Posted inArcimoto

Be wary of Arcimoto’s new last-minute stock offering

In general I've been supportive of Arcimoto's attempt to design and market an electric three-wheeled motorcycle, which they call the FUV, Fun Utility Vehicle. It does indeed look like fun, but this doesn't take away from the fact that the company is on shaky financial ground. (You can see my previous posts about this effort by clicking on the Arcimoto category in the right sidebar. I have an early pre-order number of #129, so I've been following Arcimoto for quite a while.) But yesterday Arcimoto did something that strikes me as ethically dubious -- a new last-minute stock offering announced…
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Posted inTai Chi

Tai Chi actually is good for self-defense (just not against MMA fighters)

Recently TIME magazine had a story about how a Chinese MMA (mixed martial arts) fighter, Xu Xiaodong, beat up Wei Lei, a Kung Fu master in the discipline of Tai Chi, in about 10 seconds.  It doesn't take long to watch the thoroughly one-sided fight. Reading the story, "Meet the Chinese MMA Fighter Taking on the Grandmasters of Kung Fu," will require a lot more time. Nonetheless, about eleven years ago I wrote a blog post that I still stand by, "Tai Chi as a kick-ass martial art." I wrote that post after I'd been studying Tai Chi for three years,…
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Posted inArcimoto

Arcimoto owes prospective buyers answers to key questions

Arcimoto is a company based in Eugene, Oregon that has been working on the design and production of a three-wheeled electric motorcycle since its founding in November 2007. I plunked down a $100 pre-order deposit in October 2015, so I've got a low reservation number: #129. I'm still trying to decide whether to buy an Arcimoto. I like the concept -- a fun to drive electric motorcycle with two heated seats, a windshield, seat belts, rollover protection, and other options yet to be revealed by Arcimoto.  But I've got unanswered questions that, hopefully, will be answered by the time I…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Good news for Dems in my daughter’s Orange County report

Along with other progressives, I'm trying to tread a middle way between undue optimism and excessive pessimism regarding tomorrow's Super Duper Important midterm election.  But after getting a politically-oriented phone call this evening from my daughter Celeste, who lives in Orange County, California (Laguna Niguel, to be exact), I'm tilting more to the side of "Democrats could have a great day on Tuesday."  Celeste has been interested in politics, but until this year I wouldn't call her an activist. Tonight, though, she excitedly told me that last weekend she did her first-ever canvassing -- for Harley Rouda, a Democrat who…
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Posted inHome life Web/Tech

Printers are the Achilles heel of personal computers

I love my MacBook Pro. Like most Apple products, almost all of the time it works great. I no longer fear major operating system upgrades, like I did when I was a Windows user many years ago.  The "blue screen of death" is an almost forgotten memory. I trust Apple software to do its thing without fuss or bother, and usually that trust is rewarded. But Apple stopped making its own printers decades ago. The apparent reason is that no one makes much money selling printers. The big bucks is in selling the cartridges needed to keep the printer functioning. Which…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Here’s Nate Silver’s predictions for key Oregon and national races

For political junkies like me, Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight.com web site is a treasure trove of election prediction delights. It's beautifully designed, statistically sophisticated, and a good way to learn statistical principles without actually taking a course. In this post I'm going to share how Silver looks upon some key House, Senate, and Governor races, naturally with a special focus on Oregon races. First, though, here's some tweets that Silver shared today: So the lean/likely zone for Nate Silver is between a 60%-95% chance of a candidate winning. And the toss-up zone is when no candidate exceeds a 60% chance of…
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Posted inBlack Butte Ranch Humor Recreation

My amazing Black Butte Ranch adventure

There are those who talk about doing great things. Then there are those who do great things. I'm pleased to be both "those's." I both do and talk. So after canine ZuZu and human Brian explored the far reaches of the mysterious land in the wilds of Black Butte Ranch known as Big Meadow, I was pleased to document our adventure -- just as (well, sort of as) Lewis and Clark chronicled their great journey of discovery. Behold, and click... 
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Posted inHome life Science Sustainability

Brown Oregon grass in October — climate change is very real

Yesterday I learned of a dire climate change report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Today I spread organic lawn fertilizer on parts of our rural yard where the grass is almost always greened up after fall rains. Not this year. And that's really weird.  I'm a creature of habit when it comes to fertilizing our yard. Twice a year, spring and fall, I spread organic fertilizer that I buy at Lowe's on both our shrubs/trees and our lawn. Some of the grass around our house is watered with a sprinkler system. Some isn't. We've lived on our…
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Posted inGrowing older

Regret and hope are luxuries for the young

I'm on the cusp of a decadal birthday. Tomorrow I'll be 70. So I've got just a few hours to say something wise about turning 70 before I'm actually there, and then can only talk about what's it's like to actually be so damn freaking old.  I came up with the title of this blog post yesterday, when I was musing about what, if anything, I've learned over these many years. In a bit of synchronicity, this morning I was reading Michael Pollan's book about psychedelics, "How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us about…
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Posted inGrowing older Philosophy

Why I don’t like the term “new normal”

New normal is a term that's bandied about a lot, but to me it needs to be retired. Wikipedia says that new normal implies that something which was previously abnormal has become commonplace. OK. Makes sense. But I still don't like the term. For one thing, what the heck is "normal"? Often this word is used in a moralistic or judgmental sense that is much different from, say, a doctor informing a patient that her test results are normal -- meaning, within a typical range. Not long ago normal sex was considered to be between a man and a woman, not…
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Posted inHealth Home life

