further trouble with smart cars

As I first mentioned in this post in May, I've been shocked at how little is generally known about the the problems with all the fun toys (apps, streaming music, streaming maps, etc.) in new cars like the one my husband and I just bought after we couldn't find a good, lightly-used one.  I just wonder if I can hack my own car to turn all the apps and streaming stuff off!

*Sigh*

I am starting to see a bit more on the 'net about this issue, so that's good. Listening to Morning Classics on Montana Public Radio this morning, I came across "Tesla Model S Can Be Hacked, And Fixed (Which Is The Real News)," which led me to "Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on the Highway—With Me in It."

I'm also glad to see that some legislators are starting to discuss this: “'Drivers shouldn’t have to choose between being connected and being protected,' [Massachusetts Senator] Markey wrote in a statement shared with WIRED."

Well, I'm not sure I agree; I don't think we can "have it all" in life, in general.  I just want to be given the option of not having to be connected, as that is the best way to stay protected.  I'm worried, though, that it will take someone getting hurt or killed for this to be taken seriously and get legislation moved through all the hurdles of government.

We shall see.

"That's My Ride!" - a pictorial history

Car shopping has me in a nostalgic mood.  I've had some vehicles with real character!  Here's a look back my "rides" of the last 10 years.

September 2005: Joe the Bike - just $30 at an Idaho Youth Ranch thrift store! He was a work horse, but he had issues.  As the saying goes, you get what you pay for.

July 2006: TT the Car, so named since she was "Teal and Tan," and the name reminded this homesick Boston girl of T.T. the Bear's Place.  This little 1992 Saturn got great gas mileage and ran pretty well for her age.

In this pic from August 2007, you can also see Boise Bike #2 (BB2) that I had bought earlier that summer. At $60 from the Youth Ranch, it was an upgrade!

August 2007: TT's dramatic end.  
That was a rather difficult day, but the story ended well, especially since a few months later a friend gave me...

...a 1996 Mercury Sable!   This pretty girl looked very grown-up and professional, and she served me well...

...until the transmission finally went out in Ogden, Utah in May 2009.

I then lived car-less for almost 4 years.  At first, I biked most of the time on BB2, but after the elbow injury in January 2012, I walked. I bused some, too, but mostly I walked... A LOT.

Finally...  

Thus, inspired by facebook chatter, I named this new-only-to-me car "Alexei Hondeski Accordakov," or "Alyosha," for short.

A few months later, this guy, Sean, came into my life!  You may have heard that the two of us even got hitched in April of last year.  

Since about that time, Sean has been saying how we should look for a better car for me, but the need became more evident this spring as multiple costs for repairs suddenly cropped up. It's just painful when, in the span of a few months, you have to put much more into a car than it is worth just to stay safe while driving!

And so, on 15 July 2015, my dear, sweet, amazing husband bought a beautiful, all-new, blue (!) Honda Accord for me to use around town and for us to use on road trips.  It is still unnamed, except for the requisite patronymic, "Alexeyevich," after my first Honda and in honor of the trip Sean and I took to Russia last month.

Now this is an upgrade!

bon anniversaire!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, not "me," as in "Sylvia," but "me," as in my blog "leaves..."

Just now, I was browsing through old posts, wondering which ones I've actually shown to Sean.  Then, just for kicks, I clicked on the earliest one and realized it was from April 30, 2005.  Woah.  That makes this little corner of cyberspace a 10-year-old!  I immediately felt it necessary to mark the  milestone, albeit belatedly.  In celebration, here are the most important posts, the ones that have stuck with me long after writing them, in order of Must Read-ness.

August 30, 2007: the Move to Missoula  the thrilling adventure of my actual move.  It was not how I planned it, but who could ask for a better story?!

June 17, 2009: všetko v poriadku In this follow-up to the angst-laden post I wrote near the beginning of my three-week trip (všetko), I share how God brought all the details together and made it an experience I'll never forget.

November 13, 2009: woke up to Jessica's alarm this morning...  processing heartache and uncertainty.

October 20, 2005: at the end of one of those days a sweet moment.

June 14, 2005: Oh, oh that's my cue! preparing to move to Boise for grad school.

August 17, 2007: Walking Around the Corner moving again, but with a new perspective.

October 4, 2005: obsession Barely a month and a half into the school year, and I was already exhausted.

June 27, 2006: Big Sky Expeditions 2006 my first trip to Slavic lands.

