haven't forgot this - just cannot find the time......
hiking, fishing, building, training.......
need to starting writing again - lot's of thoughts but little focus. this is a great place to think and relax.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Pack, Pack, Pack
have been going through the house with Mary Ann and Sarah since May 30 - with just a few breaks - like for ankle surgery and trips to St. Vinnie.
the object has been to separate the keep from the sell - and hopefully with much more going into the sell piles. 30+ years of collecting really adds up.
found some really nice artwork buried in the attic - plus a lot of the kids 'art' from school. parting with it is difficult but necessary (and it will prove to be very wrong if any of our artists become well known).
we've got most of the attic and most of the feista done. kalideoscopes are next and then clothing, quilts, sewing, tools, computers, and the few pieces of furniture that we want (desk, table, hutch) it is really not hard parting with all the catholic memoriabilia - perhaps the thought of eternal damnation is providing the motivation?!?!
yesterday we got shooed out of woodmans while we were gathering more boxes. i really liked the margarita boxes - just the right size and weight. plus they are colorful......
still working the stock market. it has been very profitable. i want to bet against oil but it doesn't want to go down. too many people hedging against the dollar. selling on big ups and buying back in on the lows. have a lot more cash to play with -- finally.
the new puppy, Drover, is worth his own article.....
the object has been to separate the keep from the sell - and hopefully with much more going into the sell piles. 30+ years of collecting really adds up.
found some really nice artwork buried in the attic - plus a lot of the kids 'art' from school. parting with it is difficult but necessary (and it will prove to be very wrong if any of our artists become well known).
we've got most of the attic and most of the feista done. kalideoscopes are next and then clothing, quilts, sewing, tools, computers, and the few pieces of furniture that we want (desk, table, hutch) it is really not hard parting with all the catholic memoriabilia - perhaps the thought of eternal damnation is providing the motivation?!?!
yesterday we got shooed out of woodmans while we were gathering more boxes. i really liked the margarita boxes - just the right size and weight. plus they are colorful......
still working the stock market. it has been very profitable. i want to bet against oil but it doesn't want to go down. too many people hedging against the dollar. selling on big ups and buying back in on the lows. have a lot more cash to play with -- finally.
the new puppy, Drover, is worth his own article.....
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Hawken address.....
Commencement Address by Paul Hawken to the Class of 2009, University of Portland, May 3, 2009
When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” Boy, no pressure there.
But let’s begin with the startling part. Hey, Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation... but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades. This planet came with a set of operating instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil, or air, and don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in coach, and really good food, but all that is changing.
There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: YOU ARE BRILLIANT, AND THE EARTH IS HIRING. The earth couldn’t afford to send any recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.
When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.” There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.
You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen. Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way.
There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true. Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider. “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice,” is Mary Oliver’s description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.
Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity. Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit.. And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, and non-governmental organizations, of companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history.
The living world is not “out there” somewhere, but in your heart. What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets. Think about this: we are the only species on this planet without full employment. Brilliant. We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time than to renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can’t print life to bail out a planet. At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.
The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams. Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono. We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are inseparable. We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells. Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it. In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe exactly what Charles Darwin foretold when he said science would discover that each living creature was a “little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven.”
So I have two questions for you all: First, can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this speech will end. Second question: who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those molecules? Hopefully not a political party. Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life inside you, just as in all of nature. What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.
This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing and stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn’t stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn’t ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hopefulness only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it....
Paul Hawken is a renowned entrepreneur, visionary environmental activist, and author of many books, most recently Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming. He was presented with an honorary doctorate of humane letters by University president Father Bill Beauchamp, C.S.C., in May, when he delivered this superb speech.
www.paulhawken.com
When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” Boy, no pressure there.
But let’s begin with the startling part. Hey, Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation... but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades. This planet came with a set of operating instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil, or air, and don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in coach, and really good food, but all that is changing.
There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: YOU ARE BRILLIANT, AND THE EARTH IS HIRING. The earth couldn’t afford to send any recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.
When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.” There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.
You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen. Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way.
There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true. Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider. “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice,” is Mary Oliver’s description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.
Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity. Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit.. And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, and non-governmental organizations, of companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history.
The living world is not “out there” somewhere, but in your heart. What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets. Think about this: we are the only species on this planet without full employment. Brilliant. We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time than to renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can’t print life to bail out a planet. At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.
The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams. Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono. We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are inseparable. We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells. Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it. In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe exactly what Charles Darwin foretold when he said science would discover that each living creature was a “little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven.”
