Blogging from my new phone

The Wife got me a nifty new BlackBerry Pearl phone, so I am trying to
submit an entry from it. If this works, this will give me a new way of
posting, which would be cool.

I have a cold and am about to have a crappy night of sleep. This is a
fun time of year, but not a fun time for a cold.

--
Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com

Wine, Food, Friends, and More Wine

Someone reminded me about a funny experience I had a while ago, so I will re-tell this old story.

A friend from work (Alex) has been somewhat obsessed with getting on a reality show. She has applied for a few including one where they fix up your garage. While she was in the thick of this, she was contacted to be on a show called Wine, Food, and Friends. Alex had just started up a cooking club and they wanted to feature one on this episode. The problem was that the club had yet to meet, so Alex had to scramble to put together a crew. Another challenge was that the filming would be during the workday, so only a couple women from Alex's club could make it. Since she was desperate for a couple warm bodies, Alex asked me and The Wife to come join them.

The filming went from about 10:00 to about 3:30 or so and we drank wine just about the whole time. It was great. It was interesting seeing how this psycho host (she was quite the character who could turn on the charm for the cameras, but could be pretty snippy with the crew) ran the show. She guided us as we cooked food and tasted wine so we learned quite a bit. Frankly, I am not a particularly sophisticated guy and I was not alone. Alex's husband (Barney) was right there with me. As a matter of fact, when it was time for us to eat "dinner" (which was at about 2:00), Barney wolfed his down before they had a chance to film him savoring it. It was great. He and I had a fun time eating and drinking on the periphery as the ladies really got into the whole thing.

One tricky part was that TW was about four months pregnant, so she had to take fake sips and hide her small but showing belly.

Here is a link to the web page about the episode. The page includes a link to a video trailer.
http://www.winefoodandfriends.com/episodes100/112club.html

The net result was that Alex had her reality show jones satisfied for a while (though now she is applying for the Amazing Race) and TW and I got some free food and wine. It was a good, boozy time.

The Day

• Workout: none (yes, I know, but my foot bothered me today and the morning was a bit crazy)
  
• Music: Handel
  
• Mozart - Requiem

Study Then Sleep

I just thought about an old post by Ze Frank today. He is a really interesting guy and has some interesting ideas for how to study then sleep.

Many people with whom I went to college tried to stay up late drinking coffee to study for big tests. Then, when it was time for the test, they choked. Why? My brother suggested that the reason was state-dependent learning. When the mind learns, the information is trapped in a brain in a certain state. If the brain is tired or on caffeine or on some other drug, then that information is in a brain in that state. If you don't re-create that state for the test, then you could be in for an ugly surprise.

My strategy (based on my brother's ideas) was to listen to the same album over and over while studying. Picking the album for a semester took some effort. I needed to really like the album because I would be listening to it over and over for the following week or two. There was considerable diversity in my choices. I used Charlie Brown Christmas, Rachmaninoff, Rush, Joe Jackson, and others. Once I picked the album, I would listen to it repeatedly while at home.

When I went into the final, I had all the music (and thus all the knowledge) right there in my mind. No need for an iPod (good thing since they were over a decade from existing) because I had heard the album over and over again and had it resonating in every fiber of my being. I could just summon the music and along with it came the information I needed.

Most people in my family are too smart for these sorts of tricks. They did crazy stuff like keep up with their work all semester, but for me, this sort of thing worked well. Final exams almost always brought my grade up a letter at the end.

Anyway, I know this is probably too late (in some cases many years too late) for most who are reading this post, but I thought I'd share. You never know who might need to take a test of some sort.

The Renovation
Yesterday Herb (the electrician) and Doug (the GC) came back to fix some wiring and paint the siding where the sliding glass door used to be. Today, Doug came back to install the last upper cabinet doors and shelves as well as the last lower cabinet drawers. He is still waiting on the little fake drawer that goes in front of the sink.

The Day

• Workout: crunches and push-ups
  
• Music: Cake
• Carl Orff - Ecce Gratum

The Joy and Pain of Kisses

Here is something from Niece II (a follow-up to A College Acceptance to Be Proud of):

"...My English teacher got so excited [about Niece II's acceptance to PWC] he JUMPED and then threw Hershey Kisses at me and the rest of the class. Then he said he always feels awkward congratulating people this time of year because "there's always some kid who was certain that they were going to get into MIT and is totally heartbroken because they got rejected." A girl in the back of the room burst into tears on the spot; she was that kid. It was both sad and hilarious. Everyone felt awkward but he kept throwing candy."

I used to teach at that school and I know how her teacher feels. So often kids get attached to the idea of one particular school being perfect for them that they are devastated when they don't get in. You can't tell this kid that there are other great schools any more than you can tell a fifteen-year old boy who has had his girlfriend leave him for the captain of the football team that she is a tramp and there are other fish in the sea.

The pain can seem irrational or unimportant to an outsider, but it is very real. I really think that every kid who is applying to schools needs to understand that it's always a matter of some luck. Even the most perfect kid isn't guaranteed admission to every school, so if you get fixated on one in particular, there is a real chance that you will be disappointed. Taking a shot with early decision is great, but if you don't get into the school of your dreams, apply to a range of schools at which you could be happy.

College can be an incredible experience. Even if you don't get in to the school of your dreams, you can still get into a school that is really good for you. When it comes right down to it, college is more about what you do than it is about what college you attend. You can do great things after (and even while) attending a small state school or you could do nothing great after attending the finest institutions in the country. You have to accept responsibility for who you will become and not simply give some person or institution the blame or credit.

I know this seems like it's written to a senior in high school, but 1) I hope Niece II and Niece III read this and 2) all adults who might come in contact with a junior or senior in high school should think about this sort of thing so we can provide some sage advice to these kids. OK, maybe not sage advice, but not putting your foot in your mouth or saying something that results in the kid being miserable doesn't seem like such a lofty goal. BTW: I will write about college majors in a later post.

Enjoy the Hershey's Kisses.

The Day

• Workout: short run (in new running shoes)
  
• Music: Wayne Shorter, Van Halen, Stereolab, Hawksley Workman
  
• Sergio Mendes Featuring The Black Eyed Peas - Mas Que Nada
  

Good News and Bad News for My Brain

The good news is that Verizon is working in my neighborhood to install fiber cables. This means that I will be able to get FiOS soon and will have super-fast Internet access as well as a second choice for television instead of just cable (the big trees to the south of my rambler ensure that satellite is not an option.)

The bad news is that they seem to have cut our phone line, so I will have no Internet access (we have...er...had...DSL) from home for the next couple days. Living without Internet at home is going to be a problem. What if I want to order a plain beef pizza online?

My brain is busy storing all sorts of really critically important information such as the name of Cheap Trick's drummer (Bun E. Carlos) or Elvis Costello's real name (Declan MacManus), so I have outsourced much of my memory functions to Google and Wikipedia. These search and content tools are essentially extensions of my brain. I know just about everything. Ask me whatever you want, just be sure I have access to my extended brain. Without it, I am about as knowledgeable as a can of potted meat.

Life without my extended brain is going to be difficult. Most of my (now copious) offline time will be spent avoiding answering any questions or making decisions of any sort.

At least I can look forward to a brain upgrade once the fiber is in and we get FiOS.

The Day

• Workout: dumbbells, etc.
  
• Music: Diana Krall, Stan Kenton, Peter Gabriel, Richard Cheese
  
• Joe Jackson - Real Men
  

Fare Thee Well, My Little Monsters

The Wife just took a bunch of old computers to the recycling center today. This means that I am finally able to park my car in the garage. I should be happy that I can use the garage again and some of the clutter is out of my life, but I must admit to having just a touch of melancholy.

