Mistakes Sellers Make

This past weekend, we just saw a ton of houses. I felt like I was in a marathon, going from house to house to house, and not seeing anything I really liked. The whole process was very exhausting. And also, kind of depressing. After seeing what seemed like 100 houses that we didn't really like, we started thinking that if we wanted to stay in this area, we were going to have to settle for a house that needs a ton of work, or one that we only kind of like. Things were not looking up, and I wasn't very optimistic.

Because Cleveland isn't a booming town like Salt Lake City or San Diego, the housing market here is a buyer's market. We saw a ton of houses that had been on the market for close to a year. It's hard to imagine someone trying to sell their house for that long.

That being said, there are a lot of things that sellers do that make their houses less appealing. For instance, we saw some houses where the owners were at home when our realtor took us through the house. That was incredibly uncomfortable and awkward. One reason it was awkward was that we felt like we couldn't talk about the house as we went through it, for fear of offending the owner. And we were worried about offending the owner, because if we actually did like the house, the owner might reject our offer or make us pay a lot more to get it (which, in a way, is totally understandable).

A lot of people didn't clean their houses thoroughly before showing it. Even some of the open houses we saw weren't cleaned properly. One open house we went to obviously had an issue with birds getting into the attic, because there were bird droppings all over their things in the attic. In another place we saw, the owners obviously had a dog, because there were saliva marks all over the doors (ewww!). A lot of places just had really disgusting basements. That was an enormous turnoff, because the idea of having to go down into that kind of basement to do our laundry really grosses me out.

So, I guess that Cleveland is a buyer's market, except that all of the houses for sale are undesirable (from our standpoint).

Houses in this Area

We live in the near-west suburbs of Cleveland. The area is pretty nice, because there is highway access relatively close by, and the drive into downtown is very short. One problem, though, is almost all of the houses are about the same age. Most were built between 1900 and 1930. Although, there are a few condos here and there that were built fairly recently.

As you might imagine, houses that are almost 100 years old generally need a lot of work. We saw the whole range, trust me. Some houses were in relatively good shape, and only needed floors refinished and walls painted. While others needed entire rooms gutted and redone.

We also saw some houses that were in pretty good shape, but lacked the amount of room we needed, and lacked a bathroom on the ground floor. As a result, we seriously thought about buying one of those and building an extension onto the house. As we found out, it's not unusual for houses in this area of that age to only have one bathroom, and for that one bathroom to be located on the 2nd floor. We could, of course, survive with only one bathroom, but it's a pain in the ass when we have a lot of people over.

Our cars are really important to us, and indeed, a 2 car garage was the first thing we told our realtor any potential houses were going to have to have. However, any garage that is almost 100 years old is going to be very small, as well as need a lot of work. So, we also debated about buying one of the houses that was in pretty good condition, and building a new garage behind it.

Houses of that age also typically have very small closets. I have no idea how people used to fit all of their clothes into those closets back then. It's ridiculous. In some houses, we have seen people convert one of the smaller bedrooms into a walk-in closet. But it appears that most just have to deal with it and/or buy armoires.

In short, the houses that are available in this area are really a lot different than if we were looking farther out in the suburbs.

House Hunting Worksheets

Yesterday [fluggart.com], I talked about realtors, so it should come as no surprise that we are looking at houses to buy. Luckily, we got some very good advice from friends before we started the process. For instance, one of our friends told us that it would be a good idea to have some househunting worksheets that we could jot down notes on, so that we could remember all of the details of each house we looked at. I ended up creating one in Excel (see below image) and printed off a bunch of copies.



Included on the worksheet were the basic details of the house (asking price, age, square footage), as well as blocks where we could take notes on the individual rooms. There were all kinds of other things we specifically wanted to look for, like central air and a 2 car garage.

Anyway, it turns out those sheets were an enormous help, because after seeing the third house, they all started to run together. There are just too many details to remember about each house. And having a worksheet helps, because the same information about each house is kept on the same area of each page. That makes it very easy to determine, at a glance, if you have forgotten to look at an aspect of a house (because there will be an open area of the worksheet with no writing).

Some fields I wish I would have added when I created the sheet were: estimated tax prices, and a big box where I could list all of the things we would need to fix immediately if we bought that house (that list makes it very easy to eliminate potential houses from consideration).

