Sodas are the Devil

* The energy bill passed, and I think the most exciting thing about it was that Daylight Savings Time will start the second sunday in March and end the first sunday of November. Starting in 2007.

* Are you an Air America listener? What do you think of this story?

* You want to know what a really lousy sequel was? Ms. Congeniality 2. Hoo, major stinker.

* Fructose spurs obesity. In the latest study of how to get fat eating more and exercising less, we find out that fructose is the latest villian. It seems to be a war on soda.

* Yahoo Sports predicts the Dolphins to finish 5-11 this year.

* More on the energy bill.

* I'm not one for consuming calories via liquid.

* The stock market looks like it's headed down as I type. End of month strength? Yes. But fridays do tend to move the opposite way of the weekly trend, as traders book profits before the weekend. Other than that, the headlines say that high oil prices are to blame. Hmm, but then why have we rallied since May? Headlines blame a slower GDP of 3.4% than expected, but by only .1%. Seems that slow moderate growth is the key for a sustainable economic upswing. So, I think the headlines are wrong there, too.

* Roberts hearings to start Sept 6th. (I'll be more excited about the NFL at that point.)

* So schools want to get rid of sodas, but many of them replace them with sweetened fruit juices. Has anybody looked at those for fructose content? (I doubt it. It's a war on soda.)

Tangerine Popsicles

* I watched the original Star Wars, aka Star Wars IV, last night. Although I think it was the version with additional graphics. I enjoyed it. I didn't notice any major continuity issues between the trilogy finale, Star Wars III, and the 1977 release. Although, hard to imagine some of the folks refering to the Force as some "old religion" and mumbo-jumbo. Not that many years could've passed between III and IV. From Luke and Leia being born to them being adults. 20-something years? Wouldn't that be like saying "Oh, Ronald Reagan? He was a mythical character. Never really existed."

* Stocks. End of month? Good earnings? Whatever it is, it's nice. I haven't been following sentiment much, so I'll have to take a look this weekend. Normally, a nice run like this starts to create some optimism. Maybe folks are still too interested in real estate. Or, has money started to come out of real estate and into stocks? Hmmm...

* You know what tastes good on a hot day? Jamba Juice.

* Work is busy.

* US signs a climate plan. Kyoto-Schmyoto.

* The shuttle fleet has been grounded. I have to wonder, if we had cameras on the shuttles in the past, how much debris we'd see clunkin' against the ship? I bet it's been going on for awhile, but we've only noticed it recently.

* FDA bans Bayer antibiotic for poultry use. I had a visual image of a farmer trying to get a chicken to swallow a pill with an 8-oz glass of water.

* You know what else tasts good on a hot day? Tangerine popsicles.

* With July about to flip the page, do you realize how close we are to NEW TV SEASON? Hoooah.

Hexagon for Dinner

* Chaos theory at work. I mean here, at work. Suddenly the wheels fell off yesterday, and we've been in the pit ever since.

* The market seems ok, but I really haven't looked. I'm remaing long in the market index. We're nearing month-end strength ahead of what is normally the weakest month in the year, August. September is weak, too. So will we get a pullback? It's difficult to time the market with a calendar. But it's hard not to predict that if we're going to pullback, the next month or so would be a likely candidate.

* Pre-season NFL with temperatures over 100-degrees. That has to be miserable.

* I read Maya's blog about the Taco Bell Crunchwrap. Now I have a dinner plan. Whew. And 560 calories for only $1.79.

* Hard to believe that July is winding down. I think I felt the first end of summer blues when Costco stopped displaying summer pool and recreation items. Then I got hit by a back to school TV ad. And there it is: The cycle of life Fall is coming. But I think the new energy bill Congress passed extends daylight savings time into November. So the glass is half full.

* Back to the grind.

As the Stomach Churns

* So, I went and saw Star Wars III finaly. It was the most entertaining of the prequels. I don't know if the transformation from Anakin to Darth Vader was that smooth, though. He fell pretty quickly.

* I've got the stomach flu. Bleh. I can't remember if you're supposed to feed a cold, starve a fever or whatever. Nothing's going down that well. Going to the bathroom has become a religious experience the past couple days. I seem to be a little better today. Last night was rough.

