übersurf

We've moved!

2011-03-04T11:20:00.000-08:00

No longer going to be blogging here at Blogger. It just wasn't working out and I'm hugely non-committal when it comes to online technology like this so it was bound to happen. Will it happen at WordPress? Who knows. I'd like to think I'm staying put for a while...

So, if you bookmarked this site update your links and if not just head over to Wordpress. BTW, typing ubersurf.com in your browser will ALWAYS take you to whatever site I happen to be hosting my random little corner of the Interwebs at that moment.

http://ubersurf.wordpress.com/

f/1.8

2011-01-31T21:49:00.000-08:00

So for Christmas I got a killer little fixed prime lens. It's a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 and while the fixed focal length really limits how you can use it, I didn't want it for the focal length...I wanted it for the shallow-as-Paris-Hilton depth of field. At f/1.8 it's one stop slower than the fastest Nikon lens or even Canon lens for that matter. Hell, you gotta get this really obscure Leica to get like f/0.95 and cough up something like $9,000 for those 2 extra stops. BFD. It's 7 stops faster than my other telephoto lens and that's HUGE. In other words, it captures 7x more light wide open than the other lens and that gives you some serious options.

Anyway, I rarely shoot this lens anything but wide open and you can see why. That ultra shallow depth of field and the bokeh it gives you are just gorgeous. The key with this lens and shallow depth of field is getting the subject/foreground razor sharp and the blurrier the background the better. As you can see, it does a damn fine job.

I haven't shot that many photos with it just yet, but here are a few that turned out well. Have a look and make sure to click the photos to make 'em look all big and purdy...

Prospecting for Afternoon Gold

2011-01-27T13:16:00.000-08:00

Note: This was written 3 years ago this week after the most incredible surf session of my life but the photos are a few randoms taken of HB while I lived there that fairly accurately portray what the words are describing. It needs a little editing but I consider this to be the best piece of writing I've created. I hope it brings a smile and desire to go surfing...

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I guess there’s no guarantee any time of day is the “magic” time to go surf—you take your chances every time you head to the beach—but some of my favorite sessions of all time have come prospecting for gold when the sun is sinking low in the afternoon. Typically it’s a smaller, mellower crowd of people looking to wind down their lives after working or learning or just living all day. The sun warms the surface water a degree or two, which makes trunk sessions in the Summer no problem and Winter sessions become bearable. Sunlight hits the water at a different angle and everything looks slightly different, calmer. Yes, I love surfing in the afternoon.

While the wind/wave conditions might be better in the morning and those believers in the dawn patrol will tell you it’s the best time to surf bar-none, I have my reservations. Dawn patrols are more crowded and typically filled with surfers who are on a strict schedule and have to be out by a certain time or risk being late to school or work. Desperation and determination lead to the ugly side of surfing as aggression and stress levels rise from a palpable tension in the water felt by those involved in—and those observing—the childish behavior. I don’t have anything against dawn patrol sessions, I just typically leave it to a different group of surfers.

Afternoons > Dawn Patrol

Compare that to the afternoons: a laid back schedule where the only ticking clock is the sun setting in the West and darkness tells you it’s time to go home. You don’t really have to be anywhere, anyway, right? It’s more of a relaxing nightcap of bourbon instead of a caffeine laden coffee drink to get you running at full-speed as daylight breaks. In the afternoon you’re there to surf, not worry about what comes next in your daily routine. Afternoons are all about living in the moment and that forgotten time of the day can be quite rewarding.

One afternoon in recent memory sticks out more than the rest. It was 4PM on an unseasonably warm Monday in January as Santa Ana winds warmed the air like a convection oven. The tides over the last week had been crippling. High tides robbed even the strongest swells of their life while low tides greeted you with a vast, damp desert of sand as a distant lineup beset with frothy closeouts awaited those brave enough to paddle out for the inevitable beat-down.

The sand on the beach had been moved around more than a 2^nd string shortstop over the last couple weeks as the sheer cliff of sand in front of the lifeguard towers eroded by relentless 6.5’ high tides had grown to a straight 4-foot drop in places. With proper photographic technique and perspective the scene might have resembled a miniature San Onofre if you could somehow make a nuclear reactor appear in the distance.

Today, however, was different. Much of the sand had been returned by the uncooperative ocean; the looming ½-foot low tide two and a half hours ahead didn’t seem to have any ill effect on the playground before me. About a hundred yards from the water’s edge were a dozen or so heads waiting patiently for their daily bread. Today’s bread was better than most as the first wave rolled through: a solid head high, mechanically clean wave that peeled forever; no close-out death barrels on offer today. Light offshore winds kept the surface glassy and provided just enough resistance to hold up that extra second needed to throw a razor-thin barrel large enough to hold this surfer. The hot air had me sweating in my wetsuit and the visual stimulus in front of me raised my body temperature a couple degrees, no doubt. I’d wasted enough time putting the leash on and prying myself into the wetsuit: let’s get wet.

That feeling of being hot and uncomfortable was quickly replaced with the feeling of being cold and uncomfortable, and now wet. The water was definitely colder today than the last time I went out...a lot colder, but I didn’t care: there’s liquid gold in them hills and I was due.

The weapon of choice

Today’s surf vehicle was an iguana green 6’1” canard quad fish I had made six months earlier by a small shaper who made incredible sleds. I’d grown fond of fishes a while back and this was my newest toy. My added weight from a holiday season full of bountiful and numerous meals coupled with the weight of a wetsuit was mitigated by the extra width and thickness of the fish. The sound of my hands breaking the water was all I could hear. No cars on PCH, no birds, no watery white noise, nothing.

Paddling out I witnessed my first real perfection of the year. Beautiful lined up waves pitched with enough force and speed to throw a thin-lipped barrel crashing down the line, breaking the eerie silence with a hollow static. Sunlight refracting through the lip looked like a Coke bottle in the setting sun. I’d always wondered why surfers referred to the color of a pitching wave in the afternoon sun as a Coke bottle. Today, I wondered no more. The color was mesmerizing, the sound hypnotic. My heartbeat accelerates with anticipation as the wall of water pitches forward and I, in step, duck under. I surface on the other side as the last foot of the lip is sheared off and rains hard down on my face, still numb from the chilly water.

I waited through a couple smaller, less shapely waves for one that would confirm or deny that what I was seeing was real. Had I had been stricken with “surf-goggles” and the size and shape of the waves had been nothing but wishful thinking, blinded by the desperation for a good surf that was long overdue? The answer, it seemed, had arrived. I recognized my wave from a hundred yards away like spotting a loved one at the baggage claim from afar. It wasn’t one of the biggest waves I’d seen in my short paddle out to the lineup but it was solid; shoulder high, at least, and growing. More importantly, it had potential; it looked damn good.

Kind of like this...but think 100% glassy, and a lot less "I'm going to destroy you"

Turning and paddling immediately to catch up to the wave, I feel the tell-tale force of the wave picking the fish and I up for a ride. Taking one more good stroke I pop up and make the turn immediately; no drops necessary on this liquid half-pipe. I’ve got my bearings and I’m looking down the line at the building blue carpet being rolled out before me and holy shit: I’d never seen this before. In magazines, videos, daydreams, yes...but never in person. I pump like mad to keep enough speed to stay a while as the canard quad fins keep me glued to the high-line of a wave that had swelled to over head high and a lot meaner than when it'd started pitching. A couple of big pumps and a quick snap off the lip later I find myself at the bottom of the wave carrying the crescendo for just 1 last measure and lean hard on the rail, confidently ascending the wave with speed and precision I didn’t know I possessed; I was THAT guy I admired on THAT wave but had always seen from afar. I look up at the pitching lip and have a decision to make: be smart and kick out the back and be thankful for what I got, or make things interesting and go out with a bang. The decision, it seems, is a foregone conclusion as I instinctively transfer my weight—eyes widening from the inane decision made by the devil on my shoulder—and aim for the barrel with gusto conjured from some place deep within me I didn’t know existed.

The closeout was inevitable; the wave had seen enough of me and wanted to expire itself after a journey thousands of miles in the making. A few more meaningless yards meant nothing to the wave, but they meant everything to me. Time stood still as I carefully composed the last few measures of this opus in my mind. I spotted my target a few feet up the face and deftly positioned myself in the tube as the lip pitched. The tube was hollow enough that a slight squat was all I needed to keep the liquid guillotine from claiming its intended victim. I held my breath in anticipation of either making a successful —albeit close— exit, or being blindsided at Mach 1 by an unseen variation in the otherwise perfect wave. The sound echoing off the liquid walls was deafening; I could barely think. Squinted eyes recognized bad news a short ways in front of me. This barrel was about to implode, violently. Time to get out of here, and fast.

Kind of like this...but think 100% glassy and maybe the same level of "I'm going to destroy you"

I promptly exited stage left as the closeout—too distant to navigate—surpassed the speed of the fish. I looked back at the hell I had just left behind; a second earlier it was heaven. The wave did everything I wanted it to do, as if it were somehow reading my mind or connected to me on some level. But now, it was a shoulder high wall of foam; the remnants of a wave that had confirmed that this was going to be no ordinary session. I didn’t know what to do after the ride ended. My face was cold and wet but the water around my eyes was warm and swelling and the chills running down my spine came from inside, not in response to the colder-than-sin water. The smile on my face was only the tip of the iceberg of happiness fighting to escape; I was beyond stoked.

Things continued like this for about an hour and a half as we all took turns sharing the beautiful waves on offer before the big red sun disappeared into the horizon. The afternoon-shift and I slowly made our way in, looking for one more morsel to top off an already bountiful session. We’d all gotten to the point of being surfed out and riding in prone would surely be no crime this day.

My feet touched ground in the knee high water and the silhouettes of boats, oil rigs and Catalina in the distance contrasted against a rapidly expiring maroon sky. Huntington Beach can be downright beautiful when it wants to be and this afternoon was proof. The sound of PCH was still absent and the perfect waves were the only sound as the afternoon sky yielded to an inky nightscape. It seemed too good to be true, but there I was physically and emotionally exhausted from a once in a lifetime session—in Huntington Beach of all places—trying to comprehend what had transpired over the last couple hours.

This moment, this feeling confirmed what I already knew but never had experienced so deeply: sometimes convention and necessity to surf the dawn patrol are overcome by the unconventional and decidedly selfish times to go searching for some afternoon gold. My prospecting mission was a success and I hit paydirt. This afternoon’s waves were perfect, by any standard. This was a session I’d be able to recall every minute detail of for the rest of my life.

I miss you, HB. I love you, surfing.

A-Z Project: E is for EDAMAME

2011-01-20T19:55:00.000-08:00

As in: Edamame Dumplings in Miso Broth

Note: I originally was going to do an English Pea puree, ala the one stolen by Alex from Top Chef, but I forgot that peas aren't in season right now and I wasn't down with using frozen peas. So, we had a change of direction. I'll probably make the dish when peas are in season and post it up here just cuz I really think someone should steal the dish from Alex. Ya know: quid pro quo, douchebag.

Welcome back...

OK, I'm back. No excuses, no explanations, let's just pick up where we left off with this project, shall we? Good. Glad to be back...here we go...

I probably lost money trading you 6 months ago, ya little bastards

I'm a trader. I typically trade commodity futures, namely what are classified as the "grains." This includes corn, wheat, oats and soybeans. Don't ask: I don't know why soybeans are a grain either. So, I thought "if I'm trading them all day...why not cook them at night?" Brilliant! (Wait'll I pull this stunt with frozen concentrated OJ, pork bellies or live cattle) Granted, it's a little bit of a stretch to classify soybeans under "E" but we're using the Japanese name "edamame" which is how most people refer to them anyway so I'm OK with it, especially considering my affinity for Asian foods as of late.

I wanted to use them in as pure a form as possible so I chose a recipe for edamame dumplings inspired by the famous Buddakan in New York (it's on my list to try). Take a gyoza wrapper and stuff it with an edamame filling, steam and you're done. Simple, tasty, perfect way to showcase an otherwise plain ingredient.

The ingredients and recipe are fairly simple:
Edamame
Butter
Cream
Sriracha

Throw everything in the Cuisinart, puree, chill and the filling is done.

Q: what would I be without butter? A: about 170 pounds

The biggest pain was creating the dumplings. This is the 1st time I've tried making a dumpling to be steamed and I guess they didn't turn out badly, but watching me make the first few was a bit like watching a deer try and take it's first steps: awkward, but oh so adorable cuz he's trying so hard. After they were steamed, the edamame filling was bright green beneath the translucent gyoza skins and the photos really don't do the color justice; they were beautiful, if not maybe a bit of a grade school art project in terms of quality control and consistency.

I swear, I'll get the white balance right one of these days

How were they? Awesome. I served them in a simple miso broth and the results were great. Creamy texture, rich from all the butter and cream (maybe a bit overkill but still damn good) and a lovely edamame flavor with just a hint of heat and sweetness from the Sriracha. I will certainly be using this recipe in the future and maybe creating the dumplings won't be quite as clumsy. They're really more of an appetizer or dim sum sort of dish and making a main course out of them isn't advisable but with the miso broth you've got one hell of a 1st course to get you going.

A wonderful soup course or dim sum item all the way

Next up: F. I have no clue what I'm doing yet but doing this dish got me jazzed to get back into this project so expect more frequent updates.

Lake Union @ Night

2010-12-16T20:58:00.000-08:00

So there I was, leaving Wallingford stuffed on Via Tribunali pizza and beer and the taste of Molly Moon's Peppermint Fudge ice cream still lingering on my tongue and I hopped on I-5 to go home....and I immediately got off as I saw these photos running through my brain as I glanced over Lake Union at the City looking all purdy-like with it's lights aglow.

Let's solve the Clue caper: It was Bryan at Gas Works Park with the Nikon

Cool stuff...

Mayhem is fun

2010-12-16T07:29:00.000-08:00

The 1st two photos below are 2 of the most incredible photos I have ever seen in my life...and I captured them.

Go large on these photos, folks...you won't be disappointed.

More to come...

Steel Wool

2010-12-14T07:50:00.000-08:00

This is the 1st and only frame I captured last night of this fun new photo technique. Big thanks to my brother in law Ben for manning the camera; he grabbed a brilliant photo.

Take a pad of fine steel wool, attach it to the end of a chain, touch a 9V battery to the wool to ignite it, spin in a circle and take a picture of the light show.

More to come later...

YouTube Tuesday: Daft Punk / TRON

2010-11-23T03:33:00.000-08:00

I think I'm more looking forward to the soundtrack than the movie...but in any case, here's a little clip for the upcoming TRON movie whose soundtrack was done completely by the insane Daft Punk (the "DJ's" in the booth in this video, in case you didn't know). BTW, I think it's awesome how Daft Punk have been wearing the same costumes forever and you plop them in this movie and don't have to make a single adjustment; it's like they were created so long ago to be in the new TRON movie. This is the only tune officially released thus far but if the rest of the soundtrack is 1/2 as good as this song I might just put in on loop for the entire day when it comes out in a couple weeks. Oh yeah and I'm sure the movie will be good, too, but seriously: DAFT. PUNK.

Oh and in case you want to listen offline, here's a link to download the song above: Derezzed.

A-Z Project: D is for DAIKON

2010-11-21T22:25:00.000-08:00

As in: Shrimp and Daikon Salad with Ume-Shiso Dressing

D wasn't that difficult, simply because I couldn't think of anything off the top of my head other than daikon. Sure, if I dug around I'd find dates or...whatever else starts with D...but I really wanted to do daikon so it was convenient.

Japanese radish by day, R&B star by night

What's up with daikon? (For the record, I think daikon sounds like the name of an R&B or hip-hop star but let's stay on track here) Daikon is a big white radish from Japan. It doesn't have a ton of flavor but I guess the fall and winter roots offer more flavor than those from spring and summer; bonus. It's a little peppery, firm and crispy and is just as good served raw as cooked. My first impression tasting it raw was a real crispy arugula flavor but not nearly as strong; the pepper is certainly there.

I actually pulled this recipe straight from Gourmet Magazine and cooked it exactly as written. Sidenote: it's becoming clear as I do this project that since I desire to cook unknown or little used ingredients I'll be utilizing more recipes than I initially intended. Maybe not exactly as written, but I'd rather use recipes over just forcing something to work with a recipe or preparation method I typically like to make. Imagine how delicious the grilled daikon tacos would have been!

Umeboshi paste, shiso leaves. Cue up The Vapors on iTunes

There's an Uwajimaya 2 miles from here so it was super simple to get everything. I love that place even though the local store is showing it's age big time and is about as haphazard as the playlists I create. But, it still retains that quirky, cozy, neighborhood market feel that has been part of it's charm since we first moved here in the early 90's; it's certainly nothing like the downtown location (which is super rad). I've always liked Japanese food and flavors and I find myself digging deeper into that cuisine more and more and having Uwajimaya close by makes it really easy to fall in love with food that many people shy away from simply because there's a lot of confusion about what to buy, how to cook it, etc. Sushi and teriyaki aren't the only great foods from Japan, trust me...

Here's what I used:

Daikon
Shrimp
Mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine)
Rice Vinegar
Umeboshi plum vinegar
Umeboshi plum paste
Shiso Leaves
Soy Sauce
Brown Sugar
Vegetable Oil

Anyway, this was by far the easiest preparation yet. Basically, it's just thinly sliced daikon with grilled shrimp and a simple dressing based on umeboshi (they taste pretty much identical to plums if you ask me). That's it. If it took me 20 minutes preparation to make this entire dish I'd be surprised. But, it tasted fantastic. The daikon has a faint peppery taste and the dressing was deliciously sweet with umeboshi and the taste you just couldn't put your finger on had to be the shiso leaves. The super crispy texture of the thinly cut daikon (thank you mandoline slicer) paired with the firm shrimp made this unlike your typical soft and squishy lettuce-based salad with a protein, but in a really good way.

Plating change, still good looking

The flavors were great, it looked really nice and it was wicked easy to prepare which by my scoring makes the "D" dish a big success. I will certainly be making this salad again and would recommend this to anyone looking to expand your culinary horizons and sample some flavors not very common in our typical diets.

So, onward to "E" and for any Top Chef fans from this last season I don't think I need to tell you what controversial ingredient we'll be using.

Girl Talk

2010-11-17T07:10:00.000-08:00

Go download this now. Expand your horizons, if you're not already familiar with Gril Talk. It's free and there's something for everyone: 373 samples in 70 minutes of music.

http://illegal-art.net/allday/

That is all.

A-Z Project: C is for CHANTERELLES

2010-11-15T18:55:00.000-08:00

Nicole of Readily Edible fame (fantastic blog...go check it out...often) was in town and somehow this project came up in conversation. I indicated that C was a real tough letter with so many great choices out there. Crab, corn, chorizo, coffee, carrot, clam, chevre, chives and myriad other ingredients made choosing one really difficult. She threw another into the mix: chanterelle mushrooms as they're both local and currently in season. Thanks, Nicole; that really helped me narrow it down.

But this got me thinking: why settle? Why compromise and just choose 1 ingredient? Sure, I had to choose an "official" one to put in the title (we're going with chanterelles, BTW) but this post is going to be a C MONSTER of sorts as we build a dish as plentiful in C ingredients as the PNW is plentiful in Subarus (likely my next car...but that's another post). I already had this dish in mind but why not just throw another C in there for good measure. We're making a wonderful crab, chanterelle and corn chowder garnished with crème fraiche and chives. How's that for not compromising?

As will be the case with many of the 26 star ingredients, I don't cook with them often if at all; chanterelles are no exception. I've cooked a few pastas where you throw a bunch of wild mushrooms (chanterelles included) in good EVOO, sauté them up and flick them up off the lip of the pan whilst sprinkling in some red pepper flakes and sea salt with intense focus and wow your date who now thinks you're Jamie Oliver without the cheeky accent (<--great visual, Bryan) and it goes over famously....but I digress. Long story short: I've never cooked just chanterelles.

What's so special about chanterelles? Well, they're local and in season but more importantly they pair very well with both the sweet corn and the crab and love to be cooked in a fat; bonus! They're a wild mushroom so they're automatically going to have that earthy and rich flavor unlike typical button mushrooms but they're also a bit sweeter and have a very nice flavor; magic things happen when you let them meet the naturally sweet crab and corn in the creamy chowder base to make everything that much better.

Ingredients:
Chanterelle mushrooms
Crab meat (dungeness)
Corn
Potatoes
Leeks
Onions
Celery (another C ingredient...meh)
Butter
Heavy whipping cream
Stock (chicken...it's easy)
Bacon (THE bacon, of course)
Crème fraiche
Chives (for garnish)

This is what corn should look like

OK, there are a few things in this world you need to do when cooking, no matter what. When cooking corn on the cob, throw it on the grill, PERIOD. Don't boil it, don't nuke it, don't use any other cooking method. Inclement weather be damned: use the grill. Oh, and you better get a char on a healthy portion of the kernels or you're doing it wrong...trust me on this: I'm a professional, and I most likely enjoy cooking/eating corn more than you.

This chowder is all about the animal fat. With copious amounts of butter, cream, bacon and crème fraiche it's a United Nations of fat but damn does it taste GREAT. The combo of sweet corn that's smoky from getting charred on the grill (method to the madness, people) along with the salty and smoky bacon, veggies cooked in the rendered bacon fat, earthy & rich chanterelles and finally the uber-sweet crabmeat all swimming in a creamy pool of awesomeness is...well...awesome. I considered using clams but crab is so much better and when I think PNW I don't think clam chowder; SF or Boston can have that claim to fame, we'll claim crab. Dungeness crab has quickly become one of my favorite proteins and up here it's just out of this world good; I doubt I'd have fallen so hard for it being farther from the source.

Preparation was tedious but not difficult; time consuming is more like it. Overall I think I cooked it well and my efforts paid off with a damn good chowder on a cold and windy late fall day. It was maybe a bit TOO sweet but the bacon reminds you that it's still got plenty of savory goodness and the chanterelles certainly brought a great deal of flavor and I'm stoked to have added them to this dish. That'll do, Bryan.

D should be easier...

Chow.

A-Z Project: B is for BUTTERNUT SQUASH

2010-11-01T07:39:00.000-07:00

As in: Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Crispy Chorizo

There are a few letters in this project that are gonna be tough choices like kicking someone off Top Chef with only 3 left. B is one of those letters. Since I'm trying to stick with seasonal ingredients/dishes as much as possible I decided to go with butternut squash. I really wanted to do bacon for B but c'mon; probably 1/2 the savory dishes I'm going to create will involve bacon so no need to highlight it. Beef was considered, buffalo, beans, blackberry, blood orange...the list is deep, that's for sure. But, butternut squash was gonna be a good choice. It's an ingredient I never cook with, it's local/seasonal, there are good recipes out there for it, so I went with it and have no regrets. But damn: how could I pass up bacon like that?

There are a ton of recipes out there for a classic butternut squash soup so I just made my own. The components of a soup like this are pretty simple and as with anything it comes down to how everything tastes so we're gonna wing it.

What I really wanted in this dish was something to compliment the butternut squash. A soup like this is good but it could really do with some help; help from something that's say...oh, I don't know...not a vegetable?? Enter chorizo. Lovely, spicy, cured chorizo. I could have done chorizo for C but C is quite possibly the most difficult letter in this project in terms of narrowing down the choices. More on that in the next A-Z post. Let's get back to the task at hand.

The soup is a pretty simple list of ingredients: butternut squash, celery, onion, carrot, stock, fresh thyme. Roast the butternut squash until it's fork tender then scoop it out and throw it in a stock pot with the other veggies you sauteed while the oven was doing it's roast thing, add some chicken stock, boil it for a few minutes and you're done. Next is the fun part: immersion blender. Blend it up until it's silky smooth, serve it up with the chorizo you crisped up in a fry-pan and you've got a damn good dinner.

I'm really pleased with this soup. It was crazy simple but as with most simple things, it was delicious. I really enjoy the balance of opposites in a dish; it really makes each individual ingredient that much better. The onions and butternut squash were really sweet but then throw in the uber-salty and spicy chorizo and it was heaven. The crisped up chorizo also played nicely with the really silky smooth consistency of the soup so that was an added bonus.

Oh and I screwed up the photo shoot on this one. The camera was dead from a day of shooting when I went to snap photos of the cooking process so I plugged in the battery and got enough juice for a couple photos and really only liked the one you see here; next time you'll get more...promise.

I'd give you the recipe, but frankly I don't really have one. Just make your own; it's ultra-easy and pretty hard to screw up. I do highly recommend roasting the butternut squash, though, as it really pulls out that sweetness and the edges near the skin get caramelized and intensify the sweetness of the butternut, which as Martha would say "is a good thing."

Not looking forward to the hard decision that will be the letter C.

Until next time...

Chow

Light Graffiti, Take 2...

2010-10-26T21:39:00.000-07:00

OK, this is ridiculous. I'm having too much fun with this technique and starting to get the hang of it. Next step: grab a tripod and take the show outside...

Click 'em to embiggen 'em.

Enjoi.

YouTube Tuesday: AC/DC Excel

2010-10-26T04:42:00.000-07:00

Someone has too much time on their hands...but I really like it. Get back to creating my TPS reports and stop wasting time.

OMG...new photography obsession...

2010-10-25T21:58:00.000-07:00

Light graffiti. The concept is simple:

Go to a dark spot, crank your aperture as wide as it will go, set the shutter REALLY slow, "paint" with any source of light you want like an LED flashlight, mobile phone, etc. and create graffiti with light...and Bob's your uncle (Google that).

