As you know by now the tax credit was not only extended but expanded. The tax credit is now 10% of the home price with a ceiling of $8,000 for first-time home buyers and then up to $6,500 for repeat buyers. All buyers must have a binding contract in place by April 30, 2010 with closing on or before June 30, 2010. it sounds like that is far away but really it is not. In fact you may want to take some of your holiday shopping time and start to look for your new home. Why would you want to start now?

1) Getting any early start will give you a better chance of finding the right home for you prior to the deadline. Before you start you should get pre-approved for a mortgage and do a realistic assessment of what you can afford. If you have a home to sell, price it agressively from the beginning so as to drum up interest and get a buyer as soon as possible. Remember, they too may be in a position to use either one of the tax credit options. Whether as a first time home buyer or a repeat purchaser. If they are a repeat purchaser they too need time to sell their home! This roll-over, tiered housing sale is exactly what needs to start occuring in the market.
2) Don’t plan on another tax credit extension. The credit will not be available forever. Plan accordingly.
3) Interest rates. Financing is at an all time low with condos ranging from 4.75 to 5% for a 30 year fixed conventional loan. That means the amount of house you can purchase is at an all time high and rates are expected to climb due to the government easing out of the purchase of mortgage backed securities. Why gamble?
4) Communication with your lending institution takes longer in the current marketplace. Documentation is critical these days and the turn around time on some lending transactions is at least 60 days. And, if your dream home is a short sale property your financing time line could be be outside the tax credit deadline. Don’t delay in talking with your lender.
5) Having to take shortcuts because you delayed your housing search. Forgoing steps that you would normally take just to make the tax credit deadline will cost you money in the long run.

We can help you on all accounts with pushing out your closing date, assisting you with your lending and locking in your new home purchase at a competitive interest rate. Stop into any Toll community to tour and purchase your next home.

November  26, 2009

By Carlos H. Conde

MANILA — The death toll in Monday’s election violence rose to 57 on Wednesday, the Philippine authorities said, as 11 more bodies were recovered.

The regional police commander in Maguindanao Province, Josefino Cataluna, said the bodies were dug out from a shallow pit near a grassy hilltop where police officers and troops had found 46 others after Monday’s attack, The Associated Press reported. He said the victims included the family of a gubernatorial candidate and 18 Filipino journalists who accompanied his relatives in filing his election papers.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Tuesday declared a state of emergency in the contiguous provinces of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat and in the city of Cotabato on the southern island of Mindanao. The measure gives the police and army the authority to apprehend and detain those who carried out the slaughter.

The southern Philippines has been plagued for years by secessionist and Islamist insurgencies. The United States sends $1.6 billion annually in military and economic aid to the Philippines, with much of it aimed at a shadowy Islamist group, Abu Sayyaf, which has ties to Al Qaeda.

The authorities said that this week’s election violence had nothing to do with those groups, but that it was rooted in rivalries among local clans that the government had empowered as a way of combating the insurgents. One clan, the Ampatuans, is considered the closest political ally of Mrs. Arroyo in that part of the southern Philippines.

There are at least 250 political dynasties scattered throughout the Philippines, according to the Center for People Empowerment in Governance, a nonprofit group. For many of them and particularly those in the south, politics is literally a blood sport, with the clans’ power and income riding on the outcome of elections. As a consequence, violence has become a fixture of elections here; at least 126 people died in the 2007 elections, and 189 in 2004.

Opponents were quick to accuse the Ampatuans of engineering Monday’s attack. Esmael Mangudadatu, the vice mayor of Buluan, a town in Maguindanao, whose family is the chief political enemy of the Ampatuans, said on national television that survivors had implicated supporters of the Maguindanao governor, Andal Ampatuan. The Ampatuans have not made any public statement since the killings. 

Mr. Mangudadatu said about 100 armed men had abducted the group, which included his wife, Genalyn, and other female relatives. They were on their way to the election office on Monday to file candidacy papers for him.

Mr. Mangudadatu attributed the attack to his decision to challenge the Ampatuans for the governorship. Governor Ampatuan is the patriarch of his clan, which has dominated politics in the province for decades.

In a statement, Reporters Without Borders denounced the massacre: “Never in the history of journalism have the news media suffered such a heavy loss of life in one day.”

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Von Flight 602. ..Auch hier megaschwer sich auf ein Lied festzulegen.
Generell sehr abwechslungsreiche und starke Alben. Hinterland sticht für mich allerdings raus! Anfang 2010 kommt übrigens noch n Sampler von ATIC Records raus mit n paar Tracks von Aim..

