car work
July 28, 2008
I took the opportunity tonight to have my older boys help me with some car repairs tonight. We had to change the spark plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor on the 1990 Camry, and I thought I could use some help, while teaching the boys a little something, too. Everything seemed to work okay, but we did come across one item of concern. We found that the third spark plug had some oil on it. That just might explain why my car sometimes blows blue smoke out of the exhaust when I start it. Since the maintenance, the idle seems to be a lot better, but I still have something else that I think needs to be done, namely replacing the fuel filter. It really seems to struggle while I’m driving, especially when coming off of the line. I’ve never done anything with a fuel filter, though, so I need to do some research.
famuley values
July 21, 2008
I picked up my iphone this evening to write my grocery list. I opened the note pad and found this message from Betsy, “I love my famuley and isspeshley you mom!!!!” What a sweet and thoughtful girl we have.
Drunk Photography
July 16, 2008
Here is one more thing to add to the “Things You Only Do Once” list.
Photography is not a Crime!
July 16, 2008
I know how this guy feels. I have felt very uncomfortable, at times, when taking photos because I am afraid of what people are thinking of me. I always go way out of my way to make sure that it doesn’t look even remotely questionable.
Housing Bubble Blog Post, Circa 2006
July 14, 2008
I stumbled upon this blog post from 2006. In it the writer was kind of poo-pooing the forecasts of the housing bubble doomsayers.
The housing bubble bloggers have been “warning” readers for a year or two about an impending housing bubble. Now that they think it’s here, the “warning” has turned into a complete doomsday scenario, complete
with Americans rioting in the street. Nobody will be safe as the U.S. dollar will have devalued to be on par with the peso. The American economy will be owned by Chinese central banks and our children will be producing the world’s cheap consumer goods, not theirs. This is what they would have you believe.Thankfully, I don’t think many people are listening. But they are listening to the mainstream media who are filling up the airwaves with equally ridiculous myths about the condition of the American housing market.
I wonder how things would be today if people had listened in the years leading up to the Great Bubble of 2006.
450 and Counting
July 14, 2008
As previously mentioned, Melanie and I have been looking at buying a house. We’ve been doing a bunch of searches and I’ve been tracking a lot of different homes and their prices. This past weekend, after I had visited a friend in Herriman, I drove around the town and looked at the different neighborhoods. One thing I noticed is that there are a ton of homes for sale down there. Really, a ton. The city is estimated to have a little over 16,000 residents and, if the average family size is 3.9 people, that would mean roughly 4,100 homes.
All that said, on Saturday I found that there were 451 homes for sale in the city of Herriman. Today there are 458. This means that approximately 11.1% of homes in Herriman are for sale. Of those, there are at least 60 of them that are short sales. To me, this seems like a really high number. This could be helpful as we keep looking for the perfect place to purchase.
Photoshopping the Photoshopped Photos
July 13, 2008
News Flash: ACLU Gets One Right!
July 11, 2008
Wow. The ACLU was actually on the right side of a lawsuit!
A federal appeals court ruled Friday that officials at an Arizona school violated a 13-year-old student’s constitutional rights by subjecting her to a strip search for drugs based on a classmate’s uncorroborated accusation.
By a 6-5 decision, a full panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reversed an earlier ruling by three divided judges from the same court.
In the latest ruling, judges said officials violated Savana Redding’s Fourth Amendment right “to be free from unreasonable search and seizure” and called the search in 2003 “grossly intrusive.” The girl was an eighth grade honor student at Safford Middle School when she was pulled from class by a vice principal who was investigating accusations that the girl was giving prescription-strength Ibuprofen pills to classmates.
Don’t Talk to the Cops, Part II
July 9, 2008
And here is the cop’s “equal time” to the previously shown attorney’s talk.
Don’t Talk to the Cops, Part I
July 9, 2008
I’d like to think that I’d be a pretty helpful guy to the police if they’d ever come knocking, what with me being a good guy and most likely innocent and all. This guy sure makes me think about stuff, though.
