• I am currently having a love affair with Vinyl. Yes, Vinyl with a capital 'V'. I'll be doing a full post about this sooner or later, but I want to have photos of my turntable and albums first. (Plus I don't really know what I'm going to say, other than "EEEEEEE VINYL ROXXX!!!!!")

• My parents were tossing around the idea of getting a puppy, and now they're leaning towards 'no'. I mean, why would they be so selfish as do deny me the pleasure of their puppy? My plan was to go over and play with the puppy, then go home and let them deal with the potty training, chewed furniture, barking, etc. I thought it was perfect. Apparently they didn't agree. *sigh*

• I'm kind of bummed about not doing anything for Halloween. I didn't carve pumpkins, I didn't decorate, and I have no reason to dress up. Therefore I intend to sit at my dining room table feeling sorry for myself while working my way through a bottle of Three Olives vodka and listening to Jackson Browne. Because there is no better way to be depressed than to drink heavily while listening to old albums. It'll be a blast. Want to come over?

• I've been put in charge of the re-design of one of my company's websites. I'm kind of excited about it!

• I finally paid off my $40 fine at the library. Yes, this fine consisted solely of overdue fees. A lot of overdue fees. Naturally after I had paid, I walked out of the library with about ten to fifteen books. I think my friends are taking bets on how long I can avoid new fines.

• I have two weeks before Wrath of the Lich King comes out. Which means I have two weeks to get a new DVD drive for my computer. O_O

I just finished reading a fascinating little book.

Work has been crazy since Friday. My boss and office manager were out of town until this morning, which means that aside from the sporadic and brief appearances of a few of the buyer agents and office assistant, I've been manning the office solo.

And why is it that whenever you're left alone in charge of your entire professional world that everything just goes to shit?

If I were to vent about everything that happened from Friday through Monday this post would be the length of a novel. A novel like The Stand, not a short story. Let me put it this way; I woke up at about eight in the morning on Sunday with my jaw so tight and painful that I couldn't open my mouth. It felt like someone had taken a hammer to it. Know what causes that? Grinding your teeth in your sleep.

But somehow it all becomes worth it when you're cleaning your kitchen while listening to Billy Idol's Rebel Yell on vinyl, and you realize...

I had the skill, the finesse, and the knowledge to handle every crisis that came up.

And then you smile as the realization that you're awesome slowly sinks in, you finish loading the dishwasher, and you almost don't even mind going to work the next day.

Almost.

Okay, I PROMISE this is the last Supernatural related post for a while.

But I had to post this video of Jensen Ackles goofing off during the credits of the last episode. Mostly for my mom, since she neglected to watch the credits...

I'll post something more substantial soon, I promise. ^_^

Caught my mom online this afternoon. Naturally we started talking about Supernatural, Jensen Ackles, and Jared Padalecki.

marmay5: god, those boys are seriously adorable. Why don't you go and get one?
We could use them around the holidays and such.

me: LOL

marmay5: I bet they play a mean game of Zombies

me: sure, I'll get right on that....
OMG I bet they would!
can I have both of them, maybe?
menage a trois?

marmay5: Sure.

me: I'd totally be down for that

marmay5: Looks like they're familiar with each other anyway.
Adding you wouldn't be much of a burden.

me: hehehehe down ALL THE TIME lol

marmay5: sigh You're nasty. Seriously.

me: you'd never see me again
I'd be too busy having sex

marmay5: No, you'd have to come up for air to at least have a holiday meal and play Zombies. or World of Warcraft

Ahhh.....

Good, intelligent, wholesome conversation....

Well, the next all new Supernatural episode airs tonight, which means it must ALSO be post-stunning-picture-of-Most-Beautiful-Man-Alive-day.

I really love Supernatural day!

The rest of this post has absolutely nothing to do with Supernatural, but I can't say I'm going to be really upset about staring at Dean while I write.










Oh....

