I have a dream of buying a house. Today, that dream looks something like a plot of land with a tiny prefab house on it and, if I'm lucky, electricity and running water. Happily, there are kinds of cool prefabs to choose from these days.
Here are a few from an article in today's NYT.
Alchemy Architects does the weeHouse
Bluesky Mod in Toronto (pay Canadian!)
Cavco Industries in Phoenix
Cusato Cottages in NY
Modern Cabana here in SF
Tumbleweed Tiny House Co. here in N. Cal.
Sears kicked off the big idea a hundred years ago with their Modern kit houses. They fetch top dollar these days by collectors, or you could build you own using the plans posted online.
Now, where is there affordable land in California?
Friday, February 16, 2007
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
toilet troubles
It's Valentine's Day, and I've got toilet troubles. It's been acting for about, oh, seven years now, and I've had it. I begged the handsome Russian building manager to get me a new one. He seems sympathetic. The plumber comes tomorrow. Tonight I will dream of polished white ceramic scentless basins and the noble chrome handles that control them with precision and dexterity.
All is well in San Francisco. (I mean, seriously, when aren't they?) Today I am home, cleaning my apartment, hanging pictures, and picking up my dry cleaning. And working. The sun is shining. And did I mention how handsome my building manager is? He was wearing a cute retro leather jacket over a down vest because, apparently, Russians are always cold.
Tonight I will cook a simple dinner for some friends, drink wine, and avoid the thronging crowds of happy couples. VD is a rather cruel holiday for singles, and we're in the majority these days, at least on the female side. Maybe we should get our own saint, who champions love of self, interdependence on friends and community, and self-fulfillment through pursuit of knowledge, hobbies, and service. Our day could be sponsored by Good Vibrations, great take-out places, and NetFlix. Ah, what a day that would be.
I am having fun, figuring out what to do with my life. Last night I spent two hours online, and finally purchased a car stereo (Mine was factory-installed in my Honda Civic in 1992. What a bargain!) and a digital camcorder. I am officially launching my media training business. I'm working on a brochure and planning a mailing to local PR agencies. It turns out this whole entrepreneurial thing is not that difficult to do. Next there will be professional associations to join and hobnobbing to do. Then maybe when I'm done working at UC Berkeley in April, I'll have more interesting work waiting for me.
OK, off to read more pages of the summer 07 catalog. Yippee!
All is well in San Francisco. (I mean, seriously, when aren't they?) Today I am home, cleaning my apartment, hanging pictures, and picking up my dry cleaning. And working. The sun is shining. And did I mention how handsome my building manager is? He was wearing a cute retro leather jacket over a down vest because, apparently, Russians are always cold.
Tonight I will cook a simple dinner for some friends, drink wine, and avoid the thronging crowds of happy couples. VD is a rather cruel holiday for singles, and we're in the majority these days, at least on the female side. Maybe we should get our own saint, who champions love of self, interdependence on friends and community, and self-fulfillment through pursuit of knowledge, hobbies, and service. Our day could be sponsored by Good Vibrations, great take-out places, and NetFlix. Ah, what a day that would be.
I am having fun, figuring out what to do with my life. Last night I spent two hours online, and finally purchased a car stereo (Mine was factory-installed in my Honda Civic in 1992. What a bargain!) and a digital camcorder. I am officially launching my media training business. I'm working on a brochure and planning a mailing to local PR agencies. It turns out this whole entrepreneurial thing is not that difficult to do. Next there will be professional associations to join and hobnobbing to do. Then maybe when I'm done working at UC Berkeley in April, I'll have more interesting work waiting for me.
OK, off to read more pages of the summer 07 catalog. Yippee!
Friday, February 02, 2007
the end of the world
Yesterday was cold and gray in downtown Berkeley. Just outside the BART station, a local crier hollered to the commuters coming out of the station: "The world will end tomorrow at six o'clock."
So we have that to look forward to.
Maybe he read the NYT article on Tuesday about the Doomsday Clock. Its keepers have moved the time up, to 11:55 from midnight, because of the threats of global warming. The time doesn't map to anything official--at least not anything they're going to talk about publicly. But some have put an actual timetable to the end of man's rule on earth. Doomsayer Martin Rees gives humanity a 50-50 shot at making it past 2100 in his book, The Final Hour. He publishes his bets on longbet.org, along with a bunch of other bright lights in the tech industry like Freeman Dyson and Mitchell Kapor. Interesting reading.
So we have that to look forward to.
Maybe he read the NYT article on Tuesday about the Doomsday Clock. Its keepers have moved the time up, to 11:55 from midnight, because of the threats of global warming. The time doesn't map to anything official--at least not anything they're going to talk about publicly. But some have put an actual timetable to the end of man's rule on earth. Doomsayer Martin Rees gives humanity a 50-50 shot at making it past 2100 in his book, The Final Hour. He publishes his bets on longbet.org, along with a bunch of other bright lights in the tech industry like Freeman Dyson and Mitchell Kapor. Interesting reading.
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