it's like the running of the bulls

Stocks are very unpredictable. But, from my brief experience dabbling in them, there is a simple and clear rule that never fails: good companies stocks go up and bad companies stocks go down.

Take for instance the prime example of blockbuster vs netflix. If you had to predict 3 years ago which company would be performing better today, which would you have chosen? If you had to put money on it, such as $2000, which company would you have trusted? If you picked netflix, your $2000 would be $12000+ today. If you picked blockbuster, you would have lost it all.

On hindsight, it's pretty easy. But let's take a look at several companies today and try to figure out who will end up the winner 3 years from now.

Cell provider
AT&T - 27.93
Verizon - 30.91
Sprint - 4.56
Metropcs- 9.77

So, looking at the current landscape, AT&T and verizon currently have sizable leads in marketshare. AT&T has the benefit of the iPhone while verizon is basking in the success of great marketing and customer service. Then you have the old warhorse in sprint and the new upstart metropcs. In 3 years, which company will be at the top?

I can't give you a rock solid prediction. Nobody can. Can you predict if apple will continue to make AT&T it's only provider? Will verizon suddenly fall off due to overpricing? Will metropcs become the neat new company that takes the tech world by storm? These are all questions as you evaluate each of these companies.

I always like to look at the upstarts and underdogs. AT&T has maximized its potential. It may rise and fall moderately but Its days of innovation seem too far gone. Verizon has also appeared to have hit its peak. Not much is new in terms of its plans,and the droid is doing a decent job of keeping it's current subscribers but still nothing earth shattering.

That leaves sprint and metropcs. Of these 2, metropcs has the biggest room for growth, simply based on it's relative youth. You can see that potential word creeping in where the other 3 companies could be seen as older veterans ready for retirement.

If you look at the trending of the past 6 months, you see strong positive signs with around a 30% return. This appears to be due to their ability to tap into various markets such as the prepaid phone market. These types of moves are the ones that could help spark a company to become the leader of the pack.

I'm no stock expert but common logic is good companies are good investments. Just be careful to invest what you can afford to lose because you never know if that stock will be a netflix or a blockbuster.

Hiatus?

No, not really. Just been busy..

Expect more posts coming up. I will be giving out my best and worst lost male characters, predictions for the MLB stretch run, NFL thoughts and finally a video that will blow your mind

Hiatus?

Personal Wednesdays.

I love lazy days.
I don't like hazy days
I like groups of 5 or less
I don't like people who take credit for something they didn't do
I like hugs
I don't like half hugs
I like being myself
I don't like being fake
I love my friends
I love my wife
I love my God
I love you

Youtube Tuesday: Boom Goes the Dynamite

Boom Goes the Dynamite. Funny the first minute. Viral the next. Then, Will Smith popularized it. It is now considered pop culture as a way to describe a lack of verbal elegance. But I would simply describe it as Awkward. Enjoy!

Top Five Friday: Best & Worst LOST Female Characters

LOST is my favorite television show of all time. It has mystery, intringue, polar bears, black smoke monsters and, most importantly, very engaging characters. In my attempt to walk down memory lane, I will start by highlighting the 5 best AND worst Female Characters from LOST which is harder than it sounds (not many memorable females on the show). For those not familiar with LOST, be warned that my comments may contain some spoilers.

Worst 5

5. Eloise Hawking - Manipulative. Conniving. Vague. I think that was the most annoying thing about Ms. Hawking (outside of killing her own son). She seemed to know all of the secrets, yet always spoke in riddles and vagueness. If you knew everything about the island, why not tell everyone??

Worst Moment: Shooting her son in the back right when we thought he was going to find all of the answers.

4. Ana Lucia - The Terrell Owens of LOST. Always looking out for #1. Complaining when she isn't given her due. Making brash decisions that haunted her up until her death. Good going Michael.

Worst Moment: Shooting Shannon. All males groaned.

3. Charlotte - Who is she? What is her purpose? Why did she want to come back to the island? Well, I guess we'll never know. Instead of exploring her story, we were forced to witness some awkward romance with Daniel and repeated nosebleeds. Great. Thanks Charlotte.

Worst Moment: Dying, while talking about chocolate.

2. Nikki - She was on Expose. And complained nobody was noticing her. And then she was paralyzed. By a bug. Oh well.

Worst moment: Whenever she talked.

1. Zoe - She claims to know a lot about the island, but... I honestly have no idea why she was on the show. She came. She talked. She annoyed. She died. Two thumbs way down.

Worst moment: Getting slashed in the throat by Locke.... Actually that was a great moment.

Best 5

5. Rose - Always the voice of reason and supportive throughout the show, Rose shows that she won't back down from anybody and will stand up for what she believes in. She was one of the stronger characters on the show.

Best Moment: Always holding out hope to meet her husband Bernard... and then finally finding him.

4. Claire Littleton - Strong. Mysterious. Very Pregnant. Claire was a very strong and prominent character in the early seasons of LOST. She had a likeability that seemed to be lacking from a lot of characters. Sure, she went crazy by the end of the show, but I don't think we should discount the importance of her character throughout the first four seasons.

Best Moment: Sharing an imaginary jar of peanut butter with Charlie.

3. Sun Kwon - Now this is a devoted Korean woman. She may have been completely destroyed as a character as the show went on, but she really tugged at our hearts with some key moments throughout the show. Plus, whacking Ben in the head with a paddle was pretty damn cool.

Best Moment - Screaming like a banshee after the freighter blew up.

