FacebookTwitter
tom@stortz.com
28 Apr, 2011

From the Vault Part 3

By |2011-04-28T22:08:01-04:00April 28th, 2011|My Brain|0 Comments

This is all verbatim from 3 years ago.

1/7/08
1st entry of the New Year. Spent 3 days in Vegas. Jeff and I got so retarded two nights. Went to the Rhino – strip club – lost phone, spent 700, girls were so hot -no pussy / hookers. Ended up blacking out and walking away with +600. Bought a new phone. Spent New Years at Evan’s, fun time. Laura is being a slut… Lost about 2500 in AC since Vegas. I can’t control alcohol & gambling.

I have pink eye so I only worked 2 hours today. More so a thinking day, like what do I want to do with my life. I feel as if I could be happier doing something else but what? Stocks? Running my own business? The money at this point isn’t as important as being happy. I will think about it. The market sucks by the way.

I really haven’t been betting on sports much. -150 in the past two weeks, mostly because the Rock was there. I have no interest in games unless I have money on them. I certainly have the power to quit.

1/9/08
What is there to accomplish?
What am I trying to do?
What is the purpose?

I’ve been on Earth 24 years. I’m living in a small apt. I’m saving money for what? What am I trying to do? A family? Am I responsible enough? At this point, NO! Not financially and not personally. Drink too much, too aimless with money. It’s time to get your shit together and start making things happen. No more sitting around.

1/10/08
Playing good poker. Only playing like 2 hours a day. +300 in 2 days, running hot. BANKROLL MGMT. Citigroup went up and I bought 195 shares @ 27.52. The stock is volatile. 200 pgs left of Atlas Shrugged. Just did 100 situps and 30 pushups. Trying to do it daily. I will be the biggest beast ever. This is TC’s year. No more careless spending. Let’s build a roll and then buy a house!

28 Apr, 2011

From the Vault Part 2

By |2011-04-28T21:56:58-04:00April 28th, 2011|My Brain|0 Comments

Back in 08, I used to hand write a sort of journal. I mostly don’t have the date and I didn’t really use to write entries but I want to get some of these finer thoughts down on rnningfool.com. Hope you enjoy TC almost 3 years ago. This is not paragraph form and many times I was just writing one statement at a time.

  • If enemy is superior, evade. If angry, irritate. If equal, fight.
  • Love is a fiction created to stop people from jumping out of windows.
  • It’s a bad bargain if nobody gains.
  • A man looks at himself in the abyss, nothing staring back, at that moment a man finds his character, that’s what keeps him out of the abyss. (that’s from Wall Street)
  • Create instead of living off the buying and selling of others
  • The dedication to ones highest potential (Atlas Shrugged)
  • Be the BEST that you can be, Life is more than just work.
    • 28 Apr, 2011

    From the Vault

    By |2011-04-28T21:50:05-04:00April 28th, 2011|My Brain|0 Comments

    I hand wrote this post almost a year ago and never got around to posting it.

    It’s 7:30 on Wed, May 12th, 2010. I’m in a Comfort Inn hotel room in Alexandria, VA, sitting in my boxers and a tee shirt writing on a this legal pad. It’s a yellow legal pad with really tiny lines so I’m skipping every other line. The pen is a pretty shitty comfort inn pen but the ink doesn’t smear as I write across it, so it’s ok. I’m in complete solitude with nothing to do but sit in this hotel room and write on this legal pad. I think this circumstance would be what some people consider boring, but I’m actually content with the loneliness. I actually enjoy the silence. The AirCo is running and I have Seinfeld on the in the background so it’s not complete silence but it’s an uninterrupted though process. This is a lot of gibberish but I had a long, productive day which I’ll get into in a bit after I set the current mood.

    My first impression of Alexandria is that its too humid and there are too many minorities. If I was basing my location on the skin color of its locals, I’d think I was in Mexico. What bothers me the most is the lack of English. Aside from the women at Rainbow spa, everyone in the US should speak English. I visited quite a few areas today and it is safe to say that people tend to adapt and grow to what surrounds them. I spent 4 years in Pittsburgh and now 5 after that in Philly and I couldn’t ever imagine moving to and living in Pittsburgh. If I had all the money in the world and could go anywhere, I wouldn’t choose Philly even though I think it has a lot to offer. I’m not sure what vibe I’ve been giving off recently but people seem to think I’m rich. I was standing at the beer distributor buying a case of specialty brew when a redneck holding a case of pbr asked me if I was rich buying a case like that. I replied “I’m smart and haven’t married yet and have no responsibilities, that enables me to do whatever I want.” On my sales trip today a customer asked me if I was from New York and lived in a big house after hearing my last name.

