i’m in a very reflective mood, probably because the year is almost over, or maybe its because i don’t have a TV

2013, you sick son of a bitch.

i learned that its hard to go 72 hours without checking worldstarhiphop. hwoever, the flipside to that, if you’re busy for an entire weekend. say you went somewhere for the weekend, and you were unable to check WSHH. then its fucking fun just to open your laptop and catch up on 3 days of WSHH.

my mom and dad went to the deyoung museum on saturday, so i went with. i wasn’t complaining or trying to be negative, but i couldn’t resist entirely. they were showing a collection of art from david hockney. for every piece of art we saw, i could only think of 2 things. either 1)  i could do that or 2) ok wow, i can’t do that

 i couldn’t help it, i honestly think i could do some of the stuff that he did. like, if i dedicated 3 months of my life to only focus on trying to do one of his easier looking paintings, no sweat

my mom and i would look at a painting and i would tell her that i think i could do it. and my always-encouraging mom would say “no you can’t”. then i tell her that i really think i can, it’s not thaaat hard. then she says “no you can’t, look at the detail blah blah blah...”.  ok fine. then it's onto the next painting...

--

enough with the bull shit.
- ELF is not the best christmas movie.
- Home Alone2 is a lot better then Home Alone, and i don't think its that close
- if i had to rank christmas movies, based on how excited i would be to watch them righttttt now it would be

1. Home Alone 2
2. Jingle all the Way
3. The Santa Claus
4. Home alone
5. elf

-i'm such a bad christmas shopper, it's ridiculous. i can never decide what someone will like and i always wait til the last minute. i try to shop online, but i just can't do it. i can't imagine what the product actuallyyyy looks and feels like. i swear, i'm like a 60year old man, i have to go to the physical store and then decide if i want to buy it or not

-and i realized that if i'm talking to a salesman and he or she tells me its "reversible". then game over, i'll buy it. i'm so damn practical its gross. the last 2 xmas gifts for my mom have been reversible. wait, its a black jacket, but it also turns into a purple jacket??? in my head, i'm thinking, wait, so i get 2 items for the price of 1. umm, yes please

i was walking downtown after work the other day, and as i was about to cross the street, i see 4 really tall guys. then i realize,

shit it's anthony davis. and al-farouq amini, darius miller, and eric gordon

so instantly, i post up at the street corner where they are about to walk toward. in my head, i'm thinking i'll take a couple pictures just for the hell of it, and then i'll let them go, i won't go crazy stalker kid on them, it's almost 2014, i'm not a kid anymore..

i get my camera ready, and when they walk by i snap about 4-5 pictures. i look at the pictures that i took, and they were OK. i just stand there and watch them walk away. i know i should just continue on with my business. i stand there for another 10 seconds. then i think. hmmmFUCKIT, i'm going to follow them. i catch up to them and follow them for a good 9 minutes (until they walk into their hotel). i might have walked past them to get in front of them and snap a new round of 4-5 pictures. i might have

i really miss baseball. this happens every year around this time. i get tired of basketball and football. i just want to watch one baseball game. even if it's the blue jays vs. the Rockies, i don't care



football is cool and all, but i'm not as into it as last year or the year before. watching PBS's documentary League of Denial and videos like that one ^ have sort of killed it for me. (League of Denial is free on pbs.com, and it's really good). football is really exciting, but i just feel bad for these players. they're uneducated. i mean, by far (extremely far), NFL players must have the lowest IQ of the 4 biggest sports (same goes with the fans' IQ right? a "die-hard NFL fan" is not smarter than a "die-hard baseball fan" or a "die-hard basketball fan" ON AVERAGE). they're contracts are not guaranteed, and they have an average career of like 2-3 years. plus, everything we know about concussions and whatnot. it sounds horrible. with these players, if you get hurt, it's just on to the next player

i mean, if my friend's dad was in the NFL and had a 9-year career, the 12-year old me would think that was the coolest thing in the world. but the 23-year old me wouldn't think it's thaaat cool, and would just be concerned for him.
-----

which reminds me of the first time i won a championship in fantasy basketball, it was me and kyle lee in the finals, and i took it down

 i've been in a very reflective mood recently
at the start of the year, i had 4 watches. 2 nixon watches (one black and one brown), a nicer Raymond Weil watch, and a cheaper boccia watch. earlier in the year, i misplaced my black nixon watch. i thought it would someday turn up, but it never did.  the cheaper one's battery died about 3 months ago and i haven't got the battery replaced. and in late september i misplaced the brown nixon watch. i thought that i would find it when i moved out of my last apartment, nope

so i'm down to this last one. and unfortunately, i think its inevitable that i lose it. i'm going to do everything i can to avoid it, but i just don't think i can keep dodging the bullets. i'm already trying to prepare myself. it's going to happen, so why act surprised when it does. it's ok, it's been real. i hope that whoever finds it, enjoys it. and i'll move on

little fun fact: in the past 4 years, i've received TWO Watch Cases/Holders as gifts. where are the TWO watch cases/holders now?  no idea

luv sharktank

i might have a good idea.
i use my iphone as my alarm clock, and have 5 different alarms set because i'm scared that i'll sleep through one or a couple of them and oversleep. so, wouldn't it be cool if there was an option, when your alarm goes off, instead of turning off the alarm with a "swipe", you need to solve a mini puzzle.

so let's say, your alarm goes off at 6am. and instead of just "swiping" the alarm off. this appears on your screen:

"NAME 5 different fast-food locations"

and then you'd have to type in 5 fast-food locations in order for the alarm to finally turn off. this way, you can't just subconsciously swipe your alarm off. this way, you'll be wide awake because you'll have to think in order to turn off your alarm
..........
hi sharks, my name is grant and i created blah blah blah, and i'm seeking $250,000 for 15% stake in my company...who wants to join me as we put an end...

i woke up with a small cold this morning, and when i was sat down on the bus i checked my backpack for a kleenex, but didn't have one. then a girl sits next to me, and the first thing she does is take out a ziploc bag of kleenex to blow her nose. am i supposed to ask her for one, make small talk, exchange numbers, fall in love, and live happily ever after?

or am i supposed to mind my own business, ignore her, sniffle the entire bus ride, then walk to my office's bathroom to finally blow my nose?

hmm? which one? ignore her and blow my nose when i get to work? ok, i thought so

change

if i make it sound too dramatic, i apologize, it wasn't that dramatic, no one's life was in danger
if i make it seem like a joke, i apologize, because its a shitty situation with lots of losers, and no winners

i can't believe it's been almost a month already

november 6th, its 3am, i'm sleeping. and i kind of wake up, because i hear what sounds like rain outside. i'm half asleep, but it sounds like it's raining pretty hard. i remember thinking 'i didn't know it was supposed to rain' today, oh well. then i hear our door bell ring 5 times. i'm thinking its some drunk person outside acting like a drunk person. i ignore it, then 20 seconds later, 5 more door bell rings. i ignore it, and then like 20 seconds later, 5 more door bell rings. i finally roll out of bed and look out my window and see red, and then i smell the smoke. my blinds were closed, so i run up to my window and see the fire. it's burning the building right next to our apartment. holyshit

the youth basketball team that i coach had their first game last wednesday. our team is really young compared to the other teams, so we really can't expect to be very competitive. we played this really good team, who had a really good left-handed point guard. he was super quick, big, and skilled
but anyway, i think we were down by 20something points in the 2nd half before the other coach finallyyyy told james harden not to shoot anymore.

it was funny though. we lost the game by 25 points or so. and riiiiight after the game, little 9year old gerald comes up to me and asks  "Did we win?"

um, no. we got smashed by 25 points.
 no. you guys let james-harden-over-there drive to the basket anytime he wanted
 no. you guys didn't box out or secure a rebound to save your lives.
 no. the other team won aaaand they covered the 20-point spread.
 no. what the fuck game were you watching?

I actually just laughed and said 'no, i think we lost. did you think we won?'
and he just shrugged his shoulders and said i don't knoww

i hate the rain. i feel like when people say they like the rain, they are just trying to be different. no one likes the rain.

. i may have even blogged about this already. but...a good umbrella is priceless

when i first moved to SF, i would always buy a cheap umbrella at Walgreens for like $10. i would use it 3-4 times before it would eventually break. they're horrible, very weak, too small, doesn't block enough of the rain. your whole lower body is wet after 5 minutes of walking in medium level rain. (and i haaate those small umbrellas that contract and fit into your backpack)

i finally upgraded about a year a half ago, and now, the rain is OKAY with me. i have a big black golf umbrella, superr sturdy, blocks more than enough of the rain. and even has a carbon fiber handle. sucka

its just funny now when i walk past people near my work. when it's raining, you have those people with big solid umbrellas, and they just look happy as can be
then you have those people with the shitty walgreens umbrellas who are upset because they aren't staying dry, i give them my best 'that-must-suck' look
then you have the people who are just walking as fast as they can because they 100% forgot their umbrella, and they just hate everything in life. or sometimes they try and pull their jacket above their head.
i swear, one time i thought about how nice it would be if i gave my umbrella to someone who looked miserable, but then i remembered that i haaaate rain. now i feel bad, i should give mine away

why isn't there a one hour show called Make-A-Wish on ABC. It should be on Friday nights before Shark Tank. its basically a show about make-a-wish stories (maybe 3or4 per show) like BATKID. people loveddddddd sfbatkid. so yeah, one hour show, that shows 3-4 different make-a-wish stories. i'd watch it

til 6th grade

just needed to store this one away lol. i was talking to guy on gchat on friday. and this happened.

guy@gmail.com: did you listen to the lance armstrong bs report?

guy@gmail.com: interesting right?

gmiz: i haven't listened to it yet

guy@gmail.com: do you even like bill simmons?

gmiz: no good excuse either

gmiz: lol

guy@gmail.com: you know he's like the single most important thing to happen to sports in this decade

gmiz: i know

guy@gmail.com: like

gmiz: he really is

guy@gmail.com: he took casual fans like us

guy@gmail.com: and made us super fans

guy@gmail.com: i wouldn't like basketball as much without him

guy@gmail.com: it just wouldnt be as important to me

guy@gmail.com: its bad to say

gmiz: for sure

gmiz: i'm 10% interested about wrestling now

gmiz: cmpunk? i'm curious

i'm a hype buyer. that's what i do, i buy hype

and the hype surrounding wiggins, jabari, and julius randle is ridiculous. i'm usually not a big college basketball fan, but this year, i'm IN. i know a few things for certain

1. i'm going to reach and draft one, two, or all of these bastards in a fantasy draft next year. i dunnn care

2. i know nothing about them besides youtube videos and part of 1 game each. but if i had to start a franchise...i'm going with jabari, wiggins, then julius randle

3. hypothetical i know. but if i could trade harrison barnes for any one of them. done...

if i could trade harrison aaand klay for any one of them. done...

would i trade steph for any one of them. i really don't know...but if you put a gun to my head...i'd rather have steph, i guess.

4. i CANNOT even imagine what it must be like if i were a student at Duke, Michigan State, or Kansas this year. i mean, UCSB had orlando johnson (2nd round pick last year), and when i saw him walking around i would stare about 10 seconds too long. i saw OJ around campus (if i had to guess) about 10 or so times. and it was never like 'Oh, there's orlando johnson.' it was 'ohhh shit, that's orlando johnson, let's follow him for a second just to see...'

5. dude. if i was a student at duke and saw jabari parker, i would 100% follow him. like, walk right behind him. maybe take a few pictures. instagram that shit with the hefe. #ohshit #beast #2013 #lovelife

orlando johnson, the pride of UCSB

i was curious so i googled his name, hit "news" and this is the first result. awesome

woke up to a fire in the apartment yesterday (our apt is the white building on the right in the top picture). it started in the building next to our apartment (the bottom picture, which is completely gone). such a weird, long, almost unbelievable day. everyone one was ok, and my stuff only has smoke and water damage. one of my roommates lost almost everything. i'll finish this tmro. at least no one got hurt 

interesting companies that i like to follow:

GOOG- i love all google products including the chromebooks, tablets, chromecast aaaand youtube, just disgusting. they aren't going anywhere. GOOG is up $300, or 44% year-to date. ridiculous

NFLX- netflix is amazing. investor carl icahn bought shares back in 2012 and recently sold most of his position and made over 800 million dollars. low of $50ish to currently over $340. nflx is awesome. i saw that they just added FLIGHT, Olympus has Fallen, and a new Russell Peters comedy special...too good

ZNGA- if online poker comes back to the US, watch out for znga. online poker in new jersey starts this month. i think

FB- facebook will always be interesting to watch. 52-week range of $18-$54. yummy

BAC- bank of america, my baby

AAPL-  google > apple. if i cared about technology and phones, i'd leave the iphone

V- visa just goes up, and up, and up, and up. which i guess makes sense. young people don't use cash and never will

YELP- i use yelp, but i don't like yelp

TWTR-  twitter starts trading on thursday. STS, sell that shit. who knows? i don't know

MCD- mcdonald's is the best right? and now they have the cafe stuff which is basically starbucks, they have smoothies which is basically jamba juice, now they have buffalo wings. 

SFXE- SFX entertainment which is a company that produces live electronic music events. serious STS. it's a bubble

KORS- michael kors..something that bothered me a smidge. they make very nice women's watches. and let's be real, of all the girls that you know, ages 15-25, how many of them own a michael kors watch. 40-50%?? or, of all girls 15-25 who own a watch, what % of those have a KORS watch? like 75%??

those were so damn popular (they're nice, i'm not hating). i don't know, there's other stuff to it. but still. KORS is up $28 or 55% in 2013. 

a simple plan. every 7 months or so i watch A SIMPLE PLAN. with billy bob thornton and bill paxton

basically its about 3 guys who go hunting in the woods and come across a crashed plane with a dead body and a couple million dollars inside. they decide to keep it, and it spirals from there. some people die, and it turns out to that it was traced drug money. they learn that 1 in 10 of the bills was marked by the FBI. so the lone survivor decides to burn all the money



1. i love thinking about hypothetical situations
2. if i'm ever in the woods and find a couple million dollars. i'm keeeeeeeping all of it with a capital K.
3. if i needed to start a cover business to launder money, its either going to be a shoe repair store, a bookstore, or a sushi place.
4. let's say the millions of dollars is hidden in your house and the FBI says that 1 of every 10 bills is marked and its only a matter of time before they start to surface. do not burn the money, don't overreact like bill paxton. the thought of trying to get rid of the money sounds like fun. just live your normal day to day life, and make it a goal to spend 2 or 3 of the hundred dollar bills per week.  maybe one day go to chinatown and buy $40 worth of crap, boom. one day you go to the casino and dust off $300 (using 1 of the dirty bills and 2 clean bills from the bank). just casually spend a couple hundred each week= FUN

i would never keep it

its interesting. i feel like you go through stages of your life where decisions are very insignificant and then you go through stages of your life where the decisions you make are extremely imperative. like, the decisions you make will impact the rest of your life, and beyond. like, i feel like at some point, you start to look and realize that your daily decisions and routines are suddenly fucking important. i feel like sometimes in life you can go YOLO style and say fuck it, gamble, and hope for the best. but there are sometimes where you need to be extremely cautious, take lots of time to think about it, and then take more time, and then make a decision.

i would like to see a visual, a graph of the decisions that you make and how significant they are to your life. like when you're ages 6-10, the decisions that you make have a low impact . ages 16-18 they get a smidge more imporant. i mean, it's hard to fuck up when you're 16-18 (i mean its possible, but even if you do fuck up, you're still young and have lots of "time" to recover. and finally in your early to mid 20s you start to make decisions that are huuuuuge. the people you hang out with, the career choices, your exercise and diet routine, the youtube videos you watch, whether or not to start THE WIRE.

i mean, at some point the decisions you make go back to being less significant right? i'm seriously asking, i'm not sure. decisions when you're a child don't matter that much, then in the prime of your life they get big, then at some point they get insignificant again right? i don't know. this is a jumbled piece of shit, but when i was walking home today after getting off the bus, this popped up

quarter life anyone?

side remember note: ru $100. 25. oct. 