These are 5 of the 1st 7 shots I took...I still have no clue what I'm doing; Google "light graffiti" and be blown away by what others are doing. The settings on all photos are within a stop of these settings and the conditions were:

10-second exposure
f/3.8
27mm focal length
Auto ISO (I f'd that up...should have cranked it down to 200 to keep the obvious noise out of the photo)
LED flashlight
Pure darkness in the room

I can't talk...I'm too busy working up ideas...look at these...be inspired...

(as always, click photo to embiggen them to actual size)

A-Z Project: A is for APPLES

2010-10-24T18:51:00.000-07:00

Well, here we go.

It's deep into fall, here in the PNW (Pacific Northwest, if you're not in the know) and I actually think it's fall everywhere else in the Northern hemisphere, though I never knew it for the last 9 years living in SoCal where it's perpetually stuck somewhere between late spring and early fall year-round. The leaves are setting a spectacular backdrop of red, yellow, green and orange across the azure sky as the cool fall breeze sets them in motion and the technicolor leaves flutter to the ground and create a blanket of color just waiting to be raked up and jumped in. Yeah, I dig fall in case you didn't read between the lines over the last couple sentences.

What says fall in the PNW more perfectly than apples? Nothing. So, we're using them as the 1st ingredient. It is low hanging fruit and I could have gone with asparagus or arctic char or artichokes? Sure, but apples are way cooler and more versatile and I like cooking with them so there. After seeing Bittman's podcast devoted to scones a couple weeks ago and then stumbling onto this recipe I decided it was a sign that scones were the delivery vehicle for the 1st ingredient in the project.

I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen and was instantly intrigued: apples and cheddar cheese in a scone? It was sort of a freakshow which means you just have to check it out and I'm glad I did. I followed the recipe pretty much as-is (it's baking, after all) but my big substitute was for Beecher's Flagship as the cheese. Again, we're in the PNW so let's use local ingredients as much as possible; you will undoubtedly see this cheese again before the end of this project as I fell madly in love with it the first time I tried it. I also used whole wheat flour (eh, wish I used all purpose instead) and opted for the goldencrisp apples we just picked up over the go-to cooking apple the Granny Smith.

How were they? Awesome. The savory from the cheese, the sweet from the sugar and the apple, the tartness, it really worked. I'm not a baker (more a candlestick maker, myself) and I don't know how much I'll be baking throughout this project but these were a big success.

So, it's on to B. No clue what I'm doing just yet but there are some good ideas floating around that I'm looking at. There are still some kinks in the process, the kitchen is a total PITA for taking photos with the incandescent lighting and other little things I'd like to work on but I'll probably get it all nailed down by Q maybe M if I'm lucky.

Chow.

SRW

2010-10-22T08:53:00.000-07:00

So, I didn't used to really enjoy food all that much. I ate plain things and not a wide variety of foods; cheese pizza, chicken fingers and really anything chicken were all I'd want to eat. I'm still a bit picky (some stuff I just can't do) and I still really love cheese pizza over most (that's a whole other blog post) but I've recently in the last couple years truly started expanding my culinary horizons and it's been great. What I'll eat now is so vast compared to say even 5 years ago and it never ceases to surprise friends and family what I'll order or even what I'll cook for dinner; it ain't chicken fingers, that's for sure. Most of all, I enjoy the art of cooking and cuisine. I don't eat out all that often but when I do I'd rather treat myself to something special and experience true artisans doing what they do best: create delicious, beautiful, edible art. Cue SRW.

This week started Seattle Restaurant Week and I'm stoked. There are 100 restaurants participating and they are some of the finest restaurants to experience in Seattle; Chili's, Claim Jumper and P.F Chang's aren't gonna make the cut. Several of the locations offer 3-course lunch menus for $15 while all of them offer $25 3-course dinner menus that showcase the chef's talents and the cuisine that you can experience there at any time. Really, it's just a big marketing event but it is brilliant and wildly successful for the restaurants and patrons. The opportunity to eat at these world class restaurants and sample a full 3-course meal for a price that in most cases is probably 50% less than what you should be paying is awesome. They get you hooked on coming back, you get a cheap(er) meal that's out of this world and it opens your eyes and palette to truly brilliant cuisine from some of the world's most talented and recognized chefs.

Sadly, I'm low on funds right now so my being able to eat at a new place every night ain't gonna happen this time around but I will get to sample a couple places. Yesterday I went with my good friend Amy to The Pink Door down near the Market for lunch and it was incredible. Their lasagna cannot be described; it is fantastic as was the eggplant relish with Marcona almonds. YUM.

If you're here in the Seattle area you owe it to yourself to go check it out before it's done; it's worth every penny. I guess there's a 2nd SRW in the spring that I am setting my sights on and saving up the funds so I can sample many of the restaurants that I've had on my list to try for quite some time now.

YouTube Tuesday: Dungeness Crab Spaghetti from Del Posto

2010-10-19T04:42:00.000-07:00

Here's a cool video of the entire process of making the Dungeness Crab Spaghetti at Del Postro. It's strangely fascinating and I'd very much like to try this dish when I someday make it to Del Postro.

Let's Cook From A-Z, Shall We?

2010-10-13T06:58:00.000-07:00

This should be fun.

I love to cook. I love gimmicks. I'm a crafty, creative mofo, far more than my choice of occupation would lead you to believe. With that said, I have a fun new project I'm embarking on.

I will be cooking a main dish (or side dish, which will really be the showcase item) from A to Z, in order. I'm not going to cheat and serve 3 items and knock 3 letters off the list at a time because that's just lame. Some letters will be a bitch but I'll make it work, trust me. It's going to take some time but it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm sure I'm not the only person that's ever done this but I'm the first person I know that's done it, so that's something.

I won't use simple low hanging fruit (C is for Corn) but will use it as the inspiration for a dish (C is for Corn Chowder with Chorizo and Chiles) that hopefully showcases the specific food item beautifully. The point here is to showcase a specific food in a dish, not just reference that it's in there. No, they won't all be alliterative as in the previous example; that would be a bit too kitschy, even for me.

I will be photographing the project as best I can with the Nikon and hopefully providing some beautiful photography along the way with some delicious dishes and good narrative to make it interesting. Oh and for the most part I don't use recipes when I cook I just sort of make it up as I go, just as you should when cooking; it's art, not science, people. With that said, if I use a recipe or base my dish off a particular recipe I will be sure to post it but don't expect much. If you've ever cooked with me or I've cooked for you, you know what to expect.

So, hang tight and very shortly we'll be posting the 1st dish both here and on Facebook.

SoDo Graffiti Wall

2010-10-13T04:45:00.000-07:00

My latest photo adventure was in search of a wonderful art-form: graffiti. Not necessarily the gang-banger tagging type but more of the artistic type; people that given an assignment could create some super rad art anywhere you wanted using spraypaint, markers, brushes, you name it.

I read online that there's this wall in SoDo on the back of an industrial building between Starbucks HQ and the Amtrak rail line that's a "free wall" or somewhere that graffiti artists can do their thing without fear of static from the authorities or by defacing public property (if they cared about that sort of thing).

Well, I hit jackpot. The wall is insane. What's here transcends the simple name "graffiti" and really should be called art. I snapped 175 photos in about an hour and a half and was really pleased with the results.

Check out the Picasa album here and trust me: the photos don't do this wall justice.

YouTube Tuesday: Banksy Simpsons Intro

2010-10-12T04:07:00.000-07:00

Banksy is a graffiti/street artist from the UK, in case you didn't know. Actually, nobody knows who he is; his identity, whereabouts and where his art will appear are unknown. His images are legendary and without knowing it you've probably come across some of them at some point in time. There's always controversy, political and social commentary, juxtaposition and all sort of counter-culture references in his work but I love them; they are visually stunning. Anyway...

He was asked to direct the opening credits/intro to the Simpsons a couple nights ago and oh boy, did they get Banksy. Check out this very dark intro that's super cool, weird and, well...Banksy.

Leaves are Waterproof

2010-10-10T21:36:00.000-07:00

This is by far one of my favorite photos of the year; maybe one of the best photographs I've ever taken. It rained all day yesterday and today I went outside and found this leaf sitting next to the grill and it sparked a little photo session with the fun water effects on a tree out front. Untouched, it's brilliant from the colors to the water effects to the composition. It's certainly going to make my portfolio. Click on the photo to embiggen it and get the real flavor of this one...

That'll do, Bryan.

YouTube Tuesday: UPS guy ain't shit

2010-09-28T02:42:00.000-07:00

OK, so the UPS guy just lost his job. He should have lost it years ago for that Euro-douche haircut and smart, business-casual wardrobe but now there's no excuse; his whiteboard drawing skills are no match for what's below.

Gas Works Photo Adventure Spectacular Thing

2010-09-27T11:22:00.000-07:00

About 8 years ago now I bought a Nikon D70 DSLR. I'd been interested in photography for a while and had the disposable income so I took the plunge. Oddly enough, I had to take the plunge twice as the first one was stolen from my truck in Palm Springs, so that was a nice surprise. So much for buying another lens with that money. I digress...

I used it off/on for a while then it sort of sat in the closet in favor of the far more convenient and versatile point and shoot except for special occasions. I dunno, I think a lot of it was lack of motivation and good things to shoot that were close by. There are only so many photos you can grab of shitty HB surf and while there were some great sunsets that was about it; I just wasn't motivated to hop in the car and go somewhere and take some cool photos. Oh, I still loved to take photos but I just wasn't feeling it like I was when I first got the camera, which is sad.

Well, this past weekend the weather was stellar here so I decided to go out and shoot some real photographs at Gas Works Park in Seattle. This adventure reminded me of a few things:

Seattle is such a cool city
I really love photography
I'm pretty good at taking photographs

Gas Works is a photography playground. There are so many cool colors, structures, funky angles and shapes, silly graffitti and wide open green-space in the steampunk sort of throwback to an earlier time in this cool city that it makes taking great photographs a much easier process as a lot of the work is already done for you, it's just up to you to capture it.

From Gas Works

Along those lines, I'm not too shabby with a camera. It comes naturally, I guess, that I have great composition skills when it comes to filling a frame and capturing an image; just sort of know what looks right and it's always gratifying to see great images you captured. I've weened myself off using the auto-focus and will eventually ditch the camera's metering assistance and go full manual but who knows if that's totally necessary; technology can be pretty handy. I've got friends that are semi-professional photogs and an aunt that is in the same boat and I think I'll be spending time with them to help get me up to speed on the technical side of photography so I can use more of the buttons and dials on the camera more effectively than I currently do.

From Gas Works

Here are the photos from the 300 I took but whittled down to about 70 that were what I felt were the best works.

http://bit.ly/cfAASe

Facebook compresses everything so it's kind of hard to really get a feel for some of these photos there but you're welcome to check that album out, too. You know how to find it.

More photography outings to come in the future...

Enjoi.

The Zero Sum Game that is LIFE

2010-09-23T23:24:00.000-07:00

I love metaphors. Well, maybe this isn’t a metaphor, but I don’t know what to call it so we’re gonna call it a metaphor. Get over it.

This metaphor deals with one of the most crucial aspects of my professional career: the concept of the zero sum game. In effect, the zero sum game says that for every dollar gained an equal dollar is lost. So if I make $350 on a trade, some other guy will have lost $350. He may have been up $1,000 and got knocked down to a net of $650 or he may be -$350 but in some way, the guy at the other end of the trade lost the same as I made. So, we have a net of $0 ($350 made - $350 lost) and at the end when a contract expires the accounting has an equal debit (sellers) and credit (buyers) amount. It’s brilliant, actually.

Our metaphor comes in how this relates to my life, or any life really. You see, my life in the last few months has been crazy; I don’t need to rehash it because you all read this blog religiously *wink wink* and understand all the stuff that’s gone on, both good and bad. Actually, it's been crazy for years; maybe even my entire life, really. This got me thinking how your life really is a zero-sum game on an inner-personal level; nevermind the outside world, we’re just talking about you or at least those things that are directly related to your life.

Today I started remembering everything that's happened and maybe even feeling a little sad or nostalgic for my old life and all that I’ve lost over the last few years. Actually, It wasn’t feeling sad for what I lost, it was more thinking about all that I’ve gained in this new life (happiness, health, a job I love, eagerness to see the new world around me and share all this happiness with others...you read the blog, you know) and the person that is the new or reawakened and better Me. But, I stopped and glanced over my shoulder and saw the wreckage that was a previous life; what I don’t have any more. At that point, it dawned on me: that was the price paid for all that I have now. All the money I’ve lost in chasing my dreams and keeping me afloat, the time, the stress, the agony, sadness, loss of a relationship, my dog, leaving California and all those friends behind, the surfing, sun, In-n-Out Burger, 90mph on the freeways…all those things were lost or used as payment for all that I have now; a true zero sum game.

However, what’s not told about the zero sum game are the intangibles; those things than cannot be measured in dollars and cents, at least in actual trading. In every trade there’s an equal dollar amount that’s gained and lost but there are also lessons learned, experience gained, wisdom added to your bag of tricks. These things have no monetary value but they maybe have something more important than monetary value as they make you a better trader. In theory (if you’re doing it right) you’ll pull from these intangibles and not make the mistakes that found you on the losing end of a trade or you'll know when to trade or when to wait and you become a better, more successful trader.

When I remembered that, it changed everything; the nostalgia and feeling of loss was gone in an instant. It reminded me of all that I’ve gained but more importantly learned through the process of getting me to where I am with what I’ve got, and I’ll be the first to tell you, I’ve got a lot that isn’t measured in dollars and cents. The happiness and positivity I have, the clarity, the determination, confidence, bravado, focus…I gained all of that from the winning, but mostly the losing trades I’ve made in my life and it’s paying dividends monetarily and otherwise each and every day. It’s brilliant how it all works, really.

In effect, I traded with my life and I came out ahead. But there was a great cost that was paid to get to where I am now. What makes me better than I was-- than I’ve ever been--are those intangibles; the lessons learned, the wisdom gained and knowing what I want from my life is more important than the “stuff” I lost.

So while there is and may always be some feeling of loss for those things, it’s OK because all that I learned and gained from those trades that cannot be put on a balance sheet is worth far more to me moving forward than I could ever put a value on.

The zero sum game really is tricky in that respect: you never really find out what you truly gained until the next trade…

Bottomless cup of coffee?

2010-09-21T07:23:00.000-07:00

Yup. I found it at Bed Bath & Beyond; it exists.

This Changes EVERYTHING

2010-09-13T15:10:00.000-07:00

So, for the last 3 years I've been reinventing myself in a professional sense. Mortgage business went to shit, I hated it so it was fantastic timing...except the part where you had to start over, not make any money and all that fun stuff. I digress...

When I first started trading I did penny stocks; the meth of the trading world. Cheap, fast, not very respected by the other users/traders and ultimately, hugely unsatisfying. I then switched to more "traditional" stocks, which was certainly a step up but still not my bag. They relied so much on fundamentals and while they could be traded successfully on a technical level (like I do) the amount of games, idiots and trickery that could be found in any given day all but negated the edges technical analysis offered. There's a reason that trading has a stigma attached to it as gambling: and it's because of stocks/equities.

Enter futures. This was where to be; these were instruments that could be traded successfully on a technical level, were far more civilized and had far fewer--but more focused--traders in the markets and it was the perfect fit for me. I don't follow the beaten path and futures were anything but the beaten path; how many of you can honestly tell me what a futures contract is and how they work and are traded? My point exactly.

I struggled with my charting software and even coded some strategies of my own to no avail; I was always missing something...a puzzle of Mount Rushmore without Abe Lincolns face, if that makes any sense. Enter Bill Schamp. I randomly found him on a message board and was very intrigued by what he was doing because it was very similar to what I was doing by myself, but he'd perfected it...he had the missing puzzle pieces I longed for. This was in the late spring of 2009 and since he took me under his wing and I started using his indicators and learned his trading methodology I've found my special purpose.

Working with him has been a very eye opening experience with highs, lows, frustration, elation, you name it. There are less than 200 of us that have been taught these methods and trade this indicator so I feel incredibly fortunate to be one of those traders and my running into Bill through a random message on a trading forum is anything but luck; these events were set into motion long before I could do anything about it and I was completely oblivious that the gears were turning behind the scenes and our paths were on a collision course for quite some time.

Bill has been working on a new version of his indicator for a long time now and it's finally complete. He's spent 15+ years developing his method and coded it into this indicator and the current version is the final product; the polished version with 15+ years of knowledge and testing put into it's creation and development. The way it works and the logic behind it is not all that different than the old one, just slightly more refined and this indicator offers one very important new feature: entry/exit labeling. That may not make sense to you, but let me put in in layman terms for you:

It tells me to buy and I click buy.
It tells me to sell and I click sell.

That's it. There's no guesswork, no interpreting what you see on the screen, no worrying that you made the wrong choice, none of that stress. They call indicators like this "red-light / green-light systems" as you literally just sit and follow what it tells you to do. In that respect, a system like this could make anybody a successful trader so long as they can read and click a BUY or SELL button.

Now, it's not THAT easy as now my skills must be leveraged to identify the right markets to trade each morning, which instruments, what position size and such which is probably more important than the actual execution of the trades. But, a great deal of the stress and hesitation that cripples any trader (pulling the trigger) has now been relieved and I get to leverage my analytical skills and work on unleashing this Rosetta Stone on the markets I've spent 3 years watching, learning and loving that were always just THAT much out of my reach to truly become successful.

I'm calling it Virtual Bill as it's like having this guy that has worked on this trading methodology and indicator for 15+ years sitting right next to you telling you when he would be entering and exiting trades. Imagine being a chef and having Jonathan Waxman in your kitchen telling you what to add to the recipe and when, a driving enthusiast with Michael Schumacher sitting beside you instructing you when to brake and shift. You get the idea.

You do NOT want to be on the other side of my trade...

All my hard work, dedication, sacrifice, gains/losses, learning, patience, stress, trust/faith that what I'm doing was the right thing for me was all endured for this very day. This indicator is the reward for myself and all the other traders that signed up with this old coot from rural Ohio who many called a hack because his methods were so far from the norm that people disregarded them as impossible to work and his results impossible to achieve but I believed in what I was seeing with my own eyes and here I am. I hold in my hand a key that will unlock doors that I've stared at my entire life, wondering what was on the other side and whether I would ever open them. Now, there's no question IF I'm going to open them but WHEN and how soon I will open them...

In short, this changes EVERYTHING.

It's been 1 Week

2010-09-07T21:06:00.000-07:00

I hope you're all singing BNL right now...cuz I am...

So, I've been in Redmond a week now; 9 days, to be exact. It feels like it's been longer, to be honest and I don't know why.

It's been an action packed week meeting up with friends constantly, seeing family, reacquainting myself with the area, discovering new areas of Seattle; all that fun stuff. All in all it's been great. It really feels like home, or as much as a place can feel after a week. I guess by that it means that I don't feel like I'm on vacation; like this is just some trip and I'll be loading the stuff up and driving back to SoCal anytime soon.

I haven't made up my mind on way or another on where I'll be calling home on a permanent basis but this neck of the woods (the PNW) is certainly the front runner at this point. The more I think about it the more I wonder what's for me down in SoCal. I do certainly miss my friends dearly, even after 1 week and I miss the dog but being home again just feels right...even if that means having to make a tough decision to leave those things in SoCal behind.

So, that's it. Boring blog post, I know, but hang in there. As I further assimilate myself into this new world and get some exciting trading stuff all up and running I'll be able to write more.

Chow.

Running in the PNW is much harder than in HB

2010-09-02T22:55:00.000-07:00

I went for my first run on Monday here in the new neighborhood. Wow: we're not in Kansas anymore, or HB as it were (both have the same lovely elevation changes). The elevation changes around this neighborhood are insane...like "why the hell am I running?" insane. They won't stop me, but they'll sure as hell slow me down. I ran about 3 miles the first day (gimme a break, I haven't run or worked out in over a week) and it took me probably twice as long as it should have if I were back in HB. I didn't even venture out of the neighborhood onto the major streets (Northup or 24th) and it's like I was running a Six Flags ride: great on the way down, hell on the way up.

Today I conquered "The Hill" aka 24th and ran to Mom's office so 4.7 miles plus a little extra thrown in for good measure and I was destroyed. I'd eventually like to make this the daily route as it's a nice length and the 3 no-joke hills thrown in there are total ass-kickers and will make the run a real workout.

In any event, I bought a Nike+ senor for THE shoes of all shoes to help keep me honest and help track what I do. My goals are to run 25 miles every 2 weeks to start and I'll eventually work on getting that same amount in over 1 week. It's a lofty goal for a new runner but I'm a lofty goal kind of guy. My crazy running spree of a few weeks ago will be difficult to keep up, at least around here; the hills are a major bitch. But, it's already getting easier to run the "normal" hills and eventually the major hills I can run faster than an 80 y/o runs on flat land.

More later, but here are a couple photos of some of the more interesting parts of the route...

Trail running is a nice change...

"The Hill" (24th street) is tons of fun...

I'm home

2010-08-31T17:05:00.000-07:00

70.4 mph avg. speed is hardly accurate...damn LA traffic and city streets along the way messed that up

After 1,205 miles, driving 17 hours and 52 minutes over 2 days I'm home. How does it feel? Great.

Immediately, here are my observations in the first few days...

This has yet to be proven as "difficult" as one would expect for uprooting a life and moving away from a place and a life established over 9 years. Maybe that answers whether I think I made the "right" decision in leaving California. Maybe it hints at what my ultimate decision will be, as well.

I love the weather. The drive up provided fantastic weather and a stop in Portland was a perfect PNW summer day. Sunday, however, it was a typical PNW fall day (on August 29th...go figure) but I loved it. Light jacket, jeans, hat on an overcast and windy day...I'll take that any day. Today it's cold and raining and I couldn't care less; I'm loving it. It might get old and I might miss 80-degree days being the norm but right now I can't get enough.

It is so much f*cking cleaner up here it's sick. No trash on the sides of the road, no graffiti, no beat-to-hell roads, no '83 Datsun pickups piled 6' high with recyclables or junk, the sky is blue, the air clean...I could go on and on but you get the point.

People drive faster than I remember, which is a good thing. Everyone in SoCal drives like a bat out of hell and you just sort of go with the speedy flow of traffic and it always seems like people do that up here but at 60-65mph. Well, it would seem that a lot of CA transplants have spread the speeding gospel and the WA folk are eating it up and seeing that the grass really is greener the faster you drive. Win.

Tortillas are not found at every restaurant. Muy bueno.

My packing several pairs of sandals is laughable as is the thin selection of long-sleeved items I've amassed in SoCal.

I miss Brisbane.

I miss the ocean.

I feel like a kid again.

More thoughts later...

I'm taking my talents to Seattle

2010-08-26T08:05:00.000-07:00

So, tomorrow I'm leaving California. I'm putting all my stuff in storage and driving North with clothes and my computers (so I can work/trade) and a whole lotta eagerness to start a new chapter in my life both personally and professionally. Right now it's not a permanent move but I also know it's not a guarantee that I'll be moving back to SoCal. I'll spend the next few months unwinding and spending some quality time with my family who I've been away from for 15 years now and just figuring out where I want to hang my hat. I'm lucky in this regard as I can be anywhere in the world doing my job so I truly can follow my heart and be anywhere and everywhere I want or need to be.

Through my efforts in trading I've arrived on the stage and been handed the metaphorical diploma that states that I've become a trading samurai and it's time for me to unleash that knowledge and skill in the markets and really see what this thing can do, not just trade sporadically or when I feel like it as I do now. I liken the last 2 years of my life to becoming a fighter pilot who 2 years ago knew only the basic concepts of flight (you need lift, propulsion, and some other stuff, right?) and now has the knowledge and the skill to fly the most technologically advanced and effective aircraft ever created; a knowledge and skill that's only been bestowed upon less than 200 others. Really cool shit...

Personally? Well, this is maybe just as exciting a time as it is professionally; possibly more so. The last month or so has been spent focusing on ME and my desires, my wants, my needs and re-discovering the "real" me that's always been inside and I've shared a great deal of with the world...but always held back in some way. Maybe it was because I was afraid of what others might think, I sacrificed my needs/desires or aspects of my personality to make others happy or I was just too scared to really put myself out there. Well, those days are gone. I've been living my life recently, being myself and it feels great.

Maybe what's more exciting is what living my life and sending all this crazy energy and intentions out there has given me. Friends I'd lost track of have found me, I'm in great shape, I'm eating healthy, strangers laugh at my jokes, I get good parking spots, the lines are shorter at In-n-Out; the important stuff. Basically, I'm getting back what I'm putting out there and that's A LOT.

There's this energy that's flowing through me right now that's hard to explain. Most nights, I'm sleeping about 3-4 hours yet I wake up at 5:30 to start making the donuts and I'm wired; I can't spend the energy fast enough to wear me out. Not that it's really a bad thing, mind you. I've been working out a ton, doing more yoga, running, surfing and whatever activities I can find that are better uses of my time than sitting around doing nothing. As a result I'm in the best shape of my life. I never would have thought at 33 I'd be stronger and in better shape than I was when I was throwing trash for my Dad every summer through HS and college. I ran 10 miles the other day and my previous best was maybe 5-6 with breaks thrown in to save me from collapse; usually it's 1.5. I repeated the feat, but faster, 2 days later. My next goal is to try a 1/2 marathon; why not. Last week I logged over 30 miles which probably was my total for the last 2 months. I'm writing a lot, I'm connecting with people, I'm listening to music constantly--some new, some old--, I'm inspired, excited and just going with the flow; doing what feels right and what I want. I'm not forcing anything; I'm just being me and putting my trust out there that what happens, happens, be it good or bad. I'm accepting of my faults, my shortcomings and can laugh at myself and just be OK with being who I am, whoever that is. Shit, gang, it feels incredible and I'm really stoked to be me.

