Beauty and the Beast

Here is the late Lucy Gordon. A beautiful and very talented woman on the verge of stardom. She had almost everything going for her. She killed herself yesterday and I'm guessing it was due to depression. Many things will be debated about the motive. Do not let anyone tell you that depression is a mental illness. It is a physical illness like every other illness. The human body is nothing more than flesh and blood - chemicals thrown together in a most wonderful and mysterious way. You and I are nothing more than cocktails. Alter the cocktail - like altering a mixed drink recipe - and you can alter the person. This woman could certainly have been helped. Even if some other emotion caused her to take her life, emotions are nothing more than chemical reactions. Sadness or joy or optimism or ambition or laziness or anger or hate. Nothing but chemistry.

Current Foreclosures

Did you notice that oxymoron? Actually, it's a rather cute name for a website. This Current Foreclosure site has thousands of foreclosures listed. Might you not need an agent after you look at the list? Yup. It's always good to have an agent, whether you're a seasoned investor or a newbie. I'm not an agent but I'm sure you can find one nearby.

Tallerant

From some news story somewhere: “MELBOURNE (AFP) – Tall people earn higher wages than their vertically-challenged counterparts while being obese does not mean a slimmed-down pay packet, according to a new study in Australia. The researchers found a strong link between wages and height, particularly for men, with each additional four inches of height adding three percent to hourly wages.” The same thing is true of beautiful people. Tell me something I don’t already know – this is SO OBVIOUS. Next thing they will tell us is that according to some university study, higher prices cause inflation. Please.

Realty Track

There is this company that has a virtual lock on foreclosure sales. They definitely are on the right track. I think it's RealtyTrac. The thing to remember is that not all foreclosures are listed on the multiple listing service's book. RealtyTrac can help you with any purchases as long as they are listed. You are on your own as far as the rest are concerned. Talk to all the banks regarding their Real Estate Owned (REO) portfolios. You can get incredible deals right now, just don't bite off more than you can chew. Good luck.

Air Cars

I'm sure you've heard already - there's this company which is manufacturing cars that run on compressed air. I think it's in India but I'm just guessing. It might be in Alaska for all I know. That's not important to me. What's important is the car itself - if it's real. All these years, car companies all over the world have been going along with the oil companies to produce cars that take as much money out of your pocket as possible. Now comes this little upstart company which will cut your car fuel bills by 80% - imagine that!!!! Someone is bound to get in a lot of trouble over this.

Foreclosures

A foreclosure is a result of the acceleration of a debt that cannot be paid as agreed. If a bank asks for all its money all at once, foreclosure is almost inevitable. It is not a bankruptcy though. A bankruptcy comes as a result of every lender coming fast upon you demanding payment in full. I often wonder why people who are about to lose title to their property do not sell prior to foreclosure. Of course, if your mortgage is upside down (when you owe more than the property is worth), it would make little difference, no.? I often wonder what would happen if banks simply restructured every bad loan - dropped the interest rate and extended the term. Is 6% unmanageable? Drop the deal to 1%. Is thirty years not enough time? Extend the deal to fifty or sixty years. A hundred years from now, people will be looking back at how homes used to be financed and they will scratch their head in bewilderment. Foreclosures only happen when everybody wants their money NOW. I say: What's the hurry?

Another Book About Sex

From a Yahoo! News story: “WARSAW, Poland – The Rev. Ksawery Knotz has a message for all married Catholic couples out there: there's nothing wrong with a steamy sex life. In fact, it's a good thing. In his new book "Sex as you don't know it: For married couples who love God," the Polish friar provides a theological and practical guide for Catholics that has little in common with the strait-laced attitudes often associated with the Roman Catholic Church. Clergymen, including Knotz's countryman Pope John Paul II and his successor Pope Benedict XVI, have written about the ethics of love, marriage and sexuality before, but few if any priests have taken Knotz's explicit approach to sex — including everything from the theological to the practical, from oral sex to contraception and the number of children a Catholic couple should have. The book received the necessary approval from Poland's church authorities that it is theologically in line with Catholic teachings. There also has been no sign of a backlash in the heavily Catholic and conservative homeland of the late Pope John Paul II. Still, Knotz acknowledges that a priest writing a book about sex "is in and of itself a bit of a sensation."
Well, I’m guessing that God invented sex anyway, so I am not one bit surprised by this.