* Netflixin'... Did you see Taxi with Jimmy Fallon and Queen Latifah? Ohh, major stinker. I didn't like anything about it. I liked Flight of the Phoenix, although I'm not sure why they were flying in a WWII bomber. It was entertaining enough.

* Humor: Roberts confirmation hearing. Yeah, he might as well be on a game show!

* The market? Maybe a little down, until folks anticipate the month-end strength cycle? I don't know.

* Michelle Malkin is hot. She's a conservative pundit with an active blog. Smart and kind of funny.

* Nap time.

TGIF!

* I go to Subway for lunch, come back, and somebody must've juiced the stock market with jalepenos. Look at that rally the last hour. I wonder how the shorts feel? It can't be pretty. Stocks seem to be rallying on mediocre news. It's nice to see the ramp up, though. The put/call ratio really hasn't shown complacency, but rather some fear in the market. Climbing the wall of worry I guess.

* I've been playing Grand Theft Auto San Andreas off and on for awhile, and had no idea that there was a downloadable modification that let the characters engage in sex. I'll have to fire that up this weekend... Hahaha.

* Households double up on digital video recorders. I've been using my XP media center and a wireless network to watch the shows on the TV. Works well. (Linksys Media Extender.) I can burn shows I want to keep on DVD. Might come in handy during football season. Pause live TV and such. Especially after that 10th beer and it's bathroom breaks every 5 minutes.

* Dan Marino says he rejected an offer to play with the Steelers in 2000. Link. He's going into the Hall of Fame in August. I really enjoyed watching Marino play under Don Shula. What a QB. Too bad they had weak defenses during the time. Although some argue that too much passing led to fatigue on the Dolphins defense, because the clock stopped a lot, and drives were quick.

* I'm bummed that the redistricting proposition was blackballed from the CA November election. In CA, the state government basically made local races noncompetitive in the last redistricting. No seats changed in the last election. Why vote? It's been rigged. So, I was hoping that some bipartisan panel could make every seat challengable. NOPE. Sad. More of the same for CA. Lameass government. Can't blame the voters, though. We have no say.

* More later! TGIF!

Deferred Success

* In England, educators think that using terms like winners and losers, or success and failure, traumatizes kids. So they want to change these terms to success and "deferred success."

* So if we were to look at the HP job cuts, we'd tell those workers that their not being "fired," they're just undergoing a "deferred worker retention" process.

* More London bombings. How comfortable are you taking mass transit in the US? Seems to be that's where the Islamic radicals try to kill as many infidels as possible.

* John Roberts, new Supreme Court justice? I figure Bush is going to pick 2 newbies to replace O'Conner and eventually Rhenquist. One will be conservative, and one will be moderate. I think he's trying to get the tough one done first; then, do the moderate during the 2006 election year.

* The market is down. I was looking at some of the indicators I don't check as often, to measure bullishness and bearishness. Specifically, the put/call ratio. You know, that still shows some bearishness out there. Surprisingly. Maybe folks aren't that happy with high oil prices, terrorism, and the like. Stock have been fighting that wall of worry. Still, we've had a nice run since the correction. I'd expect some moderate consolidation before we move higher. My main indicators have given a sell on the major index trackers, but sell signals are so difficult to get right. I think the buy signals are much easier. Er, "easier."

* Does weight affect your wealth?

* Well, now the market is flat... Maybe it'll close up again.

Greenspan's Coda

The biggest story today? Not the slam dunk Supreme Court nominee. Not Hurricane Emily. Not Karl Rove.

This is Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's final testimony to the House Financial Services Committee. This is history. This is an end of an era. In 2006, we will have a new Fed Chairperson.

This is Greenspans' swan song, his coda, if you will.

What's Greenspan got to say?

"Our baseline outlook for the U.S. economy is one of sustained economic growth and contained inflation pressures. In our view, realizing this outcome will require the Federal Reserve to continue to remove monetary accommodation."

"The data released over the past two months or so accord with the view that the earlier soft readings on the economy were not presaging a more serious slowdown in the pace of activity."

"Employment has remained on an upward trend, retail spending has posted appreciable gains, inventory levels are modest, and business investment appears to have firmed."