Mehrmehrmehr: Fall Break, Sail, A Twilight Zone, The Girl Who Fell Through The Ice

Ich habe fertig!
Nachdem ich heute nochmal im Copyshop war, um vier Seiten nochmal drucken zu lassen, hab ich jetzt mein mega “Blick”-Buch fertig! Nur noch nen Faden durch, dann is das teure Werk beendet. Jetzt bin ich aber froh! So froh, dass ich jetzt gar keine Lust hab, um die Zeit nochmal meinen nicht weiter bearbeiteten Kommunikations-Vortrag nochmal zu üben. Da hatte ich nu ne Woche Zeit… denkste. Aber was soll’s… fertig!!!
Und ich hab jetzt endlich Ps etc und hab sogar strebermäßig dieses blöde Raportdings für Dresdens Straßenbahnen fertig gemacht. Ich bin ja sooo fleißig, wenn ich will^^
Jetzt muss ich aber schnell schlafen gehen, in fünf Stunden klingelingt’s schon wieder. Also… guuuute Nacht!

heute nochmal gehört. starker song: Arcade Fire – No Cars Go – Neon Bible.

Philippine President Gloria Arroyo vowed Wednesday justice would be served after 52 people were killed in a political massacre, but refused to say if an ally blamed for the murders would be arrested.

Journalists and troopers look as a backhoe pulls the wreckage of one of three vehicles that was dumped together with massacre victims along a hillside grave in Ampatuan, Maguindanao province, southern Philippines on Wednesday Nov. 25, 2009. (AFP Photo)

As more bodies were pulled out of shallow graves following Monday’s election-linked killings in the lawless south of the country, Arroyo insisted she was committed to tracking down those responsible.

“This is a supreme act of inhumanity that is a blight on our nation,” presidential spokesman Cerge Remonde said on the ABS CBN television network.

“The president has vowed that the perpetrators will not find the way to escape justice.”

Police earlier said the top suspect in the massacre was Andal Ampatuan Jnr, a member of Arroyo’s ruling coalition and the son of a powerful regional politician who has helped secure votes for the president in previous elections.

“According to the initial reports, those who were abducted and murdered at Saniag were initially stopped by a group led by the mayor of Datu Unsay,” national police spokesman Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina said.

Ampatuan Jnr is the mayor of Datu Unsay and his father of the same name is the governor of Maguindanao province, a lawless part of the strife-torn Mindanao island where the massacre took place.

However, two days after the massacre, authorities indicated an arrest of Ampatuan Jnr was not imminent.

Speaking on DZMM radio, Espina said investigators still needed to speak with witnesses before they could secure a court order for the arrest of the suspects.

Asked if Ampatuan Jnr would be arrested, Remonde replied: “I will not telegraph our punches”.

But he said Arroyo had delivered a message to the Ampatuan clan, which has its own private army, not to obstruct the police investigation.

The massacre occurred after about 100 Ampatuan gunmen allegedly abducted a convoy of aides and relatives of a rival Maguindanao politician, Esmael Mangudadatu, plus a group of journalists.

The victims were abducted as they were travelling in a six-vehicle convoy to nominate Mangudadatu as the opposition candidate for governor in next year’s elections. He was not in the convoy.

They were shot a short time later at close range, some with their hands tied behind their backs, and dumped or buried in shallow graves on a remote farming road close to a town bearing the Ampatuan name.

The death toll rose from 46 to 52 after six more bodies were pulled out of the graves on Wednesday, according to police.

The victims included at least 13 local journalists who had been intending to report on Mangudadatu’s governorship nomination, making Monday’s killings the deadliest single attack on the media in history.

Ampatuan Snr had been grooming his son to take over as governor of Maguindanao province, and the victims’ relatives have alleged the Ampatuans organised the murders so that Mangudadatu would not run for governor.

Arroyo on Tuesday declared a state of emergency in Maguindanao and neighbouring Cotabato city, a stronghold of the Ampatuans, amid fears the killings could trigger a clan war.

But instead of ordering tough action against her allies, she sent a special envoy, Jesus Dureza, to the Ampatuan camp on Tuesday to get the clan to pledge its cooperation in an investigation.

The ruling coalition’s candidate for next year’s presidential election, ex-defence secretary Gilberto Teodoro, backed calls for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the suspects.

“This is a test case. The government should be decisive in going against this group, to arrest the perpetrators no matter who they are, whether they are political allies or not,” he said.

