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Last Night’s Shuttle Launch

Ok…I give up trying to take home video of these things that’s good enough to put on the web and be worth anyone’s time to watch. But it was really cool…like the sun rising. Glad I got to see a night launch!!!

[ More ] February 8th, 2010 | 1 Comment | Posted in Doing |

There’s No Place I’d Rather Be Than Right Here!

Rednecks. White socks. Blue ribbon beer.

[ More ] February 5th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Listening, Watching |

A Letter To The Gov’ment

And you want them to run health care?

How is it that Radio Shack has my address and telephone number and knows that I bought a TV cable from them back in 1987, and yet, the Federal Government is still asking me where I was born and on what date.

….

I apologize, I’m really pissed off this morning. Between you an’ me, I’ve had enough of this bullshit! You send the application to my house, then you ask me for my  address.

Read the whole thing. I LOL’d several times. One for the ages!

[ More ] February 5th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Laughing, Reading |

Stuff You Should See– February 2nd through February 5th

Consumer debt will hold back spending, holding back economic growth. – Don't be ridiculous. We just have to "get banks lending again". Right.

Booze Camp Nashville – EVERY city needs something like this. You can keep your geek breakfast.

Teenagers Are Kind of Over Blogging – I think that headline is a little misleading. It should have read, "Like, Teenagers Are, Like, Kind of Over, Like, Blogging?"

The Day the Music Died – Pretty cool…check this out.

Bagged salad: how clean are packaged salads? – {insert your own joke using the word "toss" here}

Punching a Dude in the Face For Jesus – Love the marketing innovation here.

UI Concepts for Chromium Tablet – I like that Apple has set the bar so low on pricing. That's good for all of us, especially as competitors pop up.

Lost: 16 Hopes For The Final Season – I actually don't agree with a lot of these. For instance, I don't think Charles and Jacob are at the top of the battle for the island. Jacob maybe, but Charles is a mortal. I think.

[ More ] February 5th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Reading |

Tormented by the Wall Street Journal

I’ve read two articles in the WSJ this week about the housing market, and now I’m less certain than ever about what’s going to happen in the next year.

Is 2010 the Year of the Short Sale?

If 2009 was the year of the foreclosure (and loan modification), then 2010 may be shaping up as the year of the short sale.

I’d say 2011 is more realistic, unless they are predicting a slew of short sales starting in Q1. Our experience with trying to purchase short sales is that they take a long time. How long? We’re not really sure, because we haven’t made it to the end of the process yet. But five months seems to be a reasonable expectation for a minimum, and that’s just for the bank to get back to you with a yes or no.

I’m interested to see what is going to happen when, by the time the bank responds to an offer with a “yes”, the house is no longer worth the amount that was originally offered. Because, some people think we’re still in a housing bubble:

Rental apartment vacancies are reaching record highs. Many segments of the housing market are still oversupplied. And the core demographic in the country—the baby boomers—are reaching the age where they’re more likely to downsize, buying less house in the years to come.

Throw in the tax credits, artificially low mortgage rates, and the fact that the fed is still buying mortgage backed securities, and it’s hard to make the case that the housing market is not still artificially high.

It seems like the easiest way back to a true(r) market would be for banks to sell off their bad assets as quickly and efficiently as possible through the short sale process. Quick and efficient doesn’t seem to be the order of the day, however.

[ More ] February 4th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Reading, Thinking |

Stuff You Should See– January 26th through February 1st

The Death of Global Warming – I don’t think it’s dead just yet. Just like in a bad horror movie, it will make one last effort to grab us by the ankle and stab us in the knee. Or something painful like that.

Iran News in February. – If this involves a Segway or an iPad I’m going to be very disappointed.

The 25 Hottest Olympians To Watch For – Ok.Fine. I’ll watch.

Wanna Buy Lane Kiffin’s House? – I propose a group of boosters get together to purchase this place. Then invite 100,000 of their closest friends over and roast marshmallows as it burns to the ground. :P

Free in Tennessee – German Homeschooling Asylum – Speechless. For whatever reason this family chose to homeschool, I’m glad they found a place they are allowed to do so.

[ More ] February 1st, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Reading |

People’s Sexiest Man–Dead or Alive.

I bet if you look at People magazine from the 70s and 80 there’s a little asterisk next to the “Sexiest Man Alive” title that says, “Except for Conway Twitty”. They had to make it fair for everyone else or Kenny Rogers and Gene Watson would not have participated in the contest.

[ More ] February 1st, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Listening, Watching |

The Hot ($h!t) Babysitter

From Backpacking Dad, with a disclaimer:

Before I do any more typing here I should say that the person about whom I am writing is definitely over 18, and I have every confidence she is also over 21.

Hilarious post. Read the whole thing.

[ More ] January 28th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Reading |

The Sole of a Winner

I’ve been reading about barefoot running shoes off and on for a while. I try to run barefoot as much as possible. Then again, I’m probably not running enough these days for it to really matter. But these look cool.

[ More ] January 28th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Reading |

Cato vs. SOTU

[ More ] January 28th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Watching |

Ungovernable?

I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say the  U.S. is ungovernable. It’s just that a weapon has not yet been developed to make it stick.

Power at the national level creates extreme inequality between the few who hold office and the rest of us who do not. Basically, we can vote in elections, and that is it. With power more localized, we have a greater chance of holding office or having influence as voters. More important, we could “vote with our feet” by moving to jurisdictions that suit our preferences.

People already do this, but for the most part they stay in the U.S. That could be changing if a growth in centralized power results in more of a Generica.

[ More ] January 28th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Reading |

Obama’s Hatchet Job…err…Scalpel

MSBNC said it. You can only imagine what I think about it.

But really, we shouldn’t be putting too much emphasis on what he said. Instead, we should concentrate on how he said it. The delivery was beautiful and stirring. That’s all that really matters.

[ More ] January 28th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Reading |

Klavan’s State of the Union

This made me cry. From laughter.

But there is much still to do.  Even as we speak, a child is crying—a little, sad, pitiful child with big eyes, crying enormous tears that will cost hundreds of billions of dollars to dry.

Only billions? That sounds like a helluva bargain! Delivery is all about timing. This State of the Union has really bad timing. I bet he wishes he could put it off for a couple of years

[ More ] January 27th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Reading |

Don’t Take Your Love To Town

This video rules on so many levels. Long before he was roasting chickens…

[ More ] January 27th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Listening, Watching |

Stuff You Should See– January 15th through January 26th

Celebrity Rehab 3 – Take it day by day. If you can go the whole season without watching an episode, more power to you. But I'll bet you a cold cold beer you can't do it.

Mardi Gras 1956 – This is cool. I haven't been to New Orleans in 6 or 7 years. This makes me want to go back. Not for Mardi Gras, but I still want to go back.

Lost Fans Soon To Be More Annoying – I can't wait to hypothesize on Twitter. For hours.

Trees toppling in national park kills – Wow….this is really sad and such a freak accident. You don't think about things like this happening.

Lane Kiffin Dirt and Cover Up – I've heard for a while there is some of this type stuff out there, but haven't seen anything other than stuff on message boards. I run a message board and can attest that it's not much more than a bunch of monkeys banging on keyboards. But once a blogger takes the time to type it up…maybe there's something to it. Interesting!

Background Apps To The iPhone? – An Apple fan girl told me this already existed. I guess not. I have to say, I LOVE having the ability to stream Pandora and run a Cardio program simultaneously while I'm running. It works just like you'd think it would. Cardio lowers the volume of Pandora to give you distance and pace, and raises the volume back when it's finished.

Dysfunctional Leadership Quotes – It's funny to read this and know that somewhere out there, there are even worse examples of leadership than those described here. LOL!

Venues Can Display Foursquare Mayors – It will be awesome when I'm featured on the WalMart, Publix, Panera, and IKEA websites. You may already believe that's me on the Sea World site when you visit, but that's an actual whale.

15 Steps to Cultivate Lifelong Learning – Very nice article here. Even though I sort of know all of these things intuitively, I need to be more active in implementing some of them.

[ More ] January 26th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Reading |

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