I've had a frustrating morning trying to edit a couple of small .mpg videos, and have given up for now. I'm also coming to the realization that Macs confuse me. I mean, it makes sense, my day to day existence is on PCs, and haven't owned a Mac for very long. I'm typying this on K's new PC laptop, for instance. But that's because of the way our apt. is laid out and where Livie's crib now is.
We're going up to Oakland to look at another house we probably:
A. Won't like
B. Will realize is too expensive
C. Will come to the conclusion that the neighborhood is shit
Things seem just "this" much out of reach as far as buying in the Bay Area. We have a pre-approval, but for an amount that lands us in marginal areas in Oakland. And we don't want to live in the exurbs. So...we'll keep plugging.
Limbo is never fun. I think I'll be all right on the job end of things, and if we had to, we could stay down here in Santa Clara for a bit longer, but we are ready...have been for a bit now...to have our own space. But we must weigh the reality of the world right now into our own sphere. Long story short = the big Peet's cup will wear off soon and then I'll calm down.
Friday, February 06, 2009
New correction. It has come to my (own) attention that I was wrong in citing the Viking choke against Arizona as a game in 2004. It was actually this game, in 2003.
Hats off to the Steelers (that was SO last weekend). It makes sense, they were the first to get to four, so it only makes sense that they leapfrog Dallas and SF to 6. I don't think SF's gonna be back for a while, and I'm going to venture the same guess for Dallas. Too much hubris down there.
This afternoon at work has been slow, the calm before next week's storm. I'm running two large webinar training sessions, one for a client on Wed. and another for the general public Thurs. Training is draining, but it ends up being strangely rewarding. It's kind of like teaching, but without the discipline or having to keep grades and correct tests. I don't mind having stumbled upon that aspect of the job at all.
Hats off to the Steelers (that was SO last weekend). It makes sense, they were the first to get to four, so it only makes sense that they leapfrog Dallas and SF to 6. I don't think SF's gonna be back for a while, and I'm going to venture the same guess for Dallas. Too much hubris down there.
This afternoon at work has been slow, the calm before next week's storm. I'm running two large webinar training sessions, one for a client on Wed. and another for the general public Thurs. Training is draining, but it ends up being strangely rewarding. It's kind of like teaching, but without the discipline or having to keep grades and correct tests. I don't mind having stumbled upon that aspect of the job at all.
Been a while. I'm spending more time on facebook than in here these days, so it goes. Too much media. So what's new? Livie's 16 months, walking, talking, climbing, causing a ruckus. She's very strong willed. That part she gets from her mama. And she's a little bit of an imp. That part she gets from me. I'm starting to put some mini videos up on YouTube.
Monday, January 12, 2009
On to other subjects. How about that Cinderella Bloodbath (patent pending) over the weekend in the NFL? The Cardinals?! Really. And the Ravens? Hmmm. Who'd have thunk it. Well, I hate the Baltimore Ravens, but could the coming Super Bowl matchup play out like this T-Shirt?
On one of the Beulah tours, forget which one, we played a show in D.C. and some kid wearing this T-Shirt managed to make it backstage and have a beer, so my foggy recollection of the story goes. "That's a cool T-Shirt," someone in the band (forget who, but it wasn't me) said. Apparently when the Cards were set on moving from St. Louis to...anywhere but there...someone in Baltimore pumped out a few "Baltimore Cardinals" tees. Somehow the kid ended up asking me if I wanted the shirt, that we could trade. So we did. He ended up with a Jeremy Enigk (Sunny Day Real Estate) "Return of the Frog Queen" shirt so I think I got the better of the bargain.
This picture of me wearing it was taken (at my insistence) during the holidays of 2004 when, thanks to the last minute heroics of the Arizona Cardinals in beating the hated Vikings, the Pack squeaked into the playoffs. It (the picture, that is) was sent to Steve St. Cin, a long suffering Cards fan who had only witnessed his team make it to the playoffs once in his life (1974, age nine).
