Peace For All

Towne Pointe, the very nice (if someone traditional) condo project just a stones throw away from downtown Redmond, has either taken down almost all of their listings or have sold all of their remaining units (spare one) over the holidays.  For posterity, and in case things change, I have captured a screen shot of Condo Compare’s listing for Towne Pointe units.

It is interesting that more and more agents are just completely pulling listings down.  Relisting houses and condos is of course quite common (though annoying from the buyers perspective), and it will be interesting to see if Towne Pointe relist their units sometime soon, e.g. before the “spring rush”.

Of note, Towne Pointe has not sold any units since August 2nd (and I would really consider that a July sale), as can be seen in the King County Records for the complex.  Simply checking the sold date on each unit shows they had a burst of sales between June and July and have had nothing since, a story that many real estate agents are becoming familiar with.

Note:  Some portion of King County’s website is down right now (3:34PM Dec 31 2007)

My girlfriend Lila (who already has an excellent post about The Cleveland) and I went to visit The Cleveland in person today.  It was late in the day, raining, and we had just finished up visiting another project.  Still, we learned some valuable information and got to see the room layouts in person.  I have to say that they look bigger in person than one imagines from the floor plans. 

After coming back home, we again went over the numbers we had gathered about The Cleveland, looking for some more patterns or discrepancies.  Comparing the price of identical floor plans on the resale market to that which the builder is selling, we found something that makes perfect sense but still made us quite peeved.  The two prices are identical!

1. Let us compare units 513 and 506, identical floor plans on opposite corners of The Cleveland.  Looking at the sales history for unit #513 and the asking price for unit #506, we see that unit #513 sold for $394k in early July, and was then resold for $467k.  The price the builder is asking for #506?  $467k!  Yet obviously anyone could have gone there back in July and bought it for around $394k.

Normally this would seem like common sense behavior, if you sell something for X, and the guy next store can sell it for X+1, you need to raise your price, you are selling too low.  But this is not the situation with condos right now, instead I would argue that the $467 price was inflated by a bubble and that the original price should still hold true.

The lesson here is to always do your research and to be an informed buyer.

Not naming names here, because a ton of condos do this.

At least the unit posted above does not have white carpet in the dining room area.  I have seen what happens to white carpets in dining rooms, and it is not good.

Also, any chance I can get some cabinets made in this century?  Thanks!

One danger of looking around at condos is that one will inevitably lose their faith in humanity as they see stupid floor plan after stupid floor plan take up precious human living space.  Even scarier is the knowledge that someone will buy these units, not knowing any better, and have their quality of life decreased by living in a poorly designed space.

The first such example I will post is from Trio.  To be fair, Trio has a number of good floor plans, but the following is not one of them:

The first item that is noticeable about this 1×1 condo is the size of it: almost 870 sqft!  When I first saw this, I was sure it would have a den or office somewhere in the floor plan.  Unfortunately I was quite disappointed when I looked closer.  What could have easily been a luxury 1 bed 1 bath unit has instead turned into yet another waste of space in Seattle.  I admit that this floor plan might be perfect for someone with a large art collection they want to show off, but otherwise it seems to me that the huge entrance area is wasted.  I have to keep asking myself:  Who thought that a 1×1 condo needed a foyer?

As for fixing this mistake, I guess some portable walls could be put up to make something resembling a den.  For a buyer who doesn’t care, it is always an option to have their computer, bills, papers, and office supplies be the first thing to greet visitors stepping into to their home, but for anyone else, a properly secluded home office or den is appreciated.

I also cannot understand that laundry room.  How much dirty cloths can one or two people have?

Even sadder are the possibilities of what all that space could have been used for.  Instead of the entrance being taken up for sheer nothingness, the bathroom could have been extended and possibly had a full 5 piece bath set installed.  in the least, dual sinks or a large Jacuzzi style tub could have been put into place.  The bathroom could be also be shifted down a bit and the large walk in closet enlarged.  Making part of the laundry room into a nook is a potential use for it, but paying bills or writing blog entries is not going to be easy when sitting right next to a running washing machine or dryer.

Part of the units problems are due to lighting.  Because there is no way to get light to the back of the unit it is not feasible to place a second bedroom anywhere.  On the other hand a den or office does not require the same lighting that a bedroom does.

Trio Seattle

My Album class is now making a call to the AlbumManager class, because I cannot ensure that users of the library will always call the correct function from AlbumManager.

