Bumper Sticker.

I was driving around today and saw a "I Love My Wife" bumper sticker.

Why on earth would anyone actually put this on their car? Nothing good can be implied from the sticker. If the guy put it on his car of his own free will that's just pretty pathetic. If his wife made him put it on, you know that marriage can't be headed for success. If its supposed to be a joke, it isn't particularly funny.

Capping Executive Pay

I was watching TV when the topic of executive pay came up.

There is a provision in the minimum wage bill before congress about effectively capping executive pay by taxing it. Now I admittedly don't know the full details of how they will try to limit executive pay, it seems they want to eliminate some loopholes in the tax code, but this post is not about the details.

The person who was arguing for caps on executive pay gave the usual rhetoric of how it isn't fair that CEOs make so much money, but I loved his reasoning of why government should do anything about it. He made the argument that it is government's responsibility to do something because they subsidize these corporations and rich people by making a tax code that essentially allows them to not pay taxes.

Oh, I see. So let's try and fix the loopholes, which are caused by adding more and more rules to an overly complex tax code, by adding more rules. It's like trying to dig yourself out of a hole. It's just simpler never to get in the hole in the first place.

Wii: Finally Got One

I had the day off this morning. I still got up at about my regular time and did my normal routine. I turned on the computer, and just to check I went to this site. And lo and behold there were Wii's available in my neighborhood.

I had seen some Wii's available in some other neighborhoods over the last few days, but like I said earlier, I had no intention of going out of my way to get one. So I got dressed and went down to the local Target. I had been following the Wii's availability all over the country using the above site. Not really because I wanted to get one, but more out of curiousity for how well Nintendo is doing. By following it I know when there are Wii's available they usually don't last very long. Lucky for me, I must have been one of the first ones there (nobody knows when these shipments normally drop, last time it was announced but it was a special circumstance). So I paid my money, and now I'm a proud owner of a Wii. Haven't played yet, but I'll update at some point with my thoughts.

I am very interested on how quickly my local Target sells out. I'll probably keep checking today and tomorrow to see if the shipment I was able to get one from sells out quickly.

Double Coupons in Washington

It may seem silly for someone like me, but I clip coupons. Why not? It doesn't take very long and I might as well save money on things I would buy anyway. I didn't always clip coupons, I used to be embarrassed that people would think I was poor or something. Ironically, it's when I started actually having money, and stopped caring what people thought, that I got over it and started clipping and using coupons.

I don't quite understand this, but nowhere in Washington state can you find a store that has double coupons. It confuses me because everywhere in California has it, but nowhere in the state of Washington can you find a place that doubles coupons. I've even looked online to see if it was just the Seattle area, but it seems pretty clear that nowhere in the state of Washington does this. I really wish I could find out why. Double coupons can be a great thing, you can actually end up with some items for free. But alas, its just not possible here in Washington.

If anyone finds a store in Washington that doubles coupons, please leave a comment.

Trying to get a Wii

Nintendo must be very pleased. Sony must be very sad.

So I had heard rumblings that Target stores, as well as Best Buy and Circuit City, would have some Nintendo Wii's today. They had it advertised in their weekly circular and there had been some post on various web sites.

Now I want to get a Wii. I prefer to get one over a PS3, which I think cost too much and doesn't offer anything compelling to me, or even an Xbox 360 which I should have an obvious bias towards (I will probably get a 360 if and when they cut the price). Even though I want to get a Wii, I will not go out of my way to get one. I definitely don't plan on waiting in line or fighting with my fellow consumers.

But I figure that its over two months since launch and that the Christmas season has passed so if I went early enough I would probably get one. Target opens up at 8:00. I showed up at about 8:45, and there were none left. The cashier told me there was a line when the store opened and that they had already sold out. Sold out in 45 minutes. Of course, sitting in plain sight were some PS3s, much like I observed before at Best Buy.

Sony has to be worried. It seems clear to me they are going to lose this round of the game wars. Microsoft has already sold 10 million units, that's a pretty big head start. With Xbox Live, they have, in my mind, many more compelling features than PS3 (since I have ZERO interest in a Blu-Ray player). Nintendo seems poised to take the 2nd position, and very likely might be able to catch Microsoft.

Barack

Today, Barack Obama announced he will be running for President. Unlike some people I know, I meet his announcement with mixed emotions.

I was very impressed with Obama's delivery when he gave his Keynote speech at the Democratic National convention. Notice the key word, "delivery". One of the things I look for in a Presidential Candidate is if they have a floor presence. I want someone who exudes confidence and inspires confidence in others. Barack definitely seems to have the quality.

But that being said, while I was impressed with the delivery of the speech itself, some of its contents worried me. Particularly one line.

It is that fundamental belief: I am my brother’s keeper. I am my sister’s keeper that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family.

I am very much against the notion that I am my brother's keeper. I am very much against the idea that our economy works when we are obligated to help our fellow man. The idea that you are your brother's keeper is the very notion that makes Socialism fail. Yes, its selfish, but selfishness makes a free economy work. Not only does it work for people at the top, it works for people at the bottom. When I hear quotes like the one above, only one thing crosses my mind

"come together" = Higher taxes for all

And we all know how I feel about higher taxes. I haven't made up my mind yet about Barack. I definitely have no idea who I'm going to vote for in 2008. I guess we will just have to see how the next two years unfold.

Sony PS3 Availability

I was talking to a co-worker a few days ago and he was talking about how they had PS3s in a huge stack at Fry's. That kind of surprised me as I would still think the PS3 would be selling out. I then saw it for myself when I went to Best Buy, a stack of about 50 PS3s just sitting there.

I can't imagine that supply has finally caught up. The main reason I went there was to look to see if they had a Wii. I plan on getting a Wii, but have no interest in the PS3. No Wii, plenty of PS3s. Now you can't tell me that Sony can currently out produce Nintendo, so the only reason that I can't get a Wii and I can get a PS3 is that Demand for the Wii far outstrips the PS3.

I figured I was in the minority in this one. But I guess there are more people like me who think the Wii's playability and $250 price tag trumps the PS3's supposedly amazing graphics and $600 price tag. If this is true throughout the country, Sony is going to be seriously hurting.

Ohio Wine?

The bet between the Florida Governor and the Ohio Governor over the College Football championship game is that the Florida governor will send Florida Citrus if Ohio wins and the Ohio Governor will send Ohio wind and Chocolates if Florida wins.

Here is the thing. Who knew that Ohio even made wine? That just sounds odd to me. I've heard of French Wine, California Wine, Washington Wine, and even Argentinian wine. But Ohio wine? Who knew? Maybe tires or machine tools or something like that. But Wine?

Life without Power

Ever wonder what life would be like without Electricity? I got to find out first hand what it would be like this weekend. Seattle had a REALLY bad storm Thursday night. Winds reached 60-70 MPH in some places.

When I woke up on Friday, there wasn't any power. I still got up and decided to go to work. As I drove out to the street, I was greeted with non-functioning traffic lights and fallen trees and branches all over the street. This wasn't just some isolated street, EVERY street was like this.

I soon found out that Microsoft was afflicted with the same problem. But it wasn't just Redmond, it was most of the Puget Sound. Literally millions without power, and they had no idea how long it would take. I spent the night in the dark (and remember it gets dark early in Seattle) staring at my girlfriend while we sat close to the fireplace (had to use the fireplace, had no heat otherwise). It was crazy.

The aftermath is even stranger. We got electricity sometime early on Saturday morning. But it seems that most of the area doesn't have it, Redmond is one of the few cities with power. We spent the morning throwing out everything in the fridge, and then looking for a place to get some food. But Redmond is crazy. There are really long lines for everything. Most of the restaurants are packed, and the gas lines are crazy. Literally 50 cars deep at every gas station.
Most of these people are probably from the surrounding cities. The busiest place (besides the gas stations) was the library. There wasn't an empty seat in the place, and every outlet had something plugged into it, mostly cell phones. 2nd on the list? The Liquor store. I couldn't believe how many people were waiting to buy some alcohol. I guess if you have nothing to do, you might as well drink yourself silly.

I don't ever want to experience this again, I like modern life. Life without electricity is tough. Seriously, what's wrong with this city? First the crazy snow storm, and now this. Wonder how fast I can pack up and move back to L.A.

Blockbuster Total Access

Even though I've had my problems with Blockbuster, and swore them off, I decided to try them out one more time as I think the Total Access Plan is pretty compelling. In short, it works like Netflix, but I can go in and exchange my DVDs in store. I get a free in-store rental, and they ship the next DVD right away. In theory, you can get almost double the regular number of DVDs.

So far so good. It works without a hitch. The nice thing is that it is generally easier to get new DVDs from the store than online so you can use your in-store rentals to get the harder to get new releases and the online portion for everything else.

And now this. Blockbuster is opening up Total Access to all Netflix Customers. No need to sign up for Blockbuster Online, just need to have a Blockbuster in-store account. Pretty clever marketing ploy if you ask me.

First Snow

Today there was snow in Seattle. I haven't experienced snow in over 5 years, ever since I left NYC. While I think the virgin snow on the ground and trees is quite beautiful, I definitely don't miss walking through the sludge and the ice.

What's funny is how different your perspective can be if it is your first experience. My girlfriend lived in Southern California all her life, so she never has really experienced snowfall like this. She really seemed to enjoy it ... that was until this morning.

She woke me up this morning asking for the password to my work computer. I was groggy, so I didn't know why on earth she was asking for it. Was she a corporate spy? Was she going to try and hack in to commit corporate espionage and steal all of my company's secrets? I asked her why on earth she needed to know and she explained she needed to e-mail work because she couldn't make it in (our home computer doesn't work with her company's webmail). She then informed me that my company's campus was closed for the day. That got my attention and I got up to see what was going on.

It turns out that Seattle can't deal with snow very well. I guess it doesn't happen often enough for them to have good infrastructure to deal with it. When I was in NY and NJ, I would expect the streets to be clear and salted down by the morning. It was perfect safe to drive, as the streets were cleared well before it was time to go to work. Not the case in Redmond.

I even tried to get into work in the afternoon, expecting most of the ice to be clear off of the roads. Still not. At one point, on a hill, I hit the gas and my tires spun for a few seconds before they gripped and allowed me to move on.

Priced Out Forever

I had a conversation with someone the other day about housing. The person was describing to me why they wanted to buy a house. Part of the argument was that housing always goes up (which is wrong, and recent statistics bear that out) and that if they didn't buy now they would soon be priced out.

Now let's just look at the logic of that statement. There is little argument here that housing is quite expensive and out of the reach of many people. In the more popular areas in the country, house prices start in the 30oK - 400K range, which, by traditional measures, should require a six-figure income.

So if housing is that expensive, and housing always goes up, then logic would dictate that if you can barely afford it now, you better get in before its too late. But does that actually make any sense? Of course not. Just imagine what the world would be like if it were true.

Say that at some point housing becomes so expensive that all people who earn less than $50,000 (Slightly above the national Household average) are permanently priced out of the market and all people who can and want to buy have bought a house. Now someone who owns a starter home has a growing family and wants to move up, who do they sell the house to? By definition, they can't sell it to a family who is looking to own rather than rent. They can only sell to people who have previously owned a home. But people in general don't downgrade their home, so they have to sell to someone who is moving laterally (like someone moving into the city). So all that we get is stagnation, people just keep swapping houses, and nobody can move up because there is nobody below to sell to.

This of course implies that the supply of housing stays constant, which it isn't. It can be disproved by looking outside at all the cranes building high-rise condominiums or the construction crews putting up new housing tracts. I also highly doubt that home builders such as KB and Toll brothers plan on shutting their doors. New homes will be constructed, and these homes are going to have to be purchased by someone.

This is the key observation. All bubbles eventually end because supply catches up and surpasses demand. They don't end form a lack of demand. Builders willl see that there is an underserved market, this very large segment consisting of young middle class families, and cater to them by making affordable housing. It is next to impossible that you ever become "priced out forever" for an asset as common as housing.

Higher than Normal My Ass

In the last few days, I've had to contact my cable provider, Comcast, to try and resolve an issue. Each time I contact them, whether it be through Chat or though Phone, I'm told each time that the wait time is longer because they are "experiencing higher than normal traffic"

I've probably contacted them six or seven times in a three day stretch and very different hours of the day ranging from early in the morning to very late at night. I find it very hard to believe that it is just a coincidence that each time I call is the time where suddenly traffic is higher than normal which can only lead me to believe that Comcast is full of it. If your "higher than normal" is happening all the time, that is your normal. Quit lying to me and just tell me that you don't care how long I wait on the phone.

Portland: My Take

My Girlfriend and I went to Portland a few weeks ago. I have to say that I wasn't very impressed. It is probably the last time I make a special effort to go down there. It wasn't like the city is a horrible place to be, it just wasn't particularly worth a trip. I was glad to go once, but wouldn't go back again.

The best thing about the city was that it was in Oregon, and therefore had no sales tax. Even though I would probably advocate replacing our income tax with a national sales tax, it was still nice to do some tax-free shopping. It was especially nice to have tax free dining since Seattle has an even higher tax on dining out than the normal sales tax.

So what didn't I like about the city? Again, it wasn't any one thing. I didn't like that the city wasn't particularly clean. Many of the buildings seemed kind of run down or old. Even the hotel we stayed at, which is supposed to be one of the nicest in Portland, the Governor, seemed kind of old. Besides that, there wasn't many things to do except to go shopping and there weren't any real sites that you had to go see. The pickings for restaurants was pretty bad as my girlfriend and I couldn't find a decent non-chain restaurant.

The other thing I didn't like about the city is that I didn't feel particularly safe. We walked around at night trying to find something to do (more on that later), and went through some neighborhoods that I didn't feel particularly comfortable walking through. It's like that in most big cities I've been in (with the exception ironically of NYC) so maybe I shouldn't be too hard on Portland.

And then finally, if you don't want to go to a strip club (there were an inordinate amount in Portland) or go tax-free shopping, there wasn't a lot of interesting things to do. Most major cities have something you have to go do or see. Didn't feel that way about Portland.

So overall, it was a disappointment. Glad to cross it off my list, don't think I'll be heading back.

That's Why It's Called a Beta!

During the last week I have had two different people come talk to me about my product. Both of them work for my company so they should both understand the meaning of the word "Beta". I guess the operative word is "should".

In both cases, the individual came to tell me how crappy my product is. In each case they were dealing with Beta software. Now I could take constructive criticism. It is after all a beta and it is used to solict feedback. But in both cases, the individual responded with great indignation and anger that the product didn't work the way that it should.

Seriously folks. If you don't want to be inconveinenced, don't use a BETA product!

Individuals are Smart; Groups are Stupid

I was at my work's product fair where some of the groups show off the latest stuff they are working on. At these types of things, like trade shows, groups often give out free stuff like pens, stress relievers, or the ever-coveted shirt.

There was a booth next to mine that was giving out free shirts so I decided to try and get one. BIG MISTAKE. The following is not an exaggeration.

I got in the back of a large crowd waiting to get shirts. I figured it would be orderly since I work at a company where people in general are smart and respectful. As I wanted people who got behind me started to push me. Soon, pushing turned into shoving as people were swarming to get the free shirt. Several of the people in the crowd (I should refer to them as a mob) already had SEVERAL shirts but were trying to get more. The guy next to me, screaming, "I want a shirt" even though he already had one, tried to grab a shirt out of another guy's hand.

I couldn't believe what was going on so I simply turned around and left. These are people with very good jobs, making very good money, fighting over a $5 shirt. Not just fighting over it, but being VERY rude to their fellow coworkers over it. Unbelieveable. Just goes to show you what happens when people get into large groups and the word "free" is being used.

Paintball

I played paintball with my team from work. I have to say it was pretty fun. It was pretty tiring, and pretty intense, but overall I really liked the action and the strategy that was involved. The only thing that really needed to be improved was the fact that my mask kept fogging up making you blind on the field (you are not allowed to take off your mask during play). If you could just make sure your mask didn't fog, you would have a huge advantage.

Now that I'm home and got to shower up one thing really sticks out, all the bruises I got. Everywhere where I got shot there is a pretty sizable and dark bruise. Since I don't play very often (or ever) I don't have the gear that most people probably have to prevent such bruises.

All in all, even with the bruises, I would still go play again.

Old Alumni

I got an e-mail this weekend that made me feel quite old. It was sent to Princeton Alumni in Southern California (I'm still on the distribution list) and it read,

we encourage all young alumni (2001-2006) and undergraduates to come

Considering that I'm just outside that range, I have to admit, I felt a little old that I'm no longer considered a "young alumni". I mean, when the heck did that happen?

Negotiating a Better Salary

I wonder how common it is to negotiate a better salary? I wonder because I always do but it seems to me that most people don't. I feel like that is just like leaving money on the table.

My girlfriend recently got a job offer. She was happy to take it for what they offered, but I convinced her to ask for more; I mean the worse that would happen was that they said no. So after making a counter-offer, they counter-offered back, and she accepted. She ended up getting a little bit more money then they offered, but not quite what she wanted.

I have always done the same thing. I have never taken the first offer that somebody gave me. They always say, "Our first offer is normally our best offer" but that's a load of crap. If that is true, how come each time I've tried to renegotiate I got more money?

Maybe I'm fortunate. Maybe I'm just so super-special that people just want to throw more money at me. I'm curious if people have had any experiences where they asked for more money, and they didn't get at least a little bit more.

Working with Unfinished Wood

This weekend, I learned why furniture is so expensive. I use to always think they were ripping you off, now I'm not so sure.

I bought a piece of unfinished furniture last week. It was a dresser drawer. I have dark wood in my bedroom so finding furniture that looks good, matches, and is inexpensive is a real challenge. I decided that I would buy an unfinished piece and stain it myself and therefore save some money. I like working with my hands so figured it would be a fun project as well.

Let me tell you, it really isn't all that easy and can take a great deal of time. It is also messy and you have to deal with the cleanup after you are done. If you factor in all the time and materials above and beyond the actual piece of furniture, I can definitely see why furniture can be so expensive.