my journal 2

[Yamato]

good (but frustrating) movie

Here's another good (true, probably) story:
http://www.letmewatchthis.ch/watch-6083-My-Sisters-Keeper

This is art, not entertainment. It's painful to watch, but it tells a real story. Message vs entertainment.

The story is told pretty well, but the topic is so unpleasant that it's hard to watch it. Any director would have failed at making this a watchable movie. I mean I am watching it, but it's hard. That's you don't find that many movies about people dying from cancer.

[...]

Damn... life is sad enough without having to invent stories and yet this one seems to be invented:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Sister's_Keeper

On the other hand it could have happened. Anyway, this is the most depressing movie I have seen in years.

Oh, no wonder:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0426883/

Nick Cassavetes, same guy directing Alpha Dog, another movie telling the story of an announced death. Damn. Damn. This is awful. He directs movies with the opposite of hollywood happy ending.

Neither the sad ending nor the happy ending make any sense. The senseless ending is the one I'd want, like in Pierrot Le Fou:

Actually, I do not recommend this movie at all. Let's see how they rate it on rotten tomatoes:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10010662-my_sisters_keeper/

47%

I told you so.

This guy I agree with:

What starts as an exploration of the ethics of organ-donation and genetic selection, rapidly disintegrates into a sloppy, unstructured, tear-jerking mess.

July 30, 2009 Full Review | Comment (1)
Simon Weaving
Screenwize

And this guy, too:

The film has a profound and compelling premise. Regrettably, it seems intent on being about everything but that premise.

November 16, 2009 Full Review | Comment
Mike McGranaghan
Aisle Seat

 

[Yamato]

i am relaxing a little bit

Less pressure from many sources. Maybe this is just an impression and all hell will break loose very soon, but I feel calm.

When I don't feel the need to write here, it means I am feeling calm. And I hadn't written here for 3 days - I just forgot about it. I am not watching movies, I am not building systems, I am not double-checking things.

People are leaving me alone in general.

Yeah, I've built a couple of systems for a friend, who trades Italian stuff, and will build more, but he just owes me, so much gratitude, that i don't feel pressured by that activity, so that is like a pastime.

Then I have to build systems for this other Italian guy, systems for which he gave me the ideas, and so that will be harder, but once again since I am not getting paid, it feels... almost like a pastime. "Almost" because I owe him for having gotten me started on trading systems in 2002, when he also sent me a cd with tradestation. So this will be my priority now.

But I am calm. No pressure from anyone. Even the boss has been leaving me alone, for as much as an idiot boss can leave you alone. He's far from being a good person, and I despise him, but, with lowered expectations, I am not angry anymore, and don't feel like complaining.

 

[Yamato]

not a masterpiece but worth watching

http://www.letmewatchthis.ch/watch-2290013-Kill-The-Irishman

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Greene

 

[Yamato]

good one

http://www.letmewatchthis.ch/watch-326-Hamlet-2

Pleasant, not hilarious. Understated. Low-key.

 

[Yamato]

Bill Withers - Lean On Me [with lyrics]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPoTGyWT0Cg

 

[Yamato]

watching another movie, The Hit List

I am watching this movie:
http://www.putlocker.com/file/1HSE3JNB9668SGKO

The movie is interesting. I expected it to be commercial, and maybe it is, but it is still interesting. Probably it will turn bad a few more minutes into it. Or maybe it's an exception.

[...]

Getting worse already, just 40 minutes into it. It's going to get progressively worse as we go along.

[...]

It did get worse, and it turned out to be the usual commercial movie.

 

[Yamato]

Vincent D'onofrio

Amazing actor. He plays autistic in many movies, so well that many people on the web wonder if he is, but he is not. Right now I am watching this movie he is in:
http://veehd.com/video/4548868_The-Whole-Wide-World-1996-avi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Who_Walked_Alone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Howard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOEuFGTg33k

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sicilian_Americans
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_actor

For one reason or another, movies with character actors playing leading roles tend to be good. I will have to watch all the movies with these guys:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_actor#Popular_film_character_actors

Take steve buscemi: that's another good example of a character actor starring in mostly good movies. Another interesting thing is that the movies where character actors play leading roles may be relatively unknown (like this one), but nonetheless they are good. So this is a good way of finding good unknown movies, by following the trail of these character actors.

