GAH!

It would appear that I managed to buy my GDX right before a pullback:



Still, the longer term chart (4 box rev) is indicting that it'll be on its way up to 91.

More interesting to me is that GLD has started its pullback and should be headed to somewhere around 85:



I'm looking to buy at that point.

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3 box rev is now showing 79 as a possible bottom. 4 box rev won't update the price objective until it drops to around 87.

I tend to trust the 4 box rev more but the 3 day can give a better idea of short term movement.

I'm irritated that I jumped into GDX at the start of a pull back, but, ehh... all signs point to it going up over time.

More thoughts on polish

I got around to working with the rhodochrosite again.

It seems that the non-diamond grits smooth more than scratch away.

Anyway, I tried different things with the four stones.

#1 stone - I took it through a 1200 grit polish. The scratches showed up again. So on rhodochrosite it isn't a matter of a grit inbetween 600 and 1200. It is that the 1200 cuts pretty deep into rhodochrosite.

#2 stone - From the tripoli polish I took it through a 14K grit polish. I started on the outside of the pad and that put in scratches. After moving near the center I was able to get rid of most of the scratches I put in and get near the tripoli polish.

#3 stone - From the tripoli polish I took it through a cerium oxide polish. This improved the tripoli polish a great deal. But the finish was just a wee bit hazy.

#4 stone I set aside to mull my options.

I'm starting to think that taking the stone down to a 14K grit polish and then over to the cerium oxide might be best. I say this because even if the diamond does put scratches in the stone, it prepares the surface to take a better polish.

What I'm wondering now is should I do a tripoli polish inbetween the 14K grit and the cerium oxide. That would definitely get rid of all scratches, but it might rough up the 14K grit's work. Perhaps I'll test that if the 14K grit to cerium oxide doesn't work.

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AH HA!!

Scroll near the end of that and click through next in thread.

OK, so soft stone is issue #1 with regards to high gloss finish. The other is speed.

The two stones I ran through the cerium oxide were done on the outside of the wheel.

So... what now?

I've taken these stones to 14K twice and then up to a tripoli polish. One of the threads in the link above indicates that a 600 grit sanding is sufficient before a slow cerium oxide polish.

I think I'll next work all the stones through cerium oxide on the inside of the pad. The next three stones are larger rhodochrosite that I'll try taking down to 600 grit before moving to the polish.

I also poked around google images looking for some finished rhodochrosite being sold. I think I was expecting a better finish than the stone can give.

If these stones work out I think I'll have to hunt around to find out how to get rid of the final scratches in my moonstone. I suspect that a good run through with the cerium oxide might do the trick.

Crazy morning

Well I'm sure glad I waited until the morning to put in my trades.

I confirmed that IDU and IXP still looked bad. Then I looked at PCU again and decided to wait for a pullback before buying --


After mucking with the settings a bit (larger box size), I came up with this --


Not sure if that is a pullback or the makings of a reversal.

Went instead with GDX --



I have held some aside to watch for pullbacks in GLD and PCU.


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Well isn't that nifty. Seems the StockChart charts that I linked in update. I was looking at what I thought was an old chart in my 3/16 post and wondering why I thought I'd enter PCU. Then I noticed that the data updated.

Interesting... can't really show old chart data, but can link to one ongoing chart. Perhaps on the link list to the right.

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Nifty. Seems I'll have to keep an eye on EFA and VAW as well.

Rethinking tripoli

I can not find any diamond grit in a size between 600 and 1200.

However I have read that tripoli is comparable to 800-1200 diamond grit.

Some if not most of my problems are that the 1200 grit deals very slowly with the scratches from the 600 grit step.

I decided to take my rhodochrosite trough a tripoli polish. It appeared to remove the 600 grit scratches that I had been dealing with. It did dig deeper along mineral changes in the stone (white wavy bits) but not very bad. I'm interested in what the 1200 diamond grit will do with the stone now.

Something that I find maddening is that I'm now sure that if I was willing to drop the $1K - 2K for a proper cabbing setup I wouldn't be having this issue. I say this because I think that the expanding wheels on a full cabbing machine would take these scratches out in short order. Or to put it a different way - I'm not sure that I'm doing anything wrong, it is just that my equipment works the stone slowly.

It is a funny situation. Drop a couple grand and *know* I have equipment that can make better stones than I'm able but have no idea if I can make stones people will buy. Or, drop a couple hundred dollars that I'm willing to lose in order to test a possible income stream and constantly question if I can make a go of stones or if I'm just dealing with the limitations of my starting equipment.

Looks like I'll be dropping IXP and maybe IDU.





Will probably move into PCU.



I keep hearing good things about GLD and GDX. GDX looks ok but not as good as PCU. GLD looks like it will have a large pullback soon. I may hop on at that point.

Diet update

As of this morning I'm down to 299.

So down 29 pounds in around 3.5 weeks. This includes two birthday steak dinners (yes, my daughter takes after me).

One of my bosses went on a diet early 2000 which consisted of very low calorie intake for most of the day and eating like a hog for one meal. The catch was that the large meal had to be consumed within an hour. I didn't eat like a hog during those birthday meals but they were large and finished within an hour. Interesting data:

Day after first meal I gained a half pound and the day after that I dropped 3.5

Day after second meal I gained 1.5 pounds and two days later I dropped 2.5

I should not have dropped my calories down to 1600. For the past week and a half I've been falling asleep soon after coming home. At the end of last week I noticed a slowdown in reaction times during driving. Nothing dangerous, but still noticeable. Also been dealing with light to moderate cold symptoms. I'm astounded at the hunger control of the fiber, fat, and chewing gum.

As of 3/6 my daily calorie intake has been at 2000. This morning I chose to up my calories by 200 and will now add 200 every Monday & Thursday until my current calorie target of 2800 is hit (or lower if I drop below 290 before 3/20.

I noticed the calorie increase today around 1pm when my cold symptoms disappeared.

I'm thinking that I should have started at 2000 calories as opposed to 1600.

It's funny. Seems I tossed myself out of the frying pan and into the fire with the start of my diet. But I find I'm sleeping better and that I'm not so easily out of breath.

All in all I'm pleased.

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Forgot to mention what I'm eating now.

Breakfast:

12 ounces yogurt: 210 calories

4 ounces muesli: 200 calories

dried fruit (around 11 pieces of apple, pear, and pineapple): 200 calories

Divided up for 14 small meals every half hour from 10am-5pm:

32 ounces V-8: 200 calories

3 ounces crackers: 360 calories

string cheese: 60 calories

apple: 50 calories

jerky: 100 calories

extra cheese/stuff: 100 calories

Dinner:

700 calories of meat and fiber carbs

Not sure if I should add Thursday's 200 calories to lunch or split it up between breakfast and dinner. The more I eat during the day, the less slow I feel. The less I eat in the morning the longer it takes for me to feel human. Small dinners are putting me to sleep within a half hour of finishing.

As of this moment I'm leaning towards upping my breakfast and dinner.

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3/16 update --

I thought about what I said about dinner a bit more and now think the opposite is true. It is too many additional calories in comparison to what I took in during the day that puts me asleep.

So I'm planning to put the additional calories into breakfast and the snacks throughout the day