KotaHollywood on YouTube

For anyone who cares, there is another, um, more private (if there is such a thing???) YouTube channel that Kota/Copa/Dota/Dakota has been posting at. There are some wicekdly funny videos on there as well as some absolutely beautiful performances of hers. Mostly, it is Kota getting full value out of her little Mac Book. I HIGHLY recommend that kids get Mac Books.

Sara and Alex, I think your kids will find some vids on the channel that they like:
http://www.youtube.com/user/KotaHollywood

Check this out:



She recorded multiple takes and layers of her own voice accompanying David Archuleta and, in a sense, remade the song. Not really a remix, but a very cool customized version.

Peace and Love,

Eric

I'm Calling A Bottom - DJIA 8100 to 8200

First caveat: there will be a few hundred points of volatility in the DOW 30 for the next few weeks but I'm calling this as the bottom. The DJIA closed in the 8200's today and I feel like we're done selling. Maybe get as low as 8,000 but I think what we are witnessing is a bottoming process.

I am hearing from radio / TV that they are calling this the Obama Recession because people are selling stocks, etc., to avoid increased capital gains taxes.

I don't buy that. Yes, there are anectdotes about that but there's also anectdotes about people seeing flying saucers. I think we had a huge pop in the bubble, the economy is in the tank, financial companies are laying off like crazy and the stock market is as low as it's gonna get, plus or minus a couple percent.

So, I honestly think you're pretty safe to start buying or adding to your diversified, well managed mutual funds at this point.

Would I buy individual stocks? Not too many of them. LOTS of risk still exists that GM or Ford may go BK. However, if you buy diversified portfolios, you should be okay. Try to buy American if you're going to buy based on this recommendation.

Finance

I'm looking at taking a big chunk of my Financial Aid check from January and sticking it in a short term CD (like 6 months) so that way this summer when I am studying for the bar exam it will mature, and almost more importantly: Megan and I will not be able to touch it before then. <-- is this a stupid idea with the interest rate being so low right now?

I'm looking for virtually NO risk (the kind of risk that means if I lose that money the USA has bigger things to worry about). I'd love to put $$ into a mutual fund and see it double in that time (like if prices bounced back to what they were 5 months ago), but I'd hate to get to June and have it be worth half as much as if I had just put it under my matress (as Megan's mutual fund has done in the last few months).

The Logic of a 6 year old:

So, this was just a joke that was forwarded to me, but I knew all you would like it... unfortunately they don't point out that fiscal responsibility can be achieved in other ways than selling your soul:

I was talking to a friend of mine's little girl, and she said she wanted to be President some day.

Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, 'If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?'

She replied, 'I'd give houses to all the homeless people.'

'Wow - what a worthy goal.' I told her, 'you don't have to wait until you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I'll pay you $50. 'Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward a new house.'

She thought that over for a few seconds 'cause she's only 6. And while her Mom glared at me, she looked me straight in the eye and asked, 'Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?'

And I said, 'Welcome to the Republican Party.' Her folks still aren't talking to me.

First day of School

Today is the first day of classes at StMU Law, which subsequently means that today was little Miss Parker's first day at school too.

Megan and I dropped her off at 7am this morning and her teacher/caretaker Diane was very nice and there was only one other little boy named London there when we left. They may have 4 infants under supervision, or 2 people can supervise 10, but the classroom I think only has capacity of 8. I may be wrong.

Parker will stay in this room until she is 6 months or self-propelled, whichever comes first, then to a room with all the 6-12 months.

I almost made it all the way to the car before I broke down.

The Law of Big Numbers - eg., Cars

Here in California we listen very intently on what might be coming down the road re: automobiles. Like all of America, we love our cars. We bought so may hybrids that the car pool lanes are clogged with them. We are one of the lead testing grounds for electric only cars. Likewise for the fuell cell hydrogen cars.

The argument is that if we take those fossil-fuel cars off the road, then roughly HALF of the global warming gasses will go with them.

Sounds great on paper. This is what I wondered: take hydrogen fuel cell cars, for example. Estimates in America point to 125 Million to 150 Million cars on the road, here in the USA. Fuel cell cars supposedly only have water vapor, droplets, whatever, as an exhaust. Okay, what is going to happen to the atmosphere with 150 Million cars spewing water vapor into the atmosphere? I'm guessing there will be places with high humidity that have never seen humidity before. Maybe more cloudy days? Wet streets? Seriously, I'm wondering if anyone has stopped to think that soon enough, water vapor will start to become some kind of runaway pollutant.

And about electric cars. My house is on the electric grid. If me, and all my neighbors, had electric cars and we al charged them from home, wouldn't we need increased capacity to get that electricity to the house? Would the utility co's have to come out and put in new cables? Or would we just smoke the system that is here? And what happens when California's notoriously sketchy grid goes down? That's a lot of demand for electricity (which, btw, isn't growing on trees).

I'm not saying that we shouldn't move forward. I'm just wondering if 150 Million "solutions" won't cause their own kind of problems.

Eric
(author's note: at the time of this writing I have a Prius and, while it is a great car, it's not for everyone. There's no way you could replace a work truck with a Prius).

Battle

Here's a little claymation that Beth and I put together while we were in San Fransisco at Zeum. Justin edited the clip, adding the title and sound. Check it out and let me know what you think. We hurried through it and wish we would have had a little more time, so it's a little rough around the edges.

The F Word - the last word you want to hear!

Preview an EP coming out August 15th that seriously starts off with a song called "F Word", then goes on to "Materialistic" by a debut SoCal girl Dakota Wade. The article gives her story and makes sense of the F WORD song.

read more | digg story

1952 Vincent Black Lightning

Posted by Eric for DAVE WADE

If you wanta ride a Motorcycle, you've got to know about the old days... What it really meant to be a motorcycle type guy. Nowadays, it's like Ham Radio, anybody can walk into the local dealership and walk off with a Big Red Ducati. For about a mile or so, they will be king of the world. Then they die.



1952 Vincent Black Lightning (((CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL POST, Quoted Below)))

created by ideath, Wed Oct 02 2002 at 16:36:38

One sign of a great song is when it is has been successfully performed in multiple musical genres. "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" is one such song.

Richard Thompson wrote this song, and it he recorded it on Rumor and Sigh in 1991. Thompson is an English singer-songwriter known for his days with the groundbreaking folk-rock band Fairport Convention and for the duo albums he recorded with his then-wife Linda. His recording of "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" falls into that same category and the recording is a prime example of the artistic style that is Richard Thompson.

A couple other singer-songwriter and folkie types covered the song in the mid 1990s, but things changed in 2001 when the premiere bluegrass unit performing today, the Del McCoury Band, put this on their record Del and the Boys. Rob McCoury's banjo kicks off the tune, and Jason Carter's mournful fiddle provides musical contrast, portraying both the celebration and sorrow inherent in the story. Del, who was 62 years of age when he made this recording, sings like he really did used to ride around like James Dean picking up up leather-clad redheads. If folks didn't know any better, the Del McCoury Band could make them believe Thompson wrote this as a bluegrass song.

The McCourys did make one change to the lyrics. Thompson sang about riding to Boxhill which is in Surrey near Dorking. Del replaces that with Knoxville, a city in Tennessee.

Since Del and the Boys came out, the bluegrass community has been clamoring for this song everywhere Del goes. He's performed it on a PBS bluegrass special, on Austin City Limits, and it has been featured in the Down from the Mountain tour. Del has been recording since 1963 when he joined Bill Monroe, and it appears that nearly 40 years later he has finally found a signature song penned by an English folk-rocker. With its newfound audience, I wouldn't be surprised to hear this song performed at every bluegrass festival held over the next few years.

Yet none of this takes away from Thompson's own performance. For the past decade he has sung this at many of his appearances, and it is a quintessential Richard Thompson song. But the way the song is at home in more than one genre shows just how great "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" is.

