Some of these explanations will be short and sweet, while others may be only one place (Australia) but these are the reasons I chose the places I did.
Orem to Yellowstone to Banff, Canada, to Glacier NP
I've had this route plotted since I was a Junior in High School. As soon as my parents bought me that new car (never happened, I was such a good kid though :) ) I was going to drive up through Pocatello (sp?) ID to Yellowstone. Hike around, see the bears, bison, wolves, fish, water falls, girls, trees, geysers, etc. and then head north to Banff, Canada. Why Banff? You see I had a friend in 9th-10th grade who's father ran the rivers near Banff and brought back amazing pictures and stories about the country around there, so I wanted to see it. While looking at a map and planning my route I noticed that it would be approx the same amount of miles to drive to Glacier NP and back home as it would take to retrace my route. So add Glacier NP to the list of places to visit. In the original plan I would have come home after Glacier, but in my "dream" plan I continue eastward.
One thing about driving. I like to drive. With 4 kids screaming, spilling, whining, upchucking, crying, etc., not so much. But with Lisa or by myself, driving is my preferred method of travel. One caveat though is I must have an interesting destination/road/country to keep me occupied. I have no desire to drive for drivings sake.
Next up -- Into the world of flat
Friday, December 7, 2007
My travel dream/plans?????
This post comes from a response I wrote on Trailrunnings about your dream vacation. I think I'll blog about why I chose each destination in this itinerary.
Start in Orem (woo hoo) drive, yes drive, north to Yellowstone, then East to Glacier NP. From there head to Chicago, Navuoo, Missouri, North Carolina Coast, New York State and then to NYC. On to Paris and the beaches of Normandy, French Riviera and into Spain and Portugal. Cross the Mediterranean at Gibraltar. Ride across N. Africa to Egypt on a KTM 950 Adv. and back across the Med. to Italy. Go up the left side of the "boot" into Switzerland, Germany, Austria and then back down the right side of the "boot". Cross the Agean?? to Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and down to Turkey and Greece. Fly to Thailand then on to Vietnam. Down to Bali, all of Australia, then to New Zealand. Fly to Hawaii and then on to Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Baja and Copper Canyon Mexico. Fly to San Fransisco and drive home. Easy huh?
Start in Orem (woo hoo) drive, yes drive, north to Yellowstone, then East to Glacier NP. From there head to Chicago, Navuoo, Missouri, North Carolina Coast, New York State and then to NYC. On to Paris and the beaches of Normandy, French Riviera and into Spain and Portugal. Cross the Mediterranean at Gibraltar. Ride across N. Africa to Egypt on a KTM 950 Adv. and back across the Med. to Italy. Go up the left side of the "boot" into Switzerland, Germany, Austria and then back down the right side of the "boot". Cross the Agean?? to Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and down to Turkey and Greece. Fly to Thailand then on to Vietnam. Down to Bali, all of Australia, then to New Zealand. Fly to Hawaii and then on to Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Baja and Copper Canyon Mexico. Fly to San Fransisco and drive home. Easy huh?
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Quote
I found this quote today on a ride report at advrider.com;
"Patriotism means being loyal to your country all the time and to its government when it deserves it."-- Mark Twain
This quote may fit into a post I may write later today.
"Patriotism means being loyal to your country all the time and to its government when it deserves it."-- Mark Twain
This quote may fit into a post I may write later today.
What to do?
It's funny how your mind works. At night I'll see something on the news and think "I need to blog about that tomorrow" but when I get the chance the moment has passed and the desire is no longer there. What to do?
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
New Financial Hero?
OK, so I found this blog today while researching the sub prime crisis link. It's what my dream blog would be. Call me a finance nerd all you want, but I really enjoy this stuff and this guy has all the right stuff. The Citigroup explanation contradicts my own thinking and knowledge but it's wonderfully laid out and described. The Retail Financial Advise post should be required reading before investing money in anything! Expand your knowledge and learn something.
