March 2005 Archives

I went to see the Berkeley Rep's play "For Better of Worse" last night.

Well, it didn't suck, but it wasn't great either. The production, as always at the Berkeley Rep, was fantastic. Great sets, great sound, great lighting. The acting was quite good, especially Geoff Hoyle (Geoff is best known as a frequent partner with Bill Irwin, and as a founding member of the Pickle Family Circus). The play itself, though, lacked. There were moments where it was actually quite funny, but they were few and far between. I wouldn't recommend this play to people that aren't hardcore drama geeks.

Sitting dow for drinks at Downtown was the highlight of the night for all of us, I think.

Last night, after work, I went for a run down the Embarcadero, from the Ferry building, down past SBC Park, around McCovey Cove, and then back. It was about 3.5 miles. What a great run! Lots of room, so no fear of running down pedestrians and great views of the Bay, the bridge, ships, and sailboats.

If you work downtown and go to a gym to run on the treadmills, stop! Run this route instead. You'll thank yourself.

You can see close to the route I took from Google Maps. The only thing different is that I went south just before SBC Park and ran around the backside. Once I crossed the channel, I turned east and ran to the end of the point.

At the point is a statue of Willie McCovey himself and a small ball park for kids that they call the Junior Giants. One of the other really interesting things is, along the path, a history, in stone monuments, of all the players that have played for the SF Giants. Take a look at the Giants page on McCovey Point.

This morning I got into the office before anyone, even the mysterious ghost that makes the morning coffee. I sat down at my computer, fired up Launchcast, and the first song was "Run Like Hell" by Pink Floyd. The intro has a lot of crowd noise that really sets the atmosphere for the song. It's been so long since I've heard it, I had completely forgotten about. The only reason I heard it today was because of my new headphones.

I picked up a pair of KOSS UR40 headphones, and I have to tell you, they are really, really good.

Not only do they sound great, but they keep out the random office noise, which helps me to concentrate.

Two negatives - not wireless (come on, when are bluetooth headphones going to be easier to find!), and they are a bit bigger than I prefer for taking back and forth between the office and home.

Here's what I want from my next set of headphone - good sound quality, wireless with bluetooth, and designed for people on the go.

I love bluetooth. What's not to love? Short range wireless is amazing. But what I want now is a bluetooth headset. I don't want a bluetooth dongle, or a bluetooth MP3 player, or an IPAQ, I just want the headset. The only one's I've been able to find are from
Air2U Inc.. They look great. The only problem is finding a retail source - you see, they are in Taiwan. I sent them an email, and hopefully I'll find out more soon.

This morning, while riding BART, I watched a man, in his 30's, his short beard starting to grey, but still young enough to carry a messenger bag instead of a briefcase, hurry down the stairs and into the train car just before the doors closed. He stepped through the doors and just for a moment, you could see it - he was proud, verging on elated. But then he looked to the floor and hid his feelings behind his now composed features. He didn't want anyone to see his joy.

It made me realize how often we do that in life. Something goes well, or someone compliments us and we diminish it by saying "It was nothing" or other words or actions to that effect. We're so afraid of people thinking we look foolish, that we throw away a moment of joy or excitement.

Don't do it. Next time you race for the train and just make it, relish that feeling. You don't have to do something monumental (like run a marathon, or donate a kidney) to be happy. Enjoy the little things, the moments that bring brightness t our day.

Yesterday I was on the treadmill (rain again) at the gym. They have these enormous TV sets hung from the ceiling so you can watch while you exercise. I didn't bring my headphones, so instead of listening to CNN discuss the Terri Schiavo case, I was reading the live captions. No big deal, probably everyone has done something like that before. The interesting thing was when the ads came on, though. Instead of being captioned, which they often are, there was one caption that didn't move off the screen. It said, simply, "You probably don't really need this". Brilliant. Every ad should have that disclaimer.

