Tuesday, August 06, 2002
Three semi good-looking guys stopped by to talk to me in the coffeeshop while I was working on my screenplay. There were so sweet and I got the distinct feeling that they were very happy just to speak to me. The cutest of the bunch said to me "See ya later" as he left, like he really meant. There were very young though, probably too young for my taste, but hey, I still get a thrill when guys get a thrill just speaking to me. It's so cute!!! Never mind that I would never ever go out with any of them. It's just cute that just speaking to me made them so happy. Boys are funny aren't they?
It doesn't pay to be so spacey. I was trying to update my United Airlines Mileage Plus account today with my West Virginia flight information. I haven't flown on United Airlines in a long time and I haven't been paying attention to their Mileage Plus program. I was reading the brochure today when I realized that I could have earned mileage on car rentals. This bums me out so much!!! I had a car rental in 1998 when I went to Hawaii and in 2000 when I went to Carmel and last July when I went to Hawaii for that wedding. I could have been earning mileage the whole time. And they have hotel partners too, so I could have been earning mileage at the Hyatt in Dallas in 2000 and maybe even the hotels in Hawaii and Dallas that I stayed at in 1998 and 1999.
I'm telling myself I shouldn't feel so bad because I usually charge travel expenses on my American Express card and I earned points on their travel program, but still. I definitely missed an opportunity to get a free trip.
I used to fly at least four times a year awhile back and totally made out like a bandit on triple mileage. I earned free trips on all the airlines. I was really into my mileage plus cards then. But when I stopped travelling, I stopped paying attention and I'm paying the price. God, I hate when I get spacey about stuff like earning points for some program I'm on.
I was thinking that I could put in for the car and hotel rental in Hawaii last year, but I'm too late. You have to do it in a year or they won't do it and it's been about 13 months. Man, I'm bummed, so bummed. I could have had a free trip on United Airlines by now!
It so doesn't count to be spacey about your frequent flyer programs.
I'm telling myself I shouldn't feel so bad because I usually charge travel expenses on my American Express card and I earned points on their travel program, but still. I definitely missed an opportunity to get a free trip.
I used to fly at least four times a year awhile back and totally made out like a bandit on triple mileage. I earned free trips on all the airlines. I was really into my mileage plus cards then. But when I stopped travelling, I stopped paying attention and I'm paying the price. God, I hate when I get spacey about stuff like earning points for some program I'm on.
I was thinking that I could put in for the car and hotel rental in Hawaii last year, but I'm too late. You have to do it in a year or they won't do it and it's been about 13 months. Man, I'm bummed, so bummed. I could have had a free trip on United Airlines by now!
It so doesn't count to be spacey about your frequent flyer programs.
Monday, August 05, 2002
Information comes to me strange ways. On the way back to my place from doing laundry, the free magazine "Bay Area Parent" was strewn across my steps. The cover story was on Tim Hudson "Huddy", star pitcher for the Oakland A's and the caption read "A's Hurler Tim Hudson: On Being a Big League Dad". How fortuitious since part of my screenplay is about my baseball player dude's relationship to his young son. The article definitely goes into the research folder.
I read the headlines on SF Gate and was shocked to find out that Nasdaq was at April 1997 lows. I knew the stock market would tank and go down to 98 levels, but never in my wildest dreams did I think the Nasdaq sink that low. Just think in 1999, there were all these articles everywhere about how great the stock market was, especially the Nasdaq. In early 2000, the Nasdaq volume was at 5,000. Now in mid 2002 it's quarter of that volume at 1200.
I wonder how many poor people bought the hype about the stock market. I know so many peopel who lost money. I started telling people in 1999 to get out of the market while the market was still high. All my friends, even the really good ones, laughed at me. I wonder who's laughing now. I made money in 2000 and then got the hell out and switched everything over to a money market fund. My investment portfolio value is higher than it was in 2000 and keeping pace with inflation. I can't say the same is true for all of my friends' investment portfolio. Silly people!!!
And what's worse is that I don't think people in general will make the connection to not believe what the papers and TV are telling them. No matter what the newspapers and TV people are saying, you've got to research the stuff and come to your own conclusions. I knew the market was overhyped. I had put together a financial business plan for a startup company before and had to predict when a company would make money. The thing that should have been obvious was none of these overhyped tech stocks had much of revenue stream but a hell of an expense stream. Way too much money being spent and not any money coming in. The tech people spent wildly and lavishly without revenue to pay for it. They were reckless and arrogant but the biggest fools were the people who bought their stock and believed their messed up business plans and models. These tech stock people broke every business rule on how to start a company, rules that have worked since humankind invented businesses. Is it any wonder they all failed and everything came crashing down in a serious way? Silly people who hosed investors and themselves and sillier people who bought the hype and the serious flaunting of basic business rules. Part of me feels sorry for the people who lost money and the other part says "there's a sucker born every minute" and I'mj ust glad that some of the time, I'm not one of them.
