September 2007 Archives
In less then 4 hours the House of Love III will no longer be mine.
In less than 6 hours the House of Love IV will be mine and I'll take possession.
Funny how things work like that. And... all in less than a month!
This'll probably be the last post on any blog for day or so. The broadband will get shut off and transfered later today but there's entirely too much to do in the next 48 hours to both with trying to get the wireless router and all operational.
Plus, I'll be losing the use of my desktop PC, until I get the new N-Router and make this PC wireless for the new house. All the real work gets done on the desktop while all the low quality aimless blogging occurs on my laptop while I'm laying in bed or some shit.
Anyway, the house is a disaster.
Total chaos in pretty much every room with no room totally empty.
I don't know if I have to thank Set, Boreas, Rudra, or even that asshole Thor but the damn rain has finally stopped. It seems to have rained sometime last night too!
The truck barely looks packed even. As soon as I'm done with this post it'll be back to work until closing time.
It is finally hitting me that I am leaving the house that I've sank so much of my effort into.
It isn't a bad feeling since I know that the new neighborhood will hopefully eliminate all of my problems (vandalism, noise, trash, OSU game day, noise, retarded 20-somethings, roving bands of aimless vermin teens, trash, noise, etc.) but there is something very melancholy about it all.
No matter how much things change, this will have been my first house. And I'll never forget it.
I'll never forget the year of work on the basement, the dinners, the Labor Day cookouts, and pierogi day here. And hopefully 3 out of 4 of those will continue at the HOL4.
But you know what I think I'll miss most of all?
Something that greets me everytime I go and let the Hoont outside.
Yup! The tree limb that looks like a huge flaccid dong hanging high above my yard!
I think it is a cosmic marker that a total dick lives below!
Or maybe I'm just reading into that.
At this very moment, if a large dumpster were placed under on of the windows of the Attic, I'm fairly certain you'd see hundreds and hundreds of toys go flying into the trash.
My god this shit takes up entirely too much space in my life!
Ack!
I've got nothing to say right now other than trying to pack a moving truck in a f'n rainstorm is one of the most miserable things I've ever done in my life.
I fear things will only get worse before they get better.
I'm trying to bring everything I shoved back into the attic closets out and throw stuff out and pack the rest.
When I started binning up all the robot crackage I kind of just threw everything into the closets and then Giga made those cheap sheets curtains to hide it all.
Thankfully the toys are all packed. That'd be drama I wouldn't want to add to everything else.
Giga's done an immense job packing up the kitchen and all the glass shit. We have boxes upon boxes of it stacked in the dining room.
Thankfully most of the basement, with the exception of the tools, is more or less packed up
I'm just going to flip my cheap ass crate wall that I use in the attic and move those as-is too.
The more I pack, the more I realize I'm going to miss this house.
I'm pretty sure The Hoont knows somethings afoot other than his bad-ass self. There's so much shit everywhere packed up in this or that corner.
To prove to you that the completist in me is dead I actually put back the movie Thundercracker, the Voyager Megatron, and some Robot Heroes today.
See. I'm learning.
Well... I should say the House of Love IV is teaching me a lesson!
Now this is the way Ratchet should have looked from the very beginning!
And you can't say to me the movie's green/yellow works better! Not for this character.
I'll give you the Ironhide black but Ratchet has to be this palette!
Transformers Rescue Ratchet is the 2005th Transformer that I've acquired.
I find it extremely funny that the toys I love the most aren't in the movie at all!
Transformers Longarm is the 2004th Transformer that I've acquired.
Transformers Payload is the 2003rd Transformer that I've acquired.
Can I tell you how much I love this f'n toy!
This guy is fantastic!!!
Um... Mattel apologizes to China???
Interesting bad craziness.
It would be awesome if China had banned Idol because of this whole thing wouldn't it?
So mucho thanks go out to Teresa for the Arcee.
Now I feel totally shitty since her Ratchet is sitting there in the back of the Deluxe Luxury New Beetle and I've just been so busy with all the house bad craziness that I haven't got it out yet.
I even went to lunch with the Evebird and the Jack Of All Geeks yesterday and we had to move it so he could sit!
I promise I'll get it out as soon as I can!
She even sent me this little stickers of some of her Flickr pics!
I still need to get those moo cards made from the one Shockwave pic I took. I'm going to use that as my personal business card once I get the new address and phone number and such confirmed.
I should probably put the theyrejustfuckingtoys.com address on the thing too for shits and/or giggles.
Do people giggle anymore?
More importantly have I ever giggled?
I know I burst out laughing yesterday at a staff meeting when one of my coworkers used the term "money makers" and all I thought were two huge breasts with tassels on them.
It was an awkward moment for me to say the least.
Thanks again Teresa! I'm good for it. Just ask a dozen of the people who read this blog. Really I am.
Well... except for sending those comics out to Frowny. Obviously I have to find them again.
Um.... I think Jin Saotome's Final Battle Jazz is a thousand times better.
Visible spine damage beats bleh repaint/retool in this comparison.
Movie Final Battle Jazz is the the 2001st Transformer that I've acquired.
With me pretty much dropping comics months ago, and Giga finally doing the same over the past few weeks, I was fairly certain I'd just wait for the occasional trade collection to buy something.
Well damn if DC doesn't go ahead and create something that actually looks like it could be fun!
Billy Batson and The Magic of Shazam looks beautiful!
I'd much rather read a silly ass comic like this than any of the hundreds of retread books being published these days.
I may have to at least pick up the first issue.
Well... and... how does one say... "page through it" at the comic store.
Hell... Laughing Ogre will be within walking distance of the House of Love IV.
I'm actually kind of shocked that I've been finding the movie Protoform Prime design, especially in this new Robot Heroes version, really appealing.
Every day I like it more and more... better than any actual movie figure.
Oh well.
Got 2001 the other day too.
I so totally want to see Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! and I never even knew it!
So I watched the new "reimagined" Bionic Woman pilot that popped on On Demand and all I can say is there wasn't a single thing in it to really make me want to watch a series.
The visual production design of the do-no-wrong almighty Battlestar Galactica is all over this thing, and they've gone so far as to even cast two BG regulars in it.
But is was just so boring really.
The look of the pilot, from the Caprica Vancouver location shots to even the font style used for titles just looks too much like BG. There were some pretty bad visual effects too.
Maybe they did it on the extreme cheap to get it made and before an audience of possible buyers but I can't see myself watching more than a few episodes of it.
Even in this fictional world, the premise of how Jaime Sommers gets the implants just doesn't ring true to me.There's just too much that just "happens" and I don't feel that I even care to know why it happens now.
Now of course, for a new teen generation of geek losers, especially girls, this show may have some minor appeal. The pilot definitely seems to simultaneously go after several disparate demographics.
Due to copyright and licensing issues, the removal of this source material from the world of Steve Austin also blemishes it a bit for me.
Sure, the target audience probably has zero clue who Steve Austin, Oscar Goldman, and Rudy Wells are but I really would have liked Jaime tied to a modern version of her original roots.
Oh well. It it becomes serialized and not episodic I may be drawn to it but otherwise I don't think it hold much for me.
And that's ok.
I'm going to have a shit load of home work to do in the near future anyway.
Watching TV is just a distraction from real life matters.
And yes, the crack is too.
Yeah. It is true.
I'm actually excited about the forthcoming Beast Wars Sourcebook.
I have found the Dreamwave profile books, as well as other books in this vein, to be the best toilet reading material out there.
Just leave the books in the bathroom and when the White Castle is running through you at 3am you can enjoy the cheestastic and illogical Transformers universe!
What more is there to love in a comic?
So it was a rough day again but I'm in contract on the House of Love IV!!!
And yes, it is definitely a House of Love as opposed to the other one.
There was definitely a reason why I couldn't give it that name, or any other, and when it comes down to it everything about the house was just wrong and would have cost so much money to have fixed yet never have been worth it.
