Mélisse Dinner

JC, Tiff, and I had a really nice meal over at Mélisse in Santa Monica. I probably won't have such a nice meal for a while given the economy and all, but it sure was a great experience. The food was excellent, and the service was exceptional. There wasn't anything to complain about really.


After looking at the menu for a little while, we each decided to do the tasting menu. The one thing that was really nice about this restaurant was that we actually had a lot of flexibility when it came to the tasting menu. At most other places, everyone at the table is more or less served the same thing. But, here, we got to pick and choose a few things much like how you'd order from a standard prix fixe menu.


Two different amuse bouches came out shortly after we had ordered. I'm not sure if one was something else, but both more or less served as an amuse. The first was a serving of grapes encrusted with goat cheese and pistachios, and the second one was a tomato gazpacho over a cucumber purée with salmon tartare. Both tasted so good. They definitely served their purpose of whetting my appetite.



As a first course, I had the Lobster Bolognese, Fresh Capellini with Black Truffles. This was some seriously good stuff. It was simple, but it tasted so damn good. I could easily have an entire meal consisting of just this, and I'd be perfectly happy. JC and Tiff had the Seared Foie Gras, but I didn't take any pictures of it.


For a second course, I had the John Dory dish. I like this fish usually, and this time was no different. It was served in a scallion mousseline sauce and also a shellfish sauce. The texture of the fish was just right and all the flavors worked really well for this one. It's hard for me to describe how nice it all worked out, but I was in fish heaven. I think the other two missed out, but I'm not sure.

JC, who isn't a fan of most seafood, had a corn ravioli dish. Tiff went for an abalone dish, but again, I didn't get a picture. I guess you'll have to check out her blog when she puts up her own pics.



Both JC and I had the rabbit for the main course. It was quite good, and the meat was not gamey at all. I often fear that rabbit meat will be a bit strong, but the meat was done really well and everything was so tasty. The dish was full of spices and you could taste a whole array of different flavors, as each part of the dish seemed to have been prepared and spiced differently. The rabbit also came with a boudin blanc, which is some sort of cajun sausage. That was one fancy tasting sausage, I must say.

Tiff had the lamb, which offered three different cuts of meat. After having a taste of her lamb, I think I prefer it. But, that's not to say I had any complaints about my own choice.


Finally, it was dessert time. JC and I chose the same thing again. We had a chocolate-themed finale. Four different chocolate desserts were served. There was chocolate ice cream with a white chocolate outside, a soufflé with a fresh injection of chocolate goodness, a chocolate parfait, and a chocolate cake.


Then, after this rather filling meal, we got some slices of fruit, cookies, and petit fours.


And, there you have it. I hope you enjoyed the pictures. The meal was wonderful, and it was really nice that Tiff could join us as JC bid farewell to Los Angeles.

The Big Move

Well, this is it. I'm heading down to LA for relationship purposes one final time. Tonight, there is a going away dinner at a nice restaurant. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures. And, tomorrow is the big moving day. We'll pack everything up into the truck, and then head on up to Triple-S J... that is, South Side San Jose. Ha ha. I learned that from some random grocery store cashier a few weeks back.

Have a nice weekend!

Journey of a Dead Skin Ball

Some will find this video clip gross, some others will relate to it, and others yet will find it inspirational. Enjoy.

BSOD at a Gas Station

Not too long ago I found a gas station pump with the Blue Screen of Death. Luckily, I had my camera handy.

Eyeballing Game

Tiff posted this Eyeballing game up on her blog, and I thought it was pretty fun, so I'm sharing it here. The game is self-explanatory, you just try to eyeball the correct geometries that are asked of you. Anyway, the first time I played the game, my mouse slipped and I had a single large outlier that caused my average error to be really high (~8.0), but the second time I played it, I did OK.

My score on the second try was a 3.65.

Togo's Flashback

I wasn't in the know until today about Togo's Flashback Wednesdays deal. They've got a select 6" sandwich each week that is priced at $1.99. After yet another market crash today, I know where I'm heading for dinner tonight.

Icelandic Plunge

The markets have been bad for us, but it's nothing compared to what is happening over in Iceland. Pretty crazy if you ask me.

"Iceland's benchmark stock index plunged 77 percent, the biggest decline on record, as trading resumed after a three-day suspension and the nationalization of the country's largest banks."

Bloomberg Report on the Iceland stock market crash.

Poor Fitness Level

I am out of shape. I really am. I'm not overweight at all, but I lack stamina. This past Sunday, I ran in the Run Forrest Run 5K during the Long Beach Marathon. JC ran the half-marathon.

So, anyway, I ran a whopping 3.1 miles in just over 36 minutes. This is sad. This is not much faster than a 12 minutes per mile pace. Pathetic. In my age group I was basically in the bottom 40%, and this includes those that walked and those that ran it while pushing a baby stroller.

You know you need to step it up when senior citizens are killing you. The fastest 65 year old male did it in under 25 minutes and the fastest 70 year old male was able to do it in about 28 minutes. And, here I am, someone that's just outside the prime years putting up a lousy 36 minutes.

Anyway, I'm going to have to fix this. I'm not looking to be a super star runner, but this is simply unacceptable.

JC, on the other hand, did just fine. She ran her 13.1 miles in under 2 hours and 15 minutes, which put her in the top third of her class. This means that she was able to run her 13.1 miles at a significantly faster pace (around 10 1/4 minutes per mile) than I did for 3.1 miles. How sad is that?

In my defense, I didn't really train or prepare at all. The results of running this cold turkey tells me that if I'm going to try this again, I'm going to have to really put forth some effort. It sucks to suck.

At least at the end of the run they gave us some food that was supplied by the Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant. Ceviche and shrimp cocktail never tasted so good. There will be a next time, but it won't be any time soon.

Garden Pics

If you recall, I don't have much of a garden. One day I just decided to plant some Sugar Snap Peas and Salad Bowl Lettuce to make use of this empty patch in my back yard. A couple months ago, my plants had just begun growing. Today, the pea plants are probably 4 feet tall, and the lettuce is a pretty large bunch.

I have no idea how to tell when to harvest any of it. I suppose I should read up on that. I was really only half-expecting anything useful to come from this exercise. But, now that it seems pretty clear that the plants are doing fine, I should do some more research and maybe put a little more time into this.

Here are some pics.

Quick Update

Well, the emergency rate cut prevented us from tanking thus far. It hasn't really helped us move up, but at least for now the bleeding has stopped. Pretty scary really... what the heck now?

Same store sales numbers came out this morning for a lot of retailers. Overall the picture's bleak. Fortunately, Wet Seal (WTSLA) came out more or less in line with expectations (-7.5% vs -7.3%) and they re-affirmed their 0.05-0.07 EPS. This is really good all things considered. Had the numbers come out horribly, I'd be crying.

