The Hollosphere

Thank goodness, and David Leonhardt of The New York Times, for this article on the credit crisis.

When the distress in the credit industry began to percolate last summer, I started reading a great deal more financial news than is normally my habit. I’m interested in the issue of consumer credit, having long had some vague unease about the level of consumer indebtedness that the average American carries. Opportunities to go deeply into debt abound, as anyone with an address for credit card offers to flood into can attest. The escalating problems in the credit industry got my attention in an “Oh no! I knew this house-of-borrowed-cards was going to implode sooner or later!” kind of way.

I figured that if I read enough and studied the matter I would be able to follow events and understand them, if only in a broader sense, to help me contribute to prudent decisions regarding our own household spending. Should we purchase a truck with borrowed money or cash, or not at all? Should we continue our usual spending patterns or cut back? At first, I followed along confidently in my reading of the unfolding events. But then I noticed aspects of the deepening crisis I was reading about starting to sound like some kind of made-up language.

Continue reading ‘Economic Gobbledygook ~ To Grok or Not to Grok’ »

I’m having a lot of fun with our new Canon Powershot AS650 IS, the camera I’ve been lusting after for some time. We got it at Costco, bundled with a photo printer and extra 1G SD card.

One of my favorite subjects is hummingbirds. Here are a couple of the local rowdies.

D’awe, look at those teensie feetses! Don’t be fooled, however, by their diminutive uber-cuteness. Although neither of these birds is even as big as my thumb, they buzz around sporting some serious ‘tude. Hummers are very territorial, and they spend a lot of time and energy chasing each other and trying to be Big Bass Ass Hummer of the ‘Hood. The guy with iridescent head literally stands guard in a tree overlooking one of the feeders, attempting to chase off any interlopers by zooming straight at them and cussing them out in high-pitched, electronic sounding tones.

Some of the birds scare off easily. Others just kind of look at him like, “Whatever, dude,” and go back to sipping their sugar water.

When Conal and I moved to San Andreas from Seattle, we wanted to choose a new bank. Our previous bank’s nearest location was an hour’s drive away. We don’t need to physically go to the bank all that often, but often enough to make that long of a drive unappetizing.

Our not-too-terribly scientific manner of choosing from the several banks with San Andreas locations involved walking in to each one, asking for a rundown of services and fees and a brochure, and seeing if we liked the atmosphere of the place. We did actually look at the brochures. A bit. Mostly, we wanted to enjoy our new bank as much as we had enjoyed the Lake Forest Park branch of Washington Mutual, which to us meant evaluating which outfit had the friendliest personalities and atmosphere.

Central State Credit Union won us over with their smiles and warm welcome. At a glance it appeared our accounting needs would be met with their services. We opened our accounts and began the process of moving our primary banking to CSCU.

I do nearly all our banking business online. Bone-headedly, I did not ask to see each bank’s online interface to find out if I would like it before we made our choice. Unfortunately, I did not like CSCU’s account interface very much. But by then, we had already set up our accounts. I figured I’d eventually get used to it.

Well, a few more technical issues popped up, and I considered changing banks again several times. Each time, however, I decided that the amazingly friendly and efficient service I got whenever I had a problem or a question was something that I enjoyed and valued very much.

Then things got really wacky.

Continue reading ‘My Friendly Bank’ »

The New York Times (login may be required) posted an article today about Wal-Mart’s new product review blog, which they call Check Out. I had previously only been aware of Wally World’s crap-orate BS sites, aimed at polishing the company’s increasingly tarnished rep, and which were finally shut down. Kudos to Wal-Mart for giving up on pulling the wool over our eyes.

Dear friends and family, who are likely the only ones reading this blog o’ mine, you may be aware that I’m not a huge fan of Wal-Mart. Even so, I’m smiling to read the Times’ assessment that Wal-Mart has really and truly unleashed its buyers to speak freely. And not only about laptops and video games, although tech reviews are a foundational part of the blog. These are apparently real people, speaking up in their own voices in real time, and without much editing of their content by the higher-ups.

My God, they are even quoting Robert Scoble. What is the world coming to?

I’m choosing to believe that the world is moving, if oh-so-agonizingly slowly, toward the point where corporate-washed PR attempts to disguise the true inner workings of a company no longer work, and that we’re getting a peek into the testing of a more open, people-centered business culture. I’m betting that the results of this test will be very positive, and that the “preserve and protect” cultural and business model has got one more (granted very, very tiny, but hey, they all count) chink in its well-oiled armor. After all, everything Wal-Mart does, whether for good or ill, is hugely impactful. What if all that inertia were to moving toward a model of openness, inclusiveness for all, evolution and aliveness? The mind boggles.