On one of the Beulah tours, forget which one, we played a show in D.C. and some kid wearing this T-Shirt managed to make it backstage and have a beer, so my foggy recollection of the story goes. "That's a cool T-Shirt," someone in the band (forget who, but it wasn't me) said. Apparently when the Cards were set on moving from St. Louis to...anywhere but there...someone in Baltimore pumped out a few "Baltimore Cardinals" tees. Somehow the kid ended up asking me if I wanted the shirt, that we could trade. So we did. He ended up with a Jeremy Enigk (Sunny Day Real Estate) "Return of the Frog Queen" shirt so I think I got the better of the bargain.
This picture of me wearing it was taken (at my insistence) during the holidays of 2004 when, thanks to the last minute heroics of the Arizona Cardinals in beating the hated Vikings, the Pack squeaked into the playoffs. It (the picture, that is) was sent to Steve St. Cin, a long suffering Cards fan who had only witnessed his team make it to the playoffs once in his life (1974, age nine).
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Taking stock: What have we learned this year? Nothing new, really. What goes up, must come down, the higher they go, the harder they fall, and that the arc of history bent towards Obama in 2008. Who'da thunk it? I can say with pride that I was a supporter of his since the moment he entered the race in February, 2007. We can thank Kerry for making Barack keynote speaker in 2004. Often my father, who is of a persuasion across the aisle, as it were, talked about Reagan's 1964 keynote address -- and, depending on how things go, I fancy myself saying the same thing to my kids about Barack in 2004. That speech and introduction to the world was a breath of fresh air in an otherwise dismal year (politically), and now comes forth the fruit in 2008.
2008 was also about discovery for us as a family: Would we go forth with our plan to move to the midwest so that we could buy a house? Or would we flip the script based on new realities. As it turns out, our landing point would have been Chicago, and though we do have a handful of friends there, it would be like starting over, and starting over while freezing our asses off for six months out of the year. We're getting to be too old to start all over again if we don't have to. Although it is also true that Northern California has a kind of fountain of youth: youthful attitudes can prevail for people like me, at age 38. I still feel like I'm in my 20s sometimes.
So...when K started crunching the numbers --indeed, this year was finally the year where we paid off all of our old debts, and we are indebted to her mom for advocating a living situation for us back in 2004-5 that allowed us to do that--she realized that housing prices in some areas here began dropping into our price range. We took preliminary steps and as the weeks and months passed, we realized we could begin saving and maybe make a run at a house in Oakland. Now, with some additional help from K's father and some belt tightening on our end, we are about to put in a bid for a house. We submit the papers on Friday. So it looks like we'll be here to stay. The job front looks stable enough for us to ride through the time it will take to close on a house if we start now.
It's funny, back in 2002 when we felt so broke, drowning in credit card debt, the rest of the country, it seemed, was beginning to feed at the housing trough. The tech industry here was at the edge of collapse and you'd hear stories of PhDs in computer science begging for work, but the mortgage bubble was in its infancy, and it would follow the same path as the dot com boom and bust. People had the same false hopes at quick cash: "Flip this house with no money down!" And suddenly my wife and I look like geniuses for holding off on buying a house--for being too broke to do it earlier, when it seemed like a no-brainer investment.
We're cautious people. This is not to say conservative in the sense we know it today in the political realm, but in the choices we've made for our family. We have a lot to be grateful for and I, for one, think 2008 was a good year. At least, I think it will be a turning point for a lot more people down the road. Hopefully more people will be able to take stock of things like we did back in 2004, asking themselves what can they do without. There is a lot of hurt out there, and I hope that hope wins out over fear. Because there is a lot to fear right now. But...it's not 1962 and the Cuban missile crisis, or 1931 and the great depression, or 1861 and the civil war...our country has been through worse.
About 2009: we are ready to move into our own place and have the freedom to make the decisions we want to make about what goes into it. The past three years have been fortunate ones and we are grateful for the help of others, particularly in our family, but there have been some drawbacks too--certain episodes of drama and perfectly avoidable chaotic moments out of our control--indeed, all things come at a cost. And so: Happy 2009 to all. Will it be the last year that people can sell those "00" glasses that began in 2000, or will they be able to come up with a non-lopsided design for 2010 where the "1" is over the nose and the two zeroes are the eyes? We shall see about this time next year.
