Next Up...

ALCS against the Yankee's. It provides me little comfort that the Angels have a 78-63 record, including playoff games, against the Yankees since 1996, and 32-17 in the last 49 games between the teams. The Angels also eliminated New York in the 2002 and 2005 American League division series.

This will be a battle.

Red October

What an amazing series against the Red Sawx. Below are some great motivationals from my favorite Angel blog Halos Heaven

Angels all the way this year!

First up...



Streaks are meant to be broken.

Ode to the Los Angeles Rams

R.I.P. Los Angeles Rams (1946 - 1994)

Ahh yet another NFL season is almost upon us and one can't help but to get excited to get your fantasy football lineups set, get together with friends on Sundays for buffalo wings, cold beers, and cooler weather. Although for a so cal native such as myself every new NFL season brings with it a little bit of bitterness. You see, I grew up an LA Rams fan, we even had season tickets for a few years and while the Rams were never really great it has been the only NFL team I have ever really cared about enough to call my team. There are many theories as to why we were robbed of the Rams I still blame Georgia Frontiere for taking them from us.

From Wikipedia:

Georgia Frontiere inherited the team. Georgia got her last name Frontiere when she later married the musician and Hollywood composer Dominic Frontiere. Under the terms of the Rams' deal with Anaheim, they were to receive the rights to develop plots of land near the Stadium. When nothing came of these plans, and with attendance falling, Georgia Frontiere got permission to relocate the team.

The Raiders left soon after this and even though I could never succumb to becoming a Raiders fan... the Los Angeles area has been with out an NFL team ever since. Mindblowing isn't it. Especially since LA has 2 MLB teams and 2 NBA teams.



The Rams while never bringing the Lombardi trophy to LA were actually pretty decent. From 1973 to 1989 the Rams went to the playoffs, that's 14 out of 16 years (1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, and 1989). My all time favorite players were Jim Everett (who punched out Jim Rome when he called him Chrissy Everett after the female tennis player), Henry Ellard, Flipper Anderson, offensive rookie of the year in 1993 Jerome Bettis, and my all time favorite Ram Eric Dickerson.

Anaheim Stadium back in the day before Disney got a hold of it...



May the memories of the yellow and blue stay strong and hopefully one day we can reclaim whats rightfully ours from St. Louis.

TFLN: The most amusing site I have seen in ages

There are very few times in web browsing history that I have found a website that has made me laugh so hard in such a short period of time. This website now rivals my favorite website "Stuff White People Like". Texts From Last Night is here to show you how boring the texts in on your phone are by posting the most outlandish texts from all over the USA. Think I’m kidding? Check it:

Best Night Section:

(847): i took some ambien and I TRIPPED out...i went into my mom's room to say goodnight and i don't remember anything...she said that i got really pissed at her because we were living in the Keebler elf tree and she was visiting other trees, then i started laughing hysterically and she goes "whats so funny?" and i go "there are 7 people sitting on my knees" and she goes "doesn't that hurt?" and i said "no we're sitting in a bowl" and then i capped it off and said "join the crazy train bro" and passed out.

Worst Night Section:

(323): You got in a fight last night?
(818): Yeah! Some dude in the bathroom...he was standing there and I notice he's got the same shirt as me on so I'm like...dude you should have called me, we look like idiots...he didn't say anything...so i got pissed and hit him...completely decimated and my hand was all bloody and covered with glass afterward...weird dude, never saw him again that night or since.
(323): Um...Did this guy happen to look almost exactly like you?

Texts From Last Night will cheer you up on days like today when the stock market is down and half of Los Angeles is burning.

Demotivational Posters

Okay, the recession has got me all bummed out over the last few months so I thought I would put something on here to lighten the mood. I get a ton of these e-mails with the demotivational posters and I always find a few that will crack me up regardless of the mood I am in, so I put together a compilation of my favorites.

March Madness LA Taco Style

lataco.com is doing a bracket for the best taco stand in Los Angeles. This is pure awesomeness. It is down the the final 8 and Tacos Por Favor, a Santa Monica favorite is still in it. There is some very stiff competition left though including Tito's Taco's and Cactus. Get over there and vote for TPF. And if you haven't been yet, I will gladly take you for some of the best crispy tacos ever.

