House flipping

Here is a little bit of information for the people out there that may still be interested in flipping houses. You know how you see those shows on HGTV or TLC or whatever and people buy a real shithole, thrown some new flooring down and some paint up on the walls and sell for like a $30,000 profit in a month... well those days would appear to be gone for the most part. The housing market would appear to have finally corrected itself a bit. Earning 50% equity in less than a year is a thing of the past. At least until the government lowers prime interest rate to 2% again.... (hint: it probably will never happen again) I'm not saying there isn't money to be made in real estate... because there is quite a bit, but you will see people have to do it the old fashioned way... long term investments, probably have to rent the properties out for a while to cover your mortgage payments and sell down the road for a profit at the typical 5-10% value gain per year.. you will of course have to make constant improvements and upgrades over the years in order to move that value up and improve your equity. It is doubtful you will ever see people becoming millionaires over night in real estate again. It was just a lucky circumstance for a lot of people, and the quick increases in value drove more and more people to buy like crazy... increasing the values even more. It is the same as the stock market... eventually it gets to the point where nobody can really afford to make that investment anymore and the market is forced to correct... the problem is in real estate, you can't create stock splits to lower the prices to create more trading... someone has to lose their shirt for that to happen with real estate.

Some of you may already know that I am going for a job interview in southern california at the end of this week. There is almost no way I will take this job. I told them they would basically have to double my pay to get me to come... the reason being that the real estate market is about 3X what it is here. That is absurd... There is no way a 1000 Sq. ft. house should ever be over 300K. So that right away is reason for the housing market to HAVE to correct.. why would a company set up shop in California?? you have to pay more for your office space for one.. you are forced to pay your employees more (or else they all have rent apartments even when making upwards of 50K a year). So why the hell would you start a company out there.. You will see this negatively affect that area. This is why you see so many places opening up in the southeast, like Raleigh... Companies are getting huge tax breaks to open up shop here, their costs are down by doing it anyway because real estate and cost of living are right at the USA average and it's not a total shithole like Wisconsin or Nebraska so you can actually attract people to come work for you.

HA

I just found out the Red's pitching coach is named Dick Pole... That is all.

Walker Texas Ranger

Today has been full of my friends and I discussing the awesomeness of Walker. From the descriptions on the guide of the episodes, to the fights, to the dialogue... just easily one of the most ridiculous shows ever on tv. I love it. Those that can remember Conan O'Brien kind of started this whole Chuck Norris craze a few years back when he started doing random clips of it with the "Walker Texas Ranger Lever" as you can see here. He did this for a LONG time... and it was flat out hilarious. I would tape and watch episodes just in hopes of catching a few Walker clips. Here is my personal favorite. Just wow... how awesome is that? I still have no idea why they don't still do it... We are talking about a show that STILL will pull out a John Wayne Bobbitt joke from time to time... how could they move on from comedy gold of this level?

They also started doing this thing with one of their art assistants lately which I absolutely love. It has taken on Walker level with me, meaning I watch entire episodes in hopes of seeing it... it is what they call "Pierre Bernard's Recliner of Rage" I am completely unable to find it on Youtube... how could that site let me down so... well if anyone else finds a clip, let me know and I'll add it. I just love how he is basically the character from 40 year old virgin. good stuff.

Long Live Conan

little cars

Yesterday, as some sort of celebration, they took us to this place for the afternoon rather than have us work. I must say, if you have a place similar to this nearby where you may live. I highly recommend going and checking it out sometime. It was freaking awesome. These little cars FLEW.. I mean we were moving.. tires squealing and everything.

By the end of it I was SOAKED in sweat... arms dead... just felt like I had been in a fight after spending an hour in one of these cars.. freaking awesome.

I always said I wanted to one day build or have my own go-Kart... The first thing people always say is... well you have a real car.. what do you want with a little one... my answer is always... because the little car is awesome.. I can't exactly zoom around my neighborhood weaving back and forth on the street in a real car now can I? anyway, definitely awesome and I highly recommend it.

APACHE!!!

A friend of mine just sent this to me and I HAD to pass it along.

Between the Indian Babes, the dance, The dudes facial expressions, kick ass guitar solos, the laugh, the pure offensiveness to native americans and this.. "Great warriors.... Riders of the Plain."

There was a point in the middle there where they start doing indian calls that I thought it couldn't get any better... and it continued to surprise.. just classic.. I will forever enjoy that video.. thank you youtube.

The ads again

A great running gag with this blog to me to is CONSTANT and seemingly extreme changes the ad content will take after a single blog entry. I make that one entry about Lil' Romeo and now I get an ad for Romeo Ring tones. I am going to start including random things in my entries just to see how extreme and random I can make the ad content, and I'm starting now.

I was watching the wonder years last night (they are showing reruns on like PAX or something like that every night at 10) just good times.. A few nights ago I saw the single greatest moment/line on that show out of it's entire run. What is that you might ask??? Some (very few admittedly) will be able to remember this, but it is the episode where the parents are fighting... something that NEVER happens in the Arnold house and it all started with Norma Arnold taking a pottery class and making some of the more god awful pottery on this planet. Old Jack Arnold isn't just going to lie to her and tell her he likes it when he really hates it, so the fight begins. At one particularly tense moment at the dinner table Kevin takes it into his own hands to break through the tension and turn his parents anger towards him and not at each other, so he takes a massive spoonful of mashed potatoes and whips them into the side of Wayne's face. His dad exclaims "what the hell are you doing." but that's about it.. then there is a short pause followed by the single greatest line to occur on that show... Wayne grabs Kevin's shirt, leans in and says, "Tonight... While you sleep, PAL." good stuff.. I laughed quite a bit just writing it.. If you have seen it, you know just how awesome it is... if not.. your loss..

And now for the REALLY random stuff. There were several cartoons in the 70's/early 80's that operated on a pretty simple formula... A group of teenagers aimlessly traveling around solving problems/mysteries with the help of the "funny"/"nonhuman character" of the show... be that a Dog, or a car, or a shark, or a caveman, etc. The running poll I want to conduct is.. Which one was the best?? To me they were all virtually the same.. All good in their own little ways.. I realize basically everyone will say Scoobie Doo, but if you do you are a loser. That's pretty much what a Backstreet Boys fan would pick.. My personal favorite... and believe me, this was a HARD choice... Has to be Captain Caveman... My reason is that not only was it AWESOME.. he had a kickass battle cry, his club was good for pretty much anything... you just never knew WHAT was coming out of that thing.. and he drove around in this awesome stone RV with a cave on the roof... but the best part was the fact that his "group of teenagers" was about 3 hot ass chicks.. There was definitely something going on there. There is just no way Cavey wasn't puttin the club to them up in the love cave every night. just no way...

Now... what will the ads be now?? Caveman sex?? Scoobie cartoons? 80's tv shows?? we shall see.

Romeo a Trojan

So apparently Lil' Romeo has signed with the USC trojans. And yes I know he wants to be called Romeo now, but if you put out CD's and movies going by a certain name and just decide when you are 16 that you will no longer go by that name because it was given to you as a kid such as this, or Ricky Schroeder, I'll still call you by that name. Sorry, that's just how I roll. Even as a 10 year old I knew that placing a Y at the end of my name or a Lil in front of it would probably be something I would regret in a few years so they have no excuses. Plus it's always funny to me to see someone that is 40 going by a name like Billy, or Joey... Think Billy Donovan here..

Anyway, does anyone remember when Master P tried to play in the CBA because his dream was to play in the NBA? Well perhaps now he can live vicariously through his sons. It isn't like he has anything else to do. Another choice tidbit from that article is where it states he is an All American... which list of all americans does he appear on??? seriously? He is listed as a 1 Star recruit on scout.com, which basically means he exists. This sounds an aweful lot like "recruited walk-on" to me. So I'm thinking All American is a bit of an exaggeration... honorable mention all conference might be closer to the truth.

