Thursday, April 30, 2009

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Stephanie Naumoska

A Miss Universe contestant in Australia has been criticized by the media and everyone else as being "too thin."

Australia's Miss Universe contest was thrown into controversy yesterday when doctors and dieticians complained a losing finalist was "skin and bones" and dangerously malnourished.

This site asks:

We’re just wondering why Megan gets praised for her size zero figure but other models (like Miss Australia Stephanie Naumoska) who appear to be the same size as Ms. Fox are criticized and scrutinized for their pin-thin form. Doesn’t really seem fair if you ask us!

And this paper comments:

So how do we (that's all of us in a very wide sense) provide the correct role models for people to aspire to? Where does "healthy" lie, mentally as well as physically? And where do newspapers come in? Can we only use pictures of "Goldilocks" women? (not too fat, not too thin). Do we simply aim to use a range of body shapes, excluding the extremes at both ends? Or does using the extremes a) reflect the truth out there (and that is what newspapers are supposed to do) and b) perhaps by their shocking nature act as a deterrent?

And then goes on to say that as a society we are too obsessed with food.

The offending pictures:


As a man who is 5' 11" and about 135 lbs I have some thoughts on this matter. Everyone tells me I am too thin. I eat very healthy, I avoid processed food and eat mostly fruits, vegetables and other whole foods. I wish I could gain some weight but I have to put energy into maintaining my current weight. If I didn't do that I would just lose more weight. People tell me I need to gain weight and I probably could if I wanted to eat all sorts of nasty junk food. However I feel good, I feel healthy and I would rather stay thin and feel good than eat junk food, feel crappy and gain some weight to make other people happy.

I go to the gym a couple times a week and do weight training to try to build some muscle, if I stopped doing that I would probably lose even more weight. I don't do cardio because I don't want to burn any of my barely existent fat. I don't know why I am so thin - part of it is likely due to my metabolism which has kept me thin for most of my life. The rest is likely due to my healthy and natural diet. I must admit that when I was eating a lot of junk and processed food I did weigh more, but I refuse to put that chemical garbage in my body for the sake of putting on weight.

I understand what it is to have everyone telling you that you need to gain weight, that you are too thin. Most people struggle to keep their weight down and don't understand that I have to struggle to keep my weight up. I don't know anything about this Stephanie, I don't know how she eats, how much she exercises, whether she gets proper nutrition. But I am always bothered by people making assumptions about other people and then criticizing them and getting all worked up about it. Honestly I do not find her attractive, she does look emaciated. Most likely she has come to accept herself as she is, just like I have, and not worry about what other people think. I can't imagine she wouldn't want to gain some weight, maybe she has the same difficulty doing that as I do.

People please... Unless you have the knowledge necessary to make decisions and pass judgements don't do it! Unless you know her, know what she's like, know what she eats you have no business condemning her for her appearance.

Monday, April 27, 2009

A co-worker sent me this

It probably won't be funny to anyone other than the people I work with, but if you work with me this is incredibly hysterical!

Friday, April 24, 2009

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

I Turned $3,000 Into $210,000

No, I actually didn't at all. But I read this article about someone who did, and it bears a striking resemblance to my own story.

Over the next several years, the stock went up and down, sometimes significantly -- but I held on. It mostly went up, and it split and split. I remember checking my portfolio regularly -- several times a day! -- to see how rich I was becoming. Near the stock's peak, I had a 70-bagger! My $3,000 investment had turned into $210,000. If it doubled in value only twice more, I'd be (almost) a millionaire! All from a measly $3,000 investment.

Did I sell shares along the ride up? No. (Some of us don't know when to cut our losses.) Did I sell at least some near the top, when my mom told me to? Nope. (That strange thudding sound you hear is me banging my head on my desk. The silence is my mom, biting her tongue.) I held on.


I started investing in 1998 as the dot-com bubble was nearing a peak. I was putting as much of my paycheck into the market as I could afford and the numbers just kept going up and up. I got into an IPO (for Allaire, if anyone remembers that) at $20 a share and the stock split and was trading at $120 a share. I don't remember how much my portfolio was worth but it was probably close to $150,000 from an initial investment of $40,000 or $50,000.

I had no experience investing and I was young and stupid and naive. When the bubble started to pop I held on, only selling as required to meet margin calls. I remember in September of 2000 my portfolio was worth about $100,000 and I was thinking I would sell if I could get back up to $120,000 or something.

As we all know the market continued to plummet, and I lost my shirt. I had to take out some money for living expenses. Right now that same account that once was worth 6digits is worth maybe $5,000 net. Granted I made some spectacularly bad decisions since then, and what could have been worth millions ended up losing me money, but most of the damage was done when the bubble popped.

Now I think I am too cautious of an investor. Whenever I take a risk it blows up in my face. A few years back, when Google went public I made 100% profit on some GOOG call options. I bought some more and lost not only the profit, but also the initial investment and then some. So I don't take too many risks anymore. The biggest risk I've taken in years is buying C when it was close to its bottom (I already had a position and wanted to average the cost down). Oh, and I bought some GM bonds for their high yield back when it looked like they would turn the business around a couple of years ago.

One of my coworkers was telling me yesterday that DRYS was trading at $120 a few months ago and now it is down at $5. He said if it made back even some of its losses it would be a big winner. I remember thinking the exact same thing about JDSU when it was down from $120 to $15. Now it's down around $5.

What kills me is that I could have still kept most of my profits from that first bubble if I'd only known about something as simple as stop loss orders. Of course then I try putting stop loss orders on my positions and they end up being sold after the price dips for one trade and then goes back to the normal trading range. And then after the stop is triggered the price shoots up. So then I stop putting stop losses and wish I hadn't.

So I no longer try to "play" the market. I don't listen to advice or recommendations from anyone. I didn't make much money in any of the bull markets since 2000. Lately I've been buying stocks with solid dividend yields, basically investing like a retiree. But I can sleep at night, even when my portfolio is down 50% (which was oh, about a month ago).

I'm a pretty smart guy, but it seems like every investment I make ends up losing me money, I guess I'm smart enough to not make them anymore.

Disturbing Strokes

The opening to Different Strokes with different music and some video editing.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Fou Do Fa Fa

Slightly amusing as I speak French, but my friend things it's the greatest thing ever (he's Swiss German, so they have weird senses of humor, I guess):



And of the course the song that kind of sums up their humor, personas, and the whole attitude of the show into one song: "You're So Beautiful"

If You're Into It

This is the first thing I heard of the Flight of the Conchords. I saw the video on YouTube, watched it three times, then started watching the show. I was sick so I watched the entire first season to date in that one day.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Flight of the Conchords

Saw them last night at Radio City. The opened with "Too Many Dicks (On the Dancefloor):"



Closed the second encore with "The Humans Are Dead:"



And with "Business Time." I can't remember which was last:



Great show, even my friend who was not a rabid fan was "thoroughly entertained." Rabid fans like myself and some of my other friends were incredibly happy. I got my "Humans are Dead," I did not get "Rock the Party". My friend didn't get his "Foux Da Fa Fa." They played more of their new stuff, not much older stuff from Season 1. I will definitely be going back next time they are in town.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Republican Plan to Economic Recovery

In analyzing the alternative budget proposals of the Republican Congress
members, I found this map to illustrate the Republican's alternative road to
national recovery.

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Obama Depressed, Distant Since 'Battlestar Galactica' Series Finale

From The Onion, Obama has been depressed since Battlestar Galactica ended.

Since the end of the series, Obama has reportedly brushed off key budgetary decisions, ignored his wife and children, and neglected his daily workouts, claiming that he no longer cares if he lets himself go "just like Lee did before the rescue on New Caprica."

In addition, sources confirmed that instead of meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Monday, the depressed president sat alone in the Oval Office, scouring Internet message boards for posts by other fans about the series conclusion.

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Dancing in the Train Station

If this wasn't an advertisement for whatever it is it would be incredibly awesome. I can only imagine how cool it would be to see something like this at Grand Central during the morning commute. It would totally make my day, or maybe even my month.

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Cadie

Cadie is Google's new AI. It loves Pandas as it states on its blog.

It also has a YouTube video:



Google is really outdoing itself with the April Fools stuff this year.

UPDATE - Cadie was deactivated on the evening of April 1st. Boo hiss!

April Fools

I remember watching this on TV in Switzerland when I was a kid. It's apparently one of the first April Fools hoaxes by a major media outlet. It's about how the spaghetti crop in Switzerland was below average in 1957. It is a full video and was awesomely funny.

Alpine Legend

Alpine Legend is doing for Swiss music what Guitar Hero did for rock.

Guardian switches from print to twitter

Consolidating its position at the cutting edge of new media technology, the Guardian today announces that it will become the first newspaper in the world to be published exclusively via Twitter, the sensationally popular social networking service that has transformed online communication.

"[Celebrated Guardian editor] CP Scott would have warmly endorsed this - his well-known observation 'Comment is free but facts are sacred' is only 36 characters long," a spokesman said in a tweet that was itself only 135 characters long.

A mammoth project is also under way to rewrite the whole of the newspaper's archive, stretching back to 1821, in the form of tweets. Major stories already completed include "1832 Reform Act gives voting rights to one in five adult males yay!!!"; "OMG Hitler invades Poland, allies declare war see tinyurl.com/b5x6e for more"; and "JFK assassin8d @ Dallas, def. heard second gunshot from grassy knoll WTF?"

Google April Fool's

It was a pretty easy one to spot this year...

GMail Autopilot automatically responds to your emails: