Quickie

* I've been meaning to post for awhile. My days are swamped since the promotion. I have lots of folks I'm working with on various projects, and I'm having tons of fun. It's just really busy. The pace should settle down soon. (yeah, right!)

* The stock market? Still in the big index, and avoiding concentrating in tech. I just ran my scans, and there's nothing I'm going to do with tech right now. Just enjoy the holiday fireworks, and that's that.

* Beauty and the Geek. Yeah, I'm watching. Hillarious.

* I've been recording Real World Austin, but haven't seen any yet.

* Working lots of late nights and weekends. I am enjoying the job.

* Spiders. I just hate 'em.

* When the calendar flips to July, I normally think "Hey, football season starts soon."

* I heard the President's speech on the radio. It was a bore-fest. Did he say anything? I'd rather fight them over there, than have shopping malls and school busses exploding here in the US. But I wish we didn't have to do it at all.

* I've got Blade III sitting on my DVD. Gotta love Wesly Snipes as the vampire killer.

* Watermelon. I love it.

* I need sleep.

TGIF

* It's been a heckuva week. I have a week under the belt after my promotion now. My boss came by and said "Nothing like trial by fire." Yeah. Well, it's been rough, and I'm mentally whipped.

* I was interviewing folks all day today. Quite an interesting group. It's tough trying to find a good fit. I always wonder if who talk my ear off are BSing me. On the otherhand, some folks have poor communication skills and you kind of are pulling for them to spit it out.

* Who has time to look at the market? Well, I peaked... Down again. I think there's been underlying weakness for a couple weeks since I had the sell signal on tech. I don't think we're done yet. I'm wondering if month-end and July 4 will be a positive catalyst for the market. I guess the press will say that it's worried about oil or whatever. I don't think that matters as much. We had a little run since mid-May, and it's normal to consolidate before another move up. I think the underlying fundamentals are bullish. I'm long the total market, and will rotate a percentage to tech whenever I get a buy signal.

* The Spurs! It wasn't easy. I was here late, and forgot about the game. Got home in time to watch part of the 2nd half.

* Last night's problem was a vendor issue, so they FTPed a patch. Lame.

* Beer.

Fock

I've been working around the clock for what seems like two straight days because our tool for migrating applications from development, to test, to production keeps failing. Trying to resolve the issue with the vendor.

I'm tired.

Free Parking?

* I'm off caffeine now, for almost a week. The first attempt to quit failed, but the last one is sticking. I experienced fatigue on day one, and then day two I had light headache all day, and was a little tired. But by day 3, I think the withdrawl symptoms were gone. Since then, I've noticed an overall increase in energy. In addition, I no longer have the lunch-time lows, or the afternoon jitters. I'm sleeping much better, too.

* I guess we get to see if Detroit really wants it or not, eh?

* On a pizza: Fresh tomatoes or cooked tomatoes?

* I've had a few cups of decaf coffee, tea and soda along the way. I think this has helped the psychological aspect of quitting caffeine. I'm not a big fan of water, although ice water isn't too bad. But I still like a little flavor in whatever I'm sipping.

* The market? Well, it seemed like another market holiday today. You didn't miss anything if you slept all day. I'm still on a sell on tech/semis.

* My eyes are changing. I went to the Doc, and there was a change. That seems to happen every 5 years or so. "Scotty, more power to the contact lenses!"

* Have you watched The Closer on cable? How many CSI kind of shows do we need? It's an okay show, but how many graphic autopsies can I sit through?

* Big news on state worker parking here in Sacramento. Seems like in some areas of downtown, parking is free for 2 hours. Then the ticket cops come and write you a ticket. So, by the EPA office, state workers go out and move their car every 2 hours to avoid paying $140 per month in the nearby parking garage. It takes anywhere from 15-25 minutes to move their cars, according to the news. The news reported that the EPA response was "Employees get two 10 minute breaks per day." Uh, okay. Doin' the math on that one? Residents on those streets aren't happy about not being able to park in front of their homes, either.

Media Monday

* I rarely go to the movies anymore. I'd much rather just watch them at home. I signed up for Netflix last year, and that's been a great move. I get through 12-15 movies a month. This weekend I saw The Aviator, which was an outstanding movie. I really liked it. Hat tip to Leo. Good job.

* The market? Flat as a pancake. I still have a sell on tech and semis, but I remain long the big index.

* Also saw Shall We Dance, with Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez. I saw the Japanese version a few years back, and enjoyed it. I thought the US version was pretty good, too.

* Amazingly busy here at the Fun Factory. Lots of people in my office all the time, so my web activity has taken a nose dive. That means blogging, too! In addition, lunch breaks or any kind of breaks at all. This is normally when I have quiet time to do work now.

* Big win by the Spurs yesterday. I think Robert Horry has an amazing story. He just makes big shots, year after year. Spurs up 3-2!

* Speaking of sports, lots of local rumblings by Sacramento Kings fans on higher ticket prices. Somebody said for 2 seats in a good area is costing him over $10K per year. I used to have season tickets, but for goodness sakes all the games are on TV now. I have the big screen at home, with instant replay, and all the snacks and beer I want. No driving hassles, either. Sure, it’s fun to go to the games, but I’d rather watch it at home. I think at $10K per year, that’d go for an awesome media room. You’d get your sports, and Netflixin’ would be great, too!

Neighborhood Watch

* Have you been to any of the Neighborhood Watch meetings in your hood? You sit around and eat pretzels, try to remember the names of the neighbors, and talk about how many cars and garages are being broken into or how many sex offenders live within 10 miles of your neighborhood. It's actually kind of scarey. Somebody from your local police department comes and hands out stickers to put in your window that you're part of this Watch community.

* The market? UP! Well, that's what options weeks are supposed to do. I still see tech rolling over, though. I'm still in the diversified index 100%. To the moon...

* So, two days into the promotion, and they're killing me already. Man. They gave me 6 people, and moved me to another area. It's a big learning curve indeed. I'm overwhelmed, busy, and scrambling.

* It's raining. Isn't the longest day of the year almost here? I guess we should give a final tip of the hat and all to Spring, but I've had enough. No doubt the ride home will be thrills.

* Falling behind in the news, so I can't wax on about the political scene. Probably for the best. I think politicians are generally self-important folks who are interested in winning elections more than doing what's right. There are a few exceptions, I suppose. Somewhere. At least that's the rumor. Or so I've been told by folks who know somebody who thinks this to be the case...

* Cheers!

HOOOOOOO!

* Sprint and Sirius team up to offer music over Sprint phones. What I like about this, is that we're seeing the merging of every electronic device into one. Music, video, personal organizer, computer, internet, etc. The network speeds on my Sprint phone are still too slow, but I'm sure over time, this will improve. But every new service adds a new monthly fee. That's the rub. How many "just another $5-10 a month" things do we need?

* The stock market? What happened? Geez, this morning it was nothing but grins and giggles as I was getting ready for work. I checked my indicators last night, and tech is rolling over. According to the model I follow. I don't see a tech buy signal coming for a little while yet. I'm still 100% in, but not overweighted in any sector. This is options ex week, which are normally positive. Next week is usually weak. Then we have end of month strength and the 4th of July holiday as potential uptrend catalysts. I'm just staying diversified for now, and watching my model.

* Suddenly, the Michael Jackson news stopped. Woohoo!

* You heard about the earthquake off the Northern California coast? Well, the weatherdude had to work it last night. They made him go over the types of earthquakes that cause tsunamis, and the kinds that tend not to. Tectonic plates sliding against each other don't as much as them rising or falling over each other. He had two pieces of wood with him to demonstrate the plates sliding against each other, vs. shifting vertically. "Oh, and a cooling trend is coming. More later in the broadcast." Good grief.

* I got a promotion! Just found out. Hoooooo. Been here 10 months. Well, now I'm a little nervous. I got people!

* I hate black widows. Just hate 'em.

Getting Off

* Looks like Michael Jackson "got off" (in more ways than one). Well, I ignored the whole thing until about 30 minutes until the verdict. I turned on the radio while driving and a local talk show was pre-empted by the Jackson Trial coverage. So I listened to the talking heads go over everything I needed to know in about 30 minutes. Then the verdicts were read: Not Guilty on all counts! Well, I hope that's the truth. But it still is weird for an adult male to hang out with boys. And it's weird for parents of boys to send them over for a pajama party and sleepover. It's all weird.

