Tuesday, May 28, 2002
Sweatin' in the Jury Pool
I got called for Jury Duty today. Typical hot crowded basement room. Just one poor clerk to wrangle a pool of a few hundred people packed into a room that would be over its fire code load if it weren't a government facility.
They showed a really kitschy film to kick off the afternoon of fun. Happy ex-jurors whose faith in the system has been affirmed. At least it was predictable and reasonably well produced for an industrial.
We've been sitting here for about an hour, waiting for the clerk to call lists of names of people to be empanelled. It's a testament to the general patience of the public (and its fear of the judicial system) that no one has raised their voice as of yet.
Last time I was called for Jury Duty was in San Francisco. I had to appear at about 1:00 and only had to stay for about two hours. The room was large, had comfortable chairs and lots of natural light. Plus it had tables for people to work at.
And I got paid! A whole $1.25 for my troubles. (Bus fare cost me $2.20 and lunch about $7 that day!) I kept the check, figuring that the City and County of San Francisco would probably spend an order of magnitude more trying to audit the uncleared check than they would reconciling the account.
WinTel or Mac?
I've decided that I need a laptop of my own - not just one that belongs to my employer so I took a trip down to Fry's, perhaps the country's worst retailer. If you search the web, you'll find whole sites dedicated to how much people hate Fry's. The only reason I went anywhere near the place is that they have a lot of machines on display. Otherwise it was a typical Fry's experience. The salespeople are not only ill-informed, but also rude, aggressive, and often have body odor issues. I'd guess their sales staff turnover is probably over 100% per annum.
While I was looking at the HP laptops, a couple appeared looking to buy one of the machines. They had bought and returned the same model to a different store that day and were told that it was out of stock and to go to Santa Clara, where it was in stock. The problem - the machine was $100 more in Santa Clara than it was in Fremont. This got me curious, so I stopped at the Palo Alto store on my way home, where the prices were all about $50 higher than in Santa Clara. I guess Fry's subscribes to the same pricing model as most California gas stations - higher income implies higher prices. And that computers are still best mail-ordered from J&R!
So anyway, back to the original issue, should I buy a Mac or another WinTel machine? The Macs are beautiful, but expensive. To get a really snazzy machine would cost at least $2,500, while a comparable Intel machine would be about $1,700. And I'd have to buy new productivity software for the Mac. But I'm sick and tired of struggling with unstable DOS machines. Drivers load all wrong and half the time I can't even connect my desktop to the Internet. Or it suddenly crashes while I'm doing something. And I mean CRASHES. It suddenly goes black and reboots.
Plus, with a Mac, I can hook up an I-pod and an AirPort and go wireless and carry a big honking bunch of CDs with me at all times.
So which would I rather have in Europe? I think the Mac - because I think I can put my hands on German language word processing real cheap. In fact, I'm almost thinking of buying a cheap iBook and a nice G4 and having a little aerial network running at home. Web surfing over the airwaves here I come!
Deutsch Lernen
I think I'm starting to fire on all cylinders with this German thing. Too bad the last class is next week! I'm going to have to get contact info for some of these people. It's probably the nicest random groups of people I've been thrown together with in a long time.
I'm also going to start looking for a new job - this way I can make my trip in the most seamless way possible and still take a whole 4-week class! Reise ins Deutschland! Scnhnitzel und Spaetzle! Bier und Bratwuesrt! Fraueleinen und Fahrvergnuegen, u.s.W.!
9:17 PM
Sunday, May 19, 2002
Take Back the Flag
Today I was driving to the local Target to pick up a few things. This particular Target is right across the street from an office complex dominated by Siebel Systems, and was, until recently, dominated by a giant American flag. Noticing the absence of the flag, which brightened the otherwise dull main building, I got to thinking about the meanings that have been attached to this symbol of our nation.
I was raised to respect the flag. I know how to fold the flag, how to raise and lower it, how to display it and how to dispose of old flags. Not bad for a kid raised in Brooklyn in the 1970's. BTW - old flags should be burned. If you have an old flag that's no longer usable, most American Legion posts will accept it for proper disposal.
I also thought about how the flag has been displayed lately - on cars, hung from office buildings, on clothing and in a myriad of other ways. I remembered how heartened I felt seeing the flag hanging from highway overpasses (even though it's an absolutely inappropriate way to display a flag) as I drove from Boston, where I was on September 11th, to Florida for my Grandmother's 92nd birthday on September 16th. I had, of course, planned to fly.
