Sometimes the God of little things smiles at us through the fractal maze of the Internet. I was working late and bleary-eyed and unable to find something I wanted to liste to when I found Jim James singing a rare track by Bob Dylan, "Goin' To Acapulco" -- on Calexico's myspace site!
Maybe the hipper readers are shrugging and saying, "oh, that -- that was a good song a couple years ago". But cultural happenings take their time getting to Estonia, even if we're wired up. I haven't heard much about the Dylan movie "I'm Not There", which the song is from. It seems to have been just a little while ago that I finally caught the Scorsese documentary on Dylan.
But how perfect this is: "Goin' To Acapulco" is one of the late-summer tracks on the Basement Tapes, along with "Tears of Rage" and "This Wheel's On Fire", where Dylan employs a wailing voice, just this side of a sob. I have done covers of it at open mics, trying to get the tone right, never succeeding. James, the lead singer of My Morning Jacket, the kind of guy who records songs about bars in churches and barns because his high Neil Youngish tenor voice is so perfectly enhanced by cathedral reverb -- and no one will ever accuse him of singing in the shower. Perfect pairing.
Calexico, a Tucson band I grooved on for most of early 2007 for their Americana, lends "square" Herb Alpert brass and vibraphone accents, which come in just before the first refrain, where you would expect the drums and full band to enter in a ballad. Quite corny but cool. Very corny -- but hey, if you're down and out and going to Acapulco, you're likely going to end up passed out in a town square woken up by a cheesy norteno band rather than making it to Pacific bliss...
Lead singer Joey Burns, whose exactingly precise and wimpy-a-la-Paul-Simon voice I have gotten sort of burned out on recently -- though never his lyrics! -- is not to be heard.
(((((()))))
Appears the "laptop server" I wrote about last post is not all it's cracked up to be -- it can't be accessed from anywhere except within our own network. D'oh.
Today I did something that seemed just as subversive, though. I sent a fax without a fax machine being involved -- using a beta service called Skax that piggybacks on Skype. (I had set up a day-trading account and they needed me to fax some documents. We'll see if I have convinced them that I exist. I better have, because I already wired my deposit.)
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6 comments:
The geek talk was way over my head!
Just blitzed through your links and saw your sister’s e-shop. Nicely done and all but hard to imagine who her market would be and how she could connect with them. We were just in a new shop in Cville. called Nature’s Child which had every type of thing on her site plus much more: slings, legwarmers, diaper covers, etc. most made with natural/organic materials. They offer generous return policies, child friendly shopping, a chance to try on/try out, even a weekly class in tying different kinds of slings – and no shipping charges. I’ve known others to try a website market, but without a customer base that could find them....well....
Achenbach would be better if more short winded.
All that geek stuff I am not so sure about. I thought I was pretty capable negotiating my way around Windows, but am finding that it is progressing faster than I can keep up with. I am intrigued about the dedication of Mac users, and Apple is the top rated PC at this time. Good thing for me, as of this date I am enjoying a 150% gain on my small and cautious investment in Apple stock ten months ago, and not even owning a Mac or Iphone. But then I don't own well drilling equipment either, as in oil exploration where I am doing well also.
That brings me around to your day trading comment, which I would say was day trading on the internet when the dot coms were flying high. I would call it web trading today as I have not seen anything for a long while that I could buy and then sell the next day or the same day for a profit. I actually made a huge paper gain during the dot coms but stayed in too long. Long enough to lose it all, including $1000 of my initial $5000 invested for day trading. Fortunately the not risked investments did fairly well during the collapse. The safer investments provided the capital for the down payments and out of pocket expenses on our rental properties and generally were recovered within a year from appreciation and dividends from the stock portfolio.
From my experience it is a good idea to do a little gambling on line as long as you don't risk too much and are willing to lose it all. Overall I still have a better long term return with a broker who has access to more information than I can deal with----not that all his picks are always winners. And the buying and selling are more expensive with a broker.
Curious who you went with. I chose Scottrade, and am completely happy with them at $7 a trade. If Skax doesn't work, they will send your money back. :-)
Looks like your are attempting to accumulate wealth in Estonia. :-)+
I'd love to know how she did the baby on the dock merging with the black background.
I have some of the same questions as you. But she makes some items herself and can hopefully charge less for them. Also, I would not have named my business after my child.
Jumipng to Achenbach's defense, he can be long-winded in his blog, other times short and punchy. Sometimes it seems like it depends on whatever mood he woke up in. What do you think about his published pieces? I still think along with Bill Bryson he's one of the best writers in his class -- "quirky popular science with common sense and Dave Barry thrown in". I read him when I am bored and that's why he gets linked.
I notice even in Estonia I am surrounded by white Macbooks. Anywhere near UVa it was a sea of white. Makes me think I should paint the computer to stand out.
I'm investing much less than $5000 and it's 10 dollars a trade. Seven dollars is much better -- but my options are more limited...being in Estonia.
72% of web traders lost money even during the boom. If it pays for lunch, that would be nice. I'm not a gambler by nature. TTT said I should have you handle my online trading since my time is limited as it is already, but I said maybe you can make some picks-tips at some point.
I agree, I wouldn't want my child's name (unusual) and photos, address, etc. out in cyberspace.
I appreciate ttt's confidence, but picking stocks for you or anyone else for that matter is way too risky for an amateur. I have picked some winners, some not worth keeping, and certainly a good share of losers as well. You have to look at the charts and if you see a steady upward path, then take a chance. Also diversify and get some diversity in there over time from any appreciation besides buying lunch. Buy some shares in ventures that have some appreciation but also pay dividends. Take the dividends in cash, let them accumulate and then reinvest in either growth or other dividend paying stocks. Also don't hang on to losers too long hoping for a rebound, but dump them quickly, and reinvest what is left in hopefully something better.
Making stock picks for friends, family, or neighbors fits into the same category as my rule of thumb in contracting, of not performing work in exchange for money for friends, family or neighbors either. Not worth the consequences of bad picks or the bad feelings in contracting that profits that was my income should be forgiven. I don't mind giving a hand or advice as above, or chat with you about it.
I read somewhere that if invested in the DJ index stocks long term you would have out paced getting in and out by a healthy percentage. I guess your 72% figure of web traders losing even during boom times is indicative of that. Apple had dropped 20 a share from a recent high a few days ago. I have been tempted to take my gain, but hopefully it will rebound in the next two months to where the gain will be long term and taxed at a lower rate. Global Industries bought ten months ago has also surged, then stagnated. I was getting ready to take my 80% gain but then with crude oil going getting over a $100 a barrel the stock surged another 4%. Right now I have nothing in my sights to replace what I have. Our other portfolio just sits there and collects dividends that are either taken out or reinvested, but are the safe funds. If I don't lose my gains in Global, they will certainly compensate for the increases at the pump. :-)
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