Happy Halloween

I hope you like our new digs here at Blogger. The transition was not as smooth as anticipated. The video clips transferred (with one exception) flawlessly but many of the pictures required further formatting. The biggest problem with the transfer has to do with blog posts that link to other blog posts – while the posts transferred without a problem, the links did not update to reflect the new linked posts on Blogger.

I wish everyone a happy Halloween tomorrow. Those of you in the Chapel Hill area may want to exercise extra caution if you encounter a McCain/Pain yard sign while trick or treating. Apparently the local liberals (that’s almost a redundancy given the political persuasions of the people in this area) have been doing such a good job at targeting the signs that some owners have taken extraordinary measures to protect them.

New URL for this blog

Please redirect your web browsers to http://buckyhoo.blogspot.com. The entirety of this blog will be transferred to that site and future updates will be made there.

 

Let’s keep our fingers crossed that all contents (especially the photos and videos) will transfer smoothly. See you on the other side.

Urgent programming note

I learned recently that AOL Journal will be permanently shutdown as part of AOL’s decision to focus on services that are on the profitable side of its corporate profit and loss statement. Due to that decision, this internet address will cease to function starting November 1.

 

Fortunately the contents of this blog, including pictures, videos, and reader comments, will be migrated over to a new address hosted by Blogger. I have yet to decide when to make the migration because Blogger is still working out some bugs related to the transfer.

 

Unfortunately, it does not look like traffic will automatically be forwarded from the current address (http://journals.aol.com/buckyhoo/UNC/) onto the new one. Therefore when the new address has been determined, I will post it here.

 

Please make sure you check back prior to November 1, when the current address will be permanently disabled, to get the new address. After November 1, you can get the new address by emailing me at buckyhoo AT aol DOT com or by doing a Google Blog Search for buckyhoo.

 

Thanks for your patience. I know I have not been the most diligent blogger of late but I do appreciate the readers who continue to check back periodically.

"You really went down the toilet on that ugly b*tch"

Right before I left "work" today, I looked at the stock market to assess the wreckage on Wall Street. For some reason, regardless of how bad things get, quoting my favorite movie always makes me feel better.

Woman marries manger

Once a resume coach talk told me about the importance of not completely relying on Microsoft Word’s spell checker to spell check my resume. He said “you’d be surprised how many people have worked as a senior manger.”

I came across one such person today in the Wall Street Journal. He works for Consolidated Edison and his wife has just celebrated her fiftieth birthday.

Reversal of fortune

I apologize for having been delinquent in my blogging activities. For the past two weeks I had been so caught up in following the events of the Democrat and Republican National Conventions that I have had little time for everything else.

 

Earlier today when I was at “work,” I logged into my Roth IRA account. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the position I took last summer in the Panera Bread Company had hit my target sell price and was sold in accordance to my limit order. This was particularly good news considering that two months after I bought the stock, I blogged about not liking the direction it had gone, especially in comparison to Chipotle Mexican Grill. In the months since that blog posting, both stocks continued their trajectories. But eventually Panera staged a comeback and looking back, it was a smart move to choose Panera over Chipotle.

 

Goes to show that I am still pretty screwed about predicting financial instruments, my Tim Pawlenty prediction (previous post) notwithstanding.

Pawlenty to be McCain’s running mate, according to futures market

The major news outlets, including the Drudge Report, have yet to report the identity of Senator McCain’s vice presidential running mate but within the past hour Intrade.com has seen a spike in the futures of Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and a parallel drop in those of Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

This is one of the most useful demonstration of the power of information and the futures market that I have seen in a very long time. While I like Pawlenty and think it's an excellent choice, I am a bit disturbed about what Intrade.com is also telling us about the likely winner of the election in November.