Imagine an Ideal Community

Imagining what our future could be. What do you need in a community? How would I build an ideal town?

There would be an organic farm to provide vegetables and fruit. A ranch for beef, free range chicken for eggs and poultry; a hog farm; a small herd of sheep. A spring fed lake with fish and bullfrogs.

An architect to design houses, businesses and public buildings. Builders and workmen to build from the plans. Using efficient energy products including solar panels and incorporating recycled wood and reclaimed architectural building materials.

New homes could be prefab modern.

Older homes could be remodeled while preserving the architecture and solid original materials.
Landscape architects to design and oversee appropriate plantings as well as incorporate outside hardscapes that would have proper drainage. LA's would also provide privacy and boundaries between properties using hedges. A plant nursery to provide native plants and trees that will properly tolerate the climate and work well with the local insect population. Gardeners to tend the larger gardens and arborists to keep the trees healthy. Insect experts to continue to keep the decorate plants and vegetable farms healthy and disease free.

LA would design outdoor community spaces like parks and pubic plazas and areas to enjoy lunch outside of businesses providing sun and shade.

Areas between buildings could be beautifully designed for taking breaks.

There would be a reflecting pool outside of the library.

Yes, there would be a public library and a liberal arts college with its own terrific library, music hall, art gallery, film program.

An art museum with a good small collection of blue chip 20th century work to keep us in touch with civilization and an alternative art space for contemporary work by local and excellent artists from other locations.

A performing arts space that is not too large with wonderful acoustics so that non-electronic music, i.e. acoustic instruments, do not need to be amplified if the score does not specifically require it.

A grimy looking club for rock and roll with room for dancing in front of the stage and a pool table at the opposite end of the room from the stage so you have something to do when you don't really care for the band....

and a sophisticated jazz club that serves alcohol and has small tables which might be in the hotel.

Review of "Boomerang" by Michael Lewis

Just finished listening to the audio version of Boomerang by Michael Lewis. Checked it out of the library and listened to all 6 discs in one day.


Recommend it to everyone. He gives his subjective take on how the cultures of Iceland, Greece, Ireland and Germany encouraged them to follow their paths to economic explosion.

You can see the US in each of these scenarios. Then, he takes on the US and specifically California as being the worst state of all by pointing to overly optimistic attitudes that agree to fund incredible pensions for city workers and refuse to acknowledge the reality of reducing budgets.
  How Schwarzenneger ran for office on a whim and apparently governed that way as well; then left to his life of luxury leaving the state in his wake a nightmare of debt.

Looks like it may be time to move out the state as there is no light at the end of this tunnel.

The only solution offered by Lewis is that unseen unusual things happen when people are optimistic so maybe everything will work out.

Don't Think Twice

When you come

to a fork in the road,

Take It!

stated by Yogi Berra

and cited by Nora Ephron

Cashing In on Your Hit YouTube Video - NYTimes.com

Creating a video that attracts millions of viewers and becomes a pop culture phenomenon involves an unpredictable cocktail of luck and timing. Here's some advice from NY Times article: Cashing In on Your Hit YouTube Video - NYTimes.com

Here is reprint of part that deals with youtube posting:

"GET MONEY FROM YOUTUBE ADS. If your video is on the road to viral success, YouTube, a part of Google, is eager to make money from you. It will send you an e-mail asking if you want to become a partner. If you give your permission, the site will run ads alongside your video and share more than half the revenue with you, sending you a check each month.


"Some of the people behind viral videos, like the father of the boy coming down from dental anesthesia in “David After Dentist,” have made more than $100,000 from YouTube ads. Ms. Clem has made $3,000 in three weeks and stands to make much more because Disney wants to use her video in a TV ad.

"Early on, YouTube would sign people up as partners after videos had been watched more than a million times. But it has since developed an algorithm, which it calls reference rank, to predict whether a video will go viral when it has had as few as 10,000 views.

"The most important element is whether influential Web sites post the video. When Reddit posted Mr. McEntee’s video, for instance, its views jumped from 1,000 to six million in three days. YouTube also analyzes other data, like the number of viewers, how many times a video is shared on social networking sites and the rate at which people comment on the video.

"Protect the video with a YouTube program called Content ID, which gives video owners the right to block others from using their videos or to be paid when they do. That helps to prevent people from creating copies that might be watched instead of yours. Parodies, translations or autotuned song versions, however, tend to add to the original’s traffic.

"YouTube does not offer live customer service for viral video creators. YouTube said it would be impossible to talk to millions of video creators but it has help forums for people to ask questions."

FURTHERMORE, Another NYTIMES article discusses how youtube ads generate revenue for the content provider.
Here is that link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/technology/03youtube.html

Steve Jobs' quotes

"You can't connect the dots looking forward: you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.

"You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well worn path - and that will make all the difference."
(Stanford University commencement address, June 2005)

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to Heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it.

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition; they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."
(Stanford U commencement address, June 2005)
"Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected."

"That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains."
(Business Week interview, May 1998)

After dropping out of college, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn what makes great typography great. "It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the firts computer with beautiful typography."
 (Stanford University commencement address, June 2005)

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarressment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. ...Stay hungry. Stay foolish."
(Stanford University commencement address, June 2005)


Articles for further reading:
NY Times -- Steve Jobs: Designer First, CEO Second
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/steve-jobs-designer-first-c-e-o-second/
Washington Post -- Steve Jobs and the Idea of Letting Go
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/steve-jobs-and-the-idea-of-letting-go/2011/10/05/gIQAWxNqOL_story.html
NPR To The Point show on 10-6-2011
http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/tp
Stanford U commencement address June 2005 (via NPR)
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/10/06/141120359/read-and-watch-steve-jobs-stanford-commencement-address

Cleaning Non-Leather Equipment from The Chronicle of the Horse

The Chronicle of the Horse has 2 articles on cleaning your tack.  The first posted here is relative non-leather items.  The second covers cleaning leather.
Bits: Use bit wipes (flavored) for a quick wipe down after a ride. 1-2 xs a month put bits in a bucket of water with "Bit Therapy Effervscent Cleaner" (it fizzes) and leave in for 8 minutes. A polish paste like "Simichrome Polish" can be used on the rings (use bit wipes on the mouthpiece) and on your irons. Or use "Nevr-Dull", a wadding polish, on metal hardware. White Pads: use Arm & Hammer complete cleaner freshener/whitener powder. Remove the black residue at the bottom of the pad by putting Shout stain remover on the dampened pad and scrubbing with a toothbruch before washing. Suede requires suede specific cleaners that are sprayed on. Also use a brush or a "suede block" (eraser) to remove light grime with circular motions and then brush to restore the nap. Sheepskin: use Leather Thearapy Laundry Solution. Take a quart size Ziploc bag, make a little hole in it, put the leather through and secure the bag with a twist tie to protect the leather; wash the sheepskin by hand being careful not to get the leather wet. Elastic on a breastplate: let elastic portion sit in water, then give it a thorough cleaning later with Woolite. Be careful to avoid getting metal polish on the leather, and clean & condition the leather around the buckles regularly, by taking apart the tack.
Beyond Saddle Soap—Cleaning Non-Leather Equipment The Chronicle of the Horse

Taking Care Of Your Leather Tack from The Chronicle of the Horse

Here is a link to a very good article on how to clean your leather tack. 

Every time you use your saddle, leathers, etc., you should wipe it with a damp sponge covered with a cloth (e.g., car-waxing sponge), and clean it with castile soap or Effax once a week (or more often if riding in the muck). 

Suggested products --
Cleaner: German Bienenwachs Lederpflege-Crème
Cleaner: Effax or
Oakwood for conditioning has a waterproofer
Conditioner:  Passier Lederbalsam
In California, Horseman's One-Step is a good cleaner/conditioner in that arid climate.
For dried out leather: use a 2 inch paint brush and either Effax or tanners oil; may need 3-4 coats
Taking Care Of Your Tack Doesn't Have To Be Tough The Chronicle of the Horse