"Household spending--buoyed by past gains in wealth, ongoing increases in employment and income, and relatively low interest rates--is likely to continue to expand."

On growing incomes:

"We have an over-supply of high-skilled jobs and an under-supply of people to fill them, the effect of which is to create a significant acceleration in average incomes of the highly skilled segment of our labor force," Greenspan told the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.

"That, as you recall, I attribute to the fact that we've been unable in our educational institutions to move our younger people sufficiently quickly from grade four through high school into college and beyond at a pace which would create an adequate supply of the number of skilled workers which we need, which incidentally would bring the wage increases down but also simultaneously remove an excess of lesser-skilled workers."

Various Distractions

* Intel and Yahoo reported after hours, and folks don't like what they heard. Yikes.

* Did you read that Dark Chocolate is healthy for you? Flavanoids! Hallelujah! God has a plan after all! EAT DARK CHOCOLATE AND REJOICE!

* At what point does a veggie sandwich from Subway become a dinner salad on bread? The woman who made my sandwich today put so many veggies on it, that it didn't fold up like a sandwich. Stuff was falling out all over.

* The previous person in my job was very sharp, and some of her projects are now finished and in testing. Unfortunately, they're failing in test (or production) so now I get 'em. Good grief. And people come to me like I'm supposed to be an expert. "So, what was this project about?"

* The pizza from Costco is pretty good.

* I'm hungry. I ate some watermelon. A whole bunch of watermelon. But that wasn't that satisfying. And I have to pee.

* I'm infatuated with the cute asian who smokes. She smokes quite a bit. I think she comes to work, gets coffee, and goes and smokes. Then, she works for a few minutes, runs to the bathroom, and comes out and smokes. She makes a few phone calls, checks her email, and goes out and smokes. This goes on all day long. She's married. She's quite chatty and outgoing, though. Fun to talk to.

* So, the market has been rallying quite a bit even if we're only up a few ticks for the year. It's been pretty strong recently. I've been getting sell signals on the total market, but ignoring them. We'll see if that was the right thing to do tomorrow.

* You know what sounds good to me right now? Nachos. Not those ballgame cheez-whiz nachos, though. I'm thinking from a Mexican restaurant of good reputation, piled high and messy. With a few Coronas. Of course.

* Lots of folks aren't happy with wage growth in the economy. But I think a lot of them have too high expectations coming out of the 90's. I remember a guy who was selling granite countertops. He learned HTML, and decided he was a web programmer. He was making big money in 1998-1999. But then in 2000, he got fired and tried to find a job in programming, but there were a glut of onshore and offshore folks willing to take much less in salary. He's back to selling granite countertops.

* As summer rolls along, the attic gets hot and acts like a heating blanket over the house. Even if you cool off the inside with open windows, as soon as you close it back up, the heating blanket kicks in and drives the temperature up.

* I was at a thing friday night, and saw some folks I haven't seen for awhile. So yesterday at a swim party (on a monday night!), my friend tells me that on friday her married friend said "muckdog looks really good." I wasn't sure what to say. "Really, well I guess it's been awhile since we've all been together." My friend just kind of smiled. Weird. Oh, she's filipina of course, and very attractive.

* Do I seem distracted? I'm going home. Heck.

Muckdog and the Fun Factory

* As far as sappy romantic comedies go, I thought Hitch was decent.

* I'm trying to fill a few vacancies on my team. It's kind of a buyer's market when it comes to picking and choosing potential employees these days. Lots of applicants. I remember the tech mania of the late 90's boom, and it was tough to find good people. The job market was tight. Now, they're out there.

* In the stock market, the week after options expiration week tends to be down, especially if the options week was positive. Sometimes that doesn't work; sometimes it does. I've noticed that some of the monthly seasonal trends tend to play out if the preceding weeks have been in the opposite direction.

* Just found out an ex-girlfriend works here at the Fun Factory. She's doing quite well since we parted. I think she dumped me, is how it went. She said something about wanting to be friends, and that was the last time we ever went out. She got married. Had a few kids. Anyways, I kinda liked her at the time. But that's how it goes. She's very funny. Cute. Nice. Japanese. Kinda chubby, but even moreso now after kids and time. Great cook, from what I recall.

