April 15, 2005

it’s economics, baby.

i’ve been keeping track of stocks and the market at large for the last several months, but the last three weeks real seriously. the market was way down today. it’s been slowly going down. until today when the dow lost 191 points. the s&p 500 lost 19.43. it’s interesting the companies that where up (of the ones i track): streettracks gold [GLD], johnson & johnson [JNJ], micromuse inc [MUSE] and starbucks [SBUX]. i’m pretty diverse in my tracking; energy companies, tech, banks, food, car manufactures, etc. and those were the only ones that were up.

today, being tax day, probably meant that people were cashing out like crazy to pay their taxes. but why did those select companies see positive numbers? i know, from a buddhist standpoint (and maybe the only one that makes any sense), the explanation is karma. but on a conventional level, why these guys? where’s krugman

when you need him?

posted @ 10:11 PM

April 11, 2005

day two

day two in the 5th wheel. (4/2/04)

undecided on whether or not we can full-time. as christina says, “it would be different in our own place because then we could move in more.”

we would definitely choose a different layout. we’re looking for a class A or class C motorhome, which has a pretty standard layout; queen bed in back, bathroom and kitchen towards the middle, galley towards the front with a cab-over sleeping area. i think that’s a good design for us. the 5th wheel goes like this; galley in back, bathroom and kitchen in the middle, queen bed upstairs — and yes, there really are stairs.

from the technical side it’s been rough going. the refrigerator doesn’t seem to want to get cold (probably because we aren’t perfectly level). the grey water tank was full after one day. the water hose connection seems to be screwy and not properly connecting. i’ve been wet nearly all day. i’ve read that after a couple of days you work out all the kinks and it goes smooth after that.

but christina doesn’t think we can get jobs quite as easily as i think we can. she’s probably right. but i think we are both very hirable and we have a good work ethic. then again, i’m highly optimistic about things i want to work. i tend to think it’s just a mind over matter thing. and i think therefore i am, so it must be true. hopefully.

posted @ 7:31 PM