Returning to high school

Fire

Biking home, the valley was full of smoke. There were no sirens. There was the steady grumble of large machinery. This is what I found:

And closer up, some kind of paving device that likes flames. Would they be trying to re-melt the surface of the old pavement? The machines roared through the valley for at least two days, from about 8am until 11pm.


The University of Pittsburgh had homecoming this weekend. The fireworks display was fit for a rich alumnus, with dueling displays (on the right, fire is shooting off the Cathedral of Learning):

Squatter opportunity

A vacant house very close to mine has a back yard that looks like attractive farm land. I decided to track down the owner to see if they mind me planting food there.

On the county website I can look up the name and mailing address of the owner for any property in the county. I wrote a little letter to the listed owner asking permission to plant. A few days later I got this voice mail, which proceeded roughly as follows:

Well I was just calling to let you know, it was very nice of you to think that I own the property ... but I now longer own that property honey ... if it were my property it would be OK with me if you plant there but I left 6 or 7 years ago and I no longer own that property ... but anyway, you have a blessed day and take care hon.

So I emailed the county records office to report their error and they replied:

There is no deed recorded from [Listed Owner] to a new owner. She may have sold the property, but that owner never recorded a deed. We cannot change our records until a deed is recorded. [Listed Owner] should look into getting her buyer to record the deed or we will not be able to change our records.

Hmmf, I thought, that's odd. In further conversation with the county office I learned that property taxes (unpaid for the last few years on this house) go with properties, not property owners, so [Listed Owner] won't likely get into trouble as far as taxes go. But they also seemed to think that [Listed Owner] may have actually sold the land, possibly informally, and the deed just never got recorded.

So I called her back. Her message was, in so many words, 'I never sold that property and it's not mine anymore.' So I don't see much reason not to start farming.

The theft of a paranoid mind

I ordered a mattress! Not just any old mattress, but a $380 Sarah Peyton 10-Inch Full Memory Foam Firm Support Mattress with 2 Contour Pillows from amazon. By the way, this is not a product review, because I don't have the mattress yet, but the mattress has fine reviews.

While I was buying things under free super-saver shipping, I threw in The Cartoon Guide to Genetics.

On Tuesday arriving home from work I checked my mail and found a little note from USPS saying they "missed" me and that they couldn't leave me my package. Woe was me! I wanted my mattress! I went online and filled out a little form to give them permission to leave me my mattress on the porch in my absence.

Wednesday I got home and still no sign of a mattress. But there was another package: The Cartoon Guide to Genetics, delivered by USPS. That's funny, I thought, I wonder how they decide how big a package has to be before they leave the note that says you have to be in person to sign for it. Because they sure didn't leave me a note making me sign for this package.

Wednesday night I called USPS and complained that they didn't honor my request to leave the mattress in my absence. The lady on the phone was helpful and re-entered the order for me, and also mentioned I could go to the post office to pick it up.

Thursday morning I drove to the post office and stood in line reading the Cartoon Guide to Genetics until I had my turn at the desk. Where's my mattress, I asked in so many words. The lady went back in the warehouse and returned after a few minutes. "The driver said they left it at your door," she said. Did you ask us to leave it while you were gone? Yes, I said, ashamed. I guess that's the way it goes I said, and she said I'm sorry.

I moped for a while and contemplated re-ordering the same mattress. I couldn't quite make myself do it. If I live in such a bad neighborhood, I reasoned, maybe it just doesn't make sense to have such a nice mattress. It sticks out to much. Of course people will steal it. I should just get an old bed-bug mattress off of Craigslist.

Friday night I went for the mail and I found this UPS note on my door, something about a mattress. I was massively confused. How did my mattress get transferred from USPS to UPS? After it was stolen? I looked up the tracking number from the little note on the UPS website, and sure enough, the package weighed 53lbs, which matched the description on amazon. It wasn't until I actually went back to my original order and pondered over a possible relationship between my mattress and The Cartoon Guide to Genetics that I just began to understand what had happened.

There is more evolving to be done.

Obama and Taxes

Thanks to the NYT for pointing out that Obama has generally lowered taxes during his reign, and that this deed is largely unacknowledged by Tea Party ilk.

But the deeper issue is that Obama is increasing federal spending. Low taxes coming from Obama now means higher taxes later, or even economic instability arising from the national debt.

Reasonable people can disagree about how large the federal government should be, but let's not pretend that the dislike of Obama coming from supporters of small government is born of confusion.

Update: Just to back up the rhetoric with some facts, here is a chart of federal spending. Note that all of the Obama spending (starting January 2009) is estimated. Let me know if you find a more up-to-date chart. Thanks to http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/ for the chart. I have not tried to independently verify its accuracy.

Peter Thiel

Slate writes a profile of Peter Thiel that is infused with the words "appalling," "ugly," and "nasty." So maybe the guy isn't perfect, but I'm impressed with him despite the name-calling. I hope he gets around to cloning himself.

My Time

Click to see the bigger picture.


Actually, even blogging might be a better use of my time.

Product Review: Cutting Board

Wow, I really got my money's worth this time. This free cutting board, courtesy of CSN stores for my reviewing services, is big enough to hold a doozie of a turkey (think Thanksgiving folks, it's not far away).

The board is crafted to finer standards than I could have aspired to myself, with great attention to functionality without sacrificing anything in terms of style. Thickness is just enough to project the image of time-tested strength without being bulky. The groove running around the edge is just deep enough to keep stray turkey dribbles from ruining the Thanksgiving tablecloth without being so deep that you would have to use a brush on a pole to clean them out. The Chicago Cutlery logo on the front is always there to remind you that you're working with high quality equipment, lest you become so accustomed to convenience and beauty that you would forget.

As if a groove on the front were not enough, this highly sophisticated cutting board also has not one but two (one on each end) grooves on the back that leave space for your fingers so you don't have to break a fingernail trying to pry the board off a counter-top.

The designer of this cutting board was intelligent, it cannot be denied. I'll warrant he probably must have been an Amish man, so wholesomely cut are the straight wood slates that are pasted together to form the broad expanse of cutting surface, an expanse so broad that I could cut all the veggies in my house to smithereens without one fleck wandering over the edge and onto the floor, where it would attract rats and mice, no doubt, so let's be grateful that this will not happen because our dear cutting board is big enough!


I like it.