Got accepted into Rice's graduate physics program. lil, THANK YOU SO MUCH for your help with my statement of purpose, seriously, I polished it up nicely after getting your input almost one year ago. I'm still waiting to hear back from four other schools, then just, ahh, you know, choosing my life's course. It's not really a big deal. Also, kids: don't fall in love before you're 32 or so. It's just not convenient.
Thanks for the shoutout and major congratulations. In case everyone else sitting here in the pub overhears our conversation, I want to tell them this: am_Unition is highly skilled and multi-talented like everyone else on hubski. However it seemed as though the first draft of his statement of purpose was more a statement of lack of purpose. He wrote humbly as if every decision in his life had been made for him including the desire to go to grad school (it was a year ago and I'm only remembering this vaguely). I only suggested that he make the letter more purposeful. YAY, you rock am_Unition. Now you are sitting in the bar and can get loaded. (I don't mean in the rifle-loading sense).
Badged because we can't badge personal messages, which... ummm, might somewhat defeat one intended purpose of badges, but consider it a small token of Hubski gratitude for the help you gave me. Cheers, my friend!
Big congrats on your acceptance! Also, kids: don't fall in love before you're 32 or so. It's just not convenient.
Preach. Trying to decide where you're going to be, for how long, and when? And with whom? It's rough. All that is looming on the rapidly-approaching horizon for me too.
Thanks. :) The uncertainty can be upsetting, but we'll all ripple through the eternity of humanity. We already have. Thank you, google cache.Trying to decide where you're going to be, for how long, and when? And with whom? It's rough. All that is looming on the rapidly-approaching horizon for me too.
lil , thank you for your recent advice - and you too thenewgreen - just know it's under consideration and probably safe to consider the matter "PENDING" for the next week if not more. Just know that I appreciate your feedback, understand where your comments are coming from, and think you two are probably in the rights on this, but am not quite willing to bite the bullet. insomniasexx's jubilant, ebullient post helped drive home that post too. On to happier, less ambiguous news - (sorry guys I'm just kind of tired of hashing out the subject I'm being oblique about above) - last night I went to a "local" poetry workshop at UPenn's Kelly Writers' House. It was really, really great. The group is moderately sized (10 people were there last night) and people are all sorts of different ages and backgrounds. I was sitting there at the beginning and I had my copy of Rukeyser's Elegies that I'm reading through and someone else pulled out his copy of translated poetry by a poet I'm not familiar with but whose name I should really gather, and someone else commented they had a Wallace Stevens book in their bag, and I sat there thinking "I DON'T KNOW THE LAST TIME I WAS SURROUNDED BY SO MANY PEOPLE WITH POETRY BOOKS" and it was great. Magnificent. There are different skill levels to be sure but everyone is so passionate about poetry, and I think that's really where the value lies in a workshop environment. It's a biweekly thing and if, as I suspect may be the case, I find myself with extra time to burn at some future point, I think it's a great way to keep busy and also just make me even more engaged and involved in poetry. I also got some really good feedback on a poem, by which I mean some great suggestions on how to improve it. I'm just a little writing nut, ain't I. AND AND AND AND Yesterday I got my very first acceptance of 2015! Two poems taken by Star(ASTERISK)Line, which is the Science Fiction Poetry Association's lit mag. (Yeah, who knew there was a Science Fiction Poetry Association?) Neither are strictly science fiction but more "speculative" poetry, which can be scifi, fantasy, or (this is me) fantastic with elements of magical realism. AND AND AND! They're paying me! All of $.03 cents/word which comes out to $11.19 but they're going to send me a check and I'm going to cash it on my phone and then IMMA FUCKIN FRAME THAT SHIT. I conned someone into paying me for putting words on a page people! HA! Tricked those suckers! :D Don't you know all the words are in the dictionary mang??? You can find 'em all there and rearrange them yourselves! I'm also meeting with a realtor after work today. House searches in my future, but I have time - there's no rush. Now, I should use some of this writing-fueled enthusiasm to do...you guessed it...more writing. So far looks like good news all around in the pubski. I like that. It's nice. I'm really proud of you guys who are reporting these big successes. Here's to ya. clinks glass
Yes. If she's wiley enough, she could expense the gas it took to get to the poetry gathering, the hotel, the dinner etc.