The other wonderful thing from this is that He goes to Beverly Hills High School... does anyone else have a Fresh Prince flashback of Will playing for Belaire Prep??

80's tv show sets

A couple nights ago I was sitting around the house and something made the pilot of the Cosby Show jump into my head. Most people would remember this episode as the one where Cliff gives Theo his big talk about getting good grades to get a good job to make enough money to live using monopoly money, or even for the fact that as far as anyone knew the oldest daughter, Sandra, didn't exist. I personally remember it more for the fact that it was filmed on a completely different set than the rest of the series. Very interesting no? Well, to me that was just the tip of the iceberg. While thinking about this I noticed some similarities in my head to a lot of other sets of TV shows through the years. This would be the front door is to the right of the screen, with a step inside and immediately to your right as you walk in the door there is a set of stairs that has a small landing a few steps up and then a turn to the left and up to the "second floor". of course right in front of the room is the couch and behind that is not only the set of stairs, but to the left of that there is usually a room that goes back (sitting room, dining room) something along those lines. I can think of NUMEROUS shows from the area that basically filmed on the exact same set.. see if you can think of anymore... (I apologize for not having any pictures.. after a lengthy search I have not yet been able to find any of just a set from any of these shows.) Anyway, the list includes The Cosby show pilot, Blossom, Roc, Amen, Hangin with Mr Cooper, Gimme a Break, I think Sister Sister (I never really watched it so I can't remember for sure), whatever that show was with LL Cool J in it... anyway, there are a TON from that time period of like 1983-1993... This was common in the 50's and 60's, just look at shows like Mr Ed and how similar the set looks to something like my 3 son. They have a set that is based on these from the 50's-60'sthat they also commonly use on saturday night live (and used on Clarissa Explain it All as well...), anyway, that's beside the point.. Did all these production companies and networks not think that we would notice that they were basically recycling the same set over and over again??? Upon further contemplation the sets for Who's the Boss is eerily similar to that of Growing Pains.. This bothers me... did they really think we wouldn't notice?? oh sure there are minor changes, but the set is the same... did they just buy them prefabricated from the same set making company?? Is there a company that only builds sets to look like houses for television family sitcoms? These are all questions that should be answered one day.. I do feel that a portion of my innocence has died with this realization. I'm sorry to have ruined the illusion for everyone else...

Duke renaissance on the horizon?

If you listen to coach K it could very well be. (the article also gave us this really goofy picture... had to include it.) There is definitely something not right in Durham right now, and really K is the only one that can change it. I still say to keep an eye on that 2008 recruiting class. If he brings in a couple top 10 type guys with that and a #1 recruiting class, they are going places because it will mean a through rededication of himself to the recruiting trail.. but if it looks like a few really good but not great type players, then I think we know what the result will be. From the sound of things he is really putting himself back out there in the media (and by that I mean giving interviews and not filming commercials) that alone will greatly impact the image of the program. The other thing is a more personal involvement in the day to day operation of that team. I think he was putting way too much responsibility on Collins and Wojo, and it showed in the results of the last few years. Ever since the 01 title things have been a little different, and they changed even more after the Laker's job offer, and this past season was the reward for that hands off approach. I personally hope any kind of self evaluation will bring the results I believe it will, but there really is no way to tell if the dedication and focus will truly be there until we see what brand of basketball the blue devils play this season, and what kind of results begin to come in for the 2008 recruiting class.... I've got my fingers crossed.

Rumblings

There seem to be 2 big controversies right now that people just can't seem to let go. The first is Pacman Jones. In case you somehow haven't heard, he has been suspended for the entire 2007 season for makin it rain and instigating a shootout leaving many wounded and one guy paralyzed (details are a bit fuzzy here, but does it really matter?) anyway, he was involved in a shooting, lets leave it at that. Well, the NFL has stepped up to the plate and said they aren't going to allow this behavior from players anymore and off he goes. This will be appealed I'm sure, but it is doubtful much will come of that. You just can't beat the NFL. My reaction to all this... it's about damn time. I love sports, and spend a great deal of my time talking about them, watching them and spending money on them. Which is why players make such incredible salaries. The way I see it, playing a game for such huge amounts of money is a privilege that you first need to be supremely talented to get to that point, but then you have a certain responsibility to justify your wealth. That may seem unfair to most, but not to me. I put up with much worse than upholding a certain image every day when I go to work, and I'm bringing in less in a year than Pacman threw onto the stage at that strip club in Vegas that fateful night. So, I feel like if you are going to make that kind of money, you have a responsibility to justify it. ESPECIALLY if you came from humble upbringings, because honestly, what has a guy like Pacman done that 500 other boys from his neighborhood haven't done. Basically, he could run fast and tackle... so instead of struggling to make ends meet, he is partying and going to strip clubs and blowing vast sums of money. I'm not saying they can't have their fun, but dude, they were lucky to be given what talent they have. There are MANY people out there working every day and putting up with more headaches and problems than these guys could imagine. If they are going to make that kind of money, they need to act right. If they can't do that, then I think the league is doing the right thing by taking that away. These guys aren't entitled to anything. The NFL gives them the opportunity to make huge amounts of money to play a game. If they fuck that up, that's their problem.

The other big news is this Imas thing with the Rutgers women's basketball team. If your head has been in a hole, basically he was comparing them to the Tennessee women's team and said... "man they looked rough, the Tennessee girls, they were cute.. but the Rutgers players... there was some nappy headed Ho's out there." This wasn't an exact quote, but that's the gist. I saw it on ESPN the day after it happened. He had already issued an apology at that point which called it thoughtless and stupid... about summed it up to me... and honestly I thought that would be it.. then 4 days later it BLEW UP. Anyway, I have listened to about 10 minutes total of this guys show about a year ago, and quickly turned the dial because it was CLEAR that the guy is an idiot. So I TURNED THE DIAL!!!! so no, I'm not in am uproar over this. Just a dumbass saying a dumbass thing. Much much worse things have been said many times. Personally I love the hypocrisy of ESPN.. you know how many times I have seen WNBA players compared to horses on page 2?? now this guy is racist for doing something similar. This is what page 2 has become.. they hired like 4 guys that all they do is point out racism and write constant articles about how racist society is. Well... this is no exception.. lets ignore the fact that they themselves have made pretty much the exact same comparisons. Anyway, this has been blown way out of proportion to me. People are demanding he be fired.. Is that necessary?? How about just not listening to his show?? my guess is that the people complaining never even heard of the guy before this. The funniest thing to me is that it was Al Sharpton that began the demands of his dismissal after the guy appeared on his show Monday... is there a guy in the USA that has said more completely ridiculously stupid things that THAT guy??? and HE is calling for someone else's job??? what the hell is that. Know what people... here's an idea.. don't listen, or petition his advertisers to pull their ads (which has started). That is how you get someone off the radio.. you give him no listeners and no ad money. I promise you he will be gone forever soon after that. Don't destroy free speech by firing people over stupid things they say... use the free market system against them.

the weekend

Well that was a pretty damn nice weekend. Other than it being cold as balls the whole time, I loved it. I never really went out too much anyway, so who cares if it was cold. A weekend spent breaking in a new playstation is a weekend well spent.

anyway, there really isn't a whole lot to update on right now.. I had a couple phone interviews on Friday, could be promising. Have to wait and see. One of them was in California. I'm not sure that one would be worth our time. My wife is pretty against moving that far away. About the only way I will be able to go there is if they basically double my pay. That will not happen, so I probably won't even go for a full interview. I just don't want to waste their time. It really is hard to picture me living on the west coast. I always really felt like you just had to really grew up with it to really feel comfortable there. I haven't even ever gone on a visit there, so there is no telling how I would adapt. I have been telling Anna that we should just say screw it and run off to Hawaii and open a little lunch place. May not ever be rich.. but it's gotta be better than this.

