"Keep your eye on the ball!!!" they always say. Live in the present they always say! Seize the moment yadda yadda. I'd like to present a contrarian point of view - always look ahead!

I was responding to a post at http://sett.com/spandrella/reasons-to-live then browsing the interwebs after looking at my stocks again. In that post I linked I ruminated on how transient life seems to be in the present... how everything we fall in love we may eventually fall out of love with. With that, in the present, there may not be anything that excites.

Anyway, I stumbled onto the tech geek accumulator sites and saw the possibilities for the future and all of a sudden got excited again.  Cheap 3-d printing for the home user at 200-400$.   Cheap homes made out of mass scale 3-d printing techniques and clay! Yayaya! I felt the inner passions rise and my consciousness awaken again. I was excited about life again - and all because I looked ahead.

I am starting to wonder now if always looking ahead is the way to go. Back when I used to play zombie apocalypse games there was a common trend to them all. You always had to keep moving forward. If you stayed in any one place/street/corner/box you were as good as dead - guaranteed. It's all because the resources to keep you alive don't continually spawn in that little 16x16 pixel space of gameworld you occupy. The resources are always spawning far and away out there in the expanses. You always needed to keep gunning and keep moving. You'd exhaust the resources on one small corner of the map as you'd go and you'd quickly move to find more weapons and healthkits. Stagnation was a sure ticket to death as the chances of resources spawning where you are at this exact moment were slim to none.

Life is kind of like that too. The things you need to advance in life don't show up at your doorstep - you need to grab the fruit down from the trees. So what does this all have to do with always looking ahead vs living in the present? Simple. In the present things may not be where we want them to be. We may not be doing what we want to be doing. We may not have all that we want to have. Everything is far off and away and the more we focus on what is now the more depressed we get. Sure appreciation and gratitude help lessen the sting but they alone don't give us the energetic jolt to move forward again and survive. We need that inspiration to get us off our asses even as the zombies close in all around us and make a mad dash for that next street corner where an abundance of resources await!

Anyone jump on the bitcoin bandwagon since http://tynan.com/bitcoin? Let's test each other's accounts here!

I signed up for Coinbase and am waiting for the excruciatingly long 4 days to get my bitcoins. Signed up for CC verification and such for instant buy but that's taking a while as well for some reason. Anyone care to donate some microscopic amount of bitcoins to the following address to see if I have coinbase setup right?

1KQNkw2zgggu7X4QXtEkhUAG3oFpMhdW6S

Once I get my bitcoins I can help other people test their bitcoin addr's as well!

A parlay in craps is akin to 'letting it ride' or for the non gambling among us using your winnings and betting them back on the table. Sure you stand to lose it all on risky bets but life does not seem to link well with those who just play it safe. Life seems to be a continual slide down into what people term 'death' or oblivion or whatever in which only the ones who really make at least a push for the top enjoy a life well lived. What has been a constant personal troll of mine is getting into situations where my fear pushes me into actions which are a guaranteed slight loss instead of a possible medium loss and an incomprehenisble gain. If anyone has read many of my other posts I'm a big advocate of Pascal's Wager - making small bets which if lost are inconsequential in the short run but could pay off huge in the long run. As a craps player I was always kind of an iffy breakeven player until I discovered the power of the parlay. Sure I may lose 50-100$ sometimes 200$ a session but in the long run given my infrequent gambling (none now at this point) that money would not matter anyhow and I've had some big wins to show for it. 10$ --> 400-700$ twice maybe 10-->200 once and a 1-->280$ triple parlay on the any craps on the come out as my best burst. What if I made small bets in the past on every precious metal? On the stock markets? (which have continually grown) What if I applied momentum and parlayed instead of spend and/or sit?

