Manifest Destiny Brewery

No More Stalins. No More Hitlers.

2008-04-23T11:39:00.001-04:00

"We have a new type of rule now. Not one-man rule, or rule of aristocracy or plutocracy, but of small groups elevated to positions of absolute power by random pressures and subject to political and economic factors that leave little room for decision.

They are representatives of abstract forces who have reached power through surrender of self. The iron-willed dictator is a thing of past.

There will be no more Stalins, no more Hitlers.

The rulers of this most insecure of all worlds are rulers by accident. Inept, frightened pilots at the controls of a vast machine they cannot understand, calling in experts to tell them which buttons to push."

—William S. Burroughs, “No More Stalins, No More Hitlers,” from Dead City Radio, Island Records, 1990

Getting past denial

2008-02-13T13:06:00.002-05:00

John Cole of Balloon Juice feels the economy is in for long term pain. Robert Reich is there too.

SAT question of the day
Michigan :: Economy
Canary :: ?

Good night sweet Allendale..the saga continues

2007-10-22T15:31:00.000-04:00

Check the update to the "Straight outta Conklin" post. Things are indeed getting much worse in Ottawa county. August set a recent record for Ottawa county with 102 foreclosures.

Also today via Calculated Risk, a graphic from the IMF indicating the reset dates for the various mortgage products out there.

A quick search revealed that relatively well-off Oakland county saw foreclosures up 120% (month to month) from a year ago. I think I would rather see a year to year comparison.

William Gibson: The US has emotionally regressed in response to 9/11

2007-10-19T13:14:00.000-04:00

Not sure how I got to this one. Maybe through Boing Boing. William Gibson author of Neuromancer and anointed (supposedly reluctantly) creator of the cyberspace myth comments on futurists, terrorism and other things at Tyee Brooks, a Vancouver website. The interview is interesting at least. Here are some snippets, some out of context but they still work.

On America's response to 9-11:

"I think that if I were Osama Bin Laden, I can't really imagine what more I could ask for. The strafing of Mecca, possibly. But we've done everything we could wrong..."

"But emotionally, I think it caused an understandable infantilization of society."

"Invade countries. Use air power. Well, it turns out, those are the two things not to do. The old paradigm is the wrong paradigm."

What I found most interesting was Gibson's take on reality, authenticity, and virtual reality.

"I think a lack of concern about virtual and real maybe telling us as much about what we used to call real as it is about what we now call virtual. I think that everything we've been doing since we sat around camp fires telling stories and started making cave paintings, everything we've been doing as a species seems to me to be part of this [desire and ability] to create prosthetic aspects of the self that are capable of surviving the death of the individual or indeed the death of an entire society."

I take away from this that things like building an online presence are in a way a response to mortality. Building virtual worlds that are more lasting than the real one. Interesting thought.

Interesting Take on Drug Legalization

2007-10-15T14:59:00.000-04:00

From Slate sourced from BoingBoing over RSS.

Cory Doctorow claims that Tim Wu, writing on Slate has written his "opus" on the enforcement of laws in the U.S.

From part I:

"Tolerated lawbreaking is almost always a response to a political failure—the inability of our political institutions to adapt to social change or reach a rational compromise that reflects the interests of the nation and all concerned parties."

I'm all for the claim that politics is/has failed us but I hope to see some discussion of alternatives in addition to the evidence that Tim has put out so far in parts 2 and 3. Tim Wu does go on to explain how certain laws are not enforced or (more importantly for my own devices) how those laws are enforced based on class. Just to be clear I do not see that he is trying to prove that lack of enforcement is a sign of complete failure of the political system, only that it shows an inability to reach a viable compromise on specific subjects.

In my social circle I have been known to rant on the seeming inevitability that "rights" (i.e. free speech, firearms) as we know them seem destined to become privileges available only to those available to afford them. For example, while a lower-middle class may be able to afford to open a gun smithing shop and the protection of the law that activity requires, combining that shop with a printing press may get him in trouble if his views do not match a given social norm. Maybe he'll throw both out the window if he commits a youthful indiscretion like downloading music on Bit torrent.

In his first installment, Mr. Wu, explains the how illicit drugs may have (functionally) become the equivalent to narcotics, though something enjoyed by those with higher incomes.

Antidepressants and anxiety treatments aren't cheap: A fancy drug like Wellbutrin can cost anywhere from $1,000 to $2,400 a year. These drugs also require access to a sympathetic doctor who will issue a prescription. That's why, generally speaking, the new legalization program is for better-off Americans. As the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University reports, rich people tend to abuse prescription drugs, while poorer Americans tend to self-medicate with old-fashioned illegal drugs or just get drunk.

I wonder where the majority of law-enforcement dollars are spent? Questioning the need for the use of Ritalin (compared to nicotine and coccaine in the article) among those with a "need" and an ability to pay. Or cracking down on drinking and smoking? Is self-medication a symptom of ills in society, a response to the human condition, or just the inability to find a suitable hobby?

It would be interesting to explore how nicotine and alcohol are regulated in comparison with prescription drugs especially when you through the insurance industry into the mix. I also wonder how advertising plays into the mix. After all, new drugs are heralded in the MSM, can't say the same for the newest liquor concoction.

Tim's next installment explores the transmission of pornography across state lines evolving the previous section into discussion of how obsolete laws are dealt with (as opposed to repealing the law). Good stuff and I look forward to hearing more from Mr. Wu. I'm particularly interested to see if he brings up speed limits as an example of laws that (as any teenager can tell you) are not enforced uniformly.

I suspect in the end that where laws are enforced unequally or not at all their lack of enforcement stems (in some part) because it inconveniences upper class white men or aging hippy lawmakers.

Game Over man....Game Over

2007-08-23T22:35:00.000-04:00

The Fed keep pumpin in the money....not good news. Note: Pessimism seems to be lingering in my thoughts these days.

Link

Free Speech

2007-05-16T00:17:00.000-04:00

Whether or not this falls under the domain of free speech is a different debate altogether. Or, maybe, it is the debate altogether. For those not in the loop, Opie and Anthony have been (according to fansite wackbag.com) fired from XM radio.

Now, despite my obvious objection to violence against women, I am a vehement supporter of freedom a speech no matter how vulgar. This point especially, is one that stirs conflicted feelings. Certainly, I have reason to detest those that would subjugate and abuse women, be they my friends, my wife, or my family. At the same time, this country was founded on the idea that unpopular speech should be protected. In this particular circumstance, this speech deals with dis empowerment, some men genuinely degrade women while others can relate to the sense of powerlessness in society they face in a society where women are equal if not a privileged group.

I have seen many women abused, and literally oppressed and the very thought of it makes me sick. Similarly, I have seen women take advantage of their privileged status to belittle men. Fair enough. Regardless, men of today should not be paying for the sins of their fathers. Both men and women need to learn to respect each other more and intimidating either sex into hiding away their frustrations is no help to anyone.

In college I faced a similar argument from a brilliant and fair woman who felt that a list comparing women to dogs was too offensive for publication. While I agreed that the list was offensive it was obvious the impetus for the publication was a sincere frustration and confusion relating to women at a school where women were in a severe minority(read privileged status). I stand now as I stand then, men and women should be free to say what they like. Hopefully, the consequence of such speech will be honest dialog. My Alma Mater, influenced by this brilliant co-student, decided that the dialog needed to be separated and controlled. In my mind, this essentially maintained the status quo. In the end though, it didn't matter, political acrimony trumped to marketplace of ideas. Some men still treated women like crap, many men were still treated terribly by women.

Personally, I would have loved to see the talented, gifted women of our school put to shame the frustrated frat boys and misogynists. Unfortunately, in my mind at least, they choose not to acknowledge the feelings on the other side of the table, ignoring them instead and starting their own self-involved dialog. The policy of our piss-ant paper was to not execute editorial judgment over article submitted by "authors" responding to a deadline. I remember clearly bringing the issues that ultimately brought down our paper to the print shop. I remember thinking that the issue and article were crap, but I wasn't an editor..I just believed in the power of the press. After all, the article in question was 2 authored lines followed by an internet forward. I also remember thinking that, if anyone cared, perhaps men and women would talk about the relationship between the sexes on campus. Instead, nearly 10 years later, nothing has changed, but there is a group of self-important humanities women talking amongst themselves about their unprivileged status in society and there is one less free speech publication in the upper midwest.

So it goes with Opie and Anthony. O & A were a tough sell to me. Honestly, I wasn't a huge fan when I lived in Philly back in 2002. Sex for Sam really creeped me out. I wondered how they were getting away with it. Of course, eventually, they didn't.

I finally caught O&A again when they returned to FM in Grand Rapids, MI on WKLQ. Somehow, O&A and I had both grown up while maintaining our penchant for immature humor. O&A seemed perfectly aware of the low-browness of their humor. They were OK with it,so was I. What made everything funny was how the humor itself was so disconnected from reality. That leads us into "Homeless Charlie" I heard the bit on replay, on XM, and felt that the humor in the situation was completely due to the absurdity. The man making the comments was a homeless man, he felt powerless. Charlie may have felt empowered but they didn't change the reality of his situation. In that way, I don't feel his comments were any more offensive than a black man using the "n" word. Similarly, any person in an oppressed/underprivileged situation using offensive language to feel empowered. That's what you do, you use language to feel empowered. It's a liberal idea.

O & A were simply reacting the to Charlie's situation, they weren't cheering him on. Similarly, by publishing the "10 ways dogs are better than women" in a college free speech publication I was only validating one man's feelings, not giving credence to his ideas. It just so happens that what homeless Charlie had to say was so outrageous it was funny and undeniably offensive. So what? Listeners tune in to O and A to be offended. Condi, Laura, the queen and their supporters weren't listening. These comments were projected at an idea, not at individuals.

I've canceled my XM and won't be tuning back in without a sincere apology, waiving of any "activation fees" and some serious ass-kissing.

O and A are welcome to $5-10/month if they want to pull of a subscription podcast. Keep talking free speech, stay funny, and I'll be there.

Straight outta Conklin..(Updated 10/22)

2007-02-01T15:00:00.000-05:00

So. I'm moving. Really, I will be moving. Eventually. As in selling my house and leaving the area. In contemplating this move I came across the Ottawa Country Register of Deeds webpage. Seems there's these taxes associated with the sale of land.

In any case, I immediately took note that foreclosure numbers for the county are provided right there on the front page. I was nice enough to put the numbers in a graphical format.

I graduated high school in the time immediately preceeding the start of this graph. What I read into this picture is that times are and continue to be tough in West Michigan.

Update: Year to Date there have been 635 reported foreclosures, if the trend maintains the average foreclosures will be up 30% over 2006. Mind you that August was up at 102.

Eggplant Parmesean

2007-01-11T13:04:00.000-05:00

My trip today to the employee cafteria provided a stunning glimpse into life in West Michigan and how life here is differentiated from life in other parts of the county. When I think "Eggplant Parmesean", I think of a breaded and lightly fried eggplant slice served over noodles and topped,sparsely, with cheese. A vegeterian dish to be sure.

However, in Holland, Michigan Eggplant Parmesean is apparently lasagne with the added benefit of breaded and fried eggplant. Lasagne made with thick slabs of various sausage and ham in a meat and cheese sauce topped with a 1-inch layer of cheese. A few tomatoes and red onions were sprinkled on the mixture to provide the illusion of a healthy food. Mushrooms are included for character. For a side, cheesy broccoli was supplied and placed next additional parmesean cheese to be sprinkled on top of the concoction and partnered with a roll so oily it stained through several pieces of paper here on my desk. Somewhere Mrs.Oberon is fainting at the thought.

My motivation for purchasing this toxic almagum was altruistic. I was in a meeting that ran into the lunch hour. Rather than firing up the Duramax only to run a few blocks for slightly less dubious food, I checked out the cafe on the off chance the selection may be edible. I assumed I would be purchasing the dish I described above and therefore supporting the idea that the daily selections should be more health-concious. Afterall, it seemed no one else was partaking. I was going to do my part and consume the probably-only-slightly-healthier dish. I didn't know at the time I would be consuming twice my RDA of calories, dairy, and fat all in one sitting. In fact, I think perhaps some entrepaneurs in New York City decided to export all of their transfats to West Michigan to be consumed in this one dish.

I mentioned that no one was eating the Eggplant Parmesean. I should go further and explain that the lunch ladies were actually pushing it on passers by as a healthy alternative to say, a salad. A logical argument given the ammount of dressing, cheese and ham one sees over a few springs of iceberg round these parts. I could explain the lack of interest in one of two ways. I could assume that word had gotten around about the intestinal ferocity of this dish. I could also just assume, based on my experience growing up in this area, that everyone saw the word "Eggplant" and decided to head over to Wendy's. You see, if the fine citizens of the greater Holland Metropolitan Reformed Church had actually known how much meat and cheese were in this dish they would have been lining up out the door to suck the breading off the vegetable. That's my take anyway.

It also occurred to me that this version of Eggplant Parmesean, or it's very existence/this situation, is in some way, a metaphor for my situation here in Holland. A metaphor, in so much that while I am interested in what was advertised, I was detested by the reality of Eggplant Parmesean, the cheesy broccolli, the oily roll. Even still I ate it all. Just like a blond, frugal, Dutch boy from West Michigan should. A situation based on hope, denial, and false assumptions.

West Michigan sounds like a nice place, close up I am disgusted by the rabid intolerance, the self righteousness and backwardness of West Michigan. Still, I continue to live here because it's part of who I am. A particularly poignant observation given my looming decision to perhaps pick up and move to the other side of the state. I keep thinking things are going to get better and when "better" is served up its Eggplant Parmesean, Holland style.

On the precipice..

2006-12-12T12:03:00.000-05:00

I've ranted before about the possibility of oil money moving out of dollars and into other currencies. Marketplace has a story about just such and occurence and inevitable fall of the dollar.

I wonder how this fits into the "soft-landing" scenario that everyone is bandying about.

Also on a Marketplace program of one or another regarding "soft landings" (paraphrasing)

"..the Fed keeps talking about soft landings but the fact is they aren't very good at!"

Olbermann blasts Bush and Fox News

2006-09-26T23:41:00.000-04:00

From Google Video via Digg. Not in 6 years of this administration have I seen actual juevos on a 24 hours new network "journalist" approaching those Mr. Oblermann here. I would give credit to the Daily Show but there is no smirk, no jokes. Olbermann is pissed off Edward R. Murrow style, even ending with "Goodnight and Goodluck". If only MSNBC drew the same viewership as CBS back in Murrow's day perhaps this would affect some change. Instead, Olbermann is likely to be marginalized on "Fox and Friends".
All I can say is thank goodness for the likes of YouTube and Google Video and a nod to digg.

I get the distinct feeling that between Olbermann, Lewis Black, and myself...well we'd have a great time drinking.

Get a Hobby...

2006-09-21T12:22:00.000-04:00

I've been a fan of Bruce Sterling for many years. I'm pretty sure we were introduced by Wired Magazine (way back in the first year of publication). From there I started reading things like Neuromancer, Islands in the Net, and Snow Crash. I was never a fan of Sterling in terms of his narratives but his ideas are top notch and used by others to great effect. That's probably why I liked The Difference Engine best out of all of his works as he collaborates with William Gibson. Interestingly enough, Henry Rollins' tiny role in Johnny Mneuomnic kick started my interest in the Rollins Band, mostly because, before Keanu's involvement, Hank was rumored to be up for the lead role. Of course I new Rollins from a guest appearance on Undertow and the breakout album Weight which preceded the movie. However, the rumors of Rollins as Johnny and even a (far better) screenplay had circulated the BBS/early internet for since about 1993.

Back to the main story. Sterling has written a new short story about being a teenager in the future, though it's just as much about being a teenager now.

I'm not a parent, I probably never will be, but let me say this. Kids need to get in trouble and be unsupervised. Teenagers need to be allowed to make mistakes and use their judgment in order to grow up into adults. Things like forcing college students to live in dorm under strict supervision, zero-tolerance anything, closed campus highschools and other restrictions are turning teenagers into adults who are used to the state taking care of them and allowing unprecedented restrictions on their liberty. Heck they don't even vote; the government knows best.

In my worldview this all started with MADD and the raising of the drinking age to 21. It continued on into smoking bans and has catapulted to putting restrictions on 18 year old adults in college. Someone, somewhere, should challenge this idiocy but we're all too worried about what standing up for our rights would do to our future job prospects.

The driving source behind this over-protectiveness is, of course, parents. Boomers gave their parents a hard time when they were teenagers to the point that they want so much not to screw up with their own kids. Likewise, they are terrified that their children will repeat their mistakes. If this protective impulse was out of any feeling other than self-interest the end result would be different.

No, parents don't want to hold themselves responsible. Instead teachers and administrators are held to account. Inevitably teachers and administrators then ask for and receive permission to place further restrictions on teens. My personal belief is that, without a adult-free outlet, this leads to even greater pressure to conform. Of course, that idea dovetails into my explanation for Columbine and the subversice idea that schools are used for brainwashing. It's a whole vicious cycle that continues along an Orwellian downward spiral.

Where are we now? We are acclimating teenagers into living in a totally controlled environment with no privacy, constant surveillance, and an acceptable list of topics to discuss.

How can anyone wonder why over the lack of outrage concerning violations of civil liberties when parents demand that their children be monitored and adults emerge from teenhood thinking such invasion is the norm?

It all comes back to over-protective parents, baby obsession, and paranoia over being a good parent. A frame of mind started by "The worst generation" I'm speaking of course of the baby-boomers. Who are at this moment racking up so much debt buying ATVs, Snowmobile, and flipping condos in their search for self-fulfillment that their gluttony will be a burden on this country for generations after I die. It is a chilling observation to see the children of the boomers regarding their offspring as an investment that must be protected. Being human is about self discovery, too bad self-discovery isn't a good investment.

It's a pretty big stretch from a "Technology omni-present babysitter" story to blaming the worlds problems on the boom generation, I know. Regardless, I've stated my case. Even if you disagree with my crochettey rambling, read "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by Google."

For the record my hobby is bitching about injustice.

Previous Bruce Sterling Short Story

Billmon plays Thomas Paine

2006-05-15T14:23:00.000-04:00

Anyone within earshot should do themselves a favor and read Billmon's commentary on Hobbe's Leviathan as it pertains to the NSA wiretapping scandal/issue/debate(?). Even scarier is the recent poll showing 50% of Americans have no problem with having their phone records monitored if it prevents terrorism.

http://billmon.org/archives/002440.html

I am constantly impressed with Billmon's ability to put ideas into words. Something my education at engineering school never quite instilled. Likewise, despite being well read for a midwestern engineer I apparently missed the section on the enlightenment.

