Sunday, June 7, 2009

This Blog Better Have 800 Comments This Week, Or I'm Shutting It Down!

Oh geez.

The pre-occupation with comment counts is rearing it's ugly head... again. People are starting to make comparison parrellels with Bend RE and such. Funny.

I wouldn't look for those days to happen again. The high water mark was 1,076 on Sept 6, 2008, a time just after being mentioned on patrick.net, when traffic spiked massively. Also I think there was much traffic from googlers searching for "Britney Spears Naked", or something right around that time. Then the Google's shutoff.

Oh well.

I'm not running this rock for comments numbers: It's primarily to have a no-holds barred, 100% unmoderated discussion about Bend RE & Business, although there isn't much off-limits, and in a similar vein, it's to expose ridiculously biased Bend media reporting.

If I accomplish those 2 things to some extent, I'm good. Plus, I like it. It's my sort of "thing". If "My Thing" was to manifest itself in truck form, it'd look like this:
The Official BB2 Milk Truck.

I don't know this dude, but a guy who builds a drag strip, then puts an 825hp noise-maker under the hood of a POS milk truck, and then just sits and burns slicks all day, is fucking All Right With Me.

That shit is Awesome! Kenny Clouse, 65, is out in Alfalfa tearing the shit outta a racetrack he built himself. That is just kick ass. I salute you Kenny, you're the kind of people Cent OR NEEDS.

Some interesting stuff in the Oregonian this week. FIrst, the whole Biomass Fuel Dream is Dead. Not "dying", it's dead.

The Biomass Ponzi Scheme is something that was a variant on the Perpetual Motion Machine. Only in Bend does Perpetual Motion Still Fly, with Bully pieces like:

These sorts of things happen every so often, when Arab Shieks think their shit don't stink. In Bend they are just moronic as hell. That "Powered by Innovation" piece was a deceptively titled piece (funny how that happens) about the REDMOND ALBERT EINSTEIN who dragged a car tie behind his car to generate electricity.

Ironically, the Oregonian is running a piece on the collapse of the Biomass Energy Bubble, a mere 18 months or so after it started, while The Bully, as usual, is running a sketchy piece that defies about 42 laws of Thermodynamics:

Garbage never smelled so sweet
InEnTec of Bend has partnered with Waste Management Inc. to build its trash-to-gas machines at landfills across the country. The result could be a renewable energy dream — and InEnTec is promising big returns for Central Oregon, in the form of gree...

By Andrew Moore / The Bulletin

Two weeks ago, Bend-based InEnTec LLC announced a joint venture with Houston-based Waste Management Inc., a Fortune 500 company with more than $13 billion in revenues.

While a big step for privately held InEnTec, a small waste-to-energy company that relocated to Bend last year from Richland, Wash., it also promises big returns for Central Oregon.


The new joint venture, called S4 Energy Solutions LLC, will be based in Houston but is opening an office in The Old Mill District, adjacent to InEnTec’s office.

S4 will eventually employ more than 20 chemical and other engineers, generally earning more than $100,000 a year, according to Jeff Surma, a founder of InEnTec and S4’s first CEO.


They are the sort of high-paying green jobs that politicians love to promise, working with technology that turns everyday garbage into fuel and other products without any harmful emissions.

But InEnTec hasn’t been visited by presidential candidates promoting renewable energy, or sitting senators touting the green spending in the stimulus bill.
You’d think it would be the perfect opportunity,” joked Surma, who stepped down as InEnTec’s CEO two weeks ago to take the same position with S4, though he will stay in Bend.

Perhaps converting garbage into energy isn’t as sexy or as simple as harnessing the sun and wind. Rather, Surma chalks up the company’s “under the radar” existence to emerging technology — using super-hot plasma to convert trash into synthetic gas that can be refined into hydrogen or ethanol — that is only now ready for commercialization on a scale that could make it as well known as the solar panel or the wind turbine....


Oh my goodness. The old SUPER-HOT TRASH COMPACTOR that turns shit into gold.

What's funny is that InEn Tec was not bought out or some other super-sexed transaction that EMBIGGENS the company, or some such... it barely gets a word, but the CEO QUIT.

In case you're wondering How This Ends, it was covered in today's Oregonian:

Northwest's biofuel boom goes bust

In two short years, the Northwest has gone from biofuels boom to biofuels bust.

The boom began in August 2007, when Imperium Renewables opened a 100 million-gallon-a-year biodiesel plant near Grays Harbor, Wash. A month later, Pacific Ethanol opened a 40 million-gallon corn ethanol plant in Boardman. In June 2008, Cascade Grain opened a 113 million-gallon corn ethanol plant in Clatskanie.

Encouraged by tax breaks and Oregon and Washington standards designed to require biofuels' use, the companies promised environmental benefits on an industrial scale, a quantum leap from smaller-scale producers making fuel from cooking grease and Northwest crops. Nearly 30 more projects were under discussion.

Then came this year.

In January, Cascade Grain filed for bankruptcy six months after it opened, idling its plant and putting a $20 million loan from the state of Oregon in jeopardy. Imperium, whose grand opening was attended by both Washington senators, idled its Grays Harbor plant indefinitely, laying off 24 workers in March.

And Pacific Ethanol, which received $14.6 million in Oregon tax credits for its plant, filed for bankruptcy for five of its subsidiaries last month, including the subsidiary that owns its Boardman plant. It warned that it has enough money to continue operations only through June.

Same shit, literally just a different day. Car towing wheel, plasma-buring trash compactor, biomass bullshit. All are the same. All are Classic Oregon Ponzi Scheme Ripoffs, disguised by physics-defying bullshit super-big-hair technology.

THIS is why Oregon is doomed, this is why Bend is doomed. The physics of all this is 100% Grade AAA Bullshit.

Note, I DID NOT include PV Powered. It could be argued that PV Powered is Yet Another Gobmint Funded Boondoggle that will collapse when credits are yanked, something that apparently won't happen for awhile, as candidate Obama unwittingly committed to this during a PR-fueled junket way back when, when he shook hands with PV's CEO.

The diff between InEn Tec & PV Powered? One BURNS shit, the other absorbs & converts energy from an autonomous source.

I'm not saying PV is on it's way to UNENDING RICHES. It just has a fundamental plan that is actually supported by PHYSICS. It's NOT a Perpetual Motion Machine. Wind power is similar. It's really already there, whether we harness it or not.

Again, I feel the ROI on such stuff is negative, for quite awhile. The fundamental nature of people is to maximize The Now: Burn the CHEAPEST FUEL now, and fuck the future, even if it means cooking our kids in an Easy Bake Oven. The RE Bubble is Yet Another Illustration of our inherent Fuck The Future outlook.

THAT is why Bend attracts this sort of grifter. Grifters THRIVE on those who say Fuck The Future, and live for The Now, even if the NOW is an illusion, and The Payoff is a fundamental VIOLATION OF BASIC PHYSICS.

The Biggest Payoff out there is just that: A physics-violating super big-hair technology perpetual motion machine. Look around, we're drawing these brand of grifters like flies.

You wondered What Is The Next Big Bubble After RE? Well, it was supposed to be Alternate Energy (right Brucey Buttplugs?), and it's already collapsed. But as usual, the Bully continues to run stories that It's Better Than Ever In Bend!


Speaking of Compressed Collapse Cycles, Luxe, successor to Norwalk, went down. Dunc had a nice post about the 'Comings and Goings' of such business, and is well worth a read.

If there is a retail sector more bloated and ridiculously outsized for a town the size of Bend, it is auto's. I NEVER understood how all the auto row shit, and the 3rd St sellers, and vast underbelly of used auto sellers survived in this town.

They just built and opened new dealership after new dealership, and I was baffled. Who the fuck is buying all these cars? Not me. My NEWEST auto is 8 YEARS OLD. And I have no intention of buying another, unless I am made an offer I cannot refuse.

Which may happen. We're in that strange saddle point when dealers are literally contractually forced to gorge themsleves of stock, and there ain't no one buying despite some damn good prices.

Huge amounts of wealth is just drying up and blowing away, like so much STD landscaping, as Matt Thomas grouses about the loss of his Chrysler franchise:

“The big loss is losing the (Chrysler) franchise,” he said. “I could have sold the franchise for $7 million to $8 million two years ago.”

I can imagine the Bob Thomas franchise has lost at least that much. WTF is GM thinking leaving the only GM dealership in MADRAS? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of!

I can understand almost everything else in this auto dealer collapse, except that. Pulling Thomas' GM franchise is moronic in about 12 ways. Having to drive to MADRAS to buy a GM vehicle essentially means NO ONE WILL BUY GM IN CENT OR. My God.

Aside from that, nothing should really surprise anyone about how shitty it is going to get for Bend dealers. There are simply WAYYYYYYY too many of them. Still.

Start at Costco, and check the Subaru dealership... they're just starting to close. Tons of that shit will close. I put NO STOCK in the idea that the Porsche or Mercedes dealers on 3rd will survive in their current form. Many, many millions are going to be lost on these franchises getting boarded up.

We bitch about Luxe, Rising Star and all that going down... fuck, all the furniture stores in Bend weren't worth what a single half-assed auto dealership is worth. And they are closing them down in droves.


Bend is STILL ridiculously overvalued.

Is your home still overvalued?
Report says half of the most overvalued markets are in the Northwest
Wenatchee and Longview were third and fourth on the overvalued list, with Bend, Ore., Bellingham and the Portland area (including Vancouver) seventh, eighth and ninth.

We've been nearly cut in half, and we're still in the top 10. Here's a link to the actual PDF report by IHS Global. You have to fill out a short info form to get it, something I am too paranoid to do.

I guess I find it amazing that despite the collapse that has and still is going on in Bend RE, that we reached such a RIDICULOUS overvaluation, that we have been CUT IN HALF, and we're still in the Top 10 most overvalued MSA's in the country.

We're right around $200K medians folks, and all the talk here of $125K is not bullshit.

There is all sorts of macro (oil is back near $70/bbl) and micro reasons (wholesale collapse of Bend's auto, furniture, {{your favorite industry here}}) that medians can go down to $125K. All I can really bet on is it will be a slow, arduous, and wealth destroying process.