 

[Yamato]

"My Sharona" is the debut single by The Knack...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Sharona

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbr60I0u2Ng

 

[Yamato]

Maria Full of Grace

http://www.letmewatchthis.ch/watch-12361-Maria-Full-of-Grace

Excellent neorealist movie. Powerful story. Acting and everything else doesn't matter when you choose a story like that. But probably the acting was excellent anyway.

In a way this movie is not just a movie, but a good deed, like building a hospital in africa, or bringing water to a village... this will open many people's eyes.

This movie was better than another neorealist film like Fast Food Nation, and right up there with City of God, maybe even better because of how much it achieved despite its simplicity (no shooting needed like in City of God).

There you go, here's a critic saying the same thing I said:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/maria_full_of_grace/

One of those films that finds strength in its directness, that passes up the fireworks and cheap tricks and just goes straight for the starkness of a powerful situation.

August 6, 2004 Comment
Tom Long
Detroit News

What did I say, before even reading any critics? Here's what I said:

Powerful story. Acting and everything else doesn't matter when you choose a story like that.

I am ready to register and become a critic, but I won't do it, because I want to be free. And here I feel pretty free, as far as movies are concerned, and music, too. Trading, a bit less lately.

Anyway, there's more amazing critics that deserve to be quoted, regarding this movie.

Marston's compact, personal film doesn't judge his Maria, it merely observes her, explains her and humanizes a dark corner of a dirty business.

September 3, 2004 Full Review | Comment
Roger Moore
Orlando Sentinel

True.

the filmmaker's eye and ear for authentic detail and believable characterization...make the film an unusually tough and gritty slice of underworld life.

September 8, 2005 Full Review | Comment
Josh Ralske
All Movie Guide

The subject could be, and has been, exploitative in other films, but Joshua Marston shrewdly sketches asides of drama about whether Maria should simply remain in New York. To his credit, that outcome feels as fraught with peril as her drug-running.

September 19, 2010 Full Review | Comment
Nick Rogers
Suite101.com

The fact that [Moreno's] Maria is so believable, so compelling, rests entirely on what she brings to the part, not what the part brings to her. Her face is the kind that can carry a movie on the strength of sheer screen presence.

August 26, 2004 Full Review | Comment
Richard Nilsen
Arizona Republic

This is true - that actress is important in how good the movie is. Even more important was picking the right actress.

Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top CriticMaria Full of Grace is an extraordinary experience for many reasons, including, oddly, its willingness to be ordinary.

Richard Schickel
TIME Magazine
Top Critic[An] unpretentious and straightforward film.

In fact this movie was very close to Bicycle Thieves.

Andrew Sarris
New York Observer
Top CriticIt is the most amazing first film I have seen in a long time.

Good point.

Jeff Strickler
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Top CriticWe don't endorse anything Maria does, but we have to applaud her courage. And we applaud Marston's courage for telling it like it is.

Robert K. Elder
Chicago Tribune
Top CriticTakes a simple story and molds it into something eloquent and menacing.

Wow, I agree with almost all the critics I am reading (and with all those I am quoting).

Claudia Puig
USA Today
Top CriticWomen like Maria definitely exist, and Marston's fascinating cautionary tale rings terrifyingly true.

Stephen Holden
New York Times
Top CriticSustains a documentary authenticity that is as astonishing as it is offhand. Even when you're on the edge of your seat, it never sacrifices a calm, clear-sighted humanity for the sake of melodrama or cheap moralizing.

Peter Travers
Rolling Stone
Top CriticMarston builds incredible tension. But it's the human drama etched on Moreno's young, weary face that gives Maria its potent punch.

