Autumn Depth
Autumn is finally here! Much as I’ve enjoyed the Indian Summer, I wondered how long it would last. Now, we have brisk days, a low sun, and beautiful fall colors. I listened to Career Tools (a podcast about professional behavior) as I drove in to work this morning; I’ve been catching up on early episodes I either missed or skimmed. This morning’s episode focused on early layoff advice–what to do when you […]
The Iron Man Anime: Comic Book Silliness
I’m two episodes into the recent Iron Man anime, and I’m having trouble. The story builds slowly, so I’m reserving judgment there. My main problems with the show are two-fold: There are only two major characters: Tony and the nervous female reporter Nanami. Pepper has only appeared once to my memory, and that was on a video phone call. That is one of the interesting elements of the show: Tony is […]
GigaOM
Theree are so many sites and services out there that I feel Ike I’m always late to the party. A perfect example is GigaOm, a tech blog that I’d always ignored under the assumption that it was another Techcrunch–breathless articles about new smart phones or social networks. I then saw GigaOm’s founder on This Week in Tech, and he impressed me with his knowledge and deep thought. So […]
Brother, can you spare a dime?
As I mentioned yesterday, I’m broke. Almost literally. Lots of assets, no cash. This was driven home to me yesterday evening, after work. I stopped by a gas station on my way home to fill up my truck with gas. My debit card didn’t work, and neither did any of my credit cards. All denied. To be fair, several of those cards I paid over the weekend just as their due date came up, so […]
Status
Well. I’m back from South Africa, and my finances are my new worry. I’m tapped out. There’s simply no way I can afford a new home, even with a minimal down payment or closing costs. I’ve decided to wait for a while, despite having found the (almost) perfect house. It’s just immature to put myself into more debt right now. But it’s all right. My Halloween party will […]
South Africa, Day Five: Safari
This is the sixth in a series of blog posts about my recent trip to South Africa. I’m posting them a week after they happen. For all 825 photos from my trip, see my Flickr photo set. This was my full day of safaris. The itinerary: 5:00am Wake-up call 5:30am Gather in the dining area for snacks (hot coffee, iced coffee, hot tea, iced tea, water, milk, cake, scones, etc.) 5:45am […]
South Africa, Day Four: The Leopard
This is the fifth in a series of blog posts about my recent trip to South Africa. I’m posting them a week after they happen. For all 825 photos from my trip, see my Flickr photo set. My tour van picked me up at 7:30am, meaning I had to get up at 6:30 to finish drying my clothes. My shirts were dry, but not my jeans, drat the luck. I dried them as best I could and stuffed them into […]
South Africa, Day Three: Vacation Within a Vacation
This is the fourth in a series of blog posts about my recent trip to South Africa. I’m posting them a week after they happen. For all 825 photos from my trip, see my Flickr photo set. As planned, I never left my hotel today. Some may cry “Madness!” at this. But I was exhausted, and one of the goals of any vacation is to relax. So I relaxed. Fortunately, it was a rainy day in Cape Town, so […]
South Africa, Day Two: The Journey Around the Mountain
This is the third in a series of blog posts about my recent trip to South Africa. I’m posting them a week after they happen. For all 825 photos from my trip, see my Flickr photo set. Today, I fully toured Cape Town. Those sightseeing buses were fabulous. I took hundreds more photos, learned all sorts of interesting factoids (the thickets of thorn bushes that cover one side of Cape Mountain were […]
South Africa, Day One: The Dangers of Developing Nations
This is the second in a series of blog posts about my recent trip to South Africa. I’m posting them a week after they happen. For all 825 photos from my trip, see my Flickr photo set. I awoke at 7:00am on Friday, feeling relatively refreshed (jet lag wouldn’t allow full recovery), and determined to take a photo walk around Cape Town. The night before, I’d studied some maps and books about Cape Town, […]