Also of interest today is Robert Reich's commentary on the tax cut extension the President is about to sign and the some dispute as to his data. I think perhaps what Brad Delong and Greg Mankiw are missing are the qualifiers for including sales and other taxes (gas, vehicle registration, and other things that are essentially taxes). I am not an economist, nor do I pretend to be but I am anxious to see if Reich can provide some data.

Path:
Brad DeLong http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2006/05/tax_incidence.html
to Greg Mankiw:http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/05/reich-on-taxes.html
to Robert Reich: http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2006/05/tax-obscenity.html

All three are interesting reads and some of the comments bring up the "all taxes" point I made above.

Angst, the source of mine.

2006-04-13T13:25:00.000-04:00

Via Brad DeLong

The Financial Times has a great piece on "Tackling America's Growing Inequality" that plainly puts into the words the financial reality that is the source of so much of my angst. In my mind it is not inequality that is the problem but flat wage growth for the middle class. The new information (to me) provided in the article is that while productivity has gone up every year I have been working by at least 3% wages over median income fell by 3.8%. During the same time period there have been ever increasing corporate profits, etc.
Similarly, since 1973 (my lifetime) incomes for the top 10% have grown 111% while for the middle 20% incomes have only increased 15%. Americans are also working more, I would be they are probably working a lot more than 15% more hours for what is essentially they same pay.

Resident favorite Billmon also has some things to say about the economy in regard to the president's approval ratings. Of particular note is the average hourly wage in 1982 dollars, side by side with corporate profits.

Yup, trust the market...sure.

A related quote that with particularly appealing imagery (from Billmon's link to the weekly standard" re: the housing bubble).

"Countless articles in the financial and popular press have now been devoted to the question of whether we are in a housing "bubble." It is a favorite topic of many liberal economists, columnists, and bloggers, who argue that President Bush's tax cuts and other policies have created a hollow and unsustainable economy." <Emphasis mine>

Yeah, that's it...

Mini-Sensors for "Military Omniscience"

2006-03-29T10:39:00.000-05:00

From BoingBoing:

Mini-Sensors for "Military Omniscience": "Xeni Jardin: Defensetech's Noah Shachtman says, Spotting insurgents, sorting out friend from foe -- it's beyond tough in today's guerilla war zones. So tough, that no single monitor can be counted on to handle the job. The Pentagon's answer: build a set of palm-sized, networked sensors that can be scattered around, and work together to 'detect, classify, localize, and track dismounted combatants under foliage and in urban environments.' It's part of a larger Defense Department effort to establish 'military omniscience' -- and 'ubiquitous monitoring.' Link to blog post with photos. "

Doesn't this effectively negate the idea:

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."

I guess I had a hold out that revolution against a repressive governement was still possible via Guerilla warfare. If technologies such as these negate that possibility, why reason does the government have to fear its people?

Is that still good?

2006-03-20T12:59:00.000-05:00

Mrs.Oberon and I have this discussion all of the time. Is that still good? Via Make to realsimple and their list.

2006-03-14T23:12:00.000-05:00

Another picture of the dish installation. Lucky for me the line-of-site cleared the tall trees in my yard. We will see is that holds up once the trees produce leaves and start moving this way and that in the wind.

2006-03-14T23:05:00.000-05:00

The WildBlue dish is very different from those used for DirecWay satelllite internet. Note that a dual, offset Gregorian type reflector is used. WildBlue also operates in the Ka band (28 GHz as far as this dish is concerned). This allows the dish and hardware to be smaller than DirecWay's Ku band setup. In addition, there's more bandwidth available per beam.

2006-03-14T23:00:00.000-05:00

I just had WildBlue internet installed at the Homestead. The modem is about the size of a textbook and is paired with a beefy power supply.

HOWTO give yourself an abortion

2006-03-01T10:33:00.000-05:00

This is my first post via Google reader. I thought it should get out there and add that my work proxy now blocks BoingBoing. BoingBoing is currently protesting the fact that they are blocked as a pr0n site for showing
1) Pictures of "David"
2) Those new Abu Garaib photos.
Does that make the U.S. government pr0n peddlers?

The main article though is a "HOWTO" on DIY abortions.

New on my list this week: South Dakota.

HOWTO give yourself an abortion: "Xeni Jardin: Inspired by the grim news that abortions may soon be banned in South Dakota, one female blogger posts detailed instructions -- MAKE magazine style -- on DIY backalley abortions. Not a recommendation, and not reposted here with the belief that this would be safe or advisable for any woman.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, when abortions were illegal in many places and expensive to get, an organization called Jane stepped up to the plate in the Chicago area. Jane initially hired an abortion doctor, but later they did the abortions themselves. They lost only one patient in 13,000 -- a lower death rate than that of giving live birth. The biggest obstacle they had, though, was the fact that until years into the operation, they thought of abortion as something only a doctor could do, something only the most trained specialist could perform without endangering the life of the woman.

They were deceived -- much like you have probably been deceived. An abortion, especially for an early pregnancy, is a relatively easy procedure to perform. And while I know, women of South Dakota, that you never asked for this, now is the time to learn how it is done. There is no reason you should be beholden to doctors -- especially in a state where doctors have been refusing to perform them, forcing the state's only abortion "

Richard Dean Anderson and the walk of fame.

2006-02-23T10:31:00.000-05:00

Via Google Reader and MAKE I learned of the push to get Richard Dean Anderson ( of MacGuyver and SG-1 fame among other things) on the walk of fame. I am not a person who does the whole "fan" thing. The more celebrities you meet minor or major the more you realize that they're just normal people in extraordinary circumstances. Which is why when I saw this tribute to the man with the duct tape in his coat pocket, I was impressed and a bit wierded out.
I mean "Wow" that's a great deal of effot to go through for someone who may not give a damn. I guess I had no idea what a great relationship "RDA" , as they call him, has with his fans. RDA's reaction was....pretty cool.

"MY GOD, THAT IS THE MOST WONDERFUL AND THOUGHTFUL BIRTHDAY PRESENT I HAVE EVER RECEIVED. IT IS ASTOUNDINGLY PROFESSIONAL AND BLESSEDLY PERSONAL. I AM GENUINELY TOUCHED, AND WILL ALWAYS BE GRATEFUL FOR YOUR TALENT AND INSIGHT AND UNDERSTANDING.

HONESTLY, MY FRIENDS, YOUR CREATION IS UTTERLY SPECTACULAR.

THANK YOU, SO VERY MUCH!

RICHARD

With that coloring my perspecitve, the site seemed now,heartwarming. Civil not crazy fans and a down to earth guy. Cool.

He's got my vote for a star.

Someone Else Decides to Coin the Term "Gonzo Engineering"

2006-02-15T13:34:00.000-05:00

Shortly after the death of Hunter S. Thomson my circle of engineer friends tried, and I will admit, failed to define Gonzo engineering. As a response to Hunter's "Gonzo Journalism", Gonzo Engineering would have the same flair and reckless abandon as Hunter, but with an eye toward making things. I suppose we should probably involved guns and drugs somehow, but being complacent, risk adverse engineers, we'll probably just top off at hard liquor.
Perhaps it was a similar mode of thinking that led this guy to coin the term. As someone who has made it a goal to be well rounded when I started thinking on Gonzo Engineering, I wanted to avoid playing into the geek/engineer/ ham radio stereo types . If it's Gonzo, people should look on in awe. You can read and decide for yourself whether his definition is deserving of "Gonzo"
I certainly respect the guy's approach, but Microship's Gonzo is what most people call "hermit engineering." Of course, he anticipates this claiming that Gonzo engineers end up broke, alone and crabby..or words to that effect.

Maybe I was just hoping the there was a place in Gonzo engineering for fortune and glory, for a raging kegger now and then, for just blowing things up, you know just for the heck of it.

Manifest Destiny embraces RSS....finally.

2006-02-15T08:52:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I finally got on the RSS bandwagon. Inspired by discovering that the IEEE has some RSS feeds I decided to plop them on my Google Homepage--just because.. Good stuff. After completing that task I decided to add all of the blogs I check daily. This new homepage would streamline the process of taking uselss facts and cramming them into my brain. I had no idea what I was in for.

When I got to Boing Boing I clicked on the "RSS" link and was greated by a link for Google Reader. Sure, I am behind the times here but without the internets at home I don't get in as much surfing as I used to; this was my first hearing about this wonderful application.

So yesterday, I quickly added all the non-professional blogs I generally run through during a day. After wrapping that up, I rushed home to cook the Mrs., Ming's Blue Ginger Garlic-Pepeer Lobster.

This morning I checked the reader and discovered a New York magazine story about the to 50 blogs via Bruce Sterling of Wired blogs. I quickly scanned the 50 and realized I was aware of most of the english blogs (Even Dooce). So I suppose I am not really that far behind the curve afterall.

I found where I was really lacking was the gossip blogs. Not much use for those in my life, but I decided to check them just this once. What was I missing? On The Superficial is discovered that TomKat may split up (is there still time to abort the anti-christ?), Mel Gibson bought a bowling alley for Fiji and Tommy Lee got beat up by Enimen's posse for dissing Kid Rock. Good stuff. West Side-Represent!

...but you know...it's all about the journey...

Bruce Sterling Short Story

2006-02-13T10:49:00.000-05:00

What would happen if a Caliphate did form in the Arab world? Science Fiction writer Bruce Sterling ponders this possibility in his short story "We See Things Differently" Sterling always has great ideas even if his writing isn't always Nobel material.

