"RIP Space Bat" written by Jim on estrip.org

03/20/09 11:28 - 30ºF - ID#48133

RIP Space Bat

source:

This bat was clinging to the space shuttle during take off.

In honor of space bat's memory:

Permalink: RIP_Space_Bat.html
Words: 36
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: all grown up

03/19/09 09:17 - 32ºF - ID#48128

Home Ownership!

So, my Dad has let me know that there's a 401k account of my mother's that he hasn't cashed in since she passed away a few years ago, and he's decided he wants to use it to help me with a down payment for a house. That coupled with the $8000 first time home buyer's credit (

) means that I am pretty sure that I'm going to own my own place sometime this year.

James and I have talked, and the only downside is that we'd only buy something if we knew exactly where we were planning on living next year, and we've been talking pretty seriously about moving to Portland, Oregon or Austin, Texas.

Money certainly doesn't go as far outside Buffalo. For the price of a 2,000 sqft Victorian home here we could only get a really cute 1 bedroom condo in downtown Portland, like this:

(

)

Of course it would be in the middle of an awesome urban area that only gets 2" of snow every winter and has excellent public transit and career opportunities...

tinypliny writes at 07:20:12 03/26/09 - Comment #47064: I say go (or stay) where you can create the most worthwhile life. Good Luck! :)

heidi writes at 10:50:05 03/20/09 - Comment #46812: I want you to stay!!!

But I have some logical reasons too... It's hard to find a good community - you have one here, you have roots... you've said "I don't want to die here" (hmmm... might have been (e:james)) but that's what retirement's for! You can *live* here, and die somewhere else. :-)

And you really can't beat the housing prices... damn! $159K?? That's awesome. (Mortgage interest deduction!!! Every year!)

jim writes at 02:54:49 03/20/09 - Comment #46802: It's not a loan, it's a credit. No payback needed. You get an $8000 tax refund.

metalpeter writes at 02:16:15 03/20/09 - Comment #46796: I admit I didn't follow the links so I may have missed something. But the first interior looks pretty nice. I would say that taking the first time home owners loan is a bad idea. Granted I don't have all the facts but to get a tax credit on your taxes of that much money that you then have to payback seems like a bad idea. I don't know the percentage or how you pay it back but to me it seems like you could wind up just owing the IRS money. Of course the person who you should ask about that is (e:Terry).

james writes at 11:08:30 03/19/09 - Comment #46786: That last one looks suspiciously like the section-8 housing on Elmwood between Summer and North.

paul writes at 10:27:57 03/19/09 - Comment #46784: I hope you guys stay.

jim writes at 10:07:36 03/19/09 - Comment #46783: It is pretty exciting - my parents never had much money, so in the last 10 years I've pretty much been on my own. They bailed me out of jail once... that's about it :) It's not really that much money in the scheme of things, but it makes buying a home likely instead of a some-year-soon thing.

To get this kinda opportunity is very unexpected and nice.

mrmike writes at 10:06:30 03/19/09 - Comment #46782: Nice to have the option

libertad writes at 10:04:21 03/19/09 - Comment #46781: How exciting. Good luck in finding a place.

jim writes at 09:50:14 03/19/09 - Comment #46779: I think James wants to move more then I do :)

I'd be perfectly content to live in this: :::link:::

drew writes at 09:45:14 03/19/09 - Comment #46778: Home ownership is very cool.

Leaving Buffalo is not.

Now that (e:James) is on the fast track to Mayor, you have to stay.

Permalink: Home_Ownership_.html
Words: 187
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: religion

03/18/09 09:11 - 51ºF - ID#48099

God vs Satan

Posted for mindless, meaningless amusement.

Permalink: God_vs_Satan.html
Words: 8
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: tech

03/17/09 02:11 - 50ºF - ID#48087

iPhone 3.0 SDK

The biggest news for me (aside from Copy&Paste) is that the SDK allows virtually unlimited access to hardware. Which means I can get one of these:

And build robots with iphones for brains. hooray!

Permalink: iPhone_3_0_SDK.html
Words: 46
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: hiking

03/14/09 06:52 - 41ºF - ID#48054

18 Mile Creek

Thanks Paul, Matthew, Terry and James, it was a fun day :)

I took lots of photos, but most of the ones that looked good were the more abstract ones of the ice.

Permalink: 18_Mile_Creek.html
Words: 42
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: apple

03/12/09 12:58 - 24ºF - ID#48029

iPhone 3.0

Preview demo March 17, 2009

Will be nice to get a look at the new OS. Hopefully they'll have a dev release at that time too. Background processing would be just what I need for the apps I want to build.

