Is Your House Overvalued? - New York Times

Housing bubbles everywhere and no where more prevalent than in NY and CA. California has twice the population of NY. Amazing that a place could be even more congested than here. I'm sure I'd die there.

I bet anyone reading this that by 2010 the housing bubble will have popped, sooner if there is terrorist action.


Is Your House Overvalued? - New York Times

May 24th, 2005

"One problem with gazing too frequently into the past is that we may turn around to find the future has run out on us." -- Michael Cibenko

I've been doing project management these last few months. Its nice and all, but not much more interesting than the bowels of J2EE that I've dug myself out of. I like the leadership part of it, and I think there may be a bit more creativity out of it than being a developer. The process PMI crud is necessary evil, but after that superstructure is in place in my mind I think I'll like job.

THE ABOLITION OF WORK by Bob Black

On eve of monday, this is apropos.....

THE ABOLITION OF WORK by Bob Black: "Work is the source of nearly all the misery in the world. Almost any evil you'd care to name comes from working or from living in a world designed for work. In order to stop suffering, we have to stop working.

That doesn't mean we have to stop doing things. It does mean creating a new way of life based on play; in other words, a ludic conviviality, commensality, and maybe even art. There is more to play than child's play, as worthy as that is. I call for a collective adventure in generalized joy and freely interdependent exuberance. Play isn't passive. Doubtless we all need a lot more time for sheer sloth and slack than we ever enjoy now, regardless of income or occupation, but once recovered from employment-induced exhaustion nearly all of us want to act. Oblomovism and Stakhanovism are two sides of the same debased coin.

The ludic life is totally incompatible with existing reality. So much the worse for 'reality,' the gravity hole that sucks the vitality from the little in life that still distinguishes it from mere survival. Curiously -- or maybe not -- all the old ideologies are conservative because they believe in work. Some of them, like Marxism and most brands of anarchism, believe in work all the more fiercely because they believe in so little else."

http://www.zpub.com/notes/black-work.html

Nice weather 5-19-05

Got approval for vacation, the sun is out, projects are looking good, working out again, tryiing to eat right. Life is good.

And with that in mind.......

Drawbacks to Working in a Cubicle

10. Being told to "think outside the box" when you're in a freakin' box all day long.

9. Not being able to check e-mail attachments without turning around to see who's behind you.

8. Cubicle walls do not offer much protection from any kind of gun Fire.

7. That nagging feeling that if you press the right button, you'll get a piece of cheese.

6. Lack of roof rafters for the noose.

5. The walls are too close together for the hammock to work right.

4. 23 power cords - 1 outlet.

3. Prison cells are not only bigger, they also have beds.

2. The carpet has been there since 1976 and shows more signs of life than your coworkers.

And the Number 1 drawback to working in a cubicle is...

1. You can't walk out and slam the door when you quit

Tuesday

"'I will make divine magnetic lands, With the love of comrades, With the life-long love of comrades." --Walt Whitman

Don't you people, my Fine Readers, hate it when your mentor leaves? The guy primarily responsible for my relocation to NY, I'll call him CliffBar, is leaving the Company. This is terribly sad news for me. He and I have fought battles, many on the same side, sometimes not. But I've always known that his was an honest opinion from a fiercely intelligent man.

He will be missed. Of course the selfish angle appears -- what does the future hold for me here? If he was my Advocate, what will I do without him?

Ughh.

Happy monday!

"Before the year 1000, the word 'she' did not exist in the English language. The singular female reference was the word 'heo', which also was the plural of all genders. The word 'she' appeared only in the 12th century, about 400 years after English began to take form. 'She' probably derived from the Old English feminine 'seo', the Viking word for feminine reference."

Star Wars this week! Star Wars has the same love/hate relationship with true fans as does the Superbowl. True lovers of a genre love the attention and validation that they finally get by being popular, but dislike those newcomers who just pay attention because its cool, not due to the objective value of the attraction. Those butterflies jump from party to party without substance. They have no honor.

