Re: SHRYKE'S THREAD - Check for the latest developments

[Buscemi]

The latest on Surfer and Arrow:

Surfer hasn't updated his Facebook account since June 8th but Arrow has used hers in the past week and a half (July 3rd was the last update). So apparently they are alright. They probably just haven't had Internet access in that time or one probably forgot their passwords.

[Shrykespeare]

A new development - nothing that affects the Fantaverse, but one that affects me personally.

My refinance came through. After eight long, tortuous, arduous months, I am finally free of the anvil (my old mortgage) that has been hanging over my head.

Just to understand the scope of just how unlikely this was, let me give you some raw numbers... I owed my previous mortgager over $180K, a little more than my home was worth about three years ago. Obviously, the housing market has since imploded, and the ARM I agreed to (while obviously brain-dead) was about to increase my monthly payment from $1600/mo to $2200/mo.

I had my house appraised last December, and was dismayed to discover that my home was now worth $110K. But my mortgage banker, a terrific man, forged forward, and we were about 98% complete when, at the end of February, Pres. Obama made a speech about the housing industry and how refinancing would change from that moment forward, and the entire deal collapsed. I contemplated suicide. (Well, not REALLY, but I contemplated contemplating it...)

But my agent pressed on. With my father's help, we settled all my outstanding medical bills and credit card debts, and last month, we had my house re-apprasied. It was only $55,000, half of what it was only six months before. We thought, "there is no WAY they are going to accept this when I owe them $180K", but we ran it by them...

...and they accepted. ACCEPTED!!!

I signed the new mortgage on Friday. I am free. My wife and I are free. We just sloughed off 70% of our total outstanding debt and got away clean. My agent says it's the biggest percentage he's ever seen accepted, and I regard it as nothing less than a miracle. I owe this man, and his co-workers, a tremendous debt of gratitude. It's like a decade of one mistake after another has been wiped clean. That doesn't happen every day, folks.

And one other development: I QUIT my weekend job delivering pizza for Dominos. With my 40th birthday looming one month down the line, and given that I have had one delivery job of another for 13 of the past 20 years, I have grown more than tired of it. I'm not a kid anymore, and I don't need to be wasting my weekends delivering overpriced food to ungrateful assholes in 115 degree heat, driving my car into the ground and risking skin cancer in the blazing Arizona sun. Today (Sunday, July 12th) was my final day.

That these two monumental events occurred on the same weekend is no coincidence, I think. The rest of my life begins tomorrow. I still have my FT office job, but the possibilities are endless from here. A new car, a new house, travel, kids, who knows. I feel like the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders.

Not for the first time, I want to thank each and every member of the Fantaverse who has ever shown me support, courtesy and friendship in the last three years. I honestly don't know what I would have done without this place, and without you guys. I have friends and family in the "real world", of course, but if I didn't have The Fantaverse as a distraction/hobby/obsession to take my attention away from my problems, I think I would have gone stark raving mad. You guys helped keep me grounded during what was without a doubt the most troubling two years of my life. I thank you for that.

So what does the future lie? Well, like you guys, I can only guess. But I'm hoping that the worst of it is behind me.

Peace.

[delfinasu]

Wow! Shryke, I'm very happy for you! And I'm convinced that you'll have a future better than you imagine... Tomorrow is another day Just live every day like it would be the last day of your life.
Waitin' already with impatience for other great news from you...

[BanksIsDaFuture]

Good stuff, Shryke. Remind me to call you when I buy a house, you seem to know what you're doing.

And I guess that means no more free pizza for you. That's something I would not be able to walk away from, but I'm sure after 13 years, you hate the stuff.

[W]

Good for you! But you have it wrong... Without you, we'd have collapsed a long time ago. I hope you know that.

I went through a similar "rest of my life" couple of moments about a month ago and am feeling better than ever. I'd bet any amount of money that you will too.

Here's to new beginnings!

[Buscemi]

And some of this,

[Keyser Soze]

Congrats Shryke. I completely understand what you've just gone through with the house. My wife and I signed a 7 year ARM back in 2004 (So we still have a little over 2 years to go. Sure seemed like a good idea at the time as I was sure interest rates would have to come down in the next 7 years. Well, they sure have, but we didn't really anticipate the value of the house falling as well. Ours may actually work out for us as rates are now lower than they were when we signed the ARM so our payment may actually come down when the term expires. Can't say that I haven't had many sleepless nights over the last few years wishing that I had just signed for the fixed rate and been done with it. When we do finally get around to getting those working time machines, future me will most definitely going back and kicking past me in the ass for that decision as well as quite a few others.

Congrats again, and glad to hear that it really can work out

[BanksIsDaFuture]

This also makes a party complete:

[Shrykespeare]

Thanks, everyone. I mean that.

[transformers2]

Congrats Shryke. Glad to hear that worked out for you dude. My mom is having similar problem with that right now because my dad is an asshole and doesnt pay my mom.

....In other new i am going to bang out a review for Bruno in the next day or so.

[becs]

Major congrats to you Shryke, it is amazing how heavily finances weigh on us all, more than ever so I'm quite happy to hear someone out there is having some relief.

Also, as far as those pointers, if you have any RIGHT NOW it is much appreciated, I literally just got my pre-approval for a loan and started setting up to tour houses this week... luckily the idea of lowering my rate by taking an ARM crossed my mind as I don't plan on settling for more than 5-7 years, but thought better of it because who knows how I will feel once I've settled in some place that becomes my home.
The only really miserable part for me so far is that being so young is that I haven't had the years to amass a large down payment, so depending on the price I may not be able to pay over 10% down so my interest rate would jump way up, yet even at the absolute max price I am looking at monthly cost are well within my abilities and less than I pay to rent right now.
Sigh... growning up ain't easy.

