“The first rule of a panic is to panic early.” -peterpeter

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A Net Annualized Return of 11.06%? I’ll take it!

Lending Club is a social lending network that brings together investors and creditworthy borrowers to provide personal loans at rates that are generally better than those offered by traditional banks.

I opened an account with them last year, purchased Notes, and made my investments. Each Note corresponds to a portion of a consumer loan, and grants me the right to receive payments received by Lending Club under that consumer loan, minus a 1% service charge applied by Lending Club.

So far it’s been a great experience, partly driven by my net annualized return. As of today it’s at 11.06%.

That’s a heck of a lot better than the “high-yield” CD rates that are out there. It’s not as high as some other investments I’ve made in commodities over the last two years, specifically precious metals and a number of mining stocks, but it’s been a good alternative to the stock market for a portion of my portfolio. Plus, I feel like I’m helping people who got completely screwed over by the banks, the Fed, and the government in general. So there.

Hey - if you’re even remotely interested in investing with Lending Club, let me know and I’ll send you an invite from my account. Right now, they’re offering a no strings attached, no junk mail, $40.00 to invest in your account deal for joining. [and no, I don’t get anything out of the deal]

Drop me a line in the comments below or send me a private note via email or my contact form.

If you’re already using Lending Club, let me know. I’m interested in hearing about your experience with the company.

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I’ve spent the last four days being bounced between my pharmacy, my doctor, and my oh so wonderful insurance company trying to get a prescription refilled. 

It’s a controlled substance and as someone who once worked with controlled drugs and had the pleasure of working with DEA agents for inventory audits, I understand the complications that can be involved—but geez. I just need my drugs!

Anyway, I called back to my doctor’s office this morning to let them know that everything is finally resolved and to thank them for their help. Normally I don’t have to wait on the phone to talk to someone but this morning, I was put into a queue where the automated and somewhat ominous voice response told me, “You are the third caller. We will deal with you as soon as possible.”

“Deal with you”?

Interesting choice of words. How about “help you”? Or “assist you”? Or even something as simple as “we’ll be with you momentarily.”

Any time I hear the phrase “deal with you”, all I can think of is Admiral Piett’s conversation with Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi.

Admiral Piett: Shall I hold them?
Darth Vader: No. Leave them to me. I will deal with them myself.

Vader. That’s not the kind of help I want from my doctor’s office.

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What a long, rough climb.

Admittedly, it wasn’t nearly as bad as 2008. In retrospective, 2008 was the bottom of a dark and painful pit filled with venomous snakes, so 2009, as painful and tiring as it seemed, was a rope allowing me to climb out of my medical hell. I’m still climbing out but I can at least see the sunshine up ahead.

2009 was the year of vomit.
2009 was the year of a constantly bloody tongue.
2009 was the year of a destroyed immune system. [link]
2009 was the year of a paralyzing and insanely painful, and long shingles infection which plagues me to this day.

The shingles infection was also what gave me the motivation I needed to kick my body into gear and get healthy again. I got off the steroids. I stopped taking the chemo. I started living better—and it’s working. Slowly. But it’s working.

2009 was also:

The year I bought 50lbs of flour and learned how to make tasty pizza dough.
The year I got to watch my oldest daughter, Teagan, change from a little girl to a young lady (8 years old).
The year I witnessed my youngest daughter, Ayn, change from a baby to a little girl (2 years old).
The year that I got back into the garden after a 2 year hiatus.
The year of Howardpalooza 2009!!
The year I kicked-ass in the stock market by buying commodities early and hanging on for the ride.

My goals for the upcoming year are pretty simple:

Love more deeply.
Laugh more often.
Travel with the family.
Take better photos.
Share what I can.

I hope you’ve had a good year, learned a lot, and loved all.

See you in 2010.

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Oh Facebook. How I love thee.

I logged into Facebook this morning to find that I have no friends, all of my previous posts and photos are gone, and my profile is blank.

I’ll be adding my friends back over the next couple of days.

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As of yesterday, I subscribe to both the print and web versions of The Wall Street Journal—all for less than $3.00 a week.

I found that The WSJ offers new, compelling, and relevant information to me, standing in stark contrast to that other daily paper I receive. What’s more, their web site, while not advertising free, does place a firm focus on the value of a reader’s experience on the site and instead of littering the screen with ads. Hat tip to the designers at wsj.com. Nice work.

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I received the most amazing birthday gift tonight—a date with a totally hot, older woman in New York City.

Ever since taking ANTH 102: Intro to Biological Anthropology with Dr. Karen Rosenberg at the University of Delaware, I’ve had a thing for this woman named Lucy.

I’ll never forget seeing her for the first time on that slide projector in the anthro lab. Her delicate jaw, those sexy ribs, and a tight little pelvis allowing for bipedalism—oh man! Who cares if she’s 2.3 million years old. I think she’s totally hot.

While her trip from Ethiopia to the US has been the source of significant discussion within the anthropological community and I lean towards agreeing with both Owen Lovejoy and Richard Leakey in that she shouldn’t travel, I simply wanted to see her.

In 2007, I tried to arrange a trip to fly to Houston to see her at the Houston Museum of Natural Science but couldn’t justify the costs at the time. After that, I became reserved to the fact that I’d never see her in my lifetime.

Imagine my surprise tonight when I opened an envelope containing a paid trip to NYC to see her.

(Thank you Anitra, Lauren, Nancy, Teagan, and Ayn!!)

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