Go here to vote.

Rain

The wet season is apparently on us, February through April are the three months in which we get almost 90% of our water here in So Cal. It's interesting to watch peoples reactions every year from disbelief and complaints that it's raining to the oft quoted "I am glad it's raining, we really need it." Well, we always need rain. Most people don't realize where our water comes from though. 30% comes from groundwater sources locally, the rest is split between the State Water project which brings water from Northern California and the Colorado River. It does vary by community so if you want to know specifically where your area gets its water check this site out:

http://www.water-ed.org/watersources/

Although it has seemed really wet lately we are still below where we should be at for the year.



Keep on conserving and enjoy the rain.

Anatomy of a Democratic Stimulus Package

I think it goes with out saying that I vehemently oppose the package that is being lobbied so hard in congress right now. The only stimulus this will provide is to the lobbyists that helped these politicians get into office. What it will do is put our country into massive debt and support social programs that will not give back to the overall economy and get us out of this recession.

It's simple. Cut taxes to the working class and corporations, earnings and profits go up and more money gets pumped into the economy.

Below is a breakdown (from Glenn Beck's Website):

Energy
$32 billion: Funding for "smart electricity grid" to reduce waste
$16 billion: Renewable energy tax cuts and a tax credit for research and development on energy-related work, and a multiyear extension of renewable energy production tax credit
$6 billion: Funding to weatherize modest-income homes

Science and Technology
$10 billion: Science facilities
$6 billion: High-speed Internet access for rural and underserved areas

Infrastructure
$30 billion: Transportation projects
$31 billion: Construction and repair of federal buildings and other public infrastructure
$19 billion: Water projects
$10 billion: Rail and mass transit projects

Education
$41 billion: Grants to local school districts
$79 billion: State fiscal relief to prevent cuts in state aid
$21 billion: School modernization ($15.6 billion to increase the Pell grant by $500; $6 billion for higher education modernization)

Health Care
$39 billion: Subsidies to health insurance for unemployed; providing coverage through Medicaid
$87 billion: Help to states with Medicaid
$20 billion: Modernization of health-information technology systems
$4.1 billion: Preventative care

Jobless Benefits
$43 billion for increased unemployment benefits and job training.
$39 billion to support those who lose their jobs by helping them to pay the cost of keeping their employer provided healthcare under COBRA and providing short-term options to be covered by Medicaid.
$20 billion to increase the food stamp benefit by over 13% in order to help defray rising food costs.

Taxes

Individuals:

*$500 per worker, $1,000 per couple tax cut for two years, costing about $140 billion.
*Greater access to the $1,000-per-child tax credit for the working poor.
*Expansion of the earned-income tax credit to include families with three children
*A $2,500 college tuition tax credit.
*Repeal of a requirement that a $7,500 first-time homebuyer tax credit be paid back over time.

Businesses:

*An infusion of cash into money-losing companies by allowing them to claim tax credits on past profits dating back five years instead of two.
*Bonus depreciation for businesses investing in new plants and equipment
*Doubling of the amount small businesses can write off for capital investments and new equipment purchases.
*Allowing businesses to claim a tax credit for hiring disconnected youth and veterans

State of the So Cal RE Market

Lately I have had a lot of discussions with my friends and peers on when the Real Estate market is going to bottom out. So many non homeowners are waiting for the "bottom" to hit and get into a house before the floodgates open and we see another upward swing in home prices. As with anything supply and demand need to be in sync to reach market stability. Those are the normal rules but with this market there are so many exterior factors at work and we have no idea what the supply will look like. The supply is coming from people who sell, foreclose, or die. The foreclosures are what is making this market so interesting. Another big factor are mortgages rates, they are very low right now and it is very enticing.

There are thousands of articles and blogs that are following this closely and my buddy Jake forwarded me this link...

www.drhousingbubble.com

This is a very analytical and information dense blog that I have started to check on a daily basis.

I am exercising patience, I think that the supply will continue to increase and drive down prices through the next 2 years. Below is an interesting chart that shows the exotic mortgages and when they will cause defaults.