Will continue to go on

Since I am so busy I thought whether this blog should continue its existence since after all, updates have been sporadic and far in between.

It is a far cry from the yesteryears when I could blog almost everyday on everything with a good dose of twists and sarcasm. I miss those days when I could dramatize events in my life and stuff I observed.

Pulling in a crowd wasn't a problem back then but that wasn't the my main objective of blogging.
To me blogging is like antidote to surpressed thoughts that otherwise would be difficult to express them out verbally. This is reality where there are parameters that restrict our expression.

This is not something an entirely new phenomenon but just an evolution from the days of pen and paper, AKA diary or journals.

Over the recent years and up to recent times it seems that I've been locked up in a cell called the writer's block. There were so many things to spill out as those years were helluva roller coaster ride for me. But it turned out that I couldn't write it well to express my true feelings and in the end I abandon it altogether save for some irregular, super short and shallow updates.

Although the thought of abandoning the bloggosphere altogether seemed kind of valid but in the end this is where my inner sanctum is. When I can't turn to anyone, the sphere has always been here for me to spill it out.

deranged Generation will go on...

Hope she recovers soon

I didn't know how to response when I read the email marked urgent sent by a friend this afternoon. A gal friend has been hospitalized since last night, apparently from meningococcus, which can be life-threatening.

Meningococcus is a form meningitis, and according to wikipedia: Meningococcus is spread through the exchange of saliva and other respiratory secretions during activities like coughing, kissing, and chewing on toys. Though it initially produces with general symptoms like fatigue, it can rapidly progress from fever, headache and neck stiffness to coma and death.

Went off to meet up with a couple of friends at the hospital right after work to visit her but we were denied access because she is in the ICU, and in coma. She can't breathe on her own has to be on life support.

Words spread quickly, to NSW and then Malaysia. Her parents in Malaysia took the next available flight and have arrived not long ago.

Not wanting to let go easily we attempted to go up to the ICU ward but were punctuated by another group of friends who tried their luck to see her but with no avail. Throughout the time in the lobby as we chatted on her condition there were many pauses of uncomfortable silences.

Trying to keep calm was the order although everyone of us felt tensed and worried.

At the moment her conditions are not good.

Taking a cue from Sukah: "phui yean please be strong =( you can get through this "

Getting back to the basics

A week ago I said the time is ripe for value hunting in the sharemarket but it can be frustrating for many enduring the whiplash like roller coaster ride in the market. What can we say when there are plenty of mess yet to be cleaned up.

For long-term investors bear market is the best time to pick stocks that provide value and good growth that otherwise would not be possible during bull time. Think like a businessman - buy low, sell high. If you think you found have found a bargain then why bother about volatility?

Well that's generally true but in today's complicated web of financial leverage and synthetic transactions, anything can happen. Just flip open the financial pages and you will see the carnage; Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, IndyMac and back home the range of margin calls and gearings gone bad catalyzing a string of failure for the likes of Lift Capital and Opes Prime.

Many investors are sitting on their hands waiting at the sidelines while the global financial mess sorts itself out, and of course the looming global stagflation which is a bigger mess. I say this is the time that we should get back to the basics and do some strong research picking the most fundamentally sound stocks.

It is a matter of survival of the fittest and the time we are in now is just part of the economic evolutionary process of weeding out the weak ones. It is just like.... life.

Value Buy

I would have posted this earlier if not for physical injuries sustained on an early Saturday morning.

Basically the jizz is, after a meeting with the Macquarie boys on Friday, that its time to go dredge the market for fundamentally sound and value shares.

This view of mine formed 2 to 3 weeks ago has now be affirmed by the big boys and am currently having some stocks in my head that I am ready to plunge into.

Bear market is sales time.

Just OK

Just Group (ASX: JST) downgraded its earning forecast by a whopping 10% and following the downgrade its shares shaved 12.6%, to close at $2.78. P/E ratio estimate for 2007 is around 8.8045 and actual current ratio at 1.46.

Can Just Group be THE indicator of an increasingly slowing consumer spending? It's management thinks so. And backing their view is the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Index which recently released that consumer sentiment dipped 5.6% seasonally adjusted from May to June.

For all we know the inflation fueled razing of consumer sentiment is kicking in as evidenced by the RBA which recently decided to hold its rate. A sign that the series of rates hike are dampening the insatiable consumer demand backed by the current mining boom.

But is it all what it seems? To me, perhaps its just not the drop in consumer sentiment but its labels: Just Jeans and Jays Jays are no longer capturing the market with its repetitive and stale designs that might have been 'cool' a few years ago.

Having been into Jays Jays outlet recently didn't really attract me as its range of designs were pretty much the same as a year ago. Dull, plain and boring. In other words, they are still in iPod generation ONE mode.

Just Group doing Just OK.... to me.