Monthly Archives: July 2006
Interesting Articles
There have been several interesting articles in the press since I went on vacation. Here are two of the better (more provocative) ones: Top Five Things Linux Can Learn From Microsoft Why Linux Isn’t Mainstream Both of these two articles make some assumptions that I am not completely comfortable with, but all-in-all they are decent articles, and bring a few new angles to the… Read more
Back In Action
All right, almost all of my arrangements for the move to London are made, so posts should get back to normal around here (at least until 15 August when the actual move… Read more
Warren Buffett Redux
When I mentioned before that Warren Buffett could be a frugal role model, and praised the fact that his life was organized in such a way as to make such a gift possible. In the back of my mind, I had always had it in my head that there would be a backlash against him for giving away his money; and now it has begun. This article is so ridiculous in its presumptive pseudo-intellectualism that I just don’t know where to begin. Perhaps I will just let it speak for itself: It is Buffett’s incomplete, inconsistent economic understanding that vexes the capitalists of the world. We are surprised and disappointed that such a free market legend could fail to understand the basic nature of capital: that capital is always more productive in competitive hands rather than charity cases I love the image of this Lew Rockwell regurgitation machine of a blogger telling Warren F***ing Buffett that he has an “incomplete, inconsistent economic understanding”. The real shocker though, is this gem: As a… Read more
Thirteen Things I Will Miss
With our move to the UK pending, I have been in something of a reflective mood lately (when I am not running around in a sheer panic, that is). Foremost on my mind has been all of the things that I know will be different. Some good, some bad, but mostly just different. Here are thirteen things I will miss once we have moved, in no particular order: The NHL: It is going to be almost impossible to see NHL games over there; partially because it is even less followed than in the US and partially because live games would be on around 4am for me… Friends & Family: Though I have not been nearly as diligent as I could have about visiting, it will be quite a shock to not be able to just hop in the car and do so whenever I want. My Coffee Roaster: We are moving into a small apartment without a garden, so there will be nowhere to house my monstrous coffee roaster/frankengrill contraption, though I am hoping to have access to better coffee in general. Pets: Unfortuantely, it is… Read more
Too Bad They Can’t Extrapolate
Management Issues is running an article about how senior executives in billion-dollar companies are dissatisfied with the work arrangements they have available to them now. More than half (53 per cent) of those questioned said they have not achieved a satisfactory work-life balance and a similar proportion (46 per cent) felt that their work-life balance had changed for the worse over the past five years. Compounding these work-life woes, six out of 10 complained that technologies such as the BlackBerry and mobile phone are further eroding the boundaries between work and personal life. What will the answer be for these beleagured captains of industry? More flexible schedules for themselves, along with “quiet hours” during which their electronic leashes leave them alone. Of course, they will feel enormous amounts of Puritan guilt for wanting to do something other than work. The answer to that will be to inflict brute force productivity gains on everyone below them in the… Read more
Farewell Tour 2006
A huge part of moving overseas, at least for us, is the fact that we are moving thousands of miles away from our friends and family. So far, all of the technical pieces have gone quite well, but today, we begin saying our goodbyes. We will travel to Boone, NC to see friends and Raleigh, NC to visit some of Jen’s family. These trips are always something of a marathon, with so many of our friends living on Boone, and it being 6 hours drive from here, and Raleigh a 3 hour drive from Boone, and… Read more
Under Offer
Holy Lockbox Batman, that was fast! It seems that our realtor has some sort of magical powers. Less than 72 hours after our house first listed, we have accepted an offer, contingent on financing, of course. On Monday we had visions of our house sitting for months and months while we continued to make the mortgage payment from overseas. Happily, that will not be an issue. In the last three days, the house has been shown a dozen or so times, and there are at least three offers on the table – one of which we have accepted, and a second we have asked the buyer to keep open for a week or so as a backup – as it is an all-cash offer. We should know by the beginning of next week if everything is in order with the buyer’s bank, and set a date for closing – hopefully before we… Read more
So It Begins
Today the process of leaving here becomes more permanent. Our house is now on the market, or will be in a couple of hours. We have decided to take a gamble and try to sell it as is instead of doing all of the work that would be necessary for it to fetch top dollar. I hope this proves to be a calculated risk and not just laziness. It all comes down to time really. With our expected date for leaving the country not much more than a month away, we really are not inclined to leave the country with loose ends still dangling. I would much rather do this quickly and cleanly and make somewhat less on the house than drag it out over a couple of months for the possibility of slightly more… Read more
Renovating
Nothing will drive home how badly your house is in disrepair quite like trying to sell it. All of the little things that you have trained yourself to overlook, from the replacement tile that isn’t exactly the same color to the gap between your baseboards and floor, come once again to the forefront of your conciousness, helped along by your real estate agent or contractor. With all of your carefully placed furniture no longer camouflaging various imperfections, and with the listing of your house imminent, everything begins to take on a monumental quality, and you become convinced that without brand new window screens no one will ever buy your house. In fact, they will all gasp with horror when they see it, and letters will appear in your local paper calling for the demolition of your eyesore of a house. Of course, none of it is really all that bad – nothing a carpenter and a painter cannot repair and make new, but in your nervous, frenzied state, it really does feel like the end… Read more
London Calling
I will be “on vacation” for a bit in order to finalize my move from South Carolina to England. Regular posting should resume in two… Read more