I just celebrated 8 years with WordPress. As I said in my last post, I will be working on posting more often. I am starting to feel a shift in the way I view things. I believe I can better express my expanding thoughts here in my blog versus on Twitter where nuance simply doesn’t exist. Much of how I view the world was destined to change especially once I got out of my old environment. Change is inevitable and should be welcomed. There has been so much discourse regarding various topics, some of which I’ve probably talked about on here in the past and some of which I am currently still learning about. I look forward to discussing these topics on this platform. Keep an eye out for new posts. There will also be some music and tv reviews sprinkled in the midst as well.
Category Archives: Feelings
8 Years of WordPress
So, I have been on WordPress for 8 years!! I saw the notification when I logged in today. As I may have mentioned in my last post, I’ll be trying to post up here more. I’ve got to get back into the swing of it. I’m currently writing from my laptop. I bought this laptop back in March. I find it a bit easier to write on this than on my phone, of course. I had been using my phone from the time I registered my account. For some reason, typing on my laptop makes me feel professional lol. Only issue currently is I can’t put in emojis, but I can put in gifs. I like the new layout on WordPress too. I’m probably going to poke around the site for a bit to refamiliarize myself with the platform. So here’s to 8 years of WordPress!!
I’ll see you all later
Quick Update
Hi everyone! I’m still in the stock market. I’m learning more week by week. I enjoy watching the discourse around certain stocks. In the time since I last posted, I’ve picked up a new hobby. I’ve always loved to read books, but lately I haven’t had the attention span to keep up with a story. One day I was scrolling through YouTube and saw something about programming. I went through a whole bunch of videos about what language to learn, and they all kept recommending Python as a beginner programming language. I downloaded Python and an IDE called Visual Studio Code. I could have just used the IDE that came with Python, but I like VSC better. Both Python and Visual Studio Code are free. I used YouTube and Real Python to learn the essentials. I’ve only been doing this for about a month, so I’m no expert, but I’ve been having fun. I think its import to have fun when learning something new. I also think its good to learn stuff as hobbies instead of trying to monetize everything. I’ll provide some resources below for anyone interested in starting programming. There is a whole bunch of resources across the internet and honestly, getting information for free is super awesome!
Another quick note: Music has been a little slow the last few months, but we did get a new album from Demi Lovato. Dancing With The Devil/The Art of Starting Over is her first album since her near fatal overdose in 2018. Th album is really good and I enjoy it. You should go give it a listen.
Bye for now. Programming resources are below!
Programming Resources:
- YouTube
- Tech with Tim
- Real Python
- Clear Codes
- Neural Nine
- SimpliLearn
- Python Programmer
- Real Python
- Automate the Boring Stuff with Python
- Reddit
- Python subreddit
- Programming subreddit
- all the programming languages have a reddit
- Free Code Camp
- Python Documentation/Download
- Visual Studio Code IDE
- Github
- Great resource for finding projects and the source code associated with the projects
- Google
- Google is definitely a top tier resource! anytime you are confused on a project or lesson, just hit google
- Stack Overflow
- beginners and experts use stack overflow b/c it is a valuable resource
Blog Announcement!
I have been a wordpress user since 2013. This blog has been a saving grace for me as I try to connect with the world. I enjoy being able to share my thoughts with others as I find it very relaxing. I thank everyone who has been with me on this journey. With that being said, I have a BIG announcement….
I AM NOW ACCEPTING DONATIONS
I am thankful for everyone who has come to my blog these past years and hope you continue to be inspired by my content.
No I am not putting my posts behind a paywall. Any and all donations I receive is completely OPTIONAL. I hope to eventually create a subscription based service for my posts. For now I will accept any donation you choose to give me. Thank you again.
You can donate here.
Life Updates and New Learning Opportunities
We are still in a pandemic. We have a new president. Vaccines are slowly rolling out, VERY SLOWLY. We got some new music from Jazmine Sullivan, Ariana Grande, and others. I am learning some new things. I also started back reading books again.
Music
Jasmine Sullivan released her first project in over 5 years titled Heaux Tales. It is amazing. My favorites: girl like me, on it, and lost ones. Go give it a listen.
Ariana Grande released a remix to her song 34+35 from her most recent album Positions. The remix featured Megan thee Stallion and Doja Cat. It’s nice. 34+35 was not my favorite song on the album, but it’s listenable.
Demi Lovato teamed up with Sam Fischer for their collab, What Other People Say. I like it. I went and listened to more of Sam Fischer’s music and I highly recommend listening to his EP, Homework. It’s so good.
Books
Last year before the pandemic I went to Barnes and Nobles and bought 6 books. I only ended up reading 2 of them. So, when this year started I said I wanted to get back into reading. I’m currently reading There There by Tommy Orange. It’s fiction. It’s good so far. I’m about halfway through it.
Investing in Stocks
While researching ways to add another stream of income, I stumbled onto videos and articles about investing in the stock market. Now, I was never one to pay much attention to the stock market, but the articles I was reading peaked my interest. As someone who didn’t come from wealth, I had always thought of the stock market as something only rich people engage in. This thinking is by design of I’m being honest. The wealthy don’t want the working class or poor class to get ahead even by a nickel. Traditionally the stock market was for rich people and you needed large amounts of capital to get involved. Thanks to the advent of no-commission brokerages such as Robinhood and M1 Finance, regular people have been able to get into the market. Traditional brokerages such as Schwab and Fidelity even changed their strategies to offer commission free trading and investing services. The stock market is still mostly controlled by the wealthy, but us regular people finally have a foot in the door. I may be waxing poetic here, but when you consider that the wealth gap in this country is extremely large and has only gotten larger during this pandemic, getting into the market may be a way that the working class can attempt to narrow that gap. I’m no financial advisor and it’s important to do your own research when getting into the stock market.
The brokerages I use are M1 Finance and Public. When I was researching brokerages, I considered Fidelity and Schwab because they were the traditional brokerages, but I didn’t like their app interface. I tried Webull but their interface was too chaotic as well. After looking around I found videos about M1 Finance. I downloaded the app and was very impressed. I opened my account the third week of January. M1 Finance offers traditional taxable accounts as well as retirement accounts. They also do fractional shares. I opened a taxable account and a Roth IRA. The Roth IRA is tax efficient as all gains and dividends acquired can grow tax free. You can’t pull out of the Roth IRA until 59 1/2, but your money gets to grow tax free until then. With the taxable account you will have to report earnings on next year’s taxes so keep that in mind.
Right as I got into the market, the GameStop $GME fiasco kicked into high gear. What a wild week that was. One great thing though, more people were introduced into the stock market. During this time my M1 portfolios took a small hit, but recovered. The $GME fiasco made me get a bit of FOMO because I didn’t buy in, so I decided to open up an account that I would dedicate to speculative stocks. I opened an account with Public. Public is similar to Robinhood as it offers fractional shares and you get free stock for signing up and getting others to sign up. I’m building up this portfolio to be mostly speculative with a couple defensive stocks in there for good measure.
Once again, do your due diligence if you decide to get into the market and learn all you can.
Odds and Ends
Well that’s my post for today folks. I wanted to share what I’ve been doing lately. If you want to get signed up with M1 Finance click on my link below. If you want to get signed up with Public also click the link below.
M1 Finance: https://m1.finance/SojeEz-9XunZ
Public: share.public.com/cjb_2014
