Read

Posted on May 22, 2018 by d4vid

I’ve decided to try and reread a book for every new book I read.  It seems like a good time to revisit old ideas in the light of experience rather than frantically cramming my head full of new ideas all the time.

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Numberwang

Posted on May 3, 2018 by d4vid

11,834.5 miles. (The trip odometer rolled over at 10k.) Average of 47 miles per gallon.

That’s Numberwang.

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Interval

Posted on May 2, 2018 by d4vid

I was listening to one of the Seminars About Long Term Thinking by Brian Christian called “Algorithms to Live By” (based on his book of the same name.)

He mentioned the term “interval” as the determining factor when making a decision on when to try something new or stick with something known.  The longer the interval of life left to live, the more experimental one ought to be.  The shorter the interval, the more conservative.  The idea here being that a young person is smart to be trying new restaurants all the time but a senior citizen is smart to eat at that favorite restaurant of theirs.

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Sanctuary

Posted on May 2, 2018 by d4vid

I went back to church to sit and think.

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Tudor

Posted on May 1, 2018 by d4vid

I’ve always wanted to stay at the historic Benbow Inn.  It was built in 1926.This was the view out my hotel room window, looking out at the stone bridge over the South Fork Eel River.

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Realtime

Posted on May 1, 2018 by d4vid

Finally!  My blog posting has caught up to realtime again!

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Fading

Posted on May 1, 2018 by d4vid

Certain songs have scored certain points on my journey across the U.S.  John Denver in West Virginia.  Paul Simon in Memphis.  Chris Isaak in New Mexico.  But overall, I think I listened to Neko Case the most.  If I had to pick just one of her songs as the theme song for my whole trip, it would be “Magpie to the Morning”:

“Let this be a warning,” said the magpie to the morning
“Don’t let this fading summer pass you by”

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Trees

Posted on April 30, 2018 by d4vid

We get the color word tan from the bark used in the tanning of leather.  Tannin is the chemical used in tanning.  Its astringency is what gives red wine it’s dry and puckery feeling.  Tannic acid is the type of tannin found in the bark of redwood trees which works as a strong defense against fire, insects, and fungi.  The word tannin comes from the Old High German word for oak or fir tree, like in the word Tannenbaum.  Human culture is entwined with trees.

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Cathedrals

Posted on April 30, 2018 by d4vid

Over the course of my life, there have been three places where I always think to myself “This is my cathedral.”  The first is the Griffith Observatory.  The second is Grauman’s Chinese Theater.  The third is the California redwoods.

I drove down the Avenue of the Giants in my Prius with the sunroof shade open which let me see up to the tops of the trees as I passed under them.  Bliss.

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Defensible

Posted on April 30, 2018 by d4vid

Driving down the Redwood Highway from Grant’s Pass, Oregon to Crescent City, California I saw a disturbing trend.

On advertisements for land, I kept seeing the adjective “defensible” pop up over and over.  Chilling in these tumultuous political times.

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Coast

Posted on April 30, 2018 by d4vid

I didn’t realize until it was right in front of me.

This was the first I’d seen the Pacific Ocean since I had driven the U.S. across & back and bottom to  top.  Reminded me of looking out at the Tasman Sea for the first time from the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island.

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Sweep

Posted on April 28, 2018 by d4vid

My Seattle friends aren’t furries.  I swear.  Their friend organizes an annual curling tournament and the team they ended up on just happened to pick animal onesies as their team costume.  Now, those teammates who had ready access to animal onesies?  No judgment, but they might be furries.

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Snap

Posted on April 28, 2018 by d4vid

The ending of Avengers: Infinity War definitely resonated with me as I continue to think about meaning and mortality and existence.

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Spheres

Posted on April 27, 2018 by d4vid

The new Amazon Spheres in downtown Seattle reminded me a bit of Singapore.

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Tower

Posted on April 27, 2018 by d4vid

Smith Tower was the tallest skyscraper outside of New York City when it was completed in 1914.Not a megatall building, certainly, but it did remain the tallest building on the West Coast for half a century until the Space Needle was built in 1962.  It was built by Lyman Cornelius Smith, the “Smith” in Smith Corona Typewriters.Parts of the building have been turned into an extremely engaging museum celebrating the building as it was in the 1920s.At the observatory level, there is a Prohibition-themed bar.  I tried their barrel-aged Manhattan……and their barrel-aged Old Fashioned.From the observatory level, I looked west from the observatory at Elliot Bay with Alki point in the middle, Bainbridge Island on the right, and the Olympic Mountains in the distance.Looking north, up Second St. to the Space Needle.When the building first opened, it had a place called the Chinese Room which had been furnished by the Empress Dowager Cixi.

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