Wild Hooey! A broadband bitch session. (Please ignore)

2006-02-13T09:23:00.000-05:00

I may or may nor have posted on WildBlue, the satellite ISP that went online late last year. Before I left my previous job, I was working quoting the antenna system for what ended up being the satellite that carries WildBlue. For the longest time, I was under the impression my previous employer won the contract ( things were looking good at the time). Alas, our competitor ended up building and launching the satellite which uses Ka spot beam technology.
Having read up on WildBlue's other technologies I was convinced that they had the best technology available and when I heard they were going to start pricing at $49.99 I was enthusiastic. Maybe finally, I could be free of my terrible landline connection. There was also the promise (at least initiaaly) that WB would not implement a draconian Fair Access Policy (FAP) such as the one that plagues The Angry Engineer (maybe that's why he's so angry?).

Last year around this time Ihad gone to WildBlue's website to sign up. Maybe I could beta test. After all I used to design antennas for satellites I also have plently of experience with computers and dish alignments. No, it turns out that beta testing would be done only in Colorado...er something like that. So, I added my self to their waiting list. They told me they would contact me when service was available.

I checked back in June and found that service had gone live. Alas, there were no installers in my area. It was around this time I found a user board for WB called "WildBlue Uncensored". I had a busy summer and didn't really miss having a useable landline let alone broadband. The landline though, got a lot worse. Finally in November it got so bad that I could not receive calls. I called Verizon and they wanted a tech to enter the house ( My NID is in my basement) an action that instantly incurrs a $90 charge. No way, unless they fixed the problem I was finally going to get WildBlue. Verizon relented and finally fixed the line and also admitted that there were seriouis problems with the line.
The line has been reasonable since then, but with my yearly bonus a week away I decided I was going to get WildBlue anyway. Unfortunately, I received this message:

" We apologize, but due to overwhelming demand, we are not currently performing installations in your area. We hope to resume doing so in the coming months. Please register and we will inform you as soon as installations resume in your area."

I went to the WB Uncensored forum where I discovered many users encountering problems uploading to WildBlue. After about a month of investigation I discovered that the spot beam covering my geographic area was full. In my fantasy world, this is all because of suburban Chicago-landers, but I have no proof. There was much speculation at the time issues would be fixed after the New Year. Note the word "soon" in the message above.

After some digging in January I discovered that "soon" actually meant, within a year or two. After WildBlue gets the go-ahead to launch a new satellite, completed In Orbit Testing (IOT) and does another round of beta testing. That really doesn't cut it as "soon" in my book. I contacted the "local" (100 miles away) Co-Op performing installs and WildBlue and both confirmed that the beam was "full". After some mulling and kicking a can down the road in frustration, I relented. Perhaps DirecWay was my only option.

As an aside, during this time I also looked at Verizon's BroadBand access. This would work just fine for my needs except they require you to have a laptop. You see, they in no way want you to replace their landline. It's possible to use a Bluetooth enable phone instead, but this is against their terms of service. So, even if I am willing to pay $60/month for the priveleg, they won't let me add a data plan to my phone.

At last the day came, I was going to order DirecWay. I went one last time to WB Uncensored and poked around looking for hope. It was at that time I found a user eager to get out of their contract and, even better, they were only a short drive away. I made an attempt to contact the person and didn't hear back until last Friday. I was elated. That is until I received a call on Saturday informing me that this person had sent WildBlue a nasty letter in the intervening week and WildBlue had let her our of her contract....and given it to someone else. I felt gipped. I mean, I had been on the waiting list since they had a waiting list..before they even had any installers and had been passed over because there are no installers in the area.

So, here I am bitching on my blog. I posted a plea on the WB Uncensored forum. There are plenty of people unhappy with WildBlue. Apparently, it's not all that good for P2P. They also implemented a FAP, but it is still tons better than DWay. We'll see if anyone bites.

....sincerley, Pathetic in Polkton Twp.

High Def 3D sonar?

2006-02-10T11:13:00.000-05:00

Ever since taking a class on direction-finding and signal processing I've had an ear to the wind in regard to new advancements. MIT has developed a "Super Sonar" which supposedly, according to NPR allows for real-time tracking of fish schools over miles of ocean floor. I have to figure that either some antenna/radar theory got worked into this development...or it will lead to some interesting developments in antenna/radar.
It may be a while before you can see in the dark with your cell-phone though. From the story I heard, the "super sonar" is a monster and requires a ton of computing power.

The story on NPR.
Web page of Professor Nicholas Makris

All quiet on the blogging front.

2006-02-10T11:06:00.000-05:00

A lot has happened since my last post. Well, mostly I got engaged. I also bought Mrs.Oberon an iPod. After spending hours loading her music library onto the 5th gen device I've developed a longing for an iPod of my own....I think I might wait around for this fancy brick.
Really, a 3.5" screen video ipod with a touch screen? Wow. Have to set aside some of the ol' tax return for that baby.

My obligatory post on General Motors; The future of R&D ?

2005-12-09T13:01:00.000-05:00

So, there's plenty of news regarding Delphi and GM in the automotive press as noted here:

http://www.autoblog.com/entry/1234000803071587/

GM is in some trouble financially. They are likely to be exceeded as the world's #1 automaker by Toyota, a strike looms in the future at Delphi, SUVs rot in crowded dealer lots, etc. All of the bad news has resulted in well-reasoned speculation that GM will be forec to close its doors. So far, the only reason I have heard but forward is that GM cannot go out of business "because no company that big can go under".

Then there's this piece...of work from CEO Rick Wagoner.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007641

I have long held that America companies should be begging for universal healthcare. In his...piece..Mr. Wagoner comes close. I suppose he's asking either for some protectionist measures like tarriffs (that worked great for the steel industry), or maybe, just maybe we should start thinking of universal healthcare.

(Disclaimer: Not that universal healthcare is a great solution to the health care problem, it would still need to be paid for through taxes or tariffs. Both of these would reduce consumer spending and so on down the line. However, if we want to be competitive in the world marketplace we might want to consider the option. Oh, and did I mention that maybe it would be the right thing to do.)

Wagoner also claims the auto industry spends more on R&D than any other sector in the U.S. I suppose that may be true in the United States, but in the world as a whole the automotive sector is second behind "Technology and Hardware Equipment" according to IEEE Spectrum.

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/dec05/2395

A PDF of the top 100 R&D companies is also available through IEEE Spectrum:

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/images/dec05/images/rdf1.pdf

I looked at this article in the print version at home last night. I was immediately struck by the top 5 R&D spenders:

Ford
DCX
Toyota
Pfizer
GM

I should note that the top 100 ranking is based on total spending and, given the sales figures for these companies, I would hope the would be up there in spending for just about anything.

So yeah, the ranking seem impressive until you check out the percentage of R&D spending compared to sales. All of the automakers average around 3-4%. The average over the 100 companies was 8.8%. I wonder how much of that 3% is R&D into process improvements and HR initiatives?

There is also a consensus among automakers in another metric: R&D spending per employee. The big three average about $20k/employee; Toyota beats them all at $24k/employee. The average for the top 100 (spanning all industries worldwide) was $33k/employee. When you look at R&D from this perpective the automakers move to the bottom 40%.

What I find amusing is that Wagoner seems to be taking credit for all of the automotive R&D spending, even though they are 3rd among the big three and behind rival Toyota.

So, where's Honda in the mix? Number one among automakers in the ratio of R&D spending/sale @ 5.4% and spending $34k/employee on R&D. Have I mentioned how much I like working with Honda?

The other players: (In order of R&D spending)
VW:#12 overall, 4.3% sales to R&D ration, $14k/employee
Nissan: #22 overall, sales to R&D ratio of 4.6, $22k/employee.
PSA PEUGEOT CITROEN SA,: 3.3%, $11k/employee
Fiat: 3.9%, $14k/employee
Mazda: 3.4%, $24k/employee

Among major suppliers I noted: (In order of R&D spending)
SIEMENS AG,: 6.7%, $15k/employee
Bosch: 7.2%, $15k
Denso: 8.5%, $21k
Delphi: 7.3%, $11k/employee
Visteon: 4.8%, $13k/employee

Obviously, my spin is that the total dollars doesn't matter. So what would the list look like if I reorganized?

The top 10 :

Nortel
Schering-Plough
Eli Lily
Amgen
BAE Systems
Schering
AMD
Astrazeneca
ST Micro
Freescale Semiconductor

The Bottom 10:

GE
Deutsch Telecom
Nestle
NTT Docomo (Why spend money on R&D when you have a monopoly)
Dow Chemical
Unilever (Didn't they buy Ben & Jerry's)
Lockheed Martin (No suprise here)
LG Electronics
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (See NTT Docomo)
BASF (Isn't their brand image all about R&D?)

To be fair to the bottom 9 (excluding GE) the margins on these products are likely so low the sales and R&D per numbers aren't really all that fair.

My gripe with GE is that the company is held up as a model business, what with the holy Jack Welch business model and all. Obviously R&D has nothing to do with making money, so Welch is not concerned with R&D from a business perspective. I heard a lot of comments to this effect during my days in the satellite industry, so I have to say the numbers don't surprise me all that much. Objectively though, GE does a lot of things that have nothing to do with R&D (like owning NBC, and loaning money) that probably effected their ranking.

I also did a quick check to see who had the largest (year over year) increase in R&D spending per employee: Samsung. Keep that in mind during your Christmas shopping this year.

Also of note, a good number of U.S. companies in both rankings.

Productivity up, wage growth....negative.

2005-12-09T12:46:00.000-05:00

From the Washington Monthly. You would think that productivity growth = wages growth. Well, that is to say if you believe the party line that working harder results in more profits that will result in a bigger raise. Wait...what's that....you want me to drink what?

Kevin Drum provides some "snarky" comments:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_12/007709.php

To be fair, wage growth is negative relative to inflation (including energy prices) and likely includes the effects of Katrin and Rita. Of course, from that perspecitve my wages have been on a negative growth path for 4 years. Excluding a job change and one great raise year at my first job my wage growth has been negative since I graduated from engineering school. Now, if I factor in that my wages only went up during my job change because of my Master's degree and then subtract the cost of obtaining that degree......Oh dear...seems my boss just told me raises next year will be delayed 6 months and the company is copping out of 401(k) contributions. Good thing they paid out a record dividend to shareholders this year.

Cool hack of the month

2005-12-06T12:45:00.000-05:00

So far at least...

OSX on the PSP

Colored bubbles?

2005-11-18T10:29:00.000-05:00

Popular Science has an article detailing one mans obsession with coloring bubbles. As it turns out adding color to bubbles is very difficult thing to accomplish. After years of toiling away by a chemist and an inventor, colored bubbles will hit the store shelves soon (I know I will be keeping an eye out for them) in colors ranging from black to pink.
What I find exciting is the that the product development process (my guess is there were no ISO audits involved) required the invention of a new class of dies that disapears when exposed to oxygen or friction. So, in the end, while the goal was bubbles (a toy), the effort required the invention of something that is potentially far more useful than a novelty item.

Coolest thing I have seen all year

2005-11-16T15:35:00.000-05:00

...and perfect for the brewer in your family..

http://turbotap.com/Products/

nod to autoprophet for pointing this one out.

New Blog

2005-11-03T12:04:00.000-05:00

The lady brewer and I were watching "The Colber Report" last week and noticed that Michigan's Upper Peninsul is missing from a map where even Hawaii and Alaska are represented. There's no comment section anywhere I could find so I went to the Comedy Central blog and piped up. I decided at that point, to continue spoofing and created a blog in the same vein. I will be looking for contributors so if you'd like to volunteer please let me know.

Combat Rock! The Long March

2005-10-11T10:22:00.000-04:00

As my quarter-life crisis reaches a crescendo I've been turning to music to make myself feel relevant and to provide sustenance to my waning rebel soul. A steady, boring job, a self-imposed bedtime, calorie-restrictions, no more smoking, no beer on weekdays, home-improvement, mortgage payments, mowing the lawn on Saturdays, it's all a bit much, or not enough...hard to say. Music. Music got me through the monotony of high-school life, I can only hope it will keep me going until retirement.
Life...well work...has been really getting me down lately so I decided I needed a hot rock shot. 8 bands, three venues, two weeknights, 800 miles, 0 days off. Actually, the whole thing wasn't planned, it more or less just fell together. Bob Mould was playing the Metro in Chicago. Having once co-hosted a radio show with the angryengineer loosley dedicated to Bob and his derivative music, we felt obliged to attend at least one of the shows. Both shows would have been double the hardcore, but we're halfsies on the hardcore these days. Leaving after work and driving 4 hours and then driving back is still sorta hardcore. Angryengineer provided an excellent review of the show. I don't think I can really add anything other than the show made me very happy. I also thanked Bob and shook his hand after the show. The Metro is an awesome venue, the room was not crowded, and Bob and the band were just incredible. I caught Bob on his Modulate tour back in 2002 maybe at the Trocadero in Philly and he was good, but to see him with an excellent backing band was better. Hearing nearly all of Sugar's Copper Blue live was unbelievable.

Some thoughts on Copper Blue

I picked up Copper Blue in the late summer/early fall of 1992, right before I turned 16. The album was seminole in my life and was the beginning of music for me. In reality I think I pickeh up Pretty Hate Machine first, but I started hearing "Changes" on a local indie station in June of that year (before Head like a Hole) and Copper Blue actually sold out at the local record shop three shipments in a row. I finally asked and got the nice girl behind the counter to hold a copy for me. Since that time there probably isn't an album I've listened to more ( Black Love by the Afghan Whigs comes in a close second). So there was a lot of full-circle stuff going on, I think I am starting to finally tie up some loose ends left dangling when I was extricated from college.
A snarky indie-music fascist may sneer at seeing NIN and Sugar in the same paragraph as purported musical influences. However, let's put things in perspective: it was 1992 in ultra-conservative West Michigan. The music world was on the verge of exploding and in a place where the 60's never happen it is amazing that I ever heard of these bands. Well, of course who could have foreseen every "Alternative". As CMJ put it (about Nirvana" )

In the 44 months between Nevermind and Silverchair, the whole world felt like college radio. Ridiculously inaccessible bands like the Boredoms and the Butthole Surfers had major label contracts, and even U2 and Los Lobos had to make more challenging records to keep up. OK, OK, there were supermodels rocking flannel, sipping Coke's alt.soda, OK Cola, but who can deny the impact of a slouching, introverted genius gushing about his favorite underground bands (Melvins, Raincoats, Scratch Acid, Half Japanese, Black Flag) like he was, well, one of us.
-CMJ NEW MUSIC REPORT: 25 Years Of CMJ Music Marathon: 25 Most Influential Artists

As "alternative" hit W. Michigan, I didn't really have to look all that far to find music I like/ er tolerate. 10 years later music in W.Michigan is riding the suck train and I'm back to listening to college radio, Pandora , or looking up charts on CMJ to see what is out there worth listening to. Past becomes prolouge.

Entertain
The second stop on my indie-pop marathon was to see Sleater-Kinney their new album is excellent. I drove over to Detroit after work so I only caught the Ponys as they were about to walk off the stage. Lots of U of M brats, music geeks (myself included), tortured intelligentsia, and just fans. The set list was nothing special, though they did close with the Boss' "The Promised Land". It was all at once refreshing and exhausting to hit a show at a venue 3 hours away on a Tuesday. Seeing the band live solidified my love for the band and their music. At this point I am floating on a music cloud; elated.

You're No Rock and Roll Fun
Thursday rolls around bringing about another great concert day. Well it should have been. Foo and Weezer, with Kaiser Chiefs opening. Three good bands, only a 15 minute drive. Dinner at the cottage bar all should have been well. The show started early so we missed Kaiser Chiefs and we weren't the only ones, the place was empty. You know it's going to be a bad crowd when no one is around for the opening band. Weezer was a good as always, they covered Foo's "Big Me" Rivers played drums. Foo was also good, but the floor crowd was full of lots of people I didn't like. A large group was a little too excited about hearing "We are all in Love" oh wait that's only in MTV land. Anyways, the guys missed the point and were just excited to hear a song about drugs. There was a meathead protecting his boyfriend, threatening so dope-heads over my shoulder. Thanks but I'll take UoM brats over drunk retards. Maybe the crowd had a lot to do with it, but both bands were lacking in energy. Everything felt like it was on rails. The two times I saw Weezer in Philly far exceeded this Grand Rapids show. Foo and Weezer are great bands with rich back catalogs. Unfortunately, they seem to have progressed into a stage where their live show is a product like everything else.
I was hoping to coat-tail an interview on Friday into a Death Cab for Cutie show, but they've been bitten by the O.C. bug; every one of their shows in sold out. I think small bands at small venues is my thing for the time being.

Tidbits
Sleater-Kinney's video for "Jumpers" is on videos.myspace.com
Wiki on the quarter-life crisis

What I learned today.

2005-10-04T11:00:00.000-04:00

Ever heard of the Gini coefficient? I suppose unless you're an economist or sociologist you probably haven't. Wikipedia has an excellent article here . The short explanation is, the Gini coefficient is a number between 0 and 1 that measures the inequality between two distributions, the original application was to measure the inequality between the rich and poor.

Wondering what the income inequality looks like the world over:

The article that first mentioned this number pointed out that the inequality in China is about the same as the United States. Hooray for capitalism.

Yeah, I know what you mean...

2005-08-23T12:56:00.000-04:00

Seems like I have something in common with this guy. A love for IBM buckling-spring keyboards.

New Helical antenna design.

2005-08-15T19:41:00.000-04:00

Caught this off daily wireless the article is on a new helical antenna design. Helical antennas with circular polarization are not new. What is unique about this antenna is the use of "kinks" in the antenna to provide a higher effective loop area ( a 70%) improvement is quoted. What I'm not sure of is how this effects antenna pattern or insertion loss. My undergrad senior project used a helical that was tapered to allow for a higher bandwidth. We struggled maintaining the antenna pattern and a low insertion loss. I later learned (in the real world) that a different taper patten would have solved our problems, but that knowledge was classified or proprietary.
Come to think of it, I'm not sure the kinks are new either, and I'm not sure what the FCC has to say about using circular polarization for wi-fi. At the very least, FCC testing is done with linear polarization. If a device was tested with this antenna, it seems to me that you'd be cheating a 3dB increase in output...like I said I don't think this is 100% legal. Another issue you have is that once you're circularly polarized signal is scattered (one of the dominant modes for propagation in this band) it is essentially linear. So, my assumption is that it's not intended a CP (circular pol.) antenna would be used on the receive side. So yeah, if the equipment is certified using LP (linear pol) to the FCC limit they could be cheating on the EIRP (equivalent Isotropic Radiated Power) requirement. At least to the spirit of the regulation.

If you want a image of the future...Imagine a boot stomping on a human face FOREVER.