Now I did have to up my offer even more. But I'm just not in a position right now to lose out on this one.
Sure something may come up in the inspection but quite frankly, this one feels good.
It feels solid.
It makes me happy inside.
And even though it will take a few years and some decent scratch to redo the bathrooms and the kitchen, I know that every day when I walk out onto my deck, and down onto my brick patio under the 3 magnolias, and out to my car parked in my garage, and down my street of nicely maintained homes, every dollar spent now will have been worth it.
And believe me, I'm not kidding myself that this is worth it. I'm going to totally feel it in the pocket book for a good 2-3 years at least.
But there really isn't anything that can give one piece of mind like this anymore.
It was so long in coming.
Here's hoping that all goes well with the final aspects of the sale of the House of Love III tomorrow and the purchase and acquisition of the House of Love IV over the next 2 weeks!
So the original house has issues. Major issues.
Of course, if you've ever owned a house or went out looking you know that initial appearances can be quite off.
Suffice to say that the inspection is the best money you can spend to help you make your decision about a property.
The house would need major money put into it to bring it to even remotely the price that they were asking, and then it probably still would not be satisfactory.
Now this morning I put an offer in on another place (pic above) that totally meets our needs and has a solid garage and from all appearances a solid new roof.
It is sans 1 bedroom but the other 3 are also larger.
I've had to make the same offer on this one that I did on the other since that's pretty much my maximum.
I'm so hoping they accept.
Tomorrow's the appraisal at the House of Love and we have to find a place that meets our needs.
I definitely think the new one will.
And then some!
While I didn't buy any transforming crack I did get some digital crack today in the form of the awesome TARDIS.
I was going to do this in-depth review of Transformers available at the Columbus Toys and Collectibles show today but there was absolutely nothing unexpected there.
Nothing at all.
Yup folks! Today was the Autumn Cowtown Toy Show at Vets Memorial and this time, Giga and I weren't dealers. The whole house situation hasn't given us a single amount of time to devote to the plastic crack of transformer or super hero variety so we just stopped by since Friend Of The Crack Jack Of All Geeks (JOAG), and Missus Jack Of All Geeks, decided to set up show today and rid their life of excess plastic baggage. I think she may be a bigger toy geek than he is. I never knew she had so much stuff of so many flavors!
There was a bit more TF crack there but nothing really outstanding.
In fact, the only unusual stuff I saw were TF Movie 2008 Bumblebees going for $25-$30 and a Voyager Class Movie Megatron that I didn't even know existed.
There was a nice dealer with his wife and/or girlfriend directly behind the JOAG and he had a few things but nothing exactly rare or necessary for the Plastic Crack Collection.
One dealer had two vintage Doctor Who figures. Alas, the price was a bit beyond what a guy dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new house could splurge on.
There was one dealer there today that I'd never seen before who had perhaps the most shocking display of items I've ever seen there: phenomenal quality vintage 1970s Shogun Warriors figure!!!
He had the small ones, the die-cast ones, the large ones and many of the crazy accessories that were released. So much Go Ngai and Getter goodness.
I mean these guys were in beautiful shape. Truly beautiful.
I hate to think if I wasn't moving how much I'd have dropped at this table to own the die-cast ones! Especially to complete the Getters since I'm missing Getter 1/Dragun and my others are missing parts.
It truly made me want to cry that before me were things I so badly wanted in my life again but couldn't buy. Such is the life of an addict of plastic.
So sad.
The crack addiction is definitely moving from TFs to other toys I had back in the 70s.
No doubt we'll be dealing again in the Spring once things settle down.
I still want to purge the 14,000 comics and I'm thinking around 1700 or so Transformers from the collection.
I've decided that the problems with the house are just too great to deal with.
Collapsing garage, roof problems, structural problems, the list truly goes on and on.
And while it looks ok on the outside, it lacks any sense of soul or charm and has nothing remotely quirky about it.
The cost to repair the work is just too great and not worth it.
So that's the good news.
Want the gooder news???
