Cat With the Hat

Don't have anything really clever or intelligent to say. My girlfriend just happened to take this picture of my cat which I thought was particularly cute. If you just look at it quickly, it looks like we made him a flower hat. It's one of her many advantages. She works at home. While there are many reasons I wouldn't want to work at home, I'm pretty jealous of the fact that she gets to hang out with the cat all day and gets to take pictures like this.

Gay Marriage Legalized

Today was the first day in California where gay couples could legally wed. Among the first of them was Former Star Treker George Takei, who will marry his partner of 20+ years.

I for one am glad this finally happened, it's been a long time coming. I've said for a long time, I'm not sure what the big deal about gay marriage is. If people want to get married, we should let them, I don't see any reason why government should make this distinction.

But I do wonder about one thing. I wonder how many gay relationships will actually be hurt by this. Here is the thing. I know for me, deciding to get married is a big deal. It has been a sticking point in my relationship as well as many others. For a lot of people, it is a very difficult conversation to have if you should get married at all.

For most gay couples, it hasn't been an issue, because it technically couldn't happen anyway. Even if they were living as if married, there is nothing quite like making it official and I could see it being the case that a lot of couples, now faced with the choice, find it difficult one to make.

What are you thoughts? Do you think this might have a negative effect of a few relationships?

The Dominance of Tiger Woods

Yesterday, Tiger Woods was "struggling" in the third round of the US Open. I put quotations around the word "struggling", because in reality he really wasn't. This morning ESPN wrote an article about Tiger Woods fantastic performance to close the round. An ending which saw Tiger sink two eagles and a birdie.

Yet the article ESPN wrote on Tiger's fantastic ending made it seem like Tiger was out of contention before the fantastic run started. In the article, the author writes:

Tiger just didn't have it. After 48 jaw-clenching holes of this 108th U.S. Open, that was the dispiriting realization sinking into the raucous Torrey Pines gallery, as well as the nation at large. The world's greatest competitor was trying like hell to stay in contention, but his aching left knee wouldn't permit Tiger to be Tiger.

Tiger is a victim of his own success. He is so good, he is expected to dominate each and every time. Golf is a hard sport. Most pro golfers are lucky to win a tournament once in their life. You need to be good for four straight days to have a chance to win, and for most, it's too hard to do consistently. Here is the kicker. Tiger was in third place before he made his run. THIRD!

It wasn't like he was in the middle of the pack or a dozen shots behind. The man was in third place. For any other golfer, being in third place at the US Open is a pretty good day. Yet people speak as if Tiger's tournament was a complete failure up until that point. That's how good I want to be. I want to be so good that anything less than perfection would be considered failure. I also wouldn't mind earning what Tiger earns.

Strange Watching Behavior

This past week, I watched two things I don't normally watch.



This past weekend, I watched the main event of a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fight featuring Kimbo Slice. I stopped while channel flipping not because of the internet sensation known as Kimbo Slice but because I couldn't believe that there was a man on TV with an alien growing out of his head. Seriously, take a close look at the other fighter's ear. I'm warning you, it may make you ill.

The other thing I watched last night was Hockey. It was an elimination game five between Detroit and Pittsburgh. I'm not a hockey fan whatsoever but I saw that it was triple overtime. Like Jenny, I love a good overtime match. Triple overtime is 3x better so I stayed to watch. The good thing about Hockey overtime is that it is sudden death. I find it even better than Football because things can change so fast. In football, it is only likely that the team on offense is going to score. But in Hockey, it can change from defense to offense so quickly that it is immensely more entertaining.

Sport Superstitions and Jinxes

Despite this blog being about rational thought, I will admit there are times I'm deeply irrational. Most of those instances has to do with sports.

I love sports and I'm a hugely devoted fan. I actually get very upset when the team I'm rooting for starts to play badly. I'm also very prone to believing in superstitions and jinxes. For example, today I was watching the Lakers and Spurs in their playoff game. The game was back and forth throughout much of the game.

The Lakers were doing well at the beginning but at one point in the game, my host, walks into the room. Now mind you, I'm at my friends place and he is being kind enough to let me watch the game because I don't currently have cable TV. Sure enough, as soon as he walks in, the game starts going south for the Lakers. My friend, who is also a devout sports fan, kindly says, "I'm a jinx, I'm leaving." Later in the game, I realize that every time my girlfriend rubs my shoulders, the Lakers start doing better. Seriously. She stops rubbing my shoulders, and BAM, the Spurs go on a run. I point it out to her and ask her to start rubbing again, and the Lakers go back up by seven points.

Deep down, I know I'm being completely illogical. I know all these things are merely coincidence and there is no way any of these actions are related to the outcome of a sporting event. But when I'm watching sports, the rational side of me goes right out the window. If I have to stand on my head while wearing only one sock to ensure victory, I probably will.

Why do you think we are this way? Why do sports fans think that their inane actions has any bearing on a game that quite frankly doesn't mean all that much?

Athletes and Drugs

The other day, Joakim Noah of the Chicago Bulls was charged with possession of marijuana. Yet another story of an athlete doing something absolutely stupid. I could devote an entire blog on this subject. Whenever I read stories like this I have to think, "Really?"

I mean seriously, if you are a professional athlete why would you ever smoke pot? Is it really worth it? As an athlete, you have the ability to get paid several million dollars over the course of your lifetime. Are a few puffs of Mary Jane really worth that? Here are my big problems.

• Just don't do It - If I offered you a million dollars or some weed, which would you choose? Most rational people are going to take the million dollars. Some would argue that athletes don't deserve to be paid that much in the first place. Do you really need to give them another reason to be right?
• At least do the right drugs - If you have to do an illegal substance, at least do something that will help your career. I mean, at least if you do steroids, you will be improving your chances as an athlete. But a drug like pot? What possible reason would you do this? I could maybe even understand a drug like heroin, which would give you an intense high and is highly addictive. But Marijuana?
• Be smart about it - Noah was an idiot on several other levels as well. If you are going to do pot, at least do it in private. I mean really. You are going to get caught with it in your pocket while you are in public? He was caught because he was drinking a beer in public, another no no. How about when you have something on you that could end your NBA career, you don't do another illegal thing? Finally, is it really necessary for YOU to be holding it while in public? How about if you find it absolutely necessary to transport the pot from a private place you ask one of your friends to carry it. Offer him $1,000 to do it. Hell, offer him $10,000 to do it. It's much better than you being caught with it and your friend gets $10,000. It's a win win.
  

As much as I believe athletes get paid what they deserve, its times like this I think they deserve anything they get.

American Airlines Baggage Fee

There seems to be a lot of uproar about American Airlines starting to charge its passengers $15 for their first checked bags. They aren't the first airlines to charge for baggage, but they are the first to charge for the first checked bags. Others who have implemented similar policies normally only charge for the second bag.

This is in response to several factors, most notably of which is the rising cost of fuel. Just today, oil sped past $135 a barrel before coming back down to around $130. This is causing American Airlines, and others as well, to try and find new sources of revenue.

The thing is, I'm not sure why people are so upset. A few things make me understanding. First of all, I understand that companies can't run at a loss forever. Consumers seem to forget that companies are in business to make money. American Airlines is hemorrhaging cash. If they need to raise their prices to meet cost then that's what they have to do. This brings me to my second point. Consumers have a choice on whether or not to fly American Airlines. There are a dozen other carriers that don't charge this fee which you are free to take if you so choose. That's the beauty of capitalism. So long as consumers have choices, then it doesn't really matter what any one company does. If one company tries to charge higher prices than their competitors for the same product, consumers will eventually migrate to the other suppliers.

So let them charge whatever they want. Don't like it, buy a ticket somewhere else.

How to Fix the NBA draft ...

as well as the regular season. The problem with the NBA regular season is that by the midway point, half the teams have given up because they know they have no chance to make the playoffs, and the worse they do, the better chance they have to get a high draft pick.

Last night, despite long odds, the Chicago Bulls ended up with the first pick. Despite having one of the better records, the ping pong balls bounced their way. Most people might not like the fact that a decent team now looks to get that much better. I don't. Here is why.

There is a real easy way to fix the first problem and it is related to what happened to Chicago. Don't make the chances of getting the top picks increase by rewarding teams with the worse record. They should take the three teams that almost made the playoffs and give them the top three picks. The team who just barely missed the playoffs gets the first pick, the team right behind them gets the second pick, etc. Starting on the fourth pick, just put them in reverse order of finish so that the worse team gets the 4th overall pick.

Life is all about incentives, and this one creates the right incentives. The current system rewards those teams that lose at the end. Now, there is no guarantee that you will end up with the best pick if you continue to lose, as proven by Chicago, but the odds of it are greatly increased. Rather than incent teams to just lose, they should incent teams to win. If teams like the Bulls, through dumb luck, are going to end up with the high picks anyway, you might as well take chance out of the equation and actually make it worth a team's time to fight till the end. While the rich get richer, in this particular instance, I think its the right thing.

The Americana At Brand

I went to the new Americana mall in Glendale. It's a new outdoor mall with apartments that sit above the shops. Much like the Paseo Colorado in Pasadena. Overall, it was pretty nice. There weren't many shops open yet nor were there lots of places to grab a quick bite to eat, but I can see how this place will be successful for years to come.

Probably not such great news for the adjacent Glendale Galleria. I'm not much for the Glendale Galleria, something about the atmosphere just isn't right there so I prefer a place more like the Americana. A couple of things to note about it though

• It's a very open mall. This is good and bad. On hot days like today, there are very few places you can get away from the sun.
  
• If you don't like American Capitalism, don't come here. It is way over the top and excessive.
  
• Most of the stores are the higher-end boutique shops, so I'm not so sure they have a lot ot offer your regular joe consumers.
• The water fountain seems to have an hourly shoe set to music. Reminded me of some of the shows I've seen in Vegas. See second point.
  
• Paying for parking just sucks. You can get validated and not have to pay but it still is a pain in the ass.
  
• The number of workers there was unbelievable. There were people to help you everywhere. Valet, people guiding traffic, people helping at the pay stations. There was even this huge hotel lobby looking desk for what seemed like the residents of the mall.
  

Not so sure I will go back too often. Wasn't a lot for me there. But not a bad place to go see once.

Electric Drill - A Must Have

The older I get, the more I just want things to be easy for me to do. I find that I will now pay for things that are convenient or easy rather than just do the work myself. I think it has to do with the fact that the older I get, the less time I have and the more money I have.

Case in point, the electric drill. I bought an electric drill a few months ago to put together a dresser I bought. At the time I bought it because I didn't have a drill. I didn't realize that the best part of the drill would be the electric screwdriver attachment.

Today, I was putting together some furniture and was dreading how long it was going to take. I suddenly realized I had the electric screw driver and quickly went to grab it. What a lifesaver. I mean seriously, do you realize how much time and effort you can save with one of these things? Putting together furniture becomes a lot easier when you have an electric screwdriver. It's one of those things I can't believe I went so long without. Even though I don't use it a lot, the few times I do it becomes well worth it. So seriously, stop abusing your arms and go get one. You'll thank me later.

Getting Older

I know I'm getting old. I know this for two reasons.

• I played in a softball game yesterday. It was literally the first time I played in a game in over 18 years. The fact that I can say I did it 18 years ago is bad enough but not why I'm old. I'm old because today my legs are quite sore from running the bases twice and fielding a few balls. Just sad.
• I keep hearing the song "No Handlebars" and I just don't get it. You know you are old when you can say, "I just don't understand today's music."
  

Cats and Smelly Clothes

I'm not sure why, but my cat loves my smelly clothes. The smellier the better. Whenever I come home from playing basketball, I'll take off my sweaty clothes and socks and throw them on the floor somewhere. Inevitably my cat will find it and decide that he wants to make love to my sweaty smelly clothes. He will start rubbing around in them, especially his cheeks which cats typically use to mark things they consider to be theirs.

It is similar to how he acts around Cat Nip. Now I don't know if it is me specifically, or all smelly clothes, but I find it to be very interesting. Do my sweaty clothes have the same affect on my cat as catnip?

MVP Race 2008

This is a tough year in the NBA. It saw the most hotly contested Western Playoff race in history, with the #8 seed winning 50 games. But an even tighter race is shaping up over who is MVP.

Let me go on the record as saying I think the MVP is a stupid award. It is an award without any clear criteria and whose meaning has changed over time. But a winner must be chosen, and this year it seems to come down to two players. Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul.

Now, like I said, I don't really care about this award. But since they give it out, I wish they would just be consistent with the criteria. I have had no problem with Kobe Bryant not winning the award before. I often agreed with the reasoning. In the past it has been one of three things. Kobe wasn't the best player on his own team (when he had Shaq), he didn't make his teammates better, or he just wasn't on winning teams.


Few people would argue that Kobe Bryant isn't the best player in the league. But ever since the Colorado incident, Kobe has become someone people love to hate. They will come up with any reason to degrade Kobe's accomplishments.

I actually think if Kobe deserved MVP, it should have happened in one of the previous two seasons. Two season's ago, he was unbelievable. He had his 81 point game, averaged 40 for a month, and put together a string of 50+ point games. Last year, he carried a team consisting of Kwame Brown and Smush Parker into the playoffs. Kwame Brown and Smush Parker. Seriously folks, these are people who shouldn't even be in the NBA.

But Kobe's team was never one of the elite teams. I don't agree with that as a criteria, you can't always help who you play with, but if that was the criteria, I have no problem with it. This year however, Kobe had the best team in the aforementioned brutal Western Conference. So what reason can people possibly come up with now?

• Chris Paul led a Hornets team to the 2nd best record when nobody thought they would do anything. What did Kobe do? Show me one person, just one, who had the Lakers finishing any better than 8th in the conference. I dare you to do it. Most had them finishing at the very bottom.
  
• Chris Paul has less help. Really? Peja, Chandler, and West are all-star players. None of them were hurt this year. How many all-stars does Kobe play with? One, Pau, and he wasn't there for half the season. Key players like Ariza, Bynum, Gasol, Mihm, all hurt this year. Most of the players that are doing great this year were on the Laker's teams in year's past. When they sucked, it was Kobe's fault. Now that they are doing great, Kobe doesn't get any credit for that. it's a joke.
  
• But just look at all those assist. Chris Paul makes his teammates better - If this is the criteria, you might as well give it to a point guard every year, because it won't be a fair contest. Point Guards have the ball in their hands more than anybody else. They are, by design, going to get the most assist and make their teammates "better" than anyone else.
  

If they give it to Chris Paul, I won't be mad. He is fantastic and probably deserves it in any other year. If Lebron gets close though, then I have a problem. If Kobe couldn't win it the previous two years, no way in hell Lebron deserves it.

Small Town = Better Food

I'm not much of a small town type of guy. I like living in urban settings and so small towns don't do it for me. Recently though, on a trip, I went through several small towns. The thing that was most consistent in all these different small towns was that the quality of the food was very very good.

I'm not sure if this is true for all small towns, but it got me thinking about it. I wonder if the food is just better in small towns. As I started giving it some thought, it actually made sense to me that the food would be of higher quality. First off, most of these small towns did not have very many fast food places or national chains. When I travel, I tend to frequent national chains only because you know what you are going to get when you go there.

Now, since I didn't have this option, I was forced to go to these smaller places. This makes it more likely these types of places can stay open (although I would never condone not allowing a national chain to set up shop). Given such a small town, there can only be so many restaurants that can be supported. That means you better be pretty good because you are going to have to depend on repeat customers to stay in business.

Further, the pace of life is just slower, so I wouldn't be surprised if these small town restaurants just took more time and care in preparing their food. I mean, seriously, the food was fantastic. We had a great variety of food from pizza, burgers, fish, clam chowder (which is excellent all along the Oregon coast), and cookies. All of it was very good.

So how about you? Have you noticed a different quality of food in small town America?

Jordan River Moving - Think twice before using

I don't normally like to call out individual companies and the bad service they give, but I had to do it with Jordan River moving who recently handled my move from Seattle to Los Angeles. For anyone even considering using Jordan River moving, I hope this helps you.

I had several companies give me estimates for my move to California. Although my new job was paying for it, I wanted to save my company money if possible. Jordan River's estimate came in the lowest, and so I went with them. Big mistake. I should have just paid more money to get movers that would have done a better job. I wasn't too worried because I really don't have too much stuff, and the stuff I have isn't too expensive, but the extra cost would have been worth it to avoid the headaches.

The estimate I got was a "not to exceed" estimate. Basically I had a cap on the total cost that I would be expected to pay. I was told they usually estimate conservatively and I would likely not have to pay that much, but that I definitely would not have to pay more than this. I made sure to clarify this several times.

Jordan River showed up in time. That was about the only good thing that happened. I paid for a full move. That means they come in and pack everything up as well as move my stuff down to California. They rushed through my packing. I and my girlfriend sat there while they packed my stuff and I never felt like they were really trying to pack my stuff to ensure it stayed safe for the move. Even this didn't bother me too much because, like I said, I don't have really delicate or expensive stuff. But it got worse.

It really started with trying to get my stuff down to California. I didn't have a place picked out yet, so my stuff went into storage first. After I got my place, I called to arrange to get my stuff delivered. From the time I called, it took two weeks to get my stuff out of storage. It seems I just missed the truck that went down one week, and my stuff was behind some other people's stuff the next week. I'm a patient guy, so this didn't bother me too much. I had to sleep on the floor for a while, but I dealt with it.

However, when trying to arrange my stuff, they attempted to charge me more money because my stuff weighed more than their estimate. I told them they gave me a "not to exceed" estimate and that I wouldn't be paying them any more money. They said they would look into it. They came back again and said I would have to pay the money. I told them I had the contract in hand, and it clearly said on it that I had a not to exceed estimate. They finally relented and agreed. Later, when the stuff was finally on its way, a different person told me that I owed them money. I couldn't believe I had to go through this again. They figured it out eventually, but it upset me that I had to even talk about it again.

The day my stuff arrived, I got the call that the mover would be late. I said fine, I just want my stuff so show up l ate if you have to, but just get my stuff to me. The driver shows up with one other guy to move all my stuff into my place. The other guy was somebody they had picked up from a temp labor agency down there. That kind of miffed me that they would just hire some random person to move my stuff but I let it pass. What happened next though was pretty much unforgivable.

The driver realizes he underestimated the amount of help he needs. I have more stuff then he thought and without help, he won't finish till well after midnight. So he ask the temp guy if he knows anybody who would want to help. The guy says no. Then, he decides to ask some random guy walking down the street if he wants to help out for a few bucks. The guy declined. Hiring a temp guy from a labor agency is one thing, trying to hire someone off the street is quite another.

I was fully aware that these guys would not leave until very very late if I didn't help, so I decided to just start moving boxes for them. That's right, I hired movers to move me, and I ended up doing the work. Now to be fair, they didn't ask me to, but without my help, they would have been at my place past midnight. As it was they were there till 11:00 p.m. I also didn't feel comfortable having my stuff sit outside the moving van late at night on a relatively busy street, so it was in my best interest to make sure the stuff got moved quickly.

It gets better though. My stuff was strewn all over the van. It was clear they didn't transport my stuff with care. It was completely disorganized, and the driver spent all his time trying to find my stuff and sort it out with another person's items. Luckily, I had the full shipment list and was able to match everything, but I'm certain if I hadn't done this I would have either ended up with someone else's stuff or without some of my own. To exacerbate things, I noticed that several of my packages had water damage at the bottom. Probably because the movers in Seattle had let the box sit in some water before they moved it to the van. (it was raining the day of the move). As if adding insult to injury, as they moved my mattress, they dropped the mattress onto a freshly watered lawn. Luckily it was covered in plastic, so the damage to it was minimal, but still, it was clear to me that they didn't care much about my stuff.

So in short, don't use Jordan River moving. Perhaps my experience was isolated, but with all your options, why take the chance?

Lasik Update - Got Glasses

For a while, it has been somewhat difficult for me to drive at night. I had chalked it up to my vision getting progressively worse after lasik. To that end, I went to the eye doctor recently to get an updated prescription and some glasses.

The doctor told me that I indeed no longer have 20/20 vision. However, my prescription was quite low, so low he really couldn't give me any less of a prescription. Knowing how my vision is at night, I decided I still wanted to get glasses so I can hopefully be a little safer when I drive.

I got my glasses today, and they do help somewhat, but not greatly. Turns out I don't actually need the glasses. The actual problem is the much dreaded "Halo Effect" that people often get after Lasik. I noticed it a little bit after I got it, but it wasn't too severe. It has definitely gotten worse for me over time. It isn't to the point where it is a great problem when I drive, it is just annoying.