That doesn’t mean I’ll be shopping there anytime soon, though.

When I lived in Seattle, I belonged to an outdoor club called The Mountaineers. I got a lot out of my membership, taking courses in mountaineering-oriented first aid, alpine scrambling (off-trail, non-technical climbing), and orienteering, and going to occasional social dances and on lots of group hikes, snowshoes, x-country ski trips, and the like.

The maximum number of people allowed on any given hike was twelve. The hikes I chose usually set out from the trail head with full attendance. I had fun, got to do some things I might not have tried otherwise, and met lots of interesting people. I also discovered that I preferred to spend my precious wilderness time with just one friend or, even better, alone.

A hike with twelve people can’t help but have a social flavor. People chat with each other, meeting for the first time that morning or getting reacquainted with other regulars or old friends. I found that I could enjoy it as a social gathering, but it eventually became clear to me that social connection was not what I went to the mountains for. What I wanted was to melt into the wilderness, to tiptoe through the landscape and keep my eyes peeled for what was going on with the forest and its inhabitants.

Continue reading ‘Home Sweet Wilderness’ »

We have woodpeckers. Acorn woodpeckers, I think they are, specifically. Each morning as the sun comes up, we are jolted awake by their rapid pounding on the house. Often, they go at it in twos and threes, making a heckuva racket. We get up out of bed, shoo them away, and go on about our day. As the day proceeds, our activities are punctuated by frequent hollering sessions at the boogers as they return again and again and again.

The hammering noise is bad enough. What distresses me even more is the damage that they do to the house siding and fascia boards. They drill holes everywhere, poke acorns into the holes, even jamming acorns under the edges of the roofing material, to the point of lifting it away from its underlayment.

Our house is surrounded by lovely oak and pine forests. I wondered what was so compelling about our house (and Ann’s next door, which over the decades is being slowly turned into a swiss cheese of ‘pecker holes) to attract them away from the trees all around. A few minutes of online investigation informed me that the little blighters have more than one motivation for banging on things with their heads.

One reason they drill, I learned, is to hollow out spaces to make their nests. Another reason is going after insects in the wood. I don’t think I’ve seen the kind of damage I would guess to indicate either of those behaviors, however, based on the examples I found. A third reason may be at work in our case.

Continue reading ‘Enemy Mine’ »

Sometimes, if it’s been days since I’ve been to town, say, or seen a car or another human being besides Conal, I think to myself I’m becoming a real hillbilly. And then I realize… oh.  Wow.  Maybe not so much.

Today was a softly lovely pre-spring day with temperatures in the mid-sixties and warm sunshine. Yay, California. It was a wonderful day for getting out and about, and Conal and I decided to go to town. We had some banking and light grocery shopping to do, as well as the usual post office stop (mail is not delivered where we live). Our internet satellite bandwidth limit has been chafing a bit lately, so we planned to stop by the library to see if we might find it a comfortable place to take the laptops and get online, once they finally get around to installing a public wireless network, which Conal was told by a library staffer “might be late spring.”

Our occasional town forays are also a chance to have lunch at my favorite San Andreas eatery, The Blue House Bistro. Their vegetarian burrito with fresh green salad is our favorite choice. Today, we also particularly enjoyed their light and delicately floral iced tea, which the server told us was a local brew. We’ve been there enough times now to know where to sit to avoid being overwhelmed by the jazz standards and kitchen/bar activity. This time, we had a lovely little window table at the far end of the dining area. We also had the place virtually to ourselves since we arrived just after the lunch rush.

After lunch, it was just a few steps into the next parking lot to visit the bank. Then we were off to the post office, where we ran into neighbor John G. as we checked our boxes and sorted through our mail. Dropping a reject piece of mail into the basket on the counter in the main office, I said hello to Angie, our Purty Post Office Princess (I like her long braid and irrepressible humor) and she howdy’d in return. As I was scooting back out the door, the woman Angie was helping at the counter said, “Who is that?” and Angie said, “Oh, that’s Holly and Conal–” I don’t know what was said after that, as I was already out the door. I would have eavesdropped a bit more if I could have figured out how to do it without getting caught.

Once outside in the parking lot, John’s wife Ann came up to us to say hello and check in about coordinating gardening efforts in Conal’s mom’s deer-proof garden space. After a nice chat we said our see ya’s and went off to Treat’s (our funky little hardware/grocery store). Well, golly, as we were rolling our cart up to the registers, there again was John. Not only that, but John was visiting in the checkout line with Jim N. and his wife Polly, the next neighbors down Murraydale Lane. More friendly banter ensued.

