WhipperSnaPR

This afternoon, I had a little bit of down time and I thought this could be a good chance take Jesse Legg’s advice and give the Firefox Live Bookmark/RSS reader a try.

Problem: I can’t figure it out - I think there may be some conflict because I use the del.icio.us bookmark toolbar for Firefox. Does anybody have any insight into this?

When I’m on a site that has an RSS feed, I do see the orange RSS indicator in the navigation bar:

So I click on the orange button and get this:

Then, I select “Subscribe Now” …. and nothing happens. I’m stuck, what am I doing wrong?

also, where am I supposed to be able to find the bookmarks/feeds once I’ve subscribed? Where does firefox deliver this subscription? I’m not even sure where I should be looking to confirm that I’ve actually subscribed.

If this is, indeed, a problem with my delicious toolbar, delicious will win out over the live bookmarks. I LOVE my delicious toolbar!

The latest teaser clip for WBCN’s new game featuring Adolfo - set to launch on Friday!

Yesterday, I mentioned I recently discovered Suldog-O-Rama. One of his posts that caught my eye was from last week, “An odd little scene from the life of Suldog.” It is very disturbing… read with caution.

The general topic, if you don’t want to read it, is about suicides on the T. Suldog witnessed one years ago and was wondering why it was never mentioned in the news. One commenter noted, “the news media does not report on suicides or suicide attempts. I guess it may be out of respect for the families or an attempt at not glorifying suicide. Perhaps that was the case with the man you saw also.”

Interestingly, I got saw an article in the metro this morning: “Transit officer stops attempted suicide” (sadly, the metro does not have a website so I can’t provide a link link thanks adam! - see comment below). Anyway, this article focuses on the “hero” who prevented the suicide attempt rather than the actual suicide. However, I couldn’t help but note the irony of the timing on this one.

Hurray! I’ve been waiting for a big, Boston-style snow. I don’t know why; I don’t even really like snow. I guess, I just missed it.

Yesterday’s snow wasn’t really a big, Boston-style snow, but snow none-the-less. It was a soft falling snow; the kind that floats around and hangs in the air. You have to be careful when you breath; otherwise, your likely to snort a flake right up your nose! I nearly choked on a snowflake yesterday morning.

Then, just to add excitement to my morning commute, I decided to fall down the stairs at the Porter T stop. OW! My entire backside and my head were killing me all day! Today, I have a rather large knot on the same leg that is permanently bruised from falling down the stairs at the Foggy Goggle, but that’s another story.
To all you red line commuters out there: Take extra precaution when descending the stairs to the outbound platform at Porter Square. Also, don’t expect any assistance or concern from any fellow commuters. Bostonians are rude!

Yesterday just wasn’t my day.

I’ve noticed a trend in my blogging habits. My blogging moods can be categorized as such:

• I can’t think of anything to write about so, therefore, I don’t write.
• I can think of a million things to write about but don’t know where to start. Therefore, I don’t write.
• I feel like writing but about nothing in particular/interesting, so, therefore, I don’t write.
• My job (sort of) depends on it; therefore I write.
• I have a post floating around in my head for over two weeks. And, therefore, I write simply to get it out of my head.

I have spent the past three days reading blogs from in/around the Boston area for work purposes. Boston is rich with interesting, funny and intelligent bloggers! This is the best inspiration for a blogger with some writers block and/or laziness!

Some of my new discoveries include (in no particular order):

• Bryper
• The Progress Bar
• The Angry Young Bostonian
• Suldog-O-Rama
• All Eyes on Jenny
• Web log: a20261

There are so many more, but those were my favorites so far. Now my problem will be finding time to read my new finds. I used bloglines, but I can’t seem to make daily bloglines visits a habit

I hate my apartment; my apartment sucks. I moved there because I could cut my rent in half and, at the time, I was more than just a little strapped for cash. The savings, though they were much appreciated, did not make up for the fact that I was living in what I liked to call “the crack house.”

Yes… I said WAS. No longer will I ever have to live in fear of being shot down while walking home from work! No longer will I be stirred from a restful slumber by a faulty fire alarm that went off for no reason whatsoever! I will never more have to call the police on drunk and unruly neighbors! At least, I hope.

That’s right… Josh and I have moved. But we didn’t just relocate, we went all out on this one and actually bought a place of our very own! We spent the past several days painting and moving furniture and, now that we are living this new reality, I thought this would be a good time to reflect on the process.

Josh has written about several steps in the process already:

• moving from renting to owning
• all-star home buying team
• house shopping
• negotiations
• home inspection

Now, to put my own spin on the process:

1. The first step is to start browsing; learn which neighborhoods will work for you and get to know the market. Josh and I started online with the Hammond website (by far the best in the Boston area). We would make lists of favorite properties and from that we could glean the most important features of our “ideal” home: 2+ bedrooms, 1.5+ bathrooms, outdoor space, at least 1,000 square feet, plenty of storage and a fairly modern kitchen.
2. Do your homework! I went out and bought “The 106 Common Mistakes Home Buyers Make (and How to Avoid Them)” by Gary W. Eldred and, like the good little student that I am, read every page, highlighted, earmarked and took notes in the margins. I also began studying the Rosenoff Report. This report is very unique to the Cambridge/Somerville area and is available at several local realtor’s offices every Saturday. It is an approximately 30 page spreadsheet that reports all real estate activity for the past week: properties that are new to the market, properties taken off market, changes to representation and price changes. It also provides all of the major “vitals” of each property: square footage, price per square foot, number of rooms, special features, etc. The Rosenoff Report became my guide to the market, I spent at least an hour a week studying the numbers, comparing properties and learning the market. Learning the numbers, history and trends would help us later on as we began to visit the properties; we would have a sound understanding of what something should be worth according to the market.
3. Although our search began online and on paper, this will only get you so far in the process. You really need to get out there and see what is available. So we did. We initially kept it very simple. We would take very long walks around the neighborhoods we were interested in (basically, anything close to a Red Line T stop). We learned the street names and paid attention to the areas that looked “homey” and that caught our eye. When you feel like your ready to “take the plunge” and get serious about buying; you should get an Agent. In some markets, you don’t really need one (good friends of mine recently bought a for-sale-by-owner property in Rockford, IL without and agent, which is quite common for that area), but in Boston I think it is necessary.
4. ALL STAR TEAM: I think this is the most important step. Josh and I were very lucky; we were able to put together a very strong team of people to help us in the home buying process. We couldn’t be happier with their work and service:
• Buyer’s Agent: Anne Munson, REMAX/Destiny: We spoke to several agents over the phone and met with a couple to talk about our home buying “needs.” We eventually went with Anne Munson from REMAX/Destiny because we felt most comfortable with her and felt like she understood us best. Not only is Anne extremely knowledgeable in the Cambridge/Somerville market, but She flexible enough to let us operate on our own terms. With Anne, this daunting task became incredibly fun!
• Mortgage broker: Chris Smith, Capstone Mortgage: Josh pretty much sums it all up for me: “Chris Smith, of Capstone Mortgage, was recommended to us by a friend who works in real estate in the area. After telling her our financial situation she was able to pre-approve us for a mortgage that was in exactly the range we were looking for. Again, just to be sure, we also went to someone else to see what they would say. In this case we went to Cambridge Savings Bank. They weren’t quite as good. For some reason they said that, unless we got someone to co-sign our mortgage they would only approve us for around $15,000, significantly less even than the down-payment we already had. So we went with Chris. … When we were first starting the process we were told that applying for a mortgage was like getting a root canal. I’ve never had a root canal, but, if that’s what it’s like, sign me up! I think the mortgage has seriously been one of the easiest parts of this whole process, which is saying a lot considering every other person we’ve worked with on this has been really good and really helpful. I think we must have had one of the best possible house shopping experiences, and I almost can’t wait to do it again (Cape house, anyone? Maybe in a few years…)“
• Attorney: Katherine Kurtz, Belsi & Conroy: We dealt with Katherine the least of all of the members of our “team,” but she did her job and she did it well so we can make no complaints. A good friend of mine, Martin Himmelfarb, gave me some great advice: “ASK YOUR MORTGAGE BROKER TO LET YOU KNOW WHICH ATTY IS DOING THE CLOSING, THEN YOU CALL THAT ATTY AND ASK HOW MUCH HE’LL CHARGE TO REVIEW THE P&S. If it’s less than about 500-600 have him or her do it for you. You definitely do not need a separate lawyer in addition to the bank’s lawyer at closing. No need to pay twice for the same service.” Marty’s advice not only saved us money, but also helped to stream line the process. Thanks Marty!
• Home Inspector: Mark George, Home Inspection Associates, inc.: What fantastic service! Our home inspection gave us valuable insight into our home’s history and condition. And when I say value, I mean it! Because Mark insisted on doing his job and inspecting every aspect of the building and because was prepared to do so even in very inconvenient conditions, he was able to discover that our roof needed to be re-sealed. Something we were able to use when re-negotiating our price. See Josh’s post on the home inspection for more info.
• Support System: Aside from the official members of this all-star team, I have to point out that buying a home would have been much more painful if it weren’t for the help of our friends and family. Many Thanks go out to: The entire Himmelfarb family, Zach (our old roommate) My mom and sisters, Josh’s mom and dad and the entire Ourisman family and, last but not least, Pigpen who’s was right by our side ready to give an encouraging purr when it was most needed!
5. Finding the perfect place: As Josh wrote, “We’re moving from renting to owning, a big enough step in its own right, but more importantly we’re moving from a temporary residence in the area to a commitment to stay here.” So, we wanted to find a place to grow into. As I mentioned above, our initial criteria was: 2+ bedrooms, 1.5+ bathrooms, outdoor space, at least 1,000 square feet, plenty of storage and a fairly modern kitchen. What did we end up going with? 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, 980 square feet, old kitchen, outdoor space and basement storage. Lesson learned: BE FLEXIBLE! As we started looking at properties (we saw no less than 30 places), we were able to imagine ourselves outside of our set criteria. We saw 1000+ square feet units that felt tiny and learned that it is more about layout than actual area. We saw beautiful old homes that needed plenty of work and realized an older kitchen could be more of a blank slate than a burden.
6. Be prepared for speed bumps. About 75% through the process, we thought we found the perfect condo… It was truly beautiful; a quality, high-end gut renovation with a layout over 3 floors, townhouse style. We were out bid in negotiations, though. Total bummer, but we pressed on and learned valuable lessons in the process. Lesson #1: Know what you are paying for. We held hard to our offer price because we knew (given the market at the time) that it wasn’t worth any more, somebody else was willing to overpay. That’s ok, because we knew there were other places out there. Lesson #2: Build a list of backups. After we lost the first place, we had a list of 5 backup properties that we revisited. We didn’t end up with any of these, but that isn’t the point, out backup list got us off our feet back out in the market. Lesson #3: Keep a thick skin. Josh did a much better job at this than I did. My biggest weakness in this process was my tendency for getting emotionally attached. I’ll admit, I cried a few times out of frustration. Don’t let your emotions manage the process…. bad idea.

So, that brings us to today… living out of boxes, eating meals on a picnic blanket in the dining room, learning how to use all of the new appliances… all of which will have to be in a separate post.

From the perspective of young whippersnaPR trying to make her way through the big kid world, this is a major step up! I can’t help be be very proud of Josh and myself for taking such a huge leap

So, this morning, I read in the Metro that the T police and T employees have been given authorization to issue tickets to fare jumpers. If they catch you “jumping the gate” they can issue you a ticket with a $15 fine. Whats worse, though, is that at any time during your trip a T official could ask you for proof of fare purchase! WTF?!?!?!

In my case, I buy a montly Link pass. When I do this I do get a receipt, but do they expect me to carry that receipt around with me and my charlie card for the whole month?!? What if someone purchased a one way ticket and chose not to get a receipt. When most people use up their Charlie Tickets they throw them away (or throw them on the floor). How do these T officials expect us law-abiding, fare paying riders to distinguish ourselves from the 5% of riders that skip paying for their rides?

I understand the T is strapped for cash and their scraping the bottom of the barrel in an attempt to start balancing their budget, but is this tactic really cost effective? The metro article also mentioned that T officials were concerned that their employees would now face dangerous and confrontational situations on a daily basis; so, they will all need a little training on what to do = $$$. Also, theoretically, this is going to take time from whatever it is these employees are already doing. I assume they are working hard crunching numbers and balancing budgets when they are sitting in their little booths. And when their getting in peoples way at the fare machines? Why, that’s top notch customer service in action! Why would we want to distract them from such important responsibilities?
But, maybe I’m wrong about these hard working T employees, I can’t really ignore all of the countless blog posts and newspaper articles about how T employees aren’t the ultra-motivated, ambitious, go-getter types. So, where is the motivation for a bunch of T employees to start accosting strangers and asking to see receipts?

Maybe even more importantly, where’s the motivation for riders to pay the fines? The system will be like parking tickets; when you rack up a nice little tab at the RMV, they revoke your license until you pay. First of all, why should the tax dollars earmarked for the RMV now also go toward processing paperwork for the MBTA?

Also, Umm… I’m riding the T; why do I need my license? I don’t even have a MA license and, chances are, most people my age in Boston don’t. I don’t know the official stats on the number of daily T riders that are also car owners/drivers, but tying punishment to one’s license doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense to me. Except for the fact that there’s really no other way to keep track of the delinquents and their fines and tickets. Really, if they wanted to motivate me to pay they should threaten to put a hold on my zipcar membership! That would kill me in one cruel, swift motion.

And What are you going to do do the under 16 crowd? Ask to see their hall pass? Issue a detention? Confiscate their school ID? Call their mommies?

The idea doesn’t see to be very well thought out if you ask me, but then again neither does the entire T system or the new Charlie system.

If any of you Bostonites listen to WBCN, you probably know who Adolfo is. If not, please let me introduce you:

Now, Adolfo is quite a funny guy. A real piece of work! He is a regular on the Toucher and Rich show and the star of a new game from Pod Design! I’m not ready to show the game just yet, but here’s a preview to whet your appetite: