Pretty sure my friend got me sick. She's got some viral infection that's giving her a wicked sore throat and fever. My throat's not awful, but I've been really tired and my arthritis has ramped up through the roof to lead me to believe that my body's fighting something.

Lukcily, this is probably about as bad as it's going to get. I hope so, anyway. Tomorrow I have to work for about 27 straight hours. Maybe more (hopefully not). I'm just trying to kill time for the most part right now because I am ahead on most of the work that I can actually take care of right now.

Things I need to do:
Get the band stuff back in high gear
Find time for the gym
Sleep

Not necessarily in that order.

Busted my nut. Neck is completely warped. So there's no way I can straighten it out now. Now the A and D strings buzz or completely mute if I play on 1st or 2nd fret with them. No E-, Em-, A-chords, etc... At least not up there. So I guess I'm now hoping for two things for my birthday, a new electric and a stand-up mixer (for baking, not sound).

I would really like to get my butt moving at get a new acoustic too. Leaning toward nylon. I like the sound better and I have more fun playing them. I'm not planning out using the acoustic for anything specific, so that's enough reason for me to lean nylon.

Now... If all the band could just be in the same place at the same time, we might be able to get moving again, books some shows, get the new cuts for the demo, finish the new songs, etc, etc, etc...

Normally my schedule throughout a week goes something to the effect of: work -> gym and/or softball -> sleep -> rinse and repeat. However I always hit periods of time where I just have a TON of crap to do. Some interesting changes I've been going through lately:

1. I got picked up for a stage show recently and was a late addition so I had to just jump full-bore straight into the rehearsal process. This has sucked up a major amount of my time.

2. Hockey season is starting. My first hockey season. My agility on the skates is coming along nicely and I'm actually getting some puck-handling skills fairly quickly. I'm glad that I had finely found some general athletic ability when I was in my mid-20's. With the impending hockey season, I have had some late-night pick up practices here and there thrown in during the week.

3. My new job has me working about 110% more time each week when compared to last year's job.

4. I was never into the idea of creatine because I had always heard of it being used to bulk and just build muscle. Because I had never learned exactly what it was supposed to do and don't often hear about people trying to build lean mass in general, I wasn't interested in using it. (I know, there are lots of people out there that want to build lean muscle instead of bulk, but they're not in the majority and their definitely not the ones I usually hear talking about anything related to lifting and exercise.) So I recently read a little about creatine and how it was supposed to work. To me it sounds like it should be GREAT for people that are trying to build endurance, speed, quickness and lean muscle mass. Everything I want. (It also works for bulk muscle depending on how you structure your work out, obviously.) I started a creatine regimen for about two weeks to see the effects. While working on a toning routine that I developed, I cut fat and increased strength in, what I considered, dramatic strides. I did, however, put on some quick and significant weight. That wasn't exactly what I was going for, but that doesn't mean this was a failure. I'm not sure that I bulked up at all during this time period. And I have yet to evaluate whether or not my speed has been affected. I definitely have toned in my trouble zones, so that's a bonus. I also, fell off of my exercise and creatine regimen as soon as I started working (actually about a week before). So now I need to get myself more creatine and try this again.

5. I have still been playing regularly in weekend softball tournaments even though summer league is over. This has been helping me keep up a little on cardio since I'm a speed , not power, player.

With all of this, I haven't been at the gym much. I am not in a set cardio routine. I don't even have a very good eating schdule because sometimes I either don't have time to cook or don't feel like it when I have the time. Luckily I haven't been using that as an excuse to eat in too unhealthy of a manner, but that means that sometimes I'm just not eating enough at all. I guess it helps with the fat lost, unfortunately I'm worried about what my strength is going to be like next time I lift if I'm at this for too long.

Moral of the story? Get creatine. Get to the gym. Set a workout schedule.

This year at work, we decided that our theme would be "Accountability". I work with teenagers and a sense accountability these days with teens these days is negligible at best. During pre-school-year meetings we discussed accountability, how to emphasize it throughout the year with the kids. A major component of accountability is consequences, negative, positive or otherwise. So we had several in depth discussions about consequences as well. I noticed something interesting about our conversations regarding accountability and consequences. They were always student-centered. Such is the nature of our business, so it's not a major surprise. Also, teenagers, in general, tend to be less responsible. They neglect their responsibilities and often don't own the consequences which is what lead to these discussions in the first place. However, I tried to have us all keep in mind that adults need to be and work on being accountable as well. This goes for all adults, not just those working with children.

To get to the point, I started to consider the direct consequences of teacher interactions with students. A bad math teacher can cause a student to hate math for the rest of their lives and assume that they are not and never will be any good at it. The ways in which a teacher deals with an at-risk student could tip the scales in favor of destructive or inspirational behavior. I have seen this, first hand, work both ways. But people are often blind of the affects of even the smallest actions and the potential magnitude of their affects.

A precocious teen was working on an assignment where she was required to write about her feelings toward and an experience with mathematics. She recounted that when she was in second grade she was sat in a position where she could not see the white board. Because of this, she never learned the new material as it was presented and thought that everyone else knew it. This killed her self-esteem with regards to the subject. She thought that everyone else was smarter than her and that she was the only one that didn't get it, so she must have been unintelligent. She flat out assumed that she was not capable of learning math. This was a simple (and oft-made) oversight by her teacher and lead to 8 years of belief that she is incapable of learning. And as simple of a mistake as it may seem, the impact was so profound that this tenth grader still recounts it immediately as the most significant experience in her mathematics education.

As always happens, work starts again and I get hellishly busy. Got some free time as it appears will be a frequent ocurrence on Fridays, so I really need to get in the habit of writing more.

Some random bits of information that nobody but me will care about:

1. Some of the ways the b2evolution is organized (specifically regarding finding certain posts or functionality options) is REALLY annoying.
2. Having to work harder for a job that pays less isn't a very good motivator.
3. I REALLY need to get back to work on my personal business. I took a break due to a slowed market, then got crazy busy with other stuff and now my routine is ridiculously out of whack. Holy crap do I need to get back to real work so I can stop complaining about number 2.

Nobody cares, but I feel like writing. Played 6 league games last week then went to Greenville for a tournament. We finished fourth the first time at Greenville with this team which is a pretty big deal around here. Luckily league play is winding down and it looks like I only have 4 games this week before heading to Yuba City this coming weekend and back to Greenville for co-ed the following weekend.

Last weekend I got on base 14 times and probably ran 35 times as I was one of the three fastest players and we had three people that needed CR at any given moment in a game. Couple this with playing outfield all 6 games and that's a ton of running. But I felt on fire. I was definitely the fastest I had been on the bases all year, even by game 6. Several shortstops and third basemen didn't even bother to throw the ball when I hit there way. It felt great. Of course, starting Monday, I was back to normal and not feeling so hot. I really need to get some rest and recovery in so I can rebuild these damn legs and then be ready for YC.

After the co-ed tourney in Greenville, I'm off to Tahoe for vacation. that's what I'm really looking forward to. I love running and I love ball, but my body is screaming for a break and it really won't get a good one until then. I'm also trying to figure out when I can squeeze in a lifting session or more over the next two weeks. And did I mention that my swing needs a major overhaul still? Summers are crazy and I get too complacent during the winter. I may just have my fall managers take me out of the lead off position and resign myself to a lower batting avg. for a couple of months while I work out the new swing... all during fall hockey.

I need more time in my day.

I'm listening to the latest mixes of two songs that we were working on in the studio today. We have some final touches to take care of still and then we have several more songs to finish up.

There's some blatantly narcissistic about spending 3 and a half hours listening to your own voice. It's been a very humbling experience for me most of the time, but today I just felt like some guy that puts his own drawings on his own fridge at home and admires them. But, I am not lacking in vanity, narcissism nor shallowness, so I guess I'm in the right business here.

It wasn't terribly exciting other than the fact that I actually have, in my possession, two tracks that actually sound like music for once. It was just me and Doug, our engineer because Jon our bassist didn't get up in time to catch a ride with me. I'm still feeling out a lot of things in this band so I'm hoping that I did the band a solid today with the work I did with Doug.

Now I just have to rip them on my computer and burn a couple CDs for the band mates and hopefully we'll be moving pretty good. I also hope we get another show lined up soon because we're all getting antsy. Which reminds me, I have a couple people a need to talk to about working that out in hopefully a few newer venues.

In my last post, I discussed how the value of the Euro in relation to the US Dollar was bouncing off support and how this coincided with the major market averages and the Elliott Wave patterns observed within.

Since then the Dow moved up 516 points over three days. If this is the correction phase of an Elliott Wave pattern, then we should at some point reach a new high in the Dow lower than 11,205. At the writing of this post, the Dow and the S&P 500 appear to be forming a bearish harami candlestick pattern. This could be the signal of the reversal for the next down leg of the correction. I am a little more interested in the NASDAQ right now, however.

NASDAQ If you look at the last candlestick pattern on the chart, there is a tail that formed, penetrating the 30-day moving average. Then the price moved below it's open. If this pattern holds throughout the day, we could look for confirmation tomorrow of this reversal signal.

Further down the road, remember that this may be leading to the end of the correction before moving into another upward trend. However, a while back I wrote about the wave pattern exhibited by the 2-year Dow chart with week-long periods. Looking back at that chart, we may be approaching the end of a larger Elliott Wave ascent. In this case, the next weekly low would just be the A portion of a longer corrective phase. In this case we could be looking at a more prolonged overall bearish market. This is another reason why many fund managers have been saying they've been looking for the safer plays and to protect their capital. Some are even moving temporarily into the bond market.

At the writing of this blog entry, it appears that the Euro is reaching its first level of support that it will actually bounce off of in its descent. If you look at the following charts for FX EUR/USD and the ETF that tracks euro / us dollar trades FXE, you will see that today appears to be reversing the very steep slide of the Euro that's been fueled by the Greek economic collapse and subsequent EU bail out.

EUR/USD trade comparison.

The actual values aren't important for the purposes of this blog post. Notice that yesterdays closing low is about equal to today's opening low as the value of the Euro rises. This means that FOREX traders are interested in buying the euro again.

FXE - CurrencyShares Euro Trust ETF

Not even midday through trading and you may notice that volume is already WELL above the average trading volume for this ETF. And the reversal at this point seems pretty strong.

Much of the recent race to the bottom in the market the past few days has been spurred by the declining Euro and ascending US Dollar. That's why it's important to see this reversal pattern today. For the time being, it is wholly possible that the descent has been put on hold. However, be aware of a number of things. The market was due for a moderate correction and this is likely that. Also, the declining Euro was due primarily to economic troubles in Greece that are FAR from rectified. This is also a time of year that is historically under-productive with regards to stock prices. Add into that the trade error that caused a 1000-point error in the DOW yesterday and we have a very nervous investor populace.

That being said, I think that it's key for people to look for the next high point and then begin the process of looking into more short or bearish positions. With the soaring VIX there is a fortune to be made in options trades. Some people were able to capitalize on other huge moves yesterday just as Jim Cramer explained.

Another option is the bond market. If you look at TLT and IEF, two ETFs that follow 20+ year and 7-10 year bonds respectively, you will notice that the steep decline in stocks coincided with huge gains in the bond market. After spiking yesterday, you will notice that bonds are pulling back today as the market reverses some of its negative movement. You can be sure that if and when stocks resume their descent, the bond market will move inversely and this can provide investors with a long investment opportunity.

21 games in 19 days. When I finish my last game of the week tonight, that will be the count. Normally that would tire me out, but normally I'd have played in the fall and played in a few tournaments during the off season. Normally I would have played a lot more tournaments in the summer. I've just been so busy and my schedule has been so weird this past year and a half that I haven't done any of those things. I have been working out a lot, but that's no substitution for the real thing.

It doesn't really sound that much considering it's just softball. But if you figure I average 4 at bats per game, sprint on average just around 80 feet per at bat (I think at a modest estimate) plus run in the field regularly. That well over a mile in just sprinting alone over a period of less than three weeks. That just adds up. Especially when my muscles aren't really accustomed to that exact kind of use.

My metabolism has been through the roof trying to work through this change. I've been eating nonstop. And I'm still losing weight and trimming fat (not that this is a bad thing.) So in the mornings I have been d-e-a-d. So tired...

I've been saying for several months now that Apple is the new Microsoft. I mean that in pretty much every way, good and bad. Here are two articles which more or less cover everything I have been telling friends.

Why Everyone's Afraid of Apple

Feds to look at Apple policy on programming tools

The second article is just an informational piece while the first is more editorial. I wanted to talk a little about the second just to add my own editorial bit to it.

The government may be investigating whether or not Apple's recent policy to require only use of their own developer tools for third party program development. The question being whether or not this policy prevents competition and would therefore be in violation of anti-trust laws. Regardless of the legality, it definitely stifles creative competition if not market competition. First I will say that it sounds remarkably similar to the legal issues that Microsoft once faced for required use of the MSIE browser. Secondly I don't really care about the legal aspect of it, at least from the legal point of view. I'm not generally a fan of support or protest of something simply because of it's legality.

I understand that Apple has been apple to made this leap to the front of the pack over the past couple of years due, in part, to the huge level of security and stability provided by its products. One way to help maintain product stability is to maintain strict development standards and impose those upon third party developers as well. This is one thing that Apple has definitely done right. It worked before they had such a large market share and it will continue to work as they Pacman more of the market share.

That same strategy can also be used for pure monetary gain. Restricting use of certain third party programs can definitely be used as a way to generate or, at the very least, control money. Hold no illusions, Apple is keenly aware of this as they are a business and their goal is to make money. That's how business works. It is not bad for a company to want to make money. It is not bad for a company to want to make more money. We live in a capitalist country and that is how it works. The question is whether or not the strategies for making money are ethical or really good for a business in the end.

First off, I believe that when someone buys a product, it is there property. In a pure setting, they should be able to do whatever the heck they please with it. Should people be able to manufacture meth out of cold pills? No, but if there weren't issues that affected other people in that example, I'd say yes. I don't care if other people take meth. Yes, I care if they neglect their children. I care if their garage blows up and burns down a neighbors house, but in the pure sense, I don't care if they use their own property to ruin their own lives. If someone buys an iPhone and wants to use it to shovel cat litter box, I could care less. So when Apple says that third party programs are completely disallowed unless approved by them (and now developed with their tools) I have a problem with that. Sure, there is the chance (and real likelihood) that unapproved third party programs could (and in many cases will) decrease stability and therefore quality of the product. But I don't care. The second Apple sells one of their iPads to someone, they might as well be used as a Maxi Pad for all I care. It is not Apple's property anymore. Beyond that, as far as ethics is concerned, Apple has given themselves the power to decide who can and cannot profit off of their product. In a free market, anyone should be able to profit off of any product. The second you control who profits off of something, politics becomes involved. You have the power to decide whether or not competition can profit, whether or not friends and family can profit. Whether or not entire groups of people can profit.

The other issue I have with Apple is that they seem to be getting complacent with their seat at the top (or near the top depending on how you look at it). There are many features that are absent on a lot of their products. They are simple features and it seems to me (purely speculatively) that the only reason for their absence is due to a laziness to write stable code for them. How long did it take before they allowed multimedia messages on the iPhone? I believe there were stability concerns and/or a desire to lock in a software company into a lucrative contract to develop third-party software for such a feature. Either way, it seemed like Apple was just sitting on their thumbs until it looked like either another company would profit from unapproved software or they might lose customers after complaints went unheeded.

Another small is example is contact groups in the iPhone. They don't exist. You can buy an approved app for $4.99 - $9.99 depending on the maker. Where do you buy it? The Apple iTunes store. Apple wouldn't make a cent off of that feature if they put it on the phones themselves. I have had a cell phone with contact groups since 2000 and I'm sure many cell phones had them before, that's just the first time I bought one.

The long and the short is, as an investor, I like Apple. As a consumer, I'm just waiting for the next big thing to come along and fill the void left by Microsoft's decline and Apple's complacency. I still own an iPod and and iPhone. Overall they are some of the best products in their respective categories. But they leave a LOT of room for a savvy competitor to come along and simply market a better product.

Ok, I'm going to get a little political in this post. Fair warning.

I want to talk a little bit about the mechanics of currency value and FOREX trading. A dollar has a definite value and a relative value. For example, if you can buy a gallon of milk for a dollar, then a definite value of 1 gallon of milk can be applied to that dollar. The dollar also has a value related to other currencies. Since there are many other currencies in the world, the relative value of the dollar can be very complex. If you want a general idea of the relative value of the US Dollar, you can look at the performance of the Powershares US Dollar ETF UUP.

You could also look at the exchange rate between the dollar and other currencies that are used as common grounds for comparison. The Euro and the Yen are two that I check regularly (as in almost daily). Below are two ETFs that track those exchange rates.

The Euro: FXE
The Yen: FXY

Today fears about the economic crisis in Greece, mainly those of investors that any attempts to dig them out of their hole will fail at least in the short term, drove the value of the Euro way down. The way this happens is FOREX holders start selling their Euros because they want a currency that they think will be more stable or valuable. Typically that currency is the dollar. So today, the value of the Euro dropped dramatically and the dollar shot up. I'm just going to get to the goods regarding links about today's events.

Greek Bailout Flop
US STOCKS-Wall St tumbles on fear Greek crisis could spread
Tumbling stocks, stronger dollar drive down oil
Terrible Tuesday: Dow Plunges 225 on Global Jitters

Before I give the short rundown on the message of the articles above and most of the other articles out today, I want to warn you again that I will shortly be pulling out my soapbox. That being said, the general consensus in the media is one of fear. Primarily investor fear at this point, but when investor fear is conveyed through popular media outlets, non-investors read this. The reason for the fear is the rise in the value of the dollar. Sounds like a good thing doesn't it? So why is there a reported air of fear? Why have stock prices drop? And wait a second. Did they say oil prices dropped? Isn't that a good thing?

Here's what happens when the us dollar moves. As the value of the dollar goes up, it takes fewer dollars to buy a particular stock. That is, a $50 share of Company-X yesterday may only cost $45 today because those 45 today-dollars are worth as much as 50 yesterday-dollars. So the only person that takes a real loss in this scenario is the people buying the dollar. I live in America. Most of you reading this probably do as well. You already have dollars and your next paycheck will be cashed into dollars. Therefore, your money just gave you more buying power. Think of that stock like the gallon of milk I used earlier as an example. If yesterday you could buy that milk for $1, today you'd only have to spend 90 cents. You'd have just earned 10 cents by being a non-investor living in the United States.

This is an important point. Because a lot of people hear about this Dow thingy and when it goes up, people have money and jobs. When it goes down, we don't have money. This is partly true, but the parts that are not true about that assumption are always left out of these scare articles. First of all, the Dow is only 1 of countless measures of the strength of an economy and the living standards of a people.

In the case of the US Dollar strength moving, rising dollar equals lower stock prices equals lower market indexes. Yes, lower stock prices lose some investors money. But higher dollar values MAKE non-investors money! Simply put today's results were as follows: Wall Street = Sad; Blue Collar = Happy.

Unfortunately for you, business owners are Wall Street. Specifically big business owners. Some of those business owners also own fancy studios with really big transmitters and employ people that sit in front of a camera and spread fear -- I mean, the news. If their bottom line is hurt because they have money tied up in other currencies or stocks and now they have to pay more in assets to get the pricier dollars back, they talk about their horrible losses and how they have to raise prices to make it through these "tough economic times".

So let's go back to the gallon of milk. Imagine that $1 gallon of milk was now only were 90 of your today-cents as I recently described. Well, the dairy conglomerate selling the milk claims very openly (especially through it's sister network news company) that it's profit margins are hurting and they need to cut corners and raise prices ever so modestly. The math is going to get a little messy here, but I'll try and make it a simple rundown by the end. You got paid a dollar last week. Milk cost a dollar then. Today your dollar is worth more so the gallon of milk should only cost you 90 cents. However, to try and offset costs and losses that they took from the rising dollar - falling stocks relationship, they figure their customer base can handle a "modest" 10 cent raise in the price of a gallon of milk. So now they charge $1.10. "It's ok, it's only 10 cents," you say, but remember, your dollar is now worth more because you were NOT investing in stocks. As a non-investor, you were unknowingly investing in the dollar. So it's not just a 10 cent price raise. They raised the price 20 cents. (You should have only had to pay 90 cents for the milk.)

Milk Yesterday: $1.00
Milk This Morning: $0.90
Milk After Price Hike: $1.10

Yesterday's milk price is a red herring. It doesn't apply anymore. Big business just knows they can use it as a distraction to keep you from noticing they just increased their prices 22%, not 10% like they would have you believe. So you, the non-investor who should have profited 10% now lose money. All because you listen to the news and believe that in these tough times everyone just needs to tighten their belts and makes sacrifices. Are the CEO's making sacrifices? Ask yourself that.

My body, primarily in my legs, is exhausted today. I had been working out pretty regularly at 5 days a week for 2 hours or more each day before taking vacation in Mexico. When I came back I was pretty busy, so I wasn't getting to the gym as much, but I was still active. On top of this, softball season has started and I managed to get into tournaments right off the bat.

Last weekend was my second weekend in a row when I played in a tournament. First tournament was one day, 4 game guarantee. It beat me up a bit. Left me dehydrated and legs tight for a couple of days. Last weekend was a 6 game guarantee over 2 days. My team played 7, I played 6 of them over the course of the two days. My feet, hamstrings and knees are dying right now.

I am by no means in bad shape. In fact, I still jogged a 15-minute two mile warm up to start my last workout. Usually my gauge for the shape I'm in is off of how winded (or not) I am after my warm up run. I felt great. But running over the weekend reminded me of a simple unavoidable fact in fitness. The human body is an extremely efficient machine.

What I mean is that your body conditions itself in repetition to meet the needs of it's use in the most efficient ways possible. If you bench press 100 pounds every day for 4 months, it will build muscle in a way that will use the least amount of energy possible to due so with the least amount of damage to the muscle. All physical activity works the same way. For example, I have had years where I was running for an hour a day before lifting weights. Then when winter would roll around, I would be winded after just 40 minutes of snowboarding. 40 minutes of letting gravity work on me and I'd feel like a fat kid chasing a twinkie on a string.

This is what happened these last two weekends. I had been staying "in shape" and been running regularly. In fact, 2 months ago I actually increased my cardio to cut extra fat and bulk muscle, work on my run speed and get my breathing better. However, come softball season, 6 straight games of running bases and the outfield jest destroyed me. This is because the best training for any activity is that activity. No matter what kind of cardio I did -- invervals, distance, sprints -- it wasn't the same as playing a game, let alone 6 of them.

This is the plateau. The best thing for my workout routine right now was breaking it up with softball. My legs were working harder and my metabolism shot through the roof.

My mistakes? It's softball, I got myself dehydrated. I drank beer over the weekend and didn't take in nearly enough water. To top that off, I had caffeine before my morning games to wake up. What did I do right? I made sure I got lots of good proteins and carbs before during and after all my games.

Moral of the story? Mix it up. When you hit a plateau or your body's in a rut, find something new.

Link: http://www.e-wavecharts.com/

I just found this link while looking for information to post on a blog entry and thought it was worth sharing. I literally found it seconds before posting this entry, so I am currently unsure as to exactly how valuable it will be overall, but what struck me at first was the table at the top of the index page that tells you short-term, medium-term and long-term postures of the major markets based on Elliott Wave analysis.

E-WaveCharts.com

Edit: The few Elliott Wave analysis on the main page isn't up to date. It's a sample that is a couple of days old. The only real way to see exactly what they provide is to sit through a 5 min flash slide show that I was unable to speed up, skip or rewind. So I wasn't sure exactly how to find out exactly what it was you were paying for with the service without sitting for 5 minutes staring a moving pictures. It would be nice if they had a free 1-day trial or something. I am also not a fan of websites that only accept Paypal as appears to be the case with this site. However, from what I have seen about this site, it seems novel and relatively well put together. Just don't think it's going to offer everything I might want considering I could just check for waves by site while looking at the major market charts.

Anyway, still wanted to leave the link up for people who are interested.

Just a heads up: on the last two blogs entries in which I spoke of the Dow pulling back or consolidating, be aware that I only discussed one market average. It is important to keep in mind that you should use as much information as you have available when making investment decisions. When using the MFC (Market Forecast Chart) as a tool, you should look at the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 or whatever other averages are going to be closely related to a particular industry in which you plan to invest.

Also consider the actual chart data you're looking at in conjunction with other technicals and fundamentals.