Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Tuesday Night OLists Happy Hour: Completing Projects & Setting Goals for 2011

Last week at the OLists Happy Hour, we had a rousing and fun discussion of everyone's achievements, looking back over 2010. 

In fact, it was so much fun, that I want to open this week's discussion to anyone who didn't get the opportunity last week. Feel free to join in and tell your achievements alongside our discussion of goals for the New Year.  Read about last weeks menu here.

For those who had their fill of retrospectivity last week, let's look ahead to next year:

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Tuesday Night OLists Happy Hour: The Gift of Achievement

As Christmas fast approaches, and many of us are busy preparing to celebrate with family and friends this weekend, a specific observation occurs to me.

In discussing Christmas, in 1976, Ayn Rand observed:
The charming aspect of Christmas is the fact that it expresses good will in a cheerful, happy, benevolent, non-sacrificial way. One says: “Merry Christmas”—not “Weep and Repent.” And the good will is expressed in a material, earthly form—by giving presents to one’s friends, or by sending them cards in token of remembrance...
Years earlier, she wrote this passage in Atlas Shrugged, when Dagny is about to run the first train on the John Galt line:
She looked at the crowd and she felt...a sense of fitness that they should be here, that they should want to see it, because the sight of an achievement was the greatest gift a human being could offer to others.
As we approach the end of the year, I think there is real value in looking back on our individual achievements from the past year, both as a source of spiritual fuel, and as a means of checking one's bearings in contemplation of goals to set for the new year.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Tuesday Night OLists Happy Hour: Is College Worth It?

(Note:  This question has been suggested for Diana Hsieh's next Rationally Selfish Webcast, where she discusses various questions related to practical ethics, each Sunday morning.  If you find this topic of interest, check out her webcast info page here.  She suggested the topic for Happy Hour, and I think its a good one!)

Something that seems essentially taken for granted these days is the importance of a college diploma.  But is college really worth it?  As education costs continue to rise, and students/graduates find themselves saddled with huge amounts of student loan debt, one can easily see from the point of view of cost-benefit analysis that the question is not trivial.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Tuesday Night OLists Happy Hour: Optional Values 2.0

A few weeks ago we had a scheduled topic of Optional Values for the Happy Hour.  I was particularly excited about that topic, but we happened to have very light attendance that week.

This week, let's give it a try again with Optional Values:

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Tuesday Night OLists Happy Hour: Art

I have seen some really good thinking about, and references to, Art in the blogs over the past couple weeks.  I'm talking about big, wide, fundamental-concept-level discussions about Art.

The first one I noticed was the entry, Questions about Aesthetics and Art over at Shea's Blog.  It's a quick read.  As the title suggests, he raises more questions than he answers, and have wanted to sit down with his questions myself and give them a go, but Thanksgiving got in the way.  I still would like to do that, hopefully later this week. (I noticed, in writing this, that some comments have been added that were not there when I read this post initially.  I hope to follow up on those as well.)

In the comments on Shea's post, architect Peter Cresswell links to a blog post he wrote last January, Who Needs Great Art? at his blog, Not PC.  This longer post is very much worth the read, and the comments as well.  He does a great job of describing how art serves to present a condensed worldview that affirms one's own consciously and/or subconsciously held beliefs, complete with examples.  (I hope that's an accurate micro-summary.)

Then, yesterday, via Facebook, I learned of 2 additional offerings on Art.

Frederick Gibson, another deep-thinking Objectivist architect, posted What is Art? From Denis Dutton's "Art Instinct" over at the brand new site Lifestyle Dimensions.  This brief review of The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution is the first installment of a series on different chapters from the book, and gives some very interesting insights on the internal process one goes through in the 'consumption' of a work of art.

Finally, Diana Hsieh posted Ready for the Day at NoodleFood, wherein she describes a print she had recently purchased and just taken delivery of.  I love how she describes why she chose this particular work, and what it means to her.  It is a great concretization of the descriptions of Art from the other posts.

My art form of choice these days is typically classical music, specifically, Beethoven.  To me, his works are the presentation of a world that is perfect, uncompromised, and heroic.  Some of his works are tragic, but many more of them are loving, uplifting, and benevolent, if not grand and triumphant.

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For tonight's menu, let's discuss Art.

Appetizer: What is your art form of choice?  (You may have more than one.)  How does your favorite art speak to you? What are your favorite specific works of art?

Drink Special:  What was the last art event that you attended, or a special event that made a lasting impression? (Concert, museum, theatre, etc.)  Think about your enjoyment of that event.  How did it make you feel?  What did you get out of it?

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Happy Hour will take place from 9-10 p.m. Eastern and 6-7 p.m. Pacific, at the new OList Chatroom.  Check your OList email for the login and password.

For more info on the OLists, check out the OList Events page here.

Your hosts for the OList Socials are @DianaHsieh@laforgetm (aka William Green) and myself, @Earl3d

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Thanksgiving Feast: Weber Grill Turkey

For the past few years I have been making my Thanksgiving turkey in the Weber grill.  It is so easy, and makes the most delicious bird ever.

Last year, I was relatively new to Twitter, and decided to live-tweet the whole process, complete with photos.  It was also the largest Thanksgiving I had ever hosted at my house, with 20 guests (plus one infant).  Here are the photos and captions as I tweeted them:

Friday, November 19, 2010

OLists Socials Venue Change

The OLists Social Committee is excited to announce a venue change for the future of the weekly #OLists Twitter Socials.  Our Sunday Brunch and Tuesday night Happy Hour will no longer be held on Twitter, but on a special chat client, located at:

http://www.olist.com/chat/

The page is password protected, and the login and password will be announced on the OLists.  You can log in really easily through Facebook, and the chatroom that Diana has set up is really easy to use.

And, the OLists chat room is open 24/7, so should you wander in there at any time during the week, you might find some other OList friends there to chat with.

Not subscribed to any of the OLists?  Want more info?  Check out http://www.olist.com/ for descriptions of all the lists.  Many of the lists are open to non-Objectivist lurkers, and lurkers are welcome to participate in the weekly socials.

See you Sunday morning on the chat!

Easy Slow Cooker Chuck Roast

Here's a quick write-up of how I make chuck roast in the slow cooker, presented by special request. 

This is one of my favorite fall/winter dishes and I could easily enjoy it weekly without tiring of it.  In fact, I'll probably be making this again in the coming week, and will update with pictures at that time.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Tuesday Night OLists Happy Hour: Optional Values

Reepicheep's Coracle had another interesting post this week, which was part of the Objectivist Blog Carnival.  The topic was optional values, and the post was Why Reading Medieval Latin is Central to the Purpose of the Atlanta Objectivist Society.  

My favorite quotes from the post:
A lot of times, the focus of an Objectivist club ends up on philosophy. Lectures, book discussion groups, and political arguments are par for the course. And there is nothing wrong with those things, of course. But if these clubs are going to be a real social network for the members (kinda like the social network of a church is my goal), there must be room for people to do optional values together... Basically, our idea is that if you are gonna watch movies or conjugate verbs, why not do them with like-minded people?
...as we all know, once you have read the Bible together and cracked jokes about Tolkein and South Park based on Latin, you have really forged a bond.
But don't take my word for it, go read the whole post! (after you finish reading this, of course.)

So, tonight's menu is about Optional Values:

Appetizer:  Optional Values include hobbies, side interests, and the like.  What are your optional values?  How do they support your primary or fundamental values?  What is it that draws you to a particular interest that you have?  Is it intellectual?  Physical (like a sport) or other?

Drink Special:  Are your optional values primarily social or are they more solitary?  What outlets do you have for participating in them?  Do you belong to a club or group for it/them?

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SPECIAL NOTE:

Starting with Sunday's OLists Brunch, we will be moving the OLists Socials away from Twitter and onto a new, password-protected chat space.  Watch your respective OLists for more information!


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Happy Hour will take place from 9-10 p.m. Eastern and 6-7 p.m. Pacific, on Twitter.

For more info on the OLists, check out the OList Events page here.

New to Twitter and not sure how it works?  A simple tutorial on getting started can be found here.  

Your hosts for the Twitter OList Socials are @DianaHsieh@laforgetm (aka William Green) and @Earl3d (that's me!)

Want to lurk and follow along with the discussion, without joining Twitter?  You can do that here.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Tennessee House: Fireplace & Stone Wall

Finally, I have a great excitement to report from the construction site in Tennessee!

Since I left, they have laid flooring, and worked on the painting, which is all important work and nice and all, but there hasn't been anything as exciting as the massive beam framing and steel welding and all that was happening before.  Until this week, that is.  Over the past few days as they have been working on the fireplace.   

You may recognize the mantle from that day a couple months ago when I rejected one of the beams.  Well, the ugly duckling beam has transformed into one beautiful swan of a fireplace mantle.  

Here it is, before they installed the stone:

 

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Tuesday Night OLists Happy Hour: 2010 Election Special!

By the time our weekly #OLists Happy Hour rolls around tonight, the polls will have closed in the East and will be about to close in the West.  

Due to the timing of the polls closing, and to give everyone a chance to vote and still make it to Happy Hour, and because I think there could be some particularly interesting discussions, tonight's Happy Hour will be 2 hours, from 9-11 p.m. Eastern and 6-8 p.m. Pacific.


As the returns roll in, let's get a read on how things unfolded around the country, from a first-hand, #OLists Happy Hour perspective.  Join us and weigh in on the elections, the races, and share what was important to you in all of it.

Appetizer:  Did you vote?  What race/s were important to you in this election?  Were there any particular races you abstained from voting in?  How did your favorite candidates fare?

Drink Special:  Did you campaign for any candidates this year?  Whether or not you did, would you consider doing so in future election cycles?  Were there any particular aspects of this year's elections that impacted, changed, or challenged any of your views of our political system?

Happy Hour will take place from 9-10 p.m. Eastern and 6-7 p.m. Pacific, on Twitter.

For more info on the OLists, check out the OList Events page here.

New to Twitter and not sure how it works?  A simple tutorial on getting started can be found here.  

Your hosts for the Twitter OList Socials are @DianaHsieh@laforgetm (aka William Green) and @Earl3d (that's me!)

Want to lurk and follow along with the discussion, without joining Twitter?  You can do that here.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Home Sweet Home

Today was another long day, and I'm beat, and this is going to be a relatively short post.  Sorry, but we'll have to save the major introspective recap for later.

Things started off relatively flat.


At one point I was going about 80 when this guy passed me at a good clip.  That was super sweet.


Later in the day, I passed this power plant, which I had seen on my way East.  Turns out, it is the Escalante Station, a power plant that provides electricity to 250,000 people.


When I got to Gallup, I got off the highway and drove through town.  I stayed at the Road Runner once. That was probably about 15 years ago.


 As I was driving through town, a freight train went roaring past, bound for points west.


Earl's Family Restaurant was welcoming the stuffed bell pepper.  How 1950's of them.


 Next door to Earl's was another groovy restaurant, and I had to get a pic.


Later on, I passed the Cholla Power Plant that I had also passed on Day 2, shortly after leaving Winslow, AZ.


Eventually, we made it to California.  When we got to Barstow, I found a Starbuck's that had free WiFi and wrote this post, on my upcoming lecture in Denver.  Then we made our way to the nearest In n Out Burger, and then on home.

When we pulled into the driveway, Todd howled.  They seemed really glad to be home.  I am glad to be home.  It feels a little weird.  The road trip has come to an end, yet the house isn't finished.  The next time I see it, it will be done.

