Thirsty Scholar

2007-01-07T20:37:00.000-08:00

A Snippet of Life Here

Jenni really wanted to get back to Ohio for the holidays but it didn't happen. As a second best, i sent her back for Kate N's wedding, meaning she flew out Seattle b/c the tix out of YVR were 700+. i did the drive myself (and this will be the last time i do such a thing). left at 2am, returned at 8.30am. slept til 12.45, worked til 4, took the boys boarding at cypress, came home to work some more. it has been a rager!

Cypress was totally fun. kids each earned $10 for passing "level 3"--5 consecutive pendulum turns (heel side slip). the original challenge was for 5 linked turns--something they tried and then pointed out after falling 2 runs solid that they just don't know how to do this. true 'nuf. so we made it something they could do and it was golden. they loved it and are looking forward to saturday. even daniel, who beat his brother to the prize, pulling off 5 turns the first run down. it was an amazing parenting experience. the entire way back they were talking to me...really talking, asking questions (about smoking and roman gods and the guages on the dash--we had a 10 min discussion on how cars work). sometimes good to have them all to myself (no having to justify the amt of sugar i pumped into them to pull this off)

2006-11-24T18:55:00.000-08:00

Hiking at Whistler

We took a trip up the coast to Whistler where the big mountains loom, largely to scope it out for the winter. The plan was to hike the "Ancient Cedars Trail" but we had the damnest time finding it (see Jenni's email about signs in BC). Finally finding the trail, we set out for a small hike. The boys were not very interested at first but (as boys do) found fun along the way. There were lots of small animals along the path, and a small, black squirrel really caught our attention. It was perched atop a dead tree about 25 ft up. Strange to say it, but it was chattering at us, trying to communicate. What it was "saying" is hard to determine but it seemed insistent about a certain, unknowable point. Luke, who (at the age of 7 is not jaded like you or me) has powers to speak with animals, powers we don't understand, stood off the side of the trail with hands to his temples. He focused hard and entered into a state of communion w/ our furry friend. "I think he's telling us there's a bear ahead," Luke said with a straight face. The rest of us, having observed the mind-link, started to double-over w/ laughter.

Last night we saw a heron in the bay coming back from a nice ThanksG dinner at the Sorrells'. Luke wanted to watch it and, in the moment, I asked him if he would please tell the bird that we mean no harm. Luke punched me in the gut. So much for encouraging his Dr. Doolittle gift.

2006-11-02T11:57:00.000-08:00

Quotes

An alcoholic is someone you don't like who drinks as much as you do.
- Dylan Thomas

Everyone's a scoundrel. Friends are scoundrels you understand.
- Me

2006-10-19T17:11:00.001-07:00

(another delayed post...sorry if you've heard this b4, tho i doubt it since i've not been very communicative)

OK, the apartment--we carted all this shit out here (see previous post about haulin 11,000 lbs over the rockies) and now we're selling most of it. It's taken a number of bruised shins and stubbed toes but Jenni now sees that the stuff doesnt work. Our neighbor (former cyclist, chef, sommolier, and now stay at home dad at 33) came by on one of our first nights with a bottle of fine bordeaux and gave us advice ("go UP wherever you can" and "we tried what you're doing with the sofa. we also tried it this way and that. eventually you'll find it only works here (points to back wall). go into any apt here and that's what they've concluded, too.").

i should also write about pamela, another neighbor, who has really helped jenni thru the emo aspects. pam and husband, ari, have been great friends. their son, sam, is 6 and rides bikes and plays pokemon w/ my boys. i'm going out with ari tonight to drink beers downtown at an irish pub called doulan's (i believe). ari is a great conversationalist, dry wit, combined with a musicians flair (MA from USC, is a composer for the film industry) and a businessman's sense of cost/benefit (self-employed). It's my first time out (w/ someone other than jenni or brett) and it should be fun.

also, recently we've had leaks allowing water in the apt (this november is setting a record for rain, but nothing to compare with auckland, i'm told) which is making us consider a move w/in the year but it's hard to beat all the perks. the manager is very good about trying to fix the leaks so we'll hope for the best.

2006-10-19T17:10:00.000-07:00

Job
OK, the basics. I've got a new $3500 mac powerbook 17", a 24" additional monitor flatscreen, and a budget for more gadgets. The place has views of the mountains in an historic building, cool people, stocked kitchen, catered meals on thurs + cake (good stuff) on thurs at 3p, flex hours (core hours are 11-3 and when i come at 8.30, no one is here), shared itunes music, lots of freedom. E.g. I left for a 3 hr lunch recently, biked to Stanley Park to meet the fam, went to the acquarium (world class), and biked back.

I'm still trying to get a sense for how to improve the org's PM ability. I'm in "watch and learn" mode and don't want to introduce change too soon (and get thrown out in the process). There are really great PMs here and I don't want them to feel like "the new guy is a know it all." Some shit is definitely done wrong (e.g. projects don't have a charter/scope doc. there's a proposal and then a functional spec...nothing in the middle...no use cases even). No one is counting on me to fix it right away so I'm trying to build relationships and consensus. That, of course, is fun for me b/c building relationships involves drinking beer (something I'm very, very good at).

2006-10-19T15:30:00.000-07:00

The Journey

Sorry for the long delay in posting. This has been a crazy season in life. I'll try to crank out a few posts to give you a sense of life over the past 6 wks.

OK, The Journey

This was a harrowing adventure, and I do NOT recommend it for any normal human. Pulling a trailer longer, taller, and heavier than your enormous SUV is not trivial. It is impossible to explain how tiring the process is. In normal driving you don't look at the road all that much. Really, it's true. You look around at the country, you make eye contact with your passengers, you keep a lot of things going at once--music, food, smokes, no worries. This has a tremendous benefit: you stay relatively sane and relaxed. It's a "ride in the country" and the only trouble is staying awake.

But with the trailer it's different not by degree but by kind. This is not "driving." It's hauling. 1st there's the strain on the psyche. Hauling a 12k lb load means you can't look away for even a full second. No shit. Lighting a cig is almost out of the question. 2 hands on the wheel, white knuckles, cold sweat, the whole shebang. Phone calls? Can't take 'em. Fuck with the CD player at your peril. A slight pull on the wheel and you are in the gravel and your load is yanking you all over hell and gone.

Then there's the other drivers (or assholes as they were known throughout our trek). You have to watch the merging traffic b/c idiot car drivers can't figure out whether to pass or slip behind you. Then, OMG, the passing semis blow you out into the birm (from the air damn they push along with them) and then such you back in when you hit the vacuum. Just imagine the fun crossing a very narrow bridge right next to a semi moving past. Yow.

Which brings up the fear of death. I can't even describe the total heart-stopping terror that comes from being a wee bit out of control at 80mph downhill, passing a semi in the mtns. Don't ask me how I got myself in that situation, cuz I'm not sure. You get pinned in and then the grade changes and HANG THE FUCK ON CUZ YOU'RE ON MR. TOAD'S WILD RIDE.

So we drove in 2 hour shifts, 15 hrs per day, 4 days straight. (We learned that the last 1.5 hrs could be done with a very big can of Miller Lite between one's legs. We just travelled at a slower speed, sorta like "walking the horse" after a race day.)

Then, at the very end of our journey, we get flagged down by a passing motorist who makes me REALLY NERVOUS cuz I think that the trailer is coming unglued or something. So get out very fast and see the problem: a blown tire. No prob--we have a big jack for the Suburban that works fine. Change the tire, and WAIT, HOLY SHIT!! THE TRUCK IS PULLING OFF W/OUT US!!! No kidding, it was like a Chevy Chase movie. This massive truck and trailer was lurching out into traffic with a ghost driver. And when I say "into traffic" I mean it. This was serious fuckin I-5 traffic. We were looking at a massive catastrophe. Innocents dieing and all that. Luckily Adam figured that I must've left the thing in drive and chased it down. It wouldn't have occurred to me. "There was no way I could have done that" I thought. Oops.

The rest of the trip was pretty easy but I really think that we had PTSD after that whole thing. Both Adam and I had visceral reactions to seeing the trailer or the truck. It made us kinda sick for days.

I hauled it down to a storage place in WA and never wanted to see it again. Just sold it a couple weeks ago and my feelings had changed a bit. There was a wistfullness that had set in, perhaps the kind of feeling a soldier might feel returning to the battlefield some years later.

2006-08-18T12:08:00.000-07:00

Do Something! Do Anything!

Here's a simple truth: leaders like to actively manage problems. The problem comes when they don't really know what they're doing. Try to solve a problem you don't understand and you get...more problems.

Since university (where I had the most excellent mechanical engineering professor for heat transfer who ranged into other topics) I have struggled to grasp climatology models. No big deal. That's not my profession. But I've been rather frustrated by the pop discussion about global warming. There is a passionate, well-meaning, increasingly larger group w/in society that are clammoring for a Do Anything! approach.

I was greatly pleased to run into Michael Crichton's presentation Fear, Complexity, & Environmental Management in the 21^st Century which he delivered to the Washington Center for Complexity and Public Policy. Wonderfully articulate, full of facts, and thankfully on the side of environmental management. (I thought his recent novel put him in the wrong camp. Guess I should have read it...)

via Sacca

2006-08-18T08:47:00.000-07:00

Yak Shaving and "Turtles All the Way Down"

I've just been introduced to 2 neologisms that I feel compelled to share. From Wikipedia:

1. Yak Shaving:

Yak shaving is a neologism which describes the act of performing seemingly unrelated and often annoying tasks which stand in the way of an ultimate goal. Often these tasks stack up on each other, where one task becomes impossible due to some obstacle, which leads to another unrelated task, yet another obstacle, and so on.

Read Seth Godin's LOL explanation and example here.

2. Turtles All the Way Down:

“Turtles all the way down” refers to a infinite regression belief about the nature of the universe.

The most widely known version today appears in Stephen Hawking’s 1988 book A Brief History of Time, which begins with an anecdote about an encounter between a scientist and an old lady:

“A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the Earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy.
“At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: “What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.”
“The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, “What is the tortoise standing on?”
“You’re very clever, young man, very clever,” said the old lady. “But it’s turtles all the way down.”

via Darren

2006-08-18T08:17:00.000-07:00

History of the Blow Job

"For many a straight man, life's long tragedy is first disclosed in early youth, when he discovers that he cannot perform this simple suction on himself. Cursing god, the boy then falls to the hectic abuse of any viscous surface within reach. One day, he dreams, someone else will be on hand to help take care of this."

--from Christopher Hitchens must-read article here

2006-08-16T10:52:00.000-07:00

Spam Stock Tracker

I worked with a guy a couple years back who was made rich by the madness Steve Case created at AOL. My friend was a nice guy, trusting and kind. One day he found a fax in the tray that told him to buy stock in this bridge building company in Iraq or something and, no shit, he dropped a pile of money in it. I know what you're thinking. "OMG! No he didn't!! Well, as PT Barnum would say, 'A fool and his money are soon parted.'" But here's the kicker--HE DOUBLED HIS MONEY. Unbelievable. To the mere mortals in the office (who have to work) the universe was mocking us. I am in no way tempted to follow his "strategy" (I'm known for my "buy high, sell low" strategy) and thought this site was a great case study in the bogus "opportunity" that is spam stock.

http://www.spamstocktracker.com/

Great data, fast read.

