When we were getting estimates from movers to take us out of the Central Florida area, one made the comment that for the first time in a very long time they consider Florida an “outbound” state. In other words, more people are leaving than moving in.

And the moving industry is very slow even though there are a lot of people moving out. I suspect it’s because a large portion of the people leaving have foreclosed or short-sold their homes and can’t afford movers.

Anyway, today my friend Jennifer pointed me to these numbers from the Orlando Sentinel:

Central Florida lost 9,700 residents in the past year, reversing a decades-long trend of population growth for the Orlando area, according to estimates released Wednesday.

“This is a 180-degree turn for the Orlando area,” said William Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution in Washington. “It’s jaw-dropping, in a way.”

The region’s population drop accounted for about 17 percent of the state’s total loss of 58,294 between April 1, 2008, and April 1, 2009, according to the estimates by the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research. It’s largely the result of people leaving the area in search of jobs. Orlando ranks near the top of the state in unemployment and was listed as one of the worst cities in the country to be looking for work by Indeed.com, a site that aggregates job listings on the Internet.

Speaking of job listings, cities, and Indeed.com, did you know that Washington, DC is supposedly the best place to be?

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Host your website or blog for under $7/mth on BlueHost. I am.

We’re relocating to Virginia over the next 2 weeks

7-29: Movers load the truck
7-30: House closing
7-31: My final Orlando presentation
8-1: Drive to SC
8-4: My birthday
8-5: Drive to VA
8-8: Movers unload truck

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Relationships are too valuable to take for granted. Appreciate someone today.

The death of Michael Jackson is moving. I’ve loved his music for as long as I can remember knowing about him. Like most, that attention span happened during Thriller. But going back to Off The Wall and the stuff the Jackson 5 put out – it’s rare I find something I don’t like (except the song Bad). He was the best musical entertainer in his prime. I still listen to his music all the time and love the mashups that DJs make of MJ music.

But there was a deeper side to MJ. I used to joke “His music is awesome, but he’s a freak”. I take that back. He wasn’t a freak. I feel more sympathy for him now…especially as I was reminded of his life in these great posts below.

The Daily Dish – Thinking about Michael

Crocker Chronicle – Michael Jackson Dead at 50

Now I realize just how much of a performer he really was.

Indeed.com says they are in Washington, DC.

Guess where we’re planning to move if the house sells soon?

When the recession hit full-on last fall, one of the things I found interesting is in the area of sports marketing. Questions like, “Will golf tournaments close because of the lack of corporate sponsorship?” and “Should a bank that is in trouble pay for naming rights of a stadium?”

It’s hard to swallow the idea that the money I’ve “contributed” to these mega-corps is being spent on what many would say is unnecessary. “They should use that money to get back on their feet, not sponsor golf!” we say.

To be perfectly honest with you, that’s a very judgemental thing for us to say (I said it too). We don’t know the full story. I realized this yesterday when I heard Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis comment on sports marketing:

Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis, speaking to the Chief Executive Officers Club of Boston, said the multimillion-dollar sports marketing deals at Bank of America are worth the investment because they generate sales and profits.

“I was never inclined to pump big sums of money into sports marketing until I saw the facts and the numbers,” he said. “In general terms, for every dollar we spend on sports marketing, we get $10 in revenue and $3 in earnings. This is not wasted money.”

And isn’t that what we’ve asked them to do? To take the money and make it back as fast as possible to get back on their feet? And they found a way to get $10 on the dollar?

Okay, I don’t mind so much now.

via Scenes from the recession – The Big Picture – Boston.com.

A RE/MAX Central bus advertises tours of foreclosed homes March 7, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The real estate group began giving tours for prospective buyers three times a week in February 2008, in an effort to clear inventory of foreclosed properties. They have seen a steady decrease in foreclosure listings since the summer of 2008 in the Las Vegas area. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

 
via Pirates of Somalia – The Big Picture – Boston.com.

The crew of the hijacked Ukrainian merchant vessel MV Faina stand on the deck, under the watch of armed Somali pirates on November 9 after a US Navy request to check on their health and welfare, at sea off the coast of Somalia. (HO/AFP/Getty Images)

Weird. Interesting. Talk about a niche!

