Ted's Blog

This is a review I wrote on Amazon:

I heard some of Michael Hewett's music on NPR's Hearts of Space one night. So I did some research and wound up buying the CD. Much of the disc is very pleasant new age type acoustic guitar picking with kind of a southwest flair.

"Nagual" is really nice with its accompanying flute sounds, "Sedona" indicative of the southwest flavor, and "I Cover the Abyss with a Trance" is a standout with its violin and cello (the cello works great with just about every song on the album). While there are some rough spots (sometimes there is too much finger squeaking, the last song has long interludes of just a humming tone, and parts of "Transmission" with its electric guitar flourishes make it sound like infomercial music) listening to this album is like drinking a glass of water when you are really thirsty. It just goes down great. Don't be put off by Hewatt's yoga background: though I'm sure it's fine to do yoga to, it's just really nice to listen to. It would be great to play if you own some kind of cool shop, or while you're reading, or just in the car to take some stress out of the daily commute.

Posted by Ted at 4:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I was talking with a guy at work who had just refinanced after buying a house a year ago. The rate he got was only 1% less than his previous but the lender paid all the closing costs. I said I was happy with my 6% rate, but he pointed out that it costs nothing to save $100 a month. Would you turn someone down who wanted to give you $100 a month.

So I'm refinancing. It will cost me nothing and my payment would be less. My broker even said that if I was worried about stretching the payoff date out 15 years again that I could just pay the 13-year amount every month and still be paying less than now and pay it off the same month in 2016.

Posted by Ted at 3:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (1)

Saw an interesting thing Friday as I was leaving work. I walked from my office to the state office buildings (twin towers, aka Sloppy Floyd Building) which takes me right through the smokers' hangout. I see a couple of people (white but leathery tan) and they're opening up the smoker station ashtrays mounted to the columns of the walkway. The woman looked up at me and looked kind of guilty so I wondered if they were up to something but it looked like they were just looking for cigarette butts. Once I was in the building I asked the security guard if they were getting cigarette butts. He said Yes, they do it every day.

Wow.

Posted by Ted at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)