Well, I am certainly paying attention! Especially right now with what’s going on with Russia and the Ukraine. I’ve learned enough in the last ten years to know that when what could be a major war is about to break out, stock markets usually plummet. And they did!!
I sold my bitcoin at $45K and look what happened. Right now it’s at $38,046. I’ll keep watching it as the news overthere gets reported. I don’t think it will go under $35K, and if it starts creeping back up, I’ll buy in again at $40K.
To just ignore your investments because you have blind faith in it is not a healthy stratagy for anyone, even if you are a Winklevoss.
Now that I’ve pulled out for the time being while we see what happens in the world, I’ll be mailing some donation checks to share the wealth that I’ve made, and hopefully do a little bit of good.
This is going to sound wrong at first, but I can feel for the web designer who doesn’t want to work for a gay couple. But I would want proof that the work would go against the WD’s religious beliefs. My biggest question would be: What is the name of your church so I can verify your religious standing? I think that too many people are using religion as an excuse to not work with same-sex couples, or gay people in general, because it’s easy, and nobody is really going to check.
However, if you open a public business, it is against the law to discriminate based on the federally protected classes. You have to assume, and acknowledge, that at some point in time you may have to work with a class of people you’d rather not.
Can a gay coffee shop owner refuse service to women? No. Can an Asian dry cleaner refuse service to black customers? No. Can a grocery store refuse service to a person with Down Syndrome? Absolutely NOT!!
I think that the Supreme Court needs to finally draw a line in the sand for business owners. It’s either your religion, or the business. Take your pick.
There are millions of businesses out there that do just fine without the discrimination. Losing one or two because of their defiance to state and federal laws isn’t going to hurt the town, city, county, state, or country. If you want to open a business to serve the public, then you can’t pick and choose which public you are going to serve, and which you are not.
Yes, I do care about religion. I don’t go to church every Sunday. When asked what religion I belong to I say “The Church of Infinate Pasta”. I enjoy reading, and watching YouTube videos about “Is there a God”, and “Early Christians”, and I love watching the History Channel documentaries about Christ and before when they show them around Christmas time. But am I firm believer in Christ and God? That’s hard to say. And for another post. But yes, I do believe there was a person named Jesus in Israel about 2000 years ago. At least that much isn’t to hard to believe.
But summing up on our web designer: He needs to lose his case. He put himself out there in the public domain to design websites. He MUST follow state and federal anti-discrimination laws or be shut down. It’s that simple. Well, to me it’s that simple anyway. Follow the law, or pay the price.
I don’t normally watch videos that have this kind of description when I come across them, but this time I was curious to find out what this girls “#1 Rule in Crypto Investing” was. I’ve got to tell you that I totally agree with her.
She is right that people are generating a lifetime worth of wealth, and even generaions worth of wealth. I should know, because I am one of the ones who have generations of wealth in just 11 years of investing in bitcoin. My parents and my younger brother wont have anything to worry about financially for the rest of their lives. And my brother is only 14 right now.
She is correct in saying that the purpose of investing is to live our lives as richly as possible for the short amount of time we have to live, which can come to an end at any moment. Hey, I could get run over by a Metro Bus tomorrow!
When I first got into bitcoin in 2011 I mainly did it as a gimiky thing, but I saw the potential. So I put in enough ($10,000) that if it fell flat I wouldn’t lose everything I had. Then I sat on it for years!
I watched as the price of BTC climbed over $100 making me a millionair and pretty much freaking me out at the same time. I watched then as it rose to over $200, $300, $500, $1,000! I was now worth $10M. Fuck Me, somebody pinch me! But since I could tell that BTC was still on the rise, I stayed in, not taking out any of that profit that I had made.
I actually didn’t make my first bitcoin sell until December of 2017. It had just hit $19K and I couldn’t feel that it was going to hit 20. There was just NO WAY!! And I’m glad I did.
