Going through the treasures, part 4: The Derby Ad

My dad came across a booklet promoting the English town of Derby - from a garage sale in Wichita Falls, Texas, undoubtedly. The publication was dated 1947.

I don't know why he bought the booklet. I don't know why I saved it. (Well, actually, I didn't. After scanning this ad, it went to the grand recycling center in the sky - alias the happy hunting ground for old unwanted magazines.)

On the plane again

I made another trip for my job last week. I go roughly once every three or four months, which is not bad at all. A major bonus of these trips is that I usually get to see my mom, sister and niece, who live near Dallas. (The office I work for remotely is in Arlington - between Dallas and Fort Worth.)

The 1.5 - 2 hour flight goes by quickly when I watch something on my laptop. But I only had about 20 minutes of TV to watch this time. (It was a free download from iTunes.)

Another way to spend that time is to see the amazingly expensive and laughable stuff for sale in the SkyMall catalog. (A post is coming about the latest incredible items offered.)

As I said before, I fly infrequently enough that I will never get a free flight from air miles. So I travel with whichever airline gives the best deal and best arrival/departure times. This recent trip, I flew American on the way down and Frontier on the way back. I like Frontier better.

Life on a diet

Today, I'm giving over the reigns to Heather, my lovely wife. Here is her brief thinking on busy-ness and some possible cures...

I have 3 kids, teach piano lessons, and am working hard on a masters degree in order to launch a new career which should help my kids through college. I did have a life-changing experience over the last two years. My family lived in Kenya while my husband had a job there. I had to set aside everything that I was involved in, as we left the USA. There was much less to do in Kenya and far less time pressure. It was incredibly freeing and caused some great things to happen in my kids' lives and with us as a family. I’ve decided that "less is more" when it comes to filling up my life with activity. I’ve put my life on a "diet" and I think I’m actually getting more out of it. Take a season of rest, maybe a year off from your major activities. It will hurt, but you’ll be healthier for it.

The International Toothpaste Museum

There's a new blog in town that you should visit.

And that's one collection I'm not disposing of. Yet.

Alltop

There's a new site you should visit - Alltop.

It's a great portal to all manner of loveliness.

It was started by Guy Kawasaki.

And a really fun thing is that if you explore the "Living > Life" pages, you'll find my site.

Going through the treasures, part 3: Knowledge Lost

I would have no idea how to do any of this now. (Y can double-click the image to see it a little bigger.)

This is from some homework during my senior year of high school. Calculus.

All through high school, I thought I was going to be an engineer, because that was what my brother was studying in college (and went on to be, in the Air Force). About half-way through my freshman year in college, I realized that I never did enjoy all that math and science very much. So I stayed in the art program. Graphic design was the only way I could figure how to make a living at art*. So that stuck. And I'm still doing it, more than 25 years later. (I have had some excursions into different disciplines during that time.)

*My art school did offer a degree in interior design - which is possible to make a living at. But it seemed like the only people in that program were cheerleaders and men who had, shall we say, different persuasions than me. I had no desire to spend more than four years hanging out in that department.

My favorite car, parts 1 and 2

Honda is making a small sports car in 2009 or 2010 - the CR-Z (top). It's supposed to be a hybrid gas/electric. It is the "spiritual successor" to their CRX, which was made from 1983-1991. I owned a 1985. I loved that car. It had the perfect compromise between fuel economy and being fun to drive.

Most likely I will never own a CRZ, but it's fun to dream!

Actually, I think the front of the CRZ is ugly. But I like the concept and size.

The top photo is by Tom Cosgrove, from the June 2008 issue of Car & Driver magazine. The bottom photo is from a random Flikr person. But that is the exact year and model of the CRX that I owned. Mine was blue, though.

The good side of high fuel prices

<< People quit buying those.

SUVs may finally be on the decline, sales-wise. Check out this story from the AP.

Or here's Kottke's summary: "SUV sales are down and with them, their prices. The rising cost of gas is to blame. Many dealers won't even accept SUVs as trade-ins."

New money

England has a new set of coins coming out very soon. They are very cool.

And here's an interview with the designer of the coins. The designs were awarded to him via a competition.

Heather and the kids went to the Denver Mint recently. There's a new series of dollar coins coming out.* Apparently dollar coins cost much less in the long run than dollar paper money. I wish that our country would switch wholesale to dollar coins! The European Union and England did that with their equivalent, a long time ago.

*I guarantee they won't be as cool as the English coins. Sigh. I doubt that a large competition was part of the design process.

The US mints are producing dollar coins because the state commemorative quarters have been so popular. (They have made a good amount of profit for these government-run institutions.)

Interestingly, a penny costs 2.3 cents to make. (Or something like that - I can't remember the exact number that my kids told me.)

Going through treasures, part 2: "tapes to make"

I have written before about the collector gene that is intricately woven into my soul. It came from my dad.

A few weeks back, I was going though some boxes (to find something I needed for work) - and I came across this little note.

My dad loved to borrow records (vinyl) from the local library and tape them for his later pleasure. The problem was that after he died, that tape collection was one of the millions of things my mom had to get rid of before she moved from a 3-bedroom house to a 1-bedroom apartment.

My dad didn't know much about copyright laws. And the RIAA wasn't yet going door to door making arrests like today.