It was good to see all the friends and family over the holidays, but I'm glad to be back. After a week of driving everywhere and drinking in the humidity, it was refreshing to wake up to a cool cloudy day, throw on a wool coat and hat in case of rain, and walk. The route was typical - market to get fruit and vegetables for the early part of the week, park to gaze at the snowy mountains across the sound, home for lunch... then wander over to the downtown mall area and watch people rush the end of year sales. (That and I'm still on a casual search for a 3 button tweed jacket in a primarily grey hue)
While in NC Allison asked about nostalgia - if there were any places that I missed. This was in Raleigh, so that was pretty simple - no. We went to the usual places - NeoMonde, O'Malleys, so on, but that's because they're good rather than there being any specific memories associated with them. This isn't new, and it is how I've thought since probably grade school, but I perpetually live in the future - nearly everything I do in the present is merely working toward a better life later.
I started to see this trend about my last year in Raleigh... and started getting away from the computers/books weekend mornings to walk. Living on Hillsboro St made this feasible... walked the neighborhood streets to see normal families live normal weekend lives... walked downtown to the small farmers market... walked through parks and past ongoing baseball/soccer games... it seemed a way to get some sense of social normalcy after a decade of living in textbooks and computer based jobs. Looking back... the times spent wandering around on a not-yet-sweltering-hot spring/summer/fall morning were perhaps what I appreciated most during my time there.
This trend continued after the move back Charlotte and was successful for a while, but after the first year or so the free time graph went to zero and stayed there. Moving to the house didn't help matters, since it required its own share of time in addition to work and school... so I left that life.
It may be a side effect of the technology driven life I've chosen, but for an hour a day, and many a weekend morning, it is important to see the world at walking pace.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Finance Year in Review
Interesting statistic - the average person in the US saved money this year - 2.4 percent of income as of the most recent report. (http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/pi/pinewsrelease.htm) Not much, but it's better than the negative numbers of previous recent years. Interesting when tracked historically that the number has never exceeded 15 percent http://www.bea.gov/bea/dn/nipaweb/Nipa-Frb.asp
How do I stack up?
Since I've now been at one address with one job for over a year the finances are stable enough to note (sale of house excluded from the numbers below - only job income counted)
Percent of total pre tax income to:
Income Tax - 21% set aside in deductions - based on previous years this is pretty accurate
Rent and Utilities - 23%
401k - 8%
Money Market Savings - 28%
General spending - food/gas/travel/clothing/stuff - 20%
Other interesting facts - The interest gains in the mm-savings account did not offset the losses due to some optimistic stock bets in my 401k - total investments are down 1.6% on the year.
Rent and utilities are high in an absolute sense - though offset by very small gasoline expenditures - no gas for the commute and errands works out to less than a tank per month.
I had the sense there was going to be a stock market drop and rearranged the 401k, but not enough apparently. I also rearranged a bit post-correction, though still a bit risky. It will probably be a year until things really start to turn around and post small gains there.
General spending also seems high in an absolute sense - but then there's the quality of life quotient... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122955255403315677.html ... I suppose it's a small price to pay.
How do I stack up?
Since I've now been at one address with one job for over a year the finances are stable enough to note (sale of house excluded from the numbers below - only job income counted)
Percent of total pre tax income to:
Income Tax - 21% set aside in deductions - based on previous years this is pretty accurate
Rent and Utilities - 23%
401k - 8%
Money Market Savings - 28%
General spending - food/gas/travel/clothing/stuff - 20%
Other interesting facts - The interest gains in the mm-savings account did not offset the losses due to some optimistic stock bets in my 401k - total investments are down 1.6% on the year.
Rent and utilities are high in an absolute sense - though offset by very small gasoline expenditures - no gas for the commute and errands works out to less than a tank per month.
I had the sense there was going to be a stock market drop and rearranged the 401k, but not enough apparently. I also rearranged a bit post-correction, though still a bit risky. It will probably be a year until things really start to turn around and post small gains there.
