I had put my max difficulty/evil plot arc Fire Emblem playthrough on ice so that I had something to do on flights and layovers for our Jamaica trip.


2020 happened instead, but it turns out a turn-based game on Switch is pretty good for parenting. Plus I used Byleth as Dani's portrait for now, so I kind of have to.


The flyer strategy is working out well with pre-endgame battles. There have been some challenging paralogue quests, but the main story is pretty doable with a modest amount of pre-battle tinkering.


Over the weekend, some WSBers decided to take the "we're ape investors/strong together" meme and use it for good.


Donations eventually exceeded 300k and evoked a response from their main benificiary.

/u/IforgotmyAOLpassword This is so much better than the ass tattoos. Still waiting on the chest shitter tho.

/u/TheRealSamBell What about a tattoo of an adopted gorilla on the ass?

/u/AutumnCrystal There was mention of a green candle ..

/u/WillieDaWonka ah yes, the green candle. I'm still waiting for thid payment.

/u/TheRealSamBell That dude went awol. You can't find the chest shitter username anymore

Meanwhile, the standard practice of wagering nonmonetary photos/videos if a price target is hit has seen a few accounts disappear. And Huffman told congress that the sub was full of authentic people, smh my head.

Symbol	Qty	Cost	Proceeds	Gain	Notes
GME Jan 29 '21 $36 Put w	1	$130.51	$0.00	-$130.51	Protective
GME Feb 05 '21 $165 Call w	1	$0.00	$2,314.43	$2,314.43
GME Feb 05 '21 $38 Put w	1	$253.51	$0.00	-$253.51	Protective
GME Feb 12 '21 $69 Call w	1	$0.00	$499.47	$499.47
GME Feb 26 '21 $190 Call w	1	$0.00	$2,999.47	$2,999.47
GME Mar 05 '21 $150 Call w	1	$0.00	$774.48	$774.48
GME	300	$39,868.17	$40,901.48	$1,033.20
Total	-	-	-	$7,237.03

Being currently out of GME (CSP on Thursday maybe...), I think my action could be classified as "FOMO, not YOLO". Apologies for the spreadsheet dump that etrade provides.

Side note: to convert dollars to text in Excel:

JK more meme stonks

There are three more meme stocks that accompanied GME: AMC, Blackberry, and Nokia.

Symbol	Qty	Cost	Proceeds	Gain	Notes
AMC Jan 29 '21 $14 Call w	1	$0.00	$101.48	$101.48
AMC Feb 05 '21 $15 Call w	2	$0.00	$800.95	$800.95
AMC Feb 12 '21 $6.50 Call w	1	$0.00	$45.48	$45.48
AMC Feb 26 '21 $14 Call w	1	$0.00	$108.48	$108.48
AMC Feb 26 '21 $17.50 Call w	1	$0.00	$66.48	$66.48
AMC Mar 05 '21 $10 Call w	1	$0.00	$59.48	$59.48
AMC Mar 05 '21 $15 Call w	1	$0.00	$21.48	$21.48
AMC Mar 12 '21 $13.50 Call w	1	$0.00	$25.48	$25.48
AMC Mar 12 '21 $15 Call w	1	$0.00	$37.48	$37.48
AMC	100	$1,480.50	$1,147.48	-$333.02
Total	-	-	-	$933.77	Holding 200 more shares @ 12.62

AMC is currently a couple bucks above my purchase price.

Symbol	Qty	Cost	Proceeds	Gain	Notes
BB Jan 29 '21 $23 Call w	2	$0.00	$372.96	$372.96
BB Jan 29 '21 $25 Call w	1	$0.00	$279.48	$279.48
BB Jan 29 '21 $12.50 Put w	1	$8.01	$82.48	$74.47
BB Feb 05 '21 $13 Call w	3	$493.54	$721.43	$227.89
BB Feb 05 '21 $18 Call w	2	$0.00	$216.96	$216.96
BB Feb 12 '21 $15 Call w	3	$0.00	$88.44	$88.44
Total	-	-	-	$1260.20	Holding 300 shares @ 14.93

BB is currently a couple bucks below my purchase price.

Source.

Nokia was pretty straightforward, I was up $110 and down $506 on a couple of speculative calls. I also bought 100 shares near the $7 peak. I'm somewhat bullish about their fortunes a year or two down the road as the need for mobile infrastructure continues to grow.

Okay back to wheels

Jon	I'm interested in your seminar on covered calls.

Ten weeks into 2021, here's how things look with the regular wheel action. Painfully absent from the information reported by etrade:

• Weekly money/shares fronted to make options premiums.
• Value of currently held stocks. Yes I could provide this as a separate table.

