Think I was joking? Watch these.

There are no words.

Today's post is brought to you by the homeless.

I try to avoid going to San Fransisco as much as I can. Some of it's the traffic, but most of it is the homeless. While others see beauty, the homeless situation at now at a level I honestly can't believe. I really have no words to describe how crazy it is. People are just so numb to it, or if the say anything they are shamed for doing so. It's really just heartbreaking how they encourage this behavior.

I mean, all of the cities have their fair share of homeless, but San Fransisco homeless are the kind that talk to themselves. Like - all of them. I've been up there before and hung out in one spot for long enough to realize that the homeless just spend all their days walking around the block. They hit you up, and when they come around again - they hit you up again.

I come away very affected every single time I go there. And the messed up thing is you can't do a single thing about it! Not only from a government point of view, but in general these people at a no turning back phase in their lives. Even if there were shelters that would take them, most of them won't go there. A lot of them are seriously mentally ill.

And now a lot of these homeless are living in the most squalid conditions - I can't even believe the city stands for it. I can't emphasis how deeply I mean this.

When I take the train back to my comfortable suburb I always watch the area through Oakland, because it was really starting to look better there for a while. And now...... it's unbelievable. The tent cities are enormous. And strangely this new breed of homeless are hoarders. A sort of swanky rich type of homeless people. The tents they use are party sized tents. I don't know how much they cost, but when I was a kid we could never afford the giant tents these people have. I don't even know how they get them. They carry around so much stuff. On the train ride I saw a homeless person with SIX shopping carts. I've seen them with couches in their encampments. I mean, everything you throw away they are scooping up.

It's really messed up to say, but the recession really upgraded the lives of a lot of these people. Before the recession people didn't have anything. After everyone started losing their houses every single homeless person had a bicycle. Then the tents came, and now it's just like really messed up camping.

Through the Oakland section, sidewalks were completely blocked by this stuff. (as is some places of San Fransisco) Some of the garbage piles were as tall as I am! And the city was out there with dump trucks and hazmat suits. And I see this on the news ALL THE TIME, but seeing it in person just leaves me stunned. I used to be mostly okay walking to places like the Crucible, but now that area is so sketch. And I'm not some sort of pussy - I lived on the boarder of East Palo Alto when they were still killing people there. I lived in a rent controlled building in EPA when I first started out. Now you never hear a single word about EPA because an IKEA moved in. I think maybe one person dies a year there. Yeah, hipsters weren't the first generation of white people to move to poor cities.

I never turn a blind eye to the homeless because it can happen to anyone. No one should ever feel like they can't wind up there. Having said that - it's the most inhuman thing I've ever seen. They are setting fires. In San Jose they are constantly setting fires. And instead of trucking their trash out of their encampments they just throw it down the hill onto the freeways. Sometimes you get both. Fires and trash.

I've been resisting getting pictures because the homeless are sort of aggressive sometimes now. And they like to tuck themselves away so most people who are self involved they won't notice - so, it's hard to get shots and blend in. i.e. not look like an asshole. But I seriously don't understand how they can't notice that crap in San Fransisco or Oakland. Because I see this stuff all the time and today I left the city feeling stunned. Super stunned. 

I guess people have already forgotten that Obama gave more of your money to "rich people", than any human on the planet. EVER. Then they can't seem to understand why inflation is so low. Hint - it's because your money bailed out all the banks on the planet and now it's all trapped in there. And they won't even lend it back to you!

I only bring it up because there seems to be some nostalgia for Obama right now.

Hopefully higher interest rates will stop some of this.

The truth of the matter is - we are in uncharted territory now.

"To wit, this example: Alain Pinel agent Mark Wong sent out an email blast Tuesday revealing that around 60 South Bay homes, mostly in Sunnyvale and Cupertino, sold for $200,000 or more over the asking price in the last 30 days. And he wasn’t necessarily talking about fancy schmancy places. One modest Cupertino house — 1,046 square feet — sold for $660,000 above its listing price." Source.

Randomly, here are a few of the numbers in Wong’s email:

A house at 1051 Heatherstone Ave. in Sunnyvale listed at $1,888,000 and sold for $2,370,000 — $482,000 over asking.