James Berardinelli
ReelViews
Top CriticIt's a brilliant motion picture, not only because of the meticulous detail used in presenting the process from start to finish, but because of the clarity with which Marston develops the characters.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/maria_full_of_grace/reviews/?type=top_critics

 

[Yamato]

Uprising

http://www.putlocker.com/file/3CC3070F9A027F18

Uprising, though flawed in a lot of ways, is still worth checking out if only to learn about a true-life inspirational tale.

August 1, 2003 Full Review | Comments (2)
David Nusair
Reel Film Reviews

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jürgen_Stroop
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Hippler

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uprising_(film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechaj_Anielewicz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icchak_Cukierman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marek_Edelman#World_War_II


Here's another related movie (documentary):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Film_Unfinished

 

[Yamato]

Love And Other Drugs: bad one

Bad one, but still watchable:
http://www.putlocker.com/file/E14794D51C728AA6

The movie has lots of scenes of the two leads in bed together, but it can't decide whether it's a big issue film, a romantic comedy or a weepy melodrama, so it ends up being none of them successfully.

March 13, 2011 Full Review | Comment
Eric Melin
Scene-Stealers.com

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/love-and-other-drugs/

Unfortunately the effects of the movie, therapeutic and intoxicating though they are, wear off before it is over.

November 24, 2010 Full Review | Comment
A.O. Scott
New York Times
Top Critic

 

[Yamato]

That's right. I am a critic, but also a filmmaker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4e2hzSEXYs

 

[Yamato]

resting

I am still resting after months of work. I am training myself to relax.

I am now watching some movies with Caviezel, who's done some good movies:
http://www.letmewatchthis.ch/?actor_name=James Caviezel

Some, not many.

I am discarding "Frequency" six minutes into it. Commercial one, like many others with Dennis Quaid. "Wyatt Earp" might be good. I am skipping the first 5 minutes as usual, so I don't get influenced.

Then if that fails, too, I'll skip to Hank's movies:
http://www.letmewatchthis.ch/?actor_name=Hank Azaria

Ok, that other one is failing, too. Gene Hackman is in it, so it means it's commercial. Anything with him from the 1990s is commercial. Oh, and it has Kevin Costner - even worse.

So now I am watching this:
http://www.letmewatchthis.ch/watch-13561-Shattered-Glass
http://stagevu.com/video/xuxbrtckfuis
http://www.tnr.com/about-tnr
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Republic

This tends to suck as well, but as with all biographical true story movies, it's got good intentions, so it can be watched even with crappy direction, screenwriting, acting.

But it's too bad and it won't make me fall asleep. Too tiring.

I need a comedy.

I'll try this - I know nothing about it except Cole Hauser is in it:
http://www.letmewatchthis.ch/watch-3321-Higher-Learning

But just in case it sucks, I'll start this, too, by Noah:
http://www.letmewatchthis.ch/watch-23500-Margot-at-the-Wedding

Oh god, nicole kidman, the crappy actress is in it. They probably both suck.

Ok, higher learning is gone. 5 minutes was enough.

In 5 minutes I can detect that a movie sucks, and rottentomatoes once again agrees with me (50% rating):
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/higher_learning/

Nothing with nicole kidman can be good, so I am discarding the margot one as well. Let's see what RT says:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/margot_at_the_wedding/

52% rating. Once again I am good and fast at detecting crappy movies.

Going for this one now, by Noah again:
http://www.letmewatchthis.ch/watch-2722275-Kicking-and-Screaming

One minute into it, and from the music, it already sucks.

Yeah, 2 minutes and a half into it, this is classified as "crap" as well. Let's see RT:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1066170-kicking_and_screaming/

Another one with 52%. And in 2 minutes I knew it was crap.

Let's keep going.

Ok, this one with Hank Azaria should be good:
http://www.letmewatchthis.ch/watch-11346-Run-Fatboy-Run

The music is right.

The title is right.

No, the usual crap with Simon Pegg. Discarding this one as well. There you go, 48% - I knew it:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10008621-run_fat_boy_run/

Ok, another with Hank. This is by Woody Allen:
http://www.letmewatchthis.ch/watch-2722437-Celebrity

It's going to be depressing for sure.

