I'm Not "Back"

Hello my faithful followers. I'm back, but not "back". This post is not a commitment to regular updates. I would not even know where to begin if I was going to return to consistency. So much has happened in my life and this country that demands commentary, but I have not the time nor the fortitude to accomplish such a feat.

If I were to make a glorious return, you would find much less market commentary from a trading perspective. It would instead be replaced by commentary on macro-economic principles and policies. There would also be, to your chagrin, quite a few politically charged essays (the first of which would be a treatise on The Hijacking of Conservatism By the Religious Right and the Promotion of Such Perspectives by Progressive Ideologues.)

On the lighter side, there would be many more book reviews , as I have read 76 in the last 150 days. (On that note, if you enjoy Tolkienesque literature, David Eddings will knock your socks off.) There would be some mention of sports since OSU has improved in football, and the Yankees won. The only substantial update on the scotch front would be Royal Lochnagar. And of course there would be a column dedicated to the exploits of my son, who is much better looking than his father.

So as you can see, there is a lot to cover and very little time. By the end of the year (if not already), I will have billed over 1000 hours of overtime at work. When I am home, I am consumed by my family and friend(s). There just isn't enough time to do this the way I would like, so I will do it in a fashionably half-assed way. When the stars align so that I have the inspiration and the time to deliver my thoughts, I will. When they do not, I won't. Until then, please enjoy the evidence of my family's genetic superiority.

... by any other name

While I have failed to keep with my ideal posting record, I am trying to keep up. You know how it is. When life is organized with even the slightest semblance of structure, it is easy to keep with routine. When chaos takes the place of structure, even the simplest of tasks can fall by the wayside. Laundry piles up; the dishes grow little green and white things; and blogs fail to keep with current events. But I digress…

As my last post mentioned, our boy will be Alberto Antonio Colabella il Quarto. However, we had some trouble settling on what we would actually call him. Ab would be kind of confusing in the household seeing as how there would be two of us. Albert is not quite en vogue with the times… it will probably take about 30 years for that to happen. We have settled on Anthony. It is a good name I think. The Wife is insistent that no one call him Tony, and I happen to agree. Nicknames, of course, are welcome, and I would love to hear some preliminary ideas in the comments section. In fact, Adam has already settled on Q, which, quite frankly, kicks some serious ass.

I will be back, hopefully soon, and next time I will take it easy on the italics.

Now I Will Apologize

Greetings from a minus one star hotel in Hutchinson, Kansas. It is here that I play Xbox and watch movies for about 250 bones per day... but we will talk about my job another time. I would, however, like to discuss some other things today.

First off, I have plenty of reasons but no excuse for my absence. Actually, the excuse is laziness. I have had a full plate since the beginning of May, but not busy enough to have only posted 2 times in the 1,992 hours. My sincerest apologies for falling behind.

Now we can move on to more important current events. In order to revisit my previous blogger's attitude of consistency, I will have several posts over the next few days to discuss these items. We will start with the most exciting piece of news first.

As you know, The Wife and I recently departed from the moral cesspool that is Utah to seek fortune and glory. Instead, we got pregnant. Even though we are having to put our search for El Dorado on hold, we couldn't be happier.

The first trimester taught us that the "morning" part of morning sickness is merely a formality, and that it is indeed useless. It should just be called "sickness", or "all the damn time sickness". This idea of "morning" sickness does nothing more than cause one to set unrealistic expectations. In our case, the all the damn time sickness lasted a few weeks past the first trimester, so The Wife went through quite a rough time. I tried my best to be accommodating to her needs, but I'm sure I could have done better. For the most part, my duties were relegated to late night trips to the fridge for water.

Recently though, the sickness has seemed to have waned and has substituted itself with ravenous hunger. The cause of the hunger is evidenced via the stomach expansion project taking place where the baby seems to be doubling in size every other week or so. He is a hungry one. Thats right... HE is a hungry one. So many friends and family members were so sure it was a girl that we started to believe it. We believed it so much that we were down to two names. However, il codice genetico di Colabella prevailed in historic fashion supplying the Y chromosome. We are thinking about doing a baseball theme for the nursery in our new house (future post), but of course, The Wife has the veto card of pregnancy and perpetual indecision.

