Ploafmaster General

Yesterday I took a sample of the popcorn ceilings to deterrmine if there was any asbestos present in the home-to-be.

I just got the results five minutes ago, and they were negative! Huzzah!

Now I just have to call the home inspector...

So the seller countered this morning. Closer to my number than his. AND he's throwing in five window units...

I believe Valerie and I are going to accept that, and wait for the home inspection to see what happens!

Valerie and I put an offer on the house today...We low-balled the guy, and now it's time to see how serious he is about selling.

We should know by 5pm tomorrow...

George Mason University is in the effin' Final Four of the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament.

Now, I didn't go to GMU, but they're in the same low-end, barely exciting Division I conference as my alma mater, VCU.  This conference, the CAA, rarely sees a team make it past the first round of the tournament, let alone defeating the likes of Michigan or UNC Chapel Hill.

I'm pullin' for them.  Now they face the Gators on April Fool's day.  I think I'll pull up in Penny Lane Pub that day and watch the game with my buddies.

I just saw the film, "V for Vandetta" last night, having read the complete collection of comics on my flight to Rome last year.  I certainly enjoyed the film - nearly as much as I enjoyed the print.

A phrase in the story came immediately to my mind as I read a story on CNN this afternoon.  The so-called "vox populi" of our nation cried out today in several intriguing protests around the country against certain hard-line immigration reform bills.

I find it a bit upsetting, however, that such a story is relegated to the side-bar lesser headlines on the CNN front page.  It's not even listed as a major news item on ABC's, MSNBC's, or Fox News' front page.

What do we get on CNN's front page instead?  Sensationalism; a minister shot by his wife.  Not to down play the seriousness of the murder, but people die every day.  People are murdered in this country alone every day.  How often do you have hundreds of students in LA walk out of their classes in protest?  How often do you have TENS OF THOUSANDS of employees in Georgia take the day off from work in protest?  How often do you have almost THIRTY THOUSAND citizens march through Phoenix and Milwaukee in protest?

Un-ignorable numbers unifying around the country in common protest, and the media mostly ignores it.  It's not like this is a minor issue, either - this is about immigration - one of the more hotly contested public debates in this country!

The people woke up today, cried out, and the Vox Populi went largely unheard.

Valerie and I looked at the righteous house on Seminary Avenue yesterday afternoon with our friend William. It was enlightening and encouraging at the same time - saw a few more things that need to be done, should we purchase it, and learned what we don't really need to worry about.

I think we're going to try to put in a low-ball offer on the house early next week and see what happens!

Here's something for the ol' reading:

New WPO Poll

And then there's this one:

US Troops in Iraq

I can't really add much to that other than to say it's time we were outta there.

A 12 hour drive from Tallahassee to Richmond. Ugh. It was nice to see Val's sister perform at FSU, but I never expected to be this wiped out upon my return. I'll try to get my pictures up on at least Flickr by this evening - there aren't many, but man does that new camera shine. Super sharp pictures.

In other news:

Tonight I formally apply for the mortgage - I still don't have a house picked out yet, but this will be one more step out of the way.

Tomorrow, my buddy William will come with me to look at the awesome Seminary Avenue house again. He has a Class A contractor's license, I believe, and should have a much more critical eye than I.

My brother Mugs has turned into nearly as much a computer nerd as I already am; he's preparing to install Linux on his laptop so he can continue swimming in the ocean of Open Source software available. Not what you typically expect of a fellow concentrating in creative writing.

Oh yeah, go check out Yahoo's new map system - it may actually give Google a run for its money (although Google still has simplicity going for it).

So I haven't posted any new pictures of the houses I looked at because I couldn't take any pictures.

See, my digicam busted in the most annoying way possible...The shutter button doesn't work anymore. I can do everything with my camera except take a picture.

I can't be too upset, however, because my mom won the camera in a contest and gave it to me free of charge.

So tonight, I just purchased a brand new camera - the Nikon P4. I'll be playing around with it this weekend on my trip down to Tallahassee, so I should have some new pictures at least for Flickr next week.

So I've been trying to figure out a way to pull all the photos from a set on my Flickr account.  I want to pull the images from there rather than put them on the server, but I can't seem to figure out a simple way to accomplish this...

AAAAHHH!

So Val and I saw three homes last night, and it was interesting, informative, and er, intertaining. Figure that one out.

I can't get the pictures up here at work, so I'll try to put up some PNGs this evening from home.

Anyway, here's a summary of the experience!

House 1: Intersection of Montrose and Laburnum...ugh, groty neighborhood and home exterior. Clearly the inside has been sufficiently renovated in an extreme attempt to distract from the dismal locale. Ultimately, no thanks.

House 2: Overbrook Rd, accross the street from where the Kirks used to live. Pleasant façade, but inside was ick-tacular. Needs enough work that it's not worth it, even at the discount. Besides, I'm not sure our bed room furniture could fit in any one of the bed rooms upstairs.

House 3: Church Hill, N. 31st St. Wow. Totally re-done inside and out. I was iffy about Church Hill at first, but after driving through to this house yesterday, I'd definitely be willing to live out there.

So that's round one, as it were (I don't really count the open houses last Sunday). Can't wait to see more!

Probably one of the more interesting pieces of writing on art I've yet read:

Art Statements, Pitchfork, and fancypants analysis

So Valerie and I will have some home viewings scheduled for the end of the week! We're hoping to see about 4-6 homes between Thursday and Friday, and I plan to bring my digital camera this time. And yes, I also plan to post all worthwhile pictures.

Here we go!

