| Oh Quebec |
[Oct. 2nd, 2009|11:57 am] |
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Only in Quebec would someone think that this was a good name for a genealogy project. |
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| Options |
[Sep. 15th, 2009|09:13 pm] |
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Today I entered the options market. In a month, I will either be very poor, or slightly richer. |
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| H1N1, it begins! |
[Sep. 10th, 2009|11:55 am] |
So, for convention goers this flu season, you should be extra careful about con crud. This year's PAX had an H1N1 outbreak, for example. Traveling is always risky, but keep in mind that your fellow furries are dirty, dirty creatures and that you should take every precaution to stay clean.
This is not a year I would want to hold a dealer's table. :)
( Affected flights and more fear mongering ) |
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| To rent, or not to rent |
[Sep. 6th, 2009|08:32 pm] |
September is here. One more semester for Dave and we'll be together again. I'm sure he's less excited about the idea than I am, but I can't help but daydream about it. Of course, my daydreams aren't filled with grassy fields or flower picking. They're filled with planning for a home of our own (among other things to do in said home that will not be mentioned here).
We both know that with our current income level, the house of our dreams is a long way off. In the bay area, we'd need $1-1.5 million to afford something like that. I'd like to buy it within the next 10 years, though. So, the goal is to have 20% of $1 million by the time we'd want to put a down payment on such a monstrosity.
I did some modeling to compare different scenarios under which we could achieve these goals. There are three competing models: (1) Buy a home at the end of 2010 with an aggressive, 15-yr mortgage to build equity fast and avoid high interest payments, (2) Keep renting and invest the money that would otherwise be spent on mortgage interest payments, (3) Buy a house with a traditional 30-yr mortgage for a lower monthly payment, and invest the remainder.
The model home being bought is $380,000, which I think is a fair estimate of the kind of house we could reasonably acquire once the market stabilizes. The time period is from now until the end of 2015, between 5 and 6 years. So how do the models stack up? Assuming zero gain or loss of home value, (1) results in $152k and (3) results in $150k. Assuming a (stupidly conservative) 5% annual return, (2) gives $162k. This favors renting, but falls short of the desired $200k nest egg for our dream home.
So why buy a house? Well, ideally, houses don't just stay the same value over a period of 5 years. So let's be a little less conservative and say that there's a good chance that this home will increase in value at the rate of 2% a year. Of course, this means nothing for (2), but for both (1) and (3) this yields a final equity of $190k, much closer to our target. (1), however, ties up all of our payments in the house and leaves us in a difficult spot if an emergency comes up, like one of us loses a job. (3), on the other hand, keeps about 1/3rd of that in investments that can be easily cashed out.
(3) also has the added benefit that making 5% annual return is about as easy as throwing poop at a wall, and its far more likely that we would make 10 or even 15% annually with a well managed portfolio. In that case, both (2) and (3) would leave us with $200k at the end of 2015, exactly where we want to be.
So again, why buy a house if (2) works okay? (3) feels more stable to me, as our investment is distributed both over home equity and a stock portfolio instead of depending entirely on one or the other. Also, an added bonus in (3) is that we'd be paying about $18k annually in mortgage interest payments. A benefit? Yes, because that's a huge tax deduction, and if I was renting I'd still be taking the piddly $5k standard deduction.
My conclusion is that I should go with (3). Any other ideas? |
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| Fees! |
[Aug. 18th, 2009|02:44 pm] |
I bought plane tickets for a wedding this coming weekend. They were relatively cheap, for a cross country flight, but still expensive enough to cause a dent. I'm flying US airways.
So I go online to check out the stuff I need to prepare for my flight, and I find out that I'm not allowed ANY checked bags on the flight. None. I remember a few years ago being surprised when I wasn't allowed -two- checked bags for my usual Christmas trip home.
I'm allowed one carry-on bag, and one personal item. Anything else incurs extra fees ($15 per bag). Furthermore, if you inconvenience them by checking them in at the counter, its an additional $5 fee for them to scowl at you, directly.
I've always been one of those passengers that DOESN'T pack everything they own into a suitcase that barely fits into the overhead compartment. I thought it was common human decency not to take up all the storage space that other passengers could use for things they might really need to have access to, during the flight. But evidently, on US Airways, they prefer you to do so.
Its a sad situation when cattle-car airlines (Southwest) makes you look bad. And they want to blame terrorists for the lack of people wanting to fly? |
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| What to do in a zombie attack? |
[Aug. 14th, 2009|08:48 pm] |
Ask science, of course.
