Mr President: Make the Morgage Fix Fair

Disclaimer: I don't know anything about banking, or running the country. I have bought a house, though, so I do have some insight into the minds of people who don't think the proposed mortgage fix is a good idea.

When we were looking at houses, my wife and I had to face the realization that we could not afford the house we wanted. We had good credit, but between student loans, the car, and credit card debt, we simply could not make the monthly payments for a single family house in the expensive DC suburbs. We had to settle, and make due with what we could afford.

That's why I have a problem with the idea that Americans are being asked to essentially pay the difference between what someone promised to pay and what they can afford. Don't get me wrong, I don't think we should just throw these people out of their homes, but I think there's a better way.

If we have to reduce some homeowners' principal balance as an emergency to keep them in their home, surely they can pay us back eventually. Like when they sell the house that we helped pay for. Its called a lien. If the government pays a percentage of the price of the mortgage, let the government recover that percentage from the eventual sale for the house. Those funds can reduce the deficit or be reinvested to help future homeowners.

To me this sounds better than just giving the money away.

What do you think?

Is the next iPhone the old iphone?

Over the last few weeks, there has been much speculation about the possibilty that Apple would unveil a new model of the iPhone. An analyst report earlier this week and published by Macrumors.com contained the following suggested specs:



What would such an edge-only iPhone look like? I think we have a pretty good idea already:

Published!

Today was an exciting day for me. When I got home from work, I saw that Singletrack Magazine had arrived. This is the first time I've had my photographs published, and it blew my mind. The article and photos were part of a feature on the Shenandoah Mountain 100 race that I started shooting in 2006. It was such a thrill to see my photos as part of a nice, glossy mtb magazine. Every one of the photos in the article was mine, I couldn't believe it. Its a great feeling. It was also rewarding because the SM100 is an event that's been part of my life since 2000. Its been exciting to see it grow over the years, into one of the premier events of the eat coast mtb season.

In 2006, I found myself on the sidelines for the Shenandoah Mountain 100. I took my new Nikon DSLR and tried to capture images of the race. The results were not good, so I started learning as much as I could about digital photography. I poured over American Photo, Digital Photo Pro, and every magazine I could get my hands on. I read books on photojournalism, portraits, and sports photography. I studied the how-tos on lighting, aperture, depth of field and compostion. I carried my camera around all the time to be ready for spontaneous photo opportunities. I invested in better glass. The following year, I was ready for race season, armed with what I learned I was able to capture great images that told the story of the race. I sold some images onine and I was hooked. Now I'm looking at eight of my images of the SM100 published alongside a feature about the race in Singletrack Mountain Bike Magazine.

Check out the images on my facebook page

Chinese New Year photos are up

More photos:


I was disappointed with the images I got. The sun was strong, but the angle of the sun cast ashadow fron the buildings at about a 45 degree angle, which made it tough to get any decent images. I saw other photographers that were closer in to the action and captured better images.