30for30s

the most recent 30for30, BIG SHOT, was one of the top 5 i've seen yet. such a crazy interesting story

but it got me thinking, i can't wait to watch the sports stories of today turn into great sports documentaries. off the top of my head, i can think of 3 super interesting (maybe just interesting to me) future 30for30s.

1. Linsanity. there's already documentaries about that 2 month stretch of Linsanity but still. I still specifically remember where i was during those first 4 or 5 games. i remember i was eating Korean BBQ with my old roommates when he killed the lakers on that friday night at madison square garden. i was staring at my phone in disbelief. i remember i was driving when he hit that game winner against toronto, and i remember reading a text saying "tell me you just saw that..."   and i specifically remember going out drinking with poco on a saturday night. waking up at like 8am from a text (long story short) that basically told me to bet a decent amount on Dallas to beat the knicks...i remember watching the game hungover and watching linsanity hit those huge 3s to ice the game...oh man...linsanity. i loved it. i remember going to work each day watching every youtube video about jeremy lin. how the fuck did i not buy any jeremy lin rookie cards before he blew up? not a single one. you bastard

2. The decision. i loved the decision and the week leading up to it. all the rumors, speculation. it was awesome. and the actual DECISION was must-see tv. the sports world stopped. i loved it. decent 30for30. at least i think. one of the best players to ever play the game leaves his hometown...on national tv.

3. Manti Te'o. the story of the year. the story of the past 2-3 years. i still remember where i was when i read that first deadspin article. i just got home from work and i checked deadspin and i saw the title "...dead girlfriend was a hoax..." and i was like ohhhh my god. it was just pure gold. PEAK gold. lol i actually re-read the article about 2 months ago just for funsies. yep, it was still gold. i remember the 6 or 7 days after the initial article...i seriously checked tmz deadspin and espn.com about 10 times per hour. it was the craziest sports story ever imo. but weirdly, my interest fell off a cliff once i realized that manti was innocent. i still haven't watched his or the tuisisssapo guy's interviews with dr phil/katie couric. but man...good shit

-i bought the new hp chromebook 11 that came out recently, and i think it's amazing. i should have bought a new laptop sooner. oh and i also bought the google Chromecast, also amazing. now i can watch my youtube box breaks on my tv. long GOOGLE

-i saw Captain Phillips last week and thought it was awesome. i need to see Gravity! and i also want to see Rush, and Don Jon. so many good movies out right now

-in my espn basketball keeper league (you keep 3 players from last year, and 1 of those has to be a rookie/sophomore). I'm keeping lebron, damian lillard and al jefferson. it was either al jefferson or demarcus cousins. cousins is more exciting and younger. al jefferson is boring but good, and his team sucks. i'm not as excited for basketball this year compared to the last couple years. i'm not exactly sure why

-i wish i could erase my memory and watch good TV shows over. like, if i could pay some amount of money to erase my memory of Friday Night Lights, just so i can watch it all over again and get that entertainment back. does that make sense, watching a really good season of a tv show is awesome entertainment, and entertainment is valuable. so, i think i'd pay some dollar amount to have my Friday Night Lights memory erased, just so i could watch it over again. i'd pay for homeland season 1, i'd pay for the last season of Breaking Bad, i might even pay for Orange is the New Black. or, i could just watch..THE WIRE

bab

a couple weekends ago, i went to a 2day concert in mountain view called BEYOND, which is a rhythm and blues music festival. i was excited, plus greg jt and kyle were flying up for it. it's saturday, sunday

all you need to get into the concert is your ticket and your driver's license. easy. ticket and your driver's license. as we are waiting in line, i pull out my ticket and my driver's license. we wait in line for about 20-30 minutes. as i'm about 5 people away from security, i look down and boom, no driver's license. umm, fuckkkkk. i go into full blown level-10 monkey tilt. i mean, it was classic online poker tilt. just classic. a bunch of "fuck me" "are you kidding me?" "where the fuck did it go" "wow" "horse shit" "fuck my life"

15 minutes go by and nothing. LUCKILY, i tell an employee walking by that i lost my ID, he says don't worry, follow me, and he lets me in without any ID (good vibes, employee man!). after saturday's show, i check Lost and Found...nothing.

fine, so i get into Sunday's show with my passport.
===========
one week after BEYOND, my mom calls me and tells me that i got a letter in the mail, from mountain view, that looks like a gift card. she opens it and boooom, my driver's license. it's from barbara shofield with a note that says "found at Beyond Saturday".

thoughts:
1. why didn't she leave it at lost and found?!?
2. why didn't she facebook message me and say that she found my DL? why make me suffer and think i lost my driver's license. (seriously, #1 and #2 seem so obvious to me!)
3. when i hear the name barbara shofield. i think of a 52 year-old mother of 2. (the average age at BEYOND was...i'd say 24)
4. i hate to complain. i'm very happy that i got my DL back. Barbara was extremely nice to mail it back to me. but! wouldn't that be an amazing story, guy loses his driver's license at a rhythm and blues concert, they connect on facebook, agree to meet up and return the DL, instant chemistry, 2 hour conversation over coffee, sparks fly...and the rest is fucking history...
5. not going to lie. i was a smidge disappointed by the name. barbara shofield
6. i'm an ass wad, i should be grateful.
7. but...um...couldn't a girl named Jamie Park! send it back to me. or a Stephanie Lee!...i'm a jerk...or Kristin Chu?.....how about a Sarah White?
8. no but seriously, hypothetically. if you give me a list of 1000 random girl names that were at Beyond. and I got to pick 1 name, that would find my Driver's License and return it to me. Barbara S.  would be in the bottom 2 percent. just saying.
9. i should be grateful. i'm going to mail barbara a thank you card

the dry cleaning place i go to is 2 block away. there's only 1 lady that i've ever seen work there, she's superrr asian, and somewhat nice. she says hi, i say hi, she says how many shirts, i say 4, she asks light starch or no starch, i say light starch, she says ok pick up Thursday, i say Ok thanks, hands me the receipt, i'm out. everyyytime. but when i went to pick up my shirts this week, she was standing toward the back of the building with a white face mask/lotion (or something) all over her face. no joke. it looked like mrs doubtfire when she put the cake icing on her face. 

when i walked in she looked super surprised, said "sorry" and then walked to the back to wash her face. loll i just laughed and said "it's ok". but i was thinking, what are you doing you weirdo???  are you surprised that a customer would walk in during business hours?

really good

scab eater

would you rather be derek jeter or brandon belt? (like, would you rather be derek jeter right now and live the rest of his life, or Brandon belt)

-i've talked about this with scottmizuno.com, and i think we both chose Belt. derek jeter is 39 and brandon belt is 25. derek jeter has all the money, fame, championships, beautiful women. but i don't necessarily think he's happier then brandon belt. for all i know, he could be extremely unhappy (but let's be real. money fame and women =happiness!!). 14 years younger, still makes lots of money, and flies under the radar. i don't like attention to begin with, belt!!

