I’ve decided to close my 500px account. I’ve been a user of their site since 2012. My main goal back then was to sell prints of my work, along with some licenses. But in 2018, they were acquired by Visual China Group (VCG), and shut down that marketplace.
Many photography services I used in the last ten plus years have either gone away or changed drastically. Nuvango, Instacanvas, and Twenty20 have all come and gone. So any link going to 500px from my blog will be broken. I believe I fixed outgoing links to Nuvango and Twenty20 already.
I’m not a fan of how 500px wants me to upgrade to access my liked photos history. See screenshot below.
The 500px community that I knew, no longer exists. Even the Flickr community isn’t quite what it used to be. Remember Google Plus?
It is a bummer that the time and energy I put into promoting 500px, that it’s come to this. I also do not trust VCG with my photos.
The only place to purchase my photos are on sunpechphotography.com, which is hosted with SmugMug.
Back in 2014 I wrote about quitting SmugMug and building my own site from scratch. How the times have changed!
From the Drobo website:
As of January 27th, 2023, Drobo support and products are no longer available. Drobo support has transitioned to a self-service model. The knowledge base, documentation repository, and legacy documentation library are still accessible for your support needs. We thank you for being a Drobo customer and entrusting us with your data.
I once championed the Drobo hardware for backup needs. See my 2014 post on Converting Your VHS and Betamax Tapes to Digital.
For me, it was the product where I backed up all my raw images and videos. The writing of their demise was on the wall ever since the global covid19 pandemic started. Although it’s been almost a year since they announced this, it took me some time before found a suitable alternative.
If you are a techincal person that can buiild a computer and install an operating system, I recommend Unraid.
The idea is that you own your own hardware that you either buy + assemble yourself, or you use some existing older PC hardware. You then just need to buy the Unraid license to boot up the system, that you also own.
You do not need to rely on a harware vendor like Drobo to offer you hardware or software support. If they go out business, you’re basically out of luck.
If Unraid doesn’t suit you and you really prefer a hardware solution, maybe give Synology a look.
]]>The nice thing about a big group is that we can cover more ground of the exhibit hall, panels, as well as offsites before, during, and after Comic Con. It also makes getting badges and hotels easier when the group works together in real time.
In the weeks and months before SDCC, I knew about the writers and actors strike going on and that it might impact the convention. As much as I would love to have the stars, panels, and events at comic con, I understand that there are bigger things happening. Although the actors and writers didn’t go, we ended up enjoying the con as it was.
See: SAG-AFTRA Lists Strike Rules for Members: No Premieres, Awards Shows, Social Media Promo, FYC Events and More (Variety)
There were some SAG-AFTRA protestors with signs in front of the Gaslamp Quarter across from the convention center. I only saw them on Friday, just before noon.
As of the writing of this blog post, the strike is still ongoing. I do hope that an agreement is reached for all parties involved.
Like all the previous years I’ve gone, I do enjoy the cosplay at comic con.
The Tekken 8 offsite had some amazing cosplayers. I played one game and got whooped. I last played when Tekken 3 and Tekken Tag was on the Playstation 2 as well in the arcade in the early 2000s. My Paul Phoenix is not what it used to be!
I really loved seeing the gliding Monkey King (Son Goku) cosplayer on his flying nimbus. The Spaceballs pingpongs were also nice to see, I love that movie. And all the GI Joe cosplayers, Tomax and Xamot– nostalgia is one hell of a drug!
I thought the exhibit floor would be more packed than usual with Hall H and Ballroom 20 not having celebrity panel draw. Nope, I was wrong. The floor was rather traversable for the most part.
The only challenge for me was my four-year old nephew that I ended up putting on my shoulder so he wouldn’t run off, or possibly be bumped or stepped on.
There was a Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary offsite that I wanted to go to, but the pre-con ticket reservation was buggy and was filled within minutes.
The Tekken 8 offsite was also pretty nice. They had game booths set up (free t-shirt if you play the game), amazing cosplayers, a punching machine, as well as a section for tattoos and face painting.
I got to see the Grimlock Transformer dinobot at the Hasbro Pulse booth.
Here are photo albums on my photography site:
I highly recommend SDCC Unofficial Blog. You can find them on Twitter, YouTube, and now on Discord (The discord invite link could expire in the future).
Another great resource is Parks and Cons YouTube channel.
For convention cosplay, please check out David Ngo (Instagram: @dtjaaaam) and mineralblu (YouTube).
I’ve noticed that the hospitality suite has become more popular. There are lines to get in, as well as lines for snacks/drinks. I do notice that Comic Con staff does headcounts roughly halfway through a panel. I believe this is to help estimate how popular a room is so they can improve things going forward.
The one big negative that happened to me was my Sony a7iii camera had a mechanical shutter failure– it broke. Perhaps I’ll get into detail of that in a future blog post.
Comic Con felt more like a “comics” con this year, as there wasn’t the glitz and glamour of big studios or celebrities in Hall H or Ballroom 20. There are plenty of writers, artists, and small booths to catch your eye or wallet still.