I am so glad I didn't upgrade this blog installation to Movable Type 4.0.
My god... this has got to be one of the most awful upgrading experiences I've ever had in software in my entire life.
MT 3.35 wasn't great but it was acceptable.
4.0? is just dog slow.
Hell... the user interface to write entries is so slow I get fed up with it and just close the window.
The other sites will need to be wiped and and a downgrade performed.
Thankfully my oh so precious Plastic Crack didn't suffer.
Well the house inspection turned up some major issues that I want the seller to fix.
I don't know if they will or not, but if I walk away they'll legally have to declare the basement wall structural issues as well as that the roof leaks and has broken rafters and that the garage should be totally written off. (The garage might survive a few years still but the walls are severely bowing and have pulled away from the foundation in some places.) Are they willing to lose a potential sale over a matter of $2500?
Honestly, if I'd offered full price in the first place I'd probably be asking for a whole lot more!
We'll see what happens over the next few days.
Oh. And I got an email today.
Number 2000 is on the way!!!
What's funny is that with the new house I'll immediately need to reduce that to around 500 or less.
There won't be a 3000 anytime in the future. That's a definite!
The Fantastical Adventures of Jesus of Gallifrey?
We will be looking at the idea of Jesus as a Lord of time and showing who Jesus was and the different images of him throughout time.Well, according to Christians texts, Jesus sorta-kinda regenerated there at the end.
Companion-wise, I've always found Judas Iscariot to be the most interesting of the original 12 "companions" and I've always felt sorry for the one James getting religiously/historically-shafted since he's likely Jesus' real brother. So there's my Zoe Heriot and Jamie similarity.
This does bring up something I never thought about though...
"What Would The Doctor Do?"
So.
It was a nice evening actually.
There was me, Giga, the buyer, her Hungarian fiance, a minister/something guy, and our two realtors.
I was the photographer, but I didn't use my camera so I don't have any people photos to show you.
Plus, it wouldn't really have been appropriate.
There was champagne, and I even pulled out my grandmother's wedding crystal for the bride and groom to use.
I learned a bit about the buyers.
She's a teacher that recently got a permanent position at the University. They met in Hungary. This is her first house. They looked at houses all summer and found nothing they liked until they opened the front door of the House of Love and immediately fell in love with it.
They love the stairwell. They loving the dining room. They love the living room. They love the kitchen. They love the way the bedrooms come together at the center of the stairs. They love the Attic of Love. They especially love the Hoont.
I didn't bother to ask if they liked the *cough* lovely *cough* bathroom.
The irony of it all is that it somewhat mirrors my own experience in finding the house after looking at 49 places in 2003 and then only going on the last run with my realtor to tell her I was totally over looking at houses. They had been looking for months and this was pretty much the last one before they were going to throw in the towel.
But all in all, it was nice, and it was special for them in a city where they don't really know anyone at all and are buying their first house together.
Wow.
It is kind of funny when it appears a knock-off translucent G1 Mirage may come out (from Tformers) and it looks a thousand times better than that Botcon version from earlier this summer.
This freak actually called into Stern yesterday.
I hadn't hear much about it but The Movie Blog mentions that it looks like Tron: The Next Chapter may actually be happening.
I'm willing to wager that most of you who read this here barely-about-transforming-crack at-the-moment site were either still individual sperm and ovum, in diapers, or barely out of diapers when 12 year old Nala was sitting at the Glenbyrne Cinema in Glass City watching Tron.
It is still one of my secret favorite movies and the fact that Steve Lisberger, the original creator will be involved is great news.
Lisberger also was instrumental in another favorite animated film of mine called Animalypics.
Bruce Kwakimota is still one of the best names for a bird karate champion ever!
I certainly hope all of you readers in Albion are excited about Stan Bush touring there!
Like Tformers says... "This is your chance to see Stan Bush live!" and you owe it to his devotion to the TF fandom to go and see him.
What's really funny is there aren't many, if any at all, of the movie Revoltechish figures, being used as sources for shots.
