Ain't Nobody

In 1984, a young boy watched Breakin', an MGM movie about breakdancers. Until now, this boy could not resist to remember a particular R&B song featured in that movie. A song that won the 1983 Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blues Vocal Performance By a Duo or Group With Vocal.

“Ain't Nobody” by Rufus and Chaka Khan.
Listen to the midi file >>>
Listen to the song clip >>>

Captured effortlessly
That’s the way it was
Happened so naturally
I did not know it was love
The next thing I felt was
You holding me close
What was I gonna do?
I let myself go

And now we’re flyin’ through the star
I hope this night will last forever

I’ve been waitin’ for you
It’s been so long
I knew just what I would do
When I heard your song
Filled my heart with your bliss
Gave me freedom
You knew I could not resist
I needed someone

And now we’re flyin’ through the stars
I hope this night will last forever
Oh oh oh oh

Chorus:
Ain’t nobody
Loves me better
Makes me happy
Makes me feel this way
Ain’t nobody
Loves me better than you

I wait for night time to come
And bring you to me
Can’t believe I’m the one
I was so lonely
I feel like no one could feel
I must be dreamin’
I want this dream to be real
I need this feelin’

I make my wish upon a star
And hope this night will last forever

Chorus

And first you put your arms around me
Then you put your charms around me
I can’t resist this sweet surrender
Oh my nights are warm and tender
We stare into each other’s eyes
And what we see is no surprise
Got a feeling most with treasure
And a love so deep we cannot measure

Chorus

For Nina and Kezia, the boy's treasure and the love he cannot measure.

Balloon Mortgage

Balloon mortgage is a mortgage or home loan when you buy a house you can get a free balloon. Naaa, it's not what it means.

When you buy a house by means of loan, you will need to pay some amount of regular payments every week, two weeks, or month. In balloon mortgage, you will get a lower interest compared to conventional mortgage and there is one point of time when you will have to pay the rest of your loan after several payments or years you have paid. And, this is going to be a huge payment considering the rest of your loan is actually the ending balance of the loan principal.



It's good if you want to sell your house after the balloon payment, considering that your house price is much higher than the principal and your regular payments are covered by a higher rent payments from your tenants. That's a logical thought when you invest something with nothing.

Compute the payment amount for a simple loan with an optional balloon payment, using monthly interest compounding and monthly payments. Enter the loan amount, number of monthly payments, date the balloon payment will occur, and the nominal annual rate. The payment calculator computes the payment amount for you. The balloon is assumed to be due one month after the last regular payment. Calculate your balloon mortgage payment.

Arie Harris - July Newsletter 2005

Good day to you!

How are you Jeffry? Once again this month has been another outstanding month for both clients and myself alike. Some people had even predicted the New Zealand property market to be slowing down - not me - the volume of local activity I have been experiencing certainly is not consistent to their opinion. If anything, last month was my busiest ever.

Anytime is an excellent time for you to consider me for all of your real estate assistance because I am here to help you ANYTIME. Right now, in this issue I have some information on how to make some very tasty fried rice indeed, do enjoy it - and remember to invite me if you succeed in making it - how about that?

VALUES GROW 12.5%

Statistics released by quotable value indicate that the value of residential properties increased by 12.5% to the year ended April.

Property values in the main centres continue to grow, but increases vary significantly. Dunedin City property values increased by 22.5%, Hamilton City 18.7% while growth in Wellington was only 8.1% and Auckland City 2.7%.

HOUSE PRICES RECOVER

The Real Estate Institute (REINZ) recently trumpeted a recovery in the national median house price during May as one in the eye for those predicting the market will cool.

REINZ's monthly survey showed the national median house price increased to $275,000 in May from $272,000 in April. "Predictions of a reverse in the property market continue to fall on the deaf ears of the house-buying public," REINZ national president Howard Morley said, adding May was not a month normally noted for increased activity and prices.

REINZ's median price for April was down 3% on its record of $280,000 set in March, and sales and fallen "significantly", the institute said at the time. But recently, Morley said the May data "suggests that the long term trendline for the market is going to remain intact".

