Stateless Immigrant

About CSA

2013-03-04T19:15:00.000-08:00

Let me start with a platitude.

You are what you eat.

Alright. Now that I got that out of my system, let me talk about what I eat.

I love to eat good food. The real deal, not out of a package. Over the years I have developed into something of a foodie, even. Not really a snob, but I know my endives from escargot.

More recently, I have developed into a decent cook, and being part of a CSA has been an important driving force in that growth.

Local veggies are yummy

See, CSA stands for "community-supported agriculture" which in turn stands for people living in a certain area (community) buying a share of a local farm's crops and thusly supporting the farm. Fruit and vegetables from the farm are normally delivered to a volunteer's house in boxes, and you go and pick up your share every week.

There are many benefits to that model. Most important to me is that the produce is normally picked on the same day or the day before, arriving on my table fresh, and flavourful, and also quite ripe. Much riper than you can get at a supermarket, no matter how expensive and "organic" it is. I also like to imagine that growing produce during its particular season allows it to be more nutritious as opposed to stuff grown in hothouses and with hydroponics year round.

There is also something I don't really consider a benefit to myself, but it certainly doesn't harm to support small local businesses. Often CSA farms are on the small side and practice more sustainable agriculture, rotating crops, and growing a multitude of them over the year instead of focusing on mass-producing one or two.

I personally don't care much about "organic" produce, since the way the certification system is implemented only means that farmers are limited to using some chemicals and not others, instead of the bucolic back-to-nature nonsense that urban hippies like to believe. Don't be too quick to put me in the "pave the whale" camp though just because I don't buy my lentils in bulk. I believe that eating local produce results in lower emissions than moving, storing, and selling the crops grown on industrial scale. That can't be bad.

So I have signed us up for the Live Earth Farm CSA about six months ago, and it's really been great. I rarely go to the supermarket anymore, as the share we get usually lasts us until the next delivery. Every week, there is a different assortment of fruit and veggies in the box, presenting me with a challenge to learn how to cook things I never worked with before. An interesting side effect has been that both J and I have discovered new yummy foods we either never ate or never liked before. Like kale.

And chard.

I mean, seriously. Chard.

Local animals are also yummy

Our success with the produce CSA has been quite impressive, and so when I read that cattle farmers feed their cows candy I was mentally ready for the next step: signing up for a meat CSA.

As a dedicated carnivore, and a follower of a primal diet, I consider meat the most important part of every meal.

If it's not meat, it's not a meal.
--Gnolls.org

As stated right at the start of this post, I also believe that you are what you eat, and that if candy and starch make humans diabetic, they can't be terribly good for the cows. Research confirms that grass-fed pastured animals' meat features a healthier balance of fatty acids for humans to base their nutrition on. And so, once a month, we now get a box (or two, or three) of happy meat and poultry from Marin Sun Farms.

I honestly did not expect to taste the difference. Sure, the meat would be "better" for me, but it would probably taste the same, or be dryer and tougher. Right?

Wrong.

The meat has blown me away. Even J who usually prefers leaner cuts, has discovered that he does not mind the occasional strip of fat on his steak as he used to.

Also, I get access to a more diverse selection of cuts of meat as well as different species. Oxtail, or organ meat, or goat. Even simple lamb is hard to get at a regular supermarket.

Show me the money!

Money-wise, I think our CSA spend is a wash with the supermarket food.

The produce CSA is slightly cheaper than regular produce, averaging $23 for a box that lasts us seven days' worth of meals. It is dramatically cheaper than what Whole Foods would want you to pay, while it's actually local and tastes better.

Eggs are a killer at six bucks a dozen, but we don't eat many, so that's not a big deal. We only get them every other week.

Meat is definitely more expensive than your regular supermarket fare. It is probably cheaper than grassfed meat at a supermarket, and definitely fresher, both due to the distribution model.

I think if you don't eat a whole lot of meat, or just want to dip your toes into the whole CSA business, try a produce CSA first. It definitely saves shopping time and money, since all you have to do is grab a box full of goodness on the way home.

Are you already a member of a CSA? Share your thoughts in comments.

Now I can network anything!

2013-02-27T22:58:00.001-08:00

This weekend, I repaired a network outlet. Three, to be precise.

During the remodel, the contractors have severed three network cables by mistake, and the loose ends were knotted up and stuck out of a hole in the wall.

Considering this was my first time getting all physical with networking, it did not go too bad at all.

Before starting on the project, I got some kit on Amazon.

This little set costs under 20 dollars, and contains a network cable stripping tool, a plug crimper, and a network socket punchdown tool. There was even a baggie with some RJ45 plugs in there, too.

Since all I had coming out of the wall were six ends of the cut cables, I randomly picked an end coming from the left to find out whether it was the live side. Because I was going to sacrifice at least one, and possibly two, and also I had a surplus of RJ45 plugs, I crimped one on there instead of the keystone socket, and stuck it into the network tester.

This little network tester was all of five bucks and saved me a lot of trouble. I had one part of it connected upstairs where I was performing the repair, and plugged the other one into one port on the downstairs switch after another, trying to see if this end of the cable was even live.

Luckily, I hit the jackpot on the first try: The wire I picked went to the switch. However, I made the mistake and wired the plug according to the wrong RJ45 standard. They have A and B and I picked B because that's what one of the cables I had lying around had.

It was pretty easy to figure out, because the tester sends the signal to each of the eight wires in order (1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8) and it comes out scrambled on on the other end.

Once that was resolved, the rest was easy. I used the punchdown tool to wire the three sockets, which had each terminal color-coded for both standards. Again, fairly obvious.

I bought the more expensive "keystone" type sockets and wall plates, because they seemed like they would be easiest to work with. The sockets in this case click into the wall plate, and can be easily removed and replaced.

Wiring the sockets individually, as opposed to dealing with short cables sticking out of the wall while trying to wire them to a plate, was definitely a more convenient option.

Since we were already dealing with cut cables, I had asked the contractor to put a hole on the other side of the wall, in my office/library, which used to be a formal dining room and did not have any network.

Now that I had sockets wired to each of the cable ends, I stuck two through the hole into the office and routed one into the living room.

Voila!

I hit 1000 followers on G+

2013-02-25T14:23:00.001-08:00

The 1000th follower does not win anything. And neither do I.

EOM, really.

Unpacking (and re-packing) my Nexus 4

2013-02-23T11:25:00.000-08:00

My Nexus 4 phone has arrived.

It did not take long at all to get here, despite the chronic shortages. If it had taken much longer, I would be risking serious new gear anxiety attacks. But it's all good now.

Behold: the new phone.

I have spent most of last night and some of this morning getting the UI and preferences sorted, but so far it has been a very smooth experience.

The phone restored all the apps currently installed on my Nexus S, and all I had to do was put the shortcuts and the widgets where they belong.

Selecting a phone cover was a little bit of a process.

I actually do not like phone covers, screen protectors, and their ilk. Hundreds of hours spent by designers to make the device sit just right in your hand, the rounded corners, and the buttons -- all of this is completely wasted once you put a cover on your phone. Where it diminishes the looks, it adds weight and bulk. Really not my thing.

However, my phones live a life of adventure, going with me everywhere from race tracks, to restaurants, to museums, and to work. They have been known to sometimes be clumsy and fall out of my pockets at the most inopportune times, hitting concrete floors, rocks, or tarmac. Neither of these things are good for the phones, and so I have been choosing the lesser of the two evils: I have been buying covers for my phones.

This time I think, I may have finally hit the jackpot. A classy-looking slim leather case that has room for a few credit cards, and does not obscure the contours of the phone too much when open.

Since I haven't yet put a new SIM card into the phone, I haven't used it all that much yet, and the jury is still out on the cover. I hope it works out for me.

Excited about Google Glass

2013-02-22T18:05:00.000-08:00

Last June, I managed to snag a ticket to Google I|O by waking up super-early and refreshing the perpetually timed-out order form in six or so tabs at once until my order finally went through. The event sold out in the first 20 minutes, mere ten minutes after I secured my spot.

The event experience was mostly standing in lines for everything from the registration, over general sessions, to spartan lunches. I also stood in line to register for an opportunity to purchase a prototype of Google Glass.

It seems like the wait for the chance to shell out $1500 for a snazzy pair of glasses is nearing its end. I received an email saying that all of us who registered at the I|O will be first in line to receive our gear, while the company will also select up to 8000 people through the "If I had Glass" contest. Judging by the contest's Terms, those folks will be able to buy their Glasses in mid- to late March, meaning that us I|O goers also should be getting ours at about the same time.

This leaves me about a month to obsess over the decision whether Google Glass prototype is worth the money to me.

On one hand, the ability to have the next-generation heads-up display for my navigation is quite appealing. Same goes for the voice control and neat hands-free operation.

On the other hand, it's $1500.

For that kind of cash, I can have some awesome improvements done to the Mountain Lair. Tree trimming, grass mowing, gutter repair, that sort of thing.

But back on the first hand, DAYM, that's a neat piece of kit, and I think I would really get a kick out of owning it.

Are any of you, O my gentle readers, in the same position?

Even if you aren't--what do you think would you do if you were?

Back in the saddle

2013-02-20T20:47:00.003-08:00

While my carpal tunnel syndrome pain has subsided, I am tentatively typing more again. However I am also trying to use more voice entry, such as in writing this article.

This is not my first run in with this particular ailment, and it probably won't be my last. I know it is caused by typing a lot, and unless I learn a completely new trade, there is little chance that I will stop using computers as much as I do today.

For those of you interested how I treat my tendonitis and carpal tunnel pain, I wish to share my treatment strategies.

First, rest, rest, rest.
Second, reduce typing to a minimum, or completely eliminate it, at least for a week. My Android devices have been very helpful in allowing me to stay up to date on my email, by dictating my responses. There are probably other voice entry solutions on the market, but considering that I carry my phone everywhere, this seems like the most effective option, since it would always be at my fingertips (pun intended).
Third, ice. Lots of ice. Every night, for three weeks, I would empty the ice bucket from my refrigerator's ice maker into a large kitchen pail, and fill it with cold water, enough to submerge my forearms all the way to my elbows. I would then dunk my forearms into the ice water for as long as I can stand stand, repeatedly. I can usually keep them in cold water for about 30 seconds, before it gets too intense. Your mileage may vary, just pay attention to not get frostbite. I usually would alternate my 30 seconds of icing with about 5 minutes of light massage, all the while watching some TV series or a movie to keep me entertained and distracted.
Finally, massage. It is very effective to have a professional massage your forearms to help relieve chronic tension, and restore healing blood flow.

This is pretty much it. While I am quite determined not to have another episode for a while, I really am glad that I have found ways to control the pain and restore my hand and arm function relatively quickly, when push comes to shove.

I hope you find this post helpful. What other methods do you use? Have I missed anything? Share it in the comments!

AFK with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

2013-01-23T09:36:00.000-08:00

I have been staying away from keyboard because I have hurt my wrists typing too much lying down, with my laptop on my belly. Silly me.

So in the meantime, I have been using voice entry a lot (Android rocks at that!) and icing my arms as much as I can stand.

If you are worried, don't be--it's already getting better. I've had this once before, from the same stupid behaviour, and healed myseld in a couple of weeks. Back then, I thought I had learned my lesson, but apparently I needed a reminder.

Anyways. What this means for now, is fewer posts from me while I heal. I'll be back before you know it.

2014 Corvette is still ugly

2013-01-17T05:57:00.000-08:00

Seeing how my old post about the 2014 Corvette being ugly is bubbling up in the traffic stats, I thought I should revisit the topic and reiterate that yes, indeed, I still believe that the newly-released C7 is unsightly.

Don't believe me? Have a look:

This is not a body of a car worthy of the name Stingray. This is just another middle-aged wannabe sportster. Like a retired bodybuilder, it's got muscle, but the sex appeal is gone.

I have allowed my hope to see a sleek futuristic take on the classic to rear its pretty little head, but lo! My hope was dashed as I feared it would be.

Don't believe me? Have a look at this:

This is the concept car that made its debut in the Transformers movie, and inspired me and thousands of others, giving us hope that we may have a new car to admire and lust after. What a difference to the tame diluted mishmash of a car that was unveiled this week!

While we all know that dashing concept cars rarely make it to production unchanged, I have to always wonder--why not? Why try to appeal to the lowest common denominator? Why not make a bold statement? Why so afraid?

