California SB 223

Senate Bill 223, passed and signed by the Governor last month prohibits property appraisers from colluding to artificially raise prices of their appraisals in order to raise their compenstation. In other words, they can’t base their fees on the prices at which they appraise a propery at. Can you believe this wasn’t illegal already? Crazy. From the text of the bill:

No person with an interest in a real estate transaction involving an appraisal shall improperly influence or attempt to improperly influence, through coercion, extortion, or bribery, the development, reporting, result, or review of a real estate appraisal sought in connection with a mortgage loan.

Earthquake in Oakland

Last Friday there was a 4.2 earthquake around 4am. I felt the rumbling in SF, and it kept me awake for the rest of the morning. It’s not like I havn’t been in my fair share of earthquakes (Loma Prieta, Northridge, etc), but it’d been a while for me and I’d almost forgotten that SF is prime earthquake territory. Things to remember about being back in California.

Kwik-E Mart in Mountain View

The 7-11 near the office (on Pear Street) became a Kwik-E Mart today. It seems it’s the only one in the area, and it’s without a doubt one of the coolest movie promos ever. They had people in Apu’s uniform behind the counter, Radioactive Man comics for sale, Buzz Cola, crazy pink donughts, hilarous signs saying “Buy 3 for the price of 3!”and Squishes. We bought a case of Buzz Cola and some donughts back to the office after lunch, and they were gone within minutes.

Northern California Water

While I’m typically not one to participate in the “NorCal” versus “SoCal” battle (having lived extended amounts of time in both), there is one thing that Northern California has that is unbeatable: the water. Tap water here tastes so good. It came back to my mind after drinking tap water in San Diego, which tasted metallic, odd and just not very good. Up here in SF, the water supply from the tap is as good as anything bought in a bottle, or even better. It has that almost buttery quality. Yum.