BlogBelts.com

All this started when I was swimming pool resurfacing just last week. I typically see her only in her bikini, which is quite an eyeful all right, but this time she wasn’t wearing one.

No, despite the hot summer sun she was all dressed up in a business suit. But her buxom bosom couldn’t hide itself, all the same, and her generous shapely hips filled up every centimeter of her mini-skirt.

I looked up from swimming pool resurfacing, of course, and greeted her the way I always do, politely, professionally.

“I like that pink skirt you’re wearing.”

I answered that they were shorts, fashionably baggy and made out purposely to appear like skirts.

“They look terrific on you, honey.”

Now typically I’d think she was being polite, but for some reason I suspected – hoped – that this being my last day on the job before school starts, which meant that there was a subtext to our conversation now.

“I’ve never ever seen you like this, Mrs. Fugon. You look great!”

“I’m glad you think so. I sort of wore it just for you.”

And there I was, in the middle of swimming pool resurfacing when she and I somehow found ourselves kissing and fondling one another. I told her how beautiful she was and she said the same of me. We spoke of our shared secret yearning all the days of this long summer now so suddenly short seeing how I was heading off back to college across the country and we finally decided to confess to one another.

“There’s always the weekends, Amy. Not to mention the holidays.”

I began to protest that there would in no way be enough time for me to spend time with her – all the usual sentimentality that comes with being so young, I now realize scarcely a week later, but she hushed me with a kiss and told me never to say never.

“And don’t call me Mrs. Fugon; you know it’s Claudia.”

Sadly, it didn’t quite come to pass that way. I blame youthful exuberance for embarassing her, though she was very gracious in demurring.

Well a girl can still dream!

In the popular culture, horse racing tips have traditionally been akin to great Florida real estate deals or fantastic bridge sales in Brooklyn. But the web has allowed for the proliferation of computerized horse racing systems, not simple programs that ran your input through a set of magical algorithms but dedicated servers that can be contacted in real-time for near instantaneous updates right from the track.

Best of all, modern racing systems like these allow you to bet anytime, anywhere – even at work (or church!), as long as an internet connection is available. Evidently working on somewhat similar models that has been successfully utilized by the hobbyist day trader, you can now bet and seriously handicap your game thanks to the power of 21st Century “cloud computing.”

Precise details are understandably vague, as no one likes to divulge trade secrets, but what is claimed are a number of advantages: real year-long staking records, consistent profits, and better than three-fourths strike rates. Such near-miraculous outcomes come from a close analysis of numerous factors, for example the ages of the runners, the classes involved, and the overall number of competitors in the field. The main difference, besides any improved methodologies, seems to be an ongoing maintenance that ever fine-tunes performance and results.

Also unlike the old handicapping programs of old models, it’s no longer a basic matter of paying for software once. This kind of a powerful service can only be feasible under a subscription model, as ongoing improvements need to be made. Essentially, it is like hiring a money manager for one’s portfolio of stocks and bonds and other holdings – only we’re talking horse racing here! Finally, in the spirit of our times, try-before-you-buy trials are available. It’s now possible to easily see for yourself whether the horse racing system actually works!

Surgical masks are most often worn by health professionals, but in many Asian countries they’re worn basically as a way of protecting oneself from the smog, a common problem in that part of the world. Asians also wear surgical masks when sick in order to not infect anyone else. Interestingly, such a simple everyday thing is involved in one of the most uncanny of popular legends in Japan.

Kuchisake Onna, or “slit-mouthed woman” in Japanese, was originally a extremely gorgeous woman whose jealous husband cut her mouth from ear to ear, taunting, “Who will think you are beautiful now!” Ever since then, on foggy nights, she can be seen roaming around in a surgical mask. When she encounters someone, normally youth, she will shyly inquire whether the person thinks she is beautiful.

If the answer is yes, Onna will take off her surgical mask and ask, “How about now?” Different versions of the legend give various outcomes if the answer remains affirmative, all bad: she will either cut the individual from ear to ear to resemble herself or kill the person – or both – or, inexplicably, give a large blood-soaked ruby and walk away.