A very fun time reading about others Christmas folly's
Click on this link to read stories about awful Christmas gifts. If you are a husband/boyfriend or mother-in-law, then you'll need a thick skin. I for one have only really given one great gift and it wasn't even the holiday's.
It's been awhile!
When the largest bank in the world, Citigroup, accepts a $7.5 BILLION cash infusion and calls it a good thing for the company (link), you know something is amiss within the organization. Of course I don't have all the info concerning who, what, where, how, etc., I do find it interesting how this whole sub prime mess is being spun by the different organizations involved. See what the largest bank in Europe did yesterday here. It's not a happy holiday's type of atmosphere on Wall Street this year.
Sub Prime Mess Re-post
I'm copying and pasting my post (from trailrunnings) onto my blog so that I don't have to keep switching back and forth from my blog and trailrunnings. Original date Nov 8th 2007.
The following is ONLY my OPINION and does not mean anything more than that. Since my moto is unridable (sp?) with a flat tire and lack of truck, I have been forced to think about finance. Because this is what I went to the Red School for, I have a propensity to dwell upon the fate of money. The large financial institutions like "Investment" Banks, nationally and regionally expansive "savings" banks, large pension funds, insurance companies, etc. gorged themselves on cheap debt and those pesky little things called "sub-prime" mortgages. I'll leave a through dissection of why these entities did this for another blog entry (I know you won't be able to wait, but too bad) but it has to do with borrowing at a low interest rate and buying a higher interest rate paying device, using the low interest borrowed money, and making the "spread". This is only one of innumerable reasons for this sub-prime crisis, so don't quote me on this as the ONE and ONLY reason ;). So these institutions bought these devices, sometimes known as CDO's among other acronyms, to earn higher than "normal" returns on their money. Everyone thought they were smart and making "risk free" money on the spreads. Traders, investors, banks, etc. made big money in the form of bonuses, returns and fees from these instruments. It was in the individuals, if not the companies, interest to keep this game going. As in most things, the cycle has caught up to the instruments and the ones paying the monthly payments. You see, all of this was built upon a bad risk. The risk of a newly married couple making 50K in California defaulting on their $1,500 interest only monthly mortgage payment is relatively small. The risk of that same couple defaulting on their newly adjusted principal and interest monthly payment of $3,000 is much higher. Factor in that this same couple fabricated income to purchase this home next to their best friends or speculate that the price would continue to climb, and the risk of default is almost certain. Add in a declining real estate market so this same couple can't sell this burden and you have what I'll call the Cake of Disaster (can I trademark that phrase). This couples mortgage was most likely sold as soon as it closed and packaged into a financial instrument that pays out cash to the investor. These financial instruments were then "rated" based upon the quality of the mortgage credit by rating agencies. The ratings given were supposed to determine the risk associated with the stream of cash flows. The higher the perceived risk, the higher the return. These agencies at best apparently didn't do their homework and rubber stamped issues or at worst were persuaded to rate riskier issues better (this persuasion could take the form of cash, promised access, preserving relationships, etc.). Since many government pension funds, insurance companies, and other regulated entities can only buy investment grade financial instruments, the rating agencies may have been influenced to better the ratings by the firms bundling these mortgages so that the bundling firms could sell them easier.
The financial institutions feasted on the frosting of the cake, "the interest, fees, etc.", got to the next layer and thought this taste funny, but hey were all making amazing money and so will be able to afford the doctor, "the markets", and then got to the middle. The ooey-gooey middle where nothing had gone the way it should. All of the fancy financial models, "the recipe", failed. Eggs went un-blended, flour was in clumps, "the CDO valuation puzzle", and big chunks of salt, "defaulting loans", were the morsels left to chomp on. This of course necessitated a trip to the emergency room, "the Federal Gov't.", on what most likely will be all of ours dimes, nickels, quarters, and dollars. The financial losses that have been reported in the media are somewhat misleading. Some of what was lost is "real" money. Some is what is called balance sheet writedowns. The balance sheet writedowns came from being unable to value the financial instruments in a firm (desirable) way that the companies had as assets on their books. This inability to value these things is what is causing problems. Since the instruments value come's from the cash flows of the mortgage payers, when all or some of that cash flow disappears or is uncertain (the math behind what is termed uncertain boggles the mind, literally), the instrument is now very difficult to place a value on. This change in perceived value is what is being wrote down. Now don't take these writedowns and tell me they aren't real money (just see what happens to the stock price and your wealth when the writedowns are announced), I know they are and matter greatly.
