The Pinterest time suck
By now most of us have not only heard of Pinterest, but are likely nursing our own addiction to the site. If you haven't heard of it, Pinterest is a visual bookmarking website. You can pin things you see online by image. You arrange your pins into boards, so you can quickly scan the images to find the bookmark you are looking for. What makes it addicting is you can also scan through everyone else's pins. The eye candy on there is amazing!
It's also easy to get sucked into Pinterest. For example, you may decide to login for a few minutes before starting dinner to look for some recipe inspiration. Next thing you know, three hours have passed and you're ordering pizza! It's impossible to keep track of time when using the site.
I've found starting off with organized pin boards helps. I have a lot of boards, divided down logically. For example, instead of a catch-all recipe board, I have main dish, quick meals, side dishes, desserts, etc. I can scan my own boards quickly for what I am looking for.
When I do want to relax with some Pinterest inspiration, I set a specific time. I use a timer so I won't spend more than 30 minutes, or however long I decide, perusing the site. I repin everything that looks even remotely interesting to my own boards, but I don't click through to the link. Doing that is a recipe for disaster! I'll become distracted by some great new website or blog and the day is lost.
About once or twice a week, I go through all my new pins. I delete those that no longer look interesting. I also remove pins I no longer need, like that cake recipe that just didn't work out. Using the pin-it widget in my browser's tool bar allows me to pin other things I stumble across during my normal web travels, so I usually have a few of those to sort through as well.
Used wisely, Pinterest is an amazing inspiration and organizational tool. But like all things online, it's dangerously easy to get sucked in. I'd rather be making wonderful things than just looking at them, though!
Instilling a joy of writing
I've found with my own children that the rigors of learning to read sometimes sucks the fun from learning to write. As a writer, I can't help but feel my job is to keep the process joyful. I remember as a young child having to write sentences, which the teacher would then cover in red ink as she corrected my misspellings and grammatical errors. I became a nervous writer for several years because of it. I hated to be wrong, so I wouldn't try.
During the early reading phase I keep writing informal. My kids' favorite thing was our “best books.” I made small booklets of plain white paper with colorful construction paper covers. These resided in a basket with a fresh box of crayons and colored pencils. The kids could grab a blank booklet at any time and get creative.
We called them best books because the kids were only to do their best. Spelling mistakes are OK, as long as you do your best to figure it out. You forgot the period? That's fine, you did your best. Can't figure out that word at all so you drew a picture for it instead? Wonderful, how creative!
The kids spent hours on their books. They would write entire series sometimes. The creativity was astounding in both the story lines and the artwork. A strange thing also happened. As their reading skills improved, so did their spelling and writing in their books. Because they had never been graded on their writing, they became naturally confident writers. They owned their books, and wanted to make them as mistake-free as possible without any prodding from me.
I knew the method had worked when my then eight year old son asked for his own dictionary. He wanted to make sure he was spelling words in his book correctly. While we know have more structured writing and grammar lessons with the older child, I know he is a confident writer from the years he was allowed to explore the written word without any criticism.
Kids' space
Brandon, my 12 year old, is obsessed with Legos. Thankfully, he's also obsessed with organization. Walking into his room is a pleasure. His Legos are sorted neatly by color into bins on a book shelf. He has a second shelf with his books on it, all alphabetized by author.
His remaining items all have a place and he naturally feels the urge to put them back after each use. His one challenge is remembering to take hangers out of his closet, so sometimes when we have a hanger shortage I know I can look in there and find a handful. But otherwise, he is a naturally neat kid.
Aioden, my 7 year old, is the polar opposite. We can clear his room of everything but his bed, yet somehow within 30 minutes it looks like a cyclone blew through! He's an inventor, our own absent minded professor.
Things destined for the garbage end up in his room, future fodder for some new invention or science project. Toys, garbage, books and sheets of paper scribbled with plans sit ankle deep on the floors. He can clean it up, but it never lasts for long.
I'll admit, sometimes I let his room slide for weeks on end because I just don't want to deal with it. I shut the door and pretend there is nothing behind it. But eventually I have to wade through the mess, either in search of a missing object or in search of him. I feel my blood pressure rise and I bite my tongue to keep from yelling.
So, I'm tackling organization this weekend. His room is in flux right now – still harboring items from his younger years he is no longer interested in while also playing home to the millions of pieces he needs for “science.” I'm steeling myself, knowing there will be tears (his or mine is hard to say). I've practiced a speech of how scientists need to keep their labs clean. I've crawled Pinterest for organization ideas that may work for him without driving me broke.