To think of it, teenage paparazzo, by a first-time director, Adrien Grenier, was a masterpiece in comparison with the crap I've been checking out today... and what can you say of Maria Full of Grace by another first-time director, Joshua Marston.

Now, this movie with woody allen... jeez... it's so repetitive: you watch kenneth branagh and he talks like woody allen. What's the point? Why don't you just show me woody allen? Now Branagh he stutters like woody allen, just pathetic.

I will discard this one as well. Let's see RT:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1084868-celebrity/

There you go, 39%. They detected the crap as well. Woody Allen has become commercial, too. Anything and anyone that gets liked and praised by too many people eventually turns into crap. So did De Niro, Pacino, Woody Allen, all of them. Success ruins everything.

Ok, my last chance today is Catalina Sandino Moreno. I'll try these two simultaneously:
http://www.letmewatchthis.ch/watch-350823-Twilight-Eclipse
http://www.letmewatchthis.ch/watch-1453-Love-in-the-Time-of-Cholera

The cholera one has makeup work that sucks. This is going to suck, with good intentions probably.

The accents suck.

I am going to check out RT:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/love_in_the_time_of_cholera/

There you go. I knew it. 27%.

So all I have left now is twilight eclipse. Damn, it's hard to make a good movie. A director is lucky if he can make more than one in his life. Scorsese made many good movies. Costa Gavras also. Spielberg only made one good movie, or two maybe: Duel, and Catch Me If You Can.

The kid is running around, in the neighbour's house. Why doesn't he just trip and die? These houses are not made for running around. I wish for these neighbours to have their house on fire and all die in their sleep. Or else I wish for someone to exterminate them. Oh, good, he's crying again. No, damn. He's running again. Damn family. Like in Idiocracy, the smart people don't procreate, and the idiots have many children.

If you really think about it, Fido, with just a meager... 71%, well, actually not bad at all even on RT:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fido/

I guess the guys at RT just get it right all the time. You see, Fido is a masterpiece, too, compared to all the crap I've been checking out today, including the movie by Woody Allen. You see, a movie's quality and achievement is not measured by how many expensive ingredients it has in it, but how well they're mixed to come up with the final dish. Fido had cheaper ingredients, but it mixed them much better than any of the movies i've checked out today. This in many ways it's like my systems. They're not good because I am putting a lot of knowledge of the markets into them, but because of the dosage of the little knowledge I have. If the dosage is right, you don't know need a lot of info, just like you don't need Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise to make a good movie. In fact, they're a guarantee of a bad outcome. Little does it matter if the idiots flock to their movies.

And this one sucked as well, with its 50%:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1210749-eclipse/

Done for the day: no good movies found.

 

[Yamato]

Relaxing works. Relaxing happens. I hope to get used to this. Going to bed at 10 pm, turning my systems off and on at 7.15 am, it's the perfect arrangement. The neighbour child starts screaming at 7.10 am or a bit later. He's screaming right now. He stops screaming by 10 or sooner. The neighbour bitch slams her door all the way to 1 am, but during the first hours of sleep your sleep is the deepest, so she can't wake me up with her slamming. So this is definitely the best thing to do: go to sleep when the child goes to sleep. And have the noises around me during my first hours of sleep rather than during the last hours of sleep, which is when you wake up easily.

Also, this way I get to work easily, without being in a rush. "Early bed early rise makes a man healthy and wise", as they say. I just have to make sure I get used to it.

But a big part of relaxing is - let's not forget it - that I've stopped all my compulsive gambling, almost a year ago, and that I've now even stopped doing any work on my systems. I just double-check and fix a few things, but no major work. Also, I've stopped posting here all those equity lines, and that further reduced my work, and work is a source of stress.

Now all my work is just 20 minutes of daily work on my systems, and 6 hours of work at the bank, which is the heaviest part, also because I have to get there and come back from there, which takes me 15 minutes each time. And then there's the part where I have to shave and get dressed, which sucks as well.