What I'm about to write is not an endorsement nor suggestion to buy nor sell particular securities and/or their associated derivatives. Since few of these financial institutions have publicly announced their losses and balance sheet write downs (can Citicorp. really believe that a switch was thrown on Oct. 1st, the start of the "4th" business quarter, and that is when they started losing money????) you can actually bet that more problems will surface in the next six months and make some of those nickels and dimes back. The stock ticker SKF is an instrument (yes just like CDO's, kind of, in certain ways, if you look at it through squinty eyes backwards and upside down) that moves opposite of a basket of financial company stocks. This means that if this basket index moves up, the value of SKF goes down. But if you believe that the financial companies are still trying to hide losses that MUST eventually come out (unless the Gov't bails them out) then bad news for this basket of financial stocks is still likely. This bad news would be good for the value of SKF shares. For those interested in reducing their risk, SKF has a correlation to the DOW of -.85. This means that if the DOW goes down, then SKF goes up and vice-versa. Buy SKF and the DOW and make less but possibly lose less. One caveat to this scenario, SKF has only been around since Feb 2007 and not all market conditions and temperaments have been experienced and been taken into account.
For those who made it to the end of this post, I now will reveal why I wrote it. It wasn't to educate, nor to push an investment idea, I wrote this to put little ones, and possibly their parents, to sleep. Just bring up the blog post, start reading to them and within seconds they'll be asleep. For the little ones who perk up while you read this post to them, sign them up at the next possible moment to attend a Hedge Fund class and start making retirement plans. Hedge funds are where the real bonus money is.
Watch for more economy analysis' in the coming weeks (Lisa said it was OK ;)) if I am not forever banned from posting again (from the same person who gave me permission). Until next time (maybe I'll list some fascinating finance books to read, wow what an idea!!!)
Finance Red
The following is ONLY my OPINION and does not mean anything more than that. Since my moto is unridable (sp?) with a flat tire and lack of truck, I have been forced to think about finance. Because this is what I went to the Red School for, I have a propensity to dwell upon the fate of money. The large financial institutions like "Investment" Banks, nationally and regionally expansive "savings" banks, large pension funds, insurance companies, etc. gorged themselves on cheap debt and those pesky little things called "sub-prime" mortgages. I'll leave a through dissection of why these entities did this for another blog entry (I know you won't be able to wait, but too bad) but it has to do with borrowing at a low interest rate and buying a higher interest rate paying device, using the low interest borrowed money, and making the "spread". This is only one of innumerable reasons for this sub-prime crisis, so don't quote me on this as the ONE and ONLY reason ;). So these institutions bought these devices, sometimes known as CDO's among other acronyms, to earn higher than "normal" returns on their money. Everyone thought they were smart and making "risk free" money on the spreads. Traders, investors, banks, etc. made big money in the form of bonuses, returns and fees from these instruments. It was in the individuals, if not the companies, interest to keep this game going. As in most things, the cycle has caught up to the instruments and the ones paying the monthly payments. You see, all of this was built upon a bad risk. The risk of a newly married couple making 50K in California defaulting on their $1,500 interest only monthly mortgage payment is relatively small. The risk of that same couple defaulting on their newly adjusted principal and interest monthly payment of $3,000 is much higher. Factor in that this same couple fabricated income to purchase this home next to their best friends or speculate that the price would continue to climb, and the risk of default is almost certain. Add in a declining real estate market so this same couple can't sell this burden and you have what I'll call the Cake of Disaster (can I trademark that phrase). This couples mortgage was most likely sold as soon as it closed and packaged into a financial instrument that pays out cash to the investor. These financial instruments were then "rated" based upon the quality of the mortgage credit by rating agencies. The ratings given were supposed to determine the risk associated with the stream of cash flows. The higher the perceived risk, the higher the return. These agencies at best apparently didn't do their homework and rubber stamped issues or at worst were persuaded to rate riskier issues better (this persuasion could take the form of cash, promised access, preserving relationships, etc.). Since many government pension funds, insurance companies, and other regulated entities can only buy investment grade financial instruments, the rating agencies may have been influenced to better the ratings by the firms bundling these mortgages so that the bundling firms could sell them easier.
