Success

1. Things don't always go as planned.
2. Don't dwell on the past.
3. Learn from the past, plan for the future, but live in the present.
4. Don't dwell on the past.
5. Be here now.
6. I can only move forward.
7. What is the best way forward from this exact point in my life?
8. What are my assets?
9. What are my liabilities?
10. How can I best leverage my assets and overcome my liabilities?
11. How can I do the most good?
12. What good cause should I be anxiously engaged in?
13. What is my highest potential?
14. What is my vision of success?
15. How can I get there?

Five Guys versus In-N-Out Burger

VERSUS

I have been an In-N-Out Burger aficionado for many years, and I've recently heard vague rumblings about different competitors such as Shake Shack and Five Guys Burgers and Fries popping up. I just tried out Five Guys for the first time, at Reagan National Airport in DC. Here is my head to head review:

Burger: Five Guys was actually a little better than In-N-Out! I liked the thicker patty, and loved that they offer additional toppings such as green peppers.

Fries: Five Guys' fries were better as well. Their fries are thicker and pretty good, while In-N-Out's are just average, even though they are "freshly cut"... (who cares?)

Price: Five Guys was WAY overpriced! $6 for a cheeseburger and $5 for a large fries? Seriously? But it was at the airport, where everything is overpriced. So it may be priced more reasonably at non-airport locations.

Other Factors:

• Five Guys gives you a TON of fries. That might be nice if you have someone to share them with, but since I was flying solo, it wasn't that helpful.  And I can't really reward bonus points for contributing to the obesity epidemic.
• Five Guys is not available in Arizona, which is a big minus since I don't want to have to fly to DC for a burger, no matter how good.
• Five Guys took a really long time to get the order up. (Could be another airport only issue.) But In-N-Out isn't really very speedy either.

Conclusion: If Five Guys was/were available in AZ, it/they would have probably pulled off the upset victory. However, since they're overpriced, slow, and unavailable without a flight involved, In-N-Out still gets the nod for now.

Holocaust Museum

Matthew and I went to the Holocaust Museum at the Smithsonian, mainly because we'd been to the other museums before. We ended up spending quite a bit of time there on the tour. I most enjoyed the stories of the heroic individuals who risked their lives to save others, such as the White Rose group. However, the thing that struck me the most, and that I still have trouble grasping, is how most of the people of Germany, as well as Austria and some other countries, just went along with Hitler's plans. I may be off on this, but it seems like when Hitler said "OK, new plan, we're going to systematically discriminate against Jews", about 99% of Germans (and later Austrians and other countries) said "Sure, sounds good to me." How is that possible? And it's one thing to go along with discrimination, but then later, Hitler literally said things like, "We're going to go into Poland and kill every man, woman and child without mercy." And everyone was STILL ok going along with his plans. I know there was a lot of brainwashing and propaganda going on, and of course there was a point when it was too late to openly oppose anything, but I just can't comprehend how the large majority of normal citizens and/or soldiers were seemingly ok with Hitler's systematic discrimination, hate, murder, and genocide.

How To Appeal Your Property Tax Valuation In Maricopa County Arizona

Tired of paying high property taxes? I just appealed my property tax valuation, so I thought I would share the steps for how to do it. This will only be helpful if you live in Maricopa County, AZ. (And actually our property taxes aren't that high compared to some states, but it's still a good idea to appeal if your valuation is inaccurate.)

There are two ways to appeal, administrative and judicial. I will only be talking about the administrative option. (For the judicial, according to the State Board of Equalization, "You may file a petition directly with the Tax Court at any time after receiving the Notice of Value, provided you do not file an administrative appeal - but you must file it no later than December 15. This is the Judicial Process.")

If you hurry, there is still time to appeal your 2012 valuation, which was the one that you should have received recently. The county sends out a postcard in February with your valuation for the following year, which looks about like this:

The deadline for them to send out the postcard is March 1, and then the deadline for you to appeal is 60 days later. So you probably only have another week or so. Get on it!

If you did not receive a postcard, you can see your valuation info online:

1. Go to the assessor's website
   
2. Enter your street number and name (or your parcel number if you know it)
   
3. You will be taken to your property info page.
   
4. Scroll down to "Valuation Information"

How is the amount of tax determined?

The way the taxes are calculated is quite a complicated mess. It's not imperative that you understand the details of how the taxes are calculated, and I don't really understand it completely myself, so feel free to skip down to the section below about appealing. But here are some basics.

One important thing to understand is that when your assessed valuation goes down from one year to the next, that does not necessarily mean your taxes go down! Your assessed value only determines how much of the pie is your responsibility. So if everyone's valuation went down about the same percentage, then the percentage of the taxes that are your responsibility, or your piece of the pie, would not change.

Your property is identified by a unique parcel number. You will see on your notice of valuation a "full cash value" (FCV) and a "limited property value" (LPV), which are each used to determine different portions of the tax for your parcel. Then there's an assessment ratio which is multiplied by the FCV and LPV to determine the value that they then multiply by some arbitrary "tax rate" to determine your actual amount of tax. You can read more nitty gritty details in the FAQs here.

For owner occupied homes and rental homes, the assessment ratio is always 10%. (It's higher for land and commercial properties.) So if your full cash value was $100,000, then your assessed value would be $100,000 x 10% = $10,000. And if the tax rate was 8%, then your annual property taxes owed would be $10,000 (assessed value) x 8% (tax rate) = $800.

