My Manly Upgrade

So lately I've been thinking of becoming a man. I mean, I already have a penis, but I'm talking about learning how to do manly things. Since its just my sister and I at her house, I recently decided to embrace this opportunity to learn how to do things around the house, like painting, plumbing and yard work, things like that. And since she doesn't charge me rent, I figure I owe her.

My latest project has been the lawn. With the summer turning into fall, now is the perfect time to start planting winter seed. I'll be honest, I had no idea what I was doing, but when my sister came home from Home Depot with a large bag of seed and a few bags of fertilizer, I knew I had to get busy. And, luckily, there are instructions right on the side of the bag.

Step one was to cut the current grass down past the green part, almost to the root. This was a pain, since our current mower was a hand-me-down from a gracious friend who is actually good at this sort of thing, and decided that this particular mower didn't have the necessary "chops" for his own lawn. The bag recommended that the soil be tilled, but to Hell with all that. And I wasn't about to buy a new mower, so it would have to do. I put the risers to the lowest setting and started pushing. It did a modest job, cutting away most of the green from the old lawn.

Next came the seeding. I had seen my older, more retired and more manly neighbor seed his own lawn, and figured to follow suit. He seemed to be pretty liberal with the seeds, so I was too. Plus, while I was throwing the seeds, I started to think 1 seed=1 blade of grass. I later found out this is wrong, but at the time I was really throwing it around. In retrospect, maybe I overdid it, but damnit, "our lawn will look amazing" I kept telling myself.

The next step is really easy: water. We already have sprinklers in the front yard, so its not like I have to do whole bunch.

And that was it, end of instructions. I wasn't really all that amazed that I was able to do it, I mean there are a lot of idiots with nice looking lawns, so I knew I could do it. But I really wish the bag had a little more instructions telling how to keep birds away.

Oh ya, thats another chore I need to do, get rid of all the birds and bird nests around our house. I already tried this, and ended up killing a baby pigeon. Which, when you think about it, is a little remarkable considering how seldom people actually see baby pigeons. I wasn't sure how to feel about killing it though. I mean, its not baby unicorn or anything. It's not even a mammal. But mama bird obviously didn't get the hint, she just watched her young die from a tree branch and is now eating the seeds of what will (hopefully) soon be my new, vibrant, green grass. Its nice to know she isn't too torn up about it.

So after this little Sunday project, I started making a mental bucket list of man-projects to accomplish. On it are new shingles for the roof, new backyard fence or block wall, and painting the exterior of the house. I also added hunting, getting into a bar fight, and climbing Mt. Everest, just to keep it exciting. I'm also looking forward to wearing more flannels and when I stop shaving my face completely, just so everyone knows, I have a penis!

Hello Again

It's been a while since I've been on here, sorry about that. School just started this week and its going pretty good, I like my classes. I'm a few months from turning 27 and I would really like to have my bachelors by the time I turn 30. Jesus I'm a bum (and a Veteran).

So today I was reading a few blogs, and one of my favorites (http://www.zerohedge.com/) just ran a story about how the July totals for homes bought and sold were somewhere around 276K. To put that in perspective, in July of 2005, over 1.4 million homes were bought and sold. I think this really goes to show how far people were reaching for the American dream. The blame for the ungodly high numbers and the ungodly low numbers, respectively, does not fall on any one person or bank or entity. It was definitely a mixture of new financial products available to high risk consumers, a surge in construction of new homes, and ignorance on behalf of the consumer. as soon as companies like Countrywide found new ways to approve taking on the risk of a new sector of the customer base, all they needed were employees to take inbound calls.

And the calls definitely came. People were under the assumption that if you buy a home, it will be worth more than the purchase in future. I remember telling my brother while we were in high school that real estate can be just as risky as the stock market. He told me I was an idiot (I have a strange knack for remembering conversations from the past where I am proven right, and another strange knack for forgetting when I am wrong). I guess the counter to that argument is that when you buy a home, regardless of price, you still have a tangible asset. Or at the very least, a roof over your head. But I would bet if you could ask any of the millions of people who have foreclosed on a home, or are underwater on their loan, if they would still buy the home they did, I would bet that answer would be a resounding "NO". I'm not sure where I'm going with this argument, but it probably just goes to show that when buying a home, there are only a few rules you should go by:

1- Are you buying what you want?

A lot of people bought homes thinking it would be a good investment. Some of them did make money or land a home they wanted. But what you hear now from the news and online is a lot of buyer's regret. You should only buy a home if it is somewhere you want to live, and certainly within a certain distance of somewhere you can find a job. Unless you have the intention and the means to flip the home as a short term investment, think about it a little bit. You can always, and I mean ALWAYS find someone to loan you money. But can you pay it back?

2- Can you afford it?

This goes into the whole "buying a home near work" thing. A common belief a few years ago was that if you buy a home, put a few grand into remodeling it, and then sell it, you can make a nice profit. This has been proven very untrue.

I guess what I'm really working towards with this post is that is that I was right in high school when I told my twin how risky real estate can be. And that buyer beware just doesn't fly in America when a Democrat is in office...

My First Blog?

I've been thinking of creating a blog for some time now. I don't consider myself a creative person at all. One time in high school, as a joke, I submitted a lame poem I wrote into the yearly poetry contest. I got an honorable mention. That has pretty much been the highlight of my life as far as creativity goes.

Anyways, right now I have a lot of free time in my life. I'm unemployed and loving it while I go to school full time, living off the G.I. Bill. And to be honest, Facebook just isn't cutting it anymore, and I can never fully express myself on Twitter, besides the fact that I don't really have any followers (11 as this is written).

Most of what I have opinions on are sports. I have opinions on almost all sports, minus NASCAR. I hate baseball, love basketball and football, and hate college sports, but thats all for another post. Every now and then I'll have an opinion on politics or current events, usually the economy or a particular business that I like or hate. I may even write about pop-culture. I might even write a book, who knows? I'll let you know how it turns out.

All you have to do is check in once in a while.

P.S.

I still haven't decided on what to call this blog, so if you have any titles, appropriate or not, let me know.

Thanks