so i've been playing with my money in the stock market lately.
I basically took a bunch of money im not using (investment capital)
and bought some stocks around the end of june (worst timing ever)
soo after a few weeks, i was down ohh about 20% or so . . .
i decided to hedge some of my loses by buying put options.
here is how i did last month:

option| price     close   diff    percent
KBHUF | 189.95 -> 365.04 +175.09 + 92.18%
PHMUW |  79.95 -> 250.04 +170.09 +212.75%
KBHTG |  94.95 -> 160.04 + 65.09 + 68.55%
CHUJC |  94.95 -> 130.04 + 35.09 + 36.96%
-----------------------------------------
total | 459.80 -> 904.16 +445.36 + 96.86%

not bad huh.  all gains are after commisions also.  well, i just finally broke even on my stock holdings, which isnt bad considering how awful the market has been.
now if only i can do this consistently, in about 10 years or so i should be worth about a bajillion dollars.

Anyway,

listen to my story.

It's a little off-topic though.

The other day, I went to a
nearby oooooooya.  A oooooooya.

And there was a huge
crowd, so I couldn't find a place to sit.

And after a closer look,
i saw that the banner read something like 150 yen off.
Seriously, are you morons?  Idiots?
Hey, losers.  Don't suddenly show up at oooooooya because of
a goddamn 150 yen price drop.

It's 150 yen.  A hundred fifty yen.
And there's even a family here.
Four people having a family dinner at oooooooya, huh?
Must be one hell of a special occasion.
And then the dad's like, okay, I'm gonna make mine a jumbo.
Just shoot me now.
Hey, guys.  I'll give you 150 yen, so scram.
oooooooya is supposed to be a more brutal place.
Nothing odd about getting in a fight with the person
opposite you at one of those U-shaped tables.

Knife someone, or get knifed yourself.
That's the atmosphere we want around here.
Women and children should get lost.
So I finally found a place to sit when
the guy next to me ordered a large bowl with extra soup.
And I snapped again.
Now look here.  Extra soup ain't the "in" thing no more, dumbass.
Don't come in here looking like you're all that and ordering no extra soup.
I want to know if you really want that extra soup.
Put you on the rack.  For a whole hour.

Yeah.  You probably just ordered that for the hell of it.
As a regular of oooooooya, I can tell you that the current fad
is extra onions.  That's the thing.
A large bowl with egg.  Extra onions.  That's how we roll.
If you just order extra onions, you get more onions.
Which means you get less beef.
So, get extra onions and an egg, and you're set.
But once you've ordered it, your name will be on their list.
A double-edged sword.
Can't recommend this to an amateur.


Etc.

sayonara zetsubo sensei

this is more of an essay rather than a blog.  well as much an essay as i am capable of writing :p  my essays are usually not essay'ish.

to start, i am an atheist.  that is, i do not believe in god, or religion, or any other belief that asserts itself as 'true' while in the absence of real scientific proof.  i was not always an atheist.  i was raised strict irish catholic.  i attended church EVERY sunday and sunday school for as long as i can remember before my high school years.  i was baptised, confirmed, the whole she-bang.  But even in my earliest years, i can remember questioning my "faith."  in my grade school years, contradictory thoughts would arise in my head, with only 1 apparant answer.  questions like "if i am catholic and matt is jewish, then who is right?"  or "will my non-catholics friends go to hell?"  questions like these are simple, yet highlight the exact contradictory nature of all religion.  later, slightly more complex thoughts were thunk: "if i was born in india, would i be hindu?" probably.  "so does that mean your religion is determined by the time and place you were born?" probably.  questions like these took the personal nature of religion away.  if you think about it, you were born into your religion.  you had no choice to begin with.  and with the majority of people not having a choice, this is how religion spreads.

so what about atheism?  recent polls suggest there are more atheists in north america, than there are jews in the entire world.  yet, atheists remain to be one of the last bastions of prejudice and hate.  in much of america, it is OK to hate athiests.  when will we see the first atheist president?  i can guarrantee, that we see both an african american president and female president before we ever see an atheist president.  in fact, there are exactly zero atheists in congress.  why?  meta-studies (studies conducted by gathering all available evidence from all previous studies) have shown that there is a direct relationship between being an atheist, and intelligence.  atheists are on average more intelligent than our religious brothers and sisters. 

well what about the popular religious arguments?  without the moral framework that religion provides, the world is likely doomed to be overrun by evil?  right?  wrong.  surveys of the most religious countries show that per capita, religious countries are many times more violent than countries that do not have strong focuses on religion.  this all without mentioning any inquisitions, crusades, salem witch trials, etc.  the fact that religion suppresses people into thinking that many things are "wrong" and "evil" plays on the human nature of curiosity and experimentation.  read: congressman pedophiles, gay priests.  other popular arguments against atheism include the "well prove that god doesn't exist"  this argument has one clear flaw.  it makes the assumption that all propositions are of equal value.  on the same note, i could say something like "prove that Thor doesnt exist"  you can't can you.  but do you believe in thor?  exactly.

now while the definition of atheism in many dictionaries may say something like: "Disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods." (answer.com definition of atheist)  it is quite the contrary.  Being an atheist isn't a choice or act of will — like theism, it's a consequence of what one knows and how one reasons.  there is no term for someone that DOESN'T believe in elves, right?

 

this brings me to part 2

science and the universe.  i try to keep myself up to date on the most recent major scientific breakthroughs as much as i can.  as a result, i tend to read a lot of articles.  through reading these articles, i absorb all kinds of information.  answers to questions that were previously unanswerable.  did you know that for every question we answer (about science, the universe, life) 2 more questions arise?  it is true that we now know more than we ever have.  which is to be expected.  i would not image that any society would digress and get "more dumb" as they evolve lol.  but in every century, or major time period, there have been "false truths."  that is things that were widely accepted as "true" yet were proven to be False later on by scientific breakthrough.  examples include the sun rotating around the earth, spontaneous generation, etc.  many many others.  the problem with this lies in the fact that man kind has a Proven track record of this kind of behaviour.  to me, this is highly dangerous activity.  unfortunately it is unavoidable, unless we reach a point where everything in the universe becomes known.  the solution is fairly simple.  be skeptical.  now i know that sounds simple but it is not as simple as it looks.  most people dont have the resources to make proper judgements on things that should be scrutinized or accepted.  but with examples of such "False Truths" present in today's society, it should become easier to at least shield yourself from a lot of the bullshit out there.  as i mentioned earlier, religion is probably the biggest false truth out there.  Along with many many political and business related ones as well.  why should we be worried?  well without questioning, you pave the way for unethical practices to become common place.  an extreme example of this is the holocaust.  others include the US government warrantless wiretapping (our Government broke the 4th amendment) organizations like the WTO, and Pharmacuetical Companies.  the point of these examples are not to be a bearer of bad news and negativity, but to always question.  i suggest reading: "what we can't say"

now for some positive stuff.  i have read some scientific articles recently that almost appear to be science fiction.  things like quantum computing and human consciousness' affect on machinery.  on the whole quantum mechanics would change the views of many philosophers.  in a nutshell, quantum mechanics explains the world as a series of probabilities.  that is, all probabilities exist, until you make an observation.  at that instant, the act of observation collapses your probabilities into 1 reality.  essentially disproving any idea of "Fate."  you cannot predict the future, because all possibilities exist.  whats even more strange, is that a few studies have shown that the human consciousness can actively affect these probabilities.  in a sense we are all god, manipulating our worlds (instantaneously, as in faster than the speed of light.  thanks to quantum entanglement) around us just by interacting with it.  but really, this is nothing new.  everyone has had a bad day where nothing seems to go right.  try changing your mood.  your mood can change the affects of the probabilities around you.  having a positive outlook on life can have positive lifechanging affects.  try it!

 

well my hands are tired, and i really should be getting back to work :p  i ono what i just wrote, but i hope you enjoy reading it ^_^

its been 2 months since i wrote my last blog,
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damn, i can't think of a single thing to write about.  wtf.  maybe because im @ work >_<  and i know i have shit loads to do.  ok.  i will write about work (instead of doing work, get it!?)  in conversation, a lot of people will tell you what they do for a living.  and a lot of people will listen acting like they are interested, but never really REALLY find out what it is that they do all day.  for instance, i can tell you what most of my friends "do" for a living, but i can only tell you what 2 of my friends do all day during work.
k, here goes:
my official title is Desktop Support Specialist or Desktop Operations Manager.  my office's title (yes, my office has a title, what now biatch?!) Desktop Management Office (DMO) (yes, my office title has an acronym)  acronyms are so plentiful in IT .  what does all this mean!?  honestly, im still trying to figure it out, and have been for the past 8 months.  hahah, no for real, i am in charge of "standardizing" all of our 2,500 + desktops, laptops, and workstations here at the County of Chester. technically its the "Dept. of Computing and Information Services" (DCIS) of the County Of Chester (COC)  2,500 computers!!! whoa, thats a lot of computers!  yea it is.  and i am in charge of them!  shit, i feel so powerful sometimes.  it really gives me a power trip knowing that i can control virtually every aspect of someone's work computing experience!  j/k i don't have power trips.  power trips are for weak ppl.  but i do feel important.  in fact, there is a Philly Pretzel Factory (PPF) just 1 block away from my office!!!! (see, important!)  ok, off topic.
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damn, i knew this wasn't gunna work.  im getting bored just writing this.  hmm, well tomorrow is wednesday.  and wednesday's are chinese food day @ the office!  coincidentally, mondays are also chinese food day.  ::sigh::
i have so much work to do.  and i feel like poo today >_<
wanna see my to do list!?
k here it is:
-Upgrade the County from Office 2000 to Office 2003
-Create new Standard Images with current Windows XP patches and Office 2003 for each of our supported hardware platforms (like 8 different systems)
-Upgrade all county laptops (like 500 or so) to our new Enterprise Office Scan Client before our older virus scan software expires in march
-Create a Network Install Source of Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition
-Create a Virtual Server in VM that is PXE bootable and can deploy our County Standard images over the Network to any PC

see?  fun stuff!

this helps me through my day sometimes:
http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/

someone give me a massage!  my back hurts!

ja ne!

if you are like me, and have listened to the white stripes before and always wondered: "i like the white stripes . . . except there always seems to be something thats holding them back . . ::coughthegirlcough::"

well wonder no more.  ive been listening to this "the raconteurs" album for abt 3 weeks now (i dl'd the import) . . . it is amazing.  i highly recommend.

old favorite song (on myspace):
She wants revenge - i dont want to fall in love

new favorite song:
the rapture - Olio (the version from echoes album)

thats it !!!!
if you want more read below:
work was boring although i got a lot done,
stopped at sushi on the way home to see my boy
benny the sushi chef.  he made me some amazing raw
salmon.  i invited him to go drinking with me at top dog
this friday.  that will be funny.  then i went to the library
i used my ipaq to connect to the free wireless connection there
i was hoping id see some hot nerdy chicks in there
not today.  just dumb little kids using the library computers
to surf myspace.  came home.  wrote this boring blog
listened to the rapture - olio
many many many times on repeat.
danced instead of walked for the rest of the night.

the end.