Basically, right now, this is a pretty incredible time to know me. If you don't know me I encourage you to do what you can to learn more; it's not boring, that's for sure. I think if I could take a version of myself and put it in a time capsule or something I'd take the version that's writing this blog entry. It's really gratifying and exciting to know that I'm hitting my stride in so many ways and that each day gets better and there's so much out there for me right now.

So you'll see a lot on here from me over the next few months I'm in Seattle as I attempt to document my life and my journey as best I can and share all this excitement that is my life; the life I want.

I'll see ya in Seattle...

Bryan, bmills, Killah B, Bry, B, Mills, Buzz or whatever else you may call me

Foodspotting gets the 2.0 moniker and is better than ever

2010-08-20T07:51:00.000-07:00

A while back I told you about Foodspotting. Do you remember that post? OK, well here's your bullet points:

You take photos of a specific food/dish at a restaurant
You upload those photos to the Foodspotting site along with a little description of the food, if you're feeling randy
People can then look for foods around them or at specific restaurants and see photos of the yummy food you just snapped a photo of

They came out with an iPhone app a few months ago and it was OK, but it was buggy and lacked a lot of functionality and features you'd expect. Well, 3 days ago they came out with version 2.0 of both the site and the iPhone app and both are bad-ass improvements.

I loved the site and the concept before, now I'm shopping for the ring. It's such a great idea and the way it integrates with iPhone (Android, soon) Twitter and Facebook are extremely well executed. It's insanely fun to look at some of the dishes around the world and search for dishes that have been spotted near you; I've searched out dishes and restaurants from photos on the site and am glad I did; the photos really did them justice. I've bookmarked foods from all over the place to try when I'm anywhere near them and the guides provided by foodspotters, famous chefs and so forth for various cities really give you a chance to find not only the restaurants you should visit but see photos of the dishes that these people recommend. Sofa King cool.

So if you have iPhone you have no excuse to not use this app (it's free) and even if you don't there's no reason you shouldn't become a foodspotter and snap photos of your food and share them with the rest of the world, especially if you're visiting a place that's not yet known to the Foodspotting community.

Run, Bryan, run!

2010-08-18T10:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I leashed up the dog and decided that we'd go for a walk and parlay that into a run. The sun was out, I wanted some exercise, I just bought some really comfy running shoes and it just seemed like the perfect combination to take my 1st outdoor run in a long time.

So, we headed out and we walked the 1st mile so Brisbane could mark all the trees and bushes he'd marked 8 hours earlier on our morning walk and do his big business (always 2 if you're going more than like 1/2 a mile) and after he dropped the last of his cargo we started running...and running...and running. Before I realized it we had run from home down 17th Street, beyond Huntington Street along the boardwalk down by the beach; a giant 5 mile rhombus missing the 4th side, though I'm a horrible guesser of any distance, weight, height or anything, really, so I had no idea if we were 5 miles along, 2 or 10. The dog was exhausted yet I really didn't feel that bad. I wasn't setting landspeed records but I was still probably running an 8:30-9-minute pace, passing most others running but still getting passed every now and then. I would have gone further but I knew that the dog was not gonna be a happy camper so we turned around and ran back.

It felt incredible. We got back to the house and I still felt I could go further though the dog didn't make it 10' into the house before he passed out on the cool stone floor with his tongue completely out of his control as he tried to bite my hand or lick it (could go either way).

I've no clue if I can do that again, if it's the beginning of daily 10 mile runs or more or what the heck was going on. I do know this was crazy for several reasons:

1. I'm not a runner. I try and most times I don't make it that far, which is to say that I can go about a mile or mile and a half before I feel like collapsing.
2. The previous furthest distance I'd ever run was just about 6 miles, though it was broken into a few legs of running with rest in there to prevent my face from meeting the ground as I collapsed in agony
3. In the previous 48 hours I'd slept 7 hours. Don't ask; I have no idea why I can't sleep after doing tons of exercise and eating healthy for weeks on end...at least I'm looking good.

WTF??

Dood...I'm done...leave me alone...

YouTube Tuesday: Pure Stoke

2010-08-17T00:49:00.000-07:00

This is pure stoke and it must have taken them a ton of time to put together, but I think we can all agree it was well worth the effort...

I'm back...sort of

2010-08-15T21:42:00.000-07:00

WOW. April 19th? That's the last time I've posted anything here? That's not good. Not going to make any excuses, but if I were, here's what I'd say.

It's been a crazy last 3+ months here...like Britney Spears shaving her head crazy. Big changes happening right now in our Hero's life but all GOOD stuff. First off, I'm single. Yeah, what are ya gonna do. I was pretty bummed out at first but now that I've had time to think about it I'm not only OK with it I think it was/is the best thing for me and I've got a level of clarity, freedom and focus now that I've lacked maybe my entire life. I can't really explain it but I know what I want now, I know what makes me happy, what inspires me, what matters in my life; shit that I'd neglected or just not expressed fully in 33 years. It's not all from this breakup but through that event I've spent a lot of time evaluating everything in my life and identifying things that I've sacrificed for a LONG time, things I've lost touch with about myself and I just had one of those "a-ha" moments where I could go back and look at failed relationships, failed business ventures, friendships, missed opportunities and so forth and truly identify who I am, who I'm not and what I want. So needless to say, I'm pretty happy right now; maybe the happiest I've ever been. It sucks that it took the loss of a relationship and a couple years of real adversity in so many aspects of my life to get there but maybe that was the ONLY way I was ever going to get there, ya know?

Second, I sort of have a business partner I'm working with. He's more of a sponsor and I'll be trading on his behalf but we nonetheless view the relationship as a business venture which is awesome. My mentor Bill finally completed his opus Sentinel and is releasing the software any day now which is where my partner comes in. He'd like to use the software for his own trading account but would like to leverage my knowledge and skills and ability to actually perform the trades on his behalf. So, it's gonna work out famously as we're both bringing a very important piece of the puzzle to the table and without each other it's unlikely that we'd individually be able to achieve the success that's possible from the two of us working together. I'm really excited about working with him and using this new software that is quite possibly the most effective trading software/system that's ever been developed and it's only being marketed to myself and less than 200 other traders who are students of my mentor and his methodology. It feels very empowering to be a part of such a small, focused group of traders that are doing things that nobody ever thought were possible and proving the skeptics wrong each and every day.

Finally, a change of scenery. As I type this I'm giving Huntington Beach it's 2-week notice that I'm Audi 5000 as I head back to Seattle for a couple months. Right now, I don't think it's a permanent move but I'm also going to spend the next couple months up there taking stock of everything and figuring out what's important to me and if moving back to SoCal is the right thing for me or not. I'm really excited about this move. I'll be spending time with my sister, Mom and the rest of my family up there who I've not lived near for 15 years now. I'll also be reconnecting with high school friends and experiencing, as an adult, one of my favorite cities which is really exciting. I'm sure I'll miss being here in SoCal but I've been really jaded as of late and it's good I'm leaving now before I start to hate it which is never a good thing.

So there ya go. I'm gonna try and post humor, writing, links, music, food, everything I love about life and the Internets on a more regular basis and try to make your day more enjoyable if only for a couple minutes :)

Until next time...hopefully sooner than 3 months...

The Quote Fish

2010-04-19T05:05:00.000-07:00

4 years ago I had a surfboard made by Manuel Caro under his Mandala label. I never have a "normal" custom board made but instead opt for very crazy artwork or designs and such. It suits my personality as the last thing I really want is a plain white board that looks like 95% of the boards you see in the water; that's not Bryan Mills. Hell, the only white colored board I have has bright red glass-on fins on it, so take that conformity!

This board I called the "Quote Fish" as it was adorned on the bottom with excepts of some very inspirational and meaningful quotes in my life.

I rode this board yesterday and had one of the best sessions I've had in a year. The conditions @ Middles (Trestles) and eventually Church's due to the drift were outstanding with little to no wind and perfectly peeling shoulder high+ waves on offer. I went with a good friend Shane and we were both stoked we got out of the house and gave it a shot as we were overly surprised with how good it was and how much fun we had. It was probably the best I'd surfed in a year and was a fitting end to a very exciting and rewarding week.

As I rode the board yesterday I was reminded of why I chose those quotes. There was just something special about the session and the waves and the way I was surfing; I was in a "zone" and I remembered that these inspirational quotes were under my feet the entire time for the first time in a long time.

It was more than just a surf session, it was a wake up call; a reminder that these quotes actually mean something to me. They are inspirational, yes, but more accurately they are a description of my life and a certain "fire" inside that I'd all but lost over the last couple years...but recently re-discovered. I am regaining the spirit and confidence I once had that that propelled me into these new experiences and challenges in life head on and when the dust settled, there I was: better in every way imaginable.

That one surf session with this board yesterday has really re-ignited the flame inside of me that was the inspiration for this quote on the board: "If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

That's me...I'm back. That's exactly where I am right now and I am STOKED...

Here are the quotes that are under my feet when I'm surfing this board and a description of my life, always...

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

-- Henry David Thoreau

"Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought"

-- Henry David Thoreau

"To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity; But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible."

-- T. E. Lawrence

I LOL'd myself when I first saw this...

2010-04-16T12:17:00.001-07:00

What a Rolex means to me

2010-04-13T05:16:00.000-07:00

I used to be gainfully employed in the mortgage industry, running my own shop. Now, not so much. I ran the company with a partner who moved up to Seattle a year after we started it so for all intents and purposes I ran the company all by myself for 8 years. When I started that company late in 2001 I had nothing. Furthermore, I abandoned everything I had to start it as I was in Kansas City and my partner was in Los Angeles. I thought nothing of it at the time because I had nothing to tie me down other than a lot of friends and love for Kansas and KC, both of which I miss(ed) dearly.

Flash forward to 2003. The mortgage company had been moderately successful, which is to say it was successful enough that it let me live the modest life I enjoyed though I was by no means "flourishing" and making a wild excess of money; far from it. That winter the business had dried up and I had gone months without a paycheck, which was nothing new as I was used to the feast/famine aspect of the mortgage indsutry. The difference was, this time the famine had lasted longer than I had expected and the prospects were few and far between. I was literally down to my last dime and had enough money in my account to pay off another month of expenses then I was looking to work at Best Buy to hopefully keep a roof over my head as the creditors one by one started asking for their money back and presumably I'd fail miserably at the money game.

I then started processing a loan that I picked up out of nowhere and closed it and got enough money to pay my expenses for like 2 more months. Then 3 loans came through over the course of 3 months, a couple more here and there and before I knew it I had the most successful year that I would ever have in the 9 years that I've done loans. I wrote the largest check I have ever written (still is the largest) to pay off almost all of the debt that I had racked up in just keeping myself afloat and felt this burden lifted from my shoulders as I was turning a new leaf. I went on a cruise with my family over Thanksgiving in 2004. While in St Thomas I abandoned logic/reason and bought myself a Rolex Submariner watch. It was a reward for such a great year, but more importantly it was a reminder of the effort and struggle that I went through to be in a position to buy it. I still look at that watch and think of what it means to me and what it symbolizes: hard work, success, failure, persistence.

Flash forward to today. I find myself in a very similar place as I was in 2003, struggling to get this trading endeavor off the ground and gain the confidence and experience to trade successfully and be consistently profitable after my mortgage business went tits up. The differences is, this time I love what I do and I want to be doing it not just for the monetary gains but for all the other things it gives me that cannot be measured with dollars and cents. This is a scary business. If you perform poorly at your job you might get yelled at, miss a sale or maybe not even have any consequences. Me, if I perform badly at my job I lose my money. There's no salary, no 401(k), no benefits plan, nothing to lean on. I wouldn't want it any other way but to everyone on the outside they see what I do as complete and utter lunacy, and I can't blame them.

I've always been a risk taker and my ability to just go out and "do it" has been severely tested while trading and I need to be reminded of that cavalier attitude that I've had my entire adult life. I left Redmond in 1995 and started a new life @ KU. I left Kansas in 2001 to start a new company and new life in LA. I abandoned mortgages to start trading my own account a year ago. I have a history of being able to take those chances and those leaps and I just have to keep reminding myself that although what I'm doing is extremely difficult and very unrewarding from a monetary standpoint in the beginning, in the end it all works out so long as I keep doing what I do best: persist. I don't know many people that could do what I've done and taken the chances that I have over the last 15 years or so and that's a very sobering but exhilarating feeling for me and the spark that I need to keep that flame lit deep inside, especially when you operate in a business that I do where regular failure is necessary for ultimate success.

My days of searching and discovery of who I am and what I want to do are over. This is the person I want to be and the professional life I want to live and I don't want to keep re-inventing myself and rising like a phoenix from the ashes, I just want to keep pushing myself to be the best, doing what I love. So after a good pep talk with a dear friend today, I'll be keeping that watch on the desk in front of me at all times as a reminder that I've not only been here before but by working hard, experiencing successes and failures--and most of all persisting--I have no fear and no doubt that I will succeed at what I do...

YouTube Tuesday: Last Train to Awesometown

2010-04-06T03:55:00.000-07:00

My obsession with Parry Gripp continues, as should your obsession with Parry's quirky and incredibly catchy tunes.

Today, I give you a song that should be a part of your morning routine to get you amped for the day. Whether you're tackling traffic and hatin' co-workers or getting ready for the big game you'll surely be inspired by 5 different kinds of nachos..whaaa????

Just watch...

Foodspotting

2010-03-30T11:21:00.000-07:00

I've been remiss in posting about this and figured it was time to do so...

I joined the beta version of this site a few months back and they've really been upping their game and making improvements and enhancements to both the website and iPhone application and I think everyone should sign up. Here's how it works...

You go to a restaurant or some public place serving food, take a photo of the specific dish you got, upload the photo to the site, write a little review (if you'd like) and then others can search for that specific dish (let's say, spicy tuna roll) or set a location (say, Huntington Beach, CA) and search for a food type (like sushi) or restaurant (like Tuna Town) or just search for all foods near them. Then when you find what you're looking for you can see an actual photo of the food and hopefully get an honest review of it and the restaurant. Users can also "NOM" a food, indicating it's one of their favorite foods and that they recommend it to other users and you can NOM other foods you've had though did not post an actual spotting of that food. You start with 10 NOM's and earn the ability to NOM more foods as you post more foods; it's pretty fun.

iPhone users have the added convenience of being able to upload photos and reviews directly from their phone, NOM foods and basically do everything the website allows but with the added convenience of being mobile; it's really slick. Restaurant information is available as well as tying into Google Maps in order to help you contact and find the place a food was spotted as well as see push pins on a map of all places near you that where food has been spotted.

It's super fun to see some of the foods that are posted from all over the world and get inspired to try something new or try a restaurant you'd heard of but never knew anyone that had tried it. If this picks up in popularity (if volume of food spottings and reviews is any indicator, it already has) then it has the ability to be an incredibly useful guide as you could go to a restaurant and see photos of dozens of dishes they have to offer and read unbiased reviews, all before the waiter even drops off a menu.

So, add something to the community and make discovering great food a super fun and simple process!

Sign up for free to become a Foodspotter...

www.foodspotting.com

iPhone application (opens a link in iTunes)

YouTube Tuesday: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN.....

2010-03-30T01:52:00.000-07:00

Besides Journey's "Separate Ways" is there a song, video and band that you'd put in the music time capsule as the entry for 80's hair band more fitting than The Final Countdown by Europe? I didn't think so. Here's what The Final Countdown has got in this awesomely, awesome video:

BIG hair
BIG outfits
Androgynous lead singer
The "goofy" band member, in this case the drummer with his oh-so-silly running shorts and bandanna
Synthesizers
Makeup
High school A/V Club quality video effects
Empowering lyrics and chord progressions
Pyrotechnics
50+ piece drum kit
Extremely confusing "story" to the video
Gratuitous live concert footage
Aerial band shots on the roof, taken from a helicopter
Groupies
EPIC guitar solo, with accompanying "lead guitar face"
Band members holding gold albums for the press

If you find a better entry for the 80's hair band video to put in the time capsule, bring it...until then, it's The Final Countdown...

Holy sh*t I went to the greatest basketball school EVER

2010-03-23T23:55:00.000-07:00

I'm done mourning KU's untimely loss. I'm moving on and after some choice comments from the ever classy MU fans and other people who just love to hate on KU at every misstep, I needed something to pick me up; remind me of how ~~good~~ great KU really is. So, I started digging around...

Here are some facts taken from the Wikipedia entry for KU Men's Basketball. If there was ever any doubt that KU is THE blue-blooded, undisputed alpha dog of NCAA Men's college basketball, just read this and if you're still not convinced then you're an idiot. In no particular order of importance with some pretty unbelievable facts highlighted for your convenience...

Kansas leads Division I in all-time in conference titles with 53 in 103 years of conference play
In the last two decades (ending with the 2009-2010 season), no team won more games than the Jayhawks, who won 571 games
KU has the longest current streak of consecutive NCAA tournament appearances with 21

sidenote: The NCAA Tournament was created in 1939 by the National Association of Basketball Coaches and was the brainchild of coach Phog Allen (you're welcome, college basketball fans)

Since the NCAA began seeding the tournament in 1979, KU has never been lower than an 8 seed (their average seed is a 3) and since that time KU has only missed the tournament 5 times
Second-longest current streak of winning seasons, at 27
First among Division I schools in winning seasons, conference championships and first-team All Americans
Second in wins with 2003
First in NCAA history with 91 winning seasons.
KU has had the fewest head coaches (eight) of any program that has been around 100 or more years (the other "blue bloods" with 100+ year history: KY has had 22, UCLA 12 and UNC 18)
They have reached the Final Four under more head coaches (six) than any other program in the nation
Every head coach at Kansas since the inception of the NCAA Tournament has led the program to the Final Four
Kansas has had four head coaches inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame, more than any other program in the nation.
Current longest home court wining streak @ 59
30 McDonald's All Americans
14 Academic All Americans
6 National Player of the Year honors
13 Final Four appearances
5 National Championships

Oh and it bears mention that KU is a magnet for college basketball coaching legends. Dean Smith and Adolph Rupp (2 of the greatest, coaches of all time) played @ KU under Phog Allen along with Dutch Lonborg, and Ralph Miller, all of whom have been inducted as coaches to the National Basketball Hall of Fame. In that regard, I guess Kentucky and UNC owe KU a pretty giant THANK YOU (they are, after all, the #1 and #3 winningest programs in NCAA history due mostly to the efforts of Rupp and Smith, respectively). How's this for small world: John Wooden helped build Memorial Stadium in 1929 after being recruited by Phog Allen to play @ KU. Oh and Larry Brown is the only coach to have won a championship in both the NCAA and NBA.

There you have it. Super stoked to be a Jayhawk it never ceases to amaze me at the excellence and tradition of Kansas Basketball.

Love for KU, as forged by playing in Basketball Band

2010-03-23T10:04:00.000-07:00

There are 4 things that I truly love in this world:

Katie
My Family
Brisbane
The University of Kansas, most notably KU Basketball

I don't expect anybody to ever understand the last one on that list. There's a bond that was forged back in 1995 that continues as strong--if not stronger--to this day.

You see, every year I was @ KU I was in the Men's Basketball Band. I played at every home basketball game and traveled with the band to the Big 12 Tournament and NCAA Tournaments each year. I was spoiled. I came to expect that we would go to The Dance and with the exception of maybe 1 year KU was one of the 3-4 teams that the experts had picked to make a run to the Final Four. We never made the Final Four. In fact, in all but 1 year, KU was bounced in the round of 8 or earlier. So, you might say that the entire basketball experience was a disappointment but it was anything but. I'm a big "enjoy the journey, not the destination" sort of guy and the journey was filled with some pretty incredible moments that solidified my love for the University and the tradition of KU Basketball.

After a stinging loss to Rhode Island, their band had just finished playing some song and were celebrating wildly and we began to play our Alma Mater. About 3/4 through the song Rhode Island's band began playing some song (you're supposed to alternate playing songs); a shitty arrangement of an even shittier 70's or 80's uptempo tune, like Celebrate by Kool and the Gang. When we had finished and began packing our stuff I stormed to the other side of the court and got in the director's face and said "you're a f*cking no class asshole and you, your band and your University can go to hell..." He barked back at me and didn't think it was such a big deal to interrupt us during our alma mater and said I was out of line and their interruption showed no disrespect, which pretty much proved my point. After a generous middle finger and a few more pleasantries exchanged with him and other Rhode Island band folk I went back to mourn the loss and disappointment.

After that same loss I was standing with the rest of the band in the tunnel underneath the stands and Roy Williams exited the press room, tears flowing (as had become a common fixture of Roy Williams in the NCAA Tournament) and he walked towards us and shook our hands and as he shook my hand he looked me straight in the eyes with extreme sorrow and said "I'm sorry I let you down..." Jesus. Here's this guy who I looked up to as one of the greatest college coaches ever and he's sorry he let me down? Ugh...that was heavy.

Several years later when Roy bailed on KU to leave for UNC days after our loss in the national championship game to Syracuse, I wrote him a letter and told him that this time I was sorry he let me down. That's the kind of love and passion I have for Kansas Basketball...

In some way--large or small--I felt like a part of the tradition of the excellence that is KU Basketball and the University. I played a role in making the basketball experience a memorable one for each and every one of those players, coaches and fans. Allen Fieldhouse is a sort of place of worship for me. There were some incredible memories in that building, some tears of joy and sorrow and a lot of love shared by the rest of the people that were a part of that tradition both on and off the court, especially the countless friendships forged through playing in bball band.

When KU won the National Championship in 2008 I cried my brains out. Why? Because I was a part of that tradition. I helped make KU what it was in 2008 (however minuscule my impact may have been) and all my love and devotion to KU that had gone unfulfilled with a National Championship while I was there had finally come to fruition. I'd love to win that thing every year but even just winning it that 1 time was unbelievably special.

For all those reasons and hundreds more to list, I take anything KU very personally. Their loss in the 2nd round this past weekend was extremely difficult to handle. They were so good. They were hands down the best team @ KU in the past 15 years I've been a Jayhawk and head and shoulders better than any other team in the NCAA. Are they any worse of a team now? No way. The NCAA Tournament proves that the "best" team rarely wins. I'm extremely disappointed with their effort and that's what hurts. Had they played like they did in all but maybe 2 or 3 games this year there's not a team in the NCAA that can touch them. Sadly, they were out-hustled and outplayed by a team with nothing to lose and an incredible amount of luck on their side, which scrappy teams like UNI need to win games and I applaud them for their efforts; they deserved to win. It wasn't KU's day, plain and simple, and it came at the most inopportune time.

So, for all the KU haters out there... Ya know what: you're right that KU totally screwed the pooch; have your fun. But realize in the process that you're proving you're no different than Rhode Island's band: classless. Oh don't get me wrong, I loathe MU but I save that for when we meet. I'll talk all the shit I can when KU/MU meet or we play some other rival but any other time I'll keep my mouth shut, save for the funny harmless little joke here and there...but no hate. Hell, every year during the NCAA's I root for ALL Big 12 teams and their success until we meet (including MU); then I'm ready to kick your ass. We're all on the same team (Big 12) and what's the point in rooting for some other team's demise if you're not playing them?

I guess maybe I hold KU to a higher standard; one that's respectful of rivals, that doesn't engage in pointless mockery and hate for the purpose of being...well, hateful. KU always has and always will be the good guy and the good guy knows when his opponent is defeated and let's them stew in their misery, alone. I root FOR KU not against MU or some other team; that's a big distinction of school pride that I think is lost on many people out there and that's too bad. There's a finite amount of energy out there, so why waste it on all the negativity?

In the end, I'm proud to be a Jayhawk; to be part of a tradition of excellence that's enviable enough that rivals and jealous folks feel it necessary to point out at every misstep that you failed, whilst ignoring their own traditions of mediocrity, jealousy and hate. It was a really fun season to watch with an extremely disappointing ending but that's how it goes sometimes. I'm excited for next year and every year of KU Basketball, no matter the expectations or outcome, because KU Basketball is more than just X's and O's...it's all about LOVE.

ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK

Tradezilla Part 4: It's ALIVE

2010-03-17T19:07:00.000-07:00

Hi. My name is Tradezilla and I'll be your bad-ass trading machine today.

With Tradezilla assembled and a quick double check of all the connections and power hookups all set it was go time: will it start?

I plug it into the wall and have the side of the case off to monitor what goes down as I flip the switch. I partly wondered if this was a good idea as stuff might come flying off or electric currents may arc wildly from a shorted wire like a Tesla machine.

Much to my excitement (and maybe even disappointment) it started up without issue. Part of me was hoping for a big old problem I'd have to spend hours fixing, but I got nothing. Actually it did pop up the black/white screen informing me that there was a problem with the CMOS settings. Pressing F1 took me to the BIOS and I made an adjustment to the system clock, saved the changes and exited.

It rebooted, again, and this time gave me the POST beep indicating that the MoBo was working properly and the monitor went black and simply said:

"Please insert operating system into boot drive."

That's it. That's it? I insert the Windows 7 disk, and about 10 minutes later I'm in Internet Explorer testing out my Internet connection, which worked without any problems?

There has to be something wrong, right? Nope. The whole process was strikingly simply and effortless. Maybe I got lucky, maybe I'm good; whatever it is I just built a computer in a couple hours and had it fully operational within 15 minutes of pressing the power button. The last XP install I did took 3-4x longer and I'm not sure if this quick install is due to Windows 7 or the hardware I'm using...probably a combo of both.