I picked up a position in Kongzhong (KONG) at 2.45. It's a company I used to own/follow, and I know that it's a favorite of gaamblor's. He's been pushing it my way for some time, and today, I finally bit the bullet with a (very) small starter position. From what I can tell, it's now trading substantially below its cash value, and current projections have the company remaining in the black. Anyway, not willing to buy a substantial amount until I get a much better idea of what's going on. Plus, I'm skittish and scared for the most part.

Quick Market and Life Update

I lightened up on a few things earlier today when the market was slightly in the red... too little too late, but I suppose for now I'm better off having done so with the market sinking to a new low. Maybe this is what I look like when I'm capitulating somewhat.

Anyway, sold off between 10-25% of Manitowoc (MTW), Glatfelter (GLT), Phillip Morris International (PM).

When is this pain going to end? I have no f'ing idea... all I know is that I'm hurting pretty badly, and most people I know are in the same boat. Ugh.

In other news, JC is moving up here (and in with me) in a few weeks. Hopefully, it is smooth sailing. From a personal perspective, it should be nice. Sure beats us flying around to see each other. From a financial perspective, it is definitely a win-win. I get help on the mortgage, and her rent decreases a fair bit as compared to what she pays with her current living arrangement.

Also, my sugar snap peas are growing a lot... there are a lot of peas now. Not sure when is the right time to pick them. I'll post up pictures some time soon if I can remember.

Quick Update

Reducing exposure... got rid of the rest of Citigroup (C) at $20. The vote is later on today, and there's more complication regarding the Wachovia (WB) buyout with Wells Fargo (WFC) swooping in.

I might be back in it in the future, but for now I'm done. Essentially took some not-so-huge losses on 3/4 of the initial position, and took a rather large loss on 1/4. Oh well. Could have gotten out of this last 25% yesterday for a good deal more. It's a pity that I'm not clairvoyant, I'd have avoided the past 30-45 days of absolute pain.

Neat Forced Mate

I finished a game this morning, and I thought this was a straightforward, yet neat, forced mate. So, I'm posting it here. Maybe you'll think the same about it. Anyway, it looked pretty to me. Enjoy.

White to move. Mate in 3.

A Day To Remember

I lost a crapload today. Anyone who was long the market lost a crapload today too. These things happen... and, sure, I wish I had further trimmed my exposure. Hindsight's 20/20. Today's the worst I've seen ever since I've been involved with the markets. Watching the Nasdaq Composite lose over 9% was a shocker. Pretty sick, if you ask me.

On a different topic... I wasn't active in the markets in 1987, but my parents and others that I talk to were. They mostly tell me... well, these things happen. And, I know it sounds a lot like those "when I was your age, I used to walk 10 miles to school in the middle of a blizzard" stories. However, the fact is they all felt the horrific drop that dwarfs the one we saw today.

Not that any of this really matters... I digress. Tomorrow is another day.

Anyway, I thought I'd close this quick post with some interesting trivia. Of all the S&P 500 companies (500 of them), only one closed up... that honor goes to Campbell's Soup (CPB).

Sushi Zo

When I was in LA last weekend, we met up with a couple people over at Sushi Zo. All I was hearing were rave reviews of this sushi restaurant, and so I was dying to check it out. I always feel that the Bay Area's sushi just doesn't quite compare to what you can get down in SoCal... but, I'm probably just not in the know.

Anyway, we did the Omakase which is pretty much what everyone seems to order over there. I have to say that the fish was fresh and everything was excellent. It was expensive, but you get what you pay for. I'd definitely go back.

Here are a few pictures I took of the sushi we ate. Just looking at these pics makes me hungry. It was fantastic. Yelpers seem to agree, too, as the restaurant is rated 4.5 stars with over 100 votes.




Speaking of sushi... I've been hearing some really great things about Stonefish sushi (okoze). I've never had it, nor have I ever found any place that served it. One of these days I will find me some, and I'll report on what I thought. Hope that day comes sooner and not later. Anyone ever had it or know where I can have a taste? I have also heard that it's great cooked as well.

More Lobsters and Indians

Yep, it's been a while since we've talked about Lobsters and Indians. Anyway, the awesome Tiffster made this for us to hang up on the back wall of the bar that we will open up in the future.

Bo Burnham

I suspect that most of you have seen Bo Burnham's videos on YouTube already... he's been putting up videos since 2006 I think. For those of you who haven't, you're really missing out. This kid is talented, and his songs are hilarious. Sure, they're a bit offensive to those who are overly sensitive or to those without any sense of humor, but I just find myself cracking up at his lyrics.

Anyway, here's a taste of his style...

Neat Wario Land Ad

Even though I don't know anything about Wario Land and don't own a Wii, I thought this was a really cool marketing/advertisement idea. You'll know what I mean when you watch it. Check it out.

Wario Land: Shake It YouTube Ad

Quick Update

Bought some Wet Seal (WTSLA) at 3.82. Not a large buy, but this is adding to an already large position. This increases my current holding by 7%. I'm not expecting anything, but I'm definitely more willing to let this new batch go if we happen to get any quick move to the upside.

I Know It When I Read It

First, I'm going to say that this is NSFW, but it's pretty tame. Anyway, JC and I were just feeling kind of goofy while chilling over at her place in LA. And, I'm not even sure how it started, but we got to talking about how sometimes adult film companies create titles based on famous works. Titles like Forrest Hump or Intercourse with a Vampire are some examples.

Well, we ended up coming up with a list for the literary aficionado. We decided that we'd start with the Charles Dickens collection for obvious reasons, and here's the list that we came up with. Some are pretty bad, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of them have actually been used before.

• A Tale of Two Titties
• David Cop-a-Feel
• Oliver Fist
• Great Sexpectations
• A XXX-mas Carol

And, there's one Dickens' work that needs no alteration at all... Hard Times -- For These Times. Okay, that's it for now... maybe next time we'll tackle the works of James Joyce or maybe Oscar Wilde.

Domain Name Hot List

A friend of mine recently put up a website (HotNameList.com) that provides interesting, useful, and potentially lucrative domain names that are currently available. The list is updated daily and free to check out.

From Today's 'Hot Name' List, here are a few that I thought were pretty good:

SoHumble.com
AmazingHigh.com
WordLA.com
FuckingManual.com

Anyway, whether or not you are a collector of domain names, check it out.

Who Woulda Thunk?

If you'd told me on Wednesday morning that the Citigroup (C) I sold was at the bottom, I'd think you'd be right a good amount of the time. It's just that I was willing to sacrifice selling a portion at the bottom for fear that any more damage might have put me over the edge causing panic, etc.

Now, if you'd told me that the C shares I've got that are currently covered by calls would be in danger of being called away at $20, I'd have thought you were crazy. But, that's where we are today. What a wacky crazy week.

I did manage to add to my Goldman Sachs (GS) position in the retirement account... added some at 104.45 yesterday. So, for the record, the shares have a cost basis of $113.79. I did sell some tech to finance that purchase, but I guess I'm on the good side of that at the moment.