Richard Thompson

1952 Vincent Black Lightning lyrics

Said Red Molly to James that's a fine motorbike
A girl could feel special on any such like
Said James to Red Molly, my hat's off to you
It's a Vincent Black Lightning, 1952
And I've seen you at the corners and cafes it seems
Red hair and black leather, my favourite colour scheme
And he pulled her on behind
And down to Boxhill they did ride

Said James to Red Molly, here's a ring for your right hand
But I'll tell you in earnest I'm a dangerous man
I've fought with the law since I was seventeen
I robbed many a man to get my Vincent machine
Now I'm 21 years, I might make 22
And I don't mind dying, but for the love of you
And if fate should break my stride
Then I'll give you my Vincent to ride

Come down, come down, Red Molly, called Sergeant McRae
For they've taken young James Adie for armed robbery
Shotgun blast hit his chest, left nothing inside
Oh, come down, Red Molly to his dying bedside
When she came to the hospital, there wasn't much left
He was running out of road, he was running out of breath
But he smiled to see her cry
And said I'll give you my Vincent to ride

Says James, in my opinion, there's nothing in this world
Beats a 52 Vincent and a red headed girl
Now Nortons and Indians and Greeveses won't do
They don't have a soul like a Vincent 52
He reached for her hand and he slipped her the keys
He said I've got no further use for these
I see angels on Ariels in leather and chrome
Swooping down from heaven to carry me home
And he gave her one last kiss and died
And he gave her his Vincent to ride

The Hype Machine, Free Music, Pandora

I just discovered a new (for me) blog consolidator calle The Hype Machine.

I love music and The Hype Machine scours blogs for music and puts samples and links of stuff you may never hear otherwise. Wow, is there some cool stuff out there that you'll likely not come across anywhere else.

Here's one hot little number called Autumn Love by ELECTRA (link will play an mp3). Alex, you will like the chill sound and it's like a beautiful quilt of samples.

Check it out when you can.

Oh, and if you're not familiar with PANDORA then you're missing something, there, too.

Eric

Fame and Fortunes

Ana just found and played some old VHS tapes from our earlier years.

In hers, she's on The Dating Game. Pretty cute in her LA Aztecs cheerleader outfit!

In mine, I'm being interviewed a few times by Channel 7 in ABQ about stock deals and announcements. Kinda funny that I've lived such a rich life that I completely, 100% FORGOT about ever having been on the evening news. Let alone at least three times that we have tape for.

Keep track of how cool you are because really, I had forgotten a cool little memory!

Eric

Keeping the Harley Thing Going

So I couldn't figure out how to post a picture to the comment section, so I started this article so I could put up this picture.

This is my father in law on the Harley that he won from a high school booster raffle. $100 tickets, and he played once a year for 6 years, so a $600 Harley Softail Fatboy (he's going to paint it once the warrantee runs in a few months). Anyways, I wanted to put that out there to explain why I was at a Harley store this weekend, because he was in town and wanted to go get some gear. while there I actually saw a lot of good looking bikes...

Check out some more here

Anyways, from the video dad posted I couldn't tell which bike he was talking about since there were quite a few models.

Also, don't write off Harley until you take a closer look at the Buells:

"Harmful" Water Bottles???

This isn't exactly the same question as what Megan asked about the baby bottles, but maybe similar.

I try to drink a lot of water. I try to drink it out of my marvelous BRITA whenever I can.

Which means I'm perpetually looking for something to HOLD the water in. Being the cheap bastidge that I am, I like to use plastic water bottles a few times. Not until they're gross, mind you, but maybe twice or three times.

And then someone tells me that there's research that says "Do Not ReUse Water Bottles"

DIRECTLY contradicting the "reduce, reuse, recycle" stuff I'm a big fan of. Something about the plastics can be carcinogenenic once they're used so just recycle them. According to the Plastics Council of Greater Muskogee or something official like that.

Scared me right off reusing those things.

For a while. Now I'm STEAMED. I think I've been had, but I only have logic on my side. If those water bottles are so dangerous, why are we using them at all??? If they're gonna kill me after one use, shouldn't we be considering them weapons?

I'm thinking that this is a bunch of bunk science aimed at keeping water drinkers like myself from shaving 99.999% off the cost of that second bottle of water by reusing a perfectly good container.