A house at 553 Croyden Court in Sunnyvale listed at $1,998,000 and went for $2,450,000 — $462,000 over asking.

A townhouse at 982 La Mesa Terrace, also in Sunnyvale, listed at $1,099,000 and sold for $1,400,000 — $301,000 over asking. For a townhouse.

"But this is not just a tale of those two cities. Agents recently have reported escalating prices in Mountain View’s Monta Loma neighborhood; priced out buyers have given up and moved down the road to Sunnyvale. Homes have been going for $300,000 over asking in Redwood City and — no surprise here — in Palo Alto."

MountainView in particular has added tons of new office space, and almost no new housing. So everyone is being pushed to surrounding towns.

I'm not even sure if a recession could tame this crisis. There just aren't enough places for people to live. I'm slightly concerned because when the pitchforks come out, they won't be rational.

All of this douchebaggery is Sci-fi's fault.

I'm not a huge sci-fi fan, but Mr S. is. I think they recycle the same old stale story line. Humans are evil and are ruing the earth. That is pretty much all sci-fi-fi is these days.

Almost every time we watch sci-fi and it has that plot line I look at Mr S. and say - this is all your peoples fault! This is the reason people believe stupid things about the earth.

So I had to laugh a little inside when I was talking to a guy I know about those cube satellites. Immediately he freaked out about space junk. He's like - this is so dangerous.

Me - well most of this stuff is going to burn up in the atmosphere.

Him - No it won't!

Me - Well.... what stuff has fallen to the ground?

Him - No - it's going to hit other stuff in space. All you need is a grain of sand to hit the space station.

Me - Yeah. That's true, but the space station is still up there. So nothing must have hit it yet.

Him - Well, they don't tell you everything. When I saw that movie Gravity it really freaked me out.

He even said the words at some point in the conversation - "you know how we are ruining the earth"?

I'm like - the Earth is going to burn out one day!

I'm routinely shocked at how many people tell me we are ruing the earth. All small talk eventually turns to this. I swear. Considering how many people we have on on this planet I think we aren't doing too bad honestly.

Also I just feel like that's a very first world problem. You know my deepest fear is? Being homeless and I'm not doing too bad. Not that the earth is a little warmer or dirtier. If all you have to worry about is us ruining the earth - I just have to roll my eyes. We are living longer than ever! Do you you know how many people are living to 100 these days? A LOT. Humans are sure doing a shitty job of ruining the earth by that standard.

Pink Drink.

I've been trying for three days to get this shot. I have about four seconds every morning to try and get it.

Lacy has the sniffles a little so she is on antibiotics. The medicine shop compounds it with a tasty flavoring which also makes it look like she has lipstick on. That stuff is like crack. We often call it sizzurp because she loves it so much. The problem is that even if I can get her to stop moving long enough to get a crisp shot, her face is still all over the map trying to suck up every last drop. Yesterdays try is at the bottom.

It's the nicest thing the Boris's have ever given me.

I started calling the squirrels Boris this past winter after they started stealing my shoe laces. Usually they are just robbing me blind or planting the neighbors crap in my yard. I'm pretty sure one of my neighbors is spending a fortune on peanuts because they pop up everywhere.

So imagine my surprise when they actually left me something nice. They buried one bulb last year and now I have two of these.

Not even close to overheating. Said in the most sarcastic way.

"Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari said on Tuesday he finds it hard to believe that the U.S. economy is in danger of overheating when wage growth is so low." Source.

I'm going to hit Crazy Eyes Kashkari twice today. Because I'm not sure what his definition of overheating is. Take this true headline:

Crazy Silicon Valley real estate: Homes routinely selling for $200,000 or more over asking.

I actually started noticing this in the burbs a few months ago. The amount over isn't as dramatic as Silicon Valley proper.  But I'd say 80% of houses in my area are now selling for over the asking. Anywhere from 20-60 grand. Hey, it's the burbs - it's not going to be as crazy as The Valley.

Now strangely that other 20% percent is actually selling for under asking, which is kinda confusing. Just last night on the news they did a story on how many houses were being sold sight unseen because inventory is so low. That's crazy.

The whole thing made me laugh because this makes the housing bubble look like childs play.

But, the housing distortion is in full speed now. They haven't built enough to keep up with population, and everyone else is locked into low rates. Why would they move? This is putting immense pressure on the sector.

Again, I think it would only take the tiniest of sparks to make this a wild fire. For instance - what if instead of helicopter money........ they just let us keep more of our own money. Radical know.

Look - I'm not an economist but.....

"Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari said on Tuesday he finds it hard to believe that the US economy is in danger of overheating when wage growth is so low. "

Damn - crazy eyes Kashkari almost had me. I call him that because he tried to run for governor of California. I think it was last term. I almost agree with him. (almost) Wage growth has been anemic due to low inflation.

US unemployment is at 4.4 percent, below what most economists believe is consistent with full employment, and is one data point Fed policymakers cite when they explain why they have been raising interest rates, which Kashkari has opposed.

"It can't be that bad to find workers," Kashkari told the Minnesota Women's Economic Roundtable, adding that while he realizes there are complicating factors like the need for certain skills, when businesses really need workers they will raise wages. "We are not seeing wages climbing."

No Crazy Eyes - businesses will raise wages when they start getting demand and people start spending again. Right now growth is enemic enough they can just push the existing workers harder and pay them the same. Yet - it can still be really hard to find workers. See the feedback loop there?

I think he is too removed from the workforce. I can assure you that there are sectors of the economy where it's pretty hard to find people. Tech and construction.

Contractors are booked months out.  Which I have never seen in my life. Even during the hight of the housing bubble. If you needed a project done you could always get it started within a week or two. Now it's solidly 1-3 months. I assure you that some of the reason these guys are so booked out is because they can't find workers. If they could - they would just hire more and they would make more money. I'd be able to get my projects started within a week or two like the world used to be.

Hell, I've even started seeing gardeners with their kids working with them again. Like 15 year old kids. I haven't seen that in forever! The guy who does my  rental stopped being able to find people to work for him about a year ago I think.

So....... all we really need is the demand to light the spark of wage inflation.

This made me laugh and laugh and laugh.

Snap closes below $17 IPO price amid fears insiders will dump shares.

I think this is a dead company walking. I've said it was a fad before, but I don't care that much because the way they structured the IPO the founders get hit harder than anyone else. When they did it - no on in Silicon Valley had seen an IPO like this. And it looks super greedy, unless you felt it was a fad like I did. I thought - those guys are going to pay for doing that. Enjoy!

Snap has three classes of stock:

Class A stock is what you’ll be able to buy on the New York Stock Exchange. Those shares do not include any votes, though shareholders who buy them will be entitled to attend the company’s annual shareholder meeting and ask questions.

Class B stock is reserved for executives of the company and early investors. Those shares each come with one vote apiece. 

Class C stock is held exclusively by Snap’s co-founders, CEO Evan Spiegel and CTO Bobby Murphy. Those shares come with 10 votes apiece.

Thanks to this structure, Spiegel and Murphy hold a combined 88.5 percent of the company’s total voting power, according to Snap’s IPO filing. This means that every major decision for Snap, from appointing board members to a possible future sale, will be controlled by just two people. Source.

Proof is mounting that Tesla cannot live without corporate welfare.

I've bitched about Tesla forever, but in The Valley Musk gets a huge pass because he has changed the world in a lot of ways. Even I begrudgingly think so.

Having said that - a few weeks ago I read this story: Denmark’s EV sales collapse 60% on tax move.

At the time I wondered if there was finally starting to be trouble in paradise. But you never know when gravity will finally arrive.

Then this morning even worse news came out. Tesla sales stopped dead in Hong Kong after a tax break for electric cars was scrapped. It was ghastly news really.

"The Hong Kong government's decision to scrap a tax break for electric vehicles has had a dramatic effect on sales of Tesla cars in the city, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

Data analysis from The Journal has shown that zero new Tesla Model S sedans and Model X SUVs were registered with the transport department in April, after the vehicle-registration tax waiver for electrics was discontinued at the start of that month. 

Following that, just five privately owned electric cars were registered in May."

Even if you take the view that the tax benefit is just letting people keep more of their own money - then let all people keep more their own money. And stop letting just a few companies live due to corporate welfare.

I guess that's where they are going to put poor people.