If you are interested in seeing a breakdown of where your taxes are going:

1. Go back to the assessor's website
   
2. Enter your street number and name (or your parcel number)
   
3. You will be taken to your property info page.
   
4. Click on "View Tax Information"
   
5. You will be taken to the treasurer's website.
   
6. Click on "Tax Bill" in the upper left hand corner.
   
7. Scroll down and you can see all the places your property taxes are being used for. (The majority goes to the school districts.)
   

Is My Property Valuation Too High?

If you want to appeal your tax valuation, you will need to show that the valuation should have been lower. (At least I'm assuming you want your taxes lowered, not increased.) There are at least 4 ways you can value your property:

1. Market approach
   
2. Cost approach
   
3. Income approach
   
4. "Equity" approach

Market approach. Using the market approach just means looking at the current market value of your home. So for example if the valuation on your property notice was $100,000 and the comparable sales in your neighborhood show that your home is worth $80,000, then you could argue that your home is worth $80,000, by providing those comps.

Cost approach. Using the cost approach means looking at how much it would cost to build your home. So for example if the valuation on your property notice was $100,000 and you know that it would only cost $80,000 to build your home, then you could argue that your home is worth $80,000, by showing that it would only cost $80,000 to build it (including the purchase of the land). This option is not going to be helpful anytime soon, since the assessments are generally far lower than the cost to build.

Income approach. Using the income approach means looking at how much your property is worth based on how much income it brings it. This would only apply for income (rental) properties.

"Equity" approach. This last one, which I am calling the "equity" approach, just means looking at how much the other properties in your neighborhood were assessed for, and seeing if theirs were assessed for less than yours. If the other similar sized properties in your area were assessed for less than yours, then you have a strong argument that yours should also be assessed for less. So, even if you think the assessed value of your property is equal to or less than current market value, you should still check and make sure that it's also in line with the amounts that your neighbors' properties were assessed for. Otherwise you'll have to pay for more than your share of the pie!

How To Check On The Assessed Values Of The Properties In Your Area

To check on the assessed values of the properties in your area:

• Go to the Assessor's website.
  
• Scroll over "Maps" and click on "GIS Interactive Maps"
  
• In the search fields on the right, enter the Street number and Street name (or parcel number) for your property, and click "Submit".
  
• Your parcel will be highlighted.
  
• On the right, click on the "Valuation Data" tab to see the assessed value, and click on the "Property Data" tab to see the size of your home. (Make sure the square footage is correct. If the assessor has an incorrect value for your home size, that is another factor that you could appeal.)
  
  
• On the map, click on the neighboring lots on your street and in your area. After clicking on each parcel, click on the "Property Data" tab to check the size of the home.
  
  
  
  
  When you find properties similar in size to yours, click on the "Valuation Data" tab and compare their valuations to yours.
  
  
• If your neighbors with similar sized properties have lower valuations than yours, then you have cause for appeal. You're paying for too much pie! Make a note of the parcel numbers and valuations that support your case.

Appealing the tax valuation

If you decided based on any of the approaches above that you can argue that your home should have a lower valuation, then you can appeal the valuation. To appeal, go to this page on the Assessor's website, enter your parcel number, click "Submit", and then follow the instructions on the form to make your case!

(If you are confident in your case, click on "Yes" for question 8, "CHECK HERE TO REQUEST A MEETING WITH THE ASSESSOR'S OFFICE". According to David Schweikert, former Maricopa County Treasurer, that will help your chances.)

After your appeal, the assessor must consider, decide, and answer your request on or before August 15. If you do not agree with the decision, you can file a petition with the Board of Equalization for the county.

Good luck!

The Ultimate Downpour

When I showed up for ultimate frisbee tonight around 8 PM it was already raining steadily, but it was warm out so it felt pretty good. I joined the game, and after about 10 or 15 minutes it started raining pretty hard. I wasn't sure whether we would keep playing but we did. Then after another 10 minutes or so the real monsoon showed up and we got a torrential downpour. I literally couldn't see the other players.

We were playing at a park in Tempe, and the field acted somewhat like a retention basin. By the time the rain eased up we were playing in somewhere between 12 and 18 inches of water. But we kept on playing. It felt like I was playing with ankle weights on, but it was actually a lot of fun diving and sliding around in the muck.

 The photos were taken toward the end of the game, long after the rain died down and some of the water drained off. That's me in bright yellow.

Citizen Kane

"Rosebud..."

I finally saw Citizen Cane, the so-called "greatest movie ever made". I thought it was interesting. But I think by "greatest movie" what they mean is "movie with the camera work and effects most ahead of it's time", or "movie involved in the most intriguing hollywood subplot in the 1940s", or "movie that we most like to discuss in cinematography 101". They definitely don't mean "most enjoyable movie". I don't think it was as enjoyable as say, Ironman 2 (the last movie that I saw), or as enjoyable as just about any enjoyable movie. In fact I found it annoying that they mapped out the entire plot (except the rosebud thing) right at the beginning. But apparently it has deep focus photography and nifty fake ceilings made of cloth. Isn't that nice.

I did find the whole story about Orson Welles battling it out with William Randolph Heast pretty fascinating though. My previous knowledge of Hearst was based mostly on the brief mention of him by Joseph Pulitzer in Newsies.

"Rosebud..."