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Randomness XVIII: Ex-Vee-Triple-Eye


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15 minutes ago, TheAuldGrump said:

Outside of a select group of idiots - everyone knew the world was round, and had done so since the early Greeks. Eratosthenes even calculated the size in the third century before Christ - and better than Columbus.

 

The Auld Grump

Meh.

I think most people didn't know, and didn't care either way.

It didn't affect their lives in any way.

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34 minutes ago, Chaoswolf said:

 

Since we're normally allowed to wear jeans and t shirts on Friday, I may wear a suit and say that I'm dressed as a responsible adult.::D:

 

Friend of mine used to paint his face like a skull and go as "a working stiff". 

 

I miss halloween costume parties where everyone used to dress up.  There were some great ones where we'd party into the night, crash at our friend's house, go to IHoP the next morning and ask for a table for 12, and then hit the Texas Rennaisance Festival.....

 

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UGH. HOA rant under the spoiler.
 

Spoiler

I can't remember if I've mentioned this here or not. It is voting time for the HOA here. It is a broccoli show. The voter's thing they sent out has like one sentence per thing to vote on that isn't the budget (I'll get back to that in a minute).

 

A lot of the stuff needs a full read through for how they are changing things so the stuff they sent out is super misleading. Finding the info on the website was hell in and of itself.

 

The budget is what most people are very upset about. They want to raise dues by 97%. Yes, 97%, not 9.7%. This would bring dues to over 1800$/year. So of course most people want everyone to vote NO. I know that's what I want. But the kicker is if you don't vote at all it will count as a YES for it. Which is super stupid.

 

We have until the...4th? 5th? 6th? to return our ballot. Again it's all very confusing and has all three of these dates in different places on two back to back pages in the front of the pamphlet. So hopefully we get it in on time.

 

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5 minutes ago, SparrowMarie said:

UGH. HOA rant under the spoiler.
 

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I can't remember if I've mentioned this here or not. It is voting time for the HOA here. It is a broccoli show. The voter's thing they sent out has like one sentence per thing to vote on that isn't the budget (I'll get back to that in a minute).

 

A lot of the stuff needs a full read through for how they are changing things so the stuff they sent out is super misleading. Finding the info on the website was hell in and of itself.

 

The budget is what most people are very upset about. They want to raise dues by 97%. Yes, 97%, not 9.7%. This would bring dues to over 1800$/year. So of course most people want everyone to vote NO. I know that's what I want. But the kicker is if you don't vote at all it will count as a YES for it. Which is super stupid.

 

We have until the...4th? 5th? 6th? to return our ballot. Again it's all very confusing and has all three of these dates in different places on two back to back pages in the front of the pamphlet. So hopefully we get it in on time.

 

Reason number 100+ [I stopped keeping count] of why I am so adamantly opposed to any entanglement with any HOA.

GEM

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So, we just had our USCIS interview this morning.  It was both as I expected and not what I expected.  My wife's interview took a little longer than mine did, presumably because of all the "are you a terrorist" related questions.  Anyway, hopefully we'll have the ruling late next week! :lol: :winkthumbs:

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1 hour ago, kristof65 said:

Do any of us here even know what that is?  :lol:

 

A responsible adult?

 

I think I saw one once, tried to take a picture but it turned out a bit blurry.

Some people insist it was just a trick of the light, others agree that it might exist after all.

You know, like Nessie, Bigfoot and the Yeti.

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8 minutes ago, Green Eyed Monsty said:

Reason number 100+ [I stopped keeping count] of why I am so adamantly opposed to any entanglement with any HOA.

GEM

While we tried to avoid HOA's when looking for our home, TBH, I'd rather deal with an HOA than a city or county government.  I've had multiple issues with HOAs over the years (can't avoid them in condos and townhomes), but I've won every single time.  Can't say that for city governments. 

 

18 minutes ago, SparrowMarie said:

UGH. HOA rant under the spoiler.
 

  Hide contents

I can't remember if I've mentioned this here or not. It is voting time for the HOA here. It is a broccoli show. The voter's thing they sent out has like one sentence per thing to vote on that isn't the budget (I'll get back to that in a minute).

 

A lot of the stuff needs a full read through for how they are changing things so the stuff they sent out is super misleading. Finding the info on the website was hell in and of itself.

