I was listening to the Survival Podcast the other day and Jack Spirco had an idea- Why doesn’t someone (won’t be me, I can barely keep this humble blog filled up) Start a website like Yelp.com, but for reviewing the interaction of government with citizens.  It would work like this: You’ve got a great teacher/professor/administrator, and you add their name to the list, review their work, and post your opinion of their performance. The same could be done for politicians, school board members, law enforcement, the DMV, and any government entity. It could also be done to review the lousy ones.

Yeah, there would be people who might give inaccurate reviews, but something like this just might give people another tool to help them decide where to live (like when they were relocating-the school on Chicago Ave. is terrible, but the school on Ashgrove street is great-that sort of thing) and it might help citizens keep government accountable.

Of course, the people who received poor ratings might cry and whine. All the better.

Pay no attention to this post. It serves to help those who probably won’t read this anyway.

These are my suggestions for better landlorliness, in no particular order.

Don’t drop by unannounced, or when the lessee is out, to pick up your mail. In fact, get it delivered to your new residence.

Don’t call or otherwise pester your lessee every (or most) weekend mornings, more especially prior to 8:00 a.m. Instead, call him the evening before at a civil hour and tell him of your grand plans. If he’s interested, he’ll likely accept and be dressed and ready when you arrive the next day. If not, he’ll probably lay in bed and rest, especially if he’s a working man who cherishes the weekends.

When your lessee tries to throw out trash (i.e. rotten cardboard, rotten lumber, carpet, etc., let him. It’s part of taking care of your real estate, and the neighbors will thank you.

Don’t bring trash from the alleyways into the freshly cleaned back yard and leave it there so you can “use it later”. It might make your lessee pissy.

Don’t hang your deer in the freshly cleaned garage, to skin, and bone, leaving hair, blood, and meat on the floor. This will make your lessee very pissy, especially if you don’t clean it up, and he has to do it. Do not be surprised if he’s pissy, either.

If your lessee locks the gate differently than you do, live with it: don’t change the way of locking the gate while he’s gone. And don’t rearrange the back yard to suit your dog, because neither you or your dog live there any more.

Don’t ever try to exert your authority over your lessee’s life: you don’t have any. If you did, he’d throw off that yoke in a hurry.

Don’t ask your lessee to host your videos on his YouTube account. In fact, get your own damned YouTube account.

Don’t ask your lessee for access to his laptop if it requires revealing his password. Asking him just makes the relationship awkward. See above.

Actually, Im just out of the old place, and living in the new one. There are boxes littered about, and perhaps a third of my valuable things (junk) is still in storage. I’ll do another round of winnowing the things I want from the things I need, and be rid of the former. I wish, just a little, for a fire…

The new place is pretty cool. It has a nice “porch” area, with windows all around making for great views. It’s an upstairs apartment, and has a gob of storage in the eaves. I could fill the storage, but I just finished cursing myself for hoarding as much as I had. I’ll likely whittle down the food stocks and spare parts to a reasonable level, and lay in more actual long term storage food/items.

Ah, privacy.