Saturday, May 30, 2020

From this to that.



We had a 30 degree temp swing this week. Yesterday was the official start to summer because we got our first fire. Now it's raining.

Between the homeless setting everything on fire, and the protests - it's nice to have a little help from the sky.



Friday, May 29, 2020

This is how Silicon Valley used to view government.



This whole Twitter thing is just weird because Silicon Valley used to be about breaking away from the government. Now they are acting like they ARE the government. It's gross.

I have been moving stuff around at Che' Snarkolepsy and found this in a box this week. Sometimes I feel like I'm misremembering how independent the internet was back in the day. Finding this made me feel like - nope, I'm not crazy.

Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Explore or ignore?



Every house gives you a bit of an Easter egg. At first I thought it was sheer wall strapping, but it seems like just a hole. Or a gateway to hell.

I mostly want to pretend I didn't see it. But every once in a while you find some interesting stuff inside of a wall. More likely it's a headache.

Sunday, May 24, 2020

This is what it's come to.



Thunderbirds are about as exciting to me as DeLoreans. This was definitely the walker crowd. But it is kinda interesting how many different designs they had. Even if they all sucked.

Not every cannon ball run is successful.



It's not mine.

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Friday, May 22, 2020

Thursday, May 21, 2020

It sucks not to have things to look forward to.

Before the world stopped I had planned a long weekend in Middle California.  I figured it was going to be a hard year - but not this hard.

I wasn't even sure if we were going to be allowed to travel but we kept our Airbnb. We figured rental hosts would need the money and we would need a break from the world. 

I threw my back out last Spring. I never made it to the beach once because I was nervous I would get out there and not be able to get back. I figured this year I would go to the beach twice as often to make up for it.

A couple of weeks ago our host mailed us and asked if we were coming. We were like - yes. Still coming!

They were like - yeah... we don't want you to come. Everyone else canceled and we need to cram a renter in there.

This isn't too much of a surprise obvi, and I'm not going to stand in the way of someone surviving. But the thing that was interesting is that we had chosen a granny rental because we wanted to be right down town and drink. This wasn't a single family home. It was something bigger than a tiny house in someones back yard. 

If that person had to cram someone in to survive, you can only imagine how messed up Airbnb's model is going to be.

It also made me super curious about all those people who financed granny units a year or two ago. It was the super hot thing for a minute. They were calling them ADU's.

Wednesday, May 20, 2020

It's not never..... but.



Some properties have been stuck in time for 14 years. It isn't even that rare for me to come across places which pretty much have seen almost zero appreciation since the crash.

Now, if you'd gotten in at the gnarly depths of the housing crash you could have picked one of these up for 300k but it seems like these two must have held on. I think they were built in 2006 - ish. No activity since then.

You would have done slightly better with a smaller unit. But we will see what the final sale price is. Obviously everything looks bad.

Also - I very rarely censer anything, but this is in my city. So I censored the source. I try to make it pretty obvious.

Monday, May 18, 2020

I don't have a title.



My city had one of those "Freedom" protest this weekend.  I figured I would do a drive by to see how many people were grouping together. I am not about being in crowds yet. I can't afford to get sick.

Immediately when I hit town I was like  - Oh- all of a sudden my town is patriotic?! And this is coming from someone who is really on the mild side of patriotism. I don't really know if this is the best place on earth to live. But I do know it's the best place on earth for opportunity. Most people waste the gift given to them. But that really only reinforces my opinion. You can reject every opportunity given to you, and you can still live a pretty great life here. That's the full amount of my patriotism.

But back to my protest. Literally the last protest in this city was for illegal aliens. I was pretty sure this town didn't even like America. So, to see it lit up in flags was pretty interesting and new.

To my surprise, there were a couple hundred people there. Most not wearing masks. Which I really don't understand right now. I am not a Karen. My style is more...... avoidance. I don't really care what you do as long as it doesn't affect me.

Mask compliance is super high right now, so I don't really get why people are fighting about this. No one likes to wear them. Personally I am not a loud girl - so it takes a lot of extra effort to talk loud enough that people can hear me through them. They suck. You can refuse to wear one of you want - but I probably won't shop in your place. Even on the trail this weekend pretty much everyone had one and as we passed each other we slid our masks up.

I understand the virus can't really stick to things outside in nature but it makes us all feel a little less afraid. And most people are complying.



There was some pretty good media covering the protest. Literally the only time they come to this burb is when it's 108 degrees. They don't even come out for murder normally.

I have to say... the mini pony almost made me break my own rules. I almost hopped out. But let's see what happens with you people.

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Yesterday...



I haven't seen a Fisker in a while.

Saturday, May 16, 2020

Looking down on creation.



Silicon Valley seems so small from way up here.



You can see all the way from the new Google campus to San Fransisco.



Thursday, May 14, 2020

Saturday, May 09, 2020

Good.

"This Is The Final Straw": Elon Musk Melts Down, Says He's Suing Alameda County &; Moving Tesla Out Of California.