Take a look at this graph by OFHEO (Thanks to PopGoesBend). Drag the "time-line" back to 1985. That gives a GREAT perspective on just how whacky things in Bend got since 2005... but really it shows that Bend has been on a multi-decade tear.

I don't see that 300 HPI level being breached in my lifetime. If we're back to 2007 price levels in the next 15 years, I would be amazed. We're fucked.

OK, here's what you're waiting for...
Bend RE fallen so much, it HURTS MY NIPPLES!
Buster, pleeze cum back to white girls. We love you long time too!

I promise to take off this shirt, if I get 800 BB2 comments this week...

154 comments:

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

A good piece in the Vegas paper:

How many homes do banks really own?




Housing analysts and Realtors have long speculated about how many foreclosures are lurking in the Las Vegas market.

Foreclosures have dominated the housing market with more than 60 percent of the sales each month being bank-owned properties. That continues to drive down prices.

With sales at their highest level since June 2006 and first-time homebuyers and investors gobbling up inventory, it has raised the question of whether lenders will flood the market with a backlog of foreclosures.

Some analysts have suggested that banks may have as many as 25,000 homes in foreclosure inventory that they have been holding back to prevent prices from dropping too far....

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

This is indicative of supply and demand CANNOT be bifurcated into OWNERSHIP & RENTALS, which we were told many times that it could be in BEND.

How many homes will be released because of this limited supply is yet to be determined, Smith says. The question is whether there will be enough demand to absorb that inventory.

“Some of the Realtors I respect believe there are plenty of investors and demand from out-of-town people,” Smith says. “However, I believe it is too early to make that call, and they are basing their opinion on hope. Until we know how many properties are going to be released in the marketplace, it is impossible to forecast how long it will take to absorb them.”

Although there are a lot of investors who are active in Las Vegas to take advantage of the low prices, Smith points out that UNLV reports 30,000 vacant homes.

Many investors have been able to get a 12 percent return from rentals, Smith says. But because the sales to investors have increased the rental supply, that return has dropped to about 10 percent.

“If the return on their investment continues to soften, we will see many of the investors stop buying homes,” Smith says. “Although it would hurt the short-term numbers, it might be for the good of the long-term status of the housing market.”

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

So as prices go DOWN in Vegas, investors BUY homes, which they then RENT, which floods the rental market, which brings DOWN investment returns, which brings down home prices.

There will reach some sort of equilibrium, but the fundamental equation is TOTAL SUPPLY OF HOME SQUARE FOOTAGE FOR THE RELEVANT POPULATION. Whether it is OWNED OR RENTED doesn't matter... prices will fall either way until equilibrium is reached.

This is why Bend is fucked. We built THOUSANDS of homes ($800-900K McMansions) that were 100% speculation fueled, with no grounds in economic reality.

We will achieve The Bend Dream, when every fucking hillbilly ass, wife beating drunken freak is RENTING these things for $600/month.

Bend: The most fucked up place on Earth.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Kids are outta school this week. Trying to come up with The Summer Weekend Activity List...

Pine Mountain
Fort Rock
South Sister
Three Creeks Lake
Ochoco's
Smith Rock
McKenzie Pass Observatory
Crater Lake
Oregon Coast

Anyone got other idea's? I've fallen into something of a rut in the past few years... Gotta be Day Trips where my kids won't freak spending all day in the car... The Coast is a long drive, but can be made worth it by taking a Mon + Fri off work.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

In contrast to the Bend Devastation roiling Bend auto dealers, Lithia Motors, Medford based operator of 92 dealerships, is doing pretty well recently.

I guess the rationale is Lithia will have most of it's dealerships preserved, since they are a LARGE purchaser of auto's and can probably be seen as a preferred vendor. I'm not sure, but I think they are only losing 2 franchises. And in the future with a far smaller number of dealers, the one's that remain will be worth more than they have been.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

I haven't done Lake Billy Chinook... maybe I'll try that. John Day fossil beds is another.

Anonymous said...

The headwaters of the Metolius and the water flowing out of the hillside in Canyon Creek into the Metolius are very cool. Also the head of Jack Creek is like a little magical dwarf world, all 3 can be seen in a day.

Wow: my word verification was "ponsi"

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

thanks margie... that's a good idea. Where exactly is Jack Creek? The interwebs is vague on it's location...

LavaBear said...

>>>Anyone got other idea's

Go caving out China Hat.

Anonymous said...

The main road off Hwy 20 will lead you to a rt. to go to the Head of the Metolius. Come back out to the main road again and follow north to a rt. to Canyon creek CG. Park and follow the river to the spring that gushes out of the hillside. Go back out to the main (dirt) road and go north again to a left on Jack Creek Rd. it will lead you to a locked gate parking area. There you hike into magic land.
Get a topo map so you don't get lost. Possibliy the Camp Sherman store has decent map.

Anonymous said...

That is the main road to Camp Sherman off Hwy 20.

Duncan McGeary said...

800 comments?

O.K.

Obama is the greatest President ever!

Bend real estate has turned the corner!

Bend is too small, we need more people!!!

Juniper Ridge is a brilliant concept. When that 4 year college comes in, we're all going to love it!

I love them Californian's. They add so much to our Central Oregon culture!

We should outlaw all guns!!

To hell with family planning, abortion does the job!

Republicans are sweet natured!

Democrats are tyrants!!

Who cares if we get good information. Let's torture them anyway!!

Anonymous said...

North Coast would be fun for kids....and adults
check clam tides, $6 for annual tag and alot of fun,good eating. Hike Saddle Mt., camp at Ft.Stevens/Peter Iredale/beach bonfire, Astoria River walk, Column, Ft Clatsop history....
Alot cooler here but refreshing in it's own way

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Holy shit! I am not a big fan of observing professional sports, but a good Nadal/Federer match is always great to watch.

And that had to be one of the best tennis matches of all time.

Those guys are one of sports greatest all-time rivalries.

Anonymous said...

shit, piss, fuck, cunt, ... bring back the good old bb2.

:(

Duncan McGeary said...

H. Bruce hasn't posted on the Source in 8 days.

Going back to the first of the year, he's never gone beyond 4 days, usually 1 or 2 days.

You are all wimps.

Anonymous said...

"My NEWEST auto is 8 YEARS OLD."

Wow, you've got me beat by 2 years. And I thought I was a miser!

New car dealers aren't currently arguing that if they lose their franchise, it will cost the nation JOBS.

After getting an earful in their home states, Congress called in the heads of Chrysler and GM to justify why they want to close some of the ONE BILLION auto dealerships in this country.

They claim that JOBS WILL NEEDLESSLY BE LOST.

But how can dealerships pay employees if they aren't making any money selling cars anyway?


The dealerships may be using the "LOST JOBS" tactic as a bargaining chip to get a golden parachute -- to get something back for the BILLIONS they invested (and will now lose) in dealerships during 2002-2006.

Anonymous said...

>> meant to say

New car dealers ARE currently arguing that if they lose their franchise, it will cost the nation JOBS.

Anonymous said...

800 comments? Really!

You had 0 Dec, 21'06.

Something under 200 is still a good number.

If we just had something to really piss and moan about. Things are just going badly too slowly.. Can't for interest rates to really head upwards. They are moving that way. But it's sooo sloooow. Just like the DOW moving up and down hovering, hovering. Where the fuck is the REAL crash, DOW 5000? Where is 25% unemployment in Bend. I applied for it and was denied as I hadn't paid in for 20 years. Can you imagine if the self employed RE folks could be counted in the UE numbers? we would be #1 at 25% UE. Nobody could touch us with that record. Anyone know the U6 for Bend?
Should have split this post to get 2 out of it :)

PopGoesBend said...

>"My NEWEST auto is 8 YEARS OLD."

My newest is a '98, followed by a '91 and a European classic '77 in cherry condition. I don't know if I've ever owned a car during the same decade it was produced, and I've had 3 or 4 that were older than me. I can't fix that new shit.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

I don't know if I've ever owned a car during the same decade it was produced...


Awesome! You & that Kenny Clouse dude are my kinds of people...

Duncan McGeary said...

Bunch of Richie Riches.

1990 Toyota Corolla and a 1991 Toyota Camry.

Anonymous said...

Leave it to lava-bear to tell us to go to the high-school party cave where they found his arse, and made him high school mascot,...

This place has become like an ongoing funeral, without the booze.

Irish-Wake, sans whiskey. Arggggggh.

Anonymous said...

"Wow, you've got me beat by 2 years. And I thought I was a miser!"

You're no miser. I have HIM beat by 2 years.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I agree on HBM, not a good sign to go 8 days w/o a sore-eye post, ... sounds like aaron finally pulled the plug, or hbm got real pissed about his hamster story getting pulled.

You know the bend-hamster, they cage run themselves to death, and ignore warning signs, ....

At least Andrew above is still slutting himself for the BULL.

Marge has some good point, if folks really told the story about this place have 50% real un-employment, the toilet seat would come off the outhouse.

Anonymous said...

Me thinks all you misers with old cars ought to go buy some of that sweet product GM is spewing forth and do your part to welcome our new UAW/Government overlords.

Anonymous said...

I'm driving a 1968 truck.

8 days ago is when hbm's story about the hamster got pulled from the sore-eye.

Well I don't drive it far just around town.

Anonymous said...

There is a new, very legitimate blog now being run out of Bend-

the mess that greenspan made.com

This person JUST moved here from Calif., so you can get some great
economic news, along with his impressions of Ore. and BEND, through the eyes of a new comer.

Very informative, humorous, and timely.

tim said...

Craiglist has had an ad up for a feature writer for the Source. Maybe HBM is off to somewhere sweeter and better.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

HBM, WHERE ARE YOUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

OK, I give: What was the hampster story?

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Maybe after the hampster piece, Switzer demoted him to go-fer.

Get It! GOPHER! Gat Damn Switzer! You need talent like ME on The Team!

St Paddy said...

