Kevin: December 2005 Archives

I don't use a ton of stock photos, but I do enjoy looking through other people's photography online. So how much better would it be then if I did find one photo that I liked to be able to download/print/alter that photo without fear of copyright infringement? A lot. Enter this list of free stock photo websites (via Photoshop Tutorials Blog).

I'd say my favorites so far are Flickr and MorgueFile, but here are some others.

1. Stock Exchange
2. Image After
3. Free Photos Bank
4. OpenPhoto
5. BigFoto
6. USDA
7. NASA
8. NOAA
9. NPS
10. Earth from Space
11. FWS1
12. FWS2
13. Picture Station
14. Geek Philosopher
15. Free Images
16. Pixel Perfect Digital
17. FreeFoto
18. Image Base
19. Cepolina
20. Amazing Textures
21. Texture Warehouse
22. PDPhoto
23. Image Blowout
24. Piotrpix
25. Mandragora
26. Fotogenica
27. Mayang
28. Free Photo Station
29. Cromavista
30. Afflict
31. Creativity 103
32. The Photo Repository
33. Aarin Free Photo
34. Stockvault
35. Designpacks
36. Unprofound
37. Four Bees
38. Insect Images
39. Free media Goo
40. Burning Well
41. A digital Dreamer
42. Freestockphotos.com
43. Freewebpics
44. Lightmatter
45. Majestic Imagery
46. Triparalbum
47. Demny Onink
48. Twice Pix
49. AboutPixel
50. Woophy
51. Pixelquelle
52. Litetek
53. PIX
54. tOfz
55. Fontplay
56. Orangetrash
57. ArtFavor
58. ImageTemple
59. LogoDesignweb
60. Fotodatebank
61. Bajstock
62. Pixelbag

Dealing with attorneys is I do, I thought the following (which was forwarded to me in email today) was very indicative of the cover-all-bases writing style I see a lot of today. My sentiments are nearer the bottom of the quote.

(Thanks Bud!)

"Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2006, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. And without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee. By accepting these greetings you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for herself or himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher."

For My Republican Friends:

Here's wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

This really isn't going to be of interest to everyone, but I stumbled across a website named YouTube today which appears to be a video clip sharing community. The great thing is the number of Saturday Night Live clips that are there.

If you have some time to waste spend, check this site out.

I'm always willing to take some time to read from and about Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett's business partner. While I have run across a couple of other articles, this one from Kiplinger captures my feelings about some pockets of real estate.

Is there a bubble in the real estate?

When I see people going to some old flea-bitten old condo and the list price is $1.8 million, and they decide to put it on the market for $2.2 million, and five people start bidding for it, and they sell it for $2.7 million, I say that's a bubble. So there are some bubbly places in the economy. I am amazed at the price of real estate in Manhattan.

So there is some bubble in the game. Is it going to go back to really cheap houses in good neighborhoods in good cities? I don't think so. So I think there will be huge collapses in some places, but, on average, I think that good houses in good places are going to be plenty expensive in future years.