 

[Yamato]

sad and frustrated, but more sad

Yesterday my mom was at the hospital visiting an old uncle. She was there talking to me in front of all the relatives, and she made it clear that she was talking to me, and then -- I saw it coming -- she did the usual thing that never fails in pissing me off - she tried to force me to talk to a person by asking me, in front of everyone, "would you like to talk to him?". I cannot stand to get manipulated so I said "no, I have to go" and then I hung up soon thereafter.

I don't like the damn question "is everything all right?" because people are forcing you to say "yes". For the same reason I don't like "are you all right?" and I don't like "how are you?" if the guy asking you just keeps walking as he says that.

In the same way I don't like to be asked if I want to talk to someone when I can only say "yes", since the person is there, ready to take offense at me saying "no". So I said "No, I can't, I am busy", but the real good thing to reply would have been "No, I don't want to talk to him". I don't like to be forced to do something under the false pretense of being given a choice. At the same time, now I am sad, because I now feel sorry for that uncle who is obviously offended by me having exercised my option of answering "no" to the (retorical) question I was asked by my mom. It was a "no" directed at my mom, and not at my uncle, but he was there, and he was offended because of the manipulation that stupid bitch never learns to stop doing. Every time she tries it, I reply "no". And every time she's again in those situations, she tries it again. She's a stupid bitch. Yeah, my mom is a stupid bitch. Having said this, I am still sorry for the uncle, because this guy was at the hospital, and didn't deserve to be offended like this. Too bad he was offended not by me but by the situation created by my mom, the stupid bitch. Stupid people are a big problem, maybe bigger than dishonest people. On the other hand, this behaviour by my mom was a mix between dishonest and stupid, because she was so stupid to think she could manipulate me into saying "yes". Had she been dishonest but smarter, she might have given the phone directly to my uncle, and I would have had to talk to him. Had she been honest and intelligent, she would have walked out of that room, and begged me to talk to my uncle. But she did neither and she failed.

A similar frustrating failed manipulation was tried on me by the "ace-kaizen office improvement team" who presented themselves as our friends and advisors and instead wanted to force us to agree and to do things their way. If you ask me my opinion, I'll say what i think and in their case "you're destroying my work and worsening everything". If you want to give me an order, or ask me a favor, just say so. But don't force me while you're pretending that it's my free choice. If you pretend it's my choice, and if you deceive me into thinking I have a choice, I will fight you until the end, by saying "no" to you and stating endlessly that you're screwing things up. That's what I did, and now I found myself punished by being moved into another office. But hey, I feel much better than if I kissed up to them and took part in this general farce, whereby everyone pretends the ace-kaizen idiots are good people who brought improvements to our office.

 

[Yamato]

more movies

Checking out these two now:
http://www.letmewatchthis.ch/watch-5330-Vantage-Point
which might be good

and:
http://www.letmewatchthis.ch/watch-2613543-Larry-Crowne
likely to be bad because julia roberts is in it.

Usual rules: I know nothing about these two movies, and I am skipping the first 5 minutes so I am not influenced by the head titles. Only thing I know is I got to Larry Crowne because I saw it advertised on letmewatchthis and Vantage Point because Ed Noriega is in it, so it might be good.

Ok, vantage point is no good. There you go, 35% at RT:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/vantage_point/

Larry Crowne is probably biography so, like all biography movies, it cannot fail. And like all biography is going to be hard to watch, and tiring, and stressful. Because it's a real story, and an unpleasant one, at least the start. Of course with a good ending, like all tom hanks' movies.

You know what? This movie is so bad that I bet it's not even a real story.

There! I knew it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Crowne

It's a made up story, just like forrest gump, which sucked, too.

And guess what: I was right once again, and in line with the critics:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/larry_crowne/

36%

Good movies are hard to find, and they almost never have big stars in them. But the reason is simple. Each actor is good in one or two movies on average, so, no matter what, he can't be as lucky as to be in many more. With the exceptions of those actors who know how to pick their movies: De Niro, Woody Harrleson, Matt Dillon, Pacino, John Turturro, Ed Norton, most of the SNL comedy guys, Christina Ricci, and a few others. Guys like Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, George Clooney have a tendency to do the opposite and pick bad movies.