* I like the fast turnover from the movie theater to DVD.

* I hate yellow jackets and wasps.

* I've been shopping digital cameras. I have one that's 2megapixel, that's pretty old. So I was thinking of a 7megapixel Nikon coolpix. I dunno. Thoughts?

* Hey, have you tried those Parmesan Cheez-Its? Lots of tastey goodness in every square.

* The Bruce Willis movie Hostage was entertaining. I don't remember when that one was at the theater.

* It is funny that the stock market has done so well with the financials kind of underperforming. I'd expect more from Citigroup and GE when the market was moving up. And look at the Wilshire 5000. Hooooo. Good time to be in that index. I think the diversification is great. Small and mid caps have been booming, and if one is stuck in the SP500 or DOW, they're missing out.

* I like my job. I even look forward to coming in. Crazy, huh?

Lunchtime Meetings II

The 11-12pm meeting lasted until 12:15pm. I returned to my office, grabbed my sunglassed and bolted for the door. Before I got 10 paces, a coworker grabbed me, "There's a 12:30 emergency meeting."

I put my fingers in my ears and replied, "LA LA LA LA LA LA."

I grabbed a quick sandwich from across the street, and got back by 12:35.

BUT WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?

ARE THEY ALL ON CRACK?

Lunchtime Meetings

* I usually make a point to block out my calender from 11-1pm. Reason is, I hate it when somebody schedules an 11-12pm meeting, because I'm usually getting a little hungry and am more worried about lunch than whatever the meeting is about. The meeting ends up being a waste of time, as I'm daydreaming about a burrito instead of the issue at hand.

* The stock market? Well, I got a sell signal on the whole market yesterday evening when I ran my charts. But I'm sticking with my index longs right now. Earnings season looking good, and this is options week. It'll be interesting to see if the market closes at a 4-year high. I think a lot of the shorts who thought the London terrorist attacks would drive down the market, are getting crushed unloading their shorts.

* Jessica Alba in Fantastic Four? I have to see it.

* I updated my calendar this week, and forgot to block out the 11-1pm slot. So, somebody booked a meeting. And this somebody is the kind of person who eats at their desk at odd hours, never takes a lunch or break, and always seems on the run and frustrated that she can never get a hold of anybody on demand.

* In that INXS reality show, I think Jordis is the best. Cute, and she can belt it out. Some of those other folks are just too goofy. Like the guy with no shirt. What's that?

* Blackberries are expensive. I was thinking, maybe it's because the little suckers are hard to pick from vines that are thorny and full of snakes. There's a lot of hard work in every basket of blackberries.

* The chances of this meeting running over the noon hour are high, just because of the personalities involved.

* Hockey is back. Yeah, the NHL solved their issues. Did you even miss it? Did you notice it was gone?

* Lunch time is my time. I need the break. I go for a walk or run an errand. I just escape for an hour. You book me for a meeting around the lunch hour, and I'm grumpy the whole day. You're messing with me at that point.

Depp as Willy Wonka?

* I feel like Captain Kirk today. Mission critical problem that came up over the weekend solved. Saved the USS Fun Factory from those darn Klingons once again.

* The stock market? Another up day. Except for the DOW. I'll run my charts later. I can't really comment, other than this move up is really confounding those who were predicting a slide because of oil, terrorism, etc. Second quarter earnings reports are looking good. Companies seem flush with cash, for mergers, stock buybacks, dividend increases, etc. What's not to like? Higher oil prices act like a tax on consumers. Americans tend to spend 100% of what we take home, so higher fuel prices tap that spendin' cash. I'm long and strong this move up.

* So I caught part of this INXS reality show, where they're auditioning singers for who can be their new lead singer. Everybody rocking out to yesterday's music. I loved INXS back in the day, and I have to call this publicity gimmick extremely clever.

* Have you heard/seen that Korean music sensation BoA? Do a Yahoo video search, and you'll see what I'm talking about. Skip the slow song, and go to that one where she's shaking and shimmying. Yo baby.

* Is anybody following the Karl Rove story? I haven't been, but it's the rage on the Lefty blogs today. Generally, I think both the extremist GOPers and Democrats spend way too much time in partisan blather to hold my interest for long. But, sometimes they do make for great Saturday Night Live skits.

* There's a Poison song on my MP3 player right now, and I think in the 2 years of random shuffle play, it's never came up. What are the odds? I should head back to the casino.

* Did you read that Ted Nugent wants to run for governor in Michigan? I think the opposition could play the song Jailbait from his Intensities in Ten Cities CD. Do a google search on those lyrics.

* I don't want to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I'm afraid I'll be disappointed in the remake. Gene Wilder was such a great Willy Wonka. Johnny Depp looks creepy in the previews. Johnny Depp used shock rocker Marilyn Manson as his inspiration for his performance as Willy Wonka; Manson himself wanted the role of Wonka in the film. (From IMDB)

Kelly Hu as Vanilla Manilla

* Engergizer Bunny market. Just let it keep going and going. It's nice to have a rally in the face of pretty extreme pessimism. The economy has been in that sweet spot of moderate growth, and the economic expansion continues. My trading indicators never flashed a buy signal on tech, so I remain in a diversified index for this latest ride up. It'd have been nice to catch the move in something with a little more volatility, but I'm not going to complain too loudly.

* Scotch is a nasty drink. Smells like that stuff I use to put on my skin as a teenager.

* No baseball today, because tomorrow is the All-Star game. Does anybody watch that?

* Which Batman? Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney or Christian Bale?

* Why does Quiznos charge so much more for a toasted sandwich? They're good.

* Geraldo the hurricane chaser. During the hurricanes of 2004, I remember Geraldo out there talking about wind and rain. Over the weekend, I flipped on FOX to see the damage, and there he was again.

* Did you see Katie Holmes in First Daughter? It was one of those sappy romantic comedies, that wasn't too romantic or that funny. I think Katie stripping in the bar was one of the most unsexy scenes I've ever scene. I think she's pretty hot, but she just seems so wholesome. Except for that tattoo. She'll always be Joey Potter to me.

* I have to go with Val Kilmer, only because that was my favorite of the movies.

* Kim Bassinger did a bad acting job in Cellular. But, I liked that movie.

* Searching IMDB, the movie Expats is in post-production. What caught my eye here is that Kelly Hu seems to be the lead female, with the character name Vanilla Manilla.

Plot Summary for
Expats (2005)

A unique caper in the vein of Ocean's 11 meets Lost in Translation. Jeremy Keller a wayward college graduate goes to Korea to teach English to 10 year-olds. Immediately he falls in with a group of eccletic expatriates - Casey surf-slacker from Nebraska who now teaches English; Mark, a washed-up pro ball player with a gambling addiction; Albert, Mark's Korean-Canadian translator; Ian, an outrageous British DJ; and Vanilla Manilla, a sexy nightclub diva stuck in a low-rent club. Jeremy is quickly lured into the darkly seductive underworld of Pusan, the modern Casablanca. When they discover Korean gangsters never carry guns, they hatch an outrageous plan - to rob them.

* Thank God for Netflix.

* I really hate spiders.

* I got pretty toasted at a party on saturday. I think I needed that. I didn't need the hangover on sunday, but I think I worked out some inner turmoils. Or at least suppressed them for awhile. Nothing wrong with buyin' time.

Lame

* A coworker brings in cookies. Coworker does not offer me a cookie. Lame coworker.

* I hate it when you run some Windows program, and then close it, but it leaves a process running. What's that all about? Either the program is running, or you've QUIT or EXIT out of it. What's with the leftovers?

* Market closed way up. So my current theory is that on any retest of the recent lows, my indicators are going to line up on a buy. Eh, we'll see. I'm staying long the index for now.

* They're chocolate chip cookies. Homemade. I heard somebody say how good they were. Hmph.

* I think I've hit the Learning Curve wall with the promotion here at the Fun Factory. I've been running full blast for 3 weeks. I really like it, but I think I need the weekend. I'm not feeling stressed, just mentally drained.

* I don't want any of your stupid cookies anyways.

* If my watch is right, now is about the time the cute asian chick heads outside for a smoke.

