Armorsmith76's Blog - 2old2play

Hey finance people! Question?

I have a SEP with a little over 5,000 in it. It's time to renew it, or move it. The current rate is 1.99%. I know precious little about investing, but I think 1.99% sucks... I need some direction on what to do with the money.I don't even know the questions to ask. I want reasonably low risk and a rate of return better than what I have now. I just don't trust the bank to have my best interests at heart.

Thanks.

[3 Comments]

Unfounded Random thoughts after midnight

First of all, these sodahead.com ads from google piss me off. Most are nothing more than inflamatory troll bait. They make money for the site, (I clicked a few because they got my attention) and I want to keep them, but I don't have to like them.

I'm afraid that lots of folks voted for Obama because they believe what he says, because he fills them with hope for positive change, because he is an excellent speaker and seems more like a human being (almost Kennedy like) and less like a filthy politician... Even I want to like him, and I don't trust ANY politician.

But even an attractive prostitute is still a prostitute

I don't see how he can actually deliver on the promises he has made. I can only imagine the huge number of favors he owes for all the money he raised. Lots of folks own a piece of that man and he is going to be spending a lot of the next 4 years doing folks favors now that he has made it to the top. This is true of all presidents I'm sure. But more money means more favors...

He wants to make goverment bigger to fix problems, When was the last time more beauracracy fixed a problem?

I believe that Obama is like all politicians, and the only color he cares about is green. I don't know how his African American supporters will feel when they see their great hope turn out to be like all the rest. At a Chicago rally I saw women crying, half collapsed with faces full of emotion, hope, joy, and disbelief. Their hope for the future had won the presidency, Now things would start to change for the better.

However, there is an entire political system already in place that will resist change. For better or worse his attempts will be greatly slowed.People have a lot of themselves tied to Obama. When he lets them down...what then?

He has a lot of dreams, I fear that reality is going to slam him (and us) hard. There is a reason being president ages people so much.

I don't think there was a right or wrong person to vote for this time around.

On the plus side, voter turnout was up, folks are getting engaged in their goverment, even if it was for just for a short while..

And yes I did vote, then I went home and took a shower.

[4 Comments]

Your brain is the enemy

Found a good article. funny but sad.

...SIGH

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/three-more-reasons-why-your-brain-is-not-your-friend.html

ARTICLE FOLLOWS

Last week, I explained some of the ways that our brain tricks us. There’s more ways than just the three I listed that the brain works in odd and mysterious ways, causing us no end of mischief. Here’s three more:

I am not a racist!

In 1964, a woman named Kitty Genovese was beaten and killed in an attack witnessed by dozens of people, none of whom intervened. In studies to understand this phenomenon, psychologists discovered the “bystander effect” (sometimes called the “Genovese effect” after the victim), which says that the more bystanders witness an attack, the less likely it is that any individual will intervene. Each individual witness believes that someone else will intervene, and that their action is therefore not needed.

In a follow-up study to explore the effect of race in this equation, psychologists found that if a lone individual witnessed an attack by a white person on a black person, they were more likely to intervene than when they witnessed a white-on-white attack. When confronted with a racialized situation, most people feel compelled to intervene because not to intervene would make them feel like racists. In cases where other witnesses were present, the subjects were actually less likely to intervene in a white-on-black attack than similar subjects witnessing a white-on-white attack. In these instances, the presence of other potential interveners allows the subject to avoid the self-accusation of racism — they can tell themselves that they’re staying out of it because someone else will intervene, not because they’re racist.

These results are repeated in a similar study in which subjects were asked to play the part of jury member in a trial against a black defendant. Each subject was supplied with the details of the case and then watched recordings of 11 jurors explaining why they felt the defendant was guilty. In cases where the recorded jury members were all white, the subjects were very likely to find the defendant “not guilty”, feeling that the other jurors were racists and they were standing up against the other jurors’ racism. When one of the recordings was replaced by a black juror with the same argument, however, the subjects were much more likely to find the defendant “guilty”. If a black person thought the defendant was guilty, then it couldn’t be racist to agree, right?

Pay no attention to the man in the gorilla suit

In The Art of the Start, Guy Kawasaki describes a study performed with college-aged subjects in which they were asked to watch a video of several people passing a ball around and count the total number of passes and catches. At one point, a man with a gorilla suit enters the scene, thumps his chest a bit, and hangs out for 9 seconds.

After watching the video, subjects were interviewed about what they had seen. A full 50% of the students did not see the gorilla. This phenomenon is called “perceptual blindness” or “inattentional blindness”, and occurs when we become so focused on what we’re doing that we fail to see anything that does not directly play into the task at hand. We basically fail entirely to pay attention to things we don’t expect to see.

