Something else that's different with this camera, is that it's got an ultra zoom - guess that's an important feature to have, for anyone eager to take close ups of stuff like this squirrel snacking on a nut lol ...

BestBuy has a 30 day return policy - so guess there's still time to see if there's other spots where the extra zoom may come in handy?

The weather's been beautiful the last couple of days - nice to be able to spend some time outdoors getting some fresh air ... hope it's been nice enough in everybody else's neck of the woods for everybody to have the chance to do the same

Have to go pick up my aunt and uncle at the airport - my uncle works for Air Canada, so they get free airfare and use it to go to different places all the time.


They kind of made an interesting life choice a while back - guess they decided that they wanted to buy a house in the best neighborhood they could afford, so they poured the bulk of their money into their house. Which kind of put them in that position of being kind of 'house rich, cash poor'? So they had a really nice house, but would have to really watch their pennies with everything else?

Pretty sure the house has been paid off, but guess they've gotten so used to living frugally, they're not at all shy about asking us all for favours? So yeah, they take these free trips all the time, and go to places like Las Vegas and will stay at the Palace State for $19 a night lol - and then they'll go through the list of all us relatives and arrage for each of us one by one to come pick them up ... and they they wind up spending like a hundred bucks total for a weekend trip, or whatever ...


They are good about offering to return the favour any time there's a need. Unfortunately, none of the rest of us work for an airline, so most of us don't wind up going too many places very often

This is my dad's younger brother


Have to do some bitcoin stuff later - hopefully their plane arrives on time, so won't be too late coming home

PS. Decided am going to return the new camera - the pics from my older camera seem to turn out just fine ... they don't even need editing ...

Just got back from the airport, and am now up to my usual ... which is not much

Am a little bit distracted by Shark Tank on tv, but guess can post a couple of stuff that were on the internet this past week ...


It looks like Mark Zuckerberg's a fan of trying new things, to keep life fresh and interesting - and it looks like he tried to learn Chinese in a year back in 2010? Guess is that what Chicago Joey is also trying to do for a prop bet right now?

Tried learning Spanish in school, and oh dios mio it didn't go well So that's awesome that Mark Zuckerberg was fluent enough in Chinese to give a presentation 4 years later ... maybe he might have finished sooner if he hadn't been busy running Facebook?

Would be great if Chicago Joey can do it! It's always great to see people take on challenges and do more than they ever imagined was possible

Speaking of B grades in school, this kind of spoke to me

Actually wound up applying myself later on, after coming to feel like maybe someone who's better mastered material might tend to be someone people could better count on?

That part about being open to change was interesting though -


(had a bunch more stuff posted, but guess am still mulling things over ... )

Bitcoin - Market Assessment


My stock market stuff still seems to be doing okay, even though the market's been flat for the last month. Have had my share of fails this year too though - where rather than making a profit, wound up with a 'learning experience' instead

• shorting SNAP
• investing in gold
• shorting GBTC (bitcoin) before the withdrawal from China

The lessons learned have been helpful - have no idea if have learned enough from my past mistakes to prevent future ones though, or if am currently on track to have failure #4 ... possibly with my current bitcoin holding?

The price of bitcoin has gone up quite a bit since my purchase about a month ago - but guess after the fork in a couple of days though, there'll be a new set of events impacting the price?

Price Points and Timelines

Something have started doing after my fails with shorting and gold has been to try to predict the range of possible future prices within a set timeline for my investments - guess maybe that's helped me to take some time to read more into what might be in store in the next little while, and try to imagine how all the possible future events might wind up impacting the price? And guess after doing that, maybe it can sometimes become a little more clear just how much/little uncertainy still remains?

Guess maybe this is a bit like poker - where taking the time to ponder all the different possibilities can sometimes make it easier to figure out which way to go?


One of the reasons decided to buy bitcoin a month ago was because everything had wrapped up in China, and it looked like Russia might be opening up their market to allow increased usage of bitcoin - so guess it looked like there was little chance of the price going lower in the near future, while it looked like there was a decent chance of the price going higher in the near future? And based on that, it seemed like the analyst estimates of US$4k as a possible low, and US$6k as a possible high seemed possible? Then it turned out that Russia changed their mind, and the first fork was considered a good thing, and the price wound up rising anyways - but for a totally different reason than was expecting

Guess that's also like poker - guess it's not always possible to predict how things might go ... and sometimes will have the wrong reason and the right result? Or is that just me


Anyways ... for the next couple of weeks for bitcoin, seem to be having trouble finding any predictions on what might be in store for the price - so am not sure what to do with my bitcoin?

