C'mon. There's only one Satoshi. Very Japanese.

I prefer a hobby.

This mempool congestion is annoying but luckily it shouldn't affect me too badly. I paid a much lower than usual fee today to transfer half a coin to one of my OTC dudes because I anticipated a possible Xmas dip and I liked $44k. I needed to give the taxman his monthly pound of flesh and have some extra bank money to cover utilities etc while I'm in Mexico. Surprisingly it confirmed quickly.

I should be good now until April and hopefully by then this pathetic ordinals crap should have passed like a constipation turd and fees will be more reasonable. Today's transaction was large enough that the fee really wasn't that important. It's still much cheaper and faster than any other payment method except cash hand-to-hand.

The one place where it will affect me is my ride to the airport. My go-to driver not only charges me much less than a taxi but he takes payment in Bitcoin. The fee I paid today is more than he charges me. I guess I'll have to pay him with fiat. Oh well.

You too. And happy holidays for anyone offended by Christmas.

Today's the winter solstice here in the northern hemisphere and the pagans are having a ball. They're closing off streets for a "Festival of Lights" in one neighborhood and having a big parade complete with stilt-walkers, fire-eaters, tribal drums and a big bonfire in the park, all under careful supervision of the Toronto Fire Department. One entrepreneur is even selling little tealight-burning paper lanterns on sticks for the parade-goers.

There's a reason why many religions seem to have their biggest holiday at this time of year. It's the solstice. Oh boy, the sun's not dying... the days are getting longer again. Let's celebrate.

Thanx bro. Turkey's in the fridge. Gifts are mostly bought and wrapped.

I'll be putting on the Santa suit on Saturday and playing Xmas songs on the Hammond organ at the local pub, doing a mix of traditional Christmas carols and the popular Xmas songs of the baby boomers' childhood (which are now standards and thrust upon every generation since!). I'm really a bassist but I like doing the one-man-band thing on the organ, playing the bass pedals with different parts on the two manual keyboards. It's kinda like juggling... you've only got two sides of the brain but three parts to deal with. One part has to be in the air, in this case my left hand which kinda goes on autopilot playing whatever chord the right hand melody and left foot bass line are doing. Fun.

Wife's already down in Mexico City for Christmas with her family there. I'll be with my family here in Toronto and then we'll fly to Cancun during the first week of January to meet at the airport there and start our winter in Quintana Roo. By then we'll both be ready to relax for a while on the Caribbean before heading out to the jungle to build a roof on the new house..
 
The holiday season can be hectic but I still love it. Have a great one yourself.

Good morning Bitcoinland. Still hovering around $44k.

Hoping for a nice price boost before I have to sell some before going to Mexico in January.

Speaking of price boosts here are some more images from my archives:

 
 

Bitcoin smashing through the one dollar barrier followed by $1000 and then $10k. Somewhere I've got one for a hundred bucks. Maybe I'll find it. Also my read on the long-term circa 2016-7.

Ahh, the memories.

Speaking of CCMF trains, I just came across an old data key full of cool images I hoarded several years ago. Here's a CCMF train and the original "don't miss the train" meme that sparked the whole CCMF business:

 

Edit: Upon posting, I just noticed I passed 4k merits. Thanx all!

Here's the queen mother Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon around the age of 90. She lived to be 101 years old drinking massive amounts every day.

Being stress-free is excellent for one's health.




I try to ascribe to the Keith Richards/Chuck Berry system of longevity: sex and drugs and rock and roll all night and party every day. It beats exercise machines.

That reminds me of our old pal Blind Mayor Bitcorn (alias Rosewater Foundation).



He was flying high at one point. I had to talk him out of selling his entire stash to buy an overpriced downtown condo with a crippling mortgage and "maintenance" fees. I think that was in 2017.

Within a few months he lost his job as an employee. He hadn't prepared himself to live as a non-employee. He was forced to sell his corn to survive. The condo would have bankrupted him. Then he came down with celiac disease and that really messed him up. Eventually his stash ran out and he was forced to move out of Toronto. Like any big city, it's expensive here.

I haven't heard from him since. That's probably about the time he stopped posting here on Bitcointalk. Pity. He was a fun guy who liked his beer.

A "paper" wallet isn't necessarily paper nor a wallet in the sense of funds going in and out of it on an ongoing basis. It is just an address.

It is simply two alphanumeric strings, one public key and one private key. The only security consideration is how these addresses are created and stored.

Strings can be split into sections and stored in different locations or media. They can additionally be encrypted or passworded/phrased.. They should only be created offline on a computer which cannot be connected to the internet. Protecting those private keys is paramount. Private keys should only be used once and then new addresses created.

So simple, so secure.

Wow. You made me a second "3D" hat for free.

Then again, I didn't ask for it, you offered it. Thanx again.

Let us prey.... upon those who fail to hodl.

Most accurate reasonable prediction ever!  

@AlcoHoDL

ftfy  

Been there, done that. I was a landlord back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Had one tenant for whom I did a favor because she came recommended by someone who had lent me $40k interest-free toward the down payment on the house. I let her move in without paying the last-month's rent, two weeks early rent-free while I finished papering and painting upstairs because I heard she was couch surfing with her young child.

