Where Do You See Yourself in 10 Years?

I was travelling back home today and after working my way through the "heightened" security measures at the airport I passed by the news stand and came across a number of magazines with retrospective articles on the Decade with No Name (the zero's? the aughts? the double oo's? We've had ten years to figure this out people, come on). It occurred to me that in 2000 that I had job, a house, and a new girlfriend, and now 10 years later I have a different job, a different house, and a different new girlfriend. I could not have imagined 10 years ago that any of those things would be different. I think if someone had asked me in 2000 "where do you see yourself in 10 years?" my answer would have been a lot different from how things actually turned out.

I could not have imagined 10 years ago that there would be "heightened security measures" at the airport.

I could not have imagined 10 years ago that I would have a bunch of new stamps on my passport and that a couple of them would be from Indonesia.

I could not have imagined 10 years ago that jet planes would bring down the World Trade Center and that this event would be a factor in my departure from the company I was working for 10 years ago.

I could not have imagined 10 years ago that I would have a cousin in Italy who was my Facebook friend or that Facebook would be the avenue to get me back in touch with friends I hadn't heard from in 20 years, or for that matter that I would be on Facebook at all, or for that matter there would be such a thing as Facebook.

I could not have imagined 10 years ago that my sister would have a college degree or that my brother would have 2 kids.

I could not have imagined 10 years ago that The Simpsons would still be on the air and that The Sopranos would not be, nor did I imagine that I would still have my HBO subscription after The Sopranos went off the air.

I could not have imagined 10 years ago that I would care about a show like American Idol, much less maintain a blog about it (which reminds me, I'll soon need to restart that blog; where am I going to find the time to do that?)

I could not have imagined 10 years ago that I would be typing this list onto a blog to be read by total strangers for the most part.

I do have a different car than I had 10 years ago, but since the 2000 car was 8 years old and creeping up on 100k miles I did imagine that I would have a different car 10 years later.

I think about all of the people I have met in the last 10 years and all of the people that I have reconnected within in the last 10 years and it just blows me away.

Perhaps the best part about all this is that the different job, the different house, and the different new girlfriend are all an improvement from the ones I had 10 years ago. Now that is something I can hang my hat on.

10 years ago, before I discovered The Sopranos, my favorite TV show was The X-Files.


Now here was a show that was 10 years ahead of its time and whose central arc was the possible alien colonization of Earth 10 years in the future (though it took 9 seasons to figure that out). Back then I rarely missed an episode, even the ones that didn't have David Duchovny in them. The X-Files paved the way for a number of new TV shows with similar themes and mythologies like Lost and Fringe. Funny thing is that I don't watch any of those shows anymore. I don't think I would have imagined that 10 years ago either.

And who thought 10 years ago there would be something like Wikipedia?

Going Rouge

No, I haven't been ignoring you. I've just been out of the country for a while and very busy since I've been back. I'm sure you'll understand. Or perhaps not. Makes no difference to me...

I could not help but notice all of the attention that Sarah Palin has been receiving lately. Now I know what you're thinking, you've been away for over a month and you come back with this! Don't worry, just relax and stay with me on this and hopefully you'll be rewarded at the end. Or perhaps not.

Anyway, one of the side stories about the former Alaska governor that I thought was interesting, and worth commenting on here, is how much support she is getting from liberals. It seems like they are engaging in a Operation Chaos campaign of their own by buying her book and encouraging her to run for president in 2012, not because they want her to be president but because they think she has no chance to win and by running she will take away support from other Republicans who might have a chance, like, well... give me a minute... I don't know, someone with a triple digit IQ?

I remember back on Election Night 2008 when a CNN commentator, I think the follicle challenged Paul Begala, proudly declared to follicle endowed Anderson Cooper that he wanted Palin to run in 2012. She was the "dream candidate" as far as he was concerned.

I know I'm not the first to say this, but I think the liberals should be careful about what they wish for here.

Now let me set the record straight: I think Sarah Palin is an idiot who is not the least bit qualified to be President of the United States. Hell, I'm more qualified to be president than she is. This of course is why the folks on the political left want her to run on the Republican ticket. But you see, while I, the entire Democrat party, and perhaps most of America think that she is unqualified, there are millions of people out there, including most of the 20 million or so who listen to Rush Limbaugh on a daily basis, who think that Palin is the bee's knees because she is one of them, a God-fearing, anti-intellectual, social conservative with a distrust of anyone who has a PhD or is a member of the media. To them, it's not important that she knows who the leader of Uzbekistan is when there are more important battles out there to fight against like abortion, gay marriage, and Obama's death panels.

The scary thing here is that these 20 million people are convinced that they have so much power that they can elect anyone, even a dim bulb like Sarah Palin or George W. Bush. They keep telling themselves that the majority of America is as conservative as they are and that Obama's "failings" (as they of course see them) will convince millions more to see the error of their ways and vote for conservatives in the next election. They are also convinced that the reason that Obama won last year was because the Republican party was too afraid to nominate a "true" conservative and instead threw up a bunch of wimpy moderates like John McCain and Mitt Romney. Yes, they do see a US Senator who survived 6 years of torture in a North Vietnamese prison camp as a wimp because he had the audacity to co-sponsor a bill with Ted Kennedy and lead the effort to prevent Senate Republicans from evoking the "nuclear option" and eliminating the filibuster that would have bypassed the Democrats on judicial nominations. And to think, had the nuclear option been evoked back in 2005 the Democrats would have already shoved the health care and global warming bills down the Republican's throat. But do you hear any of those right wingers praise McCain for saving them from themselves? Of course not.

But I digress...

(BTW, the leader of Uzbekistan is President Islam Karimov, though I most admit I had to look it up, but then I'm not running for president)

(BBTW, the definition of rogue is "an unprincipled person; a scoundrel or rascal." I wonder if any of Palin's supporters, or even Sarah herself, know about this. Of course they would likely attribute this to the obvious liberal bias among dictionary writers)

These Palin in '12 wackos may be small in number now but there are enough of them shouting from the rooftops to be a cause for concern for those who want to see some more intelligent people run for the most powerful office in the world. I don't think Palin's chances of winning are as dire as the liberals want to think.

Now if you want to talk about former governors who would make a good president despite a lower than average IQ, how about Governor Eugene Gatling?




Yes, the guy from Benson. He may not have been the sharpest knife in the drawer but he had a heart of gold and always had the interests of his state at heart, even though after 7 seasons we never were told which state it was. You never heard him accuse the president of wanting to create death panels or nor did he claim that he had foreign policy experience because his state bordered another country. The man knew his limitations. He also is perhaps the only governor, either real or imagined, to promote his butler to lieutenant governor. Now that is change I can believe in.

Glory Days

No pictures this time, just some reminiscing.

This week I attended a convention in San Diego, where many years ago I lived and worked until the economy of the time (1992) and some other personal issues led me to move to the Bay Area. While I have been here I have encountered friends and former co-workers that I have not seen or heard from in almost 20 years. Not only that, but I also saw a college friend of mine who I have not seen or talked to since we both graduated 20 years ago.

It amazed me that some of the people that I seen here have hardly changed in appearance since the last time I saw them, while others have changed so much that I barely recognized them. I am also not sure where I fit in their eyes in this regard. They all recognized me, but only after I introduced myself to them. All that is except for one friend, who told me that she recognized me because of my smile. I was very happy to hear that, until she then pointed out that I had "filled out" since I had last saw her. But believe it or not I took it as a compliment, at least that is how I think she meant it, that is after she said that I was too skinny in college. It is the nicest way that I have ever been told that I have gained weight in my life.

Now while my time in San Diego is almost done since I leave tomorrow, my trip down memory lane has one more mile to go, as I will be travelling to my hometown to see another friend who I have not seen in 20 years or so but nevertheless is my longest standing friend, as I have known her for over 40 years. I have no idea what to expect or how that will go, but again I have that same sense of nervous anticipation as I did before I met my other friends.

It is funny how nervous I got before meeting my old friends and co-workers, and how nervous I am now before meeting with the oldest friend. All sorts of thoughts have run through my head the last few days: Will I see them? Will they recognize me? Will I be able to recognize them? Is this the beginning of re-establishing contact, or will they and I again not talk to each other for another 20 years? It is strange and tense and yet at the same time so much fun when they do recognize me and we touch base and reminisce about days gone by. It is also worth remembering that I still have something in common with each of them, even though our lives have gone in much different directions since then.