I guess in short, it sure looks like the little guy (me) sells his C at the bottom. On the bright side, I didn't sell off too much of it.

As much as this market jump helps me, I am not necessarily a fan of the outright ban on short-selling of financial stocks. Of course, I don't have all the information on it, but it doesn't feel right. Creating an imbalance like this can't be what's in the best interest of the markets, but what do I really know.

-- Edit #1 --

Okay, the market's closed, and C closed above $20. Come Monday, I will be down to only 25% of my original position. Who would have guessed? Clearly, I did not.

Quick Update

Reduced my exposure to Citigroup (C) this morning. Sold 25% of the position at an average price of $14.70. First sale was filled at 14.92 in early trading, and then I dumped a second piece at 14.55. Will continue to watch it carefully.

I really needed to reduce the position so that I am less likely to enter into 'panic' mode, which is almost always a bad thing.

Interesting Chess Game

I just played what I felt was an interesting game of chess. I'm not qualified to make that judgment, but I suppose what's deemed interesting is subjective. The game was clean as far as I'm concerned, as neither of us made any obvious blunders.

Throughout the game we were fairly even. Despite the evenness of the game, I really felt that there was a lot going on, and the tension was high. There was a lot of play in both of us as the game went on. Obviously, as the game progressed, we both missed out on some opportunities to eke out a small gain here and there. Adding up all of the small missed opportunities surely cost one of us the game. However, there was no obvious death blow that was missed.

Ultimately, the game ended in a draw, but I was generally pleased with how it all played out. In the end, I was trailing slightly, but managed to play it to a draw. I am sure it's clear to anyone who actually plays well that our endgames need some work. But, without further ado, here are a few snapshots from the game.

My opponent, playing White, is rated 1464 on RHP. I'm Black with a 1527 rating on that site.

Here's the first snapshot. Note that the board is from Black's perspective so notation is flipped. After White makes move 32, the chess engine estimates that we are dead even.


I move Rb2 seven moves later, and the battle is definitely on. Pieces are about to be cleared off the board. The computer still puts us completely even at this juncture.


Now, we're 50 moves into the game, and I push pawn to f5. The situation is precarious looking at this point. Despite this, we're still pretty even. And, to think that we're only two-thirds of the way through the game.


We get to the final position below after a lot of end game maneuvering. I think it was in the end game where we both missed a good number of chances to take the lead, or preserve one that we'd obtained, whichever the case may be. Finally, at this point, I think it became clear that neither of us was going to win. So, I offered a draw and he accepted it. The computer agrees that this is indeed a drawn position. There you have it... a draw after an intense 72 moves.


I think there's a lot of neat stuff that went on in this game that could not be captured by these four positions. If you're interested in chess, I encourage you to take a look at the full game yourself. The full game can be found below.

Here's the PGN:

[Event "Challenge"]
[Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"]
[Date "2008.09.11"]
[EndDate "2008.09.17"]
[White "MyOpponent"]
[Black "BruteForce"]
[WhiteRating "1464"]
[BlackRating "1527"]
[WhiteELO "1464"]
[BlackELO "1527"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]

1. d4 d5 2. c3 Ng8f6 3. Nb1d2 Nb8c6 4. e3 e5 5. Bf1e2 e4 6. f3 Bc8f5 7. f4 Qd8d7 8. h3 Bf8d6 9. Nd2f1 Nc6a5 10. Nf1g3 Na5c4 11. Be2xc4 dxc4 12. Ng3xf5 Qd7xf5 13. Qd1a4 Nf6d7 14. Qa4xc4 O-O 15. Bc1d2 a6 16. O-O-O c5 17. Ng1e2 b5 18. Qc4b3 c4 19. Qb3c2 Nd7b6 20. g4 Qf5d5 21. Ne2g3 Rf8e8 22. Bd2e1 Qd5c6 23. Rh1h2 Nb6d5 24. Rh2e2 Nd5b6 25. Ng3f5 a5 26. Kc1d2 b4 27. Rd1b1 bxc3 28. bxc3 Bd6a3 29. Kd2d1 g6 30. Nf5g3 Ra8b8 31. Be1d2 a4 32. Re2e1 Ba3e7 33. Re1f1 Be7h4 34. Ng3e2 a3 35. Ne2c1 Nb6a4 36. Kd1e2 Na4b2 37. Rf1g1 Bh4f6 38. Rg1g2 Nb2d3 39. Ke2f1 Rb8b2 40. Rb1xb2 axb2 41. Nc1xd3 exd3 42. Qc2xb2 Qc6f3 43. Kf1g1 Qf3xh3 44. g5 Bf6g7 45. Qb2c1 h6 46. Qc1e1 f6 47. gxh6 Bg7xh6 48. Rg2xg6 Kg8f7 49. Qe1g3 Qh3h5 50. Rg6g4 f5 51. Rg4h4 Qh5d1 52. Qg3e1 Re8g8 53. Kg1f2 Qd1xe1 54. Bd2xe1 Rg8g6 55. Rh4h2 Rg6a6 56. Kf2f3 Bh6f8 57. e4 fxe4 58. Kf3e3 Ra6b6 59. f5 Bf8d6 60. Rh2g2 Rb6b1 61. Be1d2 Rb1b2 62. Ke3xe4 Rb2xa2 63. Ke4e3 Bd6f8 64. Rg2g6 Ra2a7 65. Ke3f4 Ra7e7 66. Rg6e6 Re7xe6 67. fxe6 Kf7xe6 68. Kf4e4 Bf8d6 69. d5 Ke6f6 70. Ke4d4 Kf6f5 71. Kd4xc4 Kf5e4 72. Bd2h6 Bd6e5 1/2-1/2

Buying The Dip

I generally don't comment on my retirement portfolio, but I'll make an exception today. I picked up some Goldman Sachs (GS) today at $127 even. With the current $1.40 dividend, shares are yielding 1.1%, and GS should fare much better than others during this financial turmoil. Anyway, figured I'd put this down here so I can refer back in the future. I've been very, very wrong about the financials thus far (with C, and some XLF in the retirement account), but I'm sticking with my long-term plan for now.

Bloody Monday

Dow Futures are currently down 300. Relative to fair value, S&P Futures are down 32, and Nasdaq-100 Futures are down 35. Lehman (LEH) is likely going to fail... Bank of America (BAC) buying Merrill (MER).

This is going to hurt... a lot.

My Portmanteau

So, I was having a conversation earlier about random stuff, and of course, the subject of Hurricane Ike came up. Anyway, during this conversation I invented a portmanteau to describe what the government might call for when the certain flooding occurs.

< ... drum roll, please ... >

They might call for a State of Submergency.

Someone thought it was so good that it must have been a fairly common one. So, how can we get a quick estimate on its popularity? Well, you do the Google test and look at the hit count.

