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My goal about 6 weeks ago was to plant a few veggies and then have fresh tomatoes and peppers for xmas. Well it has been interesting.
Everything sprouted ok, but getting them to go beyond the sprout stage has proven difficult. The root of the problem is most likely light, but that’s really just a guess.
This morning I moved them from the basement to the second floor. I had grow lights on them but I suspect that’s not enough. Hopefully the lights combined with a little late afternoon western exposure will improve things.
We’ll see. With 6 weeks until xmas, I’m not optimistic.
I was at OSCON this week. OSCON is the “Open Source Conference,” something I’ve wanted to go to for a long time but haven’t ever made the time (or money) to actually do. I’m glad I went.
My attitude going in was that I would probably run into a lot of people far more technically skilled than myself. And I did. But I wasn’t alone: people at the event were all over the map in terms of their technical skill. Even those who I would consider leaders — speakers in sessions, etc — were attendees in another.
Which is to say, they didn’t know everything.
Phew. What a relief.
But really: who knows everything? This myth of perfect knowledge, both that others have it and we should seek it and that it’s even possible, is just that: a myth.
We all know what we know and are where we are because of things we’ve had a chance to do or things we’ve taken the opportunity to explore. That’s it. Nothing more.
These people smarter than me: most of the time, they got that way by jumping in and doing whatever it is they were speaking about. They didn’t get that way by watching a lot of TV or by reading every funny picture on Reddit (although they may have also done those things).
They found something of interest and gave it a shot. And then did a little more.
Neat.
Like a lot of people, I’ve been working through Google+ over the last couple of weeks. (See my earlier post.) In no particular order, here are some thoughts.
1. Google+ gets it largely right. If you call Twitter generation 1 of micromedia, and Facebook the gen 2, it makes sense that gen 3 would fix what didn’t work before. And the good news now is that we have a ridiculous number of people trained and ready to use social media, especially a better social media.
2. Google and the Google+ team have an opportunity to solve a persistent problem: how to follow someone, but only follow the posts that really interest you. I tend to post a fair amount, and the people interested in Oatmeal aren’t necessarily the same ones interested in my day job over at salesforce.com. It would be interesting to have a subscribing mechanism that helped people interested in what I have to say find the posts they really want. Google should be able to do this better than any other provider on the planet. Posts that are of interest show up. Posts that are probably not of interest get clumped together.
3. Another interesting opportunity, and this is probably something for a 3rd party developer to handle once G+ has an API, is to provide counter points to crazy posts. Here’s how it would work. Your crazy aunt likes to post political non-truths about her least favorite party. When it pops up in your stream, it shows a link to FactCheck.org or Snopes.com where you can in near real-time figure out what the truth. Again, Google should be able to do this better than anyone else.
4. Finally, since social media (and let’ face it, media in general) is getting us way more comfortable than we should be in our own personal bubbles, what if you were able to see both sides of issues that pop up in your stream? For example, your crazy aunt posts something about how we should bomb [insert bombable county here]. Wouldn’t it be interesting to have an immediate counterpoint presented at the same time from outside your normal sphere of influence?
That’s it for now.
Just finished reading Naked In Death by J.D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts). This after noticing I hadn’t been reading any women writers lately. It’s a futuristic police procedural that ends, I hate to say it, somewhat predictably. However, books are about the journey, and this one was interesting.
Short version: Lieutenant Eve Dallas tracks a killer. While doing so, we get a glimpse of Robb’s idealized future, politics that are a little closer to modern-day than I might like and follow Dallas’ trip down lover’s lane with the roguish raconteur, Roark.
Was it good? Do I recommend it?
I’ve just come off a streak of Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake) works that are completely different. Stark is from the other side of the law — uber-criminal Parker is his perennial protagonist — and all cops are corrupt and / or lazy. The action moved fast, and the books are all about action.
