another question

Traditional 401k or Roth?

New Job... begin

So I started a new phase of employment in my life today. My trip to back to the OSU career fair during my winter dry spell came to fruition today. And it looks like it is going to work out super nice. Seems like good people, I was impressed with how organized the company is, my health insurance starts instantly, I probably won't have to buy a vehicle, they do some 401-k matching also starting immediately, the work hours can be a little flexible each day, they'll be paying my cell phone bill, and... yeah. It just seems like a good fit.

I walked there this morning. I was going to take the bus, but Powell was all backed up like crazy, so I hoofed the two miles. And it worked out just fine.

My title is Building Science Consultant. I'll be doing some site visits, taking pictures and writing reports to help HOA's in litigation against their builder on account of faulty workmanship or materials when their windows or anything is leaking and causing damage. I'm pretty excited.

And props to go to my Maker, thank you Jesus for working this all out so far so well. I'm somehow surprised when You take care of me, but thank you.

A question

I've had this thought sloshing around in the back of my head for a while now, and it persists as I continue to waste countless hours reading about nothing on the internets. It's a theory really, and I need you to come up with only one good counter-example to blow it apart.

It is this: Whatever you are doing, at that moment it is the most important thing to you.

I want good rebuttals. I decided this was true thinking about how come I don't read my Bible and yet read lots of ESPN and blogs. But I think it's also true in many other areas. Certainly eating, sleeping, and excreting.

For work one must look at the big picture, it is important for me to have money so that I can pay my bills etc, and personally I often find work enjoyable and get to choose what order I do things in to some degree.

Spending time with friends also works as far as I can tell. What else is there that I've missed? I think this concept works to eliminate excuses, although so far it hasn't helped my time management.

a waste of time

The good folks at Oregonlive have come up with a wonderful bracket of the best thing ever. Brackets themselves should have been at least a 13 seed I think, but I guess the selection committee had to leave something out.

I love that bacon is the #1 overall seed. Which reminds me of this.

Anyway, my final four has to be Sports in HD over Penicillin and "...I'm Keith Jackson..." over free beer, with Keith Jackson taking it all. Ya gotta remember the game he went out on. Even though I watched it in my hole in Antioch, it was still a great game. It's at the 2:30 mark.

Ok so maybe it's not the best thing ever, but I miss football.

BO says FU

Alright Obama, I see how it is. I can take a hint. You think you don't need me. By declining the public financing system, I see you don't want my help. And you no longer have it.

I learned the most significant thing about your character today. I learned that when offered the ring of power and all the money behind it, unlike Galadriel, you will take it, rather than seek to destroy it. I don't like it that you think this election can be bought.

With such a large spending advantage, you are the clear front-runner now. I don't see how you can lose. But the Giants did beat the Patriots, so I suppose anything can happen.

I re-registered and voted for you in the primary, because I felt you needed my help to defeat Billary. I do have an unhealthy level of resentment for those two. But that battle is now won. And I've grown tired of trying to defend you.

I've got nobody's back now, and thats the way it should be in politics. I believe in change, every single day. We'll see how I feel come November 4. But it is clear now that who wins is not such a big deal to my life.

Awkward moments

Though there are many, I just decided I'd share maybe my two favorite scriptural awkward moments.

Luke 14:15. "Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!" Dinner party at the house of a pharisee, Jesus is in the midst of blasting everyone in the room for their attitudes of taking the place of honor at a banquet, and somebody just can't take the awkward tension and blurts this nugget out. Classic.

John 21:5. "Friends, haven't you any fish?" This is definitely my favorite chapter of the whole volume, and this is the most awkward moment for the disciples. The whole story had taken place, and Jesus had even already appeared to them after the resurrection, and yet there they go out in the boats back to fish anyway. And the the Man appears and asks what's up. They did manage to answer no, while they were all soiling themselves for being so stupid. It's perfect.

More Little Shack pics

More Little Shack pics. It is all buttoned up now, perhaps someday the interiors will be done, but I'm outta here after this week. We actually found some big cedar beams that were holding up the old barn that might be able to be resawn into 1x12's perfect for the inside, but that will be another time.

Since it's so small it's pretty difficult to take a picture of the inside, we extended the loft floor area to about 130 sf and decided how to do the ladder. I think it turned out well.

I really like the railing, it's all clear cedar save the pressure treated, and quite solid.

Don't look too close at the scaffolding, although I'm sure that's an approved method in some country somewhere. Or just anywhere where you are working by yourself. I sure wouldn't have anybody else crawl up on it.

I don't think that I'd quite posted a pic of the view from the deck yet.

And one day we had quite the adventure backing up the flatbed trailer in the mud. The wheelbase for the trailer is just enough wider than that of the tractor, and the ruts just deep enough and slippery, that when it gets off course it is pretty much impossible to correct.

And I refuse to spend the time trying to line up the pics with these words. Or essentially learn anything new as long as I'm using this lappy. Isaac has got me convinced that whenever I get a new machine to let him set up Ubuntu with Windows as a little slave on a partition or something. And that's when I'll spend lots of time learning new things, but this old dog doesn't have any new tricks in her, it just takes waaaay too long.

The bald faced truth

Well Canzano didn't let me down today. On his show this afternoon he said that he was thinking about Javon Walker last night and then proceeded to lay out pretty much the same deep theory that I was pushing yesterday, that some part of Javon felt guilty that it wasn't him that died back in Denver last year. Thank you John, I'm not crazy.

I think the Blazers need D.J. Augustin from the draft this year. It seems unlikely he will slip to #13, but dude is a pure point guard who can dribble and think, and I think he'll be really good on the right team.

It appears that western oil companies will soon begin to directly profit from the war in Iraq, returning to a position they left 36 years ago when Saddam came to power. Hmmmm. This seems like just the kind of meaningful event that the puppet masters prevent from becoming big news.

And if we thought measure 11's mandatory sentencing was a bit harsh, check out this kid who's in a world of hurt. I don't have much sympathy for the rich turd, but 38 years seems beyond harsh.

Not a whole lot interesting on the election front as far as I can tell. BO and McCain are slowly converging in my mind, BO has fundraised too well to not have sold his soul. Scott Adams continues to do a very good job of analysis, and I'm not too interested in putting myself out there for either dude. My hope is not with politics, it is an entertaining as sports sometimes and more important, but only Jesus gives me change that works for me.

bling bling

The lakers got crushed, and I couldn't be happier for them. Now the focus can turn to what the Blazers are going to do in the draft. Joe Alexander seems to be getting a lot of love, the rumors are strong they will trade their first pick, but I'm betting the keep it. I trust Prichard in any event.

The big talk on the radio today was not Tiger's studly win at the US open, but Javon Walker. It was so good that Rome even allowed about 15 callers on the air, which never happens. They were all skewering him for being so stupid for essentially doing the same thing as the night when his then teammate Darrent Williams ended up dying in his arms new years eve 06. Essentially they were at some club showing off their bling and spraying strangers with thousand dollar bottles of champaign. Last time the limo got hit in shooting and someone died, this time Walker was found passed out on a street, heavily beaten and robbed.

And yeah, there's certainly an element of how proud and dumb can you be acting the gangster again flaunting in the same was as when your buddy died. He does have to be smarter than that. But what got me was that in their haste to question his judgement, even on Canzano's show nobody considered that perhaps Javon is still haunted by that previous incident. Perhaps he felt he should have been the one to have died, and went at it again in the same way because he is genuinely sick and wanted somebody to end his life in an "honorable" way. Or some kind of craziness like that that he had talked himself into because he's rich and scarred and he doesn't have friends with any balls to tell him no and that he needs to go get help. And he's too sick to go get help himself, so he does something desperate so that help comes to him. I think it's very plausible. And I was upset today that the possibility was not even being considered. Everybody is too busy piling on the black thug.