May 8, 2008: attention all word nerds the one where "somebody famous" commented on my blog!  okay, just NPR famous.  And it probably wasn't really him - just some staff underling - but still...

March 10, 2006: victim making good use of that snazzy, new, flip-phone camera.

November 1, 2006: a sappy true story further proof, if you really needed it, that I'm a complete dork!

As always, thanks for reading.

the car search - troubling beginnings

As I have been passively on the hunt for a new-to-me car since the beginning of the year, a comment on a radio show about the possibility of new cars being hacked caught my attention.  The car expert said that, because of the addition of a multiplicity of apps, the computers in today's cars are not secure.  In fact, it would be possible for someone to crash your car while you are in it, and you would be unable to stop that.

Um, hello?!?! That's terrifying!

I didn't get to hear the whole program, so later I decided to do some research via the Google.  I was surprised by the dearth of information that I found.  It seemed that almost no one was talking or writing or blogging about this.  The only article I found that seemed to directly address any problems with having so many apps in our lives was this one, actually an excerpt from a book decrying our "love affair'" with the app.  It's a really good read, and the whole "13 Steps to Opening Your Car with Your Phone" section just takes the cake!

That was a few months ago.

Today, I decided to try to find that article again, and also see if any one else might be starting to discuss the issue.  I was glad to see a few more articles come up, and so I thought I should pass them on.  

Warning: it isn't pretty!

Report Sees Weak Security in Cars’ Wireless Systems  This report, published in February, is probably what brought about that conversation on the radio that I heard around that time.   This article focuses on the data collected by automakers via 3rd party companies, but also mentions that "connecting cars to the Internet means that more vehicles have smartphonelike interfaces that allow for new possibilities, but also carry inherent risks."

Spy agencies target mobile phones, app stores to implant spyware  An article posted today from CBC News in Canada.  Another article on the same issue can be found here.

Phone apps can track you "Many of my customers come into Cell Phone Technicians and say, 'What's being tracked?' The answer is everything."

So, yeah.  I like my smartphone, but I'm not sure I trust it, and I definitely want to avoid the apps in a new-to-me car... if I can!

pizza, take 1

Today, I am tackling gluten-free pizza!

Since our beloved Fat Cat Pizzeria closed (RIP!), we have not been able to enjoy a Sean-friendly pizza.  Lately, Sean has been longing for one, moaning over our loss, almost every day, and so last week I bought the necessary supplies. We had already vetted pizza sauce and cheeses, and all pizza-loving-veggies are good for Sean, but there was a hang-up on the most necessary component: pepperoni.  With its ambiguous "spices" in the ingredient list, we were unsure of its safety.  Sean emailed Hormel this week, and mid-morning at work a few days ago, I got this text from him: "Original pepperoni is a go :)"

This is also the inaugural use of the fancy pizza stone Sean bought a few years ago but hadn't used yet.   After an hour or so of internet searching, I have concluded that this stone has the potential to be used successfully with the wet, gooey, sticky stuff that is gluten-free dough.  Really, I can't be sure until I try, so... here we go!

Cooking Soundtrack: Shuffle. Play. Listen. Matt Haimovitz & Christopher O'Reilly

I'm using this pizza dough recipe from Jules Shepherd.  (She has a fabulous website for all sorts of gluten-free inspiration, by the way.) Said recipe involves slathering oil on your hands in order to spread the dough on the pizza pan; still, your hands will be covered in dough. And this flour is too expensive to just wash down the drain, so I enjoy licking my hands like a five-year-old!

prep work while the dough rises in the oven

The dough needs to cook a bit after it rises, before adding toppings. As usual, I add a LOT, and I'm a little worried the middle won't cook.   But when the timer goes off, I pull it out...

oooh! pretty!

...and call Sean from his post-work computer game, and....

oh, no!  it's stuck!!

Next time, I'll use parchment paper underneath the crust! Sean, expertly wielding the metal spatula, saves the day and carves slices for us, and we sit down to our gourmet meal.

white wine? red wine? Mexican coke? Italian dressing?  ;)

Eating Soundtrack: Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga: String Quartets Prima Vista Quartet

he likes it!

And I do, too!

a little something i've been working on...

This site has been live for over a month, but I'm just now working up the courage to make it more known, via this blog post and a facebook status.  It's been a lot of fun to tweak and fiddle with (yes, pun intended!), perhaps too much fun!  Anyway, feel free to pass it on to any folks in the Missoula area looking for a violin teacher!

on reading 1 Peter 2 and interviews with David Bazan...

random thoughts... from a sad heart:

"you will know them by their fruit" - Jesus talking to Jesus-followers about how to know if another person is a Jesus-follower.

