"Buy when there's blood in the streets, even if the blood is your own."

Baron Rothschild, an 18th century British nobleman and member of the Rothschild banking family, is credited with saying this. Rothschild made a fortune buying in the panic that followed the Battle of Waterloo against Napoleon. This is contrarian investing at its heart - the strongly-held belief that the worse things seem in the market, the better the opportunities are for profit.

I first heard this quote in a movie - Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York after one of their bloody battles I think. The point is, and as I've been discussing with close friends, this is the perfect opportunity for us young folk. Which means, if you have cash and have thought of getting into the stock market, now is your golden opportunity, seriously.

So what do you buy? My advice has always been to make a list of 10-20 companies that you like (i.e. Apple - because you love iPods and macs; or Jiff b/c you just love their peanut butter; Chipotle - the burritos are amazing!, and so on).

This is because one golden rule of investing is that you should be able to devote 1 hour per week, per stock, to read up on the company and what it's doing. (I don't even get to do this, though) BUT, if you're buying stocks in companies you like, the more motivated you'll be to read about the company.

Here's a few that I own (and love):

• Research In Motion (ticker: RIMM) (they make blackberry phones, which I think are amazing)
• Apple (ticker: aapl)(need I justify? Apple is a superstar company)
• Visa (ticker: V) (nothing fancy here, but I bought on their IPO per much excitement from the investment community)

I hope that helps get anyone started on making their list.

Also, Yahoo Finance is one of the best go-to pages to get good information (finance.yahoo.com).

That said, here's an article from today that I'll share - if you like any of these companies, they are worth checking out and considering for stock purchase.

• http://www.investopedia.com/articles/financial-theory/08/contrarian-investing.asp

Oh, and one more golden rule (from me at least) - BUY FOR THE LONG TERM! I don't flip stocks or day trade - I don't get hung up when the stock drops by 20+ percent (usually), b/c I am in this for years to come. I'll sell when I need to buy a house, or college education for my kids, and I know the stock will have grown almost guaranteed. So stick with it, and DO NOT freak out when things happen that scare the majority (like what's happening right now).

Don't drink and ride the metro...

...because then you'll get the urge to hop the turnstile when you get off the train, and a metro cop will come over and give you a ticket for it whether you had the money for it or not.

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AIG, are you that retarded?

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- Days after [AIG] got a federal bailout, American International Group Inc. spent $440,000 on a posh California retreat for its executives, complete with spa treatments, banquets and golf outings, according to lawmakers investigating the company's meltdown."

I think it's a great idea. Celebrate the awarding of $85MM from the government (aka us taxpayers) by treating yourself to the spa during a royal retreat. Besides, $440K is a drop in the bucket of the $85MM package...and the fact that AIG was in absolute turmoil was no big deal, really.

It's no surprise that things like this happen. Why? Because the concept of money (or credit) is severely blurred and for many reasons, 1) the company is so big that the majority of employees aren't eying the "budget" b/c they aren't privy to it, 2) there's this feeling of "oh this won't happen to us" when it comes to actually running out of money 3) management is pleasantly hammered at nighttime soirees and says "ahhh f*** it, let's put this all on the company card...and like magic, life is glorious...and free.

Damn it feels good to be a banksta.

McCain Ads Dig Deep...

I have to post this...nonsense. From crooksandliars.com

These smears have been floating around in email chain letters, but even still, this really shows just how low and how desperate the McCain campaign is. Not Larry Sabato:

The LA Times scoops the Virginia media with this column from the McCain campaign's official Buchanan County representative. You need to read this column to believe it. In "humor" he accuses Obama of wanting to paint the White House black, supporting reparations, changing the national anthem to the "black national anthem", teaching "black liberation theology in all churches", and replacing the flag with a "star and crescent logo".

Nothing like a little race baiting four weeks before the election...why does this guy still have his job?

Meanwhile, Sarah Palin brings up Bill Ayers at a campaign stop in Carson, California:

"Evidently there's been a lot of interest in what I read lately," she said. "I was reading today a copy of the New York Times. And I was really interested to read in there about Barack Obama's friends from Chicago. Turns out one of his earliest supporters is a man who, according to the New York Times, was a domestic terrorist, that quote 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and the United States Capitol.'"

Saturday's New York Times story, an investigation into whether Obama had a relationship with Ayers, concluded that the men were never close and that Obama has denounced Ayers' radical past, which occurred when Obama, who was born in 1961, was a child. It also found that he has downplayed their contacts.

"This is not a man who sees America as you and I see America," Palin said of Obama. "We see America as a force for good in this world. We see America as a force for exceptionalism. ... Our opponents see America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who would bomb their own country."

Classy.

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The roots ate my fish!

I have sad news this morning. Upon going to feed my big bad beta fish, Mike Tyson, I realized he was no longer in his bowl. Now, this bowl sits on top of a tall book shelf in my house with some bamboo in it. I have no cats or other fish eating creatures. Tyson was not a jumper.

My theory is that the bamboo roots ate the fish. After cleaning out the bowl and picking through the roots, I see that he's not tangled in them. Therefore, the only option would be that the bamboo got hungry and began the process of eating Tyson. This is a travesty.

I will remember Tyson for his quiet presence, blazing red coat, and how he protected my house against evildoers.

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Mute Math Drummer

A studio vlog of Darren King - drummer in the band Mute Math.

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The Daily Lifeku

Short and sweet...I share this recent find of a friend from a friend. Witty and quick out loud laughs - remind yourself not to be the person she's referring to most often if you can!

http://dailylifeku.blogspot.com/

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Anthony & Becca Bronkema Wedding

http://www.viddler.com/explore/Idioteque/videos/1/

This is my first video slideshow, but I think it came out pretty good. Had I known I was going to do this I would've gotten a wider variety of pictures from the wedding. These are all my shots, using a Nikon D80, 135mm lens and a Fisheye 10.5mm lens.

Video In Reverse

This is by far one of the coolest videos I've seen in quite some time. While delving from page to page (you know, that create your own story process of hopping from one link to the next that the internet allows us to entertain?) I found a band called Mute Math. This is their video for one of their songs, Typical.




It's not so typical. As I have read, this claims to be One Take videography (everything done in one shot). I got that from Dr. Rose. This is something I'll check out more because I'm not sure I fully understand it yet. Rose also mentions that they learned the lyrics in reverse for the video. Stay tuned...but in the meantime enjoy.




This was their "live" performance on Jimmy Kimmel - about the same, but in a different setting adding to the creativity of it all.

Do you Tweet?

Listenting to: circa survive

Ever heard of Twitter (twitter.com)? A friend introduced it to me after having just returned from a conference where everyone was just "tweeting" all day long. And so it is, "Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates (otherwise known as tweets) which are text-based posts, ranging up to 140 characters long. Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and instantly delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them." -Wikipedia. You can tweet via your mobile phone and receive tweets from those you "follow." If you're curious, find me under 1dioteque. Maybe we'll discover a good use for it - instead of texting a group of people about something, just tweet it and make sure all your friends follow you so they can get the update all at once...

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