My house wishlist

I like to check RMLS from time to time to keep tabs on the housing market. Things are looking better for me every time, this recession isn't all that bad. I need people to start panicking. I won't be in position to pounce on something for a while, but I'll know when to jump when it's time. I've got a few items I'm looking for:

under $200k
Built prior to the 70's
two toilets
basement, hopefully unfinished
garage, hopefully detached
kitchen that feels open, or suitable walls to demolish to make it so
gas to the house, so Ginny can have her range eventually
old fir hardwood floors
functional wood burning fireplace

Location deserves it's own paragraph. I'm not too hot on St. Johns, but I'd live there. I like the area around Dave's/my parents but it is getting out of my price range fast. I like Parkrose a bit for it's low cost and larger lots, but it's a way's out. Lents is supposed to be the next area to experience economic growth, but it'd be a tough five years before then. But I'm open to pretty much any deal east of the Willamette.

The best I could find today was ML#8038619. 52nd and Alberta. Cully neighborhood. Seems like a good compromise location to me. Good bike riding spot. But mostly I need to ride the thin line of recession, just good enough so that I still have work but not so good that things start taking off like crazy again.

my crack at some linkage

Well I've been meaning to go on a crusade against sarcasm, but Terry posted a good link on it today here from the NYT.
Sounds like the trick to it is to figure out what other's are thinking. The article deals with it from the perspective of the listener knowing what the speaker is thinking, but I think that when sarcasm is really effective, the speaker also knows what the listener is thinking. Regardless, if it cannot be abolished it needs to be cut back big time. It is like many good things, best in small doses.

Scott Adams takes his best shot at arguments for McCain and BO for POTUS here .
He seems to make a better case for McCain, though he has appeared to be pulling for BO more from past posts.

Sorry, flip-flop lovers. You may be hurting yourself.

And, another opportunity cost related to consumer debt, your health.

Get the ball

Well the generator acted up on me this evening. The pull cord broke and it kept shutting off when running. I spent waaaay too long rigging up another rope, and it took a bit to remember that it shuts off when the oil is low. Sure sounds obvious now though. But it all did get fixed before dark, and that's what's important.

I had a fun time at church last night playing wallball with the kids during Paul's CD party. I ended up not having to serve my regular week with the kids this month, so I watched some of them during the bonus event, and they kicked my butt at the ole wallball. Very liberal 'interference' rules though.

And then we played 'get the ball.' Which is my favorite game in the whole world. I like playing against people that are bigger and stronger better cuz then I can go all out, but I think I'll only be finding kids to play that with from here on out. We played in college a lot, when I lived in the house with jake carl and tim. We even knocked a butt sized hole through the wall once, it was awesome.

But nobody got hurt yesterday, and that was awesome and somewhat surprising for me. Usually something happens, although we did upset Jonah. After the kids had cleared out of the ball room during dessert time I sat in front of the door to try to ensure no more ball playing that evening. Jonah took exception to this, and he was having a good time climbing on me and begging to go into the room. Jeremy was nearby, and we kind joked for Jonah that sure we'd let him in but then not back out. I though he heard, but I guess not.

So I let him in and then sat back in front of the door so it couldn't open, and it was kinda loud and I was talking to some folks, so it was probably nearly five minutes before I let him back out. He was crying and very upset, and I felt terrible. Then his Evan comes over and he starts begging to be let in. I tell him what just happened with his brother, but he is undeterred. So I let him in, but I shouldn't have let him have the ball. Cuz he would come to the door every so often and pretend to be upset, and then go back to bouncing it. Finally I become overwhelmed by all the kids punching me to be let in and reopen the floodgates, and Evan is indeed having a good ole time.

I dunno. It's good experience for me to work with the kids, and it is fun. Although it is a bit disturbing when little Ella starts following the example and is punching me. But I know I did the same thing when I got frustrated as a kid, and I'm probably fairly frustrating to them.

So that's my tale of child 'supervision' for the evening.

NBA Finals Game One

I have a good deal of pride for the Western Conference. I think its a NW east coast media bias chip on my shoulder I carry. I have no love for the Boston Celtics. Boston fans are spoiled and pampered as of late, and I have no empathy for them. I don't appreciate Kevin Garnett, he's overrated and disappears in big games. Ray Allen played for Seattle for years, and I hate the way he killed the Blazers.

But.