"the world will know you are my disciples because you love one another." again, Jesus to his followers about how the not-Jesus-followers ("the world") will perceive those who belonging to Him.

but also, "if the world persecutes me, they will persecute you, too."  so, we should expect that we will not always be understood or appreciated.  On the contrary, we can expect to be opposed in our life missions to share Jesus' life and love.

and then, 1 Peter 2... "though the world may call you evildoers now, when God comes at the end, they will realize you were doing God's will all along." so, in our quest to do the right thing, we can expect that some will say we are doing evil.  whaaa???  for reals?   yeah.  somehow i forgot that in my people-pleaser, facebook-like-seeking existence.

we need to stop using the world's judgement to validate Jesus-followers' actions.  How did it come to this, that we look for approval from non-believers of Jesus as the standard by which we judge ourselves, or approve/condemn our brothers and sisters in Christ?!?  the world's opinion is of no importance!

among the body of believers, we are to use Holy Spirit-guided discernment and "speak the truth in love."  sometimes, that means we confront and do the 1 Corinthians "expel the immoral brother" thing.  Sometimes.  outside of the church, we're just supposed to love radically, like Jesus did, and tell the truth about who our holy, good, awesome God is, and make known the judgement to come against all evil, but also to proclaim the hope of rescue we have through Jesus.

Still, we are only works-in-progress, so we often don't serve and love those outside our community of faith very well.  And we often don't get loving each other right, either.

That, to me, is the most hurtful thing.

But right now, i want to remember this: as much as i do to be a peace-maker and "servant of all," and "live at peace with everyone as much as it is depends on you," in the end, it is only God's opinion that matters.

"well done, good and faithful servant.  come and enter into your Master's rest."

SF Recipe #1 - Salmon Burgers with Creamy Dill Sauce

No, that's not "San Francisco" recipes, but "Sean-Friendly!!"

In the continuing adventures of Sean+Sylvia, I need a place to post recipes so that I can pin them on my Pinterest boards.  By the way, I was very late to the Pinterest game, avoiding it at all costs... until I got engaged.  Since the wedding, it has been invaluable as I learn to cook and bake for my highly food-allergic husband.

Said husband, Sean, bought a lovely house in the South Hills of Missoula about 6 months before I met him.  Soon after, his younger brother, Caleb, started renting the basement bedroom from him. Caleb was the first of Sean's family that I met - a surreal experience, for sure!

But I digress. When Caleb moved to the East Coast in September 2013, he left an assortment of random things, including 10 cans of salmon. Yeah, salmon.  What do you do with that much salmon?  Well, since I detest and deplore the wasting of food, I have been determined to find out.  To kick off this cooking/baking portion of my blog, here is the favorite, "sooo good," salmon recipe that has become a staple in our diet - at least, as long as the salmon lasts! :)

Salmon Burgers with Creamy Dill Sauce
(adapted from this fresh salmon recipe and this canned salmon one)

Makes 4 burgers.  Prep time: 25 minutes  Cook time: 10 minutes

for the burgers

• 1 can (14.75 ounces) canned salmon
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup chopped green onion
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs (we use Gillian's Bread Crumbs)
• 1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon champagne vinegar and/or 1/2 teaspoon lemongrass*
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon light (cooking) olive oil

for the Creamy Dill Sauce

• 2-3 teaspoons minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill
• 1 teaspoon wine vinegar OR 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

1. Drain and reserve liquid from salmon.  Remove bones, if desired.
2. Combine all of the salmon burger ingredients EXCEPT oil in a large bowl.
3. Make into burger patties.  If the mixture is too dry to form them, add reserved liquid from salmon, 1 teaspoon at a time.  Likewise, if is too wet, add breadcrumbs 1 teaspoon at a time.
4. Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat.  When the pan is very hot, add the burgers and cook for 3-4 minutes per side, turning gently.
5. In a small bowl, stir together sauce ingredients.
6. Serve on buns, topped with the creamy dill sauce.  Enjoy!

*October 2016 UPDATE: This summer, we discovered that Sean can eat lemongrass.  I used that in this recipe the last time we made it.  I have yet to try it with both the vinegar and the herb, as I was out of the former that particular time.  I'll make it again soon and update this!