Jonathan's Universe

Archive for December, 2008

I decided I’m going to craft a 3D representation of my apartment, so I can easily visualize how much space I am going to have with furniture and decide what I need and what I can fit. I’m using google sketchup, simply because I can.

Here is a work in progress. Included is a stock model of a love seat. I need to get a measurement of my parent’s loveseat to simulate space usage better. Also, I didn’t get measurements of my room yet, which would be to the left.

Immediately to your right when you walk in as a closet. In the kitchen (which is the room to the right)  the blocked off portion represents what space is not available because of the kitchen appliances.

I just added a new plugin; wanted to see how it works. At the end of every post it links you to possibly similar posts. Honestly, I kind of hate the idea (in a good way) because I find myself opening like 20 tabs linking to a trail of “related posts” on other websites. I hope you will do the same.

Oh yes, and Christmas passed. Bah Humbug, I still can’t move in to my apartment. If it’s not ready by tomorrow, I’m going to throw a temper tantrum. In their main office if i have to.

As for presents, I’m satsified. I honestly didn’t expect nor want much. We’re all going through some rough times, so I wouldn’t dare press my luck. I got a few old xbox games (some I know are great, like Psy-Ops and Half life 2) also, a gamer chair.. which is basically this little chair with speakers in the headrest, and you can send audio wireless from your TV/device to the chair. It’s pretty nifty and comfortable too. I’m just afraid I’m going to plop on it wrong and rip the fabric.

So if I don’t find a letter in my mailbox by like 1400, I’m taking the trolly to Philadelphia and I’m going to make a scene at their office. As annoying and possibly immature as this would be, I have little choice now. This situation has become urgent as I’m running out of time and simply I’m paying rent on a unit I cannot stay in, so all my money is going to waste.

On the 17th, I leased my apartment for two years. Billing effective immediately. This sounds awesome, right? Wrong.

The next day I called PECO to have the unit placed in my name so I can receive electric and gas service. However, there was one problem. The previous tenant has an outstanding balance. Because PECO is a dumb corporation with no common sense, this is, until disputed, my responsibility to pay before I can receive service again. I suppose this might be fair, as far as PECO knows, I could be the same guy trying to clear my balance by cheating the system. But I’ve been jumping through hoops.. I had to fax my lease, two picture IDs and a statement requesting service just to prove I am not the same person. And the cool part is that “the department has received your request and has documented it, however they require up to five business days to process and determine the outcome.” Five days? Five friggen days? Oh and of course Christmas is near, which is not a business day. So I submitted it on Friday, which means that I might not see results until the 29th.

So let’s get this straight. The apartment I leased and paid for the first month, is in an uninhabitable condition. I do have electricity (technically it’s not my electricity) but I do not have gas for heating. In Pennsylvania, it is near zero degrees outside. I’m paying rent on a living space that I can not maintain good health in. Isn’t there some law that says that if a living space (such as an apartment) is unlivable due to lack of heat or water (which I do have – provided by landlord), I am not responsible for costs until the situation is resolved? What’s worse is that PECO is the only power provider in the state, that I am aware of. Which means PECO can take their sweet ol’ time to send a technician out and turn a valve.

Any suggestions, solutions? I’ve called PECO, and gotten the same ol story, as well as “We do not have any appointments available for service restoration until after Christmas.”

Oh. And on the letter they sent me to state that my application has been denied, they spelt my name Joathan. Jerks.

I was doing my daily blog browsing and I saw that fellow blogger Vincent from InsignificantThoughts.com had a very interesting entry, that caught me by surprise.

Apparently North Carolina is considering adding a “road-use tax.” I mean, I hate to respond like a third grader but, “come on.. SERIOUSLY!? Really!?” This is honestly absolute ludicris. I thought the tolls were the usage taxes, I guess the state will do anything to get a quick buck from their cits. How it work, is every year the state government would measure your odometer (I’m guessing having the Motor Vehicle Inspection Authorities report the data) and they calculate the difference from the year previous… or even have GPS technologies measure usage (have premium rates downtown areas,  perhaps?) This is absolutely ridiculous.

Like Vincent quoted, states already tax for just about everything,

Isn’t this another multiple-multiple tax? They have a sales tax on the purchase of the vehicle, they tax the gasoline, they tax the tires, they tax the upkeep-repairs-service of your vehicle, they have a licensing-registration tax, they have an emissions check tax, they have a vehicle property tax, and now they want to tax the usage. Oh yeah, don’t forget about toll roads too.

What’s next? Oh, I know! Taxing us based on the amount of oxygen we breathe, because it’s consuming resources from plants that the state owns and maintains! Everyone would have to get mandatory surgery to get breathometers installed in their lungs. Give me a break.

While we are on the topic of taxes, Vincent had another interesting post. The governor of New York is trying/proposing/politicking to have tax hikes on a lot of things. Do you take the taxi to get places (It’s New York, after all!)? Well, if he gets his way, it’ll be about 4% more you’d have to pay in addition to your fare. iTunes/media downloads? 4%! Oh, non diet soft drinks? A whopping 18%.

