Global Wandering

Another week has come and gone. I spent several days in Texas, including a soggy drive from San Antonio to College Station. I’ve never seen Texas so green. I am convinced Texas municipalities have either not heard of or are fundamentally opposed to sign height ordinances. The businesses seem to compete on the basis of who can erect the tallest, biggest sign. Even churches participate. It all makes for an extremely cluttered appearance. Of course, maybe I’m just sensitive to it because a national chain restaurant recently opened its doors in our little Idaho town and tried to get the city council to change the 24 foot sign height limit. Half of the council members were persuaded by the restaurant, despite a strongly worded statement by the P&Z commission to keep the current ordinance in place. Fortunately, our mayor had enough sense to stand by the P&Z commission and cast the tiebreaking vote to keep sign heights at 24 feet.

I managed to finish the new Harry Potter book last Friday without the media or anyone else spoiling the ending for me. I’ll leave it at that so I don’t spoil the ending for you.

I’ve been pondering and writing a short story for several weeks now. My writing pace is glacial. In fact, to date I only have one sentence that satisfies me. On the other hand, I have no deadline and I write to please myself so I might as well keep working at it until I’m happy.

Security markets have been more volatile of late. After four years of an upward march and minimal dislocation, finally there is some uncertainty that will hopefully create future opportunity.

I have wanderlust again. It has only been three months since I was in France, and I’m ready to pack up and go faraway. An island would be ideal. I’d take LaPriel and the kids of course. The problem is the time. When the kids were young we use to pull them out of school to go on trips. Now that they are older, they get behind in their studies if we pull them out. That leaves us only the weeks and months when everyone else travels, which is unfortunate because I don’t like crowds nor the higher costs of the high season.

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We are back from a week in Park City, Utah. It was a delightful trip in that we were at a high enough elevation to avoid the wildfire smoke that is turning the blue skies of the Mountain West into a gray haze. The primary activity in Park City is testing the law of gravity. We conducted our own primary research on the matter by riding the alpine slide, the alpine coaster and the zip line. The empirical results of our tests are that objects, such as ourselves, fall/slide/zip down mountain slopes, often while screaming.

One of the more interesting letters in the pile of mail, magazines and newspapers we sorted through on our return was a letter from the State of Ohio offering me a one year free subscription for identity theft prevention and protection services. Never a good sign when the government offers you something for free. Turns out my name and social security number were on a computer back-up device (also known as a laptop) that was stolen last month from the unlocked car of a college intern working for the State. Now there’s an example of an effective privacy policy.

The State informs me it is unlikely that someone can access the data contained on the device without specialized knowledge and equipment. The State didn’t bother to mention how valuable such a device would be to those that have such specialized knowledge and equipment, and that if the thief had any brains he/she would sell the device to those with specialized knowledge and equipment.

The most intriguing thing about the incident is what one had to do to have their social security number and name included on the stolen device. According to this article by Forbes, individuals whose personal data was stolen fall into one or more of the following categories:

1. Taxpayers with uncashed state income tax refunds
2. Current and former state employees
3. Lottery winners who have yet to cash winning tickets
4. Welfare recipients
5. Vendors

Given I don’t and have not worked for the State, I always have to pay taxes and never get a refund, I’ve never been on welfare and I’m not a vendor, I can only conclude I’m a lottery winner who has yet to cash a winning ticket. This is my lucky day indeed. I will call the State hotline on Monday to find out what I won.

Posted by jd at 10:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments is a "twice yearly online journal searching for [the] interface—the integration— among the built and natural environments, that might be called the soul of place." Simmons B. Buntin, the journal's Editor and Publisher, who I met through his fascinating blog, Riverfall was kind enough to invite me to contribute an article to the current issue. The article is called Kiva: Reducing Poverty and Building Sustainable Communities Through Microlending.

If you get a minute, I'd encourage you to check out not only my article but the other excellent contributions in this issue that all embrace the theme, Community Sustained.

Posted by jd at 7:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

A local college student was arrested here yesterday for stealing lottery tickets from the store where she worked. She cashed in $20 worth and now could spend up to five years in prison. Very sad indeed. I’d leave it at that except for one remarkable thing that caused me to pause. The woman smiled in her mug shot. Not the deranged smile of a twisted mind, but a beautifully confident smile, as if posing for a graduation photo.

It made me wonder whether smiling in a mug shot would be helpful during the judicial process. Mug shots are usually published with any newspaper story detailing the alleged crime, and I have to admit most people take lousy mug shots. They either sport an angry glare or look completely bewildered. But pulling off a grin in a mug shot is difficult. One runs the risk of appearing smug, as if taunting the wheels of justice.

This woman struck the right balance. Her look not only conveyed that she was friendly, but also made her look innocent of the crime. Clearly, she was already trying to win the jury’s sympathy.

Posted by jd at 9:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Liking:

1. Ron Carlson’s novel, Five Skies. I spent a week several years ago at a writers conference learning from Carlson. Not only is he a superb novelist and short story writer, but he is a master teacher. It has been a pleasure reading and studying this novel to see how he applies the principles he taught in class.

2. Juan Gabriel’s classic Mexican Ranchero CD recently released on iTunes Latino. I admit ranchera music is an acquired taste, but there is no better language than Spanish to belt out anguished lyrics such as these:

I am going to forget you,
Even if it cost me my life,
Even if it cost me weeping,
I swear to you I have to forget you.

3. The thought of leaving tomorrow for a week away with my family in Park City, Utah. Idaho is getting smoky, hot and dry. It will be nice to escape to the mountains.

4. Welcoming my son Bret home from Scout camp. This is a kid who doesn’t need The Dangerous Book for Boys. He already lives it.

Disliking:

1. Being told yesterday by a resident of my little Idaho town that we do things different here, and if I had grown up here I would have known that. Attitudes like that make me want to flee Idaho.

2. People such as the resident above who make a point of implying how much money they have and are spending. I have many wealthy clients and rich folks with class just don’t hold out their net worth for all to admire. Just as those who are poor don’t make a point of showing off their poverty. In fact, those with true wealth are usually too busy trying to relieve suffering and better the lives of the less fortunate to worry about telling others how much money they have.

Posted by jd at 8:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I read Cormac McCarthy’s The Road this week. It is the saddest, most disturbing novel I have read in years. Haunting, yet poignant. Makes me want to hold my kids close.

Posted by jd at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Camden and I successfully procured an iPhone on Friday. We had a pleasant six hours of sitting in line with a group of fellow squatters. One can only converse for so long about a cell phone no one has seen in person. Hence, after about twenty minutes we moved on to more interesting topics. Our little chat group included a guy from LA who was on his way to Denver for the national barbershop singing convention, a real estate professional named Marilyn who dislikes her first name and drives an amazing 1985 Mercedes that runs on biodiesel for 60 cents a gallon, and a guy getting ready to move to Grand Rapids who was being paid $50 to wait in line for a businessman who has to have the latest technology but is too busy sitting in meetings to sit in line like us common folk. The businessman’s grandson showed up to relieve the mercenary and make the iPhone purchase.

As for the iPhone, it is truly remarkable. The user experience is such a step up from my current Windows Mobile handheld that I would liken it to the sheer delight I felt when I replaced my paper calendar with a Palm V.

Google Earth takes on entirely new perspective when you can, as we use to sing as kids, “hold the whole world in [your] hands.”

Posted by jd at 10:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)