305 firedrill

Huh. Yesterday didn't go as planned. No, actually, there was no plan. Yesterday didn't go as hoped.

My original plan was to walk to the Mission and pick up a new pair of glasses I ordered over the holidays, then visit a friend. 

But before leaving, I glanced at Craigslist. Where I saw an ad for the dinghy I've been lusting over. For free.

So I shot off an email to see if I could get it, and scrambled to be ready in case I needed to drive to Petaluma to pick it up. With free shit on Craigslist, it's all about speed.

Deb's truck had a week's worth of gardening debris in it, so I needed to empty it. But the dump has been closed on the weekends since the beginning of the pandemic (because, you know, disease spreads more easily on Saturday and Sunday?), so I needed to hit this spot in the Bayview and yada yada.

Let's just say instead of a nice walk through the Mission on a glorious Saturday, I drove all over the city, and the dinghy still went to someone else.

But I did get the glasses and see my buddy, so at least it wasn't a total fail.

Mostly I was sad to not get the boat, I guess. Next one!

I guess the whole day was a bit like that, the trail I went to go walking on in the morning was closed, apparently due to tree work. Or whatever you do with this thing.

I took the picture because it's called a "Dingo," and that's Deb's nickname, plus it's a gardening thing. Probably be pretty fun to have a little bulldozer. Although if we're playing fantasy tools, maybe a mini-backhoe would be even better.

Yesterday's painting was a repeat of a subject I've done a few times on cardboard. 

Not nuts about the foreground, but the sky is ok, and the contrast is pretty good. Did that with an HSB adjustment to the layer, of course, late in the game. Ah, technique...

Convo with my brother:

Facebook bailed on it's pledge to not datamine What's App.

As if they don't already, now they're openly sharing your "metadata" (who you communicated with and for how long) with their other businesses. One of which might, ahem, be known as "Room 641-B."

(Google it if you don't know what that means. It's a joke.)

Nothing really special here, although the reviews say this bike has $3k performance for $2k. But what I found interesting about the article was this quote: 

A few years ago, when I last looked for statistics, about 25 million ebikes per year were being sold in China, and about 1 million everywhere else. I'm sure those numbers have both grown. But that's why there are more low-end components available than high-end. Because for the overwhelming majority of the global market, low-end will work just fine, thanks.

Still not sure I'm ready to start day trading...

It will be interesting to see if Fuckface actually pardons any of these people. I commented online somewhere that I didn't think he would, because they don't have money. But really, shoot, I have no idea what's going down in the next four days.

The one bright thing in all of this was when the help started quitting after 1/6. Particularity the first lady's staff. I personally think that was the end of the coup. It's one thing to be leader of the not-so-free world, it's another thing when your wife is pissed because you fucked up her bubble.

A solid reminder not to get too excited. Could have used that reminder yesterday while looking at Craigslist.

Not to play left vs. right, but this is pretty perfect.

And for equal airtime, one with a more right-leaning POV.

This was a kinda funny story. 

The helmet worked about as expected, which was awkwardly.

Well, if I needed to pick a stock that I thought might go crazy in the next few years, quantum computing or VR might be good picks. But the problem is, and the reasons there are bubbles is, you can't really invest in an emerging tech without being a VC with lots of money. By the time a company is public, that emerging part is over, and now we're into bubble territory.

Think that's it for the week, I'm just going to delete all those other screencraps. Be safe!