Their cars, that is.

This article discusses the horrific lack of parking that has always plauged CSUF, even back in the age of the dinosaurs when I attended.   CSUF has always been, and most likely always will be, primarily a commuter school.

It was always advisable to get there at least a half hour before class started, but now it seems that a two hour window is required, which seems just completely outrageous to me.

Is there a solution, other than the aggressive ticketing policies they are enforcing to get more revenue to fund more parking garages?

Should they limit student enrollment?  Should they only accept people from within a certain geographical area? Actually, I don’t know if they can legally do that, but it seems kind of wrong that someone from Rancho Cucamonga (a person quoted in the article) is traveling all the way to CSUF.

What they probably need is another Cal State campus, but in these financial times, it ain’t gonna happen.

Did you know we had an OC Pride event this year? Yeah me neither. They really need to get the word out a little more. Finally there is an official event in OC for LGBT pride and I missed the damn thing. Poor Gay Days in Anaheim has been carrying the unofficial OC Pride torch for so long it seemed likely we should just officially call it OC Gay Pride and get it over with.

Anyway! I am just a wee bit irritated about the complete lack of visibility for the event. Maybe the organizers (listen up boys) should have reached our to their popular queer friendly community blogs (not unlike this one) and let them know it was even happening. Also, lets be real, if we’re gonna have OC Pride shouldn’t we be having it in Laguna Beach? Why Irvine? Oh well, here’s hoping there will be one next year and here’s hoping they actually, you know, tell people about it!

Did you know there was an OC Pride Picnic this year? If so, did you go?

As I was passing over the 5 tonight I saw this……..

This picture was taken above the “Orange Crush” where the 5, 57, 22 and 55 (kinda) all meet. That’s right…..the fire in L.A. the San Gabriel Valley is so large, you can see the flames from Orange County.

As Gina said, we know what you’re going through. Stay safe folks!
(More pics after the jump: (more…)

In an attempt to show that Orange County is not so douche-baggy, I wanted to give a quick acknowledgement of the horrible fires that are raging all around our fellow Southern Californians.

We know what you’re going through, we wish you the best. 

Stay safe.

I love to hate on Saddleback’s pastor Rick Warren and his stupid book, The Purpose Driven Life. It gives me purpose porpoise.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Q32xIyoeo[/youtube]

The most basic question everyone faces in life is Why am I here? What is my porpoise? Self-help books suggest that people should look within, at their own desires and dreams, but Rick Warren says the starting place must be with fish and their eternal porpoise for each life. Real meaning and significance comes from understanding and fulfilling God’s porpoises for putting them in the ocean. You too can live A Porpoise Driven Life!

[Via Boing Boing]

Don’t let the media fool you, it is NOT a buyers market. Maybe it is, if, and only if, you are willing to wait month upon month upon month – you get the idea – for approval from the bank for that short sale property. There are good deals to be had, but you have to be willing to wait. A lot of people think they can, but since the process is so long and the banks are so overwhelmed, potential buyers are pulling their offers and moving on i.e. when an equity home is on the market people are overpaying.

When the short sale buyers pull their offers they are so ready to buy a home they act irrationally. Irrational in the fact that they are willing to pay well above the asking price for no other reason than they HAVE TO BUY A HOUSE BECAUSE THE “EXPERTS” ARE TELLING THEM TO BUY NOW. Irrational because they are willing to waive appraisal contingencies – for example the house appraises at $450,000, but sells for $510,000. Typically a bank won’t finance a loan for more than the house appraises for, but like most things there are ways around this. You buy a mortgage origiation point or more likely the bank will require you to make up the difference in cash. Of course, you can always pay in cash, in full, and believe it or not people do. We lost a house to an all-cash offer. We were also asked by a sellers agent to waive the appraisal report, needless to say we did not put in an offer, but four others did. WTF???

Let’s not forget those that are going to rush to buy and close escrow before 30 November 2009 just so they can claim the $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers. The way I see it, and I could be wrong, I think there is going to be a mad rush and even more competition in the next two months. Basically you have to be in escrow no later than the end of October if you wish to claim the credit. As the law is currently written any home purchase that closes escrow beginning 1 December 2009 is not eligible to receive the tax credit.

