Friday, March 21, 2008

Had a former mayor of Bend come in yesterday. I've known her since I was six years old and best friends with her son, Glenn. (Makes it sound like I know people, huh, but I've lived here for 55 years, so I know people, especially through my family just by being here).

She volunteers at the library, and was talking about something called "A graphic novel? A book called Persepolis? We picked it as Book of the Year." She sounded amazed. And then she said, "Do you have any graphic novels?"

Like I said, I know her, but I don't think she's been paying a whole lot of attention to what I've been doing.

"Uh, that's what I do, Ruth. That's what my store is about....and I have thousands of volumes of graphic novels...."

"Gee, I had never heard of them....."

So...my impression is, even when a graphic novel is picked as 'Book of the Year', graphic novels as a whole STILL make no impression.

I also couldn't help but ask her of what she thought of the current city doings. She shrugged her shoulders, "I can't figure out what they're doing."


I also met "Sally Heatherton" yesterday. I asked him if he had any idea of the impact 'her' adventure was going to make.

"I kind of thought it would," he said. "I had some neighbors who were like that. They've come down to earth since then."

"It was a real creative effort," I said. "Did you think of keeping it going?"

"No, I pretty much had the whole arc worked out in advance."

Sally wanted to help me do a web page, with my blog included, and a twitter attachment; Smart guy. I never turn down help, maybe soon.


Finally, I had a Culver farmer who's been a customer for years, and for the first time I started asking him about his work. I had written a blog a few days ago about how ranchers were the salt of the earth, and I wanted to know what he was doing and how he was going about it.

He confirmed that it has gotten a bit better over the last few years. He was real reticent about saying much.


Anyway, I find it interesting that someone like me who really does very little social activity, can still manage to learn all kinds of interesting things simply by standing in my store and asking questions. For an information gathering INTJ and #5 (personality types), it's perfect. I am also amazed that when I visit other stores, even bookstores and comic stores, they don't ask me a single question.

It seems to me that such curiosity is the hallmark of a survivor.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Regarding todays WSJ front page story on builders foreclosing, and I'm talking HOLLERN size builders.

(
Google-News "Builder foreclosure"
)

There's a good graph on defaults, and it shows that OREGON is second-tier,

One of the worst places in the country. Right there with michigan, cali, and florida.

How long have I predicted HOLLERN's LLC's would BK??? A long time,

Sebastian is-was an out of town nobody, who showed up in 2002, to take advantage of our deferred SDC program.

HOLLERN has been here since the 1960's, and has tentacles everywhere, when he goes down, he's taking the whole town down with him.

HOLD on for the ride.

HOLLERN survived the 1980's recession because he was cash-poor, but land-rich, today he's cash-poor, but HOUSE rich, which means has cash-flow is burning 100x.

Like the guys in todays WSJ, watch their liens, and factor 100X, because a lot of people don't want to think about HOLLERN defaulting, being that its been good biz for +20 years, but we're in an RE depression, and BEND RE is the most toxic in the NATION. A lot of people don't want to file liens on builders, becuase of years of biz relationship, but watch the few that are trickling in.

Like sebastian said, it has nothing to do with Bend or him,

Yeh, right, all this has NOTHING to do with Bend, HOLLERN, HAP-TAYLOR, Chandler/COSTA, ...Garzini, EDCO-etal, .. organized this BEND-BUBBLE since 1998. Ten years later its all going to implode, and there's NOT any amount of taxpayer COVA/VCB money that can stop it.

HOLD on folks to your cash, and your home, keep your heads down, be ready to run for high ground, because a tsunami is coming into BEND, never seen before.

The Natives Are Restless said...

Ruth and Sally are sure cut from different pieces of cloth.

Duncan McGeary said...

Different generations, for sure. Ruth is a very commonsensical lady who did a lot for Bend. But I suspect that most of her generation, my parents generation, are unaware of graphic novels.

Hell, everyone is unaware of graphic novels.

I still have to explain that 'graphic' doesn't mean violence.

dkgoodman said...

INTP
#5
bio

Duncan McGeary said...

Dave,

How is a INTJ and a INTP different?

It would be interesting to know the percentage of bloggers who are 5's, versus 3's for instance.

My wife and I used to walk down the street, observe someone and turn to the other and say,

2.

dkgoodman said...

LOL

From Socionics (chosen randomly from first set of Google hits):

P: Perceiving types

* act impulsively following the situation
* can start many things at once without finishing them properly
* prefer to have freedom from obligations
* are curious and like a fresh look at things
* work productivity depends on their mood
* often act without any preparation

J: Judging types

* do not like to leave unanswered questions
* plan work ahead and tend to finish it
* do not like to change their decisions
* have relatively stable workability
* easily follow rules and discipline

Your mileage may vary. :)