    Back to my day today. I woke up at 5, showered, then put on a pair of black slacks and a white button down with a blue / gray tie. I thought I looked pretty sharp if I were attending a funeral. It was too formal of an outfit for a sales trip. I kept the slacks, lost the tie, and put on a sharp looking button down. I was on the road a bit after 6. I stopped at the Chesapeke to fill up for gas and ate a BK breakfast croissant and made a coffee with too much cream and too little sugar that tasted horrible. I was at my first stop at 8. I’m going to spare the details of my visits and just harp on some highlights. One stop I made in Baltimore reminded me of the landscape of The Wire. It’s eleven o’clock and the streets and porches are filled with unproductive people. It was kind of humorous actually. I have addresses and a gps and most of these places I haven’t been to before. I’m driving to one distribuotr and notice there aren’t many / any white people around. The Ebony Inn passes on my right and the a Hennessy billboard on my left. Toto, we aren’t in Kansas anymore.

    I probably visited about 15 distributors who already sell our tools, essentially just putting a face behind the name. It wasn’t all about making sales but rather keeping future sales fresh in the buyers mind. I really have quite an opportunity at a young age to see a business work on all fronts. When I think about all the people who surround me, only a few could say that have tried to sell on their own. It’s a bit scary at first but I’ve almost grown to like it. My first step is getting these people to like me. I’m not hounding them for a sale but rather trying to introduce myself and establishing a relationship so they will continue to order from me in the future. People genuinely like me. I’m probably not pushy enough for sales but my philosophy is that they will come once they really want to do business with you. It’s funny communicating with people sober, which proved to be no problem today. Now I just need to take my banter with dealer about hand tools to talking to hotties about nonsense and bag a dime.

    That was the end of that entry. In today’s paperless world, that was me throwing out 4 sheets of paper in transmitting this entry.

    28 Apr, 2011

    The Switchover

    By |2011-04-28T21:32:19-04:00April 28th, 2011|My Brain|0 Comments

    Today I made the dramatic change from winter to spring. This transition is defined by one thing, the move from jeans to shorts. As a young kid I used to go all the way till November 6th (my birthday) with shorts, switch to jeans, and then as soon as the weather hit 50 I was back in shorts. As an adult I find wearing jeans to be more appropriate in most situations and the switch usually takes place later in the season. I haven’t completely switched over but I’ll start throwing some shorts in my routine. Basically what this does though is forces me to clean my room to get ready for my new wardrobe. I have to put all my hoodies and old jeans away and get out my Polos and shorts. I much prefer nice weather to the cold so I find this to be a refreshing part of year.

    Since this is my blog, I’m going to give you my status after cleaning my room. I will give you a count on various articles and you can compare how that stacks up with yours. I have 13 pairs of shoes varying from running, basketball, dress, casual and that doesn’t count my golf shoes or cleats. I have 13 towels that get rotated when I feel like it. I own 33 t-shirts, 7 of which are white undershirts. I have 16 golf shirts that range from Polo to Nautica to Calvin Klein. It’s actually 17 but Gusto is still in possession of one. I have 16 pairs of white socks, 4 black dress socks, and 9 pairs of running socks. I have 8 pairs of boxers and 0 pairs of any types of underwear or boxer briefs. I have 13 button down shirts and 3 suits. I also have 18 sweaters and 5 zip ups that basically work as sweaters. I have 7 pairs of mesh shorts. Sadly only 4 pairs of jeans which I consider nice jeans and another 3 that I claim are “work” jeans. I also own about 7 belts and 3 swimsuits. There are some more articles of clothing in my laundry bag but they are most likely sweaty and not worth going through. After reviewing these numbers a bit, they seem pretty staggering. I’m curious what people think about them and let me know if I’m reasonably normal. I know the towel thing is already odd so no need to comment there. This wardrobe has been developed over time and I will probably be giving some of it to the salvation army after this little cleaning session.