Possible low price before November 18: ?? maybe US$5k?
Possible high price before November 18: maybe US$7k? maybe US$8k??

Possible high price after November 18: will it definitely go up to at least US$7k?
Possible high price after November 18: is there a chance it could stay down? Could it go as low as US$4k??

Those are just guesses - guess it's dropped as much as 50% before, and it's risen a couple of thousand in very short periods of time? Anybody else have any thoughts/guesses on what might be in store?


Hold or Sell?

My CAD$10k of bitcoin is already worth something like CAD$14k, and there's also the extra BTG will get on Oct. 25, that may wind up worth an extra CAD$500 or so. After the fork in a couple of days, guess there's several options for what to do with it?

1. Sell and bank the profits
   1. If the price drops - possibly buy again?
   2. If the price rises - guess it's never too late to hop back on the train
    
2. Hold
   1. Hope the price continues to rise - or if it falls, hope that the price rises again in the near future
    
3. Sell some, and hold some
   1. If the price drops - possibly buy again
   2. If the price rises - possibly buy again

The huge price swings make buying and selling interesting - on the one hand it'd feel terrible to sell it and miss out on more huge gains. On the other hand, if the price were to drop quite a bit before rising again like it has in the past, guess it'd be possible to make twice the gains by selling high and buying low?

Would selling some and holding some help smooth out some of the variance?


Kind of feel like am sitting on the river totally unsure of what to do, and my time bank is running out

Anybody else currently holding some bitcoin who feels like going in one direction more than the other?

The weather finally took a turn - it's not cold yet, but it's cloudy and rainy, and super grey out, meh ...

Can already feel the seasonal affective disorder setting in - so long as it's not pouring out, wonder if it might be better to keep going out for a little fresh air and exercise, rather than stay indoors and be tempted to not do anything at all? Was just remembering back to when Jaime Staples was trying to fit in exercise when it the weather wasn't very nice out - and he and his brothers would still go outside if it was raining.


Guess an alternative would be to start using my exercise bike as it's intended to be used, instead of using it as a coat rack

And then another alternative would be to go to the mall and walk around. Just saw a Christmas commercial on tv the other day - they may already have the holiday decorations set up ... could do some gift shopping and get exercise in, all at the same time


meh

Gave the walk in the rain a try - it wasn't so bad at first ... until the wind starting making the rain go sideways and my umbrella turned inside out

Not so enjoyable walking around in damp clothes - maybe it would have been more enjoyable with the proper clothes, like rain pants and a jacket with a hood, and waterproof shoes ... stuff like that? Although rainy season's so short for us, because it gets cold soon enough that the rain turns to snow. May have to consider the idea of going for walks in my ski pants in a couple of weeks, it won't be much longer

The fresh air was really lovely though - will maybe give the mall walk a try tomorrow, if it's still raining tomorrow afternoon?

Continuing with the poker parallels, guess if there's really an equal chance of the price moving +/- $1k or 2k, then is this event kind of a coin flip? Guess would taking half of my money out and keeping half of it in maybe be like trying to run it twice?

Am kind of half watching tv, but am also going to try to read as much as am able to find on the November fork, to see if people are starting to write more about what may be in store before and after the next fork?

Will see if there's been any new stuff that's been written today ...

Was reading my daily updates - and it looks like the bitcoin gold fork started tonight already ... wasn't it supposed to be on Wednesday?

Had read something a while ago about the fork taking several hours to complete - but it looks like people have already started to sell their bitcoin? Wonder if it really does take several hours to complete a fork, or was it immediate?


Have seen a couple of articles like this one that mention how a lot of people have been selling their other alt-coins to buy bitcoin before the fork, which caused the prices of a lot of other coins to drop. And guess once the fork is over, they're expecting a lot of these people to go back and try to pick up some other alt-coins while the price is cheap - especially since the second bitcoin fork is maybe a bit more contentious?

Guess would want to be sure that the fork was complete before moving my bitcoin back to the exchange. And then moving it will take a couple of hours, unless am willing to pay more to have it go faster. And then it's my bedtime now! So guess will have to see what prices are like in the morning - was expecting to still have a day to mull things over, gosh ...


Have noticed that after bitcoin's price has gone up a couple of thousand dollars in the past, there's been a pull-back over the next month of at least a thousand - guess each time has been different, but guess would maybe rather sit on the sidelines and miss a possible gain of $1k in price than have to sit and watch a possible loss of $1k in price over the course of a month? May sell after the fork has completed, so my first experience with bitcoin winds up in the positive - and then can continue to follow the headlines and wait for a sign that the price may be on the rise again to buy back in?