What a mistake. The bitch never gave me another penny, vandalized the place, called the building inspectors, health department and anyone else she thought could give me a hard time and demanded I pay her $10k to move out. That was a third of a century ago and was a lot of money. I went to the local small landlord self-help center to get free advice on the proper legal eviction procedure because I found out that she was connected to a radical left-wing community legal clinic with a reputation for screwing landlords. They supplied me with the eviction forms but I had to do everything myself... serving the papers, filing affidavits of service, booking the court dates, etc.

It took me almost 6 months and several court appearances to finally get her out. Meanwhile I had to keep paying the mortgage, taxes and utilities. The night before the final court date, neighbors called me to tell me she was moving out in the middle of the night. The next day I finally got the eviction order and was awarded over $9k but of course I never saw a dime of it. You can't get blood from a stone.

When I bought our house last year, we inherited a basement tenant who has been there for over 8 years, always pays his rent on time, is a workaholic who's seldom home and makes no noise. He also has a cat, which helps keep rodents away. I met him before closing by chance in a local bar when he overheard me describing our upcoming purchase to the bar owner. He mentioned the address and asked if that was the place. He said he lived there, loved it and hoped he wouldn't have to move. I assured him we had no intention of evicting him or even raising his rent and that he would barely even notice the change in ownership.

Best thing we've done. A few hundred dollars less revenues per month is a small price to pay for the peace of mind of having a tenant who is almost like a partner. He watches over the property while we're in Mexico during the winter and will take care of any crises that may occur.

Landlords and tenants should be partners, not adversaries.

Nice clothes are somehow better than cheap ones? Nice clothes can be cheap and expensive ones are often garbage. A $15 pair of sturdy Levis or Wrangler jeans will almost always outlast a pair of designer jeans costing hundreds. Buying quality is what matters. A pair of Blundstone boots may be expensive but they are made to last (in more than one way!  ). Nike footwear on the other hand is just overpriced garbage.

Unneeded real estate? The house I bought last year is not only an investment but it also provides rental revenues and a much larger living space for us plus a totally private rooftop patio. The lake I bought a couple of years ago may not provide any immediate revenues but it does save on what I used to pay to rent a rural retreat. It also represents a considerable long-term investment.

Wasting money on a car is (to me) just silly. Unlike land which is an appreciating asset, cars are a depreciating asset. They also cost a lot to maintain and operate. Here in downtown Toronto just a parking space costs several hundreds of dollars per month. You can rent your parking space out for hundreds if you don't have a car. Parking lots and meters are also expensive, not to mention the inevitable tickets. Then there's insurance, fuel, maintenance, licensing costs, etc. I figure the cost of owning a car in the city is thousands per month. I can take several taxis per day for less than that and save the hassle of driving. Maybe when bitcoins cost millions I'll be able to afford a full-time chauffeur, until then I'll make do with part-time drivers, just like having a part-time cleaning lady. Do some people get as attached to their vacuum cleaners as they do to their cars? Also, driving impairs drinking.  

To each their own.

I subscribe to semi-austerity. No Lambos, yachts or fancy restaurant meals.

We buy as much of our costlier foods (meats, cheeses, etc) when they go on sale and keep a well stocked freezer. We get our fresh fruits and vegetables from local family greengrocers and cook everything from raw to eat at home. We do however pay to get dry aged AAAA Prime steaks from a local high-end butcher shop. We get our burger freshly ground from pieces of beef and pork I personally select at a lower-cost family butcher shop. No scraps.

The one exception we make is prime rib roast. To make really good prime rib you need not only the finest beef but also it must be the entire standing rib. None of our ovens are large enough. Also I prefer extra rare while my wife insists on well-done. That means we go out to a restaurant that is the flagship location of a chain of steakhouses and gets the best meat. Even that's for special occasions.

I wear mostly second-hand clothing. Why pay $100 for a pair of Levis when I can get an almost-new pair for $12-$15? I buy only high-end boots but only at discount prices.

I don't drive a car so the only vehicles I own are my ATVs. My workhorse, a four-seat John Deere Gator with all the top-end options, I bought with Bitcoin near the top of the market. The price was based on a dollar value of less than half price even though it had only a few kilometers on it. It was in such great condition that most people upon first seeing it assume it's brand-new.

Our only boat is a pedal boat. No motors on our pristine lake.

We try to fly at the cheapest times and on the cheapest airlines, always economy class. When we stay in Playa del Carmen, we stay in a small family-owned hotel where we can get a spacious room with a small kitchen and dinette for $25USD per night, and cook our own meals.

Most of the bitcoins I've sold have gone into real estate and I consider that to be just a diversification of investments.

No need to splurge and act like a high-roller when that really means just being another consumerist sucker.

 

Nicholas of Myra and Jesus of Nazareth were both real men. Divine bestowment of either one by power-hungry, revenue-based organizations is what's up for debate

Bear market?

It's been a bull market for over a year now.

The price has almost tripled since November 2022.

Sell at $48626?

That's silly. Keep buying and sell only when necessary. Take your profits in Bitcoin.

"Technical" analysts may see Fibonacci. I see the price tripling in the 2023 calendar year.

Interestingly, that big wall is almost exactly at the point where the price would have tripled in the 2013 calendar year.