What's Wrong with the Hockey Team?

I am currently listening to the Michigan hockey game on the internet. We are playing Western Michigan. WMU is currently in last place in the conference and we are at home. This game should not be a contest. However, Michigan just battled back from a two-goal deficit to tie the game at two about halfway through the game. WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS TEAM?

Michigan is 5-8-2 in their last 15. That's pathetic. They lost 4 straight games between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was their first four game losing streak since the 1980s. This might also be the first time since the 1980s that Michigan fails to make the NCAA tournament if they don't start playing inspired hockey and put some wins together.

I saw the team play a couple weeks ago against the US Under 18 National Team. They looked uninspired and they didn't play well together. There was a lot of individual plays, but little teamwork. I know they have like 11 freshman in the lineup this year after losing a lot of seniors and a couple underclassmen who chose to go pro, but this team was good enough to start 9-1-1 and beat a very good Boston College team in October.

Who do I blame for this? The hockey band director. There used to be a great tradition at Michigan hockey games. When Michigan led late in the hockey game, the students would chant for the band director to dance. The director would oblige, the students would cheer, and the opposing goalie would be reminded that he is in fact a sieve. There was much rejoicing. This year, the hockey band director will not dance because the Michigan director of bands thinks such behavior is unprofessional. Unprofessional my ass. It adds to the great atmosphere of Yost Arena. That's why Michigan is struggling.

As long as Michigan puts together a patented late season run and makes the tournament, they will probably be sent east for the regionals. They are no longer a candidate for a #1 seed, so they will have to travel come tournament time. That's good for me, I guess. Both Eastern regionals are within two hours of Hartford. However, Michigan has never made the frozen four when they were sent east for the regionals.

Now the game is tied at 3. TAKE OUT THE FRESHMAN GOALIE AND PLAY NOAH RUDEN!! Billy Sauer may be great someday, but he's not ready to play goalie for Michigan this year. Sauer gives up like 5 goals a game.

I know no one who reads this cares about hockey, but I needed to vent. Thank you.

***EDIT - We ended up winning 7-3. That's more like it.***

I'm going to...Iowa?

UNICorn was pretty desperate. He and Hawkeye were going to the University of Iowa in two weeks to interview candidates for actuarial positions at my company. They had three full interview schedules, but their third interviewer had bailed on the trip. UNICorn tried to get many other Iowans at work to make the trip, but he had no luck. Last night, he asked me to consider going. Of course I'd love to go, but getting away from work for a couple days is not very easy this time of year, especially knowing that I'd have to play catchup as a result. I brought the issue up with my manager this morning and got the cop out response I did not want to hear. "You can go as long as you don't fall behind". Implied translation? Work Sunday the 12th and it's cool. I thought it over and decided that I'd have fun, so I am going to Iowa in two weeks. I think UNICorn is crazy though. Doesn't he realize that I am the most intimidating interviewer around? I'm gonna grill the poor Iowa candidates and then ask them "Why should I hire you over a candidate from the wonderful University of Michigan?" Hehe. I'm evil. :)

Iowa has a home basketball game during my trip there. UNICorn and Hawkeye already bought tickets, so I may not be able to watch with them. However, I never pass up a chance to root against the Spartans. Who cares if I have a 6AM flight the morning after the game? I don't. Surprisingly, after I attend the Iowa-MSU game, I will have been to as many Iowa basketball games as I have Michigan basketball games. I will also have seen MSU play more than any other college basketball teams. Go Hawkeyes!

I hate the bar

I went to Up on the Rocks tonight with UNICorn and TimTaylor. TimTaylor's real name is nothing close to Tim or Taylor, but anyone who has seen Home Improvement should get my point. I was the driver for TimTaylor since it was his birthday.

Although Up on the Rocks is a pretty damn good bar here, I rarely have a good time when I go. I think the bar is just not my place to have fun unless I go with a large crowd (or with Mpls Ju and Mouse). My only entertainment was watching TimTaylor making a fool out of himself as he struck out with about 10 girls. He is half sketchy and half tool when he is at the bar, but he thinks he is so slick. I would compare him loosely to TheFredator for those of you that know him, but he is not nearly as vulgar.

College Rivalries Never Die

I was at the grocery store today when I noticed someone in my aisle wearing a Michigan State sweatshirt. As I walked by him, I gave him an evil glare. Well, it probably was not an evil glare, but I was not happy to see a Spartan invading my grocery store. A few minutes later, I walked down another aisle where there was a guy wearing a Michigan hat. I smiled, but did not say 'Go Blue'. I wasn't wearing any Michigan paraphernalia (surprisingly).

