Not that crazy

Toe, I knew it would happen if I looked long enough, but I think I found a blog by someone who may be genuinely mentally ill. Check this out:

http://multibilliondollarsnuffindustry.blogspot.com/

Sounds like he may have a problem.

Anyway, I have problems, too, so I shouldn't talk.

Hope you're well. I was taking a break pushing the "Next Blog" button. Now I have to return to my own slavery.

Happy Monday, man.

Church of Real Estate Without Real Estate

Toe, you are the 2nd person I've met in the past 2 weeks who is a real estate preacher, except you are preaching the opposite view. His idea is just to buy as much property as possible. If you can buy, buy, is his philosophy.

But I think you both may be correct, for the housing markets you are each swimming in. Here on the prairie, the prices have not inflated the way they have in your area. They go up maybe 2-3% a year pretty consistently, but there's been no balloon like on the coasts. Of course, that means that unless we hold onto it for a while, we're not going to make much money back when we sell, but it also means that we probably won't have to worry about losing a ton if the bubble bursts in other regions.

But I think I understand what you are saying. It's something I've suspected for a while--that people are fools to think this real estate bubble will last forever, the same way they were in the 90s with the dot-com thing. Unless you are getting in and out quickly (I think of your chess buddy, V, flipping shit), I doubt its wise to expect to make money with property.

There is talk in our town of the passenger train line being extended here. It's now about 15 miles away, on the current freight line, so it seems like a logical progression. The idea is that if we buy a house now, hold onto it until the train line comes out, we'll see more than the usual 2-3% annual increase in price.

I don't know how long we'll be here, but I am beginning to think it might be about 5-6 years. The place is starting to grow on us, and there are debts to pay, so the steady work here is helping. I just can't see renting that entire time. I keep hearing that old adage that rent is "throwing away your money."

But who the hell knows--buying is a gamble, especially when I look at how crappy our national economy sometimes seems to be.

Anyway, I too am all over the place with my thoughts. I have been busy as a line cook lately. I foolishly told my client that I would get this huge project to her by Monday, and it's taking me a lot longer to do than I expected. The good news is that I just assessed my progress on another project for another client, and I'm much further ahead than I expected, so I can probably devote the weekend to the big project. Such a vague report. I better stop right here.

I'm coming to town on Feb 7-9th--will you be around? It would be cool to talk in person.

By the way, the title of this entry is an allusion to Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor. If you have not read it, I'll explain sometime.

It's cool on their skin

E-word,

Sorry if I sounded preachy there. I've been pretty obsessed lately with the real estate market across the US, and how so many people fool themselves by thinking they are building wealth by purchasing real estate. It certainly makes sense when rent and mortgage prices are similar, and when you're planning to stay for the long haul, but otherwise people are really fooling themselves. The term 'house poor' (which is a shortening of 'house rich, cash poor', at least for me. I'm not sure if it's commonly used) applies for far too many people. In my opinion (and please, dissent if you think I'm wrong!), there is nothing more dangerous than overextending yourself on a mortgage, or having all of your money tied up in the house you own, or both. People should not feel pressured to buy a house, because at inflated values, the tax benefit from homeownership is cancelled.

Ugh, I'm getting distracted and discombobulated. In short, how wealthy really is someone who owns a 600k house if all his cash is tied up in the house, and the mortgage payments are such that he can't go on vacation? Real estate investing is just like stock investing, and so we know that periods of unbelievable growth are followed by periods of painful stagnation, so people who think they are wealthy just because their house appraises for 2-3 times more than they paid need to chill out, because it's not something they can just liquefy like you can if you have cash. Plus they're idiots if they don't remember the dotcom crash. that was just a couple of years ago, but it's like it never happened.

Also, a thing I'm noticing that parallels the stock market bubble is the fact that people are greedy, thinking prices will go up and unwilling to lower prices even when houses aren't selling, assured that their price is justified and everything will keep going up. It's crazy, the greed is going to fuck these folks up. As if making say, 20k isn't enough, they have to make 30k! Dumb.

Anyway, off of the soap box. I'm all over the map anyway. I hope your day is going well, and my manic outburst didn't freak you out.

Letters scrolled across the body spell I love you

E-word,

It's been hectic, and I've been tired, sorry for the lack of updates! I was in NY this weekend, and I found the best bookstore of all time. I had heard of the Strand, but there is nothing like walking into a store like this. Not only do they have what appears to be a million books, but they have a busy staff buzzing around, which felt very nice, actually. I was only in there for ten minutes (I was meeting El, so I didn't have that much time to browse), but I bought two books (The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, and the most recent from David Markson, I can't actually remember the title) for 8 bucks.(!) I loved it, the book store reminded me of when I was 19 and just starting my love for literature. I used to go to the bookstore 3-4 times a week, and look at the same books. Back then, the Super Crown and Borders I went to had good literature sections. I'm not sure what the fuck has happened. Big bookstores are really bad nowadays, filled with pop lit with a small section for classics.

