What a crazy March in northern CA. It has rained a ton! here, which of course also means it has snowed a ton up at Tahoe (for you non-californians, rain in SF = snow in the sierras).
Alpine Meadows is reporting an all-time record for snow-fall in a single month, with 189.5 inches just this March. That's nearly sixteen feet of fresh snow. 16. That's nuts. I hope I get up there soon.
I rarely get this upset, but something happened yesterday that really lit a fire. I won't bother with the gory details; let's just say that I have to keep telling myself not to break stuff. I'm trying really hard to get my thoughts together so that I can express my frustrations correctly even to myself (I must be learning something from my wife). In the meantime I'm trying not to take it out on people who just happen to be sitting near me, something I failed at last night with Soph. Thankfully she has lots of grace for me.
What it comes down to is this: I don't like being manipulated. At all. Really only two things can get me this pissed off with any certainty. One is causing me unnecessary physical pain. The other is being manipulated, and I definitely feel that way right now.
Just needed to vent.
It's cold out in the Bay Area right now. By cold I mean wet and upper 50's, of course, not freezing rain or snow. But it's cold enough to want a hot drink.
I have to say that I love hot drinks in cold weather, just as much as I love cold drinks the rest of the year. I live my life at a sprint, both at work and at home; somehow having a really good beverage in the middle of the day (or the end) is like taking a small hiatus, and entering a world of relaxation.
I don't know too many other people who get as much pleasure from just a simple beverage as I do, but I do believe that finding joy in the small things is a great way to enjoy life, whatever the circumstance.
The US Patent system is crazy. I don't claim to really understand it, but I know enough to know that I wish it would be changed. Unlike patent law in many other countries, US patent law essentially allows you to patent an "invention" simply by dreaming it up, not requiring you to build it or even intend to build it. Of course, it has to be pretty thoroughly dreamt-up... including diagrams, explanations, etc. But you don't have to actually sell the thing, or even build it. That seems crazy to me.
On the one hand it's nice for inventors; if you have a great idea and don't have the money, time, or expertise to build it, you can still get a patent.
However, it also creates a corporate culture of litigation. There are companies that do nothing but acquire patents, never intending to do anything with them, only intending to litigate for tons of money should the patent become valuable. Rather than protect the inventor, this system ends up preventing some really fantastic inventions from getting to market, or in the case of BlackBerry, possibly being pulled from the market. So ultimately this just harms the consumer.
I think it would make a lot more sense for the US to require the invention to be publicly available... as in you've actually *built* what you've invented, at least in some prototype variation. This would certainly cut down on frivolous patent lawsuits, and would also force companies to really put their money where their mouth is with regards to what areas of intellectual property they think is important, since they'd have to spend resources to make it happen. If was a really important area for a company, they'd actually ship it! That's a way better proposition for consumers.
Wow. Cool. I decided to see if I could write somewhat more regularly, and have been somewhat successful. To prove it, I noticed that Danny has moved me up on Jack.html to "updates somewhat regularly".
Awesome. Catch me if you can.
Ok, I'm a sci-fi geek, and I know it. But that doesn't make it any less true when I say that Battlestar Gallactica is the best show on tv. It's really amazing, and if you haven't watched it, you should. Go get it on iTunes or something.
First of all, it's not your normal sci-fi show with little plot substance and lots of geek factor. This is quite different. It's really a drama that simply occurs in a very real setting that just happens to be futuristic and in-space. But the drama is awesome.
It's SO intense. In fact, it's so intense that Soph and I don't watch it regularly. We record multiple weeks on Tivo, and we ask ourselves, "Do we have the emotional energy to watch this tonight?" Usually the answer is no, and we watch something way less involved. But then there are those nights where we say, "heck yeah, let's do it", and we watch like 3 or 4 episodes in a row. And then we're exhausted for another few weeks.
I thought we were the only folks who did this, but the more I talk to other people to watch the show, the more I'm discovering it's quite common.
All of this is to say that if you're not watching the show, you're missing out. I'm rarely this into a show, too, so you know it's really good.
Duke lost and is out of the tourny. Aaaaargh. What an abysmal game. J.J. - where was your shot? My only consolation is that UNC went out earlier than us. And Stanford, of course, was nowhere to be seen...
Oh well. At least I won't be upset about missing the Final Four and Championship games when I'm on a plane to India.
It seems like everyone I know is a huge Vegas fan, so I definitely feel like the odd-man-out at times, as I am not particularly enamored with the place. At the risk of seeming lame to those of my friends/colleagues that really like Vegas (who are many), here's why.
1. I don't really gamble
I have too many expensive hobbies, at least by my standards, to blow the money in a relatively short time playing a game. I like games; I really figuring them out; I especially like winning. And I love hanging out with friends. But I don't like losing money; it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. I'd rather go buy a new camera lens. Or a snowboard. Or camping gear. Or spend the same amount of time and money on a shopping spree at REI.
I hung out last night with some friends from work as they tossed their money away at Craps, or as other people did it for them. It was fun. I had a great time, even though I wasn't playing, and as a result wasn't nearly as energetic or entertaining as they were. It's a great social atmosphere. Everyone's friendly and exuberant. And there's a sense of suspense that the game creates that's really addictive. It's fantastic. But I was perfectly happy still having all my cash at the end of the night.