Sooo..... I was taking a halfway conscious nap this afternoon and an odd thought came to my mind. What if instead of getting money/presents/whatever else people get for birthdays/christmas/giftgivings/housewarmings/etc... I ask for precious metals instead? Realistically I'd just request no gifts just modest cash donations for a 'special project' and turn them around into precious metals if the market price is good else deposit them into lending club certificates for the 5-15% interest. I'd then take this money around and reinvest it again! Once the money got big enough similar to pruning a tree I'd take a small bite off for my own personal happiness while knowing in the background I had a financial foundation which brought me peace.

It would be a slight change of pace from the norm. Instead of splurging on whatever I'd want to get with the usual consumerist mindset I'd invest all the money instead. This would require me to continually work on being happy with less which is a path I started on since I was 10 (it somehow hit my consciousness at that age that getting more stuff did not make me happier. In fact it made me sadder as I realized the number of sacrifices people were making to get me things). Anyway I left the boat of consumerism long ago and opted to save my money but in lieu of investing I just saved my money up waiting to make the big jump into starting my own business or whatever. I never got the 'chi' or whatever to make that jump years later unfortunately. With the economy still in shambles though saving fiat currency is a guaranteed loss (history also shows this) so every so often I thought about investing. I asked for advice from many about the markets and got mixed results which I shared in this older thread from John Wes linky. A few weeks ago I decided to disregard all the limiting beliefs regarding the markets people have drilled into me and jump into them myself linky2. I invested a modest 500$ into Tesla Motors on the recommendation of DrOdio linky3 and since then it's been steadily climbing upwards.

Recently a bunch of analysts have put out some really lowball price targets for Tesla Motors stock (currently trading at 139$ down from 155$ a few days back). One of them even gave off a price target of 50$ despite the fact that the company just blew away Q2 projected loss by actually making a profit. The negative criticism from a bunch of wall street analysts is there calling the stock overheated, overstretched, over-whatever etc.. just google 'TSLA stock'. Sure the spike to 155 did not last long and was a bit exaggerated but this was followed by a dip to as low as 138 today. 138 - it's pessimistic value a week before even BEFORE news of the projected loss into profit became public last week. All in all wtf mate? If everyone else can put out lowball figures based on their analyses then it's time for me to have my own day in the sun as well!!! 25-45$ was the price of Tesla stock for 2-3 years BEFORE IT EVEN MADE ANYTHING TANGIBLE. How does one come up with 50$ as their price target? Hell would freeze over, thaw, then freeze again if we hit 50 anytime soon that isn't a major bankruptcy event for the company. If you want to put out lowball 50-60-86$ lowball figures then just tell the truth - you think the company will belly flop and go bankrupt like all the other EV companies. Don't insult our intelligence with your chicken little valuations. Financial trolling at it's finest :D (and ironically they will claim it's not trolling it's the truth - and I agree - I've been labelled a troll for speaking my truth before). Anyways Ford and GM and all the other auto companies have 20-30$ stocks because yeah they went bankrupt or close to it in case anyone forgot (back when 'too big to fail' was a meme). Totally different game and all but enough of that - time to play karmic mirror again... Time for the most oddly practical and unscientific analysis of Tesla stock to date (well hopefully so as many analyses seem to have come close with their SOLE focus on x cars this x cars that...) It is time to...

BEAT THE BURRITO

My valuation of Tesla Motors in the future will be a price above and beyond $404.64. How did I come up with such an exact valuation for a price target to beat? Consider the figure below:

I'm going to shelve all my limiting beliefs about stocks aside for a second and take a plunge into investing. Are there any good online brokerage account promotions that are worth taking? E-Trade claims there's 500$ free but it sounds a bit gimmicky and is a $10K minimum which I can do but I'm wondering if there is a catch.

Thinking of just using the integrated Wells Fargo Online Brokerage Account so it'll be integrated with my other accounts there. They have 100 free trades then 9$ a trade and I don't plan on trading much if at all besides putting down small amounts of investments here and there then letting time do it's thing. Anyone have experiences using the integrated brokerage accounts with banks? Should I be looking into getting a brokerage account at a specialized site instead of a bank?

My investment experience as of now - I have a retirement account I made general allocations for but is taken care of by financial suits. I've played a good amount of Craps (both the Pass and Don't Pass) and stock market's invests/shorts seem like the same concept. I played Federation the investing text game on AOL a decade and some ago and it's newest incarnation Fed2 a year or two back.

I've always been a fan of procedurally generated stuff. When I signed up to get my SETT blog up today it came in with the default name of 'The Tiny Octopus'. It really spoke to me so it will remain for now. I can always change it again later and I like improvising stuff. Time for a quintessential 90's web construction link.

Update 4/22/13 - Took responsibility for my older posts from Tynan.com and sucked them into my domain. Will be swallowing my older content from the other 2 blogs I've had as well and maybe even some surprise stuff from before that in the future.

I don't want to turn this place into a tech deals accumulator site but DDR3 ram memory for computers has been going up in price apparently due to production slowdowns. Why they're slowing down production when DDR4 is still kind of far and away I don't know but it's probably a colluded grab to make some dinero for the RAM manufacturers :D.

Regardless DDR3 RAM prices have peaked 25%+ since I did my last computer fantasy build in Sept. 2012. 4 2gb gskill ripjaws were 38$ back then now they're approaching 55+ yikes. Similar sticks are showing a 25% or more increase. I don't plan on building another system soon but I'm thinking of buying some DDR3 ram in order to avoid 'the drought' which happens if I decide to build a new system in the next 3 years but with limited supply stock of memory (driving prices up through the roof). I'll be hedging 8 gigs to keep it usable for light gaming and switching between tons of programs and hoping I can craigslist another 4 gigs if I need to in the future.

In other news I got some e-mail today - you can get Windows 7 from newegg 64 bit edition for 99.99 then use code EMCXSTX22 to get 20$ off! I don't know how long this lasts - maybe it's just one day - this was written April 30, 2013.

In retrospect I might just wait a few more years and stick with my new salvaged creation beast thing - 8gb ddr2 phenom ii x4 with 8800 gts. That should last quite a bit longer. I don't need fancy graphics anyway (I play dwarf fortress [albeit with the tileset]). Games are becoming hardware hogs though and it'd be nice to have but I think I can make do.

(I should add pictures to this one day once I get a better connection)

As of writing I'm just finishing up a three day visit to Thailand waiting for the airport transfer at the Glow Pratanum hotel in Pratanum, Bangkok, Thailand. I had a wonderful time and did the usual tourist things for my very first visit like the street marketplace, night market, floating market, ride the elephants, visit Wat Pho and the reclining Buddha, etc... I also got to stop by Siam Paragon and it was indeed one of the cleanest and best malls I've seen yet.

Reflecting on the trip all the good stuff about did consist of the things 'between the lines' per se. Riding the motorcycle taxi's at breakneck speeds weaving thru full on traffic while LED lights pulsate from all over the place was a one of a kind Asian experience I will never forget. Haggling for computer parts at the electronics market (which dwarfs out any electronics store I've ever seen) was also pretty epic for me as they had just about everything I have ever dreamed of and more. Thailand's style of shopping seems to differ from what I'm used to as the buildings are grouped by what they sell - one building will be all clothes, one all electronics, one all jewelry/accessories etc... All in all this seemed like a lot more of a foreign experience than many of the other trips I've taken to the Philippines, cruising to Mexico/Caribbean, Canada, etc... I also got pretty good at converting prices by increments of 30's or 300's to derive 1/10$ US and other such fun.

One thing I found very interesting was how many westerners and europeans were walking the streets of Thailand as well. The only other diverse international city I've ever been to really is Las Vegas where you can often hear 5-6 languages taking a short walk down the strip. I remember just about EVERYONE raving about Thailand about 10 years ago and how great of a place it was. I wonder now then if I am getting the same experiences as these people or if I've just come in really late to the party. Similar to visiting the Philippine island of Boracay (supposedly one of the world's best beaches) change and commercialize heavily between my last visit around 2006 and 2013 I wonder if I'm just getting the regurgitated bits of travel. Boracay used to be a private beach paradise and now you know they've tipped over the deep end when you see not one but 2 Lonely Planet store outlets in the markets with full on cement and steel resorts popping up left and right. I miss getting my Coke in a plastic bag with a straw for 10 pesos rather than paying 50 now for a canned equivalent just like everywhere else in the western world.

Well anyway I take solace in knowing that at least I got to experience some of that badassness as Thailand's last Westerner. I honestly think this is the best trip I've taken in my life yet though I have high expectations for Japan and Korea if I ever visit. Europe tbh at this point seems boring and expensive. Israel would be fun just for the massive religious lore. If Thailand was this good 10 years down the line then I wonder how orgasmic it was for the early runners. Even the CLICHE stuff was fun (which was lke 5% of the country)! The hotel was truly 5 star and the people are the most accomodating I've ever met. All of those who believe in the so-called 'golden rule' about treating others should take notes on these folks. At the McDonalds for example I noticed I did not have my hamburger 20 mins after purchase since I vegged out for a moment. Not expecting much I went back down and showed them the reciept and in short order they got me another hamburger no questions asked. There was no way to prove that I didn't just eat the first burger then come down slumming around for free seconds.

This problem is SOLVED!!! Scroll to the end of the post for the grand realization - thanks to all who participated and helped me make the breakthru realization.

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Seeing the post at

http://tynan.com/breakup

got my head thinking.

....Or is it tap-tap-tap-tappa-tap? I haven't posted in a while but I'm currently typing this article up while sitting on a pile of towels with a pillow on my back. I'm currently testing out how I'd feel if I bought a new office chair to replace the one falling apart for years which I'm sitting on. You see I did it. I quit my job. I actually started a semi-serious exercise regiment. I'm beginning the birth of a new life where I am at the helm actively. I've started getting things in order like health insurance. And for all this time I've been silent - because silence is the sound of execution.

Maybe I just talked too much before- talked to myself mostly. The spirits think I think too much :p In real waking life I'm more of a listener and an introvert. I can fill an internet chat room with words easily but that's just it. It's all an illusion. It's all smoke and mirrors. What the persistent chat text doesn't show you is the silence and thought that echo for hours straight after. People who spend a lot of time on the internet think they can talk. They are fooled because you just can't get up and leave a conversation or leave a 4 hour pause in the middle of it in real life. But I digress - I just wanted to test how typing felt like with this new position if I got a new chair. Where my arms hands legs would go - how I would hold the mouse - oh I bought a new mouse by the way. Ironically after trying and returning expensive mice I settled for a simple flat 3 button'd regular sized mouse from HP. It fit me and my mousing style the best.

I think this would be doable - a new office chair. If I'm about to spend a lot of time relearning how to program or going into similar but divergent things I'm probably going to be in front of a computer all day regardless. Even while gaming. OK my back is starting to feel a tad sore but that's OK because the pillow is hardly as supportive as the chair I've tried earlier today. Swear I spent an hour+ just sitting on that chair, adjusting it endlessly, and scooting it around on simulated desks. I sat at a random expensive desk and noted the height and just stared into the distance pretending I finally hooked in a working dual monitor setup. I wonder if everyone thought I was crazy. Reminds me of that Gnarls Barkley song 'Crazy' Maybe I'm Craaaaazy. But yeah I don't care this is my life and my rules now.

Office depot is about to close - yeah I know - cheap POS chair but I tested it - it will do I think. It's on sale but still gonna set me back about 162 total according to this reciept. Jumping head first for a Leap chair or whatever for 800$ seemed a bit excessive and even if it lasts a year or two maybe my financial situation will change a lot by then or I'll have a much more solid vision of what I want in a chair. Anyway I gotta go - silence once again - silence is the sound of execution.