    I also have an issue with sizes. I buy a lot of my clothes in XL even though I’m only 6ft 175 (I tipped the scale at 180 but this is after 6 weeks of no running and I’m finally starting to get back in shape). What happens though is that they usually start out way too big but I wash everything the same way whether it’s not supposed to be washed or not, it goes in with cold water and then dryed in the dryer. Basically some articles of clothing shrink and that’s when the XL’s start fitting perfectly. I’ve noticed though that the sleeves of the polos tend to get real short and then it looks like I am are trying to show off my muscles that I don’t have. I also am an advocate of never trying anything on in the store. I just feel so out of place trying on clothes and would just like to assume that all clothes are the same size no matter the manufacturer. This has obviously gotten me in trouble sometimes but I will usually just wear it anyway even if it’s not sized properly.

    I don’t really consider myself a clothes connoisseur but I obviously have quite a bit of crap. The thing is I’m not really fashionable but I just use a lot of clothes because I get sweaty really easily. I can easily go through 3 pairs of something a day. I wake up and put on my work clothes, come home and change into my work out clothes, then shower and change into new clothes that at the end of the day find the way to the hamper. Even with all that clothing I still feel like I need it all, aside from the sweaters which I am very picky about what I wear out. I really just try to blend in and not really look too nice but not look to dumpy either. I don’t even have a dress code at work or else I’d like to think that I’d have even more clothes that make me look more presentable. Spring cleaning is here though and this makes for a good time to look at your wardrobe.

    28 Apr, 2011

    Reality Check

    By |2016-11-01T23:41:03-04:00April 28th, 2011|My Life|0 Comments

    With 10 comments on the quiz post it appears pretty obvious what I should make all my posts about. Unfortunately it’s not my material and therefore, doesn’t really have any original substance. It makes sense though that keeping people on the site by making them think is a smart way of generating traffic. I think the real issue with quizzes is that anyone can just google the answers if they want. Obviously this wouldn’t give you the special feeling inside of actually getting it all by your self but I’m sure some people prefer the glory then the satisfaction. I haven’t been updating on the blog traffic much but that’s mainly because it has been horrific. My traffic has fallen off a cliff and I don’t have any answer. I guess my Suri Cruise traffic is no longer but I picked up a dozen people for Amanda Bynes which is really peculiar. I have come to the realization that I can’t control traffic and pursing the goal of increasing traffic isn’t so easy and should probably come naturally.

    I went on a sales trip today to visit some customers in the Wilmington, De area and came away with one fact through observation. Two franchises are everywhere in this PA and DE area. Wawa and Dunkin Donuts are taking over the world. Wawa has near 600 stores now and did over 4 billion dollars in revenue and is ranked around 50th in worlds biggest private companies. There are 6,700 Dunkin Donuts throughout the US which should also turn some heads. It’s so bizarre too because I am an avid shopper at both. The best buisiness idea that came from the sales trip is to combine the Wawa and Dunkin Donuts for an ultimate experience.

    Sorry for the short post but I’m tired from the day. I will post something tomorrow morning even if it’s something as silly as a quiz.

    26 Apr, 2011

    Female Transformation – NFL Cheerleader Style

    By |2011-04-26T20:54:39-04:00April 26th, 2011|My Brain|3 Comments

    I think it’s unbelievable how 30 years can change the world. I am going to show a couple pictures from different era’s and just explain the ridiculous transformation of how females are evolving into prettier beings.

    1980’s Cowboys Cheerleaders

    By today’s standards the girl in the middle wouldn’t even be allowed in the stadium let alone a cheerleader. The girl on the right has ugly bangs and the girl on the left is coming in at a solid 6. Notice they are mainly flat. These girls would provide me absolutely no entertainment value.

    1989 Eagles Cheerleader

    She has a decent rack but the uniform is hideous and it looks like she showed up to work after being plowed all night. This is my favorite hair color though but I think her bangs are again out of whack. I’d guess she’s in her 30’s and I would assume today’s girls are mostly in their mid 20’s.

    1987 Rams Cheerleader

    YIKES!!!!!! The headband is a complete fashion disaster and the uniform looks like she found a flag in her front yard and draped herself in it. The pom-poms are way too big and I’m not talking about hers. Plus she has poiny elbows.

    2006 Eagles Cheerleader

    This is actually my favorite hair color. Any type of blondish/brown is good by me and notice that it’s actually straight and there aren’t any dumb bangs goofing everything up. This particular girl seems like she’s carrying some love handles but the abs look tight. Boobs seem adequate. I think her face is very hot. She has a small nose, white teeth, nice smile and pretty eyes.