2006-05-01T09:01:00.000-07:00

Typosquatters (from GMSV)

"It's such an easy process. In two minutes, I can set up a thousand domain names. ... I know quite a few guys making over a million dollars a year from advertising on their domains. It's like a 24-hour money-printing machine."

-- Ron Jackson, publisher of DNJournal.com, testifies to the gold that can be mined from misspelled trademarks

2006-03-27T16:13:00.000-08:00

Dueling Banjos

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4924085173349496686

2006-03-22T15:12:00.000-08:00

OMG!

Why I got fired from Apple curtesy of GMSV.

2006-03-21T10:00:00.000-08:00

Only 20 Investments in My Entire Life? Shit, I've only got 6 left...

A great speech by Warren Buffet's right hand man, addressing the question "How does one pick stocks?" for USC's Biz School. I got this from the often cantankarous, semi-aristocratic Nicholas
Carr, the pundit who penned "Does IT Matter?" His book argued that IT was becoming a commotidy and that businesses would be wise to treat as such (and focus on cost reduction rather than innovation). It made CIOs drop a load in their collective shorts.

From Carr:

But my favorite moment comes when Munger explains why investing in great new technology often leads to economic pain, if not ruin:

The great lesson in microeconomics is to discriminate between when technology is going to help you and when it's going to kill you. And most people do not get this straight in their heads. But a fellow like Buffett does.
For example, when we were in the textile business, which is a terrible commodity business, we were making low-end textiles - which are a real commodity product. And one day, the people came to Warren and said, "They've invented a new loom that we think will do twice as much work as our old ones."

And Warren said, "Gee, I hope this doesn't work because if it does, I'm going to close the mill." And he meant it.

What was he thinking? He was thinking, "It's a lousy business. We're earning substandard returns and keeping it open just to be nice to the elderly workers. But we're not going to put huge amounts of new capital into a lousy business."

And he knew that the huge productivity increases that would come from a better machine introduced into the production of a commodity product would all go to the benefit of the buyers of the textiles. Nothing was going to stick to our ribs as owners.

That's such an obvious concept - that there are all kinds of wonderful new inventions that give you nothing as owners except the opportunity to spend a lot more money in a business that's still going to be lousy. The money still won't come to you. All of the advantages from great improvements are going to flow through to the customers.

Keep that in mind the next time your company's considering a big investment in information technology. You know you're going to pay the bill, but who's going to end up reaping the rewards?

http://

2006-03-01T08:37:00.000-08:00

Microsoft Designs iPod Packaging

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAGr3mVVUwE&search=microsoft%20ipod

2006-02-21T15:37:00.000-08:00

Colin Powell: I'm not going to say "I told you so" but . . .

Francis Fukuyama's latest article in the Sunday Times Magazine is a thought-provoking analysis of how we got where we are in the current foreign policy problems and what needs to happen next.

http://tinyurl.com/duuj3

2006-02-21T11:25:00.000-08:00

On Moving

"It's all the fun of suicide, but without the mess."
--Me

2006-02-17T11:26:00.000-08:00

Hawaii Intinerary

Some of you have asked what we did, and since:
1. My memory is increasingly fragile;
2. There was so much;

I decided to write it out:

1/21 Sat: Arrive HNL airport 2p local, drive the H3 through/over the mountains to Kailua, get groceries, booze, and carryout. Watch beautiful mountain sunset from ugly strip mall.

1/22 Sun: Matt wakes at 6a (before sun rises--first time since the Reagan administration), entices family to join him for a sunrise walk on the beach (3 blocks away), family initially disturbed but very happy once there; see sea turtle playing in the surf 10 ft away; go for a drive then hike the lighthouse trail on the eastern tip of Oahu (see humpback wales!), Luke falls on way down--badly cut, there's lots of crying ("dad, it's a bad idea to run in sandals"), dad carries boy on shoulders rest of hike (dad in pain).

1/23 Mon: Scout out Kailua, our "home town" (esp interested in purveyors of adventure: dive shops, kayak rentals, etc), go to local beach (rated #1 in the world by Dr. Beach we were told. Yes, there's really a guy named Dr. Beach).

1/24 Tues: Matt and Carole Scuba near HNL on a shore dive over an old sewer pipe line that attracts lots of action (fact: sea cucumbers look a lot like turds when you're over an old sewer. Also, we caught an octopus--crazy blasts of ink in our faces, he escaped twice).

1/25 Weds: Scuba again, this time a boat dive out of HNL harbor at Turtle Canyon and Hale'okeole (or some such hawaiian name, they're equally unpronounceable to mainlanders). See lots of turtles, humuhumunukunukupua'a (former state fish--funny story), morrey eal, tiger kauari. I'm addicted.

1/26 Thurs: Local farmers' market, then the local beach.

1/27 Fri: Long drive (1.25 hr) to North Shore/Hale'iwa to see the surfers thrash. Just like the movies, very cool. Matt calls people back home to tell/brag that he's just seen the most massive waves. Take Jenni to Roy's for a very fancy, delicious meal.

1/28 Sat: Buy boogie boards for boys and go to local beach. Take boys to Kailua model airplane field. See a big airplane crash. See a Japanese guy do incredible acrobatics. Get loaded up on suger in the pm a local ice cream shop.