Part sustainable water company, part art project, part philanthropic project, and completely curious. Boxed Water Is Better, is a boxed water company.

via Boxed Water Is Bettter!.

via Visualizing a Trillion: Just How Big That Number Is?

if you start spending a million dollars every single day since Jesus was born, you still wouldn’t have spent a trillion dollars. 
 

A bundle of $100 notes is equivalent to $10,000 and that can easily fit in your pocket. 1 million dollars will probably fit inside a standard shopping bag while a billion dollars would occupy a small room of your house.

With this background in mind, 1 trillion (1,000,000,000,000) is 1000 times bigger than 1 billion and would therefore take up an entire football field – the man is still standing in the bottom-left corner.

Many Southern states — particularly South Carolina and Florida — have been ravaged by layoffs and home foreclosures

via To find a job, ignore doom-and-gloom news, experts say – CNN.com.

…within the four-county Orlando MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area), the unemployment rate is 7.7 percent, the highest the region has experienced in 16 years when it was 8.1 percent in August of 1992. “Just one year ago, the unemployment rate was only 4.3 percent. There are 39,529 more people unemployed in December 2008 than one year ago in Central Florida,” says Gary Earl, president and CEO of Workforce Central Florida. 

via State of the Workforce: What Are the Numbers in Central Florida? 

UPDATE: Oops, just got worse: Jobless rate soars to 8.1% in U.S., 8.6% in Florida

I laughed when I saw this in my inbox this morning:

Today and Saturday only (2/13/09, 2/14/09), Amazon MP3 is offering a free download of the quintessential Valentine’s Day song, “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye.

So stop by Amazon today or tomorrow to download a free copy of Let’s Get It On.

Oh man, do you watch The Colbert Report? It’s one of my favorite shows. So much so I set up 2 small blogs about it: The Colbert Report Updates and Colbert Guests.

Anyway, did you see when Stephen Colbert interviewed Richard Lobb: Chicken Wing Spokesman for the National Chicken Council?

You see, there’s a chicken wing shortage so via satellite, Colbert asked Lobb some great questions that ended up as one of the funniest interviews I’ve seen in a long time. I’ve embedded it on my Colbert Guests blog – go check it out. Hilarious!

It was crazy cool.

YouTube: Osborne Dancing Lights at DHS

We made that short video above and we took a few more photos including a couple of fun facts.

Amazon.com has it’s Black Friday deals online already!  Or visit the Orangejack Mall for the best links and deals.

Feel free to use this sticker on your website or wherever!

My first reaction:

It took us 75 minutes from parking to voting.  I wasn’t impressed with the lack of privacy and inefficiency.  It was a small room with a lot of people wanting to vote.

I can prove I voted:

I can proove I voted on 12seconds.tv

Also, our ballet was long!  We not only voted for President and US Rep, but also State Attorney, State Senator, State Rep, Clerk of Courts, Sheriff, Property Appraiser, Tax Collector, Supervisor of Elections, 7 Judges, 3 Soil & Water Conservation Supervisors, 6 State Constitutional amendments, 3 County Charter Amendments, and a Special Referendum.  Whew!

It felt like a final exam that I’ve been studying for months.  But it was worth it.

Go Vote!

One of the things I like about Halloween is that it’s the only community-based holiday. Tonight is for the neighborhood to interact with each other. All other holidays are for the family, friends, or religion (or combos). But there really aren’t any holidays where the community is intentional about going out, meeting neighbors, and giving them a treat.

Now of course this is a Utopian way of looking at it, but I tell ya, last year we really experienced it as we sat out in the driveway as the kids and parents came by. It was fun to interact with them all. We don’t do that around any other holiday.

Have fun and stay safe!

Like most of the nation, I’ve been keeping up with the debates. I finally got caught up this morning and I’m not sure if you’re caught up also. So to make sure you are able to make your best decision before election day, here’s one more debate to watch.

YouTube – Batman vs. The Penguin: The Debate

more charts