It is really important to keep the worksheet down to one piece of paper, because after you have filled out those sheets for a few houses, all of the pages start getting really mixed up. And it is really difficult to take pictures in the houses while you are doing this, because you end up spending the entire time writing. Ideally, you need to look at houses in a two-person team: one to write down all of the details, and another to take digital pictures.

Realtors

So, we've started seriously looking for a house to buy. Last weekend, we looked at a few places, and then we looked at a whole bunch more this past weekend.

First off, I'd like to say that I've never owned land before, and I've never helped anyone through the homebuying process. So, the entire deal is totally new to me, and I don't have any biases as far as realtors because of any previous experiences.

We went to some open houses last weekend. Typically, when you drive up to the house, the seller's agent comes out of the house to greet you (unless they are currently assisting another potential buyer). We pulled up to one house and a male realtor came out of the front door. And before we even started conversing, I immediately had a negative reaction.

Now, there did end up being things about the realtor that we didn't like, but there was no way we could have known those things before we started conversing. And I don't think that the guy looked especially odd or hostile or anything. I think that I just don't like dealing with male realtors.

I have never considered myself to be sexist, but maybe I am. The thing is that I have bought all kinds of things (including big things like cars) from both male and female salespeople in the past. And I never had any hesitation dealing with either men or women. But for some reason, I just don't dealing with a male realtor. Is that weird or what?

It took me a long time to really have any idea what that is about. But after having an extensive conversation with some friends, I think that it's because so much of buying a house is subjective. And we have to take the realtor on their word that something about a house is desirable. And those qualities are usually subjective. Whereas when you are buying a car or any other type of thing, the majority of the qualities you are looking for can be summarized objectively (horsepower, trunk space, fuel economy, etc).

The reason that matters is because I think that I am subconsciously more likely to believe a woman with things that are subjective than a man. Especially when it comes to practical things (like homes). I'm not even sure that is the entire reason, but I think that's on the right track. And it makes sense, because if I weren't me, I wouldn't trust my own opinions of subjective qualities of a house.

I tell you, the more I discover about myself, the more frightened I am.

Why Dell Sucks

Last week, I created a short series of entries where I talked about which laptops I was considering buying. And I settled on buying an Alienware laptop. Unfortunately, right around the same time, everyone found out that the rumors that Dell bought out Alienware were true [pcmag.com].

The press releases try to convince readers that Alienware will maintain its independence from Dell, but I just can't believe that. Dell is going to Dell-ify Alienware's operations. And I have a major problem with the way they do business, which is why I never buy Dells.

In my opinion, Dell doesn't have the consumers' interests in mind. I know a lot of people who own Dells, and their computers seem to have a higher incidence of problems. In addition, my friends who have had hardware problems have found it almost impossible to get Dell's tech support to understand their problem and fix it properly. One of my friends had a laptop in which the motherboard was replaced three different times without the problem actually being solved. Finally, he had to stay on tech support (for over an hour) demanding they replace his entire machine, and he wasn't going to take no for an answer. Fortunately for him, that solved the issue, but that seems like an exorbitant amount of work that was required before a favorable resolution could be had. I think the problem is they are trying to build their computers too cheaply, and they are trying to make it as difficult as possible for people to get their problems resolved, which also saves money for them.

Another problem I have with them is that they don't sell AMD processors. Consumers should have a choice. A few years ago, when computers with AMD processors were using SDRAM and Intel chips were using RDRAM, the only choice for Dell customers was to buy the Intel computers with the (much more) expensive RDRAM. But the AMD processors with the (now industry standard) SDRAM offered the exact same performance at a significantly lower cost.

Dell also is known for their custom hardware. For instance, if you buy a desktop computer from them, and then a few years later you want to drop a new motherboard into the case, you can't do it. You can't do it, because their motherboards don't conform to industry standards. Whereas, with virtually every other manufacturer, you would be able to drop a new motherboard into the case without a problem (and I have done this many times in the past).

Dell does not have consumers' interests in mind, and I think their actions make that very clear. That is why I don't recommend them to anyone, and I don't think I would want to own an Alienware computer that was produced by them.

The Laptop Debate, part 3

Yesterday, I talked about how I am drooling over the Alienware Sentia laptops. One of the things that concerns me about buying an Alienware laptop is the rumor that Dell has bought out/is planning to buy out Alienware [pcmag.com].

I think that if Dell buys them out, the quality of Alienware products will almost certainly decline, along with the quality of their tech support. And if that is the case, I have no interest in buying one of their machines. Hopefully, by the time they have a 12" laptop with the Intel Core Duo in it, we'll know for certain if Dell is buying them out. [update: turns out the rumors are true [yahoo.com].]

To be sure, there are other laptops out on the market with 12" screens that should be looked at. For instance, Lenovo already has a model with a 12" screen and the Intel Core Duo processor. It's the ThinkPad X series [ibm.com]. On paper, these machines sound incredible with a sub-4 lb weight, and several options for using 2 batteries at the same time. Unfortunately, the lack of a touchpad is a dealbreaker for me. I just can't deal with that stupid pointing stick. Now, it's true that I almost never use my laptop without a USB mouse. However, there are times when I don't have my mouse plugged in when I use the touchpad. And it's those few times that a pointing stick would really annoy me.

Falcon Northwest [falcon-nw.com] and Voodoo PC [voodoopc.com] are both manufacturers of high-quality computers. They are in a similar market as Alienware. Both have laptops with 12" screens. However, I'm almost inclined to never buy anything from Falcon Northwest because their new website is so annoying to use. There is no option for viewing their website without Flash, and it doesn't seem to render correctly in some versions of Firefox.

Voodoo PC is an interesting manufacturer, because they sell all kinds of wacky crap. They allow you to customize almost everything. For instance, if you buy a desktop from them, you can get one that is liquid-cooled. And they allow you to customize the color of the cooling fluid. Can you believe that? They do have a 12" laptop (see below image).



But the truth is that nothing really appeals to me like that Alienware machine [alienware.com]. So, now I will probably be checking their website every day, hoping it will be the day when they come out with their Intel Core Duo powered machines.

The Laptop Debate, part 2

Yesterday, I started talking about how I am planning to buy a new laptop at the end of this year, and was planning to buy a 12" MacBook Pro when they become available. That has been my thinking for a few months now.

That is, until this past weekend. Remember how I talked about [fluggart.com] how some unknown person bought me a subscription to PC Magazine? Well, I was looking at it this weekend, and saw a full page ad for Alienware [alienware.com]. For a geek like me, Alienware machines are like the Mercedes of laptops. They are ludicrously expensive, but are so friggin' cool that they almost seem worth it. However, whenever I think of Alienware laptops, I always think of the behemoth Area-51 models [alienware.com]. Those machines are really huge (10lbs with a 17" screen) and really expensive. Plus, they have all kinds of weird options (like having two optical drives and two hard drives).

The reason the ad was interesting to me was because it showed that they had other models other than the Area-51s -- including a model with a 12" screen [alienware.com] (which is what I am looking for).



Not only is it a reasonable price, but it runs at a resolution of 1280x800 (WXGA) on a 12.1" screen, and the whole package weighs 4.1 lbs. That is perfect, and is exactly what I am looking for in my next laptop.

That is just totally sweet, and I'm starting to wonder whether I really care about having a computer that will run OS X. Especially with the price differential between the MacBook Pro and the Alienware Sentia. Now I just have to wait until the Alienware machine has the Intel Core Duo to buy it.

Part 3 tomorrow.

The Laptop Debate, part 1

Warning: In the next three posts, I am just going to dump the contents of my brain and try to organize my thoughs.

I have been planning to buy a new laptop at the end of this year. My current machine (a Sony Vaio with a 12" screen) isn't quite fast enough anymore to keep up with all of the things that I want it to do. And when I'm not at work, it's basically the only computer I have. So, it's my workhorse.

Now that the new SuperMac Pros [apple.com] (or whatever that horrible name is) are running Intel processors, I have been seriously thinking about replacing my current laptop with one of those. The idea of having a machine that could potentially run Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows XP is appealing to me, because there are certain pieces of software I would like to use that only run on one platform.

So, the question is, why don't I just buy one now? Well, the issue is that although the MacBook Pros are out, they don't have a version out yet with a 12" screen. So, I was going to wait until one of those was available. And even if I were planning to buy a new PC, I don't think that now is the time to be buying one. The hardware requirements for Windows Vista are going to be very steep, and there are virtually no PCs with a 12" screen that match those specs yet.