There are still a few friends out there that I have not seen in many, many years. I hope that the day will come when I will be able to reconnect with them and I hope that they too will be able to recognize me.

A 9/11 Essay Revisited

The one or two of you who remember the blog that preceded this one (no, not the American Idol one) might remember this post that I made to that blog on September 11, 2006. I think with a relatively new blog, and possibly one or two new readers, that it is worth posting it again on this anniversary.

 A 9/11 Essay - How 9/11 Changed My Life 

 I don't know anyone who died on September 11, 2001. I don't know anyone who knew anyone who died on that day. I don't know anyone who was in either New York or Pennsylvania that morning. I did know one person who worked at the Pentagon, but thankfully she was not in the building at the time the plane hit there. So some of you might think I'm being pretentious by saying that the events of that day changed my life beyond just the general effects that we all felt that day and beyond, but it is true. 

 It was the Monday after September 11. Throughout the previous week there were of course a number of conversations at my workplace about what happened. However, I found the discussions to be very disturbing. The talks centered around the collapsed buildings, the closed stock market, the grounded planes, the cancelled football and baseball games, things like that. I didn't hear any conversation about the event itself, almost as if it were an afterthought. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, or more importantly, what I wasn't hearing. Thousands of people had just died and all I heard were people complaining about how their stocks weren't being traded. Over the weekend I decided to write an open letter to the company. In that letter I attempted to remind people that, as I wrote, "We are people first and engineers second, not the other way around." I tried to point out what I thought was a myopic attitude that some of my co-workers were apparently taking and the anger that I felt about that and that even if they didn't know anyone directly involved in the attacks they should still give a damn. 

I sent it out that Monday morning. The reaction was strong. Some personally thanked me for sending out the letter, as they felt the same way that I did. Others criticized me, claiming that I was telling them how they should feel. Still others, including most importantly my bosses, thought it was an attack on the company, since I pointed out that the only acknowledgement of the events from the company was an e-mail from the IT manager asking people to curtail their Internet use. I tried to explain that my message was not meant to be an attack on the company but rather on specific people within the company that I had chosen not to name. Nevertheless, the view about me and the letter remained and would affect me in an even bigger way a few months later.  

Around that time I was engaged in discussion with my bosses about opening a branch office in Oakland, where I was planning on moving. As the months went by I was growing increasingly frustrated by the slow progress that the company management was making in coming to a decision on whether to open the office. I learned later that one of the reasons why it was taking so long was because of the letter. I was now seen as a loose cannon for having publicly criticized the company, and even though I had been with the company for 9-1/2 years at this point there were some at the management level who questioned whether or not I could be trusted. The questioning of my loyalty to the company, and the delay in the decision to open the Oakland office that resulted from it, was the main reason why I decided to leave the company 4 months later. 

I think it is too simplistic to say that the letter all by itself led to my departure from the company that I spend almost 10 years of my life. There were certainly other issues that were involved that had nothing to do with the 9/11 letter. However, it certainly played an important role. The letter changed me in another way too. It reminded me that there are important things that are going on outside my office window, and that I too should not be so focused on my work that I ignore them. That is what led me to become more involved in volunteer work, and why I spent my 40th birthday helping people in Indonesia rebuild their homes after the earthquake and tsunami. One can never say for sure, but it is possible that were it not for the events of 9/11 I would still be at my old company and never gotten involved in anything outside of it. I don't regret writing what I did. It was something that I felt had to be said, job be damned. And every September 11 since then, I pull out that letter and read it again, just to remind myself that I am a person first and an engineer second, and not the other way around. And at the risk of potentially revealing my identity to a couple of former co-workers, here is the letter that I wrote and sent out to my company on September 17, 2001, which was not part of the post back on 9/11/06: I've noticed something in the last week that, to me, is very upsetting. While the rest of the country set aside their daily routines to pause and mourn the events of last Tuesday, there was hardly any recognition of the event here in the office. It was just business as usual, or so it seemed. I'm sure that everybody here was aware of what happened (judging by the apparent high use of the Internet), but the only conversations that I heard were about either the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings, the disruption of air travel, the cancellation of sporting events, or the closing of the stock market. I didn't hear anybody talk about the human tragedy or suggest something to do to help, and this disturbs me. Has anyone here donated blood or money? Did anyone here go to a memorial service? Did anyone here participate in the moment of silence on Friday? Was anyone even aware of it? We tend to be myopic, focused on the task at hand. Meeting schedules, making budgets, keeping clients happy, and completing our tasks. These are the things that preoccupy our time and our thoughts. If something is not thrown in front of us we tend to put it aside and neglect it in favor of other things that we consider more important. While this high level of concentration may make us better engineers, it also makes us lousy people. Thousands of people died due to a random, senseless act of violence, and yet we go on with our jobs as if nothing happened. Thousands more may die defending our country against those who committed these acts, and all we can think about is how it affects our stock options or our future projects. Am I the only one who thinks that this is wrong? I sure hope not. Not only should the events of last Tuesday show us how important our work is, but it should also show how unimportant it really is. How much of our work really affects the world at large? Not much, when you really think about it. The rescue workers currently digging through the wreckage of the World Trade Center are engaged in work that is far more important than what we are doing. So are the FBI investigators and possibly soon our armed forces. That's not to say that we should disregard our work as useless rubbage, but we should recognize that it's not the most important thing in the world, and that there are some very important things going on outside the walls of this office that we should be aware of and should care about. So now we may be going to war. Some of you may not be concerned about this. You may think that because neither you nor your family is eligible for the draft, or because you are not a US citizen, or because you’re an engineer and not a soldier that it doesn't really matter to you whether we go to war or not. After all, if it doesn't affect you directly why should you care? We should care, not because it could affect our jobs but because it will affects our lives and the lives of everyone around us. I'd bet that the main reason you work here is because of the economic opportunity that this country, this city, and this office provides you that you can't get anywhere else. There's nothing wrong with pursuing economic opportunity, but you should remember that this opportunity comes with a price. A price that the workers and rescue crews in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon paid. A price that the passengers on the hijacked planes paid. A price that members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines may soon have to pay. A price that could be, and hopefully won't be, paid by someone you know. The people who died last Tuesday did so for everyone who is taking advantage of the economic opportunities and social freedoms that this country has to offer, regardless of their age, profession, or nationality. Think about that the next time you dismiss what has happened, and what may happen, as something that doesn't matter to you. I'm not accusing anyone of being uncaring, and I hope that I’m not insulting anyone or putting my job on the line for saying this, but it worrisome to me that many people here appear to be acting as if nothing happened when in fact something has. Please remember that we are human beings first and engineers second, not the other way around. I still try to remember...

Where in the Hell are This Kid's Parents?

A few weeks ago a 17 year old high school dropout returned to campus armed with 8 pipe bombs, a machete, and a chain saw. His intent was to set off the bombs and then when the students and teachers began running in panic from the bombs he was going to hack them with the machete and the saw. He managed to set off two of the bombs but didn't injure anybody because two teachers tackled him before he could start the chain saw.

The kid had dropped out of school the previous year and from notes the police found later they believe he had a grudge against one of the teachers there, who he apparently felt was responsible for his dropping out. He planned to use the chain saw and the machete instead of guns because he wanted to be more distinctive than the Columbine kids and others who have shot up schools. The kid is now in jail and is being charged as an adult for attempted murder and other charges.

I wonder, where in the hell are this kid's parents?

It was reported that the kid's parents divorced several years ago. He was living with his mom and sister in an apartment near the school. According to police the mother knew nothing about this plot. The boy's father lived in another town about 30 minutes away and when contacted by the press had no comment. The press was able to get a hold of the boy's grandmother back in New Jersey, and she told them that the kid was a bright boy who had never gotten into any kind of trouble before. Grandma also told the press that she spoke with her son, the boy's father, just the week before and they were talking about the boy going to college.

I suppose the grandma can be excused because she lives on the other side of the country, but there is no such excuse to the parents. They had to have known that he had dropped out of school, something that "bright" boys don't typically do. Why did he drop out? Was he depressed? Why didn't they notice that something was wrong? Why did they miss this one big hint? These are questions that the parents have yet to answer.

Even more amazing is that this kid bought chemicals over the Internet to make the pipe bombs, and some of those chemicals can only be bought by someone over the age of 18. So he had to have used one of his parents' credit cards to buy them, and so one of them had to have known and been OK with these purchases. There were reports that the mother did know about the chemical purchases (though no word if it was her credit card that was used) but thought they were toy rockets. WTF? You have a kid that dropped out of school and was buying explosives that kids his age were not allowed to buy and you were not at least a little bit suspicious about the toy rocket story?

