Why use a phone book when you can use an online directory?

Recently, we received two new phone books.

As I put them away, I pulled three phone books out of the drawer and threw them in the recycling bin. I don't think phone books see much use in our house.

I know I haven't used a phone book since we moved here almost two years ago. Why do I need to, when I have great online sources like Switchboard.com and Google maps?

Do you use a phone book any more?

One number to rule them all

A few weeks ago, Google bought Grand Central, and being one of the Google believers, I signed up to be an invitation-only beta tester right away.

For those that don't know, Grand Central is a web based service that gives you a phone number that will ring what ever phones you set it to. The idea is that the phone number is associated with the person, not the location (home, work, mobile, etc.). So you can give everybody one number and their call goes through to whatever phone you are sitting by.

This isn't about making yourself infinitely more reachable, it is about giving people control, both the caller and the callee. The caller knows that the call will reach me, whether I am at work, at home or on the road. As the callee, I get great functionality like call screening (caller's get announced, plus I can listen in on the voice mail - like with an old answering machine). All my voice mail comes to one place, which is accessible by phone or by the web and my contact details are easily managed (although there are some contact manager applications that do it better) and integrated with the phone.

As a remote worker, being able to be reached is important to me. It is just as important to me that I can find out who was trying to reach me, when I choose to be unreachable. Having the address book and voice mail web accessible just makes it all of the better.

But something I think is even neater is the talk of the Google Phone. With a service like Grand Central, the phone doesn't need to have lots of memory or features - it can be just a simple phone with a good web browser. It doesn't need an address book, it can use Grand Central and keep the on-phone memory requirements low. With an integral web browser, you could get at your email (Gmail) and your calendar (Google Calendar mobile). You could take the dumbest phone out there and have the same functionality as a smart phone.

I think that it is really neat, because it could take so much of the costs out of the gadget and give so many more people, in the US and the world, digitial, mobile communication and computing.

I think an idea like this goes hand in hand with Google's planned bid on the upcoming FCC bandwidth auction. They have the applications, which are in most cases, pretty well optimized for mobile browsing. They'll have the spectrum, if they spend their 4.5 billion USD. Then all they would need is a device. And users. I'd be the first to raise my hand...

But back to Grand Central. I never need to tell anyone another phone number, even if I change them, because I change cellular providers, jobs, or VOIP phone provider. That kind of convenience is the greatest. So far, after using the service for about a week, I love it. I've given them some feedback about features I would want or things to tweak, but it is a great concept and a great execution.

Dessert for dinner!

I feel a little bad. I think I lied to my neighbor, Diane. She brought me a catalog of Penzey's spices around 7pm yesterday. I had just decided to stop working and think about dinner.

I was really hungry, but didn't have anything planned - nor did we really have anything to make for dinner. And I told her that we didn't have anything.

But I did have dessert planned.

Chocolate Fettuccine in Raspberry Sauce.

Alas the raspberries were bad. Luckily, the Trader Joes Raspberry Jam has lots and lots of raspberries in it and the sauce was still quite good.

Mmmm. It was good too.

Sorry, Diane.

ps. You would have liked it too.

He's got something up his sleeve

You know we are in trouble when your 5-year-old comes inside and says, "Would you be freaked out if there were snails in the house?"

My wife quickly says "Yes," but I say, "No, snails just don't belong in the house."

Thankfully the snails stayed outside.

Even the baby ones.

They are going to think we beat our kids!

Today, Alec came home from his swim meet, not with a gold medal, but a cast.

Evidently, he fell on his heely's (those skates with wheels in the heels) and potentially broke some small bones in the wrist. They aggressively treat this type of a potential break, because the wrist bones don't have good circulation. The break might not show up on the initial x-rays, but it could in 10 days and if you haven't been treating it, bad things could result. So, he now has a cast of his own.

Two kids, two broken arms... Parker better be on the lookout.

Issaquah Farmer's Market

Yesterday, Parker and I got to spend a big chunk of the day together while Heather and the other kids went to a swim clinic.

We took a walk and watched the expansion of our neighborhood, but afterwards, we went to the Issaquah Farmer's Market. Every Saturday, from 9 - 2, there is a farmer's market down by the Costco Headquarters.

It was a lot of fun. First we walked through, just to see what there was: food (prepared) vendors, crafts and then fresh vegetable stands and then we got lunch. Eating and walking doesn't do so well with a 5 year old, so we sat down at a picnic table and ate. We ended up getting cherries (he didn't like the Rainier cherries so much, so we got sweet red ones) and fresh Rival Apricots (we snacked on those while we walked around). I bought some cilantro and then Parker picked out a bunch of sweet peas for Heather.

I ended up not having enough cash for raspberries, blueberries and strawberries, but the pasta booth took credit cards. I bought Chipotle Linguine and a recipe for a sea scallop and tomato sauce. The noodles were really good and inventive, but the sauce was only so-so, but we ate on our patio al fresco, so it was still an enjoyable meal.

Parker and I also made ice cream with the cherries. We followed the Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia recipe from the cook book Heather got me for Christmas. It was really good and quite simple. Heather even said so and she doesn't really like cherries.

Overall, Parker and I had a really nice day together - we got a lot done and we got to spend some really nice time with each other.

More houses in our neighborhood

I'll start this post off with a disclaimer. I am not one of those NIMBY people and I'm not totally against cutting down trees (I have cut down my fair share already). I don't want this post taken out of context and if I see that it is, I will be rather upset with the out-of-context-taker.

The sub-division in which I live, has one last set of houses to be built. In the last few weeks, they have started to clear the woods to build the final release of houses. They have been subtle, not sneaky or underhanded, but they have left a border of trees and you can hear them working in there. Chain saws and trees falling, construction equipment rumbling. You can't see them unless you explicitly look, but they are there.

On one hand, I can understand why this is happening - living in the suburbs where there is still "developable" land, it is inevitable. My neighbor John says that he doesn't have enough money to buy up the land and just sit on it, and probably neither does the owner. It was part of the long term plan for this neighborhood, so we knew it was coming.

But at the same time, there is a feeling of sadness that accompanies it. There were bears supposedly that lived in that section of land. In places where you could once see nothing but trees, you can now see the sky. I have this feeling that the view of the sky will be replaced with views of houses.

On a related topic, there is also a new cellular tower. It was built right off the sidewalk on the other side of the street. It seems out of place and I can see the top of it from my home office. On the good side, hopefully it was put there by my carrier and I'll get an improvement in coverage and signal strength.

I think what I hear in the background is progress, the inevitable, unstoppable change which accompanies progress. I'm not totally sure how I feel about that at this point, but I know it is coming.


There are some more photos in my Flickr account.

An American Hero?

Joey Chestnut just won the 2007 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Championship with a 3 hot dog win over the reigning champ. Good job, Joey.

But WTF ESPN announcers? He isn't a national hero. Just because it is the 4th of July, people who do great things (if eating hot dogs counts) automatically become heros.

The real heros are people who are making sacrifices, doing something for their country. It is that Private First Class in a foxhole in Iraq, making sure his buddies are safe inside the wire. Its the firemen, who aren't going to be able to BBQ with their families, because they are out stopping a fire started by some dumbass who blew off his fingers.

Patriotism and National Pride are great things and today is the day to celebrate them.

But hot dogs. WTF?

When you are having a rough day...

... it is nice to get:

• hugs from your wife
• IM's from college buddies
• voicemails from friends
  
• to play with your kids
• cookies for donating blood
• out in the sunshine

Thank goodness for all of those things that happened to me today. They help me get through the rough days.

Clean is happy!

Um, so there were these ads that caught my attention. Usually I am pretty immune to them, but hey, I was drawn in by happy faces on tushies.

You've got to check out this site!

Toto | Washlet - Flash Player Installation

Basically, the Washlet is a mod for your toilet - that comes with a remote control.

They have several sections, Washlet 101, Why it is Better and Happiness.

I won't spoil it, so you have to go check it out, but a few sound bites from the site:

"Don't we all deserve a little pampering?"
"The Washlet will even neutralize the air around the bowl."
"Hands liberated from their usual chores. Nice."
"...Washlets patented wonder wave."
"You can select from several modes... that will put you into happiness mode."

Don't think about it any more - just go look.