Deep thoughts on switching my breakfast to regular oats from quick oats

It's only been one day, but optimistic me is considering this to be a life-changing moment -- switching my breakfast cereal from microwaved quick oats to stovetop boiled regular oats.  Sure, I've meditated every morning since I was 20, and for most of those 49 years I figured that one day meditation would reveal, if not the Secret of the Universe, at least some mini-secrets of how my own mind works.  But with age comes a bit of realism. I've now lowered my sights on how deeply I'm going to be able to penetrate the mysteries that surround us. So…
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Posted inSports

Oregon Ducks football team throws my psyche in a tailspin…again

I've got a friend who doesn't watch college football games live, only recorded, because he gets so emotionally involved with wanting a team to win, his psychological health suffers. So when he knows the final score, he can watch the game with equanimity.  After being raised to a height of happiness during the first part of yesterday's Oregon - Stanford game, with Oregon leading 24-7 at halftime, bit by bit, mistake by mistake, the Ducks football team chipped away at my emotional high until I felt like shit when Stanford scored a touchdown in overtime and Oregon whiffed on four…
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Posted inSalem Sustainability

In a warming world, we’re all responsible for Hurricane Florence

Living as I do on the West Coast, in Oregon to be exact, it's tempting for me to be thankful that we don't get nasty hurricanes like Florence, which has dumped an astounding amount of rain on North Carolina and neighboring states, and killed 11 people so far. Florence already has set rainfall records and left tens of thousands of people in shelters and more than 1 million homes without power. Officials confirmed at least 11 deaths, including one Saturday in South Carolina. But Gov. Roy Cooper (D) and other officials repeatedly warned Saturday that although people might think the worst…
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Posted inArcimoto

Arcimoto should get some long-term reviews before retail sales begin

I'm a fan of the Arcimoto FUV (Fun Utility Vehicle), a three-wheeled electric motorcycle being made in Eugene, Oregon that's been in the works for quite a few years. Retail sales are expected to begin by the end of 2018.  Since I've got a low pre-order reservation number, #129 out of a total of about 3,000 (according to the Portland Business Journal story), I've been thinking about what I need in order to feel comfortable buying one of the first Arcimotos.  A test drive, for sure. But I've watched lots of short videos where people take an Arcimoto for a…
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Posted inNeighborhood Sustainability

Smoky air in Salem points to global warming as culprit

Here's a not-so-cheery air quality map for the Pacific Northwest. In two words, it sucks. When I set off for a dog walk about an hour ago, the setting sun was as red as the Unhealthy coded color for most of Oregon, including Salem, where I live.  There aren't any wildfires in our immediate area. But smoke is drifting into the Willamette Valley from British Columbia and Eastern Washington. Wildfire smoke has been an annoying aspect of summers in Oregon for the past few years. It wasn't always this way. I've lived in Oregon since 1971. Summers are much hotter…
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Posted inHumor

Today’s (sort of) Larry David moment

Amazingly, in the 15 years I've been blogging, I've only written one previous post about a Larry David moment. That was way back in 2004, "Larry David would be proud of me." Excerpt: I don’t consciously try to emulate Larry David, but perhaps watching so many episodes of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” is having some kind of subliminal effect on me, amplifying my inherent Larry David tendencies. Last night we had dinner at a Thai restaurant in Silverton with four friends. So it was two vegetarians, Laurel and me, sitting down to dine with four meat-eaters. Picking up our menus, my…
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Posted inBicycling

Eurosports in Sisters treated me and my new Specialized Roll bike well

Yesterday a kickstand ended up costing me over $600 at the Eurosports store in Sisters, Oregon. But the price tag didn't bother me, because the kickstand came with a new 2019 Specialized Roll Sport. You know how it goes... you go into a store looking for one thing, and walk out with a whole other thing.  In my case, saving a few ounces by not having a kickstand on my 2007 Specialized Rockhopper mountain bike had worn thin after twelve years of leaning the bike up against something whenever I wasn't riding it. So I decided to splurge on a…
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Posted inNeighborhood

Buy a lakeside home in Spring Lake Estates, near our house

When a house is for sale near us, naturally we hope that it will end up in the hands of someone we'd like to get to know. Ideally, someone liberal, environmental, neighborly, friendly.  So if this describes you, or someone you know who's looking for a home in the country, check out a new listing for 10322 Liberty Road S in rural south Salem (Oregon).  A great feature of this house is that it's right next to Spring Lake. We're several lots away from the lake, but this house is right there. Here's screenshots of part of the Zillow listing.
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Posted inArcimoto

Our Nissan Leaf experience may have a lesson for Arcimoto early adopters

Arcimoto is a Eugene company that's making a cool three-wheeled electric motorcycle billed as a FUV (Fun Utility Vehicle). I was one of the first to plunk down $100 as a pre-order reservation. My #129 place in line means I'm an early adopter. Or at least, a potential one. I'm still undecided about whether I'm going to pay upwards of $12,000 for an Arcimoto. The final design hasn't been revealed yet, nor has the final pricing with options. My experience with being an early adopter of the all-electric Nissan Leaf gives me some pause about jumping headfirst into the Arcimoto…
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Posted inHome life Television

Another DirecTV year with no Pac 12 Networks. Curses!

Since 2012 I've been cursing DirecTV and the Pac 12 Networks for not working out a deal to offer us Pac 12 sports fans a way to see ALL of the football games and other events, not just the ones shown on ESPN, Fox, or other channels.  Every year around this time I Google "DirecTV Pac 12 Networks" to see if there's any hope that I'll be able to watch ALL of the Oregon and Oregon State football games this fall.  I put ALL in caps, because early on DirecTV had the annoying habit of telling me that I'd be…
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