Fundraiser Update

[danielsangeo]

Austin Powers: My God, Vanessa's got a fabulous body and I bet she shags like a minx. How do I tell them that because of the unfreezing process, I have no inner monologue? ......I hope I didn't say that out loud just now.

[Xalder]

He USES his voice, alright? He can actually talk.

 

Aww but that's not as fun as my convoluted interpretation!

 

Besides there are a LOT of points where he talks to people and they don't even remotely respond to him AT ALL. I seriously think it just makes more sense for him to not realize that he's mute and the show is just his perception of reality. He's shown to be pretty insane as it is, it's not that much of a leap for him to think he's talking when he actually doesn't.

[scott155]

He USES his voice, alright? He can actually talk.

 

Aww but that's not as fun as my convoluted interpretation!

 

Besides there are a LOT of points where he talks to people and they don't even remotely respond to him AT ALL. I seriously think it just makes more sense for him to not realize that he's mute and the show is just his perception of reality. He's shown to be pretty insane as it is, it's not that much of a leap for him to think he's talking when he actually doesn't.

His vocal cords don't work, but he's learned to control his sphincter muscles and flatulence in order essentially perform rectal ventriloquism. Since he doesn't move his lips, some people don't realize that he is trying to speak. It means that he, much like me during this convoluted explanation, is talking out of his ass.

[HLPrincess]

He USES his voice, alright? He can actually talk.

 

Aww but that's not as fun as my convoluted interpretation!

 

Besides there are a LOT of points where he talks to people and they don't even remotely respond to him AT ALL. I seriously think it just makes more sense for him to not realize that he's mute and the show is just his perception of reality. He's shown to be pretty insane as it is, it's not that much of a leap for him to think he's talking when he actually doesn't.

Well, I like to think he has a voice since it's Ross's voice And I guess I won't be asking Ross "Hey, is Freeman really talking or just thinking he's talking?" And Ross will roll his eyes and say: "How do YOU think?!" well, really I dunno!

[Xalder]

He USES his voice, alright? He can actually talk.

 

Aww but that's not as fun as my convoluted interpretation!

 

Besides there are a LOT of points where he talks to people and they don't even remotely respond to him AT ALL. I seriously think it just makes more sense for him to not realize that he's mute and the show is just his perception of reality. He's shown to be pretty insane as it is, it's not that much of a leap for him to think he's talking when he actually doesn't.

Well, I like to think he has a voice since it's Ross's voice And I guess I won't be asking Ross "Hey, is Freeman really talking or just thinking he's talking?" And Ross will roll his eyes and say: "How do YOU think?!" well, really I dunno!

 

I suppose Ross would have the final say, if he was to have a say at all. Might be better to just let people interpret it however they want.

[Duncan Van Ooyen]

Ross, as long as you can get the store open again one day and create a T-shirt that says "You can never prove the absence of Ninjas... only their immediate presence." I will be happy. I have never bought a shirt from you, but I will buy THAT shirt.

[Ross Scott]

Sorry for all the late replies, I was spending all my time on the videos:

 

 

You could always put the WAVs into FLAC... Usually drops the size by half, and it's still lossless.

the filesize would be a lot larger though since FLAC is unlikely to compress much further in a compressed archive.

 

Also as a side note, a single Bitcoin is worth about $630 USD right now...

Wow, was that you? Thanks a bunch if so. I'm more tempted to save the cryptocurrency as I see it having a lot of potential (or doom, hard to say)

 

Also, thank you for showing to me the magic that is Eternam. I've downloaded it when I saw your RGD episode and have more than 50 hours in it so far and enjoying it very much.

Oh there's more where that came from.

 

All this fracking (to say nothing of the potential of Libyan/Iraqi/Iranian oil) will act to push the price down.

The amount of new oil we're getting out of the ground doesn't offset the amount of old oil fields that are shutting down. There could be a million years worth of oil in the ground, but if we can't get it out faster or cheaply, the price will still rise.

 

One thing I'd definitely look into, regardless of what you actually end up speculating in, is automated trading (of which I've had some experience for FOREX markets). If you or someone you know can write a program to buy/sell stocks / currencies / whatever, then go for that instead of relying on a human being to make the call. Software like MetaTrader can be used to test & monitor it - so design the trading program, test it on MT4 or MT5 using historical data, and if it does well using lots of historical data & realistic conditions (ie, don't forget brokers' fees, taxes etc!), try using it for real.

