Happy New Year

I've spent the whole day cleaning, shopping, and cooking. It's gonna be a sweet party! Well, it will probably be a tame party, but it should still be fun. I won't be drinking since I am still feeling sick and don't want to fuck around and feel even worse when I return to work for the month of hell on Tuesday. I'm a little better today, but the last couple days were pretty brutal.

I was working in Philadelphia on Friday. While waiting for my red-eye flight down there, I was sitting near a mother traveling with four children. At some point, the youngest boy sits next to me and starts coughing up a storm. He wasn't covering his mouth either. If I weren't already sick, I'd have been pretty pissed (or just moved to a new seat). I did find it funny that the mother kept kindly telling her son to cover his mouth when coughing. The boy said he would the next time he coughed, but he never did. I bet a couple people on the flight are sick today because of that child.

I learned yesterday that two of my friends from work got engaged (to each other) this past week. I'm guessing that story will be the buzz of the party tonight. Congrats to Nell and the PhillyPhanatic!

There is so much incest (actuaries dating other actuaries) at work. I already have two weddings I'm going to this summer where I work with both the bride and groom.

Cooler heads have prevailed

Now that I have calmed down from last night's hose-job, I figured I would post my take on the madness that was the Alamo Bowl. This game was not much different from every other game played by Michigan this year (with the exception of incompetent refs…shut up RoopDogg). In the end, the offense gave us a lead, but played it safe down the stretch and relied on the defense to hold an 11-point lead. Sound anything like the OSU collapse last month? Unfortunately, the defense failed to finish the game. Again.

The offense played a very efficient game, until the two fourth quarter turnovers that doomed us. I really like Henne as a QB. For a sophomore, he reads the defense very well and has a great arm. Unfortunately, the WRs just can’t get open and Hart was not very healthy and able to help out in the running game. The Henne fumble call late in the game was very marginal. Unfortunately, replay is not going to overturn that close a call. It reminded me a lot of Henne's fumble against MSU this year late in the fourth quarter of that game. We really couldn’t ask for anything more from the defense. Nebraska’s defense had been good all year. Their problem was scoring points. 28 points against Nebraska should be enough this season. The offense is not to blame for the loss.

I was thoroughly impressed with the defensive strategy. Michigan had not blitzed much all season. The defensive coaches were getting a lot of heat for this passive play as well. Last night, we blitzed like crazy. We blitzed every play until Nebraska started to run the ball effectively. The Nebraska offensive line was very weak, so we sought to pressure them all game long. The Nebraska QB was taking a vicious beating on every pass play. Unfortunately, blitzing does leave a defense prone to big plays, especially if the safeties are not very good. Our safeties got burned all game long. Our safeties were awful last night. Harrison got beat on long pass plays and Harrison, Barringer, and Burgess all failed to make tackles when Nebraska ran the football. It doesn't help that we rely a lot of Burgess. He is so damn slow. If he can get a scholarship to play football at Michigan, then clearly I am worthy of a scholarship as well. I am also a slow and awkward runner. How did Burgess win a starting position at Michigan? Too bad he has another year of eligibility.

The refs were pathetic, but not the reason Michigan lost. They might have made it harder to win, but Michigan did have an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter. While there were bad calls against both teams, Michigan got the worst of it. On Nebraska's first TD drive, the refs missed a blatant fumble. In the second half, they failed to call for reviews on two crucial game changing plays, forcing Michigan to burn timeouts to give the refs more time to get their act together. One of the plays (a Nebraska touchdown) was overturned thanks to Lloyd burning a timeout. The missed PI call on our fourth down play late in the game hurt, but Manningham really fucked up when he dropped the pass on the play before. When Nebraksa was stopped on third down with 1:06 to play, the refs took 23 seconds to spot the ball before starting the 25-second play clock. That is just fucking absurd. It should take no more than 10 seconds to spot the ball (if that). Then of course, there is the madness that was the last play. I found the whole ending quite humorous. What would have happened is Ecker had tossed the ball to Breaston before getting tackled? Would the TD have stood? Michigan also had players on the field, so any flag against Nebraska would have been offset with a penalty on Michigan. The refs had already left the field, but no one blew the play dead before calling it a day. Just terrible. And I though Big Ten refs sucked.

I probably also deserve partial blame for the loss. I donned my Michigan hockey jersey for a big football game for the fourth big game in the past two seasons. Past games where I wore this jersey include the last two ND games and last year's OSU game, I was determined to break Michigan's streak of losing big games when I have my hockey jersey on. Alas, the jersey is now permanently banned from future big Michigan games. I can still wear it against the likes of Ball State and Indiana, but that's it.

Where does Michigan go from here? Well, this defense has been frustrating for 3-4 years now. We have never been able to rely on the defense to finish a game, and Lloyd gets very conservative on offense when he has a late lead. Hermann must be fired. I liked his blitzing strategy last night, but that doesn't make up for the fact that we can't finish a win. 6 of the 7 agonizingly close games this year came down to the final seconds because of late points scored by the opposing team. Also, it’s been a few years since we had a good run defense. Michigan plays in the Big Ten. I absolutely hate it when teams can beat us on the ground. Nebraska was a team that relied on the pass all season, yet they killed us on the ground. Some people attribute Michigan’s tough season to injuries. While this was the worst year for injuries since the 6-6 season in 1984 when we lost Harbaugh, this team’s downfall was the inability to stop the run or finish games on defense.

The offense will be good in 2006 with players like Manningham, Hart, Henne, and Long returning, but a shaky defense and a very brutal schedule (@ND, @OSU, @PSU) will make it tough to win 9+ games. I think Carr will step down after next season, but who could possibly replace him. I hope it’s not Jim Hermann.

I’m glad this season has mercifully come to an end. Go Michigan! Beat Ball State!

We got HOSED

I could go into a profanity laced tirade, but what good would that accomplish?

Beat the Cornhuskers

I was bored at work today. MizThang e-mailed a bunch of former MMB trumpets looking for some pre-game banter for today's Alamo Bowl. Here was my half serious/half joking contribution. Enjoy. Go Blue! :)
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I’ve got nothing better to do since the office is empty today, so I’ll give you my expert analysis of tonight’s game.

Michigan’s Offense vs. Nebraska’s Defense
Michigan has a slightly broken Hart. Nebraska has injuries abound among the vaunted “Blackshirts”, who will be missing three linebackers for the game. The battle of attrition should favor a healthier Michigan offense. Look for a gimpy Hart to rush for over 150 yards and two touchdowns. The rest of the Nebraska defense is still quite good, so they might be able to get a safety to help out the pathetic Cornhusker offense.

Edge – Michigan

Michigan’s Defense vs. Nebraska’s Offense
This is a classic match up of the resistible force against the moveable object. Michigan hasn’t been able to muster a defensive stop when needed this season, but Nebraska’s offense could take a couple pointers on how to run the football from my high school team. Yes, the mighty Nebraska Cornhuskers, once the model of how to rush the football among major college teams, cannot run the football. They beat a pathetic team from U-Pitt 7-6 at home earlier this year. They try to pass the ball with their pathetic West Coast offense, but they are learning that nothing good comes from the left coast. :)

Edge – Michigan – Even the TMMB flag football team could probably defend the offensive Nebraska offense fairly well.