Wish me luck. And if I'm not back by next week, tell my family I love them.
Protecting winter plants
Although the ground hasn't begun to freeze yet, light frosts are the common theme each night around here. The days, though, are still mild and warm for a few more weeks at least. Thank goodness winter doesn't descend upon us all at once! The cold nights limit the amount of veggies still in the garden and those that remain need a little extra care to make it through.
I pulled up all my summer vegetables, so all that remains are those that can tolerate our current light frosts. Kale, broccoli raab, brussels sprouts, carrots and radishes are going strong. For now I have mulched them deeply with three inches of straw. It's enough to insulate the soil and keep it moist. The foliage and stems of these plants don't mind a few cold mornings.
As it gets colder and the ground begins to freeze my goal changes. I want to keep these cool-season greens going for as long into winter as possible. The sprouts will be harvested before the ground freezes, but everything else will still have some life in it.
I tackled this by making two of my garden beds the same length and width as some old storm doors we found in the garage when we moved in. I simply lay these over the beds once it get really cold, making a simple cold frame. On warmer days I can slide open the window on the door to provide ventilation so the plants don't cook. Even with our freezing winters (weeks in a row where we don't rise above freezing), I can still have a bit of green from the garden, even in January.
Moody's downgrades result in possible reviews for 32 California cities
The state of California is the dreamland for over two billion people across the globe. You have the excessive consumption of LA and then the high technology of the Bay Area.
"The Golden State" has faced a budget crisis since 2008. In light of this, Moody's wants to review for possible downgrades of as many as 32 California cities including Sacramento, Santa Monica, Fresno, Oakland and Berkeley. Even cities in Silicon Valley such as Santa Clara, Sunnyvale and Los Gatos might be downgraded on their debt and this is bad news coming at a time when the tech world is going through a resurgence. The U.S. economy needed a tech boom 2.0 to help it.
California municipalities have seen lower revenues raised via property and sales taxes because of the recession that has seen declines in the property market. They have had to lay off workers as a result. Cities are now faced with rising costs and curtails on their ability to raise money through debt. After all, genera -obligation debt is provided on the basis that cities repay the debt through the money from taxation. Lease-backed debt will also suffer with this Moody's review for downgrades.
Moody's notes that the cities are on the verge of bankruptcy. Additionally, Moody's has gathered that more and more cities have filed for bankruptcy due to the budget deficits and other economic pressures. California now has a budget shortfall of nearly $11.2 billion and now pension-obligation bonds of several cities including Oakland, Oceanside, Santa Rosa and Downey are also going to be downgraded.
There are some positive developments for the state, as Los Angeles and San Francisco will be upgraded.
Have you heard of Braeburn Capital?
Braeburn is actually a subsidiary of the hottest company on the planet right now. Apple is the parent company whose cash is being managed by this little known yet highly successful hedge fund. Braeburn started with a cash pile of $10 billion that has grown to a massive $117 billion, surpassing Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater.
Yet, it is not located in a premium spot in a famous skyscraper in the finance capitals of the world: New York, London and Hong Kong. It is actually situated in Reno, Nevada, in a location that is a far cry from some of the large hedge fund offices in Connecticut.
The funny thing is that there isn’t much information on the web about this hedge fund and even Capital IQ and Bloomberg don’t give many details. However, the LinkedIn profiles of the top people at Braeburn reveal the firm is led by smart individuals who definitely know how to manage money. This is evident in the hedge fund’s astronomic growth.
Herein lies the problem. Many analysts and hedge fund commentators feel that this is not really qualified to be a hedge fund and so it cannot be the largest. This is because a lot of the cash is reported in Apple's financial statements. The question is can the revenue received from the amazing sales of the iPhone models and the iPad tablets be attributed to Braeburn's exceptional fund management or Apple's marketing and innovation.
Braeburn has given a lot of tax advantages for Apple by being located in Reno, Nevada so that it avoids California taxes. Braeburn is on its way to become the largest hedge fund or asset manager in the world.
How to write a grocery list
If you have a long grocery list, do you ever forget to buy things on it? This has happened to me so many times, and I am not always good about bringing a pen to cross off the items as I buy them.
This is why I now strategically write out my grocery lists. This is really only necessary for long grocery lists, because short ones are easy to use. The main thing that I do is to write out my list in sections. Because I usually shop at the same store, I am well aware of where almost everything is. I also know the order of the aisles, and this helps me create the perfect list.
