The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads!

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

Journey to the Cross-roads
The Two Towers Edition

Come on! Come in! -if you would like to have some seedcakes and a pint and relax a while. (If it is a special occasion, we still have a few bottles of the old wineyards left!)

Our first thread ( New Zealander builds Hobbit hole ) reached 4,100 posts, and we thought that was big. Our second thread (The New Hobbit Hole ) held us for over 48,000 posts, and we loved it dearly. We talked about moving to a new thread for the last 38,000 posts, but we are really slow to muster! Finally, the time has come. Tomorrow (at 12:01 am, to be precise!) The Two Towers comes out, and we start a new chapter.

[Wneighbor]

SSQ's the expert. I think we re-financed 6 times in the last two years. We've been riding the interest rates down during that time. I think we've got it down to 5.75% now. Tell me what you need to know and I'll get the answers from him.

Whoa! Didn't see this before church. *gone to get papers*

Okay, here's the deal. Right now I have 7.5% rate. I have talked to 3 different people about loans. I'm so confused. First - a conventional loan for 5.5% with 1 loan point (????huh?) and I end up refinancing 57,740. My payoff now is $53,813. My payments would go from $385 to $327. The other 2 options are FHA. One has a 6% rate with no points (???this again??) and one has 5.5% with 1.25 points. Okay, I have all these notes on those too but basically the 6% one lowers my monthly payment by $41 and the 5.5% one lowers it 53$. So, if this is all straightforward then I'm thinking this conventional thing is better. But, I've got FHA now and I don't know what the difference is.

[Wneighbor]

sorry all, i really should have sent that last post in a freepmail. I just got in a hurry.

but, I'm back from church now after a nice little outburst in front of many people by my daughter. It was not a nice night.

[HairOfTheDog]

Heh.... Do they not "really really like me" anymore?

[HairOfTheDog]

We had punch cards in college, only that was so long ago, I forgot what we did with them.

ROTFL!

[Wneighbor]

Well, I wouldn't call our place a tavern, per se. I'll brave the scorn and admit we don't keep alcohol in the house, but Frodo has a nice bed with fresh sheets and lots and lots of homemade food. He'll be quite comfortable during his stay

He won't find alcohol in my house either unless he drinks the mouthwash or vanilla. But, like you, we will feed him quite well. And the bed will be clean and fresh. No sleeping on rocks here.

[ecurbh]

Oh my gosh, that is so cool. I checked it out in Photoshop too. (Not that I didn't believe you, of course, I just had to see it for myself.)

[HairOfTheDog]

I didn't believe it either! It just can't be!

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

My first computer experience was with a TRaSh-80 one our high-school teachers brought in, to show us what a "home computer" was like. For fun, I reprogrammed the "Eliza" program on it to give dirty responses...

But the fool on the hill, sees the sun going down
and the eyes in his head, see the world spinning 'round...

[Wneighbor]

I saved a copy to show to my graphics students at some point. Show them what is real and what isn't.

Or, it could be a good test question - is A the same shade as B?

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Beatlemania was something else, all right! The only thing that matched it was Elvis in the 50's...

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Are you by any chance listening to the Blue Album? Or just assorted MP3s?

[Sam Cree]

I think it's fine, someone else may have an insight on loans. Thinking of refinancing myself.

[Wneighbor]

Well, SuziQ sent me a message saying SSQ was a whiz at refinancing. So, when I found it I just instantly hit reply and gave the details. Excitedly! Hoping to get into a better situation with this job that doesn't pay enough.

I just never dealt with any of this before and I don't want to shoot myself in the foot.

[ecurbh]

Assorted mp3's. I have a half-dozen albums or so. Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper, Magical Mystery Tour, A Hard Day's Night, Let It Be, etc. And they aren't all stolen - I own Sgt. Pepper and MMT.

[Wneighbor]

My first computer experience was with a TRaSh-80

That was the first computer I ever had to learn to do CNC punch programs on. It was, uh, interesting. It wasn't my job but I cross trained to do the job and although the CNC part was easy, that computer was not normal and I did not like it.

[Corin Stormhands]

That's what happens when you write songs while high on LSD.

Them again? Must it always come back to the LDS again? I got the latter day reference too!

What? Oh.....never mind....

"He was at Berkley in the 60s. He did a little too much LDS."

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Well, that's cool. For a minute, it sounded like your song list matched the order of songs on the "Blue Album", the "Best of" 2-album set put out in the 70's, containing songs from 1967-70. (The "Red Album", another 2-album set of hits put out at the same time, contained songs from 1963-66.)

[Sam Cree]

"Beatlemania was something else, all right! The only thing that matched it was Elvis in the 50's..."

Bear, it goes back further than that, check out this, from the Guardian, 1945:

From our New York correspondent Wednesday January 10, 1945

The United States is now in the midst of one of those remarkable phenomena of mass hysteria which occur from time to time on this side of the Atlantic. Mr. Frank Sinatra, an amiable young singer of popular songs, is inspiring extraordinary personal devotion on the part of many thousands of young people, and particularly young girls between the ages of, say, twelve and eighteen. The adulation bestowed upon him is similar to that lavished upon Colonel Lindbergh fifteen years ago, Rudolph Valentino a few years earlier, or Admiral Dewey, the hero of Manila Bay, at the turn of the century.

Mr. Sinatra has to be guarded by police whenever he appears in public. Indeed, during the late political campaign he broke up a demonstration for Governor Dewey, the Republican candidate, merely by presenting himself on the sidelines as a spectator. (Since Mr. Sinatra was an ardent supporter of President Roosevelt, some unkind people suggested that he had done this from political motives.) His earnings, including songs on the wireless, gramophone records, appearances in motion pictures and engagements in theatres and night clubs, are in the neighbourhood of $1,250,000 annually. His mail runs into thousands of letters daily; he cannot put his nose out of doors without careful precautions in advance.

Many thousands of his "fans" have never seen him in the flesh but have only heard him broadcast or seen him on the films, where, incidentally, he is not particularly successful. Psychologists have written soberly about the hypnotic quality of his voice and the remarkable effect upon susceptible young women. Because he wears a polka-dotted bow tie hundreds of thousands of young people of both sexes wear a similar tie. The teen-age girls who constitute the main part of his audience also wear short white half-hose, and are therefore called "bobby-sox girls" or, more simply, "bobby-soxers."

[Sam Cree]

No, you have to take care to do it right, it lasts a long time.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

heh heh, I thought that might get a comment out of you... ;)