(What's really sad in all of this is that I think I've developed a small, nagging habit of questioning Corporate America. Great. Next I'll be getting hemp britches and a compost heap.)

Eric

Something New and Cool

I read a cool blog called "The Stalwart" with an interesting article today.

HERE

So I signed up at identi.ca

And I think you, can, too. I haven't figured out WHY you would, but as soon as I do, I'll let you know. There seems to be a bit of "all of the -1*cool people are doing it" - you know, those cutting edge for cutting edge's sake people. Some kind of microblogging thing like twitter (which I totall missed the cool wave on that one) but identi.ca is open source and, therefore, better than twitter. (or so the -1*cool people say).

What is important about this is that LITERALLY TODAY (I know!) I was thinking to myself, well, looks like I've plum run out of internet. I was sad.

Now I can be amused by identi.ca for an hour or so and try really really hard to find the value proposition.

I'll keep you posted.

In the mean time, what are YOU reading?

Eric

Keeping The Harley Thing Going

(Dad) tried to post this to the Harley thread, but it said that tags are not allowed.



This is the only Harley model that I (Dad) actually think is pretty. (It's a '50s thing...)

When they get going with pictures of "Night Trains" from around the country, I recognized Thunderbird Harley in Albuquerque and Bleu Bayou Harley in Monroe Louisiana, and the place in Stockton, Ca.

Don't Give Up On California

Last week we went to Dakota's choir banquet. She was awarded "Outstanding Sophomore" so we were very proud. As you all know, she works very, very hard with her music. She is also taking piano and she fronts two bands, one of which has been invited to be the "house band" for the prestigious School of Performing Arts that she takes her piano lessons at. So we're very proud.

But that's not the only thing I'm proud of that night.

While we were there, the band also got their awards. At one point, they invited a US Marine Sgt. up to award two band members an award for their musical abilities. The crowd cheered when the Marine came up, then gave a speech about just how important music is to the Marines. Then he gave the awards, and when he was done, (he must have sensed he was in a friendly crowd) he said "and I'll be at the back of the room if you think you have what it takes to be in the marines band" and half the people laughed andthe other half cheered.

You might remember that as of this writing, I live in California. Not Texas. Not Ohio. California. I was very happy that this little sliver of SoCal hasn't turned too blue to cheer for a Marine.

I was even more happy to hear the Choir Director, Robert Henthorn, announce Dakota's award by saying "this isn't going to surprise very many of you..."

Rockin' In L.A.

That's right, you heard me. ROCKIN IN L.A.

Check out the rocker girl. One step short of punk, eh?

Dakota wrote the lyrics, her bandmates Dylan, Cole, McKenzie, and Chris = "Silver Lining" came up with the music (aside from the obviously recognizable "tribute" parts, of course).

If you've got broadband you can watch it here:
Rockin' In L.A.

401K vs. IRA

Matt asked me recently which was better, a 401K or an IRA.

I wanted to answer it here in case future readers wanted to know...

It's a good question but in some ways it's like asking whether a pickup truck is better than a sedan. The answer is: it depends.

In a nutshell: 401k's are usually associated with your employer. The account is YOURS and the assets are yours, but the plan itself is usually (and by usually I mean I can't think of one that is not) attached to work. Moreover, since each company's plan can have many different features, you may have trouble getting to your money in case of emergency. Some plans allow loans, some don't. On the other hand, some employers "match" a portion of your contribution as a way to 1) help you retire and 2) incentivize you to participate and 3) allow them to admit high-dollar earners into the plan without it getting too top heavy. This is important to Wades because during this generation, the Wade Family is literally shifting into the "high earner" category of any organization we are associated with.

IRA's on the other hand, are your Individual account. You can consider it a savings account with perks. You can open one virtually anywhere, including a bank or a credit union or a mutual fund company or a brokerage. The IRA holds liquid assets such as cash, money market funds, certain bonds, stocks, etc. Fancy IRA services can even hold the deeds to real estate and other real properties. As this is YOUR account that you set up independent of your employer, you can do anything you want with it. There are restrictions, of course, but getting money out is up to you (and the penalties and the taxes, but NOT a company telling you what you can and can't do.)