1/29 Sun: Local beach in the am, then back to the airfield for a competition in the pm.

1/30 Mon: Hanauma Bay for the best snorkeling I've ever experienced (OK, it was my first time snorkeling anywhere cool, but this was da kine, brah!). Protected reefs make it gentle enough for even the boys. D gets the snorkel bug, L not as much. Play "Pa' Gator" in swimming pool when we return (kids are told there is a live aligator behind the porthole (pool light) who likes to play with kids. Pa just has to let him out, but comes running back saying the gator has escaped and is chasing him. Kids think it's real (or at least we think they do) until L comes over to whisper in my ear, "I know it's just a prank but we don't care." And we keep up the antics for another 30 min. Thoroughly tired, and glad it is cocktail hour, I exit the pool.

1/31 Tues: Matt and Jenni rent a sea kayak and visit some offshore islands. Matt tries to convince Jenni that a shag on a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific is the coolest thing ever. Jenni's pondering the mechanics (lava is very sharp) when hikers come upon us (still clothed). Return the kayak and snorkel Lanikai, just down the street. Play shark game with the boys in the surf, get very tired.

2/1 Weds: Back to Hanauma Bay!

2/2 Thurs: Dolphin Quest. Matt is broke but happy.

2/3 Fri: Homeowners return jetlagged, we go for a long drive and a short hike at the spitting cave of Portlock (see humpbacks come within 200m of us!); go to Sandy Beach for some seriuos waves. Matt won't take the boys out to dinner w/ the grups (bad experience the night before--my kids hate restaurants b/c, as they tell me, "they are sooo boring")--takes them for spring rolls and ice cream while the old people and Jenni go to Buzz' Steakhouse near the beach. Lots of fun for everyone.

2/4 Sat: Last day : ( BIG hike along coastal mountains--3 hrs and 5 miles but Luke did the wholel thing! Offend homeowners by not going to dinner w/ them, go to Roy's instead. Get loaded. Get on plane at 10p (still can't sleep).

2006-02-17T08:02:00.000-08:00

IT Crowd: Video

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6959334696794133267

2006-02-17T07:44:00.000-08:00

Cheney's Got a Gun

From Jon Stewart:
http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2006/02/cheneys_got_a_g.html

2006-02-07T11:22:00.000-08:00

FoxyFox, Zoe, and More

1. Gents, I'm now hooked on zoe radio (thanks, Rob). I've listened to a number of programs over and over again (you've got to FF her chatty shit, but the tunes are sweet--especially the kick off by One Block Radius on the best of '05 show. OMG!).

2. I'm new to the Arctic Monkeys (thanks, Jer), and am loving them. In addition, check out "The big score" by Fort Knox Five.

3. Todd has started a blog on all things Foxy (although he doesn't review it, check out LastFM and if you want to see what Todd's listening to, click his LastFM link from his blog--very cool!)

2006-02-06T06:12:00.000-08:00

Some Crazy GVid Shit

Thanks, Rob.

2006-01-20T13:42:00.000-08:00

Put a Hold on that Purchase of a French Country Chateau

Check out this podcast interview with the author of a novel called 50 degrees Below Zero, part of the "Mars" trilogy, I believe. The issue: environmental change. The conclusion: Oh Shit...

He focused less on atmospheric problems, which are contentious and difficult to model. Instead he talked about the oceans. It was fantastic--the most convincing presentation of the material (in short form) I've heard to date.

The two big factors he cited were:
1. Melting ice caps changing the salinity of ocean waters and redirecting the gulf stream (which would turn europe and the NE US into the yukon territory, perhaps as far south as DC);

2. Carbon precipitating into the oceans, increasing the acidity of the waters and challenging the environs for small creatures (whose shells are made of calcium) which are at the bottom of the food chain (bad idea).

He argued that, based on ice core evidence, such changes can alter our world rapidly (think Europe as an ice box in three years once the process starts in earnest). Think it's a bunch of hype to sell his book? Maybe, but he was remarkably level-headed and well spoken.

BTW--A group of scientists rated the possibility of such a change at 50% in the next 100 years...

2006-01-20T07:41:00.000-08:00

More on Music Since I'm confessing my secret love for musicians that would get me thrown out of any respectable scenester gathering, I might as well come totally clean. I have (in this past year of Sopranos, scotch, and dark thoughts) come to love Van Morrison. You probably associate this name with "Moondance" and "Tupelo Honey"--catchy pop tunes played at high school proms and weddings and not exactly the kind of thing that makes one weep. Yet when you get past the "best of" set, you find an incredible treasure. Lester Bangs, the famed Rolling Stone reviewer, describes Astral Weeks as "the rock record with the most significance in my life so far."

I've spent a number of nights in a sort of a trance, alone with the headphone volume up very high, feeling this music more than listening to it. Feeling, as the article describes, like one of those "people stunned by life, completely overwhelmed, stalled in their skins, their ages and selves, paralyzed by the enormity of what in one moment of vision they can comprehend." On those dark nights Astral Weeks "assumed the quality of a beacon, a light on the far shores of the murk."

Check out Lester's review here: http://www.harbour.sfu.ca/~hayward/van/reviews/astral.html

Thanks to Todd Fox for turning me onto Van and the above article.

2006-01-18T11:27:00.000-08:00

Background on a Favorite Brett Expression

Good background knowledge: http://ask.yahoo.com/20060116.html

2006-01-18T09:56:00.000-08:00

Why It's Good to Have a Glass of Wine Before Putting the Young-uns to Bed

Bedtime rituals are great fun. Parents and children appreciate time together--sometimes the only chance you have during the day to have a conversation with them. These are happy days in a man's life. Hell, you make your child happy merely by reading another book (when they are 16, I'll have to invest thousands of dollars in a car to get the same smile).