 

The budget is what most people are very upset about. They want to raise dues by 97%. Yes, 97%, not 9.7%. This would bring dues to over 1800$/year. So of course most people want everyone to vote NO. I know that's what I want. But the kicker is if you don't vote at all it will count as a YES for it. Which is super stupid.

 

We have until the...4th? 5th? 6th? to return our ballot. Again it's all very confusing and has all three of these dates in different places on two back to back pages in the front of the pamphlet. So hopefully we get it in on time.

 

Are these things you can use proxy votes on? If you can, start hitting up your neighbors and gathering their proxy votes if they're going to ignore it. 

If they want to raise the dues that much, it sounds like you've had large ticket maintenance items come due on community property (quite typical for condos/townhomes) and the reserve fund either isn't big enough to pay for them, and/or it was/will be depleted paying for them.      A lot of times new developments start out with lower dues, and no one wants to raise the dues for years, and then "boom", you're hit with a huge hike in the dues.  That situation sucks, but the worse situation is when you have years worth of board members mismanaging the finances, such as depleting the reserve fund for pet projects.

I went through that years ago - had a relatively new condo where a board member wanted to turn our community into a gated one by using the reserve fund to build the fences/gates.  That was a hard fight - the community was only 3-4 years old, and there were no big expenditures expected soon, like roofs or siding, but it would have left us short several years later. 

 

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23 hours ago, Rob Dean said:

 

In some respects, it’s easier to have no connection at all to pop culture.  It’s pretty much a given that I’ve heard of no musical group, don’t know which football team won the Stanley Cup in the most recent World Series, and haven’t watched a TV show on regular TV since 1988.

 

On top of that, I’m usually either playing with toy soldiers, or thinking about playing with toy soldiers, so I only feel old when my knees are creaking after a tango lesson. ::D:

I dislike sportsball so much that I didn't even realize how bad this one was until I read the replies...

 

I got nothing today. I've spent the last two nights at a desk and last night I did some work on a sci-fi story I was working on this summer. I was looking it over and realized that I didn't really have a plot, just having some character interaction. Which I feel is important for the first part of the story (world building, characterization) but I didn't really know where to go from there. Since it's going to be a series, I figured out how to drop something in that will connect to the later stuff... :ph34r:

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18 minutes ago, kristof65 said:

Are these things you can use proxy votes on? If you can, start hitting up your neighbors and gathering their proxy votes if they're going to ignore it. 

If they want to raise the dues that much, it sounds like you've had large ticket maintenance items come due on community property (quite typical for condos/townhomes) and the reserve fund either isn't big enough to pay for them, and/or it was/will be depleted paying for them.      A lot of times new developments start out with lower dues, and no one wants to raise the dues for years, and then "boom", you're hit with a huge hike in the dues.  That situation sucks, but the worse situation is when you have years worth of board members mismanaging the finances, such as depleting the reserve fund for pet projects.

I went through that years ago - had a relatively new condo where a board member wanted to turn our community into a gated one by using the reserve fund to build the fences/gates.  That was a hard fight - the community was only 3-4 years old, and there were no big expenditures expected soon, like roofs or siding, but it would have left us short several years later. 

 

I am not sure about proxy votes.

 

This is a much older community. It's been around since the 70's, I am not sure how long they have had an HOA though. A lot of the amenities are either closed for repair or just not in enough working order to use it. It is gated but the gate is /constantly/ broken. Either from some sort of failure or someone just running through it behind someone. You need a key card to open it so that happens...a lot.

 

Shortly before we moved in an accountant(?) embezzled about half a million dollars. The HOA decided that they would get the money back by raising the dues. Like I said, broccoli show. And that's only the tip of the iceberg.

 

We inherited the house so didn't choose to deal with this HOA willingly.

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I figure since I'm low on spoons today that when I get home I'll airbrush some spoons.  Now to just figure out which Pearlescent and Iridescent paint to push through the airbrush... I want to see how they look airbrushed on (the effect isn't so hot if painted on, at least for these bottles). 

 

Is it going home time yet? 

 

... Boo, twenty stops to go, then I can.  Okay, new shiny airbrush is gonna be broken in with shinies! 

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