Thanks for the healthy babes this week, that skinny one was really getting to me. The Subaru dealer is not shutting down it was moved to the front space that used to be Dodge at TS&S.It's one car brand that actually belongs here(if it can last) I honestly never thought the sheer volume of car dealers here would sustain, bust or no bust. Carerra motors was here before the boom,will it remain? I'd guess it will in one form or another.Mercedes? Who knows? All the high end design center type places (including 30,000ft+ tile outlets, probably go the way of the do-do bird. Big chested cougar realtors? Good thing they don't repo implants or we would gain yet another title of flattest town in the West LOL. Man the old car crew here sorry guys, I'm rollin an 05 diesel (paid for) and 01 land cruiser (paid for) but will remain runnin these beasts for many years to come. I'm thinkin about adding a WRX to the stable soon so I can head out to my neighborhood drag strip and see what she'll do up against the BB2 milk truck.

This Cinder Cone went down nicely I think I'll go grab another and check the grill.

Duncan McGeary said...

I'm not sure I can handle reading a "legitimate" blog.

Duncan McGeary said...

So, is he like "very legitimate" because he's from California? I'm not sure I understand.

Do you mean pretentious?

Anonymous said...

No, no, no, you've got it all wrong. It's not a hamster story that HBM is working on, it's a gerbil story. He's writing a little piece on his pet gerbil, Sparky, and of the many neat "tricks" that he's taught him. Well, mainly it's one really gross anal trick that he's taught Sparky. But I don't want to be a spoiler.

Anonymous said...

I always have a hard time distinguishing between the popgoesbend guy and the St Paddy guy.

And Buster seems to be comatose or something. I used to enjoy his consipiracy theories but I guess there are no conspiracy stories anymore?! What about that Air France flight / that Carradine guy?

Anonymous said...

I already wrote about Carradine.

1) He took out a mob girl, who couldn't refuse $10k for a short-time.

2) The mob is pissed the way the chinese/jap mafia was depicted in kill-bill,

Either way this was a pro-job, the brown-shirts royal thai cops and mob are 1-in-1.

In (1) he takes Hi-So back too room, and jealous mob hench takes him out, ... very plausible, happens everyday, every girl here has her price, and jealousy is vicious.

In (2) just a fucking signal to hollywood, to show some fucking respect, note hollywood went out of its way in god-father to please the fucking mob. In kill-bill they showed the asian mob as candi assses ran by a 1/2 chinese, 1/2 jap american bitch, ... of course credit goes to tarantino.

No fucking way this was a suicide ever fucking day tourists are found dead all over thailand always the same jumped off of 30 story building or hung in room, ... and the cops always cover it up.

What's most surprising, is WSJ wrote up from the begin, along with the brown-shirts, ... Bangkok, is the asian NYC of the world, and NOBODY is going to fuck with them, if they say it was a suicide, it was a suicide.

No fucking moral here, where were the fucking body guards? Like I said, most likely carradine, just brought home the wrong hi-so freelancer, and her BF was able to track the mobile, and ... and he took care of the john happens very fucking day here.

Anonymous said...

OK, I give: What was the hampster story?

*

It was the story about a bend runner who last week ran himself to death in a hamster cage, it was up for a few days on SORE-EYE, but Aaron took it down, about the same time HBM fell off the planet.

Talking about conspiracy, ... could the SORE be covering up HBM as a suicide murder?? Where the fuck is HBM??

Last week BB2 covered the hamster story in detail, and HBM dumped his version, that had got axed by the SORE TEAM.

Anonymous said...

Craiglist has had an ad up for a feature writer for the Source. Maybe HBM is off to somewhere sweeter and better.

*

I think that having the hamster story pulled was the finale for HBM.

Let's remember that ALL BIKE EVENTS in Bend for the past TEN YEARS are orchestrated by TEAM SORE.

Then one of the local icons of Hamster mania a National-Local Hamster, that had all the warning signs that if he didn't get out of the cage, he was going down, ... but hell you got to keep running this is Bend, ... what if everyone quit running in da cage??


So HBM questions the infinite wisdom of perpetual hamster mania in Bend, and points out that the outcome didn't have to end this way, ... and does he get thanks? No fucking way, he' a pariah, sees his story taken down from SORE-EYE.

Aaron takes HBM out to the woodshed for some good old fashion Bend S&M, and we never hear from HBM again, ... Just like the PUSSY(B) gone!!! Vanished.

Anonymous said...

What about that Air France flight

*

The night that went down, I was with my thai flight crew GF, and we were texting, and she told me about the plane missing at 2pm, on her mobile, her friends are quick.

I got my first report from NASA by 4pm, sudden loss of pressure, my initial was always bomb, there wasn't a fucking peep on this thing, there were ham radio guys following the plane and NOT one fucking peep, not even a tiny may-day. This plane just once second there, and next second gone.

I told my GF that it sounded to me like a bomb, all initial reports were 'sudden loss of pressure'. She said it was 'bermunda triangle', but what the fuck do you expect from a thai stewardess? I didn't have the heart to tell her the plane wasn't even close, you have to keep your mouth shut with these beautys.

Since the initial report, ... there is a ton of BULLSHIT about weather, ... doesn't make sense, ... there would have been some communication, distress. This was a complete fucking one minute your there, next minute your gone, ...

Why all the BS about weather?? Well my guess is with the OREO this week selling peace in the middle east, a potential terrorist plot wasn't good for the news, .... of course we'll never know, ... so little of this plane will be found.

Of course what's needed is live stream feed of encrypted flight data, sadly politically we're not going to see this. The black boxes are BEND gone, ...

My opinion initial and now is Bomb. Between system failure and blackout there was no comm of any kind. I think had there been some weather problem, a HAM radio operator would have picked up some talk about shitting their pants. Never happened.

I shit you not, I was doing the live cam with my stewardess GF, and she is HOT I'm in love, ... she is so good on the CAM. Like a typical thai, on video phone sex, she fucking takes the message, ... and says 'Oh my god a plane is missing over the atlantic', at which time I went to google and typed in 'air france', as she had mentioned that carrier, these girls are tight in that world, they call themselves 'flight crew' and they're all sisters, I'm sure every fucking mobile on earth with these girls was all buzzing text.

As a pilot I always go straight to the aviation source, ... 'sudden loss of pressure', ...

Ok, folks whats your bet?

out

Bewert said...

Re: Air France flight

####

Bomb threat called into Air France about another flight a few days earlier:
Air France Bomb Threat Called In Days Before Crash

####

Re: HBM

He's still on contact list. Maybe Aaron gave him a few days off. Couretsy of the Google cache, the hamster article:

Steve Larsen: An Avoidable Tragedy?
Written by H. Bruce Miller
Friday, 22 May 2009

When a young, physically fit, apparently healthy guy dies suddenly, leaving behind a wife and five children, the question everybody asks is, “Why did this have to happen?”

In the case of Steve Larsen, maybe it didn’t.

Larsen, a 39-year-old world-class triathlete and former professional bicycle racer, collapsed Tuesday while running on the track at a local school and died despite efforts to resuscitate him. Early news reports said he’d suffered a heart attack, but an autopsy ruled that out. At this writing, the cause of death remains unknown.

But according to Larsen’s brother, Mike, Steve had been sick for a while. “The last few weeks he had been having serious troubles with his breathing,” Mike Larsen told VeloNews, a cycling publication. Steve had been unable to finish his workouts, Mike said, and had been seeing a doctor. Dr. Bruce McLellan, a Bend cardiologist, was quoted in The Bulletin as saying he had heard Larsen had swelling of the legs.

But Larsen kept on working out. According to Mike he went on a club training ride last weekend, and he collapsed while trying to do the first lap of an 800-meter run on Tuesday.

Difficult breathing and swelling of the legs (from fluid retention) are classic symptoms of heart failure. Heart failure typically happens to old folks with high blood pressure and other ills. But it can happen to younger people as the result of a viral infection that invades the heart. This condition, myocarditis, usually isn't fatal if properly treated.

Why would somebody with symptoms as disturbing as those Steve Larsen apparently had stick with a rigorous training schedule anyway? We can only guess, but we suspect it’s a combination of denial – “I’m an elite endurance athlete; there can’t be anything wrong with MY heart” – and the no-pain-no-gain, tough-it-out ethos of the competitor.

Mike Larsen said his brother’s last words to him, spoken during that training ride last weekend, were: “Pull through, you expletive-expletive.” That could stand as his epitaph.

A memorial fund has been established for Steve Larsen’s family. Checks can be made out to the Steve Larsen Memorial Fund and sent to Steve Larsen Memorial Fund, Umpqua Bank, 390 SW Century Drive, Suite 100 Bend OR 97702.

####

Re: cars

96 Sentra (only 117K) 94 Voyager. Leased a new car once, back in my twenties... Looking for an 80-82 CX500 bike to add to the collection.

Now if the Cash for Clunker's Bill passes, it is pretty tempting to think about dumping the Voyager for a new miser, adding the Fed incentive to one of the bankrupt builders incentives and a dealer incentive...still a big maybe.

###

Re: weekend trips

Baker City, Sumpter Dredge, John Day Fossil Beds. Be sure to get pizza from Keeneye in Baker City.

Bewert said...

Gay Pride parade in Salt Lake this weekend was rather amusing. They even gave outgoing Gov. Huntsman an award for supporting civil unions, but he had a "scheduling conflict" and couldn't make it to pick it up in person.

####

On comparing little Logan, UT (3.8% unadjusted UE, 45,000 pop.) to Bend, OR (15.6% UE, 75,000 or so) there is one huge difference other than the obvious Mo factor:

"Since its founding in 1888, Utah State University has evolved from a small, agricultural college to one that is nationally and internationally recognized for its intellectual and technological leadership in land, water, space, and life enhancement. As Utah's land-grant and space-grant institution, the university is led by President Stan L. Albrecht and has 850 faculty who provide education for more than 23,000 undergraduate and graduate students, including 10,000 in its continuing education sites located throughout the state of Utah. USU occupies 7,000 acres, 400 of which are on campus, with more than 200 buildings, 63 of which are devoted to academics. USU also has 3 branch campuses and Extension offices in all of Utah's 29 counties.

With seven colleges, more than 200 majors and 130 research-related classes, Utah State can count nine Goldwater Scholars and a Rhodes Scholar among its graduates in the past ten years. Student-centered, hands-on learning opportunities are plentiful as Utah State attracted more than $186 million in research revenue last year. These research dollars, along with stellar faculty mentors, have inspired more than 1,000 students to pursue their own research projects every year."

