YES on Eminent Domain!

Just a little Political Rant:
Some of the 'uninformed' people on 'wardstuff' were trying to tell me who to vote for. They were trying to argue about 'Eminent Domain'. Oh how foolish they were. Do you know what Eminent Domain is? In a nutshell, its the power the government has to take land Under Drastic Circumstances. This is a benefit to the city, because a lovely/desirable neighborhood raises value. A higher value means higher sale prices (taxes), and higher sales taxes (and more taxes). Taxes, in case you were wondering, is Income to the City. Why do you think so many people want to live in Beverly Hills? Its because the city has strict guidelines as to what can be built, where, and every city council has a Design Review Board to approve or dismiss the look of EVERY building that goes up in their city.

The Supreme Court case of 'Kelo vs. New London' was the last major case to highlight the use of Eminent Domain. The city of New London condemned a bunch of land, studied possible outcomes for 5 years, per city rules. Then when the city told the people to finally move out, they threw a fit. The whole court case WASN'T about the Gov. simply taking land from owners, it was about the Supreme Court upholding the guidelines/rules/laws that the city put in place to protect itself, and it followed through with! Why can't the media say that? Its should be so simple.

Let me start this argument by saying that I worked for the city of LA, in the Community Redevelopment Agency for a summer. The government needs such a tool to protect itself from retards who don't keep up their land/business/house, etc! The case which made this popular was in London, RI. The city did a 5 year study proving that 1 neighborhood was causing problems. Then at the end of the 5th year they paid the people to leave. 1 old lady and some Korean dude didn't want to leave after all, and must not have noticed any of the research, or letters, or notices, over those 5 years, cause then they didn't want to leave.

How many of you want crappy neighbors? Do you want to live next to Crack-houses? Or how about people who don't do anything to take care of their yards or buildings? Do you want to live next to the mysterious haunted house? He has the right to do that, right? WRONG! Cities are allowed to enforce their codes FOR MY PROTECTION too! I have a right according to the constitution to 'Life, Liberty, and Property'. So why are people voting to reject the city, (who we all pay taxes to, so they can make my city a more livable place), from keeping my city a nice livable place?! Cities have fewer and fewer tools these days to combat vagrant home/business owners.

This eminent domain is indeed extreme, but its a valid option. They don't simply take it away. They have 3 or 4 different appraisers look at the property, and the city pays the average fair value price! Then they pay for moving expenses, and if you're friendly, they even give you other moving bonuses.

Do you know how hard it is to evict a Deadbeat tenant? It usually takes a landlord no shorter than 90 days to evict someone. And thats already after they've missed at least 2-3 months rent. (for my landlord, in my apartment, that would be at least $10,800!) But who is going to 'evict' the property owner? Thats right, the city. They have strict rules and guidelines, just like we do. So as long as they follow their rules, it all works out fine.

Do you want to live in the slums? Slums don't bring the city any money. The nicer a neighborhood is, the more people want to live there. Cities want nice neighborhoods. When people want to live there, land value goes up. As that happens, the amount of taxes increases. Cities need tax money to pay for newer nicer stuff. The city wants nicer/newer stuff so more people live and shop there. Its a chicken/egg situation, and its just how cities work.

So don't try to tell me how to vote you foolish Wardstuffers! You should inform yourselves to the REAL issues, not the ones the Media tells you to hear!

(feel free to comment on this but please realize (evan and/or danny) no matter how much you try to argue against me, you won't change my mind. Thanks.)

Office Identity

Front of Office

Back of Office

From across the street

Collins and Tor Jamming in their spare time after work.

After a long time (1 1/2 years) my office finally got our own signage put up. So now as you walk by, it will say more than just 'Architects' (which was part of the last office's sign). Now I can describe it with more than 'the white building by Diddy Reese'.

Movie Time- Revisited

Yes yes, I know what you're all thinking: 'What is Jim going to watch at the Movie Theater this summer'? Well, let me make it easy for you (I've also ranked each movie into a viewabity catagorie where 1=Won't Miss, 2= I'll see it if I get the chance and feel like it at the time, then 3= I'm interested, so maybe it it plays at the FOX Studios) :
- Semi-Pro (I'll have to catch on video)
- Run Fatboy Run (I'll have to catch on video)
- Superhero Movie (I'll have to catch on video)
2 Forbidden Kingdom (Current)
1 Iron Man (April 30) (awesome!)
2 Speed Racer (May 9)
1 The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (May 16)
1 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (May 22)
2 You don't mess with the Zohan (June 6)
1 The Incredible Hulk (June 13)
1 Get Smart (June 20)
3 The Love Guru (June 20)
1 Wall-E (June 27)
3 Hancock (July 2)
2 Hellboy II: The Golden Army (July 11)
2 The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (July 11)
1 The Dark Knight (July 18)
1 Step Brothers (July 25)
2 The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (Aug 1)
3 Tropic Thunder (Aug 15)
1 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (November 21)
2 Punisher: War Zone (December 5)
2 Star Trek (December- moved to May 8, 2009)
3 Underworld (Jan 5)