I'd be curious to find all the statistical data on rotten tomatoes, but i'd have to look up actors one by one, because there's no such statistics. But I found something close to it, by someone else who had the same idea:
Slate's Hollywood Career-O-Matic
What Rotten Tomatoes data tell us about the best, worst, and most bizarre Hollywood trajectories

A visitor to the Rotten Tomatoes site can check out the data for individual Hollywood careers—that's how Tabarrok came up with the Shyamalan graph—but there's no easy way for users to measure industrywide trends or to compare different actors and directors side-by-side. To that end, Rotten Tomatoes kindly let Slate analyze the scores in its enormous database and create an interactive tool so our readers might do the same...

Ok, let's find that "interactive tool".

Yeah, some fascinating stuff:



Damn. Their interactive tool is no good. Nor is this one for directors:
http://www.premiersoccerstats.com/wordpress/?p=389

I wish I just had their database.

What comes closest to it "best by genre" of all time:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/top/bestofrt_genre.php

This tells us that action and adventure has lots of 100% movies, 27 of them. Whereas westerns only have 5. Yeah, I always knew that westerns sucked.

But let me bet that documentaries have more than 27 100% films.

There you go: 35 100% films in documentaries category. I knew they tended to be better than the other categories.

And now I'll bet that also biography has about 30 100% films. Nope, they don't have a biography category.

Well, anyway. Now I know where to look for good movies. On this page:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/top/bestofrt_genre.php

And, depending on my mood, I will go in one genre or the other. It will be better than doing drugs.

Anyway, since I always agree with RT, there'll be no more wasting time on bad movies. Anything that on RT has a rating below 60% is a bad movie according to my taste (not just because RT tells me so, because our taste matches). With those above 60% we might have some disagreements, and I might consider some 60% movies better than others they rate an 80%. Also, some movies they rate 80% might not be good enough for me. But all those below 60% suck by me as well. This is demostrated by the last 15 movies I checked out in the last 24 hours, all below 60% on RT, and all sucked according to my taste.

Then, to end this post, let's just look at 3 masterpieces I've seen recently and what they are rated on RT.

chuck and buck, total masterpiece
rating at RT of... 85%

Teenage Paparazzo, work of art
rating at RT of... 100%

Maria Full of Grace
almost masterpiece
rating at RT of... 97%

two more actually

the social network
good one - quality work, though somewhat commercial - but great story
rating at RT of... 96%

Mr. Woodcock
underrated work of art
rating at RT of... 13%

Damn, I would have definitely missed this last one due to following RT. But I was right on all the others to trust RT. On the other hand now I know whom I can trust of the critics. All those who liked Mr. Woodcock:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mr_woodcock/reviews/?sort=fresh

Among them:

Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top CriticTo laugh at parts of this film would indicate one has a streak of Woodcockism in oneself. But to gaze in stupefied fascination is perfectly understandable.

Full Review | Comments (3) | Original Score: 3/4

In your face! I am up there with Ebert.

Oh, by the way, "underrated" made me come up with this interesting links:
Most Underrated Movies of the Last 20 Years (half of them are good)
20 most overrated movies of the last 20 years (they all suck)

[...]

Wait. I forgot about Fido, underrated work of art: RT rates it 71%. Right again.

Let's not start listing my top 50 favorite movies, because I know they're all going to be above 60%.

All right, let's check my top 2 favorite movies:
1) taxi driver, 98%
2) being there, 95%

I told you: I am good. I know about movies. I am not one of those idiots who tell you that their favorite movie is Die Hard or Terminator or Titanic or Forrest Gump. After all, this list speaks pretty clearly:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films

The highest grossing films are not the best films. In the top 50 highest grossing films there is not one good movie, believe it or not.

 

[Yamato]

all right, equity line

All right, for the benefit of whoever cares, I am going to post it one more time. I think I have the right to post the outcome of many years of work on my (trading) journal. I have the right to show off every once in a while and be proud of my work.