Yeah, education creates real jobs.

####

Speaking of alt energy, there is a really interesting opening at USU's ELab, in the Center for Biofuels. They have received several million to research algae for oil, specifically as jet fuel for the military in a partnership with Oak Ridge Nat Labs. They are looking for a Science Director.

On the Bend Buttplug issue, they have to finish up the new upgrades at the treatment plant, which include using some of the methane emitted for a boiler to heat water for the digester. It's over a year behind schedule due to the city funding issues. Last time I talked to Scott out there, they were hoping October '09.They are also putting in flowmeters to see how much gas they have, and whatever is leftover could be used for a microturbine.

Alt energy is going away just like the Internet went away after the dot com bust.

####

Re: Let's remember that ALL BIKE EVENTS in Bend for the past TEN YEARS are orchestrated by TEAM SORE.

Yet another of Buster's "facts". Some are SORE, but the big ones are MBSEF. Things like the Cascade Classic, the Pole, Peddle, Paddle, and the forthcoming USA Cycling Elite Road Nationals and Cyclocross Nationals.

####

WTF is with up the kid from LaPine getting hit with lightening? He was on the Today Show this morning. Looks like the early 70's long hair is back in style with the kids.

####

On another note, my man Favre is in the news this morning. My money is on him leading the Vikes and spanking the Pack this year. Just because he's still pissed off at the wanker Packer GM Ted Thompson for how he was driven out of Green Bay.

Later, kunts.

Jelement said...

I'm guilty of owning a new car, not paid for, and in fact upside down enough that I can't even get out of it without throwing some extra money at the problem. At least I have 0% financing so I'm not wasting money on interest but still, pain in the ass.

Over the years I've owned two vehicles that were older than me, and two that were at least 15 years old when I bought them. On the other hand, I bought a WRX when they first hit our shores - fortunately the benefit of knowing the dealer was buying at invoice and selling for no loss 8 months later thanks to most dealers still having them marked up.

I hate not being able to work on cars anymore - my 60's ford pickups were a breeze to work on, at least most of the time. Despite doing some work on my WRX and a newer VW GTI I had, new cars are a pain in the ass and I'm at the point now where I just don't even care to lift the hood.

Trying to plan for downgrading the vehicle in the fall and ending up with two instead. Would like to find a nice Sidekick/Tracker 4x4 and a sedan with decent mpg that isn't totally boring to drive (older protege es, sentra se-r or similar). I should have done this last time I got rid of the new vehicle I had instead of buying another one but I guess I'm younger and therefore not as wise as those of you who have already figured that one out.

On a unrelated note, I learned on Friday that Dunc talks about the same things in the store during the day that he blogs about. Went in with my wife after work and heard a conversation about how business has been with the store lately and what impact other local shops are having on various product lines.

My wife doesn't care for the other downtown game shop after the guy seemed so shocked that she not only played warhammer, but collected and painted her own army. So we decided to always check and see if Dunc has something we want first from now on. Bought Carcassonne The Castle and a couple books, and left amused that the chatter in the store was so much like his blogs. Still better than getting attitude from the other guy downtown though.

Bewert said...

BTW, This American Life did another excellent show on the financial market meltdown this weekend, this time focusing on the regulators and rating agencies. These guys should win a Pulitzer for this series.

Link to MP3 to throw on your iPod: The Watchmen

Bewert said...

Jel--throw the first gen 96-01 Honda CR-v in to your mix.

On the working on your own car issue--buy or go to Autozone and borrow a OBD code reader. It's a requirement these days.

Of course, if you burnt up an ECM somehow, bend over and let Buster have at ya.

But most anything else isn't much different once you know what is wrong. And know how to deal with fuel injection instead of carbs. It's really a lot easier. You still have the three main issues as always: spark, fuel, and compression.

Jelement said...

There is a new, very legitimate blog now being run out of Bend-

the mess that greenspan made.com

This person JUST moved here from Calif., so you can get some great
economic news, along with his impressions of Ore. and BEND, through the eyes of a new comer.

Very informative, humorous, and timely
.

Looks like that was supposed to be http://themessthatgreenspanmade.blogspot.com

Found one post about it being time to leave Cali, and one about having arrived and unpacked in Bend. Otherwise all national stories. No real impressions of Oregon and/or Bend, and I find the claim of it being humorous misleading.

Jelement said...

On the working on your own car issue--buy or go to Autozone and borrow a OBD code reader. It's a requirement these days.

Have OBD-2 software and a cable for my laptop - used to need it all the time with my WRX since I had a manual boost controller and every now and then with the right weather it would hit the fuel cut out and throw an error code. Became invaluable for clearing those and getting everything reset. That and being able to log a ton of data during 1/4 mile runs.

I'm an IT guy, worked on computers forever - but I don't like them running my cars. Ideally I'd have a 67-72 short/wide 4x4 F100 and a similar year Datsun 510 sedan...someday.

PopGoesBend said...

>and a similar year Datsun 510 sedan...someday.

Another one to look at is the 69-73 BMW 2002s - I really miss mine. Fun as hell to drive. 28mpg at 80mph with the dual weber sidedraft carbs and a 5 speed I put in. Great visibility with all the windows, and the trunk was big enough to fit two bikes with the wheels and seatposts removed.

Anonymous said...

Autozone and borrow a OBD code reader.

*

Harbor freight $10, ... kunts.

Not the one in Bend, it sucks, go to one in PDX where they have a fucking selection, and make sure you get OBD-II.

Anonymous said...

Re: Let's remember that ALL BIKE EVENTS in Bend for the past TEN YEARS are orchestrated by TEAM SORE.

Yet another of Buster's "facts". Some are SORE, but the big ones are MBSEF. Things like the Cascade Classic, the Pole, Peddle, Paddle, and the forthcoming USA Cycling Elite Road Nationals and Cyclocross Nationals.

*

All the same people PUSSY, I know you like to think that these people are disconnected, but they all joined at the HIP by Sisters professional PR money.

FACT.

Leave it to the pussy, to be in&out of Bend in a year, and be an INTL expert on BEND.

In a week BP will be an expert on mormonism & pederasty.

Anonymous said...

Thanks BP, for saving and finding the HAMSTER Story, ... Homer, for next sunday, can you please make this story top on your BB2 mast, so it gets indexed forever, and is a tribute to losing hamsters in Bend?

Pleeeze?

I think its essential that sometimes hamsters in Bend, have to step out of the cage, ... I mean shit leaving 5 kids just because your a fucking runner in Bend. You would think that the cage is powering Bends energy, nobody fucking cares if you step out of the cage.

.... HBM's BEST EVER ... WHO SAYS TEAM-A DOESN'T HAVE COMPASSION???


Steve Larsen: An Avoidable Tragedy?
Written by H. Bruce Miller
Friday, 22 May 2009

When a young, physically fit, apparently healthy guy dies suddenly, leaving behind a wife and five children, the question everybody asks is, “Why did this have to happen?”

In the case of Steve Larsen, maybe it didn’t.

Larsen, a 39-year-old world-class triathlete and former professional bicycle racer, collapsed Tuesday while running on the track at a local school and died despite efforts to resuscitate him. Early news reports said he’d suffered a heart attack, but an autopsy ruled that out. At this writing, the cause of death remains unknown.

But according to Larsen’s brother, Mike, Steve had been sick for a while. “The last few weeks he had been having serious troubles with his breathing,” Mike Larsen told VeloNews, a cycling publication. Steve had been unable to finish his workouts, Mike said, and had been seeing a doctor. Dr. Bruce McLellan, a Bend cardiologist, was quoted in The Bulletin as saying he had heard Larsen had swelling of the legs.

But Larsen kept on working out. According to Mike he went on a club training ride last weekend, and he collapsed while trying to do the first lap of an 800-meter run on Tuesday.

Difficult breathing and swelling of the legs (from fluid retention) are classic symptoms of heart failure. Heart failure typically happens to old folks with high blood pressure and other ills. But it can happen to younger people as the result of a viral infection that invades the heart. This condition, myocarditis, usually isn't fatal if properly treated.

Why would somebody with symptoms as disturbing as those Steve Larsen apparently had stick with a rigorous training schedule anyway? We can only guess, but we suspect it’s a combination of denial – “I’m an elite endurance athlete; there can’t be anything wrong with MY heart” – and the no-pain-no-gain, tough-it-out ethos of the competitor.

Mike Larsen said his brother’s last words to him, spoken during that training ride last weekend, were: “Pull through, you expletive-expletive.” That could stand as his epitaph.

A memorial fund has been established for Steve Larsen’s family. Checks can be made out to the Steve Larsen Memorial Fund and sent to Steve Larsen Memorial Fund, Umpqua Bank, 390 SW Century Drive, Suite 100 Bend OR 97702.

Anonymous said...

No real impressions of Oregon and/or Bend, and I find the claim of it being humorous misleading.

*

That's so fucking typical, but WTF if your talking Bend, your talking CALI, your talking to CALI's, ... whats there to say about BEND, before the CALI's came right??

Before Bend became CALI Bend didn't exist right?

'Misleading' shit you just defined COVA, CORA, and all Bend's 24/7 PR&MARKETING.

Switch&Bait, Bait&Switch, ... BEND-ORYGUN ... holiday and suicide, ...

I'm sure this ASSHOLE is 100%, I'm sure 1,000's of losers will come to Bend during the depression, why the fuck not? Great place to camp, well until Dec 15, ... then the fuckers will freeze living out of their car.

Anonymous said...

I don't really see how most people are doing any worse on their homes if they bought them as places to live and they could afford them. Seriously. Take your pick: lose 40% on your investments or 40% of the paper value of your home. Losing 40% of the on paper value of your home is meaningless if you did not intend to sell it and were able to afford it in the first place. You also didn't lose that much if you didn't buy at the peak of the boom (again, most people). Its a give and take. Everybody lost something in the economic melt down but most people I know are still doing fine.

Duncan McGeary said...

Um, I should be saying two different things?

Duncan McGeary said...

