Almost Spring

I really don't take enough of my annual leave, I carried forward an excess amount, so I have been taking the odd day off here and there to whittle it down.

Unfortunately so full of the cold, that it has generally been a lazy day off rather than a productive one. However it is nice to find the time for pottering, rather than just chasing round doing things all the time.

I devised a spreadsheet for tracking my investment portfolio, which is a rather modest selection of shares supplemented by £100 each month. Clearly I am not about to rival Warren Buffet any time soon, but I suppose that it has the same appeal as horse racing, having some money on one of the runners does increase your interest quite dramatically. Trading with this kind of sum of money is a bit tricky as the risk is that transaction costs will easily exceed any potential earnings. So my aim is to build up around £1000 book value in a small number of shares, and add an extra share occassionally. Now upto five shares, with a total book value nearing £4k, but in the current market, actually having a valuation below that.

However ever the shares optimist I am viewing it as a buyers market, though I am not expecting it to bounce back any time soon.

I'll probably go for an investment trust next, as it would be prudent to diversify beyond these shores, but buying individual foreign shares won't be cost effective at the volumes I am trading at.

Anyway, currently transcribing details to a spreadsheet, so that I can track my portfolio better. All very colourful and scientific!

Also very keen to get an Airport BaseStation which would let me set up a wifi network in my house. I am steadily building up the IT infrastructure in the house, I suppose a computer for each of us eventually!

Other news, I have had the latest Mountain Goats album for the past week. Slowly getting into it. Initially a little disappointed, but with repeated listens I am getting into, and the hooks really do get into you. Worth checking out the reviews and the pages of comic art which supplement the songs, as they are a more thematically disparate selection than usual. Written from a variety of points of view, with no particular theme, though a clear propensity for horror hokum.

Another foible of the modern age is that there were various permutations of bonus tracks. I think there was an option to pre-order and get a couple of bonus tracks. I bought on iTunes, and a few days later an extra track appeared. At present there are two versions of the album on iTunes - both for the same price, one with 13 tracks, one with 14 tracks. I contacted iTunes support and got a credit for the extra track, which was pretty sporting of them. According to the forums there was another bonus track available through Amazon US, as the anoraks all know, Amazon US does do music downloads. Amazon UK does not currently. I suspect that Amazon US would identify my credit card as UK and get iffy about me buying the bonus track from them. I did however manage to track it down on the 4AD website, which let me buy it. I also bought a few other rarities that had appeared on the b-sides of Mountain Goats singles, and were available to download. Had a quick listen, and barring one which did not grab me, they seem a pretty strong bunch.

I have finally gone digital with my bank account, so profitable swapping around of funds awaits me. What could be more exciting than online banking. Well more exciting than standing in a queue to pay in money during my lunch hour anyway.

I would like to point out that my geek credentials are now complete! I actually get a mention on in the credits for the new version of SuperDuper (macintosh back up utility). This follows on from some correspondence with the developer on how I was confused with partitions, and I suppose part of the origin for their decision to create a version of SuperDuper that worked with TimeMachine without the requirement to operate on different partitions. Of course my query is completely inconsequential in comparison to the amount of work required in actually doing the coding and making it work, but it is incredibly gratifying to get some sort of acknowledgement. I have probably mentioned it before, but this is the sort of area where small software developers really score. Their support and customer focus is just incredible, and puts the major developers to shame. You certainly would not get the same sort of service from Microsoft, nor Apple.

One notable exception that I would like to note though it Bento, the new database from Filemaker, which not only is incredible, but comes with enthusiastic support. Someone has clearly learned from the fantastic service that the smaller developers offer.

Final Shoutout for SuperDuper, it remains totally essential, even with TimeMachine, being able to create a bootable backup remains vital. I certainly would not be without SuperDuper, and would recommend it to anyone.

Finally, we are at the tail end of winter, nothing much growing, just marking time till the seasons start up again. The bulbs are popping up, my snowdrops have appeared in the front lawn, and those muddy fields I pass on the train have somehow been carpetted in green. Very windy, angry crows bobbing on the wind like corks in the waves, while stubborn pigeons fly lower, making steady progress. As ever, the birds seem indifferent to us.