Some old Crap - New Zealand Trip

Ok, Some old crap, sort of fun, will be added in no particular order, just where and when I find it hiding in my various puters.

02/04/11 - Trip to New Zealand

Well, I guess that's what happens when you don't post for awhile. Your data is destroyed. “in a sand storm that lasted a whole year, wiped clean by the wrath of god” (which movie, kids???) so any way, new site, probably the same old sounds, but new updated smells ! Aren't you excited.

On a trip. Why is it that the only time I get for this is when I am sitting in the airport, waiting for a flight. And my divine interventions, those great thoughts, come when I am on a plane. Is it the stressed out wackiness of getting there on time and through security (more about the polite groping in a minute, thank you Mr security guard, we should exchange numbers and talk it up a bit.) Is it the (usually) week of sleep deprivation leading up to the flight? Usually a business trip, usually for something way too kinetic, and usually when I am behind on my numbers for the month, but oh yeah, I am always behind. Go figure ;) Or is it the glorious combination of caffeine, h2o and half a borrowed Xanax? Mmm humming along.

Hey (hey) ho (ho) hey (hey) ho (ho) hey (hey) ho (ho) awwwwww one more time.

- - Ray Charles, What I'd say

So where were we? Ah yes, my lack of structured non-work activities, and my lack of discipline, my spastic inner demons that only want to talk when my guard is down, the rest of the time they laugh behind my back. So here we are.

Strangely enough, I am very comfortable with it all. Maybe they can come out and play a little Sunday mornings. Now that I am not amped up or hung over, and I enjoy waking up for a little quite time.

More to come.

02/06/11 09:06:26 AM, but really, it's Monday, 3: 45 am, but I don't care how bad I need it, I am NOT paying $20 a day for Internet access. Holy crap! See that's the problem with staying a 4 and 5 star places. They actually expect you to have big money to just throw away. Then they look at you with THAT LOOK when you complain. Same with the mini-bar. Ugg. The problem is that there really are stupid people with a lot of money that will pay $5 dollars for a coke, or $100 for a week of Internet, and not even see it on the bill. And yeah its NZ$, but shit the exchange rate is still 85/100, so whatever, I still am not paying it. Call me cheap. I call it being value oriented.

Hedkandi – a Taste of Kandi Summer 2009.

I just got done with “The Big Short” by Michael Lewis. This is the guy who brought us “Liar's Poker” and strangely enough, “The Blind Side.” The Big Short is about the Housing / Debt Bubble, how the guys on the inside were making so much fucking money, and Wall Street basically ripped off America for about 14 trillion dollars. Basically, in the last 30 years, if a company sold you a house, or made you a loan, or you bought a mutual fund, or you used a credit card, then you had a hand in it. We are all guilty. Yes me. Yes you. Absolutely THEM. We were too fucking stupid to be able to understand how they were screwing us. Hell, most of us let it happen with a smile on our faces because we thought we were getting such a great deal. Never thinking about where the money was coming from, where it was going, and just how they could offer such cheap money for so long to people who obviously couldn't' afford it. And Wall Street when they couldn't make money the old fashioned way, just made some shit up and say “hey, this is great stuff, you should buy some, trust us” and we did. The shit that they were throwing at us was so confusing, and sooo complicated on purpose, so that we wouldn't t understand it, throw up our hands and say “whatever, I trust you.” But then a funny thing happened. It finally got so confusing that the big boys up at the top stopped understanding what the guys in the middle were creating, or the deals that they were putting together, and stopped driving the boat, and really didn't care because the money was still coming in. And the guys in the middle were worried about one thing. Whats my bonus going to be this year? Fuck the right and wrong of it, fuck if it's legal or not. Is my bonus going to be bigger than it was last year, and is it going to be bigger than that asshole in the next department? And finally, the stupid poor people couldn't' pay the house note, and then the stupid clients couldn't buy any more made up smoke and mirrors, bullshit investments that were so risky, and the last stupid middle class wanting to be upper class filled up the last credit card, and all it once, fate said “pay up Johnny!” Viola. 30 years of assets, companies and investor value gone in about 18 months.

Really, this is a great read, even for folks without a finance degree.

But once you read his stuff, you are really forever changed. It takes a while, or maybe I am just slow, but it finally hit me today: the game is still rigged. The robber barons are still out there, they just wear khakis and a golf shirt now. Can an honest man still make money in the stock market? I think that the answer is yes. Not the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars that the shits on the inside are STILL making. I think that I didn't sell my soul early enough to get on that train. But how fast could I get up and then out? The sell side is for suckers. And that is exactly where I am. But you know at the end of the day, I love the rush. Plain and simple, I love the juice that getting a big client brings. I love making money for my folks, even if it is measured in the thousands, not millions. So the obvious question becomes: how do I start adding 0's to the machine? How do I get out of the game, or at least accumulate a personal stake that I don't need the game to make a living, but I can just play the game for the sake of playing the game? You know, at the end of the day, I am still a value investor at heart, and still positively motivated. That being said, is there a way that I could train myself to become a growth investor, or, (gasp!) a short seller? I don't know. But I can try.

OK, still on north America time, that bullshit about melatonin is a load of crap. It's 6 am. And now I'm sleepy. I'm going to get in a power nap before Tracy wakes up. Cheers.


02/07/11 9:25 pm

“One” Hooverphonic – Sit Down and Listen to Hooverphonic

Wow. Today was just the first day, half of it wasted on Jones crap, had to get the business part of the trip out of the way, and the ol' EJ Meet n Greet out of the way, but still it was amazing. New Zealand is wacked, yo! Its almost 10 pm, and the sun set behind the mountains 45 minutes ago, but it's still light. Amazing accommodations, amazing scenery, and what can I say, I am hooked, New Zealand is all that everyone said it would be. We are staying at Millbrook, 4.5 stars, 1 of the top 10 restaurants in the country, the best spa in the country, and hey, Bill Clinton got to play one round of golf when he came here in 1999, and where did he play? You guessed it, Millbrook. So all in all high cotton for the kid of a pipe fitter. I must say it feels like we got he best cottage on the grounds. At the end of a set, and overlooking the golf course, mountains surrounding us on 3 sides.

The grounds were originally a farm, and the resort was fashioned around a lot of the original buildings. They still have a working orchard, and the restaurant is a recreation of the mill that milled grain for the surrounding area in the mid 1800's up until the 1940's. The people are so nice, it feels like Texas, but with mountains like Colorado all around. We've got a lot of choices of stuff to do. We are staying just outside of Arrowtown, and Queenstown. Yes, the Adventure capital of the world, that Queenstown. The “ we started bungy jumping and jet boating” Queenstown.

We took a quick drive tour around the area with the Jones group after lunch today, just to get our bearings. Arrowtown used to be a gold mining town, and is small but post card quaint. Queenstown is much more urban, feels kind of like Boulder, not near as big, maybe 20,000 residents, another 5,000 or so tourists during the summer and 2-3,000 during ski season. A lot of College-age kids, lots o' hipsters, and backpackers aplenty. They call em “trampers” here, actually I like that better, a little more descriptive.

We've got a day hike planned, as well at several out and about hikes around the area. We also went by the bungy jumping bridge and checked it out. A little expensive, but hey, when's the next time I am going to be in New Zealand?? So that's on the book for Wednesday or Thursday.

At Long Last

Well, I guess that's what happens when you don't post for awhile. Your data is destroyed. They decide to delete it, or it gets lost “in a sand storm that lasted a whole year, wiped clean by the wrath of God” (which movie, kids???) So any way, new site, probably the same old sounds, but new updated smells! Aren't you excited?!

Funny, what a difference a year will make. I set this up and started adding to it right at the end of my...what do I call it? Crash and burn? Kamikaze dive? Fear and Loathing in Houston? Zachary's 'Bad Stretch"? Whatever. of course, in my alcoholic fog, I would rant a bit, and then... it got lost. i know I spent many a night typing and drinking, but where did it go? Not sure. Probably better that it didn't make it out into the wild. Maybe it wasn't time for me to have it written down. maybe it wasn't time for you to see it. Maybe the universe just wasn't ready to let Zachary have a voice.

So, a fresh start. I will probably post some of the ones that I had saved off line, and add some fresh posts going forward.