Well December is running its course yet again.
The cold has set in and it's dipped into the 30s a couple of times over the last month. And it froze once.
I had a quiet birthday here just watching movies. I stopped at HEB after work on Tuesday and picked up a bottle of champagne for the evening. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were my birthday date. I watched the original trilogy while it rained :)
The week itself was busy up at work. New employees, new clients and new tools made for a six day work week.
This morning I slept in and made up for a generally fast-paced week. I've been too wimpy to get out and ride my bike in the cold weather so I've been doing what I can when I can to keep the blood moving.
Last night, my sister and mother and I went out to dinner at Tres Amigos. We went pretty early so it was filled with what my mother referred to as "blue-hairs." But that didn't make the food any less enjoyable. It still is, in my opinion, the best Mexican food in Austin. The margaritas weren't bad, either :D
My sister filled us in on the growth her company has seen this year and what they're expecting next year. Her feet really haven't touched the ground over the last couple years just due to the demands of the job.
My mother found a new place to live and I'll be helping her move over the course of the next few weeks. She'll be up on the North side of town, about 20m away, living very close to her aunt and uncle. It'll be good for her.
Christmas is coming up and I'm working through it. I have the week after Christmas off and I don't have anything to do, yet. I think I'll stick around here and sort some things out. I wonder if putting more planning into a number of New Year's resolutions will have any bearing on my level of commitment through the year. I'm optimistic, but we'll have to see.
So far on the list:
meditate regularly
comfortable pancake
press to handstand
muscle-up on the rings
comfortable in L-sit
eat better
write songs
French and Italian
grow trading account
continue to blog
get back into CAD
continue to cycle
That's the short list. I'm going to brainstorm on my week off and try to devise a full-fledged schedule. I might have to remove myself from JTV and just watch movies the weekends. But that's not particularly something I want to do. I'll have a look into the misty future and see what seems reasonable.
Things are quiet here. Movies and guitar are keeping me busy. And I'm just sorta counting the days until my week off. I've thought some about trading but it's been good just keeping the charts closed for an extended period of time. I have no idea what's happening in the news and I'm really, really okay with it.
Earlier in the week, I sent my sister a couple out-of-print books from books.google.com. I told her I didn't NEED anything for my birthday but if she felt so inclined, I'd love to have a hard copy of them. Coming in at just under 1,300 pages, I told her not to stress if she couldn't do it... but she totally said she would! :D If you haven't met her, Audrey is awesome.
At the moment, chestnuts are in the oven and the whole house smells amazing. The lights are on in the oak trees across the street and the cold air is tryin to get through the cracks of the door frame :)
>>"Miserere" by Gergorio Allegri, performed by King's College choir
December 19, 2009
December 14, 2009
Periodicals
Oh the news, the news. What was in the news today? It's been an interesting few hours.
*An especially strong, mentally challenged man launched an entire cathedral at Silvio Berlusconi's face. Terrible.
* The number of medical marijuana facilities in Los Angeles County just surpassed the number of Starbucks and McDonald's franchises combined. This is awesome. I don't care where you fall in the argument about MM. Pot is, hands down, better for Californians' health than both Starbucks and McDonald's combined.
* Twenty-two million emails from the Bush administration were recovered in an effort by two groups to sort out what actually took place over the course of 33 especially crucial days a few years back. In related news, a personal assistant to former vice-president Dick Cheney was inexplicably shot in the face with a shotgun after he informed Cheney that the "Delete" function just sends files to the Recycle Bin in Windows and doesn't actually delete anything.
* The main index in Dubai jumped about 10% on news that Dubai World is getting bailed out by Abu Dhabi. It turns out someone actually still sees value in the world's most difficult fucking golf course.
Things are generally quiet here. I haven't opened a trading chart in over 48 hours and it feels gooOOOOooood. It's like I'm on vacation. Since going live again on Nov 12, I've posted 25.3%. Now I'm on human leave, no longer a slave to teh charts until the new year.
If you're in a Pacific country, you've been celebrating my birthday for about 10 hours. If you're in western Europe, you've been getting crazy for about 2. And if you're in the states, you're probably just sitting around, holding your breath and counting down the minutes with your champagne bottles in-hand.
I just slammed a preemptive, celebratory bowl of macaroni. And I haven't a thing to do all night. This is ridiculous. It's awesome. I feel like a kid again and might go build a fort. I might actually... read...???
I stopped by Whole Foods on Saturday and got a couple bags of chestnuts. I made a meal out of them on Saturday afternoon and might cook some later tonight. Otherwise, I might just do Key Lime Pie. These are the hardest decisions I make over the course of any single day. Failing printers, data backup and system stability come in a distant second to key lime pie.
>>No music. Quiet.
*An especially strong, mentally challenged man launched an entire cathedral at Silvio Berlusconi's face. Terrible.
* The number of medical marijuana facilities in Los Angeles County just surpassed the number of Starbucks and McDonald's franchises combined. This is awesome. I don't care where you fall in the argument about MM. Pot is, hands down, better for Californians' health than both Starbucks and McDonald's combined.
* Twenty-two million emails from the Bush administration were recovered in an effort by two groups to sort out what actually took place over the course of 33 especially crucial days a few years back. In related news, a personal assistant to former vice-president Dick Cheney was inexplicably shot in the face with a shotgun after he informed Cheney that the "Delete" function just sends files to the Recycle Bin in Windows and doesn't actually delete anything.
* The main index in Dubai jumped about 10% on news that Dubai World is getting bailed out by Abu Dhabi. It turns out someone actually still sees value in the world's most difficult fucking golf course.
Things are generally quiet here. I haven't opened a trading chart in over 48 hours and it feels gooOOOOooood. It's like I'm on vacation. Since going live again on Nov 12, I've posted 25.3%. Now I'm on human leave, no longer a slave to teh charts until the new year.
If you're in a Pacific country, you've been celebrating my birthday for about 10 hours. If you're in western Europe, you've been getting crazy for about 2. And if you're in the states, you're probably just sitting around, holding your breath and counting down the minutes with your champagne bottles in-hand.
I just slammed a preemptive, celebratory bowl of macaroni. And I haven't a thing to do all night. This is ridiculous. It's awesome. I feel like a kid again and might go build a fort. I might actually... read...???
I stopped by Whole Foods on Saturday and got a couple bags of chestnuts. I made a meal out of them on Saturday afternoon and might cook some later tonight. Otherwise, I might just do Key Lime Pie. These are the hardest decisions I make over the course of any single day. Failing printers, data backup and system stability come in a distant second to key lime pie.
>>No music. Quiet.
December 09, 2009
Topsy-turvy
I played guitar for a long time last night after trading and it came out well. My walls are the best audience in the world. There are no people screaming, there are no set times or house sound systems to mess with and the venue doesn't smell like old beer and feet. It's absolutely brilliant.
This week has been very productive. I got home from work last night and fired up the computing devices. When I updated my spreadsheet I found out that there was a pretty hellacious spike/failure in the history data for AUDCAD that was throwing my whole market overview off. I don't usually like being without the overview. For a long time, trusting my gut was synonymous with paying some guy I'd never met for no good reason. But the times, they are a changin.
GBPJPY had ripped 2.39% the day before and it just went sideways. Like I said before, gj doesn't generally stay in one place for too long. It completely bottomed out at the end of the day on Monday and nobody wanted to touch it. It had been consolidating when I got home and had been going sideways for about 14 hours. I was looking for a short.
I was a bit weary of the shorts yesterday because there's always a possibility of gj moving the same amount of space in the opposite direction in the same amount of time. I call them "V-days." A candle cracked down on the 15m and I was short. It dumped right after I entered (always a good sign) and I just held it for four or five minutes. The strength of the dumping price convinced me it was at least good for the next 20 pips. +20 pips exactly.
I didn't get a chance to look at the charts all day today and I was anticipating something sideways. It didn't go sideways. GBPJPY ended up bouncing off the 32ma a couple times on the hourly chart and it printed a sturdy bullish divergence on MACD going into Asian open. I entered long after the second quick retrace on the hourly. My MACD is a pretty strong indicator used in conjuction with other indies and a bit of emotional oversight. The pair printed a pretty unconvincing bearish 15m candle and I entered long rather ambitiously with a quarter of my position. It floundered around and the lingering short-sellers tried in vain to get away from the resistance above. After about 10 minutes, the price completely ripped to the topside. It went about 30 pips in 60 seconds. I'll be honest. I was laughing at the other guy. I've taken enough beatings to know when it's okay to find unrestricted joy in winning. I entered the rest of my position and closed both when the momentum went out. The trade made just over 4% in about 45m in the market.
I told myself I was gonna take less risk going into Christmas, but I lied. The market is showing no signs of erratic behavior yet. I'm full-on through the end of this week. I'll be off from trading from Friday afternoon until January 10th... just looking over charts and sharpening my throwing spears.
Last night, after my trade and before the guitar, I made paralettes on the porch. I used them for the first time tonight and they work (painfully) well. I will be moving slowly tomorrow.
Hope all's well.
>>"Help I'm Alive" (Acoustic) on Fantasies by Metric
This week has been very productive. I got home from work last night and fired up the computing devices. When I updated my spreadsheet I found out that there was a pretty hellacious spike/failure in the history data for AUDCAD that was throwing my whole market overview off. I don't usually like being without the overview. For a long time, trusting my gut was synonymous with paying some guy I'd never met for no good reason. But the times, they are a changin.
GBPJPY had ripped 2.39% the day before and it just went sideways. Like I said before, gj doesn't generally stay in one place for too long. It completely bottomed out at the end of the day on Monday and nobody wanted to touch it. It had been consolidating when I got home and had been going sideways for about 14 hours. I was looking for a short.
I was a bit weary of the shorts yesterday because there's always a possibility of gj moving the same amount of space in the opposite direction in the same amount of time. I call them "V-days." A candle cracked down on the 15m and I was short. It dumped right after I entered (always a good sign) and I just held it for four or five minutes. The strength of the dumping price convinced me it was at least good for the next 20 pips. +20 pips exactly.
I didn't get a chance to look at the charts all day today and I was anticipating something sideways. It didn't go sideways. GBPJPY ended up bouncing off the 32ma a couple times on the hourly chart and it printed a sturdy bullish divergence on MACD going into Asian open. I entered long after the second quick retrace on the hourly. My MACD is a pretty strong indicator used in conjuction with other indies and a bit of emotional oversight. The pair printed a pretty unconvincing bearish 15m candle and I entered long rather ambitiously with a quarter of my position. It floundered around and the lingering short-sellers tried in vain to get away from the resistance above. After about 10 minutes, the price completely ripped to the topside. It went about 30 pips in 60 seconds. I'll be honest. I was laughing at the other guy. I've taken enough beatings to know when it's okay to find unrestricted joy in winning. I entered the rest of my position and closed both when the momentum went out. The trade made just over 4% in about 45m in the market.
I told myself I was gonna take less risk going into Christmas, but I lied. The market is showing no signs of erratic behavior yet. I'm full-on through the end of this week. I'll be off from trading from Friday afternoon until January 10th... just looking over charts and sharpening my throwing spears.
Last night, after my trade and before the guitar, I made paralettes on the porch. I used them for the first time tonight and they work (painfully) well. I will be moving slowly tomorrow.
Hope all's well.
>>"Help I'm Alive" (Acoustic) on Fantasies by Metric
December 07, 2009
Short
It was a mind numbing day at work. I don't even know if I listened to music today. I think I did. But the level of Bizarre was intense coming through the phone I don't know what was happening in the other ear. I blacked out. I'm here now and just remember driving home and eating an amazing bowl of macaroni.
I got home and fired up my machines with a vengeance. I took a trade yesterday on GJ open to close the gap from the weekend. It didn't close the gap. It tried but couldn't break the trendline on the daily chart. I closed out before it turned significantly, but I ultimately lost. Sundays are only allowed 25% of standard exposure because they can be a whirlpool of low volume, indecision and/or general inconsistency.
Today, GJ sank a bit in London and completely went sideways... completely sideways through most of London and all of New York. It usually doesn't bottom out like that after a big gain unless it's retracing. When I saw gj dipping down to correct NFP from Friday, I took it quickly. I waited for an exhausted candle to press down against the bottom and went short. The four hour chart suggested downward pressure and it looked like it could reach the 50% and perhaps the 38.2% fib line from the bottom in January. That's what it did. It broke down within 30 seconds of my entry and then it just sorta floundered down to the 50 line. It made it there pretty quickly, all things considered, so I let it test to see if it wanted to rip to the 38.2. It bounced a couple times and I got out when momentum died.
It did finally dip down to the 38.2. But a quick victory is the best victory. I got upside down for about 30 afterwards and then passed out with the dog in the living room in an exhausted stupor.
I'm going to crash now because tomorrow will be another whirlwind. I might leave Son House on through the night. I think I will.
>>"Preachin Blues" on The Father of the Delta Blues 1965 by Son House
I got home and fired up my machines with a vengeance. I took a trade yesterday on GJ open to close the gap from the weekend. It didn't close the gap. It tried but couldn't break the trendline on the daily chart. I closed out before it turned significantly, but I ultimately lost. Sundays are only allowed 25% of standard exposure because they can be a whirlpool of low volume, indecision and/or general inconsistency.
Today, GJ sank a bit in London and completely went sideways... completely sideways through most of London and all of New York. It usually doesn't bottom out like that after a big gain unless it's retracing. When I saw gj dipping down to correct NFP from Friday, I took it quickly. I waited for an exhausted candle to press down against the bottom and went short. The four hour chart suggested downward pressure and it looked like it could reach the 50% and perhaps the 38.2% fib line from the bottom in January. That's what it did. It broke down within 30 seconds of my entry and then it just sorta floundered down to the 50 line. It made it there pretty quickly, all things considered, so I let it test to see if it wanted to rip to the 38.2. It bounced a couple times and I got out when momentum died.
It did finally dip down to the 38.2. But a quick victory is the best victory. I got upside down for about 30 afterwards and then passed out with the dog in the living room in an exhausted stupor.
I'm going to crash now because tomorrow will be another whirlwind. I might leave Son House on through the night. I think I will.
>>"Preachin Blues" on The Father of the Delta Blues 1965 by Son House
December 05, 2009
Sorted
If the mind moves the body, the body must move the mind. Yoga practitioners believe when a person's right nasal passage is open and the left is closed, the mind is encouraging a healing condition. When the right passage is closed and the left is open, this is a sign that the brain needs some additional degree of raw power or energy. Power and healing. When both passageways are open, the mind is said to be comfortable with the tasks in front of it.
It probably seems like I've been overtaken by some ephemeral sentiment. And I have. I just spent an hour stretching and then about twenty minutes balancing. I usually end up on my head like that once a month or every other month. And now my eyes are comfortably watery and I'm just a little more willing to laugh.
While upside down, I felt the fissures in my skull bend and contort to comply with my changing center of gravity. Feeling the blood move around the sides of the brain is a brilliant sensation. And while upside down, I noticed something I consider to be exciting. I noticed muscles I forgot I had. They're the muscles that were buried deeper and deeper every time I picked up a pencil or a pen growing up. They were buried by the notion that a person is able to do any single thing better with one hand than the other. This is a strange thought indeed.
Physical balance requires physical equilibrium. With a body, the lines of reflection most often used when balancing are the spine and the waist. I noticed today that the neck muscles connecting to the skull were actually sending messages down to my shoulders looking for balance. This blew my mind. I was in awe of the different body systems and needed to google some muscles. So when I saw that basically the only muscles working to this end were the left and right trapezius muscles, I was less astounded... but not by much. Ultimately, I'm reminded yet again of the disservice done to our youths by imposing some formal, muscular bias just for ease. So what if it takes 6 more weeks to learn to write with either hand? I think it's worth it when compared to a lifetime of muscular imbalance, uncertainty and perhaps even general incoordination. What a terrible idea. I suppose being able to write is a step in the right direction, but that's what came to mind this evening.
So it's been a slow and cold weekend. It snowed around Central Texas on Friday night but I didn't see any of it. I tried to sleep as long as possible to see if I could sleep through the winter. I was unsuccessful.
It's been in the 30s and 40s and sunny and windy... very cold. Too damn cold for me. I've stayed inside almost entirely bundled up with a jacket on. I feel sorry for the clothes drying out back. So cold.
I watched falscher die (The Counterfeiters) last night and I was surprised. I really enjoyed it. I recommend it if you haven't seen it. This afternoon I watched Across the Universe and considered again the brilliance of the writing style of those incredible insects, the Beatles. Why is it that with so many people, so many hours and days of sitting around and battling our battles, there are seemingly less than a handful of folks in history who have ever been able to come to peace with their minds and convey those emotions to other people? It's beyond me. More people need to sing. Maybe that's the problem. So it's not so much that not many are perhaps enlightened or unable able to convey their emotions. It's just that it unfortunately takes much more than that in the minds of most.
So many people are just endlessly intimidated by the modern day entertainment industry which, more often than not, resembles more of an artistic landfill than anything else. The notion of establishing oneself as a professional artist and the difficulty implied therein is comparable only to the regard in which most people typically hold their favorite celebrities. It's bizarre.
