day nine of goal-fest 2008

What's Goal-Fest 2008? Head over to the first post in the Goals categoryto read where this came from, but it was basically an accident that's turned into an interesting little way for me to track my improvement in four [maybe three] areas that I'd like to better myself in.

Update on Goal Progress for Tuesday, 11-4-08...

Lunch - Have a cough and it's raining in San Diego. I'm working from home today. I think I'm gonna make some of my favorite tuna salad for lunch today. No matter what, I'm sure I'll be eating at home today.

Alcohol - I did have a completely alcohol-free night last night. I was coming down with this cold/cough thing, so I didn't feel as great as I did last week. But I'm sure I'll get over this cough thing faster without booze, so I'm sticking with it.

Bike Commute - Obviously I didn't get to ride in to work today. If it weren't raining, I'd ride down to my polling place, but it is raining, so I guess I'll walk. My bike is VERY wet and I don't want to ride with an umbrella in my hand, haha...

Eating Out - Last night we had some super delicious homemade kung pao kickin'. The Lovely Lady surely knows how to whip up a tasty meal!

Okay - back to work [two jobs at once today, whee hee!!!]

sweet!!!!

This will be so awesome. Looks like someone in Sandy Eggo has finally decided to make a "real" run at Portland for bike-friendliness. We're a lot better off than many cities, but we still have a long way to go before truly vehicular cycling is really possible. I just can't wait to ride across Lake Hodges, haha... That oughtta prove to be hilarious.

Yay for bikes!!!

Yeah - I'm a tard... Here's the link to the story...

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/10/16/news/sandiego/z42226887aa7af00a882574e200666a3d.txt

day eight of goal-fest 2008

What's Goal-Fest 2008? Head over to the first post in the Goals categoryto read where this came from, but it was basically an accident that's turned into an interesting little way for me to track my improvement in four [maybe three] areas that I'd like to better myself in.

Update on Goal Progress for Monday, 11-3-08...

Day Eight?  Yeah - I guess.  It's the eighth day that I've actually posted about my progress, so I think that's easier than trying to remember which day I'm actually on.

Lunch - Brought in the makings of a delicious tuna sandwich. Super cheap and delicious. A little small, but I'll make it through the day. I have a few crackers left, so I'll munch on those through the afternoon.

Alcohol - I've not been doing great here. Tonight I'm back on the wagon [or off, whatever... I think it's on]. I drank almost an entire bottle of good whiskey this weekend. At least it was a small bottle, not the big one that I was drinking every week. I got a bit celebratory. I can't talk about it too much, but I have reason to celebrate right now. I do, however, need to dissociate alcohol with celebration. Tonight I'm going to try to be completely dry again. That felt really good last week!

Bike Commute - Last Thursday on the way home I got to ride in the rain for the first time. That was much more fun than one might expect. It wasn't "real" rain, it was San Diego rain, which means I had a few drops for three blocks. No biggie. I rode in today, but I'm a little concerned about my trip home. I have to transport my laptop home with me for work tonight, but I forgot to bring in my backpack. No bueno. I'll have to figure something out. Praying for no rain, as I'm thinking I might try to wrap it with my jacket and strap it to the rear rack of the bike. Hm...

Eating Out - This weekend was bad here. We went out for sushi on Saturday night and indian food last night. Both were delicious and expensive. Back on/off the wagon on this one tonight. I'll come up with something super cheap for tonight.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have time to get back on writing non-goals posts. I have some exciting stuff to talk about, but no time today!

day seven of goal-fest 2008

What's Goal-Fest 2008? Head over to the first post in the Goals categoryto read where this came from, but it was basically an accident that's turned into an interesting little way for me to track my improvement in four [maybe three] areas that I'd like to better myself in.

Update on Goal Progress for Thursday, 10-30-08...

Oops, no morning post today. I'll try to get back on the wagon next week. I'm taking a three-day weekend to try and relax a bit, so I'll be "out of commission" from tomorrow until Monday morning.

Lunch - Thursday = Work Friends' Holy Day. Wings N Things was delicious.

Alcohol - Last night was another alcohol-free night. Pretty crazy. I've always been one of those "I can quit any time I want" kinda guys, all the while wondering if I was right or not. Looks like [so far] I was. Feeling pretty good about it, too. And feeling good in general. I woke up at 6am again today and got to get a little exercise in while the Lovely Lady was showering for work. Some stretching, jumping-jacks, push-ups and crunches are a fantastic way to kick off the morning. I love getting up early, but I can't remember the last time I did it two days in a row!

Bike Commute - Rode in this morning. It was a great ride. Not too chilly at home, but as soon as I dropped down the hill into the Poway Valley, it was quite chilly and I was very glad to have my jacket on. Once I got halfway up the hill into the Scripps Poway Business Park [where I work], I was sweating balls, so off came the jacket. The cooler weather riding is going quite well so far! Kinda wish I was coming in tomorrow just so I could ride in. Oh well - next week.

Eating Out - Last night we had leftover tacos at home [not Taco Bell, real food]. They were quite delicious and incredibly inexpensive.

Overall, after two weeks, I'm feeling pretty good about my progress on the goals I have set forth for myself. I'm just gonna keep on trucking and tracking my progress, as I find it definitely helps keep me in line. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have a drink or two this weekend, but hopefully nothing too crazy!  I'll probably buy my "one bottle of decent whiskey for the month" on Saturday, since that's the first of November.

day six of goal-fest 2008

What's Goal-Fest 2008? Head over to the first post in the Goals categoryto read where this came from, but it was basically an accident that's turned into an interesting little way for me to track my improvement in four [maybe three] areas that I'd like to better myself in.

Update on Goal Progress for Wednesday, 10-29-08...

Lunch - Last night I whipped up a tasty little tuna salad from a recipe that I remembered reading in an old issue of Men's Health. I seriously blew my own mind with my mad googling skillz in finding the recipe over a year after the issue was published. Oh - and it was freakin delicious, and apparently pretty darn healthy. Cost = ~$1.50 or so? One can of tuna at a dollar. The other stuff was mostly free from raiding the Lovely Lady's mom's pantry a while back.

Alcohol - I had a couple urges to have a drink last night, but didn't. Not even a sip of the Lovely Lady's wine. Kinda upsetting to be proud of it, but I am. I saw a couple beers in the fridge that I'm not sure where they came from. But I didn't have any alcohol at all. I've found myself with unending energy and drive at night now. It's weird. Last night I did all the laundry and dishes, made my lunch for today and ironed all the clothes that needed it. Kinda trippy. Being totally sober is better than drinking and still being sober!

Bike Commute - My knees decided to rebel against me after yesterday's ride. I then realized that I've been off the bike for the most part for a couple weeks, so going straight back to 4 days in a row is probably not a great idea. Took today as a "recovery day". Can't wait to get on the bike tomorrow morning, though!

Eating Out - Yesterday Taco Bell decided to give out one free crunchy taco to each customer that showed up between 2 and 6pm. Of course we took the bait. Dinner for the Lovely Lady and I? $3.06. We ate out, but for cheaper than most meals could be at home, so it was a worthwhile event. And tasty, no matter the fat content!

book review - the warren buffett way - chapter two

I'm reading this book to attempt to learn about investing in some small way. These book reviews are mainly for my own use to go back and review each chapter as I complete it and increase my understanding of the content.

Chapter One of this book was simply an introduction to who Warren Buffett is and why everyone in the investing world wants to be him. Interesting and heavily inundated with highlighter marks by me, but not exactly informational.

In Chapter Two [The Education of Warren Buffett], however, Robert Hagstrom manages to boil down the four cornerstones of Mr Buffett's strategy into 17 pages. Knowing essentially nothing of the man, or investing in general, I found the chapter full of useful information. It served as an interesting insight into why Mr Buffett tends to appear contradictory to his beliefs in practice at times. In addition, it served as an excellent introduction into what appear to be four men I need to spend more time looking into.

I've been aware of Benjamin Graham as the grandfather of Value Investing for quite some time. And I was aware that he had taught Mr Buffett at Columbia. I didn't, however, understand what that meant. I also had no idea what any of the details of Mr Graham's philosophy were. Mr Hagstrom seems to be correct [from my limited understanding of the surrounding concepts] in stating that Graham was almost a purely quantitative analyst of investments. Meaning that he spent almost his full consideration of a company on "the numbers". How much are they worth in dollars and how much does the stock cost? If it's less than their current net worth, buy it.

I had never heard of Philip Fisher, but he seems to be a quite reasonable man. Essentially he has been boiled down to a qualitative analyst in these few short paragraphs. The implication is that he analyzes companies [stocks] based purely on the abilities of their management teams, the current state of their industry and any future profit-making abilities that can be foreseen at the time of purchase. In short terms - he looks at the quality of a company, not necessarily what they're worth today.

John Burr Williams is glossed over quite easily in this chapter, though his importance is not reduced by such. Apparently his theories and formula for determining the intrinsic value of a company have been critical to Mr Buffett's ability to utilize Graham's quantitative analysis school of thought. [A key point I found to be missing in the explanation of Graham's analysis methods].

Finally, Charles [Charlie] Munger has been introduced. He appears [to me] to be the "voice of reason" in the Berkshire Hathaway organization. There's a bit of history in the book, which is interesting, but I'm strictly reading this book to learn about investing, so that's just fun icing for me. The main thing is that Charlie tends to come off as being the "glue" that brings all three of the aforementioned men's theories together and reminds Mr Buffett not to sway too heavily toward any of them individually.

Overall, I think Mr Hagstrom has done an excellent job in this chapter of outlining each of the concepts brought to the table by these clearly instrumental men of investment theory. I believe that he intentionally passed over the fact that none of these theories on its own could have made these men great investors. Therefore, I'm sure that there must have been a great deal of blurring between each of the stated theories in reality. But I think the purpose of the chapter was served well by avoiding any attempt to approach those lines.

Looking forward to reading the next chapter after I go back through my highlighted sections. [And learn what Price/Earnings ratios really mean, haha...]

day five of goal-fest 2008

What's Goal-Fest 2008? Head over to the first post in the Goals categoryto read where this came from, but it was basically an accident that's turned into an interesting little way for me to track my improvement in four [maybe three] areas that I'd like to better myself in.

Update on Goal Progress for Tuesday, 10-28-08...

Lunch - Brought in some homemade potato soup leftovers from a dinner last week. The Lovely Lady made it from some homemade chicken broth that she distilled from the remains of a grocery store rotisserie chicken. Yummy!! [Although I'll admit I could probably have worded that much better, haha...]

Alcohol - I didn't have a single sip of alcohol yesterday. That's the first time that's happened in many many months. I feel about the same today, but maybe a little more clear-headed. I had a hard time falling asleep last night, though. I'm almost positive the two are related.

Bike Commute - Rode in today. It was a great day to ride. Pretty chilly for the first 75% of the commute, then got SUPER hot. Had my jacket for the ride and it was great. I've definitely decided to dedicate that jacket to my commuting for the winter. My goal is to ride as much as possible when it's not raining in the morning. I don't want to get here and be soaked. I don't mind rain on the ride home, but on the way in, it'd be a bit much.

Eating Out - Last night was a delicious meal of leftover chicken pasta sauce that the Lovely Lady made over the weekend and some freshly cooked rotini. Tasty and SUPER cheap. Yum! Eating fresh homemade food is just so much better!