Other significant differences:
ASSETS: Ira's are VERY flexible. 401k's are usually pretty limited to a dozen or even fewer investments, and they are almost always mutual funds.
My single most critically important piece of advice for investing in a 401K - make damn sure the funds they are selling you are exchange traded or NASDAQ funds. Do not ever ever ever buy a fund that you can't track in the newspaper or online at www.bigcharts.com

OWNERSHIP: An IRA is yours yours yours. A 401K is yours but in the caring hands of your employer until you quit. It is rare, but there have been cases of employers neglecting to actually send in the checks to fund the 401k. Sadly, this usually happens with crappy companies and so when you lose your job is when you find out that the CFO absconded with the cash. And, they might have even put you in fake funds (see above). Again, this is very very rare.

CONTRIBUTIONS: IRA's can be pretty limited as to how much you can put in them, like a few thousand bucks a year. This is to keep Ross Perot from eliminating that last few percent of income taxes that he hasn't been able to get rid of. 401ks, on the other hand, are designed for active income earners (workers) and therefore allow you to shield a lot more from taxes (like $15 or $16 thousand a year). And, the contribution you make from your paycheck is pre-tax dollars which reduces your drag through the year.

MATCHING: 401ks have it all over IRA's here. When your employer matches a percentage of your contribution, it is literally FREE MONEY. My employer matches 4%, which isn't bad. Some employers are even more generous. This match might have a vesting schedule, but still... free money is nice.

In general, I've always felt that if you are offered a 401k, go with that first unless it is absolutely draconian with its rules and sketchy. And you can ask me about that.

There's a lot more to think about, like when is an IRA contribution tax deductible and what about when it is time to retire, but we can cover that another time.

BPA - what is the deal?

Ok so I was hearing from folks that I needed to add my breastfeeding "needs" to our registry. So I go online and not only do I immediately become overwhelmed with the many choices of pumps, bottles, feeding systems, etc. I also start reading reviews about the "BPA Scare".

To be honest I never heard about BPA and I immediately start looking up info about it and find that it is a chemical some find safe and some claim is completely harmful, specifically to the unborn and newborn child! It is found on can liners, plastic bottles, and more. While some claim it is a naturally occurring chemical resembling estrogen and is nothing to be worried about, the website i looked at claims that it causes increase chance or cancers, hyperactivity, and can hamper, halt or disrupt reproductive development and brain development.

Basically I am freaking out. I thought the hardest thing I would have to do this evening was figure out which system would be best for breast/bottle feedings, which by the way I am still clueless about! Instead I find myself increasingly worried about this. Did I drink from my Nalgene bottle too much, have I made sure I hand washed the plastic and not dish washed? Did I eat too many canned soups? Have I increased the chance for my child to develop cancer or diabetes (also suggested by the website)?

I realize there are more than enough things to scare a person about if you think on it hard enough, but should I worry? My doctor never mentioned it, so is it worth freaking out about?

I need some advise/comfort from the more experienced!

Scary

ok.... If you think that Google is everywhere, you gotta try this first:

Street View


they have it in parts of LA, Most of San Antonio, nothing in ABQ yet. MKE and CHI both have parts too.

Go to google maps and zoom in on my address, then click street view and you can do a virtual drive by.

There was a article in the paper here the other day, because some lady did that for her own home and both of her cars were in the driveway and she could read the license plate numbers!

Come Check me out at: http://parkerwade.blogspot.com/

DJ Tiesto Remix - Touch Me by Rui da Silva

This is something I love. It's a 2001 song / remix, but worth posting. Unfortunately the video is juston epic, but the music is cool. For those who don't know, DJ Tiesto is known by other DJs as the Best DJ in the WORLD.

I hope you like it as much as I do.

Curiosity, Seth Godin, Nic Askew

Nic Askew created this little film, an interview with Seth Godin.

I felt a connection with the message.



Here's an interesting statement, maybe a bit imperfect quote, but the message is there: "the richest, best educated people are the ones who have turned off their TV."

Beth bball

Hollywood

Newport

Laguna