Special Teams
Michigan has Stevie B. Enough said. We win. The end.

Edge - Michigan

Coaching
We have Lloyd Carr, superstar. They have Bill Callahan. Although he once inherited an NFL team that he coached to the super bowl, he has sucked ever since. He once called his players the stupidest football players in America. He took a Nebraska team that won 9+ games a year and had a bowl streak of 30+ consecutive years and ended the streak in only one season. Now, Nebraska is thrilled to be 7-4. How sad. Callahan recently made a throat slashing gesture towards the other team from the sidelines that was caught on television. Quite classless. Go Lloyd. Woo!

Edge – Michigan

Intangibles
Nebraska may have more fans in the stands tonight, but they won’t enjoy what they see. To make things worse, when they leave the stadium tonight, they will remember that they have spent the whole night rooting for corn. Their mascot is corn! What says “eat me” better than corn? Seriously.

This game is for Brian Griese, Charles Woodson, and the rest of the 1997 Wolverines that had to put up with the pathetic retirement gift the Coaches Poll gave to former Nebraska coach (and current Republican devil) Tom Osborne. This game is for the 1997 title. Go Blue!

I am going to watch the game at the home of a Nebraska grad that I work with. My friend FlyingV (also a Michigan alumnus) is joining me. Hopefully our Nebraska friend does not put her son to bed before the game because we are planning to teach little J.R. the words to The Victors. After all, that song will be played a lot tonight! :)

Final Score – Michigan 63, Nebraska 2

BEAT THE CORNHUSKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Enjoy the game everyone!

That's what "Sick days" are for!

My trip to Michigan didn't end that well. I picked up a pretty bad cold and by Sunday morning, I felt like shit. I had a bad headache and a sore throat. Sunday night back in CT was bad. I woke up every 1-2 hours during the night and the cold was making me absolutely miserable. Monday was just as bad, but thankfully, I was just well enough today to go into work (with a box of kleenex that I nearly killed during the day).

Don't worry, I won't place any blame for the cold on certain friends of mine back in MI that may or may not have been sick this past week.

This has been an unfortunate pattern for me in recent years. I have never taken a sick day since I started my current job 3.5 years ago. I have gone into work with a bad cold once or twice, but I have never been sick enough to miss work except for one time when I went to work and got three other people sick. I'm sure they all love me for it. However, I can think of three times where I have taken a vacation where I got sick at some point in the last couple years. One time, I had such a bad flu that I was bed ridden for 2 of the 5 days I was visiting my brother in California. He had to threaten the airline to get them to move my flight back to CT by 12 hours without penalty, and I still was probably too sick to fly that next morning since I threw up twice during that flight. I'm sure that's a pretty mental picture for you.

Doesn't my body realize that vacations are the worst time to get sick? Argh...

How to Get Rich(er) Ch. 3

Investment Strategies for YOU

Now that I have discussed the types of investments you have to choose from and how you can use mutual funds to invest in these securities, it makes sense that I discuss how you should invest your money. I’ll start first with taxable accounts and then discuss how to invest your 401(k)/403(b) and Roth IRA funds.

Taxable Savings
The number one goal of your savings is to provide a comfortable lifestyle in the event that you are not currently working. Assuming that you are in a stable job and under thirty years old, you probably do not need to access your savings in the near future unless you plan to buy a house. That said, I strongly recommend that you use short-term money market investment options for any money you may need in the event of an emergency. If you can easily liquidate stock investments and are willing to absorb losses if necessary, then you probably don’t need more than one month of living expenses in short-term investments. This is my current strategy.

As for the rest of your money, if you have less than $10k in savings, you are probably better off investing in one large cap stock mutual fund. I think an index fund that tracks the S&P 500 is probably ideal, but you can look for actively managed funds as well. An index fund will diversify your money across the larger, more established stocks and result in a better return than using a savings account for just about any 5-year period.

If are have more than $10k but less than $20k to invest, I still recommend using one or two index funds, but consider putting about half of your savings into an index fund that tracks small and mid-cap stocks. A fund that indexes the Russell 2000 might be a good choice for your second mutual fund. You could also look for an actively managed small or mid-cap mutual fund. The additional risk should reward you more, but you aren’t gambling your entire savings on more volatile stocks since you are also invested in the S&P 500 index.

Once you build your savings into the $20-100k range, you should probably still stick primarily to mutual funds. However, now you want to consider diversifying across the market a little more. Consider putting $5-10k in each of the following types of mutual funds:

1) International Stocks
2) Small-Cap (in addition to the index fund you probably already hold)
3) Additional Large-Cap Funds
4) Safe Bonds (probably only if your are closer to $100k in savings or if you are wary of a looming bear market)
5) High Yield/Junk Bonds (just as risky as small cap stocks, but different market factors drive the price movement in these securities)

For a single person in his/her twenties with >$20k in savings who does not need to liquidate their savings very soon (i.e., to buy a house), your overall portfolio should probably break down as follows:

80-85% Stocks
10-15% Bonds
0-5% Short Term (outside of short-term holdings within any of your stock/bond mutual funds)

Of the 80-85% in stocks, you should probably hold about 30-40% in large cap U.S. stocks, 10-15% in international stocks (of all sizes), and 50-60% in small and mid-cap stocks. As you get older, you should hold less in small cap stocks since you want to reduce the volatility in your portfolio as you near retirement.

Of the 10-15% in bonds, you should probably split equally between safe bonds (AA-AAA rated bonds), investment grade bonds (BBB and higher), and junk bonds (BB and lower). Start with the safer bonds and then move towards more risk as you start investing more in bonds. As you get older, you want to increase your bond holdings at the expense of stocks since bonds provide more interest income.

If you have less in savings, it makes less sense to hold bonds since you probably cannot meet the minimum deposit requirements to hold more than one or two funds.

When looking to purchase mutual funds to meet your intended portfolio breakdown, look closely at the prospectus to better understand the normal investment strategy.

For those who have savings in excess of $100k, the strategy outlined above still applies. You may want to consider picking some individual stocks if you are comfortable enough with this approach and have established a diverse base with the rest of your savings. If you are buying individual stocks, be sure to diversify across different industries and also make sure you have a target entry and exit price before buying the stock (both to realize strong gains and to cut your losses if necessary). Note that you will pay less in capital gains taxes if you hold a stock for more than one year. Don’t use individual stocks strictly to gamble. Penny stocks are extremely volatile and risky, so you should never overexpose yourself here. Better yet, stay away from penny stocks.

My current portfolio in my taxable account breaks down almost the same as the allocation I recommended above (including individual stock holdings). Fidelity’s website has great tools that allow me to check out my asset allocation in total and by each individual investment.

