We live in the "oldest HOA in America" according to their website, however they have zero control over what we can do to our homes. They have always had sway in the Glendale city council though, which means indirectly they can affect the permitting process of certain things (including when you can legally trim oak branches that are more than 2" thick). The suggested fees are $35 annually IIRC and that gets you access to their newsletter and annual meeting, but it also seems that you only need to pay for it once to maintain those "perks"
I don't find this particularly petty. She owns a listed house in a very historic part of town. Listed homes sell at a discount because every single external change needs to be blessed ahead of time, and either be historically accurate or so distinct from the original style that there's no mistaking that it's a modern addition. She was lucky it wasn't A listed or she would have had to get permission for her internal modifications and she never would have.
"If HOAs are so bad, why do people start them and then allow them to become little dictatorships?
Let me tell you a secret.
This is a secret a lot of people don’t like to hear. Some might even call it “politically incorrect.”
You ready? Buckle up, Dorothy, because Kansas is going bye-bye.
Given a choice, the vast majority of people prefer to live in a dictatorship, as long as the dictator has the same tastes they do.
Homeowners associations become petty dictatorships because that’s what people want.
They like the idea that the HOA controls what color they paint their house, as long as the HOA tells people to use colors they already like.
They like the idea that the HOA controls what people do with their property, as long as the HOA says they have to do things they were already going to do anyway."
Mrs Slug and I have talked about the possibility of buying a house in a 55+ development in Santa Rosa. It has an HOA. Their level of dictatorship seems rather well defined and all-encompassing, but then again, all of the homes look pretty much the same and nothing sticks out as being an eyesore. They have their CC&Rs available on their website, but you have to get permission to view those documents.
that's about the level of petty control I'd expect for a historic district, and she'd probably have had complaints about the door anyway. Were I to return to the motherland, I don't think I'd adapt terribly well to the level of petty bureaucratic control over what seem like minor details...
Mind you, the same thing can happen here - my mother in law and her husband own a house in a historic district in a town on the eastern Shore of Maryland, and when they were having their deck / steps out front replaced, they were told that they couldn't use anything other than wood, even though synthetic or treated alternatives were indistinguishable to the naked eye.
I turned on the mlb channel while eating lunch. Game from Detroit is on. Looks like it's freezing cold there for the three hundred or so who showed up.
Did EAP in Bordeaux in 99-00, was awesome! If you can do a year abroad without adding semesters to your graduation schedule, you almost have to do it. You can’t replace that experience with a vacation or even living there when you are an adult later. The confluence of living abroad while like a 20 year old is like magic. NB: at least in France, foreign students on exchange programs qualify for a govt stipend, so it’s not really the case that it costs more
I was never a fan of French wines per se...seemed like a lot of talk when US wine was usually better and cheaper. However, I recently discovered a Texas winery run by a French guy who uses Texas grapes but makes French style wines...they are freaking delicious. If anyone ever comes to Austin and decides on a wine country day trip, stop at Calais winery. Its amazing.
Better? ...and Cheaper? That's only because they are imported - French wine (in France) is much better and cheaper than ANY US wine that is similar. Here, you got to look carefully, I generally buy French, Italian, American, Spanish, and a few others.
agreed, when I was in Paris it was cray cheap and good. I was talking about my exposure in the US where it tends to be expensive and not worth the $, at least in my limited exposure
I gave and mainly sold a $4 bottle from a great label on Cotes du Rhone to my tenants! Bought 24, but needed to be drank soon since it was 15 years old.
Pommeau is an alcoholic drink made in north-western France by mixing apple juice with apple brandy: Calvados in Normandy (Pommeau de Normandie) or lambig in Brittany (Pommeau de Bretagne).
the interesting story here is that once i was at a bar in NYC and had some of this on a whim. afterwards i decided to look it up and our next vacation ended up being to Normandy and Brittany. that was about 19 yrs ago because Mrs HSB was pregnant w/ our current 19 yr old!
i am pretty sure i would be happy living/retiring in most parts of France even though i probably have an overly romanticized notion of what that means.
These games have just been a microcosm of the Warriors' entire season: occasional promise, Draymond losing his mind, can't keep everyone on the floor at once, looking out of sync and fading down the stretch in road games.
This series reminds me a little of the Raiders/Bucs super bowl. Jon Gruden architected the offense and knew everything about it. Mike Brown didn't architect the O, but still knows a lot about it and how to defend it.
