Blended Living » Books

SoC #32

John — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 07:26:53 +0000

Its seems such a long time since I’ve aimed my camera
besides the occasional social snap of a birthday or an out of towner visiting
I mean the more artistic, and less practical usage of the time freezing megabit logger
that is, my trusty Lumix
hoping its like the proverbial bike, rusty but not forgotten
upgraded my google storage space
mostly to get the free Eye-fi card
but what to do with that 200 gigabytes of space now?
after the left brain logical thoughts of archiving, and facilitating wealth accumulation
I spent a few minutes exploring Picasa
and I’m back at the first thought, I really need to play with that camera more
bought some new gadgets, a HDTV for my mom and sis
(yeah they got it already and I don’t wrap presents or feel compelled to give them on the day)
another larger monitor for my charts and the sporadic movie
and the thing that I’ve been waiting the most for…
a ebook reader
decided on the Sony Touch, it has expandable memory via cards, a touchscreen, renders many formats including PDFs, CHMs, and will be able to download free content off NYPL
so no excuses for many more pleasurable reading hours in 2010
and importantly I can reuse a lot of shelf space at home, as I gradually manipulate paper books to digital formats
it will either be time consuming or costly
not much that I have thought of in terms of getting around that…
Oh good, Picasa allows different levels of content sharing
finished a hutch or shelf for my desk, so got another 42 inches of monitor and computer gadgets space
I actually timed that one well
the window seat /work bench/ spare bed project got fouled up
as I need more lumber, and the mattress arrived already
but its hard to get those 2x4s home in a snow storm
the 24 inch monitor should arrive in the next 48 hrs and I got the spot ready for it
got a good DK photography book out of the library but we’ll see if it lives up to its name
“absolutely everything” is pretty bold
and is an example of types of books that wouldn’t be as suitable for an eReader
since its grey scale and not color and a small screen
but very portable and battery lasts for 2 weeks at a time
next to search through the freely available content out there
and start making a list
as well as a virtual book budget as I have put off buying books for quite some time now
I’m starting to like the dark stain on the bench 2 projects ago
and yes I should note somewhere to not saturate the wood with the stain
like I did basically while in a rush to get it done
still wondering what to do with Wave, Voice is kinda cool but not utilizing it well yet
and I’m itching to get my hands on that Sony reader, and hoping it ships before the long weekend
so much to do, so little energy and free time and that shy sun isn’t helping my mood
but I’m feeling like we turn a corner here soon, and is it coincidence that the winter solstice is upon us
its late and I’m hungry and imagining smells of food
but breakfast is a few hours away.

SoC #16

John — Thu, 07 May 2009 06:12:21 +0000

rain rain go away!
should have taken that walk when the sun came out earlier
4x is humming along, albeit at a muted amount
still best to work out the kinks with smaller amounts
and I’m still learning things about this craft after having made so many trades in the last decade
or should I say I am learning things about me?
that good cup of coffee today is keeping me up now
rolling along like its was early evening right now
good thing (or maybe bad) that the 4x markets don’t sleep at all
more time to practice, and its good to do while I’m not at my best
to sort of stress test myself and my trading skills
some days I would hesitate to call these skills
but I’ve proven to myself that they are skills
just that I’m sometimes not in the right frame of mind to pay attention
to the little subtle signals
and the competing voices that habitate my mind
oh that Kindle DX is tempting
just when I thought I owned everything I want
along comes a device that could be the answer to 3 needs
a platform for me to read more on (especially fiction and current stuff)
a way to ease some clutter
a prize for trading well, or perhaps hitting my fitness goals
I’m getting that feeling…
that sweet nexus of ideas, practice, and technology
the sticker price is steep
but the probably 2 year costs come out to under 2 bucks a day
and I will likely use it enough to justify that
besides if my solution seeking engine (my mind) fixates on that prize
it helps to focus me sufficiently to not do the little stupid things
that can sabotage a good trade setup- like fear and greed and impatience
just exited that trade with 2 Kindle DX days worth of profit
hitting my marks, should be time to up the ante.

Free book: The Difference

John — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:47:22 +0000

at Oprah.com

You need to become a “member”. Basically sign up.

Read the first few pages, they divide people into these broad categories:
The Wealthy (Ws), the Financially Comfortable (FCs), the Paycheck to Paycheckers (PTPs), and the Further-in- debtors (FIDs). The first two have some different mindsets and skills, and the premise is that they can be learned.

Happy reading.

Free Suze Orman book

John — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 04:13:05 +0000

Free book to download from Oprah’s site. Good until the 15th.

2009 Action Plan, 227 pages with chapters on saving, spending, credit, real estate and retirement.

Update: The section on how the big financial meltdown happened is worth the download and read. The tone is very conversational – very much like her TV show, which makes for easy reading, if a tad annoying at times.

The advice is laid out in scenario format so its easy to locate sections that apply more closely to your situation. So far its all making sense and it sounds like good advice.

Suze believes that this downturn may last until 2014 which I agree with. The stock market may rebound strongly between now and then but the economy may languish for several years.

New Gladwell book: Outliers

John — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 16:32:06 +0000

Author of Blink and Tipping Point

ISBN: 978-0-316-01792-3

Outlier, noun .

out·li·er

1 : something that is situated away from or classed differently from a main or related body

2 : a statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the others of the sample