If Chevrolet is afraid that its market of balding midlife-crazed men would reject a car that oozes style, power, and self-confidence, then it betrays that it thinks poorly of its customers. Further, it will not gain any new ones, failing to inspire and capture the aspirations of young kids like the wide-eyed kids that are still alive inside the middle-aged men, who want to own the car of their childhood dreams.

It certainly does nothing to ignite my passion, and I really wanted to fall in love with the C7.

Silly me.

About recruiter spam

2013-01-16T13:41:00.002-08:00

Alex

1:34 PM

to Sam

Dear Sam C,

I would like to thank you for taking the time to contact me, but the thing is, you did not take the time, so the thanks are sadly not in order.

I will however take the time to personally respond to you, because I hope to make it one of those "teachable moments."

My current role is Community Director at Nebula. My previous role was called "Community Manager" at VMware. I have not held a contracting position in my entire career, and have not really had anything to do with business analysis or operations.

Wherever you found my resume, it is clear to me you have just run a search for "Eloqua" or some such, and blasted an email to every single person the search returned without spending as little as 30 seconds to make sure the position you advertise would be even remotely suitable.

30 seconds is a generous time allowance to determine how a senior marketing professional with 15+ years of experience would react to a pitch of a 8-month entry-level contract requiring relocation, but you obviously seem to be lacking in the reading comprehension department, so I am not going to be too strict.

You've got the "swift" part of Intelliswift covered, but not the "intelligence." If you want to ever reach out to me in the future, feel free to do so, once you learn to represent both components of your company's promise.

Most respectfully yours,

Alex Maier

On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 9:16 AM, Sam C <sam@intelliswift.com> wrote:

> Hi,

> My name is Sam and I'm a recruiter at Intelliswift, a global staffing and

> IT consulting company. We are constantly on the lookout for professionals to

> fulfill the staffing needs of our clients and we currently have a job

> opening that may interest you. Below is a summary of the position.

> Job # : 2199802

> Job Title : Business Analyst

> Job Location : , Plano, TX

> Duration : 8 Month

> Job Description :

> This position resides within the Enterprise Operations department and is

> responsible for the Eloqua marketing automation system. This position will

> be responsible for creating and maintaining documentation of all standards

> and processes used within the Eloqua system and its integration points

> Responsibilities:

> •Will be required to document the “as-is” processes in Eloqua

> •Document field level rules and validations within Eloqua

> •Create and maintain a ‘data definitions dictionary’ for critical fields and

> attributes within Eloqua

> •Maintain documentation of Eloqua data flow processes; user documentation;

> and training materials

> •Implement standardization of usage and data entry

> •Optimize data hygiene through proactive monitoring of automated programs

> and system usage

> •Perform admin tasks; adding/deleting/changing fields; editing Programs;

> adding/deleting users; etc.

> •Will be required to work with Eloqua admins to perform root cause analysis

> •Work with business users and 3rd party Eloqua agencies to understand the

> business application of Eloqua

> •Ability to translate high-level business and user requirements and

> functional requirements

> •Write UAT test cases and perform UAT

> •Work with Eloqua admin team to understand roadmap, enhancements, updates

> If you believe you're qualified for this position and are currently in the

> job market or interested in making a change, please give me a call as soon

> as possible at 510-870-3518.

> Note: Please allow me to reiterate that I chose to contact you either

> because your resume had been posted to one of the internet job sites to

> which we subscribe, or you had previously submitted your resume to an

> opening with Intelliswift’s client. I assumed that you are either looking

> for a new employment opportunity, or you are interested in investigating the

> current job market.

> If you are not currently seeking employment, or if you would prefer I

> contact you at some later date, please indicate your date of availability so

> that I may honor your request. In any event, I respectfully recommend you

> continue to avail yourself to the employment options and job market

> information we provide with our e-mail notices.

> Thanks,

> Sam

> IntelliSwift Software Inc.

> 2201 Walnut Ave. #180, Fremont, CA 94538

> Tel: (510)-870-3518

> Email: sam@intelliswift.com

> Intelliswift is ISO 9001 - TL 9000 certified company.

> Intelliswift wins award for the 4th fastest growing company in East Bay

> Intelliswift among the top 10 fastest growing companies in Bay Area

> Intelliswift Ranked No.2 by the Indus Business Journal

> Learn more @ http://www.intelliswift.com

> California | New Jersey | India

Of mice and rats

2013-01-16T04:32:00.000-08:00

Mountain Lair is as far from civilization as CA-17 will allow, and I am glad we don't have to live completely off the grid. Electricity is good, as is water and the holy Internet. Everything else, we have to either truck in, such as we do with propane, or do on-site, such as waste water treatment (A.K.A. septic tank), back-up power generator (still on the list to buy).

It's really not bad, just gets expensive at times. But it's quite civilized, and we even have proper garbage pick-up, with recycling and yard waste bins, like you'd have in a city!

It being mostly wilderness though, you could have guessed that humans are outnumbered by other mammals ten- if not hundredfold. Coyotes, deer, raccoons, opossums, squirrels, mountain lions. And rodents. Nature is constantly trying to take over and re-appropriate what humans cleared for themselves, and mice and rats are the vanguard of the constant siege.

Us being us of course, we deploy electronic surveillance and state-of-the-art traps baited with bacon and peanut butter. Bacon for the rats, PB for the mice. Okay, maybe the mousetraps have not really evolved that much in the past hundred years, but they are still the state of the mouse trapping art.

It all started with noises in the attic. Some large animal kept waking me up at around 1am with its heavy footfalls. We weren't sure whether that was a rat or maybe an opossum. The websites about rats in the attic all said that the rats would be "scurrying" -- and "scurrying" this was not. These were deliberate, slow, and not too-cautious footsteps.

We both have a soft spot for marsupials, so wanted to find out what that animal was before trying to deal with it. We would hate to kill an opossum. Opossums are neat. We'd probably want to prevent it from climbing in by closing the openings it uses, or have a professional catch and remove them. But killing? No!

So to be sure what it is we've got in the attic, we put up a little surveillance camera in there first. It works with ambient light and infrared, and then you can watch what it sees on a little embedded-linux box it came with. Neatness.

