Technology has now reached the ketchup industry as Heinz has come out with a new ketchup pack!  What has this new time, money and research allowed for?  Why let me tell you!  The new pack is about the same size as the old one, but it now holds more ketchup, 3 times more to be exact!!  And have you ever had the most difficult time opening the old packs, forced to use your teeth to ope the suckers?  Well no more!!  Piece of cake now, just tear off the top just like that!  But, the most technologically advanced feature of all?  The bane of all ketchup users was that the old pack did not allow you to dip your fries!  This new pack though, gives you the open to either squeeze out the ketchup, or to just peel it open and allow you to dip your fries!  What!!??  How can a tiny little pack that has no electricity or power allow for such a sophisticated function?  The best part of all, this new pack only costs slightly more than the old pack to make!!!  Wow!!  Are restaurants going to pay that extra price though?  We’ll have to wait and see.  If they can convince customers that this higher price is worth the value, then I’ll be seeing you at a fast food restaurant soon, either dipping or squeezing the ketchup out of the new pack for the fries!

As I posted previously, I’m looking to buy a home.  So when I came across this article I thought it was pretty interesting.  Now, I have always thought that renting was a waste of money, just giving your money away.  I didn’t really do any math or analysis to prove this.  It was always just a thought.  After all, if I move back home after college with my parents, I live for free.  If I live in an apartment, it costs $1000 bucks or whatever.  So, if you put it in those terms, then I guess that it really is a waste.

However, like many people out there, you have to live somewhere.  And for most people that comes down to either renting or buying.  And if you don’t want to be a leach and live with your parents your whole life, and renting vs buying are your only two choices, then is James Altucher right when saying that “the notion buying a home is a ticket to financial security is a ’scam’ perpetrated on the American people by corporations” true?  Is his statistic that homes only went up in value .4% annually in the last 120 years even right?  Its actually quite interesting to me because I have always had this deep seated anti-business/corporation mindset that all corporations only care about money and nothing about people.  And if that is the case, then this “scam” is even more devious, convincing people to buy a home as a means to better get them to buy their needless consumer goods.  Kind of like what DeBeer’s did with women, convincing them that blood diamonds are equal to love.

But, conspiracy theories aside, is buying a home really a bad investment?  I’m too lazy to do any formal analysis, but if you actually look at all the costs of buying a home that are mentioned, is renting really a better decision?  Also, have you ever looked at how much interest you actually pay on a 30 year loan compared to how much was actually borrowed?  Its kind of scary in that depending on the interest rate you can pay more in interest than the actual amount of money borrowed.  Even if your home goes up in value, and your purpose of buying a home is for an investment, then what kind of “investment” is that?  But, if the purpose of buying a home is to live in it, then why not rent?  Why tie yourself down as the author says?  Why pay for all those costs?  If you are looking for an investment, then why not use that money for a down payment on an actual investment?

I don’t think that this article deters me from looking at homes.  In fact, I just looked at a few homes yesterday and will look at more this Saturday.  Is it just that this “American Dream scam” is just so ingrained in my head?  Is it the evil corporations spewing out marketing and propaganda so well that I have renting is a waste still stuck inside?  I mean, if I just rent, I could probably live a heck of a lot more comfortably as I would have a decent amount of money to spend since I didn’t have to pay a huge down payment.  Buy my furniture, a new car, vacation, etc. But, despite all this, I still would rather buy than rent.

Any analysts out there that can argue the opposite point and show that buying a home really is a good investment worthy of the title “American Dream”?

And do you know what that means?  All you people who say you can multi-task are either lying or are fooling  yourselves.  Yes, most of you out there can probably do more than one thing at a time, but I bet that you cannot do more than one thing at a time well.  Why do I say that?  Because I can’t do it, I’ve seen quite a few people who can’t do it and so I have to make the assumption that most people can’t do it!!

Do you know how often I’ve tried to watch tv and talk on the phone at once?  I almost always have to pay more attention to one than the other or else I can’t really listen to either.  Or played video games and someone calls?  It can’t be done.  Inevitably, the person on the phone will say something like “Did you hear what I said?” or “Are you listening to me?”  I used to try to watch tv and do my homework at the same time.  You just can’t do well.  For some reason, the homework always took me so much longer.  It got to the point that I only started doing  homework and watching tv at the same time if I was doing brainless, repetitive homework that didn’t require a lot of thinking.

Now, when I am at work, I often multi-task.  But, its not the same thing.  If I have 2 queries to write or 2 reports to create, I don’t actually do both at the same time.  I will, for example, write one part of a query, run it, and then while it is running I will write the other query.  If you define multi-tasking like that, as someone who can efficiently manage time, then yes, I can do that quite easily.  That is why at work you are often given more than one assignment at a time.  Its defined as time management in that case, not actually doing more than one thing at at time.

Are there some people who are able to actually do more than one thing at a time and do them both as well as if they were doing them separately?  Probably.  But I’d bet a lot of money that was more the exception, and there are not a lot of people who can actually do it.  No, I’m not talking about chewing gum and walking at the same time.  I think that for this very reason you see all those studies of traffic accidents being much more likely when people are talking on the phone or texting at the same time as they drive.  People can do both yes.  But, there is no way that you can do both equally well…but rather both equally bad.  So, the next time you tell yourself that you are a master multi-tasker, ask yourself why the person on the phone just asked you “Are you listening to me?” or why your homework took you so long to do or why all the studies show that people who talk on the phone are more likely to get into an accident than those who do not.  Maybe you really aren’t as good  as you thought, you really are like everybody else and are not the exception.

I saw a sale on Amazon for a select few games that were 50% off at the PlayStation store.  Browsed a few and saw a puzzle game that was selling for a whopping $3.50 for the PS3.  Saw that there were a few decent reviews, and just bought it.  Got a download code, entered it into my PS3, and I got a new game.  Normally I don’t really like downloading games for the same reason I don’t buy eBooks.  When I buy it, I can’t resell it, so thus in my opinion I don’t really own it.  But, it was cheap.

The game is basically about this creature that needs to stop critters from climbing down a vine to get you.  As you kill these critters, they pop out these jewels which you eat.  Yes, I know it doesn’t make sense.  But, its pretty fun and I spent a few hours playing it that first weekend that I got it.  Even if I don’t ever play the game again, it would of cost me less than $1/hour.  So, in my opinion, it was well worth it.  The gf came over too and she had lots of fun playing it.  In the one player mode, you can play the storyline mode, you can play a puzzle mode, and you can play a challenge mode.  Lots of game for the dollar that’s for sure.  In the multi-player mode, you can play with or against each other.

The game is not something that will become a class or anything, but it was rather entertaining, and if you can play a video game with your gf, then that’s always a plus too.  I don’t think the game was as addicting to me as Tetris or Bust-A-Move were when they came out, but it got my playing for few hours, and I will continue doing so until I pass every level for sure.  After that, who knows.  Probably only when guests come over and we can play something rather simple.  The sale for the game is over now, I just checked, and so it now sells for $7.  Still not expensive, so if you like puzzle games, give it a shot.

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner is the 2nd consecutive non-fiction book I’ve read, and only the 2nd since I graduated school.  I wrote about reading Predictably Irrational earlier.  I borrowed this one, so had to move it up on in my way too long reading list.

Basically, the author takes questions that people may or may not have asked ever, analyzes the numbers and statistics with economic theories, and either draws their conclusions or lets the readers draw their conclusions.  What are some of the questions that they ponder?  They include things like why do crack cocaine dealers live with their mom?  What was the cause in the sharp drop in violent crime?  Are teachers helping students cheat on standardized tests?  Does parenting really matter?  They also go into topics such as if your real estate agent really has your best interests at heart, if sumo wrestlers cheat, and much more.

I thought that some of the questions and stories that were talked about in the book were interesting.  The most interesting to me were the ones he told about parenting, and whether or not parenting really mattered to a kid becoming good, successful, etc.  The statistics he provided and the analysis that he did seemed to show that how successful a child became had more to do with who and what the parents were rather than what it was that they did.  A child didn’t grow up successful because his parents read to him every night or took him to museums or whatnot.  He was successful because his parents had money or had him when the mother was older and not, for example, a teenager.  I thought this chapter and the one about if a name has an impact on a child’s future were quite interesting.  Makes the people who always make fun of parents who over-parent seem like they are correct and such.

The book is not very long and so makes for a short read.  It covers some rather controversial topics as well, one in which people might cringe and cry foul in disbelief.  These topics include things like abortion, guns, the KKK.  Whether or not you agree with some, none, or all of what is written here, I think its worth reading if only because it will get you asking questions, both to yourself, and hopefully to others.  If that happens, isn’t that in and of itself make the book worth reading?

I have been look at some homes for the past few weekends.  Going as well as can be expected I guess.  See some features I like about one home, see other features I don’t like, see things in a different home that I wish was on the first home, wishing I could mix and match.  Real estate agent is cool, so that makes things easier I suppose.  Its just a daunting task overall.  Its a heck of a lot of money that will be going towards the purchase, so what factors are you supposed to consider when doing so.  If they say that getting the perfect home is impossible, then where do you draw the lines and where do you give up on what you like.  Its so hard deciding what is most important sometimes.

