Preparing a home for the pickup

Once I decided against keeping the pickup in a storage unit across town, it was time to think about where to park her. I still need to cut some grooves and seat the logs. After that, spread some gravel and throw a tarp over her.

For some reason, the photos I take of this spot do not convey how steep the grade is. I’m guessing it’s 20 degrees which you can certainly feel carrying logs.

Max defrost

Everybody jokes about the heaters in old Land Rovers. Mr. Wolf told me to expect the amount of warmth one feels holding a hand over a toaster. It was cold and rainy today but once the the motor got warmed up I had just enough warm air to give me a little visibility. Don’t know how this is gonna work come January and February.

Where are they now?

You know how some insanely popular rock group has a bunch of hits and then… just disappears. At least from the media mainstream. They didn’t get less talented overnight and, sure, tastes change but this always seemed odd to me. In reviewing blog posts from the early days of the web, I see something similar. Here are some of the people most influential (for me) from that era (in no particular order): Bruce Sterling, Chris Pirillo, Clay Shirky, David Weinberger, Doc Searls, Kevin Kelley, Jeff Jarvis, Seth Goden.

On second thought, I’ll bet the folks are still around but — like everyone else — have migrated to social media, abandoning their blogs. Perhaps the web they wrote about and — in some cases — predicted, disappeared/never happened.

In praise of Google Calendar

It is fashionable of late to bash Facebook, Apple, Google, Amazon et al. There’s plenty to complain about I suppose (and I’ve done my share) but after the fire has been peed on and the dogs have been summoned, I really like Apple, Google and Amazon (I’ve never used Facebook). I like them a lot. Do I like everything they do? Of course not.

But this post is about Google Calendar. I’ve been using it for years. Anything of importance, anything I want to find later… goes into Google Calendar. Case in point: I’m in the process of switching health insurance companies and today I got a call from a representative of the new company, checking on one of the drugs I take. He also asked about a drug I didn’t recognize and said it was a one-time script on February 4, 2014. I had Google Calendar open so I hit the “G” key and typed in that date.

That was the day I hit some black ice and slid off the highway, getting just banged up enough that Barb insisted I get checked out at the ER. They gave me a muscle relaxant as I recall. Here’s a screenshot of that entry.

Note the link to my blog post on the event as well as links to PDF scans of the towing receipt; a summary from the ER visit; and a couple of insurance documents. Four years ago and I had it all from a 5 second search.

Is Google doing something with all of my data? I assume so. But I never see ads an they don’t charge me a dime. I call that a good deal.

Brunei skyline

Brunei, officially the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace, is located on the north coast of the island of borneo in Southeast Asia. (Wikipedia) My sister-in-law, Tonya, shot this brief clip. She and my brother make frequent trips to southeast Asia and spent most of the last 20+ years in Indonesia and Malaysia. My brother make several trips to China each year and returns with wonderful stories. Some interesting facts about Brunei:

  • Much of Shell oil comes from offshore drilling platforms in Brunei.
  • The 2015 per-capita GDP in Brunei was US $54,537 — ranking them 10th in the world. The U.S. GDP in 2014 was US $54,629.
  • Citizens in Brunei receive free education and medical services from the government.
  • Brunei has one of the highest rates of obesity in Southeast Asia. An estimated 20% of schoolchildren are overweight.
  • The literacy rate in Brunei is estimated at 92.7% of the population.
  • Caning is still a method of punishment for crimes in Brunei.
  • Brunei is just a little smaller than the U.S. state of Delaware.
  • Brunei has one of the highest car-ownership rates (roughly one car per every two people) in the world.