Retirement Accounts
For those of you that put money aside into retirement accounts, here is where you should take more risks, especially if you are in your twenties. If you are not contributing to a 401(k)/403(b) or a Roth IRA and are able to make annual contributions, you should start ASAP. The 401(k)/403(b) allows you to put money aside from your paycheck. This income and all investment gains associated with this money are tax deferred until after you withdraw the funds. Normally, your employer will match some of your contributions, so the 401(k)/403(b) is a great way to get a little extra money from your employer each year. You cannot take this money until you are 59 ½ years old without penalty except in a couple specific situations. A Roth IRA allows you to put after tax income aside for investing. The same age restrictions apply as did with the 401(k), but all investment gains are tax-free. There are restrictions for how much you can put aside in either of these retirement options in a calendar year, so make sure you are aware of these restrictions (or ask me if you really want to know and you are too lazy to do your own research).

Since you cannot touch these funds until well into the future, you should use a much more aggressive investment strategy, focusing almost entirely on small-cap equities. Since the long-term return is highest with small-cap stocks and your time horizon is long enough to absorb some volatility, I strongly recommend at least 50% of your retirement account to be invested in small-cap and mid-cap stocks. The rest should go towards large cap stocks (including index funds) with possibly a small amount in bonds. Once again, you should invest about 10-15% in international stocks to diversify somewhat against the U.S. equity market.

My 401(k) does not follow my recommended strategy at this time. I have a few mutual fund options, but I have avoided them until now and focused on company stock and an S&P 500 index fund. I should do some research soon because I can probably invest my 401(k) funds better. My Roth IRA is fairly consistent with the recommendation I have provided.


I’ll write about how I research stocks and mutual funds in the fourth and final chapter on this topic. I’ll also pass along which industries should perform well in the near future and my non-expert opinion about what will happen in the overall stock and bond market over the next couple years.

Please let me know if you found this helpful. As usual, comments are welcome and encouraged!

Merry Fucking Christmas

It's a slow day, so I'll make two posts. I don't really hate Christmas (anymore), but man did this day really suck for me as a child. Nowadays, I can entertain myself with the Internet or cable, or better yet, travel on Christmas day when lines are short and tickets are cheap. 2 NFL games this afternoon/evening have helped pass the day as well.

When I was a young lad, I really hated on this day. We had no cable or Internet back in my family's house when I was growing up. Network TV was pathetic on Christmas Day. I always hated being Jewish on December 25th since I had no Jewish friends (there were not many Jews in the Plymouth-Canton area). I either played old-school Nintendo or read a book to get through a very slow day. The highlight of the day was when my good friend KRich would call me to tell me what presents he got from his family. I was able to live vicariously through a good friend of mine who obviously loved this holiday and got really cool gifts. It was really nice of him to think to call me on Christmas morning. He then ruined everything one year (circa 1990) when he called that morning to let me know that his parents were taking the whole family to the Rose Bowl and they were leaving the next day. In hindsight, that is a sweet surprise gift for the holidays for any Michigan fan, but if you take a step and look at it from my selfish point of view, I lost my best friend for the Christmas vacation. There would be no street hockey games that break. Poor Gary.

Of course I am not nearly as bitter about this holiday anymore. I no longer want to say 'Happy Chanukah' or 'Hail Jesus' when some stranger wishes me a Merry Christmas. I just say 'thanks' and smile. Given that at least 4 people at the airport said this to me today, that's probably a good thing. You think they would instruct airline workers to say Happy Holidays so that they don't risk offending non-Christians that don't want to be wished a Merry Christmas. Seriously, I bet that a large percentage of those who were at the airport today were not Christians and were just taking advantage of cheap airfare rates today.

I hope everyone has had a good holiday with your friends and family today. Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, etc...

How to Get Rich(er) Ch. 2

Mutual Funds

Last time I wrote about the different types of investment vehicles. Now I will discuss the best way for us non-experts to invest. Mutual Funds consist of money from many different individuals. Many brokerage firms (Fidelity, Charles Schwab, etc) take your money and invest it according to a pre-determined strategy outlined in a fund prospectus. These funds can invest in stocks, bonds, money markets, or a combination of the three. Furthermore, a mutual fund can take your money and index the general stock market (S&P 500, Russel 2000 Index, Lehman Bros. Bond Index, etc), or it can actively attempt to beat the market through exceptional analysis and understanding of the market.

All funds charge an annual expense load in return for investing your money. The amount of the expense load is determined both by competitive forces as well as the amount of time necessary to maintain the fund. An index fund requires much less management, so the expense fees are significantly lower than actively managed funds. You should pay close attention to the expense load charged with any fund you purchase.

Index funds are hugely popular because it is very difficult for an actively managed fund to beat the stock market for an extensive period of time. Furthermore, an index fund may only charge you a 0.1% annual expense load and an actively managed fund might charge closer to 1% per year. The actively managed fund must beat the general stock market by 0.9% per year just to leave you in the same financial position. Usually, actively managed funds that beat the market by taking on additional risk. This means that the actively managed funds will significantly under perform when the market returns are weak. About 75% of actively managed funds fail to beat their respective index, so if you don’t think you can pick a winning fund, stick with the index funds.

Actively managed funds come in all shapes and sizes. As I said before, you can select funds that are generally consistent with the overall stock market. You can also select funds that specialize in small cap, mid-cap, or large cap stocks. As I indicated last time, small cap stocks tend to average better returns in the long run, but they are much more volatile in the short-term. Some mutual funds also target riskier stocks (perhaps companies with a high debt load). Other funds may focus on international stocks (of all sizes). You could select a fund that targets a specific industry (auto companies, financial services, energy stocks, etc). Furthermore, you can select mutual funds that target a specific section of the bond market (government bonds, investment grade bonds, high yield/junk bonds). You have many options!!

Mutual funds are a great way to diversify within a specific section of the market where you wish to invest. You can still target a certain sector of the market, but you can let an expert select the appropriate stocks or bonds instead of trying to do it yourself. You also can diversify much better since it is inefficient to purchase a few shares of individual stocks because of the commissions your brokerage firm will charge you.

One area of concern with mutual funds is the amount of assets under management. If a fund gets too large, it loses a lot of flexibility and ultimately loses its ability to beat the market over the long term. Fidelity’s Magellan Fund is a perfect example of this. The fund outperformed for many years and gained a lot of popularity from individual investors. They all dumped their money into this mutual fund and the fund got too large and is now a poorly performing fund that can’t beat its index. A couple of the funds that I have held for many years are victims of their own size. I did not pay enough attention to these old funds until this year, so I experiences sub-par returns for a few years. I am currently in the process of dumping these funds and buying similar, but more flexible mutual funds. Many brokerage companies close funds to new investors once the assets get too large. What constitutes “too large” depends on the investment strategy. A fund that invests in large cap stocks can afford to be significantly larger than a fund investing in small stocks and still be quite effective. Fidelity’s Contrafund has about $60 billion in assets and is doing very well, where Fidelity has closed other mutual funds to new investors when assets exceed $2 billion. If you haven’t figured out already, most of my money is invested through Fidelity. I don’t have a good reason for this other than this is where my dad opened up my college fund account many years ago.