And this account is just trading 28 out of the 120 systems I created. And some of them with half a contract.

Drawdowns now seem to last about 3 weeks each time, and go down 5000 dollars each and every time, like clockwork. It's amazing. It's happened 4 times already. Then it goes up for six weeks, twice as long, and it goes up for about 15000 dollars.

The drawdown now seems to be over, once again, and it looks like it will go up another 20 thousand before stopping again. But who knows? This could be just a coincidence and an illusion.

All I know is that I've been sleeping much better (except for today), since I've stopped working on the systems, and have been doing nothing but watching tv and online movies. Do I deserve to rest after creating 120 systems? I'll answer the question myself: yes.

Ok: time to go to sleep, really.

My mom screwed up my schedule again. She came to visit me, but she got her wallet stolen so she got here late in the night, and I had to keep her company until later... and then I came to do the weekly update... and she basically screwed up my schedule again. She's good at saving pennies and then good at throwing away thousands at a time.

Like that time she had thousands of books in the old house, and she regarded them as sacred (like she does with food), and you can't just throw them away nor give them away... she kept them in the old house because they would not fit in the new one. So she kept renting that house for more than 3 years, just to keep books in it. About 50 thousand dollars wasted, just like that. It's ok to throw away money, especially if you're not personally burning it, for the sake of not throwing away books that no one is reading, nor will ever need. You just cannot throw them away - it doesn't matter if this costs you 50 thousand dollars. Then she comes to me and preaches saving pennies and never throwing anything away, whether food, glass bottles... she then periodically loses her wallet, digital cameras... that's what I call an idiot.

Or maybe these guys, including my father, are not after money, but just after saving material things, such as food and books, and having zeros in the bank doesn't matter to them. The only thing that matters is the concept of "saving" material stuff. No problem if the account loses a few zeros and goes from 50000 dollars to 50 dollars. I inherited a similar mishandling of money. Well, let's say that I am not stingy for sure, but at least I don't drive myself crazy with saving useless and worthless bread crumbs, while wasting/losing property worth thousands or causing myself a cost of 50 thousand dollars because I am incapable of getting rid of a bunch of books (which were eventually given to a library, after I insisted for 3 years). I don't save, but I don't waste either due to excessive saving. I am not sick either way...

They're so addicted to saving that by trying to save they end up wasting money. My mom goes shopping and if she finds sales and deals, she'll buy stuff she doesn't need. Then we have to eat or wear stuff that we don't need just because she got a discount. Well, we used to. Now much less. But some similar ideas remain in her head. Oh yeah. I remember. Rotten food. She says "yes, it's expired but it's still good" but then she rushes herself and us to eat expired food, even if no one is hungry. So what is the point of that? You then have to go to the gym to undo the damage of saving money and spend even more money.

1) you buy too much because of sales
2) you eat too much because you can't throw food away
3) you have to exercise and spend more resources (time and money)

Total idiocy. And yet both my mom and my dad cannot find a way out of this. He was also recommending to her not to give away those books of his. As a consequence they were both paralyzed and 50000 dollars were thrown away.

My way instead is this. I take a cab to work (considered a very expensive habit by everyone I know here), then I skip vacations, I never leave the house, I keep the refrigerator empty... basically for those few things I need to spend on, I just spend money. The rest, the hell with it. I just sit at home spending zero money for the rest of the year. They invite me to the restaurant? What for? I don't go. Out for the weekend? No, waste of time. New clothes? No, since I don't have to leave the house. I don't need anything. But if I have to go to work, let me ride the cab and not risk my life in the subway. Let alone that it'd take me an hour to go to work on the subway, whereas it only takes me 15 minutes with a taxi. I can't stand people addicted to saving, like I cannot understand people not leaving abundant tips. The way to do this, is simple. You don't want to feel cheap and be hated by waiters, so instead of going 10 times to the restaurant and riding a cab 10 times and leaving zero tip, you go 9 times to restaurant and 9 times you ride a cab and you leave an abundant tip (which here is 10%, because unlike in the States it is not expected here). So the waiters and the cab drivers treat me nicely, I would even say that they love me, and yet I spend the same money - simply because I go 10% less frequently.