*Please note that this list is a work in progress*

A Painting for Joe and Tiffany

I know its long overdue, but I have finally completed the painting that I started for Joe and Tiffany. Getting it to them is going to be a more interesting adventure story, so for starters I'll just try to show you my painting process:

step 1. 11-3-7
(I sketched this maybe a year ago, this is just when I photographed it)

step 2. 1-31-8

step 3. 2-2-8

step 4. 2-6-8

step 5. 2-7-8

step 6. 2-8-8

step 7. 2-9-8

step 8. 2-10-8

step 9. 2-11-8

step 10. 2-12-8

step 11. 2-15-8

step 12. 2-16-8

step 14. 2-17-8

step 15. 2-18-8

step 16. 2-20-8

step 17. 2-23-8

step 18. 2-26-8

step 19. 2-27-8

step 20. 2-28-8

step 21. 2-29-8

step 22. 3-5-8

step 23. 3-6-8

Final. 3-7-8

Finally a Californian... Again

Oh, look at ME! I'm officially a Californian , cause my licence plates now say so. Sure it took me a little 'proding' from the local 'friendly' highway partolman. My car is now registered too!
(I've blurred the exact numbers for protection of the innocent.)

Important Blog-a-riffic notice!

My blog is changing locations! I'm moving it to another site, with a more appropriate title, Starting RIGHT NOW I'm posting ALL my daily adventures to this location.

The new Daily Update resource is:

http://jimsdailyupdate.blogspot.com/

Thanks, come again.

Daily Update - St. Patrick's Day Edition

On Friday night, I was kind of bored so I went over to the 7-11 across Santa Monica for any bit of excitement. I ran into Cheryl there too who was also looking for an exciting 7-11 visit, what a coincidence! I casually asked if she wanted to go see a movie. Half joking, and not expecting an answer, she responded in the affirmative. So we went to see the 10,000 BC movie. I though it was alright. a fellow show viewer put it best when he said upon exiting that it would have been a lot better if it wasn't so cheesy. But at the beginning of the show, 5 minutes after the previews had started, this couple came in and asked us to move down one seat. I then turned to Cheryl and asked if she wanted to move down one seat, and she said, "what the hell? no... why did we get here 30 minutes early? just to make room for those retards?" Then she saw that he was on crutches and reluctantly moved down, but was bitter about it, then therefore didn't really like the movie. For a second there, I thought that she was going to start throwing popcorn or soda at the people for asking us that. Oh, and we didn't have any food, so it would have belonged to our the people sitting on the other side of us too.

Saturday was a special day, ('and its the day that I got ready for Sun-day'). I got so much done its unbelievable. First I took care of my tummy with my normal Pancake breakfast. It was so good. At first I added a little to much syrup, but I sopped up that mess with round 2, if you know what I mean. they were smaller than I normally make, but for that, they were just that much better.

Next I had to deal with my car registration. I took all morning searching through my room for my car title that my dad sent me a few months back... I think. But to no avail. So at 11am I drove over to the DMV in Santa Monica which is open the third Saturday of every month luckily till noon, and jumped through all their hoops and paid there fines, etc.. I saw Brig there too, which was funny. But finally after having all the paperwork done, they handed me my new license plates, and I left at the stroke of noon just as they were locking the doors. I think they even locked all the people behind me inside until Monday. (on the way out some lady was commenting that 'they must close for lunch', little did she know that they were doing the world a favor by being open for only a few hours on Saturday per month.)

Late Saturday afternoon I had the chance to go to Phil and Jill's wedding reception in Rancho Palos Verdes, at the golf club there overlooking the water. It was simply amazing. I'm pretty sure I was invited cause Jill did send an email telling me about a returned invite, and allowing me to bring ( +1). (I ended up bringing Cheryl as my +1). The one tough thing about the day was that it was so cold because it was really windy. When they had the ring ceremony and walked down the aisle, the wind was blowing its strongest, and it was coming right off the ocean. Which means the wind was coming straight from the north pole in a convection cell like manner. Kind of rude of Santa Clause to do that to us. It was fun cause it was very Pink. and there were pink rose petals everywhere. Inside for the reception there was also a strong pink/dark purple theme, with accents of red and white. As a few of us kids found our table, I noticed that we were the furthest table from the bride and groom possible. I had to laugh cause I figured that a few of us just barley made the cut to make the List. (Either way, I was thrilled to have been there.) Or we we were the most trusted guests, cause The Happy Couple thought that we were the least likely to leave early, which also turned out to be true, besides family of course. I assure you that many more fun things took place that I either can't remember or don't have time to mention, so I'll just leave it at that. Everyone had a great time, thanks Jill & Phil.

Another glorious thing that I started Saturday and then continued Sunday morning was my MAN-BOX. I printed out my sketches for the top cover, and I started etching the image freeze into the top panel of wood. I'm so excited, its going to look so good when I'm done! My fingers are not excited though, cause Mahogany is a hardwood, and the small metal X-acto blades are very unforgiving.
I'm listening to Chris Isaak right now.

Lunch was sponsored by In N Out.