Monthly Archives: June 2007

06/25/07

Trying to buy a home

So my wife and I found a nice home up in the Santa Cruz Mountains which we really liked. Since Murphy’s Law is in effect, the owners had to be TCHOFH (The Crazy Home Owners From Hell). Anyways, rather then trying to explain the long and drawn out process, my friend Eric summarized our ordeal in a few lines:

let put this in terms i can understand:

me: how much for this rug?
pakistani rug merchant: for you? $400. I promise there are no stains on this rug!
me: um, how about $300. Why would there be stains? It’s a new rug? Is there something wrong?
PRM: $350. THERE ARE NO STAINS! WHO SAID ANYTHING ABOUT STAINS???!!! no, you may not look for stains
me: $310
PRM: $450!
me: WTF?

06/22/07

Radiant Vista == Photo Happiness

So I’m probably way behind everyone else, but I just found The Radiant Vista a few weeks ago. This is a very cool photography website for both experts and beginners. Every day there’s a new video critique of a photograph and they go over all sorts of photography concepts like framing, lighting, subject matter and color. There is also a weekly Photoshop workshop video which explains how to get the most of your digital photographs. While the site is definitely targeted towards digital SLR photographers, most of the content is applicable to people who shoot film or point & shoots.

06/22/07

Realtors: More useful then I thought

Ok, I’ll admit, up until now, I really didn’t buy the idea that realtors (no, I’m not going to put it in all caps, you don’t see any other profession doing that) were really worth what they’re paid. I always just sorta figured if you had half a clue in todays Internet-enabled world, you could search the listings, drive around some and make a reasonable offer on a place and work it out with the seller who should obviously be motivated to sell.
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06/3/07

Smokey!

So my wife is always looking for new cooking related toys. I like playing with fire. Hence, when she asked me if it was ok to purchase a smoker, I was all for it. $200+ shipping later, we’re the proud owner of a Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker, aka the “Weber Bullet”. Continue reading →