Open Answers to Open Questions
We recently opened our mailbag to the public and asked our readers to submit questions they were wondering about. While we have quite a few to sort through, to start I wanted to put one up from another well known author of a personal finance blog, My Investing Blog. Here are Hanks questions…
A few things I’ve been pondering, since it is open
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1. What is the meaning of life?
2. Do you think Jose Canseco saved or hurt baseball with his steroid tell all book?
3. How much have you ever won gambling in Vegas?
4. Should K-Fed get back together with Britney?
5. Why is the sky blue?
6. How do you guy have such an awesome blog?Anything it is!
-Hank@MyInvestingBlog.com
Alrighty, let’s start at the beginning:
1.) What is the meaning of life?
We all know this: 42. Next question. Haha, just kidding. This probably has a different answer depending on who asks it. Steve Ballmer of Microsoft would probably say that the meaning of life is for you to pay him money to use a Microsoft product (OR he might say its “Developers“), while the Dalai Lama wants world peace.
Ask someone with a science background what they think and they will invariably say that the meaning of life is simply to produce more life: procreation. That argument is difficult to accept due to its extreme simplicity, and while technically might be true, is not quite as meaningful for us humans. A more sensitive answer might be that we are here to help our fellow man, make the world a better place for future generations and to love as much as possible. Where is finance in all of this? Strong finances can act like a medium to make all that possible.
2.) Do you think that Jose Canseco saved or hurt baseball with his steroid tell all book?
For anything baseball related, I generally like to defer to Frank, as he is much more worldly in the realm of baseball. He has probably forgotten more about the sport and the stats along with it, than I will ever know. So take my response with a grain of salt: I think his book hurt in the short term and helped in the long term. Its probably safe to assume that steroids really shouldn’t be in baseball, that’s not what it was intended for. The tell tale exposure Jose Canseco released started a great deal of finger pointing and a lot of names being raked through the mud. If there is a resolution or some sort of conclusion that removes steroid use because of the whistle getting blown, then that’s good. Like I said though, that’s a lame answer but Frank is out of town and I don’t have the energy to call him and ask. Besides, I am a little embarrassed about the lack of baseball knowledge I really have.
3.) How much have you ever won gambling in Vegas?
Ah, you must have read the Vegas article! Gambling is a sticky subject, because it is designed to take your money, and there’s not a whole lot of good I can say about it, especially since I am such a large advocate of saving. Roulette is a pure game of chance and luck, craps seems to complicated to learn (although supposed to be quite lucrative if you know what you are doing), and my poker face is bit of a joke. Since I can’t call my self a dice-guy, I have to say Blackjack is my favorite. That makes it sound like I am junkie but not so. I have done some tons of extensive reading on the subject and have practiced a fair bit of counting (its not illegal!) as well as practicing. Coming back from this last trip I stopped when I was up $800. That was in two sessions though, both throughout the middle of the night and would not recommend it to many people. Knowing when to walk away, don’t drink while you play and having a math degree helps. Don’t be greedy, and remember that the only reason you are sitting out in the middle of the desert, with free drinks, is because the house has the edge to win. I can’t express enough the dangers…How do you think they pay for all that?
4.) Should K-Fed get back together with Britney?
What is a “K-Fed”? Britany who? Maybe Frank knows her? (I love how when one of us goes out of town we give each other a hard time!) In any case, I think the whole Britany Spears + Kevin Federline = Disaster from day one. I think he has absolutely no talent, although his burger flipping commercial was funny, and she has more money than sense and is in a skewed perception of reality. I swear the only reason I know this is because of the amount of E! my girlfriend subjects me to. Any of you guys watch The Soup with Joel McHale? I am addicted. (Check out the iPhone 3G video!) Next question please!
5.) Why is the sky blue?
Its not really. Its green. Weird I know, but hey, that’s the way it goes sometimes. Sorry.
Nah, just kidding. Its because the gases in the atmosphere refract light and it just kind of works out to be blue. As the sun sets and gas densities change and angles are moved, the sky gets prettier, or just different” depending on how you look at it. Here is a quick in depth explanation.
(Also, as a side note, I would like to show this really cool photo website, Pixdaus, as well.)
6.) How do you guy have such an awesome blog?
We certainly appreciate the compliment and think MyInvestingBlog.com is pretty sweet as well! We are averaging about 600 unique visitors a day, with about 3 times that in page views. The site is growing very rapidly and we would like to thank all our readers. We are always open to suggestion and love to solve issues. Having the two of us also rounds out a great deal of our content.
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Comments
Ah finally – all of earths questions have been answered for me. I really have no more reason to carry on! I no longer have to question life’s tough ones! 
Thanks guys!
hank
@ Hank: Thanks for stopping by, always a pleasure!
@ jthfjgy: Good call although, technically its an “atmospheric” effect and the link I presented talks all about it!
600 visitors/day?
That is a pretty good. I am averaging about 50 per day. But I recently just changed my domain name on a whim so I can understand why. I run a financial blog also and focus more on the struggling entrepreneurial niche area. I really like your blog