I strongly encourage people in my age bracket to invest through mutual funds unless you have a solid understanding of the market or significant savings that allow to you take on more isolated risks from time to time.

My next post will focus on a good strategy for investing your money based on the size of your savings, as well as how to treat your 401(k) and Roth IRA differently from your taxable account. I’ll try to keep it as simple as possible since there are many different ways to invest your money based on your near and long-term needs for your savings. I’ll provide a little more color about what I am doing as well, even though I don’t necessarily think I have the perfect answer.

Random Encounters of the Third Kind

The How to get Rich(er) series will be postponed for now. I’ll finish it up when I have more downtime.

Last night was the much anticipated bar night with Mouse and Mpls Ju. Mouse's roommate also joined us for the festivities. After starting the night with some good red wine while waiting for a cab, we went to a martini bar in Novi. The bar was much more packed than we expected. When I am in a bar where more than half of the women there have probably had plastic surgery, I am in the wrong place. Add in the sketchy 35-year-old men hitting on my lovely companions and we were out of there after a couple drinks.

We walked over to a nearby Irish pub. As soon as I walked in, I hear someone yell out my name. I look around and see my old buddy KRich (who is plastered at the moment). I haven't seen him in over two years. He was my best friend through elementary and middle school. We used to play street hockey with the kids from the neighborhood in his driveway every single day after school. Those were awesome days. We didn't hang out as much in high school since I went to public school and his parents sent him to the best private school in the area (Detroit Country Day). We both went to Michigan and would occasionally run into each other at football and hockey games, but we didn't hang out very often. KRich's younger brother was at the bar as well. Our group joined them for the whole time we were at the Irish Pub. Although I was very excited to hang out with Mouse and Mpls Ju, this random encounter made my night. I am going to try and catch up with KRich under more sober terms this afternoon.

We left the Irish Pub to catch the last set of a popular cover band at another nearby bar. It was a pretty sweet band. They rank right up there with The Zoo, which performs in the Hartford area quite often.

We eventually made our way back to Mouse's place to crash for the night, but not before making a few drunk dials. I knew Roopdoog would still be up at 2:30 anyway. At least I wasn't on the receiving end of a drunk dial this week! :) The night was a blast, and I was definitely hung over this morning. Thankfully, I was able to make some chocolate chip pancakes before leaving Mouse's place since they are one of the three big hangover cures for me (the others being McDonalds breakfast and peanut butter). Can you believe this was the first time Mouse had chocolate chip pancakes? I was shocked.

I don't think I did anything super stupid last night, but I am sure Mouse or Mpls Ju will add a comment if I missed a good story. Don't worry about not being able to understand Mouse's comment though because she speaks English, not "Asian".

Since I have a digital camera, I can post couple good pictures from last night!

(L to R) - KRich's brother, me, KRich. I miss playing street hockey every day after school...













My three lovely companions for the evening

How to be Rich(er), Ch. 1

I figured I'd pass along some of my limited wisdom about investing to those of you who have been asking me for advice lately. I want to warn you that I am by no means an expert and I do not have the solution to your particular situation. Hopefully, you will find this helpful. Please comment on the usefulness of this post. If it did not help you at all, I don't want to waste my time or your time with the remaining topics.

I think the best way to break down this topic is by the following "chapters"

1) Types of Investments
2) Mutual Funds
3) Investment Strategies for You
4) Researching Mutual Funds and individual stocks

I've covered the first chapter below. I'll try to hit the other three sometime in the next week or so.

Types of Investments
There are three main investment "vehicles" that you can choose between: Money Markets, Bonds, and Stocks.

Money market investments are similar to a savings account. These investments typically earn a small amount of interest (currently around 3%), but are backed by a very solid institution (bank). The risk of a well-known bank going bankrupt is very minimal, so you are not paid as handsomely for the risk associated with giving a bank your money. These assets also tend to be quite liquid. You can access your savings account at just about any time if you need money. Some money market accounts might require you to maintain a minimum balance or possibly limit the number of transactions you can make in a given month. Banks typically offer you a higher interest rate if you agree to deposit your money for a longer period of time, provided that you are not allowed to touch your deposit before the agreed upon date. These Certificates of Deposit (CDs) earn varying levels of interest based on how long you agree to leave the money on deposit. My guess is that at twelve month CD probably earns about 4% annual interest these days. A five-year CD would earn a higher annual rate since you are giving your money to the bank for a longer period of time. I have never purchased a CD, so I don’t know too much about them.

Another type of investment is a bond. These investments make a lot of sense theoretically, but individuals do not commonly utilize them. A bond is similar to a CD with a bank. You give the bond issuer (normally a company) a set principal amount (say $1000) and they agree to pay you that principal in the future at some specified date. In the meantime, you will also receive interest payments on the bond. Most bonds can be resold in the public market at any time. There are two main risks you have when you hold a bond. The first key risk is default. If the issuer of the bond cannot pay the stated interest or principal payments (via a bankruptcy declaration), they have defaulted and you probably have lost most if not all of your money. All publicly traded bonds are rated for their creditworthiness by several agencies (Moody’s, Standard and Poor’s, etc). "Junk bonds" are bonds with the lowest credit ratings. In order to get people to buy these bonds, higher interest payments are demanded. Since default risk is higher if the length of the bond is longer, higher interest rates are demanded on longer-term bonds. A thirty-year bond should have higher interest payments than a three-year bond since a lot more can happen in thirty years that may cause you to lose your principal amount than could happen in three years. Also, when you try and trade a bond in the secondary market (instead of buying directly for a company), the price of the bond relative to the principal value depends heavily on the credit rating of the bond. A bond that is deemed "junk" that will pay you $1000 in the future will probably sell for far less than $1000 since it will likely never get paid off by the issuer of the bond. A U.S. government bond will likely sell for close to face value since government debt is considered the highest quality debt. The second risk of a bond is interest rate movement. A bond that pays you 7% interest each year might be quite attractive today (assuming no default risk). In fact, you would pay more than $1000 for a bond that will pay you $1000 in ten years and 7% in interest each year in today's market since the present value of this bond at today’s interest rates exceeds $1000. However, if interest rates jump to 10%, that bond is no longer an attractive investment. The re-sale value of the bond will drop if interest rates rise since more attractive bonds become available. Conversely, if interest rates decline, the value of your bond increases. If you intend to hold a bond to maturity, then the only risk you need to be concerned with is default risk. Most individuals tend to stay away from the bond market because it can be quite confusing to understand (even though the concept of a bond is far simpler than common stock). Companies that have assets available for investment (insurance companies) are big players in the bond market because the returns are still solid and the risk is lower than in the stock market.

