What you did today

[Gfted1]

My apartment cost 12.000 $ ages ago when I first got it, it's listed as 100.000 $ now, and that listing is determined by the co-op I belong to. We each get votes, but so far the others are more comfortable paying less taxes. Real market value would be over 250.000. That's pretty annoying because it's a serious incentive not to sell when you know you are going to lose half the actual worth.

 

I wish I owned the thing fair and square, but then of course it wouldn't have been so cheap to begin with.

 

What do you mean by that last sentence? I assume you have paid it off by this point, which must be totally sweet to not have to pay rent/mortgage anymore.

[Gorgon]

The co-op consists of all the people living in this house and the one next to it, it sets the buy in price. If I had owned the actual apartment as opposed to 1/50 of the two houses I could set my own price.

Edited May 4, 2009 by Gorgon

[taks]

I wish I owned the thing fair and square, but then of course it wouldn't have been so cheap to begin with.

true, but worth it in the long run. strange that you can arbitrarily set your "market value" in order to skew your taxes. the state is who decides how much my home is worth (fair market value) for tax purposes, regardless of what the true market value is. the state has been running at about 80% of the true market value, actually, until now. they went up and my true value went down, closing the gap considerably.

 

taks

[Gorgon]

The tax benefit is not so large, because most of it is determined by the state as you said. I think it's more along the lines of people getting ready to move on to houses or bigger apartments and having the chance to sell their own apartments off to family at a low price, seeing how it's so impossible to find anything at a reasonable price in Copenhagen.

[taks]

oh, but still... why should one owner care if you want to sell your apartment to someone that is not a relative, at fair market value while he sells on the cheap? seems silly and would annoy the hell out of me. hehe, ultimately, however, money is still the motivation for their behavior.

 

taks

[Gorgon]

It is strange, and I am annoyed. However the price is decided at an annual general assembly. I can't sell to the highest bidder, but am dependent on whatever the mood is that year.

[Gfted1]

Its still a tidy $88,000 profit for you though. That will be an excellent down payment if/when you decide to move on.

[mkreku]

No, it's not that strange. It's the same in Sweden. It's a kind of system to 'encourage' (can't think of a better word for it) young people and young families to buy their own places. It's like a mixture of state controlled pricing and market pricing. It's like how student accommodations have slightly different taxes.. and elderly homes.. basically it's a jungle.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

And my laptop's harddrive went kaput today... Oh well, I guess that means I'll be off to pick up another one tonight...

[Musopticon?]

Yes, I admit that typo was a silly mistake. 56m^2, heh.

[Aristes]

I went to go help a friend with putting in two dog doors on Saturday. His wife died Friday before last and he's keeping himself busy on home projects. Anyhow, his only door to the back yard is a sliding glass door and so he decided to cut through the outside wall. The first door took a few hours to do, but we finished the second in half the time. It looks sweet. he's got a large house on a large lot and it would be absolutely sweet except that their dogs urinate and defecate all over the place. He's hoping that they'll go outside now. It's too bad that his wife, God rest her soul, would not allow him to put the doors in while she was alive.

 

I'm going to head over there sometime this week to do some more work. We'll have to move the Jacuzi and tear out the cement where it currently sits. I think he's finally going to get his back yard in better shape. It actually looks pretty good around the pool and grill, but the actual grass area is not well kept at all. ...And, in Southern California, you have to keep on the lawn and make sure it gets watered.

[LadyCrimson]

After being essentially told that a choice to not take a cellphone camping/backpacking in extremely remote areas is "foolish/unrealistic", I've been musing on how reliance on high-tech has made most people incapable of taking care of themselves without it. ie, how many people know what plants are edible, or would have a decent chance at building a fire without a lighter/match. Most people (in the US) don't even bother to learn CPR or basic first aid beyond putting on a band-aid.

 

I fear the humorous vision of far-future humanity in WALL-E might not be too far wrong. :D

[Tigranes]

I have enough trouble becoming proficient at civilised life to worry about uncivilised life.

[Walsingham]

I have enough trouble becoming proficient at civilised life to worry about uncivilised life.

 

I find generally that I'm better, armpit deep in mud on a stormy night in the wold than around time to file my taxes.

[Gfted1]

Ug, I friggin hate camping. And while I technically know how to start a fire from scratch Im sure the actual execution would be a much different story. My vast repository of plantlife knowedge is a saying I heard as a child, "if birds eat it, you can too". Yep, Id probably be dead within three weeks, lol.

[Amentep]

As long as I can find a piece (or more) of flint (assuming I don't start with one), I can start a fire. I've never managed the friction on sticks method of fire starting though.

 

I can identify some edible plants but I'd probably have to ignore a lot of ones that were edible for not being sure.

