Big Steps

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So I’ve decided to see how much I can scare myself by putting a bid in or a home. When all the costs are final I’m sure it will be the most expensive thing I’ve ever had to write checks for. From what I hear, there are tax benefits somewhere down the line. Funny thing is that all the money out of pocket to get started doesn’t make waiting for a refund/rebate seem feasible.

And before someone asks, no, it isn’t cheaper to live elsewhere and fly in on a daily basis. I checked that math out before I did the deal and the costs are just too high, travel time aside. So its the poor house for me!

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Don't Tempt the Reaper

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My hobby reminded me today that it’s all fun and games until someone loses an appendage. In my case it was a slice of my finger and about a pint of blood, according to the bystanders. The prop on one of my planes got two fingers in one pass before I was startled enough to pull them back. I think I’ll be fine again once I get the pain to subside. Oh, and my silver airplane has a nice coat of crimson spots on it now. At least I didn’t lose the fingers… a few others have. Lucky me!

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News Is Up

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After what seems like an eternity of me procrastinating the newsletter is finally done and posted. If you were unlucky enough not to receive this masterpiece of modern fiction you can view it here. For those of you who did see it, well, you know what to say about it.

While most folks are looking forward to a long weekend for the holiday, I’m looking to spend many hours indoors with 500 gaming fanatics hopped up on caffeine and sleeping underneath tables. They are sleeping there, not me. Just to prove that it isn’t me I’m taking along the new camera to document this strange event. It’s in Oregon, so I get to cross another state off my list of places I haven’t been. Joy.

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The Big Choices

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I’m closing in on a couple of decisions that impact the checkbook in a major way. On top of this I have work going crazy and a bunch of trips coming up. If that weren’t enough I am feeling a bit under the weather. Oh, and T3 opens in a few days. Could it get any more hectic? Really, could it?

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Traffic, Heat, and Air travel

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Having a 5 mile commute to work has its advantages… like not sitting in traffic. Today I had to drive up the peninsula via I-280 to get to Palo Alto. What I got instead of a drive is an extended crawl and park. Now I remember why I didn’t like commuting. Good riddance to that dash dining.

The weather has recently turned warm here. Now by New Orleans standards (I was just there) it isn’t hot, just a comfortable 85F. However, after being in doors all day and coming home to a room full of 83F heat simply isn’t fun. Guess its time to look into those PC cryo cooling solutions for the apartment again.

Finally, I recently had to do a bit of domestic traveling on aircraft. What I discovered is that people around the US are fat. I mean really fat. Deserving of ‘wide load’ signs and caution tape fat. I guess these folks just don’t go on international flights or my travels have kept me blissfully unaware of the situation. I now have a new #1 issue on planes: fat people.

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What the?

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Where have I been? Oh yes, working. I haven’t updated things here in a while but looks like I should do so as people still pop by the web site from time to time. Who knew?

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Everything Costs Something

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I spent the day looking at potential places to buy, and what I found was rather shocking. Ranging from “the low end” of around $340K to the upper end of the “high $400′s” I saw a huge swath of places that neither seem to be worth that much nor a good buy. Yet, looking at the housing market, it appears this is really the lower end of the good stuff. Yikes! How can anyone afford to buy stuff any more?

As if that wasn’t enough I decided to fire up Money 2003 and feed it 3 to 4 months of financial data (mine of course) to see if it could tell me what I can really buy with my cash. What did it tell me? That I’ll be out of cash by July and that I spend more per month than I bring in… oh, and that my target price for a new place should be no more than $165K. I think that this is all some big, sick joke on me somehow. Only time (and cash flow) will tell for sure.

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Complete and Utter Crap

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It’s time for companies to fess up to shipping crud. I mean it. Why do I have to spend the better part of two days building a PC from scratch to play with some new software, only to have it crash after 30 mins? And the company responsible for this mess isn’t Microsoft, either. It’s Electronic Arts!

While I’m on the subject, what’s going on with those crazy people overseas? I think it may be time to just pack it all up and bring all of our citizens and troops home. Oh, and we should pull all our money back too. I wonder how the world would see the US once all of its fingers were out of the pie, as it were.

I’m convinced: we can’t all just get along. Some of us need our quiet time.

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More Skiing

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Just got back from two days (kinda) of skiing and demoing another pair of skis. It was good weather and some fresh powder (California wet style) at Bear Valley. Sleep and food wasn’t so good but luckily the skiing made up for it. Only 3 hours from home to boot.

I’ll be glad to get some sleep now… and to get som Advil too.

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Dodging the Bullet

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Had a close call with near product disaster at work today. Luckily everyone pulled through with nary a scratch. It makes me wonder what really is the meaning of life, and if there is intelligence in the universe.

I wonder this because there certainly isn’t any intelligence in upper management. Who knew?

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