Arranging Matches

Uneasy Rhetoric on saving gas: Drive less!

Uneasy Rhetoric posts some brain-dead simple advice on how to save money on gas: drive less!  John also gets a credibility bonus for putting his money where his mouth is and taking light rail to work. 

I'm guilty of driving more than I should, but in my own defense, I live less than (non-walkable, take your life into your hands on a bike) five miles from work, and the nearest bus stop is two miles away. (There's still no RT service in my seven year old neighborhood).  I like walking, but not enough to turn an eight minute door to door drive into a full hour walk-bus commute.

Some random thoughts complaints about annoying, gas-wasting behavior:

Crepes and gelato, oh my!

Wifey just called to inform me that a crepe and gelato stand is opening near the women's Macys in Sacramento's Downtown Plaza.   This just gives me the goosepimples all over.   Gelato is like American ice cream, except that it is richer, creamier, includes actual ingredients instead of a pretend flavors, and most importantly, is not sold from a box.   

We enjoyed crepes nearly every day in Paris, mostly from the cart just around the corner from our hotel.   I like Sacramento's Crepeville fine, but their cheddar cheese wasn't on the menu of any of any Parisian crepe place we saw.  Parisian crepes tended to have two or three light, mildly flavored cheeses along with some basic ingredients like ham, onions and bell pepper.   I can't wait to try both the gelato and the crepes and I'll be sure to review both of them here.

Update: The place is apparently going to be a Melt Gelato location.  I've never been to one, but it looks like they'll get the gelato right based on the information on their web site.  However, the only cheese they mention in the savory crepe section is cheddar, and I'm more interested in crepes than quesadillas.  They offer dessert crepes with a choice of either chocolate or nutella, just like the my favorite crepe cart on Rue Cler.  The web site doesn't say, but I'm really hoping the crepes themselves are made fresh while you wait.

Update 2: I may have been wrong on the Melt Gelato thing.  The sign actually says Crepes N Gelato, so the place may be locally owned, which is even better.

Update 3: Fred, local owner of Crepes N Gelato, posted some information about his place in the comments section.  They'll open in about a week.

Update 4: Crepes N Gelato is scheduled to open this Friday, June 15.

Rick Steves Blog

Wifey and I relied heavily on Rick Steves guidebooks, TV shows and podcasts in planning our trip to Europe.  Time after time, we found Rick's advice to be spot-on for hotels, interesting places and restaurants.  Rick is now blogging the next 100 days he'll spend in Europe.  I'm sure his blog will be as good as his other work, so anyone with an interest in travel should check it out.

Sacramento BizJournal: Subprime home loan deliquency skyrockets

The article is hidden behind a pay wall, but the Sacramento Business Journal is reporting that delinquent (60 day overdue) subprime home loans skyrocketed in the Sacramento valley over the last year.  The highest spikes were in Merced, where delinquency shot up more than 400%.  Sacramento's subprime delinquency rate increased over 300%.

This is a bad, bad problem for the housing market.  Many of these people have zero-down, interest-only loans, where payments have recently spiked as the principal part of the payment comes due.  The buyer has paid no principal over the first few years of the loan, and in many cases, their home has lost value in the interim.  After making payments for a few years, they're faced with a drastic payment increase on a house that's worth less than the original loan.  Legal complications aside, these people would be better off walking away from the original loan and buying the house next door for less money. 

This situation almost inevitably leads to foreclosure, which has a ripple effect.  First, it adds to the number of homes in an already-crowded market.  As the article mentions, bank-owned foreclosures are often sold at a discount, further depressing prices.  It also takes the original buyers out of the market and as subprime lenders go out of business, it becomes difficult to impossible for that entire class of buyer to enter the market.  Housing supply goes up, demand goes down and prices keep dropping. 

I don't pretend to know how bad it's going to get.  My interest is primarily in how the market affects prices in my neighborhood, which affects my ability to sell and/or move.  But this bust correction has been a long time coming, and I don't think we're anywhere near the end.

Update: Foreclosure.com lists 164 foreclosures, preforeclosures and bankruptcies in my zip code alone.  The site doesn't list dates, but that number is mind-bogglingly high given the relatively small number of homes in my zip code. 

Staying organized

I don't subscribe to any productivity theories, like Getting Things Done, that have gone round the blogosphere over the last few years.  It's not that I have anything against these theories, it's just that I haven't found a need for them.  I use the following organizational tactics to stay on task:

• My Inbox is only for action items.  All completed or other items go into a folder.  I only use two mail folders on a regular basis: IT and Misc.
• I keep a complete Outlook task list prioritized from 1 (most important) to 5 (least important).  The task list is filtered to only show active tasks.  When I complete a task, I check the "Completed Tasks" box and the task moves to my separate "Completed Tasks" list.  This is pretty much the "My Name is Earl" style of productivity.
• I hand write a short, prioritized task list every day.  This allows me to focus on the tasks I need to accomplish instead having the entire list slosh around in my brain all day.
• I tend to do quick and easy tasks (less than 15 minutes) first so they don't pile up.  Seeing ten small tasks is much bigger problem for me than one big one.
• I minimize interruptions.  I use Outlook's system tray mailbox icon rather than a pop-up window for new e-mail.  I check e-mail when I'm ready, not every time something new arrives.  I also keep instant messaging contacts to a minimum and I don't answer the phone if I'm busy.  They'll leave a message if it's important.
• I try to reduce clutter wherever I can.  I organize my desk such that active project paperwork is physically closer to me than projects that are on hold.
• I staple/clip old project paperwork and file it. 
• I use Copernic Desktop Search, which largely makes e-mail and and personal document filing obsolete.  When I want to find something, I generally search Copernic for it.
• I avoid long e-mail threads.  If a thread is still going after three replies, it's time to pick up the phone.
• I save snippets of information into simple text documents or a wiki and I save Internet bookmarks into Spurl.  The key is for my brain to function as an index, not an encyclopedia.  It's not important to know the information off the top of my head.  What's important is knowing where to find it.