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November 29, 2005
I Discovered Ebay
I've been a member of Ebay for awhile as a buyer. If I'm looking for a particular movie online, Ebay is the first place I'll check. Now and again I'll buy other items there as well. I haven't bought many movies lately...I have Netflix instead (Hmm....Maybe that's why my LGF stock is down,)but I still do a lot of shopping online and Ebay is frequently a source for price comparisons if not actual purchases.
I've also been collecting items that I can't quite bring myself to give away. Specific equipment and a few movies quietly piling up in a box that I swear I'll deal with one day. Last week, just before Thanksgiving I found myself on just such a day. I placed my first item for sale on Ebay.
I was a little skeptical. There is always so much on Ebay; what odds that there's someone out there that is looking for a great price on an Audio Buddy Preamp? After a few days of no bidding I lowered the price hoping that my efforts would not be for naught. I got an email asking about shipping to the United Kingdom shortly after changing the minimum bid. I wasn't so sure about messing with international shipping but I decided it would be worth it to get this item out of my house.
Then yesterday morning, Voila! The bidding had ended with my Buy It Now price. Someone from Illinois won the auction! I now have a cool 50 some odd dollars in my PayPal account and one less piece of mess which which to mess in my house.
Now I'm hooked. My next big project is going to be to sell some Mosaic Kits donated for the September Project. I've got plenty of them so if you want one I'll make you a deal. All proceeds of the kits will be seed money towards getting September Project off the ground.
Posted by mermu at 09:41 PM | Comments (0)
November 22, 2005
Apple-a-Day or Traders Never Win
After watching the price of Apple stock continually rise I decided it wasn't going to fall anywhere close to my selling price and even less likely to go lower so I could repurchase it. It actually did hit my selling price when the earnings report missed the lofty expectations of some Wall Streeters. I bought it back and sold it when it climbed a few dollars and then dipped. Knowing it would dip further and then climb again (which it did), my intention was to purchase it on the dip and then hold on to it for awhile. Well, it turns out that the money I earned from the sale wasn't readily available to me and that was the money I intended to use in the repurchase. I have a value online brokerage account and they just don't work that fast. Unfortunately, I didn't find this out until after I had sold. By the time my cash was available the stock had risen well above the previous high I'd recently achieved and I'd more than missed my window.
The wise investor knows when she's beaten and doesn't miss out on a great opportunity in stubborn anticipation of a greater opportunity that probably won't ever materialize. This would be akin to refusing to make $1000 because I'd missed out on the opportunity to make $1500. Since I repurchased the stock last week (at an ever bigger premium compared to when I sold and bought last month) it has already risen a few dollars.
By my rudimentary calculations, If I bought stock on December 11, 1995 for the going rate of $9.87 I would have spent $987.50. If I did nothing with the shares other than let it sit in my IRA, that 100 shares would have converted to 400 shares worth about $65 currently. This extends to $26,384 which is about a 2500% profit in 10 years. That's with a lot of highs and lows in the interim and it does take a strong stomach to watch your little nest egg lose money even if only theoretically. From what I understand, the same type of growth scenario can be said for even boring old stocks like Microsoft. The way to go is the long haul.
I feel better as person as an Apple owner and I missed it from my portfolio when I sold it. I feel I'm part of innovation and a deep-seeded optimism about the future as an apple owner. It was also my first big success in my personal portfolio. Apple just feels good.
I've decided the way to go from now on is to purchase the stock when it's a value without selling the stock I already have. This way I can continually build on my little nest egg. While I know the Apple fever won't last forever; I believe it will last for quite awhile. And then there's that saying I learned as a child that can still ring true today with a little paraphrasing... an AAPL a day; keeps the poorhouse away."
Posted by mermu at 12:46 PM | Comments (0)
November 15, 2005
Mer-Tunes
Tonight I recorded the 3rd episode of Letters to the President: Dear George podcast. This episode is a post-election report card for GWB. A few days after this year's election and a year after winning his second term in office, we thought it'd be nice to go back in time and look at some of the letters we received shortly after last year's election.
Tonight's recording could turn out to be the best or the worst of the series so far. Weekend before last I holed up in my house to take advantage of the 2 free days of Pro Tools Videos tutorials that came with my Mbox. I've learned a little about alot of the features of ProTools and I'm really jazzed about trying them out. Many of you have commented that the sound is a bit low on earlier episodes. I'm pretty sure we won't have that problem this time around. The downside is that I inadvertantly left my kick-ass Audio Technica condenser mic at home. We ended up using omnidirectional conference mics. The mics were, thankfully, pretty hot. I even peaked a coupla times so I'll have to figure out how to fix that. I'm editing tomorrow after guitar class and will hopefully post by Wednesday morning. So stay tuned. I'm also working on a promo to submit to other podcasts. This little 30 second vignette is going to be alot of fun. I'll get to play more with background music and we used alot of different voices to read some of the excerpts from letters we used. Once done I'll be able to submit to The Daily Source Code with Adam Curry. Adam has alot of listeners so I'm hoping a little airtime with him will boost our listenership. We've currently got about 100 listeners which isn't bad considering we haven't really done much to promote it outside of friends and family.
There's more great news on the L2P front too. We're now in Itunes. Yay! You can find our podcast in Itunes and subscribe by going to the Podcast section of the Music Store, search for Letters to the President, Dear George, or even my nomenclature and our podcast will come up. From there just click subscribe. You can then set your Itunes to check for recent episodes everytime you open it and then download said episodes.
