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October 29, 2008
marc foster directing new bond movie?!
I am a bit nervous.
Posted by renh at 06:10 PM | Comments (0)
October 21, 2008
M G
A few years ago, while riding her bicycle, Gardot was hit by the driver of a Jeep making an illegal turn. Hospitalized for months, Gardot used music for recovery therapy, at the suggestion of her doctors. In the ensuing months, she took up the guitar — it was hard for her to sit at the piano — and recorded what would become the Some Lessons EP. Not long afterward, she followed it with the full-length Worrisome Heart, which was reissued on a major label earlier this year.
City Paper Philadelphia even gave her a nod in their 2005 annual people's choice awards saying "To Our Eyes, nobody is a more inspiring, more talented fighter than singer/songwriter phenom Melody Gardot. She turned the pain of a life-changing car accident into surprisingly mature and utterly enthralling music".
Her ability to overcome her physical limitations, and her ability to write and perform despite her pain, make her an inspiration. However, her music, even without the associated back-story, is impressive all on its own: "Her EP “Some Lessons — The Bedroom Sessions” is in part a chronicle of her struggle to maintain her identity against the backdrop of disability. She has not exploited these circumstances, nor hidden them. It is all rather matter-of-fact. Yet even without the drama of her recovery, she would still have had plenty of interest from media and audiences, for she is truly a dynamic and sincere talent." - Montgomery Co. News
Posted by renh at 10:57 PM | Comments (0)
Please keep in mind the importance of clear presentation, especially for the title and abstract. The abstract should make clear the overall direction of your work, the main findings and what sort of an impact these are likely to have on the field as a whole. Please also include a strong Introduction, to provide sufficient background so that the rationale of your work is made clear, and a comprehensive Discussion, so that the implications of the work are equally clear.
Posted by renh at 10:06 PM | Comments (0)
change - Tracy Chapman
A song that truly touched my soul and made me cry.
-----------------------------------------
If you knew that you would die today,
Saw the face of God and love,
Would you change?
Would you change?
If you knew that love can break your heart
When you're down so low you cannot fall
Would you change?
Would you change?
How bad, how good does it need to get?
How many losses? How much regret?
What chain reaction would cause an effect?
Makes you turn around,
Makes you try to explain,
Makes you forgive and forget,
Makes you change?
Makes you change?
If you knew that you would be alone,
Knowing right, being wrong,
Would you change?
Would you change?
If you knew that you would find a truth
That brings up pain that can't be soothed
Would you change?
Would you change?
How bad, how good does it need to get?
How many losses? How much regret?
What chain reaction would cause an effect?
Makes you turn around,
Makes you try to explain,
Makes you forgive and forget,
Makes you change?
Makes you change?
Are you so upright you can't be bent?
If it comes to blows are you so sure you won't be crawling?
If not for the good, why risk falling?
Why risk falling?
If everything you think you know,
Makes your life unbearable,
Would you change?
Would you change?
If you'd broken every rule and vow,
And hard times come to bring you down,
Would you change?
Would you change?
If you knew that you would die today,
If you saw the face of God and love,
Would you change?
Would you change?
Would you change?
Would you change?
If you saw the face of God and love
If you saw the face of God and love
Would you change?
Would you change?
Posted by renh at 08:36 PM | Comments (0)
October 19, 2008
chasing pavement - adele
Mercy - Duffy
Posted by renh at 11:57 PM | Comments (0)
October 12, 2008
from cnn
1. How to earn a yield of nearly 5%
Boost your take by putting some money into a higher-yielding stock ETF such as iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index (DVY), currently paying 4.4%, or SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (SDY), paying 4.2%.
Put the rest into low-cost bond funds and perhaps a REIT to add diversity and boost your yield. Because of their low expenses, I like the intermediate-term Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND) (4.6%), Vanguard High-Yield Corporate Bond (8.1%) and Vanguard REIT Index (4.9%).
Allocate your money according to the suggestions below for a yield of 4.9% (you'll want to dial back on the stocks as the years go by:
30% Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF
30% iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index ETF
20% Vanguard High-Yield Corporate Bond Fund
10% Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF
10% Vanguard REIT Index Fund --Michael Sivy
2. How to "ladder" CDs for safety and income
3. How to know when a stock is really a bargain
When the market plunges 5% in one day, lots of stocks might look like they're on sale. But are they? Here's how to ID the true values. (Get the data below at morningstar.com.)
Step 1 Look at a stock's forward P/E. This is the price investors are willing to pay for every dollar of expected earnings. Compare this ratio with that of the company's peers and industry benchmark. The S&P 500's forward P/E is 13.8. What you want to see: ratio lower than average but not too low (Matthew Sauer, a senior vice president at value-oriented Ariel Investments, is cautious about P/Es below 8).
Step 2 Look at the trailing P/E, which is based on a company's past earnings. It will show whether a stock was cheap before the market's recent free-fall. What you want to see: ratio lower than industry average.
Step 3 Check the price-to-cash-flow ratio. This shows how much cash a company generates per share. It's sometimes a more reliable measure of value than P/E because cash, unlike earnings, cannot be manipulated easily by accountants. Again, compare the ratio with the industry benchmark and peers. What you want to see: ratio lower than average.
Step 4 Look for stability. A company that isn't highly leveraged (laden with debt) has a better chance of riding out the economic downturn. To find out if that's the case, see the company's balance sheet at The SEC's Web site. Divide total assets by total equity. What you want to see: ratio of 2 or lower (10 or lower for financial firms).