Playstation 3

So I FINALLY bought myself a new playstation 3 Wednesday. I must say, it basically blows me away. It was so damn awesome. On an HDTV with HDMI it is absolutely unreal. Just amazingly pretty. The setup was a bit of a pain, especially wince my wifi connection isn't the best. I kept losing contact because I have the system in a TV cabinet and it really interferes with the wireless router we have. Maybe when we get a new wireless G router it will work a bit better. Not too concerned about it though, since the games themselves are the main reason I got it. The graphics are sick, the controller is great (can't wait to actually use the full sixaxis function). I feel I made the right choice between this and Xbox. I am loyal to my Sony. I haven't yet checked out a blue ray movie on it, but thats because blockbuster doesn't have them yet. I don't really buy movies.. why buy one when I watch it once and it just sits on a shelf. There are very few movies I enjoy enough to watch several times in which to necessitate owning them. They are Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and a few others thrown in here and there... That's really it, so no, I will not be buying blue ray movies (not until the aforementioned Star Wars 6 pack comes out.. that should run what like $200??) I will say one thing.. unless you have an HDTV, and a good surround sound system, I wouldn't blow the money... You gotta take full advantage of it if you are going to do it. Either way, I highly recommend it. Far exceeds my expectations so far.

Gay Quiz??

Some of you may have noticed that I added a small banner ad to the blog. I think it somehow makes it seem more professional. I might make about 13 cents a month from it too.. awesome. Anyway, the good people at google claimed that the banner ad would somehow be pertinent to the topics of discussion on my blog. When I came on here this morning the ad simply read "Are you gay?? Take the gay quiz."

Maybe I just don't really have as good a handle on my topics of discussion as google does, but I have no idea where THAT came from. What exactly says gay about this blog?

anyway, it thoroughly cracked me up of course.. who needs a quiz for something like that.. isn't that just something you kinda know? But hey, maybe it really is something that a lot of people have a hard time deciding one way or another.. I mean who hasn't asked themselves the question, "Does this make me gay? Or am I gay?" or some other form of the same. Well to help you out, I have devised a foolproof gay quiz for you. Both men and women and here it is.

1. Are you male?

If your answer to this is yes move on to number 3, if no. go to number 2.

2. Congratulations you are not gay, you are bi... and that's awesome. This now completes your gay quiz.

3. Have you ever sucked a dick?

If yes. Dude, you're gay
If no, You probably aren't gay, unless you've ever thought about sucking a dick that wasn't your own.

I forgot to mention this

Lost in the shuffle a bit from Monday was this absolute gem. Cincinnati's mayor threw easily the worst ceremonial first pitch in major league history. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx6zsub-neU... PLEASE check this out. Eric Davis' reaction is absolutely priceless. The only way he could have missed the plate any more than this would have been to turn around and throw to second base. This is why baseball is so awesome. Something funny ALWAYS happens. There is plenty of downtime for pranks and tomfoolery. One of my personal favorites was from the early 90's. The reds were playing in Chicago at Wrigley and sometime mid game the cameras pan over the roofs of the buildings out past right field. As they are panning you notice someone wearing a reds uniform. The camera zooms in and you see that it is Reds starter Tom Browning sitting up there, legs dangling over the edge, eating a hot dog.

Repeat champs

The best team absolutely won last night. Florida had a REALLY hot shooting night and Ohio State (outside of Oden) couldn't hit anything. I think Oden made it pretty clear last night why he is hyped the way he is. He basically outplayed the ENTIRE Florida frontline. Stayed out of foul trouble. Never left the floor and took a beating from 4 big bodies all night, and they couldn't stop him. They threw everything they could at him, and he just ripped them over and over. Nothing was happening around the rim when he was on defense, and they absolutely could not stop him on the other end. I have never seen him demand the ball like that before. It really was an awesome performance, if only his guards could have made more than 6-23 of their outside shots.