...within limits. The IRS takes a dim view of anyone with a business that loses money hand over fist in that business for more than five years. But before they can take a dim view, they have to look. And they're suffering cutbacks like everyone else. And the odds of getting a random audit are pushing a thousand to one. And the odds of getting a non-random audit are suspiciously proportional to income. And even if you're audited the worst that happens is you have to give the money back. Don't you work for a bank?
You should probably set up an LLC for your poetry
In the UK: http://www.writersbureau.com/writing/what-writers-can-claim-against-tax.htm Claim. Claim, claim, claim: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/tax-deductions-writers.html And: http://www.gentlemenranters.com/60.html Probably much similar in the US.
Dude! You got paid for your poetry, that's awesome!!!
The idea is that we can get exosomes with anti-tumor effects that extend beyond the actions of the RNA(s) that we choose to deliver. Glioblastoma is a moving target (and is actually multiple targets), so I believe there is advantage to a more holistic approach. It is however, a tougher sell to those that are concerned with mechanism more than they are with the effect. :)
The hope is that we can modify the exosomes so they have anti-tumor effects the go beyond the RNAs that we introduce to the producer cells that can be packaged in the exosomes they then export. It looks like the native cargo of marrow stromal exosomes can be supportive or suppressive based on the environment of the MSCs when they produce them. That is, they contain a cargo profile that has an effect upon tumor, and we want to bias that profile. Re: Weinberg. That's awesome. Should get an autograph. :)
I was to the doctor today and its not arthritis! It is basically a combination (some of) my joints being overly flexible and thus not supporting me in the way they should that has led to them hurting and then getting stomach issues from taking medicine for my joints hurting. I have now gotten a pain med that won't fuck up my stomach and medicine for my stomach so hopefully those will work. I also have a meeting with my school booked and a paper from the doctor saying I need an adapted school-term. He was also going to refer me to the hospitals teacher who is experienced in talking with schools about this stuff. So basically the best possible news that I could have gotten.
OftenBen walks up to the bar, stares at top-shelf indecisively, a large, bulging sack rests on the floor by his feet I really shouldn't celebrate yet. To those somewhat in the know, who I've asked about my resume, thank you for your help. To everybody in general, GIANT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT in progress. It's been a good ass week. glances back at shelf, pours two fingers of bourbon
Lil locks her bike outside the pub, enters and looks around for the hubski table. She quickly says "hey" to everyone. She contemplates adding a comma after "says" and decides against it, thus confusing everyone. She orders a fantastic Cuban coffee (they serve everything here) and tells the crowd that today she has goals to work on. She already went to the morning zumba class and did some other errands by bike in the beautiful Keys sunshine, but now she is going to focus. She promises to drop by later in the afternoon to listen to the latest gossip. Upon leaving, she says, "If any of you happen to see thenewgreen tell him I've got Wilco on. He'll know why."
Uhh... just an orange juice please. After several failed attempts at making a Twitter AIsh Bot in the past, I have an idea now which seems a lot easier. Previously I was going to have the emotion and weight of that emotion in every context of every word defined by hand over time, then I realized that I don't have infinite effort shrugs. Now I have an idea to automate this, I define a few adjectives(Love, hate etc.) and search twitter for "I love x", once I find something which the majority of people love and very few hate(Breaking Bad?), I will search for "I <adjective> Breaking Bad" and now I have a bunch of words/word groups similar to "love"] If I automate this with a Twitter4J, I can buid a database of words, word groups and profiles of various things. Which will open up doors for more fun. Just an idea though, I wouldn't be very surprised at all if I run into a million huge problems. Either way I'll have fun and probably learn something. Anyone here have any experience with this sort of thing?