I plan to return next year, hopefully with all the same friends and family, plus more if we can grow!
]]>I only took a few photos on Saturday, day one of the four day event. I’m getting a bit older, slower, and I had my niece and nephew with me. So much of my convention going experience revolves around these two kids now. Seeing them experience things makes me happy. The hustle to get photos is much more difficult these days.
I also spent more time in the artist alley, exhibit hall, and entertainment hall where I played some Street Fighter with my niece.
Anime Expo does have a discord: discord.gg/AnimeExpo
The AX landing page image/wallpaper is also amazing. I tried to get this as a deskmat in the merch store, but it sold out on the first day! I do not know who the artist is.
As always, the cosplay was amazing. Although it seems a lot of the cosplay has spilled outside near the parking lot and bushes, where cosplayers and photographers can escape the super big crowds in the lobby, and focus more on poses and great shots.
Full set of photos can be found here.
My sister summed it up pretty well: the anime fan community just gets bigger as many of the original con-goers get older, have families/kids, and still go.
Every time I go, it becomes more apparent that I do not know my anime/mange anymore, as there’s so much more than twenty-some years ago. And that’s a good thing.
There was a time when I was a younger anime/manga fan, where my options to watch anime were:
Anime has become mainstream and readily available to fans via streaming/Internet.
]]>I recently purchased a Sony 35mm f1.4 GM lens for my Sony A7iii mirrorless. I used this pair exclusively at ACen for all my shots. I’m getting a bit old now, and no longer want to carry too much gear on me. So I decided to trim my bag down a bit and go with just two prime lenses, a 35mm and 85mm. With just these two, I should be able to take most photos of either individuals portrait style, or group shots.
I notice that the dance group that usually forms in the main lobby is getting bigger and bigger. I wonder how they organize it since it seems as though strangers can get up to join and do the exact same dance routine as the performers at any time. Do they plan this? Is the song or beat agreed to before hand?
The cosplay scene is so much better than six years ago. Everyone was having fun celebrating not just anime, but whatever fandom they wish to bring and share with others.
Some Sailor scouts. I’m surprised that Sailor Moon is still so well known today.
Among Us, a very popular game people played online together during the 2020-2022 pandemic years.
Full album can be found here.
I really liked how ACen worked with Niantic to have a special Pokemon Go game event during the weekend. From my count, they had eight special pokestops created for the event that physically coresponded to actual booths or areas of interest of the convention. It was really well done.
See: Pokémon GO Collaboration with Anime Central
Still seeking the secrets of the Unown in Pokémon GO?
— Anime Central (@animecentral) May 20, 2023
We’ve heard rumors that the elusive Symbol Pokémon has been seen around Anime Central, so be on the lookout this weekend! You might just encounter Unown A. 😮https://t.co/sHjIJSb3Nb pic.twitter.com/uV2YS7zhBz
Anime Expo is on July 1-4, 2023, and they are also collaborating with Niantic for a Pokemon Go event.
See: Anime Expo + Pokemon Go tweet
I’m glad that we are moving beyond the Covid-19 pandemic. Being isolated from friends/family these past few years was rough. It is great seeing familiar faces once again.
Things seemed much more back to normal now. I imagine that other upcoming summer conventions will be quite fun!
]]>Then in 2020, Covid-19 hit with lockdowns and the pandemic. Two years of postponed events!
So my last post covering San Diego Comic Con dates back to 2018!
Until this year when things started to open up again. There was a mask requirement for all attendees and staff anywhere inside.
All face coverings must fit properly and snugly, must secure under your chin, and fully cover your nose and mouth. - Source: Mask Guidlines
I did make it into Hall H for several panels and to give my feet a rest.
The Walking Dead fans as well as panelists were all very grateful and rather tearful for some of their last TWD panel as the final season is happening.
As I was told, the BRZRKR panel was the first comic to grace Hall H at San Diego Comic Con! Keanu Reeves was there and as lovely as ever.
They showed the first 20 minutes of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, which looks pretty amazing.
I’ve been a fan of Dragon Ball since the 1980s and 1990s. After nearly 40 years, there are still fans that keep it all going in terms of the anime, manga, shows, and video games.
One of my favorite things about photographing cosplayers is seeing the costume, but also the human behind it. With masking guidelines, cosplayers and all those who attended were masked up.
One thing that is not emphasized enough is that many off site events do not require San Diego Comic Con badges. So if you want to exprience or see stuff, you can just go to downtown San Diego and line up. Or in some cases, you can make a reservation online.
Funko Pop had a big presence this year in the exhibit hall. Just about every small vendor carried some Funko Pops to sell.
Streaming services like Netflix, Disney Plus, and Amazon Prime had booths and/or off sites available.
I’m really looking forward to The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. I heard it cost them $58 million per episode, the most expensive show ever!