As for the name, he will the Albert IV. I must admit, I was wavering on the continuation of that name just a bit, but it was set in stone on the 8th of this month when Albert Sr. passed away (future post). I find that it is a very honorable name given the circumstances.

That will be all for now.

Out.

Reasons For Not Posting

I know that there is very little in the way of excuses. But if you will give me leave to explain what, I feel, are some pretty solid reasons for being the absentee landlord of The Pub. The following are in no particular order of import.

1. Moved to Tulsa
2. Looking for supplemental income
3. Looking for a house/apartment
4. No immediate or convenient access to internet (I am at Borders right now)
5. Went to Ohio for 3 days to see Gramps who seems to be on his last legs
6. I AM GOING TO BE A FATHER (8 weeks 4 days)
7. Taking care of Brandi (see item 6)
8. I have cable tv for the first time in years


I wont go so far as to say "I make no apologies" or any type of over-defensive retort, but I do feel slightly justified in my absence.

Thank you for your patience and know that I will be back over the next few weeks to discuss some of the information on the above list.

Oh yeah, since my last market post, we have been in a rather steady uptrend, which has been nice. Options get cheaper etc. It has afforded about a 15% ROR over the last few weeks, so that has been nice. Fundamentally, I am still bearish because of the nature of the global economic fuck-up that we are experiencing. Technically, bullish, because... well... thats what the charts say. I know it may not make much sense, but the markets can and will be illogical. The questions is can you remain solvent during this period of time and stop worrying about being "right".

Mi Dispiace Ma...

...La Famiglia Colabella will be relocating.

I have been out here for about 18 months and the wife has been here just over a year. After this amount of time, we have decided that we just can't take it anymore. The city sucks, the mountains suck, the people suck, we don't have any friends here, etc. etc.

Actually, that is all a lie. I have very little desire to move back to Oklahoma. I have created some great relationships out here with my trading buddies Armstrong and Batzel. Even though I didn't get to spend much time with Skylar, I will certainly miss his crazy ass, and look forward to continuing business with him until we are both satisfied with the results. Of course, the biggest loss lies with Benjamin, and The Carters. They are my three (and a half) of best friends in the world, and it is sad to leave them. The dark side of the force is already beckoning them home. Having said that, we are getting back Adam, Ray, and Matt and Payton.

The subtraction of mountains and addition of allergies are certainly reasons to hang one's self. Also, I will miss Mad Greek as I do not believe that an acceptable substitute awaits in Green Country.

But there are two things I will be happy to leave. Bad religion and bad food. Don't get me wrong, Mormons are some of the kindest people I have ever met, but holy shit they are nuts! Unfortunately, their ethical and moral "skills set" has affected (destroyed) the culture of the city and have made it the most bland existence EVER. However, trading them for Southern Baptists is kind of like trading cigarettes for smokeless tobacco.

The big upside is cost of living and food. Taco Bueno, Mazzio's, Braum's, Ron's, Cheddar's, Charleston's, Bennigan's, and the list goes on. The cost of a regular house built 50 years ago in Utah is probably around 220k. In Tulsa, you can get there for about 128k.

In Tulsa, we will be shopping for a house. The Wife will start work, and I will continue trading. I will be back in Utah soon for a little while to wrap up things there and get the Land Rover. Until then, all of our contact information remains the same.

Hopefully now, it is clear why this is my first post in about 3 weeks. We have had quite a bit on our plate. I will continue to be hit and miss for a little bit longer, but hope to get back in the groove of regularity soon. I will be back.

Joke (on Kansas) of the Week

Cowboys will pursue Kansas Self with $4M salary, $6M bonus

According to numerous media reports, Oklahoma State is prepared to offer Kansas coach Bill Self, win or lose tonight, a salary of $4 million a year, plus a $6 million signing bonus. That would not only nearly triple the $1.375 million he makes at Kansas but would fly past the $3.5 million paid the current highest-paid coach, Florida's Billy Donovan.