Or....I shouldn't be talking about it?

I find it odd that you find it odd.

I've said from the beginning, I can't be bothered to play games. I say what I think, and I write what I think.

I may very well be wrong....but I'm open to opposing views.

PopGoesBend said...

>I don't really see how most people are doing any worse on their homes if they bought them as places to live and they could afford them.

Yes, but how many people that bought in Bend post 2004 fit into that category? Not many.

>Take your pick: lose 40% on your investments or 40% of the paper value of your home.

Or, sell your home back when you could have made money on it, rent, and stay in cash for a while.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/22/real_estate/renting_buying.moneymag/?postversion=2009052604

St Paddy said...

67 NOD's so far (11 per business day)


Thanks to Bruce we are all learning everything we never wanted to know about Utah. We get it"Utah is the greatest place on the planet" Now leave us alone to wallow in our 2,000% unemployment status.

Duncan McGeary said...

Amazing how often people move here and think we're a bunch of rubes.

Then we fleece them, thank them, and send them on their way.

Anonymous said...

Yes, but how many people that bought in Bend post 2004 fit into that category? Not many.

Can we quantify that? Does anyone have the data on how many people bought houses in Bend post 2004?

How about people who were invested in the market instead?

Some people who dumped money into the market lost a full 50% of their investments or more. 401K total balances since inception for some people fell 40-50%!

I bought a house in late 2004, so I paid a bubble price but the difference between mid 2005 prices and onward is enormous. If I hadn't bought the house, my extra money would almost certainly have been invested in a stock based portfolio (I'm not one to buy fancy cars or other material crap just because I can). I am extremely grateful the money went into the house instead. My goal was to pay off a big chunk of the mortgage and then return to regular investing after about 5 years.

Anonymous said...

http://themessthatgreenspanmade.blogspot.com/2009/03/its-bend.html


It's Bend! Oregon!

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Well, we're not going there to look for a job, and that's probably a good thing given the story below from the local paper, but we have decided to go give Bend, Oregon a try rather than other parts of the state or areas in Washington as discussed over the last few months.

Thanks again everyone for helping out in this decision. We'll be renting for a while, so it's anything but a permanent change - of all the places we looked, we liked Bend the best.

Mostly, it had to do with the winter weather (sunnier but colder versus gloomier and wetter) and the size of the town (big enough for all the good shopping, dining, etc. but with no freeway running through it).

The local real estate market offers some fantastic bargains on rentals and home prices appear to be in a virtual free-fall at the moment with lots of home built in 2004-2007 now going back to the bank faster than they know what to do with them.

Of course, the outdoor activities are why people go there and we'll be sure to take advantage of all of them - we might even take up fly-fishing.

-------------------------------

UPDATE: Wednesday, March 4th, 9:25 PST

In no particular order, a few of the most important pros and cons about the Bend area that are specific to our situation (e.g., things like the local job market and being so far from the ocean are just not that important to us):

Pros:
- Moderate summer temperatures
- Outdoor activities - hiking, camping, winter sports, golf
- Shopping and restaurants
- Not too big of a town (~80,000)
- Good selection of rental and foreclosed housing
- ROUNDABOUTS!!

Cons:
- Cold winters
- A little more isolated
- May be hit hard during this recession

PopGoesBend said...

>Everybody lost something in the economic melt down but most people I know are still doing fine.

That's great for the folks you know. Folks I know include:

3 foreclosed on already. 1 who built two homes that cost about $700k each planning to sell for $900k, but lost both to foreclosure

1 foreclosing in Aug

1 getting ready to hand keys to bank on 2 properties

3 that took their properties off the market over a year ago waiting for a rebound - all severely underwater now, but could have gotten out then if they just dropped their prices.

1 that just had another kid and wants to move up from their starter home, is underwater - but doesn't know it. (asking way too much)

2 in starter homes bought too close to the peak, with mortgage resets coming, and can't afford the resets.

1 small builder who lost $90k on his last build and is very happy with that.

1 who built a new home, planning to sell the old one for $675k+, then only were able to get $525k for it, making their payments on the new place much higher. New place didn't appraise for what they paid for it, so they decided not to sell it.

1 who built a new addition with a HELOC planning on a re-fi to get a decent rate and now the house doesn't appraise for enough.

I'm sure I have other friends who are in trouble but haven't talked about it.

Duncan McGeary said...

Heh. "A LITTLE more isolated.

"MAY...be hit hard during this recession."

Still, seems to have the right attitude. No rube baiting.

Jelement said...

Um, I should be saying two different things?

No...not at all, just figured there would be other things to talk about in the store during the day than the budget/sales/traffic/competition that is standard fare for blog posts. Wasn't a bad thing so much as an observation, amusing to hear the actual conversation you've been reading in posts for several months.

We came in for the first time at the end of last year before I knew about the blog and things were quiet. I'd never heard of the store but my wife knew who you were because she knows the guys who used to run Third Millennium.

I enjoy the store, and read the blog daily - don't take my observations as negatives. I should have broken that up into two posts as well, gotta do my part for the weekly 800.

PopGoesBend said...

>Can we quantify that? Does anyone have the data on how many people bought houses in Bend post 2004?

There has been just over 8000 home sales in Bend since Jan 05

Anonymous said...

It sounds like a lot of your friends were in on the speculating during the boom or never planned for when rates would reset. I was scratching my head when I went for my mortgage. The broker wanted me to borrow way more money than made sense. My rule was 3x income with fixed rate and I stretched that to 3.5X because of low interest rates. The broker guy seemed to think I was being a cowardly peon. Wonder what he thinks now...

I did know one guy, a coworker in the speculator category. He lost big time $$$. I don't know what his financial situation is now since he left the company I work for. He'd contracted to have a house built in 2006 that was finished in 2007. He planned to sell for a higher price, but ended up having to rent it out for far less than the mortgage payment. If he didn't sell I'd imagine he's in worse shape than when I saw him last year.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the number. Of the 8000, approx how many are in trouble? That seems like it would be the most relevant figure.

PopGoesBend said...

>Thanks for the number. Of the 8000, approx how many are in trouble? That seems like it would be the most relevant figure.

590 Notices of Default sent out in 2007.

1928 sent out in 2008.

1510 sent out so far in 2009, which should easily push us past 3000 this year.

I don't know how many are in trouble, but with over 4000 NODs sent out since Jan 2007 my guess is... a lot.

Duncan McGeary said...

O.K. cool.

Actually, I really don't spend all my time on those subjects. But probably more than I should

You should've heard me before the blog. When it was my only outlet.

Keep comin' in.

Jelement said...

I didn't read back through that blog far enough to get to that post. When I found the one about moving and it went back to national stuff I pretty much stopped there.

Personally I'd move the "A little bit more isolated" from the Cons to the Pros section.

May seem to have the right attitude, but a little different type than most who post here I think

http://themessthatgreenspanmade.blogspot.com/2009/04/back-from-bend.html

When we had some time to kill, we stopped into a couple of private golf courses in the area and inquired about membership, just to get an idea about what they were charging these days if we happened to be so inclined.

I'd be surprised if any regulars here have membership to private golf courses.

We are now back from what was, thankfully, our last exploratory trip to Oregon, having signed a one-year lease for the place you see below atop Awbrey Butte in Bend.

That house would be 3073 NW Jewell Place (don't ask, there's a picture in the post, easily figured out from there). Owners bought it in June 2007 for $600k but they had down, since the mortgage was only $300k. They took out a $30k line of credit in September 2008 as well. According to google cache of Zillow it was on the market for $550k and then reduced to $512k before it was taken off the market and rented out. And the last posting I can find in Google cache for the rent was in March, right before this guy leased it for a year. Advertised rent: $1,900 a month.

Jelement said...

EDIT above - 3073 NW Jewell Way (not Place). Too many windows open and I mixed a couple up.

Not to beat a dead horse, but that site says at the top "By Tim Iacono since 2005".

Tim Iacono is a retired software engineer who writes the blog 'The Mess That Greenspan Made'. The blog focuses on the many and varied effects of the Greenspan term at the Fed, particularly on the housing market and commodity prices. He is also the founder of Iacono Research, a subscription service providing market commentary and investment advisory services specializing in commodity based investing.

Subscription service to go with the blog huh? And how much does that cost?

Subscriptions to this service are priced at $159 per year, $279 for two years, or $15 per month - the monthly payment option requires a PayPal account, however, the annual and two-year subscriptions can be purchased using any major credit card or a PayPal account.

Wow...for that kind of money I should be getting expert advice...

First the bad news - this is a pay site. The good news, however, is that for a relatively small fee, you will be provided access to a bounty of information in the subscribers' area including market research, market commentary, and most importantly, investment ideas based on my personal holdings.

The thought process is fairly simple. I spend a judicious amount of time researching and analyzing economic data and financial markets based on information and opinions from a wide variety of sources. I then formulate and refine personal views which result in writing commentary and making personal investment decisions, both of which are shared with subscribers.

As you may know from reading the blog, I have no formal training in economics, investments, or personal finance. This is viewed as an impediment to clear thinking when it comes to making sense of markets and investing wisely. My track record in recent years has been quite good - so good in fact, that my wife and I began a very early retirement a couple years ago while still in our mid 40s.

An engineer by profession, with a keen understanding of human nature, my study of economics and financial markets began in earnest in the late 1990s - this is where it has led. I am self taught and self sufficient - analyst, writer, webmaster, marketer, bill-collector, and bill-payer. This is intended to be a long-term, one-man operation where the only items that will ever be offered for sale to the public are subscriptions to this service and books that I plan to write in the years ahead.


This strikes me as the kind of person that current day Bend sucks the life out of and then spits back to California. Made money as an engineer, started a subscription internet service, retired early, writes about investing, has no relevant education, has plans of writing books, and leased a house on Awbrey that was going for $1,900 a month from owners who already gave up on selling it.

I guess that just means BB2 should start charging a subscription fee for the economic and financial insight.

Anonymous said...

more stuff to do...

Having lived in the Columbia River Gorge for many years, I try and hike Eagle Creek (just below Bonneville Damn, Oregon side) at least once a year. One of the most beautiful hiking trails in Oregon, IMHO.

