Powergrid

Last night, I had some people over to play Powergrid. It's one of the things I will miss about Seattle, I love getting together with this group to play.

Powergrid is a board game by Friedemann Friese and distributed by Rio Grande Games. It is relatively simple game in theory. Buy Power plants, buy resources, power homes. Complexity is introduced by how turn order is determined (turn order is a big deal in this game) and by how power plants are purchased (through auctions).

Despite Jenny's fondness of games, I think she would hate this game because

1. The way we play it, people can take a very long time in there turns and I see Jenny getting impatient
2. I like it, and Jenny hates everything I like.

I hope that I can introduce some of my friends in California to the game because I like playing it and I would hate to not play it again just because I moved a few thousand miles. I've gotten pretty good at it, and I'm to the point where I can actually remember what power plants are what

Wii - Still Hard to Get

Not to make this the Wii-Blog since I talked about it last time, but the other thing I noticed was that it can still be relatively hard to find the Wii. And it isn't just because the Christmas Season started. I've noticed consistently throughout the year that stores do not have any Wii's in stock. How can it be that one year after this console has been released, they still can't keep in on the shelf? I find it really hard to believe that demand is so hi that supply has yet to be able to catch up. Is this a worldwide shortage? Maybe it is only local to Redmond. Anybody else notice this or has it been easy to get a Wii everywhere else?

Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii

I've been keeping my eye out for the Wii version of Guitar Hero III. I enjoyed the Guitar Hero II enough (on the Xbox 360) that I figured I would at least consider buying this game.

Of course, everywhere I go look for the game, they are sold out. I'm having more trouble finding this game than I am getting my Wii in the first place. I did happen to see a bunch of them at a Fry's when it first came out, but I didn't buy it then because I figured I would buy it later when I had more time to play. Little did I know it would be so hard to get later. Maybe it's the must have thing for Christmas.

I don't even want the game all that much. I think it is fun, but not great, and since it's more expensive than a normal game, since you have to buy it with the guitar, I'm more inclined to go buy a game like Super Mario Galaxy. But now I think it's the fact that I can't find it that makes me want it more. How come we always want things we can't have?

Marion Jones' Teammates - No Fair Outcome

Today, the IAFF announced that all results for Marion Jones would be annulled dating back to September 2000. Not only were all the results voided, she has been asked to return all of her prize money (I somehow doubt that will happen)

To exacerbate the situation, they have recommended that her teammates who won a medal along with her in the Olympics, also return their medals.

Now I 100% agree that all Jones' individual result be voided, but what is the fair thing to do for her relay teammates? In all likelihood, they did not know of her drug use, so should they be punished as well?

In the end, I think the only fair thing is to strip them of the medals. Relays are team sports, and the unfortunate reality of team sports is that you either win as a team or you lose as a team. There is no concept of "half the team wins, the other half loses". While that may seem harsh, it is equally unfair to let it stand. What if you were the 2nd place team? Wouldn't you feel cheated out of your gold medal? What if you were the 4th place team and didn't even get a medal?

So what is the fairest thing to do?

Riding the Elevator One Floor

Please, if you have two able legs, nothing to carry, and the stairs is right next to the elevator, please do not ride the elevator up one floor. It greatly annoys those who have multiple flights to go up.

Thank you


I originally wrote this post more than a year ago, as I was aggravated with all the people in my building that insisted on taking the elevator one floor. I wanted to scream at them to ask them if they realized how much they were inconveniencing everyone else, but I never did.

The funny thing about this, is that I would often think about ways that the elevator should really be optimized to shuttle traffic in my building. During the beginning of the day, it would wait on the bottom floor for people since most likely people would want to go up, the opposite would be true at the end of the day. All sorts of optimizations would pop up in my head.

And it actually came up in an interview I had the other day. The guy asked me how I would design an elevator algorithm, and I thought back to all those times I wanted to scream at those people that they were messing up my optimum strategy. Who knew it would pay off? I got a job offer from them.

Brian Cook Traded

Today is one of the happiest days on earth if you are a Laker fan. Today, the Lakers traded Brian Cook and Mo Evans for Trevor Ariza. Brian Cook was by far my least favorite Laker. He was horrible. The picture I put next to the post says it all. It is of Brian Cook "defending" another guy. I put "defending" in quotes because the next time Brian Cook defends someone, it will be his first time. You notice how the other player is going right by Cook and he seems to be jumping out of the way. You aren't imagining it, it is what he is doing.

The guy is horrible, and completely one dimensional, and he isn't even great in that one dimension. If the Lakers really wanted someone to just stand outside the three point line and occasionally hit one, I'm available. I may even be headed back to LA so it would be an easy transition.

They got back a Player in Trevor Ariza that is young, athletic, and a pretty decent defender. Not much of a scorer, but with Kobe Bryant (for now) do you really need someone who is a scorer. No, you need someone who can defend the other teams wing player, which is something I hope Ariza will bring. But for me, it really isn't the point. The Lakers could have traded Brian Cook for a bag of chips, yes a bag of chips, and I still think the Lakers would have gotten the better end of that deal. Talk about overpaid athletes, Cook is just stealing money from whichever team he is playing for.

Permanent Air Filters

Liz bought an air filter. It is supposed to be one of those "permanent" Hepa filters. But that's a big scam. We bought a Honeywell 50150. We bought it mainly because we don't want to be bothered buying new air filters every few months. Because we are both allergic to our cat, and dander is a big issue, we wanted to get a good air filter we could run pretty consistently.

However, this permanent air filter thing is a big scam. You see, while the "air filter" itself is permanent, they have a "pre filter" which is not. So you have to go and buy a new "pre filter" every six months or so.

So while technically they did not lie to me, I feel a little bit mislead.

Lasik update - Four years later

I have been really bad about going to the optometrist to get my eyes check since I have had Lasik. Really you should go every year just to be sure that your eyes are OK. I haven't been to the Optometrist in well over two years, and I was due to go.

Since my insurance was almost up, I decided to just go. Considering MS employees pay absolutely nothing to go to any doctor, you figure I would have done it sooner. Oh well. Turns out, I actually have a slight astigmatism now. I didn't have an astigmatism before Dr. Assil performed Lasik on me. It's small enough that I didn't end up filling my prescription for new eyeglasses, but I probably will as soon as I start a new job and get some insurance again. It only somewhat bothers me at night when I drive, but it's probably worth it for just that.

For the Full story you probably want to follow the following link:

All Lasik Post

Are Designer Jeans Worth It?

Someone found their way to my blog with a search on Google for Diesel Jeans worth it. This points to my post about if I thought the pair of Diesel Jeans I bought and if I thought they were worth the money. People find their way to this site in lots of different ways, the most popular by far being "should college athletes be paid". or "are athletes paid too much?"(quick side comment, I was shocked to see how many comments were on that post. People really do feel passionate about that don't they?) So with all the various reasons why people end up on my blog, why would I even post about this?

Well I just have an obvious weakness for designer jeans. And I'm oddly proud that somehow I made it to the top of the Google rankings for this search. Granted it's pretty specific, and it is basically the title of my post, but still, it was something I felt was pretty cool.

Quick update about the jeans by the way. I actually still own that pair of Diesel jeans, but I honestly don't wear them all that often. I now have several more pairs of designer jeans, but for the most part I don't buy Diesel, and haven't in many years. My favorite brand by far is Seven, and I own several pairs of them. I also did end up buying that $200 pair of Citizen for Humanity jeans. They are great as well, but I think I still prefer the Sevens. I ended up buying so many pairs because it literally has become all I wear. I get tremendous use from them, so in the end it became worth it to pay a little more for something I really like and use all the time.

I think what I like best about it is that I always get my jeans tailored to fit me, so the length is always perfect. I didn't know until my girlfriend pointed it out to me that Nordstrom tailors pants for free if you buy it from them. Ever since I found this out, and got my Jeans tailored by them, I haven't looked back.

By the way, as I finished writing this post, I felt very gay all of the sudden. Excuse me, I have to go kiss my girlfriend now.

More Blogging - Just maybe not here

Over the last two years, my blogging has dramatically tailed off in this blog. Much of that was on purpose, because I really didn't want to be blogging about things at work, and work consumed so much of my life. Now that I quit, I still haven't blogged all that often, but that's because I am starting a little something. Most of the people who actually know me, know what I'm up to, but I'm purposefully not talking about it here simply because I want to keep the two things separate.

I've done that on this blog for a reason. It actually paid off pretty well. You see, in this day and age, you can never really be sure who is going to want to know something about you and what they will do to find it. In my blog before this blog, I started getting an unusually high number of hits on my name, and that just bothered me. Who was searching for me? Why? So I stopped that blog and created this one, and have thus far tried to avoid being linked to this site by people randomly searching for me.

But in a job interview the other day, someone actually told me they "Googled" me. Of course, they didn't really find too many interesting things, but I was glad they didn't end up here. Not that I am ashamed of this site or anything, quite the contrary, but your employer really shouldn't know everything there is to know about you. And since I'm pretty open how I feel about various controversial topics, best to just play it safe.

I will probably, at least for the short term, pick the pace back up with my blogging efforts. It actually will help me in a number of ways with my other project. If you want to know what i'm up to, and just have no idea what I'm talking about, leave a comment or e-mail me. I'd be happy to tell you.

Blockbuster Online - Good Integration

I went to go rent a movie from Blockbuster. As those who follow my blog know, I'm a Total Access member. I actually find the trade-in feature to be very useful, almost more useful than actually getting DVDs in the mail, so I tend to use it a lot.

Today, I traded in my DVD for a movie that was in my Queue. When I went home, and logged in to Blockbuster Online to remove the movie, it prompted me with a message that I had traded in a DVD for a movie in my queue, and displayed that movie for me to remove. I was impressed. It's not often you get really good integration like this,and Blockbuster has done a pretty good job in this respect.

I for one, am a big fan of Total Access as of now, so I would be very weary if I were Netflix.

Back from Cali

I just got back from my California trip. A few things I learned along the way.

1. Driving from Seattle to San Diego takes a REALLY long time
2. It really does rain too much in the Northwest. It was raining all the way down until I hit California, and then clear skies
3. Parking in San Francisco is a nightmare
4. I miss California, but maybe not enough to move back
5. Bringing your pet on the family trip is a real pain in the ass (even though I'm glad I did it)

Overall a good trip. Glad to have gone to the two weddings. Somewhat glad I drove, as it allowed us to take our time back up the coast and see things Like Monterey and Carmel. It made me miss places like In-N-Out and Sammy's. But then it reminded me of things I don't really care for like Traffic. Still, I think we are decided that we will at least look into moving back to California, but it won't be the first choice.

New York Home Prices

I was watching a financial show and they were talking about the housing numbers that came out today. The decline in housing sales is remarkable, but one city continues to buck the trend, Manhattan. They were showing off a condo, 1 bedroom, 1.5 baths going for $1.6 million. This was the typical New York apartment.

The reason I comment on this, is not because I think the price is ridiculous (which I do) but because of what one of the guest on the show said. They basically said that they thought the trend would continue because of Wall Street. You see, people on Wall Street get these big bonuses, and that means they can afford to pay a lot for their houses. Since Wall Street isn't going anywhere, it stands to reason that home prices in Manhattan must stay hi.

Wow, didn't realize that Wall Street was a new phenomenon. I figured it has been around for quite a while, a little over 100 years in its current form. People on the street have been getting insane bonuses for a little over a century, but I guess they were all living in boxes on the side of the road, because how else can you explain the recent insane home prices there?

When it rains, it ...

Causes me to get into an accident. Yes, if you can believe it, I got into an accident yesterday. Of course this is really really bad timing for two reasons.

1. I'm supposed to leave for a trip on Wednesday where I was going to DRIVE down to California.
2. I just became unemployed.

I think the universe must have a really sick sense of humor. I'm actually quite grateful that it didn't end up much worse than it was. I basically did a 360 on the freeway, and hit the side of the road. Lucky for me, I'm perfectly fine, and I didn't hit anyone else. Moreover, my car, cosmetically doesn't look too bad. Unfortunately, I messed up the steering column of my car and it's going to be a lot of money to fix.

Quit my Job

I quit my job this week. Don't have anything else lined up. Just didn't want to work at my current job anymore.

It may sound a little crazy, but I don't think so. I think it's crazy to continue to do a job that you just hate. I could deal with it if it were only a little aggravating, but it was way beyond that. The stress just wasn't worth it.

What am I going to do next? I really don't know. I have one more week of work and then I'm just going to take some time off and really think about what I want to do next. The next job has to stick. I really want the next job to be the job that I stay with for a long time, and presents tremendous opportunties to me.

I'm a little nervous, but excited to. Never done anything like this ...

Debt Free

I don't get to blog very much anymore but had to blog today. Today marks a very significant milestone for me. For the first time in my adult life, I'm 100% debt free. I don't have a single loan that is outstanding. No credit cards, student debt, mortgage payment. Nothing. Not many people can say that.

It's a really great feeling actually. I knew this day was coming soon. It in reality could have come much much sooner as I have, for a really long time, had more cash in my savings account than what I owed in debts. The thing is, it really wasn't all that hard. It was a simple matter of not spending what I didn't have. Despite my above average salary, I lived a below average life. After a while, I just got use to it. It in some ways became addictive. I kept finding ways to save money. I'm probably cheaper now than when I first graduated college, despite the fact I have way more money now.

I don't know how long I will be debt free for. Some day in the not so distant future, I will probably buy a house, and then have a debt that will take me several years to pay off. But for now, I have no financial obligations other than what I spend month to month. People underestimate how valuable it is to be debt free. A lot of possibilities open up when you no longer owe anything to anybody. I could just quit my job and not work for a while. But that would just be plain crazy.

Why the NBA Salary Cap is Stupid

Despite the fact that I'm a big NBA fan, I haven't been paying much attention to the NBA finals. the main reason I haven't been watching (and it appears Lebron isn't either) is that it's boring and utterly predictable. There is no doubt that the Spurs will win the series.

Here is the fundamental problem. The NBA Western Conference is far superior to the Eastern Conference. With the development that both Greg Oden and Kevin Durant are heading West, the situation is looking even more bleak for the east. The salary cap ensures things will be like this for years.

Once upon a time, the NBA decided parity would be a good thing. How did they go about it? The NBA limits how much teams can pay their stars. This means that even if an eastern conference team, say the Knicks, wants to go pay a free agent $20 million/year, they can't, because they are over the cap. What's worse is that if they have made mistakes in the past, and believe me they have, they can't get out from under it for two reasons.

Contracts are guaranteed and count against the cap. This means that if you make a mistake, see Alan Houston, it lingers for the entire length of the contract. This is compared to the NFL who can cut a player who isn't earning their paycheck.

Well at least they can trade their way out of it right? Nope. NBA trade rules are very strict making blockbuster trades very rare. Baseball puts almost no restrictions on trades, meaning that teams like the Rangers can trade a huge contract like Alex Rodriguez and save some money in the process. The NBA doesn't allow teams to send out more salary then they get back.

So you get where we are today. All the good teams in one conference and none of them in the Major markets. The NBA was best when it was dominated by a few great teams like the Lakers, Celtics, and Bulls. The NBA tried to become more like the NFL, where parity works, but they failed to do so because they didn't understand that basketball is not football.

NBA needs to open up movement. If you must keep the cap, that is understandable, but change the rules so that trades become easier to make or teams can get out from under hideous contracts.

When is it not a good time to buy a house

How come Realtors always say it is a good time to buy a house?

House prices across the nation have been on the decline as of late. (By the way, I called the top) and look to be getting worse, not better. However, according to the president of the Realtors, it is a great time to buy.

It’s a good time to buy, in part, because home buyers are not pressured to make quick decisions,” Combs said. “We’re in a window of low interest rates with a plentiful supply homes on the market and flat prices in most areas. First-time buyers now have more power to negotiate with sellers for help on downpayment or closing costs.”

Of course in 2005, when the housing market was roaring the then President of the Realtors said

Low interest rates continue to offer opportunities to first-time buyers - a huge potential market given the generational bulge and who believe that housing is a good investment. They provide a ready market for existing owners wishing to make a trade, so there is strong demand in every sector of the housing market."

So let me get this straight. It's a great time to buy when prices are going up, because you will get all the appreciation, and its a great time to buy when prices are going down, because you will get a great value. Hmm. Is it ever not a good time to buy a house? If it's always a good idea all the time to buy a house, everyone should stop what they are doing and just become land barons. Better yet, real estate agents, I mean, it doesn't look like there are many qualifications (including honesty)

If this just goes to show you that your Real Estate agent is not your friend, I'm not sure what will.

Amazon Recommendations ... Spot On

The other day I was at the library and was looking for a book. Right on my way out, I saw something that caught my eye. It was a book called Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.

I logged into Amazon the next day and at the top they normally recommend you books based on what you bought there. I don't have a huge buying history from Amazon, and most of the stuff I have bought there has been for other people. But right there was there recommendation for that very same book. I was very impressed and decided to give Amazon its due.

Developing Alzheimers?

I was telling my girlfriend a story about how I thought I was a victim of racism when I was in Chicago. Basically, I went into a Walgreens to buy some stuff before getting on the plane back to Seattle. The store clerk was helping the customer in front of me, and I was just kind of looking around the store. She asked, "Can I help you with something?". I said, "No, just waiting to pay for my stuff". And didn't think anything of it.

I proceeded to pay, the bill came out to about $3.00, which I charged to my Amex. She asked me for my billing zip and I told her 08544. She said it wasn't working, and asked me again. I repeated, 08544. She said it didn't work. I was in disbelief, as there is no way my card is getting rejected for $3. But instead of figuring it out, I just paid in cash. Later that hour, I stopped by the gas station to get gas and my card worked just fine.

Like I said, I relayed the story to my girlfriend that night and was sure that the woman was up to something funny. I told the story EXACTLY like I did above. And then it dawned on me (much like it has already on Jenny) when my girlfriend looked at me funny. My zip code is not 08544, and it hasn't been in over 7 years.

Tax programs in Washington

I meant to post this earlier, but I never got around to it. But one thing I kept thinking to myself this tax season. Why on earth can you buy State Tax programs in Washington State. There is no state income tax, yet everywhere I go, I see the version of Turbo Tax State or Tax Cut State on the shelf.

Now, I could understand if it were just a few copies, but we are talking shelves and shelves. Sure, there are people like me, who work partially in another state for the year, who have to file state taxes somewhere else. But otherwise, for 99% of Washingtonians, there is no need to buy the state version of tax software.

Anyone have an explanation?

29

Even though I don't blog nearly as much as I want to, I nevertheless want to blog on my birthday. It gives me a chance to look back each year to see where I was the previous year and kind of take an assessment of where my life has gone.

My last year's blog seems almost prophetic. 28 was indeed a very good and very lucky year. It went by amazingly fast, I can't believe I've been in Seattle for a year, but it's been a good year. As unreal as it sounds, things are even better with my girlfriend. You would think that after almost two years together, we would hit some rough patches or get sick of each other, but I can honestly say that things are better now than they have ever been.

Bandit the Wonder Kitty is also fantastic. I think he misses Smokey at times but he seems to genuinely like being an only child. He is still fat, something I keep meaning to work on, but he is content to just sit on my lap even as I type this.

Job is good although my initial enthusiasm for the job has been tempered somewhat. Microsoft is a great place to work with wonderful benefits and some good opportunities. Like any job, it has its problems. There are times I'm frustrated, there are times I'm very frustrated. But I think back on what life was like before, and well I guess I don't have much to complain about. Do I see this as a permanent stopping point in life. No. But it has made a nice little waypoint

29. My last year to be in my twenties. Just seems odd. Am I where I thought I would be at this age? Probably not. I probably have some catching up to do, but I've been doing that all my life and I relish the opportunity to do it again. So far, I think I've taken the safe road and the road has been good to me. Should I continue to do that or should I use the last few years of my youth to take on some serious risk? The advantages of youth are a real lack of responsibility and the time to make up for anything in your life you screw up. Is it time to do it? If not now, when?

Smallville: Jumping the Shark

Last night, Smallville officially jumped the shark. In truth, the show probably jumped a while ago, but I stuck around because I'm a big fan of the Superman mythos. They kept it interesting this year by having a lot of the plot revolve around other Justice League members. Their take on it was pretty interesting.

But last night was just awful. The plot was pathetically predictable and reeked of desperation. At every point in the show I knew exactly what was going to happen next because it kept playing out as a bad soap opera plot. And sure enough, it ended with a fantastic thud. Seriously, what's going on with the show? Why on earth can't Clark fly yet? Where are the glasses? Lana Lang marries Lex?

Oh well, one less show I have to watch. Guess it's just Heroes now.

Costco Changes Its Policy

Costco has made a decision to change it's return policy on certain electronics. Most noticeably this affects people who buy televisions and other high priced electronics at Costco.

For those that don't know, Costco has always had a 100% satisfaction guarantee. This meant that at any time in the lifetime of a product, if you weren't happy with it, you could return it. This meant that if for any reason, say the TV just stopped working, you could return it back to Costco and they would refund the money back to you.

Of course, this policy is going to be abused by some people. You can see how easily it can be abused. I can buy a Plasma TV today and then 5 years later decide I want a new TV, return it, get my money back, and then buy another TV.

Of course, most people are probably not this unscrupulous. This is clearly one of those times that a few bad people ruin it for everybody else. I was seriously considering buying a new TV from Costco. I had in fact been visiting the store a lot recently checking out the TVs that they have. The biggest reason I wanted to buy from them was the safety net it would provide in case something did indeed go wrong. I would of course not abuse the system, I wouldn't return the TV just to get a new one, but I would return it if indeed it broke. Now that Costco has changed the policy, I will probably be looking elsewhere for a TV.

I totally get why Costco had to change the policy. But I also think they could have done something to mitigate the whole problem. If it were me, I probably would have amended the policy rather than completely revoke it. They could have been creative and say give you one return of $500 or more during the life of the product. This would limit their losses from people who are really abusing the policy, but still service the people like myself who would truly benefit and not abuse the system.

Bumper Sticker.

I was driving around today and saw a "I Love My Wife" bumper sticker.

Why on earth would anyone actually put this on their car? Nothing good can be implied from the sticker. If the guy put it on his car of his own free will that's just pretty pathetic. If his wife made him put it on, you know that marriage can't be headed for success. If its supposed to be a joke, it isn't particularly funny.

Capping Executive Pay

I was watching TV when the topic of executive pay came up.

There is a provision in the minimum wage bill before congress about effectively capping executive pay by taxing it. Now I admittedly don't know the full details of how they will try to limit executive pay, it seems they want to eliminate some loopholes in the tax code, but this post is not about the details.

The person who was arguing for caps on executive pay gave the usual rhetoric of how it isn't fair that CEOs make so much money, but I loved his reasoning of why government should do anything about it. He made the argument that it is government's responsibility to do something because they subsidize these corporations and rich people by making a tax code that essentially allows them to not pay taxes.

Oh, I see. So let's try and fix the loopholes, which are caused by adding more and more rules to an overly complex tax code, by adding more rules. It's like trying to dig yourself out of a hole. It's just simpler never to get in the hole in the first place.

Wii: Finally Got One

I had the day off this morning. I still got up at about my regular time and did my normal routine. I turned on the computer, and just to check I went to this site. And lo and behold there were Wii's available in my neighborhood.

I had seen some Wii's available in some other neighborhoods over the last few days, but like I said earlier, I had no intention of going out of my way to get one. So I got dressed and went down to the local Target. I had been following the Wii's availability all over the country using the above site. Not really because I wanted to get one, but more out of curiousity for how well Nintendo is doing. By following it I know when there are Wii's available they usually don't last very long. Lucky for me, I must have been one of the first ones there (nobody knows when these shipments normally drop, last time it was announced but it was a special circumstance). So I paid my money, and now I'm a proud owner of a Wii. Haven't played yet, but I'll update at some point with my thoughts.

I am very interested on how quickly my local Target sells out. I'll probably keep checking today and tomorrow to see if the shipment I was able to get one from sells out quickly.

Double Coupons in Washington

It may seem silly for someone like me, but I clip coupons. Why not? It doesn't take very long and I might as well save money on things I would buy anyway. I didn't always clip coupons, I used to be embarrassed that people would think I was poor or something. Ironically, it's when I started actually having money, and stopped caring what people thought, that I got over it and started clipping and using coupons.

I don't quite understand this, but nowhere in Washington state can you find a store that has double coupons. It confuses me because everywhere in California has it, but nowhere in the state of Washington can you find a place that doubles coupons. I've even looked online to see if it was just the Seattle area, but it seems pretty clear that nowhere in the state of Washington does this. I really wish I could find out why. Double coupons can be a great thing, you can actually end up with some items for free. But alas, its just not possible here in Washington.

If anyone finds a store in Washington that doubles coupons, please leave a comment.

Trying to get a Wii

Nintendo must be very pleased. Sony must be very sad.

So I had heard rumblings that Target stores, as well as Best Buy and Circuit City, would have some Nintendo Wii's today. They had it advertised in their weekly circular and there had been some post on various web sites.

Now I want to get a Wii. I prefer to get one over a PS3, which I think cost too much and doesn't offer anything compelling to me, or even an Xbox 360 which I should have an obvious bias towards (I will probably get a 360 if and when they cut the price). Even though I want to get a Wii, I will not go out of my way to get one. I definitely don't plan on waiting in line or fighting with my fellow consumers.

But I figure that its over two months since launch and that the Christmas season has passed so if I went early enough I would probably get one. Target opens up at 8:00. I showed up at about 8:45, and there were none left. The cashier told me there was a line when the store opened and that they had already sold out. Sold out in 45 minutes. Of course, sitting in plain sight were some PS3s, much like I observed before at Best Buy.

Sony has to be worried. It seems clear to me they are going to lose this round of the game wars. Microsoft has already sold 10 million units, that's a pretty big head start. With Xbox Live, they have, in my mind, many more compelling features than PS3 (since I have ZERO interest in a Blu-Ray player). Nintendo seems poised to take the 2nd position, and very likely might be able to catch Microsoft.

Barack

Today, Barack Obama announced he will be running for President. Unlike some people I know, I meet his announcement with mixed emotions.

I was very impressed with Obama's delivery when he gave his Keynote speech at the Democratic National convention. Notice the key word, "delivery". One of the things I look for in a Presidential Candidate is if they have a floor presence. I want someone who exudes confidence and inspires confidence in others. Barack definitely seems to have the quality.

But that being said, while I was impressed with the delivery of the speech itself, some of its contents worried me. Particularly one line.

It is that fundamental belief: I am my brother’s keeper. I am my sister’s keeper that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family.

I am very much against the notion that I am my brother's keeper. I am very much against the idea that our economy works when we are obligated to help our fellow man. The idea that you are your brother's keeper is the very notion that makes Socialism fail. Yes, its selfish, but selfishness makes a free economy work. Not only does it work for people at the top, it works for people at the bottom. When I hear quotes like the one above, only one thing crosses my mind

"come together" = Higher taxes for all

And we all know how I feel about higher taxes. I haven't made up my mind yet about Barack. I definitely have no idea who I'm going to vote for in 2008. I guess we will just have to see how the next two years unfold.

Sony PS3 Availability

I was talking to a co-worker a few days ago and he was talking about how they had PS3s in a huge stack at Fry's. That kind of surprised me as I would still think the PS3 would be selling out. I then saw it for myself when I went to Best Buy, a stack of about 50 PS3s just sitting there.

I can't imagine that supply has finally caught up. The main reason I went there was to look to see if they had a Wii. I plan on getting a Wii, but have no interest in the PS3. No Wii, plenty of PS3s. Now you can't tell me that Sony can currently out produce Nintendo, so the only reason that I can't get a Wii and I can get a PS3 is that Demand for the Wii far outstrips the PS3.

I figured I was in the minority in this one. But I guess there are more people like me who think the Wii's playability and $250 price tag trumps the PS3's supposedly amazing graphics and $600 price tag. If this is true throughout the country, Sony is going to be seriously hurting.

Ohio Wine?

The bet between the Florida Governor and the Ohio Governor over the College Football championship game is that the Florida governor will send Florida Citrus if Ohio wins and the Ohio Governor will send Ohio wind and Chocolates if Florida wins.

Here is the thing. Who knew that Ohio even made wine? That just sounds odd to me. I've heard of French Wine, California Wine, Washington Wine, and even Argentinian wine. But Ohio wine? Who knew? Maybe tires or machine tools or something like that. But Wine?

Life without Power

Ever wonder what life would be like without Electricity? I got to find out first hand what it would be like this weekend. Seattle had a REALLY bad storm Thursday night. Winds reached 60-70 MPH in some places.

When I woke up on Friday, there wasn't any power. I still got up and decided to go to work. As I drove out to the street, I was greeted with non-functioning traffic lights and fallen trees and branches all over the street. This wasn't just some isolated street, EVERY street was like this.

I soon found out that Microsoft was afflicted with the same problem. But it wasn't just Redmond, it was most of the Puget Sound. Literally millions without power, and they had no idea how long it would take. I spent the night in the dark (and remember it gets dark early in Seattle) staring at my girlfriend while we sat close to the fireplace (had to use the fireplace, had no heat otherwise). It was crazy.

The aftermath is even stranger. We got electricity sometime early on Saturday morning. But it seems that most of the area doesn't have it, Redmond is one of the few cities with power. We spent the morning throwing out everything in the fridge, and then looking for a place to get some food. But Redmond is crazy. There are really long lines for everything. Most of the restaurants are packed, and the gas lines are crazy. Literally 50 cars deep at every gas station.
Most of these people are probably from the surrounding cities. The busiest place (besides the gas stations) was the library. There wasn't an empty seat in the place, and every outlet had something plugged into it, mostly cell phones. 2nd on the list? The Liquor store. I couldn't believe how many people were waiting to buy some alcohol. I guess if you have nothing to do, you might as well drink yourself silly.

I don't ever want to experience this again, I like modern life. Life without electricity is tough. Seriously, what's wrong with this city? First the crazy snow storm, and now this. Wonder how fast I can pack up and move back to L.A.

Blockbuster Total Access

Even though I've had my problems with Blockbuster, and swore them off, I decided to try them out one more time as I think the Total Access Plan is pretty compelling. In short, it works like Netflix, but I can go in and exchange my DVDs in store. I get a free in-store rental, and they ship the next DVD right away. In theory, you can get almost double the regular number of DVDs.

So far so good. It works without a hitch. The nice thing is that it is generally easier to get new DVDs from the store than online so you can use your in-store rentals to get the harder to get new releases and the online portion for everything else.

And now this. Blockbuster is opening up Total Access to all Netflix Customers. No need to sign up for Blockbuster Online, just need to have a Blockbuster in-store account. Pretty clever marketing ploy if you ask me.

First Snow

Today there was snow in Seattle. I haven't experienced snow in over 5 years, ever since I left NYC. While I think the virgin snow on the ground and trees is quite beautiful, I definitely don't miss walking through the sludge and the ice.

What's funny is how different your perspective can be if it is your first experience. My girlfriend lived in Southern California all her life, so she never has really experienced snowfall like this. She really seemed to enjoy it ... that was until this morning.

She woke me up this morning asking for the password to my work computer. I was groggy, so I didn't know why on earth she was asking for it. Was she a corporate spy? Was she going to try and hack in to commit corporate espionage and steal all of my company's secrets? I asked her why on earth she needed to know and she explained she needed to e-mail work because she couldn't make it in (our home computer doesn't work with her company's webmail). She then informed me that my company's campus was closed for the day. That got my attention and I got up to see what was going on.

It turns out that Seattle can't deal with snow very well. I guess it doesn't happen often enough for them to have good infrastructure to deal with it. When I was in NY and NJ, I would expect the streets to be clear and salted down by the morning. It was perfect safe to drive, as the streets were cleared well before it was time to go to work. Not the case in Redmond.

I even tried to get into work in the afternoon, expecting most of the ice to be clear off of the roads. Still not. At one point, on a hill, I hit the gas and my tires spun for a few seconds before they gripped and allowed me to move on.

Priced Out Forever

I had a conversation with someone the other day about housing. The person was describing to me why they wanted to buy a house. Part of the argument was that housing always goes up (which is wrong, and recent statistics bear that out) and that if they didn't buy now they would soon be priced out.

Now let's just look at the logic of that statement. There is little argument here that housing is quite expensive and out of the reach of many people. In the more popular areas in the country, house prices start in the 30oK - 400K range, which, by traditional measures, should require a six-figure income.

So if housing is that expensive, and housing always goes up, then logic would dictate that if you can barely afford it now, you better get in before its too late. But does that actually make any sense? Of course not. Just imagine what the world would be like if it were true.

Say that at some point housing becomes so expensive that all people who earn less than $50,000 (Slightly above the national Household average) are permanently priced out of the market and all people who can and want to buy have bought a house. Now someone who owns a starter home has a growing family and wants to move up, who do they sell the house to? By definition, they can't sell it to a family who is looking to own rather than rent. They can only sell to people who have previously owned a home. But people in general don't downgrade their home, so they have to sell to someone who is moving laterally (like someone moving into the city). So all that we get is stagnation, people just keep swapping houses, and nobody can move up because there is nobody below to sell to.

This of course implies that the supply of housing stays constant, which it isn't. It can be disproved by looking outside at all the cranes building high-rise condominiums or the construction crews putting up new housing tracts. I also highly doubt that home builders such as KB and Toll brothers plan on shutting their doors. New homes will be constructed, and these homes are going to have to be purchased by someone.

This is the key observation. All bubbles eventually end because supply catches up and surpasses demand. They don't end form a lack of demand. Builders willl see that there is an underserved market, this very large segment consisting of young middle class families, and cater to them by making affordable housing. It is next to impossible that you ever become "priced out forever" for an asset as common as housing.

Higher than Normal My Ass

In the last few days, I've had to contact my cable provider, Comcast, to try and resolve an issue. Each time I contact them, whether it be through Chat or though Phone, I'm told each time that the wait time is longer because they are "experiencing higher than normal traffic"

I've probably contacted them six or seven times in a three day stretch and very different hours of the day ranging from early in the morning to very late at night. I find it very hard to believe that it is just a coincidence that each time I call is the time where suddenly traffic is higher than normal which can only lead me to believe that Comcast is full of it. If your "higher than normal" is happening all the time, that is your normal. Quit lying to me and just tell me that you don't care how long I wait on the phone.

Portland: My Take

My Girlfriend and I went to Portland a few weeks ago. I have to say that I wasn't very impressed. It is probably the last time I make a special effort to go down there. It wasn't like the city is a horrible place to be, it just wasn't particularly worth a trip. I was glad to go once, but wouldn't go back again.

The best thing about the city was that it was in Oregon, and therefore had no sales tax. Even though I would probably advocate replacing our income tax with a national sales tax, it was still nice to do some tax-free shopping. It was especially nice to have tax free dining since Seattle has an even higher tax on dining out than the normal sales tax.

So what didn't I like about the city? Again, it wasn't any one thing. I didn't like that the city wasn't particularly clean. Many of the buildings seemed kind of run down or old. Even the hotel we stayed at, which is supposed to be one of the nicest in Portland, the Governor, seemed kind of old. Besides that, there wasn't many things to do except to go shopping and there weren't any real sites that you had to go see. The pickings for restaurants was pretty bad as my girlfriend and I couldn't find a decent non-chain restaurant.

The other thing I didn't like about the city is that I didn't feel particularly safe. We walked around at night trying to find something to do (more on that later), and went through some neighborhoods that I didn't feel particularly comfortable walking through. It's like that in most big cities I've been in (with the exception ironically of NYC) so maybe I shouldn't be too hard on Portland.

And then finally, if you don't want to go to a strip club (there were an inordinate amount in Portland) or go tax-free shopping, there wasn't a lot of interesting things to do. Most major cities have something you have to go do or see. Didn't feel that way about Portland.

So overall, it was a disappointment. Glad to cross it off my list, don't think I'll be heading back.

That's Why It's Called a Beta!

During the last week I have had two different people come talk to me about my product. Both of them work for my company so they should both understand the meaning of the word "Beta". I guess the operative word is "should".

In both cases, the individual came to tell me how crappy my product is. In each case they were dealing with Beta software. Now I could take constructive criticism. It is after all a beta and it is used to solict feedback. But in both cases, the individual responded with great indignation and anger that the product didn't work the way that it should.

Seriously folks. If you don't want to be inconveinenced, don't use a BETA product!

Individuals are Smart; Groups are Stupid

I was at my work's product fair where some of the groups show off the latest stuff they are working on. At these types of things, like trade shows, groups often give out free stuff like pens, stress relievers, or the ever-coveted shirt.

There was a booth next to mine that was giving out free shirts so I decided to try and get one. BIG MISTAKE. The following is not an exaggeration.

I got in the back of a large crowd waiting to get shirts. I figured it would be orderly since I work at a company where people in general are smart and respectful. As I wanted people who got behind me started to push me. Soon, pushing turned into shoving as people were swarming to get the free shirt. Several of the people in the crowd (I should refer to them as a mob) already had SEVERAL shirts but were trying to get more. The guy next to me, screaming, "I want a shirt" even though he already had one, tried to grab a shirt out of another guy's hand.

