Saw Five (5) houses so far this season with Christmas decorations up already. Come on people, do you really need it up over a month ahead of time?
Monthly Archives: November 2007
I think it is interesting how some of the ‘finer’ things in life are really just more traditionally made artifacts.
Some examples:
Hardwood Floors: every house use to have soft or hardwood floors. They are very expensive now.
Hand Tailored Wool Suits: I don’t need to wear one often, but they sure do look cool.
Mechanical Watches: They are just cool and have made quite a comeback in recent years.
Wines, Beers, and Spirits made on a small scale: Again, making a comeback.
Fountain Pens: Still not that popular, they take a lot more maintenance than ballpoint, so I don’t blame people on this one.
Wood Clapboard Siding: Looks cool, total maintenance nightmare. Though, this may be getting better with newer paints.
Shaker Roofs: Last forever, cost a fortune.
Real Wood Furniture: See Shaker Roofs
Quality Paper Maps: GPS has not killed them yet.
All of these things were the only way things were made 50 to 150 years ago. Now you have to pay a premium to get back to the old way of doing things.
Speaking of new things, with Glenn I find I have less interest in gadgets. I like reading about them, but I have no desire to own them. I deal with computers and electronics at work all day, I don’t want to deal with shoddy electronics at home. That being said, here are some modern tools I really like:
Google Documents: a great way to work on one document everywhere. It is no where near capable enough to defeat real programs, but for simple tasks, it’s great.
Seamonkey: The all in one suite of Mozilla, works well, less filling.
Digital Cameras: I never did like film and the mystery of how good/bad/terrible your photos turned out. Once you go over 3 or 5 megapixels, you will never go back.
Cell Phones: Land lines cost too much. Cells phones are no means perfect, but I have lived without a land line for 4 years now.
Any thoughts about what is better/worse now? And should I use a colon or semi-colon? Never could find a use for the semi-colon. Thought I would give it a try.
Edit: Damn you Spunkmonkey, I knew it should of been a colon.
I posted this video on youtube about an hour ago.
It already has 77 views. Why? Unless you love watches/horology, this is a very boring video to watch.
A few days ago I got my first automatic wristwatch. It’s a Seiko, dark green (olive) colored, military style watch with a nylon band. It is very reminiscent of the watches worn from WWII, Korean, and Vietnam wars. In fact, they even made it a proper size, 35mm, which is appropriate for a military watch. 35mm is actually a smaller sized watch for a man, often called mid sized now. Why is it small? If you are marching 25 miles a day, every ounce counts. Also, in hand to hand combat, a smaller watch, with less mass and surface area, is less likely to get damaged.
As you can see, it has nice, defined, broad hands, and luminescent material. The fit and finish is excellent for the money (less than $100). The photo does not really do it justice, the numbers are laser sharp and the hands really jump out. The sweeping second hand is almost hypnotic. In case you have never seen one, a mechanical watch second hand sweeps, instead of jumping from second to second. In this case, it advances 6 times a second.
Here is the movement of the watch. It is an automatic, meaning it is self winding, purely mechanical watch. No battery, quartz oscillator, or stepper motor. Just springs and cams and gears. That is really why I wanted the watch, in addition to the unique looks. A mechanical watch can run for decades. With maintenance, it can last a lifetime.
I know most people use watches for what they intended for. A simple tool to tell time. That is just fine. A decent quartz watch for 20 bucks will serve you well for years. Every now and then though, you want something that is beyond a simple tool. It is a machine with hundreds of years of engineering behind it. This particular watch was meant for less developed parts of the world. Why do less developed parts of the world still wear mechanical watches? Simple, try to get a battery replaced in some third world hellhole. You may be able to get bullets for you AK-47, but try to find a CR-2016 button cell when your watch dies.
Overall, I am very happy with the watch. As a watch, it does what is supposed to, you can tell time easily and quickly. The luminescent material is very useful and glows almost all night long. It is nice not having to press a button to light the watch up. With an automatic watch, it needs you and much as you need it. Without your wrist movements, it will wind down and stop. In a way, it is environmentally friendly. No mercury and no battery to replace. It uses ‘waste’ energy from your arm to keep running.
I am sure I sound like a watch nut now, but I am still thrilled with this gift from Tiffany.
Today the Dow dropped 361 points.
Oil is about $100 a barrel.
The largest bank in America is warning about record losses.
The largest real estate contraction since the Great Depression is happening now.
Unlike the stock market bust of 2000/2001, what is happening now over a much broader economy.
Scary
Well, somewhat scary. I think the real worry is a return to 70’s style stagflation. There was just too much run up in credit and in house prices. The level everything was increasing was unsustainable. The average worker could no longer afford and average priced home. I would guess we are looking at a long, shallow recession and recovery.