I’m taking an unscheduled day off

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Sorry. I haven’t been sleeping, yesterday was brutal (just scheduling. Nothing BAD happened.) And I’ve sat here staring at the screen for two hours now, while my thoughts run in every direction like stray sheep.

So, treat this as an open thread: Europeans discovering America while coming for the world cup; the latest cray cray on the left (spoiled for choice); the IPO for space x.

I’m going to nap so I can write. Because staring at the screen is not productive.

70 thoughts on “I’m taking an unscheduled day off”

  1. Does that mean we should move the NOBUNAGA thread over here?

    I did, however, get a whopping FIVE PERCENT of my requested allocation of SpaceX stock today. I read that, depending on which broker you requested it through, you could have gotten the entire request. Ah, well, if it performs like Google has since it’s IPO (I’ve been using Google as a comparison for various reasons), I’ll still do fine in the long run.

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      1. BIL stated he had access to the SpaceX IPO through his broker. Stated he was buying some. Don’t know if he actually did.

        Doubt hubby did in any of the accounts we control directly (he actually does all the investment stuff, I just tell him how much I need extra, if any, for the end of the month). But we do have two amounts of money with *Fidelity (some of his account), and *Fisher (some of my account). Hubby has mentioned stocks that Fisher has purchased that hubby could/would not have (cost x minimum required to buy shares) because Fisher has lower minimum shares required (empirical evidence). It isn’t where the money is, because, unlike Fidelity the money Fisher manages is still at the same location as the rest of mine.

        (*) If anyone is interested. This is an experiment to see which is better long term. Either when hubby just doesn’t want to deal with investments anymore. Or can’t. I know I don’t want to do the research, etc. Son might want to, after all, eventually, it is all his. He is learning what dad does, and why. Current status. Research is the same. But the goals behind the research is different. Hubby targets stock that are good targets for covered calls, usually multiple covered calls until called away. Does not make a killing by selling at a high, but always makes money on the stock (sometimes a lot of money percentage wise, when stock gets a lot of repeat sold calls before getting actually called away). Plus any dividends produced by the stock when it doesn’t get called away. Neither Fidelity nor Fisher teams do any type of calls with client accounts. Overall results, one year in, Hubby VS Fidelity VS Fisher, the net (of fees) percentage increases are similar. Fisher was < 1% ahead. Given net of fees requirement means both Fidelity and Fisher percentage gross growth was higher than hubbies’ results (given hubbies fees are 0%). He tracks balances weekly, quarterly, and annually. Also, if anyone checks minimum account balances required to do this, we started before the minimum balances were raised, or we couldn’t have done this experiment.

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  2. We’ll dock your pay for this unscheduled day-off.

    What! We’re not paying you for these posts!!!

    Never mind. [Crazy Grin]

    Seriously, take care of yourself.

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  3. think of all the fun we can have snigger, snigger.

    In other news, my brokerage statement will now include Space Exploration Company (SPCX). I’ve waited my whole life for it, Exiles to Glory and all that.

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    1. I was thinking that it’d be nice to get in on that if I could afford it.

      And now that it’s too late, I’ve remembered that I have some small investments I could have sold and and an investment advisor that I could have told to try and git some o’ dat.

      *sigh*

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      1. not too late. It’s actually not even more expensive than the retail open which was $170 a share not the 135 the underwriters and other insiders paid.

        Sorry if I come across as a broken record but only bet what you can afford to lose. SPCX is very expensive by any valuation. You’re betting on a massive come that may never happen. I bought a small block that I won’t miss if it goes to zero. I’ve waited all my life to own a bit of Space Exploration Corporation and now I do, but very little

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        2. it can’t be a loss.. unless politics get involved. Star link guarantees that it will be positive cash flow forever. Unless maybe a really large CME takes out most of the satellites.

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    2. I decided to put up $5,000, which worked out to 37 shares at $135. They allocated 11. I now own a piece of the sky. 😁

      Trading opened at $150, reached $176 during the day before closing at $161.

      I will probably buy more, say, another 14 shares to make an even 25. All of this is in a Roth IRA, meaning it will not be taxed unless the government decides to alter the deal.

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  4. Elon Musk is officially the first trillionaire and already the Luigi crowd is calling for his murder. Because utopia is always just a few deaths away, I guess.

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      2. What Elon Musk has really done is give everybody else a chance to buy a piece of his success (or failure). They hate Musk? Fine. Don’t give him any money.

        “The public can cut my profits at any time by not buying my products.” — Henry Reardon

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  5. The Globe and Mail actually had a tweet saying that Elon would be the first trillionaire. “Here’s how to hate him.”

    They’ve changed the tweet, mumbling about the previous tweet not meeting their standards.

    Can we hope to see it changed again, on the lines of, “The people who sacked the previous people have been sacked?”

    My sympathy to the Phantom.

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  6. I deny having any inside knowledge that Starmer government resignations had anything to do with the bum wanting to know if he could send the paras to Belfast.

    I am not collecting electronic intelligence on his ‘secure’ communications, close confidants of his have not contacted me, and I do not have many officers with closely placed agents working to uncover his every secret.

    Let’s see, what else.

    I have not employed a private detective to investigate whether Mark Carney is betraying his oath to king and country on behalf of the CCP.

    I don’t have a fancy radio that tells me that Thierry Breton is a ninny.

    I do not have an advanced AI model indicating that Ursula Leyen is a technological ignoramus that is hostile to economic activity on the continent.

    I think that all of these things should be lawful to say in the UK, Canada, France, Germany, and the EU.

    I do not think that Mojita is the leader that the Iranians need or deserve.

    I think that as long as the PLA exists, mainland China will never stop wasting a significant amount of the population’s economic potential. This wasted potential is one of the many things that ensures that China will stay behind the United States.

    I do understand why these things are effectively illegal to say in Iran and in the PRC now. I am an American, and I am saying them now, in America.

    Also, legally requiring age registration for operating system users is folly. I dislike quite a number of Republican politicians here in the united states.

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      1. Yeah, does not sound wise to me.

        Though, I do figure that while the exploration space is pretty old, the for real applications are maybe recent enough that no really big bureaucracy would come up with any grand plan that is not foolish.

        Small UAVs, space, etc., feel like areas where a) I am maybe a little informed b) this does not mean that I am equipped to make good bets. I would be about as awful as a lot of people. c) There’s not a chance of a details filled in master plan now knowing enough that it could be rigidly applied in the near future for excellent results.

        Dunno.

        This is mostly a guess about how the ‘knowledge’ is ‘shaped’.

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  7. If I had any skills at making podcast like material I would be tempted to start a daily with me as a left wing hippy touring Europe, and maybe Africa, making Freddy the German like post about the astounding things I encounter on my travels. Use your imagination. I might have to get re-incarnated a few times depending upon how many Muslims I encounter on the way.

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  9. I’ve been asked to do OT Monday,. Depending on what the orders are supposed to be (planning is not) I have eithe 45 hours of work sceduled next week, OR 50 hours of just the one product and add the others for another couple of days worth of work

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  10. Do get well, Sarah; I had One Of Those Days yesterday and gave up and went to bed four hours earlier than usual.

    —

    On another note, Holly Mathnerd has a new substack on the student loan business, https://substack.com/home/post/p-201680762

    One can argue her solution – but the motivation seems spot on:

    The Conservative Case

    And here is the part nobody with a mortgage and a 401(k) wants to say out loud: if we would like capitalism to survive, then people under forty need a reasonable expectation that they can accrue capital.

    That is the entire deal. That is the thing that makes someone show up, produce, save, buy in, and defend the system that lets them do it.

    Take a generation and arrange things so that no matter how faithfully they pay, they own nothing and owe forever — and you have not made them socialists by accident.

    You have made them socialists on purpose, and then acted surprised.

    A person with no path to ownership has no reason to care whether the system of ownership lives or dies.

    Why the hell would they?

    The cap is not charity. It’s maintenance on the thing itself.

    I paid my loans – were not too bad from the 60s-70s; my daughter finally paid hers last year – she’s over 40, and took a coupe of the income-based deferments.

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    1. By the time I was 14 I knew about compound interest and amortization. I knew a $50,000 mortgage would cost over $100,000 by the time you paid it off. Of course, this was back in the days when you could actually buy a house with a $50,000 mortgage. Before Jimmeh Cahtah’s Department Of (Mal)Education. Try explaining amortization to today’s high school graduates, you’ll get a blank look and “What’s interest?”

      Not to mention, you can’t buy an outhouse for less than $100,000 these days.

      The only alternative to capitalism is slavery. Even if they don’t call it that.

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      1. One math problem I did with all our scouts as part of finance merit badge that got their attention is this one.

        Choose one of the below.

        • $1/day for the next 30 days

        OR

        • 1¢ first day, each subsequent day amount receives doubles, for 30 days (sum(1¢,2¢,4¢, etc. for each 30 days)).

        Results gets them to pay attention to the boring stuff.