I couldn't believe what was going on so I simply turned around and left. These are people with very good jobs, making very good money, fighting over a $5 shirt. Not just fighting over it, but being VERY rude to their fellow coworkers over it. Unbelieveable. Just goes to show you what happens when people get into large groups and the word "free" is being used.

Paintball

I played paintball with my team from work. I have to say it was pretty fun. It was pretty tiring, and pretty intense, but overall I really liked the action and the strategy that was involved. The only thing that really needed to be improved was the fact that my mask kept fogging up making you blind on the field (you are not allowed to take off your mask during play). If you could just make sure your mask didn't fog, you would have a huge advantage.

Now that I'm home and got to shower up one thing really sticks out, all the bruises I got. Everywhere where I got shot there is a pretty sizable and dark bruise. Since I don't play very often (or ever) I don't have the gear that most people probably have to prevent such bruises.

All in all, even with the bruises, I would still go play again.

Old Alumni

I got an e-mail this weekend that made me feel quite old. It was sent to Princeton Alumni in Southern California (I'm still on the distribution list) and it read,

we encourage all young alumni (2001-2006) and undergraduates to come

Considering that I'm just outside that range, I have to admit, I felt a little old that I'm no longer considered a "young alumni". I mean, when the heck did that happen?

Negotiating a Better Salary

I wonder how common it is to negotiate a better salary? I wonder because I always do but it seems to me that most people don't. I feel like that is just like leaving money on the table.

My girlfriend recently got a job offer. She was happy to take it for what they offered, but I convinced her to ask for more; I mean the worse that would happen was that they said no. So after making a counter-offer, they counter-offered back, and she accepted. She ended up getting a little bit more money then they offered, but not quite what she wanted.

I have always done the same thing. I have never taken the first offer that somebody gave me. They always say, "Our first offer is normally our best offer" but that's a load of crap. If that is true, how come each time I've tried to renegotiate I got more money?

Maybe I'm fortunate. Maybe I'm just so super-special that people just want to throw more money at me. I'm curious if people have had any experiences where they asked for more money, and they didn't get at least a little bit more.

Working with Unfinished Wood

This weekend, I learned why furniture is so expensive. I use to always think they were ripping you off, now I'm not so sure.

I bought a piece of unfinished furniture last week. It was a dresser drawer. I have dark wood in my bedroom so finding furniture that looks good, matches, and is inexpensive is a real challenge. I decided that I would buy an unfinished piece and stain it myself and therefore save some money. I like working with my hands so figured it would be a fun project as well.

Let me tell you, it really isn't all that easy and can take a great deal of time. It is also messy and you have to deal with the cleanup after you are done. If you factor in all the time and materials above and beyond the actual piece of furniture, I can definitely see why furniture can be so expensive.

Too Busy - Nothing to Say

You know work is working you too hard when it can keep someone as loquacious as I am from having anything intelligent to say about anything. I might have something smart to say if we discussed say software development, but that's about it.

Ben Roethlisberger's Motorcycle Accident

The last few days have seen an explosion in hits from Google for Kevin Winslow. It seems that I'm the most relevant result for what most people are looking for, the Cleveland Browns tight end, not some reproductive endocrinologist.

The reason this search has become so popular lately is that Ben Roethlisberger, quarterback for the Superbowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers, was in a motorcycle accident much like Kevin Winslow had one year ago. I still contend, how stupid do you have to be to get on a motorcycle when you make MILLIONS based on your ability to be in top physical condition.

I'm glad that Ben is OK. He has some injuries but it doesn't look too serious. He is VERY fortunate to not be dead considering he wasn't wearing a helmet. And even though I like Ben much more than I like Kevin Winslow, I won't shed a tear if he doesn't play in another NFL game (his injuries do not look serious enough to even keep him out this year). We all make choices in life and Ben's choice was to get on that bike without a helmet. Just explain to me why getting on a bike is worth potentially losing millions of dollars for a job most would be willing to do for free.

Soda Machine Instructions

One of the benefits for working at my company is that they give free soda. In most buildings this is accomplished by having large refrigerators with sliding glass doors where you can just reach in and get sodas.

However, in one instance, there is a building that has a soda machine. The soda machine does not take any money so you simply have to push a button and a free soda is dispensed. However, on this machine there are actually instructions on what to do. They are verbatim:

Instructions for Free Soda:

• Select and push button of desired soda
• Allow soda to drop
• Reach in and remove soda from machine
• Please remove 1 soda from machine

Now I work with supposedly some of the best and brightest people in the world. Are these instructions really necessary?

It Pays to be Nice to People

My girlfriend really likes watching the show Top Chef. I don't particularly like reality type shows or shows about food but sinse she likes it, I tend to watch it with her.

This year, the final came down to two chefs, Tiffany and Harold. Both were really good chefs and prepared in my mind excellent final meals. However, in the end Harold won.

During the final competition, the judges liked that Tiffany really took some chances by preparing 10 courses, 2 menus of a 5 course meal, rather than just the 5 that were asked for. However, in the end she lost to Harold, who probably had the better overall meal but didn't take the chances that Tiffany did.

But really in the end I was glad Tiffany lost. She was, plain and simple, a bitch. I don't understand why people feel a need to be mean in order to get what they want. Throughout the series, she would yell at people in the kitchen. She took the attitude of, "I'm goign to win and damn everyone else in my way." It was as if in her mind, she could only succeed if everyone else failed.

Harold was ultra-competitive too but let his skill shine over others rather than try to diminish the competition. The final competition had the 4 runner-ups choose who they wanted to help between Harold and Tiffany. It was clear that they probably would have all prefered to work with Harold and in the end, all four told the judges they thought Harold should win Top Chef. Though I'm sure the two who helped Tiffany were professional, they probably did not put the same effort that the two who were helping Harold.

I just don't understand why people feel a need to be mean to others. What purpose does it really serve? It really isn't any harder to be nice to people. I don't feel that my life is any more difficult because I try to be nice to people. There are times I can't be friendly simply because the situation doesn't dictate it. But in 95% of situations, it isn't any harder to just be nice. I'm just glad that finally it paid off for someone to be nice.

Changes at Microsoft: A New Employee Perspective

I'm a relatively new Microsoft employee. I've only been with the company for a few months, so I have a limited perspective about the changes that have recently been announced. For those who don't work at Microsoft, Microsoft has started an initiative to address the very serious problem of employee retention. It seems there are many Microsoft employees who have been unhappy with the current setup. A summary can be found at Mini-Microsoft. For those who are not associated with Microsoft here are the highlights.

• The Curve is gone (sort of) - Microsoft had this system where you were graded on a curve from 2.5 to 5.0. Managers were forced to rank people and could only give out so many 5.0, 4.5, etc. That meant that if you were on a really strong team, and worked your ass off, you might still only be judged a 3.0 or slightly worse than average. This affected your compensation and bonuses.
• More stock awards - Microsoft announced they will give out more stock awards to the very best performers. Stock bonuses are still based on a curve which will have a forced distribution. This is why the curve is only sort of gone.
• Towels are back - I'm new so I never missed them but this got a lot of applause at the town hall meeting. I don't get what the big deal is about towels but I suppose it is symbolic of how Microsoft was screwing employees by taking away benefits. It is one of those small things that have an unproportinal negative reaction.
• More workplace benefits – Microsoft has added even more workplace services like longer cafeteria hours, dry cleaning, and grocery delivery (all services employees must pay for)

There are a few more initiatives but this captures the highlights and the things that seem to be getting the most attention from Microsoft employees.

So here is my take as a new Microsoft employee.