The Strand takes me back to those days when I was really excited about literature.

Anyway, I was surprised to hear that the move to De_B may have permanence, only because I know you guys had talked about moving to the east coast. Wow. That's awesome. Settling down feels good, I know El feels that way. She's commuting between here and NY, but she now feels like Maryland is home.

Good luck on finding a house. To be honest with you, 220k sounds pricey, but if they are willing to settle for say, 190k, it might be okay. I don't know what the market is like in your neck of the woods, or what appreciation has been like, but I'm guessing there must be better deals. At the same time, the house does sound great (so big!) with interesting architectural details.

Sigh. Speaking of real estate, today I'm actually selling the two bedroom house. We're closing at 2:30 today, and the house will no longer belong to me. I've taken the opposite track, I'm selling the house now because I can't see it appreciating um, appreciably past this point. It's so highly priced right now, I feel that if it goes any further then something is severely wrong with the economy and the real estate bubble will burst into a thousand pieces. I'm half tempted to sell the house I'm living in right now, take the cash, and rent an apartment. I won't do that, because I like my house, but the market is batshit right now.

About the idea that house values will appreciate, you have to be careful with that thought. It's also entirely possible that your house will not appreciate at all, and any transactions you make will be at a loss due to the closing costs of buying and selling a home. In this market, I'm firmly of the mind that renting may be the wisest thing to do right now, especially if the price of rent is lower than the price of ownership, taking into consideration taxes, etc.

My parents place in Rockville did not appreciate for 12 years, and actually lost a good 15% of its value in the first 5 years. If you're not planning to stay put for a long time (like, over ten years), now may not be the best time to buy.

Sorry for going on and on, I have some strong opinions about this now. Another thing to consider is the fact that you live in De_b, which is frankly not Alexandria, VA, or Silver Spring, MD, or heck, even Brooklyn. These urbanish areas are the ones that see massive appreciation. Texas and the Southwest (suburbs around Dallas, Phoenix, Houston, etc) are seeing massive appreciation, too, but I don't hear the same things about suburban Chicago.

Wait a little bit. There is definitely indications that this is becoming a buyers market, which means you might be able to save 10-20 percent on listed values if you have patience.

Again, sorry for the blahblahblahblah.

Beer and cheese

Toe,
Sometimes I think the midwest primarily lives on beer and cheese. It's one one of the best features of the place, actually. I saw a picture of myself holding C*'s latest niece, and I look so scrawny. I need to load up on the beer and the cheese or something. I don't want to enter my 5th decade looking like I a skinny, bald teenager.

Of course, there are bigger things to worry about.

Had a decent weekend. Worked a little on a small work project, and help C (not to be confused with C*) with some computer issues. I'm acting as her down-the-hall tech support. We all went out for Thai food in downtown De_b, which turned out to be very enjoyable. The restaurant used to serve something else--it was called Thai food, but it didn't look or taste like any I had ever encountered. It tasted fine--just not like Thai food. They've since changed ownership, and now it looks and tastes like actual Thai food. So, I can now safely report, I live 2.5 blocks from a Thai restaurant, something I haven't been able to say since 1996, when I lived in northwest DC.

I don't know if its the effect of the good Thai food or what, but we're thinking more and more of buying a place here in town. There's a 1700 sq. ft. bungalow down the street going for around 220, and I heard a rumor they would settle for far less. It's a sweet house, although a little odd--the front rooms have kind of Arts and Crafts Movement feel about them, something we both really like, but the other rooms aren't quite in the same style. It was built about 90 years ago, I think, but a room off the kitchen and the attic appear to have been added on (or redone) in the past 10-20 years, so the house comes off as somewhat patched together. That said, it is spacious and light, and it's near the school here in town, so the property value is only bound to go up. Anyway, we're going to hold off. There are other interesting properties coming up all the time, and we need to wait to see if C* gets approval to teach next year.

Anyway, on to Monday. Hope you're well out there.

Finally, some damn snow

It's coming down a bit now. I made some hot chocolate in anticipation, even breaking out the powdered milk instead of using rice milk.

Working, working, just a little longer. Then I'm gonna help C set up her new DSL modem.

It's pouring inside

Dude, I typed a long response yesterday to your ruminations, but it didn't go through for some reason.

I like your ruminations. I have never been to a strip club, so I have to take your word for it on the experience. I have a feeling that, because I tend to get kind of self-conscious about sex when I am in public, that I might have a similar lack of emotion in a strip club. I would be thinking things like "Who is this woman and why is she letting me touch her?" Then I would think of the fact that she is getting paid to let me touch her and it would drive whatever potential sexiness there was right out of it.