My speakers are currently embroiled in an epic battle against my housemate's drumset. And I'm totally winning. Brother Ali just sorta walks on top of other sounds by nature. It's what he does... can't stop him.
I'm about to go to the grocery store before my week starts. There are more beautiful women per square foot at HEB at Oltorf and Congress than anywhere else in Austin. This unfortunately doesn't imply that I have a damn thing in common with any one of them, but... here's to hoping. My social life anymore consists of going to HEB and buying food.
But seriously... give me a break... headphones + aisles of food + attractive women? That's recreation enough for me :D
>>"Begin Here" on The Truth is Here by Brother Ali
It probably seems like I've been overtaken by some ephemeral sentiment. And I have. I just spent an hour stretching and then about twenty minutes balancing. I usually end up on my head like that once a month or every other month. And now my eyes are comfortably watery and I'm just a little more willing to laugh.
While upside down, I felt the fissures in my skull bend and contort to comply with my changing center of gravity. Feeling the blood move around the sides of the brain is a brilliant sensation. And while upside down, I noticed something I consider to be exciting. I noticed muscles I forgot I had. They're the muscles that were buried deeper and deeper every time I picked up a pencil or a pen growing up. They were buried by the notion that a person is able to do any single thing better with one hand than the other. This is a strange thought indeed.
Physical balance requires physical equilibrium. With a body, the lines of reflection most often used when balancing are the spine and the waist. I noticed today that the neck muscles connecting to the skull were actually sending messages down to my shoulders looking for balance. This blew my mind. I was in awe of the different body systems and needed to google some muscles. So when I saw that basically the only muscles working to this end were the left and right trapezius muscles, I was less astounded... but not by much. Ultimately, I'm reminded yet again of the disservice done to our youths by imposing some formal, muscular bias just for ease. So what if it takes 6 more weeks to learn to write with either hand? I think it's worth it when compared to a lifetime of muscular imbalance, uncertainty and perhaps even general incoordination. What a terrible idea. I suppose being able to write is a step in the right direction, but that's what came to mind this evening.
So it's been a slow and cold weekend. It snowed around Central Texas on Friday night but I didn't see any of it. I tried to sleep as long as possible to see if I could sleep through the winter. I was unsuccessful.
It's been in the 30s and 40s and sunny and windy... very cold. Too damn cold for me. I've stayed inside almost entirely bundled up with a jacket on. I feel sorry for the clothes drying out back. So cold.
I watched falscher die (The Counterfeiters) last night and I was surprised. I really enjoyed it. I recommend it if you haven't seen it. This afternoon I watched Across the Universe and considered again the brilliance of the writing style of those incredible insects, the Beatles. Why is it that with so many people, so many hours and days of sitting around and battling our battles, there are seemingly less than a handful of folks in history who have ever been able to come to peace with their minds and convey those emotions to other people? It's beyond me. More people need to sing. Maybe that's the problem. So it's not so much that not many are perhaps enlightened or unable able to convey their emotions. It's just that it unfortunately takes much more than that in the minds of most.
So many people are just endlessly intimidated by the modern day entertainment industry which, more often than not, resembles more of an artistic landfill than anything else. The notion of establishing oneself as a professional artist and the difficulty implied therein is comparable only to the regard in which most people typically hold their favorite celebrities. It's bizarre.
My speakers are currently embroiled in an epic battle against my housemate's drumset. And I'm totally winning. Brother Ali just sorta walks on top of other sounds by nature. It's what he does... can't stop him.
I'm about to go to the grocery store before my week starts. There are more beautiful women per square foot at HEB at Oltorf and Congress than anywhere else in Austin. This unfortunately doesn't imply that I have a damn thing in common with any one of them, but... here's to hoping. My social life anymore consists of going to HEB and buying food.
But seriously... give me a break... headphones + aisles of food + attractive women? That's recreation enough for me :D
>>"Begin Here" on The Truth is Here by Brother Ali
December 01, 2009
Winter made it to Texas.
I don't remember when I posted last, but I can imagine it was a while ago.
I pretty much convinced myself that my PC had a failed motherboard. Something must have been wrong with the power system somewhere because it's killed three hard drives this year and I barely scraped data off of the fourth. It was pretty demoralizing.
So I got a new one.
I found a guy in North Austin who basically lives right by Fry's and just pieces new computers together. It's almost as fast as the other one and, with the RAM, is probably a little faster. I finally made the switch from PATA to SATA and... now I'm caught up with the times. I'm happy and hopefully it will last for a few years.
So, I've obviously been screwing around with computer stuff too much... getting it all set up and such. I finally figured out how to broadcast video using VLC, Flash Media Encoder and... a virtual cable :D It's good. I've been showing movies for friends and family on jtv.
Otherwise, the power... dealy... on my tablet died. I'll have to send it out for repair... again.
Thanksgiving. I hadn't been out of the ZIP code for about two years so a break was definitely in order.
I went with my sister over to the East Texas woods. My dad's ladyfriend basically has a house on the grounds of an old lumber mill. I've never seen pine trees so big. They seriously were over 100 feet tall and I couldn't wrap my arms around the trunks. They were massive.
So we hung out with Dad and the other family and ate and drank a bit too much. I ate and drank so much. By the end of it, I just sorta felt like a fat, stupid grape.
The food was spectacular and the company was fantastic. I even got to ride a horse for the first time :) I spent about two hours on a gentle giant named Dude. We wandered through the woods and just sorta enjoyed eachother. Well, I'm sure by the end of it he was no longer enjoying me. But I sure am happy he put up as with me as long as he did. I had no idea how to steer him starting out, so his patience was hugely appreciated.
Lemme try to explain the area a little better. It's 80 acres wayyyy back in the woods with a private lake, horses and a sprawling 8 bedroom, one-story house with a fireplace that was built for heat. It was picturesque.
I played guitar for everybody right after Thanksgiving dinner and although my motor skills were questionable at best, everyone seemed to enjoy it. Two of the 8-person audience actually fell asleep... which might or might not be a good thing.
Most of the weekend was spent listening to the wind brush through the trees overhead with the occasional woodpecker screaming about bugs in the distance. It was pretty perfect.
I'm back to work now and am pacing myself with trading through December and probably the first half of January. It seizes along and finally drops back into gear in the middle of January. Everybody just dumps positions in all different directions around Christmas and then it just drops off until the third or fourth of January. You might think, "It's a market. It's either gonna go up or down, right?" Wrong. Around the holidays, people just start doing stupid things... inexplicable things. The market starts to move topwise and inside out. I'm only going to trade during these first two weeks and sit out until around the 10th or 12th of January.
I'm being pretty conservative right now. This Friday are the monthly unemployment reports and I've seen the FX market move completely unpredictably up to 48 hours before the release. I passed a great trade yesterday that would have been kind to me. I generally only take reaaaally good setups on Mondays because they can be either half-hearted moves or just fake altogether. My intuition was correct and the market did what I thought it would. That was satisfaction enough. Not taking a trade can be a very valuable trading decision.
I traded tonight. Gbpjpy made solid gains yesterday and maintained the level through the afternoon hours. There was no retracement and jpy seemed to be equally as weak on the other pairs with a pennant forming on a few. I entered half of my position and held for about an hour through some drawdown. The bulls stepped up and returned the price to the danger zone, within striking distance from yesterday's high. A support line was holding and I could see the 21 ma active on several jpy pairs on the 15m charts. That's all I needed. Someone was trying to make the market move just before the Asian traders left for lunch. I entered the other half and waited and watched the price peek through and then break out. I exited both positions 45 minutes later for +5.25%. I'll take that on any NFP week.
Here's some insight into NFP and news in general in the Forex market. Some people live and die by the news releases in FX. People generally react when the news is released and the market moves a lot in a small amount of time. While this is generally an exciting prospect, the duality of the market can crush you in an equal amount of time. The Non-Farm Payrolls are widely considered to be the most important economic indicator and it's released monthly. I actually don't pay attention to any other reports. In truth, there aren't really any meaningful reports released during the Asian session. I'm not able to trade London or NY right now. Otherwise I suppose I might follow the news a little bit more closely.
Back when I was learning the ropes and trading London overnight, I would stay up and watch everything consolidate and whipsaw around support and resistance in anticipation of the release the next morning. Foolishly, I would try to use some technical justification for opening a position in the hour or so before the NFP was released in hopes that I would make a [huge] quick buck. Well, trading the NFP report was the only time I got my ass kicked so badly that I would literally get spooked from taking any trades for the entire week after. On the bigger pairs, the price can dump 40, 50 or even 80 points in about two or three seconds. It's such a clusterfuck. Even after the initial move, the volume might be so ridiculous that even when you try to close your position, your broker won't be able to fill the order until the price has gone 30 or 40 more points in one direction. -120 points in 20 seconds? Been there... done that. Never again. There's nothing worse than working your ass off all week just to get knocked down on Friday and feel worthless through the weekend. Then you get all antsy and try to make trades appear out of thin air on Sunday and Monday before anything's actually moving. Terrible. I'm playin it safe.
When I was hedging, news releases weren't even that important because I was using any number of positions to cover previous losing positions. But with single trades, I've found it best to be very conservative in general during the entire week of NFP and just be willing to take profits a little quicker than normal.
I think I'm rambling now. I'm going to research some of OOo Calc's sorting functions.
The weather is finally wintry. It's been in the 40s for the last 48 hours and it's just barely gonna warm up tomorrow. It's been raining alllllll day and it looks like the water levels around here are slowly comin back. I'm ready to hibernate and forget about it. It's supposed to rain and snow on Friday. I'll believe it when I see it!
Christmas is coming. I have the last week in December off and I don't know what I'm gonna do with it yet. I might be helping my mom move. Maybe I'll fly somewhere if something comes up. I need some heat. I'm ready for summer again already. It's quiet in the cold.
>> "Siamese Cities" on Static Anonymity by Metric
I pretty much convinced myself that my PC had a failed motherboard. Something must have been wrong with the power system somewhere because it's killed three hard drives this year and I barely scraped data off of the fourth. It was pretty demoralizing.
So I got a new one.
I found a guy in North Austin who basically lives right by Fry's and just pieces new computers together. It's almost as fast as the other one and, with the RAM, is probably a little faster. I finally made the switch from PATA to SATA and... now I'm caught up with the times. I'm happy and hopefully it will last for a few years.
So, I've obviously been screwing around with computer stuff too much... getting it all set up and such. I finally figured out how to broadcast video using VLC, Flash Media Encoder and... a virtual cable :D It's good. I've been showing movies for friends and family on jtv.
Otherwise, the power... dealy... on my tablet died. I'll have to send it out for repair... again.
Thanksgiving. I hadn't been out of the ZIP code for about two years so a break was definitely in order.
I went with my sister over to the East Texas woods. My dad's ladyfriend basically has a house on the grounds of an old lumber mill. I've never seen pine trees so big. They seriously were over 100 feet tall and I couldn't wrap my arms around the trunks. They were massive.
So we hung out with Dad and the other family and ate and drank a bit too much. I ate and drank so much. By the end of it, I just sorta felt like a fat, stupid grape.
The food was spectacular and the company was fantastic. I even got to ride a horse for the first time :) I spent about two hours on a gentle giant named Dude. We wandered through the woods and just sorta enjoyed eachother. Well, I'm sure by the end of it he was no longer enjoying me. But I sure am happy he put up as with me as long as he did. I had no idea how to steer him starting out, so his patience was hugely appreciated.
Lemme try to explain the area a little better. It's 80 acres wayyyy back in the woods with a private lake, horses and a sprawling 8 bedroom, one-story house with a fireplace that was built for heat. It was picturesque.
I played guitar for everybody right after Thanksgiving dinner and although my motor skills were questionable at best, everyone seemed to enjoy it. Two of the 8-person audience actually fell asleep... which might or might not be a good thing.
Most of the weekend was spent listening to the wind brush through the trees overhead with the occasional woodpecker screaming about bugs in the distance. It was pretty perfect.
I'm back to work now and am pacing myself with trading through December and probably the first half of January. It seizes along and finally drops back into gear in the middle of January. Everybody just dumps positions in all different directions around Christmas and then it just drops off until the third or fourth of January. You might think, "It's a market. It's either gonna go up or down, right?" Wrong. Around the holidays, people just start doing stupid things... inexplicable things. The market starts to move topwise and inside out. I'm only going to trade during these first two weeks and sit out until around the 10th or 12th of January.
I'm being pretty conservative right now. This Friday are the monthly unemployment reports and I've seen the FX market move completely unpredictably up to 48 hours before the release. I passed a great trade yesterday that would have been kind to me. I generally only take reaaaally good setups on Mondays because they can be either half-hearted moves or just fake altogether. My intuition was correct and the market did what I thought it would. That was satisfaction enough. Not taking a trade can be a very valuable trading decision.
I traded tonight. Gbpjpy made solid gains yesterday and maintained the level through the afternoon hours. There was no retracement and jpy seemed to be equally as weak on the other pairs with a pennant forming on a few. I entered half of my position and held for about an hour through some drawdown. The bulls stepped up and returned the price to the danger zone, within striking distance from yesterday's high. A support line was holding and I could see the 21 ma active on several jpy pairs on the 15m charts. That's all I needed. Someone was trying to make the market move just before the Asian traders left for lunch. I entered the other half and waited and watched the price peek through and then break out. I exited both positions 45 minutes later for +5.25%. I'll take that on any NFP week.
Here's some insight into NFP and news in general in the Forex market. Some people live and die by the news releases in FX. People generally react when the news is released and the market moves a lot in a small amount of time. While this is generally an exciting prospect, the duality of the market can crush you in an equal amount of time. The Non-Farm Payrolls are widely considered to be the most important economic indicator and it's released monthly. I actually don't pay attention to any other reports. In truth, there aren't really any meaningful reports released during the Asian session. I'm not able to trade London or NY right now. Otherwise I suppose I might follow the news a little bit more closely.
Back when I was learning the ropes and trading London overnight, I would stay up and watch everything consolidate and whipsaw around support and resistance in anticipation of the release the next morning. Foolishly, I would try to use some technical justification for opening a position in the hour or so before the NFP was released in hopes that I would make a [huge] quick buck. Well, trading the NFP report was the only time I got my ass kicked so badly that I would literally get spooked from taking any trades for the entire week after. On the bigger pairs, the price can dump 40, 50 or even 80 points in about two or three seconds. It's such a clusterfuck. Even after the initial move, the volume might be so ridiculous that even when you try to close your position, your broker won't be able to fill the order until the price has gone 30 or 40 more points in one direction. -120 points in 20 seconds? Been there... done that. Never again. There's nothing worse than working your ass off all week just to get knocked down on Friday and feel worthless through the weekend. Then you get all antsy and try to make trades appear out of thin air on Sunday and Monday before anything's actually moving. Terrible. I'm playin it safe.
When I was hedging, news releases weren't even that important because I was using any number of positions to cover previous losing positions. But with single trades, I've found it best to be very conservative in general during the entire week of NFP and just be willing to take profits a little quicker than normal.
I think I'm rambling now. I'm going to research some of OOo Calc's sorting functions.
The weather is finally wintry. It's been in the 40s for the last 48 hours and it's just barely gonna warm up tomorrow. It's been raining alllllll day and it looks like the water levels around here are slowly comin back. I'm ready to hibernate and forget about it. It's supposed to rain and snow on Friday. I'll believe it when I see it!
Christmas is coming. I have the last week in December off and I don't know what I'm gonna do with it yet. I might be helping my mom move. Maybe I'll fly somewhere if something comes up. I need some heat. I'm ready for summer again already. It's quiet in the cold.
>> "Siamese Cities" on Static Anonymity by Metric
November 21, 2009
Rainy and quiet, it is.
I set up a program yesterday that lets me use the same mouse and keyboard across three different computers. Once I finally got it sorted, I drove across town and got some more memory for one of the machines. I've needed to do for a while.
I got back, clicked the RAM into place and rebooted. There was a ferocious clicking noise coming from the computer. It sounded like there was a hamster stuck in it. A quick google search informed me that, "A clicking hard drive can be a symptom of several different hard drive problems, all of which indicate hard drive failure." :/ The clicking has subsided but it picks back up whenever I run any tools to check the hard drive. When I put my hands on either side of it, the clicking stops. It's completely bizarre.
So today I'm saving information and reinstalling the operating system. The original hard drive on teh computer, this is my third failed drive for the year. Yargh.
It's been a lazy weekend, otherwise. It's raining and... there's nothing but time to read, play guitar and reinstall operating systems :p
I had a good week trading. I dove in the shallow end early in the week and got a bonk on the head. On Wednesday, gpjpy finally moved away from the resistance it's been testing for the last couple weeks. I traded it during the Asian and London sessions on Th and Fr and ended the week +7%.
I'm going with my mom tonight to hear Audrey's choir concert. She's been assigned two solos. I'm told one of the solos is apparently one of the first compositions ever composed by a woman. I don't know the date, but it allegedly has no set key and there were never any lengths ascribed to any of the individual notes. So it's basically just a series of different pitches to be sung at the speed the singer prefers. It should be interesting.