General spending also seems high in an absolute sense - but then there's the quality of life quotient... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122955255403315677.html ... I suppose it's a small price to pay.
Happy Winter Solstice!
Sunrise: 7:55AM, planned Sunset 4:20PM... not even 8.5 hours of daylight on the shortest day of the year when you're this far north.
It has been a nice winter week - got a couple inches of snow on Wednesday - cold since then so it hasn't melted. Then a couple more inches last night to cover up the sanded/slushed ice with new white snow. It's apparently pretty rare to have this much snow near the sound.
(The inland suburbs have had about a foot total by now)
Not that I'm complaining - it has limited the consumerist Christmas rush - people walking around downtown are shopping, but the snow is at least as interesting it seems.
Quiet morning - coffee - NPR - headed to the market when the vendors typically set up in an hour or so.
That's the news from Seattle.
It has been a nice winter week - got a couple inches of snow on Wednesday - cold since then so it hasn't melted. Then a couple more inches last night to cover up the sanded/slushed ice with new white snow. It's apparently pretty rare to have this much snow near the sound.
(The inland suburbs have had about a foot total by now)
Not that I'm complaining - it has limited the consumerist Christmas rush - people walking around downtown are shopping, but the snow is at least as interesting it seems.
Quiet morning - coffee - NPR - headed to the market when the vendors typically set up in an hour or so.
That's the news from Seattle.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Too organized?
So last night I ironed all existing clothes in the closet and then organized them.
There are 7 respectable shirts (5 button down linen, 2 polo) with matching pants for the work week - those go in the middle part. I oddly never mix the shirts to different pants b/c then there's a disparity that will result in having an unmatched pair of pants at the end of the cycle. (Won't wear a black shirt with brown pants, so on)
Then there is the suit, two suit shirts: one standard cuff and one french cuff, and two 'nice' shirts for going out to dinner.
Then there is the ratty pair of jeans and two pairs of hiking/camping pants.
Anything that doesn't fit me anymore or doesn't fit the organizational scheme is now either rags or donated.
This is one of those odd moments of equilibrium in the wardrobe. No clothes are to be bought until the number of available outfits drops to 3 (one load of laundry)
It may sound boring, but I don't like to think about what to wear - I just want to wear it and consign thinking to other areas of life. It's not like it's an entire closet full of white shirts and grey pants... I don't work for a bank (presently).
There are 7 respectable shirts (5 button down linen, 2 polo) with matching pants for the work week - those go in the middle part. I oddly never mix the shirts to different pants b/c then there's a disparity that will result in having an unmatched pair of pants at the end of the cycle. (Won't wear a black shirt with brown pants, so on)
Then there is the suit, two suit shirts: one standard cuff and one french cuff, and two 'nice' shirts for going out to dinner.
Then there is the ratty pair of jeans and two pairs of hiking/camping pants.
Anything that doesn't fit me anymore or doesn't fit the organizational scheme is now either rags or donated.
This is one of those odd moments of equilibrium in the wardrobe. No clothes are to be bought until the number of available outfits drops to 3 (one load of laundry)
It may sound boring, but I don't like to think about what to wear - I just want to wear it and consign thinking to other areas of life. It's not like it's an entire closet full of white shirts and grey pants... I don't work for a bank (presently).
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Survey Says
In Seattle, coffee capital of the US... 8 computer nerds are in class (4 locals, 4 people that moved here from eleswhere, including me) - the morning beverages of choice are as follows:
2 green tea, 1 black tea, 1 earl grey, 1 coffee (the Hawaiian)
Random observation.
2 green tea, 1 black tea, 1 earl grey, 1 coffee (the Hawaiian)
Random observation.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
The next 10 years.
This is from everything I've read/followed what has happened over the last decade - time may add more details/corrections/sarcasm.
- Tech boom/bust - economic downturn.
- Government issued lots of debt to the rest of the world to get cash.
- This cash was then lent out at low interest rates to banks.
- Since the stock market wasn't producing large enough gains for investors after the tech bust, the government promoted home ownership. People viewed this as the next great investment.
- Banks which could get lots of low interest cash from the government lent to consumers at low mortgage rates.
- Easier/cheaper mortgages led to increased demand for homes, which in turn raised home prices.
(Insert note here that average wages have been essentially flat since 2000)
- Given flat incomes, people reacted to the higher home prices by taking on more debt to buy a new home, or by taking out home equity lines of credit to take equity out of their investment to buy things or vacations or whatever (essentially re-buying their existing home at a higher amount).
- Banks saw huge gains in the 'value' of their mortgage portfolios, securitized them and started trading them on that speculative value.
- Long standing income ratios and documentation requirements for mortgages were relaxed so that the banks could get more mortgages to trade. (Which required more people to take on more debt to cover the resulting higher prices)
(Reminder that wages have been essentially flat since 2000)
- At some point (November 2007 by most accounts) this cycle snapped - people started defaulting on their mortgage debt since the interest payments alone in some cases were more than could be paid back.
- As these mortgages were foreclosed upon and resold at auction the value was less than that of the mortgage.
- The securities that contained these mortgages became less valuable as a result. Investment banks then rapidly stopped buying securitized mortgages.
- Since these securities couldn't be traded for a profit anymore, companies that had leveraged to buy them started failing...
- The government realized that some former-governmental entities such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with the companies that insured them (AIG) and some companies with powerful lobbyists or people in the administration (Goldman Sachs) were involved in these trades as well and could fail.
- So, the answer, in the form of the bailout, was to attempt to 'fix' the prices of these mortgage securities at certain levels and have the government buy them from the 'too big to fail' companies.
- Simple economics has proved price-fixing impossible throughout history, the bailout money has since been basically given to the various companes without any assets in exchange so that as they encounter margin calls they can pay their losses on these securities.
(Important note here - the bailout is financed not with existing taxpayer money, but with more government debt - we as a country are taking out debt to pay for the losses on excessive debt held by our financial institutions and citizens)
- Now this bailout is being extended to any lending institution - auto loans, credit cards, so on.
What then is the incentive to play by the rules and live within your means? If there is a huge government safety net waiting if you default on your debt, why not buy the Lexus and a huge house...
There has to eventually be some huge unintended consequence of all this debt, now proxied to a national level... it's just a matter of what and when.
I thought at one point it might be currency valuation... US dollar losing serious value compared to other currencies, but it seems to some degree other countries made the same mistakes as the US so that's pretty stable for now.
What else could happen? Don't know... though it will be interesting when it happens I'm sure...
- Tech boom/bust - economic downturn.
- Government issued lots of debt to the rest of the world to get cash.
- This cash was then lent out at low interest rates to banks.
- Since the stock market wasn't producing large enough gains for investors after the tech bust, the government promoted home ownership. People viewed this as the next great investment.
- Banks which could get lots of low interest cash from the government lent to consumers at low mortgage rates.
- Easier/cheaper mortgages led to increased demand for homes, which in turn raised home prices.
(Insert note here that average wages have been essentially flat since 2000)
- Given flat incomes, people reacted to the higher home prices by taking on more debt to buy a new home, or by taking out home equity lines of credit to take equity out of their investment to buy things or vacations or whatever (essentially re-buying their existing home at a higher amount).
- Banks saw huge gains in the 'value' of their mortgage portfolios, securitized them and started trading them on that speculative value.
- Long standing income ratios and documentation requirements for mortgages were relaxed so that the banks could get more mortgages to trade. (Which required more people to take on more debt to cover the resulting higher prices)
(Reminder that wages have been essentially flat since 2000)
- At some point (November 2007 by most accounts) this cycle snapped - people started defaulting on their mortgage debt since the interest payments alone in some cases were more than could be paid back.
