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.

A perfect match (Man zkt vrouw)

The Belgian movie, Man zkt vrouw, (the English title is A Perfect Match) (wikipedia), made its North American premiere as part of the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose on Friday Feb 29. The film is directed by Miel van Hoogenbemt and was written by Pierre De Clercq and Jean-Claude Van Rijckeghem.

Man zoekt vrouw - De trailer

I met up with Miel and Pierre at the Paragon Bar in San Jose, prior to the movie. They had arrived the night before and were still jetlagged. Although both are experienced film makers (IMDB: Pierre De Clercq, Miel van Hoogenbemt), they appeared a little anxious about what was to come. How would America like the movie? What would the audience ask during the Q&A section at the end of the movie?

The movie is a romantic comedy and stars famous Belgian actors. It is located in Ghent, Belgium.

On the day of his forced retirement, a school principal (Jan Decleir) decides to look for a wife on the Internet. It's not love he is after, but merely companionship. He meets a lot of women but can't seem to make up his mind. Until his new housekeeper (Maria Popistasu) arrives: she is almost forty years younger than him and a total disaster at housekeeping. For the first time in what seems a lifetime, he falls totally and desperately in love.

The movie is very well done, with witty comments. The plot is simple - it doesn't try to weave a complex story -. Yet, they story leaves enough unanswered which makes you wonder what will happen past the end of the movie.

Also the cinequest visitors appeared to like the movie. Throughout the movie, you could hear the entire audience crack up. And during the Q&A section, many had compliments and questions about the movie: about the languages, the location, the music, the actors and about the plot, (I won't list the questions not to give a way the plot.) As for the music, it was created by Spinvis. From the Man zkt vrouw blog:

Het was Wim Opbrouck die ons nog tijdens de opnamen de Nederlandse componist aanraadde. “Ga bij Spinvis.in Holland,” fluisterde hij ons toe, “die gast maakt geweldige muziek. We hebben wat van zijn materiaal gebruikt voor De Bende van Wim.” Wij dus naar Utrecht waar we aan Spinvis (het alter ego van de zeer aimabele muzikant Erik de Jong) onze film toonden en hij was meteen dol enthousiast om er de muziek voor te schrijven. Bedankt voor de tip, Wim!

Prior to the movie, Pierre had worried how our group of Belgians would receive the movie. Would we still be proud of Belgian cinema? We were! We stuck around until the end and I was happy the film was a success.

• Official website Man Zkt Vrouw
• Review: European-films.net
• Review: 9Lives
  (Dutch)
• Review: Humo (Dutch)
  

Kooza

During a busy week at work, we found time for a drink with our team and a spectacular show: Cirque du Soleil, Kooza. This is my third Cirque du Soleil show. The first was Quidam.

I used to work at Cirque du Soleil in San Jose. As part of a group of local volunteers, we would man the front tent: tickets, drinks and gifts. In return we hung around the circus and were treated with a free performance.

It is always an incredible show. Kooza tells the story of The Innocent, a melancholy loner in search of his place in the world.



The most incredible part of the show is the Wheel of Death.

KOOZA's 1,600-pound Wheel of Death rotates at heart-stopping speeds, powered only by the two artists who leap and counter-rotate in a death-defying display of fearless acrobatics and astonishing teamwork. Like the Highwire, the Wheel of Death is positioned diagonally stage left to stage right in order to break with the usual symmetry and bring the action as close as possible to the audience.

3.1

Monday, Feb 04, 2008, it's the night before Super Tuesday. It is not only politics which are about to rumble. I am still awaken as little jolts shake the house. The epicenter is each time about 10km from my house.

10:39:13pm: 3.0 earthquake
11:16:18pm: 3.1 earthquake

Our emergency backpacks are ready. I brought the kids in my bed. (Coincidently, I purchased earthquake insurance last week.)

Microsoft can be cool too

I had been impressed by the multitouch interface presented by Jeff Hahn at TED. Some of it can be found in the iPhone. Although this time Apple had been upstaged in adopting cool technology by Microsoft when they announced the Microsoft Surface. Was the Microsoft copy-machine doing overtime?

Although big dollar amounts are sunk into Microsoft R&D, they are not know for cool new technology. Microsoft is not revolutionary. Until I saw the following presentation at TED by Blaise Aguera y Arcas about PhotoSynth. Wow! WOW!





Similar to the purchase of Keyhole by Google, Microsoft Mergers and Acquisitions deserves part of the applause. In 2006, "Microsoft Live Labs recently acquired Seattle-based Seadragon Inc."

Seadragon has 10 employees and was founded in Princeton, N.J., in 2003 by Blaise Agüera y Arcas, then a graduate student at Princeton University. He moved the company to Seattle's Ballard neighborhood in January 2004 after his wife, a computational neuroscientist, received a faculty appointment at the University of Washington.

Unfortunately some of the marketing slant for PhotoSynth is "cool new tourism app". Oh nooo, don't call it that. Just think about the possibilities of a Flickr + Google Earth + Photosynth webapp. Droooool. Where's DARPA when you need it to sponsor something like that.

Microsoft Live Labs - PhotoSynth

Oh - Oprah!

I thought I had found the perfect gift for my wife's birthday: a purse organizer, $19.99 at the Container Store. Almost every day, my wife switches purses. Not that she has many purses, but as every man learns eventually, a purse needs to match the shoes. And every time, migrating the birds and other items in the magic purse, is a big thing. Hence, a purse organizer to the rescue.

However, the container store was sold out! "No more Oprah-thingies" was the answer. What? Indeed, the purse organizer had been featured on Oprah and in the O-magazine.

If you're constantly searching inside your purse for keys, credit cards or your favorite lipstick, Kip and Garrett have a solution for you. The Container Store's Purse Organizer fits inside large bags and features multiple pockets for your necessities.

"I wish I'd seen this in the store the other day," Oprah says. "I would have gotten it because you know our pocketbooks have gotten so big. I love a big pocketbook … but sometimes what happens is all your stuff, I mean, it has its own life down in there!"

What Slashdot is to geeky websites, or TechCrunch to startups, Oprah is to gadgets. If the purse organizer is any indication of the Oprah-effect, Obama will be the next Democratic president. Viva Oprah!

Waterzooi with Geuze

La Trappe is a new Belgian restaurant in San Francisco, on the corner of Greenwich and Columbus. The food menu includes rabbit stew with prunes, mussels and fries and chicken waterzooi. It is however the beer list which is the most impressive. Thirteen trappist beers (although West-Vleteren is not on the list), Lambic beers (geuze - my favorite-, framboise, kriek, peach), abbey beers, probably close to 80 beers.

My dad pointed out that the name of the of the "Belgian" restaurant was rather peculiar. La Trappe is the name of a trappist monestary in France, although its beer is the only trappist beer brewed in Holland. So I had to find out and went for a tasting tonight. The food and beer were excellent. And indeed, as I suspected, although the menu was Belgian, the owner was not. Michael Azzalini is Italian, who apparently lived in Belgium for a while.

Another "Belgian" eatery in San Francisco, FrjtzFries, is owned by a Colombian, who used to live in Antwerp. And Monk's Kettle in the Mission is owned by two Americans. (Three Belgian bars in the San Francisco Bay Area)

Belgians might have good cooks, brewers or monks, but it lacks more international restaurateurs.

I am sick!

Finally, after weeks of waiting, the latest documentary of Michael Moore arrived from Netflix: SiCKO!

I had to stop watching yesterday, out of disgust. The movie made me angry. Tonight, I picked up where I left of and finished the movie.

Sure it is Michael Moore and some parts are dramatized. However, you can not ignore the injustice of the US health care system.

The most important part of the movie was not about how great it is in France, England or Norway. It is the section of the British former member of parliament on democracy. Health care is great in countries where the government is afraid of the plebs. I wonder how many of the people mentioned in the movie actually voted. That's what it boils down to. If you want a better health care system, vote! (Oh, here is a guide: 2008 presidential candidates on health care issues)

(Just in case you wonder. I do not vote in the US. I can not vote in the US.)

There's something in the air.

"There's something in the air" is the new banner for this year's MacWorld, starting next week at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. I just hope MacWorld is going to be boring.

Do launch a video downloads. Or a new TV center. I do not care much for video. My television is an old analog TV, connected to bunny ears. I watch movies using Netflix (and starting tomorrow will also be able to watch unlimited Netflix streaming.)

Do update the iPhone to a faster 3G data network. But I put that in the boring category. And it will not make me an iPhone owner yet.

A sub-compact notebook could be interesting. But I fear it will not be cheap. I suspect it will also introduce a number of new technological wonders. Conventional wisdom advises not to buy first generation new technology. So I would have to wait.

My specifications for a new laptop are light, small (12 or 13 inch) screen, wireless and cellular data communication and with a huge battery life. The DVD player can be external in a base station. A Lenovo X61 does fit these requirements and has been a consideration. Running Linux that is. But it would be second choice to a MacBook or a new small Mac sub-compact notebook. So make my life easy, just update the MacBook with a faster processor. Do not make me wait for the second generation of a cool sub-compact notebook.

Just be a little boring this time. Or bring me the best birthday present.

Update: the keynote in sixty seconds

Mavericks

(Photo: Hunter Block)

Hawaii is often the first name that comes to mind when thinking about surfing. Californians will disagree. The long California coastline hosts many fantastic surfing spots. This even led to a small brawl about the name Surf City USA between Santa Cruz in Northern California or Huntington Beach in Southern California.

One thing many surfers will agree on: there is no place for big wave surfing as Mavericks (wikipedia), located approximately one-half mile (0.8 km) from shore in Pillar Point Harbor, just north of Half Moon Bay at the village of Princeton-By-The-Sea. Big wave surfing requires waves of at least 20 feet (6.2 m) high. It is a specialty requiring specific surfboards, and often requires riders to be towed in by jet-skis, as the wave travels faster than any human can peddle. Of the big wave surfing spots Mavericks is considered by most experts in the surfing world to be the most dangerous big wave breaks wave on the planet.

Every year, with 24 hours notice, 24 surfers get the call to participate in the Mavericks "Men who ride Mountains" surf contest. Last Saturday, January 12th 2008, the contest was held during a sunny winter day. Although we've been at Pillar point watching Mavericks before, we didn't drive over the mountain this year to watch the contest. Greg Long won the contest this year.


(Video of the 2006 Mavericks Surf Contest)

• Mavericks Surf website
• Mavericks Video
• Mavericks 2008 pictures on Flickr
• SF Chronicle coverage of Mavericks 2008 contest (photos and video)