Typically, when people ask me for advice about buying a laptop, I tell them they should look at Fujitsu, Toshiba, HP, Acer, or Lenovo. Uh, and Apple. Particularly Fujitsu in the "Thin and Light" category. Sony is good too, but they seem needlessly expensive. And stay away from Dell.

After owning a Sony for a few years, I think that I am going to downgrade them. Not only are they needlessly expensive, but they have some annoying features. One is that my Sony PCG-V505AX does not have a CD audio cable. That is fine for normal people, because if you are listening to an audio CD in Windows, you will probably use Windows Media Player. And Windows Media Player rips the stream coming from the CD, instead of using the CD audio cable. But in Linux, when I'm trying to play an audio CD, it doesn't work, because those programs typically do not rip the stream.

Another problem deals with the specialized function buttons on the keyboard. These special function buttons allow you to change the volume, activate the external VGA port, change the screen brightness, etc. You need a driver to make those keys function properly, but Sony doesn't make that driver available on their website. So, it is impossible to do a clean install of Windows onto your computer and have the function keys work properly. The only way you can get those function buttons to work is by using the System Restore CDs that come with your machine. This is annoying for several reasons. For one thing, if you want to install a different version of Windows onto your computer, you can't if you want to use those buttons. Another problem is that the System Restore CDs install a ton of crappy programs by default. I would much rather have a clean install.

There are other annoyances, but those are the two biggest ones for me. They are even more annoying because they are so pointless. It would cost virtually nothing for Sony to clear up those annoyances. For that reason, I am no longer recommending Sony laptops to people (even with the caveat that they are needlessly expensive in the first place).

Go to Part 2 and Part 3.

Starfish Prime

On Gulfstream [beebo.org], I saw a link to the Wikipedia entry on Starfish Prime [wikipedia.org].

Starfish Prime was a high-altitude nuclear test performed in the 1960s. The Wikipedia entry includes a bunch of pretty spectacular pictures.

The results of the high-altitude nuclear test include the following: the EMP caused electronics problems almost 1000 miles away in Hawaii, there was an artificial aurora created over the Pacific Ocean for a few minutes (see below image), and the resulting man-made radiation belts knocked out 1/3 of all satellites in low-earth orbit.



It's an interesting read.

Bachelor Parties

I'm happy to say that the bachelor party that I organized for a friend of mine went well. It was the first bachelor party that I had ever organized, so I was kind of worried about organizing something that everyone would enjoy doing.

We started out at Brasa [brasagrillsteakhouse.com] for dinner, where we were served with an all-you-can eat meal consisting of 16 different kinds of meats. The meat came out on large skewers and were carved right at our table (see below picture).



Almost everything was pretty amazing (although the prime rib was surprsingly disappointing). They had this filet mignon that was covered in parmesan cheese that everyone loved. We also ordered several bottles of wine, which everyone enjoyed and really enhanced the experience of the onslaught of meat. It was the perfect choice for the start to a bachelor party, and I think everyone had a good time.

Afterward, we ended up at D'Vine Wine Bar [dvinewinebar.com], where we consumed even more wine and smoked some cigars.

And then it was off to the strip clubs, where a suitable amount of hilarity ensued.

I had rented a minivan to cart everyone around for the evening, and that worked out too. It's a huge relief that went well. Now I just have to worry about the speech that I have to make at the wedding reception... =|

Surveillance in Houston

In the latest issue of the Crypto-Gram [schneier.com], there was a link to an article about how the Houston chief of police wants to make surveillance cameras ubiquitous. Unfortunately, the article that he linked to requires a subscription to read. However, I was able to find a similar article [usatoday.com] in another newspaper.

Here's a quote from the article:

"Houston's police chief on Wednesday proposed placing surveillance cameras in apartment complexes, downtown streets, shopping malls and even private homes to fight crime during a shortage of police officers."

"'I know a lot of people are concerned about Big Brother, but my response to that is, if you are not doing anything wrong, why should you worry about it?' Chief Harold Hurtt told reporters Wednesday at a regular briefing."

In Bruce Schneier's weblog [schneier.com], he comments that one of the major problems in the privacy community is that they don't have a crisp answer to that question. And I think that it's clear that without a good answer to that question, people in general are not going to be opposed to widespread surveillance camera use.