A couple of days ago I read they were going to build about 1700 apartments on top of the old dump in Milpitas. There are already a few companies out there like Polycom. And even though I understand we have a shortage of land, I was fairly shocked the city agreed to do this.

I thought that particular type of building was banned a long time ago due to earthquake rules and the risk of liquifaction. But just additionally - I'm super fascinated about how this is going to turn out. You see, even though that dump is infinitely smaller than when I was growing up - to this day it can make the whole city of Milpitas and Fremont stink all the way to the foothills. As proof I stuck the words "Fremont stink" into google so you could see for yourself I wasn't being dramatic. There is even a twitter feed that's called MilpitasStinks.

It's going to be super interesting to see how people are going to feel living right on top of that. I'm not sure how it will start out, but I'm fairly certain it will turn into low income housing pretty quick. It will be like living next to the city waste treatment plant.

Some days it's not so bad - but other days you can smell it even from my side of town. And who is going to pay top dollar for that? I'll tell you who - no one. But we will start hearing all sorts of stories about how bad the housing situation is that they have to live on top of a dump and how we are mistreating poor people by making them live there. I'd bet anything. Although I did read that it costs three grand a month to live in Alviso. Which is crazy.

They allege they are going to make the development upscale like Santa Row.  But I think they are going to lose their shirts. Even though Joe Montana is apparently a limited partner. Santana Row doesn't smell like a dump.

Mr S. says they should call the development Landfills End.

And then this happened.

As people were asking questions last night at that rocket event, the whitest gingery guy from Stanford stood up and asked how do we encourage more women and people of color to go into rocketry. So the people at the top aren't all just white males.

I immediately get surly because Stanford is one of the whitest colleges on earth. And Silicon Valley is one of the most welcoming diverse places in the United States. All this bullshit about them being discriminatory is completely wrong and irritating. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS GET THE SKILLS AND SHOW UP! Tech isn't keeping people out. You are keeping yourselves out. Tech involves a lot of math, and right there women start tapping out. Math is hard.

The reality is most women will not want to go into this field. And for some minority groups it just wasn't "cool" to be a nerd.  Thankfully that is starting to change. But none of this is Silicon Valleys fault. And all this angst is just virtue signaling. Silicon Valley doesn't have a problem with any of these groups. They would die to have you. You just have to show UP! That's it. I swear.

I went into tech when the goal wasn't to get as many vagina's in the door as possible and I never had a problem. The only thing I ever had to change to get a tech job was look serious. If I was having an interview - instead of getting my nails done bright red - I'd choose a sensible French manicure.  But I guess these days that would be considered sexists. It's just ridiculous.

And some of us women went into tech to get away from the insanity of women. Before there were so many of them - it was glorious. When you ask a man what he is thinking and he says - nothing. THAT GUY REALLY MEANS THAT. There is literally nothing but wind blowing between that guys ears. Women are nothing but drama.

I'm not really sure how to blog this.

I have a general rule about Silicon Valley. If you make me mad before I leave your event I think your pitch is bullshitty. Having said that - I really hope this guy succeeds. I have faith in what he's trying to do - I just wasn't sure what the point of this particular event was.

It was one of the weirdest things I've ever attended. The whole thing reminded me of the time I went to a Google Glass pitch and they made me not even want to try on the glasses. Which is a huge deal. And it wasn't only me. We all get bored in these things and sort of keep it to ourselves. But at the Google Glass event, the attendees started revolting. They were like - we are all engineers! We want to hear about the details of the product. Because the whole thing was more salesmany than deep on technical details. Still to this day have never tried on Google glass. But I digress. I just wanted to give you a background because this rocket launch event reminded me a lot of the Google Glass thing.

And yes, they were revealing a new rocket and somehow managed to make that boring. Even worse they barely explained the product. Their website made their mission much more interesting than the CEO himself. Let me try to explain a little.

For about two years I have heard rumblings around the Valley about cube satellites. Which are small box sized satellites they've been launching into low earth orbit. Even Mr. S worked with a guy who was doing that as a side project about a year so ago.  The small rocket announced last night can carry 16 of these cube satellites as you can see in image two where the nose is open. I think only about 5 are visible. This way they don't have to wait for NASA to launch a giant satellite so they can piggy back on their launch.

