patrick.net

I guess there's worse things in life than the housing bubble after all. Count our blessings.

The worst part was that the picutres I saw were taken a couple of years ago, after a suicide bomber attacked that school bus. Talk about bad.

Those monsters are complete devoid of morality. Only true evil will attack defenseless children.

back to the thread topic -

google.com and Intel. My life would be very unhappy without them.

:P

The portable nav system on my old PDA could not handle the transition from one state to another. About a year and a half ago I flew to rural Ohio from CA and wanted to use my navigation system there.

This was in BFE, Ohio, but surprisingly, the nav system had all of the streets in its databases and unerringly guided us to all of our destinations. Unfortunatley, about halfway through the day it crashed, leaving us without convenient directions. It has never crashed before or since, I guess it just could not handle the mental stress of travel in a different state.

I just dont know when it will capitulate, sometimes I dont know if being rational and thrifty is worth it at all.

Just compare rent with mortgage costs. If you still prefer to buy, it is fine so long as you can afford conservatively.

Being thrifty does not necessarily pay. Enjoy life. But enjoy it rationally.

What would Amerika be, without California?

A lot smaller, both population and GDP-wise. The US would have its GDP cut by so much that it would lose an enormous amount of global economic bargaining power to the EU/EMU and China. Imagine the US having far less clout in the WTO, IMF, WB, etc., instead having to take seriously the demands of other developed country participants.

Joe Schmoe,

No, I grew up just outside of BFE Ohio. It's a strange energy that emits from the Earth there that causes useful, interesting things to either shut down, wilt or die.

brahma,

Try this (a spreadsheet I and others here created for analysis). If you are happy with present-value implications of buying now, then you probably should so long as you can afford it.

I love the coast (here's a cheer for the Coastal Commission keeping it from turning into something resembling Florida!).

The last two times I moved I managed to purge several boxes of stuff. The next time I move I expect to "lose" another box or two; I'd lose more, but there's not too much left to toss, outside of books.

brahma: depends on your patience. I don't care too much, since I've just happened to end up with a decently balanced portfolio (i.e. decent companies, about 5% gold, cash on hand for a down market, etc.) I don't feel any great urge to buy, but then I'm immune to many passing fads. If prices go down (either in real or nominal dollars) then I may buy. Personally, all the numbers I see suggest that current levels are unsustainable, and so I don't buy. (Like being the 20th guy in a game of Russian Roulette, the correct assumption is not "hell, someone must have forgotten to load the thing".)

This placenta thing has really turned my stomach.

Me too! I love the beach and the sound of the ocean.

I used to live next to a freeway. Somehow, it did sound like ocean at night. :)

Brahma,

the party has just started, and you want to withdraw?

Fed will stop rate hike after 1 or 2, where is the support for USD?? Our budget deficit? Our looming recession?

Oil new high, gold new high, commodities record high, USD losing ground against all major currencies in the last week, and more to go.

If you dare to take a little risk, you can buy a home expressed in a much weakened USD in a year or two, although the nominal value is not that much off. If someone has been staying largely out of USD in commodities or foreign stock market from the end of last year till now, his portfolio expressed in USD should have gained at least 10% to as much as 50% by now, which means, if he exchanges back to USD, even the same home retains its nominal USD value, he is already buying a home at a reduced price!

And we are not even reaching the beginning of the ARM reset fun which is due to start this summer. I am quite excited to see the show of the century.

Peter P,

I found the perfect image for this thread, but since you're the author, I can't add it: http://www.strangepolitics.com/images/content/101110.jpg.

We don't have the best beaches in the world, the best beaches are down under, along the eastern coast, especially up the stretch where the great barrier reef is. The water is bluer, clearer, and most importantly, much warmer! Their coastal weather is clear blue sky 80% of the time, unlike us, foggy, foggy, foggy!!

Thanks HARM!

np ;-)

back to things that will totally gross you out:

http://www.viceland.com/int/v13n3/htdocs/baby.php?country=us

warning - placenta related

Mr. Vincent,

I hope I didn't spoil your dinner :roll:

SFWoman,

"You weren’t at the barbeque I hope."

No. I was trying to trace the connection between Tom Cruise and placenta. This link came up on gawker.com and I couldn't resist. :)

I’m proud of my SoCal owners. Median prices broke $500,000 and is now at an ALL TIME HIGH!

Congrats indeed! Kalifornia Roll, banzai!

