28thavenue.net

Interesting.

And I intend to get out and ski this weekend.

Age 28. On 28thavenue.net — I think this is the first time I’ve made that connection. I’m engaged now, to be married in September of 2008. I have come to terms with the fact that I’m a web developer. It’s a weird feeling. I look back on a moment in my life when my dad gave me some advice — he said “be something.” Be a banker, a teacher, a lawyer, a doctor. It doesn’t matter how much money you make, but have a profession.

Well, at the time, the profession of Webmaster or Web Developer didn’t exist. One could be a Graphic Designer. One could be an advertising executive. At that time, however, one could not be a Webmaster. It’s one of the new professions. There’s no organization to belong to. There’s no set code of ethics. Still, it’s a profession, and I’ve found myself quite satisfied with what I do.

And I don’t forsee a change. I feel I’m doing good for others with the work I do — I’m facilitating the free flow of information. I’m making communication happen. That’s a powerful position to be in, and an exciting one, and if I see limits, I don’t see that I’ve reached them.

So I’m glad to be doing what I do. I’m a small part of what we call the Internet. I’m a small part of what’s known as Open Source. They’re two things that connect straight to my core — two things that I believe can bring peace and opportunity to people anywhere in the world.

Service is the debt we pay for living. That’s what my grandmother taught me. That’s what I think drives the people who give freely to the world through the conduit of Open Source software.

I’ve based my wellbeing on those who give their talents freely. I’m not sure I’ve given enough of mine. Regardless, I feel I’m at the vanguard of what freedom means today. At once I shudder at the challenges that lie before us, but in the same moment I marvel at the free flow of ideas — the boundless achievement of the rulebreakers in this world, and the awesome moment we live in, where facsimiles can be made for fractions of pennies.

Man is figuring out, on a meta level, just what it takes to survive, and my hopeful side thinks he’s on the verge of automating it. If the wealth that comes from that is distributed fairly then what are the possibilities for civilization? Time will tell. My only hope is that our thoughts will know no bounds, and that we will value peace and brotherhood above all things.

We have a great deal more kindness than is ever spoken. Maugre all the selfishness that chills like east winds the world, the whole human family is bathed with an element of love like a fine ether. How many persons we meet in houses, whom we scarcely speak to, whom yet we honor, and who honor us! How many we see in the street, or sit with in church, whom, though silently, we warmly rejoice to be with! Read the language of these wandering eye-beams. The heart knoweth.

One of my… how should I say… guilty pleasures? Procrastination vehicles? Oh, I don’t know. One of the things I like to do, is get computers to work. Not so much with Windows or Mac OS — nothing against them, but with Linux, and other free OS’s. I like Linux because there’s a global community surrounding it, of people who like to figure out how to make things work on their own.

Well, I bought a bargain basement laptop from Office Depot last week, and I thought I had done a sufficient job determining that it would be fully supported in Linux. I was quite disappointed to discover that sound was not working after installing Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon.

Well, not totally disappointed. I was determined to figure it out.

I’m happy to say that after a couple of days, and some determined rumination, I was able to get clear crisp sound from my speakers. It’s fun. When you are having problems like this, you go to a forum and find that others are having the same problem. Then it’s a group effort to find the solution. It’s fun to think of other geeky guys in other parts of the world hanging in there, trying to get something to work.

This time I was hanging with a guy in Adelaide, Australia. I’m not sure if he’s squared away just yet, but I left a post on the Ubuntu Forums which I hope will guide him in the right direction.

For now, I’m going to enjoy my new laptop — 100% functional and at bargain basement prices! This thing is going to pay for itself in no time at all! It’s like a 40 cent dollar!

Year end it is, and so I must consider carefully the buying opportunities before me.

Office depot has a pretty killer deal, though Saturday, for a Compaq F730US laptop computer, for $449 after rebate ($629 in store). I went ahead and pulled the trigger. My Sony VAIO circa 2002 wasn’t cutting the mustard.

This one is a dual core Athlon, with 1 Gig of RAM, and an NVidia 6100 video processor. I’m able to run Ubuntu with Compiz and the performance is excellent. The display is quite nice, too. I’m pleased with the purchase.

For whatever reason I just googled “contemporaries,” hoping to find a cool site diagramming who of merit hung out with whom.

For example, who did E.B. White enjoy hanging out with?

Didn’t find anything. Would make a cool social webapp.

I’m guessing the photos were taken sometime this summer, before August.

Perhaps the red truck post was a heads up. I decided to buy a 2002 VW Passat wagon. With everything that’s going on this year (and probably beyond), it has been too much to try to get around solely with public transportation and bicycles. Hourcar, if used regularly, is not a very good deal for me.

So, to review, here’s my car ownership history since I started working at Logic (these dates are my best recollection):

November 2003:
Owned a 2002 VW Golf TDI, purchased new with $300+ payment. That was a great car. 45 mpg.

December 2003:
Purchased a 1995 Ford F-150 XL, 4×4, from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources at a public vehicle auction in Brainerd.

July 2004:
Bought a house in the Standish neighborhood of Minneapolis, 1.5 blocks from the 38th Street Station of the new Hiawatha LRT.

Fall 2004:
Sold the VW Golf, with 36000 miles on it, as I felt the monthly payment could not be justified considering my avid use of light rail transit.

Winter 2004:
With some money left over from selling the VW Golf, burning a hole in my pocket, and not liking running errands with the F-150, I purchased a 1991 VW Fox with 160,000 miles on it, for $950. It was a VW. It was a 5 speed. It smelled like the VW Bugs my dad had owned way back when. I had a girlfriend in Madison, WI, at the time. I used it to go see her on the weekends. It was over in February.

That winter, I sold the F-150 to my uncle in Alaska.

Fall 2005:
I decided that the perfect combination of a small fuel efficient car and a big truck was a Volvo wagon, and I promptly bought a 1991 Volvo 940 Turbo from a lovely woman in Northeast Minneapolis for $1950. I sold the Fox for $750.

I was fairly happy with the Volvo, but on a camping trip in fall 2006, the oil light was on the whole time, and I nearly developed an ulcer worrying about it.

December 2006:
After improving my financial position thanks to the housing fever, and after making a reaquaintence with another lovely woman, my now fiancee, a few months earlier, I decided that a car with 200,000 didn’t really have “settling down” written all over it. So, I sold the Volvo to a friend at work, and sprung for a new 2006 Honda Element. That was a good vehicle. I figured at this point I could pay the bills with relation to the house, and have a vehicle that would last me for time immemorial. Hondas last forever, you know. It was wonderful in the snow.

July 2007:
I quickly realized that I could not stomach a new car payment when I’m riding my bike to work every day, I sold the Honda without losing too much money on the experiment.

Jenny and I were now living together, so we resolved to be a one car family. I’d ride my bike most of the time, and use the public transit, and her car would be the family car.

December 2007:
After five and a half months of having one car, and making a good faith effort to use a car sharing service, I determined that it was not economical and not beneficial to only have one car for us. Our schedules are very busy right now — with many commitments in different directions, work, volunteer, social, and recreational.

So, here’s the attempt to strike a happy medium, considering my sordid history:

A 2002 VW Passat Wagon, with 58,000 miles on it.

1) A VW like my long lost Golf, which was such a great car..
2) A station wagon just like the Volvo.
3) Plenty of reliable miles left on it, like the Honda.
4) 30 mpg, which ain’t too bad. I can afford to do stuff on the weekends.
5) It’s an automatic, which is ok. I am keeping the red truck up at the cabin, for dirty work. It’s a 5-speed when I need to feel like a real machine operator.

And that Passat — I got a sweet deal on it. Depending on which appraisal service you trust, I paid roughly 30% less than retail. (I got it for less than the KBB trade-in value).

With a margin of safety like that, a guy can afford to be a horse trader. At least I feel like I’m in pretty much the same position as I would have been if I had held on to that Golf, and now I have a Passat!