I'm embarking on a new big adventure, with my lecture in Denver coming up, and all the ideas that has brought to the fore.  I feel like I'm finally ready to seriously take up the problem of architectural theory.  Where will all this lead me?  Impossible to say, at this point.

It feels like I'm at the beginning of a new adventure.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The Role of Ideas in Architecture

I am thrilled to announce that I will be speaking in Denver, at FROST, on Saturday, November 6th.  What's FROST?  It stands for Front Range Objectivism Supper Talks.  You can read the official announcement on their website, here.

This subject is one that I have been wrestling with for over 20 years, going all the way back to when I was in architecture school at Washington University in St. Louis.  Very little of what I was told to read, under the heading of 'architectural theory', ever made any sense to me.  It was the same in graduate school, when I was at SCI-Arc in the mid/late '90s.  The history more or less made sense, because it was along the lines of 'so and so built this building here on this date' and it was relatively well rooted in reality.  Plus, the history classes at SCI-Arc at that time were taught by Margaret Crawford, and she was not only a superb instructor with a passion for history, but she made it fun.

The theory, however, rarely seemed to bear any relationship to reality.  Occasionally there would be good articles or essays, or a chapter of something that was mildly interesting or inspiring, but they were the exception.

I got out of school and started working, and could pretty much forget about the (theoretical) academic side of the profession for a while (although I remained a fan of architectural history, and still am.)  Over the years, I accepted the occasional teaching gig, mainly teaching drawing, photography, and the like.

Then a couple of things happened almost simultaneously, that, broadly speaking, altered my relationship to theory (or philosophy) as such.  I started taking piano lessons, and I started reading Ayn Rand.

The piano studies fascinated me because, the deeper I delved into them, the more I could see that the music theory bore an absolutely direct relationship to the notes on the paper and the playing of the instrument.  It was as though the theory was actually the element that bridged the gap, if you will, between the notes on paper and the playing.  It was the complete opposite of any architectural theory I had ever read.

This was around the same time that I was reading Atlas Shrugged for the first time.  I had read The Fountainhead years before, but had never explored Ayn Rand's works further, and was completely unaware of any of her non-fiction.  After Atlas, when I read some of her non-fiction, like Philosophy, Who Needs It and Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, I became convinced that, here, like with music theory, was a series of ideas based on the strict observation of reality.

Why couldn't this exist for architecture?  This has been my frustration all these years.  It pretty much seems like Louis Sullivan pronounced 'form follows function' and that was the end, and no one else really took it anywhere from there.  Then all the architects forgot all about Sullivan anyway, and he just became that guy who designed those flowery buildings in Chicago.  'Form follows function' became a kind of quaint, old-fashioned notion at best.  I've even heard it mis-attributed to Mies van der Rhoe.

And so, I give up.  I have finally decided to quit resisting and take it on.  It's time for all this stuff to get dusted off and re-evaluated.

In this presentation, I will take a step back from Sullivan, and start with Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, the French architect and theorist, whose Lectures on Architecture from the mid-1800s were a big influence on Sullivan and the Chicago School.

Sullivan's greatest pupil was, of course, Frank Lloyd Wright, who unquestionably left a great legacy behind, although I'm not at all convinced he was the theoretician Sullivan was.

These three men will be the subject matter that we will address on the 6th.  In due course, I intend to examine more fully the larger picture of the development of modern architecture through the 20th century, and its demise.  I suspect there were some good principles at work that were lost, likely due to poor philosophical underpinning.

I am particularly appreciative of FRO, Kelly Valenzuela, and Diana Hsieh for their encouragement and support.  See y'all on the 6th!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

800 Miles in 14 Hours

That pretty much sums up today.

We left Russellville, Arkansas at about 8 this morning, and pulled into Albuquerque at a little past 9.

