Oh Snap!!

Crazy.

Jessica just gave me approval to buy this bad boy. I'm practically stealing it off this dude on Craigslist.

Can You Wanna Say "Finances?"

Bloomberg News recently reported that former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan is predicting an impending 'burst bubble' in terms of the Chinese stock market which has surged 170 percent this year. Interesting.

I've often pondered the potential to capitalize on fallen markets since the post 9/11 stock decline in which the markets took a sharp (but decidedly temporary) dip.

It seems in stock investing, the prevailing wisdom is to ride out the storms, ignoring short-term fluctuations, to capitalize on the long term growth of the economy. That may be sage advice for those seeking a safe return and a place to park their assets, but is it the best advice in terms of making money from your money?

History has shown time and again that the stock market is a fickle beast with a propensity to twitch and overreact to every tidbit of bad news. A sparrow contemplating a visit to a feeder in a room full of hungry cats has calmer nerves. From a slight reduction in anticipated profits to a suspected terrorist plot, the market reacts like a turtle on it's seventh can of Red Bull, pulling its head in so fast it gets whiplash. Time after time, history shows that the sky was falling and the dips in the market were temporary.

You may be asking yourself what this has to do with the price of rice in China? Well, maybe we all ought to be working real hard to increase our liquid reserves right now. Maybe, when the Chinese market bubble bursts, we ought to be ready (with cash in hand) to buy out the timid investors who sell out at the first sign of trouble?

Would you rather invest in the market at the peak or at the 'height' of a slump? What's that you say? You aren't comfortable investing in foreign markets? How about saving your liquid assets for the next post-9/11 slump? According to Edna Moog, "Luck favors the prepared."

Lost Days

I just realized that while the last few days in chicago on business
(while productive from a business standpoint) have been essentially
two days lost from my life. I just got the feeling that they have
been the same as when our flight was cancelled in London the other day
and we had to sit in a hotel room for 24 hours. It is just days that
I can never get back, and have served no purpose in the achieving my
personal goals. It's like putting your life on hold for a few days.

Powerless

Yeah, I'm in Chicago. Yeah, I have my computer. Heck, it even worked
great while I was driving (as passenger) between sites. What is the
problem? Yeah, I left the power cord at home, so when I went to fire
it up this evening,
...nada. :(

On the plane last night I was victim of a bout of baseless ambition.
Inc. Magazine has a tendency to engender a sort of entrepreneurial
wanderlust and creative longing. The result was that I (naively?)
brainstormed a couple of tactics for facilitating a PR campaign and
threw myself out as volunteer PR manager of the pre-fledgling
RedRocketResume. Let the PR commence!

The Paki Taxi

After a quick trip out to the farm (to grab my wallet, which I had
left there) I got ready to hurry up and wait for my taxi. The doggone
dispatcher had given the driver the wrong address and between him
calling and trying to get me to direct him to the house via landmarks
(not streets & compass directions,) the thick accents and apparent low
intelligence level, it was needless to say I was a bit frustrated when
my driver finally arrived. Long story short; I at phase II of
hurry-up-and-wait...I am sitting at the airport waiting on a plane to
Chicago. Watchagunnado?

Apiaristic Interude

Dad put his name out as Plano's Apiarist expert (bee expert) and
charges a princely sum per hour to remove bee colonies from peoples
houses. Tonight Sterling and I accompanied him into a gated
community of Cinderella-style mansions in Frisco where a colony had
moved into the floor of a balcony in a under-construction home.
Sterling & I talked with Angela's family on the phone and did some
bonding while dad went up to the balcony and scooped hatfuls of bees
from the balcony and dumped them into the box. The night went well
with all the stings being received by dad and none by Sterling (who is
highly allergic to insect bites/stings of all sorts.)
It was refreshing to take a day of rest from the labors of the farm.

The POs Are Finally Out!

That's right, the previous owners of the farm FINALLY got all their junk moved out today. At this point, anything that is left is ours. They have really been dragging their feet about cleaning out the junk out of the shop. We have been trying to be patient with them. In fact, I think their horses may even still be ranging on our pasture.
Anyway, I didn't post last night because we were at the farm camping out in one of our bedrooms. We woke up early and worked till 11:30pm tonight chipping up the kitchen floor, de-caulking windows and (best of all) dad and I started framing in the wall to break the entry room area into an office area.
Grandma Helen came out to bring us dinner and stayed to watch the kids play in the pool. Keith Taylor also stopped by at dad's request to take me into Bonham to buy lumber and sheetrock at the local hick store. We were in a state of 'shock and awe' at the amazing sights of seemingly endless crack that was being displayed by the lumber-yard workers.
The highlight of the day? Jessica found a dead mouse and a five dollar bill in one of the air return registers.