Well, as they say, New Year's resolutions are made to be broken! This year's ill-fated resolution was that I wanted to participate in 8 triathlons in 2012. Here I sit just a couple days short of June 1, which appears like the half way point of the year...alright, it is a month short of half...41.7% of the year to be exact. This means I need to be 3 TRIs into my goal to be on pace. Well, as usual, life happened and I am still sitting on a giant goose egg. This does not mean that I can't begin to work out and try to shave 20 pounds and still try to jam 8 TRIs into the next 215 days! Anyway, that is the goal, to begin training, which means that I will be listening to my iPod a lot more frequently. Therefore, I am bringing back one of my favorite posts...the jukebox!
1. You Remind Me Mary J Blige
When this CD came out, it was completely OK to put your stereo up to the radio and record a song straight from the radio. This was done quite a few times during my high school career. My buddy Daniel and I loved to listen to 92.3 the Beat, 99.1 KGGI and Power 106 (105.9). One day, You Remind Me by Mary J came on and I asked Daniel if he had that song. He said, I have the CD...I wanted to listen to it. He told me that I could record it but I couldn't keep it over night because "he needed him some Mary J Blige" before bed.
2. The Best of Me Jason Aldean
A love gone wrong song. One of my favorite Aldean songs.
3. Kush Dr Dre (feat. Snoop Dogg and Akon)
The first song released off the infamous Detox Dr Dre album. Dre and Snoop doing their thing. Snoops line, "still I am, tighter than the pants on Will.I.Am" is great. Anyway, I remember Dre and Snoop from their Deep Cover days, from their Nuthing But A "G" Thang days...I got to believe that Dre is embarrassed that Snoop is on a Katy Perry track, I know I am!
4. 2 of Americaz Most Wanted Tupac (feat. Snoop Dogg)
All Eyes On Me was a phenomenal CD. How Do You Want It featuring K-Ci and JoJo was great. I Ain't Mad At Cha featuring Danny Boy was awesome. California Love featuring Dr Dre was off the hook too. But, this song was without a doubt the best track from this album. "Ain't nuthin but a gangsta party"
5. Venus vs Mars Jay-Z
The Blueprint 3 is a great album. One of my buddies keeps telling me that rap/hip hop are dead and for the most part, I agree. Having said that, The Blueprint 3 (and Recovery by Eminem) is a great album. This album has high end pop songs (Empire State of Mind with Alicia Keys and Run This Town with Rhianna and Kanye West), as well as some other great cuts (Reminder, D.O.A.) and then there is Venus vs Mars. A good but not great song from this album. The last line "My dollars was down, she left me for some Euro’s, took my whole flavor, I call her coke zero, co-MVP like Kobe and Shaq, left me for the Heat, we were winning back to back, said I partied too much, shawty got fed up, shawty got Britney shaved her whole head up, we used to make out, kissing each others face off, fell for the ponzi scheme, damn shawty just Made-off."
6. Dear John Taylor Swift
Alright, as much as it pains me...this is actually a decent song! I am going to pretend that it isn't about some bitter public celebrity relationship! I just actually like most parts of this song. And, she doesn't seem so bitter, just young and naive.
7. You Can't Tell Me Nothing Kanye West
I can go either way with Kanye. Typically, he falls into the "hip hop music is terrible" category. But, occasionally, he has a good song...and this is one of those songs! I love this song. It has some very funny lines. "So if the Devil wears Prada, Adam and Eve wear nada, I'm somewhere in the middle but way more fresher". As funny as that line is, there is nothing funnier than Zach Galifianakis' take!
8. Lighters Bad Meets Evil (feat. Bruno Mars)
I just mentioned above that I think that Recovery and The Blueprint 3 are the best hip-hop albums released lately. I also think it is quite interesting that Eminem and Jay-Z are following a similar path (I realize that they have a few differences). They both had amazing albums that had great collaborative work. Part of that collaborative work included a pop song that featured Rhianna (Love the Way You Lie and Run This Town). They both followed up their solo albums by doing a collaborative album (Watch the Throne by Jay Z and Kanye West, Hell the Sequel Bad Meets Evil - Eminem and 5'9" Royce). Anyway, I'm not a huge Mars fan but this song is sick. If you listen to Em and 5'9" it's amazing how they mirror each others flow in this song!
