My deal of the year

My personal computer is a MicroCenter PowerSpec that I bought a year and a half ago to replace an older PowerSpec that had lost most of the functions of its integrated devices -- the on-board video, modem/ethernet, and serial ports were all dead. I had chalked this up to bad luck and was seduced into getting another PC from this same manufacturer by price. My current PC worked okay for the first six months, and then it began to intermittently reboot. I didn't want to go through the hassle of trying to get this repaired because I had a lot of data on it and didn't want to have to back up 60GB worth of files, so I tolerated this annoyance. As the warranty expired at the year mark the problem got progressively worse, and now a day doesn't go by that the computer doesn't shut down with a memory dump or just reboot. I thought the problem might be too much heat in the case so I installed a set of fans in an empty 5.25" drive bay as well as another one on the back of the PC, but the problem persists.

So as I mentioned in a note a few days ago, I've been reading the FatWal!et forums (specifically, Hot Deals) for a while with an eye towards finding a swinging deal on a new computer. Last week I read a posting indicating Office Depot had a 19" CRT monitor for $24 AR (after rebate). While I'd prefer getting a new 19" LCD, I knew I couldn't beat $24 for a monitor so I checked online to see if my local store had one of these available for pickup... and I lucked out--they had only one. Just before clicking "purchase" I scanned through the FW postings again and noticed that there was a coupon code good for $30 off, so I went back to my online shopping cart and added the code... it worked! After tax, I'm amazed that I'm paying less than $2 for taking this monitor off their hands.

Now all I needed was a new computer, and FW came through for me again. I read where CompUSA was going to have a great sale over the MLK weekend. Their loss leader was a Compaq Presario SR1710NX with everything that I needed for $374.99 + $22.50 tax, but then the rebates kicked in--a $200 CompUSA rebate along with a $50 Compaq rebate, bringing the price to $147.49 AR. At this price, I couldn't resist and picked one up on Sunday.

I might be surprised, but I'm guessing that this new 19" monitor + Compaq Presario for less than $150 will be my deal of the year. And yes, with this much $ at stake, the rebate forms are in the mail.

I think I'm a cheap bastard, but I don't come close to these guys...

I'm ordinarily a very frugal person, and perhaps I'm wired more differently than I think. I prefer to do auto repair work myself on my 10 year-old car that has 150k miles, I'd rather eat in than out, and it pains me to pay retail for anything. Yes, anything. And yet in the last 8 years, my wife has helped me understand and quantify the value of my time. When we were first married I used to drive 5 miles out of the way to save 10 cents a gallon on gas. If a store was selling something for $10 less after rebate than another store, I'd buy from the store with the rebate... even though it was often more expensive up front than the other retailer, but in my mind I rationalized that I'd save $10 with the rebate.

One of the first lessons about the value of my time happened shortly after we'd been married, and I ran out of gas. Yes, I was trying to get to the "cheap" gas station, but in doing so I passed a half dozen other stations and spent 2 hours stuck on the shoulder of I-75 waiting for AAA to arrive. I didn't plan to tell my wife about the incident, but I suck at keeping secrets from her. So after telling her the story, our conversation went something like this...
Wife: What would you have paid not to have dealt with running out of gas and waiting 2 hours on the side of the freeway?
Me: $100
Wife: How much were you going to save?
Me: [Thinking. 18 gallon tank X ten cents a gallon cheaper...] $2 at the most
Wife: So in trying to save $2 you lost 2 hours of your life that you'll never get back, and those hours were worth $100. Learn anything?
Me: Yeah, sometimes men prefer dumb blondes to smart brunettes
Wife: Not if they like sleeping in bed with their wives, they don't
Me: I need to go walk the dogs

Now when the gas tank is low, I fill it. It still bugs me if I pay more than I think I should, but as a means of pacifying this angst, I got a AAA Visa card that gives me 5% cash back on gas purchases.

On the subject of things being cheaper with rebates, I've come to learn that having ADD -and- filling out & submitting rebates by their deadlines are often incompatable. I've been "screwed" numerous times by missing a due date and just recently submitted a rebate and forgot to put a stamp on the envelope, thus missing the dealine. I still find it hard to pass up a great deal like the 19" monitor I picked up for $24 after rebate (I'll share the story about this in a couple of days), but I now try to avoid purchases requiring rebates.