Now, remembering back, I realize I have seen the Java API do this before on occasion.

Outlined program in further depth, defined what structs are going to be needed, globals, that sort of thing.  Strange, only getting a 2% markup for what is a lot of work!

Items to Accomplish       /    Percent Complete

• Choose Platform:  100% (Done)
• Setup Platform: 90%
• Choose libraries:  65% — Research started on second library, learning about options available
• Integrate libraries into project: 0% — Need to finish choosing libraries first
• Program base algorithm:   12% — Algorithm code outlined
• Choose test case:  5% — Some thought has gone into it, but it needs more investigation
• Program test case:  0%
• Choose performance measurement tool: 2% — I have heard of some of these, but need to investigate them more
• Integrate performance measurements:  0%

There is an increasing tendency for acne treatment regimes to include some form of moisturizer.  The reason for this is quite simple:  If your skin is dry, your body will start to produce more oil.

This is why, that no matter what topical treatment you are using, you should not ever over wash your face. Your skin will become irritated, and may eventually start pouring out oil at an insane rate. This is also why it is not good to wash your face right before you go to bed at 11pm and then again when you wake up at 5am! As a general rule (and this will vary per person), try to leave at least 10 hours between face washings. Even products with moisturizers may invoke a negative reaction from your skin if your skin keeps getting all of its oil stripped off by cleansers.

Remember:  your body naturally maintains itself.  When you get hot, your body sweats to cool you down, when you get cold, you body shakes to warm you up. When you get sick, your amazingly complex lymphatic system works around the clock to cure you. Cut yourself, your body jumps into action to clot the wound and start healing. This extends to even smaller items. Do a lot of hard work with your hands? Watch your skin get tougher as you develop calluses. Play guitar, and your finger tips will develop calluses as well. Well, no surprise here, if you keep drying your skin out with chemicals, your body works to produce more oil, to help keep your skin moisturized. This means that chemical treatments that just dry your skin out may work for a short period of time, but after awhile your body will adapt and start producing even more oil than normal, possibly making your Acne even worse.

Here is an excellent tip that will save your face a lot of problems, and also keep you stylish to boot!

While the “kind of scruffy” 2 days worth of facial hair growth style is mostly dead now, if your gal likes it, here is a way for you to keep your hair at mostly the same length all the time, without having to buy some strange beard trimmer or such.

The trick to all of the above is corn starch. When lightly powdered over a dry face, corn starch removes excess oils from the face and hair. It works amazingly well. It also makes shaving extremely easy.

How easy?

You don’t even need shaving cream.

Powder your lower face with corn starch, then rinse of with water, dry well. Repeat if you feel like you need to (just to be sure). Now, taking your Gillette Mach 3^[1], preferably Mach 3 Power, and lightly shave your face,  just skimming over top of your hairs.  You should not be pushing down or even touching your skin.

Rinse out your razor often, and shake it dry before resuming shaving.

If you want a smooth shave, simply dust with corn starch, rinse off, then shave as normal.  Your hair will come off a lot easier and with less irritation.

No matter which style you want, (clean shaven or rugged), corn starch is an excellent way to help reduce the irritation from shaving.

Extra Note: Don’t ask me how I know this, except that I made a stupid bet/promise.  But if you are insistent upon sugaring (a form of natural waxing that hurts a lot less) your face, do the corn starch thing first.  If you don’t, it will hurt badly and no hair will come off.  Maybe I’ll write a separate article on sugaring later if need be, but it is not really related to acne, and as stated, the only reason I know is that I made a stupid promise and ended up with a seriously sore face (after which I found out about the corn starch thing…)
[1] You do have at least a Gillette Mach 3 don’t you? If you are using cheap disposable razors to shave, STOP RIGHT NOW. If you use a cheap razor you do not know how nice a good razor is, and the second you use a good razor, you will never want to go back to cheap single use disposables again! I know that the newer razors cost more, but…. Trust me, they are worth it. With a good razor I can shave with almost no skin irritation.

Want to seem like you are ALWAYS up on reading your email? Want to impress people and get that read receipt back to them within seconds of your receiving their message?

Create the following filter in outlook:

Apply this rule after the message arrives
where my name is in the To or Cc box
mark it as read

Your perceived productivity will skyrocket!

(Note: I am NOT suggesting that anybody actually do this! For one thing, everyone will wonder why you have read all of their messages and not responded to any of them…)

I chose to fall in love.