    Modern Day Eagles Girls

    I’d fall for the girl on the right. She has the cute smush face and a tight, tight body. Perfect hair color to boot. The one on the left has the same I got plowed last night kind of look but she’s not too bad. Notice though that they both have nice bodies and great blond hair.

    25 Apr, 2011

    The Joys of Target

    By |2011-04-25T23:58:39-04:00April 25th, 2011|My Brain|0 Comments

    At my age I am starting to care less and less about how I look. Not to say that I ever really cared but I do my best to fit in. That being said, I have no problem shopping at Marshall’s or Target to save money. I went to Target and bought socks, boxers, t-shirts, and a bathing suit. Now I also am in the market for some new polos and shorts but there was something that made me refrain from buying them at Target. Basically all the stuff I mentioned is either stuff worn beneath my clothes or stuff no one will ever notice. When I wear a polo with the polo logo, it at least crosses my mind that someone might notice. So even though the Merona polo shirt is 9.99 and no one will probably ever say anything because it look practically identical to my other shirts, I still don’t purchase it. For 60 bucks I was basically able to clothe myself for a week without anyone ever mentioning anything.

    The one thing I want to point out at Target is not skimp. Skimping at target is the biggest mistake you can make. Things are already as cheap as they get so to buy the cheapest of the cheap is just setting yourself up for failure. One of the pair of mesh shorts I bought was 4.99. I bought them XL to make sure they fit and they are so tight that they are completely useless. You think I’m going to go back to return them for 5 bucks? My point is that I might as well spend 16 bucks on 4 pair of boxers instead of the 8 for 8 pairs because they are going to be worn so often that I might as well by the quality item. There is a fine line when you are being smart to being cheap and saving a couple dollars on poor quality will generally come back to haunt you.

    Another hilarious thing about Target is the parking lot. This particular parking lot is pretty crowded and you really have to watch yourself when your driving. The first thing I notice is people backing in to parking spaces. I consider myself an above average driver and just about NEVER feel the need to back in. I am extremely confident I can back in to any spot because I am a master of my mirrors, however there is just such a rare time to use the back in. I noticed one guy in this parking lot that chose to back in and was literally sideways, in between two lines. Seriously bro, do us a favor and pull in forward like a normal human being. I almost think people back in just to show off. There really is no convenience because parking is such a routine task.

    A final thought that I have from my Target experience which applies all over is how people treat animals. Some person had their dog and was just sitting down outside the store and I just hear people come up to them and say how cute the animal was. I feel like the dog could have been a rhinoceros and people would still say how cute it is. I’m just amazed at how people act like they’ve never seen a dog in a parking lot before and the natural reaction is to just say how adorable it is. I don’t really consider myself a huge animal person, I find them entertaining for a while but never really get attached, but you will never find me telling someone how incredible their pet is. Unless it’s something that really gets my attention, like a rhino, I’m acting like I’ve been there before.

    25 Apr, 2011

    A quiz for people who know everything

    By |2016-11-03T15:30:30-04:00April 25th, 2011|My Brain|10 Comments

    This is a quiz for people who know everything! I found out in a hurry that I didn’t. These are not trick questions. They are straight questions with straight answers.

    1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.

    2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?

    3. Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every year. What are the only two perennial vegetables?

    4. What fruit has its seeds on the outside?

    5. In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn’t been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle?

    6. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters ‘dw’ and they are all common words. Name two of them.

    7. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them?

    8. Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.

    9. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter ‘S.’

    25 Apr, 2011

    Tooter McGavin

    By |2011-04-25T08:37:48-04:00April 25th, 2011|My Life|0 Comments

    Ck4, the Shee and I played golf yesterday at Pinecrest in Lansdale and the Shee came up with the clever name of Tooter McGavin because he points out that I like to make sure everyone is aware when I hit a good drive or make a nice shot. Basically, tooting my own horn. For my first real round I played pretty well shooting a 92 at a reasonably nice course. I think I had about 8 pars so that should show that I had quite a few doubles and triples that with some better course management, can hopefully become bogeys. My ugly sand game cost me a few strokes. Also on the back nine my driver got out of control which obviously hurt a bit but I made up for that with my iron play which was the best I ever hit the ball contact and accuracy wise. I thought the round was absolutely perfect though because we went off at 1:30 and finished at 5:00 pm. This paragraph wouldn’t be complete without me mentioning CK4 driving the par 4, 8th green and still only getting a par.

