Daydream to Concept to …Plan?

General

I like looking at and playing with floor plans. I’ve never quite understood why, but to be honest I’ve also never really thought about it. As weird hobbies go, it’s a fairly harmless one. Several years ago, a co-worker and I discovered a mutual interest in following real estate listings as well. I discovered that it scratched the same itch that playing with floor plans did. It’s also about as harmful.

Well, most of the time, anyway.

With the upheaval in my life last year, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what comes next. My current situation is stable, but temporary; I’ll be ready to move into the final permanent phase within about 12-18 months. In other words, now is the time to start planning.

The combination of the two means my habit of floor plans and real estate listings has focused a little: I’m looking at things with an eye toward creating the last third of my life. I’ll admit it: I’d been despairing. No matter what I found, I just couldn’t come up with a way to make things feasible. I’d find a place I adored, but realize I likely wouldn’t qualify for the mortgage. Or I’d find a place that was financially feasible, only to discover I would likely end up regretting the purchase.

And then I remembered an idea I’d had fifteen years or so ago, at another time and in another place and with another purpose.

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Don’t Mind If I Do, Actually

Politics

This is a bit of an old article, but it’s still being discussed every now and then:

Mamdani gets roasted after telling sweltering New Yorkers to set ACs to 78 degrees: ‘Commie’

New York City’s socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani sparked viral outrage on Thursday when he responded to a heat wave affecting the city by instructing residents how to set their air conditioners.

The blowback came as New York City expanded emergency heat measures during a historic holiday weekend heat wave, with officials warning temperatures could feel as hot as 112 degrees.

Seriously? Asking people to to help prudently manage a public good (the power grid) is a problem?!

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Recipe: Spaghetti Pie

Recipes

I originally learned how to make spaghetti pie in a Cooperative Extension class during the mid-1980s. It was an immediate hit, and since then I’ve done a lot of experimenting. (I’ve also taught more than a few people how to make it.) It’s a twist on baked spaghetti in that it has two layers instead of one.

The “trick” to this dish is to over-spice it just a bit before putting it into the oven, since the baking process will decrease the spices’ potency.

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Envisioning the Rest of My Life

General

I wrote a mock obituary for myself yesterday.

No, I’m not going through a depressive episode; and no, it’s not out of any macabre feeling of impending doom. Rather, it was meant to help me figure out what I want my life to have looked like when it comes to its end. Writing one’s own obituary can actually be an exercise in self-reflection, one that can help a person take the first few steps toward a more intentional life.

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AI Isn’t a Boogeyman

General

Not to put too fine a point on it, but you do realize you’re using data center resources every time you stream a movie or music, right?

To answer a recent meme, you also use a bottle of water every time you stream a two-hour movie. Do a marathon of eight episodes of your favorite show? Four bottles of water. Put Spotify on in your office for a workday? Two or three bottles of water. I can go on, but you get the idea.

Now, I’m not saying the concerns about data centers are misguided. They aren’t, and the advent of AI will demand the building of a lot more of them.

But here’s the deal. Some are already experimenting with ways to keep water consumption to a minimum. To possibly generate at least some of their own power. To be as light on the local environment as possible.

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