You’re such a girl!

Pity the poor college student — here’s another study involving college student subjects. In this one, male subjects were given a personality survey, after which the testers would tell them their character was especially feminine or especially masculine. The results were bogus, chosen at random, to set the subjects up for the second part of the study in which they were asked their opinions on such things as same-sex marriage, the war in Iraq, and President Bush’s performance.

Men who were told that they had “feminine” personalities were much more supportive of President Bush and of the War, and much more opposed to same-sex marriage, than the men who were told they were very masculine. In essence, one group of men were called “sissies” and felt put upon to assert and thus prove their masculinity, while the other group felt unthreatened and thus more able to respond freely.

We’re all doomed(?)

What should we do with all this? Are we simply doomed? Are we just dumb animals dominated by a couple pounds of irrational meat?

I don’t think so. We are, of course, capable of deep reasoning — consider the work of the great philosophers, brilliant scientists, and far-sighted social critics. These quirks of thought don’t undermine our rationality, they coexist with it.

Some of these gremlins in our thinking machine are the product of social conditions that we can change — but knowing they’re there and how they work is a prerequisite for that. Others are features, not bugs — anyone who has ever been deep in the “flow” of their work can attest to the value of perceptual blindness which allows us to “tune out” the inessential and distracting.

Ultimately, knowing is better than not knowing. Those of us who are committed to the idea of personal improvement think a lot about the habits that hold us back and prevent us from achieving our goals, whatever they are. Knowing that we have a tendency to see others through the prism of race and gender, that we often act in ways that only become conscious after the fact, or that might blind us to important events as well as to trivial distractions can, I think, help us to better realize our goals.

At least that’s what my brain tells me to think.

END OF ARTICLE

[2 Comments]

What happens after?

Something has been on my mind for a few months now, Writing about it will probably get me put on some goverment watchlist (Note to the goverment guys with the sunglasses, and earpieces who are reading this, I wish no harm to anyone, and am only questioning human reactions in "what if" scenarios. Please do NOT kick in my door with guns drawn)

I really don't care to debate who would do a better job as president. What I want to know is... how will people react if whoever is elected dies?

McCain seems so old and of questionable health to me, if he dies and Palin becomes president, Do people celebrate because we can now say have a female president? Many in the womens rights movement are Democrats (my perception, perhaps an erroneous one) How do they feel about that? Is it still a victory for the movement? Is a time of national crisis the time to celebrate? Even secretly?

Obama is even more interesting. There are plenty of racist nut cases in this country, in the North and South. If he gets assasinated, a white guy becomes president. How do people react? Would the world media cast the States in a bad light? Would there be riots in the streets like after the Rodney King verdict? Or lots of black/white tension like after the OJ simpson trial (the first one, not the second. Man what a circus that guys life must be)

I really (sadly) think that there is a good chance the V.P. will assume the presidency, whoever is elected. What happens then?

[5 Comments]

Fun with fermentation

With access to a local farmers market, and an especially plentiful garden this year, I decided to try out a few recipies I had been wanting to try for the last few years.

Old fashoned dill pickles, and homemade crock fermented sauerkraut.

Yeah, yeah I know, I saw you all wrinkle your noses and make that face... yeah THAT face. the one that says, "Ew, gross, weird stinky food that old people and foreginers eat" and " What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you want to spend your time making something like that, much less eating it?"

Because, I'm funny like that. Also, if you made that face, you probably live on chicken nuggets and frozen pizzas, so I can pass a similar judgement on you.

Both recipies use salt/salt brine and anerobic conditions to inhibit bad fungi and bacteria, and help promote the naturally occuring good bacteria that eat sugars and produce lactic acid, giving both foods the characteristic tartness and further preserving them. The techniques were simple, they only required a few weeks to ferment, much faster than making homemade wine or beer (which use yeast instead).

learningstore.uwex.edu/pdf/B2087.pdf making sauerkraut

learningstore.uwex.edu/pdf/B2267.PDF making pickles

The irony is... they taste EXACTLY like good store bought products. But much cooler because I made them.

Next up, homemade Limoncello.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/06/AR2005120600243_pf.html

[3 Comments]

Great fishing trip

I'm exhausted, if my sentence parsing seems off, its because I'm running on very little sleep.