Dallas, on the other hand, takes quite a bit of time to explore her feelings, first refusing to talk about her background (over and over and over) and then talking about it in some detail. And there’s a love story going on. A love story! Imagine a love story in a Parker novel. Ha! I shouldn’t be surprised: Roberts is a romance novelist after all, so it might be that a love story is a prime ingredient in her narrative soup.
Side note: this description of the differences between the books sounds so trite it nearly sickens me to write it. “Female author focused on feelings; male author concentrated on actions” is the oldest stereotype in the book (if you’ll pardon the pun). Notice I said “nearly sickens me”. Obviously not so near that I’m going to withhold that opinion.
So: Was it good? Do I recommend it?
It wasn’t bad, but Westlake is a better writer. His text is tighter and the language is more precise. However, Robb scores points on the futuristic aspect and creative approach to the crime. I did, however, correctly predict the villain relatively early — I’m typically bad at that — so maybe it’s not as creative as I think.
Will I be reading more of the “In Death” series? The jury is still out. I picked up Infinite Jest again after I finished Naked In Death the other day, and that sometimes takes me a while to put down.
What are you reading?
Wasp was winning.
No, not that kind of Grylling.
We had some some company this weekend so I took the opportunity to do a little work on the grill.
First up was a bacon wrapped turkey breast with bread stuffing. This is from a Weber cookbook. There we no leftovers with this one.
On Sunday I branched out to try a recipe a chef friend of mine (as in that’s what she does professionally) and added some grilled vegetables to it. The ingredients started out like this:
And the organic pork tenderloin turned out like this:
Pretty awesome. Ate a little too much. But at least none of it was squirrel.
We had a huge amount of rain on Sunday — and a bunch of kids over! The Critter decided to lead the charge through a large puddle. Hilarious.
I’ve been thinking about getting a rain barrel for a couple of years. I haven’t pulled the trigger for a few reasons. Among them: it seems silly to by a huge plastic thing as a way to capture and reuse a bit of water. Feels like I would have to capture and reuse A LOT of rainwater to come even somewhat close to making it work.
Enter chewed up old garbage can we inherited when we moved last year. It’s about the right size and the existing lid damage makes it less than fully useful for it intended use. After a quick trip to Menards, it looks like this:
I bought:
* aluminum screen to keep the Mosquitos out (vinyl and plastic were options but I thought I’d stay away since this is supposed to be good for the environment).
* 5/8″ wood boring bit as a way to add the spigot.
* metal snips to cut the existing downspout.
* a spigot
* a nut for the back of the spigot
* a 10′ hose
* a flexible down spout extender
Total outlay: about $35. Compared to quite a bit more for a rain barrel on amazon. At least $100 and then another $35 for a diverter kit. Sweet!
And this raw excitement I feel about the next few days of rain — well that’s just a bonus.
I also made an exciting discovery. Turns out the previous owners of the house painted our copper gutters brown.
No accounting for taste, right? I’m not that excited about having to cut into that but, well, once you make the cut you’re pretty much in it so what the heck.
I can’t help but notice how everyone is increasingly certain they’re right. Happens to me too. On the plus side, we’re all more confident in our presentations and sales pitches.
But are we really, objectively, meaningfully “right”?
In many cases, it’s impossible to tell. Our point of view may be a conscious presentation or honestly held. But the background and our motivations are complex and often not apparent even to us.
And that’s the problem: separating the wheat from the chaf takes time, effort and objectivity. More often than not, people don’t take the time. Instead we square off against one another or only interact with people we agree with.
Is there room to slow down and appreciate the nuances? How do we make room where today there is so little?
My personal goal: make more mental space to appreciate the differences.
Just found these nailed under the stairs. FPM Coping Saw Blades. They look ridiculously old. How long have they been there? Yes there are still 3 in the packaged, unused.
Update: Here’s a listing in Boys’ Life from Dec 1928 Advertising the F. P. Maxson Coping Saw. Now, my house is from 1930, so it wouldn’t be from 1928, but that’s kinda surprising.
