20% December

At first I was going to evaluate my success by getting a prototype made by the end of the semester, which is still a possibility, but I didn't realize how many small details went into this. I wis thinking of using wristify technology to keep kids cool, but thinking about it football is a very hard hitting sport with lots of contact and if one of those wristifys were to get broken they could possibly hurt the kid instead of help him. I thought I could protect it a shoulder pad but I just think the risk definetly out weighs the benefit on this one. Instead what I want to do now is put a tube that curves and covers the most amount of skin possible, and say its a time out or half time or something you attach a hose at the top of the tube that runs through the pads and fill it with water, then when you have to go back to the game turn the drain on and it will drain within seconds. I haven't really had any major obstacles except for missing Fridays at school. This month I came up with idea of using these thin tubes instead of using the wristify technology.

Compare and Contrast

In communistic country's the government will decide what school you go to and what classes you take, and will eventually decide what job you're going to do. In a socialistic country there would most likely be a mix of public and private schools, but people would be able to pick the classes and schools they want. In a capitalistic country all of the schools would be private and you would have to wear a uniform, but you would get to pick the school and education courses you want to take.

Book Review

I actually ended up enjoying this book more than I thought I was going to. At first I didn't really think I would enjoy reading about economics and ways to stay out of debt. After reading a little ways into the book I really started to apreciate the tips and knowledge they share about keeping yourself out of debt. One of my favorite quotes from the book is, "Engage in one kind of business only, and stick to it faithfully until you succeed, or until your experience shows that you should abandon it." I think it's kind of ironic that the book tells us to focus solely on one type of business when in school we are raised to be well rounded and have a diverse set of skills, but in reality we probably will end up only needing one specific set of skills. Another quote I really liked from the is book is, "Firstly, repetition and reminder of the basics are important in any field of endeavor where you are actually trying to ACHIEVE something specific."  Again just comparing this to school where we go over so many different things briefly it's like the book is telling us to do something completely different than what we are doing in public schooling.

Minimum Wage

I personally don't think that minimum wage should be raised. In an article by Kevin hassett and Michael Strain they state that raising minimum wage makes it more expensive  to afford workers. If a business can't afford workers then the business owner is going to have to take on a heavier work load or they will have to go out of business. It feels like to me we as a country are already battling unemployment, and yet we want to raise minimum wage and make unemployment worse. Another argument these two use is that a majority of people that live in poverty aren't even working, so why do we need to pay people who aren't living in poverty more. In an article by Michael Saltsman on CNN he says raising minimum wage won't lower poverty because again most people living in poverty don't work and he also says most working people will earn a raise after the first 12 months on the job, but can't get a raise with out experience, and if businesses can't afford to provide them experience the people won't get jobs. Jack Anderson an entrepreneur states on forbes that about half of  middle skilled workers would be fired, and the ones that were kept would get a big raise but would also have to do a lot more work. By raising minimum wage we aren't necessarily fixing anything.
















http://www.aei.org/article/economics/fiscal-policy/labor/why-we-shouldnt-raise-the-minimum-wage/#mbl

http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/16/opinion/saltsman-minimum-wage/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2013/02/20/why-shouldnt-we-increase-the-minimum-wage-to-20hour/

Stocks, dividends, trades, catalyst

Stock- A stock is kind of like a tiny piece of a business, so if I buy a stock I make part of the money that business makes.

Dividend- A dividend is a certain amount of money you will get paid by a company you invest in annually or whatever time period the company chooses.

Trade- A trade is a short term investment that you buy and usually  sell after the first catalyst so you usually sell within six months.

Catalyst- A catalyst is something that should cause a company to make a lot of money really fast and over a short period of time.

Lemonade Stand Game

Variables- Weather, number of people to walk by, number of ice cubes per cup, sugar per pitcher, lemons per pitcher, and price per cup.

Constants- Cups per pitcher, place of your stand

Perishables- ice, sugar, lemons

I learned that in the game at least that people are more likely to buy your lemonade if it's sweet rather than sour.

20% project November/December

At the end of October I had a good idea of how I wanted to build my prototype, but I have changed my mind on the way I want it done. I would like to use the technology of wristify, but it wouldn't be legal to wear it on your wrist, so I would build it into the shoulder pad and put it under a sort of protective dome that the shoulder pads already have. There are a few dangers though such as the wristify breaking and harming the user, or kids thinking they are cooler than they really are and pushing themselves to far. At the end of December I will have more research done on wristify and figure out a way to build it into the pad, but as far as having a finished product I will have to wait a while and see how well wristify actually works and if it would be a possibility.

Tax on Salary

I work for CHG in Cody, Wyoming so there is no income tax. I am taxed 28% on federal income tax. I multiplied 100,000 by .28 and got 22,145. I then subtracted 6539.5 to get my final answer of 78,539.50. When I heard my salary was 100,000 it sounded good, but after taxes it's not as good as I was expecting.

October/November 20% time

I accomplished part of my goal as far as the research goes, but I still have yet to build a prototype I know how I want to build it but I don't know exactly how the parts and pieces are going to be put together. I overcame how to keep the pads cool and light. I want a prototype at the end of November and I want a good set of pads built at the end of semester.

Black Jack

I walked into the class room and was handed chips for black jack, and I didn't even think to count how many I got. I knew the basic idea of how to play the game, but didn't know a lot of the "rules". I sat down at the table and as constantly one of the highest bidders. I went all in and got lucky that I got black jack and was payed double what I bet. In the end I got greedy and went all in again and didn't get so lucky, I lost everything I made. This thought me not to play the stock market with emotion, but with research and common sense.

Microsoft

I just bought the Microsoft stock about a week ago as a trade. I did this because the new Xbox is coming out in November and the Xbox is a very popular gaming system and is predicted to sell millions the first day. I might not have bought Microsoft if it were up and making money but when I bought it, it was down. I will sell this stock November 24th.

Trade vs Investment

When comparing trades and investments the first thing that comes to my mind is time. A trade usually lasts for less than six months, where an investment lasts longer than six months. If you buy a share of a company as an investment you will probably get a dividend. A dividend is where the company sends out small amounts of money to everybody who has a share in their company, this probably won't come out to be a lot of money. In a trade you don't usually get a dividend because you haven't been with the company long enough. In a trade if the value of your stock decreases you should probably sell if the catalyst has already happened; if the catalyst has not happened yet wait until it has and then you make a decision. In an investment if your stock goes down you can wait it out, sell it, or buy more. In my opinion the best thing to do here is buy more shares because that means you will start making money at a lower price. If a stock increases during a trade you could sell, but the best thing to do is wait until two or three days after the catalyst and then sell. If your investment is going up just keep letting it go up until it gets around 15%. When it comes to trades always wait until after the catalyst to try and sell. If you are investing you might go through several catalysts and still not sell. Short selling is a short term trade where you bet against the market.

Candy Stock Market

I remember meeting Mr. Kapptie outside of his classroom wondering what I was about to go through. At first I figured it would be some sort of activity that was about the stock market, but after listening to Mr. Kapptie talk about how hot it was inside and saw that the lights were off I started to second guess myself. When he first opened the door I noticed there was candy laying every where. At first I started grabbing handfuls of candy not knowing what I was really doing, but then the money laying on the floor caught my eye and instead of grabbing candy I resorted to grabbing all of the money I could find. After the chaos of cleaning the floor was over I looked around and realized I had a lot less candy than most people, but I also realized that I had a lot more money than everybody else in the room. At first when Mr. Kapptie started writing values on the board for different things I didn't really know what to do. After waiting for about five or six minutes of not buying or selling anything I decided to move all my candy to the middle of the room where people might see it. Right after moving my stuff to a new table Mr. Kapptie told me that sweet tarts were overrated, so I immediately started selling my sweet tarts. I had never learned anything about the stock market (aside from what I learned in class) before playing this game, and so I figured that to do we'll I would have to start buying more stuff. I started buying all the stuff that was lower money on the bored like tootsie pops, twizzlers, Heath bars, and laffy taffy. I had stored up a decent number of each item so at the end they really helped me. At the beginning of the game I grabbed four packs of nerds and couldn't sell them which worked out to my advantage because they split at the very end. After all of this chaos we were told to calculate our total value. I practically spent all my money by the end of the game which turned out to be a good thing I think I finished with a total around 5,000 something dollars.

20% project

My twenty percent project is to create football gear (mainly shoulder pads and helmets) that are good at keeping players cool. In the month of September I researched whether it would be better to try and make shoulder pads and helmets lighter which would make less work for the player wearing them, or I would try to put some sort of cooling system in the pads. After my research I discovered that it would probably be better to try and put a cooling system in the pads because making them lighter won't necesarilly make you a lot cooler. By the end of October I want to know or at least have a good idea on how the cooling system will work and how I will get them to fit in the pads.

After High School plans

After High School I want to go to college for athletic training, and hopefully play football wherever I go. I want to go to college somewhere like UW or CSU. I want to go to school somewhere, where it feels like home, but at the same time I want to know that I'm not at home. After college I would like to hopefully become an athletic trainer or an assistant athletic trainer so I can hopefully build up to be an athletic trainer. If I go to UW I will use the hathaway scholarship to help me afford schooling and I already have a college fund saved. Hopefully I could get a small football scholarship to help me pay for schooling as well. For a car all I really want is something that is gas and gets good gas mileage. My Grandma bought an old toyota Camry for 3 grand and it got 28 miles to the gallon. Hopefully I could find a deal like that. I would like to live somewhere in Colorado, Wyoming, or possibly South Dakota where I can live in a small town, and not be far away from a camping trip or fishing trip.The prices I saw for rent in Colorado were any where from 325 to 1014 a month. If I were going to live there I would probably try to live in one of the 600-700 dollar apartments because they looked nice and fairly big. I learned that a lot more money goes into college and the begining of your life on your own than I thought. http://www.apartmentsetc.com/searchresult/?Search_Region=Colorado+Springs