Living on the east coast, I always get excited when I see someone in Michigan clothing. It does not happen that often since I am surrounded by UConn fans and to a lesser extent, Penn State and Boston College fans. I am always caught off guard nowadays when I walk through Ann Arbor because I am just not used to seeing so many people wearing Michigan gear. It's even more rare to see Spartan fans out here. Maybe the Spartans are too busy working at McDonalds back in MI. Zing! :) J/k, TheDogDoctor.

For some reason this encounter reminded me of the ESPN commercial where the Alabama and Auburn fans in a hospital are walking past each other. The Auburn guy falls down and pleads for help and the Alabama guy smirks and keeps walking. Random, I know, but I tend to daydream at the grocery store.

It's a Celebration!

In seven days, I will be co-hosting a semi-annual tradition among the acutaries at work. Every six months, the people who earn an actuarial designation throw a party for the actuarial community at work. Since I will be getting my FSA in March, I will be one of the hosts.

This party is no small shindig. There are six of throwing the party. All FSAs pay two shares and all ASAs pay one share, so I am paying for just over 20% of the party. We have reserved a banquet hall and will serve hot snacks, a small dinner (party subs), and unlimited drinks to all attendees. We are expecting about 75 adults and 10-15 children. We are also hiring a DJ and looking at other entertainment options for the children. The party will probably cost around $5000, so my share will be about $1000. I am super excited for the party!

Another tradition of the party is the Powerpoint invitation slide show sent to all the actuaries at work. A standard has been set with past parties to put together a very entertaining slide show that includes funny text and exceptional use of Photoshop. It's definitiely an ego thing now to try and top or compare favorably with past slide shows, so I spent a lot of time this past week working with a couple others throwing the party to put this together. One of the guys was an expert with Photoshop and did some great work with our pictures.

What was the theme you ask? Well, we did a spoof on Mother Goose nursery rhymes. It's standard to mock topics from the actuarial exams in the invite (since most of the stuff we were tested on never comes up again during our career), so the nursery rhymes are a little dorky, but some of them are quite funny. We changed some common rhymes around and included a picture with each one.

We sent the slide show out to the actuarial community this afternoon and received rave reviews. It might not be the best one in recent years, but it was definitely one of the two or three best (in my biased opinion). This presentation was much better than the one we put together for my ASA party back in 2003. If you want to see a copy of what we put together, let me know and I will e-mail it to you. If you don't want to see the slide show, it's your loss!

I need a loooong vacation

I really need a vacation. When I say vacation, I mean a 3-4 month unpaid leave of absence from work. The problem is, I don't know where I would go and I don't want to travel alone. I am seriously contemplating requesting a leave from work later this year around the time I am due for an internal rotation so that I can clear my head and recharge. I still love my job and CT isn't too bad, but I am looking to break out of a rut. Also, it's been a stressful month.

This is what happens when you no longer get to enjoy summer vacations. I should become a high school math teacher. Except I am too selfish and don't want to take a large pay cut in return for more vacation each year.

Anyone want to join me on a three month vacation this fall? Australia sounds like fun. So does the West Coast or Baja Mexico. Heck, I'd even enjoy a three month tour across Big Ten country to see all 11 Michigan football games.

Why am I so intimidating?

I have a reputation among the less senior actuaries at work. I am known as the tough/intimidating interviewer. I occasionally interview actuarial candidates that come into the office to talk about full time or internship positions. Never fail, word gets back to me at the end of the day that I was the most difficult interview. One time, the candidate mentioned to another friend of mine on his interview schedule that I was really tough and my friend told the candidate, "Wait until you see him drunk. Then he is actually cool". This particular candidate received an offer, came back for an internship, and agreed with that statement. Ouch.

Why am I the bad guy? I am not grilling these people or trying to make them feel uncomfortable.

I interviewed a very interesting candidate today for a summer internship. He currently attends a nearby small college, but he is originally from Zimbabwe. I would have loved to spend 45 minutes talking about what life is like in Zimbabwe. It's the African country that fascinates me the most since it is so politically corrupt and backwards. The fact that he is fortunate enough to excel in a messed up education system and succeed in a U.S. university is amazing and I would have loved to hear his life story. However, I needed to gauge whether he was qualified for a summer internship, so I couldn't ask the fun questions. I did recommend him for an internship, so hopefully he gets an offer and comes back this summer so that I can get to hear his life story.

I think my problem is that I am so focused on making sure the candidate answers the questions that I ask and assessing their skills that I am incapable of keeping a natural conversation feel to the interview. I really do try, but I guess I suck at it because I am not trying to intimidate or scare the candidate.

Does anyone have suggestions for how I can be less scary?

Gary spreads some wisdom

Mpls Ju requested some pointers on how to engage a class of 38 MinnesOta undergrads in her comment to my most recent post. Today, I have decided to pass along my Top Three Tips for Terrrific Teaching.