9. More Bounce (in California) Soul Kid
This song screams The OC...loved the show (well, season 1 for sure, season 2 was good too...but it definitely jumped the shark in the season finale of season 2), like the song!
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Lord Stanley's Cup
My buddy Daniel and I had a routine everyday. We got home from school. We played street hockey until it got dark, then we ran to Foster's donuts for a snack, ran back home to watch Saved by the Bell and Dial MTV (I didn't say we weren't dorks). Oh, I forgot, we also watched almost EVERY hockey game that year. Not just every hockey game that year, but almost every second of every game.
I have a few very distinct memories from that playoff run. 1.) Gretzky scoring a hat trick against the Doug Gilmore/Wendell Clark led Toronto Maple Leafs in game 7 of the Western Conference Finals. 2.) The Kings played only Canadian teams that year in the playoffs. 3.) Gretzky scored an AMAZING empty net goal against Montreal in the first game of the Finals. 4.) Marty McSorley got busted for having an illegal stick with just a couple minutes left in game 2. The Kings were ahead 2-1. The Canadiens scored on the ensuing power play, then again in overtime to tie the series. The Kings NEVER recovered. 5.) John LeClair destroying the Kings. 6.) Patrick Roy was a beast...that the Kings couldn't overcome!
This year's run is a little different for me. I don't know all of the Kings yet. I re-kindled my love for the Kings a few years ago, so I know a few. Drew Doughty is my favorite. Dustin Brown is the heart and soul of the team, the Robitaille of '93. Kopitar is the leading scorer, the Gretzky role...although he is nowhere near the superstar that Gretz was! Quick holds the role of Hrudey, and quite frankly is way better at it than Kelly. But, beyond that...I don't know these guys.
As I try to determine who is going to win, I usually look at history. I look at goals against versus goals for. I would examine the records of the two teams and try to determine which team has an edge.I would pour over stats and create a spreadsheet that would predict the winner. However, this year is a little different. As little as I know about the Kings, I know less about the New Jersey Devils. I know Marty Brodeur! I know Ilya Kovalchuk (I wanted him to be a King SO bad when he was a free agent a couple years ago!!!). I remember Patrick Elias, but he is from the tail end of my hockey obsession. So this year, I have to go with my gut, my heart, to make any sort of pick!
As little as I know about the Kings, one thing I do know is that Bob Miller and Jim Fox are the best! I cannot stand listening to the network broadcasters. I know there must be some broadcaster code that says you can't bash anyone in the fraternity, but all of the broadcasters talking about how "great" Mike Emrick is, well it is just laughable! He literally sounds to me like a guy who has never watched hockey before. He reads the last names of the players like a child pronouncing a word that they do not know. He makes constant mistakes. If I have to listen to him mispronounce names like Daymond Langkow for another series I may have to turn the sound off! I did hear a rumor that the Kings are going to have Miller and Fox announce the games, so fans can buy them after the fact as a souvenir. I truly hope this is true! Miller and Fox are amazing. Miller is the lesser known of the Los Angeles triumvirate of sports announcers (alongside Vin Scully and Chick Hearn, please don't say Ralph Lawler to me...BINGO!), but that doesn't mean he is any less of a hall of famer!
Therefore, based on my eyeball test (I have watched somewhere between 6 and 10 kings games this postseason, but I've watch no Devils games...so this makes this a complete homer pick!), I am going with the Kings in 6 games! For this reason only, I hope the Stanley Cup Finals provide a little better hockey than the previous 3 rounds!
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
May Homes Report (Corona and Norco)
"Let me tell you something...everything you hear at a poker game is pure crap" ~ Aunt Iris
****Shocking to see this report just 7 days after my report!****
In the first season of Friends, the boys and girls are playing poker. So, Monica asks her aunt to come and teach the girls how to play. The quote above is the "first lesson of poker". It might be appropriate to say about pretty much anything coming from the media. Yesterday the stock market advanced on "good news" from the real estate world. The existing homes data report suggests that the end is in sight; therefore, every one can be happy that we are taking the right steps to recovery.