It was too wet for riding this and yesterday morning so I'm a little restless. I might just take a nap. I think that's exactly what I'll do :)
Happy weekend.
>> "Whatever Lola Wants" by Sarah Vaughan (Gotan Project Remix)
I got back, clicked the RAM into place and rebooted. There was a ferocious clicking noise coming from the computer. It sounded like there was a hamster stuck in it. A quick google search informed me that, "A clicking hard drive can be a symptom of several different hard drive problems, all of which indicate hard drive failure." :/ The clicking has subsided but it picks back up whenever I run any tools to check the hard drive. When I put my hands on either side of it, the clicking stops. It's completely bizarre.
So today I'm saving information and reinstalling the operating system. The original hard drive on teh computer, this is my third failed drive for the year. Yargh.
It's been a lazy weekend, otherwise. It's raining and... there's nothing but time to read, play guitar and reinstall operating systems :p
I had a good week trading. I dove in the shallow end early in the week and got a bonk on the head. On Wednesday, gpjpy finally moved away from the resistance it's been testing for the last couple weeks. I traded it during the Asian and London sessions on Th and Fr and ended the week +7%.
I'm going with my mom tonight to hear Audrey's choir concert. She's been assigned two solos. I'm told one of the solos is apparently one of the first compositions ever composed by a woman. I don't know the date, but it allegedly has no set key and there were never any lengths ascribed to any of the individual notes. So it's basically just a series of different pitches to be sung at the speed the singer prefers. It should be interesting.
It was too wet for riding this and yesterday morning so I'm a little restless. I might just take a nap. I think that's exactly what I'll do :)
Happy weekend.
>> "Whatever Lola Wants" by Sarah Vaughan (Gotan Project Remix)
November 15, 2009
Hit in the face
What's the best way to illustrate getting hit by a wall of cold water? Well... that just about does it.
It doesn't much matter what anyone else says. In my mind, one of the best albums of the year is Lungs by Florence and the Machine. Give me a break.
Give me a break.
I haven't felt music move like this since I was introduced to Ours a few years ago.
Renegade harps against a heavy tambourine and an open air, rolling bass drum? Really?
The only thing that has ever made me consider a song to be completely enjoyable is a singer who recognizes the musical demands of making the voice exist as an active instrument inside an orchestration.
People don't stop to consider the fact that just because an orchestra is no longer used to carry the main melodies, the ears expect just as thorough presentation of the sounds themselves. A singer is tasked with the sizeable chore of producing a melody that's previously been assigned to about 40 different instruments in a piece.
I'll admit the album's pretty heavily produced. "Rabbit Heart" has 6 or more lead vocal tracks at times, but the production is top notch. I honestly haven't heard such exciting production in a long time. They used three different producers throughout and... it's fucking brilliant. Finally. It's brilliant.
I heard "Howl" on Pulsar Radio and... that was all I needed. I was on it after the first listen. The strength of the vocals just demand attention. Her lyrical gait in the song reminds me of some of Maynard Keenan's (Tool, A Perfect Circle) vocals. Like Bono said, "It's not about what you're saying. It's about what you're saying." It turns out the majority of this album was written after the lead singer meditated on the future death of her father. The strength in her voice leaves me so happy to hear legitimate content again. An artist's performance is one part practice, one part skill and two parts emotional exposure. Listen to "Cosmic Love" and you will know what it means to command a voice.
Alright. "Rabbit Heart" is the wall of water that nearly knocked me out of my kayak yesterday. I can't explain it any better. The verses have a brilliant mix of vocal reverb and an absolutely monstrous call-and-answer chorus line that comes behind the melody and leads into a beautifully broken pre-chorus. There's a spooky and almost ancient-sounding harmony that just steals your thoughts at the time and your ears stop and listen to see a Life lesson might be around the corner. The bottom completely drops out and the melody is so solemnly delivered that even the least musical of listeners is forced to recognize the impending tidalwave that was just a swell of emotion.
The chorus lights up the air like fireworks, Christmas trees and human joy simultaneously... at least to me. The vocals are stacked and harmonized like a castle. And the producer did what so few actually do... allow a human voice to maintain a single note kindly atop the song for the entire duration of the chorus. Sure, it's a looped vocal track. But what the heck? Her voice sounds like freaking violins. Thanks for hearing it, producer-man. Thanks even more for doing it. This album is so refreshing. The drummer rocks the up-beats on the ride right through the chorus and... man... the album just... keeps... going.
I can talk for a long time about this album. I haven't stopped listening to it yet. For the time being, I'll just say that I've been seeing a very positive trend recently. Sorry if you've never heard this stuff. It's absolutely your loss.
I've spent much of my budding adult life with headphones in my ears. And from time to time, there are moments when I stop at a critical moment in a song and wish more than anything else that everyone else in the world could, at that moment, be instantly and (probably) violently subjected to the very same sounds. When I say subjected, I mean scaring the excrement out of the infantile and the elderly alike. Sometimes, I just think the world needs to hear a Scandanavian man scoring his throat and singing an ode to a serpent. Sometimes the world needs to hear Sting sing about fields of barley. Sometimes it's Azam Ali singing Middle Eastern classics on beds of electronic, downbeat Beauty. Variety is Beauty. Alas. If the internet is going to be the bridge between cultures, I suppose we should first focus a bit on the quality of life.
I'm going to indulge myself for a moment and describe to my virtual pals what I did over the weekend.
My Aunt was in town over the weekend. My mother planned the time down to the minute.
Other than the familial festivities, I found time to do a few awesome things. For anyone taking the time to decidewhether or not I'm just being a spot egotistical when describing what I do as awesome, it's an open forum and you can stop reading at any point. The few folks who know me will give me the benefit of the doubt. Seldom considered is the fact that we rarely actually speak to the benefit of the other person in a conversation. Much of our comments are made so our own ears can hear our own voices reaffirming our personal Life decisions. Suffice it to say I felt it necessary to do some pretty awesome things.
I rode a lot over the weekend and exhausted myself again. Ray and I did 19 miles on Friday morning. We didn't get to ride the whole route because I got a flat on my front tire from an especially determined rock. I remember running over it and it took about half a mile for me to notice anything was wrong. We did a field op and were back up and moving in 10m. I got home, ate about a 16" long breakfast pastry and went back to sleep for a couple hours. I woke up and scratched myself lazily until dinner time.
That afternoon, I went over to my mom's place and we (she, I, my sister and aunt) went out to dinner at The Grove. We all slammed pizza and heard about my aunt's trip to Italy. We ate well and the ladies just talked about things talkable. I just sat there, looked at other, non-relative women and ate my gorgonzola pizza. That's generally what I do... play eye tag with women I won't talk to because they won't listen. Generalization? I don't think so.
I was up at the crack of a foggy dawn to pedal all over town again. The fog was covering all but the top third of the buildings downtown. It was an awesome sight.
We rode the full route and made decent time. We broke 15mph. Ray was content and I was tired.
I celebrated my general exhaustion by doing laundry and playing guitar naked.
Then I took to the hills. I drove over to Audrey's place and went kayaking. I had kayaking on my mind and I inadvertently went out for three freaking hours.
I didn't initially plan on going out so long. But once I got on the water, I got all adventurous. I loaded a couple Eric Truffaz albums, Shantel and, yes, Florence and the Machine before I went. So I ended up paddling almost three miles in my bathing suit in the sun in mid-November. My phone fit comfortably in a subway sandwich bag and I tied it to the floaty-device. I battled the speedboats and I think I might have actually won. I stopped on the other side of the lake by and island with some swans and tall reeds and called my dad from the water. It was pretty fun... floating and talking about things talkable.
I paddled all the way back into the wind and the music was my engine. I'm not as sore as I thought I'd be and I'm thankful for it.
I came back last night and I have absolutely no recollection of what happened after that. I didn't bathe. I didn't check my email. I think I watched the Office and drooled on myself for a bit. I was exhausted.
Today was back-to-work day. I've already stricken most of it from my memory. Tomorrow will be the same.
I'm going to the store to get some ice cream and then look for plane tickets to somewhere for Christmas.
>> "Rabbit Heart [Raise it up]" on Lungs by Florence and the Machine
It doesn't much matter what anyone else says. In my mind, one of the best albums of the year is Lungs by Florence and the Machine. Give me a break.
Give me a break.
I haven't felt music move like this since I was introduced to Ours a few years ago.
Renegade harps against a heavy tambourine and an open air, rolling bass drum? Really?
The only thing that has ever made me consider a song to be completely enjoyable is a singer who recognizes the musical demands of making the voice exist as an active instrument inside an orchestration.
People don't stop to consider the fact that just because an orchestra is no longer used to carry the main melodies, the ears expect just as thorough presentation of the sounds themselves. A singer is tasked with the sizeable chore of producing a melody that's previously been assigned to about 40 different instruments in a piece.
I'll admit the album's pretty heavily produced. "Rabbit Heart" has 6 or more lead vocal tracks at times, but the production is top notch. I honestly haven't heard such exciting production in a long time. They used three different producers throughout and... it's fucking brilliant. Finally. It's brilliant.
I heard "Howl" on Pulsar Radio and... that was all I needed. I was on it after the first listen. The strength of the vocals just demand attention. Her lyrical gait in the song reminds me of some of Maynard Keenan's (Tool, A Perfect Circle) vocals. Like Bono said, "It's not about what you're saying. It's about what you're saying." It turns out the majority of this album was written after the lead singer meditated on the future death of her father. The strength in her voice leaves me so happy to hear legitimate content again. An artist's performance is one part practice, one part skill and two parts emotional exposure. Listen to "Cosmic Love" and you will know what it means to command a voice.
Alright. "Rabbit Heart" is the wall of water that nearly knocked me out of my kayak yesterday. I can't explain it any better. The verses have a brilliant mix of vocal reverb and an absolutely monstrous call-and-answer chorus line that comes behind the melody and leads into a beautifully broken pre-chorus. There's a spooky and almost ancient-sounding harmony that just steals your thoughts at the time and your ears stop and listen to see a Life lesson might be around the corner. The bottom completely drops out and the melody is so solemnly delivered that even the least musical of listeners is forced to recognize the impending tidalwave that was just a swell of emotion.
The chorus lights up the air like fireworks, Christmas trees and human joy simultaneously... at least to me. The vocals are stacked and harmonized like a castle. And the producer did what so few actually do... allow a human voice to maintain a single note kindly atop the song for the entire duration of the chorus. Sure, it's a looped vocal track. But what the heck? Her voice sounds like freaking violins. Thanks for hearing it, producer-man. Thanks even more for doing it. This album is so refreshing. The drummer rocks the up-beats on the ride right through the chorus and... man... the album just... keeps... going.
I can talk for a long time about this album. I haven't stopped listening to it yet. For the time being, I'll just say that I've been seeing a very positive trend recently. Sorry if you've never heard this stuff. It's absolutely your loss.
I've spent much of my budding adult life with headphones in my ears. And from time to time, there are moments when I stop at a critical moment in a song and wish more than anything else that everyone else in the world could, at that moment, be instantly and (probably) violently subjected to the very same sounds. When I say subjected, I mean scaring the excrement out of the infantile and the elderly alike. Sometimes, I just think the world needs to hear a Scandanavian man scoring his throat and singing an ode to a serpent. Sometimes the world needs to hear Sting sing about fields of barley. Sometimes it's Azam Ali singing Middle Eastern classics on beds of electronic, downbeat Beauty. Variety is Beauty. Alas. If the internet is going to be the bridge between cultures, I suppose we should first focus a bit on the quality of life.
I'm going to indulge myself for a moment and describe to my virtual pals what I did over the weekend.
My Aunt was in town over the weekend. My mother planned the time down to the minute.
Other than the familial festivities, I found time to do a few awesome things. For anyone taking the time to decidewhether or not I'm just being a spot egotistical when describing what I do as awesome, it's an open forum and you can stop reading at any point. The few folks who know me will give me the benefit of the doubt. Seldom considered is the fact that we rarely actually speak to the benefit of the other person in a conversation. Much of our comments are made so our own ears can hear our own voices reaffirming our personal Life decisions. Suffice it to say I felt it necessary to do some pretty awesome things.
I rode a lot over the weekend and exhausted myself again. Ray and I did 19 miles on Friday morning. We didn't get to ride the whole route because I got a flat on my front tire from an especially determined rock. I remember running over it and it took about half a mile for me to notice anything was wrong. We did a field op and were back up and moving in 10m. I got home, ate about a 16" long breakfast pastry and went back to sleep for a couple hours. I woke up and scratched myself lazily until dinner time.
That afternoon, I went over to my mom's place and we (she, I, my sister and aunt) went out to dinner at The Grove. We all slammed pizza and heard about my aunt's trip to Italy. We ate well and the ladies just talked about things talkable. I just sat there, looked at other, non-relative women and ate my gorgonzola pizza. That's generally what I do... play eye tag with women I won't talk to because they won't listen. Generalization? I don't think so.
I was up at the crack of a foggy dawn to pedal all over town again. The fog was covering all but the top third of the buildings downtown. It was an awesome sight.
We rode the full route and made decent time. We broke 15mph. Ray was content and I was tired.
I celebrated my general exhaustion by doing laundry and playing guitar naked.
Then I took to the hills. I drove over to Audrey's place and went kayaking. I had kayaking on my mind and I inadvertently went out for three freaking hours.
I didn't initially plan on going out so long. But once I got on the water, I got all adventurous. I loaded a couple Eric Truffaz albums, Shantel and, yes, Florence and the Machine before I went. So I ended up paddling almost three miles in my bathing suit in the sun in mid-November. My phone fit comfortably in a subway sandwich bag and I tied it to the floaty-device. I battled the speedboats and I think I might have actually won. I stopped on the other side of the lake by and island with some swans and tall reeds and called my dad from the water. It was pretty fun... floating and talking about things talkable.
I paddled all the way back into the wind and the music was my engine. I'm not as sore as I thought I'd be and I'm thankful for it.
I came back last night and I have absolutely no recollection of what happened after that. I didn't bathe. I didn't check my email. I think I watched the Office and drooled on myself for a bit. I was exhausted.
Today was back-to-work day. I've already stricken most of it from my memory. Tomorrow will be the same.
I'm going to the store to get some ice cream and then look for plane tickets to somewhere for Christmas.
>> "Rabbit Heart [Raise it up]" on Lungs by Florence and the Machine
November 08, 2009
Weekend weather
This evening finds a comfortable, steady rain in the middle of Texas. The birds are sorted with their heads buried in their feathers and the cat is on the porch with the most pathetic of expressions on her face. How dare nature be so cruel as to relegate a cat to a damp, wet porch?
The last couple days have been nice. I think I've already mentioned the gymnastic rings. I hung them from a tree in the backyard and have been using them pretty regularly. It's generally just a helluva lotta fun. Some people were born to be wild. I was born comfortably happy with my primate manufacture.
I've been riding my bike every Friday and Saturday morning through South Austin and am starting to make good progress. Ray and I rode about 25 miles on Friday morning and about 35 yesterday morning. We did both at about 16mph and I was surprisingly still generally mobile by the time I rode home. All told, I did about 40 miles yesterday morning. When I got home, my breakfast consisted of a peanut butter and honey sandwich, a can of tuna and a few Reese's peanut butter cups. It was... a utilitarian meal.
I spent the rest of the day with my sister who needed some help moving things in a Uhaul to her new place. I was physically worthless but was able to dig deep enough to haul new kayaks down to the water and go out for a paddle.
She knew her place had "lake access" but didn't really know exactly how that would translate. Lake Travis is just generally huge and neither of us have been on much of it. At any rate, it turns out it's just about a one-hundred yard walk through the woods to the water. It's about a ten minute paddle through the narrow inlet, past some turbo wealthy folks' boat houses and then it opens up. It's really awesome. The coolest part, aside from being able to kayak comfortably in shorts on a November evening, was that we found a cove. Audrey was content just tooling around on the open water but I convinced her that we needed to explore. So we did. Now, I'm not going to do justice by describing it. But I'll try.
The leaves are just starting to really turn here. Along the banks are beautiful red cypress trees whose lowest branches allowed us to glide right under them. The sun was setting away from neon clouds and the views would have satisfied a Disney cinematographer. Each dead end turned into another secluded leg of the inlet, all of which sleep quietly in between two huge rock faces. The forty foot cliffs on either side hide any trace of development. The busy roads less than a mile away are completely out of sight and out of mind. Our attentions were entertained by great blue herons, curious owls and ferns, all close to the water. All of us enjoyed the dripping, the microscopic waterfalls traveling down the entire wall and working to fill the lake. I glided under one of the cedar tree's lowest branches and leaned back to look at the sky. Add a sprinkle of floating seedpods and you've got at least three scenes from Fantasia. The colors and smells reminded us of Adventure from our time spent in New Hampshire as kids. I haven't been able to get back there yet so this was a brilliantly crafted visual and memorable simile. All we could really imagine last night was waiting for it to warm up and being able to spend hours in a private, lagoon... in the middle of the freaking city. It was amazing.
After riding, kayaking and helping her move a bunch of furniture, she took me out to dinner. I demolished a super dirty hamburger (on my mind all day) and then I rolled kindly out of the restaurant. Had my day been complete after the burger, I would have been fine with it.
But I am apparently much luckier than most. My fuel pump went out on my car last week and although it didn't register immediately, I found out my fuel gauge has also given out. The car runs great, but I guess I just need to be a bit quicker to the gas station if the signal reads 1/4 of a gallon for more than a couple days. I came to a pitiful, sputtering stop about 5 blocks from home.
I wandered with throbbing legs to the house, got a gas can from the barn and pedaled my busted ass down to the gas station and back. I rode awkwardly back to the car, spilling all over myself, and gave the girl a drink.
A few weeks ago I actually determined that the weekend might as well not even exist if I couldn't meaningfully redirect my mental state. It turns out that for me, it matters very little what's actually done to fill the time so long as my interests completely engage my mind elsewhere. I realized the failed fuel sensor pretty quickly when my car was keeling over so I was able to adopt a surprisingly light-hearted approach to the whole thing. I made it back and passed out with really tired legs and hands that smelled like gasoline. I was out like a light.
I woke up for the 8th day in a row to the chihuahuas out back. My neighbor likes to let them out to go flipshit at 7am every day. They bark at the ground and trees and... really anything that might or might not be of general importance. I take comfort in the fact that I will outlive those animals. Whether here or there, I will outlive them.
And in case you or anyone you know is considering running Windows 7 on a tablet computer, I say,"Do it." It's already integrated with a much-improved handwriting recognition system. And the OS itself runs just like XP... smooth and easy. I've been loving it. It's worlds easier on my video card and... it's more intuitive than XP. Just make sure you have the legacy drivers. I had to look pretty hard to find them. But the screen orientation tricks and the tablet buttons are all live and working great. It's... I'm a happy geek.
I'm gonna update my charts and spreadsheets and get some sleep before the hellions start shrieking out back again.
>> "Club Foot" on Kasabian by Kasabian
The last couple days have been nice. I think I've already mentioned the gymnastic rings. I hung them from a tree in the backyard and have been using them pretty regularly. It's generally just a helluva lotta fun. Some people were born to be wild. I was born comfortably happy with my primate manufacture.
I've been riding my bike every Friday and Saturday morning through South Austin and am starting to make good progress. Ray and I rode about 25 miles on Friday morning and about 35 yesterday morning. We did both at about 16mph and I was surprisingly still generally mobile by the time I rode home. All told, I did about 40 miles yesterday morning. When I got home, my breakfast consisted of a peanut butter and honey sandwich, a can of tuna and a few Reese's peanut butter cups. It was... a utilitarian meal.
I spent the rest of the day with my sister who needed some help moving things in a Uhaul to her new place. I was physically worthless but was able to dig deep enough to haul new kayaks down to the water and go out for a paddle.
She knew her place had "lake access" but didn't really know exactly how that would translate. Lake Travis is just generally huge and neither of us have been on much of it. At any rate, it turns out it's just about a one-hundred yard walk through the woods to the water. It's about a ten minute paddle through the narrow inlet, past some turbo wealthy folks' boat houses and then it opens up. It's really awesome. The coolest part, aside from being able to kayak comfortably in shorts on a November evening, was that we found a cove. Audrey was content just tooling around on the open water but I convinced her that we needed to explore. So we did. Now, I'm not going to do justice by describing it. But I'll try.
The leaves are just starting to really turn here. Along the banks are beautiful red cypress trees whose lowest branches allowed us to glide right under them. The sun was setting away from neon clouds and the views would have satisfied a Disney cinematographer. Each dead end turned into another secluded leg of the inlet, all of which sleep quietly in between two huge rock faces. The forty foot cliffs on either side hide any trace of development. The busy roads less than a mile away are completely out of sight and out of mind. Our attentions were entertained by great blue herons, curious owls and ferns, all close to the water. All of us enjoyed the dripping, the microscopic waterfalls traveling down the entire wall and working to fill the lake. I glided under one of the cedar tree's lowest branches and leaned back to look at the sky. Add a sprinkle of floating seedpods and you've got at least three scenes from Fantasia. The colors and smells reminded us of Adventure from our time spent in New Hampshire as kids. I haven't been able to get back there yet so this was a brilliantly crafted visual and memorable simile. All we could really imagine last night was waiting for it to warm up and being able to spend hours in a private, lagoon... in the middle of the freaking city. It was amazing.
After riding, kayaking and helping her move a bunch of furniture, she took me out to dinner. I demolished a super dirty hamburger (on my mind all day) and then I rolled kindly out of the restaurant. Had my day been complete after the burger, I would have been fine with it.
But I am apparently much luckier than most. My fuel pump went out on my car last week and although it didn't register immediately, I found out my fuel gauge has also given out. The car runs great, but I guess I just need to be a bit quicker to the gas station if the signal reads 1/4 of a gallon for more than a couple days. I came to a pitiful, sputtering stop about 5 blocks from home.
I wandered with throbbing legs to the house, got a gas can from the barn and pedaled my busted ass down to the gas station and back. I rode awkwardly back to the car, spilling all over myself, and gave the girl a drink.
A few weeks ago I actually determined that the weekend might as well not even exist if I couldn't meaningfully redirect my mental state. It turns out that for me, it matters very little what's actually done to fill the time so long as my interests completely engage my mind elsewhere. I realized the failed fuel sensor pretty quickly when my car was keeling over so I was able to adopt a surprisingly light-hearted approach to the whole thing. I made it back and passed out with really tired legs and hands that smelled like gasoline. I was out like a light.
I woke up for the 8th day in a row to the chihuahuas out back. My neighbor likes to let them out to go flipshit at 7am every day. They bark at the ground and trees and... really anything that might or might not be of general importance. I take comfort in the fact that I will outlive those animals. Whether here or there, I will outlive them.
And in case you or anyone you know is considering running Windows 7 on a tablet computer, I say,"Do it." It's already integrated with a much-improved handwriting recognition system. And the OS itself runs just like XP... smooth and easy. I've been loving it. It's worlds easier on my video card and... it's more intuitive than XP. Just make sure you have the legacy drivers. I had to look pretty hard to find them. But the screen orientation tricks and the tablet buttons are all live and working great. It's... I'm a happy geek.
I'm gonna update my charts and spreadsheets and get some sleep before the hellions start shrieking out back again.
>> "Club Foot" on Kasabian by Kasabian
October 31, 2009
Rodents, rings and riding
First and foremost, I beat the mice.
It got cooler, they migrated inside and then they got just a little too comfortable stealing my groceries. I was watching movies at my computer one night after work and noticed the little bastards had actually been coming out of my closet, running against my wall and then going under my door into the kitchen.
In the past, my landlord had used a humane, trap-door device to capture them unharmed. But when I woke up one night to a sting on one of my toes and saw two small, bloody teeth marks on it, I signed a mental declaration of war. Let me also mention that I have, in fact, gotten my shots.
After work the next day, I stopped by Home Depot and visited their pest control aisle for the most potent of domestic munitions. Did you know they make sticky pads for mice? They apparent just stick to them and... starve? I'm partial to the other kind... the, "Oh. Wow. That was probably really fast," kind.
I got eight little traps for four dollars and as it turns out, they apparently have a soft spot for cheap Mexican sugar wafers... the strawberry kind.
I placed them all strategically around the house and loaded them with grade "A" Bimbo bait. I went back to my movie and the first one snapped no more than 30 minutes later. My housemate, who was apparently unwilling to do anything about them for 12 months when he lived here alone, was already looking at it in amazement when I came out of my room. The little bastard (the mouse, not the guy) was pinned by the metal arm and motionless. Upon closer inspection, he was still breathing. I quickly donned my rubber gloves and headed out back with my bamboo-killing hatchet. You know how the screen quickly turns black in a movie to suggest impending doom has just turned into definitive doom? It was kind of like that.
I went to sleep and woke up before my alarm went off the next morning. There was a strange flopping noise. Apparently one had triggered the trap in the corner of my room by the closet and had just gotten terribly maimed. It wasn't able to move (had inexplicably escaped the trap itself) and was slapping its tail against the floor. Considering my bleeding toe hours earlier, I rolled back over and slept until my alarm went off. I'm not proud of it, but those 45 minutes of sleep were critical.
I got up, grabbed another pair of disposable gloves and started my Monday morning by beheading a mouse with a hatchet in my boxers in the back yard. It was incredibly strange.
I went back inside and checked the other traps. A third mouse was caught on the shelves as he was trying to steal our food. This one had fired correctly and the mouse was done instantly.
Three mice were caught in about 8 hours. It was amazing. Since then, I've gotten one more (also a swift event) and we've not seen or heard any trace of a mouse since. It's good. I'm all for humane treatment of animals, but one of them thought my toe was edible. When house-guests themselves constitute a health hazard, it's time to get mean.
I've been working a lot and it's... endless. I come home and do one or more of the following: watch movies, listen to Rosetta Stone Italian or play guitar.
I've been trading all the while and I think I've stumbled onto a good thing. My win ratio is solid and volume has been excellent recently. I'm using a multi-timeframe approach with moving averages between the daily, 4-hour and hourly charts. I finally was able to finish a script to export all the relevant information for use in my trustworthy monstrosity of a spreadsheet.
The hardest thing about trading the foreign exchange market is waiting for the right trades. Some movements take quite some time to manifest. And others crash like lightning in an otherwise quiet evening. The market itself is open from Sunday night until Friday afternoon.
My broker, Interbank FX, offers 16 different securities, 16 different pairs of currencies to trade. A while back, I had good success with a hedging strategy that was running automatically. I would basically drop it on a chart and it would do its thing. Other than monitoring the trades a little, the hard part was already done: identifying and deciding to take the good trades.
The NFA banned hedging after the financial debacle and all brokers effectively banned the practice entirely. So I had to come up with a new way to trade.
I don't know if you're familiar with the concept of hedging, but it's effectively the maintenance of several trades in different directions on the same security. You can basically change your mind as often as you like to make sure you're on the right side of the market when it moves. This is an alternative to single positions which either make or lose money, end of story.
So US brokers all had to follow the NFA's rules and now only permit trades in the same direction. You can have multiple trades open at once, but they all have to be on the same side of the market.
As you might imagine, the trader now has to be a bit more specific and accurate in choosing which trades to take. So I've made enough really good and really bad trades to know that there are always trades lining up and it's a bad idea to rush into one because it looks "decent enough." This is why I'm so happy to have finished my script. I drop it on a chart and it spits out information from 16 different currency pairs on five different time frames. I can then drop all the information into a nifty, color coded chart I created in my OOo spreadsheet and easily look at the relevant information. To do this manually would mean looking at 80 different charts in my MT4 platform every hour and recording the data the old fashioned way. Needless to say, I'm happy. Now I can take comfort in the fact that, by having a view of what everything's doing, I can wait for the real trades to develop on their own and I won't rush into one thinking there won't be others available. I ended +14% last week on two trades. Now I have to automate it so it can run 24 hours a day. Right now I can only watch the charts about 25% of the trading week around work.
Alright. Enough trading talk. I bought rings. Gymnastic rings. The EXF Rings are quite possibly the best rings ever made, in my opinion. Please bear in mind I haven't touched actual gymnastic rings since I was six. So I was easily impressed :)
They were delivered on Thursday and I set them up Friday. I spent about an hour hacking away at bamboo so I could get a decent space where they can hang under a tree. I cleared it all (while feeding the mosquitoes heartily) and got to work setting them up. It took a little while, but after dangling perilously from the tree branch overhead for about an hour, I was able to affix them to the tree successfully. A few minor adjustments and they were ready for action.
What's the first thing you would do if you had gymnastics rings in your backyard?? Exactly. You would get upside down :)
I tooled around on the rings for a little bit but not too much. I had already ridden that morning and didn't want to kill myself on them before riding this morning. Suffice it to say that there are now rings in my backyard and I'm frighteningly happy about it.
So I've also been riding my bike a bunch. I've been riding with Ray, the lead developer up at work, and he's been pushing me to suck a little less at riding. He was riding about 120 miles a week around work at one point. This is about two hours of riding every day. I am not man enough for these sorts of antics. I can only do this on my days off.
So yesterday we rode 24 miles and it was good. The weather was nice, albeit a little cold, and the traffic was a bit heavy. If you were going to imagine the city of Austin, it's about 7 miles from North to South. Downtown rests about in the middle and there's a big river that runs through the city, West to East, just South of downtown.
Anybody who's anybody lives in South Austin. Everyone else is either a turbo-wealthy elitist in the hills or a grad student living somewhere in "North Austin" which lies about 15 blocks North of the actual center of the city. Although my powers of generalization are substantial, I forgot to mention the sprawling (not so sprawling) suburbs in true North Austin. Eighty percent of the residents up there work for Dell doing the things they couldn't outsource to India. For the life of me, I can't imagine what they do. They probably sit at desks and throw tennis balls at their walls all day. Beige volvos, oversized SUV's, bologna sandwiches and 2.5 kids come to mind. What was I talking about?
Riding. So Austin is basically enclosed in a square created by highways: one on each side. The hills in the city all go down to the river in the middle and that's where we start riding. We ride South out of the city and it's almost all uphill. I've got my uni-gear Schwinn and Ray has his... I don't know what kind but it's made out of titanium and is generally faster than mine. His would beat mine in a race if there were no humans on top of either of them. My gear is allegedly almost equal to his hardest so he's had to wait on me a few times getting out of the city. Anyone who exercises knows that heartrate is the key to working out. Ray has been great in that if I'm lagging on a hill, he'll drop it to a super easy gear and just grind away at the hill until I catch up. I usually catch up huffing and puffing, but I make it there just the same.
Yesterday we averaged 15mph over the route. And this morning we averaged 16.3mph, which was a pretty huge improvement. I almost burned myself out initially while getting over the hills just to leave the city. I was spitting and grunting and... being as manly as my spandex suit would allow. We rode pretty hard today and my legs were absolutely on fire when we finished. I rode my bike to the starting point this morning so all told, it was about 27 or 28 miles on the bike today. When I got home, my breakfast consisted of tuna, creamed corn and a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch. It was brilliant. Then I took a life-changing nap :)
Today was Halloween and I did absolutely zero things in the spirit. Work waits a few hours down the clicking reel and I'm just ready for Christmas so I can count down to summer again. My dad invited me and my sister to his ladyfriend's place for Thanksgiving. It's going to be both of our families so my sister and I are expecting some kind of an announcement. People and their romances. I feel like an alien. It will be good to see him again.
So I'm about to change my clocks and pass out. My house has no mice, my rings are dangling comfortably out back and my legs are successfully scorched.
I might as well mention that if you've been anywhere other than Central Texas over the last couple of days, you've unfortunately missed something very beautiful. The sunlight has made perfection a comfortable reality. The morning cold cuts like a knife but the afternoon sun invites sunbathing on all but the darkest of porches. The blue in the sky has no comparison and the air allows either a sweater or a bare back. So come to Austin already. It's supposed to be like this all week :)
>> "Heaven's in New York" on Carnival Vol II by Wyclef Jean
It got cooler, they migrated inside and then they got just a little too comfortable stealing my groceries. I was watching movies at my computer one night after work and noticed the little bastards had actually been coming out of my closet, running against my wall and then going under my door into the kitchen.
In the past, my landlord had used a humane, trap-door device to capture them unharmed. But when I woke up one night to a sting on one of my toes and saw two small, bloody teeth marks on it, I signed a mental declaration of war. Let me also mention that I have, in fact, gotten my shots.
After work the next day, I stopped by Home Depot and visited their pest control aisle for the most potent of domestic munitions. Did you know they make sticky pads for mice? They apparent just stick to them and... starve? I'm partial to the other kind... the, "Oh. Wow. That was probably really fast," kind.
I got eight little traps for four dollars and as it turns out, they apparently have a soft spot for cheap Mexican sugar wafers... the strawberry kind.
I placed them all strategically around the house and loaded them with grade "A" Bimbo bait. I went back to my movie and the first one snapped no more than 30 minutes later. My housemate, who was apparently unwilling to do anything about them for 12 months when he lived here alone, was already looking at it in amazement when I came out of my room. The little bastard (the mouse, not the guy) was pinned by the metal arm and motionless. Upon closer inspection, he was still breathing. I quickly donned my rubber gloves and headed out back with my bamboo-killing hatchet. You know how the screen quickly turns black in a movie to suggest impending doom has just turned into definitive doom? It was kind of like that.
I went to sleep and woke up before my alarm went off the next morning. There was a strange flopping noise. Apparently one had triggered the trap in the corner of my room by the closet and had just gotten terribly maimed. It wasn't able to move (had inexplicably escaped the trap itself) and was slapping its tail against the floor. Considering my bleeding toe hours earlier, I rolled back over and slept until my alarm went off. I'm not proud of it, but those 45 minutes of sleep were critical.
I got up, grabbed another pair of disposable gloves and started my Monday morning by beheading a mouse with a hatchet in my boxers in the back yard. It was incredibly strange.
I went back inside and checked the other traps. A third mouse was caught on the shelves as he was trying to steal our food. This one had fired correctly and the mouse was done instantly.
