Almost a distant memory.

They say we are going to get spit on this weekend. Though they've said that a lot this year, and we've barely gotten any measurable rain. Maybe it will be enough to perk up the poppies and I will get to stage three! Go stage three. I almost picked some of these chivey looking wildflowers to plant at the house.









Those lupines are really putting on a show. I might try to go back and get them again this weekend.



I thought it was funny how hard this turkey was having to work. I mean, shit - he couldn't have found her a prettier place. AND it's right next to a super swank neighborhood.

Because people are just this stupid.

Probably every week the solar nazi's blanket my neighborhood trying to get people to sign up. I tend to listen to their bullshit because I like to see how much stress the market is under. I think it's a complete ponzi scheme. And - I thought about buying solar before the government got involved! It is a viable sector for some people.

Anyway, this time I was out front and was completely captive to this guy.  If you are behind the door you can indicate you are getting done with their crap. But this time I let him go through the whole thing. He was trying to convince me that it was not a rent to own system. You completely owned outright the panels. Yet they find out how much you use to pay for electricity and put that towards the "panels you own outright".

So... I was like - what if I default in three months? The kid is like - I don't know. But he did go on to explain that their model is exactly like when you buy a car. You put a down payment down and then you make payments. To which I laughed.

Me - You don't own that car until you get the title. You are renting that car from the bank until you pay it off.

Then he tried to convince me it was the same as buying a house. You own that house. To which I laughed even more.

Me - I can assure you that you do not own that house until you get it payed off. The bank owns it. They just let you live there because you keep up with your payments. I had to finally say I wasn't trying to be an asshole. But his system WAS a rent to own system.

I'm surprised they don't have me on the blacklist yet.

Is this the future?

I ran across an interesting product yesterday from Robotbase. I have to admit I haven't seen anything like this before. Frankly I'm not sure how I really feel about it. At first I was intrigued by the integrated desktop avatar. I saw it mainly as something preteens would enjoy. But after watching the video I'm just not sure I see people forming relationships with avatars. Kids I could easily see being into this, but adults? I could be wrong. What do you think? It is an interesting concept though. Video at the end.

Strati 3D printed car.

I got the 3D printed car today. I can't say I'm crazy about my shots. It was in a poorly lit section of the exhibit hall and it has all those striations which makes a camera go wild in low light conditions. I didn't lug a low light camera today. And that is all really I have to say about it.

Oh wait! I do have something else to say about it. Previously I didn't know who made this car. When I plugged it into Google to write about it - it came back from Local Motors which I actually recognized from CES. I don't know if it's the same company and I don't want to look it up right now because it's been a crazy day. But the Local Motors from CES made a street legal rally car. Here.

She ran calling wildflowers - close to final.

This years unprecedented wildflower season is absolutely telling us we are all going to die. And I'm not being dramatic. Moisture content in the soil is ZERO. This morning when I left I thought I had until the weekend to squeeze all the joy out of this. By the time I got home I assessed I better make time in my day tomorrow to get the rest of it because in a half day - the tops of the hills have already gone brown. I'm hoping some fog will roll in tonight and give them just a little more time.

I thought I would get to stage three, which is California poppies, but I read this morning that the heat wiped out the bloom in Southern California. By the way things look I don't think we are going to make it to stage three. At this point I don't think we are going to make it. And this is the most dramatic I've gotten about the drought the whole time. I'm seriously freaked at this point. No one knows if it will rain until some time in .......November? I think we are going to have to nuke that heat bubble from space.

I wonder what will happen when the Fed figures out that raising interest rates will make the dollar stronger. Wait. I wonder what happens to oil when the Fed figures out raising rates will make the dollar stronger?

What am I saying? This is all theater.

Why do I keep insisting on putting things "somewhere I can find them"?

100% of the time I can't find it, and it makes me super cranky because "putting this *thing* somewhere I could find it" was the whole point and I apparently suck at that. I know I suck at it. But I keep doing it!

She ran calling wildflowers. Stage 2.

Most of the yellow flowers have faded, only to be replaced by a carpet of pink. This is what we initially went out to photograph today. Iffy photos's at the end. But, two things happened.

We've been in overcast skies for a few days now. It won't rain on us, but will throw up tons of clouds. So, the pink flowers had to wait because the lighting was crap. Which was good because we got distracted on these purple wildflowers.