Expand your billy chinook plans to include another family or three and rent a houseboat for the weekend. GOOD times, and local - can't beat that.

Anonymous said...

"I guess that just means BB2 should start charging a subscription fee . . . ."

Homer just wants your love, nothing else.

Anonymous said...


Air France?

(a bomb)


Carradine?

(the BKK mob)


HBM?

(????????)

MDHN09 said...

Everybody lost something in the economic melt down but most people I know are still doing fine.

REALLY?

I have a friends that hang with the homeless... and been very affected

I have friends that where making 300k year in RE.. completely fucked

Friends that have been wait-en tables for many years.. affected.

Friends that have there own in home businesses.. ...... affected

Friends that have had retirement plans completely turned around

I am an optimistic kind of guy, like to hang with optimistic folks and just not sure which Bend world you are living in.. sure there are those that purchased property post 1997, never took out money. Converted stock to Wheat and Gold when Dow was +10,000 and either have the luxury of not working or have a business that has not been affected by a fewer dollars worth less. And I know there is the loong time local folks that can live off the land and never bought into this cali banger crap.... if these are the people you are chillin with- good for you.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Everybody lost something in the economic melt down but most people I know are still doing fine.



These sorts of comments still amuse...

I ALSO know people who are doing well.

I know people whose situation hasn't changed.

I know people who are doing worse.

A "downturn" isn't the sudden violent shift of ALL people from the former status to the latter... it's just a noticeable & significant shift.

Not EVERYONE in Bend is broke & unemployed. Just a hell of a lot more than 2 years ago. I try to NOT be so myopic that I neither notice or care about these people.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Air France?
(a bomb)


Points out the concept that terrorism, like trees falling in the forest, must be witnessed to make a sound...

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Obama Falling?

Obama says economic projections too optimistic


He also repeated an earlier promise to create or save 600,000 jobs by the end of the summer.

Neither the acceleration nor the jobs goal is new. Both represent a White House repackaging of promises and projects to blunt criticism that the effects haven't been worth the historic price tag. And the job estimate is so murky, it can never be verified.

The economy has shed 1.6 million jobs since the stimulus measure was signed in February, far overshadowing White House announcements estimating that the effort has saved 150,000 jobs. Public opinion of Obama's handling of the economy has declined along with the jobs data.

For the first time, the administration admitted that the economic forecasts it used to sell the stimulus were overly optimistic...

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Imagine that... we were sold a bill of goods.

Who would have kno.... Oh Jeebus, what am I saying?

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

"At the time, our forecast seemed reasonable," Vice President Joe Biden's top economic adviser, Jared Bernstein, said Monday, explaining that the White House underestimated the scope of the recession. "Now, looking back, it was clearly too optimistic."

By now, according to earlier White House economic models, the nation's unemployment rate should be on the decline. The forecasts used to drum up support for the plan projected that today's unemployment would be about 8 percent. Instead, it sits at 9.4 percent, the highest in more than 25 years.

"We've done more than ever, faster than ever, more responsibly than ever, to get the gears of the economy moving again," he said.

But he acknowledged, "I'm not satisfied. We've got more work to do."

Americans apparently agree. Obama's disapproval rating on the economy has risen from 30 percent in February to 42 percent, according to a Gallup poll completed May 31. Sensing weakness on a signature issue of Obama's presidency, congressional Republicans are renewing their criticisms that the stimulus plan has not shown results, only mounting debt.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

GM, Freddie, Fannie, Citi... these examples should cement the reputation of the US Gov't as the Worst Investor on Earth.

We are ALL going to have to pay this money back, and the principal just evaporated in a CEO Golden Parachute Boondoggle the like of which has never been seen in World History.

This has simply been the largest and FASTEST transfer of wealth from one group (US Taxpayers) to another (Corporate Welfare, Unions & Exec's) EVER.

Thanks Barack!

Anonymous said...

http://themessthatgreenspanmade.blogspot.com/2009/03/its-bend.html

*

Why do you fuckheads keep promoting this dimwit??

Sounds to me like BP has started a new Bend gig from SLC.

Anonymous said...

Points out the concept that terrorism, like trees falling in the forest, must be witnessed to make a sound...

*

Terrorism is a mind invention of the west.

The goal of the Middle-East Islamic jihad is financial ruin of the West. Ergo 911 for every dollar spent, a billion was lost.

In time complete lack of confidence in air transport will result.

The West can deny all it want.

Anonymous said...

What are we up to? I want to see some tits.

Anonymous said...

http://tinyurl.com/more-tits

Quimby said...

>> This strikes me as the kind of person that current day Bend sucks the life out of and then spits back to California. Made money as an engineer, started a subscription internet service, retired early, writes about investing, has no relevant education, has plans of writing books, and leased a house on Awbrey that was going for $1,900 a month from owners who already gave up on selling it.


You fucking nailed that one JElement. That's what the Bend PR/Mktg machine is all about. Sit back and enjoy the show.

Quimby said...

Has anyone checked the civil filings at the court house? I wonder if someone sued (or threatened) HBM and now he's afraid to say anything.

But on what grounds?

I imagine there are more than a few lawyers in the Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger cycle nazi crowd.

Quimby said...

Bend PR is marketing to "the mark". Guess who fits the profile?

Anonymous said...

Re: Sit back and enjoy the show.

####

http://themessthatgreenspanmade.blogspot.com/2009/04/end-of-era.html?showComment=1240365780000

The expert comments on winter driving in Bend are quite humorous.

"A front wheel drive with all season tires highly rated for snow should be all you really need for Bend..."

Duncan McGeary said...

"A front wheel drive with all season tires highly rated for snow should be all you really need for Bend..."

True enough if you never leave Bend. Maybe he just intends to fly to Portland, and anywhere else....

PopGoesBend said...

>"A front wheel drive with all season tires highly rated for snow should be all you really need for Bend..."

That's a fairly true statement. The first two winters I was here I had a '65 Chevy BelAir wagon with not-so-great all season tires. One of those winters I lived on Saginaw. On the few crappy days that I didn't feel comfortable driving down 9th St I just rode my bike.

My Subaru with Michelin X-Ice2 studless is worlds better and I can go anywhere in it. Do i NEED it? No. If you think it's necessary then you are a fucking pansy. I regularly drive my wife's Saab 900 with all seasons in the winter on days when it's crappy and she takes the more capable car to work.

People confuse NEED and "is nice".

Anonymous said...

Of course I have a rear wheel drive. Slides like a fish if I don't use studs.

Too cheap to buy a new car. But it's front wheel drive when this one dies.

Jelement said...

Rear wheel drive small truck with no weight in the bed and all seasons. That's what got me through this past winter.

Will I do it again? No way. If I still have the truck come winter I'm going with studs and sandbags.

Duncan McGeary said...

Opps. I forgot he's on Awbrey. Heh.

I think I'm safer in my little Toyota than lots of people in their big honkin' SUV's.

It isn't the size that matters, but how you use it.

Anonymous said...

Hey, PV Powered got some money - they won't say how much.
From Biz Journal;


PV Powered Inc. on Tuesday announced it has received a “multimillion-dollar investment” from a Vancouver, Wash., investment group.

The deal — terms of which were not disclosed — could help to triple the size of the privately-held Bend-based manufacturer of gried-tied photovoltaic solar inverters.

The investment comes from Evans Renewable Holdings II LLC, an investment group led by the principals of JH Kelly LLC, an 85-year-old construction company.

PV Powered expects to use the investment to rapidly expand the company, which includes the hiring additional workers and developing the next commercial and utility-scale products.

A PV Powered news release did not disclose the size of the investment. Neither officials from PV Powered nor JH Kelly returned calls for comment Tuesday.

A year ago, PV Powered said it was in the middle of trying to raise $10 million in venture capital after having subsisted on a loyal group of about 40 angel investors.

PV Powered’s inverters convert the direct current electricity generated by photovoltaic arrays into the alternating current electricity used in homes and businesses.

Bewert said...

PV is your model, folks. Great product, makes a profit. Local.

Anonymous said...

"It isn't the size that matters, but how you use it."

Great one, Dunc! This statement has wide applicability!

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Lead story in the Business section of the Bully today... a riveting piece on wine bottle openers.

Pop! goes the cork


“Corks made out of cork are one thing and the latex cork is a different animal,” he says.

Wine keys come in two types, Maragas says: the single-lever action key, which has one hinge you use to pull out the cork; and the double-lever action lever, which has two hinges.

The “Rabbit” is a brand name for a gadget that looks as if it has rabbit ears. This mechanism is supposed to allow you to pull out the cork with minimal effort.

Avery admits that someone with arthritis might have difficulty holding the gadget.



Again, riveting. Pulitzer Prize material there folks.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

There is a new, very legitimate blog now being run out of Bend-

the mess that greenspan made.com

This person JUST moved here from Calif., so you can get some great
economic news, along with his impressions of Ore. and BEND, through the eyes of a new comer.

Very informative, humorous, and timely.



Ummmm... I would think it might be clear that this is a comment from the person writing this blog. I don't read self-promoted Cali-Banger loving shit. Plus, I don't give a fuck about Greenspan.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Well, it's Wednesday morning, and we've got 100 comments. I'm not sure we'll have 800 by Sunday morning.

Help Me Obama Jeebus!

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

The expert comments on winter driving in Bend are quite humorous.

"A front wheel drive with all season tires highly rated for snow should be all you really need for Bend..."



THIS is "funny"? THIS is an "expert" comment"?

Dudes, this is the blog author! Holy Shit, I'd MUCH rather read Dunc's stuff or some other long-time local talking about something that MATTERS, not some self-aggrandizing Cali-Banger transplant talking about some geezers whose been out of a job for over a year now, or worse, HIS CHOICE OF SNOW TIRES! WTF? Why would a Cali-Spunker know SHIT about snow tires, and why would anyone listen?

I mean, go ahead & promote your shit here dude, cuz I don't moderate, but the more you do it, the more you open yourself up to a good lambasting. But I'll tell you NOW, you're excerpts AIN'T FUNNY OR EVEN INFORMATIVE.

Write something GOOD, and I'll be right over. But so far I've seen boring ass stupid bullshit.

tim said...

