made it to the beautiful bay. Internet sketchy, most everything else peachy. But maybe tomorrow before I catch up and bore you silly with pictures of a frozen lake.
Go [insert team here] Go!
Xty – i look forward to your pictures. for now, i have found a source of entertainment. it is finally going to self-destruct. hate is self-limiting. it is going to be a beautiful day/week/year folks. there is a bright side to everything. thank you EO – i would have missed it. i believe i am going to be able to finally let go of that hell hole.
(i purposefully only gave the wing-nut one gun) 🙂
Sparty is OUT!!!! WhoopWhoopWHoop!!!!
I didn’t want to play those fuckers again
Crank it up
It’s party time here. I’m really just stalling though. There’s a mountain of dog shit out there, thawing, that has my name on it…
If you’ve never been to a youth swim meet when they play this one during a break in the prelims, then you haven’t lived.
Still stalling on the dogshit…
Ooops, Mrs. O just got back home. Gotta go. 🙄
el Pico del Teide, a better visual than de Mierda de Perro de Montaña
If I want to call traveling virtually every time a guy drives to the hoop, does that make me one of those grouchy old “get off my lawn” farts? Just wondering.
Bye Bye Meeeshigan!
Who’s the King of the Big Ten now?
out of respect for Pistol Pete.
Dow futures like the Badgers in the Final Four too.
http://www.finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=YM
OK, maybe that’s a stretch.
Well who knew that final four madness could strike in Penetanguishene, but my nephew-in-law’s parents both went to the University of Kentucky and his brother went to Michigan, but cheers for Kentucky out of family loyalty and also because Kentucky doesn’t have a football team worth mentioning, apparently.
So it turns out it is Go Kentucky Go around here, but with the mute on.
Well now you’re stuck in the middle, as Wi meets Ky on Sat. For the record, Wi has a cleaner program, with actual student/athletes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/sports/ncaabasketball/for-wisconsin-student-athlete-is-not-an-oxymoron-in-ncaa-tournament.html?ref=sports&_r=1