I think I'm just really ready to be home at this point, and was pretty motivated once I realized that I could get close enough tonight to make it the rest of the way with one long day tomorrow.  The dogs were doing really well too, sleeping for the most part, so I just kept going.

There wasn't a ton of picture taking today, but there were a few interesting things that we saw.

Just after we pulled out of Russellville, we passed a cooling tower, so I'm guessing there is a nuclear plant there.



Once we hit Oklahoma (don't you just want to break out singing?!) the landscape really flattened out.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Heading for Home

Today I packed up my little car, and P + T and I headed for home.

It was pretty emotional for me.  The last few days had been a bit of a flurry of activity.  I was welding like mad, and got some nice little 'extras' made that will give a little extra bit of a custom edge to the house.

Ms. Client, aka Farmer Jo, has a collection of horse shoes that she has found on the property over the several years they have lived there.  I cut one in half and made her a pair of coat hooks out of it.


Friday, October 22, 2010

Tennessee House Railings

First, I apologize for not blogging in a while.

The last few weeks have been frustrating in a lot of ways.  

I haven't been able to devote all the time to the project that I have wanted to, partially for exciting reasons that nonetheless took me away from my work here.  And, partially because I've had to put out various fires and deal with things that just come up that required my attention, as happens in life.

The main thing house-related that has been occupying me has been the steel railings for the mezzanine.  All the interior railings have been fabricated and were delivered to the powder coating shop today.

Here's how they all came together:

You may recall that I had built a prototype and reviewed it with the owners.


Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Tuesday Night OLists Happy Hour: Philosophy & Career

I am in the process of developing a talk that I will present next month in Denver, for Front Range Objectivism, as part of their Front Range Objectivism Supper Talks (FROST) series.

The title of my talk is "Ideas in Architecture" and the theme is how French architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc's theories influenced Louis Sullivan (and the Chicago School in general) who in turn influenced Frank Lloyd Wright and all of modern architecture.  So, I have been immersed in the philosophical nuts and bolts, so to speak, of my profession.  

It's not stuff that I think about all the time as I go through my day, but it is crucially important as part of my background context for my work.  And, as I review the material, some of which I read years ago, and some of which is new to me, I am struck at how the Objectivist philosophical context that I hold, even further back in my background context, gives me a frame of reference that makes this course of study much, much more clear and understandable than any of the architectural theory books I read during graduate school.

This has me wondering, do other Objectivists have a similar experience of the relationship between their philosophy and their work?

Appetizer:  Has your study of, or the application of Objectivism to your life influenced the way you view and/or go about your work?  Has Objectivism influenced either your career choice, or your internal context for your work?

Drink Special:  Does your profession have a specific body of philosophy or theory?  If so, how do you relate it to Objectivism?  If not, should it have one?  For the philosophers in the room, what led you to decide to make a full study of philosophy itself?

Happy Hour will take place from 9-10 p.m. Eastern and 6-7 p.m. Pacific, on Twitter.

For more info on the OLists, check out the OList Events page here.

New to Twitter and not sure how it works?  A simple tutorial on getting started can be found here.  

Your hosts for the Twitter OList Socials are @DianaHsieh@laforgetm (aka William Green) and @Earl3d (that's me!)

Want to lurk and follow along with the discussion, without joining Twitter?  You can do that here.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Tuesday Night OLists Happy Hour: Where Do You Get Your News?

Turns out there has been a trending topic lurking all around me this week, just waiting to be written up as a Happy Hour Menu for tonight's OLists Twitter Happy Hour.  Fortunately my subconscious finally sent it on up to my conscious brain just in time!

Earlier in the week I watched Citizen Kane on TCM for the first time in years (probably over a decade) (I couldn't help but think a lot about Gail Wynand, having watched The Fountainhead again relatively recently, too.)

