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My daughter saw the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie with her dad over the Christmas holiday. Since I was such a huge fan of the Chipmunk boys myself during my own childhood, I went ahead and tagged along to see it with my sister and my nephew. I did not want to miss out just because I did not get to see it with my daughter.
I get a kick out of the fact that a trio of cartoon characters I loved as a child (and they were not new even while I was young) are again popular and available in a whole new format for my own child to love and enjoy. My friends and I used to sit around with my uncle’s journalism tape recorder (the kind you can mess with the tape speeds on) and record things that we dubbed over to “Alvin” speed so that we sounded like the Chipmunk characters. Now kids can do the same thing, but it is totally digital and computer-based. You can even get Alvin and his Chipmunk friends ring tones at sites like PlayPhone.
And, speaking of cute chipmunks, remember this Bridgestone Super Bowl commercial? Heh
Oddly, this next item is Florida news. Wesley Snipes was charged in Florida for his Federal tax fraud issues, because at the time of the incidents in question he lived in Windermere, Florida.
His trial was wrapped up quicker than most people had assumed, but his jury took three days to his find him guilty on three misdemeanor charges of failing to file tax returns. They returned a not guilty on the more serious felony charges of tax fraud and conspiracy.
Even with the lesser convictions, Snipes could spend up to three years in prison, but most people expect that a shorter sentence will be determined.
I’ve been intrigued by the concept behind Lifelock for a while now. I suppose I first heard about the product on one of the daytime talk shows like Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh. Then, I started seeing commercials for Lifelock where the president of the company drove around in a huge truck with his own social security number painted on the side.
A few summers ago I had an unfortunate situation where someone in Alabama got a hold of my bank account info, more than likely via an inside contact at my bank. She had an ID made up with my name and social security number and her photo. Then, she proceeded to go to three states and multiple bank locations to cash checks against my account.
The bank took care of things, but it was a massive pain. I had to file police reports, stop payment on utility bills and chase leads around for months. I put alerts in at the credit agencies. It was horrific.
Anyway, Lifelock is a subscription service that puts some safeties in place to help protect your identity and if anything does happen, they give you up to a million bucks in services to correct the problem. If you look at the information on their website, you’ll see it’s a simple process.
It’s not a headline that makes people like happy. I have a house on the market. And what a deplorable market it is! Believe me, if it were not for my divorce, I would not be touching the current real estate market with a 20-foot-pole. No, indeed.
In the midst of all that, Forbes magazine online and Moody’s Economy.com have named the Tampa Bay area as the number one place in the United States to buy a house.
BUY a house. Not, you see, to sell a house. *sigh*
Forbes says the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater region is a prime bounce-back market. They predict a classic V-shaped recovery, where the real estate market will experience a free fall followed by a strong rebound. Forbes looked for areas that had a lot of seller’s desperate to strike a bargain. All in all, a good bit of news for buyers.
