The Milky Way, from Atacama, Chile (Taken with a Galaxy S10, edited via LightroomCC app. I'm impressed that I can get that result from a phone with an exposure of only 10 secs) I'm looking forward to go back home after a full month of holiday. Will be back in Paris on sept. 1
I'm making progress on a painting for my mom. She took a pic in Hawaii and wanted a painting of it. It's not a scene I'd choose, but I wanted to try some mountains. Still pretty rough. I was chatting w kleinbl00 yesterday about fan brushes. Fan brushes are like +3 for oil painting. Nothing puts paint on like a fan brush. Also, paints are of vastly different quality. I have two titanium whites, one Winston, and one cheapo one. The cheapo titanium white isn't even worth using. It's like adding Prego sauce instead of tomatoes. It is a limiting factor. I'm going to Norway next month to see mike and steve and others. We have an annual meeting at which we all must present something. I'm going to talk about prospects for sea level rise in the next 30 years. Also, we got three baby chicks. Our two older chickens are skeptical. I'm trying to catch a woodchuck, but caught a skunk instead. He was surprisingly cool about it, and was sleeping when I found him. I don't think skunks experience much stress.
I've encountered skunks in the wilderness a couple times. They stop, I stop. Their tails go up as if to say "is this going to be a thing?" and I back slowly away. Their tails go back down and we go about our business. Skunks are effectively immune to wise predators. Most dogs get sprayed once. Golden retrievers often get sprayed over and over. I lived next door to a 90lb doberman cross that got sprayed once, ate the skunk, developed a taste and spent the rest of its life seeking out skunks. That dog was evil.
I was sprayed one night while walking down an unlit trail. Only saw him momentarily just as he sprayed. I do not generally mind the smell of skunk but it was so ridiculously strong it made me nauseous. I had someone retrieve several gallons of tomato juice to soak in and I slept on the porch but still reeked for 2 days. My clothes fluttered in the wind for a month but did not recover so I threw them out along with my wallet. Good times.
When I release squirrels and woodchucks, they bolt once they can squeeze out. The skunk took his time. He eventually sauntered out, paused, then started looking about as he slowly meandered away. I would imagine their chill nature is part of their defense. Predators likely have an instinctive wariness of things that look like prey but don't act like prey. That might partially explain this bear sleeping thing: It makes me wonder if there's ever been a study regarding bear/cougar attacks on humans, and the clothes the people were wearing. You might look like nervous prey in natural colors/camouflage, whereas an 80's neon jacket might make you look like an enormous noxious caterpillar.
It's a dumb little grey and cream cat with a tail that's rolled up like a cinnamon roll. I'm glad neither cat has tried to kill it. One of my cats (probably not the little dumb one) kills a lot of rodents. I've seen them follow opossums around pretty peacefully if they are grown adults, so I suppose a skunk is just big enough to not try and kill. A cat of ours that passed last year used to kill one or two squirrels every year. He might have been game enough to go for it. Thank God the only bird they have ever killed was a Blue Jay. It was probably trying to harass them and got what was coming. We have had the shittiest dive bombing jerk Blue Jay's lording around the yard for a few years, kill another and I'll start giving out medals.
Thanks! Light Brahma. They are pretty mellow.
I've never owned a truck. So I am buying truck. I have always been a Honda and Mercedes car guy so it will be a significant change but I need a vehicle now that will be more rugged and get me wherever I want to go in any weather. More specifically, I need to able to get to a hospital in Toronto on a few hours notice no matter the depth of the snow. I have really been tied down looking after my mother who has advanced Alzheimers so I have not had a vacation in years. Now that I have run into some serious health issues, I have had to create some space for me to work on me alone and so moved her into a long-term care home just this morning. I promised her I would do everything but wipe her ass and I failed. I have never had a goal in my life that was so important, that I worked for years on without success but here it is. Yes I know all the reasons I did not fail but that is how I feel. I have decided to not work until I am better and thus need something to take me on adventures to the greatest extent that it can until my circumstances change. Working really hard on changing to a low stress attitude and lifestyle. I just want to go to the desert solo and do yoga for the winter and I even have to retrain my brain to not rush that, cause it aint going to happen for a while if at all. I have a great sense of urgency that I have to tamp down. If I have the opportunity in the spring I would like to turn the truck into a full off-road, off-grid unit (solar, thermal, kitchen, bathroom, etc.) and GTFO on a very long road trip. Fingers crossed.
When you have given all you can to the point of breaking yourself, you have not failed her. My wife's sister just died from cancer. She was in hospice for mere weeks, and between her husband, myself, my wife, my wife's sister, my wife's brother, and both of her parents, there weren't enough of us to give her all of the care she needed. We all gave her every bit of what we could. We were looking into a full time nurse right up till the end. I'm sure you already are looking at it this way, but it's worth being mindful (meditating if you will) of the fact that in taking care of yourself, you'll be ensuring that you can take care of her to the best of your ability.
