Tenant Rights and Security Deposit, Did the Landlord misuse the Security Deposit?

So, even though I never thought this would happen to me, I just had to know that no one is shielded.
I take a lot of care of my rental place and work my self on updating and fixing stuff around it so I do not cost the owner any additional expenses.  But, I should've taught myself not to be so naive and always protect my self.

I rented a house in Newport News, VA. And as I was moving to this area from out of state, I did not have any time to pick and choose so I found that house in my last minute and leased it.  I walked in and I faced a lot of issues.  For me it was no problem.  So, Bathrooms are filthy, it is OK, I will clean them, the Trash outside is a dump, obviously the people that were cleaning fixing the house did not throw their stuff and this dump took me about three or four weeks for the garbage truck to take it.
The oven did not work right from the first day and I had to buy new heating element and I changed it my self.
Few light switched and the door bell button were not working, actually the doorbell button was falling apart that I was afraid that my kids would touch the wires and get zapped.

My rent is automatically sent on the first of the month from my bank right to the landlord account.


The problem is not that, the issue started when I moved out and the Landlord started to ask me to clean and fix things that pre-existed in the house before I move in.
Pressure washing the outside of the house, is it part of my responsibility?
If there was cracks in the walls would I be responsible to fix it?
If the shower head was dirty and has some coloring on it that I could not clean on when I moved in, am I suppose to replace it and get a new one for the landlord?

Well, if there are some kid marks on the wall, this is something I have to clean, no problem and when I could not I used a service that the landlord requested to contact me and I had no problem with that.

How far can I go with that?  when the landlord threatened me to fix all that and send me a list of items and whatever left from my deposit, should I start to search for legal advice?  I already paid $300.00 for that service on top of all the expenses I paid for to clean the house my self to her standard.


What is your experience with these situations, and what was the end of it?
Would you have any advice?  direction?
Should there be a way to Google these houses and have a history of any issues from tenant or landlords?
Should there be a way to see if there is any problems, failure of service, or similar issue before we go and rent that house/apartment?

Flying these days, it is never reliable any more!!

You been traveling lately?
You been depending on flying to reach your distension?  Well, share your experience and did the airline match your expectation??
In my case, did not even get close,  for a start, I am waiting on a flight to Atlanta that is delayed almost 3hours and I definitely, will miss me next flight to Santa Ana...

So, I went to Norfolk airport to take the AA flight that didn't have seats and sent me back to Delta air lines who got me a flight to Detroit-to- Los Angelo's where I have to find a cap to Santa Ana.  What a day.

Connecticut School Shooting, What are we going to do about it?

This is not the first time, or the second.  This is not first child or the second that dies because he or she went to school in the morning looking forward to a learning and educating day, they were planning to play with their friends in the playground, do some drawing, maybe answer some question on the blackboard.  However, they did not finish the day as any other kid in the world who went to school.  They were executed once they got in their classrooms.

First of all, I can not say anything to these hopeless, wounded parents and family of the victims, because, there is nothing in the world be help, ease or change this darkness in the eyes and hearts of a wounded parent who just had his or her little angle executed.  I can not imagine, and I will not be able to imagine even if I tried so hard.  I am so sorry.

What I want to know is, What are we going to do to stop the mass shooting of our beloved ones, our angles who have no idea what these 20 kids, at the age of 6 and 7, did to deserve to be executed?  What actions are being considered and executed to prevent this situation from happening again?

How did these guns end up in the hands of a mentally disabled person like this, obviously he must shown some type of violence to some extent.  Legally, a mentally disabled person in any shape or level is not allowed to have access to legal guns, but still, his mom used to take him to a shooting range with her!

I have kids, just like most of you out there, kiss them every morning goodbye and send them to school.  How do you feel about that now?  How do you feel when you let go of your kids hand, say goodbye and watch your kid go to school?


This is not a way to live, these schools are a place that committed to have our kids, to teach them raise them and first of all protect them from the minute the enter the school until the minute they leave.  But, that is not happening, and proved that they failed our trust to protect our kids.  The school system is so unreliable and unable to secure the lives of our children.


These mass murders shooters are not stupid, they did not wake up and randomly pick a place, or run a raffle to see who they will kill that day.  No, they did not.  They knew that schools are one of the most peaceful places where no one will be able to stop them.  They knew they would be able to shoot and kill all these innocent kids helplessly like chicken being shot at with no chance to survive.  They would be able to practice their evil sick mental mind and no one would stop them or resist them.


I believe that if there is someone trained and professorial in schools that is ready to handle these situation more kids would have the chance to survive this type of attack.

Please, leave your comments, your opinions and your thoughts,

Wonderful Life in Newport News

Moving from "Connecticut" area to west of "South Carolina" is not really fun, specially if you have little kids.  Before you really do not have a lot of things to do that is specific to little kids between 3-4 year old.  But, now in S.C. you are really stuck, and do not have anything to do, not even a good play ground for the kids to play and just pass some time, unless you want to drive an hour to down town Greenville Zoo, which was nice and there is a very nice park right outside of the Zoo.

But Moving to Newport News, VA. is one of the best things you would ever do for you and your kids.  From the first day we moved and we could not stop exploring and learning about new activities and places to see and enjoy.  Summer time comes with unlimited activities and free events for the kids and adults to enjoy. then when the weather changes and Summer is all over and replaced with the cold Winter, you still have great places and things to enjoy, specially Winter here is not that bad as you think.

I will list some notes to locations here and I will be back to add more and update them:
This is a link to Newport News, VA main web site

Virginia Living Museum
Virginia Beach Board-Walk
Virginia Beach Aquarium
Museums

Christmas Lights:

1. Virginia Beach Holiday Lights
2. Newport News Holiday Lights
3. WilliamsBurg
4. Richmond

Newport News Park
Mount Trashmore Virginia Beach
Norfolk Zoo
Busch Gardens Williamsburg



Free Summer Events:
Newport News Park has two Summer events
Hampton has a pirates event in the summer, very nice, lots of food, activities, and vendors.

Great Malls and Outlet Malls in Newport news:
Patrick Henry Mall
Virginia Beach Mall Lynnhaven Mall
WilliamsBurg Outlet Mall


If you like and live or know more areas in Newport News, VA, Please feel free to add comments and or suggestions.

Text to Speech in Ubuntu

I just found them, espeak, orka, and festval.
You can convert any simple text to a speech.
How to use them I will have to add more to this blog.

Ubuntu User? Did you Try gnome-shell?

If you are interested in trying different flavor of Ubuntu! Desktop! yes, you can install
sudo apt-get install gonme-shell gonme-tweak-tool
You will need gnome-shell first as it is unity replacement.
Then you will need gnome-tweak-tool to be able to configure it.
Do your homework and search for some desktop captures, but, my opinion, it rocks, much better then unity.
Well, I like it better, and feels more warm than unity for me.  Enjoy, and let me know your opinion too...

Good Resources for my PandaBoard

The following are some good resources for reference to use with my PandaBoard:

Of course this is the main home page for the Board:
http://pandaboard.org/

Examples on how to program IOs, IRQ, DMA, Timing and more:
http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/IO-Port-Programming.html

TI OMAP Mobile Processors:
http://e2e.ti.com/support/omap/default.aspx