BBQ

Grilling...grills...BBQing (for a history of)...represents how we can take something as simple and as primitive as cooking meat via burning charcoal and elevating it to the 'realm of the expensive'.

I just grilled last night on a fold up grill bought at Lowes for under $10. A grill for under $10! amazing! (Which is cheaper than this grill cover...and my 'cheapgrill' can easily be clean up, folded up and stored away...not cluttering up my living space....)

And compare that to the price of this grill.

We take something simple, make it complex and expensive. We have to elevate everything to the "realm of the complicated". I think if we kept grilling, or transportation or life simple, we would then be saying to ourselves, "what else is there?" and have to come to terms with the simplicity of everything. And that everything boils down to a grilled piece of chicken is a grilled piece of chicken. So a lesson in 'applied philosophy' is keep life simple and pure....buy the ten buck grill and use your $689 saved to buy chicken for the next 10 years....

who needs a home?

Sometimes we have to question things that are given to us as 'givens'. I think home ownership is one. Here's an excerpt from a Forbes article:

Certainly there are plenty of stable, wealthy, well-educated places in Europe, at least, where homeownership is far rarer than it is in the U.S. Nearly 70% of all Americans own their own homes; only 34% of the Swiss do. Thriving cities like Hamburg, Amsterdam and Berlin have rates of ownership of just 20%, 16% and 11% respectively, according to the United Nations.

REI bike class

Love the REI...did you know they are offering bike maintenance classes?

the right book

I keep looking for books on 'surviving and thriving without a job'. There is the classic, 'how to survive without a salary' that I have read a few times. But I am looking for something updated. With real life stories. With real hints, tips and tricks of staying ahead of the curve ball without a job. I am thinking of finding people living this life, get their stories, adventures and methods for living 'outside of the system'. I think I will write it just for myself, now that I think about it...as a guide...get buy in from the experts who are living this life now...

make it a free on line resource...

This link comes from a great reader of the blog: about freeganism

sit back, relax and watch your quality of life drift away...ahhhhhh

The very thing that makes India-China such a powerful economic force, their massive pools of cheap labor, is going to make their transition as burgeoning first world nations very interesting to watch.

As Americans, we benefit in being a relatively small population relative to the worlds population in terms of economic well being. Only very few can have such a high quality of life. We have had that benefit as a result of the scales being tilted in our favor in the last 50 years. That's not right, but it what has been and it what is. And it is what we have gotten used to.

Now those economic benefits are flowing away from our shoes, we will most definitely see a waning of our quality of life in terms of economic measures. But in terms of real quality of life...in not driving a car quality of life...we are just seeing the potential of what can be.

As a foot note, look at a recent businessweek publication on the real cost of outsourcing and the new ground we are breaking in measuring economic data...

I Tuned Out

Okay, my music purchased from itunes did not carry over. Guess what? I'm still smiling with insignia...

pod break

Okay, the fifth or sixth ipod i got from the apple store to replace my long ago defunct Ipod...went defunt. I gladly moved onto a cheap non Ipod mp3 player by Insignia which is the best buy brand. I have not had it long enough to proclaim my love it it...not just yet. But so far I am highly smitten with it. This is why:

1- it's cheap...coming in under 60 bucks you aren't sweating Ibullets at the check-out (and I made the purchase with a gift card i got from my computer purchase a few months back so it was a token to buy),
2-it's very light, but still has a screen,
3-it has a replaceable battery,
4-i'm out of the itunes prison...

I thought it was going to be a real pain, but it was painless. AAC was converted no problem. So were itunes songs which I didn't think was possible. I made the switch even thinking I was going to lose songs I purchased on Itunes, which was a non-issue...

I am going to go out on an Ilimb and say the Iphone is going to be a bust. A big bust! Not initially. Early adopters will go out in droves to buy the thing, but in this case it's going to be painful to be an early adopter.

I think the consolidation and 'centralization' of your mp3 player, phone and hand held device is a bad idea. If your device goes down (take note...my Ipod did)...then you are not only out your mp3 player, you are without communication, your phone, and you are dead in the water with your files saved on your hand held device. And your wallet is broken as well...because you paid an arm and a leg for the thing in the first place. The thing doesn't even have to get busted...it just has to be misplaced...

No...the future...is seperate devices, but devices that can 'talk' to each other so your devices 'back each' other up. You have an 'ecosystem' (trying to bring that word back to the business world) of devices with no central device that you can't do without.

"Forgot your phone?" no worries, your mp3 player will play backup until you get your phone back...

"sat on your mp3 player?!" No problem...your phone has your fav songs...

Palm is moving in this direction with it's new foleo...

devices need to help one another...not compete with one another...just like their owners...

a biking society?

Until today I've always been disgruntled how we are such a 'car society. But today i thought, "today is the best time ever to become a biker as a main means of transportation!".

Sure we are dependent on the car today. But 150 years ago we were depended upon the horse and carriage. Not the bicycle. And asphalt makes for a great biking surface. I think we still may yet become a biking society. All of the pieces are there. Groups like the San Francisco Bike Coalition are making life in SF better for the biker...

I believe things will get better...look at GM...

Heck, my girlfriend is even thinking of trading in her car for a gem car since her commute is only 7 miles. On days when we have a trip that's been planned we can rent an appropriate vehicle for that trip...a SUV...a Truck...something with 4 wheel drive...

