I received a lot of nice emails about my weepy post regarding George Carlin's passing today. I appreciate those. Sometimes people would rather share thoughts privately than publicly, and I completely understand that.

Please be reminded that I'm traveling on Tuesday, so there will be no post until after the market's closing. I'll be nervously fidgeting in the air, not even benefiting from seeing how the market opens. I'll have a brief intra-market-day layover to check on things. With the Fed announcing on Wednesday, hopefully Tuesday will be sedate.

I'm pretty excited about the prospect of IWM breaking the blue line you see below. I am getting re-enamored with the Russell as a trading instrument.

Whereas I'm sick and tired of energy. This has been a boondoggle. I think I'm just going to stay away from OIH for a good, long time. Maybe crude's oil to $500 a barrel. Who knows. I'm tired of guessing.

Just a few quick ideas to chew on tonight. CSX looks interesting; it violating its resistance somewhat, but appears to be turning back down.

RIMM, which I think reports after Wednesday's close, is just a shot-in-the-dark on my part. This is one of those "well, it's got to fall one of these days" plays that either goes to $0 or works out great.

I like R as a short, but I'm kind of bugged that the options are surprisingly thinly traded.

RJF is one of the financials that hasn't suffered as badly as its peers, but I think that could change soon. I'm shorting this one.

Here's one that got away – AutoZone (AZO). I wrote about its diamond pattern many times, but I didn't stick with it. Shame on me.

Bank of America is the biggie out here in California, and I'm just blown away by what kind of fall this is taking. It has lost about 50% of its value in the past year. Below is a ten-year, weekly chart. What a plunge!

I'm glad I gave up on my GENZ puts. I made a small profit on them, but I was noticing it was not behaving as it should, so I got out. When a pattern acts abnormally, that's a sign to move on. Doing so worked out in this case.

I don't have a position in EZU, but its progress on the H&S formation is pretty to watch.

I'll close with this video, which was from Carlin's last HBO performance. It is simply brilliant. For those who don't know any better, the language is pretty blue in some places, but this 10 minute clip is a fantastic example of Carlin's genius as a writer, performer, and comedian.

It's very rare for me to get choked up over a well-known person's death. Steve Jobs will die someday (as will AAPL's stock price, simultaneously), and I'm sure that'll affect me emotionally. By and large, when someone famous dies, it hardly matters to me. But when I heard George Carlin died last night, I was really saddened.

For those acquainted with Carlin's work – – and my blog – – this probably comes as no big surprise. His cynicism and ragings against our modern world line right up with mine. In fact, he probably had more influence on my own thinking and disposition than any other cultural figure.

I think one reason I felt such a connection to the man is that I think I understood where he was coming from. Many people might consider Carlin to be simply a misanthrope. A grouch. A jerk. I understand him as a brokenhearted idealist. His verbal assaults against America and its citizens came out of a deep love for the place, since he always wished for so much better from his country and its people. Much of what he observed was disappointing and infuriating.

I experience those feelings most days. Just today, during a walk, I saw an enormous Hard Rock Cafe, many stories high, and beneath its garish logo was a huge neon sign (which is part of their signage) that said Save The Planet. The combination of conceit and hypocrisy in such a sign is disgusting to me. And I doubt I'd have even noticed it were it not for Carlin's endless stream of HBO specials, CDs, and concert performances.

The world is a lesser place with his absence. And he is an example of something else I've noticed – – that some of the best Christians I know are atheists. George was very outspoken about his purported disbelief in God, but here again, I think we are witnessing a yearning spawned from disappointment. Many supposed Christians, of the nitwit variety, would assume Carlin was sent straight to Hell for his atheism, to be tormented for an eternity.

What crap. My belief is that George is already with his maker, who has already told him – -on some astral plane – – that He thought he was a funny son of a bitch.

Thanks, George. You were a real gift.

Well, I guess the Saudi announcement on Sunday didn't mean squat. Energy is just as "up" as ever. I'm typing this 40 minutes into the trading day, and the initial pop in equities has faded somewhat.

I have, after careful observation over the past week, concluded why housing prices in Palo Alto are several hundred percent higher than the rest of the country. It's because much of the rest of the country sucks is less optimal for enjoyable living. At least here in Baltimore.

I keep getting accosted by homeless people, even when I'm eating in a restaurant. Just last night, I was having a nice dinner (in a relatively nice part of town) in the outdoor portion of a restaurant with family and friends. Up comes this bedraggled guy…….

Homeless Dude: Hey, there…..

Your Humble Narrator: Kee-rist…..

H.D.: Hey, can I have something you don't want?

Y.H.N.: Errrr, sure (grabbing big basket of fresh bread)

H.D. (staring at it): This is just bread!

Y.H.N.: (pausing for a moment in amazement): Haven't you ever heard beggars can't be choosers? {Editor's note: I realize that in this modern age, he probably thinks of himself as Chronically Disenfranchised or something, but I still consider him simply a bum….)

H.D: Well. All right (Takes baskets and leaves; the restaurant will never see that basket again)

In any event, I'll be flying off tomorrow morning back to the land of zillionaires and wannabes. At least the homeless people there will be ones that I know.