Before you read this, take a look at Matt Conigliaro's Abstract Appeal for a very clear overview of the Terri Schiavo case. I do give a synopsis below, but Matt's done a great job presenting an unbiased view. My viewpoint isn't unbiased. I worked in a nursing home for more than a year, and that has colored my opinion.

In 1990, Terri Schiavo suffered severe brain damage. She does not respond to external stimulus. Her body is alive, but the person that was Terri Schiavo isn't in that body anymore. So severe that more than a dozen doctors that have seen here believe she will remain in the vegetative state she now lives in for the rest of her life. Much of her brain is physically gone - literally gone, not just not functioning, but the flesh has been replaced with spinal fluid.

Terri's husband, Michael, has been trying to do what he believes his wife would want - he's been trying to let her die rather than artificially keeping the body that is shell that used to be her alive.

Her parents are fighting this. They are, of course, grief stricken at their daughter's condition. Their emotional need for her does not give them the right to make this choice for her. They believe she responds to stimulus, but doctors have repeatedly shown that she does not. They want her to respond, so they see her response. I really, really feel for these people, losing a child must be horrible, and they do not want to accept it.

Doctors and judges have agreed on this for over 5 years, but somehow her parents keep managing to get someone else to force this misery on their daughter.

The courts have found that she would not have chosen to live this way. But thanks to the "We know morals better than you" contingent of the Republican party, the
Fate of Terri Schiavo Rests With Judge. Another judge. This time in federal court.

Now the US Congress and President Bush have joined in, forcing Michael to once more plead for his wife.

Not only is their position idiotic, but it's unconstitutional. First, this votes makes it clear, to paraphrase someone I saw on CNN this morning, that these yahoos think they know more about medicine and bioethics than the experts that have already been involved. Second, it's a state matter, and Florida has already decided. Add this to the 2000 election results, and I'm starting to think that Florida has joined D.C. as a fifedom of the US federal government. Third, it's a personal choice, not a governmental choice.

This is a tragic situation. But think on your own life. What would you want? Would you want the government to decide whether you should live or die? In the end, that's the question. I don't want them to decide that, that is my choice. If I don't have the right to decide how to die, how can I have the right to live my life?

Kids that take abstinence pledges are more likely than kids that don't to have non-vaginal sex (anal, oral), and are more likely to do so without STD protection. See the SFGate.com story -
Study: Abstinence May Lead to Risky Acts.

Look, if you're in school in someone tells you to take an abstinence pledge go ahead and do it, just so they'll leave you alone. But when you have sex, and 88% of kids that sign such pledges do have sex before they are married, be safe, use a condom.

I swam 1,400 yards today. It was in a pool, not open water, but it's making me a little less anxious about my upcoming triathlon. So, it's paying off in that way, but that's not he only way.

My brother was s serious swimmer in high school. I wasn't. I was telling him via IM today how good my swimming is getting. He's envious - he wants to swim more. Anytime you can make you sibling envious about your way of life, it's good.

My schedule is so much better now that I've committed to this exercise program. I get up at six, have a good breakfast, BART down to the gym, workout, and head to work clear and refreshed. I also get to start my mornings with my wife.

The last thing is probably the most important, though. My actions are having clear positive effects. It's not hard, really. Decide what you want to add to your life, make some changes, and work it into your life. Dedicating yourself to good actions pays off.

A program in San Francisco helps those that have been convicted of crimes, but never served in state prison, and that have proof of rehabilitation to erase their crimes from their records. See the SFGate article S.F. program gives convicts a chance for a fresh start / Hundreds of records cleared, if crimes didn't merit prison.

People that make it out of jail and succeed are rare, partly because we as a society make it hard for them. Imagine you rent out a room in your house - would you rent it to someone that was convicted of assault? Now, answer that question again about that same person, knowing that they were convicted 20 years ago, when they were 18, they since have given up drugs and alcohol, have gone through serious therapy, and has been employed helping others clean up their lives for the last 15 years.

