I lived in Vegas for ten years, and in that time maybe spent $300 on gambling. Got a royal flush on a poker machine once, so I pretty much figure there's not much point in me continuing to gamble if I already got my royal.

But here on the road, I find myself gambling. And I can see the appeal, the addictive side of it. I've spent way more on this gambling in two months than I ever did the entire time I lived in Vegas, checking the apps and the websites a couple times a day. I've spent $1725 so far, and I'm down $50.76 so far.

I'm teaching myself to invest. Not very well, obviously, as I'm down $50.76. But it's fascinating, and addicting, and infuriating. Stay off drugs, kids; I bought stock in a marijuana company and I'm down $84 dollars there. But that's slightly balanced out by some laser company my brother knows one of the workers that I bought stock in. They're up, but not enough to break even. And just for shits and giggles, I bought stock in the parent company that did movie pass. It was $40, I've spent more on that on a hangover, and this is way more entertaining (and hopefully going to last longer than some of my hangovers which seem to go on forever these days).

I might not be going about it the right way, and I've always been highly judgmental of wall street, and day traders, and I'm glad I'm not doing it for a living, but for now stock trading is actually kinda fun. I've used stash a bit too, which is way less pressure and gives some decent breakdowns, and also handy for research.

So here I am, crossing the US, updating stock feeds every couple hour or so, watching the numbers turn green, and red, and wondering what else to buy, and wondering about investing in other markets cos it's really boring between 1700-0900h Eastern time. Gambling with my money on things I have no control over, and if my luck with buying a house is anything to go by the market is going to crash in the next year or so and I should probably get out now when I"m only down $50 (and 76 cents).