Worst Deal of 2009?

I just noticed that the Cash for Clunkers program made Fortune's list of '3 worst deals of 2009'. I remember being particularly disappointed when I found out that part of the program was that the engines of the "clunkers" turned in were to be destroyed. As a driver of a "clunker" myself, I know that junk yards are a treasure-trove of good, cheap parts that allow folks on a budget to keep their cars on the road for years past when most people would throw them away. Removing that source of cheap parts just unfairly penalized those who really weren't in the market for a new car anyway. Of course the counter argument to that was that part of the goal of the program was to reduce pollution, but that didn't seem to work out very well either.

What Happened to Personal Responsibility?

So I'm sitting here watching President Obama talk to Congress about the latest iteration of his heath care plan, and a few things he's said have really caught my attention.

The first is his specific mention of young people who may not want to buy health insurance because they feel that they are invincible and they'd rather spend the money on something else. Of course, we can't let this happen. Why? Because then everyone else has to pay when they visit the emergency room or get sick. My question is: why? The whole point of personal choice is that you have to live with the consequences. If I don't buy car insurance, and I hit someone, I should have to pay for that. If I don't buy health insurance and I get injured, I should have to pay for that too.

Of course, there are a number of arguments that crop up at this point: First, that medical care is way too expensive, and second, that medical care is a right. To answer these, I would say that the first is very related to the second. Viewing medical care as a special case, rather than a market like any other, has kept prices high. After all, food, water, and clothing are also necessary for a healthy life, but none of these things are prohibitively expensive. There was a time when only the wealthy could afford tailored clothes, or clean water, but today, in America, the idea of anyone going without these things is ridiculous. This is the case because suppliers of these products had to compete with one another to stay in business. Not everyone can afford Armani suits, but no one goes naked. What we're trying to do in heath care is give everyone a $500 suit. Can't afford it? No problem! Of course, as with anything else run by the government the promise is that this program will provide a boundless plenty, but history has shown that the usual result is lowered quality, shortages, and rationing.

Sunday Internet Distractions

If you're anything like me, Sunday is that day that you madly try to get everything that you were going to do during the week done so that you don't become truly behind and you can maintain some feeling of accomplishment before Monday. Of course between loads of laundry and rounds of yard work there's always time for some internet distraction!

Today my main distraction has been "Penn & Teller: Bullshit!". Those of us who are too cheap to pay for Showtime are deprived of getting this show over our old-fashioned moving-picture boxes, but thankfully you can find many episodes online, either through good old YouTube or other places. That last link, which should take you to their episode on the Vatican, is the one that started the whole distraction earlier today, but the show is kind of like potato chips - you can't watch just one.

In case you haven't stumbled across them before, Penn and Teller are fantastic entertainers and magicians that also have strong political and religions beliefs. I'm a particular fan, since their beliefs (they are atheist libertarians) line up pretty darn well with my own. I just don't use as much profanity in my day-to-day life. Bullshit! is their way of highlighting people who hold crazy, scary, or outright dangerous beliefs (they've covered everything from cryptozoology to the IRS to faith healers) and while they may not be "fair and balanced" - heck, they even say they aren't during several episodes - I think they do an excellent job of presenting their views in an educational, if not hilarious, manner. Anyway, watch an episode or two and I'll let them speak for themselves.

Alright, back to that silly "work" I've been putting off.

Some Florida Awesomeness

While there are some things I find lacking about Florida, there is one thing that makes up for a lot of it, and that is that we have the Space Shuttle! Standard middle of the day launches are impressive enough, but every so often we get a truly spectacular night launch, like the one we had on Friday night. It never fails to impress me how something that many miles away can turn night into day. Anyway, enjoy the pictures!

The Search is Over

Looking for a house makes me jealous of all my married friends. I mean, I like to look at houses. I find architecture and real estate interesting. Even so, after looking at the 25th house they all start to run together. If you have a significant other then at least you can divide the work so that you get burnt out at half rate. But things are looking up. I have found a solution to both problems!

First, a house has been found! I never thought that a house search would involve so much soul searching, but after several re-examinations of myself and what is really important to me in life I think I've managed to settle on a house that will give me (most) of what I want. So to illustrate how far I've come on my journey, I will start with my original criteria in order from most important to least.

1. Multi-car shop
2. 1+ acres
3. Cost
4. Doesn't need major renovation
5. Location

Now, here's what I ended up with (once again, in order):

1. Location - less than 30-second walk from 3 good friends
2. 3-car garage, and a builder that is very flexible
3. Good price
4. Brand new - it will be done in November
5. 0.18 acres

Most dramatically, location has leapt from last to first! After hearing the "location, location, location" mantra many, many times, I finally took it to heart. After all, one of the things that I miss the most from college is the ability to be close to people you enjoy. Well, this is about as close as I can get without actually moving in with them. But that's not the only reason why I chose this location. The house is actually in Rockledge, FL, which has many benefits over other areas I was exploring. For starters, it's actually a developing area, so lots of new construction and lots of nifty conveniences, like grocery stores. It's also very close to both the interstate and to the ocean, so it's very easy to get to the ocean when it's being nice, and escape it when it isn't.