* It was female Inferno night on MTV's Inferno II, and Shavonda is out after wimping out on the Wheel vs Tonya. That was pretty bizarre. I wouldn't last that long being spun around on a wheel. The challenge this week was to get your heart rate below 100, while standing on a platform high above the ocean. When you and your partner got below 100, the platform was removed and you bungeed down. Shavonda and Jaime were taunting Tonya, and she was unable to get her heart rate down.

* The stock market... Hmm. It's options expiration week, where's the volatility? PPI came out with basically no inflation. Core rate at .1%. Retail sales weak. GM basically giving an ultimatum to the UAW to renogiate contracts. GM is losing $2331 per car rolling off the assembly line, with $1500 of that going to benefits. But the stock is up today, and that's keeping the DOW treading water.

* The local news is horrible, yet for some reason, I feel compelled to watch it. Why do news shows have a "first look" at the weather? This is where they come on and say, "Well, it sure was a windy/hot one today... blah blah blah... And we'll have specific forecasts later in the hour." Why not just GIVE THE DARN WEATHER? And then you go from the local gang shooting or car chase, to the story about the high school teacher who's nailing a student, to the person who went swimming in the river and drowned, and then finaly some feel good story to end the news about a pet adoption or some such thing. Night after night, it's the same news. And I watch. Egads.

* Spurs up 2-0. Can Detroit hold home court? I doubt it.

* Allergies kickin' my butt this year.

Back to Work!

* The nice thing about getting something done before the weekend, is that you have 2 whole days to enjoy it and feel on top of the world before monday comes and reality biotch-slaps you back to where you belong!

* I had some work done around the house last week, and the folks had to shut of the gas for a bit. So, saturday morning I went to take a shower and .... HOLY SMOKES! COLD WATER! Now, a cold shower is probably the best thing for me and I should take about 3-4 of them a day. But SUCKAGE! So, took the cold shower then went out and lit the pilot light. I was then worried about my heater, so I turned it on and it seemed okay. I leafed through the pamphlet and read something about "automatic ignition" so no worries there I guess. We'll see if the roof blows off in November when I turn it on again...

* The stock market? Options weeks tend to be positive. We've had a nice run and a little pause last week. I'm still 100% long in the index, with no overallocation to any one sector. Look at the way the semiconductors are just hanging there, after their nice run. I'm looking for a little weakness in tech, after which I hope to go back to overallocating in that area.

* The big polical "news" is the Downing Street Memo, the forgiving of debt from poor nations, and the California special election. Beware of the Leftwing Loonies. I imagine they're out in force. I think forgiving the debt was a good thing. Why didn't Clinton do that, by the way?

* Regarding the CA special election, I think the most important item on there is redistricting. The races have to be competitive. You can't guarantee seats and have a government that represents the people. I'm pretty impressed Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking these issues to the people. The CA Legislature seems uninterested in doing the people's business. I think redistricting reform would light a match under their butts.

Free At Last

There you have it. Problem solved. The application team responsible for this app was out today, so I had to dive in. I figured it out awhile ago, but then the heavy time was spent looking for ramifications and fallout. Nothing too bad. But, the poor folks in data entry will have some work to do next week.

Not exactly how I wanted to spend my friday, but somewhat rewarding to be the hero.

"Just put the red cape in my inbox, and mail me my bonus check! Uh, what do you mean there's no bonus check? And hey, didn't this red cape used to be a tablecloth in the break room? BASTARDS!"

Well, after being here at the Fun Factory for 10 months, it is an emotional bump that they're coming to me for help. The cream always rises to the top, baby.

(How's that for an ego?)

Dyin' for a Soda

* The stock market... Looks like the sell signal on tech I got monday night is working out. I'm still long in SP500 and the total market index. I think the market moved up quickly due to some oversold conditions, pessimism, and some calendar events. Now we're kind of in a lull following that. This will give us time for some doubt to creep back in and set us up for the next leg up. Hopefully, I'll have rotated back into tech when that happens.