From the freeway we couldn't tell what they were. They just looked like a giant black hole. But when we got up to this development we were delighted to find small patches of these wildflowers. I'm in a foot race with a drought right now - so I just have to warn you I'm going to wring the most amount of joy out of this I can. Before long the hills will turn the familiar brown that I've grown to not love. Maybe I'll post these wildflowers every single day until I'm done or they are done! I don't know. But for right now it makes me happy because I'm not sure how we are going to make it through this year. I'm pretty sure all this crazy wildflower action is a warning us we are all going to die. And I'm not even joking. By the end of last year - it was pretty rough.

I don't know how many pictures you'll get because I don't know how long this will last. It's never happened before.

Click here, here, here or here to see the yellow stage.

My car sugar was low.

Mr S. and I were out at the Club Auto Sport get together today. Nothing was really thrilling me with the cars. All pretty standard stuff you can see driving around The Valley honestly. I was trying to scour ever corner. Mr S. and I split up to look at different things.  Mr S. walks back up to me in a hushed tone and said - Rob Enderle just passed you.

In my head I was like - that's impossible. But, as I turned around I saw it sure as hell was Rob Enderle. He's one of the biggest tech analysts around The Valley. From the Enderle Group. So, then I had to stalk him to try and get a shot without being too obvious. I'm guessing there are only a few places in this world that he doesn't get recognised.

It turns out I've seen his car there a couple of times, and I didn't know it was his. It's been on this blog, but I'm not going to report it for privacy reasons. I got Rob Enderle in the wild!

Earnings season will be ugly.

I know everyone has moved on from that whole port shutdown, but I bet companies have not. For the next couple of months we get to see the real damage. The shutdown was costing 2 billion dollars a day here in California. Perishables, perished. I know the media is blaming cold weather for horrid retail sales. Which could be true. But those bad sales could also be a result of a complete port shutdown. Next month will show the true story. If the sales numbers stay low, this is troubling because this is the time of year people spend their tax refunds.

Currency issues are a big deal though. A super big deal. This cuts into companies profits. Things played out almost exactly like this in 2009. But Europe is much weaker this time. I don't agree with it, but I think we will eventually be forced to print because all other currencies have become so weak relative to the dollar. But I also concede that the inflation rubber band is getting stretched pretty tightly. The too few products and services part of inflation is starting to come into play. Especially in housing where it looks like we are already entering a shortage phase. It's been 7 years now of recession level building. The longest amount of time I think in history. But don't quote me. I'll have to look the chart back up. But as I recall the longest stretch previously was 3 years.

Deflation is a very rare occurrence. It wont last forever.

Also, interest rates are split evenly between being in the 3.8%-ish range, to the 4.3%-ish range. Good luck Fed in raising rates. Even a quarter basis point will put us over the cliff of 4.50%. When rates hit that last time they started falling for the next almost year. There is obviously a barrier there.

Random stuff.

Last night in Fremont, I ran into that Telsa Inside SUV I posted about a while back. I checked the plate against my post, so it's totally the same car. Which I somehow loved, because now I've talked myself into thinking he likes the same things I do. I don't live in Fremont. I don't even spent that much time there. So running across a random car is a little like finding a needle in a haystack. Even though I spotted it in the same city, the locations were vastly far apart.

It is a pretty distinctive car though. So if it's anywhere in my orbit - I'm going to notice it. Mostly because it reminds me of the Intel Inside logo.

If there is a bubble in tech - it's in wearables.

I was somewhat excited to go to my wearables conference today because I wanted to see what the rest of the pack had to say after the Apple event.

Well - I'm here to tell you that this is not a sector. I leave every single one of these conferences feeling like I've wasted my time. Not to mention, they are barely conferences at all. As I was leaving I overheard one of the guys say "is this the whole demo hall"? To which I laughed to myself and said - exactly. I mean, I've been to a dozen of these things now over the past year, and I see zero progress honestly. It feels a lot like when I was writing about robots. Wearables are a solution in search of a problem.

Well.... they did add waterproof. Which I guess is kinda a feature? I mean it's nice to have. But it not new! For a solid three years, CES was filled with nothing but booths featuring waterproof devices. It really became super annoying. I wrote about it here. I mean - how many ways can you display that you can take your tablet in the tub now?

I don't really understand a Silicon Valley that makes Jewelry. I know the Apple watch is suppose to be a tech device, but Intel is on this high end Jewelry bandwagon too. I just don't get it. Intel for shits sakes! 

A week or so ago I read Apple thinks they are going to sell so many watches it's going to affect the gold market. Which I'm calling complete bullshit on.

They have been trying to get this watch concept off the ground almost the entire time I've been alive. So, I'm pretty skeptical.

Of course, I may eat my words tomorrow because I have a conference on this very thing. I didn't know Apple was having an event the day before. So maybe I'll change my mind. More likely I'm going to be super bitchy.  I've been going to conferences on this sector for at least a year, and so far they have all pissed me off enough that I haven't even posted about them. I'd expect more of the same of that.

I guess I'm not over it yet...

Getting more shots of the flowers was not in the plans for the weekend. My house is needy, and we've been doing projects all weekend. Pictures hopefully will follow.

Still, every time you turn a new direction in town, a bright yellow splash cries out for you to investigate. And who knows if this will ever happen again like this. Soooo, this is what you get for now. New colors are starting to fill the hills, but they aren't ready yet.

OMG.

HT RideApart.

Untitled.

Today, one of the guys I talk to wanted to tell me how shitty the world was. Previously he'd been all rainbows and kitty cats and on more than one occasion let me know I was the negative one. We got through our greetings and he literally said the world sucks. Being me - I actually laughed. Oh you think it does, I reply? Condescending wonka style. In my head, I'm like - you're a little fucking late to the party. He goes on to tell me that every country we touch turns to shit.

Now, it's the fourth inning of this game and I'm bitter. Flat out. So my reply basically is to tell him that these were the choices people made. The public needs to decide what it wants to do. (We tried to warn you people) I didn't say that part.

This is what really fascinates me about the conversation though. He goes on to tell me a story from Syria I believe. Where a hostages mother had been brought to pick up the guy. I wasn't listening that closely because I was trying to absorb what was happening right then.  This guy is admittedly anti war, so why was he paying attention to this at all? He goes on to say that the hostage takers offered to feed her before she picked him up, and it turned out that they served her - him.

He goes on to say he didn't know if it was true. He can't believe any of the media since that situation with Brian Williams. (eye roll mine)

I thought he'd clearly been trying to avoid any negative news about the world. It's just the way a lot of Californians are. They don't really want a beheading ruining their day. It's too negative.

I see many of fucked up stuff out of there, but I haven't heard that. It wouldn't surprise me a bit. I did tell him I saw the terrorists eating people's hearts like a year ago. So it could be true. Nothing from there would surprise me. If I believed in hell, surely it must be a better place. There isn't a day that goes by that I'm not stunned that the world is so silent at the inhumanity.

The Syrian feeds mostly just spit out children images now. They don't even show the other stuff, because hell if you can let this happen to children why bother?

Final. (probably)

I think I'm almost over these. They are starting to turn a mustard color and the hills are starting to dry out. Plus the poppies and other wildflowers are starting to take over. I would die if they covered the hills like these field flowers have this year. Sure, maybe you are bored, but it saves you from the dead tree pictures I'm going to start posting soon. Many of the trees I posted over the summer - they finally chopped down.

I guess a mind numbing drought makes an amazing wildflower season. I've never seen anything like it around here. Sooooo... next year is going to be awesome!

Interestingly......I thought this would be happening all over the Bay Area, because why wouldn't it? But it seems fairly well confined to the East Bay along 580. That white line in the above shot is 580.

What do you do to pass the time on road trips?

As a kid we used to count VW bugs. Now That I'm adult, Mr S. and I count uhaul trucks, trailers, and sometimes tow bars. Those all count for one point. The tow bars are sketchy depending on how long it looks to have been on the vehicle. It needs to look recently rented to count.

We started doing this around the start of the recession to kinda have a feel for how many people were moving in or out.

A uhaul hauling a uhaul  is like seeing a unicorn. This gives you a point bump and counts as three points. This can be a real game changer if you find a lot of them.

When we drove to Las Vegas there was a car carrier carrying uhauls. We haven't figured out an equitable point system for that one yet. It didn't register what it was until it had passed us and we didn't know how many were on the carrier.

Oh! Uhaul rental areas do not count. In all forms. Not even storage places that rent uhauls. If you see a uhaul within a block of one, it does't count.