I've definitely looked into it, and thought of doing similar things. What I've found is that matching strings like that and finding a good sample size can be difficult. Not to mention 400 other little things that I didn't run into that you will... I've never worked with the twitter API as well, so that may have it's own hurdles. I one day hope to make a digital assistant of my own. I think that would just be awesome and it's been a goal for me since I was young. Best luck to you on your bot endeavors!
Oh yeah, I would have given up ages ago if it weren't for the "This is awesome" factor, and I bet the idea of building an AI crossed the mind of everyone who has made an 'if' tree before Slightly relevant xkcd The isn't an official twitter API I know of, but Twitter4J is fairly well documented and really easy to use, I'd recommend it if you're not a javaphobe. It was quite confusing to register an app at dev.twitter.com but you only have to do that once.I one day hope to make a digital assistant of my own. I think that would just be awesome and it's been a goal for me since I was young. Best luck to you on your bot endeavors!
What I've found is that matching strings like that and finding a good sample size can be difficult.
Not to mention 400 other little things that I didn't run into that you will...
It will be a blast! :D
Nine books are wending their way out to the nine participants in the #hubskiliterarything - unfortunately the majority of them are having to take the slow boat (literally) in order to keep costs down as y'all are some overseas living mo'fos. So put them from your mind for some time. When they arrive, they'll be a nice surprise. I have secured some teaching work. It's teaching young 'uns film by making films, thus a refreshing change from their usual scholastic curriculum. It's different, it's exciting, it's anarchic; I'm John Keating from Dead Poets Society.
I am currently in Costa Rica with my family. It's beautiful but I have forgotten how stressful and anxiety ridden my family can be. It's like ever decision requires a 5 minutes debate, usually ending with my parents making the decision they wanted to make from the beginning regardless of our input. It's quite frustrating honestly. If you just want your opinion validated, talk amongst yourselves. Right now we are in a bus in between Arenal and the Caribbean coast. In about 5 more hours we will arrive at a place with no electricity and thus no connectivity. While I appreciate no connectivity from time to time, I fail to understand why exactly we are paying a very decent sum of money for a place with no electricity. Interestingly, I stumbled upon a fascinating story last night about a block of houses about a mile from where I live. I got curious after noticing a house on the market for under 800k, which is unheard of in my area. For 800k you can't even get a lot. You can get an small condo in some areas. I'm amazed that this happened so close to me. It's quite unsettling. One of the residents received a $4m payout, but there has been no mention of the situation since then, or if Southern California Edison has done anything to fix the issue. Also interestingly, this seems to be a relatively common occurrance. As in, the substations are actually build to operate this way. Usually they are not in such close proximity to houses though so it goes unnoticed. But, there have been research done on cows, as they noticed unexplained illnesses and deaths when farms became more electrified. That's in the second link. The first link is a must read simply for insights into how electricity was marketed in the 60s. It involves Ronald Reagan. Kinda crazy. http://www.easyreadernews.com/68102/southern-california-electric-stray-voltage/ http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/24894-desert-rose-and-the-story-of-stray-current Lastly, I had a weird dream last night involving all sorts of weirdness. Too much to name. I was working on a military ship. With a sexy father of one of my close friends (neither the father nor the friend are tied to anyone I know outside dream world, thank God). Then I had my phone stolen from me in the NYC subway while a group of us were racing to save a girl I knew from high school who was having a heart attack. As in, we were carrying her thru the crowded NYC Subway, when a number of us were pickpocketed, and our mission changed to finding our phones. Then, when the serial phone stealer was found and pockets were forcefully emptied, I grabbed what I thought was my phone. I opened hubski for whatever reason and noticed that I was logged in as "flob" and only then did I realize that (1) he had a lot of unread notifications and (2) this wasn't my phone. Thus the journey began to find flob, who I presumed had my phone. But, naturally I got distracted by the sexy father I mentioned earlier, got chastised for being too greedy by his personal assistant (to which I replied "you mean easy, not greedy right?"), and neither the phone, the freakishly young heart attack victim, not insoms lady bits got resolved in the end. Fuck dreams. If anyone wants to let me know what this dream means, besides the obvious insights into my current level of sexual frustration - I would love to hear it. Other than that, nothing eventful has happened in the past couple days.
I'm trying to figure out how to never come back. I actually think that if I don't have an apartment with bills and rent, it may be cheaper to live on the road. But, that assumes that I work way more than I've been working.
I currently pay 1200 for rent and ~800 for all bills and phone and utilities and car and health insurance. I've seen that site before and there's more than a few cities that have a cost of living under that. When you travel - even if you stay for a few months - your highest expense is flights rather than board. lax - Hong Kong - Bangkok - Sri Lanka - lax - Costa Rica - lax was under $3000. If I did one month in each of those places rather than 1 week, it would be about the same. Except Hong Kong. Hong Kong is fucking expensive.
Well, that's quite the post to start my day. Agreed. After receiving some of the best news of my life, that night I proceeded to dream that I threw it all away by violently and repeatedly throat-punching some kid that was bullying one of my little brothers. I got about halfway through my aggravated assault hearing before I woke up. Fuck dreams.Fuck dreams.
I got an invite to Beijing by my uncle, who is in the process of moving there and teaching at Peking (I believe) U. He's a pretty accomplished guy, and I take heed of his advice, so when he says there are opportunities there, I don't take it lightly. Dude's even implying I should think about moving there. I had been planning on taking a sabbatical, figuring out my future, and going to Berlin/Oslo/somewhere fjord-y this summer, but this invite has me reconsidering. While I think I definitely want to visit Berlin before I turn 30 (jesus christ that feels weird to say), I have always wanted to go to Thailand and Myanmar, and this would provide me with such an opportunity. However, Beijing and really China as a whole has never been up high on my itinerary, and I've been getting feedback that it's not the really the most fun place to visit. Anyone have any experience in Beijing? Or maybe insistence that I do visit Berlin sooner rather than later? I will of course, be doing my own research independently, but I'd love to hear back from someone I can talk with about it. I'm definitely following insomniasexx's travels, and I like what I see so far, and from what I've heard from others about SE Asia in general, but Beijing though?
Big fan. It's one of the most cited reasons why to not go, and it could be a deal-breaker for me. Like I said, I'm actually more interested in visiting SE Asia than Beijing, but that may be a pittance of an excuse to make the trip. Were you there for academic reasons?If you like breathing, I'd stay away from Beijing.
Actually yes. I presented a paper at a big HCI-I conference. The conference travels around the world and this year it will be in LA in August. August is a bad month to have been in Beijing. The temperatures are over 100 degrees F so that adds to the smog and pollution. I liked climbing up the Great Wall -- it was all fascinating and I'm glad I went, but I'm not a very good traveller. Not sure if that will change in my lifetime. But listen, if you have an uncle who is inviting you and if you can afford to get over there, do it. Explore, live. Be as under 30 as you like, now might be the time. When you say "sabbatical" what do you mean?
I appreciate all the feedback, seriously. It's potentially in June, so that seems a bit more my taste, weather-wise, and definitely not 100+. I'm leaning towards it, for sure, now definitely might be the time. Maybe I could even stop by Tokyo (that literally just occurred to me, holy shit). There's also the worry in the back of my head that, since he's so much more of a go-getter than I am, there might be expectations that I should accomplish something while there, professionally. And I honestly don't even know where I stand, in that regard. Sabbatical = quitting my job and fucking off for a bit, while (potentially) making future plans/choices. edit: okay, Tokyo is definitely not as doable as I thought....but I'm not a very good traveler.
Duly noted.
I've visited Berlin myself last Summer and I know people who spent six months in Beijing studying. From what I've heard, (granted, not a lot) Beijing is a pretty cool experience but the English literacy is quite disappointing outside of the campus area. Harder to settle down, especially compared to open and internationally-oriented Berlin. I'd love to spend time there but I personally wouldn't move there, unless the research alone is enough reason for you. Hong Kong is really cool. 9/10 would recommend.
