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Our church is looking to have some changes done to the building, so we retained an architect to draw plans for the work. His initial proposal gave us a few options, and we are to select which option we want and then he will draw the real plans.

For the initial proposal, there was a rendered drawing of how the church would look with a certain change. One of the church members commented to the architect that the drawing looked pretty good, and then he asked him what software program he used to do the 3-D drawing. The architect’s response was “Google Sketchup“.

I hadn’t thought of asking that question, and I certainly didn’t expect the architect’s answer. I figured they must have some expensive architectural-type software that they use. But apparently Sketchup is good enough for them, and probably easier than whatever they have. And the price is good, of course, like all of Google’s products.

Some people worry about having all of their computer stuff run by Google – putting all their eggs in one basket. Iit is certainly possible to do just about everything online through a Google service. If anything happens to Google, or something changes such as now some things are pay services, then you would have to change your whole online experience if you used Google products for everything. But I don’t see that as a likely event.

This week, I am posting the results of the third week of tracking certain indicators. This week shows how those indicators have fared two weeks after the last changes to the portfolio.

It had looked like the Oversold with Improving RSI would be the winner, but this week it took a downturn. And the Moving Average Crossover 50/200 jumped into the lead. That’s for the NASDAQ. For the NYSE, Oversold with Improving RSI widens its lead over Bollinger Bands, which had been running strong until now. I think it has hit the point where the indicators are not performing as well as they should, because portfolio is not being kept current with the buy and sell signals. I think I’ll run one more week of this.

NASDAQ

NYSE

“One hand full of rest is better than two fists full of labor and striving after wind.”
– Ecclesiastes 4:6

Buy The Five Love Languages and also buy Love and Respect.

Those are two books that will help you understand your spouse.  People are different from each other, with different personalities, and the Five Love Languages addresses that.  Men and women are also different from each other in general, and Love and Respect addresses that.

I knew these as just books, but it turns out that there are study guides and DVDs and conferences. There are plenty of resources out there to help people with their marriages. Be sure to start your marriage on the right foot; read these books before your wedding ceremony.

“Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.”
– Ephesians 5:33

Last week, I posted the results of a week of gathering stock picks from a technical analysis site. This week, I am posting the results of the second week of that effort. This week shows how those stocks have fared a week later, without any changes to the portfolio.

Also, I corrected the earlier numbers. The values for 2 Days, 3 Days, and 1 Week were added instead of averaged, so the returns were greater than they should have been (e.g. 5 stocks returning 5% each does not mean you will get a 25% return). That error does not affect the results in that the point of the exercise is to compare analysis methods. As long as the methods were compared using the same calculations, the comparison will be valid. But the error would affect the secondary part of the exercise, which is to see how the analysis methods perform against the market itself.

So here are the this week’s results:

NASDAQ

NYSE

This is not an offer to buy or sell any securities. Any information on this site is general in nature and is not intended to be financial advice for your specific situation. Trading stocks carries risks that should be discussed with a professional financial advisor. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Use at your own risk. This post was written in a facility that processes peanuts.

“He who increases his wealth by interest and usury Gathers it for him who is gracious to the poor.”
– Proverbs 28:8

I had the problem for the past several years of picking at my cuticles. It was a bad habit, just biting one’s nails, but at the other end of the nails. It seemed harmless for a while, until a couple of weeks ago.

Here, for your viewing enjoyment, are pictures of my nails after the attack of the nail fungus. There were some nails that were infected and some that were not. The nails that were not infected were the nails whose cuticles I hadn’t picked in a while – the healthy cuticles. The nails that were infected were the nails with the damaged cuticles. So if you’re looking for a reason or motivation to stop the unhealthy habit of pulling or peeling or cutting or otherwise hurting your cuticles, take a minute to examine these photos.

In order to protect the squeamish – those who are reading the blog for other reasons and don’t appreciated being confronted with medical photographs – I am showing small black-and-white thumbnails (get it, thumbnails!) or preview pictures. Those who do want to see the larger, full-color version can click on the previews.

I didn’t know it was a fungal infection when it started, because it started under the skin at the base of the nail bed. It wasn’t until that part grew out that I saw what happened. Now the new nail is pushing out the old one, rather, the nail is continuing to grow as normal. The infected part is gradually being clipped away and the new part is growing in fresh, albeit soft and with a matte finish, as opposed to hard and semi-gloss that my nails used to be.

I recently had to deal with the government, and part of that involved completing an application. The application could be via phone, paper form, or online form. I chose online form, as I thought it would be the easiest and fastest. I chose poorly.

Although most of my life is up-to-date, my home entertainment is still in the Neolithic period (I was going to type Stone Age instead of Neolithic period, but I can’t). I have dial-up internet access and broadcast TV – broadcast analog TV, on a cathode ray tube. The broadcast TV part means that the federal government is going to improve things, which means my life gets disrupted. I have to buy a digital-to-analog TV signal converter, otherwise my TV won’t work next year. But the government decided that, since they’re going to make a boatload of money on this deal, they would be nice and subsidize converter boxes for the masses.

So I went to the government site to order two coupons. The site looks nice, but it is a horrible site. I entered my information and clicked the Submit button. What happened? The form cleared my information. Was my information submitted? Do I need to re-enter it? The site had earlier mentioned to remember my confirmation number, but I got no confirmation number. Do I need to wait for a confirmation number? Is my submittal being processed? No feedback whatsoever, so I waited a few minutes (the site had said that the submittal could take a few minutes), tried again, and the same thing happened.

It turns out that the site does not play nicely with browsers other than IE. I was using Firefox, like any good internet user should. The reason I am writing negatively toward the government website dtv2009.gov is not because it just didn’t like Firefox, but that the website people should know that and either fix it (preferred) or warn users that the website is bad and won’t work with their browsers (not preferred, but still better than just not working and not caring why). So I used IE and got my confirmation number. The End.

It seems a common American male experience to have Gillette send you a razor on your 18th birthday. Of course, they want you to use that razor and keep buying blades for it.

It think the competition, mainly Schick, should send out razors on men’s 19th birthdays. “By now, the razor you got on your 18th birthday is getting old and worn out. Why don’t you use this one instead?”

It’s the razor industry equivalent of bidding on the Price is Right. Gillette bids $800, and Schick bids $801. I suppose the equivalent of bidding $1 would be sending the razor on someone’s first birthday and hoping they have it 14 or 16 years later.

“In that day the Lord will shave with a razor, hired from regions beyond the Euphrates ({that is,} with the king of Assyria), the head and the hair of the legs; and it will also remove the beard.”
– Isaiah 7:20