I feel absolutely no hesitation or conflict in rooting for the hated Lakers and Kobe to just die, and I'm very pleased in the outcome tonight. It sounded like a good game, thank you ESPN radio on the net.

It's On

So the most important question for the evening is: will I be able to watch the Lakers-Celtics using only the internets? I'm betting no.

In other news, hundred year old cedar shakes sure make starting a fire easy.

I've been thinking about Hillary's imminent exit and who BO's VP should be. I heard that BO is going to likely pay off Billary's campaign debts, and offer to let her be in charge of health care reform should he be elected. That sounds like a reasonable solution, I don't trust her but in this situation I think she would do her damnedest to do the best job with that she could, which is about the most I could hope for.

Now for BO's VP, I had a fun idea. I swear it was my own. I don't know who, but he needs an older female running mate, female to pull in Hillary voters, and older to get close to McCain's prime demographic. I couldn't think of anybody really good though. Maybe Elizabeth Dole, I guess she worked in Lyndon Johnson's administration before she went Republican, it would be a good unity tool as well. The other name that came to mind was Maria Shriver. I don't know how seriously she could be taken on the campaign trail, but she is almost a Kennedy, and both those ladies would discourage any potential assassins I would hope. But a female's gotta be the way to go.

Predatory Lending

I also feel like I might have a bit of a rant in me this evening. I'm sure many of you have heard those radio commercials for car loans, credit-yes, joe-says-yes, dick-says-yes, free-credit-report, etc. I'm sure many of you have also heard a bit in the news about the housing "crisis," and the trouble we are in due to "sub-prime" lending and the house of cards falling. Well I was just thinking about putting those two things together.

I find the term "subprime" or "subprime loans" itself to be a bit confusing and misleading, because what it means is that the rate on those loans is above the typical interest rate, because the borrower's credit worthiness is "sub" that which is normally acceptable. Much hullabaloo is now being made on how to fix that mess that was caused by nothing more complex than greed on the part of the lender. Banks have had standards for a reason, and when they consistently relax their standards it's bad news.

So with this recent information in the news about the disaster that type of lending is in the housing market, why is no one rushing to silence these predators that are seducing people into car loans that they can't afford? Is it because a large group of people going default on auto loans will not have a negative effect on the economy? I don't know the economics of the situation, but that mechanism seems on the surface to be one of the ways that increase the gap between the rich and the poor.

The bottom line is that vehicles are money pits, one of the worst things to have a large chuck of your income tied to. I think high gas prices are beginning to make this more obvious, but a car is not an investment, it is a sunk cost. And the lust for a new pretty one that infects this country holds the lower and middle classes down. I'm with Mr. Ramsey now that no one should have a car payment, ever. I fell for it and had to bail. And I have plenty of friends that have newer cars that can make the payments no problem, and enjoy it. But I'm convinced that if you want to get ahead, a nice car is not part of the picture. Reliable yes, nice not so much.

But credityes.com is driving me nuts. Not just the ads, but the premise. I just want to scream back, NO! No you don't need a nice car. You're only causing yourself pain. The whole premise of car payments is whack, but if even the banks don't think you can handle a loan, take the hint buddy. Save yourself and tell Dick to go to hell with his crappy loan. It's the same thing as subprime morgages people, and it only hurts the little man. Tell your friends to just say NO!

Little Shack Pics

I thought I'd share some pics of what I've been working on lately:




















































































































































The footings were poured about 5 years ago, and it was just now finally time to build the thing. The deck in total is 20' by 20', the shack is 14'x16'. Ten foot studs, balloon framed with half of the area inside as a sleeping loft. We still haven't quite figure out all the details of how the ladder up to it is going to work. The roof is at a 12-12 pitch, and the one operable skylight really adds to the area of the room. I do enjoy installing skylights.

There's quite a view of the field below, this is the highest ground on his property.

The siding is reclaimed barn shingles from his barn that fell down in the snow a few years back, and the fascia and varge boards reclaimed barn boards. They were up to 1-1/4" thick by 13,"
and by do they clean up well. I'm putting on the deck and handrail this week, and maybe get to finishing up the siding.