Halloween

I skipped the neighborhood hotdog party that precedes the main trick-or-treating, and just handed out candy. It was a pretty active Halloween, as things go around here--about 40 kids or so. Got several nice comments on my pumpkin, including one from a kid who remembered year-before-last's mice-and-cat. I need to ask how the Wile E. Coyote pumpkin went over next door.

This year's pumpkin pictures behind the cut, or you can go to my Web page with the last few years' worth.

( Cut! )

Upcoming convention

I'm reconnecting with a piece of my past this weekend. I spent 3 or 4 years as an active volunteer for the National Association of Investors Corp. (NAIC), an organization that promotes investment clubs and individual investments in stocks and mutual funds. NAIC has a well-developed method of analyzing stocks to help identify those which are both good (stable, growing) companies and which are at a good price. I like their method and philosophy, and fell into working as part of a volunteer team called the WebOps to put educational materials up on their Web site, http://www.betterinvesting.org. I'm rather amazed when I look back at the time I used to devote to it--no way could I do that now. However, around 2001 NAIC made the corporate decision to take over the Web site from the volunteers and hire professionals, and did not want to make the effort to try to keep the WebOps involved. My only involvement with NAIC was as a WebOp, so when that role went away my remaining contact with them was getting the magazine every month and the occasional email from other former WebOps.

This weekend is the Better Investing National Convention (BINC), and it's being held here in Atlanta this year. Their other convention, CompuFest, would attract a lot more of my old pals, but it hasn't been held in Atlanta recently. <g> I did get an IM from Joe Craig (Joe was the webmaster when I was a WebOp) asking if I'd like to join a group for dinner Thursday night--that should help me reconnect with a few folks, at least.

Besides that, I'm planning to attend a lot of the seminars in an attempt to get myself inspired to pay more attention to my own stocks, and I'll go to the company expo on Saturday and talk to some investor relations people. I realized today that the convention has a full schedule on Thursday (I was thinking it started Friday), so I think I will take Thursday off and go to the convention. I'll pay for this next week, but oh well...