David Lee or AJ McCarron?

if i had to pick, i think i'm going David Lee here. david lee is 30 and AJ is 23. 7 years is a long time, but still. AJ McCarron has a really cool name, like super rare and super cool. David Lee not so much, there's probably 8,000 David Lee's in the world. and probably 945 David Lee's just in California. They both have good looking girlfriends (maybe david lee is engaged? i dont know), but i have to give the edge to David because his girl went to SHM and EDC. boom. and i'm a football hater, i would not want to be a professional football player, their career could be over the next play. 

floyd mayweather or kobe bryant?

i think i'm going kobe on this one. being a boxer is kind of scary, floyd has a higher chance of health problems when he gets older then kobe

andrew wiggins or kendrick lamar?

wiggins! why would i want to be a rapper? no thanks i'm not thirsty (Blank Check quote btww. famous DJ? nowwww we're talking

good job by youu

i love bill simmons, and i have never seen one episode of the Sopranos. However, bill always mentions the show, and the series finale in particular. if i had to guess, i think bill has mentioned the last episode probably 4-5 times (through his column and podcast) in the past couple years. even though i've never seen any episode, i know (because of bill) how the series finale ends. something like this "the camera just turns to black, and most people watching felt like their cable just went out, bill thinks that if the producers put a 'hbo' logo on the black screen somewhere, then it's a great series finale. but instead, most people were confused and upset"

so i couldn't take it anymore, i decided that i needed to watch the last 10 minutes of the Sopranos just so that i can understand what he is always talking about. i wonder how many ppl have done the same thing. if you asked me how many people in the world are fans of bill simmons, have never seen an episode of the Sopranos, are curious about the series finale, and finally to hboGO and watch the last 10 minutes?? gun to my head,  i think there are 21 people in the world that did it.

---------------------------------

ever since miley cyrus cut her hair really short, she's looked very scary to me. almost like a mixture of crazy, psycho, and even a little bit racist. like, i imagine in my head that if you see her walking down the street and you call her a crazy b. that she will absolutely flip out and cut you or something. however...
i know why i have this picture in my head. SHE LOOKS exactly LIKE EDWARD NORTON'S CRAZY NAZI GIRLFRIEND IN AMERICAN HISTORY X.

EXACTLY.

miley cyrus = edward norton's crazy nazi girlfriend in AMERICAN HISTORY X

if you're at a baseball game, and the pitcher has a perfect-game going through 6 innings, how would you explain it to a girl that is not familiar with baseball. there have only been 23 in baseball history! and i almost saw my 2nd last friday!  cool grant, no one cares. okayokay

but how would you explain it, what analogy do you use.

the best i could come up with at the time...is you're in Bloomingdales and all of a sudden, there's a special sale where everything is 90% off. like, if you heard that while in the store, your reaction would be like "wooooooooo!

jon said its like going to a concert, and the Beatles show up. not bad, you're going to an event, and it just gets unexpectedly better. like, "wowwwww we just got lucky"

co-worker scott said it's like winning a shopping spree. like being the 100,000th customer and are given a free $hopping spree.

smidgen

last saturday derek texts me in the morning with this picture and the following texts. he was dj'ing at the Oakley store in downtown SF. he says the "guy on the right" is signing autographs. you mean PABLO SANDOVAL??? world series mvp? you mean that guy??  lol
i don't know, i thought it was funny
oh man, me and derek. we're just a smidge different

i'm over here buying $600 boxes of  National Treasures basketball and posting the video to youtube, and derek cannot recognize pablo sandoval.
i'm over here telling jon there's no way the Broncos cover the spread on opening night, and derek cannot recognize pablo sandoval.

JUST A SMIDGE

gap checking

-if a guy goes to the gym on a sunday afternoon, that means he doesn't have a girlfriend right? if you have a girlfriend, sunday afternoon is couple time

-breaking bad. i really want walt to get away with it. i don't know why i'm still rooting for him. he's done some bad bad bad things. but he's so clever and smart. the video confession was genius. hank and marie kind of annoy me, marie especially. she seems like the serious/boring teacher that follows every rule and no one likes. just relax. and i know it's unreasonable, but i feel like hank needs to mind his own business. big deal, so he cooked some meth like a boss, but he's done now. get over yourself

-stamps.com is legit. speaking of Bsimmons, on his latest podcast, cousin sal brought up the idea of a breaking bad meth party. people go to a house to watch the last episode, but before it starts, everyone tries meth. not funnyiknow

-i want to buy a plain white shirt that says "EXTROVERT" in big bold letters across the front.

-Netflix's show Orange is the New Black is really good. really really good. i flew thru the first season, and i have no attention span

-i've watched the trailer for spectacular now 7 times now (she is from the Descendants with george clooney, and he is from Project X, just fyi). i'm convinced it's going to be very very good. i wish i could bet on it. even if "very very good" was like -1500. shits a lock! EZ

500

this is the best movie of the summer. and i haven't seen it yet

from the writers OF WHAT MOVIE?

oh, and i spy saul goodman

bobby's world

i think a big misconception about stock/trading is that you can only make money when a stock goes up.
Buy a stock at $10, and watch it go up to $100. EASY.

however, you can also make money if a stock goes down. OR you can make money if you think a stock will make a big move in either direction (up or down). OR you can make money if you think a stock will not make a big move in either direction (trade relatively flat)

ways to make money.

1. you think GOOGle stock will go up. you buy GOOGle stock at $100, it goes up to $250. you make $150
2. you think GOOG stock will go down, so you "short" the stock (or borrow the stock). basically, you sell the stock at $100, it goes down to $40, you buy the stock back. you make $60.
3. you think GOOG stock will make a big move in the near future, you think it will go up OR down, but you're not sure which. so you buy the "straddle" which is an investment strategy consisting of two different stock options. (car insurance example. basically, you buy special car insurance because you think something crazy is going to happen, you just don't know exactly what. but you know nothing is NOT going to happen *yes double negative...so you buy special car insurance. something crazy DOES happen. and you exercise the insurance)
4. you think GOOG stock will NOT make a big move in the near future. if GOOG is worth $100, you think that GOOG will stay around $100 for the near future. so you sell or "short the straddle". (example, basically, instead of buying special car  insurance, you SELL the special car insurance to someone else, you collect money for selling the special car insurance. and hope that the car insurance expires worthless)

sell selll sell

blssing

i love the bus system
it's cheap, convenient for the most part.  i like taking the bus to work. i'm half asleep anyway so it's nice, you don't have to worry about parking, you can read your emails and maybe check deadspin or gawker.
it's nice to know that if you get blindfolded and dropped anywhere in SF, you're pretty much always 2 buses away from getting home

i would only change 2 things.

-i would put hand sanitizer dispensers in the front and back. it's just too damn dirty. one time i saw a homeless man wipe his bloody hand on the seat next to him. soooooo dirty. or when i see some little kid pick  his nose then touch all the seats.

-i would also limit the stops each bus makes. for example, the 38bus probably stops 24 times from my house to union square. there's also a 38L (limited) bus that probably only stops 10-12 times from my house to union square. so the 38L bus skips 1 or 2 of the normal 38bus stops. so it probably saves 15-20 minutes off the trip. i really don't understand why there needs to be so many stops so close to each other. WALK PEOPLE...sometimes, one stop is like a 1.5 minute walk away from the next stop. no no no. cut that shit out

----------------------------------------------
. i understand that the seats in the front of the bus should be reserved for seniors. i get that. in the morning, my bus is probably 3/4 full, so everyone gets a seat. BUT, on the way home after work, the bus is always full with people standing most of the trip. luckily for me, i get on the bus pretty early in the route, so i always sit toward the back. about mid trip, the bus is full with people standing. and sometimes there are old people standing in the back. (like, not old old. if they were legit old, i'd offer my seat). and i feel like the "nice" thing to do is offer my seat, but fuck, i'm tired too. and if you think you're thaaat old, you should go to the front where you belong. i just stare out the window or at my phone and try not to make eye contact. sometimes i can just feel them looking at me like i'm some rude punkass kid who watches youtube videos on his iphone

oh

you can laugh, it's ok

so back in february or march, i thought i was a savvy ticket scalper.

i was at work and i got an email from ticketmaster that justin bieber concert tix (for a july concert ) will go on sale in an hour. the last time he was in the bay area, it sold out. so i was thinking alright, i'll try and buy to scalp. as soon as they went on sale, i kept refreshing my ticketmaster over, and over, and over....until finally i had the option to buy 2 upper level tickets. the 2 tickets were part of the "vip baby package" and were about $450 for the pair. i thought that was pretty expensive for 2 upper level tickets, but i thought fuck it, i need to buy because its def going to sell out...and i'll flip pretty easily. #layup

a couple months go by, and i never got the tickets in the mail. so i looked up the concert on stubhub and ticketmaster. and yes, it sold out. niice! then i do a little more research and find out some bad news...so this "vip baby package" consists of Justin Bieber merchandise that will be shipped to the billing address AFTER the concert. #fuckme

so basically, i have to sell my shitty upper level tickets WITHOUT the bieber merch. of course these assholes couldn't send me the merchandise BEFORE the show. that way i could at least sell the merch+tickets for roughly what i paid for.

fast forward to a couple weeks before the concert. and for whatever reason, ticket prices on stubhub and craigslist tankkkkkkk. like, no one wants to go apparently. long story short, i think i sell the bieber tickets for about $40 each.

and of course, a week or two after the concert. i get my bieber merchandise sent to my place.
a towel that says "swaggy"????? and a bag (it's reversible by the way) that also says swaggy???

ouch. it hurt. but that's ok.
i've lost big on bieber, made decent on legendsofsummer, lost big on rolling stones (which was jon's idea, he wanted to split expensive tix and we got murdered), and i made a little from smaller edm shows.

how much am i up or down after it all?
i'm about even                    

see what i did there? no?

not bad, and um, not badd

BREAKING B.

umm yeah, how can i help make this happen?
i just became a pretty big elon muSk fan. i think i want hyperloop more then i want online poker back. i thiiiiink. not quite sure yet.
==================

in bill simmons last podcast (august 12th). he went off on a tangent and said he hates deep dish pizza. he says "deep dish pizza is disgusting...it's a horrible thing to put in your body" and he also says deep dish pizza fans "could go to hell". 

ouch. i loved  deep dish pizza. or, i used to love it. ouch. or maybe bill is right? i'm so confused. 

this is like santa telling a 6 year old boy that video games are disgusting and horrible. great example

confession

i've never told anyone this before. but here it goes.

back in 2010, sometime after i graduated from college (has it really been 3 years ago?), the baseball gods approached me and offered me a deal. basically they were aware of how frustrated i was with Bay Area Sports. it was during the 2010 baseball season... and the gods offered me what they called a  "world series guarantee deal"

they first offered "we will guarantee 1 Giants world series championship in the next 30 years. only 1, nothing more nothing less. we will guarantee 1 San francisco giants WS title for the next 30 years"

i thought it was interesting, but using my pawn-stars style skills, i obviously countered. i wanted 5 titles in the next 15 years. they said no. long story short, we agreed on this deal:

The SF giants will win the world Series 2 times in the next 20 years.

so...we are in the 4th year of the deal. and the giants have already won the 2 titles.  i'm pretty sure i made a good deal, but now what?

2012-13 National Treasures

-So the best product of the year is National Treasures basketball, one box costs about $590-610 (the product was released last Wednesday)
-I have been trying to convince scottmizuno.com to split a box with me for the past 3 years. he finally caved
-we both agreed, this is a stupid purchase if you're trying to make money. we both agreed that the odds of our box containing cards worth more then $600 was about 20%...which means 80% of the time we would be losing money.
-1st annual National Treasures box break
-present in the room. me scott steve rick jon jill and angela



#mature #iknow


=============================
Notes:
0:47   -    for those that don't know, nick young's twitter handle is swaggyP. which is amazing
3:45   -    jill was recording with my phone but my pieceofshit phone's data was full and stopped recordring
4:50   -    who?? Viacheslav Kravtsov??
5:12   -   you can kind of hear me and scott talking. there was only one more card left. and the box had been very below average. so we were both thinking that a very good card was coming next..

so we slow-rolled it like gangsters, and boom...ANTHONY DAVIS ROOKIE AUTOGRAPHED PATCH GOLD #16/25.

we sold it on ebay the next day for just under five thousanddddd dollars

just kidding, but we sold it for a decent little profit.

savage

the last time i was at the optometrist. we made small talk, he asked me what i did . i said options trader. and then he started telling me about which stocks he liked and didn't like. about how he made money on Company X back in the late 1990s...blah blah. he then said "yeah, i'd say i'm about even". mmmhmm. i said "oh that's good". but in my head i'm calling BULLLLL SHIT (ohhhh man, bull shit was the best game ever in high school. ok, 2nd best game behind "13" "or big 2?" "or pasoyyyyy dos?")

i'd say over 90% of people that say "i'm about even" are actually  losers ($$). people like to underestimate losses and overestimate wins. when you're in vegas, how many times do gamblers tell other people "i'm about even". i mean,  maybeeeee my optometrist really IS "about even" in the stock market. i'd bet the no, but maybeee

 most online poker players lose. that is a fact. 100% fact. if you asked me "grant, in your opinion, of all the players in the world who has ever played 1 hand of online poker for real money, what percentage of those players are losers?"

==i'd say 90% are losers

just a guess, but i'm pretty sure it's that lopsided. i mean, it makes sense. a beginning player cannot expect to beat someone at a skill game against a player that plays as a profession. 

where was i going with that? i dont know

but any way. this is all opinion, NOT based on fact. but REGARDING THE stock market, i think that most people would think that "about half of the people make money in the stock market, and half the people int he stock market lose money". yea? no? in my opinion, i think it's not even close. just a random guess. i'd say of all people that have ever participated in the stock market. i'd say 15% of them have made money, and 85% have lost money. the stock exchanges always win (FEES!). if you buy a stock for $5 and you sell it for $5. you do not break even (FEES!)

ok, here's my bull shit theory. i think that 85% of people have lost money in the stock market. but i feel those people in the 85%...they don't like to talk about losing money. they'll tell people "i'm about even" or "i'm slightly up" or whatever whatever. which is fine, i get it. but i feel that this sort of white lie makes people believe that the stock market isn't as dangerous as it really is. it really is dangerous. if you have an extra $10,000 and you want to buy stocks, but only think of it as a hobby. you're most likely going to lose. it's like poker. a beginner cannot expect to make money against people that do it as a profession (OVER THE LONG RUN). 

for all intesive purposes (lol i mean intents and purposes), the stock market is a zero-sum game. so in order for you to make money, that means someone has to lose the same amount of money. so basically you have to beat professionals in a game of skill, aaaand you have to pay the stock exchange fees for trading. goodluck

and if you hear stories that people made tens of thousands of dollars on Apple, or Google. yeah sure. that happens. but those are the outliers. look at other companies

this could all be complete BS, i dont know. i sound really negative, i dont like it. but maybe it's true?    hmm. here's what i think i want to say. if my friend came up to me and asked me if he should play poker (if he's a beginner), blackjack, or play the stock market.  i would tell him. don't play poker because you're probably going to lose, don't play blackjack because you're probably going to lose. and don't play the stock market because you're probably going to lose. bet on sports!

edc

i disagree with bill simmons regarding only 1 thing. the FAST AND FURIOUS movie series

he loves them and i don't understand them. 

i've watched the last two movies and have been disappointed each time. i knowww that the movies are super cheesy and you can't take them thaaat seriously. i get it, but it's not enough. i have a conspiracy theory that EVERYONE in the world knows the movie is horrible, but the entire world is playing a prank on ME. the movies are bad!

whatever whatever. i didn't like the last FAST FIVE movie, however. the bill simmons and adam carolla podcast is hilarious. i've already listented to it twice. and i know i'll watch it one more time nbd. 

lebron over kobe

i wouldn't call myself a lebron fan at all. but during the playoffs, i reallllly wanted him to win the title. and during the finals, i decided that i want him to win the next 6 titles.

i obviously want the warriors to win a championship, that would be unreal. (who would have thought. maybe that russell Warriors-win-a-title-in-the next 8 years bet comes into play?) but if the warriors don't win for the next 6 years, i want lebron to win all of the titles (i think i'm the minority, but i'm not sure). i really do, and i think i know why

1. lebron saved our sportsbook account. i think we finally figured it out. all you do is  bet lebron to win a playoff series. bet it, cash it.

