Codejnki's Blog
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Change is in the air
Nov 26th
Well I changed the layout of the blog. I am not exactly sure why. It just felt like the right thing to do. I’m getting out of a red mood and more in to a blue mood. Depression is not setting in, rather just the color schemes needed changing.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I’ll be spending the day with my girlfriend’s family. My family on the other hand is mostly home in California. My sister is heading home with her SO in tow. But my little brother is spending this Thanksgiving in Arizona. This summer he enlisted in the army and graduated boot camp at the end of October. They moved him to Fort Huachuca where he is going to be trained in some sort of “skill”. He called me the other day and was basically thrilled that they had allowed him to have his PSP back. What scares me the most is that our government has seemed fit to entrust a firearm in the hands of my youngest brother. If you knew him, you’d be scared too.
The economy is still tanking if you hadn’t noticed yet. Thought I’d just mention that.
I’ve been playing a lot of Fable 2 lately. Probably a tad more than I ought to.
Beyond that, things are slow. Life is good.
I am ready to retire.
Iz Kan Maked A Blog Post
Nov 9th
My girlfriend recently challenged me to take part in NaBloPoMo after listening to me whine that I don’t write enough any more. Well I didn’t sign up. Looking at my work schedule I knew there was simply no way that I could keep up a work schedule, blog, and devote the required number of hours needed to completing Guitar Hero World Tour (on hard, wearing a bathrobe by the way).
So anyway I was feeling like a lazy ass for not joining the daily blog posting, that is, till she wasn’t able to make it past about day five. Now I don’t feel so bad.
Anyway, on to other things besides gloating.
The truth is that the housing crisis in America has hit me. Dial the way back machine to 2003. Prior to my ex-wife and I getting married we refinanced the house she owned to help pay down some debt, get a lower interest rate, and have some extra cash to pay for the wedding. In 2005 we had a line on a very good deal for the purchase of a Victorian in town and decided to put an offer in. With the housing market starting to slow we knew we would be unable to sell our first house. So we decided to rent the house out. A young family moved in and we were able to cover the mortgage payment from their rent and things were good.
In 2006/2007 when my wife and I divorced she got the Victorian, I got the rental. At the time, this seemed like a halfway decent deal. At the same time I also relocated to the east side of the state, starting my live over again for the third time. In the mean time the renters continued to live in the house.
Fast forward to late October 2008. I received a phone call from my renter telling me they are leaving with about 2 days notice and they are behind on rent by three weeks. I make my way down to the rental and get a look at what is a very disgusting mess. After a near two week ordeal just trying to get the keys back I am now in a serious bind. With just some rough estimates the house is going to require over $5000 worth of repairs in new flooring and paint. The house is also now worth almost half of what it was worth back in 2003. To say that I am upside down on this house is now a complete understatement.
So here is where I sit. I don’t really have the money to fix the house and make house payments. If I don’t fix the house I can’t get renters. If I don’t have a renter I can’t make house payments. I think that right now I sit in the literal definition of a Catch-22.
So I have resigned myself to become another national economic statistic. My rental house is going to end up going back to the bank. I am going to keep making payments on the house as long as possible but the house is up for sale at a drastically reduced price. I am currently in negotiations with the bank to attempt to avoid foreclosure, but right now, in this economic climate, I do not see that as being a reality.
Unlike many of the people who are going through foreclosure I feel like I did things exactly right. There is no funky strange loan on this house. It is a straightforward starter home that we chose to rent out and up on. Thousands of people have done this. It just didn’t work out for me.
California should ban marriage all together
Nov 5th
Today is a sad day in my home state of California. On the same night that our nation proved we could move past hundreds of years of racism by electing Barack Obama president, California took one giant step backwards in to the bigotry corner. With the passage of California Proposition 8 , the state’s population took a look at one whole segment of the population and said “You aren’t good enough.”
The residents of California, where many of my friends and much of my family still lives, should be ashamed. The ability of people to vote out of fear and hatred to forcibly remove rights from people is simply unthinkable. If the “family values” group is really determined to “protect marriage” then they need to outlaw divorce, or better yet, marriage all together. To protect something completely, eliminate it completely.
Which is why I am proposing the following. I will donate $50 to any and all of the following ballot proposals in the state of California. Since the passage of proposition 8 is a clear violation of equal protection statues, then that means the rest of the bill of rights and societal norms are up for grabs now. So, let’s get to mending:
- Ban on marriage outright. We all know that 100% of divorces are caused by marriage. Eliminate marriage then the divorce problem in this nation is solved.
- Tax exempt status for churches removed. The first amendment to the US constitution expressly forbids a state sponsored religion. Yet a tax exempt status for religious groups is obviously sponsoring them. In addition, religious groups that have chosen to interject their beliefs in to secular society need to have their tax exempt status removed.
- 100% complete ban on guns. Since the passage of proposition 8 has made the Fourteenth Amendment null and void, I am proposing we make the Second Amendment null and void to. (For those of you who don’t remember high school civics, the 14th amendment is the equal protection clause, the one that ironically lead to Obama getting elected last night).
- Reversal of proposition 8. Nuf said.
- Forced sterilization of all heterosexuals. (Now I’m just on a roll).
The rules for getting a proposition on the ballot in California is drop dead easy. For $200 and between 440,000 and 700,000 signatures you too can have your very own ballot initiative. With a state population of nearly 36.5 million people that works out to needing only 1.9% of the population signing your petition. This gets to the root problem of the initiative process in California. But that’s a different rant.
So this is just my short list of new ballot proposals for the “great” state of California.
Feel free to add to this list as you see fit.
A great injustice was done. It needs to be righted.
Obama wins
Nov 4th
Barack Obama has won the election. 18 months in the making, and we are now finally over with the two-thousand and eight election cycle. Only 45 more days till the two-thousand and twelve election cycle starts.
Barack I congratulate you on your victory and give you permission to sleep in tomorrow. But the day after I fully expect you to make good on the promises and hope that you’ve inspired in to this country.
We have changed. We are moving forward.
I am happy.