For a somewhat technical guy, I am really quite cheap when it comes to computers for my home. Most guys who are technical poseurs like myself have impressive computers at home. At least they have machines that were impressive sometime after 2000. Not I.

I put together those behemoths from scraps. They were all cobbled together like Frankenstein's monster. A floppy drive from here, a hard drive from there, an Ethernet card from this machine, a modem (yes, some were that old) from that machine. Some of these machines had gone through several makeovers like a West Palm matron who just doesn't know when to give it up and accept the aging process. Others were organ donors again and again. By the end, a couple of the machines were little more than a case, a power supply, and a 10BASE-T Ethernet card.

Nowadays, for the price of a decent case, motherboard, and hard drive a la carte, I could get a machine at Circuit City that includes everything I need including a flat panel monitor and printer. It's sad to realize that my days of tinkering with computers are mostly behind me. I still have the last monster here under my desk. It is running Ubuntu Linux and is a total mishmash of pieces from here and there, but it's decent and it's my last vestige of control over my computer hardware.

I'll get rid of this last monster as soon as Jocelyn Wildenstein goes back to her original face, buys a minivan, and becomes a soccer mom.

The Day

• Workout: long run
  
• Music: Miles Davis, Matisyahu, Modern Jazz Quartet, G. Love & Special Sauce, Franz Ferdinand, The Crystal Method
  
• Thomas Dolby - Budapest By Blimp

A "Real" Company Going Public

My company went public today. From where I sit, this really has more headaches than benefits for me.

First of all, some of the headaches: Because we are a "real" company now, we need to start doing things the right way. The problem is that we are only doing things a little bit right and that creates several problems. For instance, here is what happened with the project I'm starting on. Back in May or June, we came up with an approach for the project that involved three phases. Based on very little information, some folks came up with numbers for how much each phase would cost. These were total guesses that were pulled out of someone's hind quarters. Now it's six months later and the approach for phase 3 has us requiring a budget that is significantly bigger than someone's random number from May.

This is bad enough, but because we start working on these things way before they get approved, some things I'd like to cut have already been done and thus can't be cut. This leaves me having to cut pure muscle out of this product. This situation doesn't make anybody happy. Management didn't know or understand the cost increases as they happened. We didn't understand the budget ramifications of everything we planned to do (most of us are not budget people.) Nobody feels like they have enough information to make really good decisions.

Like a real company, we are trying to stick to a plan; unlike a real company, we have no clue about how to make a decent plan that can be adhered to. There are many other ways in which we are not really a real company, but are trying to act like one. I won't go into them here since I promised to avoid talking about my company. I am giving myself a pass for today since we went public.

Now for the meager benefits. The company has not communicated much about the IPO, so we all just learn about stuff from the Internet. In November, we learned that the strike price would be about $18. People with stock options did some quick calculations and said "yay." Later, it came out that there was a 5.1 for 1 reverse stock split. This means that someone with 5,000 shares of stock instead has about 980 shares. Of course the split had happened before the stock price was set, but the price had raised hopes for people. Now, a bunch of people who gave 7 years of their lives to this company are a bit underwhelmed. They shouldn't be, but such is human nature.

Some thoughts on all of this:

• Don't count on getting rich from stock options even if you work your butt off and the company seems like a great idea. No matter what, it's a crap shoot. Owners and high-powered execs get big bucks in these situations. The rest of us rarely get the big bucks.
  
• Don't bitch about "only" getting thousands or tens of thousands of dollars of free money just because you had dreams of hundreds of thousands.
  
• If you are lucky, you can find a job that pays the bills AND is meaningful, satisfying, challenging, and gets you in contact with good people. Finding a job that also makes you rich is a bit much to ask.
  

The Day

• Workout: dumbbells, crunches, dips
  
• Music: The Talking Heads, John Coltrane, The Beatles
• Deee-Lite - Say Ahhh...