There are many reasons you would not want to be surveilled even if you aren't doing anything wrong. For instance, there are many things that might be observed that, while not illegal, are potentially embarassing. For instance, in this country, we have this weird puritanical attitude towards sex. Let's say that a politician picks up a woman in a bar and brings her back to his place. They're not doing anything illegal, but many people would point to that type of behavior as a reason they are morally corrupt and unfit to lead our country.

What about a person that is homosexual, but still in the closet? That type of behavior isn't illegal either, but might be potentially embarassing.

Surveillance might also be used to persecute people who are doing things that aren't illegal yet. For instance, the Bush administration's war on pr0n has pushed them to supeona search queries from Google [marketwatch.com]. Viewing pr0n isn't illegal, but that isn't going to stop the Justice department, apparently.

Ubiquitous surveillance might also put people under suspicion of doing other things, even if they aren't shown doing anything illegal. For instance, Walter Soehnge paid off his credit card, but because his payment was larger than usual he was reported to the Department of Homeland security [bostonherald.com] and suspected of being a terrorist. In this current age of needless paranoia, any behavior slightly out of the norm could lead you to be suspected of any other type of illegal behavior.

Finally, ubiquious surveillance is a bad idea because there are no limits as to what could be done with that information. For instance, what if the police department decided to make an extra buck by selling the data that is gleaned from those cameras? Say that the cameras catch evidence that I regularly binge drink at home. I'm not doing anything illegal. I'm not driving. However, that information in the hands of an insurance company might cause some major problems for me. Or it might make companies less likely to employ me (for instance, let's say that I'm an airline pilot).

There needs to be some checks and balances as far as police power. And it's not just because of some pie-in-the-sky ideas and worries about 1984 [wikipedia.org].

Loose Change

A friend of mine sent me a link to a video entitled Loose Change [google.com] that I hadn't heard about before. Actually, he sent it to me a few weeks ago, but I just got around to actually watching it recently.

It's an hour and 20 minute long video that supposedly points to government involvement in 9/11. Specifically, they imply that the government created the terrorist attack as a pretext to go to war.

I really don't have that much interesting to say about it, and only post it so that other people who haven't seen it might watch it (and so that I don't forget the link).

It certainly seems like the "facts" they have to back up their argument are things like posts on Metafilter [metafilter.org], posts on weblogs (which you can identify easily, because they are using the default Blogger [blogger.com] layouts), and eyewitness accounts from people who might be whackjobs without any credentials.

That is really the achilles' heel of the story. What they propose seems to be supported by a lot of evidence... until you really look at the evidence they are presenting. And then their movie looks more suspicious than anything the government has done.

Bachelor Parties

So, this weekend is the big weekend.

One of my friends is getting married and he asked me to be his best man. The first thought that I had (which I didn't verbalize) was, "Oh crap. I'm going to have to organize the bachelor party!" And then my very next thought was, "SHIT! I'M GOING TO HAVE TO GIVE THE TOAST AT THE RECEPTION! I'M SCREWED!"

The bachelor party came together pretty quickly, though. We're going to start with dinner at Brasa [brasagrillsteakhouse.com]. Brasa is a Brazilian steakhouse, where they have a ludicrous variety of meat, and it's all-you-can-eat. Talk about a guy's restaurant. Ever since they opened up, I have wanted to try it out. And every guy I have talked to who has been there has said it is great.

Afterwards, we're going to hit a bunch of bars and clubs down in that area of town (the Warehouse District).

And then we're going to finish up the evening at Christie's Cabaret [christiescabaret.com], which is a stripclub in downtown Cleveland. That, of course, is going to be the highlight of the evening. I mean, the group consists of 20 married guys. And most of them haven't ever been to a strip club before, so that's just going to be pure comedy gold. Ever seen a group of guys all standing around looking really uncomfortable? Anyone want to set the over/under on the number of minutes it'll take us to get thrown out?

Older Brother Effect

Did anyone see 60 Minutes [cbsnews.com] this past weekend?

I love 60 minutes, because they do in-depth stories about interesting topics. It's very difficult for me to watch news on TV, because no one else really seems to do any analysis at all. Reading a newspaper is so much better.

Anyway, one of the stories they did was The Science Of Sexual Orientation [cbsnews.com]. They talked to scientists who were trying to understand whether sexual orientation the result of nature vs. nurture. One of the things they did was look at sets of twins (where the conditions in the womb and in their upbringing were identical) where one of the twins was heterosexual and the other was homosexual.