Excerpt:
"We model a zombie attack, using biological assumptions based on popular zombie
movies...then modify the model to include the effects of possible quarantine or a cure. We examine the impact of regular, impulsive reductions in the number of zombies and derive conditions under which eradication can occur. We show that only quick, aggressive attacks can stave off the doomsday scenario: the collapse of society as zombies overtake us all." |
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| Go Housing Crash! |
[Aug. 12th, 2009|12:19 pm] |
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With apologies for everyone who owns a home, but -30% y-o-y is an awesome trend. In just a few years, you might be able to buy a small cardboard box on the corner of my street for under $1,000,000! I can't wait. |
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| Tutoring |
[Aug. 1st, 2009|04:48 pm] |
So I've decided to start tutoring, for some extra cash. Its not that I'm poor...I'm actually quite happy with my salary, but somehow no matter how much you make, life finds ways to keep you from buying the little things that would make you happy.
I'm going to meet up with my first clients, today. Students? Clients? I don't know what to call them, honestly. I don't even know what to charge. I asked for $20 an hour but that now seems waaay too low, but its what I asked. I do like teaching, that much is certain. I think I'm not half bad at it, either.
We'll see, though. Maybe they'll fire me after a week. |
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| More cheerful things |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|11:17 pm] |
that dogs can do, when they aren't sick for a year straight. Charm kicks in her sleep...luckily she doesn't do this. :)
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| I am SCIENCE! |
[Jun. 18th, 2009|02:50 pm] |
http://www.viruscomix.com/page433.html
The loveliness of the natural world shall overwhelm you, the elegance of the evolutionary process shall captivate you and bring a tear to your eye, and your hearts will fill with wonder and inspiration at the beauty and mystery of the universe! |
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| DOMA and Obama |
[Jun. 16th, 2009|01:01 pm] |
It should be no surprise, by now, that the black community and the gay community aren't on the same team. So the fact that Obama prioritizes welfare, tax hikes, and the UAW/GM fiasco over social progress should come as no surprise.
At the same time, I'm not as outraged over the DOMA support as most. This needs to be taken in context. Our country has been pissed on by the republicans for eight years. Our democratic system has been broken down by a cowboy president, and our economy is in tatters from mismanagement by unregulated banks.
Obama has a lot of work to do and he's not a perfect man. His background: he's an educated lawyer. As a profession, he has a respect for the law and due process. We might be used to 8 years of an executive office completely ignoring that its only 1/3rd of a government, but Obama's biggest job is restoring that. He is president, not king, and as president he has responsibility to uphold the acts of congress.
DOMA is a legal act of congress. By both precedent and logic, there is NOTHING unconstitutional about it. Why? Because our constitution doesn't say anything about gays being a protected class, and every judicial precedent has reiterated that. Obama's defense of DOMA is not on moral grounds, but on legal ones. I don't believe that all of the defense points are GOOD ones, mind you, but they need to be there and I'm glad they ARE there.
Why do they need to be there? Because no matter how absurd, every point will be brought up during the appeal, and every point will be addressed by the opinion of the court. DOMA won't be overthrown, but the court can still set precedents about each of the claims in DOMA's defense. They can say "this claim is ridiculous" or "this claim is reasonable." If the defense doesn't bring those claims to the table, the court has no reason to offer opinion on them.
So, no matter how upset you are about Obama defending DOMA, think about the real strategy behind it. The court might uphold DOMA as a reasonable and constitutional law (because it is), but it will almost certainly highlight the fallacies in the more right-wing claims likening homosexuality to incest. The opinion of the court is more important than the decision on DOMA, and I believe that is what Obama's office is trying to do.
Just deciding not to defend DOMA would accomplish nothing, whatsoever. The court would still uphold DOMA, because (again) its a valid law with no constitutional problems. You want change? Elect a gay friendly representative in congress. That's the part of our government that gets to make these decisions. |
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| Panda Rapists |
[Jun. 1st, 2009|12:38 am] |
I think its funny that the non-furry cops investigating the panda child rape case are more reasonable than the furry drama-queens sensationalizing it. A guy was arrested for soliciting sex from a minor, that's all.
Whether he likes to dress up in a panda suit or he likes to dress up as Spock makes no difference. Subcultures are weird to normal people. They'll always be on the outskirts of understanding, held at arms length, and that's where you want them to be, anyway.
The moment you try to make "furry" look normal enough to have, say, its own cable TV channel, you start acting like idiots and assuming you have some right to tell other people what they can or can't do or say or draw or write, because it makes your precious fandom look bad.
Look bad? We dress up in animal costumes, write adult fiction about wolf-men having gay sex with each other, and our conventions have more pornography sold at them than any other purportedly non-sexual subculture I've ever seen. Objectively, what image are we trying to preserve, and is it really worth sweeping all of that under the rug just so that the world can look on the polished exterior and think "well they're not so bad?"
There's only one thing that's consistent when people start drawing imaginary lines of morality, and that is that they always happen to be on the right side of the line. |
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| On Entitlement and Artists |
[May. 17th, 2009|09:32 pm] |
So I read a blog post by Neil Gaiman today and, well, it kind of pissed me off. The meat of the post is about whether or not an author (in this case, George Martin of "A Song of Ice and Fire" fame) is responsible for finishing a series that they started.
From Neil's perspective, the demanding ("entitled") fan is treating George as though he works for him, that somehow because he bought a $10 book the author is now in a contract to finish the series and spend every waking moment doing exactly that. Neil's statement is that artists should be able to write when and how they want, and that fans should be thankful the series might finish at all.
Bullshit. What Neil ignores is that part of the allure of a good story is to find out how the storyteller is going to wrap it all up. ANYONE can throw out a bunch of plot devices and loose ends and grab the attention of readers. It takes a skilled writer to pull it all back in and tie a ribbon around it in an interesting, provocative and unified way.
When you buy a novel that's part of a series in progress, the writer HAS signed a contract with you. If they said "this series will never be finished" then the majority of folks would have passed over their books to begin with. Its part of that implied contract that makes a series author successful, in the first place.
Like it or not, its a breach of that contract if you simply elect never to finish the series. You've betrayed your fans, the people who were kind enough to read what you had to say and pay you for the opportunity. Never forget that an artist is a servant, not a king, and your ability to sustain yourself while practicing your craft is due only to those fans.
Neil, to use your words, you ARE their bitch. |
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| Zune Pass |
[May. 16th, 2009|06:26 pm] |
I think the Zune Pass model is brilliant. The commercials are stupid as hell, but the concept is great. Its exactly what the next generation of music distribution should be.
$15 a month for unlimited music access, with 10 songs "to keep" every month? It sounds too good to be true, but its the perfect model to combat piracy. I'd happily and forever pay $15 a month to access every song I want to listen to, even if I don't get to keep them. And being able to keep 10 of them every month should cover pretty much all the 'new' music I care to keep, anyway.
And if my needs exceed that? Well I bet I can just buy a song to keep for $1, anyway. I love iTunes, its what I use now, but for once Microsoft has come up with something better. Of course, they're going to cripple it by trying to tie it to their music player.
Its too bad there, too, since even with the Zune, Microsoft showed they knew what music lovers wanted. They wanted to share their favorite songs with friends. The Zune could do that, even hobbled as it was by the "3 play limit" or whatever. Now with the Zune pass, coupled with the built in wireless sharing of the Zune, Microsoft has actually invented something unique.
Its too bad Apple will steal the idea and brand it as their own before Microsoft can capitalize on it. Or is it really too bad? Guess it matters which side you're on. |
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| Pop Junkie |
[May. 7th, 2009|10:58 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | The White Tie Affair - Candle | ] |
I like disposable pop music, I can't help it. My music creds were lost long ago, so STFU Genom.
Charm goes to the hospital tomorrow to go under for a CT scan and a myringotomy. Hopefully she wakes up...and after a few thousand dollars worth of treatment she can be a normal dog again. If you've got any good wishes to send her way, I'd appreciate it.
She's everything to us. Its hard enough not being there to give her a hug before she goes in, but losing her would kill me.
Which means that today was a terrible time to have discovered these:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=AC563BD5E82C6964 |
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| Hot Fuzz |
[May. 2nd, 2009|11:29 pm] |
I couldn't stop thinking about this today, for some reason.
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| Old phone |
[Apr. 12th, 2009|02:12 pm] |
I miss my old iPhones rubber buttons. The new one has metal ones that are draconian by comparison and hurt my fingers to press. Otherwise it's an awesome upgrade, just wish I had the old one so I could hack it, like I've been waiting two years to do. Posted via LiveJournal.app. |
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