2008 was also about discovery for us as a family: Would we go forth with our plan to move to the midwest so that we could buy a house? Or would we flip the script based on new realities. As it turns out, our landing point would have been Chicago, and though we do have a handful of friends there, it would be like starting over, and starting over while freezing our asses off for six months out of the year. We're getting to be too old to start all over again if we don't have to. Although it is also true that Northern California has a kind of fountain of youth: youthful attitudes can prevail for people like me, at age 38. I still feel like I'm in my 20s sometimes.
So...when K started crunching the numbers --indeed, this year was finally the year where we paid off all of our old debts, and we are indebted to her mom for advocating a living situation for us back in 2004-5 that allowed us to do that--she realized that housing prices in some areas here began dropping into our price range. We took preliminary steps and as the weeks and months passed, we realized we could begin saving and maybe make a run at a house in Oakland. Now, with some additional help from K's father and some belt tightening on our end, we are about to put in a bid for a house. We submit the papers on Friday. So it looks like we'll be here to stay. The job front looks stable enough for us to ride through the time it will take to close on a house if we start now.
It's funny, back in 2002 when we felt so broke, drowning in credit card debt, the rest of the country, it seemed, was beginning to feed at the housing trough. The tech industry here was at the edge of collapse and you'd hear stories of PhDs in computer science begging for work, but the mortgage bubble was in its infancy, and it would follow the same path as the dot com boom and bust. People had the same false hopes at quick cash: "Flip this house with no money down!" And suddenly my wife and I look like geniuses for holding off on buying a house--for being too broke to do it earlier, when it seemed like a no-brainer investment.
We're cautious people. This is not to say conservative in the sense we know it today in the political realm, but in the choices we've made for our family. We have a lot to be grateful for and I, for one, think 2008 was a good year. At least, I think it will be a turning point for a lot more people down the road. Hopefully more people will be able to take stock of things like we did back in 2004, asking themselves what can they do without. There is a lot of hurt out there, and I hope that hope wins out over fear. Because there is a lot to fear right now. But...it's not 1962 and the Cuban missile crisis, or 1931 and the great depression, or 1861 and the civil war...our country has been through worse.
About 2009: we are ready to move into our own place and have the freedom to make the decisions we want to make about what goes into it. The past three years have been fortunate ones and we are grateful for the help of others, particularly in our family, but there have been some drawbacks too--certain episodes of drama and perfectly avoidable chaotic moments out of our control--indeed, all things come at a cost. And so: Happy 2009 to all. Will it be the last year that people can sell those "00" glasses that began in 2000, or will they be able to come up with a non-lopsided design for 2010 where the "1" is over the nose and the two zeroes are the eyes? We shall see about this time next year.
Friday, December 19, 2008
This may be counterintuitive, but I am actually ok with Obama picking Warren for the invocation at the inauguration. I mean, for one, he's not picking him for a sermon. It will be like, "let us pray" and maybe a couple of paragraphs praying for the families, yadda yadda. He's not gonna say "I hate fags" or anything like that.
Obama can use this opportunity to neuter some of the wingnuts while hammering another nail in the Wright controversy's coffin, but I think it serves a larger purpose: increasing public scrutiny on Warren which will expose contradictory statements, beliefs, half-truths, and sloppy thought. I think as long as Obama remains magnanimous and somewhat aloof, there won't be too much guilt by association. Hopefully time will fade that. But getting to know the real Warren will hopefully have a lasting positive effect (well, negative for him specifically, but positive for the rest of us). We're seeing some of that already.
Obama can use this opportunity to neuter some of the wingnuts while hammering another nail in the Wright controversy's coffin, but I think it serves a larger purpose: increasing public scrutiny on Warren which will expose contradictory statements, beliefs, half-truths, and sloppy thought. I think as long as Obama remains magnanimous and somewhat aloof, there won't be too much guilt by association. Hopefully time will fade that. But getting to know the real Warren will hopefully have a lasting positive effect (well, negative for him specifically, but positive for the rest of us). We're seeing some of that already.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Can someone please tell me, really, what the difference is between what Madoff did and the global economy as currently configured?
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