I didn’t get back into the market until July of 2019. All that while it just kept going down, and down, and down until I almost figured that bitcoin had been a one time fad. But then then the more I read about it, and watched videos from respected investors, I came to belive that it was going to be MORE than just a fad, but an actual way to do business.
Believing in it is something I’d done since my first purchase back in 2011. Sure, I thought it was a gimiky thing, but I could understand the premise behind it. By the time I was working for a bank just after high school for about six months, I understood why bitcoin wanted to be decenterilized and not be controlled by a bank. Banks had to many rules. They watched where your money was coming from and going to if you had a transaction over $10K. They could freeze your accounts, they had way to many fees, and they dictated who could borrow money or not. It was not a very friendly system, and I left. Hello Pizza Hut! LOL
The funny thing about working at the bank and at Pizza Hut is the fact that at the time I really didn’t realize that I didn’t have to. I was already a multimillionaire several times over and here I was still living at home (didn’t move out till I was 23), and working a minimum wage job (with good tips), living paycheck to paycheck. Is that just stupid or what?
That came to an end in 2017 after that first sale and realized what I’d been doing. I gave the PH manager a 30-Day Notice just to be nice since I did like the job, and began looking for a decent apartment not to far away from my Mom and Dad and little brother who was 10 years old at the time.
I know I could have bought a house at that time, but I wasn’t ready to be a home owner quite yet. I didn’t want that much responsibility, plus at that point I hadn’t told Mom and Dad how much I had in my bank account. They just agreed that it was time for me to get out on my own and make the world happen. So I ended up in a very nice building in a two bedroom with a spacious kitchen and dining area, a great view overlooking a big park next door, and a pool.
I know it was at that point that my parents figured out that something was up because they knew I left PH, but hadn’t gone back to work anywhere else yet. They knew though that I had built up considerable savings from my years as a model that Mom got me into when I was 10, and from when I did some more exotic work as an Escort from when I started that at 17. Yes, Escort does equal high end male prostitute for those that were wondering. Parents weren’t happy about that one of course, but they knew I was an adult able to make my own choices.
From the sale of BTC in 2017, I didn’t buy back in until July of 2019. Since then I’ve sold and bought back in twice more. It’s the old Sell-High/Buy-Low game. And from what I read about, and you’ll see posted here in future posts, this is going to continue, I don’t care how much I end up paying in taxes. It will be worth it.
But what I have done with my profits so far, you ask?
I’ve bought a very nice, spacious, but not overly gaudy house for a modest Los Angeles price. Yes, it does have a pool in the back yard.
I’ve moved enough from the bitcoin account to a regular investment account with stocks, bonds, funds, and minerals to support me with just interest for the rest of my life should crypt collapse.
I’ve started a fund that pays out to my parents so they have enough to do what ever they want for the rest of their lives.
I’ve also started a fund that will start paying out to my brother after he graduates high school, but isn’t going to make him a “trust fund baby” either.
I’ve also hired a cute Poolboy to come over every week to make sure my pool stays crystal clear and ready for use 24/7. There is a lot of work that goes into that.
And of course I’ve gone on a few shopping trips to update the wardrobe basic WalMart style clothing (not that there’s anything wrong with that) to more Hollister, A&F, Express, and of course Versace.
What kind of plans do I have for the future?
I want to go on cruises. I see Carnival has finally launched the worlds largest cruise ship.
I want to travel by train across the country.
I want to visit all of the MLB and NFL stadiums.
And I want to visit all 50 state capitol buildings
Those are just the starters.
Yes, I also do plan on sharing the wealth as well. There is no way I’m holding on to all this to be buried with it. There are tons of good places and people that need assistance, and I’m going to be glad to help out.
So yea, no matter what you are invested in, how long you’ve been invested for, or how much you’ve gained with your investments, don’t forget to take some of those profits and be good to yourself and others. Like I just said above, you can’t take it with you.