- As these mortgages were foreclosed upon and resold at auction the value was less than that of the mortgage.
- The securities that contained these mortgages became less valuable as a result. Investment banks then rapidly stopped buying securitized mortgages.
- Since these securities couldn't be traded for a profit anymore, companies that had leveraged to buy them started failing...
- The government realized that some former-governmental entities such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with the companies that insured them (AIG) and some companies with powerful lobbyists or people in the administration (Goldman Sachs) were involved in these trades as well and could fail.
- So, the answer, in the form of the bailout, was to attempt to 'fix' the prices of these mortgage securities at certain levels and have the government buy them from the 'too big to fail' companies.
- Simple economics has proved price-fixing impossible throughout history, the bailout money has since been basically given to the various companes without any assets in exchange so that as they encounter margin calls they can pay their losses on these securities.
(Important note here - the bailout is financed not with existing taxpayer money, but with more government debt - we as a country are taking out debt to pay for the losses on excessive debt held by our financial institutions and citizens)
- Now this bailout is being extended to any lending institution - auto loans, credit cards, so on.
What then is the incentive to play by the rules and live within your means? If there is a huge government safety net waiting if you default on your debt, why not buy the Lexus and a huge house...
There has to eventually be some huge unintended consequence of all this debt, now proxied to a national level... it's just a matter of what and when.
I thought at one point it might be currency valuation... US dollar losing serious value compared to other currencies, but it seems to some degree other countries made the same mistakes as the US so that's pretty stable for now.
What else could happen? Don't know... though it will be interesting when it happens I'm sure...
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Update
So, it's been a month or so - what's been going on?
- The end of October was pretty quiet - went to a hockey game (local minor leagues team like the Charlotte Checkers - similar atmosphere too) - first event at Key arena - interesting building - too bad it is underutilized now.
- Peggle is a damn addictive game - simple entertainment - follow the bouncy ball - I think the physics model should include air resistance though.
- This weekend there are a couple of concerts I'm interested in - probably will only get to one of them though - Helio Sequence - should be an interesting show.
- Currently reading "On Food And Cooking" by Harold McGee - it's basically the next step in food-nerdiness after reading Alton Brown's "I'm Just Here for the Food (v2.0)" - gets into more of the history of different primary ingredients and what chemical reactions actually define 'cooking' of those ingredients. It's a bit of a textbook style approach, but still very well done and a good balance of entertaining and practical.
--------------- Nerd thoughts warning -----------------
- Ordered a single ended triode tube amplifier kit - should be interesting to see if I can still solder/read resistors
- As an aside to that - I have some sort of odd engineer's affliction... For the last 5 years I have been using a Sony ES amplifier - which worked great and was technically very nice - discrete power circuits per channel, very low distortion, so on... but I have always had this feeling that I was wasting it - it was a 5 channel amp with different sound environments and all kinds of other 'home theater-y' BS - I currently have 2 speakers, which are small - I didn't need all the technical overhead of the ES - so I put it on craigslist. So then I find a solution, which is more expensive, technically less sonically precise, and I have to put it together myself - just so that I will have a pure single input, stereo output, amplifier - there will be less 'waste' in the final application.
(Technically over time it will pay for itself in lower power usage as well, but that's beside the point)
It's an odd 'retro-technology' interest I have... mechanical watches, tube amplifiers, single speed bike...
All are 'old' - there are newer technological solutions which do more, more accurately (Quartz watches, solid state amplification, deraulliers). I guess I just don't like excess features... more for the sake of more... I'd rather apply modern engineering and manufacturing to old technology to get a solution that is accurate enough for everyday use and more, ah, human-understandable, than newer technology.
Perhaps modern life is more of a black box ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_box ) world though - the watch tells the time until the battery dies, then a new watch or battery is purchased. The 'stereo' makes music until a newer model with more 'power' or more features becomes available, so on.
