21 days

I like a glass of wine. I like a pint of beer. I like especially a cold pilsner, on a hot summer day. This was the case quite often during the Christmas break in the Argentine summer of San Luis, with temperatures above 100F.

I resolved to quit drinking alcohol during the first 21 days of January. Today is day 16 and I am happy this has not been a tough resolution so far. Having a couple of cold beers in the fridge (Dogfish Head namaste), or an open Malbec on the kitchen counter surely can be tempting. Or worse, celebrating my birthday in the middle of the month required extra suffering.

Water, water with a pinch of grapefruit juice, tomato juice, fresh squeezed lemon with grated ginger or a cup of tea are now my drinks in the evening.

My secret hope is that not drinking my calories can be the tipping point to dropping weight (in addition to eating more salads and lots of walking). Thus far I am -4 pounds.

Update: Day 21 came and went. I got a few high fives on coach.com. Beyond that it was a non event, all while my fellow hikers last Sunday were drinking 1 liter steins of beer at the Park Chalet. I am still happily checking of my alcohol free resolution. Since this week is our company kick off week, continuing my winning streak is a smart idea.

Revenge of the nerds

About five years ago, burglars visited our house. Due to the vigilance of a neighbor they were caught in the act, and all goods were recovered. A damaged door and a dent our safe home feeling were the only remainders from the ordeal. Last night, misfortune struck again.

One of the items stolen was a brand new Apple Mac Book Air family laptop. It was fully backed up, so essentially the loss of the laptop was limited to some electronics in a metal case. An expensive metal case nevertheless.

Today using the iCloud Find My iPhone of Mac application, the tide turned.  At 10:28am, minutes before our company board meeting, the Macbook Air popped up on the iCloud browser window. It was located in East San Jose. The first picture showed a radius of a couple of houses. That wasn't a lot to get the San Jose Police Department excited about. I called them nevertheless. They requested I drive to the area but remained a couple of blocks of the houses and show the police officer the tracking information.

In the interim, I was able to take some action. The Find my Mac application allows you take control of the remote device: you can lock it, you can play a sound or you can even erase the Mac. I opted for locking it, without alerting the user (no sound or message was displayed). Apparently for iOS devices you can request it to send you an email when it comes online, so you don't have to poll it all the time.

To a novice user, this renders the laptop unusable.

By the time the board meeting was over, the iCloud application had narrowed the location to a single specific house. I am curious to how it was able to do this, especially since the user was locked out of the laptop anyway. I also got the IP address but wasn't able to tie that to a specific house. If somebody knows, let me know.

With this information, I sped down to the area, drove by the house twice to check it out. There wasn't any sign of life in the house. I met up with the San Jose Police Department a few blocks away. Three SJPD officers showed up. After explaining them how iCloud Find my Mac works - this was new to all three officers- , they were convinced and requested me to follow them to the house. Adrenaline, Camera, Action!

After surrounding the house, making contact with the person living there, and a long 10 minutes waiting in the car, they came out with two devices: a iPad mini (not mine) and my MacBook Air. The NASA Curiosity sticker had been removed and will be restored. Victory is mine: I got my laptop back. Revenge of technology, revenge of the nerds!

Yes, this is absolutely a plug for Apple and the Find my iPhone/Mac application. Thanks to the SJPD to follow my lead to the house and recover my laptop. I offered them gladly some training on the tracking application.

Thanks SJPD! 

Epilogue - Unfortunately, the person who was in possession of the laptop, wasn't the person who stole the laptop. He bought the $1100 laptop less than 12 hours after it was stolen, in a tire store parking lot for $150. He was interviewed for close to an hour, the house was turned upside down, but nothing else was found.

Three times is a charm

This is the third time I am packing up all my belongings. The first time was when we moved in our little house. The second time was when we replaced the popcorn (acoustic) ceiling with smooth ceiling and repainted the entire interior. This time I am packing up all the rooms to have the old carpet replaced by Brazilian cherry wooden floors. There were other packing and unpacking episodes, but they were smaller in size: i.e., when we unpacked lots of inherited belongings from our friends who were moving back to Europe. Or when we had to pack up the bathrooms, and the kitchen when we remodeled them.

This is day two of the packing. I expect at least one more solid day of packing and moving remaining. I am doing it all by myself, while the rest of my gang are vacationing in Argentina. I could have used the extra hands. It is however much more troublesome to live in a place with four while it is all packed up. All I need, is a small bag with a change of clothes, a toothbrush, a comb and my laptop.

I've gone at it systematically, starting with cleaning out the garage, where all the stuff somehow needs to fit. Next I started with the kids' rooms and then the living room. How can so much stuff fit in such a little house?  A couple of observations:

• It appears an enormous amount of stuffed animals survived the last trip to the slaughterhouse (Goodwill). 
• We got to do better and clean out old toys. I am pretty sure the wooden train tracks have not been used in years. 
• Lego is everywhere. 
• So are the little hairbands. 
• How many purses and little bags can a little girl have? Wait don't answer. I know, as with shoes, not enough. 
• How many clothes can a little girl have? See previous answer.  
• Cleaning out and packing up my daughters room, you learn a lot. For example, she loves to tie many toys together and is quite skilled at it. Note to mom: no more yarn for her! 
• Time to institute the law of Conservation of Toys: want a new toy, get rid of one first. In this house the total number of toys shall remain the same. 
• And finally, there should be a law that all mattresses come with handles.

Tomorrow I am taking a break from the real work to go back to my day job. A quick peek and I am looking at over 200 emails and a bunch of meetings. I love my other (packing) job. 

TGIF? 

Recycle - take two

After another trip with stinky bottles, cans and plastic bottles to the recycling yard, I am rethinking this effort. What's really only relevant are the clear plastic bottles, the aluminum beer and soda cans, and the beer bottles. Wine bottles do not count for $ (the majority of our glass - sorry wifey), nor does any other plastic container or can. My latest haul to the recycler only brought in $4.36 for the kids: $1.5 in class 1 PET segregated and $2.84 in co-mingled CRV glass at $0.066/lbs. So rather than separate things out, it will all just go into our big recycling bin for San Jose waste management to haul.

Hold for release - do not publish - yet.

It is sad to see such a great and natural voice disappear in such a tragic manner. Amy whinehouse's voice that is.  Her death by drug overdose was not unexpected. If you were organizing a bet on which star was likely to die, you barely got more than one-to-one for Amy Winehouse. Newspapers and television channels had an obituary on file, ready to go. Among various other ones labeled "hold for release - do not publish - yet", you'll likely find:

1. Pete Doherty
2. Charlie Sheen
3. Whitney Houston
4. Brooke Mueller
5. Johnny Knoxville and gang
6. Lindsay Lohan
7. Fidel Castro
8. Hugo Chavez
9. Kim Jong-Il
10. Nelson Mandela
11. Margaret Thatcher
12. Steve Jobs

Senatorial Failure

(This blog entry is part of the This American Life* series)

When Justices Roberts and Alito were being questioned by the senate judiciary committee, I followed the proceedings carefully on the radio. I’ve become a constitution-geek. I found the answers by John Roberts interesting, clear and straight-forward.

When many weeks ago Sonia Sotomayor was being questioned, I found it a total waster of time. I wrote this down in the beginning of August, but it got stuck in the draft section of my blog. Jeffrey Toobin in the July 27 New Yorker magazine had a nice write up on the subject.

Answers such as “my judicial philosophy – simple: fidelity to the law” are a dog and pony show. For many cases brought to the Supreme Court, no clear law exists. Justices have to make choices and cast it in the light of their interpretation of the majestic vagueness of the Constitution.

As Jeffrey Toobin put it “The issues are difficult and profound and require a lifetime of study to master, and one would hope that justices arrive with heads full of firm ideas abou the document they are charged with understanding.”

Any observer could have drafted the answers Sotomayor would provide: “follow the law”, “interpret the law”, “don’t legislate from the bench”, “can’t state opinion on hypothetical cases” etc.

So unless the senators start asking real questions probing beyond vague answers, these hearings are a #failure.

When #fail no longer matters

(This blog entry is part of the This American Life* series)

You can not fault her for not trying. On the flight from Washington to Buenos Aires, the person next to me was part of a bigger group, all Korean. I was curious whether they were visiting Argentina as tourist, or visiting family. There is a large Korean population in Argentina. It was neither. They were on all missionaries for a Korean Christian Church.

Thinking back at my visit to Provo, Utah several years ago, I imagined that, like the missionaries of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, they must have prepared well and must be fluent in Spanish. Were they mormons, they might even have specialized in the typical Argentinean pronunciation and studied their culture.

She was no mormon. She did not speak a single word of Spanish and knew almost nothing about the people and the county. On a scale of 1-10, the preparation for their ‘sales’ call, was a lousy 1.

She did have a small booklet, called Amor y Esperanza, containing phrases she was able to pronounce. The plan was to approach people in the street, belch out some phrases and convert the people in this Catholic country to a Korean Christian Church. Knowing the portenos, good luck with that.

The first commandment in their booklet had to be “failure makes you stronger” I admire the effort.

United Check-in Fail

(This blog entry is part of the This American Life* series)

The blue shared shuttle van dropped me of at the United Airlines domestic terminal at San Francisco international terminal two and half hours in advance of my flight to Buenos Aires. The next 30 minutes were a disaster. And I truly hope my fellow passengers will decide with their feet and not their carefully saved up airline miles, when they plan their next trip.

Sure it was a clever automation idea to streamline the check-in procedure. Let’s write some software and allow people to self check-in at touch-screen kiosk. We’ll save the wages of the people normally assisting with the check-in (and perhaps even stick it to the unions).

Step one: let’s get rid of the lovely check-in ladies and men. Keep a couple of baggage handlers to move the luggage onto the conveyer belt. But don’t let the handlers touch the kiosk. Faulty Towers’s Manuel had already provided the script: “Kiosk? I know nothing! I am from Barcelona.”. We might need a few people to assist, but you’ll to go via a special line or you have to show up with your long board or Fluffy in a cage.

The self check-in system doesn’t work. I was at the check-in twice within a week and noticed the same universal frustrations.

1. Human help - The line greeter (who kept his/her job) doesn’t disqualify people. You’ll get into a long line and only figure out at the end that you have a passport which is not machine readable.
2. Easy-flow - The kiosk software lacks a simple flow “what to expect” flow chart. You get peppered with non-essential up-sell questions about legroom or baggage home delivery. The result is that an easy flow to get your boarding pass and dispatch your luggage is lost. (And more thing, how is it that airlines are allowed to monetize on shorter lines to my tax dollars at work: the TSA.)
   The software forgot to let me know what would happen with my luggage before it got back to the first screen. A simple message “Thank you for checking in. Please wait for a friendly baggage handler to pick up your luggage and give you your baggage stub” would avoid many standing there confused and frustrated about what next.
3. The system might be great for frequent travelers. But the computer illiterate, or many senior citizens can use a little help. There was one representatives for 30 kiosks. It lacks sufficient personnel to get you going. “Welcome, let me help get you started. Call me if you have a question.” The automated checkout machines at Home Deport or Lowe’s have one person for four machines. The difference here is that United already has your money.

It’s time for me to consider a different credit card and not lock in my miles with a single airline. That’s the only way to avoid United Airlines check-in #fail.

Image: courtesy of Chicago Breaking News center in an article about similar United check-in #fail.

This American Life*

For my recent internal trip, I was prepared to travel alone. I was meeting up with my wife and kids, already visiting family in Argentina. I had stocked my iPod with my favorite NPR shows: Wait wait don’t tell me, Fresh air with Terry Gross, All songs considered and This American Life.

This American Life is my favorite radio show. I can honestly state I have donated to keep the podcast going. I could listen to the podcast for free. But why not keep a good thing going. How often can you pay for something you really like. Think about it.

If you are not familiar with the show, it is about an hour long and produced by WBEZ Chicago Public Radio. It is hosted by Ira Glass. His nasal and liveless voice, and his method of story telling is what makes the show fantastic.

The format is simple: every week there are three or more stories of live in America, around a common theme. The stories include interviews and are narrated by various contributors to the show, including David Sedaris, Sara Vowell, Nancy Updike and broken up by music sounding like wallpaper.

On my trip to Buenos Aires, I listed to various saved up podcasts and got inspired to write my own. This American Life*

[Ira reads] Welcome to This American Life, brought to you by WBEZ Chicago Public Radio. Each week we bring you three stories around a common theme. Today: #failure.

Why I shop where I shop

The newspaper sales guy calling me at night tries to hook me on a San Jose Mercury News subscription because it's Sunday newspaper has lots of coupons. Safeway spams with me items on sale this week. The Wednesday mail contains the promotions of a dozen local supermarkets. But I am not using any of them. That's because I shop at Trader Joe's. Here's why:

What I did last summer

Our house was built in the seventies. The ceiling had be sprayed with a plaster to provide sound absorbtion. This acoustic ceiling is also known as popcorn ceiling as it is very rough. It is also difficult to paint, because it is highly absorbant and can not be rolled. The way to go is spray painting it. We decided to remove it before we started painting the rooms. 

Popcorn ceiling is also known as a source of asbestos in older houses as asbestos was a good binding component. We had ours checked an no asbestos was present. This made it easier to remove. There was no need to involve an expensive asbestos removal company. 

We planned the removal of the popcorn ceiling to coincide with the summer vacation of the kids in Belgium. We had emptied the entire house into the garage (tells you we don't have a lot of stuff). We were camping out for a weekend at a friend's place. In three days, all the popcorn ceiling had been removed, the ceilings and walls had been refinished. Now our job was about to start. During four hellish evenings and nights, we primed the entire interior twice! Top to bottom, left to right. The clock had been ticking as we were about to leave to Belgium to meet up with our kids. 

After our "vacation", the finishing work awaited us: choosing colors, painting accent walls, replacing outlets and light switches, redoing the interior closets, choosing draperies (the hardest part), and hanging curtain rods in all the rooms. At out own slow pace, we finished it all in the fall. 

I enjoyed the paiting part a lot. It was a calming zen-like experience: Saturday night, all windows open, listening to this American Life stories. I'll do it again, if asked. 

Now that it is all done, the next home project awaits: redoing the bathrooms.

We are a Costco Nation

(Or for the Belgians reading this: We are a Makro Nation).

Last weekend, we celebrated my daughter's birthday in a nearby park. The public parks in California are wonderful. There are many parks, most of them are free and have new and safe play structures. John D. Morgan park in Campbell is a large park, with 3 soccer fields, 2 soft ball fields, two areas with play structures and lots of open space. One area includes a water play structure with fountains. Kids just love it. Since last year's birthday party was a success, we were planning for an encore.

The picnic benches around the water play structure are first come first serve. I had packed our station wagon the day before and woke up early to grab a space. Just like I did the year before. At 7:30am, I arrived at the park, only to find that all 13 spaces had been taken already. Ready for plan B: grab a bench and bring a fold up table or two to create an improvised birthday setup. As long as we are close to the water and sand, kids wouldn't mind. Another poor soul had arrived too late as well and was opting for a similar plan B. He had been there already since 6:10am. Either we were dealing with a bunch of owls or the others had cheated and claimed the spots the night before. Oh-well, the last thing you want to do is fight over a table in front of sugar happy kids.

I quickly set up shop on two borrowed tables and then waited for the rest of the family to arrive. It was very interesting to observe the larger parties set up camp. Literally. One family showed up with a large pickup and a mini van packed with stuff. First, the barbie hummer was unloaded to keep little Jasmine occupied. The first big canopy was setup for shade. Four large tables and matching chairs were unfolded. Another big canopy provided for even more shade. Next up: a 4-6 person tent. Three bags of coals - they must be planning a large barbecue. Honey, did you bring the extra barbecue? And to top it off, an inflatable basketball ring was set up. Luckily they brought a little four wheel cart, so it was easy to roll the ten bags of ice from the car to the coolers. The next hours they spent setting up the tables, hanging the balloons, preparing the food.

It's all the fault of Costco! Costco is the largest membership warehouse club chain in the world based on sales volume. At Costco you can buy cereal in 5kg boxes or olive oil in 5 liter jars. Cordless phones come in packages of 6, with an extra water proof one for the pool. All these party, backyard and pool supplies can be found at Costco at rather cheap prices and come in convenient fold up packaging. Outdoor pools are not 2mx2m: they are 4m x 6m with a built-in slide and obstacle course. It is just too much.

At the end of evening, we all had a great time. The food was great, the Thinkerbell cake a hit. The kids had a great time in the water, building castles in the sand and at the arts and craft table. And so did the other family I noticed. Luckily I didn't have to stay to see them clean up and pack it all up. Unless they were staying for a couple of days ... they sure had the equipment to do so.

On credit reporting companies

A good credit history is one of the most important assets in the US. Upon arrival to California, several friends recommended me to get a Shell (pre-paid) or Macy's credit card to build up a credit history. Without a good credit history, getting a credit card is difficult and getting a loan is impossible. All your credit history is collected by one of three major companies: Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. Companies can then contact these companies before granting you credit.

It's ironic that you need a loan or credit card to start building a good credit. I have always been averse to debt: first you save, then you buy. I don't buy on credit, and every credit card bill is paid in full every month. I might not be the best customer for the credit card companies, but haven't had any issue with my credit history (and I don't have a garage full of gadgets or impulsive buys).

Recently, after the outsourced HR of my wife's company reported stolen personal data, I added 90-day fraud alerts on both our credit reports. I added the first 90-day fraud alert with Equifax. The webpage stated I didn't need to contact the other two compabies. They would take care of this.

Since then, I have received letters from both TransUnion and Experian: "We were unable to complete your request ... please provide us more information". Obviously, the request from Equifax to add a 90-day fraud alert was lacking some information. I went to the Experian website and provide the missing information: it was my address, my social security number and my birthdate.

Hold on a second! Our car purchase, our home purchase, even perhaps a future student loan for my kids depends on these companies and these bozos can't even transfer a little piece of data among each other?

Dancing

Every now and then you stumble on a video on youtube which is just plain amazing. One of them is the video of Matt.

Welcome to our family time ...

As my pirate of the Caribean and Princess Aurora fell asleep tonight, their dreams started to take them along the Belgian freeways to Euro Disney in the North of France. Four and half hours until they will be again in the happiest place on earth.

Several months ago, we went as a family to Disneyland in Anaheim, CA. Although I have been living in California for over ten years, I never visited the magic kingdom. I did visit Universal Studios, Magic Mountain, Great America, but I saved DisneyLand for last. I am glad I resisted the temptation and was able to see the magic through the eyes of two little kids. It was fantastic.

Two days and two nights should be sufficient. That was our original plan. Luckily we choose the 3+2 days promotion package: buy 3 days, get 2 days extra. We spent day and night in Disneyland and in California Adventure. We weren't bored a single moment.

California Adventure is a new theme park, celebrating California. It includes parts of San Francisco, parts of Napa, the orchards, the aviation history of California and much more.

The true gem is still Disneyland, the park Walt Disney envisioned after having seen little FairyLand park in Oakland. Although I knew the Disney marketing machine was everywhere, it is done so smooth and not in your face that you hardly ever notice it. This place makes you smile and happy. Is there something special in the air, I kept wondering.

The park was perfect. From the moment you get on the little trolley shuttling you to and from the parking lot, happy music is playing. People smile and greet you nicely. Everybody is nicely dressed, and not in a one-size fits all suit. Custom tailored outfits matching the ride. Every ride is nicely painted. No chips anywhere, no broken chains. Lines are ingeniously hidden away.

But most of all, rides advance smoothly. I am sure I must have waited in some lines for over an hour, but oddly it never bothered me. The first 30 minutes passed by in a rush of the last ride.

Highlights:

• The evening parade as the sun went under - the smiles on the kids faces as the princesses and the characters waived at them.
• The fireworks in front of the castle
• Pirates of the caribean
• Inside the Splash Mountain with my son
• Family rollercoaster in Toon Town with my little girl
• Sorin' over California
• Hollywood Hotel

I can't wait to see the pictures and their faces as they tell their story of Euro Disney. (I'll let you know Kate)

Welcome to our family time
Welcome to our happy to be time
This is our festival
you know and best of all
We're here to share it all

And justice for all

... rings the Metallica song. Last week, my introduction into the American justice system concluded in a conviction. Almost a year ago, my house had been broken into. The burglars had been caught red handed, at least 3 out of 4. Originally it was believed there were only 3 of them. The look-out guy (in a car) managed to escape. Luckily all items were recovered. As far as I was concerned, with exception of some damage to the fence and the inside door, the case was closed.

