It was very pleasant driving around Utah [1]. As you drive from CA to NV to AZ to UT, the speed limits keep increasing, kinda like this: Mostly, it seems like the speed limits increasingly reflect reality as one drives north, like waking from the (very different) dream worlds of CA (cool sunshine) and NV […]
I was driving around central Utah, and there’s pretty much nothing but C&W and crazy talk radio, so I tried a bit of both. First, country pretty much sounds like auto-tuned KISS pop to me (and KROQ plays a lot of music that sounds like what used to be on KISS). Anyway, there’s not a […]
Warren Buffett (h/t BDL): My most surprising discovery: the overwhelming importance in business of an unseen force that we might call “the institutional imperative.” In business school, I was given no hint of the imperative’s existence and I did not intuitively understand it when I entered the business world. I thought then that decent, intelligent, […]
How did I not know about the Mountain Goats 20 years ago?
If you suddenly find you’re out of margarita mix and you’ve already poured the tequila over ice in a nicely salted glass: Works: Lemon-lime gatorade (gatorita!). Doesn’t work: past-its’-done-by-date bloody mary mix. ObJoeBobBriggs: I’m surprised I have to explain these things to you.
Working fewer hours correlates with higher productivity. Who knew the Germans were such slackers compared with the Greeks? Working fewer hours correlates with a longer lifespan. Put that right next to the research that shows that cubicles and open plan offices decrease productivity, and that offices with doors increase same (in the round filing cabinet). […]
Searching the internet in the not-too-distant-past yielded no results, so let me throw this out there as a first: Kansas, c. Leftoverture and Point of Know Return, were heavily influenced by Dune. Or perhaps that was just me. However, like (the apparently coincidental) Dark Side of the Moon/Wizard of Oz, I can't help but feel […]
Wolverine – awful All Is Lost – good, except for the ending Rush – good (the actors were well-chosen to match the real people, and the story was pretty much true to the documentary) Lauda/Hunt documentary – good Malavita – insulting I watched parts of a few others, but nothing else leaps to mind.
Brent Simmons wrote a short essay about his cat, and the point of view of the mouse. Picture the equivalent for a human, he says. As if it were a fiction. Scary. But it isn’t fiction. That’s how I feel every night cycling home on the unlit Forest Service road, overhung by trees. I’ve seen […]
Film lasted more than 100 years, but it couldn’t survive A2.
A hummingbird flew up to the fountain while we were getting a drink, drank out of the stream, and hovered within 30 cm of my face while I held the spigot open for him, checking me out, yawing slightly back and forth. Thanks Mr. Hummingbird.
I came >< this close to buying a Nest thermostat (was kinda waiting for V2.0). Just the kind of gadget I'm predisposed to, and I've been looking into remote home automation – turning lights on and off remotely, etc. Now I'm really glad I didn't. Well, relieved is a better word.
Climbing: El Chontacoatlan, Taxco del Alarcon, Guerrero, Mexico, Thanksgiving. I sent Mantis, the first pitch of Mala Fama, and Procopio, all third try. Great climbing, fun partners, one of the best trips ever. This is my favorite kind of climbing. Close second: Maple, May and September. Sent ZT and 49, several one-fall burns on Dry […]
Monsters
Must read interview with Snowden by Bamford. Addendum: Another reason why NPR will never get a dime from me. Dina Temple-Raston continues her Judith Miller-esque swallowing of the Deep State line. DTR presents talking points about Snowden from a completely CIA- and NSA-funded front company as though they were independent viewpoints, with no acknowledgement, or […]