What this program does is give people that have made a serious effort at rehabilitation to escape from the lifetime of penalties, both official and personal, that they face as a convicted criminal. It doesn't help people that haven't made a change. It doesn't help people that went to state prison. It doesn't help people that molested children. It helps people that made a mistake, learned from it, and changed into high quality members of society. Should we hold their past against them?

The first step in a long march on the question of the legality of same-sex marriages through the courts in California ends with a sane decision (see the SFGate article) Court invalidates California's ban on same-sex marriage.

Basically the judge said that any ban on same-sex marriage violates people's right to marry the person on one's choice. He also said there is no rational reason to ban same-sex marriage.

The state of California said that California should be able to maintain the traditional definition of marriage. The judge saw through that hogwash. After all, that's the same argument that the California Supreme Court ruled, in 1948, was insufficient reason to deny interracial marriage.

Look, you don't like same-sex marriage, don't marry someone of the same sex. Otherwise, get out of the way and let people marry the person they love.

Although you probably can't tell it from this blog, I write for a living. Every writer though, professional or not, has certain issues that trip them up. This is especially true of things you don't use a lot.

For me, the majority of my writing is for online documentation. Online documentation should be composed of simple sentences. People scan and skim online help, they don't read it, so complex sentences cause people to miss valuable information.

Because of that, I rarely use semicolons or colons. I'm out of practice. Today I'm writing a document analysing the structure of the online help documents at salesforce.com. I had a long sentence that I thought was perfect for a semicolon.

Most tables are part of the body content; the exceptions, in our case, are access and edition tables, which are closely associated with headings.

I wasn't sure, though. So, I typed "semicolon usage" into Google and shazam! up came Semicolon Usage which reassured me that I was using the semicolon properly.

Granted, I could have used my handbook, but I'm sitting at a great little cafe in Berkeley called Le Bateau Ivre (the drunken boat), and it's a ten minute bike ride back to my handbook. I'd rather rewrite the sentence than do that, but thanks to some kind soul and Northwest Vista College, I don't have to do that.

Although my blog gets hardly any visits, I'm sure one of my 5 (on a good day) readers will send me an email saying, "Nope, that's the wrong way to use a semicolon". That's what you get for posting something like this, right? I actually welcome comments like that, but if you are the one that sends that email, please tell me how to fix it, don't just tell me that it's wrong.

For many years I lived in Socorro, NM, while attending, when I could afford it, college at the New Mexico School of Mines (now known as New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology).

It was a wonderful and a horrible town. But it was unique. Soon it won't be. In January of this year (2005), WalMart opened a super store two blocks away from one of the houses I lived in when I was in Socorro.

My brother lives in a little town in South Dakota called Watertown. A super WalMart is opening there, too.

In two years you won't be able to tell the difference between Watertown and Socorro. Both will lose their community grocery stores. Both will lose many other small businesses because they won't be able to compete with WalMart. Will it make it easier to live there? Sure. But why would you want to live in a little town in the middle of nowhere that is just like everywhere else? Why not move to Albuquerque or Fargo?

Once, while I was still living there, Socorro turned down WalMart's request to open a store there. The board decided that it would irrepairably change the nature of the town. They were, I believe, right.

I left Socorro because I needed to grow into someone I couldn't be there. There are times I miss it. I miss not being able to buy groceries without having to say hello to a dozen people. I miss people stopping to give me a ride when my bike got a flat. It's true I couldn't buy anything other than blue jeans without driving 20 minutes away, but I didn't mind. When did I need to wear anything but jeans? The essence of Socorro will be lost now. It's not WalMart's fault, anymore than it's Hollywood's fault that we all speak with a southern California accent anymore. It is sad, though. The urbanization of the western world was an inevitable aspect of the industrial revolution. This is just another step in the process.

I predict, though, that in 15 years, WalMart will be, just like K-Mart is now, struggling. People in rural areas that depended on WalMart will move to urban areas that have better jobs and shopping than WalMart can provide. WalMart, like so many rural malls, will collapse onto itself. Little towns won't recover, though. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Let's let nature take back those remote places.

