Personal
Personal reflections, comments about things I've been doing, etc.
Losses in the Housing Market
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 01/15/2008 - 15:44Today, Citigroup announced a $18.1 billion write down because of the housing crisis, passing UBS’s record $14.2 billion write down. Last quarter, Merrill Lynch to a $7.9 billion hit on bad mortgages and are expected to take another $10 to $15 billion dollar hit on Thursday. Bear Stearns got hit for $1.9 billion and is looking for a new CEO. BankAmerica had $2 billion in write downs.
All of this helps keep things in perspective a little bit. You see, I am expecting to write down hundreds of thousands of dollars in Chapter 7 bankruptcy. As my life and my career changed, I could no longer afford the expensive house I had in Stamford, CT. Just like the thousands of people being laid off by Wall Street firms, I have not been able to find jobs that pay well enough to cover my mortgage.
So, a year ago, we put our house on the market. At the time, we were told the market was soft and the best we could expect was about 80% of what it had been appraised for when we got our last mortgage. Other people were less optimistic and said we wouldn’t be able to get even 70% of what it had been appraised for.
We worked with a great realtor who recognized the value of the house and marketed it well. In July we went to contract. One of the issues in the contract was removing an underground oil tank, which was done in early August. The buyers claimed that their inspection said there might be another underground oil tank, which we found out was not the case when the tank was removed. In attempting to clarify that and make sure that all underground oil tanks were properly removed, the buyers got cold feet and reneged on the contract, claiming we did not have a meeting of minds on removing the oil tank.
Their deposit is now tied up in a court suit as they try to get back the money that came with the contract. It is my belief that they acted immorally, unethically, and that they are obligated for not only what they’ve paid so far, but for additional damages as well. The question remains if the judge will agree.
Yet all of this gets to timing issues. If they had been willing to settle, perhaps we could have forestalled bankruptcy, maybe even long enough to find a buyer. We do have several interested parties. The problem is not only on their side. We’ve attempted repeatedly to work with the companies holding our first and second mortgages to find ways of mitigating the loss short of Chapter 7. Neither company has followed through, even though they have said they would. So, it looks like the buyers that reneged on the contract and the mortgage companies that are attempting to foreclose on us will get a chance to fight it out in court. Perhaps they deserve each other.
I feel horrible about writing down hundreds of thousands of dollars in the housing crisis. I worry about other people that will get hurt by our filing Chapter 7. I worry about how we will heat the house this winter. Yet the write downs of the major banks helps keep our write downs in perspective, and perhaps helps add a little perspective on their write downs.
The Hero with A Thousand Friends
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 01/15/2008 - 10:01I grew up on the New England Transcendentalists, reading Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self Reliance” and Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden Pond”. When my eldest children were young, I would read W.B. Yeats’ “Lake Isle of Innisfree” to them at bedtime and they would drift off to sleep dreaming of small cabins of clay and wattles made.
As I work on my own writing and ponder what we see in contemporary media, I read Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces. Yet again, I see the individual fighting against great odds for some great boon. It reflects in the media since so often the hero myth is repeated. Too often, the enemy is the collective. It is the “borg” in Star Trek, it is a government run amok in the anti-utopian novels. Where do we find examples of teamwork, friendship and the value of community?
We do find it in our advertising. “Be a Pepper”, “The Pepsi Generation”, “Membership has its privileges”. If we look closely, we find it in some children’s shows such as the Wonder Pets always singing about teamwork.
So, where does friendship, teamwork and community fit into our stories?
A New Writing Endeavor
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 01/14/2008 - 22:56Over the past few months numerous people have approached me about writing for their site about Second Life. I’ve had protracted discussions with many of them about writing style requirements, what sort of compensation I would receive, what the considerations are about me posting the material to my own site, or writing for other sites as well. In just about every case, the discussions just sort of petered out, or the expectations were higher than the compensation justified.
However, recently I’ve had some good discussions with Garret Bakalava of SLNN.COM. We haven’t nailed down all the details, but I have agreed in principal to write for and edit the business section of their website. I will focus primary on inworld business and another editor is likely to focus on real world businesses in Second Life. To me, the RL/SL division always seems a bit artificial, but so do many other ways of categorizing business or other topics as well.
My goal will to be write and/or edit approximately two articles a week, with another two or three announcements each week as well. To do this, I will be looking for writers interested in Second Life writing. By a normal writers pay scale, the salary sucks. By a normal bloggers pay scale, the any sort of income is nice and by Second Life standards, we’ll do what we can to be fair.
It will be an interesting challenge for me, since news articles should be in the AP style; a style that I’m not completely comfortable with. My normal blogging style is first person with an ample sprinkling of my own opinions. I will need to keep that in check as I write for SLNN
One of the conditions that has been important to me with whatever Second Life site that I write for, is the ability to cross post the stories to my own site. To the extent that I am writing an opinion piece in my blogging voice, I will post it on Orient Lodge, and allow it to be cross posted to SLNN. To the extent that I am writing a news piece for SLNN, it will go up on SLNN first and at a later point, I will add it to Orient Lodge. These posts will be mostly for archival purposes and are unlikely to appear on the front page of my blog, although they will occur in the Games section. The first story that I wrote specifically for SLNN is now cross posted here with a link back to SLNN.
Meanwhile, I continue to strive for at least one or two blog posts a day on Orient Lodge, running the gamut from the political to the personal, with technology, games, social networks, poetry, and whatever else thrown in. Stay tuned.
Don't just blog about it, do something!
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 01/06/2008 - 13:00Yet again, I'll step into my role as the old curmudgeon that has little use for the bickering little hit diaries that go back and forth here on DailyKos, or even for the campaign diaries pushing a particular candidates position on one issue or another. We need to get beyond the circle of DailyKos. We need to be in the streets.
The Obama campaign did a great job of getting people to the caucuses in Iowa. The Edwards campaign's message beat out the Clinton message, even though he was vastly outspent. What we need is everyone to step away from the computer, and get out and phonebank, canvas, do visibility or whatever else you can to get the best agent of change elected.
Me? I'm staying with my brother-in-law in Hanover, NH. I wrote a blog post about my activities yesterday on BlueHampshire. Mike Caulfield writes about phonebanking with John Edwards' parents. Mike Hoefer writes about Obama supporters phonebanking in New Hampshire. AJ WI has a DailyKos diary about canvassing in Derry, NH.
The mainstream media is picking up on this as well. The Hartford Courant has an article up about Jeff and Adam Talbot heading up from Connecticut to campaign for Edwards. The Talbots where incredible Lamont supporters back in 2006.
So, whomever you are supporting, get out and campaign. It is a blast, and this is a great opportunity to work for real change, whichever change agent you think is best. I'll be offline for the next several hours as I canvas, but I hope to get a chance to write more in the evening.
(Cross posted at DailyKos)
John Edwards returns to New Hampshire
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 01/04/2008 - 15:42
Fiona campaigns with her candidate for 2008!