Are we about to have another Y2K? I hope not. I was only five years old at the time that happened, so I don’t remember anything of what went on, but I’ve heard the stories. I’ve heard how everyone thought that all the computers were going to crash because they wouldn’t know how to respond when the numbers they were looking at went from ’99 to ’00.
So, now here we have that same situation going to happen again? Aren’t the engineers who invent, or at least update, the browsers supposed to think of these things LONG before they happen, and not just days?
I’m no computer programmer by any means, but if people can develope some of the most complex programs that we use today, is it really that hard to tell the computers to look at three numbers instead of two?
Am I worried at all? No. Somewhere, somehow, somebody is going to figure out how to manage it and will save the world from an internet implosion, just as I heard that nothing really happened on January 1, 2000. Articles like this, I think, just get people riled up for something that’s going to be a nothing in the end.
I think the article also serves as a way to let the general public know that all of these super genius computer programmers don’t always think in the long term. I mean, does anyone really think that a successful program wouldn’t need at least 100 updates to stay competitive?
And anyone who didn’t already know this about any investment, probably shouldn’t be investing in the first place!
With the possible exception of bitcoin, one thing I’ve learned in the last 10 years of watching different investment markets is that investing is not a “get rich quick” thing. Investing takes time, a little knowledge, and a little luck.
Even with my own experience with bitcoin, it takes quite a while for the price to recover. When I last sold in April 2021 when BTC had reached $63K it dove to $35K by July when I bought back in, but it didn’t recover to $65K until November of 2021. I sold at that level again, and bought back in when it dove to $35K in January of 2022. So I expect it to take a few months to get back up to $50K. I just looked for today, and it’s down a bit at $37,800.
One of the hardest things I’ve realized about investing is not freaking out when I see the number go down by a few thousand dollars a day. Take my initial investment that I’ve said several times was $10,000 back in 2011. The difference between a $40K and a $37.8K BTC is quite a staggering number. In my head I know how much it is, I just don’t put it to paper.
In any investment, you have to be ready for the ups and downs. Just look at Facebook. They just lost nearly 25% of their value in one day. How long it takes them to recover is anyone’s guess.
I know I’m prepared to ride out the storm of the bitcoin ups and downs, because I believe that the value is going to continue to climb. More companies and countries are going to recognize crypto as an important way to due business. And with it’s decentralized, non-bank regulated peer-to-peer service, those entities are going to have to change in order to compete. I think with the BlockChain crypto is here to stay, and the value is going to prove that.
If you know anything about bitcoin mining it is that it takes an enormous amount of energy, namely electricity, to keep the “rigs” operating, and cool, while they battle to solve the next equation in the blockchain and earn a piece of the crypto pie. In May of 2020 the amount of bitcoin awarded for solving the next block was halfed for the third time to 6.25 BTC. That means today each bitcoin block is worth $242,106.25. Not bad for a day’s work, mind you.
I am NOT a fan, though, of the impact that bitcoin mining has on the environment, or the fact that most giant bitcoin mining operations don’t seem to care because all they have are dollar signs in their eyes. Yes, on a corporate level, with hundreds if not thousands of rigs, bitcoin mining can still be, and apparently is, a profitable thing to do. But at what cost?
We are already deep into trying to reduce the amount of CO2 emmissions, fossil fuel use, and damage done to the environment in the name of resources. But now that bitcoin, and other crypto, mining has come along we see damage done to the enviroment not in the name of resources, but in the name of shear profit. And THAT is unacceptable!
Take the story above for example. The bitcoin mining operation is using water from the lakes to cool the rigs that are generating the bitcoin. That in itself is not a bad thing. But then the operation is dumping the water used back into the environment before letting it cool first, thus harming the environment by increasing the temperature of the water! I mean, come on! Why not take some of those bitcoin profits and build a pool to cool the water in first before dumping it back in the lake? Would that be such a hard thing to do?
When large companies, and even us as individuals, use the resources of the environment, we need to think about what impact we are having, and how to restore it to it’s pre-use status, BEFORE we tap into it.
We as humans are well on our way to destroying the planet we live on. We keep saying that we want to leave the world in a better condition for our children than we found it. It’s like the old camping and hiking slogan of “leave the land better than you found it”. But the more we say it, the more populous the world becomes, the more unprofitable resource recyling becomes, the less anyone cares about it.
Everytime Shawn, my younger brother, and I go down to the beach, we bring a trash bag with us to first do our part to clean up the trash that is laying all over the place. Do we make a dent? I don’t know. But it sure shows us that people just don’t care.
And now we have the bitcoin mining operations that use up tons of resources all for the minisquel chance of getting that next bitcoin block.
Think about ALL of the other computers in the world that are hooked up the bitcoin mining network, all trying to solve the next equation in the block, and only one of them will win. With the sheer number of rigs set up to mine bitcoin, and the current difficulty level, the chances of a solo miner with one rig hitting the next block is probably worse today than hitting all six numbers in Powerball. But people still do win Powerball from time to time. But don’t expect your rig to capture the next block tomorrow, or even a month from now.
Is it still worth it to set up a solo rig? It depends on how much you want to invest. Think about $10K for the rig itself, and then how much your power bill is going to be. It’s not going to be nearly the same, but I’d be more apt to tell a friend who was thinking about joining to just buy the bitcoin instead, and then sell it when the price gets to where they are comfortable.
Think of it this way: If you put $10,000 into bitcoin today you would buy .2644 BTC. Then let’s say that bitcoin rises to $50,000 again in the next few weeks or a month. If you sold at that point you would earn about $12,000 in Capital Gains. That’s a pretty fair number for the average Joe, isn’t it?
Then if you do what I did, which is the old “Buy-Low/Sell-High” game, you can buy more bitcoin and each round you gain more. Sounds a lot easier, doesn’t it? But as I always tell people: I am NOT a financial advisor, and always consult one before investing in anything to be sure it’s right for you and you can handle how much you want to invest. NEVER invest more than you can afford to lose.
What do you think? Did the judge get the sentense right? I think so. Though the prosecution was asking for seven years.
I guess to answer the question you really have to think “what is the criminal justice system supposed to do? I’ve always thought it’s purpose was to reform criminals and appropreatly punish those who do bad things, or make careless mistakes.
I think this was a case of a VERY careless mistake that should have never happened. This ex-cop mistakenly pulled out her actual weapon instead of her tazer gun, and pulled the trigger. You can hear her on the audio just after realizing what she had done.
Now, I’m not a cop, never have been, never want to be. But I sincerely respect what they do because there is no way I would want to be put in their situations. They have to make decisions in the heat of the moment, in a split seconds time, and then spend months, years, or decades having to rationalize it.
I don’t know how police officers wear both a gun AND a tazer when both, from what I’ve seen on the news and police videos, are almost identical in size and shape. Unless you make the tazer a freakingly bright different color than the actual weapon so when an officer pulls one out they know which one they have in their hand, I guess sure, mistakes can be made. I’m not even sure if having it a different color would help when you have to decide RIGHT NOW!
I think Kim is truly remorseful of what she did. Had I been the one on trial, I don’t think I could have looked Daunte’s family in the face either. I would have done everything I could to avoid eye contact. She is already going to live with the greaf for the rest of her life. How could she bear to look the family in the eye and bear that too? I don’t think I could.
I don’t want to say I know what the family of Daunte is going through, because I don’t. But I do appreciate that they would have wanted the maximum penalty for his death. But that is why we have judges to make these kind of decisions. That’s why we call them “Judges”. They are the ones that ultimately have to make the right call.
The judge heard that the prosecution wanted seven years. She also heard that the defense wanted probation. In my eyes, neither of them would have been appropriate. Had it been me in the position of judge, I probably would have sentensed Kim to three years. Yes, it was a senseless mistake that needs to be punished, but I’d also consider that there was no need for reform. I don’t believe that she would ever do something like this again.
It’s my sincere hope that when Kim gets out of prison that she’ll be able to continue on in her life. It is also my sincere wish that the family of Daunte will be able to move on as well. But I don’t want either side to forget.
We need additional police reform. We need additional police training so this NEVER happens again. We need more pay for police to make it an attractive career. We need more police officers so that the ones that we already have don’t feel so overwhelmed. There is a LONG way to go to get the police situation to where it needs to be, but we CAN get there. We just need help.
Well, anyone who didn’t see this coming as soon as bitcoin was invented isn’t very smart. Of course the government is going to try to regulate it! Bitcoin was invented as a peer-to-peer transaction able to go from one person to another without involving a bank. It’s money! It’s worth $40,000 per bitcoin at the moment. I bought 10,000 when they were just $1.00 back in 2011. You do the math. And that doesn’t include my four sessions of selling high, and buying again when it bottomed out. Can you see why the government would want to regulate it?
What I don’t see is how they are going to. Bitcoin is capped to only have 21 Milliion ever produced. How would you regulate the BlockChain? I don’t know. How would you stop you and I from doing a transactioni? Again, I don’t know.
Tax it? Yes, I can see getting taxed on the profits made. I had my first Sell-High/Buy-Low transaction in 2019 and I nearly had a heart attack when my CPA told me what the Capital Gains tax bill was going to be. Fuck Me! Is all I can say on that one. But you know what? I still have bundles left over, so I’m happy to pay my fair share. I just wish I could say what programs I want my tax money to go to. I’d prefer my dollars not go to some stupid pet project of a representative or Senator. Put it towards the homeless, schools, fixing the bridges, and I’d be happy.
But yea, how would you regulate bitcoin? I guess we will see in the coming years as BTC and other cryptos take hold in the economy.
OK, so it really ISN’T a funny thing to say to evacuate BEFORE tweeting, but I guess it is something that should be said.
People have become so normalized to taking pictures and recording everything, that a lot of folks have forgot to look at the situation first. Standing there recording a fire on your phone in a WalMart is probably not a good idea. Fires in a contained area can get out of control in a hurry. Having to have a funeral for you because you wanted to stay back and record it would be stupid.
But, you know what? There are a lot of stupid people out there!!
There is no way in the WORLD that I would go for this slogan! “Meta, Metamates, Me”, what a JOKE!
It should be the other way around: “Me, Metamates, Meta”, that would make more sense.
I’ve only had a few employers: the bank, Pizza Hut, few really short lived others, but the one thing that I always noticed that the managers focused on was an employees personal health first. Because if you can’t be at your 100% best physically and emotionally then you can’t give 100% to your team or the company.
I remember there was a time when I got sick for about a week during the months that I worked at the bank, I came into work sick because I hadn’t built up enough sick or leave time yet to call in. But when the manager saw how pale and sweaty I was immediatly told me to go home, don’t worry about the absenses, give her a call daily, and don’t come back until I was ready.
Fortunately, the sickness only lasted a couple of days, but had I stayed at work there was no way I was going to be able to function properly. That would have led to errors which would have been bad for the branch and the company. But by tending to my needs first, the company was able to avoid any losses.
Secondly, you have to be focused on the team. This was very evident when I worked at Pizza Hut. That can be a rough crowd to work around with the sometimes crabby customers. But keeping the spirits up, or taking over a table when it needs to happen, or like I frequently did, buy the staff a few pizzas or trays of breadsticks. You’d be amazed at how fast food perks people up. I sure was!
Then by attending to the needs of the individual employee, then to the team, will the company then, in turn, profit. Which is the ultimate goal. Happy people, make happy teams, makes a happy company. There is no other way around it.
If you are the company, and you ask your employees to put the company first above themselves or their teammates, you are not going to have a productive company for very much longer. So take heed FB, your priorities are backwards, and if I didn’t have a reason not to work for you before, I sure do now!
A Little Bit of This and That 