2. i think i heard this on a podcast.  WE like to see really amazing things, unbelievable things. you want to be able to tell your kids that you saw Lebron James in his prime, a once in a generation player, maybe the greatest of all time?  you want to tell your kids that you saw lebron win 6 championships in 8 years. you want to tell your kids that the 2013 nba finals was amazeballs. you want to tell them about ray allen's game 6 game-tying shot which forced overtime, and eventually to a game7. (if my son and i talk about the 2013 nba finals and he asks me "what was the spread for game 7?"----i might cry. happy tears)

3. like i said, i don't pretend to be a super lebron fan/groupie/defender. buuuut, i just find it annoying when people hate on lebron.  i love lebron, he's amazing. here's what i really think......................

Let's say there are 2 types of nba fans. 2 types, serious fans and casual fans. i consider a serious fan as someone who plays fantasy basketball (for $), who considered game6 and 7 of the nbafinals as must-SEE, who gets excited for things like the Nbadraft or the Trade Deadline. you know the type...every other nbafan is casual.

I think CASUAL fans love kobe. they love him because they watch EsPN, and they see his game-winning shots, they see that he has been a Laker his whole career and SEEMS loyal, they like his shoes/commercials, they hear ESPN call him a fierce competitor. on the flip side, i think casual fans hate lebron because they hear all the stories about how he isn't "clutch" or "afraid" of the big game. they hear espn people say how classless "the decision" was. they hear stories about him being a "traitor". they don't like that he joined D-wade and bosh

i feel like SERIOUS fans understand how crazy good Lebron is, not just good, amazinggg. i feel like they understand that kobe is a bit overrated (still great, but overrated)
i feel like casual fans love kobe and hate on lebron. therefore, i feel like mosttt casual fans were rooting for the spurs, and mostttt seroius fans were rooting for miami.

so in the playoffs and in the next several  years, i hope lebron wins everythingggg

sources say

i hate how interesting this is to me. honestly

=============

THE DECISION

are people realllllllly upset about lebron's "The Decision" back in 2010?

i loved everything about it. so much hype, so many rumors, so much at stake, not to mention it was a level-10 sweat for all NBA fans. so much history. i think all big free agents should have 30minute ESPN specials that reveal their decision. i'd watch every single one

BUT SERIously, are people really upset with how lebron handled it? i feel like a couple people on ESPN said it classless and disrespectful to cleveland, and everyone just sorta jumped on board. blah blah blah . (and to be fair, maybe it was a little classless, but it was entertaining as shit)

 if you like the NBA, then "the decision" was MUST-SEE tv. i still remember that day specifically. i was in vegas in the middle of my 30day vegas adventure, and i stopped playing poker early that day so i could watch from my  hotel room.

i love watching big hyped up sporting events, where it's like "ohhhh shit..."
super bowls, Warriors in the playoffs, Giants in the world series, The Decision, NBA drafts, betting big on -400 favorites when you know it's stupid but whatever



i mean, i've probably watch this clip probably 5 times since 2010
=============

with the Jay-Z/ Justin timberlake Legends of Summer tour coming up...the stubhub ticket prices are slowlyyyy coming down.

AAAAND they're going to come down every day until the concert. i say this with 99% confidence. if you're going to buy, WAIT!!!
if you're going to sell, HURRY!!!

doc rivers/bill simmons

I'm one of bill simmons top 100 fans in the world. So when the bill simmons/doc rivers beef started, a couple things happened.
1. i got really excited.
2. i insta-defended bill simmons
3. i am now a huuuuuge Clipper hater, and a huuuuge austin rivers hater.
4. i cannot wait for the next simmons column or BS report where he addresses this. like, i cannot wait

here are the deadspin links describing the beef.
http://deadspin.com/rivers-i-would-like-to-call-simmons-an-idiot-simm-605489630
http://deadspin.com/the-bill-simmons-doc-rivers-beef-continues-to-heat-up-613740934

i was talking to my co-worker about the situation, he doesn't like bill for some reason. basically, i said i liked how bill said that Doc quit on the celtics, because that's what a lot of people are thinking, and it's more entertaining for an analyst or writer to stand up and say it. and my co-worker's response is that: bill doesn't know all the facts, he can't say that he quit because there might be other variables...
I get that, no one will ever know for sure all the backroom info. but i like bill because he says interesting things, he says the things that some people are afraid to say. i mean, it's easy to say EASY things. most analysts on tv might say "ohh, doc's time is up as celtics coach and he will get a fresh new start, his time in boston was great and he will be remembered as one of the best..."   boring uninteresting shit. i can say that ^^
but no, it looks like doc quit on the team, as soon as the team broke down, he wanted out.

it's easy to hire a basketball analyst to say the EASY things and kiss everyone's ass like jalen rose does. but it's hard to call people out. but if its the truth, then its the truth.
=======
i love this beef. i hope it escalates. i hope it gets more attention and more heated. this way. i can be a huuuuuuuuuuuuuge clipper hater.


****just listened to the latest BS report that was released today. bill said he talked to doc for 45 minutes about the beef. and it's over. damn

poker vs trading PART4

similarities and differences
one of the differences in poker and trading (online poker more specifically) is that you can search player results in online poker, but you can't in trading (stocks, options, commodities). in online poker, as long as you know the player's username, you can search on a few different sites, and see exactly how much that person has won or lost. you can see exactly, who the best players are, who the average players are, and who the worst players are. it's (usually) free and very easy to do.

in trading, no such thing. (unless you run a big hedge fund). but other than that, you can't search someone's name and quickly see exactly if that person is a stud or a loser. that's a huuuuuge difference. why?

transparency. in poker, you can weed out the bull shit. no one can fake as if they are a winning poker player. BUT, in trading, there are lots of people who sound smart. and some of those people are actually legit and know what they are talking about. but, unfortunately some of those people are just full of shit. there's lots of bull shit in the stock market, lots of people like to pretend they know stuff. it's hard to tell sometimes

my meaningless opinion? you just have to be a skeptic first, then decide later. you'll hear "experts" sometimes say they think a stock is going up or down. and how "confident" they are. lolllll, no one "knows". if someone really did know valuable information, they most likely wouldn't tell that many people. some people just hate to say "i don't know" and it's very annoying (think Jimmy Kimmel lie witness news)

one of the best things about trading? in order to make money, you HAVE to put your money where your mouth is. you don't need to convince anyone of anything. if you think AAPL is going to the moon, just put your money where your mouth is

runner runner

oh my god. the first half of the trailer got me really excited. then it kind of fizzled out.

but online poker in a legit blockbuster (with the writers of Rounders)? looks somewhat interesting.

fs up

the news of A-rod, Ryan Braun and possibly others being suspended by the league for performance enhancing drugs was only somewhat interesting to me. i know i simplify things, but if you want to stop people from breaking the rules, the solution is very simple. very very simple.  you increase the punishment. if 20+ players are going to get suspended for using PEDs, that basically means that the risk did NOT outweigh the reward.

let's say Major League Baseball said if you get caught once using PEDs, you will be banned from all forms of baseball for life AND you will be on legit house arrest for the next 20 years (exaggerated but whatever). there, PED problem over.

it works for anything. you want to stop people from speeding. making the fines $2,000 for the first violation. i bet that'll make the number of speed demons decrease.

if you want to stop high school/college students from cheating, make the punishment (for both cheating parties) a 30day suspension with 200 hours of community service and an automatic F for each class that semester.
a. hey grant, did you finish the spanish homework?
g. yes.
a. let me see it real quick
g. get the fuck away from me

just increase the punishment
============
the 9th worst thing about totalling (sp?) your car?
     -is that you join the "i totalled my car club"
the 10th worst thing about totalling your car?
     -is that you can no longer criticize other drivers. like if you're in a car with 2 other people. and the driver gets cut off and says "geez, people in san francisco cannot drive for shit!"     all you can do is just sit there, you can't even agree or say "yeah"

i do like yelp tho

i like yelp overall. but i have some problems with it.

yeah yeah, i don't like how restaurants can pay a fee and have bad reviews be taken down. it seems shady and it gives the actual reviews less credibility.

but overall, i like yelp. it's very very useful sometimes.

but one small thing that bothers me. i don't like how they use a 5 star rating system. it should be 10, 10 would be ideal. even a 100-point rating system would be more useful

when you're in a new neighborhood and you want to find a good restaurant, you'll often find 10 restaurants, six with 3 stars, four with 3.5 stars, there's not enough room to separate the restaurants. let's say that i'm a yelper and review 4 restaurants in the same neighborhood. and let's say that i review each restaurant based on 100 different categories (like cleanliness, customer service, wait time, parking availability). and let's say after the review of the 4 restaurants, that i settle on the reviews 3.3, 3.4, 2.7, and 3.0. obviously if someone asked for my favorite, i could tell them the restaurant that ranked 3.4 and so on. however, with the current yelp rating system, i would have to rate each restaurant a 3. plain and simple. lame. they need a 10 point scale to  help separate the good restaurants from the average, and the average from the poor.

i'd rather look up restaurants in a neighborhood and see more of a power rankings. best, second best, 3rd best, suckiest, the worst
rather than
look up restaurants in a neighborhood and see a 9 way tie for "best"

Dental program

russ is white, and i'm blue. this is dentalP trying to show how much he knows about sports. lol i was just looking thru my old pictures and this one made me laugh. 

isnt my kneesupposed to hurt, eee-ur eee-ur eee-ur

I saw one of obama's prom pictures last week and started to think about future politicians and pictures on social media. i'm guessing about 75% of all high school students have an instagram/facebook account. (is it lower? how many high school students have a cell phone nowadays? maybe it's higher i don't know) but, as this new instagram-generation gets older, the old pictures of when they were younger are going to surface, and they'll be interesting right? 

when its 2040 (the instagram-generation will be in their 40s and 50s), how many politicians will be held back because of inappropriate college pictures? they're all going to surface somehow. i mean, there's just no way I can run for President at all, zero percent chance. there's too many inappropriate pictures out there. and 99% of the people i know, can not longer run for President of the United States because...there's too much crap out there. 

Just do it

trying to convince someone to do something or go somwehere?
hit them with this!
boooooooom.
yolo-ish

RAGE TRAIN

i think my mom should be the president of the "derek not derrick club". whenever someone named Derek is mentioned, she asks for the spelling. if it's spelled DEREK, she says it's spelled correctly. if it's spelled derrick, she says it's spelled incorrectly. and i completely agree, it's derek, not derrick. it looks wrong.

just in case you were curious. here's my 2cents

zach not zack
jamie (i've got da gudz man) not jamee
steven not stephen
mark not marc
eric not erick
lindsey not lindsay
shawn not sean or shaun
and i'm not sure about krystle or crystal
===========================================================

i don't understand what bitcoin is. it's supposedly an online currency. that actually trades like a real currency. the japanese restaurant near me just started accepting bitcoin as payment. i've tried to research what bitcoin is online, and still can't seem to understand it completely. i want to pay someone $10 just to sit me down, and explain it stupid style

============================================================
i heard if you start to pee, and then start to drink cold coffee, that you'll pee for as long as you're drinking the cold coffee. and umm, lets just say, um...try it

KEEP IT SIMPLE

there's a pretty big misconception (not for everyone, but to some) that when the stock market goes up, traders make money. and when the stock market goes down, traders lose money.

it could be true, but not necessarily.      ++options=stock options++

huh?

there are so many different types of traders. traders trade different things and look for different time frames. some people trade apple stock, some people trade bank of america options, some people trade bonds, some people trade currencies, some people trade coffee. some traders look for moves in the next 2 minutes, some traders look for moves in the next 2 years.

it seems like for the past couple months, all the headlines sound similar to "market soars to all time highs" or "S&P surges to break all time high..."    blah blah blah

yeah, that might be good for some traders, but it's definitely not favorable for how and what i trade. i trade equity options (mostly bank of america options and on a very short time frame, minutes). Equity options is basically the equivalent of insurance for stocks. just like any other type of insurance. people buy insurance for peace of mind. when people are worried, they buy insurance. when there is no fear or doubt, people don't want to buy insurance. for me, the more Options volume the better, that means more opportunity. that's why, options traders love volatility. they love fear/uncertainty. when there is fear/uncertainty/volatility in the market, the more action there is. when the market does nothing but go up (the state we are in now), there is no fear, no one is worried and therefore doesn't need/want insurance. 

just like if you're selling tornado insurance. if there hasn't been a tornado in the area in 10years, people aren't going to buy insurance because there is no fear. buuuuuut, if there's a tornado warning 3 weeks in a row. hmmmmm, people might be lining up. opportunity!

so basically, when stocks go up and there's nothing to fear/worry about, no one wants to buy stock options. buuuut, if we get some fear into the market, and we see a big pullback/small market crash, then suddenly, people start to worry and will look at options to hedge/speculate. so basically, for my style of trading, i prefer the stock market to crashhh. not saying bull markets are outright bad, just not FAVORABLE

i said before the ice was in my grill

it's gross how much i like bill simmons.
i've watched this clip 4 times in less than an hour. and it's hilarious

cross sport odds

i'm not a big boxing fan. but i really like big hyped-up events. i watched every showtime All-access episode following floyd mayweather and robert guerrero. before the fight, i was pretty excited to watch. (fyi, mayweather closed as a -600ish favorite, according to 5d). it wasn't thaaat interesting, but mayweather is a beast. i like him

2-3 years ago, i really didn't like him. he was cocky/arrogant/annoying,  you name it.
i couldn't understand how anyone can root for someone like him. how can you like someone who burns $100 dollar bills in clubs just because he can. somewhat disgusting

but then i realized, yes, he is a bit crazy and over the top? but how is he supposed to act? he is the highest paid athlete in the world. he has never lost a fight. undefeated. and it's boxing.  there's no one in the world that can beat him up. how are you supposed to act when you KNOW that you can beat up every person in any room that you enter. he's extremely smart. and i know i'm not saying anything groundbreaking, but he's a salesman. he's interesting. people love him, and people hate him, and those people are going to pay to watch him. he's an entertainer. i don't give a crap about the sport of boxing. but if mayweather if involved, i'm definitely interested.

here are some sports fight odds:
zach randolph    -200  
blake griffin       +150

zach is a beast, blake is too pretty. i feel like if you put them in a room and told them to fight. zach would say "OK" and blake would say something like "why?" or "nah man". that's everything

nate robinson     -200
me jon jt scott    +150

we were all watching game 4? together where nate goes crazy in the 4th quarter. and i asked if us 4 could take nate. the general consensus was no. but i'm not quite sure. yea he's a beast, but we have 4 brains. i'm thinking all jt does is bear hug him, and the other 3 just attack yolo style

tiger woods   +120
kobe             -180

oh god, the main event. both ultra competitive. kobe 3 years younger. i'm giving the edge to mamba, and i don't know why

remember guy

listening to this song brought back so many memories. I remember this was one of my favorite songs when I first left for college. And later that year, they played at ucsb. Cool grant
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it's funny, last year on my birthday, i specifically remember devin texting me saying happy birthday. and i noticed the only other time he had texted me, was on my birthday the previous year. sure enough, this year, he texted me happy birthday lol. three years, three texts from him. so funny. really thoughtful tho!

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LV power rankings
10. Wolfgang gartner
9. Armin van buuren
8. Laid back Luke
7. Above and beyond
6. Steve Angello
5. Porter Robinson
4. Calvin Harris
3. Avicii
2. Tiesto
1. Hardwell

tackling fuel

maybe, possibly, doubt it, probably

what do those words all mean?
IF i have kids one day, they are not going to be using those words, but instead, they are going to use gambling odds (and over/unders) to describe situations.

here's an example. i ask my son one day "What grade are you going to get in math class?"
instead of him answering "Probably an A or B", he will instead answer "it's -120 that i get an A"

no maybe or probably, all numbers
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i can't wait. hypothetical conversation between me and my 11 year old son.

me: so what are the odds you get an A in history?
son: umm, to be honest, it's like +180.
me: whoa whoa whoa, but it was only +120 just last week, what happened?
son: umm, yeaaa, well we just had a big test, and it was dumbass hard.
me: hey, watch your mouth! how can it go from +120 to +180 in one week!? that's a big move
son: i hate the teacher. she hates me. it's like -250 that she's racist.
me: oh please. you better get it back down to +120 before spring break.

OR how about====
me: we're going to grandma and grandpa's house, get ready. what is the over/under on how many times  Grandpa C. says "you're getting so tall"?
son: oh man, Grandpa C is so funny, i'm setting the line at 4.5.
me: hmm, that's too high right?
son: nah, that's about right. last time he said it twice. but the time before that, it had to be 8 or 9 times.

OR how about i just have a whiteboard in my family room with FUTURES lines that i update once a week or so====
son: hey dad, i saw that the odds "for a summer vacation to disneyworld" dropped from EvenMoney to +160. is that a mistake?
me: no, no that's not a mistake. money has been a little tight around here.
son: what the fudge happened?
me: ask your uncle scott, he said the warriors were a lock to beat the spurs on monday. then he convinced me to dump our account on the the Rockets to beat the Lakers. boom, vacation now +160.

Parent prank

I'm sure most of you have heard of the prank my comedian nathan fielder.

"Comedian Nathan Fielder came up with a wonderful idea yesterday. He instructed his Twitter followers to text "got 2 grams for $20" to their parents, immediately follow up with "Sorry ignore that txt. Not for you," and then tweet a screenshot of the ensuing conversation. The results were, as you might imagine, hilarious."
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these links are pretty funny
http://deadspin.com/ingenious-prank-sends-parents-into-weed-panic-480940968

http://www.collegehumor.com/pictures/gallery/6886310/drug-texting-your-mom
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but any way, on friday after i had heard about the prank, something brilliant happened. something amazing. i got a text from one of my cousins. she said "got 2 grams for $20" followed with "sorry ignore that txt. not for you"

brilliant. i could have been boring and said "loll i know about that prank already, but nice try" but no, i insta texted back "hahahha u dont have to worry, i got some too, i just met up with my guy, bought a grippppp"      (i'm completely joking obviously)
-brilliant, i think i scared the crap out of her. i wish i could have seen her reaction when she saw my text. she finally responds "oh tight, wanna share some with your fave cuz?"  (lolll so funny, i know she just panicked, and tried to play it off, she's a good girl for sure)
-so i respond "yeah you free tonight?" (and she never responded. i must have scared the crap out of her lolllllll)
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when i first heard about the prank, i almost did it to my mom. but
1. i don't think she would understand
2. if she did understand, i think she would get really upset/scared.
3. i remember in middle school. i had this really cool math teacher. it was toward the end of the year, and we were going on a field trip. i asked the teacher to call my mom at work and tell her that i could no longer go on the field trip because i got in trouble. prank! my mom didn't find it funny. my mom got really upset and she told me to get on the phone. and she said something like "i don't find that funny grant. i'm busy at work and i don't have time for this. it's not funny grant. you think that's funny grant? (no mom) you think i have time for this? i don't have time for this. it's not funny grant. i got things to do. don't waste my time. i don't think its funny grant (ok mom)...

i'm blue, cousin white

do u like mae

i'm being serious

i think i have this weird talent. i think i'm really good at face recognition. i'm serious. i think i have a better than average ability to recognize faces. i'm not exactly sure why. i feel like i'm more likely to recognize famous people and athletes than the average person. and if i'm walking by someone, i feel like i recognize the person BEFORE they recognize me. and i think i'm really good at watching movies and tv shows, and recognize what other shows/movies the actor/actress was in.

like, i was watching Homeland. and you know the black guy who works for the Government. you know the big dude, who dies at the end of season 2. oops spoiler. that was the big mean guy from Blood Diamond. see it? see it? the big mean scary man from blood diamond, who gets his eye blown away (and yells GIVE ME THA DIAMOND!), he is the black guy in homeland. (i just googled it, his name is david harewood)

or like, i've gone to NBA summer league the past 2 years. and i feel like I"m the person who recognizes athletes when they are in street clothes. like oh there's jrue holiday, oh there's thomas robinson, in the sharks hat

i was eating lunch with jon a couple months ago, and this guy walks in, i swear! he looked like jay cutler's 2nd or 3rd cousin. i tell jon "dude, that guys looks like jay cutler's 2nd or 3rd cousin" jon looks, pauses, and says "that's not jay cutler"              ummmm, you're right jon

i feel like i always tell people "dude, that guy right there, doesn't he look like he could be so-and-so's cousin?" and i'm right!

am i crazy? maybe? just a little? oh ok

fake

i've been trading for 2 and a half years now, and today's event was probably the most memorable

at 10:07am our time, the AP tweeted "Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured"

at the office, we have a couple different "news" services. one is in the form of a chatroom, and the other is audible and part of our trading platform. we tend to hear any news a couple minutes/seconds before CNN or twitter. at 10:07 we heard from our audible news service "...breaking, AP reporting two explosions at the white house and barack obama is said to be injured..."

 ohhhhhh shit.

the market tanks!, the DOW drops 100 points in the matter of seconds. i'm looking in my new chatroom, and see ppl posting about the explosions. i couldn't believe it, for the next 60 seconds. i must have said "oh shit" and "oh my god" a combined 16 times. the market is just tanking, and people are backing away from all bids and offers. it was crazy. i spent the first 10 seconds cancelling every single bid and offer i had on my screen. luckily, when the market tanked, i didn't get hurt, i didn't get any fills/transactions. then we hear "AP is reporting a possible twitter hack..." and then its confirmed, the AP's twitter (which has 2 million followers) has been hacked, and it was all false. 

the market recovers, and that was that. it was crazy, for those 90 seconds or so, my heart was racing, sooo many different thoughts running thru my head. just think about it, for 90 seconds. NINETY SECONDS, that's a long time if you think about it. for 90 seconds, i was under the impression that there were 2 explosions in the white house, and our President was injured. i was almost in shock, are we at war? how the hell do you get explosives in the white house? is our President dead? how is this possible? oh my god

if you can, go on your iphone. and check today's move in the dow jones or S&P 500. look at that big ass dip in the middle of the day. no seriously, look at some stock charts on your iphone. if you look at the charts, that is fear. why did the market crash? several reasons, and FEAR is one of t hem