So I guess I'll have to just deal with it for now. Still think the Lasik was worth it. It's great 99% of the time. Just wished it had stayed where it was when I first got it. Oh well, there aren't any guarantees.

Too Much Bravo

My girlfriend might be making me turn gay.

Last night I had a very odd dream. I dreamed that I was in a competition. My goal was to make Women's Pajamas using some out of the ordinary items. In case this doesn't sound too familiar to you, it is a common challenge that people have to do on Project Runway. I personally hate the show, but I watch it because it is one of my girlfriend's favorite shows.

But I might have to insist that we don't watch it anymore, or at the very least she watches it when I'm not around. It's one thing to have to watch it, another thing when I start dreaming about it.

Running Red Lights

Something funny must be going on in Southern California. On two different occasions today, someone has seen fit to run a red light right in front of me, almost causing an accident. The thing that even makes it more sad is the fact that both these cars were already stopped at the red light. It wasn't as if they were speeding to try and cross the intersection before the light went from yellow to red. The light was already red for them and they decided to just drive right through.

I'm not sure if there is a question on the DMV test that reads

Red means

a) stop
b) go

But there should be and if you miss it, it should be an automatic failure FOR LIFE. Maybe because it is April Fools day people decided to see if I was paying attention.

30

As is tradition, I like to write a post on my birthday to kind of reflect on the last year or so.

The past year has seen some big changes for me. A year ago I was still with Microsoft and living in Seattle. I never thought then that I would end up back in California before my next birthday post. At that time, I was still cautiously optimistic that I would be able to make a career of it at Microsoft. Shortly after that birthday, I realized that was never going to happen and so I left the company.

As I wrote I should last year, I did take a big, yet calculated risk. I'm glad I didn't just sit on that one and not do anything about it. I quit my nice cushy Microsoft job for nothing. I didn't have any other prospects and to be honest didn't want to work for a while. Like I wrote, I just didn't feel on track with where I wanted to be. I felt behind when I like to run ahead.

It took me by surprise that I took a job as quickly as I did but it was an opportunity that put me back squarely where I wanted to be in terms of not only my career trajectory but location. Los Angeles is much nicer than Seattle, and I'm glad to be back. Early on, things are OK with the job. It isn't one big party, but I took this job knowing there were going to be some difficulties. I just thought the problems I would tackle would be slightly different. The opportunity is here to make a big quantum leap for me with a host of responsibilities that would have taken me a decade or so to get at a place like Microsoft.

Everything else is good in life. Bandit definitely enjoys being back where the sun is bright and he can lazily lounge by the window. Girlfriend hasn't moved back down with me yet from Seattle, but she is on her way shortly. Things are going great with her and we probably will take that next step before this post next year.

Not sure what 30 is going to bring or what I hope for it. It's a milestone year really. All my friends are married and most are having kids. Not sure I'm destined for the latter one any time soon. As I contemplated this birthday I realized that I'm a dozen years away from when I started college. A dozen years just doesn't seem like it can be that long ago. You know you are old when you start talking about how fast time goes by and how you remember back when ....

My Problem with Michael Clayton

I saw Michael Clayton a few days ago. It is now the only move I have seen from the 2008 Best Picture Nominees. I thought the movie was OK. The story was somewhat interesting, and it had a few plot twist that kept it entertaining, but overall I wasn't that impressed. It just seemed like any other movie to me. I sometimes think that the academy over thinks things. They want to be sure that whatever movie they nominate for Best Picture is cerebral and thought provoking. You will never see a movie like SuperBad nominated for Best Picture. I guess if the masses like it, it can't be all that great. Kind of snobbish really.

***SPOILER WARNING***

So my problem with Michael Clayton lies with the villain, or more appropriately the people the villain hires to do her dirty work. They commit the near perfect murder when they kill Arthur, making it look like a clean suicide. There was little doubt by anybody that Arthur killed himself and that there was no foul play involved.

Now cut to Michael Clayton. He discovers the dirty secret and they decide to kill him too. So what do they do? Instead of killing him cleanly, they decide to do him in with a car bomb. What is more obvious that a murder took place than a car bomb? Don't you think that this second murder, a very obvious murder, arouse suspicion on the first death? How can criminals go from smart to stupid in the span of a few hours? If you want to kill him in the car fine, cause it to go off the road or something else like that. But a car bomb? Really?