Mess inchur not me sage

A building San Francisco

Everyday more and more “data” is being recorded and saved.  In ancient times this might a individual whose jobs it was to remeber, involve a clay tablet which could be broken. Paper and ink was lighter and easier stored and transported, but digital…

Reflection of a building in the windows of One Maritime in San Francisco

its a whole nother thing. Your personal information, once reduced to a bunch of 0s&1s can be on drives or servers anywhere anyplace anytime. Even simply by computer error, where code gets accidentally generated  or rewritten and your information accidentally appears somewhere and is passed around, who knows where.

Another reflection of some buildings in the windows of One Maritime, includes the inside of the building, the outside of the building and the reflections of building blocks aways in the window.

Perhaps its unlikely, who is to say in the universe this set of molecules that is me can only come together one. True, we are talking god zillions of molecules floating around the universe, but the idea that this same set of molecules once again forms is more likely than the possibility of “intelligent design” and there are many in this  country who believe that “intelligent design” is a more real explanation than the scientific theory of evolution, though these are the same people who when they need an operation do not go to their pastor because they trust in God but go to a doctor who trusts in science.

A light converswayshun with my cellph

I could just be arguing with mycellph, and I would not no it, or perhaps I am overstructured and lack the basic cents to see it.

Travel inadventures missing the end of summer outside of Brattleboro sometime befour I got lost

Living in the San Francisco Bay area, WHERE THE WEATHER IS GREAT ALL YEAR ROUND thank you, I miss the New England version of the end of summer when the corn is head high,  the sun starts to get lower in the sky and the shadows get longer on the earth.

Complementary reflection between red and green

“And the last thing I want to do
Is to say I’ve been hittin’ some hard travelin’ too.”

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Investing: stock in myshelf

This is the first of a series on individual  investing in the equities (stock ) market. When I was young, post college, my father gave me some stock in a Blue Chip company,  I held it for many years and sold it at a profit to be a part of the down payment on my first house.  Later he gave me 100 shares of a small but high quality company worth $17 a share ($17 x 100 = $1700.00) it split two for one, was bought by an aggressively growing company which has split a few times. I set up two accounts with an online broker, an IRA account and a cash account. I contributed yearly to the former from my income and I deposited the stock (I had not taken any profits) worth about $20,000 in a cash (non-IRA) account about 17 years ago.

Some say investing is more about not losing money than it is about making money.

I have made some trades  in the cash account, some  have been profitable, others losses and that account has about $65,000 as I write—it can normally fluctuate up to $1000 a day. In the 1980s I invested in mutual funds with a reputable funds company, made some money, lost some money in the 1999 correction, made some money, paid for much of my son’s education from the mutual funds, lost in 2008 and I have  been in the  bull market until now. I invested in a company which went bankrupt, another was mining gas in Russia, and doing just fine until putin used Russian law and courts to take the company and give it to a Russian mining  company. I have also bought a stock and helplessly watched it go down to nothing. And still I have made money.

I do not think Mr.Drucker needs someone to explain…

I officially retired last December but for the preceeding eight yearss I had not been actively prospecting for new business, just letting it die out, during which time I became more active in learning about investment. I am very lucking its been a bull market since then and I have had some profitable investments in the market. I hope to be as successful in a correction and/or a bear market.

Filene’s Basement in the 1960s

I think many people can be successful investing in the stock market, and by successful, I mean making profitable investments within their risk range. I hope these “investment posts” will influence others to consider investing in the stock market. Not everyone can be successful at all things and some may find it not in their interest and/or skill, but I think there are others who have the ability and if they knew a little more about the subject they might develop the interest . . . and it can be fun.

More to come…

Thanks fore tanks and other phranks

Just when you thought things could not get more bizarre, trump moves the Republican party to the party of pedophiles and trump supporters love it—after all , paraphrasing trump, for Republicans pediphiles are more desirable Americans than liberals.

I like to drink sake with my diner and below are some of the guinomi I enjoy using.

Natural art? Nature responds to people . . .  below is a poster of various ways nature has responded to humans, various images of the top of the letter “T” in the word STOP as it appears on different streets.

And the letter “O” …

A snow cat melting inside

And another Morris Bellis, standing outside his discount tire center one January morning  1970  in Arlington, Massachusetts. We had a moving business back then and used to buy second hand 6 ply tires for our vans from Morris. He used to have a new tire store on the “main artery” coming form the North Shore  into Boston and when “urban renewal ”—a 1960s federal program  to update  urban areas which were considered  in need of updating, a program which was for the most part about private developers making campaign donations to Congress to influence the federal government to use  “eminent domain” to transfer “blighted properties” into the hands of the enlightened developers.

Morris lost his tire shop on the main drag, which destroyed his business so some chain business could rent  from some developer.  He was close to retiring and so he opened up this second hand tire store  in  an unknown section of Arlington.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Shyning the liet

Hayward hills waiting for the SF train at the BayFair BART

You have some different logistical situations in riding BART to San Francisco from the Union City station. What used to be the last station, Fremont BART station, one beyond Union City station, is now second to last and the newly opened Warm Springs station is the last station.

San Jose flower shop with balloons

 

For the past two years whenever I walk by this alley in China town I make an image.

A busker often reminds of the Joni Mitchell song…

Red and yellow on gray

Certainly does not look like a motorcycle gang showing off  outside a favorite coffee spot.

Exciting San Francisco street corner life, or maybe its just a bunch people who do not mind standing in line for lunch.

San Francisco is a place for young people and gray a nice background  for showing off…

 

Man in the Maze,  I’itoi or I’thi or perhaps it should be human in the maze, I doubt there are any gender differences between those of us who feel this design and those that do not. Its an ancient  Hohokam design found on petroglyphs and ancient baskets, now often seen in Hopi jewelry and Pima baskets. The labyrinth represents experiences  and decisions we make in our lives as we work our way to our final destination.

Morris Bellis, this may be the only image of him on the WWW, we used to have moving business in Boston area and purchased second hand heavy duty  tires from him. Its an interesting story with more photographs for a later time.

Driving down the road to the house we would see the top of  this abandoned building. Right in front of  house the hill drops sharply  making the space between the end of the field and the beginning of the house visual interesting because the house appears close to the end of the field but we know we are seeing the second floor and the drop we cannot see must be steep.

I am taking someone else’s words, but I am not making any money  from them nor am I representing them as my own, we feel good when we feel this and too often it goes away.

 

 

Finding sumway threw myend

Did you ever wonder if Buddhism is real or just phake advertising . . .

meant to distract you from the real happiness of life?  If there were no Buddhism would people create it or would they be more satisfied?

Probably not, would you recognize trump as a Buddha if he paid you a state visit?

After his transmission Daruma went to China and was welcomed at the court of Emperor Wu, a long financial supporter of Buddhism.

Emperor Wu: “How much karmic merit have I earned for ordaining Buddhist monks, building monasteries, having sutras copied, and commissioning Buddha images?”

Bodhidharma: “None. Good deeds done with worldly intent bring good karma, but no merit.”

Emperor Wu: “So what is the highest meaning of noble truth?”

Bodhidharma: “There is no noble truth, there is only emptiness.”

Emperor Wu: “Then, who is standing before me?”

Bodhidharma: “I know not, Your Majesty.”