in totally bland daily news

 I opened up a Merril Lynch investment account. It's technically an IRA but so far as I know, it is non-interest-bearing because it's a SEP (self-employed)

So I do all of it online. 

So far, the wonderful world of the stock market is a huge disappointment (as I knew it would be) because I have "pennies" to contribute.

I've put $850 into the account so far. $150 is still in "cash". My investments have netted me $600 at this point. Which means I"ve lost about $100 at this point. Obviously that could change and I could wake up tomorrow... middle class. But that's doubtful. I made deliberate risky investments with small amounts. Because I wanted to see what happens. It's a few hundred here and there. I sincerely doubt ALL the money will evaporate but most likely it won't be worth the same as if I had stuck it in a bank account. 

Well my next purchase will be a solid stock. I'm going to buy a share in Roku. Everything I know tells me that's going to be a good investment and might even possibly end up being a Blue chip like J&J, Apple or Dow-Jones. For that reason, it is a very expensive stock. well, by MY standards anyway. Last time I saw it at the morning surge it was $400 each. So I put enough in my account to buy ONE share. 

Now the problem with doing all this online is the real-time lag. Of course I didn't even think about my stupid IRA all week and so haven't bothered looking at it. Now it's Friday and I suddenly get the urge to check on it, after 5pm. Nothing is going to happen until Monday. I also realized I didn't have enough money in my current account to buy a share of Roku. So I put in the transfer order to put the money in from my bank account. Except that also takes 3 days. So it won't credit my account with the money so I can't put in the buy-limit order for the stock. 

Why do we bother living in the future when the people who get rich off of us just use it to find new ways to keep us down?

turn a corner?

 (general note: when sitting at my computer, I can BARELY see the normal type on the screen so all my entries will be in larger font size from now on)

My treadmill came in today. I'll be putting that together in a minute. 

Right now, the plan is that I will use that treadmill anytime I get antsy for a cigarette.

I bought my last pack yesterday. I had been whittling it all down til I was at around one pack = three days. And these are ultra-lights as well.  I noticed the less I smoke; the longer i wait to do it, the better my O2 levels are and the less I use my inhaler.  You may be sitting there thinking "yeah well no shit, sherlock" but you don't understand how important it is for this lesson to be *tested* and *tangible* for it to be of any use. Because I'm not talking about being a smoker versus being a non-smoker. I'm talking about actual immediate numbers. Smoking 10 cigarettes in a day is better than smoking 15. Smoking 5 cigarettes is better than smoking ten. Smoking 2 in a 3 hour period is better than smoking 2 in the same hour. 
From all this I can actually quantify the difference in O2 level checks and how many hits on my inhaler I'll need. (no I do not have a formula for all this but you get the idea)

Of course those expectations are altered by the amount of pollen in the air as well.

And Pollen is the reason I got the treadmill. Pollen and hills. I love walking. But walking up and down hills is not recommended by my doctor right now. Also, I'm not romanced by the idea of walking in the rain or freezing cold. But I've been told I need to walk every day. I'm fine with that notion but it means I need artificial means to do it. Hence, $500 spent on a home treadmill.