red Umbrella (rU)

Oh What A Web We Weave...

2006-11-13T10:29:00.000-08:00

Now, now...certainly there are those of you out there producing progressive blogs that should receive an honorable mention and a link from rU. Should you have trouble posting here, try doing so at NEVER GIVE UP, a partner forum at THE NEW CAFE.

Okay now,

Zag

New BShares Corp Setup As (rU) Grows

2006-06-20T08:11:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have studied the modest trading history of this blog/clearinghouse at BlogShares. What you probably don't know is that now, through the wondrous magic of the boys and girls at BShares, we've created a new corporation there as well ~ (rU).

Extremely closely-held, (rU) will work within its charter, along with our friends at BlogShares, and in conjunction with our new site, www.redumbrella.org, to expand our presence and our reason for being here as 2006 rolls on.

We invite you to link your way to the sites above, take a look around, and go bookmark crazy as things develop...

Zag

TexasKos, BlogShares Corporations Spell Good News For Progressives

2006-05-31T03:41:00.000-07:00

Last year, we built an eclectic list of Sites Worth A Visit at A Heathen's Perspective, and we continue to keep the list trimmed and updated when time permits.

This year, along with many other worthwhile progressive and humorous blogs we've visited, a special thanks goes to the new BlogShares tool of creating new Corporations. The founders, administrators, and corporate members should, through trading activity and creative, cost-free gamesmanship, enhance the Web presence of a host of new blogs, blog lists, and industries that will make the ride on the Web a lot more user-friendly for progressive and wickedly funny sites to go and hang with (as the kidz say).

One of the best and the brightest of this year's new crop is Texas KOS, aka TexasKos. I think you'll be hearing a lot from the folks over there as 2006 rambles on.

Whether well-known or obscure, we hope to continue our work as a modest clearinghouse for no-nonsense, no-holds-barred sites for anyone who resonates with our approach. Thanks for stopping by!

Zag Akimbo, founder

Moment of Triumph: When Drooling Superstitious Freaks Attack

2006-04-05T01:04:00.000-07:00

Moment of Triumph: When Drooling Superstitious Freaks Attack

The "Market Forces" worked in 2005!

2006-01-01T05:04:00.000-08:00

We came right down to the wire. Oh, the THRILL of it all! There I was, hunched over my G4, desperately trying to buy/sell/trade/issue bonds...basically anything legal that BlogShares allows for players on the trading floor ~ And THERE! Right THERE! I sold off most of the shares I owned in stale blogs, bought shares in vibrant, progressive blogs and humorous ones to boot, and by golly...I increased Heathen Monk's monthly earnings by more than 200%! I'm rich, I tell ya - RICH!

And the nicest thing is, that anyone with an internet connection can stop by and search for that mean ol' Heathen Monk, or "A Heathen's Perpective," or even "redUmbrella," and see the list of undervalued blogs we found in 2005. You'll have to dig a little deeper to see whose blogs our "analysts" predict great things for this year. But it's there! Ain't life grand?

All my best,

Zag

A Simple Way to Track and Find Good Blogs

2005-11-05T09:01:00.000-08:00

Blogshares. Ya gotta love it! A fantasy stock exchange tailored for bloggers, blog watchers, and blog groupies. The old Heathen Monk has begun building his portfolio at Blogshares, and should you stop by here, just click RIGHT ABOUT HERE to view all of the blog holdings in HMonk's fabulous porfolio!

Zag

Roll Up Your Sleeves and Dig In!

2005-07-11T01:55:00.000-07:00

Online research. It's here. Not to fear. Get using it! Among other fine sites we've chosen a few from "Sites Worth a Visit" to whet your appetite. Let's start with the mother of all Web resources, The Internet Archive. Consider it the Smithsonian of the World Wide Web. But wait! Don't surf away yet! The Columbia School of Journalism (CJR) is chock full of information and opinion. Why not start with the list of which corporations own what? You'll find it right here. And of course all of your legal inquiries can be tracked down at the Cornell Legal Information Institute. Finally, if you're against the death penalty and want to keep an eye on developments around the country, try The Death Penalty Information Center. These and other sites around the Web should keep you busy during your summer break.