The most surprising part of the story for me was The Older Brother Effect [cbsnews.com]. Apparently, the more older brothers a boy has, the more likely that boy will grow up to be homosexual.

Ok, what? Does that make any sense?

Apparently, that is one of the most solid findings of statistical analysis. But it just boggles the mind. Maybe men with more older brothers are more likely to be openly gay...

Battlestar Galactica: Lay Down Your Burdens

Last Friday, the season finale of Battlestar Galactica ran. I have to preface this discussion by saying that Battlestar Galactica is one of my favorite shows. My reaction to the season finale, however, is not as gleaming. I think that Powazek [powazek.com] says it perfectly in his miniblog: "Battlestar Galactica Season Finale: Lay Down Your Burdens -- Everyone who saw it join with me in saying, What the FRAK?"

I think that if the cast of the show looked directly downward right now, they'd see a shark.



*Spoiler warning*

I'm not even sure where to begin complaining about the episode. The President decides to try to rig an election and colludes with Colonol Tigh but not Admiral Adama? Does that make any sense?

I hate that they jumped forward a year in time. It seems like the time they skipped was longer than the time we had previously seen since the Cylon attack.

And in that year that we skipped, all of the people who had spent their lives in the military abandoned that to do who-knows-what down on the planet's surface? That doesn't make any sense. All of the Viper pilots? All of the Raptor pilots?

And then that ending... Ugh. Ok, the patrol consists of the two battlestars and a bunch of civilian ships all together in a big pack? Why are there civilian ships on patrols in the first place?

And what was with the battlestars anyway? Why were the commanders surprised at how long it took to set Condition One? Uh, don't they do drills for practice? Did the commanders just suddenly forget how to command a ship? When they found that planet, did everyone just get hit in the head at the same time and lose their marbles?

Finally, no one ever discussed what they would do if the Cylons came back? Does that make any sense? Even if the civilian government was not in the position to discuss such a situation, surely the commanders would have made arrangments to recall the people in the military...

I'm Sick

There is a reason that all of my posts this week have been made later in the morning than usual. I have been knocked on my ass by whatever bug is going around right now. The symptoms are a high fever that won't go away for days, congestion, and lack of energy.

Because of the congestion, of course, I am doing all of my breathing through my mouth, which is irritating my throat. And so I have this horrible cough. My remedy is just eating lots of soup. If I go for a while without eating something wet like soup (even if I'm drinking plenty of water or hot tea), I start having these uncontrollable coughing fits. And I start coughing so much that I actually feel the beginnings of throwing up.

Not fun.

Yesterday, I went to the grocery store to pick up some more soup. Imagine that I'm going to the grocery store with a shopping list that consists only of cups of apple sauce and 47 cans of soup. Normally, it isn't really a big issue, because I go through the self-checkout aisles [wikipedia.org] so that I don't have to actually interact with any of the employees. I also use those aisles because I feel badly about making someone else check out my groceries when I can do it just as quickly myself. It also has the added bonus of allowing me to bag my own groceries in a non-asinine manner (the employees all seem to want to put just about every item in a separate bag).

And I know that the people at the grocery store notice the things you buy. I've gone through the normal, attended checkout aisles before with a cart that implies that my weekly diet consists entirely of Doritos and Kraft dinners [wikipedia.org]... and have heard the checkout people comment about my obvious bachelorhood.

Unfortunately, on my trip through yesterday, someone came around to bag my groceries, even though I was in the self-checkout aisle. If I sleep all day, I can fake being perfectly fine for a few hours at a time. So, I know that the bagger probably didn't detect that I was sick. They probably thought that I was another lonely, pathetic computer geek who lives in their parents' basement. Of course, it didn't help at all that I was wearing a t-shirt that has a binary joke on it [thinkgeek.com].

It was a relief when I finally got out of there with my 47 individually-bagged soup cans.

Whining from TVs

For a while I have known that I am very sensitive to the high-pitched whining that you hear from the flyback transformer [wikipedia.org] in TVs (the CRT type, of course). In fact, I can hear it from pretty far away, and am always able to detect when my TV is on from outside my apartment even when it is muted.

Ok, but here is something that I'm sure you wouldn't expect: I like the high-pitched whining. Maybe I should have my head examined.

I have known for quite a number of years that I sleep better with the TV on. I have always had a problem getting myself to fall asleep. I can't get myself to wind down at night, and it's difficult for me to let go and stop thinking about things that had happened that day. It is fairly common for me to lie in bed for an hour before falling asleep.

