Irvine Housing Blog

Thank you for sharing your story and experience. We live in a world that glorifies pretense and consumerism and provides no role models like yourself for others to emulate. I hope more stories like yours emerge in the comments.

The banks have turned us into slaves via their clever little ‘Fractional Reserve’ Institution in which money literally is debt.

If everybody were debt free - there would be no money in circulation.  It is impossible for everybody to be out of debt.

Think about it…..

In America (Irvine, CA), when you get divorced you split everything in half. If you are married for more than 10 years, you could end up paying spousal support for as long as the ex-spouse lives.
Enjoy your honeymoon!

And I’ll bet you that many of that 1/5 are living in a state of denial making themselves to believe the propaganda being distributed to the mainstream for-profit media to be passed off as objective news suggesting that all is well and improving.

As a followup on the for-profit media, we had an interesting glimpse under the covers this week when some Toyota dealers pulled their ads from an ABC station that was peddling “Excessive stories” regarding those pesky gas pedals that have been sticking.

I wonder if “Excessive stories” regarding falling house prices would have a similar blowback from certain organizations…

It is estimated that by the end of 2011 about 50% of homeowners will be underwater; yep, 50%!

You have hit on the difficult balance in style that only comes through time and greater experience. I will improve.

I hear what you are saying, and I am fully cognizant of the problem. Word choice as an element of style is important, and I certainly don’t wish to raise the grade level and become the paragon of pretense I disdain, but then again, sometimes uncommon words look and sound better and convey meaning better than more common counterparts.

A post like this one lends itself to more abstract writing because I need to illustrate concepts that often cannot be reduced to simple, concrete terms. If you contrast this to the posts earlier this week were such writing was not called for and would have been a distraction.

Whenever I selected an uncommon word, it was because I believed it to be the most apt word. Unfortunately, when I put more than one or two of such words into a single sentence, rather than clarify, it slows down reading and muddies the water. I recently had this reader experience with a book on clear writing!

Thank you for your input, and for alerting me that I am crossing that invisible threshold between clarity and confusion. Only reader feedback will tell me where this line is.

Thicker words paint a better picture.  I applaud IR writing journey.  These kind of exercises will only improve his writing.  I can’t write at all.  So what he did with this post was great imop.

I understand what mike23w is trying to say and he cited a good example. One thing has happened to me that might explain some of it, maybe others have experienced it…

I used to read a couple books a year. Not much. Since 2004, with the housing bubble going on, I started reading dozens of books…I guess I found a subject matter that wouldn’t let me put the book down. And unlike my favorite submarine warfare books, these books were a little more technical and scholarly.

I noticed that the more I read them, the larger my words were when I wrote. I was reading so many new or not often used words, so often, that my mind started adopting them for its own use. It’s to the point now while I write that I stop sometimes and think, “Where did I pick up that word?”

Sidenote…one reason I am in love with my Kindle. I can push a button and drop the cursor next to an unfamiliar word and it will give me the definition.

Case in point. I’m reading The Grapes of Wrath…I figured it was appropriate. The regional dialect is demanding to read, so I have to slow down and say it in my mind phonetically as it’s written…so much so, that I can hear the southern drawl in my mind.

Last night, my family asked me a question about something and I responded, “It don’t do no good that way.” It was not completely an unconscious response, but my mind certainly tossed it up as an option and I just went with it, half-realizing.

My point is, the mind being the sponge that it is will devour anything you focus on…and it will feed much of it back to you at a later date.

I have to agree.  The writing is great, but I found myself skipping over a lot of it :(

The sad reality is our lives are very busy and with all the choices of articles to read out there I’m guessing people gravitate towards those that provide a lot of bang for the buck.  Personally between Lifehacker, patrick.net, and this site, I’m full up.

I know you put a lot of effort into this site especially with the burden of creating unique articles daily, but a significant part of the challenge is to remain accessible to your audience.

Thanks again for the great work.

I can better understand the complex concepts when the appropriate language is used.  I would guess that IR is writing at about the 10th grade level, above.  And conveying his intent well.

Just because USAToday is written at the 4th grade level doesn’t mean that the rest of our information sources should follow suit.

Personally, I find the USAT to be annoying and uninformative.  I want information well conveyed, and so read the NYTimes.

Similarly, I continue to read IR at IHB *because* he conveys his interpretation of the housing situation well, partly because he uses the $5 words where appropriate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBM6CBtuHS4

I know what all the words meant the first time I read the sentence, but I agree that it was not as graceful as it could be.

I think IR is doing a great job. I also feel the advice given above may help him become even greater.

Me ain’t founding it rough when I underread his vocabularizations. That is became I haz a State edumication.

IR’s wordsmithing might seem toppy to some, but the points are crystal clear.

For some reason this thread reminded me of one of the new “others” on LOST who, after talking to his subordinates in Japanese is asked why he does that. His reply “I hate the taste of English on my tongue” A great line.

My .02c

Soylent Green Is People.

I agree with AZ.  Follow your muse, IR.  This site is your garden party, and as Mr. Nelson concluded, “You can’t please everyone, so you’ve got to please yourself.”

Net worth nametag, hat, or even a sign on the back window of the car.  Classic.

It would be a bullshit filter for life.

People might actually feel embarrassed driving that Mercedes with a neon negative net worth sign.

LMFAO

Schadenfreude is not hatred.  You are making a bit of a stretch today.

I can not find an email address for you.  Mine is cdcrez@cox.net.

Funny how some are put off by your new style of writing.  I was captivated.

Didn’t work….

Here’s the address

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sL-zMsRU8Y&feature=player_embedded

You have to give it to these crooks - they are damn good at what they do.  I admire that.

Yep, and frankly, I’m sick and tired of making less than 0.03% on my MM account (you read that percentage correctly).

Thus, I’m resorting to letting FDIC bail me out by buying the evil banks’ long term CDs (you read that right again….LONG TERM) making 4+% per year and holding it until maturity.

You may wonder how long is maturity? Try 2 term presidency.

I have come to my own conclusion that:

1. ZIRP is here to stay. There is no freaking way the Fed will raise the interest rates above 3% (let alone raise the rates at all). Think Japan, folks. We’re going down that path whether you like it or not.

2. Big banks are here to stay. Fed, Treasury, FDIC, and whatever stupid institutions Congress/Prez will create later on (trust me, they will) will make sure that they won’t fail. After all, we still need the foreigners to buy our crappy bonds.

3. Wage arbitration is here to stay. Translation: what inflation? If Chinese goods suddenly become expensive, we can always get other toxic waste from other global source(s). Food prices going up? That’s just taxes and VATs that you’re gonna deal with.

I’m just gonna enjoy that 4+% return while waiting for FDIC to take over the institutions where I have my moola (if it ever will….probably NOT).