So I have two questions for you all: First, can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this speech will end. Second question: who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those molecules? Hopefully not a political party. Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life inside you, just as in all of nature. What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.
This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing and stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn’t stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn’t ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hopefulness only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it....
Paul Hawken is a renowned entrepreneur, visionary environmental activist, and author of many books, most recently Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming. He was presented with an honorary doctorate of humane letters by University president Father Bill Beauchamp, C.S.C., in May, when he delivered this superb speech.
www.paulhawken.com
Happy Days
Read an interesting article today.....NYTimes
May 25, 2009,
The author starts with
"What is happiness? How does one get a grip on this most elusive, intractable and perhaps unanswerable of questions?"
and follows that with...... "For the philosophers of Antiquity, notably Aristotle, it was assumed that the goal of the philosophical life — the good life, moreover — was happiness and that the latter could be defined as the bios theoretikos, the solitary life of contemplation. Today, few people would seem to subscribe to this view. Our lives are filled with the endless distractions of cell phones, car alarms, commuter woes and the traffic in Bangalore. The rhythm of modern life is punctuated by beeps, bleeps and a generalized attention deficit disorder.
"
"
Crithley follows this with a discussion of what is happiness - all the multiple variations and possibilities - and they all involve having time to think and enjoy the world we live in. And it does not include the the constant noise and prompting of our electronic world.
I think life in the canyon could bring much happiness to anyone who takes the time to enjoy it. Turn off the TV and talking heads, reduce email and IM to a minimum, and get out and feel the wilderness and clouds and rocks and air......
But, but, but - how can you make money?? The consumption god attacks! Let's beat it away too!!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
where is the motivation??
spent the week-end real low key - wanted to renew and refresh and let my mind wander and unfocus...... might of worked but don't know - come Tuesday the start of the week (today) and i could not find the inspiration to do anything.
ate, sold stocks (should not have), cleaned, paid bills, and started - finally - to pack some more boxes of GC books. luckily Amy called and wanted to do coffee.... Saved!!
Evan is leaving tomorrow so afterwards i cleaned out the truck (futzing) and finally am forcing myself to write this bit.
This lack of motivation is caused by my lack of passion. Need to find something to do and just do it. I don't think it is too important for it to make money - if you start something and start to lead it - others will begin to follow. My problem is to sort out/identify what it is i want to try. everything sounds good in the heat of the moment but then the rational brain steps in and i end up in KC mode (total paralysis).
so what could crank me up?
1) wise old sage of the canyon - tell stories, connect people, solve problems, lead a cause/ngo. i'll begin to persue this once i'm out there but doesn't resonate from wisconsin.
2) teambuilding trips through the canyon. talked with amy about this one today. raft trips bring people toghter through shared thrills. could do this with corporate accounts (one large group) or maybe better through ones or twos from all around ala CCL style. lot could be done in 7 days.
3) use the canyon history to guess about the future. focus on large coprorations and big box retail. they are going to slowly be supplanted by the small, the individual, the internet. to get the corps out of their box you have to get them totally out of their world and isolated for enough time that they break away - at least three days but maybe less in a rapid. in the canyon you really begin to focus on yourself and your abilities.
4) women bullying workshops. use the education system to model corporate best behaviors. teachers have the system down (not perfect but plenty of practice) so share that with the corporate world.
5) train Drover (or Shredder....)
ate, sold stocks (should not have), cleaned, paid bills, and started - finally - to pack some more boxes of GC books. luckily Amy called and wanted to do coffee.... Saved!!
Evan is leaving tomorrow so afterwards i cleaned out the truck (futzing) and finally am forcing myself to write this bit.This lack of motivation is caused by my lack of passion. Need to find something to do and just do it. I don't think it is too important for it to make money - if you start something and start to lead it - others will begin to follow. My problem is to sort out/identify what it is i want to try. everything sounds good in the heat of the moment but then the rational brain steps in and i end up in KC mode (total paralysis).
so what could crank me up?
1) wise old sage of the canyon - tell stories, connect people, solve problems, lead a cause/ngo. i'll begin to persue this once i'm out there but doesn't resonate from wisconsin.
2) teambuilding trips through the canyon. talked with amy about this one today. raft trips bring people toghter through shared thrills. could do this with corporate accounts (one large group) or maybe better through ones or twos from all around ala CCL style. lot could be done in 7 days.