After asking John in the parking lot outside the store for the location of the nearest mailbox (in the excitement at the PO, I forgot to drop our outgoing mail in the slot), we detoured to the blue box on the next corner, and then around the block down historic Main Street to go the back way to the library.

As we were pulling in to the library, who should be walking across the parking lot but Ann G. We all had a chuckle at seeing each other for the third time in half an hour, and the laughter only increased as we walked in to find Jim and Polly there, too. Apparently, all three cars were running synchronized errands and didn’t know it.

Ah, small town life.

What is it about cookies? Cookies, cookies, cookies. We love them so.

I’ve been massaging a new cookie recipe for a few months, attempting to create a really yummy vegetarian chocolate chip cookie. As usual, none of the recipes I found in my books or online were quite what I was looking for. I wanted to eliminate butter and eggs and refined sugar, as well as white flour.

Wait, what? There is nothing left, you say?! Oh ho! I say not so fast, Cookie Monster (c’mon, you know you are). Observe:

Holly’s Vegetarian Chocolate Chippers

Ingredients

Egg replacer:

• 3 Tbsp finely ground flax seeds
• 4 Tbsp water

Dry:

• 2 c. whole wheat flour
• ¼ c. vital wheat gluten
• 1 c. finely grated coconut
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt

Wet:

• ½ c. corn oil
• ½ c. honey
• ¼ c. pure maple syrup
• ¼ c. dark molasses
• ¼ c. Florida Crystals natural sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Goodies:

• 1 package Sunspire grain-sweetened chocolate chips
• ½ c. chopped nuts of your choice (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly oil two large cookie sheets.

2. Place flax seeds and water in a small bowl and mix thoroughly. Set aside.

3. In a medium sized bowl, stir together dry ingredients. Set aside.

4. In a large bowl, stir together wet ingredients and the flax seed mixture.

5. Add half the dry ingredients at a time to the wet mixture and blend till just combined.

6. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts or other goodies (if using).

7. Scoop 2 Tbsp portions onto a cookie sheet. The cookies will spread some. Try to keep the chips in toward the center of the dough so the chocolate doesn’t scorch.

8. Bake 15-18 minutes, till desired doneness. Longer baking time will result in crispier edges, but be careful not to over bake. Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes before removing from the cookie sheet.

9. Cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Makes: 24 cookies

These babies are chewy and yummerific enough to totally satisfy the cookie monster in anyone, so give this recipe a try. Heck, you may want to try it over and over over. Because perfecting a recipe is an excellent excuse to bake a lot of cookies. You know, in the name of science.

Bonus: Eating this dough raw is perfectly safe, since there are no raw eggs to worry about. Just don’t eat *too* much, or you might get a tummy ache anyway!

Surfing around reading various news sites and blogs on the ‘net, like ya do, I stumbled across Stephen Fry’s blog. Mm-hmm, you read that correctly, Stephen Fry has a blog.

Yes, the delightful British actor of stage, movies, and television. Who, for example, played Oscar Wilde. And had a hilarious show with Hugh Laurie, oh so many years ago. And played the painfully funny Mybug in one of my favorite movies, Cold Comfort Farm.

Okay, so maybe it’s not such a big deal that he has a blog. Heck, I have a blog, for goodness’ sake. But wait, it’s not like that! Mr. Fry, apparently, is a longtime tech geek and gadgetophile. Who knew? I enjoyed reading his blog articles with titles such as “Social networking through the ages,” and especially (since I have been doing a lot of camera research lately) “Compact cameras have arrived at That Stage.” I didn’t find any earth-shattering news, just entirely fun stuff with an across-the-pond twist, particularly when read using Mr. Fry’s haughtiest inflections in your head. Trust me on that part.

For what garden-variety Yankee can resist a slyly snide phrase like “barely sentient” and the completely nontechnical yet highly enjoyable “far more capacity than could ever be sanely used” when spoken in snooty British comedy show tones? Americans don’t talk (or, God knows, blog) like this, and thus I found the content to be only half the fun. The language alone kept me reading. And laughing. Case in point:

What is wrong with that Ixus I bought three years ago? That old Pentax Optio will see me through to my old age, won’t it? No! No, you crazed enemy of freedom, you wild-eyed anti-capitalist, you deranged luddite. Haven’t you heard of Face Detection Technology? Smile Capture? Best Shot Automatic YouTube Uploading?

If you’ve enjoyed Mr. Fry’s work, do follow the Wikipedia link (oh dear, have I just lapsed into a fake accent?!). I did not know how multi-talented a guy he is, nor how much difficulty he has coped with in his life. It just helps me appreciate him all the more. Indeed.