What's even better about this build is what I got and what it cost. Tradezilla cost me $718.15 including tax/shipping and bear in mind that I used my dual video card and an extra HDD from my old Dell.

I went to Dell and built a Core i7-920 with 6GB of RAM and the cheapest HDD and video card I could find and it came out to $1,133.14 with tax and shipping. Granted, this machine does include a 500GB HDD so there's some value there but at the same time it includes a basic single-output video card which is a step down.

Total savings: $414.99

What Tradezilla is missing vs. the aforementioned Dell:

- 1-year warranty with Dell
- Anti-virus software that cannot be removed
- Various bloatware installed by Dell to run certain background programs and such
- Proprietary motherboard and PSU, not easily/cheaply replaceable

Would I recommend building a computer to others? Absolutely! Are you kidding me? Look at how much money was saved and what I'm missing by building my own. Bear in mind that I DO have warranties for all the individual components of similar length as what Dell was offering but the difficulty comes in diagnosing the problems and getting the appropriate manufacturer to provide service. If you're a simple home user with no technical knowledge and call a friend or relative to diagnose error messages and such then this route isn't for you. You DO need to have some technical wherewithal and ability to do simple troubleshooting and such as you build and install stuff but that's it; no engineering degree required. It's a fun, very rewarding process and I'll be building all my PC's from now on.

Down the line I'll discuss the improvements in performance and such versus the old Dell but suffice it to say: Tradezilla is a total effing BEAST :)

Tradezilla Part 3: The Build

2010-03-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

With all the parts here, it's time to build Tradezilla.

The ingredients necessary to make this dish

I didn't have too much in the way of concern going into the build as the entire process is pretty simple.

Virgin MoBo

First off, I installed the CPU into the socket on the motherboard. This was actually a little sketchy. The pins on the CPU (and there are a TON of them) don't sink into anything just they just press against and make contact with the socket. When you secure the CPU to the MoBo the device holding it down has a boatload of tension on it and as you swing the arm into the hook to hold it down all you can think is "how the hell is this right?!" But, it all worked out in the end.

Next up, CPU fan. Pretty easy. Although it makes solid contact with the head of the CPU it doesn't require as much effort in the way of connecting it to the MoBo, which I found surprising.

Onto the RAM. It's funny how much easier RAM can be installed when you're not digging your hands into a case like a surgeon reaching into a chest cavity.

Here's the completed MoBo, mofos...

OK, here's where we ran into the only problem I had with assembly: attaching MoBo to the case. I was an idiot and forgot to install the I/O panel on the back of the case so after spending 10 minutes trying to screw in a few screws that were just impossibly difficult to access I had to rip the whole thing out and do it again. Wah wah...

Power supply slid into place easily and here comes the fun part: attaching all the power leads. Finding the leads isn't the issue, getting the power to the leads with a bottom mounted PSU is where it got interesting. I sort of expected this as power supplies are normally installed on the top of the case and the power connectors on the MoBo assume this as well but with the bottom mounted PSU a couple of the cords had to be stretched out quite a bit. In the end it all worked out; w00t.

Optical drive, HDD were the last things installed and once those were in it was time to see if this thing works or is one of the most expensive paper-weights I've ever created (cuz there HAVE been other DIY jobs go awry...)

All the ingredients in the bowl...time to throw it into the oven and see if it cooks (lame, but effective analogy)

Last Tradezilla build post forthcoming...

YouTube Tuesday: This Too Shall Pass

2010-03-09T01:11:00.000-08:00

OK Go! Makes super awesome videos. Check out their latest for This Too Shall Pass in which they build a horribly complicated, yet awesome, Rube Goldberg machine.

Enjoy!

Tradezilla Part 2: The Stuff

2010-03-05T03:15:00.000-08:00

Here's a list of the items that I'm using to build Tradezilla.

CPU

1x - Intel Core i7 920 Quad-Core @ 2.66GHz

This processor is beast. It's quad-core and takes advantage of Intel's Hyperthreading technology so the least of my concerns in any task should be processing power. There are other processors out there I could go with to use on the motherboard I'm using but this one was a steal on sale for $200 and is widely regarded as the greatest value in the Intel lineup, if not on either platform. I went with Intel architecture because...well, I don't know why exactly. Every computer I have ever owned has been Intel (including the Macs) so I guess I'm just an Intel guy for life.

Motherboard

1x - ASRock X58 Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX

I chose this MoBo for several reasons. First, it was very highly rated/reviewed from many sources. It's an "entry-level" board but it's solidly built and some of the features it offers are only found on higher end boards which leads me to decision #2: price. I don't need a MoBo with all sorts of features that make it fantastic for overclocking and I have very limited I/O needs so some of the features found on boards well above this price point were a complete waste and I opted to budget the savings elsewhere.

RAM

3x - OCZ Gold Tri Channel PC10666 DDR3 Memory - 1333MHz, (2GB sticks, so 6GB total)

I've used OCZ stuff in the past and haven't had any issue and it's some of the cheapest RAM out there so it was the logical choice. There are faster speeds of memory but triple-channel DDR3 @ 1333MHz is basically twice as fast as I'm running right now, and 2x more RAM in total.

Graphics Card

1x - XFX GeForce 7600 GS / 256MB GDDR2

Part of the way I'm keeping the cost of Tradezilla down is by cannibalizing a couple parts from my current trading machine. One of the key parts I'm using is the dual-DVI video card (I have the OEM card which I will be putting back in that machine). It's nothing fancy, it just has dual-DVI outputs for my monitors. In the future I may add another dual card as the MoBo has 3 PCIe x16 slots on in, which means that I could theoretically run a 24 monitor setup (3x cards with 8 outputs) but even I can agree that's a bit overkill...for now :)

Hard Disk Drive

1x - Western Digital Caviar SE WD3200JD 320GB

This is another part I'm cannibalizing from the current trading machine. It has dual HDD's in it and by taking this one (currently used as a backup, which is now obsolete since the Time Capsule handles backups) the current machine will still be operational.

Optical Drive

1x - LG GH22NS40 DVD Writer

Past installing the OS, I don't ever see me using this drive. All the software I use is downloaded from the vendors and any ripping/burning of CD's and DVD's is accomplished here on the iMac mothership. I went with cheap and it just happened to be highly rated; bonus.

Case

1x - Thermaltake V3 Black Edition Mid Tower

I had a few criteria when selecting a case:
1. Quality
2. Low price
3. Don't look like a computer gamer's wet-dream

This case satisfies all 3 criteria. It looks really nice/professional and it's from a very good name. It's a bit unorthodox as the power supply mounts at the bottom for better cooling and doesn't make the machine top heavy, so we'll see how that works with the build-out; might have issues with cable length. However, it has one feature that I will be changing. The 120mm fan at the rear of the case has blue LED lights on it, which I find extremely annoying. Thankfully, fans are dirt cheap so I'll just drop $5 and get one that won't look like I'm trying to start a dance party in the office.

Power Supply Unit

1x - Coolmax 500-Watt Modular Power Supply

My homeboy Kuka recommended a modular power supply as you can pick and choose which power cables you need and leave the rest off. This assists in not cluttering up the case with unused wires and provides a much smoother/cleaner airflow which assists in cooling. I calculated the minimum power requirements for this system and the most I could come up with by maxing the output of the components and such was 233 watts. So, 500W should be plenty. It was nicely priced and should I need to upgrade down the line it won't be a big loss.

Operating System

1x - Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit

This was sort of a no-brainer. I have no real issues with XP other than the fact it downloads updates constantly and there is a 64-bit version of XP out there but I figured if I'm going for top of the line I should dabble in Microsoft's newest/best OS. It's 64-bit, rather than 32, which is fantastic. All the trading software I use is compatible with Win7, it will run faster, more efficiently and really take advantage of the hardware/architecture it's operating within. Win7 is basically what MSFT wanted Vista to be, which in time I'm sure will be known as Windows Me 2.0...and if you know anything about OS's you know that's a pretty shameful honor.

Miscellaneous

There may be little things here and there I'll have to get like extension cables if the placement of the power supply at the bottom poses a problem, extra case fans and such but for now before I start assembling everything this is it; this is the "meat" of Tradezilla. You technically wouldn't "need" anything else to build a machine and the components chosen here are all exactly what I want/need.

Tradezilla Part 1: The 5 W's

2010-03-04T01:21:00.000-08:00

OK, let's do this!

Project codename: TRADEZILLA

Why

Well, I noticed a month ago or so that the charting was lagging BIG TIME on my current trading machine, like when the markets are really humming along and the volume is flying I might be 4-5 ticks and several bars behind what my execution software would display. They both get the same data from the exchanges but since the execution software is not charting/processing that data in any way, it's obviously to be trusted as the "real" price. I could remedy this by not charting as many instruments, chart resolutions and such but that sort of defeats the purpose of trading/monitoring multiple markets. Grated, this only happens in extreme circumstances and with some proper housecleaning and habits on the current trading machine (like not having tons of charts open at once) I could probably get by just fine 90% of the time. But, by upgrading my hardware I would see a quantifiable increase in performance and decrease in things like lag and probably be able to get by 99% of the time and have a platform that will let me grow and accomplish more tasks that I just cannot currently accomplish with my current setup.

What

We'll get into the specific components in a later post, but this is what the machine is going to be built around.

Intel Core i7 920 Quad-Core @ 2.66GHz

The Core i7 is basically the highest end "mainstream" processor that Intel makes, built on similar architecture to their highest end chips the Xeons which are used for servers and other processor intensive applications. This processor is built on the LGA1366 processor interface, which is where Intel is dumping all of their consumer product development and this processor is actually the "base model" processor built on the LGA1366 architecture. That's good because there is a clear upgrade path to follow including the forthcoming hex-core processors. I almost went with a Core i5 but the problem with that processor was that it maxed out at a slightly slower Core i7 processor built on a different architecture so there really wasn't an upgrade path to speak of. Spend about $100 more for a faster processor and a clear upgrade path? I think the decision was a no-brainer...

When

Now. Like, I started this project yesterday by acquiring a case, processor and power supply sort of NOW! The motherboard, RAM, operating system and optical drive were ordered today. I hope to have the project complete within a couple weeks and while I want it done ASAP I'd rather take my time and do it right and since I already have a machine that works pretty well there's no urgency.

Who

George Bush. No, me you fools! I'm building it with the help and support of 100's of 1000's of other homebrew enthusiasts out there that can offer help and advice along the way.

Where

Deleware...street! OH!! Man, you totally fell for that one. I got you good blog readers...

It might be a couple days until I post again on TRADEZILLA as I'd like to have all the components here and get a group shot before we assemble everything. So hang loose and we'll talk more homebrew PC's shortly...

Who needs Dell?

2010-03-03T10:17:00.000-08:00

First off, hey everybody. I haven't been blogging as of late, but you knew that. It's been a very busy/exciting time for me and while I have lots to talk about I've just not made the time to do it on here...but that will soon change. Anyway...

I'm fed up with Dell, people. Let me explain...

A little over a month ago I ordered a new computer from Dell. This machine was going to replace my current trading setup as I'm running into limitations that just cannot be addressed by throwing more RAM in the box and wiping the drive of all the bloatware and such; there are legitimate bottlenecks and constraints on what it can do and what I need it to do. It literally took 4 attempts (3 online and 1 on the phone) to place the order and the phone call involved no less than 13 transfers and 1.5 hours of my time. This was the beginning of the end of my relationship with Dell; a relationship that has spanned 15 years and at least 8 computers, maybe more.

So, the order was finally placed with an estimated delivery date of 2/25. Well, 2/25 comes and the date is pushed to 3/4. 3/4 comes and the date is pushed to 3/11, no explanation offered by Dell. In order to keep the order active I had to tell them to move forward or else cancel the order. After pondering the whole situation for a while I came up with the difficult decision.

I broke up with Dell. Their customer service during this process was abhorrent and this was NOT the same Dell I fell in love with 15 years ago; quite divergent, actually. But, I think the thing that pissed me off the most was the creation of the computer I wanted/needed. It was impossible. I had a list of items I wanted and didn't want and I could not create it no matter how hard I tried, what avenue I used, who I spoke to. Dell force-feeds you what they think you want based not on the customer desires but on things such as profit margin, availability of components, partnerships, etc. I'll save the conspiracy theory talk but to sum it up, Dell was just NOT a fit for me anymore.

That's it. No more Dell. The problem still remains that I need a new trading machine, so what am I gonna do? To put it simply: I'm going rogue; a maverick, off the radar. I am building my first PC. This is simultaneously super exciting and scary as hell. But, this way I will be building EXACTLY what I want with no compromises whatsoever.

Details of the build are forthcoming and I'll be documenting the entire project from start to finish and figure this is a good way to get me back into the blogging groove...

OK, next time we'll detail what I'm building and kick this thing off proper-like!

YouTube Tuesday: This is the Best Burrito I've Ever Eaten

2010-02-09T04:49:00.000-08:00

Sticking to the Perry Gripp theme from last week's video (not posted on Tuesday, but you can figure it out) we're gonna highlight one of my favorite Parry Gripp tunes. Don't ask any questions about what his fascination is with small rodents, cute pets and burritos; I have no idea, he's just a weird guy that writes really fun, annoying tunes that you're simultaneously stoked and annoyed to get stuck in your head for the entire day.

All you really need to know about this tune is that it is ultra radtacular (I made that word up and have been saying it a lot in the hopes it catches on...do your part, people).

Enjoy!

BONUS VIDEO!!

Since you didn't get a YTT last week, I'm sharing a 2nd bonus video, which happens to be a classic from back in '08 (I assume that's long enough in the past to qualify as a classic...). This one needs no explanation...more Parry Gripp...best ringtone ever...

It's not a giant iPod Touch

2010-02-03T10:40:00.000-08:00

So this past week Apple unveiled their newest creation the iPad. As with ALL newly unveiled Apple products there was much disappointment and bitching by the Apple haters of the world. Let's get to the crux of what the haters are standing on.

It's a giant iPod Touch.

That's it. People don't like it because they perceive it to just be a huge iPod Touch with a much bigger screen and price tag; nothing new, whatsoever. I won't argue that from an aesthetic and possibly even current functionality standpoint the iPad is anything more than an iPod Touch, but is that such a bad thing? I mean it's larger and allows the user to interact with, input and experience things on the device that they never could on an iPod Touch. You can edit photos on the Touch, create a symphony and draw out blueprints for your new house on the touch but would you? Why stop there. Did you know that you can compose a 500-page book on your Motorola RAZR flip-phone using the T9 text input method? I mean why do we need the iPad if these arcane, inferior devices can already do this stuff??

iBegToDiffer

Think about the iPod. That device was created 9 years ago. 9 years...and now it is the de facto portable music device, a name as ubiquitous as Kleenex or Xerox. The development of that device is staggering...yet people want to call the iPad a failure before it even hits the shelves? If there's 1 thing you ever learn from this blog, learn this: people always have and always will be DUMB.

Hi. We're the iPods. We're 9 years old and we rule the world.

People also complain about the features, or lack thereof. This boils down to a huge misconception over what the iPad was going to be and a difference between certain individual expectations and what was originally planned by the people that actually developed the product.See, the haters wanted the iPad to basically be an iMac or MacBook without a keyboard; a fully functional computer that could replace your current machine. In fact, the iPad is meant to augment your desktop and/or laptop computer by providing certain mobile functionality that the form factor of a laptop cannot provide, or more accurately, provide as well as the iPad can.

Bear in mind, it was all rumors and conjecture. Apple until the actual day of the unveiling event hadn't made 1 public statement about iPad; it was one of the closest held secrets in the history of computing and all the specs, functionality, release date and such were placed on the iPad by the public at large, not Apple. Hell, Apple even created a Delaware LLC to register certain trademarks prior to the launch. The name of that company? "IP Application Development, LLC." Get it? IPAD.

The final complaint is that Steve Jobs claims that this product is "revolutionary" and probably the most important product he's worked on, which when you think the thing is just a big iPod Touch makes sense. What people fail to recognize is that Rome wasn't built in a day; they view development like the alphabet and believe that anything less than "Z" is a failure. The iPad hit like a "K" and that's totally fine, maybe even expected.

Revolutionary

Think back to 1984 when Apple released the Macintosh. There were computers that were faster, had better monitors, more features, etc. That product was revolutionary and while you sort of understood that at the time it took years and years of further development to realize what the original Macintosh was: truly revolutionary. I believe in 10 years we will look back at the iPad and Steve Jobs and say "that sonuvabitch did it again." We don't realize that something is revolutionary until after the fact when it's been proven; look at the Macintosh. The potential of this device (whether you think it's a giant iPod Touch or not) is immense.

Imagine the applications in academia, where Apple decided to focus it's efforts 30+ years ago. Think about carrying around this device and having all your textbooks on it...from every semester you were in school. Furthermore, imagine the possibilities of multimedia textbooks. Chemistry students could be reading about various compounds and have a 3D, interactive display to learn from in the classroom or wherever they may be. Music students can compose directly on the tablet and collaborate in real time with other students in schools thousands of miles away, art students can have fully interactive versions of the worlds greatest works...I mean the possibilities in academia are endless. Fancy yourself a chef? How cool would it be to have a recipe with videos demonstrating various steps in the recipe like how to tie up a roast or the correct technique for folding egg whites into a souffle?

Can other devices (including laptops) do these things already? Sure. But can they do it as well as the iPad will? No way. I keep coming back to the original Macintosh and how similar this device is from a "revolutionary" standpoint. Apple's ability to innovate and lead the world from a technology perspective is absolute and anyone who thinks that the iPad is a failure, not revolutionary or that it's just a giant iPod Touch is a fool and I ask that you go back to Windows 95 or Windows ME where you belong.

Does it have shortcomings? You bet. Is it something I would buy right away? Probably not; I want to see how well it does out of the gate and where they focus development efforts and then hop on board. Bear in mind that I LOVE being on the bleeding edge of technology and have purchased the first generation of more technologies than I care to admit so maybe I will jump right in but I still think there are a few things I'd like to see Apple address and I'd also like to see if they decide to make the wireless capabilities available to other carriers besides AT&T as I fear that this is going to piss people off even more than they already are with the iPhone exclusivity. In the long run this will damper the 3rd party development efforts of this device, which is where the true potential lies.

Assuming you made it this far, you need to watch this awesome video by Parry Gripp from the band Nerf Herder. He makes all these super fun, catchy songs about the most random things and the iPad was his latest inspration. Listen to the lyrics. While they are really silly and comparing the iPad to nachos may seem ridiculous, the message is actually pretty spot on...

Online Anonymity

2010-01-28T10:24:00.000-08:00

Ridiculous update:

Turns out if you sign up for an xbox Live account online you cannot merge that account with your local account easily or for free. Microsoft will let you merge the 2 accounts for 800 xbox points (about $10) and a completely confusing and unnecessary process. So, while I still have the cashbutter gamer profile I most likely will not be using it. I, instead, have come up with new account originated through the xbox (not the xbox website) which merged my old/local account information and will be using the accurate and appropriate gamer tag:

theREALbmills

I have login credentials at dozens and dozens of websites. They always ask you for a username and on every single site I am either:

bmills
or
bmills313 (if bmills isn't available)

For our 3-year anniversary, Katie got me a wireless adapter for XBOX and Modern Warfare 2 which I'm super stoked for. Part of the reason is that I'll get to play some MW2 and other games against Kuka back in Missouri, who will kick my ass but all in good fun.

Enter my online registration @ the XBOX Live website. I'm filling out the usual form entries and then it asks for a username. XBOX Live has been around for a long time so I believe that the chance of bmills being available is 0% (and I was right) so then I default to my bmills313, which is my birthday concatenated to bmills; it's never failed. Much to my astonishment:

Sorry, that username is unavailable. Please choose another.

Are you F'n kidding me?? Has Barney Mills born on March 13th been playing HALO for 3 years or Betty Mills who lives at 313 Elm Street beaten me to the punch??

[sidenote: I went and looked: bmills has no information on their profile. bmills313 looks like some fratboy who has his motto listed as "Big Daddy B." Ugh...he's ruining the bmills313 moniker.]

All of this got me to thinking: is it time for a change? Should I assume an online identity that offers no clues to my actual identity like millions of other people out there? I mean, how may people are really named "cutie girl" or Warhammer" or any of the millions of other completely anonymous usernames out there? If millions of other people can hide behind their "handle" and be complete A-holes and make themselves look like total douches, knowing there is absolutely no chance that anyone will know who you are and how to find you to make you say those nasty comments in person...then why can't I? Alter egos or 2nd identities are all the rage, I just never hopped on the bandwagon because I don't hop on bandwagons.

OK, so I'm not gonna be an A-hole and I won't shout bigoted and extremely hurtful comments over the headset while I pwn n00bs and become part of the fabric of online gamers, but the change should do me good, at least in online gameplay.

So what username did I go with? Well, let's evaluate who I am and we'll come to an appropriate alter ego. I am:

A fan of humor
A trader
Not afraid of ridicule
Inspirational; I'd love people to speak of me with great respect and envy

So with all that said, I give you my XBOX Live "Gamer Tag"

cashbutter

How about that?! OK, let me explain. When I first started learning about commodities trading I went through the CME's website and reviewed all the different commodity contracts out there and bar none, my favorite contract has to be "cash-settled butter" for obvious reasons (as noted above). Yes, you can trade butter; a lot of it, if you happen to be interested. In fact, here are the "udderly awesome" contract specifications from the CME's website (<-- get it, udderly...cuz it's butter and butter comes from...nevermind):

Contract Size	20,000 lbs. of Butter ( ˜9 metric tons)
Product Description	Grade AA Butter
Pricing Unit	Cents per pound
Tick Size (minimum fluctuation)	$0.00025 per pound (= $5.00 per contract)
Daily Price Limits	$0.05 per pound above or below the previous day's settlement price, with multiple expansions. No limits in the last 5 days of trading. See CME Rule: 5602.D

It's perfect. Seeing as I don't plan on playing a ton it should provide the occasional chuckle and maybe I'll even be mentioned in circles on the XBOX Live community as "The Butter Guy" or something else that accurately describes the awesomeness that is my gamer tag and the extreme envy that it conjures up in the minds of those late to the great GamerTag land-grab.

So, add me to your friends list on XBOX Live and prepare to be pwned by the uber-awesomeness that is cashbutter !!

YouTube Tuesday: Economics Rap

2010-01-26T12:15:00.000-08:00

Ever wanted to know basic market theories created by the most famous 20th Century economists of all time but were afraid to ask because the subject is so daunting, boring and confusing? Do you like learning lessons and hearing tales spun by lyrical rap? If so, I think I've found the perfect video for you...

Learn more about the economic theories behind John Maynard Keynes and F.A Hayek at the Econstories website...

http://econstories.tv/home.html

California rains FTW

2010-01-21T09:42:00.000-08:00

You win, California. Your aquatic display of fury from the heavens over the past 48 hours is by far the craziest, most absurd and impressive rain I have ever experienced. What's that? The worst has supposedly not arrived yet? BAD. ASS.

Sure, many people in Southern California are saying that right now but I'm different. Remember: for 25 years of my life I lived in either the Midwest (Minnesota and Kansas) or up in Seattle, neither a stranger to wet weather. This, folks, would make either locale blush.

This is in Huntington Harbor, just a couple miles from here. Yeah, this is California.

Sheets of rain pounded the area for hours, a tornado flipped over a car and damaged several buildings in Seal Beach / Sunset yesterday, Delaware Street in front of our place turned into the Delaware river (didn't Washington or some guy cross that?) with the raging water breaching the curbs that consider a lot of water to be a couple dudes washing their trucks on a Saturday afternoon. There was rampant flooding on giant streets you'd never imagine would flood and the building next door under major rennovation couldn't hire enough day labor to bail water from the newly poured concrete patios.

Hey Bro, I borrowed your car but I don't remember parking it so badly...that must be some good weed

All in all, it was killer. Maybe the best part is that I sat here all day, indoors sipping pot after pot of Gyokuro tea; I did not venture outside other than the occasional peek out the front door to make sure the potted plants weren't potted buoys.

San Clemente Pier. That right looks killer...literally.

I did have to venture out yesterday to the office to pick up a package and was reminded what horrible drivers Californians are when it's not 72 and sunny. In heavy wind and rain I'm not sure that Beach Blvd. (the giant, arterial road here in HB) got above 30mph (normally people are pushing 55-60) and I didn't know that the windshield wipers on some of these cars could move that fast nor that people could press their face that close to the windshield and actually drive.

This photo pretty much exemplifies the typical SoCal driver. Nothing like taking a compact car through 3-feet of water on an off-ramp.

In any event, I loved the last 48 hours and look forward to more. If Southern California exhibited more crazy weather like this and we experienced a few days of panic and concern because it's not 72 and sunny I think it would do everyone good; I know I'd love it. Here's hoping this El Nino year delivers even more craziness...

This, people of California, is a tornado

YouTube Tuesday: Food, Inc.

2010-01-19T02:05:00.000-08:00

A month ago, I watched the following film. I read Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma a while back so I was very interested in Food, Inc. as my Generation Y desire for visual media yearned for something more than just pages on a Kindle.

I'm not going to go vegetarian or protest food companies but this film and Omnivore's Dilemma has really made me become far more active in choosing what I put in my body and what companies I endorse. This film (or preferably the book) should be very important to you, regardless of what you choose to eat. The information in this film is just as important and eye opening to vegetarians as it is to omnivores. There's a pretty f*cked up world that we are forced to be a part of whenever we seek nourishment that's controlled by a handful of companies and regulated by the people who used to run those companies. You truly have to wonder who is looking out for us, the consumer, and for those of you with children I implore you to do what you can to ensure that your children are nourished with the right calories and don't fall prey to cheap/empty calories that lead to things like diabetes and other illnesses as well as contributing to the overall obesity of this nation, which is a byproduct of the cheap, processed calories that our government has pushed on us our entire lives.

