1/30 Hangouts

Gosh, it's the third of September, which makes me three entries behind in my putative Post and Read Every Day In September plan, which I told no one about and only vaguely hinted at to ravurian. I guess it will be make thirty posts in September, a slightly different commitment.

So, thing the first: Google+ Hangouts. Really cool. My sisters and I have been using Hangouts for a few weeks now. We all live in the same town, but getting together in person is a big production number. We're working on manifesting improvements in our lives (me: remodeling), and we like to meet to share our progress. Hangouts work perfectly.

What I like:

• The interface is reasonably intuitive
• It's free
• It easily accommodates several people and switches focus seamlessly to whoever's talking
• The sound quality is good, and the system eliminates cross-talk and echoes amazingly well
• You can start a Hangout on your phone, then switch to your tablet or computer, also seamlessly

What I don't like:

• It's a wee bit glitchy and isn't 100% reliable on all devices and operating systems (yet).
• It's a bit of a shock seeing myself as if on live TV. But I'm getting used to that. I'm figuring out makeup, lighting and angle.

It would be really cool if the geniuses of technology could figure out one thing: how to make it so that when I'm looking at you on the screen, I look like I'm looking at you. As it is, I have to gaze interestedly into the tiny pinhole front-facing camera on my device in order to look like I'm listening to you--and then I miss the nuances of your expression. Someone get on that, please.

2/30 The Return of Project Empty

Consultation with my sister the realtor has convinced me that there's no meaningful advantage in selling my house and moving to a condo. The only gain--that of no longer having a garden to waste water on attend to--would be amply offset by losses. I can't actually downsize--my house is already smaller than a lot of condos. I can't reduce my monthly rent by enough to matter. And in my price range I can't possibly improve on my inner-city location.

So I'm staying. But one brilliant idea emerged from the few weeks where I was thinking about moving: I'm gonna play dead and have an estate sale. Turns out there are businesses--reputable local businesses of long standing--that will broker, sell, donate or discard every single thing in a house and leave it "broom clean and ready to sell". They document everything, take a cut, and write you a check.

I'm gonna rent a POD, put a select few items in it, take a vacation to the beach, and let the estate sale agents go to town. Then I'm going to move back in with my few items and start all over again.

I'm hoping to accomplish this before I retire.

03/30 Countdown

Retirement countdown: