Posted inHome life

Minimalist shoes get thumbs up from Nassim Taleb… and me

I'm slowly making my way through Antifragile, Nassim Nicholas Taleb's new book (he's the author of The Black Swan, which has nothing to do with kinky ballet).  Taleb's highly opinionated quasi-libertarian in-your-face writing style can be irritating at times, but in general I agree with most of his core theses, including: natural is more robust than artificial; stress is desirable when it strengthens us; things that last do so for good reasons. A few days ago I came across Taleb's attitude toward shoes, which almost exactly mirrors mine. I've become a big fan of lightweight, barely-there shoes and sandals.  In…
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Posted inEntertainment Philosophy

“Beasts of the Southern Wild,” a paean to soulful strangeness

I loved the movie, "Beasts of the Southern Wild." Yesterday I tried to explain on my other blog what the film meant to me.  Don't feel like I succeeded. This try likely won't be much more successful. After all, what I love about "Beasts of the Southern Wild" is its -- no big surprise -- beastliness and wildness. Guess I could roar. Or jump up on a table and scream "I'm the man! I'm the man!" like the marvelous Hushpuppy does in the movie. Or trample down buildings like the aurochs do. Or... I can type away and try to say…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Neighborhood

Oregon HOA’s lose out on liens after foreclosure (probably)

I'm the secretary of our planned community's homeowners association (HOA). Our HOA has had to file liens on property owners who fail to pay their dues two years in a row. The dues are only $185 a year. Payment plans are allowed. Volunteers do a lot of the work needed to maintain the common property (we also hire a contractor for mowing, spraying, bark mulching, and such). When dues aren't paid by some of our 90 property owners, the other owners have to make up the lost money. Being the secretary, I have the not-so-fun duty of filing the liens…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

Oregonian wastes paper on global warming denier Gordon Fulks

Oregon's largest newspaper, the Oregonian, is not-so-slowly sinking into irrelevancy. That's my considered opinion, at least. As noted in a recent post about a global warming story that downplayed scientific fact and played up a local meteorologist's unscientific denial of climate change, I've noted a distinct right-wing tilting in both the news and editorial sections during the past few years. After reading an absurd January 19 op-ed by Gordon Fulks, "The Changing Climate of Climate Change," that was prominently displayed by Oregonian editors, I'm even more convinced that the newspaper has joined the Republican war on science. It pains me…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Obama’s gun control plan supported by 52% of Americans

When it comes to gun control, the NRA likes to claim that it represents the American public. Not true. Obama does. A national survey conducted January 17-20 among 1,006 adults found that 52% feel that Obama's are about right (39%) or do not go far enough (13%).  By contrast, only 31% say Obama's proposals go too far. (No opinion: 17%) Clearly Obama isn't a radical when it comes to gun control. He's got a majority of the country on his side. Hopefully this majority won't remain silent when it comes time for Congress to vote on requiring background checks for…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

Obama gets serious about climate change. Finally.

Yes. Yes. Yes.  I could hear my brain screaming those words when I came across President Obama's strong statement about global warming in his second inauguation address. We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms. The path towards sustainable energy…
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Posted inEntertainment

Pickpocket Apollo Robbins: so smooth at stealing

If you think you'd know if a skilled pickpocket was taking your watch, wallet, or cell phone, think again. That's the lesson I've learned from watching a video of theatrical pickpocket (meaning, a legal "stealer") Apollo Robbins. I've watched the video several times, I'm so fascinated by Robbins. His physical skills are amazing, but its the smoothness of his whole persona that is particularly impressive. Without that, his pickpocketing would be much less successful. Have a look. And a read, if you click on that link.   
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Posted inHome life Retirement community Sustainability

Best planned community in Portland, Oregon area?

Like I said in my previous post about a planned community in Monmouth, Oregon, almost certainly someday my wife and I will want to leave behind the large house on ten rural acres that simultaneously drives us crazy and makes us happy. There's a lot of people akin to us. Baby boomers (we're in our 60's) who are in good health, have lived in a non-easy-care home for a long time, aren't interested in a traditional retirement community, and are beginning to think about where they'd like to live when "let's move" becomes not just a idle thought, but an…
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Posted inSalem

Salem needs an “Edwards Addition” like Monmouth has

OK, let's get past the name of this otherwise-cool housing development: Edwards Addition, which sounds like a boring afterthought, is anything but. Today my wife and I met the developer, Eric Olsen, at the Mid-Valley Home Show (Americraft Building, State Fairgrounds, today through Sunday). We'd just started to browse the show when I heard "Brian and Laurel!" Turning toward the Olsen Design and Development booth, which likely we would have walked right past otherwise, Molly Beecroft greeted us cheerily.  Molly is a former neighbor, and current realtor, who works with Eric. Her charm and my desire for a free gift soon…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

NRA disparages Secret Service protection for Obama’s daughters

Despicable. Shameful. Outrageous.  Until today I didn't think NRA executives could surprise me by acting more callous, tone-deaf, disrespectful, and unpatriotic than they've demonstrated in the past. But now the NRA has put out a video insulting Obama and his daughters for using the Secret Service protection that has been uncontroversial in the past -- until the NRA decided that the best way to honor the deaths of twenty children at Sandy Hook Elementary School killed by an assault rifle is to pick on Sasha and Malia.  "Has the NRA lost it entirely?" asks Salon. Answer: absolutely. It's fair game…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Science Sustainability