I realize that going to an all-natural diet and making many of the changes in this film is very expensive from a cost standpoint but you owe it to yourself to try. Try cutting out high-fructose corn syrup for a week and watch your weight and overall health improve. Eat fresh vegetables, plant a garden to eat in-season vegetables or at least fresh herbs (for those with limited space); every little thing helps. And while I disagree that you cannot put a cost on your health (it's just not feasible for 90% of the people in this world to eat as Food, Inc. would recommend) I do agree that every single one of us can make better decisions when it comes to nourishment.

If you want more information, check out the Food Inc. website http://www.foodincmovie.com/ or check out the book Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

Anyway, get you some Food, Inc...and start becoming more concerned about what you put in your body.

How to make a Michael Cera movie

2010-01-14T09:41:00.001-08:00

I love the guy, but this is so true...

Don't be THAT guy: Eager Elevator Entry

2010-01-13T03:16:00.000-08:00

OK, it's time for a new regular installment here at übersurf. You see, I'm an extremely level-headed, accommodating, understanding guy. I listen to and appreciate different points of view, cultures and social dynamics whether I agree with them or not.

However, I'm also an extremely critical guy with no tolerance whatsoever for stupidity, ignorance, unbelievably selfish acts and so forth. One of my favorite sayings is "don't be that guy" when speaking to people about the actions of another in social situations. You know the guy; we've probably all been THAT guy a couple times and felt badly for it. The thing is, these people don't give a damn or are clueless about what they're doing.

So, the first "don't be that guy" in our new series is the:

"Eager Elevator Entry" Guy

Here's the setup...

Your luck is running out when you hit the lobby, Leprechaun...

The elevator arrives (let's say in the lobby) and the bell rings alerting the waiting riders that their vertical chariot hath arrived. The people eager to get back to work (or wherever they're going) rush to the doors of the elevator, before they've opened, standing just a foot or two from the door. As the doors start to open, THAT guy starts walking into the elevator, completely oblivious to the fact that elevators are multi-taskers that transport people up AND down.

Any one of these guys could be THAT guy...

As THAT guy enters the elevator, he's met by the people that rode the elevator down (our leprechaun above) and he becomes a log-jam that prevents the people from leaving.

I love a good elevator stampede

The worst part is, THAT guy almost seems annoyed that he has to move and that these fools are freeloading on his elevator.

STEP...AWAY...FROM THE ELEVATOR DOORS...

So, people, don't be THAT guy. When the elevator bell rings, let the doors open and see if anyone comes out. Then, enter the elevator...and wait for THAT guy to greet you on whatever floor you're headed to.

YouTube Tuesday: Simmer down now...

2010-01-12T02:11:00.000-08:00

When we were driving back from Seattle Katie plugged in her iPod and had a big collection of SNL skits on there that had us LOL'ing the whole way home. One skit in particular has been making the rounds here at the house: Simmer down now.

So, without further adieu, simmer down now...

Oh yeah, it's a new decade PART 3

2010-01-10T17:04:00.000-08:00

For the final installment, some final thoughts on the decade that was.

I guess the overall theme to the decade was "changes." Transitioning from college life to the working world, immature college kid to adult, moving intra and inter-state, several new careers and all sorts of stuff in between it was a decade of changes far more than any other time in my life.

Were they all good changes? Yes, or rather, they were all necessary. I realize there are a lot of changes to come and the changes in my life over the last decade have prepared me more so than any other time in my life.

If I had to give my overall satisfaction with the 2000's a grade I'd guess I'd go with B maybe B-. I don't have many regrets--regrets that are actually worth being regretful over-- and I feel I capitalized on a great deal of the opportunities presented to me over the last 10 years. You always wish you could have made more money, spent money wiser, visited this place or that place, ket in better shape and such but overall I have no complaints. I met some amazing people and save for the core group of KU people I met in years prior and a handful of people from other decades, pretty much everyone I call a friend now was introduced to me in the 2000's.

I didn't get involved in politics or religion whatsoever in the 2000's and I'm fine with that; maybe even better for it. I start to notice more of the impact politics and religion has on the world around me and it sort of scares me. I've always been somewhat naive to both topics and exposed to them on a very limited basis my entire life but now that I'm on my own and have my own things to worry about I'm realizing the importance of things such as politics and religion have on my life. I still have no aspirations of making either a very integral part of my life though I can see myself getting more involved in the political side of things, ensuring a better place for myself and my family, and becoming more spiritual (not religious) and looking inside myself for the strength and wisdom I know is there.

The last few years have taught me some important lessons regarding fiscal matters that were all but ignored for the majority of the 2000's. It's funny how you learn to save an spend more wisely when your income stream is limited and you live in the most expensive place in the US. I'm hopeful that the lessons I've learned as of late will translate to the years ahead, no matter how much money I may make...though I might ditch generic stuff for the name brands, given the opportunity. LOL

Love-wise, I'm set. I look forward to the future with Katie and learned some valuable lessons in the 2000's.

Career-wise, the 2000's were a really exciting ride. I start at a dot-com in KC and I end as a trader in my home-office in HB. I'm really glad I got to experience the workplace but even more glad that I got out. The bulk of the decade was taken up by Arcadia Capital and it was fun, though I realized pretty quickly into that endeavor it was not what I wanted to do. I spent the better half of the decade looking for new things to do and ways I could make a living, ultimately falling into the profession I believe I was made to do. I see trading as a vehicle to deliver me to the places I want to be and accomplish the goals I want to accomplish and not just from a dollars and cents perspective.

Going forward into the 2010's I look to be even more of an adult and begin to explore new worlds around me and capitalize on the opportunities already presented to me early in this decade. I have no doubt that I am positioned in such a way that I am mentally, physically, fiscally and spiritually ready to face the challenges and capitalize on opportunities the 2010's will present me so I'm very excited for what the new decade holds.

So, it was fun 2000's...but I've gotter bigger and better places to go and plenty of photos, knowledge, wisdom and memories of the times we spent together...and for that, I will be forever grateful.

bmills

Oh yeah, it's a new decade PART 2

2010-01-08T11:29:00.000-08:00

Here are what I'd classify as the highs and lows of the 2000's in a free-form, off the top of my head as I think of them, no particular order sort of way.

HIGH's

- Meeting Katie
- Graduating from KU
- KU winning the National Championship
- Learning to surf
- Surf trip to Indonesia
- Visiting a Mentawai village
- Skydiving (twice)
- Buying a BMW, taking delivery in Europe
- Doing that ^^^ a 2nd time
- No Doubt concert in Irvine
- The Strokes concert @ The Joint in Hard Rock Las Vegas
- Leaving Kansas for Los Angeles
- Leaving Los Angeles for Huntington Beach
- Learning to trade
- Meeting Bill Schamp
- Learning to trade Bill Schamp's LOGIC
- Brisbane the Pointer puppy
- My sister's wedding
- My Dad marrying Suzanne
- Meeting Charlize Theron at a benefit in Los Angeles
- Meeting Kelly Slater
- Helping SurfAid International
- My first barrel (in Indonesia, of all places)
- My awesome quiver of surfboards
- Night surfing @ San O with Mike...full moon and the craziest red tide I've ever seen; it's like we were in space
- Every San O camping trip with Mike
- Amit/Mitch's bachelor party in Vegas
- Rishi's bachelor party in BFE
- AOE & MTGO battles with Kuka
- Jap balls and Golden Tee @ Tanners with Brian Brown more times than I care to count
- My first "real" cuban cigar
- Discovering green tea
- 4th of July session with Ed
- Chicago with Katie, meeting BenT and Greg
- Sears Tower with the aforementioned gang

LOW's

- Driving home from Jardine's in KC
- Wrecking the Audi on the way home from Jardines
- Spending a couple hours in jail for wrecking the Audi on suspicion of being drunk (case was dismissed for lack of evidence...not very proud of the whole situation at all)
- Losing my grandmother
- Losing Raymond to Seattle
- Leaving Lawrence
- Getting pulled over by CHP for driving with expired Kansas plates, 3 months after I got here
- Having my car towed by CHP for ^^^ and being left to fend for myself with a business card telling me where my car would be
- Not telling Charlize Theron how gorgeous she was (maybe we could have made out, ya know?)
- My first REAL earthquake from the 20th story of my office/building in El Segundo
- Buying land in Florida
- Selling land in Florida
- Continued litigation over the Florida deal
- Buying the old Bronco
- Selling some of my quiver to pay bills
- The drive home from Seattle through the Siskyou's
- The gash in my knee from the tail of a surfboard
- The resulting infection that left the knee the size of a football
- Passing out @ eScout and losing my sense of smell in the fall
- Getting hammered @ Oktoberfest in Big Bear
- Thinning hair

I'm sure there's more but this is the stuff that really matters. I guess what's most important is that there were more high's than low's and I really had to think hard for the list of low's...and I'd say that's an indicator of a successful decade of life.

Part 3 is all that's left. You get it this weekend...

Oh yeah, it's a new decade PART 1

2010-01-05T15:26:00.000-08:00

It dawned on me as I read through a couple blogs and articles here and there that we've entered a new decade. Well, at least it's a new decade if you don't buy into the year 0 thing...but let's assume it's a new decade unlike the fanatics who swear by year 0 and think 1/1/11 is the real start of the next decade.

So what have I/we learned this decade? Where am I now 10 years after everyone was freaking out about a stupid Y2K bug? We're gonna do this in several parts. Part 1 will be a time-line from then until now, part 2 the highs/lows of the decade that was and Part 3 the "what I learned" portion.

Midnight January 1, 2000

I was home alone this night ringing in the new year in my apartment in Lawrence, alone. Don't feel sad for me; it's how I wanted it. I remember having a bottle of champagne all to myself and was watching whatever TV coverage looked most interesting; NBC for the poignant, very real look at what was to come as we start a new millennium, MTV for the hot chicks making out in the TRL studio overlooking Times Square. What? You want the truth, you got it...

I didn't think too much of the new millennium at the time; it was just another year. I was graduating from KU in the spring, I'd lined up a job working at a dot-bomb in KC and I was single with a whole world out there just begging me to leave the sheltered confines of college.

Summer 2000

I moved into an apartment in Lawrence with one of my best friends Ben. I'd begun working at eScout and although the drive to KC was a bitch, it was at least a straight shot on I-70 to the office in downtown KC. This was a great living situation. Ben and I decided we needed a table but that an air hockey table was a far more practical use of the space in our dining area so we did it. I wish we'd had more time to live together as I'm confident that we would have needed another table and could have rationalized getting a foosball table instead.

Fall 2000

eScout moves to Lee's Summit, MO which adds I think 30-miles R/T to my already long commute; thanks, assholes. Whilst at eScout, I passed out in the bathroom and cracked my skull on the concrete floor of the bathroom. Literally. This was the accident that left me senseless. Literally. The fall had severed my olfactory nerve, leaving me without my sense of smell and although I've gained a small portion of it back, I'm still unable to smell anything of note; let's give it a # of say, 95% inability to smell. In retrospect, I wish I'd sued eScout. 2 doctors told me that the fall was due to stress and I was working my ass off at a dot-com startup for a maniac...my being laid off less than 6 months later would have had ambulance chasing lawyers foaming at the mouth and in-house council sounding the damage control bell. Missed opportunities...

A budding friendship developed with someone I can point to as the source of a great deal of people I call friends these days, one Rishi Parekh. I think of my post-college days in KC, this is/was the reason I stuck around and was supposed to be there; we were meant to meet one another, in some strange way. We had tons of fun, listened to jazz, drank scotch and wine and established a lifelong relationship with one another that continues on today.

Spring 2001

eScout laid me off. Thanks, assholes. I'd just moved to KC by myself and at the time the 2 weeks severance pay seemed awesome, especially when coupled with unemployment pay from Missouri. The cost of living was such that I could afford to watch TV and mess around all day and look for jobs in the evening and have money leftover to get wasted at night, every night. My neighbor Brian Brown provided many a night of fun and craziness as we stumbled home from the bar that backed up to our building. Good guy, would love to reconnect with him...

Summer/Fall 2001

No jobs in KC; giving up hope. It's at this time that my partner Raymond called me and pitched the idea of starting a mortgage company together here in SoCal where he lived. What did I have to lose?

9/11 happened and I remember being woken up by Raymond telling me to turn on the TV. It was pretty surreal and the days that followed were filled with a lot of hate, fear and uncertainty. A month later, Raymond and I packed up the car, sold everything that wouldn't fit, I said my goodbye's to KC and before the gravity of the situation hit me I was halfway to Southern California.

Winter 2001

We had started Arcadia Capital, LLC and were struggling to find business. It was very slow going and it wasn't until Spring 2002 that we actually closed a deal. Southern California was incredibly foreign to a Kansas boy and I was feeling homesick as I called friends back in KS looking for something to keep me going as the fast pace, abundant a-hole residents of SoCal, pollution and all the other fun stuff around here was anything but inviting, or at least, too great to be offset by the great weather (as so many people here continue to lean on as THE reason people want to be here).

I began surfing shortly after I got here, which I honestly think was what kept me around. Had I not begun surfing there's an excellent chance I would have ended up back in KC or Seattle.

Spring 2002 - Fall 2006

Arcadia was moving along, though Raymond had left me by myself as he and his wife left for Washington state to live in the sticks and start a family. I was pissed. Here I'd uprooted my entire life to move to SoCal, knowing nobody here other than Raymond and he leaves me less than a year after I get here. This still sort of hurts and I believe the failure of Arcadia (more on that in a bit) is due solely to his leaving. I'm happy he is where he is but I think that the impact of the situation has never been fully appreciated by all involved which leaves some feelings of resentment when things are rough, as they have been several times since.

I'd moved into an apartment in Brentwood, which I loved for it's location and size, and had begun dating a girl named Nicole. She was young, a wild soul that was very different from me but I liked it. It was almost as if I started dating her because I normally wouldn't date someone like her. She was this hot California blond, outgoing and naive to a lot of things in life and I just enjoyed being with her. It was easy and I didn't have to work hard at the relationship, which ultimately destroyed our relationship.

In November 2004 I moved to Huntington as I was sick of LA and it was closer to Nicole who lived in Belmont Shore. My apartment was awesome. 2 blocks from the beach, newly renovated, an outdoor shower to rinse off after a surf, right in the middle of downtown; it was awesome. HB was this magical land or surf, sun and isolation and I loved every second of it.

After almost 4 years dating I ended it with Nicole. We were too different and I didn't put forth any effort as subconsciously I knew I wasn't really seeing any future with her. It was tough but it had to happen.

October 2006

Indonesia! I went on a surf trip as a way to sort of clear my mind and soul just a month or 2 after ending the relationship and had a blast. It was Bryan-time and I was thousands of miles and dozens of hours by plane from life back home. I want to go back and will someday, though Indo seems really far from where I am right now both physically and metaphorically.

November 2006

Now it gets interesting. I met this girl named Katie who lived at the other end of the building, one thing led to another and now we live together with a dog and a lot of good times. I also met some other friends that are big parts of my life now; this was a really happy time in my life. There was probably 6 months of pure perfection. I have Katie, some really fun friends, I'm making great money pimping loans; life was just easy, fun and prosperous and I would give anything for that feeling again.

Winter 2007

Katie and I move in together and get Brisbane the wonder-pup. The house was a disaster from a legal/rental standpoint as the landlord wasn't paying the mortgage and pocketing every penny of rent (money orders only) and was all but a ghost as the property manager couldn't even verfiy that he existed.

Spring 2008

This began the beginning of the end of Arcadia Capital. The once profitable and successful venture was struggling and I saw enough in the real estate market to know when to get the hell out, and I did. I began looking into other businesses and ultimately decided to become a trader, which I am doing full-time now.

Fall 2008

Eviction notices posted on the door of Hartford verified what we already suspected: the landlord was a crook. After hunting down the doofus of the operation (the property manager) and getting our deposit back, we moved out and found another place in HB.

Fall 2009 - present

Life as usual. I struggle to learn the art of trading and watch life savings dwindle to nothing as I try to stay afloat paying for rent, debt, you name it. I'm not trading all that much and view the time as a sort of "going back to school" but instead of coming out with my masters or a nursing degree I hope to emerge with knowledge that can open any and all doors when used properly. It's rough. For the first time in my adult life I'm not making any money, and that means no unemployment either. But I view it as a necessary step in my progression forward and realize that without the rainy days you can't appreciate the sunny days quite as much.

Midnight January 1, 2010

Katie and I complete a 1000 piece puzzle in less than 4 hours with a couple Jersey Shore breaks thrown in for good measure. I spent the last day of the decade with the woman I love and the puppy that we love and welcome in a new decade and surely a new chapter of our lives together.

It's a fitting way to end the decade don't you think? I start the decade by myself and after 10 years, countless friends and acquaintances, a move cross country and starting from scratch at least twice I end it with just 1 more person. I guess what counts, though, is the quality of that company. Who needs raging parties with teary-eyed drunks and horny guys looking for the first BJ of the year from a stranger when you can be with the ones you love and quietly celebrate the passing of another year and ring in the new year in peace?

Part 2 coming up later this week...

2010 Blogsolutions

2010-01-03T18:23:00.000-08:00

As we're now into 2010, I feel it necessary to give you some new year "blogsolutions." It's the popular thing to do and since this blog doesn't need to lose weight and can't plan a budget or eat healthier, here's what you can expect for the upcoming year...

1. More posts
I can't promise you every day but I can sure tell you every day now at the beginning of the year, try my best, come up short and then link back to this statement at the end of the year to prove that I never promised you a thing.

2. More interactivity
YOU need to be involved in this blog! Maybe through polls, suggestions, guest bloggers, whatever. Come hell or high water I'm going to get you involved here this year and look forward to the ensuing train wreck.

3. More controversy
Yeah, I said it: more controversy. I don't have enough time to gently meander around political correctness and side-step discussing many of the issues that I would like to but have previously avoided for lack of pissing people off or having labels attached to me. Not that anything is really that bad, but I think you might learn a bit more about me if I weren't pushing all my toughts and content through the Brita water filatration of blog-editing.

4. Brisbane
He has his own blog that hasn't been posted to in a while and with his schedule and mine starting to settle in nicely, we should be able to get him on the keyboard and start posting either here or at his own blog.

So, let's light this candle and have a very fun and entertaining 2010 here at übersurf...

Not on strike, just busy...

2009-12-16T14:08:00.000-08:00

I've not forgotten about you, dear Blog and readers of the Blog. It's the holiday season and I'm in the middle of an exceptionally busy trading week and trying to wrap things up here at the end of the year.

On top of that, next week, Katie, Brisbane and I are packing up the family truckster and driving to Seattle to spend the holiday with my family. 19 hours, per Google Maps estimation, which is a long haul. So, we've got XMAS stuff to do here, last minute gift and craft projects we're knee deep in and everything else that comes with preparing to drive North for 2 days.

So, hang tight, there will be plenty of good stuff coming up as I make time for new entries...

YouTube Tuesday: Ho x 3

2009-12-15T00:05:00.000-08:00

The Dan Band. If you don't know Dan Finnerty and the Dan Band, chances are you do you just don't know it. If Dan Band are ever near you, you owe it to yourself to see the most fun and most original live show you will ever see. Anyway...

This is one of the few original tracks Dan has recorded and it's pure genius. I mean prostitutes need some Christmas joy and the song has such a happy story; what's not to love? Who better to sing Ho Ho Ho than Dan Finnerty and The Dan Band? Nobody, that's who.

While I love everything about the Dan Band I must admit that the backup singers are probably the best part. You want proof? Pay attention from 0:59 through the chorus and tell me you didn't LOL yourself or start rockin out to their backup singer stylings or emulate their smooth moves.

So long, friends...thanks for the memories

2009-12-11T11:42:00.000-08:00

Whoa! Don't freak out, y'all! If I was gonna do something brash I would use a far more eloquent and cryptic title...

No, this post is about saying goodbye to...surfboards. You see, since I started surfing I've only sold a single board to a stranger and that board I sold had some bad juju in it so I was happy to get rid of it.

But with the current economic climate in the United States of Bryan and a lack of TARP relief funds to pay off stupid debts, ridiculously high living expenses in SoCal and endeavoring to start a new life as a trader...I find myself in a situation where I need to raise capital. Looking in the garage at my own surfshop amassed over the last 8 years I made the difficult decision to sell off some old friends.

The first board I sold a couple weeks ago was a custom single fin made by Surf Rx here in HB. I remember when I bought that board being tempted to never surf it in favor of hanging it on the wall as abstract art. That, of course, never happened and I can remember several memorable rides like they happened last week when they were in fact rides from years ago.

The second board I sold just earlier this week was the only used board I've ever bought. Since I bought it for so cheap and sold it at a reasonable price I think that board only cost me $40 to own/surf for a little over 2 years. Not really gonna miss that one; it wasn't my bag and I just held onto it because my friend Mike told me a long time ago to just hold onto all my boards instead of selling them...a practice that's nostalgic when times are good though not very rational when times are tight.

This weekend I'm selling a 3rd board which is an almost identical replica (in terms of dimensions, not appearance) of another custom board I own. I bought this one with removable fins in the belief/hope that I would be traveling a bunch...you see how that's panned out. I love the design of this board and it's a brilliant shape by arguably the best shaper of this type of board anywhere on Earth.

The final board I'm selling is a 5-fin Bonzer, handshaped by Malcom Campbell (who invented the Bonzer over 30 years ago). I got it about 3.5 years ago now and it's awesome. I don't like it as much as the other 3 Bonzers I own but it's still a cracker of a board. This one will be tough to see go. I'm selling it at a price that I believe is lower than what it's worth because surfers are the cheapest, greediest bastards out there when it comes to buying anything used but what can ya do...

All in all, it's sad selling these boards for a few reasons. Obviously, it's sad selling off boards that were all custom made for me and letting someone else enjoy them for the rest of their days; I become attached to every board the second I pick it up. But, it's also sad having to sell them to raise capital to pay off pesky debts, etc. It's one thing to sell a board because it doesn't work for you or you want to get money to pay for another board but it's another to sell a board to pay for something other than surfing.

But, it had to happen and I'm fine with it now. They're going to good homes, I'm getting the money I need and I have no doubt that I'll be filling their places in the board rack sooner rather than later.

So long old friends...thanks for the waves and the memories...

YouTube Tuesday: His light show is better than your light show

2009-12-08T00:06:00.000-08:00

Do you remember this house from a few years back? This is the original bad-ass Christmas light show house syncronized to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. This display consists of over 25,000 lights and took 2 months to set up. People can drive by and tune their radios to a certain frequency and listen to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra while watchting the show in perfect synchronization. Miller Lite used this house in a commercial the following Christmas season so with luck the guy got compensated for his fun Christmas light project in addition to bragging rights for best neighborhood light show.

It's pretty epic and while there may be others out there that are bigger or better, this is the one that started it all and that's still worth something in my book.

So, here ya go. Get yourself in the holiday mood!

Trading wrap-up

2009-12-06T00:41:00.000-08:00

This wraps up our week-long trading post extravaganza.

What did we learn this week?

- We learned what futures contracts are, where they're traded and that they're the only instrument I would ever trade.
- We saw what open outcry is and (hopefully) gained an appreciation for the way trading used to be handled and the characters that make floor trading so great
- You saw what a day in the life of this trader is like, however boring that may be
- You hopefully learned that no matter how you slice it, trading is always better than investing and becoming very active in your investments is a very good thing

- We learned that while trading may be gambling, I'm the Casino

If you ever want to learn more about what I do or about trading in general don't hesitate to ask. It's difficult for me to offer you investment advice as I'm anything but an investor. As a trader, I'm only concerned with the ride, not the destination, and that may be different than your desired investment goals. But, if you're getting active in handling your investments I can probably offer a bit of advice from time to time.

If you read through the entire week of posts, I congratulate and thank you. If you picked up just a couple posts, that's cool too. If you've only read this, then you must feel like an idiot and I concur; go back and read the posts starting on Monday and your sins will be forgiven.

What is a trader and why do I trade?

2009-12-05T09:22:00.000-08:00

The function of trading in various markets on a macro scale is for what's called price discovery. Price discovery is the act of, well, discovering what prices a market will bear. The traders will test various price levels which force other traders and investors to show their hands and act/react accordingly. This provides liquidity, which basically means that traders are providing the movement necessary for other traders and investors to enter/exit the market at the prices they want. Without traders, the market does not know what prices will be accepted or rejected. If you own Apple stock and you want to sell it, how do you know what price you can sell it for? You look at the prices that traders have fought over and established.

It's for this reason I liken the trading/investing universe to a battlefield. On the front lines are the traders; the ones that will take the biggest gains/losses, relative to their positions, and find out where the enemy is, what their weaknesses are and what offense schemes to run. Battle lines are drawn in the sand so people on the bull side of the market (the buyers or people wanting price to go up) know where they stand and the bear side of the market (the sellers, or people that want price to go down) know where they stand and they do battle with one another. The traders are relentless and the line in the sand (the price of an instrument) changes constantly.

The investors then follow behind in the path the traders have made and establish their positions in a safer environment, though still not the safest of positions. Finally, bringing up the rear, are the hedgers who are investors that are trying to protect other trades/investments they have established. These are typically the safest positions because with a hedge the hedger is not looking for a profit but simply trying to protect a price they have established in a related instrument. Farmers are classic hedgers. They have a certain amount of crops they will deliver at harvest so they hedge their positions by locking in prices well before the harvest so they can deliver their crops at prices that will most likely bring them a higher price than the rest of the market will be able to get.