Personally, while they may be somewhat poseable, the movie ones just seem so ugly and lack the charm of the 3 G1 Revoltechs.
Hell, everytime I pick up Magnus I just can't put him down and have to change his pose.
So somehow, in the back of my currently house drama-filled unstable mind, I decided to upgrade my Movable Type installation for naladahc.com, mother blog of The Crack, to the new version and totally hosed the site.
This is such a drastic departure from version 3.35 that it may take me a while to figure out what's wrong.
I think my anti-spam measures are to blame.
What'll suck is that if the one that works really well, the one that makes this site 100% spam free, doesn't work in the new version.
They've incorporated a lot of content asset management into this new version, and with the quantity of photos I have in play, it may be wise to really learn the benefits of the upgrade to the blogs and rebuild my designs from scratch with the new code.
But damn, why did I just rush out and redo it, and the accompanying SQL upgrade.
That's something I'd have done in my 20s. I'm too old to be doing stupid off the cuff shit like this.
Oh well. In the end, all 5 blogs will benefit.
Am I getting punk'd?
This just in...
I just got a call from my realtor with what may be the most bizarre request I could have ever imagined coming.
No where in my mind could I have ever thought this would come up from the buyers.
Ever.
For the second time tonight I was startled out of bed by the phone ringing.
Obviously, in the realms of real estate transactions nothing is set in stone until the loans are closed, the names are signed, and the deeds and titles are fully passed over, but the final call was that the owner finally returned to town and had agreed to my offer.
My realtor suspects there will be a counter-offer of some kind, and tomorrow the appropriate paperwork will have to be signed and the earnest money paid. Of course, it always involves the money in some shape, way, or form.
Ok.
I'm going to go try and sleep now.
Maybe... just maybe... I can finally get a good night's sleep.
And maybe my zits can clear up.
Sorta-maybe-kinda good news on my new house front.
My realtor talked to the other and I've upped my offer substantially to $4K less than asking. I'm going to throw part of my savings into the house too to bring the mortgage down to where it will be more manageable. I didn't want to, but this house will not only be my home but will truly be an investment in terms of the neighborhood it is in. I have to look at dropping into the savings as a positive thing here.
Regardless of what comes out of this, the one thing I can honestly say is the TF geekage not only has to be cut down to only things I deem worthy enough to buy, it also means I will have to get rid of things to help pay for some of the remodeling and work on the new house.
So.
That great crack purge I've come so close to doing for a long time?
It may happen sooner than I ever thought!
So what's new in the Nalaworld?
Well... the buyer's had their house inspection and there were a few minor things (hopefully affordable) that they want me to remedy. Fortunately, several of them, other than the plumbing and chimney, I can do myself.
Still no word on Blenheim. Which sucks.
I really really really want that property. Well, I want the neighborhood most of all really.
My mortgage approval screamed through in literally 10 minutes. I was shocked to see I can easily be approved for more home than I could ever pay a monthly payment on!
Funny.
13 years ago, during what I call The Dark Ages of my life after I dropped out of grad school, I was $16,000 in credit card debt, evicted from an apartment, taken to court over back rent and my wages garnished, and creditors at my heels on a weekly basis.
I managed to work my ass off and pay off my debts and now have a credit score in the 800s and am considered the perfect ideal person for loans.
The shit one can dig themselves into in their 20s can be fixed by their 30s. I'm living proof of that. There's was just a lot of hard work to do it.
Anyway, 8 more houses to look at this morning.
The House of Love III really isn't mine anymore is it? I mean, I'm still on the title but let's face it, the sale is gonna happen and I still don't have the House of Love IV.
And Teresa, I'll try to get that Ratchet out to you as soon as I can. I'm sorry it has taken me a week!
Remember when this blog used to be about Transformers?
I wish I had something geek-related to talk about.
Alas, real life intruded upon geek life.
And 12:50pm my offer for Blenheim was faxed to the other realtor.
I upped my offer by $5K and agreed to $1K earnest money down if they accept.
