Not only was the identity of Deep Throat, the infamous Watergate figure, revealed today... I also found my digital camera cable in the garage! Only took me seven months.
This milestone enabled me to download the pics of my new rental condo for all to peruse. Mainly I took these pics for marketing. You'll notice there is still no carpet, no window shades, and no fridge... Use your imagination.... They'll be nice.
Also, rather than just offer up a geeky web file listing like I normally do, I enlisted the aid of a nifty photo album tool, Jalbum, that makes thumbnailing fun again!
Check out the pics
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Freak Out
My vision for a mobile playa party is getting more intense. I started thinking of it a few days ago, and I'm getting more and more into it. I envision a cart, powered by foot or by bike, holding some sound equipment and some lighting and/or fire containers - and possibly some melon. This cart can be pushed out to the boonies in the playa for a spontaneous dance party.
I've been picking music that fits my vision for it. But I increasingly believe that a cart with a police siren light (for safety from art cars), fire, and loud music will attract attention and, if I'm lucky, a continuous supply of CDs to play out of the thing. Anything on the playa attracts attention... and the more fun, the better.
It's not really just about the attention or the success though... I'd truly be happy to have a party by myself out there. I just have a feeling I won't be alone.
Monica and I also made some nifty, furry finds at some thrift stores this weekend.. I am looking forward to the costumery this year very much. More to come.
I've been picking music that fits my vision for it. But I increasingly believe that a cart with a police siren light (for safety from art cars), fire, and loud music will attract attention and, if I'm lucky, a continuous supply of CDs to play out of the thing. Anything on the playa attracts attention... and the more fun, the better.
It's not really just about the attention or the success though... I'd truly be happy to have a party by myself out there. I just have a feeling I won't be alone.
Monica and I also made some nifty, furry finds at some thrift stores this weekend.. I am looking forward to the costumery this year very much. More to come.
Vacation Indeed
The illusion of a vacation, like Memorial Day Weekend, is that you get relieved of a day's worth of work. Many of us who live in the real world know that's not true. My particular wake up call to that point is today's parking ticket emergency. I know.. Sad such a thing even exists. DPT chose to use the long weekend to overhaul their internal systems, which is a boat-rocker for us to say the least. In addition, they made us shut down web access the entire weekend. Now Monday's are always a big day for paying tickets; The day after a 3 day weekend - huge; The day after a 3-day weekend when no one could use the system all weekend... Well now I'm finding out. Add to that, their system change seems to have reduced their responsiveness to our system - and it all makes for a wonderful return from "vacation". Pray for me.
On brighter news... I saw my condo again this weekend and took some pictures. I'll try and post some if I can get them off my digital camera. I seem to have lost the cord... ugh. The place is pretty fly. The common areas are like nice hotel common area. Nice gym. Nice clubhouse with kitchen and pooltable and big screen TVs. Sheesh! It should make some Silicon Vallien quite happy and proud.
I think, after talking to Monica and myself about it, I'm going to go ahead and rent it out. I've considered flipping it and taking the profit I've made already.... but I'm going to go the "big boy route and hold onto it until I have a real reason to sell it. Big deep breath. Time to become a landlord.. Ew.
On brighter news... I saw my condo again this weekend and took some pictures. I'll try and post some if I can get them off my digital camera. I seem to have lost the cord... ugh. The place is pretty fly. The common areas are like nice hotel common area. Nice gym. Nice clubhouse with kitchen and pooltable and big screen TVs. Sheesh! It should make some Silicon Vallien quite happy and proud.
I think, after talking to Monica and myself about it, I'm going to go ahead and rent it out. I've considered flipping it and taking the profit I've made already.... but I'm going to go the "big boy route and hold onto it until I have a real reason to sell it. Big deep breath. Time to become a landlord.. Ew.
Friday, May 27, 2005
Hand it here
So I'm in the middle of the third real estate transaction of my life. The first in California. It's a dinky little condo in Silicon Valley that is a rental investment for me. What is sort of tiresome about transacting real estate in general, and I suspect especially in California, is the amount of red tape, disclosures, contracts, legalese, etc. supposedly there to protect me, the home buyer. Lots of disclosures related to things like radon, lead, underground tanks, fire safety, bla bla bla bla bla. Ultimately, no one really reads this stuff. It's a huge pile of papers you have to initial or sign during the sales contract process or at close of escrow. Mainly it's just a hassle for both the buyer and the seller. Yes - we know how much Miles loves lame government regulations. Rant rant rant.
The thing that struck me today, was that every now and then, when earthquakes are in the news, we hear the "experts" say "catastrophic earthquake almost certain within 30 years". Now.... for all the hoopla about radon and lead... I don't think I've ever initialed anything that said "Your house will likely fall down on top of you some time in the next 3 decades." Interesting.
Ok - enough about that. Also related to this purchase, I've had a small dilemma. Living in the city for five years, I've noticed that most new residential buildings are dense - real dense. I feel lucky to live in an old 1886 Victorian two-unit building. It's on a large lot with a back yard and plenty of space. It feels very homey. But if someone were to build a new residential building on my lot, I think it would have at least 8 units, packed much tighter. It seems like nowadays there is less emphasis put on livability, and more put on profitability - big surprise. So now that I'm the investor, I've had to decide how "livable" to make my rental. I could go cheap, that would save me money - after all it's only a rental - those people... you know they'll trash the place anyway. But alas, I've chosen to go classy and spend the extra money to make the place someplace I'd like to live. I hope "those people" appreciate it.
Onward.