Personally, I trade because I love it. I'm fascinated by the movements in any given market and feel that I am part of a living, breathing organism. That may sound trippy, but I assure you that a market is indeed an organism that acts and reacts to stimuli, requires nourishment, shows signs of distress, joy, elation, depression; you name it a market will do it. If you were to sit with me for a week and watch price develop and see the way that prices react at areas of support and resistance you'd see what I'm talking about and understand that a market is indeed a living organism.

I started trading full-time this past summer after spending a year or more learning about trading, experimenting with various strategies and gathering the courage to do it full-time. It's not easy, folks; not at all. I completely underestimated the psychological/emotional aspect of trading, thinking it was more important to learn HOW to trade rather than learn how to manage emotions such as greed and fear. Anyone can learn HOW to trade but very few people can learn how to have an emotional detachment from trading and treat it as a business, bounce back from losses and reign in the high of winning before it clouds your judgment. I try to focus not on making money but on my execution. I know that if I execute properly and focus on being more efficient in my entries and exits the byproduct of my success will translate to a higher win percentage and more money in my account. By not worrying on making a certain amount of money it lets me trade more freely and just enjoy what I'm doing, though it's still really hard to see losses and keep going once I've banked a nice profit. It's something I will always be working on and maybe the best thing about trading is what it's teaching me about myself and how to take control of my emotions and learn discipline and processes that are important not only to trading but so many things in my life. It truly is an amazing thing, trading, and I'm really stoked to be a part of this living, breathing organism each and every day.

I'm the Casino, Part II

2009-12-04T14:34:00.000-08:00

OK, so you had to wade through that 1st part to get to the payoff: why I'm the casino.

Where I differ from the gamblers and other traders is through the system I trade. Without divulging everything about what I do, all you really need to know is that my system does not rely on luck or winning streaks as I'm the casino. I'm on the side of the market that dictates the direction price moves, either up or down. I have a quantifiable edge that I employ in every trade I make. I don't run into winning or losing streaks, I simply follow what the market tells me and take what I'm given. I don't press, I don't have to adjust my system based on market conditions or how I've done over the last few trades, I just trade.

The casino doesn't earn all of it's profit over a couple days, it earns the profit slowly. I'm the exact same way. I don't look to make a single HUGE trade that makes a month's worth of profit or one that erases a series of losses from a losing streak like so many other traders out there. I prefer to make many trades and take just a little each time and let the profit compound over time. I don't know if you've been to Vegas recently, but they're still building hotels and casinos and the skyline is cluttered with giant money-making skyscrapers so making money slowly but surely is pretty damn effective for casinos and it's no different for this trader, though I've yet to build a skyscraper. HA!

Casinos and I also share a similar business/growth plan: leverage. Rather than trying to make more on each bet, casinos have figured out that you just have more ways to generate more outcomes. Bryan/Casino comparison time!!!

Let's say a casino has a daily goal to make $100,000 though Craps. Rather than trying to get that entire amount from a single craps table, what does a casino do? Yup: they just put out more tables...let's say 10 cuz I don't want to do the hard math. So now, instead of trying to get $100,000 from a single table, they just need each table to pull in $10,000. While getting $100K from one table may have been possible it was a much more difficult task than simply aiming for $10,000 per table.

Trading is no different.

Let's say I have a daily goal of $1,000 (easy math) by trading the eMini S&P or ES as is it's commonly called. If I'm trading 1 ES contract, that means I need to make 20-points on that one contract. It can be done, but it's VERY difficult and depending on the daily volume it can be pretty much impossible. So what do I do? I start trading more contracts; let's say 10. Now, I just need to make 2-points which is multiplied by the # of contracts I'm trading and my 20-point goal is met. 2 points is a much easier goal and much less stressful as you're not trying to swing for the fences but just need to hit a nice single to be successful.

Are other traders the casino? Yeah there are plenty of traders that operate as if they were the casino, though we're the exception to the rule. I believe to be a successful trader you MUST be the casino, otherwise you're destined to be a failure; a gambler that operates at the mercy of probabilities and luck and must know when to walk away and when to run.

Am I going to change the way that the majority of people view my profession as anything but a different form of gambling? No, and that's fine. I'm hopeful that maybe this enlightens some of you and helps you understand that while this may be gambling, I'm the casino and my business is simply to take advantage of a quantifiable edge on each and every trade and slowly amass profits while watching other traders go up and down on the roller-coaster that other traders/casinos and myself force them to ride.

I'm the Casino, Part I

2009-12-04T00:39:00.000-08:00

No matter how hard I try to explain it, people will always say this about trading:

"It's just like gambling."

You're right; it IS like gambling. There's one thing those people are neglecting to understand:

I'm the casino.

We'll get to that a bit later. Right now, we've gotta get a few things out into the open.

So, people think of trading like gambling for one simple reason: You risk money on an unknown outcome and stand to either lose that money if your prediction is wrong or gain money if your prediction is right. After all, risking anything without knowing the outcome is gambling, pure and simple, right? Let me pose this comparison that should open your mind to trading as a legitimate business.

When people start a business, what do they do? They invest money into the business based on the belief that by investing the capital resources into that business, their capital will grow, though many businesses fail and those people lose that money. In many cases, they lose ALL their money because one cannot predict the future and the money risked is on an unknown outcome. Sound familiar? How is this not gambling? You risk money on an unknown outcome in the hopes of profiting on the risk you take. People don't like to call starting a business gambling, probably due to some long-standing social stigma that it's OK to risk capital when you setup a shop to hawk your wares or services, but trading is gambling because...well, I don't really get why people call it gambling. Maybe it's because they're uninformed and fear what they do not know. I'm guessing people see it as a risk/reward sort of thing and the speed at which gains/losses occur, as well. Not many local hamburger stands will earn a $1mm profit or lose everything in less than a year, yet you hear both those stories from the world of trading every day via whatever trading/investing site you choose to visit. I believe it's also because with trading you're risking capital each and every trade whereas starting a business is really just 1 big initial investment followed by additional capital invested into the business to maintain it. But I'd argue that trading is a safer bet because instead of going all in, you're simply paying a small ante each time and your bankroll grows slowly.

So, back to the casino. Why do casinos stay in business and how do they make money? They have what's called an "edge." This edge is the statistical advantage they have on every bet that is made on one of their games. Some bets like the pass-line on a craps table (which is my favorite table game) have a very small casino edge of around 1.4%. So, for every $100 bet, they are expecting to earn $1.40, per their calculated edge. Sticking with craps, some bets have an incredible house edge like an "any 7" bet, which has a house edge of 16.67%. Combine all of these different bets and you have the overall casino edge on ALL the games they operate.

So what does this have to do with trading? Well, each trader works on a certain trading strategy or system that gives them an edge, just like the casino. This edge is in effect the expectation of your system. For some traders, their edge is extremely high for others it's very low. For a great deal of traders, it's actually a negative expectation, whether they know it or not, which is why it's estimated that something like 95% of the traders lose. (not sure I totally agree with that #, but to some degree it is true...)

The key thing to understand about trading is this: there's an expectation of loss. There is no trading system with a 100% win rate and you're going to expect to take losses. However, there's an expectation of winning as well and although a system may expect to take losses, it should end up being net positive at the end of the day. This is very difficult to grasp for the human mind. Imagine if you were a musician and only played 75% of the notes properly? Or, that you were a lawyer and successfully litigated only 55% of the cases you brought to trial? You probably wouldn't last long yet there are trading systems that only need to be successful less than 50% of the time to be wildly profitable and successful. In that respect, trading is sort of like baseball. A career .400 hitter is getting a fast pass to Cooperstown, yet he only hit the ball 4/10 times on average.

Where I believe that trading (at least in the responsible, effective way I practice) differs from gambling is this. Gamblers are on the losing end of the stick before they even place a bet; there is a negative expectation. Therefore, an incredible amount of their success is built on luck. Sure, poker is a different beast because there is actual strategy and craps to a degree can be "gamed" as well with some great strategies that ensure you last at the table a very long time and fight the negative expectation. However, you're always still reliant on luck and must keep track of the wins/losses and remember the house edge. There's the element of "I'm due" in gambling, implying that the house is winning more right now than it statistically should and the tables are bound to turn your way soon. You ever hear the saying "this table is HOT"? Well, this is the human mind qualifying the current statistical climate of a game, which of course, is complete and utter nonsense. There is just as much chance you are going to throw a 7 whether the previous 100 rolls were 7's or anything but 7. Dice have no memory and do not react based on what happened earlier, plain and simple.

You gotta know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em isn't just a great song lyric, but a very accurate description of the gamblers dilemma as their mind tries to figure out whether they are part of a statistical anomaly or just going with the flow. Effective trading, on the other hand, is very different. You're not reliant on luck or probabilistic forces that are out of your control. You control your destiny and to some degree dictate the destinies of others, much like a casino.

Part 2 coming up a bit later this afternoon...

Trading > Investing

2009-12-03T01:56:00.000-08:00

There's a simple equation you should memorize:

Trading > Investing

Why is trading better than investing? I'm glad you asked, otherwise this post would have been pretty short and boring.

What do investors do? Investors invest money into an instrument (primarily stocks and bonds) and after a certain amount of time they cash out and accept whatever their investment has grown (or shrunk) to. 401k's, IRA's and so forth are classic investment vehicles. They only profit when the price of the instrument rises and they rarely if ever will cash out of their positions before the date they are needed (such as retirement, funding an education, etc.).

What do traders do? Traders do the same thing, but their time-frame is much shorter and their expected payouts are much smaller. When things start going badly, traders get out and don't weather the storm like an investor would. Time-frames may be seconds, they may be months. Rarely will traders hold positions for very extended amounts of time, especially if you're a futures trader as in most cases the contract you are trading will expire within months.

Simply put, investors are only concerned with the destination while traders are only concerned with the ride. Traders profit when instruments go up and when they go down, depending on their position. Investors only benefit when prices go up.

Take a look at this chart, which I've annotated to illustrate how a trader versus an investor would handle the situation.

(Click to enlarge)

This chart is for the S&P 500 futures continuous contract. While this example only covers a few months, this chart could span a few years; the point is long vs. short-term time-frames. Both the trader and investor enter on the same day (9/3/09) and while the trader and investor exit on the same day (11/23) the trader reverses their position when the price begins to turn downward and vice versa when price turns upward again which gives them a net of 5 trades from start to finish.

Granted, this is a perfect scenario as I have the trader bailing near the peaks and valleys of each wave but it shows clearly the difference between a trader and an investor and there's no reason a trader could not pick off those peaks and valleys. The trader makes almost 200% more than the investor in the same amount of time simply by trading rather than investing. Oh, and this is only picking off the major peaks and valleys. If we speed up the chart and pick off the smaller peaks and valleys contained within I'm guessing the profit is probably 500% more and if you speed it up to the time frames that I trade you're probably looking at 1000% or more profit with near perfect execution (not quite there yet. HA!).

The lesson here is this: Trading will ALWAYS be more effective and profitable than investing simply because it takes advantage of reversals in price and at a minimum keeps your money out of the game as price retreats and potentially makes you even more if you happen to go short when prices retreat. If you start at A, why only worry about Z? Traders want to make decisions at every letter of the alphabet and as a result they will be far more prosperous than investors.

There are, of course, drawbacks and catches with trading. Most notably, trading takes time and effort. Depending on your time-frame you could be looking at a full-time profession like mine or at the very least a few hours of research each week to decide what to do with various trades. Trading also increases your transaction costs. For me, each trade costs on average $5 per contract per round-turn (going in and getting out). Therefore, on most days I'm looking at transaction fees of about $50 which translates to around $12,500 a year. Crazy, huh? For a relatively active investor/trader in stocks, lets say that each trade will cost $10 and you execute 20 stock trades a month so you're looking at $200/month in fees or $2,400 a year. There's also tax implications with trading as each time you trade and net a profit Uncle Sam will hold his hand out for his share. But, in the end, the benefits/profits WAY outweigh the costs of trading versus investing.

Should you trade? Absolutely!! Would I recommend trading like I do on an intraday basis, holding for seconds or minutes at a time? No way. But, if you have the ability to self-manage a 401k or dabble in stocks as an investment vehicle you owe it to yourself to look into various longer and shorter-term trading strategies. Don't listen to the people that say that trading is difficult and costly due to transaction fees and such. These are the people who are lazy or are investors and have made mistakes investing and watched their portfolios dwindle to nothing as they try and weather the storm while the traders pulled their boat out of the ocean long ago. I don't mean to sound callous but I don't have much sympathy for people that had a choice in what to do with their investments, saw the storm coming and decided to sit around and wait it out rather than pull it all out and seek shelter. It's irresponsible and shows a complete lack of pro-activity on their part and it's not like trading would require a ton of time. What's an hour or 2 every week to keep up with your investments? A small price to pay to ensure that your hard earned money doesn't end up going down the drain...

I'll get off my horse now, but take a look at various investment sites or ask me about some trading strategies on a longer scale (say, holding weeks or months at a time) as I want you to be far more profitable as a trader than you'll ever be as an investor.

A day in the life of this trader

2009-12-02T00:44:00.000-08:00

So, you want to know what it's like to be a trader? Well, here's what the typical trading day is like for this trader.

5:45am

My alarm goes off and I hit snooze for 30 minutes, yet I'm never really asleep, just lazy and milking every second I have in bed. You want honesty, you got it!

6:30am

The "cash market" opens. While futures are traded round the clock, the majority of the action comes during RTH (regular trading hours) when the NYSE and NASDAQ markets are open for trading. These hours are 6:30am - 1:00pm Pacific time. The first 30 minutes are a feeding frenzy. Hundreds of thousands of contracts are traded and price exploration is intense. This is typically the highest probability time to trade and I take advantage when opportunities arise.

6:30am - 11:15am

I trade. What else can I say here? The agriculture markets open at 7:30 Pacific time and close at 11:15am and since I enjoy trading these markets quite a bit, this is when the majority of the action for me takes place.

11:15am - 12pm

I watch. The East Coast gang tends to take a break during the middle of the session which slows the movement down and reduces the volume, which tends to leads to erratic and unpredictable markets. If a perfect trade setup shows up, I'll take it, but this is definitely not the best time to trade.The ag markets are closed so now it's just oil, the indicies (DJIA, S&P 500, NASDAQ), currency and the bond markets that are open.

12-1pm

The final hour of the day ramps back up as people tend to unwind their positions or stock up for the rest of the week, so the activity gets a little crazy and the volume spikes leading into the closing bell. If quality trading opportunities arise I take them though I don't force the issue as this is not the best time of day to trade. At 1pm I'm all done trading, if I haven't stopped already.

1pm - 5pm

I recap the activity in each market and log certain stats such as volume, range and signals generated. I then get a feel for each market and what the following day has in store by evaluating the possible news and events that will move the various markets. If I'm waiting for swing trades to setup that will be held for days on end, an entry signal may have been generated and if so I will need to prepare to execute the trade at the beginning of the session the following day or when the next session starts in the later afternoon.

Time moves pretty fast when you're trading though the mid-day doldrums can be really boring. The nice thing is that I trade so many markets and various contracts that if it's slow in one market another one is bound to be working. Grains slow and there's a bunch of news affecting the strength of the dollar? Trade oil. Indicies flat as a pancake and oil sucks but the crop report came out an hour ago? Go trade the grains.

My Setup

I use a dual-core Dell 9200 with dual 20" monitors. It's sole purpose is for trading as I perform all my other tasks on my iMac. It is attached to a UPS battery backup in the event of a power failure and in the near future I hope to add a 2nd broadband Internet connection as a backup in case the first goes down; with no power and no Internet connection, I am dead in the water and if I happen to be in a trade when either event occurs I could potentially lose a bunch of money. Here's what my trading computer looks like:

left monitor

The monitor on the left (what you see above, click to enlarge) displays my charting software MultiCharts, which is running an indicator called LOGIC which was developed by my mentor William Schamp. It's utterly brilliant and discussing the indicator/system would take several posts, which I'll get to later. I watch this screen all day and click through the tabs on the bottom to see various markets and time frames as I hunt down perfect trades. This screen is showing the grain markets: corn (gold), soybeans (green) and wheat (purple). If you can make it out, each individual bar on each of these charts represents 49 contracts traded, the top of the bar being the highest price traded the bottom being the lowest price traded during 49 contracts. During the slow times, these bars are drawn slowly...during crazy busy times in the market these bars will be drawn in less than a second.

right monitor

The monitor on the right (screenshot above, click to enlarge) is connected to my broker. This is where I execute all my trades. What you see is called a DOM (depth of market) or a price ladder. The one on the left is for the ES (S&P 500 eMini) and the one on the right is for the YM (mini-Dow Jones Industrial Average); you can see the contract symbols at the top of each window (remember Monday's lesson). I have tabs at the bottom of this screen that have DOM's for every contract I trade so I don't have to type each symbol in, which is a total PITA. In the center of the red and blue columns is the price. The highlighted areas you see are the depth of market, which shows how many contracts are cued up to be bought or sold at the associated price; the exchanges only feed me the 10 inside bids and asks...some traders would kill to find out the depth of market further than 10 out...I don't really care. The yellow bar in the middle is the last transaction, which bounces between the "bid" and the "ask" which are the people wanting to buy and sell, respectively. The window in the middle of the screen is called a "time and sales" window which gives me a visual indicator of the transactions that are going through, in this case for the ES. Red are sell orders that were filled, green are buy orders that were filled and the # indicates how many contracts were filled with each order. I filter this window to only show orders of 10 contracts or more as anything less is small fries retail traders (like myself) and I really only care to see what the REAL money is doing. Check out the video below that shows you what this screen looks like at the end of a day when there is a frenzy of buying and selling.

So, that's it. It may seem boring and simple but that's the way I like it; the way I need it. It's extremely important to have a regimen you follow religiously and have your trading environment memorized like the back of your hand because it increases your ability to execute when the market starts getting out of control and the desire to panic sets in.

YouTube Tuesday: Open Outcry

2009-12-01T00:29:00.000-08:00

I'm a futures trader. I buy and sell futures contracts for fun and profit. You can try and complicate the process, but in the end that's all it really is. I trade electronically on the Chicago Mercatile Exchange, NY Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade. Before the advent of electronic trading, these marketplaces operated using a process called "open outcry" and they still do, just not as much as they used to. This process is a simple auction system where buyers attempt to buy contracts at the lowest price possible and sellers attempt to sell at the highest price possible until both parties agree on a price. The gesturing, yelling, shoving and whatnot is simply used to gain the attention of prospective buyers and sellers. You've got a contract you want to sell @ 1104, so flash 4 fingers with your palm OUT and get the attention of someone who wants to buy them from you (look for someone with 4 fingers up and their palm IN) and do it fast before they sense the market is moving lower and decide to lower their bid.

Sadly, open outcry is slowly fading into the horizon. The overwhelming majority of futures contracts are traded electronically and several exchanges have switched to 100% electronic trading. There is simply too much demand for these products that it makes open outcry inefficient and damn near impossible considering the sheer volume. But, the essence of what I do is no different than what floor traders do...it's just not as loud, violent or exciting. There's a great deal of nostalgia and respect watching people trade in an open outcry exchange and myself and thousands of other traders across the globe owe everything to the open outcry system and the markets that were established so very long ago using the exact same bid/offer system we still use today.

For today's YouTube Tuesday, here's a glimpse into what the essence of trading and open outcry is. This is a trailer for an upcoming documentary called FLOORED. It is filmed on the floors of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade; exchanges I participate in (electronically) each and every day. It's a sort of homage to days gone by and the characters that still participate in an open outcry environment and a way to let the rest of the world--hopefully--gain a respect for and understanding of markets that affect their lives each and every day, whether they realize it or not.

Trading, defined

2009-11-30T00:50:00.000-08:00

To kick off the week, let's learn a little bit more about what trading is and how/what I trade.

Trading is the act of buying and selling a financial instrument. Common financial instruments include stocks, bonds, options, futures and currencies. The ONLY reason someone trades is for financial gain. Most traders fall in the category of "speculators" who are people that trade for short-term profit and income while others may be investors (trading with a long-term financial goal) or hedgers who trade to protect profits or prices in other financial instruments or commodities such as grains, oil or currency.

I trade futures contracts. A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell a specified amount of a commodity at a future date and price called the settlement date and settlement price. For the majority of futures contracts, that date occurs on the 3rd Friday of the expiration month. Most futures contracts settle four times a year though some contracts expire up to 12 times a year (monthly). At expiration, the people that are long (meaning they OWN a contract to buy at a certain price) must purchase the commodity from the people who are short the contract (meaning they must SELL at a certain price) at specified locations, where delivery occurs. I trade these contracts on various exchanges, most notably the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chicago Board of Trade and NY Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX).

Those of you vaguely familiar with various financial products may think futures sound like options but they're not. Options simply give you the option to buy the underlying asset (a stock) at the expiration date whereas futures contracts MUST be settled on the settlement date.

Sidenote:
I ONLY trade futures. They are highly liquid, trade extremely well from a technical standpoint and they are traded on highly regulated and established exchanges that ensure the playing field is level. Stocks are subject to games and manipulation, foreign exchange/currency trading is a complete joke/scam, options are confusing and fall prey to the exact same games as stocks and bonds aren't great trading instruments. When you compare the facts and aspects of futures and other trading instruments you'll see that futures are far and away the greatest trading instruments on the planet which is why they're the only thing I trade and the only thing I would recommend an aspiring professional trader to trade, as well.

What futures contracts do I trade? Well, I focus my efforts on the equity indexes and the grain markets. The indexes are things you're familiar with like the NASDAQ, Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and so forth. You can't take delivery of these contracts as you would a physical commodity so these contracts have what is called a "cash settlement" where the people that are LONG the contract must pay what the block of the stocks that are contained in the index (whatever the contract's value is) are worth. It's rather complicated but just know that with the exception (possibly) of people that are hedging with the index contracts, nobody ever lets the contract expire and settles in cash and simply unwinds their position as the contract expiration date nears.

Grains are pretty easy to understand and are the original commodities traded in futures markets: corn, soybeans and wheat. Each contract is nicknamed a "car" as when the markets first opened, a contract was equivalent to one railroad car of the commodity. Each grain contract is for 5,000 bushels of the commodity...which is an insane amount...about 125 tons or so depending on the commodity.

There are futures contracts for a wide variety of commodities. Oil, grains, the "softs" (cocoa, coffee, sugar, frozen concentrated orange juice), various US Treasury bonds/notes, currencies, pork, cattle, the list goes on. Remember: although these markets are mostly used for speculation (profit) their original intent--which they are still widely used for--is for the actual exchange and hedging of commodities. Farmers sell their crops through these markets, food companies buy the commodities they need to produce their foods in these markets which has a trickle down effect on EVERYTHING you use and consume. If you notice prices rise on pretty much anything in the grocery store, there's an excellent chance that corn or other commodity prices are up. They truly are the markets that make the world go 'round.

A futures contract symbol looks like this:

CZ09

The future symbol is listed first (in this case, C = corn), the contract expiration month is listed next (Z = December) and the year is listed last (2009).

This contract is colloquially referred to as "winter corn" just as another popular contract right now is "summer wheat" for July 2010 or WN10. The further out contracts are most times used as hedges for farmers/growers and such as they are looking to lock in a prices for their crops/commodities at a future date and can then adjust the price they will get for their crops as the settlement date nears. The speculators (people trading for profit, like me) most times trade the "front month" which is the closest expiration month to today's date, simply because there is far more volume and people trading those contracts and the prices are very volatile.

As a trader, I don't care what direction price goes, I just care that it moves. I also do not need to have ownership of something to sell it. So, I can sell a corn contract but must then buy it back later. This is called going "short." This isn't a concern because only the contract is exchanging hands, not the actual commodity. The buying/selling is done using margin. My broker and the Exchange ask me to put up a certain amount of money (margin) as a good faith gesture to trade a contract, which is how I can trade hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of a commodity with a fraction of the amount in my account.

Contracts have a "tick value" which is the minimum amount that a contract can move up/down. For most contracts I trade, that amount is 1/4 (grains are quirky in that their tick size is measured in 2/8-cent increments; don't ask why it's not in quarter cents, cuz I don't know). So, if the price of the S&P contract is 1094.25 it can go to 1094.50 or 1094 even. Each tick is assigned a dollar value. For the majority of contracts I trade that are 1/4-tick increments, that amount is $12.50. So, for each tick that the contract goes up or down it equates to a $12.50 gain or loss; hopefully the former.

Here's an example...

When I buy/sell a contract, I'm selling the price of each unit in that contract but the contract is for a certain amount of the commodity. So, for corn, if I buy a contract @ 393 6/8 and corn is measured in bushels (5,000 to a contract), I'm in effect saying that I want buy corn @ 393 6/8 cents per bushel...in other words, $3.9375 x 5,000 bushels so the contract is worth $19,687.50. Let's say that some time elapses and the price of corn is now 396 2/8 or $3.9625 x 5,000 bushels, so that same contract is now worth $19,812.50. By selling that contract, I just made $125. Sweet!