The theory is that launching satellites is so expensive that it takes 16 years to recoup the cost and then the technology is reaching obsolete. If you could launch smaller more disposable satellites it would be cheaper and we wouldn't have to wait so long before we could improve technology.

Since this rocket is so small, their site claims you could roll up to a launch site with a semi truck. Then attach the rocket to a weather balloon which takes it into high altitude which is where the rocket is then launched into low earth orbit. If you go down to the middle of their site (in the link above)  you can see their plan. I'm only linking them very lightly because I don't want to give them bad press. I just really think they need step up their game if they want people to invest in this thing. The attendees needed to to leave feeling like they'd gotten more information than what they could have gotten from the company website - not less.

Now back to the event. Normally networking is always at the end of these things. Not the beginning. So this started eating up my Saturday night. I figured I would just be able to pop in for like an hour, smell the factory air and then leave. It became obvious after two hours I was in for the long haul.

Instead of the panelists talking about the rocket, they all gave a brief rundown of their working history and very little about the rocket. To be fair they all did touch on why this project was important. To make it cheaper to get tiny satellites into space.

However it might have been helpful to explain how it's more cost effective to 3D print this rocket instead of the normal manufacturing. 3D printing isn't cheap.

Or how do you launch it in the right direction when you are launching it from a balloon? How do you handle thrust vectoring? One guy asked what they expected it to cost to do a launch, and it sounded like they were going to NDA him up.

Now I don't think this thing had any media, but I am pretty sure they were seeking investors. Who I doubt care about the working background of the panelists outside of them having the right skills and contacts. They want to know if this can make them money and how.

Still, I'm for anyone who is trying to break away from the bureaucracy.  I really want them to succeed. You can make up your own minds.

And I got you a plane shot for no apparent reason at all. It looked cool and it was in the hanger.

See through TV's are finally hitting the market.

But you sort of have to take my word for it because I didn't realize this was a transparent TV until after I'd taken photos. I was sort of tarded out because I thought it was embedded into a window.

This thing is so thin it's held on by magnets. Seriously. Magnets. The guy started peeling it off the window to show me.

I started seeing these things at trade shows about this time last year and after all this time I didn't think they were going to catch on. Especially since I hadn't seen them in a while. All the shows this year have sort of sucked so far.

Now that I know they are coming out I will try to be better prepared to get you better shots. I only had my cell at the time.

Thank you clean air standards.

Apparently in most of the newer cars - if you need to replace the brakes, you can also count on having to replace the rotors. Thought y'all should know and prepare. I've never had to replace rotors in my entire driving experience. And you all know I speed! Well, I formerly used to speed. Sort of.

I guess because of the clean air standards they are trying to shave weight off everywhere including the rotors. That means they wear out much faster.  You are welcome!

I'm guessing this only has been happening for a couple of years because I bought a used car and I just got hit with this landmine.  But it sounds like all the newer cars will find out soon enough.

It's just incredible that all these protestors in Germany are fighting to live like they do in Venezuela. But then, well after the Berlin Wall fell there were still a LOT of Germans who were unhappy about capitalism. I will never understand it.

I want to feel like everyone wants to be free, but sometimes they sure don't act like it. But maybe it's easy to feel that way when you are a taker rather than a giver.

wtf Amazon?

If I buy one of these it costs 11.89. If I buy three it costs $158.14! Four? It costs 203.19. And five - $248.21. Thank goodness for that bulk pricing. Said in the most sarcastic way.

I wonder what it costs to have it gift wrapped. Just curious. I mean 5 of these is almost a car payment.

I guess he turned out to be a republican after all.

You know - I voted for Trump not fully knowing if he was a Republican or a Democrat. I wasn't really sure. It could have very possibly turned out to be just another RINO. I just felt that even if he was a Democrat, he was still more of a Republican than all of the Republicans we had in office.  Which is sad.

All those big spending socialist Republicans might as well be Democrats. The only reason I voted for Trump was because - if that guy didn't understand capitalism - who the eff is left who does?

After listening to the Warsaw speech I feel more confident. I'm not going to say he couldn't do a lot of things differently, but if he does nothing more than get rid of the repression of regulation it will be worth it.

