What Are You Thinking About v.CC

[ramssuperbowl99]

10 hours ago, LETSGOBROWNIES said:

Yep. They know the risks, but they are physically addicted.  If you’ve never worked with addicts you don’t grasp what that means.  These folks put that drug above most, of not all else.

The experiment that we all quote - rats will choose cocaine over water until they die of thirst - was not meant to be a funny little anecdote about how awesome cocaine is. It's supposed to actually try and demonstrate that the scientists researching addiction already asked the question why, and the results are clear and obvious: people or animals addicted to these substances are, as a population, utterly incapable of making logical decisions regarding their addiction.

Quite frankly, this has been backed up by data. Addicts do not respond to worse (or the absence of) living conditions, longer prison sentences, or any other penalty as a deterrent for their abuse.

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

2 minutes ago, ramssuperbowl99 said:

The experiment that we all quote - rats will choose cocaine over water until they die of thirst - was not meant to be a funny little anecdote about how awesome cocaine is. It's supposed to actually try and demonstrate that the scientists researching addiction already asked the question why, and the results are clear and obvious: people or animals addicted to these substances are, as a population, utterly incapable of making logical decisions regarding their addiction.

Quite frankly, this has been backed up by data. Addicts do not respond to worse (or the absence of) living conditions, longer prison sentences, or any other penalty as a deterrent for their abuse.

Crazy a bunch of 20 and 30 something year old bros on the internet can figure this relatively simple stuff out, but politicians seem oblivious....

Depressing really.

[ramssuperbowl99]

8 hours ago, MWil23 said:

Free syringes, free birth control, etc. are all the same argument and both sides make sense. I feel as though the "against" is more of a pie in the sky view of if you just reasoned with people about preventing disease, abstaining, birth control is less expensive than having a kid, tax payers shouldn't fund it, etc. I get it and it makes sense. I have this personal view, but  it doesn't make as much sense on a reasonable/will it happen level.

That said, people are still going to use, people are still going to ignore reason/logic, and it will cost more in the long run and is worse for society unfortunately based upon sheer black and white statistics. 

I don't really know how to put this without sounding somewhat condescending...so I guess I'm just going to sound that way. shrug emoji

People who admit they are conflicted about things like this, as you have, I understand and respect. We have an idea of a perfect place, and this probably isn't it. You adjust your sense of ethics accordingly to make the best of an imperfect situation. People who are unaware of how much damage punitive drug policies do to the public health and our collective wallets, I understand and am happy to talk to.

People who are freely aware of the fact that these policies worsen health, cost more money, and cause unnecessary suffering, yet still argue for it are at best delusional and not accepting of reality. And I don't think I would be out of line saying a noteworthy fraction of the people in that group are worse than the delusional segment.

If someone thought we should run our cars on moon juice instead of relying on fossil fuels, you wouldn't say, "well yeah but if moon juice was super environmentally friendly and cheap and kept us all employed this dude would be making a lot of sense". You'd call him a delusional idiot, and you'd be right. Saying we should punish opiate addicts to change their behavior has just as much data behind it or legitimate reasoning as going down the street and asking BP if they have moon juice.

[MWil23]

1 hour ago, ramssuperbowl99 said:

I don't really know how to put this without sounding somewhat condescending...so I guess I'm just going to sound that way. shrug emoji

People who admit they are conflicted about things like this, as you have, I understand and respect. We have an idea of a perfect place, and this probably isn't it. You adjust your sense of ethics accordingly to make the best of an imperfect situation. People who are unaware of how much damage punitive drug policies do to the public health and our collective wallets, I understand and am happy to talk to.

People who are freely aware of the fact that these policies worsen health, cost more money, and cause unnecessary suffering, yet still argue for it are at best delusional and not accepting of reality. And I don't think I would be out of line saying a noteworthy fraction of the people in that group are worse than the delusional segment.

If someone thought we should run our cars on moon juice instead of relying on fossil fuels, you wouldn't say, "well yeah but if moon juice was super environmentally friendly and cheap and kept us all employed this dude would be making a lot of sense". You'd call him a delusional idiot, and you'd be right. Saying we should punish opiate addicts to change their behavior has just as much data behind it or legitimate reasoning as going down the street and asking BP if they have moon juice.

Right, that's precisely what I'm saying. I mean, if a Utopian society was attainable, then socialism/communism/Classic Marxism is the way to go. Unfortunately though, human nature doesn't work that way. Sure, abstinence is 100% effective as birth control, but how many people are thinking this/willing to do it in our society? It's the same with drugs/others, and arguably even moreso with addicts, which I won't pretend to be an expert on. People are willing to do OUTRAGEOUS things for their next fix...do we really think saying "you know, if you use that needle, you MAY get a disease" is really going to be effective? I had a young lady in class selling herself on the weekends for meth. I doubt she listens to my logic in that regard.