"What this tells us is that, despite mouth-to-mouth fluctuations, over the last five years the market has been quiet responsive to factors such as the state of the economy, consumer confidence and has shown a resistance to rising interest rates. In fact the rise in the market looks increasingly relentless," Sales for the month at 9280 from 8876 in April were "a remarkably solid effort for this time of the year when we enter the typically quiet winter months, "Morley said.

Days to sell in May increased slightly to 29 from 28 in the same month last year but most agents reported continued good demand from buyers, Morley said. Nine out of the 11 regions surveyed experienced price increases. Some, like Hawkes Bay – up $19,500 to $249,500 and Taranaki – up $51,113 to $213,750, were "quiet spectacular" Morley said.

However, some of the apparent big jumps were more a reflection of the traditionally softer April market where sales in more regions were well down, skewing some median sales figures. Around the country Northland's median price rose $21,500 to $251,500, Auckland rose $1000 to $370,000, Waikato/Bay of Plenty/Gisborne was up $1000 to $245,000, Manuatu/Wanganui was up $5000 to $160,000. Wellington's median price rose $10,000 to $285,000, Canterbury/Westland was up $5500 to $247,500 and Southland rose $5500 to $150,000. Recording falls were Nelson/Marlborough down $4000 to $265,000 and Otago down $14,350 to 201,750.

MORTGAGE RATES PEAKING

Home mortgage rates are probably as high as they are going to get, because the economy's latest growth statistics have disappointed pundits. The economy expanded by 0.6% in the March quarter, less than 1% the Reserve Bank of New Zealand was expecting and 0.8% predicted by banking economists.

This meant the Reserve bank was less likely to hike interest rates again and that the long-foreshadowed slowdown in the economy was closer to reality. The economy had expanded for 19 consecutive quarters.

"Today's GDP release has, in our view, lowered the probability of another rate hike," Deutsche Bank chief economist Ulf Schoefisch said. This was a widely held widely. The central bank's cash rate influences all interest rates, including those in the home mortgage market. Though the economy was still expanding. Westpac described the growth in the March quarter as modest.

The economy's annual growth rate has slipped from a peak of 5.8% in June 2004 to 2.5% in the March 2005 year on one measure. "This business cycle is now clearly past its best by date with annual average growth slipping from 4.8% in December 2004 to 4.2% currently," Westpac said.

Economists were not predicting that interest rates would fall-rather that a fairly close call on whether to raise rates again had turned to a hold. The central bank was still regarded as hawkish, taking a though stance on inflation. These still existed because of capacity constraints in the economy and rises in wage rates. However, business opinion surveys have been gloomy, dwelling consent numbers have peaked and population growth has slowed.

The economist noted that the Reserved bank had been consistently over-ambitious on growth estimates.

EXTRA

Recipe - Nasi Goreng Istimewa (special fried rice)

Fried rice is actually a breakfast dish in Indonesia. It is often made from the boiled rice which may have been left over from the previous night's meal.

Isinya (ingredients):

4 cups cooled cooked rice
1 clove crushed garlic
1/2 tsp shrimp paste
1 tbsp soya sauce
1 medium onion
1 tsp chilli
2 tbsp oil
salt

Slice the onion lengthwise, heat the oil and fry the onion, garlic, chilli and shrimp paste until the onion is soft. Add the rice and salt to taste. Mix thoroughly while constantly turning until every grain is coated. Then add the soya sauce and mix again until the colour is even throughout.

The rice should have taken on a nice orange-red tinge from the chilli powder. Cooked meat or prawns can be added with the soya sauce. Onion crisps (Goreng Bawang) is used as a garnish.

To make it 'istimewa' or special, a lightly fired egg, some cucumber slices and kerupuk (prawn crakers) are served on top of the rice.

Selamat Makan! - I hope you enjoy it Jeffry!


Regards,

Arie Harris

Systems Programmer Employment Opportunities

My name is Bruce Goodman technical recruiter for Stealth Staffing in Nashville, TN.  I am recruiting for senior & mid level systems programmers for a national company with an operations center located in Nashville, TN. You will find listed below some of the positions and job descriptions for your review.
 