I hear you on the lameness of keeping up with the hipness. A late-30s guy like me has other proirities, or should at least. I get my new-music exposure from NPR, mostly, with the occasional assist from a stray Web site.

I was listening to the radio at the weight room this morning. The rec center usually has some kind of system that turns down the radio whenever commercials or DJ chatter comes on, but lately it hasn't been working, so I got to enjoy the DJs gabbing this morning. Why is it that, on almost every morning show on a pop-radio station, there is a DJ with a cigarette-ravaged voice who laughs like he or she is about to keel over and die?

C is going out to dinner with us to celebrate the first week of classes. She's a damn riot, I tell you--she is deeply happy that we have yet to accumulate any snow since she's been here. I keep telling her it won't last, but you know, she has this Hawaiian charm that makes things go her way, so who knows? Maybe we won't get anything tomorrow.

I worked my ass off yesterday and now I don't feel like doing anything. But I must, or else I will fall further behind.

Art is hard

E-word,

For some reason, on my way to work I started thinking about these strip clubs I went to before I got married. Oh, wait a second, before I go on...

In response to your being out of the loop and middle aged, this is something I've been thinking about as well. Personally I think it's kind of lame to be in the loop past a certain age. Maybe lame is not the word, but don't you have something better to do than be up on the newest, hippest bands? I mean, come on, when you're in your twenties it's almost compulsory, but when you get into your thirties, raving about 'Clap your hands say yeah' or 'TV on the Radio' or whatever new band is out there makes me pretty much say grow the fuck up. Fill your mind with something else, anything else, please.

Again, I'm not saying that I don't listen to any new music (I started listening to and really liking gillian welch and iron and wine in my thirties, and also I will still buy the latest Stereolab and Beth Orton releases), but to be up on all the new bands and music is a little (I'll say it) lame.

I also work out pretty regularly in the gym, and though it's a touch embarrassing, it's one of those necessary evils, I think. Heh, it's particularly lame when I'm listening to Fugazi while working away at the elliptical machine. I'm so hard, yet so soft because you know I'm getting older and my knees are getting a rickety but I rock the Fugazi, yeah!

Anyway, getting back to strippers. I've been to a couple of those kind of hardcore strip clubs where you grab tit and ass and if the girl is really out of her mind, her punani too. This one ghetto club I went to once with some friends was a full service gropefest all for 5 bucks. Shit was crazy. It's like, your job is to let guys squeeze your tits and nipples and try to slip fingers into your punani, while you're grinding your crotch away, but at the same time you're a girl, who after being paid to get groped is cheery and bubbly and whispers in your ear, 'Let's do that again'.

For me it was almost no different from pulling the wings off of a fly. I squeezed titties with the same disengaged disinterest I had while watching a fly with no wings try to escape. It's not erotic for me at all. I mean, zip, nothing. I found myself more interested in the feel of sweaty skin and the smell of body powder and perfume, and the fact that all this humanity (from the stripper and her previous clients) is now all over my hands and clothing.

As I was driving to work with all these thoughts, it just occurred to me how sad it all is, the whole business of strippers and people who grope strippers. I guess there are a ton of justifications people can use, but there is a certain amount of unhappiness related to the whole thing. I dunno. I'd have to think about it some more to give my analysis more depth.

It's pouring outside. While you're waiting for snow, I think we're literally having a thunderstorm today. Crazy weather.

Slack Tuesday

Hey Toe,
Having a slack Tuesday, I am, with lots to do and not much desire to do it. Have a phone call to make where I have to be up, so I better get less slack and more jacked. Man, that sounds wrong.

Had a good weekend. Did some work, help C* with some stuff, read the Times. Waiting for snow.

The cat is snoozing on the futon. I would like to say I wish I could just settle down next to him, but actually I am not much of a napper. I like to be awake when there is light out, unless I am tired of course.

The neighbors just started blasting some music. Lately they've been playing some old Motown songs, sort of Big-Chill-ish, but now its contemporary hard hits by women singers. I have no idea who sings these songs, I am so out of the loop, but I recognize them from the rec center weight room. (OK, am I middle-aged or what?)

I took a break to use Google Earth. Man, that thing is addictive.

Well, that's all for the scattershot update today. Hope you are well. Over and up.
E-word

Someone told me you'd be here

Toe, just a quick post to hold up my end of the blog. We are both slacking. Don't let our blog go to waste, as you said...

Getting some snow today on the prairie. It's not sticking, and seems to have a nice portion of rain mixed in.

C is in the next room using our ethernet. Her connection is not set up in her apartment yet. Again, you and El need to come and visit while she is here.

I'm coming to town the 2nd week of February to work in the client office. Let's get together, man. I'll let you know as soon as I know what days I'll be there.

E-word

A pretty girl is like a minstrel show

It makes you laugh, it makes you cry, you go.

