CHESSNOID

A good online friend of mine from Singapore emailed me today and noticed I had not blogged for a week. I guess I had been busier than usual to write about what was going on in my life or my views of the world. It’s Saturday and I love to blog, but it is always nice to know someone out there notices.

There is a great fight tonight with Frank Shamrock vs Cung Le, but unfortunately I will not be able to watch it on TV. My cable company who I won’t name (TIME WARNER SUCKS) refused to add the service because the driver’s license they have on file doesn’t match what I was giving them. I assured them I had the correct number and could verify something else like the social security number or the credit card number. I verified with the representative and the supervisor that it was me, and that they previously had made half a dozen changes for me in the last 2 years without any incident. I even told them what was discussed in those previous conversations that was surely noted on their computer files. The supervisor said I would have to come down to the local cable office and show them my driver’s license. I asked why this time and not the previous changes made over the course of 2 years. Why do I have to suffer for their error. She said all the other representatives didn’t follow procedure. Right! The show starts in 3 hours and I just came home from work and didn’t feel like driving down to stand in line to show my license just so I could watch the fight. I decided to write a complaint letter at the BBB for denial of service. I also left a voicemail for her manager just to let them know I was dissatisfied and feel like I was being penalized for their data entry error. I also forwarded a copy of the complaint to their corporate office. Although it didn’t accomplish what I wanted which is to get showtime to watch the fight tonight, it did allow me vent about the retarded process they have. A customer wants to buy a service and they say no thanks. I guess this recession isn’t affecting them. I called a good friend and he will record it for me.

I finally got my mini laptop from Walmart after waiting for a month. Originally, the email they sent me said it would be 1-2 weeks. After the initial time lapsed, I received an apology email for the extra delay but they had no new estimated time of arrival. But after 3 1/2 weeks, it did finally arrive. The everex cloudbook is very cute. I think the screen is tiny at 7 inches but will be extremely convenient when I travel and bring it along with me. Using it for the internet surfing is the same as when I use it on windows. I can check my email and browse like normal. It has a webcam on it but I haven’t figured out what application works with it. The computer actually didn’t come with a user manual. So I will learn this operating system by using and messing up method.

My simulation stock account at UpDown.com is currently up $86,000. I have only been trading ETF’s that go against the market. Since I am under the opinion that we are in a recession, I am making trades that reflect that. What I have really learned to do better is to put in limit order trades that lock in pre-determined amounts I think would be reasonable profits to buy and sell. In the past, I would only do dollar cost averaging and never sell. This simulation forces me to be an active trader really reacting to the market movements on a short term basis. My performance this month has been very good. If I could do this with real money, I would be ecstatic.

By the way, my site is now catching hundreds of spam almost daily through askimet and I don’t have the time to moderate so I just turned off my comment feature.