Warner Brothers did not have their big booth signings this year which was understandable, as it protected their celebrity talent so they could continue to go into work and not shut down production. Suprisingly, DC did not have their big booth area either. What I did see, was a small HBO Max booth set up.
Dragon Ball Super was not only in the exhibit hall, but also the off site at Mariott Marquis San Diego Marina hotel.
Marvel had a big presence this year. I loved the life size giant Thanos statue over in the gaming area. But of note, was Daymond John (from Shark Tank) at the Marvel booth opening the Marvel Infinity Gem collection.
Article link: Marvel Infinity Stones Collectible Valued at Over $25 Million Revealed by Shark Tank Star
Shout out to my guys East Continental Gems for including me in the reveal of the official @Marvel Infinity Gem Collection!! They scoured the WORLD to find these rare gems & curate this collection🙌🏾 Check out the genesis series and get on the waitlist at https://t.co/M6Cxq2bNuL 💎 pic.twitter.com/x8jnTD5CJ2
— Daymond John (@TheSharkDaymond) July 25, 2022
There was an amazing Grogu (Baby Yoda) animatronic that was quite real-life. The Nintendo booth also had a giant Bowser to do like a 15 second video record for guests.
If you like the photos you see here, please check out my photography website: sunpechphotography.com.
Here are direct links to photo albums from this convention:
I really like the Films That Rock youtube channel. They have recordings of some panels at Hall H.
The SDCC Unofficial Blog has a lot of great content before, during, and after Comic Con. They really are about that convention lifestyle!
If you like the cosplay scene, please give my friend David Ngo, aka @dtjaaaam a follow!
It was really great to be back in San Diego for the festivities at Comic Con. Considering there was a two year break, the con went off pretty well. I don’t believe the crowd or off sites were back in full force. The crowd were definitely not as big. The exhbit floor was very walkable as there were no one packed area.
I love the weather in San Diego. The city is also small enough to get around pretty easy.
The lines for the vaccination wristbands, a requirement, was pretty fast so long as you don’t go to the main site in front of the convention center.
This year I was a bit tired from going to Disneyland with family and swimming in the pool with my niece and nephew. By the time SDCC came, I was already tired! So I ended up not taking as many photos or walking around everywhere.
I do wish either the crowd was even smaller, which isn’t going to happen, or the convention center was bigger to handle everyone. I hear that the Las Vegas Convention Center is huge and can handle bigger crowds. But then it wouldn’t be SDCC anymore.
Also, there is a homeless issue in the downtown area of San Diego. It doesn’t always feel safe to walk around at night, or even during the day!
Overall, I do plan to attend with family and friends every year if we can get tickets. It’s a fun time to have by all, despite the hassle and safety concerns.
]]>Discord is a voice, video and text communication service used by over a hundred million people to hang out and talk with their friends and communities. (Source)
I’ve been using Discord since about 2016, the very same year that Pokemon Go came out. Although I am a fan of both mobile apps, Discord has a special place on my smartphone and desktop, as I use it quite often.
Not only do I use it for community gaming for Pokemon Go, but I also use it to join financial, technology, and other various fan communities out there.
But I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s explore why I think Discord is a great real time text app and soon to be, if not already, the Internet’s Chat Room.
Disclaimer: This is not a full fledged intro into Discord. That in itself can be a very lengthy piece of documentation.
Let’s take a quick look of the Internet’s various chat rooms. IRC is one of the first chat rooms of the Internet. Slack is like IRC. And Discord is like Slack. But in many ways, Discord is a better version of all its predecessors.
IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. It’s been around forever. I’ve installed, joined, uninstalled, and reinstalled so many times over the years since I was in college. I try hard to like it, but it just never sticks for more than a few weeks.
The problem is that IRC a bit complicated and very text-based. You would join a server, and the server would have different channels, or rooms that you could chat in with others. One of the most popular IRC clients is mIRC.
AOL chat room should be mentioned because for many of us, this was how we first got onto the Internet. I was maybe a teenager when AOL hit off as an Internet Service Provider (ISP). I knew of these chat rooms, but didn’t really participate or hang out in them much. Like IRC, very heavy with text based chat with no media.
Slack improved upon IRC– notably in the graphical user interface (GUI). There are avatars for each user, coversation threads, and various other work integrations. It was made for work and business. It was also coined as the replacement for work email.
The problem is that the free version has limitations (10k searchable messages, 10 apps and integrations, 1-to-1 video calls– the basic features). For more, you’ll need to jump onto a paid plan. Nothing wrong with paying for a product you like– but it’ll cost $6.67 per person for Pro, and $12.50 per person for Business+. All of a sudden it gets very expensive. Plus my annoyance is that they don’t have a single sign-on for all Slack servers you are a part of– you’ll need to sign into each server and them to each of your client app install.
Other various chat and text messaging apps like SMS, WhatsApp, Line, etc have their strengths and weaknesses. SMS is just insecure and no one should be using it for their communications. Chat apps like WhatsApp and Line are very good in that they have end-to-end encryption– they’re secure. Where these secure apps falls short is that you’ll have access to your chat history with friends or family so long as you have your phone or back up your encrypted data. Otherwise, installing a new instance you will lose your encrypted chat history.