I gotta do some digging around and see what's available, for sure, to see if it would be worth my while. HK vs Berlin? Whatcha think? ...unless the research alone is enough reason for you.
Now that's a more difficult choice! It really depends on what you're looking for. Berlin has more history but Hong Kong is more insane. Berlin is much cheaper to live, especially the rent. But if you can find a place to stay, Hong Kong has much more to discover, with beaches and culture just a bus / metro ride away. Either one would be great to visit, so why not visit both?
Both is the dream, and the long term plan, for sure, but your small comparison list is what I was going for :) I'm def leaning towards it a lot more now, just gotta avoid the smog, is all. Plus getting to take a ride on the high speed rail seems too good to be true.
I'd love to hear what they think, cause, if I did this, I sure as shit wouldn't pass up HK.
I just saw Whiplash. The last half hour in particular is pretty damn stellar, especially because I have a history of drumming (and quitting). My leg was tapping along most of the movie. I'd recommend it, although I found Birdman better story-wise. nowaypablo galen iammyownrushmore
Man, I love the use of the drums in the score of Birdman, it just fills those scenes with so much energy, so I need to hurry up and watch Whiplash already. Is there anything you've been sleeping on?
That's a very funny expression. If you liked Whiplash, you are hereby obligated to watch Clint Eastwood's Bird. It's different, but it's powerful. But like, when I say obligated, I mean, seriously you don't have a choice, watch it or you'll be sleeping on something sharp. D:<Is there anything you've been sleeping on?
watch yourself, boy, or blowback is on the horizon. And a blood feud over film viewership just ends in tears. But as long as we're doing this, you are now obligated to watch either Andrei Rublev or Barry Lyndon
WELL?? I watched Whiplash. It was good, but erratic in effect. Some parts were majestic, but the characterization was underwhelming, which is the central focus of the film, and some of the writing choices were incredibly juvenile. However, it definitely kept me on edge, and the hard bop tempo of the film made the searing drama burn like I was covered in paper cuts. I think the editing was fucking perfect, and easily the best feature, and this is a case study of what editing can do for a film, especially one as terribly written as this, but with good acting and camera work to redeem it. It reminded me of Alien in that it perfectly maintains one searing and caustic tone throughout and never let that note falter. I would love to have had Andrew's relationship with his girlfriend mirror or supplement his relationship with Fletcher. The internal dialogue and masochism and it's toying with the recipe for greatness left so much go unsaid, that, most of the time, nothing got said. For instance, the sole refutation of Fletcher's methodology is one line: "You don't think, like, maybe sometimes you can go too far?" and that's hardly complex. Also, I got annoyed with the amateur treatment of "jazz-like" idioms and phrases that seem more akin to a 70s porno that tosses words like "cat" in to imply that "yes, these are, in fact, jazz people. Now here's something completely different" The fucking energy, though, I am definitely so glad to see it carried over so well and translated trough a camera lens. Hard bop is one of my favorite styles of jazz, and has a lot of focus on percussion and jazz drummers are a special species that walk this earth, and this film definitely captured that.
With shame, I confess. You're a better man than I, and a man of your word. Out of respect, I will watch both Rublev and Lyndon tomorrow, with a response by the end of the night, or may eightbitsamurai send my Hubskina character to the depths of Hellski.
You should check out how long those are first, tho. It's gonna be a slog.
Lemme know if you need access to Rublev, it can be a bit hard to find, but it's available for the next week on Fandor and I have an account I can send invites from.