        Then presented schedule for a car, mortgage, retail item (buy no interest for 6 months, what happens if not paid off in period) loans, and credit card interest and minimum payments. Unlike school, did not let them get away without understanding credit can be used, but know what you are getting into.

        Can’t answer for anyone else children, but our son took it all to heart. Like us, he uses credit. But only credit that can be paid off every month, and no interest charge. Do not use credit that require an annual fee (unless annual kickback pays back substantially more than benefit).

        (*) Heard of rumors cards like this exist. We don’t have any.

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        1. I imagined the following …

          Uncle Guido can I borrow a hundred bucks?

          Sure kid, but there’s conditions.

          Like what?

          Like ‘borrow’ means you gotta pay it back.

          And if you have my hundred, I cant spend it, can I? So, there’s a vig – you pay me back $110, to pay me for my inconvenience.

          It’s Friday, right? Another condition – you can’t have the hundred forever, I can’t be inconvenienced that long. So NEXT Friday, a week from today, you bring me my hundred and ten, right here, at noon.

          Um, Uncle Guido, suppose I can’t pay?

          Well, then, kiddo, someone’s gonna find you and maybe break something – and you STILL gotta pay. And the vig, it gets bigger – every day you’re late. Lucky you’re family …

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          1. “Um, Uncle Guido, suppose I can’t pay?”

            “Then you got a problem. If you pay me the $10, you can extend the loan for another week, and pay me $110 on the second Friday. If you can’t even do that, a few of the boys gonna pay you a little visit, knock you around a bit — and you still owe me the $110, plus penalties. On the other hand, if you pay me $20 next Friday, that cuts the loan down to $90. Capisce?”

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            1. … but remember, this is the family rate. It’s inconvenient for me to explain to your momma how you might not be as good a kid as she thinks, and inconvenience costs.

              It’s Just Business, y’know?

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    2. We, too, paid off our college loans, from ’70s. My total rounded out at 10k, 10 year pay off at $30/month, 6% fixed. Hubby’s was ???, $19/quarter, ??? years pay off, at ?% interest. His finished paying off in ’85, mine ’89. We did not fall into the refinancing for reduced owed trap. In the ’80s? Either they were stupid, or thought we were (interest rates were 12+%).

      When son was in school, every single time we looked at loans we went, “Nope. Not an idiot. We will figure it out.” Loans he (we) qualified for were 6%, adjustable. We’re extremely allergic to adjustable percentage loans. We figured it out. (Advantage: Only one child to get through college. And yes, other options might have been better.)

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      1. Let’s put it this, for parents of medschool students, we were the poorest by an order of magnitude.
        Ah well, I still am working and will continue to work. Maybe something will go huge and I can pay off his debt.
        We did half for each kid. We had saved. But no one can stand current prices.

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        2. I know.

          Our son was slightly ahead of your two. Same state school we both went to. It was 10x for just tuition and fees, not counting dorm and books. State tuition and fees 15 years after I first graduated, was 3.5 times my first year all inclusive (dorm, books, etc.) My second round room & board didn’t count; we were paying that regardless.

          Note, it has been 14 years since our son finished. It isn’t getting better.

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      2. Through a combination of things, I had sufficient to go through my BS degree without student loans. U of Redacted had tuition waivers (granted by counties and various politicians), plus a small scholarship that paid my book bill. The rough part was early in my Freshman year, when Dad had his last heart attack. The Social Security survivor benefit took care of fees and food/lodging (dorm at first, then rent-a-room, then 1/4 of an apartment). I could have gone a year into an MS under that program, but decided to wait a while (some dozen years). All the undergrad stuff was 1970-74, when tuition ran about $500 a semester, dorm costs about the same. Walking around money was about $10 a week. Mom gave me an allowance for that, and summer jobs took care of clothing plus luxuries. (Counting a good stereo and a clapped out MGB in that category.)

        My MS was paid for by my employer, though Hewlett-Packard would only pay after the fact, so I had to front the tuition, books and whatever fees there were. After a good report card, I’d get reimbursed. Tuition ran about $1100 a quarter, with books highly variable. Unlike undergrad, used books were not available.

        I was lucky, for values.

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        1. Slightly later through college first round, ’74 – ’79. First year parents paid room and board (40 miles is a bit far to walk or bike, no car); total $1900. After that summer work (including some local small wildfires, +$2500 delay interest yearly loans, +book shortfall spring term from parents). Spending money? Whatever fell through the couch. Meals were raiding the parents’ freezer. Kidding, last two also included part-time job during school year (lucked out there, worked for the school forest).

