It's supposed to get cold again here. Lows are predicted to be below freezing, so that should kill off all the flowers and new leaf growth that have occurred so far.
It sucks, but there's nothing to do about it.
In other outdoorsy news, I recently felled a small oak tree that was not in a good place and needed to go. I'm going to try to save the trunk, let it cure, and see what I can make of it.
Not in the woods, though. Sorry, Robert Frost. These roads are in the stock market.
I'm trying to figure out which way it's going to go, and I simply don't know. The signals are mixed.
Let's look at those last few candlesticks. The last four trading sessions have all seen the market close at or below the fifty-day moving average. This suggests that the 50-DMA is acting as resistance.
On the bottom side, two of those candles have bounced off the 200-day moving average. This suggests the 200-DMA is acting as support.
The two DMA lines are awfully close together, and something will have to give way soon. There will either be a break out to the upside or one to the downside.
The RSI is around 40, so that's neither oversold nor overbought territory, so I can't glean much from it.
The spread on the MACD suggests that if there's a breakout this week, I'd bet on it being to the upside. However, there's also a long-term support line that has recently been broken, so maybe the market will continue down to the next support line.
If my calculations are correct, there was a 38.2% Fibonacci retracement line at about 3971, and the latest trading session closed well below that, so that line can be considered broken. The next retracement is the 50%, and that one's at around 3900.
Put it all together, and I'm not sure which way to go. I'm leaning bearish, though, at lest for the next couple of weeks.
Disclaimer: This is for entertainment only. Don't make any financial decisions based on this post or any other post.
Most of the time, sequels don't measure up to the original. The first Tremors movie is the best. The first Jurassic Park movie is the best. The first Jaws movie is the best. And so on and so forth.
Sometimes, though, a sequel manages to outshine the original. Empire Strikes Back is head-and-shoulders above its predecessor.
Aliens is arguably better than Alien, though this is a close one, and I give the edge to Aliens mainly because of the goofy stuff from the first one: the Christmas-style landing lights, the "molecular acid" line, and the obviously rubber and animatronic alien props.
Terminator 2 is better than its predecessor, mainly due to the larger budget and the better visuals that allows, but I think it's a smoother-flowing film in general, too.
Mad Max 2 is better than the first one for basically the same reason: a bigger budget allowing for a better movie. It also flows better.
Long-running franchises can be a tougher call, because the law of averages suggests that there will eventually be a sequel that equals or betters the original. Which Friday the 13th movie is the best one? I honestly don't know. My knee-jerk response would be to say the first one, but that one doesn't feature the full-grown and hockey-masked Jason Vorhees who became the iconic villain of the franchise, so should it really count? And what about the Police Academy movies? If you think Bobcat Goldthwait steals the show--as I do--then you'd be inclined to vote for one of the sequels, not the original.
Of course, some sequels should never have been made. (I'm looking at you, Highlander 2.)
Anyway, just some random thoughts on a Friday night.
Actor Julian Sands went missing back in the middle of January. He was hiking in the mountains in California and disappeared. He still hasn't turned up, and the odds of his survival are grim.
I'd love for him to turn up safe and sound. This is the 2020s, and the strangest things imaginable--and some that defy imagination--have been happening with some regularity, so I'm not counting anything out. He might yet pop up with some crazy story. Perhaps he's holed up in a cave and is living off the meat from a bear he killed with his bare hands and waiting for the snow to melt so he can come back down to civilization. He's a highly skilled mountain hiker, so it's not impossible for him to pop back up. I really hope something like that happens.
I think I first saw him in Warlock, and I've been a fan of his ever since. He made an excellent villain.
I feel for his friends and family, and I hope they're dealing with this situation as best they can. It sucks all around.
I'm finally feeling well enough to try to get back into an exercise routine. I haven't been blowing gobs of phosphorescent yellow snot out for a couple of days now, so the sinus infection might be beat. I'm still coughing, but that's typical for me. After being sick, I often have a lingering cough that takes a few weeks to go away.
I did 51 pushups in a single set today. I usually shoot for 70, but these are the first pushups I've done in a couple of weeks, so I'm okay with 51. I should be back up to the usual amount in a few days.
I also need to get back into bicep curls with my rubber exercise band. I know my biceps are in a poorly state, and I've got to work on that if I ever want to lift any heavy objects. And I need to walk, too, because my legs are pitiful and my endurance practically non-existent.
Hopefully I won't have the setbacks I've had the past three years. Hopefully I can actually end 2023 in better shape than I began it.
My 2023 has not started out well.
On Jan. 2, I came down with a migraine. That lasted for about 48 hours and was accompanied by fevers and chills and a general sense of malaise/fatigue.
On Wednesday the 4th, the headache subsided, but I also woke up that day with a sore throat. I feared there was more fun and adventure awaiting in the days ahead, and I was right. I came down with a sinus infection.
By the weekend, I had done so much nose-blowing that the rims of my nostrils were chapped.
I've been trying to drink at least one bottle of Gatorade each day in order to stay hydrated and help flush that stuff out. I've been sucking down cough drops like they're candy. I haven't done a pushup in at least a week.
So that's where I'm at right now. I'm still sick, but not as bad as I was a few days ago. I'm hoping this stuff clears up soon.
Also--and this just developed within the last day--I've got some pain in my toe in the same place where I had my abscess. I figure there are two possibilities: either the toe was squeezed in a shoe too much and hurts simply because it was cramped, which I consider unlikely, or else there's a piece of scab trying to work its way to the surface from somewhere deep inside my flesh.
That's my 2023 so far.
Happy New Year to me, I guess. :(