The impetus behind it is T. Boone Pickens, Oklahoma State's $3 billion "booster." Pickens wants an Oklahoma State man to coach Oklahoma State. Self played at Oklahoma State from 1982-85, assisted Leonard Hamilton and Eddie Sutton at OSU for seven years and was raised in the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond. His father, Bill Sr., was director of Oklahoma's state high school activities association.

When Sean Sutton's resignation surfaced, Self tried hard to curb the rumors, saying: "If they were to ask me what they should do, I would suggest they go a different direction."

But his attorney, Stuart Campbell, told the Tulsa World on Friday, "I am completely in wait-and-see mode. I never say never. They would have to be eye-popping numbers."

Source: Denver Post

It Was a Very Good Year

So yesterday was a pretty good day. I got married on April 7 one year ago. It was a pretty low key anniversary, but it was still special. There are these candle things that Lilith the Lioness gave us, and we got to burn the "one year anniversary candles."

We had a great first year including some good travel to Napa, Denver, and Vegas... not to mention we moved to Utah. Here are some highlights.

This is our first picture as a married couple (besides the money pit that is professional wedding photos). We went to the bar with some friends to hang out since it was the last time we would see any of them for a year or so. Yes... I look stoned. No Mom... I am not stoned. Yes Mom... I did marry way out of my league.


We got some great seats to the A's on the honeymoon, and a few weeks later we flew to Denver to catch a game and eat at Uno's. That hot dog on the left there... you see it? Pure shit.











This one is at the August Briggs vineyard in Napa Valley. I could be wrong, but I think it is the first one we visited while we were there.




Another honeymoon picture. This was some type of "look out point" with those ridiculous view finders that last 15 seconds. Ask Brandi about Alcatraz when you get the chance.



Brandi took me to Vegas for my birthday and she actually won about $300...



... and she spent it all on this drink!



This is our first Christmas together. You can tell because of those small lights just over her shoulder... it really should be obvious people.


So like I said, it was a pretty good year. Hell, it was a great year. I'm looking forward to many more just like it. I love you Brandi.

(Oh yeah, we have at least 3 huge blow up fights a week. I couldn't find any pictures of those.)

Joke of the Week: In Honor of Opening Week

On a tour of Florida, the Pope took a couple of days off to visit the coast for some sightseeing. He was cruising along the beach in the Popemobile when there was a frantic commotion just off shore. A helpless man, wearing a Boston Red Sox jersey, was struggling frantically to free himself from the jaws of a 25-foot shark.

As the Pope watched, horrified, a speedboat came racing up with three men wearing New York Yankees jerseys aboard. One quickly fired a harpoon into the shark's side. The other two reached out and pulled the bleeding, semi-conscious Red Sox fan from the water. Then using autographed Derek Jeter baseball bats, the three Bronx heroes beat the shark to death and hauled it into the boat.


Immediately the Pope shouted and summoned them to the beach. "I give you my blessing for your brave actions," he told them. "I heard that there was some bitter hatred between Red Sox and Yankee fans, but now I have seen with my own eyes that this is not the truth."

As the Pope drove off, the harpooner asked his buddies, "Who was that?"

"It was the Pope," one replied. "He is in direct contact with God and has access to all of God's wisdom."

"Well," the harpooner said, "he may have access to God's wisdom, but he doesn't know shit about shark fishing…how's the bait holding up?"

And Finally Some Good News

I wanted Bill Self for the job a few years ago, but Roy Williams got called home to Chapel Hill. My wife says "we hired the wrong son". I am inclined to agree. Even though it is not the biggest or best program in the country (or even the BIG XII), Oklahoma State Basketball is not a program to be inherited or handed down like some fucking rag doll. All that bullshit about "Sean has been doing the coaching for years and Eddie has just been the face of the program." Are you kidding me? It appears that I was right not to trust that vile and poisonous propaganda.

In his two years as "official" head coach, he barely broke .500 and lost in the first round of the NIT... twice. I have been fuming from afar in the mountains about this... silently, waiting to plot my revenge on the boosters, the AD, the Head of Operations, the President of the university. I had to get rid of Sean Sutton.

BUT WAIT!!! GOOD NEWS!!!