The last thing you're going to learn is the term "zero sum game." See, futures are different than stocks or bonds. With stocks and bonds, you have a finite quantity of shares or bonds that can be sold. Those shares are issued by the company who's stock you are buying and sold by a Broker or someone else who physically owns the shares. Ignoring people who short sell stocks/bonds, if the price of the shares skyrocket then everyone gains and everyone makes money. This is not the case for futures. Futures require a buyer and a seller in each transaction; same as a stock. The difference is that there is never a net positive or negative of people who own a contract or who are short a contract; they are always equal since in order for someone to buy you need someone to sell. Let's say the price of a futures contract skyrockets, as well. Not everyone is going to gain. In fact, half the people will gain while the other half will lose the exact same amount. This is why futures are a zero sum game. If I'm long a contract and sell it back and make $125, that means that someone else (who was short and bought the contract back) has just lost $125. This may mean they got in at the exact same price and time as me (but were short the contract) or it may mean that they had $1,000 in profit but sold and now only have an $875 profit, but one way or another, someone lost $125. This is very important to remember and what make futures so unique and fundamentally different than stocks or bonds. It's also why these financial instruments are so wonderful to trade because they are infinitely liquid and the possibility of games and funny business like you see with stocks is greatly reduced or eliminated.

So there you have it. You're probably bored to death, but if you couldn't tell, I could talk about this stuff for days on end. If you have any other questions about futures, the markets I trade and so forth or are interested in learning how futures can be used as an investment vehicle for you, get in touch with me; you know how to find me.

All trading, all week

2009-11-29T19:38:00.000-08:00

It's Sunday night and I'm giving you a heads up on the posts this upcoming week. All this week we're gonna talk trading.

This is what I do for a living. Trading is more than just a job for me, it's a passion. I don't feel like I'm working when I start trading in the morning so much as I feel I'm exploring and enjoying learning everything there is to know about this infinitely fascinating and never-ending journey into the rabbit hole. If I can make money while doing it, even better. I want to share it with you as I think you may find it very interesting and will hopefully learn something in the process; maybe you'll even be tempted to explore trading in some form for yourself.

So, get ready to learn more than you've ever wanted to know about trading and hopefully you'll come out of this with a better understanding and respect for a field that's very much a secret society that many times catches a bad break from the masses, primarily due to their lack of knowledge of what trading is and how it works.

80's Hits Stripped

2009-11-25T00:32:00.000-08:00

My homeboy Kuka gifted me an album the other day. I was in Caesars Palace eating a 2-item combo from the Mexican place in the food court when an acoustic version of Your Love by The Outfield came on and I listened to every note, captivated by how cool this acoustic version sounded. I didn't want it to end, especially when the next song came on: an N'Sync song I'm pleased to tell you I cannot name.

Turns out, there's an entire album of "stripped" 80's tunes. I can honestly say, there are some AWESOME tunes on here. Colin Hay of Men at Work fame performs an acoustic version of Down Under that's just as insanely good as The Outfield classic Your Love.

Some of the tunes are live recordings though most are studio recordings and sound fabulous. Who knew these 80's icons could actually sing and put together some really wonderful sounding songs? Heard in a different way, you can really get a feel for the emotion put into the lyrics and the musicality these groups possessed when you take away the neon and bad outfits.

So, I highly recommend checking out this album. If you're a fan of the 80's, fantastic unplugged tunes or just great musicians who were lumped in with douche-bags like Tony Basil and Devo, this album is a must buy.

Here's an NPR review when the album came out 3 years ago; the title says it all.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5425800

For those with iTunes, here's a link to the album in the store...

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/80s-hits-stripped/id268637602

YouTube Tuesday: Archimedes Principle & frying a turkey

2009-11-24T00:15:00.000-08:00

I'd like to think that Archimedes is rolling over in his grave right now as he listens to this hillbilly referencing the famous principle whilst preparing to drop a turkey into a turkey fryer. I guess the important question is how this dude knew about Archimedes Principle yet still F'd up the pretty simple act of dropping a turkey in a fryer. My record for successful turkey fryer drops is 4-0 and I did not know what Archimedes Principle was prior to seeing this video. I guess the lesson to be learned here is that Archimedes Principle makes you stupid.

It's idiots like this that give turkey frying a bad name, but keep sites like YouTube in business. So, let's all give thanks to this idiot hillbilly turkey fryer and YouTube this Thanksgiving.

The Hierarchy of Thanksgiving Foods

2009-11-23T00:09:00.000-08:00

This doesn't look awkward...not at all...

It's thanksgiving time. Time to give thanks for those things we have, the blessings in our lives and most importantly celebrate with some of the people we're most thankful for being part of our lives.

As is tradition with so many Thanksgiving celebrations with people coming from near and far to gather for the holiday, it's time to play favorites and let some know how they're important and welcome each and every day and that we're thankful others are only seen a day or two each year.

With that said, it's time for the hierarchy of Thanksgiving food. As is customary with these posts, here's your disclaimer. First off, it's my list; I'm not taking a poll of what's the best or not, unless you count Brisbane as a poll taker, and I don't doubt that you'll think there are several classics missing from here. I suggest you post in the comments if you feel I've made an error or omission. Second, I don't eat a large variety of food at Thanksgiving so this list is a bit short; no filler. Finally, this list is just the good stuff; collared greens or broccoli are not on here.

Without further adieu, here's the horn-o-plenty of Thanksgiving food items, from worst of the best to first of the best.

Stuffing

The people that made this probably call it "dressing" cuz it looks super fancy

First off, it's not "dressing" as so many people call it, it's stuffing. When I say "dressing" what do you think of? A wishbone bottle filled with Italian or Thousand Island salad dressing. Yeah, that's what I thought. So, why should 1 day a year we abandon our definition of dressing in favor of what most people call stuffing? Whatever you call it, it's killer. When I found out that stuffing is basically squishy, chicken flavored bread it was like someone had read my mind and created the ultimate side dish.

Mashed Potatoes

I don't need this...I was in Jaws, OK???

I prefer the KFC smooth and creamy style though my tastes have evolved over the years to be more accepting of lump-filled spuds. I don't know what else to say about mashed potatoes; think of your own fun mashed potato story, be it a killer food fight or an alien inspired Close Encounters mashed potato sculpture you're proud of.

Gravy

I have no comment for this...oh wait...he looks like Daniel Day Lewis...I DRINK YOUR GRAVY!

Both my grandmothers before they passed away made some killer gravy. My Mom's Mom had gravy that my Uncle Dana nicknamed "heart-stopper gravy" though that's a compliment and my Dad's Mom made a mean gravy herself. Funny story: one year in Tennessee, my Grandma (Dad's side) thought she made a bunch of gravy but way underestimated the yield from the amount of corn starch she added to the drippings and by the time the gravy boat got to my grandpa there was none left. That was about 18 years ago and to this day I don't think a single family member on my Dad's side of the family will forget that day or make anything less than about 2 gallons of gravy as a result of that egregious cooking calculation.

Pillsbury Crescent Rolls

Who rolled the one on the lower left? Keep 'em tighter next time...

When I was a kid, I went nuts for these things. I still do, though not nearly as much; I'm a biscuit man, myself, these days. How could you not love Crescent rolls? Buttery, flaky, tasty, fun to unravel? They're the perfect bread for Thanksgiving. Their ability to sop up gravy and mashed potatoes ensure that the Crescent Roll will be a thanksgiving staple at an overwhelming # of Thanksgiving tables across America forever. Thanks, Doughboy.

French Silk Pie

Most under-appreciated pie ever? I think so...

I don't do pumpkin anything and I'm not a huge fan of apple desserts. With that said and because my parents aimed to please, a Thanksgiving treat specially for me was the venerable French Silk Pie. Graham cracker crust, chocolate pudding, whipped cream and chocolate shavings and you've got yourself one hell of a pie. As with the cheese pizza that people laugh at when it's ordered at a party as the others talk about getting their supreme and meat lovers pizzas, this is always the first to go.

Fried Turkey

What's wrong with this guy's head?

Oh man, you have no idea how awesome this is. Fried turkey sounds crazy redneck, dangerous and unhealthy as all get out, but here's the thing: you're totally right! Actually, done properly, fried turkey is just as healthy as a regular oven cooked bird but way tastier and juicier with plenty of ultra-crispy skin to go 'round. If I wasn't somewhat scared of how copious amounts of tryptophan streaming through my gravy filled veins may affect my ability to breathe I'd totally try to eat my weight in fried turkey.

My Chex Mix

Photos of my recipe are forbidden from being posted online

I'm not talking about pre-made crap in a bag or your recipe or some award winning recipe, I'm talking about MY recipe. If you've ever had my recipe of Chex Mix, you're no doubt salivating right now as the thought of that butter soaked cereal with the right proportion of seasoning, pretzels and nuts looks like Eden sitting on the counter in either a grease-spotted paper bag or welcoming bowl the size of a bird bath. Here's the thing with my Chex Mix: it's all about the old skool. Before the various spice makers and carbohydrate hawkers decided to get their slice of the pie through convenient hints and product placement, there was a simple recipe:
- Chex (rice, wheat and corn)
- Pretzels
- Assorted nuts
- Lawry's Seasoning Salt
- Worcestershire sauce
- Butter

That's it. No onion powder, no garlic powder, no bagel chips, no this no that. My recipe celebrates the original with a couple little changes incorporated over the years to perfect the ultimate Chex Mix recipe, though it is largely the original recipe from when somebody figured out that butter, seasoning salt and Worcestershire sauce drizzled over cereal and pretzels tasted orgasmic when baked for an hour.

All things said, this dish more than ANYTHING in my life reminds me of the holidays and of home. Since about 10 years old, there has never been a year of my life where I've not made this at least once from Thanksgiving to Christmas and I never intend on breaking that streak so long as I'm alive. Sometimes I make it for friends and family, sometimes I ship it to distant family as they clamor for my cereal snack heroin; a long-distance token of my thanks. There's even been a couple years that I've had to make it just for myself as I sat back and gave thanks-- for the people, places, experiences and things in my life that I can never, ever live without-- alone and nostalgic for Thanksgivings gone by.

To all friends, and family reading this--both here on this Earth or wherever you land after you've left us-- I'm extremely blessed and thankful for you, your love and inspiration, always.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

YouTube Tuesday: Now THAT's a slapshot!

2009-11-17T00:38:00.000-08:00

OK, this is fake. Let's not kid ourselves into thinking this could ever happen. Ever. Not sure if you've ever picked up a curling stone, but they're not exactly light.

With that said, this is pretty pretty F'n funny. I LOL'd myself. Twice.

Apple Magic Mouse

2009-11-16T13:15:00.000-08:00

For the last few months I've been locked in a struggle with my wireless Apple Mighty Mouse. At first, it worked wonderfully. Great feel, great looks, awesome functionaltiy; typical Apple product.

But now after almost a year of heavy use, it's having issues. The biggest issue is the scrollball. When it works, it's rad; ultra-precise 360-degree scrolling. Problem is, the ball gets covered in gunk and starts to seize up. So, I can scroll up, but scrolling down does nothing as the ball fails to make positive contact with the mechanics that make it scroll. I tried a couple tricks that worked for other grumpy users but nothing lasted more than a couple days before I had to try again.

"Just clean it out, lazy." I wish I could! In order to clean the Mighty Mouse you have to pry open the case, use a screwdriver that looks like it came from a dollhouse, then delicately remove the scrollball and sensors and clean them off rather carefully. Oh and make make sure you put it back together properly, then hope the case didn't crack from prying it open. Never mind that by doing this you are voiding your warranty, in case you care about that sort of thing (I don't). Long story short, it's a total PITA.

So, Apple released a couple weeks ago the replacement to the Mighty Mouse the Magic Mouse and I was all for it. This mouse is revolutionary in that there are no moving parts. There's no scrollball on the top or bottom, it uses a laser to track movement and the entire surface of the mouse is one giant button. Scrolling is accomplished using Apple's favorite technology multi-touch. You simply slide your finger forward and back, left and right to navigate a document, photos or webpages. Even cooler is that multi-touch allows you to use 2 fingers to swipe left and right, to go forward and back in the browser of your choice and to navigate through photos or albums in iTunes. Very, very cool.

Cousin Itt approved...

What I think of It
Well, I've only been using it for a couple days but I'm completely hooked. It's a very low-profile mouse, standing maybe 3/4" tall and about the width of a credit card. If you place it on top of an iPhone it just barely fits in the footprint and is about 1/4" taller. The uber-dorks that are nit-picking complain that the ergonomics of the mouse are poor if you have larger hands, but I have larger hands and I don't have any issues. But remember, these are the same guys that play WoW, possibly attend ComicCon's and live for shooting anything and everything down that they can get their hands on.

Your Magic Mouse is anything but magic...I find it unappealing in every way.

From a functionality standpoint, the mouse is brilliant. Scrolling is silky smooth, the multi-touch gestures to move forward and back work amazingly and become super intuitive within minutes. The button press on the surface is far more tactile and offers you much more feedback than the Mighty Mouse, which due to its very curved surface felt weak and you needed to press a bit harder or with a deliberate press at times if you weren't in the right areas on the mouse. Magic Mouse is flat, which I'm sure helps that out quite a bit. Right-clicking is just as easy as left clicking you just have to press on the right side of the surface; easy enough.

Nothing's perfect, so here's what needs some work.

There's no 3rd button. Probably my favorite functionality of Mighty Mouse was the ability to assign a function to pressing down on the trackball. I had this setup to open up Expose, which made navigating different windows very quick and easy. See, OS X is different from Windows in that each open window is not treated individually. So, when you Alt+Tab (command+tab in OS X) instead of seeing each and every open window you only see each application open. So, if you have 4 Firefox windows open, by command+tabbing to FF you simply go to the last FF window you had open. Expose shows you EVERY open window and I'd just click the scrollball and be navigating all open windows. I really miss that on Magic Mouse. So now, I've got to use screen shortcuts or the keyboard to perform that function and that's a bummer.

Past that, no gripes. It's assumed that Apple will be releasing updated software in the future so that various other multi-touch functions can be used such as pinching or 3-finger swiping and it would be cool if that functionality was available right out of the gate but not surprising they opted to do it later down the line. Haters are having a field day with this one; what a bunch of tools.

If you have a Mac and can run OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard, this mouse is totally worth it. If you're a PC user, you better read up on what functionality works on the mouse and what applications are supported as this is most definitely an Apple targeted product.

The Verdict

All in all, this mouse is rad. With no moving parts I'm not concerned about the scrollball getting gunked up, which honestly is the ONLY reason I left the very capable Mighty Mouse. I love the looks though I don't work in an architecture or design firm so that's not as important to me. It fits my hand, the functionality is top notch and I'm looking forward to using this mouse from now until Apple releases their next mouse :)

Fixed Gears Suck

2009-11-12T14:52:00.000-08:00

I'm a sucker for the simpler things in life; the way they used to be, even if it may be more difficult or tedious than the "newer" ways. I choose to only buy cars with manual transmissions, I'd buy an over/under shotgun before some auto-loader, I'd much rather build a fire from wood than flip a switch to turn on the fireplace, the list goes on. There's a certain feeling of power and accomplishment that comes from doing things the way they were once done and I seek that in many of the things I love in life.

But not in bicycles. I focus my hate on a single bike, namely the loathsome "fixed-gear" bike that is hugely popular now with the wannabe bike messenger set and teenage hipsters who wear skinny jeans and listen to The Shins. The bikes look like a classic "10-speed" but with only one gear and typically no brakes, whatsoever. Some riders install a front brake but they're probably dealt with quickly as fixie-justice is likely served against the weak fixie rider as they are beaten with socks filled with bars of soap or maybe the other 9 gears taken off the bike. I mean, what hardcore skater wears a helmet or surfer uses a leash? Pussies.

Rad fixie, dude. You wanna hangout at Yougurtland and listen to The Shins?

See, when bicycles were first invented it appears that the concept of a brake was foreign. Bikes had a single gear and no freewheel to allow the user to coast along; the pedals were always moving in the direction you were traveling at the same speed you were traveling. Bikes have evolved because that design was stupid and dangerous. It was an evolution based on necessity, not vanity nor laziness.

Yeah, I'll meet you at Yogurtland...but I wanna listen to The Postal Service...

Now, there's a revival of the fixed gear bicycle and it makes no sense to me. It's not like choosing a manual transmission, which offers the driver a much more exciting and "in control" driving experience, it's just downright silly. Here in Huntington, you see them EVERYWHERE. They're not hard to miss: bright, horribly mismatched colors, strange handlebars and wheels/spokes, many times grossly over-sized for the person riding it.

Can we listen to MGMT? Postal Service is depressing. My Hello Kitty front wheel is kewl

My biggest gripe are the safety aspects--or lack thereof--typical with these bikes. See, they have no brakes (most of them, at least). No hand brakes, no pushing back lightly on the pedal to stop, nothing. So when you need to stop you're on your own. And that's fine if there's nobody around or nothing in your way...but when you're riding down the street and a car pulls out (hopefully to try and hit the dumbass riding the bike) how are you supposed to stop? Think of these bikes as runaway mine cars in an Indiana Jones movie: out of control.

Wait...you mean the Yogurtland on Brookhurst? That place is lame...let's do some tricks

Teens buy these bikes because they are cool; they're rebellious. In most cities, it's illegal to ride a bike without a brake, and that right there is enough to risk life and limb so you can give the police and establishment a big old "F U" as you ride by. The sky is the limit, too, on what you spend. In higher income areas like Orange County you're guaranteed to see stupid looking bikes ride by you that cost more than your first car.

MGMT sux, can't we just go to Del Taco? I heard Pharrell is gonna be there...

I write this because of an incident that happened last week. I'm leaving the bank and headed towards the light to make a right hand turn onto Edinger Ave (a pretty busy street) and I'm about 20 yards from the light when it turns green. Cars start off the line and I keep moving towards the signal when out of nowhere this dipshit wearing skinny-jeans, a beanie and flannel shirt waving in the breeze comes flying through the intersection on his fixed-gear as 2 cars slam on their brakes and he swerves into the intersection to avoid getting hit. What had happened was he was hauling ass to try and make it through the light and it turned red before he got there and he had no way of stopping. So, he continued into the intersection and is lucky I was as far back as I was and that the people coming off the line didn't have drag racer reflexes, else he and his bike would have been in a world of hurt.

You guys are stupid. I'm going to Yogurtland. BTW, MGMT sux...

I wish someone would have hit him. Yeah, I said it and I mean it. He's gonna do it again and again until he gets hit so better to have him learn the lesson before he causes a crash.

(at the counter, Del Taco) Hola, amigo...have you seen Pharrel? We were supposed to meet here and get a taco and there's just a bunch of liberal, dipshit teenagers listening to noisy music outside...

[Note: GD...why does that photo have to be photoshopped? It could have ended the fixie craze forever...]

So let this be a lesson to you. If you plan on riding a fixed gear bike and you plan on running a red light and I'm coming at you, I'm not stopping. Oh and I'll be making fun of your friends at Yogurtland.

I'm feelin your glasses, Dawg

2009-11-11T06:54:00.000-08:00

Hopefully, the first question you're asking right now is "WTF were you doing at Walmart??" and I agree: what was I doing at Walmart? Turns out, I was receiving a gift from the blogging gods.

How sweet is this? Randy Jackson eyewear?! Sadly, the optical department at Walmart was closed so I didn't have a chance to try the glasses on but given the opportunity I can only imagine that my teeth would turn bleach white, my swagger would increase ten-fold, I "wouldn't be feelin it" when I hear musical performances that suck and my use of the word "Dawg" would be off the charts. Oh and I'd name drop every chance I could.

I forgot to check for Simon Cowell white-T's or Paula Abdul brand vodka, but knowing the Dawg has his own line of glasses, there's hope for Cowell and Abdul branded products that capitalize on what they're most famous for, too.

Next time...

YouTube Tuesday: Romancing Your Soul

2009-11-10T00:36:00.000-08:00

My friend Greg posted this on his Facebook recently and I think everyone should watch it.

Very inspirational, very cool and from the AARP? Go figure...

Thanks to Greg!

Scanwiches

2009-11-09T00:15:00.000-08:00

Here's a great website I came across a while back. This guy takes a sandwich, cuts it in half and scans the thing. That's it. No commentary, no humor, no wit, no reviews of the sandwich, just a scanned sandwich.

http://scanwiches.com/

It's basketball season

2009-11-08T19:57:00.000-08:00

As KU's football team lost it's 4 game in a row this weekend to their intrastate rival K-State, I was reminded of one thing:

It's basketball season

THIS is the KU sports I remember. Hoops is king, football sucks. I guess the difference this year compared to my years in Lawrence is that a 5-4 season is a disappointment not an accomplishment like it used to be. KU will always be a basketball school first, football second. Sadly, no matter how well the football team does it will always be second fiddle to hoops.

I'm bummed that the football team is playing late-90's KU football, but I'm not really that bummed out because it's basketball season. I watched a pre-season game versus Ft. Hays State last tuesday and will probably watch the final pre-season matchup this Tuesday as well. I just don't care about KU football once basketball starts. I never have and I probably never will. The Orange Bowl victory a couple years ago was great but I never really keep up with the team after mid-October. I don't live in Kansas anymore and keeping up with the team and individual players is difficult and the only chance I ever get to watch a game is if it's nationally broadcast. Same thing for basketball, but probably 1/3 or more of the bball team's games can be seen and if you want to go to a bar with the NCAA hoops ticket you can easily watch every game.

I'm sure there will be many KU basketball posts in the months to come of what promises to be a fantastic group of players embarking on a journey that hopefully will end with another NCAA championship.

Rock Chalk...

70-80 and sunny...I'm over it

2009-11-04T00:53:00.000-08:00

As the weather starts to turn the corner here towards fall in Southern California (hopefully for real this time) I'm reminded of days and locations gone by. See, I'm not from SoCal; far from it. I moved here in late 2001 from Kansas. It was a huge change for me on many different levels. The over-crowding everywhere you looked, the enormous cost of living, the beach, earthquakes, the fake boobs. You name it, it was different. But above all else, the one thing that to this day fascinates me about Southern Californians is their reaction to a change in the weather.

SoCal lives in a bubble; let's just agree on that right now. The range of weather and temperature is so narrow that even the slightest change sends the area into a frenzy. Anywhere but the Inland Empire, if the temperature goes below 70 or above 80, watch out: the chatter and bitching will commence in earnest. They have "storm watches" here that should make anyone reading this outside zip codes 90000-93599 puke. Instead of being on watch for a storm that brings deadly hail, winds, tornadoes or flooding we're on watch for rain. It doesn't matter if it's an expected 1" of rain or 1/16", we're on watch for it and every local TV station will devote 25% of their evening news programming to describing the threat and preparing us for the "Storm of the Century" which is as big a stretch as calling the 2009 St. Louis Rams a Superbowl contender.

Now, I've done a great job of fighting the assimilation into SoCal weather norms though I'm losing that battle. I find myself waking up on cooler mornings (let's say 50ish) and proclaiming "it's cold outside!" However, that statement is one of joy, not dread. I revel in cold(er) weather and welcome fall and winter with open arms. Bring on the rain, the gray skies, the wind; anything but 70-80 and sunny. How the hell are kids supposed to trick-or-treat when it's still 70-degrees at night? Thanksgiving day football in shorts and a tank top? In what way do Christmas lights look normal on a palm tree, except in Corona commercials? It's very odd, believe me.

If you're reading this and you're from SoCal, I'm here to tell you that there are more than just the 2 SoCal seasons of "70-80 and sunny" and "not 70-80 and sunny." Oh and going to Big Bear a couple times a year doesn't count for having ANY experience with winter climates. You need to experience the magic of walking down the street on a fall day with the smell of wood burning fires in the air, blustery wind, monotone gray skies threatening rain, the remaining leaves on the trees which still have their beautiful fall colors; they're the colors you see on the Thanksgiving tablescapes at the mall, in case you're interested. Or, waking up on a winter morning and touching your feet to a hardwood floor that's cold from a drafty door or window, which when opened will reveal a magical winter landscape; snow falling, cars barely discernible from the landscape covered in the evening's accumulation, the sound of snow falling...you get the idea. How about lighting a wood fire in a fireplace not just for the ambiance, but for the warmth it provides. There's any number of experiences that just don't happen here, or don't happen without a lot of assistance from mankind. Disneyland pumps tons of fake snow on Main Street during the holiday season; that doesn't count.

Don't get me wrong: when it's -10 and cars are covered in 2" of ice that will require a jackhammer to break free, I don't miss the cold weather terribly. But ya know what? I do miss it. If I had to wake up tomorrow and turn the car on 20 minutes before I left for work to defrost it, I'd be giddy. If the roads were snowed over and driving was a 50/50 chance of safe travels or fender benders I would gladly stay inside and fire up some hot cocoa and soup and watch local news coverage of a true "Storm of The Century."

I know what everyone is thinking: quit your bitching, you've got it good in SoCal!

Do I? I'll admit, moving here I was stoked on the idyllic Mediterranean climate but that lasted about a month, maybe 2. You think it's great from a distance: 70-80, sunny, no rain, light winds, etc. But when you leave what you're used to--what you've known to be "normal"--you start to miss the way it used to be. It might be subtle things like the way the air smells in fall when you're surrounded by deciduous and coniferous trees or not so subtle things like waking up Christmas morning to neighbors jogging by in shorts under sunny skies and 75-degree temperatures. Whatever it is, it builds up and you start to wonder how good you've really got it and yearn for some sort of change.

Maybe if I was born here, raised here, never ventured outside of here it would be different; I'd recognize the subtle differences between 72 and 68-degrees or appreciate a jog on a warm, sunny Christmas morning...but I doubt it. Part of what makes me "ME" is my willingness to stretch the borders of my world and experience as many places and any number of climates as I possibly can. I guess in that respect my living in Southern California is just part of that journey; experiencing this climate, if for nothing else to appreciate other climates. But I still have a problem with the absence of a cyclical, 4-season weather pattern and refuse to believe that the weather out here should be enough to drive up the prices of homes and make this place so much greater than another place where one can have a wardrobe and truly experience the seasons.

