Tuesday, April 27, 2010

I haven't posted a blog lately

I just feel that it's time that I posted a blog.
Not much is happening.  The weather is great.  Thank God for global warming.
I'm getting good grades at school. I got a job, starting in a couple of weeks, with the school work/study program.
My bonds did well, today, but the options went down.  They conteracted each other so I'm doing OK.
Dave W. got approved for health care at the VA. Now he can see if he'll be approved for mental care.
I don't know how much longer his unemployment will last but when it runs out he should be eligible for the War pension. I think the only thing stopping him from getting that is that he's getting unemployment.
I'll post a picture from Lake Meyer

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Made some money at Etrade

I've been doing well at Etrade lately.  Both my oil options and the Treasury bonds are going up.
The bad news is that I got a bill from a credit card company that I didn't know that I owed.  I'll have to pay them $1200.  I think I'll sell some of my bonds to pay that off.
I got another laptop working.  It's a Gateway 9300.  I was going to trade it for Dave W.'s Thinkpad.  It'll be a bit faster than his.  The trouble is that I'm having trouble with the Wi-Fi module.  If I can get something working with his Wi-Fi I'll trade him.
If I can get his Thinkpad working well I'll donate it to Community Action.
I'm going to add a picture from last winter during the hoarfrost.  I couldn't find my pictures from Lake Meyer.
The third Eagle hatched at the fish hatchery lately.  I'll make a link to their webcam.Eaglecam

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Made back some of yesterday's losses

TIPs went up today so I made back over $100 of the $300 that I lost yesterday. I did well with oil as well.  It looks like oil will be going up at least until summer. I'm thinking of putting my money in a Russian ETF. The trouble with that is that oil could go down. Then I would be betting on oil and Russia which is dependent on oil.
I'm going to include a link to the Eagle Cam at Luther College. It's a camera watching a pair of eagles and their offspring. The last that I heard, one of their eggs hatched. There are 2 more eggs in the nest. I went to that site earlier today. It wasn't very clear. I think some of the rain got on the lens. It was unclear. Here is the link.
I passed the test on data bases today. I didn't do as well as other classmate did but at least I got a B.
I'm posting a picture from Lake Meyer today. It turned out that one of my flash drives isn't working very well with my desktop Linux machine. I used another flash drive and it's fine. EagleCAm
I don't know why my text went blue for a couple of paragraphs. I was trying to change the background colors but apparently I changed the text instead. O well.
Later

Monday, April 5, 2010

Leaving off an old laptop

I left an old laptop with Joan N. at the Community Action office this morning.  She gives them to deserving poor people who need a laptop.  It was one that I got from Lula. It was a Gateway 1400. It was about 10 years old and rather slow.  I got it to work with Ubuntu Linux version 8.04.  It took an online upgrade from version 7.04 to get it to work.  I was happy to get the Adobe Flashplayer to work with it.  It only had 5 or 6 Gigabytes of hard disk space to begin with.  I used 4 for the operating system. It should be good enough for someone who can't afford a new computer.
Tomorrow, school starts again.  I'll have a test in Data Processing.  It's on databases and spreadsheets.  I'm a little concerned because applications are my Achilles's heel. I just don't know enough about them. I'll have to study tonight.
Oil did well today.  I made almost $100 on my options. Unfortunately, the TIPs went down.  I gave up almost $300 on them.  Who knew that bonds move so damned much.  Especially in the wrong direction.  I may have to sell some of them for an expected margin call.  I hope that I don't get one.
Jim called tonight. He's going to sign up for Jason T.'s class on Internet businesses.  It will be in the middle of April. Jim needs to learn about selling on E-bay.  He has a lot of figurines that he wants to sell. I think I'll take to class as well.  It might lead to something.  Maybe I'll help Jim sell his figurines. I have a lot of spare computer parts to sell, as well.
I'm posting another picture from last January. I couldn't get my Lake Meyer pictures to run under Windows.  I'll have to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Linking to Eagle Cam

I'm trying to link this site to the Eagle Cam website that Luther College is running in Decorah, Iowa. It's a camera set up to observe a pair of Bald Eagles and their 3 eggs at the fish hatchery just outside of Decorah.  They limit viewing to 15 minutes since they have a lot of interest in their site. http://Luther.edu/eaglecam/stream/ Try it its fun.
I took some pictures at Lake Meyer today. It was a bit cloudy but I think they'll turn out alright. Lake Meyer is a small lake about 3 miles from where I live.  While I was out there it occurred to me that it would be a good place to jog.  The trail is in grass so it wouldn't be hard on the joints. I just have to come up with some ambition to get out there and run.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Testing another word processor


I'm using the word processor that comes with Linux “Open Office” to write the blog, today. I always had trouble with the word processor in Blogger. I hope it works. I was able to transfer something I wrote in this word processor to an e-mail last month so it should work.
I didn't go for a walk today. It was too cloudy and it rained heavily for a while. I'm just hanging out at Java Johns and the Co-op. I'm at the Co-op now, waiting for Jim. We meet here on Fridays and have a cup of coffee together. It's good to socialize a bit.
I bought a camera from Dave W. about a month ago. It has a zoom lens and a flash. I bought a bigger memory card for it. That set me back over $30. Another problem is that it uses double a flashlight batteries. I've already found that the batteries don't last very long. It should be an improvement over the $20 Sakar that I was using. It works with Linux so I can load pictures on any of my computers, not just the Windows one.
I don't know if I mentioned that I have a couple of options on an ETF with the initials XLE. It's an ETF that invest in the energy sector. I expect oil to go through the roof before summer. The options expire in June so maybe I can make some money. The gambler in me wants to sell the Tips and invest everything in those options. I won't do it though.
I'll post another picture of the hoarfrost from a month ago. I don't have any current pictures and those are pretty. Tomorrow I'll take some pictures of the lilies that the flower lady brought to the Co-op.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

I'm back

I couldn't get to my blog for a while.  I thought it had been taken down due to lack of readership and my not updating it.  Well, I got back.
I'm still going to school and getting good grades.
I invested the money from the sale of the house into Treasury bonds.  Somehow I still seem to lose money even investing in bonds.  It turned out that the price of bonds fluctuates with the market.   I'm hanging on to them and I hope that the interest I make from them will make up what I've lost.  For what it's worth I  invested in an ETF with the initials of TIP.  That stands for Treasuries Inflation Protected.
Tomorrow I'm going for a ride on my bicycle and I intend to take some pictures.  It still isn't very pretty yet. The trees don't have their leaves and the grass  is still brown but I have to get out. I have a new camera and I need to get some pictures for the blog.
The temperatures are really taking off here. It was over 80 degrees today. I don't have to go back to school until next Tuesday. Sitting around the house and watching television is not only boring but I need some exercise.
I think I'll post a picture that I took about 1or 2 months ago.  The hoarfrost was really pretty, then.