The thing that struck me today, was that every now and then, when earthquakes are in the news, we hear the "experts" say "catastrophic earthquake almost certain within 30 years". Now.... for all the hoopla about radon and lead... I don't think I've ever initialed anything that said "Your house will likely fall down on top of you some time in the next 3 decades." Interesting.
Ok - enough about that. Also related to this purchase, I've had a small dilemma. Living in the city for five years, I've noticed that most new residential buildings are dense - real dense. I feel lucky to live in an old 1886 Victorian two-unit building. It's on a large lot with a back yard and plenty of space. It feels very homey. But if someone were to build a new residential building on my lot, I think it would have at least 8 units, packed much tighter. It seems like nowadays there is less emphasis put on livability, and more put on profitability - big surprise. So now that I'm the investor, I've had to decide how "livable" to make my rental. I could go cheap, that would save me money - after all it's only a rental - those people... you know they'll trash the place anyway. But alas, I've chosen to go classy and spend the extra money to make the place someplace I'd like to live. I hope "those people" appreciate it.
Onward.
Beans
So today my task is.. find a new web stats package for my web servers at the city. Essentially all this type of software does is count web page views by the public and show reports, graphs, etc. on how many people are using the site. Big freakin deal. It's a bean counter.
For some reason, however, the software out there seems to be either open source spaghetti junk written by Perl gurus (good luck guys) or bloatware with wayyy to many features and wayyy too expensive. Seems like a common problem I have.
So rather than just having something nice and simple like, say, Google's offerings (This Blogger, Gmail, Maps, AdSense, etc.), I have to wade through what the "rest of the world" is able to come up with.
Wish me luck.
For some reason, however, the software out there seems to be either open source spaghetti junk written by Perl gurus (good luck guys) or bloatware with wayyy to many features and wayyy too expensive. Seems like a common problem I have.
So rather than just having something nice and simple like, say, Google's offerings (This Blogger, Gmail, Maps, AdSense, etc.), I have to wade through what the "rest of the world" is able to come up with.
Wish me luck.
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Vanilla Who?
It's a little strange writing in this thing. I'm not sure if I'm writing to myself or writing for others' consumption. Both I suppose.
So, assuming you're reading this, and you're not me, you might be wondering how I came up with Vanilla Street as a name for my blog. Well as it turns out, "Miles Blog" was taken. So were some other choices that were far more obscure. A lot of people must use this thing.
So the big development of this week is that I single handedly moved urban art forward. I innovated. I rolled out the first (that I know of) smell tag. Instead of making my mark around the city with spray paint, I took it back to the original intent like our canine friends. Mark with smell - better yet, a nice, pleasant smell. Improve the city instead of detracting from it. I am a good man. My mother was right.
Armed with a spray bottle of vanilla extract and some little gold star stickers, I selfishly and criminally made my mark on several spots around downtown during my lunch break on Tuesday.
Now I've been bad mouthing the run of the mill taggers around town. My friend Erin, an avid "graf" artist, is more than aware of my disapproval. I don't like the violation of private or public property mainly. Plus it's just so ugly most of the time. But I get a little charge out of the idea that I have transcended them - that they are but sheeple (I love that word) - and I am the true artist - the true pioneer.
Next time you smell vanilla around town. Think of me.
So, assuming you're reading this, and you're not me, you might be wondering how I came up with Vanilla Street as a name for my blog. Well as it turns out, "Miles Blog" was taken. So were some other choices that were far more obscure. A lot of people must use this thing.
So the big development of this week is that I single handedly moved urban art forward. I innovated. I rolled out the first (that I know of) smell tag. Instead of making my mark around the city with spray paint, I took it back to the original intent like our canine friends. Mark with smell - better yet, a nice, pleasant smell. Improve the city instead of detracting from it. I am a good man. My mother was right.
Armed with a spray bottle of vanilla extract and some little gold star stickers, I selfishly and criminally made my mark on several spots around downtown during my lunch break on Tuesday.
Now I've been bad mouthing the run of the mill taggers around town. My friend Erin, an avid "graf" artist, is more than aware of my disapproval. I don't like the violation of private or public property mainly. Plus it's just so ugly most of the time. But I get a little charge out of the idea that I have transcended them - that they are but sheeple (I love that word) - and I am the true artist - the true pioneer.
Next time you smell vanilla around town. Think of me.
Maiden
Ok... So now I'm blogging. A late adopter, once again.
I'm sitting on a conference call with my employer talking about things at a far higher level than I care to fathom.. Not higher level - too complicated. higher level - goals and objectives. Sigh.
We'll see how well I do. But I'd like to see if I can use this blog to record those fantasic ideas and ideals that seem to ooze from my pores daily. Will I come up with any today? Stay tuned.
Today I had a recurrence of a vision, a fantasy of dancing out at night in the desert by a fire, dressed up like a freak, flailing wildly. It's time to take steps to realize that dream.. I'm on a quest for the wild flailing party this year. You know the one.
I'm sitting on a conference call with my employer talking about things at a far higher level than I care to fathom.. Not higher level - too complicated. higher level - goals and objectives. Sigh.
We'll see how well I do. But I'd like to see if I can use this blog to record those fantasic ideas and ideals that seem to ooze from my pores daily. Will I come up with any today? Stay tuned.
Today I had a recurrence of a vision, a fantasy of dancing out at night in the desert by a fire, dressed up like a freak, flailing wildly. It's time to take steps to realize that dream.. I'm on a quest for the wild flailing party this year. You know the one.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
