Category: Miscellaneous

NASA has provided 90 second videos of the first 90 sols (martian days) of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers [both are 5MB .mov].

I bought a house in Lethbridge two years ago this September. I’m really happy about the market here in Lethbridge, I think I purchased my house at a great time. I don’t normally like to copy / paste an entire article, but I’m afraid that the Lethbridge Herald isn’t going to keep this story online for long so here it is:

Housing prices rise and sales volumes soar in the Lethbridge region

By DAVE MABELL

Lethbridge Herald

Think you could handle a 35 per cent sales hike this month?

That’s what Lethbridge-area real estate personnel generated last month, as home sales in the city and across the region continued well ahead of last year’s pace. With 282 sales completed during the month — up 35 per cent from the 209 changing hands a year earlier — April sales were nearly $12 million ahead of April 2003.

But Brent Black, president of the Lethbridge Real Estate Board, points out the month followed a trend set in March when the 325 properties sold through MLS listings represented a 58 per cent jump over the same month last year.

January and February were also significantly ahead of the first months of 2003.

“We’ve got a strong, exciting year going here,” he says.

Selling prices are also on the rise, Black points out. In Lethbridge, where 143 homes were sold, the average price rose close to $148,000 last month compared with $138,000 a year ago.

But home sellers in many towns and rural areas reaped an increase as well. And well over half the homes sold — whether in the city or surrounding area — were priced in the $100,000 to $160,000 band.

“Every jurisdiction in our area was up in April,” says Black, either in unit sales or dollar volume.

One of the biggest jumps came in the county of Willow Creek, where five homes sold at an average $144,000 compared with $115,000 a year ago. In Cardston and surrounding county, six homes sold for an average better than $114,000 last month compared with three homes averaging $87,000 a year earlier.

And in the Crowsnest Pass, 14 homes changed hands for an average $109,000 vs. five homes at $102,500 last year.

Other areas reported higher sales with less of a price hike. In Taber and area, seven homes sold at an average $98,000, up from three at $97,000.

In Warner county, it was five sales averaging $86,500 this year; four at $83,700 a year ago.

In Pincher Creek, meanwhile, sales were up (from three to seven) but values were down and the same was true in Lethbridge county towns and rural areas, where home sales increased to 21 from 16.

On a region-wide basis, the board reports the $120,000-to-$140,000 price group was by far the busiest with 60 sales. Next highest numbers were in the $100,000-to-$120,000 group (43 sales) and the $140,000-to-$160,000 group (42 sales).

Along with the new Blogger updates comes Google’s very own “Google Blog“.

Yesterday I received the following email:

Hello!

I found your e-mail address posted on a website complaining about one2host.com. I am e-mailing everyone who has been defrauded by them, because they need to be put out of business… and I need your help!

Please tell your story! Write it out once and copy and paste it into the forms if you need to. Yes, it does take a little bit of time – but think about it. If we can get them shut down, or if we can file a class action lawsuit against them, won’t it be worth it? If these agencies are inundated with e-mails from angry consumers all at once, they will realize what a serious problem one2host is and they will be more likely to act!

Legal Action:

The Internet Fraud Complain Center (U.S. F.B.I.): http://www.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp

International Internet Consumer Fraud Complaints: http://www.econsumer.gov

Class Action Lawsuits:

Case Evaluations http://www.bigclassaction.com

All three ask for similar information. This is worth the small investment of your time!

I also urge you to contact your government representatives (i.e. members of Congress or Parliament). They can be surprisingly helpful!

I am sending this as a BCC, because I don’t want your mailbox to get jammed with letters. However, feel free to contact me with any questions or comments or further advice! Also, you are welcome to forward this letter to anyone else who has been victimized by one2host.

Together we can take them down, my friends! It’s worth a shot. =)

Kristen

While I am still angry at the waste of money that One2host turned out to be, I do wonder whether what they did was illegal or just extremely poor service (something that is not against the law last time I checked). The hosting that I paid for was unreliable and their service department didn’t always get back to me, but a class action lawsuit? If what they did was illegal them I’m all for it, otherwise I just hope that I can tell as many people as possible that they are a REALLY poor option for web hosting.

I got a new mower.

Above is a picture of me with the new mower on Friday just after I had set it up. I’m barely over the fact that my mower got stolen last year, but I’m pretty happy to have gotten a new one. This one is even better than last year’s model – 6.75 horse power! I haven’t mowed with it yet but when I do the grass isn’t going to know what hit it.

I was duped too. Turns out the whole story about Disney recently saying it won’t distribute Moore’s new film, Fahrenheit 9/11, is nothing more than a publicity stunt. He knew all along that they weren’t interested.

“[I]n the CNN interview he said: “Almost a year ago, after we’d started making the film, the chairman of Disney, Michael Eisner, told my agent he was upset Miramax had made the film and he will not distribute it.”

Anna’s mom gave her some sparklers a long time ago but we never ended up using them. She came into the computer room today and asked if it would be ok to light one in the house. I was surprised that she asked me, but she must have doubted something about the idea anyway I told her to go ahead. I said if something bad happens she could always run out the back door and throw it in the dog’s water. Um, about 6 seconds into the burning of the sparkler I suggested she write her name and burn it into her retina. Well the flinging motion of the sparkler caused a bit of hot burning metal to fall onto a piece of paper hanging on the bulletin board and then burned through onto the floor. All Anna could say in surprise was, “Oh no! Something bad DID happen.” We now have a little black mark on the hard wood floor to remind us of the dangers of sparklers.

I went for a job interview at the University this morning. I applied to be a Movie Making Camp Instructor, which will last from June 30th to July 31st. The interview went really well, so I’m pretty sure I have the job – they said they would let me know either way.

In other “Jeff Milner news”, my Iranian roommate is leaving Canada for Iran today. Anna-Maria and I have decided to drive him to the airport in Calgary and to spend the afternoon there hanging out. When I get back I will need to find a new roommate or two. I love aNNA. LOTS. i ALSO LOVE GETTING STUCK IN CAPS BY ACCIDENT. AND PIZZA.

I haven’t watched much hockey in my life, but I did watch the Calgary Flames beat the Detroit Redwings last night, 1 – 0. It was a very intense game with the only goal being scored late in the first over time period. I think it might be the only time I’ve watched an NHL game from start to finish. The only other time I’ve ever even really followed the playoffs at all was in 1989 and that was the year the Flames won the Stanley Cup. This past few weeks the Redwings were speculated to be “the team to beat” so hopefully it’ll be all downhill from here for the Flames.