Permalink: iPhone_3_0.html
Words: 41
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: aminals

03/06/09 04:51 - 54ºF - ID#47970

Red Panda

The Buffalo Zoo should get one of these:

(source:

)

Actually, I should get one of those.

Permalink: Red_Panda.html
Words: 22
Location: Buffalo, NY

02/25/09 11:20 - 33ºF - ID#47884

SAVE THEM

Source:

Permalink: SAVE_THEM.html
Words: 9
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: economics

02/21/09 02:31 - 31ºF - ID#47850

Credit Crisis Visualized

Excellent visual summary of the credit crisis / current economic woes.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Best watched in HD (.mov download) at source:

tinypliny writes at 03:44:21 02/21/09 - Comment #45776: You know, the more I learn about this crisis, some things become increasingly clear to me.

1. Everyone wants someone to blame. No one wants to look at how they themselves are contributing to the mess. (eg. Look at my two comments below. I was so very quick to blame the investment bankers. Then I pulled down the govt. after a few minutes)

2. People were created equal. However the greed in their minds were completely cultivated and honed over centuries.

3. Some people who realized the evil that is greed, tried to balance this out by donating, becoming charities, establishing socialist movements and communities etc.

4. But that didn't change the greed. In fact, all the good schemes suffered from the greed coming in from various quarters.

5. Some really powerful greedy people went right ahead and built an empire and economic framework called capitalism. The basic tenet behind it was to make the wealthy even wealthier and take psychological as well as literal advantage of the greed in the minds of similarly oriented people - only the people at the bottom rung of the capitalism totem pole who were being taken advantage of were sucked into the whole scheme because had they been powerful, they could easily have been the leeches at the top.

6. The socialist societies didn't do so well - mainly because the greed still existed and rotted it from within. But it also didn't implode and continued to limp on - sick and starved but alive all the same.

7. The capitalist camp imploded - bringing the majority of the world down along with it - because really, greediness is a universal human trait. There aren't so many people out there who would resist the opportunity to:
a) Own a home when they can't afford one
b) Live flagrantly beyond means
c) Laugh at the concept of family planning and continue reproducing with wild abandon
d) Appropriate and embezzle as much money as they possibly can.
e) Try and think of making money in the easiest most dishonest greedy way possible.

8. Reasons 1-7 are the reasons I would blame for this crisis. There are no good people. There are plenty of greedy self-centred irresponsible people. On an average, we deserved this meltdown. We asked for it.

9. By trying to find whom to blame we are only ignoring our own greed that has lead to this outcome. How many of us can step forward and declare that they have never had a greedy thought, never hoarded (anything, really) more than they needed, spent more than they needed to, wished for more money even though they really didn't need it?

I can't. Can you?

jim writes at 03:20:10 02/21/09 - Comment #45775: Tinypliny, the CRA: there is no shred of proof tying this relatively small program to the giant trillion dollar mess that we're in. If the CRA was behind the issuance of the any significant chunk of sub-prime mortgages I've yet to see the proof. There's no actual evidence that I can find that the CRA resulted in even a tenth of the sub-prime activity as the CDO's allowed.

The rise in sub-prime mortgages was only made possible via pooling them up and then slicing them into tranches. That's fairly well proven and documented - that's what the CDO's are. Why do have a 2 trillion dollar problem with fantastically worthless CDO's if the CRA was actually at fault?

The CDO story is much more credible and backed up with evidence and reason. Faulting the CRA just blames poor people without any evidence.

tinypliny writes at 03:04:27 02/21/09 - Comment #45774: Okie - this video = not entirely responsible.

:::link:::

tinypliny writes at 03:01:53 02/21/09 - Comment #45773: Here is part 2: :::link:::

tinypliny writes at 03:00:46 02/21/09 - Comment #45772: One of the commentator on youtube said:

"Lenders didn't make the decision to abandon lending standards. That decision came from the Clinton adminstration in the 90s. They wanted everyone to own a house, so they FORCED private institutions to lower their standards."

Is that true? Then - the government is to blame for poor governance!

tinypliny writes at 02:57:25 02/21/09 - Comment #45771: Wow - that was awesome. Good find!

So the irresponsibility and greed of the investment bankers caused this meltdown.

But there they are laughing from mansions on their islands and thinking up new ways to get a chunk of the new handouts. Maybe some of them are politicians themselves. We (as in people who have always worked hard to maintain a good credit and never carried a balance forward) are doomed. UGH.

Permalink: Credit_Crisis_Visualized.html
Words: 40
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: internets

02/18/09 12:58 - 34ºF - ID#47798

How Many Times Are You Going to Kill Me?