Symbol	Qty	Cost	Proceeds	Gain	Notes
AAPL Feb 12 '21 $135 Put w	1	$69.51	$107.48	$37.97
AAPL Mar 05 '21 $125 Call w	1	$0.00	$223.48	$223.48
AAPL Mar 12 '21 $123 Call w	1	$0.00	$110.48	$110.48
AKAM	100	$11,180.52	$9,646.36	-$1,534.16	Ouch
AMD Feb 05 '21 $89.50 Call w	1	$0.00	$85.48	$85.48
AMD Feb 05 '21 $87.50 Put w	1	$0.00	$89.48	$89.48
AMD Mar 05 '21 $86 Call w	1	$0.00	$118.48	$118.48
AMD	100	$8,895.52	$9,333.26	$437.74
CRSR Jan 15 '21 $35 Put	1	$7.01	$199.48	$192.47
CRSR Feb 19 '21 $40 Call	1	$0.00	$407.48	$407.48
CRSR Feb 19 '21 $35 Put	2	$0.00	$708.96	$708.96
ERIC Jan 21 '22 $12 Call	3	$573.54	$898.43	$324.89
ERIC	200	$1,882.00	$2,359.55	$477.55
INTC Jan 29 '21 $56.50 Call w	1	$0.00	$51.48	$51.48
INTC	100	$5,633.00	$5,652.86	$19.86
JETS Jan 15 '21 $18 Put	2	$109.03	$0.00	-$109.03
MJ Jan 15 '21 $14 Put	3	$15.04	$124.44	$109.40
MJ Feb 19 '21 $28 Call	1	$0.00	$74.48	$74.48
MJ Feb 19 '21 $31 Call	1	$0.00	$39.48	$39.48
MJ Feb 19 '21 $18 Put	4	$114.55	$437.92	$323.37
MJ Feb 26 '21 $26.50 Call w	1	$0.00	$34.48	$34.48
MJ Mar 05 '21 $24 Call w	1	$0.00	$54.48	$54.48
MJ Mar 05 '21 $25 Call w	1	$0.00	$29.48	$29.48
MJ Jul 16 '21 $22 Call	1	$160.51	$249.48	$88.97
MJ	200	$4,122.93	$4,690.96	$568.03
NVDA Jan 08 '21 $537.50 Call w	1	$0.00	$522.47	$522.47
NVDA Jan 15 '21 $540 Call	1	$0.00	$307.48	$307.48
NVDA Jan 15 '21 $560 Call	1	$35.51	$1,021.46	$985.95
NVDA	100	$51,810.52	$53,111.29	$1,300.77
PFE Jan 08 '21 $40 Call w	3	$538.54	$0.00	-$538.54	They save the world and this is how you treat them?
PFE Feb 05 '21 $37.50 Call w	4	$202.06	$0.00	-$202.06
PLTR Jan 15 '21 $24.50 Put	1	$20.51	$80.48	$59.97
PLTR Mar 12 '21 $21.50 Put w	2	$0.00	$112.96	$112.96
RKT Jan 15 '21 $27 Call	2	$0.00	$92.96	$92.96
RKT Jan 15 '21 $19.50 Put	1	$0.00	$52.48	$52.48
RKT Jan 29 '21 $19 Put w	1	$2.01	$48.48	$46.47
RKT Mar 05 '21 $27 Call w	2	$0.00	$82.96	$82.96
RKT Mar 12 '21 $27.39 Call w	1	$0.00	$150.48	$150.48
RKT Mar 12 '21 $28.89 Call w	1	$0.00	$134.48	$134.48
RKT	115	$3,312.30	$2,307.98	-$129.26	Sold some to free up funds
SPCE Jan 29 '21 $34 Put w	1	$2.01	$133.48	$131.47
SPCE Feb 05 '21 $44 Put w	1	$0.00	$111.48	$111.48
SPCE Feb 05 '21 $51 Put w	1	$0.00	$115.48	$115.48
SPCE Mar 12 '21 $35 Call w	1	$0.00	$34.48	$34.48
SPCE	200	$5,003.04	$5,038.82	$35.78
TSM Jan 29 '21 $133 Call w	1	$0.00	$131.48	$131.48
TSM Feb 05 '21 $132 Call w	1	$0.00	$63.48	$63.48
TSM Mar 05 '21 $132 Call w	1	$0.00	$76.48	$76.48
TSM	100	$13,107.00	$13,518.17	$411.17
TWTR Feb 12 '21 $56 Put w	1	$1.01	$248.48	$247.47
USO Apr 16 '21 $34 Call	2	$207.03	$474.95	$267.92
USO Jan 21 '22 $43 Call	2	$207.03	$318.96	$111.93
XOM Jan 15 '21 $47 Put	1	$18.51	$86.48	$67.97
YOLO Feb 19 '21 $27 Put	1	$0.00	$114.48	$114.48
Total	-	-	-	$7,865.42

To address the aforementioned current holdings issue, I'm $5-20 per share down on CRSR, PFE, SPCE, TSM. I've continued to sell calls and won't be dissatisfied if I take a small loss on any of these positions.

