Rich life (day 146)

bacterial update: I've been away from the cultures for a while and in a way it was good for me to see the progress of the kombucha tea.  The daughter is almost fully formed.  While I was away the pH test strips arrived and I tested the pH this evening.  It tested at about 4.2 which means it's still quite far from being done, though the timeline may not be linear.  As I thought about this high pH I became paranoid about the sugar content not having been high enough which is quite possible because I basically just used 10 tablespoons which is just over half of what is recommended.  I was following the directions of the person who gave me the culture.  Now reading about other people's brewing methods, it all seems to point to me not having used enough sugar.  Anyway, I added a bit of dissolved sugar to the brewing tea, very carefully, with a straw.  This may have been a bad idea and it's still not nearly enough sugar.  If I don't get punished harshly for this by the kombucha gods I swear I will never need to do it again.  It would be a shame to have come this far and fall prey to my own impulsivity.  I keep reminding myself of positive black swans...sometimes you get lucky with accidents.  Though luck favours the experienced.  If it looks bad for my scoby, I'll just start another brew with the right amount of sugar.
The Kefir grains are indeed dormant after being in the refrigerator.  They seem to have done almost nothing in the six days I was away.  I took them out and hopefully they'll come to life nicely by tomorrow evening.

Having had a harrowing day of travel (I will never book connecting flights in LAX again), I'm really happy to be home.  Vancouver is warm and smells good.  I walked to school for a talk happening in the IDS, listening to more of Lords of Finance, my latest auditory obsession.  It was good to move after so much sitting and waiting.  As I walked, the war ends and Germany's fate is being decided by a peace committee.  Irrational behaviour prevails outrage at the treaty ensues, followed by general (expected) non-compliance by Germany.  Keynes resigned from the committee.  I was surprised to learn that he was part of it.  Though he was largely shut out of the discussions about reparations.   It's an interesting book full of little observations about the temperaments and characters at play.  I'm intrigued by the social moors of the time, particularly in relation to the ruling class and bankers.  I'm curious if it is similar today.  I'm aware that besides Entertainment Tonight and The Enquirer I don't have much of a window into the ultra-rich or ever super-rich day to day living.

A song for this post.

Our share of envy (day 23)

We took a walk along the sea today.  We started at kits beach and passed through Jericho, Locarno, and Spanish Banks.  A portion of the walk has to be on the road because there is protected land.  While strolling along Point Grey Rd. and 1st Ave. we couldn't help but notice and sometimes admire the massive houses overlooking the water.   It's a spectacle of sorts and we make a game out of pretending to buy and sell our favourites.    Ownership of a house on that stretch of road probably starts at three million and we feel rather certain that our group will never own any of them or even socialize in any of them.   Once in a while we spot someone who lives in the houses and they look normal.  There is no glow of money it seems.   We wonder what it is that they've done to be there.  What is it that we're not doing, or not doing right?  Looking at wealth distribution in Canada it's clear that some people know something others don't and that they are not sharing.   I'm puzzled by this crazy making situation.   Our tacit approval of the wealth distribution means that we accept the notion that the people that get millions in salary and bonuses deserve it, and that the rest don't.   The implication is that if you don't have the money to buy the Point Grey house, you're not smart enough.   There is currently so much discussion about bank executive salaries but at the root of the dialogue is this massive insecurity that inequality creates in those that don't fetch the millions in bonuses.  And this insecurity means that nothing will change.   As long as we buy the tale that they deserve it, we will continue to minimize the impact of the injustice, and resist regulation.

Of course I'm aware of the irony of this discussion.  I am rich by any relative measure that goes beyond downtown Vancouver and most definitely North America.  The imbalances are stunning.  But surely one of the ways to start to right the craziness is to skim the fat off the top and redistribute it properly.   Or better, keep the fat from rising.  If more of excess capital is widely distributed, it can only mean better, more equitable participation in world markets.

Back to lighter topics tomorrow...

A song for this post.