Hunting The Muse

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Curt Is:

Musician, Programmer, Polyglot, Rennaissance Man, Bon Vivante

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Hunting The Muse

Friday, August 30, 2002
Well. I've thought a bit more. Here's how the thinking goes right now.

From what I recall, the prices here have not appreciated all that much over the last couple of years. And they probably won't, not like in other places. Plus, we're probably not appreciating all that much in general in the future due to the market slowing down a tad.

To me, that rules out buying it and then selling it soon. Plus, I know that selling property is just a huge pain in the ass. I'd like to avoid that if I can.

Next is buying it with the intent of staying long term. I just don't want to do that. If it's apples to apples, why not just buy something that I really like. The only thing I am costing myself here is that I would be having to put up with people coming in to view my place, and the time of looking for a new place. And it might even be tough to sell - it has a strange garage where it's very difficult to fit something like an SUV into it.

So I don't seriously see myself buying it to keep long-term. That just feels depressing. I'd like to buy something that would even have perhaps a bit of room for a couple of years of married life.

Next is buying to rent out. The first flaw is that if I don't want to stay long term and then I'd want to have a permanent place, I'd be moving out only to move again to buy my house to live in, which is the ultimate goal. Third... with the amount down I can afford, my mortgage is going to be at least a couple hundred more dollars per month than what I'm currently paying in rent. I think it would be a stretch to get myself above water in the short term.

Finally, it just sort of feels like I should be focusing my investment instincts on my business, not on investment property. Not yet. Buying with the intent of renting it out or buying with the intent to sell both treats this as an investment property, and in general my dad thinks that condos just aren't very good investment properties, not unless you hold on to them for a WHILE. Because of stuff like homeowners fees I would be underwater for a while I think.

I'm not as convinced about that as other options - I could still buy it with the intent of moving and renting out later... but it just feels kind of painful. Delaying the piano because of the buy, then delaying the piano again because of the quandry of figuring out how to buy a new house and perhaps renting a place in between. Ugh.

So it looks like I am just planning on staying while looking for another place to buy. I'm one of those dream buyers who has a "negotiable closing date". I guess I'm going to step up my search. The rest of my lease gets honored no matter what. I don't have to leave before next June. So I can just take my time looking, or find something more quickly.

It looks like I am officially delaying buying my piano, though. :( Because now I need my cash savings to help me with down payments and closing costs. Sigh. Hopefully this is the last time.
(6:35 PM)
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All right, I'm going to do some thinking aloud here about what I could do about my condo.

I could buy it. I'd probably get a decent price. I'd have to delay getting my piano perhaps, or maybe not. I'd be here a bit more longer term, which I'm not entirely comfortable with. I liked the idea of being here for the conclusion of my lease, maybe a bit longer, while I looked for another place that I might like even more. But I could buy this place and be here a bit longer than that and probably be mostly content. I like it - it's spacious, has A/C, I could add a fireplace and buy new appliances... I don't like the location so much because it's so much of a trial getting into town. But I feel better than neutral about it.

I could not buy it and just ignore everything. I'd be dealing with a lot of pain, and then I'd either get a new owner that would definitely want me to move out at the end of the year, or would raise my rent significantly, or the owner would try and bribe me to move out early anyway. I suppose there is a chance he would sell it immediately to someone that would love me and wouldn't raise my rates, but I just don't feel like I could count on that. It seems like a lot of pressure. However, I could do it and assuming I'd be okay with moving next June, I could buy my piano still.

I could buy it with the intention of selling it in the short term, which means I'd have to be pretty damn comfortable with my buying price and the ability to clear money after flipping it.

I could buy it with the intention of keeping it and still moving in the short term, only to rent it out. If I did this, I don't think I'd be able to show enough income to be able to handle two mortgage payments at once. First, I'd need to feel comfortable that I could charge high enough rent that ten months of it would pay a year's mortgage+homeowners. Second, I'd need to guarantee that I had rental income before I qualified for the new mortgage. While it's possible to buy a house quickly after renting it (before the tenant moves in), this probably means that I'd have to rent it, move out to another rental property, and then I'd basically be back where I started except owning an investment property, still looking for a property to buy. In other words, two moves before I'm settled.

Finally, I could buy something else, something that I really love. I was hoping to put this off into the semi-distant future while I had a nice stable place that I wouldn't have to think about, but it looks like that's not to be.

find out what mortgage I could do (pre-qualify)
find out more specifics on how the market is doing here in terms of resale opportunities
Compare mortage price with comparable rent.
Talk to Dad. he knows everything.

(4:42 PM)
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Thursday, August 29, 2002
A friend of mine lost her kitty tonight. :( That is so sad. I grew up with a cat named Jesse. He was orange and thin. He was smart and would lead me to the door when he wanted to go outside, and to the stick thing when he wanted to play. My mom took care of him when I left. Even in his last year he would still occasionally jump the high wooden fence to attack those wispy cottonwood seeds that would float through the air.
(12:55 AM)
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Wednesday, August 28, 2002
Don't mind me, I'm just working really hard lately. I billed 33 hours last week which is double my average. It's hard to maintain that because I spend a good portion of my work time being nonbillable because of inefficiency... like, oh, right now.
(3:42 PM)
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Tuesday, August 20, 2002
All right, I have to get this off my chest.

A long time ago I was working for a company down in the bay area of CA, and I went to another company in the bay area of CA, and then while a bunch of us were milling around, another project manager - some hotshot - walked in and everyone said hi. I got introduced and he put his hand out to shake hands. So I shook it, and he made eye contact - he was a bit aggressive about the whole thing - and he had no fingers.

It bugged me afterwards and I'm coming clean, I admit it. You ask me who I feel more compassionate for in that situation - the guy who was missing his fingers, or the man or woman who shakes his hand and then jumps from being startled. Sorry, but I feel more compassionate for the other guy. I mean, having no fingers is horrible. That's probably my worst nightmare. Well, second worst, after being attacked and torn apart by weeds. But still. I won't forget that subtle sneer that was on his face while he shook my hand, it was like he was daring me to react, or requiring me to act as if nothing was amiss (like, uh, fingers). It would have been different had he smiled wryly or something, it was just that belligerence that ticked me off. Felt like a test. Plus there was all his coworkers watching me. And then them all requiring me to insult my own mother. Not to mention then eating the live worms, and shaving my head. Man, where was I, anyway?
(2:25 AM)
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Monday, August 19, 2002
Well, dang I hate when life starts to be a bit less fun.

I moved into this condo a couple of months ago on a one-year lease - the move was totally painful and unfun. But at least I had another year of not having to think about things. And maybe I would stay here for another year if I wasn't ready to buy yet. I don't know.

So the owner just called me and he wants to sell the place. He says that he BELIEVES it means that he has to honor the duration of the lease, so I wouldn't be kicked out or anything. But he's thinking of selling it to my next-door-neighbor which doesn't feel like much fun. Yuck.

All this while I was finally gearing up to get my piano. There are just a few extra variables now that make buying the piano feel a bit more complicated. Like, hypothetical new owner might want me to move quicker. Or maybe I buy the place (less money to buy piano). Or maybe the presence of a piano would be an issue with the new hypothetical owner. Plus, the current owner really wouldn't care about me breaking the lease, so I could also think about just buying a place elsewhere. Last thing I want to do though is just move to another rental before my year is up, though.
(8:06 PM)
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Friday, August 16, 2002
Well, my new webhosting service is going pretty well. I have folks from my old singing group all acting as informal clients, and it looks like everyone who originally promised to be clients is actually coming through - it might end up paying for itself. Hooray! It is a little bit stressful just because of the potential for catastrophe. Not that there is a REALISTIC potential for catastrophe, it's more like an imaginative potential. My slogan for the service is, "Centralizing My Ability To Piss Off All My Friends Since 2002."
(1:26 AM)
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Thursday, August 15, 2002
Life is busy and tiring but not all that bad right now. For a while I had a motto of "Living Without Discipline". I got pretty good at that. Now I have to change it to "Replacing Inefficiency With Enjoyment."
(12:18 AM)
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Sunday, August 11, 2002
I'm crockpotting for the first time. No idea what I'm doing. I'm vegetarian so I don't actually need it to stew meat. It's a little one-setting two-serving crockpot for $9.99.

I put in a can of cream of mushroom soup and its water, a half a block of tofu, a whole potato, two or three mushrooms, some garlic, some chervil, some dried vegetable soup mix, and some salt. We'll see how it turns out in a few hours.
(3:40 PM)
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Saw an article about that Florida football team adopting "Let's Roll" as their season slogan.

All right, overall it's a pretty silly thing to get tied up in knots over, as I think there are too many media articles on it already. But there is something that strikes me as pretty tasteless. And that is, if it's used to honor the folks on that plane, then why the hell is it justification to BEAT another team? Like, Florida State is going to go and try to beat Miami in honor of the folks on that plane? How many people that died on that plane graduated from Florida State, anyway?

That's the difference between honoring them and co-opting them...
(2:54 PM)
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Looks like my new server is working!
(2:07 AM)
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Saturday, August 10, 2002
I rediscovered one of my favorite snacks from years past today.

Cream cheese and lemon curd on crackers.

Mmmmmmmmmm.
(10:00 PM)
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Monday, August 05, 2002
I didn't realize it was actually ILLEGAL for us to pump our own gas in Oregon. I thought it was just that the CITIZENS made it a law for ATTENDANTS to pump our gas. I went and got gas today and they filled up my tank good and proper. It filled, the nozzle shut off, and then I just sort of sat there. Watched the attendants walk by, waited longer than I ever have in the three years since I've moved here. So I got out, took the nozzle out of the truck, and put it back in the holster. THEN I got accosted: "Sir, I realize you are in a hurry, but YOU CAN'T DO THAT." Then I looked it up when I got home and found out they could have called the cops on me and given me a $500 fine. I can't belive how much that pissed me off.
(1:05 AM)
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Thursday, August 01, 2002
Damn. I feel like I worked really hard today and I didn't really get anything knocked off my todo list. My working theory now is that it must simply mean that my todo list just isn't detailed enough. I didn't have "eat three times" on my todo list, but I did successfully accomplish that goal. Damn my list! It robbed me of my feeling of accomplishment!

I'm gradually porting domain names to my new hosting box - I've successfully ported three friends over now, which basically covers about a third of the monthly cost of my box. Now I'm working on getting my own domain names over there so I can cancel their old hosts, but it's turning out to be a trial. There's one piece of technology that I want to duplicate for this site in particular that I haven't yet been able to duplicated on my hosting box. I had to decide to use qmail/vpopmail and mailman... they don't go well together it seems. At least, not out of the box. I'll have to do some configuration wizardry. But then! I'll be able to move this offer and cancel the awful awful webhost (cwihosting.net) that this site is hosted on. Actually, they'ved improved since last year, but they are still awful. I still have all this porn in my website that they deposited into my disk space for me. I keep on finding new pictures in my directory structure. It's weird.

I started a new client, but my motivation is still kind of low. Having trouble stringing together four or six billable hours in a row when I'm here at home. It's better than a week ago or so but my efficiency could still be a lot later. I swear I don't know how some people manage to bill 60 hours. My all time high so far is 35 hours, back in the last week of March. Right now I'm averaging around 16 hours a week.

Well, off to bed... I might actually be able to manage a full day tomorrow... we'll see.
(1:27 AM)
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