Javaun's Ramblings

Jen and I are Building our Dream Home

01-04-2008

That’s right! We absolutely love it here and we’re building our dream home in the outlying Washington DC suburbs. We can’t even believe our luck! Someone just stalled construction and left a half-finished home, and we’re going to take it over and finish it to our ideal specifications. Jen and I constantly complain that we don’t have enough room to buy more stuff. That won’t be a problem anymore.

Jen and Javaun at our new home site

The lot is situated on several acres of old growth Virginia forest, which we’re clearing to make room for an extended garage, concrete patio, and tetherball court. Not counting the 3 story deck, the home will be about 12,000 square feet. It overlooks the highway and is just minutes from a mall that has a Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant and the largest indoor Laser Tag in the DC beltway.

Honestly, we never thought we could afford a home like this, but it’s amazing what you can do with financing. Jen and I got a 5 year ARM with a 1.5% introductory rate that won’t adjust for at least 6 months. Because home prices always go up, they’re also extending us an equity line of credit for an additional $80,000.

Jen and Javaun at our new home site
Our new neighbors are awesome! They’re helping us pick out molded falcon sculptures and bronze torches for our front gate.

One downside is that we can’t ride our bikes to work anymore. Our commute is increasing from 30 minutes one-way to about 4.5 hours roundtrip. But I think we’ll be really comfortable in our new rides, thanks to the home equity advance. Jen and I are each buying one, since she gets up 20 minutes earlier than me and it’s therefore impractical for us to carpool.

We’re going to have 16 guest bedrooms and are really excited to host all of our old friends. Come and see us!

My Standard Wedding Advice

By: Javaun

31-03-2008

Thinking Long Term, Tolerance

My friend Forrest is getting married this weekend, and I just gave him my standard advice on getting married. Keep in mind that I’ve only been married 2 years (all happy, I might add), so I don’t have any pearls on growing your marriage such as “don’t go to bed mad” or “every new day is a blessing” or anything like that. Sorry, I can’t help you there. This stuff is the solid fundamentals to survive the day and give yourself a fighting chance as a married man.

1. Show up on time. This no-brainer bears repeating, even if your family, friends, and would-be spouse normally tolerate your lack of punctuality.

2. Show up sober. If you’re not responsible enough to do the math, get someone else to be your teetotaler. Probably not the Best Man.

3. Don’t lock your knees. When you’re standing up at the ceremony, keep a slight bend in your knees. Locking your knees out for a sustained period of time cuts off the blood supply to your brain, causing you to faint. They actually teach you this in the Army, where soldiers are required to stand at attention for hours during certain ceremonies. One friend in the 82nd Airborne told me about a time when his company was standing at attention with bayonets affixed to their rifles. Someone locked his knees, passed out, and gored the soldier in front of him.

Three points is a nice litany and easy to remember. As a corollary though, I should probably warn people to watch out for wedding pranks, such as friends who kidnap the bride between the reception and honeymoon.

Michigan Football Loses Top Recruit, Sows Seeds of Future 8-3 Seasons

By: Javaun

19-03-2008

Sports, Tolerance

Rivals.com is reporting that Terrelle Pryor has chosen Ohio State over Michigan. Terrelle is a quarterback and rated as the top high school recruit.

Doesn’t Terrelle realize that the one thing Michigan consistently produces is top QB’s, albeit ones that go in the later draft rounds? After 4 years handing the ball off to the tailback on downs 1-3 and punting on fourth, the Michigan quarterback is uniquely suited to the ball-control football that dominates the NFL. I don’t think anyone has any real insight into why Michigan players are so good, so clear-thinking, so “mature” when they get to the NFL, but here’s a few theories:

1. With so few passing plays called, our QB’s not only attempt to execute perfectly, but they’re also wary that one errant throw, one INT, one mistake, and they might not get a second pass attempt until the next game.

2. Because our QB’s know they won’t get many passing attempts, they instead watch film, practice their footwork, or instead LISTEN to their QB coaches.

3. Not only did they get into Michigan, but they showed clear-thinking by simply choosing Michigan. In other words, they had the brains to make the correct choice, so it only follows that they will make future high-pressure decisions correctly.

4. Maybe it’s the helmets? The famous winged helmets, designed to help the QB identify the receiver, may actually work in these formative college years.

Does anyone else have any bright ideas?

We can all look forward to Terrelle Pryor terrorizing Michigan on the gridiron in the upcoming years. Unless of course they turn him into a linebacker, which Big Ten schools are known to do to QBs. Above all, I truly wish him success in his career as a Buckeye and hope that he garners many of those pot leaves that OSU players wear all over their helmets.

Let Levi Ride the 2008 Tour

By: Javaun

21-02-2008

Bikes, Endurance Sports

Levi Leipheimer, new to team Astana for 2008, is currently barred from racing in the 2008 Tour de France due to a doping penalty incurred by last year’s Astana team.

VeloNews covered Levi’s announcement of a new website to protest Amaury Sports decision.

Levi’s website is taking online registrations/signatures to the petition. Swag is also in the works.

www.letleviride.com/

‘Seasons’ – A new film by the Collective

By: Javaun

21-02-2008

Bikes

The Collective, the Canada-based filmmakers who created the Collective and ROAM, is about to come out with their third film, Seasons.

The website is up at www.thecollectivefilm.com and includes a downloadable trailer.

Seasons’ premise seems to be different than its predecessors, using the Collective’s production knack while grounding the movie theme a bit more in reality. Seasons doesn’t quite bill itself as a documentary, but it certainly has elements, such as rider interviews, training, and competitions.

Here’s the official teaser:

Seasons is a film that follows 7 of the world’s top mountain bikers through the course of 4 seasons of one year. The film explores what it means to be a full time rider as told through the lives of downhill racers, slopestyle competitors, and big mountain free riders.

Behind the Scenes with NPR’s Election Unit

By: Javaun

10-02-2008

Election '08

If you haven’t been following NPR’s on-air or web coverage of Election 2008, it’s been absolutely outstanding in its depth and accuracy.

Super Tuesday was an all-nighter for most of the team, and my coworker Andy Carvin posted some behind-the-scenes shots to his Flikr album. If you’ve ever wondered what Robert Siegel or Michelle Norris look like, now you know.

Motely Fool: Beazer Homes Worst Stock of 2008

By: Javaun

17-01-2008

Corporate Responsibility, Emotional Baggage, Thinking Long Term

There are actually a slew of local and national builder award shows like “the Nationals” and such that are the Emmy or Oscars of the builder industry. During my stint at Beazer, both corporate and division offices were constantly vying for one award or another; Beazer even lobbied (unsuccessfully) for Forbes “Best Places to Work” on more than one occasion.

The past 9 months haven’t been kind to Beazer. Current pains include a DOJ investigation for mortgage fraud, an accounting scandal stemming from aforementioned alleged mortgage fraud, at least 4 class action lawsuits from shareholders and customers resulting from said accounting scandal, loss of most of its veteran employees and management, not to mention the larger national subprime mortgage collapse, ensuing credit crunch, and persistent rumors that the company is bankrupt.

Even in dire straits, Beazer has made the short list of a major national award, albeit Motley Fool’s worst stock of 2008.

I left Beazer 6 months ago and haven’t thought much about it in recent months. I’ve long since given most of my Beazer logo’ed apparel to the Salvation Army. I still have the umbrella (in a metaphorical irony, Beazer protects me from the rain) and I kept my old Beazer to-go mug. Now that I commute by bike to work each day, I’ve taken to brewing a pot of coffee and carrying it the mug to work in my bottle cage.

Like the company, the cup has seen better days. It used to be so shiny and brilliant. The brand logo is battered and the once glossy copper-esque body is now tarnished and scratched. The cup was built to look good in the short term, but not built to last. I used to think the cap was mostly stainless steel, but in fact it was a thin facade that fell off this week as I pedaled. A lot of home flippers (and speculators to whom we sold homes) loved to add to stainless steel kitchen appliances to “put lipstick on the pig”, so to speak, and dramatically up the resale value without putting any real lasting value into the home.

I definitely have some opinions about the state of the U.S. housing market and my experience working in it for nearly 6 total years. Mostly, I disagree with the lack of planning, poor resource use, environmental and energy impact, and conspicuous and gratuitous consumption that has gotten us to where we are today. I’ll think about that some more tomorrow as I drink my coffee.

Are your money market funds safe? 3 Safety Checks

By: Javaun

14-01-2008

Finance, World Markets

Talk of recession is nothing new in 2008. Most financial publications have been talking about this since early 2007 (if not mid 2006), so it’s no big secret that a confluence of negative forces conspire to wreak havoc on the US economy. But this is the first time that Ben Bernanke sounds worried.

A recession may drag down the stock market at the same time that the housing market is in its worst slump in decades. So stocks and real estate may take big hits. Money markets are still safe, right? Maybe not.

There’s been a lot of debate recently about money market funds and whether they risk exposure to the subprime collapse. Most experts have said that normal investors have nothing to worry about and that these funds — really mutual funds made of bank CDs, Treasury bonds, corporate debt, etc — are solid. The not-so fine print on any of these funds say that unlike savings accounts, money markets are not FDIC insured (though some of their holdings, such as bank loans, are insured.) The $1 price per share can theoretically fluctuate.

In practice, this has never happened. CBS reports that in the history of money market funds, $1 peg was reduced only once, and only to $.96. This was during the 1994 derivatives crisis, which most experts believe was far more expansive than our current financial crisis.

But how safe are money markets? The answer is that most are still very, very safe. But it depends on the type of fund you’re in, the kind of investments the fund holds, and finally on the size of the company managing the fund.