Glenn Wilson

It was a good thing I was here this afternoon -- I learned we have a family of possums nearby.

Baby possum was wandering our deck and encountered cactus. He or she learned cactus is not good to eat, no fun to climb and generally not very friendly.

For a sense of the size of the possum the cactus pot in the following slide show is about 3.5 inches high.

Baby Possum Slide Show

About an hour later I saw a baby possum about 100 feet away from the deck towards the bayou. I don't know if it was the same baby or another but in either case I did not witness any parental supervision. Where's mom?

Labels: paradise

I have been experimenting at investing with peer-to-peer lending using Prosper. I am using Prosper's estimated return that uses their estimated loss, adjustment and servicing fee to calculate an estimated net return to determine the minimum amount to bid.

For example, if I want a net estimated return of 7.0% and the estimated loss is -4.29%, the adjustment is -0.55% and the servicing fee is -1.00% I place a minimum bid of 12.84% (12.84 - 4.29 - .55 - 1.00 = 7). Their loan bidding page shows this calculation for you. Their estimated losses are based on their historical data and may not reflect future results so the estimated return may vary and there is the risk of not being repaid at all. Diversifying by making multiple small loans would seem to reduce the risk of not being repaid at all, but there is also the risk that their estimated losses are systemically wrong when applied to current and future loans.

I made my first loans in January and mostly to AA credit grades but so far all of my loans are current. Of course, they are all still pretty new. Your mileage may vary.

Disclosure: If you click the Prosper link above and join Prosper I get a referral fee.

Labels: investing

Using flickr's tag and slideshow capabilities here are a few slideshows of my bird photos at flickr by type of bird.

Carolina Wren

Cardinal

Heron and Egret

Hummingbird

Mockingbird

Labels: paradise

On February 28 of this year I decided to leave my job of over ten years. I was working on a series of software products scheduled for release at the end of March which I wanted to see through to the end so I set my last day at April 15. Some have completed and the others are basically complete just waiting for the bureaucratic process to finish. I have worked at this company as a software developer, systems architect, development lead and program manager. I mostly enjoy the work but I was just not ready commit to completing the next big release cycle.

I didn't have another job offer and I haven't looked for another job except for inquiring about some part-time chess instruction position. I will eventually need a real income and a job that offers real health insurance again but not right away.

I mostly plan on taking some time off and enjoying paradise for awhile...

Labels: paradise

We regularly have lots of cardinals in our back yard. Adult cardinals and juvenile cardinals are both quite frequent visitors. But I have never seen a baby cardinal. Until yesterday. My wife and I were sitting in the living room having coffee when I spotted a female cardinal feeding a baby. My camera was sitting on the coffee table and I was fortunate enough to capture some photos of what is, at least for me, a rare sighting.

Refreshing or reloading his page will randomly select one of the baby cardinal photos to display.


More of my bird photos at flickr

Labels: photo

Today, Google announced yesterday the introduction of Gmail Custom Time an amazing and fool-proof technology that allows email to be sent into the past.



Is there a limit to how far back I can send email?

Yes. You'll only be able to send email back until April 1, 2004, the day we launched Gmail. If we were to let you send an email from Gmail before Gmail existed, well, that would be like hanging out with your parents before you were born -- crazy talk.

Let's just hope that this new power is used for good.