Life of Dave

economy

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 23:45:10 GMT

In addition to keeping busy with random things around the house, and socializing, and adapting to the return of the school year (when the mice are away, the cats will play, so to speak, but now the mice are back, so the cats have to work again), I've been keeping one eye firmly planted on the American economy. It's not wonderful. There are a number of factors that seem to be pointing towards trouble on the horizon (or rather, more trouble on the horizon). The number of areas things are bad is impressive, although, given how much of the pre-crash economy was based on, effectively, interconnected delusions, it's not surprising everything that went up together now seems to be going down together. I consider myself extremely lucky to be, for the most part, escaping the mess unscathed, though if the housing value decline is as bad as some assert, I am either barely above water or underwater on my house. Fortunately, I like living here, and intend to continue doing so, so I don't pay too much attention to what the current situation is in my neighborhood. I haven't decided yet if we're actually in for a 'double dip recession'. My heart says 'yes', my head says 'no, but barely'. Happily, if I just wait long enough, I'll have my answer!

currently

Mon, 9 Aug 2010 23:18:46 GMT

Life's been a blur the past few weeks. Driving all day up to Michigan and another day driving back down. Socializing, which is nice, and working, which is... working. Nonstop changes, it seems, at work. Being in charge of hiring someone when there's a recession and fifteen million people out of work is tough - it makes you want to hire everyone, even though you can't. It's been really dry here lately, so trying to keep the plants from shriveling takes a goodly amount of my spare time, as does keeping the lawn mowed, though the house across the street has sold, which makes me hope there will be less pressure in the form of warnings from the city. I have continued to resist the urge to buy the rental across the street, though I do feel the 'slumlord' achievement calling my name.

Dad

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:46:27 GMT

My father passed away over the weekend. He was 71, and hadn't been well for some time, but it still came as a surprise. I guess it always does. My phone rang at 2am, but it had miscategorized my uncle, so I couldn't tell who was calling, and then when my mom called I figured something was wrong with my phone. At least halfway - I woke up the next morning and checked my messages first thing, as I wondered whether the whole thing had been real or not. Google voice had done its usual half-assed job of converting my uncle's voicemail to an email message, but it had gotten enough of the words right to tell me what I needed to know. Once the phone calls had been made, we headed down to Little Rock to do a workshop on building an interactive exhibit, which the sidewalk group I run hopes to do for Ecofest here in town. It was a good distraction, but even now, a day later, I'm still in a bit of a fog.

the big picture

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 20:13:25 GMT

I remember once having a conversation with a friend, and I hadn't thought about it when the question was asked, what his views on the subject might be. So I responded honestly - I think those against gay marriage will pass out of society, and in time we'll view it as we do sexism, or racism. It was an awkward moment, as it turned out he did not think that way. At all. But it was brief, because, as all people should, we didn't focus on what made us different. We talked it thru, agreed to disagree, and moved on.

I continue to believe this is the case, that someday people will wonder what the fuss was about. We moved one step closer today, as Argentina legalized gay marriage, becoming the first Latin American country to do so. Given the poll numbers (70% in favor) I would be surprised if this doesn't stick, and I expect this will bolster movements in other Latin American countries to also press their claims.

Closer to home, now that I live in a more conservative part of the country, it's easier to gauge how far there is to go, to swing public opinion of the more conservative elements around to supporting the movement. But I see progress.

It's funny - being that I see social mores as cyclical, victory seems as inevitable to me in the short term as an eventual movement back towards conservatism seems to me in the long term (centuries). If there is an underlying trend toward a more progressive view of human rights, I think it takes a very long time indeed to come all the way around to the point where the pendulum will not swing back. But this is the way we are, and the big picture is far less important right now to, for example, gay couples in Argentina, than is the fact that they can finally marry the person they love.

LED light bulbs

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 19:24:59 GMT

I updated the page where I compare LED and Compact Fluorescent lightbulbs, adding information from my more recent LED lightbulb purchases. The short form is that the LED bulbs are definitely more efficient, but the cost advantage is a bit up in the air, depending on how much you pay for electricity. I think everyone should move to LED, on general principle, but I can see where others will disagree.

the pics are up!

Thu, 8 Jul 2010 00:39:32 GMT

The photos are up from our trip to Long Beach Island.

litter

Wed, 7 Jul 2010 23:17:23 GMT

Please don't ask how, but I recently ran across a site which reviewed natural cat litters. I read the review, and decided I would try the 'world's best cat litter' (with a name like that, why wouldn't I?). If I had looked at their website, it probably would have struck me before this evening, when I was putting it into the litter box, but the litter is made from corn. This strikes me as a seemingly bad plan - I'm pretty sure corn is supposed to be eaten, not put in your toilet (or burned as heating fuel, either). In general there's a lot of anecdotal evidence (or rumour) that regular kitty litter is bad (special bonus - note how easily the author decides that strip mining is actually a warm fuzzy thing done by unicorns). But as with all things internet-y, finding authoritative information seems to be tough.

For the 4th

Mon, 5 Jul 2010 23:30:17 GMT

Just got back this evening from a trip to Long Beach Island, located in New Jersey. Jeff has been going there forever, and talks about it all the time, so we figured it behooved us to see what it was all about. The fact that he recently purchased a boat, which meant we could go sailing while we were there, may have factored in to the equation. It was a good time, if a touch more energetic than we are used to. I expect I'll use this week to recover.

This is also the start of Sasha's summer work in New York City, which gives me two weeks to play bachelor, work on all the projects I haven't had time for, etc. We'll see how much gets done.

couples therapy

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 00:37:54 GMT

It seems really odd to me that the government is funding research into preemptive couples' therapy. I also found it amusing that I read about it in the same paper that not that long ago had a very interesting story about how too much relationship examination can lead to bad things. Perhaps there are relationships that need close examination, but it's hard not to feel like this is yet another creepy outgrowth of the confessional society. Of course, this is not really new thought - Foucault said in 1976: "We have since become a singularly confessing society. The confession has spread its effects far and wide. It plays a part in justice, medicine, education, family relationships, and love relations, in the most ordinary affairs of everyday life, and in the most solemn rites: one confesses one�s crimes, one�s sins, one�s thoughts and desires, one�s illnesses and troubles; one goes about telling, with the greatest precision, what is most difficult to tell." Perhaps it is only that the tools for confession are so much more numerous. And, to bring things back around, the grant the feds have given will be used to build another such tool, used to help open the doors couples may have kept closed for a reason.

World Cup hopes, dashed.

Sun, 27 Jun 2010 23:34:04 GMT

World Cup madness was briefly upon us, before the US was knocked out on Saturday. Now I'll pin my hopes on Japan, and go back to my regularly scheduled life, where the entire office doesn't stop working to go around high-five-ing each other because a goal has been scored.

adsense and old stuff

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 00:23:03 GMT

I discovered some of the stuff I wrote at Eastern on the subject of the anti-globalization movement is doing very well on google as a search term. Whenever I discover something like this I add some ads to the page, in the hopes that the website will generate a bit more income for me (I'm only three dollars from another google check).

I'm always torn when I see that stuff I wrote so long ago is getting hits - especially when it's academic stuff that I have long since rethought (not to mention I am a much more coherent writer these days). On the one hand, it would be nice to correct or update it. On the other hand, it is what it is, and dressing it up is probably not the correct path either.