Stocks, Pensions, and Tyra!

* Back in the Saddle.

* Something tells me the housing market has peaked. Lets see how close I am. April 16th, muckdog says the top tick is nigh!

* Whenever I go to a casino, it never fails that the person who sits next to me at the slot machine is a smoker. It also never fails that I'm sitting downwind, and the draft is right at me. I just get up and move to another machine.

* I'm actually working from home today (on a saturday). Out of town last week and trying to keep up with my project. It's too nice to be working.

* So, I have to address the stock market since I've been bullish as the market has gone down, down, and down. I was wrong, as we did break out of the trading range, but to the downside instead of the upside. So is this a short-term pullback, or is something wrong with the intermediate trend? I do believe we're in a longer term bear market that began in 2000, but that the intermediate trend since late 2002 has been a bull trend.

* I didn't think Tyra Bank's uproar on America's Next Top Model was that big of a deal. Tiffany did seem rather unemotional about her experience on the show, and she deserved to be booted. I mean, how can anyone be a model with a tattoo on their boob? What's that?

* I hate tattoos. Kind of Harley Davidson Biker Girl look to me. No thanks.

* Is the intermediate stock uptrend over? Maybe the market thinks that $50+ oil will slow down the economy. Maybe the Fed will hike rates into oblivion to pop the housing bubble and cool down the 4% GDP. Maybe the AIG scandals and GM earnings/pensions issues are tainting the bullish view. Who knows. But even if the GDP cools to 2-3% GDP, that's still enough to grow the economy. Jobs numbers have been good, and not overheating. I think the short-term has been down (obviously). But I think the intermediate trend is still up. We'll see.

* Hope you got your taxes in. There's got to be a better way.

* Diet Pepsi or Diet Coke?

* Pension issues might be a Front Page issue going forward. The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) is already in trouble, and companies think they can just offload their pension obligations and move on with their lives. That seems wrong. They should have to honor their pension promises to their employees.

* I haven't felt like plunking down the cash for the wireless gear to stream content from my media center PC to my TV. It'd be cool and convenient. But it just seems kind of pricey when I can just burn a DVD-RW and walk it over to my TV at a fraction of the cost. I'm waiting for more competition in that area to drive prices down a bit.

* Tyra did hit an HR with that show, though. America's Next Top Model. It's addicting. The panel of judges decides who to let go or keep from week to week, but I think it'd be interesting to turn the show into a fan-vote show, a la American Idol. Let the people pick who they want as their next Top Model!

* OK, back to work. Maybe a bike ride first...