10 Thoughts for February 22, 2015

I've got time in-between paint coats, so I thought I'd twizzle (spin) some words.

1. IKEA: When you buy IKEA stuff, there are basically three tiers: cheap-ass shit, medium quality stuff, and better quality stuff. There is no such thing as high quality stuff at IKEA -- I am not so naive to not know this. For instance, the Kallax / Expedit series is the cheap-ass shit, as it uses cheap materials that scratch easily and is hollow. The largest Kallax bookshelf weighs about as much as my recently departed (to Goodwill) CD tower shelf from Dania. The medium quality stuff is the Billy line, while the better quality stuff is the Stockholm series. Stockholm is not anywhere close to high quality, however. If it is flat-packed, it cannot obtain a high level of quality. I will never again buy the cheap ass shit.
2. Retail: I was at Uwajimaya in Beaverton this weekend, and as I was pulling out my Google Wallet debit card, when I noticed that the POS terminal indicated that it took wireless payments. So naturally I popped my card back into my wallet and pulled out my phone. Worked -- requires signing into the app, first. I hope wireless payments continues to spread, especially since Apple's foray into it appears to have lit a fire under retailers. I did note however, that most people do not seem aware of Google Wallet in the first place.
3. Geopolitics: Ukrainian truce? Ha! No one except morons actually believed that a truce would actually hold up. The rebels has no incentive to maintain a truce, when they have arms and other supplies readily coming in from Russia. For example, the evacuation of Ukrainian troops who were enclosed by rebels after the truce was supposedly in effect. With the turmoil she's allowed to fester in Greece and Ukraine, you have to wonder who's side she's on...or what she's smoking.
4. Geopolitics: Sure, I get why Americans suddenly changed their tune about boots on the ground in Syria -- having swung from strongly opposing it to strongly supporting it -- because of the Americans who've been executed by ISIS. But I don't see why we would want to send troops in there, to fight someone else's wars. If the Middle East saw ISIS as an existential threat, shouldn't they be on the front lines with ground troops? The US can't be the forever-force in the Middle East.
5. Classical Music: As I'm painting the walls in my place, I've been streaming classical music from my collection in my Google Music cloud. It's been a very long while since I've listened to a lot of classical music. I've realized that, while switching to bookshelf speakers was a massive space saver, I really do need to get a subwoofer to bring greater clarity to the lower frequencies, as the bass drum practically disappears without it.
6. Construction: I've been taught that flat wall paints are good for residential interiors and can hide wall imperfections. What they don't emphasize, is that flat wall paint catches all stains and makes them stick out.On the bright side, flat paint also works well as a prime coat, allowing me to paint directly onto it, with a satin paint. I've also been taught that a roller will give you the best texture of paint. But what they don't tell you, is that you waste a lot of paint if you don't have the time to do all of your walls in the same color, in one single setting, and that the flatter the sheen, the less it matters whether you use a brush or a roller.
7. Food Carts: So, I had a bad experience with a food cart at NE 52nd and Sandy. I ordered a Kafta Kabob Plate from Ramy's Lamb Shack, and what I got looked more like tiny ground meat sticks. Plus, the guy didn't pay attention to my order, and got it wrong. For $9, the plate was skimpy, the salad practically nonexistent, the rice was dry and hard, and the Baklava at $2.50 each, was a lousy deal.  If only I had checked out his ratings on Yelp, first. I suspect some of the 5-star ratings on Yelp are fake, because what I got was far worse than what one could get anywhere else.
8. Investment: My sister told me that a coworker was encouraging everyone to buy Bitcoins, because the economy was going sink. I told her that the guy was an idiot who didn't know what he was talking about. I'm contemplating taking a vacation to visit her in Arizona just so that I can confront and publicly humiliate this guy for attempting to get people to buy into his crackpot ideas -- at the very least, make him take responsibility for his actions by forcing him to take out insurance against losses incurred by anyone who invests in Bitcoins because of him. You might want to buy Bitcoins because the whole crypto-currency thing sounds interesting, or you like to dabble in new technologies, but to buy into Bitcoins as a store of value and a hedge against the economy is downright stupid. Put it this way: In six months, Bitcoins have lost 50% of its value; in one year it's lost nearly 65% of its value; from its peak, it has lost 77% of its value. Even if you were to accept the notion of buying something at its low, you don't buy it when it continues to drop in anticipation of its eventual rise; you buy it when it starts to rise.
9. Dinosaurs: Speaking of stupid people, I truly enjoyed the laughs from a group called the Christians Against Dinosaurs. It's not just that the woman in most of the videos is wrong on her central points, but that even her tertiary arguments are all wrong. Spackling paste is not cement and a leather jacket does not fall like a sack of bricks. Of course, it could be that she, and the group in general, is all a big fake. Either way, it was a hell of a laugh.
10. Weather: New England may have won the Super Bowl, but now it's endured 5 storms bringing a frozen hell to the region. Meanwhile in the Pacific Northwest, we're receiving one of the earliest springs, ever, with a possible broken record for the warmest February. Magnolias, cherries, daffodils are all popping out.