State of Emergency: 4.4MM hits
State of Submergency: 3 hits

Yes, that's right... a whopping 3 hits. I'm going to lay claim to that term based on this quick test. Now, it's time to market it... though it's really in poor taste now, I think it'd be pretty sweet if one day we saw a headline that referenced it.

Simple Exponential Equations

So, I was asked recently if I could help solve a simple exponential equation. And, while I was able to get an answer, I was only able to do so by inspection. I'm not sure how to go about solving a more general equation without using numerical methods.

Anyway, here's the equation:

SQRT( (3 + SQRT(8))^x ) + SQRT( (3 - SQRT(8))^x ) = 6

When I took a look at this, I was able to solve it by inspection readily...

The equation can be rewritten as:

(3 + SQRT(8))^(x/2) + (3 - SQRT(8))^(x/2) = 6

Clearly, if we had (3 + SQRT(8)) + (3 - SQRT(8)), we would get 6. So, we just want the exponents to be equal to 1, and thus, x = 2.

That's all fine and dandy, but that doesn't really sit well with me.

What if we had the following instead:

SQRT( (3 + SQRT(8))^x ) + SQRT( (3 - SQRT(8))^x ) = C

Now what? How would we be able to solve this in terms of C? Now, is there some sort of identity or trick that we can take advantage of to help us solve this... maybe something related to the conjugate?

I thought about this more, but I got nowhere. In terms of a quick and dirty approximation, we could simply drop the 2nd term knowing that as C tends to infinity, the (3 - SQRT(8))^(x/2) would approach zero.

So, for large C we could get an accurate approximation by simply solving the simpler equation:

(3 - SQRT(8))^(x/2) = C

And, x = (2 ln C) / (ln (3 + SQRT(8)). The value of C doesn't even have to get all that big for that approximation to be accurate. At C = 6, we have 1.65% error. At C = 34, we are down to a tiny 0.0246% error. And, by the time C reaches 198, we have a near negligible 0.000482% error.

Okay, but it's still not that useful. And, for small values of C, we are certainly going to be way off the mark.

Continuing with all of this... what do you do with another simple exponential equation like:

2^x + 3^x = C

I could get nowhere in trying to break this down. Is the only way to get a value for x is by solving for it numerically using known methods?

I've either forgotten a lot of simple math or there's just no clean way to solve exponential equations that contain different bases. Anyway, I'm done thinking about this for now. So, does anyone want to help me out with this?

The Great Ziegfeld

My quest continues... the latest Best Picture I watched was The Great Ziegfeld, the 1936 winner. And, I have to say that it was really good. I thought the acting was really quite good, which was surprising to me considering what I've seen in older movies.

I knew nothing about Florenz Ziegfeld before watching this movie and subsequently reading up a bit about his life. The movie portrayed him as a likable fellow with some serious game. He was probably the PUA of his time, plus he went from broke to rich to broke a few times in the movie, which is always good for drama. He was definitely an interesting character, and the movie did a good job developing his character.

He was known for his Broadway productions (and publicity stunts), including what he's most famous for, the Ziegfeld Follies, which involved such stars as Fannie Brice, W.C. Fields, Will Rogers, and Bob Hope. And, the movie certainly wanted to show off some musical productions to its audience. I don't know much about that time period and whether or not Broadway musicals were accessible to the common people or not. I would assume not, and so this movie was probably a nice way of exposing the public to that form and level of entertainment.

Some interesting things that I learned about Ziegfeld from what I read about him... he was married to Billie Burke (not a household name, but if I said she was Glinda the Good Witch of the North, you'd know who she was instantly). He hired Eugen Sandow, the father of modern bodybuilding, early in his career. Here's Strength and How to Obtain It, one of Sandow's books on how to get buff. The Sandow guy was was actually an important character in the early part of the movie. And, finally, Ziegfeld lost his ass in the stock market (due to margin and the big crash in 1929). That, too, was included in the film.

Anyway, if you don't mind watching a movie interspersed with many musical production segments, then I definitely recommend this one. As far as older Best Picture winning movies go, I would have to say that this is one of the better ones. So, go check it out.

We All Scream For Ice Cream

A friend of mine, Miss V, passed this my way... and, now I pass it along to the rest of you.

Cold Stone Creamery is hosting an ice cream social to support the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The bottom line is that you get some free ice cream from 5pm-8pm on September 25, 2008. Here's a link to the actual promotion page.

Wet Seal Downgrade

Credit Suisse downgraded shares of Wet Seal (WTSLA) today from Outperform to Neutral with a price target of $5.

The basic idea behind their downgrade was that the seemingly easy same store sales comparisons for 2009 were misleading (WTSLA's 2008 is estimated at -3.5%, making for an easier '09 comp). They believe that the better measure is sales productivity (sales/sq. ft), and for many retailers, comparisons on that basis would be much more challenging.

From their report:

"Specifically, we estimate Wet Seal will achieve sales/sq. ft. of $324 in 2008. While this doesn’t seem high compared to higher price point retailers, for Wet Seal $324/sq. ft. is 26% higher than the average productivity the company achieved over the last five years ($257)."

This puts WTSLA at the top of their list of retailers comparing 2008 estimates on sales productivity to a five-year average (2003-2007 sales productivity average).

Additionally, they also mention that they are not all that bullish on the turnaround of the Arden B division.

Wet Seal Fan Page

Those of you who have used Facebook probably have seen those fan pages where you can become a fan of X, Y, or Z. There are probably thousands of them... you can be a fan of South Park, a fan of Cheerios, etc. Anyway, out of curiousity, I checked to see if I could become a fan of Wet Seal (WTSLA), and the answer was NO.

There did not exist a Wet Seal fan page. And, being the dork I am, I created one a week ago. And, now we're up to a whopping 104 fans! Ha ha. This is so silly, but I get a kick out of it.

Anyway, as the admin of that page, I can see the statistics kept for it. Here's a snapshot I just took. The plot at the top shows the growth of the fan base over the past week. They should hire me part-time.

Market Pain

Today, the market is suffering. Jobless claims jumped, and monthly retail sales figures were weak. However, the portfolio is taking a much harsher beating.

A couple reasons why...

Wet Seal (WTSLA) announced its sales numbers, and they were a bit worse than the analysts' consensus. Shares down roughly 5%.

Manitowoc (MTW) is down a good 6% right now after Terex (TEX) announced that its earnings would fall short of expectations for the next two quarters as well as for the current fiscal year. TEX fell a good deal more (-20%), but that doesn't change anything about the MTW pain I'm feeling.

Quick Update

Just got back from lunch, and I saw that an order to sell some covered calls on Citigroup (C) was filled. Sold Sept 20 Calls (CID) covering half the C position at $0.58. The full position now has an effective cost basis of $21.71. Tack on the 0.32 dividend that was paid out recently, and it's not such a horrible loss.