People don't get it - that is a form of freedom. For all the things people complain about - they should really take a moment and let that sink in. I haven't heard an American President talk about freedom in I can't remember how long. Because really..... a lot of the Republicans in office don't really want us to be free either. They want us to be debt slaves. They spend and spend and spend.

We all thought globalism was making us free-er, but it turned out that it was just creeping socialism.

Such a crazy building boom.

I've been talking about the lack of land to build on for a couple of years. Seriously, everywhere I drive-  lots are being snapped up and developed at a crazy rate. I've never seen anything like it. I'm going to have to stop calling my area (the burbs) green acres, because I'm not even going to recognize this place in a few years. Maybe I will start calling it green half acres depending on how much stuff gets built up.

Anyway, this site used to be a school. When they knocked it down I thought there were going to build a nicer school. Which would be a delight for the neighbors. It brings up their property values.

To my shock, they tore down the school and they are building condos! I have never seen that before. I really thought they would start doing this to churches first because they are on a ton of land. But schools? That's a new one.

Conversations with Mr S.

Me - the Mercury news is tweeting out that Palo Alto is putting cameras up at the train tracks to monitor for suicide.

He just looks at me.

Me - With the real estate prices in Palo Alto - should the train still be an option?

Him -  Well, it's not going to stop you - they are just going to have great photos. It's not a suicide guard - it's a suicide monitor.

Thank you Life Lock commercials.

Companies never tire of ways to kill themselves.

"If you've cruised around Amazon, eBay, and many other popular websites, you may have noticed an unusual number of images have been removed from listings. In their place: An image asking the user to upgrade to a $399.99 account in order to enable third-party hosting.

That's because Photobucket, a photo sharing service, quietly changed its terms of service, demanding a yearly fee from users who want to post to other sites. Customers have lashed out, accusing the company of charging a "ransom." Source.

This time it's Photobucket. I guess they locked out their users. It used to be free,  and now they want a yearly fee. They know how the internet works right? But they didn't even give potential defectors time to get their stuff out.

This stuff is why I try to avoid the cloud. I'm not paranoid, it's just that when you don't pay a company for a service - they have no obligation to you. I'm looking at you Evernote. Even sometimes when you DO pay a company they act like they have no obligation to you. I'm still looking at you Evernote.

When my ISP decided they didn't want to give me hosting space any more - I decided to self host. The downside is that when I get a power hit at my house - my blog images go down too. So that kinda sucks. But, my data is my data. You don't get to lock me out or change "your policies".

People have lost their effin minds.

Solar-powered prefab tiny house will do it all for $190K.

This tiny shed is 269 square feet. It is a swank shed, but still - you don't own the LAND. Most mobile homes are larger than this. All for a stunning price of $190,000! That is 700 dollars per square foot. Your average kitchen tile is 12x12. (one square foot) And every time you look down at the floor - that will cost you 700 bucks.

For contrast - most real homes these days are in the 200 dollars per square foot range. And you don't have to worry about getting tossed off the land you are leasing for your tiny shed. And by the way, you could probably build a real home for about 200k.

No turning back now.

SAN RAMON, CA — A pair of $250,000 autonomous buses began driving around an empty San Francisco Bay Area parking lot on Monday (March 6), preparing to move themselves onto a local public road in California’s first pilot program for a self-diving vehicle without a steering wheel or human operator on city streets.

Candidly, I was a little shocked to see this turn up in the East Bay first. I knew all the tech companies in the Valley were planning driverless shuttles for their campuses, but the East Bay isn't exactly tech central. I've been watching for these to turn up in Silicon Valley proper and I haven't seen any yet. I do see autonomous cars fairly regularly, but I haven't seen any shuttles.

And I don't know how San Ramon gets listed as "San Fransisco".  It's not even San Fransisco adjacent.

You can read more here.

How academia creates shallow thinkers.

Mark Zuckerberg again defends government giving people free money.

Mark Zuckerberg made a visit to Alaska and now he believes in giving people cash for doing nothing even more because Alaska does it. And this is how I tell him is wrong.

When people get to a certain age they don't really want to learn anything new. It sort of starts happening around the age of 30 and only progresses with age. This is just human nature. A basic income only entrenches that into people at an earlier age. And it's really why people get stuck in/on welfare for so long.