3 - Office Hours - Mandatory for them. Optional for you.
2 -Randomly fail students - They can't organize against you if they fear failing your class.
1 - Tell them that you went to Michigan for undergrad studies - They will respect you more if they think you are super smart.

Thank you! Thank you!

Anyone know how to cure swimmer's ear? I have had water in my left ear for two days and it is really annoying. It probably doesn't help that I have continued swimming each day while I have had this problem.

10 days until my kickin' FSA party! Woo!

Tomorrow might be a bad day

My manager is flying in from Philadelphia to deliver my "report card" tomorrow morning. Based on some of the crap I know he has had to deal with recently regarding forced rankings and what-not, I am worried that I won't get as good of an evaluation as desired (not that I am a superstar or anything, but I feel like I do a good job and would like to be properly recognized for it). I am especially concerned because I have not seen a hard copy of the write-up yet and we are talking right when he gets into the office tomorrow. Usually the written appraisal is delivered a few hours before the discussion, so I was expecting to see it tonight. My interim appraisal was handed to be three days before the discussion this past summer. I wonder if he is holding back because he wanted to talk first. Argh. I worry too much. I hate this time of year.

Where has everyone been lately? I know RoopDogg is on a cruise and has an excuse, but there have not been many comments lately. I know you're out there. Say something. Give me a topic to write about at the very least.

Random Thought

I have gone posting crazy today.

I am watching the Steelers-Broncos game when my attention was drawn, once again, to the Nextel commercial featuring the song "Push It" and the guys dancing in their office because everything is under control. Isn't that the most hilarious commercial ever? I still laugh out loud every time I see that commercial. Best "bad dancing moves" EVER!

Go Steelers!

Woo hoo! 2 day weekend!

I was finally able to enjoy a full two day weekend now that the worst of year-end reporting is over. Yay!

Friday and Saturday were spent with TheCrazyCanuck and Hawkeye. I haven't spent much quality time with either of them recently for various reasons (mostly due to my work schedule this month and vacations late last year). Much fun was had, even if we stayed in for the most part. Sometimes, red wine and The Breakfast Club make for a fun evening.

Now that the worst of year-end reporting is over, I re-joined the JCC. I haven't worked out regularly in a little over a year, so it is definitely time that I start again. I want to try and get near my college weight by the end of this year, if that is possible by swimming 3-4 times a week. Call it a belated resolution for 2006. Not that I believe in those or anything.

I need to find something new to do in the area. Since broomball has yet to start this year and probably has gone defunct, I need a new activity to keep me busy during the week after work. Anyone have any good suggestions?

"I will break your spleen"

--TheCrazyCanuck

Some of you know that a running joke between Hawkeye and TheCrazyCanuck is that they are going to have a huge no holds barred fight some day. Every once in a while, the smack talk starts about who would win this fight. For some reason, this discussion started again on Friday evening. After some friendly smack talk and some additional baiting from the audience (me), TheCrazyCanuck is at a loss for comebacks. She tells Hawkeye that "I will break your spleen". At this point, Hawkeye and I bust out laughing and probe into how exactly you break one's spleen.

At this point, TheCrazyCanuck jumps on Hawkeye, who is lying on the sofa. Caught off guard, Hawkeye starts laughing (this was not really a fight). In the middle of this, I notice that my digital camera is sitting on the coffee table, so I turn it on and start taking some pictures. Here is the best one I took.



Needless to say, TheCrazyCanuck was unable to break Hawkeye's spleen, but she did hurt Hawkeye's finger. I'll call this fight a draw.

I am already starting to promote the re-match.

It's a small world

I received a phone call at work from my brother today. He steered me towards this news story. For those who haven't followed the news much lately, another American journalist was kidnapped in Iraq and is being held hostage. I had not paid much attention to this story since I get all my news from The Economist these days and I am over a week behind in my reading.

Sadly, if this story plays out like most of the others in recent years, the journalist will be executed by her captors for no reason whatsoever because her captors are evil, heartless bastards. If they want to gain support for their cause, they should not target innocent young women, but rather pick on someone their own size.

Upon closer examination of the story, I realized that the hostage is the daughter of one of my high school teachers. Ms. Carroll was on CNN today discussing the case (I don't think I will ever be able to call a high school teacher by their first name). She spoke eloquently and with great strength given what she is dealing with right now. Although Mpls Ju would probably disagree, I would rank Ms. Carroll as one of my best high school teachers (and the class as one of the toughest as well). She was one of my brother's two or three favorite high school teachers. She taught a Humanities class where Mpls Ju and I became friends after many long nights working on our awesome group showcase projects! :)

I hope that this situation can reach the best outcome possible and Ms. Carroll can be reunited with her daughter. Sadly, history is not a kind precedent here. My best thoughts and wishes are with the Carroll family.