Also, nice to see that the Wet Seal is back above $5. We're approaching striking distance now of the $5.50-$6.00 range that I was targeting. I had a small window before where I could have sold some shares in the 5.50's, but I missed it. Hopefully soon, I'll get a new chance.

Quick Update

My order to sell Hewlett Packard (HPQ) Sept 45 Calls (HPQII) at 2.75 was filled this morning. Good for +120%.

Market continues to be volatile. At least the Wet Seal (WTSLA) is once again closing in on the $5 mark. Still waiting for a better price to unload some of it.

Hey, This Beer's Clammy!

I was down in LA over the holiday weekend, and on Friday night, JC and I went to the grocery store to pick up some chips and dip to bring to GZA's BBQ on Saturday. While at the store, we figured we wanted to get some beer for us to have that night. We saw that they were carrying Bud Light Chelada (Bud Light + Clamato), and while we both heard about it, neither of us really had ever tried it nor gotten the urge to do so.

Anyway, we were just talking about it, and we at some point we said something like, "Not sure I really want clam broth in my beer... it'll probably taste funky." It was then that a random guy shopping for his own beer chimed in with his words of wisdom. "You've got to try it, it's really good. It's the beer drinker's Bloody Mary." We were swayed by his praise, and we got a can of it to try out, along with our normal beer (Pete's Wicked Strawberry Blonde Ale, for those that care).

So, after we had Indian food over at Akbar in Marina del Rey (the Lamb Vindaloo I had was very good, by the way), we mustered the courage to give the Chelada a try. We took a video of the experience, but unfortunately, I was too lazy to put on a shirt when we took it and I don't feel like grossing anyone out with a topless me. The drink didn't taste all that bad on the first sip. It was like a less viscous alcoholic V-8, but soon after the first sip went down I had a weird look on my face. The after taste, in my opinion, was pretty strong.


When it was JC's turn, she more or less knew what to expect and she felt the same way about it. She couldn't have any more of it, and well, I drank the rest of it. As much as I wasn't a fan, it was far from the worst drink I've ever had, and who wants any sort of beer to go to waste?

The next day was really chill. We went out to attend a little BBQ that the GZA had over at his new place in Newbury Park. Finally got to see his daughter who is growing up fast. The Tri-Tip was so good that the GZA got a temporary name-change. He was the Ghost Face Grilla for the night.

On Sunday, JC, my sister and her friend ran the Nike 10K Human Race. I did not participate, because I'm a slacker. However, I am planning on running a much shorter 5K in about a month and a half. It was a pretty cool thing to see from the sidelines, as there were over 12K runners in Los Angeles.

There were so many people that it was a full 8 minutes before all the runners had crossed the starting line. I'm not sure how many runners participated worldwide, but it was a lot from what I heard. A total of 25 cities participated. The picture is a blur, but this is just a quick glimpse of the sea of red runners.


JC put in a fine time of 57:34 (Good Job!). I think that was good for the top 20% or so for women. My sister and her friend did alright as well, but neither managed to crack the hour mark. The best time for men in LA was 30:38, and for women it was 35:57. Really impressive. The cyclist, Lance Armstrong, ran in Austin in 98 degree heat and came in 6th in that city.

After the race was over, my sister and her friend watched the Kanye West concert that was the main post-race event. After that was done with, we hit up Hodori in K-Town for some late night grubbing.

That pretty much wraps up the weekend. Hope you all had a nice Labor Day.

No Country For Old Men

Last night I watched the 2007 Oscar winner, No Country For Old Men. Another one down in my Academy Award Winning Quest I have knocked off 46 of them, but I'm a distant third of the group of us trying to finish; one has seen 75, and another has already watched 57. It's not really a race though, but I'd like to think I was keeping up with the pace. I still need to watch Gandhi (1982) and Ordinary People (1980) to clear out the 1970-2007 block.

So, let's get back to the movie. I thought it was great. I liked it a lot, as it kept me interested the whole way. There was just enough going on that I never felt like anything was really dragging on and how can you not appreciate the use of a cattle gun when you are going for violence.

The crazy psycho guy was played by Javier Bardem, and I have to say his acting was amazing. He was one scary mofo, and he would definitely be fun to watch play some high stakes no-limit poker. I mean, after all, he does flip coins for lives. Ha ha. Seriously, he was one bad ass, scary dude.

I knew nothing about what the movie was about other than a lot of people having mixed feelings about the ending. I thought the ending was great. I won't say much more than that in case some of you haven't seen it and plan on doing so in the future.

Anyway, I don't have much to say about the film other than I give it two thumbs up. It was a lot better than the previous year's winner. Not sure if I'd say it was better than Crash, but I would say that it was better than Million Dollar Baby.

And, on a totally different note. Not sure if anyone dared try to play more of that Capsules game, but I am still an addict. I'm up to Level 72 now.

A Sequence Relationship

I thought I'd spend a minute to post this up, because some might find that trying to figure it out might be entertaining. So, I'm at work going through some code and I'm getting two sequences of 4 numbers. All I know is that these two sequences are related somehow, but there isn't much more information beyond that.

Unfortunately, I'm slow and I did not instantly see the relationship, and so I had to spend some time digging deeper into the code before all was revealed. Let's see if you can spot the relationship.

Sequence A: 11, 25, 165, 300
Sequence B: 64, 199, 339, 353

Hint: Think line numbers in text, or maybe think of a line of people. -- Too bad, I wasn't given this luxury. Could have saved myself 20 or so minutes of time.

Note: There's actually some practical meaning to the sequences.

Capsules - Yet Another Addictive Game

As if we all don't have enough time-sucking activities in our lives. Here is a game called Capsules. There are 347 levels!!!! I have barely made a dent in the game having only completed 37 levels for a total score of 14580.

It starts off sort of simple, but gets tough really quickly. The basic idea is that you need to have the yellow capsules eat all the blue capsules. So far, the two ways you can die are if any yellow capsule touches a red one, or if you move your mouse out-of-bounds (which, seems to be loosely defined and depends on the level itself).

Some levels are annoying since they incorporate a trial-and-error guessing aspect, but for the most part most levels have been challenging and not rote. The difficulty seems to jump around a bit as it doesn't seem to necessarily get harder in order. Be warned though, you might want to pull your hair out... some of the really frustrating ones took me a ton of tries. Enjoy.

Capsules

*** Edit #1 ***

Okay, I've beaten 54 levels now, but Level 55 is giving me a hard time. Going to stop for now... wow, I just wasted a lot of time. Ugh.

Wet Seal Earnings

Wet Seal (WTSLA) has fallen sharply in the past month from its peak in the mid-$5's to around $4 a share. It seemed that this was caused by the anticipation of further weakness in the retail environment, which would really hurt the company. Today, the numbers came out, and while they were not blow-your-socks-off amazing, a cursory look at the report tells me that things were quite solid, and so I am not going to be selling any of my shares at the current prices.