Note to readers: I don't own one of these and I'm not getting any kickbacks from Toto, the ads sucked me in.
Note to Toto: If I make a difference in your traffic, a freebie would be nice!

Summertime in Seattle?

My calendar tells me that it is summer time - it is after the 21st of June.

Yesterday, I wore shorts and a t-shirt to a swim meet and I got sunburned on my legs. Today, I wore pants, a sweatshirt and a Gore-tex parka because it was cold and rainy.

Only in Seattle could summer be like this.

I learned an old Northwestern adage today.

If you can't see Mount Rainer, it is raining.
If you can see Mount Rainier, it will be raining soon.

Ain't that the truth.

It's been three weeks

Three weeks since I've been to the gym and I broke that stretch this morning. I'd been meaning to go all week and just didn't feel like getting up.

It wasn't really my motivation that got me going this morning - it was the fact that my neighbor across the street said that he had been working out in the morning and it really started his day right. I knew what he was talking about and wasn't going to let broken arms, early morning work calls or travel stop me anymore.

I'm back on the bandwagon. You can find me now, Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings at the Pine Lake Club!

On another gym related note, some lady tried to steal my MINI this morning. Well, try and steal are probably slight exaggerations, but she took my keys! The gym is repainting and all the things on the walls have been removed. This includes the key hanger, so everybody put their keys on the counter below the wall. And evidently in a pumped up state, MINI keys look similar to Lexus keys.

The funny thing is I was starting a set on a machine over by the keys and I noticed that mine weren't there. As I walked downstairs, she came back in and said, "It would help if I got my own keys." I found my culprit.

We laughed about it and I didn't really want to trade her for her Lexus.

today's music

This week has been a little rough so I made an effort to listen to mellow music this morning.
I started off with Ladytron, then Lilly Allen and some old No Doubt. No Doubt got me onto ska and I listened to the Mighty, Mighty Bosstones.
From trying to relax standpoint, tha probably wasn't a good idea. I turned to NIN and listened to Broken and Fixed for the rest of the day.
Now that is stress relieving music.

I made it!

I got this email today from the University of Washington! I'm excited and it came much earlier than they had originally told us.

Congratulations! You have been admitted to the University of Washington’s Evening MBA Program for Autumn 2007. We invite you to join our community of faculty, staff, students and alumni, and become a part of one of the most prestigious academic programs in the Northwest. At the University of Washington, a highly selective admissions process and a smaller program size permit us to select students who excel in many dimensions. This insures that you are among a small, talented group of peers. Our Admissions Committee believes you will make a significant contribution to the entering class.

Just as my kids are thinking of getting out of school for the summer, I am thinking of getting back in. How ironic.

My most embarrassing moment in a long time

I really like Taco Bell.

When I was in high school, I would eat there because it was cheap. I'm still "frugal" so I like Taco Bell for that reason. Heather isn't a real big fan of Taco Bell, so I take the kids to Taco Bell occasionally.

Tonight, Heather was at a PTA meeting and I picked up Alec at swim practice, so we stopped at Taco Bell on the way home.

We went in and started our order. As each of the three kids finished their order, they took their cup and started filling it up. I made my order and reached into my pocket. My empty pocket.

No drivers license, no cash, no credit cards. No pocket lint either.

My kids had drinks and I had no money and an order placed. I was getting red in the face. I had no money in my car, either. I had to tell the lady at the counter that I couldn't pay - even for the sodas we already had.

I told the lady I would be back in 20 minutes to pay and I told the kids we had to leave. They didn't quite understand why we weren't eating dinner. It only took a few explanations that I had no money.

So, I returned home and turned around and went back to Taco Bell to pay and still buy dinner. They had already changed shifts, so I had to explain to the next girl at the counter why I wanted to pay for drinks, but she didn't need to give me any.

In the end, they were pretty cool about it. They ended up not charging me for any drinks, maybe to help me with my shame. It was quite embarrassing, but in the end we got dinner.

My Skype Experiment

A while back, I wrote about that I was playing with Skype . For me, this isn't going to be one of those check it out and drop it things - Skype is pretty cool.

Skype is cheap
With the Skype Unlimited Plan for less than $30 a year, you can make calls to Canada and the US. I pay that much for my local (long distance not included) phone each month!

Skype to Skype calls are free
My Dad was in Finland and I wanted to talk to him about some Excel functionality. He doesn't have Skype (yet), but the people he was staying with were Skype users. So, we arranged a time that we would both be around (the 11 hour time difference can be a stumbling block) and we got connected and had a 30 minute phone call for free!

Skype calls that you have to pay for are pretty cheap
Skype's rates are very good. You can check out their own rate pages, but the rates are measured in pennies, not dimes, almost no matter where you call to.

Skype calls have pretty good quality
On the call to my Dad in Finland, we had a great connection. On many calls, when both parties are silent, the line is so free of static that I actually wonder if I was disconnected. I've even made calls with a friend over the satellite connection at remote scientific monitoring stations. After I called my Dad in Finland, I called my Mom on her cell phone (mobile to mobile calling is free with Cingular). The international, Voice Over IP call had a better connection that the domestic cell phone call.

Skype can do conference calls
As one of the included features, you can use Skype to make conference calls. And there is no complicated flashing of the phone (who hasn't held it down too long and hung up on the other people). And as an added benefit, the specific person talking is highlighted in the conference call list on the Skype application.

Skype is portable
Where ever I have a wi-fi connection, I have Skype. It will also run off a USB drive, either one that is U3 or PortableApps enabled. I had a conference call scheduled right after my flight arrived in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. I know that wi-fi is free there, so I made the call from the Las Vegas airport. Sure, I could have used my cell phone, but that would have used 60 minutes. This call used no minutes that I had to pay anthing for.

Learnings from my first few weeks with Skype
1. Not many of my friends use Skype.
2. The headset makes a world of difference
3. Skype is a good IM client

Check out Skype. Try it out (they even give you about 5 minutes of free calls). I'm still trying to figure out how it fits in from a business standpoint. If you are a web-worker, it is most definitely applicable!

I'm beau.raines on Skype so, if you are one of my faithful readers, drop me a line!

It's been a helluva week

This week has been a rough one. I'm no longer feeling exhausted, but we'll see how the weekend fares with 3 swimmeet sessions.

On Monday, I had a training event that I needed to attend at the local office, an infrequent occurance for a remote worker. As I left the meeting, I saw there were 8 missed calls on my phone. Something was up. It turns out that my daughter broke her arm on the playground at school. My wife had scheduled last minute doctor's appointments for her and was quickly directed to the Emergency Room at Seattle Children's Hospital. I was in Kent, she was on her way to Seattle and our oldest was at swim practice on Mercer Island. I waited for swim practice to end and rounded up our oldest and met Heather in the ER.

Chase's elbow (well, the upper arm right at the elbow) was broken and she was going to need surgery and some hardware to hold it all together. There were more pressing (emergent, in medical-ese) surgery cases, so they put her in a splint, scheduled an appointment for Tuesday afternoon and sent us home for the night.

We left the hospital late and once we got home and Chase mostly comfortable in bed, I worked late into the night to catch up from being out of the office all afternoon.

I was too tired to go to the gym Tuesday morning, so I didn't. I spent the morning re-arranging my day, moving my afternoon appointments to Wednesday. Tuesday was one of those days that I had planned to spend most of on the phone making follow up calls. Heather was at a PTA luncheon and the hospital called to see if we could come in a few hours early. We jumped at that opportunity, with the hopes that we would get her surgery done earlier. We arranged for a friend to take our youngest and pick up our oldest after school and we were off to the hospital.

We were admitted and promptly taken back to a waiting area. And we waited. There was no cell phone coverage either. Finally at about 4:30 pm (pretty much our original schedule), Chase went under the knife. Her procedure only lasted an hour, during which Heather and I ate at the hospital cafeteria. We were paged to come back to the waiting area and we did and waited. Evidently, Chase was sleeping off her anesthesia and after a few hours, they took her to her recovery room, where she and Heather would stay overnight.

I ended up leaving the hospital at about 8:45pm to go take our kids off our friend's hands. Once I got the boys in bed, I worked late into the night to try to keep my head above water at work.

Chase had asked me to come back to the hospital in the morning, so I had it all planned out. I would go drop our youngest at pre-school and then go to the hospital, stay for a few hours until I had to leave to pick up at pre-school. Seconds before I was going to shut off my computer and start executing that plan, Heather IM's me and says that they will be leaving soon.

Chase and Heather returned home and we quickly turned around to go to literacy day, so she could show off a book she had made in class and a neat PowerPoint presentation about the desert.

As I was returning from the pre-school pickup, my MINI lurched and had a loss of power. The check engine light came on and we limped home. I was able to schedule an appointment, unfortunately for next Tuesday. What was truly problematic was that I had a 6 am flight Thursday morning to go to Oakland. I arranged for a shuttle to take me to the airport and was set for the next day.

My shuttle arrived promptly at 2:50am Thursday morning. It was really quite early and we made 5 other stops on the way to the airport. I got to the airport on time, in fact early, but I was already exhausted and this didn't help any. Usually, when I travel, I stop at Starbucks (the first one on the B concourse) and buy coffee and a scone. I got there before they opened. So, I took a nap and waited for them to open.

I had a full day in Oakland and got a lot accomplished. I didn't get too much email, so on Friday there wasn't much catching up that I had to do either.

My shuttle back home only had me, so it was much faster and I only got home a few minutes later than had I been driving.

Friday I was still too beat to go to the gym. Even though it was only two days ago, I can't remember what I did. There was a swim meet and I do remember that there were lots of calls to our consultants that resulted in, "Can I call you about this on Saturday."

Saturday was another early morning, because we had a swim meet. I only got two loads of laundry done, some work and some reading. I think the best part of the afternoon was giving Heather a nice full body massage. She thought I had been practicing!

So, here I am on a Sunday, again at a swim meet (yep, 3rd time in a weekend). I've been catching up on blogs (pre-writing a few and staging them as drafts, so they are ready to publish during the week). I am about half way through Freakonomics and looking forward to dinner with one of my college room mates who is in town for a conference.

I'm definitely not caught up on rest, but I'm getting there.

Ubiquitous capture

This post had originally started as a writing on paper versus electronic calendars, to-do lists and what not. I was inspired by some postings on Web Worker Daily, 5 Reasons to use a Paper to do list and 6 More Reasons to use a paper to Do List and how important it was to have a paper based solution.

Since then, I have acquired a Samsung BlackJack and my perspective has flip-flopped once again. But utimately, the point is this - you need to be able to get at your calendar, your notes, your to-do list anywhere the thought or fancy hits you. A Ubiquitous capture device is what you need.

Ubiqutous capture is a tenet of GTD - get the thought out of your head and put it on paper. This way you can focus on the task at hand with your full brain power, rather than having to keep track of everything else you need to do at any point in the future.

I think that the foundation should be electronic, but depending upon your preferences and pocketbook, paper or electronic will still fit the need.

I am a Google fanboy. I won't deny it. Google Calendar, Notebook, Documents and Spreadsheets, Personal Homepage... The list goes on and on. Online task management apps, such as Remember the Milk, work very well too. Web-based is excellent and they are some very good productivity tools. There is a certain productivity gain from having the data portable and nicely formatted. But an application that lives on your local PC is just as good. Outlook, the Mozilla suite of applications and Lotus (although I have no experience with it) can all work as well to track your commitments and to-dos.

Using an electronic tool gives you multiple ways to get things on your list. They allow adding by email, IM and SMS all depending upon the software.

I guess you could use a paper based planner, but this is the 21st century! It is the web enabled world.

But, we've got to face it. We aren't always sitting in front of our computers. When you are stuck on a plane or at your kids' event and you remember that you need to send a file to someone, you need to be able to add it to your to-do list. Of if you get invited to a social event, isn't it better to be able to say, "Yes, I can make it," rather than, "Uh, thank you for the kind invitation; I'll have to check my calendar and get back to you."

This is where personal preference, depth of pocketbook, technical aptitude all come in. An electronic tool doesn't necessaryily mean a CrackBerry - you can do a whole lot with text messages and a cell phone. A paper based tool doesn't mean writing everything by hand in a notebook.

I had a conversation with some friends a few months ago about the use of online calendars and what not. Someone asked, "Would you ever go back to a paper based calendar, now that you have everything online?" Collectively, we all said "No." There was too much of a challenge to make sure everything stayed in sync. I agreed.

That weekend, the power went out in our house for almost 72 hours. Cell phone towers had no power, so my Google and Razr enabled calendar didn't do me much good. I realized that I needed to have a way to adequately capture things when I was really offline.

A hipster PDA became the solution for me. I downloaded templates from DIY Planner and a few times a week, I would print out my Google Calendar on 3x5 cards. I was able to print out my RememberTheMilk tasks for today and every evening I would update my online tool with whatever I had come up with during the day. It was great, I always had my schedule at my fingertips and if an idea struck, I could capture it. Now, I was subject to many comments of disbelief that I, the geek I am, would turn to such a low-tech solution as 3x5 cards clipped together with a binder clip. But it worked. As a note, it worked in the past too. Before it was called a hipster PDA, this was the solution that was widely used by officers and NCOs in the Army.

Recently, I became eligible for a phone upgrade. I'm a big fan of Motorola phones and the Q, but I wasn't willing to go away from my mobile provider, Cingular. They had the BlackJack and I started doing comparisons between the Q and the BlackJack. As soon as I was eligible I got the BlackJack. Now, I've got web access in my pocket and my online tools are always available to me. Yeah, it checks my work email, but I've got that set to do it every two hours - I don't need to be at the beck and call of my email, especially my work mail.

I can get at my calendar and to-do lists using mobile versions of the web apps and notes (through the phone itself) anytime I want. Plus, it integrates with my Outlook contacts, so everything is always up to date.

I guess all of my observers will be happy that I've gone hi-tech, but lo-tech works too. The power might go out for longer than the 5 days I can get between the two batteries that come with the BlackJack. And if that day comes (or the Revolution), I'll be ready.

A new PC

Well, not really. I should have greatly improved my computer's performance. Overtime I have amassed a grand collection of photographs, music, documents and what not. Slowly, my 40GB disk became full and as a result, my computer began to run slowly.

I couldn't maintain my computer - there wasn't enough free space to run defrag! Thank goodness for Web 2.0; computing in the cloud helped me maintain my effectiveness with my laggard computer. Thank goodness for cheap memory (I got a 2GB SanDisk U3 flash drive at Radio Shack for $25 on sale); I've been been running Portable Apps off of it (on mine and my daughter's PCs) to keep me going.

The final straw broke a few days ago. I was taking my son to swim practice and was planning on working bedouin-style at the library and the aquatic center. Just like any other day, I hibernated mmy computer and threw it in my messenger bag. When I got to the library, it wouldn't start. I started to wonder - my photos, my music, my financial records, my work - would it all be there? I placed an after-hours call to our helpdesk - my message did include the phrase, "I'm beginning to panic."

My son and I went on to swim practice and I sat in the bleachers. Sad, now not planning on working, I was only hoping that my hard disk hadn't failed and that my stuff would be recoverable. I got a call back from our helpdesk and it was my friend Ken. He recommended I take out the battery and plug it in and restart it - I had already tried that. But as it is with many techincal problems, when repeating a problem with technical support, the problem is solved (probably just by tech support's presence). My computer started. I resolved that I would move my pictures to another disk and ensure that there was free disk space for my laptop to function well.

When I got home that night, there was only 1.5 MB of free disk space. I knew I had to move those pictures.

I used (note the past tense) Adobe Photo Album to organize my photos. I really liked the fact that I could tag my photos for ease of searching. After tagging some 6,000 photos taken over the course of many years, I learned that the tags weren't saved with the files - they lived in the application it self. My photos weren't all that backup-able without tags.

Some Google searches revealed that Photoshop Elements 4.0 had thee functionality to write existing tags to the file and in the future would save the tags to the file themselves. Google searches revealed that other products, namely Picasa, would also save the tags to the file. Picasa is a free Google product which appeals to me. I decided I would switch.

I used Elements to convert my tags and then exported them to my iPod. I actually had to install some of Elements on a flash drive I had so little space! I then deleted my catalog, Elements and Photo Album from my computer. This freed up 10 GB of disk space. I now have enough room to defrag my hard disk. My computer should be back to its good old self.

All my photos are backed up now and easy to put where ever I want them!

If its Thursday

I'm no my way to Oakland again. The basista at the B concourse Starbucks asked me, "Do you work here or just travel a lot?"

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Catch up work on Flickr

I posted several photo sets to Flickr this weekend. I've taken lots of photos, but just hadn't had the time to tag, edit and post them. I've finally gotten around to it, as well as posting some photos from a Disneyland trip many years ago (Heather found the photos).


Disney World and Florida Vacation

La Connor Tulip Ralley

Disney Land 2004

Enjoy!

This posting spans months

I've been doing a lot of traveling so my free time hasn't been in blogging, but catching up on the parts of my life that I can't take care of while I am in a plane.

As I'll confess further down, I am not totally caught up yet either, but I need to get these thoughts out of my head on on to the blog.

I've been to Oakland, DisneyWorld, Las Vegas (only one of those was vacation - and it was mostly business and a little vacation) and on a Ralley with the British Car Club here in Seattle.

The kids and I went on a Ralley sponsored by the British Car Club, but heavily attended by Puget Sound MINI, the local MINI owners club. We drove all over the Tulip fields and Anacortes and La Connor trying to figure out clues and not miss turns (both difficult to do with a 10 year old navigator). We didn't come in first (it was going around the traffic circles 10 times that cost us - not really) but we had a lot of fun. I've got pictures, but haven't posted them yet.

I went to a conference on Radio Frequency Identification in Orlando and took my whole family and we spent a few days at Disney World and on the beach. My sun burn is finally peeling off , the blisters on Heather's feet are mostly healed and I haven't gotten the photos posted yet either. It was nice to have vacation and the kids got to skip school for it too!

I've been to Oakland for a day trip on 4 days notice and finally earned a free flight on South West to anywhere they fly!

I spent a few days in Las Vegas with one of our sales teams and had a productive meeting - we are going to meet the teams aggressive sales goals and a good time, too: steakhouse dinners and the Blue Man Group. On my flight there and back, I sat in the first row of the cheap seats, the one with no under seat storage. That part was a little strange, but the added leg room was nice. I had to stand up mid-flight to get something out of the overhead storage and I looked back.

Normally, I sit towards the rear of the plane and can see forward through out the flight - and I see lots of activity. This flight was different. Everybody was quiet, some asleep, even though it was only 4pm. There was even a lucky guy with the feet of the lady sitting next to him on his lap - she must have been his wife or so the flight attendants supposed. Every one must have been sleeping off Las Vegas.

My oldest son has started to email his girlfriend and that has turned into instant messaging - he even IM'd me while I was in my meeting! My youngest son has started to read Dick and Jane on his own.

I'm home for a few days and then back to Oakland again. They recognize me at the off airport parking I use - I didn't even need to give them my coupon to get he the discounted rate! So there it is a few months rolled up into a few short paragraphs.

I'm halfway there

I haven't written about this yet, not to get any body's hopes up; although I have spoken to a few people about it.

I am applying to University of Washington's Evening MBA Program and they have a two-step admissions process. First, there is the standard application, GMAT exam and some (4) essays and then there is Evaluation Day.

Evaluation Day is a basically combination of group exercises and interviews, but they don't let on what the process is. I wonder if you have to sign an NDA?

So, I've made the first cut! I got an email just a few minutes ago inviting me to Evaluation Day. I'm pretty excited about it.

Candidates will be evaluated on their oral communication, team skills, managerial potential, and their ability to “think on their feet”. Based on your written application and your performance in the Evaluation Day exercises, the Admissions Committee will make a final decision on your application. To remain under consideration for admission, you must attend the Evaluation Day.

The admissions work shops I attended suggested that this wasn't something you could prepare for, you just had to be ready. Well, we'll see. Standby for an update in the beginning of June!

I'm at a baseball game and I just ordered food by text message. How cool is that?

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The Five-Second Rule Explored, or How Dirty Is That Bologna? - New York Times

I practice the 5 second rule. Do you?

This is the kind of science that I like. It is real-world, practical and applicable. I mean, who doesn't drop food? And then pick it up again? And eat it?

The Five-Second Rule Explored, or How Dirty Is That Bologna? - New York Times

I think that this is a great study.

What do these numbers tell us about the five-second rule? Quick retrieval does mean fewer bacteria, but it’s no guarantee of safety. True, Jillian Clarke found that the number of bacteria on the floor at the University of Illinois was so low it couldn’t be measured, and the Clemson researchers resorted to extremely high contamination levels for their tests. But even if a floor — or a countertop, or wrapper — carried only a thousandth the number of bacteria applied by the researchers, the piece of food would be likely to pick up several bacteria.

One of my sister-in-laws is almost obsessive compulsive on cleanliness, so when I am at her house, there is no hesitating. It drops and I'll pick it up. Heck at her house, it is the 10 second rule.

I don't like hair on my food, so if the grape rolls into corner, I might give it a second thought.

But if it is something that I really, really like - down the hatch it goes.

How have you implemented the 5 second rule in your life?

Lohan Plays a Stripper in Her Next Film

Lohan Plays a Stripper in Her Next Film

Sweet!

Maybe he'll start checking his email more often

So, both my wife and I have been catching up on emails after our trip, and as this is my third blog posting of the day, you can see I've been catching up on blogging.

Evidently, my oldest son did the same and was catching up on his email. He just came down stairs and said that he got an email from his young girl friend. Mostly, it was about the school he missed and what was coming up on Monday, but it had the requisite mushy stuff.

Maybe she will get him to check is email more often! He even wrote her back!

I am stunting my career development?

A while back, CNN had a Q&A on golf for professional development. I think I'm in trouble. I find golf incredibly boring. I'd rather pick up a golf ball, throw it as far as I can and run after it and pick it up. Sort of like an endurance running golf game.

Although golf could be alright. At one point in my life, I lived on the edge of a golf course, just off the second tee. The kid across the street from me, Teddy, has some naked lady golf tees. Naked ladies would most definitely make golf more enjoyable.

Mmmm.

They would probably have to make the flag poles a little more robust for some on the green entertainment.

I would worry about the naked lady caddy getting sunburned though.

And what shoes would she wear? High heels would probably be hard to walk in in the grass...

I guess there are some kinks to work out still. Maybe this is my great idea - Naked Lady Golf. I wonder how it applies to minature golf - Miniature Naked Lady Golf?

More health food please

CNN has a report on health food, titled Fruity cocktails count as health food, study finds. Now, I can get into this!

Evidently, adding alcohol enhances the antioxidant effects of berries! Bring on the cocktails, baby!

Adding ethanol -- the type of alcohol found in rum, vodka, tequila and other spirits -- boosted the antioxidant nutrients in strawberries and blackberries, the researchers found.

Any colored fruit might be made even more healthful with the addition of a splash of alcohol, they report in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.

This study is a boon for lushes (and bartenders) around the world.

How to Survive in Florida on Two Showers a day

So, I need to start with an apology. I've been traveling, some work, some vacation and just haven't made blogging a priority. So, after an almost two week break from blogging, I'm back. I'm sorry for the unannounced hiatus.

As the guide book title would suggest, I've been to Florida. With my whole family, I attended the RFID Journal Live 2007 conference and then spent some time in Disney World and Tampa. I've got pictures that I will eventually post (and from a Rallye near the Tulip fields of Washington), but again, that hasn't been a priority of mine.

I don't like humidity. I love beaches and the sun, but not the humidity. I hate the sticky feeling between my fingers when you get off the plane.

When I am in that humid of an environment, I'm a shower in the morning and evening and maybe once in the middle of the day or maybe go for a swim, kind of guy. I totally understand the concept of a siesta - be awake during the cool parts of the day (morning and evening) and sleep during the hot parts. If corporate business could be run that way, I would live there.

We did have an enjoyable time there (humidity aside). As a west coaster and having been to Disneyland all my life, I see Walt Disney World as Disneyland broken down into several different parks, although some of them have beer! My wife got into texting and sent me this message, "Epcot is cool. And they have beer! When are you coming?"

Disney and beer, what could be better? Well, throw in some air conditioning, maybe. I've gotten out of the habit of rehydrating with beer - it does make it harder to chase after kids.

We also checked out the Salvador Dali museum in Saint Petersburg. It was cool to see so much of his work in one spot, but more so, was the guided tour. I look at his work and wonder how much acid he was taking, but the docent kept pointing out recurring elements and what some the symbolism represented. I don't get how you can paint something at an arm's distance that when viewed from 20 meters away, looks entirely different. He used negative space and imagery so much, it is just incredible.

And there was pretty good swag at this conference! I won an iPod Nano, as did a co-worker of mine who was there and I've got my fingers crossed for an iPhone, 42" wide screen TV and an iPod video...

Playing with Skype

I recently downloaded Skype because the idea of being able to click on a contact in Outlook or Gmail and have the phone automatically dial the number seemed pretty cool.

I also had to buy a bluetooth dongle for my laptop since I got it just before my work started buying laptops with bluetooth. But it works pretty well (last week, I would have said great) with the headset I have for my phone.

So, today, I've been using Skype to call in for conference calls and other calls. Some have been okay (as good as a cell phone) but others have been sketchy - I think though, my headset has been disconnecting from my laptop and cutting out my voice on the calls.

The idea is still cool - phone numbers are links and the software just calls them. They get routed to my BT headset and boom, I could be directing air traffic or telemarketing stuff that you don't really need.

So, I'm playing with it. If any of my faithful readers want to Skype me, look me up - I shouldn't be too hard to find on Skype.

Don't eat beignets while wearing black

Or any other color for that matter.

Editors note: I wrote this on the airplane back, Wednesday evening. I am finally getting around to posting it now on Sunday.

I have spent three days in New Orleans and am on my way home. When I travel, I usually wear the same clothes, a uniform of sorts. I typically wear a black button down shirt (but okay untucked) and olive cargo pants (I can load up my pockets, but still sit comfortably). It is all about ease and comfort during travel.

To get that last feel of New Orleans, I bought beignets in the airport. The ones from Cafe du Monde were far better, though. Before I could ask the girl at the counter to go easy on the powdered sugar (probably sacriledge), she dumped a ginormous scoop into the bag.

Knowing how readily powdered sugar gets everywhere, I made a special effort to lean forward and keep the white sugar off my black shirt. In that endeavor, I was successful; however, my pants look like supermodels were doing lines off my crotch. The white powder is everywhere (but my shirt): hands, pants, the floor, probably my nose, too. I can only hope that drug sniffing dogs accompany any cops I might run into - the dogs will be able show I'm not some dope fiend.

But back on my time in New Orleans. I was able to get out to the French Quarter yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon. It was a neat area, quite picturesque and lots of little neat shops. Burbon street had too many bars and strip clubs for my liking, but I could see the appeal for some. Now, if Heather had come with me...

New Orleans was hit hard by Katrina and now it is coming back, but progress is slow. There were people rebuilding houses in the French Quarter and buildings crumbling in the Central Business District. It was interesting around Tulane, how on one side of the street, you would have dorms and on the other, broken old warehouses for sale. New Orleans is struggling, but rebuilding itself.

I'm glad to be going home. My hotel was less than perfect and I miss my wife and kids. Heather has misplaced her cell phone, so she's a lot harder to get in touch with. My travels this week have finally come to an end...

Consummate traveler, I am

I'm beginning another series of trips, this time shorter and some actually involving personal travel. But being the end of spring break for my kids and the fact that I am on a plane on Sunday (and this is a work trip), I didn't start packing until 10:30pm the night before my 8 am flight.

I've read some articles in airline magazines (surprise) about experienced travellers and some the tell-tales of newbies. One of the things they mentioned was that experienced travellers never pack early.

Sure, I've got a complete set of toiletries, all under 3 ounces and packed in Ziploc bags, so that part is easy to complete, but my Boy Scout experiences and my military background tell me to pack with a checklist. "Don't forget nothin'" is one of the Army Ranger's founder's mottoes. With a checklist, I don't need to think about what to bring, I've already put my efforts into the checklist!

So, last night, we watched Children of Men (a good movie and even a more interesting family movie - "This is set in 2027, I thought there were supposed to be flying cars?") and didn't finish until late. After the movie, I decided I should pack as I had to leave the house by 6am to get to the airport.

Remember The Milk, my online task list service, which really serves as my brain, unfortunately had some server issues and was down. This is the first time it has ever happened (I understand there were some widespread Internet outages in Australia Texas (see Emily's comment) yesterday) and I was unable to print out my checklist. "No worries," I thought to myself, "I've travelled enough that I should be able to do it all from memory."

So, I think I packed all the right and enough clothes, some stuff to run in the hotel gym and my iPod speakers. Unfortunately, when I got to the off-airport parking, I realized I left my blue tooth headset sitting on my desk. I did bring the charger and the blue tooth dongle I just purchased, but no headset.

I was really looking forward to making the few conference calls I had this week on Skype. I just signed up for Skype and that was the main reason I bought the dongle. Hopefully, the mic on my laptop will work well enough - I was hoping to save the cell phone minutes and make use of a conference hotspot and not have to back to my room. We'll see how it work out.

Welcome to New Orleans

The airport announcements are in English and French. The signs are tri-lingual with Spanish too!

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The marvels (and shocks) of the internet

Or alternatively titled: I can find anything on the internet that you ask me to find, even if you don't really want me to.

Yesterday evening, my wife was marveling at the information we had at our fingertips through the internet and how much of an improvement since our college days. I wasn't sure if day 6 specified Saturday when using crontab (pretty geeky, ehh), but I was able to quickly find the answer on Wikipeida. (BTW, yes 6 specifies Saturday, and either 0 or 7 specify Sunday).

She then lamented that she could not find a video to use in her blog of our new touchless, self-opening trash can. We estimate that it took less than two minutes for me to find one. After the fact, she confessed that she only searched for about 30 seconds on You Tube.

I then boasted that I could find anything on the internet.

My wife has taken a little risque turn (she's peppering her blog with rather enjoyable red head pinups) and so she wanted me to find a donkey show for her. In retrospect, she didn't really want me to find donkey shows for her, it was just her challenge to me. Which, shockingly, I was able to meet.

I'm not so certain that I want to be able to find anything on the internet. Trash can videos, I'm okay with that. Donkey shows just aren't my thing.

Seriously ironic

This email came as an e-news alert from my kids school just now.

Alert From Sheriff's Office

The King County Sheriff's Office has issued an alert for community members in the greater Redmond area to be on the alert for a suspicious male, described as heavy set, Hispanic or "medium" skinned, between 50 to 60 years old, with a goatee. He drives a late model dark green or teal Dodge Caravan, which he may have tried to lure children into using a puppy, according to police reports. A 6-year-old also told adults that a man matching this description tried to grab him. Although no person has reported seeing this man in our District, this is a good opportunity to remember to be aware and look out for children's safety. If you encounter a suspicious person or activity, call 9-1-1 immediately.

Safety advice for students:

* Never talk to a stranger.

* Never let a stranger get too close, whether the stranger is in a car or walking.

* Never tell a stranger any personal information, such as your name, age, or address.

* Always try to walk in pairs with a friend or an adult.

* Stick to safe, well-lit paths when walking.

* Do not obstruct your hearing with iPods or portable music players when walking or waiting outside.

* If a stranger tries to grab you, yell as loudly as you can and run away.

* Always alert an adult immediately if you are approached by a suspicious person.

April 9-13 Spring Break - Enjoy!

As parents and members of the the community, this is good to be aware of - and I don't mean to make light of it.

But can you appreciate the second bullet point? Spring break, enjoy!

What?

"Hey, everybody, there is a potential child-snatcher or worse in our area. Oh and BTW, enjoy spring break."


Okay, so the note has some more bullet points after these two, but the combination of these two is rather ironic.

Remind your kids, keep your eyes open for child snatchers and for irony!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all of you! I wasn't really planning on writing anything today, but I read an article in the Seattle Times about Peeps! Check out the picture archive - there are some cool creations.
I love Peeps. I think it is the limited availability but they are cool. You know, I don't like marshmallows. When you cover them in colored sugar and cast/extrude/cut them into an interesting shape, they taste different. Yeah, thats it.
This year, Heather bought several packages of peeps before Easter and when they are fresh, they really taste good. I think that this is the first year that I have had fresh peeps. Mmmm.
I love to start by biting their ears (or heads if they are chicks) off. Maybe that is just the sadist in me - at least I can get it out on marshmallows!

