My Brain – Page 13 – We Don't Walk Slow

NVAX Drops 80%!

Today is not a good day for NVAX owners. If you’ve read my previous posts and had money in this trainwreck, I apologize. The results regarding their RSV vaccine were not positive and investors jumped ship. I’ve never seen an 80% plunge before.

This is why you don’t have all your eggs in one basket. I immediately think about Harry from Boiler Room except he was scammed into losing his money and I actively lost my money. Once again a recommendation I made has lost money. This is becoming a common theme and I’d advocate going against anything I say. Life is hard.

By Tom Stortz|2016-09-16T10:18:00-04:00September 16th, 2016|My Brain|2 Comments

People Are Spontaneously Combusting

They’re not but they might as well be with how hot it is outside. Bonus points for knowing the album cover the feature image is from.

USA Today – The summer of 2016 recorded hotter nights than any summer since records began in 1895, according to data released Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

It’s no secret that humans have ruined the o-zone layer and global warming is in full effect. I’m not a scientist but I’m pretty sure that mass extermination is bound to follow.

I was walking down the street thinking how hot it was and my thoughts immediately turned to dinosaurs. Do you think dinosaurs were aware they were going to be wiped out before they were, you know, wiped out? Do you really think we’re that much smarter than dinosaurs? If people start exploding I’ll be the first person to start driving to the North Pole.

By Tom Stortz|2016-09-09T13:47:21-04:00September 9th, 2016|My Brain|3 Comments

Donald Makes Hillary Allergic?

Not sure about you, but I don’t think this looks so good.

Hillary Clinton Coughing Attack

Donald Drumpf Can Actually Win?!?

I’m not going to vote for Hilary for a few reasons and the least likely one is her coughing attack. Here’s my thought process, she must be such a poor candidate that she is barely winning over Trump! Donald Trump isn’t a politician. He’s a wheeling and dealing business man and Hilary isn’t able to put him away. In fact he’s gaining ground! Vegas has taken so much action on Trump that they are probably shaking in their boots.

People still betting Bernie Sanders (+4000). Our exposure on him as much as Trump now (+220). Either a massive loss. https://t.co/3wo2QEKp9x

— Dave Mason (@DaveMasonBOL) September 5, 2016

As bad as Donald is with the wall, his lack of tact with world leaders, his failed University which taught the teachers to up-sell the students into spending more money, his tiny hands, his ridiculous hair, his shenanigans, and the general thought “we can’t have him as our President”, HE’S STILL NOT OUT OF IT. Hilary must be a worse option because she’s barely winning and it keeps getting closer. These debates are going to be electric. There has to be some feeling that Hilary is going to cough through the entire debate. Can’t wait.

By Tom Stortz|2016-09-07T09:47:37-04:00September 7th, 2016|My Brain|1 Comment

And the Winner Is?

Steve’s cat.

Steve McGrath with a guess of $201.00. The total amount of change I had was $220.16. Steve won $44.03 which I will Venmo to him. What a game!

By Tom Stortz|2016-09-05T15:38:42-04:00September 5th, 2016|My Brain|1 Comment

Rolling a 300 vs a Hole in One

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]’ve heard this discussion come up a few times, what is harder, rolling a perfect game in bowling or getting a hole in one? Both sides can be taken without either person being wrong which is generally how blog posts get created. As a person who devotes too much time to both activities, I have an opinion.

People who say getting a hole in one is tougher are right because:

Bad Golfers Don’t get Hole in One’s – A good shot for a bad golfer on a par 3 is getting it on the green. Anywhere on the green is a success as it’s not that easy to do. A golf cup is 4 1/4″ and a golf ball is 1.68 inches which from 150 yards does not go in very often.
The Odds – The odds of an average golfer getting a hole in one is 12,500 to 1. The odds of a tour professional are 2,500-1.

My favorite Hole in One to give an idea of what it takes:

Louis Oosthuizen at the Masters

People who say rolling a 300 is tougher are right because:

For a 300.