That pezzo di merda has been removed from our sight roughly 8 years before I thought he would be. In a small town like Stillwater, a name carries a lot of weight. I was truly afraid that he would rest on his father's laurels for a decade before someone finally grew a brain and got a real coach.

Now that he is out, who is in? I, for one, would like to pursue Self a little bit more, but he is a Final Four coach now, so don't spin the wheels. Do we go for the other son Scott? How about Sean Miller from Xavier? Thoughts people. And I mean you Deuce... and you CP.

6-4-3

Every year I try to pick a team. This isn't about winning or losing. Hell, they could come in last place and I wouldn't care. The point isn't bragging rights or having the ability to say "I was rooting for them at the beginning of the year." There really isn't a system of selection or method to the madness.

Take the Rockies for example. Last year, I started rooting for the Rockies because I went to Coors Field with my wife in April. I also have a (very very light... as in fraternity parties light... as in I don't really know him I'm just trying to drop a name light) personal acquaintance with Matt Holliday. So last year I used the Rockies as my healing salve, but it had nothing to do with them winning virtually every game from September 1 to the end of the year. It had nothing to do with them making it to The Series against all odds. It had nothing to do with any of that. There are two reasons (one big, and one VERY big) that I try to pick a team that will have my support from April to October.

Reason the 1st (the big one): It is easy as a fan of baseball to get caught up in "your" team every year and forget about the other 29 teams. The problem here is October. If for some reason "your" team doesn't make it, you could care less about the playoffs or the Fall Classic. That is just not right. It isn't fair to your fanhood.

Embracing secondary teams every year will eventually lead to a fuller, more appreciative knowledge of the sport as a whole. Will you really give a shit if this year's Classic is Diamondbacks vs. White Sox? Neither will I, because I know virtually nothing about those two teams. Hence the need for a fuller, more appreciative knowledge of the sport as a whole.

Reason the 2nd (the VERY big one): Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum... err... Dumb and Dumber... err... Aids and Cancer... err... Cashman and Steinbrenner.

Now I'm one of the most pure family based Yankees fans around, but those two names give me agita every time I hear them. There has been no end to my frustration of their moves since about 1999. How much money have they wasted? Names like Kevin Brown, Carl Pavano, Randy Johnson, and more recently Roger Clemens (pro-rated $28 million for 6 wins) make me want to shoot someone. What happened to Paulie and Tino, Brocious and Bernie?

These two mezzofinooks have destroyed a very proud franchise for almost a decade by signing over the hill, ex all-stars and overpaying them to be past their prime. There have been four guys you can depend on. Jeter, Rivera, Posada, and Torre (whom they fired at the end of last season). It has gotten so bad that I am dreading the prospects of them actually signing Bonds.

And by the way, I can't believe I'm getting ready to say this, but I wish George was still healthy. Hank Steinbrenner is a son of a bitch... not to mention a little oobatz.

I will say this though...

Not too long ago, I realized that my eyes were blinded by the veil that was the firing of Joe Torre. Once I stopped seeing red, I noticed that the front office was actually starting to give me what I have wanted for so long: youth. Joba, Hughes, Kennedy, and Cano... not to mention the new Skip, Joe Girardi. These guys have given me a boost of belief that Dildo and Fuckface are actually planning for the future.

But I digress. Back to Reason the 2nd (the very big one). I gotta have a distraction from the frustrations of being a fan of the Yankees.



So I ask. Who will it be? What team will be my distraction, my salvation? And I answer:

Thats right! The San Francisco Giants will be the other white meat this year. "But why?" you ask. "Why that team Ab? Surely you would root for the Dodgers since Torre went there."

You are right for raising such queries. I have even asked myself the same questions. Though I do not feel the need to justify my selection, I will boil it down to 1 word: respect. Read this article and then come back.

Pretty impressive right? That team is so ready to move on from the Bonds freakshow that they are scrubbing the walls and revamping the whole thing. Did you see that part about a plaque to commemorate his accomplishment? I once received one of those for "employee of the week" at Tony Roma's. Any team that is willing to remove itself from its only means of popularity in order to start fresh and rebuild gets my interest. There is a lot of hope there, and I intend to follow it.