Loud and French . com

When you run an Ebay auction, you try to make everything as easy as possible. This is because there’s idiots out there. And frankly, it’s those idiots that end up buying your used products for a fraction of the cost of the original retail price.

Well, this time around I sold my old Goretex jacket since it was a size too big. I bought a Marmot small to replace my Cloudveil medium. I post the jacket on Ebay with the title: “Cloudveil Men Jacket Medium Softshell Gore Windstopper”.

Then, against all foreseeable odds and sound judgment, I receive a series of questions from a potential buyer from South Carolina, one asking (wait for it): “Is the jacket small or large?” What! Did you get that? They asked for the size of the jacket, asking if it’s the sizes that literally come immediately before and after the actual size I’m selling!

My jaw literally dropped. I cannot believe this. The irrefutable stupidity of this person is beyond my comprehension. You don’t have to be a genius, I believe I stated the size of “Medium” only about 4 times in the listing (1 title, 3 description) and explaining how it’s too big for me and the cliche “My loss is your gain”. The entire description was only 6 sentences! Man, South Carolina, you disappoint me.

My Winter Break trip to Las Vegas was much more fun than I expected. With the udder exception of the beckoning call girls, endless lines of recently immigrated Mexicans handing out cards of call girls, poker playing owner of escort services, and an out-of-place Grand Canyon Tour info guy embedded with our new immigrants, this trip was awesome.

I ended up winning our first day in, more than doubling my money. Then the second day was the day of Armageddon, everyone lost money. I, fortunately, lost less than my other two comrades. After losing about $300 to a bunch of sharks, I made the decision there was no more money to be made in this off season. Turns out I was right, as by the end of the trip, I limited my losses the most.

We went to see two shows, Fantasy and Jubilee, at the Luxor and Bally’s respectively. Both were very good in my book. Fantasy was far more hilarious than its advertisements entailed, and Jubilee was far more engaging than its advertisements entailed. So the lesson about Vegas shows is simple. They’re all solid shows, especially if they’ve been around for some time (Jubilee is the oldest show on the strip ~25 yrs methinks), if they say it’s topless it’s really classy nudity, not sluttish or anything. Jubilee, topless or not should be all ages. Fantasy should stay 18+ since the language is… well, wrong, but funny. Topless shows can hardly be avoided, and if you do want to avoid them, you corner yourself into fighting for a one time a week special “family showing” which is the same thing just without nipples and you might end up not seeing it if its sold out. All and all, I was favorably impressed.

While in Vegas, I also saw all 52 Miss America 2009 contestants during the opening ceremony at Planet Hollywood. They look much younger, much prettier, and much __insert_compliment__-er. After hearing their individual speeches I had no clue that pageants offer educational benefits as well as supporting community service. I honestly thought before it was just a I’m smart and pretty pageant, it’s not that at all. Mondo increase in the respects category for these fair ladies.

As for today’s inauguration of Obama, I noticed the stock market dipping. I know, I shouldn’t think about money, but it turns out my prediction was completely wrong. I told almost everyone I knew that once he became president the market would spike. I guess the rich really do hate Democrats huh?

Coincidentally, today is also my first day of school. Everything is well and my Food Science class seems to be much less work than the previous one last semester, but time will tell.

Zomg. I invested a bunch of cash this week hoping on a Xmas bailout, cuz you know, it’s the Christian thing to do… at least that’s what Republicans would say, too bad they can’t back it up in the Senate.

It’s okay, I cut my losses a long time ago and actually made a bit of money, but this week in particuliar is going to hurt. Because honestly, I didn’t think Congress was gonna screw three huge American companies tied to hundreds of suppliers to which the big three are their biggest customers.

Way to go Congress. I don’t mind too much since I’m sure some people are going to take losses much harder than me. I technically can sell off-hours right now, but I already short sold some yesterday as stocks rallied. Maybe not enough to cushion this coming loss, but Obama will be here soon enough and the tides will turn.

Remember, it’s always a good time to buy during a recession. Buying when things are low, or in this case, extremely low is actually pretty hard. Buy low sell high is a strategy that requires guts, instincts and vision. This is honestly the first time it has failed me this year. All I know is I’m glad I sold stocks ~4 months ago while they were still moderately high.

I voted for the black guy. I think this election is going to be closer than what people think this landslide blowout they expect. Beats voting for the white guy, but they are resilient… so do not be so optimistic. I hope that I wake up tomorrow to a new world. That is, of either white or black. What ever happened to red, brown and yellow?