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Reviews of Movies, Games, Books, and Things I Enjoy

When I was younger I would purposefully eat meat on Friday’s during Lent, even though my mother would remind me not to as I went off to school. I guess you could say that I was being a rebel. The Catholic faith never really appealed to me, and most of the time it doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense, especially the part about not eating meat on a Friday. I’ve never read the Bible, but I’m pretty sure there aren’t any commandments or any that says you can’t eat meat on a Friday during Lent.

I have always loved burgers, hot dogs, chicken wings, and every other carnivorous dish Americans love. For me, it doesn’t get any better than sitting at the ballpark eating a hot dog and washing it down with a cold beer. That sounded all well and good, until I started watching a few documentaries.

Pretty much everybody has heard of the documentary Super Size Me about a man who eats McDonald’s food for every meal for 30 days, and is told by his doctors that he has to stop or he might have serious health issues. Ever since I watched that back in 2005, I have only had McDonald’s maybe five times and I have been wary of eating at other fast food chains. It is very difficult to avoid grabbing a quick burger on your lunch break or something on your way home from work when you don’t get home until 8 PM.

Most recently, I watched a documentary called Food Inc. This documentary shows how cows and chickens are raised now, as well as the immoral practices of seed companies. It also tells us about all the junk that goes into everyday food.

I’m not a big animal rights person, but I do think that animals are being mistreated by the big food suppliers. This has brought me to a point where I may consider becoming a vegetarian some time in the near future. My plan is to stop eating fast food altogether, and only eat meat maybe once or twice a week. I am a very healthy person, but I know that cutting out the fast food will definitely be healthier for me, and make me feel less sluggish during the day and maybe help me get to sleep a lot easier at night. To keep myself engaged in this endeavor, I think I’m going to start recording myself making different vegetarian dishes which I will post on YouTube. How do you feel about the food industry?

Important Info: Fantasy Portfolio traded on Wall Street Survivor using principles learned from Jim Cramer’s Action Alert Plus.

S&P 500 at Year Start- $903.25
S&P 500 at End of Week – $1,105.98
S&P 500 Point Gain – +$202.73
S&P 500 Percent Gain – +22.44%

Portfolio at Year Start – $104,435.54
Portfolio at Week End – $139,211.17
Portfolio Total Gain – +$34,775.63
Portfolio Percent Gain – +33.30%

Transactions

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Dividends Paid

12/2 $45.00 from 100 Shares of PEP at $0.45 per Share

Last night I had a couple of different dreams that I can remember. In the first dream, Teri and I were in our house looking out of our bedroom window at somebody who was walking toward the house. The person came up to the house to where we couldn’t see her anymore due to the angle, and suddenly there were three more people out there. I think we ducked back down out of sight of the three people for a second, but when we looked back out there were at least twelve people standing out there. All of them were looking up at us and a few of them were pointing. It was as if we were our cats staring out the window while sitting in their little perch that we have next to the window.

In my second dream, I was an astronaut floating outside of a space stating making some repairs. I don’t remember if I was in a space suit or anything, but I do remember that I had on winter gloves and my hands were getting really cold. I looked back inside of the space station and there were people with guns shoving people around and locking the air lock.

For some reason, I had a samurai sword on me and I used it to break the glass windows of the space station. I then proceeded to slice and dice my way through the bad guys, and came across a few of them holding a gun to my boss who was down on his knees. The villains then started shooting at me, and I had to escape, so I don’t know what happened to my boss.

Apparently the space station wasn’t exactly in space, because I ran outside into a football field being constructed while it was snowing. I came across one of my old high school coaches sitting on the ground trying to make a pitcher for holding water out of snow. He was trying to get it to harden by pouring water on it, but it was melting holes in the shape. I told him to try using a spray bottle instead, and it worked. I don’t remember anything after that. I’m pretty sure I woke up to my cat Link whining outside our bedroom door.

This has been a busy month for me financially, with big purchases and changes to my positions. I spent some time talking with my store manager about taxes and exemptions, and learned a little bit about how they work. I decided to change my number of exemptions on my weekly check from one to two, and I have been seeing around twenty more dollars in my weekly paychecks. Doing so will reduce how much money I get back on my tax returns, but I would rather have my money coming to me every week, than waiting until the end of the year in one lump sum. I have also decided to take that money and start putting it into my savings account, even though it isn’t earning very much interest right now. It could at least be used to buy birthday and Christmas gifts come next year.

I decided to get myself an early Christmas present: a new TV. Amazon had an LG 37” LCD with 240 Hz refresh rate on sale last week, so I had to take advantage of that. Needless to say, that still put a big dent in my pocketbook. However, my lovely girlfriend decided to give me some money to cover part of the cost. That was a very good thing since I went in for some routine maintenance for my car that cost $400, and just so happened to be on the same day the TV was to be delivered. I was anxious all morning and had to wait almost until 4 before I actually received it when they said they would deliver it between 12-4. It felt like I was waiting for the cable company.

While I was waiting for the TV to show up, I got to watch the stock market and do some research on my few positions. Nordic American Tanker lowered its dividend payout from $0.50 to $0.10 per share this past quarter, drastically reducing my passive income. The stock appreciated in value though, and has given me a 10% gain from my lowest entry point. I learned my lesson, and I will not be selling it just because I have a quick 10% gain. I have to quit kicking myself about Caterpillar.

One of my alternative ways to invest money, Oneseason.com, is no longer with us. The company wasn’t doing as well as it could have been, and wasn’t all that interesting after the stock markets tanked last year. It was completely driven by supply and demand, but I think they should have given some value to the shares that were being purchased by investors. Maybe if they had integrated fantasy sports with their shares of players they could have given the shares real value.

Now, I await the holiday season and sit around until the last minute to buy gifts for everybody on my list.

$1,874.13 Total Income

$1,800.00 Monthly Pay Checks
$2.39 Checking Account Interest
$0.01 Savings Account Interest
$9.17 Dividends ($53.40 / qtr.)
$62.56 Prosper Loans

$1,224.83 Total Expenses

$188.00 School Loans
$192.00 Car Payment
$450.00 Food & Utilities
$100.00 Gas
$82.00 Cell Phone
$50.00 Entertainment
$129.86 Insurance
$32.97 Personal Loan

$649.30 Net Monthly Cash Flow
$74.13 Passive Income
6.05% Passive Income % of Expenses

$5,977.79 Total Assets

$427.87 Checking Account
$7.62 Savings
$108.96 Scottrade Account
$31.46 Prosper Account
$15.52 ChaCha Account
$9.05 Paypal Account
$974.16 IRA
$919.19 401k
$3,483.96 in Stock
$1,126.20 Loans on Prosper

$21,803.96 Total Liabilities

$12,767.05 School Loans
$7,678.70 Car Loan
$810.84 Credit Card
$547.37 Prosper Loan

-$15,826.17 Net Worth