Friday, February 5, 2010

Life in the weeds.

"Purpose In Life."

The article in the Bulletin about local artist Francisco Cristich caught my eye.

Way back in the early 80's, downtown Bend was pretty Bohemian, and we were all just scraping by. Francisco had a small gallery in a nook near where Toomie's is now. There's almost no one left from that original crew. (Joyce down at the Curiosity Shop is another survivor.)

Art (or small business, for that matter) just isn't a way to get rich, usually.

What's really admirable about him, is he's stuck to it. Doing his art. Living the lifestyle. He is genuinely devoted to doing his art, come hell or high water.

As implied in the article, and true in my case as well, sometimes longevity is due to simply not knowing what else to do, or the inability to give up, the sticking to what we know and trying to do it better, and finding meaning in the struggle.

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I've been waiting for Crazy Heart to get to town for weeks. Weeks, I tell you!! The slow rollout strategy drives me crazy -- though my eagerness to see the movie sort of proves it works....

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In Deschutes, About 1 in 10 Mortgages Is Delinquent, Report says:
By Andrew Moore / The Bulletin
February 05. 2010

One paragraph in the story really caught my eye:

"The county’s December mortgage delinquency rate of 10.22 percent was not nearly as high as other areas of the nation. Las Vegas had a mortgage delinquency rate of 21.08 percent in December 2009, and Stockton, Calif., had a mortgage delinquency rate of 17.63 percent..."

As usual, I feel it necessary to add the word -- YET. We are running a year or two behind Las Vegas and Stockton and we may yet get to their levels. If you'll allow the analogy: the hurricane has leveled the towns close to the coast and is heading inland.

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We need to build more jails for all the cell-phone/ driving abusers...

They seem as prevalent as ever. I notice them, because they're the ones who are usually driving erratically.

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So much for timing my retirement investment. I pulled out of cash and into mutual funds about 4 days ago. The stock market immediately plunged....

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Store owner muttering to himself: "Why can't I get that? Why are they promoting it so heavily when it isn't available?"

The bane of a small store's existence is not being able to get saleable product. Mutter, mutter, darn publishers....

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

" I pulled out of cash and into mutual funds about 4 days ago. The stock market immediately plunged...."

Exactly ...

Trying to time the stock market is like trying to flip houses. Once in a blue moon, someone somewhere can make a lot of money, but for most of us, most of the time, it doesn't pay.

Anonymous said...

So why the fuck did you do this dunc? BUY stocks in 1932, 3 years after the 29' crash? It's going to fucking down for years to come, ... WTF are you trying to dollar cash average on the down?

See folks dunc is the canary in the coal mine of Bend, when dunc buy's SELL, whatever dunc does do the opposite, if dunc buys a ton of shit you knows its time to sell your comic inventory.

Our own ned flanders. He's a real nice guy.

RIP.

Quimby said...

1 in 10? Maybe it's the company I keep but I'd say 20-30% of the people I know have an NOD outstanding :(

I don't see it getting better any time soon.

Duncan McGeary said...

My guess? I bought halfway through a 10% correction, so it will be more or less a wash in the end.

It's not really stocks, they are more the whole range of stuff, cash, bonds, cd's, stocks-- the whole bit.

With, hopefully, some income producing dividends.

Cash as less than 1% wasn't going anywhere.

You could be right, you could be wrong.

H. Bruce Miller said...

" I pulled out of cash and into mutual funds about 4 days ago. The stock market immediately plunged...."

Don't sweat about the daily fluctuations of the market -- it'll drive you nuts. You're probably not retiring for 10 years anyway, right? Also it sounds like your portfolio is pretty diversified.

As Bob Chandler used to say, "The only time you want your stock to be high is when you sell it."

Unknown said...

I too have been waiting for Crazy Heart because frankly if it isn't K-Pax Jeff Bridges is just about the best there is. Did you see "Men Who Stare at Goats"? I'm sure you did and he was the greatest reason I liked that movie. Also you might want to check out "A Serious Man". Friend send me a screener and it is Coens not pandering to the Hollywood machine which I love.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Patty Moss

NOOOOOO! GOD PLEASE, NO! AHHHHHH!