The wife and I went on a charter fishing boat today with another couple. Living in Chicago, I don't think of being able to fish for salmon localy. However, as I write this, there are 13.5 lbs of King salmon and brown trout in the freezer. The waves were a little rough, but we decided to tough it out and go anyway, I'm so glad we did. We caught a total of 12 fish (9 King salmon, 1 Coho salmon, and 2 brown trout). The largest 2 were each in the 10 lb range, the smallest were about 8 (undressed). These things FIGHT! my forearms are still sore from cranking in these things. The couple we went with do this every year (with Captain Dave) and they said that normaly this time of year, they catch their limit. IF that had happened today that would have meant 20 fish (5 per person, per day)

I used to fish all the time as a kid in Nebraska, I have lots of fond memories of catching lunker bass, catfish (caught a 29 lb flathead once) and carp but I hadn't really been out in 10 years. Today was one of the most fun fishing trips of my life.

If you want to go, and are near Kenosha, WI. check out Captain Daves website www.resolutecharters.com

He did EVERYTHING, he set and maintained lines, checking all the time with other captains about where the fish were biting and at what lure and depth. This guy was great, I can't say enough great things about him. He really WORKED to make sure we caught as many fish as we could. He seemed honest and genuine, and he cleaned all the fish for free.

Then we had a shore lunch at a local restaraunt, blackened king salmon, our catch.

I wanna go again tomorrow...

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TV execs go for the money and get the message wrong... again

First of all, I'm not one for setting up composting toilets or collecting body hair to stuff into the walls as insulation, I think of myself as more middle of the road.

This article made me laugh though. I see this kind of stuff all the time at work. folks want a beautiful, weed free lawn (made of grass) without work and without chemicals. They want (to buy or grow) organic produce, but they want it cheap, abundant and just as blemish and bug free as the chemical stuff. (come on folks, a little apple scab or coddling moth won't kill you) I guess they have been watching this TV channel.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/arts/television/04watc.html

Turns out TV is sending the same kinds of mixed messages. with this watered down, half hearted attempt to grab some dollars out of the green trend without actually having to be green.

Truthfully, I don't think this green trend will last, the media will get it wrong because they are more interested in getting you to watch the show, than in telling the truth. Because thats how they make money. The companies who make products will get it wrong because they are more interested in convincing you to buy their product , and less interested in actually producing a product that is less destructive to the envirenment. Because they make money by getting you to buy stuff, not by saving wetlands.

In the end the people will get jaded with all the lies (called greenwashing) give up and refuse to change, because deep down we all like our cheap, plentiful, simple, no worry lives just the way they are (I do).

We won't chage, we won't become more eco-friendly until it is financially nesecary to do so. Until then we can watch fun TV shows that claim to be about green living and buy a few old products in new packages.

Tell me I'm lying.

[3 Comments]

IIdle hands...

I found a recipe for making homemade rootbeer and decided to try it. I got some sassafrass tea (old school root beer flavoring) some sugar, regular yeast and two glass bottles with those resealable ceramic and wire flip tops.

I followed the recipe and capped the bottles, and left them at room temperature. The instructions said to wait 3 days for the carbon dioxide to build up, then to refrigerate them and open carefully. Today was day 3, so after chilling one in the fridge, I wrapped the bottle in a towel as a precaution, and opened it in the kitchen.

That was a mistake.

The clap of thunder was immediately followed by a mushroom cloud of sugary rootbeer scented foam that blasted through the towel, hitting the celing, the light, the window, refrigerator, countertop, all the clean dishes, the floor, the dog, the wife and myself. Only 2 inches were left in the bottle...and it was FLAT. The dog was thrilled at everything being sprayed with the new tasty treat. The wife not so much. In order to defuse the remaining glass grenade still sitting on the countertop, I opened the it outside, same explosion, less damage.

I've cleaned the kitchen twice and it still smells like rootbeer, and I keep finding new sticky spots.

I also found a recipe for grape soda...

[7 Comments]

Why are you here?

I came to this website because I wanted to fill my friends list with people who I could game with and not have to worry about the drama, the bullshit, and general stupidity of children. This is now my home and I get more out of it than I expected, I read the forums for gaming news and a few jokes. In real life I have strong opinions and sometimes an abrasive way of making my point. For a while I toyed with the idea of sounding off, in the forums and this blog. I thought it would be fun to take a few swings at the things and people I...dislike. I now think that doing that is a mistake.

Off topic is a good place to find a few examples of conversations that should have never even started, many of you are guilty (as am I, hell I even authored a thread a while back that was pretty childish)

When I jump into a room of 2o2pers, no one knows much about me, and I don't know about them. We don't argue, politics, religion, sex, or who is a jerk for saying someone else is a jerk. The games are great, win or lose, everyone is friendly, and everyone has fun and laughs.

I want to keep it that way, I have enough enemies in real life, I don't need them here too.

I don't want to argue, I don't want to get in a dick waving contest, I just want to play good games without a lot of drama.

What I'm saying is, don't forget why you came here in the first place, games and a FRIENDLY community. A lot of fun people are on this site.

Hold your tounge once in a while to keep the peace and the games flowing

It's the grownup thing to do.

[2 Comments]

What's the worst that could happen?

The following is a work of fiction...mostly.

It's been 15 days since my wife left to tour Europe.

We are down to our last 2 cans of ravioli. I try not to broadcast my thoughts of cannibalism, the cats are so far unaware of my desperate intentions...but the dog knows...she knows...The ginormus pile of laundry in the living room has served as a makeshift bed since the bedroom had to be abandoned after the horrible anchovy pizza/trampoline accident, I'm afraid to go back in and look, it's best of the door just stays barricaded shut... Doing laundry at this point (even if I knew how) would be a waste of time, Why have clean clothes when the rest of me hasn't seen a bar of soap in a week. The bathtub is still full of ice and the remaining $400 worth of imported beer, not buying more groceries was a SERIOUS misjudgement on my part. There is good news, for the most part the fire damage from the party is minimal, the neighbors have decided not to press charges and I think most of their cats hair will (probably) grow back.

I have to go now, it's time to start the trash fire in the back yard to heat up supper (ravioli again...for now...)

I miss my wife...

If you see me online, hit me with a party invite, I'm tired of playing with myself.

I miss my wife...

[4 Comments]

finally a sport I see the point of

It's called hashing, informal hikes/runs through wooded, rural areas trying to stay on the scantily marked trail,laid out with flour or pieces of toilet paper. Trails can range from a few miles or over 10. The purpose? get to the cooler of beer at the end of the trail. It has its own language, "on-on" means someone has picked up the trail. Real names, called "Nerd names" are forbidden, hash names are used instead, usually something obscene. at the end, everyone circles up, drinks beer, eats and talks, obscenities fly and everyone has a good time.

Haven't gone on one yet, but it sounds fun.

Here is the website, look for a group (called a kennel) near you.

http://half-mind.com/contactsnew/p_listcountry1.php

[1 Comments]

The good, the bad, and the ugly

Twelve hour days working in a garden center and thousands of people make for some interesting work stories, I see all kinds of humanity. On a given day I hear Spanish, Polish, Greek, Russian, Indian and a few others I can't identify. I see people at their best and worst. I had the day off, so I thought I would share.

The Good.
An old woman who came in and asked what kind of tree had strong branches that would be good for swings and treehouses. She didn't have grandchildren, she just thought that if she planted a tree like that in her backyard, someday the children of future homeowners would enjoy it. I sold her a red maple.
Customers who recognize me, and say hello. Year after year.
A guy came in with an extremely overgrown sansevieria plant that he said had been in his family for 80 years, he wanted to know how to break up the clump and repot them for his 6 grandchildren. I did it for him, no charge.
A Polish guy came in desperately looking for seed potatoes, He was so thrilled to find them, I thought he was going to kiss my boss on the mouth. He bought our last 3 bags.

The Bad
A woman collapsed in the perennial department, I think she was on chemo, her wig slipped off. Her daughter was with her. The ambulance took her away, we heard later that she had died. That night after we closed, there was still a car in the lot.
A fender bender in the parking lot ended in a fist fight and the police were called.
2 customers bump carts and start shouting obscenities at each other over it. One lady had 4 kids with her, she didn't seem to care.

The ugly.
People can't read. If a sign says $4.00 off roses, they think the roses cost $4.00, and accuse us of false advertising.
Some people are so dumb, I don't know how they can get up in the morning, and take a shower without drowning in the tub.
Our plant guarantee is good for 2 years, if it dies for any reason, you get a store credit for 50% of what you paid. They get pissed and say, "Home Depot is a 100% guarantee, so have to match that" My response...
1.By that logic, if your neighbor paints his house purple, you have to as well.
2. YOU planted it, not me (did you do it right? seems simple to me, but I guess you never thought to ask when you bought it, whose fault was that?)
3. YOU chose the location to plant, not me
4. YOU were in charge of watering it, it not me
5. YOU watched it for insects and diseases, not me (and did you even notice its slow decline, or call and ask what was wrong? No? whose fault was that? You say it died overnight? only one thing kills that fast, see point 4.)
6. Did it die from an act of God? I understand that that isn't your fault, but it isn't mine either.
7. The guarantee is on the bottom of your receipt, on the bottom of the loading tickets, and on a 6 foot sign in the yard, if you didn't read that paragraph of plain English, whose fault is that?
And they still blame me...