For some odd reason I have to know the how/why of everything I use in normal life. And once you find out the how you see the questions arise - why does a watch have to have a battery - why do stereos have 7 channels when music is still only recorded in stereo (vast majority of music that is - however yes, some people watch lots more movies than I do) - why buy convenience food when it's possible to make something better tasting and healthier in less time... so on.
While I concede completely understanding any of these examples down to their minutiae is not practical either, it is a bit enlightening to at least open the boxes that one encounters in everyday life.
- The end of October was pretty quiet - went to a hockey game (local minor leagues team like the Charlotte Checkers - similar atmosphere too) - first event at Key arena - interesting building - too bad it is underutilized now.
- Peggle is a damn addictive game - simple entertainment - follow the bouncy ball - I think the physics model should include air resistance though.
- This weekend there are a couple of concerts I'm interested in - probably will only get to one of them though - Helio Sequence - should be an interesting show.
- Currently reading "On Food And Cooking" by Harold McGee - it's basically the next step in food-nerdiness after reading Alton Brown's "I'm Just Here for the Food (v2.0)" - gets into more of the history of different primary ingredients and what chemical reactions actually define 'cooking' of those ingredients. It's a bit of a textbook style approach, but still very well done and a good balance of entertaining and practical.
--------------- Nerd thoughts warning -----------------
- Ordered a single ended triode tube amplifier kit - should be interesting to see if I can still solder/read resistors
- As an aside to that - I have some sort of odd engineer's affliction... For the last 5 years I have been using a Sony ES amplifier - which worked great and was technically very nice - discrete power circuits per channel, very low distortion, so on... but I have always had this feeling that I was wasting it - it was a 5 channel amp with different sound environments and all kinds of other 'home theater-y' BS - I currently have 2 speakers, which are small - I didn't need all the technical overhead of the ES - so I put it on craigslist. So then I find a solution, which is more expensive, technically less sonically precise, and I have to put it together myself - just so that I will have a pure single input, stereo output, amplifier - there will be less 'waste' in the final application.
(Technically over time it will pay for itself in lower power usage as well, but that's beside the point)
It's an odd 'retro-technology' interest I have... mechanical watches, tube amplifiers, single speed bike...
All are 'old' - there are newer technological solutions which do more, more accurately (Quartz watches, solid state amplification, deraulliers). I guess I just don't like excess features... more for the sake of more... I'd rather apply modern engineering and manufacturing to old technology to get a solution that is accurate enough for everyday use and more, ah, human-understandable, than newer technology.
Perhaps modern life is more of a black box ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_box ) world though - the watch tells the time until the battery dies, then a new watch or battery is purchased. The 'stereo' makes music until a newer model with more 'power' or more features becomes available, so on.
For some odd reason I have to know the how/why of everything I use in normal life. And once you find out the how you see the questions arise - why does a watch have to have a battery - why do stereos have 7 channels when music is still only recorded in stereo (vast majority of music that is - however yes, some people watch lots more movies than I do) - why buy convenience food when it's possible to make something better tasting and healthier in less time... so on.
While I concede completely understanding any of these examples down to their minutiae is not practical either, it is a bit enlightening to at least open the boxes that one encounters in everyday life.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Thoughts
/News/Food/
It's local pear and apple season again - time to overdose on fruit.
---------------
/News/Weather/
The rainy season has returned mostly - glad we were able to fit in a final camping trip at the end of the season before the clouds returned - larger pics are at www.maslows.net:12110/rainier/
---------------
/News/Economics/
Earlier in the year I made a few semi-educated guesses about the economy and invested/shuffled the 401k accordingly... let's see how I've done so far.
- with regards to the 401k - moving a vast majority of the equity positions into money market funds was smart - even small % gains are better than nothing.