TheCrazyCanuck is going to taco hell

TheCrazyCanuck just broke rule number one when it comes to living me. She invited people over for tacos on a night when she knew that I was either going to be working late or going to poker night. The nerve! I always include her in my taco nights. I even make a separate batch of taco meat because she doesn't like onions and chili peppers mixed in with the taco meat (it's not a taco feast if you don't sweat). She will go to taco hell for her blasphemy. Don't mess with Gary about tacos. Argh.

I'm not really mad. Guilt trips are fun. I could have skipped poker night if I really wanted tacos tonight. Besides, in her defense, she is making tacos and inviting her friends over to watch One Tree Hill. I would have passed on that anyway. She's actually a fun roommate. Seriously.

Fast forward. Waaayy forward

I like to daydream about life after the hell that is January. Please bear with me.

Hawkeye, FlyingV, and UNICorn all received good news last Friday. They all passed their actuarial exams that they sat for back in November. Now all three are done with exams and will not have to study next fall during college football season. Ironically, next year is the last year that Michigan and Iowa play each other in football until 2009. The four of us have talked for a while about going to a Michigan-Iowa game together, but because of exams, no one else was ever able to go. I polled the group for interest in the game next October in Ann Arbor. Everyone is interested, so we're going to go. Hopefully there will be a home hockey game that weekend too. Hawkeye already started the trash talk with this e-mail:

"I’ll bring a Ziplock for my turf souvenir – but then again beating Michigan at Michigan? Is that really cause for rushing the field?"

Good luck getting a piece of the FieldTurf, Hawkeye. For those not in the know, Hawkeye was referring to the fact that I decided to make a friendly phone call to her while I was taking a Saturday afternoon stroll on the field at Kinnick Stadium last fall just to tell her that the turf was in great shape given that a football game was just played on it. For some reason, she was offended by the phone call.

While I was thinking about the Iowa game, I realized that I will be going to anywhere between three and five Michigan football games next year. The definites are @Minnesota, @Penn State, and Iowa. The maybes are Wisconsin (if I get to go on the recruiting trip for work), and @Ohio State (just because).

I'm fried from a tiring day of work, so that is all tonight. Goodnight.

Brief NFL thoughts

I missed two of the four NFL games this weekend. Thankfully, one of them was the Seattle-Washington game, which wasn't too exciting. Sadly, the other game was the Pittsburgh-Indianapolis game. I saw the third quarter of this game, which was a pretty boring quarter. Since the game seemed out of hand at that point, I decided to go pick up a couple things at Target before heading over to UNICorn's for the Bears game. I listened to part of the fourth quarter on the radio, but I missed the end of one of the best football games in years. Bummer.

The Carolina-Chicago game went somewhat as expected. I always thought the Bears weakness was the deep pass, and Steve Smith burned them all day long. Any team that scores 20+ against the Bears will win nine times out of ten until they get an offense that is not offensive. I was rooting for Chicago, but they just weren't good enough this year to advance to a conference championship game.

The Patriots game was disheartening. As the #2 team on my list of NFL teams to root for (behind Detroit of course), it hurt to see New England lose in the manner in which they did. Their most reliable players over the years made such stunning mistakes in a game that they should have won. Denver really is not that good. New England had the better offense, but Denver forced five critical turnovers, leaving Tom Brady with no more layers of Visa protection. Poor Tom Brady. Hopefully they bounce back next year.

So who does that leave me to root for? Well, I have a list of three teams that I root for before I allow the media and human-interest stories to sway me. The #3 team on my list is Pittsburgh, so GO STEELERS! They just got one stunning victory. If they can win at Indianapolis, they are capable of Denver as well.

Why is Pittsburgh my #3 team, you ask? Well, before modern day legend Myron Cope took over as voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the late 1960s, my late-grandfather spent 30+ years as the voice of the Steelers. Hence, GO STEELERS!

I am a bad person

I was going to pass along my "armchair analysis" of the NFL games this weekend, but I will do that some other time. I want to pass along another story from this evening instead.

I went over to UNICorn's apartment in Manchester to watch the Bears game. He is a huge Bears fan and was having a few people over to watch the game with him. On my drive home, I nearly killed a pedestrian. I am not exaggerating. I was driving through the Buckland Hills Mall area and I noticed that some guy was randomly crossing the street off in the distance. I slowed down a little since the roads were quite icy and I couldn't figure out what the guy was doing (since he was not walking quickly or in a straight line). Once he reached the sidewalk on the other end of the street, I sped up a little. Then, the guy suddenly stumbles and falls back into the road about 20-30 feet in front of my car. I panicked and slammed my brakes and luckily came to a stop about 5 feet in front of this guy (thank you anti-lock brakes). I was also lucky that the icy roads did not cause me to skid into the car that was passing me on my left while this was going on.

