Sunday, February 24, 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
#Green Cistern Installed: System Operational!
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| Cistern At Work! |
I'll have more information later on this later, but basically we passed the inspection so it's all over but the paperwork ... plus ordinary maintenance over time.
Half of our roof drains to this cistern, the other half to the black cistern which is in the back. Overflow goes to the rain garden via top black pipe, and during the rainy season there's a restricted flow valve (blue handle at the bottom) for a slow release to the garden.
This project is part of the Seattle Residential Rain Wise Program. Seattle has a big runoff problem and part of the solution are tiny public/private partnerships like this - the utility gets stormwater control, the homeowner gets free water! It looks a little industrial right now but the jasmine (far left) will grow over it in about a season.
More About Seattle Rain Wise program.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Thoughts On Family Members Getting Ripped Off By Used Car Salesmen
In the past little while, I have seen 3 different family members buy used cars. Each fell in love with something nice looking, and it ended up costing them. There's a pattern here ...
Maybe it's just too hard to admit that most of us are AMATEURS when it comes to buying cars, and going up against PROFESSIONALS at selling them.
Life is not a movie. When amateurs go up against professionals, they might win once in a while, but that's not the way to bet.
When we bought our house, we viewed at least 3 house a week every week for six months. This was essential to learning to playing the game. Why should buying a used car be any different? If you haven't looked at 20 or 30 cars on at least 10 different lots, you haven't learned the game.
"If you look around the table and you don't know who the patsy is ... the patsy is you."
Maybe it's just too hard to admit that most of us are AMATEURS when it comes to buying cars, and going up against PROFESSIONALS at selling them.
Life is not a movie. When amateurs go up against professionals, they might win once in a while, but that's not the way to bet.
When we bought our house, we viewed at least 3 house a week every week for six months. This was essential to learning to playing the game. Why should buying a used car be any different? If you haven't looked at 20 or 30 cars on at least 10 different lots, you haven't learned the game.
"If you look around the table and you don't know who the patsy is ... the patsy is you."
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Sheet For Brains: Fast Political Humor
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| Picture #3: This is the version I settled on. There's just something so stupid about these guys! |
This morning, I glanced at an article about the KKK and noted someone's comment that they had sheets for brains. This struck me as apt and funny; it expresses a truth compactly and surprisingly. A quick google search didn't find a whole lot of prior funnys on that subject - I'm sure it's been said before, but there was room in Ideaspace for me to make a my small contribution.
The concept boiled down to three short words: "Sheet For Brains". I chopped out everything unneeded, even the plural on "Sheet", so that the result would be more quick and economical.
Usually I work on in MSPaint, because it's free and easy. If I did this for a living I suppose I would go buy something but so far Paint has been enough; my hangups are almost always about ideas, not about tinkering with the images.
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| Picture #1: My 1st try just didn't look stupid enough. Also, the cross bugged me, since most Christians aren't racist fools. |
Picture #1 had some interesting hate flags in the background but I think they just complicated the idea; also use of the cross by racists is really abusive and I didn't want to contribute to it.
Picture #2 had a cop watching the fools as was his job; I couldn't airbrushed him out but it was more work than I needed.Another problem with #2 was figuring out the color for the text, since the natural space to put it on had several different background colors.
Picture #3 has a couple of really stupid looking Klansmen; the one of the left just looks completely clueless and the one on the right looks resigned to his fate. AND the text fits between them nicely, so we take in the words and the image at the same instant! Too often, I have to use a caption above or below the image, or word balloons, all of which have their place but they change the pace of the joke.
Once I settled on the composition, I signed it "rewinn" real small; I don't want to mess with the joke but I am also vain enough to want credit, however hidden it may be!
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| Picture #2: I liked the idiocy of the eyeholes, but I didn't want to include the cop in the background, he's just doing his job. |
I posted the image in a few likely Facebook places - it's important to go only to groups where you've been invited, and where people will appreciate the joke; spamming people will get you banned and you'll deserve it!
I also post this item into my Flickr stream http://www.flickr.com/photos/rewinn/8489752510/ and connect it to a few relevant Flickr groups.
Then I hop over to Twitpic http://twitpic.com/photos/rewinn and upload it with a couple of tags so it goes into relevant tagstreams - again, don't spam or it will end badly.
Those are my basic publication channels, except when I feel like blogging about an image here. All in all, the joke is presented to a few thousand willing viewers with almost no effort on my part; it the joke works, they pass it on. If it flops (and let's be honest, most jokes flop the 1st time) sometimes there's feedback so the next effort is better!
This process is way way different from the way I used to learn about writing and used to discuss ideas. I don't know where it is all going, but it seems to be better than the ways I learned in school!
Our Silicon Steamer Works Great! A Change The World Wednesday Challenge #CTWW
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| Our Silicon Steamer Works Great! |
Be careful: it looks innocent but it gets hot!