However I did leave a small bit in equities as an experiment and it has been ugly - pretty much no sector has escaped the downturn and a couple have seen ~50% declines - total amount of value 'lost' year to date has been about 1.5 paychecks - academically bad, but not so in the long term
- real estate - sold the house and have stayed as far away from the housing market as possible, economically - this has been good - and until the rental to monthly payment numbers wherever I live are comparable I'll hold this mentality
- cash - currently just living frugally (no surprise to anyone that knows me I guess) and putting the remainder into higher interest online savings accounts - this is the best use of money right now in my opinion, as the trend is deflationary - just need to be aware that it will flip eventually and not losing value in real terms will matter again
Things that have surprised me - Europe seeing as much downturn as the US - I expected their market to be more conservative than the US banks. As such I strongly considered opening a Euro or CHF denominated account earlier in the year, but if everyone's market weakens together there isn't any advantage to the other currencies. The dollar has strengthened very slightly vs. those two currencies since then, but I think it's just a question of relativity.
The current news/fear about the economy - it's not that bad - if the government would have let the first few banks go bankrupt and actually followed through with a quick and orderly valuation and resale of assets at market prices it would have prevented where we are now. This is the root cause of what is paralyzing the market. No one trusts that the other person's asset valuation is correct or that they are actually solvent. So lending slows and confidence and stock prices decline. How to fix it - throwing money at the banks to prop up 'mark to model' asset values is not the answer - correct and transparent asset valuation is the answer. Let bankruptcy courts sort out the details - they're there for a reason.
---------------
/News/Politics/
Neither candidate has given a good answer as to how they'll deal with the economic mess. Neither has really acknowledged that their grand plans of energy independence and lower taxes will not be feasible given the debt load of the US and its nearly-nationalized banks.
--------------
That's about all for now - now that the clouds have returned I'll probably pick up on the nerd projects I talked about earlier in the year - make a couple speaker enclosures, possibly build a tube amp, play some computer games, read more of the classics, learn a new language, so on... need to be productive with this free time.
It's local pear and apple season again - time to overdose on fruit.
---------------
/News/Weather/
The rainy season has returned mostly - glad we were able to fit in a final camping trip at the end of the season before the clouds returned - larger pics are at www.maslows.net:12110/rainier/
---------------
/News/Economics/
Earlier in the year I made a few semi-educated guesses about the economy and invested/shuffled the 401k accordingly... let's see how I've done so far.
- with regards to the 401k - moving a vast majority of the equity positions into money market funds was smart - even small % gains are better than nothing.
However I did leave a small bit in equities as an experiment and it has been ugly - pretty much no sector has escaped the downturn and a couple have seen ~50% declines - total amount of value 'lost' year to date has been about 1.5 paychecks - academically bad, but not so in the long term
- real estate - sold the house and have stayed as far away from the housing market as possible, economically - this has been good - and until the rental to monthly payment numbers wherever I live are comparable I'll hold this mentality
- cash - currently just living frugally (no surprise to anyone that knows me I guess) and putting the remainder into higher interest online savings accounts - this is the best use of money right now in my opinion, as the trend is deflationary - just need to be aware that it will flip eventually and not losing value in real terms will matter again
Things that have surprised me - Europe seeing as much downturn as the US - I expected their market to be more conservative than the US banks. As such I strongly considered opening a Euro or CHF denominated account earlier in the year, but if everyone's market weakens together there isn't any advantage to the other currencies. The dollar has strengthened very slightly vs. those two currencies since then, but I think it's just a question of relativity.
The current news/fear about the economy - it's not that bad - if the government would have let the first few banks go bankrupt and actually followed through with a quick and orderly valuation and resale of assets at market prices it would have prevented where we are now. This is the root cause of what is paralyzing the market. No one trusts that the other person's asset valuation is correct or that they are actually solvent. So lending slows and confidence and stock prices decline. How to fix it - throwing money at the banks to prop up 'mark to model' asset values is not the answer - correct and transparent asset valuation is the answer. Let bankruptcy courts sort out the details - they're there for a reason.