And oh BTW, where the hell did he get the chain saw and the machete? The kid lived in an apartment and apartment dwellers don't usually have a need for landscaping power tools. I never heard what kind of dwelling the dad lives in, but if these tools were his then I wonder why he didn't notice that they were gone. Then again, if this guy really did think his dropout son was still going to college perhaps it is not that big of a surprise.

This to me illustrates one of the biggest social problems out there, parents who are not parents to their children. If even one of this kid's parents were paying attention to what their son was up to then this incident could have been prevented without the heroic efforts of two teachers and the dependence on chance that the chain saw would not start. Have you noticed that you almost never hear from the parents of kids who commit acts like this? I don't ever remember hearing from the parents of the boys who shot up Columbine, and I think there was only a short apology from the family of the guy who shot up Virginia Tech. I can accept that they are too embarrassed to say anything to the public, but quite honestly they should be embarrassed for the shoddy parenting job that they did. Hell, shoddy may be too kind of a word. I know parenting is hard, but how much attention would it have taken for these parents to stop their kids from shooting up or blowing up schools? Certainly not more than what any caring parent is capable of giving.

It's funny that the social conservatives are all bent out of shape by gay marriage because of the potential "harm" such relationships would have on children and on society. Well, which do you think is a greater harm to society, a kid that decides to be a homosexual or a kid that decides to shoot up his school? I'll take the gay kid any day of the week.

Now if you want an example of a single parent who was able to be a parent, I offer up to you on Shirley Partridge.



Not only was she a single mom with 5 kids, but these kids were also in a rock band together. A sure recipe for disaster you'd think, but not only did Shirley keep her kids on the straight and narrow she actually joined their band and performed with them. And when she needed a father figure to step in she did not hesitate to call in Mr. Kincaid to help, especially with that hell raiser Danny. If a single mom with 5 kids in a rock band can raise them without the kids turning into psychopaths then why can't others?

Yes, there was that drug thing that Danny did, but that was years after the show was cancelled.

The Price of One's Supper

Did you know that this Labor Day there will be a national potluck/eat-in organized by Slow Food USA? Apparently folks are supposed to bring potluck lunches to 250 events across the country where there will be speeches and petitions calling for healthier food in the nation’s public schools.

While I take no issue with improving the food in schools, I do take issue with the political correctness and arrogance of the entire “slow food” movement. I wrote back in March that the school lunch program in Berkeley that is being held up as a national model was projecting a $250,000 deficit this year and that the champion of the program, Alice Waters, was not planning on contributing any more money to the program because she wants the parents of the school kids to foot the bill. The Berkeley school board had been subsidizing the program and had considered cutting that subsidy to save money, but at the last minute decided to continue the program for one more year hoping that they can convince enough parents to pay into it, and at the same time raise the prices to help make up the debt. "I wish more of our families would make a commitment to (eating the hot lunches)," said district Superintendent William Huyett during the school board meeting. "We're asking for 25 cents more and we know it's hard times, but what we feed our children is important."

And what are they feeding the children of Berkeley? Whole chickens, hormone and antibiotic free hamburgers and hot dogs, California-grown organic rice and beans, fruit from local farmers, whole grain bread, and so on. In other words, politically correct food. Food that is not produced by a large agri-business corporation. Food that you often see at those slow food festivals that Slow Food USA, Slow Food Nation, and other organizations like them put on.

One such festival was recently held here in beautiful Oakland. The organizers of this festival, Eat Real, wanted to stage a more affordable slow food festival than the $60 a plate haughty events that Slow Food Nation holds in San Francisco and other places. Admission was free and the food prices were around $5 a plate. Sounds great, right? Well, here is a partial list of vendors who participated at Eat Real: barbecue, wood-fired pizza (utilizing local ingredients), crème brulee, Southern soul food, Mexican food, microbrewed beer, and ice cream. Now, if the goal is to have people, especially kids, eat healthier food then I for one wonder about the choice of vendors. I happen to know the barbecue vendors personally and while their tri-tip and pulled pork sandwiches are absolutely delicious it is not exactly healthy. I swear I can sometimes feel my arteries hardening while I am enjoying their meat. While it is debatable how much of the food served at Eat Real was in fact healthy (not just the BBQ, everything), there was one thing we can all be sure of, none was produced or sponsored by large food corporations.

I think that is the real target of these slow fooders, evil fast food corporations like McDonald’s and KFC and evil agri-business like Archer Daniels Midland, and like the social conservatives that want to ban rap music, Playboy, and Internet soft porn sites, they are using children as a totem to convince everybody else to do what they want. There is this push for lunch programs like in Berkeley, an incessant cry to remove soda machines from school campuses, and the occasional local bill calling for a ban on fast food restaurants, as if these alone are making kids fat, lazy, and stupid. How about the video games? Or the schools that have cut PE? Or most importantly the parents who are not supervising their children’s eating and playing habits? These people seem to think that the cure for all of our social ills, including escalating health care costs and failing kids, is to put Burger King, Coca-Cola, and their brethren out of business and force everyone to eat whole grain bread and free range chicken.

Look, I am not trying to argue that people won’t get sick and die if they eat Taco Bell every day. I’m trying to argue that this is supposed to be a free country and we should have the right to choose if we want to eat whole grain bread or a Chalupa Supreme, and we should identify arrogant do-gooders like Slow Food Nation as the politically correct police that they really are. If you want to eat organic tofu that’s fine with me, as long as you don’t get in my grill and tell me how stupid I am for not doing the same.

Continuing my theme of tying in 70’s TV personalities with the subject of my rants, I’d like to close with a brief shout-out to culinary student Jack Tripper. While Jack was a master of the culinary arts and given how skinny he was probably ate a healthy diet, you never heard him lecture Janet, Chrissy, Cindy, Terri, Larry, the Ropers, or even Mr. Farley about the food that they ate. No, Jack was a live and let live kind of guy, which was all the rage back in 1978 but seems to have all but disappeared from our society now.

Now this is what I need, a female version of this guy who can cook dinner for me in less than 22 minutes (including commercials of course) and do so with a smile on his face and without a lecture.

My goodness, 2 posts in 2 days. As you may have guessed I have been saving up...

To Protect and To Serve

It's been a bad week for the cops in my area. Heck it's been a bad year really, but these week the blue s*** really hit the fan.

First we discovered that a convicted sex offender had been hiding a kidnapped girl in his backyard for 18 years until the police finally discovered the girl and the two daughters that the kidnapper had fathered. What is bothersome here is that the local law enforcement authorities, including the police, the sheriff, and the feds all knew about this guy. He was subject to frequent visits from parole officers and not once, not once, did any of them bother to check out the backyard. People reported seeing this guy with daughters that he was not supposed to have and yet no one bothered to check on that. The dude's next door neighbor even called the police a couple of years ago saying that there were kids living in the backyard, but the officer who responded to the call didn't search the backyard at all. He now claims that he needed a warrant to do the search, but don't you think he could have gotten one considering the man whose home he was searching was a registered sex offender? The cop also claimed that he didn't know the guy was a registered sex offender even though anybody, yes even you, could have found this out with a couple of mouse clicks here. Even more bizarre, a few months after the kidnapping the guy was caught growing marijuana and did time because it was a parole violation, but again nobody bothered to search the backyard even though he was caught growing weed.

The sheriff has issued an apology and claims "full responsibility" for what happened. What exactly does "full responsibility" mean though? He hasn't resigned, he hasn't fired any deputies, he hasn't taken a pay cut, he hasn't donated anything to the victims, he hasn't done anything except say that he was sorry. It is so easy to claim "full responsibility" when it does not mean anything. You have multiple lives who are ruined forever in part because of the incompetence of this guy and the people who he is responsible for, and yet he thinks, or perhaps hopes, that he can claim "full responsibility" and bring his involvement to closure. Quite honestly it should not work that way.

And then there is the case of a missing 5 year old boy here in my home town. The boy disappeared about two weeks ago from the back of a shoe store where his foster father left him while he went inside to visit the foster mother. The cops claim that they could not find any evidence that the boy was ever at the shoe store but found a text message from the father saying that he was so frustrated with the boy that he was going to live the kid at a train station. So what do these Barney Fife's do? Arrest both foster parents for murder and pressure them to rat on each other. Of course the DA has no evidence to support these arrests so both parents had to be set free, and now the cops have two angry and uncooperative parents on their hands who have hired an attorney who loves the TV news cameras and really loves high profile police misconduct lawsuits, not to mention a community that already distrusts the police and is still ticked off about the guy who got shot by a cop at a train station back on New Years. That's one hell of a risk to take when they have nothing to charge either of them with. Did they really think they would get that lucky? Now we may never know what happened to this boy.

Normally I would give the police the benefit of the doubt but neither of these incidents deserve that kind of leniency, and the cops are certainly not doing themselves any favors or inspiring any confidence among the citizenry that these folks are sworn to defend.

Now that my ranting is done I can briefly talk about a cop who always inspired confidence, T. J. Hooker. Variety says that T.J. is coming to the silver screen but it doesn't say whether or not the guy who played him, William Shatner, will be back in the saddle playing the part that allowed Shat to avoid being typecast as a starship captain with a dramatic flair.

Now see, this is what we need, more men in blue with a heart of gold and the ability to slide across a car hood without one hair out of place.



His mere look just exudes trust and confidence. You know if T.J. were on the case both kidnapped kids would have been found within an hour, or 52 minutes if you count the commercials.

All the Evil in the World

Is it just me, or have people become more combative about their personal space?

Yesterday I was at a signalled intersection waiting to turn left. There was a woman with two little kids in tow. Just before they get to the curb one of the little kids turns and stares at my truck, slowing her pace while doing so. I had already started sloooowly inching my way into the turn at this point but I was still a good 15-20 feet away. Nevertheless, the woman turns to see what her daughter is looking at and then gives me a evil look as if I was about to hit them!

Then a couple of weeks ago I was at another signalled intersection about a mile away from the previous one. This time I was waiting to make a right turn. The signal turned green as another woman, this time with a stroller and an adult friend in tow, starts into the intersection at the same time I am starting my turn. Again, I was a good 15-20 feet away, but this time the woman glared at me and shouts "you're an asshole!"

I had yet another similar incident the week before at an intersection a few miles away from the other two. Again I was about to make a right turn, but this time I stopped and allowed a small family at the intersection to enter the crosswalk. However, I guess I stopped too close to their personal space because they all, including the little girl, gave me an evil glare.

What the hell is up with these people? Must I stop 20 feet away and wait for you to mosey your way across the street and another half block after that before I make my turn?

Maybe it is my truck. I do live in a very liberal, I mean "progressive" area, so maybe it is the fact that I drive a gas guzzling pickup that is causing me to become public enemy #1. I guess if I drove a Prius instead I could run them over and still not be subjected to the hateful glare. Anybody want to buy a truck like this?

By the way, this is not my actual truck, just a simulation. Still, it does look kind of evil...

Yes We Can, Now In Fruity Flavors!

One of my co-workers just returned from a trip to Africa and brought us this souvenir from Kenya, a box of Obama chewing gum. Yes, Obama chewing gum. It appears some entrepreneur in Barack Obama's ancestral land has decided to honor the 44th President of the United States by naming chewing gum after him. What is interesting here is that not only does the box feature the now standard photo of Obama in his presidential pose, it also features Michelle Obama and the two kids Sasha and Malia too. In fact the girls get more screen time than their dad. Like the old adage about ads goes, you can't go wrong with kids or dogs.

The co-worker who brought this into the office left a note tagged to the box: "Don't expect the flavor to last more than 5 minutes." I wasn't sure if that was a criticism of the gum or a political statement. Or both.

Funny, I don't recall anyone making a Bush chewing gum, though I can understand why there was no Cheney chewing gum. I would have been really hard to make those bugging devices chewable.

Oh The Humanity

Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Walter Cronkite, Ed McMahon, David Carradine, Robert McNamera, Frank McCourt, Billy Mays, Steve McNair, Karl Malden, all in the last month, and now this:

Taco Bell Chihuahua Dies
By Rennie Dyball
Originally posted Wednesday July 22, 2009 11:40 AM EDT

She charmed millions without ever saying a word, and managed to make fast food tacos adorable. Gidget, the Chihuahua best known for her Taco Bell ad campaign, died from a stroke on Tuesday night at age 15.

"She made so many people happy," says Gidget's trainer, Sue Chipperton. PEOPLE met both Gidget and Sue at a Hollywood animals photo shoot in February, where the pup was a consummate pro and delighted the crew with her playful nature. The mostly retired actor lived out her days laying in the sun – "I like to joke that it's like looking after a plant," says Chipperton – and entertaining at shoots when her trainer brought her along. "Gidget," says Chipperton, "always knew where the camera was."

Forget about celebrities always dying in threes, we have an epidemic of celebrity deaths on our hands! Me, I blame global warming. Or maybe it's the Rapture. If it is then somebody better call Pat Robertson and break the news to him that he's been left behind.

Musical Intelligence

Picking up on the theme of my last post, all this attention paid to Michael Jackson led me to do something I never thought I would do, download songs from Thriller. After listening to "Billie Jean", "Beat It", and "Thriller" again for the first time in many years it occurred to me that there were a few things that I had forgotten:

1. Quincy Jones is a genius.
2. Michael Jackson was one hell of a performer.
3. Both of them should have quit while they were ahead.

Quincy Jones is a genius because he was the one who wrote the songs and created the cross-over buzz that made Thriller the biggest selling album of all time. He was the one that got Paul McCartney to sing the duet on "The Girl Is Mine", Eddie Van Halen to play the guitar solo on "Beat It", and got Vincent Price to do the voice over on the title track. Also, each of these songs plus "Billie Jean" all sounded different, and that too was mostly Jones' doing. Of course, it took someone with Jackson's talent to sell all this, but without Jones by his side Michael Jackson would not have become The King of Pop.

I suppose you could argue, though, that without Thriller Jackson would not have become Wacko Jacko. But hey, JFK could have listened to his secretary and not gone to Dallas, the FBI could have been paying more attention to all the Saudis that were taking flying lessons in 2001, and Robb Nen could have pitched around Troy Glaus. Such is the fickle finger of fate.

While I was downloading Thriller I noticed that Chris Daughtry's new album was available, so I went ahead and purchased that too. Now some of you music snobs out there might poo-poo that, as well as the purchase of Thriller, but I happen to enjoy listening to his music (and it was on sale too). He remains the only former American Idol contestant whose albums I have bought. Daughtry's music often gets dismissed as lightweight but those who claim to be in the know, but the artists that those people like don't sell records while Daughtry's flies off the shelf. I wonder if one of the reasons why these music snobs only like artists that don't sell is because it allows them to feel smarter than everyone else because they know something that the rest of us don't. Well, maybe they do, but I for one will continue to enjoy my ignorance. For one thing it makes watching American Idol much more enjoyable.

Wacko Jacko, R.I.P.

Like most people around my age, I have memories of Michael Jackson from back when he really was the king of pop. I remember attending a "Thriller" video premiere party, I remember my sister once getting all excited about the song "Thriller" (mostly because of Vincent Price's voice over though). I know somebody in my house owned the album but I don't remember who it was that bought it. I remember where I was when I heard "We Are The World" for the first time (sitting in a college cafeteria eating a late breakfast). I remember watching the Motown 25 special live that more than anything put Jackson on the map. My most personal memory was when I was in Auckland, New Zealand in 1996. Jackson was on tour and performing in Auckland at the same time I was there, and I remember the cab driver who drove me from the airport to my hotel asking me if I was in town for the concert and then talking about nothing but Michael Jackson the whole rest of the way. It was also in Auckland that I saw the newspaper headline that called him "Wacko Jacko." I thought it was so good that I have been using it ever since, even in my American Idol recap of the show that Fox is re-airing as a "tribute" to Jackson on Monday. Of course now that he has passed away this may be the last time I do.

To be honest, the guy was a freak show for the last 10, 15 years or so. I liken it to a car crash; everyone will slow down to take a look, but then they will turn there heads and drive away. It also occurred to me today that Jackson was a real life Benjamin Button. Here you had this 8 year old kid singing about love and girlfriends who turned into a 48 year old man hosting slumber parties and riding Ferris wheels every day. I suspect that this is why he had kids around him all the time, even in situations that everyone else thought was inappropriate. I think he thought he wasn't acting like a creepy 48 year old, he was an 8 year old in a 48 year old body.

I listen to "I Want You Back", one of the Jackson 5's first hits (I think it may have even been their first) and I wonder what happened to the enthusiasm, the maturity, even the toughness that Jackson exhibited in his voice back then. He somehow went from being a confident and mature person to a very fragile, brittle figure both physically and mentally. He seemed to be someone who was one false step away from a total breakdown.