The lesson here is to appreciate your seasons all you non-SoCal readers. If you're from SoCal you owe it to yourself to expand your horizons and your accepted range of temperatures for there is a wonderful world outside the snow-globe of weather isolation that is Southern California and just because it's not 70-80 and sunny, that's OK...in fact, it's probably better.

YouTube Tuesday: Yo Gabba Gabba Surfing

2009-11-03T07:37:00.000-08:00

I only know about Yo Gabba Gabba through watching The Soup and to say I "know Yo Gabba Gabba" is a stretch, at best. It's a kids show, apparently, and judging by what passes as a kids show these days, kids of this generation are gonna be f*cked up (sadly, this clip does not include Bro-Bee or any of the other strange characters). OK, that might be a bit of a stretch, but this sure as hell ain't Sesame Street. Back to the point...

What I do know is surfing and how to count to 5. It was with great excitement my friend JP posted over on his awesome surfing blog this video of the Yo Gabba Gabba gang teaching kids everywhere how to count by showing various fin setups on some super groovy boards. An appearance by the always hip and strange Alex Knost and direction by Thomas Campbell who makes some of the finest surf films around and you've got kids off on the right track to learning how to count...and subliminally how the use of mild psychadelic drugs and marijuana are A-OK if you wanna be a hippie surfer in Southern California.

The Governator rules

2009-10-28T16:40:00.003-07:00

In the CIA, they say there's no such thing as a coincidence.

Therefore, I must give a hearty "KUDOS" to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for expressing his complete lack of support on a BS bill that the State Assembly sent for his signature in such a subtle, yet clever, way that the intended audience would need the help of the Internets to spell it out for them.

(take the 1st letter of each line of his response and you'll realize why our governor should not be messed with; just ask the Predator...)

Fractals rule my world

2009-10-28T00:24:00.000-07:00

WARNING! NERD ALERT!

A few months ago, I steered my trading boat into the wind and came into touch with a gentleman who has spent 15 years formulating a trading strategy that is at the same time beautifully simplistic yet insanely complex. This dichotomy captivated me, page by page, as I read through the science behind it. He's taken me under his wing and is mentoring me as a trader as I'm keenly interested in what he does.

Fractals are simple. You take a #, then keep multiplying it by the base #, and there's your fractal. For example,
7
7x7
7x7x7
7x7x7x7
etc.

How this relates to trading is fascinating. The charts I monitor are called CVB's, which are constant volume bar charts. This means that a bar is drawn on the chart for every X # of contracts that are traded; the top of the bar represents the highest price traded for those X contracts, the bottom represent the lowest price traded. Let's take a collection of 3 charts, which we shall call n, n+1 and n-1. Let's focus our attention on the n chart which using the fractal example above is 2401 (7x7x7x7). That means that n-1 = 343 and n+1 = 16,807. What you see when you look at these 3 charts is that they look identical...they're just zoomed in versions of one another.

Click the image...your eyes will thank you

What you see above are 3 CVB charts of 343, 2401 and 16,807 contracts for the e-Mini S&P December expiration futures contract (ESZ09). So, each bar represents that # of contracts traded. Now, if you look at the chart on the far right (16,807, the "slowest" of the charts) the portion in the circle is the chart in the middle and the circled portion on the 2401 chart is for the "fastest" chart the 343 on the far left. I squished the bars together on the fastest chart so you could see the resemblance better but you can confirm each of these areas by the time on the bottom of each chart. Notice how each of these charts look the same, at least in the highlighted areas? This is the fractal, in visual form. Each bar on the slower chart is comprised of 7x the data as the next fastest chart. So, each chart is in effect 7x "smoother" as the one before since it's had 7x the data to confirm the price discovery. The faster the chart the more "noise" there is since there's not nearly as much confirmation of areas of support or resistance, which is what traders identify as places to enter/exit a trade. Pretty cool, huh?

In case you're still reading...this business of fractals is pretty out there but effective in how it works. This method of trading does not rely on time--like 99% of the other traders out there swear is important in trading--but rather, takes a very organic view of trading by saying that volume dictates price movement, not time. It makes sense though...price does not move just because 5 minutes have elapsed or because it's 30 seconds later. Price moves on the transactions; the buying/selling of an instrument and this is what we call "price discovery" which is the essence of my job as a trader. Traders test the waters to see what prices will be accepted and rejected and then trade in the direction of least resistance, it's that simple. Investors and hedgers then hop on-board and follow the lead of the traders on the front-line, who have discovered what prices will be accepted or rejected by the Market.

The cool thing about this trading concept is that the strategy/indicator I've been given and spent so much time learning how to use tends to get me into moves earlier and keeps me out of the bad moves which ensures that although I'm on the front-lines, this soldier has the weapons and the intel necessary to stay one step ahead of the enemy.

More trading posts coming up in future posts...

YouTube Tuesday: Anvil Shooting

2009-10-27T00:24:00.000-07:00

Let's try and get back in the habit of posting fun videos from YouTube every Tuesday like we used to, OK?

This has sort of made the rounds but in case you've not seen it, here is anvil shooting. Maybe the most incredible thing about this is that there's a world champion of such an event. Who knew? It's doubtful it will make the Olympics as an exhibition sport, which is sad, though I'm sure that it might garner a spot in the redneck Olympics in 2018 if the organizers play their cards right.

It's videos like this that remind me of what I miss and don't miss about living in the Midwest.

Miss: people finding another ingenious way to utilize gunpowder for sport.
Don't miss: people finding another ingenious way to utilize gunpowder for sport.

Thanks to Kuka for the heads up on this one...

Reality TV...I'm too smart for this sh*t

2009-10-26T12:10:00.000-07:00

He's over reality television, too...

I've had it with reality television. It's been a long time coming and I'm just over it. Watching Cake Boss on TLC Sunday night was the last straw. Don't get me wrong, it's an entertaining show but trying to pass things off as "real" is insulting. The guys dropped a cake down the stairs in the bakery with a camera conveniently located at the bottom of the stairs, a bakery full of completely fake "oh my god!" responses and worse acting than anything Megan Fox appears in, though obviously far less sexy. The gang re-made the cake in an hour and a half (supposedly) which showed off their talents, because they truly ARE immensely talented, though whether they did all this 2 hours before the cake was to be delivered is suspect. I knew it was fake the second it happened and was validated later in the same show when the gang rolled a 400lb cake onto a freight elevator that was located right behind the stairs that were the scene of the crime. Why was the first cake not placed in the freight elevator? Can we just go ahead and agree that EVERY cake they decorate is placed in this freight elevator? C'mon, now...

I guess I'm just too smart and cynical to be the target audience for reality television and I'm OK with that. I have too many other things to do with my time that are far more important than needing to know who the Bachelor picks or if they're gonna hit that deadline in the cake shop. I guess if you go into these shows knowing that they are not "reality" as you and I know it and write them off as pure entertainment and mindless fun, they're watchable. But, the second you start to believe that just because there's not a list of cast members at the end of the show and the people in front of you are using their real names so there's no way they're not actors, you're screwed. You don't need to have a part in a script to dish out a whole lotta acting and bullsh*t, just look at politicians.

It seemed so real...

True story. The first year I moved to SoCal I was at a bar in downtown Santa Monica and late at night a film crew showed up; they were taping elimiDATE, a pretty entertaining dating show that I watched from time to time, so I was excited to see how it played out in person. The couple started dancing with 2 cameras on them filming the drunken, steamy love fest on the dance floor when the producer wrote on a yellow legal pad in thick, bold writing from the sharpie marker "GRAB HER ASS" and held it below the camera, out of sight of the other camera (post would have cleaned that up if it got screwed up). The dude followed his cue and grabbed the girl's ass as the other girl vying for his "love" stood by drinking her vodka/Redbull, waiting for her opportunity to take cues from a legal pad. After hoochie #1 was eliminated and hoochie #2 was crowed the "winner" (of an STD, permanent Drakkar Noir scent and nary a chance of a call from mega-douche if I had to guess) the crew filmed the loser walking across the street. When she got to the other side, the producer yelled at her to come back and try it again, but this time a bit slower with her head down. She obliged and before starting she offered some suggestions, which the producer seemed to like. Once on the other side, she got the OK from the producers, came back, lit up her cigarette and chatted with the producer before going back into the club. 100% scripted. I cannot confirm/deny that hoochie #2 was selected by the producers to be the winner (opposed to the douche contestant) as it happened in the VIP area of the club, though I think we know the answer to that one...

This got me thinking: blog post. Let's divide the reality shows into a few different categories and we'll grade each category of reality TV.

Reality competitions: B+

Great show, very entertaining, not douchy...

Examples: Top Chef, Survivor, American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing With The Stars

I don't really have a problem with these shows; my opinion of each show is unique and not a blanket statement like most of the the categories that follow. Shows where there is a cash prize or some title to be earned by successfully navigating your way through the rounds with the jokers, the rounds with the people that make for good TV and finally the genuine competition. They may be heavily produced but you get a genuine sense that what's happening is "real" and not scripted, though I'm hesitant to give them an A as there always seems to be some questionable judging and certain desperate shows (*cough*, American Idol) obviously choose contestants that have no right being there, but will make for good TV.

"Follow along at home or work" shows: D+ (F- for Jon and Kate)

Just do the tattoos, save the drama for the actors...

Examples: Ace of Cakes, Cake Boss, anything that involves cakes, Miami Ink, Choppers Inc., Run's House, Jon and Kate Plus 8

Let me first say this: all these people are hugely talented. Their skills are top notch and I've no qualms about that, whatsoever. What I do have a problem with is the selling out of their name for the sake of a reality show to make some coin. They come off looking like dopes; unprofessional and desperate which ultimately cheapens their name, which is fine because they're probably getting paid more an episode than most of us will make in 6+ months. The sad thing is that TV executives know that there's not really anything exciting about what these people do so they simply use the relative fame/notoriety of these people to deliver their drama/tension agenda to the unsuspecting viewing audience, cuz that's what sells ads. The follow along with people at home stuff is even more horrible; Jon and Kate Plus 8 takes the crown for the worst. Oh and they make more an episode than most of us will make in a year. How's that for fairness?

Romance shows: D

"That's so funny! We totally slept with you on national TV! Now, who do we talk to about getting our own shows?"

Examples: The Bachelor, any ____ of Love show on VH1

Who goes on TV in front of the world to try and find love? People with acting/modeling aspirations, that's who. They try to make it seem like it's real but they are so over-produced that nothing seems genuine. The entire show is scripted from start to finish, no matter how much you think it's not. Ever wonder how they've got 3 different camera angles with no obstructions on every single person in the house at times when something exciting is happening? Oh and when the people say they really fell in love with the star of the show and the waterworks start flowing, you're smarter than that: they fell in love with the thought of the show catapulting their acting/modeling career and now that they're off the show, they're not getting as much airtime as their fellow competitors. Getting axed a couple from the end is the worst cuz you know your chances of getting a spin-off show are all but gone unless you were bat-shit crazy (which probably would have gotten you axed very early on and simply been a highlight on The Soup).

Shows that swear they are real: F

This is an entire episode of the Hills...and they get paid for this...

Examples: The Hills, Laguna Beach, Real Housewives of _____

These are the worst. At least with the VH1 shows they sort of make fun of themselves in the process. The fact that these people want us to believe that what's happening is organic, unscripted and genuine is horrible. The most frightening thing about these shows is how many shows they spawn. Has anyone on The Hills not grabbed their own TV deal? How many different cities/areas do we need Housewives shows for so that everyone can realize what horrible people they are? We get it: there are some painfully horrible people and actors out there but there's no reason we need to see them every week and see as much of them as your programming will allow. There's a simple way to make these shows go away: just stop paying them any attention...

Hierarchy of Halloween Candy

2009-10-21T17:55:00.000-07:00

In honor of Katie's favorite holiday, Halloween, we're gonna bring back the always popular hierarchy posts. This time, we're gonna tackle Halloween candies.

Now, legal has told me that we need to put a couple disclaimers out there before we start. First, this list is comprised of Halloween-specific candies, not just general candies that you can buy year-round in "normal" sized portions (though most are available in normal sized portions). I love Whatchamacallit's, but they're not available in bite-size portions to hand out to the trick-o-treaters so they're gone. Oh and along those lines, this list includes only the GOOD stuff; toothbrushes, popcorn balls, apples and stuff the cutesy parents would hand out that would subsequently end up in their shrubs is not included on this list. Second, the list could go on for days but I'm going to focus my efforts on candies that were popular when I/we were kids. I don't care about what new stuff they've come out with these days and I doubt you do, either, unless there happens to be a strong reader-base in the 4-15 demographic.

OK, here we go in ascending order leading up to the mother of all Halloween candies.

10. Sixlets

Suck it, M&M's!

I don't know what it is about these weird little M&M knock-off's, but they work. They're just like M&M's...but round...and the different colors taste different. Yeah, I know; it's pretty trippy, man. The best part about Sixlets was the portability and instant gratification they afforded you. Grab that little package with the Sixlets stacked up like different colored chocolate beads, place your teeth between the first and second bead, then pull. The first Sixlet was now in your mouth and squeezing the wrapper from the bottom deposited the rest of the Sixlets in your waiting mouth and you were on to the next candy. No tearing off the corner of the wrapper, no greasy cup to remove before you could enjoy your hard earned candy (c'mon: it was hard work walking a mile and hauling around 5lbs of high fructose corn syrup presented in myriad ways). In that respect, due to the deliciousness and ease of transport and consumption, I think you have call sixlets the crack of the candy world.

9. Tootsie _______

All the Tootsie you could ever ask for...

Where would Tootsie _______ be without Halloween? How many times do you go to the store to buy this stuff when it's not October? Anyway...I can't just limit this to a single Tootsie product. Pops, Midgees, the flavored rolls and every single size log they can make a Tootsie Roll in is included here. I guess Pops are the most desired but for a quick fix, the smallest or 2nd smallest Tootsie Roll is perfect. I'd like to propose an idea to the Tootsie folks. The "inside out" thing is really popular now, like the Reese's where the peanut butter is on the outside...so, why not come up with an inside-out Tootsie Pop where it's a sucker on the inside, wrapped in a Tootsie Roll? Brilliant! Oh and a quick rant. Who the hell came up with the chocolate Tootsie Pop? That's like having a caramel with a delicious caramel filling and trying to sneak it in a box of other delicious caramels with various creamy fillings. It just doesn't work and if you think that we're OK with it because the chocolate lollipop on the outside is a different taste and consistency than the Tootsie Roll on the inside, you underestimated our intelligence and discerning tastes. Ditch the chocolate in favor of more orange or try some new flavor...how about a refreshing mint? Another great idea. You're welcome, Tootsie Roll company.

8. Lemonheads/Cherry-Clan

Not PC | The real lemon juice explains a lot...

These are a killer. Let them get soft so you can sort of peel that ultra-sour shell off and feel your saliva glands pucker up and your face wince in brief pain as the cherry or lemon (pick your poison) smacks you, then quickly disappears and it's time for another one. I loved getting these as a kid and they were pretty rare; I'd maybe come back with 4 or 5 of these in the entire pillowcase. Their scarcity and over-powering pucker power ensures a place on this list and makes me want to go punish my saliva glads ASAP with a Cherry Clan bomb.

7. Starburst

This would take me an hour to open...

I'm more of a chocolate/savory kid of candy dude, but there's something about Starburst that gets me every time. Do I care which flavor I eat? Nope, though I think the strawberry and orange flavors are king; lemon is easily traded. The biggest gripe with Starbust is the packaging. You gotta have the dexterity of a surgeon to open that wrapper and when you've just dumped a pillowcase full of candy on the floor, who has time to undo candy origami?

6. Kit Kat

Don't gimme a break, just gimme the whole damn thing...

This always seemed like the Rolls Royce of candy. It's impeccably clean, crisp, the wrapper seems like a tailored suit made for the 2 sticks of deliciousness inside; perfect. This was typically one of my most saught after candy commodities. I would be positioning my portfolio to offload copious quantities of Smarties, Dum Dum's and candy corn (the junk bonds) for just as many Kit Kat's as I could get. Here's a tip for y'all: let these sit out for a bit so the chocolate gets a little melty, leaving the tips of your fingers covered in delicious Hershey's chocolate. Or, try them in ice cream...it's a winning combination.

5. Dots

"A Fat Free Candy"

I don't know what it is with Dots that to this day makes me crave them so. Is it their super soft consistency? The yummy and varied flavors of those little humps of fruity goodness? I don't know. All I know is that when the door opened and the big bowl of candy appeared, if that little yellow box was in there, I was all over it. It was a nice amount of candy, too I wish Crows--the licorice flavored version of Dots--were made in Halloween-sized individual portions, but alas. It's probably a good thing; wouldn't want the world to know how much I love the universally loathed black licorice. It's not like this admission is being posted somewhere where everyone in the world (OK, maybe not China) can read it, right? Glad that didn't leak out...

4. 100 Grand

Wouldn't the snack size be 50 Grand?

Let's talk candy economics. If you were to buy a 100 Grand at the store it would be 2 pieces of caramelly, crispy goodness dipped in chocolate. At Halloween, if you're digging through the candy bowl of some housewife dressed up in her sorta-slutty witch costume--her breath reeking of vodka martini as you hear the other adults laughing hysterically at another guest's costume--and you come across 100 Grands, if you grab 2 of the snack-sized bars (accepted Halloween protocol) you now have an entire 100 Grand candy bar. Other kids will tell you that you need to get moving, and FAST, to the Littleton's place 3 blocks down because they're handing out whole Snickers bars but those kids are idiots. Why try and get an entire Snickers bar--which will undoubtedly run out before the Great Pumpkin rises at the end of the Charlie Brown DVD they started as the sun started to set--when the neighborhood is ripe for the picking with 100 Grands, Mounds, Almond Joy and other candies that are bascailly the full-sized counterpart split in two? People get tunnel vision when you tell them about the possibility of grabbing the big prize and they fail to realize the economics behind being able to grab 2 of the smaller prize and net the same result. These are the same kids that grow up and want to throw Hail Mary TD passes instead of the far more effective and efficient 7-yard passing routes. The point of all this is...100 Grands rule.

3. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

I'll take the one on the left...

Man, these are unbelievable. The economics discussion from 100 Grand applies here, too, but never-mind that: did I mention these are F'n good!? Remember the commercials where they'd show all the different ways to eat a Reese's PBC and the one around Halloween showed a vampire had poked perfect little holes in the cup and sucked out the peanut butter? How clever. If they showed how I eat a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, it'd show me opening it, peeling off that greasy brown cup/wrapper and stuffing the whole thing in my mouth and then rummaging through my candy stash looking for another one.

2. Snickers

Pairs well with Merlot...

Snickers are like wine of the candy world. Their complexity, depth of flavor, variety of textures could make anyone ponder a Snickers bar, bite by bite as the airy nougat gives way to the ribbony, sickly sweet caramel on the tongue with warm notes of roasted nuts lingering over a strong milk chocolate finish. As kids, all you know is that Snickers taste awesome and their stock is very valuable. Next to Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, these are the blue chips of the candy stock market; bellwethers that constantly beat earnings, impress all who covet their strength as the king of candies. It's tough not to choose these as the top of the heap...

1. Nerds

If I were Uncle Scrooge, I'd swim in Nerds...

You have to respect Nerds' bravado. With so many other candies, their composition leads you to believe that this candy is maybe in some way sort of healthy (Snickers, Baby Ruth, etc, with their peanuts and "nougat" which in no way sounds like processed sugar) or their appearance masks the fact that they are nothing but straight sugar (Skittles are perfectly shaped little drops of goodness...Jujyfruits look like corn, bundt-pans and a Battleship destroyer). But not Nerds...no sir. Nerds don't hide the fact in any way that they are just giant sugar crystals dipped in some unnatural color that's been flavored so strongly that you'll down them with extreme speed and in copious quantities. If they made a NERD that was, say, a 2" orb you'd never give it a chance; only fatties would eat a giant piece of candy like that. But, make them the size of BB's and you're likely to eat the equivalent of a 3" orb and still want more. It's for all these reasons that Nerds stand atop our hierarchy of Halloween candy.

Honorable Mention

Pixie Stix

Dangerous...very dangerous...

These weren't seen all that often during Halloween and I think we can all agree that was a travesty. These are quite possibly the candy that defined my generation. Intensely effective, portable, small enough to get your fix without looking like an addict, flavorful...I could go on forever. If you didn't tilt your head back and shotgun one of these bad boys, you were a total wuss.

Twitter is stupid

2009-10-15T06:20:00.000-07:00

If you're an avid Twitter user or lover, you might want to tune out right now and tweet about @bmills serving up a heaping serving of Twitter hate in 3....2....1...

Twitter sucks. I should really just end this "tweet" here, but I'll go on, pretending I get paid by the word or that you actually have an attention span long enough to read my writings. I'd debated doing this post in 140-character segments but then realized I'd be adhering to the Twitter rules of the road, so F Twitter for screwing up my plan at making fun of them...

Well stated, little freak bird thingy...

All Twitter does is tell you what someone is doing and vice versa. That's it. That's it? So basically, we're all just voyeurs; peeping Toms, groupies who are on a need to know basis about the mundane details of someone else's life, not in a Facebook sort of way, but in a 140-character or less way. It's like non-stop text messages; ADD with a cutesy blue bird and proprietary jargon like "tweets" to make people feel special. In what way is this a good thing? How does this help you learn who a person is, besides by reading every single tweet, the majority of which are pretty useless anyway? I love y'all...but there is no need for you to know every single thing about me and my exciting daily life. I'll gladly share it with you if you ask, but there's no way I feel so special that it would be a privilege for you to share in everything I do.

So, I gotta ask: what's so boring about your life that you need to know every single detail of someone else's day? I guarantee your life is far more exciting than you think it is. Why do you need to "follow" someone and see they just got to Starbucks.
And that Starbucks is out of Chai Lattes. 12:53pm
And that Peet's over at Bella Terra would have been a better choice. 12:57pm
And now they don't even want coffee :( 12:58pm
And that this picture from @AshtonKutcher was re-tweeted. 2:22pm
And ZOMG there's a squirrel on that guy's car! Kewl! 3:12pm

Now, I'll admit that I'm guilty of updating my Facebook status from my phone; a sin I rarely commit and never more than once a day. But, let's be honest: that's not the essence of Twitter. Twitter is what happens if ADD, Minesweeper and Perez Hilton were combined into the ultimate time-wasting service.

"But it's great to know what people do throughout their day through the exchange of tweets!" Then pick up the damn phone or Skype each other; at least you can hear the angst or excitement on the other end, as they've yet to develop a font that can express emotion quite like the human voice (Helvetica and Comic Sans come close). Isn't that how we did it back in the olden days, like the early 2000's? Hell, go look at Facebook or Myspace every couple of days; you're bound to get all caught up in about 1 minute.

Does not tweet...

"But Facebook status updates are no different..." You may have a point, but the similarities between the 2 services end right there. Think of Facebook as a Swiss Army Knife, capable of doing all sorts of different tasks; everything you'd need. Think of Twitter as a can opener, capable of...well, opening cans. While Facebook may be a time-waster, at least it's a sort of one-stop shop where you can satisfy all your desires for information about anyone who's willing to accept your friend request, from photos to stupid quizzes about which Star Wars character you were in a previous life. Twitter is still just telling everyone what you're doing...and that's it.

Here's what I really don't get: the valuation of Twitter. Google has reportedly been in talks to acquire Twitter for $250,000,000. 250 million...to know that Ashton Kutcher is at In-n-Out or that your neighbor is watching Idol with the TV on too loud. This is absurd. Now, I do believe there is a need for instant publishing of news and such and that situation in Iran a while back is a great example. Fine.

SCORE UPDATE: Twitter 1 | Complete F'n Waste of Time 85,827,335

Oh, and the shameless self-promotion. OK, if you're a band, a comic or some sort of performer and you want to let your fans know where you're gonna be and what times and that sort of thing...I guess there's a use for it. But guess what shameless self-promoters? You're better than 140-characters and you know it. Besides that, people are going to be at their computers and can access Ticketbastard, Facebook, MySpace or anything else where they can buy your stuff, find out tour dates and all that jazz without a stupid little blue bird tweeting the way. Oh and don't kid yourself: you really want people to go to your website anyway and are just jumping on the Twitter bandwagon cuz it's cool...or kewl, as the Internet-kids would say.

Now, Twitter is getting into the wine-making business? Granted, it's for charity--and that's great cuz I'm sure the Twitterati will flock to buy the stuff which will benefit the charity big time--but this is just silly. Maybe you should find a way to earn revenue and stop sucking on the teat of venture capital? Nah, that'd be too easy...besides, once they roll out their way of generating revenue (most likely ads) it's not like people are gonna drop Twitter like the bad habit it is, right? (my sarcasm font style didn't seem to be working during that last sentence...) What's next for Twitter: Twitter Scooters or maybe TwitterMart where you can buy everything that the instant-publisher needs? You laugh, but you know there's a chance...

Oaky with some notes of desperation, stone fruit and a lingering lameness on the palette...

So if you like Twitter, good for you; there are millions of others out there that you can tweet with. Personally, I have to draw the time-wasting line somewhere and I see Twitter as being WAY on the other side of necessary. Nobody is so exciting that you need to keep up with every minute detail, every second of every day of their life. And if you feel so inclined to share that much with people, do so in a much more productive outlet such as writing, posting photos, creating something where you're not forced to define your life by 140 characters at a time because that's just stupid.

OK, that felt good. Go re-tweet this.

BTW, this guy has a great rant about Twitter, too...