Stock Market Explained

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort.

He further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. “Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each.”

The villagers rounded up with all their savings and bought all the monkeys. Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!

Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Entry for February 21, 2008 – I think he's a genius!

I’ve been amazed to watch Bryson’s development recently. When he figured out how to make the ball-blowing toy/machine work, I was convinced that he was the smartest kid of all time.


Looking back on the fact that he also stuffs square blocks in the round tube, which prevents it from working, my judgment might be a little off. I’m also wondering what all I’m going to lose when he figures out how the toilet works.

Here he is walking around with a block in his mouth. I figure he does this to maximize his payload capacity. You know, kinda the same reason my pickup has a roofrack.

Bryson’s cousin, John Marshall, came over for a visit.

After he left, Bryson started getting really cranky and acting like his ear hurt. Amber knew exactly what was happening. He has had a drippy nose, and now he had an ear infection. We went to the all-day kiddy hospital and had him looked over and brought home some antibiotics.

Adding to the nose-drip is the massive drool issue. Turns out he is also cutting a new tooth. He walked around all day with this toy in his mouth.


Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Entry for February 14, 2008 – Special Video for Glenda

Here is some footage of Bryson and Comet playing.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Entry for February 14, 2008 – Open and Close

One of Bryson’s favorite things is to open and close things… like the dishwasher!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Entry for February 14, 2008 – Bryson Playing in the Grass

Bryson played in the front yard and Amber snapped some great photos of him:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Entry for February 13, 2008 – The Shingle Plant

The picture above is of my footprint. The black stuff is asphalt, the thick, nasty, sticky, stuff left behind from crude oil after gasoline and all the other good stuff is distilled. A little different than tar, evidently. (I’ve been reading up on it, since I have to remove it from my boots and floor mats)

Just to give you an idea what the stillyard of a shingle plant looks like, here are a few pictures.


Here is what a similar pump looks like without the fancy black gooey coating:

Click here to see the aerial view in google maps.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Entry for February 08, 2008 – Quadzillia goes to 11psi

I’m sure everyone has been waiting in suspense to find out what ever happened to my daily driver, right?

I made a mistake in thinking it would be easier to just get new bearings for my busted idler pulley. The bearings alone cost $40. I called around and found that the Goodyear Gemini store on east Main would press them in for me. Those morons screwed up and did it wrong, and lost the spacer that fit between the bearings. I wound up ordering a complete idler assembly from Procharger. It was $50… I should have went this route all along.

So it’s all back together now. I made a quick edit of the VCM by fattening up the fuel and backing off the timing so I’d be safe to drive it until I get more time to dial it in correctly. It seems to top out at 11psi at redline, so I might be going a little smaller to get me up to around 14 psi, but this will do for now.

If you are interested in more details, go to:
http://www.performancetrucks.net/forums/showthread.php?t=411218
and
http://www.performancetrucks.net/forums/showthread.php?t=405690

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Entry for February 03, 2008 – Pics of the Bryson

Here are a few pictures of my favorite boy from the past week or so:


Shaun helped get the old pumpkins ready for the compost bin.

I didn’t get the picture at just the right time, but Bryson’s reaction to the lemon he thought we had to taste was pretty funny!


Bryson and Comet were playing with a dog toy in the floor. I’ve got to get the video edited and uploaded to torture my mother-in-law.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Entry for February 03, 2008 – Quadzillia out of service

I had some time to finally get something done that I’ve been wanting to do for a while now: Change out the pulley on Quadzillia’s supercharger to a smaller size, which makes it spin faster and pump more air into the engine. I’ve been doing things all along in preparation for this step: Ordered the larger blower, larger intercooler, switched to larger fuel injectors, upgraded my fuel pump, separated/relocated the air temperature sensor, and added the boost-referenced water/methanol injection system. This will be the last power upgrade for a while, as 13-14 psi is about the limit of the stock engine internals and the 6-rib belt used to drive the blower.

The actual pulley swap went easier than planned. I was worried that I would have to heat the pulley to get it off the shaft because of a tight fit, but it fit perfectly without a fight. I went ahead and took the whole bracket and blower off so I could get it all cleaned up. (it was pretty nasty) I found one of the idler pulleys was noisy and had play in it. Once I got a look at it, I found the dust cap was off and the balls were rusty and a few were missing. I also went ahead and finally lengthened the alternator cable and relocated the “jumper cable attach point” out of the way.

So the project turned out to take much more effort than planned for. Quadzillia is currently out of service, waiting on a couple of bearings that I couldn’t get on a Sunday. Hopefully I’ll be able to get it back together tomorrow and start the process of re-tuning the engine to work with all that extra air!

I’m hoping this will take me to over 500HP at the rear wheels now. If everything works good, I’ll pay for some dyno pulls to find out.

A video of me spinning the blower by hand is here. The noise and gear backlash are properties of the 1:4 step-up gear box, which helps make that wonderful whine I love so much.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Entry for January 29, 2008 – The Breast Cancer 3-day

I encourage everyone to donate to the Breast Cancer 3-Day. I received the following email from the wife of a friend:

Hello friends and family,

Below is a message from my friend, Molly. I hope that you will support me(and her) in walking these 60-miles over 3 days to help fight for others like Molly. Blessings, Nancy

My name is Molly Chapman and I am so proud of Nancy for joining this walk. I wish I could be walking with her, but I will be there in spirit every step of the way. When she told me that she was planning on walking, I was speechless. Sixty miles is a huge commitment, but that’s the way Nancy does things. I have gotten to know Nancy through her older son Scott who has been in my preschool class for 2 years. She is dedicated to helping the children of the school, but others as well. She’s doing this to help me as well as all other women with cancer, families touched by this horrific disease and friends of victims and survivors.

I have lived with breast cancer for 8 ? years now. I was diagnosed 6 months after undergoing my first hip replacement surgery. I had not been able to pay attention to anything but that pain for so long and had ignored my annual mammograms. After my hip replacement, I decided I was long past due to check out the pain I was feeling in my breast. I was not prepared to hear that I had cancer, much less that it had already spread to my spine, ribs and pelvic area. I underwent chemotherapy, had a mastectomy, another round of chemo, and finally radiation that first year. In the years since, I have had to undergo 3 more rounds of chemo and several rounds of radiation. I also lost my husband 5 years ago and for a while wasn’t sure I wanted to go on living. His place will never be filled, but it is bearable because friends like Nancy who are there for whatever I need.

I had to start chemo again right after school was out last May. Nancy was concerned about what Scott would say about my bald head. I tried to reassure her that he wouldn’t care and he never even noticed except to say that I had on my pink hat. Bless the little children, they do not notice little things like hair loss, just that I was still wearing my smile.

I thank God each day that researchers are finding new treatments all the time for this disease. My latest chemo was not available 5 years ago. It takes millions of dollars to fund this research. Each step that Nancy takes helps bring new drugs and treatments to this fight. I am humbled that Nancy is doing this for me, but I am also so very proud to call her my friend. Thank you, dear Nancy.

PS- Want to help with something more than a monetary donation? Forward this email and/or link to my site on to all of your friends and family. We are all in this together to wipe breast cancer off of the face of the earth!!!!! Nancy

Click here to visit my personal page.
If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:
http://08.the3day.org/site/TR/Walk/DallasFtWorthEvent?px=1574143&pg=personal&…

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 2 Comments