The Philippine Commission on Human Rights chairwoman, Leila De Lima, also called for immediate action by the president.

“I am appealing to President Gloria Arroyo to show political will, for her to show to the public that the investigation by the government is serious,” she told AFP.

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Thirteen years after the federal government rationed the dwindling supply of toll free numbers, reports are circulating that rationing will once again be implemented. Severe shortages of 800 numbers are forcing these extreme measures as a means of protecting the limited remaining supply.

Read more here.

Toll free service has a long history. 800 numbers were introduced in 1967. By the 1980s, nearly half of all long distance calls would be toll free. Today, 98 percent of adults say they regularly use toll free numbers. Meanwhile, the supply of 800 numbers are at an all-time low. More than two-thirds of the available numbers are taken and there are no immediate plans by the FCC to introduce a new pre-fix.

Read more here.

If you currently control your own 1-800 toll free phone number (or 888/877/866) and choose to transfer your toll free number to another company (also called ‘porting your number’) the company you are transferring it to will require a bill copy, but why?

Read more here.

Monday November 23, 2009   By Kevin Morrow

What a day I had yesterday. I played in an all day tournament at the University of California Irvine, I had a lot of fun. There was a lot of action during the day, from the interesting mellow drama of my transportation, to the mini series of events during the games. Throughout it all I learned a lot of new things about myself and about reality.

I began the day on a journey from Corona to San Bernardino then back to Irvine. I really didn’t know where the ARC (Anteater Recreation Center) was but I had a general idea of where the school was from memory. As I left to Irvine from San Bernardino I ended up in a construction area that had the freeway narrowed down to one lane. Normally I would be worried and panicking, because I was supposed to be at the gym at 9Am, and let’s just say…”I wasn’t going to make it there by 9Am.”

So instead of worrying, I kicked back, put on some music that reminded me of happiness, and I went with the flow. After I made it through the traffic it was straight coasting all the way through. Time flies when you are having, fun, or maybe it doesn’t exist. I eventually arrived at the campus of UCI and I had no idea where to go.

This was yet another example of how worrying would get me  nowhere. The cool thing was I just felt my way to the center. I had no directions and I had never been there before. I was tempted to ask these two ladies where it was but something told me to go with my gut. As a backup plan I would ask someone, because there was no shortage of people walking around, but I decided to go with my instincts.

Somehow by listening to my inner compass I found the ARC without a problem. Which was a huge relief, instantly I began to realize that maybe I know things that I don’t think I know. All of this goes well with previous things I have blogged about. But anyway, back to the subject.

The tournament ends and I have to go back to San bernardino, which is about an hour or more from where I was. It was dark outside and I found myself lost. Not really lost, but confused I guess you could say. I didn’t feel a knowing for where I was. Plus I didn’t know the street names. All I knew was I needed to get back to the 73 freeway.

So I head out in a direction and I feel like I am headed the wrong direction on a street named Culver, but I second guess myself and keep going. I decided to stop at a gas station and admit to myself that I didn’t know where I was. I go inside of the gas station in an attempt to ask directions.

I’m literally waiting in line for ten minutes behind this guy who is having a full on conversation with the clerk. I was tempted for a second to get angry, but then I calmed myself. I thought to myself, “What’s the point in being upset, I’m here this is happening right now so just chill and relax. Stop worrying there is nothing you can do to change it, so change your attitude. Enjoy this moment, maybe you will learn something. Besides your anger is in your imagination anyway.”

As soon as I finish that dialogue in my head, another clerk comes out from the back and asks to help me. I slide myself over to him and explain that I somehow got turned around and I’m looking for the 73 freeway. The clerk looks at me and has no answer, he looks at the other clerk, who also has no answer. Before I can even think, the same guy who was in front of me starts politely explaining to me where the 73 freeway was. All I had to do was turn around on Culver and keep going until I ran into it.

I thanked the gentleman three times and left him with a “Have a great night!” This was really cool to me, because I realized that without worrying everything worked itself out. But wait, there is more, this is were the story gets even better. I go all the way down Culver for what seemed like forever and I get to the 73 freeway.

Now before when I came up the 73 I didn’t have to pay a toll, and so I wasn’t event thinking about having to pay a toll. It was the last thing to cross my mind. I’m not paying attention to signs, I just hop on the onramp because I’m already late as it is getting back to San Bernardino. Then I start seeing these lights and a sign that says toll. I’m like “uh oh,” because I have no money on me. All I have is my debit card which is in the negative at the moment.