    The rest of my weekend was pretty normal. I worked out both days which is something that I don’t usually do. Jeff and I went to Harrah’s on Friday night to play poker and after 8 hours I was up 80 bucks or so and then ended up doubling some guy up for 300 with a read that I thought was dead on but proved to be costly. That put me down 220 on the session for my first ever losing session at Harrah’s. I had brunch with my family, Brookes and the Schmidt’s on Sunday which went well. My only complaint was the Scoogi’s brunch tends to pack em in like sardines which made for a lot of pulling your chair in to let people scoot by. The food was decent though and the conversation didn’t find too many awkward pauses.

    I really have no religious beliefs so Easter brunch is really just Sunday brunch for me. Last week we were watching a documentary on lions and it showed a pride of lions feeding on a wildebeast. The wildebeast was alive as the lions bit and tore at its flesh and Gusto asked the question how can there be a god to let this happen this way? I sort of agreed because being eaten alive is such a nasty, harsh feeling that if God really did exist he has a sick and twisted mentality for how the life cycle should take place. This also got me thinking of how everything started if there was no supreme being and I can’t even come up with a theory. The big bang is nice and all but what was before the big bang? Just nothingness? Just saying the big bang starts everything doesn’t really make sense to me. There are just a lot of questions when I consider this topic. It also sort of makes me feel pretty little and irrelevant when you think of how much time has gone by in the universe.

    I want to take this paragraph real quick to point out that when I recommended MOBI at 8 dollars or so, it is up to 16+. Just to keep a track record, I also think that ENTR (Entropic) is going to jump tomorrow. It is opening at 8.35 today and earnings are tomorrow. I’m reading the annual report right now and I really think that this company will continue moving up. A good way to describe what they do is “multi room dvr.” Meaning you can stop the programming in one room and watch it in another. They have deals with all the major TV providers and even though the stock has gone from $2.00 to $13.00 back to $8.35, I think this stock will get back to the 13 dollar level. I’m specifically considering an option purchase today to go with the volatility of earnings tomorrow.

    Life is good though and my ankle has almost gotten fully healed. I ran another 3 miles yesterday and felt ok. I noticed it a bit on the golf course as well but nothing to bothersome. I think that this will be a pretty good week and I’m looking forward to some nicer weather. I didn’t get a chance to watch Game of Thrones and Treme last night on HBO so I will do that tonight to kill some time. Game of Thrones has held my interest through one episode and I anticipate good things. Treme was pretty average for season 1 but David Simon created the Wire and it’s hard to imagine him making a bad show. Should be a good week though and I will keep this blog updated.

    22 Apr, 2011

    “Good Friday”

    By |2011-04-22T15:14:40-04:00April 22nd, 2011|My Life|0 Comments

    I thought that last two posts I wrote were pretty good so it pains me to bury them under this mediocre post but I’ve just been firing them out today. Today is Good Friday and I was cracking up when people on the work phone would say “have a Good Friday” and I’d respond with “yeah today has been a pretty good Friday hasn’t it.” If you couldn’t tell I really have no religious beliefs and will share a religious post in the near future but not now.

    Something hilarious that happened to me was that I bought my Broad Street Run admittance back in January and since I broke may ankle 6 weeks ago, I am unable to run it. So instead of getting burned with the bib number, I put a listing on Craigs list that I have a bib I’m looking to sell. Well if I knew that this was a golden opportunity to meet girls, I would have bought 5 bibs. I wrote on my listing that I’m looking for someone who is healthy to take my spot because it’s a risk to just sell someone your bib because if something happens to the person and it’s not the person on the bib, then I could technically get banned for life from the race. So I’ve been getting emails from girls who are like 24/f, I’m interested in buying your bib. Not only do I get to meet random girls but then I get to impress them by giving them my bib which is in the first corral. I wish I would have been more prepared because I pretty much just sold it to the first person I thought would be interested. So now I have a face to face with a 24 year old from Villanova to exchange tickets.

    Softball tomorrow alongside with golf at some other time should make for a activity filled weekend. I will keep the readers updated as the weekend progresses.

    Toggle Sliding Bar Area

    Categories