Bad Bowlers Don’t Roll 12 Strikes in a Row – Our alley gives away a shot of old crow if you get a turkey, 3 strikes in a row. For a league bowler, it’s conceivable to roll a turkey every game. For your average bowler, getting a strike is hard enough. You don’t give away free anything unless it’s perceived as moderately challenging.
The Odds – According to mathematicians, the odds of any adult male bowling a 300 game are 11,500 to 1. The odds of a professional PBA bowler rolling a perfect game are 460 to 1
It’s Gotten Easier to Roll a 300 With Technology: The experience of Mike Serigano, the general manager of the AMF Babylon Lanes, provides perspective. When he began working at the center in 1987, four perfect games had been bowled in its 30-year existence. Since September alone, he said, the alley has had 93 perfect games. Full article.

My Take

Discussing which is harder.

I have one hole in one in my career and exactly 0 300 games. Even though I couldn’t see my hole in one go in, it was on a good line and I envision it rolled in the cup without any funny business. I have 2 friends who’ve gotten hole in ones and one bounced off a rock and the other was from 100 yards (I’m not belittling the hole in one but the closer, the easier). I’ve had 2 shots this year which were within 6 inches of getting a hole in one. Hole in one’s happen although not very often. If I play 50 rounds of golf this year, and there are on average 4 par 3’s a course, it means I should get a hole in one every 6 years. Considering I’ve been golfing for 15+ years of my life, you’d think I’d have more by the odds. Now consider I’m a 15-20 handicap, anyone who is higher will have WAY more than 12,500-1 odds.

My career high in bowling is 266. I’ve even bowled 14 strikes in a row but this was combining 2 games. It is inevitable I bowl a 300 as long as I keep bowling. I’m friends with 0 people who’ve rolled a 300. Random people don’t bowl 300’s. The odds of an adult male, 150 avg, bowling a 300 aren’t 11,500-1, they are a million to 1. A 200 avg bowler will do better than 11,500 to 1. A 250 avg bowler will bowl more 300’s than any human being can make hole in one’s in a lifetime. It’s a tremendous feat to roll a 300 but once you get to that level of bowling, you can continue to get 300’s at a pace unlike golf.

So if I were to enter this discussion of which is harder, the shittiest answer ever is, it depends. If you are really good at either game, it’s harder to get a hole in one. If you are really bad at the games, you won’t roll a 300, but you have a chance at a hole in one on any given swing.

By Tom Stortz|2016-08-31T10:19:28-04:00August 31st, 2016|My Brain|6 Comments

It’s Sam’s Birthday!

Wish my youngest brother a Happy Birthday if you haven’t already. He’s developed into quality human being who I’m proud to say is my brother. Absent minded at times, solid bowling partner, fastest beer miler this side of the Mississippi, Guitar Hero, and always apt to send an email blast to the wrong list. 25 is a good age. This post is for you.

Watching Your Facebook Wall Light Up

How Important a 25th Birthday Is

How You Should Feel Today

When Super Smash Brothers is Being Played at a Party

To Any Bad Presents You Get

By Tom Stortz|2016-08-30T12:17:19-04:00August 30th, 2016|My Brain|2 Comments

SJW’S Should be Deported

An SJW is a social justice warrior.

A pejorative term for an individual who repeatedly and vehemently engages in arguments on social justice on the Internet, often in a shallow or not well-thought-out way, for the purpose of raising their own personal reputation. A social justice warrior, or SJW, does not necessarily strongly believe all that they say, or even care about the groups they are fighting on behalf of. They typically repeat points from whoever is the most popular blogger or commenter of the moment, hoping that they will “get SJ points” and become popular in return. They are very sure to adopt stances that are “correct” in their social circle.

The SJW’s favorite activity of all is to dogpile. Their favorite websites to frequent are Livejournal and Tumblr. They do not have relevant favorite real-world places, because SJWs are primarily civil rights activists only online.

Please Deport this Woman

Annliese Neilson doesn’t deserve to live in the United States. Here’s an idea, mind your own business. The video below shows her abusing a Lyft driver (who goes into a Lyft ride ready to record unless they want trouble). So some Lyft driver wants to have a Hawaiian bobble head in his car. Good for him. I don’t care if he has the grim reaper. People like Annliese are out to make trouble with their SJW agenda. If Donald Trump started a “deport SJW’s”, I’d vote for him.