 

And I have no clue how to dress game.

 

So yeah I'll be with Gfted1 in three weeks.

Edited May 6, 2009 by Amentep

[Gorgon]

I generally leave outdoorsy life to professionals.

[Enoch]

There's no real trick to dressing game. The fundamental point is to remove the digestive tract, which you anyone with a basic knowledge of vertibrate anatomy can find. Ideally, you want to do so without allowing its contents to spill onto the stuff you're going to be eating. You want to be eating primarily muscle tissue (perhaps with some fat for flavor), which is easy enough to identify. Other internal organs should be eaten only if you know what you're doing. Once you've got the parts you want, cook it, make sure it doesn't smell like it's spoiled, and eat up.

[LadyCrimson]

Ug, I friggin hate camping. And while I technically know how to start a fire from scratch Im sure the actual execution would be a much different story. My vast repository of plantlife knowedge is a saying I heard as a child, "if birds eat it, you can too". Yep, Id probably be dead within three weeks, lol.

Exactly.

If you're never going to be more than a day or two's hike from your car, in a fairly popular recreation park, and if it psychologically makes one feel better to have a cellphone at all times, that's cool. It's probably even helpful in those cases. But in deep remote areas ... well, if you're that concerned you should fork over the cash for a good PLB, or, um...not go tromping around such areas in the first place. :D

[taks]

After being essentially told that a choice to not take a cellphone camping/backpacking in extremely remote areas is "foolish/unrealistic"

last time i checked, expecting a cellphone to work in an extremely remote area is foolish/unrealisitic. cell phones only have an effective range of a few miles. this limitation is not directly due to power (though maximum power is limited to not much farther than that), but the length of the codes they use. after a certain period (depends upon the system), the codes repeat, so someone that is outside the range looks as if he is actually sitting much closer, so the cell site commands the cell phone's power down (gain control at the cell attempts to make everyone come in at the same power to avoid what is known as the near-far effect, i.e., phones that are real close can drown out those that are far away). soooo... what this means is that if you are outside of range your phone simply won't be able to talk to the cell because the cell site told your phone to output a power level that is too low, which makes it worthless (so it is indirectly power, though your phone only has enough power at maximum output to work on a busy network for a few miles past range anyway).

 

not sure who would want something like a phone on a backpacking trip anyway. maybe a two-way radio for emergencies. if you're on a trail, there's no such thing as remote, either. we ran into several groups while in the weminuche last summer, and one group on horseback helped us out with a quick glance at a map (yeah, we forgot to bring a hard-copy of a map, that will be different this summer). this was all at 12,000 feet near pyramid mountain during a thunderstorm (the horses were freaked out). the weminuche is located in the least densely populated county in the entire US of A, btw. of course, the colorado trail and the continental divide run right through it, but still...

 

taks

[taks]

Yep, Id probably be dead within three weeks, lol.

think you'd last that long, eh?

 

we camp religiously over the summer. since i'm probably losing my driver's license for 3 months beginning next thursday (i speed too much), i won't be playing pool on fridays much. that just means more camping - at least 8 weekends between memorial and labor days, probably more. usually we are in federal campgrounds, so we aren't really "roughing it," but we do a 4-5 day backpack trip around the 4th through the weminuche (near the rio grande headwaters) which is truly back country. bears and mountain lions are a concern, but fortunately they don't really like people and tend to stay away from trails during daylight hours. this year i think we're hiking up squaw creek trail to outside of silverton. we'll catch the train into silverton and then scream for someone at the base-camp to pick us all up. i also think i'm going to take my son up into the rampart range (just over from pike's peak) to do a short backpack trip - we'll hike in a couple miles then set up camp for 2 nights and hike back out when it's done. the problem with doing something like that with a 6-year old is that you end up becoming a sherpa for the squirt's gear.

 

taks

[Hurlshort]

I've routed my 18-day summer RV trip. We are going to start in California, and then move through Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, then back home. We are stopping in Flagstaff, Mesa Verde, Salt Lake City, and Virginia City.

[Aristes]

Hey, that sounds cool, Hurlshot. Why skip Las Vegas, though? You could do some research for when you play Fallout: New Vegas!

[Gorgon]

think you'd last that long, eh?

 

It takes 3 weeks to starve to death.

Edited May 6, 2009 by Gorgon

[taks]

It takes 3 weeks to starve to death.

only if you are not doing anything and you have sufficient water and shelter which generally take effort to acquire. considering in any attempts at getting food, making shelters, weather effects, wandering around lost, etc., and 3 weeks quickly turns into 10 days. this also assumes gfted1 doesn't find himself an equally hungry bear as a playmate, hehe.

 

taks