She excitedly biked to work one day. I am having to tell her to take it slow...so if my girlfriend, a lifelong car driver can think this way, then things are getting better I think...

cheap light

I want to get a rechargeable light for my bike and found this site on building your own...

and another cool site on how to make a new bike for a hundred bucks..

one year later...

About a year ago on NPR i heard an interview with a guy that got rid of his car...an SUV and went car free. It has been in the back of my mind for a while now and just the other day I stumbled upon his book in the library called "how to live well without owning a car". It's a wonderful, positive book that reminds you of all the potential and interesting ways you can live you life by learning to ask why...

autobody swapping

I rarely watch a movie from beginning to end anymore. I ususally spread a movie out over several nights...kinds of nice to spread it out. Tonight we finished up wathing 'my left foot'. Great movie. Can't say enough about the DDL, Dan Day Lewis, and all of his movies..."last of the mohicans", may "be the best action film ever!". Anyway, we followed up 'my left food' with a bit of the movie 'cars'...talk about a leap in genre...

Cars is cute and kind of funny...bit a bit of the gag reflex kicks in while watching it (kind of when eating something too sweet and gooey)...we'll finish it up tomorrow and the next night maybe...but there's something definitely weird about watching computer animated cars act human-like...i don't know yet...are there any humans in the movie at all? Are the humans mindless machines without personality?

Remember the string of the 'body swap' movies in the eighties like 'Big' and 'visa versa'? why was that so big in the 80's?

Anyway, maybe that happened on earth...all the humans got swapped with their cars? would it be that far from reality? We really are our cars in american society....if so...who am i since I don't have a car?

he or she

Ever wonder who invented beer? A man or a woman?

Some things just seem so obvious....man and beer go together like pizza and...beer...but who knows...

did you know beer goes back to possibly the 7th millennium bc? not century...millennium...that's 7000 bc...it's possibly human's first beverage (after water i am sure)...

amazing...guess i don't have to worry about ever getting a DUI...so great...

car sickness

Wow...I feel great! I just sold my car for a lot less than I paid (teaches me) and I feel so light. I realized I've been suffering from car sickness for the past year...that feeling of weight and burden that results from car fees, registration fees, parking fees, fear of tickets, gas prices, oil changes...blah blah blah...sorry felt a little whoozie there...flash backs...

I have to pick up the check tomorrow and thought, "hey, what if these guys screw me and don't pay me...and they have my car!"

and i thought...

"They did me a favor, they they liberated me. That alone is worth it...and I can cancel my insurance policy...and that gnawing aching feeling to pay the registration...guess what...gone! so even if they screw me...they saved me..."

Funny thing is, what happens if there is a technological 'phase change' and a leap in electrical car technology (want to see the future...check out tesla!)? How will people be even able to sell gas cars? Personally (like a blog is anything else but my personal opinion...), I think electric and internal combustion will be competing technologies...kind of like 'flash memory' and hard drives...one cheap and dirty and the other elegant but expensive...

but with either technology, chances are i'd still suffer from car sickness...

we'll always have paris

I enjoy saving and making money more than I enjoy spending it...more or less. I do not enjoy spending money on large ticket items...i think most of my money goes out on food...eating out...it always has...ever since i first earned my first paycheck...ahhh, my first paycheck.

I have for the most part been independent from my parents for money. After turning 18 I have not received any hand outs from my folks, of which I am very proud. What I have saved, I have saved on my own. I have stayed with my folks, but I have never had them incur an expense on my part. I was never a liability. Always an asset I have tried to be whenever I stay with anybody...never a burden. I am not ruling out staying with my parents if i should fall on 'hard times', but i can never see ever having to ask them for dough. thank goodness I never will have too...on the contrary, i want to give to them...

I couldn't help thinking about this stuff when reading about paris hilton crying like a baby episodes when she had to serve her time. Granted I have not walked a mile in her manalo blahnik aligator boots I can say that I have lost respect for her acting the way she has...

simulated simulations

this is fascinating stuff...

here we go...

okay, here it is...'the nth life' lives...so interesting

coincidences

the matrix identified deja vu as carrying signifigance. what about coincidences?

what is a coincidence?

perhaps...a seemingly unlikely event that occurs nonetheless...but that's just a stab at a definition...

but what do coincidences mean in your life? if your life consisted of one coincidence after another versus a life that never had a coincidence...what would that mean?

I argue that coincidences mean you are on 'the correct path' in life. the more coincidences, the more you are 'in tune' with what your natural state in life is...

i have no logical arguement for this but i am working on it...

did you say "damn ears?"...

NO old man, I said "Panniers..."

I am shopping for bigger panniers or saddle bags for my new bike. We biked up to the grocery store yesterday to load up on supplies. biking to the grocery store was great! a total adventure and fun. The benefits were...it was fun (as stated), cheaper (no fuel used), no extra purchases (because of limited room), no bags needed (we used panniers and back packs), and it was easier (everything was already packed to go right into th kitchen).

That said, I have a new bike (still have to sell the honda civic) and I am getting ready to equip it with panniers. I found this site which is about building your own panniers. Don't know if i am there yet...maybe down the road...