Thanks again for stopping by,

Zag

Sites Worth a Visit

2005-05-12T22:28:00.000-07:00

As we continue to search for valuable progressive and humorous sites, we invite you to visit the growing list of Sites Worth a Visit at A Heathen's Perspective. We hope you'll find many obscure sites you may not have discovered yet. Feel free to leave a comment letting us know your take on these sites' value to your own research of the blogosphere.

Zag

Tweaking Our Seach Criteria at (rU)

2005-03-27T06:38:00.000-08:00

As we continue to refine our methods here at red Umbrella (rU), we'll be sharing some of our latest picks in what we consider to be undervalued blogs and other sites from the progressive and humorous subspheres of the blogosphere. Below you'll find a few new examples of what we have in mind:

Political Landscape

VelVel on National Affairs

Personal perspectives from the dean of the Mass. School of Law at Andover. This blog, while available for trading at BlogShares, is extremely undervalued, as is the school's approach in assisting mid-life and underprivileged students to get a quality legal education.

Progressive Personas

Author Jane Hamsher's firedoglake combines serious thought with biting humor to produce a wonderfully readable blog and a link to her book, "Killer Instinct." Firedoglake is trading well on BlogShares, and its share price, while a bit higher than newcomers may be able to afford, is still quite undervalued in our opinion, making firedoglake a strong buy.

Humorous Sites

Two satirical visual/textual sites that don't appear to have been added to BlogShares system at this time are:

The Wizard of Whimsy, and of course, The White House. Both sites are obviously labors of "love" and deserve to be traded at BlogShares as soon as possible!

Well, there ya have it. Happy trading, everyone!

Zag

Wpc Testing Phase Begins!

2005-03-18T14:34:00.000-08:00

In our effort to take advantage of the many tools available at BlogShares, (rU) has begun testing a Web-public available list of undervalued blogs. You'll find our first test list at Heathen Monk's Main folder.

Click and scroll the "Main" button and you'll find other folders, including "Strategic Insight Fund," and various "UnderVal" folders. As we begin to get our sea legs at BlogShares, we'll be refining our stock picks based on blog content, share price, and frequency of entries, among other factors. Check back here for more updates as we refine our Wpc user-friendliness.

Thanks!

Zag

Testing Examples, March 20, 2005

Here's a fine example of what we consider to be an undervalued progressive blog: MediaGirl. Besides clicking your way to MGirl from rU's Main folder as explained above, you can track the blog's trading value here. Check back later for more examples as well as a weekly or monthly "best of" list of undervalued progressive blogs, based on our closely-held criteria.

From the world of humor comes StrangeCosmos. I think you'll see that it remains highly undervalued at BlogShares too!

BlogShares Ticker Is Now Available!

2005-03-14T23:07:00.000-08:00

Check the list of links in the right-hand sidebar, click on "BlogShares Ticker" and voila! Click the blogs that catch your eye and you'll be taken to that blog's page at BlogShares. Later, we'll be tweaking this feature in order to specify individual "industries" as categorized at BlogShares.

As we here at (rU) scour the Web for undervalued progressive blogs, we'll be utilizing the many features offered at the Web's Stock Exchange, BlogShares. One feature now available here is their scrolling blog ticker window. Another feature we'll be using for new users of BlogShares is the list of undervalued "stocks" we own as they appear in red Umbrella's portfolio, Main folder, at BlogShares. There, we'll be adding some of these diamonds in the rough as we find them and purchase shares in their blogs. Stop back by when you find a moment and check to see which new features we've added!

Thanks!

Zag Akimbo, founder, CEO

Coming Soon: Our New Home Across the Pond!

2005-03-06T05:52:00.000-08:00

Lloyds Bldg, London

Later this year, on the fourteenth floor of this beautiful building, now leasing in London, (rU) will establish our first branch outside of the US. Our operations there will be a joint venture with our sister firm, transX industries. We hope to move into our luxurious location no later than November 15th. Please bookmark this page for future updates on our progress, and feel free to contact us through our international relations division chief, Sierra Blankens. Thank you!