You have done right by your mom. It’s good you are trying to do right by yourself. I considered a pickup for the first time this summer. What are you looking at? They haven’t made small ones for quite a while it seems. I don’t want one of those monsters that look like Stompers, but I do think a light duty pickup would be useful.
Initially the mid-size Chevy Colorado ZR2 was my choice but it turns out I can get a ZR1 with the same build without the AEV branding for $6,000 less. All go and no show options (except stereo). Then add a Roof Top Tent, etc. etc. 
The Ranger was considered but not nearly as good as the Colorado or Tacoma. The Taco is more expensive, is not as powerful and the electronics package is wanting. More after market support and better resale value though.
I signed up to be the coach of my sons soccer team. I couldn’t find a dad on the team or a mom that would be assistant coach. My good, dear friend ecib has volunteered to be a coach w me. Our first practice is tomorrow. Wish us luck! We are The Gators!
I have a new job, in a different part of the same university I currently work. I start mid-September. It has the potential to be great, if I can navigate the politics. We're thinking of buying a place, a position I could scarcely imagine for myself five years ago. A complicating factor is we're deeply urban types and don't want to leave inner Melbourne, which means we're going to have to buy a unit or apartment rather than a house. And buying an apartment in Melbourne and Sydney at the moment is a hazardous enterprise.
Chickens Annie has a little bit of bumblefoot, so every couple days she comes inside for a bit so we can change her bandages. As far as she's concerned, she comes inside for a bit to get extra snacks and attention. She can't see well, so new things and places are even more scary for her than for the average chicken, but she feels safe and loved snuggled up against me. (she gives very good hugs with her body pushed up against me as firmly as she can!) Research I met up with a new student who's working on a project that I'm interested in. I'd talked with her advisor about it before, but haven't had much time to actually do any work. We're planning to meet up and study together, which I'm looking forward to -- it has been a while since I've had other students working on the same thing I am. The financial aid office, which manages the fellowship I'm funded through right now, is threatening to cut off my funding if I don't take "corrective action" to fix the problem that I have taken "too many" credit hours. Most of those credits are research credits I've taken just to meet the "enrolled full-time" requirement to get funding in the first place; 80% of their purpose is just bookkeeping for the university. I've got a year or so before I hit their hard limit and my funding disappears, so hopefully I'm outta here by then. Dammit, I just want to do research and write papers and help the newer students as much as I can and not worry about whether the university deems me worthy of $16k/yr, is that too much to ask? Climate Change kleinbl00's post yesterday got me thinking about the future and, in particular, the uncertainty of climate change. We've had a cool summer here and the fresh produce has suffered for it. I have some red pepper plants that just now are starting to make fruit, and it seems like this sort of thing is just going to be more commonplace in the years to come. Am I going to be able to retire? Will the bit I've saved now actually add up to enough, or are the markets going to become more unpredictable too? Last night I finished The Dispossessed. At the end, LeGuin reveals that on that universe's Earth, humans never got their shit together and were almost eradicated by climate change. And, fuck, that book was written in 1974, and here 45 years later we're getting ready to do the same fucking thing and even so we're still arguing about whether or not it's happening, or whether or not we should bother talking about it.
No. Nobody is saying this anywhere but the newsletter circuit but "retirement" will likely be revealed to be an aberration for about five generations - those that were able to retire between 1933 and 2040. Do not expect to retire, do not shape your future on your ability to retire, absolutely keep retirement as a goal but recognize that it's not an entitlement the way it has been portrayed lo these many years. The 'boomers will likely be the last generation to retire with any regularity. The secret to retirement is "magical" compounding interest and we're entering a period of potentially a decade or more where interest doesn't compound. For the past 15 years it's been compounding at half the rate everyone was expecting it to and that's punched a giant hole in the economy that nobody really wants to talk about. Get good with cold frames. Those who succeed at intensive agriculture will enjoy a better standard of living than those who don't. Sorry to be a downer. The tea leaves are particularly bitter and cloudy this morning.Am I going to be able to retire? Will the bit I've saved now actually add up to enough, or are the markets going to become more unpredictable too?
Eh, my political and financial tea leaves have been bitter for a few years now. Think I'm going to graduate, start a little chicken farm, and learn sustainable agriculture with my wife. Trying to learn how to make and fix stuff since I'm skeptical that we will continue to enjoy the plenty and ease of access to all sorts of things that we do today.
The two books I recommend are Radical Homemakers and 5 acres and independence. I fought tooth and claw for what you want to do. Unfortunately my wife's success depended on an urban density that made this approach largely impractical. Still, dreams die hard. I remain on the Whatcom Farmers email list.