But even then, I was slightly troubled by it. Whenever I see a flag, I prefer to think of the values that drive our nation, and mostly of the freedom that so many Americans fought for - in wars and in civil struggles. Unfortunately, since the Vietnam War, the flag has been adopted mostly by right-wing groups who have tried to force their conformist values on the rest of us. These days, people who wave the flag just want to shout others down. By co-opting this symbol of our nation, they accuse anyone who disagrees with them of being un-American. They have stolen the flag.
I would like us to seize this opportunity, now that flags have become more ubiquitous, to divest the flag of its negative baggage.
As a people, we are at our best when we are free to dissent. Unfortunately, we tend to value these dissenters more in death than in life. Martin Luther King, Jr. comes to mind.
Isn't it time to take this powerful symbol of our nation back from those who have used it as a weapon? The flag should stand for our basic freedoms - speech, assembly, representation, religion (including the freedom not to practice a religion), due process, and all the others that have made our society strong and prosperous.
For a few minutes, I toyed with the slogan, "The Flag, It's Not Just For Rednecks Anymore".
I've got half a mind to start an organization to get people to fly the flag to celebrate our freedoms. And to depoliticize this important national symbol.
Oh, and if you think that a flag as a symbol is meaningless, ask yourself what the confederate battle flag (a.k.a. the stars and bars) means. If that flag still has meaning, why shouldn't ours, the flag of a living and vital nation?
Deutsch Lernen
Today I had another German class and got advice from my instructor about classes in Germany. She said that the Super-Intensive class would probably be too much. That leaves Intensive 2 (weeks) and Intensive 4. In fact, there's an Intensive 4 given in Berlin in August. I'm seriously thinking about taking a leave of absence from work to pursue this.
This would kill two birds with one stone for me. I'd have the opportunity to spend a month in Europe - something that was not available to me as a teenager, and I'd get to do it in the context of building a skill. I've always felt that I could learn a language well if I had to use it every day. (This seems to have worked for English.) Now I can try it out with German. I'm going to talk to my boss about this on Monday and see what he has to say.
A month in Berlin, with three-day weekends for side trips. Suddenly this seems like a real possibility!
2:56 AM
Friday, May 17, 2002
So Much For Privacy
Just saw an article in the NY Times (requires registration and article may expire in a week) about some hackers who stole 13,000 credit reports from Experian using an authorization code belonging to Ford Motor Credit. This makes mail theft look like small change. Think about it - a credit report has everything a crook could ever want to know about you - your name, address, SSN, last known employer, ALL of your credit accounts including closed ones. The potential for massive fraud (that you, personally, need to pay to fight off) is just unbelievable. But, of course, the conservatives would have us believe that easy access to this information is good for business and good for the consumer. Good for business, yeah, unless you're a bank that's being defrauded or the insurance company that sells the bank coverage. As for the consumer, the only benefit I can think of for having my credit report splashed all over the place is that I look more attractive to telemarketers and get more calls. Why is this good? Because I can be rude to them if I need to be rude to someone. (This almost never happens - unless they are extremely aggressive and won't let me tell them to go away nicely.)
I put a fraud alert on my credit reports, so any request for credit requires the reporting agency to contact me. This means that merchants can't offer me instant credit, but it's a small price to pay for a little more security. Boy, do we ever need better privacy laws.
What Did George Know?
OK. I'll admit it - I think King George II is a dweeb who only got to be President because his daddy greased the skids for him and enough of the peepul (God love 'em), but not a majority or even plurality, voted for him. But, I think he should be treated fairly. So, I'm of two minds about the recent news flurry about warnings received by the executive branch in advance of the terrorist attack.
On the one hand, I'm happy that the Shrub is squirming and feels compelled to sic Condi Rice on the press. It's fun to see the Bushies all defensive, and I'd like to see Congress rip him a new one over it. On TV. Over a LONG period of time. So loudly that nobody would notice if he decided to attack Iraq just in time for the mid-term elections.
That said, I also think that there were some structural problems (other than in the space between Bush's ears) with how the CIA and FBI are (or aren't) allowed to work with each other. If they can't compare notes, it becomes a lot harder to understand the domestic actions of international terrorists. Can't blame Bush for this one - except indirectly. The restrictions are the result of abuse of power. Remember that GOP love-child, J. Edgar Hoover?
Say, now. Isn't "connecting the dots" (to use her own words) Condi Rice's job? It's certainly not Georgie-Boy's. He probably has a hard time connecting the dots to make a pretty picture of a unicorn that he gets to color later. (I suspect that the Secret Service spirits those papers away and fixes them before the Shrubster gets to do any coloring!)
It would be very easy to say that the Bush adminstration stood aside and let this attack happen to serve their political purposes. It would be even easier to say that they continue to stand aside so that their support is solidified. Despite the fact that I stand bitterly opposed to the Bushies on many issues, (genetic research, abortion, capital punishment, corporate welfare, farm welfare, the drug war, school vouchers, selective protectionism, etc.) I'd like to think that they're better people, and better Americans than that.
5:23 PM
Automotive Lust
I have a perfectly fine car. It's a 2000 Nissan Xterra. I've had it a touch over two years and it's treated me very well. So don't let it know that I'm in love with something else. The new Mini Cooper S. Here's an unofficial site. Check out the Dark Silver Metallic S with the black roof and stripes in the "Mini Cooper S" gallery section. (For some reason this site seems to work best with IE.) Whew!
Funny how a pickup-based SUV and just about the smallest thing on the road both really appeal to me.
12:32 AM
Thursday, May 16, 2002
More Enron Fun
Just saw a great animated cartoon on the SF Gate site. Enron a la Star Wars.
7:11 PM
Work Life
Well, things are pretty much what they are. There are things to do, but I’m yearning for the opportunity to have some impact. ‘Nuff said.
Life Life
I’ve been sitting on pins and needles waiting for news from my best friends that they’ve been assigned a baby by the mysterious Chinese government agency that handles adoptions. They’ve been waiting for over a year now, and the groups ahead of them in the queue at their agency have just about all heard so they’re next. I actually get all misty-eyed when I think about the new baby. If ever there were people who deserved the opportunity to be parents – these are them.
I’ve also been wondering about my attitude lately. It’s very hard to not be negative about things, and especially about people. I see so many people behaving badly and getting away with it that I wonder if that’s the only viable success model. Screw before getting screwed. (Maybe that’s one of the appeals of religion. You can behave well and piously look down on all the sinners who are going to burn in hell.) It’s just that all of the joy seems to have been sucked out of my everyday life. I get very little satisfaction from my work, and I feel like I’m paying a very high price for it by living in Northern California.
Don’t get me wrong – NorCal is a really beautiful place and there are some things about the culture here that are highly laudable. The culture here is very tolerant of racial, ethnic and religious diversity. The various cultural scenes are all relatively accessible. There are a lot of good restaurants at moderate prices. And the landscape is truly captivating. I love to go to the ocean and sit on the rocks and listen to the surf.
But – I get to live in a crappy rental with few amenities for a very high rent. In a nice bourgeois neighborhood where the homeowners slash the renters’ tires because the legally parked cars are somehow offensive. With upstairs neighbors whose uncontrolled children stomp around at all hours loud enough to rattle the filaments in the lightbulbs. And with a budget where all the savings I can manage is my 401(k) contribution.
This is the only place I have ever lived where a middle-aged matronly woman can walk right into you in a bookstore and rebuke you because you were in her way. Where people slam their shopping carts into yours in line in the grocery store and insist that they were in front of you. Where people take your wet laundry out of a still-tumbling dryer so that they can use it. Where people lavish more attention on their child’s wardrobe than on their behavior in public places.
The East Coast is starting to look a lot more attractive.
Urlaub in Deutschland
I've been checking into courses at the Goethe Institute in Germany. They've got a two week super-intensive course for about €1,700. I'm not sure if that's with housing or not. Oddly, this is a lot more expensive than the roughly equivalent intensive 4-week course, which is only €1,300 with housing and €950 for just the course. Airfares are looking high too. Something like $1,200+ from SFO to Munich - which is one of the places they give the SI-2 class. There's also an Intensive-2 class (which they bill as a refresher) for €1,100 with housing. Unless the airfare drops, I don't know if I'll be able to pull off a class. Bummer.
Health and Fitness
I’ve managed to slack off on the gym thing, but I am managing my diet pretty well. I’ve managed to lose a few pounds over the past week or so (from 247 to 244) without really feeling terribly hungry.
I have been having problems sleeping, though. I’m not tired when I go to bed, and I have a hard time waking up and getting moving. Sunday night, I didn’t fall asleep until about 4AM, which I guess started the whole week off on the wrong foot. Oh well. Gotta see what the doc might have to say about this.