Chapman Flowers, rU newsletter editor

Where did the name (rU) come from?

2005-03-06T04:19:00.000-08:00

It was the school year 1967-68. The place: a mid-sized city in Texas. The times they were indeed changing. But this high school was filled with traditionalists who, in many cases meant no harm. They were only "following orders." A student who'd formed a bond with several like-minded rebels started an underground newspaper ~ The Red Umbrella. Copies were quietly handed out. Rumors began to spread. More copies were left in school lockers. More rumors spread. A second issue of TRU came out soon thereafter. By this time the principal of the school had discovered that that someone was leaving "subversive" literature on school grounds. Apparently he became alarmed. Rumors were rampant. Students were questioned. It was feared that we had a communist in our ranks. Then I was questioned. I saw nothing. I knew nothing. I was no one. Retreating behind the Ag building I had a quiet smoke with the other outcasts - a mix of hot rod enthusiasts, farm boys, and neighborhood toughs, with a sprinkling of jocks who hadn't made the varsity squad. They nodded as I lit up and stood in the shade against the wall. We hardly spoke but just being there, in that company, provided membership in a small group of nobodies. It was later that year when a varsity athlete challenged one of the smokers who hung out at the club. The whole school knew that a big fight was on for that day. More than fifty students gathered to watch the two young men do battle. And the battleground was behind the Ag building.

As the two pugilists came closer to each other we formed a natural ring around them. The jock was bellowing. The smoker said very little. The jock tried to bull rush the smoker, who stepped aside. Then the athlete made a fateful decision. He decided to use his fists. Before he'd finished throwing a huge roundhouse right, the smoker hit him flush on the chin with a powerful right cross that came out of nowhere. The jock fell in a heap on the grass. The crowd gasped. He was down for the count, and the smoker stood back, waiting to see if the fight was ended. It was.

The jock rose and put his hands out, palms forward, and tried to save face while the smoker said nothing. The jock retreated. The crowd began to disperse. And I stood there and smiled. I'd been holding the smoker's jacket.

Nobody ever bothered me after that. Certainly no one ever picked a fight with my new friend either. And things slowly went back to a normal rhythm. It was close to graduation and I forgot about my newspaper. I was writing songs and beginning to see what one or two friends already saw in a "matchbox" of Mexican dirt weed. I had other things on my mind.

When my old friend Zag dredged this memory up from my muddled mind he asked if he could claim the rights to "The Red Umbrella." I assumed he was joking until I looked back at him. Zag was serious. I said yes, but under two conditions. That he drop "The," and use a lower case "r" in the word "red." He agreed, and we went back to our burgers. Now it's Zag's venture, not mine. And Zag is an honest broker who may not say a lot, but he always knows what to do in a crisis, and he still smokes.

[name withheld by request]

Under the radar

2005-03-06T00:07:00.000-08:00

Purpose

To create a modest clearinghouse for progressive Web activism, based on a number of market components, closely-held at this time.

Trading Activity

Shares of red Umbrella will be limited to the exchange at BlogShares.com.

Outlook

Depending on board decisions, valuation considerations, shareholder opinions, and total investors' holdings, red Umbrella may decide to announce a second public offering. However, at this time (rU) remains a single listing on the exchange.

Investing

Shares of this blog will be available to the public through www.blogshares.com only, and will become available only after this blog has gone Web-public. No trading is available at the time of this post.

Dissolution

red Umbrella reserves the right to reclaim its previous status as a privately-held firm, or to spin off its various component holdings at the time of dissolution, should that action become necessary in order to protect the integrity of the firm. These decisions will be made by the board of directors in closed session.

Posting Schedule

The amount and frequency of posts included in this blog will depend on trading activity, as well as the availability of staff members. No press releases will be issued without the consent of the board of directors, and close supervision of the chief operating officer. All press releases must be validated as accurate information by the chief financial officer of red Umbrella and are subject to the disclosure rules of our original charter.

Thanks for your interest!

Zag Akimbo, founder

parent blog - A Heathen's Perspective.