The top 20 search terms used to find my blog in 2011:

1. diy tv stand (and what a stand it is…!)
2. forbes field (I have one photograph)
3. ford trimotor (ibid, but at least this one’s a potentially interesting photograph)
4. diy kitchen table (although it turned out to be more of a writing desk)
5. trigger finger (the ligament inflammation, not the need to shoot people)
6. spooky gulch (referring to the gulch, not to my grad school experiences)
7. b-52 (several photos actually)
8. diy tv stand plans
9. reagan library
10. tv stand diy (it was still a terrible project)
11. gluing wood together (although I can see my info being possibly helpful to someone trying to glue wood together)
12. general sherman (the tree, not the general; anyone looking for the general will have been disappointed)
13. tv stand plans
14. b52
15. ford tri motor
16. diy tv stands
17. flying tigers (one photo)
18. diy entertainment center
19. washing machine drain (one photo)
20. spruce goose (ibid)

In addition, 49 people found my site by searching for the word “clamps”, 33 by searching for “kia jeep” (which isn’t discussed anywhere on this domain), and 30 by searching for “pittsburgh toilet” (and to think that two years ago I’d never heard of such).

bkd

I should probably just start posting these on Facebook instead. Just that I kind of want Facebook to fail, so — you know. Also, I don’t remember in which month I got the phone. Probably spring some time.

A giant eagle at Lowe's: a retail allegory.

Because Giant Eagle is the big grocery chain in western Pennsylvania is why. That’s a really big bird, though. And not very shy. And I’m not sure which of the small children there he had his sites set on.

A pan fish I caught.

It’s not as big as it looks. Orrin did a nice job with the trick photography. But the impressive thing in the photo isn’t the fish that was about to be un-hooked, it’s (IMHO) this:

The effects of poison ivy.

Before moving to Pittsburgh, I was barely even aware that poison ivy still existed in the modern world. I certainly wasn’t aware of how, just, ridiculously awful it is. Fortunately, after the fourth or fifth outbreak I figured out a regimen to minimize the damage of the contact. But man, at this point I itch just looking at it. Hopefully none of the poison got on the fish…

Meanwhile, here’s a sunset:

Sunset on Keystone Lake

Also this…

The eastern rat snake that got into my garage.

As mentioned elsewhere, he was a gentleman among snakes. Waited for me to open the garage door before slithering in, then barely complained when I picked him up with my snow shovel and threw him out into the yard. Four feet long, inch and a half thick. They eat bird eggs, mice, and chipmunks.

This next photo was taken at the mall nearest my house (Century III) at about 12:30 PM.

This is the food court.

Interestingly, most of the restaurant spaces were occupied (and the restaurants were open for business). OTOH, you know your mall isn’t doing very well when it not only has two GameStops in it, but it also has two Army recruiting offices. (Would seem to indicate low lease rates is what I’m saying.)

A shirt I wore one day while fighting my cell phone.

Here are a couple shots of Mt. Rainier taken while maneuvering around the breakwater barges in Commencement Bay (Tacoma) in my dad’s boat.

Heading out of the marina

Then onto the open waters of Commencement Bay.

Also while out west this summer, I got to reconnect with some old friends:

This was in Spokane (downtown). It is the most friendly Carl's Jr. I've ever been to. The guy taking orders at the counter actually knew the names of his regular customers *and* knew what they usually ordered. It was almost too much to handle.

The Del Taco in South Bend (Ind.) wasn't as friendly. And South Bend isn't exactly "out west", it was just close enough to have a Del Taco. Food was good, but I got the impression they don't sell a lot of the churros.

And this is a cup of Postum:

And then I went to eBay and saw that a jar of the stuff costs like $400 now because they quit making it several years ago.

All right, then there’s this building on the campus at Pitt that’s called the “Cathedral of Learning”. It was a WPP project. How could it not have been? Anyway, every time I see it I think of the Tower of Babel, although I’m not sure any sacrilege (or language instruction) actually happens there.