Stocks are definitely a more common and popular investment choice for individuals. Stocks provide you with a small piece of ownership in a company. You have claim to future earnings at the company and voting rights. However, you are last in line behind the bondholders in the event that the company goes bankrupt (and often get nothing in this event). Some stocks pay dividends to the stockholders as a method of returning earnings. Others retain all earnings and tend to be more active in mergers and acquisitions or in buying back their own stock over time with their profits. A stock will go up when a company increases their dividend or experiences solid earnings growth. Stocks also move based on general market or industry news and trends. Companies that have publicly traded stock come in all shapes and sizes. You can buy a stock in a consumer services industry. You can also buy energy stocks, insurance stocks, and many other types of stock. You can buy stock from large companies, medium sized companies, and small companies. I'll admit that I am not an expert on the stock market and struggle to explain a lot of behaviors. Even though I am mostly invested in stocks (through mutual funds), the concept of bonds makes much more sense to me.

Those are the three main investment "vehicles" for your money. Historically (over the past 75 years), stocks have provided the highest average annual return on investment. This should make sense because stocks represent the riskiest and most volatile type of investment. You should demand higher returns for higher risk. Within the stock investments, small cap stocks (smaller sized companies) return more per year than large cap stocks. A small cap stock is most likely to boom and hit it big time (Wal-Mart was once a small cap stock) or completely fizzle out (many dot com stocks), so this hopefully makes sense as well. If I remember my college corporate finance textbook correctly, small cap stocks have averaged an 11% annual return over the past 75 years and large cap stocks have average around 8-9%. However, in bear markets and during recessions, the stock investments have performed far worse than bonds and money market securities. You run a much greater risk of losing a significant amount of money in recession markets if you are heavily invested in stocks. Bonds are next in terms of average return on investment. Investment grade bonds have earned roughly 5-7% per year over the past 75 years. Government bonds have earned less during this time and junk bonds have earned more because of the risk associated with these securities. The down years are not quite as harsh as they are for stocks, but for the additional protection in bad years, you are sacrificing better returns when the market is strong. Money markets have the worst average annual returns among the types of investments I have outlined above. While they never lose money, you miss out on a lot of potential gains by only using money markets. I strongly suggest that you only keep enough in money market investments to cover short-term needs plus emergency funds (i.e. to cover you for a couple months if you lose your job). As you near retirement age, it is wise to put more of your money into money market funds since you can’t afford to take on as much risk anymore.

There are a couple ways to get involved with stocks and bonds. The first is to buy a specific stock or bond. The second way is to get involved through mutual funds that buy a specific class of stock or bond (or perhaps diversify across the entire market). You pay a fee (expense load) when you own a mutual fund since you are paying an expert to manage your money, but you diversify a significant amount of risk compared to owning one specific stock or bond.

I'll elaborate more on mutual funds in my next entry on this topic since I think most people in my age bucket (under 30) with less than ~$100k in savings should invest primarily (if not entirely) in mutual funds if they want to get involved in stocks and bonds and do not understand much about investing.

Random Thoughts

I won't post much since I need to go to sleep soon. I spent most of the day with Mpls Ju and a few hours this evening with TheDogDoctor as well (anyone have a better nickname suggestion?). Fun times were had. The three of us have not gone out together in way too long (I think the last time the three of us were together was the 2003 UM-MSU football game). I miss them both a lot. I took a couple pictures with my new camera as well. But don't worry, I won't turn into my parents when it comes to taking a million stupid pictures. I'll post a few pictures from the week on this site when I return to CT.

Mpls Ju was giving me suggestions for how to spice up this blog when I do not have anything interesting to write. Given the questions received from some of my loyal readers recently, I may devote a couple entries over the next week or two to investment advice. I apologize if this bores some of my actuary friends who probably know some of this stuff better then me. While I am by no means an expert on the subject, I can pass along some of my knowledge based on personal experiences that may be useful to some people that could use basic advice. Look for this topic in a future entry (possibly tomorrow morning since I will probably be bored at some point).

Look for a political rant at some point as well. I definitely have strong opinions there that I have opted not to share so far.

I might even include some drunken gibberish tomorrow based on how the bar night with Mouse, Mpls Ju, and company goes. I'm pumped!!!

Good night everyone!

I am not a child

I have enjoyed spending the last three days with my mom. Her new boyfriend is a really nice guy too. However, I need to vent about a few things that I don't have the heart to argue with my mom about. You will have to put up with me for now:

• I am your son, but I am not your child.
• When I tell you I am full, please do not put more food on my plate and tell me I have to eat it.
• If I decide to go outside with a coat that is not appropriate for the weather, please do not force me to wear some big, bulky, ugly coat that you pulled out of the closet when I go out because you are worried that I will get frostbite. I am old enough to suffer the consequences from my actions.
• Please do not tell me I need to get married and start a family soon.
• I appreciate your concern, but you do not need to wait up for me when I go out at night. I will return home safely. If not today, then I will call the next morning to let you know I am ok.
• Although I do not own a digital camera (until I bought one today), I do understand how they work. For example, I know what the trash can icon stands for and how it works.
• I heard you when you told me to read the manual for the camera the first time. I also heard you the twentieth time.
• I know that I should confirm that the camera works properly before returning to CT just in case I need to return it to the store. I also knew that the second and third time you told me. I was not born yesterday and I am not a fucking retard.

I love my parents, but I no longer need to be parented. My relationship with my mom and dad would be a lot better if they understood that. I think I have proven my ability to live independently over the past few years. I really enjoy it when I can just talk with my mom and dad about what they are doing these days. My dad has started to improve in the unsolicited advice department, but my mom can drive me crazy when I spend too much time with her.

After three full days with my mom (with the brief exception of two hours last night), I am ready to see some of my friends for a couple days.

Sorry to vent. I don't really hate my parents and I do value the time I spend with them. I'm sure many people would trade their relationship with their parents with the one I have with mine in a heartbeat.

A productive day off

I had a very productive day. At my mom's request, I met with her financial advisor at Fidelity first thing this morning. I was pleased that the advisor and I were both on the same page regarding how I should invest my money (at a high level). She agreed with some of my near term plans and provided me with a couple good mutual fund recommendations that I will use in the near future. Since I am looking to diversify more in mutual funds before venturing into stocks any further, I found this meeting quite helpful. While hitting a huge home run would be nice, I know better than to take ridiculous gambles on a regular basis. My goal is to be able to retire in 20-25 years, not 20-25 days.

I then spent a couple hours with my mom's new boyfriend, Bob, who is a photography expert. I just met him for the first time last night. He's a very nice person, but it will always be a little awkward to meet anyone that is dating one of my parents. I'll probably never get past that.

Bob helped me shop for digital cameras for a couple hours this morning. It was clear that his tastes were much different than mine, but he stopped trying to steer me towards large bulky cameras with large zoom lenses after a couple stores. I found a camera that I liked and it received mostly positive reviews online. I plan to go back to buy it tomorrow. If all goes well, I'll be able to take some sweet pictures later this week! :)

I spent the rest of the afternoon working out at the JCC in West Bloomfield. Since my mom works there, I have free reign to use the workout facilities all week. It's a nice deal! I went swimming for the first time in a while. My goal was to swim a mile (the normal swimming workout). I was out of shape because I crapped out at 2/3 of a mile. I might have been able to finish, but I would have been too tired to do anything else this evening. I blame it on not eating lunch...and maybe a little on the 20 extra pounds I am carrying right now.