* Production crisis here at the fun factory. Nobody's here. Except me and a handful of other folks. So, I'm researching.

* Spurs up 1-0 over the Pistons. Yeah, I thought so.

* Eating lunch at my desk. I'm still going out for a walk or something.

* On my second day of no caffeine. It was tempting to grab a soda from the cafe!

* I really have to work on this production problem...

Quitting Caffeine!

* I'm quitting caffeine. Switching to water. I kind of realize I've been overdoing the caffeine, and actually it's making me tired.

* Why do office bathrooms become complete disaster areas? Do people live like this at home?

* Intel news out after the bell. I'm wondering if we'll get a "sell the news" reaction. Especially since INTC has run up so much the past few weeks. And all chips!

* The Fed says the economy is doing fine. You probably already knew that, though. The ramifications are that Greenspan will continue to raise rates.

* I didn't know (Mrs. Robinson) Anne Bancroft was married to Mel Brooks!

* You like books on tape (or CD)? I keep trying to listen to one that I've ripped to MP3 files, but my mind keeps wandering. I think I prefer to read the book.

Thursday!

* Things are getting a little crazy with Google at this stage. Another mega-target today from one of the Johnny-come-latelies. I think they initiated coverage with a target of MUCH MUCH HIGHER! CNBC coined a term for Google investers, calling them "Gooleloonians." Haven't we been down this road so many times before? Reminds me of Qualcomm and CMGI.

* It seems like that at other places of employment, birthday celebrations are dealth with by having a sheet cake and everyone singing happy birthday. Today, a coworker is celebrating another year closer to retirement (he says), and folks brought in bagels, assorted fruit, and of course the sheet cake. But I grabbed a plate of fruit and half a bagel, and I'm in hog heaven.

* One of my former coworkers retired last summer, and now he wants to come back and work part time. He says he's bored at home, and wants to come to work. The funny thing about that, is that most of us here complain that we're bored at work, and want to go home. So here's a question for the Carrie Bradshaw column: Is life boring?

* The market seems to like what Greenspan said. I haven't checked on what The Maestro said. Of course, could this be setting up for another late day selloff? Or is that just way too obvious?

* 7-Up or Sprite?

* As I type, the market pulling back a bit. Interesting to see what happens in the last hour, and then later when Intel reports. That'll be the tell. Again, I'm 100% long, mostly in the boring index. If we rally, I'm happy. If we pullback, I'm way glad I'm not in the high-flyers. The Nasdaq tends to outperform and underperform the trend.

* Any users of bitorrent out there? I haven't tried it, but seems like the rage. My coworker uses it to find TV shows he missed.

Selling and Rotating

* Quick stock market update. I hadn't run my stock scans for a few days, but did last night. I got a sell signal on QQQQ and SMH as of monday's close. A lot of good that does a few days late? Well, my model tends to give about a week's worth of sell or buy signals before it happens. If it happens. So, I'm still fundamentally bullish on the market and economy, but I'm going to honor the sell signals by decreasing my beta or volatility. I sold all my go-go stocks this morning and just moved into the broad market index. If we keep advancing, so do I. If we tumble, I won't suffer as much in the diversified index as I would in the go-go stocks. Not advice, just keeping track of my emotions and thinking for future reference.

* Lunch? Tacos!

* It's raining here. The news folks say we normally get 1 day of rain in June. Well, it's raining. The good news is that it's another day of not running the A/C!

* Detroit or San Antonio? I'm pulling for the Spurs. I think they'll do it.

* If politicians remove the social security cap of $90K, do you know what that would mean for Tiger Woods? Assuming he pays both sides of the social security tax, that'd be 12.4%. He made $80 million last year. He'd have to write a check to Uncle Sam for approx $10 million. And that's above and beyond whatever else he's paying.

* The movie "Can't Buy Me Love" was on cable last night. I just love that movie.

* More after the taco fest...

Inferno

* John Kerry vs. George Bush. Hoo. Holy smokes. Another one. All this portrayal of Bush as the idiot and Kerry as the genious just got biotch-slapped back to the stone ages. Hey, we all knew Kerry was hiding something, eh?

* The stock market is doing well. Greenspan yappin' today, and I guess folks like what he's saying about the future of rate hikes. Much of that may be priced in, as we've rallied quite a bit the last few weeks. GM letting go of 25K people. When you're losing over $2300 per car, you have to do something.

* Ever watch MTV's Inferno? Kind of a battle between two teams, where they compete in tasks. Losing team loses a team member. Kind of entertaining. And the women are hot and it looks like MTV tries to have contests where they're often wearing bikinis. What's not to like?

* More on interest-only loans from the LA Times.

* Allergies are the worst. Man, this is the first time in awhile I can remember getting severely biotch-slapped by allergies.

* MTV's Real World Austin begins on June 21st. Why not???

* Google stock climbs. Geez. I don't own it. Used to.

Monday Misc.

* Did you see the Time magazine cover on housing? "Uh oh" indeed!

* I didn't know Joyce from the Amazing Race 7 was a cast member on Star Trek The Next Generation.

* The stock market? Well, we're now out of the monthly strength period, and in that scarey week before options expiration. With oil up again, who knows what kind of fear will take over. I'm still long. It's too tough to short-term trade for me. But if I were guessing, I'd say we're due for a pullback before the next move higher. Since it's just a guess, I won't try to trade it. Pessimism is already quite high, so maybe we won't get that pullback. I'm overall bullish because interest rates are low, inflation is low, and we're probably near the end of the Fed hikes. The economy is growing well. Jobs numbers are perfect over the past year. And wage growth is just fine considering the core rate of inflation.

* Remember the 80's band Cinderella? That's what's on my MP3 player right now. Oooooh, falling apart at the seams...

* Did you see that the UK wants to tax drivers per mile driven? And they'll be tracked by satellite. Uh... Hmm. Seems like somebody could figure out a hack for that one, eh? Just make sure to pay cash for your fuel, so that they can't match the GPS numbers with your credit card fuel bill...

* Have you noticed that some bands keep releasing "best of" CDs? The CD will have 17 songs on it, plus maybe one unreleased song. Then a few years later, they release a "remixed best of" CD, with a bunch of songs on it. Maybe some of the same from their previous "best of" CD. It's kind of ridiculous. (In my book.) I'm not going to mention any names.

* I remember when I bought Providian stock for like $4 (i think) and sold it at $12, thinking I was a Wile E Coyote stock trading genious. Look at it now with the Washington Mutual buyout. Oh, I'm not complaining. And I won't tell you about all the stocks that I bought at $12 that went to $4, either!

* AOL is now offering free, web-based email. Uh... This is big news? Aren't there a bazillion websites with free email these days? Google. Yahoo. MSN. Just to name three big uns. And this is supposed to be good for AOL shareholders? How are they selling that one? "Well, we decided to go from a subscription-based model to one that is free. But we'll make it up on volume." Uhhhhhh. Well, I guess they can sell herbal viagra ads on the free site.

* I thought the same, regarding Lacey Chabert.

* So, will the cap on social security be lifted? Right now, the first $90K of income is taxable. If it's lifted, that'd be a big ol' tax increase on "the rich." Especially those who pay both sides of the tax (12.4%). Has anybody done the math on what that tax increase would cost Shaq?

Pensions

* One of the biggest issues going forward, will be pensions. Many large corporations have already converted their pensions to defined contribution plans, much like a 401(k) system. Those who still have defined benefit contributions are having problems. Look at what happened to United Airline workers who thought they'd have nice pensions. The unions negotiated big pensions with full medical benefits, and it helped send the airline to bankruptcy. What good is your pension if the company goes out of business?

* Absent new network TV last night, I checked into the cable show 4400. Have you seen this one? 4400 people are abducted by aliens or whoever over the last 100 years or whatever, and return to earth. Their mission is to save earth, but nobody seems to know what that involves. I missed the first season, but I hear it's out on DVD. What the heck. Last night was 2 hours worth, and I actually kind of liked it in a sci-fi suspense kind of way.

* Apple may switch to Intel chips. So that means a bunch of geeks somewhere will load XP on 'em.

*Government pensions will be a bigger debacle.
A grand jury in Santa Clara County found pension costs there have gone up almost 50 percent during the past three years, from $66 million to $95 million. Oakland is proposing a 3 percent across-the-board cut in services, including police and firefighters, to cope with its $15 million jump in pension costs. The City of Richmond has sent pink slips to nearly half of its firefighters in recent years as it struggles with its own pension debts.

At the statewide level, California's two largest pension funds, CalPERS and CalSTRS, are each underfunded by more than $20 billion. Because of their very design, any defined-benefit pension with a deficit the stock market can't cover puts taxpayers on the hook. The state's general fund contributions to CalPERS alone are expected to jump from $160 million in 2000 to $2.6 billion this year and to $3.5 billion in 2009.

* Enya's music is relaxing. Like a mental enema.

* Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger podcast.

* In CA, recalled Governor Gray Davis really screwed the taxpayers when it comes to public pensions.

* Dwayne Wade's injury having a big impact on the Miami Heat. But they do have home court for Game 7. Did you hear that Shaq was picking up the funeral costs for former Lakers center George Mikan? What a good guy.

* 11% of the workers in Contra Costa are managers. As a friend says, that's probably because it takes a lot of people to manage the bad employees they have. Hah.

* Somebody might have to give taxpayers an enema once they see the tab on those public sector pensions. Taxpayers might get a little clinched up.

The Market

Friday's tend to move opposite the weekly trend in the market as profit takers lock in gains for the weekend. In adition, we're at the end of the monthly-strength from 401(k) contributions. I think the jobs number today is being used as the catalyst for booking gains. But I think the jobs number is interesting, and actually makes a strong case for the continuation of the bull market.

First of all, jobs numbers jump around month to month, and last month's numbers were too hot. So it's good to see that we're not overheating with month after month of huge jobs gains. The last thing we want is an overheating jobs market that puts pressure on wages. The Fed would step in pretty quickly and risk slowing down the economy. We have a low unemployment rate at 5.1%, so there's not much room for huge job gains withoug pressuring wages. The GDP is right in the 3-4% sweet spot.

The TV folks are busy arguing when the Fed will be done raising rates. They're using baseball analogies. Are we in the 8th inning? What about the 9th inning? How many outs are there in whatever inning we're in? When will the coach bring in the closer? It's kind of silly. But I enjoy it, as you can tell!

One good thing for all of us, is that interest rates are back down near the lows. The catalyst for a bursting of the housing bubble might be higher rates, and their not there yet. I think this means housing will continue to do well and this opens up the floodgates for folks to refinance again. Especially folks who missed their chance last time or who have bought within the past year or so, will have a chance to lock in low rates. Those who have more risky ARMs and interest only loans can now lock up low rates for a long period, and bring stability to their own financial picture. And with home prices surging again year over year, that means there is new home equity available to be borrowed out at low rates, and spent or invested. This will create more economic stimulus.

I think things are looking good for the economy and financial markets going forward. But that doesn't mean the bears won't try to build a wall of worry in the coming weeks. They'll carp about the jobs numbers, which you now know is really on the bulls side at this point. They'll whine about high energy prices, which have been creeping up again. They'll say that the market has come too far, too fast. They'll anticipate any earnings warnings that come in the next few weeks, and make sure those receive spotlight attention. But Wall St. loves to climb a wall of worry. Lets see how it plays out when actual earnings start to roll in this summer.

Adios, Phoenix Suns

* The SJ Mercury editorial today chides the CA Democrats budget proposal. The

Democrats would spend billions more on education and offer the poor more welfare and health care than the governor would. Most notably, in response to the governor's refrain of ``live within our means,'' the Democrats would instead turn to people of means by raising taxes on the wealthiest households.

Regarding closing the budget deficit,

The ongoing problem with the budget is that spending is often driven by formulas that adjust for inflation and population growth. Revenues are not driven by those formulas, so spending outpaces them. The Democrats, by spending most of what they want to raise, and by using one-time funds for ongoing programs, are not making headway in closing the gap.