A lot of people have various remedies for sleepless nights. Some people drink warm milk. Some people read. I turn on the TV.

Two apartments ago (when I lived on Bellfield Ave), I had a TV located literally right at the head of my bed (albeit facing towards the center of the room). This just turned out to be convenient because of the room layout. However, it was also convenient, because if I had trouble falling asleep, I merely had to reach over and hit the power button (and then the mute button) in order to get that screeching sound I love so much.

Unfortunately, my TV is now in my living room. So, when I have trouble sleeping, I have to relocate to the living room and sleep out on the couch if I want to hear the flyback transformer singing.

Isn't that weird? In my experience, there are two types of people out in the world: those who can't hear high pitches like those from a typical TV, and those who hate those sounds.

I'm worried about the day when the only type of TV you are going to be able to buy will be the LCD type.

Can't Anyone Spell?

Ok, I'm one of those people who can't stand it when they receive an email from someone who can't seem to write a coherent sentence that contains proper spelling and grammar. I mean, how difficult can that be? I'm no mental giant, and I can manage to do it.

I think that it's different when people make typos. I mean, everyone makes a mistake here and there. I'm talking about the people whose sentences are spelled less than 90% correctly. And almost every environment has a spellchecker these days. OS X has one built into the OS, so that any text entry field can be spellchecked, regardless of application. Just take the time to reread your sentences and make sure they don't make you look like you are in 2nd grade.

It's even more irritating when people substitute things like "U" for "you". Are you really saving any effort? It's not like you're abbreviating "antidisestablishmentarianism" with "ADT" or something.



Above is one of the shows that I watch (and I'm going to try to salvage some of my pride by not mentioning which show it is). I took a picture of this particular scene because of the closed captions. Ugh.

It seems as though lazy people are doomed to pervade every part of society.

Now, to be fair, I don't really know how closed captioning works. I mean, the program wasn't live, so I assume that the people who type all of that stuff don't to type it all live. So, in theory, they should have plenty of time to type out the dialogue any way they want to. But who knows?

Memories from a White School

As I've mentioned before, I'm ethnically Chinese. I grew up in the suburbs in Pennsylvania, where I was only one of a few non-white people in school.

Recently, someone close to me asked me whether that was ever a problem in school. Of course, my knee jerk reaction was to say no. However, when I really started to think about it, the memories started to come back.

In elementary school, I constantly heard racial slurs from my classmates. And as someone else brought up, children in elementary school had to learn that from somewhere, which really makes you wonder.

I also got picked on and beat up a lot in school too. To be fair, though, it's not clear whether I was picked on and beat up because I wasn't white, or because I was smaller than most of my classmates. See, I was almost a full year younger than my classmates, and therefore was a year behind in growth too.

Those were definitely not my most proud years, though. One time on the school bus, some bully stuck their gum in my hair. And they stuck it kind of on the top of my head, but just beyond my view when looking at myself in the mirror. I was so embarassed. And yet, I didn't know what to do (not having heard of the trick with peanut butter). So, I took some scissors and tried to cut it out. I'm sure you can imagine a 9-year-old trying to cut their own hair (especially when it's beyond your view in a mirror. And then my parents wondered why that one patch of hair was shorter than the rest.

One time, my mother actually did get it out of me that I was getting beaten up by some kids at school or on the bus, and she called the school principal, which just made things worse (from the bullying point of view). And I resolved to never let my mom know about anything like that again. Which, you know, sets up a great child/parent relationship.

I hope that I never become a parent, but I definitely wouldn't send my child to school a year early. Of course, being a parent is so hard these days, I can't really blame mine for making a few mistakes along the way. It's not their fault that kids are really cruel.

Do I have a Secret Admirer?

So, last month, a random copy of PC Magazine [pcmag.com] showed up in our mailbox. I really didn't think anything of it. I mean, over the years, I have subscribed to various computer magazines here and there. And although I don't subscribe to any computer magazines now, I do still subscribe to National Geographic, as well as the magazines I get with my membership in the NRA [nra.org] and the American Society for Mechanical Engineers [asme.org]. Those give me plenty to read each month.

Anyway, again, I really didn't think anything of it when a random copy of PC Magazine showed up in our mailbox last month. I figured that they send out random copies to people who are known to have an interest in computers, in order to entice them into buying a subscription.