Speaking of tires, Les Schwab trying to keep the tires from China rolling in.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

OK, what sort of FUCKED UP PLACE has FOOT HIGH piles of ice on the streets in the MIDDLE OF JUNE!

Maybe HBM has seen the light, wrote a HAMPSTER PIECE, moved out, and will file a wrongful termination suit. Lucky fucker.

Anonymous said...

I had the privilege of driving through that yesterday. It was amazing. There were pools of water and ice even on flat streets.

Quimby said...

Or maybe Buster has convinced HBM to move to Thailand. I can see it now.....The Odd Couple w/ their harem.

Anonymous said...

HBM likey young Thai boys. They so horny. They suck long time.

Anonymous said...

Maybe HButtMangler is gone. The Wondering Brown Eye has a new post on it by some guy named Eric.

Anonymous said...

All of you rednecks who drive Jeeps and Chryslers,and have been ranting about "Buying American"
must be choking on your "american" Budweiser (owned by the Belgians).

Fiat junk and Chrysler design is a marriage made in heaven.
I give the company 6 months to a year before collapsing for the final time.

Anonymous said...

"Speaking of tires, Les Schwab trying to keep the tires from China rolling in."


These have got to be tough economic times for a regional player like Schwab - for multiple reasons.

Anonymous said...

I think this tire debate deserves further study. Let's get a forum together downtown, to debate "studs vs. no studs".
Should be a lively forum, to say the least.

Anonymous said...

"studs vs. no studs"

I assume you're talking horses, right?

Anonymous said...

No, "studs" refers to Oregonians and "no studs" refers to Californicators.

Anonymous said...

Why do we have this damned studs conversation three times every winter? (It is winter, isn't it?)

Anonymous said...

Well, it's Wednesday morning, and we've got 100 comments. I'm not sure we'll have 800 by Sunday morning.

Help Me Obama Jeebus!

===

*

Okay, I'll help out...

As I said:
Bend's Real Estate mirrors BB2, or vice versa. They both are sucking wind; their glory days are long past.

Butter is our very own Breeze. Quimby is Bratten. Buster is JohnLScott. Marge is Marge. Dunc is Hasson. HBM is an idiot.

---

*

Only Quimby replied.

Buster? Where are you, queerbait?

Marge? Quit counting your ammo and reply!

Dunc? I know you are out there waiting for another meltdown momment... get over here and flame on!

And let's here from the Village Idiot himself... calling hbm!

And for old times sake:

"Fuck all you Republicans!"

Anonymous said...

Does anyone out there think that Obama will be a 2 term president??
He has made some horrible appointments.Larry Summers, who got millions from Wall Street, and Tim Geitner. Both seem only to want to bail out their New York/Wall st. buddies, at the expense of the rest of us slobs.
The economy is getting worse, not better, despite the one trillion that Obama has spent on banks and car companies.
Anybody have any thoughts on this??

Jelement said...

It is winter, isn't it?

It would be, but clearly its all Dunc's fault:

Thursday, May 28, 2009
Yeah, it's summer!
I'm calling it. This weekend is the start of the real summer season
.

In the two weeks since I feel like I moved to fucking Portland. Mostly just grey and wet except for midday when I'm stuck behind a desk and don't get to see it.

Anonymous said...

Buster? Where are you, queerbait?

*

Busier than a dog in heat.

I got to get my rentals filled, and then back to Malaysia. I got three girls to please. My jungle bunny down south wants her farm, and I have been back three weeks and she still hasn't emailed a scanned copy of the deed, we're talking $5,000 for 20 acres ocean front, so I care not, but too hard to pull money, easier to push.

But I can't go back until I get my places all rented, and I always do this shit myself, perhaps I should let go? I have kids who take care of yard shit, ... but I like to screen and find the renters, ... just don't want a problem letting some fuck-head make that decision.

My stewardess GF in BKK says if I don't get back in a month, she'll start dating others, ... and my third well we chat every day for two hours.

Luckily jungle bunny doesn't know internet, and doesn't speak a word of fucking english, but my god can she cook and fuck. She only wants to cook & fuck she says that's why god put her here. She eats every two hours, and I can just lay next to her and get hard-on. Both us only wear wraps in her village, which basically just covers my dick, and her tits and ass, and she has the wrap off more than on.


My stewardess bud, is busy, right now shes on a 14day on 7off, its two weeks around the world and one week back in BKK, so I don't see her much.

Then there is my little sweetie, she is 25, the airline gal is 30, and jungle bunny is 32, ... The 25 is the one that really loves, me but I go slow, and see where it goes, she has two masters degree one in art the other in english, like me she is fluent in chinese, we rarely speak thai, of which I'm fluent.

Why am I not on BB2? Cuz I got shit to do, and I don't give a FUCK about Bend, and never did, its been a base-camp for 40+ years I have always told you all.

End of fucking story.

My airline bud I'm trying to convince her to meet me in Rome for her next week off, I buy her ticket, its much easier for me to fly to rome for a week than going to BKK. It's strange, she'll let me live in her condo in BKK with her, but she's terrified of me selling her to a sex-slave biz in Rome, the mind of a thai-woman, fucking paranoid, but smart.

Anonymous said...

* continued from 4k limit - FUCK THIS SHIT HOMER

My jungle-bunny is an amusement, I buy her a farm, I can go visit the rest of my life and be treated like a king, this farm will set her for life. She has a great 10yr old son, and a drop-dead gorgeous 18yr daughter. Luckily for me, they're not around when I'm around, hell she even keeps the family away when I'm around so that she can fuck 8-10 hrs a day.

My stewardess has plans, she already has a masters in english, and plans to go to Oxford next year to get her PHD in english lit. Then she wants to get $100/hr gig in BKK which is a fortune for legal translating, as she says even at 30 she can no longer push the cart on the plane, the work is killing her back, she like me is martial art expert. The most beautiful girl I have never known in my life, but this girl is too ambitious, no fucking way I can keep her, so I set her free, and we talk weekly and get together when our paths cross. When she's back in BKK we talk a lot, but when she's on the road, she's busy, you can imagine back to back 10hr flights, ... its crash and go again, ... but she loves it, like all thai women, to sleep in a western hotel is like being in heaven. I hate fucking western hotels, thats why I spend so much time with 'jungle-bunny'.


My little music/art cutie still lives with her parents, but soon they retire she comes from a good family and has a very good job in BKK, because she is fluent in so many languages, she also plays a dozen instruments. I think I'll get her an apartment in October. When her parents move north, she has never lived alone, it should be interesting, an apartment will cost me $100/month. I don't to pay, but its the thai way, to help, pussy ain't free in this country, you always pay.

So there you have it FUCK BEND & FUCK BB2 ( I love you all ).

Fuck & swim down south in paradise, or talk intellectual shit with a beautiful young girl that loves me in BKK, or fly to rome, paris, ... and meet a '10' for holiday.

When my 25 yr old gets her own apartment, then I'll spend more time with her, but its night and weekend only, as 'good girls' in thailand have jobs.

Jungle-Bunny doesn't have a job, she only was to spend 1-2 hrs a day collecting food that grows for free, so she is the only woman I have that has a job schedule like me.


That's what's on my mind guys.

OUT!

PopGoesBend said...

What I just read:

-------
Buster? Where are you, queerbait?

*

Busier than a dog in heat.

blah blah fucking blah

OUT.
-------

Thank fucking god.

Anonymous said...

Sorry pop, but for me young thai/malay pussy over-rules, Bend, ...

Just thinking about Bend skanks make me want to puke.

I don't see HBM joining, me first he doesn't speak languages, he doesn't know culture, and I suspect like BP his wife holds his balls.

See BUSTER is lucky, buster-wife actually gets a hard-on when buster out of town!!!

But MY FUCKING GOD, I'm sick of Bend, oh I'll do some trail riding on Phil, and some road bike, and next winter I'll xc-ski, when I'm around, but I don't even like to go to deschutes anymore, all of downtown Bend makes me want to puke.

I thought I would enjoy seeing 1983 again, but what I see now is fucking cali losers bitching, ... and still moving in, and sickness prevailing, this town just fucking sucks.

Like HAMSTER this town is fucking twisted and sucks dick.

Anonymous said...

buster:
"My airline bud I'm trying to convince her to meet me in Rome for her next week off, I buy her ticket, its much easier for me to fly to rome for a week than going to BKK."

====

Yeah, I hear ya! When I want meet up with my airline bud's somewhere exotic, I am always springing for their airfare... LOL! busted!

Pop:
Busier than a dog in heat.

blah blah fucking blah

OUT.
-------

Thank fucking god.
===

So true! Pop nails it.

Goodbye buster the teenage-live-at-home-loser, but an online-action-figure (in your dreams). Time to give up your high school creative writing project, and go to work at McDonalds for the summer.

Anonymous said...

"My jungle bunny down south wants her farm, and I have been back three weeks and she still hasn't emailed a scanned copy of the deed...Luckily jungle bunny doesn't know internet"

Anonymous said...

Well jungle bunny has 'friends' at internet shop, and they charge $50 baht ( 1/2 days wage ) for sending and receiving fax, so she has bright idea to scan deed and send to me via email but I tell her no fucking way, to learn internet and pay shop $10 baht/hr to do shit herself. Trouble of course is some folks don't have the fucking IQ to learn english. We're talking about 6grade education here, and toss in thai/malay stds, and now we're on a 3rd grade level USA....

That said, something about these women, not all fucked up with the head, even little jungle bunny tells me "I THINK TOO MUCH", better to eat & fuck she says and not THINK.


See, and they call these 'primitives' stupid, I think shes onto something, but that said, even if I wanted to I cannot spend more than a month a time in her village, too much shit to do, ...

Ok, how do you communicate in these cases, hell even her thai ain't that good, well what I do is write thai characters and send them with skype, and they my mobile number is left, and then she replys in thai, and then I get that and forward to my gmail, ... and then use google translate to get english, ... and then to reply I send back the thai with skype works fine, and costs me about 0.05 for sms and same for her, ... NO FUCKING EMAIL.