Tonight I am going to watch Monday Night Football with my South Quad friends. I am meeting BatmanYee (junior year roommate), Gary1, and TheFredator at some bar in Troy. I am starting to lose touch with them these days since we only hang out one or two times a year, so I'm glad we'll be able to catch up for the evening. Go Brett Favre and Donald Driver!

Great Lakes, Great Times

Greetings from Michigan. I am thankful for two things today:

1) People who do not secure their wireless network connections
2) Clinching my first trip to the FFL championship game in my four years in the league with my friends from work (barring a Monday Night Disaster)

I missed out on a golden opportunity to go to a Lions game today. Since the 4PM games are reserved for teams that the national TV audience actually cares about, I assumed the Lions-Bungles game was at 1PM today. Therefore, I told Mouse that I would not be able to watch or attend the game with her. I arrived in Michigan at 2PM and quickly realized the game kicked off at 4PM. D'oh! I'm an idiot, again.

My mom had already planned the entire afternoon and evening, so I was not able to watch any of the game. It would have been nice to see the fans make a spectacle of the whole "Fire Millen" craze, but oh well. I'm just thrilled that my fantasy football team won. In my first three seasons in the fantasy football league, I never managed a winning record or a single playoff victory. I was more inept than Lions owner William Clay Ford. I was just throwing away my money for some entertainment (or frustration) each Sunday. After a magical 10-3 regular season and a likely win this weekend, I will get a chance to play for the championship next week. Please join me in hoping that Samkon Gado does not upstage the combination of Brett Favre and Donald Driver tomorrow night. I only have an 18-point lead, so I guess my finals trip is not set in stone yet.

Instead of watching the Lions game, my mom took me to a free concert at the West Bloomfield Public Library near where she lives. There was a jazz trio featuring a harp, a string bass, and a drum set. Interesting mix. They were playing mostly holiday music (i.e., Christmas songs) to an audience in a very Jewish community. Given that I am closer to Scrooge than I am to Santa Claus on the holiday spectrum, it wasn't really my kind of concert. Furthermore, the harp player was not that great. However, you get what you pay for (free concert) and my mom enjoyed it, so I had a good time. The jazz pieces they played were pretty good. It was probably the first and last time I'll ever hear a harp as part of a jazz group.

My mom and I went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant that she really likes. I find it disappointing that my mom always has to tell the server some picky thing that she did not like about her meal. Does the server really care that there was not enough meat in the meat sauce? Is it really something worth complaining about? I guess I just don't like trivial conflict. I'm used to these situations with my parents, so I don't even try to convince my mom to drop the issue anymore. At least the conversation between us was good.

My night was almost ruined by President Dumbass. I was ready to watch Family Guy when our so-called president came on the give a national address. At least Fox showed the entire episode of Family Guy after the end of the twenty-minute speech. Family Guy spoofed Lumberg from Office Space. Awesome!

I should be able to keep up the daily updates each night given that my mom has no cable to entertain me after she goes to sleep. I can't figure out why I can access an unsecured wireless connection, but I won't complain! :)

Lazy Saturday

Last day in CT for awhile. I didn't do much this morning/afternoon. My mom wants me to meet with her financial planner on Monday morning, so I did some of my own research/planning to be prepared. I don't know if I'm very open to much advice since I think I manage my savings well, but it will make my mom happy to meet with this person, so I'll go.

I am heading over to FlyingV's for the evening. He is having a small gathering at his place.

I'm super excited about going to MI tomorrow, but I am still not packed. I procrastinate too much. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

I may not post much next week. I'll have my laptop with me, but I won't have much internet access unless I can pick up a wireless signal from one of my Mom's neighbors. I'll be sure to put up pictures from the night out with Mouse and Mpls Ju as well as any other good pictures I get from next week once I return to CT.

Mouse - I was not irritated when you called earlier this week. Possibly distracted, but not irritated. I would never do anything to deter a drunk dial. I'm sorry that you were afraid to call me last night.

At last, a real vacation

My first long vacation in one year has finally started! Although I was technically on vacation today, I had to go into work for a little over an hour to take care of a couple important items that I didn't finish yesterday. This is my first vacation that spans a full week or more since my two week Rose Bowl/camping trip to Baja Mexico last year at this time with my brother and his wife. I tend to take a lot of 3 and 4 day weekend trips so that I can go more places. However, it's not as relaxing as a full week off, so this will be a much needed break from work.

I decided not to return to MI until Sunday when I got my plane ticket, but I wish I had made plans to leave tomorrow. There really isn't anything going on here this weekend. Some people are going to one of my favorite bars to see a really good cover band tonight, but I'm not sure if I'll join them yet. UNICorn is looking for people to watch Northern Iowa in the Div 1AA final tonight. I might just do that instead. I'll save my heavy drinking for next week with Mouse, Mpls Ju, and co. I'm excited to go back to MI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I saw the musical Wicked last night with some of my more "artsy-fartsy" friends here in CT (FlyingV, BuckeyeBoy, etc) at the Bushnell Theater. The travelling Broadway cast is in town for a few days. The musical was not as good as I expected it to be. The story is sort of a prequel to the Wizard of Oz and focuses on how the Wicked Witch of the West became wicked. She is actually the good character in the musical. While the Wicked Witch of the West had pipes (good singer), I was not really into most of the music or the singing of the other main character (The "Good Witch"). The one item I really got a laugh out of was the Wizard. You may remember the person who played this character from such roles as Steve Rhodes from Married...with Children. There was a time when that was one of my favorite TV shows. He played the part very well and was a pretty good singer.

Sorry! I've been busy

Sorry about the lack of updates. I've been busy the last couple nights. I don't have much exciting news to pass along, but I'll post something tomorrow since I don't have to work another long day. Woo hoo to 11 day weekends!

Blah

So the title pretty much sums up my mood right now. It's 7PM and I am debating going to sleep for the night. I've had a long couple days of work (10-11 hours per day) and I am not getting much sleep once again. I've already set up camp in my room for the evening since I am not even up for socializing with TheCrazyCanuck this evening. Poor Gary. You should all feel sorry for me.

Anyway, since I don't want to depress my fan club anymore, I guess I have one story I can relay. Occasionally, I do some research on stocks and mutual funds so that I can invest my money wisely and hopefully set myself up to retire at age 30. Normally I just put any extra money I have into safer mutual funds and more conservative stocks. Every once in a while I take a small gamble on some stock (or the Powerball lottery) to try and make a little extra money. Back in March, I took a little more of a gamble than normal. There was an online retailer that had fallen down significantly from it's high after a few rough quarters. I watched the stock for about a month and then I got in after it started to rebound (around a price of $5.75/share). After an initial bump, the stock fell pretty hard. When it hit $4/sh I was a little pissed with my gamble. However, about 3 weeks ago the company announced a very solid financial quarter. The stock boomed to $7.25 a share in a short period of time. I was back in the money! :) I thought about getting out, especially since the company was spinning off a portion of itself through a rights offering and I don't fully understand how that could impact the price. I put an order in to sell the stock at just over $7.30/sh so that I could make an even $1000 on the investment. Well, the stock tanked again today and I was never able to sell since I was too busy at work to take a look at the share price. It dropped as low as $5.10/sh today before closing at $6.89. Needless to say, it was a volatile day. I don't have the slightest clue what is going on, so I am just going to get out tomorrow while I am still ahead.

What is the moral of the story you ask? Never gamble on an investment you don't know much about, unless your name is Hawkeye. Then, gambling on stocks is highly encouraged. I'm sticking with mutual funds in the near future.

Real Men Eat Salad

I went out to dinner with RoopDogg et all last night at Outback Steakhouse. I wasn't really hungry since I ate a late lunch, but I wanted to go out anyway. Since I wasn't feeling steak and I was driving, I ordered water to drink and a Caesar salad for dinner. I don't know if RoopDogg was just trying to flirt with the waitress, but as soon as I order he starts cracking jokes about my manliness to the waitress. What's wrong with having a salad at dinner? I took offense to the three hours of ridicule that followed. Not really, but really.

Mouse called during dinner and got to speak to RoopDogg on the phone for the first time. I guess it was somewhat awkward since there were 6 other people at the table, but RoopDogg fired a few pro-Penn State comments over the phone. I think they also talked about the New Haven girl that Mouse wants to hook him up with! :)

We went bowling afterwards, as what seems to be the tradition after a large meal at Outback. It was a fun, albeit tame evening.

Today we watched the 1PM football games at Hooters in Manchester. They have good wings and an awesome TV set up. I swear that's why we went there for the game. Now I am flipping back and forth between the finale of Survivor and the Lions game. I am mainly watching Survivor since the Lions game would be too frustrating.

Lloydball is contagious

After I posted my entry last night, I ended up going out for a couple hours. RoopDogg made a last minute trip to the Hartford area to hang out for the weekend. He and UNICorn were watching the Div 1AA football semifinal between UNI and Texas St. I went over to catch the thrilling 4th quarter and OT finish at UNICorn's apartment. UNI won! UNI scored a TD with 1:30 left in the 4th quarter. After succeeding on a two-point conversion to tie the game, Texas State had 1:30 and 3 timeouts with the ball at their 30yd line. They decided to take a knee and play for overtime. I was stunned by this decision. The score was 37-37. Texas St. had scored almost at will all game. Why play for overtime. It made me wonder if Lloyd Carr was giving coaching lessons to the Texas St. coach. Many times, Lloyd would play passively at the end of a half instead of going for a score. At least Lloyd would call a couple running plays before taking a knee. How could you not play for the win!!!! UNI kicked a FG in OT and then intercepted the Texas St. QB to end the game. UNICorn was thrilled! ESPN had a classic shot of some random fan with a priceless look of disbelief when Texas St. decided to play for OT. They showed that fan about 20 more times before the game was finally over.

Also, I forgot to relay a story from this past week. A few of us were trying to figure out who will be around for New Years Eve so that we can figure out if we should plan some sort of gathering. Last week, two different people came up to me on the same day to ask for details about my New Years party. Caught off guard, I asked what they were referring to. Apparently, a rumor had started that I was hosting a big New Years Eve party at my apartment. I have no idea who started this rumor, but apparently no one was going to own up to it. Not that I was upset about it, but I didn't want everyone thinking that I was hosting a party before I talked to TheCrazyCanuck about it. Since she didn't mind (and was not even going to be in town), I decided to officially volunteer 1SD for a New Years Eve party. I haven't thrown a party since the "Post-Exam Post-Halloween Par-Tay" last November, so it was time to play host again. Clear your calendars. I expect everyone to attend!! I will not accept "I do not live in CT" as an excuse for not coming to my party.

On an unrelated note, this site needs a spell check option. I'm too lazy to copy a post into Word to look for spelling errors.

My name is Gary and I have a problem...

...I don't know how to walk away from a poker table when I am ahead. Despite the heavy snowstorm, KottenBallz drove Hawkeye and I to Foxwoods for a day full of poker. I wanted to see if my last trip was a fluke or not. It was a pretty long drive because of the weather, but we eventually made it. I found it funny that one person at my table was a teacher enjoying a snow day. If I were a teacher, I wouldn't have to take a vacation day to hit the casino on a weekday. I'd just need to hope for snow. Maybe I should change careers...

After a few hours, I managed to grind out a $200 profit. However, I got greedy. Instead of calling it a day, I kept playing for several more hours. Slowly, I pissed away my hard-earned winnings and then I pissed away some more. Right now I'm sure Mouse is freaking out that her night of free drinks has been lost. No worries, I quit when I was down $66, which put me up $1 if you count the poker night with my friends last night. Drinks are still on me! :)

I just realized today that I am going to be back in MI in just over one week. Other than telling all my friends that I was going to be around to see them, I have made no concrete plans. Given that I will not have a car for the week, I should probably get moving on that. I think this will be a good weekend to finalize my plans. Mpls Ju and Mouse, what day do you want to hit the bars?

My weekend is looking a little slow. It's Friday night and I'm sitting in my apartment watching a 'That 70s Show' marathon. After a day at the casino, I felt like just being a vegetable at home for the rest of the night. I have fun plans during tomorrow afternoon, but nothing special the rest of the weekend. Anyone else up to something fun? If so, please comment so that I can live through you for the weekend.

I'm boring

I don't really have anything funny to say today. I just wanted to keep my promise of posting every day during Mouse's finals week. I owe her a favor after my asshole comment yesterday.

A friend of mine hosted a poker night tonight. I won $67. Woo hoo! :) Hawkeye, KottenBallz, and I are planning to take tomorrow off to go to the casino. However, since there is 6-10 inches of snow in the forecast, we may bail. I am probably the only wuss who wants to bail, so I'm guessing someone else will drive. I'm still taking the day off regardless. I need to sleep in.

It's called planning people!

We had our actuarial program holiday party tonight. I am going to complain for several reasons:

1) It started at 6:30PM because the "sister" financial program at work valued working late more than getting home from the party early. Since when does a work holiday party start so late??

2) It was downtown on the same night as a U2 concert. Traffic was horrible! I had to pay $10 to park for two hours. I never pay to park in Hartford.

3) Although we had a private section of the bar, it was horribly crowded because the concert hadn't started yet.

4) I'll stop now. Other than these items and the crappy food, I guess I had a good time. I ducked out early to put plastic on the windows to get rid of the draft problems. That's how excited I was tonight at the party.

I'd rather have been at work for another couple hours.

Since two of you asked, I am going to talk about Ben Wallace's dreamyness. How can any man with an afro not be considered hot? Thick, curly hair is so sexy on guys. I should revive my 'fro look again because if it is so dreamy on Ben Wallace, it would look smokin' on me. Also, Mouse thinks he's hot, so he must be really dreeeeeaaaammmmmy. Big Ben should ditch the family (and kid, since Mouse doesn't do kids) and shack up with Mouse. (This comment removed because Gary is an asshole)

Don't look now, but Michigan basketball is 6-0. Too bad the hockey team has lost four in a row.