And then there was this day when I was thinking that I hadn’t seen an AMC Pacer on the road in like a decade. Then a couple days later I saw this one (with current inspection stickers).

You can't beat the paint scheme.

Or maybe you *can* beat it, I don’t know. I’ve never actually tried.

Anyway, that’s a big enough dump I guess.

bkd

viagra online writes “The author is really cool. But some of the commentators are just posting stupid words.”

His (her?) point is spot-on, but I was made a little suspicious by the fact that this was posted on a photo of a P-40 Warhawk that has yet to receive comments. The user name was also kind of a red flag…

HefHiesuchsic writes “I can not participate now in discussion – there is no free time. I will be released – I will necessarily express the opinion.”

Makes you think, right? Is HefHiesuchsic currently incarcerated? For crimes he (she?) didn’t commit? And what of “the opinion”?! Sadly, HefHiesuchsic never returned to (again) the photo of the P-40 Warhawk to explain. We may never learn the secret(s?).

Mei Hestand comments on this page “bathroom-drywall 008 | bkdunn.com? You should have thought of a much better title than that, lol.”

Again, a prescient point. I get pretty lazy about titling my photos of drywall in bathrooms.

Commenter preiswert urlaub raved about my trigger finger splints photo: “People Incident,force dog detailed shout term duty mental opinion page fill easy sometimes gate myself religion possibly work yourself dinner likely phase absolutely relative silence reform anyway blow contact boy equipment total corporate survey brother wonder define generally since state index responsibility method flight fact late event never effective pupil method accompany everyone yeah late reach grey have employment pleasure creation deal long deal comparison fund match museum see flow vast traffic pool aye significant impose sheet sky recognize lay shall arrange make sport plate satisfy traditional under survey”

And I’m inclined to agree. Meanwhile, over on my 48stateroadtrip site, commenter Vivienne Damone delivers some good news:

Pleased new calendar year!

Although it’s unclear whether she means that my post regarding the Valley of the Gods that has accomplished said pleasing. And then everyone’s friend jobs in graphic design had this counter-argument regarding the Blue Ridge Parkway:

I don’t accept this blog post. Nonetheless, I had searched in Yahoo and I’ve found out that you are right and I seemed to be thinking in the improper way. Keep on publishing high quality content similar to this.

I guess it wasn’t much of a counter-argument.

And now I figure it’s only a matter of time before the Good Times virus makes a comeback through social networking.

bkd

1. Do-It-Yourself TV Stand and/or Entertainment Center Part 1: Plans and Stuff to By – It’s a crappy entertainment center, but that title is such tasty search engine bait. How could Google resist? How could someone looking for “diy entertainment center” resist? (I’m omitting parts 2-4 from this list; they’d occupy spots 2-4 if I included them. Because it’s kind of a crappy entertainment center. It’s falling apart even as I type. It probably didn’t deserve to make the move.)
2. US War Deaths by Day by Conflict (War, Battle) and How Iraq Compares – More good SEO-bait in the title, but at least this time it’s sort of a worthwhile article. Gives some perspective and all. Korea was way worse than anyone gives it credit for.
3. More B-52 Photos, By Request (Plus a Couple Pics of AMARG) – SEO-centric title, yep. And, fwiw, the post delivers as promised. The photos look warm.
4. My First Red Egg and Ginger Party – Turns out other non-Chinese people also don’t know what gift is appropriate at one of these (money in a red envelope is the right answer).
5. Getting Closer: My Do-It-Yourself Kitchen Table Project So Far – The title was not written to impress you, it was written to impress an algorithm. Algorithms have no soul (I don’t think). And right now the table is in the garage holding up my compound miter saw.
6. Spooky Gulch, Peek-a-Boo Gulch, and Dry Fork Hike – Yeah, it’s probably a hike everyone should go on in their lifetime (unless they’re claustrophobic or exceptionally wide-hipped).
7. Elwha Valley, Humes Ranch Loop, and Goblin Gate (A Six-Mile Hike) – I’ve posted less-read articles about much more interesting hikes. Goblins Gate is cool, but the rest is a tree prison. Hopefully those that read the post last year now understand as much.
8. Trip to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park(s?) – The follow-on post about General Sherman and General Grant was immediately below this one in the rankings, but it’s sort of the same post, so not included. Big trees, much snow, many photos. Well — a *few* photos.
9. Planes of Fame Air Show 2009: Old Planes in the 909 – I went to this air show. It’s a lot better than you’d expect an air show in Chino to be. Many WWII-vintage planes in the air.
10. Gantt Chart for My Home Renovation Project (in Pittsburgh) – Yeah, so I didn’t really keep to the schedule, unfortunately. If I had — just, wow.

And for what it’s worth, here were the top five images viewed. These only count if they were viewed as a separate page, which probably only usually happened if they were found through Google or Bing image search.

1. Ford Tri-Motor Interior – It’s a photo of the interior of a Ford Tri-Motor (passenger) airplane located at the Evergreen Aerospace Museum. It’s a nice photo. I’d want to look at it.
2. Gantt Chart – It’s the Gantt Chart from above. Not very photographic, but it gives the appearance of having planned.
3. P-40 Warhawk Flying Tiger – From the same collection as the tri-motor above, only this one has a drip pan!
4. Trigger Finger Splints (1) – Way better than Trigger Finger Splints (2). It shows off my trigger finger splints.
5. Forbes Field Outfield Wall – And now I see this wall *every* *single* *day* (unless I don’t go to school, in which case I don’t see the wall).

So now you know and, assuming that knowing remains half the battle, that makes this useful.

bkd

1. Age on my next birthday:

The crazy thing is that I actually know what HICSS *is*. I’ll probably attend in a couple years.

2. My favorite color.

3. My middle name.

4. Last meal I ate.

5. My bad habit.

6. My favorite fruit or vegetable.

7. My favorite animal.

8. The town I live in.

9. The name of my last pet.

10. My occupation.

11. My birth city.

12. My favorite song.

There’s nothing like a medical condition that makes you feel old while at the same time emasculating you. Because it’s most common in women over 40. Anyway.

• Basically the tendons are swollen, such that if my left ring finger or right pinky is curled up, the middle knuckle “catches” when trying to extend the finger out straight.
• It’s like that when I first wake up, but as things warm up during the day, the fingers act normal.
• It started coming on back when I was doing the floor. Apparently it’s a bad thing when, after finishing sanding, your hands feel like they’re full of springs.
• Working with my hands every day since then apparently exacerbated the situation, until maybe three weeks ago when the “catching” started.
• It doesn’t hurt (all my fingers have been a little stiff and sore since mid-May), it’s just disconcerting and likely to progressively worsen without measures being taken.
• Recommended course of action is to (a) stop doing things that require me to grab stuff, especially power tools that oscillate or vibrate; (b) splint the affected fingers, especially at night; and (c) maybe pop some “anti-inflammatories” (ibuprofen). Should heal itself in four to six weeks.
• If that doesn’t work, then I can go in and get some cortisone injections. I’ll feel like a professional athlete! Like an old, emasculated professional athlete.

Not sure whether this means I just stop doing anything with the house or what. It’s going to be hard to be here without trying to do stuff, since:

• All that’s left to do in the kitchen is install the cabinets (and sink and dishwasher and disposal).
• The den is looking good, but needs bookshelves that I’d need to build.
• I ordered five sets of slat blinds that should arrive next week some time; it might be hard to avoid hanging them once they get here.
• Now that the master bedroom is basically ready to go, it’d be cool to put a door on the room — but the door needs to be painted and hung, which require grabbing and tool-use.
• With the kitchen floor done, I can start moving stuff from the basement into the living room, but carrying all that stuff might be proscribed.
• The upstairs bathroom is still a no-mans land and it sucks having to go downstairs to use the toilet.
• Plus the whole rest of the house and all.

Guess I should’ve gone to Oregon for the family reunion. It’s amazing how pretty much everything I sort of am interested in doing requires me to grab stuff. I’m not sure I should even consider hiking in WVa, since all the interesting hikes there have river crossings and I’d be mad trying to do them without poles. Also unsure about fishing, since it’d require me to have my hands in curled-up positions.

Instead I’m heading to Southern Virginia — it’s cheaper than Oregon on short notice and most of what there is to do there is passive (read: a lot of looking). It’ll keep me off my hands for a few days and then when I get back I can maybe re-evaluate. Also, in case you were wondering, it doesn’t make sense to visit a doctor until September when I have real insurance and not the kind with the $5,000 deductible.

I dunno. Maybe this is the blown transmission of the house renovation months. I swear I’m not just trying to find excuses to avoid painting doors.

bkd

• There was a cop blocking the onramp for Mifflin Road, so I had to veer off onto Carson Street and was half-way to South Side flats before there was a turnoff I could use to turn around again.
• Found out it was going to cost me $5,000 to get my roof fixed.
• Ken Griffey, Jr. retired.
• Big ol’ electrical storm.
• Power went out (and stayed out for 18 hours).

Took a shower by flashlight, then I went back to bed. Today I got a revised estimate on the roof: $3,900. And it seems like I should have taken a photo of the bird.

bkd

PS, My hair’s too short to comb, but the rhythm would’ve been way off without it. Also considered using the Easy Star All-Stars variation (fingers+dreads), but figured the original would be confusing enough.

PPS, I’m sad about Griffey retiring.His bat was too slow and he should have retired at the end of last year, but he was a big part of the reason I ended up liking baseball as much as I do; he was the guy that made my team relevant. With him out of the game it feels like a part of me is, now, officially and irrevocably, washed up.

1. Dear God, what is that *thing*?
   
   It’s a 2001 Toyota Prius.
   
   
2. And you bought it?
   
   Yes.
   
   
3. Seriously?
   
   Seriously.
   
   
4. Why?
   
   The reasons are as plentiful as they are interesting. Or maybe not. Depends on your definitions of terms. For one thing, I didn’t want to be driving my big ol’ pickup around in Pittsburgh — it’s expensive to operate and too big to fit on city streets.
   
   
5. So you’re selling your truck?
   
   Not sure yet.
   
   
6. So why a Prius?
   
   It was a good deal and it’s fuel-efficient.
   
   
7. How much?
   
   $4,625.
   
   
8. But — a Prius?
   
   I was looking for an econobox. My first choice would have been something like a Honda Fit or Scion xA, neither of which are ego-enhancing, but both of which are fuel-efficient and small enough to fit in Pittsburgh and more fun to drive than a Prius. However, thanks to (I’m guessing) the current economy and (I’m also guessing) Dear Leader’s societal engineering projects (read: Cash for Clunkers), the prices on used cars, small ones in particular, are insane.
   
   
9. Saying small car prices are insane is racist.
   
   Probably.
   
   
10. Like — how insane?
    
    Like ElEff bought a 2008 salvage title Fit two years ago for $8K. Today, a 2008 salvage title Fit will cost you $9,000+ — unless you want one that actually runs right, in which case add another thousand or just buy non-salvage for $11K. Similar story for the entire category — Scion xA’s, Civics, Mazda3s, Matrixes (Matrices?), et al.
    
    
11. So why didn’t you just sell your truck and buy something more expensive then?
    
    Because I wasn’t going to buy a salvage Fit for $9K. And then because if I’m going to spend $10K+ for a car, it should be a car I kind of want and would enjoy driving, not one I’m buying for the sake of being pragmatic for a while. Nothing that’s any fun to drive and that’s under 80K miles and eight years old costs less than $17K right now. And I’m not in a position to spend $17K on a car. All hail reality.
    
    
12. So does this make you some sort of environmentalist now then?
    
    It’s just a car.
    
    
13. Hmm.
    
    Exactly.
    

So I’m not necessarily *excited* about the car, but then again, it’s not a car I bought for the sake of excitement. It’ll definitely get good mileage. I bought it from a known source that I know isn’t trying to scam me. It was cheap enough that if it spontaneously combusts RIGHT NOW, I’ll recover financially. It’s not pure driving excitement, but OTOH it handles and responds better than the second-gen Prius I drove from Phoenix back to OC, so — you know.

ElEff called this car the vehicular equivalent of the house I’m (hopefully) buying in Pittsburgh. Sounds about right. At least I’m enjoying a new level of consistency.

bkd

This isn’t about Plan B, though. This is about my having looked at, like, seven houses today and most of them being variations on awful that I hadn’t necessarily considered possible. The sloped rooms and all. I mean, really. Here are the seven:

1. Horrifying salt box in West View that needed, at a minimum, a new everything. Most particularly a new smell.
2. Kind of interesting big, old three-story house in West View that had a cool yard, a slight slant to the floor in the living room, a two-car garage, and probably required more time and money than I was gonna give it.
3. Frightening three-bedroom in Morningside where you couldn’t really walk around for all the cobwebs and stuff piled on the floor (and on all other flat spaces). There were ruddy crosses finger-painted above every bedroom door. Non-positive vibe. My agent had hand sanitizer in the car.
4. Interesting-enough, small two-bedroom in Greenfield. Very narrow house, obviously had spent most of its recent years as a student rental, awesome kitchen flooring.
5. Unfortunate three-bedroom in Greenfield. In kind of a weird part of the neighborhood and walking from its front to back made me seasick with all the variations in, like, flatness. OTOH, the toilet worked.
6. The house in Lincoln Place on which I’m making an offer.
7. Another slant-floored house in Lincoln Place. The “kitchen” and “bathroom” were both located in the basement for some reason.

Here are some photos. Everyone likes photos. (All but one of these are from nos. 1 and 4 above; really should have photographed the lamb’s blood in no. 3.)

The shame of it is that the artist didn't sign his (her?) work.

You can't *really* tell, but the wallpaper in this one is reflective silver. Would have worked great in East Germany.

(Which is not to say that it doesn’t work great in Pittsburgh.)

A boiler.

A boiler! My agent said it needed to be replaced (by a NEW boiler!). And unfortunately we didn’t not come into contact with any of what he called “octopus furnaces”.

Needs a new garage door.

A Pittsburgh toilet.

This is a real, functioning toilet that’s in the middle of the basement floor (or off to the side, I guess). Apparently this is a thing here in the Burgh — it’s actually called a “Pittsburgh toilet”. According to legend, the steel mill worker would come home covered in soot and slag, enter through the side door, then head to the basement to… well, take a crap I guess. There was probably once a shower head down here next to the toilet, which may have helped with the soot.

And no walls. Basement toilet stall walls are gauche. Or they were 100 years ago.

bkd

(If anyone pictured doesn’t like having these out there, lmk and I’ll take this post private.)

Dad, Mom. I think she's putting his lieutenant bars on him, ca. 1960.

It’s weird looking at my parents like this. I mean, they just look like young, good-looking military newlyweds, right? Who knew?

My mom's family (Uncle Bill, Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Mitzie, Mom, Uncle Jim). David was probably on his mission or something and John was probably crime-fighting on the temple grounds. Maybe.

Four generations of Dunns (great grandparents in the middle, my grandparents at bottom left and right, Uncle Bill and Aunt Kay top-right, brother Garry and cousin Jeff at bottom right).

It’s also interesting to me how close my grandparents look to how I remember them. Heck, even my older brothers:

ca. 1964?

…still kind of look sort of like this. Their faces anyway.

My dad also scanned a photo of the house they lived in in Pensacola (1960-62?):

Which I took a photo of on my roadtrip:

It was probably nicer with the trees in the front yard.

So it turns out it’s interesting to see where you come from.

bkd

• Rents < $1,000 for a place with a 2-car garage and something like a yard.
• Close enough to the mountains that getting a season’s pass for skiing makes sense.
• Close to good hiking.
• Close to a real karting track.
• In the vicinity of an adult baseball league I can join.
• Close to current friends/family.
• Not crushingly urban (e.g., New York).
• Not crushingly rural (e.g., Twin Falls).
• Not crushingly suburban (e.g., Mission Viejo).
• Not crushingly pretentious (e.g., Laguna Beach).
• Predominately sunny (not necessarily warm, just sunny).
• Smart, reasonably compatible prevailing personality.
• Should be non-imaginary.

It might be tough to find a place that meets all those criteria. Here are the places that could be considered front-runners, along with the areas where they may not measure up (listed alphabetically):

• Kauai: Not much skiing, karting, or baseball; can’t get a place with a garage for under $1,000 (but it’s still a cheaper rental market than SoCal); might get really sick of it after three weeks.
• Reno: No family and only one friend (whom I haven’t talked to for a few years); could be too redneckish; possibly imaginary.
• San Diego: Couldn’t possibly get a 2BR w/ garage for less than $1K without living somewhere where I’d get shot daily (although it’s really not much more expensive than Seattle-Tacoma); no skiing and karting is tricky; not as sunny as non-Cals think; could be pretentious or trashy, depending on the neighborhood.
• Seattle-Tacoma Area: Not very sunny; don’t really have any friends that live there (that I’ve talked to in the last 20 years at least); would have to get deep into the sticks in order to find a 2BR place with a garage under $1,000/month.
• Tahoe: No friends or family; could be too pretentious or too rural — really; not close to karting or baseball; no idea on personalities.
• Some Random Place: I got at least a couple months to figure it out.

Or if some municipality wanted to pay me cash considerations in exchange for positive blog mentions, I’d be up for that probably.

bkd

bkd

The new living room. The place comes furnished, btw. It’s nice, eclectic stuff.

The view out the front door.

The boardwalk at Main Beach in Laguna. This photo is about a mile down from where I’m living — but there’s another beach that’s just three blocks and across PCH away from me (5 minutes walk).

Chief Idiosyncracies (of the Apartment and Area):

• It’s really small. Most of my stuff is in storage already, but not enough of it apparently.
• No garbage disposal or dishwasher.
• The recycling bin is bigger than the main trash can.
• Backing out of the driveway is tricky (it slopes down toward the house and it’s kind of a blind back-out situation as a result).
• Town is crowded on the weekends.
• More per capita Ferarris than any other city on Earth.

Everyone warned me about the traffic before moving here. But “everyone” hasn’t lived here — they’ve just experienced traffic trying to get here on a weekend, which I’m sure was brutal. But when you’re starting with your car already in Laguna Beach, it’s not quite so awful. Driving to work is 25 minutes now, but not that much traffic on the way and it’s pretty free-flowing.

We’ll see how it goes.

bkd

Jadedly,

bkd

Further updates as events warrant.

bkd

• “Spam Trap Wisdom” — It’s sort of interesting what blog spammers are using now to try and break through.
• “Keys to a Successful Life” — This post is finished already. I’m going to publish it one day, but I’m not sure whether it’s going to be on a particularly good day or a particularly bad one. I can see value in either argument. Occasionally, I go back and look at this post, laugh a little, then shake my head.
• “Satan: What’s the Point?” — The crux of the post would be the examination of the it wasn’t my fault, Satan made me do it! cop-out.
• “Does Anyone Out There Have a Cult I Can Join?” — Exactly.
• “Iraq Cost-Benefit Analysis and Net Present Value: The Only Reason to Be For or Against the War” — Maybe it’s too late in the Iraq game for this article, but it’d probably be worth writing just after the onset of the next war. Probably hold onto it till then.
• “Winning the Oil War and Why You Should Use as Much Gas as Possible” — Because the more we use, the less other countries can use and the harder it becomes for them to compete with us given the increasing cost of energy. Never quite got the logic worked out on it, but there might be some.
• “How a Libertarian Could Become President” — He would probably have to be a celebrity and lie a lot.
• “Best of bkdunn.com: Two and a Half Keen Years of Copaceticity” — Now that it’s been up for 2.6 years, I figure I may as well wait till it’s been up for three.
• “If I Had Infinite Time and Infinite Resources I Would *Definitely* Do That” — Or, “what people mean when they say they ‘would like to’ do something, but ultimately never do it” (would probably come across a little caustic).
• “Why Mormons Should Be Civil Libertarians” — Because we’ve had to put up with so much crap in our history that it seems like we’d want to help some other people not have to go through quite as much as we did. Oh well.
• “Stuff to Do Differently Next Kauai Vacation” — #3. Bring a pair of pants. ‘Nuff said.
• “My Top Five Things to Do on Kauai” — Wailua River to Secret Falls, the Ultralite Thing, Hanakapiai Falls, Snorkeling at Kuhio, and… Sleeping Giant maybe?
• “Reviews of Christmas Ornaments” — And they would be scathing.

Thus ends my overview of things that have almost been and may yet be posted.

Informatively,

bkd

———- Forwarded message ———-
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:50:01 -0600 (MDT)
From: Freshgoat
To: xxx@maruzen.co.jp
Subject: Re: [rt.endpoint.com #6084] endpoint.com website email: Reproduction

On Tue, 10 Mar 2009, sales@endpoint.com via RT wrote:

Allow me to introduce myself that I am [name], Rights Controller of Maruzen Planet Co., Ltd., a publisher of Japan. It is a great pleasure to work with you on this occasion.

In this winter we will publish a title“ Nara of Times Now Past from 710 to 2010”

In this title, under your permission, we would like to reproduce your picture “NY Stock Exchange ”

Please show your terms of reproduction by return.

—–

Hello. Thanks for your email.

The terms for distribution of photos at http://www.epnewyork.com/ are as follows (in Japanese):

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/deed.ja

If you agree with those terms, you have our approval to distribute the photo.

If you would like to arrange any different agreement, please let us know what you’d like to do and we can discuss an appropriate fee.

Thanks,
Freshgoat

Anyway. The photo they’re referencing is one I took of the New York Stock Exchange:

Viva America!

I kind of like the photo, at least from the standpoint that it’s very much what it is. ‘Course, I’m guessing I’ll never see what they do with it.

More impressive, I guess, is that this is the second time that some publisher has (a) found the EPNewYork website  and (b) found thereon a photo of mine that they wanted to use in a book. What are the odds, right? It really is a pretty well SEO’d website I guess, so that’s cool. Inasmuch as I like having people find and want to use photos I took, I should probably be grateful to Endpoint for paying me to develop this little site way back when. (And to the ‘goat for responding to the inquiries and letting me know about ‘em.) It does make me wonder whether I should start putting together *other* city-themed websites in an effort to get *other* publishers to want to use my photos.

Anyway. Good times.

http://www.redfin.com/CA/Mission-Viejo/26292-Los-Viveros-92691/unit-166-A/home/18547846

My old kitchen in all its glory (except that it’s yellow now).

Asking price is only $100K less than I sold it for in 2004. Ouch. From the signs on the windows in the photos on the Redfin listing, I’m guessing it’s also been through foreclosure and auction. Looks the exact same as I left it though — except for the new wood floors and fresh paint. Kind of sad, yet kind of reminds me that it wasn’t really that nice of a place to begin with. I still have strong recollections of the upstairs neighbors inviting their large extended family over so all the kids could race from one end of the (wood-floored) unit to the other while I was trying to work downstairs. Again, ouch.

bkd

2009 – Moved from Mission Viejo (by the lake) to Mission Viejo (by, uh, Taco Bell)
Because it’s like having $1,150 a month cash drop from the ceiling. Plus the old place was gated (don’t get me started), had sub-competent gate guards, too many speed bumps, old people who stared at you from their windows but never came outside, had some weird tiles (well it did), and sound carried way too well across the lake. And the bathroom was carpeted.

2007 – Moved from Foothill Ranch to Mission Viejo (by the lake)
Because the new place only cost 30% more despite being twice as big, having twice as many bedrooms, and having a pretty nice view of the lake. And the old place was pretty scrappy. And gated. With speed bumps and too-narrow parking spaces.

2006 – Moved from New York City to Foothill Ranch (via Michigan)
Because I got the job in California and didn’t really ever quite adapt to life in the Big City, in no small part because of the outrageous expense and constantly having to walk through the snow/wind/sleet/rain to get to/from the subway station. ‘Course, I think if I’d carried more accurate expectations into the job, found a roommate out in NYC (or thereabouts) to cut down on the cost of rent, and/or there’d been a few more people in the End Point offices, I might have stuck it out for another year.

2005 – Moved from Lehi to New York City
Because I got the job in NYC and sitting around that house by myself all day every day was making me crazy. Or crazier faster I guess would be more appropriate to state. And stuffing my 1,700 s.f. Utah lifestyle into a 430 s.f. Downtown Manhattan apartment offered an interesting challenge…

2004 – Moved from Mission Viejo (The Condo) to Lehi (The House)
Because I wanted to buy a house, thought that I knew a lot of people in Utah that I could hang out with, and because working at Epson seemed to have run its course and if I was going to start a business, Utah was an easier/cheaper environment for that.

2000 – Moved from La Mesa (the studio on the lake) to Mission Viejo (The Condo)
Because I started business school at UCI in 2000. Went back to the studio’s neighborhood over Christmas and drove around — it was kind of a cool area, I think.

1999 – Moved from La Mesa (Mellmanor) to La Mesa (the studio on the lake)
Because the studio on the lake was pretty cool and its owner was a friend from work who really wanted me to move in there. And the Mellmanor place was a pretty funky apartment — seemed more like a hotel, but without any elevators or lighting in the hallways. Althought it was the site of the Miracle of the Fish that I should probably chronicle some day. It made for a good church talk.

1998 – Moved from El Cajon (Rick’s House) to La Mesa (Mellmanor)
Because after a couple months of living in your brother’s house it’s hard to feel like you’re doing a good job of maintaining your dignity, let alone advancing it. Sadly.

1998 – Moved from Twin Falls to El Cajon (Rick’s House)
Because I’m not a farmer and I’d heard the job market in San Diego was promising.

1997 – Moved from Rupert (C&A’s apartment) to Twin Falls
Because I was working in Twin by that point, so it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to still be living in Rupert.

1997 – Moved from Boston (Allston) to Rupert (C&A’s Apartment)
Because after arriving in Boston to pursue my masters, I realized that the degree I was going after would probably over-qualify me for any sort of meaningful job, plus the other kids in the program were not quite as brilliant as I was hoping they’d be (“Utah’s one of those Great Lakes states, like by Michigan, right?”).

1997 – Moved from Provo (the house of low ceilings) to Boston (Allston)
Because I was starting a masters program in writing and publishing at Emerson and, really, it was high-time to get out of Provo.

So I’m not sure what would be next anyway. I’m thinking maybe I ought to buy a house or some property somewhere, call that home base, then just keep on living cheap wherever I end up finding work. Or else living out of my truck. Man — that just seems so romantic. Oh well. Mal sehen was wird.

Transiently,

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And as a result of the move $1,150 cash will be falling from the ceiling of my new bedroom every month. So cool.

Things I Won’t Miss About the Old Place:

• Those stupid, giant birds and the crab carcasses they’d always vomit onto my deck. Ugh. I’ll post a picture one day. Of the birds, not the carcasses. Sadly.
• The tiles in the entry way and the chandelier.
• The stained glass.
• The sound of sirens echoing off the lake.
• The lake’s Summer Jazz Festival.
• The gate guards — they had a greater than 50% failure rate at letting my guests in.
• The speed bumps.
• The old people who would sit in their living rooms watching — although it did make me a little nostalgic for East Germany.
• The stunning lack of cash falling from ceilings.
• Paying for utilities.

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