2:32 PM
Friday, May 10, 2002
Work Life
Today, I'm drawing pretty pictures for work.
OK, I'm actually trying to create a diagram that expresses what information has been used, who has been consulted and who will benefit from the thing I've been working on for the last couple of months. File that under "driving the thing home." Gotta decouple from this work thing a bit.
This morning, the commutrons on Highway 280 really had their Wheaties. I can't count the number of times I was tailgated, cut off or otherwise had to adjust for some bozo's stupid driving trick. And I was doing 75-80, which is pretty much the prevailing speed for this road. I was definitely glad to get to work this AM, just so I could stop driving. And glad I took the truck, not the bike. Days like this, I feel like I'm wearing a target - and therefore prefer being encased in about 2 tons of steel instead of sitting atop only 450 pounds of bike.
Life Life
Yet another German class tomorrow, and these days, we've been getting a lot of homework. I probably still have about 4 hours of writing to do. This stuff aint easy. In fact, I'm not sure how to say *exactly* what I've said in this entry in German - although I can say simpler things and get my idea across.
I'm still trying to figure out what to do for vacation. I know I'll need a week to visit Scott and Michele when the celebrate their new baby. I also think it would be good to go to Germany for a week, just to try out my German and to see a few things. In an ideal world, I'd like to take three or four weeks in Germany and spend the first two in an intensive German class at the Goethe Institute. Unfortunately, the only way to get that kind of time off is to quit your job.
Politics Schmolitics
I've been following the Enron thing with some interest. Having been the vicitim of Enron-induced rolling blackouts, I'm glad to see that evidence is finally coming to light with regard to how Enron (and perhaps others) manipulated the market. The question is whether or not they actually did anything illegal (in the opinion of John Ashcroft.) I doubt that any of the real Enron management will suffer too much as a result of these disclosures. They'll probably be admired as "gutsy" and "willing to take chances to get the job done". Besides, the Bushies will protect them!
Art
There was a great article in todays SF Chron about this artist who made up enhancements to a sign on the Hollywood Freeway in LA, exactly to DOT specs, and installed them. Accurate enhancements. Enhancements that CalTrans should have made in the first place. And he made a video of the whole thing. That's a form of performance art I can condone.
Health and Fitness
I started a diet and exercise program about a week ago. I'm going to get to the gym three times a week, and I'm going to keep to 2,000 calories a day, except for Saturdays, where I'll let myself eat out. I'm using my palm pilot to record just about everything that goes in my mouth. Hopefully I'll manage to drop about 2 pounds a week and get myself down to about 210 over the course of the summer.
What brought this on? A few things:
Some photographs. I was looking at some recent pictures of myself, and all I could say was, "EGAD! I've put on weight!" A quick consult with the bathroom scale told me that I was up to 248 lbs. The most I've ever weighed! Clearly some action was in order. So, what are you supposed to do before you get serious about a workout program? Why, see your doctor, of course!
Some back pain. I get muscle aches when I'm stressed out, but I thing these are from just plain carrying myself around. Certainly some exercise and a diet couldn't hurt. So, off to the doctor!
MAJOR IMPEDIMENT - A psychotic doctor. I decided to try out the Stanford Medical Group as my primary care facility and set up an appointment for a physical. Little did I know that I would be dealing with a doctor who was, shall we say, less than professional. The exam was fine and dandy, except that the doctor was a little dismissive of some questions I had about a couple of skin blemishes that concerned me. (I'm fair. I'm very fair. I should not be kept close to sources of ignition or excessive heat and light. To quote Woody Allen, I don't tan, I stroke.) The real problem began after the physical was finished. While I was sitting there on the exam table, wearing nothing but an examination gown, the doctor tore into me. She told me I was "morbidly obese" and that I was at least "a hundred pounds overweight" in a very belligerent manner. When I told her I didn't like her tone of voice, she started to storm out of the room. I called after her to ask where she was going and she told me that she didn't think she should be my doctor. I agreed. She then snatched up the order for blood work she had written and snapped that she didn't want to be responsible for my "abnormal" test results, emphasized that they would be abnormal and stormed out of the room. Needless to say, I was less than pleased and have since complained about this incident to anyone in a position of authority to do something about this nut job. I also let this distract me from my personal goals. Oh, and by the way, my blood work (courtesy of a different doctor) was perfectly normal.
So, as an incentive, I may just start posting my progress. Wish me luck!
6:26 PM
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