The financial institutions feasted on the frosting of the cake, "the interest, fees, etc.", got to the next layer and thought this taste funny, but hey were all making amazing money and so will be able to afford the doctor, "the markets", and then got to the middle. The ooey-gooey middle where nothing had gone the way it should. All of the fancy financial models, "the recipe", failed. Eggs went un-blended, flour was in clumps, "the CDO valuation puzzle", and big chunks of salt, "defaulting loans", were the morsels left to chomp on. This of course necessitated a trip to the emergency room, "the Federal Gov't.", on what most likely will be all of ours dimes, nickels, quarters, and dollars. The financial losses that have been reported in the media are somewhat misleading. Some of what was lost is "real" money. Some is what is called balance sheet writedowns. The balance sheet writedowns came from being unable to value the financial instruments in a firm (desirable) way that the companies had as assets on their books. This inability to value these things is what is causing problems. Since the instruments value come's from the cash flows of the mortgage payers, when all or some of that cash flow disappears or is uncertain (the math behind what is termed uncertain boggles the mind, literally), the instrument is now very difficult to place a value on. This change in perceived value is what is being wrote down. Now don't take these writedowns and tell me they aren't real money (just see what happens to the stock price and your wealth when the writedowns are announced), I know they are and matter greatly.
What I'm about to write is not an endorsement nor suggestion to buy nor sell particular securities and/or their associated derivatives. Since few of these financial institutions have publicly announced their losses and balance sheet write downs (can Citicorp. really believe that a switch was thrown on Oct. 1st, the start of the "4th" business quarter, and that is when they started losing money????) you can actually bet that more problems will surface in the next six months and make some of those nickels and dimes back. The stock ticker SKF is an instrument (yes just like CDO's, kind of, in certain ways, if you look at it through squinty eyes backwards and upside down) that moves opposite of a basket of financial company stocks. This means that if this basket index moves up, the value of SKF goes down. But if you believe that the financial companies are still trying to hide losses that MUST eventually come out (unless the Gov't bails them out) then bad news for this basket of financial stocks is still likely. This bad news would be good for the value of SKF shares. For those interested in reducing their risk, SKF has a correlation to the DOW of -.85. This means that if the DOW goes down, then SKF goes up and vice-versa. Buy SKF and the DOW and make less but possibly lose less. One caveat to this scenario, SKF has only been around since Feb 2007 and not all market conditions and temperaments have been experienced and been taken into account.
For those who made it to the end of this post, I now will reveal why I wrote it. It wasn't to educate, nor to push an investment idea, I wrote this to put little ones, and possibly their parents, to sleep. Just bring up the blog post, start reading to them and within seconds they'll be asleep. For the little ones who perk up while you read this post to them, sign them up at the next possible moment to attend a Hedge Fund class and start making retirement plans. Hedge funds are where the real bonus money is.
Watch for more economy analysis' in the coming weeks (Lisa said it was OK ;)) if I am not forever banned from posting again (from the same person who gave me permission). Until next time (maybe I'll list some fascinating finance books to read, wow what an idea!!!)