I had spent years learning to control my emotions.  No angry, no great sadness, stoic, centered in the world.  Able to observe, and influence so well.  I feel sad and sort of empty remembering that time, I cannot explain what it is like to have that sort of…. control.

The one thing control did not give me was motivation.  Motivation to succeed, motivation to move forward.

I saw that I was going no where.

To who I was then, love was an economic choice.  Hard to say, but true.  Love would enable me to reach a higher potential; I have not gone as high yet as I hope for, but still I strive.

I knew, that by letting free the base primitive emotions that I had fought so hard to control, I would be able to use the instincts born in to me by nature to fulfill a greater purpose, to aim for higher goals.

By giving up control, I gained something.  A switch in my mind, flipped by my hand, told me to fall in love.  To let free motions long held in reign.

Rarely I regret it, when I realize how dangerous of a game I play, when my anger rages out of control, when my emotions run free and visions of hate and violence dance freely in my head.

But without letting loose, I could never achieve what I have today.  I would not be in this chair, in this office(cubical…).  I would not be respected by those around me for my intelligence and working spirit.

Still, love has not completely given me control over my mind’s tendency to stray wayward from its goals, but greatly reduced by many orders of magnitude have such tendencies become.

Odd, be it that your situation differs so greatly from mine in the gender roles employed.  I lament that the one I love is not capable of complete sacrifice of body for love of another, that she does not sway the thought of I as I sway at the thought of her.  Her definition of love can be broken up, still maintains its economic basis, yet such was the agreement I knowingly bound myself to when I promised my love to her, fully informed by her as it was.

(On advising to a friend on what to do given her lovers lack of ability to know the emotion of love) What I advise is such:  Send the one you love to meditate for durations lasting of at least an hour a day, every day.  If such length cannot be maintained, mayhap instead half an hour a day for 7 days a week.  While such a habit is most easily acquired during the months of the summer, for then is it most pleasant to be out amongst the gardens and the sky, reflecting on what splendor nature has created for us, much can be found to occupy a mind during all seasons of the year.

The goal of such an activity would be for the one whom you love to acquire a greater understanding  of who he is and how he relates to the world.  To come to grips with emotions, past experiences, and to further develop his introspective abilities.  I highly recommend that he initially attend a workshop of some sort that will give him the basic tools of the mind necessary to complete such a journey with ease, for there is no sense in him roughly traversing the simple pathways that have been traversed many times before.

No, this is not nonsensical new age balderdash.  The mind itself works on principles which we have barely discovered.  Yet our mind, our very intelligence, is what makes us alive, what lends personality, behavior, curiosity, emotion, and understanding.  The bodies we possess are easily augmented, improved.  From simple tools to cars to prosthetics, our bodies are merely controlled by our consciousness through some process which we do not understand as yet but a very small fraction of.

Just as we, mankind, have gained control over our surroundings in the physical, I believe that  that we must also gain a control over our intellectual capabilities.

The first step to gaining control in a new environment is to fully understand what resources are available to be utilized.  Walk into an office to start a new job, upon being shown your desk, is not the first question you ask: “Where may I find a pen?” (or some similar variant there of).  Assessing ones environs and gaining both control and understanding of them is critical to success.  Tis not a needed task, for verily many do work years ignorant of the systems around them, but for those who wish success in life, such ignorance is known to be unwise.

Yet, how few have attempted such control over their own mind?  To explore the resources therein shall lie a great many surprise.  Much of what you take for granted in life, and this I promise you, need not be as it is.  Pain need not be felt in all but the most dramatic of circumstances.  Sweat need not flow but when it is of the utmost importance.  Adrenaline may run through your veins when ever you will it to be so.

We are our minds.  Understand who you are.

If the one you love can achieve even a fraction of such level of control, then it will be a matter of simplicity for him to understand what love is.

I could, in but a few short words, describe love to you.  Lay bare all of its most fundamental secrets.  Gaining such understanding of any emotion was once a simple matter for me, and I have carefully maintained in my mind the knowledge I previously fought so hard to discover.

But, dear lady, I have too much heart now.  Better that some things left unsaid, for though you likely have an understanding of the true meaning of love, that understanding, though lip service is given quite readily and easily, to ponder it at length, or to see it exposed in such bluntness as I would subject it to, is not something I would do to you.