While going out for a cup of coffee and a yummy boston cream pie at Crixa, the best dessert place in the East Bay, I saw two eGo electic bikes. I've seen them parked there before, but today they had rain shields on with the URL - http://www.egovehicles.com. Since I'm in the market for a scooter or an electric bike, I thought I'd take a look at the website.

They look great. They get 25 miles between charges, don't have to be registered in California, and, while not cheap, don't cost as much as a Vespa. They don't look like they can seat two people, though, so I guess I have to keep looking.

I study Zen. I'm not the practitioner my wife is, but I'm working on it. The thing I'm noticing is that Zen ideas are all over the place. I'm reading The Orchid Thief, by Susan Orlean which, BTW, is a very well written book about people, not flowers, and I came across the following passage:

I wanted a Fakahatchee ghost orchid, in full bloom, maybe attached to a gnarled piece of custard apple tree, and I wanted its roots to spread as broad as my hand and each root to be only as wide as a toothpick. I wanted the bloom to be snow-white, white as sugar, white as lather, white as teeth. I knew its shape by heart, the peaked face with the droopy mustache of petals, the albino toad with its springy legs. It would not be the biggest of the showiest or the rarest or the finest flower here, except to me, because I wanted it. In the universe there are only a few absolutes of value; something is valuable because it can be eaten for nourishment or used as a weapon or made into clothes or it is valuable if you want it and you believe it will make you happy. Then it is worthy anything as well as nothing, worth as much as you will give to have something you think you want. It saved me all sorts of trouble knowing I wouldn't find a ghost orchid here, since then I didn't even have to look. It was a relief to have no hope because then I had no fear; looking for something you want is a comfort in the clutter of the universe, but knowing you don't have to look means you can't be disappointed

That's a big part of Zen. I/You/She want(s) stuff. That's attachment. Attachment leads to suffering. Only by giving up attachment, can we be free from suffering. She wasn't attached to getting the orchid, so she was happy. If the orchid had been available, she would have been attached to the idea of seeing it, or buying it, and she would have been unhappy.

SFGate.com has an article titled Blunt warning about deficits / Greenspan gloomy on economy if Congress doesn't take action. But Greenspan's real point is that the current spend, but don't tax, government is going to cause serious problems for the future.

There are two ways, and two ways only, to decrease the government

1. Raise taxes
2. Decrease government spending

Bush is of the "starve the beast" school of economic thought. He believes that if the government keeps cutting taxes, but keeps spending, eventually the deficit will get so large, that the government will have to be drastically scaled back. In other words, he wants to bring about a fiscal crisis in this country to accomplish his political aims.

If we must cut programs from the government, shouldn't we also, as Greenspan also suggested add a consumption tax, or find some other way to avoid cutting such valuable government programs like Head Start and Medicare?

I'm training for my next triathlon (the ICE Breaker). It's been raining a lot, plus it gets dark early, so my bike training is indoors. I've been looking for an indoor training so I can ride my own bike, rather than riding some exercise machine. Now I've found the perfect indoor trainer Inside Ride Bicycle Treadmill. It's a treadmill for bikes. What can I say? Wow.

Greg's Digital Portfolio, by a freelance photographer, shows before and after pictures of some shots he's done. The post-processing he's done is amazing.

It's no wonder that people have unrealistic expectation about their own bodies, about a place, or object. We see a version of reality that only exists in the art director's mind.

It's not lying, but we need to remember that what you see is hardly ever what you really get.

The Supreme Court Ends Death Penalty for Youths Tuesday. This means that no state can execute someone that is under 18 years old when they commit a crime. The case was decided based on the 8th amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

This might be the first step in the high court making capital punishment illegal again. If it's cruel and unusual punishment to kill minors for committing a crime, isn't it also cruel and unusual punishment to kill adults for committing a crime?

Let's hope so.