I tried to remind myself of that after last night.

I was reading to Daniel in the tight confines of his upper bunk. I get a little claustro up there at times and kids have absolutely no sense of personal space. The boy picked a goobery booger out of his nose while I was explaining how The Mystery Treehouse couldn't really go back to dinosaur time. He and I looked at the offending semi-hard mucus. We had a problem on our hands--to get back out of the bed requires a lot of effort and reshuffling and delays (because kids out of bed at bedtime find anything to do except come directly back). No problem, "wipe it on your pj's--we'll wash 'em soon."

I just didn't want him to eat the thing.

He looks at me, then at the booger and, quick as a magician, wiped that booger on my lips. I was stunned, and quietly started to boil, but the blood pressure came down quickly thanks to nature's great elixer. I wiped my mouth on his pj's and asked that "he never do that again." From the look in his eyes, I'm not sure he won't.

2006-01-18T09:47:00.000-08:00

Saved!

If you haven't watched this movie from '04 (and yes, I realize that I'm living a time-shifted, closet-like existance), you should afford yourself the pleasure. Not a scholarly treatment of what evangelicalism looks like from the outside (as in The Church on the World's Turf which I own thanks to Knuck and will lend)--just raw comedy.

BTW--if you are a Netflix customer, let me know so that I can add you to my friends list. It is a much easier way to share movie ideas.

2006-01-06T08:36:00.000-08:00

Just for Fun

http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/000729.html

Cynical cartoons with extended captions, mostly about life in NYC. Don't miss Henry. Hilarious! (I sent this earlier in the year to some of you.)

2006-01-06T07:20:00.000-08:00

A Guilty Pleasure

There's the old saw that "you'll always love best the music that you listened to when you started getting laid." We've all witnessed the bizarre phenomenon that people, as they get older, keep listening to the music of their youth. Your parents, my parents, embarrassed us in front of our friends by listening to "Oldies 107.9", singing along with the Beach Boys while driving us to soccer practice. Oh, the shame! "Please God, don't let this happen to me."

And yet, the vast majority of adults (defined here as people with kids and/or careers) I know are musically retarded. I put myself into this category, too--I'm not able to keep up with the trends, and when I try, I get shot down by the hipsters.

Me: Hey, I got into Bright Eyes recently.
Bryce: Yeah, I used to get into them. The girls really dig Colin Oberst--he's a hottie.

Do you see what happened? Shot down with the double-barrel critique: "used to get into them" meaning "that's old news" and "he's a hottie" meaning this has become chick-music. I go dark. This new music thing is risky.

But I am compelled to continue my quest because music is the poetry of our day, and it reflects our culture's changing emotions and thoughts about love and self-loathing, relationships and isolation, fear and joy, justice and evil. Great music helps us connect the dots of experience in our own lives--it gives us a narrative that resonates--and new, young bands are the best place to find this creative, artistic energy. They haven't been compromised by the wealth and fame, they don't have houses on every continent, and buy bottles of pinot noir that cost $2000. They are keepin' it real, man. The old bands (the worst examples are the guys with cash cow businesses, touring the country to milk the boomers at $100 a pop) are tired and lame, presenting "art" that is so old it is irrelevant. If I hear another boomer friend talk about seeing The Stones on tour, I'll puke. ("But, dude, they really rock out!" Yeah, whatever.)

Alright, understanding my view of music and my desire to stay current, eschewing the music of my youth (I swear, I don't listen to R.E.M. anymore), I've got to come clean: I still really like U2, God help me. I know I'm not supposed to like them. (1) They are popular (insert laugh here at this understatement); (2) they are old; (3) they are shameless rock crusaders who hit you over the head with their message. But still I love them. As for the 3 reasons above:

1. Yes, they are the most popular band on the planet and have been for some time. There's no defense except that sometimes good art is popular.

2. Their music has matured as they've grown up. You can feel the differences in the albums; they tell new stories connected to an evolving consciousness, experiencing love and loss, pain and joy, anger and mercy--not as a teenager, but as an aging adult (which kinda speaks to me). This is brought out in a great series of podcasts with Rolling Stone Mag.

3. Perhaps it's just that I'm a shameless crusader type who believes we can and should fix the world, but I find this rock star inspirational. Oh God, I can't believe I typed that. Let me explain: the way he is reframing the African crisis is incredible. On a panel discussion with big wigs such as Bill Clinton, he said, a bit frustrated, "I'd like to change the way we talk about Africa. It's not a policy issue, it's an emergency. 3,000 kids dying each day due to malaria, a disease we can easily treat, is an emergency." I love that moral clarity, that sense of right and wrong. He's urging guys like Jeffrey Sachs to write The End of Poverty, a thoroughly enjoyable read about possibilities for our lifetime (feel free to skip the first couple of chapters--they are a bit elementary). He's collecting pop-culture heavy weights (e.g. Brangolina) and presidents under the same banner. James Traub of the NYTimes called him "The Statesman," in a great article earlier this year. His work with the Gates Foundation is described in a New Yorker piece (also available via podcast that I can no longer find) called What Money Can Buy. What's not to love about that?

Yes, he's a ranting pop star. Yes, he's rich and old and not on the cutting edge of the indie scene. But the band has grown up without growing old, and that works for me. So, there's my confession, my "here I stand, God help me" against the hipsters.

Oh, yeah, I saw this quote today which is what prompted this rather long post.