I said we didn't want anything in the house. I think the black (ugh) refrigerator is included but I could be mistaken.
So.
Now onto finding an approved mortgage.
This is always the insanely nervous part for me.
More houses looked at.
More houses looked at with bad basements and in need of $80,000 of work.
But over dinner, we decided that one of them is worth it even with the work we'll have to do on it.
So maybe... just maybe... this will be the new House of Love IV in 5-6 weeks.
Four bedrooms, a 2 car garage, and a shitload of purple and lavender carpet to remove before we move in!
That is if all goes well.
I'm kind of making an initial low offer based on what I'm making off of the House of Love III sale but I'm inclined to make a slightly higher offer if need be.
This house is in the ideal neighborhood for me, and is a brisk walk to High Street, the Whetstone Park of Roses, and a library where we can have crappy VHS copies of Doctor Who episodes sent to.
There houses are maintained. There are no abandoned cars in yards and the lawns are cut.
I think it'll work out in the long run.
The best part is that every dollar put in this house will eventually come out of this house.
The HOL III is at its max.
So...
Once more unto the breach dear geeks...
Well I accepted the potential buyer's offer, with the counter-offer that I have to have 7 days to find a new house and that they can take possession at 8pm the day after closing.
It appears they've signed the counter offer.
So.
Their building inspection needs to be scheduled, and then all the oh-so-fun-and-exciting remediation phase, and then the closing. All of that going on while the true bad craziness of finding the House of Love IV begins!
I looked at 5 houses today with another 5 tomorrow afternoon.
So far, out of the 10 I've looked at since last week, only the 1 today really had the potential to be a great home.
It needs work, and some "undoing" of a very 80s kitchen and a horrible built-in table, the removal of awful carpeting in every room and the return to hardwood floors, as well repainting of every room and new electric.
The garage is iffy but will last for a few more years.
The thing is, it is on the perfect street in the perfect neighborhood.
I am also fairly certain that every dollar put into the place will make it all the more valuable should I choose to sell it.
It really has massive potential.
Now it doesn't have the real charm that made me immediately fall in love with the current, and soon to not be House of Love III.
The moment I walked in the door here in 2003 I fell in love with it.
This house doesn't quite have that but I can see, after a year or two of work, and some substantial kitchen work, a home that I will love to have people over at and a place that really will make me feel happy to be a homeowner again.
That just can't happen here in the campus ghetto.
I'll see what tomorrow brings but I'm going to keep thinking about this place.
Well.
The first people to look at my house made an offer.
And for the most part, I couldn't refuse.
The only issue is that they want to move in by the end of the month which means I need to find a place, get a new mortgage, and close all within the same time frame!
They want the refrigerator, the Craigslist washer & dryer, and the window treaments, of which most of the high quality blinds were with the house when I bought it, the others are the cheapest Lowe's blinds, or curtains Giga made from cheap sheets.
I'm having my realtor write back that I accept with the conditions of finding the House of Love IV within a few days.
I didn't think it would be this crazy! I really didn't!
The 4th Annual Nala & Giga Labor Day Cookout turned out very well. Had tons of people over from noon to practically midnight!
There was so much food and people brought stuff that we never even cracked open. I think there were like 2 potato salads and cous-cous and some other dishes that never left their bags.
Many people wanted to see the toys and alas, I had to explain that they are all packed away.
Oh. My house was shown for the first time today to a potential buyer. They were only supposed to be here between 1 and 2 so we took The Hoont up to a park to walk.
Would you believe that they stayed in the house for 2 hours!!!
Oy koledy!
Apparently, they really really liked it and they are exactly the kinds of peoples I would want to sell to.
I hope they make an offer. I can't budge much on my asking price.
I hadn't tried Trader Joe's "house" beers before but damn if this isn't worth becoming a daily drinking beer here in the House of Love then I don't know what is.
While the dog days of summer are upon us and my time for drinking Corona passes with the seasons, this slightly bitter lager is a find that may be worth exploring more of in the near future.
I highly recommend it for a crisp sharp slightly bitter lager!