Three mice were caught in about 8 hours. It was amazing. Since then, I've gotten one more (also a swift event) and we've not seen or heard any trace of a mouse since. It's good. I'm all for humane treatment of animals, but one of them thought my toe was edible. When house-guests themselves constitute a health hazard, it's time to get mean.
I've been working a lot and it's... endless. I come home and do one or more of the following: watch movies, listen to Rosetta Stone Italian or play guitar.
I've been trading all the while and I think I've stumbled onto a good thing. My win ratio is solid and volume has been excellent recently. I'm using a multi-timeframe approach with moving averages between the daily, 4-hour and hourly charts. I finally was able to finish a script to export all the relevant information for use in my trustworthy monstrosity of a spreadsheet.
The hardest thing about trading the foreign exchange market is waiting for the right trades. Some movements take quite some time to manifest. And others crash like lightning in an otherwise quiet evening. The market itself is open from Sunday night until Friday afternoon.
My broker, Interbank FX, offers 16 different securities, 16 different pairs of currencies to trade. A while back, I had good success with a hedging strategy that was running automatically. I would basically drop it on a chart and it would do its thing. Other than monitoring the trades a little, the hard part was already done: identifying and deciding to take the good trades.
The NFA banned hedging after the financial debacle and all brokers effectively banned the practice entirely. So I had to come up with a new way to trade.
I don't know if you're familiar with the concept of hedging, but it's effectively the maintenance of several trades in different directions on the same security. You can basically change your mind as often as you like to make sure you're on the right side of the market when it moves. This is an alternative to single positions which either make or lose money, end of story.
So US brokers all had to follow the NFA's rules and now only permit trades in the same direction. You can have multiple trades open at once, but they all have to be on the same side of the market.
As you might imagine, the trader now has to be a bit more specific and accurate in choosing which trades to take. So I've made enough really good and really bad trades to know that there are always trades lining up and it's a bad idea to rush into one because it looks "decent enough." This is why I'm so happy to have finished my script. I drop it on a chart and it spits out information from 16 different currency pairs on five different time frames. I can then drop all the information into a nifty, color coded chart I created in my OOo spreadsheet and easily look at the relevant information. To do this manually would mean looking at 80 different charts in my MT4 platform every hour and recording the data the old fashioned way. Needless to say, I'm happy. Now I can take comfort in the fact that, by having a view of what everything's doing, I can wait for the real trades to develop on their own and I won't rush into one thinking there won't be others available. I ended +14% last week on two trades. Now I have to automate it so it can run 24 hours a day. Right now I can only watch the charts about 25% of the trading week around work.
Alright. Enough trading talk. I bought rings. Gymnastic rings. The EXF Rings are quite possibly the best rings ever made, in my opinion. Please bear in mind I haven't touched actual gymnastic rings since I was six. So I was easily impressed :)
They were delivered on Thursday and I set them up Friday. I spent about an hour hacking away at bamboo so I could get a decent space where they can hang under a tree. I cleared it all (while feeding the mosquitoes heartily) and got to work setting them up. It took a little while, but after dangling perilously from the tree branch overhead for about an hour, I was able to affix them to the tree successfully. A few minor adjustments and they were ready for action.
What's the first thing you would do if you had gymnastics rings in your backyard?? Exactly. You would get upside down :)
I tooled around on the rings for a little bit but not too much. I had already ridden that morning and didn't want to kill myself on them before riding this morning. Suffice it to say that there are now rings in my backyard and I'm frighteningly happy about it.
So I've also been riding my bike a bunch. I've been riding with Ray, the lead developer up at work, and he's been pushing me to suck a little less at riding. He was riding about 120 miles a week around work at one point. This is about two hours of riding every day. I am not man enough for these sorts of antics. I can only do this on my days off.
So yesterday we rode 24 miles and it was good. The weather was nice, albeit a little cold, and the traffic was a bit heavy. If you were going to imagine the city of Austin, it's about 7 miles from North to South. Downtown rests about in the middle and there's a big river that runs through the city, West to East, just South of downtown.
Anybody who's anybody lives in South Austin. Everyone else is either a turbo-wealthy elitist in the hills or a grad student living somewhere in "North Austin" which lies about 15 blocks North of the actual center of the city. Although my powers of generalization are substantial, I forgot to mention the sprawling (not so sprawling) suburbs in true North Austin. Eighty percent of the residents up there work for Dell doing the things they couldn't outsource to India. For the life of me, I can't imagine what they do. They probably sit at desks and throw tennis balls at their walls all day. Beige volvos, oversized SUV's, bologna sandwiches and 2.5 kids come to mind. What was I talking about?
Riding. So Austin is basically enclosed in a square created by highways: one on each side. The hills in the city all go down to the river in the middle and that's where we start riding. We ride South out of the city and it's almost all uphill. I've got my uni-gear Schwinn and Ray has his... I don't know what kind but it's made out of titanium and is generally faster than mine. His would beat mine in a race if there were no humans on top of either of them. My gear is allegedly almost equal to his hardest so he's had to wait on me a few times getting out of the city. Anyone who exercises knows that heartrate is the key to working out. Ray has been great in that if I'm lagging on a hill, he'll drop it to a super easy gear and just grind away at the hill until I catch up. I usually catch up huffing and puffing, but I make it there just the same.
Yesterday we averaged 15mph over the route. And this morning we averaged 16.3mph, which was a pretty huge improvement. I almost burned myself out initially while getting over the hills just to leave the city. I was spitting and grunting and... being as manly as my spandex suit would allow. We rode pretty hard today and my legs were absolutely on fire when we finished. I rode my bike to the starting point this morning so all told, it was about 27 or 28 miles on the bike today. When I got home, my breakfast consisted of tuna, creamed corn and a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch. It was brilliant. Then I took a life-changing nap :)
Today was Halloween and I did absolutely zero things in the spirit. Work waits a few hours down the clicking reel and I'm just ready for Christmas so I can count down to summer again. My dad invited me and my sister to his ladyfriend's place for Thanksgiving. It's going to be both of our families so my sister and I are expecting some kind of an announcement. People and their romances. I feel like an alien. It will be good to see him again.
So I'm about to change my clocks and pass out. My house has no mice, my rings are dangling comfortably out back and my legs are successfully scorched.
I might as well mention that if you've been anywhere other than Central Texas over the last couple of days, you've unfortunately missed something very beautiful. The sunlight has made perfection a comfortable reality. The morning cold cuts like a knife but the afternoon sun invites sunbathing on all but the darkest of porches. The blue in the sky has no comparison and the air allows either a sweater or a bare back. So come to Austin already. It's supposed to be like this all week :)
>> "Heaven's in New York" on Carnival Vol II by Wyclef Jean
October 20, 2009
Real men listen to Tchaikovsky
I'd like to consider myself capable of most things. But if I had only been able to hear with my ears and whistle with my mouth, that'd have been just fine.
Over the past couple days, I've stopped in the middle of what I was doing to make a mental note of something I wanted to include in this post. But now that I'm actually sitting here and writing, all I can really think about is the performance I went to on Friday night.
I have been lucky enough to do some pretty fun musical things in my life. I listened to Fuare in Cairo and have played a solo on stage at Carnegie Hall. The [free] concert last week at the UT recital hall ranks right up there.
I've wasted hours on Google video and youTube watching old videos of Vladimir Horowitz and Glenn Gould perform manic masterpieces with vigorous appeal. Jura Margulis is, in my opinion, one of the greats on this very level.
With masterful accuracy, he powered through Chopin, Debussy and Liszt. I can't believe this was a free concert... in Austin freaking Texas. There were maybe 100 people at this perfectly underpriced performance and the content was worthy of an NBC live broadcast.
I showed up in my duds, sweaty with frito pie in my backpack again making the whole auditorium smell much better than its typical olfactory persuasion. There were no ties in the audience. Mostly piano students and old people, the audience was there for one reason: to make sure good music continues to be recognized.
I have to break here and mention the fact that not a single cell phone went off during this concert. I just had to say it. The audience was perfectly manufactured to respect the colors of the pieces and consider the musical intention of its composers.
The audience's behavior is probably attributable to one of three possibilities.
1. Mr. Margulis was technically magnificent with precision comparable to a successful launch of the space shuttle.
2. Mr. Margulis has obviously played so many great pieces for so long that he has in fact related directly to the composers' emotion and performed the pieces with relative sincerity.
3. Mr. Margulis was able to smell the frito pie in my backpack which, not suprisingly, inspired him to heights which he himself had previously considered to be unattainable.
I think it's most probably a combination of the three.
It was such a colorful program. Chopin's two mazurkas were technically interesting and the Polish folk was kindly apparent. His Polonaise and Ballade were great. I don't remember which one did what, but they were both nice.
Then was a piece by Debussy, Reflets dans l'eau. Some people are happy to build houses. Others teach children. Claude, at some point, decided to make audible the light bouncing off of water. I'm happy he did. This, along with the last piece, kicked me in the forehead and launched my ass into another plane for not nearly long enough. The emotion this guy created, and Margulis's replication, left for a couple moments of perfection.
The best composers understand the idea that music has no place without silence. And the silence in between is considerably more important than any single note.
The last piece was Consolation No. 3 by Liszt. I'm going to include an exerpt from Wikipedia about Mr. Liszt and his style.
"
Paris in the 1830s had become the nexus for pianistic activities, with dozens of pianists dedicated to perfection at the keyboard. Some, such as Sigismond Thalberg and Alexander Dreyshock, focused on specific aspects of technique (eg the "three-hand effect" and octaves, respectively). While it was called the "flying trapeze" school of piano playing, this generation also solved some of the most intractable problems of piano technique, raising the general level of performance to previously unimagined heights. Liszt's strength and ability to stand out in this company was in mastering all the aspects of piano technique cultivated singly and assiduously by his rivals.
"
The "three-hand effect" and octaves are most easily described to folks my age as the "wiggly" music played on the calamitous cartoons with a cat chasing a mouse uncontrollably through an especially breakable house.
I don't know what sort of technical classification covers his Consolation No. 3, but it was brilliant. Liszt has this perfect way of mashing 100 different notes into a tiny space and time to accomplish a generally energetic statement. He might do this a few times and just when you think he's playing notes just to make notes, he cracks it wide open and walks right down the middle of the room with a melody on a platter. It's ridiculous.
Anyway, Mr. Margulis combined tremendous talent with a clear understanding and presentation of what I consider to be some of the most beautiful music in the world. This is why I like Austin. I rode my bike to a private, free, world class concert, and was able to enter with my frito pie. Life is good.
I'm looking at Panama. I need a vacation. But I don't want to go alone. So I'm back where I started again.
>> The Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky
Over the past couple days, I've stopped in the middle of what I was doing to make a mental note of something I wanted to include in this post. But now that I'm actually sitting here and writing, all I can really think about is the performance I went to on Friday night.
I have been lucky enough to do some pretty fun musical things in my life. I listened to Fuare in Cairo and have played a solo on stage at Carnegie Hall. The [free] concert last week at the UT recital hall ranks right up there.
I've wasted hours on Google video and youTube watching old videos of Vladimir Horowitz and Glenn Gould perform manic masterpieces with vigorous appeal. Jura Margulis is, in my opinion, one of the greats on this very level.
With masterful accuracy, he powered through Chopin, Debussy and Liszt. I can't believe this was a free concert... in Austin freaking Texas. There were maybe 100 people at this perfectly underpriced performance and the content was worthy of an NBC live broadcast.
I showed up in my duds, sweaty with frito pie in my backpack again making the whole auditorium smell much better than its typical olfactory persuasion. There were no ties in the audience. Mostly piano students and old people, the audience was there for one reason: to make sure good music continues to be recognized.
I have to break here and mention the fact that not a single cell phone went off during this concert. I just had to say it. The audience was perfectly manufactured to respect the colors of the pieces and consider the musical intention of its composers.
The audience's behavior is probably attributable to one of three possibilities.
1. Mr. Margulis was technically magnificent with precision comparable to a successful launch of the space shuttle.
2. Mr. Margulis has obviously played so many great pieces for so long that he has in fact related directly to the composers' emotion and performed the pieces with relative sincerity.
3. Mr. Margulis was able to smell the frito pie in my backpack which, not suprisingly, inspired him to heights which he himself had previously considered to be unattainable.
I think it's most probably a combination of the three.
It was such a colorful program. Chopin's two mazurkas were technically interesting and the Polish folk was kindly apparent. His Polonaise and Ballade were great. I don't remember which one did what, but they were both nice.
Then was a piece by Debussy, Reflets dans l'eau. Some people are happy to build houses. Others teach children. Claude, at some point, decided to make audible the light bouncing off of water. I'm happy he did. This, along with the last piece, kicked me in the forehead and launched my ass into another plane for not nearly long enough. The emotion this guy created, and Margulis's replication, left for a couple moments of perfection.
The best composers understand the idea that music has no place without silence. And the silence in between is considerably more important than any single note.
The last piece was Consolation No. 3 by Liszt. I'm going to include an exerpt from Wikipedia about Mr. Liszt and his style.
"
Paris in the 1830s had become the nexus for pianistic activities, with dozens of pianists dedicated to perfection at the keyboard. Some, such as Sigismond Thalberg and Alexander Dreyshock, focused on specific aspects of technique (eg the "three-hand effect" and octaves, respectively). While it was called the "flying trapeze" school of piano playing, this generation also solved some of the most intractable problems of piano technique, raising the general level of performance to previously unimagined heights. Liszt's strength and ability to stand out in this company was in mastering all the aspects of piano technique cultivated singly and assiduously by his rivals.
"
The "three-hand effect" and octaves are most easily described to folks my age as the "wiggly" music played on the calamitous cartoons with a cat chasing a mouse uncontrollably through an especially breakable house.
I don't know what sort of technical classification covers his Consolation No. 3, but it was brilliant. Liszt has this perfect way of mashing 100 different notes into a tiny space and time to accomplish a generally energetic statement. He might do this a few times and just when you think he's playing notes just to make notes, he cracks it wide open and walks right down the middle of the room with a melody on a platter. It's ridiculous.
Anyway, Mr. Margulis combined tremendous talent with a clear understanding and presentation of what I consider to be some of the most beautiful music in the world. This is why I like Austin. I rode my bike to a private, free, world class concert, and was able to enter with my frito pie. Life is good.
I'm looking at Panama. I need a vacation. But I don't want to go alone. So I'm back where I started again.
>> The Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky
October 15, 2009
Tha bomb
Never before have I referred to anything as "tha bomb." It's just not normal. But after the flipshit week of clusterfuck calls and absent-minded everything, my mind is at rest to this recording and it's.. tha bomb.
The Orientalist fuses Tibetan monk chants & throat singing with hideous break beats, ripped dub tracks cut with aggression, while managing to dingle and dangle with primitive percussion to round out the highs. The bass kicks hard and it's... rolling me into my weekend.
Love was in short supply this week.
It started out with a call from my mom in the ER with an irregular heartbeat. The doctor considered it a withdrawal symptom from the vicodin. I sat with her in the room for a couple hours before her heartrate came down. She was a nurse before mucho madness happened and now she's particularly good at paying excessive attention to her own symptoms. What can you do? She's trained in the science of healing and she's in a state that requires her to sit inside all day, every day.
Anyway, I got her home after making sure I understood the doctor's orders better than she did. She ended up getting to bed that night and... the email the next day injected some nice humor into a generally lackluster week.
The next morning I got an email about how she had gotten home the night previous and had taken her Ambien to sleep. Apparently, shortly after taking the medication, she got up and got a bowl of cereal... shredded wheat to be exact. However, instead of getting the milk, she grabbed the chocolate syrup. She was inevitably unable to do anything alongside the strength of the medication and ended up passing out in her bed in a pool of chocolate syrup. She wrote the next morning and described the scene. In a response from my isolated desk, I responded, "There are worse ways to spend your days than rolling around in bed in chocolate syrup." Anyway, it was a good laugh. The only other humor in the week was Corey Ann's post about hating war.
The next night I was tending to Mom again. A generally morose tone assumed my attention as I just faded through the rest of the week. I still don't know what's actually happened between today and four days ago. My mom was on her back in the ER and... did I work? 46 hours of work must have taken place somewhere in there. I don't know. I'm back blogging to people who might or might not listen while planning how to spend my next 48 hours.
I didn't get to trade at all. I think I ended the week up 7%. I'm generally discontented when I don't get to trade.
GBPJPY has turned and the Euro might have topped out. GBPJPY moved 3.4% yesterday. It bottomed out at 140, as I had anticipated three weeks ago, and just decided to stand up today. It hasn't moved like that since this time last year during the financial debacle. But this time, it moved in the opposite direction.
I've finally gotten almost everything I need automated. While working full time, I'm not able to have an actual idea of what the market's done over the course of a given day. I've taken my non-technical time to figure out how to export all the price data so I can get a snapshot of market sentiment at any given time. I've got 15 page spreadsheets I update every night and scripts to generate price ammortization over a given period.
So I don't know what I'm going to do over the weekend. So far I got off work late, as usual, but was able to get home to new stuff on the computer. I'll be going out riding again this Saturday morning with a coworker, one of the developers up at work. I met him today and he seems pretty cool. We're gonna ride the 20m route I did last weekend.