That Florida team was absolutely loaded, but we really need to stop with the best team ever? debates.. I won't go too far into it, but I can name about 10 teams in the last 20 years that would spank this Florida team. Taking nothing away from them, they were DAMN good.. especially when they are making damn near every 3 they take, but there is no doubt in my mind that probably 3 teams from the 80's alone (one in particular that didn't win the title) would beat that team. (82 Tar Heels, 84 Hoyas, and 86 blue devils.) MOST of the teams from the 90's would (90 UNLV, 91 UNLV, 92 Duke, maybe 91 Duke, 96 Kentucky, 99 Duke, 99 Uconn) ALL were better... then in the last several years.. I would make the argument that 01 Duke, 01 Arizona, 02 Maryland, 02 Duke, 04 Uconn, and 05 heels would all beat this Florida team. Winning back to back is a HUGE accomplishment, but lets not go overboard. College basketball is in a weird flux state right now with the new NBA rule. The talent is weirdly distributed, and in about 2 years when there is more talent into college, you will see about 10 teams in a season that could have given this particular Florida team a game. hell, there were 10 teams THIS year that could have.. They did lose 5 games afterall. They weren't unbeatable.

Last year's title for them, in my opinion, was a fluke.. It was probably the worst season of college ball in memory.. the talent was so diluted that you had 2 nonathletic shooters as the unanimous best players. It was an all time low for college hoops and Florida got hot at the right time, and got a gift in having to play George Mason in the final 4. They went half speed through that game, and it made the title game all that much easier... Add in the fact that UCLA matches up horribly for them.. Anyway, I think it is a huge accomplishment to win back to back anyway. We might see it again..... as a matter f fact I KNOW we will see it again eventually, but their biggest accomplishment was getting all 5 starters to come back from a title run. THAT will never happen again. So I say give them praise for doing what they did, but lets not get carried away.

Opening day

Lost in all the talk of the final four is that fact that today is freaking opening day. if you don't think this is a big deal, check out http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=CINCI today... They have been counting down to opening day by the minurte for about 3 weeks... I really miss how the entire city just loses it's mind for the first day of the basebal season.. parades, kids skipping school, standing room only seating, awesome.. just awesome. Easily the top thing I miss about living in Cincinnati. Opening day is just one of the best days of the year.. easily. I actually went to a couple of those opening day games.. and they are just awesome.. nice sunny afternoon at the end of march/beginning of april.. usually about 70 degrees and sunny.. sit down and have a hot dog, or ifyou are really lucky.. a skyline cheese coney.. nothing better than that.

Today really is a great sports day.. Opening day, NCAA championship game.. the buckeyes are in pads for the first time in spring practice.. This really should be a holiday.. what the hell am I doing at work??

Championship game

So we are left with the Florida/Ohio State matchup that I had hoped for, and also predicted in my brackets at the beginning of the tournament. I had picked Ohio State to win the title, so I am sticking with that pick now. I could very well be wrong, Florida will be VERY tough to beat. I really want to see them go down though.. Not just because I don't want them to repeat, but also because their fans have been unbearable since the debacle in the desert and it would be so nice to see Ohio State enact some kind of revenge for that heartbreaker. Buckeye fans everywhere are praying for the win, but honestly, it will do little to help the pain of the football loss. Buckeye fans are football fans first, second and third. Any of the other sports are just to pass the time until football starts again. There is more discussion on the message boards over spring practice that just started 2 day ago then there is of the basketball team being in the freaking championship game. Really, the only reason it is being discussed at all is because the game will be against that same team that stole a national title from the Buckeyes. So I will most definitely be rooting for Ohio State.. the satisfaction of picking the champion right, the undeniable urge to not have any other repeat champion in the modern format than Duke, and the slight bit of revenge for easily the most disappointing football game I have ever watched and may ever see in my lifetime.