Please Deport this Man

You’re getting beat out of the job by BLAINE GABBERT! Enough said. People like this should keep their mouth shut because you are only bringing negative attention to the situation. It is attention, I’ll give that but it’s not the right kind of attention. You aren’t helping the matter than you are protesting (Black Lives Matter) by bringing all the attention to yourself with a bull headed move like not standing for the National Anthem. You’ve made millions of dollars in this country. If you don’t like it, move to Guam where it’s probably a hell of a lot worse.

By Tom Stortz|2016-08-29T10:20:00-04:00August 29th, 2016|My Brain|1 Comment

Music Artists Adapting

Streaming is the new way to listen to music. What is the point of having physical objects whether it be CD’s or pieces of vinyl? Whereas in the 90’s you’d buy a $16 dollar CD from the Wall or Sam Goody and then get the right to listen to 10-16 tracks by 1 artist. Millions upon millions of CD’s were sold. This worked well in the time period but today New Music Friday on Spotify is the way to get heard.

If you don’t have a paid subscription to Spotify, I’d imagine you are not listening to music on a daily basis. With a $15 a month you have access to an unlimited amount of songs (minus Taylor Swift because she must a be greedy bitch ((or more likely she is just managed by intelligent people who are building an empire) that can be played ANYWHERE. Today I’m going golfing and bringing along my portable speaker and then streaming music through Spotify. Yes it uses data. My plan currently has 4gb of data because I used to only have 2 and was going over. The last 2 months I’ve used 5.1 which caused a $30 dollar overage charge. I even called up and tried to negotiate down and the woman was being a stubborn SOB. I wasn’t going to start screaming because it really all depends on who you get that day and how good of a mood they are in. Anyway, I started rambling a bit and got off-topic.

The point I had used to originate this post was that musicians are releasing their music one song at a time every Friday. It’s genius. You hear a song released by a certain group and it gets played by The Spectrum or AltNation on Sirius which gives you insight into which groups are worth listening to. Then if you like the song, you anxiously await hearing the next released song. I’ll give an example, Young the Giant started with Amerika which was a great song. They followed up with Something to Believe In, then Titus was Born, and then Repeat. A month later they released the album “Home of the Strange” and I listened to the entire album because I liked the prior songs.

So I ask the question, Young the Giant is not making as much money doing this as they would have if people bought their CD? However, I actually enjoy the music of Young the Giant and would be more apt to give them money at a concert or through merchandise. It’s a different form of commerce and I like the other Alt artists who are using this method such as GroupLove, St Hotel, and Modest Mouse (the part in Lives (Your Life) at 1:24 comes out of nowhere). High and Low just released by Emipres of the Sun is a jam worth hearing.

I’m finished with this post. I started at 11 am and it’s not 11:18. That was pretty much 18 minutes of a stream of thought that I went with one way or another. I’m leaving here in 25 minutes and am posting this no matter what.

By Tom Stortz|2016-08-27T11:39:38-04:00August 27th, 2016|My Brain|0 Comments

Diner En Blanc is Still….Stupid

I wrote this piece on the Diner En Blanc last year and was cracking myself up re-reading it.

I’m having so much fun!

Tomorrow I’m hoping will be a special guest blog entry from Jeff recapping his epic night of hauling tables and chairs across Philadelphia for the “secret” meeting place where the well to do can eat their own prepared food. Remember, you PAY for the privilege to dine on your own meal.

4,500 people attend this event and my feeling is that they say that the people who mock it are just “jealous”. As someone who has never attended I’m not judging as much as adding up the pieces to where no fun seems to be had. Here are the top Reddit comments regarding the event:

Not the Navy Yard

i cant wait to see what part of the city is rendered entirely inoperable so a bunch of shit pigs in white h&m clothes can drink box wine on a folding chair in the middle of the street

I’m not sure white people should wear all white and gather in secret.

I find this event more embarrassing than when we booed Santa.

Someone compared it to the Broad St Run:

The Broad Street run, if I’m not mistaken, benefits charity. Pretty sure Diner En Blanc is an entirely for profit event. Also, I realize Broad Street is on a much larger scale, but shutting down Broad on a Sunday morning for a non profit run that promotes health and benefits charity is a completely different animal than a for profit, mostly pointless gathering of privileged yahoos that jacks shit up at some location in the city on a weeknight around rush hour that is kept a secret until the day of so no one has the opportunity to plan around it.

If you don’t like it, don’t go. If you think it’s a waste of money, don’t go. I’ve never understood why there is such backlash towards this. I fully understand people who were mad about blocking Broad Street- I don’t agree with the decision to go there. But every other event has not impacted the city in any negative way. I would much rather be called elitist than judgmental.

By Tom Stortz|2016-08-18T13:35:37-04:00August 18th, 2016|My Brain|2 Comments

You Do Like Money, Right? Part 2

Coming off a huge $30 dollar win on my Olympic Golf DraftKings team I’m primed and ready to go into earnings season.

Ezekiel Kemboi (WAS +170)

The 3000m Steeple has been removed from the Bovada betting as Vegas re-evaluates the odds after the trials went off today. Sam noted that Kemboi’s odds moved all the way to +200 last Friday and settled on +150 which I have a feeling will continue to trend downward as we get closer to the race and more eyes land on it. Kemboi made the finals after Monday’s race as well as the other big names in Conseslus, Brimin, and Jager. This is a great read on the race from Let’s Run better than any resource I can give you. They believe Kemboi will outkick Conseslus for the Gold which is what Sam predicted.I currently have $350 to win $595. THE RACE IS 10:50AM on WEDNESDAY 8/17/16. Congratulations to my future wife Emma Coburn for her Bronze medal in the 3000m Steeplechase this morning (she was one of the likes).

Marry me @emmajcoburn! #PreClassic

— Tom Stortz (@rnningfool) May 30, 2015

Novavax

The earnings were underwhelming. The stock dipped from $7.60 to below $7 bucks last Tuesday. Today NVAX has come back with a vengeance going up to exactly where it was last week at $7.60. This is a good sign. I’d recommend sticking with the stock. A quick update on my position. I bought 6 $9 OCT option contracts at $1.20 which is equivalent to a $720 investment. Today those options are worth $1.55. This is a .35 gain on a $1.20 basis which is 29% gain in about 3 weeks time. Let’s keep running up!

Fantasy Baseball

You cannot get a piece of my fantasy baseball action but I manged to make it to the finals in my $100 league. First place is $700 and 2nd is $300 (I think). Considering I know very little about baseball, this is a bit surprising but shows being active on the waiver wire, listening to others, and getting lucky can be all you need.

Brookes did my draft because I don’t know the players very well. I STILL don’t know the players except for who is on my team because I never actually watch the games. Goldschmidt was my first pick (pick# 3) and proved consistent but is 15th in total points scored among batters. Dee Gordon (missed most of the year), Gerrit Cole (underwhelming) and Matt Carpenter (solid) were the next 3 picks. 5th round grabbed Tulowitzki who was hurt for some of the season but is a good shortstop when he plays. The steal of the draft happened in the 6th round with David Ortiz (5th most points scored among batters). The remainder of the draft yielded Zimmerman, Hanley, and Kemp but no one else who remained on the team to completion.

Why I think my team is in the finals is because I have no attachment to the players who were drafted. If they players weren’t performing, I cut them and moved to a player who was. Russell Martin was horrible and I grabbed Wilson Ramos off the waiver wire who was an all-star. I added Rick Porcello (16-3), Rich Hill (9-3), Danny Duffy (9-1), and Marco Estrada (7-5, 1.04 WHIP) thoughout the year to basically become my staff. Not a single closer remained for the entire season as Rosenthal was replaced and Ziegler and Rodney were traded. I also added Adam Duvall and Jean Segura who helped out along the way.

A final thought was I got really lucky. I had the least points scored against in the entire league. I had the guy in the first round of the playoffs only score 166 points against me. In the second round I streamed 4 pitchers who all had positive results. Call it great managing but it has more to do with getting lucky. That’s why I think there is about a 0% chance I lose this week. Big thanks to Bud and Brookes who answered any questions I had as the season progressed.

By Tom Stortz|2016-08-15T13:59:40-04:00August 15th, 2016|My Brain|1 Comment