Then the subject came up in last Sunday's brunch, of creating a new website that would be a clearing house for general news & information about what's going on in the Objectivist movement.  It generated a good amount of interest among the Brunchers.

Today, there was an interesting blog post by Danielle Morrill, Who's Actually Getting Read in Objectivism (Online).  She mentions several websites that I had never heard of, and gives some very interesting statistics.  It's a great read, and you should go check it out (after you finish reading this post, of course.)

Which leads us to our topics of discussion for tonight:


Appetizer:  Where do you get your news?  Internet?  TV?  Old-fashioned paper?  Do you bother?

Drink Special:  Where do you get your news about what's going on in Objectivism (besides facebook friends and twitter?)  This is where it might be useful to check out Danielle's post, as it seemed to be a pretty comprehensive list.

Happy Hour will take place from 9-10 p.m. Eastern and 6-7 p.m. Pacific, on Twitter.

For more info on the OLists, check out the OList Events page here.

New to Twitter and not sure how it works?  A simple tutorial on getting started can be found here.  

Your hosts for the Twitter OList Socials are @DianaHsieh@laforgetm (aka William Green) and @Earl3d (that's me!)

Want to lurk and follow along with the discussion, without joining Twitter?  You can do that here.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Day 56: Birthday in Tennessee! Hooray for Me!

Today is my birthday.  In the spirit of everyone on the Book Face encouraging me to 'make it a great day' and 'do whatever you want to, it's your day' and all, I am starting off with a blog post.

Actually, I already kicked off the day with letting the drywall finishing crew in, and getting them going, and reviewing some things with Bob the Builder and his sidekick Jeremy (yes Bob the Builder has a sidekick.  I don't think I've mentioned him yet.)

I never really expected to still be here in Tennessee for my birthday this year.  I thought I would be here for a few weeks, from late August into mid or late-September.  But, the whole experience with the house has been so much better than I ever expected, that it has been well worth it.

In a little while, Bob and I are going to go pick up some of the steel parts for the mezzanine railings, and I will spend most of the day working on them.  What better way to spend one's birthday than welding?!

Here is the railing mockup.  Those pieces of 2x4 are under it to raise the height up to the point where Mr. and Ms. Client are comfortable with it.  That will be the height of the final railings:


Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Tuesday Night OLists Happy Hour: Productivity and Software

A great question was asked this week on the OHomos list, about whether or not the discussions from our Twitter Socials would be compiled and posted as a blog post for those who couldn't make it for the event.

I think this is a great idea.  I also think that with all the automated-ness of Twitter, there ought to be a way for that to be compiled with the push of a button.  As great an idea as I think it is, I'm not into hours of command-c, command-v, command-c, command-v.

If there isn't an app for this already, there should be.  Attention all you web developers out there!

Then I was looking over the OProducers list tonight and there are more than a few recommendations for various productivity software products that looked interesting.  

So interesting, that I think these are perfect topics for tonight's menu:

Appetizer:  What software do you use regularly that makes your life easier?  (I mean besides the obvious ones like Outlook.  Does anyone even use Outlook anymore?)  Task management? Time management/tracking? Any new discoveries?  What about web apps? Any novel uses for obvious things like Google Docs?  Anyone else love their Google Reader as much as I do?

Drink Special:  How can we get this Twitter Social easily compiled into a file that can be made into a blog post?  Any ideas?

Happy Hour will take place from 9-10 p.m. Eastern and 6-7 p.m. Pacific, on Twitter.

For more info on the OLists, check out the OList Events page here.

New to Twitter and not sure how it works?  A simple tutorial on getting started can be found here.  

Your hosts for the Twitter OList Socials are @DianaHsieh@laforgetm (aka William Green) and @Earl3d (that's me!)

Want to lurk and follow along with the discussion, without joining Twitter?  You can do that here.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Day 50: Drywall Goodness

Today the drywall guys rocked.

And they rolled.

Here's the evidence to support my claim:



Thursday, September 30, 2010

Day 49: Groovin' With the Drywall Crew

The guys hanging the drywall (aka sheet rock, gypsum board, gyp board, wall board, etc.) are like a breath of fresh air around here. Yesterday there were 4 in their crew, and today there were 5.

They show up early, work hard, and get an amazing amount of work done in a day's time.  They split up into teams of 2 or 3, with one (or two) measuring and fitting the cut pieces into place (often up on a ladder or scaffold), while the other one is down on the floor, cutting the pieces to fit.

They are constantly (very loudly) calling dimensions out to one other, often with the recipient way across the room or across the house.  To ensure accuracy, the cutting guy calls the dimension back to the measurer (also very loudly.)  So there is this constant shouting of numbers going on (but you really have to think of it as calling or hollering, and it almost has a musical quality to it.  It really isn't shouting.)

Add to that the (attempted) gospel stylings of one of them, intermittently breaking out in between the dimension calling.  Today it was predominantly "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" intermixed with "I'll Fly Away".


Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Day 48: Finally! Drywall!

Things are rolling along.  After what seems like a couple of really slow weeks on the project, (although I have managed to say pretty busy,) it's getting really fun now.

Before I get to the good stuff, here's some general catching-up stuff:

The other day I woke up to a very heavy fog...



Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Tuesday Night OLists Happy Hour: Paleo Food Discoveries

I just realized that it's Tuesday, which means tonight is OList Happy Hour on Twitter.  I've spent the day running all around the county (actually 2 counties, skillfully avoiding having to drive all the way to Knoxville just to have one piece of steel cut, but I digress) for tasks related to the house I'm building in Tennessee.

Last week I realized that one of the most active of the OLists has yet to be represented on the Happy Hour Menu, and that OList would be none other than OEvolve.  OEvolve has a special place in my heart since it was the first of the OLists to which I subscribed.  I also think it's the one from which I get the most practical advice.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Day 42: What Time is it? Tile Time!

It's the end of Day 42.  That makes it the end of our 6th week since we left L.A.  I feel like saying, "I can't believe it has been 6 weeks since Paul, Todd and I started out on our big adventure" except that, I actually can believe it.

And, at this point, I think I can begin to see the end point.  I think we have about 2 more weeks, maybe 2 1/2 left here.  Then it will be back to L.A., via a slightly more circuitous route than brought us here.

These past few days have seen a few minor, but fun, adventures.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Tuesday OList Happy Hour: Introspection and Pursuit of Values

It's Tuesday, which means tonight is OList Happy Hour on Twitter.

I got the idea for tonight's Happy Hour menu from a couple of very good, recent blog posts over at Kelly's blog, Reepicheep's Coracle.  She had posted them to the OAcademics list, and they really jumped out at me as great subjects for further discussion.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Day 37: Update with a Zillion Photos

Things are still moving along somewhat more slowly, and probably will be for the coming week.  Later in the week they should be starting to hang drywall, which will be tremendously exciting.

This week's big achievements were the insulation of the exterior walls, and a second thing that I'll fill you in on in a minute, after a few pictures:



Don't Forget Tomorrow's OLists Sunday Brunch

It's the weekend, which means we have OLists Brunch on Twitter tomorrow (Sunday) morning (or early afternoon for those of you living your lives on Eastern Time.)

For more info on the OLists, check out the OList Events page here.

Brunch is an open-topic social group chat.  We've been doing these for a few weeks now, and they have consistently been a lot of fun.  That hour really flies by quickly.

Brunch takes place from 9-10 a.m. Pacific, and 12-1 p.m. Eastern, on Twitter.

New to Twitter and not sure how it works?  A simple tutorial on getting started can be found here.  

Your hosts for the Twitter OList Socials are @DianaHsieh@laforgetm (aka William Green) and @Earl3d (that's me!)

Want to lurk and follow along with the discussion, without joining Twitter?  You can do that here.