Adios Mi Amigos!

My Hipster PDA (pictured above) got new covers. I was very fond of the old covers but they were gradually falling apart. I've scanned in and uploaded the old covers here for posterity's sake. I'm going to miss you guys!

My Darkest Hour

When I started blogging way back in December, 2006, I knew there would be tough times. I knew it wouldn't be all fish and chips or peaches and cream or M&M's. However, my faithful readers can expect nothing but honest and full reporting of the goings on in my life from this blog. I'm going to be same person in good times and in bad. So, it's in this spirit that I report something that I'm not proud of. I lost in our Biweekly Par 3 Challenge to one CoryS. Here is the sad, sad, pathetic, cheerless, depressing, dismal, dispiriting, gloomy, and abysmal scorecard that tells the tale:


The worst part was how CoryS rubbed his victory in our faces. He said things like "Good golfing guys" and "It was fun" and "We'll have to do that again". I don't mind being beat by a gentleman. However, I didn't like the way CoryS threw a fish down that well. Apparently we're going to have to euthanize that weasel sooner than later. If this keeps up I'm going to go all weight challenged chick crazy. (This paragraph contains more inside jokes than need be and for that I apologize to those who are on the outside looking in.)

The Boxnickoff!

Cynicism

You, Cringely: What does Gartner Really Do?

From this article.

Cringely's conclusion of what Gartner does (and by extension all of Gartner-like organizations) is: "Not much of real value I'm afraid". Ouch!

Quotes from the article:

The truth is that there is no IT "profession." Most of what IT managers know about IT they learn from vendors, consultants, and folks like Gartner. Because they feel isolated, and because the IT vendor/consultant/media system encourages them to worry about such things, IT managers tend to feel they must have their important decisions validated and Gartner is the most popular place to find validation. Yes they wield a lot of power, but it is often the power of discovering the obvious.

That hurts!

Much of this comes down to the decided lack of professionalism in IT, which is after all a very new job classification. There is a huge difference, for example, between someone with an engineering degree and someone in IT who calls himself an engineer. Real engineers are often valued employees. Their opinions matter and they have real responsibilities. Good companies know engineers are important to their business and treat them accordingly. But IT workers are a commodity and are treated as such. Many IT workers are clueless about the technologies they are working with. They aspire to be project managers and are often not very good at that either.

Cringely needs to calm down. He's hitting too close to the mark. = )

I'm a Flat Out Baller?

I scored 32 points in a basketball game tonight. It's the most I've ever scored in a game with referees. However, we lost and were eliminated from the league's playoffs. We only had four players and so we didn't have a realistic chance to win. It felt good to put up a big number after not getting to play or touch the ball a whole lot this season.

(Michael wanted me to mention that he had 11 points.)

Par 3 Golf Victory

(Scorecard)

Some guys from work and I headed out Wednesday night to a lighted par 3 golf course and played 9 holes. I was victorious by one stroke. On the fourth hole I chipped in for a birdie. I also had two pars. On the last hole, I double hit a chip and almost cost myself the victory.

For the record, I'm a horrible golfer. However, I won! = P

LOL Baby

I've decided that Tess is to be trained as an LOL baby. She'll say things like "I can has cheeseburger?" and "Ohs nos!". Instead of laughing, she'll say "LOL!" or "ROFL!" or "LMAO!". I'm pretty sure this will set back her development somewhat. However, it'll be worth the price. She'll be so cute! When she starts going to school we'll teach her to talk right. I imagine she'll catch up with her classmates by 2nd grade.

Does it smell like updog in here? LOL! ROFL! OMG! Booya! Woot!

That's right, I threw a fish down that well.

ETF Picks

Today, I put about half my investment account in the market. As documented here previously, I'm not going to try to time the market or get in and out of it on a regular basis. I plan on holding these ETFs for a number of years. These are the ETFs I choose: EWZ, FXI, IGE, ILF, IVV, and SLX (EWZ got about three times the amount of money as each of the rest).

In about three months, I'll put in the other half of my account. And, maybe three or six months later I'll put in yet another round. Periodically, I'll update my blog with how I'm doing.

The ETFs are mostly emerging market funds. Emerging markets seem to outperform the US market by a wide margin. I think Brazil is the best emerging market and so I put more money in it. I picked six different ETFs to diversify and thus reduce my risk.

Using Yahoo! Finance, I can track how my portfolio is doing. There is also a play at home game under development.

You Can't Handle the Truth

John Kenneth Galbraith said:

Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everybody gets busy on the proof. We associate truth with convenience. We also find highly acceptable what contributes most to self esteem. Therefore we adhere, as though to a raft, to those ideas which represent our understanding.

We all just got burned. Especially you, Luis.