So, what I realize is that often when I get a set of instructions to do something, I read them, and I get them wrong. Or remember them incorrectly. For instance, in the “Edit a Photo Album” exercise, I went through all the steps that were taking me towards isolating one of the small photographs on the page, and as I reached the end of the exercise, I realized that the exercise ACTUALLY asked us to isolate one to 10 small pieces from all the photographs on the page. So, if I want to do things according to instructions, I have to re-orient myself and do it “right”. It’s so curious to me how I make these mistakes. Often. It’s not as if the instructions are not clear, it’s more like I seem to get the general idea, and then my own imagination takes over. So…for this one, I’m going to restate the assignment first:
perform and document one of my real life routines. Document it 10 times, over a day or days. Can be simple or complex.
So, my first thought was: I don’t want to do this over ten days. I’ll forget a day or two in there, or I’ll have to skip the routine I’ve chosen and there will be a break in my documentation, so I had to think about something that is a regular routine within a day. I didn’t want to create a new routine, because I knew I’d probably forget about that. I wanted to chose something that I do, and that I won’t forget to do, and that I won’t stop doing.
I decided to select checking my $ balance in an app that I use to buy and sell crypto currency. The app is called WealthSimple, and a few months ago my grandson encouraged me to invest some money in crypto. I thought that sounded like an interesting idea, mostly because I wanted to learn more about crypto currency, NFTs, Defi, blockchains…etc. I really didn’t know much about crypto at all, and I thought it might be interesting. Investing some money in crypto stocks would be a good way to get to know this part of the world, so I did. I initially invested $200 in a variety of crypto stocks, purchasing through the WealthSimple app, and am able to check the value of the stocks 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And I do…keep tabs…on what is happening to my $200. Here is today’s story of my crypto investments.
The app in question is the black “W” on the sea foam green background. It’s called WealthSimple. It’s an easy app to get started on. Note that right next to it is Reddit. Reddit is a platform that enables me to join discussion groups related to the crypto (and other) stocks that I have purchased. Those who discuss stocks on Reddit are often referred to as “apes”, and apes have alternative words for most things related to investing. For instance, stocks are called “stonks”, and a rising price is referred to as “going to the moon”. I think I’m attracted to the way language is used in the crypto world. I mean, the stocks have great names like “Smooth Love Potion”, “Nervos Network”, “Dogelon Mars”…compare that to Western Forest Products or Telus…this is a screen shot from my cell phone.screen shot at 10:36 am. One of the things I check every time is the current stock price for each of the stocks I own. As you can see, I don’t actually own a complete BTC (bitcoin) stock, currently going for $84,000.50 CDN, but a very small percentage of one stock. On another window that I can check, it shows that I own 0.000614 of a BTC stock, with a current total value of $51.53, up $1.05 from what I initially paid for it. So, while I’m always checking my changing total worth, I’m also looking to see what is going up and what’s going down, to see if I want to buy or sell…I have the settings at the 1 month trend, so to make decisions about buying or selling, I need to look at all the other timings: 1 hour, 24 hours, 1 week, etc. This is a screenshot of a message from my grandson, who has sent me a “stock tip” in the form of a link to an article about a cannabis stock on the TSE. I took a quick look and see that the current stock price is around .46, but since I have no cash in my account, I won’t be able to buy any. Because I have “rules” that I must follow. And one of those rules is that I must work within my $200 initial cash investment into WealthSimple . Since most stocks seem to be going down today, I will likely hold. (update on the Willow stock. It’s not a crypto stock but a regular stock on the TSE. I did also buy some non-crypto stock through WealthSimple, and could actually buy some as I have a modest balance available to me on that side of the house. Willow is a cannabis company, so I have to examine whether I want to invest in cannabis. In general, I’ve read that cannabis is not a particularly good investment these days. And that takes me to the point: don’t just accept others’ advice. Do your own research.
At this point, I decide to check the instructions again. I see that I am missing the mark. I’m supposed to be performing so I guess I should show myself checking my stocks instead of just taking screen shots from the app. I’ll re-orient this…
This is what my face looks like just before I open the app to check the prices on my stocks. Will they be up? Will they be down? Even such small stakes are exciting! (To the left of my head in this picture is a tower of Barbie Dolls).
As I review this project, and realize that I have to put it onto BBL, I also realize that I don’t want to share this at this point. So, I will do the third option, Lab C, Grapefruit.
Spätblühendes Künstlertagebuch 