At the end of every year I select a photograph of myself to be added to my Biography in Pictures. I had a lot of good times this year, and with those good times came a lot of great photos. But one stood out from the rest, making this years selection surprisingly easy! So without further ado, I present my photo for 2007…
I love this picture. Why, oh why, can’t I pick two pictures for my Biography in Pictures for 2007? Me and my stupid rules!
2007 will go down in the annals of Rob Becker history as the year I started investing in the stock market. Hopefully, twenty years from now, I’ll be able to look back at this year as the beginning of my journey towards early retirement and that elusive something know simply as the good life. But in the hear and now, I’m just getting my feet wet in this sacred rite of capitalism. I’m very much learning as I go, continuing to devour books on the subject and just absorbing the feeling — the ebbs and flows — of the market. I have so much more to learn, but in the short term I’m pretty pleased with job I’ve done this year. But the market is a game of numbers, so here are the numbers from year number one:
S&P500 Stock Market Index Performance for 2007: 3.7%
Rob’s Stock Portfolio Performance for 2007: 23.5%
What follows is rundown of my first year in stocks — my successes and mistakes and the thinking behind them. Enjoy!
Another random photo from this summer…
On a dark and desolate block, buried in between the warehouses and factories of Long Island City, one little house has been transformed into an eye-popping Christmas display.
Wondering what ever happened to K.I.T.T (a.k.a. the Knight Industries Two Thousand, a.k.a. the coolest car ever) since his popular 80s T.V. show was cancelled years ago? Apparently these days he’s living a quite life out of the spotlight in Stamford, Connecticut. I was at my local Shell gas station yesterday having an emissions inspection performed on my car when I spotted him. The car, I mean. Michael Knight was nowhere to be found.
… I wonder what kind of emissions you get from using turbo boost. Do you think it meets federal E.P.A. standards? Just asking …
For the full Knight Rider effect, look at the picture while listening to the Knight Rider theme music.
Want to know more about replica Knight Rider cars? Check out the Knight Registries and Knight Replicas.
See pictures of the new K.I.T.T. from the upcoming T.V. series.
Best of all, buy an original K.I.T.T. from the 80s T.V. show on eBay! Read the news article for more info.
I love these geography games. This one tests your ability to locate world cities and famous sites on a map. In my first attempt I made it to level 8 with a traveler IQ of 101. Here’s a tip I figured out along the way: go for accuracy over speed, you get far more points for location than you do for time.
Play the Traveler IQ Challenge!>>
Robots are cool. Up to this point in history they’ve served no redeemable purpose besides putting cars together and occasionally staring in movies and TV commercials. But those crazy (like a fox!) engineers in Japan seem to think that one day humanoid robots are going to play a role in our everyday lives, and so they continue to make cooler and cooler robots. A few years ago we got ASIMO from Honda, who could walk, run and climb stairs. Then Sony broke out some hot moves with their dancing robots. And today, Toyota took robot dexterity to a whole new level with their violin-playing robot (yes, that’s Pomp and Circumstance). So cool.
Shopping for a time traveler with a flying DeLorean or a despotic president of a hostile Middle-Eastern nation this Christmas? Show them how much you care with a gift of Uranium-238! Available now on Amazon.com, but hurry, supplies are limited!
Yes this is actually for real, which proves that you can, in fact, buy anything and everything on Amazon.com The product description reads: “Radioactive sample of uranium ore. Useful for testing Geiger Counters.” Oh, and you MUST read the customer reviews.
Does Amazon deliver to Tehran? Just asking…