Joe Enos - Blog

Move

Joe Enos — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:09:51 GMT

It's been awhile since I've been able to post anything - I recently moved, and most of my free time has been spent on the move. Everything has gone very smoothly, and I'd like to thank all the companies and people I worked with - most are local to the Phoenix area:

Kate Teske at Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage: Kate was my real estate agent for this purchase. I worked with her in the past, and was impressed with her service. Within a couple days of contacting her, we were already looking at dozens of houses that met my search criteria. When we found the house, Kate worked hard to get me the best deal possible, and ensure that I wouldn't be walking into any surprises. Highly recommended if you're in the market to buy or sell your residence.

State Mortgage: My loan went through a mortgage broker, State Mortgage. My loan officer, David Krushinsky, provided outstanding service getting the application started, getting the best rate and program for me, and following through until closing. My loan processor, Sophia Miller, did an excellent job keeping me informed and involved as the loan went through the underwriting and closing stages. I will always go through State Mortgage for all future mortgages, and I absolutely recommend that you call David before signing on with any other broker, lender, or bank.

First American Title: I didn't work much with my escrow officer, Vicki Van Zanen - but I was impressed with what I saw. Closing went off without a hitch, and all of the financial stuff went smoothly.

Arizona Discount Movers: I had to move a piano, which is a little too delicate to move on my own, so I had to find a professional who knows what they're doing. While they were at it, they handled the large furniture as well. The movers were very professional, and did an excellent job in a reasonable amount of time.

Johnson's Cleaning: Cleaning has never been one of my strengths. Since I was renting my previous house, I needed to make sure the place looked good when I returned it to the landlord. Johnson's Cleaning cleaned the place up very nicely, for a very reasonable price.

Sears (Desert Sky Mall): The house didn't come with a washer and dryer, so I had to buy those myself. The sales guy, Don, was extremely helpful in giving me the information I needed to make an informed decision on the appliances, giving me straight talk instead of a sales pitch.

DirecTV: DirecTV had a special for new customers, which will save me a couple hundred dollars over the next year, and then will even be a little cheaper than I was getting with cable. It took awhile to schedule installation, but when the day came around, the technician did a great job.

Overall, I couldn't be happier with the way the past month has gone. It's been a lot of work, but since we're at (hopefully) the bottom of the housing crisis, it's a great time to be a homeowner - things have nowhere to go but up, and with any luck, the house will appreciate considerably in the next 4 or 5 years.

Election Results 2008

Joe Enos — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:45:22 GMT

The election is finally over, and we can get back to real life - so this blog will get back to topics that I'm more qualified to talk about, like software development, comedy, TV, and movies (although a lot of you apparently don't agree with me on my TV and movie choices). Expect to see more fun and interesting topics, instead of the constant barrage of politics I've been throwing out there the past few months. I won't promise to be 100% silent on the state of the government, but I'll try to keep my political views to a minimum.

But first, here are the results of the election for my ballot, along with a few comments from me on some of the losses.

Federal:
President:
LOSS:	John McCain (R): See previous entry

U.S. Representative:
WIN:	John Shadegg (R)
State of Arizona:
State Senator (District 7):
WIN:	Jim Waring (R)
State Representative (District 7):
WIN:	Nancy Barto (R) only (no 2nd choice)
Corporation Commissioner:
LOSS:	Barry Wong (R)
LOSS:	Marian McClure (R)
LOSS:	Bob Stump (R)
Maricopa County:
LOSS:	Board Of Supervisors: Marilyn Fox (D)
WIN:	Assessor: Keith Russell (R)
WIN:	County Attorney: Andrew Thomas (R)
WIN:	Recorder: Helen Purcell (R)
WIN:	School Superintendent: Don Covey (R)
WIN:	Sheriff: Joe Arpaio (R)
WIN:	County Treasurer: Charles Hoskins (R)
WIN:	Justice Of The Peace: Clancy Jayne (R)
WIN:	Constable: Cory Hazlett (R)
N/A:	Special Health Care District 3: Abstain
LOSS:	Community College District 3: Pam Petty
School District:
School Governing Board Member Paradise Valley Unif No. 69:
LOSS:	West Kenyon
WIN:	Anne Greenberg
WIN:	Nancy Case
LOSS:	Question 1 (Budget Increase): Yes
WIN:	Question 2 (Budget Increase): Yes
Retention of Judges:
State Supreme Court (only one):
WIN:	Yes for Scott Bales
Court of Appeals, Division 1 (three judges):
WIN:	Yes for all three (Diane Johnsen, Ann Scott Timmer, Patricia Orozco)
Maricopa County Superior Court:
LOSS:	No for Crane McClennen: McClennen was the only judge not recommended by the Judicial Performance Commission. My guess is that if more people knew this, they would have been more likely to vote him out. But I'm sure 75% of the people out there vote Yes for everyone or No for everyone without even knowing anything about them. I don't know anything about the guy myself, but I trusted the judgment of the commission.
N/A	Abstain on Akers, Araneta, Contes, Gentry-Lewis, Hannah, Oberbillig, Padilla, Steinle
WIN:	Yes for Abrams, Arellano, Baca, Ballinger, Blakey, Buttrick, Cohen, Davis, Ditsworth, Dunevant, Flores, Garcia, Gordon, Harrison, Hilliard, Hoffman, Katz, Kemp, Klein, Mahoney, McMurdie, McNally, McVey, L. Miles, R. Miles, Potts, Ryan, Sanders, Stephens, Trujillo, Udall, Whitten
Propositions:
WIN:	Proposition 100: Yes
	Proposition 101: Yes (This one's still too close to call)
LOSS:	Proposition 102: No: Apparently bigotry and intolerance are alive and well in this country - or at least in Arizona and the other states which passed similar amendments.
WIN:	Proposition 105: No
LOSS:	Proposition 200: Yes: Not a big loss - I certainly won't miss the payday loan stores, but I will miss one of the freedoms that is now being taken away.
WIN:	Proposition 201: No
WIN:	Proposition 202: No
WIN:	Proposition 300: No

So This Is How Liberty Dies

Joe Enos — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:03:32 GMT

Well, we have a new President-elect - Barack Obama. I simply cannot understand how so many Americans were fooled into believing that this is someone worthy of leading our great country. Obama is a socialist who is determined to destroy everything that makes America the greatest country on the planet.

Obama will remove all incentives for living the American dream, and replace them with the promise that all people, regardless of their talents and their hard work, will receive the same rewards for their work or lack thereof. He will tax the wealthy to the point where they will no longer be wealthy, so they will have less money to spend on things that boost the economy, less money to invest in business that create jobs and provide goods and services to the people, and less money to donate to charitable organizations.

Obama is determined to leave Iraq and call it a failure, which will leave an unstable country to fend for itself in an unstable region - it's now just a matter of time before they're right back where they started, possibly more dangerous than before.

Obama will do everything in his power to remove the freedoms and liberties Americans enjoy, from free speech and the press, to freedom to bear arms, to freedom to be rewarded for hard work. He has already proven his opposition to free speech during his campaign, where he blacklisted multiple reporters for asking him questions that he didn't like. He will try to pass the so-called "Fairness Doctrine", which basically says that you cannot share a single conservative perspective without offering equal time to the opposing viewpoint - this will only be one-way - the liberal media will still be there, but the few conservative voices out there in talk radio and the blogosphere will be under attack from Obama's government if they do not alienate their audience by adding liberal propaganda to their programming. Don't be surprised if this blog is attacked for being anti-Obama.

As I listened to Obama's acceptance speech and the crowd's response, I couldn't help but think about the quote from the most recent Star Wars movie, when the emperor was accepting his powers: "So this is how liberty dies - with thunderous applause". Kind of silly to compare our government with a science fiction movie, but it seems to fit.

I certainly hope I'm wrong. I know I'm right about Obama's desire for a socialist country, losing its superpower status in the world and becoming the next Spain, but whether a single man can make that happen is still up in the air. The president basically represents one-third of our national government, with the power to appoint supreme court justices to make up another third - so there's no doubting his abilities to do a lot of damage. My only hope is that the legislative branch and the people of the United States don't let him. I urge all Americans to work through the system we have in place to ensure that our freedoms are not destroyed, our liberties are not slowly and methodically eliminated, and our rights are protected. With any luck, the liberal control of the government will be short-lived, and we can get out of this situation without too much damage to our way of life.

Offensive Advertisement

Joe Enos — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:41:42 GMT

I just saw something unbelievably offensive on TV. I was tuning in to CNN to see the beginning of election coverage, and there was a commercial for ashleymadison.com. Apparently this is a personals site for married people, whose motto is "Life is short. Have an affair." If you go to the site, that's exactly what it is - a service dedicated to helping married people cheat on their spouses.

The fact that this service exists isn't what bothers me. There are all kinds of things online that are disgusting, and that's just life. But to advertise this on a major news network is just wrong. It promotes the opinion that cheating is "just fine" to millions of viewers, as if it was perfectly normal. I am not naïve enough to believe that marriage is easy, or that all marriages can or even should last. But these problems should be worked out in a mature and open manner, with open communication, counseling, and finally divorce if appropriate - not by having affairs.

By the way, I'm not singling out CNN - if the site is telling the truth, Fox News also advertises their service. So you've got a mostly liberal channel and a mostly conservative channel both advertisng the same garbage.

Avoid ING Direct

Joe Enos — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:27:24 GMT

About a year ago, I signed up for a checking account with ING Direct. At the time, it seemed like a great deal - some of the features of this "Electric Orange" account were:
- 4% interest - a whole lot more than anyone else offered for a checking account, even a savings account
- overdraft line of credit, which works as a fee-free credit card so you don't need to always pay close attention to your balance
- free paper and electric checks
- easy online balance transfers to and from traditional checking and savings accounts

Things were going pretty well - I was using this account to pay rent with paper checks, with no issues, and using the check card for some other normal stuff. Then I realized that my checking account was no longer getting 4% interest - it's now down to 1.5%. Still high for a checking account, but nowhere near where it was - definitely nothing special anymore. But I figured it was still a good account to have, so I figured I'd keep it.

This morning they contacted me to tell me about a problem. On the 21st, I scheduled my December rent check to go out. I received an email telling me that the address was rejected, so the check was cancelled. I was pretty upset, since I gave the same information as I have for the last year, and I know my landlord has not moved. So I gave them a call to find out what happened. After a lot of back and forth with the customer service rep, they finally figured out what happened: They tried to convert my paper check into an electric check.

We talked for a few minutes about this - somehow ING has my landlord's bank information on file - I don't know how, since it wasn't from me. He thinks that another ING customer has sent them an electric check, so their account is in the system. Their policy is to send electric checks whenever possible, in order to save time and money. It makes some sense - electric transfers are significantly cheaper for them, and have less chance of mistakes, when done properly. But the end result is that my rent check was not sent - had this happened closer to the end of the month, I'd be looking at late fees for the rent, and if it happened on a check to someone else, like a credit card or mortgage, there would have been additional consequences.

My problem is that I never gave ING the permission to do this. I specifically requested a paper check, which is a service that ING supposedly provides. I'm not even concerned about the fact that the electric check transfer failed - success or failure doesn't matter, since I did not authorize the attempt. In my opinion, this is absolutely inexcusable. My bank has absolutely no business giving my money to someone that I did not tell them to.

Normally when talking to a CSR on the phone and you have a complaint, you complain to a manager and hope to work out some kind of resolution. But I was so angry at this point, I didn't have anything else to say, and there was absolutely nothing anyone could say to make it all ok. When a bank is handling my hard-earned money, I need to have 100% confidence that they know what they are doing. ING lost my trust this morning, and there's no going back. I'll be closing my account as soon as possible. I highly recommend staying away from ING Direct, so you don't face the same headaches I did today.

Back To School

Joe Enos — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 22:18:37 GMT

Last week I started my Linux class at Mesa Community College. It meets twice a week, 4 hour sessions, for 8 weeks, so I'll be keeping busy for the next couple of months. So far we haven't done much more than an introduction to the operating system and the open-source industry, but I'm expecting a lot more in the next few sessions. The class is supposed to be a decent foundation toward Linux certification, so hopefully it will get significantly more intensive soon. I'll give a full review of the class after it's over in 7 weeks.

I graduated with a bachelor's degree from Arizona State in 2003. I've thought about graduate school a few times in the last 5 years, but decided against it, at least for now. A master's degree just wouldn't do a lot for me in my current career path. Instead, I've decided to take some classes for personal enrichment and general studies, starting with this Linux class. I'd like to take some subjects that I missed out on in college, like US history, biology, chemistry, physics, and a few non-academic classes like cooking (so I can actually cook something other than Hot Pockets), singing (so I don't sound horrible when I sing along in the car), and shop (so I'm not completely helpless around the house).

I figure as long as I stick with lower-level classes, and only one class per semester, it will keep me occupied, without the headaches I had back in my last two years at ASU. For parts of 2002 and 2003, I was working full time (plus more sometimes), and going to school full time with only upper-level classes - not a fun experience, and not something I want to do again.

Credit Mess

Joe Enos — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 21:37:30 GMT

Over at A Slacker's Quest For His First Million is an excellent post summarizing the events leading up to the financial mess this country is currently facing. With so many factors involved, the situation can be confusing, especially if you haven't been following it since the beginning (defined as March 2000 in the article). The article is very readable, and provides a clear picture of some of the major elements of the mortgage crisis.

This is one of many excellent posts from the blogger known only as "D". Every few days is an informative and interesting entry on a variety of financial topics, from beginning investment advice to industry information to individual company analysis. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the stock market or the financial industry in general.

The link to the "How Did We Get Here" entry is below:
http://www.slackerwealth.com/2008/10/how-did-we-get-here-summary-of-credit.html

2008 Election Recommendations

Joe Enos — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 19:29:47 GMT

Below are my personal recommendations for this November's election. These are my selections for my ballot, which contains state and local races - so unless you're in my district, many of these will not apply to you.

There's still a couple weeks before the election, but unless something drastic changes, these will be my choices.

Federal:
President: John McCain (R)
U.S. Representative: John Shadegg (R)

State of Arizona:
State Senator (District 7): Jim Waring (R)
State Representative (District 7): Nancy Barto (R) only (no 2nd choice)
Corporation Commissioner: Barry Wong (R), Marian McClure (R), Bob Stump (R)

Maricopa County:
Board Of Supervisors: Marilyn Fox (D)
Assessor: Keith Russell (R)
County Attorney: Andrew Thomas (R)
Recorder: Helen Purcell (R)
School Superintendent: Don Covey (R)
Sheriff: Joe Arpaio (R)
County Treasurer: Charles Hoskins (R)
Justice Of The Peace: Clancy Jayne (R)
Constable: Cory Hazlett (R)
Special Health Care District 3: Abstain
Community College District 3: Pam Petty

School District:
School Governing Board Member Paradise Valley Unif No. 69: West Kenyon, Anne Greenberg, Nancy Case
Question 1 (Budget Increase): Yes
Question 2 (Budget Increase): Yes

Retention of Judges:
State Supreme Court (only one):
- Yes for Scott Bales
Court of Appeals, Division 1 (three judges):
- Yes for all three (Diane Johnsen, Ann Scott Timmer, Patricia Orozco)
Maricopa County Superior Court:
- No for Crane McClennen
- Abstain on Akers, Araneta, Contes, Gentry-Lewis, Hannah, Oberbillig, Padilla, Steinle
- Yes for Abrams, Arellano, Baca, Ballinger, Blakey, Buttrick, Cohen, Davis, Ditsworth, Dunevant, Flores, Garcia, Gordon, Harrison, Hilliard, Hoffman, Katz, Kemp, Klein, Mahoney, McMurdie, McNally, McVey, L. Miles, R. Miles, Potts, Ryan, Sanders, Stephens, Trujillo, Udall, Whitten

Propositions:
Proposition 100: Yes
Proposition 101: Yes
Proposition 102: No
Proposition 105: No
Proposition 200: Yes
Proposition 201: No
Proposition 202: No
Proposition 300: No

Javascript getElementById Behavior In Browsers

Joe Enos — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 17:05:14 GMT

I came across an issue not too long ago that caught my attention - using javascript to access elements behaves differently in IE and FireFox/Safari/Chrome. IE accepts casing differences - FireFox, Safari, and Chrome (let's call them the "good browsers") do not.

For example:

<span id="span1"></span>
<input type="button" onclick="clk();" value="clickme" />
<script type="text/javascript">
function clk() {
document.getElementById("Span1").innerHTML = "Text";
}
</script>

Clicking the button in IE populates the span - in the good browsers, it does not, because it does not find an element with that ID.

In my opinion, the good browsers are "right" - elements should be properly cased. Your opinion may vary - please tell me if you disagree - I'd be happy to hear an argument in IE's favor.

In any case, this is just another reason to test in at least FireFox in addition to IE. A few extra minutes of testing can greatly reduce headaches in the future.

John McCain For President

Joe Enos — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 09:36:31 GMT

As my regular readers already know, I am a Republican with mostly conservative values and ideals. Therefore it should come as no surprise that I am supporting John McCain for President.

In my opinion, Barack Obama a huge threat to America. As the most liberal senator, he has shown his disdain for this country, and as President, I believe he would take steps to destroy freedom, invite world-wide terrorism, reintroduce the worst kinds of racism, and socialize the American economy. It's hard to believe that a patriotic American would do these things, but of course when he does them, they would have honorable-sounding names, like "rebuilding international relationships" and "bridging the gap between classes".

Obama's tax plan is simple income and wealth redistribution, which is always a bad idea. Businesses and business owners pay higher taxes, which means one of two things: either they will not be able to afford as many employees (meaning more unemployment in addition to bad customer service), or increasing prices in a direct proportion to the raised taxes (meaning the regular people who got a tax break are now paying more for things they buy, canceling out their difference). It's a slippery slope toward communism.

We can't forget about Obama's relationship with Jeremiah Wright, a horrible human being whose hateful message has been exposed over the past year. This scumbag was one of Obama's closest friends and his pastor for many years. I don't believe Obama is as evil as Wright, but based on the fact that they were close for 20 years tells me that Obama either supported many of Wright's views, or that he at least tolerated them enough not to leave. Of course, once Wright started making headlines, Obama pretended like he had no idea what kind of person Wright was, and started distancing himself immediately. A classic example of politics in action - pretend to be the person the voters want.

Another disgusting lowlife in Obama's past is William Ayers, a domestic terrorist who was acquitted (due only to legal screwups) of multiple bombings including police and government buildings. Obama has worked side-by-side with Ayers on more than one occasion, and apparently has no regrets about that. Even now, Obama won't come out and say that Ayers was a horrible person, instead talking around the points.

But enough about Obama - clearly he is a horrible person, who cannot be trusted with the highest office in the free world.

John McCain knows what it will take to turn this country around. Starting with the economy, McCain's tax proposals deliver the highest tax cuts to the highest incomes, which means that business will be able to hire more people at a higher wage, and keep prices low for consumers. These two things combined mean that more people will have more money, meaning more money to spend, which will in turn make the economy even stronger. Rather than stealing from the rich and giving to the poor (a.k.a. welfare and wealth distribution), McCain will give more poor people the opportunity to climb out of poverty themselves the American way, by working. Everyone benefits from this policy, not just the poor.

John McCain is a war hero from the Vietnam War, who served honorably for his country, and has had a permanent reminder of that service ever since. His first-hand experience gives him the insight into the types of evil that are out there in the world, the evil that leads to oppressive dictatorships like Iraq (pre-2003), Iran, and North Korea. McCain's policy toward Iraq is not to end the war as soon as possible, but rather to end it successfully, even if it takes longer than originally hoped. Stable countries take time to build, especially when you're dealing with countries in as bad shape as Iraq was under Saddam Hussein. I believe McCain will take steps to ensure victory in the Iraq war, and build international support toward bringing freedom and stability to the rest of the region and to the world.

There are dozens of other topics that can be discussed. You can read for yourself all over the internet. I encourage you to read both Obama's and McCain's takes on the issues on their respective websites: http://my.barackobama.com/ and http://www.johnmccain.com/. You can choose a wide variety of issues, from the space program to climate change to civil rights to immigration. After you read each of their positions, take the time to do some serious research of the facts, not just people's opinions, on the two candidates. Once you do that, I'm sure you'll find good and bad things about both candidates.

Please take your responsibility as a voter seriously, and decide which of the two sides you trust to get you through the next four years (or at least which one you don't trust). While you do this, take the time to look at your legislative candidates as well. Your U.S. senators, U.S. representatives, and state and local officials may also be on the ballot. These races are also incredibly important, especially when it comes to issues dealing with your state or local government directly, and many people don't take a few minutes each election year to learn even the basics about their candidates. If you have propositions or other similar measures on your ballot, take the time to research both sides of all of them before making your decisions. Sometimes a proposition can look good in the headlines, but can actually be the opposite of what they're advertising. A few minutes of research every few years can make a huge difference in the prosperity of your community.

Check back here at http://blog.jtenos.com/ in a few days for a complete rundown of my final ballot selections for my state and district.

Disclaimer: I have never been a part of any political campaign, and have no inside information on any of the candidates of any race. My comments are simply my own personal opinions, based on what I've seen, heard, read, and experienced. Any statements that appear to be stated as fact are true to the best of my knowledge, but are not guaranteed to be accurate - I recommend verifying anything you read here before allowing it to influence you in any way.