"The less you know, the more you believe."
--Bono

2005-12-27T13:42:00.000-08:00

More Science Research

This NYT article is replete with information from the front lines of genetic therapy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/27/health/27canc.html?8hpib

2005-12-27T08:33:00.000-08:00

Stress and Mindlessness

It's tough to rate your stress level on any given day. People ask me how I'm doing, and I don't know what to say. Is today worse or better than yesterday? In the moment, how can anyone tell? Well, I've got two new "objective" rating systems that I wanted to share. The first deals with booze, the second toilets.

1. DTGE (Drinks To Get Even) describes how many drinks you require, say after work, to return to a normal human. 1 means it was a low stress day. 4 means you should be looking for a new job (or, like me, are). Jeremy and I have used this efficient communication method for a while. I thought I'd share it with the rest of you to streamline our conversations.

2. OFS (Open Fly Syndrome) occurs when you are so consumed with big life questions, even at the toilet, that you finish up your business and forget to zip. Normal people score way less than 1.0 occurrances per day. My OFS score is currently at 3.2. It has become a regular (inside) joke that I now wear sweaters to work b/c, untucked, they hang below the zipper, obscuring the horse that's waiting to get out of the barn.

2005-12-27T08:05:00.000-08:00

Licking Kurzweil's Balls

Many of you have heard me yammer on about Ray Kurzweil and his new book The Singularity Is Near. I'm coming late to the game on this AI shit, I realize. Some of you were raised on Arthur C. Clarke and have had contemplated the coming changes for awhile. What can I say? Now I'm very interested and have all the symptoms of a new convert. Ray's doing lots of interviews, some available as podcasts. I thought I'd make it easy for those of you interested.

1hr podcast: http://forum.wgbh.org/wgbh/forum.php?lecture_id=1851
40 min stream: http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/2005/Dec/hour2_122305.html
38 min podcast: http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail755.html

They are all different, but not by a great amount. You might learn about some specific advances (like the lab rats cured of diabetes through nanobots controlling insulin levels) but the idea is the same.

Loads o' papers and such at http://www.kurzweilai.net/

2005-12-27T07:44:00.000-08:00

More Pop Vids

I continue to be frustrated by the lack of a centralized, intelligent video content aggregator. My contact with high schoolers is pretty low and it's hard to keep up with what's cool. I found these shows while listening to a decent podcast on the future of search (panel of GYM experts). They have audiences in 100k-500k range! Pretty impressive. Not as funny as the Yatch Rock series below, but worth watching.

http://homestarrunner.com
http://rvb.roosterteeth.com/archive/

To those of you who were already aware of these: how did you find them?

2005-12-27T06:34:00.000-08:00

My Dotcom Predictions for 2006 ; )

I got a little help predicting the future from this fella. Hilarious. Give it a try and email me your output.

Last year I made several predictions that now seem ridiculously hasty. But a few ideas were pretty close. I've got a feeling that 2006 will be a big year, and here are some of the reasons why:
A Palo Alto startup is going to open our eyes to some new ways that telephony can influence culture. New York Times will pick up on this and run several cover stories on the founders.
Larry Page will be in the spotlight for his decision to support RSS. This will upset John Battelle, and the blogosphere will react Quickly. The noise will quiet before the end of the year and it will all be forgotten soon after the shock.
amazon.com will see their stock skyrocket after their vertical consumer goods business starts taking off. We've seen it coming for a while now, but 2006 will be the year it really kicks into gear.
Either google or yahoo will seek to expand their search-based advertising platform business by acquiring writely. metaweb will be overlooked in the process, and they will see a management shakeout later in the year.
One of the big leaders in the publishing industry will wake up to the opportunity in the Internet and the Web 2.0 trends. After months of speculation, they will make a key merger that will shake up the landscape for years to come.

2005-12-24T07:25:00.000-08:00

Protecting Smooth Music
Todd described this as "my current reason why I think the internet is the best invention of all time." After viewing it, I agree.

http://www.channel101.com/shows/show.php?show_id=152.

Thanks, Todd.

2005-12-22T13:32:00.000-08:00

Whew! Now I Know What to Get the Wife for X-Mas

http://www.sideonedummy.com/the_dan_band_rock_you_hard.php

2005-12-22T06:49:00.000-08:00

On Being a Consultant, Part 1: The Unspoken Rule about Keeping Busy

There are two different types of consulting--project work, where you are charged to build something for a client for a fixed price and then go home, and staff augmentation where you are a whore, pimped to the client for months or years--you are an employee of some body shop (and it hardly matters which one b/c you'll never see the office or speak to your pimp after getting assigned) and effectively are managed by the client but are not part of the family.

Although I've been in consulting for a decade, this is the first time in my life that I'm in the latter category. I'm learning a lot about big company life and thought I'd take a minute to share a couple of the more helpful lessons for those of you new to the world of turning tricks.

And here is the first lesson, it's not really turning tricks, it is more like being a kept woman. See you get paid for showing up, not for completing a task. Turning tricks is more like project consulting. As a kept woman, you are expected to service the client when necessary, but your livlihood doesn't depend on new Johns. If the client hires you to be an employee, that's akin to getting married. But I digress...

Like many of you, have this compulsive need to succeed. I'm probably masking some psychological deficiency, but I'm not happy unless I get things done every day. On top of that, I have this protestant work ethic thing that makes work moral. I feel bad to draw a paycheck when I know I haven't done a lot of work to deserve it. Stick me in a big, slow-moving bureaucratic organization, and I can finish a day's work in two hours. Sometimes one. Can you see where this is going? I have this moral thing about earning my money plus lots of extra time on my hands. What to do? Well, I'll tell you what not to do: Don't ask for work. Don't tell the boss that you don't have anything to do. Now, I can imagine what you're thinking, "But won't that impress the boss? You're showing that you want to work hard, that you're good at your job, that you are efficient." Nope. Nope. Nope.

Here's why: If there were work to do, the boss would have already given it to you. When you tell the boss that you are not busy--especially as a consultant--the boss feels a moral obligation to find something, anything, for you to do. For God's sake! If his boss comes around and finds you, a $100/hr resource, loafing online there will be hell to pay. So he'll make you fill out a TPS report, or research company policy, or clean your desk--grunt work that will rot your soul. You might argue that you are morally bound to work hard for each hour you bill. Fine. I won't argue with you. You'll probably have a great reputation as a hard worker. But (1) you might find it hard to live that way if you have any intellectual curiosity; (2) you won't grow much on the job and will only re-learn the "hard work" skills you got in high school working in fast food; and (3) you'll subtly communicate to your boss that he doesn't have enough work for you and should let you go. "I mean Sheesh! Why am I paying this guy $4k/wk to swab the deck?"

If you want to make everyone happy, obey the unspoken rule about big company life and never go asking for work.

2005-12-21T13:30:00.000-08:00

Is this for Real?

As many of you know, I have no problem making the argument that, as a consultant, it is important for me to stay abreast of new technology and to investigate ideas, even ideas that don't directly impinge on my current project, on the client's dime. After all, I'm not a plumber and the client doesn't rent me by the hour--they rent me by the day, and if I have extra time, I'm not going to let my brain rot. No, sir. I can make myself more valuable to them down the road by learning about new tech even though it doesn't relate to my current role. (You might argue that's the right of an employee, but I won't listen to you. I'm thick-headed and would go crazy if I didn't adopt this perspective.)

So in that spirit, I've been investigating Google video, in the interest of science mind you. This feed is 3 minutes of some of the best nature footage I've ever seen. Watch it. Let me know if you discover it is a hoax.

2005-12-21T12:34:00.000-08:00

Is it just me or . . .

does it look like this woman is having an intimate moment at work?
I found this while looking for an ergo pen mouse. Maybe my mind is in the gutter, but when I give it a quick glance. . . .

2005-12-21T06:28:00.000-08:00

"Q, What Do You Have for Me This Time?"

Well, this little baby seems like a big advance in the human-machine interface and solves a form-factor question that many of you have discussed with me (viz, How can you easily input data into a personal mobile device? And no, I don't think scratching a screen w/ a stylus is easy or fast).

http://www.snopes.com/photos/advertisements/pcpen.asp

This qualifies as sweet (see the projection TV application), but my question is, "How long until we can get good speech recognition so I don't have to type anymore?" Can't be too far off, can it? If any of you know, send me an email.

2005-12-20T13:36:00.000-08:00

Attention Earthlings! We Can Now Read Your Minds...and we're not impressed

Spend a few minutes looking at Google's annual zeitgeist report (http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2005.html). I won't opine on the contents (they speak for themselves), but the form (a chart of ideas as a function of time) gives us a rough shape of the mind of the planet for the year.

2005-12-16T11:53:00.000-08:00

Who needs a Crackberry?

If you haven't tried http://www.google.com/glm/gmail you are missing out. I have a shitty, low-end, candybar Sanyo running on Sprint's network. I'm used to disappointment with m-apps. Hell, the interface on my phone must have been designed by monkeys, no wait, worse--the designers of the Chevy Suburban interior, but that's for another day. After several attempts, I am sorry to say that I cannot figure out how to use their web browser. And until this point, I've not had much motivation. Sprint has a hard coded "home" and, still thinking that it is 1999, owns all that real estate, forcing me to use their content partners. So the conundrum: how can I use this mobile mail if I can't get to it?

Praise Google! Even though I can't find a way to enter a URL, the benevolent web deity allows me to enter my phone number so that they can text me the URL (which I can click). Now, if I can only figure out how to create bookmarks. . . damn, where did I put that manual?

2005-12-14T13:50:00.000-08:00

It's Like Student Council, Except We Wear Suits

Many of you have asked what it's like to work at a large mid-western insurance company--after all, I've only done small companies and start-ups for 10 years. I've worked hard trying to figure out a universal analogy, since many of you are not in the tech field.

First off, I have to say it's not bad. The pay is fine and the workload is light. Sounds like paradise. Why do I feel like a fish out of water? The people are nice, I get praised for my work and have a lot of opportunity to grow (at least by title). But I want to leave. Soon. Why?

Some of it is obvious: I'm a start-up guy and can't change my DNA. And the product? Who gives a shit about insurance? You have to have it, but you resent it. It's like government.

But there's something else, the people--they are too "nice." I've always enjoyed an edgy crowd, and still feel uncomfortable in a room of doe-eyed rule followers. When I'm in a big meeting I ask myself, 'Where are the creative people?" Not in insurance, that's for sure.

And I can't imagine really chumming around with any of them. No travel adventures, no late-night dinner parties, and no drunken conversations about how fucked up this planet is.

Don't get me wrong: I have great working relationships. The boss, the boss' boss. It's all good, don't worry. I try not to flavor my conversations with four-letter words, show up at all the meetings, and get very little done. All the while faking that I believe our work makes a difference. Kinda like . . .

2005-12-14T13:48:00.000-08:00

Alcohol is the anesthesia by which we endure the operation of life.