In early August, the company announced that their earnings (excluding one-time charges) would come in at the high end of a 0.09-0.11 range. They came in just above the range with an EPS of 0.12. They are also guiding the next quarter a higher than current consensus estimates, providing a range of 0.05-0.07 vs. 0.05.

However, they are forecasting a drop in sales, which puts them 1-4% shy of current analyst estimates. So, this might dampen the mood some. Given all of this, I'd be surprised if we did not move higher on this report. Shares have been taken down a lot already, and the weak revenue forecast isn't enough to spell doom. It looks like the company's margins are continuing to improve, and there seems to be some light at the end of the Arden B tunnel.

From the press release:

In spite of continued comparable store sales challenges at Arden B during its merchandising turnaround, its infrastructure downsizing earlier this year and cautious inventory management efforts during the remerchandising have reversed an operating loss to operating income, prior to corporate cost allocations, in the second quarter and for the first half of fiscal 2008 in that segment.

So, in any case, I'm optimistic about what tomorrow will bring. There isn't enough afterhours trading volume to really get much of a real sense now. While I don't expect shares to fall as a result of this report, if they do, I just might be tempted to buy some of my shares back. I think the turnaround plans are still working out, and Ed Thomas has yet to let me down in any manner thus far.

Been so busy at work that I will have to listen to the call later on tonight.

A Close Chess Game

I've been in a game against a 1450 rated (on RedHotPawn) for the past week or so, and finally the game ended today. I felt it was a really hard fought match, and generally the game was clean. Looking at the game again, I was lucky to have pulled out a win. The game was fairly long too, as his resignation came after 51 moves.

I ran the game through a chess engine, and the computer had us in a dead heat (+0.00) after his 27th move as White. Here's the position that was considered even by the analyzer.


My next move (27. ... Ne5) was deemed a mistake and quickly the computer upped my opponents chances a notch. But, he does not counter my threat properly (28. Nc3), and it would ultimately cost him the game. He overlooked the fact that my own queen is covered by my knight after I take his queen from the fork, which wins me a piece. The computer suggests 28. Kg1 or Kh1 as the correct plays that thwart my plans.


Below is the game in its entirety. I also have another game (against a 1550) that I will probably post up later on when it's done. I think I'm going to lose, but I'm not 100% convinced yet, so it's going to be at least a couple of days more probably.

1. b3 e5 2. Bc1b2 Nb8c6 3. e3 Ng8f6 4. a3 d5 5. Bf1b5 Qd8d6 6. Bb5xc6 bxc6 7. Ng1f3 Bc8g4 8. h3 Bg4xf3 9. Qd1xf3 Bf8e7 10. O-O O-O 11. d3 e4 12. dxe4 Nf6xe4 13. Qf3g4 Be7f6 14. Bb2xf6 Qd6xf6 15. Ra1a2 c5 16. c4 c6 17. Ra2c2 Ra8b8 18. cxd5 cxd5 19. f3 Ne4d6 20. Rc2xc5 Rb8xb3 21. Rc5xd5 Rb3xe3 22. Qg4d7 Nd6c4 23. Qd7xa7 Qf6e6 24. Rf1d1 Re3e1 25. Kg1h2 Re1xd1 26. Rd5xd1 Qe6e2 27. Qa7d4 Nc4e5 28. Nb1c3 Ne5xf3 29. Kh2g3 Nf3xd4 30. Nc3xe2 Nd4xe2 31. Kg3f3 Ne2c3 32. Rd1a1 Rf8a8 33. Ra1e1 g6 34. Re1a1 f5 35. h4 h5 36. Kf3f4 Kg8f7 37. Kf4e5 Ra8a4 38. g3 Kf7e7 39. Ra1e1 Ra4e4 40. Re1xe4 fxe4 41. Ke5d4 Nc3b5 42. Kd4xe4 Nb5xa3 43. Ke4f4 Ke7f6 44. g4 Na3c4 45. g5 Kf6f7 46. Kf4e4 Nc4d6 47. Ke4e5 Nd6f5 48. Ke5f4 Nf5xh4 49. Kf4e5 Nh4f5 50. Ke5f4 Kf7e6 51. Kf4f3 Ke6e5 0-1

Quick Update

The Hewlett Packard (HPQ) calls I picked up from yesterday got a boost today, now that shares of the company are trading around $46. I'll hang on in hopes of getting out on a real market rally.

Today, I sold some Manitowoc (MTW) Sept $25 calls (MTWIE) for $1 apiece, covering less than half the position. Still losing my ass on this one, but this helps reduce my exposure.

*** Edit #1 ***

I have re-established the General Electric (GE) position that was called away over the weekend at $29. Picked up shares via a buy-write at a net cost of $27.75.

Bought GE at $28.35
Sold Sept $29 Calls (GEWIC) at $0.60

Quick Update

Taking a chance here with some Hewlett Packard (HPQ) calls ahead of their earnings release this afternoon. Made a small bet on the Sept $45 calls (HPQII) at $1.25. I rarely play out of the money options and tend to do spreads, but this time, I think there's a real chance for a move in the next month given all the negativity surrounding tech these days. It won't be too long before we see how this works out.

*** Edit #1 ***

So far so good. The numbers came out, and it looks like HPQ beat Wall Street estimates on both the top and bottom lines. Looks like they are guiding slightly above consensus as well, but I'm not 100% sure on that. I suppose the next thing to listen for on the call is how the EDS integration is progressing, and also how the competitive landscape is looking these days.

At least for right now, the move is clearly to the upside with shares trading at $45. I picked up the calls when shares were hovering in the 43.60's. Hope there are no bombs dropped during their conference call. Later, people.

Quick Getaway

This last Saturday, the lady and I took a one night mini-vacation out to San Francisco. We had dinner reservations at Ristorante Milano situated in the Russian Hill district of the city. When we arrived, the small restaurant was packed and there were some people waiting around for a table. I didn't know exactly what to expect, but as soon as we gave our name, the host points us to our table that was definitely reserved for us. Awesome.

As I mentioned, the restaurant was small, and it was loud... but, I think that was mostly because of a birthday dinner party that was there. We started off with Prosciutto and Goat Cheese Bruschetta, which we shared and both thought was good. We really had no problem at all gobbling up every last bit of it.


For our main courses, I had the Guazzetto di Pesce, which was really an assortment of seafood served over Polenta made with fish stock. I liked my dish, which was flavorful. The seafood was fresh tasting, and on top of that, I was pleased with the quantity of food. She had a gnocchi dish, of which I only got a tiny taste. From my single bite, I could tell that I'd enjoy it, but I like gnocchi usually, so I'm probably not that the best to judge.