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

4 minutes ago, MWil23 said:

Right, that's precisely what I'm saying. I mean, if a Utopian society was attainable, then socialism/communism/Classic Marxism is the way to go. Unfortunately though, human nature doesn't work that way. Sure, abstinence is 100% effective as birth control, but how many people are thinking this/willing to do it in our society? It's the same with drugs/others, and arguably even moreso with addicts, which I won't pretend to be an expert on. People are willing to do OUTRAGEOUS things for their next fix...do we really think saying "you know, if you use that needle, you MAY get a disease" is really going to be effective? I had a young lady in class selling herself on the weekends for meth. I doubt she listens to my logic in that regard.

A high school kid?  

[MWil23]

18 minutes ago, LETSGOBROWNIES said:

A high school kid?  

Yeah 18. This was about 2-3 years ago. Terrible stuff

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

1 hour ago, MWil23 said:

Yeah 18. This was about 2-3 years ago. Terrible stuff

Oh that’s absolutely awful.  How does someone get that far gone that quickly?

[TecmoSuperJoe]

Help, I'm in a cringe worthy situation. Behold:

Me and my wife own a house in California. We've been renting it out since October of 2017 from overseas (expat now). Up until recently we had a property manager handing everything, but this person wasn't really doing a good job. Good friend, but it was clear after a while we needed someone else to handle things. A couple of months ago we went back to the USA for vacation, and while we were there we hired a highly rated property management company. Basically we just wanted to make sure all rent was received on time (an issue that happened twice, but I think it was mostly due to our previous property manager not being on top of things 100%), and have an inspection once a year or so, just to make sure everything is working okay maintenance wise. Something our first property manager didn't do.

So some weeks pass. Get the first rent under new management on time. Now it's in the second month, and I was asking my new property management team about an inspection that was supposed to take place not too long after the first new payment under them. I got a response rather quickly that for a couple of weeks now they've tried to schedule an inspection with the tenants, but they couldn't get them to work out a good enough time to inspect. So a new "notice of entry" was given to them, and there is an inspection to be planned this coming Tuesday. When I got this information (last night my time) I was thinking "great". Things are rolling along. However, just a few minutes ago my wife contacted me telling me she got an email from one of the tenants themselves. My wife isn't sure how her email was acquired (maybe it was our first property manager that gave it out just in case something came up), but basically the response was something along the lines of this (I'm paraphrasing): 





"Hi, I'm your current tenant. Me and my husband moved into your house nearly two years ago after our daughter was born. We've always taken care of your home, and taken care of any maintenance issues ourselves. Unfortunately there was a couple of miscommunications incidents with getting the rent to you through your first property manager. Since that time, we've tried inquiring to her before if there were ways to send money directly to you like (that information was not communicated to me) direct deposit, or Zelle via Wells Fargo. With the recent property management change we feel like we've been harassed from the start. Today we got a notice of entry stating that we've been uncooperative, and thatthe owners are unhappy. Not sure why the sudden need for an inspection, but my husband is really busy traveling for work recently, and I have my hands full with a toddler. We have never done anything wrong and do not understand the need to go to the extremes of serving us with this notice of entry. We loved your unit, and had been very happy raising my little girl here. But now we longer feel that way. If you and your husband are truly unhappy due to any of our actions, we apologize. But with your new management in place, we are unlikely to renew the lease at the end of the contract. Also, if the notice of entry must be enforced I would like to kindly ask for an extension to a time when my husband can be home with me. Thank you.





So that is where I'm currently at now. I feel like one inspection a year is normal from what I've researched. And the option for that is in the lease. I'm not trying to disrupt anyone's livelihood (we have a child ourselves right now), and they seem like good people from what I've heard, but it's our house, and we just want to make sure that everything is ok with our investment. Don't think that is so much to ask. I just don't know how to take care of this. I feel like I shouldn't have to email my property manager again with this recent response. Two months in they've been way more on top of their game compared to what I previously had. Quick response time too. I was going to email the tenant myself and have a dialogue. I can see myself granting an extension, but I feel like an inspection needs to happen. Their lease is up in October. How should I handle it? As you can tell, I don't have much experience renting out.

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

@PapaShogun tough situation. 

I have no experience with any of this, but I’ll be happy to give my generally ignorant opinion.  

As far as the timing of the inspection, whether you find out now or in July that they’ve ruined your home (or kept it immaculate), they’re liable either way. Unless you just need to know, I don’t see the harm in being accommodating (once).