I'm not keeping up my side of the blog. By the way that's super cool that C is living down the hall from you. I have to tell El, she'll be blown away.

Aughle. On that tired end of the day note, I'm done. Cooked. Have a nice evening, E-word, and I hope that tomorrow I'm more energetic.

Let the rain come

Toe!
Yes, our mutual friend from Hawaii is indeed here in De_B, just for the semester. She is in fact living just down the hall from us, which makes it easy when she needs to borrow a can opener or what not. As you can imagine, moving here for 5 months means she didn't bring too many household items, and her apartment is pretty spare. We've loaned her a few items, and she's borrowing a few things from the professor she's working with (another friend of ours, who I don't think you've met). C has been over for dinner a few times, and for a late-night gathering of professors at our place. It's been pretty social and fun. Plus, she's brought some warm Pacific weather to us, giving us rain today instead of snow.

You guys should definitely come visit while C is here--we'll paint the Prairie red. You are welcome to stay with us anytime--our place is yours.

I will let you know when I come into town. I am thinking of a trip either at the end of January, beginning of February, or mid-Feb. Thank you so much for offering to put me up--that would be awesome. It will be like old times--whiskey and guitar, Lebanese and Ethiopian. Hell, let's play chess! A* will give me a hotel room, but it would be great to come stay with you sometimes as well.

Yeah, let's go to the Ottobar and see the Jews. Have you heard their new album?

Have you tried Google's new program, Google Earth? It is kind of mindblowing. It has been distracting me from work all morning. Check it out--it's downloadable for free.

A ceremony with a serried edge

E-word,

Awesome news! It'll be great to have you back in this neck of the woods, sort of like the old days. If you need somewhere to stay, my door is always open. We'll definitely have to hit up Lebanese Taverna, and a few other places that have popped up that i think you might like. There's this great Burmese restaurant nearby that has a great vegetarian selection.

Yo, I heard that our friend C from HI is going to be teaching up in De_B? Is this true? That's excellent if so. It would make a visit much more palatable for El. We'd probably stay in Chicago, and visit from there. I'd like to see more of Chicago myself personally, and I think El knows her way a bit from her school days.

Also, cool about the Jews. Ottobar is not too far off, and if you are able to plan a visit, we'll see them for sure.

Aight, better get back to the salt mines.

Toe

Jews tour

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/news/05-12/16.shtml

Toe, looks like they're hitting a number of places in your vicinity:

3-16 Charlottesville, VA - Satellite Ballroom
3-17 New York, NY - Webster Hall
3-19 Cambridge, MA - Middle East
3-21 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
3-22 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar


Hey, I've actually been to the Ottobar. It's smaller than the old 9:30, so that might be a good place to see them.

They are not coming into Prairieland, unfortunately, but maybe I can schedule a business trip east to coincide with a show.

To the new world

Hey Toe,
Happiest of New Years to you! I'm sorry we didn't get together this year on my holiday voyage to the area. Once I'm enfolded in the family, I find it hard to remove myself. But I'll see you very soon. I've been holding off on sharing this news until the details were more settled, but what the hell--my new position with A* calls for me to come to your area every 2 months or so, perhaps more often at first. I am psyched about this. It'll be good to travel, work with people face-to-face, and most of all, get into town to visit friends, as well as family (although they are a bit far out of town, I'll probably go see them when I finish up in town).

So, can we go to Lebanese Taverna next month?

The holidays were good. My siblings are nuts, but fun. They all drink like fishes, so we ended up staying up almost all night on New Years eve. I was one of the earlier retirees, going to bed around 4. They tried waking me with an airhorn at 6AM or so. Ah, family.

C* got me the first two seasons of Arrested Development for my b'day, so we watched it for a few nights. It is a pretty damn funny show. I've never seen Lost, but know of a few addicts.

Mmmm, home-made food cooked by an experienced cook--there's nothing better. It sounds like you had a good time with your mom-in-law. I can only imagine, as my experience of Korean food is limited, but it must have been a tasty time.

Anyway, I'll get better about blogging now that I am back home. Here's to a good year!

Upward over the mountain

Mornin, E-word. Happy New Year!

It's been a while since I've gotten back to our log, but I hope that this is the start of a new found productivity. I hope you had a good time, and it's a shame that we couldn't get together over the holiday. Alas, such is life.

I had a nice time with my family. El's sister and mother were in town, and her mom made an unbelievable amount of delicious food. She was like the stereotypical Italian mother, making abundant amounts of food from scratch. El's a great cook in her own right, but there is no way she would make things that her mom would, she would buy them instead.

We ended up watching a lot of 'Lost', which my little brother got me for Christmas. That show is really good, and really addictive. They also have a Korean couple on the show who speak primarily in Korean, which is also nice. I feel like I'm cheating a little when I'm watching, because I can understand what they're saying.

Anyway, here's to another new year. Hope to hear from you soon!