It did not take long until we have identified the perp. It was a giant rat. And by giant I mean about three quarters of a foot long, before the tail even starts. No wonder it was not scurrying. With heft like this, scurrying would be completely impractical and undignified. It's like imagining Bruce Willis pattering along. That's just wrong.

So J went to Home Depot and got a rat trap, baited it with bacon, and set it up in the attic. Every once in a while, we'd check the attic-cam to see if the trap was still there. It remained untouched for a couple nights, despite the rat's continued return visits. Finally it decided that the trap was safe enough, or maybe it was overcome with the aroma of bacon. Either way, it bit.

If someone tells you that the traps kill the rat in an instant, don't believe it. The rat thrashed about for maybe 30 seconds, woke both of us up, but finally everything was quiet. We weren't even sure it was dead or maybe managed to free itself, because in its final throes it moved off-camera. The next morning we confirmed the kill.

I am not big on killing animals, so this was pretty sad. On the other hand, can't have rats in the house. Sigh.

Then last night I realized that some fruit on a shelf in the kitchen was nibbled on. On closer look, there were also mouse droppings in the fruit bowl! Yuck!

All the fruit went in the trash, and four mousetraps were set, baited with peanut butter.

Guess what? The very same night, two of the traps had mice in them.

So we are preparing for the siege and buying an extra large box of mousetraps.

Athletic asphyxiation

2013-01-15T09:54:00.000-08:00

I went to buy some new exercise clothes last night. Tomorrow, I will be returning five out of the eight items I bought. Four of these items are sports tank tops, and they will be going back because I can't breathe in them.

Over the years I have begrudgingly complied with the sexualization of female bodies, which means that somehow the hint of my nipples showing through fabric is offensive, while a man's nipples are not. I've never worn a bra, and therefore the societal requirement to hide my anatomy results in having to wear layers even in summer, and most annoying of all, to exercise.

Enter sports tops.

They usually have some sort of a double fabric or padding cups in the front, and for women better endowed than myself, some sort of an integrated bra. While I don't need the support, I wear the padded tops for "modesty."

The only difficulty with them is that someone in the industry decided that a sports bra has to be constructed of high-tensile-strength elastic material that will compress my chest to the point of suffocation. Last night I was in a hurry and also it was cold, so I was wearing a coat and a jacket, and other warm things, and did not want to unpack in the store just to try on some tops. So I grabbed two of each kind and went home. When I tried them on this morning, I had problems getting into one, and out of other, which proved to be worse.

Now the thing with the integrated bra is that it is shorter than the tank top and often only attaches to the top at the straps, closing with an extra-strong elastic band at the bottom. Once I had the top on and realized that I was having difficulty breathing in it, I tried to take it off. The longer part came off fine until the point where it attached to the elastic undercarriage, which was still gripping me around the ribcage. My arms were trapped in the top, held over my head, and no way to reach the little elastic contraption to pull it off my body.

Close to panic, I briefly considered waking up J to ask him to cut me free of the evil garment, then continued the struggle. Instead of stumbling around blindfolded by the top over my head, I knelt on the floor and redoubled my efforts to wriggle my way out of the predicament. After a few panting fits and starts, I managed to escape the ties of the sports top, and sat on the floor trying to catch my breath.

Once my pulse was back to normal, I neatly folded the armored tops and put them in a bag with their receipt to take back to the store tomorrow.

Yay victory.

Photo credit: dagophir.com

About paperwork

2013-01-12T09:44:00.000-08:00

I haven't written much about my immigration status, because frankly, there hasn't been much change over the years. The process moves at a glacial pace, and two or three biometrics^[1] appointments aside, I am still where I was in 2007.

While you wait for your case to be processed, there's mostly nothing to do but to wait and freak out, because the authority does not provide any real answers if you asked them about the status. Here is an example of a written response I received when I asked about the status of my application:

The status of this service request is:
A visa number is not available at this time.
XM0265

Make of it what you want. Apparently it means that maybe my case has already been adjudicated (i.e. decided) and I am now only waiting for the visa quota to become available. Maybe. I could not get further than that with the "customer service"^[2] rep on the phone.

Each year, a certain number of immigrant visas (a.k.a. Green Cards) is made available for the immigration authority to hand to people like me. There are rules governing how many visas each of the many immigration categories will get. I won't bore you with the different categories and what they all mean, suffice it to say, that they hand out visas on the first come, first served basis. Your place in line is determined by the date on which you first initiated the process, which is called the priority date. Once a month, the immigration folks publish a Visa Bulletin where they list the status of each category, so you can see how much longer you have to wait.

This month, my priority date has become current, which means that maybe my case will be taken off the shelf and reviewed by someone. Or not. Apparently there are no guarantees of that happening just because your priority date is up.

From here, I may get an appointment with the friendly authority, where they will interview me to help them decide whether to let me stay. Legend has it that sometimes you just get your green card in the mail. That would be nice.

As luck would have it, my German passport is going to expire in November this year. So I figured, let's get a leg up on that and start the process of getting a new one. The Consulate is right here in San Francisco, and appointments are readily available. They also have a checklist of all the things I will need to get this started. A photo is one of them, sounds easy enough, even though they say that they have to return 90 percent of all applications because the photos aren't good enough. Being German, they provided a multi-page booklet with all the requirements and good and bad examples. Armed with it, I think I should be able to get the photo right.

Now the next requirement is not for the faint of heart. Turns out that if your passport lists a German residence address (as mine does), in order to have a consulate process my application I need a paper from the Berlin authorities saying I don't live there anymore. Which I think I got at some point. Or not. It was almost seven years ago, and I don't remember. Thankfully, the City of Berlin has a very comprehensive web presence, and I was able to download and print the un-registration application, fill it in, and physically mail it to the friendly Bürgeramt Steglitz in Berlin. Hopefully they will promptly stamp it and send it back, so I can get my new passport.

In the meantime, I am going to keep my appointment at the consulate to make sure that I am not missing anything else, because it would suck if the US Gummint came to me to stamp that long-awaited visa in my passport, and my passport was expired!

[1] "Biometrics" is a fancy name for having your fingerprints and your mugshot taken annually. What drastic changes in my hands and face they expect to catch, I don't know. Once taken, both pieces of data are swallowed by the authority never to be seen again, judging by the fact that I always have to provide new mugshot pictures to renew my Employment Authorization document (EAD). When the newest one arrived, it had "Not available" written in the field where my thumb print would go.