Oregonian story downplays global warming science

Yesterday I emailed a reporter for the Portland Oregonian that writing a story about global warming and including a mention about how some are skeptical the planet is getting hotter is akin to ending a story about a fossil discovery with "but some scientists doubt evolution is real." That would be absurd. Evolution is a scientific truth. So is global warming. There's no doubt among the vast majority of reputable researchers in either field about these facts.  So it bothered me when the reporter, Scott Learn, tossed in this sentence near the end of a story about how a national…
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Posted inSkateboarding

Videos of my longboard land paddling, at 64 years young

If you've been waiting to see videos of me pushing my way along on a longboard with a stick (not a foot, which distinguishes land paddling from regular longboarding)... I'm amazed.  But sometimes people don't know what's been missing from their lives. (Which, of course, is the secret of Apple's success; don't give people what they want, give them what they will want once they know about it.) Regardless, I'm pleased to share the first four videos made with my newly acquired GoPro Hero3, silver model. I put it on a chest mount yesterday without really knowing what I was…
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Posted inEntertainment

DirecTV raises rates 5%. Still no Pac 12 Network.

Overly optimistic me actually was eager to open a recent email from DirecTV with a subject line, "Information about your DIRECTV account." I hoped the big news was that, finally, DIrecTV had reached a deal with the Pac 12 Network, and that I wouldn't have to miss any more football, basketball, or baseball games shown only on that network. But no. I learned that we're going to pay 4.5% or so more this year. For nothing that means anything to me. Disney Jr. channel has been added along with some other yawn-inducing programming. Whoopee. Here's what I told DirecTV, using their…
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Posted inHome life

Diagnosing a water heater leak (for dummies)

If you know a lot about water heaters, stop reading. If you're like us -- water heater quasi-dummies, especially when it comes to leaks -- read on.  Yesterday we spent $99 to get educated from a pleasant George Morlan Plumbing guy about why what we thought was a leak in our water heater, almost certainly wasn't.  A few days ago my wife noticed water pooling around the tile floor in front of our water heater. Not a huge amount, but quite a bit. She put towels around the water heater. When I got home, I had the bright idea of…
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Posted inSalem

Natural Grocers coming to Salem. We’re not excited.

My wife and I love LifeSource Natural Foods, currently Salem"s one and only natural food store. Health-minded eaters that we are, vegetarian and organic-leaning, we enjoy the friendly atmosphere and good selection of food at LifeSource. However, we also lust after a Whole Foods, Market of Choice, New Seasons, or other larger natural food store with more choices and lower prices. Usually when we're in Portland, Corvallis, or Eugene, we stop at one of the stores that Salem should have, given its population, but doesn't. So I was more than a little excited when I glanced at the front page…
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Posted inSalem

I count the irritations, waiting in line at the post office

Oh, irritating irritations, I had plenty of time to count you up during my lengthy wait at Salem's Vista Station post office today. (1) Walking in the door at about 2:30 pm on a Tuesday, a time I figured would be pleasingly low key busy-wise, and finding about a dozen people lined up in the small lobby. I only needed to pick up a package that required a signature. Didn't want to come back; didn't want to run the risk of having our mailhuman try to deliver it again at a day we weren't home. (2) So I decided to…
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Posted inMiscellany Salem

Starbucks’ new Blueberry Oatmeal worth the extra buck

Today Starbucks started off by disappointing me, but ended up deliciously surprising me. Love your new Blueberry Oatmeal! It's a winner. Once again, the West Salem Starbucks didn't have any multigrain bagels by the noon'ish time I arrived for my regular Sunday get-together with some friends. That always irritates me, since the only stuff health-conscious me likes to eat at Starbucks are the multigrain bagels and the oatmeal. But since I have oatmeal for breakfast every day but Sunday (when I make a gigantic whole grain pancake), I prefer the different'ness of the bagel. Sounding as pathetic as possible, I…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

More guns equals more killing. Obvious equation.

Thank you, Elisabeth Rosenthal, for reminding us of an obvious truth that, sadly, is ignored by a disturbingly large percentage of the people in our gun-crazed country: nations with more guns have more gun deaths.  Duh...  But sometimes those duh... truths which seemingly shouldn't need to be said so often, do need to be repeated over and over -- when there's a willful attempt to ignore the truth. The thousands of needless gun deaths in our country, including the recent twenty-six at Sandy Hook Elementary School, scream out Don't ignore me! So read Rosenthal's "More Guns = More Killing." She's a physician…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Shoulder-fired missiles don’t bring down aircraft, people do. Huh?

Oh, yeah! I'm almost a writer for The New Yorker! My dream. This might be as close as I get, parallel thinking about gun control between The New Yorker's hugely talented Hendrik Hertzberg and way-less-talented me.  But, hey, we're on the same track when it comes to making fun of the absurd contention, "Guns don't kill people, people do." Which is so, so, so wrong. Here's what I said in a blog post on December 29, 2012. Why don't we legalize surface-to-air shoulder fired missiles? After all, people shoot down airplanes; shoulder fired missiles don't shoot down airplanes. If terrorists…
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Posted inEntertainment

“One Pound Fish” hasn’t taken over my brain. But is trying to.

I suppose there's worse ways to go crazy than have your mind repeat the "One Pound Fish" ditty incessantly. So far, that hasn't happened to me. But it could... Be warned. If you're prone to catchy songs playing uncontrollably in your head, don't watch these videos. (Assuming you're one of the few people in the world, which included me up until a few days ago, who hasn't seen them yet.) Background story here. This is the original video of the fish seller.   And this is the jazzed up post-viral video version.    
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