A Visit With An Old Friend

Good Ol’ Mike Dobbs, author, editor, and animation expert, has a new book out called ESCAPE! How Animation Broke Into The Mainstream. Click the picture to read an article about it.

Mike Dobbs - Escape: How Animation Broke Into The Mainstream

On Saturday I drove out to Springfield for a talk Mike gave about animation in general, and the book in particular. He gave a great introduction to the history of animation, providing a clear and concise explanation of how we got where we are today. It was fun seeing The Dobbster (no relation to Lou Dobbs, that I know of!) in person after many years. Mike mentions my visit in his blog, at this link.

Realtor Reality

I spotted this commercial recently. Maybe you’ve seen it.
[flv:/Video/2008/JAN/Realtor.flv 440 330]
Hey, good to see they’re hanging onto the LPs!

Real estate agents must be very scared right now. The good ones that have been around a while know there are market slumps, but this one is particularly bad, because it’s everywhere and not just regional, and it seems likely to be around for a while.

The wording of this commercial is, of course, self-serving. But what do they mean by saying, “family conditions often outweigh market conditions”? Are they talking about families that have to move for one reason or another? That part of the market is always present. What’s changed is the disappearance of speculators who “flip” properties, and the market being flooded with foreclosed homes that marginal buyers couldn’t really afford. But the market is such a mess right now, and credit is so tight, that even many of the families this ad is targeting are frozen out.

The ad refers to the “millions of homes that will be sold this year,” as if the market is still a go-go thing, and it assures buyers they’re “making a good move” financially. Maybe, but if it hasn’t reached bottom yet, in the short term it would be a bad move.

I recall one Realtor asking me how much money I made. My reply was, “I’ll pretend you didn’t ask that question.” She wisely backed down immediately. Realtors represent the SELLER and not the buyer. That’s the #1 thing to keep in mind when talking to them. It’s to their advantage to get you into a more expensive house, because their commission will be bigger. Ten years ago, when I applied for a pre-qualified mortgage before house-hunting, I had to provide full financial information, of course, and the salesman said I could afford a much bigger mortgage than what I’d requested. “No thanks,” I said.

Realtors and banks need to accept the blame for the mess we’re in. I really resent the tone that conservative commentators make, that the fault is with the suckers who went for these deals. It reminds me of a joke in the movie “Airplane” that made fun of the old “Point/Counterpoint” segment on 60 Minutes — “They bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into. I say let ’em crash!”

Background on Background

Mr. D.F. Rogers of Massachusetts writes,

Okay, what’s with the new header? I can’t place it. Hmm, an old Popeye background?

Glad you asked. You are correct! Good catch. It is indeed the background to an old Popeye cartoon.

Popeye and Olive

This is another photo taken of the projection screen with the ol’ 1.3 megapixel digital camera sitting on top of the Panasonic PT-AX200U. Why did I use this image for the blog header? No particular reason. I just thought it looked neat and weird. As you can see, I added some tint to it.