A friend recently asked me for this list so I thought it would be worth posting. I spent about two years pursuing unusual properties as my first home, weird enough that I talked to more commercial lenders than residential lenders. Old schools, churches, campgrounds, etc. I was offering 10-40% down and considering interest rates ranging from 4 ( Read more... )

My recurring New Year Resolution is to use social networks other than Facebook before I use Facebook, for as long as I can stand to keep it up (I usually last about a month).

This year you can find me on the following sites:

https://www.reddit.com/user/sparr/submitted/ Reddit is a very popular meta-forum site with hundreds of millions of users ( Read more... )

Every year I commit to seriously using social networks other than Facebook. I read my news feed on other networks before visiting FB. I cross post things to other networks in addition to FB. This usually lasts for a few weeks, some years a couple of months, before the effort becomes too much and I fall back to just using FB and Reddit again with ( Read more... )

There's a lot of renovation between us and being ready for a proper housewarming party. Instead we are inviting you all to a house defrosting party. Bring us your Thanksgiving leftovers on Friday night and have dinner among friends. There should be some number of guest rooms ready for folks who want to stay the night and have brunch the next ( Read more... )

I was at a shitty job once doing some after work collaboration with colleagues. One of those shitholes where the IT department clearly hates you. So the IT drone and I were ignoring each other when someone next to me invites us to a chat on Microsoft Teams, and the IT drone immediately says "no. uninstall it."

And the person next to me says " ( Read more... )

As I am winding down my time in Hawaii I want to put my intentions for the next year out into the world. Writing them down to share might help keep me on track, or inspire collaboration or advice, or …
Hawaii - July and August 2021

Barring some unlikely last resort options bearing fruit soon, my efforts to buy property in Hawaii are winding down. ( Read more... )

I experienced a blowout while driving from Hilo to Kona a while back and the ensuing adventure was a bit longer than expected. Let me regale you with the story of my flat tire…

Round One

A blowout is no fun, but this one was remarkably comfortable thanks to the run-flat tires on my 2006 Honda Odyssey. While that might sound like good news, it’s not, ( Read more... )

Today’s insight into my analysis of interpersonal risk and reward involves being a houseguest, a differently intimate sort of interaction than I usually focus on. I am hopeful that this different context for what is really the same issue will help someone understand it who previously hasn’t.

Sam and I took a flight together. Upon landing, Sam ( Read more... )

Who lives in The South? Is Pittsburgh on the East Coast? These are the questions I occasionally find myself asking, any time I see or hear someone name a region but with a clearly different definition in mind than the last person who referred to it. More so whenever I encountered people actively arguing about whose definition was “right” or “true ( Read more... )

Unless I’ve explicitly told you that I don’t trust you or that you’re a bad or evil person, if I know you then I want to at least occasionally see you face to face, and I’m willing to help facilitate travel to make that happen if necessary. I drafted part of a much wordier version of this post, but scrapped it for this.

Unless I’ve explicitly said ( Read more... )