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[12:35 AM EDT - Stuff.. and stuff.]

Heh. It seems like those fire trucks that I mentioned on Tuesday are safe after all. This is a little worrisome, and this is even more worrisome. (ShackNews links.)

[5 Comments]

[10:38 AM EDT - Two stories.]

I got two stories this morning. I would prefer not to write them up here, but considering what happened with the Tamim Ansary fiasco, I might as well post them both up here. The first one was from girl:

On July 26, 2000, two friends, Jim and John, each got a $1000 bonus at work. (They both work for Nortel Networks, where in the summer of 2000, there was LOTS of money around for bonuses). Jim, being an intelligent, financially conscientious person, put the whole $1000 into Nortel Networks stock. With his $1000, and the transaction cost of $35, he was able to purchase 7 shares at $123 each. Having watched the Nortel stock climb and climb, he felt very good about this investment, happy that he is preparing for the future.

John, being a more care-free sort, did something slightly different with his $1000. John borrowed a friend's truck, and proceeded to the Beer Store, where he purchased 33 cases of beer. John also felt very good about his investment: 33 cases x 24 = is 792 bottles of beer! John, also being an intelligent guy, although perhaps not as forward-thinking as Jim, calculated that he could drink about 15 bottles per week, and he wouldn't have to buy beer for a whole year. Jim, of course, was appalled by John's purchase, and berated him constantly about it.

As months went by, Jim excitedly watched the stock prices, and saw it start to dwindle. "It'll go back up", he'd say to John. John, who has been reaping the benefits of his investment on a daily basis, would reply.

"Ya, it will. Hang in there buddy." *burp*

Months went by, and the value of the stock continued to fall, and there was the beginnings of a noticeable dent in the beer pile. Midwinter came, Jim's stock had fallen to about half of it's original value, and John's beer was about half gone. Jim, being sure that the stock had hit rock-bottom, still was berating John for his frivolous purchase, telling him "Your beer will be gone in six months! Who knows what my stock will be worth!!."

Well, summer has come, and hard times at Nortel continue. Bad news: Both John and Jim have been affected by the layoffs. Last week, in order to raise some cash to help through the rough time, Jim sold his 7 shares, at that day's value of $12, and got $84, then after paying the $35 transaction fee, he only had $49. Jim stopped by John's house later that day (everyone needs their friend's during rough times), and as luck would have it, there were two bottles of John's beer left. John, being a good, compassionate friend, offered to share his last two bottles of beer with his friend. Jim appreciated the gesture, and enjoyed the cold beer on the hot summer's day, but he felt a bit guilty. "At least I got fifty bucks back out of it - you have nothing now.", he said. "That's ok.", replied John. "Perhaps you can help me, I need to return all these empties.", he added as his other friend with the truck pulled in. So, they loaded up the truck, and proceeded off to the beer store.

Upon arrival at the beer store, they unloaded the empties, feeling a little grim. John went to the counter, and collected his refund for the bottles. "33 cases x 24 bottles, at 10 cents per bottle, that comes to $79.20", the friendly Beer Store clerk said to John as he handed him the money. Jim was speechless. Poor guy. Can you imagine how you would feel if you just discovered that over the course of the last year, your $1000 stock investment left you with $50, and taking same 1000, buying beer, and drinking it, would leave you with $80. I'll leave it up to the reader to come up with they're own "moral to the story". Have a nice day, and happy investing.

The second story I heard on the radio this morning. Unfortunately, I know that it was supposed to be published in the Star, and it's not on the website, so I'm going to put up a paraphrased version on here and fix it up later with the proper acknowledgements.

A teacher was showing his class a glass jar. He filled up the glass jar with rocks about 5cm in diameter. He asked the class if the jar was full or empty, and they told him that it was full. The teacher proceeded to add pebbles about 1cm in diameter into the jar, filling up some of the spaces. He then asked if the jar was full or not, to which the class replied that it was. Finally he added in some fine sand into the jar, filling up even more of the spaces in the jar. Again the class agreed that the jar was full.

Then he told the class that the jar represents our life and that the large rocks represent our friends and our family, while the pebbles represent our work, our home, etc. and finally, the sand represents the finer things in life, our trips, our cars, other luxuries, etc.

"Even without the finer things in life, without our cars, our houses, or our trips and games, our life is still full, but if we fill our life with luxuries only," he stops to take the rocks out and fills the jar with sand, "there is no space for our friends or family."

The students considered this and nodded in agreement. Then one student came up to the jar and poured in a can of beer, which filled up the remaining spaces in the jar. To this the student replied, "But there's always room for a beer."

Notice that the common theme for both of these stories is beer. (And I don't even drink that stuff!)

[1 Comment]

[11:30 PM EDT - Second patrol.]

Ski patrol went as I had expected. We did more first aid stuff, but not anything I hadn't seen before. Well, except for the neck brace. It's all good though, I need the practice. Actually, it's mandatory. All returning patrolers must take refresher courses every year they plan to patrol. At least it gives me some peace of mind when I'm on the slopes. I didn't mark off what sort of equipment I'd be training for on the registration form. I was going to choose alpine skis, but then again, they're going to train me, and snowboarding seems interesting.. (The others were Nordic, Telemark, and I forgot the name of the last type but they're those mini-skis.)

Yeah, I would like to know how to snowboard, and I'd be practicing all year..

Oh, I also checked on my funds. They were down ten percent. Ouch. Buy, buy, buy!

ShackNews newswise, I could've sworn I read about something like this before, but the teller was a little less trusting. This statistic is a little disturbing, while who thinks they can actually pull off this?

[0 Comments]

Wednesday, October 16, 2024 @ 06:38:56 EDT

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"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity."

Frank Leahy (From The Quotations Page.)