Yeah, I'm supposed to write.




I am currently fascinated by Bai Ling. I know, kind of random, but it's true. I haven't seen her in many films, but after seeing her in those... umm.... outfits.... on Go Fug Yourself (a website my mother made me aware of - it's hilarious) I was strangely, intensely curious about her.

Then I discovered she has a blog!


Called simply "Hello", it looks like the blog has been around since 2007 and is filled with odd posts that are strange, bizarre, and yet somehow infinitely endearing. Between the massive quanitities of photos and videos of herself, Bai Ling writes cryptic sentences such as:

"Not to use your mind but your feelings......like those crazy people do, in between......

I found myself sometimes like twins, body and heart? Or heart and body? Never cross the red line.......

Tiredness is the time of confusing, just like how I feel right now, but something, someone is still keep me awake and wondering and going insane..... "

So if you get a second, pay a visit to Bai Ling at Hello. It's a trip.

20SB Vlog from Rebecca M on Vimeo.

I realize I sound like an idiot. Be nice. ^_^

Also, my memory card ran out of space before I told my story. Oh well. ^_^

So I recorded a vlog entry. It's kind of bland, but hey, my first time ever! Still getting used to it! However, I almost had the file tranferred from my camera to my computer when my battery died. So until the camera lives again, here is a video I actually forgot about from the shenanigans at Fort Worden this summer with Nils!

(This is us trying to pretend that the Fort Worden bunker is scarier than it actually is...)

(Oh, and Nils swears a couple times. Just a heads up.)



Untitled from Rebecca M on Vimeo.

Okay, so I just have one thing. First line I say? "ARE YOU VIDEOING?"

MY GOD.

I speak the English good.....

When I checked my email this morning I had a message waiting in my inbox from 20 Something Bloggers, sending me a helpful reminder that today is "vlog" day. At first I decided to ignore it. Film myself and post it on my blog? I'd look like an idiot. Nooooo way. No thanks. **ignore**


But then....


I realized that it might be kind of fun.


So I'm going to make an attempt this afternoon. O_O Scary! New! Different!


Eeep!

In the meantime, here's a lolcat!






Which reminds me, I need to watch The Matrix again!

Well holy crap, look who actually has something to write about on Monday morning! I only got about three hours of sleep last night, so bear with me if this isn't written all that well.

I was talking to my mom the other day, basically being outraged over the fact that same sex marriage is only legal in four (I think? Can't remember) states. There is really very little that can piss me off faster than discussing that sad state of affairs. Four states.

My mom mentioned that one of our family friends (wickedly smart and notoriously argumentative) doesn't believe in same sex marriage. Before I flew off the handle, she added that he doesn't believe in marriage period.

Brian has been married for a long time with two lovely daughters. He loves his family. His point, then?

Marriage is a religious institution and therefore should not be recognized by the state at all. There is a division between church and state for a reason, and really, when I think about it, he's right. Civil unions should be recognized, not marriage. If a couple wants to get "married" within their church, fine! Go for it! But you should have to have an official civil union to have that "marriage" recognized by the state.

The rights granted to a married couple should not be granted to them because they're married, they should be granted upon a civil union.

So I guess right now you could say I'm "pro civil union" and "anti marriage" now. ^_^

I'm curious - what do you think?

I suddenly realize I do have something to write about - my very favorite TV show ever aired, Supernatural! We are going to overlook the fact that this post is mostly pictures, okay?

When the first episode of the fourth season aired, I was beyond excited. My favorite Winchester, dragged out of hell and resurrected by - wait - an angel. The angel Castiel was played to perfection by Misha Collins as a cool, somewhat uncaring being with a complete disregard for humans injured and the body he had possessed. I loved it.

For the most part, the acting as been absolutely phenomenal. Jensen Ackles has truly been shining (and no, I'm not just saying that because of his stunningly good looks, I promise), especially in the last two episodes I've seen. Jared Padalecki has been good, especially in the last episode, but he has been completely overshadowed by Ackles and his incredible, believable, displays of emotion.