Perhaps the biggest weakness of these secure apps is that they often have friends creating subgroups, iterating through almost every combination. Say friends Aaron (A), Bob (B), Charlie (C), Dick (D), and Edward (E) are in one chat group. Say A through C are intersted in comics, so they start a comics group excluding D and E. Then C through E like sports, but A and B do not, so they are excluded. The number of sub groups created keeps going and going. Discord has a magnificent way to address this….
Discord improves upon Slack in just about every way. It’s free, thare are no search limits, and no pay per user pricing plan. The pricing structure is up to the members to opt in for with what’s called Discord Nitro. For non paying members/users, the limitations are around file size upload for images and video and basic emojis. All things that most users can live with for basic use.
When you log into your Discord account, boom! All your Discord servers appear on the left, no need to add them to each Discord install instance (mobile, tablet, desktop, etc)! It’s a nice single sign on.
Discord also addresses the problems created by chat apps like WhatsApp, Line, or even SMS/MMS. There are two main issues:
One chat room to rule them all doesn’t make any sense. It’s too noisy, and friends talking about one interest, will subject all others to get noficiations on it.
The natural solution then is to create a subgroup to only include friends you think would be interested, and exclude those that don’t. This ends up creating multiple stacks of groups with all combinations of your friends and family. Fixes one problem, creates another.
The Discord server solution: Create a server, invite all friends and family interested, and break up topics/groups into channels. The Discord admin/creator can create roles (groupings), and assign members to them. Certain channels can be set to private where only certain roles or members can access them. Or the admin can just leave it up to each member to turn on/off notifications to each channel or category as needed. By default, you can make it an inclusive place where chat happen in the right channel, without having to exclude friends or family members.
Discord is not fully encrypted and what is shared is stored in the cloud. Your every text, image, and video upload is stored in Discord’s web services. It would be legible to third parties if they need to view it. Your end-to-end-encryption chat apps (WhatsApp, Line, etc) are not stored in a readable way in the cloud. They can only be read by the sender and receiver. So I wouldn’t post very private information in any Discord chat.
The Internet can be a noisy place, so can Discord communities. Each user will need to set his/her own settings to their own needs. This may mean muting an entire server. Some Discord servers can be just a few friends, other can have users in the tens of thousands.
I love using Discord– it really is the Internet’s real time chat room. It’s origins may have been where gamers chatted, but it has evolved to be where any community or group of friends can chat together.
If you haven’t already, check out the Discord app. You may be surprised that some of your friends are already on it in some gaming or some other interest-based community. There are some quirks and Discord culture you’ll need to learn along the way. Every community and server is different in it’s own way.
]]>The 2020 year has been a pandemic year where we had a bit of a recession in March/April. Dividends of companies got suspended as well as lost value in favor of many growth and stay-at-home stocks.
In response, I droppped my dividend focused portfolio in favor of just keeping an ETFs only portfolio. I didn’t want to have 50+ stocks in an account where I was just incrementally purchased fractional shares every week. I want my numbers to go up, but I’d rather keep it more simple with fewer holdings that I have more conviction in.
I changed my Core 4 ETFs in favor of some more growth. My changes:
ETF | Symbol | Percentage |
---|---|---|
Vanguard Total Stock Market | VTI | 65% |
Ark Innovation ETF | ARKK | 20% |
Ark Fintech Innovation ETF | ARKF | 15% |
My performance of value over time has been very satifactory. I pretty much kept to a weekly deposit schedule (Wednesdays), with occasional boost in an amount when the market dipped significantly.
I love the work of Ark Invest. Besides an a simple and cheap S&P500 index fund ETF, I recommend the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK). It’s their premiere ETF they offer that contains the best of the best innovative companies.
Ark Invest’s CEO/CIO, Cathie Wood and her analysts do an amazing job finding innovating companies for their portfolios.
They have an expense ratio of 0.75% on all their ETFs. Not expensive, but also not cheap either! But I think it’s worth it for them to do the work/research that I cannot do. The results speaks for itself.
Besides ARKK, I like ARKF and ARKG. I’m very bullish on Fintech and Genomic technology.
M1 succeeds at making some difficult things easy, but struggles with the easy things. Fractional shares, auto-invest, dollar cost averaging, and portfolio allocation (pies) are all amazing and well done. But their customer support is a weak point as a brokerage. This seems to be a problem at a lot of the smaller start-up brokerages like Robinhood. They are great at getting young people to be clients on a great easy to use mobile platform, but they don’t have customer service! You will not find customer service a problem at more traditional brokerages like Fidelity or Charles Schwab.
When I was trying to close one of my accounts with M1, I contacted support via email and wasn’t able to get the request completed for over a month. I know they use Zen Desk for their customer support. I had to follow up several times before someone took action!
