Inebriation

* My buddy says that Rita Cosby, of Fox news, would look great if she lost a few pounds. I chimed in "Well, she looks pretty good now." He said, "Yeah, that's true." Ooh, baby, say conservative things to me.... "say fair and balanced... yeah, that's it. Say it again, in my ear... Spank me when you say it!"

* Well, there goes my $20 on the Jets to win the AFC.

* I was thinking about the stock market and how folks view investments after the first two weeks of 2005. I watched the FOX financial block this morning, listened to Jim Cramer's friday radio show at realmoney.com archives, and caught part of Terry Savage (filling in for Bob Brinker). I'm hearing fear. I'm hearing oil stocks and real estate stocks. Those did well last year. I'm hearing "invest in dividend stocks." Are folks afraid of risk? That makes me bullish heading into earnings from Yahoo and Microsoft. And Verizon. I own the first two so far, and probably VZ sometime next week. I think being long the market is the right play. I could be wrong, but I think it's too early to head for the hills.

* Austin Powers in Goldmember? That was probably the last movie of the franchise. But although it was mostly gross, disgusting and overall bad, there were some funny bits. It seemed like more of the same-old, same-old...

* Pensionomics.

* The big debate on Social Security is gaining steam. I think the sides are defined as the Bush side, which represents an open-minded approach at looking at various proposals to enhance the current system and solve the future funding crisis. Compared to the Democrat side, which represents the opportunity to scare the heck out of folks to garnish votes for 2006. I prefer the open-minded approach. If there's a way to improve the system, lets get the idea(s) out on the table.

* Video games have come a long way since Missle Command. Just a few hours ago, I was poppin' some caps into some homies in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas.

* As short-term interest rates have crept up due to the Fed's rate hikes, I wonder when the long-term rates will follow? I sold my REITs last week, thinking we're on the trend for higher rates. But, folks have been predicting that for almost 2 years. Still, I think shorter maturities are better at this point. Have you noticed that the yield in stocks like SBC and VZ has crept up quite a bit?

* Tom Cruise in Austinpussy!

* Why do politics get in the way of making good decisions? Is it like having a favorite team?

* Do you value the CNET website for product reviews? I'm kind of skeptical, yet I track their RSS feed on my Kinja aggregator. Everytime they review a new PDA-phone, I'm like checking it out.

* Fosters and Coronas and Dox XX, oh my!

* I blogged earlier that my buddy's sister-in-law was doing the reverse-mind-job on the New Year's Resolutions. She weighed 275 lbs, and instead of pledging some unrealistic "Eat lettuce and exercise 12-hours a day" resolution, she said that she was "Going for 300 lbs." Too early to weigh-in the results, but she wasn't saying no to any of the playoff football appetizers today. Looks like she's maintaining her focus on the end goal!