Step 5 Read the news. No matter what the numbers say, a stock could be a rotten choice if, say, the company is embroiled in a potentially costly lawsuit. Not every stock that appears cheap is a good deal. What you want to see: no obvious problems. Bottom Line: If a stock passes all these tests, you could be onto a good buy. --Carolyn Bigda
4. How to rebalance your portfolio
5. How to raise your credit score
35% Your payment history Pay your bills on time. Automating payments online can help.
30% How much you owe Keep balances on credit cards and other revolving accounts below 50% of your credit limit (lower is better).
15% Length of your credit history Rather than let old cards go dormant, charge a latte a month (then pay it off). No activity lowers your score.
10% Your new credit Don't open unnecessary new accounts. And if you're rate shopping for a mortgage or an auto loan, do it within two weeks; multiple requests could ding your score.
10% Your mix of loans You can't do much to change this (except get a credit card if you don't have one).
Bonus Request a free copy from each of the three major credit-reporting agencies at annualcreditreport.com. Then tell them about any mistakes you find that are not in your favor. --George Mannes
6. How to buy treasurys without paying a commission
When you're buying supersafe T-bills, notes and bonds, why fork over fees that will eat away at already slim returns? Go to treasurydirect.gov and follow the directions for opening an account. You'll need to let the Treasury link to your bank account, so keep your bank info handy.
Once you're authenticated (usually a few minutes later), you'll be able to bid in auctions for Treasury bills, notes, bonds and TIPS (Treasury Inflation- Protected Securities). Sound intimidating? It's not.
"The big players end up setting the price," explains Stephen Meyerhardt of the Bureau of the Public Debt, an agency within the U.S. Treasury. All you do is submit what's known as a noncompetitive bid, and you'll get the same price that banks and brokers do.
Let's say you want to buy $10,000 worth of a 26-week T-bill. You'll see at the Web site that these bills are auctioned every Monday (except holidays).
Before the auction, place a bid online. After the auction, your bid will be accepted, and the Treasury will draw the money from your bank account. (It will draw less than $10,000; the exact amount depends on what the auction price is.)
And when the bill matures 182 days later? The Treasury returns the full face value of $10,000 (which includes the interest you earned) to your account automatically. --E.F.K.
7. How to get a great deal on a mortgage
8. How to maximize your take if you get laid off
9. How to estimate your true return
Sure, it's easy enough to click on our portfolio tracker and figure out the annual return of the various funds you own. But did your entire portfolio beat the market? To find out, complete this easy worksheet, suggests Colorado Springs financial planner Allan Roth.
A. The dollar value of your portfolio at the beginning of the period: __________
B. The portfolio value at the end of the period: _________
C. The net amount you added to or withdrew from your portfolio over the period (if it's a net withdrawal, the number will be negative): __________
D. Your portfolio's gain or loss (B minus C minus A): __________
E. Average amount in your portfolio during the period (A plus half of C): __________
F. Your estimated percent return (D divided by E times 100): __________
This worksheet isn't perfect. It assumes that all investments or withdrawals you made over the period in question happened in the middle of the period. But unless you made a huge withdrawal or investment at the very beginning or end, the results come pretty close. --Elizabeth Fenner
Posted by renh at 11:35 PM | Comments (0)
funding?!
M P or O B?
Posted by renh at 01:37 AM | Comments (0)
October 09, 2008
Dow falls about 300 points pulling it below 9,000 -- its lowest intraday level since July 1, 2003
Posted by renh at 03:40 PM | Comments (0)
October 08, 2008
"We have built an entire economy on lies and deceit," - suze
Posted by renh at 09:45 PM | Comments (0)
October 05, 2008
cantankerous
: difficult or irritating to deal with
Posted by renh at 11:18 AM | Comments (0)
nourishing soup
material:
silver wood ear
Dried longan
dried goji berries
honey preserved Chinese dates
crystal sugar (rock-like)
stew on low heat for several hours until the wood ear is softened.
Posted by renh at 12:04 AM | Comments (0)
October 04, 2008
sea cucumber stew
It's ugly, it's frozen, it's pricey, it's disgusting, it's troublesome to prepare, yet it's tasty. It's sea cucumber!
A stew made of sea cucumber slices, scallops, shiitake mushroom, bamboo shoot is pretty darn good. I say it is worth the trouble to prep the sea cucumbers.
Posted by renh at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)
October 03, 2008
Yesterday's shot of espresso, coffee and chocolate are still effective now. I need some rest and hope I don't develop some sort of insomnia.
Posted by renh at 02:22 PM | Comments (0)
A 90-year-old Akron, Ohio, woman who shot herself as sheriff's deputies tried to evict her from her foreclosed home became a symbol of the nation's home mortgage crisis Friday.
Only 26 percent of those surveyed said that Palin was more intelligent in the debate compared to the 57 percent who chose Biden, according to the poll of 611 adult Americans, who tuned in to watch it. The poll had a sampling error of 4 points. Overall, 51 percent of the debate watchers said that Biden did the best job in the debate, while 36 percent gave the nod to Palin.
Posted by renh at 02:19 PM | Comments (0)
October 01, 2008
culminate:
intransitive verb
1of a celestial body : to reach its highest altitude ; also : to be directly overhead
2 a: to rise to or form a summit b: to reach the highest or a climactic or decisive point
transitive verb
: to bring to a head or to the highest point
Posted by renh at 08:43 AM | Comments (0)