[2] I like the doublespeak of calling me a customer, when I have to use their "services" and follow their procedure under the risk of deportation. While I understand that I am here by choice, and immigration is a privilege, not a right and blah-di-blah, it's much easier to say this from the comfort of your country of citizenship. When you've lived in a foreign country for six years like I have, paid the taxes, and built a life here with real human connections, a home, and a career, you get tired of the constant vague threat of losing all of this because some bureaucrat misplaced your paperwork or decided to deny your petition.

Furniture shopping for my office

2013-01-08T16:17:00.000-08:00

I will have a dedicated office in the Mountain Lair, which I am also designating to serve as our library. Over the years, I have collected a number of books, most of them still in Berlin, and now I finally will have a place to bring them all together.

It being a library and also having soaring 15-foot ceiling, I embarked on a search of tall bookshelves that would befit such a room, and not be dwarfed by it. Ideally the shelves would be stained espresso brown and made of solid wood or bamboo, and may have metal pieces. I would tolerate plywood parts, but no MDF or particleboard. Here is an illustration for what I thought would be a good kind of shelf for the library.

As I was soon to find out, solid wood furniture is now only available from super-expensive places such as designer or antique stores. Or if you have it custom-built.

The picture above is from the World Market catalog for a shelf that costs nearly $700. That's not cheap if you ask me, so I assumed it would be true when their website said the shelf was made of solid wood. I bought it, and two very energetic ladies helped me load it into the van with great effort. It was flat-packed in two boxes, and each box weighed 100+ pounds.

When we got home, J and I unloaded the shelf piece by piece, opening the box inside the van, and carrying the parts upstairs in manageable increments. When the shelf was three quarters of the way assembled, I realized with that sinking feeling of doom that the main vertical supports of the shelf were indeed thick MDF.

So the next day, I disassembled the shelf, and we loaded it back into the van in reverse order, putting it inside the original boxes as good we could (which was better than we expected). I drove it to the store, where nobody showed themselves concerned with the reason for the return, and even when I told them, no written note was taken as far as I can tell.

I have crawled hundreds of products in online and physical stores, but it appears that any shelf that's not costing multiple thousands of dollars will be made of engineered wood.

What really puzzles me at this moment is where all the real wood is going? MDF is made of wood that's left over after the good stuff is cut. If the rich folk comprise one percent of the population, they can't be needing that much solid wood furniture, as to make it so outlandishly expensive.

I am not skilled in woodwork, and don't really have the patience or desire to learn. I just want to buy something that won't poison me with formaldehyde and also something that is environmentally sustainable. Like bamboo. For now, the search is coming up empty, but I have a few other angles if that fails. One, I may find a local craftsperson who can build me custom shelving out of inexpensive local wood or bamboo plywood, which I know a source for. Two, I may buy a bunch of used wine crates, stain them, and arrange them as a shelf along the wall. There are tons of pictures online, here's a random one to give you an idea what I am talking about.

With the right stain and some brass brackets and accents to make it look more intentional than just a pile of old crates, I think it may have a chance of achieving the right effect. Not sure though. I have not yet worked with anything as big, and built no furniture, so I hope I won't have to do it.

For the desk, there's actually been a good development. I want a standing workstation, and have been shopping all over the place for one. The thing is, they are just coming into fashion, so the choices are limited, and most are expensive. Again, you'd think a piece of wood on legs should not cost the world, yet $1000 seemed to be about average as standing workstations go. After I gave up on the idea of buying a ready-made one, I decided to buy a tabletop and legs separately, and put it together myself.

An evening of search has yielded a 6-foot long work surface made of thick bamboo at Craftsman, and next day, I bought some 40" table C-legs for it. It's not going to be adjustable, but barring me growing taller 40" is the exact height I need.

All the parts should be arriving in about two weeks, at which point I can start setting up my office for real, instead of just using it to park all the unopened boxes from the move.

In my mirrors: 2012

2013-01-02T23:22:00.002-08:00

2012 did not suck.

Tell the truth, it rocked.

I spent it all with J, and it couldn't have come any more natural to share our lives with each other. Now we're in our newly-remodeled home together, and can enjoy those spectacular sunsets and even more spectacular night skies in the mountains.

Do you have an idea just how many stars are visible to the naked eye once you're not in a light-polluted city? I didn't. It's humbling.

What else was there?

Well, shopping for a home and buying one, then remodeling it. Some say people break up and get divorced over stuff like that, but they also say the Stig only knows two facts about ducks and both of them are wrong.

I drove a lot. Not as much as I'd liked to (which would be full-time), and not always as well as I'd want to, but today I can consistently outdrive my performance from the year prior. I had to rebuild and repair most of my race car: motor, roll cage, containment seat, safety harness, shock absorbers, differential, rear suspension bushings, power steering. Most of the first half of the year was spent dealing with that, and the second half was me getting used to the new handling characteristics.

I have added Laguna Seca to my repertoire, and I would say out of the three I got, it's my second most comfortable track after Thunderhill. Sonoma is still a challenge, yet being there makes me happy before I even turn a wheel on the track.

I lost my grandfather that year, and after a week of mourning, I went to Sonoma Raceway, and sat on the hill there, overlooking the track, and was able to leave there at peace, ready to return to my life.

I suspect Sonoma will keep its special place in my heart and in my life.

Speaking of which, J and I enjoyed a lot of good wine together, and I have developed meagre cooking skills.

Professionally, it's been a year of growth.

In 2012 I took over managing the vExpert program, ran it, loved every moment of it, then changed jobs. I still miss my colleagues and my vExpert friends, but life is a funny thing. Just when you are getting comfortable, new challenges come around.

I am at Nebula now, working to build a community of cloud computing users and enthusiasts, and helping out with marketing work along the way, seeing that I am the only marketing professional in our company at the moment.

I gave talks, one proper solo talk and two panel discussion contributions. I started to write a book, which I hope to finish this year.

I think 2012 was the year when I realized that I was not poor anymore and did not have to live in constant "prepare for the worst" mode.

Both J and I enjoyed good health and spent tons of quality time together.