* The stock market fairly flat today. I think we're still in the monthly-strength period, but after this we'll have to watch and see if some worry enters the market over higher energy prices, earnings warnings, etc. It'd probably be healthy to consolidate the gains and rebuild the wall of worry for the next ramp higher.

* UN goofball Kofi Annan says that "AIDS is outrunning global efforts to stop it." Yeah, hard to imagine stopping it. I don't see a big effort by folks to curb their risky behavior. It's still spreading like crazy among prostitutes, drug users, and homosexuals. The meek shall inherit the earth.

* Too much TV on DVD? Well, I did buy Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I think they're rushing the shows out now before HD DVD comes out. That way, they can sell the same shows twice.

* Adios, Phoenix Suns. Break out the golf clubs.

* Fantasy Sports Update: Jamal Lewis released from prison. Hey, I wonder if it's possible to build an "all prison team" in fantasy football? You could name your team "The Longest Yard" to be clever.

* Is the market up now? Geez, it's taking me awhile to post this.

* Lunch run. Uh, I'm thinking Mexican. Maybe a fish taco.

Deep Throat Office Pool

* Talk shows abuzz with the revelation of Deep Throat: Mark Felt. Whoever had him in the office pool, you are the winner!

* What is life like after TV season ends? I was flipping around channels. Baseball games all over the place. And then the spots where your favorite shows used to be, are filled with summer shows or specials. It's not like you can even count on reruns anymore. TV goes to hell in a handbasket in the summer.

* Did you see the pics from the landslide in Laguna Beach, CA? Eeesh. Did you know that homeowners insurance doesn't cover landslides? So what do you do if you have a no-money down interest-only loan on one of these? Just toss the bank the keys? "Well, we don't want it anymore. Here are the keys to your collateral."

* They say Europe is in crisis after the French and Dutch reject the EU constitution. They say it'll be harder to make decisions. Uh, was anybody counting on France to take part in any "decision making" process? Things aren't going well in Europe. Unemployment is very high. GDP is very low. Taxes are too high. They have a huge social welfare problem on their hands. I don't know. Looks ugly.

* Sun Chips: Original or Cheddar Harvest?

Okrent-Krugman Fight at the OK Corral

* I did a google search for Daniel Okrent and Paul Krugman because of the catfight, and came across Donald Luskin's site. He's having a contest for the most outrageous "Krugmanisms" in various categories.

You can participate, and win free stuff!

* Got to the Fun Factory too late for oatmeal, so had a breakfast burrito. Uh, a little difference in the healthiness of my breakfast this morning. I skipped the meat and cheese, but they were out of Egg Substitute. So, I had real eggs. Yeah, like the ones from chickens. The whole thing was just kind of greasy and salty. I don't see how folks eat this kind of stuff day after day. (I guess that's what keeps Pepcid flyin' off the shelves!)

* The stock market continues to act well, participating in the month-end strength and acting well to economic numbers that aren't too hot, aren't too cold, but are just right. I think after the next few days, we're likely to get a pullback. I'll probably lower my beta by selling the Nasdaq stocks, and getting more diversified into the total market. Keep an eye on oil, it's inching higher. Interest rates are going lower again, so maybe we'll see some refinance-wave again? It'll be good for housing this summer if rates stay down.

* One of the best Krugmanisms I saw from that link above, was from an interview Krugman did on Tim Russert, debating Bill O'Reilly:

"Compare me … compare me, uh, with anyone else, and I think you’ll see that my forecasting record is not great."

Indeed! And right from the horse's mouth...

* Finaly watched the season finale for Lost. Okay, so they blew that hatch open and it's not the Stairway to Heaven. It's a long shaft down. Of course, we'll have to wait until the fall to see where that goes. That has been a very interesting show, and has had a great first season. I love the flashbacks into the individual characters. Now that they've done that, what's next?

* Christian Slater arrested for groping a woman's buttocks.

* The Miami-Detroit series is a good one. Many will call this series the one for "all the marbles." But, don't discount the Spurs. (Yeah, you can discount the Suns at this point...)

* USA Today (via Yahoo) has a story out on the housing bubble.

* Be back.