Do you ever check if people were murdered or committed suicide in the flat you want to rent? If you find out that a homicide/suicide did happen sometime in the past, in the very flat you are considering, would you back out? Is it odd to scour police records for homicide as a background check for your future flat or home?

I was looking at news reports for the Ambassador building on North Street and found someone had reported a murder in #402 back in 2000-2001. I am speculating about what I might do if I do come across a situation where the flat I am interested in turns out to have a grisly past.

EDIT: I stepped up my flat hunt and posted on craigslist. Does anyone even read the "wanted" section? I wonder...

And just because I am in flat-hunt mode...

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• The super-awesome Kirstin Chenoweth in what she does best. I love her persona. :)

(e:Heidi), thanks for the tip. I shall be contacting the Kissling interests property manager today. :)

I just got an email from an apartment owner/manager I had written to earlier. I am surprised that she has such detailed requirements for credit scores of prospective renters. (e:Paul), I am posting this for you. She wrote to tell me that I would need to provide her with a credit score report and included these specs in her email:

Here's how the deposit works based on your credit score:
Credit Score Below 500 - Deposit is $475 + $475 1st month = total is $950 to move in
Credit Score 500-600 - Deposit is $325 + $475 1st month = total is $800 to move in
Credit Score 600-700 - Deposit is $175 + $475 1st month = total is $650 to move in
Credit Score Above 700 - Deposit is $0 + $475 1st month = total is $475 to move in

I think, with the kind of rotten luck you have had with your renters, its time you set some of these rules in place as well.

It's that time of the year again. Nevermind the recession and the layoffs and the expenses, the Mayflower (henceforth called the Moneysucker) overlords have decided that I would need to pay $$ more every month this coming year if I choose to re-lease.

I hate this. Tiny studios like mine shouldn't be this expensive. IN BUFFALO! I just read (e:jenks)'s journal. Apparently, I shouldn't be paying more than 1/3rd of what I make, in rent. Looks like I have been paying more than 1/3rd for the past 2 years at the Mayflower-moneysucker. And now the moneysucker wants more. The very thought of coughing up $$ more this year with no complementary increase in what I make is really distressing. :/

Thus, I am back to a flat-hunt. I still don't want to live more than a mile out from Roswell, hate carpets and would LOVE south-facing windows. My budget is anything @ or below $580.

Can people help with #5 to #10? :)

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• Any fans of Kenan and Kel around here? I think that's probably the most perfect TV movie ever made. :)

We have known since the 1950s that smoking is injurious to health - in every way possible. There is only one disease that possibly benefits from the effect of smoking. And that is only after you actually get the disease. Every year smoking directly or indirectly costs us several BILLIONS in health care costs across the planet. We know so very well that there is a small group of individuals parasitically thriving and feeding on the addictions of smokers.

We have innumerable programs to help people quit - that add to the entire cost of smoking. At any given time millions of dollars are spent on smoking research. And YET, we are unwilling to take any affirmative and bold actions to shut it down forever. When will we find the wisdom and guts to shut down the tobacco industry?? We are the only species on the planet with advanced intelligence and yet, our selfish little brains are unable to speak up and say a firm NO to the industry. Really, what does it take to realize just how much damage the tobacco industry is causing our health?? How much more proof do we need?

I am SO SICK of people telling me that smokers pay a higher tax and contribute to the economy. Yeah right. How does all that tax paying compare to the billions they are sponging and siphoning from health care? You know what? I have no problem with people chugging away to their own ruin. But I have a BIG problem with them dragging other people down with them. I also have a HUGE problem with how we can't take action and cut down the root of all this menace - the tobacco industry and banish it forever.

It feels like such a waste to be reading about smoking research when it doesn't even cause a ripple in new addiction rates, not to mention all the existing I-am-going-to-quit smokers who keep relapsing every few months.

I just want to make it clear that this is not a tirade against everyone who smokes. This is a rant against our collective apathy to shut this institution down even after more than half a century of definite and damning knowledge about its ill-effects. We are so pathetic and self-centred when it comes to opposing evil in power that it sometimes seriously shakes my faith for a better health care future.