For dessert, we really wanted to have some cannoli, but that wasn't part of their selection. I guess this makes sense, as I later learned that cannolis are Sicilian, and this was a Northern Italian restaurant. So, we had to settle for a chocolate cake with nuts and strawberries. The first bites of the cake on the outer edges weren't so good. It was just a tad dry, but once we got to the inner parts, we quickly changed our opinions. And, soon the cake was gone.


Anyway, I wouldn't say that the food was anything amazing or spectacular, but it really was above average and for the prices being charged, I felt it was a great value. I would definitely go back again, and I would have no reservations recommending this place to others. I think next time I want to try a pasta dish, as I was really waffling between what I got and the Lasagna.

I should also mention that service was excellent. The water glasses were always filled, and the server was highly energetic and enthusiastic, but was never intrusive. It was a waitstaff that deserves some applause.

After dinner, we checked into our hotel, Le Meridien. The guy at the desk then informs us that we are in for a treat... a phenomenal upgrade. He was not kidding.

We ended up in a full-on Business Suite, which we found out later was over three times the rate of the standard room that we had booked. The bedroom was large with a good-sized Plasma TV, and the suite had its own balcony that we could walk out onto. Not only that, but it also had a nice view of the Bay Bridge. Additionally, there was an extra office room and the bathroom was huge to boot. Score!

After check-in, we had some navigational difficulties, as we proceeded to get somewhat lost on our way to Ruby Skye. Eventually, we made it and we had a few drinks and partied there for a little bit. The place was absolutely packed, and the dance floor was really crowded, but the music was great as usual, and we enjoyed ourselves.

The next day we hit up the Chinatown area, and we had dim sum at New Asia for lunch. There wasn't anything really great about the place, but I thought the food was decent enough. It was your typical large dim sum restaurant with plenty of carts whizzing by, so there was never any shortage of food to eat. Although the price wasn't too bad, I am pretty sure that I wouldn't go out of my way just to eat there again.

Afterward, we walked around a bit more. We checked out some of those trinket and knick-knack stores, and then we strolled around Union Square briefly. Then, the weekend sadly came to a close. And, here I am waiting for some tests to finish running so I can go home.

Lettuce and Peas

The peas sprouted not too long ago and grew up in a jiffy. And, the lettuce continues to grow out more. I think I need to go get some stuff for the peas to grow on, since they are twining plants. Maybe something like those wire mesh devices they use for tomato plants will do. I don't really know... I guess I'll just wing it and get something that looks like it might work.

I probably need to get some anti-snail stuff. The GZA is more of a garden expert, and he recently told me that it would likely become a problem. So, I better go take care of it now just in case.

Anyway, here are some updated pics from my ghetto garden.

Quick Update

Nothing to report today except that the shares of General Electric (GE) that I sold calls on are going to be called away this weekend at $29. So, all in all for that particular lot of shares I'm taking a small loss.

Initial Position (Buy-Write) on GE: $31.45
Dividend (reinvested): New shares that are now worth roughly 1% of the initial cost.
Covered Call (July): $0.67
Covered Call (Aug): $0.41

I suppose that works out to roughly $30.37 for the effective cost of the shares, which are going to be sold at $29, but I keep 1% of the shares (obtained from the dividend reinvestment) which further pads the original core long-term GE holding. All things accounted for, this is approximately 3.3% loss based on the original cost of shares at $31.45. Come to think of it, that's not too bad given that the S&P 500 fell about 9% over the same time period.

Murder and the Penal Code

So, the recent shooting at the Democratic HQ in Arkansas got me thinking again about a topic I discussed with others in the past. There were some that shared my view, but I would think that most people do not. It really doesn't have anything directly to do with the killing, but it's a tangent that I'll work from.

I think that our penal system defines two main types of murders, 1st and 2nd degree. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that 3rd degree murder is more like a manslaughter charge. In any case, 1st degree murders, which are the pre-meditated kind generally carry a stiffer punishment than 2nd degree murders, which often are 'crimes of passion' -- spur of the moment types of killings due to a burst of rage or what not.

Anyway, what I have a problem with our penal system is that those murders that are of the passion category seem a whole lot scarier than those that are pre-meditated. And, I don't mean to include random pre-meditated murder, as would be the case for serial killers and their ilk.

Ask yourselves the following... Would you feel safer with the guy that has had a violent outburst in the past that resulted in someone's death, or the calm collected guy that murders his business partner, because he felt that he was being cheated. Do you prefer to put back on the street a guy that drank a bit too much and got in a bar fight resulting in someone getting killed or the guy that carefully planned the killing of someone he hated or has caused him pain?

I just think that anyone who has shown the propensity to lash out in violence all of a sudden is a lot more dangerous to our society than someone who has carefully planned and carried out a murderous plot. Now, I'm not necessarily saying that the 1st degree murder types should be granted leniency, but I am definitely saying that the 2nd degree guys don't need a break whatsoever.

I understand that it's always going to be a case-by-case thing, but when speaking of generalities, I stand by my view that the passion murder types are a hell of a lot worse for our society than their more cold-blooded counterparts.

Anyway, that's just my semi-rant I guess. Just wanted to get it all out while it was still bugging me and on my mind. Also wanted to say that I really didn't have any specific purpose in mind when I wrote this up just now. It's just a post sharing my view.

Lenovo P960

Well, here's some more work-related news... Lenovo Mobile just launched its first biometrics-enabled mobile phone, the P960. As always, it's nice when some of the things that I've worked on makes its way into a product.

Here are a couple of pictures I snagged from some Asian website selling the units.

My Green Thumb

Okay, so I lied. I really don't have much of a green thumb.

When I first bought my place, it came with a playhouse in the backyard. Since I've got no kids, it was pretty useless to me. So, I gave it away to a co-worker maybe six months ago or so. What was left was this empty patch of dirt. I kept telling myself that I probably should do something with that space... maybe start a small garden.

That's just what I did. Last week, I did some research about what could be planted in late summer, and I went and got some lettuce seeds and peas to plant. I put in a little bit of effort to plant them all, and today I went out there to see that the lettuce has sprouted. I hope the peas will come out soon, but I think it'll be a while since they were planted a good deal deeper.

This is my first attempt at any sort of actual gardening. The only things I've ever planted were palm trees that have grown into magnificent trees back at my parents' place. But, that doesn't count for much, since all I did was plant them and never did anything with them again.

Company Olympics

So, I just got back from our annual company picnic. It was a lot of fun... this year's theme was the Olympics for obvious reasons. Our team came in last place; ugh, we suck so bad. We simply didn't have enough young kids on our team. There was a 10x and 5x multiplier based on the age of the Olympian. And, as much as the adults think they're awesome, they're simply not going to throw a frisbee 10x futher than a 7 year old can.

Anyway, it's nice to get a day off and relax a bit with the co-workers and their families. Good times, indeed.

Quick Update

Well, here I am working from home. The LCD TV is getting delivered today. I picked up some HDMI cables online for really cheap already, but they probably won't get to me until later this week. Anyway, I'm hoping the television is all it is cracked up to be.