So all of that is background for why I've been reading the FatWal!et (FW) forums over the last couple of months. I appreciate the mission of getting the best price and admire the passion of many of the "OPs", or Original Posters, i.e., the first users to alert others to a deal. These guys are militant about getting a bargain. They drive all over town to check inventory (lest they alert an employee to a closeout deal in which case the employee may claim the item is OOS--out of stock and buy up the inventory for themselves), have special credit cards so they can be refunded the difference if a purchased item goes down in price within X number of days, set up systems for managing and tracking rebates, frequent retail stores that give 110% price match guarantees, and do just about anything to get a free item. I'll confess to taking part in a few shenanigans in order to get a blowout deal, but I'm a dwarf amongst giants in the land of FatWal!et.

Dividends are my friend

In the last 4 years I've put most of my investment dollars into residential (rental) real estate, shifting it away from stocks & mutual funds. Of course I'm always looking for a good return and have always liked dividend stocks, especially those that have a company-sponsored DRIP.

One such stock is NovaStar Financial (NFI), which I've been purchasing for the last 3 years and in whose DRIP I participate. I'm reminded of NovaStar because they just paid out another dividend and issued their November production numbers today.

NovaStar is a mortgage real estate investment (mREIT) company offering nonconforming loans. Because of their mREIT status, they must pay out 90% of taxable income to remain a REIT and 100% of taxable income to avoid income tax. It's odd, but tax accounting is totally different than "real" or "GAAP" accounting, which is why the company can pay out 100% of its taxable income and still continue to operate. In the 3 years I've been buying NovaStar, this payout has consistently resulted in a 20~25% dividend. 2005 dividends were $5.60 per share, which equates to a 19% dividend based upon NFI's current stock price of ~ $30. Despite higher interest rates and an earlier Thanksgiving than normal, their November non-conforming production was up from $690 million in November of last year to $714 this year along with WAC (weighted average coupon = the average interest rate customers pay NFI) rising from 7.65% in 11/04 to 7.9% in 11/05, and the average FICO (credit score) going from 623 in 11/04 to 636 in 11/05.

The stock is trading about 40% off its 52-week high, and if you read the Yahoo message board for NFI, you'll find a lot of discussion about naked short sellers bearing the blame for this. While I think their arguments have merit given the stock is consistently on the failure-to-deliver or SHO list, I also think that the complexities of understanding the difference between GAAP vs. taxable income spook many investors, including those who do so professionally.

The purpose of discussing NFI isn't to promote the stock, though--it's to promote DRIP investing. In fact, being a DRIP participant, I prefer the stock to remain depressed as long as the company continues to crank out dividends. One good resources for finding other companies that sponsor DRIPs is at Computershare.

Woot!

Dear Wives and Girlfriends,

If you live in the Eastern Time Zone and have been wondering why your husbands and boyfriends have developed a habit over the last year of going to bed after 1:00am, it's probably not "you". Of course if your significant other isn't going to bed because he's on the phone with your best friend "just chatting", then it may be you. That's for you and Dr. Phil to resolve.

The reason many of us geeks find ourselves going to bed after 1:00am is the Internet. No, it's not porn that's keeping us up... well, statistically I guess there are some for whom porn is the cause of late-night computer use, but the cause I am here to discuss is Woot.

Each day at midnight Central Time, Woot posts an item for sale, and it's usually at an outrageously bargain-basement price. The item is available for sale until it sells out or until midnight the next weeknight, when the next item goes live (unless you see flashing lights, in which case a Woot-Off is underway). I just started converting our family movies from mini-DV tapes to AVI files and needed more storage, so I picked up a 250GB hard drive last night for $49.99 + $5 shipping. Who can beat that? It's better than the Friday after Thanksgiving deals!

Lest you think Woot is the lone culprit, there are others: MidnightBox, 1deal1day, SnapGone (currently down), and steepANDcheap. But just a warning, wives and girlfriends, checking these sites can become habit-forming.

Cost of war

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. -Matthew 5:9

On December 15, 2005, our President owned up to the fact that Iraq did not have and was not producing weapons of mass destruction, his original justification for going to war. Bush stated, "It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong. As president, I'm responsible for the decision to go into Iraq...."

We can finally put a dollar cost on that mistake. Joseph Stiglitz, a Columbia University professor who won the Nobel prize for economics in 2001, and Linda Bilmes, a Harvard budget expert, released a study yesterday showing that the real financial cost borne by the U.S. for the war in Iraq will be between 1 and 2 trillion dollars. To put that in context, that's between $3,357 and $6,715 for every man, woman, and child in America. Oh, and just a reminder, we don't have the money to pay for this so we're having to borrow the money.

Those figures, by the way, are on top of the $27,411 every man, woman, and child in America already owes because our government has racked up a debt of $8,165,647,324,627.69 as of today.

Since our government has chosen to skip the Dover Test, the human cost of war is often seen as a statistic the media and politicians kick around when it hits nice round numbers. Be prepared for the hype within the next couple of months when this number hits 2,500. I think it's important to recognize the following numbers as more than statistics--they're mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters: the U.S. has lost 2.210 service members, the U.K. has lost 98, and other members of the coalition of the "you're either for us or you're against us" have lost 103. Americans have also had over 16,000 wounded. And did you know we have one soldier officially classified as captured? I didn't.

Not to be glib, but while the death of a member of our armed forces is heartbreaking, it's to be expected--we're at war. Unfortunately the loss of civilian life is something that has been completely overlooked by the media. During the U.S. and allied invasion of Iraq, over 7,000 Iraqi civilians were killed. Since then, estimates range from a low of 27,000 to over 100,000 Iraqi civilians may have been killed.

While I don't see how this war in Iraq can ever be worth the human or financial costs, our President can. In that same Dec. 15 speech, Bush continued, "given Saddam's history and the lessons of Sept. 11, my decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision. Saddam was a threat, and the American people and the world is better off because he is no longer in power."

Dave FM responds

I normally "check out" during commericals on the radio, but my wife brought to my attention the fact that Dave FM was actually congratulating the Atlanta Falcons on their season. I finally heard it, and as a season ticket holder, the clips were insulting.

I sent the following note to the Promotions/Marketing department of Dave FM through their website:

Every time I hear one of your clips congratulating the Falcons on their season, I change channels. As a season ticket holder I'm a big Falcons fan, but let's call a spade a spade--they sucked this year & despite his comments otherwise, Jim Mora disappointed his fans and extended the Falcons' 40-year tradition of NEVER having back-to-back winning seasons. The aforementioned radio clip reminds me of the infamous, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job!" When the team goes to the NFC Championship with an 11-5 record to 8-8 this year, they shouldn't be congratulated.

... and my first response was this:

**MAIL FAILURE**
tim.andrews@infinitybroadcasting.com is not recognized

...so I followed up and sent a note to the Program Director. She finally responded:

I appreciate your note and feel your pain. It was a frustrating season, and we all wish we were in the playoffs...nobody more than the Falcons themselves. I understand your concern and can see and feel where you are coming from. That promo ends today, and we prepare for the next football season.

As the Flagship station, we support the Falcons as if they were Barnes or Mara...they are our family. When they hurt we hurt....when they win, we win.

I appreciate the time you took to write the email, and I appreciate your listening.

Cheers,
michelle engel
director of programming
929 dave fm
infinity broadcasting

Trilogies always suck

For those who missed it, including me, yesterday was (in)Justice Sunday III, held in the city of brotherly love. Like so many other trilogies, this one was poorly attended & the lead characters were nothing but a cadre of marginalized former heavy-hitters.

Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the No. 3 Senate Republican, told the gathering that liberal judges are "destroying traditional morality, creating a new moral code, and prohibiting any dissent."

Wait a minute, Mr. Santorum, I thought that's what the Republican-led Congress and President are for? Wasn't it Congress who pushed through legislation forcing judicial review of Terri Schiavo's case last spring? The former House leader, Tom Delay, is certainly at the forefront of establishing a new moral code. And the Bush administration is making every legal "stretch" it can to prohibit any and all forms of dissent.

Santorum went on to say, "The only way to restore this republic our founders envisioned is to elevate honorable jurists like Samuel Alito," Santorum said. "Unfortunately, the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee seem poised to drag these hearings into the gutter, so they can continue their far left judicial activism on the Supreme Court."

I'll confess I know very little about Alito, but I withhold my support simply knowing he's been nominated by an administration which supports torture, the incarceration of several hundred individuals without charge in Guantanamo Bay, and ignores the Federal Communications Act.

Fortunately Senator Santorum is facing a mid-term election this coming November. Hopefully the good people of Pennsylvania will see him for what he is--another member of the Christian "right" who has it all wrong.

Notably absent from inJustice Sunday III was Pat Robertson, but the other two clowns of the Christian political movement, The Rev. Jerry Falwell and Focus on the Family founder James Dobson were in attendance.

The crackpot Falwell has kept a low profile since 9/11, when he stated on-air, "And, I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this [September 11 attacks] because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this [September 11 attacks] happen.'"

Dobson is perhaps the smartest of the three. He avoids the headline-grabbing "stupid quotes", but I find him the most scary. He's a trained psychologist with absolutely no formal theological training. That's right--he's a layperson with an audience of 3-5 million listeners a week who uses his Focus on the Family ministry to push his own political agenda.

And if you don't think religious zealots of all faiths can be scary, taking this quiz may change your mind.

Toilet Monster

If only I weren't so cheap I'd buy this and set it up before hosting our next community group meeting.