BEEF (Netflix, 16/19 WB, E1-3). I am having a love/hate relationship with Beef so far. The premise is good with lots of small little really neat touches in their juxtapositions. One on hand, some really obvious/predictable stuff that creates suspense because you can see it coming from a mile away. On the other hand, the writing is subtle and smart, creating some moments where you're like "wait, what? ohhh... that's messed up". So it's mostly love. The part that I don't enjoy -and this will sound weird - is that I think Steven Yuen's acting is too good. It's a dark comedy - but Yuen bring such pain, angst, and frustration to his character that I'm squirming in my seat as his life comes undone. So it's something that I really enjoy after I watch it, rather than during.
I saw a bit of it peripherally because I was in the room while my brother and his girlfriend watched it, but I didn't pay super close attention because it's not the kind of story I particularly enjoy.
Two takes I've been seeing on Twitter:
1) Steven Yeun brings his own experience of growing up in an evangelical church to the role (subthread about how manipulative the evangelical church experience is, which I knew nothing about)
2) apparently one of the actors in the series is a rapist and/or has bragged about being a rapist?
I think I'm 2 episodes in. I like it so far. It's so different from "Always Be My Baby", but seems closer to what Ali Wong might be like based on her stand-up.
OK Governor calls for the resignation of county officials after some comments were caught on tape. Surely this is just casual racism that country folks engage in [listens to tapes]... oh, oh shit. That's straight up evil.
Last week, Trump sued Cohen for $500m for ratting him out. The problem is that he opened himself for evidence discovery and weakened his defense case against the 34 felonies the Manhattan DA brought against him. But he'd know that if he had a criminal defense lawyer, not a lawyer who specialized in franchise businesses.
I can't remember that RB/LB from about 7~8 years that ago that we were all really high on, he would have been better at LB but was a RB and I don't think he played a down for us
His supervisor just called me, because someone else who heard it already talked to his supervisor. Apparently, this isn't the first time he's had to be told not to say shit like this!
Californites! This isn't due until October in most CA counties (due to disaster relief), wish I knew that before I sent it in (could've moved some monies around the caribbean prior to ;))
It was a nice tax day indeed since I wrapped up the calculations last week. Actually the bill is a little reduced from last year. I like how the revised 1040 inquires about investments/trades in Crypto. Admittedly I am not involved in Crypto so far so it does not apply. I almost invested in a crypto ETF but it exploded on the launch pad.
hope everyone has a "nice" tax day. although i hear that this year the excessive rains in CA give everyone an extension?
i filed all my stuff on TurboTax last night. the hardest part is tracking down small import errors from all electronic transfers. sometimes it cant find a cost basis or purchase date, so you have to go to that actual broker docs to investigate.
We switched to using an accountant years ago for reasons, and I think even though most of those reasons have disappeared, we may just keep on that way.
what takes me the longest is putting in numbers in parallel into some custom Excel spreadsheet i have to calculate taxes. i do this mostly so i understand the inputs/outputs better and helps me catch something i might have missed.
This is how I do my taxes also. I annually update my Excel spreadsheet.
The redesign of Form 1040 after the passage of the (so-called) Trump Tax Cut was the worst. It was a wholesale re-design of Form 1040 and caused much gnashing of teeth.
My wife originally took over doing taxes when we were first married because I understand the rules but I struggle with numbers - both remembering short sequences for a second and in transposing them... so taxes took me FOR-ever. This somehow became "you don't have any patience with government tasks" which is funny because I get paid to understand bureaucratic rules and don't waste any time complaining about / trying to second guess them.
In any case, the accountant is plus. If we do give up on that, I think I'd set up something similar to your Excel sheet.
Tell the DBD an animal fact
Rats can live so densely that they can get the tails knotted together. The mass is called a "Rat King"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_king
I said goodbye this morning to literally one of the sweetest pups ever. Just a treasure. She is at peace.
😔 🌈 💚
wombat poop is cube shaped
Behind the Green Door
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-65275890
Sounds like someone decided to copy the apocryphal level of pettiness displayed by some American HOAs.
Harrumph, indeed.
We live in the "oldest HOA in America" according to their website, however they have zero control over what we can do to our homes. They have always had sway in the Glendale city council though, which means indirectly they can affect the permitting process of certain things (including when you can legally trim oak branches that are more than 2" thick). The suggested fees are $35 annually IIRC and that gets you access to their newsletter and annual meeting, but it also seems that you only need to pay for it once to maintain those "perks"
I don't find this particularly petty. She owns a listed house in a very historic part of town. Listed homes sell at a discount because every single external change needs to be blessed ahead of time, and either be historically accurate or so distinct from the original style that there's no mistaking that it's a modern addition. She was lucky it wasn't A listed or she would have had to get permission for her internal modifications and she never would have.
from Quora today:
"If HOAs are so bad, why do people start them and then allow them to become little dictatorships?
Let me tell you a secret.
This is a secret a lot of people don’t like to hear. Some might even call it “politically incorrect.”
You ready? Buckle up, Dorothy, because Kansas is going bye-bye.
Given a choice, the vast majority of people prefer to live in a dictatorship, as long as the dictator has the same tastes they do.
Homeowners associations become petty dictatorships because that’s what people want.
They like the idea that the HOA controls what color they paint their house, as long as the HOA tells people to use colors they already like.
They like the idea that the HOA controls what people do with their property, as long as the HOA says they have to do things they were already going to do anyway."
https://www.quora.com/qemail/tc?al_imp=eyJ0eXBlIjogMzMsICJoYXNoIjogIjEwMTAzMzU1NTg4ODY3NDEzOTJ8MXwxfDE5MTU2OTk2OSJ9&al_pri=0&aoid=FIQnW4C5VWS&aoty=1&aty=4&cp=1&et=2&id=3031aa350c6d41e08652f15591f6cd11&uid=blwQc9LV3oY
I agree with that.
Mrs Slug and I have talked about the possibility of buying a house in a 55+ development in Santa Rosa. It has an HOA. Their level of dictatorship seems rather well defined and all-encompassing, but then again, all of the homes look pretty much the same and nothing sticks out as being an eyesore. They have their CC&Rs available on their website, but you have to get permission to view those documents.
that's about the level of petty control I'd expect for a historic district, and she'd probably have had complaints about the door anyway. Were I to return to the motherland, I don't think I'd adapt terribly well to the level of petty bureaucratic control over what seem like minor details...
Mind you, the same thing can happen here - my mother in law and her husband own a house in a historic district in a town on the eastern Shore of Maryland, and when they were having their deck / steps out front replaced, they were told that they couldn't use anything other than wood, even though synthetic or treated alternatives were indistinguishable to the naked eye.
A depressing American city/town
Detroit, MI
I turned on the mlb channel while eating lunch. Game from Detroit is on. Looks like it's freezing cold there for the three hundred or so who showed up.
Beautiful park tho, as was Tiger Stadium…
indeed. it was in a disaster zone part of town. unless all of Detroit is like that (?)
Bakersfield, CA
Eureka, CA - Probably the saddest CA town I've visited
Needles, CA
Gary, IN is the worst IMO. Agree with the knocks on Fresno as lame, but Gary is like a post apocalyptic nightmare
Butte, MT
Fresno, CA
Denver, CO
Dude, Fresno is brutal…
Rutland VT
Troy NY
Chester PA
Holyoke MA
Pullman, WA
A movie line that gets used in your household
"DO NOT go in there.....whooo!!!!" (Ace Ventura), mostly used this when I was a kid
It's Mercedes leather. (Lost in America)
Also, "Chu got da stuff?" (Scarface)
"English [my friend], do you speak it!?"
-Pulp Fiction (edited for network broadcast)
“Do or do not. There is no try.”
- yoda (the elder)
I’d need to rewatch, but I think that’s one of those classic lines that is modified. Like “Luke, I am your father”,
or “play it again, Sam”, or”go ahead, punk, make my day.”
For some reason, the hive-mind has altered the lines.
There are so many...Seinfeld quotes too.
French
My kid is 1/4 French
Laundry
i have never been. still on the list ..
Did EAP in Bordeaux in 99-00, was awesome! If you can do a year abroad without adding semesters to your graduation schedule, you almost have to do it. You can’t replace that experience with a vacation or even living there when you are an adult later. The confluence of living abroad while like a 20 year old is like magic. NB: at least in France, foreign students on exchange programs qualify for a govt stipend, so it’s not really the case that it costs more
I was never a fan of French wines per se...seemed like a lot of talk when US wine was usually better and cheaper. However, I recently discovered a Texas winery run by a French guy who uses Texas grapes but makes French style wines...they are freaking delicious. If anyone ever comes to Austin and decides on a wine country day trip, stop at Calais winery. Its amazing.
Better? ...and Cheaper? That's only because they are imported - French wine (in France) is much better and cheaper than ANY US wine that is similar. Here, you got to look carefully, I generally buy French, Italian, American, Spanish, and a few others.
agreed, when I was in Paris it was cray cheap and good. I was talking about my exposure in the US where it tends to be expensive and not worth the $, at least in my limited exposure
I gave and mainly sold a $4 bottle from a great label on Cotes du Rhone to my tenants! Bought 24, but needed to be drank soon since it was 15 years old.
I should visit you AND the winery
any time, my dear. We have multiple spare bedrooms
Pommeau is an alcoholic drink made in north-western France by mixing apple juice with apple brandy: Calvados in Normandy (Pommeau de Normandie) or lambig in Brittany (Pommeau de Bretagne).
the interesting story here is that once i was at a bar in NYC and had some of this on a whim. afterwards i decided to look it up and our next vacation ended up being to Normandy and Brittany. that was about 19 yrs ago because Mrs HSB was pregnant w/ our current 19 yr old!
i am pretty sure i would be happy living/retiring in most parts of France even though i probably have an overly romanticized notion of what that means.
PRO
[NBA] Starting in 2024, a pre-draft combine is required to qualify for the NBA draft
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/36224467/nba-nbpa-memo-outlines-new-nba-draft-selection-requirements
Steph Curry daps himself up after a fan leaves him hanging
https://twitter.com/WSandretto/status/1648151766922571777
Jacob DeGrom is in mid-season form - which in his case means that he's injured
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/36219819/rangers-jacob-degrom-exits-right-wrist-soreness
Sabonis grabs Draymond's leg again. Draymond steps on Sabonis' chest and gets ejected.
https://twitter.com/MagicoPepito/status/1648181430076178433
I can’t decide if the Dubs are really done or if they are just playing to 2022-23 form in losing every close away game. Or both!
They have to win at least one away game this series
These games have just been a microcosm of the Warriors' entire season: occasional promise, Draymond losing his mind, can't keep everyone on the floor at once, looking out of sync and fading down the stretch in road games.
This series reminds me a little of the Raiders/Bucs super bowl. Jon Gruden architected the offense and knew everything about it. Mike Brown didn't architect the O, but still knows a lot about it and how to defend it.
that was another bizarre Draymond moment. glad he got tossed out of the game for that even though he was provoked.
DBD AV CLUB
BEEF (Netflix, 16/19 WB, E1-3). I am having a love/hate relationship with Beef so far. The premise is good with lots of small little really neat touches in their juxtapositions. One on hand, some really obvious/predictable stuff that creates suspense because you can see it coming from a mile away. On the other hand, the writing is subtle and smart, creating some moments where you're like "wait, what? ohhh... that's messed up". So it's mostly love. The part that I don't enjoy -and this will sound weird - is that I think Steven Yuen's acting is too good. It's a dark comedy - but Yuen bring such pain, angst, and frustration to his character that I'm squirming in my seat as his life comes undone. So it's something that I really enjoy after I watch it, rather than during.
I saw a bit of it peripherally because I was in the room while my brother and his girlfriend watched it, but I didn't pay super close attention because it's not the kind of story I particularly enjoy.
Two takes I've been seeing on Twitter:
1) Steven Yeun brings his own experience of growing up in an evangelical church to the role (subthread about how manipulative the evangelical church experience is, which I knew nothing about)
2) apparently one of the actors in the series is a rapist and/or has bragged about being a rapist?
I think I'm 2 episodes in. I like it so far. It's so different from "Always Be My Baby", but seems closer to what Ali Wong might be like based on her stand-up.
Kind of like Danny Tanner/Bob Saget.
*Always Be My Maybe
oops...yup.
i agree. watched a couple episodes but got bored quickly because it seemed like the same kind of situation over and over.
but it was funny and good.
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
OK Governor calls for the resignation of county officials after some comments were caught on tape. Surely this is just casual racism that country folks engage in [listens to tapes]... oh, oh shit. That's straight up evil.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3955209-oklahoma-governor-calls-for-resignations-after-county-officials-reportedly-discussed-killing-journalists-hanging-black-people/
Meanwhile the Governor is thinking, "you should've used your inside voice"
Last week, Trump sued Cohen for $500m for ratting him out. The problem is that he opened himself for evidence discovery and weakened his defense case against the 34 felonies the Manhattan DA brought against him. But he'd know that if he had a criminal defense lawyer, not a lawyer who specialized in franchise businesses.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/04/donald-trump-michael-cohen-stormy-daniels-lawyers-big-mistake/
Big running back
Christopher Brooks
Vic Enwere
Malik McMorris
Also, Chuck Muncie was a giant for his time
I can't remember that RB/LB from about 7~8 years that ago that we were all really high on, he would have been better at LB but was a RB and I don't think he played a down for us
Found him.
Lonny Powell (2015)
Desarte Yarnway
Trajuan Briggs
Marshawn!
Andy Alfieri
Natrone Means
Natrone Means Business!!
One of my favorite RBs of the 90s. IMO, he is an underrated RB.
Brandon Jacobs
Derrick Henry
Legarrette Blount (spelling?)
Richard Rodgers
Marion Butts
LenDale White
Jamal Lewis
Earl Campbell. The Bus. Eddie George
oh and the guy from KC in the late 80s, but can't remember his name off the top of my head.
Christian Okoye
They had two of them back then: Okoye and Barry Word.
I thank Tecmo Super Bowl for helping me with this knowledge.
Barry Word was such a load.
I totally forgot about Barry Word. He was such a good RB.
Yup. him. I still have nightmares of him running through the Raiders.
Speaking of a RB running through my teams, Touchdown Tommy Vardell.
... and Brad Muster
[spits]
oh I did forget about him.
He wasn’t nicknamed the “Nigerian Nightmare” for nothing.
The Fridge!
didnt he score a TD in the Super Bowl?
Yup. And Walter Payton got screwed out of scoring a TD in a super bowl.
Elsewhere in college
CAL
Go Bears !!!
Coke Bear
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/soda-car-bear-1.6812541
Ugh, someone at work said, "Sorry I just keep staring at you. You're exotic...like you could be in Tahiti..." wtf
Bleah. We had a guy at work like that. Amazingly, after a few years of training, he became much more civilized. So there is hope.
How timely, I just returned from a 2-hour harassment training. Someone needs to nip this in the bud quickly.
I think at some point that person will be intimate with HR.
His supervisor just called me, because someone else who heard it already talked to his supervisor. Apparently, this isn't the first time he's had to be told not to say shit like this!
that sucks. sorry that you have you to put up w/ that crap.
Thanks
The Tax Man
Let me tell you how it will be
There's one for you, nineteen for me
'Cause I'm the taxman
Yeah, I'm the taxman
Should five percent appear too small
Be thankful I don't take it all
'Cause I'm the taxman
Yeah, I'm the taxman
Californites! This isn't due until October in most CA counties (due to disaster relief), wish I knew that before I sent it in (could've moved some monies around the caribbean prior to ;))
It was a nice tax day indeed since I wrapped up the calculations last week. Actually the bill is a little reduced from last year. I like how the revised 1040 inquires about investments/trades in Crypto. Admittedly I am not involved in Crypto so far so it does not apply. I almost invested in a crypto ETF but it exploded on the launch pad.
hope everyone has a "nice" tax day. although i hear that this year the excessive rains in CA give everyone an extension?
i filed all my stuff on TurboTax last night. the hardest part is tracking down small import errors from all electronic transfers. sometimes it cant find a cost basis or purchase date, so you have to go to that actual broker docs to investigate.
We switched to using an accountant years ago for reasons, and I think even though most of those reasons have disappeared, we may just keep on that way.
what takes me the longest is putting in numbers in parallel into some custom Excel spreadsheet i have to calculate taxes. i do this mostly so i understand the inputs/outputs better and helps me catch something i might have missed.
This is how I do my taxes also. I annually update my Excel spreadsheet.
The redesign of Form 1040 after the passage of the (so-called) Trump Tax Cut was the worst. It was a wholesale re-design of Form 1040 and caused much gnashing of teeth.
i figured there were others. i just didnt personally know anyone else!
Now you do!
My wife originally took over doing taxes when we were first married because I understand the rules but I struggle with numbers - both remembering short sequences for a second and in transposing them... so taxes took me FOR-ever. This somehow became "you don't have any patience with government tasks" which is funny because I get paid to understand bureaucratic rules and don't waste any time complaining about / trying to second guess them.
In any case, the accountant is plus. If we do give up on that, I think I'd set up something similar to your Excel sheet.