My buddy Jake just created a new site, and while I added his link to the, "Friends of the General" section, I forgot to mention it. It's called CAUGHT IN plei·ot·ro·pism's GRASP and he has yet to post more than a greeting.

Additionally, Mugs has created a new site for his literary wares, and you can find it over at www.peripatetics.net/bjwarshaw.  Yes, that's the same location as our joint webiste (which hasn't been updated in AGES), but I decided to let him use some web space for his own personal web development.

Valerie convinced me today to see a few open houses, and while I was at first hesitant to join her, I was rather encouraged by the first home we visited.

It was helpful to see that a home in our price range could be so finished, charming, and conveniently-located as the well-kept cape through which we walked.

I look forward to checkin' out more homes over the coming weeks.

We got pre-approval on a mortgage! Now Valerie and I are receiving home listings via email, and I'll be furiously digging through news papers and online listings.

Home-ownership, here we come!

You know, I realized yesterday afternoon that for the first hour or so after I work out at the gym, I feel remarkably more clear-headed.  I suppose this is one more huge incentive to keep up the exercise.  Perhaps with continued work the mental clarity will last longer.

I sure hope so :-)

So on Wednesday, Valerie and I are meeting with a realtor. I'm hoping, also, to talk to a lender tomorrow and discuss pre-approval and all that jazz.

Well, I thought I had more to say on the subject, but that's really it. I'll update as I have more to tell.

I just purchased two CDs yesterday - "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Abbey Road" - both by the Beatles, of course.

Holy crap.  They are both so incredible.

While I was already familiar with about half of the songs on each, some I'd never heard, or hadn't heard in years.  Hearing each album all the way through was a treat indeed, absorbing all the innovative details of the music.  I think the next album I purchase will be the so-called, "White Album," in all of its two-disc glory.

Yesterday I had the longest day of work in my life. 14.25 hours, to be exact. I had to stay late to fix a problem I discovered, and it had to be fixed before midnight for reasons which would take too long to explain.

I was there until 10:15 pm.

I marveled at how quickly the extra 5.75 hours went by, especially considering the work I was doing was tedious. I guess time not only flies when you're having fun, but also when you feel the hours you should be spending at home robbed from you without your control.

It didn't really help that I came to work this morning to discover the client had changed its mind, rendering all my work useless.

Guh.

You know, as a final note, I realize that the last several posts of mine have been rather rant-ish/negative, and that's not generally my nature. I think I'll try to expound on some more positive events in my life over the next few weeks.

Oh, and go read my brother's poetry, right now.

Or lasagna if you prefer.

Today I brought home-made lasagna to the office for the folks on my team, and it was a hit.  I made the pasta from scratch, I made the sauce from scratch, and man was it all delicious...

I was pleased with the food, my team was pleased with the food, and I'm once again encouraged to keep cooking.

Mmmmm...

So yesterday in the morning I finished reading The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.  I read Angels and Demons last year, and I enjoyed it for the most part.  The ending was weak, and I felt cheated by a poorly constructed about-face in one character's personality, but I thought it was otherwise a decent book.

Then I borrowed Brown's latest from my mother-in-law.  I wasn't particularly worried about the hot-button issues in the book as I had essentially heard of them.  It would take more than a novelist to shake my faith.

It didn't take long for two realizations to dawn on me: First, I was just as drawn in by the fast pace of The Da Vinci Code as Brown's previous Robert Langdon tale.  Second, I was beginning to suspect some unfortunate similarities between the two novels.

I'll not bore you with the details, but essentially this book read like Angels and Demons in a different country with different secret societies.  The attractive girl losing a loved-one who raised her, a pre-eminent man of his field privy to controversial knowledge that seems, at least on the surface, to threaten the Catholic Church.  The suspicious law enforcement leader, with just enough detail to finger him for the bad guy until the last minute.  The close ally, built up to the reader and transformed into the real enemy based on a flimsy, misunderstood pretext.

Yes, I was offended by several assertians by the characters in the novel.  I was struck more, however, by the lack of rational thought process on the part of the characters.  It appeared as if some of the principal players took leaps of faith rivaling that of literal Creationists when it came to connecting the symbolic links of the plot.  Such loose links and flimsy ties were not limited to the development of characters' attitudes, but the very movement of the plot in most cases.

I believe I could sum up my feelings for The Da Vinci Code by saying I lost a lot of respect for Dan Brown as a writer.  He pulled a Cold Play on this one, borrowing heavily from his own previous hit single.  While a change of key and some different lyrics may result in a different song, the result is the dulling of an otherwise pleasant theme leaving me disinterested yet, strangely, dissatisfied.

You know, it was less than a year ago that I couldn't stand the taste of beer, yet a strange transformation has taken hold, allowing my taste buds to enjoy the complex flavors of good beer.

Tonight I once again savored the goodness of Rogue Hazelnut Brown ale, one of my favorite drafts served just right at Capital Ale House in Richmond.  Flavorful, malty, not too heavy, and a smell almost of caramel.

Of course, I head off to the Czech Republic in June, with full intention of sampling what many consider the finest beer in the world.

The adventure continues...

Today I may be finding out what my salary increase is, as well as my bonus for last year...This combined with my taxes to be completed by the end of the week should allow Valerie and I to start looking for a house in earnest. No more renting!

So here I am, waiting expectantly, hoping to hear about my raise today, or tomorrow, or the next day...

UPDATE:
So I did find out what my bonus was, and my raise.  They were both pretty sweet, especially for my first year.

Then I did my taxes today, and all of that essentially disappeared.  Uncle Sam indeed.