While the suddenness of Jackson's departure was surprising, the fact that he died at such a young age perhaps was not. Icons like Michael Jackson, Elvis, John Lennon, and so on typically don't go slowly into that good night (well, except maybe Sinatra, but he had connections). That Neil Young lyric that Kurt Cobain allegedly wrote at the end of his suicide note, "It's better to burn out than to fade away," seems to apply to icons like Jackson even if their departure was of no fault of their own, and if Lisa Marie Presley is to be believed even Jackson thought that this was his final fate.

While he was a freak show there is no denying the impact this cat had on the entertainment business. Justin Timberlake, among many others, have been imitating him for years to some degree. MTV owes its very existence to him. Indeed, I think every cable and satellite operator in the world do to. I would bet that there were millions of kids in 1983, including friends of mine, who pushed their parents to get cable TV just so that they could see the next Michael Jackson video. Music videos before 1983 featured white guys lip syncing their songs. Music videos after 1983 became 5 minute movies (or in the case of "Thriller" 13 minute epics) that told a story with pictures as well as words. In the age of New Wave he made R&B cool again, and in the process opened the door for the rap and hip-hop movements that now dominate the airways and music downloads. I think in terms of the extent of his talent and his impact on the music business Michael Jackson ranks right up there with Sinatra, Elvis, and The Beatles. There may be others that will one day reach similar heights (U2 comes to mind as one possibility) but there won't be another one quite like Michael Jackson, even if he was wacko.

Ironically I was in an electronics store on Sunday (4 days before Jackson died) buying a new battery for my camera, and on the TVs there they were playing the full length "Thriller" video, the first time I had seen it in years. Now that really is creepy.

The Commencement Address That I Never Had

In honor of my sister finally become respectable and earning her B.A. degree from the University of Oregon, I felt inspired to write a graduation speech that I would give to graduates today were there anyone to ask me to do so. Part of what inspired me to do this is because her graduation speaker, an editorial writer for The Oregonian who is an alumnus of Oregon (go Ducks), gave a pretty good speech that was also relatively short. I also still feel cheated that we did not have a graduation speaker when I graduated from Cal Poly 20 years ago (John Madden was rumored but alas this was just a rumor – we ended up with just the university president boring us all), and thanks to Alaska Airlines I had an longer than expected flight up to Oregon and I needed to keep myself occupied while sitting in the Sacramento airport waiting for my unplanned connecting flight to Portland.

"First I want to of course offer up my congratulations to you, the graduating class of 2009, and to everyone who helped you achieve the goal that we are here today to celebrate.

"Usually these speeches are intended to provide you with a glimpse into the future, the quote real world, and to give you words of inspiration as you set off into this world. Well, this isn't going to be one of those speeches, because let’s face it, the real world kind of sucks right now. I would guess that most of you know this already, probably better than I do, so there is no use going on with false platitudes about how there are a lot of opportunities out there for you because, well, there aren't a lot of opportunities out there for anybody. Instead, I hope to provide you with some advice on how to proceed from here. Hopefully this advice will one day be useful to you, or at least will not put you to sleep.

"Some of you may not care to hear any words of advice from me. You already know what you’ll be doing tomorrow and next week and beyond. All of your plans are set and you are ready to go. To you I can only say good luck and god speed, with the knowledge that most of the graduates who feel this way are skipping this ceremony and have probably already left campus for good such that I don’t need to worry about finding something witty or profound to say to them.

"No, my advice is for those of you who are not sure what you’ll be doing tomorrow or next week or beyond. Maybe you have a job or a grad school seat lined up, maybe you don’t. I would guess that you are feeling a mixture of emotions right now. Part of you is happy that you are finally done with school and will receive the diploma that you worked so hard the last 2, 3, 4, 5, or even more years to attain. I would bet, though, that part of you is sad to see this day come, because you are about to say goodbye to the world that you have built for yourself here and basically start all over again, and that can be one scary thought.

"If you ever want to know what a ghost town feels like, visit the campus tomorrow. All of the buildings, quads, and sidewalks that just yesterday were teeming with students will be empty. All of the students will be gone, all of the faculty will be back home, all of the buildings will be closed and locked, all of the dorms will be empty, and only the janitors will be around to clean up after the ceremonies. It is kind of eerie and spooky, perhaps even scary, to be surrounded by all that emptiness. It perhaps mirrors the feelings that some of you may have now, the scary emptiness that comes with saying those final goodbyes to your friends, your classmates, your professors, and the campus community that you have called home. You hope that by staying in contact with your friends and professors that you’ll be able to maintain some semblance of the life that you have enjoyed here, but deep down you know that it won’t be the same.

"And now you face the challenge of having to find a new home with new friends, new co-workers, new advisors, and a new life. This could seem daunting, especially with the current economic climate, but it is not as big of a challenge as it might now appear to be. For many of you your college experience was your first time away from home, the first time you got to decide what to eat for dinner or which roommates you lived with or even whether or not you were going to attend classes that day or which party to attend that night. Even if someone else was paying for it you still got to decide, or at least have a say, in how the money was spent. By surviving and perhaps even thriving in this environment you proved that you could make a life for yourself and that you could establish an identity of your own. The survival skills that you learned while being here will also help you establish a new life, a new identity for yourself, when you leave. And these skills are just as important as the technical skills and body of knowledge that you gained in pursuit of the degree that you will be awarded today.

"I would also advice you all to be patient. If you already have a career path laid out for yourself that’s great, but don’t panic if you don’t have any idea what to do. You still have plenty of time to figure that out. I know you hear all these platitudes about living for today and only doing what you want to do for a living, but unless you are very lucky or very crazy this is probably not the live that you will end up leading. Indeed, chances are that the life you will one day have will be very different from the one you now think you will have. It may turn out that you’ll end up in a career that is different from what you studied. I know plenty of people who have successful careers in fields that were not the ones that that they studied in college. That is not to say that your time here would have been wasted. My brother, for example, went to college with the intent on being an athletic trainer, but then signed up for an art class that he liked so much that he turned it into a career. If you are patient and flexible you will eventually be able to establish a career for yourself no matter what condition the economy or the job market is in, and who knows, you might even one day get that dream job where you get paid for doing what you want to do.

"I graduated from college with a degree in architectural engineering, but at the time I didn't really want to be a structural engineer. I did not share the same enthusiasm for structures and buildings that many of my classmates had, and unlike most of them I did not have a job lined up yet when I graduated. So I really did not know if I would be able and willing to last in this profession beyond a few years or so. After 20 years in the business I've come to the conclusion that this was the right profession for me, but it took a long time to come to that realization. I learned that structural engineering was the best combination of what I most wanted to do and what I was best capable of doing. I knew I was good at math but I didn't want to be someone that only calculated a bunch of numbers. I wanted to do something that I could see and show off to my parents, and also something that gave me opportunities to create new and interesting things. However, I also learned that my creative skills had their limits and that I would never be happy doing something that required a skill set that I just did not have. Structural engineering allows me to use my math and logic skills in creative and tangible ways without having to attempt to sketch a work of art. It provides an opportunity to give back to the community in visible ways that, yes, I can show off to my parents. While I still don’t get teary eyed and gushy talking about the latest building by the "it" architect of the day I now have a greater appreciation for the buildings engineered by others because I better understand the challenges that those other engineers faced and overcame, an appreciation that I did not have when I graduated.

"So my parting thoughts to you are this. It is perfectly natural to feel unsure and even a little bit scared about what will happen to you after today. Your life will be different and it will be a challenge to establish a new life for yourself, but the fact that you are standing here today is proof that you have the ability to overcome these challenges and succeed. It may take a while for it to happen, but if you were able to survive college and walk out of here with a degree in your hand then you stand a good chance to surviving life after college and walking onward into a successful career and a successful life. My hope is that this will one day happen for all of you. I wish you all the best. Thank you and good luck."

Home of the Homeless

I know I promised to update this blog more often when American Idol finally ended, so of course I haven't posted to this blog since after the finale. Go figure.

For the last few weeks, and for that matter the next few weeks, I have been busy with a number of work related projects that I am not getting paid to do but still need to do anyway, which has kept me from making the promised posts. Two weeks ago I gave a presentation to a group of young engineers. Last week I did one final read-thru of a construction manual that I am the head writer for just before publication, and for the last few days I have been studying for the LEED AP exam that I am taking this week. Then once that is done I need to prepare a presentation for the conference in Peru next month that is the subject of another one of my blogs.