SYSTEMS PROGRAMMER - SENIOR, $65-85k +

Candidate will be a member of the Operating Systems Support project in the Systems Software Group.  Responsibilities will include:

Problem determination and resolution of UNIX hardware and software issues
Configuration of High Availability (HA) solutions of UNIX Solaris and AIX operating systems.
Installation and support of Tivoli for user administration
Administration of NIS

Skills/Required Experience:

Candidate must have at least three years experience on Solaris and AIX on UNIX
Candidate must have strong debugging skills and must be well versed in problem determination methodology and tools.
Must be knowledgeable on High Availability solutions using Veritas Cluster Server and HACMP.
Experience in writing scripts using Perl, and UNIX Shell scripting.
Must be experiences in customization of monitoring software such as Tivoli.
 
SYSTEMS PROGRAMMER - SENIOR , $60-80k +

Candidate will be a member of the Database Backup and Recovery Software area.  Responsibilities will include:

Support of the backup and recovery procedures of DBMS in the z/OS environment.
Installation and maintenance of database and recovery software.
Problem determination and resolution of issues involving recovery of databases.

Skills/Required Experience:

Minimum three years experience with MVS systems, JCL, Utilities, TSO, CLIST, and REXX.
Candidate must have additional experience in either assembler language programming and/or in IMS, CICS, or DB2.
Detailed knowledge if IMS and DB2 database systems and database utilities is desirable.
Knowledge of ISPF dialogue coding and installation and testing of IMS, CICS, and DB2 would be a bonus.

SYSTEMS PROGRAMMER - SENIOR, $Open Market Rate

Candidate will be a member of the RAC project in the Systems Software group.  Responsibilities will include:

UNIX security administration including installation and configuration of Tivoli Access Manager for Operating Systems (AMOS).
Installation and customization of Tivoli Workload Scheduler (TWS).
Assisting Information Security with production problems.

Skills/Required Experience:

Knowledge of UNIX Web security.
UNIX Shell scripting.
Experience setting up UNIX ACL's.
Experience with installation customization and use of Tivoli Security products such as AMOS Maestro or TWS and Web Seal.

SYSTEMS PROGRAMMER - SENIOR, $60-80k +

Candidate will be a member of the SPD project in the Architecture and Installation Support department.  Responsibilities will include:

Installation, maintenance and upgrade of mainframe systems.
Problem determination and resolution of data center problems.
MVS IOCP system implementation.
Support of JES2 subsystem.
Installation and support of MVS based products.

Skills/Required Experience:

Must have extensive knowledge of MVS operating system
Must be experienced in use of SMP/E
Experience in system generation parameters is required.
Hardware architecture with peripherals such as channel configuration and printer configurations.
Experience with installation and support of UNIX is preferable.
This company provides an excellent benefits package including:
 
    * Medical, dental and prescription drugs
    * Tuition Assistance Program
    * Sick leave and disability coverage
    * Company paid life insurance coverage
     
They are looking to fill these positions by August 1st of this year.  If you are interested in any of these positions or know of someone, please E-mail resume in MS Word format as an attached file. 
 
Sincerely,
 
Bruce Goodman
Technical Recruiter
Stealth Staffing

Target London

NZ Politics from the Union Side

I just got a leaflet from the NZ Council of Trade Unions. It's clear for me now that the Union is completely standing at the one side of the NZ political arena, which is the Labour Party of NZ, and its coalition parties, like the Progressive Party and the Greens Party. The Union is likely to strongly oppose the National Party.

Is it possible if the situation changes in the future?

Anymatters Can Be a Common Blog

Due to a high load of study for the coming semester, I decided to reduce my frequency of blogging. It's normal since blogging is my second priority. My plan is to create another blog concerning on some matters related to my study if I think it would be possible and relevant.

However, I offer anyone to take over my blog by treating my blog as a common blog for anyone who wants to post any matters automatically by email to anymatters@gmail.com. Actually, I am not really sure it's going to work this kind of way since the photo on the sidebar is mine. I may gain popularity from someone's posting.

(anymatters)