After pretty much a full week of the wet stuff coming down, flood warnings, and everything else you would come to expect from early Spring, we have another round of showers heading our way next week. It's good that it isn't quite warm enough to start working outside because I would be a disappointed if it was but the rain kept me from getting anything done. The good news is, we have a small window tomorrow on Saturday where I might be able to get a little bit of stuff done. We will see.
The other good news is, no matter what the weather brings us, I have something to keep me warm.
When I was down in Virginia, I snagged these three bottles of whiskey. Actually, the Standard Proof on the far right came from Nashville, TN. I had my brother in law pick it up for me when he was on his annual NCAA basketball trip. I had gotten a bottle of this last time I was in Nashville, so when I heard he was heading there I asked him to pick me up a bottle. The truth is, this isn't the bottle I wanted. They have a Texas Pecan Bourbon that sounded kind of interesting to me, but like last time I was there, they didn't have any in stock. So I settled for the straight bourbon.
The other two bottles are from Virginia based distilleries. American Single Malts are becoming quite popular lately, and while they aren't my favorite, I am starting to learn to appreciate them. They have a more similar feel to Scotch or Irish Whisky versus the smokey taste that American Whiskey and Bourbon has. I'm excited to try the Virginia Distillery Single Malt. Then we have the rye whisky in the center from Catoctin Creek. I've never heard of this distillery before, but according to the Internet and the bottle, they have won quite a few awards over the years for this particular offering.
I guess I know what I am doing this weekend now...
SMR
Nuscale Power had their Q1 earnings call a few days ago. I haven't gotten the specific results yet, but I have a feeling they are still operating at a loss. I've been doing some reading based on the current price being lower than the IPO price. It's kind of depressing, but I still think there is a chance it can recover. Many of the critics are pointing to the fact that their costs are much higher than they anticipated and that small modular reactors aren't the right fit for the future power needs of the world.
I disagree, and while you might not see an SMR putting out enough power for a large city, it could be perfect for a data center and we all know that data centers are coming, whether we want them or not.
I want to apologize to all the people who bought the stock based on my coverage of it. Obviously, you should have done your own research, but hopefully you don't hold it against me too much. Like I said, I think we are still pretty early in this. It's hard to say what might happen. NuScale still has the regulatory approvals in place to give them a jump start on all of this when things really get rolling.
Silver
Silver continues to hover around that $60 to $80 range. With things sitting like this I plan on just holding on and waiting to see what the future holds. I likely won't be purchasing any more silver until next Christmas. Of course that doesn't count the tickets I will be buying for the silver raffle that @bulliontools is going to be running here soon. I'll probably buy a few of those to try my luck.
Meanwhile, my KGC and FSM stocks seem to be holding up pretty well. It seems there are a lot of markets kind of in limbo right now until we figure out what is going to happen with this whole Iran/US straits of Hormuz thing. I just hope it gets resolved sooner rather than later.
Splinterlands
I got my node renewal invoice at the beginning of the month for SPS. I'm not sure why, but it feels like the price went up quite a bit. I typically pay the bill in SPS for @monstermarket to host my node and I can't remember what I have paid in the past, but this month it was something shy of 1300 SPS. I'm guessing it has to do with the price of SPS going down, but I am once again confronted with the fact that it might not be worth it to have my node hosted through them.
Honestly, if I knew I could get what I paid for my node, I would sell it in a heartbeat and move those funds into something else. When you are sitting close to 100 in the ranks, you don't have much chance of earning anything. It's wildly depressing, but just another indication of the current market. Will things turn around? I hope so, but it's hard to have a lot of faith after such a long roll through the mud.
PWR
In case you didn't see, the PWR project by @empoderat / @ferranlogs (same person). I'm thinking about moving my investment into that off chain and putting it into a different project (more on that in the future). I already had the PWR converted to USDC and deposited into my external wallet. It wasn't much based on my holdings, but it's more than I had a few days ago. The HIVE I had pooled with it I am still up in the air about. I like investing in HIVE, but I also feel I need to spread out my investments a bit.
I still have faith in the blockchain, but I need to be practical. Even with my traditional investments when I have a good amount in a single mutual fund my broker and I talk about diversifying into something else moving forward. It's not about lack of faith, it's about making smart moves to ensure future success and sustainability. I'll let you know when I figure out what I am going to do.
My Sports Account - @bozz.sports
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Those looks like amazing whiskeys, never tried any of them but my mouth is watering. I bet the smokiness does make them a little more Scotch like, I love smoke!
SMR will operate at a loss for sometime until they hit a big contract, it's going to take some patience. It's not meant to power big cities, it's for small areas, that's the whole point!...
Splinterlands is getting expensive on that node, I'm not sure I'd continue personally. I play some but not as much as in the past, but it is fun to flip cards and make some money. It funds buying some newer cards which has made playing fun again. We'll see how long my enthusiasm lasts though!
I agree, move the PWR investment offchain, be smart. You have to be practical, some things just aren't going to earn and you can make more elsewhere. I've moved some off chain too, it only makes sense. While I still believe in Hive, it's struggling. Now with another wasteful value plan showing up it's not going to help prices any...
I'm waiting for @blanchy to write his regular scathing post about the latest proposal. Such a joke. I've been going heavier than I planned into GoMining. I think anything that touches BTC is probably a safer bet. I think with the whisky it is more the way they finish it. The single malts have sweeter and more flowery taste than a straight bourbon.
I've hung up my giving out boots @bozz. I raised the issues but unless the top accounts start changing their attitude I am pissing against the wind.
I understand!
Catoctin Creek rye looks like a solid pick, Virginia malt next!
They were both quite good thanks!
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We've had hardly any rain here lately, so conditions seem quite different. Hope it brightens up for you. I do need to do another whisky post some time. I have a few bottles I have not reported on.
I expect the markets are generally messed up lately, but people ought to be looking at energy alternatives with oil being so sensitive to events.
I have some bottles I recently opened as well including the ones in the photo that aren't opened. I need to do a proper review at some point. Lack of rain likely brings a different set of problems!
Things are not too dry here for now. There was actually a short shower yesterday, but barely enough to wet the ground.
Early stage technologies especially something as capital intensive and politically sensitive as nuclear are almost always messy in the beginning. NuScale Power was never going to be a straight line up, and anyone buying into SMRs should have understood that this is a long duration, high risk, high reward play.
The criticism around cost overruns and scalability isn’t wrong, but it’s also not the full picture. SMRs were never meant to replace large scale generation for entire cities. Where they do make sense is exactly where you pointed targeted, high demand, always on use cases like data centers, industrial sites, or remote grids. That demand is only going one direction with AI and cloud infrastructure expanding rapidly.
Good points! I definitely am not jumping ship. I've been interested in this since way before they went public as a company, so I am excited to see where it goes. The moves they are taking to make it safer is really exciting.
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