Self Reflection Overload

* My prayers are with those in London. Extremely tragic.

* No email reply to my last email on wednesday. Looks like she put me back in the jar. Eh, oh well. Strange. I don't harbor any fantasies of ending up with her. (See Who? below).

* The stock market? Wow. I never received a tech buy signal, even though some of the underlying indicators have been improving. I did get a buy signal on GE a couple days, which is usually a good sign for the overall market. My "feeling" is that any correction back to the vicinity of the recent pullback would be buyable or suitable for rotating into a more volatile portfolio. But, I'm enjoying the rally. Let 'er rip.

* The economy? The jobs numbers continue to show moderate growth. That's exactly what we want. This pace of growth is sustainable. We don't want a boom. Booms lead to busts.

* Although I go back on forth regarding "what I should've done" in her house. I know I did the right thing, but maybe I should've just nailed her. Just to be a man about it. The funny thing, is that's what I'd normally have done.

* Children of Mexican descent who are born in the US are nearly twice as likely to develop asthma as those born in Mexico, according to a new report. Link. You think they'd find the same results from a study on Asian-Americans? Yup, me too. I think it's diet related.

* Petrie Dish Burger for lunch? Would you like to super-size that?



* Summer fridays? We're a little light-staffed here at the Fun Factory.

* David Lee Roth to replace Howard Stern? Just a gigalo!

* I don't know why I was gun shy. Feelings, I guess; or, Right vs. Wrong. Maybe I'd have been more of a wreck if I did sleep with her, because I actually liked her. Eh, bad karma to sleep with another man's woman. I did do the right thing.

* I'm heading to the local Indian Casino tonight with a bunch-o-folks. Should be fun. Heading to the seafood buffet, and hopefully yank a few bucks out of a slot machine. I think I need a few drinks to unwind a bit.

* I just love the James Taylor song Mexico.

* Ah, crap. I should've just nailed her. "Can't win ballgames if all you're doing is playin' defense, son!" Hahahah. Or, as a friend says, women are always in some "state of relationship." They're either beginning one, in the middle of one, or ending one. Or several. Just looking for a better option, right? So by definition, you're always stealing them from another man. These are usually the kinds of justifications that are best made after a few drinks. Agreed?

Who?

Who?

* Maybe 8 years ago, I worked at a place with a woman and when I first saw her, I think Cupid nailed me with an arrow.

* As the days and weeks went by, I made every excuse I could to meander to her office and ask her dumb questions about work or "seems hot in here today" or whatever. Little chit chat.

* Soon, she came and asked me if I wanted to join "the gang" for lunch. This happened for a week or so, and then she removed herself from the group and it was me and her, mano a womano.

* I was in a relationship at the time. She had a fiance. Nothing ever happened but lunches, but we were kind of flirting and into each other. You can always tell when you notice the little things about her, and she notices the little things about you. I remember her telling me about her childhood, and she looked at me and blushed.

* I went to another job. She got married. We still met for lunch, but that soon died down. I think it was right after she invited me over to her house when her husband was out of town, and I went over. There was a moment where we were looking at each other, and that was it; either we were going to do something or we weren't. I think we both knew it was decision time. We decided not to. There is a little more to this story at the house, but we decided not to. Only another lunch or two happened after that. She had 2 kids and moved back to the East Coast. I met her husband at one of the baby showers, and decided I was glad nothing ever happened.

* I sent her an email now and then. Sometimes she replied, usually not. And she hasn't for a long time. Years. I quit sending them. Didn't want to be a stalker.

* The last few nights, I've had really vivid dreams about her and her husband. I hadn't even thought of her for awhile, but I couldn't shake these dreams. They were kind of strange dreams. I wondered if everything was ok, and I sent an email saying "Still there?" And that was it.

* She replied. Wrote a paragraph. I replied. She replied. I replied. She replied. I replied. She replied. Etc. We fired off a bunch of emails to each other yesterday, and caught up for the last few years. Turns out, there is quite a bit of strife and conflict in her life right now.