I read the headlines on SF Gate and was shocked to find out that Nasdaq was at April 1997 lows. I knew the stock market would tank and go down to 98 levels, but never in my wildest dreams did I think the Nasdaq sink that low. Just think in 1999, there were all these articles everywhere about how great the stock market was, especially the Nasdaq. In early 2000, the Nasdaq volume was at 5,000. Now in mid 2002 it's quarter of that volume at 1200.
I wonder how many poor people bought the hype about the stock market. I know so many peopel who lost money. I started telling people in 1999 to get out of the market while the market was still high. All my friends, even the really good ones, laughed at me. I wonder who's laughing now. I made money in 2000 and then got the hell out and switched everything over to a money market fund. My investment portfolio value is higher than it was in 2000 and keeping pace with inflation. I can't say the same is true for all of my friends' investment portfolio. Silly people!!!
And what's worse is that I don't think people in general will make the connection to not believe what the papers and TV are telling them. No matter what the newspapers and TV people are saying, you've got to research the stuff and come to your own conclusions. I knew the market was overhyped. I had put together a financial business plan for a startup company before and had to predict when a company would make money. The thing that should have been obvious was none of these overhyped tech stocks had much of revenue stream but a hell of an expense stream. Way too much money being spent and not any money coming in. The tech people spent wildly and lavishly without revenue to pay for it. They were reckless and arrogant but the biggest fools were the people who bought their stock and believed their messed up business plans and models. These tech stock people broke every business rule on how to start a company, rules that have worked since humankind invented businesses. Is it any wonder they all failed and everything came crashing down in a serious way? Silly people who hosed investors and themselves and sillier people who bought the hype and the serious flaunting of basic business rules. Part of me feels sorry for the people who lost money and the other part says "there's a sucker born every minute" and I'mj ust glad that some of the time, I'm not one of them.
I saw Reign of Fire on Friday and I really liked it. Too bad the movie didn't have much of a story line, but the idea was great. I've always loved dragons and I like the fact that this movie mentioned that the dragons of legend were actually real.
I loved the special effects, even though some reviewers thought there were hokey. I loved the prayer they made the children say, which was eerie and spooky, because instead of praying to god they prayed to escape the dragons.
If that movie maybe had half an hour of exposition on how Matthew McConaughey came to England, how the chopper chick joined and how the Christian Bale character came to the castle. They had the characters tell you key elements of the story which was boring, but probably is a lesson to me for my screenplay. Characters telling you the important stuff is boring!!! Show don't tell. But it's hard in a screenplay because you want to avoid flashbacks at any cost. I think they could have fit it all in half an hour more of movie footage. Maybe tell two parallel stories of Matthew and Christian Bale.
Best part of the movie of course was when the dragon fried everyone on the outskirts of London. The movie was nice and violent and I loved it.
I'm debating on whether to see The Bourne Identity since I'm a big fan of the Bourne trilogy of books. I can't imagine Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, but the movie is supposed to different from the book. Jason Bourne was a totally brilliant southeast asian scholar turned assassin zealot in the book. He was the ultimate soldier and his intelligence made him totally lethal. I learned alot in that book. The first book especially read like a handbook on how to be spy and top guy terrorist.
I guess I'll break down and see The Road to Perdition since there's such a review buzz around it and maybe even Minority Report, only because it's Tom Cruise and I've seen all of his movies in the theatre. I'm debating Men in Black 2 but friends have told me the original was way better. I hate bad followup movies!
I loved the special effects, even though some reviewers thought there were hokey. I loved the prayer they made the children say, which was eerie and spooky, because instead of praying to god they prayed to escape the dragons.
If that movie maybe had half an hour of exposition on how Matthew McConaughey came to England, how the chopper chick joined and how the Christian Bale character came to the castle. They had the characters tell you key elements of the story which was boring, but probably is a lesson to me for my screenplay. Characters telling you the important stuff is boring!!! Show don't tell. But it's hard in a screenplay because you want to avoid flashbacks at any cost. I think they could have fit it all in half an hour more of movie footage. Maybe tell two parallel stories of Matthew and Christian Bale.
Best part of the movie of course was when the dragon fried everyone on the outskirts of London. The movie was nice and violent and I loved it.
I'm debating on whether to see The Bourne Identity since I'm a big fan of the Bourne trilogy of books. I can't imagine Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, but the movie is supposed to different from the book. Jason Bourne was a totally brilliant southeast asian scholar turned assassin zealot in the book. He was the ultimate soldier and his intelligence made him totally lethal. I learned alot in that book. The first book especially read like a handbook on how to be spy and top guy terrorist.
I guess I'll break down and see The Road to Perdition since there's such a review buzz around it and maybe even Minority Report, only because it's Tom Cruise and I've seen all of his movies in the theatre. I'm debating Men in Black 2 but friends have told me the original was way better. I hate bad followup movies!
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