---------------
/News/Politics/
Neither candidate has given a good answer as to how they'll deal with the economic mess. Neither has really acknowledged that their grand plans of energy independence and lower taxes will not be feasible given the debt load of the US and its nearly-nationalized banks.
--------------
That's about all for now - now that the clouds have returned I'll probably pick up on the nerd projects I talked about earlier in the year - make a couple speaker enclosures, possibly build a tube amp, play some computer games, read more of the classics, learn a new language, so on... need to be productive with this free time.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
A slavic german cooks traditional french soup:
So a couple years ago Allison gave me Thomas Keller's Bouchon cookbook. Since then I've read it but only made um, 3 things from it (I'm not big on recipes). However the french onion soup worked out so well I really should dig deeper into this massive book for more inspiration.
And it is more inspiration than actual instruction - as the recipe spends about half a page on actual ingredients and procedures, but an additional page and a half on the quality aspects of it - like where the flavors come from and why even though it sounds interminably long, it is important to cook the onions in the butter for ~5 hours over a very low heat (which essentially turned the Walla Walla local onions into what you'd call candy in a blind tasting - they were that sweet)
I do wish I made the stock as opposed to using store bought though - it didn't add much to the flavor profile of the soup. The onions dominated the soup, and combined with melted emmentaler and local aged cheddar cheese and some croutons made from homemade bread it was an excellent dish.
It's actually really easy and cheap (under $20 for 6 servings - about $3 per serving!) to make - especially if you don't mind leaving a pot unattended on the stove while the onions very slowly melt.
And it is more inspiration than actual instruction - as the recipe spends about half a page on actual ingredients and procedures, but an additional page and a half on the quality aspects of it - like where the flavors come from and why even though it sounds interminably long, it is important to cook the onions in the butter for ~5 hours over a very low heat (which essentially turned the Walla Walla local onions into what you'd call candy in a blind tasting - they were that sweet)
I do wish I made the stock as opposed to using store bought though - it didn't add much to the flavor profile of the soup. The onions dominated the soup, and combined with melted emmentaler and local aged cheddar cheese and some croutons made from homemade bread it was an excellent dish.
It's actually really easy and cheap (under $20 for 6 servings - about $3 per serving!) to make - especially if you don't mind leaving a pot unattended on the stove while the onions very slowly melt.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
If you have a dollar denominated savings account, read these.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/no-deal/
http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2008/09/some-thoughts-on-bailout.html
Seems that they're just throwing money at the problem rather than addressing the solution. One last huge giveaway to the favored corporations/supporters before the election I suppose. It's a cynical outlook, but given the information at hand, it may not be far from the truth.
------------------
Oh, and Lucky-Charms-Treats, in the same approach as Rice-Krispy-Treats, is a good idea in theory, but the cereal is too dense in practice. Still tastes good, but has the consistency of a dense melty granola bar rather than a Rice-Krispy-Treat.
http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2008/09/some-thoughts-on-bailout.html
Seems that they're just throwing money at the problem rather than addressing the solution. One last huge giveaway to the favored corporations/supporters before the election I suppose. It's a cynical outlook, but given the information at hand, it may not be far from the truth.
------------------
Oh, and Lucky-Charms-Treats, in the same approach as Rice-Krispy-Treats, is a good idea in theory, but the cereal is too dense in practice. Still tastes good, but has the consistency of a dense melty granola bar rather than a Rice-Krispy-Treat.
Friday, September 19, 2008
How to spend it.
Say you had a trillion dollars. It's a nice round figure. And say you were in a position of leadership of a country.
How would you spend it?
- Destroy some bridges and bunkers on the other side of the world, then oppress the citizens of those countries for a decade?
- Give it to your friends so they can save their failed financial institutions (which they ran into the ground) and still earn their year end bonuses while simultaneously screwing over the individual shareholders and taxpayers?
- Universal healthcare for all citizens of your country, along with lots of nice brand new hosptials?
