“When’s your baby due?
“The end of April, Grandpa”
“Well, that’s when the real work begins…”
Shug on his great grandchild
Elise and I cook differently
“What do you want me to make for dinner tonight?”
“How about I cook dinner tonight?”
“Really?”
“Yeah. What do you want?”
“Anything that doesn’t end in asserole.”
“Well, there goes 95% of my repertoire.”
At least the other half are searching for Other
Q-pon
I know I’m wrong, but I wanted to see if I have any fellow “kyew-pon” pronouncers.
I guess my mom pronounces it “kyew-pon” and I inherited the pronunciation. I just can’t bring myself to saying, “coo-pon”. It sounds too dainty. Damnit, my manly brain served me up the word dainty.
Day trading
I’ve kind of turned into a day trader. It’s a guilty pleasure. I’m not really day trading by definition but instead am breaking one of the key rules for successful investing: I’m watching my stock investments on a daily basis. I’m only doing this only because I’ve been making money again and that’s been exciting. I lost my ass in the dot-com fallout and up until somewhere in 2004, my portfolio was littered with ho-hum investments.
My parents did a cool little trick for me when I was young (and I will do the same as our child grows). I was paid a small commission for the A’s and B’s that I earned on my report card. My parents also matched and exponentially upped my earned commission and secretly put that money aside for me. Later they invested my Good Grade Earnings on my behalf in blue chips stocks.
When I “grew up”, I began watching my dollar as a taxed employee, consumer and investor. I realized that I would need money for things like a wife, retirement and eBay auctions. So I adopted a few very simple investment rules for myself: 1) Invest in companies that sell goods and/or services that you like. 2) Keep your portfolio managable (10-15 companies). 3) Don’t watch over your portfolio like a mother hen and 4) P/E is no longer what you once refered to as your “favorite class” in elementary school.
#1 is #1 because it’s the most important to me. I sold the likes of AOL and Pfizer and bought stock in companies that I like. Here’s mention of my 4th brightest shining star from the Motley Fool:
“Over the past year, you could have doubled your money in stocks as varied as Valero and Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). What do a refiner and a consumer electronics company have in common? Not much, aside from exceptionally strong growth and a broad recognition of that growth from the market at large.”
Since growing up I’ve deposited our own earned money into our portfolio. If we receive cash as a gift, I invest it. Elise has been my lucky investment charm too. She hasn’t let on that she’s as interested in investing as I am, but she gave me three suggestions that have yielded gains over 27% in 2005.
I don’t know why I just wrote all of that. The fart jokes will resume momentarily.
Avocado dressing
Add poblano, chile powder and garlic
* 2 ¼ Cups olive or avocado oil
* ¾ Cup Dijon mustard
* ½ Cup white wine vinegar
* ¼ Cup fresh lime juice
* ¼ Cup cilantro, chopped
* ¼ tsp dried oregano leaves
* ½ tsp ground red pepper
* 6 (8 oz.) whole boneless chicken breasts, split in half
* 3 California Avocados, seeded and peeled
* 2 tsp sugar
* 1 ½ Gallons mixed salad greens, torn into bite size pieces
Always thinking
Josh: “So, you think I can catch Tony Soprano with this 2.5″ net?”
Elise: “Yeah, he’ll fit in there.”
The happy couple walks toward the checkout counter with a 94¢ net.
Josh holds the net out in front of him at arms length.
Josh: “If I followed this around for a month, would that be fish net stalking?”
Elise: “I love you.”
Veal Thymus Glands
Yours truly was recently approved to be an editor for Chef Moz. I will probably use that title for little more than to say that I’m a volunteer editor for Chef Moz.
I take that back. I’m going to use my newly acquired title as an excuse to take Elise to dinner at Cafe 909. I want to try the sweetbread. I’ll have Elise eat it too. It’s supposed to be high in vitamins and minerals and paying top dollar to eat highly perishable baby cow viscera is what cool volunteer Chef Moz editors do.
Josh gets his fourth star for black belt
Po Eun | Watch Video
Black Stripe Free Sparring Pattern | Watch Video
Sparring & breaking boards | Watch Video
(Yes, I dubbed in the audio. We don’t play that song from The Karate Kid during tests.)
Git Sum
It’s hard to drive in Austin’s Friday evening rush hour traffic and take photos of redneck trucks.
TiVo setup
I have our TiVo 95% setup.
The Good:
- I can do that TiVo thing
The Bad:
- No RJ-45 input?!? You have to either 1) purchase a separate USB to Ethernet adapter 2) use a standard phone line (this would be a pain as we have digital phone service and only 1 “live” phone jack on the other side of the house. Plus the feed would be slow as hell) or 3) purchase a wireless USB adapter. I opted for #3.
- TiVo doesn’t support WPA-PSK
- Had to encrypt my network using WEP
- Had to reconfigure iBook for WEP
- Had to reconfigure HP DV1040 notebook for WEP (that was a major PITA – took me half an hour)
- Had to reconfigure Aiport Express for WEP by hardwiring to the router and a manual restart (this walkthrough helped)
- Had to reconfigure second Airport Express (see above)
TiVo doesn’t have a universal remote code for my Quasar model TVCover TiVo remote with hand, Hold down the TiVo and TV POWER buttons simultaneously until the red light on the remote control remains on, enter code 0999, press Channel Up button 463 times until TV turns off. Press Enter- Currently no TiVo Desktop for OS X 10.4
It felt good to do this
This Tae Kwon Do belt display has been long awaiting the top rung to be occupied by my black belt. No, I didn’t quit. No, I didn’t get my second degree (although I will in the coming months). We left Unified Tae Kwon Do and have become Eclipse Tae Kwon Do under masters Gus Pennison and Rick Wescott. I received a new black belt and uniform tonight and was able to retire my old belt.
The Janiceks get TiVo
I don’t really keep up on television technology. I attribute this to my not watching that much TV. Early this past Spring our VCR suffered from lockjaw which lead to surgery and eventually, euthanasia.
Weeks passed and Elise got on to me that we needed a way to record television shows. Since I am Chief Technology Officer of the household, it was my job to materialize a solution. During my lunch break I headed over to Wal-Mart to purchase a VCR. I wanted an plain, cheap, old-school VHS VCR because, well, that’s how I roll.
I couldn’t find a VCR. All that Wal-Mart offered were VCR/DVD combos and DVD burners for more than what I was looking to pay. I just wanted a $20 programable VCR. I spent ten times my budget on a DVD burning Pioneer DVR.
I hooked up this newfangled gadget to our entertainment center’s head unit and did what most men never do, I handed the remote to the wife. I still don’t know how to operate the DVR. Any time I want something recorded, I have to get Elise to do it for me.
I went to Amazon.com last week to see if there were some must-have items that I could put on my Christmas wishlist and found a good deal on an 80-hour DVR with TiVo Series 2. It was delivered yesterday. Now I’m looking forward to getting it hooked up with TiVo service and using TiVo Desktop wirelessly.
This rig should make for a cool pairing with the Monster iTV I recently hooked up. Last night we watched Batman Begins on the TV from the iBook.
“Sure, the World Wide Web is great
but you, you make me salivate.
Yes, I love technology.
But not as much as you, you see.
But I still love technology.
Always and forever.”