          Employer paid tuition, fees, and books, for the CS degree. Also, retroactively paid. Or at least did until they moved the office to Portland for the AS400 rollout. Moving was not an option. We footed the rest, another 6 terms to finish, including summer school. Also, worked halftime.

          Community college between above, we paid for. I hadn’t intended to get another 4 year degree. Already had one, darn it. That and I didn’t want to commute to Portland from where we lived (120-ish miles, and 6 hour round trip commute, if I was lucky). The employer who was paying wanted the initials. They offered. Why not? One class a term, at lunch. By then we were in Eugene. Walked from downtown to UofO campus. Lunch was either in class or picked up on the way back from class. Once back in full-time, it was LTD park and ride (parking on campus is a PIA guarantied parking ticket). If I remember correctly, full-time tuition and fees at the UofO, then was about $1800/term; about $800/term for one class. Stuck out, because a little over 10 years after freshman year, one full-time term just tuition and fees = ’74 – ’75 year’s cost, for everything.

          Your experience matches mine.

          Difference is, we then helped pay for son’s 18 years later. He was born 7 days after my last final … His college went from about $20k/year to just under $30k/year ’07 – ’12.

          By the time I finished in ’89, you couldn’t get me to step into a classroom voluntarily. Seminars, a week. Okay. Classroom? Not a chance. I was polite, but firm.

          Dislocated worker program (timber company shutdown). “Program will pay for schooling.” Response. “Really? I already have three degrees ….” (Okay, 2 1/2.) Continuing education to bring skills to current market, that they paid for. One seminar got me my next job. The co-workers I felt bad for, later, were the ones who also had forestry bachelors, who took the chip manufacturing training. That job lasted 5-years (length of the tax deferment) and they were out of jobs, again.

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    3. One wonders if the crystal ball was showing WWIII (world war one hundred eleven) to the jokers who set it up so everyone got student loans for every single degree program, so as to give them an easy hook to lure that generation into military service and thus forgive that debt.

      Perhaps their crystal orb or CIA Remote Viewers or whatever were tuned into the Rooskie channel, as Moscow does in fact seem to be facing civilization-ending trench warfare demographic doom.

      But Holly Mathnerd is not wrong – we need a clever way to do something on that front sooner rather than later, or Gen Student Loan will inflate their way out of the extra debt from paying it all off when they get majorities in Congress.

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    4. The cost keeps going up and up and UP for degrees that are worth less and less. Even the ones that should be worth something. Engineering degrees are getting watered down to pablum. And then you look for a job, and all they’re hiring are H1Bs.

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        1. I’m sure those of us who have a degree or two had hoped to capture that value for ourselves.

          No one has yet asked me, but I think I would advise against academic post-secondary schooling for maybe the next decade. ROI looks quite poor, even if one can avoid predatory loans.

          Vocational post-secondary ed, I think, needs case-by-case assessment. I have never dealt with apprentice/journeyman training.

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    5. I grew up in a single parent home with almost no money, my brother, sister and me each put our selves through school. Military service, or scholarships or both, we also qualified for grants. So we did not have loans. We are in general as a family culture allergic to loans and debt so our alternatives saved us a huge debt problem. In general I believe people should pay what they borrow. However with many of the student loans congress rewrote the rules and made it more expensive to pay and back dated it to older loans. I am death on breach of contract and that is exactly breach of contract to rewrite it without the consent of the other party. I have a friend, not exactly a wise man when it comes to money that has significant student debt. He was paying it up till congress did that change and then all he could afford to pay was the interest. There is an entire saga of he doesn’t even know what he owes anymore and no one can tell him to add to that story as the debt collection has been passed around through multiple outsourced entities.

      Based on that I have come to believe that the solution is to go back to as far as there are still loans outstanding and say you only owe for the principle and all interest is forgiven. If the principle and interest you have already paid covers the initial principle then your debt is paid. If you have paid interest over and above the initial interest it will be refunded to you. If you are someone that has already paid your loan off within this time period any interest over and above your initial loan you paid will be refunded to you. This treats those in trouble with their debt and those that paid theirs off fairly in both instances. Next the government gets out of student loans and doesn’t guarantee them either.

      I’m uncertain about grants. I was a recipient of grants and appreciated them but it still grates as that money was stolen from someone else and given to me.

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      1. The first step is require all lawyers to take statistics.

        Once “disparate impact” is laughed out of court, companies can go back to testing, and colleges lose their gatekeeper role.

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  11. I wish I’d taken the day off.

    I’ve just started reaching the point where cycling to work might start giving me GAINNZZ and suddenly within the last couple days (warning, probably TMI) it’s become a literal bloody pain in the ass.

    Everything at work is suddenly way more difficult than it should be.

    The condition of my living space is suddenly more than I can tolerate.

    All of those “suddenly”s suggest that none of the above are the actual problem, but I have no idea what the actual problem would be.

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    1. Actual problems tend to have more tentacles than Cthulu and more thorns than a late ’90s goth/metal band concert in July. Sometimes a simple fix is possible. But I wouldn’t count on it, not yet.

      Going to the local rectum spectrum rectifier might be worth penciling in on the calendar. Or, maybe it’s just beer o’clock. I’m with ya on the pains in the everything. I ain’t thirty anymore. Nor forty. Still lifting fifty pounds on the regular for teeny little women that somehow managed to get the job despite the “regularly able to lift 45lbs by self” requirement clear in the induct docs. Shoulder still clicks, back still hates me like it’s got a complaint log that hasn’t been addressed yet.

      Maybe a change is in order. A change is as good as a rest, so the optimists say. Maybe a change is switching to a different muscle group before you wear in a plateau on the original equipment. Who knows.

      Luck to ye regardless. This getting old crap ain’t for sissies.

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      1. I’ll give a big Amen to that last sentence. Just got the siding up on the gable end of the pumphouse. Every piece at the gable needed two trips up the ladder, with half needing a very awkward turn-around to reach the wall. (Stairs were in the way.)

        My knee was good for about half if yesterday’s festivities, with the other half needing determination and spite. (Damned woodpeckers….) There’s a bit more gardening to do today (work with $SPOUSE to plant zucchini seedlings, mow a very overgrown patch of grass, and if my body cooperates, retrieve the “big” tractor from the barn and put it into its shelter. The last time I got off that tractor yesterday, it was doubtful any further attempts would avoid serious injury. Whee.)

        We contracted out the hardest-to fix shed (more woodpeckers, plus a nest started in the wall. Sigh), but the budget said the two others (lower, smaller) were DIY. We’ll see how far I get. Those walls should be easy. Bows to Murphy.

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    2. I have found that, with age, I am less able to “power through” things and brush them off, whenever I get even slightly ill. (Which I am now – only slightly, not “take to the bed and decide late whether to ever get up again”.)

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      1. Not Medical Advice, just anecdotalisms from Some Dude On The Internet, but supplementing creatine has done wonders for me piercing foggy days, and if I come up short of sleep on occasion, bumping up 5mg in the AM means I don’t even notice those extra hours last night spent staring at the frelling code that won’t do what I and the code clanker say its supposed to do.

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      3. 100%

        Being ill is “OMG, do I want to live?” Territory. Seriously.

        Used to be I could overdo my physical stamina, power through without complaining, and complete whatever the tasks were. Now? Nope. I reach a point, and I’d better quit whatever no matter how uncompleted it is, pick it back up another day. Not too often, with more than one day to recoup. I suspect it isn’t just age or being out of shape. Part of how the bad valve is affecting me.

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      4. Me! Me!

        sigh powering through comes with multiple days in bed of afterward consequences that then leave me weaker over all.

        Not being able to meet the older standard of fitness and capability is a grievous blow to self worth and a needle in the side to aggravate my grumpy tendencies. It also makes me want to rip the head off (figuratively just to to qualify my statement) anyone that makes comments that imply i am being lazy or slacking off when I’m not able to meet those old standards. 60 with heart issues, and immune system food based inflammation in every joint in the body issues, an injured back and knees is not what I thought about when I thought of 60 in earlier years. My assumptions back then was that I would have another good 10 or 20 years of older slower good health. Now I am happy for every new year I make it.

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  13. Remember, when shopping for thought dogs to deal with sheepish thoughts, guarding your thoughts requires a completely different breed than rounding up and herding your thoughts.

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    1. Talk about useless knowledge (I didn’t catch the reference. Know there is one, just don’t know it).

      It caught me because we had a big delivery of Dept of Agriculture fruit a few years ago labeled, “Dried, pitted plums,” and I held forth with, “‘Dried, pitted plums my foot, those are prunes.” Then hoped our clients up front hadn’t heard me…

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      1. I was curious, so I googled it. That’s from Animal Crackers, and it was uttered by the inimitable Groucho.

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    2. Talk about useless knowledge (I didn’t catch the reference. Know there is one, just don’t know it).

      It caught me because we had a big delivery of Dept of Agriculture fruit a few years ago labeled, “Dried, pitted plums,” and I held forth with, “‘Dried, pitted plums my foot, those are prunes.” Then hoped our clients up front hadn’t heard me…

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