Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Google



Forgive my geekiness for a moment, but I just discovered the coolest thing ever!

I needed to know the colors of Linfield College (don't ask me why - its complicate) so I did what any relatively tech savvy person would do: I googled it. You will never believe what came up. It wasn't a website full of answers to my question - although that was there. It was much cooler than that...

GOOGLE ITSELF ANSWERED MY QUESTION! It sifted through the website, found my answer and put it at the top of the results. I didn't even have to open a web page.

Is it absurd that I think this is so incredible? I don't care if it is. Google, I am impressed.

Monday, May 2, 2011

feelin' down

Remember 7 years ago when you wanted a loan. The bank was all, "How much do you want?" and you were all "I dunno. $300,000?" Then then the bank was all, "Only $300,000? Why don't you make it an even $500,000?" and you were all, "$500,000! Sure!" Then the bank was all, "Wait a minute. You promise you can pay this back?" and you were all, "um..." Then the bank was all, "Just kidding. I'm sure you're good for it!" and you got your money and everyone was happy. I guess everyone was happy until this whole recession thing.

My point is, getting a loan for a house now is, quite possibly, the most frustrating experience of my life. Its worse than being audited (not that I would actually know, knock on wood). Now, the bank is all, "give us every piece of financial documentation you can find, including some that probably doesn't exist and never did. Oh, and by the way, what is this charge for $35 on your credit card bill for Thai food last Thursday? Do you really think you should be spending money like that when you are asking us for a loan? Just something to think about. We're watching everything you do!"

Meanwhile, while the bank is busy pouring through my receipts and bemoaning the fact that I haven't yet produced proof that x amount of dollars that was spent on gas was actually used for business driving, I keep getting more bad news about the house we want to buy. Things I should probably not be discussing on a public forum. The whole process is so discouraging.