First taste test came this morning. Then the sugar test. I'm a bit bummed. I let the guy sell me a new kind of malt because he was out of my normal brand. This stuff doesn't have quite the sugar yield. Like 25% less. It's only about 4 times as sweet as a bock beer. Was hoping for around six. Certainly can't call it a Förnikatör. It just doesn't quite measure up. Oh well. But that means I can also drink it sooner than 6-12 months. Think I need some new labels for whatever I decide to call this stuff. It's still the (second) sweetest malt beverage you ever tasted. It'll still kick you in the head. But it just isn't love potion number 9 this time around. Think I'll have to try a few more sips and not worry too much about what it isn't. Figure out instead what it is.

Scanned the long-term memory banks. I've bought this malt before. Similiar results. That was 10 years ago. Reminder to self: check the long-term memory banks before buying... Oh well. Drinkable kick-your-ptooey beer. That's what it is. Good. I don't have to ration it or save it for special occasions.

Took a glance at my sickly stock portfolio. It's almost too depressing to look at any more. I've only got two stocks that weathered the recession without going into the red. Hamburgers and water heaters. Who would've thought back in 1999 that water heaters would be their number one performance stock in 2002?

My biggest losers? Internet ready cell phones. Cable internet. Dial-up internet. High-speed phone internet. Not one to trust where the market was going to go I bought 'em all. And these aren't those profit-less dot-coms we heard so much about. These are the guys that take your money every month to keep you connected. Where did all that money go? Debt. It costs a lot to build and maintain those networks. Overhead. Trying to build companies that are way too large to be efficient. Oh and greed. For every dollar I put into the market some executive was busy siphoning it off.

Something horribly wrong with that picture. Can't quite put my finger on it. Even when you toss out the excess valuations of 1999. The way it's supposed to work is that companies sell stock to raise excess cash for operations and empire-building. Companies seem to be no longer selling stock. They give it to their execs (for pennies a share or less) who sell it and wallpaper their 3000 square foot bathrooms with the cash. How does this stock in any way get turned into operational money? It doesn't unless I'm missing something.