Tina’s Thoughts

I’ve finally bought my first stock. I bought 350 shares of LSB Industries at 14.95 a pop. I did a lot of research on it and I believe that the stock is trading so cheaply that it’s a good deal at the moment. Of course, I don’t know much about investing, but I think I did a good job with my research.

One site that has helped me out with learning about the stock market is The Smarter Money. It’s a new blog, but it has a good series on investing for beginners.

Even if LSB Industries turns out to be a dud for me, I think I am hooked on the stock market. Now I just need some more money so that I can make some more investments!

I am interested to see how the Olympic torch run goes today. There were a ton of problems with protesters in London and Paris, and San Francisco will likely be just as eventful. Of all places in the U.S. to have the torch run, San Francisco is probably the most interesting due to its large population of Chinese-Americans and left-wing politics.

More info: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/09/MNDS102IIM.DTL&tsp=1 

Even while on vacation, I’m drawn back to my blog. The horror!

The vacation is going great. Lots of relaxation, good weather, nice sightseeing. I am missing March Madness, but that’s okay, I am going to try to watch the highlights online when I have a spare moment.

Okay, back to drinking…umm…uhh.. I mean sightseeing.

I have a cold. I caught it from my friend, I’m pretty sure. This is not good timing since I leave for vacation in less than two days.

I tried a vapor medicine thingie that you put in the shower with you. Maybe I didn’t spend enough time in the shower or make it hot enough, but it didn’t really do anything for me. I still have a completely stuffed up nose.

I wonder if there’s anything I can do to make it go away as soon as possible? I don’t want any silly witchcraft products, I just want some sound advice. Eat chicken noodle soup? Take a lot of naps? Drink a lot of water? Use a nose teapot?

There’s going to be a massive music festival in San Francisco this summer. It’s going to be held in Golden Gate Park and have an environmental theme. Sounds awesome!

Here’s the initial list of performing artists:

Radiohead
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Jack Johnson
Beck
Wilco
Manu Chao
Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals
Widespread Panic
Primus
Rodrigo y Gabriela
Steve Winwood
Café Tacvba
Broken Social Scene
Regina Spektor
Devendra Banhart
Cold War Kids
Galactic’s Crescent City Soul Krewe
Lyrics Born
Andrew Bird
Steel Pulse
Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings
M. Ward
Drive-By Truckers
ALO
Matt Nathanson
The Cool Kids
Two Gallants
Dredg
Little Brother
Grace Potter & the Nocturnals
Donavon Frankenreiter
The Mother Hips
Black Mountain Sidestepper
Nellie McKay
The Coup
Goapele
Bon Iver
Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk
Sean Hayes
The Felice Brothers
Rupa & the April Fishes
Back Door Slam
K’NAAN

I’ve never done any investing before, unless you consider throwing my 401(k) money into an index fund. But lately I’ve had a decent amount of cash sitting around in my bank account doing nothing, so I decided to invest it in the stock market. I haven’t picked any stocks yet, but I am thinking about splitting my money into 5 different stocks. But before I do that, I need to do a lot of reading!

I didn’t even know what a P/E ratio was until two weeks ago. I’ve never been interested in financial stuff before, but having some money has given me the appetite to devour blog after blog about investing. If you don’t know anything about investing, it can sound really boring and intimidating. But if you can find the right places to start, it slowly begins to fall into place.

With that said, I still don’t know whether I want a growth stock or a value stock or what. I know I don’t want a mutual fund but that is about it. I think I am going to try to invest in things I know something about, but I looked at Apple and Google and both seem to be nose-diving. I don’t think I want to buy something that is going down. Maybe I’ll take a look at some different bag designers or makeup companies? I’m such a girl.

If you didn’t have a chance to catch it on TV or the radio, you can read  a transcript of Senator Obama’s speech here. It really was a very well written and delivered speech.

I think that a lot of people are going to judge Obama for his pastor’s comments without giving the senator a fair chance. CNN is already cherry-picking seemingly controversial snippets from Obama’s speech while mostly ignoring the central point: Obama does not agree with his pastor’s most controversial statements, but he does believe that racism is hurting both blacks and whites and the best way to get past it is for everyone to come together and focus on the important issues like healthcare, the economy, and the war.

Besides, how many born-again Christian pastors supported Bush? How many of them spewed hate about illegal immigrants, Jews, and homosexuals? Even McCain, who is not as socially conservative as Bush, has been endorsed by a pastor (Hagee) who has blamed Hurricane Katrina on homosexuality and has linked the Catholic Church to Hitler. McCain has not renounced this endorsement.

I think that all candidates should be judged on their words and actions, not on those of their supporters.

A truck carrying a bunch of bees turned over and closed a highway in California. 8 to 12 million bees! How scary would it be to run into that on a motorcycle?

But the part of the story that’s the strangest to me is that “several beekepers driving by the accident stopped to assist in the bee wrangling.” How many beekeepers are there? How did more than one beekeper just randomly come across this accident? And how exactly does one “wrangle” bees? Tiny lassos? Bee dogs?

I wonder how long it will take to clean the mess up. At least it isn’t in a very busy area.

A few of my friends are getting married. I’m excited for them and all, but the amount of traveling I have to do is going to be crazy. Engagement showers, wedding showers, bachelorette parties?! Was it ever as simple as a wedding and a reception and that’s it? And how many gifts do they expect!?

One of my friends, who shall remain nameless, has sent out two of her invitations so far. They’re nice, but they rhyme. I am never going to have rhyming invitations. It’s too much work and too weird.

Between the flights back to the east coast, my bridesmaid dresses, and the gifts, I have a feeling this summer’s weddings are going to cost me a few thousand dollars. Maybe I should just send each friend a gift of $750 cash and be done with it? Just kidding, I love them.

March Madness is almost here! I despise the NBA and the WNBA, but I love college basketball! This is my favorite time of year for sports.

I am hoping for either the University of New Mexico or New Mexico State University to make it. UNM has a good shot, but they need to win some games in their conference tournament and probably beat UNLV on their home floor. That won’t be easy, but they have been playing great as of late.

My alma mater is organizing a get-together at a bar in the area for the games, so I might need to check it out and meet a few other alums. I only know two other alums in the area (two just moved out), so it might be nice to meet some more.

I’m organizing a bracket tournament on Yahoo fantasy sports which is always fun. I don’t understand the people who score everything manually. Why not just have a website do it for you?