2. Strip clubs ain't my thing
There are some things that are culturally acceptable that just aren't ok with me. This is one of those cases. It's an issue of personal integrity. There's no way I could enjoy a show like that, or even go along for the ride, and make any sort of claim to wanting to know God better. I know that God's not going to like it. And there's no way I could tell Soph that she's the only one for me, and still go. It's not that a part of me wouldn't enjoy it, quite the contrary unfortunately, but not the part of me that is the person I aspire to be.
3. I never get around to seeing the shows
Ok, so this is more a function of me coming for business conferences all the time, and has little to do with Vegas. I'd probably enjoy a lot of the shows. I just never get to go. Someday I'll come for a vacation and not for work, and will see some, and maybe I'll re-evaluate my opinion then.
On a positive note, I will say that Vegas is a great place for a business conference. Most business folks (especially tech?) are eager to come, and the facilities are fantastic. It's also a cheap flight from a lot of places. So for that, it's great.
I went to see this movie on Saturday with Ted and Danny, and we were evenly split on our reactions. I really liked the movie, overall. Ted hated it. Danny liked it more than he hated it.
The movie is quite political; it makes numerous not-so-subtle statements about the current political environment. And the movie takes a *very* strong stance; it's so dogmatic in it's position that it is almost as outrageous as the position it is fighting. Of course, you have to think about that a bit, because they don't make the dogmatism of their own position all that obvious - or at least they don't come right out and state it.
I didn't agree with all of the comments, but I did like the movie overall. I liked the tone, I liked the visual effect, and I agreed with one of the main comments in the movie, which I think is this: it's extremely dangerous to sacrifice freedom for security.
But maybe the reason I liked it most is that it was both entertaining (a basic requirement for me, and one that most dramas fail to meet), AND it causes you to think. "The Usual Suspects" was similar. This one actually has a real-life component to it, though, which makes for great conversation.
Let me know if you see it; I'd love to discuss it more.
I love tournmanet time, even if I don't always have time to watch as many games as I want to watch. And while it's specific to Duke/Carolina, not the tourny overall, this link from Miriam just warmed my heart. Basically, it explain why it's sometimes good to have someone to hate. Really hate. And even though it's written from the decidely uniformed and inherently "wrong" perspective of a UNC grad, it's still good.
Interestingly, as a Christian, I'm instructed to "turn the other cheek". Can this possibly apply to the University of North Carolina, though? If it does, then thank God for Jesus, because I'm a sinner.
Go Duke.
Go to hell, Carolina.
A co-worker just told me that Jerry Rice was the runner-up in Dancing with the Stars. I was shocked. Not in a bad way. Just shocked.
My [female] co-worker's first question to me was if I danced with Jerry. Um, no?
I sat behind Jerry Rice on the plane home from LA yesterday. He ordered a Sprite.
I have to admit that being a celebrity has *got* to be exhausting. Every single 20-something guy in the airport kept asking to get a picture with him. I've got to give the guy a ton of credit, though. He was super-nice about it, always said yes, and smiled for the picture. He even stayed on the plane while people were filing off so that he could take one with the stewardesses. Class act. I was very impressed. And sure that he was going to go home and collapse of exhaustion.
My team just launched Syndicated Ratings (officially, anyway - it's really been out for weeks if you knew where to find it). Check out the blog post by Mike Quoc. It's a very cool concept that we kicked off a long time back, and finally manifested itself.
Basically it takes the power of a platform that Yahoo! has been using internally, and makes it available for any site. Good for the site because they can show off their rating, or encourage users to rate. Good for Yahoo! because it generates a lot more ratings data.
Right now it's limited to the Yahoo! Podcasts site, but it's very extensible.
Anyway, I'm stoked! In some ways I'm as excited about this one little feature as I was about the whole Podcasts product, simply because it illustrates and illuminates a big concept that should hopefully take off.
I've been wanting to go to Yosemite in the winter for the last three years, and I finally made it this last weekend. Holy cow. I've read that Yosemite is actually the least beautiful in the summer when everybody usually visits, but I only half-believed it. But wow, Yosemite in winter after a fresh snowfall is UNBELIEVABLY beautiful.
It was being in Narnia. It was so beautiful it was surreal. Even while I wandered around for 4 hours in the morning snapping pictures, I couldn't really believe it. And afterwards, sitting exhausted by the fire I couldn't really believe it.
Nobody likes to lose, but when Duke loses a basketball game in the ACC, it sucks. I'm ok with the occassional loss - good learning experiences and all. But the problem is that most of my family has allegiences to *other* schools in the ACC, so when Duke loses, I always get crap.
My dad went to Georgia Tech. My youngest sister is in Law School at Florida State. My other sister's husband does ROTC for NC State. Shelley called me Wed at half-time when Florida State was up, and again afterwards to gloat. Ridiculous. I would never do that to anyone. Never.
uh. right.
Thank God none of them went to UNC. That would be the definition of a dysfunctional family.