2. Kate Austen - Love Her, Hate Her. She seemed useless at times, for sure. However, you can't deny how much of an impact she had on so many important characters: Jack, Sawyer, Claire, Aaron. Only if she wasn't so hesitant and indecisive, would she then have earned the #1 spot

Best Moment - Counting to Five in the pilot.

1. Juliet Burke - She only graced us with her presence for 3 full seasons, but boy were they powerful. She played such a huge part in various parts of the show, such as leading the Others to explosions, notifying Sun of her pregnancy, tugging at both Jack and Sawyer's hearts and ultimately blowing up the island. Without Juliet, LOST would have been very different.

Best Moment - Blowing Up the Bomb, which led to everyone, including the viewers, to be completely confused.

Come back next week for the Top 5 Best & Worst Male Characters!

Toss up Thursday: vanilla or chocolate

The old rivalry of vanilla and chocolate spans many centuries, but I will be the one deciding the victor. Let's get the important stats to start the toss up.

Vanilla
From: vanilla orchid
Origin: totonac people
Description of flavor: refreshing sweetness
Yummy as an: ice cream, with crepes


Chocolate
From: cacao beans
Origin: Mexico
Description of flavor: bitter but thick sweetness
Yummy as a: cake and frosting


Appearance: At it's best, vanilla looks refreshing. Chocolate, on the other hand, can look heavenly. WINNER: chocolate

Taste: From a consistency standpoint, vanilla never disappoints while chocolate can be great or poor depending on how it's prepared. I will take vanilla on this one. WINNER: vanilla

Flexibility: You can't really do much with vanilla except ice cream and cake. But with chocolate, you can use it in various ways, such as fondue, drinks, hot fudge etc. Chocolate wins big here. WINNER: chocolate

Verdict: As much as I love vanilla from a pure taste standpoint, it simply can't measure up to chocolate from a delectability standpoint.

Now that I've made my decision, it's time to eat some cake.

Personal Wednesdays - 5 Goals

For pretty much everyone, there are days when you look back at your life and wonder what you have accomplished. To be honest, I think I have accomplished a lot in the past 5 years since graduating college. I got married, got a wonderful job with the most amazing coworkers and bought a house. But, for some reason, I feel like there should be more. It is not really ambition, but trying to find God's true calling for me. We all only get one life and I don't want to waste it.

Then, about 2 weeks ago, my wife's coworker came over for dinner and he gave us this book called "The 4-Hour Workweek". It's a book that describes how work can sometimes handcuff you from doing what you really want to do in life. It isn't about becoming rich, per se. Instead, it is about using your time more prudently, so you can experience the things you always wanted to by defining set goals and how you will accomplish them. I thought it was a very eye opening experience and really gave me motivation to better myself.

This is why I have come up with 5 goals for myself over the next 6 months. I can't say that I'll accomplish all of them but I think it is a good practice to set for ourselves so we don't become complacent.

1. Learn Conversational Cantonese - My wife is from Hong Kong and it always feels awkward when I try to speak with some of her friends or family without knowing cantonese. Therefore, I plan to setup flash cards, take online lessons and speak with my wife daily in cantonese to be fluent at conversational cantonese by the end of the year.

2. Learn Basic Japanese - This is more of a goal to prepare for my vacation. I think I may get a little lazy with this one as I'll be learning Cantonese too, but I'll try! :)

3. Get Lakers Season Tickets, but pay for them outside of my regular income - Having Laker Season Tickets has always been a dream of mine, but even I know that this one may be hard to achieve. How will I get the money to pay for these outside of my regular income? Work a second job? Volunteer my body? Most likely not. But I'll figure this one out slowly. :)

4.Get a Six Pack - Well, this may simply be a matter of discipline. I don't think i've ever had a six pack in my life, but I definitely think this is achievable. I'm only 26 and working out on a regular basis at the gym each week. Why can't I achieve a six pack? I'll go on a stricter diet, do more reps on my abs and really be disciplined about schedule.

5. Get 1000 unique visitors at my blog - For this goal, I will definitely need your help. :)

For those who are interested, I highly recommend the book. I'm only a quarter of a way through but it is a very good read so far. It could potentially change your outlook on how you are living your life.

Youtube Tuesday

However many years ago, Youtube took the world by storm and introduced us to funny cats, dancing evolution and some really, really cute babies.

So, I've decided that every Tuesday is going to be Youtube Tuesday. I will personally give you the best youtube videos each and every week. Or at least something that will make you laugh.

And to start, I'll post one of my favorite crazy people videos from Hong Kong:

My Wife - Artist

Don't we all want to have some skill? I wish I could do anything. But I think the thing I do best is having an uncanny and unnecessary memory of LOST and the Lakers.

My Wife? She has a more useful skill. Art.

Look at that. Isn't that amazing?

This is my best drawing in the same amount of time that she did it:


Not as easy as it looks right? I like that my drawing has a person. Adds character.

New Start

When I first started this blog, I intended it to be about LOST and my daily musings about it. Well, fast forward (no pun intended) 2 years and LOST is over and I haven't updated my blog. Given that LOST is all about starting over and beginning anew, I figured I would do the same.

I'm not a complicated person. I love my wife, my family, my friends and God. I'm a spiritual person who loves to watch sports and reality tv (food shows specifically) while always thinking about how to improve the world.

I'll probably provide daily (or weekly) musings about my everyday life. Whether it pertains to work, love, sports or other I'm not really sure yet. But I'll let my thoughts dictate where I am going.

To whoever reads this, thanks. Not sure if I'm really that interesting, but appreciate all the positive reinforcement I can get.

As Penny was to Desmond, this blog is my constant. It will continuously keep me acclimated to what is really going on. I hope you will be my variables.