I thought about going to the Elephant Room tonight but ended up getting some Guinness and coming on back. I'm watching movies on justin.tv and just got rid of a pizza that was offending me. I have a fantastic knack for getting rid of culinary company that's overstayed its welcome. I just eat it. Simple fix. I wish humans tasted that good.
I had a dream last night of my high school sweetheart. She was with some other guy and I was generally unhappy about it. Truth is, I lied to her when I was 16 and told her she was the first girl I had ever kissed. Only two people know that's the case.
It's supposed to get cold here in the not-too-distant future. I don't know what to make of it.
Recently I've been getting these painfully realistic, euphoric sensations that remind me of a calmer time in a calmer place. I used to spend clearer moments in places much more beautiful than this. Places that allow silence to flourish and humane consideration to infect willingly. The trees were taller, the land was greener and the air was kindly cleaner. There was moss on the ground to cushion a fall or to serve as a mattress after a long day of relentless love, humor or happiness... the tools of the youthful trade. The people spoke with intelligence and the birds sang with enthusiasm. This seems much too far away. After I started meditating a few years ago, I began to consider memories of friends to be legitimate emotional interactions with a purpose. This has gotten me through days otherwise too quiet for productivity. I'm generally too trusting, but that's always been my nature. Maybe that's why I don't talk very much. It gets me in trouble. I have to continue to believe the people who have impacted my life stop to think about me just as often as I do them.
I'll pass the time this evening by jamming to dub and taking comfort in the fact that some people aren't called to action until late in their life. Every day is a battle. The persistent, curious tinkering of relentless minds has done more to further mankind than any other human activity. The mind races for a reason. It must.
>> "Tibetan monks playing fuzzy bass tablas" on 1000 Sounds Lotus by The Orientalist
The Orientalist fuses Tibetan monk chants & throat singing with hideous break beats, ripped dub tracks cut with aggression, while managing to dingle and dangle with primitive percussion to round out the highs. The bass kicks hard and it's... rolling me into my weekend.
Love was in short supply this week.
It started out with a call from my mom in the ER with an irregular heartbeat. The doctor considered it a withdrawal symptom from the vicodin. I sat with her in the room for a couple hours before her heartrate came down. She was a nurse before mucho madness happened and now she's particularly good at paying excessive attention to her own symptoms. What can you do? She's trained in the science of healing and she's in a state that requires her to sit inside all day, every day.
Anyway, I got her home after making sure I understood the doctor's orders better than she did. She ended up getting to bed that night and... the email the next day injected some nice humor into a generally lackluster week.
The next morning I got an email about how she had gotten home the night previous and had taken her Ambien to sleep. Apparently, shortly after taking the medication, she got up and got a bowl of cereal... shredded wheat to be exact. However, instead of getting the milk, she grabbed the chocolate syrup. She was inevitably unable to do anything alongside the strength of the medication and ended up passing out in her bed in a pool of chocolate syrup. She wrote the next morning and described the scene. In a response from my isolated desk, I responded, "There are worse ways to spend your days than rolling around in bed in chocolate syrup." Anyway, it was a good laugh. The only other humor in the week was Corey Ann's post about hating war.
The next night I was tending to Mom again. A generally morose tone assumed my attention as I just faded through the rest of the week. I still don't know what's actually happened between today and four days ago. My mom was on her back in the ER and... did I work? 46 hours of work must have taken place somewhere in there. I don't know. I'm back blogging to people who might or might not listen while planning how to spend my next 48 hours.
I didn't get to trade at all. I think I ended the week up 7%. I'm generally discontented when I don't get to trade.
GBPJPY has turned and the Euro might have topped out. GBPJPY moved 3.4% yesterday. It bottomed out at 140, as I had anticipated three weeks ago, and just decided to stand up today. It hasn't moved like that since this time last year during the financial debacle. But this time, it moved in the opposite direction.
I've finally gotten almost everything I need automated. While working full time, I'm not able to have an actual idea of what the market's done over the course of a given day. I've taken my non-technical time to figure out how to export all the price data so I can get a snapshot of market sentiment at any given time. I've got 15 page spreadsheets I update every night and scripts to generate price ammortization over a given period.
So I don't know what I'm going to do over the weekend. So far I got off work late, as usual, but was able to get home to new stuff on the computer. I'll be going out riding again this Saturday morning with a coworker, one of the developers up at work. I met him today and he seems pretty cool. We're gonna ride the 20m route I did last weekend.
I thought about going to the Elephant Room tonight but ended up getting some Guinness and coming on back. I'm watching movies on justin.tv and just got rid of a pizza that was offending me. I have a fantastic knack for getting rid of culinary company that's overstayed its welcome. I just eat it. Simple fix. I wish humans tasted that good.
I had a dream last night of my high school sweetheart. She was with some other guy and I was generally unhappy about it. Truth is, I lied to her when I was 16 and told her she was the first girl I had ever kissed. Only two people know that's the case.
It's supposed to get cold here in the not-too-distant future. I don't know what to make of it.
Recently I've been getting these painfully realistic, euphoric sensations that remind me of a calmer time in a calmer place. I used to spend clearer moments in places much more beautiful than this. Places that allow silence to flourish and humane consideration to infect willingly. The trees were taller, the land was greener and the air was kindly cleaner. There was moss on the ground to cushion a fall or to serve as a mattress after a long day of relentless love, humor or happiness... the tools of the youthful trade. The people spoke with intelligence and the birds sang with enthusiasm. This seems much too far away. After I started meditating a few years ago, I began to consider memories of friends to be legitimate emotional interactions with a purpose. This has gotten me through days otherwise too quiet for productivity. I'm generally too trusting, but that's always been my nature. Maybe that's why I don't talk very much. It gets me in trouble. I have to continue to believe the people who have impacted my life stop to think about me just as often as I do them.
I'll pass the time this evening by jamming to dub and taking comfort in the fact that some people aren't called to action until late in their life. Every day is a battle. The persistent, curious tinkering of relentless minds has done more to further mankind than any other human activity. The mind races for a reason. It must.
>> "Tibetan monks playing fuzzy bass tablas" on 1000 Sounds Lotus by The Orientalist
October 10, 2009
Stretchy
Today provided yet another flurry in the realm of physical engagement.
I did, in fact, trip awkwardly into the work week. I drooled through it but not before writing a letter to the VP on the general state of things. It seems to have been decently well-received.
Allow me, for a moment, to dropkick any further elaboration on things work-related right out the window.
I got all restless last Wednesday and indulged myself. I drove to the sports store right after work and did something I hadn't done in 10 years. I found myself a pair of soccer shoes.
I walked out of the store with a perfectly stupid grin on my face while celebrating my new-found treasure: a pair of Adidas cleats and a shiny new ball :) You would have thought I had won the lottery. I was that guy, walking at pace while making sure to smile forcefully at everything and everyone. I was rather comfortably that guy.
I wore the cleats all night Wednesday and actually considered wearing them to work the next day to break them in. The next afternoon, I got off work early specifically so I could get out and relive my childhood for a few hours. I threw the cleats and ball into my backpack and peddled down to Zilker Park.
Zilker is, once again, destroyed. The 60,000 people who came out for the music festival last weekend completely ruined the multi-million dollar renovation finished no more than three months ago. The grounds were covered by a mass of mud and brown grass, a far cry from the acres of green grass the city so meticulously planted and nursed along. I saw it again today and crews were pumping standing water out manually to try to let [what's left of] the grass breathe again. It's very disappointing. I can't imagine how the city planning committee feels about it. "Who needs a budget when we have all this mud?"
Alright. So I rolled down to Zilker Park that afternoon with my backpack exploding with soccer gear. I must have looked pretty ridiculous (as I usually do). When I saw that the crews were still repairing the fields and removing the festival equipment, I headed over to the little field across the street. I think it's actually an overflow area for the river but... they must have used it in some capacity for the festival. They were still working on removing some small tents there. And there were outlines in the grass from larger structures that had been employed over the weekend.
I took off all my riding gear and tossed it next to my bike in the middle of the field. Then I donned my cleats with indisputable expertise :) I actually did lace them in the store with my eyes closed just to humor myself. Now, I played soccer for 13 years growing up. My touring team from the Houston suburbs won the state championship when we were 14. We were terribly awkward teens everywhere but on the soccer field. Such is adolescence.
I could only handle about an hour out in the heat. It was about 90 degrees and humid. I was like an overactive kid, kicking the ball and chasing it relentlessly. I was juggling and dribbling and punting and heading and sweating ferociously. I even took a spill once... rolled and bounced right back up before the rush hour traffic could laugh at me too too much. It was awesome. I'm happy to know my feet still work. Soccer cleats used to be my horse in battle. My feet were my weapons. With the exception of a few special occasions, not many sentiments compare to my memories of stepping onto soccer fields early in the morning while the grass was still wet. To any soccer player, there's something great about knowing after 60 or 90 minutes, not only will the game have been completely exhausting, but if all goes as planned, the team would emerge victorious.
I was pretty stinking tired after the hour out there that evening. I pedaled home and... probably traded. I don't remember.
I ended the week up only 7% on the charts. I was reckless and projected my emotion as market sentiment that simply wasn't there. I lost on Thursday and took my gains from 27% down to 7% for the week. I was working on other stuff and didn't look at charts on Friday.
I actually went over and hung out with my mom on Friday. Her disability was finally cleared. Apparently everyone finally got all the paperwork they needed from all the different groups associated with the auto accident. She's feeling better emotionally now that there's some money coming in, but she's still physically very uncomfortable. She's coming off of vicodin and it's highly unpleasant. She's not a big person and had been taking 3 a day for nerve pain in her neck. She dropped down to 1 a day and has apparently been in pretty shitty shape because of it. She found some new doctors who know how to deal with it. Now that she has something to help her sleep, she at least has the energy to deal with the detox a little better.
When I left her apartment, I ran a bunch of errands. Like one of Pavlov's pooches after a fantastic meal, I went right back to the same sports store.
So I've been riding my Schwinn Le Tour around town pretty regularly with my singular "gear." It's a little tricky on a couple hills around town, but it's generally really great at making sure I keep my feet spinning.
A couple weeks ago, a coworker posted a new riding group which apparently is an established group that rides every week in full cycling garb. I expressed interest and was expecting to jump in line this morning. So yesterday I returned to the sports store and did what I told myself I would never ever do. I bought spandex: long sleeve shirt and pants. Hell yes. I feel like I can slip through a keyhole when I'm wearin em. So now I've graduated to the level of exercise that absolutely requires you to look like a socially inept, overactive athlete with way too much free time on the weekends. Fits me to a "t," I think.
I wore them all night last night while I tuned up my bike and was just in awe of their awesome texture and... stretchiness. It made my freaking day. For a puny worm such as myself, I felt ripped and particularly dangerous :)
I tinkered with my chain for a bit and made some lemonade with honey for the ride. Then I tried to get as much sleep as possible. I knew the start and end points and discerned the most probable route. I'd never ridden this far on a bike in one sitting and had couldn't remember the terrain. But I said to myself, "I'm wearing a spandex suit. I can do anything."
I got up and was at the rendezvous point in full, stretchy gear at 9am. But no one showed up. I called Mr. Man and he said the group had inadvertently cancelled the ride this morning and he was unable to contact me. Just the same, I rode.
I stripped down to my nude glory and bolted out of the gates. I rode 20m in 80 minutes and even found a way to cram my phone into my sleeve so I could play my music :) There were only a couple hills that gave me trouble but it was overall a good route. There wasn't much traffic and the weather was nice.
I've just been workin on charts and watching movies this evening. I scratched the guitar and tried to take a nap but Johnny's bizarre music kept me regrettably conscious. I ended up doing laundry and playing with computerstuffs.
And here I go... into another week to work my tail off. I want to go to Bocas del Toro but not alone. If anyone feels like going for a week this winter to sit on a beach and be as lazy as humanly possible, let me know. The dry season starts in mid-December. Should you be a single, smart and particularly awesome woman, all the better.
>> "Ardi Build Half of LA" on "Lychee Queen" by Bumcello
I did, in fact, trip awkwardly into the work week. I drooled through it but not before writing a letter to the VP on the general state of things. It seems to have been decently well-received.
Allow me, for a moment, to dropkick any further elaboration on things work-related right out the window.
I got all restless last Wednesday and indulged myself. I drove to the sports store right after work and did something I hadn't done in 10 years. I found myself a pair of soccer shoes.
I walked out of the store with a perfectly stupid grin on my face while celebrating my new-found treasure: a pair of Adidas cleats and a shiny new ball :) You would have thought I had won the lottery. I was that guy, walking at pace while making sure to smile forcefully at everything and everyone. I was rather comfortably that guy.
I wore the cleats all night Wednesday and actually considered wearing them to work the next day to break them in. The next afternoon, I got off work early specifically so I could get out and relive my childhood for a few hours. I threw the cleats and ball into my backpack and peddled down to Zilker Park.
Zilker is, once again, destroyed. The 60,000 people who came out for the music festival last weekend completely ruined the multi-million dollar renovation finished no more than three months ago. The grounds were covered by a mass of mud and brown grass, a far cry from the acres of green grass the city so meticulously planted and nursed along. I saw it again today and crews were pumping standing water out manually to try to let [what's left of] the grass breathe again. It's very disappointing. I can't imagine how the city planning committee feels about it. "Who needs a budget when we have all this mud?"
Alright. So I rolled down to Zilker Park that afternoon with my backpack exploding with soccer gear. I must have looked pretty ridiculous (as I usually do). When I saw that the crews were still repairing the fields and removing the festival equipment, I headed over to the little field across the street. I think it's actually an overflow area for the river but... they must have used it in some capacity for the festival. They were still working on removing some small tents there. And there were outlines in the grass from larger structures that had been employed over the weekend.
I took off all my riding gear and tossed it next to my bike in the middle of the field. Then I donned my cleats with indisputable expertise :) I actually did lace them in the store with my eyes closed just to humor myself. Now, I played soccer for 13 years growing up. My touring team from the Houston suburbs won the state championship when we were 14. We were terribly awkward teens everywhere but on the soccer field. Such is adolescence.
I could only handle about an hour out in the heat. It was about 90 degrees and humid. I was like an overactive kid, kicking the ball and chasing it relentlessly. I was juggling and dribbling and punting and heading and sweating ferociously. I even took a spill once... rolled and bounced right back up before the rush hour traffic could laugh at me too too much. It was awesome. I'm happy to know my feet still work. Soccer cleats used to be my horse in battle. My feet were my weapons. With the exception of a few special occasions, not many sentiments compare to my memories of stepping onto soccer fields early in the morning while the grass was still wet. To any soccer player, there's something great about knowing after 60 or 90 minutes, not only will the game have been completely exhausting, but if all goes as planned, the team would emerge victorious.
I was pretty stinking tired after the hour out there that evening. I pedaled home and... probably traded. I don't remember.
I ended the week up only 7% on the charts. I was reckless and projected my emotion as market sentiment that simply wasn't there. I lost on Thursday and took my gains from 27% down to 7% for the week. I was working on other stuff and didn't look at charts on Friday.
I actually went over and hung out with my mom on Friday. Her disability was finally cleared. Apparently everyone finally got all the paperwork they needed from all the different groups associated with the auto accident. She's feeling better emotionally now that there's some money coming in, but she's still physically very uncomfortable. She's coming off of vicodin and it's highly unpleasant. She's not a big person and had been taking 3 a day for nerve pain in her neck. She dropped down to 1 a day and has apparently been in pretty shitty shape because of it. She found some new doctors who know how to deal with it. Now that she has something to help her sleep, she at least has the energy to deal with the detox a little better.
When I left her apartment, I ran a bunch of errands. Like one of Pavlov's pooches after a fantastic meal, I went right back to the same sports store.
So I've been riding my Schwinn Le Tour around town pretty regularly with my singular "gear." It's a little tricky on a couple hills around town, but it's generally really great at making sure I keep my feet spinning.
A couple weeks ago, a coworker posted a new riding group which apparently is an established group that rides every week in full cycling garb. I expressed interest and was expecting to jump in line this morning. So yesterday I returned to the sports store and did what I told myself I would never ever do. I bought spandex: long sleeve shirt and pants. Hell yes. I feel like I can slip through a keyhole when I'm wearin em. So now I've graduated to the level of exercise that absolutely requires you to look like a socially inept, overactive athlete with way too much free time on the weekends. Fits me to a "t," I think.
I wore them all night last night while I tuned up my bike and was just in awe of their awesome texture and... stretchiness. It made my freaking day. For a puny worm such as myself, I felt ripped and particularly dangerous :)
I tinkered with my chain for a bit and made some lemonade with honey for the ride. Then I tried to get as much sleep as possible. I knew the start and end points and discerned the most probable route. I'd never ridden this far on a bike in one sitting and had couldn't remember the terrain. But I said to myself, "I'm wearing a spandex suit. I can do anything."
I got up and was at the rendezvous point in full, stretchy gear at 9am. But no one showed up. I called Mr. Man and he said the group had inadvertently cancelled the ride this morning and he was unable to contact me. Just the same, I rode.