Regarding the phone yes I can call for free, but here's the problem her thai is basically "I love you", "I miss you", and she knows no english, ... even day to day its "Lets eat", "Let fucks", "Let swim", and ...

Did I miss anything.

See I dont' fucking care, about you Bend boyz, cuz I know I'm having fun, at 65, and to have women all over, ... beautiful women who love to fuck, not Bend skanks that smell like meth.

One other item, these girls don't drink, not one of my girls smokes or drinks, pure as fucking snow.

PopGoesBend said...

>See I dont' fucking care, about you Bend boyz,

If you didn't care about us then you wouldn't care about "impressing" us and would shut the fuck up.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I hear ya! When I want meet up with my airline bud's somewhere exotic, I am always springing for their airfare... LOL! busted!

*

Sorry I don't do that, her benny's are her deal, if I ask her go go somewhere its my nickel, and she keeps her bonus points, a lot of these girls trade them with each other, me NOT paying for her ticket would be a 'loss of face', again you fuck-heads got to know the fucking culture, you want them to meet you somewhere, you take care of all the shit, including the ticket, ... maybe someday she surprise me an visit me who knows, and then she would use her travel credit, ... who knows, ... but that is up to her, but if I invite her to MY GIG, then I pay. It the fucking way.

Again, I think that's why its so hard for most foreign fuck-heads to make it work, they refuse to learn new rules, ... I play by their rules.

From BKK roundtrip to rome its about the same as it costs me about $600 RT. Not a big deal to me, ... not for what I get, ...

I don't care much, I'm patient, next year she'll be in England going to school, and I can go visit whenever I want.

The biggest problem for me I don't like Bangkok, it sucks, its like NYC or LA, just fucking SUCKS, like a BEND with 30M people, hell huh?

Anonymous said...

Listen 'pop-kunt', I was bullshitting here several years before you crawled over to this rock, somebody today, and not you wanted to know why buster ain't around, .... so I fill in the blanks.

FUCK you pop, but then I have always said you were a fucking drip.

PopGoesBend said...

>FUCK you pop, but then I have always said you were a fucking drip.

And that doesn't bother me in the least.

PopGoesBend said...

Buster, don't go away mad.
Buster, just go away.

Anonymous said...

Well these are things on my mind these days and it ain't Bend.

I haven't been to a Bend watering-hole for months, last time I went to the silver moon I almost got into a fight and same as deschutes, ... too many 30 yr old kids looking for trouble, I don't put with with shit, knocked one on his last time he elbowed me, Bend kids don't think old people should dance, I like going to silver-moon, or Tower, or Summit, ... to dance, hell sometimes I even go to blacksmith an disco, but as the economy has gotten bad the kids, and I'm sure these kids live at home, they fucking think their parents should be at home. ..

So I'm dancing about a month ago at summit, first set was fine, and second set with my wife, and this drunk kid trys to take over the dance area, and starts elbowing, hit me 1,2, ... may 6 times, on the sixth I did a hip throw an knocked him on his ass, and he got him and wanted to fight, twice my size, he's like "If you didn't want me to hit you, you should have said something", ... I say nothing, just wait for a reason to rip his arms out of his sockets.

So I don't need a fucking record at my age, ... but this is fucking BEND, I never see this shit anywhere, else fuck BEND, like DOMINOES across from silver moon, same thing, those fucking kids can't stand seeing grandpa dance, so they try to push him off the floor. OK, fine, but I push back.

Such is BEND, now this is the way BEND goes as it turns to shit, but again, I can't have a record got to keep clean, If I get a felony assault on my record thai immigration can ban me, which means no retirement in Thailand, ... solution stay the fuck out of BEND night-clubs on the second set. FUCKING SAD.

Just got Portland or Eugene, or Seattle if I want to dance. Then the average age is 60, and everyone is cool. See thats the problem with BEND is that over 40, folks stay home.

Anonymous said...

So who died and made POP the god of BB2, buster just giving his monthly SITREP.

OUT.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes I use studded snow tires .
Most years I can get by without them. Tires generally last 4 years, but if you keep them inflated, maybe 6 years.

Anonymous said...

"So who died and made POP the god of BB2"

well you see our pop ( tim jones) made 100K by flipping and now he rules the roost (he thinks).

Pop, we're not on here for you, it's for B&B (buster and butter).

Bewert said...

Re: Just got Portland or Eugene, or Seattle if I want to dance. Then the average age is 60, and everyone is cool. See thats the problem with BEND is that over 40, folks stay home.

####

Butter, your self-inflicted job is completed

Buster dancing?

Bend is dead meat.

MDHN09 said...

new world order is here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA2KLm-_qTg

Anonymous said...

I really wish we could spend more time here talking about tires.

PopGoesBend said...

Median home prices drop below 1989 levels in some parts of Southland

In parts of Southern California, the housing crash has upended a basic tenet of the American dream: that home values always increase over the long term.

Properties in several areas are selling for less than they did 20 years ago, and that's not even counting the effects of inflation.

......

Bewert said...

That's a stunning article, Pop.

"The April median price in Beatrice's Lancaster ZIP Code of 93535, for example, was $87,000. That's down 74% from a $334,500 peak price in 2007. Even worse was the 92410 ZIP Code in the city of San Bernardino, which covers several older neighborhoods. Its $61,000 April median represents an 84% drop from the peak of $370,000 in 2007."

About as much demand there as for the STD's on the east side of Bend. Just a matter of time.

Anonymous said...

Well star warz boyz the force is strong in Bend, and everything is going exactly according to plan.

Since day-one here I have said if your RE ain't within a 1 mile radius of Deschutes Brewpub you be fucked.

If your RE in Eastside Siberia, you be ahhh so fucked, hello 1984 medians, ... but sweet inner west will always hold 4X income, trouble is that means two fast food jobs to get that income.

Ahh living in luxury in paradise Bend, the best place in 20 years.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Bob Thomas gave me the title to my next post....

Anonymous said...

Well, I can only hope you get the 800 comments that you are looking for. Years and years ago I lived in Bend for a short period of time, but the Bend I lived in and the one that I visited about 4 years ago were as different as night and day. I come here to read a bit, but (like Playboy magazine) I like the pictures. I don't live in Oregon anymore, in fact I'm 3500 miles away where there is employment, so my opinions are worthless. None the less, I like the pictures.

Anonymous said...

You guys crack me up why do you want to go to a bar and get into a fight? Number 1 it is expensive make your own wine or beer and invite some friends over save money . number2 did you know that if you have intent to do bodily harm that is classified as an assault charge, that means record, possible jail time, lawyers, even if someone hits you first and you defend yourself hit back and their friends are the only witness you could be screwed.Number 3 It is not worth it bars suck, a bunch of drunks acting stupid spending hard earned money for possible trouble?

Anonymous said...

Cute and cuddly boys... cute and cuddly - POM

foz said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Who wants to get in a fight in a bar, but shit you can't sit in the house every night? Or can you??

Ok, so the bars in Bend run with these latch-key kids from cali, now 30-40 and live with mom&dad, spoiled rotten, somebody has to knock them on their ass.

Yet to see one yet fight back, yea tell me about it, they're all bark and no bite, and just want to fuck with someone their parents age....

The fucking outcome of Bend where middle age people came to retire, and darling son follows and of course he can't get a job in Bend.

But he goes out at night for pussy, and thinks that the 65 yr old guy on the dance floor is trying to get his girl???

Yeh, right I always go dancing with my wife, but these fuck-heads don't see middle age women, they're invisible. ...

BEND SUCKS AND BAD FOLKS DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT MOVING HERE, EVEN IF RE GOES to $1 sq-ft.

Anonymous said...

Well FOZZ their has to be at least one rock to piss in this lame house town, .. so its good that homer keeps this shit-hole blog alive, for the sake of this shit-hole town.

Did I mention that CALI's and their Spawn eat dog shit??

Anonymous said...

I hope you put HBM's hamster story on your front-page for tomorrow homer, we need to have a tombstone for HBM.

Anonymous said...

Buster dancing?

Bend is dead meat.

*

Why PUSSY, I have always danced, NOTE you left this fucking shit-hole town, I'm still here, when I'm NOT in thai/malay, and god I want to go back, but got one more miserable month of fucking 7-day a week work.

Even in the prior day 1983, I went dancing, but then I was 40, and passed for 30, now I'm 65, and look 50.

I guess in 1983, we only had a few shit-hole dives, and ... and I was a stud, nobody fucked with me.

I think now the problem is the 30k CALI retires brought junior, and he don't have a job, and these KUNT-KIDS probably sons of 90% of the bastards on this fucking blog, are as fucked up as dad.

Somebody will quit dancing in this town, and it ain't going to be me.

Tell your fucking cali spawn to go back to Cali, will you please, and take your own fucking ass in the uhaul as well.

OUT!

Anonymous said...

I love California. The people are much better educated,not prejudiced against blacks, and are more centered on social justice.
People in Bend are sadly lacking in manners.

Anonymous said...

"I was a stud, nobody fucked with me."

===

Tomorrow's blog post title?

What a sad, pathetic, loser of an old fart.

Yep. I used to be somebody. But now I am just a pathetic old loser getting older and sadder by the day.

PS word veri: irsayin

Anonymous said...

"I was a stud, nobody fucked with me."

He's fucking awesome. For every loser that reads this blog, at least there is someone more fucked than them.

Buster is Uncle Rico, hanging in his van and tossing the football.

Buster: "Back in '82, I used to be able to throw a pigskin a quarter mile."
BP: "Are you serious?"
Buster: "I'm dead serious."


"How much you wanna make a bet I can throw a football over them mountains?... Yeah... Coach woulda put me in fourth quarter, we would've been state champions. No doubt. No doubt in my mind."

tim said...

Ohhhh, man I wish I could go back in time. I'd take state.

Anonymous said...

I'm gonna tell you somethin' right now. While you're out there playing patty cake with your friend Pedro, Buster is makin' 120 bucks.

Anonymous said...

Kip, I reckon... you know a lot about... cyberspace? You ever come across anything... like time travel?

Anonymous said...

Buster, still dreaming about injecting Viagra in his dick the last time he actually looked at it in real time back in '88.

This shit is too rich.

State? State?

I would have saved the universe!