I will continue to use M1 Finance as a brokerage. As I am bullish on my investments, I also believe M1 Finance will continue to grow in the coming years.
The show floor seems to have expanded the autograph/photo-op area, as well as more space for cosplay and eating/chillaxing. I think it’s making great decision in creating a better experience for con goers than just a place to buy stuff.
Something that’s going on right now is the Coronavirus Diseseas (COVID-19). The McCormick Place convention center had hand sanitizer everywhere, as they normally do. One thing I just don’t get about bathrooms in general is that after you wash your hands, often the doors open inwards, so you would have to open the door with your hands! I wish there was a better way.
If you want to skip reading this blog post and just check out the photos I took, here are the links:
For my photography, I didn’t use my flash at all this year. I kept it simple with my Sony 55mm prime and Canon 70-200mm telephoto. I used the Sigma MC-11 adapter on my Canon telephoto, which for the most part was pretty good. I did notice that it struggled for autofocus when in portrait mode (vertical) at full length (150-200mm). So to counter this I would just shoot landscape (horizontal), which autofocus was fine– still not as fast as on a Canon body, but still very good.
I took a record 3,680 photos this year across all three days. I actually filled my 64GB SD card and had to wipe my backup card and swipe it into the main slot so I could continue taking photos during the cosplay competition.
The cosplay again was amazing this year. Generally on Saturday, many of the cosplayers that are competing in the Crown Championship will also walk the floor for a bit, before eventually taking to the stage for competition later on at night. I’m amazed that some of them can be in cosplay all day like that!
I didn’t attend any group cosplay meeting this year, as I didn’t want to take group shots. It’s just diffcult to do on a prime lens.
This year they skipped the ticketing/wristband process and just had everyone line up, first-come-first-serve. So in general, you would have to start lining up about one hour early to get in. If you are in a panel before the cosplay contest, the main stage, they do clear out the room. But once you’re in, they let you roam to take photos on the side, or even the front– which I love about C2E2. Same pretty much goes for the panels.
One thing I’ve noticed is that C2E2 didn’t have contestants on their website, so it took some time to find and credit cosplayers I photographed. So I put together a Google spreadsheet here:
It has the category, contestant name, cosplay character, source, region, and results.
I love going to the panels at C2E2. I think it may be the main reason I attend now, possibly over cosplay. I like how they give you access to photograph the guests on stage and spend time. The general formula is about 15-20 minutes of moderator warm up questions, then the rest of the time is for fans question and answer session.
George Takei is such an amazing person to listen to on stage. He has so many stories and experiences to share from in career and personal life. He covered everything from Star Trek, his fellow actors, being a closeted actor in Hollywood, finally coming out to help others, to being on the Howard Stern podcast. One of my favorite stories is how his name was often misread on set– George “Take 1” Takei.
Adama Savage is a favorite at comic conventions for a reason. He loves to attend not only as a guest speaker, but also loves to cosplay on the show floor! Like Takei, he doesn’t need a moderator, he can just hop on stage and talk directly to the audience and do Q&As. Like all panels he’s a part of, there’s never enough time to get to all fan questions.
I’m a fan of Netflix’s Umbrella Academy. I’m also a fan of Robert Sheehan. He’s great on the show, but also check out Misfits, which is also a superhero show that has Iwan Rheon and Nathalie Emmanuel from Game of Thrones! Emmy Raver-Lampman is amazing too, he smile just lights up the room!
The Mark Ruffalo was early on Sunday morning, 10am. Yet fans lined up early to get into the room that filled to capacity almost right away.
I wasn’t a regular viewer of the CW’s Arrow show, but I do enjoy seeing Stephen Amell at conventions. Amell and Emily Bett Rickards have such chemistry on stage, you can really tell they are close friends. The panel was really fun and everyone was having a good time. I recall one young fan having comments to say about Amell’s choice in socks.
I’m a fan of Amazon’s The Boys TV show. I haven’t read the comics, yet. On stage was Karl Urban, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott, and Laz Alonso. These guys have so many stories and pranks to share from on set. This was on of my favorite panels I attended at C2E2. And I have to say that Atony Starr the actor is so different from the Homelander character we see on the show!
If you are a Chicagoan or live in the midwest, C2E2 is a fantastic comic convention to attend. The cosplay, show floor, panels, guests are far above the average convention– and year after year, they keep improving. It’s not a huge convention like New York or San Diego Comic Con, but that’s a good thing. It’s more comforable to attend without the stress of crowds or crazy lines.
One last tip. If you are an out of towner, stay at the Marriott Marquis instead of the Hyatt Regency. The former is more quiet place to stay, the latter an absolute zoo outside of the convention hours. Up to you in what kind of experience you want to have.
]]>Soon enough I came across videos and blog posts recommending M1 Finance. What stood out was that it allowed for custom pies, free trades, partial shares, and autoinvesting. These are features
This blog post is about M1 Finance Invest. There are other services from M1 such as Borrow and Spend. But I have no plans or interest to use them.
