Babies

Apparently there was some party here at work during the lunch hour for a guy from the IT department who had a baby. I was on vacation when it went on but I found a flier announcing this mini party in the lunchroom. On it said:

Come celebrate Bill's new son!
CONNOR (middle name) (last name)
6 LBS
2 1/2 OZS
18 1/2 INCHES

And then I realized that for some reason, the baby's weight and height (length?) are always required conversation material when discussing a newborn baby. Maybe it's just women who talk about that stuff. Does anyone really care if a baby weights 6 lbs 2.5 ounces versus 6 lbs. 8 ounces?

I guess it's an indicator as to whether a baby is healthy or not, but that's kinda mean cause what if the baby doesn't weigh a lot? Then when Soccer Mom B asks how much Soccer Mom A's newborn weights, SMOMA has to feel shame when she admits her babe weighs a paltry 5 lbs 5 ozs, and SMOMB invariable has a disappointed/consoling look on her face when she says 'Ohhh...'

They jumped on the bandwagon when they picked Connor as a name. Connor's one of those good names that got sorta played out or is on the verge of getting played out. Currently, Irish names are the craze and I'm not talking about Sean or Patrick. I read a whole bunch Irish newcomers like Flaherty that are next to hit. Apparently the rich start the trend, then it creeps down to the middle and lower classes after 10 years or so, and eventually the poorest of the poor purposefully (or sometimes not) mispell the name to make a new one (i.e. Micheal).

Is there no hope for new creative names? Black people have already trademarked all cool Persian names like Cyrus, Darius, etc. Bastards. I'm just gonna name kids after pagan gods and be done with it.

Gasoline and Video Games

So yeah gas prices went up like 40 cents in a week. No one knows exactly why but maybe if we invade more middle eastern countries prices will eventually level off.

But I guess it's ok for gas to go up as time goes on because inflation happens, wages increase, etc etc. That's the cycle with all consumer products right? WRONG. There is one thing that is immune to the evils of inflation, and that's the video game.

Do you remember how much new video games were in the 80s? Fifty bucks. How much are they now? Fifty bucks. Sure, Sega threw in a game every once in a while that went up to $70, but that was pretty rare. It's amazing, no matter the year, no matter the technological advance of the console, video games stay at the exact same price.

According to this inflation calculator, $50 in 1986 translates to $85.65 in 2005 dollars. Video games should have increased in cost by about 70% in the past 20 or so years, but they've stayed the same.

At least we can look forward to Christmases 15 years from now where we can buy our kids $50 video games.

Back in the game

The game I started over a year ago was the real estate one. Bought a house in Philly, fixed it up, now I'm ready to repeat. Exchange four green houses for a red hotel (1031 tax-free exchange actually, for my fellow accountants). I've actually been able to keep my eye on the prize and follow through, which I sometimes have a difficult time doing. But now there's work to be done.

New house I bought from a guy in foreclosure, got it for $40,000 or so under market. The place smells like dog, and needs new paint/carpet everywhere. Still the potential for a lot of equity, and the area is awesomely woodsy and suburban, which will be a nice change from ghettodelphia. But what if it costs a lot more to fix it up? Luckily I made connections with other RE investors and I can get the place fixed up relatively cheaply I think. One guy's helping me out for cheap just because I give him advice on mortgages and real estate.

Still it was scary that something may/will go wrong and I'll have to pay for stuff and I wasn't 100% sure where it would come from. Then came a magic thing - a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC). Because of the equity in my two houses (my Philly house is worth about 40-50k more than when I bought it) I can slap a line of credit on them and have like $60-$70,000 open to borrow. That means I can fix whatever I want and pay for it later. That also means I can use that to buy new opportunities should they come along and possibly flip them...hmmm very interesting. I may be out of the rat race soon enough.