World Cup Soccer and Swimsuits - 2 of our Favorites

Pictures are worth a thousand words.......here are some soccer WAGs supporting their men and teams.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010_swimsuit/painting/

~Wormy

The Real Estate Tax Credit

Will it jumpstart the housing market? When do I buy?

The Real Estate Tax Credit purpose is to jumpstart the housing market. When it was realized that by 11/30/09, when the tax credit was supposed to expire, that the progress was not enough, it was decided to extend to 04/30/10 and adding exiting homeowner qualifications to expand to those that can benefit from the program.

The tax credit awards First TIme homebuyers (those individuals who have not claimed interest on any property or owned a home for the past three years) with $8,000.00 or 10 % of sales price, whichever is lower. Existing homeowners can get a credit of 6500.00 if they show that they owned and lived in a home for 5 out of the last 8 years. New purchases must be under contract by 04/30/10 and close by 6/30/10. Question is that will the Credit jumpstart the housing market. Despite heavy criticism, the numbers do not lie. Despite a slow 4th quarter , 2009 saw a 15% increase in sales and applications for the month of January 2010 exploded.

Many consurmers are hesitant to buy with decreasing values and speculation on the mortgage process. The benefits of being a homeowner need to be addressed outside of the immediate "tax credit carrot" that the government is dangling in front of potential buyers. The market and industry must not depend on this credit if they want the recovery to come full circle. On top of the tax credit new homeowners have an advantage come tax time. Not only do they get the credit but the "writeoffs" are great. Property Taxes, Interest Paid, Origination Fees, home repair charges, home improvement charges, green friendly upgrades. Im not a tax expert but the amount of money gone into a home can benefit you way more come tax time then a renter.

Think about this scenario, 5k for property taxes, 8 k of mortgage interest paid, 3k for mortgage origination, 2k for new bathroom, 5k for eco windows, 2k for green appliances. Thats 25k in writeoffs that renters would not benefit from. Oh yeah I almost forgot I walked with 8k for just buying. Thats a 33k swing on income. Even if the house that I buy for 150k drops by 10% in the next year, thats only 15k compared to the 33k beneifit I got for buying this year. That does not count the tax benefits of writing off property taxes and interest paid every year after year one.

I am not a tax expert and please consult a tax advisor for the best advice.

~Mini Rizz

Avatar The Last Bender on the Super Bowl

Don’t forget to tune-in to Super Bowl XLIV this Sunday on CBS to see a 30-second TV Spot for M. Night Shyamalan’s upcoming movie "The Last Airbender".

This is a good way to get familiar if you have no idea what this is about. It is set to be trilogy and it's based off of a Nickolodean Cartoon about a bunch of "benders" doing kung fu while controlling the elements. There is The nomadic "Air Bender" tribe, the "Fire" nation lead by the main bad guy, the mysterious Fire Lord . There is an eskimo like "Water" tribe in the North pole and lastly the "Earth" nation. Aang who is "the Avatar", is the child who must learn all four elements to save the world. Buttttttt he's been stuck in a iceberg for like a 100 years. All of his tribe has perished and the world about to be taken over by the Fire Nation.

Tht trailers and test screening has the movie leaning to positive reviews. M. Night Shyamalan is calling it his Lord of The Rings, his Star Wars. Those are pretty high expectations, but I'm pretty pumped. The cartoon was great, the action looks ood, special effects look to be on point.....I'm hoping this movie that puts M. Night Shyamalan back in the business of making great movies, comparable to "The Sixth Sense" since his last few have quite frankly sucked.

More info can be found here:

http://www.thelastairbendermovie.com/#home
http://mnightfans.com

Lost Theories - Final Season

I know we know that what ever has happened…happened.
And we know "dead" is no longer really dead.

The side flashes we are seeing is a new “Now” time-line where the “Man in Locke” aka “Smokey” is the Locke on the plane that gets off at LAX. The man in black basically says that he’s going home… he’s getting off the Island???
What ever it is inside of Locke, it is not the real Locke that we see in season one. The reason he is not the beaten man that didn’t go on a walkabout is because he is still "Smokey". So this still continues that what ever happened… has happened

Sayid is Jacob Reincarnated.

This season is about the shake out of flashes of people on the island fighting for a spot to get off the island aka get on the Plane so they can get to the new timeline…the timeline that plane lands in LAX .

The Oceanic 6 will appear to die on island but will be reincarnated into the new time line.

Ipad

My Take..... Bad Name. The ad Guru that landed on that name should be fired. As for the product itself, it is “Mundanely Apple”. Yes its slick, but that doesn’t seam to be enough anymore for the trend setting, market defining tech behemoth. The iPad is not for everyone. The current market (2010) for this is for people who buy technogoly early, your early adapters. The future of the iPad will help to define a computing era where more and more products become smart items. A computerized and connected refrigerator, internet connected television, etc., are being released in mass this year. Its filling a “tweener” hole for someone who doesn't need a full use computer as we know it today, no matter how small, but this user wants connectively to information, to friends, to work. They want a place to access their photos, their music, their movies so they can be entertained and connected on demand.

It is not trying to be a dumbed down, feature poor computer, it is trying to be a very smart stack of paper. And it looks like its going to do that very well. And the user will look very cool while doing it.

--Wormy

NFL ALL Decade Team 2000's

Click here to see who was nominated to be on the All Decade team for the 2000's decade.

You'll notice that two Eagles are on the team. Brian Dawkins at safety and David Akers at kicker.

There's not much argument there as they've been two of the most dominant players in their respective positions for most of the decade. Both of them represented the Eagles completely as very hard working, consistent, and professional athletes who plays the game with passion. David Akers, out of Louisville, just came off one his best season's ever where he was second in the NFL in total points in 2009.

Brian Dawkins was the leader of this team that has been one of the most consistent winning franchises in the NFL. He spent most of career with the Eagles, after getting drafted out of Clemson, until this past season in 2009, in which he signed as a free agent with the Denver Broncos. It was a pretty emotional split as Brian Dawkins has been a fan favorite of the city for such a long time. He went on to have another Pro Bowl year with the Denver Broncos as he stepped in without losing a step.

Terrell Owens makes the All Decade team as well and is known for his memorable years with the Eagles, both terrible and fantastic.