2005-08-15T15:58:00.000-04:00

There's Bad Religion song with the same title and it's a quote from George Orwell's 1984. I just finished the book on my way back from the 2005 IEEE EMC Symposium in Chicago. Let me just say it isn't the sort of book you read to provide hope in regard to the survival of the individuality in the face of societies demand for conformity. Nope...not at all. It's also hard to really understand the hopelessness of the Bad Religion song without a quick read. The version I have also had a foreword written by Eric Fromm written, I assume, for the 1984 publication while the U.S. was still mired in the cold war. At the time, it was a popular notion that novel was allegory for Stalinist Russia. Fromm correctly points out that Orwell accuses all of modern society of being on the same path.
One thing that struck me was a bit of supposed disinformation in the book that claims that a state of perpetual war is undertaken to consume societies excess production. This in turn keeps the society is a state near poverty so they are easier to control, the war also then becomes a justification for the measures taken by the state. The fact these themes are explored in the book, should be no surprise to anyone who has heard the term "Orwellian" thrown about in describing the "war on terror". The parallels are there and a taking time to read the novel while keeping the war on terror in mind is worth while.

Sure to be in the next round of productivity iniatives.

2005-07-21T15:45:00.000-04:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I haven't posted in a month. I've been spending all my online time job searching. The petty bickering, pointless politics and childish behavior is taken it's toll and I want out.

Anyway,
Slashdot points to an article from Ars Technica. Web surfing hurts productivity. Or in other words for us salaried employees. Your employees could be doing much much more while they're at work.

Intervention or prognosis?

2005-06-21T10:25:00.000-04:00

The IMF is telling the world that the U.S. needs to cut it's budget deficit before the baby boomers retire. I so love the idea of being an indentured servant to a bunch of shuffle board playing hippies.

When Engineers Attack!

2005-06-15T15:21:00.000-04:00

From IEEE Spectrum:
"For the first time ever, all the members of China's elite Politburo Standing Committee, the highest tier within the Communist Party, are card-carrying engineers. Although the country's push toward science and technology development began well before the current group came to power, it's safe to say the Politburo will continue down the same road."

The sidebar can be found here
The entire series of articels appearing in this month's Spectrum in typical IEEE. A bit behind the times, but filled with information relevant to other engineers.

Supply and Demand in the skilled trades.

2005-06-15T15:09:00.000-04:00

I was listening to NPR this morning on the way into work, while simultaneously contemplating career moves. On that front, I learned there is a telematics system engineer, a telematics product engineer, a hardware engineer and possibly an EMC engineer position open in our Electronics group. Of course, the positions keep coming as more and more people bail out after getting 2% raises and working insane hours with 4 bosses yelling at them.
In any case, I forget the point of the NPR story, but the comment was made that more and more nurses are not actually qualified even though they meet state/government standards. I'm sure many engineers have felt, or even had good reason to believe, that their coworkers are not competant as engineers. Now, accreditation through agencies like ABET is supposed to make sure that colleges are not graduating incompetant students. I have to wonder though, with the demand for engineers having been historically high, whether there is any meaning to ABET. I'll use my job situation as an example. The Hardware and EMC engineering positions require me to know what I'm doing. The product and system engineering positions you can BS through, they are essentially project management and requirements management positions. Now, I don't know what things are like elsewhere, but the guys that actually don't have to know anything for their job....they get the higher pay.
Of course, this makes my dilema whether I want to sell out (even more) , forget doing any further "engineering" and take on one of these psuedo engineering positions. The alternative is to risk being a lay-off target as an hardware engineer who's above his pay grade for his position. You're all welcome to labast me on either count.
OK. So what we have is a chicken-or-egg situation. Did the demand for engineering students draw in unqualified candidates? Or, was the demand for project and requirements managers with engineering backgrounds? I would place myself with the former, noting that HR still wants people with very specific experience for systems and product engineers even though (in my opinion) they really don't need to know much about the product or discipline to perform the task, just basic engineering knowledge. That brings up a third possibility, perhaps the rise of HR (stereotypically pleasant outgoing well-adjusted types) has weeded out the stereotypical engineers ( grumpy, quirky, introverts).
The end result of all of these cases is that when the high-paying engineers are called out on the carpet to make key technical decisions they are not necessarily the best person to be making those decisions. My unanswered question, is whether the past demand for engineers was met with too many subpar engineers? If that is the case, did the supply of subpar engineers contribute to the idea that anyone, anywhere could be a subpar engineer; that is outsourcing. Did you know that there are no tests or grades in China, it's all on the honor system! While not a fan of tests, I'm concerned about anyone who graduated from a college with a 100% graduation rate (ref IEEE Spectrum).
Our company had a meeting a few months back where managment explained the purpose of outsourcing. Outsourcing, they said, let us do the things we want to do. Too many people, they claimed were stuck doing boring repetitive work...isnt' that what new college grads are supposed to be doing? Huh, we haven't hired any of those in awhile. So, who is going to replace the retiring engineers? Our company's answer is more offshore workers.
In a related meeting, the managers were all pulled into a room and told that a good number of upper management positions will be opening up in the next 10 years. The result has been a barrel of monkey's climbing all over one another to out ass-kiss the others at the expense of their employees. Likewise, the non-skilled engineers are angling themselves into management positions. Doesn't this all make engineering irrelevant? What real value does a project engineer or requirements manager bring to a program, other than being a customer interface? As an automotive parts supplier, what value do we provide to OEMs when we're just the customer interface?
If I can apply this line of thinking to the medical profession, a word of warning to nurses, after the boomers pass on...you're going get screwed in the same way.

I don't know what I'm going to do with this thought. Some revisions could turn it into a letter to the editor for IEEE spectrum, some data, research, and a crackpot theory could turn it into a management book: the ultimate sellout. People who write management and motivation books have got be one of the lowest forms of useless, parasitic lifeforms that ever existed.

Serenity

2005-04-28T12:35:00.000-04:00

Those aware of Joss Whedon's television work (Buffy and Angel) may be aware of "Firefly". I didn't care for Angel, I watched Buffy religiously, but I never caught Firefly. Actually, every time I went to tune it in, it wasn't actually on and given the Friday time slot I was unlikley to be around in the first place. In any case, Firefly was cancelled by Fox before the end of the first seaon. However, DVD sales have convinced Universal to fund a feature film, the trailer was released Tuesday, the movie will be released September 30th.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/serenity/

Huh, seems between Family Guy and Firefly obviously FOX's TV execs are not all that bright.

EXPO 2005 or America embarasses itself in front of the world.

2005-04-27T04:54:00.000-04:00

After a late start and some hesistation, I headed to EXPO 2005, Aichi Japan. The site is about 30 minutes from my hotel by subway. Subways in Japan are great, after visiting New York, D.C., and living in Philly, I truly appreciate mass transit. Unfortunately, I also appreciate my space, having a couple of dogs, and working on my car. With that said, I'm not a big city person. Living in Philly caused me to have bouts where I needed to get out of the suburban sprall and into to some thick forests. An urge that doesn't come so often now that I have a couple of acres to wander.
OK, so EXPO. I'll post pictures but I will say that I was somewhat underwhelmed. Encountering a thick downpour sans umbrella may have had something to do with that ( the weather called for a sunny day). Buying an umbrella and having the wind snarl it may be another contributing factor, or maybe it was the throngs of school kids, or the long, long lines. Every pavillion with anything interesting had an hour or longer wait. I'll be fair, if you plan a month or two ahead of time and have a couple of days and manage to set a schedule for visiting every attraction....well, then you can use your advance ticket to reserve a spot and bypass the lines. I found out yesterday I'd have today free.
First up was the Mitsubishi Pavillion, "What if the moon never existed". The theme of EXPO is environmental awareness or "Nature's Wisdom". The pavillion included a couple of robots talking about things in Japanese ( I'm not quite there yet) and a movie. The english version, via headset was narrated by George Takei or someone who sounded like him.
After that I went and visited the robot village, where I thought they may have those cool walking, talking, music playing robots. Nope, it was a kids activity area. I did meet a childcare robot that reacted to touch but not much more, I won't knock it though; it was neat. There was a tour guide robot a housecleaning robot and a security robot who looked like it might reveal a compartment with a chain-gun or missiles, not sure which.
Marching forward, I found the asian pavilion, the Thai contigent had a non-english version of "What's going on" playing on loop, I hope Linda Perry gets a cut of that. Then I tried to go to the Japan pavillion ( 2 hour line)...so, lunch instead (udong (sp) noodles if you're wondering). What else did I see, Libya was giving out free posters, Cuba had pictures of Che, Belgium was the only European country with a beer garden ( I drank a $9 Hoegaarden). Germany had the longest line of any country other than Japan, so I skipped it, hoping to head there (Germany not the EXPO) next month, Uzbekistan had hops, Turkey had the best looking guides, the Nordic countries had the best exhibits (they detailed the lives of everyday citizens with personal effects on display), China looked like they were going to close up shop any moment (no wonder), the French were talking passing the point of peak oil consumption...the world is in a conflicted state..and the U.S. is not helping.
Out of the entire experience, I took away that it isn't just media bias, the world is seriously annoyed with the U.S. Case in point the U.S. pavillion First, the pavillion was empty--relatively. Every other country there had hired native speakers to guide the locals into the pavillion.....except the U.S. Oh my god I thought, this is going to be a trainwreck, the only thing that could make this worse is a security checkpoint...I spoke too soon..a security checkpoing awaited.. I succumed to the urge and took a picture. The poor guide, who btw made a valiant attempt to speak some first year Japanese (I'm not even at that level but I can recognize mistakes...and so could the Japanese crowd)...anyway, as I'm snapping my pictures the guide says "welcome to the US, huh?". Yeah, NO other venue aside from the main entrance had any security checkpoint...only the US. Standing in line, our non-Japanese speaking ambassador greets the line on a display...in english..followed by the president. Who somehow managed to turn a talk about Ben Franklin (the subject of the exhibit) into a discussion about "spreading freedom" and moral values...well not directly, maybe I'm just cynical..oh no, wait, I know I'm cynical, but I could smell the spin a mile away. Perhaps GW has been spinning so long he doesn't know how to talk normally.
Whew, that's over, certainly they're not going to turn old BF (see quote at top of the page) into a political tool. After security we head into a lobby and wait to get into a movie deal thing. Where we are greeted quite literally with shock and awe. Simulated lightning and thunder courtesy of rattling benches, which, considering I was sitting next to a bunch of giggling schoolgirls seemed almost obscene. The show also sparyed the crowd with a little water at one point that annoyed more than it entertained. I couldn't help but think of it as a metaphor for America pissing all over the world. From the audiences reaction, I don't think the Japanese crowd appreciated that level of interaction.
On that note, it was around this time I started realizing that, oh dear, Ben Franklin had become a propaganda tool. Ben's little story had some plot holes I won't go into here, but it was when he started talking about ( and I'm paraphrasing) "spreading freedom" that my spin detector went off. The thesis of the presentation seemed to be something like, "the principles that I (BF) brought to the world in the Declaration of Independence allowed for an explosion of ideas that gave us flight, a man on the moon, etc. as these principles (stated in the DoI) spread across the world they will bring a new innovations and all will be well". The atom bomb was not mentioned.
Now, even though I'm an engineer I'm familiar with Derrida. So, using deconstruction, from a Japanese historical perspective, I heard something along the lines of: "Japan is where it is today because we dropped a big bomb on your asses and brought you freedom....much like we're doing in Iraq". I'm not sure how this translates into Japanese, but I felt a tad uncomfortable sitting there next to the school girls who had just be pissed and thrashed around by the resurrected Ben Franklin hoping that somehow he didn't give the whole crowd a venerial disease.
Franklin went on to extol the virtue of renewable resources, and how nature informs technology, and vibrated the crowd some more while explaining the only cool thing at the US pavillion: an operating fuel cell, they eveb showed the water byproduct. Finally, they insisted that everyone take a large brochure, I mention the brochure because it is large, by far the largest format brochure offered by any nation at the EXPO. You can read into that whatever you want.
Now I love my country, and I think it's the greatest country on Earth, but I have to say I was embarrased. Between not having a guide that speaks the local language and telling the rest of the world to shut up and be thankful for all we've done for them....I suppose the exhibit was truly reflective of the state of affairs between the U.S. and the rest of the world, I just think I was hoping, along with the rest of the world, that we'd show ourselves to be a bit more reasonable.
That really gets to the core of the matter. Bear with me here, apparently, I look American. I say this because no matter how much I tried to speak Japanese, guides would answer in english, would direct me in English. I'm of Dutch heritage and the Dutch people talked to me in Engligh. So, using EXPO 2005 as a guide, the rest of the world is severely annoyed with the U.S. but they're looking for hope that America will pull up to the bar with the rest of the world and drink up a dose of responsibility. Unfortunately, the message we're sending is we have our heads up our asses and if you're not like the U.S. you're not going anywhere.
....right, so the rest of the night was dull, I finally got into the Japan pavillion, but never got to see any of the cool stuff at the Toyota and Hitatchi pavillions (previously mentioned dancing, musical robots). At 7:30 the lines were long enough you could no longer get into the exhibits, which close at 10PM. The train back was packed like a sardine can and now I've packed and I'll be heading home to the U.S. to sit in another security checkpoint line for an hour or so after my 13 hour flight.

2005-04-26T14:45:00.001-04:00

Toyota at 7:30, no more tickets available

2005-04-26T14:45:00.000-04:00

The corporate pavillion zone. In this area they make you wait in line until you're ready for retirement.

2005-04-26T14:44:00.000-04:00

South Koreas pavillion. North Korea couldn't make it presumably, I guess feeding their people was more important. Shows what they know.

2005-04-26T14:43:00.000-04:00

The China pavillion

2005-04-26T14:42:00.000-04:00

he says "you should feel safer now"

2005-04-26T14:41:00.000-04:00

Great. Greeting from Fearless Leader.

2005-04-26T14:40:00.003-04:00

Maybe it's the security?

2005-04-26T14:40:00.002-04:00

Oh, wait...

2005-04-26T14:40:00.001-04:00

Boy hope I can make it through this line.

2005-04-26T14:40:00.000-04:00

Che

2005-04-26T14:39:00.000-04:00

The Italian exhibit, this is a car covered in white chocolate on a road of chocolate.

2005-04-26T14:38:00.000-04:00

Look at that line...it wraps around to the other side and off the edge of the picture is a throng of school kids waiting for their tour.

2005-04-26T14:37:00.000-04:00

The Japan pavillion with the earth tower (a huge kaleidoscope) to the left. The Japan dome thing is built with bamboo. Oddly enough on the inside is a fake bamboo forest made from...I dunno concrete...haven't I heard that the Japanese have no sense of irony?

2005-04-26T14:36:00.000-04:00

That's right Kicorro rain sucks

2005-04-26T14:31:00.000-04:00

Wow a Childcare robot. Heck if I can buy a robot to raise my kids maybe having them won't be so much of a hassle.

2005-04-26T14:30:00.000-04:00

Hello Kitty robot.

2005-04-26T14:29:00.000-04:00

Pull my finger and I will destroy you. (Security robot)

2005-04-26T14:28:00.000-04:00

Are you sure that's not Asok?

Engineer?

2005-04-25T11:32:00.000-04:00

Last year I decided that I need to take the Fundamentals of Engineering exam. I'm an by trade an engineer,and like many engineers I find myself not doing a whole lot of engineering, which really bugs me. I took the FE to prove to myself that I actually learned something in my undergrad years. I should mention I wasn't a great engineering student, my profs were good but I didn't meld well with their approach to the material. Since that time, I've hit my stride and the whole engineer thing seems second nature...I think.
Anyway,I passed the FE and so, I decided this fall that I should go for my professional engineering license, which requires several things, 4 years experience (check), an accredited degree (check) and passing the Principal and Practices or PE Exam. I had been studying since October in between a myriad of interruptions. Two engine swaps, and a trip to Japan later I finally got down to hardcore studying a took the exam on April 15th....afterwhich time I got on a plane back to Japan (Nagoya this time) where I am now. I'm not sure if I passed, I felt pretty much the same way after the FE, but certainly this was one of the most difficult things I've ever done. I think theoretical physics may have been more intellectually challenging, but I got partial credit on those exams. The PE is multiple choice, I don't get along with multiple choice, probably due to the years of self-doubt brought on by said professors.
Yeah, the PE exam is broken into two sections. The morning section is take by all engineers in a field (ie. Electrical) no matter their discipline (i.e. power). All of the EE's sitting near me felt the morning section was a breeze (relatively) fair,;difficult questions with no tricks. Personally, though the afternoon section ( I took Electronics, Controls, and Communications) was a killer. I had made some faulty assumption ( I assumed there would be less Comm questions) which turned out to be wrong. Now, I'm a Comm engineer in part and if I had bothered to bring my Digital Comm book I would have added at least two points to my score. If I had another reference on cell phone systems...another two points. I hope those 4 points aren't the difference between me passing and failing. Of course, if I pass I need references from 3 PE.....don't know any of those so that may be the next challenge...that or retaking the exam or maybe deciding that I don't want to retake it..anyways, like I said I'm in Nagoya where the World Expo is taking place. I plan to head out there tomorrow and see what it's all about.

2005-04-25T08:48:00.000-04:00

I've found Japanese microbrews, thank god. I'm getting sick of Kirin Lager though I prefer it to Asahi. Check out those nifty bottle caps.

2005-04-25T08:46:00.000-04:00

There it is Nagoya Castle. Normally there are these two Golden "Dolphins" (they're more like a cross between whale and fish that sit on top of the castle, they are well known around the world. They were in a seperate display (and you could touch them) awaiting a trip to the expo. The castle was built in the 1600s and was burned down in WWII and rebuilt shortly thereafter through private donations.

BANSAI

2005-04-25T08:40:00.000-04:00

After I paid the hefty admission fee (higher because of the expo) I was approached by an elderly Japanese woman who asked if she could give me a tour, she does this as a volunteer, very nice lady. Kid works as a translator at the U.N., like I said very nice.

2005-04-25T08:39:00.000-04:00

A week ago, after arriving in Nagoya I went to Nagoya castle, it was raining in general pretty miserable...I was sick. This is a guard tower on one of the towers of the inner castle wall. The pushed out window areas had trap doors on the bottom allowing guards to abush attackers.

2005-04-25T08:35:00.000-04:00

So, I'm in Nagoya currently watching a Japanese movie called "Cutie Honey" it's a live action anime, very bizarre, like Austin Powers crossed with Power Rangers. Bizarre, but interesting enough to watch without understanding much of the dialouge.

This is what I'm talking about...

2005-04-04T09:42:00.000-04:00

This may void your warranty and it may not be as sexy as tuning for performance, but I can see mileage tuning as a future tuning market. If gas is $3.00 a gallon, lots of people will be thinking how they might save a few bucks and make a few dollars as well.

Yup. My '94 s-10 Blazer broke the 18 mpg mark this week for this first time, I can't see 180 in it's future, but maybe 19 or 20 mpg.

When I was in Japan I rode in a Toyota hybrid mini-van. If those make it to the states, I'd seriously consider picking one up.

Nothing to see here...move along..

2005-04-04T09:34:00.000-04:00

Boy, if politicians weren't telling me that outsourcing isn't a problem, I'd be worried.

http://www.ieeeusa.org/communications/releases/2005/030805pr.asp

So, outsourcing is supposedly being used to replace jobs that Americans won't do or to fill positions where the demands is greater than supply...I suppose that second part is true there is a shortage of Americans willing to spend $50,000 to go to school so they can make $3000/year as an engineer. Yeah, that's a big problem. That works perfect, you can work your whole career just to pay back student loans...go thing the interest is deductible.

Of course, this won't get attention from the mainstream press until it starts effecting ad execs and journalists.

2005-02-25T10:45:00.000-05:00

Where'd the water go? I didn't realize the tide moved that quickly.

2005-02-25T10:44:00.000-05:00

5 story pagoda

2005-02-25T10:43:00.000-05:00

Miyajima is known as one of the three beauty spots in Japan and the title is well deserved. I wonder what the other two are like. Miyajima is also a world cultural landmark.

2005-02-25T10:40:00.000-05:00

...almost there..

2005-02-25T10:39:00.001-05:00

This is going to be bad.

2005-02-25T10:39:00.000-05:00

Snow? No one said anything about snow.

2005-02-25T10:38:00.001-05:00

Falls on the way up to Mt. Miisen

2005-02-25T10:38:00.000-05:00

Do you have TP for my bungholio!?

2005-02-25T10:37:00.000-05:00

Also, an inference, but I think this is a warrior's shrine.

2005-02-25T10:36:00.001-05:00

Part of the temple mentioned previously

2005-02-25T10:36:00.000-05:00

Gifts for Budha

2005-02-25T10:35:00.000-05:00

You spin these scrolls as you walk down the temple steps. I'm sorry I don't know why.

2005-02-25T10:34:00.000-05:00

The temple viewed here is the center of a certain sect of Budhism, I forget which.

2005-02-25T10:33:00.000-05:00

Ta-ho...? I think pagoda. BTW, the name of the professional baseball team in Hiroshima is "the Carps". Which may sound strange until you understand there is a "Carp Castle" in Hiroshima as well.

2005-02-25T10:31:00.000-05:00

Yes, even on this picturesque island, vending machines abound. At least the prices are reasonable.

2005-02-25T10:30:00.000-05:00

These are prayer paddles. If I understand correctly, prayers are written on the paddles and left in the shrines.

2005-02-25T10:27:00.000-05:00

Are you threatening me?

2005-02-25T10:26:00.003-05:00

The shrine

2005-02-25T10:26:00.002-05:00

Composite III

2005-02-25T10:26:00.001-05:00

Composite II

2005-02-25T10:26:00.000-05:00

Composite

2005-02-25T10:25:00.001-05:00

The five story pagoda

2005-02-25T10:25:00.000-05:00

When entering a budhist shrine, it is customary to wash ones hands. Pick up the ladle and poor the water, first over one hand, then the other.

2005-02-25T10:23:00.001-05:00

Note to visitors

2005-02-25T10:23:00.000-05:00

..more pictures of the gate...there are a lot of these, but the gate is cool

2005-02-25T10:22:00.000-05:00

...the humans though are afraid of the deer...

2005-02-25T10:21:00.000-05:00

The deer on Miyajima, though wild are not afraid of humans...I could give this gal a nugee.

2005-02-25T10:19:00.001-05:00

Gate and shrine from the water

2005-02-25T10:19:00.000-05:00

Miyajima

2005-02-25T09:26:00.000-05:00

Then I took the taxi to Hiroshima station where I deftly maneuvered and muscled into the train bound for Yiwajima-guch (port). Arrived at port, bought round trip ferry ticket. I brought along an umbrella from the Hotel ( this is important later), it was supposed to rain.
Took ferry across to Yiwajima. Arrived. Was immediately greeted by a herd of wild deer. No, really the deer on Miyajima are wild but tame, they follow you around looking for food, they're everywhere.
Walked toward Ikishuma (sp) temple where the gate is. Took some pictures. Paid to go into the temple...my first experience with Buddhism. As you enter the temple, you are expected to wash your hands. There is a ladle and you pour water over your hands. Inside the temple there are gifts you can buy for the shring for "Safe Driving", "Find Eternal Love", etc.
Some of theses are prayer cards you hang around the kneck of a Budha. Absolutely amazing shrines, I didn't take a lot of pictures, because I know, if I was praying I'd be really pissed off if someone took my picture.
After taking more pictures of the gate, I wandered around a bit...then I decided. Forget about it. I may never get back here, I'm going to climb Mt. Miisen. Now, understand, usually there's a cable car that brings you up, but there was a typhoon in October that destroyed part of the temple and brought down the cable car.
OK. So, I head up Mt. Miisen. Along the way I hit a temple that is the headquarters for one of the modern sects of Budhism and a pleasant pagoda. The temple was outstanding, pictures to follow. I then continued my trek up the mountain, thinking that the path to enlightenment would come through hard work. It's 3km mostly uphill. There are steps, but I'm sure some of them are 100's or 1000's of years old. ...then there was the snow...I hadn't expected that, it was sunny but the snow from last night still covered the steps. The trip became more difficult as I tried to keep a footing in the slush.
Along the way I found a waterfall or two and beautiful views of greater Hiroshima looking back from the island. Finally, exhausted and sweaty ( I was in a suit) I made it to the top. It took me a good two hours.
"Rippa" is magnificent in Japanese, that describes the view, it felt like the top of the world. And because the cable car was broken, there was no one else at the top...except for...get this...more deer. I paused, ate my calorie-mate ( a Japanese meal substitute) and started down. Down sucked just as bad as coming up...there was snow, but there were no steps for the first 1/4 mile. Somewhere along I twisted my knee up sliding down a slushy path. So, the rest of the trip down was grueling...and, somewhere in there,I almost fell, but the umbrella steadied me...and broke...oops. It was the hotel's anyway.
I finally got to the bottom and went looking for the 5 level pagoda (pictures) adjacent to the pagoda is the 1000 mats building. It's hard to explain, but it was very cool.
Finally, I went back to the gate because I saw the tide was out. There were a couple of kids who asked me to take a picture, they did the same in return. Best picture of me in years.
So, afterwords I went shopping. Then I went to head back to Hiroshima and things got wierd/
Very wierd. I was getting on the ferry and this old man came up along side me. He spoke some broken English to me and pointed out the beautiful view. He smelled of sake or sucho, I couldn't tell and I guess I didn't care, he was friendly. We continued talking. He asked me to stad by the railing so he could take a picture. He said he'd send it to me. Old, man I figured, sure, what the heck, he's probably lonely.
So we talked during the ferry boat ride. He told me about his family asked about my job.
Then we got off the ferry and he brought me to one of those places that sells those maple leaf things (check out miyajima tourism sites for info)...he buys me more, stuffs a whole bunch of things in my bag.
So, we ride the train to Hiroshima together speaking in a combination of his broken engligh and my broken Japanese. He asks me what I'm doing tonight, I felt he might invite me over for dinner, but I didn't want to be the guy some poor woman's drunk husband brings home, so I lie about a train I need to catch later that night.
Instead, he asks me to wait with him after the train. We get coffee, buys me more cookies, and thanks me often for spending time with him.
So, on the train, he tells me he used to be a schoolteacher but he lost his job. Tells me he couldn't stand the students anymore ( he thought elementary) I told him wakarimashita ( I understand). From there he goes on to tell me that he worked for awhile as a bodyguard for the Yakuza. ( Japanese mafia, though they don't like to be called that).He procedes telling me about his experience, he asks me whether I'm with the police of Yakuza....if you can believe that...maybe he thought I was a somewhat shady character..I'm sure that changed once I told him I was an engineer.
So, we sat in this coffee shop for about a half hour and attempted to talk. He asked me to wait for him a couple of times and in grattitude I suppose (for being there when he got back) he bought me *more* Japanese confections, he would not let me refuse. Eventually, I think he got tired, and I again told him I had a train to catch later that night.
He left, very happy, I left confused, but chuckling.

BTW, Supposedly, Hiroshima is run by Yakuza, or maybe this is their preferred town to operate out; the "big boss" has a mansion in the hills. Yakuza is seen as "good gang" in Hiroshima, they are dedicated to seeing it become a great city...they've done an excellent job.

Yeah...I don't know what it is with me and ex-mafia types...but this guy claimed to have been shot twice protecting the boss. Previously, in North Carolina on Spring break back in the 90's I ran into a guy (who also just came up to me and started talking) who had 4 wives ( One in each of several countries and was in town, I inferred to make sure a Duke/Chappel Hill (UNC) game went the way he expected...and to visit his American wife. Several memebers of the now defunct WCW were in town and until now it was probably the most surreal experience of my life.
Anyway, afterward I took the tram (as opposed to the $15 taxi (tram was $1.50) back to A-bomb dome to get a night shot or two. Headed back to the hotel and somewhere along the way lost the cookies. I also had to explain how a 190 lb man broke an umbrella in the snow...
The tram is actually pretty fast and easy to use. When I got back, I headed to the grocery store and bought lots of little bottles of sake, some beer, and Green Tea ice cream with beans on it to go with dinner.