From The Bat Cave: Season One Episode Four — S1:E4 — November 25, 2023

Locator: 46160BC1:4.

Apple: I wrote and posted this page using an iPad which is pretty cool in itself, but now, I'm editing it using a 2020 M1 13-inch MacBook Air. 

I bought this laptop, I suppose in 2022, or thereabouts -- don't remember exactly when -- it was only sold by Apple between 2020 and 2022 -- one of the shortest-lived laptops of which I am aware -- before the next huge update was released -- the M2. The M1 represented Apple's switch from Intel to Apple Silicon. Compared to my 2018 Macbook Air this thing is incredible. 

I guess the M1 13-inch MacBook Air is still available, starting at $999 at Apple. But for $100 more one can buy the M2 13-inch MacBook Air. And, starting at $1299, the M2 15-inch MacBook Air. I might be wrong on some of this; hard to keep track.  [You can easily find the M1 13-inch Air for $750 at Best Buy and refurbished ones in the $500 range. I guess I got my $999 version for around $750 when Apple had them on sale for a very short period. Again, I can't remember.]

I'll never buy an Apple MacBook Pro but I could see myself buying a 15-inch Air before I get much older.

To get the M3 chip, one must spend upwards of $1,599 for an M3 MacBook Pro. Way more than I need and this 2020 M1 MacBook Air will last many more years. I very seldom use it. I still use my old Intel MacBook Air. Don't ask why.

Transitory: link here. Great update. Finally, an inflation story that doesn’t begin with the price of eggs.

TILT: Target doesn’t even make the top ten, Link here.

Germany’s budget: a fiasco. Government caught cheating.

Dutch: ditch the climate goals?

CNBC: closed down its climate “desk.” Links everywhere but not at CNBC.

Vontier: rhymes with frontier. 

Ticker VNT. P/E 15; pays a meager dividend. Might be added to my DTG bucket. Will follow for awhile.

Dead: the video call revolution. It’s a mystery. Doesn’t make sense.

Twitter: one out of five tweets on my twitter feed is an ad or clickbait. Same thing. 

Used to be one out of twenty. I follow 46 twitter-heads but it seems only seven are still active. I seldom post on Twitter any more. Seems like a waste of time. Pet peeve: talking heads call the site, “X, formally known as twitter.” Apparently talking heads can’t pronounce “ex.”

Personal e-mail: after losing access to my Yahoo! e-mail account, I no longer use e-mail socially. 

I do maintain a business-use-only e-mail account on an obscure site, seldom used. I stay in contact with family on a private mobile group messaging app. 

Facebook: when a long-time military buddy started posting his luncheon menu options, I punched out. 

Hulu, Firestick, Amazon Prime: that’s all I need when it comes to streaming. 

We own no  television sets. Nor do either of our two adult children. Our grandchildren are unaware of what a television set even is. 

That’s not quite true. Yesterday, Sophia asked me “if I had television” when I was growing up. In fact, that was a very good question. “Television” didn’t come to my home town until I was about five years old. 

We didn’t have our first television set until I was about eight years old. Between the years I was five and eight, our family watched TV once a week, Sunday nights, with a childless couple across town who raised chinchillas for fur coats. Then: one  network, NBC. Signed off at midnight. 

We watched Captain Kangaroo on CBS when we visited our maternal grandparents in Storm Lake, Iowa, most summers when I was growing up. My paternal grandparents never had a television set as far as I know. For sure, my paternal grandmother never did. They lived on a homestead outside of Newell, South Dakota. Their terrier, Penny, provided all the entertainment those grandparents needed / wanted. The dog terrified my sister and me. I have few memories of those years, but I remember Penny only too well. 

Pony Express was their only link to “the outside” until they bought a used Model A in 1935 or thereabouts. That is amazing when I think about it. My grandfather buying a Model A Ford would be like me buying a Tesla. That would have been a huge jump in the 1930s in the remote west. To buy a car. Wow.

Movies: I’m starting to buy movies for a streaming library. I have two movies, including Asteroid City. I might quit there. Two seems to be plenty.

Music: link here. Too many dots to connect. You are on your own.

Sports: it’s official. Thanksgiving is a two-day holiday, four-day weekend, nine-day school break. Tipping point: Amazon’s Prime Video Thanksgiving Friday NFL game. Why did it take so long?

Speaking of which: the gap between Amazon and “fill-in-the-blank” #2 continues to widen. 

Perhaps Walmart can compete with Amazon in the on-line arena but that’s about it. When Sears died, no one ever expected to see any other retailer able to compete with Walmart. No one  saw Amazon coming. Started out selling only books. Who wuddda thought?

Black Friday: commercialism has jumped the shark. Macy’s Parade was one long Bob Iger production. How long has Al Roker been anchoring this parade? Too long. But the money must be incredibly good. Maybe $350 / hour. Plus expenses. Taxi fare from his home in Westchester County. You know, Snoop Dogg should host the parade. Would triple the viewership.

Re-posting: I think about -- and live and breathe -- only a handful of things, and pretty much in this order:  

• the love of my life; 
• the Bakken;
• music; 
• reading; 
• retail investing; 
• my extended family.

Not on the list above but could be: Apple (AAPL); Nvidia blades (NVDA). Perhaps under “retail investing.”

Cliche: “the love of my life” at the top of that list may seem like a bromide but for me it’s not. It’s the most important”connection” to “life” that I have. 

Lego: unable to think of any better toy company.

Donut eateries: the go-to option for US entrepreneurial immigrants (mostly Asian). Why are these immigrant groups so successful at what they provide America?

• Asians: donuts
• Indians: service station convenience stores
• Indians: Motel 6, late night, swing shift
• Pakistanis: telemarketers, now 12/7 (vs 24/7)
• Iranians: antique / curio shops
• Iranians, Indians, other non-English-speaking incredibly intelligent immigrants: psychiatrists 
• Mexicans (Hispanics?): landscaping
• South Koreans: Brazilian jiu-jitsu
• Czech: long-haul truck drivers
• former East Germans: seaport Teamsters
• South Koreans: (Japanese) sushi
• Nigerians: currency exchange 
• Ethiopians: Uber drivers
• Egyptians: non-Uber taxi drivers

Nice-to-know: as my life expectancy shortens, my bucket list lengthens. I’ve most recently added 5-day escapes. Most important? One more trip on Route 66. Just the southwest portion.

Bat cave: it gets better and better. I’m in good company.