Different versions of this tale provide for the same general set of choices even if the original answer had been negative – mutilation or murder. Basically, meeting Kuchisake Onna is bad luck. However, a lot more modern versions these days advise that responding “You’re average” or “So-so” or even asking her what she thinks of one’s own beauty will turn the tables on her and confuse her, providing an opportunity to escape.

And, in one of those only-in-Japan kind of things, there is even the tactic of basically informing her that you must be on your way, so as to embarrass her for forgetting her manners and making her excuse herself from your presence!

Adoption screening is a method that takes into account numerous elements in determining the suitability of a child and would-be mother or father. It is normally used to ascertain that the potential parent has the means, financial and otherwise, to make the adoption a successful one. Adoption screening can be complicated, though perhaps unfortunately it is often a mere formality in numerous parts of the world, including even North America, Australia, New Zealand, as well as the European Union.

One of the most complex tasks of the overall adoption screening procedure involves a home study. This is when the home life of a potential father or mother is scrutinized to ensure that the home environment will benefit the child to be adopted. As can be imagined, such a thorough vetting can cost a lot of money, usually borne by the potential father or mother.

Various laws, agency regulations, and industry standards may govern a home study, but generally speaking all such investigations will look into the employment history of the prospective mother or father, whether there is a criminal record, and so forth. Credit checks will most likely be involved, as personal finances would be one of the most crucial areas subject to an examination. As the name most immediately implies, however, a home study will carefully consider the dwelling of a potential father or mother, with such factors as cleanliness, fire safety, and even the condition of the surrounding neighborhood taken into account.

Naturally, given such levels of scrutiny, numerous criticize home studies for being uselessly intrusive and discriminatory, claiming that many otherwise perfectly capable and genuinely loving would-be adoptive parents are turned away on nothing more than whimsy and technicalities.

But such is the concern for child welfare in the most advanced societies that home studies are legally mandated and thus inevitable. And for all the criticism, it is arguable that a slow, even difficult, adoption procedure better helps ensure that only the truly committed will adopt.

Ah, summer – baseball, backyard barbecues, and swimming pool resurfacing. That’s right, swimming pool resurfacing. Once an occasional chore every other year, it is now practically a once-every-other-decade spring or even summer pastime (for those who like to wait until the very last minute) – all thanks to the new do-it-yourself fiberglass pool resurfacing in a can made possible by modern chemistry.

Swimming pool resurfacing done right means fiberglass in this day and age. Swimming pool resurfacing is an important aspect of pool ownership, just the sort of renovation that is made periodically to counter the effects of corrosion. Regardless of whether constructed of gunite, concrete, plaster, or wood (especially wood), swimming pools will deteriorate over time to the point that a complete resurfacing isn’t only advisable but necessary.

Thankfully, as previously mentioned, modern technology has made it possible for the finest kind of resurfacing, fiberglass resurfacing, to be performed entirely by oneself safely and relatively quickly. Best of all, it’s as permanent as any job handled by licensed contractors but much less expensive.

Fiberglass swimming pool surfaces have a proven track record of more than three decades now as a durable coating that happens to also provide other benefits, such as reduce operating coasts. Fiberglass is really a material that bonds very well with existing surfaces, giving pools a nice sheen that makes them appear to be brand new.

This wondrous item is now available in basic cans like paint, readily applicable and requiring no sand-blasting. Approved for both commercial and residential use, do-it-yourself fiberglass resurfacing will need less maintenance than even marcite or vinyl pools. Additionally, with proper care you won’t have to worry about your swimming pool’s surface for another twenty to thirty years or more!

Less prone to staining. Beautiful shiny protective shell. All easily applied and ready for duty within one day. That’s pool resurfacing in the 21st Century. Now that’s progress!

State tax forms are required to file state taxes – but where is our tax money going? Taxes are used to support the government, but in a democracy the government is supposed to be “for the people,” as a popular rumor has it. All of the state tax forms filed year in, year out seem to have no effect on our local governments, which across the nation are more likely than not operating at a deficit. How is this possible with all of the money pouring into government coffers?

Most people simply file their state tax forms and leave it at that, too busy with their lives and some even hoping not to attract any government attention. But a growing number of our fellow citizens and residents are deeply concerned over where “their money” is going. Almost everyone agrees with paying for firefighters, sanitation workers, and other civil servants, but even then there can be a lot of controversy over the details.