The same applies to vacations. You don't take a goddamn two days vacation and do things in a rush throughout it. Instead of taking 5 holidays, you just take 1 holiday and take all the time you want.

The same at work. I don't kiss up to the boss. You want to promote me? Go ahead. You don't? Who cares? I will be happy with the lower salary, provided that I am not forced to kiss up to anyone. A few more dollars per month is not worth kissing up... especially to a person you despise, which is often the case, because your boss is your boss because he's been doing a lot of kissing up and not because he's good.

So the whole principle is: do less but better.

 

[Yamato]

In the Year of the Pig 1968

http://stagevu.com/video/kvldhxgmvfkw

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Year_of_the_Pig

Produced during the Vietnam War, the film was greeted with hostility by many audiences, with bomb threats and vandalism directed at theaters that showed it.[3]

De Antonio cites the film as his personal favorite. It features the ironic use of patriotic music, portrays Ho Chi Minh as a patriot to the Vietnamese people, and asserts that Vietnam was always a single country rather than two.

Wow, this guy saw things clearly when he was going against everyone else:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emile_de_Antonio

Just like him, I feel that it's better to be right and alone, than "wrong together", in the company of many others.

The same bull**** propaganda went on for decades, blinding the american people about the truth. Especially when Bush was in power. But it's not just Bush - it's the whole country that lacks critical thinking in general. Or rather, the majority of its people.

 

[bbmac]

Hi Travis

Nice work re the systems, reflected in the equity advance. Some questions if I may:

1. How are the investors feeling about things ?
2. At what point do you think you will quit your job and go full time trader ? Basxed on the known performance and drawdown/subsequent new equity high advances patterns there must be a future projected date you have in mind?
3. How do you determine which of the portfolio of 120 systems are traded ? and why only 28 currently of the 120 ?
4. The drawdown pattern/duration you mention seems to be establishing itself...have you noticed any correlation with market cycles ie relating to equities for eg ?
5. I may have missed this in yor exhaustive blog (s) but is there a fixed % of equity at risk at any one time ?
6. Should an extended drawdown period/amount be experienced that falls outside of the known patterns how will you view this ?

Thanks

best,

BBmac.

 

[Yamato]

Hi Travis

Nice work re the systems, reflected in the equity advance. Some questions if I may:

1. How are the investors feeling about things?
2. At what point do you think you will quit your job and go full time trader ? Basxed on the known performance and drawdown/subsequent new equity high advances patterns there must be a future projected date you have in mind?
3. How do you determine which of the portfolio of 120 systems are traded ? and why only 28 currently of the 120 ?
4. The drawdown pattern/duration you mention seems to be establishing itself...have you noticed any correlation with market cycles ie relating to equities for eg ?
5. I may have missed this in yor exhaustive blog (s) but is there a fixed % of equity at risk at any one time ?
6. Should an extended drawdown period/amount be experienced that falls outside of the known patterns how will you view this ?

Thanks

best,

BBmac.

Yes, thanks for the compliments, the questions and any feedback. And sure, you can ask anything: however, in this case, I will not answer all questions.

1) for undisclosable reasons, I will skip this question.

2) it doesn't depend on me.

3) sharpe ratio, historical performance, forward-tested performance, and, once again, it doesn't depend entirely on me.

4) Here's a chart precisely showing the correlation you asked about (yes, there is some correlation, and my systems do best if the EUR/USD and SP500 either rise or a in a range -- if they both fall it is rarely a good thing for my systems):



5) Yes, there's a given amount of profit set aside for expected losses, but it's not measured in percentage terms. It corresponds to most of the profit being made, and it has to be there in order to scale up.

6) Very related to question #5, if the drawdown exceeds the money set aside to cover it, then trading will be halted. However, this is unlikely, since the amount set aside is at least 1.5 * maximum historical drawdown (of the combination of systems/contracts being traded).