Trump gives me hope

Before I went MAGA, I was skeptical of Trump. I was sick to my stomach that he destroyed Ted Cruz and got the nomination until I figured he probably had a better shot at beating Hillary due to the fact that Cruz was not viable in my wife's opinion.

The promises Trump made were broad and vague but very much under the MAGA umbrella.

• Build the wall
• repeal Obamacare
• SCOTUS
• scrapping unbalanced trade deals
• tax reform
• fixing climate deals
• fixing Iran deal
• fixing North Korea's nuke threat

Trump has kicked the tires on all of the above fronts. Only a third of way through his first term, yet so many coals are in the fire being stoked by nothing given the 24/7 negative news about FBI investigations going no where fast.. The economy has been chugging along with the price of gold dipping to pre-Brexit ranges. Gold is a barometer I use as a hedge against everything... since I foolishly feared the "fiscal cliff." 

The housing market worries me. Everything is selling fast and nothing seems to be left in modestly priced ranges... much like 2005.

Trump being a builder in his former life almost surprises me given the lack of building he has spearheaded as president.

I predicted prison reform, I totally expect affordable housing to be a huge Trump initiative. There's so much federal land that is available.

Baseball

Ever since I can remember, I have been a fan of baseball. I cried when Tony Pena was traded. I probably cried when Johnny Ray was traded, too.

Looking back at old baseball cards a while back, I saw lots of names I had never seen or recalled. They had terrible numbers, yet became immortalized on a card. I found myself wondering, why did the suck so bad if they were good enough for the majors.

Chad Hermansen comes to mind. He never panned out. He got to the majors and never did much beyond strike out a lot. He lost the mojo or something once he got sent back to AAA.

Adam Hyzdu wasn't hateful but he didn't have much of a career.

Regardless, baseball is a team sport with a lot of individual players that aren't at all alike. The variables for baseball stats to be relevant beyond traditional stats was made into movie, right?

I personally believe most managers are irrational. Jim Leyland was a genius in his day, yet had Jay Bell lay down a sac bunt regularly in the 1st inning ahead of Andy Van Slyke. The same line-up had Barry Bonds batting 5th, being protected by Sid Bream.

I believe pitching is overrated. Having a script to get to closer is flawed if you rely upon a guy who could get injured in the wink of an eye.

I heard that Kevin Cash had a reliever start a couple games in a series. Novel idea, but very practical considering starting pitchers are expensive and only pitch once or twice a week.

I love the NL. Pitchers who can hit amaze me. Position players who can mop up by pitching humor me.

Data exists that running the numbers for best matchups for each game of each opponent can be done without having the regular 8 penciled day in and day out.

I dream of the day a pitching staff has 8-9 pitchers who all log 162 innings for the season while each position has a left and right handed hitting variable to insert into the lineup.

Fielding, speed, bunting for base hits and pinch hitting abilities would dictate line-ups beyond the opposing pitcher's particular dexterity.

Some hitters are good fast ball hitters. Some feed on offspeed pitches.

So many ball games are decided by a few runs or less... I believe managers cause more losses from mistakes than the stats reveal.

I dream of a expansion team drafting from subpar players who have various skillsets that mesh into a winning team concept. No fanbase wants their team to be blownup and be used as theoretical enterprise employing nobodies....

Solar disappointment

As I said in my previous installment, I am looking to kill time more productively.
I'm failing miserably. I'm still stuck following certain things that are wastes of time. Twitter is a time bandit... but I only have myself to blame.
I shouldn't follow sports.
I shouldn't follow the stock market closely.
My reading topics that I perused were: solar power, home repair, and being a land lord.
Solar power is way too unrealistic for my current situation. Buying stuff from Harbor Freight always looks cool and affordable, but the kit you buy doesn't set itself up and lacks some of the essentials. I'm  probably too lazy and lacking of funds to set up something worthwhile.
Home repair is an open ended matter. I have a number of unfinished projects that simply need me to focus my energy. I find excuses for not doing things... like not having a mitersaw or money to pay someone else.
Investment property isn't going to land in my lap, so it's foolish to pursue entertain the thought, right?
I wish I was wired differently. I just lack the drive to finish stuff and get distracted by unrealistic interests and things that aren't important in the grand scheme of things.
Moments like now, I hate free will for I can only blame myself for the majority of my shortcomings.
Theorectically, I put stuff out here to say I looked into things, and affirmed my home and existing personal stuff need focus before thinking of other matters such as solar power and investment property. 

summer reading - exploring better hobbies

Having spent considerable time avoiding being productive or advancing my skill set, I decided to do some cheap self-investment through reading library books.

Given my previous post, I am exploring real estate investment. I have always had interest in houses. Much like reading job postings, I enjoyed reading house listings. Given that I do not have the funds nor time to invest into such endeavors, I need to focus on my current home before moving onto pipe dreams.

I'm cutting sports from my time consumption diet. I should cut my 401(k) obsession along with following the news cycle that seems stuck since November 8, 2016.

Speaking of pipe dreams, I have dreams of making my shed a man cave. It's a small barn, which we currently use for storage, but I'd like to have electricity out there. I would like to have it be solar powered, hence off the grid.

I got a book out from the library that appeared relevant, Do It Yourself 12 Volt SOLAR POWER, but 17 pages in, I find it comical. It's translated from German with an idealistic premise of living off the grid in a van or yurt. Probably not going to do me much good to read the whole thing, but I find solar power intriguing. I doubt I will be less knowledgeable, so it should have benefit, right?

Time's take on making side money to quit your real job

Read this old article Time tweeted about making enough side money to quit your job.

It made me chuckle.

1. Real Estate investment takes money.
2. Writing a book is easy. Finding someone willing to pay for it is another story. I actually started writing a book in '96, but I stopped because I lacked worldly experience to properly develop characters.
3. Sell a product on Amazon?
4. Sell your skills?
5. Blogging!

Seriously, I've tried to blog for money, but I have nothing anyone wants to read it seems. My tweets aren't worthy of getting followers, beyond a static 80. I have stuff that isn't being said, yet nothing catches on. I guess I don't trash Trump, so my feed isn't going to catch on. Suppressed? Perhaps the shadow ban is real enough that there's a pre-shadow ban? I know I'm not dumb, yet I must be missing something key beyond interacting with strangers. I'm joking. Dale Carnegie said in his book, people only care about themselves, so you have to indulge their ego if you hope to be successful in getting anything in return.

I need to create better twitter content, or at least dumb it down. Substweeting seems more necessary than I ever could guess. Nothing piques interest than being left out of a conversation. Obviously, I need to follow the biggies and comment on their inane stuff if I want to generate an opening. Sounds fake. Perhaps most people are fake, and that's why I have trouble following their point. 

I have multiple Twitter accounts. I could have multiple profiles to experiment with traffic flow. and such. If I were to be anti-Trump, I'd get the most followers quickly, I'm afraid. That said, I can be deranged in the tongue in cheek sarcastic way that would make Scott Adams proud. I really don't get TDS, but I never got the Obama stuff either.

Money isn't everything

I could have gone for a full-time position, but I don't want to have the full-timer's obligations to work whenever called upon. I can say "no" to over-time or changes in my schedule, which I do when it comes to my family coming first.
I took the job with the intention of being part-time. I get double the hours I am guaranteed, so I'm working as much as a full-timer.
When I got promoted from handler to courier, my wages exploded. I have another raise coming in a couple weeks. I won't notice it. I've bumped my 401(k) contributions up to 35%. I'm not at the point of maxing out, but I'm higher than I ever anticipated a year ago.
Trying to keep our AGI under $63K and pay off all our credit card debt before accruing significant interest. I opened a new card with a 0% interest rate for 18 months with $0 transfer fee.
Can I pay off $15k in 18 months without accruing fees? Probably, but it's tempting to bump up the 401(k) contributions to the max and taking it out as a loan and paying back the loan ASAP.
Biggest reason to not take out such a loan is the burden of paying it back if you lose your job. I'm not fazed by the missing out on market advances given the up and down movement of the market and the interest I'm paying on the loan is means to contribute beyond max out, I think.
Tempting to try to pay off the mortgage the same way.

Easy money

How much extra money is there to make without actually working?
We started Ibotta back in May and have slowly gotten $210 in our account. 
I've made over $250 in cash back from my Discover card since last March. We're getting a double bonus come April.
I have cash back deal with my Sam's credit card and my American Express card as well. I made roughly $200 cashback combined from those two cards.
All the cashback and rebates add up, but they'll always be correlated to an imposed debt, so I'm not getting rich.
There's got to be a way to earn easy $ without spending money in the first place.