The existing sales data report to me is as murky as ever before. There are five zip codes in Corona and average price per home decreased in three of the five zip codes (-1.32% in 92879, -12.12 in 92881 and -9.69% in 92883) in the past six months. The zip codes that showed growth were 92880 (3.42%) and 92882 (4.23%). Which results in a composite decline of 3.87% over the past six months. I realize that 3.87 is a ton better than the 13.39 declined seen in the past 4 years, but it is not the happy, cherry news that I read about yesterday.
Now, I do understand that they were talking about national data, so that might explain the discrepancy. Having said that, I do live in California, Southern California to be exact so I obviously believe that this is the center of the world and closer to reality than any other place in the country! I also understand that the homes data report was not talking about the average price per home either. It was dealing with the median price per home and the volume of homes sold year over year. We have to realize that real estate has changed SO much in the past twelve months. The banks began to stop foreclosing homes (due to a number of reasons including fines from the government and litigation from tons of homeowners) and this is after they stopped releasing the homes that they have foreclosed for sale! What I am saying is that the banks sold less homes a few months ago which created less supply (almost no supply), this forced people who wanted to buy to bid up the homes they did buy. Therefore, the prices were artificially inflated. All you have to do is look at the homes currently available in Corona, REOs (bank owned homes) account for 1 in 8 of the homes on the market. This number is down massively off the high of a few years ago!
Lastly, there are lots of banks with tons of blood in their books. They have not released the homes that they have foreclosed, so we don't know how much worse things will get. CitiGroup Asset Disposition claims that there are 11,000,000 distressed properties in the foreclosure backlog.
The dialog from Aunt Iris ends by her telling Pheobe, "those are nice earrings"...to which Pheobe looks around a sheepishly smiles and says, "thanks." Kind of my response to these reports...
****Shocking to see this report just 7 days after my report!****
In the first season of Friends, the boys and girls are playing poker. So, Monica asks her aunt to come and teach the girls how to play. The quote above is the "first lesson of poker". It might be appropriate to say about pretty much anything coming from the media. Yesterday the stock market advanced on "good news" from the real estate world. The existing homes data report suggests that the end is in sight; therefore, every one can be happy that we are taking the right steps to recovery.
The existing sales data report to me is as murky as ever before. There are five zip codes in Corona and average price per home decreased in three of the five zip codes (-1.32% in 92879, -12.12 in 92881 and -9.69% in 92883) in the past six months. The zip codes that showed growth were 92880 (3.42%) and 92882 (4.23%). Which results in a composite decline of 3.87% over the past six months. I realize that 3.87 is a ton better than the 13.39 declined seen in the past 4 years, but it is not the happy, cherry news that I read about yesterday.
Now, I do understand that they were talking about national data, so that might explain the discrepancy. Having said that, I do live in California, Southern California to be exact so I obviously believe that this is the center of the world and closer to reality than any other place in the country! I also understand that the homes data report was not talking about the average price per home either. It was dealing with the median price per home and the volume of homes sold year over year. We have to realize that real estate has changed SO much in the past twelve months. The banks began to stop foreclosing homes (due to a number of reasons including fines from the government and litigation from tons of homeowners) and this is after they stopped releasing the homes that they have foreclosed for sale! What I am saying is that the banks sold less homes a few months ago which created less supply (almost no supply), this forced people who wanted to buy to bid up the homes they did buy. Therefore, the prices were artificially inflated. All you have to do is look at the homes currently available in Corona, REOs (bank owned homes) account for 1 in 8 of the homes on the market. This number is down massively off the high of a few years ago!
Lastly, there are lots of banks with tons of blood in their books. They have not released the homes that they have foreclosed, so we don't know how much worse things will get. CitiGroup Asset Disposition claims that there are 11,000,000 distressed properties in the foreclosure backlog.
The dialog from Aunt Iris ends by her telling Pheobe, "those are nice earrings"...to which Pheobe looks around a sheepishly smiles and says, "thanks." Kind of my response to these reports...
Monday, May 21, 2012
Available Homes Report (Corona and Norco, CA)
I haven't done one of these reports in a while, so I am a little surprised by the shift in the inventory. Here is the breakdown...
Standard Sales - 204
Short Sales - 147
REOs - 50
There are literally more standard sales on the market than distressed properties. This could be due to a few reasons. One, real estate agents HATE short sales. So, there could be a large number of realtors who do not want to take the listings. Two, the banks have been beat up by federal regulators. Therefore, they may be less willing to foreclose properties. Three, homeowners may be fed up with the process and just not even attempting to short sell the homes. This could also led to homeowners being uncooperative and staying in their homes longer (filing for bankruptcy, multiple loan mod attempts, etc...).
I will post more tomorrow about the inventory in Corona and Norco.
92879
Standard Sales (26)
Short Sales (33)
REO (7)
92880
Standard Sales (50)
Short Sales (39)
REO (11)
92881
Standard Sales (44)
Short Sales (16)
REO (9)
92882
Standard Sales (34)
Short Sales (31)
REO (16)
92883
Standard Sales (50)
Short Sales (28)
REO (7)
92860
Standard Sales (37)
Short Sales (11)
REO (3)
Standard Sales - 204
Short Sales - 147
REOs - 50
There are literally more standard sales on the market than distressed properties. This could be due to a few reasons. One, real estate agents HATE short sales. So, there could be a large number of realtors who do not want to take the listings. Two, the banks have been beat up by federal regulators. Therefore, they may be less willing to foreclose properties. Three, homeowners may be fed up with the process and just not even attempting to short sell the homes. This could also led to homeowners being uncooperative and staying in their homes longer (filing for bankruptcy, multiple loan mod attempts, etc...).
I will post more tomorrow about the inventory in Corona and Norco.
92879
Standard Sales (26)
Short Sales (33)
REO (7)
92880
Standard Sales (50)
Short Sales (39)
REO (11)
92881
Standard Sales (44)
Short Sales (16)
REO (9)
92882
Standard Sales (34)
Short Sales (31)
REO (16)
92883
Standard Sales (50)
Short Sales (28)
REO (7)
92860
Standard Sales (37)
Short Sales (11)
REO (3)
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Not as often as you'd think...
"I thought it'd be great, you know? have some time alone with my thoughts... turns out, I don't have as many thoughts as you'd think." ~ Joey Tribianni
I started this blog when I thought I had something to say. Now, I am not sure when I lost my voice or if I ever had one, but for a while now I just feel like I have nothing to say. I got all prepared to do a 2012 Clippers comparison with the 2008 New Orleans Hornets and well, I just didn't want to complete it. I don't know if I don't have thoughts like Joey, or if I don't know how to put it into words. All of this has caught me completely by surprise. I was the kid in kindergarten who would finish his work faster than everyone else, and then proceed to prevent all the rest of the kids from doing their work. I am the guy who usually has something to say about religion, politics (two areas I'm not supposed to address), or sports. However, there just isn't enough in sports to talk about that is compelling. And life has gotten so busy that sadly, I am not as up to date on politics as I'd like to be.
The Lakers are, well, old! There is no other way to put it. They are actually not that good. And, I may be the only person who is in LA and who is a Lakers fan who is over Kobe Bryant. I relate to him on a very personal level. Our personalities, I think, are very similar. But, he is the antithesis of a team player. I want him to make his Lakers teammates better, but he just doesn't. I read about Jordan's work ethic and his intensity...and how that raised those things in his teammates. Kobe does not seem to have the same impact on his teammates. Maybe I'll write about my complete thoughts about Kobe, probably not!
The Trojans are too far away. I will get into full Trojan crazyness as the season draws nearer.
The Dodgers are under new ownership. But, I am not feeling the team. The beginning of the season feels like a sham. I love Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw. Both of these guys are cornerstone guys. Very easy to build your team on those two guys, and have a firm foundation. However, the only other guy I remotely like is Andre Ethier. He just happens to be producing in a contract year. I am VERY skeptical of guys killing it in a contract year. I remember Adrian Beltre having an amazing season! ONE SEASON! He has been productive throughout his career, but that one year was sublime. I hope this is not Dre's MO.
The Clippers, Bruins, and Angels all fall into the same camp for me. They are the Jets, Mets, Nets of New York. They are the other teams in LA. They put together nice seasons here and there...but no history. They never produce over time. I have no room for them.
The Kings are amazing! The have brought about SO many old memories for me! Watching Wayne and the boys go to the Stanley Cup finals was amazing. And these Kings are putting together a great run. A phenomenal goalie, a timely offense and a big strong defense makes them fun to watch. I need a Drew Doughty jersey!
The only other thing on my radar sports wise is NASCAR. The only sport I like that is not regional (outside of my love of the Red Wings, even though they are regional, just not to me). I am a big fan of the sport. Last year, my brother took me to the race in Fontana. It was a complete blast and I am hooked. Not to mention it gives me something to talk to my brother about. We went to the race again this year and had a killer time. My favorite driver is Kyle Busch. This year, I took Mac with me to the race, and she had a good time...and picked up a super cute Kyle Busch t-shirt. After a very slow start, the "MMMs" (as Mac would say it) car is starting to perform like the Cup contender that he is.
See, it took me an hour to write all of that out...and there is not a compelling word among them. It reminds me of Jim on The Office, he was describing to the interviewer what he did at Dunder Mifflin and about 2 minutes into it he says, "I am boring myself talking about this"...which perfectly wraps up this post. I have bored myself. Hopefully, I'll find something compelling to say!
I started this blog when I thought I had something to say. Now, I am not sure when I lost my voice or if I ever had one, but for a while now I just feel like I have nothing to say. I got all prepared to do a 2012 Clippers comparison with the 2008 New Orleans Hornets and well, I just didn't want to complete it. I don't know if I don't have thoughts like Joey, or if I don't know how to put it into words. All of this has caught me completely by surprise. I was the kid in kindergarten who would finish his work faster than everyone else, and then proceed to prevent all the rest of the kids from doing their work. I am the guy who usually has something to say about religion, politics (two areas I'm not supposed to address), or sports. However, there just isn't enough in sports to talk about that is compelling. And life has gotten so busy that sadly, I am not as up to date on politics as I'd like to be.
The Lakers are, well, old! There is no other way to put it. They are actually not that good. And, I may be the only person who is in LA and who is a Lakers fan who is over Kobe Bryant. I relate to him on a very personal level. Our personalities, I think, are very similar. But, he is the antithesis of a team player. I want him to make his Lakers teammates better, but he just doesn't. I read about Jordan's work ethic and his intensity...and how that raised those things in his teammates. Kobe does not seem to have the same impact on his teammates. Maybe I'll write about my complete thoughts about Kobe, probably not!
The Trojans are too far away. I will get into full Trojan crazyness as the season draws nearer.
The Dodgers are under new ownership. But, I am not feeling the team. The beginning of the season feels like a sham. I love Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw. Both of these guys are cornerstone guys. Very easy to build your team on those two guys, and have a firm foundation. However, the only other guy I remotely like is Andre Ethier. He just happens to be producing in a contract year. I am VERY skeptical of guys killing it in a contract year. I remember Adrian Beltre having an amazing season! ONE SEASON! He has been productive throughout his career, but that one year was sublime. I hope this is not Dre's MO.
The Clippers, Bruins, and Angels all fall into the same camp for me. They are the Jets, Mets, Nets of New York. They are the other teams in LA. They put together nice seasons here and there...but no history. They never produce over time. I have no room for them.
The Kings are amazing! The have brought about SO many old memories for me! Watching Wayne and the boys go to the Stanley Cup finals was amazing. And these Kings are putting together a great run. A phenomenal goalie, a timely offense and a big strong defense makes them fun to watch. I need a Drew Doughty jersey!
The only other thing on my radar sports wise is NASCAR. The only sport I like that is not regional (outside of my love of the Red Wings, even though they are regional, just not to me). I am a big fan of the sport. Last year, my brother took me to the race in Fontana. It was a complete blast and I am hooked. Not to mention it gives me something to talk to my brother about. We went to the race again this year and had a killer time. My favorite driver is Kyle Busch. This year, I took Mac with me to the race, and she had a good time...and picked up a super cute Kyle Busch t-shirt. After a very slow start, the "MMMs" (as Mac would say it) car is starting to perform like the Cup contender that he is.
See, it took me an hour to write all of that out...and there is not a compelling word among them. It reminds me of Jim on The Office, he was describing to the interviewer what he did at Dunder Mifflin and about 2 minutes into it he says, "I am boring myself talking about this"...which perfectly wraps up this post. I have bored myself. Hopefully, I'll find something compelling to say!
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