jump to navigation

Selling Stuff January 31, 2007

Posted by Patrick in : Random , 2 comments

Since I’m moving soon, I’m selling off some of my wares. Let me know if you want something.

Patrick Begat Patrick Begat Patrick

Posted by Patrick in : Pittsburgh , 2 comments

This past weekend, I finally learned the history of my family beyond my grandfather. The earliest records we have of our family is a Patrick Bird from Cork County County Cork, Ireland. He had at least three children - Thomas, Patrick, and Mary. His son Patrick emigrated to the US, specifically Pittsburgh, and lived in the South Side on Carson Street. He was employed as a roller in a steel company.

Patrick had at least six children, one of whom was named Patrick. He had my grandfather, who had my dad, who had me. Now, neither my dad or my grandfather are named Patrick. Nor did my parents know of the Patrick lineage before they named me. Kinda curious.

What my uncle put together is pretty impressive. I hope to find out some more information. I’m particularly interested in where on the South Side my family actually lived. I’m sure some of the buildings are still around. Also, I’m curious if any family can be traced back further into Ireland’s history.

Plus, my uncle somehow got a picture of my Great-Great-Grandfather and my Great-Great-Grandmother. I’ll try to post it if I ever get a copy.

Carpet or Pine Softwood? January 30, 2007

Posted by Patrick in : House , 13 comments

So, I need to make a decision on my floors in the next day or so. And I’m continually going back and forth between carpet and the pine floor that lay there currently. So, like most problems I know nothing about, I come to the mighty Internet and lay my requests at its feet to see what it has to say. Here are my thoughts so far:

Carpet

Pine Softwood

Since it’s not a house that I’ll enjoy for at least 4-5 years (I plan to live there only 1-2 years), there is not much incentive to redo the floors in order to enjoy them. I’m trying to take a rental/investment perspective on the whole thing. Basically, I’m not thinking about how I’ll use the unit, but rather the tenants after me.

Does anyone have any thoughts or words of wisdom?

2.1 for 200! January 28, 2007

Posted by Patrick in : Software , 3 comments

I’m bringing in the 200’s with a new and improved version of Wordpress for y’all. Unfortunately, the new version will really only affect the writer more than the reader. The upgrade deals more with the back-end like tabbed editing panes, autosaving posts, and more AJAX. This means that I’ll have to make up the deficit in superb writing. I’ll try my best.

Not Quite Steve Carell January 21, 2007

Posted by Patrick in : Photography , 3 comments

26 year old virgin.

Show me ‘em pearly whites January 19, 2007

Posted by Patrick in : Random , 4 comments

Can you spot a fake smile from a genuine one? This is a sweet test. The test consists of twenty five-second videos of people smiling. And you guess if the smile is real or fake. I thought I would get less than half of them right. But I ended up scoring 15/20. At the end of the test, you can read about how you can differentiate between the two. Let me know what you think.

Bit the Bullet January 17, 2007

Posted by Patrick in : Music , 2 comments

After months of deliberation, I finally bit the bullet and joined emusic. The music downloading site is a sweet deal. As a free trial, they give you 25 free tracks for signing up. If you continue with your subscription, you pay as little as $9.99/month for 30 tracks (33 cents a song). I went with the next plan, $14.99/month for fifty tracks (30 cents a song).

This plan will help me budget for music, and it gives me the opportunity to download four to five albums for the price of one CD. One of my biggest hangups with the transition was the loss of the physical album with its album art and liner notes. But, the recent acquistion of the iPod and the unbeatable emusic price finally won me over. I still hope to support places like Paul’s.

Emusic works out to be a really good deal when the tracks are long. For my first 25+ tracks, I was able to download five albums and an EP. I listed the equivalent price under my pricing plan.

Twin Cinema ended up being a replacement to one of my albums that was stolen last February when my car stereo was stolen. Four of my favorite albums were stolen that night: Twin Cinema, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Seven Swans, & Thunder, Lighning, Strike.

Let me know if you want to sign up because I get kickbacks on my kickbacks if you join up.

Traditional vs. Roth Myth? January 15, 2007

Posted by Patrick in : Random , 1 comment so far

In separate conversations, my roommate, my coworker, and I have been discussing the benefits and drawbacks of Traditional and Roth IRAs. As a little refresher, Traditional IRAs use pre-tax contributions and Roth IRAs use post-tax contributions. So, the money you put in a Traditional is not taxed when you put it in, but is taxed when you take it out. The Roth is vice versa - taxed in, but not out.

For years, I thought that the Roth won hands down. The Traditional taxes all the growth in your account, while the Roth grows tax-free. But the thing I didn’t account is that a $4000 contribution to a Traditional is equivalent to a $3000 contribution to a Roth (say the tax rate is 25%).

If you do the math, it looks like both the Traditional and Roth are equivalent, saying the tax rate stays the same. Is this right? The Roth still seems the better option because it guards you against being taxed in a higher tax bracket. Plus, it allows you to put in a little bit more money since it’s with post-tax contributions.

Can anyone else shed some light on this? Is this correct?

If you want to play with the numbers - ira.ods - ira.xls

REI Garage Sale January 14, 2007

Posted by Patrick in : Random , 4 comments

This morning, I got up early for a Sunday morning and headed over to REI in the hopes of finding deals on clothing. Today marks their semi-annual (I think) garage sale where they have huge discounts on returned items. I had never been to one and my naïveté quickly showed through.

Getting there at 10:30, thirty minutes after the store opened, I received a ticket. Maybe they’re having some sort of raffle? I thought. No. That was the number to get to the back of the store where they were having the garage sale. Because of the huge volume of people, they were letting only so many go back. My number was 923, about 500 people behind the next in line.

So, any hope of bargains were quickly dashed. I shuffled over to a support group of other late-coming friends in the sleeping bag section. It’s good to know you’re not alone.

Carpet Ripped Up January 13, 2007

Posted by Patrick in : House , 1 comment so far

My new roommate Cleave and I tore off the carpet on my new place today. I’m not taking as many pictures as I had hoped to, but I’ll try to get some soon. The floorboards are pine and it looks like it will be difficult to refinish them. There are several patches of different pieces of wood and tile that are scattered throughout the floor. Right now, I’m considering a wood laminate that would sit on top. Anyone have any thoughts or experience when it comes to this?

Unfortunately, the sloping in my kitchen is bad and a laminate floor will not work unless I correct the slope. This would probably mean building a structure around my bay windows, which translates into lots of money. Since it’s a rental property, I’m sort of against investing more money into a place than I need to.

But, who knows?