Sunday, February 13, 2011

The End of a Dynasty

How bout that Chipotle Mexican Grill stock, huh? Guess I was right about telling people to buy it 3 months ago. It's gone up like 15% the last week and a half. Unfortunately, before that it was dwindling and had lost value, and I'm afraid many people (like myself) got frustrated with the stock and let it go. Sigh. Stocks, like comedy, is all about timing. And this time the joke was on me. I believe CMG is going to 280, 290 soon (reports earnings this week) and I'll be guilty of missing out and not listening to my own advice.

Wanna know what I think about the stock market, after we had a 10-day winning streak (in the green) the past 2 weeks? I think this year's gonna be a good year......there may be a bit of a correction coming after this huge upswing, so wait for the market to go down a couple ticks (possibly Monday-Tuesday of this week), and then go in and buy premium stocks, (AAPL, AMZN, GOOG come to mind) or even just buy the Dow itself. This stock market's in recovery and it's making up for lost time (from Aug. 2008- 2009). The only worry is a bubble, but that's a bit premature: as long as we're still in "recovery" mode it'll gain steadily, and then in 2012 or 2013 we may want to be careful of the next "bubble burst."

Last night I sadly bade farewell to one of my favorite shows and IMO one of the best shows to ever be aired on TV, that of Friday Night Lights.

I first started watching Friday Night Lights in sophomore year of college; I don't even remember what prompted me to watch. It was one of those late-night, got-nothing-better-to-do, saw a subliminal television ad for the-show, I might-as-well sort of things. And I loved it. The pilot episodes of Friday Night Lights is one of the best hours of television you've ever seen; I don't want to give it away but it gives viewers a preview of the drama, the awesome characters, the storyline, the passion that Friday Night Lights would become.

Friday Night Lights is advertised as a story about high school football, but it's really about people. It's about Coach Taylor dealing with the trials and tribulations of people on his football team, about middle-to-lower class people trying to make it in small-town America, it's about high school kids (sometimes a little unrealistically played by twenty-somethings, I'll admit that) trying to come of age while dealing with bad parents, money problems, relationship struggles, reconciling their dreams with their current situation, crime, and all kinds of other situations. So basically, people living their lives. It's fascinating, and the creators of the show hit it right on the head. Unlike the Greek tragedy of The Wire (which has its own appeal), you feel yourself rooting for each and every character on Friday Night Lights; each character tugs at your heartstrings and you become emotionally invested, watching helplessly as certain characters become devastated and rooting for them.

Every season of Friday Night Lights was comparable to the other; there was no "rebound" season or "hiatus" -- the quality was legitimate every time and few mistakes were made (other than the introduction of some faulty characters who got wiped away prematurely or belatedly.....like the Epic storyline this season? What was that?) There were main characters who came in and out of the action, fan favorites, old flames, alumni who came back to visit from high school, and new faes, but the rock of the show was good ol' Eric Taylor, the epitome of class, the epitome of leadership, the epitome of good hair, and his wife Tammy.

Long live Friday Nights. May your DVD's be watched by a generation of excited viewers who missed it the first time.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan

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