- Repair all the 50+ year old crumbling transportation and utilities infrastructure with environmentally responsible and sustainable options?
I'm rather disappointed that given this situation the former two choices won out over the later.
Why pay taxes or give time and effort to support the system that consistently makes these decisions? There has to be a better way.
I know I know - all these bad choices haven't affected day to day life yet - though yet is the key word. Other countries have lived through rough financial times and come out the other side intact - but why with all the productivity/prosperity that is possible is a rough financial time even an option for this country.
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In that day to day life - http://www.skilletstreetfood.com/ - 3 people in an old Airstream trailer serving up decent lunch food in and around downtown Seattle - different location every day - many local ingredients (the berry crisp was great) and the food is well prepared overall (fried chicken was too greasy but still flavorful).
Also the local Greek Orthodox church is holding their fall festival this weekend - looking forward to the spanakopita.
How would you spend it?
- Destroy some bridges and bunkers on the other side of the world, then oppress the citizens of those countries for a decade?
- Give it to your friends so they can save their failed financial institutions (which they ran into the ground) and still earn their year end bonuses while simultaneously screwing over the individual shareholders and taxpayers?
- Universal healthcare for all citizens of your country, along with lots of nice brand new hosptials?
- Repair all the 50+ year old crumbling transportation and utilities infrastructure with environmentally responsible and sustainable options?
I'm rather disappointed that given this situation the former two choices won out over the later.
Why pay taxes or give time and effort to support the system that consistently makes these decisions? There has to be a better way.
I know I know - all these bad choices haven't affected day to day life yet - though yet is the key word. Other countries have lived through rough financial times and come out the other side intact - but why with all the productivity/prosperity that is possible is a rough financial time even an option for this country.
-------------------
In that day to day life - http://www.skilletstreetfood.com/ - 3 people in an old Airstream trailer serving up decent lunch food in and around downtown Seattle - different location every day - many local ingredients (the berry crisp was great) and the food is well prepared overall (fried chicken was too greasy but still flavorful).
Also the local Greek Orthodox church is holding their fall festival this weekend - looking forward to the spanakopita.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
One of those 'Oh $#!^ moments
So - when is the most inconvenient time to drop a bottle of [RED] wine...
Well, when it is full, so that the splash effect/spillage is greatest...
How about when you're on a hard surface floor... like a kitchen floor...
Add in a large appliance - say, when you're putting it in the refrigerator...
And that adds up to quite the mess to clean up - wine and glass under the fridge, splashed inside the fridge, up on the wall - 750mL for paper towels to absorb...
Fun times.
At least it was only 3 buck chuck.
Well, when it is full, so that the splash effect/spillage is greatest...
How about when you're on a hard surface floor... like a kitchen floor...
Add in a large appliance - say, when you're putting it in the refrigerator...
And that adds up to quite the mess to clean up - wine and glass under the fridge, splashed inside the fridge, up on the wall - 750mL for paper towels to absorb...
Fun times.
At least it was only 3 buck chuck.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Is it funny or sad or scary that this is a publicly stated point of view.
A few links to the same issue:
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/02/palins-church-may-have-sh_n_123205.html
- http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/02/palin-iraq-god/
- http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080903/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_palin_iraq_war
We've just seen the effects of 8 years of ignorant/evangelistic leadership... is it a good idea to have someone like this behind a rather elderly presidential candidate?
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/02/palins-church-may-have-sh_n_123205.html
- http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/02/palin-iraq-god/
- http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080903/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_palin_iraq_war
We've just seen the effects of 8 years of ignorant/evangelistic leadership... is it a good idea to have someone like this behind a rather elderly presidential candidate?
Summer
Lack of posting has been due to the wonderful temperate August weather out here. It's been sunny and mid 70's for the last week or two - brilliant! Lots of walking around the city - headed to Mt. Rainier this weekend for some hiking/camping and to give the new camera a good workout.
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