I'm bored of revising for my coming exam. I've reached this certain point that I no longer know what else to read up but still feel insufficiently prepared for my papers. Big paradox there.

For the sake of just reading something to ease my mind, I'm almost done going through Philip Pullman's The Subtle Knife, the 2nd book to His Dark Materials trilogy. Actually, that doesn't ease my mind at all; I feel guilty for indulging in non-essential reading. But, I enjoy the book nontheless. Hmm, am beginning to contradict myself. Anyway, had read the trilogy years ago but have forgotten parts of it. I like the book better than I did when I first read it; it's a great trilogy, one that actually makes perfect sense unlike stupid Ma-oh-so-philosophical-trix.

I'm halfway through rereading Peter Lynch's One Up On Wall Street too. As Vernon God Little would put it, I've gained several "learnings" from the book. Now, I need a company to apply my "learnings" on. How about Google? Google has favoured Nasdaq over NYSE after much deliberation, but the point is, its shares will be up for sales. Now, according to Lynch's sound advice, it's one of those stocks you should avoid. For one thing, it's the hottest stock at the moment. It's inevitable that it'll be ridiculously overpriced, the stock price being buoyed by high expectations rather than sound fundamentals. For another, it's in a highly competitive industry; companies old (Microsoft) and new (Blinkx) are hot on Google's heels to offer us better search capabilities. In some ways, Google is like Xerox. Xerox, in its heyday, was the company to own stocks in. it became a verb. It then crumbled under intense competition. I have a good feeling about Google though. Then again, I'm sporting Google ads on my blog.

On home front, Astro is the stock that's riding on high expectations. People were so eager to get a piece of it that its IPO was oversubscribed. It now sports a ridiculous p/e ratio (according to the papers). A high p/e ratio isn't exactly bad, only that should you have brought those shares at a p/e of 500, it would take 500 years to earn back your initial investment, assuming Astro's earnings stay constant. There are great channels on Astro, but how many of us have so much free time to sit around doing nothing but watch TV? Mama, who doesn't work and stays at home all the time doesn't need Astro to kill time. Granted, she isn't a TV addict, but even if she wants to, she can always tune in to Singapore's TV, which is free and has shows comparable to those on Astro. There's also the many free Malaysian terrestial TV stations to think of. Then again, Astro has hidden assets that just might justify the high stock price. It employs talented people (Yit Weng is a fine example) and has broadcasting rights, several radio stations and God knows what else.

Caveat: don't take my ramblings seriously. I've only dabbled in virtual stock trading, not the actual thing, hence everything you've read is purely theoretical, highly opinionated and hardly reliable.

Anyway, to make the photo above somewhat relevant, here's a little something for your aural pleasure: Sunshower by Dr.Buzzard's Original Savannah Band (taken offline). I got the song from one of the mp3 blogs I frequent; can't remember which one though. I love the tune, but I wouldn't want to foist my opinion on you; give it a spin and judge it for yourself. Love the photo too, specifically the sunflower. Shot it at Grandma's place. It's from the same plant as the one here, only the time taken was different, if you want to know. Sunflowers have this weird effect on me; seeing them makes me... happy. Ooo, I'm high on euphoria now by just looking at those yellow petals.