Finance Red
Monday, November 12, 2007
$100 Oil
What happens when oil hits $100? Well this article paints a gloomy picture of that scenario. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a1aGJ64Na3g8&refer=home
For those that actually read this blog and pay for their gasoline, (I've received only one comment so far, Thanks Colby) how many have curbed their driving habits with the run up in fuel costs? What is your tipping point in terms of $ per gallon in which you would drastically cut back on driving if possible?
For what its worth, I try not to drive anywhere, within reason. I'll drive to work and to the store, but beyond that I really have to have a good reason to drive beyond a few miles. Our trips down south now take on a miserly tone as I try and draft behind the vehicles in front of me and stay below 75mph at all times. Our kids will most likely see less of the Western US than I did because the price of gasoline is so much more of a budget buster. My tipping point would probably be around $3.15 per gallon in the summer and $3.50 in winter (summer being easier to ride a bike in). Anyway there you go Colby, a meager post on Oil.
For those that actually read this blog and pay for their gasoline, (I've received only one comment so far, Thanks Colby) how many have curbed their driving habits with the run up in fuel costs? What is your tipping point in terms of $ per gallon in which you would drastically cut back on driving if possible?
For what its worth, I try not to drive anywhere, within reason. I'll drive to work and to the store, but beyond that I really have to have a good reason to drive beyond a few miles. Our trips down south now take on a miserly tone as I try and draft behind the vehicles in front of me and stay below 75mph at all times. Our kids will most likely see less of the Western US than I did because the price of gasoline is so much more of a budget buster. My tipping point would probably be around $3.15 per gallon in the summer and $3.50 in winter (summer being easier to ride a bike in). Anyway there you go Colby, a meager post on Oil.
Friday, November 9, 2007
The Reason
This is the reason it took me so long to find my moto. BMW decided to discontinue its largest selling model, the bike I hunted for, the F650 GS, and replace it with this monstrosity. I mean, come on, yellow and black. Comfort and power for two up adventuring. Better components and improved frame. More power. Did I mention it has more POWER! I just don't know what they were thinking. The F650, my F650, were/are great bikes. Why change? Oh yeah, more power! Um, um, um, drool, drool, drool, drool, oh how I hate this bike. So, um anyone have about 10K lying around that they want to give me so that I can prove how inferior this bike is to the exalted F650? Anyone? Anyone? I'll guess I have to save my pennies. One financial aspect I'll throw in here, do you know a penny is worth more than a penny (if it was minted before 199?).
Why?
Why am I doing this? Well it started when trailrunnings posted that since she hasn't been posting lately that maybe I could post a few things finance related. Well I did. It took me my lunch hour to write a simple, brief sub-prime mortgage mess explanation and it turned out to be very long winded and boring. But I found it very relaxing. It got my mind working and provided a respite from the workings of work. So I started my own blog for myself and my sanity, someplace to write down thoughts and ideas, share items I find interesting and otherwise keep my fingers exercised.
For my first post, I suggest that anyone interested in motorcycles and/or adventure, follow the link to advrider.com and enter the forums. Find "Ride Reports and pics, pics, pics". Search for "Angola, its not like they said". Start reading (WARNING! Cultural pics and brief language included in this Ride Report) disregard the inane replies (very few) and then find the nearest KTM or BMW motorcycle dealer and start making plans for an adventure. If you find yourself captivated by the story and don't want to wade through all the replies to get to the next day follow this link www.4shared.com/file/27666139/f93973b7/Angola_Trip_-_updated.html
and download the file. This link will take you to a PDF version of the ride report only.
For my first post, I suggest that anyone interested in motorcycles and/or adventure, follow the link to advrider.com and enter the forums. Find "Ride Reports and pics, pics, pics". Search for "Angola, its not like they said". Start reading (WARNING! Cultural pics and brief language included in this Ride Report) disregard the inane replies (very few) and then find the nearest KTM or BMW motorcycle dealer and start making plans for an adventure. If you find yourself captivated by the story and don't want to wade through all the replies to get to the next day follow this link www.4shared.com/file/27666139/f93973b7/Angola_Trip_-_updated.html
and download the file. This link will take you to a PDF version of the ride report only.
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