[geezer9687]

I don't think you shuld give up an arm just to get a better rate, that seems like giving a bit much

[Keyser Soze]

Geez - these days, she's lucky they don't want and ARM and a Leg

[becs]

Hah, talking to some of the banks and whatnot it does feel that way at times. I'm lucky enough to live in an area with low cost of living and fairly stable real estate market, but that also means real estate prices are down but not alarmingly low (for the area) like buyers are benefiting from in many areas. However, I do recognize the value in the area, my best friend frequently complains about the places I look at, the price range I am looking in couldn't buy him a shack in his area supposedly, and I believe it.

[Shrykespeare]

For those of you who are currently playing in the tryout league for the new Moguls website, here is an e-mail that I just received from one of the site's creators:


Hi, Shryke!
Before to enjoy a few weeks of well-deserved holiday, here's some latest news. The next League will begin immediately at the end of this one, i.e. the September-November League.
After mid-August, each of you will be able to access the new website, register and create their own Studio. Everybody can create private Leagues.

So, we are ready for private leagues (you can create how much you want) and for managing multiple Studio with a unique username.
The user panel will be improved and will be "user-friendly" to manage all activities.

At now, we are not yet ready for Box office Leagues, Superleagues and Leagues every month, or better, there are other main aims in this project that must be implemented as soon as possible, and on which we are still working.
In particular, the "game" is linked to a scientific project of our Lab that aiming at collecting experimental data on the nature of the information in several markets (in this case, is the market of movies, but we are also working on other markets).

For this reason, the traditional "Ultimate", will be supplemented by some small variations of the game (similar to Box Office Leagues), aiming at gathering the information that we need.

The last thing: the prices. I'd like to inform you about how they are obtained: the prices are the result of an algebraic system (studied inside the Lab) to take into account many important parameters that define the market value of a movie. In other words, each film gets "points" depending on a set of parameters, and the sum of these points determines the price. The parameters are: director, cast, distribution (wide or limited), distributor (Sony, Warner, independents, etc.), Hype factor, "viral marketing" factor, "children" factor, 3D, genre (genre gets points only if animation, horror, sci-fi, musical), sequel, potential top5, potential rating on IMDB, rating MPAA.
Each movie is evaluated on the basis of all of these parameters.

For example:
Movie: "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs" obtains the following points:
- 3 points "potential top5" (we consider the potential competition in that weekend, in the previous and in the subsequent)
- 4 points "genre" (animation)
- 4 points "distribution" (Columbia and Sony)
- 2 points "3D" (extra cash)
- 2 points "children" (children+adult in theaters)
for a total price of 15.
Film: Amreeka gets:
- 2 points for "limited distribution" (potential PTA points)
- 1 point for the potential rating on imdb (yet rated, a good rate)
for a total price of 3.

In my opinion, in the next League, our prices tend to be lower than those of this League (june-august), then we hope that you find them satisfactory.
(if you have any question about prices, I'm here for you)

Finally, Shryke, the site has a "news" section with the estimates and the comments on the week of the League, that we can manage in two languages. If you want, you may send us your weekly estimates and we will be happy to publish them on your behalf.

That's all. Once the site is up, we will warn you by email and directly on your forum.

Thanks!
M------ (donnie)



Interesting pricing system. A bit arbitrary, but still very innovative.

Any thoughts?

[BanksIsDaFuture]

We're a science experiment...?

[geezer9687]

My thought is, my slate in that league is spectacular.

[thswrestler160]

We're a science experiment...?

Dude that is awesome!

[Shrykespeare]

As usual, a lot of players waited until the last to get their slates in. But that leaves 14 players who still haven't, including a bunch of regulars.

Hours left, people!

[Shrykespeare]

And just out of curiosity, has ANYONE seen a movie in the last month that they want to send me a review for?? The only ones I've posted in the last 30 days (besdies my own) were for Transformers and Public Enemies. Surely someone has seen something other than that....

[numbersix_99]

Sorry buddy, I've seen nothing lately. I will be catching a preview of Inglourious Basterds next week and I can post something over to ya

[numbersix_99]

By the way, whatever happened to Was it Worth It? It was a great series

[A_Roode]

And just out of curiosity, has ANYONE seen a movie in the last month that they want to send me a review for?? The only ones I've posted in the last 30 days (besdies my own) were for Transformers and Public Enemies. Surely someone has seen something other than that....

I can't even remember the last time I saw a movie in theatre. I'm in a bit of a drought. I'll try to gte a slate in for you this weekend. I wasn't interested in anything during the first weekend so no loss there.

[Shrykespeare]

Updated non-entered/postponed films list:

August season starts today, and the following players still have not entered:

A_Roode
akibaali
BarcaRulz
Jake07
mfrendo
TBB
wesvolk
Girls_With_Glasses


Additionally, the following have changes to their slates that need to be made:

The Square
Girls with Glasses - UHY2R2

Homecoming
jfs556 - UFYR7, UHY2R2

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
Buscemi - BORegJul

The Box
Nycguy84 - BOHY2R3

[transformers2]

And just out of curiosity, has ANYONE seen a movie in the last month that they want to send me a review for?? The only ones I've posted in the last 30 days (besdies my own) were for Transformers and Public Enemies. Surely someone has seen something other than that....

I saw Bruno and i will hopefully see G.I Joe and Funny People soon.

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