3) use the canyon history to guess about the future. focus on large coprorations and big box retail. they are going to slowly be supplanted by the small, the individual, the internet. to get the corps out of their box you have to get them totally out of their world and isolated for enough time that they break away - at least three days but maybe less in a rapid. in the canyon you really begin to focus on yourself and your abilities.
4) women bullying workshops. use the education system to model corporate best behaviors. teachers have the system down (not perfect but plenty of practice) so share that with the corporate world.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
dang - hard to keep up......
this retirement is hard work - never seems to be enough time to do everything that needs to get done.
Had to go fishing this past weekend..... but that was more to take a break - and go to the dump, change the oil in the 4 wheeler, and bring stuff up to hang on the walls - deer head. Nice talks with Colleen.
back at the house most of the time was spent on the porch - had some rotten boards and columns that needed to be replaced. Fun and hard. It's nice to get the callouses back on my hands (instead of my butt).
Got boxes of stuff from work - it's easy to condense everything into seven boxes from 25 years. looks like Cindy had to do it - only a few things broke on the trip.
initiated the retirement process..... tried to hold off for as long as possible but it just won't make without. the next couple of months we'll be running a bit short but when the house sells income will exceed expense.
Market has been good - still playing conservative and taking profit continually. But may seems like a good month to bail out and wait till august to begin again. everyone always seems to forget history until it bites them.
looking at ANEN and POWL.
house inspection tomorrow - fix the garage door, clean interior, and finish gardening. Sole Burner on Saturday with Steph and her crowd.
Had to go fishing this past weekend..... but that was more to take a break - and go to the dump, change the oil in the 4 wheeler, and bring stuff up to hang on the walls - deer head. Nice talks with Colleen.
back at the house most of the time was spent on the porch - had some rotten boards and columns that needed to be replaced. Fun and hard. It's nice to get the callouses back on my hands (instead of my butt).
Got boxes of stuff from work - it's easy to condense everything into seven boxes from 25 years. looks like Cindy had to do it - only a few things broke on the trip.
initiated the retirement process..... tried to hold off for as long as possible but it just won't make without. the next couple of months we'll be running a bit short but when the house sells income will exceed expense.
Market has been good - still playing conservative and taking profit continually. But may seems like a good month to bail out and wait till august to begin again. everyone always seems to forget history until it bites them.
looking at ANEN and POWL.
house inspection tomorrow - fix the garage door, clean interior, and finish gardening. Sole Burner on Saturday with Steph and her crowd.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
tough times - hanging tough
read article in the New Yorker by Surowiecki - hanging tough
he makes the point that recessions are times of great opportunities but also that it takes a great deal of courage to do it. while the article is mostly focused on corporations the same holds true for the individual - even more so in this time....
almost every corporation is cutting spending - as are individuals. while financially safe, it also prevents you from growing as fast in the years to come. Finding the balance - if at all possible - is the key.
The cartoon (again with credits to the New Yorker) is for my friends of a previous world!!
Monday, April 27, 2009
house is sold
wow - counter was accepted.....
it is sinking in slowly that we really are going to have to move all this STUFF!! and when you start thinking of it - how much of this STUFF is really important? memories? toys? gadgets? pottery? paintings? cars? and the list goes on.
really is going to be tough to change from rampant consumerism. i can see why some just give it all away to charity instead of dealing with it - it is simply easier.
i'm sitting here looking at four different pots filled with pens from four different kid projects - including one holding a pencil topped with a smurf smiley face - how can we get rid of any of them?
four computers here plus two at the canyon - one was the first Bren built.......
tools, tools, tools - drill press, band saw, welder, cutting torch, table saw.....
rock saw and a garage filled with rocks - all memories that have to be dealt with.....
cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel - have to start digging out!! just pick one task and begin.....
sleep sounds great first!
Saturday, April 25, 2009
moving along
offer in on the house - now countering.
when it is sold what next? the move will be the big thing especially how much. years of collection come into play. the fiesta, kalideoscopes, gc book, lamps, camping, looming, sewing, rocks - all take up space and don't take easy to moving
luckily the appliances are taken off the list- go with the house. (wonder what they will think of the speed queen dryer with the magnetron magnet holding the door shut. great dryer that only cost $1 at an auction 25 years ago.....
most of the rest of the house we can sell or donate. no real desire to hang on to 'stuff' except for the family pieces. We'll need to store quite a bit until the new abode is built but that could be a few years out.
how much stuff do we really need??
when it is sold what next? the move will be the big thing especially how much. years of collection come into play. the fiesta, kalideoscopes, gc book, lamps, camping, looming, sewing, rocks - all take up space and don't take easy to moving
luckily the appliances are taken off the list- go with the house. (wonder what they will think of the speed queen dryer with the magnetron magnet holding the door shut. great dryer that only cost $1 at an auction 25 years ago.....
most of the rest of the house we can sell or donate. no real desire to hang on to 'stuff' except for the family pieces. We'll need to store quite a bit until the new abode is built but that could be a few years out.
how much stuff do we really need??
