Folks,

After … 3 years, hundreds of posts and many great conversations, I’m putting Cashewman into semi-retirement. I’ll need a personal outlet moving forward, and this may be it – I’m not sure.

I’m starting a new blog at brendanbaker.co, focused mainly on tech/startup/product stuff. Feel free to check it out.

In the meantime, many thanks for following along and schooling me in so many ways.

B

This is crazy: Felicia Pearson, or The Wire’s ‘Snoop’, who in the show is a lieutenant in a drug crew, has been arrested in Baltimore in a large takedown of a drug conspiracy. Check it out here. The screenshot could easily be from the show. Same name. Same law. Same style.

Maybe it’s because I’m obsessed with this show. I’m on my 5th pass through the 5 seasons. Maybe it’s because I’ve recently been obsessed with authenticity. But this is tragically and beautifully authentic. I hope she comes out of it okay.

B

This is a great ad:

I’m no huge fan of Chrysler, and haven’t been impressed by American carmakers lately. Nobody has. If any of the three should have been making this ad it’s Ford, who didn’t take government money. Ford is a writing great story of coming back from the brink right now.

But this is a great ad. It had real passion. It has a real story. I don’t know if this is pure marketing, or if it’s a true thread moving through Chrysler right now. But it’s refreshing to see an organization cast off some complacency, and start fighting out of the corner. More of us should relearn what made us, us at the core, and use that for fuel. I know I should.

B

Upper Haight, SF.

B

That was my old post it note to self. Here’s the new version:

Today’s all about shipping.

I wrote recently about my parents’ well-designed new home. I was especially impressed given the challenges of the site. Then it occurred to me that on reason it was so well designed was because of those challenges. Or put another way, my mother’s design is so good in part because of the constraints she had to deal with.

A normal set of criteria might be: a house that has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2000 sq feet and a deck. Square is fine. That describes my own house in BC. It’s functional. But it’s not inspiring in any way.

Some of my mom’s objectives were to maximize the view, privacy and light throughout the year, in addition to a range of more specific aims like 2 bedrooms but ability to sleep 20, have all core amenities on one level, and so on.

But she was also faced with some unique constraints:
- the lot is steep – I’d guess 6 degrees.
- the lot is an odd combination of a triangle and a square
- the house entrance is on the upper side, almost below the road; this must be welcoming and set the tone
- the view is on the opposite side, 180 degrees of water and mountains
- behind and to the right of the lot is a large hill that blocks late afternoon sunlight.

To satisfy her objectives with all of these constraints, she had to be much more thoughtful, more creative about her decisions. She had to develop new concepts, and eliminate the cookie cutter options of more normal homebuilding. In an easier set of conditions something could have been pretty good, or good enough. With such extreme conditions, that relaxation wasn’t possible. Solutions had to actually work, without half steps. The result is inspiring.

B

Early am in Oregon. Moving my worldly possessions down to SF. All pickup-full of them. 30 years old, and pretty much all I own can fit in the back of a pickup. I kinda like it, actually.

Now we’re looking at a day of driving down the Oregon and Northern Cali coastline. Life could be worse.

B

If you’re up at 6:30 and starting to work, this may as well be your view.

B

The view from my roof, 20 minutes ago.

B