Naturally I start getting worried because there is this big sign that says $500 fine for people who go through the toll without paying. So for a brief 30 seconds I get worried. I mean how do I turn around on an onramp? So I start to calm down and I decide that I should just back up slowly with my hazards on because at this point I’m the only person on the road. I actually found 20 cents in the car but the toll was $1. So I’m calmed down and start telling myself not to worry because there is always a solution.

Then I see the headlights of a car, they pull up right behind me. Im sitting there, I look back in the rear view, they look at me, I look at them, they look at me, I look at them…I thought to myself that I was in a good situation because the young lady behind me was a pretty one and I could feel that she had a genuine care for others. All materialistic things aside however I thought to myself it would be awkward if I got out the car and asked for her help.

“So I looked back and said “Would you mind if I backed up and turned around?”

She said  “No I can back up, do you need me to?”

I was like “Yeah I’m a little lost and I wasn’t aware that this was a toll, I don’t have any cash on me.”

This young lady says not to “worry” about it she has a dollar in change to spare me.

I was like wow.

All I could say was Thank you several times, and I wished her a great night.

Out of all the people to run into at that time when there was nobody else on the road.She even told me she only hops on this part of the freeway to go down a couple exits.

And that my friends is how NOT worrying saved me from a $500 Fine.

Aphex Twin – Flim

Einfach chillig…

The death toll from a mine blast in north-eastern China more than doubles to 87, with 21 people still missing, report state media…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: china jade. The blog is also related to: china sports.

Following the emergence of a black market for valuable toll free numbers, including catchy vanity numbers, sources say federal authorities are cracking down on the illegal sales of 800 numbers.

Insiders say to avoid being caught in an undercover investigation and facing hefty fines from the Federal Communications Commission, anyone interested in obtaining an 800 number should deal with reputable service providers such as Qwest, or AT&T.

Read more here.

A gas blast at a coal mine in China has now killed 31 people and left more than 80 trapped, state media reports…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: china tours. The blog is also related to: china life.

Shad – Rock to it (LIVE) – When this is over

Das Ding live, einfach geil!

Shad kommt aus Kanada und kann echt was!

Auch checken: Freestyle (KILLERTEIL!!!) ,Compromise , Get Up

Heute hab ich endlich mein Fotobüchlein fertiggestellt. Jetzt muss ich’s nur noch drucken und mit total beeindruckend schwieriger Fadenheftung vereinen. Hach. Mir gefällt’s. Scheiß auf nen roten Faden, meiner ist eh blau. Also… eigentlich nicht… naja. Lassen wir das.
Hier einige Bilder bzw Seiten.

There’s more wrangling on the BBC about the possibility of High Speed Two, an actual, real, cross-country service to improve on the fact that we have a piddling 68 miles of track reserved largely for Eurostar in the whole country. Even if it does go pretty much from my house in Ashford.

The service, which would go roughly from London to Edinburgh/Glasgow through Leeds/Manchester – unless its creators were totally stupid and only took it to Birmingham, as has been suggested – would cost a huge amount of money. Since it’s estimated the Birmingham section alone would take until 2025, I’m not inclined to trust figures. An article only a few months ago says the line would be open by 2023. Heard of inflation at all?

But I think it needs to be done. And why? Because, like with any special commuter time-saving investment, like a bridge (hooray for the £5.40 Severn crossing!) the government makes the money back not just through taxes, but tolls.

Not many outside Kent know Southeastern charges a whopping £8.10 supplement on a ticket that costs around £14 for a young person if you want to ‘upgrade’ to a high speed return – not only have fares in Kent risen more than the rest of the country on average, but you pay on top of them to get what they’re actually paying for, too.

So what’s the problem with investing the money? Just like with the banks (who by the way have received far more than High Speed Two will) it’s an “investment”. They’re not handing money out on a platter – they’re going to get it back.

And besides, if we have a new fares algorithm to get us up to Scotland, then perhaps it’ll spare us things like this. See below. I think I’d rather buy my own train.

Britain's first £1000+ rail fare

Once used primarily by big businesses, 800, 888, 877, and 866 toll free numbers are now popular with small businesses, charities, churches, and for personal use. Toll free service has become a staple of all successful businesses. Demand has grown quickly but the supply of numbers has remained stagnant.

Read more here.

