memoryloot

This past weekend I was at a wedding party and eventually the party diverted their attention to a friendly game of Monopoly. Even though we lost (it was a couples game), I had alot of fun. It reminded me how this game is so beneficial to kids. The basics of capitalism is creatively captured and day to day math skills are necessary to succeed in this game and in real-life.

Unfortunately Parker Brothers decided to make a disastrous change in this game, in my opinion. Instead of the funny money that we were all accustomed to, they are using Visa credit cards and computerized calculators. The management of cash flow and money was the main focus of this game. I mean seriously. What are we trying to teach kids these days? Its already bad to see your mom and dad pull out the plastic to buy crap that they can’t afford, but to have that confirmed in a board game is out right sickening. Its no wonder people are up to their necks in debt in this country. I guess this was inevitable since so many people out there are putting everything on credit. It’s just sad to realize that a whole generation of Monopoly players will forget about cash and depend solely on credit.

For all the riders out there, if you don’t normally ride to work on a Wednesday, make sure you do it tomorrow. It is the 15th Annual Ride To Work Day. This will raise awareness of all the motorcycles out there and show the benefits of reduced traffic congestion as well as reminding all the drivers in cars that they share the roads with motorcyclists. So if you have a bike go out there and ride on the 19th of July.

All my funds came over from Vanguard last week into my Scottrade account. I finally positioned myself in the following ETFs: SHY, XLE, and GLD. Because Scottrade’s cash position did not have any money market that came close to the yield of 4+% from my old money market fund, SHY was a recommended position. Its basically some a bond fund consisting of US Treasury Notes yielding between 2.6-4.7%. Its a relatively safe ETF which pays out monthly dividends yielding about 4.2+%. I’m 75% in SHY while the remaining 25% was split between XLE and GLD. XLE is my energy play whereas GLD is my position in gold. Both XLE and GLD performed well today. They’re both poised for a potentially higher trend with both being above their 200 day MA and right at their 50 day MA as well as making newer highs. Sitting in cash in my 401K is rather dull, but I’m waiting for more positive signs to move into the right position.

Its been awhile since I got so many consecutive days off. What began the weekend with a great Radiohead concert, ended with fireworks and some time with friends.

Saturday night spent sometime playing so poker. Again I lost only one buy-in. I was up alot but seem to lose all my gainings in the last 30 minutes of play to Greg. This has happened probably the last 3 times I’ve played with the guy. Again, minimizing the loss was still maintained.

Sunday night I spent with my college buddies with some good BBQ and drinking games. We played a few drinking games and polished away more than half of the beer that was brought. The food was delicious and the creme brulee was prepared by Prince and Sandy. They sure know fine dining. Also congrats to them on their engagement. Like I’ve said before, this is the year is the year of engagements, weddings, and babies. The night ended with a couple of hours of fragging on Halo 2. It was fun to get reacquainted with that game. Makes me want to buy a 360 more. I must hold off on that purchase until the end of the bachelor party this year.

Monday was spent watching Superman Returns and dining out at Outbacks Steakhouse in Long Beach. Yes, a Fourth of July weekend at an Australian themed restaurant. The party moved on to a karaoke bar in Garden Grove where we sang the night away or until midnight or so. Superman by-the-way, was great! It really went back to the roots of Superman and made it better.

Tonight, we went to the local 4th of July fair in Long Beach. This featured much of your carnival games, rides, and food. Oh the food was fantastic! We had some taquitos, tacos, and elotes asados (roasted corn on a stick). Washed it all down with a cup of horchata and a churro for dessert. Yes your traditional Mexican meal on the 4th of July. As you can tell that’s pretty much what the 4th should represent. The many different culture that has been integrated to the daily lives of people in America. The fireworks was pretty disappointing this year. First of all, we thought the fireworks was going to be launched from Queen Mary. Instead it was launched somewhere out side near the coast. It was pretty far away and the palm trees were hiding parts of the show. It was a very lack-luster display. We saw better fireworks on the way back from Long Beach. All in all, a rather mild ending to my long weekend.

Unfortunately, I failed to bring a camera to all the events mentioned above. No pictures for now. I’ve just haven’t been my phototaking self these days.

Our time finally came last night. We were finally going to see Radiohead with other like-minded fans. Our journey started from West LA at 16:30 and ended on Hillhurst and Los Feliz at 18:20 (that’s LA traffic for you!). We decided to grab some dinner at Lousie’s. The meal was okay for $35. Like Lex said, the beer made it worthwhile. We started our walk from the base of the hill a little after 19:00. We decided to forgo the $10 stacked parking for street parking on Hillhurst, which was a much better option since we would have never knew when we got our cars. I suggest doing the same if you ever go watch a show at the Greek Theatre. It was a 1/2 mile hike up the hill which only took about 15 minutes.

It was 19:40 when we grab some drinks and found our seats on the South Terrace level at Row B Seat 28 and 26. We were to the band’s left. The venue was much smaller than I thought and the bugs were a-plenty! When 20:00 came along, the opening band, Deerhoof came out to perform. The trio consisted of 2 tall caucasian and 1 little asian girl. I’m inclined to say she was probably Japanese because when she sang, actually more like made funny noises, she sounded like a Japanese anime character with their cute pitch. They played for about an hour. Some songs were pretty good while others was pretty odd.

The crowds lathargically filed into their seats. It was not until 23:10 when the stadium began to resemble a sold out concert and the skies over Griffith Park began to dim. The stage crew in the mean-time was setting up all the instruments for the band. Suddenly the lights goes out and the sets began!

Playlist was as followed:

01 Airbag
02 The National Anthem
03 There There
04 15 Step
05 Exit Music
06 Bodysnatchers
07 My Iron Lung
08 Nude
09 Videotape
10 I Might Be Wrong
11 Climbing Up The Walls
12 All I Need
13 Pyramid Song
14 Spooks
15 Idioteque
16 Myxomatosis
17 Bangers ‘n Mash
18 Bones

Encore 1
19 Like Spinning Plates
20 Fake Plastic Trees
21 Down Is The New Up
22 Paranoid Android

Encore 2
23 House of Cards
24 True Love Waits
25 Everything In Its Right Place

More details of the sets can be found here on ateaseweb.com. The most moving song IMO was Fake Plastic Trees where the crowd was basically singing along. Paranoid Android was another one I remembered where the highs and lows brought the crowds to frenzy and calmly lulled them down.

We quickly exited the show and walked down the hill with the rest of the crowd. I was exhausted from standing the whole time. My knees started to buckle a little towards the end of the show, but the walked certainly helped.