The store I shop at has the deli and fresh produce sections first. When I make my list, I keep this is mind. I write the items down in the order of how the store is setup. Any fresh produce I need is always listed first on my list.
The rest of the items I write in categories. For example, if I need five different types of meats, I will list them all together. I will write all of the frozen foods in one section, and I will do this with all of the items.
This is a great way to make sure that you buy everything you need. As you shop, you can cross the items off of your list, but this is not really necessary if you make a grocery list like this.
Where has the time gone?
Yesterday I had to meet with my daughter’s guidance counselor at school to discuss college decisions. She is a junior this year, and it is so hard to believe that we are already talking about college.
Like most parents, I feel like my daughter was just a little girl yesterday. How did she grow up so quickly? It has been fun to experience all of the different stages she has gone through and all of the accomplishments she has made, but where has the time gone?
In a year and a half, she will be leaving for college. While this is a day parents look forward to, it is also a day we dread. It is such a bittersweet feeling. It is great watching our children grow and reaching new milestones, but it is also sad because those days are long gone. The days of rocking your children to sleep are gone, and the days of helping them pick out their clothes are gone.
When children are little, parenting can be frustrating. It is hard to keep going when you are not getting enough sleep and when children are acting out, but believe me – those days are short. Those days do not last forever, so cherish them.
Try to enjoy each day with your kids. Enjoy each moment, even the ones that are not so pleasant. Someday you will look back and wish you could go back to those moments. I am encountering that feeling right now as my daughter and I discuss where she will attend college.
The Communist Manifesto
Socialism and communism seem to be rather fashionable these days. Every political rally has at least one booth promoting it. These political/economic systems get mixed up with ideas of social justice, which is odd because communist regimes in the 20th century have been the most brutal and murderous in history. It makes me wonder how many of these young communists have actually read Marx and Engles’ Communist Manifesto.The first part is an indictment of the results of the industrial revolution. Class struggles make up the history of the world, and through commerce, free trade, and mass production, formerly diverse classes have been consolidated into two: the bourgeois and proletariat, the oppressor and oppressed. Well, no argument there, and this oppression continues to this day.
But then things turn sinister. In the second part Marx and Engles lay out their plan for the revolution and how society will be reorganized. The key sentence is “The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.” Have supporters of communism thought through what this really means?
Marx and Engles committed two great fallacies. The first is that something as complex as an economy can be commanded from the top – and they doesn’t even stop at government, but wants to reorganize all of society. The second is that once the proletariat takes control, all class struggles and exploitation will cease, which obviously isn’t the case. The proletariat is made up of humans after all, just as susceptible to the temptations of power as anyone else.
For a glimpse into what society would be like under the ideals of the Communist Manifesto, I recommend you read some of the great fiction that came out during the glory days of the USSR, especially Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak and Cancer Ward by Alexander Solzhenitszn. And of course, the sequels to the Communist Manifesto could be George Orwell’s great works Animal Farm and 1984, where through fiction we can see the results of the revolution and the corrupting force of power.
Moonshine Cherries
I live in Mexico and drink a lot of really good booze. Tequila comes to mind at first, though there’s so much more. But also there’s a lot I can’t get here, so on trips back to the U.S., it’s great to see the cool, surprising things you find in liquor stores nowadays.
When I visit, I’m also fortunate to travel to diverse regions in the U.S. In each place I get to sample the unique things each region has to offer. Two weeks ago I was in Colorado, and I picked up a surprisingly good bourbon there.
On the same trip, my friends introduced me to Moonshine Cherries, made by the Ole Smoky Distillery. They’re not from Colorado – the company is in Gatlingburg, Tennessee - but their products were in all the liquor stores all over Colorado. I hope they are nationwide so you can pick one up.
Moonshine cherries are just that – a mason jar full of moonshine and maraschino cherries. You can eat the cherries straight out of the jar. They pack a boozy punch. Or you can add them to a drink, like a vodka tonic or a seven and seven.
The moonshine itself is delicious – red and strong, good ice cold and straight up. Unfortunately because of all the cherries there’s only a few glasses of liquid, so plan accordingly.
The Ole Smoky Distillery had other interesting products, like moonshine strawberries. But with my 5th of bourbon and a handful of craft beers, I was pushing the limit of booze acceptable for import to Mexico, so I had to leave the strawberries and other novelties behind. That’s the beauty of life – there’s always a next time.