Mandroid2.0 wrote:Just looked at my mutual fund, which is usually thoroughly depressing. I'm officially $1000 in the red beneath my cost basis.

Huzzah, U.S. economy!

Warren Buffet once said that he'd pay good money to hire someone who knew how to double the length of a bear market. Believe it or not, now is a good time to invest.

You should try to invest in index funds, however, and not managed mutual funds. Management fees almost always negate any improvements over the returns of indexes, and managed funds that do successfully beat the market rarely do so for more than a couple of years.

Then again, index funds aren't always an option.

Tomorrow my girlfriend and I leave for vacation. It has been 1.5 years since we last had a chance to take time off together. We are going to some island called Providenciales in Turks and Caicos in the Caribbean. Guess what, there are three large storms with hurricane potential brewing in the Atlantic. Guess what island just happens to be in their path. Fucking fuck.

Jon

Got back from taking our daughter to her first day of second grade a bit ago. Today is also her seventh Birthday. Shit's a lot to take at once for a parent.



I said 'shit' back there so I could still sound cool.

Tree wrote:Got back from taking our daughter to her first day of second grade a bit ago.

Whoa--that's starting pretty early. Happy birthday to her, though!

Last night at a benefit show I saw the drummer from Killdozer and 3 of my friends play a sincere, impromptu cover of "Baby I'ma Want You" by Bread. This was amazing.

alright everybody? what's new? it's CHUCKING it down here.

Maurice wrote:

Tree wrote:Got back from taking our daughter to her first day of second grade a bit ago.

Whoa--that's starting pretty early. Happy birthday to her, though!

I agree. I'm a "day after Labor Day" kind of guy. Where you are, there is probably no AC in the buildings. They have it here, so I think that has something to do with it.

The real trauma starts when my four-year-old son starts preschool in a couple weeks. He has a speech delay, so we get it for free.

Around Christmas I sent a handmade card and letter to my great aunt (who I have met only once that I remember, at my grandmother's funeral). Just the general "Here's what your grand niece is up to!" type stuff. I unexpectedly got a card from her for my birthday with a check for a neat grand. Excellente`!

I visited my bank today with the intention of leaving it. The nice lady at the branch was able to inform me that the reason I've been trapped with a growing overdraft for the past five months is because I've never been made aware of any impending charges until the month's interest is added onto them. Whenever I've asked about this mysterious neverending charge over the phone, they'd side step the issue or just say "interest charges" while not giving me any helpful information. Whenever I've asked if I was paid "in full" they would say "Yes". Because apparently impending charges do not count as charges until interest is added. So no matter how often I paid the overdraft 'in full', it continued to increase.
I have now finally paid in FULL any and all outstanding charges, plus impending charges.

Thankyou, young bank lady.

Banks are supposed to be MY bitch. If I show up at a branch to complain, I don't want people to lie to my face. Banks should try to keep their customers for the long haul, right?
The other bank I visited today poured me some bourbon, put on some Coltrane and sucked my cock while informing me about brilliant overdrafts. THAT is how a bank should treat people if it's gonna steal money from them. If you don't have a good distraction, I'm gonna notice if you're dicking me around.

1200% on a £12 overdraft. Wow. Maybe now I'll be able to afford a stiff drink.