Chicago’s new Millennium Park has a giant reflective bean-like sculpture. It reflects the city skyline and people around the structure. What would I love to do? Take photos of it. Apparently, that might be an issue. You see, some dumbass decided that the city-paid artist should retain the copyright to the bean in the park. This means you pay for a permit to photograph public art in a city-owned park. Unbelievable.

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The SD housing market is still freaking people out: An unusually large number of home sales to non-occupant buyers last year has some economists leaning forward and moving to the edge of their seats.

Remember how the US was outraged over the oil for food scandal with the UN and Iraq?

Well.. Turns out the US and UN condoned Iraq oil smuggling to Turkey and Jordan. “How is it that you stand on a moral footing to go after the U.N. when they’re responsible for 15 percent maybe of the ill-gotten gains, and we were part and complicit of him getting 85 percent of the money?” Preach it, Menendez.

Coming to you live from 32.717625,-117.143281

I brought my eyes in yesterday for their 3-month-post-zap-checkup. Everything seems OK so far. Right eye is around 20, left is closer to 15. Would be nice to have them the same, but I’m happy anyway. Judging the signed photograph and the entertainment tonight clip looping in the waiting room, my doctor zapped Jessica Simpson’s eyes as well. Whoopidiedoo.

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E-filed our fed taxes this morning. I was wrong, it only costs money to efile state taxes with them. So as long as you only do fed, its all free. Gotta love free. Now I just have to efile the CA taxes on the CA FTB site, also for free. Did I mention I love free?

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I found this msn money article interesting. It is supposed to tell you not to bite off too much of a house, but living in San Diego it seems almost like a suggestion to never buy one in the current market:

* Inflation. Rapidly rising prices in the 1970s and early 1980s meant you could count on hefty annual raises. Today, you can?t rely on double-digit income boosts to make your mortgage payment less of a burden each year.

* Two-income couples. A generation ago, single-income families were more common. If the breadwinner lost a job, the other spouse could go to work to save the house. With more two-income families needing both paychecks to make the mortgage payment, there?s no one on the sidelines to take up the slack — unless you put the kids to work.

* The lending industry. Thirty years ago, it was pretty tough to get a mortgage for more than you could really afford. Today, it?s fairly commonplace. More lenders have loosened their criteria, knowing that the vast majority of their borrowers will do whatever it takes to pay their mortgage — even if it means trashing the rest of their financial lives.

* Retirement. A much bigger proportion of the workforce was covered by traditional, defined-benefit pensions 30 years ago — which means they didn?t have to save massive amounts of money on their own to have a decent retirement. Today, the onus is typically on you to carve enough out of your budget to fund 401(k)s and IRAs.

Of course I am overreacting here, but it does seem like everyone in this town is betting on the housing game, even though the rules have changed.

I get digitally fingerprinted at the “Application Support Center” today as part of the change of status paperwork. Seventy five bucks. Someone has to be making money off this. Bit strange really. I mean, they have my photograph and fingerprint from the last 3 years of TN-1 visas, as well as when I came back from Costa Rica and then again from Peru. Something makes me think homeland security is not quite as integrated as the name suggests.

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Someone must stop the moleskine insanity. What is in the water? Fan sites, hacks? People, this is a notebook. Nothing more. No, Hemingway and Van Gogh did not use the same notebook as you. This company started in 1994, in Italy, not France. Your writings will not be better when you put them in this notepad. I should know, Anna bought me one for travel two years ago. It was on sale, because no one was buying them. Funny how things change.

To me, it all just shows how desperate modern society is to belong. Simple things become tiny gods (iPod, I’m looking at you) in the rush to belong. I suppose one could argue that the moleskine is the result of people rejecting the push to digital. But I think the real question is, how should modern society fill the tribal void we seem to be missing?

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Interesting article at the UT about Friends of San Diego Architecture finishing the awards for “Accessory Dwelling Units: Inspired Solutions for Our Community”. In other words, granny flats. Looks like they have some really good ideas and are hoping to convince SD city council that loosening the requirements on the flats can help out with the housing crisis. All the power to them, current regulations are insane.