Indicators

Legends of prediction are common throughout the whole Household of Man. Gods speak, spirits speak, computers speak. Oracular ambiguity or statistical probability provides loopholes, and discrepancies are expunged by Faith.
-- Ursula K. Le Guin

Friday, November 5
One year ago: Leading
Two years ago: Opiates

What a shame that I haven't made more progress in learning to lead (while dancing) in the past year! Leading is a complicated skill, and it needs to be practiced. I haven't consistently been taking classes as a lead. I'd estimate my skill level as about that of someone who's been taking class for a few months.

My friend Darren Holloway sent out a notify email to let us know that he's posted his trip report for Swing Out New Hampshire (and a solo camping trip he went on afterwards). I think his visit to Seattle was one of the first times he encountered the lindy hop. but he dove into it in a big way after that! Very typical geek mini-obsession -- I'm the same way!

I dreamt about dancing last night. I was doing all sorts of cool moves! I don't remember who I was dancing with, though.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *    *

At work, we posted an introduction to indicators. Before starting work here, I had no idea how such things as moving averages (you plot the average of the last few days' data, to smooth out a price curve) or oscillators (I can't even start to explain that one yet) could actually help in making investment decisions, but they can.

One of the indicators that might make one worry about the stock market is widespread eagerness for investing there by members of the general public. There's an old Wall Street saying: "When your cab driver gives you stock tips, it's time to sell." So I was dubious when someone on diary-l was asking about how he could get in on an IPO that happened today. Usually all the stock in an initial public offering is sewn up -- assigned to good customers of the brokerage house that is arranging the IPO, or otherwise unavailable to any investor on the street, until the market opens and the stock starts going up. But they don't always go up, and even if they do, they may go down just as fast, so dabbling in such stocks is only for the portion of your investment money that you can afford to gamble with. I did point the journaler to some online brokerages (and some sites with basic investment info!).

*     *     *     *     *     *     *    *

There was a lot of thrashing while Jack and some Bellingham buddies tried to decide when they could come down to see the new movie, Princess Mononoke. (I had a hard time finding this page because I misspelled "Mononoke". Annoying!) Finally this was resolved -- they'll come down tomorrow after their Vikingcon committee meeting. Jack will let me know the details tomorrow.

I'd wanted to go to the Century Ballroom tonight -- the band that's playing, the Rhythm Rockets from Chicago, is very highly spoken of (and not just in their own press releases). But after getting home, I decided to take it easy and go to bed early. I'm taking a dance workshop tomorrow, and I want to be rested for it!