I stripped down to my nude glory and bolted out of the gates. I rode 20m in 80 minutes and even found a way to cram my phone into my sleeve so I could play my music :) There were only a couple hills that gave me trouble but it was overall a good route. There wasn't much traffic and the weather was nice.
I've just been workin on charts and watching movies this evening. I scratched the guitar and tried to take a nap but Johnny's bizarre music kept me regrettably conscious. I ended up doing laundry and playing with computerstuffs.
And here I go... into another week to work my tail off. I want to go to Bocas del Toro but not alone. If anyone feels like going for a week this winter to sit on a beach and be as lazy as humanly possible, let me know. The dry season starts in mid-December. Should you be a single, smart and particularly awesome woman, all the better.
>> "Ardi Build Half of LA" on "Lychee Queen" by Bumcello
October 02, 2009
102%
While magically making a pizza disappear a moment ago, I was struck by an awesome truth of this, my global existence:
I'm in the middle of Texas. I'm eating Italian food that was built to last for no less than a decade when stored at the right temperature. I'm listening to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra perform Hungarian piano concertos by way of a public radio station in Vermont over the internet. Such a mixture of influence and personal consumption made me especially happy for a moment and I thought it should be recorded in some capacity.
Well this was generally a good week. I didn't get a great deal of sleep because I was up most nights watching my trades. It looks like my nickels and dimes (literally) have paid off.
After revising my risk to a more aggressive approach while targeting smaller fluctuations against larger trends, I doubled my account in September: 102% gain in 25 trading days with an 86% win ratio. I took the rest of last week off and haven't looked at a chart in about 36 hours. I traded gbpjpy almost exclusively on Asian open. I maintained discipline and if another trade presented itself after the first, I did the right thing consistently and traded half or a quarter of the position and promptly forgot about it. It's about to turn into work again, but it's a necessary addition to this kind, low-key existence. Tomorrow I'll update my COT reports and work on the charts for a little (long) while before tripping awkwardly into the forthcoming workweek. 100% return in 25 days. Now if I can just do that ten or fifteen more times...
We had a great cold front come through last night and it turned into genuine fall weather around here. I woke up plainly cold after the air conditioner ran all night. I think it was about 60 this morning when I woke up, but I just wasn't motivated enough to check the temperature directly. After the week I had, I was reluctant to do much more than scratch myself when I woke up today. I'm also generally just a little disappointed to see the cold weather come back. Living in Texas, a person gets used to sweating. And I've done my best to incorporate it into my life insofar as I simply expect it to be hot outside. It's true we move just a little slower down here in the South. The only way to come to terms with the heat is to relax and keep your heart rate where it needs to be. I also think it's best to break a sweat once a day. I think the biological response is sort of like a mental and physical reboot.
My roommate just left. He has dead bikes and drums all over the place and won't goddamn bathe his dog. He did, however, start to flush the toilet after using it... apparently to the direct detriment of children without drinking water around the world. I'm ready for him to be gone.
My pizza was spectacular.
I'm writing this on my tablet! I got it back yesterday and spent all night and morning setting it up. After setting everything up just how I wanted it on my 120gb drive, it failed and I had to do it all over again on the OEM drive. It was tedious but not too bad. I might actually do all my... yeah. I'm gonna do my charting somewhere around town tomorrow.
Had I not squandered my social life so efficiently over the last few years, I might have known Austin City Limits was happening before today. There are a few reasons I would have considered going. First, there's new grass. The recent rain has probably helped it take root considerably well and it should do just fine through the weekend. Next, looking at this year's sponsor list, it looks like Mr. Attal and C3 did it again by selling the local companies. AMD, Dell, Austin (Capital) Ventures and HEB probably carried the brunt of the bill. This is also probably one of, if not the only, major marketing efforts they'll make in Austin (and maybe Texas altogether) all year. I wouldn't be surprised if C3 had to prop up the budget a little on their own. They're bringing some big names and... it'd be interesting to see what Dave Matthews is charging. I doubt they get out of bed for less than $400 or $500k. Lenny Kravitz and Kid Rock don't play for less than a million. Madonna and JayZ, $1.25m. It's such a farce. I get more satisfaction from playing Faure's Pavane on a dumpy classical guitar than any amount of exorbitant production and glamour at a show like ACL. But I digress.
The only bands I'd like to see are Medeski, Martin and Wood, Mos Def and Pearl Jam. I learned how to play the drums with Pearl Jam and Sublime way back when :) Coheed and Cambria and Ben Harper might be fun to see, but I can only take one or two songs by either of them in one sitting. I don't need to see DMB anymore. If I need a DMB fix, I just watch some Carter Beauford videos on YouNube. I think I'll be just as content staring at charts and jamming to Banco de Gaia in my headphones tomorrow.
>> "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" by Franz Liszt
I'm in the middle of Texas. I'm eating Italian food that was built to last for no less than a decade when stored at the right temperature. I'm listening to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra perform Hungarian piano concertos by way of a public radio station in Vermont over the internet. Such a mixture of influence and personal consumption made me especially happy for a moment and I thought it should be recorded in some capacity.
Well this was generally a good week. I didn't get a great deal of sleep because I was up most nights watching my trades. It looks like my nickels and dimes (literally) have paid off.
After revising my risk to a more aggressive approach while targeting smaller fluctuations against larger trends, I doubled my account in September: 102% gain in 25 trading days with an 86% win ratio. I took the rest of last week off and haven't looked at a chart in about 36 hours. I traded gbpjpy almost exclusively on Asian open. I maintained discipline and if another trade presented itself after the first, I did the right thing consistently and traded half or a quarter of the position and promptly forgot about it. It's about to turn into work again, but it's a necessary addition to this kind, low-key existence. Tomorrow I'll update my COT reports and work on the charts for a little (long) while before tripping awkwardly into the forthcoming workweek. 100% return in 25 days. Now if I can just do that ten or fifteen more times...
We had a great cold front come through last night and it turned into genuine fall weather around here. I woke up plainly cold after the air conditioner ran all night. I think it was about 60 this morning when I woke up, but I just wasn't motivated enough to check the temperature directly. After the week I had, I was reluctant to do much more than scratch myself when I woke up today. I'm also generally just a little disappointed to see the cold weather come back. Living in Texas, a person gets used to sweating. And I've done my best to incorporate it into my life insofar as I simply expect it to be hot outside. It's true we move just a little slower down here in the South. The only way to come to terms with the heat is to relax and keep your heart rate where it needs to be. I also think it's best to break a sweat once a day. I think the biological response is sort of like a mental and physical reboot.
My roommate just left. He has dead bikes and drums all over the place and won't goddamn bathe his dog. He did, however, start to flush the toilet after using it... apparently to the direct detriment of children without drinking water around the world. I'm ready for him to be gone.
My pizza was spectacular.
I'm writing this on my tablet! I got it back yesterday and spent all night and morning setting it up. After setting everything up just how I wanted it on my 120gb drive, it failed and I had to do it all over again on the OEM drive. It was tedious but not too bad. I might actually do all my... yeah. I'm gonna do my charting somewhere around town tomorrow.
Had I not squandered my social life so efficiently over the last few years, I might have known Austin City Limits was happening before today. There are a few reasons I would have considered going. First, there's new grass. The recent rain has probably helped it take root considerably well and it should do just fine through the weekend. Next, looking at this year's sponsor list, it looks like Mr. Attal and C3 did it again by selling the local companies. AMD, Dell, Austin (Capital) Ventures and HEB probably carried the brunt of the bill. This is also probably one of, if not the only, major marketing efforts they'll make in Austin (and maybe Texas altogether) all year. I wouldn't be surprised if C3 had to prop up the budget a little on their own. They're bringing some big names and... it'd be interesting to see what Dave Matthews is charging. I doubt they get out of bed for less than $400 or $500k. Lenny Kravitz and Kid Rock don't play for less than a million. Madonna and JayZ, $1.25m. It's such a farce. I get more satisfaction from playing Faure's Pavane on a dumpy classical guitar than any amount of exorbitant production and glamour at a show like ACL. But I digress.
The only bands I'd like to see are Medeski, Martin and Wood, Mos Def and Pearl Jam. I learned how to play the drums with Pearl Jam and Sublime way back when :) Coheed and Cambria and Ben Harper might be fun to see, but I can only take one or two songs by either of them in one sitting. I don't need to see DMB anymore. If I need a DMB fix, I just watch some Carter Beauford videos on YouNube. I think I'll be just as content staring at charts and jamming to Banco de Gaia in my headphones tomorrow.
>> "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" by Franz Liszt
September 26, 2009
70179
70179 is the PLU code for Thompson's organic raisins at the HEB on Oltorf. I bought a pound of them last week but the mice were into them a couple hours later. I rifled out of bed when I heard them scrounging and... didn't even see them. I had to toss the whole bag.
It's been a great weekend. I found out the best way to make it an effective weekend is to pack as much in as possible.
I went out to eat with my sister and ended up crashing there Thursday night. She needed a ride to the airport early so we were up and moving at 6. I dropped her off and she presumably made it to Denver. I went back to her place in the hills and slept for three more hours before being awoken by a screaming hawk outside. It was pretty cool. When I went out on the deck, I found out it was actually a rotary saw screaming through a piece of lumber. I can't say I wasn't disappointed.
I scratched the classical guitar and washed clothes for a couple hours. Then John called me from the tablet repair shop in California to tell me all was good and the machine is fixed. Apparently a memory socket had failed and... it just seemed like a power issue. It's as good as new and the USPS is bringing it on back to Texas :) John tried to tell me that the failed socket had completely corrupted the brand new OS I had installed and that they needed to charge me an arm to reinstall it. After I informed him this was not the case, he backpeddled awkwardly, upped the price on the physical repair and then we talked about payment :) So instead of paying an arm and a leg, they made off with my leg and I'm happy about it. I ran home, updated all my PayPal info and got it done. I'll have my beloved machine back shortly :D
I checked the UT music schedule and saw there was an organ student performing his master recital at Bates. I had just enough time to pedal up to Wheatsville and grab some frito pie before running to the concert hall. I ate half of it out front and then had to get into the hall.
This was the first time I had ever actually wanted to hear organ music in person. I was not raised in a religious environment and every exposure I've had to the instrument in my life has been through some hollow, repetitive piece that just begged for an ending. Last night, however, was nice. I was bowled over by the 50 feet of pipes on the wall in front of me. The picture above is the organ in Bates Recital Hall taken on some other occasion. Some pipes sounded like MIDIsauce trinkets and others sounded like barges' horns. It was tremendous. I had an old lady sitting behind me the entire time content to clear her throat once a minute. One cell phone went off, but it was otherwise a great show. The program was varied, contemporary and ancient and not too heavy on the musical indoctrination. I found myself grinning and cringing interchangeably through an incredibly demented Bach piece, lost but for a few moments of kind melody. That freaking guy. I'm glad I went. I was underdressed and I know everyone around me was jealously aware of the frito pie in my backpack.
After taking his bows and enjoying his veritable graduation into the Masterful realm of organstuffs, he sat back down and finished with some flipshit piece that I think he might have written. I can partially understand why he performed it if it was his... some kind of personal celebration. But if it wasn't his, he should never be allowed to touch an organ again in his life. And if it was his, he should never be allowed to compose another piece for any instrument, especially the pipe organ, again in his life. What he played, what he left the audience thinking about, was easily the most disgusting collection of notes I've ever heard. There was not a single melody. There was not a single coherent statement made throughout this five minute long death of Beauty. Please bear in mind that this is coming from someone who can comfortably listen to Herbie Mann's Gagaku and Beyond. Anyway, I guess since I just went to hear sound come out of the pipes, I'm partially happy I heard what purely bad organ music sounds like. It was so fucking bad. I was reluctant to clap and acknowledge his musical accomplishments as a whole simply because he subjected his friends and family to what is easily one of the worst-assembled compositions known to mankind. I'd rather listen to 40 cats having sex in stereo. I heard someone asking him about it in the lobby after we all stumbled out of the auditorium and he said he considered it "enchanting" with a grin on his face. A goddamn volcano is enchanting but that doesn't mean you tell your friends and family to go swim in lava. Anyway, I heard a huge organ being put through its paces. Mission accomplished.
I rode on home and although I had intended to post on here last night, I started watching Bones on Hulu and was unconscious about 20m into it.
I was up around 9 today and scratched on the electric for about an hour. There's not much better than playing an electric guitar naked. You can't play a church organ naked, anyway.
**Just remembered there's a St. Vincent album I need to get.**
After the guitar, my landlord called and we talked for about 30m. I'm gonna remote into his and his mother's computers sometime this week and clean them. TeamViewer rocks like that. And earlier in the week, my roommate told me he'll be moving out. There's a freaking chance I'm gonna have the place to myself for a bit.
In my endless pursuit of Consistency, I took off on my bike again around 2 this afternoon. I needed pecans so I went to Whole Foods and got 8oz. I also got a Jonamac apple which tasted like flowers of all things. Created in Geneva, NY, the Jonamac originated from a Mclntosh x Jonathan cross made in 1944. Formerly identified as "N. Y. 44428-5," the name "Jonamac" was selected on September 21, 1955 from a population of 2,474 seedlings originally planted. Yep.
Then I rode a few miles to the Green Belt to check the water levels after all the rain. There was a lot of standing water and even a big pool down at the bottom of Campbell's Hole. It was good to see water down there. I called my mom and talked to her a bit while I ate my pecans on the rocks. There were no people there and... it was good.
I left and went down the road to the Springs and put my head under a waterfall. It was also... good. I am rich with adjectives this evening. I watched the dogs bark and swim and the kids smoke their pot on the banks. I feel sorry for anyone who's not in Austin.
After that I just pedaled home, up Bouldin (literally) and made it back successfully exhausted. Then I went to the grocery store and got all sorts of good stuff including, but not nearly limited to, 70179, Thompson's organic raisins.
I also got a Key Lime Pie and ate a quarter of it a little while ago. But I need more. I just need more key lime pie.
>> "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley
I've got another note, now. Proofreading and music kept me from the pie. You know how sometimes you hear song that make you want to throw your hands up in victory and look around the room to see if any invisible people might want to celebrate the song with you? No?
>> "The Grace" on Act I of Neverending White Lights
The strength of the song is not in the lyrics for me, and is probably therefore not too rewarding to most the first time through. I think the dynamics were mastered in the most formal sense and the song is just presented very well over the air. Jimmy Gnecco will, in fact, be on Act III which will hopefully be released later this year. That album will probably pull me up by the bootstraps and single-handedly get me through a large part of 2010.
Key Lime Pie.
Completely off topic... if you have the time, watch some of the old recordings of Van Cliburn's performances on video.google.com.
September 20, 2009
To my lady, my lady
I swear to Dirt... there is no greater thing than this time and place.
House Fire Bird by Bumcello is built by masters of sound. It starts out with a rhythmic aria, the air terraced by installments of violins and cellos comfortable with their own presence. In the back is a drummer tapping his feet with zest... his left on the hi-hat pedal and his right on the bass drum pedal. Back and forth he goes. A quick tap of a wooden block off-tempo immediately takes an American listener from what might have originally seemed like a piece written quickly for a moment of cinematic sincerity into a geographic exercise in sound. Walking right into the middle of the scene is a jazz flute, singing and humming along. It's the kind of tone and melody you'd expect to hear from a couple city blocks away in South America and wonder who the lucky people might be who could possibly be enjoying their afternoon that much.
The flute and the drums continue a romantic conversation while the wind runs through the strings in the background. The flute player almost breaks ranks and starts singing through the instrument. It spills a metallic, tubular voice clumsily into the middle of the table rich with the enthusiasms only shared by friends. Then it breaks down and the true colors come out.
A classical guitar appears on the right channel and paints the full Portuguese portrait. Complete with percussive rattles and rhythmic melodies, a serious listener realizes the futile role words actually have in the world of music. The flautist returns to singing through the instrument briefly out of sheer excitement while the group continues to chip away at a sturdy slab of Composure.
The strings come back in a step lower and pull us back underwater for a moment of reflection. Wandering back across lines written in the sand, we wonder which lines ever held any meaning in the first place. One person's revelation is another person's preoccupation. The circular sound moves with the implied certainty of a circular wind. And wooden taps let us know that there are friends behind us.
The driven pace dissipates once more and gives way to the guitarista tocando su love. Encuentra what you love about the world and the world will provide que te encantas every time. Include heritage and value in your breath and intention will inherently be both kind and sincere.
Color your surroundings with Intention and you will be known for who you really are.
To my lady, my lady... maybe you're in Brazil playing a flute somewhere.
>> "House Fire Bird" and "One Two Three" on Lychee Queen by Bumcello
House Fire Bird by Bumcello is built by masters of sound. It starts out with a rhythmic aria, the air terraced by installments of violins and cellos comfortable with their own presence. In the back is a drummer tapping his feet with zest... his left on the hi-hat pedal and his right on the bass drum pedal. Back and forth he goes. A quick tap of a wooden block off-tempo immediately takes an American listener from what might have originally seemed like a piece written quickly for a moment of cinematic sincerity into a geographic exercise in sound. Walking right into the middle of the scene is a jazz flute, singing and humming along. It's the kind of tone and melody you'd expect to hear from a couple city blocks away in South America and wonder who the lucky people might be who could possibly be enjoying their afternoon that much.
