The Montclair Post blogs

Right on Hilda!

Thu, 3 Apr 2008 12:50:42 -0500

Well said. I'm a bit less enthusiastic about her praise for current board members who didn't show the political courage to vote against Corey Stewart's fear-mongering when they had the chance. But better late than never I guess. More videos from the same County Board Meeting are available online here.

Shameful...

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:37:16 -0500

Immigration Program Drains Reserves
$800,000 From Rainy-Day Fund Will Pay for Police Checks on Citizenship

The Washington Post
2/20/2008

Editorials on PWC Board

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 12:58:15 -0400

An Editorial from today's Washington Post regarding actions of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors...

Prince William's Politburo
Washington Post, 8/20/07

and here's the Potomac News on the same topic yesterday...

Silencing dissent
Potomac News, 8/19/07

Woot! it is addictive

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 20:00:44 -0400

Man. I don't know if anyone else has visited this site, but don't go to http://www.woot.com unless you really really want to go there. You have been warned. Don't miss out on the Bag o Crap! People actually pay for a Bag o Crap when the sellers tell you to NOT buy it.. it sells out!!. Woot is just weird. Be sure to read up all about how the woot thing works. I saw a dyson vacuum cleaner go for $259.00 and I have to tell you that the Dyson is well worth the $450.00 in retails stores. They sell lots of different items on woot. Sometimes they hold Woot-offs! where the item changes as soon as it is sold out. For the most part though, woot only sells one item per day at a decent discount. Lots of new items as well as refurbished. Some company out Dallas is doing this.

Remember When...

Mon, 21 May 2007 21:07:38 -0400

Wow. So there I was... cleaning up the mustang getting it ready to ship to Texas. I had the car running for the A/C and radio while wiping it down. I must have hit the door locks on the passenger side, because when I closed it and went around to the driver side, I couldn't get in through the locked door. The car was still running. I went inside the house and got the spare set of keys. I pressed unlock. The doors did not unlock. The car was still running. I was thinking how dumb it was to lock the door with the car running. My next thought was to go upstairs and get a coat hanger. I mentioned to my wife on the way back in to the house.. the dumb extra car remote will not open the locks while the key is in the ignition. She giggled. I said, "What?!" I was a little angry by now thinking about how to open the locks.

Looking to start your own Online Rental Business?

Fri, 4 May 2007 09:19:51 -0400

We provide full, turnkey solutions for you to start your own online rentals business in minutes! Rent DVDs, Video Games, Books, CDs and virtually anything else. We also provide full turnkey real estate and vacation rentals solutions. We customize the software we sell to suit your needs too. For More information visit our website at commodityrentals.com

Car Buying

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 22:57:21 -0400

If anyone is in the mood to get a new Honda, I strongly suggest that you do the internet quote. Hendrick Honda actually gave me a $1000.00 difference when the quote was obtained from the internet vs. showing up at their door step. If you get the chance, I would ask for Bill Herriman or e-mail him at bill.herriman@hendrickauto.com. They beat out other fairly local dealerships by $800.00. The experience was extremely pleasant, as car buying goes. While doing my internet research about 6 years ago, I came across this website, Carbuyingtips.com . They have an excel spreadsheet that you can download for free and fill in all of the numbers that you get from other websites such as edmunds, etc. You can also add in your accessories and their prices. Then you can put in the 3% Virginia car tax rate, your down payment, your trade in value or expected trade in value (KBB.COM) and all the other things such as Dealer prep of $399.00 and delivery fee of $549.00. You can print out the sheet and fax it or just e-mail it to several dealerships with a note to contact you if the terms are possible/acceptable. The excel spreadsheet does all of the calculations as well as comparison of Dealer invoice (it tells you where to get this info on the web) vs. the Suggest Manufacturers Retail Price. There is also a spot for Factory Incentives and cash back offers. You can even put in the acceptable dealer profit, 3-5% to come up with a magic vehicle price. At the very bottom, where it does not print out... it will figure up all of your monthly payments for you based on the length of the loan and the other factors such as the interest rate. Another suggestion is to visit the website Myfico.com if you don't know what your credit score is and obtain the big 3 credit bureau scores. I generally check my credit score at least once every year to make sure the information is accurate, because of identity theft on the rapid rise.