Whoa, how did I not know this? You're now one of ~4 people I know that I could potentially talk shop with! But yeah, I really want to see Whiplash. I just haven't been able to see that many movies these days, it's pretty lame. I have a to-watch list a mile long, but it's such an effort. Finding time, driving to the theatre, buying ridiculously expensive tickets and concessions, sitting through God knows how many commercials--it gets old after a while.history of drumming (and quitting)
It was quite a while ago, though: I quit before I started high school. Only last year did I pick up my sticks for a bit of jamming with friends. Felt like starting over again! I only go to the theatres when I know a movie's gonna be worth it. I really hope this catches on: small theatres with food on-order, more legroom, no commercials and no kids because it's more expensive. But I still prefer the home cinema.
A friend and coworker suggested yesterday to me that we should go into business together buying, fixing up and then flipping houses. I think it would be fun, but I have no idea where on earth I would find the time to do it. Also, I know very little about it. Still, it seems the kind of thing I could learn about while doing. Anyone have any experience with this? Shout out to kleinbl00 and b_b
Greater fool theory. "I don't really understand this, but the people I see making money at it are stupider than me, so where could I go wrong?" The problem is they don't make reality TV shows about house flippers losing their shirts because it isn't in Home Depot's best interests for you to know that story. You're a businessman, TNG, and a successful one. Break it down like a business. - How much can I buy a house for? - How much can I sell a house for? - How much will I need to spend to get it there? - How long will it take? - How much will it cost me to carry the note for that long? - How much work will I personally have to do, and how much is my time worth? Friends of mine have been (what we now call) "rehabbers" and friends of mine have been flippers. The rehabbers exited the market in 2005-2007. They were used to making 50-70k on a house after spending 6 months restoring them to occupancy. Of the three people I know, two were contractors. They bailed because they knew their market, they knew what they could get out of a rehab and they watched as the hobbyists flooded in and took projects with $5k or less in profit potential. If your business model works at $10k a month but you're competing against people happy at $10k a year it's time to move on. Those friends didn't lose their shirts. They're doing quite nicely, one of them as a GC, one of them in another market entirely and another doing commercial renovations. On the other hand, I know three different couples that watched too many episodes of "Flip This House." Two of them moved into their "flip" to save face. One of them got foreclosed. You can make money rehabbing houses. Let me show you one. Let's do the math: This was a thrashed-out estate auction down the street from me (I'm in a good neighborhood surrounded by great neighborhoods). Jesse bought that place for $1.65m cash, and probably paid a 10% auctioneer's fee. Right out the gate he's into it $1.8m. Then he rehabbed it - it probably cost him $300k to do the renovations. He's at $2.1m. Now, Jesse sells crazy condos in Marina Del Rey. This is all gravy to him - no commissions to anyone. But he's still carrying $1.8m for 4 months, and another $300k for two. Jesse is gonna sell this sucka. I'll bet it goes for $2.5m, but I'll bet it takes 8 months to a year - even around here, there aren't that many buyers for $2.5m houses. Maybe Jesse is the kind of guy who can carry $2.1m for 18 months. I'll bet he is or he wouldn't have done it. But you or me? We're fucked, son. And he's doing this for 20% profit. Which, granted, is $400k... but neither you nor I have our faces on bus benches. Sure, divide by 10 for normal mortals. You're sinking $180k (or the money necessary to get the loan - and since this is an auction, it's gonna be brutal) on a $165k fixer-upper, throwing another $30k at it to get it into shape, then waiting 6-8 months for someone to buy it, all so you can make $20k. And that's assuming you know what you're doing. I never wanted to be a contractor when I grew up, so I don't rehab houses. If you've always wanted to paint and run a nailgun all day, it might be just the thing.