Make your own Google Maps

As I was looking for the location to a meeting my wife sent me, I noticed a new tab on my search results on Google Maps. You now have the ability to create and annotate your own maps directly on Google Maps.

Google Earth has had this functionality for a while. You could mark a map with a polygon, placemark, or path, save it as a .kmz file and post that to the web. Then Google Maps could open it and display it. You can create pictures or video placemarks (links to files elsewhere on the web) and a similar to Google Earth, you can save your search locations on the map too. The user guide explains all the functionality with step-by-step instructions.

All this same functionality has now been ported to Google Maps. It is pretty neat and easy. I made one map of two fun twisty routes near my house that I love to drive in my MINI. You can make your maps public and included in searches or unlisted so that you can give out the URL to others.

This is pretty cool. Now I can make my own routes and not have to always go the fastest way!

Meanest woman ever

Okay, so I went a little overboard with the title, but she really wasn't very nice.

This weekend we had a swim meet in Puyallup and like most other swim meets, it started pretty early. We left our house at 6:30am, in order to be there at 7:30am, so we could find seats and be ready for warm-ups at 8am.

At about 8:00 or so, an older woman arrived. I say older in retrospect, because elder implies some wisdom gathered through the ages. She asked me if the seats to one side of me were taken - there was some one else's towel spread on them - and I responded, "Some one's stuff is there." She proceeds to spread out her towel right behind me and tells me, "You need to move." After the fact, my wife told me that there were plenty of other seats, but we were by the starting blocks.

I scoot forward some, thinking she needs the room temporarily to spread out her stuff but promptly I get a knee stuck in my back. Yes, she was inside my personal bubble, but swim meets get crowded, so I can deal it. She kept moving her knee around, trying to push me forward. It became apparent that this wasn't an accidental incursion into my personal space, it was a deliberate invasion.

I proposed to her that we each move a little bit sideways and we can both have plenty of room. She declined that option, saying she was expecting more people, and kept her knee stuck in my back.

If reason based negotiations weren't going to work, I was going to be comfortable. I leaned back against her knees and was quite comfortable.

Her grown daughter, a swimmer's mom, eventually arrived. When she sat down, she asked me to move my bag using polite words like "please" and "thank you." I obliged, as you get more flies with honey than vinegar to borrow a colloquialism.

Shortly thereafter, she wanted to know what was going on and her mom took this opportunity to say how much more comfortable we could be if we weren't having a pushing match.

My response was that she was the only one pushing and that I was quite comfortable leaning against her knees. She then went on to say that swim meets are crowded and that people should move for others.

"People should move for people who are polite and ask them. Your age hasn't taught you politeness, but somehow your daughter learned politeness. I've offered twice that we can each move over and share the space, but you seem happy to try to push me aside with your knees. I'm happy leaning against them."

She was shocked and surprised that her daughter was recognized as polite, but didn't say more.

Swim meets are long and she had to go to the bathroom at some point. When she returned, the polite one, her daughter, said "Excuse me," so I scooted forward and got both knees in the back. But again, it was comfortable to lean on them, so there I stayed.

A few hours later, she got up and left to sit in her car. Her daughter said to me, no longer so polite, "Go ahead and lean back now. Does it make you feel like a big man to push on my mom?"

Calmly and politely, "I will lean back and it doesn't make me feel like a big man. She was the only one pushing and not very polite either."

"My mom is very nice and polite."

"Maybe when you are around, she wasn't polite when she was talking to me."

This line of discussion quickly ended, but I was ready to propose her mom's sudden personality change on stroke or Alzheimer's. You have to look out for the older people.

I was amazed at how rude this woman was and we were both stubborn. I would have to also say that it was more comfortable leaning against her knees than the benches. I do feel a little bad that she was probably uncomfortable for the rest of the afternoon, but just because you are old doesn't make you entitled to push other people around.

This was a surprising occurrence because people at swim meets are usually quite nice. I still don't get it, two days later.

It got here - and early too!

My replacement espresso machine arrived yesterday afternoon. I would have blogged about it then, but I got sidetracked setting the machine up and drinking espresso. I was pleasantly surprised because it didn't take the full two weeks that Williams-Sonoma promised.
Here it is in all its glory.

Kneel before it. Worship the espresso machine and the elixir of life that it provides.

Did something stupid today.

On my way out this afternoon, I was holding my sunglasses bag in my hand as I closed the garage door (not the big one, but the door to the garage). As the door closed behind me, I heard this crack.
Sure enough, I cracked the frame of my sunglasses. Boy, do I feel lame.

Watching movies on an iPod

Recently, Lifehacker, a blog on Productivity, had a post on converting DVDs to an iPod playable format. I downloaded the software (all free) and have started on a few. My thoughts on the process:

• Pretty darn easy to do
• End to end, it is pretty slow
• Pretty cool to have a movie on a video iPod

The instructions that the posting include are easy to follow and there aren't really that many settings to change. I did once pick the wrong audio track and got the director's comments on Star Wars, but hey, I was learning.

The ripping process is pretty quick, about 30 minutes for a DVD, but the encoding process takes some time. On top of that it is a two step process, and you have to manually start the encoding process. I've just let it run overnight and had great success with that. The Videora encoding software will also queue movies to convert, so that can be a time savings.

Then, I'd have to say it was pretty cool to be watching a movie on a video iPod. I don't actually have one, but I was borrowing my son's (while he had lost the privilege of using it). I was a little uncertain about watching a movie on that small of a screen, but what ended up being weirder was watching Blue Velvet before 8 in the morning at a swim meet!

I've got to get one of these video iPods!

I missed the audition call for this one...

Evidently, Harlequin book readers want to "want to escape from the relationship that they're in" and the publishers have decided to put real men on the covers of their books.

I missed the audition call! I'm sorry ladies, but you won't be seeing me on the cover. If only I had been in Toronto at the right time! I know they would have picked me. And you all know it too!

Isn't this the truth?

CNN has an article today and I just have to laugh at the title.

Cosmetic surgery rates up; breasts most popular

Well, I've got to agree with them. In a popularity contest, I would probably vote for breasts as my favorite too.

Thank you for taking this juvenile trip with me!

What is up with this weather?

It is snowing right now. Big flakes and fast. None is sticking as it is about 43 degrees Fahrenheit outside. It must be pretty cold up higher

And my wife pointed out that it is the first day of Spring (or the venereal equinox as I like to call it).

I don't get it.

My sons both wore shorts to school today. And one of them is still has to walk home this afternoon! It will make him stronger.

Don't stand between me and my espresso

For too long at least.

Today, my espresso machine passed away. It still makes espresso, but it just throws it out with the grounds. I'm not desperate enough to drink it from there. Yet.

And in actuality, it shouldn't be too long. My wife bought it for me at Williams-Sonoma and they have a lifetime guarantee on the stuff they sell. So, even with out a receipt, I can take it in and they will credit me the last recorded price for the item as I replace it with a new one.

But, while talking to the store manager on the phone, the manager suggested that it had been recalled. Sure enough, it had been. For risk of fire, no less.

So, what strange fortune. Who knows what risk we were taking by my drinking espresso several times a day.

Tomorrow, when they the company comes back to work, I'll be calling them. I've got to figure out how this recall thing will be working and I'll be wanting my espresso tomorrow!


Note: I apologize for my lengthy absence. I've been sucked into work for the last 7 weeks and have only now begun to pull myself out of that black hole. My project is coming to an end and doesn't need as much babysitting. Thank you to all you have kept coming here in my absence and I'm back on the posting path!

Welcome back to the Bay Area

I just saw am El Camino with am Op Ivy sticker in the back. Sweet!

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Cyborg Name

Get Your Cyborg Name

Listening to Oldies

Last night, while we were playing the Sponge Bob edition of the Game of Life, Heather put on the local Oldies station. As she put it, it was the "only tolerable noise." I thought it was pretty good. As we played the game for about two hours, they played nothing but good music.

I was signing along and having a great time.