Rant-don't read

Fri, 2 Mar 2007 10:36:21 -0500

Furious doesn't even come close to how angry I am. I took my little dog for the morning walk down to the doggy bag stand that is fully stocked with little bags. There was so much poo on the ground that I had to pick up other messes just to get to the spot where the dog had just went. I'm so angry that I could just set up a video camera and film all the other dog owners that are not cleaning up after their pets and put the videos up on youtube. Problem is that kids take the dogs for walks.. and I really don't think I should be filming some kid walking the dog. So... my next step is to suggest that the sub-association pay a reward of $5.00(payable once the fines are collected) for every person that you turn in that is convicted of not cleaning up after their pet (such as video proof). And we pay that reward money out of the fine of $25.00 per incident that results in a conviction. Late fees will assess on all unpaid fines. Foreclosure proceedings to be accelerated in all related matters. The other option is to get a quote from a company that deals with this type of issue.

How Virginia Saved America

Sun, 4 Feb 2007 11:41:28 -0500

From today's Washington Post, an article that's very well worth reading...

How Virginia Saved America, and Why Feb. 2 Should Be a Holiday
The Washington Post, 2/4/07

New Year's Resolution: Take a Trash Walk

Tue, 2 Jan 2007 12:07:41 -0500

Happy New Year everyone! As they always do, my New Year's resolution include exercising more. Give that a few weeks and I'll get over the thought. But here on January 2nd, I'm ready to at least give it a shot. So when I had an errand to run at our local Suntrust Bank branch, I decided to walk there instead of taking the usual quick drive. I live off of Golf Club, near Henderson Elementary, and figure it's just under a mile or so from my house to the shopping center at Country Club Lane.

I was well prepared for my hike; new shoes, iPod, phone... but I wasn't too far down Waterway before I regretted not bringing something, a plastic bag. The amount of litter on and near the sidwalk is truly discouraging, and while setting out on a walk to benefit my own health, the desire to do something positive along the way by picking up trash along the way was strong. I didn't have to go too far before finding a plastic bag I could use, and by the time I reached the Country Club I had it stuffed with drink cups, cigarette boxes, and fast food bags. I was almost done patting myself on the back on my return trip, when I realized what a small dent my effort had made, but I suppose every little bit helps.

TreeCam

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 21:32:43 -0500

As my son would say, "Back in the day..." when I worked in the U.S. Senate building web sites, one expecially fun opportunity came along. The Capitol Holiday Tree in 1997 came to Washington from South Dakota, and my colleagues and I were tasked with thinking creatively how to promote it. The result was 'TreeCam', a web cam we set up in a third-floor office on the West Front of the Capitol Building. It took a picture every minute and posted it online. This time lapse movie is a condensed version of those collected images, showing the decoration, test lightings, and lighting ceremony of the tree.

Thanks to YouTube, I've got a new opportunity to share this cool, almost ten year old movie. I hope you enjoy it.

Internet Music Streams

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 14:27:52 -0500

I have found that Shoutcast is extremely clear for a streaming internet radio source. Also, coupled with StreamRipper, you can quickly build an MP3 collection to listen to off-line. Streamripper automatically creates a brand new MP3 file from the streaming radio feed from shoutcast to individual MP3 files by Song title and Artist. You get the occasional station identification at the beginning of a song or 2, but it is very short. Plus the audacity program can edit that portion out fairly quick and simple.

Tribal Pages

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 12:46:40 -0500

Interested in your family tree? Have a family member that needs to do a tree for homework? Tribal pages may have the answer for you. For free, you can quickly set up a family tree. They have pay services as well that allow your tree to be printed out in a known geneology format. You can search as well. It might not be as good as Ancestry.com or others out there, but not a bad item for free.

Credit Card APR - bait and switch

Thu, 26 Oct 2006 10:19:10 -0400

Normally when I get some "Important notice" from the credit card company that is not accompanying my monthly statement, I toss that in to the shredder. For some reason, the words "OPT-OUT" caught my eye on the new one I recently received. As I read further, here is what I discovered:
"The default APR is a variable rate, currently 32.24%" Lots of other changes in fees, etc.
Then, I see the next paragrah: "Right ot Opt out: You can opt out (not accept) the changes in the APRs and Default Rate section. To do so, you must notify us in writing that you do not want to acept these changes."
Here I thought I was going to get a chance to opt-out of unsolicited junk mail. To my surprise, I get the chance to OPT-OUT of a higher annual percentage rate. I only decided to post this in hopes that everyone takes a closer look at those little notices being sent to you by the credit card companies.

Looking for references for local contractors

Thu, 19 Oct 2006 21:00:18 -0400

I'm planning to put an addition on my home and I'm wondering if anyone has any first-hand knowledge of local contractors. If you've hired a contractor in the last few years, please describe the project and what your experience was with that contractor... cost, keeping on schedule, quality of work, etc. Thanks!