Your most valuable years are between the age of 20 and 30. This is where your earning potential lies. When you start hitting 40 to 50 years old your earning years start to decline. So - you only have about 20 years of max earning potential. If you waste those first 10 years - it alters your whole life. And this is why people wind up poor.

I started working at tech companies at 14. And I had to lie to do it because you were suppose to be 18.  But girls always look a little older. I started doing this because I knew first hand from my mother how this turns out because she was a teenage mom. When she finally was able to get into the workforce her best earning years were behind her. She was forever stuck in low wage jobs.

And really - Alaska is a fine place..... but with the money the government gives to people - how many entrepreneurs has it created with that program? There is actually a relatively small amount of the population who continues to grow/learn as they get older. Most become complacent and resist learning. This is why thinking that if you just give people money they will not just become dependent is just a fairy tale. Instead of feeling like the money is a great gift to expand on, human nature dictates they will just feel comfortable and not reach for the stars.

To some degree, only pain motivates you like that.

Because.....merica.

America wasn't founded so we could all be better. America was founded so we could all be anything we damn well please. - P.J. O'Rourke

This 4th of July seems extra special.  It's worth noting just how close came to living under unapologetic socialism. For a while I was preparing for Bernie Sanders to win. For real. He had a really big following. I went to one of his rallies.

They always try to make socialism into soft socialism - but it always eventually turns into hard socialism because you have to force people to do things they don't really want to do.

Capitalism is the highest form of freedom, because you can always find a way to leave a bad environment as long as you have money. It allows you to vote with your feet.

The socialists almost over took us. It was really that close. I would not have bet things would turn out the way they did. I thought we were on an unchangeable path.  And I'm not crazy about all the things Trump does - but I believe capitalism lifts every one up.

Whew.

Remember a few weeks ago I chopped down my neighbors hedge on their property literally in the time in between the old neighbors moving out and the new neighbor moving in. It's the most Jeff Lewis thing I ever done. But what was I going to do? Ask the new neighbors to cut the hedge right after they move in? That sucks. Welcome to the neighborhood - you need to spend a couple hundred bucks cutting that hedge back. Nice to meet you!

Everything had been quiet until yesterday when I saw them over the fence taking pictures of my yard and the hedge. It was obvious that they had noticed someone had chopped it down. I sort of panicked because I thought we would hear about it right away or never. They moved in two weeks ago.

I'm like  shit - what am I going to say? Mr S. wanted to ignore it and deny it. I decided I would act confused and say the old neighbors trimmed it every year.  I mean they did trim it last year,  but they always made it uncomfortable because I always had to ask. The ultimate goal was to make them aware in needs to be trimmed without me having to ask.

Anyway. I'm out in the front yard and they walk up to me. My head starts running a million miles a minute because I'm still not sure what I'm going to say. Here we go I guess I say to myself. We shake hands and introduce each other. They tell me they want to chop down another large tree in their yard that doesn't bother me as much because it doesn't get so close to my house. I'm like yeah - it's your property - you can do whatever you want with it - but can we talk about this hedge? It grows 10 feet in every direction. To my relief instead of digging in their heels and not wanting to trim it, they said they were are already talking about thinning it out.

That thing is seriously 20 feet deep. Their yard would be so much bigger. But they came to this decision on their very own. And it's such a relief. The way Californians feel about trees is a little crazy. You'd think they were killing babies when they trimmed a tree back.

Anyway- Best neighbor day ever.

Contractors take up a lot of space in my head.

So - I'm going to talk about them a lot in the next few weeks.

They have to run a delicate balance of doing that I want them to do, but not saying yes to everything I come up with. You don't want those guys. For example - "You want stairs on the ceiling." Okay.

You get the idea.

Last night I told Mr S. - I always seem to chose the contractors who tell me no. Can I have this? No. How about this? No. Finally by the fifth time you get a yes and it feels like victory.

Him - he's negging you.

I laugh and think about it for a second and gasp. You don't think I'm responding to being negged do you? I don't think I am, but now I'm going to have to watch myself to see if I am. Sometimes you just emotionally react to something and you don't realize you are doing it.

Do you think I'm responding to being negged?

Him - I didn't think so but now I'm going to have to watch you.