* I believe there is something more to life than the physical world, and who knows if the vivid dreams were just coincidence or if there was something in her reaching out that connected with me. In any case, by the end of our exchanges yesterday, she was joking and I could tell she was smiling behind her computer. I didn't have another dream last night, so maybe whatever was supposed to happen did.

That's it. Very rarely in life do I meet a woman that creates such a deep emotional reaction inside of me. Sometimes I wonder if I have any feelings at all, then WHAM! Something like this happens to remind me that I do.

OMFG

She emailed me back. I can't flippin' believe it.

Pancake Breakfast

* Everybody looks at you like you're crazy when you tell them "Hey, I quit caffeine!"

* The markets... Well, I thought it looked like they wanted to rally here. Despite the wall of worry. That reminds me, I need to run my charts. Just a sec... Okay, downloading data RIGHT NOW! I use TeleChart 2005 by Worden. But mostly just for their data and fast scans. I use Amibroker for backtesting trading ideas. Lets see... Hmm. Interesting. Well, I can't see any reason to increase my risk here, so I'm staying with the uptrend since May, but in the diversified index. My divergence indicators are looking a little perky, so that might be a good sign on any corrections. No reason to try and out think it, though.

* Almost Famous was a great move. Stillwater rocks!

* Low-carb diets be damned, I just like pancakes for breakfast.

* Maybe I'm getting older, but I just can't see going to a free public fireworks show. I drove by one sunday night and it looked full of hoodlums and riff raff. Then I hear the next day about all the fights, and my coworkers kid got beat up. Gee sounds like fun...

* Work calmed down around the holiday, but I sense momentum picking back up.

Saturday

* The stock charts on a few companies I watch are starting to look interesting. Almost as if the market is going to try to stage a rally here. I'm just staying long the general market so I participate. This is where it's tempting to rotate into something with a little higher beta (volatility) to get more, but since I don't actually have a tech buy signal yet, I'm going to be patient.

* I think the overall market trend is up, which is why I'm staying long the general market. My strategy during a bull market is just to identify periods where the market is overbought or oversold, and adjust my beta accordingly. When I think the market is oversold, I increase my weighting in techs or financials. When I think the market is overbought, I just go to the SPY, VTI and DVY. But I remain totally invested during the bull trend.

* I like my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches toasted.

* DVD sales are down. I never understood why anybody would want to own a DVD. I have a few, but I never watch them. I like Netflix. You want to watch something, put it at the top of your list and it'll be in the mailbox tomorrow.

* Sad to hear about Luther Vandross. Great singer.

* I think home sales are slowing down here. Especially higher-priced homes.

* Not only have I quit caffeine, I've also started to weed out caffeine free tea, coffee and soda now. What I've noticed, is that food seems to taste better. I've also noticed a lot less heart burn.

* I was out for sushi the other night, and overheard some folks at the next table talking about how much they've made on their home sales the past year. Deja-2000-vu.

* Work didn't call me last night or this morning, so I'm assuming everything is ok.

* I told my buddy I quit caffeine, and he told me he quit years ago. He noticed the same changes I did. More energy. I'm like "Dude, why didn't you tell me?"

* I was at a sports bar during March Madness, 2000. And instead of folks talking about the games, they were talking about stocks. The sports bar even had one channel on CNBC.

* Yard work.

Room Temperature Water

* Room temperature water. Blech. It's gotta be iced, iced, baby.

* My crew is all out today. It's just me and you.

* Watching fireworks this year? Don't drink and drive.

* Life without caffeine is great. I wish I would've quit years ago. I'm a lot more alert, and have tons more energy. And it's more constant. I used to have lots of ups and downs during the day. Probably depending on when I last medicated myself with coffee or soda. But now, it's great. Try it.

* I wonder what Sheryl Crow is doing right now?

* Sandra Day O'Conner quitting the Supremes. So that means we'll have tons of political arguing to enjoy over the summer. Everybody Bush nominates will be accused of being a right-wing radical by the Democrats. In otherwords, business as usual!

* Tom Cruise is pretty bizarre. I finaly heard a clip of his Today Show rant. I think it's great for him to do what he thinks is best for himself, but the lecture was a bit much.

* I haven't made a stock trade since a few weeks ago when I dumped tech and went into the broader market index.

* Yawn.