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As a Multi-Millionaire…

Olaf — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:49:11 +0000

My wife and I like to think strategically about our future. Planning and foresight can save you a lot of grief and work in earnest.

In the event that we should become multi-millionaires in the future, we want to make sure we know what we’re going to do with the money. The following is an ongoing list of major things on our list:

Establish a Commune

And by commune, you have to understand my interpretation of the word. The usual ideas just don’t cut it – my idea of a modern commune is little more than a community of friends living in close proximity, each generally having some arcane talent. Other than that, everybody maintains their own job. The added benefit is that you have a community of actual friends in close proximity to help with things. Think about some of these nicer neighborhoods going up that include parks and community facilities like a club house or picnic area. That’s where the millions of dollars come in – someone has to pony up the money to put it together.

Establish an Olde World Arts and Crafts Guild

Look into America’s early years after the Declaration of Independence. As was popular in Europe, guilds popped up all over the place. Funny thing was, they never seemed to last. The guilds cranked out some epic-level work, but rarely made the profit needed to keep the their doors open. The Industrial Revolution was what put them out completely. Mechanized art, while not for the purists, was the way of the future and a clear winner in the end. Revival after revival, it was only when the the passion was washed out by insufficient funds that the guilds closed their doors. An arts and crafts guild would work today, but only if I could poor money into it endlessly.

Create an Elderly Care Facility that Cares

Most elderly care facilities – the ones that the average senior citizen could afford – are clever facades on the same old song and dance. There are too many horror stories to count as you look across the gamut and research their “customer appreciation.” A big reason for this is funding. The hired help is majority volunteer, public service workers, or minimum wage. When you’re not paying well, it’s hard to attract good help, but that’s just what you need.

My wife is the one with real passion for this one. She would love to pour many into a retirement home that is treated more like a spa than assisted living. It would have to be a non-profit venture with backing. The key is to rally support within the area communities, government, and of course, mad money.

Build the Lake Lanier Boardwalk District

How cool would it be to have a boardwalk district on Lake Lanier? I envision long wooden decking, boat slips, a beach, and fantastic night life and retail shopping. There should be bars with karaoke, an outdoor stage, a gallery, and much more. Normally, this kind of thing wouldn’t need so much money to keep it up, but I think I’d have to pay off the Corps. of Engineers a hefty sum to allow it!

Create a Seafood/Freshwater Fish Restaurant on the Lake

Along with that whole boardwalk idea, you have to have some big foundations. I purpose a fish restaurant out on the water. It would be awesome to have its center piece being a large circle of the lake with underwater lights and sub-level glass for viewing. Above that, have two to three stories encircling the “aquarium” for diners to look down upon. There is some real opportunity to make a case for the environmental concerns surrounding the lake in a venue like this.

Build an Irish Pub

Another permanent resident of the boardwalk should be a good old-fashioned Irish pub. If you know of McGuire’s in Pensacola, then your thinking along the same lines. Good food (or bad, but traditional!) and drinks. These relics of America’s past have always been places of fun and festivity.

Musings for the week of 2008-12-29

Olaf — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 04:59:59 +0000

Tomorrow is Christmas – the 5-year-old is starting to vibrate. #
Balthazar just called the clock a “time machine.” Fitting, really. #
I hate cats at Christmas – they break your ornaments! #
Merry Christmas! #
I got the Zoom H2 field recorder! You can expect to hear some live drumming in the future. #

The Horrors of the Obama Administration

Olaf — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:55:18 +0000

This week’s “The Pain” comic tells the story – probably from my area of the world – of Obama’s election. When I first perused it, I had assumed Mr. Kreider was not a fan of Obama. For this one, you need to read the Artist’s statement which raises the comic wit.

…watching Obama’s luminous acceptance speech, hearing him say to all those who had bitterly fought his election what I could never have imagined Bush saying to me and my friends—“I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too”…Yes, I thought, magnanimous in victory: donuts for all. Seeing our first black president, that science-fiction trope for The Future, become a reality, I felt the way people must have felt the night men first walked on the moon.

“The Pain–When Will It End?” is a satirist web-column generally focused on political fodder and social follies. The artist, Tim Kreider, is well-known in his industry and a seasoned veteran of political cartoons. Seasoned with paprika and cumin, presumably; based upon his caustic wit. I’m a fan of the spices. I don’t always get the joke, but then I don’t put a lot of time into politics either.