I’d also email them back and see if you can salvage the relationship.  Any months where the home is unoccupied is money lost, and they don’t seem to bother you for much or cause any problems.

[TecmoSuperJoe]

24 minutes ago, LETSGOBROWNIES said:

@PapaShogun tough situation. 

I have no experience with any of this, but I’ll be happy to give my generally ignorant opinion.  

As far as the timing of the inspection, whether you find out now or in July that they’ve ruined your home (or kept it immaculate), they’re liable either way. Unless you just need to know, I don’t see the harm in being accommodating (once).

I’d also email them back and see if you can salvage the relationship.  Any months where the home is unoccupied is money lost, and they don’t seem to bother you for much or cause any problems.

Yeah I'm going to email the woman back. I truly do sympathize with her in this situation. I get the feeling they think that we as the owners are frustrated with their occupancy, which isn't the case despite a couple of hiccups a while ago. Maybe they just weren't used to this new type of management wanting to get things done fairly soon. 

I just don't want it to develop into a thing where if there is an issue we'll get emailed instead of the property manager. That's my biggest fear. I'd like to just stay in the shadows. Kind of why we hired the company in the first place. 

Edited May 12, 2018 by PapaShogun

[Small Town Values]

I kind of want to watch Nat Geo's - One Strange Rock... BUT, I can't stand Will Smith as a narrator / host. Which is a shame, because it looks decent.  

[theJ]

On 5/10/2018 at 9:32 AM, The Gnat said:

I've come to realize that getting my lawn to the state that I want it is probably a five year plan. This is year three of that plan, so hopefully it'll be nice and green and relatively weed free in two more years. It was so bad when we got there, I just killed it all off and started from scratch. Now I probably need to take down a few trees this year to make room for parking cars more easily, but also that will give us more light and less black walnuts poisoning the yard with their acidic droppings.

If you cut down the black walnuts, sell the trunks to a local sawmill.  They make beautiful lumber.

[Malfatron]

@PapaShogun 2 things.

1. you need to tell the other property manager to be less severe. 

2. you need to have the inspection. it feels like they are worried about failing the inspection. 

 

allow them to pick a good time in the next couple weeks for the inspection to give them a chance to clean up the place nice.

[ramssuperbowl99]

2 hours ago, PapaShogun said:

"Hi, I'm your current tenant. Me and my husband moved into your house nearly two years ago after our daughter was born. We've always taken care of your home, and taken care of any maintenance issues ourselves. Unfortunately there was a couple of miscommunications incidents with getting the rent to you through your first property manager. Since that time, we've tried inquiring to her before if there were ways to send money directly to you like (that information was not communicated to me) direct deposit, or Zelle via Wells Fargo. With the recent property management change we feel like we've been harassed from the start. Today we got a notice of entry stating that we've been uncooperative, and thatthe owners are unhappy. Not sure why the sudden need for an inspection, but my husband is really busy traveling for work recently, and I have my hands full with a toddler. We have never done anything wrong and do not understand the need to go to the extremes of serving us with this notice of entry. We loved your unit, and had been very happy raising my little girl here. But now we longer feel that way. If you and your husband are truly unhappy due to any of our actions, we apologize. But with your new management in place, we are unlikely to renew the lease at the end of the contract. Also, if the notice of entry must be enforced I would like to kindly ask for an extension to a time when my husband can be home with me. Thank you.

Some red flags in this e-mail for sure. The same tenant who feels "harassed" by an inspection or thinks a notice to entry is "extreme" has also "been handling maintenance themselves, and apparently was called "uncooperative" by the management company? 

I'd see what the backstory is from the management company, because that feels like someone who isn't taking care of the unit appropriately.

You've gotta e-mail back, and I'd try to spin everything to help assure them that this is for their benefit (it is, but it's also for yours). The inspection is so that you can make sure that there isn't anything wrong and want to make sure the carbon monoxide detector is working. The notice to entry is so that they know you'll never be showing up unannounced because their quiet enjoyment is a priority for you. Say you're very happy with them as a tenant, and didn't want that to come off as you sounding unhappy at all. Instead, because they're great tenants, you want to be 100% sure that the place they're renting has everything in working order. You probably also have to stick the bomb in there somewhere about how they can't be doing their own maintenance.

(I'd also keep that e-mail, because if it comes to that I'm sure your lease says somewhere all maintenance will be done by the LL or property manager, so they might have just broken the lease.)

[Breesus mode]

The GFS and Euro are predicting a monsoon trough will fire up within the next couple weeks. Which will be the likely be the spark for a tropical storm to form in the Caribbean. Be wary