Just this last weekend, the first home visited was a corner lot next to a pretty big street.  I didn’t really like that.  However, the inside was pretty nice.  I think previous people got kicked out and its bank owned now.  But, before doing so they totally upgraded some things like the kitchen, the backyard was pretty large, and the overall layout seemed okay.  The noise from the road was not that loud, but do I really want to be that close to it?  What if I get a dog and the dog somehow gets out?

And then you have the totally different conditions and prices of the homes.  We went to a house in Mission Viejo, and it was a short sale.  It was not in bad condition, but not great either.  Work definitely needed to be done, but its not like you couldn’t live in it.  They listed it for 420k.  Who knows if the bank will accept that, but that’s what it was.  I kind of liked how it looked, not bad.  The neighborhood and location was tons better than the one in Laguna Hills.  We left and as we were driving, I saw a for sale sign on another house.  It looked really bad, but I just asked if we could go in and the agent made some calls and we got in.  It happened to be, literally, the exact same house as the one we just left, but this one was in horrific condition.  Apparently the people, I’d guess, wanted revenge or had ill will towards the bank for kicking them out and it showed.  Mirrors were gone.  Windows were literally taken out from the back, not just the glass but the whole frames as well so that it was just boarded with wood.  The pool in the back was vinyl I think and ripped so you could just see the dirt below the pool lining.  Kitchen cabinets were awful, and the counter was probably the original as it was exactly like those green vinyl type topped tables you see in really old diners.  Bathtubs and showers were cracked.  Writing and graffiti on the walls.  Who knows about all the pipes and wiring and stuff.  And the driveway was literally just dirt and sand.  There was no price on the house because it wasn’t listed yet, but the agent suspects it will be in the mid 300s.  Hmmmm, fix it up?  LOL.  While leaving there we saw an open house sign in a close by neighborhood and so stopped by.  Guess what?  It again, coincidentally, was the exact same model home.  However, this house was totally and completely upgraded so that it was super nice.  Hardwood floors, granite counters, new cabinets, new shelving in the garage, redone bathrooms, all the corners to every wall were rounded, a skylight was added, etc, etc.  They really did a lot.  And it made me imagine how the previous home could totally be fixed up!  However, they were listing this house for 550k.  Are you crazy!!  My real estate agent was like, they are not going to get that price.  120k more than the short sale for the same house?  Upgrades are nice, but not that nice!  If I bought that piece of crap house for 350k, I guarantee if I wanted to fix it up to look exactly the same it will not be 200k!  Do people still think we are in a seller’s market???

Anyway, the search continues and if I find anything interesting to write about I will.  We’ll see what happens!

It may not seem like it, especially for those who cannot eat spicy food at all, but it really is something that you can get used to.  How do I know?  Because I used to be one of those people.  I remember when I was a lot younger, and a lot more immature, my dad made some shrimp with some sauce that was pretty spicy.  I took a bite out of it, and it like burned my tongue.  I tried mixing some rice with it to dilute the spiciness, and drink some milk, but it just didn’t help.  I could not eat it.  I was in a bad mood and I was actually mad at my dad for making dinner so spicy that I couldn’t eat it.  Yes, like I said, I was immature, and apparently not very nice at that.  But, I literally couldn’t eat it.

I also remember a time when my friends and I ate at an all you can eat sushi place, and we mistakenly ordered 2 spicy tuna rolls.  (And to this day, I still say it wasn’t my fault that we ordered those rolls!!!)  I took one bite, and I just couldn’t handle it.  It was just too much.  I made my friends eat the rest of those rolls, and well, hehe, after doing so they couldn’t eat much more after that.  LOL.

Today?  I can by no means just down really hot and spicy foods.  But, my tolerance has increased a lot.  I don’t really know how.  I used to order those Korean tofu soups as mild or even not spicy, but have since moved it up to medium.  I’m still not daring enough to try really hot.  I can do curry that’s spicier now.  I still only do Boiling Crab mild.  Maybe its cuz of Boiling Crab?  I used to go there quite often.  I eat biryani that my co-worker used to always make as well as in Pakistani/Indian restaurants and I can do that okay as well.  I guess its just because I eat more food that is not just super mild anymore and because of it can handle it?

I used to be always think that people were stupid who made their food super spicy.  I mean, how can they taste it and stuff.  Like I said, I still don’t make things super hot and probably can’t handle it if it were, but sometimes I just like to make things just a little spicier now as I just enjoy the flavor more.  I can’t even imagine, for example, some biryani if it didn’t have any kick at all.  I even use that red chili sauce when I eat dim sum, something that was unheard of in the past.  So, for all those people who cannot handle any spice at all, take it from me.  Its something that you can definitely do with some patience.  Who knows, you might even enjoy your food more afterward as it will allow you to have more variety!

I don’t even know why I am writing about this.  Guess I have another slow day and have nothing to really talk about.  And what is that stupid topic that popped into my head when nothing else would?  Over the years, I have noticed that when people enter a stall or a bathroom almost immediately after someone has done their business, they give reactions that, shall we say, demonstrate their displeasure with the smell.  Seriously, throughout my life I have seen reactions such as a crunching of a person’s nose, pinching of their nose, a “WHEW!!!” yell, sticking their tongue out, walking in and then immediately walking out.

Now, its not like I’m not thinking the same thing when it happens to me.  Trust me, I’ve been to some stalls that made me want to yak.  But, here’s my question.  Why do people react in such a way when in just a few moments, they are going to contribute to said odor themselves.  What?  Is it just that the person is used to their own smells so that when they go they don’t notice it?  Or are they just so wonderful that their crap don’t smell?  Hmmm, makes you wonder, huh?

While on the topic of bathrooms, here are some other ponderings.

I’ve seen on more than one occasion people using tons of toilet paper on the seat cover instead of using the toilet seat cover.  Why is that?  Is toilet paper more sanitary than the paper they make those coverings with?  I would have to imagine that whoever does this is not in a huge hurry to go to the bathroom because it takes much longer to take multiple sheets of toilet paper to cover the seat than it does to just take out a sheet from the toilet covers.

What’s the point of hand dryers?  They take longer, are not necessarily more environmentally friendly, and definitely not more sanitary as you will have to then open the bathroom door with your bare hands instead of with the paper towel you just used to dry.  Over the years I have seen many, many guys go to the bathroom and not wash their hands afterward.  I’m not saying for sure that opening the door with your bare hands is not sanitary.  Its probably perfectly fine.  I think this is more psychological.

I never understood how people can talk on the phone while on the can.  Just seems weird when I walk into the restroom and hear a conversation.  Reading, hell even texting, I might be able to imagine and accept, but speaking on the phone?  Weird.

Even worse?  People taking a crap in stalls next to each other conversing.  Guys do not talk while peeing, so why in the hell should they do so while taking a crap??  I haven’t seen this often, but I have seen it more than once.

I have nothing that I can think of writing about today.  So, just will bramble on about something that I noticed today.

I always find it interesting standing next to someone taller than myself.  I’m not really tall in any way.  But, I’m tall enough that most of the time when I am standing with other people, they are my height or less.  If they are taller, they are only slightly so.  Thus, when I do stand next to someone who is obviously taller than myself, I really notice it, and it feels kind of weird, maybe even uncomfortable?  Well, not really uncomfortable, but I definitely notice it and think about it while standing there or conversing with the person.  The effect is magnified like 10 times when I’m standing next to a taller woman.  It just so rarely happens, so when standing next to a girl taller than me, I actually do feel awkward.  Why is that?  I don’t feel like my manhood is threatened in any way.  Just not used to it I guess.

I have one friend who is quite a few inches taller than myself and have been hanging out with him for decades.  With him, I don’t even notice that he’s taller than me.  Well, except if we’re playing basketball or something and you can’t help but notice.  So, I suppose that if I hung out with people every day who were taller than me, I’d no longer feel weird or even notice it.  I know that I always hear that people are uncomfortable in surroundings they are not accustomed to.  I guess this is just one of those things.  I’m positive that short people who stand next to taller people don’t feel weird.  But, I’d venture to guess that they feel the exact same way as myself when they are standing next to people who are shorter than them.  Its funny how you can take something as simple as your own height for granted.  You just live your life everyday and don’t even notice it until something happens to draw attention to it.

So, in the last day or so we have had more rain than we’ve had in the last 5 years, and there is more to come this week!  No, I didn’t make that up.  That was a tease on the local news that I heard while I was channel surfing.  So. Cal is so hilarious when we get more than one inch of rain.  Its not just rain, but its a storm!!!  And what do the news do when there is a storm, why “Stormwatch” of course!  The #1 news story on every local station will be about how much rain has fallen thus far.  There will be traffic reports about and warnings to slow down when driving because there will be a lot of accidents on the roads (since freaking So Cal’s don’t know how to drive in the rain.  Here’s a hint, don’t drive as fast when its wet outside!)  There will be a weather report literally every 5 minutes, as if the one 5 minutes ago was not enough to let us know its raining outside right now and will continue to do so.  You will get the requisite mudslide warnings and probably clips of some families sandbagging.

Am I forgetting anything?  I think that about covers it.  Just remember that any time in rains more than an inch in a day, there will be news coverage.  If it rains 2 days in a row, then it becomes stormwatch.  3 days in row?  Heaven forbid, as it might be the the next epic Biblical event.