Heute waren wir unspontan und geplanterweise im Metropolis. Durch halb Dresden gebahnt, obwohl wir kurzzeitig schon wieder das Wetter zum Fotos machen nutzen wollten. Gut war’s, dass wir’s nicht getan haben, denn der Film – (500) Days of Summer – war einsame Spitze.
Viele Filme, die ich im Kino gesehen habe, seit ich hier bin, waren ziemlich gut. Darunter Der fremde Sohn, Beim Leben meiner Schwester und Die nackte Wahrheit. Aber von diesem werd ich mir die DVD holen.

Aber fangen wir beim Kino an. Das Metropolis ist das bisher beste Kino von den dreien, in denen ich bisher war. Darunter UFA und Rundkino. Auch die beiden haben ihre Vorteile, z.b. schönes Foyer oder große Auswahl an Postkarten. Aber das Metropolis ist einfach am schönsten. Nettes Personal, leckere Getränke (ich stürme den nächsten Laden, in dem ich The Spirit of Georgia sehe! Das ist der Hit, das Zeug!), freie Platzwahl, keine Werbung (aber leider auch keine Vorschau ), nur ‘ne Hand voll Leute im Kinosaal und’n Vorschauplakat von ‘In meinem Himmel’. Da freu ich mich schon drauf!
Und der Film war wirklich gut. Ich als Kritzler mochte ja die Illustrationen sehr. Dion Macellari macht aber gesamt gesehen nichts, was meinen Geschmack weiter träfe, aber im Film sehr schön. Auch die Schauspieler fand ich überzeugend. Summer (Zooey Deschanel) erinnerte mich etwas an die Leichtigkeit von Amelié. Irgendwie verträumt. Aber irgendwie auch nicht… schwer zu beschreiben, aber dennoch die ideale Besetzung. Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) fand ich jetzt vom Typ her irgendwie zu knuffig und Softie-mäßig, aber naja… für die Rolle okay. Er hat mich echt verrückt gemacht, weil ich den ganzen Film überlegt habe, an wen er bzw die Art der Figur mich erinnerte. Ich bin letztendlich bei Forrest Gump und Heath Ledger gelandet… aber irgendwie isses nicht das, was ich suchte. Naja.
Der Film war von der Handlung genial. Man musste nur ständig zwischen den Tagen/Zeiten/Beziehungsstati hin- und herdenken, war aber nicht direkt das Problem. Mir persönlich haben ja besonders die IKEA-Szenen gefallen, die wirkten so unglaublich glücklich und perfekte-Beziehung-mäßig. (Das hab ich heute, wo doch sowieso schon Pärchentag war, noch gebraucht!)
Aber auch die Penis-Szene im Park war umwerfend komisch… direkt mal was zum Nachmachen^^
Beeindruckend war die mit dem Hochhaus-Panorama bemalte Wand und die Tafelwand… sowas hätte ich auch gerne
Und das Ende war auch noch schön… gibt’s ja eher selten. Aber ihr müsst den Film einfach selbst sehen, wirklich wunderschön.

Der Soundtrack hat mir- wie ihr oben sehen könnt- auch gefallen
Die beiden letzten Lieder gehören nicht dazu, aber falls ihr meinen Blog verfolgt wisst ihr ja, dass die beiden zu meinen Favoriten zählen
Die Website von 500 Days of Summer übrigens sehr zu empfehlen. Da sind die 500 Days quasi ‘nacherzählt’ bzw mit Filmzitaten, Playlists etc bespickt und bebildert. Finde ich sehr schön, da ich gerne die Zitate, die mich im Film zum Lachen gebracht haben, nochmal nachlese oder für Überschriften verwende^^ Tag 141 ist dabei der witzigste
Auch diese lustigen Mixtapes kann man da machen. Zwar erst nach Anmeldung, aber was tut man nicht alles

Ich will 500 Days of Autumn nachgeliefert haben, bitte!

With the fixed amount of available 800 numbers shrinking fast, subscribers who waited to secure toll free service are now learning why it is so difficult to obtain a number.

Industry insiders say the soaring popularity of toll free service combined with the failure of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to release additional numbers have created a tight supply of 800 numbers in heavy demand.

Read more here.

auf Hold On Now Youngster und Sticking Fingers Into Sockets drauf.. Gibt irgendwie 2 Versionen, das hier is meiner Meinung nach die bessere…

Gute Laune olé!

Quantic – Time is the enemy – The 5th exotic

auch gut: Blow your horns,

Absence heard,presence felt

Along with hoarding, the outright sale of specific toll free numbers is likewise illegal. Some crafty entrepreneurs have attempted to skirt the regulations by “leasing” or “renting” numbers. But industry insiders say the crackdown on illegal use of toll free numbers is aimed at this practice too.

Read more here.