Your leaking thatched hut during the restoration of a pre-Enlightenment state.

 

Hello, my name is Judas Gutenberg and this is my blaag (pronounced as you would the vomit noise "hyroop-bleuach").



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decay & ruin
Biosphere II
Chernobyl
dead malls
Detroit
Irving housing

got that wrong
Paleofuture.com

appropriate tech
Arduino μcontrollers
Backwoods Home
Fractal antenna

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   downside to these restrictions
Thursday, May 10 2012
This morning I woke up at around 4am and couldn't get back to sleep, so I took an ambien and then sat down at my computer to do some web development to see if I could build out a subtool before Ambien-induced brain failure kicked in. Within a half hour the text on the screen seemed to be moving around on its own, and though the feeling I was experiencing was unusual, I wouldn't call it sleepiness. I'd completed the subtool with time to spare.

This afternoon Gretchen and I went to see our accountant to discuss our various investments, which Gretchen has entrusted to some guy who claims to specialize in "conscientious" investing. Gretchen is adamant that our money not go to companies that mistreat their workers, exploit animals, or degrade the environment. This means our money must avoid large swaths of the economy: agriculture, pharmaceuticals, the hospitality industry, or any company involved in extracting non-renewable resources. The downside to these restrictions is that our investments have underperformed the average portfolio of stocks and bonds. We've been particularly hammered by our investments in green energy, because right now it cannot compete with natural gas (currently cheap and plentiful).
When he'd given us our tax returns, our accountant had drawn our attention to how badly our investments were doing coupled with the fact that our conscientious investment manager was pocketing 1.5% of our principal every year. That seemed like a lot to pay for such shitty results, and it also seemed to our accountant that he might also be double-dipping a percentage on some our load mutal funds.

This evening Gretchen and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary by eating a meal at the bar at Skytop Steakhouse. I like Skytop because they usually have a good selection of IPAs and their vegan options, while sparse, are quite good. I also like the atmosphere and friendly staff.
Gretchen had brought a little container of Daiya-brand vegan cheese so we could maybe have it on our pizza. The chef was okay with it and the resulting pizza ended up being probably the best vegan pizza we'd ever eaten at a restaurant. As for the beer, tonight was something of an off one. I had a sip of the Long Trail Double IPA and thought that might work, but by the bottom of my pint it was tasting like battery acid; it's not much better than the crappy Long Trail non-double IPA. So then I had a Harpoon IPA, which was just kind of meh.
Tonight at Skytop there was a band doing somewhat overly-loud cool-jazz standards and Nora Jones covers. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. They kept saying that this was their last song, but then they'd come on and play for another half hour. That never happens when musicians I love are on stage.


For linking purposes this article's URL is:
http://asecular.com/blog.php?120510

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