I really like looking at my portfolio as a pie. I think it’s important to have a portfolio that is diversified across sectors to spread risk as well as reap rewards. Too many brokerages default to a table view and leaves you hanging on how to balance your portfolio.
Another really nice touch is having the company’s icon with each stock/ETF. Design-wise, it’s easier to identify companies by their logo than reading text.
When building and researching your portfolio, you can add stocks/ETFs directly into it. Or you can create a custom pie to add them into, then add pies to your portfolio. I think most people, including myself, organize these custom pies by sectors.
There is simplicity with the “Expert Pies” section, where you can pick from allocated pies based on what your goals and strategies are. They’re nice, but I like things to be even more simple when constructing a portfolio, so I prefer to look at Boglehead’s Lazy Portfolios.
Here’s my breakdown of the Pros/Cons of using M1 Finance:
Say you want to own a piece of Amazon. Their stock is currently trading in the $1700-1800 range. For most people, that’s a lot of money for a single share. With partial shares you can own Amazon stock, but just a fraction of it.
A lot of people think they can time the market, they they can buy at low and sell at high. Time in the market is better than trying to time the market. It’s a better overall strategy to regularly fund your portfolio now, than to wait hoping that you will hop in at the right time with the right investments. No one really knows the future.
M1 Finance, Robinhood, Acorns, and WeBull represent the new brokerages, aimed at millennials and young people. They seem to be mobile first with beautiful and simple design on all screen sizes. I really like the disruption they bring, as a lot of brokerages have dropped their commission fees. To be fair though, it is only a matter of time before they all drop their fees to $0 since for years the price has been dropping.
If you prefer to buy individual stocks in full, then Robinhood is probably more for you.
I just don’t like Acorns investing strategy. It seems too basic for people who want to get started in investing, but only want to do so with their spare change by rounding up purchases. To me that’s not a strategy. Maybe some months it’s a lot of coins, other months maybe very little to none. And on top of that they have a $1 per month fee for accounts under $1 million, which would be most users. So say your rounds ups amounts to $10 per month. The Acorn fee would be 10%. That’s terrible!
I haven’t really looked into WeBull yet, nor have I seen many others jump to use them yet.
I am often frustrated with the “old” or more traditional brokerages like Vanguard and Fidelity. Navigating and using their website on the desktop browser is just awful. I have to click too many links too many times just to see the data I want. Their mobile apps are also poorly designed. Maybe the one clear advantage they have is they may have a physical location you can visit in person near you. And probably better customer support.
Here are two portfolios I have set up with M1 Finance:
This portfolio is based off of Rick Ferri’s core four fund “cornerstone” portfolio (80/20). The Aggressive Growth portfolio has an allocation of 80% in equity and 20% in fixed income.
ETF | Symbol | Percentage |
---|---|---|
Vanguard Total Stock Market | VTI | 48% |
Vanguard Total International Stock | VXUS | 24% |
Vanguard Total Bond Market | BND | 20% |
Vanguard REIT | VNQ | 8% |
See Classic Core-4 Portfolio Allocations.
The strategy isn’t to find the needle in the haystack, just buy the haystack. As the total market grows, so does this portfolio. This is a long term strategy, so just buy and hold until I retire. I have no plans to change allocation until I’m in my 50s or 60s.
This portfolio is based off of Joseph Carlson’s passive income pie, which is a dividend focused strategy in building wealth. It resembles a snowball effect where the monthly or quarterly dividends gets reinvested into the portfolio so you own more and more shares that pays dividends. The snowball gets bigger and bigger. Later on in life, after the portfolio grows to a large snowball, you may opt to have the dividends to pay your monthly bills or send you checks rather than be reinvested.
It’s important to pick good dividend paying companies too. This kind of portfolio is mostly blue chip stocks that have a history of paying out dividends as well as increasing it. I avoid any high yield dividends that seem seem unsustainable. Many of these companies have gone through multiple recessions too, so there’s some comfort knowing that they are well managed.
This is also a portfolio that I will make small tweaks to over time. For example, I may increase or decrease the Consumer Defense sector by a few percentage points to make room for changes in another sector. No rebalance needed, as future deposits will fund sectors where need be.
Disclaimer, these portfolios are what I think fits my needs. Your goals and situation(s) will be different from mine, so be sure to do your own research when you invest your money!
M1 Finance is a great brokerage for those looking to do long term investing. You just need to design the portfolio pie allocations you want, then set a schedule or fund the portfolio when you can from your bank account. And that’s it. Set it and don’t fret about rebalancing unless you sell shares, which shouldn’t happen often at all.
For long term investors, the buy and hold for years type, the market price you pay is just fine. It’s not about trying to buy at the low for the day, month, or year. The strategy is to keep funding the account and getting those averages in basically. Twenty or thirty years from now, it won’t really matter if you bought at the absolute lowest. What’s important is that your money i
If traditional brokerages start offering partial shares and better UI in desktop/moble, then M1 would maybe be in trouble. But I don’t see that happening any time soon. I can see M1 improving their checkings account and eventually offering a credit card. Maybe even do what Acorns has with an option to round up charges to nearest full dollar so you can have another small stream of cash for investing!
For now, I’m really happy using M1 Finance. But I also wouldn’t be surpised if they get bought out in the coming year.
Here are some resources for your reading and research.
If you liked my blog post and want to open and M1 Finance account, please use the referral code below as there is an ongoing promotion. The current promotion is give $10, get $10. When you sign up and fund your account, we both get $10!
Referral: https://m1.finance/WVxtGBcwdF5g
Be sure to sign up on the website through the link above.
]]>The main reasons for the changes are:
When I wrote new posts with Jekyll, it was painfully slow to build the site after any small set of changes. With Hugo, it’s really fast. I can pretty much hit command+S, to save all the time and have the page refresh right away.
Overall the project migration went pretty smoothly thanks to some migration tools. I specifically used ConvertToHugo.
Some of the challenges I came across were:
I tried out Netlify for the first time and love it. Their tools and interface was very intuitive for building and deploying was pretty straightforward. I also love how easy it was to set up HTTPS (Let’s Encrypt) wit them. And like Github Pages, it’s all free since I currently have no need for the paid features. I look forward to migrating a few other small projects over.
]]>The one thing I loved was the amount of support fans gave each other and the guests often targeted by online trolls. I remember reading that Star Wars trolls and bullies exist just on the Internet, they don’t show up to cons because they wouldn’t dare talk like they do in public.
There was a big push to have everyone use the mobile app. But for the first two days, Thursday and Friday, there were many issues with it. People couldn’t get scanned, reserve spots for the stores, and other miscellaneous issues. What ended up happening was a huge 8-hour long wait on Thursday to get into the show store. The five scanning stations for prizes were down and couldn’t scan people to win prizes, which was a huge disappointment.
Reed Pop is the event organizer and usually does a pretty good job. I get the feeling they were trying some new things out and are going through some growing pains. Just a few weeks ago they put together C2E2 on the other side of McCormick Place and I thought it went rather well.
The exhibit hall was smaller than I expected. I was able to walk the entire floor in under two hours with moderate browsing of toys and displays. That said, there was an amazing variety of Star Wars vendors and booths set up. There were booths for fan groups, big vendors (Hasbro, LEGO, and Funko), books, local businesses, etc. I especially liked finding old Star Wars toys from the early 1980s that I once owned and played with.
I won the lottery for two panels at the Wintrust Arena:
The line management really needs some work. I was able to walk into one of the Wintrust Arena panels without my QR code ever being scanned. I hope my info isn’t stored somewhere because my QR code wasn’t scanned and registered as entering. I wouldn’t want to penalized because someone working the lines wasn’t doing their job or their scanning app crashed.
There was a large number of cosplayers, especially in groups, all over the place. I must confess it was a bit overwhelming to take photos of Star Wars cosplay again and again. I have nothing against cosplayers or anything, but some times as a photographer I don’t want to have fifty shots of stormtroopers. What I think most photographers want is variety to their set of photos.
Here are links to my Flickr photo albums:
I bought a 5-day pass, but I honestly feel that only 1-2 days was all I really needed for Celebration. I’d say Friday and Saturday were the most fun and worthwhile days for panels and cosplayers in general. Otherwise, the livesteams are often good enough and there’s always someone who leaks video of panels that don’t allow video recordings.
The lottery system for panels and exclusive merchandise is a really great thing, but needs to be improved. A lot of hardcore Star Wars fans don’t mind waiting or straight up sleeping in line for their favorite panels or toy exclusives. The city of Chicago probably doesn’t allow that outside the convention center. There were problems and confusion with how the lottery system worked as well as people winning lotteries for days they didn’t even have a ticket. All this needs to be fixed and improved considering fans paid $100-200+ for their tickets.
I was reminded how much I dislike taking photos on the actual exhibit floor. The problem with roaming around the exhibit hall crowds is that there are too many photographers crowding the get shots of cosplayers. It’s just a mess for cosplayers knowing where to look while other casual photogs steal their attention away. It’s really not my preference to capture photos there.
Would I go again? Sure, if it was convenient for me to get there. And I probably wouldn’t buy tickets for all the days unless I knew I was going to enjoy each and every day. I love Star Wars, but probably not to the level to spend five days straight there.
]]>If you weren’t able to attend, check out SyFy Wire’s youTube channel. They have videos of most if not all the panels that happened at C2E2 as well as many other conventions across the US.
One of the things I’ve noticed is how SyFy Wire’s presence keeps getting bigger and better. They have a mini-stage that is getting more foot traffic and the seats are filling more. This is a stage that is on the main floor and as far as I can tell, no one is keeping track of who sits or stands. So in a nutshell it’s very easy to attend. The panels are pretty amazing with wonderful guests.
This year I spent a bit more time taking photos of cosplayers than at panels. Like every year, the cosplay community gets bigger and better every year. I think it has a lot to do with the Crown Championships of Cosplay taking place in Chicago every year.
The cosplay and craftsmanship of the contestants blows me away every single year. As a photographer, I love to attend this since I stand to the right of the stage and take photos the whole time. I haven’t really had any issue with anyone chasing me away.
This year, I rented out the Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM OSS Lens from BorrowLenses. It’s a really expensive lens. I wanted to try it’s zoom for the main stage competition and panels. Overall it was really great, but I don’t recommend hand holding it for shots for long events. I did bring along a monopod to help me steady the shots and relieve my arms from holding it. I would probably never buy it as I only use a lens like once or twice a year, so it’s not worth it for me to own. If you would like to rent photo gear, check out BorrowLenses.com.
I wanted to hit up more panels, but the lines got full real fast– like 1 hour before the panel even started. So I ended up skipping quite a few of them I planned to attend. One of the really nice things is the C2E2 app gives notifications of when the line for panels are full so you have an idea of whether or not to head that way or not.
Here are links to all the photos and albums I created on Flickr. I’m actually paying money to be their customer this year, so I’m going to try and push my content on there a bit mroe.
As long as I’m in Chicago, I’ll keep going to C2E2. It’s a fun and inexpensive convention in the midwest. If you plan to attend popular panels, I recommend going at least 1 hour early to either get in line or attend the panel before. The C2E2 app is fantastic way to plan your weekend, where you should have a plan A, B, and/or even C so you always have something lined up to do in case things don’t work out. Speaking of letters of the alphabet, for parking, leave early so you can find decent parking in either lots A, B, or C.
]]>The programming for this year’s Comic Con was different than other years as some of the big studios were not there– namely Marvel Studios and HBO. I can understand Marvel Studios not being there this year, as they are between the Infinity War movies. They don’t want to give much information away in regards to how things are going to be in the coming movies and the next phase of their movie/storytelling development. I think it was a mistake for HBO not to be there with panels for Game of Thrones and Westworld– two massively popular shows right now. The former is closing on their final season next year, and Westworld just completling a huge second season and with probably many more to come.
The lines this year was also rather reasonable. They implemented a lottery system for autographs and exclusives which limited the insane lanes that other years had. No doubt they want fans to move around a lot more and spend more money than waiting hours in line in the convention center. However the lines for offsites are still rather long– and those are outside in the hot San Diego sun!
I recently got some new camera gear too. I’m moving from Canon to Sony. So now I’m shooting with a Sony a7iii and Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 GM. I rented a Sony 55mm f/1.8 and 85mm f/1.8 from BorrowLenses for Anime Expo in early July. I love both of the rented lenses, but the 55mm is just too expensive at $900. The 85mm is super sharp and a great buy at $600. So I bought the Sony 85mm f/1.8 for the SDCC trip.
This year it felt as though some notable cosplayers weren’t at SDCC. There were still some creative cosplays walking around, especially from Cinema Makeup School. I didn’t take as many photos as I usually do– I did want to spend my time with my niece and family/friends.
I didn’t take as many photos of celebs this year either. I shot mostly with an 85mm prime instead of my usual 70-200mm.
It was a tame year compared to previous Comic Cons, which is both a good and bad thing.
What’s great is that fans can get around much easier for panels, exhibits, and offsite shows. This is a big win. And for the lines in the convention, none were as long as they could have been.
What I wasn’t a fan of is no huge announcement or surprise. Maybe the problem is that previous years set a precedent for that. I didn’t even schedule time to watch any of the playbacks– I just showed up there to take a break from walking. So much of coverage gets uploaded onto youTube now within a week anyways.
San Diego Comic Con is still very fun to attend. I think next year when SDCC turns 50 it’s going to be a very big year and celebration.
]]>It’s been three years (2015) since I was at AX. I mostly hung out inside the South hall again. I didn’t see as many cosplayers as I thought I would, and I think that may be because of the heat, and that many notable cosplayers/photographers set up near the Staples Center out West.
I’m glad I started to watch My Hero Academia, as about 25% of all the cosplays were from that anime!
I got to fully test out my new mirrorless camera, the Sony A7III with the Sony 24-70 f/2.8 GM. I also rented the Sony 55mm f/1.8 Zeis prime and the Sony 85mm f/1.8 prime from Borrowlenses.com.
I also used the Godox AD200 flash along with the MagMod starter kit– specifically the flash diffuser.
I’m putting my Canon gear on the shelf for now– and in some cases sold a few pieces!
In general it was tough to shoot with the 24-70mm GM as it was a bit front heavy for single hand use. The 85mm was also tough as the convention center was pretty crowded– there just wasn’t space to back up for shots. So I stuck to using the 55mm since it was very light and easy to use with one hand. The Sony A7III body was really great to grab focus on the subject’s eye and face.
Here are some of my favorite photos.
I made a collage of just My Hero Academia cosplayers.