Read about HDMI. Initially excited about this One Cable To Rule Them All, I then discover that it has in it genetics DRM. Blast! They squish FireWire for this. The media giants are far too powerful. The only way to stop piracy is to not stop it. Take note from prohibition and the current war on drugs. People get what they want.

Simply charge for bandwidth. Make money that way idiots! As for Tivo placing ads in fast forward mode, you get the idiot of the day award.

How Much Real Estate $1 Million Buys - Forbes.com

This is sad

"However, most Americans still consider $1 million a lot of money, no matter what their real estate agents tell them--and rightly so. The problem is that in certain markets, there seems to be a complete disconnect between property value and the buying power of a dollar. In Manhattan, for example, one million bucks buys a two-bedroom condo--and usually not in a great part of town or with oodles of compensating charm. In the Hamptons, it will buy a modest A-frame unfashionably deep in the woods. "

How Much Real Estate $1 Million Buys - Forbes.com

Homeschooling Site

"But better die than live mechanically a life that is a repetition of repetitions."
D. H. Lawrence

I like that quote. :)

Homeschoolregister.com is my newest effort. Its aim is to be the best homeschoolers portal on the internet. We will have the best contributors, the best content, and the best tools. It will aggregate other people's good work, it will give credit where its due, and reward the best contributors. This portal will become the one place any homeschooler needs to go for tools, news, and opinion.

Go there now. Be early in the system. Become a legend.

-- joe

ps. Carrie Underwood better win that stupid idol show. ;)

Check out the new Seattle sound: Film scores

In my opinion labor unions almost always comprimise the very people the set out to help by building in too much cost.


Check out the new Seattle sound: Film scores - Top Stories - MSNBC.com: "Seattle has become a competitive threat to Los Angeles in film scoring because Seattle Symphony musicians do not belong to the American Federation of Musicians, a national union that regulates wages.
Seattle musicians formed their own guild in 1985, after growing frustrated with their lack of a say in union matters. As a result, producers can record film scores far more cheaply in Seattle than in Los Angeles. "

Bills

"For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin -- real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way. Something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life." -- Fr. Alfred D'Souza

I wonder, on this sunny Tuesday, which of the readers of this website have figured out how to manage their family money? It is an increasingly frustrating issue in mine. Which of the bills do I pay? Which does my wife pay? One of us typically takes it over until that one gets too busy with whatever, and then the other attempts to help too late, and here come the late charges. Its incredibly frustrating to pay extra for things just because you lost the bill to it and forgot to pay it on time. Fortunately automatic payments have alleviated the pain, but only partially. Some businesses I’m convinced WANT you to be late so you pay them extra.

Where to channel this enormous frustration!?! AHHH! DANG POOP! @#$%

KAFI - About Kalamazoo

Kalamazoo has an animation festival? Are we kidding? Even NY doesn't have this sort of thing. I mean Jerry Sienfield et all were pitching their wares at Lincoln Center a week or two ago, but that was for the masses. This thing Kalamazoo Valley Community College does had 500 entries! They call it Sundance of Animation.

Goodness.


KAFI - About Kalamazoo

Scientists discover key to a longer life (maybe)

Scientists have prolonged the lives of laboratory mice by 20 per cent using a technique that boosts the natural antioxidants of the body.

If similar results are applied to humans then it would mean average lifespans could be extended from the present 75 years or so to more than 100 years.

News

Happy Cinco De Mayo :)

"Religion is a candle inside a multicolored lantern. Everyone looks through a particular color, but the candle is always there." --

Mohammed Neguib"



"The 5th of May is not Mexican Independence Day, but it should be! And Cinco de Mayo is not an American holiday, but it should be. Mexico declared its independence from mother Spain on midnight, the 15th of September, 1810. And it took 11 years before the first Spanish soldiers were told and forced to leave Mexico.

So, why Cinco de Mayo? And why should Americans savor this day as well? Because 4,000 Mexican soldiers smashed the French and traitor Mexican army of 8,000 at Puebla, Mexico, 100 miles east of Mexico City on the morning of May 5, 1862. "