So I've been totally and completely consumed by World of Warcraft since Tuesday when THE PATCH released, changing everything. I'm hard pressed to concentrate on anything that doesn't have to do with WoW. While I'm at work I'm constantly thinking about the game and the changes, how they apply to me, etc.

I've been very hard pressed to think of something to write about that doesn't involve WoW. But I'm still reading everyone's blog (and am getting more and more ashamed of the fact that my brain is so centered around a video game).

I would very much like to thank SleepyJane for giving me the "Perfect Blend of Friendship" award!


I'm touched and honored that she would think of me when giving this award. Her blog is smart, funny, honest, and heartwarming - if for some reason you've never visited, go do it now!

I would like to pass the love to Country Mouse, Anne, Mary, Nils, and ShallowGal - I love you all!

So, how about... that, uh.... the weather looks kind of...

...So I was thinking that if I don't put points into Unleashed Rage, I could put some points into Convection, which would help with mana consumption. I don't use Lightning Shield so I don't need Static Shock... is it really worth it to put points in Earthen Power? Well, I am doing a lot of BGs....

My office manager signed me up for the Lynda.com training programs, specifically so I could learn more about Adobe Illustrator.  A graphic artist recently redesigned several of our template files in Illustrator, and it has been a battle trying to scramble around and figure the program out so I can tweak my templates.  I'm a Photoshop girl, damnit!

You know, last week when I posted the "Monday Perspective" on real estate I intended to do something similar each Monday. Choose an issue, write something semi intelligent that proves I haven't killed all of my brain cells, publish. I even made a special label to file these posts under.

What I neglected to remember was that most of the time on Mondays I have difficulty focusing on anything, much less expressing my opinion in a reasonably coherent manner. This is pretty much what runs through my head on Monday mornings:

I'm soooo tired/COFFEE/the weekend went by really fast/COFFEE/do I have the meeting agenda completely prepared?/COFFEE/why does the phone always ring a bajillion times in the morning?/COFFEE/I need to remember to write that number down/COFFEE/COFFEE/COFFEE

So....

Yeah. I got nothin' today.

Yes, Becca knows she's going about this backwards. But hey, at least she's doing it! Again, it should be noted that the reactions documented here are solely Becca's opinions of the debate, not what she knows about the candidates, blah blah blah.

First impressions:

Becca thinks it's a little inappropriate for Governor Palin to ask Senator Biden right off the bat if she can call him "Joe".

"Darn right..." "Heck of a lot..." Becca wonders if Governor Palin realizes how uneducated she sounds. Especially compared to Senator Biden, who so far is speaking beautifully.

Governor Palin said "Darn right" again.

Governor Palin just straight up said she will not reply to questions as they are posed. WOW. Well, at least if she's going to not answer questions, she's going to be up front about it.

Governor Palin said "espoused". Becca wonders if it was on her Word a Day calendar.

Governor Palin seems very smug and amused. Becca can't figure out why.

Becca would like to take a moment to note how, aside from Senator Biden's occasional slips in mixing up Senators Obama and McCain's names (which now that Becca thinks about it, is fairly troublesome?), he sounds extremely intelligent and knowledgeable, whether or not Becca agrees with everything he says. Oh, and he's pretty much actually answering the questions asked. Novel concept.

BRAVO! Senator Biden destroys Senator McCain's health care plan by *gasp* explaining realistic consequences!

Becca is wondering if Governor Palin was told that answering questions is optional.

Becca is agog (which is her new favorite word)! When Gwen Ifyll tries to pin down Governor Palin to get her to answer the question, "due to the financial situation what promises can't you keep", the governor says, "well, I've only been at this for five weeks, so I haven't promised a whole lot." Becca wonders if the governor is actually running for vice president, or if this is just a bad joke. She's really hoping this is a bad joke.

Governor Palin has ignored so many questions Becca isn't even sure it's worth commenting on any more.

Governor Palin does not believe that the climate changes are manmade. Senator Biden does. Becca is pretty sure she's going to have to come down with Joe on this one.

Becca simply can't listen to Governor Palin talk about Iraq any more.

Becca will be honest - she doesn't know as much as she should about Iran and Pakistan, so will refrain from commenting on what the governor and senator have to say about it.

Becca is a little confused, but she thinks Governor Palin is saying "no" to diplomacy with enemies, and Senator Biden is saying "yes"? Who can reasonably say "no" to attempting diplomacy?

Becca is kinda zoning out.

Becca's attention is caught when Governor Palin basically says that the democratic ticket is focusing too much on mistakes made by the current administration, then goes on to say that yes, she agrees that there have been huge "blunders" made, but gee, we shouldn't think about it, we need to look forward to the future and to change. Becca thinks it is important to see mistakes identified, fingers pointed at them, and politicians saying this is what went wrong, and this what I will correct. Becca also thinks that Governor Palin wouldn't know where to point a finger if she wanted to.

Becca thinks Senator Biden is sounding a little manic! She thinks he needs to take a deep breath.

Becca is cringing as she listens to Goveror Palin once again ignore a question. This one regarding when and if nuclear weapons should be used. Her obvious complete confusion as she searches for something to say is just painful. "...can we talk about Afghanistan for a minute?"

Senator Biden did not answer the question either. Becca is irritated.

Becca thinks it is kind of funny that they keep the current question being debated at the bottom of the screen. The questions seem to rarely have anything to do with what politicians are talking about.

Becca is zoning out again.... and there is still an entire half hour left.

Aww, Governor Palin is such a quaint, adorable "Washington outsider" who just "doesn't understand how you guys work..."

Becca is reading blogs and not really paying attention to the debate.

Becca needs a break.

Break.

Whew. Okay, Becca's back.

ZZZZzzzzZZZzzzzz........

Becca is jolted out of her doze by Governor Palin triggering her gag reflex. Again. "Say it ain't so, Joe!" Becca is too disgusted for words.

Becca is completely bowled over when Governor Palin makes a "shout out" to her husband's elementary school class ("and remember, you get extra credit for watching this debate!"). What does she think this is, a talk show?!

Senator Biden slams Governor Palin about her lack of understanding about what kind of power the office of vice president actually holds (based on her answer to a question about VP power). Yowch.

Becca is having a harder and harder time paying attention to the debate.

Becca is extremely impressed by Governor Palin's compassion when Senator Biden briefly got choked up discussing losing his wife and child. Very impressed. She is not being sarcastic at all.

Becca is ready for the debate to be over.

Becca is chatting with her mom on Gmail again.

Becca has to admit she really hasn't been listening to this last fifteen minutes at all.

Becca is laughing at Governor Palin again. The governor is making her closing statement, and says that she really enjoys "being able to answer these tough questions". Becca would like the governor to state which questions she has actually answered. Heh.

Where Governor Palin babbles on in her closing statement about fighting for freedom, and how we face the danger of "sitting back in our twilight years telling our children and our children's children about a time when Americans were free," Senator Biden recaps some issues, and overall sounds pretty much three times as intelligent as the governor.

And it's over!


Conclusion?

Becca is disappointed that she didn't get to see the governor's very remarked upon wink at the camera - she wasn't able to actually watch most of the video since she was trying to work and write a blog post at the same time.

But seriously.

Becca has honestly come to realize that she could never, ever vote for Senator McCain. She could never cast a vote that would put Governor Palin that close to the presidency.

I had one of those mornings. One of those wake up with that sick feeling because you absolutely know you're running late mornings. Sure enough, glance at the clock - 8:21AM. My alarm had been blaring for about a half hour in a futile, good faith attempt to drag me out of whatever dream I was mired in, and honestly, I have no clue how I managed to sleep through it.

So, yeah... quick fact? I usually need to be out the door by about 8:20 if I'm going to make it to work by 8:30.

By 8:24 I was dressed (in matching clothes, no less), hair combed, teeth brushed, and in the car ready to go.

By 8:31 I was pulling into the office parking lot.

I ended up being alone in the office until after 9AM. Talk about rushing for no reason.

Excuse me. I'm still a little.....

O_o

......ugh.

Becca sat down at her desk this morning and started listening to the last presidential debate. She would like to note this is solely her opinion of the debate and does not reflect what she knows about candidate track records, voting records, etc.

First impressions?

Becca wishes Senator McCain would stop calling everyone "my friends". Becca is not the senator's friend, and she is pretty sure that most of the people the senator is addressing are not friends with him either. Becca is sure the senator does have friends, but she is also sure that he can't possibly even be acquainted with most Americans.

Becca wishes both senators would stop being rude to the moderator, ignoring his attempts to insist that they actually answer the questions that are being asked and ignoring their time limits. (Becca is aware that this is nothing new.)

Becca is intrigued by listening to Senator Obama talk about energy.

Becca notices that Senator McCain is still calling everyone "my friends".

Becca is very nervous about Senator McCain's health care plan.

Wait, what? Did Becca just hear Senator McCain suggest putting health records online? What does that mean? O_O Becca thinks that sounds awfully unsafe, and isn't sure she likes it - at all!

Becca realizes that she really misses John Edwards.

"America is the greatest force for good..." "We are peacemakers and we are peacekeepers." Becca thinks that Senator McCain may be thinking of a different country? This doesn't sound like the America she knows.

Becca is pretty sure that Senator Obama really doesn't have any idea what he's talking about when it comes to foreign policy.

Becca notices that Senator McCain is still calling everyone "my friends."

Becca is wondering how Senator McCain intends to bring troops back "with victory and with honor". She thinks it's a little late for that. Especially the "honor" part.

Becca notices that Senator Obama is dodging the question about whether or not we should invade Pakistan in pursuit of terrorists. Oh wait - Senator Obama is now saying we should invade Pakistan, err, we should "stop coddling" them.

Becca appreciates what Senator McCain has to say about Pakistan. She thinks he sounds much more level and reasonable than Senator Obama.

Becca feels like her brain is melting and is having some difficulty paying attention to the debate. She has no idea what question the senators are responding to at the moment.

82 minutes in and Becca is chatting with her mom on Gmail. Is she listening to the debate? Not really.

Becca thinks the Senators are talking about Iran?

Becca's eyes have rolled back in her head.

"What I don't know is what the unexpected will be." Gem of a quote from Senator McCain. It pulls Becca out of her politics-induced stupor and makes her smile.

Finally! The end of the debate!

After an excruciating day and a half filled with XML and Photoshop after I had the sudden realization that I could no longer stand my template, I have my own brand new layout and header.

TaDA!

There is still a good amount of work to be done, but it's functional. AND I have my blogroll back. WHEW!

I'm popped on to read all the blogs on my blogroll (for some reason I still don't use a reader) and had a panic attack when I realized I don't have a blogroll.

GOD.

I have got to get my blog pulled back together!

In the process of finding a new template!

!Dry, Boring Post Warning!

Oh, the beautiful world of real estate sales.

The Monday morning staff meeting started off fairly quietly. The Boss was out of the office taking a class, and one of the agents was off getting a certification (real estate agents sure like those important looking letters after their names), effectively leaving the meeting with just four attendees; myself, Office Manager, and two agents. We discussed a new listing, bickered good-naturedly over who was holding a house open for the agent tour tomorrow, talked about our newest overhaul to one of the company websites....

Then we arrived at our list of closed and pending sales.