Okay, so yesterday sucked, but today's been great. On top of the market staging a broad rally, one of my holdings, PH Glatfelter (GLT) announced good earnings today. From what was said in the conference call and press releases, their Chillicothe mill operations are paying off. While I wouldn't say that all the news was absolutely great, it was generally good. Higher input costs continue to hurt them, but the company seems to be doing an adequate job at mitigating the effects of those increases through charging higher prices and also cost reduction and efficiency improvements.

*** Edit #1 ***

Okay, well it's here. The cable picture is horrible... lots of ghosting, etc. But, my roommate already warned me of this. My current cable box does not do HD, and so there'll likely be picture issues. The XBox360 in HD looks nice, and the built in content (photos, games, cooking recipes, etc) look great. So, I'm pretty sure it's not the TV. I guess I'll have to go swap my cable box some time tomorrow.

Quick Update

Sold the SNDK bear spread (Aug 15/17.50 puts) for $2.13 today. Could have sold it for more last week, but decided to just take what I could get for them today. The spread, having been bought for 0.87, was good for a 145% return. Too bad it was just a small gamble type of position.

In other news, I am getting hurt with the Manitowoc (MTW) position. Today's announcement that they sold off their ship building business for $120MM was not good news at all. It's one thing if they got a decent price for it, but based on the recent numbers for that component, it seems as if the sale was on the cheap. I'm obviously disappointed.

I would really hate to throw in the towel, as I think it's way too early to say that this is a monumental choke by the management team there. But, this is definitely not good. I suppose I might lighten up some at a loss. I'm currently sitting on roughly a 30% loss, and trust me, it is putting on the hurt a bit. This is one of my larger holdings. Ugh.

Love's a Bitch

I watched Amores Perros (English title: Love's a Bitch) yesterday, and I must say that it's quite good. The movie is Pulp Fiction-like... it is made up of three stories that are all loosely tied together, and it is also chock full of some really graphic violence (of dogs, especially). The movie was also nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar back in 2001.

I went into this movie not knowing anything about it other than it being recommended by a few people to watch it, because it was good. So, I will share the same with you all... watch it, it's good. IMDB has it rated an 8.2/10, and Rotten Tomatoes has it at a 92% on the Tomato-meter. However, I wouldn't recommend that you watch it if you didn't like Pulp Fiction though, as you'd probably dislike this one as well. I suppose if you do want to know a bit more about it, you can always read reviews of it.

Find The Bingos

Okay, I just played some Scrabble, and thought it'd be fun for you word people to hone your skills a bit. Here's a board, and it's my turn to play. I really felt there was a bingo (use all 7 tiles) here, but I was running low on time and I was pretty much going to win the game (I was up 60 points and my opponent had 4 tiles left: INRW). So, I just gave up.

I went back over the game and I did manage to find one, and I was curious how many there actually were. I used an anagrammer to help me find them. To the best of my knowledge, there are 4 of them. Two of them are exotic words, and the other two are common. One of the common words would require you to know the Scrabble 3's though.

Anyway, here's the board. See if you can spot any of the possible bingos.

Poker Blues

As some of you know, I haven't had much time to play any poker lately. I've just been really busy with work and some travel. For the first night in what seems like forever, I had the chance to head down to the local card room and play some poker. The list for my usual low-limit 6/12 game was a bit long, so I opted to sit in the 5-200 spread limit ($200 max buy-in).

Well, three hours later, I call it a night as a two buy-in loser... this, after being up a fair bit earlier in the night. Looking at the hands, I suppose I should be happy that I put in my money for the most part quite good. My downfall really came from 3 hands where the 'big' money went in on 4 occasions (one of the hands had large bets on both turn and river).

Stop reading now if you don't want to read about bad beats.

OK, those of you that are still with me, here we go...

Hand 1: I have black AA and make it $25 pre-flop in early position. There are 2 callers. Flop comes Q76 rainbow. I bet $50 (maybe this is too small, I don't know... I am not that confident about my non-limit poker skills). Anyway, one guy folds and another guy thinks for a while and then pushes in the rest of his money... another $130. He's not one to fool around pre-flop so much, so I figure him for AQ (probably not KK, I'm pretty sure he re-raises me pre-flop). If he's got a set, so be it. So, I go ahead and make the call. The turn comes a K, the river brings a 5, and away go my chips when he shows KQ.

Hand 2: A4o in the big blind. There's no raise, and we see a flop multi-way... maybe 6 or 7 in the hand. Flop comes Q94 with a club draw. It checks around. Turn comes a 4, no flush. Small blind bets $30, and I raise it up. I think I made it $90 (I can't even remember for sure now, but I know it was less than $100 since I basically pushed out one of my incomplete stack of chips). The others fold, and the bettor makes the call. The river brings an offsuit J.

The bettor now bets $10 into this largish pot. Maybe this is when warning bells should go off. I am thinking this really makes no sense, and I raise it up. He then pushes the rest of his money in, and I had to call an additional $80. He shows J4 and I lose. So, money definitely went in good on the turn, but it clearly went in bad on the river.

Hand 3: So, this is the hand that busted me out. After this one I no longer had a desire to play, so I chose not to buy in again. A very aggressive player straddles and so it's a live $10 bet. I have ATs and limp after some limpers (maybe I ought to raise this, I really do suck at this game). More limpers after me and then the straddler makes it $40 more. There's 2 callers to me, and I call. The button also calls.

So, we see the flop 5 handed, and the pot's pretty large. The flop comes T33 with 2 diamonds. The straddler now bets $15. One guy calls, and it's on me. I have $140 left and I decide it would be really stupid of me to call pre-flop, hit my hand pretty solidly, and not bet it hard. So, I go ahead and push all my chips in the middle. Only the straddler guy calls, and the turn comes a 8 of diamonds, and the river brings an offsuit 9. I am shown the A6d for the big flush and I kiss my chips goodbye.

While I may have played some (or maybe all) these hands incorrectly, the bottom line is that I got most of my money in good... sometimes it was more than good, as I was better than a 4:1 favorite in a couple of those spots. Still sucks though. Ugh.

Quick Update and More

Sold Aug 20 Citigroup (C) Calls (CHD) on the position, which effectively brings down the cost basis to just around $22.

Manitowoc (MTW) has been disappointing thus far. Their conference call on Tuesday morning didn't really help instill confidence. The S&P downgrade of their shares also did not help the stock any. Shares are down to the mid 26's today. I might sell calls on some of that position we we get any sort of pop in the near future. Not sure yet.

In other news, I finally(!!!) bought the LCD TV (Samsung LN52A750 52-Inch 1080p) that I've been talking about for over a year. I really suck at that sort of thing. But in my defense, I just tend to procrastinate a great deal with big ticket purchases mostly because I don't really think they add much to my life. I might change my tune once it's delivered though, ha ha.