You know what's maybe my biggest spending indulgence - have a subscription to the news package add-on with MSNBC (also Fox) that costs an extra $10/month, even though sometimes only wind up watching it a handful of times a year ...

It's nice to have on days like today, when it can be interesting (comforting?) to hear smart people try to make sense of the day's events?


The thread in NVG's gotten a lot less heated the last couple of hours - maybe others are watching as well?

It gets dark out so early, there's hardly any chance to take photos any more - pics of No Frills at 7pm probably wouldn't look very interesting, even if my iPhone 5 was real

Guess there's more time now to look at stuff on the internet though - so tonight was looking at those some of those articles am quite fond of that feature acts of kindness and generosity, like this ...

Going to turn in early - woke up in the middle of the night and saw the news on my iPad, so didn't get the best night's sleep. Tomorrow will be a new day - night everybody

Feeling super lazy

Should probably go outside and get some exercise for a bit - then will have more energy to do some stuff after dinner. Maybe today might be a good time to take a look at what's been happening with bitcoin, since it's been a while?

gosh, have been kind of slow getting going on the bitcoin tonight - it feels like it's about 10:45pm??

Maybe it was a mistake to put my jammies on so early


Managed to find over 30 articles on Google News with updates on what's been happening with bitcoin lately - guess it's important to stay up to date, since am still holding that short, and should try to get through them tonight ... will get started right now

Have read about 20 of the articles, and have about 10 more to go - my head is swirling a little bit ... probably should have gotten started sooner and saved my break for when it was really needed hehe ...




Going to have a quick 5 minute break to wash some grapes

Bitcoin Short and Watchlist Update


Here's the list of stuff was supposed to be keeping track of, once invested in bitcoin. Guess should have been keeping a closer eye on things, but wasn't expecting to be holding my short for so long Should have sold it sooner - and then made another mistake by not keeping a closer eye on bitcoin news ... maybe would have known to sell it sooner if had?

Anyways, spent some time tonight reading updates on what's been happening with bitcoin in the last month - will maybe try to add the updates with links to my watchlist?

Ongoing Watchlist

1. Demand for Usage (seeking ease of use, privacy?)

• Is actual usage growing in Japan?
  • Only found one article, but it says that usage is growing in the US, with some growth in SE Asia as well? - https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitpa...nnual-turnover
   
• Other moves towards greater acceptance?
  • Increase in consumer protection reguations in other countries - eg Russia, Australia
    • It looks like Russia's legislation has stalled, with lawmakers unsure of what they want to do? - https://news.bitcoin.com/russian-law...gulation-bill/
    • On the other hand, someone from the US Treasury disclosed that they've started looking into the possibility of licensing exchanges just like in Japan - https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/the-...ncy-exchanges/
    • And then guess Goldman Sachs may start trading, for institutional investors? - https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/cryp...ine-by-over-3/ (guess maybe that might increase bubble demand, so good in the short-term but only if actual usage increases as well maybe?)
     
  • Any chance of approval by the SEC for a bitcoin funds in the stock market?
    • Still haven't gotten approval from the SEC, so no change - http://www.investopedia.com/news/two...ue-sec-issues/

2. Demand for Savings (seeking security)

• Is China looking to enact any new crypto regulations?
  • Apparently the exchange in China did close on Sept 30 ... and then the price of bitcoin still went up Guess the day before, Japan officially licensed 11 exchanges, so the good news overshadowed the bad, or something? - https://www.coindesk.com/china-based...ng-to-a-close/
  • (second link to Japan article - https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/29/bitc...-by-japan.html)
   
• Is the US$ getting stronger, and making emerging market currencies worth less?
  • No change?
   
• Are any big countries having other currency issues?
  • May have seen something a while ago about somewhere, but guess there's been nothing huge?

  

3. Demand as an Investment (seeking profit)

• Maybe watch out potential approval in the US of a Bitcoin ETF (possibly a double-edged sword - would greatly increase demand, but would be the type to possibly fuel a bubble, thereby increasing the chance of a crash?)
  
• Is actual demand for Bitcoins to use keeping up with the demand for it as an investment product?

4. Other

• Bitcoin Changes/Updates - any discussion of future forks, splits, or halvings?
  • Apparently there may be a second fork in November? Guess is talk of a fork is not good because there's a chance people will prefer the other product instead of the original or something? Although last time it split, didn't the price of both wind up rising?? - https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/03/bitc...lity-fork.html
   
• Exchange/Brokerage Hacks
  • An exchange in China just today acknowledged a hack that happened in August - that may be why the price dropped today? Maybe just a temporary drop? - https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/new...ose-3-million/
  • Also apparently North Korea is constantly trying to hack into exchanges to steal bitcoin - https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/nort...hanges-police/
   
• Analyst recommendations?
  • All the analysts seem believe the price is on the rise, although trading's been a bit light - guess most people are buying and not a lot are selling? One analyst says it might not go lower than $4200, while another says it probably won't go lower than $3900 - https://www.coindesk.com/slow-ascent...-weak-volumes/
  • (second article - https://bravenewcoin.com/news/bitcoi...e-push-higher/)
   
• hope/hype > fear/skepticism?
  • There still seem to be skeptics - from JP Morgan, Blackrock, UBS ... not sure how much sway their opinions seem to carry, if prices keep rising though? - https://ethereumworldnews.com/bitcoi...gan-executive/

Still haven't sold my short yet. It was down $1.5k at one point So feels super lucky to only be down $283.10 right now

Have placed the buy to cover order, so that should clear tomorrow morning and guess will just have to chalk this loss up to the learning experience. After reading all the updates tonight, decided maybe now's a good time to not only sell my short, but buy some actual bitcoin? My funds arrived at the exchange a couple of weeks ago, and could have bought it sooner at a lower price ... guess better late than never?

Look at that humongous order of the 25 bitcoin - wonder if it's a poker player who placed that order? Who else has that kind of money?

On the other hand, it looks like most of the purchases are for a couple of hundred dollars or less? There was a piece in The Guardian that took a more skeptical view of bitcoin, but also recommended people give it a try - probably spending $20 on bitcoin instead of poker might wind up being better for a lot of us these days?

PS It looks like my order went through - so hopefully am on my way to making that 50% return, if it does manage to reach $6k by the end of the year as some are predicting ... guess will have to wait and see!

Looks like have ran out of time and will have to continue tomorrow - night everybody

It feels nice to be home


It's Thanksgiving in a couple of days - was going to try to make a chicken and brown rice bowl with roasted root vegetables for dinner. Hopefully it'll wind up looking something like this dish from Sweetgreen?

Although am really hoping it'll wind up tasting something like dish from Swiss Chalet - yum

Not so nice out today, so guess will just relax and take my time making dinner and washing up afterwards, and then watch Survivor. And then yesterday, didn't have a chance to do much else after tossing all those links down onto the page yesterday - so guess it might help to go back later on and try to sort through all the notes as well?

Okay, my show is finished - going to take a closer look at all the stuff that wound up in my 11th hour post yesterday ... took a quick glance before, and it looked a little chaotic!

Bitcoin Purchase - Keeping It Safe


My order officially went through today, so am now the owner of +1 Bitcoin!

That sounds so little Although each one costs so much now The order took 12 hours to process, and there was a $50 fee - wonder if that's normal?


Safe Bitcoin Storage Options

Remembered seeing something about people having their bitcoin stolen off of the big US exchange called Bitfinex, because they didn't move their coins to their wallets. Once had someone try to use my credit card number to charge something worth $500 in Alabama, and thankfully my MasterCard noticed that it was highly unusual for me to spend that much on anything and put a hold on my card. Guess it can be very easy for hackers to do stuff like that? So wanted to make sure to not forget to move my bitcoin to a wallet ...

And then went and forgot to move it after the order went through Guess it's only been a day, so it could have been worse Was checking to see if an Exodus wallet is a good one, and then saw this article - didn't even know usb wallets existed, or that they're supposed to be safer ... wonder if the desktop wallet is good enough, or maybe it might be worth it to get the usb wallet?

Gosh, is the Canadian dollar really doing that badly? lol

Amazon.com (US)

Amazon.ca (Canada) for the same item

Oh, guess they're being sold by different 3rd party sellers? Gosh, wonder who else might have them for sale? They don't sell them at BestBuy or any place like that?

What May Be Next For Bitcoin?


Guess if investing is a bit like poker, am maybe hoping my Bitcoin watchlist will be a bit like a HUD? If am better about keeping track of updates, guess am hoping the list may help with coming up with a range of possible outcomes for Bitcoin in the near future?

From looking at the updates yesterday, it seemed like there were lots of little updates, but nothing too huge that's on the horizon now that the withdrawal from China seems to be wrapping up - maybe the next big event to possibly move the price of Bitcoin might be the upcoming forks?


It sounds (?) like there may be two coming up in the next little while? Is there one on October 25, where everybody who owns some Bitcoin will get some Bitcoin Gold (BTG), like how Bitcoin Cash was distributed? And then is there going to be a second one in November?

Bitcoin Gold (October 25)

'Segwit2x' ? (November)

https://cointelegraph.com/news/segwi...n-towards-4000

Difference between the two

The second article was about the price drop today, which seemed to catch the author by surprise - he's saying now that the price could drop down to US$4k in the run-up to the November fork.

The fork sounds a little bit concerning - but was looking at how many forks there's been in the past, and it looks like after two of them the price of Bitcoin wound up going up not down? And after one the price went down for a while before recovering. It kind of seems like maybe people are okay with Bitcoin as it is - if people are buying it light crazy already?


Guess tomorrow, should maybe try to read a bit more about these forks, to see if there might be more of a sign of how they might affect Bitcoin prices?


Bitcoin Short-Term Price Estimates (from analysts)

Low: $4000 (https://cointelegraph.com/news/segwi...n-towards-4000)
High: $6000 (https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/03/bitc...lity-fork.html)

Turning in now - night everybody

Have already made enough on Bitcoin to be able to afford to treat myself to something ...

jk It feels really nice when trying something new to have it go well very early out of the gate though - guess that hasn't always been the case for me, because had that noob habit of buying high before ... and then everything would wind up going in the opposite direction?

Also maybe it can sometimes help make it easier to weather variance later on, if there's already a bit of a cushion of profit that's built up?

So am pretty happy with how my Bitcoin investment is going so far


Tonight there's supposed to be a harvest moon - guess it's supposed to turn a pretty colour as the sun sets? Some of pics of the moon from other parts of the world are quite spectacular - here's a pic of today's harvest moon from England ...

And everything seems to look a little more interesting when it's happening next to the Statue of Liberty ...

Maybe that's a silver lining to it getting dark so early - nature's entertainment may be more interesting than the stuff on tv? Not sure how great the views will be for me in the middle of the city tonight - although the sun should be setting while am out for my little nightly jog, so that should be nice ...

yawn! Kind of feel like napping But will do some reading instead ...


Guess there's been quite a few times where have forgotten to keep up to date on my investments? And thankfully things seem to have gone okay so far - but maybe it's a good idea to try to get into the habit of just doing a quick little skim over everything each day ... and then it'll hopefully it'll start to become a routine, and won't be so tempted to slack?

It doesn't take too long to catch up on the latest news - and sometimes there's interesting stuff in the headlines as well, so that can be interesting to see ...


Okay, will get going with the reading now




PS Looks like it was too cloudy to see the moon tonight - so no harvest moon pics ... will just have to enjoy the ones on the internet from other parts of the world ...

Didn't fall asleep

Have been doing my reading, but there wasn't too much new info - maybe the most interesting thing was this harvest moon funny?

Oh, and there was a pretty shot of the moon in Oregon too

Now that have given reading daily updates a try, it seems like maybe it might be okay to take a day off here and there, and just check in every couple of days - hopefully that'll be enough to stay on top of things?

Will maybe just have to be patient and wait for the money to grow - with the way Bitcoin's been going, it shouldn't take too long!

Night everybody

Just remembered there's a Twitch app on my iPad - can watch King of the Hill while lying down

Won't nap - will just lie sideways and watch the show ...

Bitcoin


Looks like lots of people have been buying bitcoin on a Saturday night - maybe the winner of King of the Hill 2 with their payout?

whee!

The most frustrating thing about investing, is not having more money to invest while everything seems to be on a heater - wish there were more $ in my account to invest ... guess will just have to be patient, and wait for the gains to compound ...

It still feels like summer here in my neck of the woods - the Canada geese haven't left for Florida yet, and are still puttering around down by the lake ...

And people are still sailing (the photo's a bit grainy from the zoom) ...

Some of the leaves have finally started to change colour - spring and fall seem to be the nicest time of year to be outdoors enjoying trails ... the weather's always so beautiful, and the scenery seems to be especially pretty

Hope everybody's having a nice weekend!

My mom doesn't feel like making a Thanksgiving feast this year, so we're going to be going to a restaurant instead - looks like there's two options on the table ... would anyone be tempted to go for option 2?


Option 1 - this is the casual spot of one of the city's top restaurant chains; one of the owner's is a judge on MasterChef Canada

Option 2 - this is a comfort food buffet, so they serve pizza and pasta alongside the turkey with all the trimmings, etc Guess it'll be like the Swiss Chalet of Thanksgiving

It's a surprisingly close race!

Is taste genetic? Seem to share a lot of the same tastes as my dad Mom's pick of restaurant looks lovely as well - guess we can save her choice for next year

Won't say where we're going May take some pics though - where we're going, people probably won't mind

Turkey time!!

Looks like we were super lucky to get a last minute reservation, because the restaurant we wound up going to was apparently the place to be on Thanksgiving Sunday!! There were lots of people waiting at the entrance to get in by the time we arrived ...

This place was on the outskirts of town by the airport, where there's a couple of conference venues - and from the look of the crowd, it actually looked like there may have been some sort of tech conference happening over the weekend? Although there were lots of families there as well - they give free meals on birthdays, so occasionally the servers were breaking out into song and serving cake and ice cream. And then there were tons of other families as well, with moms who apparently didn't feel like cooking for the rest of us

Had to wait in line at the carving station for my turkey and roast beef!

Not so busy at the wood oven pizza station today though ...

Told my mom that the food was delicious, and that the turkey was almost as good as hers, as a compliment to her cooking - and then she said that we could have been eating turkey that was even better than hers, if had chosen the other restaurant over this one Said with a smile, but guess we'll definitely have to go to that other restaurant next year - she may not be so quick to forget that we wound up eating at a buffet this year, thanks to a swing vote from her own child!

Anyways, dinner was lovely Going to relax and watch tv - have just started watching Shark Tank, even though it's apparently been on for something like 8 years?

Shark Tank's kind of a neat show - guess there's a chance to see lots of people with start-ups talk about how things have been going with their businesses so far? And then they get feedbacks from the sharks - Mark Cuban is one of the regulars, although they seem to have lots of guest sharks on as well ... last week Richard Branson was on, and next week's episode will have Alex Rodriguez ...

Anyways, after the show was over at 10pm there wasn't much else on, so have been entertaining myself by scrolling through the Thanksgiving posts on twitter - after Rob Ford resigned as mayor of our city, guess the new one has kind of had big shoes to fill in the entertainment department? So sometimes he can seem a little sedate by comparison But he had a nice message for everybody for Thanksgiving today

And then there was this little comic from the NBA with all the Canadian players eating turkey together - all 4 of them

Then there's some random stuff, like this pic of a cat lol? Guess it's the thought that counts

Pretty entertaining

Gosh, they were just showing the fall colours in Algonquin park on the news, and it looked so stunning! It doesn't look like things are quite at their peak in this vid from the internet?

Still pretty early in the Southern part of the province - this spot down by the lake yesterday was the most colour have seen so far ... it's still pretty green everywhere else ...

Hey Sam, how’s things? Hope your Thanksgiving was a goodn.
Your part of the world looks lovely this time of year. I love the beauty of nature’s colours too. If I can ever figure out how to PM pics here I might send you a few of my faves taken from my balcony. I have a 270 degree view and some of the shots iv been able to take of an evening, or stormy sky are just amazing. I’m afraid I will not post them anywhere too public as anyone who knows the area could instantly pinpoint where i is.

I have a big fat zero to add to your stock research, so I’ll keep it simple n just ask, are you enjoying Netflix so far? I noticed you’ve been checking out a few standup specials. I haven’t really watched any of them. It’s curious, I love a good laugh and spend a fair amount of my day either doing so or desperately trying to get those around me to but for some reason, apart from a very select few I don’t really enjoy recorded live comedy specials. I enjoy being in the room. I went n saw Jerry Seinfeld (and maroon golf, Mario Joyner who was hilarious) when he was out here last month and (massively subtle brag) one of the biggest surprises, and best nights of my life was about 5 years ago when Chris Rock walked in totally unannounced, even to the owners, into a local pub/comedy store I was at with friends and did a full run through of a new set he was working on and then hung back for a cool beverage or two. I laughed so hard my stomach and face ached for a good 3 days afterwards I reckon.
I know Jerry has a new special on Netflix and Chris probably has about 3 or 4 but for some strange reason I never think to give them a watch. I do really want to check out the def comedy jam 25th year special soon though, and I’m thinking that will be a cracker so maybe it will change my view for a while?

Once you get finished with the standup and scary kids in Stranger Things, I couldn’t more highly recommend giving Arrested Development a go as suggested by SA if you’ve never seen it before, and are in need of a good clean giggle. Such a clever, well written show and one of the funniest casts assembled in years imo. If you start from the beginning there’s a good few weeks of part time bingeing to get through and not many eps at all are disappointing. Iv seen most more than once and I still enjoy putting it on when I need a good laugh, and even though I know what’s coming it still manages to get me every time.

Iv been meaning to tell you too, I was on here a few weeks ago and a coupla heavy hitters from OOT were picking on me, calling me stupid (please, as if!) so if you ever cop any stick from harassers here again, dont sweat it and please think of me, safe in the knowledge it happens to the absolute best of us