tfl: The Flatiron Life

My condo board president emailed us recently to inform us about an upcoming community meeting about Labor Ready moving to our area.

Labor Ready is a placement agency for day labor. This sounds great to me. I don’t have numbers, but it looks like there are lots of underemployed folks around here. Perhaps, that is why this company wants to move here.

Why are people in the community opposed to this? The reported reasons are because there will be people lining up to get work; and once they have work, there will be vans loading on the street to take them to work. (This sounds a lot like something else to me. People standing in line waiting on transport to work. Hmm, where else do I see that? I will have to think about it at the Metra station tomorrow.)

These people are willing to stand in line for what I suspect is hard work, if not ‘work Americans won’t do.’ This is what I want Jonah to see and learn about, not the crazeos we usually have down on the corner.

Looking for something to do tomorrow night?

I highly recommend opening up a beer, pulling the wife and child next to you, and plopping down on the couch for 2 hours of LOST on ABC.

If you have not seen the previous 3 seasons I also recommend the following: 1) Stop whatever you are doing. 2) Go to the video store. 3) Rent the first 3 seasons. 4) Go Home and watch it at 3x speed straight through before 8/7c.

Sounds extreme? You will thank me, I promise.

Saturday night, I hosted my first brew party. There were 7 people over to be entertained by me brewing a simple British Ale (and by a certain 8 week old).

This was a lot of fun. There was a lot of questions and I think I did a good job answering them. I was also reminded of some of the tools I need.

I hope to make this a regular event every 2 months. Sample the old brews and talk about what will be different in the new one, then compare the next time. It will also be fun to slowly work up to more complicated brewing techniques and see if we notice a change in the final product.

Unfortunately, I forgot to have anyone take pictures. Next time this is a must.

I wanted to let everyone who attended know that everything went well as far as the little critters and their final feast are concerned. As I click away, I am listening to the sweet clicking of the air lock under my desk. The party continues for Saccharomyces cerevisiae!

Chicagoans (and probably Illinoisans in general) should take a read of this article in the Chicago Reader for an example of exactly how the city works. The names with be dizzying, but it is worth the read all the way through.

I once saw a guide for new Chicagoans which listed our form of government as “Patronage”. It is so disheartening to me that these plays happen in daylight and yet the Democrat voters continue to vote for who the machine says they should.

Really, he is fine, originally uploaded by flatiron32.

No posts recently, so here is a pic. Have a good weekend.

Tonight, I am holding Jonah and rocking him. He is watching the border of something behind my head. It is amazing to watch his eyes move perfectly with my rocking.

We spend so much of the first months just learning to see properly. Focusing, following, staring, and analyzing. Imagine how important tacking with our eyes must have been to our ancestors.

Now imagine how all the training is going to go to waste in the modern world. The world might change a lot by the time he is grown. However, I see (through my glasses corrected reading deteriorated eyes) him only needing to see 2 or 3 meters from his face at most. Only half a meter most of the time.

Think I am wrong? How far are you from this word? When you are done reading, how far away from the TV will you be?

Anyone up to a hunting trip in a couple years? The theme: Iron Age tools only!

A couple years ago when I decided to make an honest woman out of Joscelynn, I traveled to Tiffany’s in Streeterville and said, “Give me the biggest ring you have.” Michelle, my sales woman said, “Uhm, you have cargo shorts and a T-shirt on.” “Oh, right … so … OK then … I like this little one!,” I responded and we went from there. When I found the ring I liked, one of the things I liked was the price. This was not cracker jack ring, but I knew what Jos would have felt comfortable having a reasonable husband spend.

That is all set up to this. A class action suit against DeBeers. Yes. Yes. DeBeers is an awful monopoly, controlling the diamond industry any way they can. To which I hear you saying, leads to higher prices for something that is rather plentiful. And I know, they completely invented the whole diamond engagement ring thing. And of course, they deserve to be taken down a peg.

Should I take part in this class action. It sounds like there is a settlement coming, and this would be easy money for me. Probably a couple hundred bucks. However, I freely paid the price I paid for my token of love. Perhaps the size of diamond I would have bought was shifted down, but the choice to pay what I paid was mine. Is “punishing” the other side of a free exchange after I was previously happy with the trade the right lesson to send Jonah?

General view of part of the South Water Street Illinois Central Railroad freight terminal, Chicago, Ill. (LOC), originally uploaded by The Library of Congress.

The Library of Congress now has a flickr account. Check it out for some amazing pictures, like this one.

It is amazing that the pictured building is about here!

Today’s Cato Daily Podcast is about organ transplants and waiting lists. I was surprised to learn that Iran is the only nation that has implemented the only real solution.

Iran allows the sale of organs and, reportedly, no longer has a waiting list for transplants. Over 70% of the people on the waiting lists around the world are waiting for a kidney. Healthy kidneys are in bountiful supply. Worldwide there are more than 6 billion extra ones just hanging out. Also, my understanding is that there is nearly infinite supplies of livers, marrow, and blood.