A broadly diversified US equity fund like VTSAX had a CAGR of 10.25% from 2003 to today. That's a hair over the 10% that underlies many projections about retirement investment.For the past 15 years it's been compounding at half the rate everyone was expecting it to
Yeah but pension funds don't get to go "pile it all into SPDR" because diversification is a hedge against disaster. Take it further: VTSAX is at 17% for the year! Yet CALPERS made 6.7% which is under their 7% goal. And thing is, once you miss a goal you don't get a do-over. So why don't they pile into index funds like everyone else? Index funds that buy what works? How 'bout some of those marvelous tech stocks? I mean, what could go wrong? After all, things with the Nifty Fifty worked out so well: So yeah. If you're golden in 2013, and you don't touch it, and you don't have greater expectations, and you needed to make 10.25% that you could get out sixteen years later, VTSAX works out fine. But if you live in the real world, your goal has been 6-7%. And you've been making 3-4%. And the PBGC has $1.7T in insurance, an annual budget of $423m and there are 19 trillion dollars worth of pension obligations in the United States. Which, by the way, now generates 95% of all the positive-cash-flow bonds in the world.
So my idea of moving to the Methow isn’t a bad idea, then, assuming that it doesn’t all burn down.
I think about climate change a lot, and most of my job is working on concrete solutions to tackle climate change at a governmental level. The good news is that there is a very large and increasing group of people making more and more systemic changes towards sustainability. Things are different from ten, twenty years ago. Ideas that were fringe/sci-fi are now mainstream. My worry is not whether we can curb it, because I think we can, but that the exponential growth in sustainable solutions hasn't picked up fast enough to prevent a lot of harm and suffering.
One of the more important origins of the sustainability movement as we know it now was the 1972's Club of Rome report 'The Limits to Growth'. I am pretty sure that Le Guin was inspired by that, considering the publications are only two years apart. There are some people who still hold on to the idea of infinite, exponential growth, but I am definitely not one of them. For me, reading Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything was an eye opener in just how tightly related capitalism and climate change are.
What's funny is how many people made fun of Limits To Growth and how wrong World3 was when in fact, when you look at the numbers, they fucking nailed it.
So Lyft is now punishing drivers. I've been getting over a head cold so I haven't been riding in. The guy who picked me up night before last mentioned that if you don't take all the rides you're supposed to Lyft steals all rides that take you out of your local area. The only hails you get are short-run, sub-$10 rides. You can go all day and make $80. The driver next day told me that lately Lyft has been giving her the longest of three options in her directions - she has to deliberately pick the one that takes less time to get anywhere she's going. She's new and doesn't understand it. The dark design here is so thick it's appalling. Same guy who has figured out how not to get boned by Lyft drives 12 hours a day. He knows all about the restaurants that are open at 3am because he doesn't stop to eat. He drinks nothing but water. He's effectively a prisoner in his car (but master of his domain) for 84 hours a week because he's saving up to get his livery permit so he can get the fuck out of driving for Lyft. He drives 2,000 miles a week. He retired his escalade with 350,000 miles on it. He'd had it three years. I paid $17. He got $9 of that because I tipped him. I was with him for 45 minutes. Lyft is losing $7m a day to create this Dickensian dystopia. Uber? fifty eight million dollars a day. "We have a history of losses and, especially if we continue to grow at an accelerated rate, we may be unable to achieve profitability at a company level for the foreseeable future.” Meanwhile an unelected charlatan is ramrodding England into a no-deal Brexit and my president wants to open the Tongass to logging. Even the hedge fund managers are starting to chant "burn it the fuck down" on Twitter. Google is evil yet I'm fucking around in Google Cloud Platform because it's the only way I can get speech-to-text for my wife for less than $280 a month. All signs point to recession. And we employ five millennials that our business has to protect against recession because there are mortgages, there are student loans and when you're a sole proprietor things are fucking scary but when you have headcount the stakes are so much bigger than you that it's terrifying. We've been trying to set money aside to upgrade our own house. We should probably set money aside so we can help our employees not lose theirs. I'd drink but I'm sick.
Get outta here with that shit. New tech is an unmitigated good.
I'm at work and can't respond to this, but I want to. Please give me a day or so.
Hiking on vacation On Lily Mountain looking at Longs Peak with Estes Cone in between. Late in the afternoon on a hazy day.
Vegetarianism While I don't think I'll ever go full blown vegetarian, I've been drifting in that direction more and more over the years. The motivation is for ethical reasons, from the environmental and economic impact of factory farming to the fact that while I don't really think there's anything outright wrong with eating animals in moderation, I do have a hard time reconciling the idea that animals are fit for food but that they're also independent beings with thought processes and emotions and that we really don't appreciate the enormous significance of life. In case anyone is curious, I also don't think we give plants the respect and value that they deserve either. All of that said though, for the past year or so, I'm slowly getting more and more turned off by raw meat. While it never used to bother me, I now can't really stand the smell of raw chicken, raw beef, etc. Seafood and pork are probably the worse. As much as I hate the smell, I hate the sensation of touching raw meat even more. Ick. So on a practical level, whenever I have to cook something for myself, meat's kind of off the table just cause I don't really wanna deal with it. Gardening This year, we've only been mildly successful at growing peppers. I say mildly, because we saved some seeds from last year and this year they've given us what I can best describe as flavorless sweet peppers. There's no flavor, no spice, not much of anything. We're still enjoying them, but it's kind of disappointing. That said, one of our pepper plants had someone enjoying them quite a bit. A few very voracious little caterpillars. Somehow they proceeded to eat not only every single leaf on one of the plants, but every single pepper as well. There's notting left but stems. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I never would have believed it. Tokusatsu In addition to Millcreek releasing both Ultra Q and the first Ultraman, Diskotek Media is releasing a series from the Metal Heroes Franchise called Space Wolf Juspion. Once again, I'm struggling with my fear of missing out in getting these shows. On the other hand, the more I look into them, the more I see things that I think "Okay, that's kind of cool," but also things that make me think "This is really too weird or cheesey for me." So, I dunno. I don't want to waste hard earned money on something I won't like. Man, I really miss comics and cartoons sometimes. Sometimes I think I should take up writing or take drawing more seriously or something. To make the kind of stories I'd like to read.
Was in Seattle for a day and walked into one of those Amazon stores without cashiers with a buddy of mine, grabbed some gum, and walked out. Instantly clear to me that nobody will ever walk into a store with cashiers again if they have the option to do this instead. I can’t speak to how deeply this tech will penetrate on what timeframe, just that if you can, you will.
https://fortune.com/2016/09/08/unbanked-americans-fdic/ "last year" being 2015.But the survey also looked at “underbanked” households, which have a bank account but still elect to use services like check cashing, money transfers, payday loans, and pawnshops. Little has changed in those numbers, as the percentage of the underbanked was 19.9% last year compared to 20% in 2013, a modest 0.1% change.
shr00ms! We ended up watching "Journey to the Mysterious Island" with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. The colors in that movie are bizarre. Following the plot was very difficult. Afterwards we nearly broke into a military base and sat in the skate park nearby. We were in a halfpipe looking at the stars. Later we ended up at Wendy's at 2am, which is crazy. There was a wild assortment of really drunk club bangers and some guy wearing a green suit for some reason. I love you all!
I'm sitting in a coffee shop at the northern border of Washington, a stone's throw from Canada, working and waiting for my appointment to get my Nexus card. For non-Americans, this is the administrative/bureaucratic stunt that puts me into the special caste of travelers who... I dunno... don't have to take their shoes off at the airport? Sometimes get a shorter line at border crossings? It's all Security Theater, and I am participating fully in it. I feel like an idiot, but I've felt like an idiot 6x this year at the airport, as I have waited in 1+ hour long lines at the airport, while people with the magic Nexus card have walked right past me. Oh. My right wrist is also fucked. Any time I do any heavy work with it - gardening, wrenching on my motorcycle, intensive writing sessions (aka, my day job) - I am in massive pain for days until i go get acupuncture, and it clears up. It's legitimately freaking me the fuck out. I had several days of wrist-immobilized-in-a-bandage to consider exactly how much my life would suck if it never went back to "normal" again.... and it is not a future I look forward to. Making a doctor's appointment now, even though I know that it'll be $1500 and "go see this specialist who will wind up costing $20,000, and not really resolve the problem to your satisfaction, or regain your previous level of agility/health."
Plus one on the Nexus card. The primary benefit is it gets you out of the line with people who fly every couple of years to the line full of people who want to get to the goddamn admiralty club so they can drink merlot and watch MSNBC. and the money goes to the people who caught Ahmed Rassam, not the guys who will defend the porno-scanners to the death. Tendons heal slowly, by the way. I currently have an annoying case of trigger finger in my right middle finger. It's been there for nine months. My wife and I went to a korean spa the day before christmas and the guy giving the compulsory massage got way the fuck too rugged with his joint pulling shenanigans. It's probably inflammation from something you did and a steady diet of aleve or an acute application of steroids will likely clear it up.
I forgot that I had an issue with my Achilles tendon, maybe 2 years ago. Had to wear an immobilizer boot for several weeks, then an ankle brace for a couple months. It's been completely healed and doesn't give me any more trouble, so I no longer think about it. That's a heartening thought... I've done this before, and it worked.