George Bernard Shaw

2005-12-01T18:33:00.000-08:00

This just in: 4 of 10 participants in you con-call today were totally zoned out, dreaming of working for Google

There's such a buzz about working for Larry and Sergey that (as of 11/05) they get 1,000 resumes a week. They only hire about 25 lucky souls (a rejection rate higher than Harvard Business School) which leaves a lot suitors on the doorstep. Hell, there are people creating web sites just to get noticed.

I'm not immune. Any engineer worth his salt wants to work in a place that gets things done. One commentator recently said, "If I were 35, I'd be begging Google to hire me. They are the Bell Labs of this generation." I salivate. I want that esprit de corps, that sense of belonging, and changing the world.

So Google is turning into a utopian dream for engineers, a city shining on a hill. But maybe this is a bad way to think about a company and a bad way to manage one's career. It is, after all, a publicly held company, committed to making money with significant opposition. They will make mistakes, suck the life out of some, and fire others. As they get big, they might lose their edge, become more bureaucratic.

Maybe I'm just making myself feel better.

Yep.

Oh well, time to read the Xooglers blog and maybe buy some shares of GOOG.

2005-12-01T17:58:00.000-08:00

About This Site

I send my friends lots of email. "Hey read about this great new browser that you probably don't need and likely will never use" kinds of email. Sometimes they are more interesting. At the "To" line of every email, I start with good intentions--"don't send this to everyone again"--but then I reason, "If Jer would like it, so would Knuck," and so it goes. I've become a time bandit, a spammer dressed in friend's clothing. I've apologized to many, but they usually say, "Keep 'em coming." Maybe they're just being nice. So, I've put this blog up for my buddies--an attention aggregator of the Thirsty Scholar flavor. Boys, read it when you have time.

2005-12-01T17:42:00.000-08:00

Teeth tell a story about one's life. A story that you might not want told. Gladwell wrote an interesting article about national health care using dental as metaphore. My thoughts are more pedantic--pearly whites are dreamy but to keep your teeth gleaming you have to live a puritan's life. I'm an athletic guy and enjoy great health, but I smoke, drink, and have a serious love for espresso. All my life I have been able to wake early, go to bed late, eat & drink as I please. I am "teflon man," except for the teeth. I took this "before" picture to see if the Crest White Stripes were worth the money. Turns out, they are a pain in the ass to use, so I quit after two applications.

2005-11-28T19:26:00.000-08:00

I've got a PMP and I'm ashamed to put it on my resume.

I get 10 calls a week from recruiters interested in me because of that certification, but they don't have any clue that the PMP teaches you the worst way to run software projects. In the words of a project manager at ThoughtWorks, "It's useful for not getting sued but that's about all."

The reason: The PMP believes in BDUF (Big Design Up Front) and fails to recognize the uncertainty, change, and human frailty that dooms some 80% of dev projects to failure. Sure, there's talk about how CMMI can be Agile, but these people are putting lipstick on a pig. (Actually, they're trying to sneak Agile into the enterprise by using the BDUF guys' language, something I applaud. It's just hard to read it and keep a straight face.)

So the industry insists you have a PMP. And the recruiters and hiring managers all ask about how you track issues and schedules. How you communicate. WTF. You're talking with me now mutha fucka? Can't you tell how I communicate? Why not ask a real question like "what makes a team jell?" or "how can you model human behavior in paper requirements so that your sponsor really understands what she's buying?" Well, I can guess why they don't ask these questions--they've never really built software. They are paper pushers and don't understand the craft. IT really is in a terrible mess, and I don't see it getting better any time soon.

2005-11-28T19:14:00.000-08:00

Become Your Own Vintner

2 Buck Chuck. Everyone loves it. The phenom at Trader Joe's is the house wine in many mid-income domociles. At least it used to be. The trouble with Chuck, is that at that price ($3.69 in Ohio, thank you, Governor) you drink it all the time and, well, familiarity breeds contempt. With Chuck, it is kinda deserved: The over-ripe flavors, the heavy hand of maloactic fermentation, the cloying sweetness and lack of character. Chuck is the party girl who used to be fun, but now you don't have anything to talk about.

That is, until recently.

I've found that if you buy some really cheap french country wine--earthy and dry, normally undrinkable for new-world dwellers--and you mix it with Chuck, you've suddenly got something new. You've sent the ol' girl to finishing school and she's, well, a little more French--subtle, complex, balanced. And most importantly, she's still a cheap date.

2005-11-28T06:25:00.000-08:00

Quote

'We should give up the foolish task of trying to be saints and get on with the more important task of trying to be human.'

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

2005-11-16T14:31:00.000-08:00

Oh God, the Pause.

I'd just told my story to Ben, a lawyer for Yahoo! whose childhood buddy is a friend. Not just any story, but the "coherent narrative of my professional career," as I imagine a more philosophical Martin Yate would say. About building a company and leaving it after 7 years--leaving it while it was making money! Sometimes I still can't believe it. I loved the people and my unlimited vacation allotment. At times doubt my sanity. Usually I can tell by the length of the pause whether my audience buys my story or thinks I got canned and am down on my luck. I know I would believe the latter.

"Why did I leave?" I ask myself during the pause. I know the answer, but only partly, and the reasons keep shifting month to month. "I'm ready to live by the ocean" or "I want my boys to grow up near the mountains." Recently I've settled for "My job became mundane--the IT equivalent of running a dry cleaners." All this is to say, I'm not nearly as rational as I used to believe.

I wanted more. More what? The money was good. I had freedom, worked with good friends. Sometimes I don't know why I did it. I usually feel this way when I'm talking to guys like Ben. In a second or two I'll either have a new friend who understands my angst or a dude shaking his head on the other end thinking, "How fast can I get off this call..."

Such is the odd business I'm in these days...