The Taken

Last weekend, a few of us had the opportunity to go to a movie premiere! (Yeah I pretty much felt like a celebrity.) The movie is called The Taken, and it was shot at an abandoned mental institution in Sedro-Woolley, a small town in north-western WA.

Our friend Nate was an investor in this movie, which is how we got the sweet hook-up to go to the premiere! It was in an amazingly beautiful theater in Mt. Vernon. I think from now on I'm going to drive to Mt. Vernon every time I want to watch a movie.

So, if you couldn't guess from the title and/or filming location, it's a horror movie. I definitely haven't watched a horror movie in years, so maybe I just forgot how scary they can be, but this movie was freaking SCARY. I mean, I practically clawed Sean's arm off during the movie it was so scary.

I don't know anything about where this movie will be showing (festivals, I'm assuming, since it's an independent film?) but if you ever feel like getting scared silly I can highly recommend the film.

Health Care

Between people throwing punches at town hall meetings, or boycotting Whole Foods, it seems like people are pretty worked up about health care.

For me, I think it all boils down to one big question. Why on earth does anyone care, because we're already paying for it anyway.

Sneak Attack Revealed

Remember when you were a little kid, sometimes you'd just walk over to a friend's house to see if they were home? Well, that's the concept behind the sneak attack. It didn't end up having a very good success rate... but hey, what's more fun than driving around all day in the sweet Toyota Van LE and stopping for some delicious food at Taco Bell?

Here's how it went down:

House #1 - Mt. Baker - not home
House #2 - Ravenna - not home
House #3 - Wallingford - got lost, gave up on finding it
* stop at gas station for Amy to buy a Fanta *
House #4 - Wallingford - success! We snared one friend and threw him in the van with us.
House #5 - Walilngford - not home
House #6 - Woodinville - took a long time to find, and they ended up being not home, but we left a note saying "you have been sneak attacked!!"
* stop at Taco Bell for some refueling *
House #7 - Bothell - same story as #6.


Oh well, regardless of the low hit rate we had a fun time, and we will probably try again in the winter when all Seattle-ites in their right minds are indoors!

Sneak Attack!

Tomorrow, Sean and I are planning a "sneak attack". What is this? You will find out... probably Sun/Mon.

Stuff Engineers Like #8 - Conspiracy Theories

Ok, if you want to get picky, conspiracy theories could be considered a special case of #5 - Having Complicated Hobbies, but I think it deserves its own category.

Besides, 'hobby' seems like the wrong word for figuring out the most cost-effective way to stock your nuclear fallout shelter with food/water/weapons/etc. (It might involve spreadsheets though!)

For everyone out there who has ever believed in y2k, the government orchestrating 9-11, the non-landing on the moon, etc., here's the most hilarious only game I have seen about the imminent End-of-America:

Choose Your Own Apocalypse

Starbucks Gossip

I have written about the Starbucks gossip blog before, but today it has once again amazed me with its level of funny-ness.

This thread is all about whether or not customers want their cups rinsed (if they bring their own cup from home). Did you know that some people try to give the barista a cup with Bailey's already in it? ROFL! I think when you're spiking your morning coffee, something needs to change!

Homemade Tortilas

I meant to write about this earlier... last weekend, Sean and I went to South Park, which is a small neighborhood that I didn't even know existed until I started volunteering for Sierra Club.

Why did we go there? Because I heard there was good Mexican food there! We had lunch at Juan Colorado, a sit-down Mexican place with a bar that was almost (but not quite!) empty on a Sunday afternoon, and a sweet kareoke setup. I hate to say that I wasn't super excited about their food (it was OK, but basically like eating at Macayo's), but it seems like it would be an awesome place to go drinking and kareoke-spectating.

Despite the food being a little bland, I asked if we could buy some tortillas, since they had a sign saying that they make tortillas on Saturdays and Sundays. They asked how many pounds I wanted. I was like "umm one?" Maybe they just loved us, or maybe that was a really small order of tortillas, because they didn't even charge us for them! We waited as they made some for us, and they were still warm by the time we got home.

They were corn tortillas, and they were so delicious!!!!! So, I know they can make good food there, perhaps the burritos just aren't the thing to order.

I want to do another investigatory trip to South Park, perhaps to this place next time.

Iowa 911

Just heard about this news from my Spanish teacher (who is from Iowa).

Iowa 911 Call Center Becomes First to Receive Texts

Now, this is great news of course. But there's something funny about the idea of 911 receiving texts such as:

"Help of! Good is on fire. thx g2g"

Lending Club Update #8

I got an email the other day saying that Lending Club is raising their rates by 0.5%. I think this is a good idea since their default rate is now 4.45%.

Here's my latest stats:

Number of loans: 41
Paid off early: 6
Charged off: 3
Defaulted: 1
Over 30 days late: 2

Last time I posted, my annualized rate of return was 7.81%. Now I guess the effect of the defaulted/charged-off loans is kicking in because that is down to 4.51%. Still positive though, which is pretty good these days. Once I get married (and then my income is above the min. threshold) I might start adding some more loans to my portfolio... I think LC is still a really cool idea, despite having had some loans go bad. We'll see I guess.