A semi-meme outlier here is the $40 RKT call I sold for $625. I counted it here because I consider RKT to be a growth stock.


My co-op Bloodborne adventure ended in, well, appropriate fashion. J was waiting for me to come online and explored ahead a little. He had a conversation with a dude who, I guess, bypasses the final boss and ends the game. Since I hadn't beaten the second-to-final boss and probably couldn't manage without a carry, I decided my ending was about as good as J's.



With Nioh 2 coming up, we decided to take a diversion into one of the PS+ games for this month, Remnant: From the Ashes.


It quickly feels like a The Last of Us-like setting mixed with some Fallout gear and technology.


There's also a bit of a Half-Lifey supernatural element that (two sessions in) I'm not sure I totally understand.


The action mechanics are like The Division or Gears of War without the cover-shooting aspect. Firearms and enemies have elemental effects, one of which was very similar to Bloodborne's frenzy.


Action skills can be applied to each of your two equipped firearms. Pictured above is the enemy highlight/prime mechanic, there's also incendiary ammo, healing pools, and so forth.


The bosses, even down to the fog door, are souls-inspired. They aren't easy.


The gear system is neither deep nor shallow. There are a bunch of firearms available, each of which can be upgraded with currency. Same for armor that has matching set bonuses. Jewelry has some interesting effects including ones that buff certain traits at the cost of others.


To be entirely honest, the first few hours of Remnant gave me the impression it was an indie game punching above its weight. The story, dialogue, and initial few environments feel heavily borrowed and some graphics elements such as character models felt a generation behind. While there's truth to all of that, the moment we hit the crazy alien desert I realized that there is more to this game than cutting and pasting tried and true shooter/souls elements. The claustrophobic streetscape turned into a (still on wide rails) I-don't-know-the-lore alien desert ruins that with thoughtful environment design.


I should also say there's a fundamental element of randomization to both the maps and the enemy encounters. This is all second hand so I'm not sure the full story, but director/procedural generation is a neat way to make a game feel less scripted and more replayable. It can also make a playthrough seem generic. We'll see how this one goes.

Rob	I don't understand why I'm legally allowed near software.

I ever tell you about the time my buddy Keith and I were on the top of a burning building and we had to fight our way down like five floors of zombies? Wait a second. I guess that was you guys. Aww, shit, man, I can't wait to tell Keith about that one.

?

Danielle arrived.


I don't have a ton to say about the delivery, except this dank contraction meme.

Jon	How about Valentina Rossi Ritchie? She may become a "doctor".

There hasn't been a shortage of congratuations, suggestions, and advice. It's nice to hear from people after a year of covid. We should do this more often.

Anonymous

When you get discharged people will give you a patronizing comment of how, "daddy has to babysit today", and you finally get to get on the social justice high horse and scream, "I'm fucking parenting, bitch, not babysitting. Maybe if your parents woulda done some of that you wouldn't be so stupid." I mean, make it your own thing, play with it. It's fun.

There's no such thing as bad advice, just bad people.


My contribution to parenting has been removing the wrist rope from a sponge and using it as a stroller leash for hills.



While my Pliny the Younger order did not go through Kevin's did and he was nice enough to share a bottle with me.


Any conversation about Pliny inevitably includes someone hating on the hype beer and naming something they'd rather have. While it's true that no beer is really worth Pliny quantities of commotion (well, maybe Brew Dog's End of History), it's undeniably an amazing beer. The hype makes you go in looking for a reason to criticize it - "it's too hoppy", "it's too dry/it burns", "it doesn't have much flavor", "it's undrinkably flavorful". None of these apply, it's absolute dead center on the pale/IPA chart and does so bringing 10.25% to the table.

If it was mass-produced, it'd be like an Arrogant Bastard that drinks like a Yellow Tail. That is, it'd be dangerous to civilized society.


I don't even know how the adjust the seat yet, but I've moved to the current gen Tacoma. Carvana was a pretty decent car buying experience - the truck was delivered quickly and they seem to deal primarily in low-wear vehicles. The only snag I hit was somewhat misleading messaging on the order process - you get dibs on the vehicle when you provide a (fully-refundable) down payment. For the (normal?) financed case, this is something cheap like 5 or 10% of the purchase price. In my case of just paying cash, the down payment was the entire sticker price, which is more than I typically keep in a checking account (because that would be dumb). The problem is twofold: first, it means you need to move money before initiating the purchase process and by then your desired vehicle could be gone. Second, the cash-purchase-down-payment-is-the-full-price bit isn't obvious until you're pretty far along in the ordering process, so it's pretty annoying for a first time customer.


Ultimately I think I'd go back to them so long as they maintain their binding arbitration opt-out. I still disagree with having to opt out in the first place, but at least it's an option.


The (now grand)parents came down to help with the dog and some nursery projects that we'd originally planned to do in December before the covid surge. Since we had a bunch of time, Dad and I took on a few things, including moving the entry fence from urethane to stain.


The nursery got closeting, but the main project was putting up the whimsical, fantastical wall mural that Jes found on Etsy or something. The mural was printed on vinyl (rather than, say, wallpaper or paint-by-numbers) and was described as appropriate for smooth, primered drywall.


Applying the 7x2' strips was not easy and required three sets of hands, but we did a pretty good job. Hopefully Danielle will have something interesting to look at during the crib years and beyond.


The lolbaters started a Valheim playthrough the evening before Jes and I headed to the labor and delivery. It's a Viking afterlife-themed survival game that supports ten co-op players.


You start by building wood huts that provide shelter from the elements and the ability to craft of basic tools. As you gather more wood and stone, you create more Age of Empiresy workbenches and kilns and beehives that allow you to construct even more stuff. While your town does get invaded from time to time, it's closer to Fallout 4's settlement-as-busywork mechanic.


There's plenty of procedurally-generated terrain to hunt and gather from, the visuals are both very pretty and unrefined (it's pre-release).


Hunting with a knife isn't too bad as long as you remember to sneak.


Game progression involves taking down a series of bosses scattered across the map. They serve as gates for your village/equipment leveling.

GME

After languishing in the $40s, GME got a second wind. Much like last time when I sold a covered call for a tidy profit, on Monday morning I sold a $190 call against an adjusted cost basis of $175. Adjusted: had 200 shares, and half of them hit a stop loss, averaging me up to $175/share.

Chris	[GME Mar 12 $190 Call executed at $14.03]
		And now that call is in the money.		Zac
		Did you follow your own advice, Zac?		Sants
		And buy GME when I sold?
		No :(		Zac
		I YOLOed it. I'm rich as hell now.		Kevin
		Would be a nice thing to say, but I didn't.

So this one is about $3,000 of gains, but about a third of what I would have made by simply selling at market close today. That sound bitter but it's really more amusing; who can be mad about a $1,400 weekly? While I'm currently happy to be relieved of my GME position for a tidy gain, FOMO is wondering how many weeks of insane IV I may miss out on.

Non-meme stonks

Zac	You have to think big to stonk big.

We had a pretty decent market/nasdaq dip before getting back to all-time highs. Unfortunately, some of my favorite nasdaq wheels haven't recovered. Actually, strike that, only CRSR hasn't recovered. The others I bought even though I don't like them, namely AAPL and AKAM.

On the flip side, two of my long term holds (MJ and RKT) experienced a few days of high volatility from which I was able to extract good call premiums.

Kevin	I took Chris's $MJ advice a few months ago. Glad it's paying off.
	Makes up for that $GME bust he predicted.
		What is $MJ?		Sants
	*shrug* Just letters to me.
	I like to know as little as possible about where I put my money.
		Lol cannabis ETF.		Ryan

I'll hopefully soon get around to posting updated wheel returns as a way of showing the effect of a market dip. Despite repeated stories about in-control inflation, since gold is pretty low, I've bought into a couple of ETFs.

Anonymous

I don't want to give money to Trump app developers [Phunware]. Might as well write a check directly to "White people".

This one time, my buddy Keith started up a historic tour, on account of his mom took him to Colonial Williamsburg, and it's like a license to print money at them places. Now you might ask yourself how an honest attempt to recreate the majesty of Colonial times turned into raccoon fights at five bucks a pop in Keith's backyard, ha-ha. Man, the answer to that particular question is that Keith is sharing a place with his two brothers and them being assholes who wouldn't let them do it anywhere but the backyard; well, add that to Keith didn't technically have any, y'know, history to put on display, but he did have a whole family of raccoons living in the chassis of an old car and you'd begin to understand.

?