I am very grateful for all the love, and growth, and positive change I have seen in 2012. As years go, this one may well have been the best of my life so far. It would be silly to expect the curve to keep going up and to the right at quite the same rate, but even if 2013 just flatlined at the same level, I'd be very content.

Oh yes, I have learned a little about contentment and zen in this year too. There's more to learn, but I think this also played a role in the overall 2012 experience.

Looking forward, I would like to spend more time in 2013 working on my yoga and meditation practice. Finally, I intend to spend more time with my friends, because that's really what life is about: being healthy and content, so that one may enjoy good company.

Expendables 2

2013-01-02T12:59:00.000-08:00

Watched The Expendables 2 movie the other night, and it was even better than the first one. Great entertainment, even on a living room screen. Can only imagine how fun this would be in a theater.

Here, have a trailer.

This pretty much sums it up for me: lots of wisecracks, plus the entire pantheon of action stars from the past three decades. The movie has a pace and feel of a video game, and also game-like blood and special effects. That is a plus in my book, actually, but YMMV.

The best part, it does not take itself too seriously. Would definitely recommend for an evening of quality entertainment.

.45 with Milla Jovovich

2012-12-31T12:45:00.003-08:00

.45 (watch trailer) has a definite feel of an indie movie. Milla played her role very well, and I think all the other actors did too. The problem with the movie though: too much talking and character-building for a whole lot of nothing in the end.

The film fizzled out with a semi-surprise ending that was not really much of a surprise if you stayed awake and paid attention, but that's not its main problem. I can usually live with a disappointing ending if the rest of the movie was good.

The problem with .45 is that it features a whole lot of women with agency and brains, yet for some reason requires the old and tired "woman uses womanly viles to get what she wants" formula, and worse, frames that as empowerment.

Milla plays a battered woman who is too scared to leave her abusive boyfriend Big Al, and too weak to break the unhealthy dependence that feeds the broken relationship. When the abuse has her fearing for her life, she resorts to having lots and lots of hot sex (after all, it's Milla) with people she tries to manipulate into killing Big Al -- all behind his back, knowing full well that his jealousy may get her battered again, or possibly killed.

And that somehow is "empowerment" -- not offing him herself, not running off alone, not even the most boring option of pressing battery charges and putting him away for that. No, it's using "lips, hips, tits, all woman" that gets her "strong" and puts her "in charge."

Quite disappointing indeed.

About Facebook

2012-12-27T15:11:00.002-08:00

I am a social media professional, and I don't use Facebook.

I maintain an account so that I can manage my employer's page, and occasionally like or comment on my friends posts. Since August 2012, I have not posted any original content on Facebook, and deleted most of the photos that had been uploaded since I joined in early 2009.

This morning I logged on to discover that Facebook included my account in the limited rollout of their new paid messaging program. What this means for me is that my existing privacy setting have been "retired." Starting today, I can no longer choose who can send me messages. Anyone can now message me, instead of just my friends. Attached is a screenshot I took this morning, edited for privacy.

Transcript: "New: The old "Who can send you Facebook messages" setting is being retired. Now anyone can message you, but you choose how messages are filtered.
Right now, you mostly see stuff from friends in your inbox. To review your filtering options, click Other > Edit Preferences.
Button: Okay, I Understand"

Now, I am a private person, but by nature of my work, I interact with hundreds, even thousands of people, many of them online. I like to separate my personal life and friendships from my professional relationships and work contacts. Since everybody and their brother uses Facebook, I have instituted a simple policy: unless you are an actual friend of mine (i.e. someone I am not paid to interact with, but rather someone whose company I seek out voluntarily), I will not connect with you on Facebook. Also, if you are not a direct connection of mine, you were until today unable to message me, text me, or otherwise bug me on Facebook. You could not even find me there unless you had a common connection.

Not anymore. Now if you are a recruiter, reporter, or some other party interested in getting your message to me, you can ignore all the official channels and simply pay a buck to drop me a message in my personal Facebook inbox. And it will place it there, because otherwise it could not charge you that dollar.

Behold the new "filter" choices, which really aren't:

Transcript: "Basic Filtering · Recommended
Mostly see messages from friends or people you may know.
Strict Filtering
Mostly see messages from friends. Messages from people you want to hear from may go to your Other folder.

Note that neither option is deterministic because of the weasel word "mostly," and how they recommend the laxer filtering setting.

Anyways, this only means that I will be further reducing my exposure to Facebook, and that if you want to message me, you better drop me an email. Because if you know me, you probably know one of my email addresses.

Iron cheffing it

2012-12-26T23:05:00.000-08:00

So while we're settling into the new home, there are some challenges of infrastructural nature. Case in point: cooking without a cooktop.

Our kitchen is mostly there, but the cooktop has not been installed yet, pending installation of the backsplash tile. However, all is not lost, as we have purchased a spiff convection steam oven for our kitchen; and so for the past seven days, I have been finding new and creative ways to cook things in it. I prepared chicken, fish, pork, even quinoa and brown & wild rice in there. Steam totally rules.

This evening, we've turned it up to eleven.

J. was working from home, and I drove into the office. On the way home, I called him, so that he could get a protein of his choice from the freezer to thaw while I drove. We have beef, pork, and chicken in the freezer, so you can imagine that I was surprised to find some ground beef happily thawing in a baggie on the counter.

What do you do with it in the oven? Meatloaf? Meatballs? Meh!

To the Googles!

I happened to have three summer squashes, yams, regular potatoes, onions, and chard waiting to be cooked. So I typed in "ground meat oven chard squash" into the googly search, and soon saw a recipe for acorn squash filled with white beans or some such. While I had neither, I was suddenly overcome with inspiration to stuff the summer squash with ground meat and finely chopped onions and chard. As a side dish, I baked some finely cubed taters, yams, and chard, with a dash of olive oil.

Here's what came out of the oven 40 minutes later:

The top rack has the side dish of baked potatoes, yams, and chard, and the bottom rack has the stuffed summer squash. The top dish went in 15 minutes earlier than the bottom and cooked for 40 mins. The bottom dish only cooked for the last 25 minutes.

It is rare that I surprise myself with good food, seeing how I am the cook and all. This was one of the nice surprises. I did not have very high hopes for the dinner, considering that I basically scrounged up what veggies I had and minced them, then mixed with either each other or the meat based on a recipe that I have not even read beyond what search results showed.