Before I get requests for pictures, I don't have any yet. Mostly because the house is currently nothing more than a grassy lot. But rest assured that I will start taking many pictures when things start to get interesting. I'm actually trying to convince my friend to take a picture of the lot each day from the same location. That way when the house is done I will get a house and a nice time-lapse video of it being built! Who ever said being nerdy wasn't cool? If that actually happens I will definitely be posting that video here as well.

Now, onto the other "search". Those of you that know me also know that I am very good at being single. Well, those days are over! It's official, too, since it's on Facebook. That's the real test, right? Anyway, the good part of the story is that we hit it off over the 4th of July weekend and have been happily dating ever since! The bad part of the story is that she's still in Clemson. Since, much to our frustration, the teleporter has not been invented yet, we've only gotten to see one another once since the 4th. But there are some long weekends coming up, so I sense some travel to South Carolina coming up!

The thing that's been crazy about this relationship, and what has made it very different from my previous relationships (all three of them), is that I feel completely comfortable. In the past I have always felt, even a little bit, that I had to modify my behavior to please the other person. This time there's none of that. I'm taking that, and the fact that this is the first time where I really do find myself unconsciously thinking about the other person, as a good sign, hehe. I know I have at least one married reader, so if anyone has any tales of how they felt at the beginning of their relationship, I would gladly welcome a comparison.

And with that, I am off to some well-needed sleep! Have a great weekend everyone!

The Latest

So, it's been another long blog vacation, but I figured that it was time to provide an update to my loyal reader.

Even I haven't been to this blog in a while.  I had forgotten that I was looking for a house the last time I posted and, guess what, I'm still looking.  I did manage to find one that would have been just about perfect.  1.6 acres, 1900 sq ft, a pool and a hot tub, and all for $155,000!  However it was not to be.  I tried to get an offer in 5 days after it went on the market, but someone managed to beat me too it.  The thinking is that it was some kind of inside deal, but regardless, I still don't have a house.  I'm certain that I'll be able to find what I want for the price I want to pay eventually, it's just going to take some waiting and I'll have to jump right on it when I see it.

For those of you who have not gone through the house buying experience, all I can say is making that decision to put that first contract down is the toughest (so far).  Now that I've done that twice, both unsuccessful, I'm much more prepared to jump on good deals that come up.  I suppose the one benefit of being as picky as I am is that I get to see a lot of properties and get a good sense of the real estate market in this part of Florida.

The other fun part is dealing with short sales, which make up a large chunk of the market down here.  From talking to my realtor the other day, I guess the price that a short sale is listed at may or may not have anything to do with the price the bank will accept.  For instance, you could put a full-price offer on a $130,000 house and the bank will come back 60 days later and tell you that no, they won't take $130,000, but they will take $220,000.  WTF?!  Joanne, my realtor, has said that this is very frustrating for both the realtor and the buyer, which is understandable, since you really can't put other offers on houses while you're under contract waiting for the bank to tell you if they're going to sell or not.  I know the housing market is pretty crazy everywhere, but it's insane here.  Heck, Palm Bay, the city I technically live in, has 1,900+ listings right now, and apparently half are short sales and foreclosures!

Anyway, on to better news.  As of this week I have joined the rank of the Mac users!  Some people might think that I've gone crazy, but I have good reason for making the switch.  First, I've wanted to play around with the iPhone SDK for a while now, and if I actually make something cool I'd like to be able to put it up on the App store.  Thanks to Apple's "don't play well with others" marketing strategy, you can only develop legitimate apps on a Mac.  I guess it worked, since I bought one of their computers, right?  The second reason is that I needed a new, more reliable desktop anyway.  My aging monster from junior year of college was getting flakier and flakier (for instance, 9 times out of 10 it would decide that there were no CD drives), and with the Xbox I don't really play too many games on the computer anymore.  Heck, all the classic games that I'd like to play can be easily handled by my laptop anyway.

So, I guess the story is that I'll post pictures as soon as I find another house that I actually want to put an offer on, and in the mean time if anyone has any great ideas for iPhone apps, send me a message and I'll see what I can do :).

-Chris

The House Search Continues

So I know I promised Clemson pictures, but those are going to have to wait because I have a Lost episode calling me from my DVR.

First, though, I wanted to express some excitement, and some frustration. As some of you may, or may not know, I've been looking for a house for about the last month or so. Florida was one of the worst hit areas in the housing crash, and there are some great deals to be had. However, with my scant few months of full time employment and a correspondingly scant amount of savings, the houses that I can pick from are still relatively limited. Hey, a $500,000 house can only drop so far, right?

The excitement is because I have been able to find several areas near the center of town that satisfy my quite picky tastes. You see, most houses in Florida, especially new houses, are built in huge subdivisions with approximately 3.5 inches of space between them. Most of them also have no character, and if you replaced all the pictures in the housing magazine with a picture of the same stucco house, I'm not sure anyone would notice. I want something much different. I'm willing to put in the work on an older, unique house with a lot of potential.

The frustration is because the houses that I've found so far fall into two categories: houses where I love the design, love the lot, love the area, and it's just slightly too expensive, or houses where I can afford it, but the house is just alright, the area might be a bit hillbilly, and the lot is fair. That, or the house backs up to the interstate. Or the house that was perfect, but was also still listed in spite of being closed on tomorrow (anger!).

Anyway, that's the long and short of it. The search continues and with any luck I will be in the house of my dreams (or at least what will become the house of my dreams) in the next 6 months or so. $8,000 federal tax credit here I come!