No, but I have watched a lot of HGTV. Looks easy. Kidding. I bought a foreclosure back in 2011. It needed a lot of work. I sunk about $30k into it, plus a bunch of sweat equity. I have no idea how much I saved on labor doing it myself, but probably about half, by my best estimate. The result was good, as I made a lot of money when I sold. It wasn't a flip, however, because I had the condo for 3 years. Remember that if you flip a house, you're on the hook for what could be some pretty steep taxes, as you get taxed at the short term capital gains rate (which is taxed like normal income for most investments; I don't know if houses are put into that category, but I do know that they're not exempt completely like they are if you live there for two years), so it could be pretty steep. Also, I think you have to make damn sure you know the market pretty well. Would you buy, for example, $100k of stock in a company planning to learn their fundamentals on the fly? There are a lot of people out there doing this kind of thing, so it would be foolhardy to think that it's as easy as phase one: buy a house; phase two; phase three: profit. I lucked out in my situation, because I was pretty aware of the goings on in the 'hood, I had a good sense that it was going in a positive direction, and I happened to be in the right place at the right time (that and I was fortunate to have learned a lot about fixing and building from my dad over the years). Lastly, home prices are up right now, in some places to pre-recession levels. If I were going to get into the real estate game, I'd wait another couple of years. Home prices can be volatile, so if you have the money when prices are pushed down, I think that's when you're best positioned to grab some loot.
Thanks to you and kleinbl00 for weighing in. I have never watched any of those home improvement shows, that's certainly not my motivation. My motivation would be to see how I can make my money make me more money. The arithmetic could make sense, all the fixed costs are known. It's the unknown and variable costs that worry me. I have no intention of sweating. IF I were to do this I would use contractor for the entire renovation, even painting. Frankly, I just don't have time. Also, like KB suggested, the opportunity cost of my time is greater than what it would cost to pay a painter. Etc. What I am considering is to start really small. Buy a $50,000 house put 10,000 into it and see if we can squeeze out 80 or 90. Even if I ended up breaking even, I would count it a success. The first house would be all about learning. Then, if I like the process and if it did make money, I could repeat it. It's always fun to try new things. But, myself and my wife are stretched pretty thin on time. However, my partner's wife, a former real estate agent, isn't working and could probably handle much of the logistics. Literally, we would just be capital. I am cautiously considering.
"Really small" still means sinking tens of thousands of dollars and carrying a note for half a year. Again: is it not wiser to invest capital like that into something you understand? With large market forces at play, six month swings of ten and fifteen percent are not unusual... And there are large market forces at play. Real estate investment isn't particularly tricky. You sink capital into real property because real property appreciates long term. Real estate speculation is another matter: you're banking on 50k and 10k being worth 90k because you need it to, not because it has any reason to. And at those prices you're competing against sweat equity, which doesn't pay contractors and is willing to undersell you in order to get out from under their ARM. Dunno, dude. Buy rentals or commit to doing this stuff fer real. Half-hearted measures are a great way to lose money.
I wouldn't be surprised, but I would be surprised if it were anything dramatic like '08. Anyway, a market correction isn't always a bad thing, so long as credit isn't severely hampered like it was back then. If credit is flowing, then a lot of first time buyers could get a great opportunity to buy into the market. If not, then we'll just see another repeat of rich getting richer.
True, but at this level and in this market (three major universities in rock throwing distance of one another) we could easily turn a property like this in to a long term rental, if need be.
I worked with a guy who did that for a while. Bought properties, fixed them up, and then rented them out. He's about 40 now and has a day job that he works only because he likes it. The rest of his income comes from that and he could retire if he wanted to. Seems like there's a lot of potential in that kind of business.
New job involving the English language and international students. I think it's going to be eye opening getting to know people from all over the world, but mainly the middle east. Lots of parties going on but I'm in a weird place where I don't care to get to know new people outside of my job and don't care to try and get laid so going out of my way for some of these is unappealing.
Tea with milk and honey? Can I order that here? Anyway I'm home today because I'm sick, and I figured I could afford to skip one day of a one-credit-hour swimming class that I'm just taking for funzies anyway. In fact, my entire household, all five of my roommates plus myself, seem to be experiencing the same cold! Really, it's a lot more fun to be sick when everyone else is too. I've been reading and reading and reading all day every day to get head start in my classes this semester. It's not the difficulty of the classes I'm worries about, it's the sheer workload. 18 novels, 2 instructional text books, loads of secondary texts, and a part-time job have me stressing out, which I'm overly good at. I'd better go meditate or I might not do it today. I haven't missed a day in a few weeks, and I don't want to start now!
