Hey June, don’t make it bad.
Just when I was beginning to master my job, they changed me to Night Operations (or as I like to call it: Night’s Watch, Dark Night Begins, or Welcome to Night Vale). My job is to decide what shipments get sent out of our warehouse on a nightly basis (the equivalent of how an emperor giving the thumbs up or down determines the fate of a gladiator). It’s an enormous responsibility. It’s like being a soccer goalie or a bestiality porno star; people only notice when I screw the pooch. I love it though. It’s intense and fun. It’s also a 1p to 10p job. They gave me a work cell phone. It’s a Galaxy S10, so I guess you could say I’m hot stuff. No big deal.
I’ve been consumed with fascination for the stock market. One the one hand, it seems like the kind of field that is ripe for a decisive, conclusive investigation for the best strategy. It reminds me of early medicine where people made stuff up, but it worked. Or the thousands of martial arts schools that boasted that their style was the best. Medicine and martial arts haven’t been “solved” per se, but there is a clear “best practice” for most specifics. We can install pace makers and it’s clearly better than leaches. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is the best fighting style as proved by MMA tournaments. On the other hand, how have we gone this long without making any significant progress? Or has someone figured it out, but it’s risky and scary? Or secret? I plan to find out.
Books
- The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephanie Meyer
- Short and sweet. I think it takes place between books #3 and #4, and I only made it to book #2, so I’m baffled who most of these people are. It has all of the elements that I love about the Twilight books: forbidden love, action, secrets, conspiracies, feuds, and I still think vampirism is a metaphor for no longer being a virgin.
- Bad Moon Rising by Ed Gorman
- It’s a mystery novel that kept me guessing! It’s a thin line between “It’s obviously the widow” and “What? The? Actual? F? It was the the homeless guy no one’s heard of?” This book struck the balance. I loved that the ending was bittersweet, but not that it was a consequence of luck.
- Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
- What a delight! There were some laugh out loud moments! What really impressed me about this book was the structure. Every chapter was: Set up, Complication, Resolution. Over and over. It played with the pace and kept me hooked. My only complaint is that the premise is a tad contrived.
- A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market by John Allen Paulos
- Boy, I was really hoping for some definite answers. If anyone could master the mysteries of the stock market, it should be a mathematician, right? No, he failed miserably. The book turned out to be a pleasant overview of the stock market, along with illustrative stories, puzzles, and paradoxes. I enjoyed the book, despite the fact that it wasn’t what I wanted.
- The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee by Sara Silverman
- It was pretty funny. I remember picking it up randomly in college and laughing until there were tears in my eyes. This time there was only one such passage (for which I will be forever grateful, I treasure each belly laugh moment like a gold brick).
Movies
- Limitless
Song of the month
- Boys by Julia Nunes
Stock Trading Performance
- YTD
| % losing trades | loss on losing trades | % winning trades | gain on winning trades | expected return on $1000 invested |
Total Gain Realized
|
| 70.00% | -$1,023.75 | 30.00% | $433.03 | -$586.72 | -590.72 |
Balls! This is harder than it looks. In times like these, I like to remember the advice my kindergarten teacher gave me, “Never give up! Never surrender! Never forget! We strike at dawn! Ready your breakfast and eat hearty, for tonight we dine in hell!”
- June
| % losing trades | loss on losing trades | % winning trades | gain on winning trades | expected return on $1000 invested |
Total Gain Realized
|
| 90.91% | -$433.42 | 9.09% | $61.48 | -$388.43 | -371.94 |
- I read the most in depth, thought provoking criticism of Libertarianism that I have ever read: https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/02/22/repost-the-non-libertarian-faq/. It rocked my socks. I have to go home and rethink my life. Through process of elimination, I’ve eliminated all political philosophies. As disappointing as it is to have your socks rocked, it’s better than believing in something that’s based on false premises.
Survey
- I’m trying something new. It’s something I’ve wanted for almost 6 months now and am just now working up the courage to try. I’m posting a survey link. It’s anonymous. I’ll post the results next month. If it’s successful, I’ll post another survey.