Any other topics you'd like me to write about?

Power to the People

I'm lacking on good material this week. Since I need to honor Mouse's request for daily updates during finals, I am going to ask all of you to give me a topic to write about. I can't promise I'll be funny or witty, but I'll do my best. Please do not suggest boring topics. I define the following as boring: Bucknell Basketball, Mpls Ju, Final Exams. The following topics are fun and exciting: Michigan sports (at least our basketball team is undefeated) and not having to take exams anymore.

I may not update tomorrow. We have a holiday party for work and I probably won't be home until late. If the suggested topic of the day is good, then I will write something.

As for me, I went out with some friends last night for UNICorn's birthday. I call him UNICorn since he went to the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) and I associate corn with that state. Not funny. I know. We had a game night and ate Chinese food. We played this really bad game called Crack the Case. UNICorn and RoopDogg are huge fans of the game, but I think it's incredibly boring. It wasn't as bad with teams of five, but I was more interested in the 42-0 MNF blowout personally.

Speaking of corn, I made plans with the Nebraska contingent to watch the Alamo Bowl game on the 28th. As much as I'd love to go, I have to work. However, the Nebraska crew (two people in their thirties) is as crazy about their team as FlyingV and I are about ours. I am really excited about the match up. We can settle 1997 once and for all, and hopefully add insult to injury by settling a score for PSU as well. What the hell is a 'cornhusker'? They should come up with a more ferocious nickname.

I saw highlights from the Lions game this weekend with the guy running through the stadium with the "Fire Millen" sign. Hilarious! I can't wait to see what Lions fans do for the final home game of the season in a couple weeks against Cincinatti. A 100% empty stadium is the best suggestion I can offer. What a pathetic team.

Gary Becomes Cultured...For One Day

I went to FlyingV's concert this afternoon. He sings in the Hartford Chorale and he finally had a concert on a weekend where I was in town. His group was performing Handel's Messiah with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. Given that the Hartford Chorale is a volunteer group that requires an audition and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra is a professional group, it was cool to see FlyingV performing the The Bushnell with such talented company. The Hartford Chorale sounded awesome. I was extremely impressed with their sound, power, and intonation for a volunteer choir. However, with the exception of the Hallelujah chorus at the end of the concert, I did not enjoy the two-and-a-half hour musical piece. It just didn't entertain me.

The Hallelujah chorus did remind me of a high school experience. Mpls Ju, do you remember when some members of our Humanaties class taught the entire class to sing that song? I remember the students running the class and the teachers getting frustrated since no one was paying much attention and ~20% of the semester grade for the students in charge was riding on our performance. Not really a funny story, but I was reminded of it today.

Here Fishy Fishy Fishy

It's 1:30 AM and I am posting on my blog. However, I am not drunk right now. Sorry! I just got back from my most successful casino trip EVER! I spent four hours playing poker tonight at Foxwoods Casino. I recently moved to a slightly higher Texas Hold'em limit because I was getting frustrated by a lot of bad play at my normal limit (I don't like it when 7+ of the 9 people at the table play every hand since it is hard to figure out what you are up against). This was only my second time playing the new limit. I sat at a fairly loose table (i.e., a lot of people play a lot of hands). I normally don't like playing at a table like this since it is easy for people playing crappy cards to suckout on you when you play a really good hand, but these players really sucked. Not only did they all play crap cards, but they didn't fold when their hands did not improve. There were so many fishes (bad players) at my table tonight. Why are these people playing '$5/$10 w/ kill Hold'em'? They can't possibly make any money when they go to the casino. The loose play made it very hard (and often stupid) to bluff, but whenever I made a good hand, I won a lot of money.

At one point I had to go ask a friend of mine at another table how much he would have to be up on the night to get up and leave a table of bad poker players. I needed someone to tell me that I should quit before I start throwing some of my winnings away. I was way beyond my personal best for a trip to the casino after only two hours and was unsure about when I should just call it a night and cash out my winnings. I was originally planning to play two hours more than I ended up playing tonight.

I won't post details some of the crazy hands I won since Roop Dogg is probably the only one of my readers who would care, but I only had one hand all night where I made a bad play that cost me more than $15 and one other hand where I got unlucky and lost on the last card. I was just in an incredible zone.

By the time the night was over, I nearly doubled the winnings compared to my previous best day at the casino. While I don't want to put exact dollar amounts in this blog, I can pay for every drink Mouse, Mpls Ju, and I have at the bar when we go out in a couple weeks, buy a digital camera, and still possibly have a little profit left over. That is, unless Mouse and Mpls Ju go nuts at the bar when I buy their drinks! :)

I'm currently hiding an uncomfortable amount of cash in my room right now considering that I showed up to the casino with about $250 of my own money this evening. I don't really want to take the cash to the bank, so I probably won't be using my credit card much for the next month or so I'm still in shock over the incredible run I had today!

Without any further delay...

It's nice to know that my fans are terribly inpatient. Without any further wait, I'll tell the story of my trip to Philadelphia. I had to go to Philly on Tuesday for a work related meeting. I am also in the middle of a five week training course about how to be a good manager that is on each Tuesday. Even though I had to miss the training on Tuesday for this trip, I lucked out since the same course was offered at the Philly office on Wednesday. Therefore, I had a night to kill in the city and a hotel room downtown.

Every time I go to Philly, I end the day with a happy hour at Tir Na Nog, which is a cool bar near the office. This time, I didn't have to leave at 7 for the airport. Coupled with the fact that the actuaries in Philly love to drink, one beer became three became five became "time to go to another bar". The crowd slowly dwindled through the evening, but my friend K-Lo and another friend of hers dragged me to a piano bar once we all got drunk. There was only one person at the piano bar before we got there, but apparently my two companions were regulars there and knew the bartender very well. The piano guy played songs for us and flirted with my friends (since they are both attractive). We all just hung out and had some interesting drunken conversations. Around midnight and after my sixth or seventh Yuengling, I was ready to crap out. I was feeling the effects of being up since 3:15AM that morning. When I indicated to the bartender at the piano bar that I didn't want another beer, my friends started giving me some shit. The bartender then poured me another beer and said that I had to "man up". I guess I failed since I made a very small dent in that beer. She gave me some shit for the rest of the night, but it was all in good fun. I liked that place a lot despite the fact that it was empty.

I can't say that I did anything stupid, though I am killing myself for a chance at great revenge with a mid-week drunk dial to Mouse. I even thought about it once I left the bar, but instead I fell asleep. Like I said, it was a long day. Next time I guess...

I got a whopping 6 hours of sleep before heading into the office for a hungover day of work on Wednesday. I can't remember the last time I showed up to work hungover. I didn't get back to Hartford until late last night since my flight back to CT was cancelled and I had to catch the later flight.

I'd be excited about having the day off tomorrow, but I'm going to spend a good part of the day writing "report cards" that are due soon. Tomorrow was a really bad day for me to take off, so I justified the ill-timed vacation day by promising to do a little work (after sleeping in, of course). At least I can write them at my own pace with some peace and quiet.