Kris Carlson's Weblog

Socialism

"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out 
of other people's money."

—Margaret Thatcher

Riso-Hudson Enneagram

"temet nosce" - Know thyself - The Matrix

"te nosce" - Know thyself - http://www.yuni.com/library/latin_7.html#T

"nosce te ipsum" - Know thyself (inscription at the temple of Apollo in Delphi.) 

Personally, I prefer The Matrix version of Know thyself.  

So I'm picking up a print out at the copy machine at work and happen to see a printout a fellow worker has made.  It is the results of something called the Riso-Hudson Enneagram.  Having been a seeker of self knowledge via Myers-Briggs typology, my curiousity is piqued.  So I make a quick mental note and return to my computer and do a quick search online.  I find several books at Amazon.com on the subject, and order 1.  It arrived today, and I read the first couple of pages and decide to see if I can find the test online for free.  I do!  So I take it.  I took the short version, and the long version at http://similarminds.com.  Even though my particular personality type is not typically well received by a select few, I believe the results are accurate with one exception.  I'm always willing to help people whenever I can.  I think it was the way the questions were phrased that indicate Type 2 is my weakest.  My philisophy is "Give a man a fish and feed him for a day.  Teach a man to fish, and feed him for a lifetime."  Consequently, when one is weak minded and lazy, I will give.  But when someone is willing to learn, I will help.

When I finished, some links were presented, so I'm placing them here for you to see.

Main Type	Overall Self

Take Free Enneagram Personality Test

Enneagram Test Results Type 1 Perfectionism |||||||||||||||| 64% Type 2 Helpfulness |||||||||||| 42% Type 3 Image Focus |||||||||||||| 60% Type 4 Hypersensitivity |||||||||||||| 52% Type 5 Detachment |||||||||||||||| 65% Type 6 Anxiety |||||||||||||||||| 74% Type 7 Adventurousness |||||||||||||| 52% Type 8 Aggressiveness |||||||||||||||||||| 81% Type 9 Calmness |||||||||||| 44% Your main type is 8 Your variant is sexual

Take Free Enneagram Personality Test

If you know me, let me know if you think the results are accurate.  Given my type, I will consider your input very valuable.

I've been reading the book I bought regarding my type.  It's fascinating stuff.  While I read along, I find myself agreeing with so much of what is being said.

Join me, take the test and find out more about yourself.

Ciao

Alternative Investments

As you may already know, I have made my living as a trader of leveraged instruments in the past.  I've always traded my own money, mostly because I didn't have to file regulatory documents or be licensed in some way.  However, what I discovered, quite painfully, is that 10% isn't always 10%.  That is, 10% of 10,000 is smaller than 10% of 100,000.  Follow me?

While surfing, I came across a website with CTA Information.  Check it out http://www.cta-info.com/  It's got interesting information about an area of Investing that has been cloaked in secrecy for years.  Only recently, in the past 5 years, has Managed Futures been brought out of the shadows so the ordinary investor can learn about these Alternative Investment vehicles.  Managed Futures, in particular those practicing trend following strategies, have a tendency to be negatively correlated to stock indexes during down periods, and positively correlated to stock indexes during up periods.

I first heard about these types of accounts when I was reading an article by a member of the Oxford Club, A.C. Green.  He wrote about Managed Futures accounts and told the story of the Turtles.  This short article changed my life.  The story of the Turtles is compelling and inspiring.  Since I first read that article, there has been a lot written about The Turtles.  Prior to 2001, when I first read about the Turtles, they too were cloaked in secrecy.  Since then Curtis Faith (an original turtle) and Michael Covel (an author an turtle historian) have written a great deal about The Turtles, Managed Futures and Trend Following. 

The corrosive thread that binds all these super hot traders of commodities, is CTA designation.  Most of the big dollar commodity traders are CTA's and they manager other peoples money.  This is where 10% is relative.

Oracle Certified SQL Expert

I took the SQL Expert Exam 1Z0-047 this past weekend.  I sucked some big wind on this one.  These Oracle exams are not meant to be easy.  They are not some lame Microsoft Certification, that's for sure.  Needless to say, I will be needing to retake it.  However, I'm going to take the 1Z0-051 this time so I can move forward with the OCP Certification: Database 11g Administrator Certified Professional.  Then take 1Z0-052 and get OCA Certification.  Once I'm there I figure I won't have much trouble getting the company I'm working for to pay for the week long class I have to take to get OCP.  Cool huh?

I'm working as a Database Analyst for Health Media, Inc., a company that was just bought by Johnson & Johnson 10/2008.  Cool huh?  Good place to put my Math background to work.  I'm hoping to get into Data Mining.  Otherwise, I will probably make a return to U Miami to finish the Ph.D. in Math.  I have to be doing something interesting, otherwise I get bored.  Regardless of what others may think of my ability, I know what I can do.  