From my perspective this sounds volatile as hell as it can probably lose your money even faster than a human can.

 

If you still feel guilty

Oh I don't feel GUILTY about this (unless someone donated who really can't afford to), I'm just glad I didn't alienate fans in the process.

 

giving money feels generally better than receiving it

I think it partially depends on what your economic level is. It's like the saying "money can't buy happiness". Well actually, if you're below the poverty line, money buys a TREMENDOUS amount of happiness and can increase your lifespan (if it doesn't go towards Mad Dog).

 

If you have any massive collections of conceptual art or source engine documents or old beta sound files, I'd love to hear from you.

Not much for FM, but I do have some extra stuff for CP I'll try and get out eventually.

 

I wonder how many people that started watching FM died before its end 7 years later.

 

about your stocks ideas. ive been in your shoes trust me this is not an option. stocks a a really risky, im telling you cause i learnd it first hand.its true that every stock if given enough time will go your way, but problem is if you use credit support from broker your position will be reopened every day or so, and u lose money every day if you miscalculated market trend.

I think my goals are likely different than yours are, it's a lot of writing, might be better to email me about it. Short version: I'm considering long LONG term stocks in areas I've researched as a possible venue of getting out of the US dollar, for short term I have regular info from someone who's done trading for 30 years and offers advice. I'll test it first before spending a penny. Regardless, I don't trust my OWN judgment AT ALL for short term stocks. If don't have expert consultation, I'm not doing it.

 

Ross, how do you feel about Notch (Markus Person) tweeting about your fundraiser?

Similar level of shock like the rest of it.

 

I suppose Ross would have the final say, if he was to have a say at all. Might be better to just let people interpret it however they want.

My interpretation is Freeman says some things and thinks others. Otto and I considered adding reverb to distinguish the two, but it didn't work out so well. As for how NPCs react to him, I see it kind of like "in the land of the blind, the man with one eye is king" situation.

[Xalder]

Hmm... indeed all the NPC's in the game are very special.

 

I just think my interpretation would go further in terms of continuing into HL2, but I guess we'd just have to see what you do when you get to it, if you even continue at all, etc.

 

I suppose the way you interpret it will make more sense in the "Follow Freeman" chapter at least.

 

I really want to see how your version of Gordon would react to the Antlions. And the vortigaunts being allied with the rebels. And Alyx. And everything.

[BTGBullseye]

Also as a side note, a single Bitcoin is worth about $630 USD right now...

Wow, was that you? Thanks a bunch if so. I'm more tempted to save the cryptocurrency as I see it having a lot of potential (or doom, hard to say)

It wasn't unfortunately... I still have yet to make enough 'coin to break $0.01 worth...

 

Bitcoins right now are the biggest fluctuating stock-like item in the world... People can make million by buying when they're below $100, and selling when the rise to above $500. (500% returns, and the only place you can get them)

[Teleros]

All this fracking (to say nothing of the potential of Libyan/Iraqi/Iranian oil) will act to push the price down.

The amount of new oil we're getting out of the ground doesn't offset the amount of old oil fields that are shutting down. There could be a million years worth of oil in the ground, but if we can't get it out faster or cheaply, the price will still rise.

As I understand it, a lot of it isn't so much about getting it out of the ground as getting it onto the market (eg Libya). The point though is that I'd place a lot more trust in data, trends and such than economic theory.

 

One thing I'd definitely look into, regardless of what you actually end up speculating in, is automated trading (of which I've had some experience for FOREX markets). If you or someone you know can write a program to buy/sell stocks / currencies / whatever, then go for that instead of relying on a human being to make the call. Software like MetaTrader can be used to test & monitor it - so design the trading program, test it on MT4 or MT5 using historical data, and if it does well using lots of historical data & realistic conditions (ie, don't forget brokers' fees, taxes etc!), try using it for real.

From my perspective this sounds volatile as hell as it can probably lose your money even faster than a human can.

It's a case of garbage in, garbage out - a badly written one will of course perform spectacularly, albeit for all the wrong reasons . But then, how many times have human beings held onto their stocks or w/e for just a little too long, or gone into rogue trading to shore up a position etc? With a computer handling the trades, you can at least set it to behave in a certain fashion if there's a big loss for the day*.

 

* Also, don't bet too much at once. Eg, start with £1000 capital but don't put more than 5% on the market a day. It's slow, but will avoid big losses etc.

[Thecommander236]

I'm so happy it's working out for you Ross. You do good work and I say that you earned every penny.

[Cougar2k]

Though I just register today to put my 2 cents on some of the things on this thread (I have been following since the fund raiser released)

 

Before I get to things I want to discuss, big congrats to Ross on the success of the fund raiser (and super funny fund raiser video) to help him make videos that we all loved so much. I been in his shoes before when the work wasn't good, and have to stretch my earning as much as I can (80 to 100 bucks on food bill per month in Vancouver, Canada) our beans is at least 89 cents per can if you buy no name ones, I know that feeling. Also, I think Ross deserve much more because of his talent and devotion to the videos he makes. Keep up the good work!

 

This is regarding to the discussion BTW Ross and Teleros

 

Oil is basically black gold, due to the fact they are finite resources. The only problem is that it has to be cost effective to extract them for a company, conventional drilling cost so much less than tar sands drilling. I recommend this video to watch on Youtube,

 

"The Greatest Video You will ever see",

 

and many of you will realize that even with Shale gas discovery, we won't be able to keep up our energy meet coz of GROWTH (humans in this case). US and Canada can build tons of Keystone XL pipelines, US won't be able to achieve true form of energy Independence (at least not with all that growth and hoping for better economy mentality). It's essentially the power of exponential function, and how we fail to use it to realize some of the deep S*** we are in. Though if you watch Ross's Oil Well CP, that will help (I didn't really realize the problem Oil's Well is trying to present until I see the first video).

 

Moving on to 2nd topic, I agree with Ross's concept on long term investing, but I don't think you need complicated computer program to do all that. If you invest in long term, you shouldn't do many trades. Many inexperience investors spend too much time selling and buying stocks, unless you are a fund manager, day trader, need high frequency trading to make money but don't have the computer hardware and man power to do so, then don't do it.

 

That being said, being long term investing, you want to invest in a company that has good growth value, has thing everybody wants (even during recession like milk, cheese, tobacco, beer, plastic, certain commodities), price below their true value, pays dividends (not really a requirement, but good to have), big enterprise value, and have many years listed on major exchanges. (and preferably little or no debt)

 

The key idea is to find a stock that's good, but undervalued. Buy it, and hold on to it, once people realize how good it is, they will ditch the non performer (or over hyped one such as FB, Twitter) and come back to solid earning ones.

 

How do you know if stock is under valued? Look at it's P/E ratio, and Price/Book value. The multiplier of both should be less than 22, so low for both. One of the example I will provide is Brown Shoe Company (BWS.NYSE). When I first noticed it in Nov 2011 (the company is an example on a book that's first published in 1950s), it was 7.50 ish. Book value is 10.5, PE ratio is likely less than 10, if you buy a 1000 of that stock then, it will be....26 dollars each as of April 2014 (assume you don't sell it, but you shouldn't really until it hit 15 dollars, anything after is extra). The only downside is market is pretty saturated as of 2014, many companies are overvalued due to Fed QE policy, so you can only buy some stocks that's not too expensive and provide good dividends ( I recommend Rogers Sugar, its a Canadian company that makes, sugar in Canda, RSI.TO, its a medium buy now, but I might wait until its 4 dollars)

 

Buy it, and hold on to it, if it doesn't go up, at least it gives good dividends (7.5 percent a year).

 

In response to a comment Teleros was saying about holding on to the stock, it's a human nature for us to be greedy because we tend to hold on to a stock go when its high, even when its dropping (with the hope it will come back up again). A share itself has no value (it does has a book value, meaning the asset of the company), it's only what other people (or in this case, the market) thinks that set up the value of the stock.

 

you buy stock from pessimists, and sell it to optimists = profit (the difference between them)

 

The biggest enemy in stock investing is yourself. If something that has no valuation, you can sell it for whatever price you want, people will buy/diss it if they don't agree with your price. A good classic example is this.

 

Some guy bought 1000 shares of Apple stock for like 10 dollars each in early 2000, and makes $750k in September 2012 because he COMPLETELY FORGET he had it in the first place and just find out he has 1k shares of it right around the stock's peak. Since he forget, he is not influence by the market price, nor himself to sell it. Cases like those are rare, just look at Bit coins, same idea.

 

Lastly, only buy stock with the money you are willing to LOOSE, don't borrow or use important cash to buy stock because sometimes you will have to sell your stock at a LOSS to pay for immediate expenses.

 

PS: I know this is a lengthy post, and might not be in the right area. If required, can any forum mod let me know where I should move the oil/stock discussion to? Thanks in advance.