Well, on Friday, another copy of PC Magazine showed up (as in the current issue, not another copy of one we had already received). That I thought was odd. I looked at the mailing label, and it says that I have a subscription through January 2007.

Huh?

So... Did someone buy me a subscription to this magazine and forget to tell me about it? Or, did I accidentally buy a subscription when I was frantically clicking all over the place, trying to get last-minute Christmas shopping done? Or, am I buying crap in my sleep? Or maybe someone thought it might be a great practical joke to buy me something, and then watch me go completely mental trying to figure out who did it for me...

Olympians and Their iPods

I saw a link to 'A sponsorship waiting to happen' [baltimoresun.com] on collision detection [collisiondetection.net]. The article talks about the long-standing relationship between athletes and music. But there is a new twist. Instead of just being there to amp up the athletes before a competition, at least one athlete listened to her iPod during her halfpipe routine on her snowboard.

I have long had a list of mental criteria as to what types of things should be Olympic sports and what should not. For instance, any sport (such as golf) where a 60-year-old could reasonably have a chance of beating me should not be an Olympic sport. Or, any sport which is judged purely subjectively (such as synchronized swimming) should not be an Olympic sport (it's an art). Any sport in which you can be obviously overweight and have that not hinder you (such as curling) should not be an Olympic sport.

Anyway, I think that I have just added another to my list of criteria. If listening to your iPod while competing in the sport is not a hindrance, then it probably should not be an Olympic sport. I mean, you're not going to see speed skaters competing while listening to their iPods. The brakeman in one of the bobsleds is not going to be riding down the course while listening to an iPod. It's just not going to happen.

I just can't figure out whether my annoyance has more to do with NBC's horrible coverage of the Olympics this year, or the asinine sports that get added every cycle to the Olympics.

a la carte cable

For the past few weeks, I have been hearing a lot about the a la carte cable proposal [mercurynews.com]. The FCC published a report suggesting that consumers could save money if the cable TV companies were forced to unbundle their channels. Where I live, if you want to most basic cable package, you have to buy a bundle of 60-70 channels, most of which the average consumer never watches. And that basic bundle costs way more than a basic telephone line.

Plus, if I wanted to get a premium channel like HBO, I would first have to buy into another, bigger bundle first. Which also costs way more than it's actually worth (which is why I haven't done that).

Here's a quote from the article:

"The FCC suggests that all channels should be made available a la carte. The study found that consumers could pay for as many as 20 channels plus six local access channels and pay less or the same as they do now. The average household watches 17 channels, the study contends."

At least this whole thing is thought-provoking. However, I am pretty pessimistic about this whole deal. First of all, the cable companies probably have pretty strong lobbyists in Washington. And it seems like whenever huge corporations are on one side of a debate and consumers are on the other side, the politicians go where the money is (unless there is public outrage). So, I am pessimistic that these sorts of changes will ever be made.

Secondly, even if the cable companies are forced to unbundle their packages, I doubt that the consumers will save money. I mean, if they allowed you to buy channels a la carte, but getting 10 channels that way cost as much as the basic package (which gets you 60-70 channels), which one are you going to buy?

Finally, if everyone starts buying a la carte cable, the only shows that are going to survive are the ones that pander to the lowest common denominator, like American Idol. There would no longer be the money to create documentaries about predators in the Serengeti, or whatever. Actually, most of the things that I actually watch on a regular basis would probably get cut: Formula 1, Battlestar Galactica, etc. Who knows if 60 Minutes could even survive?

I really don't watch that many channels though. I watch:

• sometimes the major broadcast networks (Lost [go.com], Gilmore Girls [warnerbros.com])
• the Speed Channel for Formula 1 (although less now that they don't carry WRC [wrc.com] anymore)
• the SciFi Channel (Battlestar Galactica) [scifi.com]
• TNT (for reruns)
• The Discovery Channel (Mythbusters [discovery.com])
• ESPN
• Comedy Central (The Daily Show)

Uh, that's about it. Very occasionally, I watch 24-hour news channels (and so I would probably pay to get one). Other than that, there's no way I would pay to get any of the others a la carte. I really envy a lot of the friends that I have that don't have TVs.

By the way, why does just about every show's website suck? They take way too long to load and have crappy Flash crap. Make it stop already...