You weren’t at the barbeque I hope.

How about having it steamed with sake?

From wikipedia, "In most mammalian species, the mother bites through the cord and consumes the placenta in order to avoid predator attraction."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placenta

That condo looks awfully cheap compared to the district 7B condo SFWoman was looking at.

HITMAN is an IB turned real-estate broker. Just ignore him.

--

A man went to a brain store to get some brain to complete a study. He sees a sign remarking on the quality of professional brain offered at this particular brain store. He begins to question the butcher about the cost of these brains.

"How much does it cost for a programmer brain?"

"Two dollars an ounce."

"How much does it cost for engineer brain?"

"Three dollars an ounce."

"How much does it cost for an Ivy League MBA brain?"

"Seven dollars an ounce."

"How much for Realtor(tm) brain?"

"$1,000 an ounce."

"Why is Realtor(tm) brain so much more?"

"Do you know how many Realtors(tm) we had to kill to get one ounce of brain?"

HITMAN you are a cocksucking little maggot, why don't you just venture over to Craigslist where you belong. Your fucking postings are great, a "condo" that went for 100K over asking, and you can't have a dog. Go fuckyourself. You are correct real estate is going up and up, just like your lovers cock up your fucking fat ass. Good for you buy more RE, elbow-pads for you and knee pads for big al your loan guy.

Peter P. please delete the fucking troll.

Sincerely, California does really have something to be proud of. The more important thing is, we should make it better. And I am sure we can.

Sorry for not acting earlier. I was eating pork cutlet.

why am I always getting moderated? What did I do wrong?

nomadtoons2 Says:

California was the golden state- the state where a middle income citizen could live well within their means, get a world class education, and participate in a society that was in large more tolerant regardless of race.

While tolerance is still above the norm here, all the rest is long gone. You WILL NOT prosper as a middle class citizen here, and this is why it is losing and will continue to lose it’s future.

Sorry I’m being negative, but I travel back and forth between the SE and CA and I see what it happening, and it’s pretty much a 360 degree change of what I grew up with. Change is in the air.

_______

Unfortunately, there's a lot of truth in what he said.

I never realized how good I had it growing up in Cali. I never thought it would become too costly, so prohibitive, so taxed, so resticted.

Bummer.

Tonkatsu

Yep. Somehow I was craving it.

astrid,

could you tell me which part of the message is causing the trouble? I removed the dollar sign, it didn't help, then I thought perhaps Mr. H's handle was banned, it didn't help either.

Since you could post without a problem, perhaps my handle got banned? :-)

perhaps my handle got banned

Never.

Owneroccupier,

Sadly, no. It got stuck in purgatory too. Peter P checked in and patched them through.

So it's certainly not your handle:)

I really can't imagine why it got banned. Wordpress is so weird.

I really can’t imagine why it got banned. Wordpress is so weird.

It uses a very complex stochastic fractal hyper-uncertainty algorithm.

Peter,

I'm not sure if what you've just said is true or come out of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. :P

I think WordPress is developing consciousness. It has transformed Jukubot(tm) into the ultimate troll-fighting machine.

WordPress just called me on the phone. This is getting wierd.

Let me show you another money-losing beauty of Marina PRIME, the place in SF that never goes down!

Here is a listing on MarinaPrime's favorite MLS, of course in our favorite Marina district
http://www.sfarmls.com/scripts/mgrqispi.dll?APPNAME=Sanfrancisco&PRGNAME=MLSPropertyDetail&ARGUMENTS=-N927557355,-N186830,-N,-A,-N2933561

Listed for 1.195M, if it sells 100K above asking, don't be surprised, why?

Because accoding to zillow, its comparable (1737 sf) was sold for 1.441M in 2005. So even if it is sold for 1.3, that means the market is down.

So the next time our favorite Marinaprime shows us something selling for 100k or 200k above asking, check the zillow transaction price first before you get angry, he is just showing us in a different way how the market has already turned.

Things to be proud of:

The work culture at some companies in the valley (and probably elsewhere, too). Some random attributes I can think of:
Freewheeling, gentle, non-authoritarian, innovation-fostering, multi-cultural, unbureaucratic, energetic.

This is very, very hard to copy.

It can be overdone (and it has been at some places :-) ), but if it's done right, it's without competition in the world.

WordPress just called me on the phone. This is getting wierd.

It just synthesized a piece of sushi in front of me.