The Curve is the most controversial thing at Microsoft. People hated it. I don’t necessarily have a problem with it. I think employees need to be differentiated. Not everyone can be a top performer. It’s just not possible. That being said, I think its silly that you have to tie someone’s review score to some forced distribution. If you really are a good contributor on a great team, you should not be penalized against someone who is a OK performer on a really weak team. Further the idea that your score follows you for the lifetime of your Microsoft employment seems a little ridiculous in my mind. I could understand if your most recent review score had an impact on your current one but the idea that you have some sort of Lifetime average seems wrong in my mind. This is coming from a guy who has always historically done very well in his career and had the intention of always being ranked among the best.

However the curve is not gone, and I don’t believe it should be. Stock bonuses are still going to be distributed on a forced distribution with the very best getting the best rewards. I know some people hate this idea but quite frankly those are the people who you might not want to work with anyway. Look, you have to pay top performers more money. Top performers drive a company. If you don’t pay them, someone else will, and then you get a company full of good but not great employees. But even that will cause the only good people to leave as they are now the ones who bear the burden of work but don’t reap the rewards. If I do not end up being one of the top performers who get the most rewards so be it. I don’t care what the reason. People complain that the rewards simply fall to not the best workers, but the workers who are best at kissing ass. So be it. If this happens to me, I will simply leave the company. I would refuse to work at a company who is going to reward kissing ass over my hard work.

A loud complaint is that base compensation was not discussed and there seems to be no plan in the works to increase this. My reaction, tough. The comment I hate the most is “I could get x% more working at Google.” My response is, why don’t you go work for Google then? First off, most of the people complaining probably couldn’t get a job at Google, if they could they would jump ship immediately. And even if they could, they probably would not get the pay increase they would expect. But seriously, why complain about it? We live in a free society. If you can get more money somewhere else, there must be a reason for you to stay at Microsoft. Microsoft can’t force you to stay. I don’t care what the reason is. I don’t care if it’s a personal reason like you can’t leave the Seattle area for whatever reason. There clearly is not incentive enough for you to change your job, and that choice is solely yours. So quit complaining about it.

And the towels. I just don’t get it. I don’t get why it was ever a big deal. It is one of the first rules of benefits at a company. Don’t start a benefit if you think you may have to someday take it away. Why? People love to bitch about how things use to be and complain very loudly when even the smallest benefit is taken away.

Let me give all MS employees some perspective. We work at one of the best companies in the world. If you took the average compensation of all MS employees, it would have to be among the highest in the world. We get so many benefits, I don’t even know where to begin. The health plan is ridiculously comprehensive. The work schedule is extremely flexible. We get discounts on products we actually want to use. Free gym membership. Free soda. Free bus pass. The list seriously goes on and on. How can I say this? Because I’ve worked at other places. I’ve seen what is on the other side and believe me, the grass is not always greener. I worked four years at my last company and didn’t get half the benefits I do today. A worse health plan, no stock awards, no discounts. I was even lucky to get a free lunch once a year, and I was a manager with a budget! Compensation? That was a joke. I was one of the lucky ones that got a raise during my tenure there and that was because I got a huge promotion.

I seriously think that people that those that are the most dissatisfied working at Microsoft should go find another job. I am not saying that to be mean. I hope that if you do leave (and you are a top performer) you come back to Microsoft some day. You just need to get some perspective.

I’m not saying Microsoft is perfect. Even in my short time here, I’ve realized that there are some serious problems that should probably be addressed. I hope to help be part of the change that revitalizes this company and turns it around. But the notion that somehow, Microsoft does not do right by its employees is just plain wrong. If you think otherwise, I know Google is hiring.

For Whom Are Rising Home Prices Good For?

It's funny to me that you hear so much talk from ordinary people about how great it is that their home is appreciating. I have never really understood this mentality from people when it comes to their primary residence. Why? Because rising home prices only benefit two classes of people who plan on living in their home.

1. People who need to take out a loan on their house to cover cost that they would otherwise incur anyway.

If you need to take out a home equity loan to cover cost that you would have incurred without the house, than this may be of some advantage to you. You will be able to cover the cost of that expense and have a relatively low interest payment which may (but most likely is not) tax deductible). However. If you use the loan to actually increase your consumption more than you normally would, this is not advantageous to you. This includes things like buying a new car, remodeling your house, etc. Regardless if you get to deduct the interest, YOU ARE STILL PAYING INTEREST! I swear, I don't know any other part of life where people get excited to save $0.25 by spending a $1.00.

2. People who sell their house and rent

Everybody else loses. If you sell your house to buy another house, you are gaining nothing and in all likelihood lose because you are paying higher fees (commissions) due to higher prices. The house you are buying in all likelihood appreciated too and probably appreciated more so since most people trade up. In fact, rising home prices may very well hurt you because you are going to pay more in property tax. Your house will be assessed at the higher value and you will pay more in tax. You didn't actually become wealthier, so you are for all practical purposes worse off.

If you are a first time home buyer it is pretty obvious that you are getting screwed.

Otherwise, if you own your home and plan to live in it, like most Americans, price appreciation does nothing for you. It may make you warm and fuzzy at night thinking about all those mythical gains, but until you sell your home and actually don't buy another, rising prices don't help you one bit.

Note: This is not necessarily a rhetorical question. If you can think of an instance where someone who plans on living in their house actually benefits from price appreciation other than the above, I would love to know. I've been really trying to think of a scenario.

The Gas Rebate

In what might be one of the most asinine things I have heard of in the last few weeks, Republicans want to give $100 rebates to people so they can buy gas. Seriously. Who are these Republicans? Republicans are supposed to be about reducing the role of government (not that they really ever do that, but they are supposed to). Now they want to do this "wealth transfer" between oil companies and consumers.

The plan would work by giving as a one-time rebate to each taxpayer of $100. Of course nothing comes for free, the plan would cost an estimated $10 billion. To pay for this, gas companies would be taxed on their oil reserves.

People. Think About It. This idea makes no sense. It makes about as much sense as having a "windfall" tax on oil companies. There is NO way to be sure who pays the burden of a tax. Just because someone writes a check for the tax does not mean he actually bears the burden. Faced with this additional cost of a tax, what do you think the oil companies would do? Do you really thnk they will just sit there and let their profits take a hit? We have seen quite conclusively that consumers are willing to pay whatever is necessary to drive their cars. Is it really hard to imagine that oil companies will pass on the cost of the tax to the consumer? What makes it worse is that it might actually cost the consumers MORE than they get in the rebate when you factor in overhead cost and the like.

Any plan to try and help consumers at the pump is a political show. They only thing that will work is for either oil companies to somehow increase the amount of oil they are finding and producing or for consumers to demand less gasoline. Anything else is just an accounting trick.

What will $32 Billion Buy?

On Friday, Microsoft's stock price dropped over 11%. For a company the size of Microsoft, that is a significant drop. It amounts to almost $32 billion dollars that just evaporated from shareholders pockets, IN ONE DAY! To put that in context here is a quick list of what $32 billion can buy you

• All of Starbucks
• The GDP of Oman (or any of about 2/3 of the world's countries)
  
• 170,000 SL65 AMG Mercedes Roadsters
• 20 million three stone Tiffany engagement rings
• 246 Million Pairs of Kobe Sneakers
• 640 Million Ruth Chris Steaks
  
• 32 Billion Ipod Songs (30x more than have been sold to date)

Needless to say, its a lot of money

Your Mortgage Deduction - How you really Lose

I touched on this in my tax rant so let me clarify something a little bit because people don't always really understand this point.

The middle class loves the mortgage deduction. They think its a great deal because they end up saving so much on their taxes.

I'm not here to debate that an individual doesn't on the surface save on their taxes because of the mortgage deduction but people don't realize that their mortgage deduction may actually cost them more than they save in the big picture. A recent study released shows that the top 2.2% of tax returns claim 22% of the benefits.

Think about it. The richest people benefit the most. They have larger mortgages thus more to deduct. They are in a higher tax bracket therefore save more with each deduction. The problem is compounded further because most middle-class Americans DO NOT receive the full value of the deduction!

Let me say that again because most people don't get it. Most middle-class Americans DO NOT receive the full value of the deduction! To achieve full value of the deduction, you must have OTHER deductions totaling more than the standard deduction. The standard deduction for 2005 is $5000. $10000 for married couples. Do you know many people who have $5,000 of itemized deductions? Believe me, most do not. So until you breach the $5,000 mark, your deductions are meaningless; you are better off taking the standard deduction. Even if your mortgage interest (Only mortgage interest is deductible. You wouldn't believe how many people believe the entire payment is deductible) is say $10,000 this year, you don't just lop off $10,000 from your taxable income, you may be able to deduct only $8,000 of that. If you are in the 25% tax bracket you just saved $2,050. Not a small sum but not huge either considering $10,000 in mortgage interest.

Now think about the rich. They easily have $5,000 in deductions from other sources. State taxes alone probably account for this sum. Add on investment expenses, charitable contributions, and business expenses and most of the rich have no problem breaking the standard deduction barrier BEFORE their mortgage interest deduction. They have a bigger house, and larger mortgage, so let's say they spend $50,000 in mortgage interest. They get to deduct this amount fully from their income and at a higher rate, 35%. They save $17,500 from this deduction. Compared with $2,500 for the middle-class person with the smaller mortgage. They benefit 7x more from the deduction and they don't even "need" it!

All the money they don't pay has to come from somewhere. Every dollar they are able to avoid comes from someone else's pocket. That pocket is yours.

This is why I don't like government. People are so worried about their own individual problem that they don't see the bigger problem. If the government were to repeal the mortgage interest deduction (which I would love to see but don't think they should because of the inherent unfairness) those protesting the loudest would be those who are most hurt by the deduction itself. They make you think you are getting a great deal when in the end, you are the one carrying the largest burden.

If I Were a Despot

If I were to create the most onerous Tax code I could this is how I would do it.

1. I would make sure you couldn't escape it.

What is the point of collecting taxes if you can escape the tax.? Taxing cigarettes and booze is silly because if you want, you can not use those products. However, If I tax income, there is pretty much no way out of it. You have to earn money to live and if I tax your income you have very little way to avoid paying my tax, unless you were already wealthy and no longer had to earn income.

2. I would make sure you paid it even if you died

Nothing as certain as death and taxes right? I'm going to make sure taxes are even more certain. When you die, I am going to tax your estate. You are dead, you won't need the money. Leaving it to your heirs? Please, everything you have is mine.

3. I would make sure you paid it on income you didn't even really "earn"

I don't care what form of "income" you have. If someone gives you a gift, I'm going to tax it. If you win a new car, that is making you better off (and is therefore income) so I'm going to tax that too.

4. I would make sure you didn't know how much you were paying

Before you even get your paycheck, I'm going to take my share of it. Knowing human nature, I know if you never see it you won't realize how much in taxes you are paying. Further, I'm going to tax other things like Corporate income and the like. You won't ever directly see the cost of this since this will only raise the price you pay for goods. Ingenious!

5. I would make sure the burden would be placed directly on you to comply with my plan

My tax plan probably needs to be really complex to make all of this work and make sure I can extract all the money I can from you. But no way do I want to take the time to figure out what you owe me; I'll leave that up to you. Therefore I'll pick a date, say April 15th (or maybe the 17th if the 15th is on a Saturday), that you will be responsible for figuring out how much money you should have given me. If you should have given me less, I'll give you some money back (interest free of course). However if you screw up you will get stiff penalties and I will force you to pay me that and the taxes you owe me (with interest).

6. I would make sure it was so horribly complex you would never understand it

If you actually are able to understand how to comply I might not get all the money I need from you and you may find ways to pay less. Further, the more complex I make it the easier it will be for me to change it and get more money from you.

7. I would make sure I could easily change the plan to extract even more taxes from you

I would probably change some part of the tax code every year. I might change the tax on things like dividends to make them more attractive. I might change the tax brackets or remove various deductions. The code will however be so complex and so esoteric that you won't even bother to really understand it and just pay me whatever I tell you to pay me.

8. I would make sure I could lower the taxes for my friends while at the same time thinking you are getting the better deal.

I would do things like create tax breaks that seem to work for the common man but in reality they work best for my rich friends like myself. I could probably implement this by doing something like allowing you to deduct interest on a big ticket item. Say your house. Of course, you won't be able to get full benefit out of this because you won't really spend more than your standard deduction. However, my rich friends, with big houses and mortgages, and with multiple houses on top of that, will benefit far more than the average person. The average person won't realize that they are paying for my rich friend's tax break. They will only see their relatively small deduction and feel good about it. Given their lack of understanding of my tax code, they will fight tooth and nail to save this deduction all the while not realizing how much they are really paying to have it.

9. Even if you try to leave the country, I will still make you pay the tax

I will decree that even if you leave the country to try and avoid my tax, your rightful duty as a citizen is to pay me the tax. I don't care if you work in a foreign country for 20 years, if you are a citizen of my great land it is your duty to pay me the tax.


Sounds awful doesn't it? I'm glad this system doesn't really exist.

Blockbuster Cheating Customers?

I canceled my blockbuster online membership a month ago. I wasn't getting full use out of it so it was time to cancel. That, and I was about to move so I figured I would cancel during the move since I would have no time to actually watch movies.

Now I'm glad I no longer give my business to Blockbuster. I seriously think they are out to cheat their customers, or at least former customers. Some of you may remember I posted about how Blockbuster lost one of the last DVD's I had when I canceled my free subscription. Unbelievably they did the same damn thing to me again.

Because of the move, I did not have time to carefully check that all the movies were returned. Sure enough, I got two e-mails describing that they got two of the last three movies back but no e-mail about the third. Busy with the move, I didn't notice it this time. But because I was checking my credit card transactions I notice a $21 charge from Blockbuster which should not have been there. Sure enough, they "did not receive" the third DVD. I haven't had any other problems with Blockbuster getting DVD's except for these two incidents. Can it really be coincidence or is Blockbuster out to just anger those people who no longer are its customers.

It just seems very fishy to me that two DVD's are lost in exactly the same manner. If others who come to my blog have similar experiences let me know.

Name on Parking Spaces

The company across the way has a number of parking spaces with signs saying things like, "Space reserved for John Doe" .

I hope someday to rise through the ranks of corporate America. I hope someday to be important enough to deserve my own parking spot which would be reserved soley for me. But I know for sure that in no way shape or form do I want my name actually on the parking spot. What is the point of that? You can just as easily reserve the spot by saying "reserved" and assigning a number to it. I'm not sure why you actually have to have your name on the spot. Does it make these people feel more important? "Ooh look, I'm important enough to have a sign with my name on it in front of this empty space."

It just seems kind of over the top to me. It has no real tangible advantage other than trying to reinforce the owner's own self importance but has the real disadvantage of promoting animosity from others.

Drinking fountain etiquette

There is a certain etiquette when you are getting water from either a fountain or a water cooler and you are trying to fill a very large container. If there are people waiting to simply get a sip or small cup of water while you are trying to fill a 1 gallon container, consider stepping to the side and letting the next person go in front of you.

Thank you.