Take teachers for example. Again, nearly everybody agrees that educators are needed. But how to compensate them with our tax dollars, exactly? Currently, numerous folks across the nation are up in arms over teacher perks and salaries.

It is felt that educators have things much too comfortable, and there are individuals who would like to make the profession of teaching a job like any other, which in the United States means “hire and fire at will.”

These folks want to, they say, hold teachers more “accountable” for student performance, which is usually proposed to be assessed by standardised test scores. But the other side of the argument believes that teaching is not just a job like any other, that the training of minds and the inspiration of hearts is not something which can be neatly measured on a quarterly or yearly basis like some corporate earnings report.

By no means go hiking without a camping tent – I learned that the almost-hard way. I say “almost” because considering that I’m not just alive to tell the adventure but suffered no injuries, either, it probably wasn’t as tough as it might have been had I not been so lucky.

I and my buddies did not have a camping tent among us since it was just supposed to have been an easy day-hike over (and up) easy terrain. A thousand-foot mountain affords nice enough landscapes, to be sure, such that the curvature of the earth could be faintly seen, but it is not considered a big deal by any who hike or climb real mountains.

So, of course, we didn’t bring a camping tent. And sure enough we get lost, and with only an additional two hours of sunlight left most of us choose to backtrack downhill – except for me and another companion. And although we do eventually summit, as novices we make the mistake of mistiming our descent, such that it’s already twilight by the time we choose to head back.

You see, being so inexperienced we mistook the fact that there was still light in the sky for having enough time to get back down. But of course we were at the summit, where we had a excellent view of our surroundings – this was Mount Buck, the highest point in the whole Lake George area of New York.

And though the sun was low on the horizon it appeared wonderfully bright all around. Golds mixed with blues turned pink and white – it was a swirl of colours matching the happy dance of emotions within that we’ve finally reached the top.

Lost in our reveries, we did not realize that not only does the sun set in seconds, but that in a forest the canopy of foliage will make even mid-afternoon seem much, much later to the human eye….

Data recovery is an essential part of our modern world, with computers facilitating the vast majority of our lives online and off. The loss of personal data and customer information would be catastrophic for any corporation, and so data recovery software is a popular kind of insurance for many. But, more broadly speaking, data recovery or memory space itself has been a favorite subject of science fiction, with many plots revolving around the uncanny sensation that we are nothing more than our memories – which, in a perfectly digitized world, would be nothing but easily copied bits of data!

Fascinating as these considerations are, for an even more explosive idea all you have to do is blend them with old-fashioned notions of clairvoyance and déjà vu. First coined by New Age spiritualist P.M.H. Atwater (née Phyllis Johnston), future memory is conceived of as the phenomenon whereby one can know the future.

With plain old prophetic foresight now repackaged in 21st Century techno-speak, science fiction writers are busy exploring the nexus between man and machine, self and other, reality and virtual reality. The gist of it all is pregnant with implication: if we are nothing but our memories; if our memories are but bits of data; if technology can catch these bits the same way it manipulates all other data; then what does it mean to be oneself?

Philip K. Dick touched on these very questions in his short story “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” Adapted into a kind of futuristic film noir under the title of Blade Runner, the topic focuses on just what it means to be human in a world where very humanlike androids can be made.

Another film adapted from a Dick short is Total Recall, involving a federal agent’s created memories. More recently, the Leonardo Dicaprio vehicle Deception also explored the same what-if scenarios: what if thoughts could be planted? Never mind data recovery; seems like technologies will one day create the need for deliberate information loss! And indeed, there are any number of science fiction stories devoted to that topic, too…

Investing in Washington, D.C. can offer many challenges particular to that locale. Professional developers like Isaac Toussie recognize that, first of all, the property markets of our nation’s capital bears some very interesting characteristics. Even though the city’s real estate environment continues to be harsh due to still-disappearing gains, gains made during pre-2008 boom-times, new developments are afoot that may point to a turn-around.