Check out (and subscribe!) to Vincent’s blog, to check out the picture of the newspaper frontpage.

Let me note that not only is taxing like this extremely lame, they could not have picked a worse time. Everyone these days is living paycheck-to-paycheck, and the government wants to continue to sap even more money out of our precious wallets? What is this?

So, I put money down on that apartment. I put the rest of the down payment tomorrow when I sign the lease. I’m excited to move in, but my parents are, expectedly, a wreck. I did some research and when I called the energy provider, they told me the average bill for my unit is $74.25 a month and a $150 deposit. I have no idea if that includes gas (heating) — or just electricity. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow..

Also, one of my coworkers happened to have a microwave that he doesn’t need. Guess who’s getting a free microwave?

Besides that, I saw Day the Earth Stood Still on sunday. I’m not sure how I feel. I wasn’t disappointed, but I wasn’t amazed either. It was a modernized version of the one made in 1951. The premise was the same (humans are violent and killing earth, aliens come to save the earth) however the story was different. Instead of Klaatu staying with a bunch of people, he’s constantly on the run a scientist. Also, Klaatu is always known as Klaatu, never as “Mr. Carpenter.” Also Gort is named by the government/military (as an acronym) while the the 1951 one had Gort as the creature’s actual name. Meh.. I’d say it’s a rental, not a movie theater watch.

So, I decided to liven things up a bit. I designed this theme using Artisteer. Which is an awesome WYSIWYG editor for making WordPress themes. It’s pretty awesome. I had to shell out $50 to make sure that my layout wasn’t riddled with a watermark of “TRIAL” all over it. Ugh.

The “standard edition” where you can do more tweaking is $100. Seriously $100!? Why!? Oh well.

I will be doing a bunch of other tweaks to the layout. Fun Fun Fun.

So, I’m about to get a new apartment. Kind of excited. It’s a small place and it’s closer to my office than my house now. Here is an image I quickly drew up. It’s not at all to scale since I did it in a hurried fashion. And yes, I know approximation is spelled with two Ps.

As you can see, you walk into the common area with the bed room to the left, and a kitchen to the right. The one thing I’m not too horrible pleased about is that in order to get to the bathroom, you have to go through the bedroom. This may or may not be  a problem with overnight guests. We’ll see I guess.

As far as the price goes, it is a little pricey, especially considering my budget and circumstances surrounding the move. For a two year lease, it’s $590 a month. For a one year lease it’s $660 a month. Also, I would of course have to pay for gas and electric… as well as interent. Cable Television would probably be put in a backburner (not like I have time for TV anyway).

Here’s the sucky part. I have a cat. They want either one full month extra upfront plus $25 per month OR one half month extra upfront plus $50 per month for having my cat live with me. That sucks. A lot. Also, I have to pay first/last/security deposit upfront. The guy said that since I have no credit at all, he MIGHT be able to waive the last month upfront costs. I wrote a quick program that helps me calculate the total costs.

Here is possible costs for a one year lease:

Upfront values 3.5 months upfront and $50 animal fee.
Cost upfront is: USD 2,310.00
Total Cost is USD 8,520.00
Grand Total is USD 10,830.00

Upfront values 4 months upfront and $25 animal fee.
Cost upfront is: USD 2,640.00
Total Cost is USD 8,220.00
Grand Total is USD 10,860.00

As you can see, for a one year lease it would be cheaper (by $30) to pay more monthly than upfront.

Here is the one year lease with the last month upfront payment waived:

Upfront values 2.5 months upfront and $50 animal fee.
Cost upfront is: USD 1,650.00
Total Cost is USD 8,520.00
Grand Total is USD 10,170.00

Upfront values 3 months upfront and $25 animal fee.
Cost upfront is: USD 1,980.00
Total Cost is USD 8,220.00
Grand Total is USD 10,200.00

And two year lease:

Upfront values 3.5 months upfront and $50 animal fee.
Cost upfront is: USD 2,065.00
Total Cost is USD 15,360.00
Grand Total is USD 17,425.00

Upfront values 4 months upfront and $25 animal fee.
Cost upfront is: USD 2,360.00
Total Cost is USD 14,760.00
Grand Total is USD 17,120.00
-

Upfront values 2.5 months upfront and $50 animal fee.
Cost upfront is: USD 1,475.00
Total Cost is USD 15,360.00
Grand Total is USD 16,835.00

Upfront values 3 months upfront and $25 animal fee.
Cost upfront is: USD 1,770.00
Total Cost is USD 14,760.00
Grand Total is USD 16,530.00

As you can see with a two year lease, it’d be cheaper to pay less monthly, by a considerable amount ($300). So ultimately, I think I’m going to have to choose the 2 year $25 monthly plan. Oh Boy.