Guess if the price has dropped a lot by tomorrow morning, may just wind up having to 'hodl'. Guess that wouldn't be so bad, since the price is sure to go up - and may not take so long?


Hope am not busto by morning lol - oh well, didn't invest more than was willing to lose ... what a ride it's been! That's for sure, oh boy!!

Guess maybe being open-minded to change is one thing - maybe being willing to go the extra step of trying to put into action those positive changes may take some extra special qualities, like courage and confidence, and all that good stuff? To be willing to keep at it, when there's those inevitable lessons that have to be learned along the way, and stuff like that?


Was looking at this today, and was just noticing how easy it can be to feel discouraged form time to time - am maybe not the most courageous person or the most confident in my abilities ... but do try to be kind to others, and kind to myself as well. So this was kind of a neat reminder of how to maybe keep spirits high any time the road in life starts to get a bit bumpy? Guess it always feels nice to feel supported and have people believe in you

Gosh, look at the time! Better turn in now, or am going to need another nap tomorrow afternoon ...

Gosh, stopped to make one post before heading out the door to try and squeeze in a little walk before dinner, and the sun's already setting

Well, guess counting this post, that makes two


Anyways - have a bitcoin update to make later, so will have to follow up with that later. Then, may also have more of my usual silly stuff to post as well ...

Will just got for a little walk - then may pick up some free soup from Tim Hortons to go with dinner. Have the Tim Hortons Double Double Visa that gives free food credits back for using their card - how fun is that?

Totally forgot about this app on my i-Phone ...



Maybe the best picture taker of all the discount photo-taking options have given a try this fall season so far?

Will take a look at my bitcoin stuff now - lots of stuff to look over, so this may take a while

Bitcoin Profit


Wanted to start off with something fun before making my real post

There was this little snippet of wisdom had clipped and posted a while ago, and it kept coming to mind today for some reason ...


Bought this amount of bitcoin a couple of weeks ago ...

And today, wound up managing to sell it for this amount ...

So managed to make a $3,564.67 profit in 3 weeks

The money almost doesn't even seem real - guess it feels more like ... maybe, investment chips? Something like that?? The only thing really considered using it to buy is more bitcoin Guess when the time feels right again ...


For some reason the sale of my bitcoin had me remembering that piece of advice about taking time to really stop and savour little bits of progress though. So after selling my bitcoin today, found myself kind of pausing to take a moment to *really* look around at what CAD$3.5k looks like in today's world?

Guess CAD$3.5k is enough to buy 2 gold bars (1 ounce)

Or diamonds

Or a stay at an all-inclusive 5-star Caribbean resort in the middle of winter

Guess it's also enough to dress like a rap star or a Kardashian?

My mind always seems to focus on how x amount of dollars could turn into 2x dollars, with all the plus EV opportunities available - so guess there's really nothing would rather spend $ on than stuff like bitcoin Maybe one day it might kind of be fun to do something out of the box, and pick a treat from the list though? Maybe if bitcoin hits $25k or something?

Maybe my windfall from bitcoin was mostly luck - like a lot of my poker profits In any case, it's been quite lovely to find hobbies that can be enjoyed at home, like poker and investing in bitcoin

Bitcoin - 'Hand History' Review


Now for the more serious post - with the review of all my mistakes, and ideas for how to improve them in the future Guess there may be two areas that have room for improvement?



1. Valuation - focusing on factors underlying price points

My price points were supposed to be valuations of bitcoin, like the ones have seen all the analysts do for the stocks have been buying. So when coming up with a particular price of something like US$5.5k for bitcoin, am really supposed to be saying something like, "It seems like the 16.6 mil of bitcoin should have about a US$92 bil worth to the world (market cap), because of the unique features that bitcoin offers as the world's longest existing international currency and longest existing e-currency - with its limited supply, and increasing awareness the world over of it's potential usage for international transfers and as a store of value?"

Instead, the past couple of weeks it seems like most of my comments wound up sounding something like, "May sell after the first 'good' fork, because it looks like the price may drop before the second 'scary' fork"?


Guess in the future, maybe it might be better to try and focus more on the factors moving the price, just to see how much/little am understanding about what's happening? Like guess with the Segwit2X fork, are developers trying to address the one feature of bitcoin that critics feel stands in the way of allowing it to be useful for day-to-day transfers - the slowness of transactions? While many maybe believe it's got enough value as it is, as first-mover? Additionally, it seems like there's a lot of confusion and uncertainty over what may happen because of the way the fork has been set up this time around - so maybe some people may be wanting to wait until after the fork to see how things turn out?

Someone in the bitcoin thread said they were going to keep close watch on how support for/against the fork changes as it comes closer - maybe as more info comes out, people may have more of an idea of what may be in store over the next little while?

2. Mental Game Leaks Related to Buying and Selling - fear selling, not sticking to the plan, getting sticky

And then, in the past have done some selling out of fear - so guess there's always a chance that may have played a part in my decision to sell this time around as well?


A couple of things that were different this time around though, was that before was buying high and selling low, and wound up losing money. While this time around, managed to buy low and sell high, and actually made some - so that was new

The second thing that was different this time was my use of price points and a plan - had US$6k as the 'sell' target, and once the fork that seemed to be causing the price to rise was over, it seemed like maybe a good time to stick with the plan? Actually had the chance to sell my GBTC bitcoin short at my target price for it, which would have made me a 20% profit - but then got greedy about wanting to try to make more and wound up ditching the plan, only to have the price take a turn soon after. Then, even after my profit had disappeared, instead of selling got sticky hoping for a turnaround, and ultimately wound up losing money - when it would have been possible to have wound up with a nice profit if had just stuck with the plan.


Guess one thing that's different with a short and a long, is that with a short there's a chance the price may never recover, while with a long it's likely the price will go back up in the long-term even if it does go down for a bit in the short-term?

Oh well - guess if the B2X fork gets contentious before it gets better, maybe there'll be a chance to buy more bitcoin somewhere around US$5.2k? If not, may have to pay US$7k my next time around - although hopefully that'll mean the price of bitcoin will be headed for US$8k!

Guess will keep reading bitcoin daily updates - sometimes it seems like there's not too much that's newsworthy, but will post anything am able to find that seems interesting?


Looking forward to the King of the Hill semi-finals tomorrow!

1. vacation
2. bag
3. diamonds
4. gold

Hi SA


My true number one pick would probably be something like this ...

It looks like a sure-fire way to have a good time

So maybe ...

1. bitcoin
2. snuggie
.
.
75. gold bitcoin
76. cheaper earrings + bitcoin
77. 2 cheaper vacations - one beach, one ski ... hopefully also some bitcoin?
78. etc?


Was lurking in your thread SA, and saw some halloween-themed pics - they were so festive!!

The weather's gotten pretty frightful around here - as Casper the friendly ghost might say, boo to that!

Have a little bitcoin update to do - probably it would have been more interesting to do it in another week or two ... but guess sometimes it can be interesting to follow things in real time? So guess will maybe do an update on Sunday night?

Hope everybody's having a scary good pre-Halloween Saturday night!

super picture. How fare have you been from the squirrel?

Hey Lakpa!


haha - the closest the squirrel would seem to let me get was about 6ft, so then had to use the zoom lens to get the rest of the way. Have seen people feed the birds and squirrels before, and if they're being fed by people, these city critters don't seem to be at all shy about getting super close. Maybe she was afraid was trying to steal her yummy nut from her, and wasn't eager to share?

Haven't sent the camera back yet, so have still been toting it around, and haven't found another occasion to use the zoom lens. Maybe am not super creative about looking for shots that are outside the box though? Because it felt kind of strange to be taking a pic of my surroundings that wasn't actually visible to the naked eye. National Geographic's big on publishing photos that have made use of technology to get shots that people wouldn't ever see without it - it seems like the photographers here may have needed to use a zoom lens to get this close?

And then the latest thing seems to be aerial shots taken using drones?

The photos in National Geographic are pretty neat when they're not only beautiful but interesting because they have to be something fresh to get published. Some of them can be quite outside the box though - like the ultra close-ups of really unusual creatures, or the aerial shots that am not even sure what they're of? Guess it's free entertainment, to be able to view all the photos online though, so the price is right

Was quite surprised to see how close a budget point and shoot camera could get to a squirrel though! Guess was just wanting to learn how to hopefully take better photos of the stuff around me, so maybe having a zoom to get super close to stuff is maybe not so important for that?

Hope everybody's having a nice weekend!

Will maybe do a bitcoin update in a couple of weeks after all - guess it's hard to go wrong with an investment that's up several hundred percent for the year ... but maybe there's different ways to approach it?

My balance of $13,564.67 is up a little over a hundred since a couple of days ago. Have a lot of refining of my technique to do - am eager to have a second chance to give things a try, hopefully in a couple of days?

It's been super cold and rainy out - and a lot of the leaves that were on the trees a couple of days ago like here seem to be on the ground now - guess the foliage can still be enjoyed from afar, but guess autumn's sort of starting to come to a close, and it may not be too much longer before the snow storms start to hit?

So guess it's gotten to be that time of year where it's back to looking for ways to enjoy the indoors. There's a St. Lawrence Market in town that sells all sorts of gourmet food - guess oftentimes gourmet food places tend to be quite fancy looking ... and have fancy prices to go with it? But guess this place has its roots in being a place where farmers could sell their wares, so it's got still got a pretty basic ambiance and very reasonable prices. Many of the stalls sell prepared foods so that people can try out the products their selling - so people will go there for lunch on Saturdays, and can get stuff like fresh ribs with homemade bbq sauce for about the same price as maybe a footlong at Subway?

Also went to the McMichael gallery that's supposed to specialize in showcasing Canadian art, but their collection was surprisingly underwhelming. Guess many of the well-known Group of Seven paintings must be on display in Ottawa or something, because the ones at this gallery were all smaller than a piece of paper ...

And they had some aboriginal art on display as well ...

Since the collection was so small, wound up at the outlet mall afterwards - one of the few places where there's apparently enough demand for stores to stock the shelves with entire cabinets full of caramel apples

Hopefully everybody's been finding ways to stay warm and have fun this weekend - it gets dark so early now ...

meh

Will have to try to come up with a rainy day project to work on this Winter - to help make all the time spent indoors a lot more fun and exciting. May take a look at some stuff after dinner?

Not sure how this holiday is traditionally celebrated the world over - but yesterday for National Cat Day, people seemed to be making their cats say silly things so they could pretend they were people

Going to look over the hobby things now - gosh, hopefully will manage to make some progress over the next couple of hours?

Guess Apple started pre-orders for the new iPhone - and apparently they're already expecting delivery delays, because it's been so popular? There's been commercials on tv as well, and the ads always make their products seem so cool ...

Still - saw this the other day, and instead of it helping to make the phone look cheaper, came away feeling like gosh ... is Netflix really that expensive?

Guess my iphone is working just fine - will maybe replace it when it stops working?


PS. Still pondering the hobby stuff

Photography Season's Over - Time to Find a New Hobby


When given the chance to do anything in the world as a hobby, seem to always wind up gravitating towards the chess/poker/investing type of stuff. And it always seems to be the same group of people who wind up doing the same

Video #1 - Learning and Growing

Then a couple of years ago, also started picking up side hobbies after watching this TED Talk on trying something new for 30 days. Guess the idea was that 30 days is a short enough time for people to be willing to stick with something, while also being a long enough time to change a habit?

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrustySam;

Guess this speech was meant to be inspirational, but in watching it, kind of realized that maybe am not so fond of change, and trying new things? Although hearing that he'd climbed up Mt. Kilamunjaro sounded so cool.

Didn't realize at the time how life-changing it would be to try something new - guess because there's a certain amount of comfort that comes with sticking with what's familiar? Although maybe doing things outside our comfort zone can sometimes be important as well - because that's how we wind up having new experiences from which we are able to learn new things?


After watching the TED talk, wound up trying to be a vegetarian for 30 days. Which about killed me! lol!! But with no choice but to try to find ways to make vegetables taste good, guess it gave me a reason to find enough foods that were yummy, that have been able to stick with eating much healthier ever since?

And then this year, after having such a positive experience with trying something new on the first go, decided to give iphone photography a try. Guess besides it giving me a reason to stop and really smell the roses, it also gave me a reason to spend more time outdoors and be excited about getting more exercise on a regular basis?




Video #2 - Embracing Change


Then just last week, stumbled upon this other vid. Guess the person in the vid had noticed that some students who weren't at the top of the class sometimes wound up doing better out in the real world than the students who did well in school - because life can sometimes reward rule-breaking, while school tends to teach the opposite?

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrustySam

That part about being open to change was interesting -

Haven't yet come up with any ideas for a new hobby just yet - guess am hoping to find something though that will teach me the sorts of things that there wasn't the chance to learn in school? So there'll hopefully be the chance to learn and grow, and see the world with fresh eyes, and all that good stuff?



In other news, may have to buy more bitcoin tomorrow - there's a rumour that the Chinese government may be opening their own exchange on Nov. 1, and if it goes online people expect the price to rise again? So it'll be back on the train

Today was fun

Ahoy matey! arrghhh ...

Have a little time before all the witches and goblins start start ringing the doorbell Kind of a bummer for the kiddos that it's so cold out - not as much fun when all anyone can see is everybody's winter coats instead of their costumes ...

May have to start giving out 3 or 4 treats towards the end of the night if not as many people show up because of the weather - would rather the trick-or-treaters have the candy, otherwise may wind up the night with a bowl full of like 20 candy bars or whatever