I guess when they have music from 40 - 60 years ago, they can pick out only the best ones!

Google calendar prints in color!

I am a big fan of Google Calendar and I use it relentlessly in my implementation of GTD. One of my "prepare for a trip" steps is to print out the up-coming week (so I can refer to it when I am on a plane and not connected).

Tonight, as I am preparing for my upcoming trip, I hit the printer icon and the preview looked different. It was in color!

As you can see, each calendar is in a different color. It is a nice feature and a long time coming! Well done, Google.

Sixty-five dollar hair cut

I spent most of last week in Sonoma, at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa. Yes, my time did include Valentine's Day - except that I wasn't there to enjoy the relaxing spas of the California Wine Country. I was there for a work meeting, with events scheduled from 6:30 am to 9:30 pm. And we were encouraged to not bring spouses because of the schedule.

I did get to partake of the spa services though... I got my haircut. I've been traveling so much that I haven't had the opportunity to get my hair cut and it was getting pretty long. So, I spent almost an hour with Rodolfo during one of our breaks (yes, I did walk out on the guest speaker because he was running over), but I scheduled it according to the agenda we were given. It is a nice hair cut and I've gotten a lot of really good feedback from my wife (wink, wink) about it. But I've never spent that much money on a haircut. I'm not sure if my wife has ever gotten a haircut (or any hair service) that cost that much either.

Birthday Blog 2007

So, I've blown it with the immediacy of blog postings, but it was such a good day, I've still got to share it.

Last weekend, I turned 33. Definitely a better transition than 32. Actually, last year I hurt myself just before my birthday, reminding me of my increasing age. This year, I've started to work out and run regularly. I feel much better about myself.

To celebrate my birthday, Heather chose a few restaurants and let me make the final choice. All of the restaurants were chosen for their proximity to other places she planned to take me (Seattle Public Market, the sculptures at Olymic Park, Le Pannier, a french bakery). Using Yelp, I chose the Mojito Cafe (read more here).

It didn't open until 2pm, so we walked to the sculpture garden. We enjoyed the walk through there and I snapped some nice cityscape photos, too.

After lunch, we took a short drive to the bakery, across from the Pike Place Market. Heather took her parking skills to the next level (yes, your name was mentioned with reverence Erik): she turned the wrong way on a one-way street for the distance of two parking spots. On top of that, they were angled the wrong way, which made for a gigantor turn in our SUV. Erik, your legacy lives on.

After the bakery, we went to the recently opened Seattle Public Library. It is so cool and modern. There are meeting spaces to rent on an all red floor (floor to ceiling is all red). My next meeting will be here - I'll turn travel dollars into meeting space dollars. You can't believe how easy it is to find free public parking downtown during the Super Bowl.

It was a great way to bring in year 33 and spend the day with my family. Hopefully, I'll make it through the full year!

An alphabet of plans

While traveling last week, I decided that I wouldn't work one evening into the late night. I needed an opportunity to decompress.

After a nice dinner with some friends at Townhouse in Emeryville, I decided that I wouldn't even turn on my computer (Plan A). As I got out of the elevator in my hotel, Myla called to say I had left my messenger bag in her MINI. No worries there, Plan A looked like it was firming up!

Then I realized another friend was counting on me to make a move on Warfish, an online Risk game. Plan B start to form. I called him up to borrow his computer and went up to his room. I made my move and we talked a bit about shared libraries on iTunes.

I returned to my room, steady on Plan C: I was going to listen to music and read my Wired magazine. No such luck there, my iPod was in my bag, in Myla's MINI.

On to Plan D: I would go down to the hotel bar, enjoy a scotch (it surprises some, I've learned, but yes, I enjoy scotch) and read my magazine in a big comfy chair.

I never made it. In the lobby, I ran into some co-workers and somehow we got into the usually verboten topic of religion. We had a crazy, enjoyable, reasonable discussion about the pratfalls of organized religion (why do they need all that money), organized labor (all the money the take isn't so good for the worker) and a walk down memory lane of company history (almost 80 years of history, although I only contribute 7 years worth).

At the end of the discussion one of them said to me, "You never got to read your magazine." I didn't mind, this was much more enjoyable and relaxing.

Some one farted!

I am trapped on a cylinder of aluminum with some one who has gas. And not the kind that makes their stomach hurt, the kind that makes my nose hurt.

They didn't cover this one during the pre-flight safety briefing, but doesn't this count? "If additional oxygen is required, masks will fall."

I need additional oxygen now!

My movie groove is back!

The first of several retro blogs


Recently, I tried branching out and trying new movie genres in an effort to please my wife (and no, I'm not talking about XXX movies, you pervs).

And as I've posted, it hasn't been all that successful. Wal-Mart documentaries and romance (didn't even watch that one). No such luck.

Last week, while I was out, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang arrived. We watched it after I got home Friday night. It was pretty good (4 stars) and Heather stayed awake for the whole thing. She must have liked it!

I've got my groove back!

Retro-blogging and yelping offline

I've been doing a lot of traveling lately and haven't had much time to blog or post reviews on Yelp.

Yesterday, we were at a swim meet I wrote a mega-catchup retro-blog and retro reviews for Yelp. Actually, there were several not just one big 'un.

I also wrote them offline, with a pen, in my moleskine journal, knowing my battery wasn't going to last long enough to write them all and do the work I needed to do, too.

This post (in my journal) puts me down to the last 3 pages in the journal. Not to worry, I've already purchased another, so I can keep up. And I've also requested another laptop battery, so that I can finish transcribing tomorrow on the plane.

I don't know about this...

Star Wars Horoscope for Aquarius

You can be cruel and torment people who disagree with you. Deep down, there is a peace-loving, friendly side to you. You have a knack for inflicting pain on people and use your intellect during battle. Star wars character you are most like: Darth Vader

What Is Your Star Wars Horoscope?

Working across time zones

I don't often blog about work, but here goes.

I work for a domestic company (you don't have to be a Sherlock Holmes to figure out which one) that has locations across the US. Our headquarter is located in the Pacific Time Zone, but I work with people in all of the US time zones.

In an effort to make myself available, I have told certain people in the Eastern Time Zone that they can call me at early as 5:00 am Pacific time, because that is when I wake up. I'll routinely schedule 7:00 calls (I can't convince the Pacific Time Zone people to come in too early), if I am primarily working with the Eastern people.

Last week, I was in an Eastern Time Zone office doing some training and we were having server difficulty. Our entire IT staff, helpdesk and data center are all located in our Pacific Time Zone Headquarters.

We were doing user training on a new application and you guessed it the server was down when we walked in that morning. I'm pretty darn competent when it comes to technology, but you can't believe the feelings of helplessness I had. None of the people I knew were around to help, it was too early.

I ended up calling our data center and they referred me to an on-call guy - who didn't know what server I was talking about.

I have to say it was pretty strange being on the east coast and all the support resources were on the west coast. It gave me a new found understanding of watching the time when I schedule meetings and how I make myself available to the people on the other coast.

It is funny how the majority of people live on the coasts, which then puts lots of company headquarters in those same areas; which naturally puts us at odds with the time zones.

Do you have time for Greenpeace?

That was the question asked of the lady in front of us as we walked across from the Public Market today.

Much to my surprise, it wasn't asked of me!

What, you don't want me, the 33 year old white guy with 3 kids in Greenpeace? Don't you think I have feelings about Mother Earth?

Maybe he saw us park our SUV 2 blocks away. Maybe we were just too white bread. Maybe it was my spiffy new shirt from the Gap that made me not Greenpeace material.

I do care about the environment and feel that we do need to work on our conservation efforts. I just don't think Greenpeace does it in a responsible way.

I was really bummed because I wanted to say, "No, I don't have time for Greenpeace."

Guilty Pleasures

Ahh, the decadence.

Sunday mornings on The End are Resurrection Sundays. I've blogged about these before, but today's featured artist is Joan Jett. As I was driving #1 to practice she came on the radio.

I just had to turn it up. I think that Joan Jett is one of my guilty pleasures. I'll turn up Ministry and Metallica, but I feel no guilt there.

Joan Jett's Bad Reputation was the first tape I bought when I got my first boom box. I guess maybe it has something about the ride in the wayback machine.

What are your guilty pleasures?