It's no mystery to anyone in the country that the real estate market has plummeted, a fact that is driven home every time I look at statistics, and especially so when I glanced at the office's closed/pending sales report this morning. There's not much on there. It's a low number. Scary low. Lower than I've ever seen. Granted, here in my small corner of Western Washington we're not as bad off as some parts of the country, but it's still not a pretty picture.

There are a few things I wanted to touch on here concerning the real estate market in my town. The first is Washington's new(ish) "Distressed Home" sales law. This law, enacted somewhere around June of this year, created new duties for real estate agents and brokers who were selling "distressed" homes; that is, homes that are in danger of/ in the process of foreclosure. An agent/broker who agreed to help someone sell a "distressed" home is now a Distressed Home Consultant, which entails additional duties and much greater liabilities, including the potential for incurring much greater actual damages in the event of a violation of the law. From my take on things, this was an extremely important step that needed to be taken. Foreclosures have skyrocketed as homeowners default on mortgages, leaving them vulnerable to foreclosure rescue scams. Unfortunately the extreme increase of liability associated with taking on the responsibilities of a "DHC" caused many larger real estate offices to refuse to allow their agents to accept a distressed listing, leaving homeowners little option but to have their homes repossessed, something I'm sure the banks weren't all that thrilled by. They don't want the houses back.

The swell of foreclosures was met by an equal tide of cheap new construction homes, leaving resale houses to linger on the market.

Interestingly enough, home prices have not fallen all that much in my county (in comparison to other areas). Of course, the trade off is that there are fewer and fewer sales. Home prices are being forced to adjust until affordability is again on par with income, and from my personal experience, sellers are unwilling to acknowledge the fact that prices are dropping. They insist that the price of their home is exactly where it should be. The value of a home is a touchy subject for homeowners. It can be deeply personal, especially if the homeowner has done a lot of work to the property; put in a new deck, perfected the landscaping, added that bonus room.... they are often unable to recognize the fact that prices are dropping around them as their home spends more and more time on the market, with newer, lower priced listings leaving them behind, trailing in the dust. All listings are engaged in two separate battles - a pricing war and a beauty contest. Homes have to win both to even attract a showing, much less a reasonable offer. Top real estate agents in the country are now encouraging brokers to be extremely selective with the listings they accept - taking a listing is extremely draining financially with all the marketing and time necessary to attract a buyer, and if the seller isn't motivated and understanding of the current market, it is frequently, to be perfectly honest, not worth a broker/agent's time to attempt to sell it.

As more houses maintain an unrealistic asking price and don't sell, additional houses appear on the market, swelling the inventory.

Of course in conjunction with the rising home inventory, it has become more and more difficult to obtain a loan. We had a meeting last week with a lender from Countrywide that we frequently do business with. Countrywide has recently been purchased by Bank of America, and the lender expressed considerable relief. "Hey, at least Bank of America still has money," she told us. She explained a lot about mortgages that were still available though it is more difficult to qualify.

I'll admit, I'm not as knowledgeable as I probably should be. I don't know all that much about loans, though I do think it's probably a good thing that companies aren't handing out mortgages left and right to people who can't afford them. What I know about the statistics and seller reactions are what's staring me in the face every time I come to work. I could do more research, but I don't. Why? Honestly, I'm kind of freaked out. It's not a real fun time to be working in real estate. Agents are having their own homes foreclosed on, and dropping out of the business. An agent working in my office, two years older than I am, told me today that he thought he was going to have to find a second job. He's brilliant at what he does, and has done exceedingly well in the last couple of years, only to tank in this difficult market like so many other agents.

So....

Most of this morning's meeting was taken up by discussing the market. One of the agents asked my office manager (my boss's husband) and asked if he had ever seen a market this bad.

Office manager shook his head. "Honestly? No."

I know this has been a pretty disjointed ramble, but hey, it's Monday. Give me a break. ^_^

(By the way, I had to write that note backwards for Photobooth. My handwriting really isn't that bad, promise.)