Now that I work in San Francisco I encounter a lot more homeless people during my commute than I did before. Last week was especially true, as there was this gentleman on the commuter train that I was on who was slowly walking through the train car with a hat out begging for money. He was an older gentleman who needed a cane to move around. He was dressed nicer than the homeless people that I see sleeping on the streets in San Francisco but like them he was asking for change. I did my best to avoid eye contact with him as he walked by, something I find myself doing a lot more these days. Most others on the train did the same, as only two people gave this man any money.

I like to think of myself as a caring person, but I cannot seem to bring myself to care about the homeless people that I encounter on an almost daily basis to the extent that I reach into my pocket and give them money. When this gentleman got off the train I started to wonder how I had gotten so cold to the idea of giving this guy money that I went out of my way to avoid eye contact with him, and why I do this to pretty much every homeless person I see with a hat or can out. I supposed some of it is related to my suspicion that these guys will use the money to buy drugs, and while I would be willing to bet most of them would what about the ones that would not? For the life of me I cannot tell the difference, so I end up not giving anyone any money at all.

A couple days earlier there was a woman with her son sitting on the sidewalk in front of the commuter train station with a sign asking for money because they were stranded. I was tempted to take them to the airport and buy them a ticket to wherever home is for them but instead I just walked by, just like the hundreds, perhaps thousands of others who use that same station that same day. We cannot all be callous people, can we?

The last time I gave someone begging me for money some cash was a couple of years ago. While I was sitting in a small park eating lunch a gentleman that appeared younger than me and not strung out on drugs came up and sat on the bench with me and starting telling me his life story about how he was just laid off from his job and he needed some cash for food. He was better spoken than most homeless people so I sat there and listened to him, also because I could not think of a graceful way to get up and move away. When he was done I gave him a $20 bill. He promised that he would pay me back and of course he never did, but at the same time I never saw that guy again. My hope is that the reason why is because he was able to get back on his feet again, but I will never know for sure.

We seem to live in a society where those who beg for money on the streets are treated with suspicion, that giving them money only enables them to continue down the path that put them on the street to begin with. And indeed I would bet that in most cases this is true. But I suspect that there are those who are sincere in getting off the street who are getting lost in the fog of suspicion and thus don't get the help that they need. And whose responsibility is it to help these people? Their families? The government? Us? I know Hillary Clinton claimed that it takes a village, but is it the village's responsibility to give money to everyone who asks?

I wish these folks would find the help that they need, but I am not sure how. It is a good thing that I am not running for mayor. I just don't have the conscience for it. Maybe that is why so many politicians are lawyers.

Mick Jagger & Simon Cowell, Philosophers

One of the things that I have noticed while watching American Idol is the growing trend in American culture towards protecting children from defeat and disappointment. I also saw an HBO report that reinforced my thinking that this trend is morphing into a national obsession. The report featured a school that banned dodge ball because it was too violent and caused the kids who lost to feel bad about themselves. The same report also talked about another school that banned the game of tag because of the stigma that came with being “it.” You may have heard about how some schools, including the University of California Santa Cruz, that got rid of grades because the kids who got bad grades were suffering from reduced self-esteem.

I am not a parent so perhaps this colors my judgment, but I find this to be very distressing and not the way to teach children. I may not have kids but I was one once, and to be honest I was not very good at dodge ball, or any other sport for that matter. And yes, my self-esteem did suffer, but I got over it, as did millions of other kids who went through the same ordeal. I learned about disappointment, I learned what it is like to fail, and I think those lessons were valuable in that I had to learn how to deal with defeat later in life. The fact is that we cannot always get what we want. I was watching the Indy 500 time trials Sunday and there was one driver, Alex Tagliani, who missed qualifying for the race by a mere few hundredths of a second. He was sitting in his car waiting to qualify but ran out of time, and he just sat in his car with tears in his eyes when he realized that he was not going to make the race.

Now imagine if Alex had been taught as a kid that there is no such thing as failure, or that he never had to experience what is like to fail, can you imagine how he would have reacted? He would probably have thrown a temper tantrum, throwing his steering wheel at anybody within range, and demanded that the track make an exception to their 100 year old rule and allow him to qualify after the time to do so had expired. Not very sportsmanlike behavior is it? But that is what I think this generation of kids is being taught. Let’s face it, life sucks sometimes, but if you never had to deal with that until you’re an adult then it’ll be a lot harder for you to accept, which will make it harder for the rest of us to deal with you.

What does this have to do with American Idol? Glad you asked. I have always wondered why some people who clearly have no musical talent still try out for the show and still react as if they have been shot when they are rejected. How in the world can these kids think that they are good enough singers to qualify to compete on this show? Well, when you have been told all of your life that you are a great singer by parents who should know better but instead want to keep their kids happy, and then of course they are going to react angrily when some ornery guy from England and his loopy counterparts say they can’t sing.

Then there is the current saga of contestant Kris Allen, who is in the final 2 even though his singing voice is weaker than at least half of the final 13 contestants this season. The main reason he is in the finale is because there are millions of pre-teen girls out there who think Kris is absolutely adorable and are voting for him hundreds, perhaps even thousands of times each. Now keep in mind that each one of those votes costs money, 10 cents a vote I think, and last week there were 88 million total votes, which means that somebody will have to pay $8.8 million in phone bills. I think it is safe to say that it won’t be the pre-teen girls that are doing all of this voting. But how many parents out there will take these girls’ cell phones away when that $300 phone bill shows up? So far, not many, and that may explain why Kris is still in the competition.

What we need here is more parents who act like parents and less parents who act like their kid's friend. I'm not talking about deliberately subjecting kids to defeat and misery, I'm talking about just being parents. My parents did it, my brother and sister-in-law are doing it, I have friends who are doing it, why can't the rest of America?

I Find It Interesting That I Am Still Here

You didn't think I would leave without saying goodbye did you?

Actually, the conference in Peru was postponed until July because of the swine flu "pandemic". Yes, I know there is no swine flu in Peru, but one of the moderators of the conference is in Mexico City and, well you know what happened in Mexico City. So I have been spending the last couple of days revising my travel arrangements, getting the post office to continue to deliver my mail, getting my newspaper to continue to deliver my news, and otherwise undoing all of the arrangements that I made in preparation for the trip. This includes restocking my fridge and cupboards, which are now bare since I only bought enough food at my last trip to the supermercado to last me until today.

A few things in the news that I find interesting:

I find it interesting that the same people who are panicking about Homeland Security issuing advisories about "right wing extremists" are the same people who defended Bush's domestic surveillance program. Like you said guys, you have nothing to fear if you did nothing wrong, right?

I find it interesting that the same people who defended the Bush administration's use of torture on "enemy combatants" in Cuba are objecting to Obama talking to the Cubans because the Castros torture political prisoners. One man's enemy combatant is another man's political prisoner.

I find it interesting that the above two groups are essentially the same people.

I find it interesting that the world's navies began cracking down on the Somali pirates only after the US Navy did first. See, we really are the world's only superpower.

I find it interesting that the city of Vallejo, California is still hosting a Pirate Festival next month even with the Somali pirates in the news all the time. I also find it interesting that Vallejo used to be home to a large Navy base that my Grandpa was once stationed at.

I find it interesting that there really is a Swine Festival. It's in Basille, Louisiana the first weekend in November. Make your reservations now and don't forget to bring your face masks.

And yes, there is a Somali festival too, but you have to go all the way to London for that one. I wonder if the attendees would find it interesting if someone showed up wearing a pirate costume.

I find it interesting that the press is treating Obama and Biden's visit to a burger joint yesterday as some kind of a big deal, as if the President of the United States is too high and mighty to go to a burger joint. Did not Clinton plan his jogging routes around McDonald's locations?

I find it interesting that I still have a follower even though I only post on this blog about once a month. I will promise, though, that I will post more here after the American Idol season is over in 3 weeks time, at least until I go to Peru and post to that blog.

I find it interesting that my water board mandated that we all conserve water or else face big fines, and then they raise my water rates because people are not using enough water.

I find it interesting that suddenly Fiat is the world's most powerful car company though nobody outside of Italy drives their cars. It may explain why Italian cars cost so much.

I find it interesting that so few people have left my former firm after they were bought out by a much larger out-of-town firm. I only mention this in case any of my former co-workers are still reading this blog.

I find it interesting that the phrase "shark tank" still has a double meaning in San Jose. I find it depressing too.