Not everyone knows that home sales have fallen as credit’s dried up the way a pro like Isaac Toussie does, producing ripple effects like job insecurity and worse. In fact, suburban D.C. has even been through price drops of up to one hundred thousand dollars! But as is frequently the case in the world of business, there may be a silver lining in even this catastrophe. That’s because one man’s tragedy is another’s opportunity, to put it frankly. And so the flood of foreclosed properties has come to tripped off a buying spree in many places, particularly among the many first-time home buyers of Prince William County who finally found prices within their reach. It should also be mentioned that so-called “vulture investors” have swooped in as well to snap up distressed properties, which is generally considered to be a good reflection of the wider economic situation, as it is a strong sign of a certain confidence in the market, that market fundamentals remain solid. In fact, these two groups of buyers play a role not unlike that of canaries in a mine, signaling trends and shifts.

The second matter that has occupied many a thoughtful observer of late concerns the rate of mortgage delinquency, which has actually declined a little, according to a recent industry survey just completed. The rate at which mortgage payments have fallen behind has decreased slightly during the fourth quarter of 2009, which is surprising indeed considering that delinquency rates ordinarily rise during the last three months of the year, as a result of all heating expenses for winter and the holiday shopping season.

Surprised though market analysts may be, very few are puzzled because most take this development for nothing more than a statistical outlier, a coincidence. Most economists and other experts continue to believe that the situation remains extremely dangerous, as there are still record numbers of homeowners in financial straits, with the biggest difficulty of all unresolved: that way too many have missed at least three payments, and these people are really the ones least helped by any relief program whatsoever, historically speaking; these are the very souls who will be going into foreclosure rather soon.

One more thing to know about D.C. property markets: the city was the nation’s murder capital during the 1990s, and still suffers from the effects of municipal mismanagement to this day. Of course, tony nabes like Georgetown exist, but for the most part D.C. is a place where real estate investors need to exercise due diligence when fishing for opportunities. The city has been slowly recovering, with gentrification helping pull some pockets of poverty and despair up and out into the modern 21st Century economy, but it’s not a sure bet that current commitment levels will last.

When getting into anything, it helps to do a little reconnoitering of the facts, even for a professional developer such as Isaac Toussie. And for the appropriate socioeconomic context in which to put such data, it helps to consult governmental authorities such as census reports.

New York’s median yearly household income is almost forty-three and a half thousand dollars, compared to the national average of just under forty-two thousand every year. The state median family income also comes out ever-so-slightly ahead of the national figure at over fifty-one thousand versus just over fifty-thousand per annum. As might be expected, per capita differences post the same general ratios at almost twenty-three and a half thousand to over twenty-one and a half thousand, respectively.

Some more facts and figures need to be taken into consideration for a well-rounded appraisal of realty trend lines in New York, but these pertain more specifically to real estate: the median value of owner-occupied housing units is well over a hundred and forty-eight thousand dollars, almost thirty thousand dollars more than the national average of only over one hundred and nineteen thousand. Curiously, the asking price for housing units statewide compared to nationwide posted only a slight difference of about five thousand dollars, at well over ninety-four thousand dollars to only over eighty-nine thousand, respectively.

Average sales prices for homes in the Empire State have often been between two hundred and three hundred thousand dollars for four bedroom units, the most expensive category of housing. However, extremely dramatic spikes and drops have been posted periodically, such that gains of up to over seven hundred thousand dollars were reached. Such surges and declines have not lasted more than a year, and because the drop-offs have only very rarely fell past previous baseline levels, they may have been viewed as simple market corrections instead of anything more ominous. In fact, other types of housing – that is, one, two, three, and even four-bedroom units – have held rather steadily for a decade, rising only gradually from an average of around one hundred thousand to no more than two hundred thousand almost a decade later. When considering just one and two-bedroom homes, prices have only appreciated around fifty-thousand dollars in eight years.

It can be deduced that New York’s residential real estate market is fairly stable on the whole. The recent economic woes affecting the nation have certainly made an impact, but residential realty statewide seems to have weathered it fairly well, all things considered. After all, this is the capital of the world we’re talking about here!

That means that New York City will always be bustling with economic activity, and the state along with it in a rising-tide-lifts-all-boats sort of way. Local developers such as
Isaac Toussie find home prices of half a million not at all unusual, and should be regarded as the “entry-level” price one can expect to pay, even for somewhat dilapidated structures in some of the city’s worst neighborhoods. Rents are arguably even more incredible, with people actually leasing out their walk-in closets as rooms!