I sat there for a couple seconds and watched as the pedestrian got up and stumbled back over to the sidewalk. He must have been beyond hammered since we were right by TGI Fridays and this guy could not walk a straight line to save his life. Once the guy appeared safely on the sidewalk after nearly getting run over, I honked at the guy and slowly drove away. He just kept stumbling along and didn't even respond to my horn. He had no fucking clue what was going on since he was so drunk.

I looked in my rear view mirror about 5 seconds later and noticed that the guy had just fallen down again and was lying right next the curb. He was probably in grave danger if he rolled onto the road since it was icy and dark and he was on a road that gets a lot of traffic.

I was probably in shock at this point since I don't remember anything between that moment and when I merged onto the interstate a couple minutes later. It was at this point that I start wondering if I should dial 9-1-1 to get a policeman to take the guy to the drunk-tank for the night. However, I ended up doing nothing, and I really regret it right now. I hope that guy was able to get home safely since he was in grave danger of getting hit by a car or freezing to death otherwise (it's cold tonight).

When I got home, I asked TheCrazyCanuck if I was truly a heartless bastard since I took no action. Although we both agreed that most people would have done exactly what I did and drove away, I still feel terrible. I should have called for help. I hope if I am ever in a similar situation in the future that I do the right thing. Hopefully I did not cause someone to lose their life tonight.

I get what I deserve

My short trip to Michigan has come to an end, but it was a much-needed break from the CT craziness that is January.

I interviewed 13 students at Michigan for actuarial positions at my company. Thirteen interviews is a very exhausting, even though the candidates did most of the talking. I had to be sharp in conversations for an entire day in order to appropriately evaluate each candidate. After the job interviews and the obligatory dinner at Pizza House, I went to my first hockey game at Yost Arena in 3+ years. Mouse joined us for the post interviewing festivities since it is never a party in Ann Arbor without her.

The hockey game was only an exhibition game against the US Under-18 National Development team, but by rule the opponent still sucks (especially the goalie). Patriotism be damned. I did a little bit of heckling (PG rated of course), but I was far from my old heckling self when I was in the hockey band with TheBrightTwins et all. Michigan won the game 4-3 after falling behind 3-1, but I was quite unimpressed with their play. This is probably the weakest Michigan team since circa 1990, but Red Berenson always seems to get his team to play their best late in the season. Maybe this team can improve and make a tournament run in late March.

After the hockey game, I went out for a couple drinks at Connor O'Neil's to celebrate FlyingV's successful SOA exam sitting (he found out that he passed his SOA exam from last fall after we were done with interviews). Going out to a bar in Ann Arbor reminds me how much I appreciate the fact that you cannot smoke in Connecticut bars. I prefer my air to be clean and cancer free thank you.

After spending an entire day interviewing job candidates and my evening heckling a goalie that represents my country, I think I did a number of my vocal chords. I could barely speak when I woke up this morning. Losing my voice is probably my punishment for rooting against/heckling the USA team at the hockey game. I probably deserved it. Meh.

I should relay one funny story from the trip. I think there was a shortage of rental cars since the Auto Show was this weekend. I arrived at the Avis desk and they told me that I had reserved a Chevy Aveo. I had never heard of the car model before, but I didn't really care since I wasn't going to be driving much during the trip. Well, I find my car in the parking lot, and wonder if I should go find the nearest circus. Make your own judgment:

Not only was the car super small, but it also shook and became unstable whenever I topped 80mph on the highway. The only thing missing was the circus music. The car reminded me of the '91 Tracer wagon that I drove in high school (since that car also shook at higher speeds). Of course, since I am such a lead foot, I still tried to make the car go as high as 90mph. Probably not a good idea, but I survived.

Next time I rent from Avis, I'll make sure I don't get stuck with a P.O.S. car.

Now I turn back into a pumpkin for another two weeks...

Karma

I made a comment in my last post about how this month wasn't so bad after all. I spoke too soon. I just put in a pair of 12+ days in the office. I'm only sane because I was rocking out with my iPod in the evenings. The good news is that we are slightly ahead of schedule and I won't be hanging anyone out to dry by going to Michigan for a couple days. The bad news is that I will need to work the entire MLK weekend since the third week of January is definitely the most intense week of the month. At least I'll get the holiday back to use later in the year.

I mentioned that a couple friends of mine were engaged over the holidays. They decided to have a small wedding in St. Maartin in the Caribbean over Thanksgiving weekend. I am seriously thinking about going as long as I am not the only CT friend making the trip (you in RoopDogg?). It's not like I ever do the family thing for Thanksgiving anyway. I'm going to clear it with my family first, but I'd love to go to this wedding. I've never traveled to the Caribbean before. Any ladies out there want to be my date! :) haha.

I'm excited about my short trip to Michigan Thursday night through Saturday morning! It will be a crazy and short trip, but it will still be fun. Right Mouse?