I find it interesting that only now, when her American Idol contract is up for renewal, does Paula Abdul admit that she was addicted to pain killers. She has been acting suspiciously sober on the show as of late.

I find it interesting that when I activate Blogger's spell checker it recognizes "Obama" but not "Biden" or "Blogger's".

I find it interesting that I dedicated about an hour writing this entry when I could have been doing something more productive, like going to the supermarket or reading a newspaper.

South American Getaway

I did promise to talk about my upcoming trip to Peru in a future post, and the future is now.

On May 7 I will be flying down to Lima, Peru for a week-long conference on confined masonry construction. I became involved in this back in 2005 after the Great Sumatra Earthquake and Tsunami left hundreds of thousands of people homeless, especially in the Aceh region of Indonesia. I felt like I had to do something more than just write a check, and I was fortunate enough to get in contact with the small NGO Build Change, who was just starting a reconstruction project in Banda Aceh, Indonesia and was looking for volunteer engineers to help with the design and construction of the new homes. I was one of many who answered the call.

In the summer of 2006, on my 40th birthday no less, I went to Banda Aceh to see the reconstruction in person and to assist Build Change in the projects that they were active in at the time. My chronicles of that trip are on my Aceh reconstruction blog, which I have kept up as an archive of the trip. One of the things that I learned while in Aceh was that I knew very little about the confined masonry construction that was being used to rebuild the homes there. I also learned that there were few others who knew much about it either.

Since then a group of engineers, researchers, architects, and other interested parties formed a network to learn more about confined masonry construction and eventually to try and promote it as a less expensive but more resilient form of construction than what is currently the practice in third world countries, especially countries that are susceptible to earthquakes like Indonesia and China. It is this network that is meeting in Lima and have invited me to participate. I have set up a new blog for this trip (assuming that my laptop will survive the trip) that I will also use to document other items of interest related to confined masonry construction as well as my possible future trip to China to assist Build Change's reconstruction efforts there following last year's large earthquake.

I must admit that I am as nervous about this trip as I was when I went to Indonesia. I must admit that I am not a third world kind of guy. I remember when I was at the airport waiting for the plane to Indonesia I considered turning around and leaving, and no doubt the same thoughts will cross my mind when I am at the airport waiting to go to Peru. However, this is a cause that I strongly believe in, which is what led me to board that plane in 2006 and will push me on board the plan to Lima in a couple of weeks. At least I can take comfort in that my Spanish is a little better than my Bahasa Indonesian and that I will be meeting with fellow dedicated people while I am in Lima so there is less of a chance that I will get lost or abandoned in a far away land. It is going to be interesting.

It reminds me of a conversation that I had with a couple of friends back in college. We were talking one night about the three of us taking over a small South American country, and after a number of alcoholic beverages we settled on Peru. One guy was going to be the figurehead leader with no responsibility but with big mansion privileges. Another guy was going to be the interior minister in charge of the intelligence service because he wanted to be able to spy on everyone. I was going to be in charge of the armed forces because in small third world countries that is where the real power is, since with just one order I could stage a coup and overthrow the other two. I have long since lost contact with those other two guys but I would imagine that they would find it amusing that I am traveling to the country that we once planned on taking over, assuming that they still remember the initial conversation after all these years and all those beers...

A Good Friday Sermon 2

Now that I have a real life follower I suppose I should post more often to let them and you know that I am still alive, though I know there is at least one person who reads this blog who also reads my Idol blog quite regularly....

Back in 2006 in my past blog I posted a sermon on Good Friday that was critical of the church that I was born and baptized in. What prompted this was a delicious sausage that I had for lunch that day and the guilt trip that I went through afterwards, since when I was a kid I was told that people who eat meat on Lenten Fridays, especially Good Friday, were doomed to Hell. I still cannot understand how ignoring a meaningless rule established not by God but by mortal human beings was tantamount to committing murder or engaging in devil worship. I also still believe that the path to God is through a person's heart and not through their stomach.

Oh, BTW, I had a nice club sandwich with turkey for lunch today, and a beer.

One of the quotes that I found in my research for that post was this gem from theologian Grace McKinnon: "Not eating meat on Friday is but a small thing compared to the sacrifice He (Jesus) made by laying down His own life willingly so that we might live." This leads me to today's sermon. How exactly did Jesus' sacrifice allow me to live? I have been told as far back as I can remember that Jesus died for our sins but I have never really understood the logic behind this.

A few of you, including the affore mentioned follower (who I bet wants me to note that she is not the same person who reads the Idol blog), know that I attended a Catholic high school, and in my sophomore year there I had a priest for religion class that every once in a while would pass out index cards and ask us to write down any question about religion that we wanted to and that he would attempt to answer them. So one day I wrote down "how did Jesus die for our sins?" The teacher read this question aloud and laughed, then said that he thought it was a trick question and didn't answer it. "I think we all know the answer to that," he said. Thankfully we were not required to write down our names on the cards so I was spared the embarrassment of being exposed as an apparent heretic in front of my classmates, but I was upset that he did not answer the question. I did not press the issue, mostly because I was embarrassed to do so and also because the priest was pretty cool and would break up the lectures by showing us one of the Rocky movies. But to this day I wonder why he refused to answer the question. After all, it is one of the basic, heck the basic tenet of the Catholic Church but I was never given a basic, logical explanation for how it all works.

A few years ago one of my co-workers who is Hindu asked me what Easter was all about, which I thought posed an interesting dilemma, how do you explain Easter to a Hindu?

Christian: Easter celebrated the day that the Messiah Jesus rose from the dead.

Hindu: Like reincarnation?

Christian: No, Jesus came back as himself.

Hindu: Why is that important?

Christian: Because Jesus died for our sins.

Hindu: How?

Christian: Uhh..... did you notice how cold it was this morning?

I suppose that it is not a coincidence that my confirmation name was Thomas, not in the sense that I am a doubter but in the sense that I find it difficult to accept things on faith alone. OK, maybe I am a doubter. This may also explain why I was such a bad Republican and had to leave the party and the county that I was raised in. Why can't the church that claims to speak for God on matters of faith and morals offer a rational explanation for a belief that goes to the core of the religion? It's like getting into a taxi in a third world country, they ask you to just take it on faith that you will end up at your hotel with your wallet still in your pocket.

Which, BTW, I will find out about in about a month when I go to Peru. More on that in a later post.

So here I was a couple of months ago with all these doubts about the religion that I was raised in talking to my 6-year old niece about that same religion. She goes to Sunday school and on this occasion she told me all the things she is learning in this school, and I find myself encouraging her to continue and telling her how important it was for her to go to these classes. I thought afterwards about how odd this was and whether or not I was being a hypocrite, but I think I have come to terms with this. The faith that I have and the questions that I ask come from all those years in church and religion classes. I'm not looking to tear down the house, just remodel it. The foundation is still there, and I think it is important for my niece to get that foundation before she starts asking the questions. Does this make any sense?

I still wonder what the connection was between the New Testament and Rocky Balboa, but I guess some mysteries are better left unknown....

You Are What You Eat

A long time friend commented that she was glad that I am putting my American Idol posts on a separate blog. I'm not sure if that was a shot at me or not. After all, what is wrong with American Idol? Wait, don't answer that...

If you saw the profile of local food goddess Alice Waters on 60 Minutes a week ago Sunday you saw that the lunch program at the Berkeley schools that she championed was prominently featured. Waters mentioned in the interview that she wants to use the Berkeley program as a model for schools all across the country to help reduce the rate of obesity among America's youth.

If you are not familiar with the program, Waters through her foundation completely reformed the lunch program in the Berkeley schools. Instead of the processed and frozen foods that haven't changed since either of us were in school the kids in Berkeley get freshly cooked meals made with ingredients harvested either right on campus or at a nearby farm, similar to what Waters uses in her famous restaurant Chez Panisse. The district also has a state-of-the-art kitchen and an executive chef to develop the menus and cook the meals.

This all sounds well and good but there is apparently one big problem, there is not enough money any more to pay for the program. The grant provided by Waters' foundation ran out this year and the foundation has indicated that they are not planning on renewing it. Since there are not enough kids buying these lunches to cover the cost of making them the district kicked in around $275,000 this year to keep the program running. However, now that they are facing budget cuts the district has said that it does not want to subsidize the program to that extent any more.

