There she goes, my beautiful world
January has been a tough month. Sometimes getting things accomplished comes somewhat naturally and other times it is an uphill battle just getting through each day. January has been a whole month of the latter. It hasn’t been a bad month so much as it has been a difficult month.
I really mean it when I write that it hasn’t been a bad month. The situation with my totaled Moto Guzzi has been resolved in what is probably the best of … Read the rest
The Guzzi is in the shop, and the news is not good. Repairs to the damage caused by a neighbor backing into the bike will be in the multiples of thousands of dollars. This means it’s time to get insurance companies involved. And I probably should have gotten them involved at minute one.
I was told not to be shocked by the first number that I got. The bent steering stop is part of the frame, and the only right … Read the rest
I was first approached to consult on the Natural Wine Company website three years ago when the business plan was just a twinkle in the founders’ eyes. They had no logo, no location, just a dream. It took some time and a lot of hard work to get things together, but this year the dream became reality. The brick and mortar Natural Wine Company store opened in Brooklyn the Saturday before Thanksgiving and the website was launched concurrently.
Natural wineswines … Read the rest
After all the feedback I got from reporting my first impressions of BooksOnBoard, I decided I might have been hasty in judgment, and that I should give them another chance. After all, they are an ebook seller that accepts PayPal and I sometimes end up with client payments in PayPal that take days to transfer to my checking account. It would be convenient to be able to use them as a vendor.
Forewarned with the knowledge that I would … Read the rest
Today while I was feeding a vacationing friend’s cat, someone backed into my parked motorcycle with her car. After months of living with shot steering bearings I finally got them replaced less than two weeks ago. Now my steering is messed up again.
I don’t think its too bad but the mechanic’s shop doesn’t open again until Tuesday. It appears that the bracket that limits the range of steering is bent, as I can turn the handlebars all the way to … Read the rest
From time to time I am reminded of the complete and utter inadequacy of the terms «left» and «right» as they pertain to the realm of political beliefs. Even the Libertarian Party’s two-axis Nolan Chart is only a small step in the right direction. This kind categorization oversimplifies opinion about the role of government in a dangerous way that prevents both liberty and progress.
Recently I had coffee with Jason McClain and had the opportunity to engage in a brief … Read the rest
The people at Landmark have a thought-provoking piece of advice: be unreasonable. While this may be related to the idea of using one’s faculty of reason, it is not quite the same thing. The suggestion is that we (human beings) often get caught up in a web of reasons for the actions we take, and the suggestion they make essentially means to take responsibility for volition and free willor more specifically to take responsibility for our choices rather than … Read the rest
When I was a teenager, my mother told me that I had weird taste in music, and I can’t say she was wrong about that. I’ve always liked music with alternative scales and tunings, and music with complex polyrhythmic beats. This attracted me from a fairly young age to bands and musicians like The Residents, Conrad Schnitzler, King Crimson, Philip Glass, Tuxedomoon, and of course the high priest of free jazz Sun Ra.
For … Read the rest
This past weekend I tried a new vendor of electronic books: BooksOnBoard. I found the store in the Stanza app on my iPad, which so far I believe is the best ereader software available. Stanza includes in-app links to several sources of electronic books, and BooksOnBoard is the first choice listed.
My first impression of BooksOnBoard is not favorable.
Creating an account was simple and quick. BooksOnBoard takes PayPal, which was a requirement this weekend since some of my money … Read the rest
Tomorrow morning there is street cleaning on the East side of my street, which is where the Moto Guzzi was parked until about a half hour ago. I went out to move the bike and, noting the chill in the air, thought that it would be nice to have a fire in my fireplace tonight. I’ve run out of Duraflames, but since I had to move the bike anyhow, I thought I may as well go down to Safeway and … Read the rest