The blog of Matthew A. Smith and Michael Chappell, on topics from A to Z

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past few months, you should be quite aware of the current financial situation creeping across the globe like a cancer. While many people are full of gloom and doom, and the talking heads on your TV keep telling you that the end of the world is near, I personally see this as a time of great opportunity. I am excited about a market crash and the subsequent emergence of winners (chosen by free market rules, not stupid legislations).

Why? Because I have the great opportunity of entering the market just as a new cycle begins. Everyone is selling out, putting their money into less volitile commodities (gold, oil, etc), and driving the stock prices of great companies into the ground. By picking the strong companies with solid foundations and business practices that will weather the storm, one can by greatly devalued stock and when the market recovers, make a small fortune.

That’s my plan. What’s yours?

I’m back from LSU, in one piece and just as dry as when I left Georgia. It was a great weekend. More to come later.

I saw this and couldn’t resist.

Read the whole story here. I guess we are literally about to get f’ed by global warming, eh?

This weekend I decided that since dangerous storms really don’t scare me, I would travel to Louisiana (yes, that is closer to Hurricane Ike than Georgia) and have a little mid-season football fun and celebration with the LSU crew.

I’m currently writing from Montgomery, Alabama, where I will be spending the night and morning with my friend Matt before we head on over to Louisiana. So far I’ve driven through some nasty rain in Georgia and had to replace my aging car battery in Columbus… hopefully the rest of the trip will run smoothly and without any further car repair purchases.

Tomorrow night should find us at a pub crawl in New Orleans and then Saturday will be filled with tailgating goodness. I plan on returning to Metro Macon sometime Sunday evening, armed with tails of debaucheries and video evidence of our celebrations. Hurray!!

Now to avoid that hurricane…

ps. Image is from Wikimedia commons. Unfortunately I don’t believe I’ll be quite that close to any LSU cheerleaders this weekend.

Well, I finally managed to buy new wheels for the BMW and get rid of those plain hubcaps! The new wheels are 18×1.8″ O.Z. Racing Ultraleggeras in black, and I think they look pretty sharp on the car. Of course now I need new suspension stuff to make it look right, but all in good time.

If you can’t tell, I’m aiming for a silver and black theme.

Beeeeep-beeeeep-beeeeep-beeep. The harsh consitient bleating of the alarm pierced through the haze of sleep, slowly reeling him into the cold florescent light. As consciousness returned, thoughts clouded his mind and a feeling of helplessness consumed him. Looking around the sterile slate gray walls, the endless gray floor tiles, and the dilapidated white ceiling stained from half a century of disrepair, a distinct drowning sensation began to envelop him. He could not remember. The incessent beat of the alarm seemed to gnaw at the back of his skull as if it wanted to enter his head, consume his thoughts, and drive him insane. Or is it already too late, he wondered…

I have random thoughts. I am not disturbed.

So I like to consider myself somewhat cultured (for short periods of time, at random intervals) so I attended an indie concert this past weekend. Of course the persuasion of one of my friends, who happens to be related to the lead singer, probably had something to do with this particular burst of “culture.”

Since I have this shiny new HD camera, I figured I should probably grab a few minutes of footage, since the band is actually quite good. You can watch 11 minutes of the concert below (click the here to go to the Vimeo page and watch it in full glory). The sound is kinda crappy, especially at the beginning. I must also apologize for the random movements, I was shooting handheld from the middle of the crowd, with the camera above my head. Any idea how tiring that is?

They are returning to Macon for another concert on First Friday October (October 3rd), so if you are around you should definately try to attend (I don’t have any further details at the moment). By the way, you may have previously heard them as “Blackbird” but they’ve undergone a name change in recent weeks.

Without further ado:

You can find them on MySpace.

So many days have slipped by since the last time I posted! I’ve been extremly busy over the past couple of weeks with some cool projects that I can’t wait to tell everyone about (of course, if you ever looked at my Facebook profile, you probably have an idea already). I kinda want to finish some of them so I can do a complete “start to finish” post instead of incremental stuff, since we’re so far along.

In other news, school has started back at my alma mater, and I’m just fine (as I expected). It’s great that everyone is back in town, but when they complain about homework or having to go to class or some other drudgery, I just smile and think “my summer just keeps on going…” Of course I kinda might miss the lazy times in between classes, but so far having a job is not any worse than going to school. In fact, I’m actually starting to think that I might like it better. One of the biggest advantages of having a job and a regular schedule is the chance to get back in shape. I’ve been taking advantage of the free gym membership on base. After work I walk a few blocks to the gym, spend an hour lifting weights, and then head home – and I still get done before most people I know!

Anyway, check back in the next few days because I should have a few more writeups done.