I figure we need about 10,000 listeners before the Money People really start taking notice. We are 1% there.
So come on people! Stick me in your Ipod and listen to what you and your neighbors have to say to our President.
Posted by mermu at 02:00 AM | Comments (0)
November 12, 2005
Best Seat in the House
I've moved alot of times in my life. I didn't start a second year of school at the same school until I was in 6th Grade. Now that I'm grown it seems that nothing has changed. While I've stayed in my little hamlet near the city since I've moved up to NYC, I'm currently in my 3rd apartment. I feel I do a good job of moving; at least when I allow myself the proper time to do it and set aside the proper amount of money. My last move was a disaster but there were real extenuating circumstances that prohibited me from being my usual prepared self. The point is I know how to move even if I don't always do it the way I should.
I was out with Pru a few weeks ago. She had just moved into a new apartment in Chelsea and she was keeping me up to date on her progress. Whilst giving me the rundown, somehow we got on to the subject of toilet seats. Installing a new toilet seat was the first thing she did at her apartment. Indeed it was the first thing she did at every apartment when she moved into it. "What if the seat looks new?" I asked. "It doesn't matter" she said. "Toilet seats are cheap and it's so nice to have a new one that hasn't been, well, used by anyone else." This was part of her move-in ritual.
I started thinking about this. Even though a toilet seat looks new, you really don't know where it's been or with whom. Indeed. This makes perfect sense. Of course you install a new toilet seat! I had never heard of this. Does everyone know this? If so, how could I have lived a full life without someone telling me this one simple thing? I still can't believe it.
I was still a little timid about getting a new toilet seat so I went to Home Depot. It turns out you can buy a brand new toilet seat for less than $5. Selecting them seems to be pretty simple too. There are only two sizes; round and that new-fangled-funky-looking oval. I decided to splurge on a $20 seat with Chrome accents. It's gorgeous and much nicer and cleaner than the tired, aged seat I currently have.
The brand new chrome-accented seat had been sitting at the edge of the bathroom door for at a least week when I finally decided it was time to tackle this little first-time project. After a quick trip to the hardware store for some installation advice and a drill bit for a different project, I was ready to install my first new toilet seat. It turned out to be much easier than I had expected. After about 10 minutes of cleaning the actual toilet and 5 minutes of installation, I am now the proud owner of a lily-white brand spanking new installed toilet seat.
I'm a true believer. How could I have stayed so ignorant over these many years of moving and setting up house and moving again? It doesn't matter now. The point is I now have another little item on my list of things to do when I move into new digs. Something simple and easy that will make my new environment a home. I almost can't wait to move again.
Wait. I take it back.
Posted by mermu at 08:02 PM | Comments (0)
November 11, 2005
Subway Story
New Yorkers have a very special relationship with their Ipods. Unlike most of the country, the primary mode of transportation for the average New Yorker is mass transit. Between thirty to 45 minutes a day (or more for many) adds up to a lot of time to sit and wait. Many of us use this time to listen to our Ipods, mp3 players, read the latest NY Times best seller or catch up on the latest rumours out of the Post.
I've taken to listening to my favorite podcasts on my Ipod. Because it's spoken word, there's an intimacy in the listening that isn't quite so obvious when you are listening to music. Many of the podcasts to which I listen often inspire me to outright laughter. On one such occasion I was riding the subway and completely oblivious to all but the most basic elements of my surroundings; train, bench, just past 14th St. I was completely in the throes of the latest anecdotes on the Dawn and Drew Show. Sure enough, whatever they were discussing tickled me so I laughed. Shortly thereafter movement out of the corner of my eye finally got my attention. Across from me and to the right there sat a man in his mid to late fifties who was clearly agitated and a bit weird.
Strangeness is ironically no stranger to the subway. He was making Mickey Mouse ears and moving his head side to side. He may have been saying something; I don't know. I had headphones in and wasn't paying that much attention. I did take note of his particular brand of exotica, marveled at the inordinate number of unique people in the city and focused again on my podshow. Again, I noticed movement and realized that he seemed particularly focused on me. Now he was doing the rotary dial finger at his ear as if to say he was crazy. Well, no argument there. He was definitely crazy.
I went back to my podcast. A few moments later, the guy was still staring at me and making crazy motions. Finally I understood. As I was listening and laughing to The Dawn and Drew Show I was facing his general direction. Strange Guy must have thought I was laughing at him when I was laughing and reacting to what I was listening on my podcast. He wasn't nutty (or at least, he wasn't just nutty.) He was defensive.
That gave me a good laugh. I felt a little bad for the guy and I really do hope he wasn't as bothered as he seemed to be. Perhaps I should have explained the situation. In the end, I decided it was best not to engage him as I was just as likely to provoke him as anything. Within an instant, I'd arrived at my destination. I exited the train and got back to my podcast. It was sometime later when I realized that Strange Guy could just as likely be writing a blog entry about this weird Laughy Girl he saw on his daily commute as I would be writing about him.
I love this city.
Posted by mermu at 05:36 AM | Comments (0)
November 01, 2005
Dear George Podcast
There's another edition of the Letters to the President podcast at the Dear George Letters website. This is a special Halloween edition about Fear. We've made some changes to the format and added a segment of commentary of current events from comedian Robert Driermeyer. We've got more changes planned, it just takes a little time to get it all together.
Check it out and let me know what you think.
Posted by mermu at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)