Ill-Conceived Science

Olaf — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:39:44 +0000

I have heard this one before. It was once said that bumblebees were scientifically incapable of flight. Today’s future-potential piece of mythical folklore is that the pterodactyl was also incapable of flight. Katsufumi Sato has collected and assessed the data only to reveal nature’s secret to flight: “…the largest animal capable of soaring across the sky unaided could have weighed no more than 40kg (88lbs)…” Pardon my layman intellect in the matter, but that statement seems a bit…constraining. My meager interest in science has taught me, if nothing else, that nature cares little for restrictions. Say that natural flight is limited to an object under 100lbs. and the next thing you know, a flying hippopotamus sores over your freshly washed car. I just mean to demonstrate that nature is not seemingly bound by our attempt to mathematically explain it all. Or perhaps we are unaware of the math necessary to explain it. Besides, the pterodactyl did potentially exist for 186 million years – surely it evolved great wings for a reason and got some fly time in there. I also found great exception to this comment:

Prof Sato says animals heavier than 40kg would not be able to flap fast enough to stay aloft. This would explain why the wandering albatross weighs only 22 kg (46lbs).

I don’t think that Sato’s 40kg hypothesis is the reason the albatross weighs 22kg. I doubt Sato was consulted on the matter of albatross evolution when it came to weight considerations.

It’s just a wild scientific hypothesis, but it irritates me for some reason. Perhaps because the pterodactyl has always been somewhat of a hero to me – it’s the biggest creature ever to have ruled the skies and the idea of it amazes and frightens me simultaneously. Don’t go messing with my heroes, it’s just not cool!

Esquire, Magazine of the Future!

Olaf — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:54:06 +0000

Dippin’ Dots are so 2000…E Ink is the future. Esquire magazine is making a bold move to use E Ink on the cover of their October magazine. What’s more, they snagged the rights to the deal from E Ink Corporation for a year. That gives them megacreds towards the potential future of magazine design. Remember when National Geographic created the holographic cover? It featured the skull of Homo erectus. That was really cool in 1985, but this is quite different. Instead of a static image composed of millions of dots of color, E Ink is the application of tiny double-sided dots that react to electrical stimulation. The dots can flip when commanded to show one of two colors, typically black or white. When multiplied to the size of a magazine cover, you have a dynamic screen that has some basic video capabilities. It’s the same technology used in the Amazon Kindle, if you’re familiar. Esquire’s plunge into this market worked out very well already. Ford was willing to pick up the additional cost of the cover’s production through an advertisement. They will be featured on the inside of the cover, another piece of E Ink wonder. It will be truly amazing one day to see the photos of people on magazine covers in grocery stores winking back at you. It’s Harry Potter technology brought to reality!

I don’t really know what Esquire is all about, but I’ll buying a copy of this one off the stands when it comes out. It’s a historic moment.

Link: BoingBoing

No Bones About It

Olaf — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 05:44:06 +0000

It has been submitted! It took way to long to get the presentation worked out, and I’m less than excited about the results. I tried to use some Flashy-goodness, but couldn’t get the file size down to the allowable limit. I am however, pretty jazzed about the final result. Sure, I could have kept editing it forever, but I needed to punt at some point. This will be my real learning experience and I can move on with more submissions in the future.

So thanks for helping me with my critique, now please vote like the wind! I have to keep the piece high enough in the rankings to last for all 7 days – that is, of course, as long as the judges approve it for the go-forward.

The Sins of Man

Olaf — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:47:01 +0000

We’ve returned home from Philadelphia, though home is not exactly as we left it. There is a gray storm cloud hovering above us; perhaps still building in power and ferocity, or lingering remnants of a thunderhead. I’m not talking about the weather, though the hurricane located near Corpus Christi does invoke a palpable invocation of the mood.

Two very dear friends were struck apart suddenly and violently by the squandering of trust and respect by one from the other. The consequences for such a thing are no mystery, though the act mystifies many of us. How is it that when a relationship is ended so suddenly that it is as if someone died? Did the offender die, or the offended? Does this change their lives forever, or can the shattered pieces coallesce back into solidarity. Perhaps the answer to that question is really the stuff that defines someone. Do you care enough to persist? The hardest thing in the world may well be the acknowledgment of fault; the recovery of abasement despite humiliation.

To the offender: I am not immune to my friends’ pain. I cannot abide such disrespect to any of my friends, especially not from another. However, I am also one of the best friends to have; even though my respect has been scarred by this event, I am willing to lend my support and help where it is appreciated. I’m not the best friend because I can forgive…I’m the best because I won’t settle for anything but an attitude for reparations. After that, you two can determine your own futures.

The Home School Phenomenon

Olaf — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:14:07 +0000

Man has been on a quest throughout time to find the riddle of the root of all evil. Ole-Magnus Saxegard, a student of the Sydney-based University of Technology, explores this riddle in his latest frame-by-frame Flash animation (A History of Evil). It is a brilliant vision. If he’s looking for further inspiration to this age-old question, I have yet another clue…from the future!

I have noticed over the past several years that home-schooling seems to have risen in popularity. Initially, I was impressed at the number of people involved in the home school method. I later learned that many of these home school students actually get together on some routine frequency to develop socially, as well as to share the responsibility of teaching across multiple parents. I can’t say for sure, but I’m guessing this is a bit of a regression. Didn’t school systems start this way? Finally,there seemed to be an ulterior motive to home schooling. There have been a rash of parent vs. government cases over the last decade regarding the use of faith-based programs in school systems. Of late, Darwinian Evolution and Intelligent Design are the major contention points. Home schooling seems to be the concerned parents’ answer. A parent that disagrees with the educational system – perhaps also disagreeing with private systems, or unable to afford them – can pull their child back into the home where teaching is at the discretion of the family. From a Little House on the Prairie ideal, this seems like a charming social shift in America. However, I see it as a disaster for our future. If children are taught through home school primarily to reinforce religious perspectives on science, then our legacy’s potential for critical thinking is severely limited. The views of the parents will extend through to their children, and while not obviously as detrimental as racism, will inevitably give rise to ostracism.

See: Twin Cities Creation Science Association Sponsors Home School Science Fair

The Lumberjacks were Here

Olaf — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:41:30 +0000

This morning a guy with a fluorescent-green shirt came to the door a little after 8:00am. “It’s a little too early to be sporting that color,” I thought. Apparently, after 7 or 8 years now, it was time for the local officials to take notice of a small stand of Mimosa trees I had reared from seeds. Two of them them were growing underneath the power lines, and seen as a serious enough risk that they would be cut down immediately. It’s very unfortunate because the trees are beautiful and provide some cover from the neighborhood traffic during the summer. I’m thankful, I guess, that they didn’t have to cut the biggest down. But I’m still sad to see them go. My wife was able to salvage a portion of the second tree; they merely cut the offending limbs off.

Bah! Wireless power will be all the rage in the future…

Blog Your Passion

Olaf — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 05:07:04 +0000

Lorelle on WordPress challenges the blogosphere weekly with new ways to keep us bloggers on task. While I’m running behind on the weekly challenges, I thought this one was something I could speak on. “Blog Your Passion” is the theme for the week of August 7th (I know it’s October, shut up).

I originally got into blogging because it was a spreading phenomenon that involved technologies I knew and loved. As secondary incentives; I have always enjoyed writing, it’s a great creative outlet for web development and design, and blogging may very well give my descendants a familial history that will not otherwise be recorded in any books. A personal Wikipedia, if you will.

So here I am, more than three years later, assessing my blogging passions.

Of particular importance is my interest in a legacy. I am passionate about telling my story. Above all else, I trust that my musings will pass along a message that I cannot reach into my own ancestry for. That message will be a referential perspective to those in need of familial comfort. If we are to know the answer to life, the universe, and everything, we are to know our history.

It won’t be elegant nor abundantly enlightening, but the importance of having these recorded scraps of memory will one day prove to be some of the most cherished objects of a future generation. My own son will grow up in a revolutionary time when his every move is captured in startling fidelity – he will undoubtedly take for granted the provisions I aim to establish. But in his times of personal discovery, he will be able to look back on his own thoughts in perfect clarity; as well as those of his father. Perhaps he will see it. Perhaps it will be his children, or his children’s children…the estate of the future is a collection of intellectual capital, and there can be no greater treasure than knowledge.