Thursday, August 26, 2010

I'm back again

I haven't posted anything for a few months, now.
My investing has picked up since I started using Jim Cramer's advice. I'm now into several different stocks, per his advice to diversify. They are Agnico Eagle mines, Three M, A T&T, Lazzard, NVIDIA, and Whole Foods. My biggest holding is Agnico Eagle. Cramer said that gold would go up thru September and so far he has been right. I'm using the profits from that to buy other companies.
I paid off all of my credit cards. Most of them settled for 40% of what I owed them.
A computer and my camera was stolen from my car a couple of weeks ago. I still have the $20 camera so I'll be posting some pictures, later.
I'll have to come up with a computer for the person who owned the stolen computer.
I'm doing well at school. I'm trying to get a work-study job. That would justify going to school in the first place. I have an interview tomorrow for an IT job.
I'll get back to posting more blogs. I have to tell my sister and brother to go here and leave comments.
Later

Friday, May 14, 2010

Going to Jason's class tomorrow

I'm taking a class on starting an Internet business, tomorrow and Sunday. I've taken his classes before, but this one will include sections on selling on E-bay. It might be new to me. So far I haven't come up with an idea of something to actually sell on the net. That seems to be the key to making money. Maybe I could write such a riveting blog about investing that people would pay to read it but I can't see that happening. I even lose money in stocks.
Talking about investing, I took my money out of Treasury Inflation Protected T-bills and I bought gold today. I used the GLD ETF.  It invests in the actual metal. So far I'm doing well. I made close to $100 today.
Monday, I start my new job at Northeast Iowa Community College.  I'll be a custodian as part of the work-study program.  It'll be good to have a little extra income.  I'll be saving up for newer car. I've really been strapped financially lately.
I gave a laptop computer to Brent, yesterday. It was working very well for such an old Gateway. I've been struggling to get another one going, but I failed today.
Nate told me to try Slackware for a Linux version that might work with old laptops. I'll have to download it at home since the Internet is too slow here at Java John's.
I paid off my last credit card yesterday. Being a deadbeat paid. I was going to pay them a $4000 settlement for a $9000 debt.  I lost the papers in the move and I didn't know their address. They sent me papers for a $1500 settlement on $10000 debt. I took them up on it and now I'm debt free. It felt good. Now I hope I can make money on my investments for a change.
It's sunny and I should get the camera out and get some pictures.
Later.

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.