I think Elon gets way more money from the Californian taxpayer than we get in benefit. He doesn't make any profit. He just bleeds us dry with subsidies. Let some other State pay for all of his shit.

The State almost gifted him that plant after NUMMI went out. He doesn't go anywhere that doesn't give him free rent. (in my opinion - which I'm only saying because he will try to destroy whoever he wants and hope you run out of money first)

Also... I find it funny that people are so upset about Jeff Bezos not paying any taxes  - but Elon does MUCH worse stuff and no one says anything.

So really... good riddance. Let him grift elsewhere. Texas seems to be welcoming him with open arms which makes me laugh and laugh and laugh. YOU GO TEXAS. Hope you like paying for stuff.

I knew Texas would become crazier than California eventually.

Friday, May 08, 2020

The San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia deserves a shout out.

Who would have known that California was going to be less fascist than Texas? Sure.... they did arrest some surfers in Southern California - but at least they didn't come out with gun boats or MRAPS. Said in the most sarcastic way.

I guess in Santa Clara county which encompasses San Jose, they were trying to ban pop up car parades and the police Chief said - yeah.... we are not enforcing that. 

Since there have been a few incidents where the police have just gone crazy I wanted to applaud this guy for being sensible. Honestly I was kinda shocked because ya know.... California. But, good for him.

I knew some day Texas was going to be crazier than California.
It's so frustrating to try to buy from businesses right now. It's like the internet in 1985.

Just tell us what you are able to sell, and when we can buy it. They are all crying out that they are dying - but they are doing absolutely nothing to help the customers. And it's not just today. It's been this way for weeks.

Today you can't even get people on the phone. Which you only find out after you've sat through a worse than normal phone tree.

Not to mention the phone tree messages are so unhelpful. Have they never been a customer on the other side of that phone tree?

Thursday, May 07, 2020

Typically California.

Furor Erupts Over San Francisco Giving Drugs To Homeless Addicts As Businesses Prepare To Reopen: Live Update.

Yet dispensaries in Silicon Valley have been shut for weeks. They were following exactly the same distancing rules as Home Depot. I'd been to both.

If I can buy mixed paint at Home Depot, I should be able to buy weed. And you know... a crop is a crop. Nobody wants to buy months old weed.

Tuesday, May 05, 2020

It's like living in an insane asylum.



I pretty much don't care what people do - AS LONG AS THEY AREN'T AFFECTING ME.  It's probably why I blog finance stuff so much now, because I'm the one who actually pays for shit while everyone else is all - YOLO!

I feel the same about this virus. I don't give a fuuuuuck if you go back to work or the beach or anywhere else. I want to do those things too. Who knew not going anywhere would be so exhausting!

Having said that - the virus deniers are real assholes.

I don't think quarantines really work. People will evade them. Humans are fight or flight animals. And when you try to lock them down they try to flee! But to see people repeating stuff that is not true is irritating. For instance - the Swedish study of immunity. Everyone keeps reporting the same story without updating to the most recent data because it fits their narrative.

No, Sweden Isn’t a Miracle Coronavirus Model.

"The country’s lockdown model is being lauded by the WHO, but it’s a unique case whose death rate is much worse than those of its neighbors."

OH! Also the story on ZeroHedge today that talked about the how nothing was shut down during the Spanish flu. Which is a ridiculous comparison. In 1918 the US had about 100 million people. 
Today we have about 300 million. I think people didn't really have to "social distance" in 1918. If you are okay with 200 thousand people dying in 1918, multiply that by 3 for the population adjusted number.

And finally the shutdown is killing more people than the virus. Depression kills. It does. Full stop. Even I am not immune. But if depression were killing more than two thousand people a day - like the frakenvirus - there would be tons of stories on Google. And there just aren't.

What we are going through is heartbreaking. It's not even creative destruction - it's just destruction.

We went into our favorite ramen place this weekend to lift our spirits, and they were having a full garage sale in their store. When we opened the bag to eat our food in the truck we noticed they have left a card thanking us for supporting them. Now you may think they were doing this for everyone, but the card was made directly to Mr S. I guess they knew his name because you have to sign in. Or maybe they got it from the credit card. We've been trying to prop them up so they survive. But I'm not sure they will. Those people will probably lose everything though no fault of their own. At least if the restaurant sucked and they failed you could say - be better.  This is not even a case like that.

And the virus deniers can't even sacrifice by putting a mask on? WTF? We all hate wearing them, but we also all hate being trapped in our houses because you assholes don't believe the virus is a big deal.

I'm at the stage that I feel this is a self resolving issue. If you want to cluster together - be my guest. I'm fairly certain you will become less annoying quicker that way. I say let's fully embrace the Swedish model. Of course 12% of cases will die. But if you don't care - why should I?

Friday, May 01, 2020

Well.... he's not wrong.

Elon Musk just declared that he's selling almost all his physical belongings and 'will own no house' and that he thinks Tesla's stock price is 'too high'.

I mean his second largest customer Chi-na has been shut since their New Year in February(corrected). I don't even know why he goes through the whole illusion of making cars anyway. He makes all his money off of carbon credits.