I realize the Southern California market is markedly different than 95% of the rest of the country. However, by rushing to buy and pushing prices back up is doing no one any favors. If you buy a home for more than it’s worth that is exactly what you are doing. Even if it’s worth that price to you, it’s not a sound financial decision. So basically all this irrationality coupled with so many short sale/REO properties is making for a very small sellers market. As my husband likes to quote the age-old proverb: “a fool and his money are soon parted.”

What do you do when 75 gallons of raw sewage comes spewing out of your toilet? Imagine just sitting in your bed reading a good book when a literal shit-storm is unleashed in your master bath – leaving sewage all over every surface in the bathroom and bedroom. Well that very thing happened to one unlucky Huntington Beach family… twice. Oy gevalt.

Apparently, the city was cleaning out a sewage pipe outside their home causing 75 gallons of shit to hit the (ceiling) fan. The family is asking the city for ten thousand dollars to help them clean up the mess and restore order to their lives. This seems like a very reasonable request to me and I think the city ought to cough it up. What do you think?

[poll=33]

I’ve already covered my general house hunting trials and tribulations and murder-suicide in previous posts. Let me add another strike to my ever-growing Can’t Buy ‘Cause the Place Has Serious Issues list: Megan’s Law.

A few weeks ago we saw a house that was a “real” sale in San Juan Capistrano. It was a single family home over 2,000 square feet, at the end of a cul-de-sac that backed to a park AND it was totally in our price range. I loved it. However, the old saying holds true: if it’s too good to be true  … then it probably is. Especially, it seems, if I’m the one looking for a house.

A Megan’s Law person, AKA a registered sex offender, lived in the house next door. As you can tell from the tone of the post, we didn’t put in an offer, but someone did. It is currently in back-up offers. So, that leads to the question:

[poll=29]

Is anyone else having similar issues while looking for a home? Do share, I need moral support. We might not be homeowners, but on the bright side, the search is providing me with blog topics.

Success! After I suggested getting our fair county a publicist to counteract all this reality television douchiness, a quick web search lead me to this: The Advertising Slogan Generator! You just plug in your product and it spits out slogans for your campaign. This is fun! Here’s a few of my favorites:

Why Can’t Everything Orange be Orange County?
There’s First Love, and There’s Orange County Love
Half the Orange County All the Taste
Aaahh, Orange County!
If You Can’t Beat Orange County, Join Orange County
Unzip an Orange County
Make Orange County Yours

Let’s not forget my absolute favorite:

Careful when you click that link, you can waste an awfully long time playing with The Advertising Slogan Generator. Before you know it you will have wasted an hour playing with this thing when you should have been doing something productive, like homework, or actual work.

Much to the chagrin of its students, Chapman University College Irvine is changing it’s name to Brandman University – due largely in part to a $10 million donation by The Brandman Foundation. The new Brandman University, which recently expanded it’s Irvine campus into an all-new and larger complex, is a separate and fully accredited university within the Chapman University System. They are trying to pitch this to students as a simple name change, sort of like how they have the Argyros School of Business & Economics, Dodge College of Film & Media Arts, Schmid College of Science and the Wilkinson College of Humanities & Social Sciences. The difference is, those students will all have a degree that says Chapman University while the new Brandman students will have a really classy crap-ass diploma from Brandman. I ask you this? Why would you knowingly pay Chapman prices for a degree that’s really not from Chapman anymore?

Since they will no longer be the Chapman Panthers, some of my friends and myself came up with a new mascot for the rebranded university. We’ve been colloquially referring to them as the Brandman Asshats. Most (if not all) CUCI students I spoke with are PISSED! Lucky for them, if they were already enrolled they are still considered Chapman University students and will graduate with a Chapman University degree. However, all those new students enrolling will get a big fat Brandman degree. I wish them the best of luck in selling this new brand (and inflated prices) to a group consumers who may be looking for style and substance; brand and comfort.