Not for the district attorney of course. He had a slam dunk case in front of him. Quickly two of the three burglars pleaded guilty and got a 1 year county jail sentence. Number 3 was a hard core case, a repeat offender. A trial was going to decide his fate. I was called as a witness ("Yes, that is my stuff; No, I did not give him permission to enter the house"). A trial date was set and postponed at least four times (due to unavailability of either the DA or the defense attorney). Luckily, I was allowed to be a standby witness which means that the DA will call you when you need to appear (and it is not required to be present in person every time).

Finally the trial was on. A jury was being selected. It was getting all a little close to my planned trip to Europe. I asked the DA what could be their possible defense. He explained for repeat offenders this is often the case - they want to postpone making a decision until the very end. Standing tough. The piper would play eventually: he cut his losses and agreed to a last minute plea bargain before the jury selection was completed. He will go 7 to 9 years to jail. What a fool - risking much of his life for a couple of toy walkie-talkies and my son's piggybank full of pennies.

Hi, my name is waffletchnlgy and I am an info-snacker.

I always thought that Amazon's Kindle was targeting the gadget freak or the die hard reader. Why else would anybody want to buy a feature-clipped laptop? For $350 you can buy yourself a laptop which allows you to both read and surf. Better yet, get an iPhone.

After reading The digital future of books in the WSJ (May 19th), the idea is not as stupid as I thought. As Jeff Bezos mentioned:

Laptops, BlackBerrys and mobile phones have "shifted us more toward information snacking, and I would argue toward shorter attention spans." He hopes that "Kindle and its successors may gradually and incrementally move us over years into a world with longer spans of attention, providing a counterbalance to the recent proliferation of info-snacking tools."

I also was surprised by the average time people spend reading.

A recent National Endowment for the Arts report, "To Read or Not to Read," found that 15- to 24-year-olds spend an average of seven minutes reading on weekdays; people between 35 and 44 spend 12 minutes; and people 65 and older spend close to an hour.

I am officially old now.

Where all the missing Lego pieces meet

Last night we watched Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull (tickets courtesy of large internet company - thank you). The movie was entertaining and fun. Nothing to earth shattering, although coincidently I have been watching some documentaries about the Manhattan Project. Written by George Lucas, the end isn't very surprising.

And then I came across this great Indy-based video.

The kids of today

I discovered a box set of 3 DVDs with old school Sesame Street episodes at the library (review). These are the episodes I grew up on, with the same silly cartoons I remember.
The episodes are prefaced with an interesting disclaimer:

The early episodes are intended for grown ups and might not suit the needs of today's preschool children.

What?? I am not alone in my reaction to the Sesame Street disclaimer (Blogosphere). Virginia Hefferman in the NY Times summarizes it sarcastically: it is "certainly not for softies born since 1998, when the chipper ‘Elmo’s World’ started.”

Perhaps the kids of today might be missing contemporary geography or ultimate fighting exercises.

My kids have been enjoying Old School Sesame Street. Similarly, my son loves the old Popeye episodes (YouTube). They are definitely a lot little less PC as the children's programs of today. But if anything the Popeye episodes teach one to take things with a spoon of salt.

The unfriendly shopping cart

R99: "Ranch 99 customer service."
Me: "Hi, I am calling because one of your shopping carts is parked in front of my house." (I live about 1 mile from the nearest Ranch 99)
R99: "My driver will pick it up." Click

Click? Did she hang up on me?

R99: "Ranch 99 customer service."
Me: "Hi, I just spoke with you about the shopping cart. I did not tell you the name of my street yet."
R99: "We check every street." Click.

Click again? Wow. Why would one want to shop at such a friendly store? It also tells you something about how its customers use the shopping carts as personal dollies to their houses.

New rule: if you find a shopping cart outside of the parking lot of the supermarket, you get to fill it up for free at that supermarket.