Writer's Block

The month of hell is not going that badly considering what life was like this time last year. I worked five total hours this past weekend and I have left work before 8PM each weeknight. Compared to the several 14+ hour workdays in January last year, I can actually live with this for one month.

When I got home tonight, I wanted to write something witty and funny, but I just was not in a creative mood after an 11 hour work day. I decided to take a drive instead. I haven't done much driving by myself recently, especially since the drive to work takes less than five minutes. I really like some time where it is just me, the road, and the radio. I went to Target over in Manchester (15-20 minutes away) since I needed a couple small items and I needed to get a gift for my step-nephew's birthday.

I was not able to think of something good to write about, but I was floored that some car passed me on I-291 when I was going 95. When I say passed, I mean flew by me. That car must have been going at least 115. Wow.

Since I can't think of a good topic, I decided to post some good pictures. This might help some of my readers better know about the crazy characters I write about on this blog.




A fitting first picture with my new digital camera. Mpls Ju and TheDogDoctor.













My favorite picture from the Vegas trip last June. Me and Hawkeye during the no holds barred pillow fight in Vegas. It was funny until
RoopDogg nearly knocked Hawkeye unconscious.











Group picture from a Philly trip last summer. RoopDogg is in the picture. He's the hot one. TheCrazyCanuck is also in the picture (back-center)











Picture of me and UNICorn on one of the many trips to Boston I made last summer. I should probably tell him about this site soon since I just posted his picture. I needed a haircut...

Weekend Update

I had a pretty crazy weekend. A bunch of former interns were in town for "Intern Weekend". We bring former interns with full-time offers for a weekend of fun in Hartford each year around this time. Friday night a large group of us went to the Hartford Wolfpack game. The Wolfpack are the AHL affiliate of the New York Rangers, so I was able to see Dwight Helminen and Al Montoya, both former Michigan players. FlyingV, RytheRed, and I were pretty obnoxious in our support of Montoya and his Michigan greatness, so our friends started taunting him.

It was Hartford Whalers appreciation night at the game on Friday. They honored three former Whaler greats before their game and "retired" their jerseys. Sadly, they should have retired the other 96 jersey numbers as well because the NHL will never return to Hartford. I wish they would though, since I'd definitely buy season tickets to see NHL hockey in Hartford. I still have the Hartford Whaler theme song (Brass Bonanza) stuck in my head since the Wolfpack scored so many goals in the game on Friday.

After the game, a large group of us went to a nearby bar that I hadn't been to before and did some serious drinking. By the time the post party ended at the hotel, it was about 4AM and I still had not done anything stupid. I drunk dialed Mouse and Mpls Ju, but they both suck and ignored my call. Boo urns. I guess I'll find cooler friends to call next time.

I spent Saturday afternoon hungover and at work, but after a kickin' four hour nap, I was ready for another late night. I went with some friends to Foxwoods to play poker last night. I wasn't getting very good cards and the table was very tight, so I was hanging around even all night. I moved to a different table for the last hour and still didn't play much until my last hand of the night. I lost the hand on the last card because of a player who should have folded much earlier. I didn't have to pay any money at the end since no one bet, but I was pretty pissed because I lost the $50 I put into a $250 pot because of a stupid player. The lady that won that hand was a big reason why I won $500+ one night last month since she kept paying me off, so I can handle one bad hand. For those that want details, I had King-Jack suited and she had a pair of sevens. The Flop was Nine-Ten-Jack. The turn was another Jack. The river was an eight. She called $50 in bets (all from me) before the eight hit the board at the end, which gave her a straight.

I didn't get home from the casino until after 5AM, so I slept most of the day today.

I'm watching the Steelers-Bengals game right now. This is a pretty gruesome game with lots of trash talking. I guess the teams don't like each other very much! :) Cincy is hanging on well without Palmer. After a fairly boring week of football, I hope this game finishes as well as it has started.

I'm not an alcoholic...

...I just had a really bad day of work and felt like opening a bottle of wine and drink alone.

Something happened at work today that really bothered me, probably more than anything else has bothered me about working for this company. It had nothing to do with the year-end hell that is the month of January. I'd love to elabroate and rant, but it would not be a good idea given some of the people that read this.

My boss was the indirect cause of my troubles today. At the end of the day, he asked if I had opened the bottle of wine he sent as a holiday gift (he sent everyone in his organization a bottle of wine for the holidays). When I told him I had not, he insisted that I open the bottle of wine to unwind from the hell he caused me today when I got home. I obliged. I'm not a white wine fan, but whatever. It was a shitty day. If you have never worked for my current employer, give me a call and I can fill you in.

Fight On

I still can't get the damn USC fight song out of my head. I heard it about 500 times at the 2004 Rose Bowl and I'm sure I'll hear it 600 times on TV tonight. It is quite a catchy tune though.

Go USC! Yes, I am basing my rooting interests on the school that has the better fight song. I just can't root for a team whose fight song is "I've Been Workin on the Railroad".


Ju - thanks for your commentary on yesterday's topic. For thsoe who have not already read it, please see Ju's comment in Tuesday's post.

I am so smart! S-M-R-T, I mean S-M-A-R-T!

Today wasn't that rough a day of work. One of our deadlines was pushed back from this Sunday to Monday, so I am hoping that I will get to enjoy one full day out of the office this weekend. We'll see how it plays out...

So I was a little bored this evening and decided to surf the internet for the news of the day. I came across this article and decided it would make for a good topic.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060104/ap_on_re_us/evolution_showdown_2;_ylt=Ao77G9xEuQ.jUYvBEBNWYH97OyAi;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

It's about time the courts took a stand against intelligent design. This has to be the dumbest movement in our public schools today. I can't believe that so many school boards across the country are pushing this curriculum on our children. Are we trying to promote ignorance and stupidity in our society? It has been understood in the science community for a long time that evolution is more than just a theory that has 'inexplicable gaps'. It's no wonder that the states that are leading the intelligent design movement are the ones that are performing the worst in America.

I have no problem with intelligent design. While I do not buy into the belief, I think this movement is a thinly veiled attempt to bring creationism into our public schools. This is something that should be taught in a religious school class. Our public schools are meant to teach our children the basic skills they need to excel in society, not to promote religious beliefs that cannot be tested by basic scientific prinicples. I hope that the Supreme Court rules appropriately when this case eventually reaches the brightest legal minds in our country.

Mpls Ju, as our resident scientist, what do you think?

Mouse/Mpls Ju - I appreciate the fighting for my attention. While Minneapolis is a lovely vacation destination in the winter, I must say that I can't say no to the 'red headed sluts'. Oh yeah, I like visiting Mouse too. Haha!

I'm turning into a pumpkin

Tomorrow marks the beginning of a brutal month. Work is going to consume me for the next few weeks. I love year-end financial reporting. Really, I do. All of our deadlines are on Sundays this time around, so I will be working the next two weekends. Cognizant of the potential for me to work 19 consecutive calendar days (or more), my boss told me to get away for one day next week. That means I will get to go to Michigan to interview actuarial candidates that want to come work at my company on January 13th after all. Yay! It may be a day of work since I representing my company, but it will be a day away from the office. I also get to stay in Michigan on Friday night and attend my first hockey game in over three years at Yost Arena. Who cares if it is an exhibition game against the US Under-18 national team! Their goalie still sucks and I will remind him of that repeatedly during the game.

I may not post much this next month since I won't get home until 8 or 9PM most nights. I just hope to stay somewhat sane through the madness this month.

Ju - sorry I didn't pass along any stories of my party. There weren't really any good drunken stories since I was drinking soda. RoopDogg was quite hammered thanks to the mighty Captain Morgan and would say nothing but "Argh" at the end of the night. That's about the only good story.

How to Get Rich(er) Ch. 4

In the fourth and final chapter of my riveting posts on how to get richer, I will discuss how to research mutual funds and stocks as well as provide “forward looking comments” about what I think will happen in the market in the next year. Please note that I am by no means an expert and could be completely wrong in my prediction.

Researching Funds and Stocks
There are great resources available to research mutual funds. Almost all public libraries should have Morningstar publications in their reference area. The Morningstar publication researches mutual funds across all industries and provides ratings based on a variety of factors including past performance, current investment manager (have they done well with other mutual funds in the past), expense loads, largest holdings in the fund, and investment strategy (bonds vs. equities, large vs. small, etc). Although they won’t review every mutual fund available to you, they will research many of the funds available through more common brokerage firms. These funds will get reviewed and rated four times per year. Morningstar tends to provide very solid ratings, but the ratings can change quickly if a fund changes investment managers or if it becomes too large. If you buy a fund based on a Morningstar rating, make sure you keep up with any significant rating change and move out of that fund if necessary. I once purchased a five-star fund that became a one-star fund in less than two years due to fund size, investment strategy (invested heavily in tech stocks at a bad time), and an investment manager change. I should have gotten out of the fund when the ratings started to plummet and I would have saved some money. I currently review the Morningstar ratings of my mutual funds 2-3 times per year.

Note that index funds are often only given three stars (out of five), but that does not make them a poor pick. Just make sure that your are looking for a fund that truly matches the index as promises and that it provides a low expense load since there is not as much trading involved with an index fund.

If you tend to stick to mutual funds offered by the brokerage firm you invest your money with (i.e., Fidelity), you can often find good information about the mutual fund on their website. You can look at the fund prospectus and get some good information about past performance and current investment strategy.

There are a million different ways to research individual stocks. You could always look for analyst reports produced by analysts from Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, etc. However, these are not always easy to find and tend to be especially bullish, especially if their company is doing investment-banking work for the company they are researching. I use a publication called Valueline, which is also available in the reference section at most local libraries. Valueline researches just about every legitimate stock available on an American stock exchange once every three months. There is a ton of statistical information about each stock they review (past performance of stock, company earnings, dividend history, etc) as well as performance and safety rankings in the near and long-term. Their website does a good job explaining the information provided in a stock report as well as provide some examples of current reports, so you may want to check out their website before going to the library and looking at this reference tool. I use this publication to try to identify stocks that have a strong 3-5 year potential return with as little risk as possible (i.e., low beta for the stock). However, I make sure I can find at least a one and preferably two other resources that support an individual stock before I will put any money into it. I review the Valueline rankings for each stock I currently own about 3-4 times per year at the local public library. I might look for new stocks to purchase at the same time, but I don’t plan to move into any new individual stocks in the near future.

“Forward Looking Comments”
I am quite skeptical of the near-term outlook for the U.S. stock market. The yield curve is currently “inverted”. What that means is that short-term interest rates are higher than long-term interest rates. You would expect long-term interest rates to be higher in general because there are more risks when you invest over a longer time horizon. The last five recessions in the U.S. were preceded by an inverted yield curve (though an inverted yield curve is not always followed by a recession). While I do not necessarily think there will be a recession (and a declining stock market), I think the stock market will be very choppy and probably provide overall returns close to 0% in the next 12-18 months. However, some industries could perform quite well in the next year.

Because of the inverted yield curve, I plan to hold more in short-term investments over the next year than usual (at the expense of what I would normally hold in stocks). A short-term interest rate around 5% is quite attractive in my opinion, especially since there is very little risk involved. I’ll happily take 5% when I am skeptical of the risk and potential returns available in the stock market in the near future. However, by no means do I recommend moving entirely (or even mostly) out of stocks to take advantage of short-term interest rates.

As for what I think will happen in some of the major industries, I really like stocks that specialize in medical technologies. The baby boomer generation is starting to turn 60. I think that consumer spending on medical procedures will increase substantially in the near future. There will be tremendous demand for improved technology, so I think this is a great area to invest in. This does not necessarily include medical insurance companies, though the medical insurers have performed quite well lately. Another industry I like in the near future is pharmaceuticals and the companies that distribute prescription drugs since older people typically utilize more prescription drugs than younger people.

As for what I do not like in the near future, stay away from real estate, home building, and union influenced industries (airline, auto, manufacturing). I believe the real estate market is starting to cool off, as evidenced by housing prices starting to moderate, longer list-to-sell times, and rising interest rates (high mortgage rates). This is why I am waiting 1-2 years to buy a house. I think prices may fall across the U.S. except for areas where the baby boomers will move after retiring. Home building will slow down for similar reasons. As for union influenced industries, we are slowly noticing a crippling of long-time mainstays like the legacy airline companies (Northwest, Delta, etc…but not Southwest) and U.S. auto companies due to legacy benefits promised through union negotiations. The companies that negotiated these deals gave away a lot more than they realized in the past and did a poor job funding these promised benefits. These benefits are crippling the union influenced industries now that much of the workforce is starting to retire and collect pensions. Some of the manufacturing industries (steel, etc) will probably be the next to fall victim to the cost of pension benefits. There will be many more bankruptcies in these areas in the next few years, so you should look to avoid these stocks as well as mutual funds that are heavily invested in these industries.

I can’t think of much else to pass along. I hope all of you found these posts helpful. Feel free to ask any further questions you have!

Me Fail English? That's Unpossible!

Today was the laziest day ever. I just planted on the couch and watched football with RoopDogg.

Only one good story to pass along. RoopDogg, TheCrazyCanuck, and I went to dinner at a nearby Thai restaurant. All employees at my company get a 10% discount at this place. When the waiter came to deliver the check, I mentioned that I was an employee at -----. He gave me a confused look, so I followed up an asked if the 10% discount was still offered. I then proceeded to show the waiter my work ID. The waiter looked at the ID, indiciated that he knew what I was talking about, took the check, and walked away. About thirty seconds later, he came back with a beer for me. Very confused, I indicated that I did not order a beer. I was trying to get the discount on our meal. I then noticed that the waiter brought a beer that sounded very similar to the company that I work for. Clearly the waiter thought that I was ordering a beer when I mentioned the company I worked for. What blows me away is that if he thought I was ordering a beer, how could he possibly have accepted my work ID as proof of age? There is no date of birth on my work ID!! The three of us had a pretty good laugh at the waiter's poor English skills.

I may wrap up the investment strategy posts tomorrow. Stay tuned.