The question I almost always get when I tell people I want to finish a Ph.D. in Math, is "What will you do with that, teach?".  I say, that's the number one profession among Math Ph.D.'s, but my last choice.  I can teach, and I enjoy it too, but I prefer to take the road less traveled, so to speak.  Maybe Financial Engineering, or Data Mining.  There are lots of things Math people can do, even socialize.

Later

Cowboy Cookies - Texas

3 cups flour (3.5)

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tbsp baking soda

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1.5 cup (3 sticks) butter

1.5 cup sugar

1.5 cup light brown sugar

3 eggs

1 tbsp vanilla

3 cup chocolate chips

3 cup old fashioned oats

2 cup flake coconut

2 cup chopped pecans

Mix first 5 ingredients into bowl, set aside.  Beat butter & sugar till creamy, add vanilla, eggs - each separate, then add flour mixture till they are combined.  Add chocolate chips, coconut, pecans, & oats.  Drop cookies on ungreased cookie sheet.  This recipe calls to make them huge, but she makes them like reg. chocolate chip cookies.  If you use light brown sugar, they will be light; and dark brown sugar will be dark.

Big cookies make 3 dozen. 350 degrees F for 17-20 minutes

Small cookies make 6 dozen. 350 degrees F for 15-18 minutes

Paulson: Biggest Crook Of Them All

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Dear Friends,

Whenever a Great Bipartisan Consensus is announced, and a compliant media assures everyone that the wondrous actions of our wise leaders are being taken for our own good, you can know with absolute certainty that disaster is about to strike.

The events of the past week are no exception.

The bailout package that is about to be rammed down Congress' throat is not just economically foolish.  It is downright sinister.  It makes a mockery of our Constitution, which our leaders should never again bother pretending is still in effect.  It promises the American people a never-ending nightmare of ever-greater debt liabilities they will have to shoulder.  Two weeks ago, financial analyst Jim Rogers said the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made America more communist than China!  "This is welfare for the rich," he said. "This is socialism for the rich. It's bailing out the financiers, the banks, the Wall Streeters."

That describes the current bailout package to a T.  And we're being told it's unavoidable.

The claim that the market caused all this is so staggeringly foolish that only politicians and the media could pretend to believe it.  But that has become the conventional wisdom, with the desired result that those responsible for the credit bubble and its predictable consequences - predictable, that is, to those who understand sound, Austrian economics - are being let off the hook.  The Federal Reserve System is actually positioning itself as the savior, rather than the culprit, in this mess!

•    The Treasury Secretary is authorized to purchase up to $700 billion in mortgage-related assets at any one time.  That means $700 billion is only the very beginning of what will hit us.

•    Financial institutions are "designated as financial agents of the Government."  This is the New Deal to end all New Deals.

•    Then there's this: "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."  Translation: the Secretary can buy up whatever junk debt he wants to, burden the American people with it, and be subject to no one in the process.

There goes your country.

Even some so-called free-market economists are calling all this "sadly necessary."  Sad, yes.  Necessary?  Don't make me laugh.

Our one-party system is complicit in yet another crime against the American people.  The two major party candidates for president themselves initially indicated their strong support for bailouts of this kind - another example of the big choice we're supposedly presented with this November: yes or yes.  Now, with a backlash brewing, they're not quite sure what their views are.  A sad display, really.

Although the present bailout package is almost certainly not the end of the political atrocities we'll witness in connection with the crisis, time is short.  Congress may vote as soon as tomorrow.  With a Rasmussen poll finding support for the bailout at an anemic seven percent, some members of Congress are afraid to vote for it.  Call them!  Let them hear from you!  Tell them you will never vote for anyone who supports this atrocity.

The issue boils down to this: do we care about freedom?  Do we care about responsibility and accountability?  Do we care that our government and media have been bought and paid for?  Do we care that average Americans are about to be looted in order to subsidize the fattest of cats on Wall Street and in government?  Do we care?

When the chips are down, will we stand up and fight, even if it means standing up against every stripe of fashionable opinion in politics and the media?

Times like these have a way of telling us what kind of a people we are, and what kind of country we shall be.

In liberty,

Ron Paul

Fiat Empire

Now this is interesting. Do you know what the Federal Reserve really is? Do you know why we went off the Gold Standard for money? Remember the Silver Certificate? Watch the video below and then go to the website, Fiat Empire, for more info.

Looming Crisis

What Do You Believe? I believe this stuff is true.

R - Statistical Package

I've been learning to use R lately, because it is a free. But if it were not powerful and extensible, I wouldn't bother. Check out the "What is R" link at the R-Project website to learn about the power of R.

Be Like Water - Bruce Lee

I posted this video earlier, but the link has become dead there. So here it is, Bruce Lee - The Lost Interview. He talks about one of his appearances on the TV series Longstreet. Be Like Water!