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Swimming Without a Suit - falling behind on education
as a country we're failing to educate - especially in high schools
link
Op-ed piece by THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: April 21, 2009
link
Op-ed piece by THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: April 21, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Saturn - close and personal
This is the first of a great set a pictures of Saturn from the Daily Mail
This image was taken by Cassini as it moved above the dark side of the planet. As very little light makes its way through the rings, they appear somewhat dark compared with the reflective surface of Saturn. This view combines 45 images taken over the course of about two hours
This image was taken by Cassini as it moved above the dark side of the planet. As very little light makes its way through the rings, they appear somewhat dark compared with the reflective surface of Saturn. This view combines 45 images taken over the course of about two hours
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Long term forecast
coming to the west in the next half century - to 'live within means' (or your ecosystem) is even more poignant. Water will be the driver for development as we go forward. And J.W. Powell captured it all in 1881
West Is Told to Expect Water Shortfalls
To sustain Lake Mead, water delivery shortfalls will be necessary.
The Colorado River is a critical source of water for seven Western states, each of which gets an annual allotment according to a system that has sparked conflict and controversy for decades. But in an era ofclimate change, even greater difficulties loom.
The scope of those potential problems is detailed in a study being published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Tim P. Barnett and David W. Pierce of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography report that under various forecasts of the effects of warming temperatures on runoff into the Colorado, scheduled future water deliveries to the seven states are not sustainable.
The work builds on an earlier study by the researchers that looked at whether Lake Mead, the huge reservoir behind Hoover Dam, would eventually go dry. For the current study, they tweaked their model of river inflows and outflows and looked at the delivery shortfalls that would be needed to keep Lake Mead at the lowest functioning level. The modifications in the model “didn’t really change any of our answers,” Dr. Barnett said. “It just made the study a lot stronger.”
The study found that, with a 20 percent reduction in runoff, by 2050 nearly 9 of every 10 scheduled deliveries would be missed. But the problem may be even worse, because the allotments were determined in the 20th century, when, according to tree-ring data, the region was wetter than normal. So if drier conditions persist, delivery shortfalls will be even greater.
Water deliveries would have to be reduced, something that is achievable through conservation, water reuse and other measures. “We are hopeful that this would serve to get people to sit down now and see what options look realistic,” Dr. Barnett said, “before you have a crisis on your hands.”
Monday, April 20, 2009
E-Books........
Got a kindle a couple of weeks ago - first to check it out first hand and secondly (primarily) to give it to my parents. Thought they could use the adjustable font - works well - and wanted to see how well the text-to-speech functioned - heard differing opinions.... but for them it works well especially having both male and female voices.
Today read an article in the WSJ entitled "How the E-Book Will Change the Way We Read and Write" by Steven Johnson. He discusses how e-books may change the future of reading. One point he makes is that the kindle gives you a bookstore wherever you are - have the desire to read something else and it can be be purchased and read in a little over a minute. Used it myself and it makes it easy to satisfy those sudden urges to try something else.
Today read an article in the WSJ entitled "How the E-Book Will Change the Way We Read and Write" by Steven Johnson. He discusses how e-books may change the future of reading. One point he makes is that the kindle gives you a bookstore wherever you are - have the desire to read something else and it can be be purchased and read in a little over a minute. Used it myself and it makes it easy to satisfy those sudden urges to try something else.
But he also brings up the entire notion of how we are going to be able to reference and discuss books in the future. No page numbers on the kindle....... by text location? or will we simply take everything down to a few key sound bytes or quotes and not even reference the source?? do we need some type of filing system? i'm sure there are a zillion ideas out there of how it might work - i should tag this article - but what tag??
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Time for change
retirement......
selling the house......
moving......
all coming together at once. the suddenness of it all is staggering but at the same time refreshing and envigorating. it was time to move on and find something new to play at.
stay tuned as it happens......
selling the house......
moving......
all coming together at once. the suddenness of it all is staggering but at the same time refreshing and envigorating. it was time to move on and find something new to play at.
stay tuned as it happens......
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