Leeks

So today I bought a couple leeks. Why? you ask.... Well because I wanted to try a new vegetable that I haven't tried before. And a couple months ago I saw an episode on Leeks on the Food network. They are in the onion family, but they don't cause the tears that onions normally cause because they don't have the compound that is found in other onions. So this will be fun! I don't know what I'm going to make, but I'm sure it will be delicious. I may make a leek soup. hmm. What do you think?

Impress your special friend...

http://www.whitecastle.com/valentinesday/

Me Want!

Sony Alpha A700

If I were to get anything that I don't need that's over $1000 it would be a DSLR camera. I've been wanting one for so long, but I just can't convince myself to put that kind of cash down for something `i'd probably only use about 30 times a year.

But I think after using my dad's DSLR, I'm almost ready to buy one. Half of the reason I don't take so many pictures now is because I feel so limited with only 24 exposures and I have to wait for development. My compact camera just doesn't capture the dynamic depth of field or have the ability to use different lenses for different situations. So if I'm ever feeling arty, I always lean towards an SLR.

And the DSLR I am leaning towards most is the Sony Alpha A700. It works with my existing Minolta lenses and has built in image stabilization. This comes only in the lens with Canon, and that really increases the cost of ownership of a Canon. The noise level at ISO 1600 is better than the EOS 20D and they say the light metering on the camera is spectacular. As soon as this camera hits $1000, I'm gonna buy it. Right now it's $1199, but I figure it'll drop pretty quickly as soon as they release their flagship model. I can't wait.

Picture taken with Sony Alpha

They fixed the draft!

Yeah I had this huge draft in my apartment but I called the office and they put some of that 3M plastic window draft sealing magic saran wrap stuff on all my windows and I swear it feels nice to have a floor that is the same temperature as the rest of the apartment. And my heater doesn't turn on every 3 minutes after the temperature dropped 5 degrees! I bet my energy bills will be cut in half now, seriously. Go 3M!

It's my birthday

And today is looking to be a great day. Already I got a surprise when Kristin stopped by to say hi before I went to work. And my co-workers like the cookies I made. It's a company tradition to bring treats on your birthday (I think it was a corporate cost cutting measure ;) I get free lunch from my co-workers today, and then I'll be getting a free dinner tonight. Wohooo! I love being rewarded for doing nothing but being alive!

Today is a day

After losing what is a lot of money to me at a crucial time in my financial life, I have recently decided to take my financial matters into my own hands and become an active investor. My first taste with investing directly in the stock market was a painful one to put it kindly, but you live an you learn. But because of this, I have been afraid to put my foot out there and take any real risks even if research shows that it could benefit me greatly. I've had the majority of my savings stored away in a mutual fund managed by somebody I've never met in an industry that I, frankly, don't follow. And I realized when the fund dropped unexpectedly after a relatively profitable 3 years, I should've been able to see this coming. I mean they even told me in the fund prospectus for 2006/2007 that it would be hard to maintain such growth because of several factors which I should have listened to, but I closed my eyes and hoped for the best. oops.

I've been researching certain stocks for the past few weeks and I believe I have come up with a couple short-term winners that I should be able to get my money back with. Lucklily for me, I found a brokerage where I can trade free for 30 days and they'll give me $100 for signing up. Well, hey I can't lose, much ;) This is by far the biggest risk I have planned to take with my money, but I have a plan. And I believe if I can stick to it, I can easily gain my money back in days and turn a profit in weeks.

I'm going to become a day trader, that's right. I don't need to be greedy, I just need to gain about 0.5-1.5% a day and I'll be set. Now you wonder how I can do this with a full time job, me too. I hope this doesn't come back to bite me in the a**. I mean, because when you're a day trader 20 minutes can mean a lot. But at least, I can rest assured that if I lose money one day, I can gain it back the next.

Fate has put the October 2007 issue of Money magazine into my hands and believe it or not, it has given me a lot of faith in myself in that, for most aspects of my finances, I am doing the right thing or am ahead of the game. And After reading Warren Buffet's 2006 letter to shareholders, I realize that if he can become the chairman of a company with annual revenues approaching 100 billion at the age of 35 (in 1965) I have a lot of room for growth in the next few years. I may very well never even come close to the accomplishments of Warren Buffet, but I sure as heck can do better than having only a few thousand to my name. And I'm going to do it.

Fun few days

So I had some fun the past few days. On Thurs I played Catchphrase and ate Lou Malnatis with some friends after a day of shopping in the city. I didn't buy anything, but it was fun to go into stores where you could buy a t-shirt for $150. On Fri I went to the Shedd Aquarium and ate at Protillo's. mmm mmm. Saturday, I went to the John Hancock building's 95th floor for lunch. I had an awesome cheese steak sandwich. And for only $15 after tax and tip, I'd do it again!

And today Kristin is coming back into town. I can't wait. I also cleaned my apartment, now it's sparkly clean. boy isn't cleaning fun? I love cleaning so much, I should become a butler. hahahaha

It's almost Christmas!!!

It's so much fun to spend time with your friends and family for the holidays even if you have to spend your whole morning shoveling the driveway :P I've been eating mostly cookies instead of meals lately. It's fun, but now I'm actually starting to crave un-sugar! Well I wish everybody a Merry Christmas!

nobody missed my blog posts

I guess I don't have too many subscribers though. But that's ok. My life is pretty boring anyway. my bff is getting married. that's cool. too bad though cause he doesn't IM me anymore. and he can't blame the time difference either. it's his fault anyway. j/k

I got free lunch the last two days, so that was pretty fun. Not much is happening besides that. I wish i was cool enough to have more of an update, but now that I remember I have a blog, maybe I'll post while I still remember what I did