This was very good, if I say so myself. Total prep time was maybe 70 minutes, the last 25 being just me waiting for the food to bake. So I guess 45 minutes of work, and 25 minutes of enjoying a local Pinot Noir. Not bad for an iron chef-like challenge.

Wildlife in the mountains

2012-12-26T14:18:00.000-08:00

Unsurprisingly, the hills are alive with all kinds of critters. So I have been photographing the ones that stay put long enough for me to get out the phone and snap a picture. That's why there are more shots of reptiles, snails, and trees than birds or mammals.

The salamanders we've been rescuing from the pool seem to not mind a bath in ozonated water and crawl away when set on a pile of wet leaves.

Over the past weeks, we've seen (and heard!) a pack of coyotes, many deer, a hawk in the middle of swooping for something on the ground, and countless birds. I will keep adding to the album.

If you'd rather see it in larger size, here's a link to the Picasa album.

Settling in at our Mountain Lair

2012-12-25T14:07:00.001-08:00

Our driveway on the moving day

It's been exactly a week since we moved into the new house. Some areas are more done than others, but all in all, the house is operational.

The kitchen is as good as complete, only missing a dishwasher, cooktop, and the ventilation hood. And the backsplash tile on the wall. With a little luck, all of this will be done in the coming week.

Roomba robot has been working overtime, picking up construction dust, making the floors barefoot-compatible.

My race car Wasabi has moved in with us, in the garage. As it happens, she's the first of our cars to actually stay in the garage here, because most of it is still being used as workshop space by the contractors. She's small enough to only need a little room, and I don't care if she gets a bit dusty.

We've been diligently unpacking our household every day, and are at the point where no more unpacking can be done until more progress is made with the house, such as the master closet being complete, so we can put our clothes in there.

Regardless of the little inconveniences, we're already feeling quite at home in the new house. We've returned the keys to the rental on Sunday, and never looked back.

Size aside, the biggest change from the old place has been the privacy and the quiet. While in our suburban home in San Jose, we never experienced silence, even at night. Dogs barking, children crying, people setting off fireworks in the street at night all year round. Look out the window, and you'd be peering into your neighbors' bedroom. Here in the mountains, there's only trees and hills to see looking out the windows on three sides of the house. Front windows overlook the road, and we can see the driveway and the gate of the house across the street. And more hills and trees.

The air here is incredible. I don't think my sinuses have been ever this clear in San Jose, what with its traffic and industrial dust and smoke.

And the best part of all this is, that we don't have to miss the perks of civilization. We've got blazing-fast internet service (50+ mbps down and almost 20 up), UPS and mail trucks are making its way up our hill during the week, garbage pickup truck comes right by our gate, and they even pick up recycling and yard trimmings for free.

We've driven to the famous Summit Store, which is only five or so miles away, on the other side of Highway 17. That's a nice store, I tell you. Kind of like a nicer, friendlier, family-owned version of Whole Foods. About as pricy, too, but open seven days each week and has all kinds of esoteric foods and spices. A whole shelf rack dedicated to vinegars and oils. Oh, and if you ever stand in the aisle with a bewildered expression for more than 30 seconds (as I am wont to do), a very friendly employee will swoop down in a "no pressure, just checking on ya" kind of way and actually help. Not bad for what basically is an evolved general store on the side of a mountain.

Oh, and we have lemons, apples, plums (?), grapes, persimmons, and who knows what other fruit growing on the property. All of the trees need love, and I will be consulting a professional soon about restoring them to good health. It is too early to say what else we'll do with three acres of awesomeness that came with the house, but we've been thinking about more fruit trees or maybe some grape vines.

Maybe I will learn to make wine.

More blogging, less preaching

2012-12-14T15:37:00.000-08:00

I use social media for a living. And most days, also as a hobby. But there are more and more days on which I don't really want to touch social media after my day at work. Not because I am all socialed-out, but because a growing number of the folks I am connected with use social media to shove their political agenda down everyone else's throats.

Day after day, all I hear is: "See? Told you so! My way is the right way!"

I had screen shots of some of the examples of such posts that I saw today, but I decided not to use them to respect people's privacy, and not to single out some of my acquaintances and friends when most everyone I know engages in this behaviour.

What bothers me is that I don't see dialogue, I don't see even an attempt at reconciliation, or even empathy.

It does not matter whether I agree or disagree with the statement. I am tired of the social media campaigning and the dramatic language that's evoking the extreme emotions of fear, hate, and disgust.

I have quit Facebook in August. I only maintain an account there so I can manage my company's presence.

I only use Twitter professionally, and to share links to my blog posts.

As of right now, I am also on the verge of quitting Plus.

Yes, I know the world won't notice, and the social-sphere won't even bat an eyelash, much less miss me. This is not meant as a "cry for help."

But this is my blog, and a place I like to share my thoughts, and this is what I am doing.

When I first scaled up my personal use of social media in 2009, the blog saw fewer updates, as I created most of my new content elsewhere. I think it's time to go back to my roots, and reverse that trend.

Finding my way with Dyscalculia

2012-11-30T13:41:00.000-08:00

More than two years ago I have first realized that I was born with dyscalculia, which manifests itself primarily through difficulty dealing with numbers. That part of it has not given me much trouble in my adult years, as I have developed many strategies to compensate for what my brain cannot reliably do, such as: arithmetic, recalling numbers of any length, converting non-metric units, etc. I have a smartphone and the internets to help me with that, wherever I am, and my quality of life does not suffer much from it.

Except when it's time to file taxes.

However, I have found a very friendly and understanding tax professional who does all the number-processing for me, and I am very grateful for his help.

A less-known, but much more vexing symptom of dyscalculia is lack of sense of direction. This is something for which I have yet to learn to fully compensate with other means.

I have chosen this still image from Inception movie because it closely reflects my experience of physical space: constantly morphing, unfamiliar, and confusing. It takes me weeks, and sometimes months, to learn a new route whenever I move or change jobs, and should I stop paying close attention to where I am going, I am still liable to get lost. As soon as I am off the memorized route, all bets are off. Should I find the familiar route again, but come at it from an unusual angle, I am just as likely to pick the wrong direction as the correct one.

Add to this "normal" people's ridicule, however mild, or complete lack of understanding ("Just learn to navigate!"), plus the ever-present possibility that a nav device failure may get me completely stranded with no direction home (happened), and you will begin to comprehend the level of anxiety that is coupled with what most of you take for granted: getting from A to B.

However, I lack no spatial awareness and can create working mental models of 3D objects in my mind. I do well on mental rotation tests and have a real knack for assembling Ikea furniture. As a child, I loved creating increasingly complex polyhedron nets. So 3D and spatial thinking are definitely not a problem here.

Given a map or a floor plan, I can quickly find my way, but don't ask me to retrace my steps to a restaurant or a landmark. Given that, I have come to the conclusion that the problem lies in some sort of a disconnect in my brain preventing translation of my physical experience into a working mental map.

So I went on a bit of a research spree, to see what strategies, exercises, and technologies exist to help people like me find their way. Aside from navigation devices and generic advice to "pay attention" the search was coming up empty at first, but after a few serendipitous clicks, I stumbled upon a mention of a haptic compass. That is a North-sensing device, such as a belt or an ankle bracelet, which has a number of little vibrating motors in it, and the one closest to North vibrates, so that you always know which way is North.

There is a theory that people from cultures that don't use egocentric coordinates are much better at navigating the world and are never lost. Whether or not it is true, it definitely would not hurt to know your geographic orientation at all times.

Initially it seemed like each of the haptic compasses, be it a belt or a hat, were DIY projects that would require me to deal with math (impossible!) to build. But with a little more research I found a device called the NorthPaw which you can buy as a kit or preassembled, and promptly bought it.

By adding a new input I may be able to bridge the disconnect in my brain and allow it to create a useful model of the space around me. Because I have a good ability to memorize and recall maps, I have high hopes for this gadget to help me figure out my position and which way my destination is.

I will post about my experience when the device arrives.

It would be nice not to be lost all the damn time for once.

Driving mad

2012-10-22T17:39:00.001-07:00

Will it kill us all?

Whenever self-driving cars come up in a conversation, there seem to be two camps: one side very enthusiastic about the new technology, and the other quite pessimistic about its ability not to crash.

As I am a performance driving instructor and an opinionated person myself, I could not pass up an opportunity to make my views on self-driving cars known to the reading public.

While most people believe that they are good or even above-average drivers, the reality is that most people don't have the reaction and instinct required to respond to an emergency with correct inputs and in time. My personal driving holy text "Inner Speed Secrets" summarizes it like this:

Of the tens of thousands of drivers we have instructed in skid control techniques, everyone would fit into one of three groups. When trying to control a skidding vehicle, they either:

Naturally steered in the correct direction and avoided a crash;

Steered in the wrong direction (most likely confused by the steer into the skid advice) and crashed; or

Panicked, did absolutely nothing (well, maybe screamed!), and crashed.

That means that about two-thirds of all drivers respond inappropriately in a skid situation. Believe us, it's true.

While I haven't yet instructed even a thousand drivers, I have observed the same tendencies among my students. A sizable majority of drivers will respond poorly in a bind, and they have already self-selected for having an interest in driving well!

What about those who don't even want to improve? They will still get in their cars and go to work in the morning, cup of coffee in one hand, and a bagel in another, talking on the phone, hands-free if we're lucky.

Were we to replace these drivers with computers at the wheel, I guarantee that we would see fewer accidents than we do today. Further, even the drivers who pay attention but aren't trained to respond to emergency situations correctly, will benefit from having a computerized chauffeur, as the car will deliver the programmed response consistently each time, and do it quicker than a human driver could.

The only problematic area would be situations that people writing the programs for the car will not foresee, in which case the car will turn into the equivalent of a driver from the Speed Secrets book, who does absolutely nothing and crashes. However, artificial intelligence and learning systems may help resolve that.

All in all, I anticipate the impact of self-driving cars going mainstream to be overwhelmingly positive.

Comrade Manager

2012-09-14T08:34:00.000-07:00

Apparently, I am writing a book now. About community management.

I started writing it as a blog, and every entry will eventually become a chapter. All of it focuses on different aspects of running a community of use for an organization, from starting the forums and recruiting moderators to more fundamental areas such as why community management isn't.

Here's what's already published:

If you love them, set them free

The Importance of Reputation in Online Communities

Moderation, in spades

Starting from scratch

Why community management isn’t

Orgcharts are stupid

New: Well-forgotten (and renamed) old

Community is not about you

I have about another fifteen or so chapters outlined, and when they've all been written, I will take the whole thing, and edit it together into a nice little e-book.

If you care to take a gander at it, it's at comrademanager.com. It's been slow going, with just two posts each month, but I figure, it will be done when it's done.

The house

2012-09-13T09:24:00.000-07:00

Let's start with an excuse, because I got a great one: I abandoned you all, O my faithful readers, because I bought a house together with my boyfriend J.

It was a short sale, meaning that nothing was short about it. We found it back in February, made an offer in March, and it took until August to actually purchase it.

To continue with the theme of shortness or lack thereof, we still have not moved into it, because the house is being thoroughly remodeled as we speak.

When we got it, there were a few certainties. One, it was most definitely a house. And two, it needed love. Lots of love. At this point in time, I think the only room untouched by the remodel is the little downstairs bathroom. And even it needs a new toilet.

However.

When I am able to take a step back from this mega-project, this is shaping up to be awesome. The hose is located in Los Gatos mountains. Mere 20 minutes from Santa Cruz, and about 35 minutes from Mountain View, but when you're there, it feels like you are days away from civilization.

All you can see from there is mountains and trees.

At night, it gets truly dark. The kind of dark that a city kid (me) has not encountered before. When the moon shines, things cast shadows in the moonlight. Like you'd know from a game or a movie. Only in real life.

And the moon is HUGE.

There is also wildlife in great numbers. We had a brief encounter with a wrenn who flew into the house and knocked himself out on a window glass. I picked him up carefully with a towel and brought him out onto the deck, where he sat, still groggy from the impact, until recovered enough to fly away.

We saw deer, quails (?), coyotes, and all sorts of other birds we could not identify. There are also supposed to be mountain lions in the area, but so far there were no sightings of them. Maybe it's for the best.