Travelling noob

As a foil to my latest traveling post, I come to the blogosphere feeling like a noob.

I flew to a company location, that I've never been to before, in Maryland. I checked the weather, I packed the night before, I packed larger than 3 ounce toiletries knowing I would check my bag. It all seemed to be going okay.

I realized when I got in my rental car, I had no idea how to get from the airport to my hotel. After swearing out loud at myself, I calmly took my cell phone and used Google Maps Mobile. It couldn't find my hotel (it turns out I'm staying in the Courtyard Columbia by Marriott not the Marriott Courtyard Columbia). I followed the directions to Columbia and then decided I would use 411 to call the hotel and get guided in.

No such luck there. With all the web browsing to check my email in airports, my battery was almost dead. And as the nice recorded lady's voice on 411 said "Press 1 for the address," my phone died.

More loud swearing ensued. And I continued to drive in the direction towards the Columbia Town Center - there had to be hotels there. Maybe one of them would be mine!

I saw a movie theater and thought, "There are likely pay phones there and they'll have phone books." Right on the pay phone, wrong on the phone books. I tried Starbucks and they didn't have a phone book.s

So plan C or D formed in my head. I would go back to my car, get my chargers and either find the hotel online (T-Mobile Hot Spot at Starbucks) or use my phone and call and get directions. That worked and I was able to find my way to the hotel.

It turns out that about half of the people coming from out of town got lost too!

It doesn't help that the magazine on the last leg of my flight was the Road Warrior edition and there was a huge section about the Top 10 ways (reader contributed lists) to identify traveling newbies.

At least I used the alarm on my phone when my wakeup call was 10 minutes late!

Conversation with Heather

H: I fear for my sanity.
Me: Your sanity?
H: Nevermind, I found it.

I'm not so sure. I'll keep my eyes open.

--
===============================================
Brought to you by, Cingular Wireless Messaging
http://www.CingularMe.COM/

Physical Online Communities

How is that for a dorky title for a post where the first line I want to write is:

I did the coolest thing Thursday night! I went to a cocktail party thrown by Yelp.com. I think that Yelp is the coolest website, their tagline says it best "Real People. Real Review." You can review anything, restaurants, bars, clubs, dry cleaners, grocery stores and more.

There is a social networking piece of it, too. You can make a list people's whose reviews you'd like to read, when they post something new. So, what was really great about this party, was that I was able to meet some of those people!

This isn't a MySpace, ohh, she's got a hot photo, I'll make her my friend, but you can find people who've been to the same restaurants and have similar tastes as you. That extension of an online community to a physical one is pretty neat.

There are a couple of other things I like about it a lot. I am a big fan of the Zagat guides. I've had great luck with them and I regularly review restaurants. But I have to wait a year, to get the new review book (free to reviewers) to see if my review got snipped down to a two word sound bite. Yelp reviews are immediate! Posted to the web for all to see.

They are also integrated into the details returned for businesses on Google Maps. That is really cool. Maybe it contributes to my 15 minutes of fame, but it helps get the reviews out to everybody.

If you are a frequent reader of my blog, you might have noticed that my posting frequency has gone down. Okay, from two a week to one a week, but still that is a decrease. It's because I'm Yelping!

Waste of perfectly good ice cream (and stout)

You might have read my review of Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe. Along with many others, I think very highly of the Shakin' Jesse, a milkshake of Guiness, espresso and chocolate ice cream. On a similar note, Alaska Airlines magazine had a one page recipe for a stout float.
I had Guinness at home and I purchased some vanilla bean ice cream. We were having Guinness floats.
We'll they didn't turn out so well. The stout was too bitter along side the ice cream. Maybe that was why the recipe called for a particular stout - maybe it isn't so bitter like Guinness.
Heather suggested chocolate syrup - at least that way they were drinkable.
Try the Shakin' Jesse if you are ever in Emeryville. Issaquah Brewhouse has something similar that I have yet to try. I'm sure it will be better than the float I made tonight!

Online communities turning into real world communities

This is cool. This extension of online communities to the real world is really neat.

Seattle Flickrites is picture-perfect for photographers

Yelp is like this. People will meet for dinner and they have an elite squad which has frequent get togethers too!

I've got a friend who on a trip to New York meet on of her Flickr contacts.

It's cool how the internet has gone from a collection of information to a way to actually interact with other people.

Last night I was IM'ing a friend across the country. He was catching up on my blog while I was reading reviews on Yelp. It is great how technology brings us all together!

Bicyclists and runners

While I was running this morning, the bicyclists wouldn't address the runners. I got passed once by a guy who had no light, said nothing, so I had no way of knowing he was there. At 6:20 am, in the dark, it is pretty surprising to be passed by something so quiet.

But when I would cross paths with a bike, I'd say "Morning." And they'd just silently go by.

The guy on the recumbent bike said, "Good Morning!" But he was a cheerful type and had a big, bushy white beard like Santa Claus.

The guy who was walking, but out of breath raised his hand in a gesture of a greeting.

The group of like a dozen (I couldn't tell because there were too many headlamps and runners with out headlamps) women running all said "Good Morning", too! :)

It was just the bicyclists. In the past, I've had some that greeted me. Heck, I've even got several friends who are bicyclists and they are quite friendly. Maybe these just aren't morning people and they are focused on their effort.

On a related note, since I've started working out regularly, I've noticed a marked improvement in my running. This morning was a great run.

Having trouble focusing

Our son has a big problem focusing on doing his school work, but not as much of a problem focusing on his Nintendo DS. Hmmm.

He has been working on the hypothesis and purpose of his science fair project and has been banished to his room to work on it. So far, he has thoughts, but not put into sentences.

Both Heather and I just got this email from him:

Can you please help me. You guys are smart. Can you please spend five min with me?? PPPPPPPPPPLLLLLLLLeeeeaaassssee!! :'( :'( right know i am sad those faces are crying!!!!

Love your unhappy son

A___

My response:

A___,
I'm sorry, you need to work on this on your own. You need to give it some thought, but it has to be your thought.
Love
Dad

Tough love is hard.

11 Things I've Learned Traveling

I've been doing a lot of traveling recently, and I'll be traveling a lot in the near future. Through all this I've gained some experience that I'd like to share.

1. Southwest Airlines only flies a fleet of 737s
2. Alaska Airlines flies a mixed fleet of 737s and MD-80s
3. My roller bag easily fits in the overhead bin of a 737
4. My roller bag fits with some pushing into the overhead bin of an MD-80
5. Alaska Airlines loads from the rear of the plane (starting about row 20). Important when the roller bag is stuffed full. See points 2 and 4.
6. Alaska Airlines baggage claim is slow in Seattle. I've waited almost 45 minutes for my baggage to come out.
7. Security varies between airports. Oakland International seems to be pretty strict. Seattle will give you a ziploc bag; Oakland sends you back to your airline counter to get one. I went through security 10 times before they confiscated my mostly empty, but originally 4 ounce gel deodorant.
8. The Starbucks on the A Concourse (most Alaska Airlines flights are on this concourse) is very close to the center of the airport and never has a line. So, you don't need to wait at the one in the Pacific Marketplace right outside security.
9. The security checkpoint for the North Satellite concourse is quick to get through. The lines are very short and there are lots of metal detectors. Head all the way to the right once you go past the airline counters - you'll be able to walk back to your concourse. I assume there is one for the South Satellite, too, but I've never tried it.
10. I like to park off airport (at SeaTacPark.com). They are just south of the airport (2 exits south on 5) and half as much as the airport lots. They are quick to drop me off and quick to pick up.
    
11. Tickets purchased directly from the airlines are cheaper and more flexible than those purchased through my company's travel agent site (that in theory takes advantage of our combined purchasing power).
    

Yelp.com - Review of the Day

Check it out! My review of the Herbfarm was chosen as the Review Of The Day on Yelp.com.

Thanks to everyone on Yelp who voted for my review and if you aren’t a Yelper now, you should sign up!

I saw it this morning when I was checking my mail on my phone while waiting in the airport and now I’m writing this at 30,000 feet on my way to Oakland, so I can post it as soon a I get to the office. Isn’t technology great?

I apologize if the links are broken, although, I think through the indexing that Google Desktop Search does, I might have gotten them right!