I recommend a Hot Toddy. i usually take mine with a tea bag for some caffeine.
That looks delicious, I'm going to have to try that next time I'm sick. If this is the cure I'm going be rather upset with my immune system for not letting me get sick more often.
Luckily for me, the bulk of the reading is not difficult, but pretty easy. Ten of the novels are for a class on literature for adolescents, which is a requirement for my pre-education-focused degree. The idea, I think, is that I'm going to be using these books in my classroom in a few years, so I have to know them well. The books on that syllabus are: The Perks of being a Wallflower, Speak, Looking for Alaska, Eleanor and Park, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Where Things Come Back, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Graceling, Maus, and Brown Girl Dreaming. I'm also taking a special topics course centered on empire, ethnicity, and sexuality in U.S. ethnic lit. These reads are tougher: The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin, So Far From God by Ana Castillo, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn, The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, A Gesture of Life by Chang-rae Lee, Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir by Deborah Miranda, and good ol' Beloved by Toni Morrison (I've already read this one twice). I've finished my minor in German, but I am also minoring in professional writing, and am taking a course on how to teach writing. The reading (mostly articles taken from journals) is heavy and pretty dense, and also includes The Bedford Writing Guide for Tutors. Phew, that was an italicizing frenzy! The main problem is that, especially for an English major, I'm a slow reader! I'm not terribly worried; I am confident that I can manage the workload, but it sure is making my eyes tired.
It is a wonderful read and on topic. I'm interested in how James Baldwin reads today. My two favourite Baldwin books are Giovanni's Room and Another Country. I'm not sure I read The Fire. I've read Junot Diaz's short stories. I'm sure eightbitsamurai has something to say about Oscar Wao. I heard The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a great read. I saw the movie a couple of years ago at TIFF. My friends picked up the book after seeing the movie and said that it was even better.Ten of the novels are for a class on literature for adolescents
These are fun easy reads - except Maus - not so much fun. Yes, know them well, and there's many many more. If I wasn't so distracted, I'd pick some up and read along with you.empire, ethnicity, and sexuality in U.S. ethnic lit.
These books will be challenging. If you can write your essay on a book not on the course, check out
IT'S SO GOOD. SO FREAKIN GOOD. I mentioned in IRC that I got to meet Junot Díaz. Stand-up guy, nobody even noticed he was there, waiting to go into his own event. Unfortunately I didn't have my copy of the book on me, or I totally woulda got him to sign it!
Thanks for the rundown. I'm excited for the class really. I've read The Fire Next Time and Beloved so far. The Fire Next Time is really more like a small collection- a letter and two or three essays. It's whet my appetite and I'd like to read more Baldwin, some fiction next time, but certainly not this semester.
It this^^ comment showing up as entirely in italics for Anyone else? Oddly, when I refresh the page, some of the time all of the comments are italicized, sometimes only my entire comment is, and sometimes only the parts that I marked with asterisks are italicized. Weird.
Only titles are showing up as italicized for me. That is very odd, let's tell mk about this. Please see above, praise Mmmkay. Oh wait I am seeing what you are seeing. I suspect it may be my earlier comment's fault. But mk - I don't think that asterisks in one comment should cause others to go italicized, and I think that may be what's happening here? Turns out I had a slash before my asterisk on "clinks glass" and it was making like, half of the following comments italics.
Yeah, you and TheGreatAbider16 , when I realized the problem was a slash in my comment I took it out and it's better now.
Thanks for checking. It's looking normal now for me for some reason. Only the titles of books are in italics, and everyone else's comments look as they should as well.
Thanks to thenewgreen's recommendation I bought my tickets to Solid Sound today. Looking forward to my first venture out to the East Coast!
That's awesome! Shoutout to T-Dog, bgood79 and scrimetime -I hope to see all you punks this year. I'm trying hard to get the go-ahead.