The flute and the drums continue a romantic conversation while the wind runs through the strings in the background. The flute player almost breaks ranks and starts singing through the instrument. It spills a metallic, tubular voice clumsily into the middle of the table rich with the enthusiasms only shared by friends. Then it breaks down and the true colors come out.
A classical guitar appears on the right channel and paints the full Portuguese portrait. Complete with percussive rattles and rhythmic melodies, a serious listener realizes the futile role words actually have in the world of music. The flautist returns to singing through the instrument briefly out of sheer excitement while the group continues to chip away at a sturdy slab of Composure.
The strings come back in a step lower and pull us back underwater for a moment of reflection. Wandering back across lines written in the sand, we wonder which lines ever held any meaning in the first place. One person's revelation is another person's preoccupation. The circular sound moves with the implied certainty of a circular wind. And wooden taps let us know that there are friends behind us.
The driven pace dissipates once more and gives way to the guitarista tocando su love. Encuentra what you love about the world and the world will provide que te encantas every time. Include heritage and value in your breath and intention will inherently be both kind and sincere.
Color your surroundings with Intention and you will be known for who you really are.
To my lady, my lady... maybe you're in Brazil playing a flute somewhere.
>> "House Fire Bird" and "One Two Three" on Lychee Queen by Bumcello
September 18, 2009
Weekend warrior
I got to sleep in this morning after a long week. I meandered through it comfortably and even found time to get a haircut.
I tooled around for the rest of the morning and watched the markets waddle into the weekend. I had good success on the charts this week with the British pound: 1 for 1 against the Swiss franc and 2 for 3 against the yen. The dollar generally moves inversely with the States' equity markets. The markets did well this week. When the US bailed out the Japanese banks in the 90's, the yen became closely tied to the dollar and it's been used as a commodity trade ever since (not so much in the last year, but in general). Weekly MA divergence has taken gbpjpy right down to the 200 daily MA and it'll probably press right on through the weekend. The 200 will be tested Monday and probably again on Tuesday. Hopefully the euro will break down against the dollar and let gbpjpy run down to about 140.
The mice in the house had a field day with the popcorn in the kitchen. There were kernels strewn all over the countertops and floor yesterday morning. I'm strangely alright with it. I'm just disappointed Johnny's dog isn't active enough to do anything about it. Traps are set. All I can do is wait.
I played the classical for a little while before getting restless and heading out to the front yard.
Johnny let the yards and the majority of the house fall into a state of general disrepair while he was living here alone. I know he's a smart person. He's just in a different place mentally. He wants Mark to repair things from Florida when they can be fixed with a little effort. And that's one of several reasons why Mark wants him out. Mark effectively wants to rebuild the house early next year and Johnny's response to the idea was less than encouraging. I'm not opposed to it in the least.
Anyway, I dug in and tackled a few plants out front. The neighbors' ivy had rolled both over and under the fence and blanketed most of the plants in the front corner of the yard. It felt good to get out in the dirt again. I even got to battle some old shrubs' stumps with a hatchet. I was victorious. It's a welcomed change not having to brush hair out of my face all the time now. Next week, I'll clean up the flower beds and.... everything else.
My dad's coming into town tomorrow on his way back to Houston. He and my sister and I are going to meet for food somewhere around town and enjoy the weather. It should be what most Americans would consider one of the few fine days we see here, neither hot nor cold. We get three or four in the early part of the year and usually about as many in the Fall. We still need more rain but I don't think any amount would get the water flowing before the cold hits. We'll see.
I'm getting tired of being in the city. I've been in it for a couple years now, working nonstop. I'm trying to think of things I can do to keep it changing. Maybe I'll start going up to the campus more often. I can't say I'm going to ride my bike any more often in the cold because... I prefer the heat. I should, however, have my tablet back shortly and will be able to read my ebooks again... yeah Google books :)
By the way, if you haven't seen Fast Flip, google it and... check it out.
I tooled around for the rest of the morning and watched the markets waddle into the weekend. I had good success on the charts this week with the British pound: 1 for 1 against the Swiss franc and 2 for 3 against the yen. The dollar generally moves inversely with the States' equity markets. The markets did well this week. When the US bailed out the Japanese banks in the 90's, the yen became closely tied to the dollar and it's been used as a commodity trade ever since (not so much in the last year, but in general). Weekly MA divergence has taken gbpjpy right down to the 200 daily MA and it'll probably press right on through the weekend. The 200 will be tested Monday and probably again on Tuesday. Hopefully the euro will break down against the dollar and let gbpjpy run down to about 140.
The mice in the house had a field day with the popcorn in the kitchen. There were kernels strewn all over the countertops and floor yesterday morning. I'm strangely alright with it. I'm just disappointed Johnny's dog isn't active enough to do anything about it. Traps are set. All I can do is wait.
I played the classical for a little while before getting restless and heading out to the front yard.
Johnny let the yards and the majority of the house fall into a state of general disrepair while he was living here alone. I know he's a smart person. He's just in a different place mentally. He wants Mark to repair things from Florida when they can be fixed with a little effort. And that's one of several reasons why Mark wants him out. Mark effectively wants to rebuild the house early next year and Johnny's response to the idea was less than encouraging. I'm not opposed to it in the least.
Anyway, I dug in and tackled a few plants out front. The neighbors' ivy had rolled both over and under the fence and blanketed most of the plants in the front corner of the yard. It felt good to get out in the dirt again. I even got to battle some old shrubs' stumps with a hatchet. I was victorious. It's a welcomed change not having to brush hair out of my face all the time now. Next week, I'll clean up the flower beds and.... everything else.
My dad's coming into town tomorrow on his way back to Houston. He and my sister and I are going to meet for food somewhere around town and enjoy the weather. It should be what most Americans would consider one of the few fine days we see here, neither hot nor cold. We get three or four in the early part of the year and usually about as many in the Fall. We still need more rain but I don't think any amount would get the water flowing before the cold hits. We'll see.
I'm getting tired of being in the city. I've been in it for a couple years now, working nonstop. I'm trying to think of things I can do to keep it changing. Maybe I'll start going up to the campus more often. I can't say I'm going to ride my bike any more often in the cold because... I prefer the heat. I should, however, have my tablet back shortly and will be able to read my ebooks again... yeah Google books :)
By the way, if you haven't seen Fast Flip, google it and... check it out.
September 12, 2009
Hooverphonic
There's water in the air but it's not falling anymore. It seeps up through your toes from the dirt but the ground is still very thirsty.
I don't remember what happened Thursday night. I think I just came home in my regular stupor after work and watched the markets roll into the weekend. The yen is still moving in step on the weekly charts so... gbpjpy can be sold a couple times a day. Ah... that's right. I fell asleep. I've been taking these fantastic, accidental naps when I get home in the evenings. I'll get home around 5 or 6 and watch to see how everything's moving before the Asian markets open. This past week, I found myself asleep like a dog. I need to start setting evening alarms again. I'm not even staying up late. My brain just needs to rest after hours of babysitting my customers'... my customers.
I don't want to dwell on work because it's an entirely worthless exercise. But I should say that even as a self-proclaimed optimist, I'm finding it harder and harder to chew the leather provided. And I've eaten a lot of leather. I got paid the same to sit with dogs in a yard and watch them lick eachother. Right now, I save thousands of dollars of computer equipment from being thrown away daily and I'm being compensated the same as the folks telling customers to switch the cords around to, "see if it works." That building provides all the anti-love and emotional punishment depicted in the movie Martyrs. Purported vertical movements translate into horizontal movement with greater workloads. Why those running the place don't just overhaul the entire payroll scheme to operate as a real IT company is so far beyond me. Maybe it's not even an IT company. I don't even want to think about it. I could write for days about it but they're not paying me to write. And... yep... there's the humor. I'm already writing for them... just for my own enjoyment, apparently. The main page of the company's website has grammatical errors. Company-wide, individual performance is judged on how many bear traps a person has sprung in the last month. I'm done with it. If they paid anywhere close to the industry standard, they'd be pretty goddamned surprised to see just what exactly happens which Richard gets excited about the work he's doing. Again, maybe I've just been incorrectly assuming it's an IT company because of the intricate (and exceedingly extraneous) technical knowledge required to appease angry customers. Maybe it's just a technically-oriented customer support service doing emotional damage control. Well, that's exactly what it is. The only things keeping me there are the physical location and the few older people I get to talk to in the Northeast who are still realizing the benefits of having the internet at home.
My friend Shelley and I went to see Inglourious Basterds yesterday. This was the second time I had seen it in the theaters. She hadn't seen it and... I wanted to see it again. It was just as good as the first time. It might have actually been a little better. Staying with the plot required some effort the first time around. The hardest part the second time through was maintaining my composure in the moments just before Tarantino's trademark "shock" scenes. I found myself giggling comfortably out of step with the rest of the audience after the bludgeoning/maiming/abrubpt pain. The sound on the reel was crackly and inconsistent for the first 3 minutes of the movie. But it sorted itself out and my blood pressure dropped right back in line shortly thereafter.
After the movie, Shelley opted to go up to her cousin's place way up North rather than hang out for the evening. This was entirely agreeable. She's going to move out of her Austin place shortly and just stay in Boston. She's a sweet lady but I don't think either of us were intending to take it anywhere definitive. I dropped her off and celebrated my Saturday by getting a table for one at the Spaghetti Warehouse.
I sat in a traincar as the only passenger next to a stuffy company party of some sort. I had my headphones in and basically just disappeared inside my tall glass of beer and sturdy chunk of lasagna. I gorged myself and displayed my satisfaction by scratching myself victoriously after the dust settled around the table. I'm a predatory animal. And last night, the pasta just wasn't fast enough. The cheescake was also unable to elude my cat-like, Tabletop prowess.
I've been playing with my song in my room like it's a shiny new toy. It's pretty fun. The verse breaks down and enters the chorus seemingly prematurely. It catches whoever's listening and gives me some space to play both of them a little lazily... closer to free verse than a strict tempo. It's different every time and has therefore kept me happy :)
Today I backed up all my gigs of trading stuff and looked at charts. I updated my COT sheets and reinstalled my MT4. I actually have more to do, come to think of it.
Then I did a little maintenance and reinstalled my tablet OS so I can ship it out to the repair folks later this week. I'm looking forward to being mobile again. Don't tell anybody but... for the price of a Kindle, you can get a TC1100.
I found a pretty cool Belgian band called Hooverphonic this afternoon. Actually..
Before I write more about music, I want to take a minute to write about the rain. This was easily the most rain we've gotten in Central Texas in a year. My front yard was one massive puddle. Even the dinosaurs across the street were taking shelter. It rained steadily and heavily for at least 45 minutes here and it's stayed pretty cool into the evening. It's supposed to rain a bit more tonight.
Back to music, Hooverphonic is a group out of Belgium with a trip-hop, ambient foundation and some clean female vocals on top. Their music has been used in a few movies, commercials and shows, but apparently their frontlady just left the group to pursue her own musicstuffs. I'm getting their discography as we speak so I'll have a better idea of their sound shortly. So far, it's clean, rolling and comfortable. It's light but direct with pretty decent instrumentation and colorful, classically European pop melodies.
I've not been listening to my French stations recently. I think I need to stop watching so many movies on Justin.tv and get back to freakin work. If I stop watching Jtv, I will effectively be without entertainment through the week. Jesus... my exercise will have to be my entertainment. I'm going to have to brainstorm on this. I'll write about that soon. Actually, what I really need to do is find a lady who likes to take naps after a long day and then work the rest of the night on things that make her happy. Of course, I'll have to work less to do that. Tastes like irony to me.
>> "This Is Not An Exit" on Stay What You Are by Saves the Day
I don't remember what happened Thursday night. I think I just came home in my regular stupor after work and watched the markets roll into the weekend. The yen is still moving in step on the weekly charts so... gbpjpy can be sold a couple times a day. Ah... that's right. I fell asleep. I've been taking these fantastic, accidental naps when I get home in the evenings. I'll get home around 5 or 6 and watch to see how everything's moving before the Asian markets open. This past week, I found myself asleep like a dog. I need to start setting evening alarms again. I'm not even staying up late. My brain just needs to rest after hours of babysitting my customers'... my customers.
I don't want to dwell on work because it's an entirely worthless exercise. But I should say that even as a self-proclaimed optimist, I'm finding it harder and harder to chew the leather provided. And I've eaten a lot of leather. I got paid the same to sit with dogs in a yard and watch them lick eachother. Right now, I save thousands of dollars of computer equipment from being thrown away daily and I'm being compensated the same as the folks telling customers to switch the cords around to, "see if it works." That building provides all the anti-love and emotional punishment depicted in the movie Martyrs. Purported vertical movements translate into horizontal movement with greater workloads. Why those running the place don't just overhaul the entire payroll scheme to operate as a real IT company is so far beyond me. Maybe it's not even an IT company. I don't even want to think about it. I could write for days about it but they're not paying me to write. And... yep... there's the humor. I'm already writing for them... just for my own enjoyment, apparently. The main page of the company's website has grammatical errors. Company-wide, individual performance is judged on how many bear traps a person has sprung in the last month. I'm done with it. If they paid anywhere close to the industry standard, they'd be pretty goddamned surprised to see just what exactly happens which Richard gets excited about the work he's doing. Again, maybe I've just been incorrectly assuming it's an IT company because of the intricate (and exceedingly extraneous) technical knowledge required to appease angry customers. Maybe it's just a technically-oriented customer support service doing emotional damage control. Well, that's exactly what it is. The only things keeping me there are the physical location and the few older people I get to talk to in the Northeast who are still realizing the benefits of having the internet at home.
My friend Shelley and I went to see Inglourious Basterds yesterday. This was the second time I had seen it in the theaters. She hadn't seen it and... I wanted to see it again. It was just as good as the first time. It might have actually been a little better. Staying with the plot required some effort the first time around. The hardest part the second time through was maintaining my composure in the moments just before Tarantino's trademark "shock" scenes. I found myself giggling comfortably out of step with the rest of the audience after the bludgeoning/maiming/abrubpt pain. The sound on the reel was crackly and inconsistent for the first 3 minutes of the movie. But it sorted itself out and my blood pressure dropped right back in line shortly thereafter.
After the movie, Shelley opted to go up to her cousin's place way up North rather than hang out for the evening. This was entirely agreeable. She's going to move out of her Austin place shortly and just stay in Boston. She's a sweet lady but I don't think either of us were intending to take it anywhere definitive. I dropped her off and celebrated my Saturday by getting a table for one at the Spaghetti Warehouse.
I sat in a traincar as the only passenger next to a stuffy company party of some sort. I had my headphones in and basically just disappeared inside my tall glass of beer and sturdy chunk of lasagna. I gorged myself and displayed my satisfaction by scratching myself victoriously after the dust settled around the table. I'm a predatory animal. And last night, the pasta just wasn't fast enough. The cheescake was also unable to elude my cat-like, Tabletop prowess.
I've been playing with my song in my room like it's a shiny new toy. It's pretty fun. The verse breaks down and enters the chorus seemingly prematurely. It catches whoever's listening and gives me some space to play both of them a little lazily... closer to free verse than a strict tempo. It's different every time and has therefore kept me happy :)
Today I backed up all my gigs of trading stuff and looked at charts. I updated my COT sheets and reinstalled my MT4. I actually have more to do, come to think of it.
Then I did a little maintenance and reinstalled my tablet OS so I can ship it out to the repair folks later this week. I'm looking forward to being mobile again. Don't tell anybody but... for the price of a Kindle, you can get a TC1100.
I found a pretty cool Belgian band called Hooverphonic this afternoon. Actually..
Before I write more about music, I want to take a minute to write about the rain. This was easily the most rain we've gotten in Central Texas in a year. My front yard was one massive puddle. Even the dinosaurs across the street were taking shelter. It rained steadily and heavily for at least 45 minutes here and it's stayed pretty cool into the evening. It's supposed to rain a bit more tonight.
Back to music, Hooverphonic is a group out of Belgium with a trip-hop, ambient foundation and some clean female vocals on top. Their music has been used in a few movies, commercials and shows, but apparently their frontlady just left the group to pursue her own musicstuffs. I'm getting their discography as we speak so I'll have a better idea of their sound shortly. So far, it's clean, rolling and comfortable. It's light but direct with pretty decent instrumentation and colorful, classically European pop melodies.
I've not been listening to my French stations recently. I think I need to stop watching so many movies on Justin.tv and get back to freakin work. If I stop watching Jtv, I will effectively be without entertainment through the week. Jesus... my exercise will have to be my entertainment. I'm going to have to brainstorm on this. I'll write about that soon. Actually, what I really need to do is find a lady who likes to take naps after a long day and then work the rest of the night on things that make her happy. Of course, I'll have to work less to do that. Tastes like irony to me.
>> "This Is Not An Exit" on Stay What You Are by Saves the Day
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