[2 Comments]

A sign of insanity perhaps

I grew up in Eastern Nebraska, when I was in highschool, I worked in an orchard. I spent time every spring, planting hundreds and hundreds of apple and sour cherries. The rest of the year was spent tending them and their older brethren. It was a great job. A few years after I started college, the orchard was sold, and the majority of the trees I planted were bulldozed to make way for vineyards and research plots for the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

The trees were destroyed before the ever bore fruit.

In college (at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln) I worked for the Horticulture department. My job was to help plant and maintain several research vineyards around the eastern edge of the state. (including those at the aforementioned orchard) We planted thousands of grapevines hundreds of raspberries, blueberries, goosberries, asian pears, and currants.

I graduated before most bore fruit, and I don't know how many of those plots are still kept up. I know at least a few were abandoned.

In college, I also planted a small orchard of heirloom fruit trees (20) and small vineyard (12 vines) at our family farm. for five years I fought an uphill fight against deer, eating the buds and raking antlers on the bark. Flooding and poor drainage, drought and grasshoppers (no joke, the year of the drought they were horrible) I put in two electric fences, ran irrigation lines, and improved the drainage. Everything grew slowly, eventually the trees reached 6-8 feet. Then Dad died last year, and to make a long ugly story short, we had to sell the farm to my shallow, stupid, evil, greedy, psychotic bitch of an aunt (Dad's sister) She removed the fences and I'm sure that whatever the deer haven't destroyed has been choked by weeds or debarked by her ham handed attempts to use the weedeater. I'll never go back.

I got 3 apples and a handful of grapes.

At the first house we bought after we got married, I planted 8 grapevines and put in some serious perennial beds. We sold the house and moved to the current one. I drive by once in awhile....nothing but weeds and overgrown vines.

I got a handful of grapes.

I've spent 15 years planting stuff and watching it die, getting very little for my efforts.

Today, I found myself in the backyard, planting fruit trees. It felt good, and very familiar. I smile every time I look at them. I can't wait to pick fruit with my Niece. Esopus apple, an heirloom variety was Thomas Jeffersons favorite, he planted some at his estate. Bavay's green gauge plum, is bright green and looked interesting. Kieffer pear was Dad's favorite, I had planted 2 at the farm for him, today I planted one more for him. Chineese apricot, small and sweet, one of my childhood favorites. I have room for 4 more trees...

I'm an optimist....or a slow learner.

[5 Comments]

Transmetropolitan

I've only read a few graphic novels, this one has to be my absolute favorite.

Yeah, I know I just lost a lot of you who stopped reading comic books when you hit puberty, but really folks this isn't Superman and Fantastic Four. (hear me out)

If you want to learn more, i'll let Wikipedia fill you in.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmetropolitan

Let's just say, the main character is a little more angry than I, more broken too. He swears like a sailor and yet has a special way of giving real meaning to big, important ideas. Still I identify with him and what he is trying to say. Full of love and hate for his fellow man and the society of ills we have chosen to build. The big picture story is the best, way too big to print here. The themes are for an adult audience, love, sex, politics, religion and faith, what is is to be human. All delivered with savage sarcasm and wit (and a few dirty jokes, some psychotic rants and perhaps a few pairs of breasts).

Here are some of my favorite short articles set within the larger storyline...

And then the sun goes down and the night comes up, and I remember why I lived here for so long. I was born in this City, out on the docks, and as a child I'd see the glow come up in central City as the night fell down on us, and I'd sit there for hours, all happily stained by light pollution, wishing I could be there, dreaming of what I'd do. I built a thousand fantasies of night in the City, sitting there looking at the spotlights and lasers and light snow and listening to ghost mixes of millions of different musics drifting over... I had a thousand fantasies of what it was like here, I lived them all out in three months, and spent years coming up with new ones. It's that kind of place. The night brings out those kinds of people. I hate this place, you know, because I can't let it go. But if you quote me I'll call you a liar.

(Standing on the edge of the roof of a skyscraper, as if to jump) What, you've never thought about it? No actually, I'm not either, What I'm doing is aiming. I've spent a morning calculating the angles, the wind drift, altitude, terminal velocity and all that. I have a full bladder. And in a very few moments my neighbor is going to exit this buildings ground floor, out onto the sidewalk. And according to my math, from this height, I can kill him by pissing on him.

While you all get hard ons about the New President and the New America, and imagine that somehow the next four years will be blindingly, luminously different from the last four years and the last few centuries and everything will be made right and there's nothing more important that tax cuts and tits in the movies... be advised. This, too, is New America. The people living here are living in America too.

[1 Comments]

Reading

Yep, me to.

http://nfccomic.com/index.php?comic=244

[3 Comments]