When I first saw silicon cookware, I confused it with plastic, which you would never put in the oven and would be very reluctant to put in the microwave. Plastic gets soft when it gets hot, and you don't want even a little bit of plastic to get in your food. However, this silicon cookware seems different. It appears to be chemically very inert, and not to affect the food at all.
The convenience of this gadget means that we can minimize food waste, while saving a little bit of energy in cooking.
The inspiration for this post is this week's Change The World Wednesday challenge:
- Take a look through your fruit, vegetables and fresh items in the fridge to see what needs using up. Write it all down – it’s easier to keep track that way.
- Plan some of your favorite meals around the foods that need using up.
- If you need inspiration, write your food list on Mrs. Green's post (you'll find it HERE) and her community will help or ... check out the recipes section at Love Food Hate Waste.
- Enjoy some great meals, knowing you are saving money and protecting resources.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Every Gun Is Sacred! Every Gun Is Great!
The gun is their god.
WITH the gun, they have safety; they know what to do; they can be heroes.
WITHOUT the gun, they are weak; they are threatened; they are in fear.
The Holy Gun Church is a death cult; they solemnly proclaim the utter necessity that some be sacrificed so that the Holy Aims be fulfilled. They proclaim that the Sacred Gun protects them, and evidence be damned.
All that is left is mockery and pragmaticism. You can't negotiate with them.
They're like something from Monty Python ---
4freeCLE: The Free CLE Newsletter! February 16, 2013
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Friday, February 15, 2013
Three Days In June - by Yvette Recevuer
My mother's sister-in-law, Yvetter Recevuer, wrote the following in the February/March 2013 edition of "Our Canada":
THREE DAYS IN JUNE
On June 9, 1947, I was invited by a couple whose children I used to babysit to attend a dance being held in Polwarth, Sask. about 11 miles from my hometown of Debden. I had to ride in the back of an open truck to get there, since the truck's cab was full.
The dance hall had benches all around the sides, and a stove made out of an empty gas barrel at the stage end of the room. I was with a group of girls when, all of a sudden, a young man came up to me for a dance. I could see he had had too much to drink, and he began chasing me around the stove. Lo and behold, I was rescued by Terry Receveur. He led me out onto the dance floor, where we danced with the flow and had a very pleasant evening. As time went on, we attended more dances, and Terry decided he needed a car. He visited his cousin Glen, who dealt with cars in Prince Albert, Sask. Since money was not to be had, the best Terry could do in terms of payment for the 1930 Chev Coupe being offered was to give Glen a cow he had been raising and his bicycle. After the rather unique purchase, that little car showed up in front of my family's home many times. We always enjoyed having my younger brothers, Clem and George, ride in the rumble seat and my sister Annette up front with us.
On June 9, 1948, one year to the day of my "rescue" by Terry, he placed an engagement ring on my finger!
On June 9, 1949, we married! Our honeymoon was a few days spent at Lake Waskesiu, in a shack tent belonging to friends. While there, on a whim, we decided to paint the car. We bought one can of dark blue and another of black and mixed the two colours together. Each armed with our own brush, we proceeded to paint that poor old car. It had been full of scratches and pockmarks but, oh, how we changed its looks - it looked doggone good to me! My first driving lesson went well, but what a time I had with the gears!
After a few years together, we realized our farm needed a truck more than we needed the coupe, and that was the last we saw of our buggy. Now, we wish we had another one. We've been to car shows, but no luck finding a "new" vintage car just yet.
Yvette Receveur, Parksville, B.C.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
55 Words Or Less
A short story (to paraphrase Stephen King) is like a kiss in the dark: short, sweet, and if it doesn't work out, you can move on without regret.
"World's Shortest Stories" is like that, Its 55-word short stories lets you try, linger if you enjoy, otherwise move on. In the end, you have a better idea why one story works for you and another doesn't.
Working within a 55-word limit can impose an economy of style that serves the reader well. This applies to blogging as well as to fiction; today's readers have a heck of a lot to read, and wasting their time is bad. In addition, writing can easily fail where the author feels the need to hit a certain minimum before publishing; I know that I don't write as often as I might because I'm too busy twittering, or facebooking, or otherwise putting down short thoughts that don't rise to the imagined minimum required for a blog post.
So the heck with minimum length. If 55 well-chosen words suffice for a short story, why not for a blog post? Let's see if I can write 55 good words a day!
"World's Shortest Stories" is like that, Its 55-word short stories lets you try, linger if you enjoy, otherwise move on. In the end, you have a better idea why one story works for you and another doesn't.
Working within a 55-word limit can impose an economy of style that serves the reader well. This applies to blogging as well as to fiction; today's readers have a heck of a lot to read, and wasting their time is bad. In addition, writing can easily fail where the author feels the need to hit a certain minimum before publishing; I know that I don't write as often as I might because I'm too busy twittering, or facebooking, or otherwise putting down short thoughts that don't rise to the imagined minimum required for a blog post.
So the heck with minimum length. If 55 well-chosen words suffice for a short story, why not for a blog post? Let's see if I can write 55 good words a day!
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