The executive chef, who is leaving the district in June to take the program to other districts, said in the San Francisco Chronicle that the reason Waters' foundation is no longer funding the program is because the intent was for the program to pay for itself; and that the reason funding is short is because there are not enough kids currently in the program to do this. The Chronicle noted that only 50% of elementary school kids, 35% of middle school kids, and 10% of high school kids regularly buy their lunches at school. The paper also notes that the program costs about $1.40 per student lunch, compared to $0.80 to $0.90 for the frozen, processed stuff that the kids in other districts eat.

So why if this program is so important to Alice Waters and other supporters (including one who claimed that it was a "moral imperative") are they not ponying up the extra money to keep the program going? If this program is so naturally wonderful then why are the majority of students in a politically progressive town like Berkeley not participating in it?

What we have here is a case of people who are blinded by their ideals to the extent that they cannot see the reality through the trees. I sense that Alice Waters thought that parents would naturally be willing to kick in the extra money to pay for a program that is better for their kids, so much so that it may be inconceivable to her that the majority of parents would not. I sense that she also forgot that when given a choice most high school kids would choose cheaper junk food over the healthier fare that she is offering. I know I was guilty of that when I was a teenager and so were most of you. They are not nearly as impressionable as the elementary school kids that were featured in the 60 Minutes piece. Speaking of which, I find it interesting that the money issue was never brought up in the story. Only the positive aspects of the program (and don't get me wrong, I think that there are positive aspects of the program) were featured.

I think it is time for a reality check. If you want to improve the quality of school lunches then you better be prepared to pay for it yourself or find some way to make it more affordable and thus more attractive to the average Joe and Jane who have never set foot in Chez Panisse. To do otherwise is not only a waste of money and effort but it is also insulting to those who don't share these same ideals. You can't sell your product by telling people that they have a moral imperative to spend more money than they can afford or more than what their friends in other districts are being asked to pay. You have to convince them that your product is better, not just assume that because you feel that way they will too. Just ask any American auto maker. It is this arrogance that really bothers me sometimes, so much that I actually spend an hour typing this up and I don't even live in Berkeley.

That's enough of that serious stuff, back to American Idol...

No Justice No Oakland

I have been struggling all week trying to figure out what to say about the murder of 4 police officers in the city that I call home. I have some very definite feelings about this but I don't know if I can put those words in writing and not get more than a few people unnecessarily upset at me, especially since people who know me personally are reading this blog.

If it was not obvious before it should be obvious now that there is a significant number of people in Oakland who view the police as the enemy that they want to see defeated by any means necessary. I hope I am not sounding racist by pointing out that the majority of these people are African American and live in the relatively poor East and West Oakland neighborhoods. These are the people who justified vandalizing Oakland businesses on 2 separate occasions in protest over the shooting of an African American man, Oscar Grant, on an Oakland BART station New Years Day by a BART police officer, and these are the people who taunted the police and held memorials for the African American man, Lovell Mixon, who shot and killed the 4 Oakland cops last Saturday.

To them, none of this is the fault of the shooter but of a society, and in particular its police force, that they see as racist and discriminatory. They claim it was society that turned Lovell Mixon into a monster and that the police were asking for it because of all of the abuse, both real and imagined, that the police inflict on African Americans. This article in New American Media outlines this case and talks about how Mixon's actions were celebrated by some that feel that justice was served.

There is that word: justice. It is a word that we in Oakland have heard a lot this year, first after the BART shooting and again now. One of its definitions is: "the use of authority and power to uphold what is right, just, or lawful." But what is considered "right" and "just" is subject to interpretation. To some, retribution and retaliation are considered "just" and in that context one can see why people would see the murder of 4 police officers as justice. It is this same mindset that justifies the protests and the calls for the execution of the former BART police officer who shot and killed Oscar Grant.

But when does it end? At what point will all be forgiven? Retaliation and the thirst for revenge is a powerful motivator that does not quickly turn off once it is turned on. Just ask the people of Israel and the Palestinian Territories, who have been engaged in a war fueled by revenge for over 60 years. Even worse, it often grows like a cancer, constantly feeding and growing until it consumes its victims. Two years ago there was an 8 year old boy here in Oakland who was hit by stray bullet while taking piano lessons and became paralyzed from the waist down. The bullet was fired by someone robbing the gas station across the street from the piano store. The shooter was caught and is currently awaiting trial. There was a large outpouring of support from the community towards the boy and his family and calls for the city to increase their efforts to prevent this from happening again, calls that quickly faded away to nothing. Today violent crime in Oakland is even more prevalent than it was then. What hope can we have then that the calls for change that this new incident has generated will actually result in real, positive change, especially when there are people in this city that view strengthening law enforcement as a negative change rather than a positive one? What other effective options are there? What will it take to stop the killings and make Oakland a safer place to live? And does it come at a cost that the people of Oakland, including me, are going to be willing to pay?

For many years Oakland has had an image problem. Many people view Oakland as a dangerous, lawless city, and a few of my friends questioned why I moved here. It may explain why so few of them have come visited me since I moved here 7 years ago. I try telling them that Oakland is not as dangerous as it is portrayed in the media and that it can be a nice place to live, but then incidents like this shooting occur. Not only do I loose credibility but more importantly it leads me to question why I do live here. It leads me to question whether or not there is any hope that Oakland can find its way out of the downward spiral that it has been trapped in for the last few decades and whether or not I can wait around long enough for that to happen. With housing prices being what they are I would have to take a financial loss to move away so that is unlikely to happen anytime soon, but what will happen to Oakland in the meantime? I honestly cannot say. I wish that I could.

Get A Haircut To Go With The Real Job

Over the weekend I got my hair cut, and when I went into the office today several people said to me "you got a hair cut." This happens every time I get a hair cut and I cannot understand why people feel the need to point it out as if I didn't know about it. It's not as if I'm in college anymore where I had drunk roommates who cut the hair of someone sleeping, I was fully awake and in control of my actions when I walked into the barber shop. Are they attempting to complement me for my hair cut, or are they subliminally sending me a message encouraging me to get it cut more often? I wish someone would explain this weird phenomenon. I guess it is OK to get positive attention, I just find it odd that a haircut would draw so much attention.

P.S. Just to set the record straight, my roommates in college never cut my hair, but I did see them do it to someone else once.

P.P.S This post reminded me of this.

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Has it really been almost two months since my last post here? Where does the time go? I have been very active with my American Idol blog, which in the past has always taken a considerable amount of my blogging time away, but I think this is the first time I've let a regular blog go for such a long time. Plus I get lots of hits on that site, including a few visits from a certain TV commerical star, which inspire me to spend lots of time over there and precious few hours over here.

I am struggling a bit with what to do here. The predecesor to this blog, the original Reality World, featured a lot of political and social commentary, but to be honest I am not much in a mood to do that now because of all the research that I felt I need to do in order to present my opinions in a truthful manner. It also featured some of the more personal stuff that blogs have become famous for, not as much as my sister's blog but enough to cause my previous employer to be concerned that I had a blog, a discovery that led me to ultimately delete it. I have only been with my new company for 2 months and thus the last thing I want to do is give them a reason to be worried about me, especially in this economy when my dad, one of my uncles, and three friends have all been laid off just since January.

I later learned why my old company was so concerned, and it had nothing to do with me. The bosses were in negotiations to sell the firm to another company and they did not want word of the possible sale to leak to their competitors. Since I was in middle management there I was aware that the negotitations were taking place even though I knew nothing about what was being discussed. Still, I knew enough to be dangerous as they say. It is OK now because the sale went through and is now public knowledge, thus I am free to talk about it. Still, the concern remains even though I work somewhere else that is not looking for a buyer and is actually doing quite well relatively speaking.

I suppose I could talk about my fruitless quest to find a girlfriend, but honestly how many of you care about that? Seeing as how I can't find a woman who is at all interested in me I am not sure how I can make that sound interesting in this blog. Case in point, last week I went to a trade organization dinner meeting and sat at a table with a woman who I did not know. She was very pretty, smart, and engaging, and we started talking about work in China that each of us were doing. I caught her name at the end of the night and found out that she and I were going to attend the same seminar the following week. I also found out that she is friends with one of my new co-workers, who told me that she was seeing someone but that he was living in another country and that she may be considering breaking up with him. So I am thinking that this may be a chance at something, so when we did meet up for a few minutes after that seminar I asked her out for lunch. I was quickly shot down. She did it nicely, saying that she always brought her own lunch into work, but it was still a no. So I was left wondering what I did wrong and why I can't seem to get any woman to say yes when I ask them out.

So, should I continue, or go back to ranting about politicians? Or you can watch this interesting video that I randomly selected off of You Tube: